#and the source will be some fucking clickbait article

[babblingfishes]

i am so fucking tired of ageist, ableist bullshit

if you genuinely think things like old age and chronic illness turns people into ""problem customers"" get the fuck off my blog

[toss-a-coin-to-your-stan-account]

that one screenshot of that fucking clickbait ass fandomwire article about lauren thinking henry was "over-enthusiastic" about playing geralt is still at the very goddamn top of the fucking witcher tag im going to bash my head into a wall

[hkthatgffan]

I really did not wanna talk about this stupid topic, but with so many people falling for it, I figured I should; THE DIRECT ARTICLE ABOUT A GRAVITY FALLS REVIVAL IS A FUCKING LIE!! Lemme explain below why!!

Ever since this article by The Direct was published, way too many people are thinking Gravity Falls is really coming back and the usual season 3 belief is spreading yet again. And of course, YouTubers who should know better made videos on it and other "journalists" are spreading this lie. Here's the real facts! The executive in the article NEVER alluded to a revival. All they said is that Alex is publishing a book (The Book of Bill) and there's some shorts being made. All this article is basing its claim on is the phrase, "Never say Never!" Alex has had a deal with Netflix since 2018. Under that deal, he cannot make new cartoons for other networks, including Disney and Gravity Falls. He can voice on non Netflix shows and help in small ways like he did on TOH, but he cannot make a new show outside Netflix.

The shorts they are alluding to are confirmed to be likely stuff like the Broken Karaoke series on Disney Channel's YouTube page or theme song takeover stuff. Disney TVA News, while not 100% the most reliable source, has suggested that as the case and given Alex was at DTVA in April recording something per an Instagram story he made, it makes the most sense. What's more, there is a rumoured short being made for The Book of Bill which this could be meaning. Notice how it has no indication of a revival? Alex Hirsch has said he has ideas for GF stories, but they are more book centric. Heck, in me and Hana's interview alone he alluded to Stan and Ford stories he'd wanna do if given the chance to make another graphic novel. That is all!

And speaking of Alex…he's not said shit on this! He's not tweeted about it or liked any tweet about it. And Alex has said in the past to not believe anyone claiming Gravity Falls is coming back unless he says so himself on Twitter. So, take a guess what I did? I messaged him!! I was in talks with Alex recently for another video I'm making later in the future and asked him about this article during it. Without leaking our DM's, Alex said straight up, this article is all "just talk!" It's clickbait! Alex Hirsch confirmed it is clickbait!!

Direct is lying to you and so is anyone else saying this is real or that Gravity Falls is coming back! It just isn't. The only person who you should believe about this stuff is Alex Hirsch himself and he clearly has said it's not. And even supposing Direct is telling the truth about this executive saying something is possible, it's just gonna be book or small shorts stuff…NOT a season 3 or reboot, or revival or spin off series. I know that stuff is pretty popular to talk about, hell, I'd kill for a Gravity Falls prequel story myself. But it's not happening.

But with that said, I hope this post helped you better understand what is up. This article is a sham and a joke to the field of journalism. Do your damn job and tell the truth instead of making clickbait shit that will get you ad revenue! People who write articles like this are a joke and I feel bad for anyone who falls for their BS! These articles will never stop being made, so it's up to you all to be smart and not fall for them.

Remember, if Alex Hirsch doesn't say anything about it, it's not legit!!

Stay informed properly out there! New videos coming soon :)

[endiness]

not to go off on this again (and because of a bullshit clickbait article from screenrant as if that isn't their entire business model in the first place) but it's still so fucking mindboggling to me just how much henry cavill was able to brainwash people. like, the idea that he was the one that made the show and he was the only good thing about it and the only good casting choice when he was very noticeably the worst actor on the entire show and meanwhile the rest of the cast is extremely talented and easily acted circles around him. not to mention that he has all the charisma of a black hole sucking all of the chemistry out of the room.

and the whole idea that he is some uber fan of the franchise and the only person on the entire show that knows anything about the source material and cares about it which is also always said in conjunction with the idea that he's the one who made the show. when he didn't even know that the books existed, he only read them once after lauren told him about them, he's only played tw3 (and not even the dlc for it), and by his own admission he didn't do any research for the role. and then meanwhile you've got joey who wrote a whole ass song in ~24 hours and showed up in costume with a lute to audition and who's read the entire series at least 3 times as of 2023; therica, whose books are all annotated and she tries to go back and reread the series before each season and even goes on youtube to watch video essays to refresh her memories; cassie, who has a binder full of notes on philippa and her backstory and everything; and many, many other cast members who've done a lot of research into the books and their characters and the universe and the franchise. but somehow henry cavill is the massive superfan. because he said that a lot in interviews. while never actually giving any examples of that beyond, like, having said he played tw3 for a ton of hours. (which, duh, 'cause a playthrough of that game can easily clock in at +100 hours.)

and speaking of the idea that he just cares SO much about the source material and that's why he ragequit the show because the writers weren't following the books closely enough, likE. he is the one who made geralt's characterization book inaccurate in s1 because he would cut his lines and either just say nothing or grunt instead. (and he also gave his scene partners zero indication he was going to do this and just left them hanging and wondering what was going on and if he was actually going to say his lines and put them into the position of having to improvise and take his lines just to move the plot forward.) and the only reason why he suddenly started to advocate for a more book accurate geralt come s2 is because he got dunked on by reddit for his performance in s1. (which he also took virtually no responsibility for whatsoever and just passed all of the blame off onto the writers for HIS acting choices. wait, that's not entirely accurate. he also blamed yennefer and ciri's prominence on geralt's lack of dialogue even though ciri's scenes were the ones that were cut in s1. yennefer's, too, btw.) he also fucked up geralt and jaskier's friendship by cutting his lines in s1 (and imo there is a lot of implication that the things he was cutting in their scenes was actual affirmation on geralt's side of things that he actually cares about jaskier) and by his own admission, he didn't want to play them as being all buddy-buddy with each other. and his refusal to play geralt struggling with fatherhood and with any negative character traits in s2 led to the domino effect of eskel's death (which in itself led to vesemir trying to create new witchers and lambert's harsher attitude toward ciri), yennefer's betrayal, and voleth meir being the big bad of the season. he also cut a sex scene between geralt and yennefer in s2 because he didn't think it would be in character of them to have sex after reuniting (lolwut) and he cut a scene between geralt and triss of even them just platonically finding comfort in each other (that's what happens in the books.) but yeah, HE just cares about the source material SO MUCH. that's why everything he had a hand in went against the books.

(not to mention that the thing he was clashing with lauren over was that he was not the main character (ciri is the main character of the main books, btw) but rather co-lead with two women and he was mad that the show heavily revolves around women (the books heavily revolve around women) instead of men.) (in s2 interviews, he goes on about how important men being three dimensional characters is to him as if women being three dimensional characters on the show somehow means that men can't be. which is ironic of him to say anyway, tbh, considering he didn't want geralt to be a three dimensional character. as three dimensional characters have flaws. and he didn't want geralt to have any.) (oh, and just to mention but when talking about how violent men can be three dimensional and caring, henry cavill lists who men can be caring towards: other men, family, children. weird he doesn't mention women at all. i'm sure that's not an indication of anything especially when it's said by someone who's a self-professed nerd, lorebuff, redditor, and gamer. because they're always known for non-rancid takes about women. especially when they've already gotten flack for their "i'm afraid to flirt because i'll be accused of being a rapist" #metoo takes. 💅)

(also, just with the conspiracy theory that henry cavill ragequit the show because it wasn't following the books closely enough. like, that is just a conspiracy theory though. the only "proof" there ever was of it was henry cavill going on about how important adhering to the source material is to him. except everything he had a hand in went against the books, so that can't be true. and the thing he and lauren were clashing over was how he was not the main character (geralt is not the main character) and the prominence of women in the series (the women in the books drive the plot forward in massive ways). so that can't be true. and s3 was the closest adaption of the books anyway, so yeah. that really can't be true. and the only other thing that's "proof" is the rumor that the writers hate the source material. which was started by henry cavill's buddy, a writer who was fired from the show for allegedly being emotionally, physically, and sexually abusive. so i'm sure his word is totally trustworthy and he wouldn't have a vested interest in lying and creating a rumor to incite the fanbase against his former co-workers whom he was allegedly fired for mistreating in the first place. (btw, witin the past year, the same writer was fired again for allegedly the same kind of reasons.) also, i'm sure it's jut a coincidence how that rumor, which was started by henry cavill's friend, to disparage the show and the writers dropped about a week before henry cavill announced he was no longer going to be on the show. like, it definitely couldn't've been a coordinated effort between them or anything.) (psst, the rumor that hc was fired for being sexist actually has the most evidence supporting it. js.)

[xenosagaepisodeone]

Usually the Nazi pedophiles are the object of observation

I was going to say "you don't actually believe that" but the lack of combative tone makes me wonder if your exposure to places like kf and lolcow are largely clickbait Youtube Investigators who dispassionately cite them as if they're some neutral source.

