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becomewings · 4 years ago

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The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>

BTS Universe Story Highlights, pt. 1 / 4

» pt. 2

Introduction

BTS Universe Story, a mobile game published by Netmarble, was released on September 24, 2020. While the majority of the app is essentially a sandbox and engine for users to create their own interactive stories, it also includes official and canon BU content. The first eight segments were introduced between the release date and December 2020, gathered under the title The Most Beautiful Moment in Life <I’M FINE>.

“I’m Fine” is half of the I’m Fine/Save Me ambigram introduced in the Love Yourself era. Notably, all of the BU content available in the game so far falls between events of the webtoon Save Me (also called HYYH0 in its logo) and The Notes 1—chronologically, that is, while bearing in mind that time resets to the morning of 11 April Year 22 whenever SeokJin fails to avert a tragedy among his six friends. I want to assure anyone who is unable to play the game that you are not missing any new, major plot beats from the overall BU narrative. Instead, the stories provide more insight into the motivations and consequences of SeokJin’s decisions in the earlier time loops, as well as more depth to individual characters and their circumstances.

The goal of this guide is to summarize each of the eight stories and highlight noteworthy details, especially if they are not yet present in other BU media. Within each story (which I often refer to as an arc, due to their character-focused nature), episodes must be played successively, but the stories themselves can be played in any order. I will present them over a series of posts in the order they are listed under the <I’M FINE> heading. The Prologue and NamJoon’s arc are free to play; the rest are paid content. Please note that due to the app’s Terms & Conditions, I will not include in-game footage here. The images in this guide are sourced from the official trailers/videos and the live action MVs as appropriate.

Content warning: contains references to death, suicide, suicidal ideation, child abuse, domestic violence, blood, homicide, depression, trauma, PTSD

This guide contains major spoilers and includes references to other BU media

Do not repost, copy, or quote without permission

Game Mechanic

Before diving into the summaries, I would like to address the primary mechanic of the game: the user’s control of character choices at designated moments in the stories. It’s a primary marketing point that the player can influence the progression of the narrative, with a frequent in-app tip also declaring, “stories’ endings can vary depending on your choices.” The latter is not strictly true—and it cannot be true due to the structure of the game. Choices are presented within most (not all) episodes, but each episode is an isolated unit: episode 2 provides the same content regardless of what you choose in episode 1. Since the consequences of your decisions are not cumulative, each episode reaches the same ending, and each decision inevitably rejoins the “main” story path (effectively reducing the script size).

So what is the point of this mechanic? While the system is not nearly as complex as what major platform titles are capable of nowadays (I suspect due in large part to the story creation portion of the game), it does foster a sense of interaction with the narrative that isn’t present in static visual media like comics or film. The episodes with choices also have incentive for replay to discover the impact of changing a character’s dialogue or action. Sometimes the differences between the outcomes are inconsequential, but other times you unearth new details, interactions, or memories that are missing in the other path.

I say this partially in reaction to all of the comments and tweets I read for the game trailers and even Smeraldo Book twitter’s choose-your-own-adventure style teasers with The Notes 2 excerpts released last summer. Many users expressed excitement, through words or memes, about finally being able to give the boys the happy ending they deserved. I don’t fault anyone for wanting that happy ending—I wish for it, too. But no matter what the rather overzealous marketing has claimed, I don’t believe that the canon ending of BU is ever meant to be in the audience’s control. But I do feel that this mechanism fits the BU narrative. It echoes the “countless loops” SeokJin has experienced in an effort to save his friends, the choices he must make at every crossroad, and the butterfly effect those actions have on all of their lives. I think it is reasonable to interpret the simple branching paths in the game as alternatives SeokJin has explored across multiple loops in his struggle to find the “right” way forward. I’d love to hear if you have theories of your own!

Prologue

The prologue is a brief episode introducing SeokJin’s repeated struggle and failure to save his friends. He wakes up yet again in his bed on 11 April Year 22, the beginning of the time loop. After reflecting on the tragedies that keep befalling the others, SeokJin realizes that he has only tried to fix the problems he can see. He wonders: “Have I tried to understand the root of my friends’ misfortunes? How much do I really know about my friends? Maybe I was never brave enough to confront their real scars and the worlds they’ve been living in. But I need to do it. Because it may be the key to saving them all.”

How to Offer a Hand

In this story, SeokJin attempts to prevent NamJoon’s arrest after he gets in a fight with a rude customer at Naeri Gas Station, his place of work. The first episode opens on the night of 11 April Year 22 with NamJoon curling his fists, glaring as crumpled bills lie untouched on the pavement. (The money looks similar to the shot from the I Need U MV.) SeokJin reaches for his shoulder, but NamJoon shrugs him off and strides away to punch the customer who deliberately dropped the bills for him to pick up. The gas station owner runs over at the customer’s furious shouts and orders NamJoon to apologize. He refuses, and police officers soon arrive and charge him with assault. No one listens to SeokJin’s protests that the customer started it first. The man sneers as NamJoon enters the police car. “Do you even have money for a settlement? Hey, you’re done for.” NamJoon is sentenced to prison again, and SeokJin hears glass shattering before the loop resets.

Rising from his bed on the morning of 11 April, SeokJin reflects on his failed efforts so far. He has hit the customer’s car, called for NamJoon in the middle of the incident, and stopped the fight himself, the latter of which caused his friends to avoid him later. The fight has even escalated; the details are unspecified, but the audience is provided an ominous shot of SeokJin speaking to a police officer alone at the scene. NamJoon is not the kind of person who would normally respond to that kind of provocation with his fists. SeokJin realizes that he cannot merely stop the fight but must discover and fix the true cause of it.

With this in mind, SeokJin heads to Naeri Gas Station during the day and tries to engage NamJoon. This is their first time meeting since they both returned to Songju, although SeokJin has experienced it in many loops already. “It’s been a while,” he greets (as he does at the end of the Blood Sweat & Tears Japanese version MV). Before SeokJin can dig deeper in their conversation, NamJoon is called away by his boss. SeokJin enters the small employee break room which serves as NamJoon’s living space when he’s not at the container, hoping to find some clues about his friend’s life. SeokJin locates something bundled in newspapers. If the player chooses to open it, he sees a strange shard of glass inside that may belong to a car or motorcycle headlight. He continues on, finding the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan and a notebook. SeokJin hesitates over the invasion of privacy but decides to read it since he needs all the information that he can gather. The journal entries detail NamJoon’s daily life since returning to Songju: his work at the gas station isn’t too bad despite the occasional rude customer; he purchased a book and hopes to get more in the future; he picked up a second job at a wedding hall to help catch up on bills; his brother NamHyeon got in trouble again, leading to more expenses; and his dad’s health has worsened, with hospital bills after an emergency surgery rising to levels that the family cannot afford. SeokJin knew that NamJoon was the de facto head of household due to his father’s illness but was unaware that it was to this degree. He feels sorry for NamJoon yet is also impressed by his maturity, for NamJoon never writes how difficult his situation is.

NamJoon arrives and asks what SeokJin is doing in the room. If the player chooses to answer “reading” instead of “just sitting there,” SeokJin privately observes that the conversation flows more easily when they talk about books. NamJoon says he must leave and declines when SeokJin offers to wait for him there. SeokJin knocks over a pile of books along with money and receipts as he stands. He thinks it is unusual that NamJoon picks up the books before the money. The books seem to be more than a hobby to NamJoon, holding special meaning. Walking to his car, SeokJin wonders if it is pride or determination not to falter that keeps NamJoon from journaling his grievances. He realizes that money is a constant source of frustration and misery to NamJoon, and that’s why he can’t stomach being insulted over the customer’s dropped money. SeokJin’s new plan is to prevent NamJoon from picking up the money. He also calls Palgok County Hospital and offers to pay the patient bill for NamJoon’s father. Anticipating that NamJoon will be angry if he finds out, SeokJin says the payer is Songho Foundation.

That night, SeokJin returns to the gas station with the excuse that he forgot to fill up earlier. The luxury car arrives with a honk, and NamJoon hurries over to assist. He shakes with anger when the customer drops the money on the ground. “Why aren’t you picking it up? You don’t want it? What’s with that look? Pretty arrogant for a part-timer, aren’t you?” goads the customer. SeokJin intervenes. Whether the player chooses to have him advise NamJoon not to pick it up or to order the customer to pick it up himself, the end result is the same. SeokJin asks the customer, “Why are you harassing a pitiful part-timer?” The customer drives away, and something about NamJoon seems off. His face is expressionless, not mad or humiliated. “SeokJin, you…” He stops. “Never mind. Thank you for your help.” The words sound difficult for him to speak.

SeokJin believes that he has saved NamJoon, although this ending feels sloppy. He continues on in the loop to rescue JungKook and later YoonGi, but uneasiness plagues him. Though he meant to help NamJoon with his actions, SeokJin wonders if he hurt him instead. On 5 May Year 22, he returns to the gas station and follows NamJoon when he leaves work early. NamJoon enters a bookstore, and SeokJin sneaks in after him to watch from afar. He overhears employees talking about NamJoon, worrying that he might dirty the pages of the book he’s perusing. NamJoon is too absorbed in the book to notice one of them calling for his attention. SeokJin recalls a memory from their school days when he found NamJoon reading alone in their classroom hideout: he asked why NamJoon read so diligently, and his friend explained that he found it comforting to empty his thoughts of everything else while focused on the book. In the present, SeokJin wonders how he forgot how much books mean to NamJoon. He sacrifices some of his food and transportation budget to afford them, but they enable him “to endure the weight of the world he’s forced to bear on his shoulders.” After realizing this, SeokJin wants to apologize for carelessly sympathizing with the reality that NamJoon has weathered alone.

The next episode is from NamJoon’s perspective, revealing his excitement over being able to purchase a book for the first time in two months. He wants to buy two but can only afford one. The employee at the register sighs and asks why he leafed through a book he wasn’t going to buy. NamJoon apologizes, and she mutters, “So dirty.” He notices his reflection, clothes worn and smelling of gasoline, and realizes she’s talking about him, not the book. He tries to shake off these depressing thoughts, but he is still not accustomed to this treatment despite experiencing it regularly at work. As NamJoon begins to exit the store, the security alarm goes off. The employees demand to check his bag despite his insistence that he didn’t steal anything. Their certainty of his theft angers him. NamJoon allows them to look through his bag, and they are suspicious of the like-new book in it which he brought from home. One begins to call the police until SeokJin appears, vouching for NamJoon by saying he saw everything. The employees accept that the alarm malfunctioned and excuse their suspicions as a mistake.

Outside, SeokJin asks NamJoon if he is all right. NamJoon is thankful but wonders how SeokJin materialized right when he needed him. “How’d you find me here?” he asks aloud. SeokJin explains that he happened to notice him while walking through the neighborhood. NamJoon wonders if it’s because they said goodbye on a weird note last time. He thanks him and turns to leave. SeokJin calls after him. “I’m sorry. I wanted to apologize. I didn’t mean to upset you that day at the gas station. It was a mistake to have called you pitiful. If my rash actions hurt you, I’m really sorry.” NamJoon accepts his apology, believing it to be sincere, and says that things would have turned out a lot worse if SeokJin had not intervened. Thunder rolls overhead, and NamJoon uses the impending rain as his excuse to depart. He declines SeokJin’s offer of a ride and runs home, feeling his friend’s eyes on him.

