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daddys-littlegoddess · 4 years ago

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PSA on Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement for anyone that needs or wants more information on what is going on with her. It’s a fucking rabbit hole, so buckle up.

A little backstory first. Britney was a child star starting at the age of 4 years old on Broadway, and then worked her way to the Mickey Mouse Club, and eventually the solo career we know today. Her career has been on autopilot her entire life. If you look back at her music, she’s been telling everyone for years she’s too controlled and treated as a product if you listen to the lyrics of most of her hits. Examples include: Lucky, Overprotected, My Perogative, Circus, Piece of Me and Gimme More. Her music videos, social media posts, tour props and photoshoots regularly show her in a cage or in chains. If anyone has ever seen videos of her when she was younger, you’d know her REAL singing voice is very similar to Christina Aguilera’s. Her record label didn’t like it, as they were both on the Mickey Mouse Club and about to release their debut albums at the same time. So they had her voice retrained to sing in the baby voice we all know today because they believed it to be more iconic and would create a brand and career for her instead of her real voice. It’s unhealthy, and it’s been destroying her voice over the years, thus why she is known for lip syncing. She wanted to make an acoustic type pop album in 2006 titled Original Doll and reinvent herself using her real voice. The album was shelved and cancelled once her label realized she would be singing in her real voice. She isn’t allowed to sing live because she will either fail terribly, or she’ll have to sing in her deep voice that she isn’t known for. Her entire career she has been treated like a product meant to sell.

Now, for the real tea.

Everyone remembers the 2007 meltdown. Everyone. Leading up the meltdown Britney was going thru a public divorce, had two children under the age of 2 at the time and was VERY much the focus of the public. We all saw her on every magazine cover. We all also saw the photo of her with one of her kids on her lap while driving. Go on YouTube once and look up ‘Britney Spears paparazzi’. You’ll watch her be chased and followed by hundreds of them, even trying to get into a public restroom to photograph her, videotaping her in tears asking them to leave her alone, and even filming her thru the windows of an ambulance while she was naked being taken away for her final mental health hold.

After the public meltdown, shaving her head, locking herself in her home with her children, speaking in a british accent on regular basis, wearing the imfamous pink wig everywhere, and shopping naked, she was hospitalized twice. After the hospitalization, her father petitioned the courts to be a TEMPORARY conservator to her until she was mentally stable and for only one years time. 2 months after her hospitalization she did a guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother. 6 months after her hospitalization, she drops the Womanizer video and starts to promote her new album Circus with its worldwide tour that grossed $131.8 million. If she’s so unwell, why did she start working right away?

Her father after one year petitioned the courts for the conservatorship to become permanent due to her ALLEGEDLY having EARLY ONSET DEMENTIA in her TWENTIES. It passed and has been that way ever since. For 12 years to be exact.

Now for everyone that doesn’t understand what that means let me break it down for you.

Britney Spears is a now 38 year old woman who is not allowed to do the following without her fathers permission or he can legally lock her up in a mental health facility:

• drive a car

• vote

• get married

• have children

• spend HER OWN MONEY

• see how her money is being spent

• see her children (she has 30% custody of both of her boys due to her dad assaulting one of her sons)

• leave her home

• hire her own lawyer

• have any control over her career

• speak about the conservatorship publicly

• do interviews that aren’t scripted and all final cuts are approved by her father as well

• use a cell phone without being monitored

• use social media unmonitored

• contact ANYONE without being monitored or having them extremely vetted. (Iggy Azalea allegedly had her house searched for drugs top to bottom when they collaborated on a song together)

• go shopping

• go for a walk

• get Starbucks

A conservatorship is meant for people with mental health issues or decaying health. Most likely grandparents or people with actual dementia etc. They are meant for people who literally cannot take care of themselves. If she is so unwell that she isn’t mentally capable of doing anything for herself, why is she still working? Since the conservatorship began 12 years ago she has:

• released 4 albums

• done 3 worldwide tours

• did a FOUR-year Vegas residency

• was a full time judge on X-Factor

• released multiple perfumes and a lingerie line

• made $138 MILLION DOLLARS or so A YEAR

In January of last year, Britney was placed in a mental health facility for 3 months after being seen driving her car to In-N-Out with her boyfriend without permission and for refusing to take the sedating medications her father has doctors prescribing her to keep her under control. She testified to a judge in documents that she was held there against her will by her father. After it was leaked to the press that she was there against her will, the Free Britney movement picked up speed causing a judge to open an investigation into the impact and legality her conservatorship has on her life. Britney’s mother Lynn was also liking and commenting on Free Britney posts saying she agrees that Britney is trapped by her father. Britney’s team had Twitter disable the Free Britney hashtag, and regularly threatens any celebrity that speaks out using the hashtag with a lawsuit if they don’t remove their support for the movement. She was seen shortly after leaving a hotel thru the front door (99% of celebrities park underground to avoid paparazzi unless they WANT to be photographed) stumbling while carrying her shoes, and out of it. Her team used that moment to justify to the public that she needs this conservatorship. She is not allowed to have any say in the hiring or firing of anyone on her team. Every year she pays $1.1 million dollars in fees for the conservatorship to continue, including paying her father a solid $100k+ salary and paying a lawyer she isn’t allowed to choose. She is allowed an allowance of around $1,500 a week for bills, shopping and essentials. Her net worth is $250 million.

So, when everyone sees her on Instagram walking up and down her hallways like it’s a fashion show. That’s all she is allowed to do. She has NEVER had control over her life. I don’t care if you personally like her or her music, NO ONE DESERVES THIS. All this woman wants is to see her children, make the music she wants to make, and go get a frappuccino in her car. She is a light of sunshine in this world, and we must protect her at all costs. So please, do not make fun of her, support the Free Britney movement, and send good vibes her way. She has a court date this month to review the conservatorship and decide if it is abusive or will continue to be in place. There are so many details to this that i left out that would make this post entirely much longer than it is, but a simple search will show you what else is out there. Spread this far and wide. ❤️ Free Britney

#free britney

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prorevenge · 4 years ago

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Mess with minors and my job? Lose your job and your boyfriend.

Tl;dr at the end because this is a doozy.

Alright circa 2014 I worked for a large movie theatre chain in a small Midwestern city. Job was pretty awesome outside of the shit pay and essentially no way to move up. I like to think I am good at my job and I try my hardest no matter where I work. In this particular situation I was one the most tenured employees at the theatre save for two other folks who had worked there part time on the side, and had full time jobs elsewhere.

So for the sake of this story I need to tell you about Jane (not actual name). Jane started working for the theatre 2 months before me. They worked elsewhere as a supervisor and was looking to move up at the theatre. Right after I started one of the managers left to work at a different theatre and the supervisor moved up. We had two managers, one general manager (basically the highest level at the theatre), and a supervisor which is a manager in training. (This is important.) Jane somehow got the supervisor position even though there was another person who essentially was promised the position due to their continued service at the theatre for almost 8 years. There were rumors about Jane sleeping with the GM when she started and this situation got them going again. I didn’t care too much because why would I, I am but a lowly peon in the corporate machine. Anyways Jane moved up and the tenured crew member left the company because they got screwed over.

Once Jane moved up we had a whole meeting about her moving up and how the theatre focuses on professionalism and ensuring no favoritism was happening. Specifically referencing how normal crew members shouldn’t fraternize outside of work with management.

Jane didn’t really listen to that though. She continued to hang out with the crew members who were mostly underage and would do various things like go drinking with minors, taking them to bars and buying them drinks or simply buying alcohol at a store and letting them drink at her house, I honestly have no issue with the drinking at home deal, just adding context, as well smoke weed with them and post pictures on Instagram. Oh yeah I forgot to mention Jane had a secret Instagram where they would post pictures of themselves with their friends from the theatre. They chose Instagram because none of their family or their boyfriend used Instagram and no one would know right?

Even more damning was her relationship with a 19 year old that worked at the theatre. She had a boyfriend who had been with her for years and honestly supported her for all intensive purposes. Not only did she have a 19 year old side piece, but also was messing around with a 17 year old. I even caught them messing around in the break room one time. She essentially threatened me with my job if I told anyone. Honestly she could’ve just told me to please be quiet and I would have just judged her silently.

Fast forward about a year or so and another one of the managers left for a new job. Jane obviously moved up and someone else took the supervisor position. Now I won’t go into too much detail, but despite my tenure and performance I was looked over for the promotion. A newer crew member who was really good friends with Jane got the position over me. This was confirmed by the other manager who let me know that Jane was definitely in good with the GM, who ultimately made the final decision. That being said I was beginning to sour and making minimum wage for years at a job that couldn’t give a shit about my efforts and continued performance. That being said I was preparing for an exit.

Before I get into my exit, it is important to note that Jane had and most likely still has a problem with me. I have talked about some issues I had with her, but I never escalated or even confronted her about anything she did to me up to this point. I honestly left it be. But I didn’t like her and the fact I didn’t like her or play along with her bullshit infuriated her. So much to the point where she made my life hell at the theatre. When she was a supervisor she didn’t have much power but when she became manager she began giving me shit shifts, convincing people that I was weird and to avoid me (I mean I am weird but not like avoid me weird), threatening me physically, threatening my job, her and her gang of misfit assholes also slashed my tires (I have no solid proof, but my car was parked in the employee lot and ya know only employees can get in), beyond that she also made fun of my girlfriend (my now wife) for having an invisible illness (MS), she would make her life hell because she had a disability and had some minor limitations. Add together all of this, plus my GF went off to college, plus getting looked over for the promotion, suffice it to say I found a new job.

I had a few close friends at the theatre including my now wife who I met while working there (silver lining right.) I had let a few of them know about the new job, but told them to keep it on the DL since it was still two weeks away. I had put my two weeks in with the GM and asked that he also keep it on the DL since Jane and her posse would fuck with me. I told him that I wanted to tell everyone myself so it kept him quiet.

Now the important thing about my new job is that it essentially paid me double my wages from the theatre. All of my friends were stoked for me, I was taking a job that would also have me making more than the managers at the theatre but also a job that put me on a better track in life. That being said with Jane and I butting heads on multiple occasions and her track record of messing with me, she decided to get one last attack on me. She started a rumor that I was just going to call out on all of my shifts the two weeks before my new job started.

With her last act of revenge in motion, the GM approached me and let me know that he wouldn’t be scheduling me the last two weeks. I tried to explain to him that the rumors were bullshit that I needed to work because it would be my only source of income. I told him that Jane started the rumor and I started to tell him all of the other stuff as well. He of course didn’t believe me and told me that Jane wouldn’t do what I was saying she would do. So it was her word vs mine. I contacted my new job who let me know that my start date was firm and that their budget wouldn’t allow me to start until two weeks later as originally planned. Now here I am essentially jobless for two weeks. Now I was upset, but I was also lucky. I was still living with family and didn’t have to pay rent, so I sucked it up and essentially told myself that I would just take a forced two week vacation. But Jane didn’t stop there. She escalated again by having one of her cronies call my new job and tell them that I got fired. I was luckily able to talk down my new boss by letting him know that this wasn’t the case that I put my two weeks in and everything else, but that was the last straw.

I left my last day at the theatre and while it was sad and I was upset that I wouldn’t be able to work out the last two weeks of my job that I had for years, I was focused and determined on revenge. Rule #1 of living a secret life and having a secret Instagram is not add every body and their mother to the page. I had a friend of a friend who also didn’t care for Jane let’s call them Joe. Joe and I had gone to high school together and briefly worked at the theatre together. He and Jane were part of the same group at the theatre until they had a small falling out. Nothing crazy but he wasn’t exactly happy with her. I talked to Joe and we discussed my issues with Jane over some lunch that I bought for him. (Food is the key to all revenge plots.) Once we ate and discussed my problems with Jane I asked for his help. I needed access to her Instagram. Ya know the secret one, showing her hanging out with underage employees, drinking alcohol and smoking weed with them, and also some mushy posts about her 19 year old boyfriend, as well as some moderately racy photos with her 17 year old fling. With very little discussion he gave me full access.

I took screenshots of essentially everything. We are talking 2-3 years worth of illicit and moderately illegal activity. More than enough to get her fired and to raise some questions in her relationship. I took the screenshots and I printed them on the most high quality paper/material that CVS had to offer. I also copied them too a few flash drives for good measure. I purchased two yellow padded envelopes (can never be too safe), and I filled them both with copies of all of the posts as well as a flash drive with additional copies. As well I included a note in each one for the appropriate parties.

One of the envelopes was taped to the back door of the theatre. There was somewhat of a blind spot so pulled into the parking lot from the rear and snuck around the corner mission impossible style to tape the envelope to the back door. On it was the GM’s name, as well in the letter I merely stated that one of their managers had a secret Instagram with a lot of damning evidence of not only favoritism, but also fraternizing with underage employees amongst other wrong doings. In the letter I also requested her immediate termination or the information would be provided to the district manager as well as our corporate office. I made sure to put it somewhere the GM would see on his morning sweep when he opened the theatre. The second folder and letter was delivered to her home by Joe. Joe agreed to this as I knew Jane’s schedule and had a good idea of when she would be gone and he knew where she lived from previous hang outs.

With both folders delivered it was only a matter of time. Before I knew it I was receiving death threats from Jane’s gang. All of them saying that they knew it was me and that Jane was going to come after me, that she never did anything to deserve this. It didn’t matter to me of course, I no longer worked there and would hopefully never have to deal with them again. From what I heard she was taken into the main office of the theatre and the GM let her have it. He ultimately had to fire her because there was very clear proof that she was in direct violation of many of the rules and conditions of her employment. As well her boyfriend with proof in hand kicked her out of his home.

Last I heard she moved farther north and hasn’t held down a solid job since. Her family didn’t want much to do with her once everything came out with her cheating on her boyfriend. Also the part about fooling around with a 17 year old tends not to sit well. In the end I started my new job without fail and moved on from that place. Haven’t see much of anyone from there since.

Tl;dr: Manager makes my life hell, continues to hang out and fool around with underage crew members, lives to regret it. Enjoy losing your job and your boyfriend.

(source) story by (/u/Ike09161995)

#prorevenge #by /u/Ike09161995 #pro revenge #revenge stories #pro revenge stories #pro #revenge #last10

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tabloidtoc · 4 years ago

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National Examiner, April 19

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Tony Bennett's brave last days

Page 2: Stars with Mad Skills -- they became fast experts for plum roles -- Daniel Day-Lewis, Timothee Chalamet, Natalie Portman, Ryan Gosling, Jamie Foxx

Page 3: Adrien Brody, Margot Robbie, Bryan Cranston, Shia LaBeouf, Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jr., Tom Cruise

Page 4: Susan Sarandon's roles and costumes

Page 7: Be Prepared for the Worst -- know these lifesaving tips before a crisis happens

Page 8: Lonely Stefanie Powers never wants to date because she still has gotten over lover William Holden's sudden death, even though it'll be 40 years ago this November -- the former star of '80s TV classic Hart to Hart, who's now 78, considers Holden the one true love of her life, even though she's been married twice to others and had a long-term relationship after the Hollywood legend's tragic death and she can't imagine being with anyone else at this stage in her life when Bill's memory is so sacred in her mind and his death still haunts her to this day, and it will only get worse as the anniversary approaches -- Holden, then 63, died at home in Santa Monica on November 12, 1981, of massive bleeding after falling and striking his head on a piece of furniture while heavily intoxicated -- it rips her apart to this day thinking how he must have suffered all alone in his apartment, bleeding to death -- the pair had a decade-long, passionate affair that lasted until his demise, which led her to carry on their mutual passion for wildlife conservation and Stefanie founded the William Holden Wildlife Foundation and is still the director -- she's tried being in other relationships, but it's been more about companionship than anything else and she doesn't have the motivation to date when the best man has already come and gone

Page 9: Vax Hacks -- avoid scammers who prey on fears of COVID-19

Page 10: His first day on the job as an honorary cop, Jeremiah met the other guys in blue and was the proud guest of honor at a special swearing-in ceremony just for him, and he's only five years old

Page 11: Important minerals for your body -- why you need zinc and potassium and how to get them

Page 12: Rude Awakening -- stars who don't mind their manners -- Alec Baldwin, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Christian Bale, Rachael Ray

Page 13: Sean Penn, Ashton Kutcher, Robert Pattinson, Russell Crowe, Cameron Diaz, Bruce Willis

Page 14: Dear Tony -- America's Top Psychic Healer Tony Leggett -- useful lessons learned from the pandemic

Page 15: Get well soon wishes go out to Chevy Chase, who just came out of the hospital after a five-week stay for heart issues -- in 2018, the star was diagnosed with alcohol cardiomyopathy, a weakening of the heart muscle caused by excessive drinking; he had dealt with his drinking back in 2016, when he entered the Hazelden Clinic to receive treatment for alcoholism

Page 16: Even though the century mark looms just around the corner, Betty White still radiates joy -- calling herself the luckiest broad on two feet, the 99-year-old Hollywood legend shares her advice for living a long and peaceful life -- she says her life is divided absolutely in half: half animals and half show business and you can't ask for better than two things you love the most

Page 18: When a California man won $145,000 on Wheel of Fortune, it turned out to be good fortune for a lot of people as he donated his entire winnings to the charity Uplift Family Services and Los Angeles Regional Food Bank, whose services support thousands of families

Page 19: These seniors are literally beating the coronavirus -- with 99 percent of them vaccinated, the 700 elderly residents of the Westminster-Canterbury on the Chesapeake Bay senior living community in Virginia Beach held a party and they had a lot to celebrate

Page 20: Cover Story -- Tony Bennett is facing his brave last days as he battles Alzheimer's disease at the age of 94 -- the singer was diagnosed in 2016, but kept the terrible illness secret until recently and has not yet experienced common Alzheimer's symptoms like episodes of terror, rage or depression but the disease has progressed -- for now, wife Susan Crow and the oldest of Tony's four kids, 67-year-old Danny from his first marriage, are caring for him while he lives in the couple's New York City apartment

Page 22: Recycle your baubles, bangles and beads -- bored with your beaded necklaces? Blase abut those old bangles? If your costume jewelry collection no longer inspires, there are many brilliant ways to give it new life or earn you some cash

Page 24: The internet's newest fitness star is 102-year-old Julia Fulkerson, who had a ball participating in her great-grandson Brody's virtual gym class

