#also ignore the fact that I didn’t use Mitchell for the last name I literally forgot

[ddejavvu]

update on the bradley front?👀

Mitchell!reader is too overwhelmed to sit by Bradley’s bedside and Carole is having NONE of it

[solange-lol]

i don't need three bars to tell me we're meant to connect

words: 1,997

AUctober day 21: academia

read on ao3

—

There’s a boy in Will’s Intro to Writing class, and Will is in love with him.

Maybe love isn’t the right word, but he’s definitely encased by this guy. He has dark hair, dark eyes, and he’s way smarter than everyone in the class which is something Will can seriously respect.

Every day at 2pm he logs on, never really quite sure what’s going on in the class because he’s too curious about what he’s wearing or if Will can get some sort of idea as to who his roommate is. 

In a normal circumstance, Will would consider maybe introducing himself, or at least trying to catch this kid at the dining hall. For now, though, he’s stuck staring at him through his tiny computer screen.

This whole Zoom class thing limits what he can learn about this kid, especially since he only has two things hung up in the background of his call: a pride flag and a poster for a card game Will has never seen.

All Will can know about him, for now, is his name is Nico, he’s gay, and he’s really, really hot. 

Which is enough for him to already be falling.

And by some ungodly power, his friends already knew, too.

Will’s roommate, Connor Stoll, probably figured out the day he just so happened to walk past Will’s desk just as the blonde had pinned Nico’s screen to his computer (he was just trying to get a better look at what his shirt said.)

“Stalker much?” had been the only thing he remarked. Of course, less than a week later and he was already getting advice on how to ask Nico out from Connor and his boyfriend, Mitchell.

“I don’t even know him,” Will points out, to which Connor responds with, “You know him enough to care about what’s written on his shirt.”

He rolls his eyes. “That was a one time thing.”

“Trust me, Will. If I managed to get this one to ask me out, I think you can ask out someone,” Mitchell said, slugging Connor lightly in the shoulder who only nods proudly.

When that hadn’t turned out to be much helpful (Will isn’t exactly the best at just doing things,) he opts to ask Lou Ellen and Cecil, the two kids he had met in the first week of classes

They had been introduced when the teacher put them in breakout rooms to get to know each other in small groups. Will knew both already vaguely: Lou was also in his Chemistry class, and Cecil lived on his floor.

The three ended up bonding over their shared love of Star Wars and inevitably made a group chat together to share homework answers for the class or discuss whatever the weekly drama was that they were able to catch bits and pieces of. Turns out life is just as eventful even when everybody is stuck to their own dorms.

Will had barely been able to get two words out to them on FaceTime before Lou interrupts him.

“You need help asking out Nico from our writing class, don’t you?”

Will just blinks. “How did you know?”

“Because you mention every day what he talked about in class today.”

“I do?”

“Yeah, and you asked me if I knew what floor he lived on,” Cecil adds. “I was betting on murder, maybe, but once Lou Ellen told me it was probably a crush it made a little more sense.”

Will shakes his head. “I’m gonna choose to ignore the murder part.”

“I sent Mitchell after you. Isn’t he supposed to be a love expert or something?” Lou Ellen asks.

“That was you? I thought that was just Connor oversharing his roommate drama with his boyfriend!”

“You really think Connor has enough brain cells to do all that? The kid can barely remember what he has for breakfast most days,” Lou rolls her eyes. “Look, the best case scenario, he’s your soulmate and you guys get married and have a million kids.”

“I don’t even know if I want kids-”

“Fine, dogs, whatever. Worst case scenario, classes are all online this semester and you literally just don’t look at his face for the rest of the year.”

It’s a good point, and Will really is seriously considering it now, but there’s still one thing standing in the way.

“Okay, well, it’s not like I can really ask him out,” Will points out. “We’re barely allowed to leave our dorms, and I don’t know if a Zoom first date is the best idea.”

“Then just figure out a way to get his number. That way, you two can talk, and when this whole quarantine thing is over then you’ll be close enough that you can finally go on a date,” Cecil suggests.

Both Will and Lou Ellen nod enthusiastically.

“Cecil, that might be the smartest thing I’ve ever heard you say,” Lou says dreamily. 

“Now we just have to figure out a way for Will to get the balls to actually do it.”

Will gasps, fake hurt. “I’ll figure it out, thank you very much.”

They continue discussing their plan before Lou Ellen inevitably notices that they’re in fact, 15 minutes late to Intro to Writing.

As the three scramble into the Zoom meeting at the same time, Will may or may not notice Nico bite back a laugh. He decides being late was worth it.

—

When Will’s teacher put him and Nico in a breakout room together, Will knew this was probably his chance.

That is until he has to go and make a fool of himself.

“I like your duck tree,” is the first thing Nico says when they enter the room, referencing the mini fake Christmas tree (even though both him and Connor are Jewish) that’s covered in all sorts of rubber ducks behind him. It was their 3am creation after moving into the dorm, which featured a midnight run to the dollar store and two noise complaints from their neighbors.

And, because Will can’t take anything seriously, he makes the mistake of talking.

“Thanks,” he says, then before he can stop himself, “Did you know they have curly dicks?”

Nico snorts. “What?”

Realizing what he said, Will just has to push through. “The ducks. It’s like a corkscrew shape.”

“Ah, gotcha,” Nico nods. “Is that your topic for your paper?”

Maybe explaining himself wasn’t a good idea.

“Nope, just, uh, something I learned in Biology when I was a freshman.”

Nico nods again. “Cool. So what is everyone’s topic?”

Yup, he blew it. Asking Nico out might take another decade now, or however long it takes for Will to regain his dignity after that interaction.

—

It’s another few weeks before Will actually sees Nico in person for the first time.

Ever since their breakout room conversation, he had only interacted with the boy if it was for class. Slowly but surely, he was healing from that mess of a first introduction.

That, of course, all went out the window after Will nearly ran straight into him on the way to his dorm after spending the weekend with Lou Ellen at her parent’s house. Meanwhile, Nico must have been on his way out.

Will almost didn’t recognize him when they bumped into each other, too panicked about running straight into someone he didn’t know. Once he recognized the wavy black hair and olive-toned skin, he knew immediately who it was.

Nico was shorter than he had thought he would be, almost a whole half foot smaller than Will, but that didn’t make him any less attractive. In fact, he was so, so much cuter in person than over a screen.

“Hey,” Nico grins. “Duck penis kid.”

Will ran straight into that one.

“I have a name, you know,” he narrows his eyes. “And like, actual interests.”

“Besides ducks and their breeding habits?”

“Yes, besides that. I wouldn’t exactly consider that an interest.”

Nico raises an eyebrow as if he’s skeptical, but his smile gives it all away.

“Well, I do know your name, William,” he says, and Will nearly passes out right then and there. “Do you know mine?”

“It says your name on Zoom, Nico,” he responds as casually as he possibly can. “And it’s- it’s just Will, actually.”

“That’s not what it says on your Zoom name.”

“Well, that’s-” Will flushes. “That’s because I don’t know how to change it.”

“Well, I guess you'll have to remind me to teach you if we’re ever in a breakout room together again,” Nico laughs. “I’ll see you around, Will.”

He heads off, and before he can stop himself, Will calls after him.

“Wait!”

Nico spins on his heel at the bottom of the next staircase, looking up at him with those dark eyes. For a moment, Will completely forgets what he wants to say.

“Um, would you want to, uh, play GamePigeon sometime over iMessage?” he offers. It was the ‘foolproof’ invitation that Lou Ellen had come up with, considering it’s something they did on a near-daily basis.

“Intro to Writing isn’t the most interesting class— well, maybe you think it is, I don’t know— but maybe, if you want a distraction one day…?” he continues, trailing off hopefully at the end.

Nico winces. “Oh, uh, I don’t have an iPhone, sorry,” he says, holding up his Samsung as proof. There are two little charms hanging off the phone case: a small rainbow and a skull, which makes Will melt a bit. Unfortunately, it doesn’t help his case at all.

“Oh, okay, then can I maybe get your number? Just… in general?”

Nico grins, raising his eyebrow again. “Are you asking me out, Solace?”

Will fights the heat creeping to his cheeks at the use of his last name. “Um, yes? If you want? We can’t really go out right now, Nit we could just talk? See if we work as friends and then maybe reconsider that date thing if you’re up for it? Because, uh, I think you’re cute, and we’re both queer, and I noticed your Ramones shirt the other day which is super cool because my dad introduced me to that band, so there’s something we have in common. And, uh, we can talk about whatever else you’re into, but I just thought I would take my chance because I’m into… you,” he rambles out.

Nico just blinks, and Will wonders if this was the best or dumbest decision he’s ever made.

“Or… or not,” he adds on, just in case.

Nico laughs, which is totally adorable, but also totally activates Will’s fight or flight. Before he can escape to his dorm, though, Nico holds out his hand.

“Solace, please,” he says, still in the same light, laugh-y tone. It takes a second to activate in Will’s brain that he’s asking for his phone to put his number in.

Oh.

Will steps down the staircase until he’s at the same level as Nico, pulling his phone out of his bag and handing it to the boy.

Nico stares at it. “Uh, you might want to put your passcode in first.”

“Right, right, sorry,” Will takes it back, unlocking his phone and finding the contacts app so Nico can put in his number.

This time when he hands it back, he’s smiling again. 

“See you in the Zoom call,” he tells Will, before turning the corner around the staircase, and Will realizes he should probably get back to his dorm if he wants to make his 7:00 Chem class.

It isn’t until he’s back in his room, listening to his professor drone on about chemical properties when he finally opens his phone. He taps on the contacts app, just checking to make sure the entire interaction wasn’t a fever dream.

Just as he expected, a new number is embedded in his contacts. Nido di Angelo. Next to the name, the duck emoji and the eggplant emoji.

Yeah, he was never going to live that down.

—

solangelo tag list (message to be added/removed): @unicornsgomooo @anxiouswinter @soulangelou @number-of-fucks-i-give-0 @underworldystuff @theeloquentsnake @solangelover@thefandomsaretakingover @internallyexplodingrainbows​ @hairasuntouchedaspartoftheamazon​ @motivatedcryptidtamer @emilyfairchild @wherethewildthingsare-nt @hetapeep41 @blavk-dahlia

[beca-mitchell]

Beca and the Intern (1/1)

Summary: Beca doesn't have a wandering eye. Fluff. No angst.

Word Count: 1,674

This is really short, but I wanted to share with you guys. Part of the now i see daylight universe. Could potentially be read as a quick standalone too.

Read below or on AO3.

* * * * *

February Los Angeles Age: 35

 Some people might say that Beca Mitchell has a problem. The problem being that she has blinders on whenever it comes to her and her family.

It’s not her fault, it really isn’t. Her family is just kind of her number one priority, which she assumes must be some weird blip in Hollywood or maybe Los Angeles at large.

But still.

It’s not a problem.

* * * * *

 “So...what do you do around here?” the intern—Jane or Jenny or Jessica—asks, leaning over Beca’s shoulder as she fiddles with controls. It’s not quite enough that their bodies are touching and Beca’s just a bit too distracted to notice just how close she’s standing.

Also, the audacity of the question itself—as if Beca Mitchell, world-reknown artist had simply “things” to do “around here”.

It’s a set up.

One that Beca doesn’t notice or perhaps she just chooses not to care enough to notice.

Josh seems to notice, however, and coughs behind his hand, tapering off into a snicker. Beca cuts a glance at him. “What is it?”

“Sorry,” he mutters. Beca raises an eyebrow, but he simply shrugs, going back to his laptop.

Opting to ignore her favorite co-producer’s weird antics, Beca returns to the task at hand. The task being that she volunteers to introduce new interns at Epic Records to the ins and outs of recording and producing. It surprises most people because of her continuously-growing celebrity status and how easily this could all go downhill, but Beca has been doing it for a few years now and she likes the drive she sees in most interns.

It reminds her of where she once was.