Null (kf's owner) is a nazi pedophile who allegedly got banned from 8chan of all places for being too much of a pedophile for them. there were encyclopedia dramatica mods who were grown men well into their 20s who dated 16 year old girls. the woman who infamously egged chris on to commit a felony is a grotesque serial abuser with fed parents. the truth about forums like this is that any actually bad things that 'lolcows' do is just set dressing for the spectacle that is their personality. these forums exist for entertainment purposes and users participate to witness someone either being in distress or causing distress to other people. the vast majority of people "observed" by users on these forums usually range from "being autistic, gay, trans or simply "cringe" on the internet" to "genuinely mentally unwell, and therefore extremely easy to fuck with". They dont want people who actually do bad things to get better, they want them to continue to exist as they are so they can continue to be publicly owned. Many times when a target has left the internet or stepped down from a platform for their own good, many of them will search extensively for them to milk them for more content.

like, a prerequisite for having an encyclopedia dramatica article back in the day was "being bad at art and worse at taking criticism" man these places just exist to sate the impulse to feel normal via creating an other by ostracization and bullying.

[midmorningsong]

So this morning a staffmate told me about the recent Miami Zoo Kiwi incident that’s come to light, and I’ve been fucking livid all day.

Just been reading through a bunch of articles (majority NZ news sources) and the Zoo’s official statement, and somehow it’s even worse than what my irate coworker was able to convey to me. Miami Zoo had the absolute fucking privilege of receiving a (North Isl. Brown (?)) kiwi egg to hatch and raise as a species you would never normally see outside our little island at the bottom of the world as part of a some global zoo wildlife initiative.

Brief brief summary: viral videos coming out of this kiwi (Paora) being put on a table and patted by paying customers under bright lights, having selfies taken, made to run around during the day, keeper pursuing him whenever he tried to hide in his box. All around blasé attitude from keeper talking about this bird while he’s being paraded about on display. There’s video footage but I could seriously only stomach watching it once. He’s been there for 4 years and in the wake of this outrage they’re claiming to be building him a ‘proper enclosure’ now. He’s been handled like this at least 4 times a week and his current enclosure has been 3x3m.

They had access to super fucking detailed information on how to take care of this very sensitive and specialized animal, and what the fuck do they do? Disregard ALL of it to sell cutesy, ~rare bird~, self-obsessed animal encounters.

Either you knowingly and intentionally went against SO. MUCH. vital animal husbandry or you are just such a fuckwit you legitimately think it was good animal handling, I don’t know which is worse honestly. If it’s the former, congratulations; American Capitalism continues to be the most nasty, disrespectful piece of shit I see regularly parading about in broad daylight. If it’s the latter, then are your staff for real just exotic pet-obsessed freaks who showed up one day in a uniform and you just went ‘yeah sure you can be a zookeeper good enough’. Shoutout to that ‘keeper’ who had Paora’s head pinned to the fucking table with his fist going ‘hohoh yeah he’s just like a dog he loves being pat on the head’ yeah sure thing idiot I bet your zookeeper degree taught you all animals and birds especially just love being slapped around and treated like dogs.

The thing that’s got me the most though, is how over the top and pitiful they are being in their apology; “we’ve offended a nation...”, “it should have never happened”, “we are so sorry this video has caused stress to people”, ok yeah but fuck what we think why is there exactly ZERO mention of the stress, harm and sheer exploitation you have put this animal through??? Like yes, Paora is a taonga species and that is certainly adding to the severity of this response, but in and of itself the fact that their official statement answers ONLY to humans’ responses and outrage and not the failure to care for this animal is telling as fuck to me.

I really liked reading iwi leader Paora Haitana’s response (who Paora the kiwi is named after), in much nicer words than me expressing deep concern over the harm to Paora, the disrespect it is to him as a taonga species and us as protectors of them, and also heavy, heavy emphasis on words holding no shape under the weight of everything that has happened; they need to follow through and follow through right now with adequate care.

Personally I’d like to see Paora moved to a zoo that actually cares about his needs and conservation education over selling clickbait. I feel the love and intention of bringing him home to Aotearoa, though I don’t know how realistic that is with the risk of introducing diseases from abroad into the NZ populations. I also would expect a thorough investigation of Zoo Miami’s husbandry for all their species and the credentials of their staff.

Thanks for coming along to rant o’ clock, I’ll be back to reblogging regular fandom shit now so please don’t follow me if you’re expecting more of my own content lol. Enjoy some great twitter banter from this mess

[ashadowofburnedoutstardust]

Is that cosmo article supposed to be like an “announcement” or just trolling?🤣😅

Legally any publication that claims they have a source can get away with stating whatever they like if they also say they don't have official confirmation.

It therefore it gets dismissed as a rumour that they can still publish. This is why they are stating their source as a "DeuxMoi source".

DeuxMoi's source could be someone who works at CAA, so she could therefore also have some deniability by claiming it came from an office rumour.

By doing so the publication has covered themselves legally while also being able to publish something for clicks, more commonly known as "clickbait"

It's within legal rights to do so "journalistically", a term I use loosely considering the publication being referred to. I've studied Journalism and Marketing, and haven't picked up a magazine in nearly 20 years as a result after learning just how fabricated the articles are and how a magazine is basically a print version of a clickbait site with 70% ad fillers

If anything published is claiming a "source", it's not real.

If you have direct quotes that are not factual, it's fallacy and enables someone to be sued, much like the previous foreign publication from Portugal

If it does not have the words confirmed, or is accompanied by an official announcement via social media from the people,or an interview where the information comes directly from their own mouths, feel free to ignore it.

Christophers typical reaction to these types of rumours is to bury and distract. Unfortunately due to the circumstances of the contract her side can continue to get these sorts of things out into the media using HIS name as the attracting factor.

Interesting that they would go for a much larger publication to try and bury the fact she's in Canada at the same time as her rumoured lover/director or whatever the fuck he is/pimp daddy producer.

Still trying to recover an image by associating her with Christopher will not work, and Christopher will ultimately recover.

Apparently nobody in HW is saying straight up to her "We don't want you or your childish trolling BS" and the time she spent in LA at the start of the year getting continuously turned down hasn't sunk in yet.

💜🪽🌟

[possessesnightshift]

"Do you think that I enjoy that huge companies are monetizing software trained on other people’s work?"

What the hell do your personal feelings have to do with the issue? Are you not contributing to the problem because you feel bad about it?

"Do you think the point of any new art medium or new kind of art is to “make money”? Do you think the only people who work on AI imaging are Silicon Valley tech bros looking to make money?"

Yes. Obviously yes. At the end of the day, if the work these coders provide isn't enough to turn a profit, they lose their job. None of these companies are motivated by a love of art or science.

"Do you think that anything a machine outputs “isn’t real art”? How can you even tell? How do you visually differentiate an output from Midjourney from something that is digitally painted in Photoshop?"

Imagine this little scenario. Your mom sends you a text. The text reads as follows:

The only way I could do that was if you wanted me too I could come and pick it out and then I can go pick up it from your place or you could just pick me out of there or whatever...

You call her. "Mom what the fuck. What are you saying? Did you have a stroke??" and she responds: "What are you talking about? I used autofill to write that entire paragraph. You can't tell the difference between that and real writing. Look how close it looks to a real text! And this technology will only get better!"

"But it doesn't mean anything? What's the point?"

You see. You actually can tell the difference between AI images and art. Maybe not at first, but the more you pay attention, the more the image loses coherence. You notice all the warped outlines, nonsense text, weird visual anomalies (such as a man's tie doubly functioning as his seatbelt, or of course the infamous extra fingers), and all that contributes to a sense of hollowness. This is a problem when you consider the fact that art is literally meant to be scrutinized this intensely. Some of my favorite songs I've listened to 100+ times in less than a week. I can spend hours staring at a single painting and watch my appreciation grow as I observe more details and nuance.

AI images are the polar opposite of this. They depend on people's lack of attention to pass as real art. AI images are meant for YouTube thumbnails or banner pictures on clickbait articles. They work best in positions that actively get ignored. Call this art if you like, but what's the value of creating something that gets worse the more you pay attention to it?

The reason blackout poetry manages to be original despite relying on a complete source to work with is simple. A human is actively choosing which words will appear and what the message will be. An AI machine cannot do this. It cannot make human judgements in the moment. It doesn't even understand the original poem or the new poem it created. It's just autofill. That's all.

"Do you think there is a “correct” way for a disabled person to make art and express themself? Is a disabled artist who draws traditionally “better” than a disabled artist who can’t?"

I'm literally disabled, and I literally want nothing more than to go into the world of the arts and music, so let me answer this for you.

Disabled artists have made art as long as art has existed, in spite of their disability. AI did not bust open the gate for physically disabled visual artists to finally have a way to express themselves, as that gate had been open from the beginning.

Of course there is no correct way to make art. In fact, disabled people creating art via alternative means adds diversity and innovation to the artistic field.

Sadly, this does not apply to AI generated images, which are not art.

I think it's readily apparent that the target demographic for AI art is not disabled artists. Hell, it's not even for ABLE-BODIED artists. Because the goal is not to create art.