Page 25: Young Darius Brown has a mission in life: to make shelter dogs look as spiffy as he can so they'll get adopted and to do that, he provides the canines with slews of adorable bowties that he sews himself -- five years ago, when Darius was eight, his sister Dazhai taught him to sew and the passion was good for him because he'd been diagnosed with speech and fine-motor skills that the craft improved over time -- he says he saw how happy the people at the shelter were to get the bowties and how much the dogs liked them, and he decided to make more and he came up with a goal to give bowties to an animal shelter in every state -- so far, he's sewn a whopping 600 of the canine accessories himself, and helped dozens of pooches find forever homes and he especially likes to focus his attention on older animals and pets with disabilities, since they're the toughest to find homes for and the shelter directors say Darius' efforts have made a huge difference in the life of hundreds of pups

Page 26: Summer Horoscope 2021

Page 28: It's not just for the birds -- tips for watching our fine feathered friends

Page 32: Reverse Gear -- walking backward is good for you -- here's something new to try the next time you go out for a walk: do it backward -- it may sound silly, but health experts say there are mental and physical benefits to the practice, but go slowly at first to avoid injuries

* If you're always putting the needs of others before your own, you could be at risk for compassion fatigue, a condition that can physically and mentally drain you of time and energy -- compassion fatigue is a state of emotional overwhelm that is constant and persistent, once in this state of emotional exhaustion, it becomes difficult to empathize with those they help and essentially, it's empathy burnout

Page 34: Grandads Before 50! No rocking chairs for these grandpas -- take a look at these celebs who had their grandchildren before their first gray hair -- Jim Carrey, James Brolin, Donny Osmond, Mick Jagger, Pierce Brosnan, Charlie Sheen

Page 40: The Element of Earth -- earth is the second of the four elements: fire, earth, air and water

Page 42: 10 Things You Didn't Know About Drew Barrymore

Page 44: Eyes on the Stars -- Dakota Johnson and her parents Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson (picture), Kristen Stewart as Princess Diana in the film Spencer (picture), Tina Turner admits she instantly fell for husband Erwin Bach in 1986 when they first met at an airport in Germany, Bindi Irwin gave birth to daughter Grace Warrior Irwin Powell, Michael Douglas is still going strong after 5 decades as an actor and loves what he does for a living, George Segal passed away due to complications from bypass surgery, Jessica Walter died in her sleep

Page 45: Eddie Murphy is inducted into NAACP Image Awards Hall of Fame (picture), Diana Ross performs at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in California (picture), Mario Lopez helps christen the tables at Mohegan Sun Casino in Las Vegas (picture), Ann-Margret and Julianne Hough attend the Family Film Awards where the redhead received a lifetime achievement award (picture), James Middleton who is the brother of Duchess Kate says he and fiancee Alizee Thevenet are done with city living, Justin Bieber's mom didn't like his newest tattoo saying Don't you have enough yet?, Zac Efron was spotted flying to Sydney with Aussie girlfriend Vanessa Valladares, Taraji P. Henson asked fans for prayers for her pet pooch that was suffering from post-surgery complications but he unfortunately died

Page 46: A lottery winner in Tennessee was feeling like a million bucks, until he realized he'd lost his precious ticket but he didn't give up: he retraced his steps until he found the ticket again

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girlofthefandom · 4 years ago

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Tales from the smp thoughts and random quotes I enjoy (essentially delayed live blogging) Part 1

I love all these npcs already

“Hurry up camera man!”

Yes! Gladiators! I remember seeing someone say that idea

Just some joes

Porkeous the 7th. Oh no I can see the fan girls now.

Yes! Punch em off!!

“Yeah same.”

“That’s good cause I don’t” “we build a new colosseum every time”

I can’t want to see the names of everyone’s characters. Especially Philz’

Stairs everyone’s worst enemy

Tubbo... sweet child

She disappeared!! Witch craft! Burn the witch!

Tubbo=Jacky (forced off streets)

Fundy=Laggius Maximus (I love this name so much with the spinning)

Please don’t kill both the boys in this fight. But also I’m cheating for Laggius.

Subbin Empire? Subbin to Technoblade!

Go Laggius! This is not going to go well... this is really not going to go well...

No I refuse to root for Jacky. I like Laggius the bit will be funnier later.

I want to know what happened to the last camera guy! Let us know!

Vertical feeling! Heaven forbid! Also look at them insulting TikTok

I love the background music. Feels magical.

A lovely jump

Surprises... well that’s ominous. And wait the first one!

Tower! Towers are always good.

We got our popcorn. Ready to watch this fight.

Laggius is... coming... maybe...

GG Jacky... he hasn’t won yet but gg.

Lava!!!! Hooray! Love us some good lava

Poor Laggius... he was burning too early

And Laggius is still lagging

Why isn’t Jacky burning?? He won???

Knocked unconscious in the lava. What is this a Pokémon game?

GG Jacky.

Nobody needs to know the way around here.

“Almost like a video game” just break that fourth wall right down

Keeps looking at sapnaps character and talking about strong. How sweet. We love some fiancé’s.

Please don’t throw Laggius to the wolves

Jack Manifold = Bartholomew

Phil having to translate. I love it.

Watson = Phil

Good pun. Very good pun.

Nobody likes Punz. Gosh everyone’s so mean

We love Watson. Let’s go Watson.

Bartholomew with the drugs and Watson.

Crazy drunk man with fire resistance

I agree with Watson why did we come to this cousin.

Sapnap in a hole

Also I love the drinking age being 3

Let’s go Watson!!!

Where are my Pom poms? I’ve got a Watson to cheer for.

Execute those architects.

And their first Borns.

Watson! Watson! Watson!

“Welcome to the land of the living Bartholomew.”

I love the slow fight.

Come on Watson shoot em!

Oh no. Oh no. Come on Watson. You’re so close!

Noooooooooo.

Why Bartholomew???? I can’t spell that! I’ve been relying on autocorrect this whole time.

Watson would be so much easier to spell.

Still must go down the stairs.

Speed running life. That’s what I do.

No one dies. Just take them to nurse joy.

Poor Punz being so bullied

Punz=Levi

Levi? Really? Oh well I like the name. He won’t like but I like the name.

Also why does Levi have such a full backstory.

Has weapon hands with a horrible southern accent. I love it.

“Hmmm”

Who is Ol’ Sap?

Sapnap = John

And no creativity apparently.

Laggius had the best name for a gladiator. All the others are too boring.

Why are we beating up BBH

Hannah=Genevieve

Genevieve! I can spell that thanks to old Barbie movies!!

Go Genevieve! Trained her life! I love this woman!

Mostly women upstairs. I love it our fandom is so biased.

“Are you sure about that?”

Darlin? Really that’s not the right word.

Go Genevieve! I probably shouldn’t cheer for her since everyone I’ve cheered for has lost.

But still GO GENEVIEVE!!

Our empire is millions in dept

Let’s step up the battle! Let’s gooooo

“Ayyyyy!!!”

Go Genevieve! Levi hush up with your gills.

Jump in! Splish Splash!

Wait why are we listening to Mario Kart music? Wait I recognize this song.

Go Genevieve!!

YES FINALLY! I PICKED THE WINNER!

Levi hush. You done lost messed up southern boi.

Go Genevieve! I can actually spell your name!

I straight forgot Porkeous the 7ths name for a second and had to check my notes.

Stairs. Woop de doo.

“Pick the most handsome” wow

Ol’ Sap = John as I remember. And he’s sticking with it. Bold man sticking with it.

Ranboo = Ran

Just Ran and it’s just the enderman part of the skin. Haha. Very funny.

BBH = Edward

He went from strange voice to normal(ish) voice

I don’t like Edwards speech pattern. At the very least. Yucky.

John v. Edward letsa go

Go John!

Wait we renaming? This is going to get confusing.

Handsome. Can you two quit flirting (not really keeping going)

Alrighty then Ugly v. Edward

Go Ugly! (Sentence I never expected to type)

The seat thing

And saying king Julien. Sigh.

Just BRB real quick.

Thinking about buying things. Oh he meant ad.

Alright Ad 1/3 let’s go.

No I can’t even open chat to watch them instead of the ad. Boooo.

2/3 let’s get this done!

3/3

Snickers just loading for forever

Alrighty we survived.

And a crown really? Just wants his normal skin back.

Let’s go Ugly!

Bo-at battle! Let’s go!

Please don’t shoot Ugly.

Go Ugly!

“King Are you ok!”

I still hate Edwards speech pattern so much

Please. Just pretend to have a fair fight.

The rabbits???? Cant rabbits swim?

Hooray rabbits! I don’t what purpose they serve but I love them.

Edward or Edwardo? Did I miss something?

Ok it seems both.

Shooting a rabbit? Disowner on you disowner on your cow.

Killing pets reference? The references are so good.

YES UGLY!!!! Thank heavens!

I’m 2/4 for choosing the winner.

I hope ugly keeps on winning

“Colosseum Remote Control”

3 in 1 battle how did they not plan correctly for an even number

Nerds hold cameras you heard it here folks

I don’t want to hear deeper for some of these stories. All I want to see is Genevieves further story. She seems deep.

“Massive pigs growling at us. No offense”

Watson trying to clean the table.

We bringing in the Harmonika.

Harmonika fits the moment.

Yes name him handsome! Haha

Grievous is how I’m spelling that stupid sounding name. But it’s better than John and ugly.

I can’t get over the name Ran.

BE GONE LEVI!

I love Watson having to take care of Bartholomew. Translating for him and waking him up.

Phil just can’t resist playing the dad.

No no stopping just fighting.

Also I love Watson saying break it up. I wish Watson had won.

Genevieve sounds like such a lovely lady and she deserves to win.

As much as I love Grevious I want Genevieve to win.

Sapnap=Grevious good gracious this is hard to follow.

Ran is cool. I’m going to kill over listening to them just saying Ran.

Complicated backstory. Found the main character.

Ran is cool.

Wait this place is going down??? Pardon me???

Three person fight is...

Grevious v. Ran v. Bartholomew

Genevieve v. Jacky

Puns! Let’s go! And of course Levi likes Puns.

Everyone is so mean.

GO GENEVIEVE!

And Watson just babysitting Bartholomew

I’m going to get good at spelling Bartholomew. Because I was horrible at it before.

Empire of women!

Cages=Lava

“Mmm what smells good”

Battle star!!

“Boing Boing Boing”

Water dome?

Water Dome in Lava?

Well he tried zombies/bunnies

Lava in the water sphere?

Only fight at top of fishbowl got it.

GO GENEVIEVE!

Come on girl you’ve got this!

No Genevieve babe please don’t lose.

“The boats going down.” “It’s yelling timber.” “Like that song that hasn’t been made yet.”

Hurry up and die. I love it.

NO GENEVIEVE!!!!!

Do do do do

That was a longer fight. But pretty good.

To the cellars! Not to the cellars!

No! The boat is gone!

That was close.

This feels like a funky Pokémon game.

Jacky is a finalist! Good for him. I’m not cheering for him but good for him.

TRIANGLE FORMATION

Who’s missing? Oh wait it’s Bartholomew

“Intense prison cosmetic surgery”

Rabbits! We love rabbits.

Oh no faceplant mode!

What is even happening?!?!

Thinking creatively.

Just don’t die. What a game.

Cant wait to watch the thinking creatively animatic.

In a boat to avoid floating.

Attack!

Go Ran!

Oh we’re lagging.

Disable the dive mode!

The zombies are a bit much. Oh everyone’s actually fighting.

Rats why weren’t there baby zombies when Watson was going. They even made a Phil reference.

No treaties.

Go Ran! Keep on running away.

I love Ran.

GO RAN! I love Grevious. But GO RAN

Faster Zombies. Zombies go zoom.

Oh Grevious won.

Wait why does Ran have grass and why do they see him again.

Placing more dirt to clean old dirt.

Poor Grevious.

I feel sorry for him now.

Stand on da dirt.

Put the rabbits in the cages!!!!

I cheer for Grevious.

And yes there are many a loser.

Everything is so spicy. As in lava is there.

You can’t kick your fiancé’s future descendent out of the gang.

A full inventory

Watson with the backup button!

Seriously all he can do is be a dad.

OH BOY LAGGIOUS IS BACK!

And he’s here for the picture.

And Watson is (still) bullying him!

Bartholomew is pure trouble.

Ooops. The root beer was on the brain.

Watson! Come get your drunk!

Oh wait he actually did! I love this so much.

Petition for more Phil in Tales.

Only Genevieve voting for Jacky

Some people refusing to vote.

I’m sorry who asked if Laggius is ok.

He is always (not) ok

He is fine. See.

I love Laggius’ character the most.

Go winners!

Reformed kinda. If that doesn’t sum up the whole of the smp.

All the grass in the cage.

And Laggius being his slow self.

Nothing v. General

I love how it went from King to Emperor to King

And there is Laggius.

I don’t know how anyone else is spelling Laggius but I like this way and refuse to edit it if it actually spelled different.

Oh we’re getting more ads.

1/3 let’s go

#tales from the smp #tftsmp #dreamsmp #dsmp #delayed liveblogging

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darklingichor · 4 years ago

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Odd Thomas, Forever Odd & Brother Odd by Dean Koontz *MAJOR SPOILERS* Long post

I've written a little bit about these before. My goal was to listen to all seven of the Odd books plus the two short stories... I couldn't make myself do that.

I use to really love those books. I use to really love Dean Koontz, just recently, the writing has started to annoy me. Since I haven't read any of his new stuff since Saint Odd came out, I can't say it's because the writing has changed. I think I have changed, I'm just not sure in what way. So, I'm going to look at the first three books in the series because 1. I like them the most (sort of). 2. Because I honestly feel like the series should have either ended there or jumped to Saint Odd. 3. Because I'm going to see if by writing about them, I can figure out why reading Koontz in my 20's was like a breath of fresh air, but in my 30's it feels like when the air conditioner is some how making everything too cold, yet not cooling things down at all: uncomfortable and bafflingly frustrating.

Odd Thomas is a 20 year old fry cook in the small california desert town of Pico Mundo. He's seen as sweet but strange to all but a few people in town. He grew up with a mostly absent father, a crazy mother and a loving but wild grandmother, the last has already gone to the great beyond, so what family he has, he has found.

He has a girlfriend named Stormy, they've been together since they were sixteen, his boss at the Grill where he works, Terry, who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Elvis Presley, a 300 lb mystery writer named P. Oswald Boone (Little Ozzie), his landlady who is afraid she'll turn invisible, and the cheif of police.

Odd also sees ghosts, or The Lingering Dead as he calls them. He trys to help them crossover. Sometimes it's as simple as talking to them (though they don't speak back, "the dead don't talk") oftentimes is complicated and dangerous. Hence why his close relationship with the cheif comes in handy and also why it formed. He has other gifts. The occasional prophetic dream that usually only gives him bits and pieces to work off of, he sees these spectors of calamity that tend to show up right before something bad happens (like an earthquake or a shooting) they are black shadow things that Odd calls Bodochs, and psychic magmatism, where he can find anyone he's looking for by wondering around with a clear picture in mind.

Everyone in his circle knows about his gift other than his landlady who is slightly and gently insane.

There is one other person in his circle, the ghost of Elvis who Odd had been trying to help crossover since he was in highschool.

The first book takes place over the course of three days.

To avoid a blow by blow, I'll summarize. After an eventful morning during which he helped a murdered twelve year old cross over by catching her killer, Odd goes to his shift a the Grill. There, he sees a creepy little man that reminds him if a mold and fungus, followed by a group of Bodochs. He finishes his shift, goes looking for the guy he's dubed Fungus Man.

He eventually finds his way to Fungus Man's house, breaks in and finds it unnaturally cold and silent. He discovers a room that is pitch black except for a small red light. He soon finds that what has made this room so black and the house so cold and quiet is the mob of Bodochs occupying it. After the Bodochs stream out, Odd is able to see that the room is an office and Fungus Man (aka Bob Roberts) is obsessed with serial and mass murderers, he has a file cabinet full of folders on them and posters of famous murders on his wall. Bob seems to be planning something, but Odd doesn't know what, as his only clue is a planner page in a folder from the killer cabinet. The folder is labeled with Bob's name and the date is two days away.

A series of happenings eventually leads to odd trying to stop a horrifying plan

*SPOILERS STOP READING RIGHT HERE IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW THE END*

So, Bob is a satanist in cahoots with a couple of other satanists to shoot up and blow up the Pico Mundo mall, among other places. He is able to stop them from completing their goal, but some people do die, including Stormy who was working at an ice cream shop at the mall.

Forever Odd

It's months later and Odd has moved into Stormy's apartment. He wakes up to find the ghost of one of his best friends's stepdad at his bedside. Strangely, Danny, a guy with brittle bone disease, with whom Odd grew up, was not mentioned in the last book.

So, the ghost of Danny's stepdad convinces Odd to go to his and Danny's house. Once there, Odd finds stepdad's body and discovers that Danny has been kidnapped.

What follows is a slightly weird story.

Odd eventually finds Danny and his kidnappers. One is a bug-shit woman Danny was talking with on a phone sex line. To impress her he told her about Odd. She's into her own twisted form of the Vudun religion and decides that Odd can show her the lingering dead and wants him become one of her crew. She kidnapped Danny to lure him out.

Danny is rescued, bad guys defeated, and Odd decides he needs to get out of Pico Mundo for a while.

Brother Odd

Odd has spent the last several months at the St. Bartholomew's Abbey, in the California Mountains, as a lay visitor among the monks and nuns. The Abbey is also home to a a community of disabled children. Odd becomes close with four people in particular The Mother superior, The Priest at the head of the monks, Brother Knuckles, an ex mob guy turned monk, and Brother John, a wealthy guy turned monk. Only the first three know of his gift.

Waiting up to see a snow storm break, Odd finds Brother Timothy unconscious or dead on the grounds. He is then clubbed on the back of the head and knocked out. A search for Brother Tim leads to a strange mix of science and the spiritual that I for one found really cool.

** SECOND SPOILER**

Elvis crosses over in this one and Odd contemplates becoming a monk. Two reasons I think that this should have been the last one. Another reason is that he comes very very close to connecting with Stormy though a conduit to the otherside. Third, this is the last book where Odd is truly Odd.

See, Odd hates guns and will only use one as a last resort. In the first, Odd takes out most of the bad guys with a baseball bat, in the second, bug-shit lady was killed by a cougar, the bad guy in this one was killed by someone else.