“So this is where I do most of my recording,” Beca explains, straightening her back as she turns to smile at the intern. “I guess you’ll be shadowing me here and there during your time here.” She tries to offer a grin. “It’s a lot more boring than it sounds, I promise. I’m mostly done with most of my tracks.” Beca’s brow furrows. “Sorry, what was your name again?”

Her intern’s eyes seem to light up. “Jen.”

Beca snaps her fingers. “I’ll do my best to remember that. Sorry, I’m really bad with names. Better with faces.”

For whatever reason, Jen seems to brighten even more at that, offering Beca a megawatt smile that hurts Beca’s eyes just by virtue of looking at it.

Interns seem to get younger and weirder, Beca muses.

 * * * * *

 “And...that’s it!” Beca says, gesturing at Jen to shut off the recording session. She’s impressed when Jen does so with ease, fingers seemingly flying across the soundboard. She exits the booth, nodding approvingly. “What did you think?”

“Your voice is...amazing,” Jen says breathlessly. “You just make it look so easy, I swear.” She clasps her hands and looks up at Beca. “That was a lot of fun. Will we get to do it again?” Her eyes cut to Josh. “Would you be able to show me more things? T-techniques, I mean. Just the two of us?”

Josh coughs again.

Beca is scrolling through her phone, distracted already.

“Beca?”

She smiles apologetically at her intern. “Wait, you have to see this. You just reminded me of something my daughter did.”

Jen’s smile freezes. “Daughter?”

Josh snickers, fully this time. “Didn’t you know that the famous Beca Mitchell is completely domesticized? Two kids and a high school sweetheart of a wife. Pretty sure that exact line is on her Wikipedia page.”

Beca blushes, still distracted as she searches for the video she’s looking for. “That...was a joke line that Chloe put up. I took it down.”

“After a week,” Josh quips back.

“Right,” Jen says. “I knew that. Your family is super cute. It must be hard though, being away from them so often. You must get lonely...” Jen trails off, clearly noticing that Beca is too fixated on her phone to really be responsive to her words.

Josh’s eyes cut to Jen again, completely bemused at the sheer amount of literal hearts shooting out of her eyes.

And the fact Beca still has yet to notice. In fact, Beca barely seems to have noticed that Jen had been speaking to her, undertones of something more clipping into her tone.

“Oh my God,” Beca exclaims finally once she pulls herself away from photos of Chloe and their babies. “Here, look. This is Emma. She’s five now.” Her smile is blinding as she hands the phone to Jen, immediately bending over her shoulder to watch as well. “I brought her into the studio one day on a weekend and she just...went to town on this thing.” Beca puts her hands over her chest. “She’s already so musical.”

Jen hands the phone back. “That’s great—you and your family...your family sounds lovely.”

Beca beams. “Thank you.”

She doesn't notice the longing on Jen's face.

 * * * * *

 “You’re unbelievable,” Josh says once Jen is carted off to another department for the rest of her tour of the label.

“What?”

“What do you mean what? That poor girl was about two seconds away from literally jumping you.”

Beca chokes on the sip of water she had been taking. “What? No she wasn’t.”

“Yes she was. What would Chloe have to say about this?”

Beca panics briefly at the thought of Chloe storming through the office. “I didn’t do anything.”

Josh grins and kicks her chair gently. “I know, I was just kidding. It’s not like you even noticed when she was undressing you with her eyes.”

“Stop saying that!” Beca exclaims, covering her face with her hands. “Oh my God, these interns are so young and weird. Why do I even agree to do this?”

“Because you’re a good person,” Josh chirps, laughing when Beca has yet to remove her hands from her face. “And so, so humble,” he mocks, kicking her chair again. “Okay miss Grammy Award winner.”

Beca scowls, peeking at him. “Shut up.” She glances around the empty room. “I feel like I should call Chloe. I should do that, right? Like. Just a feeling.”

“Why?” he asks, laughing again. “Like you said, you didn’t do anything. And really, you didn’t. You weren’t even encouraging her. You were just like...obsessed with your kid. Again.”

Beca chooses to ignore that last part. “I’m scared. What if she corners me.”

Josh snorts before bursting into full-blown laughter.

“Help me!” Beca exclaims. “I’m—I’m so bad at—Hey, where are you going!”

Josh’s laughter haunts her as he exits the room, laptop tucked under his arm.

Beca waits until she’s totally alone and picks up her phone.

Beca Mitchell Chlo?

Chloe Beale yes? what did you do?

Beca Mitchell Want to bring Grace and Emma by work today so we can grab dinner after?

Chloe Beale ...again. what did you do now? Also yes. :) i love you and i was kidding...i know you didn't do anything 

Beca Mitchell stop that Love you too

And she means it. She really does.

 * * * * *

 Chloe pokes her head around the corner of the door to Beca’s favorite studio. It pretty much doubles as her own personal workspace with how often she uses it compared to other artists and producers. Chloe’s lanyard and visitor’s pass clicks against the door and she smiles sheepishly when Beca turns in her chair, clearly startled.

“Hi,” Chloe greets. It’s all she can get out before Emma is squealing excitedly and pushing past Chloe’s legs to throw herself against Beca’s knees.

Beca gasps, mimicking Emma’s excitement as she picks up her child (doing her best not to wince as she does so, marvelling at how big Emma’s gotten already) and presses kisses against her face. “You came to visit me!” Chloe steps into the room, nudging the door but not closing it completely. Beca’s heart pounds at the sight of Chloe carrying their (almost) two-year-old, Grace, in her arms.

It is a sight that will never get old.

Additionally, Chloe is smiling at Beca in that specific way that makes Beca’s knees weak—the smile that Beca knows is representative of how much Chloe loves her and adores her.

And how much Chloe loves and adores their little family. It makes Beca feel less crazy, knowing how obsessed Chloe is with documenting literally every aspect of their life together.

“We came to visit you!” Emma shouts, bringing Beca right back to the present, stopping her from being lost completely in her wife’s eyes. At five, Emma has developed a penchant for yelling at the top of her lungs, regardless of her emotion.

“Emma, indoor voice,” Beca hushes.

“Hello wifey,” Chloe murmurs, leaning in to greet Beca herself. Between them, Grace is contentedly resting her head against Chloe’s shoulder, clearly still tired from the short drive over. Beca can’t blame her. And Emma—Emma is giggling happily as Beca steals a quick kiss from Chloe. “Dinner plans?” Chloe questions. “That was sudden of you.”

Beca is about to respond, but she notices Jen poking her head around the corner of the door at that exact moment. She fumbles and presses her lips to Chloe’s again, mindful of their babies between them.

Chloe gasps against her mouth, clearly surprised, but she lets Beca take the lead, clearly interested in where this goes.

“Not that I’m complaining,” Chloe says slowly when they part. Emma giggles between them like she knows exactly why Beca is so frazzled. She probably does, the rascal. Beca wonders if she can bring her kids into work more often...or at least spend more time at home. She smiles, nuzzling Emma's rosy cheek before leaning over to tickle Grace. Chloe clears her throat, eyes shining with mirth, but mostly love and affection. “But what was that for?”

Beca clears her throat and makes a mental note to not stop by Josh’s desk on the way out. “It’s a long story.”

But it’s not a problem because Beca has her family and she wouldn’t change any of this for the world.

fin.

*see more of this universe—now i see daylight.*

[themadvigilantist]

just a spyfilled thought...

me rewatching spyfall pt 2 after everyone decided to point out 13 just removed the perception filter of fifteenth master/dhawan!master in france when nazis were there just...on the eiffel tower....: errrrrrrrrrr....wait, was his perception filter just simm again? like what did that look like???

also me, knowing the master keeping that shrinker device on hand because time lords are fucking fast and strong due to past canonical material: wow either those nazis are fucking wrecked because the master just got a little peckish or there’s going to be a lot of diorama sized nazi figurines just lying about collecting dust because of his Tissue Compression Eliminator

also also me, knowing the last time i seen the actor was on iron fist and knowing the fact that the master had been in way worse situations regardless of appearance: wow those nazis are fucking dead. like they are so dead. like knowing the master vs humans of any kind, they are so dead. just yeeted off the eiffel tower, the whole lot of them. one begging for mercy and him just going ‘now why would i do that, human???’ and just kills them.....

also also also me knowing that the master is extremely good at hypnosis: i bet the deleted scene that they cut for time after this is them arresting him not because of his skin color/‘human’ race but the fact that he shrunk half their fleet and ate another half of them and then paid for their bar tab.

also also also also me rewatching it all again just in case i may have missed something: so, all those nazis in that scene? we all agree that the master just slaughtered them right? with the kasaavin?

also also also also also me rewatching it all again just in case i may have missed something: so the nazis, they didn’t even kill him. they just locked him up for 77 years. no torture or anything. just: let’s all collectively lock up this aryan british spy at gun point so he doesn’t eat and/or shrink us and he was just chilling for 77 years while everyone else died? like he didn’t get shot or anything just: ‘he’s a spy? looking like that? lock him away quickly, we’ll deal with it never because he keeps hypnotising everyone to forget about it every single time and we still we’ll just give up.’ and it wasn’t an escape it was just a collective agreement of ignoring him as he secret squirrel’d his overdramatic behind out of there.

a summary of everyone else’s thoughts about it overall: im not ok like he’s just fine with a new ass suit, freshly tailored after that so like explain because assuming by that is highly different when you know that any human assumption of what is supposed to happen to him after 13 did that is thrown out of the window when you have to consider the fact that this the MASTER not jack or rex or some other human, this is another gallifreyan is known to eat people and run for office the same day. the same MISTRESS that will shoot you just because you’re enjoying it a bit too much than they are, the same MASTER who on occasion will just randomly scream - roar - in glee when they are shrinking ppl. and y’all out here saying: what 13 did was hella dirty to him and it’s steps back from previous episodes and yet y’all are completely forgetting the fact that the master is not human.

they’re not some random human along for the ride that betrayed the doctor

or a human like adam mitchell

they did this to the master

 the master who warped the nazi ideology of a master race into a literal pun of their own name in the end of time part 1 and 2 (saxon!master smiling wildly saying ‘master race’ and then turns everyone (albeit donna and wilfred and maybe jack???) into him

like im not kidding, the master literally used the worst part of humanity as an ego booster to their self esteem and warped their idea for their own benefit as a two parter episode

like the master coming out it for 77 years -77 years is nothing to anyone of Gallifrey. That’s toddler years to them. - and he’s fine. he ‘escaped’ and by escaped i mean that for the most part, he just manipulated the very people that caught him or he’ll just turn them like himself and if he had been there and shown them his technology and actively done so -and you know he has and will do and you haven’t been paying attention to how the master is approached character-wise- they actually took him seriously and only locked him away. or again, they are all dead.

which is why im exhausted. pay tf attention to the character, the small looks. the words they choose. their past actions in dealing with similar scenarios. because if any hing, the last thing that should be accounted for with dhawan!master/fifteenth master (twentieth master if not dealing with just onscreen appearances) is the actor’s racial background dealing with a sensitive topic and how a human expects the master with that appearance is going to be treated instead of expecting how the master treats humanity as a whole in any predicament in any era. this is not an ‘oh no consistency error because gotcha??’, this is an ‘uh oh the master is in a corner and these racist humans are going to get a rude awakening about alien existence let’s cut away to doc and friends because we can’t necessarily show blood yet... and gloss over the possibly gruesome acts the master may have done to them that we can only hint at in later episodes/books/audios/etc.’

[bellaelisabeth95]

A reminder of the toxicity that plagues the legacy of Marlene King and Pretty Little Liars

TW: Self harm and suicide

I know that this coming week starts the Pretty Little Liars spinoff “The Perfectionists,” also directed by Marlene King and starring two cast members from the original show. PLL has been over for years now, but that doesn’t mean some of its most…… passionate? fans have forgotten it. I know many of us haven’t. Who could forget the disaster that was the end of Pretty Little Liars, as a small but very loud subgroup of fans decided to viciously attack anyone who stood in the way of their beloved ship? Before I go any further, I want to make it clear that everyone knows it was not all emison fans. If you are a person who shipped emison but did not bully other cast members or fans, then I feel truly sorry that you were in the same group as them. And I thank you for not taking part in what some of them did.   