AI art is for your typical normate, able-bodied, neurotypical priveleged upper-class people who do not value art enough to put any work into developing it as a skill. They see art as a mere product. A source of fiscal AND cultural capital that they can use to increase their status. Making it easier for disabled people to generate images is an accidental byproduct of this fact. AI art was invented to give the most ultra-privileged, unambitious people a shortcut to the acclaim and profit stemming from the implied hard work that the artist managed to bypass using AI.

I will continue to make music for the rest of my life. Even if I get my arms and legs cut off. Even if I have another stroke (my first one being at the age of 17), and lose nearly all cognitive ability, I won't stop making art.

Disabled artists deserve better than this fucking shit. Imagine the kinds of products disabled people could use to create art if these companies actually had us in mind.

Don't fall for it. Please. When all is said and done, these AI techbros will benefit no matter what happens. You're the one being screwed over at the end of the day.

...

I hope that answers some of your questions! I know they weren't addressed to me, but I figured the answers were so painfully obvious I couldn't NOT answer them. :-]

"Original" Sin is what i've titled this piece. by me. sorry if you don't have "collapse long posts" enabled. I have many thoughts.

Transcript - References

[officialcreature]

Journalism is so fucked in the US. Like the only good news sources are small time operations (at least compared to major news companies).

I just got thinking about it because of the "aliens are real" shit being reported on right now. Yes, some guy who worked for the air force said something about UFOs and "non-human biotics," but that's literally nothing!! Like this happens at least once a year at this point and nothing ever comes of it.

Non-human biotics means any organic matter that isn't fucking human. It could even mean human tissue that's contaminated or unable to be identified. Like, it literally in no way shape or form means aliens, but even major news sites are like "Aliens Real?!?! (NOT CLICKBAIT)(EMOTIONAL)!!! 😱😱😱"

Then the articles are just stating very blatant facts about what was said, but with no context. I think the OBSESSION with impartiality is one of the worst things to happen to journalism. Like I'm not saying I need everyone to be Fox News (cause fuck them), but in the event of something like a guy in a congressional hearing talking about UFOs comes up there should be context about the meaning of what he's saying and how fucking common this is and how it's never amounted to anything in the past.

Journalism needs to become more explanatory and less just blatant facts thrown out into the wind. Especially when you consider the average informational level of the general public. Like not to be full of myself, but I think the average person lacks a lot of knowledge on MOST subjects. Like watching people answer basic questions on anatomy, politics, geography, chemistry, etc., should make you see how giving context could be helpful.

For example, what good is an article/news story about a plastic recycling initiative if it doesn't give context on the viability of plastic recycling as a long term (or even short term) solution? Most people I've talked to don't know how most plastics aren't really recyclable (whether due to design/quality of the plastic or lack of infrastructure), plastic recycling has basically never been profitable (and thus sustainable in a capitalist system), and even high quality plastics can only be recycled once or twice at most before they breakdown too much to be used again. So if I write an article about the city spending money to put in bins to collect plastic around the city it may sound nice until you realize it's a waste of time due to the CONTEXT around recycling plastic. Like if the only things ever getting recycled are plastic bottles and some other specific plastics, and even a lot of those end up in landfills regardless of if you put them in the recycling, does it matter that much if the city is spending $1mill on a plastic recycling initiative. Well, it does, it just matters that they're wasting $1mill.

You'd never see the context though. CNN would just be like "The city of Houston is spending $1mill on a myriad of projects to increase plastic recycling city wide. The governor has called it, 'liberal nonsense.' Meanwhile city councilman Bob Bobberson said, 'The environment is the future #votebluenomatterwho.' A spokesman for Keep our Cities Trashy (which we won't give the context is run by big landfill) says, 'Actually ALL recycling is BAD for the environment and trash is good cause we cover it in dirt to make big hills and hills look nice.'"

Like obviously a bit satirical, but they'd really just run it like that devoid of context. Just boring facts and quotes without any attempt at truth telling. Plus, they'd throw in the governor's response despite the fact it has no bearing on the initiative at all and it's just basic culture war shit because it would help spur future clicks. PLUS, they'd even make no attempt at refuting the blatant lies from the pro-trash lobbyist or tell you who is paying for the group he's lobbying for.

[het-brunette]

my dad got laid off and im a college student taking night classes- are there any good ways to work from home that arent scams?

Honestly? There are so many fucking scams out there. I've been almost scammed several times on Linkedin. Weirdly I think that one of the best sources for work from home jobs is the US Sun - it's a trashy tabloid with obnoxious clickbait titles, but if you search "side hustle" on the website you can find some interesting "articles" that talk about jobs you may not know about already.

Your college should also be able to help connect you with resources for learning how to write resumes, do job interviews, and probably even has job fairs. There should also be on campus jobs available for students. You can also reach out to professors to see if they know someone hiring.

Build up good relationships with your professors too - it's something I regret not doing in college. Don't be afraid to ask them for recommendation letters. It's rarer now, but some job applications will ask for these, so it's good to have one handy in case you need it.

[yuri-alexseygaybitch]

I figure it's only a matter of time before this "story" gets picked up by the Western MSM (it's already being "reported" in some shoddy publications like GameIndustry.biz and spread about Reddit, cause anti-China gaming stories are like meth to Reddit), so I'm going to try and debunk some of the hysteria surrounding it.

The source for this claim is an article by South China Morning Post (which I'll link in archive format since it's behind a paywall). SCMP is an anti-CPC/pro-capitalist newspaper owned by Jack Ma, the richest dude in China who has been butting heads with the Communist Party for a while, so they often run provocatively anti-CPC articles aimed at Westerners to try and rile up anticommunist sentiment. Always keep in mind your sources and their material interests and reasons for what they're reporting!

First and foremost China is not "banning" anything. The article references an alleged internal memo from a state-backed "gaming training course" (which the article does not include as a primary source, the writer just says they saw it) about what content would be "seen favorably" by regulators. That's obviously a pretty far cry from "banning" anything like the clickbait headlines would suggest. My friend @mushroomtale who lives in China and works in games tells me they haven't even heard of these new "regulations".

The part of the article that concerns queer content and got reported on as CHINA BANNING GAY STUFF FROM THEIR GAMES in the West is as follows:

Once again this article does NOT include the original memo in Mandarin, we just have to trust that this translation is accurate. Admittedly it seems pretty shitty, but it doesn't say anything about same-sex relationships. The whole "effeminate men" thing has already gotten tons of circulation in the Western press and is largely another case of something being mistranslated, blown entirely the fuck out of proportion and sold off to panicked Western gays as part of the wider sinophobic hysteria in the anglo press.

Does any of this mean I approve of these regulations or think they're "good"? No. But in all honesty what is that even worth? I'm not a Chinese citizen or CPC member. There's nothing I can do about how China conducts its internal affairs no matter how much I may dislike them. That goes for everyone in the West who is going to see these headlines and be incensed by them. So what is the purpose of reporting what some obscure internal memo says about femboys in video games? Well at the end of the food chain it's just to get clicks and money, but the macro purpose is to continue to make people hate and fear China so the emotional basis for continued aggression towards China exists. Every story about China in the capitalist press is oriented around that goal. Running clickbait headlines about banning femboys and gays from video games directly translates to more people in America and the West acquiescing to or enthusiastically supporting more sanctions, more military build-up, more efforts at regime change etc. crazy as that may sound. Literally all you need to do is look at the batshit insane comments under the Reddit posts about this to see it working.

So if this does blow up in the Western press and people start posting about it on here, just keep in mind what's happening in the world right now. We're all living through a vicious new Cold War on China as America and capitalism slides towards defeat brought about by overexploitation of the world and its people. Every story about China in the capitalist press is geared towards serving that purpose. Don't fall victim to it.

[youlackconviction]

SCREENRANT ARE BACK ON THEIR BULLSHIT

warning - the following nonsense might cause psychological injury or confusion as your brains struggle to reconcile this utter claptrap with what they already know to be canon fact about the thor/LOKI franchise:

article source: https://screenrant.com/loki-thor-dark-world-death-survive-illusion-explained/

the article title is speculative clickbait, pure and simple. marvel has made no new statement about LOKI's survived deaths (not the same thing as a trick, by the way) in either original film to contradict what has already been established in canon AND confirmed in many press statements by directors, writers, kevin feige himself i believe and of course tom hiddleston himself as well, at the time the original films were screened.

this nonsense has no more substance than the prevailing fan theory when infinity war was released that LOKI wasn’t killed by thanos at all but escaped and hid himself from thor, which abounded at the time that installment was screening in cinemas. all kinds of claims tossed about that there was some flicker or shadow outside the statesman that "proved" LOKI had got away... no doubt fuelled by disappointment at the loss of his character AND rage at how stupidly and pointlessly he’d been killed off. *glaring at you, russo bros*.

that same fan theory was retroactively used in the LOKI series by classic LOKI, to explain how he survived facing thanos - but we know that he was a variant of the LOKI we saw die for his brother in IW, not the same person. that was richard grant’s LOKI. so it still changes nothing about tom hiddleston’s LOKI, who we’ve all been watching for the past eleven years. he actually did die, so it’s completely irrelevant.

marvel confirmed LOKI attempted suicide at the end of thor 2011, and, that instead of dying in the void he ended up in “some of the worst places of the universe”, and “the people he met were not kind”. tom hiddleston likened his probable experience to being kidnapped by a terrorist cell:

“I think he went, like with everything else, to a sort of... it was just like, the worst place imaginable. I think he went to all of the darkest recesses of the universe. I’m sure he had a brush with—several brushes with death. I think he ran into the shadiest characters you can find in the Nine Realms. I think he had to rely on his wits to protect himself. It was really, really, really unpleasant, I think. I don’t have any frame of reference for that, except for imagining what it might be like to be kidnapped by a terrorist or something and have to survive a very, very frightening and precarious existence. But whatever it was, it was important when Loki came back for The Avengers, that whatever compassion he had left was absolutely shriveled to a minimum because of the experience that he had. Harrowing, I think, and scarring for life—in a way that Thor and Odin and Frigga find very, very difficult to understand.”

src: Let's Talk Loki Popcorn Taxi Q&A With Tom Hiddleston (thanks to @nikkoliferous​ for researching this quote)

but sure screenrant, tell me again how LOKI did any of that on purpose? how he chose to fall into the clutches of the black order, that he intended all along not only to prolong an existence that had become emotionally intolerable for him but make it a thousand times more terrifying and painful?

the branches and roots of yggdrasil ONLY extend across the nine realms, like that’s the whole point of that piece of mythology. and LOKI telling thor in avengers that he'd been to worlds thor had never dreamed of indicates that they were far beyond asgard’s domains. remember the convergence, anyone? the whole plot of thor the dark world?

as for LOKI “faking” his death (honestly fuck off with that bullshit) in 2013, again, marvel confirmed the scene was filmed as a real final death, and because of test-audience negative responses to LOKI’s death, adjusted to a severe but survivable injury when the additional scenes were shot. an injury that not only fooled thor and jane but LOKI himself - and imagine how he must have felt when he woke up alone after suffering so much for his brother. there was no hint of it being an illusion or a disposable body double at the time.

the illusion came at the point that LOKI assumed the appearance of an einherjar and took the abandoned skiff back to asgard to report to odin, depose him and reclaim the throne - a much better alternative than being returned to the prison cell for 4,000 years. the same throne incidentally that LOKI offered to his brother at the end of that film, but was refused by him. “LOKI for all his grave imbalance understood rule as i never shall” were thor’s words as he walked away from his birthright and his responsibilities.

“Loki's death on Svartalfheim was written as a death, and I would say Chris and I played that scene for real. That was meant to be that he redeemed himself, he helped save his brother, he helped save Jane Foster but that he, in the process, sacrificed himself.“

src: tom hiddleston for Empire magazine

in actuality, the series script addresses none of this, and the article is reaching at best - and blatantly bullshitting at worst. screenrant is not a legitimate source of verified information, this is just one article-writer’s fan-theory and unfortunately for clarity’s sake, it’s completely wrong on so many levels.

[rahleeyah]

I was happy looking at those pics but then I read that article trashing both Ilene and Chris, so now I'm down again. I fucking hate the wolf formula, I'm just here for the characters in spite of it! 😤😞

I just wanna say real quick that was not an "article". That was a clickbait piece designed to do absolutely nothing but make people look at it long enough for them to suck down ad revenue. It was not a researched, ethically written piece; it was not reporting. The entertainment world is full of garbage like this; headline says "svu fans shocked to discover slow has been yanked off the air" and what's happened is they went on hiatus for the Olympics. Honestly if it's not from a reputable source - and showbiz whatever dot fraud dot net is not a reputable source - just assume it's completely fabricated. Who is the "source"? A grip? A makeup artist? Warren? A figment of this person's imagination? Did they get a little bit of truth - Ilene is leaving and Dann is guest starring - and just add in a bunch of shit as filler? Don't let that ish get to you it's not real.

And here's a thought I've been sitting on about the formula. I prefer character moments to the story of the week every time BUT primarily character driven dramas, like this is us or Parenthood, hold zero appeal for me. What this format allows is for us to watch the characters grow through the case of the week; we spend twenty years doing this job with Olivia and we see the impact it has on her and we understand what she's been through. We know her, and so we see her character in how she approaches the case of the week. The promise of a 30 second interaction keeps us hanging on, instead of us just getting used to constant interpersonal drama. It's exciting when it happens. It's a big deal when it happens.

And crucially for me, it leaves the fans room to explore. It gives us room to make up our own answers, to imagine more, to turn the show into our sandbox. If everything was right there in the text what would there be for us to do?

Many of the shows I love most tend to fall into this format - there's the job of the week on Blake, on spooks, on svu, on jag, etc, and the character stuff happens around the work. Sometimes I get bored with the investigation stuff, but sometimes the investigations and the one offs - remember Patricia Arquette's episode? - are deeply compelling.

It's frustrating, sometimes, but bc it's an NBC show there's a million episodes in a season, so they have time to do a little bit of everything. There's some episodes with no big character development, there's some eo stuff, some Rollisi stuff, some Noah stuff, Liv shoots somebody, they're ticking all the boxes. They're not setting up camp in just one box, they're trying to shepherd all of these plot lines along. It isn't actually Olivia's show; she is the anchor but she is not all of it.

All that to say that I feel the same way about the format that Churchill felt about democracy; it is the worst form of government, except for all the others. The format is what allows my brain to really dig in to these characters and play with stuff and go wild and while I love a good, tight, arc driven drama to watch those eight episode BBC dramas that I will binge in a single day do not compel me to write or gif or seek out other fans.

To generate a really fervent, active fandom, I think a show has to be good enough to be emotionally captivating and just bad enough, just lacking enough, for there to be room for fans to work. If every question is answered and every single thing we need is given to us what's there to talk about? If a show is too good or too bad there's not a lot for fandom to do. SVU sits in that sweet spot for me.

So on the one hand, I totally understand why you don't like the format and why it's frustrating. On the other hand, I personally am ok with it.

[eury--dice]

history, huh?

chapter 3: propius

(check the rb for chapters 1 + 2 on tumblr + ao3 links!)

Adam was woken at 5 o’clock on the dot with a series of sharp knocks on his door. “Up and Adam,” Gansey’s voice called, making the one stupid dad joke that always set Adam’s blood to a boil. He was too tired to react, however.

“Kindly leave until a later time,” he called, his voice heavy with sleep. “I don’t have class for another three hours.”

Gansey opened the door anyway, striding in with more pep than anyone should have in the morning.

“You’ve made the tabloids, my friend. Your weekend with Ronan finally hit.”

“Did you sleep at all?”

“Nope,” Gansey said cheerfully. “‘From America, With Love: Ronan and Adam flaunt friendship.’” He turned on his heel once he’d crossed the length of the room, which Adam could never forget was formerly Malia Obama’s, and seated himself in Adam’s desk chair.

Adam had never been closer to considering strangulation. He elected to shove his hearing ear into his pillow instead.

Unfortunately, the muffled sounds of Gansey speaking still made their way in. “‘Photos: Adam’s Weekend in England,’ oh, that’s boring…ah-hah: ‘New Bromance Alert? Pics of FSOTUS and Prince Ronan.’”

Adam resigned himself to his fate and mentally promised himself a giant cup of coffee. “As long as I’m getting fewer death threats on Twitter, I’m happy,” he mumbled into his blankets.

Gansey ignored him. “Why are you so tired? It’s the hour of kings, time to be awake and alive.”

“I’d settle for dead if it meant I could sleep at this point, to be frank.”

“Please don’t be frank. Be Adam.”

Adam sat up, eyeing Gansey in his wire-framed glasses with disdain. “Any more puns and I suffocate myself with this pillow.”

“Please don’t,” Gansey said, but his eyes had already returned to his screen. While he read through the articles, he continued his line of questioning. “Working on the campaign late last night?”

“Not really,” Adam admitted. “I had a Press and the Presidency paper to write.”

“Just write ‘I’m Adam Parrish’ on a piece of loose-leaf paper to turn it in and you’ll probably get an A. You live it every day, for Christ’s sake.”

“And yet I still need to cite sources in Chicago Advanced.”

“You’d think nepotism would work out more in your favor.” He flicked to a fresh article, a gesture Adam only recognized from all the other times Gansey had done it. “Luckily, I think the press is eating this one up.”

Adam grimaced. “Fantastic.”

“Not-campaign-ruining, you mean.”

“That too, I suppose.” He wanted nothing more than to flop back against his pillows and get the sleep his body so desperately craved after being jet lagged for a week, but he fought the urge.

“That _ People _exclusive takes the cake, I think. I didn’t realize how much you cherished your relationship with Ronan.”

“Fuck off, please. Or end my misery.”

“No to both. Why are you even taking that press course?”

Adam slid out from under his blankets, rolling his shoulders to try and wake up more. “Curiosity, I guess. It never hurts to learn more of what not to do.”

Gansey looked up from his phone to level a glance at Adam. “And what have you learned so far?”

“…Don’t have a sex scandal?”

“You _ would _need someone to tell you that.”

_ “Hey,” _Adam said, affecting outrage.

Gansey lifted his thumb to run over his lower lip, tilting his head consideringly. “One of us three will probably have a scandal before your mother’s second term is up.”