Although his ability to see and help the lingering dead is not the main focus of the second or the third, it's still something he does. There is character progression from the first to the third. When we meet Odd he is trying to carve out a life dispite his traumatic childhood and while trying to do right with the gifts he has. After he loses Stormy, the second commitment becomes more intense, because of his conviction that the only way he will meet Stormy on the other side is to live his life in the best way he can, and that means using his gifts to help people. He's sadder, slightly less heedful of danger, but still fully committed to flighting the good flight, in his unconventional way.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again, in the fourth through the seventh, the train is derailed, possessed, and also on fire.

Not only does his primary gift take a back seat, but the fight he is flighting isn't between the forces of good and evil, or even between justice and injustice, it's a culture war.

And the side of the war that Odd is on is peopled with climate change deniers, dooms day prepers, anti-government people who supply other "good guys" with guns, other anti-personnal gear, tech that circumvents federal guidelines. All the "bad guys" are anyone with any sort of power judges, lawyers, cops, corporations, politicians. Their victims are the hard working Americans, the waitresses, the truck drivers... Strike that. The victims are the Christian hardworking Americans who evedently are being "persecuted in their own country" (this might be a different rant for a different blog but I maintain that there is a big difference between Persecution and Denial of Entitlement. Persecution is being in danger of being harassed, hurt, killed or imprisoned for your beliefs, ethnicity or culture. And when that happens justice is less likely to happen for the person or people targeted. Denial of Entitlement is when a person, or people, cry injustice because they either can't dress up their persecution of others in their beliefs, or can't force those beliefs on others, through law, or through being amazingly obnoxious).

Not only are anyone in power corupt, they are satanists, not are they satanists, they are the same sect of satanists who attacked Pico Mundo, not only are they the same satanists that attacked Pico Mundo, they have an actual connection to Satan. Like they can call up demons and monsters.... Yet for some reason they still use bombs, guns and weponized diseases to wreak havoc.

Now, if Koontz wanted to showcase some characterization of how to fight against a corupt system, that's cool, I mean I'm all for calling out people in power. But this vears into government lizard people territory, and if that was the type of book he wanted to write then that's cool too,but he essentially highjacked Odd's story to do it.

I have a hard time believing that when Odd picked up the ghost of Frank Sinatra at the end of Brother, and walked off into the sunset, that the original intent was to end up in the middle of a plot to plant nukes around the country and then, accompanied by pregnant girl who is some how The Virgin Mary's mother, to a house where time travel is possible and mutant pigs fade in from a post apocalyptic future and want to eat people, where they pick up a sort of dead, sort of immortal child, who is neither of those any more. Only to then to leave them to go on a road trip with an old lady, who some how has connections to the metaphysical, and a microchip planted in her ass that makes it to where she doesn't have to sleep, to rescue kids kidnapped by the powerful satanists to be used as human sacrifice. Along the way, they meet up with some fighters in this coming war, who while they do not wear tin foil hats, they have the cheerfully bloodthirsty air of cult members waiting for the end times. (Side note about the roadtrip book: Deeply Odd is the most boring, yet weird book I have read since Breaking Dawn. Say what you will about the crazy pigs and time travel in Odd Apocalypse, it's at least interesting).

And then to end up back in Pico Mundo to fight said satanists. The in increasingly nonsensical plots really just there to deliver commentary on how the world has gone to shit and everyone is to focused on the material.

Again, remember that Odd is pretty apolitical. He's never voted, owns only the clothes on his back, prefers Shakespeare and old movies to tv, which I figure also includes the news. How does this not equal out to a kid being a patsy for this group, which essentially takes over the narritive. I mean, yeah, he's still doing his thing, but he has many of his moves ditcatated by this group. This includes carrying a gun, all the time.

Again, Odd hates guns. Granted, by the last book, he has spent three books killing people with guns while talking about how much he hates killing people with guns, but up till the last two books, his hatered of guns is seen as a virtue, and then suddenly, he's an idiot if he doesn't arm himself to take a piss.

This makes very little sense to me. Odd is a simple guy, he wants to live his life as long as he has to, do right by the dead and make his way back to Stormy, all the while perfecting his pancake recipe. How the fuck did we get from this to "Everything is shit, there are three type of people, those in power who are working for the devil, those on the side of the angels and the idiots who don't see what's going on. And dispite all the supernatural stuff, we still need to busta cap in someone's ass.

I know that Koontz is Catholic, and I speculate that he had a renewal of his faith somewhere, but also somewhere along the line he took a turn into conservative libertarian territory if that is a thing that can exsist.

I feel like originally, the idea was to have Saint Odd follow Brother Odd, at least in some incarnation. It makes sense, the satanist sect want to come back and finish what was started, and take out the town and Odd, who cocked it up to begin with. In the first book Odd describes Roberts and his cohorts as playing satanists but just using it as a delivery system for their sick want to kill people and be famous for it. It follows that others who are also playing at being satanists would come back to town to get revenge for their fallen brethren. This also trucks with Forever Odd where the bug-shit lady was playing at being a Vudun, and with Brother Odd where people played at being faithful.

This is how ai think it should have gone:

Odd goes from the Abbey, where he is shown, yet again, that evil is a human driven force, that those who wallow in pride, in want of adoration and perfection can be the down fall of themselves and others, back to his home town to defeate these sad delusional people once and for all.

Odd goes home for Christmas at the end of Brother, decides he wants to take vows, and goes about the process of becoming a man of the cloth. Maybe he goes back to St. Bart's, and he figures out a way to help the lingering dead from there, or, after he is confirmed in whatever capacity, he goes back to Pico Mundo and works along side Stormy's priest uncle. He sort of Father Dowlings it until he passes.

Instead, suddenly the structured feel of all of the supernatural things, which (implied by the third book) are based in science and the laws and rules of the universe that God laid down, turns into... Magic?

Doesn't matter how or why, what matters is there is a war! And the little fry cook shall lead them!

Seriously. Five years of Christian School has me seeing the turn that Odd's story takes, a couple of ways.

First it is either an overworked Christ story, where Odd is swept up in a war between the oppressed and the opressers, even though his life and mission is mostly one of mercy. In the end being a sacrifice that saves millions (by preventing the spread out f a weponized strain of rabies) but his sacrifice will only be remembered by a handful of people at first. The difference is of course that Odd buys into the culture war even though it make no sense.

Or, it's a Saint's story. Struggle, strife and miracles. See, it use to be that to be canonized, you had to have three miracles. His miracles? Well, first, his helping of the dead to cross over could be one, the preventing of whatever demon the satanists summoned in Deeply Odd, could be another, and finally, somehow managing to send Little Ozzie the manuscript for Saint Odd after Odd himself had already died, could be the last.

Either way, books four, five, and six are completely unnecessary.

So why does knootz's writing annoy me? It's self righteous and condicending. Poking fun a people who watch tv, enjoy unsophisticated things, bemoaning those who don't see just how stupid it is to buy into media, and how people are just marching their own way to misery because they just don't Get It.

It's the same time of people who look down on adults who do kid stuff sometimes "Why would you read John Green when you can read Dickens? Why would you watch Inside Out when you can watch Citizen Cane?"

Why would you eat coco puffs? Adults don't do that!"

I'm sorry, have I outgrown fun? A book is a book, a movie is a movie, breakfast cereal is breakfast cereal and you should be able to watch anything you want on tv without being shamed by a book that has an exploding cow in it.

#book #books #odd thomas #dean koontz #spoilers #revisit 7 8 and 9 #Book blogging 2021 #revisit

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abbynonymous1 · 4 years ago

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Free Britney

PSA on Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement for anyone that needs or wants more information on what is going on with her. It’s a fucking rabbit hole, so buckle up.

Now, for the real tea.

Now for everyone that doesn’t understand what that means let me break it down for you.

Britney Spears is a now 38 year old woman who is not allowed to do the following without her fathers permission or he can legally lock her up in a mental health facility:

• drive a car

• vote

• get married

• have children

• spend HER OWN MONEY

• see how her money is being spent

• see her children (she has 30% custody of both of her boys due to her dad assaulting one of her sons)

• leave her home

• hire her own lawyer

• have any control over her career

• speak about the conservatorship publicly

• do interviews that aren’t scripted and all final cuts are approved by her father as well

• use a cell phone without being monitored

• use social media unmonitored

• contact ANYONE without being monitored or having them extremely vetted. (Iggy Azalea allegedly had her house searched for drugs top to bottom when they collaborated on a song together)

• go shopping

• go for a walk

• get Starbucks

• released 4 albums

• done 3 worldwide tours

• did a FOUR-year Vegas residency

• was a full time judge on X-Factor

• released multiple perfumes and a lingerie line

• made $138 MILLION DOLLARS or so A YEAR

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kusunogatari · 4 years ago

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[ Frozen Flames and Shadowed Lights || Chapter Twelve ] [ @yukaikokoro @abyssaldespair ] [ Uchiha Obito, Suigin Ryū, Uchiha Madara, Hatake Kakashi, Kottakawa Kumiko, Raziya ] [ Verse: Divine Light ] [ Previous || Next ]

“All right...remember, we need to try and catch them by surprise. Our top priority is finding Ryū and getting the hells out of here,” Kakashi murmurs as Kumiko finishes opening the crack into the cavern. Blade drawn, he pushes his meager senses to their limit.

“Easier said than done, I’d imagine,” she replies softly. “They’ve surely sealed her ven with a rite. Sensing her through that will be nigh on impossible, as it’s extremely suppressed. We could trip over her before we’d sense her.”

“She’s under a what, now?”

Kumiko shoots him a disbelieving glance. “...a blood rite. It’s the only way to disable an el’ven’s powers. Each element has their own sigil, but the process is the same. In short, you combine the sealed and the sealer’s blood, and draw the sealer’s patron Elemental’s sigil somewhere on the sealed’s body...and you’ve got yourself a sealed el’ven. They can’t manually manipulate their ven, inside or out. You can’t stop the flow of ven altogether or the sealed person would die. It’s an essential system, like...the flow of your blood. So you just take away their ability to connect it to their will. It was a big factor in the civil war between the el’ven and the el’tahl.”

The pair of them lingering in their makeshift entryway, Kakashi pauses. This...seems important to know before they try to get Ryū out. “Really…? How so? El’tahl can’t use ven.”

“No...but you technically don’t need to in order to create a sigil. Technically everyone has at least some ven in their body. But el’tahl can’t connect with it, and their amount is always very low compared to someone el’ven. But there’s enough in their blood to create the sigils. Once they discovered the practice, they used it against us in the war.”

“But...you said something about a patron Elemental. Do el’tahl have those…?”

“Technically no...but a workaround turned out to be using the sealed’s opposing Elemental. For example, I’m of ice: child of water and air. If an el’tahl wanted to seal me, they only needed to use Orenium’s sigil, the child of earth and fire. My ‘opposite’.”

Kakashi sighs. “...sounds like a major pain.”

“It’s highly frowned upon now, of course. But I’m certain they’ll have her sealed, or she’d have escaped through a portal of her own long ago.” Glancing around, Kumiko adds, “And I’m sure this place is a maze of tunnels and dead-ends. And we still don’t know how many others are here.”

“I saw at least one through the barrier.”

“Really?”

“Yeah...and I don’t think it was the one who took her. This one felt…” Kakashi shifts, clearly discomforted. “...dangerous, for lack of a better word.”

“So, at least two...I’d have guessed as much. I’d like to hope they’ve kept to small numbers to avoid a need for supplies and risk of exposure. But...we can’t afford to assume anything.”

“Then what’s the plan? I’m not sure splitting up is a good idea.”

“No...we need to stick together. No offense, but against a well-practiced el’ven, let alone one of a Tenebreon’s level, you’d be in trouble on your own. It will make us slower, but...better slow than dead.”

“Agreed,” he replies gravely. “...so once we find her, what do we do about this...seal?”

“There are only two ways to undo a blood rite. Have the one who placed it revert it...or kill them. Their blood in the seal then becomes inert, and it fails.”

“...so not only do we need to find out who sealed her...but also either kill them, or somehow ask them nicely to take it off?”

Drawing her sword with a whisper from its sheath, Kumiko replies, “I’m afraid so. It’s either that...or she remains unable to use her ven until they die some other way. And I’m sure you know el’ven are long-lived.”

“...yeah, I do. Would have been nice to know this beforehand.”

“Sorry...I thought you’d know about rites. They’re a pretty big deal.”

“Most of this trip has been ‘learning as I go’, so...can’t really blame you.”

“...I’ll focus on trying to sense ven. You focus on what you can hear, see...smell, if you have to. That should leave us as prepared as we can be. Hopefully they think we’re dead after that avalanche and won’t bother trying to hide. Are you good at repressing your ven?”

“Fairly. It’s not very strong to begin with,” Kakashi replies dryly, doing his best to dim his aura.

Kumiko just nods as she does the same, cautiously stepping out of the crack she’s carved. The cavern is surprisingly warm, lit with a plethora of slow-burning candles. Wordlessly, she signs that there’s nothing she can sense to their left, toward the barrier. But she does indeed feel two signatures of ven to their right, one further in than the other.

Acknowledging her info, Kakashi follows, keeping his ears perked and eyes scanning the environment. By now, he’s honestly lost track of how many weeks they’ve been gone. The thought of Ryū being stuck in this place for that long, let alone with the company she’s keeping and whatever plot they have in store for her...well, it upsets him at the very least.

But there will be time for temper later. For now, he needs to stay calm. While he hardly expects it to go so smoothly...he can’t help but hope they can find her, slip back out...and then deal with whoever dared leave their mark on her.

At least if there are only two...it shouldn’t take much guesswork to figure out which is which.

...it’s then just a matter of managing to kill them.

Kakashi is hardly adverse to slaying another human. He’s done it countless times before, be it on a contract during his years as a hunter, or to protect himself while on the road. But this is the first time he’s had any need to face someone of a Tenebreon mage’s level. True, he’s not alone...but he knows he’s the weak link here. Skilled in the sword as he may be, a duel of ven is one he’s sorely outmatched in with most opponents...let alone one as destructive and deadly as a Tenebreon.

So for now, he tries not to think about that part. Their first priority is Ryū. The rest...well, he’ll cross that bridge when they come to it.

The pair of them creep along silently on the soles of their boots, cautiously inspecting any branching path they encounter. Any left dark Kakashi illuminates with a small ball of flame above a palm. Most lead nowhere. And to mark their way, Kumiko leaves tiny, hopefully-unnoticeable icicles above any route they’ve taken that proved fruitless.

This place is maze-like enough without worrying about getting turned around.

At one point they freeze, Kumiko holding out an arm as an echoing voice reaches them. Unfortunately, with so many places for it to bounce and travel, it’s nearly impossible to tell where precisely it’s coming from. But Kumiko pantomimes a fair distance yet as the other mage replies.

That one, however, sounds much closer.

Grip tight on the hilt of his blade, Kakashi stares down the tunnel, heart hammering seemingly just below the flap of his throat. He hasn’t been this nervous in...well, a very long time.

“Why is it that you meddling types always forget to check behind you…?”

Wheeling around, the pair of them find an open portal to their rear. And standing just within it, arms crossed and expression almost bored, is one of the Tenebreon mages: one of a barrel chest and lion’s mane.

Unable to do much more than stare, Kakashi immediately notices the mismatched eyes not unlike his own. One of red, and one of violet.

...what?

He in turn eyes them openly. “Is this really all that’s come looking for the supposed last light mage? An untested glacial representative, and...a weakling half-breed.” The gaze turns scornful. “...and with what looks to be stolen el’ven flesh. Disgusting.”

“Is that judgment coming from someone with as much conflict in their appearance as me?” Kakashi counters. “I may not know much about the el’ven...but one thing I do know is that everyone gets one element. So where’d your second come from?”

“I’ve no reason or want to bother explaining it to you,” their foe rebukes, tone aloof. “It matters little, anyway. You won’t be leaving this cavern alive. Tobi!”

Behind them, a masked man - the one from the Summit ball - blocks the way forward, cutting off their only other route.

Trapped.

“Where is the Luxerian disciple?” Kumiko demands, posture unwavering.

“Ask whatever questions you like: you’ll receive no answers. She will remain here until her purpose is served.”

“Is it true…? You seek the thirteenth?”

At that, the man’s brows lift. “...oh? And where did you hear that…? Did that Nori fool let you loosen his tongue? I should have killed him when I had the chance...but it matters little. If all your precious Summit sees fit to send is the pair of you...then it’s clear I won’t have any further interruptions once I reduce the pair of you to dust.”

“You’d risk the undoing of everything just for a chance at a forced peace?!” Kumiko bares her teeth in a snarl. “You’re just another faithless coward who’d rather take the easy way out.”

“Is this really the time to be taunting me, glacial mage? You’ve still got your spots: I’m not about to take a threat from you seriously.”

“Appearances can be deceiving. I’m stronger than I look.”

Glancing to his companion, Kakashi catches her eye, and in a brief look, conveys a plan. They’ll likely only have one shot. But at least with Ryū missing, they can’t flee so easily. They’ll have to fetch her first.

Until then...it’s time to try fighting.

With a shift of his weight, Kakashi spins to face the man behind them as Kumiko makes to strike the one at their fore. Ice rises up from beneath the stone, cracking and forming deadly spikes that race toward the portal. It closes, her element passing harmlessly before she turns and blocks an attempted grab, her foe tearing open another hole in space.

Kakashi, on the other hand, relies fully on his blade. Twisting and slashing with all the speed and complexity he can muster, he funnels his drive into every strike. And all the while, his opponent dodges with seemingly incorporeal ease. At times he swears the steel passes right through him!

“Where is she?” he growls, wondering if this one might be a bit more vocal. But all he receives is tense silence. Something tells him that - in his own way - this one is just as driven as he is...yet it feels different than the obvious want of power his companion boasts. This feels...personal.

Which only serves to confuse Kakashi further.

Trying to keep one ear tuned in case Kumiko needs his help, Kakashi fights on, his blows becoming more desperate. “No matter where you take her...no matter where you run...I’ll follow. I won’t stop until she’s back where she belongs…! She’s not some tool for your end! I’ll kill you for treating her like a gods-damned broodmare for whatever the hells you think you’re going to achieve!”

As his temper reaches a tipping point, Kakashi feels a desperate burning in his left eye, wide and manic. Unable to fight fire’s fueling by his anger, he unleashes a torrent of flame from a palm as he lets his sword fall to the wayside. Hungry and eager, the tongues lick and reach for his foe.

