#I seriously was going to sue even though it would have cost me money

[littleapocalypsekitten]

As someone who is American and still watches actual broadcast television (news, Guy Fieri...) and am suffering through another election year... I am sick to death of hearing the term "illegals." Absolutely SICK. TO. DEATH. Like, okay, I know that the southern border has issues. It's pretty much our modern day Ellis Island, with many people there escaping...some of the same kinds of issues - and others. There are people there waiting to be vetted, seeking aslyum or work. And, indeed, there are a lot of people who hop the border illegally. I used to live in Arizona, in farm country. People without legal paperwork who could be exploited were a staple of the farming industry there...unfortunately. I lost an opportunity for a job at a restaurant once because I "didn't speak enough Spanish" - code for "Our restaurant is employing people under the table for beneath minimum wage and without benefits that we can threaten to report and have deported if they speak up wanting basic workers' rights." (I came away from that particular encounter not mad at immigrants for "stealin' mah jerb!" but mad at the company / restaurant for abusive corporate practices...go fig. Guess I think differently). Even here in Pennsylvania, I've had chance encounters with people who had no papers. (People who just want to work and take care of their children). Anyway, yeah, there are processing issues and people who don't go through the legal channels because our government makes it next to impossible. But every GOD. DAMNED. TIME. I hear the term "illegals" I want to tear my hair out! Or hit people with fish! It's not only used for people who are going through the LEGAL channels (It's code for "Hispanic" basically, or just "non-white"), even people who haven't? It's a dehumanising term. That's what I take it as. "Illegals" is a term purposefully used to make people sound like something...other than people. And so I find the MAGA commercials insulting both to my intelligence and dignity. It's like, why don't you go all the way, MAGA? Why not use the really horrible slang-term I heard waaaaay, waaaay too much in my white-person childhood around Arizona redneck white people? Why not tweak your commercials and start whining about "wetbacks?" I mean, you might as well, since you term everyone "illegals." You expect us to think of people as not human. It's too late for me. I've worked with too many "illegals" in my life to think like that.

[the-firebird69]

They're falling all over themselves but mostly they're being annoying and it is terribly annoying they are horrendous liars and they're extremely mean people we're going to have to do something about it here it's reaching a level where most people cannot tolerate it even veterans who've heard it forever and we said it last night how's he supposed to make it if we can't endure it and we can't stay in there so that is reminded us we have an agreement with this people they need to go.

There are several things happening that should help with this issue number one john Remelard is going to court on Monday he is going to be on trial for three homicides no it's pretty serious stuff though it's one criminal court case in Punta Gorda in three civil cases in Port Charlotte as John Remelard that people suing him are groups no it's three people and one person brought criminal charges the person bringing criminal charges is Dave and it's for a serious offense and he was caught on film doing it to him and it was not nice the three civil suits are from people nearby one of them is Sarah and she's suing for $1,000,000 and that will cost him a problem here people will see it and he has access to money. As that **** character. Another is suing for about $10 million and it's due to slander and reputation and squatting a list of offenses that and by the way people know about it one would think huh shut up man that **** guy is a **** **** he's been messing with our son for a long time and he needs to get out and we're gonna help him and we mean Stan who's a huge **** ****. John Remelard is starting to realize what it means but when Stan goes to court to sue and he says he's going Monday the court says Monday in the court documents and he will be asked if he is evicted and Stan will say I tried three times and he keeps returning and John Remelard has new aliases under his name at court no Stan says that he tried to kick him out three times in the past finally evicted him and he went to prison and he's saying he's still not there so Stan says it's rigamarole and Trump says it's not so trump is going to attack stand and he's been saying and Stan says what's the matter with you it's just $10 million and Trump is not laughing and it's taking it seriously and he says it's part of the agreement and it works it says you're suing me and I can't afford it here and Stan says I know that's how you're gonna get out of here one of the ways and our son doesn't like him he's helping us sit on the money of his and Stan thinks he can take it like the max already gone and he talks to them that way too and they haven't beat up and rolled so that court case is Monday and Trump is planning a series of attacks starting today on his bunker systems globally and he's gonna weigh into him and we're gonna watch them fight and Trump will get nailed stan will get nailed and they deserve it also there's a third person suing and he's bringing a lawsuit against John Remillard and he is a heinous person himself and it is Jason and he is suing him for massive amounts of slander all over town and he says you've been telling people all these lies and stories about me that are not true and it's a particular character and it's the one that's actually in the apartment one house over. And it is because he did the roof and he's running around as John Remaard and he was not on the crew but he's saying that you're talking about me. Trump is saying that to him and he's slandering the ship of Jason so Jason said why don't I see you for that you big mouth **** and so he's suing him and John Remallard doesn't have a leg to stand on. Trump actually Jason wants Trump in jail because he's governor and he wants to put him in jail during court and there's another group that this idiot next door will fight. The guy is relentless about slandering Jason and it has done nothing now he's gonna be in court and they're gonna fight armies jason and Stan and also the third lawsuit which is another person yes suing John Rebelard sarah for $1 million and that would be Terry Chesman and company fighting John Remillard identical clones and it is gonna kick it off and they decided to do it in order to kick it off because the filthy jerk is a delusional loser and he actually is he is out of his mind and does not have much logic left and is a scumbag so we're looking forward to him being gone and

contd

Thor Freya

Olympus

[realcube]

BABYSITTING WITH HIM

characters ♡ oikawa, tendou & sakusa

tw ♡ children, cursing & mentions of arson

TŌRU OIKAWA

♡ he is pretty much a professional babysitter, or so he thought

♡ which is why he accepted when you asked if he could help you take care of your nieces/nephews for the weekend

♡ i mean, he takes care of his nephew all the time so how hard could babysitting possibly be? it was basically a free pass to spend the day with you 

♡ however, he began to regret his decision as he sat on your couch and realised that he wouldn’t be able to get even somewhat intimate with you when there was constantly an annoying little boy clinging to his arm, asking him if he had any games on his phone

♡ “sorry, kid.” oikawa smiled, clenching his jaw to hide the rage but it wasn’t very effective, “i’ve not got any games. maybe you could go play with your toys or something.” 

♡ he let out a sigh, making the mistake of thinking that would be the end of their interaction

♡ “can’t you just download some?” the boy retaliated

♡ you snickered, watching as the energy visibly drained from oikawa, yet he still wore his frighteningly bright grin

♡ “i’ve not got any storage.” 

♡ “then delete some of your apps or photos.” the boy said with a shrug, then proceeded to point at oikawa’s home screen, which happened to be a picture of him and you in front of an ethereal sunset, “start with that one. you both look like dorks.”

♡ you and oikawa’s unified gasps of offence were enough to show the boy that he was able to do exactly what he intended; piss y’all off

♡ hence, with a final mischievous snicker, he dashed off

♡ “i hate kids.” oikawa muttered, inspecting his homescreen to see if he really did look like a ‘dork’, “what is his problem?”

♡ “what if our kids turn out like that?” you joked 

♡ his eyes widened momentarily, turning to look at you with an uncharacteristically sheepish expression, “our w--”

♡ “mr kawa!” a cry could be heard from the kitchen so without hesitation, you both hopped to your feet and rushed over there as quick as you could 

♡ once you both reached the area the yell came from, you were fortunately not greeted by anything gruesome 

♡ instead, you both got to behold two children trying to reach the top shelf with the power on friendship; the taller boy was standing on a chair, while the toddler held it still 

♡ however, his grip on the jar of the Nutella must’ve loosened at some point as it now lay dejectedly on the ground, half spilled across the tiles and the other half drenching the toddler, not that they seemed to mind though 

♡ in fact, it looked like they were having the time of their — albeit, short — life

♡ the container was only plastic, hence you didn’t have to worry about shards when you darted over to the poor, chocolate-covered baby and scooped them up into your arms, “are you guys, okay?!”

♡ “yeah.” the boy chuckled, noticing that holding the toddler was transferring the chocolate onto you too

♡ “if you wanted nutella, you could’ve just asked.” oikawa sighed, helping the boy get down safely from the chair before putting the object back at it’s intended spot at the dinner table 

♡ “you could have gotten seriously hurt! i thought you would know better than to do something like this.” you scolded, becoming even more furious as the baby continued to playfully slap your face with their grimy hands, “please don’t do that again.”

♡ before they boy got the chance to do anything besides murmur a vague apology, oikawa interjected, “they won’t get the chance.”

♡ and he was right

♡ after cleaning everything up (including the child, which took forever), you didn’t let either of the rascals out of your sight until your duties as babysitters were complete 

♡ “i think we handled that pretty well.” oikawa mused, gathering his stuff along with you as you both got ready to leave

♡ “yeah, maybe we should do this again sometime.” you suggested, but it was followed by a few second was complete silence

♡ until you both burst out laughing 

♡ “yeah, never again.” you agreed

♡ “the kids can take care of themselves.” oikawa said with shrug, offering his hand to you, before you both strutted out of the disaster house

♡ ever since then, it was a common inside joke between you to, when in the vicinity of a kid causing mayhem or being a nuisance, whisper to each or exchange a look that says, ‘it’s a great day to not be babysitting.’  

SATORI TENDŌ

♡ at first, you thought that asking tendou for help babysitting would be a bad idea bc he is just as hyperactive as the damn kids sometimes so he’d probably not be the best influence 

♡ and you knew this bc one time you happened to run into him while out in the park with the kids and you asked him to watch them for literally a minute so you could run to the bathroom but when you came back all you almost had a heart attack because tendou was teaching them fkn tricks on the monkey bars 

♡ however, you then realised that if the kids were busy committing arson with uncle tendou, then they wouldn’t be bothering you 

♡ so here you are, playing monopoly with your boyfriend, a seven year-old and a one year-old

♡ well, it was less like monopoly and more like debate class since none of you could agree on the rules

♡ “well, uncle ten,” the older sibling began, in a very matter-of-factly tone, “if i burn your property down, then i  don’t have to pay you for landing on it.”

♡ “but then you also go to jail.” you pointed out

♡ “not if the police don’t catch me.”

♡ you burst out laughing, meanwhile tendou kept his business face on, “good point, but watch this.” tendou spoke as he rolled the dice, though no matter what if he got a number between four and seven, he would end up landing on somebody’s property

♡ he got a four

♡ picking up his piece, he moved it across each square individually and once he was due to land on your property, he knocked his piece over

♡ “whoops, i slipped.” he chuckled, though his friendly aura immediately dropped as he looked you dead in the eye and said, “i’m suing.”

♡ “you can’t sue me because you tripped!” you yelled 

♡ “i guess i just fell for you.” he said, resulting in the kids both making gagging noises before he stuck out his hand, “100 monopoly dollars, please.”

♡ “like i said,” you tried your best to stay strong and not laugh at his shitting pickup line, “i’m not giving you any money, you fell!”

♡ “i guess we’ll have to take this matter to court then.” tendou said, tapping the shoulder of the one year-old who was currently chewing on a 500 bill which you quickly had to confiscate 

♡ “judge, do you think (y/n) owes me 100 monopoly dollars for poor health and safety conduct?”

♡ “yes.”

♡ “that is the only word they know how to say!” you cried, begrudgingly handing over the money 

♡ “thank you, angel.” tendou cooed, adding your singular bill to the pile he had already stored up; the winner of the game had already been decided 

♡ and although you and the seven year-old kid both cried later after getting your asses kicked in monopoly (the one year-old cried too but they were just hungry), you all went out to get food and actually had a pretty good time

♡ it became a routine for tendou to help you babysit whenever he got the chance and y’all would always play table top games

♡ also when tendou got accepted into culinary school, he’d teach/show the kids what dishes he has learned to prepare and let them help by stirring the pot, adding spices etc etc

♡ and even when he moved to Paris, on special occasions, a box of chocolates would suddenly appear at the kids’ door and all the little pieces would be shaped and moulded into some of their favourite characters or made out of their favourite flavours 

♡ and at one point the kids even insisted that you teach them how to make chocolates so they can send some back to uncle tendou <33

♡ they weren’t the best, but when tendou received the misshapen, slightly stale chocolates at his apartment, addressed from you and the children, he cried

KIYOOMI SAKUSA

♡ his first response when you asked if he could help you babysit was ofc ‘ew no 🤢’

♡ needless to say it took a lot mansplain manipulate malewifing to convince him to come over 

♡ but once he did, obviously he was in his full protective gear; there was no way in hell he was going to catch whatever germs the little goblins have

♡ honestly he almost sprayed a chid in the face with hand sanitizer when they came running up to him with open arms, trying to give him a hug 

♡ which was unusual because the kids don’t tend to be overly friendly with new people, but you just brushed it off and figured that sakusa must’ve been an exception

♡ during his time babysitting, sakusa spend most of his energy trying to avoid the children at all costs that it basically became a game of tag, with you helping the child try to reach sakusa, and him hiding

♡ but honestly you couldn’t complain since the whole time the child was playing, they were safe with you rather than playing with fire 

♡ until later you were reminded of their odd fondness for sakusa when they insisted that sakusa carry them to their bedroom when it was their nap time

♡ and as you were shifting through the books, looking for a story to read, it hit you why they seemed to be so familiar with sakusa

♡ it’s because he looked exactly like the prince in one of their favourite story books; same hair, both tall and they even had similar moles to each other

♡ upon noticing this, you immediately showed sakusa and was quite amused

♡ in fact, he found it so cute that he gave both you and the toddler a lil’ kiss on the cheek, as a parting gift — mask off and everything

♡ he ended up reading the story and the kid fell into deep slumber by the time he reached the second page

♡ letting out a sigh of relief, sakusa slumped onto the ground, allowing his own eyes to flutter shut for a moment, “what a day.”

♡ you shuffled over to you could lay down beside him, “indeed it was, prince sakusa.”

♡ “shut up.” he teased, poking your rib slightly before absently intertwining his fingers with your own

♡ next thing you knew, you were both awakened by the sound of a grumpy toddler...

[chuckbass-love]

Johnny gives me rough childhood vibes. Maybe a fic about his childhood or why he acts the way he does

Hiya lovely anon! Right so again, i’m sorry for making everyone wait ages for their requests but i never want to rush them and have them be bad. So i like to take my time to plan out how i want to write them before i write. I hope this was worth the wait and i hope that you love it. I’ve followed the story of Johnny and Sue and what happened to their parents but i’ve changed the age of when it happened, sort of. It’s for the sake of the fic to make it work.

Disclaimer: My work is not to be posted anywhere else other than MY Tumblr, Wattpad and Ao3 without my permission. However, reblogs are welcome.

Pairing: Johnny Storm x Reader

Summary: You’ve been dating Johnny for a while now but you still don’t feel like you know him, the real him. So when you finally ask about his life growing up, he hesitates to open up.

Warning: Angst, mentions of death, mentions of murder (not much), mentions of depression, self harm and just all round dark. If any of these themes upset or trigger you then please don’t read. 18+

Word Count: 4,311

GIF NOT MINE!!! Credit to @xo-tough-love-xo go check them out🥰

Demons Unmasked

Ever since you first met Johnny you knew there was something about him, something behind those eyes, an immense pain that he could never move on from or heal. But being his partner didn’t automatically earn you the right to know and he wasn’t exactly the best at opening up. So for a while you learned to let it all go and let him be the one to tell you whenever he felt ready.