  The reason I’m making this post is because of the Lindsey Shaw Fiasco. I know every single PLL fan on social media knows what this is, regardless of who you shipped/didn’t ship. I want to make sure in light of MK’s new show no one forgets what happened to her, and what could happen again. Marlene King watched as one of her own actors, as well as many of the fans of her show, were mercilessly harassed and said NOTHING. In fact, she pandered to the same people doing the harassing. Both Shay Mitchell and Sasha Pieterse, the two parts of the emison ship, said nothing, despite the harassers being their fans. Now, maybe you’ll say all the ships had crazy fans. They did. But none like this one. Because these people went beyond the typical mean comments about looks or weight. These people aimed to cause real, true harm, and in some cases they almost succeeded. And now, after PLL being over for two years, with the chance for this rabid fanbase to lose their flame, another show targeted at the SAME PEOPLE is airing next week. Another chance to bring them together, to attack anyone they see as getting in the way of their ship.  

   Fans of the ship Paily were targeted. And even more so than us, Paige’s actress, Lindsey Shaw, was targeted the most relentlessly and disgustingly of all. Whether you are a fan of Lindsey’s or not, you cannot justify what happened to her. Not even if you still choose to believe she “supports Trump,” which she made clear she does not. As a fan of hers, I will agree it was dumb of her to joke about that, and I think she forgot that people don’t always get her sense of humor. Not to mention, there were always people who weren’t fans waiting to pounce. But did you ever stop to think about what led to that little breakdown? (I think right around this time 3 years ago). At that point, Lindsey had already been taking abuse for YEARS, although it certainly got worse as emison became a possibility. She would post something unrelated to the show and be flooded with “kill yourself”, “die pigskin,” and “drink bleach.” How long can someone take that kind of harassment without snapping a little? I was always impressed it didn’t happen sooner. It was clear to me, as well as many of her other fans, that she was going through something personal at the time, and all of the abuse on top of it was a little too much. This all came to a head March 2016. No one from the show said anything.   

  Fast forward to May 2016, when I lost every ounce of respect for every single cast member of PLL. I used to be a huge fan of Shay. That started fading as she failed to even acknowledge her Paily fans as time went on. It was obvious she cared far more about being popular than she did about standing up for her fans or a co-star she claimed to love. And I don’t know, maybe she and Lindsey had some kind of personal falling out. I always wondered if that was the case, because how else could they all be cold enough to ignore someone’s obvious suffering? Even if that is the case, it isn’t an excuse for her never speaking up. On one day in early May, Lindsey retweeted something that got a portion of the emison base in a frenzy, with them claiming she called Sasha ugly (the tweet did no such thing. It was calling Paily a beautiful couple). Anyway, they POUNCED with a level of venom I had never even seen before. It was horrifying. There were lots of death threats, calls for her to hurt herself. But the one that stood out most came from a user who I won’t name because I don’t want her to have the satisfaction. She literally started a petition with Lindsey’s twitter handle in it, telling people to RT to get her to commit suicide. To which Lindsey responded that she had already tried. Anyone outside of that small pocket of emisons was HORRIFIED, frantically tweeting Marlene, Shay, Troian, all the big name people from the show to address this. Even if they didn’t address Lindsey, to just make an overall statement about how this behavior wasn’t okay. Fans from every ship were taking part. I was sure Shay, or at least Marlene, would say something.

  None of them did. Not a single one. It was obvious at that point how much Lindsey was suffering. But still no one said a word.

  These are all adults. Grown women acting like a group of middle school bystanders, too cowardly to stand up for the bullied. There is no excuse for them never addressing this. Especially since with a new show, it’s likely to just start up where it left off. In glancing through instagram comments, these same fans have already found a new target: Evan Bittencourt. I don’t know who he is or why they hate him, and frankly I don’t care, because I’m sure it’s bogus, just like their reasons for hating Lindsey. The point is, just like I was afraid of the second I heard Marlene was doing another show, they have already found a new target. I have literally seen them refer to him as “The new Lindsey Shaw.” And anyone who watched PLL knows that’s not a good thing. Just some snooping has already revealed some pretty ugly tweets/comments, which I’m sure he is seeing. We saw first hand how over time being bombarded with hatred took its toll on someone who was once very proud and passionate about the character they played.

  Mental health is important. Suicide is very serious. I won’t even get into why seeing Lindsey’s tweet that night shattered my heart or why it to this day infuriates me that none of those women said anything. The fact that so many people think it’s a joke, or that it’s okay running around telling people to hurt themselves, will forever remain a mystery.

  Marlene shouldn’t be allowed to have another show after what she encouraged during her last one, and especially not one directed at the same group of fans. PLL needs to be dead and buried forever. No spinoffs. The show, and the people working on it, became toxic, and that same toxicity will be revived the moment these characters are brought back to life next week. Real people got hurt last time. Real people almost died. Think of how crazy and serious that is. I shudder to think what social media is going to look like once this gets under way, especially if the fans of the emison ship feel threatened. I know I will not watch even a second of this show. I hope it is short lived and these characters, and the toxicity they bring with them, can finally be put to rest.

  So what happens if things get bad again, Marlene? Will you say something? Will you ever try to make this right? We haven’t forgotten what you let happen to us, or happen to Lindsey. We will never forget how badly she was struggling personally, or that she was driven off social media because of your fans that you never EVER addressed. It breaks my heart what you let happen to her, and it breaks my heart that with this new show comes the opportunity for it to happen again. I hope you’ve become a better person since the Lindsey Shaw Fiasco. It’s too late for you to ever make that right, and honestly, I don’t think you have any desire to. But I do hope that you at least have enough remorse, however small it may be, to make sure it never happens again.

Please share this. Here, to twitter, instagram, everywhere. Let’s make sure we stand up this time.

[aliciameade]

Fade Into You - Ch. 1

Title: Fade Into You (Chapter 1 of 5) Author: aliciameade Rating: T Pairing: Beca/Chloe Summary: Tip for newlyweds: send a wedding invite to every billionaire whose address you can find because it's a 50/50 chance their assistants just send you a perfunctory gift without ever wondering who the hell you are. Or: Beca had a really bad terrible idea when she got tired of being broke in New York. 

Also on AO3 and FFnet, but I probably can’t link there idk.

Beca wasn’t prepared for how expensive it was to live in New York City. Sure, she’d done her research; she knew it would be costly, but just how costly it was was wreaking havoc on her bank account. Rent, transportation, groceries, household necessities and the very rare luxuries like a concert or theater ticket here or there to keep her sanity had her living paycheck to paycheck. Even bringing two roommates with her to cram into the tiny Brooklyn studio didn’t help her live any more comfortably (considering only one of them chipped in for rent).

Of course, it probably helped her afford to eat.

Whatever. The point was that it was not quite the life she envisioned for herself once she landed what she thought was a Big Job.

But at least she had her friends.

“Why do I have so many cousins? And why are they all getting married?”

Beca watched Chloe sitting at their tiny dining table on Sunday afternoon (if you could even call it that) as she tossed aside a just-opened fancy envelope and what Beca assumed to be a wedding invitation. As far as she could remember, it was the fourth Chloe had received so far that year. “How many cousins do you have?”

“Sixteen. And I’m the baby of the family so they’re all either married or about to be. And here I am.” She gestured at nothing specific and sighed. “I can barely pay my share of the groceries. I can’t afford to go to all these weddings so I need to send something off their registry, but I can’t afford that, either.”

“Weddings feel like a ploy to get free shit from everyone you met once in your life,” Beca said as she watched Chloe stress out. “Like, congratulations on deciding to spend your life with one person. Why do I have to reward that?”

“It’s like an expectation. You either have to go to the wedding or send a gift. Or both!” Chloe slid her chair back from the table and took the two steps needed to get to their bed which she threw herself on a bit dramatically. “I’m just going to elope.”

She liked being on the same page as Chloe. “And miss out on all the free swag?” Beca said as she nudged Chloe’s foot with her own.

“I don’t want to be part of the problem!”

“Okay, okay!” Beca laughed. “So elope. Must be nice, though: send out a bunch of invitations to people you know won’t come and get a bunch of free stuff in return.”

“I know,” Chloe mumbled into her pillow. “It’s so messed up.”

A devious thought slid through Beca’s mind and she paused the music she’d been playing. “I need a new Keurig; ours is going to die any day now. I can feel it.”

Chloe turned onto her side to look up at Beca. “What does that have to do with anything?”

She closed her laptop and slid down to lie next to Chloe, eye-to-eye. “I have an idea. But before I tell you, I blame it entirely on Amy’s influence.”

“Why Amy?”

“You’ll see. Now hear me out. What if we sent out wedding invitations saying we’re getting married in, like, Fiji where no one we know can afford to go, and set up a wedding registry somewhere.”

“Beca, that’s, like, fraud. No wonder you blamed it on Amy.” Chloe frowned at her. “And no one would believe we’re getting married anyway.”

“Why not?”

“Because we’re not even dating!” Chloe said with a laugh. “And you don’t even like girls!”

Oh. Right. There were those little details that the people who would make sense to invite to their wedding would know she and Chloe weren’t together. Not to mention the giant elephant in Beca’s mental room that she was actually very into girls and very, very into Chloe.

Except literally no one in her new adult life knew either of those facts about her. The bisexual thing was weird to bring up unprompted at this point, and when she started dating Jesse in college, everyone just assumed she was straight and made it even weirder to try to correct.

And the Chloe thing, well...that was all sorts of messy and complicated.

“Okay, first of all, a person can fall in love with someone who’s not their usual...type, so anyone who says shit about that can fuck right off.”

Chloe seemed a bit surprised by her declaration but waved for her to continue. “And the fact that it’s me?”

She had to stop herself from saying, “It’s everything.” Instead, she said, “We’ve basically been living together for six years. I don’t think it’s that far-fetched.”

Chloe was quiet for a moment, thinking, and then a slow smile spread across her face. “Beca Mitchell, you devious little devil. You actually think this could work.”

“Well, why wouldn’t it? If Aubrey was getting married in, like, Fiji and you couldn’t afford to go, you’d send her something off her registry, right? That’s what you just said.”

“I would never miss Aubrey’s wedding,” Chloe said earnestly. “She’s my best friend. And she wouldn’t miss mine, either.”

“Okaaaaaay,” Beca drawled. “So we don’t invite our current friends. Or immediate family. Cousins, old coworkers, and friends from high school.”

“Can I invite Mrs. Higgins, my 8th grade choir teacher? She was my favorite teacher.”

“Yeah, I mean as long as she won’t try to show up—wait. You’d actually do this?”

“You’ve had worse ideas.”

“Have I though?” Beca shook her head. “This is dumb. Forget it.” She put away her computer and rolled out of bed. “I’m going to Target if you need anything. I’m out of conditioner.”

“I don’t think I do, but I’ll come with you.”

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

When Beca came home from work late on Monday, Chloe was laying in bed, laptop propped on her thighs. She was intently focused on whatever it was she was doing and didn’t look up at Beca’s entrance.

“Hey, weirdo,” Beca said as she kicked out of her shoes and pulled her own computer out of her bag to toss it onto the bed while she changed into comfy lounging clothes. “What are you doing?”

Chloe ignored her for a few more seconds before tapping the trackpad with particularly notable resolution and sitting up. “Hey!”

“Yeah, hey,” Beca laughed. “Seriously, what are you doing? Caught up in an intense Pinterest spiral?”

Chloe shook her head. “Come here; I want to show you something.”

“Is this going to be puppies or something dirty?” Beca knelt on their bed and walked her way up until she was sitting next to Chloe. There was no telling what Chloe had up her sleeve whenever she told Beca she wanted to show her something.

“Neither. Look.” She turned her screen toward Beca.

“What am I looking at?” she asked after a few seconds. “Because that looks like a wedding invitation with our names on it.”

“That’s what it is.”