But with a wave of his own hands, the enemy mage easily diverts them...something a Tenebreon disciple shouldn’t be so adept with. Remembering the other’s dual-colored eyes, Kakashi can’t help but wonder if this one, too, boasts two elements.

“Cursed words...cursed! To think a mor selfish enough to take a second blessing...what greed, what insolence! A vile mor...I’ll tear his head from his shoulders myself for such a blatant disregard for the balance!”

Suigin’s words, recalled in his mind, fit together more pieces. This must be what she and that Nori bastard spoke of: someone with two elements in one body. But how?!

“Impressive you can even use ven, given the small token of flesh you bear.” Speaking at last, the second mage stares him down, visage hidden by his mask. “Stolen from the still-warm corpse of your friend, was it…?”

At that, Kakashi feels his chest echo with a flash of cold. “...how do you know about that?”

“I know more than that, Kakashi. Enough to realize that you are nowhere near strong enough to take her back. You will fail...and she will remain here.”

That grits the hunter’s teeth. “You have no right -!”

“It is not a matter of rights. Think you can return her? Prove it. Prove to me that you’re strong enough. I took her from you once...I can do so again.��

He knows it’s a taunt. It’s plain as day. But Kakashi lets himself fall for it, hook line and sinker. A cry tears his throat as he makes to strike, easily dodged. Alternating between fire and steel, he flails in desperation for just one blow -!

“Kakashi!”

At the frantic tone, Kakashi feels his heart leap.

Ryū!

Just as drawn to the voice, the one called Tobi turns too.

And that’s when he finds his opening.

Barely managing to twist his last attempt, Kakashi - rather than a slash - slaps the flat side of his blade against the mask of his enemy. With a clatter, it shatters into countless pieces as he’s stunned and stumbles aside.

“Tobi -?!”

Heaving for breath, Kakashi nonetheless stills as Ryū calls again...this time for the man he was fighting. But -? He -?

A hand at his face as a cut from stray porcelain bleeds sluggishly, Tobi leans heavily against a wall. Further down the tunnel, Ryū stares with obvious shock...tinged with concern. Her gaze then flickers to Kakashi, just as desperate.

But Kakashi doesn’t see it. He’s staring at his foe.

“...Obito…?”

Turning and panting, another pair of ruby and amethyst eyes meet Kakashi’s. He looks startled, almost...dazed. A gloved hand falls away, revealing the mottled skin: scarred over from obvious burns.

But there’s no mistaking it. That...that is Obito. But he’s...he’s dead. He watched the light leave his remaining eye after that sword buried through his back. Kakashi could see the cremating fires as he and Rin fled with Ryū from the city that night. The Uchiha always burn their dead. And Obito, without a doubt, was -

Too shocked to react further, Kakashi jumps as the other mage teleports beside his companion, teeth bared in a hiss. “Enough. We retreat. Now.”

A hand drags Ryū to his side, ignoring her cry of surprise and pain at his hold. Obito, still stunned, staggers forward as another portal opens. Beyond, Kakashi can see marshy swampland and the edge of a city.

“No!”

Behind him, limping, Kumiko tries to dash forward and give chase. But as the trio pass through and the door closes, she collapses to the floor of the cavern.

Silence.

With a slow dissolving of his joints, Kakashi falls to his knees, sword clattering against the stone. Too many things swirl within his mind, making his skull feel full to the point of bursting. Obito...Obito is -?

“Where did they go? Kakashi, did you see?!”

He doesn’t answer, staring at nothing.

“Kakashi!”

“...he’s alive, but...she’s gone. I…?”

Crossing the gap between them with furrowed brows, Kumiko searches his face. “What?”

“...it’s not possible…”

“Kakashi, snap out of -!”

“It had to be a trick. Something to unsettle me. I -?”

With a harsh report in the dead air of the cave, Kumiko’s hand slaps against the skin of Kakashi’s cheek. His head reels back, eyes widening and springing with tears at the sudden sting. “What -?!”

“Whatever the hells took over your mind, banish it!” she barks, her hand then moving to hold his shoulder as she stares at him unwaveringly. “You’re speaking nonsense, Kakashi! What in the twelve hells happened? One moment I was fighting the twice-blessed, and then -?”

“It was Obito.”

“...what?”

“The other mage. He had the same eyes. One red, one purple. But it...it was Obito.”

“...that’s not possible. The boy who died…? Gave you his eye?”

A slow nod. “...I’d know that face. Aged or not, it was him. I’ve no doubt.”

“...but...he died as a boy. Even a Tenebreon mage can’t bring back the dead on their own, Kakashi.”

A hand lifts to cradle his brow, trying to think. “...he had a Tenebreon eye. As did his partner. And he...he knew things. From before.”

“...could Ryū have told him?”

“It’s possible, but...Kumiko, I know what I saw. It’s why I...why I froze. The disbelief stole my mind. I...I’m sorry. I let this happen…”

“But why did they leave? The mage I was fighting, he had the upper hand - he’d wounded me! Why flee? Did you overpower the -? Er...Obito?”

“...I broke his mask. At first I thought that’s what stunned him, but...I spoke his name. And he looked at me strangely. Like it...woke something in him.”

Kumiko’s eyes widen. “...maybe he remembered you…?”

“...I don’t know.”

Sighing, Kumiko shifts to sit beside him. “...let’s put together what we know. Obito, your friend, is alive...and is one of two twice-blessed we now know of. Both of them have an eye of fire, and an eye of darkness. His companion is clearly far older. What if they...exchanged eyes?”

“...even if the other mage gave him the Tenebreon eye, Obito only had one left.” Kakashi points to his face. “...I have the other. The other igni eye would have to have come from someone else.”

“...then we can assume he either got the eye elsewhere...or already had it. But how can they both have two elements…? That’s impossible, I’ve never heard of that happening. Let alone with two elements that far apart. Fire is a child of light, darkness’ mirror!”

“...how does one get their element?”

“You’re born with it. Depending on your family tree, you can either have a parent’s element, or - if they’re the right tiers - a combination of the two. Wind and water could birth the same, or ice.”

“...but what about at the beginning?”

“...you mean the first blessed? It was a gift directly from the Elementals themselves. But Kakashi...the Elementals fled over a century ago, when war broke out after the coup. That’s not possible.”

“...is it?” he replies, tone dark. “...think about it. You were Embraced. No one has been since the coup, right? Or so we’re told? What if...Tenebreos blessed them? Could it be done remotely? Like your Embrace?”

At the suggestion, Kumiko’s jaw drops almost comically, if not for the circumstances. “...I...I don’t know. But...why would Tenebreos bless someone already blessed…? Maybe...maybe they stole the eyes from a Tenebreon mage.”

“You told me yourself: my ven is weak because I’m a vom berech: a halfling created rather than born. Surely if they took eyes from someone else, their Tenebreon ven would be weak. But they were both clearly using it with no limit or inhibition. Something’s fishy here, Kumiko...and it would explain why Suigin was so upset. Stealing or receiving ven from someone else wouldn’t make you twice-blessed. What if…” Kakashi’s posture shifts, more forward. “...what if Tenebreos blessed the other mage...and helped him revive Obito?”

“...why would they do that?”

“...I was hoping you’d have an idea. I’m a stranger to most of this, remember?”

Kumiko goes quiet, thinking. “...Tenebreos is the Elemental of darkness. Death, disease, matter...and some say, chaos to Luxeria’s order. Maybe this entire plot was their doing. Remember the coup...? It was born mostly out of spite by the Tenebreon mages. For ages they were targeted as “evil”, hunted for being harbingers of death despite their necessity. Maybe...Tenebreos wants revenge for their slaughtered mages. Maybe they’re looking for a rebirth of chaos, just as the world was righting itself.”

“By bringing about the thirteenth?”

“...I don’t know. I feel like there’s still something we’re missing. This is all just conjecture and guesswork at this point. But something tells me we’re on the right path.”

After a pause, Kakashi gives a humorless scoff. “...right. The path I just brought to a dead end. I let them escape...and Twelve know where they’ve gone.”

“...did you see anything through the portal? Anything that might help us find them?”

“...it looked like...marshland. Water, muck, bowing trees. And maybe a city of some kind. It was gone so quickly…”

“No, no - that’s a start.” Mulling that over, Kumiko then offers, “...we should return to Boralis. Regroup. Maybe someone there will have an inkling where that could be. Wherever they fell back to...it has to be somewhere they’d feel secure. They seemed confident they’d be able to take us, and keep their hideaway here. I doubt they have many backup plans, given how solidly they regarded this one.”

“...all right. Can you walk…?”

“Well enough. Besides, with the mages gone, that barrier will be too. They can’t hold it over much distance. Raziya can come in and take us straight from here back to the capital.” Struggling to her feet, Kumiko lets Kakashi bear her weight, the pair of them hobbling to the entrance as she calls her drach.

The beast wastes no time in fluttering into the cavern’s mouth, a moaning sound of concern echoing off the walls. “What happened?! Where is the lux mage?”

“We’ll recount it when we get back to Boralis. I need someone to patch me up, and...well, we need to plan our next move.”

Nodding curtly, Raziya gently helps her rider to her saddle, Kakashi climbing up behind as they streak out of the cave and back into the squall.

Yet another setback...and when they were so close…! As guilty as he feels, Kakashi does his best to shove the disappointment aside. It won’t do anything for him, now. Instead, he mulls over their conjecture, and the possible ways forward.

He wasn’t lying. This quest is one he will follow until the end. He made a promise to watch over her when he accepted Obito’s eye, and the burden Ryū’s mother gave him and Rin, both. Until he succeeds, or draws his last breath...he will follow.

...hold on, Ryū. I’m not out of this fight, yet. Don’t you dare give up…!

Another day, another chapter! Technically finished last night buuut it was 2am, I was buggered, and I...waited until today to proofread! Then life got in the way, so here it is midafternoon :’D BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. We have PLOT DEVELOPMENT! The (very obvious) secret is out: Tobi is Obito! And he seems...off somehow. We also have some guesswork on Kumiko and Kakashi’s part about what EXACTLY is going on, and why. But there’s only one way to know for sure...they’re gonna have to do...MORE TRAVELING! Because there isn’t enough of that in this fic, right? :’D There’s...probably more to say but I’m hella scatterbrained today so that’s all the commentary for now. Hoping to start C13 sometime today, we’ll see how more Life goes. Cuz right now it’s kinda kicking my butt, but what else is new :’D Anywhoozle, thankies for reading, and I’ll get the next part out soon!

#yukaikokoro #abyssaldespair #uchiha obito #suigin ryū #uchiha madara #hatake kakashi #kottakawa kumiko #raziya #divine light [ au ]

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magpiedminx · 4 years ago

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From above : PSA on Britney Spears and the #FreeBritney movement for anyone that needs or wants more information on what is going on with her. It’s a fucking rabbit hole, so buckle up. A little backstory first. Britney was a child star starting at the age of 4 years old on Broadway, and then worked her way to the Mickey Mouse Club, and eventually the solo career we know today. Her career has been on autopilot her entire life. If you look back at her music, she’s been telling everyone for years she’s too controlled and treated as a product if you listen to the lyrics of most of her hits. Examples include: Lucky, Overprotected, My Perogative, Circus, Piece of Me and Gimme More. Her music videos, social media posts, tour props and photoshoots regularly show her in a cage or in chains. If anyone has ever seen videos of her when she was younger, you’d know her REAL singing voice is very similar to Christina Aguilera’s. Her record label didn’t like it, as they were both on the Mickey Mouse Club and about to release their debut albums at the same time. So they had her voice retrained to sing in the baby voice we all know today because they believed it to be more iconic and would create a brand and career for her instead of her real voice. It’s unhealthy, and it’s been destroying her voice over the years, thus why she is known for lip syncing. She wanted to make an acoustic type pop album in 2006 titled Original Doll and reinvent herself using her real voice. The album was shelved and cancelled once her label realized she would be singing in her real voice. She isn’t allowed to sing live because she will either fail terribly, or she’ll have to sing in her deep voice that she isn’t known for. Her entire career she has been treated like a product meant to sell. Now, for the real tea. Everyone remembers the 2007 meltdown. Everyone. Leading up the meltdown Britney was going thru a public divorce, had two children under the age of 2 at the time and was VERY much the focus of the public. We all saw her on every magazine cover. We all also saw the photo of her with one of her kids on her lap while driving. Go on YouTube once and look up ‘Britney Spears paparazzi’. You’ll watch her be chased and followed by hundreds of them, even trying to get into a public restroom to photograph her, videotaping her in tears asking them to leave her alone, and even filming her thru the windows of an ambulance while she was naked being taken away for her final mental health hold. After the public meltdown, shaving her head, locking herself in her home with her children, speaking in a british accent on regular basis, wearing the imfamous pink wig everywhere, and shopping naked, she was hospitalized twice. After the hospitalization, her father petitioned the courts to be a TEMPORARY conservator to her until she was mentally stable and for only one years time. 2 months after her hospitalization she did a guest appearance on How I Met Your Mother. 6 months after her hospitalization, she drops the Womanizer video and starts to promote her new album Circus with its worldwide tour that grossed $131.8 million. If she’s so unwell, why did she start working right away? Her father after one year petitioned the courts for the conservatorship to become permanent due to her ALLEGEDLY having EARLY ONSET DEMENTIA in her TWENTIES. It passed and has been that way ever since. For 12 years to be exact. Now for everyone that doesn’t understand what that means let me break it down for you. Britney Spears is a now 38 year old woman who is not allowed to do the following without her fathers permission or he can legally lock her up in a mental health facility: • drive a car • vote • get married • have children • spend HER OWN MONEY • see how her money is being spent • see her children (she has 30% custody of both of her boys due to her dad assaulting one of her sons) • leave her home • hire her own lawyer • have any control over her career • speak about the conservatorship publicly • do interviews that aren’t scripted and all final cuts are approved by her father as well • use a cell phone without being monitored • use social media unmonitored • contact ANYONE without being monitored or having them extremely vetted. (Iggy Azalea allegedly had her house searched for drugs top to bottom when they collaborated on a song together) • go shopping • go for a walk • get Starbucks A conservatorship is meant for people with mental health issues or decaying health. Most likely grandparents or people with actual dementia etc. They are meant for people who literally cannot take care of themselves. If she is so unwell that she isn’t mentally capable of doing anything for herself, why is she still working? Since the conservatorship began 12 years ago she has: • released 4 albums • done 3 worldwide tours • did a FOUR-year Vegas residency • was a full time judge on X-Factor • released multiple perfumes and a lingerie line�� • made $138 MILLION DOLLARS or so A YEAR In January of last year, Britney was placed in a mental health facility for 3 months after being seen driving her car to In-N-Out with her boyfriend without permission and for refusing to take the sedating medications her father has doctors prescribing her to keep her under control. She testified to a judge in documents that she was held there against her will by her father. After it was leaked to the press that she was there against her will, the Free Britney movement picked up speed causing a judge to open an investigation into the impact and legality her conservatorship has on her life. Britney’s mother Lynn was also liking and commenting on Free Britney posts saying she agrees that Britney is trapped by her father. Britney’s team had Twitter disable the Free Britney hashtag, and regularly threatens any celebrity that speaks out using the hashtag with a lawsuit if they don’t remove their support for the movement. She was seen shortly after leaving a hotel thru the front door (99% of celebrities park underground to avoid paparazzi unless they WANT to be photographed) stumbling while carrying her shoes, and out of it. Her team used that moment to justify to the public that she needs this conservatorship. She is not allowed to have any say in the hiring or firing of anyone on her team. Every year she pays $1.1 million dollars in fees for the conservatorship to continue, including paying her father a solid $100k+ salary and paying a lawyer she isn’t allowed to choose. She is allowed an allowance of around $1,500 a week for bills, shopping and essentials. Her net worth is $250 million. So, when everyone sees her on Instagram walking up and down her hallways like it’s a fashion show. That’s all she is allowed to do. She has NEVER had control over her life. I don’t care if you personally like her or her music, NO ONE DESERVES THIS. All this woman wants is to see her children, make the music she wants to make, and go get a frappuccino in her car. She is a light of sunshine in this world, and we must protect her at all costs. So please, do not make fun of her, support the Free Britney movement, and send good vibes her way. She has a court date this month to review the conservatorship and decide if it is abusive or will continue to be in place. There are so many details to this that i left out that would make this post entirely much longer than it is, but a simple search will show you what else is out there. Spread this far and wide. ❤️ Free Britney Edited to add some important links! Here’s a google doc of info https://docs.google.com/document/d/17jeZV78SCwgQGsOkad0H0PA8jqjgRsxgSqD9f_f1yAk/edit Petition by Danny H: https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/conservatorship-and-civil-liberties-britney-spears Screenshots of leaked emails, voicemails, and other helpful links: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-britney-spears-conservatorship-freebritney-movement-2020-2 https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-09-17/britney-spears-conservatorship-free-britney https://www.forbes.com/sites/trialandheirs/2019/05/15/making-sense-of-the-britney-spears-conservatorship-and-freebritney/#5ce808c94b74 Jayden going on Instagram live reporting they were being abused by his grandfather: https://theblast.com/c/britney-spears-son-jayden-james-instagram-live-video-free-britney This is a news article from USA Today about her father’s child abuse allegations filed by Kevin Federline. He reportedly had an altercation with Sean in September 2019: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.usatoday.com/amp/2362531001 Source from the opposing view pointing to the success of her conservatorship and that fans are wrong, I think it's weird she has made no formal appearances to contest the conservatorship in court but she said (link above) we were not being told the truth and the media is being manipulated: https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2019/10/24/britney-spears-why-does-she-still-need-conservator/2288009001/ There's a lot of money at stake to keep her in this situation. Just seems too convenient that she can't care for herself considering her net worth, and considering the fact her male counterparts of equal stardom with public mental health battles have never been under this much control. This is an issue and question of abuse in conservatorships at large. Unfortunately, the princess of Pop has somehow become the poster child of this type of crisis. While conservatorships can be beneficial when the best interest is at heart, we can't ignore the fact there are companies that profit enormously from people with disabilities by keeping them under extensive legal control. Are they providing the best care? If Britney has been too unwell to care for herself these past 12 years, why would she be made to work tirelessly? World tours? Vegas? X-factor? Her perfume line? Why not let her rest? Here's a good excerpt from Forbes, it's just not clear what is going on, but my initial gut thinks there is something that is not right. "In this case, Jamie Spears did not have legal authority to force Britney into treatment or to take psychiatric medications. But that doesn't mean that Britney's reported claim that she was held against her will is wrong. Rather, because Jamie has so much control over Britney's life through the conservatorship - including decisions like whether to get married, to perform or live in Las Vegas, or even if she can drive a car - he easily could have refused to grant consent for Britney to do any number of things unless she agreed to his request to enter the mental health treatment facility. In other words, Jamie could have indirectly forced her into treatment even if he could not explicitly sign her in against her will. But, even if Jamie Spears did so, he may have done it out of an earnest believe that Britney needed the treatment. TMZ previously reported that Britney was not doing well and her old course of medications stopped working, necessitating heightened treatment." Take what you will from this, but here are a few petitions to reinstate her rights in August is here - http://chng.it/CMfngqyMBj https://www.change.org/p/team-britney-freebritney

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clintashaotp · 5 years ago

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Author’s note/summary: Flashback to 2012 fics. Clintasha! :) it’s a little long, but ya know, it happens. Enjoy!

