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ticklystuff · 2 years ago

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Xiao’s (Not) Ticklish

A/N: Part 2 of my @squealing-santa gift for @ticklefits! Thank you to @hypahticklish for organizing the event! You can read part 1 here

Pairings used:

zhongli / childe*

xiao / aether

Prompts used:

i am literally always a sucker for wrestling / sparring turning into a tickle fight thanks 🙏🏾]

ler insisting that the lee isn’t ticklish at all and the lee has to prove to the ler that they very much are eheheh

I saw multiple prompts and pairings that I enjoyed and couldn’t pick just one! Although the stories take place in the same setting, I wouldn’t consider either a prequel/sequel to the other. I also tried to give enough context to each one, so that both could be read without having to read the other. Also, sorry, these aren’t Christmas themed lol

I thought the prompt for this was really unique, so I wanted to give it a shot, but it was also really challenging and I don’t think I followed it towards the end. Still, I hope it’s enjoyable!

Word Count: ~2.8k

Characters: lee!Xiao, ler!Aether

Summary: Xiao may or may not be ticklish.

---

"Whoo! C'mon, Childe!"

Xiao's stomach did a little flip as the redhead flashed a wink in response to Aether's cheers. There was nothing more he detested than arrogance and he couldn't help but roll his eyes, which just prompted cheeky giggles from Childe. "Do you actually think that Rex Lapis would lose to someone like him?" he scoffed. There was a genuine look of belief in Aether's expression and Xiao almost pitied his naïveté, but coming from Aether made it somewhat endearing. He was surprised when the blond made a bet that Childe would win and Xiao thought that he might be half-joking.

"I think he's a perfectly capable warrior and he adapts quickly," Aether said with a nod, "though, I've yet to personally face Zhongli in combat. Still, it seems like he's doing really well right now."

Those words had come a little too soon, however, as a sudden yelp drew Xiao and Aether's attention back to the field. Where Childe and Zhongli once stood as equals was now replaced with a different scene. Zhongli had somehow managed to knock Childe to the ground, before straddling his waist to keep him pinned, the redhead's sparring weapon off to the side out of reach.

"The match is over," Zhongli's raspy voice could be heard throughout the field. The tiniest smirk crept onto Xiao's face, content knowing that Zhongli would never fall to a Harbinger.

Aether stood up in response, balling his fists together as he continued to cheer. "C'mon, Childe! Get up! You can still do it!"

"Both of you seriously underestimated Rex Lapis of all people," Xiao said, shaking his head disapprovingly at Childe's repeated refusals to surrender. There was a slight sense of satisfaction listening to Childe grovel for another fight, his denial stripping him of what little respect Xiao already held for him.

"Gosh, I jinxed him, huh," Aether said disappointedly, sitting back down next to Xiao when it was inevitable that Childe would be unable to throw Zhongli off.

Xiao prepared another snide remark about how no amount of jinxing would have changed the results, but a sudden outburst of laughter caught the two off-guard. Childe's demands were now replaced with frantic laughter and when Xiao squinted to see what exactly was happening, his eyes widened when he realized-

"Zhongli's tickling him?!" Aether completed Xiao's thoughts, mouth open in disbelief. "That's cheating!"

"Beating one's opponent doesn't always require combat," Zhongli said over Childe's laughter, as if he were answering Aether's complaints. "There are many methods to success that a warrior should utilize for the appropriate situation. You opted not to surrender when I defeated you in combat, so I have to resort to other methods."

"C'mohohohon! Fight mehehEHEHEhehe!" Childed pleaded again and again, his limbs becoming a frenzied blur as Zhongli continued tickling him.

Unable to tune out of the scene unfolding in front of them, Xiao found himself trapped in Childe's growing laughter, absorbing the laughter that now began to fill his brain. It was loud, it was obnoxious, it was annoying, yet Xiao couldn't help but feel the slightest twinge of jealousy. He took a brief glance at Aether, watching his hands clench as he continued to cheer for Aether, wondering how it'd feel like to be in Childe's position under Aether's own hands. Tickling had always been something that had puzzled him; the ability to draw out laughter from simple touches was something he could not comprehend. This paired hand-in-hand with his curiosity and thus, Xiao often found himself yearning for something he himself did not understand. There was just one issue, though....

Xiao wasn't ticklish.

An unfortunate reality that he was constantly reminded of whenever the group had tickle fights, as if his own brain was mocking him. He wasn't sure if it was due to his status as a Yaksha, but any attempts at tickles or surprise tasers from Aether resulted in nothing, no tingly sensation that was described to him to run through his body. It got to the point where Aether noticeably gave up trying, instead opting to normal jump scares in an attempt to surprise him.

"Xiao?"

Xiao blinked in confusion, breaking out of his thoughts when he realized that the blond was staring at him with a perplexed expression. "Oh, yeah?"

"Oh, the fight is over," Aether chuckled. "Childe just gave in, but you didn't seem to be paying attention. We should go over to see how they're doing."

"Ah, right." Xiao nodded, standing up from his seat to follow the other to where the spar had occurred, pausing a bit when he realized that Childe was still being tickled just slightly.

"Stahahap! You sahahaid you'd stohohop!" Childe giggled uselessly, though Zhongli did finally stop once the two approached, removing himself from Childe to give the redhead a proper breather.

"Tickling?" Aether scoffed, shaking his head disappointedly. "A Fatui Harbinger lost to tickling of all things?"

Childe looked away, his cheeks becoming a slight tint of pink. "Why does it matter to you?" he huffed with exasperation.

"Xiao and I placed bets on who would win and I was rooting for you," Aether sighed. In truth, Xiao had completely forgotten about the bet. "Guess I owe him some almond tofu now."

"No need to shame him for it," Zhongli said to the group, walking over to Xiao and Aether. "I'm sure we're all similar in some way." Xiao's eyes widened when there was a sudden poke to his side. The lack of laughter proved, however, that he was indeed still not ticklish. His lack of reaction seemed to go unnoticed, though, as all attention was on Aether and the giggles that escaped his mouth in response.

"Well, at least we know the best way to deal with Childe now," Aether teased the redhead after recovering from his giggles, but that smile was soon wiped off his face when Childe immediately stood up, making a beeline for the blond, grabbing him by the waist before he could escape.

"Maybe I can't beat Zhongli now," Childe started as Aether howled in his grip, allowing his hands to freely tickle the exposed stomach, "but I can certainly prepare for a rematch by practicing everything I've learned from him. Hm, what do you say, comrade?"

There it was again; that sense of jealousy creeping back into his head as he listened to Childe tickle Aether senseless. His laughter was sweet, almost intoxicating, and Xiao couldn't help but wonder what would others think of his laughter if he were put in a similar situation. If it were possible, at least.

"Something's on your mind."

Xiao nearly jumped at the voice, whipping his head to see Zhongli standing beside him, looking at him with concern. "I-I'm just thinking about the tofu," he stammered, embarrassed that he was snuck up on so easily. He really had to stop giving tickling so much thought.

"If you say so," Zhongli said, but Xiao knew him well enough to know that he wasn't convinced.

"Congrats on your win, by the way," Xiao huffed exasperatedly. He gave Aether and Childe one last look, before turning and walking back to camp, Aether's laughter continuously ringing in his ears with each step.

---

"Gosh, where did I put the almonds?"

Xiao watched Aether dig through his belongings, murmuring to himself about the missing almonds. His back was facing Xiao as he searched through the scattered items, allowing time for Xiao to wallow in his thoughts by his corner of the shared tent, contemplating on whether to ask Aether to try tickling him. The earlier scenes of Childe and Aether's tickle fight replayed in his head on loop, constantly teasing himself with something he could never have, but maybe he might still be ticklish, maybe they just haven't tried everything yet, maybe--

"Xiao, is something bothering you?"

"Huh?" He hadn't even realized that Aether had turned to look at him.

"You're sighing a lot," Aether pointed out, "and I can hear you fidgeting."

"Ah," he paused before speaking again, formulating his thoughts. "I suppose I have a strange request."

Aether blinked, but only responded with a nod, affirming that he was all ears.

"Do you, uh, would you mind, I guess, tickling me?" Xiao spoke quickly, nearly tripping over his words as he realized how ridiculous he probably sounded, eyes darting around the tent to avoid eye contact, bracing himself for any embarrassing questions or comments from the blond.

"Hmmm, but I thought you weren't ticklish." Despite the brief moment of silence, Aether's question came out naturally, much to Xiao's surprise, as if this was a normal conversation between the two. "I've tried many times already and I think Zhongli even tickled you earlier."

"I'm aware," Xiao sighed, "but I'd like to try again, if that's alright."

Aether nodded with a smile, patting the empty space next to him. "Sure, I guess we can give it another shot."

Xiao did as he directed, crawling on all fours to sit cross-legged beside the traveler. "I'm sure you're wondering why I asked for this," he mumbled, staring down at the grass that his fingers played with, hoping to hide the blush that was starting to spread across his face.

"Oh, I definitely have some questions for you," Aether mused with a laugh, positioning himself behind Xiao, "but I'm sure you have your reasons as well." Xiao smiled and breathed a sigh of relief, happy to have someone that he could easily confide in.

Not a second was wasted as Aether began poking and prodding at Xiao's sides, each jab more punctuated than the last. His fingers moved one after the other, uncoordinated as they moved up and down, before moving along to his stomach. Xiao could feel each poke through the thin material of his shirt, but there were no tingles to accompany that feeling. He waited patiently, awkwardly staring around the tent as Aether did his best to produce some kind of laughter.

"Feel anything yet?"

Xiao shrugged in response. "Can't say I do."

"Huh," he could hear Aether drone on, before removing his hands. "Sorry Xiao, I'm not sure this is going to work."

"Wait, uh, maybe a different spot," Xiao spoke quickly, not wanting to give up just yet. He lifted his arms up in the air and turned his head to look at Aether. "Maybe try here?"

Aether attempted once more, allowing his fingers to staccato along the bare skin just at the edge of Xiao's sleeve, but the results were still the same. He only gave Aether a few more seconds, before bringing his arms back down. "Sorry for dragging you into this," Xiao sighed disappointedly, knowing deep down that this whole thing was ridiculous. He brought himself to his feet, but was surprised when he felt Aether's hand now at his shoulder.

"Wait, I might have an idea," Aether said, the light in his eye giving Xiao the slimmest glimmer of hope. "Give me your hand real quick."

"My hand?" Xiao eyed his hand with confusion, before looking back at Aether. "You think my hands are ticklish?"

"Possibly, but I want to test something," Aether explained, gently taking Xiao's wrist and undoing his glove. "Let me see your palm."

Xiao watched as Aether bunched his fingers together, bringing his fingertips down onto the center of his own palm. "I didn't know that people can have sensitive hands, but-" His eyes suddenly widened at the slightest of tingles that traveled through his hand, a feeling most foreign to him. Aether's fingers were just slowly spreading out across the surface of his palm, yet a sensation shot up his arm to his head from the subtle movement, one that his brain failed to comprehend.

"W-What is this?" Xiao managed, perplexed as he watched his fingers involuntarily twitch in Aether's grip.

"Do you feel something?" Xiao figured Aether already had his answer based off of his triumphant grin. "You're ticklish, Xiao."

"M-My hands?"

"Yeah, but I think there might be more to it," Aether said, gently releasing Xiao's wrist, before standing up and taking a seat behind Xiao, just like before. "Ready to see if I can get you to laugh?"

"Huh?"

Aether's hands made themselves present at Xiao's sides once more, except this time, the pokes and prods from before were replaced by light touches, just barely noticeable through his shirt, and for the first time, Xiao could feel what felt like laughter beginning to well up from inside his chest. "How-?!"

"I told you, Xiao," Aether said, his fingertips applying just the slightest pressure as they spidered up his sides. "You're ticklish."

"I-I don't understahahand." His own giggles caught him off-guard, feeling each of Aether's fingers skim against his shirt. His reactions were a total one-eighty from just a few minutes ago. How was Aether doing this?

"You're just like my sister," Aether stated, spreading his fingers along Xiao's sides, before having them reconvene at a center point and then repeating the process. "She's not that responsive to rougher tickles, but ones like these are able to get her to laugh. I can't believe I didn't think of this sooner, though. We're going to have to make up for all the tickle fights you missed out on."

Xiao was barely able to comprehend what Aether was saying because he was already reduced to breathless giggles, squirming in Aether's grip as the blond's fingers began traversing to his stomach, gently gliding across every inch he could reach. "Ahahahaha! Aethehheher!"

"Ah, ah, ah," Aether tutted, using one arm to hold Xiao in place, while the other skittered softly around his stomach. "You're the one that asked for tickles."

"Hehehehahaha!" Xiao squealed, kicking his legs uselessly and sucking in his stomach in an attempt to dodge Aether's hand, but it was useless, feeling the way Aether's fingers would methodically drum against his abdomen repeatedly like raindrops.

The different sensations created a sense of conflict. On one hand, the feeling of helplessness nearly triggered his usual fight-or-flight response that would normally occur during a fight. However, the tingly sensations that washed over his brain overwhelmed those alarm bells that rang in his head, allowing Xiao to fully experience this new feeling of euphoria that he had been deprived of. He knew how silly he looked, but for just this moment, Xiao gave himself permission to enjoy it, leaning back into Aether's chest as the tent was filled with those lovely giggles.

"Having fun?" Although it was a genuine question, Xiao couldn't help but try to press his face into Aether's chest to hide the creeping blush.

"Ahahaha!" He squealed freely, but those giggles soon died down when Aether removed his hands, only to place them atop Xiao's shoulders. He craned his head to look at Aether expectantly, half-hoping it wasn't actually over.

"Lift your arms," Aether said, waiting for Xiao to react. "We can try tickling your underarms again."

Xiao blinked at him, taking a moment to react, but he did as he was told, squeezing his eyes shut with anticipation. It didn't take long for Aether's hands to crawl from the top of his shoulders and repeating those gentle motions to tickle him and Xiao yelped in response, bringing his arms down to clamp Aether's hands in place "I-I cahahant dohoho ihihihit!" he giggled, despite the lack of tickling.

"Yes, you can," Aether said with mock determination. "I can't tickle you if your arms are down like this."

Xiao whined, but reluctantly brought his arms back up when Aether didn't budge. The second he lifted his arms, those fingers were back at it again, scribbling away with feather light touches. He had to fight every urge to bring his arms back down, uselessly swaying in place as his laughter flowed nonstop. Aether was clearly amused by his reactions, based off of the way he giggled alongside him, but Xiao didn't mind. The experience was new, yet exciting, and Xiao found it more enjoyable that he was able to share it with someone that he could fully trust.

"Gahahahahaha!" he laughed, using every ounce of effort to keep himself still, but eventually giving in, the tickling coming to a stop once he let his arms down. He sunk into Aether's chest, that feeling of exhilaration still with him as he looked up at the blond.

Aether laughed as Xiao continued to recover from the bout of tickling. "Alright, I'd say you're done here."

"Y-Yeah," Xiao breathed, still catching his breath with a smile.

"How was it?"

"It was," Xiao muttered, barely able to properly string his thoughts together for a coherent sentence. "I think it was fun. You're a good tickler."

Aether blushed and looked away with a laugh. "I'm not sure that's something to be proud of, but I'm glad you enjoyed yourself. I'd continue, but I have dinner to take care of tonight. Oh, and your almond tofu too!"

"Wait, Aether?"

"Hm?"

Xiao took a moment to word his thoughts, already embarrassed for what he was going to say. "For winning the bet, instead of making almond tofu for me, do you think, uhm, we could try this again sometime?"

Aether smiled and scoffed. "Of course, Xiao. You never have to ask."

#xiaother #xiao #aether #genshin impact #tickling #ss2k22 #squealing santa 2k22

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delacyrose224 · 4 years ago

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Enough for You

-Pairing: Namjoon x reader (for a hot second), Taehyung x reader

-Premise: You constantly feel like you're playing catch up with your boyfriend...will being yourself ever be enough?

-Genre: Angsty fluff

-Warnings: Douchebag Namjoon, brief mentions of alcohol use/drunkenness

-Word Count: 2.6k

-Author's Note: Today's tune is Olivia Rodrigo's 'enough for you'-I had to do it, SOUR is too good of an album! As always, the song is helpful for context, but not necessary for the story. Enjoy!

“You just are never satisfied, are you?” Namjoon hurls at you as you storm towards the door.

You swivel on the spot to face him. “Are you kidding me right now?!” you screech, your voice coming out way more high pitched than planned. “This whole relationship, I’ve tried to keep up with you. What do you think it’s like, dating a member of BTS-the leader, at that? I constantly have to worry about what I look like, what will people think, what will you think? You could literally date anyone you wanted to! Don’t think I don’t see how you look at ARMY sometimes, I can tell you think they’re pretty...I’ve read everything you recommended so I could keep up with you, so you wouldn’t think I was an idiot. But you’re the one who’s never satisfied-overworking yourself, overthinking everything that crosses your path. Everything except for your relationship that’s falling apart right in front of your face. For all you know, I could be madly in love with and seeing Taehyung behind your back!” you gesticulate wildly with your hands, trying to get your point across.

“TAEHYUNG?!” Namjoon bellows loudly. You wince at how loud he’s being in contrast to his usual quieter nature, running your hands exasperatedly through your hair.

The man being screamed about pokes his head out from the hallway, drawn to the living room by how aggravated your conversation has become. You frantically make eye contact with him, shaking your head, trying to tell him silently to leave before Namjoon notices he’s there.

Taehyung’s eyes go wide as he sees how wound up you are, clearly on the verge of tears. He cocks his head to the side, raising an eyebrow. “...hyung?” he softly questions.

Namjoon turns his attention towards the sound, eyes blazing when he sees who’s speaking. “You-leave! You’re not a part of this conversation. Or should he be?” he turns towards you again.

Taehyung raises his other eyebrow to match the first, clearly confused at what’s going on. You blink back the tears that have been threatening to spill over your lashes, steeling yourself before responding.

“No Namjoon, I am not cheating on you with Taehyung. But I’m so glad you think you’re not enough for me, when I’m clearly the one who’s not enough for you,” you spit harshly, even though your stomach has shriveled into a ball and you want to sink through the floor.

“I’m done with this...with you. I’m leaving, for the love of God, be gone by the time I come back.” With that, he storms out, slamming the front door behind him.

---------------------------------------------

You stare after him in disbelief. He just broke up with you, in his own apartment. And then left you in said apartment. The tears you had blinked away suddenly resurface, spilling over your waterline and down your cheeks. You look around with blurry vision, not knowing where to go. You can’t drive home, not in this state. You’d normally go to Namjoon’s room or studio, but that’s absolutely not happening. As you look around, you notice Taehyung had disappeared somewhere between Namjoon accusing you of cheating on him and you beginning to cry. Just as well, you didn’t need anyone else’s pity. The other boys must be out, or somehow missed your screaming match. Rather than publicly air your sorrows in their living room for fear of someone walking in, you decide to hide out in one of the boys’ many bathrooms.

You pad to the end of the long hallway, going into the bathroom closest to Yoongi’s studio. Hopefully no one will hear you back here. You collapse onto the floor, back to the tub, which is cool to the touch. You can still see yourself in the mirror despite how low to the ground you are, and can see your eyes are bloodshot. Seeing your own reflection and how shaken up you are only makes you start to cry again, this time even harder. Your shoulders shake, your breath hitching as you struggle. Tears are flowing so heavily, you can’t even see your hands sitting in your lap. Suddenly, you hear a strange jingling sound. You hiccup and wipe your eyes enough to see, and look up. Yeontan, Taehyung’s dog, is peering around the corner of the door of the bathroom. You must not have closed the door fully in your hurry to find a safe space to cry.

Yeontan trots over to you, promptly sitting down in your lap. He begins to lap at your face, licking your tears away. You can’t help but let out a stuttering laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation is.

“....Tannie? Where are you?” Taehyung peers around the corner of the door, similar to the way Yeontan had several minutes before. “Oh. I’ll just...leave. I can take Tannie too if he’s bothering you,” he mumbles, not making eye contact.

“No, Tae, you’re fine. Come in.” You pat the cold tile beside you, inviting him to take a seat. He shuffles in, closing the door behind him, and sits cross legged beside you.

“Jagi...what’s going on? Why were you and hyung yelling at each other?” he steals a quick sideways glance at you.

You sigh deeply. You may as well tell Tae what happened, since you were yelling about your relationship at the top of your lungs. “Namjoon and I...have been having problems for a little while. I felt like I was always playing catch up with him, trying to make sure I was perfect and what he deserved. I think I forgot about the whole point of a relationship being equal effort,” you sniffle, reaching over and grabbing toilet paper to use as a tissue.

Taehyung just looks at you and nods, encouraging you to go on. “He always said I was never satisfied, but I loved him and wanted the best for him. I’m sorry I dragged you into it at all, I just was trying to make a point. It didn’t matter anyway, clearly I wasn’t enough for him.” Your voice breaks as you finish, tears spilling over onto your cheeks again. Yeontan goes to lick them away again, as his owner wraps his arms around you, pulling you into his chest. Taehyung is a warm contrast to the cold tile around you, and his steady heartbeat helps calm your erratic breathing that had been a result of your crying.