She looked at the invitation on Chloe’s screen again and then looked at her. Chloe was biting her lip and almost buzzing with excitement. “And why is that a thing that exists?”

“I made it!”

Beca rolled her eyes. “And why did you make it?”

“We need invitations if we’re going to invite people to our wedding.”

“That idea was terrible! I told you to forget it; how much time did you spend on this?” She grabbed the computer away from Chloe so she could zoom in on it. The stationery had been painted with watercolors. It was quite pretty and one Beca wouldn’t be opposed to choosing for her actual wedding.

“A couple hours. I went with a silver and sage palette. I don’t think we’re a couple who has pink in their wedding.”

“Yeah, no,” Beca said, only half-listening because her brain was pretty hung up at the moment seeing the words ‘The Wedding of Beca and Chloe’ in script. “No pink.”

“I just put Fiji because you mentioned it yesterday but we can pick something else. And a date. Oh, and we’re registered at Amazon and IKEA.”

Picking a wedding locale and date with Chloe? Sure. Cool. “Wait. You already registered us?”

“Well, no, not yet,” Chloe scoffed as if Beca’s question was absurd. “That’s what’s on the registry cards that go with the invitations. We need to make our registries together next weekend.”

“I’m not sure if I should be concerned or proud that you’re so willing to go along with my terrible idea.”

“What’s the worst that could happen?” Chloe said with a shrug.

Beca was pretty sure a lot of bad things could happen like someone showing up to a non-existent wedding. Then again, all they’d really have to do is apologize and explain that the wedding was called off last-minute and point out their would-be guests would now have a vacation in Fiji without wedding activities to inconvenience them.

“Several things come to mind,” she said as she returned the computer.

Chloe elbowed her. “Okay. We need this to be far enough in advance that it doesn’t feel shotgun, but not too far that everyone can rearrange their schedules for it.”

“So it’s like I forgot to send out the invitations like I said I would and you found them in a box two months after they were supposed to have gone out?”

Chloe looked at her, holding her gaze. “That sounds exactly like something you would do.”

“And we should have it on, like, a Wednesday so it’s super inconvenient. With no holidays around it that people can use to save vacation days.”

“I feel like you’re a secret evil genius,” Chloe said as she flipped through the calendar on her computer. “How about October 2?”

“Perfect.”

They then spent more than an hour Googling Fiji and wedding location options. It took so long because they kept bickering about the venues; Chloe loved one but Beca hated it. Then Beca loved one and Chloe hated it. Every fifteen minutes or so, one of them would remind the other this was all fake and it didn’t matter, and the other would argue that it still had to seem real. They’d finally settled on a resort located on the edge of a rainforest that had more than enough amenities for a destination wedding.

“Well?” Chloe asked when she finished entering the details on the invitation. “Good?”

Beca stared at the screen and what they’d created inviting recipients to their wedding. It made her a little queasy so she swallowed hard. “Perfect.”

They ordered a set of one hundred invitations, response cards, registry cards, and envelopes for it all and agreed to split the expense equally.

“Did we seriously just do that?” Beca asked as she put away her credit card. “That shit is nonrefundable. We just burned five hundred dollars.”

“Think of it as a down payment on my new dinette set.”

“Your new dinette? Pretty sure that’s going to be ours, babe.”

Chloe cocked an eyebrow at her. “Babe?”

Beca blushed. “Wedding fever. Shut up.”

“You’re adorable,” Chloe said with a laugh as she grabbed Beca by the chin to give her a shake. “Careful, or I might marry you for real.”

She blushed even harder, her heart getting lodged in her throat. “Yeah, right, dude.”

“We’ll see,” Chloe said with a wink before hopping off the bed to leave Beca behind, heart still pounding. “It’s my turn to make dinner. What do you want?”

~~~

~~~

“How many names do you have so far?” Chloe asked from her lounging spot lying backward on their bed, feet rocking back and forth next to Beca.

Beca looked at the spreadsheet on her computer; she hated spreadsheets. Loathed them. But Chloe created one for their wedding invitation list so she could have Staples print the addresses on the envelopes once they arrived. Had they planned ahead like actual would-be brides, they’d have had the list ready to import when they ordered the invitations to let the printer do that. But alas. “Thirty-six. It’s hard to figure out who makes sense to invite to my wedding but wouldn’t actually come.”

“If you can get to forty, I can make up the difference.”

“I should invite the CEO of BFD; it’s not like he’d ever come. I’ve never even met him. He’d probably pick one of the expensive gifts, too.”

Chloe sat up quickly and Beca tried not to think about how strong her abs must be to do that. “Beca.”

“What?”

“You’re a genius.” She sat forward so suddenly Beca had a fleeting [stupid] thought that Chloe was about to kiss her but all she did was turn around to sit next to her and look at the list on Beca’s screen. “But don’t add him; I don’t want to put your career at risk. Put your douche boss from Residual Heat instead; there’s no way he’d come.”

“O...kay,” Beca said as she typed his name. She’d have to look up her old studio’s mailing address later. “But why am I a genius?”

“We can invite a handful of CEOs and tech bigwigs who won’t know whether or not we work for them. We send it to their office and their assistant will just buy something off our registry without bothering to look us up.”

“Should I be concerned that your mind is this twisted?” Beca asked as Chloe commandeered her laptop to open Google and start searching.

“Did you forget this was your idea to begin with?”

She watched Chloe pull up the address for the headquarters of Apple. “A little ambitious, don’t you think?”

“Are you kidding? The bigger the company the bigger the chance we get a ‘declines with regret’ and you get that Ableton Push you think I didn’t see you add to our Amazon registry.”

Beca grumbled under her breath to hide her guilt. She’d gotten a little click-happy the other night after a couple beers and added a few non-traditional items to their list like high-end mixing equipment and the new Xbox.

“I’m just going to pick ten companies from the Forbes 500. Let’s see what happens. And now you don’t have to come up with the rest of your list!”

“Sounds great,” she said with a tight-lipped smile.

Something in her gut was telling her they were taking this much too far. But that new Ableton was so, so pretty…

~~~

~~~

“Becs, honey,” Chloe said when Beca opened the door to head to work.

Beca turned, patting herself down to make sure she had her keys and phone. “What’s up?”

“Don’t forget to mail the invitations.” She smiled at Beca and pointed at the shoe box on the table containing their pretty little scams. Amy had stuffed the envelopes for them last night and was naturally agreeable to their little business venture. They’d obliged her request to add an absurd inflatable bounce house to their list as payment for her help as long as she promised to never try to set it up in the apartment.

Beca was pretty sure Amy had her fingers crossed behind her back when she agreed.

She picked it up and rapped her fingernails on it. “Are you sure we should do this? I feel kind of guilty.”

“We got our list down to eighty-nine people we barely know—or don’t know at all. It’s going to be fine. Don’t worry.”

“Yeah, okay,” Beca said with a nod, though being told not to worry didn’t magically erase her concerns. “You’re right. I’ll see you after work. It’s my turn to cook, so text me what you want and I’ll pick it up on my way home.”

“I’m totes going to be the one who actually cooks in this marriage, aren’t I?”

“Trust me; it’s for the best. I’ll see you later.”

“Bye, sweetie!”

~~~

~~~

Beca dropped the stack of thick, fancy envelopes into the outgoing mail drop on the corner by her subway stop on her way to work, and that was it.

The deed was done.

~ ~ ~

~ ~ ~

Three days later...

When Beca came home from work she found Chloe at the table but she wasn’t sipping her usual tea and wearing a smile at Beca’s return.

Instead, she was visibly nervous, her arms crossed and eyes fixed on her untouched tea.

“Hey, what’s wrong?” Beca asked and moved to sit across from her. “Are you okay?”

“Promise you won’t get mad?” Chloe said in a small voice, eyes refusing to meet Beca’s.

“It’s hard to promise that when I don’t know what’s wrong, but I’ll try. What’s going on?”

Chloe closed her eyes and sighed. “My parents got one of our invitations.”

“What?!” Beca almost launched from her chair; she gripped the edge of the table to stay put and she saw Chloe flinch at her outburst. She tried to lower voice when she demanded, “How?”

“I checked the spreadsheet because I know I didn’t put them on it.” She sounded on the verge of tears. “But it looks like it got corrupted, like it combined with my Christmas card list.”

Beca’s blood ran cold. “My dad’s on your Christmas card list, too.” She’d barely finished the sentence when her phone started ringing in her pocket. She could hear Chloe’s text alerts almost non-stop from where her phone sat on her bedside table. “Who else ended up on the list?”

Chloe closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’m so, so sorry.”

Beca pulled her phone from her pocket; she already knew. She didn’t even bother looking at the screen as she swiped the screen to answer it. “Hey, Dad.”

“You and Chloe are getting married?!” he crowed into the phone. “Why didn’t you say anything sooner? Oh, Beca I’m so happy for you both; you’re perfect together!”

“We’re not—wait.” She straightened. “Huh?”

“I knew it was only a matter of time.”

She looked at Chloe across the table who was oblivious to what her father was saying. She seemed to assume it to be terrible the way she was hiding half her face behind her hand. She looked miserable.

“Yeah…” Beca replied. She felt bad; this was all her doing and now Chloe’s going to be humiliated having to tell everyone in her life that she tried to do something dumb. Or that her fake relationship failed. And all her cousins were getting married… “We’re...really happy.”

Chloe’s hand fell and her eyes went wide. “What are you doing?” she whispered.

“And I’m so happy for you. The date is going to be tough for me to get away in the middle of the semester, but there’s no way I’m going to miss my little girl’s big day. Is there a block of rooms reserved for guests? Should I just give your name when I call?”

“Um, no. Sorry. We...we splurged on the trip so we couldn’t lock down rooms for everyone.”

“Don’t you worry; I’ll take care of the rooms. It’s the least I can do. I’ll call the resort and give them my information.” It was Beca’s turn to cover her eyes. “Thanks, Dad. That’s so generous.”

“Anything for you and my soon-to-be daughter-in-law.”

“Thanks. Listen, I just got home and Chloe and I have a lot to talk about. I’ll talk to you later, okay?”

“Sure, pumpkin.”

Beca ended the call and set down her phone with a long exhale. “Shit.”

“What happened?” Chloe asked sounding as sheepish as she did excited.

“He’s...going to pay for everyone’s rooms at the resort for our wedding.”

Chloe blinked hard and sat back. “What?”

“He thinks we’re perfect together. And he wasn’t surprised at all. Well, he was surprised by the wedding. Not about us being together.” Which we’re not. “What did your parents say?”

Chloe cleared her throat. “They offered to pay for the rehearsal dinner and the reception.”

“What?” Beca said with a barked laugh.

“They’re over the moon for us. Asked what took us so long.” She looked like she wanted to disappear into her chair, which was a unique state for Chloe to be in.

“But you didn’t tell them it’s fake.”

“Did you tell your dad it’s fake?” Chloe countered. “No, you didn’t. You just went along with it.”

Beca sank into her chair, too. “And now our parents are ecstatic we’re getting married.” There was a lot to unpack with that fact and all that came with it. Chloe’s texts were still chiming and a minute later, Beca’s started up, too. “Seriously, who else got invited?”

With a sigh, Chloe slid a piece of paper across the table. Printed on it was a spreadsheet set up just like what they’d made to send to Staples, except it was a mish-mash of their distant cousins, millionaire executives, and people they actually knew. Their parents. The owner of the vet clinic Chloe was interning at.

Aubrey, Emily, and the rest of the Bellas.

“Oh, my God, how did this happen?” Beca said with a groan as she crumpled the paper and tossed it toward the trash can. (She missed.)

“I told you: I don’t know! All I can think is that my files were named List1 and List2 and somehow they got combined or maybe I didn’t delete everything from one of them before I saved it.” She reached across the table and grabbed Beca’s hands. “Beca, I’m so, so sorry. I’ll take care of everything. I’ll let everyone know it was just a prank gone wrong.”

Beca was about to agree when she remembered how excited her father sounded. “Your parents were really happy?”