Just a Game

2935 Words

Friday, 5:43 PM

“Say you yield,” Natasha growls against Clint’s ear, her gun pressed against his ribs. “Yield and I won’t shoot you.”

“Nice try, Nat,” Clint manages, but before Natasha can register what he means she feels something sting and her arm twitches with an electric shock. She jerks away from his hand taser and almost drops her gun.

“Cheater!” Natasha shouts, her normally neat hair in a wild braid. Clint just cackles evilly, but when Natasha raises her gun and turns off the safety, Clint freezes.

“You wouldn’t actually shoot me, Natasha,” Clint says nervously, and Natasha shrugs, walking towards him menacingly.

“I don’t know,” she smiles, “maybe, maybe not.”

“It was just a stupid game, Nat.” Clint frowns, but the fear for his own life is too imminent for him to just ignore the weapon pointed at his face. “Natasha?”

“Was it a game when you painted my room pink?” Natasha is still smiling, but her voice is dripping with poison. “Was it a game when you traded in my guns for water pistols? Oh, and I’m assuming it was all fun and games when you decided to filled my SHIELD office with packing peanuts?”

“Nat, I’m so sorry,” Clint winces, and she just glares.

“Goodbye, Clint.”

She raises the gun and fires without hesitation.

...

Monday, 2:38 PM

“Fury said it’s a team bonding activity?” Tony shrugs, not looking up from the screen. “So, being me, I went above and beyond.”

“With capture the flag?” Natasha scoffs, and Tony shoots her a look.

“Red, you should know by now--I can make anything awesome.”

Clint and Natasha exchange a look, but Banner looks nervous.

“I don’t know if this is a great idea for me, Tony,” he winces. “I think I might...what’s the word? Oh yeah, murder you all?”

“Don’t worry, Bruce,” Tony grins, “you’ll be playing in the Hulkbuster, so there’s no way you’ll hulk out.”

“I don’t think the Hulk listens to those rules.”

“We’ll figure it out.” Tony shrugs, then gestures everyone to crowd around the hologram table. “Alright, capture the flag players, here are your boundries. I’ve managed to turn the entire Avengers Facility and the surrounding areas into an equally divided field of play. JARVIS?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Can you please put the grid boundaries in effect, real time?”

The team turns around to watch a golden light appear, shining from floor to ceiling in a solid laser pointer beam. The line extends outside of the control room and out of sight, where it presumably marks the halfway point across the whole territory.

‘Woah…” Clint gasps, and Natasha just sighs.

“You live in the same building as arguably one of the most advanced mechanics out there, and he makes our house into a laser tag room and it impresses you?” She smirks at him, and Clint shrugs.

“I like the pretty lights, what can I say?”

“Since it’s fun and not a mission, I’m not going to let Cap bore us all by talking two hours to pick times.” Tony smirks at the group and Steve sighs.

“Tony…”

“You don’t need a pros and cons list every time, Rogers,” Tony throws up his hands, on the edge of a rant, but he takes a deep breath. “But that’s not what this is about.”

“Well, I think basing teams off of strengths—” Steve tries, but Tony cuts him off with a long sigh.

“The teams are Natasha, me, and Thor, and then Steve, Clint and the doctor.” Tony says firmly. Natasha and Clint exchange a look, and apparently Tony picks up on it because he grins. “Yeah, I gotta split up the master assassins over here. Sorry, lovebirds, but you gotta break it up for just a while.”

“Fine,” Natasha shrugs nonchalantly, and Clint just nods indifferently. “Not a problem. I’ll still kick all your asses.”

“You know, expect for the people in our team,” Tony grins nervously, and Thor laughs.

“You only put the Widow on your team because you didn’t want her to attack you!” Thor points out, and Natasha raises an eyebrow while the rest of the team chuckles.

“That’s totally not true,” Tony glares, and Natasha just shakes her head.

“When do we start?” She asks.

“Well, I’ve designed each team a different colored uniform. Our team will wear these awesome red uniforms, and you guys get...purple.” Tony grins, apparently thinking that purple was a punishment.

“What’s wrong with purple?” Clint frowns, but before Clint can launch into his defensive rant about purple, Tony hands out the uniforms. They are essentially normal workout clothes in the color of the team, except Steve’s purple workout clothes are embossed with purple Stars and Stripes of various shades.

“Each team member gets a holographic communication device, or an HCD of my creation. You can communicate with your team members and see a holographic image of the playing field and your location on the field at any time. you know, unless I disable it.”

Tony hands out the watches, and Steve groans when Tony hands him a red white and blue wristwatch.

“Tony…” Steve sighs, but Tony just grins, not even bothering to address it.

“All teams may now convene on their sides to discuss. My team stays here, and Clint, your team can take a hike, my man.” Tony smirks. “The flags are literally flags, and it’s near your jail. You have five minutes to hide it, and when JARVIS announces the beginning of game play, you can go.”

“Sounds good,” Clint shrugs, and Banner and Steve follow him past the laser grid and out of sight down the hallway.

...

“Alright team,” Tony grind wickedly. “What are you thinking for strategy?”

“Tasers are always good,” Natasha muses, “Maybe stun guns. Anything to knock them out of commission.”

“Um, it’s a game,” Tony raises an eyebrow at her, but Thor cuts Tony off.

“I agree with Natasha, we need weapons if we are going to best the other team.” The god rumbles, and Tony suddenly feels very small next to the giant god and the deadly assassin.

“Uh, okay.” Tony shrugs. “JARVIS, please make an announcement that non lethal weapons are allowed in gameplay.”

“Non lethal?” Natasha groans. “Boring.”

“It’s a game!” Tony gapes at her, and JARVIS relays his message over the loudspeakers.

“Three minutes till gameplay,” the AI adds and Tony jumps.

“We gotta hide the flag!” He scrambles for the piece of cloth only to see Thor grinding at him in amusement. “Where’s the flag? Where’s Natasha?”

“She chose to hide our flag while you were conversing with your JARVIS.” Thor chuckles, and Tony just groans.

“She’s going to kill me in my sleep one day.”

...

On the other side of the laser grid, Clint and Steve gather as many weapons as they can in a barricade.

“I’m not sure how much help I’ll be,” Banner says nervously, and Steve shrugs.

“Every soldier counts.”

“I’m not a soldier, Steve. I’m literally a murderous monster, so...”

“So you’re even more helpful!” Clint grins from where he’s strapping grenades to his arms.

“Oh god.” Banner sighs. “Alright, what’s our strategy?”

“I’ll crawl up through the vents, and Steve will guard the border. Bruce, you stay close to the flag with a stun gun and shoot without mercy.” Clint says with finality and Steve nods.

“Good plan. But won’t they expect you to come from the vents?”

“I’m counting on it,” Clint nods. “Natasha will try to taser me but if I get her early on and get her out, she won’t bother us for the rest of the game.”

“Smart,” Bruce nods in approval.

“One minus till game play,” JARVIS says over the speakers.

“Bruce, you hide the flag.” Steve instructs, strapping his shield to his back. “Clint, lets move out.”

“Wait, where do I hide it?” Bruce tries, but Steve and Clint have already started jogging towards the borderline and Bruce just sighs. “This is going to be a long game.”

...

“The game will begin in twenty seconds,” says the voice room the ceiling. On both sides of the border, players tense, checking guns and making sure knives are strapped tight. “Ten seconds.” Natasha brushes her hair back from her face and twirls her butterfly knife between her fingers expertly. “Five seconds.” Clint adjusts his quiver and straps his bow tightly against his back. “Four. Three. Two. One. Let the first annual Stark Hunger Games begin!” JARVIS says loudly over the speakers, and everyone but Tony groans.

Without hesitation, Clint scrambles into the vents and begins the crawl as quietly as he can through the metal pipes.

“Thor,” Natasha whispers through her com. “Get to the vent exit in the kitchen. Clint’s going to drop down there. Get him and bring him to jail.”

“Message received,” Thor’s whisper is far from quiet but Natasha elects to ignore it. She listens for a moment and can hear the telling scrape of metal on metal above her to let her know that Clint’s making his way to the kitchen.

“Gotcha,” she grind to herself, then sprints towards the border.

...

Clint drags himself forward on his forearms as he comes up on the first vent exit. Leaning down, he sees Thor sitting on the kitchen counter with a glass of orange juice, and it takes all the self control he has not to snort as the god chugs the glass and burps loudly. Clint shakes his head. Natasha must have figured he’d come through here, but the jokes on her.

He pulls out an electrocution arrow from his quiver as quietly as he can in the cramped space, and pulls his bow off his back. In one swift movement Clint kicks the vent open, notches the arrow and shoots Thor straight in the chest. The electricity sparks and the god falls to the ground, twitching. Clint grins, pulling the grate backup and strapping his bow back on. Silently, he continues his crawl through the vents with a triumphant smile on his face.

...

Steve softens his footsteps nears the border, shield raises. If Clint hasn’t already been ambushed, Steve’s the next best option to getting the flag.

Steve passes through the laser grid silently and surveys the territory. The room appears empty, so Steve walks cautiously towards the door on the far side, walking carefully to avoid creaky floor boards.

“Steve!” Clint’s voice echoes from his watch and Steve curses under his breath, ducking behind one of the couches in the living room.

“What?” Steve hisses, “I literally just crossed the line.”

“Natasha got past me,” Clint whispers. “I think I got Thor, but she’s still in play and she’s close to the border.”

“Yes she is,” a cheery voice says from behind him, and Steve raises his shield just in time to block a gunshot. He curses, rolling behind the couch and assessing his options.

“Language,” Natasha laughs and Steve just groans.

“Tony said only non lethal weapons,” Steve sighs and he hears Natasha chuckle.

“I heard him.” She laughs. “C’mon, Cap. Worst things worst, I tag you and you go to jail.”

“No, worst case scenarios is you shot me!” Steve scoffs indignantly, and he turns his head to see where she is only to come face to face with the assassin, who had snuck up on him while he was looking around for her. Steve freezes, and Natasha grins widely. She reaches out a long manicured fingernail and bops him on the nose.

“You’re out.” She smiles sweetly, and Steve groans. “Have fun in jail, soldier.”

Steve walks towards the hall that leads to the jail as Natasha reaches for her com.

“Tony, we got our first prisoner. Watch Steve, make sure he doesn’t get out.”

Tony answer affirmatively and Natasha disappears behind a doorway and out of sight.

...

Thor wakes up with a headache and an empty bottle of orange juice in his hand.

The memory comes flooding back to him and he groans. The god of thunder, bested by electricity.

He sighs and sits up, fumbling for his hammer. It sits on the counter, and Thor flips it casually in his hand. Time to cross into enemy territory.

Thor slips through the laser barrier quietly, but as soon as he gets into the living room he trips over a table and the lamp in the table falls to the floor and shatters. Thor guiltily tried to put the pieces back on the table, but its shattered. Thor sighs, then adjusts his grip on his hammer and continues through the room. After combing through the living room and the home theatre, Thor walks into the back porch to see the golden flag sparkling on top of the outdoor fire place.

“Found you,” the god laughs triumphantly, and he grabs his watch. “Natasha and Stark, I have found the—”

A powerful fist cuts him off and Thor goes flying into the glass doors, which shatter. Thor looks up to see the Hulk standing in front of him, looking very annoyed.

“Go to jail, tiny human.” Hulk rumbles, and Thor sighs.

“What, you’re not going to apologize?”

At Hulk’s angry growl, Thor backs away slowly.

“Alright, alright. I’ll go to jail.”

“Jail right here.” Hulk points to the laser bars that Thor hadn’t noticed sitting next to the flag.

“Oh, super.” Thor sighs. “We get to spend some quality time together.”

“Don’t be mean.” Hulk pounds his fist into his palm and Thor scrambles into the jail before Hulk decides to express his annoyance.

...

After about twenty minutes of waiting, Steve grows impatient. Tony’s annoying, and science jokes get old after the first few. Steve reaches for his watch to com Clint again, but a loud, resounding crash echoes from the main room of the house, and Tony and Steve both freeze.

“What was that?” Steve asks slowly and Tony frowns.

“Damned if I know,” Tony shrugs, but both his and Steve’s coms go off at the same time.

“Spider lady and hawk man are fighting.” Hulk‘s low, gravelly voice cuts through the silence.

At the same time, Thor’s booming voice overlaps with Hulk’s, “Uh, Tony, I think Clint and Natasha are trying to kill each other.”

“Uh oh,” Tony mutters, then presses a few buttons on his watch and his voice comes through all three cons. “Alright guys, lets pause the gameplay and go break up the fight, huh?”

A chorus of affirmative answers cracked through the com and Steve and Tony sprint down the hall to see Clint and Natasha wrestling on the floor. Clint has Natasha’s head pulled back, a gun against her head, and Natasha’s butterfly knife is pressed against Clint’s windpipe, hard enough to draw beads of blood.

“I tagged you first,” Natasha huffs, struggling to get out of his grasp, but Clint just tightens his bicep around her neck.

“I tagged you first and you know it,” he hisses and Natasha growls at him dangerously.

“Alright, I’m going to intervene,” Tony laughs nervously, and both assassins glare at him, not relaxing their grip on their weapons.

“What?” Natasha snaps and Tony winces, slightly terrified.

“Um, this was just supposed to be a fun game...and I think it got a bit out of hand, so...”

“Back out if you want, Stark,” Clint laughs, “but Tasha and I have some scores to settle.”

“I’ll just check the security cam, okay?” Tony says, slowly grabbing his iPad that he set on the counter. “Alright? Lets look...just...let go of each other.”

Clint reluctantly drops the gun and releases his hold on Natasha, who lifts her knife from his neck and closes it hesitantly.

Tony pulls up the security cam on his iPad and flips through the frames quickly.

“Okay, I found it.” Tony waves them over, and the whole team crowds around the iPad to watch.

Tony flicks through the footage frame by frame to see Natasha’s hand snag the back of Clint’s shoulder a fraction of a second before his hand hit her hair, and Natasha shrieks in triumph.

“This isn’t over.” Clint growls at her, and she smirks.

“Oh please, Clinton, you lost. What are you going to do now?”

“I’m going to get you back if it’s the last thing I do.” Clint says menacingly, and he turns to dramatically exit the room when he rubs face first into the last person he expected to see at the compound.

“And here I was taking team bonding would work out,” Fury sighs, shaking his head, and Clint just sighs.

“You ruined my exit,” Clint huffs under his break and Fury raises his eyebrows.

“Did I now?” Fury scoffs. “You and Romanoff are assigned to paperwork duty for a month thanks to you.”

Natasha groans behind him and scurries out of the room before she can throw her knife at him.

...

The reckoning came for Natasha, however, and even though she found Clint’s variety of pranks extremely annoying, she had to admit he did a pretty good revenge job.

But when she arrived to do her paperwork, and her office was filled with packing peanuts, she decided she had reached her limit. Clint Barton needed to know he had messed with the wrong assassin.

...

Friday, 5:43 PM

The stun gun hits him straight in the chest and Clint falls to the floor, twitching as electrical currents bounce through his muscles. Natasha brushes her hands together with finality.

“I tagged you first,” she nods at his unconscious body.

“Agent Romanoff?” The familiar voice rings behind her, and Natasha doesn’t have to turn around to know who it is.

“Dammit.”

#clint barton #natasha romanoff #clintasha #avengers #marvel #otp #tony stark #steve rogers #thor odinson #bruce banner #nick j fury #original 6 #fanfic #clintashaotp fanfic

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fortunatelylori · 6 years ago

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Let’s talk about the trailer ... because what else are we going to do on a Wednesday afternoon?

youtube

I was reluctant to write a meta on this trailer since there isn’t much in terms of narrative to analyze but since I don’t think we’ll be getting much content aside from it, let’s strike the iron while it’s hot, shall we?

The first thought I had upon finishing this was that this is most likely a collection of shots and scenes from the first 3 episodes. There is not one shot in this trailer that I couldn’t comfortably place within what I believe the first 3 episodes will be about: namely the White Walker war.

It’s also a suspicion that is given even more credence in my mind by the EW article that was released a day prior in which the vast majority of coverage is on the white walker battle and the struggles of the production crew, actors and director Miguel Sapochnik with one of the most grueling night time shoots I’ve ever heard of in my life (55 days of exclusive night shoots! 55!).

Considering that I assume the reason why they spent 55 nights filming is because the Long Night will actually descend upon Winterfell with the arrival of the White Walkers outside its walls, I feel pretty confident in going even further in my speculation regarding the trailer and say that most of the scenes we see in this trailer are from episode 1 and 2.

That being said, it’s rather difficult to make out what could happen in those 2 episodes because we get a lot of different, seemingly unrelated shots of the principals without much of a hint in terms of the narrative conflicts that will undoubtedly occur during what I assume will be 2 drama filled episodes.

As a general conclusion, I believe there are three narrative strands that the trailer blends in, namely:

The White Walker threat

Cersei and the Golden Company

Jon/Dany and the dragons

The interesting thing about the White Walker conflict is that we are first introduced to it in the trailer not by Jon, who up until this point has been the public face of the Human Race defense squad, but Arya.

Seeing this opening:

Followed up with this:

And coupled with Arya’s VO:

Arya: I know death. He’s got many faces. I look forward to seeing this one.

Feels like it gives me a pretty good grasp of what Arya’s arc will be thematically. Incidentally, Maisie already hinted at it in the EW article and this trailer just comes to confirm that:

Maisie Williams: “There’s this split with Arya between trying to be who she wants to be — getting back to that naiveté and innocence with her family — and her unfinished business.”