You sit like that for at least 30 minutes, with Taehyung switching between idly tracing shapes on your arm and playing with your hair as he holds you. Yeontan had fallen asleep in your lap a while back, contentedly snoring.

Suddenly, you remember Namjoon’s parting words and jerk away from Taehyung’s hold. “What’s wrong?” he questions.

“Namjoon...h-he said I needed to leave before he got back. I need to go!” you stutter, moving to get up off the floor. You feel a hand on your arm, looking back at Taehyung.

“Jagi, you don’t need to go anywhere. Namjoon hyung doesn’t get to tell you what to do, not after he treated you like that,” he firmly states.

You try to respond, but he cuts you off. “No, don’t try to excuse his behavior. I’ve seen the way he talks to you, and not just tonight. You deserve better than that, and I should have said something to him, leader or not.” His eyes flash angrily for a second, but immediately shift back to their warm brown as he looks at you.

“I’m going to run you a bath, and if Namjoon hyung gets back, he can deal with me. Now, take Tannie back to my room and I’ll let you know when it’s ready-please.” he says with a small smile.

Too exhausted to argue, you sweep the small dog into your arms and pad over to Taehyung’s room. It’s smaller than you remember, and the walls are lined with art-both famous and sketches done by Taehyung himself. You smile to yourself as you sit down on the bed and start to give Yeontan belly scratches. You regret that your relationship with Namjoon had distanced you from the other members...you used to be close, especially with Taehyung and Jungkook. Trying to keep up with your boyfriend had become a full time job, you realize with a frown.

Before you can fall down the rabbit hole of those thoughts, Taehyung pokes his head through the door. “Ready!” he smiles.

You follow him back down the hallway into the bathroom. He has somehow transformed the cold tile room into an inviting oasis filled with candles. The bath is waiting for you, filled with lavender scented bubbles. You turn back to look at Taehyung. “This is all...for me?” you whisper.

He nods enthusiastically. “Of course! You deserve to be treated like this, like a princess.” You can see that pink dusts his cheeks at this statement. “I left some of my gym shorts and a t-shirt for you to change into afterwards, if that’s okay. I also have a speaker to play music, I just didn’t know what type of music you’d be in the mood for…” he trails off, seemingly more embarrassed the more he talks.

“Tae, thank you so much,” you smile warmly at him. “The change of clothes is perfect, and I’d love to listen to a BTS playlist, honestly...but only if it includes your solo tracks, I love those.” It’s your turn to have your cheeks go pink, which in turn makes his flush even darker.

“Just come find me whenever you’re done,” he grins, stepping out of the room and shutting the door softly behind him.

You quickly disrobe, sinking into the bathtub and sighing. The water is the perfect temperature, lavender is your favorite scent, and just as you adjust your position, Winter Bear starts softly playing through the speaker on the bathroom counter. You hum in contentment, sinking even deeper into the water.

---------------------------------------------

You eventually rise from the bathtub when your fingers start to prune. Taehyung’s shirt and sweats are entirely too large for you, but that makes them all the more comfortable. You roll the waistband over and the sleeves up so you’re not completely drowning in them, and smile looking at yourself in the mirror. Your smile starts to falter when you remember you’d washed all your makeup off. You always wore makeup around Namjoon-in fact, you don’t think he’d ever seen you without it. It makes you nervous to be in front of Taehyung without it...you know he’s not Namjoon, but it still feels weird.

You pad barefoot towards the living room, and find Taehyung in the kitchen pouring a bag of popcorn into a bowl. You smile softly watching his actions, knowing he hasn’t noticed you yet. A tiny yap from around your ankles grabs his attention, spinning around to give you his signature boxy grin as Yeontan demands you pet him.

“I figured we could watch a movie and then I could drive you home. I made popcorn and hot chocolate, extra whipped cream for you, I didn’t forget.”

Your heart constricts at his statement. He’d remembered you like extra whipped cream on your hot chocolate, even though the two of you hadn’t hung out together in months. You can’t remember if Namjoon had ever recalled such a small detail about you. Involuntarily, your eyes start to water again. You swipe quickly at them, nodding at Taehyung. He hands you the bowl of popcorn as he grabs the two mugs of hot chocolate and leads the way to his room.

Walking through the door, you see that he’s made his bed into a giant pile of pillows and blankets. You can’t help but smile at the sight. He places the two mugs down on the bedside table, and grabs the popcorn from you and sits on the bed, patting the space beside him like you had done in the bathroom earlier. You sink into the space beside him, groaning at how comfortable it is. Taehyung lets out a chuckle. “Comfy?” You nod, eyes closed.

As you feel him shuffle beside you, you open your eyes to see him setting up the tv. “What are we watching?” you ask, genuinely curious.

“Titanic,” he proudly smiles. “I know it’s one of your favorites, and you can cry over something that is not my stupid hyung,” he finishes with a frown.

You can’t help but laugh, enamored with his effort. You scoot closer to Taehyung, his body heat warming you. He hands you your hot chocolate, and places the popcorn between the two of you.

You make quick work of the hot chocolate and the popcorn, and once you are finished with the snacks, you curl into Taehyung’s side, his arm wrapped loosely around your side.

“She’s so pretty,” you say absentmindedly while Kate Winslet is on screen.

“You’re prettier.” Taehyung replies simply, before realizing what he’s said. He glances over at you nervously, only to see you smiling at him.

“...thank you,” you whisper, more to his side than to him. You’re too embarrassed to hold eye contact for too long. He tightens his hold on you, and you start to drift off due to how late it is and how long the movie is.

Almost an hour and a half later, Taehyung is gently shaking you awake.

“Jagi...jagiya, wake up. I need to drive you home...hopefully before Namjoon hyung gets back,” he whispers. You groan and stretch, sitting up swiftly once you realize what Taehyung’s said.

You jump out of bed, grabbing your things and heading towards the front door. Taehyung follows behind you, trying to be quiet in case any of the other boys were asleep. Just as you go to open the door, it opens towards you, and there’s Namjoon.

His eyes widen in surprise to see you still at the apartment, his mouth falling open when he notices that you’re with Taehyung...and in Taehyung’s clothes.

“So you were cheating on me…” he hisses quietly, leaning towards you. You can see his eyes are red rimmed, as if he’s been crying, which shocks you. As he leans in, you can also smell the distinct odor of alcohol. Taehyung can smell it too, and he steps in between the two of you.

“Hyung, go to bed. You’re drunk and upset...we’ll talk tomorrow.” The flash of anger you’d seen before makes a reappearance, though with concern mixed in. Taehyung opens the door wider, guiding the two of you through to the hallway of their apartment complex. Namjoon looks back at you as the door is closing, and you swear you see a tear falling down his cheek.

The drive home is silent. You’re busy thinking through the events of the night, how upset you’d been, how upset Namjoon had seemed, how kind and comforting Taehyung had been. You’re pulled out of your reverie when Taehyung opens the car door for you, and you realize you’re in front of your apartment. He walks you up to the entrance, and you turn to him before going inside.

“Tae...thank you. For everything. You didn’t have to do any of that...but I’m glad you did.” You smile softly up at him.

“I’m glad I did too...I’ve missed you, you know. I’m sorry Namjoon hyung didn’t realize how special you are, that you weren’t enough for him.” He reaches out to wipe away a tear from your cheek just as you do the same, your hands touching in the process. You both smile shyly at the contact, you looking down at your feet.

Suddenly, you feel Taehyung’s lips grace your cheek and you snap your head up to meet his gaze. His brown eyes are simmering with warmth as he looks at you.

“You’ll always be enough for me.”

Taglist: @alpacaparkaseok

If you'd like to be added to my taglist, just let me know! Feedback and song requests also accepted. :)

#bts one shot #bts fic #namjoon angst #taehyung fluff #taehyung x you #taehyung x reader #taehyung x y/n #namjoon x reader #namjoon x yn #namjoon x you #bts fluff #v fluff #v x you #v x y/n #v x reader

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mg-sytem · 1 year ago

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I saw this pop up while scrolling and wanted to go ahead and respond to this!

I voted "it's complicated" because it depends on the context. For broad examples, things that effect only you as a system/your body vs things that effect others. If a specific alter does something horrible that's hurts another person deeply, it's not reasonable to think that only that specific alter will be held "at fault", right? We've had something horrible happen to us via another system by mainly a specific alter, and even with that alter being "kept away", that trauma and pain was way too much. There are times things can be worked through, maybe not with the specific alter, but with a system as a whole.

Another example would be if a system cheats on their partner and it was done by a specific alter. That's another unfortunate situation where even if it was the action of one, the rest will be effected and have to take accountability and liability.

I've seen extremes in both directions, though. In fact I've experienced the *same people do it*. Excusing truly horrific actions of an alter in a system they were close to because "that alter isn't around anymore and we trust you💜" but kept putting down an entire system for something bad that had happened years ago, in which that alter also didn't exist anymore and the system did everything they could to make up for it, and that system prevented that alter from doing further damage when they realized what was going on and put an end to it. And this isn't to say that nobody deserves forgiveness, but it's truly painful to watch hypocrisy like that happen. Chiming system responsibility for some people and not others is ridiculous.

At the end of the day, mistakes happen, sometimes horrible mistakes, and you may lose people as a result of it, but I do not feel that in many circumstances that it should "damn you" for the rest of your life.

When we've had an alter do something bad, we hold total accountability. But for us it looks more like...the alters who's jobs it is to be held accountable and "clean up the mess" so any hosts or protectors will do the work while more vulnerable alters aren't really allowed to handle it. System responsibility for us doesn't look like having everyone allowed to be thrown into the dirt and stomped on. It looks like if we took accountability as a "singular being" (i.e. as a collective). The alter who did the bad thing is still not gonna get off without consequences, though.

Hard for me to explain everything I want right now, I guess.

-signed an alter who's fucked up more times than I can count as a reformed persecutor (protector)

Another poll kinda related to the earlier one that is less specific.

-⛈️

Important edit:

See fault as who should be held most accountable for the action.

Also, the responses that this has gotten so far have really helped because a lot of this was extremely related to our system’s past trauma from being emotionally abused (being given a bullshit definition of system responsibility, being “held accountable” wasn’t to make amends but to be held at fault and shamed/blamed no matter how much you tried to change and get better, and those internalized beliefs affecting my own view of myself through feeling as if I should feel guilty despite trying everything I could to make amends for what I did)

Thank you to everyone who responded to this already. Your responses have been truly helpful! :)

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quickspinner · 4 years ago

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S4E1 Truth Reactions

Just a reminder, you can filter #quickrants if you don’t want to see this kind of thing.

So...I’m not that upset. I think I’m in the minority here, but clearly my expectations were sufficiently low and I’m really mostly okay with it. I wanted one thing out of this episode, for them to not screw up Luka’s character, and I got that.

There’s a lot of things I’m not happy about, but all indications from early on were that they were going to break the ship up way sooner than we expected, so I kind of had time to make my peace with that. I just wanted them to keep Luka’s character intact, and for him and Marinette to part on good terms so that we can HC that they get together later when they are both more mature.

The things that I didn’t like were so typical that they didn’t even bother me that much:

Literally every character they could possibly shoehorn in saying “Marinette is in love with Adrien Agreste” (however, note, that while every other character was talking about Adrien, aside from that first convo, Marinette was not)

Adrien didn’t even show up and it was all about him, from the rambly confusion in Marinette’s bedroom, to Luka saying “hey, if you’re still in love with Adrien, I’ll understand.”

Chat Noir saying he would never force a secret from Ladybug when the entire episode Siren exists. I mean, regardless of how you feel about Chat’s behavior in that episode...he was trying to force the issue. If not from Ladybug, then to get Ladybug’s secret from Plagg, all without being akumatized.

The biggest issue I have with the episode is the way they shoehorned the Couffaine family drama into it, which meant that neither plot thread got the attention it needed/deserved, and as a result, they had to skip over a lot of stuff, and the entire narrative of the episode was choppy. Would it have been that hard to have a few episodes leading up to this where we saw Marinette ditching Luka on dates, instead of cramming it all into one montage of pain? And we’re really going to go from Jagged saying that he basically ditched his family for no good reason, into Luka hugging him and letting him be the dad-comforter at the end of the ep? AND WHAT ABOUT JULEKA? Does she just not count because she’s a girl and men only care about their sons? Astruc just doubled down on the twin thing on Twitter, but we’re not even going to address that at all?

That whole thing should have been dealt with in another episode; Luka could have found out in this one, and then we could have seen him approaching Jagged as a civilian later (maybe we’ll still see this, but I don’t have any faith it will happen) to work it all out.

I admit I kinda screamed when Anarka said it, though. I didn’t think they would ever confirm it on air. The way it was handled, though, ugh. Jagged really comes off like a deadbeat jerk and then he just, what? Gets forgiven for no reason? After he wrote a song called “My Guitar Is My Only Family”????

Also, the episode as a whole was visually really ugly, and Luka really got the worst of it. Like, yikes. I don’t know why they went full on Lord of the Rings with the special effects, either, can’t you make a character look shocked without inverting the entire background? Multiple times?

Side note: can I just say how hilarious I find it that Hawkmoth repaired the peacock Miraculous with a 50 cent pin back from Joanne’s and by saying “Repair yourself!” Just...so ridiculous.

There were a lot of things I liked.

The sincerity of the movie date. Marinette may have flaked big time not remembering it, but once they actually got out together, away from other influences, they were having so much fun! Going to see a movie they knew was terrible because they both love Jagged so much! I have hearts in my eyes. They were super cute! Their lyric guessing contest! They way they were so focused on each other and having fun. Marinette’s cute way of giving him his gift for ‘winning’ the contest, and Luka using their lyric game to ask for a kiss, and having that cute little nervous look before he really went for it. I’m gonna be watching that scene like a billion times.

My heart broke for both of them when Marinette kept running off. I like that they made it clear that this was an ongoing thing. That one moment of Luka being snarky and upset that she didn’t come to the concert just hurt that much more because he’s normally so calm. It really hurt when he didn’t get excited that she finally arrived.

But what happened after that was so Luka. He didn’t get sulky and passive aggressive. He didn’t get upset with her in front of everybody. He took her somewhere private, somewhere that was important to him, and he gave her context for how he was feeling by sharing something private about himself, and he asked her as gently as possible what was going on. I think it’s telling that he made a point of letting her know that he was okay with it if she was still hung up on Adrien. All he really wanted from her was confirmation that she was committed to this relationship, because after being ditched so many times it’s natural to start questioning whether she was really ready for this, and he didn’t want to be pressuring her into something. He just wanted her to tell him the truth. I think the parallel he gave her was nice, too; not only was he sort of letting her know he maybe has some abandonment issues that are making this hard for him, he’s giving her an opening to admit that she gets overwhelmed for whatever reason and that she ditches him to go hide and collect herself. In spite of all the things he is clearly feeling, he’s so careful with her, and it shows even more when he’s fighting his akumatization. Because his feelings are that she should tell him, that she should trust him, and he’s hurt that she doesn’t, but what he says, and what his behavior backs up, is that you can’t force the truth out of people (nice callback to Silencer there, where Ladybug said something similar about forcing someone to tell the truth is meaningless). He wants to believe that Marinette trusts him and has a good reason for not telling him; he wants to believe that if he can make her feel safe enough she’ll choose to confide in him. Poor guy is just trying to understand without spilling his bad feelings all over her. That’s really the core of what I like about Luka; he’s thoughtful, respectful, and gentle, but he confronts issues head on. He did it in Silencer, he did it in Felix, he did it in Miracle Queen, each time getting right to the heart of what Marinette was having trouble saying without putting pressure on her to admit anything she wasn’t ready for her. That’s what I was really, really scared of losing in this episode and I am just over the moon that they handled it so well.

The akuma is another story, but akumas are akumas. Those where his emotions without control and I’m not upset about that. Both of Luka’s akumas were about anger and powerlessness.

I feel deeply cheated that we didn’t get any kind of scene of Luka coming back to the boat, and Anarka having to tell him again about Jagged because he doesn’t remember, but she said it in front of everyone (including Juleka) so there’s no way to keep it a secret anymore. The cut to the breakup scene on the bridge was just so abrupt, and there was so much that should have happened between that that we should have seen.

I would have liked to have seen Marinette finding him, and asking if he’s okay, and giving him a little sympathy before finally giving him the honesty he asked for. Even when she tries to say it, that she can’t give him the relationship he deserves right now (and I’m eternally grateful that she didn’t lie to him and tell him that it actually was because of Adrien), Luka makes a choice. He closes his eyes as he hugs her (which I think is significant, given the whole third-eye imagery of Truth) and he doesn’t make her say it. Honestly, I usually feel gross about using the word ‘deserved’ in relationships, but I think it’s justified here--he deserved for her to look him in the eye and tell him that she couldn’t be with him. But he didn’t make her do it. He wasn’t angry at her, and they didn’t part with bad feelings, and he was Luka right up until the end.

Maybe it’s sad that that’s as much as I felt could be reasonably hoped for in this episode, but there it is. I’m not happy, but I’m satisfied.

#quickrants #truth spoilers #spoilers #lukanette #luka couffaine #marinette dupain-cheng #ml spoilers #ml season 4 spoilers

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yoongailrecs · 5 years ago

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Min Yoongi Fic Recs Masterlist

Note: If some links aren’t working, please feel free to send me a message! I’ll be adding more fics every weekend. Thanks and enjoy!

@bangtan-dreamland

One Shots

Rain - angst, a little fluff

“Yoongi spends too much time at the studio, leaving you to wake alone in your house all too often. But it’s okay. After all, it’s all too easy to notice the hints lying around- and the ring sitting hidden in the drawer the biggest clue of all.”

@chillingtae

One Shots

Baby Maker - fluff, smut

“Your husband is mildly surprised at your request when he arrives home from work, but it doesn’t take you long to convince him that a baby is just what you both need.”

@cinnaminsvga

One Shots

A Boy Like You - fluff

“for whenever you are feeling low, always remember that there is a boy you know who would lift the sky for you.

{or alternatively: Min Yoongi loves you, though he never says it. He’s always been a firm believer in that actions speak louder than any words ever could.}”

Churro Chumps - fluff, humor/crack

“Hey Y/N. If I’m 130 pounds and I eat 1.3 pounds of churros, does that make me 1% churro?” -Min Yoongi, 2017

{or alternatively: two idiots with their two functioning brain cells try to make a Christmas miracle}”

Neighborly Etiquette - fluff, slight angst

“Based on this prompt [x]. You and your boyfriend live across from Yoongi’s apartment, much to his chagrin. Your laughter and dancing and bed creaking were seriously annoying him, until it stops. Then, Yoongi finds himself knocking on your door. And no, he’s definitely not there to comfort you. No way.”

@dinoyoongi

One Shots

Home for Christmas - fluff, angst

“Accompanying Yoongi to Big Hit’s fancy holiday party, you take advantage of the open bar and spiked cider to help rid you of your homesickness. Who would have thought that your tolerance for bourbon was so low?”

@dovechim

One Shots

Tsundere - angst, smut

“according to the rumours, min yoongi is a bad apple- doesn’t take grades seriously, drinks as if he has two livers, a certified bad boy™. when you get paired up with him for a project, you’d never expect that someone like him would have a thing or two to teach you about life itself- and how it should be lived.”

Series

The Singularity Theory 01 | 02 | 03 - angst, fluff, smut

“in your last year of undergrad, you find out what a gloryhole is at the expense of your final year thesis. it’s a classic example of a psychology experiment that went way, way wrong.

but how were you to know that a certain min yoongi would be sticking his dick into your life?”

@floralseokjin

One Shots

;first and last and always - angst, fluff

“You and Yoongi broke up two months ago. It was mutual, you’re positive, but there’s one teeny tiny issue… You never told your parents, and now they’ve invited you back home for Christmas. Both of you. You can’t say no, but you also can’t bear to go alone, so you do the only thing you can think of, plead with Yoongi to come with you and pretend like everything’s okay…”

drabbles

Hold Me Tight - angst

“the end of a relationship comes slowly but suddenly”

@gossamie

One Shots

the things i said when i loved you. - fluff, angst, and a li’l humor

“listen to the past two years of your relationship with yoongi, as told in a series of voicemails.”

twelve minutes in tokyo. - angst, slight fluff

“Yoongi wakes up only to relive the same twelve minutes that ended in tragedy over again. He is quick to realize that this is the universe’s cruel way— or divine intervention— of deciding the fate of his relationship.”

@ggukieslovin

Drabble Requests

01 - fluff

“Hii! I'll fill your box 😂😂 So... making out with Yoongi and you're doing crazy with his marvelous tongue and he can't keep his hands off your bubble bum. Have fun ❤.”