You can still remember when you first asked him about what life was like for him and Sue. He’d clued you in very early on about his parents and the fact that they passed when he was younger. It was hard on him, he didn’t need to tell you that, you just knew. And since he barely shared any more details, it was obvious that the whole thing was still a sore subject. 

Sue pretty much raised him after that point and it wasn’t easy, she struggled day in and day out and worried like crazy about setting him on the right path and keeping him there. Gangs were all the rage and let’s just say it wasn’t an easy job to do to keep him far away. 

When you and Johnny first started dating, Sue pulled you to the side for a chat at dinner and gave you a heads up about everything. At first you didn’t get why but the more time you spent with Johnny, you realised that he was very guarded and she wanted you to be aware of what you were getting into. She wanted you to know that patience is key when it comes to him telling you things.

And over the last year you’ve really learned a lot about patience. You’ve been there in the middle of the night when he’d wake up from a nightmare that scared him so much that he struggled to sleep again afterwards. You’ve wiped the sweat from his forehead and held him in your arms to soothe him. You’ve watched him change the subject umpteen times whenever the conversation turned to family. 

Which isn’t a surprise because to him, his only family was Sue. She’s the only family member he ever knew and the thought of him growing up with next to no one else, saddens you deeply. 

Today is your birthday and Johnny has been driving himself up the wall with plans for it. He keeps saying how he wants today to be perfect for you and that his favourite person in the world deserves nothing but the best.

Whoever said romance is dead hadn’t met Johnny Storm. 

“Babe” he calls, his voice echoing through the apartment until he reaches the bathroom to find you drying off after your shower. His eyes rake over your body in awe before you turn away out of embarrassment “everything okay?” you ask, wrapping the towel back around yourself and padding into the bedroom and then to the closet to pick out your outfit for the day.

“Yeah, i just wondered when you wanted to do gifts” he smiles, leaning against the door frame as you change and then turn to him with the same smile on your face “whenever you’re ready” you say, glancing at yourself in the mirror briefly before following him out into the lounge and the moment you step foot into the room, you gasp at the sight. Balloons and banners cover the walls and floor. A small stack of presents sit nicely on the coffee table in front of the couch and you roll your eyes before looking at him.

“Johnny” you sigh, he’s really gone all out and you feel so lucky right now. Despite you consistently telling him that all you wanted was to spend the entire day with him, no gifts needed, he didn’t listen.

“What? You didn’t seriously expect me to not spoil you on your birthday did you?” he smirks, leading you over to the couch and handing you a card. You open it and pull it out to see it’s covered in love hearts with a simple ‘Happy Birthday’ on the front. However, when you open it to look inside, the cutest message is written.

‘Y/N, 

Whether we are together or apart, you’re first in my thoughts and first in my heart. Happy birthday baby.

Lots of love, Johnny x’

As much as he likes to play dumb, he’s actually very intelligent and very cute and thoughtful. This card means more to you than any present ever could. Your lips touch his as you thank him for his beautiful words and mutter “i love you” in between the kisses.

“Now, open this one first” he instructs, pointing to the square box. You pick it up, placing it on your lap and start to undo the black ribbon tied neatly on top and when you lift the lid, a canvas is lightly covered in red tissue paper. It’s a picture of you and Johnny together. His lips are just touching your forehead and you’re smiling so big that you’re pretty sure your face was hurting. You both look like the epitome of happiness.

Tears brim in your eyes and you let one fall before turning to him “Johnny, i love it. It’s perfect” he tilts your head up to capture your lips in a loving kiss followed by a small make out session. He’s always struggled to stop at one kiss. 

“I was worried it would be too much but i thought you could hang it right above our bed” 

Did he just say our bed?  Wait, are you missing something here because you don’t live with him, sure you’ve discussed it but never made any official decisions. 

You can see he quickly regrets saying it as soon as he widens his eyes before clearing his throat and handing you the next present. This one is a tad smaller than the box before and it’s a white box with sticker in the middle, the writing is unclear but you waste no time in pulling the lid off to reveal a gorgeous apron. 

When you and Johnny first met it was at a bake sale that Sue had dragged him along to. You were selling cakes that you had made, all sorts of flavours. He kept coming around to your booth over and over, tasting a different cake each time and giving you more than the money that they costed. You remember your sister who was helping you sell them telling you that he liked you but you waved her off, refusing to believe that you’d caught someones eye. But funny enough, before he left, he plucked up the courage to ask for your number and the rest is history.

The apron is white with a variety of colours all over it, the strings are pink and you’re in love with it. Now you’re desperate to get in the kitchen and bake just so you can wear it. He must have noticed the way your current one was getting rather tatty and the fact that he thought to get you this just goes to show how thoughtful he is and how much attention he pays to you. 

“It’s so beautiful” you beam, holding it up to admire it some more “just like you then” he winks, snaking his arms around your torso and pulling you closer as he holds the final present in his hands. 

Though you’re trying your best, you just can’t get the way he said our bed, out of your head. What did he mean by that?

“And this is the last one, i promise” he chuckles, popping it into your small hands and allowing you to open it. Once you do, a key sits in the middle with your initials written on one side and his on the other. You look up at him, more tears forming as it starts to click what this means “will you move in with me?” tears form in his eyes too as he looks at you with puppy dog eyes and you wrap your arms around him “yes, i’d love to” you grin, kissing him some more.

“Really?” does he even need to ask?

“Yes, really. I’d love to live with you” 

He cups your face with both of his hands, deepening the kiss if that’s even possible before resting his forehead to yours and a relieved sigh escapes “i tried my hardest not to ruin it when you opened the canvas but i guess i just got too excited” he explains, so that’s what he meant by our bed. 

Now it makes sense why he was looking at duvet sets and toothbrush holders for his place. He was preparing in case you said yes. Which you did and it was the easiest yes you’ve ever given. 

Johnny then stands up, clearing any rubbish away before sitting back down next to you and going over the plans for the rest of the day. He mentions how he’s booked a table for dinner tonight but wants to take you shopping for something new to wear first. You reluctantly agree, after losing the battle with him. You tried to explain that you could just wear something you already have but he wasn’t having any of it. 

You never win.

After getting your shoes on and brushing your teeth, you walk out into the hall to get your coat from the rack and as you do, Johnny bends down to pick up some post before spotting you stood there.

“Looks like you’ve got some cards” he states, handing them to you for you to open. 

The first one you open is from your sister, she’s been busy lately with college so you didn’t expect to see her today but it’s the thought that counts. 

The next one is from your parents. Johnny takes them from you once you read what’s inside so he can set them down next to the card you got from Sue and Reed and his one. 

As he does this you notice him reading the cards and his face falls once he reads the one from your parents.

“Are you okay?” stupid question but you can’t just jump straight into a conversation like that, he has to know that you’re treading lightly. It’s always been a tough subject for him.

“Yeah, i’m fine” he shrugs it off before placing it down and turning to leave the room “shall we go then?” but you stop him.

“Johnny” he shakes his hand from your grasp, pulling away and letting out an annoyed deep breath “leave it Y/N” he snaps but you don’t. You can’t just keep leaving it. You want him to tell you when he’s ready but you’re afraid that day may never arrive unless you prove to him how much you care.

You sit back down on the couch and your silent prayers that he’ll join you pays off as he takes a seat next to you “Johnny, i know this isn’t exactly a conversation you want to have with me but i want you to know that i love you no matter what and i want to be here for you if you ever need me” you explain, taking his hands and holding them both in yours.

“I’m fine, Y/N seriously. I just need to stop being silly and move on from it. Most people have their parents around and i don’t, i haven’t since i was 10 and that’s fine” he rushes, in hopes that it’ll get you off his back but you aren’t budging. 

Silence falls upon the two of you for a couple of minutes and you decide to just let him calm down before speaking. Eventually he beats you to it “i didn’t exactly have the best childhood. I was raised by my older sister and spent years so angry at the world that i did everything in my power to shut everyone out. I constantly wanted to lash out and make people hurt the way i was hurting. I joined gangs, i’d commit silly crimes like stealing and when that stopped distracting me, i resorted to self harm. I’d sit in my room for hours upon hours, sometimes even days and just lay there, music drowning out all the noise as i constantly attacked my own body. I hated who i’d become but who i’d become was the only way i could stop myself from hearing those voices in my head. Voices that told me my parents were better off not being parents to me and that i was a failure”

Tears drown your vision out as you listen to the man you love open up for the first time since you met him. He’s never told you about any of this. Now you can see why. When terrible things happen to us as a human race, we’re taught that no one will understand or that we are freaks and should just keep it to ourselves. Men are conditioned to feel like showing any kind of emotion will make them less of a man and that they need to be strong. The stigma attached to mens mental health is shocking and now you wonder if he ever told Sue any of this. You know she’s aware of him having some issues but has she known about this all along, all of the details?

“My mother died when i was 8, her and my dad were in a car accident, he survived and she well, you already know. Her side of the car was the side that got hit and my dad who was a doctor, struggled to save her. He spent so long beating himself up for it, blaming himself and soon enough he found comfort in alcohol. He drunk himself stupid every night almost and eventually got into gambling. Sue tried her best to help him, using me as a bribe for him to turn his life around, telling him that i needed a dad and if i lost him too it would destroy me. But he didn’t care. He was consumed by guilt, so much so that he got into a lot of trouble, mostly with loan sharks, we lost our house after he left and had to go and live with my aunt”

“Left? Where did he go?” you ask, keeping a hold of his hands as they shake from recounting all of his childhood trauma to you, you can see this is hard for him “if you don’t want to tell me then i won’t make you” 

“No, i need to do this. He never died, i lied to you. He got sent down for murder two years after my mom passed, the lone sharks he got into trouble with were threatening him, it got pretty bad and he saw no way out. It’s just easier for me to say he died because i’m ashamed to admit that he refuses to see me or Sue and if i’m being honest, he might as well be dead. He doesn’t want anything to do with us. He said the guilt that fills him at the mention of our names is enough to make him want to stay away. He still blames himself for my mothers death”

You feel extremely overwhelmed right now, unsure of what to say until he turns to look at you.

“Listen to me, in no way are your parents better off being gone. If they were still with you and in your life, they’d be so proud of you. Johnny, i mean it. You’re incredible, the things you’ve achieved in the last year alone are something to be celebrated. I love you and i’m not going to let you diminish everything that you are. You’re brave and strong and i’m so glad to call you my boyfriend” 

He leans his head on your shoulder and you pull him in for a hug. Both of your eyes fill with more tears as some fall down your faces and you can tell that right now all he needs is for you to be here and hold him.

After hearing all of that, everything makes sense. The way he acts, the way he overcompensates with his flirting and humour. He uses it as a mask, to cover up who he is in the dark when he’s alone. When you’re not around, this is him. Just a scared little boy who’s known rejection, sadness and regret for as long as he can remember. He’s just wanted to feel accepted, loved and wanted by those around him and he was forced to grow up way too early, losing his parents so close together can’t have helped him at all. Knowing his dad doesn’t want to see him saddens you all the more.

“Are you, you know... self harming now?” the one question you hate to ask but you have to know “no, i haven’t since before i met you. I found other ways to help my anger like working out” you both pull away from the hug and he sees how puffy your eyes are, his aren’t much better either.

“How did you do it?” again, you really don’t want to know but you have to, you want to understand him more and you’re hoping he won’t pull away from you now “however i could. Cutting, punching. All sorts. To me it didn’t matter what i did as long as i did something to ease the pain but the release never lasted long enough”

You close your eyes, sighing. All you feel for him right now is sympathy and anger. Angry that you didn’t know him then to help him but sympathy because no one should ever have to go through that. No one should ever have to feel so much pain that they resort to hurting themselves, no one should ever have to feel so worthless that they get themselves into trouble and lash out at everyone around them. His dad should have stayed, he should have used Johnny and Sue as a reason to fight but even then, addiction is hard to fight so it’s not like it would have been easy for him. Guess life just has a funny way of working out and this all happened for a reason. A very sick reason but a reason nonetheless. You’re just glad he’s with you now. 

“I ruined your birthday” he mumbles, looking down and picking at the skin around his fingernails, anxiety practically drowning him but you’re not gonna let him do this.

You force him to look in your eyes and wipe the tears as they fall from his bloodshot eyes “hey, I don’t want to hear that you ruined my birthday. My birthday could never be ruined with you here. Whenever you’re around i feel like nothing could take away how good i feel” and it’s true, he makes you feel better, he improves your mood. You love him and you don’t think you’ll ever be able to stop.

There’s nothing he could ever tell you that could ever make you leave “are you sure?” his voice is low and barely audible but you hear it “i’m certain” he falls into your arms again and you kiss his head whilst you squeeze him tight “i love you” he sobs, his tears dripping onto your skin “and i love you” you rock him side to side, hoping to calm this frightened boy.

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

After a while of just sitting there holding him, your phone rings, bringing you out of that sad state. It’s Sue.

He opens his eyes to see where all the noise is coming from and you move to pick the phone up.

“Hi Sue” you greet, barely even attempting to act nonchalant “sure, when?” she tells you that she was thinking of cooking for you, for your birthday and wants to know if you and Johnny are free.

You put the phone on speakerphone so Johnny can hear and he just gives you a nod as if to say ‘it’s up to you’. You know the relationship he has with Sue is important to him and he’s always been very happy about how well the two of you get along so you agree without a second longer to fester over it.

Sue hangs up to start cooking whilst Johnny excuses himself to reschedule the reservation for tomorrow instead. He insists that he wants today to be all about you and if going to have dinner with Sue is what you want, he doesn’t mind making the change but you still feel bad. He had this whole day planned and you can’t help but feel as though you’ve ruined it.

“Baby, it’s fine. Sue’s cooking is great, not 5 star Greek restaurant great but still great. We’ll go to that place tomorrow” he kisses your forehead as he heads into the other room to freshen up and you follow.

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

The journey to Reeds place doesn’t take long at all, it’s practically round the corner which doesn’t surprise you. You can recall Reed and Sue looking at bigger places but Sue ended up calling it off because she wanted to be close to Johnny at all times. Close enough so that if he ever needed her, she could be there. 

Sue answers the door, smiling at you both as she ushers you inside, giving you a big hug and a present before you sit down “i was going to give this to you yesterday along with the card but i decided to wait until today” 

You rip open the simple wrapping paper to reveal a Tiffany & Co. box with a white gold lock pendant necklace inside . It’s gorgeous “wow, guys. You really didn’t have to” you’re in shock “thank you so mucj”

She brings you into a hug before you stand to hug Reed too and shortly after Sue leads you away from him and Johnny and into the kitchen.

“You know i really ought to thank you” she says as she starts to dish up the food into serving bowls “since you came around, he’s been different. Happier. And i’m not saying this to make you feel obligated to stay with him but i want you to know that seeing him truly happy really means the world. You listen to him, you care for him and you love him”

Hearing Johnny say that you make him a better person and improve his life always leads to you waving him off like it’s nothing and that he doesn’t need to remind you what you’ve done for him because he’s improved your life too but hearing Sue say it, hearing her thank you like this. It all feels more real, like you really have made a difference.

“He told me everything” you blurt out, unsure if Johnny would want you to tell her that you know and by the way she shivers, you can see you caught her off guard “really?” she keeps herself busy with the food as she talks and when you walk closer to face her she freezes.