Before he can settle down to read at home, NamJoon receives a call from his cheerful mother. She thanks him for paying off the entire hospital bill. NamJoon is perplexed and asks what’s on the receipt, since he didn’t pay it. His mother wants to leave it be, but he insists that they investigate so they don’t get in trouble or sued. She reads that the Songho Foundation is credited as the payer. NamJoon calls the hospital, introducing himself as the guardian for Kim YoungMin, but they can’t transfer him to the administrative department at this time. Disappointed, he looks up the foundation’s website, unable to recall why it sounds familiar. He wonders why a scholarship foundation in the city would get involved with him. Spotting photos of a recent launch ceremony on the site, he recognizes a few people: Songju High School’s principal, the familiar-looking face of the foundation’s chairman, and SeokJin. First, NamJoon forces a laugh, and then it’s difficult for him to breathe. He thinks that SeokJin really had pitied him at that moment. The only thing keeping NamJoon going is the idea of getting through life on his own strength. Why does he have to live like this?

The last episode opens on 5 May back in SeokJin’s perspective. He is confident now that he has saved NamJoon, although it occurs to him that a better alternative may have been to simply pick up the money himself instead of stepping forward. (This decision is enacted in a later loop and depicted in the Euphoria MV.) While reflecting on what comes next to save his other friends, he receives a text from NamJoon. “What’s your account number? I’ll pay you back for the hospital bills. I don’t need your help. I’ll handle my concerns on my own.” Heart sinking, SeokJin wonders how he found out. With a sense of foreboding, he tries calling NamJoon, but no one answers. SeokJin texts him back, pretending that he doesn’t understand, and tells NamJoon to call him. SeokJin’s second attempt connects while he’s gathering his car keys to visit the container. “That’s enough. Just send the account number over text,” NamJoon instructs. SeokJin coaxes him to talk for a moment, and NamJoon asks flatly, “Are you going to apologize again?” SeokJin attempts to salvage the situation, but his friend turns cold when he insists that NamJoon is misunderstanding and that he just wanted to help. “So, why? Why are you helping me?! Yeah, you’re always a good person. You’ve done nothing wrong and I’m the one misunderstanding.” SeokJin apologizes again. NamJoon refuses his request to meet in person. “No, I thought maybe there was a reason for everything you did… But I guess I misconstrued it. I’ll pay you back, so I’d prefer if you stopped contacting me.” Long after the call ends, SeokJin stands holding his phone, feeling that the glass is going to break at any moment. He wants to believe that it’s not over, but hope is slipping through his fingertips.

The episode finishes in NamJoon’s perspective. On 8 May and 9 May, he accepts part-time delivery work and reflects on his three jobs. Whenever he thinks he’s at his breaking point, he focuses on his new goal of returning SeokJin’s money. On 10 May, NamJoon wakes up to his buzzing phone and is called in to work. On a scooter, he passes by a bus stop and notices graffiti. (This is the same bus stop, with matching graffiti, that appears in the Highlight Reel.) Mesmerized, he wonders if it’s TaeHyung’s. As soon as NamJoon looks up, the scooter’s brake fails, and he crashes. The shattered glass on the cold pavement reminds him of the headlight shard and the kid who looked like TaeHyung. (So the piece of glass SeokJin saw in April was really a memento NamJoon retrieved from the scene of the crash in the mountain town, where the delivery boy whom he privately called TaeHyung died. This event is described in NamJoon’s 17 December Year 21 entry in The Notes 1.) NamJoon’s vision grows blurry, and the distant sound of an ambulance doesn’t come any closer.

The arc concludes there, but it obviously marks another reset for SeokJin. It is interesting to note that in this failed loop, NamJoon suffers the same fate that he narrowly avoided in the snowy mountain town before returning to Songju.

Please stay tuned for the next Highlights post featuring JungKook and YoonGi!

#armiesnet #networkbangtan #bangtanarmynet #armysource #dailybangtan #bts universe #hyyh #bangtan universe #bts universe story #bts universe story highlights #seokjin #namjoon #namjin #bts theories

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snowonthebeachmp3 · 4 years ago

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February 2016

Feb 11th - Kanye debuts his song Famous at his Yeezy fashion show. It contains the infamous lyric, 'I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex / Why? I made that bitch famous.' Gigi Hadid and Austin Swift are quick to express their disapproval. (x)

Feb 12th - Taylor's publicist Tree Paine releases a statement saying "Kanye did not call for approval, but to ask Taylor to release his single 'Famous' on her Twitter account. She declined and cautioned him about releasing a song with such a strong misogynistic message. Taylor was never made aware of the actual lyric, "I made that bitch famous.’" (x)

Ruby Rose condemns Kanye, tweeting, 'Too many lines crossed. If I put myself in the shoes of the women he has hurt recently. Victims of Bill Cosby, the slut shaming, Amber… And now my dear friend Taylor.. Right before another huge moment for her.. Can I still support him and call myself a feminist? A friend? No.' (x)

Kanye claims on Twitter that Taylor thought the lyric was funny and that she came up with it herself. He also claimed Taylor told a mutual friend over dinner that, 'I can't be mad at Kanye because he made me famous!' (x)

Sometime in the days leading up to the Grammys - Taylor's 73 Questions with Vogue interview is filmed in LA (it is not published until April, soon after her Vogue cover is released). In the video, she says she is currently busy 'working out and getting ready for Grammys' (presumably referring to rehearsals since she was the opening performer that year). (Update: turns out the interview was filmed on the 2nd Feb.)

Some other answers she gave in this interview:

What are you completely bored of in life right now? Clickbait.

What's your favourite food? I mean, if we're just saying, like, what I wish I could eat every day if calories didn't count, is like, chicken tenders.

What's one thing you still have from your childhood? My insecurities.

What's something you've always wanted to try but you've been too scared to do? Coachella.

What advice would you give to anyone who wants to become a singer? Uh, get a good lawyer.

What's the one thing you wish you knew at nineteen? If I could talk to my nineteen-year-old self I'd just say, hey, you know, you're gonna date just like a normal twenty-something should be allowed to, but you're going to be a national lightning rod for slut-shaming.

What do you think is the most important life lesson for someone to learn? That karma is real.

Feb 15th - Taylor attends the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in LA. She opens the televised show with a performance of Out of the Woods (x) and debuts her Anna Wintour-esque bob (x).

After her performance, she is seen crying in the audience while Selena (her plus-one for the evening) comforts her. Apparently she is upset about missing a note while performing. (x) (video)

1989 wins Album of the Year, making her the first woman to win this award twice. In her acceptance speech, she references the situation with Kanye, saying, 'I want to say to all the young women out there, there are going to be people along the way who will try to undercut your success, or take credit for your accomplishments or your fame.' (x)

Taylor attends the Republic Records afterparty with friends and then-boyfriend Calvin Harris, who was not there for the awards show itself. (x)

In her 2020 documentary Miss Americana, Taylor had this to say about the 2016 Grammys: (x)

My life had never been better. I had won album of the year at the Grammys for a second time, which I never thought was a possibility. And I remembered thinking afterward, oh my god, that was all you wanted. Oh god, that was all you wanted. That was all you focused on. And you get to the mountaintop and you look around and you’re like, oh god. What now? I didn’t have a partner that I climbed it with that I could, like, high five. I didn’t have anyone I could talk to who could relate to what I was – you know? I had my mom. But I just wondered, shouldn’t I have someone that I could call right now?

Feb 16th - Calvin posts a photo of Taylor accepting her AOTY Grammy to social media with the caption, 'Congratulations to my beautiful girlfriend.' (x) I cannot believe this post is still up 💀💀

Taylor goes for lunch with Scott and Andrea at Cecconi's in LA. (x)

Feb 17th - Taylor is seen out shopping in Beverly Hills. (x)

The NME Awards take place in London at the O2 Academy. Taylor wins Best International Solo Artist but is not there in person. Instead, a pre-recorded video of her accepting the award is played at the ceremony. (x) Her outfit and haircut suggest that the video was filmed on the same day as her Vogue 73 Questions interview at her LA house.

Feb 19th - Taylor announces on Twitter that New Romantics will be the next single from 1989. (x)

She is seen getting off her plane in Reading, PA (x) and visiting her childhood home. (x)

Feb 20th - Taylor is the maid of honour at her childhood best friend Britany Maack's wedding in Pennsylvania. (x) She brings Vogue reporter Jason Gay with her, and he writes about the weekend for Taylor's Vogue cover story, published in the May edition. (x)

A few excerpts from that weekend (not published until almost two months later): (x)

Swift says she is ready to lie a little low. After the wedding, she will go to New York, where she will be spotted dining with her friend Lena Dunham, and then be seen a week later in Los Angeles with her brother, Austin, and her friend Lorde at the Vanity Fair Oscar Party. As for future plans . . . who knows? For the first time in years, Swift is not sure exactly what is next. She is very much OK with this.

So what the hell are you going to do with the rest of your life, Taylor Swift?

“I have no idea,” she says, with a sigh that’s more blissful than anxious. “This is the first time in ten years that I haven’t known. I just decided that after the past year, with all of the unbelievable things that happened . . . I decided I was going to live my life a little bit without the pressure on myself to create something.”

Because I’m a hopeless cheeseball, I can’t help asking: Being part of this wedding, does it make Swift think about being married some day? For the past year, she has been seeing the Scottish DJ-producer Calvin Harris. Harris is not here with her, but in early March, he and Swift will post cutesy notices on social media—his on Snapchat; hers on Instagram—commemorating the one-year status of their relationship. Soon after, both will post photographs of an idyllic, whereabouts-unknown vacation in the tropics, with ts + aw written in the sand. (Harris’s given name is Adam Wiles.)

“I’m just taking things as they come,” Swift says. “I’m in a magical relationship right now. And of course I want it to be ours, and low-key . . . this is the one thing that’s been mine about my personal life.”

“I think the world is so bored with the [Kanye] saga,” she goes on. “I don’t want to add anything to it, because then there’s just more.”

Feb 21st - Taylor donates $250,000 to Kesha after she loses her lawsuit against Dr Luke and Sony. (x)

Taylor goes to New York and visits the Vogue offices. (x) She also meets Lena Dunham for dinner. (x)

Feb 22nd - Demi Lovato tweets, 'Take something to Capitol Hill or actually speak out about something and then I'll be impressed.' The tweet is widely interpreted as shading Taylor following the news of her donation. (x)

Taylor is papped arriving at and leaving Milk Studios, a photography studio in NYC. (x) I think this was when they shot her Vogue cover (she wore a wig for the cover shoot and only bleached her actual hair in April when the magazine came out).

Feb 23rd - Kanye brings up the Famous controversy while onstage at 1 OAK nightclub in LA. He claims Taylor said “Ooh Kanye, I like that line!” when he told her about the line 'I feel like me and Taylor might still have sex.' “Then she won her award and said something completely different! She not cool no more. She had two seconds to be cool and she fucked it up.” (x)

Feb 24th - Taylor and Jack Antonoff go for dinner at the Maia restaurant in LA. (x)

Feb 28th - Taylor attends the Vanity Fair Oscars afterparty in LA. (x) She is photographed with Lorde and Austin.

Intro // February // March // April // May // June // July // August // September // October // November

#taylor swift #hiddleswift #tayvin #swiftwyn #jaylor #toe #taylor swift in 2016 #timeline

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ppatpranss · 4 years ago

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Gaya Sa Pelikula: Pushing for a Happy Ending as an Aftermath of the Finale Teaser

VLAD: Hi.