This opening seems to emphasize this vacillation between Arya’s vulnerability and humanity and her Faceless Men training. It also brings up the possibility that the Faceless Men will be making a come-back in her arc, which would make sense considering it was never truly concluded.

We are then thrown into Bran’s VO who is conspicuously absent from this trailer, which is disappointing. I think this is in part because whatever role he is going to play in the War for the Dawn is something that the Ds most likely want to keep hidden but also, and I’m sorry to say it, because his physical disability would impede them from showing the type of dynamic, action filled shots that they use a lot of in this trailer which frankly shows a lack of creativity and a blatant lack of interest on their part for his character, two issues that has plagued Bran for seasons now.

Out of all the VOs, Bran’s is probably the most generic. People have speculated that this is something he will say to Jon and that’s a possibility but I have to say that while I was watching the trailer, I assumed he was saying it to Arya, as a way to help her reconcile the struggle between the two sides of her personality.

Bran: Everything you did brought you to where you are now. Where you belong. Home.

But really it could be about any of the Starks and it could also be about everyone in the show. Essentially, what this VO conveys is the journey all these character have been on and what led them to reach the place they are now. And it’s placed over images that show that:

We have the Golden Company arriving. As well as confirmation that Tormund and Edd are alive! Yay. We’ll just ignore Beric, shall we? He’s just a bonafied torch as far as I’m concerned We also get establishing shots of King’s Landing and Cersei.

Then it gets more specific and focuses in on Winterfell. This VO is mainly used as exposition for all of these separate entities coming together in the North for the Great War:

These shots are among the most beautiful and sweeping of the trailer. They’re breathtaking actually. But I can’t help but feel the same amount of apprehension that Sansa has plastered all across her beautiful face. And that’s because it also feels a little bit like a home invasion of sorts. Jon and D*ny are advancing towards Winterfell in the midst of a huge army. Sansa watches from the battlements as the dragons begin circling her home. This is not all together uplifting, optimistic imagery if looked at from her perspective and her perspective is really the only one we get in these shots since Jon and Dany are presented from the POV of the people that have come out to watch the procession, namely this kid:

Hello potential food for D*ny’s dragons. How’s medieval life treating you? Ready for some nukes to destroy your hut?

Also this marks the first transition from Jon/Dany to Sansa in the trailer. It’s not the last.

Then we jump into Jon’s VO:

Jon: They’re coming.

Jon: Our enemy doesn’t tire.

Ok, a bit unfair. Jon’s VO is patently about the White Walkers. However if the shoe fits, you can’t help yourself from walking in it

I won’t deny it. Seeing D*ny in the Winterfell crypts is uncomfortable for me. Not least because once again it feels like she’s breaching Jon’s personal space without being invited. She seeks him out. She gets near him while he looks down and broods, which is something he does a lot of when she’s around him.

Just like Sansa seeing the dragons fly over Winterfell and the Winter Town kid watching D*ny’s armies marching, this, once again, feels like an invasion as opposed to the benevolent savior coming to protect the North.

The VO continues with images of Gendry forging weapons and Jaime fighting:

Jon: Doesn’t stop. Doesn’t feel.

The feel bit is interesting because we get this:

Jon and D*ny are supposed to be the epic love story on this show and yet the only kiss we get is for Missandei and Grey Worm?!?

It also marks these two as the doomed couple that will die a doomed death this season so sorry about that, Missandei/Grey Worm fans.

However, the entire sequence doesn’t actually end there. It continues with various quick shots, only to end on this:

I don’t know about you guys but this indicates to me that the trailer is setting Cersei apart from the enemies that Jon is talking about. Of course, that makes sense on a surface level simply because Cersei is human unlike the White Walkers. But why go out of their way to make Cersei sympathetic since aside from the Night King, she’s supposed to be the Big Bad? My guess is because she isn’t and her story this season is about something else than another villain Jon and D*ny will slay with their epic love.

The last VO we have is from Jaime. This trailer is very VO heavy and Jaime feels like an odd choice. What he says is very much in line with his season 7 finale sentiments, so not many surprises there:

Jaime: I promised to fight for the living. I intend to keep that promise.

However, you know who else made such a promise? One that was reiterated in season 7?

Jon Snow: I am the shield that guards the realms of men.

I probably wouldn’t have made this association if the trailer didn’t make sure to link Jaime’s VO with shots of Jon:

Jon in front of the Heart Tree ... you know the same type of tree where he first made his pledge to protect mankind, back in season 1.

Jon Snow running through a field of fire, looking remarkably similar to his Night Watch self.

Jon Snow walking towards the creatures he bent the knee for and almost died trying to acquire in order to save the world.

This last shot is fascinating for 2 reasons:

It marks the first time Jon is actually in the same shot as Rhaegal. And he’s positioned right in front of him.

This gives me so many Dance of Dragons vibes, I can’t even begin to fully describe them. To make things clear, I don’t think this scene will end with Jon riding Rhaegal. This is probably Jon and D*ny visiting with the dragons or inspecting that they are in optimum shape for the battle. However, the hint is there visually nonetheless.

Coupled with a VO that talks about fighting for “the living” it’s even more disturbing to see the graveyard of bones littered all around those creatures.

To clarify, the choice of having those bones there could be entirely avoidable. Jon and D*ny could come upon the dragons just sitting there, without charred bones all around them. Or if the scene absolutely demands that bones be there, they could have just not included the shot in the trailer at all. But they did.

Also:

Hello, Sansa! What are you looking at? And why do I want to hug you right now?

Obviously I doubt these two scenes follow each other within the context of the actual show but in terms of the transition, once again the idea of a love triangle is inserted, albeit in a very subtle way.

Miscellaneous thoughts:

Cersei and Sansa’s reunion:

Firstly, let’s just all stop for a second and bow to the brilliance of Lena Heady, shall we? Just look at how much she conveys with just a few seconds focused on her face. I LOVE THIS WOMAN!

Anyway, because Lena is so brilliant and I feel like I have so much access to Cersei through this expression, I’m going to speculate that the reason why Cersei is brimming with barely concealed satisfaction and contained savagery is because in this scene she is actually being presented with a kidnapped Sansa. That’s where my mind went the moment I saw the shot and I’m sticking to it.

Ascots:

I HATE THE ASCOTS! HATE, HATE, HATE THEM! For all that is holy, Clapton, release Sophie and Emilia’s necks from the neck chokers of DEATH!

Dothraki? What Dothraki?

There are no Dothraki in sight! Not during the arrival at Winterfell. Not during the scene of Missandei and Grey Worm kissing. Not during the final shot of the Winterfell army getting ready for the White Walker attack.

Where are they? I’m willing to bet something happens to at least some of them along the way.

White walkers and the Night King:

These are supposed to be the ultimate Villain that all the good guys are going to band together and fight. This trailer is nominally about them. And yet all we actually get of them is this:

There’s actually no reason to hide the White Walkers from sight. We know they’re coming, we know what they look like. A few shots of them marching isn’t going to spoil anything.

However, the trailer seems far more interested in showing the struggles and hinting at conflicts and tribulations between the characters, namely those stuck together within the confines of Winterfell.

Because, of course, it is. This series has never been about the White Walkers. It’s about: “the human heart in conflict with itself”.

Bring it on, show! Bring it on!

*none of the gifs are mine. thank you to the artists!

#got season 8 trailer #got season 8 speculation #dance of dragons 2.0 #anti-jonerys #jonsa #house stark #arya stark #cersei x sansa #anti-daenerys #jon snow #sansa stark #bran stark #cersei lannister #jaime lannister

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lhs3020b · 5 years ago

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Post Mortem

I promised some thoughts on the nightmarish debacle that has happened. Here they are.

TL;DR I am scathing about everything. Everyone who should have helped us, failed.

It's the morning after. They've won. Continuity Remain is dead; there isn't going to be any second referendum and Article 50 won't be revoked. You cannot imagine how I feel right now, typing those words. However, I have never sought to deny reality (however lovely denial might be) and reality is what it is. We've lost a referendum and two general elections; we're finished. There is no come-back from this. The country has made a sick, twisted, greedy, myopic and stupid decision - but that's the decision it's made. I have nothing good to say for what happened, except that it did happen.

Well, let's look at the one tiny silver lining: since the ship has now sailed, I can indulge my deep, seething pool of vitriol for our collection of useless opposition parties. I'd held back previously because I didn't want to add to the circular firing squad. But they've all shot each other now and the corpses have largely stopped twitching. So off we go. (Before we start, I won't be writing about CUK/TiG/Change-UK, because they were just annoying, and I can't be arsed. I think we've all spent enough time on that shower of idiots.)

Here's the core reason for why I'm so angry: all this was completely avoidable. The media will, of course, spin BoJo's victory as a paragonic triumph of political conservatism. Like that infamous Pravda article from the 30s, on the Soviet constitution, they'll fawn over BoJo and declare him a visionary and a victor, a veritable genius of the ages, dripping with lyricism and wit. He isn't. He's an over-promoted buffoon who lucked into the top office due to the self-destruction of his inept predecessor, aided and abetted by a lying and sycophantic media - and, by a collection of opposition parties whose sole interest was in fighting each other.

Here we have the real core problem. The people on our side only switch on for fighting each other. There's little sign that they actually really care about Brexit, or the wider state of the UK. But pursuing partisan vendettas against each other? Wheeeeeeeeeee!

Let's think back to the summer, when BoJo was faced with stalling polls and a hung parliament. He could have been ousted then - but, of course, the Lib Dems were adamant that they couldn't countenance the idea of Mr Corbyn as Prime Minister. They'd had this tendency for a while - it's not new - but it accelerated and was nurtured under Jo Swinson.

When she was elected as leader I was initially a bit sympathetic - it seemed reasonable to give her a chance. Unfortunately, it turned out that she might be the most rightwing leader they've ever had - I actually suspect now that she might be to the right of Clegg. And she went and turbocharged all of their most self-destructive tendencies. I think what she thought she was doing was clawing Tory Remainers off of the Tories. This ran into two problems; 1) there weren't that many Tory Remainers to begin with and b) most of them are more Tory than they are Remain. So they mostly stayed put, and they few who did leave (thank you, to those of you that did) just weren't enough. Meanwhile, the hard-right tilt scared off the Lib Dem's left-leaning supporters.

A while back I predicted they'd lose seats at this election; I'm sad to have been proved right. I am, however, grimly-amused that Swinson herself lost her seat. The other problem with Swinson's rampany anti-Corbynism was that it partially demobilised continuity!Remain. A lot of people sensed that she was more anti-Corbyn than anti-Brexit; that also implied no plausible chance of an anti-Brexit coalition. Hoenstly, given how overt and personal the vitriol between her and Corbyn got, it's hard to see how it could ever have worked. And there's no point voting for something that you know is impossible. I do wonder if maybe this switched some left-leaning people off, or perhaps even sent a few ditherers back to the Tories (under the assumption that any sort of government is better than no government, I suppose).

As for the Lib Dem campaign, it was a mess. At one point their leader went on air to deny killing squirrels (yes, seriously, this actually happened). She got all excited about thermonuclear genocide at one point, because that's not at all weird and creepy, amirite?! Then there was the bizzarity that was "skills wallets" (don't ask - basically, the sort of policy abortion that happens when a collection of wonks are locked in a room with a boxed set of the West Wing and too much cocaine).

[OK, I'll expand this one. Briefly, skills wallets were a weird continuing-adult-education idea, where you'd have a pot of money that you could access at certain ages, apparently to take some kind of training or re-education or something. Why the ages in question, why that amount of money, and why not just make adult-ed free at the point of use, were never really explained. Then there was the can of worms that was additional voluntary contributions - what I took away from this was it was the adult-ed version of pensions auto-enrollment. I spent the last four years fighting a corrupt auto-enrollment fund, so I have strong feelings here!]

As for general themes, really, the LD campaign didn't have one. There was a lot of "Corbyn, THE MONSTER, the monster, Corbyn!". And, kind of oddly, there wasn't actually that much about Brexit. It actually didn't figure very strongly in their campaign. You came away from watching it all with a) a bad taste in your mouth and b) a nagging feeling that these people didn't know what they were doing.

To be fair to them, their vote share did go up, a bit - from 7.4% in 2017 to 11.4% yesterday. Which is, uh, not exactly dizzying. And it seems to have happened in all the wrong places, so they still managed to lose seats overall.

OK, we've gawped at the piss-stained ashes of the old Liberal Party, lying in state where some eggregious family-member has dumped them, on a roadside verge in the middle of nowhere. (Perhaps some enterprising squirrel has buried a nut amongst them.) Let's move onto the other vast, soul-sucking black hole of despair, also know as the Labour and Co-operative Party.

Oh dear god. The Labour Party.

The Labour Party is Britain's perennial second party, and nothing that happened last night challenged its second-place status. Their vote share dropped by 7.8 percentage points on 2017; this is what produced the Tory landslide, essentially. The Tory vote went up a little, by about 1 point, but otherwise stayed largely flat on 2017. This time, though, Labour collapsed. They lost a swathe of seats across the country, including places like Bolsover and Blyth Valley, which were previously rock-solid.

What went wrong? Everything. Basically, the stars aligned against us, in every single way.

First of all, Labour's campaign was dogged by the antisemitism scandal. And you know what? It was bloody well right that it did. The leadership dealt with antisemitism by ... doing nothing. Anyone who tried to raise the issue instead would get "Corbyn outriders" dumping on them on Twitter. Apparently we're suddenly not allowed to be concerned about racism on the Left anymore? Frankly, fuck that.

What they should have done was a quick-and-brutal party purge, perhaps early in 2018, when there was still time. Take some initiative, get control of the narrative again, and get rid of people who are only going to shit all over your campaign. But, uh, no. That didn't happen. I'll note that the Chris Williamson show in particular went on far, far longer than it should have.

Then we come to Brexit itself. Corbyn spent three years equivocating on the issue. OK, I'll allow that in hindsight, perhaps strategic ambiguity made some sense back in 2017 (though note that they still lost that election too). It didn't by 2019. But Corbyn was still trying to stand in the middle of the road as late as the summer - and by doing so inadvertently opened up political space for the (brief) Lib Dem revival, which in turn shunted Labour onto the defensive. And as I believe Paddy Ashdown once said, if you stand in the middle of the road, you get hit by traffic.

Eventually, the Labour leadership reluctantly adopted a second referendum position, but by then the damage was done. Basically, Corbyn had convinced Leavers that he was a Remainer, and Remainers that he was a Leaver. Labour appears to have lost votes about evenly across both Remain/Leave areas(!). In a way, he actually did unite the country - just against him. Ooops.

The rest of Labour's prospectus was a mess this year. Home Office reform was de-emphasized (arbitrary deportation by the Home Office is a huge concern amongst ethnic minorities). Drugs-law reform seems to have fallen off the agenda. There was no obvious theme to the campaign - surprising given that 2017's "For the Many" theme did cut across. Instead the "offer", such as it was, appeared to be a largely-incoherent grab-bag of spending promises, some of them with very large headline numbers. (The £58 billion for the WASPI pensions thing stands out there.) A lot of people simply didn't believe the country could afford it. You don't vote for things that you fear will bankrupt you.

Also, in a way, there's a parallel to the skills wallets thing here. Labour would have been better off, I think, just doing something straightforward like saying, "If elected we'll raise disability, sickness and unemployment benefits by £x per week, and we'll get rid of the ATOS fit-for-work assesments". It would have the advantages of simplicity, clarity and a clear political theme. Instead we got this weird fiscal machine that would produce some of those effects, except via a complicated multi-part kludge (which probably wouldn't even work properly anyway). I don't know how this came about; presumably it was an after-effect of one of the party's unending internal power-struggles.

Corbyn himself is a controversial figure, from his past associations with the IRA (more vague than the press would have you believe, but still a drag on the doorstep) to the perception of socialist extremism. Again, let me note that the "but he's a Communist, because that starts with 'C' too!" stuff is disingenuous, but this perception exists, and the Party have not found any apparent way to challenge it. Honestly? If your candidate is a ship that's holed below the waterline, yes it is horribly-unfair and all the rest of it, but you do need to run someone else. (I see no point softening that punch ; while Corbyn's been leader, the whole UK has voted 4 times, at 2 general elections, 1 referendum and 1 EU Parliament election. Every time, Labour has bombed. It's hard not to see a pattern here.)

Finally, the Labour Party itself has failed to ever re-unite. It's effectively two political parties in one - or possibly three, depending on how you want to look at Momentum. On a fair day with a strong wind, the Parliamentary portion sometimes manages to move just-about-consistently, but nothing else seems to have that behaviour. Honestly I suspect a lot of people's real fear about a Labour government is not that it would be a socialist tyranny, but rather that it would implode within about six months. Labour has lost its way amongst a storm of factional infighting. To be fair to Corbyn, this isn't new. Ed Milliband's desperate tenure was derailed by internal struggles. Even the 1997-2010 period had the ongoing squabbles between Brownites and Blairites (remember them?).

So yeah, Labour's campaign was an absolute shambles this year, and the whole country is suffering now for that.

Lastly, let's have a quick look at the Green Party. Where were they this year? With Extinction Rebellion making headlines, the Amazon burning, Australia on fire and weather records being smashed everywhere - remember that day when we had summer back in February? - it should have been the Greens' year. Environmental concerns are going up in salience - people are starting to get genuinely worried. And, uh, where were they? I can't recall hearing a single peep from the Green Party during the election. Whatever it was they were doing, it seems to have completely failed to capitalise on the moment. Perhaps they should have been a bit more visible.

The only people who come out of this with any credit are the SNP. I haven't heard anything teeth-grinding about them - though, that might just be because I live in southern England.

Oh, and let's take a final kick in the teeth, shall we? If you add up the shares of the votes received by pro-second-referendum parties ... guess what it comes to? Yup: 52%, versus 48% for the pro-Brexit parties. 52/48 - aaaaargh! Yet, the 48% had a narrative that kept their vote all in one place, so they won an absolute majority at Westminster. Ours got scattered to the four winds by several separate inept campaigns and several useless party leaders. Had there been a second referendum, we could have won it. But we never got the chance, because everyone supposedly on our side were completely, perfectly, useless.