“I’m sorry for what happened to you both and i just want to say that any time you want to talk, i’m here. It must be hard sometimes carrying all of that on your back but just so you know, you’ve done an amazing job with Johnny. I couldn’t think of someone who’s sweeter or more polite and he’s doing well for himself” your praise sets her off and she starts wiping at her eyes before hugging you once more “thank you” 

Johnny enters the kitchen, clearing his throat to announce his presence and when he sees the two of you, clearly having a heart to heart, his eyes soften “is the food almost ready?” 

Sue nods, gesturing to the many serving bowls on the kitchen counter “take the potatoes and vegetables in please and send Reed in too” he nods, smiling as he does as he’s told before looking towards you with pure adoration.

God, he’s everything. He’s brave, loving and strong. You’re so glad he trusted you enough to open up and you’re gonna continue to be there for him, should he ever need to talk to you about any of it again.

Years have gone by with him never being able to find the words to talk about his childhood until you came along. Sharing everything with you was the first step to finally moving forward. Maybe he stands a real chance now at living a life free of all that pain. Maybe one day that will be possible and he can finally stop worrying about everything haunting him. One step at a time though.

He’s got you here with him to help him through and that’s all that matters right now.

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

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LMK if you want to be added to any of my tag lists...x

[idunnowatimdoin]

so you wanna know where I’ve been, huh?? welllll ~

you see, life decided to fuck me over this year. it was honestly hit after hit after hit. first my uncle got hospitalized and died from what we’re p sure was negligence. then my grandma had a stroke and ended up in the hospital. she got out for about a month or two, but I came home for my uncle’s funeral in april and my grandma was dead by the first week of may. so that happened. had to finish out the rest of my clinical year in missiissippi away from all my friends and family while I grieved. at first it wasn’t horrible bc my family had me spend days writing these arbitration papers bc we’re pretty sure my grandma died due to gross negligence on the hospital’s part bc she went in with complaints of new onset weakness and they immediately wrote it off, focusing on her shortness of breath and only treating her for COPD. which is why she ended up having a stroke that went untreated for long enough that by the time they found out she had a stroke she was out of the time window for any helpful treatment interventions. so... I was writing up arbitration papers so we could sue the hospital so maybe they’d think twice about treating others the way they treated my grandma... but then they told me to scrap it. which took away my distraction/feeling of purpose/feeling like even though I was separated from them, I was helping. fast forward a month or so and my dog of 11 years died in my arms. she’d had cancer and she was suffering so much and was in kidney failure and couldn’t even get up to eat she was in so much pain. but my mom couldn’t make the decision to put her down. so I had to. which of course prompted my dad to start teasing and taunting me, calling me heartless and asking if I would put him aand my mom down as easily as I put Delilah down and then telling me I put her down before she was ready. so... that was fun. did I mention all of this was happening while I had to go through applications for fourth year audition rotations? and while writing my personal statement and working on my application for residencies.

then I move back to cali and move into my cousin’s house. seemed awesome at first. but then things started getting complicated. my cousin rents from our grandpa and she and her boyfriend were in the process of buying this house. but then my shitty ass, money-grubbing aunt got involved and jacked the price up so that the house cost as much as condos in LA (we don’t live in as desirable location as LA, ok??). this house has ISSUES. they have flying and subterranean termites. the power shorts out if we plug into the wrong outlets. there’s no working heater. they had to replace the floors bc the carpet was molded and causing my nephew’s asthma to get so bad he could barely breathe. the front bathroom can’t be used bc there’s so much water damage to the shower wall that if you put any pressure on it, even just with your hand, it caves in entirely. everything is outdated af. the sprinikler system is broken and leaks constantly, driving our water bill up. there’s black widows all over the backyard. and many more things I can’t think of rn. the point is this house isn’t worth LA condo prices. it’s worth foreclosure/flipper house prices.  but they weren’t giving us that price. it got so bad that even the loan company my cousin was applying to told her she should seriously consider buying the house bc it didn’t seem like a good choice. the people whose job is to take your money told her to rethink her choice. well... now that my cousin told my grandpa she’s not buying the house he’s evicting us. so I had to scramnble and try to find an apartment that takes my dog and fits my budget. all while finalizing my residency applications and working an audition rotation with my number 1 program, which means I have to go above and beyond every day at work and by the time I get home I’m exhausted. 

thankfully, things are finally settling down a touch. residency apps are submitted and I’m just waiting to hear back about whether they wanna interview me or not. my parents agreed to clean out their storage room and let me live there rent free until I figure out where I’m going for residency in july. I’ve settled well into my audition rotation and don’t come home and immediately pass out from exhaustion. small things, but itt’s the best it’s been most of this year. soooo~ I’m back until life hits me with another curveball. and I’m taking advantage of the time I have here by writing my ass off. so. hopefully you all enjoy the stuff I start putting out soon. bc it took a lot for me to get back into this.  

tldr; 2021 fucked me up the ass with a 10 inch textured dildo and no lube. but I’m back for now. so enjoy my writing, dammit

[allthebooksandcrannies]

I know a lot of older people think it's a problem that so many young people don't want to have children, but I think it shows an increased understanding for how much of a responsibility parenting is and how much damage you can do to a child of you're not ready to raise someone.

I think that everyone is capable of being a good parent and I think that some people should never be parents. These may sound mutually exclusive but they aren't because there's a big if involved in the first half. That if, is that everyone is capable of being a good parent someday if they put in the work to take care of their own shit first.

When you become a parent or guardian, you are officially signing on to prioritize another person's physical and emotional needs before your own for the rest of their life. That means loving them no matter what they do or who they become. That means putting aside your own exhaustion and frustration at your day when they walk through the door so that you can be their champion and their confidant and their companion. That means teaching them how to process their emotions and think critically and empathetically and it means letting them find their own path, even if it's different than the one you wanted or imagined for them, but making it clear that if they need or want your comfort, your help, or just your ear that they will have it. You don't have to be perfect. No parent ever is, and it's important anyway for kids to learn in nontraumatic ways that adults make mistakes too and that's okay as long as you take responsibility for that and strive to learn and grow because of your mistakes. Kids learn by watching and listening to the adults around them and the things they conclude from those early years of observation will stick with them the rest of their lives.

I know that that sounds scary. It probably should because deciding to raise a child should be the biggest decision you can make, and if it's not, you may not be taking it seriously enough.

I also know that this is hard. And I have the greatest respect for people who truly understand this and decide to raise a tiny person anyway.

I'm also not trying to discourage you from becoming a parent. You may not be ready now, but that doesn't mean you can't be later. I personally would love to be a mom some day not I know that I have a lot of personal growth and healing I need to take care of first, to say nothing of the stabilization of my financial and career status.

The real question is what can you do to be a better parent, guardian, or even trusted adult to someone else's child (a really important and valid role and choice in itself!) later?

First off, you need to do some hard core introspection to figure out what traits and behaviors you have that might exhibit that would interfere in your ability to be a good parent. Maybe you're still emotionally immature. Maybe you're struggling with uncontrolled mental illness, chronic illness, or addiction. Maybe you've internalized some toxic ideas. Maybe you're still recovering from trauma or just now realizing that what you have even is trauma. None of these things makes you a bad person and none of them stops you from being capable to becoming a good parent. But, all of them can interfere with your ability to model healthy behaviors and coping skills to your child. Children learn through observation and, because their brains need the world to make sense and be predictable, they're going to interpret everytime you seem upset or lose your cool as being their fault. Young children aren't capable of going "mom is upset and snapped over something relatively trivial, she must be having a bad day/be tired/etc" because that's an interpretation of the world that is outside their control. Instead, they're going to go "I did x and mom got mad at me, it's my fault so I better not do x again" and that's a really harmful mindset that can contribute to self-worth issues and other mental illnesses like anxiety, especially if this happens long-term (for the record, you're going to make mistakes and you're going to snap over stupid things because being a grown-up is hard, so when you inevitably make this mistake it's important to be honest and upfront with your child about what happened, why, how it's not their fault, and you have to genuinely apologize for it, turning your mistake into a chance to model good adult behavior).

It's important to take care of yourself and let yourself grow and heal before bringing a kid into the mix because 1. you'll be a better parent if you start out in a better place emotionally and mentally, and 2. because you deserve the chance to be healthy and happy and it's much harder to address the things that are interfering with that when your also trying to juggle the additional emotional/mental demands of raising a child.

Additionally, I definitely recommend making sure you and anyone else taking a primary caretaker role in your child's life is in a stable financial and that the relationship between you and any other caretakers is stable and amicable regardless of what kind of relationship it is. The financial aspect is important because kids are expensive as hell (both the having/acquiring and the raising) and you want to be able to provide then with the best possible shot at life.

This isn't about me but I feel like the example will be helpful. We weren't poverty level growing up, but even as a child it was clear to me that we could be. My parents were 20 year old newlyweds when they got pregnant. My dad had been set up to inherit a position in his father and grandfather's construction company and did not go to college because they thought he was guaranteed a steady job. My mom was paying for a college education she couldn't afford because no one had ever explained how to get financial aid and scholarships to her and her parents were too caught up in their own shit to be anything but relieved about getting to make her future my dad's problem. Then they got pregnant. They started building a house that took much longer to build then expected because that construction business dad was expecting to inherit went out of business because it turned out that a cousin had been embezzling and my great-grandmother wouldn't let them sue or press charges against family. Mom had to drop out of college to raise me because daycare costs as much as she makes at work and she no longer has the time or funds. They had a baby they weren't prepared to raise and my dad's new job had him working in the Texas heat all day before going and working on our house at night so that we could move out of my maternal grandfather's house now that he was getting divorced and couldn't afford it. My parents society never saw each other and they were constantly worried about money. Less than two years after I was born they accidentally got pregnant with my brother. He ended up with failure to thrive and (although he did eventually recover) it raked up a serious amount of debt in addition to my mom's student loans and the mortgage. Flash forward four more years and my dad falls through a roof at a construction site and permanently cripples his ankle. Cue a year of the only breadwinner in the household being unable to work, several surgeries and massive medical bills we can't pay. A year after that my mom has to have a historectomy because her fibroids are causing immense pain and then they find pre-cancerous cells. Another year after that she starts having unexplained siezures and signs of organ failure that will take years to diagnose as a rare autoimmune disorder that will leave her disabled and, again, rake up serious medical debt. I found out in college that it came to the point that we almost lost the house but as a kid I still always knew we were struggling. And that fucks with a kid's head. There were reasons I didn't tell my parents that something was wrong for a week after I sprained my wrist when I was 10 and it wasn't just because I didn't want to sound like I was asking for attention (a phobia that also comes from having emotionally immature parents). I pushed myself ridiculously hard in school because I knew I couldn't expect any help paying for college from my parents. I still feel incredibly guilty anytime I spend more than 20 dollars even though it's my money and I need groceries or textbooks or gas or whatever. A lot of these issues would have been financially difficult and unpredictable, but had my parents been in a more stable position when they got married and started having kids, it would have been much easier to weather the storms.

Additionally, money is the main thing couples fight about, so if you can take that off the table as a significant concern before bringing kids into the mix, please do. Maslow's hierarchy of needs states that you can't address higher order concerns like personal growth of your worried about where your next meal is coming from and that goes for your children as well.

Again, I'm not trying to shame people for their financial difficulties. Most of us are playing at a game we were never intended to win and I get that not all children are planned. But, your good intentions unfortunately will not put food on the table or pay the rent and your children will have a lot less stress in their lives if you are able to make sure that things are as stable as possible before you bring them into it.

The same goes for your relationship with fellow caretakers. Don't try to have kids to save your relationship. Don't ever make your children feel like your relationship is in anyway their responsibility. Again, they need their world to make sense and if you're fighting they're probably going to assume it's somehow their fault. Don't do that to them.

Anyway, this rant turned out a lot longer than I intended but I think I needed to say it. In summary, raising children is not about you but your going to make it about you unless you take care of your own shit first. Children don't ask to be born. If you're not ready for that responsibility, either don't have kids or put in the work so that you will be. If you already have kids, and don't have your shit together, there's still time but it's going to be harder and you might have to do some damage control from any traumas you may have already inflicted on your child, regardless of your intentions. If that's the case, you have a responsibility to get your kid the help they need and do everything in your power to avoid further harm. You're the adult in this situation, and if you're going to be a parent, you need to act like it.

[youcantfiremebecauseiquit]

I hope now people can see the real Courtney. Her defense of MM may be the thing that FINALLY makes people stop ignoring how problematic she is. She also threatened to seriously sue and take legal action against a young girl’s CL fan page. And she doesn’t seem to care about her old friend Kat Bjelland who had so much to do with Courtney getting into music in the first place. No expression of condolence at all for Kat’s health issue.

Real Courtney has always been problematic, whatever real Courtney is. Listening to her is a mix of liking *some* parts of her, disliking less favourable ones and deciding what to ignore. Courtney fans were used to that, so that’s why they’re more forgiving and not cancelling her immediately every time she says something incredibly stupid.

Idk about suing CL fanpage, she’s stupid for saying so but i understand she didn’t sue her finally? Threats are pretty fucking stupid and she’s not the best of a person but i wouldn’t say it’s so important if she didn’t sue. 

I heard Courtney Love confirmed Kat Bjelland is sick. I don’t observe her or any other celebrities on Instagram on anywhere else, last time i was updated on her stuff was when she released You Know My Name. Sure it may look shitty she don’t say anything publically but we don’t know how’s behind the scenes, maybe she’s in contact with Kat privately. We cannot check this. Kat Bjelland additionally has been private with her problems and if her sister hadn’t posted about it, we probably wouldn’t know cause she seemingly doesn’t post about it herself. And to be honest, i understand her not posting anything now. What do you expect her to post? “My friend Kat is dying, rip Kat love youuu” when Kat is still alive? That’s equally stupid. And with all respect to Kat but i always impression that Kat didnt want to have anything to do with Courtney and always remained pretty bitter even though Courtney wanted to make up with her in early 00′s. They were making up and not talking a few times, i had an impression they’ve long since fallen out and grown out of their ties. I wouldn’t try to reach to Courtney for help out of the blue if i was in her position either. I don’t think Kat reached out to anyone, not wanting to bother people.

It’s not about stupid Instagram posts that matter, it’s real life action you take or not. I find it odd how nobody tries to help Kat, if money is needed, certain people could donate at least a few hundred coins if you know what i mean. We’re normal people but 90′s rock stars who somehow made it and don’t work in hot dog stands now could easily donate some money. Idk how much people make, I don’t know prizes of liver transplant in America however. Maybe Kat is not able to be saved adn that is that. 

I’m from Poland and i know Poland is considered low, barely functioning country that is practically an offshoot of Russia by some of more ignorant Americans, but let me tell you, our country pays for healthcare, as long as you have any basic insurance. If very special treatment is needed, people will donate to various foundations when treatments costs millions.  If she was in Poland (and if they managed to find her an organ to transplant, which lets remember isn’t that easy since it literally is dependent on death counts and organ quality), country would pay for the fucking transplant. I’m not an expert on that but if they pay for treatments, operations, prosthetics, cancer treatment and everything else, i can’t imagine they suddenly don’t pay for transplants here. If that’s the problem with money. If that’s an issue with Kat’s health that won’t allow transplant even if she had money, then ofc that’s horrible that nothing can be done, i wish it was revealed in third stage of illness when she had more chances.\

Idk what to think of her and Kat cause idk if they’re in contact and seriously? It would 100% be more meaningful for them to be in private contact, not Courtney posting regretful plastic Instagram messages for the public to see. It’s not about what public thinks or wants, it’s about Kat. I doubt she needs Courtney’s posts on Instagram right now.