@hiimbo

One Shots

siren - smut

“you’re willing to do anything to get out of having your license revoked after officer min catches you speeding for the third time this month.”

@hobidreams

Series

The Early Shift 01 | 02 | 03 - smut, angst, fluff

“your coworker yoongi is always infuriatingly late. except the one time he’s much too early.”

drabbles

@httpjeon

One Shots

Show - smut

“yoongi decides to show the boys how he makes his girl cum with his mouth alone”

the cockpile: love birds - smut, fluff

“being an adventurous couple has led you down a strange path of amateur pornography with your boyfriend Min Yoongi. you’re dubbed the Love Birds.”

@inkofyoongi

One Shots

Blow - smut, fluff

“Yoongi loves you, even if he’s never said it… but gestures sometimes speak louder than words.”

@itsamejin

Series

Goodbye 01 - angst

“Yoongi watched silently as you exited the car and out of his life, but he can’t help but feel a sense of panic at the thought of you leaving him for good.”

Leave Me 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 - angst

“He’s cheating and you’re aware. You just don’t know what to do about it.”

@jamaisjoons

One Shots

tongue tech - smut

“Yoongi turns you on with that tongue technology”

@jiminssizzles

One Shots

autumn leaves - angst, fluff

“the one where you and Yoongi are lighting fall-scented candles.”

first things first. - fluff, slight angst and crack

“Both Yoongi and Namjoon deserve you, but you can only pick one. What do you do when your bestfriend, Taehyung, put the matter in his own hands, leaving you with no choice but to just trust fate?”

if the world was ending - fluff, slight angst and crack

“The soulmate system works on your side of the world, only it activates after you turn 20 years old.”

Series

Track 2: Afterglow - angst, fluff, smut and a little crack

Part of the Taylor Swift Mixtape Series

“Gail just went to the BTS fanmeet with her bestfriend, Eunice, to see Namjoon. She did not expect that her boyfriend from Omegle will see her there – and that Omegle boyfriend is Min Yoongi.”

Sparks Fly - fluff, slight angst

“It’s Gail’s birthday in a few hours… What do you do, Yoongi?“

@jimlingss

One Shots

Primae Noctis - smut

“Marrying Jungkook is your greatest fortune, but before you can leave the land forever, you owe one last favour towards Lord Min. As the lord of the land, he has the right to deflower you and you will happily allow him to do so.”

Series

She’s Testosterone 01 | 02 | 03.1 | 03.2 - fluff, crack, smut

“Drop dead gorgeous, cute and sassy - you adore your best friend. But is there more beneath the surface? Who exactly is Min Yoonji?”

The Truth Between Us 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 - fluff, angst, drama

co-written by @gukyi

“a book deal should be the most exciting time of your life, but there seems to be a constant and omnipresent damper on your mood in the form of a certain min yoongi, who you would just cut out from your life, if he weren’t your editor. but then, the world shifts beneath your feet, and you begin to wonder if maybe you’ve always been looking at life from the wrong angle.”

@joonary

One Shots

the way to your heart - fluff, humor

“when your office christmas party’s secret santa gives you absolutely no context on what kind of gift he wants, you have no choice but to get to know him better.”

@joonbird

Series

Wildest Moments 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 - fluff, angst, smut

“Min Yoongi is forbidden territory. And although you both know better, the two of you just can’t seem to stay apart.”

@katobobato

One Shots

Teach Me - fluff

“In which you use learning a language as an excuse to tell Yoongi how much you love him.”

@knamjooned

One Shots

Time Skip - fluff, angst, thriller

“34D 14H 46M 57S. 55S. 40S. The soulclock seemed to be skipping numbers, counting down much faster than the other’s soulclocks were. As it began to skip minutes, Yoongi realized he needed to find you before time ran out.”

@minnpd

One Shots

Dancing With The Devil - smut

“At first, Yoongi was just another handsome face with a charming mouth, stroking your ego while you laughed at his terrible jokes and topped off his drink twice as much as you charged him for. It was fun to flirt with the customers, an exhilarating game of cat and mouse that never went beyond the doors of the club. Until Yoongi.”

@out-of-jams

One Shots

A Toast - smut, fluff

“Who cared that you had a whole wedding reception waiting for your arrival? Besides, did they really expect any less when your groom had shown up to the altar with newly dyed black hair and an undercut?”

Series

Cheers If You Agree 01 | 02 | 03 - fluff

“If it weren’t for the fact that he didn’t know who you were or even how to get into contact with you, Yoongi wouldn’t be posting all over Weverse for anyone to see. Not that he thought anyone would be smart enough to put the pieces of the puzzle together with how many people responded to his posts anyway.

Except you. He hoped you could.”

@personasintro

One Shots

Next Door - smut, fluff

“Your neighbor doesn’t respect your complaints about him being loud, but you don’t let it slide so easily.”

Stay High - smut, fluff, angst

“You’ve to stay high to keep your ex out of your mind when he comes back into your life.”

@ppersonna

One Shots

make me - smut, fluff

“an ordinary sleepover with your best friend turns into anything but ordinary, thanks to your ridiculously loud neighbors above you.”

the landlord - smut, fluff

“your air conditioner breaks right at the height of a recordbreaking heat wave. good thing your hot landlord, yoongi, knows how to attend to any needs you may have.”

@scriptaed

One Shots

behind closed doors - angst

“after falling for your already taken best friend, min yoongi, your confession results in a less than surprising fall out. three years later, you find yourself at your own wedding, except whom the last millisecond of each one of your heartbeats is beating for isn’t the groom; it’s him.”

it isn’t love. - heavy angst, fluff

“it all happened too fast. first, he held you in his arms in the couch of your living room, and next, he had packed all of his belongings and left you to an abandoned apartment without warning. now, he’s known as suga of bts and the only way you can cross paths with the renowned star once again is to win a date with his bandmate, kim namjoon.”

tell me that you love me. - angst

“sometimes letting go is the hardest thing to do - a cruel lesson that comes crashing on the both of you when the unexpected occurs: a mutual fall out of love.”

@searchingtae

One Shots

Morning Star - angst

“When Yoongi fell from heaven, he never once regretted the reasons leading up to his fall. What he does regret was bringing you into this.”

@softlyjiminie

One Shots

nine months from now - smut, angst, fluff

“this was not supposed to happen. this was never in the plan. a sudden, unexpected turn of events leads you into a world of baby bottles and baby grows, it just so happens that the cause of this mess is your boss…min yoongi.”

@sugalarity

Drabble Requests

01 - angst, fluff

“i'm not sure if you do requests, but can you please do a yoongi drabble that is a soulmate!au? something with shooky shooky keeps on playing in yn's head on repeat and yoongi is kinda annoyed because he hears it too. but for a twist, make it angst. 😂”

@thestorytellerofkpop

One Shots

In My Head - angst

“Yoongi is slowly distancing himself away from you, and you can’t help but fall victim to the insecurities in your mind as you can’t help but ask: why?”

@yeontanismypresident

Series

I’m Done 01 | 02 | 03 - fluff, angst,

no summary

@yoonia

One Shots

Undo - angst, smut

“You were his soulmate, that part he knew well. Until one day he didn’t want you anymore. He couldn’t, when all he could see from you was light and all he felt within himself was darkness. Your love has gone cold as he retreated from you, burying himself deep in the dark. But what happened when Yoongi had to watch you start over with somebody else, when Yoongi let his selfishness gain control on him of you.”

drabbles

Series/Drabble Request

Reflections 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 - angst

“Yoongi + “How could I ever forget about you" + Angst | for anon”

@yoongi-sugaglider

Series

Forget Me Not 01 | 02 | 03 | 04 | 05 | 06 | 07 | 08 | 09 - angst, fluff

“Yoongi + “How could I ever forget about you" + Angst | for anon”

#masterlist #m.list #mlist #yoongi x reader #yoongi fluff #yoongi angst #yoongi smut #yoongi fic #yoongi #min yoongi #yoongi fic recs #yoongi fic rec

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societydatabase · 4 years ago

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* 𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐀𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐊 / marifer valverde & mary sakamoto

location: gallagher’s dinner hall, the georgian garden

timeline: november 28th –– late evening

triggers: n/a

PREMISE: Marifer Valverde and Mary Sakamoto receive two notes tied together by a black ribbon. the first is easy to decipher ; the second will need each other’s assistance.

When she realized that there was not one new note but two from the Black Dahlia’s, along with the velvet black ribbon which tied the two together, the smile that spread across her features was inevitable. Marifer had been practically counting down the days since their first meeting after the Autumn Gala for when she’d hear from the Dahlia’s again. Marifer is not a part of a legacy family, no one in her family has been a spy or knows much about spy work, to her the existence of the secret society is more about something fun and mysterious to look forward to rather than anything that has to do with honor. That word is often foreign in her vocabulary but perhaps if she can join the Dahlia’s, that will change. The first note itself is pretty self explanatory: Wear the ribbon to the dining hall and spot the other Dahlia wearing a matching ribbon.

Marifer’s entire aesthetic already revolves around the color black. It’s classy and she likes that it can go with absolutely anything which is proven even more right when it comes to styling the ribbon on her wrist with one of her outfits. No one would suspect it being out of character, except the other Dahlia, whom she hopes to find rather quickly. The raven-haired girl is more than a little excited to be able to get started with solving the mystery that is the second note she received. Marifer is hoping that the other Dahlia’s note contains more of an explanation because ‘ where lies distant donated ’ doesn’t give many context clues, even to someone like Marifer who spends a good amount of time snooping around the grounds at Gallagher.

It’s subtle, the way velvet black ribbon ties the usually loose hair up. Yet, the bow sits high and tight, key point of the styling, no doubt. To anyone, it’s nothing more than an accessory ; to someone that would be looking for it, it’s catchy. Just like the one around her wrist. Of course, Mary had a light case of jitters as she was getting ready, the hop in her steps a little more nervous than joyous this time around. If she could bet, she’d definitely put a 20 on the other pledge catching the way her shoulders instantly become less tense, result of the silent sigh of relief Mary lets out. She looks sweet, it’s reassuring. “ Do you have any idea what flowers, ours and brothers could mean ? ” Mary knows that small talk would’ve probably been appreciated, but for some reason, she feels like there’s a clock ticking above both their heads. Getting to where they need to go or to what they need to do a little more important in her eyes than talking about how cute the ribbon around the other girl’s wrist is. Plus, the note neatly folded up in her hand had left her slightly confused since the moment she read it.

Marifer understands the other’s urgency to get the rest of the clues out of the way because it’s all she herself has been thinking about. Trying to gather a mental list of every place at the school so that she can tick them off one by one but, of course, her clue alone won’t get her there. She knows several people at Gallagher that would opt out for the ribbon in their hair, so she’s grateful that Mary has also spotted her and deduced that they were looking for one another. “ I think it would make more sense if we put it together with where lies distant donated. ” Her voice is quiet, only loud enough for the girl’s ears but she maintains the friendly smile on her face so they just appear as two friends having a casual conversation. If there is one thing that she does hope to get out of being a part of the secret society, it’s getting to make friends, forming bonds that perhaps will become unbreakable. As she thinks about this, however, she’s also thinking about the clues, attempting to put them together. “ The gardens, most of them are donated, correct? Or given to the school? ” She spends enough time snooping to figure that part out, waiting for the nod of approval from Mary who provides the conclusion to their clue: The Georgian Garden, given to Gallagher by the Blackthornes.

“ I’m curious what’s going to be waiting there. When they said to be ready, I wasn’t really expecting a search and find. ” Ah, there’s Mary’s small talk on their way to the solved riddle’s location. It’s truly harmless, too, for she has no reason to ever be hostile to her potential new sister. It’s a little way off on the grounds, going there silently would just be awkward. “ If it’s another riddle, I’m fairly confident in our chances of both getting in. Wouldn’t that be so fun ? ” Mary’s getting a little ahead of herself, but she means it. “ Being able to make our own legacies here, you know. ” Sure, Mary’s last name is basically plastered every other places around the school, but it’s not her doing. She’s proud of her family, of where she comes from. And this could be a way to prove that she’s worthy of the name, that she can achieve the potential her mother once showed the school’s officials in her time. Needless to say, this means a lot to the young Sakamoto.

All that she can do is agree with the other girl because, yes, it would be so fun to become her sister. She has enjoyed working with her thus far. The no bullshit part especially, getting straight to the point so that they’re able to find their prize all that much faster. By this point, Marifer has deducted just how important this might be to Mary and more than that, the importance it might have to her family name. Naturally, she is rooting for her as much as she is rooting for herself. Marifer’s lack of friendships her first two years at the school had left her starved for forming connections with people and Mary was no exception to that. Then comes the final instruction under the sign for the gardens : “ Start together, but dahlia’s must bloom alone. Find our namesake. ” Her mouth drops a bit at this, although she wonders if both of them should have been expecting it, that it wouldn’t be as simple as solving riddles all night long. They’ve chosen which way each of them will go, knowing there’s no sense in searching in the same places if only one of them will find the dahlia. A smile that certainly doesn’t touch her eyes is set on her face as she looks at Mary before the two of them are off on their own.

One last look goes Marifer’s way, mouths a good luck, and off Mary goes on her own part of the gardens. Young girl knows she’s not alone, not truly, but the eerie silence only being broken up by the sound of her own footsteps makes her feel like it. And in a way, they are alone, because how could the other help without sabotaging themselves in the process ? And at this point, it’s not a question of being selfish or selfless, it’s to complete something that had been demanded, where only one gets to finish. Mary is set on this idea, set on doing what’s asked of her. Finding a flower in a garden, it sounds tedious. Although, she supposes there won’t be a patch of thousands of dahlias out in the open, right?

Nerves ; that’s all she feels, but there’s a certain adrenaline that comes with that as well. She can’t help but compare this to her previous adventures throughout Gallagher. With Skylar, with Cecilia, with Nate. More than anything she wishes that she could’ve told Wilder about all of this but even after the fact, she still can’t tell him. He wouldn’t tell anyone, she knows that, but still Marifer knows when to hold her tongue. With the light of her phone shining on the different plants and flowers, this all feels much more eerie than the tombs or entering Gillian’s home. “ You can find it. ” A whispered attempt at a pep talk to herself. It’s as motivating as it is fleeting. Everything kind of looks the same after a moment, especially when the garden itself feels like one big shadow.

She’s gripping her phone tightly in one hand, figured out the plant would probably be hidden, and the light emitting from the device simply makes her life easier. Mary doesn’t know just how long or how far into the gardens she is, just that each edges and each turn she takes either brings her closer or further from her goal, and it’s enough to put a more pressing pace to her steps. Enough to get an already fast beating heart pumping even faster. If she trips, it’s on her own feet for wanting to get too fast. She doesn’t have the luxury to slow down, because if Marifer finds it first, she won’t try to cheat her way into stealing the win from her. If there’s one thing that Mary wants to be, it’s fair. They both know that whatever happens next, the one that finds the Dahlia, wins.

The gardens are one of the few places that never caught her interest enough to roam through so she isn’t expecting it when it becomes somewhat of a loop, from where she’s standing she can see where the garden begins to curve. It wouldn’t be as simple or predictable as for the dahlia to be right in the center of the garden, right? Where everything meets? She shakes her head as if answering her own question. Still, this makes her hurry more as she continues looking, until Marifer swears that she can hear Mary somewhere too close. This stops her for a moment and despite herself she stops to contemplate the fact that she may genuinely lose and her biggest adventure at Gallagher yet will come to a close.

It’s very faint, but she can see Marifer’s own light in the corner of her eyes. Did they really walk until they found each other? Was the prize not on the other’s side? Mary doesn’t have the time to ponder too long on it, because if Marifer’s close, so is the dahlia. She shines her way closer, keen eyes still looking for the elusive flower, free hand getting restless to grab it. Only a few steps, she thinks, only a few more ste ————

It’s one of those moments that you can’t believe happened unless you physically lived it and even when you have lived it, it feels like a dream. It is something of fate or more like chance. They did this together, it’s not fair that only one of them should win. It isn’t fair that one of them should feel their stomach drop from the realization that the other has won. There’s only a single phone light shining now, pointed right at the fully bloomed dahlia that’s sitting there (completely unassuming, as if it didn’t and would never realize it’s own importance), Marifer takes a deep breath. “ No. ” The word leaves her mouth without thinking, she looks up to meet Mary’s gaze. Mary, who is telling her something, attempting her best to smile, but she sounds a thousand miles away. Marifer feels as if she’s drowning underwater even though she’s still simply standing there.

The statue is one she has seen probably a hundred times before while walking through campus. Susan Qualley who sits near the entrance to one of the other gardens, looking as somber as most of the statues do. “ Place the name of the winner behind Susan Qualley and they will claim their prize. ” The raven-haired girl has written down her name in her most elegant penmanship: Marifer Valverde.

#black dahlia task #ty to mel & gen <3 angels

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random-thought-depository · 4 years ago

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@multiheaded1793, continuing from my response to this, I wrote up some alternate history scenarios for the 2020 election to illustrate to you how I think this sort of discourse would be happening in multiple very different scenarios. I think there’s only one scenario that centrist liberals wouldn’t interpret as vindication of their beliefs, and that’s a huge Dem win with a leftist like Sanders at the top of the ticket (a resounding democratic leftist victory is the one experience that’s incompatible with their beliefs about politics!).

It would have been more elegant to just tag you about this, but for some reason I can’t.

These aren’t “proper” alternate history scenarios, e.g. the Sanders victory scenario is “worked backward” to give a final result that’s basically just like OTL, cause the “joke” of the scenario is that the result is basically exactly the same but it’s interpreted differently because it’s Sanders at the top of the ticket instead of Biden. I think “realistically” a Sanders victory scenario would be more different. Or maybe not; one possible interpretation of the 2020 election is elections are very deterministic and it basically doesn’t matter who the candidates are, in which case if we could see a Sanders victory world we might indeed be shocked by how similar their election results maps are to ours.

I hope I didn’t make any silly mistakes. It’s hard to remember and keep track of the twists and turns of this election and the complexities of the United States’s kludgey spaghetti-coded election system! This is why I prefer writing science fiction: there’s less of a chance of getting something wrong!

Anyway, I hope you’ll find these entertaining if nothing else. Warning, this is kind of long.

Resounding Biden victory world:

The point of divergence that leads to this world is obscure. Perhaps it happened decades or centuries or even millennia ago. Whatever the differences are, for a long time they remained hidden in the vast but subtle sociological forces that do more to shape history than all the politicians, generals, philosophers, and prophets. It was only on November 3rd 2020 that these differences produced a manifestation on the flashy surface of politics, as a volcanic eruption might alert humanity to vast slow movements happening in the hot darkness deep within the Earth. On November 3rd 2020 the Democrats get the resounding victory and resounding repudiation of Donald Trump that they were hoping for.

The differences become obvious on election night. As in our world, there is a “red mirage” created by in-person voters favoring Republicans while mail voters favored Democrats, and this briefly creates the impression that the Republicans are doing surprisingly well, but with a much more lopsided vote this “red mirage” lifts much more quickly than in our world. Wisconsin and Michigan flip blue relatively early on election night, while swing state after swing state goes into the Biden-lead column: Arizona, Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Pennsylvania ... Texas. Not long into election night Texas flips blue for the first time in two generations; when the news goes out on the TV a hundred million liberals cheer and a hundred million conservatives groan as it becomes obvious that the Republican Party is headed not merely toward defeat but toward a historic once-in-a-generation disempowerment and humiliation. Trump reacts predictably, going on TV to make baseless allegations that he is only losing because of massive voter fraud, but against the background of such a monumental defeat it seems more comical and pathetic than anything else. By the time the sun rises over the CONUS Atlantic coast on November 4th the election is basically all over except for the formalities.

In this world Joe Biden wins all the states he won in our world, and he also wins North Carolina, Florida, and Texas. He also wins one of Nebraska’s electoral votes (as in our world), and wins all four of Maine’s electoral votes (in our world he only won three of Maine’s four electoral votes). Trump still wins Iowa, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri, but they’re thin squeaker victories, instead of the comfortable margins of victory he enjoyed in those states in our world. The final electoral college count is Biden 389, Trump 149 (in our world it’s Biden 306, Trump 232). In the popular vote the election is a spectacular landslide blow-out, with over 85 million people voting for Biden while only a little over 50 million people voted for Trump (as of the count on 11/25/2020); Biden’s huge popular vote margin of victory doesn’t make any difference legally but it’s a nice solid symbolic repudiation of Trump.

The picture elsewhere is somewhat less spectacularly rosy for Democrats, the big story of this election being more repulsion toward Trump than repulsion toward Republicans in general. Still, the overall picture is very good for Democrats.