Sigh :(

#UK internal politics #diary of a disaster #We're surrounded by idiots

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knowyourcoronarights-blog · 5 years ago

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I Was Confident My Workplace Was Exposed... My Company Stood Back Quietly

I had been making myself a meal right before heading into work, the pans sizzling on the stove as I listened to music, swaying in my kitchen. I got a call from my boss just as I was about to turn off the heat.

“Allison, I think one of your coworkers is exhibiting symptoms. She isn’t here, but I need you to take her shifts for now. Can you come in early tomorrow and Friday, to cover?”

A million thoughts come rushing into my head, as my food begins to burn. I snap back into reality and hold the phone with my shoulder as I empty vegetables onto a plate.

“Oh... yeah. I mean of course. Sure. I’ll be there.”

“Thanks. She is talking to her doctor, but they aren’t going to get her tested.”

I end the phone call and walk over to the couch to sit down. So many questions... what kind of symptoms is he referring to? She was fine yesterday... how did something happen to her so quickly? Where did she go recently?

I touch up my makeup in the mirror and start staring blankly at my own reflection. I have to head in... and yet... I sit, unable to move. My heart starts racing, my hands start sweating. I have very little information, but what I do know is my gut instinct has set in. I can feel that knot that forms in your stomach when you make a mistake, or you tell a lie, or you think you may have forgotten to lock the door on the way out.

“What am I doing? What are any of them doing? They are there, knowing what they know... but why?”

I startle myself with the sound of my own voice, audibly communicating my thoughts, as I pick up my purse and put on my shoes.

I try to blast my favorite songs, in an attempt to shake my thoughts away. Everything could be fine. She could have a cold, the flu... and my boss even suggested she could be just having allergies.

Then the other part of me begins to fight back. If we don’t have any idea as to what this could be... why are we taking a chance? I have a flashback to an elderly customer of ours, a sweet old woman, who looked at me sadly when I took her transaction. What she said after that haunted me for the rest of the day.

“You’re the first person I’ve talked to face-to-face in two weeks.”

My hands begin to shake and my jaw clenches as I consider all of our clients, (many of them friends) and how careful they have been, even with us being behind the glass. There are ones with disabilities, babies, many of those who come to banks these days are over the age of 60.

“I can’t do this to them.”

I find places that I could turn back to head home but I just keep driving forward, as if I’m no longer in control of my own behavior. I call my husband and frantically tell him everything I know, and everything I’m thinking.

I get to the parking lot at work, and I glance over to see a coworker sitting in her car, on break. I hang up the phone and approach her.

“I think I have to do something really hard to do. I think this is the end of the line here for me.”

She looks at me with sympathy, and gives me a smile and some sweet sentiments. I smile back, as the wind is hitting my face and my eyes begin to water.

I walk in to find a few colleagues in masks, appearing somber despite not fully being able to see their expressions. A stark contrast considering just yesterday we were playing games together and laughing. My boss is listening intently on the phone, it’s on speaker and he has his door open. My body feels like it’s about to give out, but I stand awkwardly several feet from the doorway, able to hear the words they are exchanging.

“My temperature won’t go down... it just stays at 100.2. I have a headache... I’m tired. The CDC told me to call the hospital... the hospital told me I don’t qualify for a test. I don’t have any other options.”

He says he will check in tomorrow, she hangs up. I look up from where I’m at and he addresses me.

“I can’t do this. I can’t do this anymore.”

The anger begins to erupt from him immediately.

“Can’t do what? You couldn’t possibly mean...”

“Yes. There is no way I can-”

“We all have been here. Think of how much we are all sacrificing. This isn’t just about you.”

“I can’t look customers in the eyes knowing what I know!”

“Know what? That no matter where they go they might be exposed? It’s not just here.”

“But we know! We know she has symptoms! She’s never going to be tested!”

“We have to be here! You have to be here!”

His voice is screaming at this point, and he’s banging his fists.

“Why don’t you guys fight harder? Why don’t you walk away? This seems criminal!”

“That’s not how life works. You don’t just stop working when you feel like it.”

“I am out of here. I don’t live and die for this company. If you all feel comfortable enough to be here, then be here.”

“We aren’t comfortable! We just have no choice... So you’re quitting? Over this? Right now?”

“If that’s the only option I have, then yes.”

“Fine... no... wait... just think this over. Let me know by tomorrow if you’re serious about this.”

“I’m sorry... I just can’t...”

I bolt out the door, knowing full well everyone was aware of what just happened, likely watching me from the lobby. The drive home felt like a blur, as I’m on the phone with my mom.

I hang up and decide to call my HR department.

“I’ll spare you the details, but is this true? This is all you have? That I have to quit because I won’t work while there is a person in my office who may have this disease?”

“I’m sorry, but company policy states they have to be confirmed. I’ll have someone give you a call tomorrow if they can think of any further options.”

I sigh to myself and walk upstairs, meeting my husband at home. He has to quarantine since he has been around me, and no one knows what’s going on.

All night I toss and turn. I wake up from a nightmare about quitting, and realize it was a reality.

At 11:00 am, I get the call.

“We can offer you two weeks of paid leave, as long as you use your paid time off. I’ll send you the form.”

The conversation is short, I thank her and hang up. What just happened... yesterday I have no choice but to quit, today I am getting paid time off? I think to myself about all the possibilities as to why... was it because my boss screamed at me that I had no choice but to quit? Was it the fact that my company did not want me to whistleblow that they keep branches open despite possible exposure? What about the fact that they wouldn’t give me the option to quarantine?

I laugh to myself awkwardly. Okay... so now I have two weeks of paid leave. I try to figure out why I am not more thrilled... why it doesn’t feel like a victory.

“Why did this have to be like that? Why did they force anyone to work through that?”

I picture my coworkers, now extremely short staffed, all standing in the office greeting dozens of people and touching objects they will undoubtedly have to touch.

It took me threatening to quit, to lose everything... and I was the only one who got what I deserved.

But that doesn’t change anything for the staff... the clients that choose us as a company and trust us to keep them safe... the elderly woman who thinks this is the only safe place she can go in two weeks.

I ultimately decide I have no choice but to quit. Sure, I’ll take my two weeks of pay for the kind gesture they gave me for not taking this further (oops... if they were hoping I would avoid the whistleblowing... far too late) and I’ll quietly let HR know I won’t be returning. There is no point in another screaming match at the branch. Sure, I’ll lose out on a good pair of shoes I had in the bottom drawer of my desk, and a toy spider given to me by a loyal customer.

Let those be a reminder I was there. I stood up for myself. I couldn’t look anyone in the eyes knowing it could be me who exposed them to coronavirus. It could have been me who killed them.

This is the reality of how “essential workers” are being treated by their companies in the wake of this virus. We deserve better. Many of us did not sign up to put our lives on the line every day, and may God bless those that do work to save people. But companies forget that workers can’t attend when they are dead. They shouldn’t attend when they are sick. Morality should apply when it comes to the workers who may injure those that pay to keep them going.

I feel sick to my stomach when I think about being jobless in this collapsing economy... unable to apply for unemployment because I will have quit, and not been fired.

There is always hope in my heart, however. There is hope for anyone I could have come in contact with on the day I decided to walk out that door. We won’t know if my coworker actually has the virus. Hell, I trust that if/when I inevitably also fall ill, that I will not be able to get tested either. In the city of Omaha, the mayor cancelled drive-up screenings due to “traffic issues”. The governor won’t impose a stay-at-home order.

I have come to terms with the idea I may get this disease...But I will be damned if I was the one who caused someone else to suffer.

I’d risk everything for that.

#coronavirus #disease #virus #corona #employment #quitting

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alexwinfield-blog1 · 6 years ago

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There’s a ‘Price’ to pay for meme trolling.

There is no doubt that the social media world are lovers for a good ol’ meme. Need a conversation starter? A witty reply? Or cheering up on a gloomy day? A meme will guarantee you a laugh. However, what constitutes a well-curated, humorous meme? Well, as we all know, humour is subjective. What you and I find funny will differ, of course. But what criteria needs to be met in order for a meme to go viral? What do the creators of memes set out to achieve when sharing them online? Most importantly, is there a line to be crossed? At what point can we agree that a meme no longer has a shared meaning?

I want to look closely at the memes created online targeting Harvey Price, but firstly, let’s get to grips with what we mean by a ‘meme’. Dawkins (2006) describes the practice of ‘memeing’ to involve “participating in the creation or distribution of a powerful, original idea”. He also proposes that a meme is a “unit of cultural transmission”, an idea or collective conscience that a community share. We share this culture like we share genetic characteristics. Like “biological organisms evolve based on the natural selection of genes, cultures evolve based on the natural selection of memes”. Despite what this wishy-washy, too-poetic-to-be-true analysis may suggest, memes speak volumes about the humour and beliefs within society. Remember these?

With the relationship between the image the caption having no etymological meaning, the caption of a meme can be chopped and changed depending on the intention of the creator. Examples which spring to mind are “Cash me Outside” and the compilations of Arthur memes, in which the captions are often quite predictable. Nonetheless, the meaning of a meme is not always required to be clear and linear. Most of the time they are abstract and nonlinear, in fact. Above all, the most important function of a meme is to depict ‘coolness’.

Virality and Memes: the good, the bad but mostly the ugly.

Kim Kardashian, or more specifically her career, is a perfect example of how virality can change a life for the better. All thanks to a leaked sex tape in 2007. You can guarantee that this certainly wasn’t one of her finest, most glamorous moments, but I’m sure she’s never looked back. This scandalous footage landed her a career of fame. And now? Over a decade later we spend our lives Keeping Up With The Kardashians. Most recently, with her half-sister Kylie Jenner competing with an egg to get the most liked photo of all time on Instagram, and her step-father Bruce Jenner’s latest transition in becoming Caitlyn, there is no doubt that this family are familiar with being the centre of media attention. With what seemed to be the world going crazy over an egg, this was an attempt, an extremely successful attempt, to promote mental health, specifically how the pressures of social media can make us ‘crack’. Harmless virality, right? What may have once been perceived to be attacks on the Kardashian family, have ultimately led these stars up a path of wealth and success. Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t see roaring headline complaints about them loathing this lavish lifestyle?

But it isn’t always this rosy…

What is the first thing that comes to your head when you think of a troll?

This one?

What about this one?

Or perhaps this one?

Both through her own career as a supermodel and TV presenter, and since the birth of her son in 2002, Katie Price has experienced, first hand, the ugly truth of virality, specifically in the form of trolling. Tweets, memes, death threats, you name it, attacking her son for the colour of his skin as well as his disabilities. Unlike the Kardashians, Harvey is blissfully unaware of the extremes to which he is taunted daily online. But why do we live in a world which allows people to get away with such disgusting behaviour? On a mission, not only to protect Harvey from this online abuse, but anyone who has ever been subject to trolling, in 2017, she started a petition. This eventually received over 200,000 signatures in a bid to make online trolling illegal. Despite her best efforts at exposing these trolls herself, she discovered there to be little, if any, law enforcement in place to protect victims such as Harvey. Being what Goldhaber (1997) describes to be a “star”, fortunately, she was equipped with the tools to attract mass media attention about the issue of online trolling, to which she appeared on many day time TV programmes informing people about ‘Harvey’s Law’.

In spite of her good intentions, it was no shock that trolls not only continued to fire hate filled tweets about Harvey, but curate memes mocking things he has said on TV appearances, as well as taking content Katie had uploaded to her own social media of Harvey as inspiration.

Any mum would agree that just because she’s in the public eye, it should not mean that she should be deterred from posting photos of her children on social media to protect them from being targeted by trolls.

A clip which many may be familiar with is their appearance on Loose Women, in which he swears on live TV. Although trolls immediately took to photoshop to mock this display of innocence, many could argue that this is part of the viscous cycle of attention economy (Goldhaber, 1997). In order for trolls to give Harvey attention, they need a source to retrieve it from. Contrary to her pledge to protect Harvey from the doom and gloom of social media that we all know and love, she was recently slammed for ‘baiting trolls’ (The Sun, 2019) by setting Harvey up with his own Instagram account. Is this ultimately an invitation for trolls to attack him? Does it provide trolls with the ‘new’ and ‘original’ content they so desperately desire? What do we think, is she now responsible for the trolling Harvey will now be exposed to online?

youtube

A more recent adaptation of memes, known as GiFs, has also been a platform explored by trolls in order to attack Harvey further. During my research into this topic, from simply typing into my search engine “Harvey Price”, this result appeared…

As if memes weren’t exhilarating enough to fulfil the trolls in their cyber-attacks, GiFs of Harvey can now be generated through this site, ultimately allowing people to express themselves in online conversation through indirectly mocking Harvey. But to them it’s nothing serious. Just a passing comment. What angers me the most about this GiF generator is the use of the term “popular”, suggesting that people visiting this site will have access to nothing but the best GiFs - what the trolls would label to be most successful in terms of their virality. First and full most, who is spending their time designing these websites, and secondly, are they proud? Are they THAT disconnected from their emotions that they don’t view this young man as a human being?

But do these memes live up to the definition of ‘memeing’ proposed by Dawkins (2006)?

Are they powerful?

Definitely not.

But perhaps in one way? They’re powerful for delivering the message that no matter what your race, your sexual orientation, your disabilities or your religion, there will always be people in the world who disagree or are opposed to it. Sure, trolls can hide behind their twitter username, but can they hide from their own insecurities? This is important to consider. What is the need for them to create this content? For how long is it funny? A day? A couple of hours?

Are they original?

Most certainly not. If anything, they lack originality. Well, put it this way, I can’t hear anyone applauding these creators for their outstanding pieces of work…

Is it cool?

You must be joking?

The creators of this content might have themselves fooled that they are some- what inspirational to the rest of the nation, or that they’re admired by their fellow meme-ers for their hardcore memeing. But the rest of the nation? The decent human beings of the nation? Disgraceful. Unintelligent. Bullies. A valuable point to be made here is that creators of memes believe they’re in a superior position to those they are ‘memeing’ about, hence why when these memes are shared and distributed online, they appear ‘funny’ to those who perceive Harvey as inferior to them.

And this is why we can’t have nice things…

Phillips (2015) argues that essentially, trolls “are the reason we can’t have nice things online”. He suggests that the online space is meant to be a community where people can feel safe in sharing their thoughts; through tweeting, or sharing snapshots of their life via Instagram. It appears that sadly, this is no longer the case. Trolls are “born and embedded” within dominant institutions. As a result, the saddest, and most frustrating thing of all about meme trolling, is that as long as trolls have the community to support them, and until social media platforms build stronger, much more stable networks which block out these trolls, there will be no end to trolling. This “unapologetically racist humour and legitimate corporate punditry” will only seize to exist online if the threat of the law was to stand between the troll and the ‘send’ button. Why, in those “golden years” between 2008-2011 in which the trolling subculture became “crystalized”, did establishers of these social networks make a stand for this unwanted behaviour? Why is a mother, regardless of whether she’s famous or simply just the mum next door, forced to make a pledge for this internet craze to be wiped from our screens?

How can we make a difference?

It is important to not turn a blind eye to this kind of behaviour online. Although it may not directly affect you, there will always be someone else is in the firing line. Avoid retweeting, sharing and even posting content online which may later come back to bite you. As someone who has been a present, and an active user of social media since my early teens, during this time, I was extremely naïve to the content online. I’m sure there have been posts which I would look back on now and think how my online presence has changed. My humour has changed. What I like and post about has definitely changed, but most of all, social media as a 20-year-old seems a much scarier place to be than when I was 13. Do you agree?

References:

Phillips, W. (2015). This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship Between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture. Massachusetts: MIT Press.

Dawkins, R. (2006). The Selfish Gene. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Gibb, J. (2019, January 28). Katie Price accused of ‘baiting’ trolls. Retrieved from: https://www.thesun.co.uk/tvandshowbiz/8300554/katie-price-accused-of-baiting-trolls-by-giving-son-harvey-his-own-instagram-account-and-failing-to-protect-him/

#week4

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douxreviews · 6 years ago

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Game of Thrones - ‘The Iron Throne’ Review

And now their watch has ended.

In what was supposed to be Supernatural's final episode – but turned out to be a full ten years too early – writer Chuck bemoaned the fact that 'endings are hard'. And they really, really are. I can think of so many finales that have disappointed me in various ways over the years. And just this week, I've watched two endings that have been a long time in the making (the other one was the end of twelve years of The Big Bang Theory, which I quite liked, for the record).

And in the end, I think I'd put this in a fairly favourable spot in my all time Worst - Greatest Finales ranking list. It wasn't perfect (only Sex and the City has managed to stick a perfect ending, and they wrecked that with the movies). But it was pretty good, generally speaking, and there were moments of true greatness.

Daenerys and Jon

So, I didn't hate last week's episode for its developments in Daenerys' storyline. I haven't exactly loved her descent into the Mad Queen, for all the same reasons as everyone else – the show is dangerously close to implying all female rulers are lunatics, Dany's descent into madness and tyranny has been rushed and doesn't quite feel earned, and it's a bit saddening to watch a character we've loved so much for so long become a villain instead of the powerful, wise ruler we all hoped she would be.

Having said that, I do think the seeds for this have been planted since the beginning – it may be rushed, but it hasn't come out of nowhere. Daenerys has been promising the Dothraki that they will pillage the Seven Kingdoms, raping, burning and killing (which we have been told numerous times is what they do) ever since Season One. We all loved Khal Drogo because he was cool, but he was not a fluffy bunny and nor is Dany. She crucified the Masters in Meereen, and while her execution of Sam's father and brother could be justified on the grounds that they refused to bend the knee, it wasn't her only option, nor did she have to do it immediately, on the battlefield, by dragon fire. So while it makes me a little sad – and makes my "I'm not a Princess, I'm a Khaleesi" shirt a bit dubious – I can see that this has been where Dany's story has been heading all along, and I can understand it, and I'm OK with it.

I was a bit disappointed that Jon ended up killing Daenerys though. I was sure Arya was going to do that – it almost feels like their big kills ended up the wrong way around, with Jon the soldier denied the chance to kill the Night King and Arya the ninja assassin denied the chance to kill the dangerous tyrant. But Jon is truly a son of Ned Stark (by adoption) and if he has decided someone has to die he will swing the sword himself – though perhaps it's the tricksy Targaryen side, or the trained undercover agent of the Night's Watch, who does it by taking advantage of her (and Drogon's) trust.

