#also me and a bunch of other people who were laid off are planning... retaliation efforts

[otterloops-old]

Barely more than two months ago, my husband and I started the homebuying process, found a perfect little house that checked nearly every box we could ask for, and it was in close proximity to my work. We closed in the middle of October, and that same day I found out about upcoming job cuts. We moved in on the 21st of October, and I was laid off the following Wednesday.

However, I'm not letting this cloud how I feel about our new place. It truly is a beautiful little home, and we're so excited to make it even more our own. I wanted to commemorate it with some art, even though it's been a total shitshow both good and bad the past couple of months.

(And it's my golden birthday today! New decade!!! 🥳)

[hopeshoodie]

what do you think of the independent article about fusebox games??

For those who don’t know, here’s a link to the article (luckily not behind a paywall). 

In summary, we knew that Fusebox laid off all of its writers and a bunch of unity engineers on July 30th. What we didn’t know, is weeks before there was conflict about Seduction Games on matchmaker (which imo is super misogynistic and not even erotic enough to make up for it) being biphobic, and the staff wrote an open letter to management. Then they all... Got fired....

And oh boy I have THOUGHTS on it

Before even reading the article I knew what the homophobic issue the writers were concerned about was. I wrote about it when first playing Seduction Games on matchmaker (lol fuck Matchmaker)- there's a scene where the player dares the love interest to embarrass a man by pretending he's gay and making a scene. And that's just... So gross.

After reading the article I guess it was more that Seduction Games is fetishistic and treating bisexuality as a voyeuristic game for het relationships. And that's valid (but also imo not the worst thing FB has done in the department, see Boah in CMM and how they hide their mlm ships from straight players).

I want so badly to read the internal letter sent by the staff because I'm nosy but also I wish I had their words on the matter specifically. I wonder if they were more frustrated with not having control/input in Matchmaker (understandable, it was the precursor to losing their jobs), being lied to that the offending content would be removed only for it to then be released, or just that Fusebox would let offensive content be put out under their brand name to begin with.

Some other disorganized thoughts

The COO sounds like a real piece of work. I don't remember which article I read awhile ago that made it sound like the leadership (CEO and COO) changed and then Fusebox swiftly pivoted to prioritizing shorter content for an international audience. It sounds like he was a part of that. He has a ton of op eds about how to monetize free-to-play models and generally has Bad Takes. But walking out of a meeting and refusing to hear constructive criticism? What an absolute man baby. But also, doesn't he look the part

a real nathen mazri looking dude.

From a business standpoint, I see why they released Seduction Games despite their writing department vocalizing discontent with it. I've seen this shift on a bunch of other story apps. There's money in romance games that target a 13-22 year old female audience that incorporates softcore porn or questionably sexy content. It's a huge issue on Episode, which is technically a childrens app, but the stories that skirt the boundary of appropriate and not are the ones that get the most reads/gems spent/revenue. If you've played Seduction Games, you know it's exactly that. Written with really bland, simple language so that younger readers are engaged, with juvenile, surface-level romance elements and attempts at erotic writing. The characters aren't unique or interesting (the love interest is a massive creep), but it's optimized to appeal to the most amount of people. If they were planning on firing and outsourcing their writing department anyways, it's a win-win for the executives- put out content that establishes their new direction and communicate to the writing staff that they're not in control.

Fusebox's direct comments to the reporter, that their content is "subjective" and 'based on reality shows' is such an aggravating cop-out. The first is literally gaslighting their writers, saying they're reading too much into someone and it's a matter of perspective instead of just... something that they did. Like that story just IS sexist and biphobic, no wiggle room there. The second is just 'other people make bad content so we can too', which... oof. I see why the writers were mad enough to risk their jobs.

I've just got to wonder what's the financial benefit to not releasing S4. Like I totally get that they're shutting down the main LITG game to focus on Matchmaker which makes more money, but at this point we KNOW they have the S4 art assets because we've seen then in promos. They must have some if not most of the writing done, because this all went down close to the scheduled release of S4. Since Fusebox has been clear they're just money grabbing with no integrity for their story or their writers' intentions, why not just release S4? You're not going to /lose/ money- if there are art assets incomplete they can just reuse past assets or cut out scenes. It seems like it'd make financial sense to wring the last bit of gems/interest out of the LITG fandom that won't transition to matchmaker, then full pivot to matchmaker.

IDK anything about Britain's workplace protection laws (in the US it's at-will employment so retaliatory firing is a-okay as long as it's not on protected actions) but maybe in the UK it's not? Like you can't argue this is discriminatory, but it could be argued that the firing was a retaliation for the employees complaining to HR about inappropriate behavior, which is a protected action. But then again you could say that more than just the people who complained got fired so it's a moot point.

tl;dr it doesn't surprise me that Fusebox openly disrespected and antagonized their writers before the mass layoff, but it's super disappointing.

All the more reason I encourage yall to leave poor reviews on LITG/matchmaker, uninstall the games, and not give FB a penny more.

[latte-fairytaekwoon]

𝚈𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚎! 𝙰𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚣 𝙿𝚛𝚘𝚏𝚒𝚕𝚎𝚜: 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚈𝚎𝚘𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚐

Disclaimer: In no way am I condoning, justifying, encouraging, promoting nor trying to romanticize yandere behavior. This is all a work of fiction and not meant to represent real life scenarios.

Warnings: Mentions of toxic relationships, stalking, kidnapping, hostage holding, sexual scenes, brief mentions of narcotics use, violence, voyeurism, somnophilia and other yandere behavior are contained within this post. Read at your own discretion.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

𝐁𝐚𝐬𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧:

𝙽𝚊𝚖𝚎: 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚐 𝚈𝚎𝚘𝚜𝚊𝚗𝚐

𝙳.𝙾.𝙱: 𝙹𝚞𝚗𝚎 𝟷𝟻𝚝𝚑, 𝟷𝟿𝟿𝟿

𝙷𝚎𝚒𝚐𝚑𝚝: 𝟷𝟽𝟹 𝙲𝙼/ 𝟻'𝟾 𝙵𝚃

𝙰𝚐𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝙻𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕: ■■■□□60%

𝙾𝚋𝚜𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝙻𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕: ■■■■■100%

𝙼𝚎𝚗𝚝𝚊𝚕 𝙸𝚗𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚋𝚒𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢: ■■■■□90%

𝙾𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚊𝚕𝚕 𝚃𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚝 𝙻𝚎𝚟𝚎𝚕: 𝙸𝚗𝚝𝚎𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍𝚒𝚊𝚝𝚎

𝚈𝚊𝚗𝚍𝚎𝚛𝚎 𝙲𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚜𝚒𝚏𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗: 𝙳𝚎𝚕𝚞𝚜𝚒𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕

𝙱𝚎𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚒𝚘𝚛𝚊𝚕 𝙰𝚗𝚊𝚕𝚢𝚜𝚒𝚜:

•𝙳𝚎𝚎𝚙 𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚟𝚘𝚢𝚎𝚞𝚛𝚒𝚜𝚖 𝚊𝚌𝚝𝚜.

•𝚂𝚎𝚌𝚛𝚎𝚝𝚕𝚢 𝚒𝚗𝚟𝚊𝚍𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚟𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚖'𝚜 𝚙𝚎𝚛𝚜𝚘𝚗𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚙𝚊𝚌𝚎.

•𝙵𝚛𝚎𝚚𝚞𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚞𝚜𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚌𝚑𝚎𝚖𝚒𝚌𝚊𝚕 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚜𝚝𝚊𝚗𝚌𝚎𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚜𝚞𝚋𝚍𝚞𝚎 𝚟𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚖.

•𝙸𝚗𝚏𝚕𝚒𝚌𝚝𝚒𝚘𝚗 𝚘𝚏 𝚙𝚊𝚒𝚗 𝚠𝚒𝚝𝚑 𝚌𝚊𝚕𝚖 𝚊𝚗𝚍 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚘𝚜𝚎𝚍 𝚍𝚎𝚖𝚎𝚊𝚗𝚘𝚛.

•𝚄𝚗𝚠𝚒𝚕𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚐𝚗𝚎𝚜𝚜 𝚝𝚘 𝚌𝚘𝚖𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚑𝚎𝚗𝚍 𝚛𝚎𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚝𝚢.

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Yeosang always hid in the shadows. Never coming out of them.

He hated society, hated people and honestly couldn't care if they all died.

He just kept to himself, only going out of his house when he really needed to.

Like to get groceries, get his car fixed or anything of the like.

He even had a steady online job that allowed him the privilege of interacting as little as possible with the outside world.

That's how he liked it.

This way, nobody bothers him or annoys him.

One day, he went to a nearby convenience store to buy a few sweet snacks for himself.

He was walking out of the store, not really paying attention where he was going.

When someone bumped into him, which pissed him off.

But the angry glare he had quickly vanished when he saw you.

"Oh I'm sorry! I didn't see you." You apologized to him.

You went your way, thinking you'd never see the handsome stranger in your life again, that he'd just be another casualty in your life.

But you were wrong.

The moment Kang Yeosang laid eyes on you, was the moment he became obsessed with you.

He stood there, immobile, watching as you walked away, out of his life, possibly forever....

And that's when he realized he needed to bring you back into it.

He went out every day to the same convenience store, hoping to see you again.

He would walk around the surrounding streets, gazing at the people passing around, hoping to see your face again.

But he never did, and he was growing desperate.

Just when he thought he'd go insane from not seeing you, you appeared once again.

This time he made sure not to let you out of his sight.

Silently and without you suspecting, he followed you to your home.

Even after you went inside, he stood outside your window for hours, wondering what you were doing.

He only went home when you turned off the lights and went to sleep.

But now he knows where you live, and watching you would be easier than ever.

The next day you went to work as you usually did, not suspecting anything at all.

Yeosang had other plans though.

Taking advantage of the fact you weren't home, he managed to break into your house.

He looked around the place, looking through every picture, cabinet and drawer you had.

It was inevitable for him to find out as much information about you as possible.

He was definitely satisfied with the fact that it appeared you lived alone and as far as he could tell, you had no boyfriend.

He also knew he had to get to work.

So he prepared a bunch of tiny cameras to install around various places of your house:

In the kitchen, living room, front door, backyard, several in your bedroom and even in your bathroom.

They were really small and almost invisible to the human eye.

While installing some of them in your room, he came across your lingerie drawer.

He turned a pretty shade of pink as he sorted through the different articles of clothing.

He began to imagine you wearing them and then imagine himself tearing them off of you.

Picking out a cute lacy red and black panty, he held it up to his nose and inhaled the subtle scent of you.

He ended up jerking himself off in your bedroom with it, completely staining it with his hot cum.

It was one of the very few things he took from you, along with other trinkets that he ended up putting up as a mini shrine to you.

From then on, he began to watch you through all the cameras.

From the moment you got up and left the house, to when you came back and went to bed, his eyes were fixed on you, watching and observing your every move.

He did not look away whenever you got changed, took a shower or even during those times where you felt needy and decided to pleasure yourself.

Those were the times Yeosang had his eyes wide open, along with his pants so his hand could easily rub his cock.

For a while, he thought he could live the rest of his life like this: watching you through a screen.

After all, every time you watched tv, you were watching it with him, right?

You started to wear more clothing in the shade of red because you knew it was his favorite color, right?

And every time your fingers rubbed your clit and threw you over the edge, it was Yeosang you were imagining.......right?

In Yeosang's mind, every smile, every blink, every breath you did......it was all for him, it had to be.

That's why he was coursing with rage when you went out with your friends one time and came back late.

It wasn't the fact that you came late and he'd been worried about you.

It was the fact you came stumbling back in your house, kinda tipsy....

With another man all over you.

He watched in disbelief as you guided him to your room and let him undress you.

You let someone else put his filthy, disgusting hands all over your holy body, let him touch you in places only Yeosang could..

And he absolutely lost it when you allowed him to penetrate and stain you.

How could you? You were his and his only. You're not supposed to be begging and crying out for anyone that isn't him.

That's when Yeosang decided to take action. Living with you through a screen wasn't enough anymore...

He had to physically have you.

So he immediately began packing whatever he deemed necessary to bring you back.

He patiently waited until the bastard came out your house, and as soon as he got the opportunity.....

He came up behind him and wrapped a rope around his throat, strangling him with pure rage and disgust at the thought that he touched you.

He left his lifeless body in the yard and went inside for you.

Creeping up behind you, he got out a cloth that was drenched in nitrous oxide, and placed it over your nose and mouth.

"Shhh, ssssh. It's ok baby, I won't hurt you." He cooed at you softly.

He carefully layed your unconscious body on a couch.

He couldn't believe that he finally had you, see you, touch you, it was all surreal.

His hands began to caress and draw out each of your beautiful features.

Then they trailed down and began to caress other parts of your body.

He couldn't help himself as he fumbled to rid you of your clothes and of his own.

He entered you slowly, gasping at the wonder he felt at finally being inside you

He kept a slow and steady pace at first, wanting to savior the precious moment.

And then he remembered how just a few hours before, you had been tainted by some filthy asshole.

Then he began going rougher on your sleeping body, slapping your chest, thighs and face occasionally.

"How could you let some bastard touch you? Hmm? You're not some filthy whore for any man to take."

His hand gripped your neck and pulled you up to him.

"You're mine....you're all fucking mine. Only I can cum inside this pretty little hole." He growled as he fucked himself inside you, painting your walls as he always wanted to.

"And now it's time to go home."

You woke up in a strange room, tucked in a strange bed and with a burning ache in between your legs.

You tried to get up, but you were still dizzy from the gas attack from before.

When your eyes adjusted to the light, you gasped when you caught a pair of large brown eyes looking at you intensely.

"H- hi.." Yeosang waved at you cutely.

You just looked at him in confusion as he creeped up closer to you and smiled.

"Who...who are you? What am I doing here?" You asked.

He merely chuckled. "Silly girl. I'm Yeosang of course!" He stated as if it was a universally known fact.

He pouted when you didn't react.

"You know? Your soulmate? The love of your life?"

You actually let out a laugh at his words, which not only made him get embarrassed but also angry.

"First off all, I don't even know who the fuck you creep are. Second, I'm leaving whatever this nasty place is."

Before you could even move though, Yeosang was already pining you down on the bed.

It seemed you underestimated him, thinking because he looked lean he wouldn't be hard to take down...

But you were wrong...

Yeosang was incredibly strong and in one particular move where you tried to slap him, he retaliated by smacking you across your face.

You were left stunned by the force of it, which led to your nose bleeding and cheek burning.

Yeosang didn't stop there, he tilted your chin up and proceeded to give the same treatment to your other cheek, a nasty bruise would eventually form on that one.

"I really suggest you stop denying our love...for your sake and mine."

Yeosang's cold, emotionless eyes and icy voice sent shivers down your spine.

He looked absolutely insane, completely void of any feeling or rationality and that was extremely terrifying.

Yeosang only had 2 rules while you were with him: "Always love me and never leave me."

But it was so hard because he'd talk to you as if he knew you all your life, while he barely find out his last name.

Sometimes you were so uncomfortable or ended up spacing out, and he'd get upset so much that he'd either slap you or shove you to the floor.

"Tell me that you love me! I want you to say that you love me!" He cried out as his hands squeezed your neck tightly, barely letting you mutter out the words for him to finally let go of you and let you gasp for air.

You decided to play along then as best as you could to his little game.

Obviously it worked, he was happy and loving towards you, your behavior only feeding into his sick twisted illusion of a perfect relationship.

You hated it, hated playing into his delusional fantasy, hated having him touch you, feel you, caress you and love you in the bedroom.

You had to keep reminding yourself that it was only temporary, until you gained his trust enough to find a way to break free.

But time was passing by too fast and one day, during one of his many pregnancy tests you did, because Yeosang really wanted to have a baby with you, you nearly died.