KARL: Hi.

VLAD: This is not my unit.

KARL: This is not your unit.

VLAD: And you are not my ex.

KARL: I am not your ex.

VLAD: (tears form in his eyes). You are not my ex.

Vlad breaks down, crying. He loses balance. He’s about to fall. Karl lets go of the teaser to catch Vlad.

This is an excerpt from the Wattpad screenplays (read here). This is a snippet of “that night” (as also seen in the finale teaser).

Hello! To the person who asked about this, sorry if I’m gonna reply through this post instead because for some reason, my Reply feature is not working. I hope you see this.

Spoilers ahead.

(EDIT: Taking back what I said on this first part because I just got reminded that the series is a prequel so skip to next paragraph) First, to explain - the Wattpad screenplays are a fictionalization of the events of the sembreak as written by Karl. What we’re watching now in the series is basically the “real” events that happened during the sembreak. So, if you read the Wattpad screenplays, you can recall a few familiar scenes we’ve already seen in the series. It’s just that the Wattpad screenplays are set in university. For example: In the series, episode 1, Ate Judit caught Karl and Vlad in a compromising situation and immediately assumed that they might be dating. In the screenplay, this similar event happened as well but this time, it was inside a bathroom in their university and Aldous (Vlad’s ex) was the one who walked in on them.

The original plan for Gaya was a university setting but given the prolonged pandemic, this is obviously not feasible. So I guess, this is where Juan Miguel Severo’s creativity came in - he connected the Wattpad screenplays to the series in such a way that this is now a story written by Karl. Remember, Karl wants to write his own story.

In the screenplay, there was Vlad’s famous Letter #38 where, in the last part of the letter, he told Karl:

“About your script. Why did you choose to start the story with that night. You know the truth as well as I do. It wasn’t a single night that started us. It was an entire sem break.”

A Twitter mutual of mine posted a screenshot of the excerpt above from the Wattpad screenplay a couple of days ago. For now, I could say that what we saw in the teaser is precisely this specific scene from the Wattpad screenplay, however, in a different context - the series context.

Considering the context of the series, it led me to believe that this could now be interpreted in a different light. As mentioned in this mini Twitter thread of mine: You see, Karl is always compared with Vlad’s ex. Ate Judit and Vlad pretty much assume that because Karl could not come out yet, he would do the same to Vlad by hiding him and forcing him back. But to me, the precise exchange from the screenplay when put in the context of the series could mean a different thing now, specifically “you are not my ex.” Vlad should have given Karl the time to process his feelings and his newfound discovery about himself. Karl is not A. It would be a moment of realization for Vlad to accept that he won’t necessarily experience the same thing he did with Aldous because he should have known better that when it comes to Karl, it’s different. (ADDITIONAL NOTE: I’m not necessarily saying that the “you’re not my ex” line will be said in the series but I just thought that putting it into the context of the series gives it a whole new meaning.)

The that night Vlad was referring to is precisely this night: the one in the excerpt and the one we saw in the teaser. With the help of my discussion with my mutuals over the past few days and today, we’ve come to a realization (or let’s call it theory for now, I guess) that writing the screenplay is indeed Karl’s way of writing his own story. For Vlad, their entire story started during the sem break, but even if the screenplay is sprinkled with these events, Karl was not sure then. That was not when the story started for him because, to borrow the words of one of my mutuals in this tweet, the events of the sem break are a byproduct of the invasions of the many people coming into his life and in his apartment. And so, that night in the teaser when Vlad came back to the apartment is the night when Karl finally decides to really embrace all these feelings and discoveries about himself, and be brave enough to fight for their love. Karl started the screenplay with that night precisely because that was the start of the story for him. That was Karl finally owning his story.

Here are some Twitter threads or tweets you can check (though these are in Tagalog and English): [1], [2], [3], [4]

Also adding here an analysis I did on Karl from Episode 07 to try to make sense of where he’s coming from.

On whether I see the show having a happy ending, yes I still do believe in it. I think that after their conversation during that night, both Karl and Vlad can find a new ground on how they can navigate this situation between them (Simula sa Gitna). For me, most of their problems always come from external forces - people who are invading their space, families who are well-meaning but also overstep their boundaries, the society in general for establishing these hateful perspective that a boy loving another boy is a crime. But when it is just the two of them together, they always find ways to navigate through their situation. Vlad knows how to give Karl the time to figure things out for himself, and Karl becomes braver to do what he wants because he knows there is at least one person in Vlad who believes in him.

Majority of the GSP viewers believe that Karl and Vlad should take some time away from each other, and I do agree with the sentiment. However, for me, you can also take the road less travelled: they can do this together. They’ve always been great together. They’ve always made things work together. Severo’s aim in writing this story is to show that this is possible too for its queer audience who have been told multiple times that their endings are always sad, or tragic, or hopeless. I’d like to believe that Gaya will take a different approach by giving Karl and Vlad the happy ending that they deserve. Karl and Vlad deserve it. The queer people watching this show deserve to know that this is possible for them, too.

As with the line from Kilometer Zero that I’ve been quoting, sa ‘tin pa rin ang uwi. We will always still come home to us, to what is ours.

#ppangpangss replies #gaya sa pelikula #like in the movies #gsp #happy ending theory #happy ending agenda #gsp wattpad scholar hahaha

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petite-elf · 2 years ago

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[ID: The first image: A tweet by David Bowman @dlbowman76 that reads: "I'm pondering the problem that our relentless "STEM, STEM, STEM!!!" educational drumbeat has created a new class of engineers who can solve any technical problem but also can't explain why Naziism is bad. There's another tweet y the same author below that reads: "This is adjacent to the problem that people in this country see no merit in studying any subject that cannot go on a resumé and be instantly monetized". The next image is an excerpt from the book Life in Code: A Personal History of Technology by Ellen Ullman that reads: " IV. Real techies don't worry about forced eugenics. I learned this from a real techie in the cafeteria of a software company. The project team is having lunch and discussing how long it would take to wipe out a disease inherited recessively on the X chro- mosome. First come calculations of inheritance probabilities. Given a population of a given size, one of the engineers arrives at a wipe- out date. Immediately another suggests that the date could be moved forward by various manipulations of the inheritance patterns. For example, he says, there could be an education campaign. The six team members then fall over one another with further suggestions. They start with rewards to discourage carriers from breeding. Immediately they move to fines for those who reproduce the disease. Then they go for what they call "more effective" measures: Jail for breeding. Induced abortion. Forced sterilization. Now they're hot. The calculations are flying. Years and years fall from the final doom-date of the disease. Finally, they get to the ultimate solution. "It's straightforward," someone says. “Just kill every carrier.” Everyone responds to this last suggestion with great enthusiasm. One generation and—bang—the disease is gone. Quietly, I say, "You know, that's what the Nazis did." They all look at me in disgust. It's the look boys give a girl who has interrupted a burping contest. One says, “This is something my wife would say.” When he says "wife," there is no love, warmth, or goodness in it. In this engineer's mouth, “wife” means wet diapers and dirty dishes. It means someone angry with you for losing track of time and missing dinner. Someone sentimental. In his mind (for the moment), “wife” signifies all programming-party-pooping, illogical things in the universe. Still, I persist. "It started as just an idea for the Nazis, too, you know." The engineer makes a reply that sounds like a retch. "This is how I know you're not a real techie," he says." End ID]

#described #this is so depressing #sometimes i feel useless for studying sociology and anthropology #because it's isn't easy to get a well paid job in sociology etc #but like. at least it taught me how to look at stuff critically i guess?#and to question stuff before just believing it...#idk idk! i wish we didn't live in capitalism

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harrowdubois · 4 years ago

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okay, i said if there was interest i would think about making a post listing all the references i squeezed into the locked tomb fic i spent the last month or so writing, and now i’ve realised i don’t care if there’s interest because i want to be self-indulgent SO

under the cut is a (somewhat spoilery) chronological list of all the memes, vines, and cribbed tumblr posts, as well as homages to various books, tv shows, song lyrics, etc. that made their way into blessed with a wilder mind!

(cw for suicide mention)

this is of course a reference to the legendary bodybuilding forum thread where they did, actually, argue over how many days there are in a week (cw for ableist slurs in the thread)

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buzzfeed unsolved meme. i am dirt and i love to eat dirt

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this is so well-known it’s almost not worth listing it but oh my god they were roommates

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in itself, this isn’t a reference to anything in particular, but if you didn’t do this on your first read then i’d recommend taking another look at this scene and thinking about the specific wuthering heights/frankenstein/rebecca excerpts discussed by harrow and mercymorn but in relation to canon!harrow’s trauma/relationship with the body in htn :~)

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also not really a reference to anything in particular but when i looked back over the fic for this post it struck me that the ‘sex panther’ phrasing was probably at least partially unconsciously inspired by the shoebox project (professor mcgonagall’s oiled man panther was a formative moment for me, truly)

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cw gross/unsanitary: it’s the tinder poop window incident. i mentioned this in the end notes of the fic as being what i had in mind for that scene but if it’s too gross for you (UNDERSTANDABLY) then feel free to Death Of The Author me to your heart’s content!

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i listened to a lot of orville peck while writing this

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very very very loosely inspired by this clickhole article

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respectively: fourth of july by sufjan stevens / wuthering heights by emily bronte

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TWO BROS, CHILLIN IN A HOT TUB, FIVE FEET APART BECAUSE THEY’RE NOT GAY

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there was absolutely no need to stretch this across three paragraphs, and yet

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iconic

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i already linked to this one in the end notes of the fic itself, but it’s good, so here it is again

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i can’t find the actual original post but it’s this fucking horrible thing

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the last line is a reference to the secret history by donna tartt:

“Could it be because it reminds us that we are alive, of our mortality, of our individual souls- which, after all, we are too afraid to surrender but yet make us feel more miserable than any other thing? But isn't it also pain that often makes us most aware of self? It is a terrible thing to learn as a child that one is a being separate from the world, that no one and no thing hurts along with one's burned tongues and skinned knees, that one's aches and pains are all one’s own. Even more terrible, as we grow old, to learn that no person, no matter how beloved, can ever truly understand us. Our own selves make us most unhappy, and that's why we're so anxious to lose them, don't you think?”

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a lyrical double whammy!

from ‘last words of a shooting star’ by mitski: “they’ll never know how i’d stared at the dark in that room with no thoughts like a blood-sniffing shark”

from ‘a better son/daughter’ by rilo kiley: “sometimes in the morning i am petrified but can’t move/awake but cannot open my eyes”

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shout-out to maybe my single favourite video game moment, the encounter with the sky cat in night in the woods: “There is a hole at the center of everything, and it is always growing. Between the stars I am seeing it. It is coming, and you are not escaping, and the universe is forgetting you, and the universe is being forgotten, and there is nothing to remember it, not even the things beyond. And now there is only the hole... You are atoms, and your atoms are not caring if you are existing. Your atoms are monstrous existence.”