Chloe managed a sad laugh; she still looked on the verge of tears and Beca couldn’t blame her. She felt like she might cry herself. “My mom said she was starting to get worried you were never going to propose.”

“Oh, my God,” Beca said, blushing hard. “She didn’t even know that we were dating. Or, that we weren’t dating. Whatever. What did you say?”

“I told her I asked you.”

“You proposed to me?!” Beca scoffed. “As if you would! I would totally ask you to marry me before you even had a chance!”

Chloe blinked at her, her worry and sadness starting to fade into a soft smile. “You would?”

Beca realized what she’d said and shook her head. “Nevermind. I should have looked at the envelopes before I dropped them off.”

“You didn’t have a reason to. This isn’t your fault.”

“Except that it was all my idea?” Beca said with a crooked smile. “You’d think Amy would have realized they were wrong when she was stuffing them. She knew the plan.”

Chloe sighed and let go of Beca’s hands to run her own through her hair. “Something tells me she knew they got messed up.”

“Why would you think that?”

Chloe shot her a look.

“Because it’s Amy. Right.” She sighed, too. “I need a drink.” Beca stood up and headed for the fridge, the top of which held their liquor collection. “What do you want?”

“Whiskey, neat,” Chloe answered as she pushed aside her tea.

“Yeah. Me, too.”

~~~

~~~

They waited until they were both two whiskeys in before they agreed to get on Skype with Aubrey.

“This is how you tell me you two are a thing?” Aubrey said as she waved the invitation in front of her camera. “A little warning would have been nice.”

“It all happened so fast, Bree,” Chloe said. “I guess living together in such close quarters...well, it brought some things to light.”

It was so convincing that Beca almost believed her. Except she didn’t know why they were lying to Aubrey. Not wanting to immediately disappoint their excited parents was one thing, but going along with it with Aubrey… She nudged Chloe from her spot next to her where they sat closely in bed so they could both be mostly in frame and threw her a look she hoped read, What the hell are you doing?

Chloe just winked at her and slipped her arm behind her to wrap around her waist and pull her closer.

“Well, as disappointed as I am that you didn’t think to tell me, I’m thrilled for you both.”

“You are?” Beca scoffed.

“Why wouldn’t I be? You two are good for each other. And I know you’ll take care of my best friend.”

Beca had to fight hard to not blush. “Yeah. Well...that’s the plan.”

“So, Fiji? I’ve always wanted to go! Do you have a wedding planner? And Chloe, I can’t believe you haven’t asked me to be your Maid of Honor yet! We made a pact!”

Chloe cleared her throat. “Right! I was getting to that! I’d love it if you’d be my Maid of Honor.”

“What are you doing?” Beca muttered from the side of her mouth.

“Asking my bestie to be in our wedding,” Chloe muttered in return.

“I’d be honored!” Aubrey said with a bright grin. “Now you have to let me take over the planning. You can’t do this all by yourselves. Put me in touch with your contact at the resort and I’ll take it over. What have you arranged so far?”

“Well, we could barely get the invitations out without trouble…” Chloe started and Beca elbowed her. “So we haven’t really had a chance to get going yet. We haven’t even put down the deposit to reserve the space yet—”

“Don’t say another word,” Aubrey said with her hand up. “I’m going to take care of that as my gift to you both.”

“Thanks, Bree. That means so much.” Chloe grasped Beca’s hand and pulled it up to kiss it.

Beca just stared at her in shock.

“Right, Becs?”

“Uh, yeah. Right. Thanks, Aubrey,” Beca offered. “We gotta go, though,” she added, desperate to end the torture.

“Okay. Remember to send me that info and I’ll send you the confirmations once I get it taken care of this week.”

“Totes. I’ll text you later.”

“Perfect. Have a good night, you two!”

“Bye!” Chloe chirped and Beca offered a weak wave as Chloe disconnected the call.

“Oh, my God, Chloe, we can’t keep this up!” she said as soon as the screen was blank. “What are we doing?!”

“Everyone’s so excited for us; I don’t want to disappoint them.” Chloe turned a little to look at her and she was so close Beca could see the different specks of light and dark in Chloe’s eyes. “We’ll tell them soon.”

“Aubrey’s going to spend money on this. We can’t let her do that.”

“I’ll wait a few days to send her the info and then we’ll just tell it’s off.”

“Really?”

“Really.”

~~~

~~~

Not two hours had passed when both their phones chimed with a group text from Aubrey to the two of them. Chloe was taking a bath when it came in so Beca opened it and read it aloud so she could hear it.

“Was too excited! Looked up the resort info and got it booked. Oh, my God. They said they didn’t have any record of your interest—gee, I wonder why—and the day was already booked for some corporate retreat but I got them to move it for the wedding. Of course she did. Good thing you let me take care of it! You might not have had a venue. Damn it, Chloe!”

“Well, it’s not my fault!”

“Then whose fault is it?!”

Nothing but silence followed from behind the shower curtain.

(Chapter 2)

[obsidianarchives]

Kuumba

Kuumba - Creativity; To do always as much as we can, in the way we can, in order to leave our community more beautiful and beneficial than we inherited it.

[Book Year Six]

Blaise Zabini sat in his empty dormitory, staring at Draco’s empty bed across from his. This was not how he thought this week would go — his classmate, his roommate was an almost murderer who had left with the Death Eaters. The headmaster was dead. His head of house was the actual murderer. And Crabbe and Goyle had left the dorm early that morning, leaving for who knows where. Blaise didn’t want to know.

It all seemed to happen so fast. He was studying for exams just last week! Well, he was helping Des study and… well, okay, helping may have been an overstatement. She’d shooed him out of her secluded corner more than once. But just when he was feeling settled in himself and his dual life at Hogwarts, this ish had to go down.

Blaise had hidden his connection to the rest of the BSU this year, taking a step back from his leadership role of three years. With Draco outright bragging about being a Death Eater (then spiraling into reclusiveness) and the Dark Lord reaching out to more and more Slytherin families trying to recruit, Blaise knew he needed to not draw too much attention to his friendliness with the other houses. Dean and the rest hated it, and he felt like he was letting them down, but a Slytherin’s primary function was self-preservation! And this was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. Umbridge hadn’t spooked him as much as the idea of the Dark Lord finding out about the BSU. She wouldn’t let them meet, but wasn’t about to murder them all. So he asked the other members to only talk to him during meetings and in private. Most of the members stopped talking to him even in meetings. It was for their safety, but few of the members got that, especially the reckless Gryffs of the group. The only person who continued to spend time with him without consistent looks of disappointment was Desiree — and Blaise knew she was long-suffering and nearing a breaking point.

No, instead of derision, Des looked at him like… like maybe he wasn’t doomed to be evil like the rest of Slytherin House. She didn’t seem to mind not speaking to him in the Great Hall, even. In fact, she flaunted her way past the Slytherin table to the Hufflepuff one with a swing in her step that he knew was just to taunt him. She had a way of making him wish he could break his own rule.

Blaise rubbed his hand over his face. She was the only thing keeping him from breaking. Because between worrying about his mum (who was prowling for a new husband and dating around the usual bad crowd), N.E.W.T. level classes, and trying to stay off the Death Eaters’ radar, he was tired from being spread so thin and keeping his feelings in several tightly packed compartments. Spending time with Desiree — usually in the library, watching her bake in the kitchens, or a spot behind the greenhouses where a Flitterbloom grew — was the only time he could be his full self. A worried son, an ambitious (but not psychopathic ethnic cleansing) Slytherin, and a big enthusiast of wizard-n-blues music. The irony that he’d created this club for Black students to feel free and now was the only one who couldn’t be wasn’t lost on him.

Speaking of which, he had to go. He’d gotten a note on the charmed parchment the BSU had used to communicate when Umbridge was terrorizing them. He’d always kept it on him, and wasn’t surprised Dean turned to it in the aftermath of the invasion. He couldn’t imagine what there was to meet about. The headmaster was dead, classes were cancelled, both a student and a teacher were on the run after attacking the school, and the Dark Lord had scored a major victory. But he was feeling unsettled (and very literally alone) in his dorm, so he would take any excuse to be around his people.

…

Blaise sat next to Alex Johnson, who’d taken Dean’s place as Vice President when Blaise stepped down, on the desk at the front of the Astronomy classroom. Dean stood next to them. The Gryffindor was riled up. He apparently hadn't slept much after Dumbledore’s death and couldn’t shake his nervous battle energy. Blaise knew he and Lavender had been doing work with Dumbledore’s Army — making plans he wasn’t told about and didn’t ask about.

Hermione was out, but Blaise figured she was with Potter. Ella and Eli, first year Muggle-born twins, had already been taken out of school. Blaise was the only Slytherin in the room, the others, all younger, were keeping to their dorm this morning it seemed. He didn’t blame them. The looks he was getting from the others made him wish he could ditch his green and silver tie, and he chose that moment to at least loosen it from his neck. Everyone was in their robes. Dumbledore’s funeral would be later that afternoon, and each club was doing something for the service.

“I hear the Assemblé Assembly is doing a performative dance,” said a Moe Mitchell, a younger Gryffindor.

“Charms club is going to provide a light show,” said Kia Langston, a Ravenclaw.

They'd been trying to think of something to contribute for 20 minutes, Dean having found out from McGonagall just that morning that most of the clubs were to contribute something to the ceremony for the headmaster. Blaise knew what he would like for them to do, but the person involved wouldn’t really want to do it. So he'd been silent, feeling it wasn’t his place after having stepped back from club leadership duties anyway. They let him stand in the front because the club had been his idea — Desiree had helped fight for him on that front at the beginning of the year — but he was often overruled on decisions. He saw her profile in the corner of his eye and he couldn’t help himself.

He swallowed and spoke.

“What if we didn't all do something?”

Dean looked ‘round at him, clearly surprised he'd spoken. “What do you mean?”

“Like what if we just had a representative do something?”

“Oh and I suppose you think that should be you?” said Keegan Thompson, a Gryffindor who had been one of the most vocally pissed at Blaise for his decision to “abandon” them as he’d called it. “Typical Slytherin,” he muttered under his breath.

“No.” Blaise hoped his look cut the puny Gryff — he'd been told many times his eyes and cheekbones could cut steel. “I didn't mean me.”

Blaise softened his stare as he turned to look at Desiree. The room was quiet.

“Des could sing.”

She looked shocked that the words had come out of his mouth. He talked about her singing all the time, but he knew she didn't want to do it in front of other people. It was something only he and perhaps her dorm mates had heard her do.

“Blaise.” Her voice just above a whisper. He stared her down and she slowly shook her head. “There's gotta be something else...”

“We've been at this for 20 minutes and McGonagall is going to be asking what we’ve got. No one's thought of anything else and you would be great.” Blaise just didn’t understand. She had such talent, now was a perfect time to use it.

Dean looked at Desiree with kindness. “Would you be down to do that?”

Desiree looked around at every eye staring at her and closed her eyes before saying, “Yeah. Sure. Fine. Let me go prepare.” And with that, she fled the room.

Dean and the rest of the room all turned to glare at Blaise. He ignored the harsh look in Dean’s eyes.

“You'll tell McGonagall, right?” he said to Dean, before hopping off the desk and leaving the room.

He knew where Desiree would go.

…

The music conservatory in the East wing, just off one of the smaller towers, was filled with any musical instrument you could think of. There was a piano, a self-playing harp, a dirigible, and any number of loud clanging thing, including magical yarn mallets that floated around tapping and ting-ing on any cymbal and singing surface scattered throughout the room. The walls were spelled to be sound proof, but Professor McGonagall often pointed out the portraits of various wizarding musicians hanging in the room and informed students that the portraits liked to gossip around the castle, especially in the headmasters office. The pseudo-security system helped curb any salacious behavior in the room.  

