#and i can tell my hosts dealing w the same exact thing except it is worse for her because she has so little left to lose

[ocpdzim]

i have felt like i am dissolving lately and i hate it

[doubleshotofsomething]

Come Into My Life

This is my entry for @nekoannie-chan​‘s 500 followers’ writing competition. This is a Thor fanfiction series inspired on the song “Entra en mi Vida”. I had a blast writing it and I loved the song even more.

Song Prompt: ”Entra en mi vida” by Sin Bandera

Warnings: none??

Author’s note: Okay, all seriousness guys, what the fuck? So, you guys just...let me call Ghost “Shadow” and didn’t bother to correct me? really guys? really?? Is this where we are now? woooow, there’s no autocorrect here.

Summary: You and Thor just can’t seem to be on the same page, about anything.

----

“You seem to think this is something you can hide from.”

----

Part Two: Después de cinco minutos, ya eras alguien especial  

Mjölnir kept disappearing. But that could have been Steve's fault. Or Vision. So, that's understandable.

Then Stormbreaker kept disappearing as well. There was no Vision. And Steve had long given up his avenging days.

Both weapons came back, they always did. But Stormbreaker seemed to be adamant in taking its sweet time. Which, under any circumstances, wouldn't be a problem. Except, Thor is still an Avenger. He still has work - work that required his weapon - to do.

You were in the kitchen with Sam, arguing - like you always did - about something when Thor walked in, looking for that damned axe.

You had met a handful of times, but you tended to avoid the group as much as you could. Sam, Shadow and Hope were as far as you were willing to go, Thor had realised, and socialising with you didn't seem all too appealing to him.

Thor wasn't focusing on either of you, eyes too busy dancing around the room as he tied his hair back. The quinjet was set to leave in fifteen minutes and all that was missing from his battle attire was that cursed thing.

"This is exactly why I don't like coming here-" your complaining broke through his cloud of thought and his eyes went to you. "--seriously, Sam, you are the worst host ever. What am I supposed to do with you gone?"

Sam rolled his eyes, rolling his shoulders back a bit before attaching his wings. "Talk to people. Your favourite cyborg is staying behind, so you two can talk about those babies you wanted to give him."

You scoffed and reached over the counter for the sugar dispenser. "The love of my life is currently sulkin--"

Before you could grab the sugar, your fingers instinctively wrapped around a wooden staff. Sam, too focused on making sure he had everything he needed, missed the complete look of annoyance on your face and shock on Thor's face.

There, in your hand, was Stormbreaker. His Stormbreaker. And, instead of being confused, you sighed and tossed it aside before grabbing the sugar as you had intended to. As if nothing had happened.

"Damn thing needs a leash," you mumbled to yourself, stirring the sugar into the originally-Sam's-but-now-yours tea.

Asgard was no stranger to prophecies. And Thor had heard enough of them growing up to tell which was a farce. But this...

No...

It couldn't be...

Surely, it was a temporary glitch. It had to be.

Because a dying star couldn't have forged a King's weapon, only so an idiot could easily wield it.

It's not that Thor thought you were stupid or not worthy. It's just that he thought you were an idiot and a complete nutcase.

You put a target on your back and refused any security that Fury had to offer. You're still convinced that your Uber driver won't do you any harm. And you sleep with your bedroom window unlocked.

You were an idiot.

A complete and utter idiot.

So, why did he instantly seek out your scent whenever he breathed?

Why does the thought of you, anywhere near him, suddenly make it hard to think about anything else?

And, for the love of all that is good, why won't you look at him? Actually look at him. Not those glances and polite eye contact you share with everyone else.

There are so many prophecies, too many that weren't true and too little that were. Thor could always tell which were a farce and which weren't.

But now, he was the idiot that couldn't understand why his axe was more responsive to you, than him.

-----

"I have no idea what you're talking about." Is Fury's response to the Captain's questions.

The Avenger's Compound had been turned into the current base of operations for both the new SHIELD and the Avengers. With the exception that the Captain was the one overlooking everything, alongside Fury.

Hope didn't waste time shoving you into her car -- as always -- and dragging you to the compound with everyone else. And then, because that's never enough, they shoved you into the meeting room with everyone else, while Captain went to bring Fury.

Sighing, you lean against your chair and turn to look at Thor. The Asgardian had been sitting on the couch when you were shoved onto it, watching the whole scene unfold while he munched away on a bowl of cereal.

You eyed his outfit and frowned. "Why is it that every time I see you, you're always trying out a new look?"

He blinked at you, mid-chew with a trail of milk going from the corner of his lip into his beard.

"First, it was the whole medieval knight thing, then the carpenter look, then the whole lumberjack thing. And now--" you waved at his sweatpants, fingerless gloves and what look to be a sweater. "--you're... what is this? And why does it look so comfortable?"

"Really? You expect us to believe that SHIELD is being funded by all that money?" Sam fired back at Fury. "With all that new equipment that keeps rolling in? Do we look stupid to you, Fury?"

Fury raised an eyebrow. "You want me to answer that?"

"I will!" You jumped in, raising your hand as you tuned in. "Yes, you do look stupid. In fact, you're the reason I know what stupid looks like. And I got in an Uber without checking if it was my driver or not, this morning."

"You did what?!" Thor barked.

You rolled your eyes and waved off the man that's decided to be a pain in your ass. "Calm down, security update. I can take care of mys--

"Calm down?!" Thor tossed the bowl across the room to properly glare at you. "You are so adamant on putting your life at risk every damn chance you get! You are, arguably, the most hated person on every ex-Hydra agent's list. And you--"

You don't bother to sit through the rest of that lecture. You avoid going to the compound for that exact reason. In fact, you avoid Thor for that exact reason. The first time you met the Asgardian, he spent most of the introductions helping Fury tell you all about how you were going to live your life now -- and all the safety measures you'd have to take.

As if you hadn't been raised by one of the world's greatest sleeper agent.

"This guy, am I right?" You scoffed as you got up, consequently getting him to get up. "Who died and made him Jarvis?"

"I am speaking to you!" He is front of you, towering over you, blue eyes swimming with rage, as he glared at you.

"Carpet damn, Asgardian. Carpet damn."

Ghost, from the other side of the room, cut in. "It's Carpe diem, shithead."

"I'm freestyling, thank you very much." You shot back.

"Can we get back to the matter at hand?" Captain Flightless called out. "Thor. Please, calm down. Take a seat."

"I will not calm down nor take a seat," he glares down Mr Red, White and Break-your-brand-new-car. "Her safety is just as important as the matter. What do you think will happen if the wrong people get their hands on her? SHIELD signing a deal with her company will be the least of your worries!"

You turned at Ghost. "Is it too late to bring back Thanos? I just wanna see something..."

"You know--" Sam flicked your ear. "--if he comes back, you're gonna get dusted too, right?"

"Exactly. That way, I get to see him beat the shit out of an entitled thunder-summoning, cape-wearing, overbearing, self-proclaimed mighty asshole!" You glared at Thor, then turned back to Sam. "And then, finally see what y'all were doing as dust particles."

"Thor does have a point--" Fury cuts in, crossing his arms.

"Doesn't that leather trench coat get hot?" You point at it, because you were sure as hell not having this conversation again.

"Pierce may have been Hydra, but even he knew how messed up things would be if you were in the wrong hands--"

"You say that like I can shoot lightning bolts out of a gavel."

"It was a hammer." Thor grits out.

Fury ignores you both. "--things aren't as they used to be. The threats aren't only Thanos, Loki, or any other alien tyrant."

"That's mean. Thor isn't an alien." You feign a point.

"We need to consider the threats here, on Earth, as well." Thor ignores your jab. "Like, I've always been saying. The scale of destruction and terror that criminals could cause if they got a hold of just a small percentage of Hydra tech. Just look at what Ultron had accomplished--"

You stare blankly at the tower of a man in front of you. "You mean the computer upgrade that Tony created? With a weapon that is no longer on Earth, in this timeline? With Hydra tech from a Hydra lab, on that floating, vibranium powered island that you destroyed?"