“If there is a second.”

“Chin up, young padawan. With you working on it we’re guaranteed.”

“I don’t know, Gansey,” Adam replied. “I don’t think I’m the good luck charm you believe in.”

“Of course you are,” Gansey said. “We won the first time, no?”

Adam glanced exaggeratedly around the room and to the phone in Gansey’s hand. “I’d say so. That or we’re about to get questioned very thoroughly about the the events of last three years.”

“Don’t make me cut you off on the true-crime videos.”

His eyes narrowed, focusing on Gansey. “Don’t you dare.”

“Blue agrees, anyway,” Gansey said, successfully deflecting topics. “Said there’s a ninety-four percent chance you’ll get into a sex scandal before the general.”

“Both of you date more than I do, why am I the one who’s supposedly having a sex scandal?” Once his initial outrage passed, disbelief crept in at the time of day. “Did you just text Blue at five AM and get a response? How the hell did you manage that?”

“She’s been up,” Gansey dismissed. Adam stared at him for a moment, and then Gansey seemed to feel the weight of his stare. His eyes widened almost comically. “Oh, Christ, no, not that. Nate Silver asked for another set of eyes on the Superbowl predictions, and she’s trying to get a shoo-in with them before the primaries begin. I just brought her some coffee.”

“And you didn’t bring me any?”

“You’re the only one of us who hasn’t been up all night. You need coffee the least of all of us.”

“Don’t blame me for your bad decisions.” Adam squinted at Gansey. “Were you working on an article all night or something?”

He snorted. “Hardly. They’ve been blocking all of my pieces. Too far from my mother’s politics, too far from your mother’s, too controversial, too critical, all in that order.”

“Thought you were liking the _ Post _gig?”

“On paper,” Gansey dismissed. “I’ve defaulted to writing about Welsh history.”

“Sounds like it’s right up your alley, then.”

“Once again, on paper.”

“How do you even connect the Welsh to the hellscape of American politics?”

Gansey waved a hand. “‘Eternal spirit,’ ‘fighting for honor,’ ‘remembering Glendower and others who set a pristine model,’ et cetera, et cetera.”

“People read that? That just sounds like you in high school spouting off again.”

“Yes, Adam. People read it.” Gansey squinted at his phone again. “Twitter _ really _likes you and Ronan together.”

“We’re exciting,” Adam said dryly, reaching for his laptop. He scanned over his most recent paper while Gansey dramatically narrated replies to the gif of them on _ This Morning. _

“‘Either of them could stab me and give me one of those smiles and I’d thank them,’ Jesus Christ,” Gansey read, “They really love your fake smiles… ‘name a more iconic duo, I’ll wait,’ hm, maybe any other duo? ‘Oh my God, just _ kiss already.’” _

Adam choked out a laugh as Gansey punctuated the last one with a dramatic and uncharacteristic hand wave. “At least it’s working,” he allowed, shutting his laptop once he felt secure about his essay. “Now get out. _ Some _of us have places to be.”

Adam’s phone buzzed on his way out of his cursed Presidency and the Press course.

Somehow, the interest of those around him seemed to pique even higher when he looked at his phone instead of in front of him. It wasn’t a new sensation by any means; ever since starting at Georgetown, he’d felt eyes on him constantly, but the intensity increased tenfold each time his classmates thought he was too occupied to see them staring. He noticed every time, but of course nothing could be done about it.

The name _ HRH shitty bird boy _ popped across his screen. How strange - in only a week, he’d almost entirely forgotten that the name he had (quite maturely) given Ronan in his phone was… _ that. _As he swiped the notification open, he felt a certain amount of trepidation as to what a technology-averse prince would ever text him about.

His harassment and emergency fears flew out the window with the body of the text, simply a screenshot of their tabloid appearance with the added caption of _ youre the nerd and I’m the cool jock. _

_ Competitive yachting? _Adam asked in response, nearly tripping over his own feet while typing.

_ ffs i told them to stop writing that as my preferred sport. _

Adam felt his lips twist against his will.

_ I’m sorry, this is a common problem? _

_ you can’t even imagine. _

_ I appreciate that they consider competitive yachting a regal sport. _

_ status symbols and faux athleticism are the core of the monarchy. _

Adam blinked down at his phone, stopping short abruptly. Persephone, from behind him, adjusted accordingly.

He…hadn’t been expecting this. Any of it. The text, the almost-joking response, the casual statement about the monarchy being ridiculous despite him being in it. Their conversation ended there, and it was probably for the better. He resumed his pace, trying to get to his next class. He almost forgot about the texts, too; save for a rogue screenshot Adam sent him of speculation on Ronan’s presence in Majorca, nothing else went between them.

Sometimes, Adam could _ just barely _ get away with being on his phone during briefings with Maura. He hated to be distracted during them - they were _ important, _he knew that, but all the same occasionally she spent a particularly long time covering an obscure dignitary’s comments and he’d gotten too few hours of sleep to truly focus and someone or other was blowing up his phone.

Maura’s topic of conversation this week appeared to be a series of Buzzfeed articles run on the lack of pets in the First Family, complete with a power point dissecting their points

The glamorous side of politics, truly. Discussing a clickbait series in the West Wing briefing room.

_ iMessage chat to _ ** HRH shitty bird boy **

_ Resumed 30 October, 2019, 1:47 pm _

_ if you want a pet chainsaw dragged in a mouse the other day _

_ Ah yes, the mouse. A pet eternally beloved by constituents. _

_ we can’t all have a raven, that would be unfair _

_ Your heights of cool and goth are truly dizzying. _

_ im glad you agree _

_ Modest, too. _

_ it comes with the wealth and fame _

_ As long as you’re being straight with me, feel free to be as ‘modest’ as you like. _

_ i’m the prince of bloody england. i’m straight all the damn time _

_ That’s the biggest lhxemxlp_

His phone slipped from between his fingers, landing with a dull _ thud _onto the wooden floor. Adam stared helplessly at it, a sleek black rectangle hiding between types of oak. But Maura repeated his name, and he suddenly remembered what had made him drop his phone in the first place. He dragged his eyes up, staring at a spot on the sterile white wall just beyond Maura’s head.

“Adam,” she said a third time, but he refused to look her in the eyes. She conceded immediately. “What the hell?”

He felt his cheeks darken as blood found its way up. “I’m sorry.”

Her lips thinned just like Blue’s did, turning into a dark line on her brown face. “Do you even remember what I was saying?”

“Er…” he scrambled. “Don’t mention animals in any public setting?”

She looked at him for a long moment, then picked up a mug of coffee and took a controlled sip.

“Get out?” she said once she’d swallowed her sip.

“I-”

She pointed to the door. “I am impossibly busy. Take your phone and go laugh in private.”

He nodded once, finally, ducking under the table with his spine pressed against the bottom to grab his phone. His fingers closed around it, grip the edge of the wood, and he was up in a second.

He couldn’t regret it.

Because - well, here was the weird thing.

He wanted another text from Ronan.

_ iMessage chat to _ ** HRH shitty bird boy **

_ Resumed 31 October, 2019, 12:03 am _

_ it’s finally spooky day in your hell country _

_ Isn’t it 5 am in England? _

_ Do you ever sleep? _

_ bold of you to ask that question _

_ halloween, bitch _

_ it waits for no one _

_ I’m really going to have to advocate better habits. _

_ I understand, you’re enthused for Halloween. _

_ do you even care at all _

_ I enjoy halloween like everyone else. _

_ Though your level of excitement feels a little pagan? _

when the skeleton army rises Jesus will forgive me

_ appreciate this glorious day parrish _

_ I have enough fear in my daily life, thanks. _

_ I filed my own taxes all throughout highschool. _

_ And payed rent. _

_ The horrors of early adulthood. _

_terrifying _

_ terrible i’ll never deal with that shit _

_ You’re the prince, we know. _

_ Do you also not have enough horror in your life? _

of course i do

_ but parrish. listen. _

_ this is the one day a year all the monarchy and parliament dress as they are in life _

_ hideous monsters _

He laughed a little harder at that than he should have.

_ You’re telling me the monarchy plays dress up. _

_ ronan_frankensteins_monser_costume.jpg _

_ matthew insisted. did this on me an hour ago _

_ oh my god _

The makeup _ was _really good, and the monstrous look suited him, but hell if Adam ever said that to him.

He may have saved it to his phone, though, to glimpse Ronan’s green-paint covered skin and crooked, drawn-on stitch smile on his perfectly blank face.

Although Adam certainly didn’t intend to make a habit of texting the Prince of England, when he saw a funny bird or a stupid article or an obscure meme his first thought became _I should send that to Ronan. _And Ronan, clearly, was thinking along the same lines. The sheer number of sole emojis that seemed to tell a Ronan-centric story he received at all hours only affirmed that. And somehow, between all the pictogramme and jokes, he started to learn snatches of information. Declan was a better storyteller than Ronan, Matthew was the only person who could make Ronan attend family dinners ever since their father died, and his mother - the Queen of England, Adam had to remind himself sometimes - drew further away every day.