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“Nothing is ever fulfilled, not until the very end.” - rust cohle, true detective s1, this reference is VERY tonally dissonant because in context it’s actually grim as all hell but w/e w/e i couldn’t resist the shout-out

also harrow quotes from the goldfinch again here! i had the reference included before i read this post and realised tamsyn muir also quotes from the secret history in htn. terrible synergy

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they are in fact all real. you’re welcome

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this one’s doing a lot of work lmao. it’s paying homage to this quote by tamsyn muir talking about the draco-in-leather-pants trope in relation to ianthe by loosely referencing drop dead gorgeous, the best drarry fic ever written, in which harry is part veela

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“It's a very Greek idea, and a very profound one. Beauty is terror. Whatever we call beautiful, we quiver before it. And what could be more terrifying and beautiful, to souls like the Greeks or our own, than to lose control completely? To throw off the chains of being for an instant, to shatter the accident of our mortal selves? Euripides speaks of the Maenads: head thrown I back, throat to the stars, "more like deer than human being." To be absolutely free! One is quite capable, of course, of working out these destructive passions in more vulgar and less efficient ways. But how glorious to release them in a single burst! To sing, to scream, to dance barefoot in the woods in the dead of night, with no more awareness of mortality than an animal! These are powerful mysteries. The bellowing of bulls. Springs of honey bubbling from the ground. If we are strong enough in our souls we can rip away the veil and look that naked, terrible beauty right in the face; let God consume us, devour us, unstring our bones. Then spit us out reborn.” - that’s right it’s another reference to the secret history, with a little bit of mary oliver (tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?) sprinkled on top for flavour

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a small one, but it’s the goldfinch again: “And I feel I have something very urgent and serious to say to you, my non-existent reader, and I feel I should say it as urgently as if I were standing in the room with you...”

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my FUCKING cinnamon apple

what if i... put my minecraft bed.... next to yours... aha ha just kidding.... unless?

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[cw: suicide discussion in these next two]

robyn can have little a rust cohle quote, as a treat.

1. “I'd consider myself a realist, all right? But in philosophical terms I'm what's called a pessimist... I think human consciousness is a tragic misstep in evolution. We became too self-aware. Nature created an aspect of nature separate from itself. We are creatures that should not exist by natural law... We are things that labor under the illusion of having a self, that accretion of sensory experience and feelings, programmed with total assurance that we are each somebody, when in fact everybody's nobody... I think the honorable thing for our species to do is to deny our programming. Stop reproducing, walk hand in hand into extinction; one last midnight, brothers and sisters opting out of a raw deal.”

2. “This... This is what I'm talking about. This is what I mean when I'm talkin' about time, and death, and futility. All right, there are broader ideas at work, mainly what is owed between us as a society for our mutual illusions. Fourteen straight hours of staring at DBs, these are the things you think of. You ever done that? You look in their eyes, even in a picture, doesn't matter if they're dead or alive, you can still read 'em. You know what you see? They welcomed it... Not at first, but... right there in the last instant. It's an unmistakable relief. See, cause they were afraid, and now they saw for the very first time how easy it was to just... let go. Yeah, they saw, in that last nanosecond, they saw... what they were. You, yourself, this whole big drama, it was never more than a jerry-rig of presumption and dumb will, and you could just let go. To finally know that you didn't have to hold on so tight. To realize that all your life - you know, all your love, all your hate, all your memories, all your pain - it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream, a dream that you had inside a locked room, a dream about being a person.”

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ahaaa this one’s particularly rough. evil monkey no one alive dot jpg

“Later, that dozy embrace solidified in his memory as the single moment of artless, charmed happiness in their separate and difficult lives. Nothing marred it, even the knowledge that Ennis would not then embrace him face to face because he did not want to see or feel that it was Jack he held. And maybe, he thought, they’d never got much farther than that. Let be, let be.” - annie proulx, brokeback mountain

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a TRIPLE lyrical whammy!

- harrow’s words to gideon in the dream are a bit of a vague reference to the song ‘adventures in solitude’ by the new pornographers (”we thought we lost you/welcome back”) - gideon’s words to harrow are a reference to the song ‘blush’ by wolf alice (”you’ve got two hands to take all you can/but don’t take too long”) - what harrow texts to gideon is a line from ‘about today’ by the national, aka the most devastating song ever written (”hey, are you awake?/yeah i’m right here”...)

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i CANNOT find a clip of it but harrow’s repetition of “life is short... it’s short” was me paraphrasing from memory a line from pride (2014), because i am the worst

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spooky scary skeletons!

“jail for gideon” is obviously a reference to the “jail for mother” tweet that tm also referenced in htn. so, not original in the slightest, but it’s a great tweet

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one of my favourite tumblr posts

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because naberius tern absolutely would watch rick and morty. he would. i know it in my heart.

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and that’s it, i think. hope you enjoyed this horrid little post and my horrid little fic!

#the locked tomb #books #robyn posts

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theres-a-goldensky · 5 years ago

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16 + 2 Reddie Fic Recs pt. 2

I’m back and still on my Bill Hader bullshit, so here’s another round of Reddie fic recs, because I can’t stop reading and sometimes sifting through the insane amounts of fic is a nightmare. So if you feel my pain and need some (at least in my opinion) fun stories, then come along with me on a magical journey filled with men crying during sex, hypochondria, and your mom jokes.

As ever, feel free to reblog and check out my other rec lists for the following fandoms:

IT chapter 2 list part one - Reddie

Good Omens fic

The Untamed list one and two - various pairings, mostly Wangxian

Various BL Series fic (fandoms: Love By Chance, TharnType, 2Moons series, My Engineer, Until We Meet Again, 2gether, History3: Trapped)

Or just head over to my bookmarks on AO3.

All my recs are completed, almost all of them are post-It chapter 2. * - denotes a favorite

1. I killed a clown. AMA! by liesmyth - ~10,000 words, teen - The history of Eddie and Myra’s marriage shown through their posts on reddit. The voices here are great, and it really feels like reading the reddit forums, down to the people sleuthing through their past posts and comments to try and figure out if what they’re saying is real or an elaborate troll.

r/relationships

Posted by u/martymcfly6xo 7 months ago

My (39F) husband (39M) likes horrible stand-up comedy. How can I stop him from bringing this up in front of our mutual friends?

For the last year or so my husband has been watching a lot of stand-up comedy on youtube. I want him to have something relaxing to do (he works a lot and gets really invested in his ‘hands-on’ hobbies in a way I’m not sure is good for him) but I was very puzzled by this discovery as he likes very crass acts and that is certainly not the kind of humor hubby usually enjoys...

2. all of the kids back home believing much more than you do by eatcheeseliveforever - ~11,000 words, explicit - This is a fix-it fic, which is becoming more and more rare in this fandom as we collectively started deciding that Eddie Kaspbrak doesn’t need to be brought back to live, because he never died in the first place, dammit. It has some great pining by Richie. You can really feel his grief and desperation as he searches for a way to get Eddie back. The other Losers are great in this too, especially Mike with his whales.

"A boat, actually," murmured Mike. "I'm on a whale-watching cruise."

Richie mouthed the words "whale watching cruise" to himself. Empirically he knew such things existed, that they happened not far away from the coast where he lived, but it felt like several fucking galaxies away from where he was, surrounded by the ghosts of takeouts and blackouts past and the actual ghost-ghosts, who he couldn't step in or stub his toe on at three in the morning, but hurt so much worse.

"He said you've been googling resurrection rituals."

Richie scrounged through his pile of empties, hoping one wasn't. "Bill talks too much."

"Richie." A sigh, or a wave, or a really quiet whale. "You're not going to find a resurrection ritual on Google."

"I've found hundreds," said Richie. "Funny thing, though, they all seem to call for orgies. Or virgin sacrifices. Or sacrificing someone's virginity in an orgy. I'm hoping Ben will volunteer as tribute."

3. * - you’ve got the answers to my confessions by QueerOnTilMorning - ~17,000 words, explicit - This is the good stuff right here. Richie accidentally sexts Eddie and Eddie is IN. TO. IT. This fic starts with excellent phone sex, there’s misunderstandings and confessions in the middle, and then it ends with super hot sex. There’s a brief part with karaoke that was a bit of a lull in the story, but doesn’t take away from how great the rest is.

suck on ur tongue

show u how much I missd that mouth

when u start getting weak in the knees

thats when ill get on mine

He set the phone aside to unzip his pants, palming himself through his boxers, already half-hard.

Then he froze.

The text he had just replied to--it was what he'd expected Travis to say, but it wasn't how Travis would say it. That text began with a capital letter and contained punctuation. That text was from--

"Oh, fuck, no," Richie whispered, and his phone rang.

Incoming call: Eds

4. * - L'Appel du Vide by Mackem - ~92,000 words, teen - I know, I know, almost 100k and no sex, but hear me out! The pining in this fic is so exquisitely beautiful and wrenching. Eddie’s POV is excellent and feels really spot on. The other Losers are well represented, especially Ben and Bev. In fact, the group dynamics here are almost as good as the relationship stuff. The later chapters bring in a subplot about the deadlights that I wasn’t that interested in, but it’s still done really, really well, and that’s only a side plot that doesn’t impact that exceptional story of Eddie and Richie figuring out how to stop being dummies.

Two messages, however, are from Stanley, sent to him privately. He opens them, and is met with a picture of Richie, apparently taken without him realising.

It shows him laughing, his eyes crinkled at the corners behind his glasses, and his smile bright and broad as a hand gestures wildly in the air. The other hand is in his hair, pushing it out of his eyes as he tilts his head back, displaying the line of his throat beneath his stubble.

The breath is punched from Eddie at the sight of it.

He stares at it for a long moment, surprised by the depth of his reaction. His stomach is swirling happily, a bubble of excitement growing at the pit, and he cannot help but feel a heated flush build at his cheeks.

It’s probably just because Richie looks like he’s enjoying himself. It’s good to see his friend having fun. That has to be it.

Then he reads Stan’s message.

Stan: He was talking about you. He does that a lot.

5. my love a beacon in the night - by zach_stone - ~4500 words, explicit - Richie is on the road doing shows through Christmas. His friends have a surprise for him. I know it’s almost Valentine’s Day, but it’s never the wrong time for a fluffy Christmas story imo.

“Yep, just got to my hotel,” Richie says. “Now I’m getting ready for my big Christmas Eve plans.”

Eddie snorts. “Oh yeah? What’s that?”

“Well according to my TV guide, they’re doing a rerun of The Mistletoe Promise, so I’m all fuckin’ set,” Richie says, grinning when Eddie laughs. On Eddie’s end of the line, he hears the sound of cars passing by, the muffled chatter of people, and says, “Are you outside?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Eddie says.

Richie glances at the clock on the nightstand. It’s after ten; Eddie’s not one to be wandering around Times Square after dark. He frowns slightly. Eddie’s been unusually vague about his holiday plans, so Richie has no clue what he’s up to this evening. Not that it’s any of his business. Maybe he’s started seeing someone and is spending the holidays with them. Richie has a sudden image of Eddie, arm-in-arm with some generically pretty woman, taking in the lights and decorations around the city. It opens a pit in his stomach.

6. Coming Back and Coming Out: Richie Tozier's 2019 by Lunatical - ~2000 words, teen - I genuinely adore the mixed media fics that this fandom has spawned. This one is an excerpt from a magazine interview with Richie as he restarts his career.

Slouched on his couch in a cheesy Hawaiian shirt and torn-up jeans, Richie Tozier looks exactly like the manchild he is describing himself to be. Next to him, sitting up straight and dressed in a lovely suit that most people would consider appropriate for an interview, his husband rolls his eyes.