"The point is--"

"I have lived in hiding my entire life," you narrow your eyes at the ignorant would-be-king. "Security protocols, safe houses, different identities, around-the-clock security, all of that bullshit that you're suggesting I know nothing about-- yeah, that was all I knew about. I know where every entrance and exit of every room I walk into is. I plan for an escape, before I even step foot out of my place.

"I did not come here so you can tell me how to continue living the lifestyle that I was raised to live--" You're glaring and baring your teeth and ready to rip him a new one. "--My keepers are dead. You will sooner change the nature of a cat, before you turn your little pride of vigilantes into my security detail."

He doesn't say anything. He can't. He knows better than to argue with you when you're like this; angry and on the verge of lashing out.

So, he just stares back at the idiot that won't stop haunting his every thought. The idiot that can wield a weapon he nearly died for. The idiot that won't understand why he bickers when it comes to her safety.

Sam sighs as he crashes on the couch. "At that's the tea."

Tags: @nekoannie-chan​, @thorfanficwriter​

[jokerfan99]

Icebreaking (RWBY/RVB) by Necroceph

*RVB Opening Theme*

Grif: Ugh... Simmons: Grif. Grif? GRIF! Grif: Wha- Mom? Simmons: Nope it's your old pal, Simmons. Grif: Oh man, I had the weirdest dream. There was this blonde chick who emerged from this crashed ship. She was hot as hell, you could've seen her! But then all the sudden she started sabotaging everything just to cover her tracks because she claimed that Command kidnapped her because they chose her to be a new host for O'Malley. Yang: Who's O'Malley?

That was no dream!

Grif: O-oh fuck... me.

He faints again.

Ruby: Not again! That's the third time he fainted. Next one might end up a coma. Sarge: Dagnabbit. Lopez, get a bucket of hydrofluoric acid. Water won't work this time. Lopez: Sí señor. Ruby: Wait won't that kill him? Donut: Nah I think he'll be alright. Probably with just a few bald spots. Ruby: Okay... By the way, Yang, what is Omega? Yang: Hey don't ask me, I only heard it from the guards. But from the way your team reacted, it looks like they know what it is. Ruby: Do you? Sarge: Of course we know him. He's our greatest nemesis. A crazed computer program that tried to kill all of us with his rockets and his laughs. Ah, those were the good old day. Simmons: No it wasn't! He made me call, Sarge a cocksucker!

WHACK!

Simmons: OW! Sarge: Still haven't forgive you for that. Donut: He tried to kill us with a robot army. Lopez: Incluso me secuestró y me convirtió en su asistente personal del mal. Ruby and Yang:... Huuuuuh? Simmons: Christ, let me tell you in detail. Long story short, he's an angry unstable megalomaniac AI used by a mercenary the Blues hired years ago. He went loose and started trying to kill every last one of us while possessing the body of conscientious objector with a rocket launcher. He was destroyed when he went into a Pelican with a bomb rigged inside it. Do you get the jist? Ruby:... Yang:... Ruby: I got lost when you said 'conscientious objector with a rocket launcher'. Simmons: Ugh... you know, forget what I said! Donut: C'mon, Simmons. You'll have to try harder. Give a story a little... 'pizzazz'. Ruby: I don't know what they're talking about, but I really wanna be in their world for five minutes. Yang: Totally. It must've been very fun here before you came. Simmons: Sigh, I don't understand. How did Command get their hands on him? Didn't the Pelican blew up with him and Tex inside? Sarge: Of course it did. I made sure he stayed dead by adding more payload inside the ship, strong enough to obliterate everything in a fifteen mile radius into space dusts. That explosion was a huge sight to behold! Lopez: Realmente no era tan grande. Simmons: And did you remove the ship's radio before that?

Both stared at each other for a moment.

Sarge:... Ah fiddlesticks. Simmons: HOW COULD YOU FORGET ABOUT THE RADIO?! Caboose: Hello! Weiss: Quiet!

Someone's calling from outside.

Yang: Who's that? Simmons: The Blues. Sarge: Captain Ahab's Barnacles, they must be here to salvage the ship for themselves. Damn vultures! Donut, Rose, go handle them. Donut: Wha- what about you guys? Sarge: One: Me and Lopez are trying to wake Grif up with EXTRA pain. And Two: Simmons' is needed here to find where O'Malley is being held at. The black box might contain information where did was being headed. Simmons: I would love to do that, Sir. IF YANG DIDN'T DESTROY THE COMM'S ROOM! Yang: I said I was sorry! Ruby: Why not call, Vic? Maybe he can ask you. Simmons: Oh please. He isn't that dumb enough to give us, O'Malley's exact location... unless... Sarge, permission to rip out the Warthog's radio. I have an idea. Sarge: Now wait a minute, you can't just rip out a piece of the Warthog! That's a penalty of- Simmons: I can do extra shifts. Sarge: Deal! Yang: Hey what about me? I can also fight those guys too. I really need to stretch this punching muscles of mine. Sarge: Punching muscles, hmm? I see why not. Permission granted. Alright, Lopez. Ready to pour that acid on him. Ruby: Yes! It's good to have you fight by my side. Yang: Hey, you're not going to let me miss out the fun. So, Donut. How many out there? Donut: Two. Yang: Two?! I expected more than fifty. Donut: Nah just two. There was suppose to be three more but I'm not sure why they didn't come along. Ruby: Hmm... maybe it's a Blue tactic. The two waiting outside are acting as a distraction while the other three are prepared to ambush us. Yang: That means we'll be surrounded. But that ain't a problem for me once I kick their asses. Donut: You against five of them? Wow, you're a bigger badass than I thought. Ruby: Trust me, she is. Back at basic, she destroyed an entire team all by herself without needing any help. It was awesome. Yang: Thank you. So what do you know about those two? Donut: Well there's Caboose on the tank and then there's Weiss. Yang: A tank, huh? That'll be easy once I throw my homemade... who was the other person?

Outside

Weiss: This is the Blue team! Come out with your hands up or be destroyed. There's no point in fighting 'cause we have a tank that outguns your pathetic little Warthog. But if do you seek battle, that's fine by me. That is all.

She turns off the megaphone and turns to Caboose, sitting inside the tank.

Weiss: Alright, Michael. We're just here to talk about the ship, no need to go all guns blazing. Caboose: If we're here to talk with the Red, why did we bring, Sheila here? Weiss: Just for precaution. Plus, I intend to see a shell liquifying both Ruby's legs. Caboose: Okay. Hi, Donut!

Donut appeared on the roof alone. Where is the rest of the Reds?, Weiss thought. Something's up and good thing she brought the tank.

Donut: Hi, guys! Hey where's everybody else? Weiss: Busy scrubbing the floors with their toothbrushes. That's what happens when you don't report anything important to your leader. (whisper) Keep an eye out for, Ruby. We're here to talk about the ship. Do you know what happened to it and where it came from? Donut: Didn't you guy's hear the crash yesterday? Caboose: Weiss didn't hear it because she was singing in the bathroom when it happened. Donut: Ooh can she sing Mordern Major General? Weiss: No. Donut: Sorry, guys. But there's nothing left to trade with you except ash and stuff. And it wasn't carrying anything too. Weiss: We're not here to trade. We got enough SMGs in the armory. How can you be sure it wasn't carrying anything? Donut: Yang told us. Weiss: I-I-I'm sorry, can you repeat what you said? Donut: I said... Yang: (offscreen) Shh! Not now. Donut: I should go back inside. We're quite busy today. Grif fainted not too long ago. Sarge and Lopez are trying to wake him up. Simmons' working on a pet project on communication and I was sewing silk for the winter. Weiss: Silk?! You don't use silk for the winter, you idiot! And winter isn't coming in another six months. Donut: I mean- Sangheili silk. It's a very nice alternative to wool... kinda Weiss: Really? And tel me, what is Rose doing? Donut: Making runs around the base. Weiss: Oh you mean... HER?

Weiss sticks out her foot slightly up in the air. Then a flash of red accident trips on the leg and crashes on the tank, head first. Ouch, that did not go as plan.

Ruby: Ow...! Weiss: Ah, poor old, Rose. Always forget that I've read every move she makes back at Beacon. Alright, Donut, enough games...