The problem became that he always wanted to know _ more, _and Adam didn’t know if that was due to his rampant curiosity or something else buried deep inside of him, and he was too afraid of what he might uncover by digging to look.

Adam had very few friends.

Most of that came with the territory of being part of the First Family; nothing made casual acquaintances drift away quite like being constantly surveilled by Secret Service agents and trailed by NDAs. Adam didn’t have time for small talk and coffee, a fact which he sometimes lamented and often loved. Part of this came from the type of friendship he became accustomed to with Gansey and Blue, the all-encompassing type of friendship that took over their minds in spare moments and forged ties stronger than steel between them. He’d probably forgotten how to have normal, casual friends, not friends an outsider would think he was completely in love with. And, perhaps more than anything else, it came back down to Robert Parrish and his heavy hands and ringing words. Adam’s memories of his first few years were scattered and inconsistent, but they filled up a too-large corner of his brain all the same. Blue, who entered his life at the tender age of 5, had won his trust with greater ease than their other peers, and Gansey had done the same in high school. They knew him and what he’d been through, and so they could (platonically) love him for all that he was. When campaigning and political office came into the mix, that full truth of Adam Parrish became a secret to guard like any else.

But, oddly enough, Adam had a third friend: Noah Czerny, the thirty-three-year-old baby of the Senate.

Noah and Adam met through an Aglionby networking event while Adam was a student and Noah a recently-elected congressperson, both green as grass in different ways. Adam, thrown neck-deep into a Presidential campaign, had questions, and most of the time Noah had answers. Although all of the professors had warned Adam to proceed cautiously with Czerny, Adam found nothing to fear. Noah had mellowed out quite a bit from his high school days, becoming a familiar face at political events and a surprisingly-wise piece of advice always at the ready. Despite Adam’s near hero-worship of this brand-new politician, half-Mexican just like him and just as frequent to lose sleep rewriting policies that unjustly taxed communities of color or defunded children’s education, they’d formed an improbable bond. The summer before his sophomore year, Noah let Adam closer to the politics process than even his mother had as he ran for the Senate, and Adam took to it almost at once. A politician twelve years his senior was perhaps not a conventional choice of friend, but Adam seldom remained conventional.

It wasn’t too out of the ordinary for Adam to arrive at Noah’s congressional office unannounced, either with business or without, and so when Adam rounded on Noah’s stark, bright, white office, he wasn’t at all surprised to see him ducked over an obscene number of papers.

“It’s Friday night,” Noah said without looking up, barely before Adam had even crossed into the office. As always, the tiny burst of color in the Pride flag deposited in a tourist mug drew Adam’s eye for a long moment before Noah himself did. All Adam could see of him was his brown curls, resolutely held in place even as bent over a desk. “Go party or something.”

“Damn, I didn’t _ think _ this looked like a frat. I knew something was off.” Adam slid into one of the seats across the desk. He had several inches on Noah, but he always felt smaller in those chairs across from the most important legislators in the country. “What’s got you here at eight PM?” Off of Noah’s brief, incredulous look, he amended to _ “this _particular time, I know. You’re salaried. Shouldn’t you…ever go home?”

“I’m trying to get something done so that there’s at least a hope of banning fracking in our lifetimes.”

Adam scoffed quietly, though not for lack of faith in Noah. “Let me know when you’ve cracked the code.”

_ “If, _but sure, I’ll be in contact. Now, why are you here?”

“You didn’t answer my leaving-the-building question.”

Noah’s eyes flickered shut briefly. “Jesus, Adam, I am salaried by the taxpayers of millions of Americans. I’m not going to slack on them.”

“Fine, but don’t make me drag Gansey in here to make you take a long nap and drink some hot soup.”

Adam’s phone buzzed, but he ignored it; despite it being almost 1 am in England, Ronan could presumably take the blame. Noah asked, “Did you catch the Fox town hall last night?”

Adam grimaced. He’d seen part of it, trying to multitask with his macroeconomics homework at the same time, but instead he’d fallen asleep with his head on the laptop screen. “Part of it. It was a shitshow.”

“You can say that again.”

“I honestly thought that Whelk would pull more support from the extremists. He just seemed desperate last night.”

“Oh, he definitely was.” Noah leaned away from his desk, appraising Adam as though considering his words carefully. “We went to school together.”

“Aglionby?” Adam asked. He knit his eyebrows together. “How did I not realize he went there?”

“The school doesn’t exactly love toting him.”

“He’s older than you, though, right?”

“Yes, Adam,” Noah said slowly. “I’m thirty-three. He’s already announced a bid for President. How old do you have to be to run for executive office?”

Adam scowled. “I just came from class, I can’t use my brain. He was a senior when you were a freshman?”

“Yep,” Noah replied. “We were paired in upperclassmen-lowerclassmen bonding.” His lip curled a little. “He outed me.”

“Wait, _ what?” _

“He outed me to the school,” Noah repeated. He looked back down to the papers on his desk, his voice softening to a barely audible level. “I trusted him, which was a dumb thing to do, but I was a really stupid freshman. Scared, too. He was a friendly personality.”

_ “Fuck,” _Adam said, pushing a hand through his hair. “I’m sorry, that’s…”

“Terrible?” A bit of Noah’s life returned to him. “Don’t worry about it, kid. It was years ago.”

“But then…Whelk, he was the reason you…?”

“He didn’t make my parents react the way they did. They did that on their own. But no, they wouldn’t have known without him.”

Adam shook his head. “I thought it wasn’t possible to like the guy less, if only because of his politics, but he’s done it.”

“Done what? Received the full wrath of Adam Parrish?”

“He very well may.”

“Don’t worry about him. Whelk will be out soon, believe me. I know him. He may have his parent’s money, but he’s barely old enough to hold office and he’s running on fumes.”

“If he’s not, I’ll convince Blue to skew stats until he is.” Noah knew just as well as Adam that that wouldn’t change anything, but it lightened the air anyway. “It seems kind of pointless to entertain any of them. Greenmantle is probably going to win no matter what.”

Colin Greenmantle: former antique collector, congressperson from Massachusetts, and millionaire with the funds to take over the Republican primary, and very possibly the whole election, before any papers were even filed.

“It’s early,” Noah said. “Too early to worry about it. Too early to even be _ talking _ about it.”

Adam slanted a half-smile at him. “Never too early to worry about an election.”

Noah looked back to his papers before broaching the next topic. “I hear you’ve got a job on your mother’s re-election campaign.”

“Once I graduate, and maybe a little earlier, yeah.”

Noah cast a glance around the office. “Are you sure this is the life you want?”

Adam knew he was referring to the constant bustle, the fear of disappointing and harming instead of helping, and the ever-evolving media scrutiny. He knew it was the closest Noah would give to a warning. “I’m sure.”

Noah sighed. “Fine.” He pointed to the door. “But I won’t let you throw your youth away, not this early. After you graduate, Parrish. Go get drunk and make out with someone.”

Adam stood, his frame unfolding and standing tall. “You are a terrible role model.”

“Can’t hear you over the loud music.”

“You and Blue and Gansey - if I die of alcohol poisoning, it’s all your fault.”

“Feel free to blame, so long as you’re out there and not here.”

“Alright, alright, Jesus. You’ve made your point.”

“Finally,” Noah called after Adam’s retreating form. But Adam could hear the amusement in his voice all the same.

For someone so allergic and averse to technology, Ronan sure seemed to share a lot with Adam.

_ iMessage chat to _ ** HRH shitty bird boy **

_ Resumed 13 Novemeber, 2019, 8:38 pm _

_ bird.m4a _

_ she wont stop nuzzling my head?? _

_ Picking for lice, probably. _

_ God knows you have so many. _

_ my scalp is perfectly clean _

_ Forgive me for abstaining from running my hands over it all the same. _

_ I’ll leave that to her. _

He didn’t always respond, though.

Adam tried not to read into it.

(He mostly succeeded.)

Adam never tired of stepping into the Oval Office. On the Wednesday right before Thanksgiving, he stepped in with the same amount of awe he always had, allowing himself a single moment to glance around at the wide windows and perfectly upholstered furniture. He sat on one of the couches without preamble.

His mother looked up from what was in front of her on the desk and smiled, albeit a tired one that frayed a bit at the corners; Adam had seen a few particularly troublesome foreign dignitaries be escorted away not long before, so he didn’t have to guess at the reason. Ana looked like she belonged to sit right there amongst all the history at that desk, from the sun dipping just beneath her halo of hair straightened within an inch of its life and her stick-straight posture. It might have been a lot at times, but seeing her was a reminder of all the good that came from her position.

She rose and walked to join him, her heels clacking lightly at the ground before she sank onto the cushion beside him and pulled him into a loose hug. Adam had overtaken Ana in height some years before, but there had been a long gap in there as he grew - like one day he was three and a half feet tall and wrapped tightly in her arms and the next he was off to Georgetown and several heads taller. She pulled away after a minute, slowly and bit-by-bit as though savoring her moments as a mother rather than a president. Her hand reached to muss his hair a moment later, and Adam ducked away instinctively before exchanging an identical grin with her.

“God, I forgot how light your hair looks in here,” she said, leaning back a little. “Almost golden.” She tilted her head as though examining him. “Nah. Still brown. But much lighter.”