MM case is different, cause she goes on public tirades to protect the fucker and turns into a total hypocrite. I’m aware MM is a master manipulator at this point and Courtney might’ve been manipulated into trusting him to, but if she don’t care to look around, read and see what’s going on, then that’s on her and she’s digging her own grave in people’s eyes. True feminist, yeah right.

Not saying she’s not a mean bitch or doesn’t behave selfishly and stupidly at times, i’ve always been aware of this. I’m not stupid to think she’s all cuddles and empathy. I don’t fucking care if she hit Kathleen Hanna - Courtney said Kathleen said a disgusting thing about Frances, Kathleen said Courtney hit her for no reason - i don’t know what was the real reason; they didn’t like each other, there was a fight, i don’t care. I treat her ignorant homophobic or racist jokes as drug induced ignorant shit she said, cause other times she’s proven to be supporting LGBT and black people. 

I think everybody sees she’s problematic and nobody says she always behaves right. But call her cruel when you know 100% she doesn’t care for Kat, not just cause you don’t see her posting it on Instagram. Unless you know something we don’t know.  I’m not playing a devil’s advocate, i’m conflicted with what i think of her right now, but you already know what i think of being indifferent to Kat accusation

Drag her for protecting Manson, sure - it’s been proved its her who posts from lilacs20. 

And no, i’m not really a fan of a person Courtney Love is these days. That’s all i have to say now.

[safflowerseason]

veep rewatch 3.01

Some New Beginnings

aka - The One With the Book Tour 

Richard! I love Richard. I love what he brought to the Veep ensemble and I love that the dumbest, purest person in the ensemble ended up as the sidekick to the other dumbest and most vile person in the ensemble. I didn’t mind that he suddenly had a doctorate in American constitutional law or whatever (it’s not like being an academic means you are a functional adult with practical life skills), and even though his rise to the presidency in S7 is patently stupid, I just love his bumbling, relentlessly positive, and super literal approach to life. Sam Richardson is great. 

“I call it Some New Beginnings because it’s plural!”

Now begins the reign of Kathleen Felix Hager, who immediately injects more life into Selina and Amy’s business wardrobes. We won’t really see the change until the next few episodes—Selina always wears a red dress in the premiere, and Amy’s at a wedding where she can’t wear a monochrome skirt-suit or a shirt-dress—but still, it’s very exciting!! And KFH does manage a slight departure with Amy’s formalwear, which has previously tended to dark colors and conservative necklines. This turquoise dress is the brightest and lightest color we’ve seen on Amy so far, and she looks stunning.

As discussed previously, I appreciate that the costume team did not feel the need to vacuum-pack a clearly post-baby Anna Chlumsky into some Spanx underneath her dress, or choose a looser dress for her to wear. The dress is very well-tailored and they’re not trying to hide anything—every newfound curve is on display. Meanwhile, Dan looks very good in his totally-not-intentional matching suit and not at all like Amy’s boyfriend. It’s not like he’s standing next to her in pictures and sharing the cost of a wedding present and making jokes about the fact that they’re basically married. What a ridiculous notion. 

Mike: See what everyone's gifting us? Some New Beginnings, Our Next American Journey. Dan: Really well written…by me. (He’s offscreen for this line, but I love this little aside…one day I’m going to write a one-shot where Dan writes Selina’s book. Ugh, Writer!Dan...so hot.)

Amy: Selina’s never been away without us this long before.  Dan: I guess this is what it’s gonna to be like when our kids go to college too, huh, sweetie?  Amy: Yeah, dream the fuck on, Dan.  Dan: You know I'm only being nice to you because I know that Selina's gonna make me the campaign manager. Dan’s version of being nice to Amy is teasing her about their future children. I cannot. This whole exchange is just too much for my heart now. (Also, what a ballsy thing to say while Amy is ostensibly dating another man. Dan must be feeling very confident in his relationship with Amy at this moment.) 

His unhinged impatience with Hughes not announcing is some neat foreshadowing that he’s going to be a terrible campaign manager. 

I enjoy Mike and Wendy’s relationship…Kathy Najimy is lovely and funny, and she and Matt Walsh have a fun chemistry. She has a kind of smooth composure to her manner that’s a good contrast with the more frenetic energy of Selina’s staff. 

I like to think part of the reason Dan snarks at Amy for not having a second phone is that he really just wants to be scheming with her at all times. 

Selina: So, these rumors, right? I'm getting Maddox. What are you getting?  Richard: I…I’m not getting a huge amount, if I'm being honest. Selina: Hey, Richard, no offense— Richard: None taken. Selina:—you’re a catastrophe.

In general, Iannucci Veep is better at marking time than Mandel Veep, but seriously…when is this wedding happening? We know it’s been two months since the S2 finale, in which both Selina and Amy appeared to be wearing clothes appropriate for mid-late D.C. spring (long sleeved dresses on both of them). So if it’s two months later, does that mean we’re in May-June? The end of June can be hot in D.C., but everyone is walking around outside dressed like it’s a pleasant spring day. Furthermore, the timeline is complicated by Episode 2, when it seems like we’re suddenly in early autumn…but also, Mike is on his honeymoon and Jonah has clearly just been fired! So WHEN is this wedding?! (Some of this confusion is obviously influenced by the uncontrollable dimensions of filming on location, such as weather…) 

Love how Ben goes straight to the minibar in Selina’s suite. 

Ben: So where’s the team?  Selina: They’re all at Mike’s wedding…I kind of miss ��em. *phone rings* Oh, it’s just Gary, press ignore. 

Dan and Jonah’s scene in the bathroom made me actually kind of miss their DC bro antagonistic energy. I can’t believe they shared no scenes together in S7!

First mention of Bill Ericsson…considering how many political flubs/bone-headed campaign decisions Bill actually makes in the series, he doesn’t exactly live up the all-knowing ice-god of strategy reputation they give him in the beginning. (My blog is basically an anti-Bill Ericsson blog now, sorry.)

Dan: You keep a second phone there? Hypocritical…and horny.  Love Reid Scott’s eyebrow arch on this line. 

Jonah: “Team Veep goes into meltdown as Sec Def Maddox news breaks”….And upload the money shot. Sue: I hate how he learned English from pornography. 

Richard: Ma’am, if you need any help with your campaign, I'm real good in a high-pressure situation. Selina: Really? In what sense “good”? Richard: Well, I was all over that book line thing.

It is intriguing how…active Dan is in this episode compared to Amy, or to be more specific, how his actions are highlighted by the script in a way that hers are not. He manipulates Jonah to get the ball rolling on the President’s announcement, runs back to the White House to witness/further exacerbate the fallout from that, actually asks Selina to make him the campaign manager, and in general is just furiously scheming all over the place. And it’s all explicitly tied to his desire to be the campaign-manager. Meanwhile, Amy is Hendrix-texting and presumably dealing with the Maddox news in some way, but we don’t really see her doing it. This will be a trend to follow in the first half of the season…some interesting gender dimensions to trace, for sure. 

Kent: Don’t go interrupting any major sporting events! Unless it’s golf. 

Jonah: I’ll be back! I’m gonna be back as the fucking President. Jonah Ryan, 2026!  Staffer: That’s a midterms year, Jonah.  Jonah: Well then I’ll change it!

I tend to think that Jonah’s career as a politician was a Mandel-era idea, but I do wonder with this line what Iannucci’s team of writers had planned for the character, if they also saw Jonah as an actual campaigning politician rather than just representative of the scuzzy underlings who populate D.C.

If it’s day six of the book tour, it makes you wonder how long Selina has been separated from her team. In light of Amy’s comment, it’s interesting to think about the logistical ramifications of it…six days feel like a stretch for Selina to be without her full staff, especially Gary and Amy. Not to mention Dan would want to gloat on the road about the success of “his” book. Were they just all on the book tour with Selina and then flew back to DC for a quick weekend wedding break? That would explain why they all appear to arrive together, at the very least. 

“The seven foot mouth” is maybe my favorite Jonah insult of all time. 

Amy’s drunk dancing is so cute! (In contrast, it is literally impossible for me to imagine Dan drunk dancing.) 

[crue-sixx]

Kill The Bride

Title: Kill the Bride

Author: tiddly-winx

Fandom: The Dirt (Motley Crue Movie)

Summary: You and Tommy have been married for a year, and you just found out some big news-you were pregnant.  It is also Tommy's birthday and you set up a very special dinner.  But when the door opens, it's not Tommy who comes calling.

Note: A sequel to Kiss the Bride

Warnings: Swearing, violence

"Oh my god" you were holding the positive pregnancy test in your hands.  You had suspected as much, your breasts were tender and you had gotten sick most mornings for the past week.  But to hold confirmation of the new life growing inside you made you tremble in anticipation.  You couldn't wait to tell your husband Tommy, he wouldn't shut the fuck up about having kids since you two had gotten married.  "Oh my god!" you squealed in delight as you rushed to the phone to dial the studio.

You thought differently about it though-today was Tommy's birthday and you promised to make him his favorite dinner.  It was almost time for him to come home, he'd promised he'd be on time today.  You had cooked the meal and set out the butter dish on the table, but under the lid was the positive test.  You could just imagine the tears of joy running down his face as he let reality sink in that he was going to be a father. 

The doorbell rang, which should have been your first indication something was wrong but in your elated state of bliss you ignored your gut and opened the door.  You were met with a man in black pressing a cloth to your nose and mouth, in only a millisecond, you were out cold in a drug induced sleep.  Chloroform worked like that.

Lucas was in financial ruin, his own slip of the tongue had cost him a fortune.  If only he'd kept his mouth shut he could be enjoying his wife and mistresses by the dozen.  He was so pissed that drummer had married you instead, gotten all that cash your father left you and was now living in the lap of luxury.  He stood outside the home you shared with Tommy, watched from the window at the scene.  He was even more pissed off when he saw you place a pregnancy test in the butter dish and cover it with the lid.  He quickly scrawled a short note and stowed it in his pocket.  He readied the chloroform soaked rag and as soon as you answered the door pressed it firmly to your face. 

You went slack right away, and he pulled you to his waiting car on the street.  He quickly went back inside and placed his little note on the lid of the butter dish and walked to the car, making the drive to the airport where preparations were made in advance for you to be flown to London, England and placed in your family's mausoleum, where the bones of four generations of your family were kept, including your father's.

Before he went back to the car however, he looked right into the security camera, smiled widely and waved as if he were greeting an old friend.  He wanted to be found, that would be the only part of his little game he'd make easy.

When Tommy got home half an hour later, he knew something was up.  The front door was wide open-something you'd never do.  You both had a key to let yourselves in.  You always kept the door locked when you were home alone.  He entered calling out "Y/N?  You home babe?"  On the table was the fresh dinner you'd made him-his birthday dinner.  On the butter dish, he saw a note that was not in your handwriting on the lid "LOOK INSIDE".  He took off the lid and saw the positive pregnancy test.  His heart skipped a beat in joy for only a moment, then realized that you'd never leave food out like this.

He called the police, and when they got there they looked at the security tapes.  You were happily setting up the table for dinner when the doorbell rang.  You went to to get it and a man in black pressed something to your face and you went limp.  The man dragged you to a car and placed the note Tommy found on the butter dish.  The man in black then turned to the camera, smiled and waved.  "Do you know this man, Mr. Lee?"ell

Tommy clenched his fist, eventually having to let off some steam and putting a hole in the wall.  "Yeah...Lucas Carvaggio.  My wife's ex-fiancee..."

"We'll run a background check for his last known whereabouts" the detective said "Time is of the essence even more than usual since she's expecting"

"WE'RE expecting" Tommy corrected, trying not to glare at the detective "That kid's mine...I'm the only one who's been fucking my wife..."

The detective took some consideration in his words "Sorry, Mr. Lee.  You and your wife are expecting" he cleared his throat and radioed headquarters to put out an all points bulletin and a be on the lookout orders for Lucas Carvaggio.  He wasn't hard to find- he was at his last known address, a shitty apartment on the outskirts of Hollywood, where he wasn't paying any rent because the place wasn't in his name.  He was currently living with a prostitute named Candi.  He was found in less than two hours.

When Tommy looked at him through the double sided glass of the interrogation room, Lucas looked worse for wear-he was dirty, smelly and allowed his body hair to grow so long he looked like a fucking Bigfoot.  But it was still Lucas Carvaggio, those arrogant eyes of his still the same.  "Let me in there with him..." Tommy demanded of the detective. 

Nikki stepped in with "You know he can't let you do that, T-Bone" he said in a soft voice.  Tommy only called Nikki, him being his best friend and confidante.  He was trying to be as patient as he could with Tommy, you being like a sister to the rest of the band.  Tommy begged him not to tell Vince or Mick, having them here would just make too much trouble with their arrest records combined with their fame nothing would ever get done if fans swarmed the station.

"I'll let you in as a last resort" the detective said "you can stay and watch from here..." he walked into the room, introduced himself and began the line of questioning "Where is Y/N Lee?"

"I only answer to Tommy, her husband" Lucas spat out, a note of fire in his voice.

"If he comes in here and beats your ass, I'll say it was in self defense" the detective warned "Is that what you want?"

"I. Want. Tommy" he reiterated.

"Alright" the detective got up and opened the door to the viewing room.  "He wants you, Mr. Lee".

Tommy took a deep breath and said "Fine...if it'll get my wife back..." he needed to control his anger.  He never lifted an unkind hand to you, but this asshole was about to get the business if he didn't cooperate.  When he walked in, he didn't offer a hello or anything but glared at Lucas like a dragon "Where's my wife?"

"You mean MY wife?" he mocked Tommy, causing veins to bulge on the drummer's neck and forehead.  "The wife you stole from me?"

"Hey, dickhead you practically told her you wanted her father's money, not her" Tommy calmed down a little.

"Speaking of which..." he leaned in closer to Tommy "Where is the money?"

"Are you still on about that?" Tommy laughed and continued "There is no money from her dad.  He liquidated all his assets and donated it all to charity!  Even his company's gone!"

Lucas considered this a moment "You're lying.  The old man wouldn't  do such a foolish thing like that.  What about his daughter?  Surely he wouldn't let her live in squalor."

"The band makes more than enough money"  Tommy snarled "The house we live in, the cars we drive...I pay for all of that, but we live together".

"How well do you know your wife, Tommy?" he asked seriously.  "Where is her family originally from?"

Tommy was stumped at this, you never wanting to talk about your family, besides your father.  They were from well off English stock, Dukes and Earls and all that jazz.  The money your father had was family money, forged on the backs of others and never given back to the people who toiled to make it for them.  Your father was the black sheep, wanting to help the less fortunate anyway he could.  So he started up an oil business and struck paydirt early on.  With the profits, he funded schools and was there helping build them with what Lucas would call "commoners".  You had met a few of them at a party at your father's house, where he was chastised by his siblings for letting you play with common children and get dirty.  He responded by throwing them out of the house and telling them that if they were dissatisfied with how you were being raised, then they could sue him for custody.  You never heard from them again.