Drogon's reaction was interesting. It felt like perhaps even Drogon thought what he had done with Dany went too far, and that his mother had been corrupted by her desire for this hunk of metal. (When she touched it, I said out loud I thought she should sit in it quickly if she wanted to - we were denied a shot of her actually on the throne, after all that!). Presumably that's also why Drogon let Jon live. Of all the individual character endings we saw in this episode, I think Drogon and Grey Worm's were the saddest - they've both been through so much, and they're both totally alone.

Tyrion and King Bran

I don't like the 'Bran the Broken' title, as appropriate as it might be for a pseudo-medieval society, so I'm just gonna call him Bran.

I have to confess, I really didn't see this one coming. Since he became the Three-Eyed Raven, Bran has been emotionless and rather difficult for either audience or in-universe characters to connect with. His warging ability hasn't really come into play since the death of Hodor, so the power he has doesn't seem to have played much of a role in the last stages of the wars, and the implication that he has some knowledge of the future makes him kind of a dick for letting the entire population of King's Landing get torched (was this a Dr Strange-style one chance in 14 million situation? If so, we haven't been told that).

From a books-reading point of view there's a certain sense to this. The first book in the series, A Game of Thrones, opens (as they all do) with a Prologue from the point of view of a character who immediately dies, then shifts to the first main character point of view chapter – Bran's. Bran, like Jon, is such a traditional fantasy character it almost hurts – a noble but disabled boy who suffers and undergoes lots of hardship, but discovers he has magical abilities which give him an advantage over his enemies and eventually allow him to triumph.

But the television show – oddly, considering Benioff and Weiss have known the ending all along - has never really focused on Bran's story in that way. He's an important character, sure, but not all that significant - he disappears for an entire season! And whatever happened to "I can never be Lord of anything, I'm the Three-Eyed Raven", Bran's statement to Sansa in Season Seven? Now he's King of all the remaining kingdoms? Really? I will defend their attempts to sow the seeds of Daenerys' madness throughout, however clumsily, but the television series really hasn't prepared us for this one, and it really doesn't feel earned.

The most satisfying aspect of the resolution to the leader of the Now-Six Kingdoms, though, is the new Small Council, which is a thing of beauty. The new political set-up – essentially an oligarchy with a lifelong selected leader – is Tyrion's creation, finally fulfilling the political and diplomatic promise he showed way back in Season Two. Tyrion is Hand of the King once again, but this time without dragons or his psychotic family around him, and that gives us hope that he will do a good job. Brienne as head of the Kingsguard makes me very, very happy, almost as much as Bronn, Lord of Highgarden and Master of Coin. Davos as Master of Ships makes perfect sense and it's great to see him survive too, while the only possible objection to Sam as new Archmaester is that Maesters are supposed to be celibate and Sam has a partner and nearly two children to support - but perhaps, as Archmaester, he can change that rule.

The only sad part about this scene is the huge space where Varys ought to be. There is no Master of Whispers for the moment, and his absence is really felt. Plus it would have been awesome to see Varys serving under yet another King as the eternal survivor. Of all the deaths this season, Varys is the one I would change if I had the power. He deserved better, Tyrion.

The Starks

The most satisfying moment of this episode by far for me was seeing Sansa, looking like Elizabeth I (long red hair, white dress), crowned Queen in the North. For one thing, this was absolutely essential to avoid the implication that women with power are all utter lunatics who need to be assassinated. But it was also a truly fitting and satisfying end to not just her character arc, but that of the Stark siblings in general. The Starks belong in the North and Robb's crowning as King in the North was one of the great punch-the-air moments of Season One. Jon kinda made a mess of the job, but to see Sansa take up the reigns was a great moment. And whereas a war with Daenerys would likely have ended in disaster, with her brother on the throne in the South, we can hope the two kingdoms will work closely together from now on.

Arya's ending was probably the least satisfying of the three (Bran is barely human any more, never mind a Stark). There was nothing wrong with it, exactly - she's gone off to discover America, we guess. (Let's hope this universe *has* an America and she's not just going to keep sailing until she starves to death!). It just came a bit out of nowhere, and seemed rather a shame after she went to so much trouble to recover her identity as Arya Stark. Jon's was the most predictable, but no less satisfying for that. He belongs in the true North, with Tormund. I think it's safe to say, from the look on his face as they rode away, that Jon won't be returning to Castle Black (and I don't think he ever intended to stay there – that's why he told Tyrion he would never see him again). He and Ghost will run wild in a land without kings or titles and be much happier for it.

And so there we have it – it's been a wild ride, but now it's all over. Some endings were great (Sansa, the Small Council), some were fine (Jon, Arya) some were baffling (Bran) and some frustrating (Drogon, Grey Worm) but while the series may not have entirely stuck the landing, for me, it hasn't crashed and burned either.

Coming up with an ending everyone was going to be happy with was always going to be completely impossible, so while I may not agree with all their decisions, I want to give a shout out and all our thanks to Benioff and Weiss. They've created a phenomenal series with a great cast, fantastic production values and absolutely amazing music. (Seriously, go back and listen to both the musical score and the sound design on this season. It is phenomenal. Ramin Djiwadi's music is as beautiful and astonishing as ever and the eerie, disconcerting sounds that play as Daenerys attacks King's Landing are incredible. The use of the series' themes has been great too, from playing out Cersei's downfall with 'The Rains of Castamere', to the theme tune playing as Daenerys approaches the Iron Throne in this episode).

Bringing these sprawling books to the screen has been a huge achievement, and carrying on when the books ran out to give us a conclusion to this story is no less an achievement for the fact that it hasn't entirely satisfied everybody. Perhaps it's unfortunate that this aired within a month of Avengers: Endgame, which managed the end of a saga a little better - but Endgame has its detractors too. I'm not sure any of us will really know how we feel about this ending until we've had time to let it sink in, but for now, I say thank you Benioff, Weiss and Martin - thank you for the ride, and thank you for all the gory, sexy fun we've had along the way. More than anything, thank you for making an epic fantasy show one of the biggest on television! For someone who still remembers when reading The Lord of the Rings in school made you a social outcast, that means a lot.

Grumpkins and Snarks:

- RIP: Daenerys Targaryen, Stormborn, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms, of the Andals, the Rhoynar and the First Men, Protector of the Realm, Lady of Dragonstone, Mother of Dragons. Sniff.

- I didn't expect the scene where Tyrion finds Jaime and Cersei's bodies – that was truly heart-breaking (and kudos to Peter Dinklage, as ever). Oh Jaime, my love, I so wanted you to die a hero. At least you didn't die a villain, which is something.

- Grey Worm was really under-served by this finale, and this whole season. At least he lived, I guess?

- The final straw that really drove Jon to kill Dany was his desire to protect his sisters, both of whom would have been dragon meat in the long run because he had told them about his parentage. Just how much of what happens on this show has been caused by attempts to protect Arya and/or Sansa? And sometimes Bran. Which worked out, I guess?

- The two noblest, most honour-obsessed characters (Jon and Brienne) both became Kingslayers (Daenerys and Stannis). Which, unlike rain on your wedding day, is truly ironic.

- I'm so happy that Brienne didn't turn out to be pregnant. If the most awesome female character on the show ended up reduced to Lannister baby mama in the finale, I'd have been really pissed off.

- Look how much Robyn Arryn has grown up! I'm absolutley amazed his character made it to the finale, and seeing the kid who first appeared on screen being breastfed as an adult is definitely disconcerting!

- I was disappointed by the lack of Hot Pie, but choose to assume that means he's still alive and happily cooking pies in the busiest inn in Westeros.

Final analysis: Hey, it's still less divisive than How I Met Your Mother's ending! Three out of four dragons.

Thanks to all who've read our Game of Thrones reviews and articles and joined in the endless conversation and speculation over the years. It's been epic!

Juliette Harrisson is a freelance writer, classicist and ancient historian

#Game of Thrones #Jon Snow #Daenerys Targaryen #Tyrion Lannister #Sansa Stark #Arya Stark #A Song of Ice and Fire #GoT #Game of Thrones Reviews #Doux Reviews #TV Reviews

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reyleaux · 7 years ago

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because I'm totally ridiculous and this is my new platonic crackship: 18 for Ben Solo and Rose Tico as nerd teamup forced to work together and developing A Rapport.

biTCH ME TOO, THE FUCK.

special shoutout to @futurecatladies, who I know is always down for that good good roselo content. this is technically platonic with shades of background reylo, but i think with just a minor nudge and minimal squinting one could consider it roselo instead (or even ‘also’).

Rose watches him work from behind, half grateful and halfincensed.

On the one hand, they’re barreling away from the Limiter, the First Order’s newestflagship, at high speed. She’s safe – relatively – and on her way home after onlya day in a holding cell that could have easily become an eternity. Things areas good as they’ve been in at least a week, and for Rose that’s saying a lot.

But on the other, the other half of this ‘they’ is Kylo Ren,the one and only Supreme Leader of that same Order from which they’re currentlyrunning.

He opened her cell an hour ago with a serious look on hisface that said he didn’t want to think about what he was doing. She nearlypissed herself in terror but put on a brave face.

“Here to kill me?” She asked him, impressing herself withher defiance.

“Shut up,” Kylo Ren said in a low and slightly nasal voice. “Shesent me. We’re going.”

“I’m not going anywhere,”Rose spat back. “Not with you. Who sent you?”

She could see the tops of his bottom teeth as he sucked in abreath. He closed his eyes. “Rey.”

She scoffed, put off by his dramatics. “Rey sent you.”

“Don’t sound so incredulous about things you don’t understand.”

If the look on his face hadn’t convinced her of the honestyof this frankly baffling admission, his sharp and perfect recitation of herlast conversation with Rey did. It was like he’d been sitting with them in herroom, taking notes on the strange and meandering argument they had aboutrepairing the new base’s laundry equipment.

It was, in a word, unnerving.

But then again, Rose muses now, watching dumbfounded as Ren’supper half disappears into an access panel on his own personal shuttle to rip out the fusebox that powers the ship’s tracker,what about him isn’t unnerving?

“Literally everything about this is illegal!” She halfyells, half hisses.

Kylo Ren grunts as he knocks against something on his wayout of the panel. He has a sparking fusebox in one hand and a hydrospanner inthe other, slightly charred from where she assumes he used it to pry off the fusebox.

“Appropriate that now would be the time I start living up tothe name.” He sounds almost wistful.

He stands and drops the fusebox onto the nearest surface, abuilt-in bench along the wall. He towers over her, but Rose hardly notices, confusedand on-guard at his cryptic admission. “What?” She asks, chin tilted high.

“What do you care about legality, anyway? You’re a Rebel.”

“What do you mean ‘living up to the name?’”

He looks taken aback. “What do you mean, ‘What do you mean?’”

Rose wrenches the spanner from his hand and brandishes it athim. “Don’t repeat my question back at me!”

“You don’t know who I am?”

“Of course I know whoyou are, Kylo Ren.” She spits the name at him, already tired of whatever gamethis is. “You’re the worst thing that’s ever happened to the galaxy.”

“No,” he says, a little quieter. “Before that.”

Rose grits her teeth. She wants to scream. “Out with it! Wedon’t have time for a dramatic reveal right now!” There’s a following pause andshe’s about to warn him not to bother if it’ll make her hate him any more thanshe already does, when—

“Ben Solo,” Kylo Ren says, voice low, eyes lower. “That wasmy name.”

She can tell he’s expecting a gasp, the gentle cracking of aworld-altering revelation. And maybe three weeks ago – before Finn and Rey andnarrowly escaping death on Crait and the First Order beginning its incomprehensibleand rapid implosion – she would have obliged him.

But Rose Tico is different now. More skeptical, yes, but alsoless afraid.

Which might be why she reaches up to grab his chin and tiltshis face down towards her. Her eyes skim the flaring bridge of his nose, thefeline tilt to his eyes, the unruly, triangular brows. She scrunches up hernose, remembering what she can of Han Solo’s face from the holos she’s seen.

He’s surprisingly calm for someone being manhandled by anenemy, if that’s still what they are.

Fair enough, shethinks, that might as well be true, too.

“Well, Solo, putit to some kriffing use.”

She can tell that the smile he cracks is supposed to becharming – that it would have been on Han’s face, all loose and careless – and shecould have expected it to be menacing, even sad.

But what it is instead is absolutely goofy.

His cheeks wing out and he has a gap between his front andeye teeth on both sides. Even worse, he has dimples. Rose can’t help herself.Her eyes roll back.

They’re flying through First Order-controlled space in aship that is (probably) technically stolen, possibly about to do irreparabledamage to the Order and definitely goingto do irreparable damage to the (probably) stolen ship in the process. Disablingthe tracker will be absolutely necessary to making their escape through hyperspace,but the entrances and exits of the lanes are now fully monitored by the Order,meaning that they’ll be apprehended almost instantly once they emerge out ofFTL.

No matter how much Rose knows they’re doing the right thing,it doesn’t change how kriffing dangerousit is, nor how stupid.

She tells him as much.

“Son of Han Solo or not, you can’t fly a ship that’s, one, ina million pieces or, two, booted by C-Dot.”

“Then let’s not get booted.”

“Uh-uh,” Rose says, actually wagging a finger in the face ofKylo Ren, menace of the galaxy. “Let’s just boot them first.”

“It’s an expensive ship, but there aren’t torpedoes.”

“No, we can be cleverer than that.”

“We?”

“What do you know about electrical interference?”

A distant, slightly horrified look crosses his face. “Some.Biologically speaking.”

“That’s fine,” Rose says. “I know enough. What weapons do we have?”

“There’s a standard short-range IR-73 blast canon mountedunder the hull and a miniature rail gun under the cockpit,” he snaps, havingwritten enough reports on this shuttle to answer Rose’s question withoutreflection.

“Wow,” Rose says, flat and sarcastic, “I’m surprised it’snot an IR-80. And here I thought you liked your guns big.”

She turns towards the cockpit and Kylo huffs something likea laugh and follows without thinking. The IR-80 is the blast generator thatsits inside the surface cannons of a star destroyer. Mount one on a ship thissize and it’d blow you back twenty-thousand clicks every time you fired.

“That’s actually—”

“What General Hux suggested in the armaments meetingyesterday,” she finishes for him, giggling as she goes to tap her handheldsplicer into the cockpit’s consol. “I know.”

Kylo Ren tilts his head, looking for all the world like acurious dog. Rose raises her brows and jiggles the splicer in her hand, a small,satisfied smile dimpling her cheeks.

“Didn’t have a lot else to do. Thought I’d get intel, listeningin on the monitors, got a laugh instead.”

Rose ducks away to focus on her task, muttering and swearingunder her breath as she fights the override protocols coded into the ship.

“Okay, almost there.” She presses a button and swivels as ahatch opens nearby. “Grab us those PPE’s.” She points and Kylo obeys, largebody crossing the cabin’s vertical and horizontal space with little more than astretch. Rose doesn’t bemoan her stature, but she kind of wishes she could dothat.

Kylo Ren tosses her a suit and begins pulling his own on. “Theoscillator, right? From the life support block.”

“Yeah,” Rose says, pleasantly surprised by his deference toher orders. “We’ll vent the ship.”

“Then move it into the charging block of the rail gun.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know much about electricalinterference.”

“I don’t,” he says, zipping up the rubberized collar of thesuit. “But she does.”

This time Rose’s brows and lips scrunch up with her nose. “Youmean Rey again. You can say her name, you know.”

His eyes sweep down. Rose’s brain momentarily short-circuitsas she recognizes the look and color on his face. He’s…bashful? Embarrassed? Maker,she really doesn’t have time for whatever thisis.

“You know what?” She flicks a hand in front of herself, asif shooing a fly. “I’m not gonna worry about it.”

He seems relieved, nodding as he pulls on his helmet.

“For now,” she adds. Butjust try to stop me later.

Once they’re suited up, Rose presses another button and thehum of the shuttle’s engine vibrates just lower than before.

After a quick test of the suits’ comm system and asuspiciously synchronized nod, Rose initiates the depressurizing sequence andthey’re plunged into the echoey silence of the vacuum.

They work with minimal banter this time, careful to avoid jostlingthe oscillator and hooking it into the rail gun’s generator system withcareful, coordinated hands.

Rose explains in a soothing, even rhythm how the oscillatorwill charge the rail gun bolts with ionic energy. At the low-power setting she’sprogrammed into it, that will make the bolts effectively nonlethal, but perfectfor their intentions. The ionic charge will ripple through the systems of thetraffic monitoring stations and reverse the current on board for a fewmicroseconds. They’ll essentially have a small power surge, but won’t gooffline. If they time it right, they won’t even notice the shuttle at all. Ifthey time it wrong, they’ll notice the shuttle but not its missing tracker.They’ll get by on looks. It’s actually…she takes a moment to be proud ofherself. It’s actually a pretty foolproof plan.

To her surprise, Kylo Ren agrees.

What’s more, they manage to pull it off. Even in two layersof gloves and a terribly restricting helmet, Kylo is a damn good pilot,managing to target the nearest waystation within microseconds of their jump outof hyperspace. Doesn’t even use the tracking systems. Is that how the Forceworks? Rose will have to ask Rey.

Or, well, she guesses she could ask Kylo. Once this is over.

Once they’re past the scanning range of the traffic stationsand have returned the oscillator to life support, they hang around in thecockpit, PPE’s half-peeled off with the arms tied at their waists. Just in casethey have to suit up again. Kylo taps on the ship’s cloaking and spools hisbody comfortably into the co-pilot’s chair.

“Shouldn’t you be—?” Rose asks, gesturing to the otherchair.

His eyes flicker to hers in confusion, then it clicks. “Iusually don’t, uh—”

“Oh,” she says. Huh.

He stiffens, “I can—”

“No, that’s fine.”

He coughs low in his throat, looking away and running a handthrough his hair. Scrunched up like this, he actually looks capable of feelingself-conscious. Scratch that, he does look self-conscious. Rose recognizes it,feels sympathetic to it, even against her better judgment.

Things have been changing fast, recently. She’s starting togive up on fighting it anymore.

“Also, uh, ‘shut up’? Seriously?”

He shoots her an indignant look.

It doesn’t frighten her at all. And from what she can tellthrough her steely and unwavering gaze, he can tell. His face softens just alittle in response.

“It’s been…” Silence stretches out as his gaze falls out offocus, swimming through the endless mid-distance of space.

“One hell of a week,” she says, “I know.”

He leans back and kicks his feet up on the console. “Ofcourse you do.”

#mine #fanfiction #rose tico #kylo ren #ben solo #roselo #???#kyrose #laureljupiter

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