Last year, Desiree invited him here to hear her sing one of her grandmother's songs — a slow ballad that wasn't one of Celestina Warbeck’s top hits. The song — and more specifically, Des’s voice — bounced around his head for two months. None of his previous interests, mostly older white girls who called him “chocolate” and were obsessed with his hair, held a candle to Desiree Warbeck. But only his own blind ambition and desire to keep a low profile when the Dark Lord returned prevented him from acting on his feelings. They'd hung out in the conservatory only three times in total, her singing her favorite songs while Blaise pretended to play the piano. He'd had lessons once, one of his mother's husband's was an accountant for the The Charming Chamber Orchestra of Cheswick (he was later found to have been embezzling Galleons from the charity orchestra), but he didn't have any musical talent. Not like she did. He joked around on the keys to keep himself from staring at her the entire time.

Blaise arrived at the conservatory to locked doors. Well, that hurt. The door didn’t come with a lock, so she’d clearly used magic to lock it herself. He supposed he deserved that.

“Des! I know you’re in there. Don’t make me Alohomora the door open!” He couldn’t hear inside the room, but could almost feel her rattle as she decided whether or not to let him in. But he also knew she was a Hufflepuff, who at the very least was his friend.

She opened the door, standing just directly behind it. “Are you going to apologize?”

“No — have you been crying?” He tried to breach the doorway to see if she had been, but she closed the door with a huff.

“Des!”

“Blaise, go away.”

“No, I’m going to stand right here until you let me in!”

“I can’t practice with you standing outside the door.”

“I won’t even be able to hear you sing from out here.”

“Hmm, maybe I can practice then.” There was that badger’s bite.

“Des,” he continued softly, head pressed against the door. “Have you really been crying?”

“I’ve told you time and again, I don’t like singing in front of people. There’s a reason, Blaise.”

“I — can we not do this with a door between us?”

The door opened magically and Blaise stepped inside. Desiree was sitting at the grand piano, where he usually sat. He often joked that she should sing while sprawled across the top of it, and she always gave him a cutting look, likely rivaling his own. She was staring at the black and white keys. He sat next to her.

“Alright. I’m... I’m sorry. For putting you on the spot, not for suggesting you. You can sing, it’s four minutes of time, and there’s so much going on no one’s gonna remember you anyway! So why are you crying?”

Desiree just sighed heavily.

“Our headmaster is dead, Blaise. Our professor killed him. Your Slytherin mates brought them in. And You-Know-Who is just… out there. Biding his time. He’s killed purebloods before, most of them were like us. And you think I’m crying just because of a little bit of singing? You know I hate singing in front of people, but you’ve never bothered to ask why. It doesn’t just make me nervous. It makes me wanna crawl out of my skin. My heart beats too fast, and I lose track of the rhythm. And now I have to sing in front of the whole Wizarding World at the funeral for a man who was murdered, who is considered to be one of the greatest men to ever live? He’s on a chocolate frog card, Blaise!”

“I… I didn’t realize it made you feel that way. You never seem nervous in front of me.”

“I’m always nervous in front of you, but not because of the singing.”

Blaise swallowed the depth of her words, it wasn’t really the moment to deal with the burgeoning feelings they were both burdened with this year.

“I can tell Professor McGonagall you want out.”

“No. We’ve agreed. I’ll do it. And you’re right, it’s just four minutes of time in a long ceremony where people won’t remember the details in the end. But I’m just…”

Blaise looked at Des. She hadn’t looked up from the keys. Her hands were gripped tightly around the piano bench.

“I’m just scared.”

Blaise felt his heart clench. This wasn’t his fault. He didn’t hang with Malfoy and his crew, he hadn’t brought in the Death Eaters last night, he didn’t kill the headmaster. But he felt blame lace itself around his heart. He didn’t do enough to stop them, or even stand up to them. He let Malfoy spend an entire year plotting ways to kill their teacher. He hadn’t known that part, but he could see his peer diving into something out of his depth. Malfoy had become weary, clearly stretched thin, on the verge of snapping constantly. What if Blaise had said something to him? Could he have made a difference? Or what if he’d kept up his role with the BSU? Would he have been able to help Desiree with her growing fears sooner? He shook his head.

It was in the past. Zabinis didn’t dwell.

Right now, he could focus on the girl next to him. Scared and nearly trembling. He could help put something beautiful in the world, after such tragedy.

He placed his hand over hers on the bench. It was cold and, as he’d predicted, shaking. She looked at his hand, then looked at him. Her warm brown eyes still held the remnants of her tears. He noticed how tired her eyes were, how unkempt her long, kinky hair was. She wore no makeup. But her touch charged him like the moment he cast his first spell, the magic tingling in his arm, sparks flying, a feather flying through the air.

“Come on. It’s almost time.”

Unfortunately for Desiree, and to Blaise’s later glee, a recording of Desiree’s show-stopping performance was kept in the Hogwarts Conservatory.

[aira26soonas]

How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down

What we can learn from the media's silence about the South Georgia Storm Disaster 2017

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Is it that we don’t have a dead baby in a ditch like we had in the Camilla tornadoes in 2000 to get people upset? Is that Albany Georgia’s tragedy is ignored? Or is it just that the news media is so busy covering reality DC that they don’t have time to report on a storm that left 8,000 homes without power and my Facebook sources tell me thousands of homes damaged. With 9 tornadoes – that’s right NINE TORNADOES and 3 thunderstorm wind events reported by the National Weather service, I’m at a loss trying to understand why this isn’t national news. Without power for days, we have cold weather coming, and many impoverished people are going to suffer greatly. But if you turn on your TV, I doubt many of you will hear about it. And this complete lack of reporting is a problem. In this blog post I’m going to share why this is a problem and what we can do to help the survivors in this growing disaster.

I’ve embedded a film below, but it is from Facebook and some of you may not be able to see it.

When I got up Tuesday morning, I turned on the news, and heard about “some storms.” Some traffic lights were out. I did not grasp the magnitude of what happened. People at school were talking about the tragedy, and I thought,

Surely, if it were that bad, the news would have reported it, and the national news would have picked it up.

Nope. Mainstream media is too busy covering reality DC these days to talk about what truly matters.

As we saw during the election, the media seemed to be too busy manipulating us to inform us about things that matter to use average everyday folks. They’d rather get us upset about something over which we have no control than tell us about something where we can actually help. And they’ve failed yet again.

But you know who hasn’t failed? Mainstreet media. That’s you and that’s me. And we CAN make mainstream media notice if we all bring awareness to this. In fact, I’m hearing that MOST people are hearing the depth of tragedy through Facebook and NOT the media. And the media wants to know why they’re irrelevant.

I’ve asked for photographs and stories and Mainstreet media has filled my inbox with the pictures I’m sharing as part of this post. Feel free to add yours. Also note, while I’m using the hashtag #prayforalbany there are many towns impacted. I’ve heard from Newton, Meigs, Leary, and Baconton about extensive damage. This is a storm disaster of massive proportions.

Why Media Coverage Matters

I learned the depth of the tragedy from my church Facebook page when I got home from school at 4pm Tuesday. That was when we started collecting water to respond to the desperate and growing need.

If we don’t know, we don’t go. It is that simple.

You see, I have personal experience with storms before. In 2000, Kip and I were head of the Mitchell County Volunteer Command Center. On February 14, 2000, three tornadoes ripped through my tiny hometown damaging over 200 homes. We also had a terrible loss of life and 28 people died. It was something none of us would ever want to relive. There are no fond memories. We only feel the pain. But, just like in Albany, the entire community pulled together to respond to that storm.

The second day in Camilla, a big truck from Alabama full of bulldozers and heavy equipment pulled up and said,

“Where do you need us. We’re here to help, but we’re not here to charge.”

Because of extensive national news coverage, there were people everywhere coming out to help. Random strangers just showed up, helped, and left. We didn’t even know all their names. They knew that there was a need. That is what average everyday Americans do — we show up to help our neighbors.

That is if we know they need help. I’ve never seen anyone show up for a disaster they didn’t know about first.

What I Saw When We Delivered Water in Albany

Well, yesterday I wanted my students and to be those random strangers who helped. We gave out flats of water in public housing projects near Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany.  To my surprise, I saw a tragedy that far exceeded the damage I saw in Camilla in 2000.

And I didn’t see one truck from the media. So, here’s our truck. My Mainstreet media friends and I are telling you what really is happening.

There are lots of trees down. But bigger than this, many people are without power. Many very impoverished homes have had refrigerators out since Monday and won’t have power for perhaps weeks.

Just because you don’t have a tree in your yard doesn’t mean the storm hasn’t upended your life.

Why Media Silence Hurts Good People When Tragedies Strike

Here’s the problem when the media ignores a tragedy:

If people don’t know, people don’t go.

If people don’t know, the money doesn’t show.

It people don’t know, it takes longer to get better.

In my experience, when dealing with a disaster – nothing makes it better. Your only hope is to help people get better, faster. That way, you don’t have people feeling hopeless, getting depressed, and acting out in their pain.

Simply put, you want to help as many people as possible get back their life as soon as possible.

How the News Media Is Letting Us Down

The city of Albany is mobilizing and helping itself. But, even here I heard a local news reporter joking that she hoped for snow on Saturday. I yelled at the TV,

You have people who have been without power since Monday, who are living in freezing cold apartments with children, and you’re wishing for snow?

The complete and utter inability of the media to share what’s important in this world anymore befuddles me.

There used to be a time when news reporters reported on what was important. Additionally, they felt they had a responsibility to speak the truth. Now, I think they’re more interested in reality DC than they are in speaking the truth about what’s happening out in America.

Well, average America needs a responsible media, and guess what. You and I now have a job we were never intended to play.

Now last night I tweeted all of the mainstream media and of course didn’t hear a tweet back. I mean for all they know I’m just a random person with 134,000 Twitter followers.

My life was not made better last night when they went in and re-shared the live stream of the abuse of a special needs boy by four people. I can do nothing about what happened but be shocked and upset. Instead, why didn’t they share about the damage in Albany, Georgia and how they need help? The cold is coming and people are still without power.

Obviously, I can’t do anything about mainstream media, but I can do something about main street media. I can because I’m part of it.

Who am I? I’m a small town schoolteacher who some people read. And the people who read my blog aren’t just slacktivists; I attract ACTIVISTS. I attract people who DO SOMETHING to make the world a better place. We don’t whine about it; we do something about it.

So, let’s get busy.

Calling Out Main Street Media

So, dear reader, I now dub you, “mainstreet media.” You have a job to do. Go out there and tell people about this tragedy that has happened and how they can help. And then volunteer and do what you can.

1 – Tell People About the Tragedy And Ask for Their Support

So, what can you do about this? Tell people what is happening in Albany, Georgia. If mainstream media won’t, I’m calling out main street media.

But I will ask this if you share this blog post, please share one of the links to below first. It is more important to share about how to help than this post. 

Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Response Volunteer Page asks for people aged 14 to volunteer and help. Get up a group of people and come to help. In Camilla, we had people working for months – so even if it is later in January — COME. I promise they’ll need you. MOBILIZE!

Share the live streams from Sherwood Baptist Church  – they are a source of information I trust and will tell you what you can do. As of this post, on January 6 and 7 they need bottled water at the old Coke plant at 925 Pine Avenue, Albany. They are giving it out to those in need who have NO WATER. (Please check the stream for current needs.)

Use the hashtag #prayforalbany and hope that we can make it trend to get mainstream media to DO THEIR JOB!

2 – Donate money to help

Not everyone can come. Support your favorite disaster relief organization, or I just spoke to my pastor, Michael Catt, and if you donate through my church and designate for disaster relief benevolence that 100% of your money will go to help.

People who care, share. We share the truth. We share things that matter. People matter.

Now, get out there and do something.

Is this the Only Tragedy We’re Not Hearing About?

And when you know the tragedy in your local area that is not reported, it is your responsibility to report on it and to tell people. You now have a new job in addition to all the other jobs you have.

You must make sure that what you share is true, accurate, but also that it is stuff that that truly matters. Because it seems the people who have that job right now are too busy filming reality DC than doing their real job.