Lucas chuckled at Tommy's ignorance, to which your husband popped him in the face.  Blood spurt out of his mouth, a few of his teeth broken.  "We don't have time for your games,, jackass!  There is no money, there is no company!  What the fuck did you do to my wife, asshole?!"

"She's across the ocean" he told Tommy.

"That doesn't help me" Tommy growled "Which ocean?!"  Lucas then began to laugh at Tommy's pain, to this Tommy grabbed him by the collar of his shirt and shook him. "WHERE ARE MY WIFE AND CHILD?!"

"Don't get too mad, Tommy boy" Lucas sneered "I'm not entirely cruel.  I DID bury her with family!"

Tommy paled and slowly released Lucas.  "You're insane..."  he sat down in a chair, at a loss for words.

Nikki burst in the room, telling Tommy to call Mr. Potts, his lawyer that he hired after your father had passed away.  He'd have all the records of your dad's final wishes as to where he was buried.  He then gave Lucas a stare that could freeze lava.  "When this is over, no matter what the outcome, I will beat you within an inch of your life.  I never had much of a family before I met these dumb asses, and I'll be damned if I let that kid grow up without a father..I am not afraid to go back to jail..."

At that, Lucas shuddered in fear.  Tommy did just that and got the needed information, and when he found out that the family mausoleum was in London, England he made a phone call to a certain British drummer to call in a favor. 

You woke up in a narrow room, only able to move your head freely.  This place stank of death, but you could also smell fresh air.  You didn't know where you were so you looked around for some light.  A shaft illuminated from the corner, and you were so scared that you didn't even make a sound.  You were centimeters away from your father's still rotting corpse.  The surface was still juicy, the natural bacteria  that formed when the body dies doing it's job.  You then vomited, your stomach contents getting caught in your hair and all over your face.  You knew exactly where you were and it was only a matter of time when you were rescued.  You put a hand on your womb, making a silent promise that you'd protect them.

It was five in the morning when Razzle got a call from L.A. from a frantic Tommy Lee.  "Tommy?  You alright mate?  What's gotten you in a tizzy?"

"Y/N's been kidnapped and we think she's in Holy Cross Cemetery in her family's mausoleum" he blurted out.  Razzle was fully awake now, Tommy had his full attention.

"Slow down, mate!  I need an explanation!"

"No time" the American drummer's voice was shaking.  Razzle was fond of you, having met you a few times before you and Tommy tied the knot.  Tommy Lee was not one to ask for favors lightly, so this particular time he accepted the task, no questions asked.  Interpol was en route to the cemetery already with the needed equipment, he just wanted you to see a familiar face when they got you out.

Razzle met them at the site, taking a giant mallet in hand and swinging it at the wall.  The surface cracked but wouldn't budge.  A few more hard hits and the thing crumbled.  He helped the men pull the casket out of the wall and pried open the lid with his bare hands.  You were happy to see Razzle, someone who you were fond of like a brother.  He picked you up and carried you to the waiting ambulance.  "Where's Tommy?" you looked up at him, tired from your ordeal.

"He's on his way, darlin'" he brushed your hair from your face "He's probably on the plane now..."

"Thank you, Raz" you hugged into his chest, his odd attire nowhere in site.  He was still in his pajamas from what you could tell.

"Name ya kid after me and we'll call it even" he smiled down at you while riding to the hospital.  It was only a few hours later that Tommy rushed to you, kissing your lips and face.

"Are you still..." he trailed off, knowing his family's curse with the women being unable to stay pregnant.

"As far as I know, yes" you kissed his hand and he breathed a sigh of relief.  "They didn't find any blood on me and I didn't have any pain..."

A nurse popped in and said "Mrs. Lee, it's time for your ultrasound!" in a cheery voice.  "This must be Mr. Lee!"

"This is!" Razzle answered, him getting out of the room so the happy couple could share this intimate moment alone.  "See ya later, mates!" he winked and buggered off.

The nurse applied the jelly to your stomach and moved the wand around.  She smiled when she found something and turned the monitor around so you and Tommy could see.  "See those things that look like beans?" she pointed to two figures that looked like lima beans.  "You're having twins!  About six weeks along I'd say!"

Both you and Tommy were sobbing with joy.  You had tried for kids ever since your honeymoon and now you were going to have them.  You knew the possible complications with having twins, and you took every precaution.  Took all your vitamins, stayed away from anything that could be dangerous.  When the ninth month came, you had made the appointment to get a cesarean section.  Birthing twins vaginally was damn near impossible without you bleeding out and dying.

Tommy was with you holding your hand, as the first baby was removed, It was a little boy.  The second one was a girl, both of whom had quite the set of lungs on them.  When they were cleaned up, the nurses gave each you and Tommy a baby.  "What do you want to name them, Tommy?"

"The boy will the Randal  Nicholas" the Nicholas being Razzle's real name.

"And the girl will be Emma Rose" you looked at your little family with only love.  The next day, you got an influx of visitors and well wishers including the band and Tommy's family.  After Tommy had told you it was Lucas that took you, you held your children closer to you.

"Where is he now?" you asked afraid.

"Prison" Tommy answered "He'd like to apologize but his jaw is wired shut from being broken" he chuckled, as if he didn't have anything to do with it.

"Our little ones are hungry" you said, lowering the top of your gown to allow to breast feed your kids.  The gentle sucking felt good, you being relieved of the milk that was being produced.

"I think I'm getting hungry too, babe" he wiggled his eyebrows and you laughed.

"When the kids go to sleep, dear" he grinned at that, being that goofy drummer boy you married.

[alphabees-writes]

Glee - S1 E4 (Preggers)

And from this moment onwards, Kurt Hummel proceeded to steal every single damn scene he was in. I’m actually unironically excited for this one. I didn’t think that could still happen! Here goes!

I will always love this Single Ladies scene. I will always love season 1′s Tina/Kurt friendship. Also, Brittany’s here, inexplicably. Did he pay her for this? In Pixie sticks, perhaps? Or Monopoly money?

“Kurt’s Superstar Playlist” is the most adorable name his playlist could possibly have. All we get to see on it are 4 Beyonce songs, and 1 Gwen Stefani - but it’s a cute little insight.

God sometimes I forget how cute Jenna Ushkowitz is and then this scene really slaps me round the face with it huh!!!

WHY are you filming this, Kurt? What are you using this for? I’d love to know. I’d say it’s just to check out his own dancing technique but it’s in black and white… Where are you posting this!!!

I want that swingy-suspended chair thing he has in his room sooooo bad

Ok now the fact that this is being filmed is giving me fic ideas…

BURT HUMMEL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! BURT F U C K I N G HUMMEL BABIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

God the look of fear on all three of their faces when they see Burt??? Don’t you worry kids he’ll come around real soon…

Burt’s approving nod when he yanks on Kurt’s unitard… God I love this man.

The LOOK on Kurt’s FACE when Brittany says he’s on the football team… I can hear his inner monologue like “bitch we may be in the basement but I will make a window to throw you out of”

Kurt just wants to relate to his old man so bad :( Baby boy he’s already so damn proud of you!!! Also that LAUGH.

He really just slapped Tina’s ass! And she completely rolls with it, the absolute champion. Also, the subtitles Netflix provided me with were (smacks bottom) and I just love that.

Oh god it immediately cuts to the WORST scene. Terri learning to give birth. William Schuester trying to help. Just let me perish, RIB?

Shout out to Kendra’s actress for somehow managing to make her character even more despicable than Terri!

Actually the shit she says to Will here is almost valid… All three of them are fucking awful huh!

Seriously why are Kendra and Terri the best actresses on this whole show? It’s the only reason I care about this fake pregnancy arc anymore…

The teacher’s lounge is always either an arid, desolate wasteland, or the only watering hole within 100 miles where all the thirsty ass teachers congregate. Take your pick.

Why does Will pretend to hesitate before going to sit with Ken and Emma? They’re the only people we ever see you talk to dude!!!

Ken with the psychoanalysis, wow. Just hit her right there buddy!

THAT’S HOW SUE C’s IT!!!

Rachel really just EXPECTS every solo… I almost forgot how bad she was when she started. “Maria is MY part!” Not anymore!! Kudos to Lea Michele for managing to make Rachel really sound like she thinks she’s the victim when she really isn’t.

Tina’s face… She was seriously happy. Season 1 Rachel SUCKS for even trying to take this from her. She IS talented. She IS ready!

Everybody else knows it’s a fat load of BS… Kurt lowers his sunglasses to look at her like she’s a bug beneath his shoe. Also, Kurt, why sunglasses? You don’t start getting hangovers ‘til next episode, sweetie!!

“You’re trying to punish me” I think being a total martyr might be one of Rachel’s worst traits early on in the series. I get that performing is her deal, but she can’t even take a second to at least fake being happy for Tina? Unreal.

Everybody else just moving straight on with it is hilarious. They’re all so happy for Tina and don’t give a shit about Rachel’s melodrama, which I’m living for!

I wanna be all “Finn’s an arrogant bastard for assuming Kurt wanted to ask him to prom, grr!!” But then I remember Kurt’s canonically in love with him at this point, so I’ll let him off this time

Kurt’s devious little smile when he asks Finn for a favour… I love one (1) boy!

AHHH THE TRYOUT SCENE. INCREDIBLE. This might honestly be my favourite scene from season 1. It’s definitely up there, anyway.

Cute brotherly Furt moments. Finn putting that helmet on for him. “Red’s your colour!” And they DON’T make Kurt get all giggly about Finn just being nice to him? Kurt just telling him he’s really cool? Pure.

“Rehearsing–” “PRACTICING!”

Finn tells Kurt he’ll be murdered if he uses his music and Kurt comes straight back with that rum chocolate souffle line. This show would be NOTHING without Kurt.

And THIS is what I mean when I say Kurt was a Gryffindor from the get-go. Even now he’s refusing to be anything less than himself for anybody, even the jackasses that harass him every day when he’s on their pitch.

Shut the fuuuuuuuck up, Puck!

“Hi, I’m Kurt Hummel and I’ll be auditioning for the role of kicker.” What did we do to deserve him?

His starting pose… His hips… The footwork… “That was good, right?” His whole ATTITUDE. THE ROYAL WAVE.

As if the TV network would cancel Sue’s news segment for having a few Cheerios in the glee club?

Oh god. Quinn telling Finn she’s pregnant. The fucking cinematography here… The camera work, the audio mixing…

“Think of the mail… Think of the MAIL…”

Did Quinn seriously just say “Ask Jeeves” told her the hot tub could knock her up? I mean, I know she’s lying, but ASK JEEVES? That should’ve tipped Finn off more than anything else…

Damn. Season 1 really had the power to get me shook, laughing, and then crying in the span of 30 seconds? Or maybe it’s just because I can’t stand seeing Diana cry…  

Sandy lets his kettle whistle for far too long, it stresses me out

Sue just… Offers this fired man a job? I know she’s got Figgins by the balls over the stockings commercial, but come on, surely the council would get involved or whatever???

Rachel sucks right now but god damn it Taking Chances gives me chills every time I hear her sing it… And she’s so cute when they tell her she got the lead!!!

If musical stuff is so frowned upon socially here, how are they expecting to get a full cast for Cabaret? Especially if NONE of the other glee kids are interested?

And there’s no funding for the arts but they have a whole ballet studio on school property…?

Sign #12 That Mr Schuester Is An Asshole: He just straight up tells Rachel that he’s the only person that likes her, which is wrong for so many reasons

He does have a point about Rachel needing to take a step back sometimes though. I hate that she’s so awful sometimes that I have to agree with Schuester.

He’s not HURTING you Rachel, he’s giving a chance to grow to somebody else!

Jenna did a beautiful job with this solo… Tina’s so cute too! I love her singing this sweet song with her goth aesthetic

This scene between Mr Schue and Tina was almost sweet BUT:

Sign #13 That Mr Schuester Is An Asshole: He did NOT need to touch Tina’s shoulders, or get that close, or whisper to comfort her.

Don’t take one for the team, Tina! Take one for YOURSELF!

I’ll let him hugging Finn slide because, wow, Finn’s breaking my heart right now…

However I will not let it slide that he’s seemingly taken him off campus for lunch…???? Dude, take him to your office. This is creepy as all hell even if he has good intentions…

“I got this at the school library. Did you know that you can just… Borrow books from there?” Protect him. Protect him at ALL costs. He was so genuinely inspired by watching Kurt make those goals that he went to a library for the first time in his LIFE oh my goodness

Oh god. The camera panning from a random father and his young son, over to Mr Schue looking at Finn? HE’S NOT YOUR SON MY GUY, HE IS YOUR PUPIL. PROFESSIONAL BOUNDARIES!!!

Terri and Will are both brushing their teeth with no toothpaste… Freaks…

Have I mentioned how much I adore those little background choir soundbites between scenes? They did so much for this show…

SHUT! UP! PUCK! Drink your fucking character development juice already!!!

Kurt just casually dropping in Sun Tzu’s Art of War… He just knows that. He’s prepared to just drop that in conversation. Son, why are you so ready for combat,

Also the way Kurt commands their attention? They can rag on him all they want but they all know he’s legit…

Look at all these doofuses in their football gear busting a move. Look at Kurt sat at the front just watching, judging, as he was born to do

MIKE! KILLING! IT! I love that they let us see a sneak peek of his moves… Serious HC that Kurt making the football team dance is the first time that Mike really got to show off his skills

Kurt shooing Mr Schue away like that gives me life!!! Sit down old man

“All right boys…”  And they all look so concerned behind him lmao… “Oh– SNEAK ATTACK back to the ring…” Mike’s trying so hard to keep in time. I love him. OH and there’s Matt! Most valid glee club member simply because he never says anything.

“Comb through the hair… SLAP THE BUTT!” And they’re all trying so hard… 10/10

“I’m your best friend,” says Puck, to the boy he has been consistently fucking over for four (4) episodes, and presumably many years prior…

I really do hate Puck for the first part of this season but god damn does he have some lines. “’Sup, MILF?” “Well, CALL the Vatican! We got ourselves another ImMaCuLaTe CoNcEpTiOn!”

I remember the first time I heard the term “Lima Loser” but I didn’t know the show was set in a place called Lima (I would’ve been, like, 9) and I thought it was lime-a-loser. Like he was going to have limes thrown at him. And it was this big, serious threat…

How the FUCK did Terri get into Quinn’s car? Why is that never addressed? Like, ever? Quinn doesn’t even ASK?

Do this many people turn up to American high school sports events irl??? And do they really play the national anthem? That must get old

Why are all these football players 30… I’m so thirsty for realistic casting…

BURT’S HERE TO SEE HIS SON!!! We love a proud dad.

“I TOLD YOU! I TOLD YOU!!!” And now he’s doing high kicks. Kurt’s doing the absolute MOST.

I will never understand the rules of American football… And I mean NEVER.

“Ring on it on three” I love that it has a code name. And they were all too busy being dudebros to call it Single Ladies…

The one dude on the opposite team who starts boogying along is the real MVP

NEVERMIND. BURT BOPPING IN THE STANDS IS THE MVP!!!