When we scheduled this interview, Tozier insisted we hold it at their house, citing a desire for the interview to be “as chill as possible”—in his own words, of course. He argued that seeing the two of them in their usual environment would help me get a better idea of the kind of relationship they have. After walking into their apartment and seeing the way they’ve decorated the place, I have to admit that I can understand why.

7. baby, there’s no other superstar by kaspbrakziers - ~7000 words, mature - Another mixed media fic that shows the progression of Richie and Eddie’s relationship and Richie’s career through tweets, texts, and interviews. Eddie not knowing how to turn off the capslock on his phone absolutely sent me.

Search history

Today Sunday, 13 November 2016

should i get a divorce? - Google Search

Unhappily Married: Should I get a divorce? - Yahoo Answers

10 Signs Your Marriage Is Over - Buzzfeed

how to divorce? - Google Search

How To File For Divorce (With Pictures) - wikiHow

how to divorce someone without them getting angry? – Google Search

can you divorce someone without telling them? - Google Search

8. Goes on Trips for the Scenery by InkandOwl - ~4500 words, teen - Eddie dies and then comes back to life and tries to get some perspective. I liked the conversations between Eddie and Richie and then way that Eddie starts to take care of himself. The end is really sweet.

If cosmic power and a literal alien space clown’s death wasn’t going to bring him back to life, Eddie was certain that the terrible pain of hearing Richie beg, his tears dropping onto Eddie’s face, probably would’ve done it. He feels sick just thinking about it. About what it all means. “Yeah, Rich, I will.” He could throw a jab at him, tell him something about eating like an adult for once, but he wants to be easy with him right now. Richie deserves it. “You’ll text, right?”

Richie looks down at the prepaid cricket phone in Eddie’s hand and laughs, “There’s no fucking way that thing gets texts.”

“It does.” Eddie grins, “You could call too.”

The fight drains from Richie, his shoulder slumping and he sighs, “Yeah, Eds, I’ll call.”

9. cause i'm about to blow that back out by thotgreeves - ~5000 words, explicit - Here, have some porn. Eddie wears lingerie and Richie loses his goddamn mind. Features submissive top Richie and his unending boner for Eddie.

Richie really should have learnt to never underestimate Eddie Kaspbrak by now. It had come close to killing Richie once, but Eddie might actually be trying to finish him off.

Because the other perk of always letting Eddie go ahead of him was that it gave Richie a prime view of Eddie's ass. Eddie knew about this part and was okay with it. He was wearing a high-waisted pair of slacks that Richie was pretty sure came from the women's section, slightly loose in the legs but nicely filled out by his ass. Richie had been very vocal in the past about how hot they got him, which signaled that Eddie definitely wanted to have sex tonight, and that was already enough to make Richie's dick twitch in excitement. He hadn't been prepared for the finishing blow.

Richie's eyes were fixed, pendulum-like, on how Eddie's slacks were hugging his butt perfectly with every step he took, tight enough to show off the outline of his underwear. Only the folds didn't sit where Richie had expected them to. Instead, Richie realized, his mouth going dry, that in the absence of boxers, there was only a V-shaped crease running from Eddie's hips to between his asscheeks, which could only mean-

Eddie was wearing a thong.

10. * - I’ll Be Homo For Christmas by Amuly - ~15,000 words, explicit - Bill and Audra get a divorce, so Bill moves into Richie’s house with him. Eddie, watching all of this from New York, where he’s still married to Myra, is super, super ok and fine with it in every way.

Except then Richie started posting.

Just stupid shit, mostly with Bill. It wasn’t even real. Eddie knew Bill wasn’t gay and him and Richie were just fucking around ‘for the ‘gram!’ But the more posts Eddie scrolled past on Richie’s Instagram—

Bill in the kitchen swatting at Richie with a spatula.

Richie and Bill at the pound, Richie rating dogs on adoptability, Richie begging Bill to adopt a dog with him.

Richie in the morning with bedhead, smiling blearily into the camera as Bill…

Well. Eddie couldn’t even remember what stupid thing Bill was supposed to be doing in the background of that photo because his eyes couldn’t get past Richie’s bedhead and shirtless torso, chest hairs creeping up towards his collarbones and the little dip at the base of his throat.

Eddie hadn’t thought he was homophobic. But he must have some unresolved issues with it, because he got a stomachache every time he looked at that photo of Richie. Eddie popped a Tums and resolved to talk about it with his therapist.

11. A High-Five is a Hug You Can Hit by Amuly - ~26,000 words, explicit - This fic shows us times throughout their friendship when Eddie and Richie would invent reasons to touch each other without even knowing why. This author feels the same bone deep conviction about Richie crying during sex that I do, and I greatly appreciate that. Plus, all of their stories are fantastic, including this one.

“You know, one of the symptoms of hypothermia is feeling like you’re warm. So like, your body gets so cold that it gets hot, and then you start taking off your clothes-”

“Bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you, Eddie?” Richie shot back at him without turning around.

“Why don’t you ask your sister how much she liked it last week!” Eddie hollered up at him. Richie just flipped him off without looking. That kinda… bugged Eddie. What the fuck did Richie think he was doing leading up the group with Bill? Why was he stuck back here with Stan? Eddie glanced over at Stan, who was trudging tiredly through the woods alongside him, breath puffing out in little clouds of smoke.

“Okay, Stan?”

Stan glanced over at him, confused. Then he shrugged. “Yeah, fine. Cold.”

“Well that’s better than feeling warm.” And now Eddie was back on track. “Because, if anyone starts feeling warm, they should tell the others immediately. That’s a sign of hypothermia. And we have to warm you up. But you have to do it gradually, you can’t just jump in like, a pot of boiling water-”

12. * - fall apart of stay intact by kaspbrak_kid - ~19,000 words, teen - A more melancholy take on the Christmas fic. This story takes Richie’s self-esteem issues and mental problems and amps them up in a way that feels entirely realistic. The gang comes together to celebrate Christmas, and everyone is walking on eggshells because last Christmas was a bad one for Richie. Also, Eddie moves into the house literally right next to Richie’s, and I find that detail endlessly charming.

“Five minutes ago. I called you, and you didn’t answer. Because you were outside, apparently, fucking...stargazing in December! With no hat on!”

“It’s about the Vitamin D!” Richie says. Now that he’s moved a little, he can really feel the cold—his ears are aching, and his face is numb. “Reflecting off the moon, or something. I have seasonal depression, you know!”

“You have seasonal stupidity,” Eddie mutters, audibly rubbing his hands together. “Just get inside.”

“Yours or mine?” Richie jokes.

Eddie doesn’t get the memo. “Mine, obviously. I’ll make you hot chocolate.”

“Oh,” Richie says, and sits up. “Um. Okay, be right there.”

“Oh, thank god,” Eddie says, and hightails it to his back door, cursing about the cold.

13. evidence of a happier future by lagaudiere - 23,000 words, mature - I am here, leading the Jealous!Eddie revolution. Why aren’t there more fics about this. Have you SEEN Eddie Kaspbrak, can you IMAGINE him jealous? Make this happen, fandom. Anyway, in this one, Richie has a boyfriend back in LA. Eddie has trouble dealing with that as he tries to figure himself out and pick up the pieces of his life post-Derry.

“It’s not gonna be like Mike’s announcement, don’t worry,” Richie says hastily. “And it’s not like, a huge thing, so don’t make it a huge thing. But you guys are like, my best friends, and I just wanted you to know that I’m, uh. Gay.”

He turns up his palms and raises his eyebrows in a gesture that suggests a magician presenting his audience with an empty hat after making the rabbit disappear, and Eddie says, “Are you joking?”

“What? Jesus, no, Eddie.” Richie’s face falls, and Eddie instantly feels guilty. “I’m trying to be sincere here.”

“Sorry,” Eddie says immediately, feeling all of their friends looking at him with reproach. “I was just — if you weren’t, I wouldn’t think you should… joke about it.”

“Well, I am,” Richie says. He sounds slightly put out — and who wouldn’t be, Eddie scolds himself, by that ridiculous response. “I have all the gay credientials. I have a boyfriend, partner, whatever people say. I don’t really tell people because of the whole, stage persona, thing. But yeah.”

“Richie!” Bev’s voice breaks through the awkwardness, and she reaches across the table to squeeze his hand. “Thank you for telling us. Really.”

And the others all join in, a chorus of voices telling Richie they love him and they’re proud of him, and Ben is saying, “I wanna see a picture of the guy!” and Eddie’s throat feels like it’s closing up.

14. The ‘Do Not Fucking Touch Me’ Tour by MellytheHun - ~23,000 words, explicit - It’s Richie’s comeback special, and he makes it a big one. This...isn’t really a comedy show, but the author lampshades that. It’s an excuse to have Richie talk about how much he loves each of his friends individually, and it’s extremely entertaining. Richie doesn’t know that Eddie is in the audience watching it all.

“Hey, uhm… Eddie… he couldn’t reschedule his thing? He - I mean... it… it was really that important?”

She feels awful for him immediately, but not wanting to spoil what would ultimately be a lovely surprise, she tells him, “I’m sorry, Rich. He said it was urgent. He was really sorry about it.”

Her phone buzzes with a text from Eddie right as Richie curses under his breath, missing the noise. She clutches her phone more tightly in her fist, knowing Eddie is wondering where his seat is going to be; she bought him a separate ticket, elsewhere in the theatre, so Richie wouldn’t catch him sitting among them, as he will absolutely, inevitably look over to the Losers for most of the show.

“Okay,” Richie surrenders sadly, “Uh - I guess he’ll see it eventually, right?”

Smiling forlornly at him, she pats his arm, and tells him, “don’t worry, Richie. Your genius will inevitably be forced upon us all.”

He smiles at her, gives her a kiss on the cheek, and when Bill jokingly asks why he didn’t get one, Richie flips him off, and reminds them to treat themselves to the bar in the lobby.

Once he’s backstage, Beverly takes her phone out, and emails Eddie his ticket, explains that she’s already convinced Richie he’s not coming, and to make sure he doesn’t show up too early, or Richie will notice.

15. The List by cissues - ~7000 words, teen - Eddie finds a list he wrote as a teenager. Richie tries his best to fulfill them all. This is very sweet.

‘ All the things I want. Everything I’m not allowed to have. A perfect summer. ”

The words hit gentler than he thought they would, but they still hit and he finds himself blinking away at a wetness at the corner of his eye. He wipes at it and sniffles and Richie peers sidelong at him to make sure he’s okay. He is, he’s fine, and Richie never dotes on him when things are, generally, okay. Only when he needs it, which is one of the many things he loves about what they have now.

“This is… this is like a fucking bucket list for the most repressed child in the world.” Richie says, breathless.

Eddie rolls his eyes to hide the sting. “You’re looking at him,” he says, bitter. Richie frowns at him but turns back to the paper. Another thing Eddie loves, Richie never takes his trauma-induced bait. His knee-jerk reactions developed over years of what he’s now comfortable enough to call abuse.

16. Richie Tozier Answers the Web's Most Searched Questions by DeadpanMage - ~2000 words, teen - This is a short one, but the transcript of this popular YT video format with Richie felt spot on in terms of characterization and Richie’s voice.

[Back to the text screen: “So WIRED asked Richie Tozier some of the internet’s burning questions.” Cut back to Richie, now holding a poster board with several Google autocomplete searches half covered.]