HISSSSS

The sound of hissing caught her attention. It came from next to her and... oh no. A plasma grenade is stuck onto the turret!

Caboose: Why do hear a snake hissing? Weiss: MICHAEL, GET OUT OFF THERE!

Caboose quicky jumps out from the tank. They both ran away until the grenade explodes, blowing the tank into pieces. Bye bye, Sheila (or her body), you will not be missed.

BOOOM!

Caboose: SHEILA, NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!

At Blue Base.

Church and Tucker could see the mushroom cloud erupted on the field. Must be one hell of a fight out there.

Tucker: Man I'm glad we're here cleaning up the base. Hey, Church can I burrow your toothbrush? Church: No.

Back at Red Base.

Weiss: KUFF KUFF... Michael, are you alright? Caboose: Yes, I'm fine. But Sheila... sniff... is dead. Weiss: What the hell was that? There's no way a plasma grenade can create an explosion that big! Yang: Unless it was made by me, YOU WHITE HAIRED BITCH!

That voice, that tone. No it couldn't be. She turned to the direction of the voice and sees a Red soldier carrying the same weapon that almost split her head into a bloody mess. And the only one carrying it is...

Weiss: Oh no...

Yang Xiao Long.

Yang: Hello, Weiss. Long time no see. Caboose: Weiss, is that the angry friend you talked about? Weiss: Yes. Yes she is... RUUUUN!

Weiss grabs Caboose's hand and run away from Yang. However they were stopped when three more plasma grenades land in front of them and exploded, creating two large craters roughly about 12 meters in diameter, six meters in depth.

Weiss: Oh crap! This is Weiss Schnee to Blue base, we require reinforcements, NOW! Yang: NO ONE'S COMING TO SAVE YOUR FIRST CLASS ASS, SCHNEE! Just you, me and these two babies, Mr. and Mrs Fisty.

Yang cracks her knuckles as she approaches towards them, with raging red eyes focused on the one and only teammate who ran away.

Weiss: AAAAAH! MICHAEL, KEEP THAT PSYCHOPATH AWAY FROM ME!

Weiss quickly hides behind Caboose, cowering herself away from that golden monster that tried to kill her. Yang stopped as her path is block by Caboose who stood calmly between her and Weiss.

Caboose: Hello... big scary lady... with big boobs. My name is, Caboose. You must be,... Yang. Yang:... Caboose:... Yang:... Uhm...hi? Do I know you? Caboose: Yeah, Weiss told me that t you are the angry friend. She also told me that you and Ruby are sisters and were part of a team in the letters R, W, B and Y. Ruby: Actually it's pronounced... ow my nose!... 'Ruby', with a 'W'. Caboose: Oooh! Wait if it's pronounce Ruby, shouldn't 'W' be a 'U'? Yang: (whisper) Who is this guy? Ruby: That's Caboose. Dumbest member in the Blue team here. Yang: A mentally retarded guy serving in the Blue army, huh? I'll deal with you later.

Yang glares at Weiss.

Yang: So, Weiss. This is where you've been. Stationed in a desolate box canyon with nothing but sand and rocks. I thought you'd be in the Atlesian army by now. Weiss: GULP! Yang: What's the matter, still afraid to face me after all these years? Hmph, how pathetic. To even call yourself a soldier is just embarrasing. Caboose: Hey you can't talk, Weiss like that! She's my best friend. Yang: You... her friend? Caboose: Yeah she may be a little noisy. Weiss: Gee, Michael. Thanks. Yang: SHUT UP! Weiss: EEK! Yang: So you know who I am, that's something. But do you know what she did before she came here? Caboose: Yeah she told me that she was in a base with you during an exam. But it got attack by space pirates who want to steal things, arrrgh. She was then given orders by her teacher to escape because she had to bring back important dates before the pirates steal it. You know I like the Egyptian ones. They're very chewy like gum. Ruby: Don't you mean 'data'? Caboose: Yeah that too. Yang: And what else did she tell you about us? Caboose: Well I know is that Ruby disobeyed her orders to save everybody, leaving the pirates to take over the base. And you kicked a guy's balls because he ordered you to tell everyone to fight back despite the pirates winning. And... Weiss, what did Blake do...? Yang: TO HELL WITH ORDERS! Caboose: Mommy!

Caboose stepped back away from Yang's explosive wrath.

Yang: Those soldiers back couldn't stand a chance against them! I don't give a damn what our superiors ordered us to do, but me and Ruby won't stand idly to see them get slaughtered. And Weiss over there, just left us and those people to die, just for what? A PLACE IN ATLAS' MILITARY! Is that something you would consider her a 'friend'? Caboose:... Yep. Yang: Good... wait, what? Caboose: Uhm... because, no matter what your friends did, he'll always be your friend. Yang: That... is the most stupidest quote I've ever heared. IT MATTERS WHAT SHE DID... TO US! Now move aside so I can pummel her bitchy face! Caboose: Nope. Yang: Sigh... then you left me no choice. EAT THIS!

Yang raises her fist and strikes Caboose, only for him to catch it mid air. His quick reflexes surprised everyone. Yang's tries to yank off her fist from his tight grasps...

CRUNCH

... followed by the sound of a metallic crunch. Caboose finally lets go of her hand. Yang looks at her right hand and was shocked to see her hand has been crushed.

Yang: WHAT AND HOW?! Caboose: Sorry! I squeezed it too tight. Weiss: Holy... shit. Ruby: Is... that normal? Yang: No. This was supposed to be made out of titanium and he crushed it... as if it was paper. That's so... metal... RETREAT!!! Ruby: RUNAWAY!!!

Yang and Ruby, run like hell from Caboose. Oh the sweet irony.

Donut: (from afar) Hey, guys. Why are you running, aren't you supposed to fight them? Yang: We're not running. This is the Xiao Long secret technique! Ruby, you didn't tell me he was that strong! Ruby: I didn't know, just keep running!

Weiss emerged from the safety of Caboose's back. She can't believe, they're gone.

Weiss: My God, Michael. How did you do that? Caboose: Oh it was nothing. I don't like bullies harming my best friends. And I like catching hands. Weiss: Nothing? I've never seen Yang run away from fight before. That's was... AWESOME. Since when did you do workout? Caboose: I just drank a lot of milk till my muscles grow strong. That's what they said in the commercials. Weiss: Milk makes your bones stronger, not muscles you beautiful dope. Now then, let's get the hell out of here before Yang come's back!

In the caves.

TZZT

Vic: Hello, Project Freelancer Operational Command Center. This is your friendly neighborhood, Virtual Intelligence Computer, calling from Blood Gulch. ???: This is Command. What seems to be the problem? Vic: Finally, been calling for ten minutes. Hey listen, your drunk driver called me last night and asked if he can parked right next to the Red base. I allowed and now the ship's here, burnt up to a crisp and sitting there like it's nobody's business. ???: Copy that, V.I.C. Is it the ship, Sanctuary? Vic: That's the one. ???: And what is the status of the subject? Vic: She is hot as hell. Where did you guys pick her up, the Red Light Outpost? ???: Ahem. Vic: Sorry. The good news is, she's a-ok. The bad news, she told the Reds what happened. They're willing to hide that fine body to stroll around their territory, tsk tsk. Send in those Recovery people to pick her up. Also get aclean up crew for this mess. Seeing that ship here is an eyesore. ???: Acknowledge. We'll send in a Recovery squad. And one more thing. How's the Alpha? Vic: Still a hot head as always. Why do you ask? ???: Nothing. We just want to know its current status, that's all. Hehehe... nyehehehehehehe... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!! YOU FOOLS! THE DARKNESS WILL CONSUME YOU ALL! NYEHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!... Command, out.

TZZT

Vic: Hmm, must've said somethin' funny. Ah, oh well I'm sure it's nothing serious!

A/N: Sorry the is so rushed. My degree started and I've been busy lately

Deviantart: https://www.deviantart.com/necroceph

[mittensmorgul]

Hi Everybody! Y’all probably know by now that I’ve been obsessively listening to @season14podcast since it started (hooray for the updated weekly posting schedule! I haven’t listened to the new episode that dropped this morning yet because I’m still obsessing over the previous episode, which is the point of this post, actually, so maybe I should can the parenthetical and just get on with it! RIGHTO!)