“Can I pee first?” Legendary

Burt just going “he’s so little…” In the middle of the silent crowd…

MY BOY NEEDS HIS MUSIC!

BURT’S SO FUCKING PROUD I’M ACTUALLY CRYING??? YOU CAN HEAR HIM SHOUTING “THAT IS MY BOY!!! THAT IS MY SON!!!” THROUGH THE WHOLE CROWD!!!!

I feel like Puck seeing Finn and Quinn kiss and then the crowd going silent as he walks away is meant to make me feel… Bad for him…? But we’ve only ever seen him be mean to Quinn, really. You’ve got to earn those moments!

Ah… The skincare routine. He’s thriving.

Burt! Hummel! Is! Proud! Of! His! Son!

Burt… I’m pretty sure he assumed you wished his mother was alive. As opposed to her corpse being at the big game.

Oh boy here it comes…… Chris looks SO young here. So scared. So vulnerable. The way he slightly stutters… He nailed this scene. So much.

He’s gay!

He knows.

Do they make sensible heels in sizes for three year olds…? Asking for a dad

The raw EMOTION on Kurt’s face. It’s killing me.

This is the starting point… “I’m not in love with the idea, but I love you.” And it only gets better from there…

And he THANKS his SON. He’s sure. He’s so sure, Burt, and you are going to be so proud of him forever.

Finn gives Quinn that blanket his dad gave him when he was a baby… Did she give it back? I fucking hope so…

You tell him, Finn! Puck IS an asshole!

MIKE’S IN GLEE!!! SO IS MATT!!! And Puck’s here I guess, yay… He’s got a season or so of sucking to go before I can get excited about that.

“Regionals” here we come? My guy, let’s get through sectionals first…

Rachel’s big, cruel smile when she thinks she’s going to be handed Tina’s solo. Why would she presume that it’d just get handed to her??? I mean, I know why, but like, why… And she has the audacity to look like she’s been betrayed. Not even slightly, hon! You deserve nothing if not getting one solo is all it takes for you to quit!

This Sue’s corner genuinely gets me through some shit. “There’s not much of a difference between a stadium full of cheering fans and an angry crowd screaming abuse at you - they’re both just making a lot of noise. How you take it is up to you. Convince yourself they’re cheering for you. You do that, and someday, they will.” Hits me hard!

This one was longer. Primarily because of Burt, I will admit, but it can’t be helped. Perhaps it’s the best episode of season 1 because of Burt! Now that’s a break through…

[sinesalvatorem]

Every Part of My Life Is Fucked b/c I Don't Have The Right Docs

My life has been completely upended by the impossibility of doing anything at all in this country without identity documents, the fact that no one will use any of the many documents I /do/ have, and the unwillingness of any agency to work with me in reacquiring such documents.

I can't be employed, despite getting to the employment finish line several times at this point. I can't get healthcare. I can't rent anywhere officially (thank G-d I found a home outside). I can't interact with government services. Half the time I'm refused even talking to organisations.

The single thing that would most improve my life right now is if I could become more documented. Among other things, I'd then become instantly employable (I've finished every other part of the employment process), and make more than enough money to live on (almost double even before overtime).

Right now my life could be entirely transformed by just overcoming the administrative obstacles to getting a driver's license or equivalent. Even just having a person with legal or admin knowledge walk through the whole thing with me might fix this mess. I would assume it is /possible/ to become legible to the State - I just don't know /how/ and the State has zero willingness to help me do it.

--- --- ---

The documents I have include, non-exhaustively, my birth certificate, my San Francisco City ID, my student ID, and my [Redacted] social security card. I know my US SSN from memory and have a scan of my passport, but lack both physical articles.

I can't get a driver's license, California state ID card, new SSN card, replacement passport (for complicated reasons involving my parents), or any of the other normal person documents, because I'm stuck in a catch-22 where my current documents can't get me further documents.

All together my docs satisfy the written requirements of /every/ documentation request I've encountered - including the ones for getting other documents. All of them describe the roles the documents need to fulfill, plus list example documents that are EXPLICITLY STATED as only examples of what works.

Every agent I have ever worked with has rejected my applications because they're only willing to use the example documents on their list, even when the lists say that this is not how they're to be used. The one useful thing I've gotten from USCIS about this is learning that this is 100% illegal and I can sue them for it, but like, I """can""" do a lot of things, and empirically illegal denials of service are easy.

My birth certificate is not accepted because it's from outside the US. USCIS claims this is absurd because my birth certificate is in fucking English, but they're not going to /do/ anything about this. I have not been able to find any way of getting a certificate of my birth from inside the US. My San Francisco ID is just ignored by all agencies and businesses because it's new and scary and we fear change. All my other IDs are seen as similarly odd and, despite this being illegal under federal labor laws, they get tossed out without looking.

--- --- ---

If anyone can help me deal with this, or has any suggestions on where to go or who to speak to to get this done, I'd hugely appreciate it. If you know someone who might know what to do, please send them my info above. Half the problem is that no one I encounter seems to take this problem seriously, even though it is THE barrier to my being remunerative to society.

If anything, the fact of an able bodied and extremely eager to work person not being able to have any legal employment in this country is the part that pisses me off the most. The forced idleness of people who can, have, and want to work is wildly evil. Not only because it fucks up their life (and it really, /really/ does) but because society is deprived of productive activity. (Also, like, this is /actually illegal/, on top of being universal.)

And remember that this is a problem for all the undocumented immigrants, as well as an unknown number of entirely legal but underdocumented immigrants like me. Plus any US citizens who lose documents and end up in the catch-22 for replacing them. You would think there'd be some standard service for this, but if there is I have never heard of it despite concerted searching.

If it's cost effective to get people documented in bulk, this is definitely an EA cause area in the same manner as bail relief, and can probably just use whatever approach the voter registration drives use. Or as a commercial enterprise, just document people, put them in a job, and take 10% of their first year's wages (but that's probably illegal, because most ways of helping people for money are illegal). But in the meantime, I personally need to get documented so I can put food on my own table.

[durianriderofficial]

NorBeta has a video titled "Australia, you have a rapist...." with a picture of you in the thumbnail. Can't you do something about that? Isn't it illegal/defamation to call someone a criminal if they haven't been charged? You should sue.

You can’t do anything. Literally nothing. You can complain to the host and they remove it but what is stopping them just putting it back up under another account?

Impossible to sue unless they live local and stay in the country and even then it would cost a shit tonne of money and years of court dates. You going to do that for every troll who wants to try and get a bit of fame off your coat tails by starting up drama? That is like punching on with every red neck driver who drives too close to you - you will be fighting forever.

Nobody takes norbeta seriously anyways. Click on any of the accounts and they are just fake or paid commenters. How many actual content creators post on his vids? Zero. Norbeta lost all credibility when he called me a rapist. Everyone in CM new the story of how horny Hannah was and you can see her always around guys during that time cos she was looking for a vegan BF. Fair enough. She was riding anyone who gave her enough attention. They lost ALL credibility by refusing to report me to the police. They did some dodgy footage at some office but NEVER actually said why they were at the police station. That is like me going to Nike HQ and saying Im there because they want to sign me up and do a billion dollar shoe contract with shoes made from durian skins...

Show us the police report that says you claim rape. Prove to us that Hannah Lobb doesnt have breast implants like you claim she doesnt. Make a video why Hannah keeps changing her story. Explain why I live in CM half the year yet you claim I ‘fled Thailand to avoid prosecution’ lol. Fucking idiots.

Rape in Thailand is punishable by DEATH! The cops dont fuck around there and if you are found guilty its lights out. If you are found guilty for lying to police by filing a fake rape claim then its a free stay in the BKK Hilton and that is why they never reported anything even though they claim they did.

When norbeta made his beta white knight vids about me he got a bit of support but as soon as they pulled that fake rape card out everyone cut ties with them.

If they set foot in Thailand I could aid the local police in pursuing legal action against them because they take national defamation over there very seriously as it damages the reputation of Thailand. Michael Hebo and Hannah Lobb have trashed Thai Police on their youtube videos so they would get in trouble for sure.  I love Thailand and respect the laws and culture very much. The mayor of Chiang Mai loves what Ive done in CM and all the people Ive brought over.

[hope-for-olicity]

Revelations

Upon reading of Felicity with another man, Oliver has a revelation that he may have waited too long to make his intentions clear.

So this is my first submission for the Olicity Hiatus Fic-a-Thon 2018 organized by @thebookjumper - the prompt was Revelation. Also available on AO3.

This story is set early in Season 6 with a few changes from canon. Curtis dies, on the island, Thea is fine and Felicity has her own business.

Oliver sat down at his desk in the Mayor’s office. He rubbed his hands over his face, let out a sigh. He did it. William was at school, he was at work, everything was under control.

He couldn’t lie, being a single father to a boy who just lost his mother, while being the Mayor and the Green Arrow was taking a toll on him. He felt like he was treading water. He worried if he stopped for just a moment, he would drown.

Enough self-pity. He turned to look at the mail his assistant left of on his desk. He began picking up the envelopes when a familiar face caught his eye. There was Felicity Smoak in all her glory on the front of Starling City Business magazine. She got the cover. It made him so proud.

He quickly flipped open the magazine to read the profile on the love of his life. She looked beautiful in a fuchsia dress with bright pink lipstick. God, he missed her. Yes, he’d seen her last night in the bunker but he felt like that was only in passing. He was burning the candle at both ends, that left no time to spend on his personal life. Felicity said she understood that he had to focus on William but how long would a woman as wonderful as she is willing to wait.

He glanced back down at the article. Felicity talked about the tragic loss of her partner in her first business, Curtis. He knew Curtis’ death was not something she nor the rest of them were anywhere near over. It hurt him to think of her grieving alone. Thea had checked in on her, a girl’s night, she said Felicity was withdrawn and wasn’t open to talking about it even with her constant pestering.

The rest of the article talked about Felicity’s newly launched Smoak Technologies and the spinal chip which she now had the legal right to mass produce after taking her other company Palmer Technologies to court for the patent. The headlines were amusing when she won, Smoak Sues Herself and Wins. Another moment, where Oliver was very proud but watching from a distance instead of by her side.

He knew Felicity had thrown herself into her work to help deal with the loss of Curtis. He was glad she was making such strides but he could see the sadness in her eyes. He looked down at the end of the interview where the reporter began inquiring about her personal life, her love life to be precise. The reporter asked if there was any truth to rumours that she was dating actor Chris Pine. Felicity said you know I don’t comment on my personal life but suffice it to say I’m happy.

I’m happy?! Oliver sat up straighter in his chair. Was she really dating Chris Pine?? He knew she had a long-standing crush on the actor but he wasn’t aware that they’d actually met. Had she moved on? It suddenly dawned him there was no reason for her not to move on. It’s not as though he’d given her any hints that a future with him was possible.

Upon their return from the island, they agreed that Oliver would focus on William. But since then, he quickly looked at his calendar, six months passed. If he knew Felicity, which he did, he knew she would never push him. She would put William’s well being above all else. She was emphatic about William needing his father so he knew he was making the right decision. But now….

William was doing so much better, he was still going to therapy but he was in school and making friends. He talked more, even joked with Raisa. Getting Raisa to come help out was one of the best decisions he’d made. Oliver remembered growing up how Raisa just got him and now she got William too. Things with William and him were improving but still on shaky ground.

It suddenly dawned on him that William would probably really like Felicity, well everyone liked Felicity but William liked Felicity things - comic books, computers, video games and he was really smart. Maybe it was time for them to meet again.

Oliver’s phone rang. He saw his receptionists number. “Yes, Mary.”

“Mayor Queen, your 10 o’clock meeting is in five minutes in the boardroom, Mr. Lance is in there now greeting the board members as they arrive.”

“Thanks, Mary, I’ll head in now.”

*****

Felicity was currently running her business out of her loft. She met with clients in restaurants so she decided to save on overhead until she actually had more than one employee. Currently, it was just Alena and her, she was hoping to add Thea Queen very soon.

In fact, Thea was due to arrive with lunch any minute. She wanted to lure Thea away from the Mayor’s office, she wasn’t sure how that would go over with Oliver. So, she decided to take the bull by the horns and ask Thea if she would even be interested in such a position.

Thea had such potential, she whipped the Mayor’s office into shape when she was Chief of Staff, the girl had people skills and manners ingrained in her by Moira Queen, she would be an asset wherever she worked. Felicity wanted that to be Smoak Technologies.

Felicity just finished tidying up her workplace when she heard the knock on the door. She opened the door to see Thea holding a tray of Big Belly Burger drinks in one hand and food in the other.

“Oh, let me take that from you!” Felicity quickly grabbed the drinks from Thea, she put them on the table.

Thea closed the door, followed behind Felicity. “Thanks!” Once she put the food down she quickly pulled Felicity in for a hug.

Thea released her. “So, sister-in-law what can I do for you?”

“Haha, very funny, Thea. Let’s eat the food while it’s hot. I’ll tell you my proposition.” Felicity took a seat, began taking the food out of the bag Thea brought.

“Oooh, consider me intrigued.” Thea dipped a french fry in ketchup. “I’m all ears.”

“Well, first I’d like to say if you are not interested, just say so. No hard feelings. All cool.” Felicity was starting to feel nervous.

Thea reached across the table to touch Felicity’s hand. “Hey, it’s okay. Just ask me. You are starting to worry me.”

“I was just going to say I’ve always admired you, Thea. You as a woman and as a professional. What you did with Verdant all those years ago and all the work you have done at City Hall. You impress the hell out of me.” Felicity smiled at Thea, she could see Thea was surprised by her words.

“Wow, Felicity, thanks. I mean thank you. I had no idea you saw me that way. It means a lot as I really respect you as a professional and you are the smartest person I know. That you would think so highly of me…” Thea smiled.

“Now, for my pitch. I’d like you to come work for Smoak Technologies. I believe you have a lot to offer. I really need the best when setting up my business. You know my core product is the chip stimulant that Curtis created. It costs a lot to re-create per each patient’s specifications and most people with spinal cord injuries don’t have that kind of money. So I need someone to help with fundraising. Both holding events and finding private donors to help aid in this process. Once we have established ourselves with the chip, I will begin introducing other products which will hopefully help improve the lives of others. You know, I want to work on that shiny beacon of hope we talked about before. So, what do you think?” Felicity began to fidget, she really wanted Thea to say yes.

“I think hell yes! Where do I sign? Seriously though, Felicity, you are giving me the opportunity of a lifetime. To use my skills to help you, help people. This would be a dream come true.” Thea jumped up, then stopped. “Can I hug you? Would that be unprofessional?”

“Not unprofessional at all. Come here!” Felicity held Thea tight they weren’t sisters-in-law yet but she would always consider Thea a part of her family. “I’m so so glad you are interested. Now, we can talk about the issue at hand. Do you think Oliver will be okay with me stealing you away from the Mayor’s office?”

“Are you kidding? Ollie will love it! He loves you! He’s so incredibly proud of what you are doing. I think he’d be thrilled for me to come work for you. Quentin is doing a great job as Chief of Staff, they no longer need me over there as a consultant. The only question is when can I tell him?” Thea laughed.

******

Oliver heard the knock on his office door. He finished signing his last document for the day as he looked up. “You’re not Mary.” He smiled.