It came out positive and you panicked.

You quickly disposed of the test, praying he'd never find it and began to search for anything to help you break open a door, a window.

You realized then that Yeosang never actually bolted the doors like he often told you, he'd just say that so you wouldn't even try it.

You opened the door, not caring that the alarm started going off, all you had to do was run to the next door house and ask for help.....

Except there was no next door house, nor was there a neighborhood....

There was nothing but a gate surrounding the house, and all around it was a dense forest, absolutely no sign of civilization.

You had no idea where you were and you were completely trapped. You started walking backwards and inhaled when your back pressed onto someone's chest.

Strong hands gripped your arms and one of them held up the pregnancy test that you desperately tried to get rid off.

You began crying, feeling utterly hopeless as a familiar and deep voice said:

"There's no escape......you won't ever leave..."

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[isobel-thorm]

... 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓦𝓸𝓻𝓼𝓮 𝓸𝓻 𝓕𝓸𝓻 𝓑𝓮𝓽𝓽𝓮𝓻

Grant and Matthew head to John’s house for Nic’s Valentine’s Party, and to share their big news. Considering their dating history, they’re less than sure it’ll go smootly.  Grant Lyons/Matthew Rook, John Seed/Nic Raylan

| Pt 1 by @amistrio​ | Pt 2:

Grant Lyons stared at the double doors of John’s ranch. He and Matthew Rook had rang the doorbell nearly five minutes before, and considering it was mid-February in goddamn Montana, they were close to freezing due to the delay. And the elephant in the room - er, entryway, was getting heavier and heavier. It wasn’t bad, it wasn’t a secret, he just wanted to let his best friend know that he was going to be a married man soon, and for once, the excitement was killing him.  He sighed and knocked on the door again. “I know it’s Valentine’s, but y’all better not be fuckin’ in there considering you two are the ones that planned this party and decided on this time!” he called. 

Matt glanced over at Grant. “... Considering we’re about a third of the police force altogether, if one of us gets murdered tonight do you think Whitehorse is gonna send someone to investigate?” 

“No one’s gonna get murdered.” 

“Are you sure? Because John-” 

“Is a relatively stable individual-” 

“Who’s about to have his current girlfriend and her best friend, who’s his ex, who’s dating his other ex, who just got engaged to said ex literally….” he checked his watch. “six hours ago,  all under the same roof,” Matthew cut him off. “Hope County is too damn small.” 

“I think that’s the hunger talking.” 

“And the cold. And the excitement. But seriously, it’s too damn small. Everybody knows everybody. Who thought living like that would be okay?” 

“Hey, you chose to stay here when Earl offered you a permanent spot.” 

“I was motivated,” Matthew protested, though there was a teasing lit to his tone, and he grinned at Grant knowingly. 

Grant paused, then smirked.  “That’s really gay.” 

“Yeah? Well…” Matthew leaned into him and Grant moved to meet him halfway - but naturally, that was right when the door opened. 

Nicolette Raylan was on the other side, and she blanched upon seeing what she had interrupted. It didn’t last long. A moment later, a grin split her face. “Wow, that’s-”

“Grant already made the joke, don’t you dare,” Matthew cut her off before she could continue. 

She didn’t miss a beat and immediately pulled him into a bear hug that he returned full force. She tossed an arm around Grant’s neck to pull him into it a moment later. “Hi! You guys are finally here! I missed you!” 

“You saw us literally two days ago,” Grant pointed out. 

“And I still missed you. Get in here.” She waved them inside, and they followed.  

The great room was decked out in all pink, red and silver decor. There were streamers and balloons everywhere, there were streamers on the stuffed animal’s heads, the dining room table had a glitzed out runner with a bunch of plates on it, as did the coffee table, and the railing of the stairs leading to the hangar was wrapped in ribbon. 

It had been the most ‘Nic’s influence’ thing they had ever seen in anything that belonged to John. Leave it to her to go all out when it was just going to be the four of them hanging out. Still, there was a strange charm to it all. 

Nicolette didn’t let them take in the sight for long. She ushered them over to the dining room table where a bunch of food was laid out- different bread, cold cuts, heart-shaped baked goods that were decorated to the nines- Nic had clearly spared no expense in any of it. Grant took a sandwich and a couple of cookies, and Matt piled on every single dessert option onto his plate. When Grant offered him a skeptical smile, he shrugged. “What? We ate lunch already, and Nic worked hard on these, I’m partaking.”

“I meant save some for the rest of us, I mean damn,” Grant teased. He went for one of the brownies on Matthew’s plate.

Matthew stabbed his hand lightly with his fork in retaliation. “There are like twenty more, get your own!” he countered before he crossed back to the couch and sat down. 

Grant did as Matthew requested then sat beside him. 

Nicolette came back over to the pair of them. She gave Grant a glass of whiskey and a bottle of coke to Matthew, then sat in the chair adjacent to them. 

“Where the Hell’s John?” Grant asked. 

Nicolette checked her watch. “Should be back any minute. Had some legal trouble. Apparently, Larry’s threatening legal action against the Ryes because Carmina’s contrails are chemtrails and they’re trying to poison the county or something. He’s apparently trespassing on their property and trying to fiddle with the plane so John’s getting paperwork ready to keep him off the property and such. Kim told me everything.”

“Fucking Larry,” Matthew sighed, and the other two hummed in agreement. 

They made small talk after that, catching up on cases, until the great room’s entryway doors opened up again.

John stepped through, and upon seeing the three of them smiling and laughing away. They all turned to look at him, and Grant and Matthew offered a quick wave and a “hi!” He looked back and forth between all of them, then sighed. “This… this is my nightmare. I’ve literally dreamt about this.” When Nicolette popped up from the couch to kiss him, he returned it, though still looked like he was in pain. 

Grant scoffed. “Why? We’re all friends, it’s not like we’re killing each other. Or plotting to kill you.” 

“Yeah, well, your dream selves aren’t that civil,” John fired back. He huffed and dropped onto the couch. 

“Could be worse, could be comparing notes on how you are in bed,” Matthew pointed out. 

“You guys could, we didn’t get that far,” Grant cut in. 

Nicolette grinned behind her whiskey and coke. “And I already did that with Holly yesterday when we went to get coffee.” 

“You what?!” John demanded. 

Nicolette grinned. “All in good fun. She’s moved on, she’s with some Barry guy now. I mean, you are the most eligible bachelor in Hope County, you’ve dated what, half the people in the entire place from twenty-five to thirty-five?”

“You make it sound like there’s a support group for people who dated me,” John sighed. 

“Well…” Matt shrugged, then looked at the gathered crowd pointedly.  

John’s face fell, and Nicolette tutted and tucked her face into his neck. “You’re looking at it, you’re fine. It’s not like we’re much better.”

“Was I that bad?” John asked. When he was met by dead silence and the other three exchanging looks that were half apprehension, half conspiratorial, he scoffed. “Come on.” 

Nicolette laughed. “We’re not doing this on Valentine’s Day,” Nicolette objected. 

“Well, technically that only means you have to be nice,” Matthew clarified. 

“And you started it, so fine, let’s hear it,” John countered. 

Matthew sighed, realizing there was no way out of this, so he figured open the can of worms right quick, then weld it shut. He motioned at John. “You’re an overdramatic bitch. Nic can handle it because she’s also one.” He glanced her way, and then when she shrugged and nodded in agreement, he continued. “ I…could sort of deal with it,  but had my own shit to deal with, and-”

Grant reached over and squeezed Matthew’s knee pointedly. “You’ve got a lot of stuff that can’t go unchecked and needs a lot of attention, some people aren’t up for that,” he cut him off. “I mean Hell, same with me. I have… a lot of shit to work through, so do you. There’s nothing wrong with that, but everybody deals differently. Hell, when we were a thing, same thing applied. I’ve had too much shit to work through to be there one hundred percent for you. There’s no shame in that, and it wouldn’t be fair to you to expect one hundred percent from me all the time,” he continued. “And then this one and that one came to town. Still had shit to deal with, but they deal better because there’s less to unpack, and they’ve got the personalities to take it head on. Listen, two majorly traumatic messes were doomed to fail. Put a less traumatized mess with each of them, you get this,” he motioned at himself and Matt, then at John and Nicolette. “Worked out just fine, didn’t it? Look at us now.”

John clenched his jaw but visibly considered the explanation, then Nic, the absolute hero that she was, lifted her glass to her mouth before firmly declaring, “Your mom’s a less traumatized mess.” 

Thankfully that got a laugh from all of them and diffused whatever remaining tension there was. John, obviously the most bristled of the bunch, having realized that no, everybody’s grievances weren’t going to be aired and had been stuck into a relatively reasonable statement, turned to Nicolette with what had been said in mind. “I suppose it did.” When she squinted at him in return, he leaned forward to kiss her. 

When it turned into two kisses, then three, then on, and what the other two thought was probably tongue getting involved, they simultaneously gagged overdramatically. 

“Payback for earlier,” Nicolette countered between kisses. 

“Oh, Hell no. We didn’t even make contact before. If anything, we need some payback. So,” he grabbed Grant, who had been snickering at the whole thing and yanked him forward into a kiss of their own - and maneuvered so he could toss his leg over Grant’s knees and scoot closer. 

Matt was absolutely elated when Grant let out an exaggerated moan to boot to go along with it. 

The other two finally broke apart. 

“Oh, thank God, we were gonna have to ask you guys to get a room so we could have this party alone,” Matthew pointed out. 

“It’s my house,” John protested. “Get your own damn room, you were further ahead than we were.” 

“Yeah, where’s the fun in going as slow as you two? You don’t wanna drag the stuff out that much,” Matthew countered. 

Nicolette laughed. “Oh, honey, it’s the other way around, do you really wanna ‘wham, bam thank you Man’ Grant after all he does for you?” 

“I don’t have a single complaint, actually,” Grant cut in. 

Matthew beamed, then flipped off Nicolette- and then stopped short when her answering grin dropped and her eyes went wide. Oh, right, the Elephant in the room. 

Nicolette launched herself across the table so quickly even John looked panicked for a moment. He landed haphazardly on their entwined legs, and Grant scrambled to keep her upright when she nearly fell off the couch. She paid the fumble no mind. She grabbed Matt’s hand and held it up in order to look at the bright gold band that had found a home on Matthew’s ring finger. She gasped, then beamed and turned to Grant, then immediately punched him in the chest. “You ass! You told me you were gonna tell me before you did it so I could get pictures!” 

“I - it was an in the moment thing, there was next to no planning,” Grant protested. 

Nicolette squinted at him. “Liar. You just didn’t want an audience.” 

His response was immediate... and devoid of regret: “I didn’t want an audience.”

She squinted at him, then scooted back so she slipped off of their legs and onto the empty part of the couch before she threw her arms around Matt and kicked excitedly. “I’m so happy for you guys, it’s about time!”  She squeezed him harder. “Welcome to the family!” 

Matt hugged her back. “Thank you, thank you.” She turned back around. “John! Say something!” 

Grant waved his hand dismissively. “Leave him alone, this is probably super weird. We wanted to wait til things slowed down or  Nic got sleepy and quiet before we told you guys,” he explained. 

“No, it’s…” John sighed. “It’s fine, truly. Congratulations, and if you’d like, you’re welcome to use this place as a venue. As for why I got quiet there,  well… why don’t you ask Nicolette why she’s wearing the only shirt she has that covers her collarbone?” 

Matthew and Grant exchanged puzzled looks, then frowned at the woman herself, who grinned after a moment. 

“Not to step on your moment, buuuut…” she reached down to take the necklace she had tucked into her shirt. Usually, it had the silver Rook chesspiece Earl had given her a few years back, the silver key ‘to John’s heart’ that he’d given her on their one year anniversary, but now there was a ring hanging between the two charms. 

Grant looked from it, to her, to John with another grin forming on his lips. “You too?” 

John shrugged. “First thing this morning. Must have been something in the air.” 

“Congratulations,” Grant replied. “Both of you.” He laughed when Nicolette threw her arms around him again. He took another look at the ring. “That is a big rock.” 

“Well, when your house is this big you can afford all that,” Matthew pointed out. 

“Stop it,” Nicolette smacked him lightly, then immediately beamed and bounced in place again. “You know what this means, right?” 

“We’re gonna get shown up announcing our engagement by you guys announcing it too anywhere we go?” Grant asked, then laughed when Nicolette smacked him. 

“No. We’ll stay quiet for a while. Promise. Anyway: Double. Wedding,” Nicolette cut him off from further protest. 

“Hell no!” Matthew called. “That’s our day. Again, I’m not getting shown up on our own damn day.”

“What, afraid I’m gonna look better than you?”  she challenged. 

Matthew promptly opened and shut his mouth a couple of times, then took a decidedly long drink of his coke. 

Nicolette sighed dramatically, then leaned against him. “Fine. No double wedding…” she began and offered Grant a conspiratorial wink, to which he put his hands up at. “But promise me I can at least plan most of yours for you.” 

“Not all of it,” Grant cut in. 

She shrugged. “Suits at least. And color scheme. I’m not letting you guys have a wedding that’s as much of a design disaster as you two are.” 

Matthew went to protest again, and when he heard John laugh and then saw the man raise his eyebrows in agreement, he sighed. “Fine. Deal.” 

“And in case everything is booked up somehow, or my fiancee here claims it’s not good enough for you two, you’re welcome to this place for the service or reception,” John offered. “I mean, I could just help arrange it at Falls End church. Must look fabulous decorated for a wedding.” 

“Where would decor that would fit your guys’ standards fit in that place?” Grant asked. 

John shrugged. “Outside? Nice lattice, maybe get some doves, have ‘em fly everywhere.” He paused to consider. “Hell, crows could be a more fun contrast. Would fit you guys more.”

Grant laughed and shook his head. “Sounds like a chintzy disaster. No thank you.” 

John shrugged. “Fair enough. Again, if you’d like my house, it’s open to you.”

Matt looked around. “We might take you up on that, on second thought. Grant’s uncles would lose their damn minds over this place.” 

“It’s… not gonna be too awkward for you?” Grant asked. “I mean we made the joke about this party being your two exes who are dating and your current girlfriend, but hosting our wedding’s another story.” 

John scoffed and waved a dismissive hand. “Contrary to… apparent popular belief,  I can handle seeing my exes happy- and judging by how this is going, in the same room. It’s not bad at all, so repeating it will be fine. Despite my apprehension and what I said earlier,  you’re two of my dearest exes, so I’d still like to do right by you.” 

Grant smiled softly. “That’s mighty kind.” 

Matthew nodded in agreement. 

“Well, you’re both worth it. Even when you take pride in insulting me,” John answered. 

“We love you too,” Matthew replied. 

Nicolette looked between them all, then reached over in order to clap Grant and John on the knees. “Look at this, my boys, we’re all gonna be married soon. Oooooh, what if we did a honeymoon together? That would be okay, right?” 

“Whitehorse would kill us,” Matthew pointed out. “We already did that joint vacation.”

“Nope, he’s caught in a checkmate because he’s gonna walk me down the aisle. He’s gonna be too giddy to say no to anything for at least a year after that,” Nicolette pointed out. She looked between them. “Pllleeeeeeeeaaaaaaasssssee?” she stuck out her bottom lip.

Grant looked at Matthew, who put his hands up. He made a mental note to stop doing that so Matthew would stop getting it from him. He sighed. “We’ll think about it. That work for you?” 

“Yes!” Nicolette flicked his nose, then stood in order to go sit in John’s lap. She reached back and got her own nearly forgotten plate of food and held it so both of them could pick at it. 

Grant rolled his eyes, then looked towards his boyfriend- fiance, now, he corrected, and the thought made his chest flutter- and raised an eyebrow. 