OKAY! So the previous episode was about 2.06, No Exit. And I have feelings about this episode, specifically regarding Dean’s surface-level misogyny and his repeated dismissal of Jo’s ability as a hunter. PARTICULARLY the fact that when he eventually clarified that he didn’t have trouble with women hunting, but amateurs. Because honestly I don’t think this was about Jo at all. This was about Dean (and to a lesser extent Sam), and how he was raised.

In the early seasons of the show, I think this was partly an attempt to show just how isolating from “normal society” the hunting life is. Even after Sam and Dean make a sort of home base out of Bobby’s house. Even after they discover the roadhouse and make some connections with other hunters. They’re all still (all hunters, that is) still relatively secretive and isolationist.

This is a theme that will be addressed over and over again, in their dealings with a lot of other hunters. Remember this was Gordon Walker’s line when they first met him, that he hunts alone, and Sam and Dean should get out of town. And it will come up again in 4.04 with Travis the “rougarou specialist,” who called Sam and Dean in for help hunting the thing he supposedly specialized in his whole life. And while we will see hunters contacting each other for information, or to give others the heads up about events on the spooky side of the street, they largely DO work alone-- or at best as a regular team like Sam and Dean do (and like Ellen and Jo will by s5, and like Bobby and Rufus were implied to have done for years). But Jo was raised in this strange liminal space between hunting and the real world, where even hunters like Rufus were known to show their faces on occasion. It wasn’t really being raised in the life (like we’ve been shown that Sam and Dean were), but it also wasn’t being raised “normal” either.

And the mention of Bobby and Rufus, just thinking back to Bobby’s Hunter Origin Story is yet another example of why amateurs don’t hunt. His wife had been possessed by a demon, and not having any idea how the supernatural worked and being directly threatened by that demon, Bobby killed her before Rufus arrived to help actually get rid of the demon possessing her. Think about what we know of demons-- they leave the host or are exorcised, and if the body is unharmed, the person will live. Bobby’s complete lack of experience, of knowing a simple exorcism, drove him to kill his own wife. Can you even imagine? The guilt of it all literally haunted him. See 3.10, 5.14, and 7.10 for just how much it haunted him.

The thing is, once people have been on ONE hunt, which we typically think of as Hunter Origin Stories, they already HAVE experience surviving that hunt. They might feel compelled to continue hunting, but they also know first-hand the terror, the danger, and that anything can and will go wrong.

EVERY Hunter Origin Story we’ve heard is like this.

EXCEPT Jo’s.

I know this post is all over the place, but I swear it has a point. I’m gonna skip WAY ahead in canon for a minute, because Dabb era is STILL focusing on this. 14.16 involved a conversation DIRECTLY ADDRESSING THIS.

Dean: Knowing about monsters and fighting 'em are two different things. Sheriff Romero: So you make that choice for everybody? Imagine telling them. Imagine the lives you could save. Sam: No. No. It doesn't work like that. People die. Even when they know how to fight, people still die.

Because Sheriff Romero had grown up listening to the warnings, knowing there was something dangerous and evil in the woods, and yet he still didn’t believe it himself. Even knowing the weapon he would need to kill the thing, he brought a shotgun into the woods instead. Even being trained in combat, even knowing the whole story, he still was unprepared to face the monster until he had this fact pointed out to him by Sam and Dean.

There’s other stories. Jody’s, Donna’s, Claire’s, basically pick a character and think about their first brush with the supernatural and understand what inexperience got them. So I wanted this pointed out that this is definitely a recurring theme in the show. No one’s introduction to hunting goes smoothly. You can be armed to the teeth and combat trained (think of the soldiers Abaddon recruited in 9.02, or the soldiers who unwittingly brought khan worms back from a tour of duty). Police, military, even mercenaries are just completely unprepared in the face of something they’re not ready for.

It also works the other way around. You can study the lore, talk to hunters, and understand all of hunting in theory, but until you’re face to face with a monster trying to kill you, you have no idea how you might react to it.

Even the Men of Letters was effectively founded on this exact concept, you know? from 8.12:

DEAN: Okay, enough with the decoder talk. How about you tell us what this whole “Men of Letters” business is, or you're on your own. HENRY: It's none of your concern. DEAN: Why, because we're hunters? What do you have against us? HENRY: Aside from the unthinking, unwashed, shoot-first-and-don't-bother-to-ask-questions-later part, not much, really. SAM: You know what? Wait a second. We're also John's children. HENRY: You're more than that, actually. My father and his father before him were both Men of Letters, as John and you two should have been. We're preceptors, beholders, chroniclers of all that which man does not understand. We share our findings with a few trusted hunters – the very elite. They do the rest. DEAN: So you're like Yodas to our Jedis. [HENRY looks uncomprehending.] Never mind. You'll get there.

And then reinforced when we met Magnus in 9.16:

MAGNUS: Hunters? Wow! Hunters. With the key to the kingdom! The boys must be spinning in their graves. Damn snobs. Bunch of librarians, if you ask me. Although I was always fond of Henry. I was his mentor, you know? Yeah, till the squares gave me the boot. Yeah. 'Course, he came here to visit me, in secret. Called out to me, same as you did. Oh, yes. Quite the wild hair, your grandfather was.

and:

MAGNUS: Things never change, do they? I kept telling the boys over and over again -- I would say, "we could stop all this. We could rid the world of monsters once and for all if we just put our minds to it", but, "oh, no," they said. "No, no, no. It's not our place. We're here to study. We're here to catalog""

and then he went on to express the sentiment “all hunters are morons.”

So yes, this goes both ways, and it’s ingrained in the show’s language. Remember, for all their knowledge, for all their experience and their storehouse of supernatural weapons, they were still entirely wiped out by Abaddon in one fell swoop. Even after generations of training and the accumulation of knowledge, even THEY were entirely unprepared.

So... I don’t really think this is a comment on Jo specifically, or on her character. It was discussed in the podcast whether this sort of “taking her down a peg” was really necessary for her character development, and I’d argue that yes, it was. Because for all intents and purposes, in the context of this hunt, Jo is functioning as an avatar for the viewer. For all of us who’ve been watching the show and “learning to hunt by proxy.” Because isn’t that what her entire life has been?

She may never have actually gone on a hunt (she was little when her father died, and she had her mother to stay home with and have a relatively normal life compared to Sam and Dean), but she’s been tangentially exposed to the life since she was born, too. Her experience is in a context several degrees removed from actually facing the monsters. And as such, no amount of research, no amount of theoretical training, could have prepared her for actually going on a hunt.

Listening to a bunch of hunters’ fish tales (in 12.06 Dean even mentions having heard of Asa Fox at the Roadhouse, through the legend that he’d killed five wendigos in one night, and yet didn’t believe it could be true) is not a foundation for actually being equipped and prepared to go on a hunt ALONE. Because for all his blather (and yeah, the writing could’ve been handled better on this point), I really think that this is what Dean was trying to say. Not that “you can’t hunt because you’ve never been on a hunt before,” but you can’t just jump into a hunt alone without some sort of master/apprentice situation. Because it was implied that even JOHN didn’t begin hunting alone-- he was sort-of apprenticed to a lot of people, but specifically to Daniel Elkins in 1.20.

John knew enough to find the letter Elkins addressed specifically to him after his death, despite their previous falling out:

SAM: Wait, you came all the way out here for this Elkins guy? JOHN: Yeah. He was... he was a good man. He taught me a hell of a lot about hunting. SAM: Well you never mentioned him to us. JOHN: We had a... we had kind of a falling out. I hadn't seen him in years. (gesturing to the envelope) I should look at that. (He opens it) 'If you're reading this, I'm already dead'... that son of a bitch.

Because NOBODY just picks up after the sort of events John experienced in 1983 and just... goes off hunting without HELP.

Which is what Jo was trying to do in 2.06.

Which is what Dean specifically objected to.