Richie: I’ve undergone something of a rebranding in the past year, so I wonder how many of these questions are going to be super irrelevant-slash-embarrassing. Probably all of them. Let’s get started! [He tears the covering off of the first question.] Alright, that’s not bad. “How to pronounce Richie Tozier?” Well, we’re only on question one and I’ve already said it like a hundred times so there you go. And that’s “Richie Tozier” spelled J-O-H-N M-U-L-A-N-E-Y, so if you’ve got any complaints be sure to send them that way. Next question!

You can check out a larger list of stories I’ve enjoyed in my AO3 bookmarks. And finally, if you’re interested, here are the two fics I’ve written:

1. Waiting For a Sign - ~6000 words, explicit - Eddie meets Richie again and comes to the startling realization that he totally wants to hit that.

Maybe if Richie wasn’t famous, Eddie could have found a way to let it go. A couple furtive jerk off sessions in the shower after he got back to New York and the image of Richie’s big hands and wide smile and improbably flattering stubble would fade from his mind.

But Richie was famous, and the internet never forgot.

Eddie lasted three days before giving in and typing ‘Richie Tozier’ into the YouTube search bar. Just seeing Richie in the thumbnails was enough to make Eddie’s heart thud, what the fuck. He had to scroll past a bunch of news videos about Richie's supposed mental breakdown, but after that he landed on some old stand-up.

Before he clicked on the first video, he got up and made sure that the door of his study was locked. Then he turned off the lights and put on a pair of earbuds.

Fake It ‘Til You Make It - ~21,000 words, explicit - It’s that totally relatable situation where the man you’re secretly in love with is a celebrity who just came out and now needs a fake boyfriend to keep himself in the spotlight. Eddie offers to help out of the goodness of his heart and not because he’s insanely fucking jealous.

Eddie froze, breath catching in his throat.

Richie looked...really good.

Bev’s influence was obvious. His hair, which had been unkempt and shaggy, a perfect match for his stoner permakid schtick, was cut much shorter and neater. His formerly unruly stubble somehow now emphasized the sharp cut of his jaw instead of obscuring it.

He wore new glasses, Eddie noticed. Slim silver metal frames instead of his giant, clunky plastic ones. The fitted black sweater and dark blue jeans were simple, but made his shoulders look impossibly broad and his legs miles long.

Fuck everything and Beverly Marsh in particular.

LINK TO MY FIRST SET OF REDDIE RECS 30+ FICS

#reddie fic #reddie #richie tozier #eddie kaspbrak #fic recs #it chapter 2 #ao3 #rec list #reddie fic recs

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designingprogress · 4 years ago

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Why George Orwell's Warning on 'Self-Censorship' Is More Relevant Than Ever

Just as George Orwell warned, governments don't have to be the censors for free speech and free expression to be fatally stifled. By Brad Polumbo Rule One: Speak your mind at your own peril. Rule Two: Never risk commissioning a story that goes against the narrative. Rule Three: Never believe an editor or publisher who urges you to go against the grain. Eventually, the publisher will cave to the mob, the editor will get fired or reassigned, and you’ll be hung out to dry.

The above is a quotation from George Orwell’s preface to Animal Farm, titled "The Freedom of the Press," where he discussed the chilling effect the Soviet Union’s influence had on global publishing and debate far beyond the reach of its official censorship laws.Wait, no it isn’t. The quote is actually an excerpt from the resignation letter of New York Times opinion editor and writer Bari Weiss, penned this week, where she blows the whistle on the hostility toward intellectual diversity that now reigns supreme at the country’s most prominent newspaper.A contrarian moderate but hardly right-wing in her politics, the journalist describes the outright harassment and cruelty she faced at the hands of her colleagues, to the point where she could no longer continue her work:

My own forays into Wrongthink have made me the subject of constant bullying by colleagues who disagree with my views. They have called me a Nazi and a racist; I have learned to brush off comments about how I’m ‘writing about the Jews again.’ Several colleagues perceived to be friendly with me were badgered by coworkers. My work and my character are openly demeaned on company-wide Slack channels where masthead editors regularly weigh in. There, some coworkers insist I need to be rooted out if this company is to be a truly ‘inclusive’ one, while others post ax emojis next to my name. Still other New York Times employees publicly smear me as a liar and a bigot on Twitter with no fear that harassing me will be met with appropriate action. They never are.

Weiss’s letter reminds us of the crucial warning Orwell made in his time: To preserve a free and open society, legal protections from government censorship, while crucial, are not nearly enough.

To see why, simply consider the fate that has met Weiss and so many others in recent memory who dared cross the modern thought police. Here are just a few of the countless examples of “cancel culture” in action:

— A museum curator in San Francisco resigned after facing a mob and petition for his removal simply because he stated that his museum would still collect art from white men. — A Palestinian immigrant and business owner had his lease canceled and restaurant boycotted after activists dug up his daughter’s old offensive social media posts from when she was a teenager. — A Hispanic construction worker was fired for making a supposedly “white supremacist” hand signal that for most people has always just meant “okay.” — A soccer player was pushed off the Los Angeles Galaxy roster because his wife posted something racist on Instagram. — The head opinion editor of the New York Times was fired and his colleague was demoted after they published an op-ed by a US senator arguing a widely held position and liberal colleagues claimed the words “put black lives in danger.’ — A random Boeing executive was recently mobbed and fired because he wrote an article 30 years ago arguing against having women serve in combat roles in the military. — A data analyst tweeted out the findings of a research paper (by a black scholar) about the ineffectiveness of protests and was fired after colleagues claimed their safety was threatened. — Led by progressives as prominent as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman, a woke mob tried to get a Chicago economist fired from his editorship of an economics journal for tweeting that embracing “Defund the Police” undercuts the Black Lives Matter movement’s chances of achieving real reform.

These are just a few examples of many. One important commonality to note is that none of these examples involve actual government censorship. Yet they still represent chilling crackdowns on free speech. As David French put it writing for The Dispatch, “Cruelty bullies employers into firing employees. Cruelty bullies employees into leaving even when they’re not fired. Cruelty raises the cost of speaking the truth as best you see it—until you find yourself choosing silence, mainly as a pain-avoidance mechanism.”

These recent observations echo what Orwell warned of decades ago:

Obviously it is not desirable that a government department should have any power of censorship... but the chief danger to freedom of thought and speech at this moment is not the direct interference of the [government] or any official body. If publishers and editors exert themselves to keep certain topics out of print, it is not because they are frightened of prosecution but because they are frightened of public opinion. In this country intellectual cowardice is the worst enemy a writer or journalist has to face, and that fact does not seem to me to have had the discussion it deserves.

Similarly, the British philosopher Bertrand Russell noted in a 1922 speech “It is clear that thought is not free if the professional of certain opinions makes it impossible to earn a living.”

Some might wonder why it’s really so important to protect speech and thought beyond the law. After all, if no one’s going to jail over it, how serious can the consequences really be?

While understandable as an impulse, this logic misses the point. Free and open speech is the only way a society can, through trial and error, get closer to the truth over time. It was abolitionist Frederick Douglas who described free speech as “the great moral renovator of society and government.” What he meant was that only the free flow of open speech can challenge existing orthodoxies and evolve society. From women’s suffrage to the civil rights movement, we never would have made so much progress on sexism and racism without the right to speak freely.

Silence enshrines the status quo. As John Stuart Mill put it:

If the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth: if wrong, they lose, what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error.

This great discovery process through free-flowing speech first and foremost requires a hands-off approach from the government, but it still cannot occur in a culture hostile to dissenting opinion and debate. When airing a differing view can get you mobbed or put your job in jeopardy, only society’s most powerful or those whose views align with the current orthodoxy will be able to speak openly without fear.

Orwell and Russell were right then, even if we’re only fully realizing it now. Self-censorship driven by culture, not government, erodes our collective discovery of truth all the same.

#culture #george orwell #bari weiss #new york times #censorship #animal farm

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icecoldflames · 5 years ago

Text

The Pinnae Flower Chapter 2, Pt. 1

Masterlist

Updates, A Small Headcanon, and a Top Secret Mission

Hallelujah! Raz Keeran, the deity themself, has finally tweeted more about PS! My crops are watered, there’s money in the bank, and the long-awaited summer is here! It’s time to lean back, relax, theorize and post on this blog more often.

On Raz’s Twitter (all authors seem to have Twitter’s, don’t they?), they posted this tweet:

“A little excerpt from PS:

“He had a ball clutched in his right paw. ‘You can’t be serious,’ Kaida grimaced. But then she saw the stone dragon blink ever so slowly. Right before her eyes, the stone fell away to reveal a shimmering red dragon.”

Can I say we called it? Dragons. Kaida. OMG. I am pumped for this final instalment.

Now that we know this is canon (it seems almost surreal), Logan and I have come up with a headcanon. Not a totally big one—but one all the same.

What if the azure flower that grew in PTNE was grown by the dragons and Kaida? I know that most people believe that it was the sprite king (rightly so, since sprites in this universe work with plants).

But then Logan brought my attention to one little part from the ending of PTNE:

“Funny how a war—a war which left many dead and hurt in many more ways than physically—could bring two old friends back together again. Arel looked at Parisa and Parisa looked at Arel. It was odd how such a terrible occurrence could bring back old friendships.

Arel almost didn’t notice the sudden wind, seemingly there one second and gone the next. The only way he knew it was there was that Parisa’s shorn hair blew up in her face.

The silence was just about unbearable and Arel felt words in his mouth, wanting to spill out and be heard. Parisa tucked some hair behind her ear and began fiddling with her grandmother’s ring. Arel immediately relaxed at the sight of such a familiar action.

The words bubbled up and this time Arel let them out. It was in that same moment that Parisa lifted her head and began speaking too.

“I’m so so sorry.”

Arel could feel the air around them thinning. As if the magic words had finally been spoken and the blanket was finally being lifted. He began to take the first steps to cross the short distance between him and his best friend.

It was in that moment that something moved in the grass. It couldn’t have been the wind—the wind had come and gone like that and the clearing was back to it’s motionless self. Arel stopped dead in his tracks and Parisa’s eyes shot down to look as well. She finally looked at ease too.

Arel watched as the grass shifted again. A green stem was breaking through the soil. It was like someone had filmed the growth of a flower and then sped it up to take mere seconds. The stem rose up and up and a bud seemed to materialize from nowhere.

Both Arel and Parisa watched in stunned silence as an azure flower bloomed right before their eyes.

Now, a lot of Pinnies think this is symbolism to Arel and Parisa’s regrowth of friendship, per say—the Pinnae flower being cut symbolizing their fall out and the azure flower their regrowth.

But Logan and I think that that azure flower was not meant for Arel and Parisa. In fact, we think the flower was aimed at King Oberon and Queen Titania. After all, the azure flower was the flower King Oberon used to propose to Queen Titania.

Perhaps this flower wasn’t meant to symbolize Arel and Parisa’s rebirth as friends but to the King and Queen’s reconciliation with each other.

Now, you might ask: why did the flower sprout in between Arel and Parisa if it was meant for the Fairy King and the Sprite Queen?

Well, back in that excerpt, Arel notices a sudden wind. Could that have knocked the magical seed off course? Could the wind have come from a dragon’s wings?

In any case, I cannot wait to read Raz’s next book.

Also, just a note: Logan and I are going on a top secret mission over summer so my posts might be even more sporadic than usual. I hope that we’ll have some tea to spill when we get back.