“No, fuck you, this is still my junk food,” Matthew objected playfully. It took him all of ten seconds to relent and feed him one of the brownies. When Nicolette ‘aww’ed in response, he threw the piece that Grant had missed at her, then went back to eating.

Grant laughed too, then took Matthew’s distraction as an opportunity to simply watch him. He was happy, relaxed- something either of them didn’t get to feel often. He looked at the other two. Nicolette was always outgoing, always recharged by people around her being equally happy, but even John looked more at ease than he had seen him before. Whatever apprehension about having exes and his current love under the same roof had already ebbed away from the good news and energy in the place. It was… beyond nice. He still couldn’t believe it. Four souls in varying states of being lost had found each other, then love had gone and paired them off, but here they were, still strong as a unit- a family in its own right. And he had never felt so at home in his life, just sitting in their company as they chatted away. It was going to be an interesting, exhausting few months or years, however long they picked until the wedding, but with them, he could handle anything- and he’d love every minute. 

[tgunn64]

Favorite Villains - La Squadra di Esecuzione (Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure)

Part 5 of Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Vento Auero, takes us to 2001 Italy, where a civil gang war between stand users creates a vaccum of power in the Venetian mafia. From this description alone, you may be able to guess this is my favorite Jojo season yet--with my love of Italian culture and organized crime stories allowing this to cater perfectly to me. It also features La Squadra di Esecuzione (Italian for 'The Hitman Team'), who may be my favorite villainous force in Jojo yet. La Squadra isn’t actually the big bad--they’re the starters our heroes face on their way, and yet the way they are motivated and weaved into the narrative make them feel like organic parts of the conflict rather than mere stepping stones. The revolting assassins are a seven course meal consisting of Formaggio, Illuso, Pesci, Prosciutto, Melone, Ghiaccio, and Risotto.

What really struck me about La Squadra was their chemistry as a team. While they fight the heroes individually, we see a good deal of their inner workings in scenes exclusive to the anime that add a lot to their characters--most notably a sequence in which their conflict with the Boss of the Passione mafia is laid out. In charge of the dirty work of assassinations, la Squadra is mistreated by the higher ups of the mafia chain and paid the least of any branch. Sick of doing the hardest work for the least money, they conspired to overthrow the mysterious boss of the gang by discovering his identity, which no one has managed to uncover. The mere notion of doing so reached the boss, who retaliated by killing two of their men, Sorbet and Gelato. La Squadra is in the middle of a meeting wondering where their missing men are, when they receive a delivery of 36 packages. They unwrap them in a chilling scene where they discover each one contains a chunk of Gelato’s corpse, cut into 36 piece and encased in formaldehyde. La Squadra’s reaction is one of terror that truly humanizes them--they were fighting an injustice inflicted upon them and they are immediately silence. One can’t blame them for revolting, but they are swiftly made an example of.

Their dreams were crushed, that is, until word got out that the boss had an estranged daughter that the heroes were protecting for him (the heroes and la Squadra both unaware that the boss only wanted his daughter protected so he could personally kill her). Realizing the potential for a weak spot and ransom, La Squadra declares their goal to usurp the boss by taking his daughter, putting them at odds with Jojo and his new mafia family. One by one, La Squadra steps up to try and kidnap the boss’ daughter from her protectors, starting with Formaggio. Formaggio, being the first to fight, is also the shortest lived of La Squadra, but this actually benefits his character in the precedent he sets. He tracks down the youngest and most naive of the hero team, Narancia, and engages him with his stand, Little Feet. Despite being mocked by his peers, Formaggio is determined to prove that his stand, which can shrink objects as long as he can will it, isn’t as useless as it sounds. He and Narancia have a chaotic and bloody battle, and the way he ruthlessly pursues this young kid sets the standard for the story--these are gangsters and they’ll fight tooth and nail for power within the same organization. Narancia, his hand forced, goes from an unassuming kid that can barely read to just as much a violent mafia enforcer when he needs to defend himself, and it’s this flip in perspective that makes their battle so memorable. Cars are wrecked and blood is spilled as Formaggio tries to shrink Narancia and feed him to rats as well as throw shrunk down pieces of furniture from his pocket before expanding them in mid air.

A stand that can reduce objects’ size is much more suited to killing than one may realize--we see an assassination courtesy of Formaggio in a restaurant where he shrinks down a car and drops it into the drink of a politician the team’s been hired to kill. The politician unwittingly swallows the car, cuing Formaggio to release his powers, expanding the car inside his target and tearing him apart from the inside. I love Araki’s talent for coming up with idiosyncratic and unique powers that feel more like creative and intelligent phenomenon than mere “this guy gets fire powers and this guy gets shrinking powers”, and Formaggio is just one exception among the deadly hitmen lurking within La Squadra. Next on the list is IIluso, and to be blunt he’s the one I have the least to say about. He has very little personality to speak of outside of being a sort of indiscreet jerk even among his peers (quicker than anyone to call Formaggio’s stand useless and to air Sorbet and Gelato’s dirty laundry that they were an item). Even his stand, Man in the Mirror, I just feel is a poor man’s version of the part three villain Centerfold and his stand, Hanged Man. It also sucks that the good guy he fights is Fugo, who ends up written out of the story halfway through so he basically helps to introduce a stand that battles once and never shows up again.....Eeeeh, moving on.

The only two who cooperate at once are Prosciutto and Pesci, the duo of mentor and rookie gangsters. The composed and experienced Prosciutto gives lessons on the art of crime and assassination to the nervous Pesci, who at the start of the series has never even killed. Even though they aren’t my personal favorites, I think the short arc Prosciutto and Pesci go through in their chunk of episodes is the most dynamic of the bunch. The first lesson Prosciutto gives Pesci is to act instead of talk, and to have the confidence that he has already killed his foe rather than to be planning to. The unsure Pesci is eager to impress his mentor, who he calls a brother, a term of endearment in the mafia--but he’s easily scared and doesn’t have the constitution that’s expected of him. It doesn’t help that his Stand, Beach Boy, a fishing pole with a line that can go through solid objects, is easy to fumble and not as efficient as Prosciutto’s Grateful Dead, which rapidly ages his targets. But we see an interesting turn occur. Bruno confronts the duo as they ransack the train in search of the Boss’ daughter. With his brother by his side, Pesci actually manages to hold his own with Bruno a fair deal. Beach Boy turns out to be a perfect counter to Bruno’s Sticky Fingers, and Prosciutto is highly complimentary of his protege for the first time. The battle continues as Prosciutto tells Pesci to keep watch at the front of the train, Beach Boy’s line extended while he finishes Bruno off. Things don’t go that way though, and Bruno throws Prosciutto off the train and beneath the tracks. Pesci senses something is off...and sees the aging effects of the Grateful Dead wearing off the train’s passengers. His teacher had died just as he earned his approval.

And in a complete turn, Pesci’s fears disappear as his resolve hardens to fulfill his mission and kill the man that killed his ‘brother’. An angered train passenger calls Pesci ‘mammoni’ (Italian for Mama’s Boy, and the insult the other Squadra members would throw at Pesci) and Pesci takes his first life by killing him on the spot before stopping the train and challenging Bruno to a final duel of honor. I was sincerely rooting for Pesci at this point--he didn’t have good intentions but I was genuinely pretty sad that Bruno ultimately slayed him as well. I kind of really love that a stand as seemingly goofy as Beach Boy proved extremely deadly as he threw the line into Bruno’s chest and tied it around his heart, nearly killing him in a moment that had me on the edge of my seat.

This brings us to La Squadra’s resident freakshow, Melone. Melone is nearly the gang’s mad scientist type, the weirdo everyone lets lick his lips in the corner but they keep around for his brilliance. As if his habit of eyeing potential victims wasn’t enough, his stand is probably the most disturbing in the team--the laptop shaped Babyface. Before he gets his turn to fight, we constantly see Melone people watching and ogling pretty women. It’s hard to imagine this vile gangster having a nice idea of what he wants to do with these women, but when you grow to understand how Babyface works, you realize just how terrifying he is. By attaining the blood of a strong Stand user (in this case, Bruno, which he finds after his fight with Pesci) in the laptop, he can find a victim (preferably to Melone, a beautiful woman) whose body can be combined with the blood to create a living homunculus. The Homunculus has unlimited potential, and Melone can use Babyface to educate him in ways of assassination. I really love the imagery of Melone gently teaching his homunculus like it’s a little child, but precisely what he’s teaching him is torture and murder. It perfectly encompasses his depravity despite fancying himself a savante of sorts. Like most children, Melone finds that his Homunculus is too hot blooded to take orders for long, which proves his undoing. Unable to cooperate, the rapidly pubescent Homunculus fails to cooperate with his ‘father’, and both fall to Jojo’s might. Leaving just one member of la Squadra besides the BIG man himself.

Ghiaccio, my favorite member of la Squadra. From the moment I saw him at the first meeting between the disgruntled assassins, something about such a sleek design offset by such a garish face and the shouting vocal chords of Nobuhiko Okamoto (Bakugo in My Hero Academia) really drew me in. Temperamental and incredibly vocal, Ghiaccio isn’t afraid to say what everyone else is thinking. He calls the check they get from the boss chump change and asserts that la Squadra deserves better. He’s kinda the foundation of the mentality that way--even if everyone else was just too subtle to say so. That’s FAR from the only thing he’s mad about it though. Ghiaccio takes great pride in his Italian blood and detests anyone that would use the American pronunciation of ‘Venice’ for the city of Venezia. He damages his own damn car worked up over mere turns of phrase, a very different personality from the cool headed Prosciutto, intelligent Melone, or bewildered Pesci. Ghiaccio seems bullheaded and brash, but you’re not brash if you can back it up. Ghiaccio takes on both Guido Mista and Jojo with his deadly stand, White Album, which lowers temperatures around him to below sub-zero, to the point that an armor of ice forms around him. Remember how I said the huge strength of Jojo’s is that no one is ever JUST the ice guy or so on? Ghiaccio perfectly encompasses that. He isn’t a cryomancer per se, he just makes things SUPER cold, and has mastered his own ability. He chases the heroes in their car by forming ice skates out of his armor and freezing the road as he travels. Guido, with his sharp shooting Six Pistol stand, finds himself useless because White Album literally freezes the air around Ghiaccio, creating translucent shields that reflect projectile attacks, a tactic Ghiaccio calls “Gently Weeps”.

Ghiaccio may be a tantrum throwing psycho, but his conviction and overall moxie more than provides context to supply his attitude. His final confrontation is fucking BRUTAL. Guido fires away at Ghiaccio, who continually shields himself, not hurt or penetrated, but pushed backwards, into a spike on a light post. The spike barely penetrates the back of Ghiaccio’s neck, while Guido keeps shooting. Every bullet fires back INTO GUIDO, but with every push he shoves Ghiaccio further into the spike. The two literally have a game of chicken for who bleeds out first. But Ghiaccio reveals he’s won because HE HAS FROZEN HIS OWN SPURTING BLOOD, WHICH IS SUPPORTING HIS NECK FROM BEING SKEWERED ANY FURTHER. He outlasts Guido and for all intents and purposes, would have won, had Jojo not revealed himself to have survived his own encounter before he returned to finish the job. Ghiaccio talks of conviction and resolve, and you can’t fault him considering he kept fighting far past the point most would call death. It’s hard to look down on his temper when he’s as goddam hardcore as he is. I also think it's really cool how he counter's Jojo's Golden Experience, which creates life, by creating an inhospitably cold environment around him--I would've loved to see more of him as a foil.

So. Six really good trash boys fall, and all that’s left is the head of the snake, Risotto Nero, the towering boss of the Hitmen who is ready to open a can on those that made fools of his brothers. Risotto is a reasonable boss, he encouraged teamwork (quelling conflict between Illuso and Formaggio), but not to the point of romanticism (encouraging that everyone forget Sorbet and Gelato and move forward.) Despite this, in battle Risotto is anything but soft. Metallica is a microscopic stand that lives within Risotto’s blood stream. The deadly hitman can manifest metal in any shape he desires by focusing on the iron in his target’s blood. Meaning just by using his stand and focusing really hard, he can put nails in your hands, razor blades in your head, and needles in your mouth. Fighting Risotto isn’t a matter of combat, it’s one of torture, befitting to his nature as mafia enforcer. We see him squeezing info from an informant by continually creating and driving nails into his hand--and that’s really what he boils down to. He isn’t the kind to dazzle you with strategy or prove his superiority with incredible skill, he’ll overwhelm you with the most morbid pain he can imagine, and more or less with a mere thought, because it’s his job to kill, extort, and push his victims to their limit until they talk.

And such a dreadful foe doesn’t find himself engaging Jojo, Bruno, or Guido….but Doppio, the meek messenger boy of Passione whose only stand ability is to see ten seconds into the future. Risotto personally bullies the weaker foe and experiences little resistance, laying on excruciating punishment, demanding info on the Boss and his daughter. True to his nature as a mafioso, Risotto declares he’ll torment Doppio as long as it takes, as the sheer pressure forces Doppio to release a latent ability...King Crimson, the stand of the mysterious boss. An ecstatic Risotto realizes Doppio isn’t just the right hand of the boss, he IS Diavolo, the boss, hiding in plain sight. Risotto is about to achieve his dreams by killing the boss..who erases time and saves himself, making way for intervention by Narancia, who riddles Risotto with Aerosmith’s bullets to save who he assumes is the innocent Doppio, who manages to protect his identity for a bit longer. And I think this final end to La Squadra speaks to the tragedy of the team and of the narrative of Jojo Part 5 as a whole. It’s a story of a civil gang war--no one was born evil, they simply picked their sides, and at a certain point, they all had the same enemy in the form of Diavolo. Had no one been deceived by Diavolo’s enigma, Bruno and Risotto’s teams could have cooperated. However, Bruno was serving the boss while Risotto was fighting him, and when paradigms shifted, they were still in the wrong place, destroying each other in the name of an erroneous conflict. Though that may sound like a waste, there is nothing more romantically mafia-esque than dying for your chosen side out of conviction and loyalty. To do so defines being a gangster. You're not expendable if you fought for your brothers. The teachings of Prosciutto, cunning of Illuso, conviction of Ghiaccio, efforts of Pesci, intelligence of Melone, resolve of Formaggio, and capo honor of Risotto all could’ve been assets in another life, but the crossing bullets of a gang war scattered them, and if nothing else, made them insanely memorable villains.

[bounnostra]

ch. 1 || TRIAL 1.5 || SCOURGE || [ re: IVEY, PIP, OBAMA, others maybe ] [ re/attn: ORWELL ]

SCOURGE falls a little quiet after giving IVEY a piece of their mind. Maybe IVEY’s retaliation hit some kind of chord in them, maybe after PIP’s infinite bullshit spiel of the hour they finally just plain old gave up. 

Really, though. They’ve just decided to stop wasting their own goddamn time. If so many of these folks want to get up in arms about people they’ve, for the most part, only met a relatively short time ago and prove themselves all as weak bleeding hearts: whatever. But, somewhere between taking out a chunk of their building frustration on IVEY -- rightfully so, they think -- and the throbs of their migraine, it sets in: this is just what Gambit wants.

And well. SCOURGE has never fucking wanted to do what Gambit wants.

They bite their tongue and swallow down all the vitriol and poison they want to spit right here and now, instead forcing themself to observe. They’re not really good at this, at reading people, but they can at least notice who casts dark glances at who -- who seems upset about what.

( An X is placed silently next to IVEY and PIP’s names now. )

By the time she addresses them, they’ve moved on entirely from IVEY; they don’t even so much as glance at her. Not only is there a bitter, spiteful part of them that proclaims she’s not worth their undivided attention, but they’ve shifted their focus to their notebook. Scribbling some things, crossing out others.