NOT the fact she was there with them, but that she’d taken off from what Dean thought of as a comfortable and secure life of safety, deliberately lying to Ellen about where she was going and what she was doing, where she could’ve literally died if Sam and Dean had not shown up there, too. And I mean, she had to know they would make their way out to Philly to take on the hunt, and I kinda think she wanted to show them up by having handled the hunt before they ever arrived, you know? Or at the very least wanted to prove her competence, to prove she wasn’t afraid, to prove she could do the job, too, after having literally been raised surrounded by the competent bravado that most hunters adopt when they gather together for drinking and information swapping.

I also think this was literally an episode to demonstrate to her the reality of hunting removed from the relative safe-haven of the Roadhouse. This was deliberately to show her what was at stake if she chose to go hunting on her own, and give her something concrete to balance it against in her mind. She could still choose to go off hunting, but now she knows the reality of that experience, and not the barroom fish stories version. I hate to use this term for it, but there’d always been a certain glamour about it for her, and nothing wipes the polish off like getting buried alive by a murderous ghost, you know?

But she DID learn something from this experience. Bravado has NO place in hunting. Sam and Dean wouldn’t have marched into a ghost’s lair and thrown themselves in its face. Well, maybe they would, but they would have an actual plan. Usually. Hopefully. I mean, even their plans frequently go out the window, and even they get things wrong more often than most people would be comfortable with, you know?

And I know most of this isn’t something that could be addressed in the podcast, because hooBOY this is basically one big spoiler, and we wouldn’t want to spoil Jess on what’s to come. :’D But I had to write something out about this. I mean, definitely, the writer of this episode could’ve definitely taken a bit more coaching on characterization and not implied Dean was a misogynist jerkwad, but I’m willing to overlook that mostly because of ^^ everything else the series has ever said on how most hunters begin their hunting careers. So while the attempt came off a bit ham-handed, it’s still basically conveying the same message the rest of the series does.

One last thing before I close this out. It’s also a direct comparison between Jo’s relatively comfortable and stable upbringing, even exposed to tragedy and the supernatural from a young age, and the sort of upbringing that Sam and Dean had on the road with John. Sure, we can assume Bill Harvelle may have begun training Jo in basic weapons and maybe told her the sorts of stories we learned Mary experienced in her own family as a child (bedtime stories about The Colt? yeah... hunter families are wild), but it wasn’t the isolation and immersion in hunting Dean (especially, and Sam to a lesser extent since Dean shielded him for A LOT for a VERY LONG TIME) experienced in being trained to hunt from the time he could remember. Nothing drives that point home quite like watching 12-year-old Dean’s “failure” in 1.18, you know? THAT is the comparison point for hunting as a novice. Dean HAS experienced that failure. He KNOWS what is at stake. And he has known the risk since he was old enough to hold a shotgun.

Jo only learned it in this episode. All the research, all the planning in the world, all the bravado and confidence in the world couldn’t have saved her here. But now she knows.

One last thing about all those hunter origin stories I mentioned above. For Dean, no matter how prepared anyone thinks they are, no matter how much of “a freak” (to use Jo’s word here) they may feel like, no matter how averse they are to putting it behind them and trying to live a normal life, there’s something about the experience of hunting that Dean would’ve absolutely saved Jo from having to suffer through if he could’ve. Almost every hunter we’ve met on the show is broken in a way that Jo hadn’t been before this experience, and in ways that people who haven’t survived a brush with the supernatural can’t even begin to understand. This has also been an ongoing plot point on the show. Hunters don’t retire, they either die young and tragic or else live long enough to end up like Bobby and Rufus, or worst case, like Martin Creaser. There’s no happy at the end of the road, at least not in Dean’s experience. (and hopefully Dabb era will finally write them out beyond that dark curtain)/

This was never about proving that Jo was incompetent, or that she didn’t have what it takes to be a hunter. I thought it was quite the opposite, showing her the truth of it in a way that wasn’t recklessly catastrophic for her. Hey, at least she survived to live her life, whatever she chooses to do with it going forward.

(and I’m oddly thinking about her lines in 7.04 now, after a flashback to 2.06 earlier in the episode:

DEAN: He was right, you know – that dick judge, about me. JO: No, he wasn't. DEAN: You were a kid. JO: Not true. DEAN: You and Sam. I just – you know, hunters are never kids. I never was. I didn't even stop to think about it. JO: It's not your fault. It wasn't on you. DEAN: No, but I didn't want to do it alone. Who does? No, the right thing would have been to send your ass back home to your mom. JO: Like to have seen you try.

and that’s the difference a better writing effort from someone who has a much better handle on Dean’s character can make, because this is essentially the same sentiment, only refined over the years through reflection and yeah, through personal growth, too)

(and again, not forgiving the writer here because yeeeeeesh he could’ve done all this without making Dean look like a jerk, but “jerk” is kinda Dean’s default when people’s lives are on the line-- particularly people he cares about) 

[smtraxler]

Hello Mother! Hello Father! Here I am a Camp Granada!

We didn’t sing the song at camp but I actually attended a camp with the name of that amusing camp song.

After some Internet searching, I was unable to find anything about the camp and I have to assume it has closed. I attended Camp Granada for 2 weeks every summer for 4 years; from the time I was 12 to 16. I was fortunate to have a family who was able to send me to horse camp. My brother attended one year, but it really wasn’t his thing.

Two weeks out of the year, doesn’t seem like a lot of time, but those 8 weeks of my life gave me some of my best memories.

Our day would start out with mucking stalls in the morning, then breakfast, then our morning ride. The ride included going to the pasture to get our horses, then taking them to the arena to properly groom and saddle them. We would generally ride around the arena, learning the proper way to work the horse from walk to trot to canter. They would teach us formations and would practice a routine that would be shown to the parents on the last day of camp (I think I still have the VHS, yes VHS tapes of these rides from those sessions). My favorite was when we would go out on trail rides and get outside.

Ghazid is the horse on the bottom left side of the picture.

The first year, I rode a horse whose nickname was Beans (you can imagine why, he was quite gassy), I can’t remember what his real name was but It was entertaining to a group of young girls trotting along and a horse letting out loud farts. Beans was a gentle, tubby bay for a girl who didn’t have a lot of horse experience. The second year I rode a horse named Ghazid, his main feature was that his tail was extremely short, for an unknown reason and when he would trot he would lift his tail and it would look like a streamer.

  The third year, I started out with a pretty paint named Moon Beam, she was a mean tempered bitch, and that is the only description for her. Needless to say, she bit me in the shoulder while I was grooming her before one of our morning rides. Like I said, mean tempered bitch. Moon Beam was then replaced with Khalid, who was the exact opposite. He was a very mild tempered horse, and I ended up riding him for my 4th year as well. My final year, I tried an English saddle and wound up flying over Khalid’s head and onto my butt on the ground and switching back to a Western saddle.

The camp had a bunk house where the campers would sleep. A boys side and a girls side, but there was rarely any boys. In my 3rd year, the camp hosted a group of Japanese girls; we got to spend time learning about them and ended up making friends. At the end of camp we exchanged gifts from our home lands; I received a pretty pair of chopsticks, which I still have. That year we also signed t-shirts for each other and the girls signed them in Japanese, again, I still have mine.

Each year we would go on field trips. One year we went to Rogue Community College Amphitheater, where each summer they put on 2 musicals throughout the summer. That year had been Oklahoma and at the beginning of the performance they had a stagecoach with horses come from the hill behind the grass seating down to the stage. I thought it was amazing. The other interesting part of this particular performance was that Kevin Hagen, the actor that played Doc Baker on Little House on the Prairie played Ado Annie’s father. He had moved to the area and began acting in the local theatre.

Another year, we went to Historic Jacksonville and to the Britt Festival. I can’t remember what we saw but I recall that the owner, Carmen, and my best camp friends and I had one of the Old Time photos done. We did so many other things, but these are the one the have stuck in my mind over the years.

Top Left to Right: Michelle, Me, Andy & Kara Bottom: Dan (counselor) & Mari Carmen (camp owner)

A wooden mask hung in the dining room of the bunkhouse and legend was that it was cursed and the ‘witch doctor’ would get you if you touched the mask. Of course, we all dared each other to touch it. The closest we would get would be to put a hand in its open mouth (without touch the teeth, of course) and making faces.