Thanks for reading my loyal plebeians,

Prince Roman Falco

~~~

Logan felt sick to the stomach. And it wasn’t because the plane was making its descent down. This is wrong, Logan thought to himself. So wrong. But Logan’s pride was stronger than his logic.

Roman, on the other hand, looked absolutely ecstatic. He couldn’t stop moving; fooling with the air conditioner, making repetitive sounds with his hands and feet, and constantly getting up to use the bathroom (it didn’t help that Roman had the window seat and Logan was in the isle).

Logan wished that he could just turn the plane back around and go straight home.

But he couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He refused to let Roman get the better of him.

Logan would find Raz to show Roman he could. He’d figure out how to stop Roman from leaking such classified information after the fact.

He gripped the armrest tightly and he wished that his pride and ego weren’t so big. Then he wouldn’t be in this mess.

He supposed, though, that if Raz were to live anywhere, Mayflower Town was an okay place to spend summer vacation along with finding out who Raz actually was.

In the airport, Logan felt a bit better with himself. Roman and him bought some doughnuts in the airport along with coffee before getting in a taxi to pick up their rental car: a red, clunky, Byrne Road.

And then they were off down the highway towards Raz’s maybe, probably, hopefully, hometown.

“And you’re sure this is where Raz lives?” Roman asked from the driver’s seat. He took a sip of his coffee.

Logan turned down the blaring pop song coming out of the radio without looking up from his computer. “Almost positive.”

“And what facts point to here? That Raz actually lives here?” Roman questioned once again.

Logan sighed and clicked a single button on his computer before looking up at his best friend. His stare burned the side of Roman’s head.

“Listen, I’m almost sure Raz lives here. What more do you want?” Logan said, grimacing. He didn’t want to tell Roman about theazureflower. It felt almost too personal to tell.

While they had been at the airport, waiting to board the plane, Logan and Roman had put together another post of “The Prince’s Crown”.

He and Roman had multiple headcanons they put in a shared document online whenever they thought of something. It was just shorthand and had no real sources, but it made thinking of post ideas much easier than thinking of headcannons out of thin air.

Then, all they had to do to make a post was to find some sources from the books and type it up.

Roman huffed. “Do you not have any facts? Honestly, I would have thought you, Logan—“

Logan clenched his jaw and he could feel his blood begin to boil. “This is where Raz lives, Roman.” He snapped. “Why are you suddenly now just questioning everything I say and do?”

“Because you were the one who was so against this whole thing—trying to find Raz and all that.” Roman argued. His knuckles holding the steering wheel were almost white.

“I said I’d help you find him!” Logan exclaimed, his voice loud and brash.

Roman went silent.

Logan dipped his head back to his computer and continued to type, trying to ignore the deafening stillness that had fallen over the vehicle.

They stayed quiet for the entirety of the ride until they passed the sign, welcoming them to Mayflower Town.

It seemed more like grim proof that Logan was doing something terrible than a welcome sign with bright colours and stickers.

“Turn right to go to our hotel,” Logan forced himself to say. But he didn’t look up from his screen. He wasn’t ready for that yet.

Roman followed Logan’s emotionless instructions and kept on following them as Logan kept reading out the directions like a human GPS.

The hotel was three stars. Roman wouldn’t settle for anything less. And even then, he had not wanted to even step foot in less than a four star but Logan had insisted on the three star—saying that the three star was much cheaper and better for a prolonged stay somewhere other than buying an apartment.

It was only a couple floors high and was between a barber shop and a bar. Across, was a cafe titled “Patton-ly Perfect”. Logan almost groaned out loud at the pun.

Roman and Logan signed into the hotel, still an icy barrier between the two. They unpacked in a similar manner.

“Let’s go to the coffee shop across the road.” Logan said suddenly, creating a crack in the ice.

Roman nodded eagerly. “I could go for some caffeine and some pastries right now.”

The ice seemed temporarily thawed and they both walked across the street with tentative conversation—as if they were first meeting and unsure what exactly to say.

Logan walked in, a bell tinkling above, and was hit with two things: the colour blue and the smell of fresh bread and pastries.

The place was quaint and small and reminded Logan of a garden with all kinds of flowers and wood. There was a fish tank in the corner too with goldfish.

“Woah,” Roman breathed next to Logan. “This place is awesome.” He did a 360 and tentatively touched a lily in a flower pot next to him. “This reminds me so much of ‘Fairy Tales and Fantasy Books’.”

A man popped up from behind the counter on the far wall. He had on a smile that seemed to illuminate the whole room. “Welcome!” He exclaimed.

“Uh, hello.” Logan nodded and walked closer to the man.

The man cocked his head to the side before seemingly smiling even brighter—if that was possible. “You two are new.”

“Yeah! We’re here on a vacation!” Roman exclaimed. Then, “this place is super cool.”

“Thanks!” The man said. He took off his apron that said ‘I loaf you dough much’ before going around his counter and holding out his hand to Roman.

They shook hands. “I’m Patton.” The man said. He was still smiling.

“Roman.” Roman nodded. “Nice to meet you.

Patton then went over to Logan and extended his hand. “Hello.”

“Hello.” Logan said. “Logan.”

“Great to see some new faces!” Patton exclaimed. “We don’t often get newcomers, to be honest. What brings you here to our little corner of the USA?”

Logan wanted to say that Mayflower Town was not in the corner of anywhere, but bit his tongue.

Roman glanced over to Logan before looking back at Patton. He shrugged. “Just wanted a change of scenery that wouldn’t be too crowded with buildings and people.”

Patton nodded, genuinely listening. “Ah. Well, you’ve definitely got the right town. This place is absolutely great—“

The bell rang again and another man comes through the door. He was tall, taller than Logan. His hair was mussed and he had on a massive hoodie that seemed a couple sizes too large. He went around Logan, Roman, and Patton and gruffly hopped over the counter.

Logan stared at Patton then back at the strange man who was...breaking and entering in the middle of the day while the owner was inside?

But Patton just smiled even wider and turned around to look at the man. He doesn’t even seem to be bothered. “That’s Virgil. One of the regulars. I make him his coffee and put it separately away in the corner.” He turned around to look at Virgil. “Hi Virgil! Look we’ve got two new visitors!”

“Hey Pat,” Virgil mumbled and he grabbed a black coffee cup and began pouring his coffee into it.

“This is Roman and Logan,” Patton explained, pointing to each one of them.

“Hi.” Is all Virgil said before walking around the counter and settling himself at a corner table with just one chair and a flower pot in the center of the table. In the pot, the flower was obviously fake with clear, mesh-like petals with white veins running through it.

Patton turned back to Logan and Roman. His eyes were dancing and his mouth was upwards into a smile still. “Would you like anything? Pastries? Drinks?”

“What kind of stuff do you have?” Roman asked, walking over to the counter where, to the left, the pastries were behind glass.

Logan saw Berliners, croissants, all kinds of pies, cakes, and even some churros.

He expected Roman to ask for churros—like back home. But Logan is surprised when Roman says, “how ‘bout a piece of lemon meringue pie?”

Patton grins and opens the glass to take out a slice. “I have another regular who comes, Penny, and this is her favourite pie. She comes here to write.” He added in absentmindedly.

It was as if an electric shock went through Roman and Logan because, instantly, they glanced over at each other with wide eyes.

Patton didn’t seem to notice the exchange as he was jabbering on about botanists and his flowers in his cafe. He took a slice of pie and put it on a plate that seems to be made of pottery. “Here you go. What about you Logan? There’s plenty to go around.”

Logan glanced inside the glass before looking up at the menus which were hanging from the ceiling. “I think I’ll have...the blueberry muffin please.”

He then began thinking of ways he could possibly bring up Penny as Patton walked over to the muffin stand. Could she possibly be Raz Keeran?

Roman, on the other hand was not so discreet. As Patton was beginning to walk back to Logan, he blurted out. “So what does Penny write? Stories?”

Logan actually made a sound out loud. Somewhere between a dying whale and an overexcited chimpanzee.

Patton was too preoccupied putting the muffin on a plate and Roman wasn’t paying attention at all. But Virgil, all the way on the other side of the cafe, swivelled his head and glanced over at Logan with a weird expression on his face that he couldn’t read.

Logan’s face immediately went red.

Patton slid over the plate across the counter to Logan while looking at Roman. “Dunno. She comes in here everyday with a computer. She tells me she’s writing something but never tells me what.” He shrugged before smiling once again. “Enjoy your food!”

Roman and Logan found a table for two, in the other corner across from Virgil. They made sure to be as secluded as humanly possible before discussing about Keeran’s identity.

It still made Logan shiver—the thought of finding Keeran when they obviously didn’t want to be found—but the whole mystery was beginning to get to him. It was like he was a real life Sherlock Holmes, solving a mystery.

He hated himself for it yet, he realized with a sinking sense of despair, he wanted to solve this mystery.

Logan had always said he hated hypocrites. And he tried his darned hardest to not be one. But was he a hypocrite now? After all those years telling Roman that finding Keeran was wrong and now he suddenly wanted to do so?

Logan bit a large bite out of his muffin and tried to chew as slow as humanly possible.

What had changed? Why was he so suddenly feeling different about finding Keeran? Was it actually being out in the field instead of being home, Keeran feeling so far out of reach? Or was it that somewhere, deep inside, Logan had always wanted to figure out Keeran’s identity?

Logan swallowed hard. He suddenly felt cold but sweaty and congested in an almost empty cafe.

“It’s Penny.” Roman said before shoving some pie into his mouth. “I didn’t think it would be this obvious. Would’ve thought it would be a tougher case to crack”

Logan didn’t say a word and let Roman babble on and on.

“I mean, this Penny person comes into this cafe and writes something but Patton doesn’t know? Pretty obvious if you ask me.

“I think our best bet is to have a stake out here to figure out who Penny is.” Roman continued. “And then, we’ll need some cold hard proof to show. So maybe a picture of her computer with some unseen scenes from the fifth book or maybe some stuff from the previous books or—“ he paused and looked at Logan as if he only just now realized he was sitting across from him. “What do you think about Penny?”

It took a moment for Logan to snap back into reality—to snap out of the spiral downwards his thoughts were taking. But, soon he processed Roman’s question. “I don’t know. But, you’re right about one thing: I don’t think it’s supposed to be this obvious. Or, this whole thing is going to be a lot harder than we thought.”

“But it totally is Penny,” Roman concluded with his air of importance. “It’s gotta be.”

It doesn’t have to be, Logan thought to himself but didn’t say out loud. He decided that he’d work on this mystery alone. He’d figure out who Raz Keeran really was and not tell Roman. Therefore, the secret wouldn’t be out. Only he’d know. Only Logan. The whole idea kind of excited him.

Logan could trust himself and his self-control to not leak information about Keeran. Roman, on the other hand, was not so reliable.

“Yeah...sure…” Logan nodded, not really paying attention.

Roman took another bite of his pie and when he spoke again crumbs spewed everywhere. “Should we just stay here or explore this town a bit?”

Logan had no intention of finding Raz Keeran on the first day—whether it was Penny or not—so he said “let’s head out.” He grabbed the rest of his muffin and Roman quickly inhaled the rest of his pie.

They quickly paid for their desserts, Virgil eyeing them wearily, before heading out to explore their new surroundings.

~~~

What Roman noticed first was that everyone was so nice.