“Piss off, IVEY.” Their voice is flatter now, distracted. “Pretty sure we all know you’re just fucking with us at this point. We can settle this bullshit later when Gambit isn’t getting a kick outta it.”

And with that, they fall silent again, listening but devising theories. Because CONVOY’s right -- they’re going in fucking circles. Nothing is getting done. Forget about these two assholes being distracting nuisances. Don’t sweat the small stuff. Only the important things.

Like PIP tossing out a bunch of bullshit again for no reason.

“Mmkay. PIP you just said a whole shit ton of misinformation, and I’m gonna ignore most of it ‘cause you’ve already proved all you wanna do is waste our time, but I think what’s most fucking worth noting is that: it would be entirely possible for someone slightly shorter than Runa to get the same result of marks, probably. And your reasons for discarding DUCK and ORWELL specifically are absolute horseshit.”

They huff. Even if they’re definitely making an effort now to keep their head level, it’s obvious that’s not their strong suit. And they’ve had more than enough of PIP’s antics to last a lifetime. At this point, they really just want the guy to keep his damn trap shut and let the adults do the work.

“As for timeline. This is what Prez was referring to in terms of mine. There's a few points of it that might be outta date for what we've come up with now, but it is what it is.”

At that, they pause and flip to a previous page in their notebook and then hold it outwards so the others around the table can see it. I’m not going to rewrite out the entire timeline, so here’s just a screenshot of it. If needed, assume SCOURGE will read it out for those across the table because I don’t know how far the distance is.

“Few things I want us to consider. Firstly. The fire at the shore was still burning weakly when we came ‘round, but whoever built it wasn’t fucking competent at doing it. Secondly, Runa told me that she was going to take ‘nother walk before cleaning up her makeup -- not that she was going to see anyone or anything. Didn’t know her very well, but you’d think if she was planning to meet someone, she’d want to clean herself up first.”

“So. What if the killer had made the bonfire beforehand, for. I dunno. Some goddamn reason. Runa saw the fire and went to go see who was there or whatever. Either way, we’ve been going in circles and we need to start thinking outside of them.” 

SCOURGE pauses. While continuing to talk, they humor the current shoe print shape debacle. They reach down and pull off one of their boots -- showing that the heel of it is a half-circle-oval-type shape (for reference yes these are legit the actual boots they wear) -- and then lean down again to put it back on. 

“We should probably forget ‘bout the sticks while we’re at it. All this obscure supernatural shit -- sometimes the simplest fucking answer is the right one: I think the killer was just trying to burn the damn body. The shitty bonfire’s already established they have no fucking idea what they’re doing.”

“The towel by the way. The blood on it was older -- not recent enough to have happened during Runa’s murder. Tempted to think it belonged to the killer, but I dunno why they’d discard something so long after the fact. Maybe Runa and her killer had a scuffle or disagreement prior to her death at some point.”

For a moment, SCOURGE falls silent. And as he speaks, ORWELL would feel SCOURGE’s eyes on him critically. They grimace briefly, pinching at the skin near their temple with their thumb and index finger. Migraines fucking suck.

“...Hey, ORWELL. Got some things to say to you.”

Oh, do you now?

“IVEY’s been fucking ‘round with us -- I was watching her while we shot down her confession. She seemed pissed off that PINCER had pointed out her injury and shit. Why would she want us to think it was her? Obviously, PIP seems to be innocent. But that doesn’t rule out the possibility of gang collaboration. Or maybe she’s just fucking soft.”

While they don’t give her the benefit of them looking her way, it’s not hard to tell that, despite their determination to not get too wrapped up in her bullshit for the time being, they’re still pretty frustrated when it comes to the bladesmith. There’s a subtle disgust and exasperation to their voice, but still they truck on with whatever they’re going on about without getting too stuck on her again.

“SEATTLE’s just laid down that ORWELL and IVEY were palling ‘round during the investigation. They were alone for some period of time. Unless ROOKIE can for some reason, the only person who can seemingly confirm that you didn’t go to the baths is IVEY -- who we’ve already realized is shady as shit and therefore we can’t trust a word she says even if she did wanna corroborate your claims. The fact that neither of you spoke up 'bout being alone together is also a little shady -- why did neither of you mention this the first five hundred times we brought up the shit in the baths?”

“Everytime we ask you ‘bout the towel, it’s like you short-circuit over there. You’ve been dodgy from the get-go. You’d be plenty big enough to catch Runa’s entire fist like CONVOY described, and if you did have some kinda injury somewhere -- we sure as hell wouldn’t know it ‘cause you’re so covered up. Hell, maybe our killer didn’t even use the gloves -- maybe they were already wearing their own gloves and wanted to throw us off.”

They lean in a bit, pointing their pen at the tall man across the table, and while their tone is surprisingly flat, there’s a sharp, intense determination to it.

“So, ORWELL. Give me a reason to believe you’re telling the truth ‘bout anything.”

Yes I know Gambit just dropped a lot of information, but I am so tired, and this post is long enough I'm not adding to it.

[webcricket]

Catch a Falling Star

Characters: CastielXReader ft. Sam and Dean Winchester, and special guest, Crowley

Word Count: 3331 (Part 8)

A/N: Part 8 of a Soulmate AU mini-series. Oh my…the angst. Rest assured, I plan to stuff the fluffiest damn epilogue ever down my muse’s throat in retaliation to restore the natural balance. The epilogue will be posted on 8/29 to give you all a chance to brine in your own tears catch up on the story.

Summary: What if angels didn’t end up just anywhere when they are banished by sigils…what if sometimes they end up exactly where they need to be? Turns out you are Castiel’s grounding stone, and it’s more complicated than either of you realizes. The Winchesters locate Crowley’s elusive mystery box, and the powerful secret it contains is heartbreaking.

Completed series Masterlist:

webcricket.tumblr.com/post/165166387163/catch-a-falling-star-masterlist

In the end, no words remain. There is no spoken solace to share, nor any valediction to express the unspeakable. No words exist. There is only the merciless march of time – marked by a luminous red-orange summer sun eternally devoured by the horizon – the blotchy orange and purpled hue of lost day bruising the clouds and rippling reflected in the lake in reminiscence of a passionately blazing light forever fated to fade to night.

“It’s time,” Sam murmured softly, apologetically – ever the more tactful brother. He towered, sentinel on the shore, gazing out onto the huddled forms of you and the angel watching the sunset at water’s edge. Fists jammed into his jacket pockets, he futilely sought amongst the lint therein the comfort none of you would find this night.

Sam’s voice reverberated hollowly in Castiel’s heart. To be entirely accurate given the circumstances, what the hunter should have said was, specifically, your time together is ending. The angel made no motion in the slightest to move.

“Castiel,” the name arose a quivering whisper in your throat – the utterance burdened with one last prayerful request: I can’t do this alone. Lend me your strength. Let me lean on you. Hold me up when my legs falter. Take my hand, my brave and beautiful angel, and we will carry each other.

Calloused trembling fingers laced with yours, he clung unfailingly to you.

Rising together, you numbly traversed the winding path to the cottage. Delaying for a moment in the glowing wash of lamp light beneath the porch, you ignored the looming black shades of the brothers within beckoning your haste. Stooping, you plucked a delicate stem of periwinkle, undamaged by the careless tread of demons that morning, from the ground. You secured the blossoming blue bunch of petals in the button hole of the angel’s trench coat and straightened the silken blue striped knot of his tie. Fresh tears stinging your eyes, you gazed into the misty blue ocean of his melancholy aspect.

Dark hair. Trench coat. Handsome. The saddest blue eyes...

The hospital description flitted in your memory. Yet for a time, those eyes had gleamed with shared joy and immeasurable love. Expressively curious, wide in wonderment, dotingly soft, amorously dilated, crinkled in amusement – you longed for anything but this bleak sadness now dimming his expression.

“Y/N, I…” Cas gathered your hands in his, drawing them to rest over his heart. Tears dampening his eyes, he leaned in to kiss your forehead – balanced at the very brink of heartbreak, there was nothing left for him to say.

Dean’s presence on the landing of the porch stair and the single grim nod of his head denoted the rapidly diminishing window of opportunity to complete the ritual.

Lips lingering on your brow, the angel closed his eyes, pleading with the departed sun, with his absent father, with the universe itself, with anyone out there who cared to listen for one more minute.

*   *   *   *   *

“That limey little bastard!” Dean roared furiously, slamming a balled fist on the wooden planked table with a sharp crack.

Like Cas, Sam and Dean, having been informed of the demons’ pre-attack dialogue, concluded that the description of the moody boss the demons referred to uncannily applied to a certain self-serving melodramatic King of Hell they collectively loved to hate.

“What I don’t get is why they banished Cas every time we got close?” Sam pondered aloud, brow knotted in thought. “But then at the same time Crowley kept insisting we needed Cas’ help to locate the box.”

“Maybe keeping Cas close was also a handy way of getting rid of him when push came to shove?” Dean speculated.

“That makes sense,” Cas interjected, “Crowley knows banishment is extremely taxing and a convenient way to temporarily dispose of an angel. Each group of demons we encountered was armed with the knowledge and means to subdue my angelic advantage.” Inclining his square jaw toward the failed banishment sigil drawn on the wall, he continued, “The blood they used there is mine. I don’t know how he obtained it, but to go to such extreme lengths, whatever he seeks must be extremely valuable. There is no more powerful method aside from death to dispatch of me. But then why not simply kill me? Why instruct the demons to spare my life?”

“It wouldn’t be the first time he’s exposed a soft spot for one of us,” Sam suggested, rapping his knuckles pointedly on the table.

“Yeah, right. Deep down in that shriveled black heart he’s a real teddy bear,” Dean snorted a laugh, throwing his hands up in the air. “You won’t convince me that him wanting Cas alive is for any reason other than Crowley’s own demented benefit.”

“And what makes him think the box is here anyway?” Sam quirked an inquiring eyebrow, coolly considering the mess of the kitchen. “We must be missing something.”

Padding quietly into the room, eyes red and puffy, you stopped to peer between the openly agitated bearing of Dean and the more reserved brooding of Sam. You had no trouble identifying them as the Winchesters based on Cas’ colorful descriptions. Your focus settled on the sullen form of the seraph slouching against the counter.

“Y/N, you’re awake,” his stature straightened, blue eyes regarding you with concern. Propelling off the counter’s edge, he strode forward to meet you.

Your notice followed the flapping hem of his trench coat, countenance contorting in dread as he avoided stepping in the congealed pool of blood surreally corralled within the spilled flour where hours ago you had stabbed and killed the demon.

Grasping your shoulder, Cas turned you away from the gory reminder and into his calming embrace. Smoothing your hair, palm sliding to reassuringly rub your back, he drew you firmly into his chest. His lips and unshaven chin brushed the sensitive skin of your neck as he spoke, “It’s alright, I’ve got you. The demons are gone. Sam and Dean are here now.”

You shuddered in his encircling arms, spluttering, “Cas, they looked like people. Why did they look like regular people?” You choked on the sickening lump rising in your throat, “She was so…so…human.” In the sum of his existence laid bare to you, Castiel had shown you demons in their true form, as a celestial being perceives them, and they were truly the stuff of nightmares – unmistakably twisted damnable corrupt abominations in no way resembling a human.

Clasping your arms to steady your swaying figure, Cas angled backward to stare earnestly into your anxious features, “Listen to me Y/N, it wasn’t human. Not anymore. Not for a long time.”

Sniffling, you nodded.

“What you did was very brave,” he added. Palms rising to caringly cup your face, he suppressed the desire to admonish the foolishness of your act in the same sentence. He guiltily believed his life wasn’t worth the price you paid in the form of the black mark now marring your soul. Good, evil, accidental, justified – unfortunately the motive for taking a life and the nature of the life taken don’t matter in the accounting of deeds recorded upon the soul.

A tear sprang to life from the corner of your eye to meander jaggedly down your pallid cheek. Brave – it wasn’t the word you would choose. Not brave, you thought, blinking another tear into existence, terrified. Terrified of losing you.

Cas smeared the salty drops across your skin with a sweep of his thumbs. The angel understood better than most that brave and terrified sometimes meant the same thing. “I’m not going anywhere,” he whispered the gravelly promise, winding his arms securely about you to squeeze you tight. He meant it.

“Well, would you look at the two little lovebirds.” Crowley cooed, stepping forth from an unobserved corner. “Doesn’t it just make you want to spend a carefree sordid afternoon peeling the unsullied flesh off a screaming virgin?” The demon congratulated himself with an extra cocky swagger in his gait at having startled the brothers with his unexpected entrance for the second time in a week. His grin arrogantly stretched even wider at evidently having also astounded the angel. “What? No one else? Humph.”

Dean audibly groaned, “I see you're still on the bird kick.”

Crowley curtly bowed at the elder Winchester – he greatly appreciated Dean’s continued annoyed interest.

Cas spun to protectively shield you with his body, angel blade materializing ready in hand.

“Sammy, I told you if you said his name three times in a row he’d show up,” Dean grumbled.

Sam reflexively reached into his jacket, fingers fondling the handle of the demon blade protruding from an inside pocket.

“Now, now, boys. No need for knives,” Crowley wagged a reproaching finger, “we’re all friends here, aren’t we?” He worryingly caught your eye and winked.

An involuntary tremor wracked your frame as you clung to Cas.

“Try again,” Dean’s lip curled into a snarl.

“Comrades in arms?” Crowley proposed, grin gradually dispersing from his mouth at the unanswered silence. “Business associates then,” he conceded. “And as such, enough with the inane formalities. I’m here to collect my prize as per our arrangement.”

“We haven’t found the box,” Sam sidled sideways, shifting his position so that Crowley was surrounded, forcing the demon to split his watchfulness in three directions. Sam’s statement was the truth. After disposing of the demons, the brothers and the angel had spent the morning combing over every inch and rifling through every nook and cranny of the house and surrounding gardens in search of anything ancient, odd, or eminently powerful – coming up empty handed.

Crowley’s mocking scowl fixed on Dean, “Your brother really is as daft as he looks, isn’t he?”

Sam scoffed at the demon’s turned back.

“There’s nothing here,” Cas growled in defense of Sam, and to draw Crowley’s concentration.

“Isn’t there?” the self-satisfied grin reemerged on Crowley’s mouth. Thrusting his hands idly into his pockets, he elaborated, pacing in a small circle, “You know those age old manuscripts can be actual hell to translate, especially when the author gets a bit self-indulgent writing the more florid narratives.”

Cas’ eyes narrowed. “What are you talking about?” he adjusted the grip on his weapon with a deft flick of the wrist to maintain Crowley’s undivided attention. In his periphery, the angel observed Dean retrieve demon trap handcuffs from a pocket and hide them behind his back while Sam masked the tinny clink of the metal chain by pretending to clumsily stumble on some pots and pans strewn on the floor.

Unruffled by the noise, Crowley smirked sinisterly, “Box, container, vessel...human.” He glanced about, unashamedly savoring the range of appalled emotions in your individual reactions to the implication. Composing his gratified sneer into a prim grin, he went on, “Trifling details if you ask my opinion. They’re all created with an empty space on the inside meant to hold something.”

“Human?” Sam darted his eyes in your direction.

“I didn’t know what to expect, not at first. What with the translation troubles and the general ineptitude of my staff,” Crowley pressed his lips thin in contrived remorse, “that’s where you boys came in. Call it outsourcing.” Withdrawing his hands from his pockets, he clasped them somberly behind his back.

“What do we have to do with any of this?” Sam baited.