  There was swimming in the pond on the property or pool (which was closer), bonfires, story telling, sitting in the bunkhouse playing cards (we generally played one called Speed) and listening to music. We also watched movies…

I’ve never been a fan of scary movies, and one year we watched Poltergeist. Probably wouldn’t have been a big deal except one thing, when we had to go to the bathroom that night. The scene where the clouds are roiling over the house just before all Hell breaks loose…. (I will come back to this after a short explanation).

The bathrooms for the campers were in the barn. At night, the barn doors were open for the paddock horses to run back and forth into the arena and the paddock and we had to go through one side of the barn around the back and down the other side of the barn. During the day we were able to cut across between the paddock and the barn. The night we watched Poltergeist, we walked out of the bunkhouse and down one side of the barn, when we got to the other side of the barn we looked across the yard and the sky above looked just like the one we had just seen in the movie. Of course, as girls will do we squealed and ran to the other side and walked quickly (no running in the barn!) down to the bathroom and did the same on the return trip, all the while giggling and freaking each other out more.

The first year I was there, Carmen’s mother, had just moved to the U.S. from Spain. She was sadly unable to participate in the following years, due to age and health. However, that year, she cooked a traditional Spanish meal, which I have searched for, for 30 years now and have not been able to find anything like it. All I remember was that it contained chicken and a Spanish rice, sounds pretty simple but there was much more to it and for the life of me I haven’t been able to duplicate it.

Finally, there were my camp friends, I made quite a few over the years, but there are 2 that were my camp besties. I lost track of them after I went to college and started moving around but due to the invention of Social Media, I was able to find them again, and even got to meet up with Andy about 5 years ago and introduce her to my children.

Andy & the Witch Doctor

Kara & Amy

Khalid

Flame (watched his gelding my first year…)

Camp Granada Hello Mother! Hello Father! Here I am a Camp Granada! We didn't sing the song at camp but I actually attended a camp with the name of that amusing camp song.

[sage-nebula]

I couldn’t stop thinking about the “retcon” vs “AU” argument for M20, and I have to get homework done, so I went ahead and typed up a huge thing to get it out of my system.

The difference between “AU” and “retcon” for M20 is a matter of semantics for a host of reasons, all of which boil down to the anime’s actual target audience, which is grade-school age children. Even when it comes to this movie, which is an anniversary movie meant to celebrate twenty years of the anime, they are still not actually thinking about the fans who have possibly stuck with the anime over the past twenty years. They’re not thinking of fans who would like to see favorite characters again. They’re thinking about grade-school age children, and as a result, so should we. We should think about how this movie is going to come across to them, and that tells us whether defining it as an “AU” or “retcon” really matters outside of our own hurt feelings.

And the truth is: It doesn’t. For several reasons.

Marketing --- This movie is being marketed as “the story of how Ash and Pikachu met” along with an adventure about Ho-Oh, a promise made, et cetera. While the phrase “a new world” was tossed around in the teaser trailer, that actually doesn’t mean much. “A new world” doesn’t automatically mean “parallel universe,” particularly when you consider that new regions are often marketed as new worlds, Lysandre wanted to create a new world through mass genocide, and so on and so forth. “A new world” could mean anything, and it means very little when you consider the fact that this is still being marketed as an origin story for Ash and Pikachu . . . to children who have no reason to question whether or not this is the “real” origin story for the Ash and Pikachu they see having Alolan adventures every Thursday. They’re being told, “This is the story of how Ash and Pikachu first met,” and they’re going to believe that because they have no reason to think that the Pokémon Company might be lying to them. And is the Pokémon Company lying to them? Eh, semantics. No, if you think that calling it an alternate universe means it’s true for that alternate universe, even if it’s not true for canon. No, if you think this is a retcon of canon as we know it. Yes, if you think it’s misleading even if it is an alternate universe. It’s arguable, but in the minds of children it isn’t going to matter, because even if they have some passing familiarity with the OS (and it does air in Japan sometimes---the first episode even aired recently as part of that special), enough of the movie is similar to the first episode (and episodes two and four at the least) that they aren’t going to care to make the distinction. They’re being told that this is the origin story. They have no reason to believe otherwise, even if we do.

Similarity to the Existing Origin --- As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, pretty much everything about this origin story is the exact same as it is in the OS . . . with the exception of Gary, Misty, and Brock (from episode five onward) being absent, replaced instead by new characters. And that begs the question---why? Clearly the anime team had enough attachment to the way Ash and Pikachu first met (right down to the, “Do you not like me? Well, I like you a lot!” dialogue) to keep that. They weren’t willing to make this enough of an alternate universe to change their first meeting, unlike, say, The Electric Tale of Pikachu, which had them meet when Pikachu was chewing on electrical wires and Ash had to get him away from them. So with that being said, how much of an alternate universe do they really want to make this, hm? How dedicated are they to making this an AU? Because at the moment, it seems as if they aren’t dedicated at all. At the moment, it seems more like this is only an AU in the same way someone’s bad fanfiction of, “Everything is the same except I cut out these characters I don’t like and replaced them with my OCs” is an AU. And for a fanfiction, that’s fine. When it comes to doing that in an official work, however, that’s when it leans into retcon territory. And even if we, as older fans, argue, “Well, they can’t just do that, clearly it’s an AU!” it’s, again, not really going to matter in the minds of younger fans (i.e. the target audience) who will take it as fact, and that line is extremely finite when it comes to official works anyway. It’s a matter of semantics between the difference between “AU” and “retcon,” which might matter in, say, comic books with clearly established multiverses that like to bring old characters back, but won’t matter in terms of PokéAni because---

Lack of Continuity = No Room for Correction --- Just like it won’t matter to kids because they’re having this marketed as an origin story, and just like it won’t matter to kids because it’s so similar to the OS anyway, it’s not going to matter to kids because this is never going to be referenced (and therefore corrected) in the series proper. Gary, Misty, and Brock will not be referenced, nor will they have cameos, in the Sun & Moon series. Likewise, Makoto and Souji likely will not be referenced or have cameos, either (though watch them get cameos before Iris does, just watch). That being the case, there will be no confirmation or denial in the series proper about which origin story the Sun & Moon anime follows. Does it follow the origin story we saw in the OS? Maybe. Does it follow the origin story seen in M20? Maybe. Kids would have no reason to believe it doesn’t follow the M20 origin story, whereas we, as older fans, obviously want it to follow the OS. Since the anime proper won’t confirm or deny, either possibility is accurate, which means that, again, the differentiation between “AU” and “retcon” for M20 is a moot point. Kids aren’t going to care. We care, because we have attachment to these characters we’ve loved for the past twenty years, but children aren’t. The generations that come later won’t care, either. So in the end, once more, “AU” or “retcon” only matters to us, the older fans. And therefore, it doesn’t matter at all to the Pokémon Company, who can treat it as either with impunity. (And as a quick note: No, Ash’s line about having thirty tauros doesn’t mean that the Sun & Moon anime follows the OS and not M20. The most recent trailer showed Metapod evolving into Butterfree, and possibly showed Ash catching Charmander (possibly, because that hand wasn’t wearing a glove). This means that Ash could have easily gone to the Safari Zone and captured thirty tauros . . . just with Makoto and Souji instead of Misty and Brock. Again, the only things the anime team seems to want to change are Ash’s companions. Everything else seems to have unfolded the same way. Ergo, which origin story the Sun & Moon anime follows is still ambiguous.)

The only way this won’t be an issue of semantics to coddle hurt feelings is if one of two scenarios happens:

Over the course of the movie, M20!Ash somehow crosses universal boundaries and meets OS!Ash. Misty and Brock are then shown with OS!Ash, while M20!Ash is with Makoto and Souji. This would firmly establish it as an alternate universe in the minds of the audience in a very clear and concrete way.

Or

Someone from either M20 or the OS (ha) cameos in the Sun & Moon anime. Let’s be honest, we have a far better chance of seeing Cross in the Sun & Moon anime than we do anyone from the OS, despite the fact that Gary is related to Samson Oak. Either way, having a cameo from M20 or the OS would tell us straight up which origin story is canon, if they really do want to move it out of semantics once and for all.