#prayforalbany

Let me also be super clear. The people in South Georgia are working hard and coming together. But many people even here in South Georgia are still uninformed as to just what has happened. We are literally finding out more and more via Facebook daily and shocked to realize that this story isn’t being told except to each other on Facebook. I just see a stark contrast in how the media covered the three 2000 tornadoes in Camilla and the nine South Georgia had on Monday night. I find no valid explanation. 

The post How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/how-mainstreet-media-steps-up-when-mainstream-media-lets-us-down/

[athena29stone]

How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down

What we can learn from the media's silence about the South Georgia Storm Disaster 2017

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Is it that we don’t have a dead baby in a ditch like we had in the Camilla tornadoes in 2000 to get people upset? Is that Albany Georgia’s tragedy is ignored? Or is it just that the news media is so busy covering reality DC that they don’t have time to report on a storm that left 8,000 homes without power and my Facebook sources tell me thousands of homes damaged. With 9 tornadoes – that’s right NINE TORNADOES and 3 thunderstorm wind events reported by the National Weather service, I’m at a loss trying to understand why this isn’t national news. Without power for days, we have cold weather coming, and many impoverished people are going to suffer greatly. But if you turn on your TV, I doubt many of you will hear about it. And this complete lack of reporting is a problem. In this blog post I’m going to share why this is a problem and what we can do to help the survivors in this growing disaster.

I’ve embedded a film below, but it is from Facebook and some of you may not be able to see it.

When I got up Tuesday morning, I turned on the news, and heard about “some storms.” Some traffic lights were out. I did not grasp the magnitude of what happened. People at school were talking about the tragedy, and I thought,

Surely, if it were that bad, the news would have reported it, and the national news would have picked it up.

Nope. Mainstream media is too busy covering reality DC these days to talk about what truly matters.

As we saw during the election, the media seemed to be too busy manipulating us to inform us about things that matter to use average everyday folks. They’d rather get us upset about something over which we have no control than tell us about something where we can actually help. And they’ve failed yet again.

But you know who hasn’t failed? Mainstreet media. That’s you and that’s me. And we CAN make mainstream media notice if we all bring awareness to this. In fact, I’m hearing that MOST people are hearing the depth of tragedy through Facebook and NOT the media. And the media wants to know why they’re irrelevant.

I’ve asked for photographs and stories and Mainstreet media has filled my inbox with the pictures I’m sharing as part of this post. Feel free to add yours. Also note, while I’m using the hashtag #prayforalbany there are many towns impacted. I’ve heard from Newton, Meigs, Leary, and Baconton about extensive damage. This is a storm disaster of massive proportions.

Why Media Coverage Matters

I learned the depth of the tragedy from my church Facebook page when I got home from school at 4pm Tuesday. That was when we started collecting water to respond to the desperate and growing need.

If we don’t know, we don’t go. It is that simple.

You see, I have personal experience with storms before. In 2000, Kip and I were head of the Mitchell County Volunteer Command Center. On February 14, 2000, three tornadoes ripped through my tiny hometown damaging over 200 homes. We also had a terrible loss of life and 28 people died. It was something none of us would ever want to relive. There are no fond memories. We only feel the pain. But, just like in Albany, the entire community pulled together to respond to that storm.

The second day in Camilla, a big truck from Alabama full of bulldozers and heavy equipment pulled up and said,

“Where do you need us. We’re here to help, but we’re not here to charge.”

Because of extensive national news coverage, there were people everywhere coming out to help. Random strangers just showed up, helped, and left. We didn’t even know all their names. They knew that there was a need. That is what average everyday Americans do — we show up to help our neighbors.

That is if we know they need help. I’ve never seen anyone show up for a disaster they didn’t know about first.

What I Saw When We Delivered Water in Albany

Well, yesterday I wanted my students and to be those random strangers who helped. We gave out flats of water in public housing projects near Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany.  To my surprise, I saw a tragedy that far exceeded the damage I saw in Camilla in 2000.

And I didn’t see one truck from the media. So, here’s our truck. My Mainstreet media friends and I are telling you what really is happening.

There are lots of trees down. But bigger than this, many people are without power. Many very impoverished homes have had refrigerators out since Monday and won’t have power for perhaps weeks.

Just because you don’t have a tree in your yard doesn’t mean the storm hasn’t upended your life.

Why Media Silence Hurts Good People When Tragedies Strike

Here’s the problem when the media ignores a tragedy:

If people don’t know, people don’t go.

If people don’t know, the money doesn’t show.

It people don’t know, it takes longer to get better.

In my experience, when dealing with a disaster – nothing makes it better. Your only hope is to help people get better, faster. That way, you don’t have people feeling hopeless, getting depressed, and acting out in their pain.

Simply put, you want to help as many people as possible get back their life as soon as possible.

How the News Media Is Letting Us Down

The city of Albany is mobilizing and helping itself. But, even here I heard a local news reporter joking that she hoped for snow on Saturday. I yelled at the TV,

You have people who have been without power since Monday, who are living in freezing cold apartments with children, and you’re wishing for snow?

The complete and utter inability of the media to share what’s important in this world anymore befuddles me.

There used to be a time when news reporters reported on what was important. Additionally, they felt they had a responsibility to speak the truth. Now, I think they’re more interested in reality DC than they are in speaking the truth about what’s happening out in America.

Well, average America needs a responsible media, and guess what. You and I now have a job we were never intended to play.

Now last night I tweeted all of the mainstream media and of course didn’t hear a tweet back. I mean for all they know I’m just a random person with 134,000 Twitter followers.

My life was not made better last night when they went in and re-shared the live stream of the abuse of a special needs boy by four people. I can do nothing about what happened but be shocked and upset. Instead, why didn’t they share about the damage in Albany, Georgia and how they need help? The cold is coming and people are still without power.

Obviously, I can’t do anything about mainstream media, but I can do something about main street media. I can because I’m part of it.

Who am I? I’m a small town schoolteacher who some people read. And the people who read my blog aren’t just slacktivists; I attract ACTIVISTS. I attract people who DO SOMETHING to make the world a better place. We don’t whine about it; we do something about it.

So, let’s get busy.

Calling Out Main Street Media

So, dear reader, I now dub you, “mainstreet media.” You have a job to do. Go out there and tell people about this tragedy that has happened and how they can help. And then volunteer and do what you can.

1 – Tell People About the Tragedy And Ask for Their Support

So, what can you do about this? Tell people what is happening in Albany, Georgia. If mainstream media won’t, I’m calling out main street media.

But I will ask this if you share this blog post, please share one of the links to below first. It is more important to share about how to help than this post. 

Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Response Volunteer Page asks for people aged 14 to volunteer and help. Get up a group of people and come to help. In Camilla, we had people working for months – so even if it is later in January — COME. I promise they’ll need you. MOBILIZE!

Share the live streams from Sherwood Baptist Church  – they are a source of information I trust and will tell you what you can do. As of this post, on January 6 and 7 they need bottled water at the old Coke plant at 925 Pine Avenue, Albany. They are giving it out to those in need who have NO WATER. (Please check the stream for current needs.)

Use the hashtag #prayforalbany and hope that we can make it trend to get mainstream media to DO THEIR JOB!

2 – Donate money to help

Not everyone can come. Support your favorite disaster relief organization, or I just spoke to my pastor, Michael Catt, and if you donate through my church and designate for disaster relief benevolence that 100% of your money will go to help.

People who care, share. We share the truth. We share things that matter. People matter.

Now, get out there and do something.

Is this the Only Tragedy We’re Not Hearing About?

And when you know the tragedy in your local area that is not reported, it is your responsibility to report on it and to tell people. You now have a new job in addition to all the other jobs you have.

You must make sure that what you share is true, accurate, but also that it is stuff that that truly matters. Because it seems the people who have that job right now are too busy filming reality DC than doing their real job.

#prayforalbany

Let me also be super clear. The people in South Georgia are working hard and coming together. But many people even here in South Georgia are still uninformed as to just what has happened. We are literally finding out more and more via Facebook daily and shocked to realize that this story isn’t being told except to each other on Facebook. I just see a stark contrast in how the media covered the three 2000 tornadoes in Camilla and the nine South Georgia had on Monday night. I find no valid explanation. 

The post How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/how-mainstreet-media-steps-up-when-mainstream-media-lets-us-down/

[patriciaanderson357-blog]

How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down

What we can learn from the media's silence about the South Georgia Storm Disaster 2017

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Is it that we don’t have a dead baby in a ditch like we had in the Camilla tornadoes in 2000 to get people upset? Is that Albany Georgia’s tragedy is ignored? Or is it just that the news media is so busy covering reality DC that they don’t have time to report on a storm that left 8,000 homes without power and my Facebook sources tell me thousands of homes damaged. With 9 tornadoes – that’s right NINE TORNADOES and 3 thunderstorm wind events reported by the National Weather service, I’m at a loss trying to understand why this isn’t national news. Without power for days, we have cold weather coming, and many impoverished people are going to suffer greatly. But if you turn on your TV, I doubt many of you will hear about it. And this complete lack of reporting is a problem. In this blog post I’m going to share why this is a problem and what we can do to help the survivors in this growing disaster.

I’ve embedded a film below, but it is from Facebook and some of you may not be able to see it.

When I got up Tuesday morning, I turned on the news, and heard about “some storms.” Some traffic lights were out. I did not grasp the magnitude of what happened. People at school were talking about the tragedy, and I thought,

Surely, if it were that bad, the news would have reported it, and the national news would have picked it up.

Nope. Mainstream media is too busy covering reality DC these days to talk about what truly matters.

As we saw during the election, the media seemed to be too busy manipulating us to inform us about things that matter to use average everyday folks. They’d rather get us upset about something over which we have no control than tell us about something where we can actually help. And they’ve failed yet again.

But you know who hasn’t failed? Mainstreet media. That’s you and that’s me. And we CAN make mainstream media notice if we all bring awareness to this. In fact, I’m hearing that MOST people are hearing the depth of tragedy through Facebook and NOT the media. And the media wants to know why they’re irrelevant.

I’ve asked for photographs and stories and Mainstreet media has filled my inbox with the pictures I’m sharing as part of this post. Feel free to add yours. Also note, while I’m using the hashtag #prayforalbany there are many towns impacted. I’ve heard from Newton, Meigs, Leary, and Baconton about extensive damage. This is a storm disaster of massive proportions.

Why Media Coverage Matters

I learned the depth of the tragedy from my church Facebook page when I got home from school at 4pm Tuesday. That was when we started collecting water to respond to the desperate and growing need.

If we don’t know, we don’t go. It is that simple.

You see, I have personal experience with storms before. In 2000, Kip and I were head of the Mitchell County Volunteer Command Center. On February 14, 2000, three tornadoes ripped through my tiny hometown damaging over 200 homes. We also had a terrible loss of life and 28 people died. It was something none of us would ever want to relive. There are no fond memories. We only feel the pain. But, just like in Albany, the entire community pulled together to respond to that storm.

The second day in Camilla, a big truck from Alabama full of bulldozers and heavy equipment pulled up and said,

“Where do you need us. We’re here to help, but we’re not here to charge.”

Because of extensive national news coverage, there were people everywhere coming out to help. Random strangers just showed up, helped, and left. We didn’t even know all their names. They knew that there was a need. That is what average everyday Americans do — we show up to help our neighbors.

That is if we know they need help. I’ve never seen anyone show up for a disaster they didn’t know about first.

What I Saw When We Delivered Water in Albany

Well, yesterday I wanted my students and to be those random strangers who helped. We gave out flats of water in public housing projects near Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany.  To my surprise, I saw a tragedy that far exceeded the damage I saw in Camilla in 2000.

And I didn’t see one truck from the media. So, here’s our truck. My Mainstreet media friends and I are telling you what really is happening.

There are lots of trees down. But bigger than this, many people are without power. Many very impoverished homes have had refrigerators out since Monday and won’t have power for perhaps weeks.

Just because you don’t have a tree in your yard doesn’t mean the storm hasn’t upended your life.

Why Media Silence Hurts Good People When Tragedies Strike

Here’s the problem when the media ignores a tragedy:

If people don’t know, people don’t go.