“You and Foghorn Leghorn over there? Next to nothing. But Chicken Little, your very own sky is falling angel, was the key to everything,” Crowley’s covetous red gaze fell upon you, “to unlocking the limits of her potential.”

Castiel raised his weapon, a surging glow of menacing grace glimmering behind his eyes.

Dean seized the distracting demonstration of power as a chance to leap forward and shackle Crowley’s wrists.

“You Winchesters,” Crowley griped, not bothering to test the restraint, “always such gentlemen.” Sam dragged a chair over and Dean shoved the demon roughly into the seat. Grunting, Crowley quipped, “At least buy a girl dinner first.”

“I don’t understand,” you pulled at Cas’ sleeve, “what does he mean? My potential?”

“Oh darling, you’re the proverbial forbidden fruit,” Crowley purred, “plump, ripe for the picking, and teeming with angelic juices by the seedy smell of it. Your paramour’s father forbade angels to have intimate relations with humans,” he winked provocatively at Cas, “but lover boy here wasn’t thinking with his halo gilded head when he met you, was he?”

“Enough!” Cas growled. Lunging at the demon, he coarsely grabbed a clump of hair in his fist, yanking backward to press the point of the angel blade into the soft pocket of flesh beneath his smugly set jaw. “You’re wrong. The forbidden fruit is a fable. There is no such object in creation.”

“I thought the forbidden fruit was an apple,” Dean kidded.

“No, I think it was a pomegranate,” Sam jibed.

“What’s with the fig leaves then?” Dean rounded an eyebrow, crudely waving in the vicinity of his crotch.

“The angel is right, it was never an object,” Crowley spat through clenched teeth, “it was merely an idea. A seed of thought planted to flourish into fruit to feed temptation and fuel a revolution of sin. But don’t worry, I’m not interested in any of her fleshy bits saturated with your angelic stink. You’re free to keep those. I only want that nurturing organ of life, her heart. The souls I can lead astray with that most forbidden of loves it contains…mmm…”

Eyes aglow, Cas dug the tip of the blade further into the demon’s neck, the piercing of skin producing a rivulet of red.

“Of course, I’m sure any passing resemblance of these lush gardens to Eden are purely coincidental,” Crowley hissed.

“Castiel,” grasping the angel by the elbow to gentle his rage, you bade him look at you, “stop. No more death.”

Cas reluctantly released the victoriously grinning demon.

“Not yet anyway,” you glared at Crowley until his grin faltered. “What makes you so certain I’m this terrible temptation?”

Crowley peered, in turn, into the glowering faces of the Winchesters and wallowed for a second in the wrath simmering within the angel’s aspect before returning his decorously cowed courtesies to you, “Well, there’s the trivial matter of the spell. And then X marks the spot. Or in this case, a tailor-made blood banishment sigil leading directly to a particular angel’s special someone. Conveniently, I knew just the unwitting angel for the job.”

“So you used Cas?” Dean asked, exhaling contemptuously through his nose.

“Hello, have we met?” the demon rolled his beady eyes, “Crowley, King of Hell.”

“Because he was convenient?” Sam reproached.

“Remind me again why you sad sacks of man meat are so surprised?” the demon jeered.

“I say we kill him now and call it a day,” Dean shrugged indifferently.

“What kind of a moron do you take me for?” Crowley barked. “Kill me, and you can expect the whole host of Heaven to come calling when the sun sets.” He smirked, “Call it a dead man’s switch.”

You met Cas’ despondent gaze, a sense of dread pitting your stomach.

“Then we run, hide you two in the bunker until we can figure something out,” Sam suggested.

“And where do you think they’ll go searching first?” Crowley sassed.

“So we make a stand, it’s not like we haven’t kicked angelic ass before,” Dean advocated.

“When they find out their favorite black sheep has been buggering Little Bo Peep, you can bet they won’t be sending in the lowly choir boys to sing his praises,” Crowley countered. “I’m not the only party interested in bending this power to my advantage.”

Gazing resolutely into your angel’s despairing blue eyes, your lips moved without feeling, tongue torpid and thick against the roof of your mouth, the fateful words echoing in your ears like a distant thunder as you spoke, “The spell, can it be reversed?”

“Ay,” Crowley sneered, “there’s the rub.”

“How?” you asked, voice cracking dryly.

Cas’ chin dropped to his chest, stature visibly sinking.

“No,” Dean interceded, his heart aching at the sight of his crestfallen friend, “we’ll find another way.”

Your timorous fingertips ghosted the white-knuckles of the angel’s clinched fist, begging his support with a humble thought. This is bigger than you and I.

Palm opening to accept yours, his desolate gaze slowly lifted to look at the leering demon. Even though he held your hand tight and felt the warmth of your skin on his, he sensed you slipping away. Brave and terrified, he raspingly repeated your question, “How?”

“I thought you’d never ask,” Crowley crooned.

The solution was excruciatingly simple – the very same banishment sigil wrought from Castiel’s angelic blood which had delivered him to you would, upon being completed with the nourishing ebb of life flowing in your veins, banish him cruelly from your heart and break the power of the spell.

*   *   *   *   *

One final minute. One more loving embrace. One more tearful kiss. One more gentle healing caress of angelic grace to relieve the sting of the knife gashing the pale palm held upturned in wavering hands. One more swim in the unfathomable depths of a watery sea of celestial blue. One more bask in the radiant warmth of a beautiful soul. And one final fond smile exchanged as your bleeding palm sparks upon the sigil to flood the space with blindingly bright white light; because, once upon a time, for a brief while, you belonged to each other. And no one, not on Earth, nor in Heaven or Hell, not anyone in the whole of the universe, can take those cherished minutes from you.

Sam caught you as you slumped slowly to the floor. Ripped from the room and excised raggedly from your heart, Castiel was gone, leaving you alone to tend to your gardens and nurse the nameless aching emptiness haunting your heart that you longed to fill with something beautiful.

The angel stirred at the noisome insistence of the phone vibrating in his pocket, or perhaps it was the rank smell clinging to the general air which roused him. Either way, sitting upright in a sluice of flotsam, he found himself embedded in a steaming pile of garbage on a transport barge slinking, he surmised from the distant New York City skyline, somewhere along the Hudson River. Most likely, he supposed, en route to New Jersey for ultimate disposal. Politely bobbing his chin in apology to the suspiciously squawking sleep-disturbed seagull situated several feet to his left, he squinted at the multiple texts from Dean:

Where are you?

Why do you own a phone if you never use it?

I’m telling Sam to take you off the family plan when we get home. The concept of unlimited texts is lost on you.

ARE YOU OKAY?

Slime-covered thumbs poised over the screen, the angel considered his reply before typing. He wasn’t certain how he’d come to rest on the barge. His vessel appeared to be physically intact save for a smoldering patch or two of trench coat and riotously refuse tousled hair. His grace was depleted by such a negligible degree that any dip in power went absolutely unnoticed by him. Looking down for visual confirmation of this interpreted fineness, he plucked from his lapel a curious cluster of sweetly fragrant charred cerulean blooms. On objective examination, he deemed himself okay. Yet something indiscernible in the dull beat of his angelic heart gave him the distinctly opposite impression. Glancing around in search of an elusive answer, his regard elevated from the tiny flowers in his grasp to the gloomy rain-threatening clouds above. He caught sight of the dying glimmer of a solitary star shining through and then consumed by the thickening haze. Lightning dazzlingly engulfed the sky for an instant in a myriad splendor of violently churning azure and indigo. Fat droplets of cold rain unleashing from the heavens to pelt his upturned face, the angel could not shake the feeling something precious had been lost to him.

Epilogue:

webcricket.tumblr.com/post/164748010895/catch-a-falling-star

[elizacornwall]

Vengeance is an Idiot's Game - Chapter 27 - Pride and Prejudice

Read all the published chapters here. -------------------------------------------------- When they arrived back at camp Sadie was laughing her head off at the sight of Eliza on Moonshine. She tried to keep her composure but couldn’t hide the fact that she was hurt from Morgan. She knew she looked silly on the huge mare, but Sadie’s unashamed taunting made it worse. The outlaw put a hand on her shoulder as she was loosening the saddle. “Don’t take it to heart, she doesn’t have much subtlety but don’t mean any harm”, he tried to console her. Eliza just continued with her work, having to focus on what she was doing more than usual to not let his touch distract her. “That’s enough Sadie, give the girl a rest! She’s picked up riding Moonshine real quick, not like you and Hera. I remember her throwin’ you off more times than I can count”, he yelled out to the blonde woman who was still trying to catch her breath and wiping the tears out of her eyes. Eliza was thankful for his help, but also very aware that yet again he had to protect her and her honour. She was sick of looking like a child to everyone, even with a huge horse beneath her. She pulled at the saddle, determined to put it away by herself, but lost her balance when it tipped from Moonshine’s back into her arms. She stumbled backwards where Arthur barely caught her by the arms. “Whoa there, don’t you go and bury yourself under that thing! We’ll get you a smaller one, mine here would be too big for ya anyway!” He took the heavy leather seat off her and swung it onto the hitching fence nearby. She didn’t look at him or anyone else, just concentrated on the mare’s bridle and fumbled to get it off. At least this won’t be too heavy, she thought bitterly. She slid the headstall off the horse's nose and handed it over to Arthur, who in return gave her a carrot. Moonshine whinnied softly, excited for the treat. Eliza gladly complied, caressing her strong neck.

“Thank you, big girl”, she murmured to the mare that was chomping away happily, “you’ve been real good to me today.” She gave her forehead a last loving scratch, then turned to Arthur who stood near, observing her approvingly. “Thank you too. Really. I appreciate you giving up so much of your time to help me get… well, get accustomed to this kinda life.” She gave a sigh. “It means a lot to me, makes me feel like I belong.” His eyes locked with hers and she felt the familiar strange stomach flutter again. Just shut up now, she scolded her abdomen silently. This was getting old. “Ain’t nothin’, just want to make sure you can handle yourself. You’re stronger than you think and a quick learner, I bet you’ll feel like you’ve never lived any different in a few weeks.” He hooked his thumbs under his belt and rocked slightly on his heels. “Besides, you do belong. You made your decision, so yeah. You’re one of us.” A wave of warmth flooded over her at these words. She could barely see the tip of his nose under the brim of his hat. One of these days she’d have to get herself one too, it seemed to be a very handy tool to hide your face. “That old fool is right. Sorry girl, you just looked so tiny up there, what a sight.” Sadie had reached them and threw one arm over Eliza’s shoulders. She just shrugged, still annoyed at the woman’s outburst. The blonde continued: “So Arthur over here been teaching you? How d’you even understand the man, he hardly speaks our language most the time!” He protested, but before he could get in a proper reply, Eliza had shaken off Sadie’s arm and turned around to face her. “At least he didn’t laugh at me. I’m sick of being treated like a child, I’m doing my hardest to catch up to you lot, but all you do is laugh at my progress.” Her voice was now raised, she couldn’t help but let out her anger at the woman she had idolised for so long. It was so frustrating to finally meet and befriend her, something she never really thought would be possible, only to then realise how inferior she felt. Like a trained and groomed lap dog meeting a wild, untamed wolf. “I get that I look like I had a sheltered and easy life, I suppose that’s true if you compare it to you people. But that doesn’t make me any less of a grown up, valuable person! Hosea, Arthur and me, we did a job yesterday, did you know? And I was GOOD. I helped. We brought back a bunch of money, and I’ve only really been here for what, a couple weeks? If you don’t count the time I was imprisoned in that goddamn wagon of course!” She was breathing heavily, blinking tears out of her eyes. Why did she always have to cry when she got enraged, she hated it. Sadie had her hands raised, in silent defence. She waited for her outburst to be over, then lowered her arms and answered, in a calming tone. “I’m sorry girl, didn’t mean no harm. I ain’t got half the – what was it you called it Arthur? Tact? Yeah, I ain’t got half the tact most people expect of a woman.” She held out her right hand, in a peace offering. “I can’t promise not to laugh ever, but I’ll tell ya here and now, it ain’t ever gonna be ‘cause I’m laughing at you.” Eliza considered her suspiciously, not sure how to answer. She was still upset but supposed the woman really hadn’t wanted to hurt her. After a short moment of silent hesitation, she shook her outstretched hand and nodded. “Miss Eliza, you truly are one hell of a young woman.” Dutch had approached, Eliza assumed he must have heard the commotion and wanted to investigate. She didn’t welcome the man in such a state as she was but turned to him anyway. “Thank you, Dutch. Please drop the Miss if you don’t mind, I don’t feel it’s right to be addressed this way here”, she replied, her voice dangerously close to showing her lack of patience. She took a deep breath to calm herself while he spoke. “Of course, Eliza. I wanted to thank you and congratulate you personally for the contribution you made yesterday. Hosea has told me everything, you are a remarkable actress! We value your hard work and courage, we really do.” He set his hands

on his hips and stood up even taller than he was. “Miss Adler, I beseech you not to offend our Eliza, she’s trying her best, and if I may remind you, has become a useful asset very quickly, if we compare her to certain other people.” The girl moved uncomfortably, as Sadie stiffened up, but the blonde woman didn’t retaliate like she feared. “Thank you. Now, I’m sure Hosea will approach you with more of his plans, the old conman adores your talents very much. I hope you’ll join him again in the future young lady?” She forced herself to smile and nodded. “Of course, It feels good to be useful to the gang. Thank you, Dutch” she replied, silently pleading he would take her confirmation and leave. Her prayers were answered as he tipped his hat and turned back to his pavilion. Sadie was looking at her, a sympathetic expression on her face. Eliza just shook her head, in the hopes of airing out her bubbling emotions a bit. She just wanted to carve her own place in this group, yet here was another person feeling the need to defend her. Did she really seem so helpless? “Don’t let him get to ya. He means well, likes looking after his own.” Arthur spoke quietly, guessing her thoughts again. Eliza just gave a shrug and turned to her cot, mumbling her goodbyes to the two friends. She could feel their eyes on her back as she walked away. Somehow she had to find a way to prove to them she could handle herself. She didn’t want others to think she needed help fighting her corner anymore. She dropped the canvas around her cot, shielding her from curious eyes. For a while she just laid on her bed, trying to not think about anything. She failed miserably and her mind was spinning. A woman’s voice ripped her out of the desperate fight in her mind. “Eliza? You got a minute? I’d like to ‘ave a word with you.” She sat up, struck by thunder. It was Molly. As if today wasn’t bad enough already. Eliza cleared her throat then answered. “Yeah sure, come on in!” The pretty redhead slipped into her tent and she gestured her to take a seat on the stool next to her cot. She complied, kneading her hands nervously. Eliza wasn’t patient enough today to draw this out, so she started the conversation, she thought she had a pretty good idea what Molly’s concern was. “This is about Dutch, isn’t it?” She offered. The redhead looked at her with those huge doe eyes of her and seemed very lost to Eliza. She nodded, still clasping her hands together. “I- uhm, I’m sorry, I don’t mean ta cause any offense. But ya know, Dutch and I, we… well, I really love him.” Molly looked at her, with desperately sad eyes. “I love him, and he-, at least I believe, he loves me too you know?” Eliza gave her a sad smile. “I know Molly, I know you do.” She waited for her to continue, but she didn’t seem to get the words out, so she continued with a sigh. “Molly… I know he’s been very… Well, fixated on me since I joined you. I’m glad he approves of me as a member of the gang and respect him as the leader, but that’s where it ends.” Molly stared at her, with an endlessly helpless look in her eyes. “Y-you sure? You mean ya don’t… fancy him?” Eliza laughed. “I fancy him to leave me alone most of the time. How you put up with his endless speeches, I’ll never know!” She lightly patted the girl’s knee, trying to ease up the tension. “In all seriousness though, he simply isn’t my type. Hell, I don’t even know if I have one.” She sat back and leaned against the wagon, watching a bit of nervousness fall off Molly’s demeanour. “He- He’s barely talking to me about anythin’ lately, you know. I didn’t think ye’d be the type to, well, be a homewrecker if I may be so blunt, but ya never know, you know?” Eliza smiled bitterly at this. “Trust no one, I agree. Took me a while to trust your gang too after they kidnapped me. I’m still not sure about some.” She observed the redhead. She really was extraordinarily pretty, no wonder Dutch had taken a liking to her. Her lashes were long and voluminous, her eyes big and of such a bright green it was clearly visible even in the dim light of her