“Nope,” Thea smiled back. “Mary stepped away, just wondering if you have a moment for your sister.”

“Always.” Oliver got up, greeted his sister with a hug. “What brings you by?”

“I have news!” Thea smiled brightly.

“Good news from the look on your face. So sit,” Oliver gestured toward the couch, he followed. “Tell me your news.”

“Felicity has asked me to come work for her at Smoak Technologies! She has big plans and she explained how my skills would help make that happen. She thinks I’m great!” Thea was practically bouncing in her chair.

“That’s fantastic, Thea! I agree with Felicity you would be an asset to Smoak Technologies. Good on her for stealing my overqualified staff.” Oliver joked, trying to keep the hurt out of his voice. Of course, he wanted Thea to go work for Felicity. They would compliment each other greatly. It was a marvelous opportunity for Thea but he would miss her. Truthfully, the only time he saw her nowadays was at work. Perhaps, it was time for a family dinner. William met Thea once, he knew Thea was dying to see her nephew again.

“Oliver? Did you stop listening? Are you okay? Are you mad that I’m leaving? Felicity was concerned but I told her you would be okay. Was I wrong?” Worry was creeping into Thea’s voice.

Oliver patted Thea’s hand. “Hey, sorry. Momentarily distracted. Not mad at all. So happy for you and Felicity. I was just thinking I would never see you if you leave City Hall, then I thought how it would be nice to have you over for dinner. William is doing better. It would be nice for him to see his aunt again.”

“Really? I can see William? That would be amazing! When do you want me to be there? Can I bring a gift? I mean, I missed so many birthdays so I’ve been buying things...can I give him something, PLEASE?!” Thea batted her eyelashes at her big brother.

“Of course you can bring him a present.” Oliver smiled, he really should have done this earlier. “How about tonight? I was going to make pasta. We can celebrate your new job. I miss you, Thea.”

“Tonight it is! Why don’t you swing by my office on your way out, I’ll head out with you?”

“Sounds perfect. How about a half hour? I just need to check some emails. The rest I can bring home.”

“Great! I’m going to let Quentin know about my new job. I’ll start packing up my desk.”

Oliver watched Thea walk away with a bounce in her step. He was still grateful she was alive, she was unconscious when he found her on the island. Luckily, she woke up shortly after. She had given him quite the fright.

*****

Thea: I told Ollie! He’s happy for me

Thea: When do you want me to start?

Felicity: That’s so good! Welcome to Smoak Tech!!!

Felicity: I understand you may need to tie things up at the Mayor’s office

Felicity: But I’d like you to start ASAP, I’m trying to put this event together for next weekend

Felicity: Could really use your expertise

Thea: I can be there tomorrow at 9

Felicity: Wow that would be AMAZING

Felicity: We can talk salary tomorrow...I promise I will pay you

Thea: No worries, I know where you sleep :)

Felicity: Hahaha

Felicity: See you tomorrow

Thea: Can’t wait

“Aunt Thea, who are you texting?” William wandered over to sit on the couch with Thea.

“I was texted my new boss, Felicity. I let her know I would start tomorrow. She seemed happy.” Thea smiled.

“Is this the same Felicity who was on the island?” William picked up the TV remote like he didn’t care about the answer.

Thea watched as William turned on the TV. “Yes, she is the same Felicity from the island. William, have you seen Felicity since the island?”

“No, but I guess she’s been busy. She seems really nice. Look she’s on the front of the magazine Dad brought home.” William got up, he brought the magazine to show his aunt Thea.

“Well how about that. Well done, Felicity.” Thea chuckled as she looked at the magazine.

“She’s pretty amazing, isn’t she?” Oliver stood looking down at his sister. “Dinner is ready.”

“I’ll go wash my hands.” William darted from the room.

Thea followed Oliver into the kitchen area. “William hasn’t seen Felicity since the island? What’s going on Oliver? I knew you were busy but I had no idea. Is this why you keep asking me questions about her? Do you ever see the woman you are in love with?”

As if he didn’t feel guilty enough, now he had his little sister pointing out his flaws. “Thea, I saw Felicity last night.” Yes, he’s defensive.

“Seeing her in the bunker before and after you change doesn’t count, big brother. You better be careful or she might move on to someone knew.” Thea teased.

Oliver’s faced grimaced before he could stop himself.

“What? Is there someone new? I’m shocked I can’t believe it! I don’t believe it! Who do you think she’s seeing??” Thea’s voice was rising as she became more excited.

“Who are we talking about?” William came into the kitchen.

Thea and Oliver responded at the same time, “Nobody, Felicity!”

“Oh, maybe now that Aunt Thea is working for Felicity we can see her again?” William looked hopefully at his father.

“Of course, we can see her again. She asks about you, buddy, I just wasn’t sure you were up for visitors.” Oliver said softly.

“Well, I’m not up for visitors but Felicity would be nice. Unless you don’t want to hang out with her.” William spoke the last words quickly as though embarrassed.

“Ha!” Thea couldn’t help herself. “Your father always wants to hang out with Felicity. Don’t ever let him tell you different. Now, back to the other topic, who do you think she’s seeing?” Thea began twirling her spaghetti around her fork.

“I didn’t say she was seeing anyone. It’s just the magazine reporter asked about Chris Pine.” Oliver looked down at his plate in disgrace. He’d never be able to compete with a gorgeous actor.

“Chris Pine? As in the actor? Now, I’m intrigued. Maybe she can set him up with me.” Thea smiled.

“Weren’t you listening, Thea? I just said Felicity might be dating him herself, she’s not going to set you up.” Oliver could feel his anger increasing the longer this conversation continued. He had to admit when it came to Felicity he became rather caveman like - Felicity mine - summed up his feelings.

“Ollie, Felicity is not dating Chris Pine,” Thea spoke with a serious tone.

“You don’t know that, Thea. Besides, there is no reason she couldn’t be. Chris Pine would be lucky to date her.” Great, now Thea knew he was defensive.

“Oliver Queen,” Thea put down her fork, waited until he looked at her before continuing. “Felicity Smoak loves you. She will always love you. She’s not dating Chris Pine or anyone else. Hell, I think she’d turn down Chris Hemsworth for you!”

Oliver was puzzled. “Who is Chris Hemsworth?”

William took the opportunity to jump into the conversation. “Dad, Chris Hemsworth plays Thor.”

“Oh,” was all Oliver could think to say.

“My point, dear brother, is Felicity doesn’t want anyone else ever. You are her always, she is just waiting for you to give her a sign. If you ask me, she’s been pretty damn patient. Time for you to step it up.”

Thea used a tone that made her sound like their mother, not that Oliver would say that out loud, somehow he knew it wouldn’t go over well.

“In fact, why don’t you drop over now. I can hang with William until you get back. He hasn’t had enough Thea influence in his life yet.” Thea winked.

“But…” Oliver wasn’t sure what to say. “The dishes…”

William got up, began collecting the plates and silverware. “I can load the dishwasher, Dad. Aunt Thea’s right you should go see Felicity. Maybe you could invite her over here sometime.”

“It’s settled. Go.” Thea’s tone brooked no insolence.

“Okay, I’m just going to change.” Oliver began walking toward his room.

“Wear a blue shirt - Felicity likes you blue shirts,” Thea called after him.

*****

Oliver knocked on the loft door carrying flowers. He was suddenly having second thoughts about the flowers, were they too much?

Felicity opened the door. “Oliver? It’s nice to see you.”

Oliver held out the flowers.

Felicity took the flowers. “Wow, for me? Thanks. Come in. Can I ask why you brought me flowers? Not, that I don’t love them. I do...it’s just that we haven’t really spent much time on our own. Not that I’m mad. I understand you have responsibilities. It’s just I missed you a lot so the flowers are nice...I’m going to stop talking now.”

Oliver shuffled his feet, giving away his nerves. “Please don’t. I love listening to you talk.”

“Wow, flowers and compliments. Oliver, you are killing me.” Felicity blushed.

Oliver stepped forward cupped Felicity’s cheek. “I’ve really missed you too.”

Felicity stepped forward so they were as close as possible. “Do you think kissing, might help with that?”

Oliver nodded before quickly capturing Felicity’s lips. Felicity sank into Oliver. She just gave into the feeling of being in his arm again. One of Oliver’s hand remained on her cheek but his other hand moved down her side and back to cup her butt, pulled her closer still.

“God, Felicity,” Oliver broke the kiss for a moment.

“I hope that’s a good God?” She looked up at him nervously.

“Felicity, I’ve missed you every second. I love you. I needed to say that because I had a revelation today that I might not have been clear about that.”

Felicity pressed a quick peck on his lips. “No, you were clear. I knew you had to take care of William. I agreed, remember?”

They were still a breathe apart, Oliver growled, “I remember but that was months ago, then Chris Pine.”

Felicity was confused. Then it dawned on her. “The article. Oliver, I met Chris Pine at a party recently. I totally fangirled it was embarrassing for him and me. You know about my celebrity crush but that’s all it is. I love only one man, named Oliver Queen.”

Oliver kissed her again more passionately. Felicity really wanted this continue so she pulled back for a moment. “Oliver, how long do you have?” She was a little out of breath, quite frankly dazzled. “I mean, where is William?”

“William is home with Thea. Both encouraged me to come spend some time with you. So, I’m in no rush. Do you have something you need to do tonight?” Oliver asked suddenly realizing she might. He looked down at her, noticing for the first time she was in pajama pants and a tank top.

“Just you, Mr. Queen.” She hopped in his arms. “So you had a realization that you needed to make it clear you loved me, how about you show me?”

Hope you liked :) I’m tagging some people but let me know if you would like to be tagged or untagged.

@memcjo @wherethereissmoak @green-arrows-of-karamel @mel-loves-all @spaztronautwriter @charlinert @tdgal1 @oliverfel4 @vaelisamaza @coal000 @miriam1779 @laurabelle2930 @onceuponarrow @cruzrogue @lageniuswannabe

[prorevenge]

Refuse to be a decent human? Lose your house.

Warning: Very long story.

It's 2011, my boyfriend and I decided to rent a house with our best friends - an engaged couple with two kids. I'm changing names here: I'm Kylie, my boyfriend is Jim, and our couple friends are Brad and Angelina. Jim, Brad, and myself are active duty military.

After over a month of searching we found a really cute house- 1850 sqft, nice yard, great neighbors, only $1350/m, hardwood except for 1 room, 7 minutes from our base. The landlord is in a different state but tells us she pays one of the neighbors to manage the keys for her. It's a military town and that's not uncommon. We all met up with him, toured the house, decided to sign the lease.

We moved in sometime in August. We liked the house, but there were crickets coming into one of the bedrooms through a crack in the window sill. The landlord didn't want to fix it and said to caulk it. It worked, no problem.

We noticed the carpet in the living room was a little dingy and asked her if she would mind paying someone to clean it since we moved in that way. We even made a note of it and took pictures when we moved in. She said no. I bought my own cleaner and the carpet lightened a few shades.

In October, we went to cut the heat on and it didn't work. So we realized the oil tank was empty. Part of the lease states when we move out we needed to leave a full tank of oil, which isn't really a problem as long as we start with a full tank and use all the oil in it. Call the landlord and ask her to have the oil company come fill the tank - which it's 2011 so it's going to cost $1200 to do. She says no. We told her fine, we wouldn't be leaving a full tank when the lease was over though. She got mad and said we had to because it was a clause in our lease. We had the oil company provide statements to say the last time it was filled was that prior January and it was empty when they came to fill our tank that month. We filled the tank, but the heat still didn't work. It's been 2 weeks and it's really getting cold, we asked the LL to get a repairman out to the house. Brad and Angelina have two small kids that need to stay warm. My landlord took another week to fix the heat, and the people that did it were... questionable. It worked for a month, but then quit. We called in our own repairmen to come handle it since the last ones creeped me out, and he noticed some major issues with the chimney that needed attention right away. Like it was unsafe to run the heat at all, the damned thing was about to collapse. We let her know, emailed scans of the paperwork from our nice Honeywell tech and two quotes from contractors to get the work done. (it's going to be $3000-3500ish) It's an emergency repair, at the point it's December and we are really cold. We were using space heaters. The kids have chest colds and Angelina is ready to fly into our landlord's state to handle her physically. I mailed all of that information to her (Angelina's bodily threats omitted) with a signature confirmation and a letter stating the issue.

A few days pass and nothing from our bitch LL. I got onto Google and read the landlord tenant act and local landlord court cases just to see if I had a leg to stand on. I also spoke to my JAG, who's brother happened to be a real estate lawyer, who was also friends with my next door neighbor (the keyholder dude, who surprise, never got paid to watch the house) and decided to come over for dinner with all of us at their place. He gave me some really good info. The next morning, I called our landlord and told her, "look, you get this repair done or I will condemn the house and not pay a dime of rent until it's done". She says she doesn't believe me. I overnighted a certified letter to her explaining the issue and requesting the repair be started within 5 business days since it was an emergency and I had already reported it a week prior. 5 days go by, nothing. At this point I'm ready to walk out on the lease but don't have quite enough legal issues to back that up so- Jim and I requested 20 days of vacation from the military. I drafted a letter to LL telling her she had 10 days to get the repair done or we would terminate the lease, and we would not be paying rent while the heat was in disrepair. I cited the previous letter and included her signature confirmation for it also. 4 days before we go on vacation, I overnighted and signature confirmationed the letter. Two days before we are set to go on vacation I called a city building inspector, set an appointment, he came and condemned the house - it took him less than 15 minutes to decide. Brad and Angelina took off to Angelina's mom's house and Jim and I headed out to spend a few weeks in WARM, SUNNY Florida with his Cuban family. (mmmm, the food). We prorated rent for every day the house was condemned. I called the building inspector every few days to see if the work was done. He also demanded that my landlord do a few minor electrical repairs. Several days have gone by... I spent half that month's rent on good food, liquor, and Disney world tickets. On the 6th day in Florida, the landlord calls me threatening eviction. I told her to please take me to court because I was ready to embarrass her. I cited the landlord tenant act, told her I was going to sue for travel costs to FL, hotel costs, and at that point she was already looking at $850 and it was just going to get more costly. (Longshot, but, I was mad). I also said we were prepared to just walk out if it wasn't done by the time the certified letter stated it should be, again, I wasn't kidding. I had already reserved a uhaul. Oh, and she would be reimbursing me for that $1100 in oil I hadn't been able to burn. She said fine and finally replaced the chimney two weeks after the place was condemned. My neighbor told me she had to borrow money from her family to get it done. Not my problem. She also told me I was a horrible person who was torturing her and her 5 year old who were victims of domestic violence. She also told me we were only slightly better than the last tenants, who she "thought were black by how terrible the house looked when they left". Okay, wow, a slum lord and a racist - I should play the lottery. I'm sorry for your situation but your husband has been a shit to you since you got together. How do I know? Turns out, one of my supervisors is friends with her old supervisor and he and other members of her chain of command had responsed to fights where her and her husband hit each other. Apparently the husband is a drunk too. They tried to get her to leave him but she is just as bad, she busted out his windshield one time and burned all his stuff another. Turns out she got a general administration discharge. She seemed so nice and sweet when we were getting ready to sign that lease. I still can't believe what a bucket of kuku for coco puffs she turned out to be.