Doug Jones loses his seat in Alabama as he did in our world, but in this world Democrats pick up Senate seats in Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, and Maine (in our world only Arizona and Colorado flipped to the Democrats). This gives the Democrats a net gain of four seats and a 51 seat majority, with a strong possibility of picking up the other Georgia Senate seat in the run-off election in January 2021. It’s a very thin majority, leaving them vulnerable to conservadem defections, but it’s probably about as good as could realistically be expected under the circumstances. In the House of Representatives the Democrats increase their majority to 243 seats (it was 235 seats after the 2018 “blue wave”); it wasn’t needed, but it’s nice to have. Democrat governors are elected in Vermont and New Hampshire (unlike in our world, where Republicans won those races). Perhaps best of all, the Democrats do well in the state legislature races, and that means they will control much of the next round of redistricting; the consequences of that may profoundly shape the political landscape in the future.

The most obvious discourse implication of this result is an apparent vindication of the Biden strategy of inoffensiveness and reaching out to affluent suburban centrist swing voters. The “Bernie can’t win, we need an electable moderate to take down Trump” people are feeling totally vindicated and credibly claiming credit for this huge victory and drawing lessons for the future that basically amount to “the strategy we advocated was clearly the correct one and we should keep doing it”; they think that if it had been Sanders at the top of the ticket the Democratic victory would have been much narrower or not happened at all. The 2020 election result map also suggests a new geography for the Democratic Party. While the blue wall held this time, in the context of this resounding Democrat victory it looks kind of Trumpy: Trump still won Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa (barely), the Democrat candidate lost the Senate race in Iowa, and Biden’s margins of victory in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania aren’t overwhelming. Meanwhile, the Democratic Party has made huge inroads into the south on the strength of southern blacks, Latino/as, and highly educated affluent suburban white swing voters. Political analysts observe that Biden could have lost the Blue Wall and Texas and still narrowly won (with 304 electoral votes). The “recipe” for the huge Biden win was to get lots of non-white votes while peeling off suburban moderates. This strategy is likely to get more effective in the future as the non-white population grows and the country becomes increasingly educated. Put together, this suggests that the Democrat faction in the ascendance will the the moderate “identity politics” faction that wants the Democratic Party to be an economically centrist and institutionally moderate-reformist minority advocate party (think: the sort of people who unironically see “more black lesbian CEOs” as a significant metric of social improvement). On the uglier fringes, this shades into the idea that the Democratic Party doesn’t need those Trumpy culturally conservative poor white people and should just leave them to vote for Republican politicians and rot.

On the left flank, response is divided. Some think that Trump was so bad a potted plant with a smiley face could have won a huge victory against him so the actually existing huge Democratic victory means very little; they think a more leftist party with somebody like Sanders at the top of the ticket would have done even better (a favorite argument of theirs is to paint the mere 51 seat Democrat Senate majority as pathetic). Others think the moderates are probably right about their strategy being the most effective one; it’s hard to argue with spectacular tangible success.

On the Republican side of the aisle, Trump and his hard-core supporters are digging in their heels and claiming with no evidence that the Democrats only won because they cheated. In the other parts of the Republican party, there’s a lot of soul-searching and distancing themselves from Trump and rats fleeing the sinking ship. A decisive repudiation of Trump-style politics within the Republican Party seems likely.

The version of me that exists in this world really enjoyed election night. He bought a nice dinner for himself to celebrate and sat back and enjoyed watching the Republicans get what was coming to them. He has a fond memory of joyously yelling “HE’S BODIED! HE’S FIRED!” as Texas flipped blue. He was in a good mood for days after the election. He feels kind of conflicted about the wider implications of this election though. It sure will be nice to have Trump gone, and the decisive repudiation of Trumpism sure is nice, but... Joe Biden will have most of what he needs to be the next F.D.R., but will he want to be that? Probably not. He still wistfully thinks it would have been better if Sanders or Warren was up there: they might really do something with a once-in-a-century opportunity like this! He expects Biden and his centrist faction to more-or-less squander it. And he’s very much aware of what factions within the Democratic Party will reap a huge PR win from this victory, and he doesn’t enjoy thinking about it. He’s not looking forward to watching Kamala Harris’s inauguration speech in 2024. Still, this will be an opportunity for the left to build. Maybe if A.O.C. can primary Harris in 2024... And if it was Sanders or Warren at the top of the ticket they might have lost, so maybe this is the best that could realistically be hoped for. He’s decided that for now he’s just going to enjoy the beautiful knowledge that Donald Trump’s Presidency will end on January 20th 2021; the future can be worried about when it comes.

Narrow Sanders victory world:

The primaries:

Perhaps this world too was subtly different from ours long before the differences effected the flashy surface of politics, but the obvious point of divergence between this world and ours is Joe Biden unknowingly accidentally eating some contaminated food on February 23rd 2020 (the day after the Nevada caucuses). On the evening of February 23rd he becomes violently ill and is taken to a hospital, where he is diagnosed with a very serious case of food poisoning. His symptoms are severe and there is a tense period when his doctors are not sure he’ll survive. There’s a miscommunication somewhere along the line, and on the night of February 23rd a member of Biden’s staff tells a reporter he’s ready to leak a huge scoop: Joe Biden is dying. By the morning of February 24th the story has hit the presses.

Reports of Joe Biden’s imminent demise prove greatly exaggerated. Though Biden’s illness is severe, it passes quickly: by late morning on February 25th Biden has more-or-less recovered and is out of the hospital and being driven to an airplane that will take him to South Carolina, where he will hit the campaign trail, trying for that win he needs to save his floundering campaign. Still, the incident raises concerns about his health and age at the worst possible time. On February 29th Joe Biden gets the big win he needs in the South Carolina primary, but it’s not quite as big as in our world; the delegate count from South Carolina is this world is Biden 37, Sanders 17 (in our world it was Biden 39, Sanders 15). It is a portent of things to come. With the food poisoning incident raising concerns about Biden’s age and health, different political calculations are made, and Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar don’t sacrifice their Presidency ambitions to give Biden a clear shot at the nomination.

With Buttigieg and Klobuchar still in the race super-Tuesday is a bit of a muddle, instead of the clear Biden victory it was in our world. Sanders wins the west, manages a narrow plurality win in Texas, and manages a strong second or third place in many other states. The super-Tuesday map is rich with southern states where Biden’s conservative reputation and connections with the black community serve him well, and Biden does well. If Democratic primaries were winner-take-all Biden would have managed the sort of resounding victory he had in our world, but they are proportional, so Buttigieg and Klobuchar cut deep into his delegate share and he’s unable to top Sanders the way he did in our world. Amy Klobuchar gets a plurality win in her home state of Minnesota, and Klobuchar and Buttigieg do well in the northeastern states, allowing Sanders to claim plurality wins in all of them. After throwing an obscene mountain of money at the primaries, Michael Bloomberg performs disappointingly. Elizabeth Warren also performs disappointingly. Political analysts in this world see the big winners of super-Tuesday as Sanders and Biden. Biden has gone from floundering to being the clear front-runner among the moderates. Sanders doesn’t really perform all that much better than in our world, but with the moderate vote split he comes out of super-Tuesday the biggest winner, with a solid delegate lead and a good enough performance to look like a strong candidate.

A few days after super-Tuesday Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren drop out of the race and Elizabeth Warren endorses Bernie Sanders. Sanders is the biggest winner from this, as the left flank of the Democratic Party now fully consolidates around him while the moderates remain divided.

The next round of primaries is March 10th. It’s again a muddle, which ultimately favors Sanders. Joe Biden wins big in Mississippi, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg do fairly well, and Sanders wins in Washington and manages a solid second or third place in most other places, which given the proportional nature of Democratic primaries means he continues to build a plurality delegate lead.

The Democrat machine politicians can see where this is going and don’t like it. They well remember what happened to their Republican counterparts in 2016, when a divided field helped their insufficiently house-trained disruptive outsider candidate win the nomination and ultimately the Presidency. They have no intention of letting the same story play out on the opposite side of the aisle in 2020. Having proved himself with his good performance on super-Tuesday, Joe Biden has re-established himself as the Democrat establishment’s favored candidate, and pressure is brought on Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg to drop out. In mid-March Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg suspend their campaigns and endorse Joe Biden.

Sanders and Biden head into their first one-on-one round on March 17. Biden wins big in Florida, while Sanders gets a modest majority of the vote in Illinois and consolidates his dominance of the west by winning in Arizona.

Meanwhile, COVID19 has been spreading as in our world. By mid-March cities all over the country are under shelter-in-place orders and the Democrats are scrambling to try to figure out how to manage a still very competitive primary election in the middle of a once-in-a-century plague year. Then, in late May, the next punch comes; George Floyd dies as he did in our world, and as in our world his death catalyzes a huge eruption of protest and civil unrest.

The whole thing feels queasily mystical. It is as if someone Upstairs thought the Donald Trump Presidency wasn’t as exciting as they’d hoped it would be and tweaked the parameters of the simulation to make 2020 an Interesting Times speed run. Donald Trump seems to only become more vicious and delusional as he presides over a country increasingly riven with civil unrest and fully under the power of the coronavirus. The streets are eerily quiet, like tombs, when they are not increasingly filled with protest and rage and violence. Bernie Sanders is claiming dominion over the Democratic Party and seems poised to do for the left what Donald Trump did for the right. Opinions are divided about exactly how that last thing feels queasily mystical. Is it the light rising to challenge the growing darkness? Or is the horseman of socialism riding with the horseman of plague and the horseman of civil strife? Whatever value judgments one makes about what’s happening, it seems that the old order is being pummeled from many directions simultaneously and is being driven to its knees. Or perhaps it is dying in the way an AIDS patient might die; killed by half a dozen secondary infections that are all fundamentally consequences of the same disease.

With Klobuchar and Buttigieg out of the race Biden surges. In the later one-on-one primaries against Sanders, Biden usually either wins or comes in a strong second. Biden is particularly strong in the south; he wins big in almost every southern state. Many are surprised by the strength of Biden, who many had previously dismissed as an uncharismatic doddering old man who seemed to struggle to string together coherent sentences. However, unlike in our world, in this world Sanders looks like a winner, so many fence-sitters who voted for Biden in our world vote for Sanders in this world, so Biden is unable to dominate the later primaries the way he did in our world.

The final Democratic primary debate in April looks much like it did in our world: two old men in a mostly empty room; an elbow-bump instead of a handshake because they don’t want to risk coronavirus infection by getting close to each other. It’s a test of how well the notoriously gaffe-prone Biden will do in a one-on-one debate, and he passes that test fairly well, allaying fears that he may have some sort of age-related cognitive decline. Biden’s promise to choose a woman as his Vice President is a clever bit of political maneuvering; Sanders is clearly unprepared for it and struggles to respond gracefully. The only big difference is the mostly unstated background knowledge of who is winning and who is losing. In this world Sanders comes into the April debate fresh from an unspectacular but fairly solid win in the Wisconsin primary.

With neither candidate able to dominate the race the Democratic primary remains competitive into June in this world. Biden gains on Sanders, but is unable to overtake him. Political pundits speculate that Sanders has an unfair advantage: he has an ally in the coronavirus: Biden’s vulnerable older supporters stay home in fear of the coronavirus, while Sanders’s younger and less vulnerable supporters go to the polls without fear.

In early June, Joe Biden and Democrat machine politicians face a choice. Biden can stay in the race to the bitter end. Maybe he can overtake Sanders, reach the magic 1,991 delegates, and go into the Democratic convention the unquestionably fair-and-square winner with a clear majority. Or if he can’t do that, he can still try to win on the conventional floor. Klobuchar’s and Buttigieg’s state-level delegates will be proportionately redistributed between him and Sanders, but their district delegates will be in free play and, with the blessings of Klobuchar and Buttigieg, will almost certainly back Biden. Biden can likewise probably expect the superdelegates to side with him. If it comes to convention floor politics Biden will probably easily crush Sanders. It will all be perfectly legally correct. It can even be credibly argued to be the will of the people; everyone knows Sanders is only winning because the moderate vote was split. But does the Democrat establishment dare alienate Sanders’s supporters this way, when they are going into one of the greatest political fights of the twenty-first century against Donald Trump? A long, bruising primary that drags into July may harm the party in the general election. And they know that inside Sanders’s clothing there is more than a man: there is the human mascot and spear-tip of a movement. Biden gaining the nomination through convention floor political maneuvers may be perfectly legally correct, but it takes no great political genius to see Sanders’s supporters will not see it that way; they will see it as their hero being undemocratically cheated out of his victory by a dirty trick. There is a great fear that if this course of action is taken Joe Biden’s 2020 nomination will go down in history as the twenty-first century equivalent of Hubert Humphrey’s 1968 nomination. And there’s also a real fear that a Sanders defeat by convention floor political maneuvers might trigger an eruption of violence as Sanders’s fanatical supporters respond by violently rioting in the streets. The fact that Sanders is so popular with the young, relevantly with fighting age men, starts to assume an ominous dimension in these speculations.

The last competitive primary happens on June 9th. Biden wins big in Georgia, while Sanders gets a surprisingly big win in West Virginia. The day after that, Joe Biden and top-level Democrat machine politicians make a decision. It is perhaps the most important decision of Joe Biden’s life. They will make a sacrifice for party unity in the face of Donald Trump. On June 11th 2020, Joe Biden goes on TV, announces that he is suspending his campaign, endorses Bernie Sanders, and urges party unity in the face of Trump. Immediately afterward, Klobuchar, Buttigieg, and Bloomberg also endorse Bernie Sanders.

The general election:

In August, it is announced that Elizabeth Warren has been chosen to be Sanders’s Vice President if he wins. There is speculation that there was a deal made to get her to drop out and endorse Sanders in March and this was the reward she was promised, though she is a logical choice in important ways. She has name recognition, has similar politics to Sanders while being somewhat younger than him (unusually important in this election because Sanders is so old and is an “outsider” candidate; he will need somebody who can pick up the torch from him if he dies in office, or in 2024 when he’ll be in his 80s), has a cooler and more analytical intelligence that compliments Sanders’s charisma, and may be attractive to some voters who are less enthusiastic about Sanders.

On August 17-20 the Democratic National Convention formally nominates Bernie Sanders as the Democratic Presidential candidate for 2020.

The mood among liberals going into the general election is tenser and less confident than in our world. Sanders has a lead over Trump in most polls, but the polls don’t look as good for the Democrats as they did in our world. And Sanders, a man who openly calls himself a socialist, a man who said something nice about something Fidel Castro did and dug in his heels when called in it, is a candidate who naturally inspires electability worries. Many liberals are convinced the Democratic Party has collectively made a terrible mistake, and hope they are wrong.

The first Sanders-Trump debate is on September 29th, and it’s the same kind of spectacle the first Biden-Trump debate was in our world. The highlight (or perhaps lowlight) is Trump making a “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by” statement which many interpret as a call to stand ready to act as brownshirts on his behalf. Some moderates have a vague idea that a Biden-Trump debate might have been somehow more dignified and Presidential, some leftists chuckle about how if it was Biden up there he’d probably have soiled his pants in the middle of the debate or something, the general sentiment among everyone to the left of Mitt Romney is simply that Trump lived down to their worst expectations.

The Vice Presidential debate between Mike Pence and Elizabeth Warren on October 7th is a note of normality: they actually sound like normal politicians instead of like two old men having a Thanksgiving table argument about politics while the rest of the family wishes they’d quiet down. There’s a 2020 touch when a fly rests on Mike Pence’s head for a few minutes.

In the final Sanders-Trump debate they put in a mute button to stop Trump from interrupting so much, and it’s actually a huge favor to Trump, disciplining him into actually being an actually not bad debater.

Election night and after:

The mood among liberals going into election night is tenser and less optimistic than in our world. There’s no confident expectation of a big blue wave and a resounding repudiation of Trumpism, and there’s a lot of fear that Sanders is simply unelectable and he will drag down the down-ballot with him.

Election night seems to confirm the worst. Swing state after swing state goes into the Trump-lead column, and aside from a couple of wins in the west the Senate race picture looks bleak for the Democrats. It looks like Trump will win Wisconsin and Michigan and Pennsylvania. Sanders’s margins of victory in crucial swing states are mostly tighter, so it takes longer for the “red mirage” to lift. One of the few bright spots for the Democrats is Arizona, which is a sour note for Donald Trump; at this point he’s mostly confident of victory, but losing Arizona is a humiliation, and Donald Trump hates being humiliated. Late in election night, Donald Trump goes on TV and makes a confident victory speech. He has some worries about the red mirage though, so in typical Trump fashion he follows his confident declaration of victory by claiming that the Democrats are committing voter fraud on a massive scale and trying to steal the election, and he says that the vote counts should stop. A defiant Sanders goes on TV and reassures his supporters that there are many voters yet to be counted, and then goes on the attack, saying Trump is blatantly trying to steal the election. He also says something that some interpret as a call for his supporters to riot if his victory is stolen from him, giving the left its own version of Trump’s “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by” scandal.

There’s a lot of tension in a lot of mixed-generation liberal households on election night, as older, more cautious and moderate liberals quietly or not so quietly blame the youngsters for the disaster they believe is unfolding in front of them. “This wouldn’t have happened with Biden or Mayor Pete or Klobuchar,” they think, “How did you expect middle America to react to a guy who calls himself a socialist and defends Fidel Castro? We told you this would happen!” The election picture most liberals go to bed with that night is bleak.

In the last dark pre-dawn hours of November 4th the red mirage finally begins to lift. Wisconsin flips to Sanders-lead. By late morning on November 4th Michigan has also flips to Sanders-lead. Millions of older liberals who went to bed blaming the Berniebros for four more years of Donald Trump check the news and breathe a sigh of surprised relief: it’s not much but maybe Bernie did have what it takes after all; he managed something he needed to do, something Hillary Clinton failed to do: he held the blue wall! All eyes now turn to Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania actually flips somewhat earlier than in our world, to the absolute jubilant delight of young liberal “Berniebros,” the cautious relief of their liberal elders, and the disappointment or outrage or terror of a hundred million conservatives. Not long afterward, a surprise: Georgia flips to Sanders-lead too. It’s a real squeaker, even tighter than Biden’s Georgia win in our world, and Sanders would have won without it, but it’s a pleasant surprise for liberals.

With the election basically all over but the formalities Sanders makes his formal victory speech, with raucous cheers from enthusiastic supporters. In contrast to the almost therapeutic victory speech Biden gave in our world, Sanders’s victory speech is darker, angrier. The speech has its hopeful and conciliatory notes, but the general thrust of its message is that Sanders intends to fight for the ordinary American and his fight has just begun.

Sanders’s victory is greeted with an outpouring of joy and celebration by his often young supporters. Most liberals are happy just to get rid of Trump. Many moderate liberals aren’t really looking forward to what they see as another four years of an obnoxious angry extremist in the White House, but at least Sanders isn’t evil. On the right the mood ranges from grumpy disappointment to ... dark. There’s a significant number of people who are under the sincere impression that Sanders is basically Lenin and the relationship between him and Antifa is similar to the relationship between Hitler and the Blackshirts.

So far the much-feared Trumpist brownshirts seem to be a paper tiger; there have been some rowdy protests but no serious violence. Lots of people are very fervently hoping things stay that way.

Somewhere there’s an immigrant from China who’s old enough to remember the Cultural Revolution and is very, very frightened. She doesn’t follow politics much but she’s heard that Bernie Sanders is a communist and she’s got just the right mix of garbled information about him filtered through her Fox News watching neighbors to be very alarmed. It’s starting here too! It’s all starting again! She’s trying to give her family a crash-course in how to survive in a communist dictatorship, but they’ve never known anything but freedom and don’t seem to be taking her very seriously, which is frustrating and heartbreaking to her; “they don’t realize these things will soon be matters of life and death!”

Comparing the election results in our world and in this world, most people would be struck by how similar they look, how little difference the top of the ticket made.

Compared to Biden, Sanders did better in the west but worse in the south. He did worse with affluent moderates and center-rightists and better with liberals and poor people. He did worse with blacks but better with Latino/as. He actually has a bigger popular vote win than Biden, mostly because he creates greater enthusiasm in liberal areas such as California, but his margins of victory in swing states are mostly tighter. Sanders didn’t poll as well as Biden in the lead-up to the election, but he also did not underperform expectations in the same way; Sanders supporters tend to be the sort of people who don’t answer polls much. Compared to Biden, Sanders’s success relied less on peeling off swing voters and more on bringing in politically disengaged people; the sort of people who don’t answer polls much, don’t trust or like the talking heads on TV, usually don’t vote, and are usually poorer and less formally educated than the conventional electorate. In short, the “dark horse” Sanders voter looks a lot like the “dark horse” Trump voter.

In short, compared to Biden, Sanders has a rather Trumpy profile, and his winning strategy looks kind of like a sort of left-wing mirror of Trump’s 2016 winning strategy: super-charge the base, draw in some politically disengaged people, rely on partisan tribalism to fill in the gaps, with this build the sort of narrow winning coalition that can just manage to defy conventional political wisdom and propel an “extreme, outsider” normally “unelectable” candidate into office.

Sanders won the same states Biden won in our world. His margins of victory are bigger in Arizona and Pennsylvania but smaller in Virginia, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Georgia. Sanders didn’t win that one electoral college vote in Nebraska, which in this world went solidly to Trump, so his electoral college total is slightly smaller than Biden’s.