tent. The slim nose stood in contrast to her full lips, painted in a lovely deep red that went well with her fiery hair. Eliza let out a deep breath. “You don’t have to worry about me, in no way am I interested in your man. I may look innocent apparently, but I’m sure if he knew what I got up to in my father’s house he wouldn’t want to touch me with a six foot pole anyway.” Molly’s face lit up with sudden curiosity. Eliza mentally gave herself a slap, of course she’d love to hear some gossip. “What did ye get up to then that’s so terrible?” She thought a moment of how much she could reveal, the likelihood was the whole camp would know about it within less than a day. “Well…” She started carefully, “let’s just say I’m not pure anymore if you catch my meaning.” Molly sat on the edge of her seat and stared at her incredulously, all worry about Dutch forgotten it seemed. “Who was it?” “I-I’m not sure if I should-“ “Was it a military man? One of your father’s business partners?” She clapped her hands in front of her mouth. “A lord?!” Eliza couldn’t help but smile. The poor girl evidently had read way too many romance novels for her own good. “None of these, although my father would have loved to see that.” She scoffed and Molly’s eyes hung on her expectantly. “It was one of the stable boys”, she admitted. Molly was visibly disappointed. “A mere stable boy? A lady of your standing?” she asked, almost sad. “You make it sound like I was a proper lady”, Eliza answered, chuckling. “No, my father would have loved me to be proper and not even look at any of our servants in anything less than disgust. Maybe that was the reason why it was a mere stable boy, I don’t know… But I liked him well enough I suppose.” She stared at the roof of the tent, her eyes all zoned out. “Until he went off and bragged about it to the other men in my father’s services. Luckily my old man never thought his daughter could be that stupid and didn’t believe them when word got out. He threw him and most of the male servants out anyway, for trying to defame his name.” She shot Molly a probing look. The girl still sat on her chair, her hands in front of her lips. Eliza lifted her shoulders. “That’s it. Wasn’t that exciting, in hindsight.” “Are you pulling me leg? That’s so terribly romantic!” The redhead seemed to come to the conclusion it was some sort of forbidden love, like in her stories. “Have you heard from him since?” She laughed. “Of course not, he wasn’t allowed anywhere near us anymore and I wasn’t ever to leave the estate without an escort. Besides, I didn’t love him or anything.” The girl sunk back down on her seat a little, deflated. “Oh.” She managed. Then she gathered herself and put on a beaming smile, bewildering Eliza. “I s’pose I better get off then. Thank you for bein’ so honest with me, I really appreciate it.” Eliza nodded, “Anytime. Sorry I caused you grief.” “Ah, it’s no bother. It’s my own fault really, for not speakin’ up and talkin’ to Dutch himself.” She stood up, smoothing the fabric of her skirt. “If ya ever need anythin’, don’t be shy to ask. You are a good person, ya know?” With this, she left Eliza’s tent. The young woman exhaled and sat on the same spot for a while, this conversation had gone way better than she had expected. Molly was much more reasonable than she originally had thought, even if her head was clouded by some stupid ideal of what love should be. If she weren’t so reclusive the other girls would surely grow to like her too she thought.

[worldnews-blog]

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to pummel the United States, Las Vegas seems to be operating business as usual. Casinos have been open since June 4—undeterred by the 123 visitors who have tested positive for the highly contagious virus and the 51-year-old Caesars employee who died in late June.But it’s not business as usual for doctors and nurses in Las Vegas’ besieged health-care system, who say they are “overwhelmed and terrified” about the massive influx of new cases in a state officially deemed a “red zone” by the White House. “I would say in the last month we’ve been completely overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and our hospital is running out of space,” one Las Vegas emergency room doctor, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Not only are we overwhelmed and terrified, but based on the numbers for the rest of the country, it’s only going to get worse for us.”'A Sinking Ship’: Arizona Docs Say Ducey Steered State Into COVID-19 SurgeOne of the states that loosened coronavirus restrictions in May, Nevada has set records for new cases throughout July. The rate of new cases per 100,000 residents is higher than the national average, putting Nevada in the top ten states for cases per capita—alongside Arizona, Texas, and Florida, now the epicenter of the pandemic. In Las Vegas, where local officials protested against the stay-at-home order, the hospital system is starting to feel the effects of the cascading outbreak. The Las Vegas area set a new record of 1,315 new cases on Thursday, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.And Sin City is a microcosm for the whole state—which also shattered COVID-19 numbers on Thursday with 1,447 new cases and six new deaths. ICUs are at about 84 percent capacity. “It’s even more troubling that COVID-19 in Nevada is disproportionately impacting communities of color,” Bethany Khan, the communications director for the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Workers fear that they will contract the virus and bring it home to their families or possibly die from it.”At least 626 people have died from the coronavirus and 31,915 have been infected in Nevada—continuing a trend across much of the South and West after states lifted lockdown measures. Worse still, the rate of positive COVID-19 test results has reached a staggering 24.3 percent, rising continuously over the last month.Las Vegas Not-So-Politely Declines Mayor’s Bonkers Offer to Become Virus ‘Control Group’To curtail the surge, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has rolled back premature reopening plans, introduced a mask mandate, and closed down bars in seven counties, including Vegas. But he left it up to local leaders to enact more restrictive measures—and Las Vegas seems to be operating as usual. In the weeks after Nevada’s casinos reopened on June 4, after being shuttered for three months, at least 123 visitors have tested positive for the coronavirus.Brian Labus, a professor of public health and outbreak investigation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast that while cases in the state are surging, state officials have “stepped up” and taken “the main steps” to ensure the spread is curtailed. “The problem comes down to the fact that people didn’t take the social distancing seriously when we reopened,” Labus said. “I think the mask mandate will have a big dent on cases.”Labus also stressed that Sin City “exists for tourism” and therefore has a unique issue of balancing “its economy with the safety issues.”“You have to remember the kind of people who are coming to Las Vegas right now. It’s the people who are the least concerned about this outbreak right now—least likely to follow the social distancing,” he said, noting that tourists are not counted in Nevada’s numbers.“When you are on vacation, you want to forget about all your problems—and that includes the coronavirus. But there is still a pandemic, and not following health guidelines puts everyone at risk.”Khan said the pressure on reopening the strip has meant “hotel and casino workers are working in fear every day.” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has been notably silent after calling the state shutdown in March “total insanity” and suggesting Las Vegas could be a “control group” to test the impact COVID-19 would have on a community that didn’t close its doors. Over 500 Employees at Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel Have Been Laid Off Amid Coronavirus“We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against,” she said during a wild April interview on CNN that prompted residents to begin efforts to remove her. Goodman’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.Late last month, Adolfo Fernandez, a 51-year-old employee at Caesars Entertainment on the strip, died after testing positive for COVID-19. The utility porter died just two days after getting his virus diagnosis—and before the casino implemented a company-wide mask policy.The Culinary Union has since filed a lawsuit against several major casinos—including The Signature at the MGM Grand—to protect workers returning to work. The lawsuit states that the casino hotels have not adopted precautions to address the virus, have not conducted adequate tracing, and haven’t informed employees of positive tests among co-workers. Khan, who said 20 union members and their spouses or kids had died from COVID-19 in the last three months, stressed that the lawsuit was aimed at ensuring that hotel and casino workers don’t have to live “with the same fear every day they go to work.”The White House, according to a report obtained by the Center of Public Integrity, believes Nevada is already facing catastrophic virus consequences. In a July 14 document from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, public health officials said Nevada had reached “red zone” status—meaning there were more than 100 new cases for every 100,000 residents in the prior week. Nevada had about 173 new cases per capita in the previous week, compared to the national average of 119. “Las Vegas continues to have [a] concerning rise in cases,” the report said, noting that its county is one of the top three in the state with the highest COVID-19 cases. (Clark County, Washoe, County and Elko County represent 97.9 percent of the new cases in Nevada.)In order to combat the surge, the White House document suggested Nevada—and 17 other states—limit large gatherings, close down indoor establishments, and issue a mask mandate. A New York Times study also showed Nevada’s surge to be among the highest in the world. The study of the number of daily infections between June 28 and July 5 showed Arizona and Florida are the two most infected places in the world. Nevada placed ninth, before Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and the country of Panama. Nevada also ranked before Brazil, a country seen as one of the world's most severe hot spots with more than 2 million cases recorded since March. “The big surge in cases in Nevada [is] among Las Vegas residents—but even if Las Vegas puts a bunch of measures in place, it wouldn’t matter unless it was implemented statewide. You can’t just focus on one jurisdiction, because people move around,” Labus said. Las Vegas hospitals are feeling the surge of new cases and are overwhelmed, understaffed, and short on supplies—unable to keep up with what researchers believe is the “tipping point” before a state loses control of the pandemic. For the ER doctor, who said he had worked over 100 hours this week alone, the fear is knowing that the worst of the virus is yet to come for Las Vegas. He also said that some of the hospital’s beds are being taken up by patients from out-of-state, like Arizona.“This is uncharted waters and it seems like everyone in Las Vegas has been too lax about the pandemic,” the doctor said, stressing that local officials have not taken the necessary precautions to ensure they “stop the virus in its tracks months ago.”“People here in Las Vegas don’t see this pandemic as an issue—well, once the hospitals are filled and there is nowhere to go, they will realize they should have been more careful.”A spokesperson for University Medical Center in Las Vegas confirmed to The Daily Beast the hospital’s ICU occupancy had exceeded 90 percent but stressed they “have the ability to significantly expand this capacity.” “Following a detailed planning process, we have teams in place to activate alternative surge space throughout UMC as needed. We are currently using extra space within a large PACU [post-anesthesia care unit] to care for a small number of patients with non-COVID-related medical concerns,” the spokesperson said, adding that the hospital had not received any virus patients from Arizona. The hospital does take out-of-state trauma patients who need additional care.According to the Nevada Hospital Association, the state recorded its highest day for hospitalizations this week, with 1,051 on Tuesday. By Thursday, about 77 percent of staffed beds across the state were occupied, and 785 confirmed virus patients were admitted. About 40 percent of the state’s ventilators are in use.Sixto Zermeno, a bellman at The Signature at MGM Grand, said in a video announcing the union’s lawsuit, that he hadn’t been able to see his daughter for three weeks while he recovered from COVID-19.“[G]etting this disease has been extremely difficult for me and my family,” he said. “I have not been able to see my nine-year-old daughter in person since I tested positive—I haven’t been able to hug my daughter or see her for 3-weeks now.“The Signature at MGM Grand had three months to prepare and they didn’t. None of our upper management had a clue what to do and that’s unfortunate. They put a lot of us and our families at risk.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30l8eIm

[tendance-news]

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to pummel the United States, Las Vegas seems to be operating business as usual. Casinos have been open since June 4—undeterred by the 123 visitors who have tested positive for the highly contagious virus and the 51-year-old Caesars employee who died in late June.But it’s not business as usual for doctors and nurses in Las Vegas’ besieged health-care system, who say they are “overwhelmed and terrified” about the massive influx of new cases in a state officially deemed a “red zone” by the White House. “I would say in the last month we’ve been completely overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and our hospital is running out of space,” one Las Vegas emergency room doctor, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Not only are we overwhelmed and terrified, but based on the numbers for the rest of the country, it’s only going to get worse for us.”'A Sinking Ship’: Arizona Docs Say Ducey Steered State Into COVID-19 SurgeOne of the states that loosened coronavirus restrictions in May, Nevada has set records for new cases throughout July. The rate of new cases per 100,000 residents is higher than the national average, putting Nevada in the top ten states for cases per capita—alongside Arizona, Texas, and Florida, now the epicenter of the pandemic. In Las Vegas, where local officials protested against the stay-at-home order, the hospital system is starting to feel the effects of the cascading outbreak. The Las Vegas area set a new record of 1,315 new cases on Thursday, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.And Sin City is a microcosm for the whole state—which also shattered COVID-19 numbers on Thursday with 1,447 new cases and six new deaths. ICUs are at about 84 percent capacity. “It’s even more troubling that COVID-19 in Nevada is disproportionately impacting communities of color,” Bethany Khan, the communications director for the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Workers fear that they will contract the virus and bring it home to their families or possibly die from it.”At least 626 people have died from the coronavirus and 31,915 have been infected in Nevada—continuing a trend across much of the South and West after states lifted lockdown measures. Worse still, the rate of positive COVID-19 test results has reached a staggering 24.3 percent, rising continuously over the last month.Las Vegas Not-So-Politely Declines Mayor’s Bonkers Offer to Become Virus ‘Control Group’To curtail the surge, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has rolled back premature reopening plans, introduced a mask mandate, and closed down bars in seven counties, including Vegas. But he left it up to local leaders to enact more restrictive measures—and Las Vegas seems to be operating as usual. In the weeks after Nevada’s casinos reopened on June 4, after being shuttered for three months, at least 123 visitors have tested positive for the coronavirus.Brian Labus, a professor of public health and outbreak investigation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast that while cases in the state are surging, state officials have “stepped up” and taken “the main steps” to ensure the spread is curtailed. “The problem comes down to the fact that people didn’t take the social distancing seriously when we reopened,” Labus said. “I think the mask mandate will have a big dent on cases.”Labus also stressed that Sin City “exists for tourism” and therefore has a unique issue of balancing “its economy with the safety issues.”“You have to remember the kind of people who are coming to Las Vegas right now. It’s the people who are the least concerned about this outbreak right now—least likely to follow the social distancing,” he said, noting that tourists are not counted in Nevada’s numbers.“When you are on vacation, you want to forget about all your problems—and that includes the coronavirus. But there is still a pandemic, and not following health guidelines puts everyone at risk.”Khan said the pressure on reopening the strip has meant “hotel and casino workers are working in fear every day.” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has been notably silent after calling the state shutdown in March “total insanity” and suggesting Las Vegas could be a “control group” to test the impact COVID-19 would have on a community that didn’t close its doors. Over 500 Employees at Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel Have Been Laid Off Amid Coronavirus“We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against,” she said during a wild April interview on CNN that prompted residents to begin efforts to remove her. Goodman’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.Late last month, Adolfo Fernandez, a 51-year-old employee at Caesars Entertainment on the strip, died after testing positive for COVID-19. The utility porter died just two days after getting his virus diagnosis—and before the casino implemented a company-wide mask policy.The Culinary Union has since filed a lawsuit against several major casinos—including The Signature at the MGM Grand—to protect workers returning to work. The lawsuit states that the casino hotels have not adopted precautions to address the virus, have not conducted adequate tracing, and haven’t informed employees of positive tests among co-workers. Khan, who said 20 union members and their spouses or kids had died from COVID-19 in the last three months, stressed that the lawsuit was aimed at ensuring that hotel and casino workers don’t have to live “with the same fear every day they go to work.”The White House, according to a report obtained by the Center of Public Integrity, believes Nevada is already facing catastrophic virus consequences. In a July 14 document from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, public health officials said Nevada had reached “red zone” status—meaning there were more than 100 new cases for every 100,000 residents in the prior week. Nevada had about 173 new cases per capita in the previous week, compared to the national average of 119. “Las Vegas continues to have [a] concerning rise in cases,” the report said, noting that its county is one of the top three in the state with the highest COVID-19 cases. (Clark County, Washoe, County and Elko County represent 97.9 percent of the new cases in Nevada.)In order to combat the surge, the White House document suggested Nevada—and 17 other states—limit large gatherings, close down indoor establishments, and issue a mask mandate. A New York Times study also showed Nevada’s surge to be among the highest in the world. The study of the number of daily infections between June 28 and July 5 showed Arizona and Florida are the two most infected places in the world. Nevada placed ninth, before Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and the country of Panama. Nevada also ranked before Brazil, a country seen as one of the world's most severe hot spots with more than 2 million cases recorded since March. “The big surge in cases in Nevada [is] among Las Vegas residents—but even if Las Vegas puts a bunch of measures in place, it wouldn’t matter unless it was implemented statewide. You can’t just focus on one jurisdiction, because people move around,” Labus said. Las Vegas hospitals are feeling the surge of new cases and are overwhelmed, understaffed, and short on supplies—unable to keep up with what researchers believe is the “tipping point” before a state loses control of the pandemic. For the ER doctor, who said he had worked over 100 hours this week alone, the fear is knowing that the worst of the virus is yet to come for Las Vegas. He also said that some of the hospital’s beds are being taken up by patients from out-of-state, like Arizona.“This is uncharted waters and it seems like everyone in Las Vegas has been too lax about the pandemic,” the doctor said, stressing that local officials have not taken the necessary precautions to ensure they “stop the virus in its tracks months ago.”“People here in Las Vegas don’t see this pandemic as an issue—well, once the hospitals are filled and there is nowhere to go, they will realize they should have been more careful.”A spokesperson for University Medical Center in Las Vegas confirmed to The Daily Beast the hospital’s ICU occupancy had exceeded 90 percent but stressed they “have the ability to significantly expand this capacity.” “Following a detailed planning process, we have teams in place to activate alternative surge space throughout UMC as needed. We are currently using extra space within a large PACU [post-anesthesia care unit] to care for a small number of patients with non-COVID-related medical concerns,” the spokesperson said, adding that the hospital had not received any virus patients from Arizona. The hospital does take out-of-state trauma patients who need additional care.According to the Nevada Hospital Association, the state recorded its highest day for hospitalizations this week, with 1,051 on Tuesday. By Thursday, about 77 percent of staffed beds across the state were occupied, and 785 confirmed virus patients were admitted. About 40 percent of the state’s ventilators are in use.Sixto Zermeno, a bellman at The Signature at MGM Grand, said in a video announcing the union’s lawsuit, that he hadn’t been able to see his daughter for three weeks while he recovered from COVID-19.“[G]etting this disease has been extremely difficult for me and my family,” he said. “I have not been able to see my nine-year-old daughter in person since I tested positive—I haven’t been able to hug my daughter or see her for 3-weeks now.“The Signature at MGM Grand had three months to prepare and they didn’t. None of our upper management had a clue what to do and that’s unfortunate. They put a lot of us and our families at risk.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://ift.tt/30l8eIm