“How could you forget? The photo here was in _ GQ, _the same article that first declared me the family golden boy.” At the corner of their conversation was the knowledge of where he’d inherited that hair color, as it sure as hell wasn’t from Ana. But he let the thought stay buried, patting the dirt back down with the shovel himself. Their relationship always had an absence in it, and he didn’t particularly feel like deepening it in the Oval Office.

“Ah, so that’s the one I have to blame for your big head,” she responded, reaching for a piece of fruit from the little coffee table. It was a familiar half-jest, borne from Adam’s constant contradicting confidence and imposter syndrome. Idiosyncrasies were just Adam’s style, never one to make things easy for himself. He sometimes wondered if so much of himself conflicted because he tried to walk the middle road so often, balancing his weight over all sides to minimize the damage if the rug was yanked from beneath him, like lying down on a bed of nails: a thousand tiny, dull pains over one sharp, potentially fatal puncture. She smiled again. “Is Noah doing well?”

“For Noah he is. He would barely look up from some new reports on fracking, seems hopeful he’ll be able to garner enough support.”

Ana snorted. “Good luck with that. I’ll be shocked if it reaches the floor for debate.”

“That makes three of us, then.” He nodded towards the desk. “Bad meeting?”

The frown lines on her face deepened. “Don’t get me started,” she drawled, falling back fully against the cushions. After only a moment, she _ did _ get started regardless of what Adam did or didn’t do. “We received the memo a few days ago that a delegation from Sweden wanted to be in contact, right? Fairly standard stuff, Maura gets back to them quickly because they worded it like it was an urgent matter, and there’s a back and forth for a while about scheduling and accommodations. We’re of the belief they won’t be out here until Monday at the earliest.”

Adam knit his eyebrows together. “It’s not Monday.”

“You fuckin’ tell me. Anyway, I’m halfway through a meeting with a few UN representatives when Maura has to interrupt. They arrived at the White House, claimed they had a meeting, and just…didn’t leave. Evan Maura couldn’t get through to them, which is the thing that scared me a little.”

“You should have put Calla on it.”

“Believe me, if she were here, I would’ve. But as it was, I had to hurry out the UN members to deal with decidedly more antagonistic foreign relations.”

“Why were they even here?”

“They wanted to discuss the military relationship between our countries-”

“What the hell?”

“Yeah, I don’t know,” she said, waving one hand in dismissal. “Any points they were trying to make went straight out the window when they started pulling out cue cards, to be honest. I might have to call Löfven to smooth things over.”

“Well, there’s never a dull moment,” Adam said fairly. His mother snorted.

“Sure isn’t. Anyway,” she said, glancing at her watch, “it’s now Thanksgiving, so no more meetings for twenty-four hours.”

“It’s Wednesday.”

She pulled a face in dismissal. “We take our patriotism seriously, darlin’. Don’t want our home state gettin’ too mad.”

“Of course.”

Ana checked her watch again. “The turkeys will be on their way to the Willard by now, so we’re not ruining any American traditions today.”

“Wait,” Adam said. “Where?”

She looked at him, her eyes narrowing. “The Willard. They stay there every year.”

“What? No. _ No. _You cannot give the turkeys five-star accommodations with taxpayer dollars. You’ve been doing this every year?!”

“It’s public knowledge, sugar. Every news outlet mentions it.”

“How did I not-” Adam cut off. “There is no way you can do that! They’re turkeys! It’s a waste!”

“It’s precedent, Adam. I’m not sure if there’s anything to be done at this point.”

Adam stood quickly, pacing back and forth, and his mother stood behind him. “It’s a _ blatant _waste of money, I’m shocked we haven’t already been-”

“Hon, every president so far has done the same-”

“Imagine the story if we broke the tradition! Even conservatives would have to applaud your frugality-”

“We can’t play games with tradition, you know they already call us disrespectful-”

“-we can’t be using _ taxpayer money-” _

“-by all means, if you have the time to find lodging for two forty-pound turkeys-”

“Put them in my room!” Adam blurted. His mother stopped short.

“You’re not serious,” she said. “We’re not putting the turkeys for me to pardon in your bedroom.”

“Yes, we are.”

“Adam-”

He shifted his feet, coming to a stop. He lifted himself up to his full height. Debate Captain Adam, six-time Best Delegate Adam, and First Son Adam converged into one. His mother barely looked phased.

“Oh, God,” his mother said. “I can’t listen to another sales pitch.”

“Madame President,” Adam began, “I’d like to echo the sentiments of the forebears before me-”

“Nope,” she said, making double-time back to her desk. “You’re not going to filibuster me.”

“In 2018 alone, at least forty-three articles in the Wall Street Journal accused the sitting administration of wasting tax dollars. This came on the heels of a tax increase for Americans making more than ten million dollars per year and the subsequent pushback from a more conservative electorate in Congress.”

“Fine!” Ana said, her hand falling to the desk with a thump. She brought it back up to her head to massage her temple a moment later. “I’m too tired to hear my own history read back at me. You win.”

He sat back down on the couch, crossing his legs primly. “Perfect,” he said, allowing himself to smile once again.

[inevitably-johnlocked]

Hi Steph, I hope you have a lovely day :) did you see the news that apparently S5 has been announced?? do you know if it's true?? should I freak out? :D

Hi Nonny!

Okay so this is going to give me an opportunity to finally get this off my chest, just know that I am NOT upset or angry at you, I’m upset and angry at the “journalists” who keep doing this shit every few months. So, as I keep saying and will always say:

It’s all clickbait. All of it.

I checked to make sure, and this was my first result. Look at the headline:

Notice the wording in this one… None of it is “BBC Confirmed” or “Moffat confirmed”. They’re using speculative words like “teasing”.

Scroll down the article:

There is no official release date for a new series of Sherlock but we can expect the show to arrive in either 2022 or 2023. 

This “journalist”, among many others, is literally just fucking trawling tumblr blogs and pulling information from people like our little corner here who have already done all the fucking work for them. 

The second link I got brought me here, posted just before Dracula, and is LITERALLY just rehashing the shit they recycle every 6 months. Summary is: We don’t know, but please click and subscribe to our website for updates.

I’ve worked in the media, at 4 newspapers, for almost a decade. This shit is normal when it’s a slow news month and they need fluff pieces (which Jan and Feb usually are dead news wise when you want to ignore what’s going on in the world), they go through what gave them clicks this time last year, and assign some intern to just drudge up some “news” clickbait article that they can get some advertising dollars on. Sherlock still gets clicks, ergo, let’s BS an article.

And because they’re using words in the article that doesn’t confirm nor deny anything, and use words that are synonyms with “allegedly”, it’s all completely legal and not fake news. It’s ALL in the language of the article. Carefully read any article about S5 and NONE of them use words that are synonyms with “confirm” other than “so and so confirmed they want to do an S5″ and that’s where the sneaky bit comes in… notice “WANT TO DO” not “ARE DOING”. It’s all about grammar.

Literally this and other articles are just clickbait garbage that is all speculations of stuff we as a fandom have all made on all of our recent S5 posts. It’s only coming up BECAUSE we have been talking about it here on Tumblr and then that brings up the topic in Google search algorithms.

I find it rather interesting that, since I’ve been answering asks recently on my blog about S5, and after I and others replying to my posts are doing all the bloody leg work, that all of a sudden these “writers” are SUDDENLY just talking about Sherlock again. Gee what a coincidence :| Do your own research,  “writers”, stop beating a dead horse with this clickbait crap and stop taking all our work.

Don’t give them the clicks. I’ll save you the trouble; everything discussed in all the google results are everything already talked about in all my S5 posts since Dec. 31/19:

Do you think we’ll ever get an S5 (Dec. 31/19)

Additional Sources to Gattiss’ Homoerotic Quote 

An Ask Linked to It 

Do I Think S5 is still a possibility?

If S5 Continued in the same vein as S4, should TJLC shippers continue to support the show? 

Why are S5 Sherlock BBC discussions popping up again right now? 

What do you think of the theory about Ben’s Hair growing out? (with links to projects of the actors)

Here’s Why The Hair is Growing Out (not my post)

Do you think it’s time to totally give up on S5? 

Any chance they did a super secret episode? … I just want their confirmation, whether S5 is coming or not 

If we’re not going to get a fifth season, then why is the show not cancelled yet? 

Isn’t It Rude of Mofftiss to just not confirm? 

Since Gatiss said he made the show homoerotic just to attract people, I can’t see the characters as I saw them before… How do you cope with that? 

Am I the only one who doesn’t want an S5?

What are the chances that they did film a super secret episode?

Do you believe that Mofftiss are purposely confusing us to surprise us later?

“S5 and Beyond” blog tag

“S5 Speculations” blog tag

“Secret Episode” blog tag

There ya go, saved you from giving them views, LOL. I suffer their stupidity so you don’t have to, LOL.

So the TL;DR answer to your question is: No. Don’t freak out. It’s not happening anytime soon.