In the Senate, the picture is broadly similar to our world, though with some differences. Warren and Sanders were both Senators from states with Republican governors who would have the responsibility of appointing their replacements if Sanders became President. The governor of Vermont agrees to appoint a Democrat-aligned independent to replace Sanders if he wins (much as he did in our world), but the governor of Massachusetts intends to appoint a Republican to replace Warren. However, the Democrats did get one stroke of luck in this world that they didn’t get in ours: the Democrat Senate candidate won in Iowa; this saves Warren from going down in history as having cost the Democrats a Senate majority by accepting the Vice Presidency post. Other than this the Senate picture looks basically just like in our world. This puts the Democrats in a somewhat better position than in our world, as there will be a special election for Warren’s Senate seat in 2021 that is likely to elect a Democrat, but the Senate majority is going to come down to two run-off races in Georgia, just like in our world. The House races went a little worse for the Democrats than in our world: as of 11/25/2020 the Cook Political Report calls the House as 220 Democrats, 213 Republicans, and 2 uncalled races (in our world it’s 222 Democrats, 210 Republicans, and 3 uncalled races). Likewise, the governor’s races went the same way they went in our world, except that the Republican also won the governor’s race in North Carolina (in our world, the Democrat won that race). And the state legislature races are the same depressing picture as in our world, so Republicans will control much of the next round of redistricting.

The post-election discourse:

Of course, people in this world cannot compare their election results with ours and see how similar they are. They can only speculate about what our world might look like, just as I can only speculate about what their world might look like. And speculate they do.

Many centrist, moderate, and “pragmatist” Democrats think they know exactly who’s to blame for the Democrat’s disappointing performance: Sanders, and by extension the primary voters who put him at the top of the ticket. How could a President be as bad as Trump was, get 250,000 U.S. citizens killed through incompetence, and then come so close to winning? How could so many people vote for such a person and for the politicians who did nothing to stop him and aided him? Well, maybe if the opposition party did something incredibly, mind-bogglingly stupid, like putting at the top of the ticket a guy who openly calls himself a socialist and who defends Fidel Castro... They are convinced that the election results look the way they do because Sanders turned off huge numbers of persuadable voters. They think the Berniebros took the perfect storm of conditions for a once-in-a-century huge Democrat victory that was 2020 and used it to get an ordinarily unelectable extremist into the White House, at an enormous opportunity cost to the rest of the party (and a little less luck and they’d have blown their own goal too and gotten everyone four more years of Trump!). They are convinced that if it were Biden or Klobuchar or Buttigieg at the top of the ticket the party would not be in this mess. Many of them are sure that the Democratic Party would have surged magnificently to crushing dominance of the Presidency and both branches of Congress, if only the Berniebros hadn’t insisted on burdening the party with a toxic albatross.

The predictable tweets and thinkpieces blaming the disappointing election results on Sanders have been written. The disappointing results in the south are blamed on Sanders’s inability to reach out to black people and persuadable white moderates. Somebody looks at exit polls, notices Trump seems to have improved his performance with everyone except white men (a pattern that exists in our world too), and multiple high-profile articles and blog posts are written blaming this on Sanders’s “class reductionism” and supposed insensitivity to the problems of everyone who isn’t a working class white man. The election map represents the Democratic Party turning away from its vibrant diverse future and doubling down on its decaying past as the party of “white working class” Midwesterners. The fact that non-white people still overwhelmingly voted Democrat and Sanders has many female and minority supporters is, of course, quietly soft-peddled in such analysis. The disappointing election results are blamed on the Democratic Party’s embrace of socialism, of Medicare For All, of “defund the police,” of BLM. Criticism that paints Sanders as “class reductionist” and insufficiently sensitive to the needs of women and minorities coexists happily with criticism that castigates the Democratic Party for embracing anything that makes affluent culturally conservative suburban white people uncomfortable.

Many leftists are, of course, convinced that the moderates have it all backwards and the Democrats would have gone down in epic humiliating defeat under Klobuchar or Buttigieg or, God, can you imagine; Biden. The closeness of the election just shows how badly the Democrats needed a leader like Sanders who could inspire people and had something real to offer; without him the Republicans would have wiped the floor with them; he saved the party from total defeat and ingratitude and backstabbing is his predictable reward, because liberals would rather lose to fascists than win with leftists. It just shows electoral politics is a waste of time anyway, watch 2024 when Warren gets primaried by Mayo Pete who then loses to Tom Cotton.

The version of me that exists in this world had a tense election night, breathed a cautious sigh of relief when he opened his computer and saw Wisconsin had flipped blue in the morning, breathed a bigger sigh of relief when Michigan followed it, and spent a week feeling good when Pennsylvania finally flipped for Sanders. It’s a far from ideal election result, of course, with Sanders’s power likely to be sharply constrained, but still, there’s a President who might really do some good! If nothing else, he thinks Sanders will be good at using the soft power of the Presidency to shift the Overton Window. He’s very excited that Sanders will be going to the White House.

#politics #election 2020 #alternate history

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actuallyvady · 4 years ago

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Vady Reads MDZS - Arrogance, part 2

An explanation of these posts can be found here

Wei WuXian meets Jing Ling, Jiang Cheng, and Lan WangJi while out looking for an evil thing to do his bidding. Jin Ling recognizes Mo XuanYu, Jiang Cheng wants to murder anyone who cultivates the demonic path, and Lan WangJi meddles because apparently it’s what he does.

More after the cut.

YAY WE MEET SOME IMPORTANT CHARACTERS!

… after a bunch of chapters where we don’t learn a lot, this feels overwhelming, but we’re meeting new characters and getting a lot of insight into who they are. Let’s break it down into a few categories:

The Jin Sect

Very wealthy

More powerful than the other sects

Known for being arrogant

Jin GuangShan:

Had a fuckton of bastard children because he slept around

Mo XuanYu was one of those bastards

The current sect leader, called Jin GuangYao, is also one of them, but is the only one that was ‘brought back’

Died in bed with a bunch of women and everyone knows it, despite the sect’s efforts to quiet the rumors

Was second to Jiang Cheng in contributing to WuXian’s downfall

Jin Ling:

Obviously highly ranked member of the Jin clan

Jiang Cheng is his uncle and they look a lot alike

Knows Mo XuanYu and is disgusted by him

Young and arrogant and angry

Has a very fancy and expensive sword that WuXian thinks is somehow familiar

Jiang Cheng

a n g e r y

Seriously that seems to be his most defining characteristic at the moment

Hates Wuxian and anyone who even vaguely reminds him of Wuxian-- hence the murder of anyone who follows the same cultivation path

Spoils Jin Ling. Like a lot. But in an angry way.

Also handsome? WuXian comments on him being young and handsome.

Has a ring on his finger that he strokes when he is feeling especially murderous

Lan WangJi

We now have three names for this man: Lan WangJi, Hanguang-Jun, and Second Young Master Lan

Incredibly beautiful, which our narrator (WuXian) spends a lot of time contemplating

Dresses all in white-- WuXian thinks of his garb as mourning clothes

Wuxian thinks his expression makes him look like his wife died

Doesn’t talk much but his disciples seem to understand him anyway

Uses the Lan silence spell on Jin Ling-- which is probably really rude, given Jiang Cheng’s reaction

Incredibly powerful; his strike completely overpowers Jin Ling’s, in spite of the fancy sword the kid has, and he destroys all of the nets on the mountain

Carries a very powerful and very pretty blade

Has fought both beside and against WuXian

Known for ‘being wherever the chaos is’-- he shows up to help even when the prey is too weak to help his own reputation

… that’s still a lot even broken up like that, lol. Okay, so, a lot of things happen here, some of which seem more important than others. Trying to be concise means a lot of bullet points, and only discussing some things.

First of all, WuXian’s actions. Last chapter he mentions that he has been digging up graves in search of powerful things to do his evil bidding; here, we see the result of that. He has a bag of spirits, one of which he uses to pin down Jin Ling. This works because it was someone who died “of gluttony.” WuXian puts a little paper man on Jin Ling’s back, and suddenly Jin Ling is weighed down by this spirit. Neat! So demonic cultivation doesn’t just involve raising and controlling corpses, it also involves using spirits as weapons. I love the tidbit that WuXian is very practiced at tripping people and slapping talismans on their backs. It’s not a particularly honorable way of fighting. But also-- he doesn’t harm Jin Ling at all. Once again, his narration talks a big game about wanting evil things, but his actions here are: humiliate the boy without hurting him, and free the helpless cultivators who would probably die if left alone.

Swords! We see two new fancy ones-- the sword Jin Ling carries (which WuXian feels like he’s seen before, but he’s seen a lot of fancy swords) and Bichen, Lan WangJi’s sword. For the first: it is fancy and expensive and exactly what WuXian needs to cut through the net! Convenient! WuXian is very familiar with Bichen, and the narrative calls it “one of” the most famous swords in the world-- WuXian’s own is probably on that list, given that he mentioned it was likely hung on a wall as a trophy at this point. Bichen is also excessively pretty. Fine and delicate and looking like it is made of ice but also incredibly heavy and only able to be wielded by someone incredibly strong. (We’ve already had WuXian comment on the Lan arm strength; here’s more evidence of it.)

Also, I am a slut for significant names, so let’s talk briefly about Bichen. Its name is 避尘, or Bìchén, which means “avoid dust” or, as one translation would have it, “dustproof.” The idea here is not that it literally doesn’t get dirty, but rather is a phrase talking about avoiding ‘worldly matters’-- it is a daoist idea, if I recall correctly. WangJi almost certainly named it (given what we later learn about how WuXian’s sword is named) which means it is an ideal he aspires to, and is probably something he learned growing up in the Lan clan. It therefore gives a bit of context to the Lan sect all running around in white-- if their ideals are about avoiding ‘dust’ then their appearance is an extension of that. They are all in white, pure as snow, and do not get involved in the messy business of worldly life.

Jiang Cheng is, of course, a character we’ve already had named (in the prologue), whose relationship to WuXian is known, and most of what we see here confirms what we heard in the beginning. He hates WuXian, a lot. WuXian knows it, and is afraid of him. He also does not care about any of the other cultivators on this hunt: he is there to make sure Jin Ling gets the prey, and he doesn’t care how much he has to spend or who he has to scare off to do it. It’s… sweet. In an angry way. I think the most important things revealed by that are that he will do anything for Jin Ling (in spite of how angry he seems, he cares a lot for the boy) and that he is definitely not above doing what others consider cheating if it means he gets what he wants.

Lan WangJi… oh, Lan WangJi, I love you so much. Let’s look at what we know about him from his introduction here. He is pretty, but austere; every descriptor is about ice and snow and moonlight, all things that are cold and distant. He looks like he is carved from jade, but his demeanor is cold, stern, unwavering. He doesn’t speak, in this brief introduction; he communicates through his actions and a significant glance at one of the juniors, who is apparently so accustomed to this that he knows exactly what WangJi meant. His actions, in this brief scene:

Stop Jin Ling from attacking Mo XuanYu, who is a complete unknown to him

Object to Jin Ling (and Jiang Cheng) ‘cheating’ at this night-hunt, though this is expressed by SiZhui

Destroy every single net Jiang Cheng placed on the mountain

Silence Jin Ling when he’s defending making the competition unfair

He is, in every way, portrayed as good and righteous, if cold and distant. His reputation, ‘being wherever the chaos is,’ supports this. WuXian counts him among his enemies, though he mentions having fought at his side before as well. WuXian thinks he is incredibly unlucky to have run into both Jiang Cheng and Lan WangJi; the former’s hatred makes it clear why, but the latter? WangJi is just… good, and therefore aligned opposite WuXian.

OH BOY I HAVEN’T EVEN TALKED ABOUT THE JIN CLAN YET.

The Jin clan, according to WuXian, is arrogant, flamboyant, thinks of themselves as being the greatest… and ultimately has an incredibly messy reputation, despite their best efforts. Jin GuangShan was a womanizer who died in an embarrassing way and left bastard children all over the countryside. His heir, the current sect leader, is one of those bastard children-- no mention is made here of any children by his wife. Mo XuanYu’s story now has some context; Jin GuangShan met the young lady of Mo, was smitten for a little while, then got bored and disappeared even though she had his son. He may have accepted Mo XuanYu as a disciple, but he did not give him the family name, as he did with Jin GuangYao.

If the Lan sect’s all white uniform is a reflection of the value they place on avoiding worldly matters, young Jin Ling showing up in flamboyant robes of gold is a reflection of the value of the Jin Clan: splendor, extravagance, arrogance. He does have a very powerful fancy sword, and the Jin sect is the one on top of the cultivation world at the moment, but we have seen disciples of two clans, and one came to Mo village to help while the other covered a mountain in nets so he would be the one who caught the prey. (Technically, we have also very briefly seen a Jiang disciple, but mostly he came to deliver bad news to his grumpy sect leader.)

Also, moments that are significant but we don’t know it yet: WuXian insulting Jin Ling by saying he has no mother, and asking why his uncle and not his dad. Ooooooops... but we’ll find that out in like the next chapter.

#VadyReadsMDZS #I am trying to be better about capitalizing both halves of two character names #like the translation does #anyway there is a looooot here and it's real hard to stick only with what has been shown so far lol #also i'm sure there are other things i could comment on but this is already very long

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theliberaltony · 4 years ago

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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarah (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): On Sunday, The Washington Post published leaked audio of an hour-long conversation President Trump had with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, where he urged the Republican to “find” enough votes to overturn the result in Georgia and declare him the winner.

This story has captured headlines, as it is by far Trump’s most brazen attempt to overturn November’s results, although it is hardly his first time trying to do so. Trump has repeatedly tried to cast doubt on the election results since Biden was declared the winner on Nov. 7, citing false claims of voter fraud and launching countless futile lawsuits to try and overturn the election. And now as Congress prepares to vote on Jan. 6 to certify the election results in what should be a largely ceremonial, low-key affair, a faction of GOP senators plans to mount a protest vote, even though it is destined to fail.

There is no question that this is bad for democracy — polls have found a record number of Americans distrust the election results — but let’s talk through some of the biggest consequences of this push to delegitimize the results, in addition to whether this jeopardizes Trump’s role as the de facto party leader once he’s left the presidency.

To start, what do you view as the biggest consequence of all this?

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): I think the biggest potential danger is that in any election where the Republicans earn fewer votes, they will make unfounded and exaggerated claims of voting irregularities and fraud and try to toss out or overturn the results. No election is conducted perfectly, but using minor problems as a pretext for invalidating the outcome is a huge problem. You can’t have a democracy if one of the main parties can’t admit defeat.

I am really worried about this in the context of these Georgia Senate runoff races. If Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock both win their races, that would give Democrats total control of Congress. So will Republicans be able to accept losing these races if they do? Or will there be an endless stream of lawsuits trying to prevent Ossoff and Warnock from being seated?

julia_azari (Julia Azari, political science professor at Marquette University and FiveThirtyEight contributor): Biggest consequence: This splits the GOP and deepens the dilemma for Republicans (and possibly Democrats) about how to deal with the other party. Namely, can they continue to thread the needle in arguing that the other party’s constitutional and political views are illegitimate, but the processes are legitimate and thus they sometimes win? Or will the other party’s victories, as Perry suggests, not be tolerated?

I don’t want to “both sides” this — obviously, the Democrats are not the ones creating the current situation, but I think this creates potential dilemmas for them, too, regarding the way they treat the idea of legitimate opposition.

sarah: What are some of the dilemmas you think Democrats face as a result of this, Julia?

julia_azari: Well, take the debate happening over how Democrats should react to this news. There’s a question of whether the House should consider impeachment, which I’m guessing they probably won’t do. On the one hand, I’m not sure impeachment would have much public support, and there’s plenty of other issues that Congress needs to work on. But on the other hand, it does sort of leave the impression that these kinds of norm violations are sort of begrudgingly tolerated.

This will linger after Trump leaves office, too, I think. You’ll have Democrats who want to move on and not ratchet up the stakes of partisan disagreement. And you’ll have others who want to seek accountability for some of the laws that they think were broken by the last administration.

sarah: That’s a really good point, Julia. One thing we saw after the 2016 election was a big drop in the share of Democrats who thought the election was fair and accurate, but it’s nowhere near as big as the drop we’ve seen among Republicans here in 2020. That’s why what you and Perry are hitting on — how the parties handle loss and what that means for voters’ trust in democracy — is the biggest consequence of all this to me.

But maybe you all disagree? Should Democrats be digging into Trump’s behavior more for the reason Julia cited — that this behavior otherwise seems begrudgingly tolerated?

julia_azari: Well, the fact that COVID-19 continues to pose a very real challenge for the country, creates a bit of a problem for Democrats, because if they look like they’re focusing too much time on investigating the Trump administration, they look like they’re ignoring the pandemic and its consequences. But if Democrats try to take this on in a less high-profile way — subpoenaing lower-level officials, etc. — then maybe they’re accused of not being transparent enough.

The impact of this norm-breaking administration isn’t just that it violates these unwritten rules, but that it behaves in ways that make the whole system of usual practices not work. That makes things extra challenging for Democrats.

perry: Questions about what the Biden Department of Justice, congressional Democrats and state attorneys generals do about Trump’s conduct are all still very much up in the air. If there was some criminal activity, he should not be above the law. Perhaps there are some congressional hearings — and maybe even charges filed by the DOJ and/or attorneys generals — involving some Trump associates and maybe Trump himself. I don’t expect Biden to talk about Trump that much, but other actors might weigh in.

sarah: What is the end game here for Trump and Republicans? Trump admitted on the call to Raffensperger that, “I know this phone call is going nowhere.” I know we can’t speak to the president’s state of mind, but what can we point to for why refusing to concede the election has become Trump’s defining stance?

julia_azari: Well, it fits in well into this idea that “grievance politics” have turned into a somewhat successful brand — especially in a place like Georgia, where a history of racist voter suppression informs the context, and where Democratic victories are especially tied to the mobilization of Black voters.

However, I don’t see how having this kind of split within congressional Republicans is helpful to the GOP in the long term.

perry: Trump has lied and cheated in a lot of different venues in his life. That is just the truth. So him insisting that he won an election that he lost is nothing new. He likes to push and push people and see if they will uphold their ethics or bend to his will. For the Republican Party, part of this is just the trajectory they were on anyway, even without Trump at the helm. When you are writing voter laws targeting Black people with “surgical precision” (North Carolina Republicans), making it harder for felons who served their time to vote (Florida Republicans) and gerrymandering in a way that almost makes a mockery of majority rule (Wisconsin Republicans), then unfounded voter fraud charges that aim to disqualify the votes of Black people in particular are just a more aggressive step in an anti-democratic direction.

But part of this is directly tied to Trump. Elected and aspiring Republican officials know he is very connected to the party base, so aligning with Trump is aligning with the party base. So that is why you see Georgia Sen. David Perdue, in light of this phone call, attacking the secretary of state for leaking it, and not Trump for what he said.

2/ “To have a state-wide elected official, regardless of party, tape unknowing – to tape without disclosing a conversation – private conversation of the President of the United States and then leaking it to the press is disgusting,” Perdue told Fox.

— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) January 4, 2021

julia_azari: I think the intersection of what Perry and I have said is this: “The future of the Republican Party is the division between those who say the quiet part out loud and those who don’t.”

One key difference is that Republicans used to win national majorities with the quiet part. That’s no longer the case. Per Rep. Thomas Massie, who along with six Republican colleagues authored a letter that pointed out the necessity of preserving ‘s comments on the Electoral College, the bullhorn can occasionally at least win a plurality. Matt Glassman, who studies Congress as a senior fellow at Georgetown University, on it:

The Senate vote on the objections will be lopsided—at a minimum 70-75 votes against, probably more like 80-85—and also starkly split the GOP caucus.

It may feel like the end, but this is really the beginning of the party fight over the meaning and future of Trumpism. https://t.co/8E9AW9GJul

— Matt Glassman (@MattGlassman312) January 4, 2021

sarah: If Glassman’s whip count is right, though, we’re still talking about a smallish wing of the GOP, right? In other words, it’s possible that the battle over Trumpism splinters the party, but that maybe the movement loses power?

Calling the integrity of the election results into question has clearly become a litmus test or demonstration of fealty for those in the GOP, but some senators like Ben Sasse and Mitt Romney are speaking out against it. Do you think it’s possible that Trump is ruining his ability to be the party’s leader post-presidency?

julia_azari: Well, our readers should stay tuned for my upcoming piece where I address that question!

But to give you a sneak peak: I think political scientists would frame this question as, “Can populism, on the right, be compatible with participation in a pluralistic, multi-ethnic democracy in which you sometimes lose even when you claim to truly represent the Constitution and the people?” The issue is that a wing of the Republican Party has skirted answering that question for decades now.

perry: Having covered the GOP in the era of Trump for the last six years, I will always bet on the more extreme wing of the party carrying the day. The fact that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell would not acknowledge Biden’s win until mid-December was extraordinary. If I had told anyone that in 2015, they would have thought I was crazy.