[saadullah-faisal-world]

As the coronavirus pandemic continues to pummel the United States, Las Vegas seems to be operating business as usual. Casinos have been open since June 4—undeterred by the 123 visitors who have tested positive for the highly contagious virus and the 51-year-old Caesars employee who died in late June.But it’s not business as usual for doctors and nurses in Las Vegas’ besieged health-care system, who say they are “overwhelmed and terrified” about the massive influx of new cases in a state officially deemed a “red zone” by the White House. “I would say in the last month we’ve been completely overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients and our hospital is running out of space,” one Las Vegas emergency room doctor, who wished to remain anonymous for fear of professional retaliation, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Not only are we overwhelmed and terrified, but based on the numbers for the rest of the country, it’s only going to get worse for us.”'A Sinking Ship’: Arizona Docs Say Ducey Steered State Into COVID-19 SurgeOne of the states that loosened coronavirus restrictions in May, Nevada has set records for new cases throughout July. The rate of new cases per 100,000 residents is higher than the national average, putting Nevada in the top ten states for cases per capita—alongside Arizona, Texas, and Florida, now the epicenter of the pandemic. In Las Vegas, where local officials protested against the stay-at-home order, the hospital system is starting to feel the effects of the cascading outbreak. The Las Vegas area set a new record of 1,315 new cases on Thursday, according to the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.And Sin City is a microcosm for the whole state—which also shattered COVID-19 numbers on Thursday with 1,447 new cases and six new deaths. ICUs are at about 84 percent capacity. “It’s even more troubling that COVID-19 in Nevada is disproportionately impacting communities of color,” Bethany Khan, the communications director for the Culinary Union in Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast on Friday. “Workers fear that they will contract the virus and bring it home to their families or possibly die from it.”At least 626 people have died from the coronavirus and 31,915 have been infected in Nevada—continuing a trend across much of the South and West after states lifted lockdown measures. Worse still, the rate of positive COVID-19 test results has reached a staggering 24.3 percent, rising continuously over the last month.Las Vegas Not-So-Politely Declines Mayor’s Bonkers Offer to Become Virus ‘Control Group’To curtail the surge, Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak has rolled back premature reopening plans, introduced a mask mandate, and closed down bars in seven counties, including Vegas. But he left it up to local leaders to enact more restrictive measures—and Las Vegas seems to be operating as usual. In the weeks after Nevada’s casinos reopened on June 4, after being shuttered for three months, at least 123 visitors have tested positive for the coronavirus.Brian Labus, a professor of public health and outbreak investigation at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, told The Daily Beast that while cases in the state are surging, state officials have “stepped up” and taken “the main steps” to ensure the spread is curtailed. “The problem comes down to the fact that people didn’t take the social distancing seriously when we reopened,” Labus said. “I think the mask mandate will have a big dent on cases.”Labus also stressed that Sin City “exists for tourism” and therefore has a unique issue of balancing “its economy with the safety issues.”“You have to remember the kind of people who are coming to Las Vegas right now. It’s the people who are the least concerned about this outbreak right now—least likely to follow the social distancing,” he said, noting that tourists are not counted in Nevada’s numbers.“When you are on vacation, you want to forget about all your problems—and that includes the coronavirus. But there is still a pandemic, and not following health guidelines puts everyone at risk.”Khan said the pressure on reopening the strip has meant “hotel and casino workers are working in fear every day.” Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman has been notably silent after calling the state shutdown in March “total insanity” and suggesting Las Vegas could be a “control group” to test the impact COVID-19 would have on a community that didn’t close its doors. Over 500 Employees at Trump’s Las Vegas Hotel Have Been Laid Off Amid Coronavirus“We would love to be that placebo side so you have something to measure against,” she said during a wild April interview on CNN that prompted residents to begin efforts to remove her. Goodman’s office did not respond to The Daily Beast’s request for comment.Late last month, Adolfo Fernandez, a 51-year-old employee at Caesars Entertainment on the strip, died after testing positive for COVID-19. The utility porter died just two days after getting his virus diagnosis—and before the casino implemented a company-wide mask policy.The Culinary Union has since filed a lawsuit against several major casinos—including The Signature at the MGM Grand—to protect workers returning to work. The lawsuit states that the casino hotels have not adopted precautions to address the virus, have not conducted adequate tracing, and haven’t informed employees of positive tests among co-workers. Khan, who said 20 union members and their spouses or kids had died from COVID-19 in the last three months, stressed that the lawsuit was aimed at ensuring that hotel and casino workers don’t have to live “with the same fear every day they go to work.”The White House, according to a report obtained by the Center of Public Integrity, believes Nevada is already facing catastrophic virus consequences. In a July 14 document from the White House Coronavirus Task Force, public health officials said Nevada had reached “red zone” status—meaning there were more than 100 new cases for every 100,000 residents in the prior week. Nevada had about 173 new cases per capita in the previous week, compared to the national average of 119. “Las Vegas continues to have [a] concerning rise in cases,” the report said, noting that its county is one of the top three in the state with the highest COVID-19 cases. (Clark County, Washoe, County and Elko County represent 97.9 percent of the new cases in Nevada.)In order to combat the surge, the White House document suggested Nevada—and 17 other states—limit large gatherings, close down indoor establishments, and issue a mask mandate. A New York Times study also showed Nevada’s surge to be among the highest in the world. The study of the number of daily infections between June 28 and July 5 showed Arizona and Florida are the two most infected places in the world. Nevada placed ninth, before Mississippi, Texas, Georgia, and the country of Panama. Nevada also ranked before Brazil, a country seen as one of the world's most severe hot spots with more than 2 million cases recorded since March. “The big surge in cases in Nevada [is] among Las Vegas residents—but even if Las Vegas puts a bunch of measures in place, it wouldn’t matter unless it was implemented statewide. You can’t just focus on one jurisdiction, because people move around,” Labus said. Las Vegas hospitals are feeling the surge of new cases and are overwhelmed, understaffed, and short on supplies—unable to keep up with what researchers believe is the “tipping point” before a state loses control of the pandemic. For the ER doctor, who said he had worked over 100 hours this week alone, the fear is knowing that the worst of the virus is yet to come for Las Vegas. He also said that some of the hospital’s beds are being taken up by patients from out-of-state, like Arizona.“This is uncharted waters and it seems like everyone in Las Vegas has been too lax about the pandemic,” the doctor said, stressing that local officials have not taken the necessary precautions to ensure they “stop the virus in its tracks months ago.”“People here in Las Vegas don’t see this pandemic as an issue—well, once the hospitals are filled and there is nowhere to go, they will realize they should have been more careful.”A spokesperson for University Medical Center in Las Vegas confirmed to The Daily Beast the hospital’s ICU occupancy had exceeded 90 percent but stressed they “have the ability to significantly expand this capacity.” “Following a detailed planning process, we have teams in place to activate alternative surge space throughout UMC as needed. We are currently using extra space within a large PACU [post-anesthesia care unit] to care for a small number of patients with non-COVID-related medical concerns,” the spokesperson said, adding that the hospital had not received any virus patients from Arizona. The hospital does take out-of-state trauma patients who need additional care.According to the Nevada Hospital Association, the state recorded its highest day for hospitalizations this week, with 1,051 on Tuesday. By Thursday, about 77 percent of staffed beds across the state were occupied, and 785 confirmed virus patients were admitted. About 40 percent of the state’s ventilators are in use.Sixto Zermeno, a bellman at The Signature at MGM Grand, said in a video announcing the union’s lawsuit, that he hadn’t been able to see his daughter for three weeks while he recovered from COVID-19.“[G]etting this disease has been extremely difficult for me and my family,” he said. “I have not been able to see my nine-year-old daughter in person since I tested positive—I haven’t been able to hug my daughter or see her for 3-weeks now.“The Signature at MGM Grand had three months to prepare and they didn’t. None of our upper management had a clue what to do and that’s unfortunate. They put a lot of us and our families at risk.”Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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Leonardo DiCaprio on Donald and Lady Gaga talks fame

One of the most beloved and one of the most disdained stars met at a recent climate change event and apparently not much common ground was found. Just recently, Academy Award-winning actor Leonardo DiCaprio recounted his brief encounter with President Donald Trump at a Yale Climate Conference panel. The actor/environmental activist told interviewer John Kerry that he was not able to get through to Donald like he was hoping. Leo told John, “We presented [Donald] with a comprehensive plan to tackle climate change, while also simultaneously harnessing the economic potential of green jobs. We talked about how the United States has the potential to lead the world in clean-energy manufacturing and research and development.” Unfortunately, Donald didn’t greet this plan with open arms. Leo went on to rant, “We should not have people in office who do not believe in facts and truth and modern science that are able to manipulate and risk the entire future of this entire generation.” Later on in the interview, Leo went on to add, “We are at that turning point right now, and we are going to look back at this point in history, and frankly this administration, and certain people are going to be vilified for not taking action. They really are. And it’s up to this generation; it’s up to all of you to get involved and make a difference.” The wave of Hollywood break-ups has yet to pass… This week, it was revealed that former Hills star Audrina Patridge split from her husband Corey Bohan. Subsequently, it was reported that the star also filed for a restraining order after Corey got violent with her while she was carrying their daughter Kirra earlier this summer. Media outlet The Blast reported that Corey is currently under criminal investigation, as Audrina reported him for pushing her while she was holding on to their young daughter. In addition, Corey was reportedly having a full-blown freak out at the time, repeatedly hitting himself in the head in front of both Audrina and Kirra. Unfortunately, Corey has apparently already violated the restraining order. TMZ reported that just a day after the order was granted, Corey showed up to Audrina and his home (where Audrina was staying with their daughter). Despite being asked to leave, Corey proceeded to set up a bunch of video cameras around the house, assumedly so that he could keep an eye on his ex-wife and daughter. Right now, Audrina is sorting out some of the legal details regarding her divorce from Corey. TMZ claims that the reality star is hoping that the judge will not grant Corey any spousal support, which she expects he will ask for during the proceedings. In addition, she is seeking sole custody of their 1-year-old. TV insiders believe that senior NBC staffers leaked the instantly infamous tape of Lawrence O’Donnell’s meltdown, in retaliation for his antics during contract negotiations this spring. Mediate published an 8-minute video of O’Donnell raging at staff during breaks in an Aug. 29 live broadcast of “The Last Word,” screaming at the staff to silence people in the control room and stop a “hammering” sound. Sources connected with the leak tell media outlets the video was slipped to the site as a broadcast-quality digital clip — and that only a handful of people are believed to be capable of accessing and transmitting such a file. Multiple sources tell us that O’Donnell angered NBC honcho Andy Lack — who also oversees MSNBC — in May by tweeting to fans about his contract negotiations. One TV insider called the deal-making “tense and unusually public,” while another said O’Donnell slyly generated a “groundswell of ‘save Lawrence sentiment’’ among viewers that “backed Lack into a corner.” A source tells us that the small number of people with access to the clip suggests it was either leaked or authorized by “someone at a senior level.” In the clip — reminiscent of Bill O’Reilly’s legendary “We’ll do it live!” blowup — a visibly furious O’Donnell slams his fist on his desk and rants about “insanity in the control room” and “stop the hammering!” and what he calls “f - - king out-of-control s - - t.” O’Donnell apologized Wednesday, saying, “A better anchorman and a better person would’ve had a better reaction to technical difficulties.” O’Donnell told media outlets: “This is a ridiculous conspiracy theory. There’s only one person to blame for this video — me. Andy Lack brought me to MSNBC when he created the network in 1996. We were friends before that and have always remained friends.” Lady Gaga has written an emotional message to fans to mark the release of her new Netflix documentary. In a note posted to Twitter on Thursday, Gaga writes that the film reveals “that fame is not all it’s cracked up to be.” She says fame is lonely, isolating and “very psychologically challenging” because it “changes the way you’re viewed by people.” She says her relationship with fame is “complicated” because she knows it’s her “destiny to be a performer.” The 31-year-old calls herself “just a girl trying to become a woman, who loves to write music, to sing, to play piano, guitar, dance, perform, and act.” Her documentary, “Gaga: Five Foot Two,” began streaming Friday on Netflix. These are the main takeaways from her very interesting documentary.

Lady Gaga has a new perspective on relationships. "My threshold for bullshit with men is… I don't have one anymore," Lady Gaga declares in the opening minutes of her new film. "I just don't care. Maybe cause I'm 30 and I feel better than ever, you know? All my insecurities are gone, I don't feel insecure about who am I as a woman. I'm not embarrassed or ashamed of what I have."

This new attitude extends to her professional life and her decision to work with producer Mark Ronson on Joanne. "There's so many men in my life in business… [who made me] feel like what I was on my own wasn't good enough. I don't feel that way working with Mark."