Whatever, we came home to a house with functioning heat. Brad and Angelina decided not to move back in but that was all cool with Jim and me. We notarized an agreement between us and told them we totally understood and would take over the rent. Missed them after they left, though.

Later on, in March, a realtor knocked on my door and said he wanted to show the house to a couple. I said, you have the wrong place buddy, I'm renting this right now. He's like no, the owner wants a short sale hopefully by July. I explained I had no notice and was a little confused but it was okay. He was very uncomfortable and unhappy to have walked into a situation where a tenant didn't even know he was coming. I told him it was totally fine, and went on to divulge some details about his new client. He was pretty appalled. He leveled with me- its a cute house but really only worth $90k due to the market crash. It had last sold for $124k, according to zuilla. She's asking for 120k and on the verge of foreclosure. Seriously? I let the couple and realtor in the next day. Didn't worry about it after that. He came to take detailed pictures so he wouldn't have to bother me with flaky potential buyers. He was so nice, I let him help me find a new house to rent when my lease was up. We are still friends on Facebook.

Then, in July the realtor called me and asked if he could show the house to a client. Absolutely. I cleaned and made sure I looked nice for her visit....and when they got to my house I noticed the lady was black. And she wanted to rent. I said, ma'am, call me later today and don't tell anyone. She did! I told her what my LL said about how she couldn't believe her past tenants were white because they left the house trashed when they left. I said, "I don't think this is a good house for you, I know a great guy who is renting out his beach side condo for the next year while he goes out to Africa, why don't you call him?" I text his listing to her, she calls him, ends up renting his house.

None of that is really revenge. Before we moved out, Jim and I cleaned the house. We left the carpets sparkling clean (had professionals come in and do it), payed a gardener to come in and make the yard spiffy, patched up some small nail holes and even painted some window trim that was chipped when we moved in. we basically left it better than we found it, we had already repainted 3 bedrooms in flattering colors when we first moved in (that was approved by the LL no problem of course). We took pictures before and after we moved in. A month goes by, we are all settled in our new condo, and she didn't give us a dime back in freaking deposit. $2400 down the damned drain, plus the cost of little repairs we made out of pocket so we couldn't have to deal with her crazy ass.

I was angry. I began organizing to go to court. Then suddenly Jim is told he's deploying soon. the fuck. A week goes by- Also, I'm pregnant. Which we were casually "not trying but trying" to do. We were happy about that part, but I was puking every day twice a day and emotional. Then Angelina calls me and guess who is on Craigslist slinging her shit hole slum? My LL. I lost it. I got on the same forum her ad was on and posted about the house, every single problem we had, every phone call, every snotty email, how many weeks we went without heat, the crickets, LL's messed up relationship with her off and on again husband, the oil tank, and the racist comments. I never said "don't rent or buy", just shared my experience as a tenant. I didn't name any names but I did link her ad. Received 7 emails thanking me stating LL seemed really nice on the phone but they would be dodging that bullet.

The house foreclosed a few months later.

(source) (story by slumriverofbliss)

[lauramalchowblog]

Out of Network? Cigna, RICO and where’s the line?

By MATTHEW HOLT

Sometimes you wonder where the line is in health care. And perhaps more importantly, whether anyone in the system cares.

The last few months have been dominated by the issue of costs in health care, particularly the costs paid by consumers who thought they had coverage. It turns out that “surprise billing” isn’t that much of a surprise. Over the past few years several large medical groups, notably Team Health owned by Blackstone, have been aggressively opting out of insurers networks. They’ve figured out, probably by reading Elizabeth Rosenthal’s great story about the 2013 $117,000 assistant surgery bill that Aetna actually paid, that if they stay out of network and bill away, the chances are they’ll make more money.

On the surface this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Wouldn’t it be in the interests of the insurers to clamp down on this stuff and never pay up? Well not really. Veteran health insurance observer Robert Laszewski recently wrote that profits in health insurance and hospitals have never been better. Instead, the insurer, which is usually just handling the claims on behalf of the actual buyer, makes more money over time as the cost goes up.

The data is clear. Health care costs overall are going up because the speed at which providers, pharma et al. are increasing prices exceeds the reduction in volume that’s being seen in the use of most health services. Lots more on that is available from HCCI or any random tweet you read about the price of insulin. But the overall message is that as 90% of American health care is still a fee-for-service game, as the CEO of BCBS Arizona said at last year’s HLTH conference, the point of the game is generating as much revenue as possible. My old boss Ian Morrison used to joke about every hospital being in the race for the $1m hysterectomy, but in a world of falling volumes, it isn’t such a joke any more.

But it’s not as if this is a new issue. Back in 2009 I was writing about Ingenix’s (now called Optum/UHG) problems with trying to figure out what usual customary and reasonable (UCR) prices to pay for medical procedures. Essentially UCR prices (the ones baked into but not defined by Medicare) were made up, and the whole American health system’s cost structure follows along.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, or at least not by now. The theory, taught to brave young health policy types like me decades ago, was that intelligent buyers would give integrated plan and delivery systems a fixed amount of money per head, and that those organizations (basically Kaiser & Geisinger) would be so much more cost effective that they’d force every other hospital system to become like them. Two decades of M&A later and it’s clear that the alphabet soup of HPO, IDN, ACO et al. has meant little. In practice, local monopoly or oligopoly provider systems have bought up the referring physicians and worked hard to feed the beast—the expensive inpatient procedural services where they make their money. And of course because of their oligopoly status they have been price setters not price takers. The recent $575 settlement for overcharging by Sutter Health is exhibit A of typical health system behavior. But it was presaged two decades ago by similar settlements by Tenet and HCA. The reward for that bad behavior? You get to be Governor/Senator of the great state of Florida!

The casual observer might notice that while the odd case of outright fraud by the little guys gets trumpeted by the DOJ there are no real punishments for the HCA/Sutter level of pricing extortion. No one goes to jail and the cost of the fine is never enough to put the miscreants out of business.

Which gets us back to the present debacle around surprise billing. While everyone can pretend to be appalled, the insurer doesn’t pay directly—the patient or their employer does. Meanwhile the providers are able to stop any real action in Congress. The provider defenders, like Anish Koka writing on THCB last year, say they want a baseball-style arbitration system, and that anyway the problem isn’t as bad as the extreme cases bandied about in the press. They may be right, but they’re just fighting their corner, and they don’t seem to be on opposite sides from insurers in the long run.

But we now have a real doozy. As reported by the folks at consulting company AVYM, one of the BUCAs, in this case Cigna, is being accused of playing both sides off against the middle in an out-of-network billing case.

 The lawsuit alleges that CIGNA accepts the out-of-network provider’s claims at the full billed charges and requests the same amount from the self-insured health plan. However, instead of paying the medical provider or member, CIGNA hires a Repricing Company to try and negotiate a reduction. If the provider refuses to negotiate, CIGNA pays the claim at an exorbitantly low level but appears to keep the difference between what was removed from the self-insured health plan and what was paid to the medical providers. In an attempt to conceal this from the patient and self-insured health plan, CIGNA issued Electronic Remittance Advice or paper Explanation of Benefits forms (collectively, the “EOB”) misrepresent the balance as “Discount” to the members, certifying the member is not responsible for the balance, while simultaneously representing the balance to the Plaintiffs as member liability or “Amount Not Covered”. Astonishingly, the complaint alleges that CIGNA, after being advised of these anomalies, not only refused to correct the issues but instructed the medical provider plaintiffs to sue to rectify the situation! 

This (allegation) is pretty brazen. Cigna gets the huge bill. It then takes that money from its employer client’s account. But instead of giving it to the provider, it keeps it, covers that up, and tells the provider to sue the employer for the difference that it has already taken.

Uncle Billy gives Potter the Building & Loan’s cash by mistake

Any similarity to the scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where old man Potter keeps the money Uncle Billy accidentally gave him and tries to later bankrupt the Building & Loan seems to be completely intentional.

You have to ask, who here is working in the patient or end buyer’s interest? And the answer seems to be, no one. The lesson of previous decades has been that health care companies can push the line as far as they like, even to beyond what looks like outright fraud, and nothing much will change.

What’s amazing is that the people paying the tab—the employers, the government and the patients themselves—seem to have no understanding that this is going on, and have few weapons to deal with it. Dave Chase and his Health Rosetta movement continue to point out a few cases where employers have figured out the game, but those best practices remain rare exceptions.

One might assume that a rational nation would look at this and agree on a single or multi-payer fee schedule, as exists in most other fee-for-service based systems like France, Canada, Germany & Japan. Or it’s time to put in a real version of global budgets either by government fiat or managed competition as I was taught years ago. But given the state of American politics, even though the Medicare For All cries are getting louder, no one seems to seriously believe that any rational policy is going to happen.

Instead the logical outcome is that in the pursuit of profit, every participant in the system will keep pushing up to and over that imaginary line. Perhaps there is no line. But unless the buyers completely revolt, not much will change

Matthew Holt is the publisher of THCB.

The post Out of Network? Cigna, RICO and where’s the line? appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

Out of Network? Cigna, RICO and where’s the line? published first on https://venabeahan.tumblr.com

[kristinsimmons]

Out of Network? Cigna, RICO and where’s the line?

By MATTHEW HOLT

Sometimes you wonder where the line is in health care. And perhaps more importantly, whether anyone in the system cares.

The last few months have been dominated by the issue of costs in health care, particularly the costs paid by consumers who thought they had coverage. It turns out that “surprise billing” isn’t that much of a surprise. Over the past few years several large medical groups, notably Team Health owned by Blackstone, have been aggressively opting out of insurers networks. They’ve figured out, probably by reading Elizabeth Rosenthal’s great story about the 2013 $117,000 assistant surgery bill that Aetna actually paid, that if they stay out of network and bill away, the chances are they’ll make more money.

On the surface this doesn’t make a lot of sense. Wouldn’t it be in the interests of the insurers to clamp down on this stuff and never pay up? Well not really. Veteran health insurance observer Robert Laszewski recently wrote that profits in health insurance and hospitals have never been better. Instead, the insurer, which is usually just handling the claims on behalf of the actual buyer, makes more money over time as the cost goes up.

The data is clear. Health care costs overall are going up because the speed at which providers, pharma et al. are increasing prices exceeds the reduction in volume that’s being seen in the use of most health services. Lots more on that is available from HCCI or any random tweet you read about the price of insulin. But the overall message is that as 90% of American health care is still a fee-for-service game, as the CEO of BCBS Arizona said at last year’s HLTH conference, the point of the game is generating as much revenue as possible. My old boss Ian Morrison used to joke about every hospital being in the race for the $1m hysterectomy, but in a world of falling volumes, it isn’t such a joke any more.

But it’s not as if this is a new issue. Back in 2009 I was writing about Ingenix’s (now called Optum/UHG) problems with trying to figure out what usual customary and reasonable (UCR) prices to pay for medical procedures. Essentially UCR prices (the ones baked into but not defined by Medicare) were made up, and the whole American health system’s cost structure follows along.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way, or at least not by now. The theory, taught to brave young health policy types like me decades ago, was that intelligent buyers would give integrated plan and delivery systems a fixed amount of money per head, and that those organizations (basically Kaiser & Geisinger) would be so much more cost effective that they’d force every other hospital system to become like them. Two decades of M&A later and it’s clear that the alphabet soup of HPO, IDN, ACO et al. has meant little. In practice, local monopoly or oligopoly provider systems have bought up the referring physicians and worked hard to feed the beast—the expensive inpatient procedural services where they make their money. And of course because of their oligopoly status they have been price setters not price takers. The recent $575 settlement for overcharging by Sutter Health is exhibit A of typical health system behavior. But it was presaged two decades ago by similar settlements by Tenet and HCA. The reward for that bad behavior? You get to be Governor/Senator of the great state of Florida!

The casual observer might notice that while the odd case of outright fraud by the little guys gets trumpeted by the DOJ there are no real punishments for the HCA/Sutter level of pricing extortion. No one goes to jail and the cost of the fine is never enough to put the miscreants out of business.

Which gets us back to the present debacle around surprise billing. While everyone can pretend to be appalled, the insurer doesn’t pay directly—the patient or their employer does. Meanwhile the providers are able to stop any real action in Congress. The provider defenders, like Anish Koka writing on THCB last year, say they want a baseball-style arbitration system, and that anyway the problem isn’t as bad as the extreme cases bandied about in the press. They may be right, but they’re just fighting their corner, and they don’t seem to be on opposite sides from insurers in the long run.

But we now have a real doozy. As reported by the folks at consulting company AVYM, one of the BUCAs, in this case Cigna, is being accused of playing both sides off against the middle in an out-of-network billing case.

 The lawsuit alleges that CIGNA accepts the out-of-network provider’s claims at the full billed charges and requests the same amount from the self-insured health plan. However, instead of paying the medical provider or member, CIGNA hires a Repricing Company to try and negotiate a reduction. If the provider refuses to negotiate, CIGNA pays the claim at an exorbitantly low level but appears to keep the difference between what was removed from the self-insured health plan and what was paid to the medical providers. In an attempt to conceal this from the patient and self-insured health plan, CIGNA issued Electronic Remittance Advice or paper Explanation of Benefits forms (collectively, the “EOB”) misrepresent the balance as “Discount” to the members, certifying the member is not responsible for the balance, while simultaneously representing the balance to the Plaintiffs as member liability or “Amount Not Covered”. Astonishingly, the complaint alleges that CIGNA, after being advised of these anomalies, not only refused to correct the issues but instructed the medical provider plaintiffs to sue to rectify the situation! 

This (allegation) is pretty brazen. Cigna gets the huge bill. It then takes that money from its employer client’s account. But instead of giving it to the provider, it keeps it, covers that up, and tells the provider to sue the employer for the difference that it has already taken.

Uncle Billy gives Potter the Building & Loan’s cash by mistake

Any similarity to the scene in It’s a Wonderful Life where old man Potter keeps the money Uncle Billy accidentally gave him and tries to later bankrupt the Building & Loan seems to be completely intentional.

You have to ask, who here is working in the patient or end buyer’s interest? And the answer seems to be, no one. The lesson of previous decades has been that health care companies can push the line as far as they like, even to beyond what looks like outright fraud, and nothing much will change.

What’s amazing is that the people paying the tab—the employers, the government and the patients themselves—seem to have no understanding that this is going on, and have few weapons to deal with it. Dave Chase and his Health Rosetta movement continue to point out a few cases where employers have figured out the game, but those best practices remain rare exceptions.

One might assume that a rational nation would look at this and agree on a single or multi-payer fee schedule, as exists in most other fee-for-service based systems like France, Canada, Germany & Japan. Or it’s time to put in a real version of global budgets either by government fiat or managed competition as I was taught years ago. But given the state of American politics, even though the Medicare For All cries are getting louder, no one seems to seriously believe that any rational policy is going to happen.

Instead the logical outcome is that in the pursuit of profit, every participant in the system will keep pushing up to and over that imaginary line. Perhaps there is no line. But unless the buyers completely revolt, not much will change

Matthew Holt is the publisher of THCB.

The post Out of Network? Cigna, RICO and where’s the line? appeared first on The Health Care Blog.

Out of Network? Cigna, RICO and where’s the line? published first on https://wittooth.tumblr.com/