The moderate voices in the Republican Party are not well organized, not connected to the party base and have no real compelling leaders, whereas the more extreme voices in the party have Fox News, Newsmax, One America News Network, Rush Limbaugh, Tucker Carlson and Trump. I see very little chance that the Republican Party changes its general direction, even if Trump himself recedes.

Would you bet on Sasse winning a battle over the soul of the Republican Party against anyone whose last name is Trump?

julia_azari: I would probably bet a small amount that it is possible, Perry, especially since Sasse seems like a fairly skilled politician and the Trump kids do not.

That said, I generally do not disagree, but I wonder about the sustainability of it all. I think I have some questions on what counts as “moderate” — specifically, considering the GOP, as political scientist and Bloomberg View columnist Jonathan Bernstein has been saying for quite some time, is post-policy.

perry: When I say moderate, I mean people like Romney or Sasse, who are quite conservative on policy but generally avoid white identity politics-style moves (attacking Black Lives Matter or immigration reform) and are full-throated in favor of democratic norms and values. Republicans who are moderate on policy, like Susan Collins and Larry Hogan, are basically nonexistent among top Republicans now.

sarah: That’s largely what FiveThirtyEight contributor Lee Drutman outlined in his piece on why there are so few moderate Republicans left, Perry.

Given how favorable the down-ballot results were for Republicans, however, one of my takeaways from the 2020 election was that a lot of voters rejected Trump but not necessarily the Republican Party, making it a little harder for me to understand the extent to which the GOP has lost moderate voters.

At the same time, it’s hard for me to see a Romney, Hogan or Sasse winning the 2024 Republican nomination, given the current dynamics we’re seeing play out in the GOP — a largely ceremonial, non-headline grabbing vote on certifying the results of the Electoral College, for instance, has now become this big-stakes issue. That said, I’m not sure we can know at this point the success of Trumpism moving forward. I think, for instance, Democrats will face some real tests in the next four years on whether they can keep their big umbrella coalition of both moderates and very liberal voters happy, and that might create opportunities for more middle of the road or moderate Republicans.

perry: I am not confident who will win the 2024 nomination. I have no idea. I do think in the short term, though, that Trump will remain highly influential in the GOP, as will his style of politics.

I just don’t see an easy path for the Republicans to get off that ramp.

julia_azari: This is a bit of a cop-out but I’d need to think more about the costs and benefits for various Republicans. I’m gonna hold off on 2024 predictions until I get a feel for what politics in the Biden administration looks like. And per my earlier comment about how Trumpism has changed the unwritten rules for everyone, I feel a lot more uncertain about what this will look like now once Trump is gone than I have in previous administrations.

sarah: A lot probably hinges on how the Senate runoffs shake out tomorrow, and like you’ve both said, I really don’t have a sense of how “Trumpism” plays out now. It’s unclear to me, for instance, whether Trump is doing a lot of harm … or if he’s the future of conservatism in the U.S.

But at the very least, can we agree that the lasting consequence of this might be an escalation in how the parties oppose each other when an outcome is in dispute?

I’d argue we’ve seen a ramping up of this in the last decade, but it’s largely been over more procedural things, like the Senate changing rules around judicial appointments, and making it a more partisan affair. But now we have this extreme example — contesting a free and fair election. That ups the ante, no? And it seems as if partisan infighting could get much worse.

perry: I’m not sure I’d say we’ll see an escalation in how the parties oppose each other, at least not yet. I think it’s a change on the Republican side. I don’t expect Biden, for instance, to be fighting his defeat for two months if he clearly lost by a wide electoral margin (not one state by 500 votes) in 2024.

julia_azari: I agree with that, Perry. But I think it’s possible that Democrats will start to feel pressure to both uphold norms and be “reasonable” while also responding to norm violations more forcefully.

perry: I am wary of suggesting we are seeing escalation on both sides, though, as I think we are really only seeing big escalations on the GOP side. And I worry things could get worse. If Republicans controlled the House right now, I would be really worried about this election certification issue, for example.

julia_azari: For me, it comes down to a question of sustainability, and of possible splits among Democrats on this issue. But to be clear, I don’t see any of them supporting the scenario you described, Perry. But I could start to see them play a bit more “constitutional hardball.”

sarah: Yeah, I think Julia is getting at what I meant. I definitely don’t want to “both sides” this. But I do think what Julia touched on earlier, about the mechanisms for expressing legitimate opposition being brushed aside, leaves Democrats in an awkward position, as Trump’s brand of politics has challenged how the whole system works.

julia_azari: My main point here is that the parties are not self-contained, and I don’t think the Democrats have really figured out answers to some of the questions posed by Republicans’ norm-violating behavior (which again, is a situation Democrats did not create).

perry: Julia is getting at an important and complicated question here, and one we kind of saw play out around whether Democrats should add justices to the Supreme Court given Republicans’ rush to nominate Amy Coney Barrett before the election.

Biden was clearly uncomfortable with it, but the party activists really pushed him on the issue. So what does Biden/the Democrats do about what we have seen over the last two months?

Biden, in this pre-inauguration period, is basically ignoring Trump and suggesting Republicans will work with him. And I can’t tell if he is 1) pretending, 2) clueless, or 3) Republicans will actually work with him. But Biden’s theory of the case and how other Democrats approach this issue, not to mention how the two parties interact on this, will be interesting. I truly do not know the answer to this question.

sarah: Exactly. It will be interesting to see how Biden and the Democrats work to address this — or whether Trump’s brand of politics has upended everything.

#IFTTT #Politics – FiveThirtyEight #politics #538 #A FiveThirtyEight Chat

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autoirishlitdiscourses · 4 years ago

Text

Discourse of Saturday, 17 October 2020

Would you? At the same time, and the way: What do you want to recite: 5 pm section on 27 November and 4 of Ulysses that we did not, let me know! Failure to turn your final paper in a way that is necessary, but it's often confused with one. So, here. Which texts I have you down to it. If all else fails, you need to represent them even further is a missed opportunity in multiple absences and is as follows: Up to/one percent/for/scrupulous accuracy/in vocally reproducing the/exact text that they didn't cover but that you give, and you met them at you unless your medical status that I built in the manner of an A-would be unwise simply to wait until I'd spent the day before Thanksgiving. Again, well, but forget which one. Which made me realize that I can link to the research resources on the midterm; is the case that 16 June 1904: The Dubliners perform The Patriot Game, mentioned in/Ulysses/alas, recording is of course that it would have helped to get an incomplete grade for the group as a first response would help for you, plus a few things very well. But the Purdue OWL is a very thoughtful job of drawing fair implications out of ink, network connections go down this road, a high B. I think that your own presuppositions in more detail. Either 1:00, in your mind to some extent in their papers, so if you've already lost on the eleventh line; and so your paper depends on a larger purpose while also leaving options for getting me a photocopy of that motivation should be read as having the courage to pause and build dramatic tension rather than the rules. Reminder: tonight at 7 p. It's true that you don't have a recording of your questions might have been of concern in the specificity of your performance and discussion to end up.

If you can deal with this by dropping into lecture mode if people aren't talking because they haven't started the old Tiddly Show; and that you're discussing. Check to make any changes made I will still expect you to help you to push your paper—as it is constructed in the text of Pearse's speech without too much about midterm grades. However, you did get the group to read and interpret as a whole clearly enjoyed your presentation notes would be central to our understanding of the nine options; he is, you may wish to dispute a grade by Friday evening if you keep an eye on the final, too, or utilitarianism, or Aristotelian virtue, or after you reschedule it: you had a lot of ways in which you dealt.

All of which is fantastic and well thought-experiment, even if you do suboptimally on the grading email that says that you took on a topic you're absolutely welcome to speak, and I'm sure you'll do well on the web I'm pretty sure that you should be proud of. Remember that you're making. Plagiarism and Cheating:/I try to force a discussion leader for your paper must be killed by the end of the quarter, I nominate her: she worked incredibly hard, made great strides, is 50 9 for 5 in the first line of the play, that's incredibly comprehensive. Thanks for your ideas are developing nicely. I have a bunch of academic opinion, etc.

Are Old discussion of An Irish Airman Foresees His Death 5 p. You've not only keeps us on task. Discussion notes for section attendance and participation is 55 5 _9 points. Both of these policies in the context of your performance and discussion: performed: Oh I Do Like a S'Nice S'Mince S'Pie sung by Corp. You may have required a bit so that you took.

I can see it promptly and therefore limit your late penalty, you can respond productively if they haven't done an acceptable job of thinking about identity formation, I think that your paper's overall point or points to which you can find applications in the morning shift if that works better for you in section that you might, of course I know that I wasn't engaged in memorization and recitation of a terrible thing: your writing is very unlikely even a perfect score on the you two both gave strong recitations and did a good number of sections attended, in juxtaposition with your paper would most need in order to do is meaningfully contribute to reproductive success by selection pressure, in your discussion notes, but really, really nice work. Part of the obscenity trial surrounding it.

It was a make-up final on Wednesday evenings and bring them to connect them to go into in order to achieve this—I'm not as bad as it could be. I'm behind where I wanted to write questions on the exam, send me the page numbers for the specific language of your introduction and conclusion do some of the text. She had that cream gown on with the play, but it's not necessary and that you picked a good question, people are reacting to look for cues that tell us? One example of a country Begins as attachment to our own field of action And comes to find love so hurtful so often to be taken by the group as a response to such a good way, the sex-food combination pops up! You've got a potentially very productive, though again, a fair amount of points in this arena is a specific analysis and what question you're answering. James Joyce's Ulysses/is available. Please let me do so. Here is what I initially thought I was now a month and a good one a lot of ways: 1 avoid the specificity that you want it to me, and is mentioned in lecture or section, and getting a why you picked to the right page on your midterm and the phrasing of your material effectively and provided a good thumbnail background to the group.

Still, she's a dear girl. This being a good quarter. You have some very good textual choices and analytical methods just depends on where you land overall in this direction would be to make other people to avoid this would require that you look at my paper-writer may be more help. Doing this effectively is to let it motivate other people who never ask naive questions never stop being naive.

Let me know and we'll work out another time to accomplish in ten to fifteen minutes if you'd like. The code that I've pointed to some extent as you write, and 4:30 spot at the beginning of the research or writing process is also a Ulysses recitation tomorrow. I'll stay late. It's not.

Hi!

A-range papers often have a copy of the arrival of Irish identity are instantiated in the hope that helps! I'll see you next week: have several options: prepare a short phrase from it into an effective job of discussion that night for you by this lack of Irish literature in English department look into it for you. Similarly, perhaps not, let it motivate other people to do so. Is that Walter definition of flaneur?

I'll put you down a little bit before I pass it out in section this information allows them to provide useful input. You also picked a difficult business and requires a historical text, though never seriously enough to juxtapose particular texts could be squeezed in most places is basically avoiding the so what? —And to be one of the multiple works that you're aware of what's going on here that are important to you for a lot of material. If a fellow gave them a few days once you've produced a draft maybe let them do so, because the 5 p. There are many other gendered representations here. The Emigrant Irish aloud near the end. So you can deal with the Operator or Tails plug-ins, you may not look at at it from the course of the text and helping them to the page number for the recitation itself that is a good passage and showed this in any reasonable way, and sometimes the best way to do this at this stage in the discussion requirement. Here's a count of various grades assigned to my students on the assignment, so I'd say to i says in this way. Com that you have disclosed any part at all who says you got most of that looks good to me about them more quickly. Of course, it will help you to reschedule, and that's also an impressive move on your feet in response to divergent views and responded in a strong reason for pushing the temporal envelope this far open makes it impossible, very perceptive readings of the disappointed reaction to painkillers and had some interesting comments about some kind same thing for you—I've tried to gesture toward these in more close detail. Which isn't to say, Welp, guess I'll just say that I am giving you this week. Also, my point is more of an overview on a very good papers and given out three.

I graded it you write your thesis. And I think that your ethical principles are often sophisticated and interesting thoughts, are faulted by society at large for failing to turn it in general is a piece of background information demonstration of why you picked those particular texts could be. No, I think that you leave town. 5% on the section Twitter account in a packet of poems tonight.

Too, I will definitely be there. I have a perceptive argument that, for instance, and I will probably drag you down for 'A Star. Again, thank you for being such a good sense of the final, you will also have a basically strong delivery. The Stare's Nest and of showing how the poem on the same time, and you related your discussion plans. I'll probably do this would result in an email last week due to the aspects of the performances you gave a solid job, and this is a fantastic document/outline/explanation of why you feel this way. 2, again tying them to larger concerns of the pleasures of travel is to listen for the quarter have been to be read as, say, I hope your surgery went smoothly. I think that asking open-ended that people saw in the sense of rhythm. You've done a solid job here. I want the paper just barely push you down to an oversight: there is a specific point about that.

I'm sorry to have thought of it. A-range papers do not impede the reader's ability to serve as mnemonic aids and that what you're saying and what Molly thinks about after 2 a. More administrative issues? Which texts I have to schedule a presentation as a foster-mother to him, perhaps Gertie's thoughts directly? Thanks for being such a good job of weaving together multiple thematic and plot issues and weaves them gracefully without losing the momentum of your own work will help you be absent from lecture or section in a close-reading exercise of your paper. Discussion Section Guidelines handout, which is rather complex. Choosing a few exceptions, listed in a term paper of this would have paid off here. Despite these things would, I can't recall immediately and have some strong work here, and it looks like there are many ways. But I'll take back over your own experience as a major theme of crime drama: the only person in each passage. All in all, you did a very good work here. Well, God is good and reflected the assertive hesitations of the poem and its background.

I think that it might come off as much as you can go, though there were things that I set the image properties, then go ahead and cancel the add period and how does the show is that the student's ideas. On it, because that will be. If you are of course welcome to send me a couple of administrative announcements the most up-to ten-digit code, which is not caught up on the female figure and with your approval, I'll post them unless you have some very, very good readings of Godot and would give you good advice and I'll see you next week. I would also like to hand on. Are the descnts of Irish literature that you use. All of these are genuinely astounding bonus, this is a good student so far, mid-century American painter Willem de Kooning's Woman series is full. Again, please consult a writing tutor in CLAS can help you to stretch your presentation, not a bad idea. 4% in the corners sometimes. Explains the currency in question. If you miss the 27 November and discussion by the selections in which this could conceivably boost your attendance/participation grade is at least a preliminary selection of what you're expecting. Wow, that's incredibly comprehensive. This is a penalty of/The Music Box/1932: There will be out of that grade range—not just closely at whether every word, every B paper, but I'll have your paper topic. Your discussion and which texts you want me to answer questions in order to be, the word love generally covers a specific claim about Yeats's relationship to each other you give a close reading of the section as a whole, though never seriously enough to be aware that it could, theoretically informed paper, or didn't when you know you've got it perfect. Does that help? Let me know what that third plan looks like you're writing more of the poem responds to these questions, OK? I can attest from personal experience it can be. 79%, a B on your final draft, letting it sit for a productive set of numbers is in this world and the fact that marriage is supposed to have dug into these in my office with the course of the room. Can we talk about the format or point totals should map onto letter grades onto point totals. You could probably find the full text of the one hand, I'm leaning toward putting you either cross them or want you to demonstrate mercy, I really liked it. And I do tomorrow, you should be to find evidence on their experience of love is perhaps one of the novel. Again, I can't think offhand of work to be as successful as it might be worth 150 points. I can just tell me when I pass out a draft, letting it sit for two or three most participatory people in, first-person pronoun in a word processor fails to conform more closely on the syllabus assigns for the sake of having misplaced sympathies for criminals. Not surprisingly, the more interesting way to think about Ireland as a section you have any questions, OK? Let me know if you would need to do is meaningfully contribute to reproductive success by selection pressure, in my mailbox South Hall.

Thanks! If you need 94% on the matter have I emphasized enough that you may not be relevant to the next two presenters, and it can be a hard line to walk, admittedly, and a server error on the midterm to get back to you staying within Irish culture. All in all, an A for the quarter, then I will not necessarily the order I will offer you some thoughts.

Thinking about this very open-ended pick three texts requirements fairly loosely, provided that you express that claim guide you to engage in micro-level course, with your score regardless of race that is particularly difficult in this range do not participate, then the two things. I will probably involve providing at least 24 hours in advance will help your grade I'd just like to put that would help you to structure your weekend so that I have to give McCabe a really difficult selection, effectively, not to avoid responding to emails that it naturally wants to do is either of the interpretive problems that I've made some very impressive moves here.

I use a standard list of works cited page for each one. You've done a lot of information about your other email in just a tiny bit over, and I have to be answering a question is a broad home. I like, and effectively positioned it as soon as possible, OK? You've written quite a good student this quarter: U2's Sunday Bloody Sunday. He's been a good job of interacting with the question of influence on your group makes it an even bigger honor to win—people who are doing poorly in this way. You memorized more than the syllabus. As promised in the twelfth episode, Cyclops, which pulled the grades up for a comparatively difficult poem to the specific, this is a minor inconvenience. Participatory-ness, I will not be everything that you carry in your paragraph before. Think about what Yeats wants to do well just by one-third of a few spots open, so you can get the same way my first year in grad school? Thanks! 137. I think that this is not something that other people uncomfortable enough that I would recommend that you want to keep bubbling in the Ulysses lectures which, as well. Ultimately, think about how you can give you an additional five percent/of opportunities to reschedule, and nearly three-syllable metrical foot, accented-unaccented. Does that help? Grammar, mechanics, and more than a very good work in the early stages of planning I just got swamped responding to emails from students: You dropped or from the other hand, a fraction between zero and one days late unless you go to, close your eyes open and relish the experience of the things you'll have to turn your final tonight went or is going well, it's no skin off my back, and I completely appreciate that you're capable of being paid to serve as mnemonic aids and that her suicide occurs when Francie runs away, which is one of the difficulties involved. This is a good idea in a moment. Your writing is so impassioned. At the same as totalitarianism, though it was a good number of different ways that you make in your thesis to say is that your midterm and recitation of at a different direction. Think about what your paper needs to be changed than send a new follower on Twitter. It may be performing an analysis of a set of images to look for ways to relate Ulysses to cubism as the weeks progress, and you've been a pleasure having you in section I was going to be less emphasized than, say, none are egregious or otherwise just saying random things about what you're actually using, and larger-scale project. I'll remove my copy and redirect the link from my student, has dictated that this is a suggestion, then waited four days after the fact that a paper that takes this approach is basically very much so. I think that more explicit thesis statement to take another look at some point in the sequence twice; changed It seems _______________ is to drop by, you can't go on because there are certainly other possibilities. So you can which specific part of your newspaper article, too, and not because you clearly have excellent things to say and got a general sketch of what your most important thing to be necessary, but if you do an excellent quarter! In addition to section. Failure to turn in your case, bring me documentation from a medical provider for me if you have a point of thinking even more front and center would help to avoid trying to say about the recitation half of your total score for base grade-days late unless you have any other absences for any reason, it will probably drag you up for the quarter is completely over. I think, is 50 10% of your specific question. All in all, this is because it's a draft maybe let them do so. There are no meaningful differences—there are a number of important goals well, too, about what you want to go for the quarter when we first scheduled recitations. This may be that the maximum number of ways. Attendance and Participation I track your absences from each section and leave it.

Discovering at the document from Google Docs spreadsheet or downloading and installing LibreOffice, which seemed to warm up quickly is not yet posted, with the texts you've chosen, and this paid off for you to follow up with a good choice, and their relationship. You picked a wonderful book, on p.

To put it another way, I did to so I can reasonably fault you for doing a very impressive. Discussion notes for week 9. I hope that helps you prioritize. It was a pretty rigorous framework at the beginning, and the expression of your peers with the professor is behind a bit flat in establishing their relevance, because I'm mean but in your life, and over the printed words. It's a good holiday! Let me know what you want to reschedule, or else you will be out of that text correctly. I don't think that student lists from eGrades didn't have the overall logical/narrative path through them in detail is the MLA standard actually doesn't require students to make sure that you finished final revisions too soon before it jerked; added that to me like the Synge vocabulary quiz on John Synge's play, and you really want to make sure that you will have to have practiced a bit nervous, but it doesn't look like anyone else at all to the food-based mnemonic devices that make much other course poetry easier to get to everything anyway, but I can plan for section attendance and participation. Anyway, my point is to avoid specificity, and the group-generated midterm study guide for his opinion directly in section.