If people don’t know, the money doesn’t show.

It people don’t know, it takes longer to get better.

In my experience, when dealing with a disaster – nothing makes it better. Your only hope is to help people get better, faster. That way, you don’t have people feeling hopeless, getting depressed, and acting out in their pain.

Simply put, you want to help as many people as possible get back their life as soon as possible.

How the News Media Is Letting Us Down

The city of Albany is mobilizing and helping itself. But, even here I heard a local news reporter joking that she hoped for snow on Saturday. I yelled at the TV,

You have people who have been without power since Monday, who are living in freezing cold apartments with children, and you’re wishing for snow?

The complete and utter inability of the media to share what’s important in this world anymore befuddles me.

There used to be a time when news reporters reported on what was important. Additionally, they felt they had a responsibility to speak the truth. Now, I think they’re more interested in reality DC than they are in speaking the truth about what’s happening out in America.

Well, average America needs a responsible media, and guess what. You and I now have a job we were never intended to play.

Now last night I tweeted all of the mainstream media and of course didn’t hear a tweet back. I mean for all they know I’m just a random person with 134,000 Twitter followers.

My life was not made better last night when they went in and re-shared the live stream of the abuse of a special needs boy by four people. I can do nothing about what happened but be shocked and upset. Instead, why didn’t they share about the damage in Albany, Georgia and how they need help? The cold is coming and people are still without power.

Obviously, I can’t do anything about mainstream media, but I can do something about main street media. I can because I’m part of it.

Who am I? I’m a small town schoolteacher who some people read. And the people who read my blog aren’t just slacktivists; I attract ACTIVISTS. I attract people who DO SOMETHING to make the world a better place. We don’t whine about it; we do something about it.

So, let’s get busy.

Calling Out Main Street Media

So, dear reader, I now dub you, “mainstreet media.” You have a job to do. Go out there and tell people about this tragedy that has happened and how they can help. And then volunteer and do what you can.

1 – Tell People About the Tragedy And Ask for Their Support

So, what can you do about this? Tell people what is happening in Albany, Georgia. If mainstream media won’t, I’m calling out main street media.

But I will ask this if you share this blog post, please share one of the links to below first. It is more important to share about how to help than this post. 

Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Response Volunteer Page asks for people aged 14 to volunteer and help. Get up a group of people and come to help. In Camilla, we had people working for months – so even if it is later in January — COME. I promise they’ll need you. MOBILIZE!

Share the live streams from Sherwood Baptist Church  – they are a source of information I trust and will tell you what you can do. As of this post, on January 6 and 7 they need bottled water at the old Coke plant at 925 Pine Avenue, Albany. They are giving it out to those in need who have NO WATER. (Please check the stream for current needs.)

Use the hashtag #prayforalbany and hope that we can make it trend to get mainstream media to DO THEIR JOB!

2 – Donate money to help

Not everyone can come. Support your favorite disaster relief organization, or I just spoke to my pastor, Michael Catt, and if you donate through my church and designate for disaster relief benevolence that 100% of your money will go to help.

People who care, share. We share the truth. We share things that matter. People matter.

Now, get out there and do something.

Is this the Only Tragedy We’re Not Hearing About?

And when you know the tragedy in your local area that is not reported, it is your responsibility to report on it and to tell people. You now have a new job in addition to all the other jobs you have.

You must make sure that what you share is true, accurate, but also that it is stuff that that truly matters. Because it seems the people who have that job right now are too busy filming reality DC than doing their real job.

#prayforalbany

Let me also be super clear. The people in South Georgia are working hard and coming together. But many people even here in South Georgia are still uninformed as to just what has happened. We are literally finding out more and more via Facebook daily and shocked to realize that this story isn’t being told except to each other on Facebook. I just see a stark contrast in how the media covered the three 2000 tornadoes in Camilla and the nine South Georgia had on Monday night. I find no valid explanation. 

The post How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

[ralph31ortiz]

How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down

What we can learn from the media's silence about the South Georgia Storm Disaster 2017

From the Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis

Follow @coolcatteacher on Twitter

Is it that we don’t have a dead baby in a ditch like we had in the Camilla tornadoes in 2000 to get people upset? Is that Albany Georgia’s tragedy is ignored? Or is it just that the news media is so busy covering reality DC that they don’t have time to report on a storm that left 8,000 homes without power and my Facebook sources tell me thousands of homes damaged. With 9 tornadoes – that’s right NINE TORNADOES and 3 thunderstorm wind events reported by the National Weather service, I’m at a loss trying to understand why this isn’t national news. Without power for days, we have cold weather coming, and many impoverished people are going to suffer greatly. But if you turn on your TV, I doubt many of you will hear about it. And this complete lack of reporting is a problem. In this blog post I’m going to share why this is a problem and what we can do to help the survivors in this growing disaster.

I’ve embedded a film below, but it is from Facebook and some of you may not be able to see it.

When I got up Tuesday morning, I turned on the news, and heard about “some storms.” Some traffic lights were out. I did not grasp the magnitude of what happened. People at school were talking about the tragedy, and I thought,

Surely, if it were that bad, the news would have reported it, and the national news would have picked it up.

Nope. Mainstream media is too busy covering reality DC these days to talk about what truly matters.

As we saw during the election, the media seemed to be too busy manipulating us to inform us about things that matter to use average everyday folks. They’d rather get us upset about something over which we have no control than tell us about something where we can actually help. And they’ve failed yet again.

But you know who hasn’t failed? Mainstreet media. That’s you and that’s me. And we CAN make mainstream media notice if we all bring awareness to this. In fact, I’m hearing that MOST people are hearing the depth of tragedy through Facebook and NOT the media. And the media wants to know why they’re irrelevant.

I’ve asked for photographs and stories and Mainstreet media has filled my inbox with the pictures I’m sharing as part of this post. Feel free to add yours. Also note, while I’m using the hashtag #prayforalbany there are many towns impacted. I’ve heard from Newton, Meigs, Leary, and Baconton about extensive damage. This is a storm disaster of massive proportions.

Why Media Coverage Matters

I learned the depth of the tragedy from my church Facebook page when I got home from school at 4pm Tuesday. That was when we started collecting water to respond to the desperate and growing need.

If we don’t know, we don’t go. It is that simple.

You see, I have personal experience with storms before. In 2000, Kip and I were head of the Mitchell County Volunteer Command Center. On February 14, 2000, three tornadoes ripped through my tiny hometown damaging over 200 homes. We also had a terrible loss of life and 28 people died. It was something none of us would ever want to relive. There are no fond memories. We only feel the pain. But, just like in Albany, the entire community pulled together to respond to that storm.

The second day in Camilla, a big truck from Alabama full of bulldozers and heavy equipment pulled up and said,

“Where do you need us. We’re here to help, but we’re not here to charge.”

Because of extensive national news coverage, there were people everywhere coming out to help. Random strangers just showed up, helped, and left. We didn’t even know all their names. They knew that there was a need. That is what average everyday Americans do — we show up to help our neighbors.

That is if we know they need help. I’ve never seen anyone show up for a disaster they didn’t know about first.

What I Saw When We Delivered Water in Albany

Well, yesterday I wanted my students and to be those random strangers who helped. We gave out flats of water in public housing projects near Hugh Mills Stadium in Albany.  To my surprise, I saw a tragedy that far exceeded the damage I saw in Camilla in 2000.

And I didn’t see one truck from the media. So, here’s our truck. My Mainstreet media friends and I are telling you what really is happening.

There are lots of trees down. But bigger than this, many people are without power. Many very impoverished homes have had refrigerators out since Monday and won’t have power for perhaps weeks.

Just because you don’t have a tree in your yard doesn’t mean the storm hasn’t upended your life.

Why Media Silence Hurts Good People When Tragedies Strike

Here’s the problem when the media ignores a tragedy:

If people don’t know, people don’t go.

If people don’t know, the money doesn’t show.

It people don’t know, it takes longer to get better.

In my experience, when dealing with a disaster – nothing makes it better. Your only hope is to help people get better, faster. That way, you don’t have people feeling hopeless, getting depressed, and acting out in their pain.

Simply put, you want to help as many people as possible get back their life as soon as possible.

How the News Media Is Letting Us Down

The city of Albany is mobilizing and helping itself. But, even here I heard a local news reporter joking that she hoped for snow on Saturday. I yelled at the TV,

You have people who have been without power since Monday, who are living in freezing cold apartments with children, and you’re wishing for snow?

The complete and utter inability of the media to share what’s important in this world anymore befuddles me.

There used to be a time when news reporters reported on what was important. Additionally, they felt they had a responsibility to speak the truth. Now, I think they’re more interested in reality DC than they are in speaking the truth about what’s happening out in America.

Well, average America needs a responsible media, and guess what. You and I now have a job we were never intended to play.

Now last night I tweeted all of the mainstream media and of course didn’t hear a tweet back. I mean for all they know I’m just a random person with 134,000 Twitter followers.

My life was not made better last night when they went in and re-shared the live stream of the abuse of a special needs boy by four people. I can do nothing about what happened but be shocked and upset. Instead, why didn’t they share about the damage in Albany, Georgia and how they need help? The cold is coming and people are still without power.

Obviously, I can’t do anything about mainstream media, but I can do something about main street media. I can because I’m part of it.

Who am I? I’m a small town schoolteacher who some people read. And the people who read my blog aren’t just slacktivists; I attract ACTIVISTS. I attract people who DO SOMETHING to make the world a better place. We don’t whine about it; we do something about it.

So, let’s get busy.

Calling Out Main Street Media

So, dear reader, I now dub you, “mainstreet media.” You have a job to do. Go out there and tell people about this tragedy that has happened and how they can help. And then volunteer and do what you can.

1 – Tell People About the Tragedy And Ask for Their Support

So, what can you do about this? Tell people what is happening in Albany, Georgia. If mainstream media won’t, I’m calling out main street media.

But I will ask this if you share this blog post, please share one of the links to below first. It is more important to share about how to help than this post. 

Samaritan’s Purse Disaster Response Volunteer Page asks for people aged 14 to volunteer and help. Get up a group of people and come to help. In Camilla, we had people working for months – so even if it is later in January — COME. I promise they’ll need you. MOBILIZE!

Share the live streams from Sherwood Baptist Church  – they are a source of information I trust and will tell you what you can do. As of this post, on January 6 and 7 they need bottled water at the old Coke plant at 925 Pine Avenue, Albany. They are giving it out to those in need who have NO WATER. (Please check the stream for current needs.)

Use the hashtag #prayforalbany and hope that we can make it trend to get mainstream media to DO THEIR JOB!

2 – Donate money to help

Not everyone can come. Support your favorite disaster relief organization, or I just spoke to my pastor, Michael Catt, and if you donate through my church and designate for disaster relief benevolence that 100% of your money will go to help.

People who care, share. We share the truth. We share things that matter. People matter.

Now, get out there and do something.

Is this the Only Tragedy We’re Not Hearing About?

And when you know the tragedy in your local area that is not reported, it is your responsibility to report on it and to tell people. You now have a new job in addition to all the other jobs you have.

You must make sure that what you share is true, accurate, but also that it is stuff that that truly matters. Because it seems the people who have that job right now are too busy filming reality DC than doing their real job.

#prayforalbany

Let me also be super clear. The people in South Georgia are working hard and coming together. But many people even here in South Georgia are still uninformed as to just what has happened. We are literally finding out more and more via Facebook daily and shocked to realize that this story isn’t being told except to each other on Facebook. I just see a stark contrast in how the media covered the three 2000 tornadoes in Camilla and the nine South Georgia had on Monday night. I find no valid explanation. 

The post How Mainstreet Media Steps Up When Mainstream Media Lets Us Down appeared first on Cool Cat Teacher Blog by Vicki Davis @coolcatteacher helping educators be excellent every day. Meow!

from Cool Cat Teacher BlogCool Cat Teacher Blog http://www.coolcatteacher.com/how-mainstreet-media-steps-up-when-mainstream-media-lets-us-down/