They’re literally just taking advantage of Sherlock being still semi-relevant to make money in a slow news month. Until you hear it from Moffat, Gatiss, possibly BBC, Sue Vertue, Hartswood Studios, AND (not OR, AND) the actors themselves, don’t believe a damn thing. It’s not happening anytime soon, either, I feel. I’ve done a tonne of legwork already: Ben, Martin, Gatiss AND Moffat are ALL busy for the foreseeable future: Moffat and Gatiss are writing stage plays, and Ben and Martin both have busy IMDb schedules for the next 2 to 4 years. And they’re the only ones who matter (because let’s be real, without Ben, there’s no Sherlock), so… I’m sorry to be blunt and harsh, but sometimes we have to step back out of the bubble of Tumblr and look at reality for our own sanity.

*hugs* Sorry Nonny

[purplesurveys]

1047

What’s the most historic thing that has happened in your lifetime? I can think of a few things. There’s 9/11 though I was barely conscious then, Osama Bin Laden’s death, the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, 2011 Japan earthquake, and the H1N1 and Covid pandemics. In my country, there were typhoons Ondoy and Yolanda, the Manila hostage crisis, and the Hello Garci election corruption scandal. Out of these, though, I’d say the heaviest ones to bear have been 9/11 and Covid.

What happens in your country regularly that people in most countries would find strange or bizarre?

We use a spoon and fork to eat and only really fancy shmancy restaurants give you a knife and a fork. Many eat with their hands as well, though this is way more common in provinces.

Everyone is late to everything and punctuality isn’t a thing, which is a big culture pet peeve of mine and I still like arriving early/on time anywhere.

This applies to Asia in general lmao, but shoes typically aren’t allowed or at least frowned upon if they go beyond the main entrance of houses.

We start Christmas as early as September, and we end it by the last week of January

When families get together, aunts/uncles will usually greet their nieces/nephews by asking if they already have a boy/girlfriend and/or telling them that they got fat. Horror relatives will greet you with both.

People generally like to keep to themselves, so striking a friendly conversation with strangers even if you have the pure, genuine intention to be simply friendly will just lead them to think you’re being a creep lol

What has been blown way out of proportion? The effects of video games and the question of it increasing violence among kids. Sure there’ve been gruesome accounts and no one’s invalidating those, but the overwhelmingly vast amount of people who play video games end up okay. I had so many killing binges on GTA but to this day I can’t even look at a real gun without shuddering, lol. When was a time you acted nonchalant but were going crazy inside? This is me every morning at work. 9 AM-11 AM is always the busiest period and it’s a lot of shit happening at the same time and a lot of morning deadlines to meet, but unlike college I can’t exactly call for a timeout whenever I want and have panic attacks anymore.

What’s about to get much better? I hope my fucking life is next in line. I’m tired of being tired of being tired.

What are some clever examples of misdirection you’ve seen? Probably all the times WWE would mislead viewers on a rumored return or debut of a big name by saying they’re in another city, implying that there’s no way they’d be appearing on a WWE show. This happened with Ronda Rousey and it was so fucking exciting when she finally showed up, haha.

What’s your funniest story involving a car? I don’t know, really...I don’t try to be funny when I’m on the wheel lol. Probably the time I let Angela use my car on campus, and when she needed to make a u-turn she ended up doing an awkward 90º turn and had an SUV nearly crash towards us. She had only driven a handful of times at that point so she was a little clumsy, but neither of us had any idea she’d fuck up a simple u-turn as badly as she ended up doing lmao.

What would be the click-bait titles of some popular movies? I can think of more clickbait posters than titles, but I can’t seem to remember what those films are called right now.

If you built a themed hotel, what would the theme be and what would the rooms look like? Themed hotels generally make me cringe. The most theme-y place we ever stayed at was the lodge in Sagada and it was really just more homey than anything. I’m not into themes when it comes to hotels as I find it a little cheap lol and I’ve always preferred a straightforward experience in the places I stay at for vacations.

What scientific discovery would change the course of humanity overnight if it was discovered? A way to live forever. < This is a good one. Also, maybe a huge asteroid or meteor bound to hit the planet that will make widespread extinction a certainty? I can’t even begin to imagine the panic that will rise from something like that.

Do you think that humans will ever be able to live together in harmony? I doubt it. It sounds difficult especially when you realize we’re 7 billion in total.

What would your perfect bar look like? As long as there aren’t any annoying younger college kids, who are almost always the loudest crowd and not in a good way, I’m okay with any kind of bar.

What’s the scariest non-horror movie? Some shots in 2001: A Space Odyssey are freaky as fuck. There were several scenes that included sudden HAL shots, and I did not enjoy those. How the fuck Kubrick managed to make a computer scary is beyond me. I’ve also always skipped the vortex scene with the creepy face shots after seeing it once.

What’s the most amazing true story you’ve heard? This is a really vague question... a few months ago I watched this video diary of parents who had a child born at like 25 weeks. Just way too early, basically. And they recorded the kid’s weekly progress, how she kept fighting, and her journey of being transported from one machine to another while she still needed them. It was beautiful to see her get bigger and plumper with each week that passed and it was just such a feel-good story to watch. I was so relieved when they showed footage of her as a normal, healthy toddler by the end of the clip.

What’s the grossest food that you just can’t get enough of? I know balut is pretty unpopular in the Western part of the world, but I’ll gladly eat a dozen of them in one sitting. In general Asian street food is usually considered gross - pig intestines, chicken intestines, chicken feet, pig ears, etc., but all are normal in the culture I was raised in.

What brand are you most loyal to? It’s annoying and I can’t help it, but Apple.

What’s the most awkward thing that happens to you on a regular basis? I try not to make it regular, but sometimes a mistake on my end will slip through in an email I’m sending and I have to send another email correcting myself and apologizing for the oversight. One of my least favorite parts about work.

If you had to disappear and start a whole new life, what would you want your new life to look like? I’m not wishing for much. I just wish it was easier to remove any trace of me on social media sites and have it be as if I never existed because I think that would make it easier for me to move on from...well, you know what. I still have trouble verbalizing it and I don’t feel like mentioning it tonight.

But idk, I like staying connected to my family and friends, so idk if I can ever achieve that. And that said, I think I’m bound to always keep seeing her around.

What movie or book do you know the most quotes from? I memorize a pathetic amount of dialogue from Love Actually, Twilight, Titanic, and The Proposal.  What was one of the most interesting concerts you’ve been to? I guess Coldplay? They gave assigned lightsticks for each section and the crowd looked amazing when the production crew activated the lights for certain songs. I still have some of the clips because I posted them on Snapchat, so I’m really glad I did that; otherwise I would’ve lost the videos forever.

Where are you not welcome anymore? I’ve felt pretty unwelcome around her. How she could do a 180 and just not be interested in having anything to do with me is really soul-crushing.

What do you think could be done to improve the media? Fact fucking check, please. Also keeping sources balanced, avoiding clickbait headlines, being more objective than neutral, and don’t fucking sensationalize. How timely that this landed on a journalism graduate, hahaha.

What’s the most recent show you’ve binge watched? Start Up but I haven’t continued in the last two weeks :/ I think it’s because I know I’m nearing the finale and I subconsciously just don’t want to run out of Start Up episodes to watch lol but yeah, I still have four episodes left and I have no clue when I’ll watch it again.

What’s a common experience for many people that you’ve never experienced? Being close with their mom and considering them as their rock.

What are some misconceptions about your hobby? I don’t know enough about embroidery to know misconceptions about it.

What did you Google last? 2001: A Space Odyssey because I needed to be sure of the scenes I planned on citing in the question above that made me mention the movie.

What’s the dumbest thing someone has argued with you about? Not being able to find a restaurant to eat at. The backstory is a little complicated but it’s the same fight that led my younger brother to slap me across the face, and what subsequently led me to stop speaking to him.

If money and practicality weren’t a problem, what would be the most interesting way to get around town? Probably a tank.

What’s the longest rabbit hole you’ve been down? It’s always the ones on Wikipedia lol. I find weird and interesting articles on there all the time; there’s always something new to read.

What odd smell do you really enjoy? The rain, though sometimes it can be too overpowering when the humidity has been high. I like it for the most part, though.

What fashion trend makes you cringe or laugh every time you see it? Streetwear is so fucking dull to me. I never saw the appeal.

What’s your best story of you or someone else trying to be sneaky and failing miserably? Hahahaha this happened just a few weeks ago actually. My parents and I were headed out to have some ramen, and I opened the car door to hop onto the backseat. They didn’t prepare beforehand and they left the Christmas gift I asked for - a corkboard - in the backseat, so I was able to see the whole thing, unwrapped and with price tag and all. Their mortified faces knowing that their secret’s been blown were hilarious. They had no choice but to just give it up, and the corkboard has been on my wall since.

If you had a HUD that showed three stats about any person you looked at, what three stats would you want it to show? I guess the stability of our relationship, their general mood for the day, and erm how badly they need a hug because I’m always willing to give some.

What’s the best way you or someone you know has gotten out of a ticket / trouble with the law? My mom fake-cries her way out and it’s always been hilarious to see a grown ass woman do it and pull it off every time.

Tear gas makes people cry and laughing gas makes people giggle, what other kinds of gases do you wish existed? I don’t really want to manipulate people’s action in this way, so pass.