She feels slighted by Madonna. For as long as Lady Gaga has been a star, she's been dogged by comparisons to Madonna. She addresses those in Gaga: Five Foot Twoat length. "The thing with me and Madonna, for example, is: I admired her always. And I still admire her, no matter what she might think of me."

But that admiration now comes with a caveat. "I'm Italian and from New York," Lady Gaga continues, "so if I got a problem with somebody, I'm gonna tell you to your face. But no matter how much respect I have for [Madonna] as a performer, I could never wrap my head around the fact that she wouldn't look me in the eye and tell me that I was reductive… I saw it on fucking TV. Telling me that you think I'm a piece of shit through the media, it's like a guy passing me a note through his friend: 'my buddy thinks you're hot.' Fuck you. Where's your buddy fucking throwing me up against the wall and kissing me? I just want Madonna to throw me up against the wall and kiss me and tell me I'm a piece of shit." Later, while visiting her grandmother, Lady Gaga can't resist taking one more shot at the women she admires. While looking at an old high school picture, the singer's father remarks, "this proves that she had braces." "If I had kept that gap," Lady Gaga adds, "then I would have even more problems with Madonna."

She's been battling debilitating pain for years. Throughout Gaga: Five Foot Two, the singer is fighting pain that stems from a broken hip suffered on the Born This Way Tour in 2013. The day she is due to perform at Tony Bennett's 90th birthday party, Gaga is laid up on the couch in tears. "The whole right side of my body is in a spasm," she tells a caretaker. "My fucking face hurts." "Let's put Trump on," she adds later. "That'll knock me out."

But that's only a temporary solution, as she visits a doctor for something more thorough. "I have chased this pain for five years," she explains. "When I feel the adrenaline from my fans, I can fucking go. But it's not like I'm not in pain." The scene culminates with Lady Gaga listing off a series of drugs she's taking to help cope before submitting to immediate medical treatment. Even face down on a doctor's table with needles protruding from her back, Lady Gaga remains focused on work, complaining about the leak of Joanne earlier that day. Despite the latest medical intervention, the pain still troubles her, and Lady Gaga postponed the European leg of her Joanne World Tour on Monday.

Sexism among male producers, and the industry on the whole, dogged her throughout her career. Lady Gaga suggests that high-level male producers regularly abuse their power when working with female artists. "When producers — unlike Mark — start to act like, 'you'd be nothing without me,' for women especially, since those men have so much power, they can have women in a way that no other men can," the singer explains. "And then I walk in the room, and it's like eight times out of 10, I'm put in that category, and they expect from me what those girls have to offer, when that's just not at all what I have to offer. That's not what I'm here for."

"The methodology that I used to get out of that category was when they wanted me to be sexy or they wanted me to be pop I always put some fucking absurd spin on it that made me feel like I was still in control," she continues. "If I'm gonna be sexy at the VMAs singing about the paparazzi I'm gonna do it while cleaning the bathroom and reminding you of what fame did to Marilyn Monroe."

Lady Gaga dug into the family archives to help shape Joanne. Lady Gaga named Joanne after her aunt, Joanne Stefani Germanotta, who died due to complications from lupus at 19 years old. During one of the most emotional scenes in Gaga: Five Foot Two, the singer visits her grandmother to play her the album's title track. "We'll just play it, and if we get upset, we don't have to talk about it," Lady Gaga says. But grandma endorses the track: "That's a beautiful piece."

In addition to getting grandma's stamp of approval, Lady Gaga reads Joanne's old poems and looks at some of her artwork. "She had a lot of talent, but she didn't have enough time," her grandmother says. "For the 19 years we had her, she was precious. And she's not been forgotten ever."

She believes in confounding her audience. Lady Gaga shows little interest in catering to listener expectations. "I want to do the opposite of what everyone thinks I'm going to do," she declares in a meeting with Super Bowl halftime show-runners. "Everyone thinks I'm going to come out there on a fucking throne in a meat dress with 90 shirtless men and unicorns. Am I right? And then at the end I'm gonna do something shocking that's gonna freak everybody out. But it's not even in the neighborhood of what we're gonna do."

She expresses a similar sentiment in a conversation with her creative team where she decides to eschew the elaborate outfits that characterized her early promotion cycles in favor of a simple jeans and T-shirt outfit. "Honestly we've seen me fucking glamorous for 10 years," she says. "It's fucking boring."

She's a stickler for details. Whether it's adding more emphasis to the high end during the mixing of Joanne or nailing her cameo on American Horror Story, Gaga: Five Foot Two captures the singer's rigorous eye for the smallest detail. During one of many intense scenes of preparation for her Super Bowl performance, she suggests this is a necessity for any star at her level. "If I pick up the keytar and play the wrong note in front of 100 million people, that's my fault," she says. "It doesn't matter that someone else screwed it up. It's my name."

As a result, she's always thinking several steps ahead. Moments later, Lady Gaga demands that a wardrobe assistant change her jacket lining. "I know to other people it's just the lining of a jacket," she explains. "But for me, it's the way that the fabric on my outfit interacts with this fabric is going to change the speed of my arm as it enters the sleeve."

After years of insecurity, Lady Gaga now recognizes the extent of her talents. It may surprise some to hear that Lady Gaga's whirlwind of success did little to quiet her self-doubts — until now. "I never felt comfortable enough to sing or wear my hair back," she says. "I never felt pretty enough or smart enough or a good enough musician. That's the good part: I didn't feel good enough, and I do now. Of all the things I deserve, that's where I know I'm worth something."

Josh Duhamel was tired of his pop-star wife Fergie’s “partying” before their breakup, media outlets were told. Sources close to the actor tell us that he didn’t want to split with his wife of eight years. According to pals, their marriage broke down over the course of about a year, in spite of trying couples’ therapy. The long slide coincided with the recording of Fergie’s first solo album in 11 years, “Double Dutchess.” “[Fergie] was very focused on her album and being a rock star again, and Josh felt like she was going back to her ‘old ways,’ ” sources said. The former Black Eyed Peas singer was a notorious party animal in her youth and even battled drug problems — although there has been no suggestion she has started using drugs again. Reps didn’t get back to us. Media outlets reported this week that fans are wondering if Fergie’s upcoming second solo album was inspired by her breakup with Duhamel, with tracks such as “Love Is Blind” and “Love Is Pain.” Fergie admitted to media outlets, “There’s a lot of my life and my vulnerable side.” But she said the songs are about many relationships. Ryan Seacrest is still sore over Mariah Carey’s claims his production team sabotaged her ill-fated “New Year’s Rockin’ Eve” performance. During her performance, Carey lip-synced and stumbled her way through her segment, saying that her inner ear monitors weren’t working properly. Her manager, Stella Bulochnikov, claimed later that Dick Clark Productions was aware of the issue before the performance began and did nothing to address it. “Once things went wrong, they took the decision to keep rolling and make her look like a train wreck for the ratings,” Bulochnikov told media outlets. Dick Clark Productions called the allegations“defamatory,” and Seacrest, 42, vehemently denied that the production team was behind the disaster. “What was going through my head [in that moment] was and is: That crew, that team, that staff is the best in the business,” Seacrest said firmly on “Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen” on Thursday. “They put on the biggest live music events and they know what they’re doing, and I know how good they are at their jobs,” he continued. “So my reaction was, she was working with the best — I find it hard to believe they made big mistakes that night.” Still, Seacrest admitted that, like Carey, 47, it was hard for him to hear what was going on because of all noise surrounding him. “When it was happening, it was hard for me to see and hear because we’re in Times Square and there’ a lot going on,” he conceded. “I had to be told that something was going on and then try and find a monitor to react to, so I wasn’t quite sure what was happening, actually.” “Dick Clark would not have let an artist go through that and he would have been as mortified as I was in real-time,” he said. Seacrest’s comments echoed the opinion he shared in January about the incident. “I know this team of producers — I’ve known these guys for years. I knew Dick Clark very, very well,” he said. “This is a team that wants to do everything they can to accommodate any artist. We are in the business of wanting people to look good and believe me, tricky things, tough things can happen. It happens on live television. You’ve seen artists before in a concert pull out their earpiece because something happens. Something could have happened in the ears. I wasn’t in those ears. It’s just unfortunate that it comes to all of this.” Jennifer Lawrence issued a one-finger salute Thursday during an official Academy screening of her new critically-panned flick, “mother!” Seated next to the film’s director — who is also her boyfriend — Darren Aronofsky, 48, the couple of nearly a year discussed the mind-boggling production at the Celeste Bartos Theater in New York. Dressed in a floral maxi dress, Lawrence, 27, looked nothing like the character she plays in Aronofsky’s latest, which has since earned an “F” on CinemaScore. Ahead of the movie’s Sept. 15 release, Lawrence alleged Aronofsky had psychological problems. “It was an instant ‘yes’ before I even read anything,” Lawrence said during a Toronto International Film Festival conference. “He told me his ideas, and I thought they were brilliant and unique and challenging. I’ve been a fan of his for years — I think he’s bold and brave, and I think I said ‘brilliant.’ “Then I got a script, and when I read it, I threw it across the room and told him he had severe psychological problems,” she noted.

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Stop 14: Seville, Spain

The train from Barcelona was great! First of all, we ride in style with wine (screw top, of course), salami, and popcorn. Let’s be honest, it’s the only way to travel.

Second of all, it was nice, relaxing, and we got to see some of the country side before the sun went down.

Day 1: Took a slow start to day 1 in Seville but it was time for C’s walking tour! We started with Plaza de la Encarnacio which is the largest wooden structure in the world... or so our map says. Either way, we found it on the way to our hostel and today with the clear skies... it was beautiful. What’s funny, this used to be a car park.

We were then off to Iglesia del Salvador. However, it’s Sunday so we didn’t go in - we didn’t want to disturb church goers.

Then it was off to Auyntamiento de Seville... honestly, not a clue what this was but it was in a beautiful building.

And on to the Cathedral of Sevilla. Very impressive!

Then the outside of the palace....with a long line to get in. This areas we well as the areas to follow were covered with horse drawn carriages to rent. Brings me back to our New York trip and experience in Central Park (I am a tourist, no shame) however, it is much warmer here than it was there.

Seville, is a beautiful town. Walking the streets, seeing cyclist, cafes, the tram... it’s easy to fantasize about living here.

But we were on our way to the Royal Alcazar of Seville, which I thought was just part of a park but no you have to pay to get in so we settled for the Monumento a Cristobal Colon.

It was then off to the infamous Plaza de Espana, which did not disappoint. It actually impressed us more than we expected. The area is lined with tiles of Spain cities. It is quite beautiful! The photos don’t do it justice.

We then headed back towards the hostel for lunch. Again, being lactose intolerant, I can’t help myself from ordering pizza or anything with dairy on/in it. Plus it’s hilarious to say “no queso” and have them look at you like you are a crazy person. I enjoyed it and got a kick out of the guys reaction and B’s head shake. We then went grocery shopping and chilled at the hostel. From 5-8pm our hostel had free Sangria’s. Score!

And we enjoyed a beautiful sunset. It was a great way to end our first day.

Day 2: We took it a little easy today. There was a lot on my mind and I needed to talk it out. This trip is about us and what we want out of it. That is changing for me, well both of us. So, we chatted it out and made a game plan. All while walking around town, along the river, and up to the Torre del Oro.

It was then off to lunch. Having the dietary restrictions I have it can be difficult to order food.... plus not speaking Spanish... and everything has red peppers... things can get hairy. However, we were in a special mood and just ordered the menu of the day. It was perfect and delicious. B had a seafood soup and beef stew. I had a winter salad (which B at the peppers out of) and fried chicken. So good!

After dinner, I was feeling tired so I hit the hay. Right about then B came to the room to say he was going out to a Flaminco show. I really wanted to see a Flaminco show but had a headache and just needed to sleep it off. He had a great time and told me all about the group he went out with. 

Day 3: We are feeling a bit restless in Seville, so we walk and talk. We walked across the bridge and over to what we thought was an amusement park but it was obviously closed for the winter.

So, we continued walking until lunch. As we were looking for lunch we found a market. We grabbed some tapas and food for dinner and headed back to chill.

People at the hostel are interesting... There is clearly a party culture at this hostel. Spain stays up late and wakes up later. It seems everyone at this hostel goes out drinking every night and comes back (loud as can be) at all hours of the morning. On weekends it is normal for people not to go out until 12pm and come back at 10am. It’s cool and if I was feeling better I am sure we would join in more.

Tonight I wanted to check out the Flaminco show. So, we headed out for a few drinks and some Flaminco. I finally met all the people B went out with last night plus some new people.

As you can imagine the people you meet are a mixed bunch. For the most part I haven’t cared for anyone at this hostel as they all seem to want to drink and brag about trying to get laid. No real conversations to be had. However, tonight a girl from Korea joined the crew. She and I got along great! She recently left a job in Korea that she loved but was being sexually harassed by her boss and could do nothing about... so she hit the road in hopes to find something new. It was nice to talk to someone who didn’t want to brag about their job or making out with someone the night before. Just their story and what their interests. 

Day 4: Again, complaints about the hostel. Overall it’s fine. The rooftop terrace is great! We have stayed in nicer hostels and that were cheaper but whatever. I am sick of the late night loud music or talking on a patio outside our room until 2 am (mostly because I feel like crap but probably because I am actually an old lady who goes to bed too early for my actual age). Finally, tonight management would step in. Everything about this hostel is loud and then you add people blasting music at any old hour... hard for me to relax. But the beds are the worst. So, we are stiff, sore, and not sleeping. And now my TMJ is back along with shoulder and neck pain. Great fun. On top of all of that, we woke up with sore throats. A gal was coughing her life away the first two nights and we must have caught it or something. So, we took today easy and really only ventured out for lunch. (B’s lunch below)

By the time dinner rolled around, a large group came into the common area. We didn’t pay much attention until we were about to sit down to eat and a friend from the other night told us they were having visa issues. Since last Friday we have been asked a bunch of times if we are going to have issues getting home. So, apparently he felt the need to tell us the group of American students were having visa issues.

So, we sat down, ate, and eased dropped. All we could catch was that their visas to Morocco were rejected, something to due with the recent visa/immigration ban, and everyone needing to report an incident to DHS. A little all over the board. Oh and they were in a student abroad program and everyone seemed to be crying. Some weird stuff was said but we didn’t know what happened just that they were all safe and staying together.

After their chat a girl comes over and apologizes for all the drama and people. Not a problem but we are curious as to what is going on. Apparently, as a precaution, they have been told they can not go to Morocco in fear of retaliation due to the visa ban issued even though Morocco was not one of the countries. We say “oh bummer” and the girl walks away as the convo is over.

This is why I love b...  he turns to me and says “boo fucking who”. Ha. Seriously though, you’re lucky to be in the damn program and it’s not like their isn’t a whole world out there to see. You miss one country but replace it with another. Rough life kid. Then I really lost it... a group of girls close to our table were chatting when one said (think valley girl voice) “Well all I have to say is they better pay for all my food. I’m not paying out of my pocket for this mess.” I wanted to slap her. Reality check. You have the privilege not only to travel but also for school when you could be trying to escape a country to save your life. Not sorry, fuck you!

On a lighter note, these two sick peeps are off to Madrid. Our last stop in Spain. And once again via train because why travel any other way when you don’t have too? 

Random Notes:

• Spain has beautiful architecture. It’s no wonder this place is one of the top countries to visit in Europe.

• Spain is big of fruit juices... I thought it was just Barcelona... I was wrong. They are cheap and delicious.

• The bike lanes here are not marked by color but by these tiny metal stopper things... You almost miss them. Good thing cyclist are paying attention because I wasn’t.