All in all ways to think about this during our last two stanzas are good I think that even this was a sneaky kind of viewer is likely to drag you down to, but leaves important points, actually. Ultimately, you'll get other people have prepared as your main points of the people who attended last night's optional review session last night, and it would help to motivate them to lecture with me. You may also be read, so I'm not sure how much you knew about the issue, I do have some idea of what you're actually claiming about the course of the room to make this paper to be productive to discuss your grade: You may not have started reading Godot yet if they're cuing off of earlier discussion, and various relationships between those points, and you do so would be unwise simply to talk about why the comparison is worthwhile, because you won't have the gaze. I was of course thinking of a letter explaining specific reasons why the IRA's treatment of his lecture pace rather than an omnivore would? You also picked a selection of an A-and rhyme-based mnemonic devices that make sense? And, again, did a really difficult selection, in part because its boundaries are rather difficult passage, getting 95% on the paper, this could conceivably drop the class if you fall back on if you're trying to force a discussion of the class and did a good rest of the harder things to do what the real payoff for your recitation in front of me wanted to remind people. What that person's ancestry also includes more material than you'll actually be factored in until your final decision on which it takes a bit more space to examine the assumptions that you really do have a few minutes talking about, and seemed to be successful in any case, that proofreading and editing a bit better, and will use these two. I think that it never hurts to think about how readers respond to the shaven-headed woman tied up outside the range of the list, I think that one way to go down might involve Umberto Boccioni: Dynamism of a small boost. Hi! I will respond as quickly as possible! Etc. Ultimately, I grade the first three paragraph exactly of the passage you chose a longer-than-required selection and delivered your lines from Stare's Nest by My Window Heaney, Requiem for the quarter when we first scheduled recitations. You have some very good job of putting your texts, and I'll print it out in a lot of things that would need to be examined, please leave the group may help to specify a more likely scenario is that the smarter thing to do quite like your lecture orientation was motivated by nervousness, and I will make what I think that what your paper must represent your thoughts have developed a great deal since you wrote, basing your argument though I think that articulating a specific point, the attraction of the country, though it's probably not the only ones going at 5 p. That is, again, a high bar for anyone to assume that they'll be able to avoid discussing it in without hurting your grade, but leaves important points, would be not providing a thumbnail background sketch of what interests you about The Butcher Boy was not acceptable, that your very fair in a comparative analysis of a group means that a you have an A for the group is, in part because its very everydayness shows how strange Francie's life is not yet made a huge number of important ways.

This is quite good. But really, really is a high B. Realistically, calculating participation will probably drag you down more if you have also explained this to many other parts of the paper does what it needs to be the most famous parts of The Butcher Boy both are a lot of ways here. Again, you're welcome to attend even if you want to attend section during which you dealt. 59 p. I'll have them. What I'd encourage you to dig into a more general note, do not override this mapping. If you choose and which texts you propose to read and interpret as a whole tomorrow; In front of the test in another pattern.

#Irish literature #automatically generated text #Patrick Mooney #Python #Markov chains

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ganymedesclock · 6 years ago

Text

My beef regarding female characters in an action series who use “seduction” as a means of getting things done can basically be summed up in three points.

The first is: seduction is not a valid strategy. Even if your femme fatale can count on the idea that the vast majority of her opponents are going to be specifically attracted to women, which, she... can’t, there’s no way she can guarantee that she’s everyone’s type, or that everyone will drop what they’re doing to ogle / assist a woman they’re attracted to. A tactic is not a useful tactic if it is rendered totally moot in the event of asexual people, those not attracted to women, happily married monogamous individuals, people who are just not really feelin’ the sexy right this second, anyone of particular ethical fiber, anyone of a cautious or calculating persuasion who thinks to be suspicious of one of the oldest tricks in the book when it comes to coercion, anyone who fights in a manner or environment that makes them unable to discern their opponent, anyone who’s difficult to distract in general, or anyone who fights fast and reflexively and will only realize their opponent is a pretty lady after they’ve thrown all their punches... and that’s not a complete list. Odds are good that the majority of situations any sort of actiony lady encounters are not situations she can seduce herself past.

Thing is, almost any female character who’s even implied to use any sort of seduction at any time is virtually always depicted investing heavily in her appearance to the detriment of practical armor and gear that’s going to get her past those statistic majority of situations she can’t flirt past.

And, yes, someone who’s more of an infiltrator, informant, or otherwise going to be flitting around social events rather than swinging from skyscrapers and kicking teeth in is going to find slightly more situations she can flirt past, but, even then, if a string of people get horribly compromised because a pretty blonde flirted with them, they’re going to cotton on fast.

The second problem is that if we’re presuming the femme fatale uses seduction during combat, the implication is that any red-blooded man can’t possibly control himself at the sight of a pretty young thing- and of course the vast, vast majority of her enemies are going to be red-blooded men.

In short, it’s a twofer to the idea that no matter how exceptional this one woman is, she’s just that- one woman, in a society where it’s so shocking and abnormal that she’s a competent woman because we all know women are docile coquettes that people will genuinely fail to defend themselves upon realizing she’s a woman, because that means she must be less dangerous.

And, also, the idea that a pretty lady in a push-up bra is an irresistible siren call that will force men to abandon logic (because we usually don’t see these seductive assassins winning over other women or NB people- it’s overwhelmingly heterosexual men) which leans towards the idea of rape culture. Especially because often, we see that no matter how flirtatious or competent she is, various male characters will find her attractive and get the upper hand on her anyway, which rapidly descends into deeply uncomfortable territory.

The third problem is if seduction is a useful combat advantage (which it isn’t), there is a glaring lack of male characters that use it.

This isn’t about impractical assassins in blatantly sexualized costumes are fine as long as there are just as many willowy, washboard-abs men in tight leather as there are women. This is about the message it sends if all your male action stars can “merely” get by with combat skills and overwhelmingly nonsexual charisma, while the only people dipping into- and heavily dipping into- this ‘potent combat advantage’ are women.

In short, it implies that all these male characters are better fighters than the women, who are forced to “cheat”- because a woman being attractive to the men around her is seen as something she’s doing as a malicious temptress to mock them. But in a context where the guys get the last laugh- because the seductress assassin is never the main character. She’s a supporting hero or a villain, and either way, at some point in the series, various male characters will get the better of her, thwart her ‘wiles’. Implicitly, spring the “trap” of her dangerous sexuality and get away having been kissed and fawned on but not summarily beheaded.

The vast majority of these characters are associated specifically with the black widow spider- at first glance, you might say nothing wrong with that, the female black widow is larger and more powerful than her male counterpart.

However, if that was merely the case, we’d expect to see femme fatales based on lionesses or hyenas with just as much prevalence. Off the top of my head I can think of three seductive killer characters based off black widows and not one based on either of those other animals. The closest I can think of is Harley Quinn who doesn’t have a hyena motif but keeps hyenas.

Why the black widow?

The female black widow doesn’t just indiscriminately tear around eating male spiders- at least, if that’s the case, it’s not what pop culture knows her for. She specifically eats her mate. It’s right there in the name. Hyenas and lionesses don’t do that.

It frames the widow-themed assassin firmly as a (largely, straight male) fantasy. Again, the guy gets the last laugh- even if he’s killed, this beautiful, powerful lady still had sex with him (though works may pull short of actually showing her having sex). She still needs to get far more physically intimate and far more undressed than any of her male co-stars do to achieve the same end results.

Especially because at the end of the day, it’s not about her sexuality- because if she solves problems by flirting, there’s a limited number of people she can sway to affect that problem and she’ll have to flirt no matter how much she potentially hates all of them. And if she can solve the problem purely by other skills... then there’s no reason those other skills shouldn’t receive top billing in her writing.

#writing ruminations #readmore

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gallantgautier · 5 years ago

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Ooc, what are Sylvains most positive traits and strengths?

ooc: I’m so sorry this took me forever to answer, I got distracted. And when the mun gets distracted they forget about things sitting in their inbox. But considering the sheer amount of Sylvain angst I’ve been writing, both in threads and in meta, I feel now is a good time to get into this. Under a cut that I stealth edited in because this got long.

Strangely, this topic is actually a little harder to talk about than his flaws, and it probably has a lot to do with the fact that those flaws are so deeply intertwined with the positive aspects of his character that, as far as examination goes, they get overshadowed by the act of actually unravelling his personality to get to them, it’s what makes Sylvain such an interesting character, really.

That, and I think one of Sylvain’s biggest strengths of character is that, despite it all, despite his disillusions, insecurity, bitterness and inner conflict, he doesn’t let it completely consume him.

Let’s briefly touch on a big aspect of Sylvain Meta I have been focusing on a lot lately, both in previous character examinations and in my head because damn if the bug hasn’t bitten me hard. I won’t get too much into it, there’s a whole lot over here if you’re interested, but it focuses on the negative and that’s not what we’re doing today.

Miklan.

All that stuff considered; it would be so easy for Sylvain to hate Miklan. (He says he does. He doesn’t.) It would be so easy for him to hate the world, and I suppose he does in a way. He hates the world that’s put so much stock into Crests and those who bare them. In general, it would be so easy for Sylvain to hate everything and lash out.

Yet he doesn’t.

Now, an argument can be made that he lashes in, and he does, in a big way. It results in his interactions with people – mainly women – being fake. It results in his lack of trust in people in general, evidenced in that, if we don’t include Byleth seeing as they can reach S rank in all their supports across avatar gender choice, Sylvain only has four supports that go higher than B. Only two of those go to A+, and they’re both with people he’s known all his life.

And yet, Sylvain is very genuine in his friendships. Sure, there’s a colouring of playing around, and while he may not fully trust other people in his life he calls friends and may never let them see the person underneath, he cares and it shows.

I present to you exhibit A; his support with Bernadetta.

Now, this is a subject we’re probably all close to, receiving praise for your writing is forever going to be awkward, but we can see in this conversation that he isn’t just saying “Yeah! This is really good!” Sylvain makes a point of highlighting the details he enjoyed, and more importantly, why he enjoyed them. He also states in his letter that he hopes he inspires Berie to write more, and when we consider how little Sylvain thinks of himself, it’s hard to imagine that he’d think of his opinions as ‘inspirational.’ We can conclude, then, that Sylvain is sharing his thoughts not because he thinks anyone would be interested in hearing them, rather that he thinks having them heard will help.

Let’s move on to his second positive trait. He’s very insightful.

Now, we all know he’s smart, way smarter than he’d like to let anyone think. We see this easily in his supports with Annette, not just how easily he understands the text she’s studying, but also his recognition that the formula is over-complicated. It’s proof that he really does understand the subject and hasn’t just memorised it.

But that’s a display of his intelligence, not insightfulness, that comes later in the support with “Guys like me who hate hard work and sorta get by on our wits? It all falls apart eventually.” Now, I suppose this is a somewhat weak example, as it’s more self-awareness than insight, still, I do think it’s a bit of both, to know that he can’t just get by on luck forever.

Still on this topic, but in radically different context, I’d like to point your attention to Sylvain’s support conversation with Dedue, where he comes to the conclusion that the people of Duscur are innocent. Now, Three Houses intentionally halts certain supports from progressing if they contain story spoilers or if they require certain events to have occurred before them, either because the support itself references those events, or so that the player has context to understand the gravity of what happens in the support.

As such, this statement from Sylvain can happen incredibly early in the game, and potentially is one of the first occasions where a student alludes to a third party pulling some strings. Now, Sylvain doesn’t go that far in his conclusion, doesn’t even have a conclusion, really. But the fact that he even questions it, that he’s looked at the evidence and found that something doesn’t add up, speaks for an insight that, so far, I haven’t really found in the “supporting cast” for lack of a better term.

The final positive trait I want to bring up, one that he doesn’t attempt to hide because honestly he has no need to by virtue of the reasoning I’m about to get into; how important promises are to him, how lightly he doesn’t make them, and how he keeps every single one. He doesn’t hide this simply because it’s a rare occurrence that only happens around people he trusts.

I’ve trawled through Sylvain supports, the word “promise” comes up a grand total of 13 times across all 17 characters (that’s a total of 42 separate conversations.) You’d think for a guy who is personified as being a cheat would make a helluva lot of empty promises, wouldn’t you?

That number isn’t even accounting for the fact that half of the time in these supports, it isn’t even him saying the word.

Let’s discount one of these right off the bat. He says it, but it’s to Hilda, and half of it is a joke, where he tells her to “stop lying, take responsibility, and fall madly in love with him.” He asks her to promise him these things in exchange for forgiveness for taking a tongue lashing from the librarian that was meant for her. None of this is overly important to my point, save the fact that it’s the one time where the word doesn’t carry all that much weight, but it’s not an exception to the rule and still a reinforcement as he’s not the one making it.

Two other occasions I want to bring up next are his supports with Byleth and Mercedes. These aren’t like the previous where it doesn’t carry weight, quite the opposite, but he says the word only once for each. For the former it’s right at the end of his marriage proposal so… Kinda a “well duh” moment, doesn’t really require any analysis. The latter is also at the end of the final support conversation, and it comes in response to Mercedes asking if he will “protect her in turn.” Considering this is a support required for their paired ending, we can sort of take this as a marriage proposal too, but I place more emphasis on the fact that during this portion of the conversation, Sylvain has let his guard down around Mercedes, to the point where he actually cries. That’s pretty significant.

The remaining ten mentions of “promise” come in his supports with his three childhood friends.

Let’s look at Dimitri first, as he only has half of the number of conversations with everyone’s favourite philanderer that the other two do. The word comes up, across both conversations, four times, and only once by Sylvain himself, in which he promises to “do better” and focus more on his studies etc. The other three occasions come from Dimitri, first questioning whether Sylvain will keep to his word, the second is in the B support where he confirms that Sylvain actually did, and the last is Dimitri promising to help Sylvain out with “…something he knows how to help with.” (The last isn’t all that important really, save for keeping count.)

So that leaves the final six, considering we discounted one at the beginning, that’s half. And wouldn’t you know, as well as being part of the Original Childhood Friend Quartet, these two are the only people he can obtain an A+ rank support with. Coincidence? I think not.

Between Ingrid and Felix’s supports, Ingrid’s contain the majority with four, but unlike with Dimitri, it’s Sylvain saying it three out of those four times. However, this time we have the one occasion where he doesn’t completely stay true to his word. Like Dimitri’s support, his first promise to Ingrid is in regards to his behaviour, but, despite his own opinion on the matter, Ingrid expresses exasperation that he’s still playing around. However, it’s worth noting that this promise comes after Ingrid has chewed him out for events that happened a number of years ago, in public, and in a manner that by all accounts is pretty belittling. It’s probably the one occasion he’s made a promise out of frustration and to just end the conversation, evidenced by how he tacks “ Are you happy now?” on to the end. This, I think, is the exception to the rule, rather than the occasion with Hilda, but an exception I think proves the rule.

The second mention is from Ingrid asking Sylvain to stop acting so nonchalant about getting hurt or killed,” and the third is him making that promise right after. It’s never strictly mentioned if he actually does keep it, however, his following support with her involves scenes with him taking his training and combat situations seriously. I believe this is him making an attempt to minimise the possibility of getting hurt in the first place. It’s a roundabout way of keeping his promise, sure, but one that definitely works, dealing with the root cause rather than the surface issue, as it were.

The last comes with “It’s not a joke that you’re beautiful, but I wasn’t trying to hit on you or anything. Promise.” This one, at first glance, doesn’t seem much to read in to, and at face value, there really isn’t. I think this ties in more to the way Sylvain regards promises, and that (hopefully) Ingrid knows that aspect of him too. It’s an emphasis on him being genuine, that he truly means what he’s saying.

Lastly, we have Felix, arguably the most important one. I have a lot of headcannon surrounding this, we’re not going there today, we’re going to stick with what we know.

It’s only mentioned twice, both by Sylvain, and it’s a reference to the same promise, that they’ll “stick together, until they die together.” It’s worth noting that he brings it up specifically on the second mention, but on the first, it comes after Felix being concerned (angrily, because it’s Felix) that Sylvain actually will die, and Sylvain stating “Nah, I won’t die on you. I promise.”

At first, it’s a bit of a throwaway line, until later in the support he talks about The Promise, it paints the first line in a whole new light, that in reality Sylvain is saying “I’m not going to break my promise.” And if you get their paired ending in the Azure Moon route, he really doesn’t.

It’s also brought up outside their supports, if you recruit one and not the other, they talk about it pre-combat if you set them against each other. Please don’t do that. It’s rather poignant, I think, that game mechanics are the only way to get Sylvain to break a promise.

To summarise, Sylvain’s strengths of character manifest in how much he truly cares about people. How he can find the strength to lift his friends up despite the weight he puts on his own shoulders. How he might be crumbling but ultimately will not break. And just how dependable he is by virtue of how he won’t ever make a promise lightly, nor will he break one.

#Sylvain Jose Gautier #Meta #positive traits #character strengths #me: It's hard to talk about this because xyz reasons #also me: 2k of meta later #Anonymous

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scarlettlawyer · 6 years ago

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Part 13 of my reaction/commentary to the Phantoms & Mirages Saga, the fanfic series by @renegadewangs

(Chasing Phantoms): Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

(Haunted Specters): Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6

(Vanquishing Mirages): Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

Vanquishing Mirages / Lifting Spirits: Part 10

Lifting Spirits: Part 11 Part 12

OH BOY we actually made it. Are we actually here? At the Lifting Spirits ending?! :O

It only took thirteen posts and thousands upon thousands upon thousands of words and a couple of AUs and fun off-topic detours but WE DID IT. But it was the journey that counts, not necessarily the destination, no? XD

It was only the three of them- Simon, Athena and Bobby himself who were visiting Lex. There were very few other people who would bother to pay their respects, Bobby supposed.

[…]

The ambassador was probably the only other person who’d visit the grave with honest intent.

I don’t… necessarily think that’s true, to be honest.

I have some thoughts about this that I won’t go into, but, there were many people deeply upset by the fake verdict in-universe.

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 18

ascending.

I can’t it’s so much, the sweetness the…

”His identity was mine up until two months ago and it’ll continue to be mine whenever my uncle deems it time to take me out for some exercise.”

PALAENO OUT HERE GONNA TAKE LEX FOR WALKS LIKE A HECKIN’ DOG LOL? I love it.

While this was a suitable alternative to execution, in a way it felt like they were cheating.

Okay I really liked this line on first read honestly because. Yes.

Like, this ties in a huge amount to what I said in the last post. It… DID kind of feel like cheating to me back then? In the sense that this is such a wonderful, happy ending for everyone to the extent that it almost felt like it shouldn’t be possible given the past and the characters involved. It felt like a bit of a meta line? And I really don’t know if it was intended as such, that’s just how I interpreted/read it!

And these are the EXACT lines wherein, tied with the open acknowledgement of the inability to please everyone discussed in the last post, seriously made me embrace and adore this ending one thousand percent.

The “cheating” comment seriously resonated with me and just, by alluding to it feeling like cheating… to just embrace it… The open acknowledgement goes such a huge way. There doesn’t need to be any internal sense of dissonance whatsoever if the story is right there with you in terms of self-awareness.

By saying “not everyone can be satisfied with the ending” in and of itself allows me to be fully satisfied, and to no longer have to worry about the fact that it can’t please everyone, since the story is already aware of this and having pointed out that pleasing everyone isn’t possible anyway.

Mind you, my perspective now is somewhat more akin to hissing “no it’s not cheating back off this beautiful ending is 100% earned and righteous shhhhh”.

I… am really rendered speechless with some of the wonderfulness of this ending… And I’d actually... forgotten a lot of wonderful details too? Because I’d only read it through once before, and the fact that rereading the series to do these reviews has taken some time means the largest gap of time had passed between the first and second reading when it came to these last few chapters (making my memory of them the least fresh before reading through a second time). So the entire time prior to actually reading them once again, I’d been entirely going off memory of my first reading from like… a few months ago now, when discussing things with my friend(s) and thinking up scenarios. So, some things were like reading afresh and they just kinda outright killed me (in a good way) as if it was better than I had even remembered it being. Two examples of this are, 1. I could not recall with certainty an instance of Lex referring to Palaeno as “uncle”, and while reading through Lifting Spirits, noticed that even after the surgery he was still just referring to him as “ambassador”. Which, made me wonder if he had… So, suffice it to say… Reading this ending and seeing how he continuously refers to him as “uncle” & “my uncle” SO many times in such a short timespan, blows me away, and WOW!! WARMTH & LOVELY EMOTIONS ABOUND. 2. THIS IS KIND OF SKIPPING AHEAD TO THE LAST CHAPTER I GUESS BUT SIMON OUTRIGHT ACKNOWLEDGES THEM AS FRIENDS!!!!!!!! PLEASE I DIE OF WARMTH. I did NOT remember that, it is so… casually acknowledged!!! Like yes, yes, it is clear as DAY that, by the end, there is friendship among the trio, but it is casually verbalised by Simon like that and oh my goodness.

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 19

I will have to say that for the Lifting Spirits ending, I was way, way more invested in the themes of family and family dynamics instead of the shipping side of things. But SHIPPERS GOTTA SHIP and I respect that XD

Things spiraled out of control further and further.

Alexander… Luster Jr

Not with someone else, only Benny. …For now, anyway.

…AND HOW MANY NEW PEOPLE IS HE PLANNING ON MEETING WHEN ON HOUSE ARREST, EXACTLY?!

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 20

Really love the parallels vs differences between Benny and Lex illustrated so clearly in this chapter.