That said? I doubt they’ll do that. In the end it’s going to be a matter of semantics and, yes, we probably will have people trying to turn this into a “which one is the real canon” war, especially if it suits their purposes (i.e. people who ship Ash with someone other than Misty and felt ~*~threatened~*~ by Pokéshipping will latch onto this as a way of writing Misty out of his history, whereas those who like the OS will refuse to accept M20, and so on and so forth). We’re just going to have to deal with it unless one of the above scenarios pans out. Either way, arguing over whether it’s a retcon or an AU is meaningless, because at the end of the day it’s as good as a retcon even if it’s “technically” not. It’s certainly not enough of an AU to qualify as a satisfying one / justify having the original companions + rival not there. Hell, Electric Tale of Pikachu was more of an AU than this movie, and it still incorporated all the characters in some way (even if Misty was aged up by two years). Tfw a hentai artist treats the canon better than the Pokémon Company, and creates a more satisfying AU to boot. T. F. W.

[xhxhxhx]

can you do a foreign policy/geopolitics review article on russia vs the west? i know it's a pretty broad topic but... and can you maybe comment on obama's legacy with some predictions in context of how the diplomat expulsions played out?

Let’s go back no further than Vladimir Putin.

Putin was appointed prime minister on August 16, 1999, becoming Russia’s sixth premier in eighteen months. Boris Yeltsin had been turning over premiers on a seasonal basis since spring 1998. It didn’t seem as though Putin would last any longer than Kiriyenko, Primakov, or Stepashin had. But Putin had the advantage of a crisis. 

In September 1999, explosions hit apartment blocks in Buynaksk, Moscow, and Volgodonsk in sequence, on four days between September 4 and 16. There were 293 dead and more than a thousand injured. The FSB attributed the attacks to Chechen militants. Then, on September 23, the police defused a final bomb in Ryazan and Putin ordered the bombing of Chechnya.

Putin had been preparing for this. Before assuming the premiership, he had warned his enemies that “terrorists and extremists of every stripe must know that Russia has people whoreliably safeguard constitutional principles.” In December 1999, he would warn that Russians had fallen prey to the illusion that “we have no enemies. We have paid dearly for this.” 

The Russian people agreed. Russians had always appreciated a firm stand against Muslim extremists, and Putin’s campaign against Chechnya seemed to show how to do it right. There was something satisfying in vengeance, especially vengeance executed without compunction. Chechens fled before Russian soldiers, Chechens fell to Russian arms, and Chechnya fell to Russia. 

But the bombings were in some ways an inauspicious beginning for Putin’s nationalist crusade. 

There was always something strange about the bombings. Chechens had never done anything like this before. The bombs had been expertly planted in the buildings that were most vulnerable to attack. Before the attacks, the Chechens had shown neither the access to these explosives nor the expertise to use them. Nor was there any apparent motive for the attack. Chechens had taken hostages and made practical demands, for the release of prisoners or negotiations with the Kremlin. There was no such motive here.

Some Russian officials suggested that Osama bin Laden, the notorious Saudi-born terrorist responsible for American embassy bombings, might have been responsible. He was operating training camps in Chechnya to assist militants in Dagestan. But there was no hard evidence of his involvement, either. No known terrorist group, local or foreign, claimed responsibility for the bombings.

It turned out that the bomb in Ryazan had been planted by the FSB. The FSB director declared that the supposed explosives were nothing more than bags of sugar tied together with wires and a detonator, planted as a training exercise. But the Ryazan police found otherwise. Gas analysis indicated the bags were filled with RDX, while the detonators were real and correctly wired. This came as a surprise to the Ryazan FSB, which issued a statement declaring that it had identified those who had planted the explosive device, and was preparing to detain them. 

Putin was pleased nonetheless.

If the sacks which proved to contain explosive were noticed, thatmeans there is a positive side to it, if only in the fact that the public is reacting correctly to the events taking place in our countrytoday. I’d like … to thank the public … This is absolutely thecorrect response. No panic, no sympathy for the bandits. This isthe mood for fighting them to the very end. Until we win. And weshall win.

In March 2000, after the siege of Grozny had been won, Putin went to Grozny and put on a flight suit. 

Putin had the good sense not to stand beneath a Mission Accomplished banner, which was useful as the Second Chechen War ground down into a dismal insurgency, as hundreds of Russian soldiers died on the fields of Chechnya, and as new terrorist attacks against the Russian homeland killed hundreds more.

But it served him well with the United States. Putin had become a crusader against Islamist terrorism, and the Americans appreciated that. It helped that George W. Bush was a sentimentalist. Bush thought that he should learn the personality and character of his fellow leaders.

Putin met Bush in Slovenia in June 2001. It was a small meeting, with only the national security advisers and interpreters. Bush thought that Putin seemed tense as he spoke about Russia’s Soviet-era debt. Bush changed the subject to something more congenial.

After a few minutes, I interrupted his presentation with a question: “Is it true your mother gave you a cross that you had blessed in Jerusalem?”

A look of shock washed over Putin’s face as Peter, the interpreter, delivered the line in Russian. I explained that the story had caught my attention in some background reading—I didn’t tell him it was an intelligence briefing—and I was curious to learn more. Putin recovered quickly and told the story. His face and his voice softened as he explained that he had hung the cross in his dacha, which subsequently caught on fire. When the firefighters arrived, he told them all he cared about was the cross. He dramatically re-created the moment when a worker unfolded his hand and revealed the cross. It was, he said, “as if it was meant to be.”

“Vladimir,” I said, “that is the story of the cross. Things are meant to be.” I felt the tension drain from the meeting room.

After the meeting, a reporter asked if Putin was “a man that Americans can trust.” I said yes. I thought of the emotion in Vladimir’s voice when he shared the story of the cross. ���I looked the man in the eye,” I said, “…   I was able to get a sense of his soul.”

Putin was the first man to call the White House on September 11. When he spoke to Bush the following day, he said, “Good will triumph over evil. I want you to know that in this struggle, we will stand together.”

Putin’s war against Chechnya were similar to Bush’s wars in many respects. There was the same sense of righteous vengeance against terrorism. There was the same sense of civilizational mission. There were the same dire consequences for life and liberty, though different in scale and severity; Russia’s were the more severe, though smaller in scale.

But there was one important difference. Russia’s mission in Chechnya was a national mission. Russia was not only exacting retribution, but also defending the territorial integrity of the Russian state. Chechens wanted to separate from Russia, but Russia would ensure that did not happen. 

Russians might have protested the NATO campaign against Serbia in spring 1999, but now they were waging the same sort of war against their own people. There was one difference: NATO made war to protect Kosovar rebels from the Serbian state; Russia made war to bring its own rebels to heel. 

Putin spoke a great deal about patriotism. In December 1999, he described patriotism as one of the traditional values of the Russian people.

This term [patriotism] is sometimes used ironically andeven derogatively. But for the majority of Russians it has its own and onlyoriginal and positive meaning. It is a feeling of pride in one’s country, itshistory and accomplishments. It is the striving to make one’s country better,richer, stronger and happier. When these sentiments are free from the tints ofnationalist conceit and imperial ambitions, there is nothing reprehensible orbigotedly about them. Patriotism is a source of the courage, staunchness andstrength of our people. If we lose patriotism and national pride and dignity,which are connected with it, we will lose ourselves as a nation capable ofgreat achievements.

Belief in national greatness, “belief in the greatness of Russia,” was another traditional value. “Russia was and will remain a great power,” he said. It could be nothing else.

Putin’s campaigns in the next decade reflect that same national and civilizational mission. Russia continued to fall into alignment with the West, as Perry Anderson pointed out.