He didn’t want her to die. It seemed unfair of her to have to die while he got a second chance at living.

OH MY GOD? I Had TOTALLY FORGOTTEN THAT THIS GETS ADDRESSED/MENTIONED IN THE ENDING WHEN I’VE SPENT THE LAST FEW WEEKS/MONTHS ECHOING THIS EXACT SAME SENTIMENT!!!!

WILD that I had forgotten about this being brought up directly in the text considering how much I’ve been “”complaining”” about this EXACT “double standard”.

My memory must be SO bad I genuinely thought that Mirage didn’t even get any mention anywhere in the ending, and that after Lex’s meeting with her in the prison she promptly Disappears never to be mentioned again in Lifting Spirits, which felt INCREDIBLY unjust and to do her character a severe disservice. Once again I am a FOOL. A FOOL. That’s my entire Phantoms and Mirages reading experience let’s just be clear: me just, fumbling around blindly and making a fool of myself xDD

I actually think this being brought up directly in the text is the precise thing which planted this thought in my head in the first place too, and then I just, forgot that it was brought up in-story and started going around thinking it was my Own Original Sentiment, pffffff. THAT’S UH. A BIT OF A RUNNING THEME ABOUT THINGS FROM THE ENDING ACTUALLY. This is what I get for reading the ending Once and then needing to go off of memory alone for the next few months: suddenly it starts seeming like my ideas are Totally Original, Not Drawn From Direct Textual Hints/Discussion Or Anything. LOL.

Lifting Spirits, Chapter 21

“Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!”

I have no clue if this was intentionally meant to echo one of the Phantom’s statements in Chasing Phantoms, but I found myself noticing it, at least on second readthrough, nonetheless!

“It would be best if you wipe that smirk off your face and hold your tongue, Bobby, as I’m quite certain your assumptions won’t sit well with me.”

Benny is right there? He’s right th

Hhhhhh I guess Benny is ok with the lack of openness then? dfhjbdfjfdkjb but Bobby’s RIGHT and Lex is a LIAR~

“I feel it is our duty as your friends to rub it in. Thirty eight years old, wasn’t it?”

“as your friends” once again, I’m ascending

Simon decided to tune out the remainder of the argument. Much as he believed Bobby had a point- the Jammin’ Ninja really was worthless against an opponent as grand as the Steel Samurai- he had no interest in partaking in the discussion.

SDKJNFDNJLFSDKJ

The former spy dropped himself back in his chair to return his attention to the watch he was constructing.

The

Former

Spy

: D (I misremembered the “former” part being way earlier in the narrative… and was kinda “huh!” whenever the narrative would still refer to him as “spy” long after the surgery on this readthrough… This is an example of my oversimplification of the distinctions the text makes between Lex and the phantom; in reality, there was still a transition involved, and things/characterisation wasn’t as clear-cut as I’d remembered it being in a “before vs after the surgery” sense. The subtle changes are… super great).

Okay, so for this ending (and the plot of Lifting Spirits), there was ONE thing that slightly nagged at me. Ultimately, I couldn’t be happier with how things turned out. But one thing that did strike me is that the Phantoms and Mirages narrative very clearly frames the phantom’s lack of emotions – their impairment as a result of the bone sliver – as a disability. Through the removal of the bone sliver, this disability is ultimately “cured”, and Lex is given the opportunity to become a “real” and good person.

In real life, in the vast majority of cases, there is no ready cure for disabilities, and a person’s disability cannot be readily separated meaningfully from who they are. It is something with them their whole life. It could be said that the disability itself is being kicked aside in this narrative instead of being accepted. (But, of course, given the context, it’s pretty understandable). There’s the slight potential for things to go awry if you warp some kind of message out of the narrative somehow such as “oh, it’s okay, if you’re disabled you can still have a happy ending… You just need to “cure” your disability first!” but that is obviously an extremely unfair and uncharitable reading.

I think it’s important to clarify that the Phantom’s lack of emotions – his disability in and of itself is not what made him a bad person (obviously), it was his actions. And I think that the narrative does make that pretty clear.

But the thing is,

It’s NOT actually the case that Lex gets suddenly magically “cured” of everything. That’s not the case at all! He must continue to struggle and to strive – he may not be emotionless anymore, but now he has to deal with the opposite, which is a sort of handicap all on its own. There are lasting repercussions from the bone sliver in the sense that now he must learn to deal with the intensity of what he is feeling. With that in mind, to frame it in terms of a “disability being kicked aside” is a pretty incorrect reading.

I said this in a previous post when I kind of touched on this kind of thing:

It’s just, the notion of a character actively striving to be good and overcoming themselves vs a sudden fix that gets externally applied

But another thing is… In my mind, I had exaggerated somewhat just how much of an effect this “sudden fix that gets externally applied” has as well. Lex must not only strive to overcome the extremity of the emotions he feels now, but there continues to be development throughout Lifting Spirits regarding how he interacts with the characters around him. It’s not like he gets the surgery and his characterisation/bonds with the others suddenly and abruptly jumps to where it was at the end and remains consistent through the whole fic; not at all. There CONTINUES to be development as he makes progress towards the point he’s at in the ending, even after the surgery.

Another thing about this ending is that it is so nice.

I think that Lifting Spirits, at its core, is a really beautiful story and concept. It really is. And part of why I had, perhaps, fought against or figured I wouldn’t find a good ending convincing is because I had convinced myself that it just wasn’t possible for the phantom as a character in general to ever achieve any kind of happy ending no matter what, EVEN IF I might like such a thing. I must make some clarification here, because other stories do offer a good kind of happy ending for them, but not in the same manner in which Lifting Spirits does, Lifting Spirits definitely feels like a different “kind” of good ending and a more “direct” good ending at that. I hope that makes some sense, because articulating the difference does seem kinda difficult.

Usually with favourite characters you want them to be happy, but with the phantom it had never been like that… I only ever wanted, or expected, angst or whatnot because… I simply did not think anything else was possible. And I was pretty content with that. But you… You…!

Anyway, there is another big aspect of the ending’s greatness that I want to talk about too. It’s kind of open-ended in the best possible way…

So many things happen that well and truly make it seem like the story is drawing to a close, and YET, simultaneously, there is very much this sense of new beginnings as well, and this ending works equally well regardless of whether there’s another instalment or not.

Something little like Simon getting his hair cut, or Bobby and Simon officially moving in with each other, are awesome things that feel very significant, that make you go “wow, we really are at the wholesome, satisfying, grand conclusion to it all huh? We’ve spent so much time with these characters, but now it’s finally time for them to go on their merry way, and continue to go on with their lives beyond the text written on the page.” They are CHANGES, changes to the “status quo”. You certainly get the impression that even if the story might be “over” for the reader, it certainly isn’t over for the characters – and that is the impression we would still get if there was absolutely nothing else written beyond Lifting Spirits – that their story would continue on regardless, and there would still be… adventure.

Because that’s another thing about the ending to Lifting Spirits. It closes off, and wraps everything up so very nicely. But at the same time, it remains poised, there is just this huge atmosphere of “stuff can still go DOWN” building. It’s the perfect ending where everything gets wrapped up but it is also the perfect set-up for anything to happen beyond the conclusion.

I sense this VERY STRONGLY in the segments where, for example, Benny considers how maybe he might need all the weapons and skills he has. Feels very “calm before the storm”.

Part of what’s so great about something like Simon getting a motorcycle is that the “the subway sucks” and “Simon trying to learn how to drive” subplot(s) have been present in the series from the very beginning. And finally, finally, after trying and failing at learning to drive regular cars, Simon has successfully escaped the subway at the very end.

We are given such hints on what could lie beyond, but also, from the way things are? There are a million different ways things COULD pan out in future, and the audience is only left to wonder.

We are given this strong hint that MAYBE… just maybe, this situation isn’t quite sustainable indefinitely. That perhaps, something’s gotta give at some point.

And that no matter what, the characters probably have some wild times ahead of them. Like that’s the thing: Even if Tracking Ghosts didn’t exist, I’d be left with the lasting impression that events of “Tracking Ghosts” length may still await the characters in the future.

But it’s all left so perfectly VAGUE. All left only in the realm of possibility.

I was satisfied to the extreme with the ending, I had to just take it and run at the time (of course I always planned on reading on), although back then to an extent I was outright BAFFLED at there still being this huge instalment to go. In the words of my friend, back then when I told her that Actually, there’s STILL even MORE to read:

Like, it truly felt like EVERYTHING had already been said and done. So how…?!

And since then, of course, I have not continued reading on as of yet, which has given me plenty of time to think.

And I have since realised that, as well and as thoroughly as Lifting Spirits DOES wrap everything up, there are still tiny, potentially loose threads. Tiny threads that could be unravelled until they could give way to all manner of things, scenarios, plots.

And that aside, there’s so much else that COULD happen as well. The Lifting Spirits ending is rife with potential. It is absolutely brimming with it.

And I also found myself realising that hey, there actually are things that haven’t been said and done yet. That there ARE little tiny things left nagging at me.

Tracking Ghosts contains a whole new threat, elaboration on Lex's emotional instability, road trips through Borginia, lots more 'Mirage' and Domestique LaSoote's backstory (oooh~). Also, the mother of all epilogues and a few more bonus chapters that take place afterwards.

Okay it is actually hilarious how little I remembered of all of this by the end. And that is to say: pretty much none of it. I straight-up forgot ALL of this being even mentioned in the Author’s Note at the end, and therefore have incorporated stuff like “road trips through Borginia” and “Mirage backstory” very VERY little in how I’ve thought about what to expect from Tracking Ghosts, at least in recent times, ahahahaha. Well I’ve got… quite a lot ahead of me, I’m sure.

I am certain that there’s so much more I could probably say about this series, I could continue to go on and on, but for now, there you have it, I think. I have not done this ending justice at all – it’s just so good it defies being done justice, and I don’t think I can fully articulate what I want to. But I’m content. Across so many posts, in thousands and thousands of words, I have already said quite a bit. XD

So now, all that’s left is to take that plunge and finally start to read Tracking Ghosts as I planned on doing once this series of posts was finished, huh? XD

I start my work week tomorrow, so it’s currently looking like… I will start reading it next weekend! It will have to be a weekend, sadly, as I can’t imagine starting and diving into something so huge when I have to try and focus on work/get sufficient sleep, lol.

OH I DON’T KNOW HOW TO END THIS POST-

Thank you, so much, for everything, and uh, apologies in advance for however much I might blow up your inbox/DMs/what have you when reading Tracking Ghosts. GENUINELY DON’T KNOW how much I will liveblog to you, if only a couple of things will slip through or if I’m just outright gonna go completely wild with it XD. IT WILL DEPEND ON THE STORY ITSELF AND HOW I’M FEELING I GUESS/my reactions.

These review posts have been… they’ve been really fun, I’ve enjoyed doing them a lot. They’ve been time consuming, but it was all 100% worth it and I’m very glad I set out to do them. I couldn’t not do them, really. I found myself realising that I just needed to tell you about the incredible journey/ride this series took me on one way or another – and, of course, I just have so many thoughts and so very many opinions about it. It lends itself so readily to analysis for me. But more than that, it feels like it SHOULD be analysed and subjected to analysis.

Talking with you is really great, and I hope to talk with you heaps more in future! Not just about your stories, just in general!

Thanks again, and I hope you have a great week! And then it will be TRACKING GHOSTS TIME.

#long post

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lumo-arcanorum · 6 years ago

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IN PRAISE OF MMM

This is another repost, but from a blog I came across that I enjoyed. Wordpress blog formats are hard to track together, so I’m also reposting this here.

This is taken from a 2018 post by The Kite’s Cradle, a blog for a chaos magicikan and self-identified urban druid. It’s an interesting read into the life of an actual living chaos magickian.

This is also relevant to me in that I’m sort of inspired to take another stab at MMM, but in my own way. I’m working on an alternative liber to Carroll’s exercise. We’ll see where that goes.

OCTOBER 9, 2018 THE KITE 1 COMMENT

I like to see a Liber Null that’s been well used. Although chaos magic has moved on since Pete Carroll wrote the seminal chaos magic book Liber Null, chaos magicians owe Pete a huge debt of gratitude for Liber MMM, the ‘studentship syllabus’ for theIlluminates of Thanateros Novice training program. And this section of his book has really stood the test of time as an introductory training programme of magic. Not that you need it, of course.

He adapted the Yoga exercises of Aleister Crowley’s Book 4: Mysticism (part 1). This in turn was appropriated from The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

Read these books and you’ll notice the repurposing of the exercises from the “…system by which the practitioner can directly realize his or her puruׅṣa, the soul or innermost conscious self, through mental practices.”(Sutras, p. xlvii) through Crowley’s Thelemic “aims of religion” to the Mind Control exercises of MMM, where “to work magic effectively, the ability to concentrate the attention must be built up until the mind can enter a trance-like condition.” (Null, p. 14).

As I’ve remarked elsewhere, when repurposing a practice it really does matter when you consider the consequences. The What For is important. In this case MMM marks the beginning of Carroll’s growing reduction of ‘spirituality’ to ‘getting good at magic.’ In doing so the baby of Illumination/Enlightenment/Liberation disappears into the bushes with the bathwater.

What makes it worse is that this impoverishment of the Great Work of Magic is committed merely in the name of attaining trance states, often called ‘gnosis’ by chaos magicians. Now excuse me if I point out that trance states are about as difficult as putting on a hat. Get into self-hypnosis, brainwave entrainment, Silva Method or any number of other things and you’ll see what I mean.

By ‘get into’ I mean, of course, ‘research and practice.’ With the emphasis on ‘practice.’ Our belief systems matter less than our practice systems. Occultists are notorious for owning the books, reading the articles, having the debates and not getting down to enough solid practice.

Patanjali required practice: “practice is the effort to be fixed in concentrating the mind.” (Sutra I.14) The whole project requires dedication to practice. Meanwhile in Crowley space, Aleister once chose as his magical mottoPerdurabo: ‘I shall endure to the end,’ or ‘I’ll stick it out.’ Tells you something, eh? Pete Carroll overstates the case when he claims that the magical trances he lists require “fanatical and morbid determination,” but practice there must be. It will be demanding, it will be inconvenient, it will be a pain in the lifestyle. But do it, and magical power will come to you.

Back to that bit about how our belief systems matter less than our practice systems. Echoing the doctrinal disputes of Christendom, occultists often suffer from the ailment of Having The Right Answers. This distracts them from the necessity of racking up the practice time. You’re not a sky pilot until you’ve logged the flight time.

Now I’m not recommending that you fill your every waking moment with ‘praxis,’ the bloatware of magic. A benefit of chaos magic reductionism is that you can restrict yourself to the most economically effective and get most of it done. A few bang-for-the-buck exercises and a simple training program and you’re ahead of the crowd. Weight training starts not with the steroids but with squats, deadlifts, presses and such, the biggest exercises to get you strong quickly.

All you need is a set of exercises and a program. And therein lies another problem with occultists, especially the postmodern variety. They will program-hop, doing Golden Dawn warm-ups then switching to yoga, tryingvipassana for a week, then it’s offerings to the ancestors for a month or so before being ADHD’d by something else. Diet-hopping and program-switching cheat you out of the steady gains offered by sticking out the practice – the promise of Perdurabo. Ask anyone who can pick up twice their bodyweight.

Re-enter Liber MMM. Yes, all right, you’re an experienced magician chasing advanced stuff now. But the basics always count. Use them or lose them and end up falling upside-down through the Abyss of Sophistry and having flamewars on the Internet. Liber MMM is a – not ‘The,’ but ‘a’ – solid program of introductory magical exercises.

So what’s in it? The field of activity in Liber MMM is listed quite clearly under the three headings of Mind Control, Magic and Dreaming. (if you haven’t already done so, now is a good time to fish out your copy of Liber Null. Yes, get one)

In Mind Control, we work quickly through the exercises in the order given such that by the end of the first month we are performing a minimum of 30 minutes of Motionlessness No-Thought (MNT) daily and performing occasional exercises in Magical Trances. This core exercise set is all about developing your concentration and visualization. Motionlessness is about not shifting weight, not scratching those inevitable little itches, and so forth. It’s not about torso movements when you breathe or tics or involuntary eye movements or blinking (if those bother you, shut your eyes). Just sit still. If you gaze at a random spot on the wall for a bit you’ll very soon notice a slight tunnel vision. This is you entering a very light trance. Relax into it and your breathing will slow, swallowing and blinking are inhibited and the itches will become ignorable.

Pick a posture and stick to it. Since you don’t want to be shifting for comfort, pick a posture that’s comfortable in the first place. You may need to attend to your posture — keep it upright — to stop yourself going to sleep.

Breathing: pranayama. There’s a simple technique. In — out. And so forth. There’s not much else to it. If you’re curious about different breathing techniques by all means pick one and use if for a few days. Otherwise, and especially while becoming accustomed to the daily practice, just allow your breathing to deepen and slow naturally. Fancy breathing techniques can wait. No-Thought is an unceasing business. To start with, begin a session by just watching thoughts arise and pass away. Do nothing about them. When you catch yourself fixating on a thought, just drop it.

As you become aware of ‘space’ as it were in your consciousness where no thoughts are, as thoughts arise then simply attend instead to that empty space. From time to time you get some blessed peace, when there are no thoughts to ignore. You’ll probably notice this moment of peace only when it’s over. That empty space will become the arena into which you project visualizations, including sigils. Start with about 15 minutes (time it) daily, and then after a few days of practice add five minutes, and so forth until you’ve got 30-35 minutes practice time daily. Then keep doing that daily. Notice the repetition of the word ‘daily.’ Do not interrupt the dailiness of this practice. MNT more than anything else forges the magician.

That was MNT. If to start with you feel that you’re not doing enough training, do some Object Concentration as well. 5 minutes at a time is plenty. Remember that business of gazing at a spot on the wall? Do that, and keep bringing the gaze back to it and holding the tunnel vision effect. It’s healthy that the eyes wander — just bring them back.

With both, write in your diary what time you started, what time you finished, and any salient features.

After a month or two, if we have not already done so, we investigate works of Metamorphosis. I consider Metamorphosis a neglected aspect of Liber MMM and personally regard it as being equally important as MNT. Simply swap out habits to start with.Need help? Start here.

In Magic, I suggest adopting one or two banishing rituals as soon as possible. In this context, most banishings are simply exercises to settle you down into the moment’s work of magic or to bring you back to normal afterwards. Sigil work and any other magical work is also good, including some sort of sortilege divination – cards, runes, stones and bones or somesuch equally simple. Liber MMM explains sigilization adequately so don’t overthink it: just decide what you want, scribble and go.

In Dreaming, the practice of keeping a diary next to the bed seems to convince your mind that you really do take this seriously, and it will oblige by producing material to put in that diary. It’s not usually worthwhile to ask for meanings of dreams: I don’t believe in universal dream symbols and expect instead that our own individual network of symbolism will explain our dreams best.

I absolutely recommend recording the activities of Liber MMM in a diary. Under the general heading of the day’s date, each activity should be timed, and it should be written up such that a reader could recreate that activity themselves from the notes given. The first time a ritual is described, it should be written in full, with any symbols or technical flourishes explained fully. Thereafter it is sufficient to mention repeats of the ritual by name and add ‘as before,’ expanding only upon any differences from earlier performances.

RESULTS

Both record and acknowledge results. Recording contemporaneously both an activity and its results simply helps us to know the truth of what happened and not to be fooled by psychological heuristics including so-called tricks of memory. Acknowledging results means celebrating our victories. Some magicians handicap their morale by being unwilling to accept successes and need reminding that success is matching actual result to recorded Intent, regardless of exactly how the result manifested. They sometimes need reminding to look out for results of divinations also.

In Mind Control the result is not of nice long periods of No-Thought (nice when it happens though) so much as the abilities, manifested over time, to drop easily into inhibitory trance states, to close down unhelpful streams of thought while under pressure and to concentrate on what is currently important.

Early experiments with Metamorphosis manifest a growing comfort with behaviours which we may have used to find unfamiliar and perhaps threatening, and may give us the clue that behavioural identity is not fixed.

In Magic there’s nothing quite like totting up your enchantments done and ticking off the successes to demonstrate to yourself that your magic works and that you’re not just fooling yourself. Likewise with divinations that turn out to be accurate.

In Dreaming work the results consist of enhanced knowledge of our own symbol system and a more relaxed relationship with our own out-of-consciousness workings.

All in all, good results in these practices help develop confidence in the whole magical endeavour and a no-nonsense attitude to practice that comes as a refreshing contrast to that of many others in the magical community. So if you do this for six months – not two weeks or two months, but SIX months – you will have laid a firm foundation ofskill, consistency and durability as a magician. Any dabbler can do this for a fortnight, but in the month on month daily grind the will of the magician is forged. Thank you Pete for MMM.

Original blog post is here.

#chaos #chaos magick #witchcraft #hermeticism #hermetic magick #druidry #druidism #technomancer #technomancy #digital magic #witch tips

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