Across his first two presidencies, the tone of Putin’s foreign policy changed, but its direction scarcely altered. Partnership with the West remained the over-riding objective. That meant recognition and respect for Russia as the largest state in Europe, fellow bulwark against Islamic terrorism, ally of ISAF in Afghanistan, member and host of the G8, participant in the Quartet on the Middle East, on cordial terms with Israel, and—last but not least—a thriving economy integrated into global capital markets. Points of friction with the US and EU there were: scrapping of the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty, forward basing of radar systems in Central Europe, retention of the Jackson–Vanik amendment. But a glance at Security Council resolutions of the period is enough to see that Russia fell in with the wishes of the West virtually across the board, with the solitary exception of the Annan Plan to dismantle the Republic of Cyprus for a deal with Turkey, which it vetoed on an appeal for help from the government in Nicosia. All told, Russia was more than a reliable and collegial force within the international community. It was the bearer of ‘a civilizing mission on the Eurasian continent’. Under Medvedev, Russian foreign policy bent even further to the West. In compliance with Washington, Moscow cancelled delivery of S-300 missile systems to Tehran that would have complicated Israeli or US air-strikes against the country; voted time and again in the UN for sanctions against Iran required by the US; gave a green light to Western bombardment of Libya; and even supplied a transport hub on Russian soil at Ulyanovsk for NATO operations in Afghanistan.

But Russia’s sense of national pride and civilizational mission, which had brought it into alignment with the West during the War on Terror, and whose implications the West had never thought to challenge during the war against Chechnya, turned it against the West when the West interested itself in the Russian borderlands.

NATO had a civilizational mission of its own, after all. 

NATO expanded to include the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland in 1999, then Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia in 2004, bringing the alliance into the traditional borderlands of Russia. Russia, believing that Americans had promised that NATO would never expand eastward. 

Of course, the Russians had never been promised anything. Mikhail Gorbachev acted on a suggestion from Helmut Kohl, not a proposal. He acted without a written promise and without American guarantees. Mary Elise Sarotte concludes:

Gorbachev didsomething unwise, namely fulfilling at least some of his part of the bargainwithout getting written assurances that the other side would do the same; andKohl got such a bargain on the basis of a U.S. position that was already in flux,as the Bush letter made clear. If Gorbachev had been a more aggressive negotiator and had not had so many other distracting balls in the air, he might havepressed for written guarantees from either Baker or Kohl. But he did not, and bythe end of February it was clear that he would never get them. Gorbachevappears not to have understood this sequence of events at the time, although bythe end of the year he would angrily turn on Kohl, saying to the chancellor thathe felt like he had fallen into a “trap.”

That was September 1990. By the time Putin came to power, the Russians felt encircled, as though the promise that they could not invade NATO allies without American response had compromised their national integrity, as though NATO was planning to dismantle Russia itself.

These were always more of a grievance than a genuine anxiety. Russia did not fear NATO intervention at home, but they resented NATO’s intervention against their friends in Serbia, and distrusted NATO agreements in their periphery. They felt that the world would be a better place if Russia was and could remain a great power.

Russian perceptions of Western betrayal extend not only to the NATO commitments in the Russian borderlands, but to appearances of American interventions in the internal affairs of those states. Americans supported the revolutions across the Russian sphere of interest, from Serbia to Georgia to Ukraine to Moldova, replacing pro-Russian leaders with pro-Western leaders. 

The Western civilizational mission to spread democracy and human rights conflicted with the traditional authoritarian regimes and Russian alignments in the Russian periphery. Nor was there any sense that the Western mission would end on Russia’s borders, rather than in Russia itself. 

Russia had been ‘managing’ elections and public dissent, entangling private and public interests, and repressing ethnic minorities since it became independent. There was little difference between what Serbia had done in Bosnia and Kosovo and what Russia was doing in Chechnya, or between what Shevardnadze had done in Georgia and what Putin was doing in Russia.

Russia’s intervention in the South Ossetia conflict in 2008 was framed as the defense of the Ossetian minority against Georgian repression, but it was also Russia’s last chance to humiliate the pro-NATO leadership of the borderlands and dissuade the Americans from extending NATO further. Georgia and Ukraine had been petitioning for NATO protections, and the United States had been promoting them, but the Russian threat had chastened them. 

That was what the Russians believed, at least. “If you…had faltered back in 2008, the geopolitical situation would be different now,” President Medvedev told Russian soldiers in 2011, “and a number of countries which NATO tried to deliberately drag into the alliance, would have most likely already been part of it now.”

This was the same fight Russia brought to Ukraine in 2014, disabling and humiliating the pro-European Ukrainian government, and precluding the expansion of NATO or the European Union to the east. Russia’s Ukrainian adventure included the annexation of Crimea, restoring traditional Russian territory and promoting Russia’s sense of national greatness. 

Georgia and Ukraine highlighted the West’s military weakness in the Russian borderlands. It had been simple to promote democracy, human rights, and European values through civil society and the media. Russia demonstrated that soft power was not enough. Democracy and human rights would yield to Russian arms.

The United States remained aloof. Obama’s State Department might promote democracy and human rights, but the man himself wanted a quiet life, without the burdens of empire. Obama sanctioned Russian officials for invading Ukraine and annexing Crimea, but little more than that. 

American policy under Obama was to ‘isolate’ Russia, which said little and meant less. It meant that Russia was a European problem, not an American problem. Obama was troubled when Congress sent him bipartisan legislation ordering lethal military aid to Ukraine, but was satisfied when he learned the bill offered him the discretion to do less. He wanted to preserve ‘flexibility’. For Obama, that meant the flexibility to yield.

Russia sensed that weakness and pressed its advantage.

During the Obama administration, Putin’s sense of mission had gradually changed. European values were of diminishing importance. Promoting traditional values and deep culture became Russia’s civilizational mission. That meant turning on the West.

Putin’s speeches were full of hostility, lashing out at the West for betraying its promises, for treating Russia like a defeated “vassal” rather than a great country, for an inability to distinguish between right and wrong. … He cut off adoptions to America, claiming that “our” babies were being abused by cruel and heedless foreigners. The West was hypocritical, arrogant, self-righteous, and dissolute, according to Putin, so he strengthened his alliance with the Russian Orthodox Church to reëstablish “traditional Russian values.” He approved new laws on “non-traditional” sexual practices—the so-called “anti-gay propaganda” laws. When the feminist performance artists and political activists Pussy Riot burst into the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and performed their “Punk Prayer” (“Throw Putin Out!”), the system knew what to do: Patriarch Kirill, the head of the Church, denounced them for “blasphemy,” and the courts, an utterly dependent instrument of the Kremlin, handed down a Draconian sentence. More and more, Putin spoke about “traditional Russian values” and of the uniqueness of Russian “civilization,” a civilization that crossed borders.

An ideology, a world view, was taking shape: Putin was now putting Russia at the center of an anti-Western, socially conservative axis—Russia as a bulwark against a menacing America. “Of course, this is a conservative position,” he said in a speech last year, “but, speaking in the words of Nikolai Berdyayev, the point of conservatism is not that it prevents movement forward and upward but that it prevents movement backward and downward, into chaotic darkness and a return to a primitive state.”

The timing suggests that Putin’s anxieties about NATO enlargement drove this transformation of his mission, rather than the other way around. Putin had been happy to promote liberalism and internationalism so long as the authority of his regime was not threatened. But if NATO was promoting democracy and human rights, Russia would need to promote something different.

This is the element of the new Russia that appeals to the alt-right, although it does not appear to be the element that appeals to Donald Trump. For Trump, as for Michael Flynn, the fundamental appeal of Russian nationalism is the same as it had been for Bush: its alignment against Islamist terrorism. 

Putin’s intervention in Syria, supposedly against the Islamic State, appeals to their idea of an international war against terror, and confirms their sense that, in fighting terrorism, authoritarianism is the prophylactic and vengeance is the cure.

Trump’s indifference to democracy and human rights made it easier to fall in with Russia, and easier for the Russians to fall in with him. It might seem to the Russians that the United States under Trump might be less interested in NATO and European values. 

It would be a mistake to make too much of this. 

Neither Trump nor Putin seems genuinely invested by values, but national values are not what matters. Both Trump and Putin have a sense of the national interest which demands responsibility for national pride and foreign interests. Because neither is committed to any shared norms, while both are highly sensitive to national pride, their interests will drive them back into conflict. 

Trump doesn’t want a quiet life. He doesn’t fear vengeance or retribution. He cannot tolerate national humiliation, but defeat in Europe or the Middle East will be national humiliation. Trump’s wavering commitments to NATO and alliance partners might suggest a willingness to yield, but his personality suggests something else.

Putin might have wanted to elect Trump, but I think he’s gotten more than he bargained for.