The florist through the window smiled and waved as they passed. The librarian suggested they come in and borrow some books (Roman had to physically restrain Logan from going inside). The man selling fresh eggs and milk on the side of the road offered them a sample of the milk. The busker at the corner nodded his head in acknowledgement. Every passerby smiled a full toothed smile. Not one of those “I accidentally looked into your eyes so I’m going to give you a closed lipped smile” smile.

“It’s kind of off-putting, to be honest.” Logan muttered when Roman said this to him. “No one can be that nice.”

“Actually, they can.” Roman said. “Why are you always so negative?” He sighed.

“I’m not negative.” Logan said. “I’m a realist.”

“Negative, realist.” Roman said, putting one hand up then the other. “Tomato, tomato.”

Logan’s face scrunched up almost cartoon-like. “What? No. They aren’t the same thing. Being negative is always seeing the negative. Being a realist is using facts. If something is 100% good, then it’s good. Fact. No one can be this happy, though. Another fact.”

Roman sighed over-dramatically. “Whatever. But I love this town. It’s great.”

Logan nodded curtly. “No doubt about that. It’s very quaint and small.”

The words were out of Roman’s mouth before he could stop himself. “I wouldn’t mind living here.”

Logan didn’t make a vocal reaction but Roman noticed how his shoulders stiffened and his hands found his jean pockets.

“I mean,” Roman amended quickly. “It would be fun living here if I had to choose somewhere else other than where we live now.”

Logan didn’t seem to relax much.

Roman was planning on continuing his babbling but a building in the distance caught his eye. “Woah, is that a mansion?” He eagerly pointing in the near distance like a toddler pointing at a brightly coloured candy at the store.

Logan put his hand up to block the sun in his eyes to look to where Roman had pointed.

In the distance a gleaming white building stood tall and proud—like royalty in the midst of peasants. The windows were two-way and Roman could see a part of a parking lot-esque style space peeking out from behind the building.

“Do you think that’s Raz’s place?” Roman breathed in awe.

“That’s not a mansion.” Logan stated, bringing his arm down. He then pointed to the opposite side of the building. “It’s a hospital.”

Roman squinted to where Logan was gesturing and saw a couple of ambulances parked and ready to go if help was needed.

He deflated just slightly. Slightly. “Let’s go!” Roman grabbed at Logan’s wrist and began speed walking towards the hospital.

“Why are we going to a hospital?” Logan asked, wrinkling his nose. “No one’s hurt. We have no need to visit.”

“It’s not just any hospital, Logan.” Roman exclaimed excitedly. “It’s the hospital. It literally looks like a celebrity would live there.”

Logan just looked even more confused than before. “In a hospital?”

Roman opened his mouth to respond but then thought better of it and snapped his jaw shut. “I just wanna see what it’s like.”

They speed-walked down a couple more streets until they were face to face with the gleaming building with so many windows. Roman craned his neck back so his vision could see the top of the hospital. “This place is so epic.”

“It truly is, isn’t it?” A woman’s voice piped up. Roman jumped at the sudden voice that definitely wasn’t Logan’s.

He glanced over to where a woman was seated on a bench a couple of feet away. How come I didn’t notice her before? Had Logan noticed her as soon as she was in his field of vision? Or was Logan just as surprised as he was?

“Oh. Hello.” Roman said, smiling at the woman before looking back up at the hospital. “Yeah, it is gorgeous.”

The woman looked maybe a couple years older than Roman but not by much. Her hair was dyed an ice blonde and her eyes were a bright green. She was wearing a stylish pair of red cat-eye glasses and dangly earrings.

“I was talking to some of the staff inside and apparently every so often they get an anonymous donation with a very ...significant sum.” Her eyebrows raised as she said this and her eyes widened along with them.

“A mysterious donation?” Logan repeated. He had the same facial expression as the woman—completely in rapture. He then seemed to realize something and straightened his spine, schooling his features and extending his arm. “I’m sorry, I haven’t introduced myself. I’m Logan Holmes.”

The woman shook his hand and nodded. “A pleasure to meet you. I’m Josephine Keller. But you can call me Jo.”

Logan’s eyes lit up. “Ah! Like Louisa May Alcott’s Josephine March!”

Jo’s eyes lit up and nodded, a smile playing at her lips. “Exactly.”

Roman decided then to introduce himself as well and did a slight bow. “And I’m Roman Falco.”

Jo nodded in Roman’s direction. “Great to meet you to.”

“Do they have any idea who sends the donations? A company? A single person?” Logan then asked Jo, leaning his body in just slightly.

What does this have to do with finding Raz Keeran? Roman asked himself, scrunching up his nose. They were supposed to be on a mission to find Raz, not some weird hospital donor.

Jo shrugged her shoulders and shook her head. “No idea. They say the donation comes in cash in an unmarked envelope.”

“Which means the donation must be brought to the hospital personally, not mailed.” Logan stated, rubbing his chin.

“Exactly what I was thinking.” Jo exclaimed. “I asked the security there if they ever managed to see who brought the envelope through their cameras but they said that every time was a different person in dark clothes and a hood or hat.”

“And no doubt all of them are not the actual donor.” Logan concluded almost seamlessly with Jo’s previous words. “Could they describe what the latest donor was wearing?”

Jo shook her head once again. “No. Security said they couldn’t disclose that information.”

“Have they ever tried finding the donor?” Logan asked once again.

Roman was starting to get impatient. What was happening? He could barely follow along with the conversation. The two of them seemed to be bouncing off each other and talking at the speed of light.

“No. But they did do an investigation to make sure the money that was being donated to them was legit and not stolen or something along those lines.

“And? What did they find?”

“All the money is good. Not stolen.” Jo concluded.

Logan hmmmed. “Interesting. And are they’re sure the envelope is unmarked?”

“That’s what they said. They didn’t show me the envelope.” Jo replied. She glanced at her red watch and stood up. “Well, it’s been great talking to you, gentlemen. But I have to go. I’m meeting a friend soon.”

Logan shook Jo’s hand once again and as soon as she was out of view, Roman began talking.

“What was that?” Roman exclaimed. “I thought we were trying to find Raz’s identity! Not take on some side mystery about a mysterious donor.” Then, he added in. “And that woman gives me bad vibes.”

Logan rolled his eyes. “Jo seems very nice. You probably don’t like her because she’s not like you. Anyway, that’s not the point. Jo gave us some very valuable information.”

“Valuable information?” Roman sputtered incredulously. “From her?”

“Yes.” Logan nodded. “Just think, Roman. If this donor is getting people to bring the envelope here, that means it’s a very likely chance that this donor lives in this town. Besides, the next closest town is an hour away. And if the donor lives here and is able to give away that much money away, they must be very wealthy indeed. And, wouldn’t you think an incredibly famous author of four books, who’s coming out with a fifth, might earn some good money? Especially if they might have written other works under their own name or even another pseudonym.”

Roman’s eyes widened and his jaw dropped on his own accord. “You think Raz Keeran is the mysterious donor?”

Logan nodded curtly. “Yes. But it’s just a thought. It does make sense, however. But we don’t have enough information to be 100% about it.”

“Oh my gosh. Logan, you are brilliant.” Roman breathed.

The tips of Logan’s mouth quirked up. “Thank you. You are also, intelligent too.”

“So, what’s the plan?” Roman asked excitedly.

Logan slid his hands inside his pockets. “We’re going inside the hospital to see if we can get a glimpse of the envelope or someone who can describe it to us. Or, even better, someone who managed to get a glimpse of a face of someone who brought in the envelope.”

The hospital, as much as it looked like a mansion on the outside, was not a mansion on the inside.

However, it was a hospital and a hospital outfitted like a mansion just wasn’t a good idea in the first place.

The walls and ceilings and floors were blindingly bright and white. It had that hospital smell and all the doctors and nurses seemed to be going somewhere.

There was a man behind the front desk, tapping out something on his computer.

“So….how’re we going to find someone who has seen or taken a picture of the envelope or has actually seen the donor?” Roman asked as he followed Logan through the hallways, a couple floors up.

“I’ll figure it out…” Logan muttered under his breath.

Roman’s head shot up. “Wait. You don’t know how? I thought—“

“Um, are you two lost?” A woman poked her head of a doorway.

“No.” Logan replied curtly.

“Unless you have pictures of the envelope that the mysterious donor’s money comes in or have actually seen one of the people who brought it in.” Roman said bluntly. Asking straight up was the better option for this kind of stuff.

Logan’s head swivelled around and it reminded Roman of an owl that could spin its head all the way around. And, if looks could kill, Roman would be dead right now on the floor.

The woman narrowed her eyes at the two of them and looked between Roman and Logan curiously. “And why would you want to know?”

Logan was the first to speak. He schooled his death glare pointed towards Roman and took a couple steps towards the woman. “The same as you. To solve a mystery.”

If jaw’s could hit the floor, the woman’s jaw would have hit the floor and smashed right through the floor down to the other floors and right to the dirt. “Wha—“ she sputtered. “How?”

“If you didn’t know anything you would have probably said straight up that you had no clue about the mysterious donor.” Logan stated pointedly. “Of course, if you wish for us to leave right now, we will acquest.”

“But we would rather you tell us what you know.” Roman added in then shrunk as Logan glared at him.

The woman turned her head side to side down the halls, as if to make sure the coast was clear before ushering them inside.

Inside the small room was an office like space that was probably meant for four more people.

“I’m an intern here.” The woman said as she noticed Logan and Roman glancing around. “I’m Penny.”

Roman’s back immediately straightened and he could see Logan’s eyes quickly light up with recognition.

Penny. Could it be the Penny? The Penny who Patton had told them about who was always writing in his cafe? The Penny who could possibly be Raz Keeran?

Logan was the first to say something. “I’m Logan Holmes.”

“Roman Falco.” Roman added in.

“So, what do you know about the mysterious donor?” Logan asked curiously, walking around the space which wasn’t small but he could definitely see it as small with five people inside.

Penny made her way to a desk which Roman assumed was hers. She bent down to drag a cardboard box out which could have been mistaken as a banker’s box filled with files. “I don’t have much as I haven’t been interning for all that long. However, I have been here long enough to be here when three donations have been delivered.” Penny explained, putting the box on a table and opening the flaps.

She pulled out a piece of paper first and passed it to Logan. “I marked down what day the donation was brought and exactly how much was donated. All the way back to the first one three years years ago.”

Logan skimmed through the calendar. “The donor looks pretty consistent—about one donation every three or four months.” He paused. “Except for this one: it has five months.”

Penny nodded. “Yeah, last year in May. It was also the largest donation to date.”

Logan passed the paper to Roman. The printing was incredibly small and it was almost impossible to read. And he had 20/20 vision. After glancing at all the numbers that seemed to swim before his vision, he placed it next to the box.

The next thing Penny pulled out were three envelopes. And, while they were blank they had a specific bluish hue to them that weren’t like your average envelope.

“These are the envelopes the past three donations came in. According to some of my friends here who have been at the hospital longer, the donation always comes in these blank envelopes.” Penny explained.

“Do you know where they came from?” Roman asked. He had watched enough mystery movies to know that you should always know where clues came from and then ask the shop owner who had bought such things.

“Yeah. From Patton-ly Perfect.” Penny replied. “The owner there sells these specific envelopes.”

Roman could see Logan’s head snap up in surprise. “Really?” He paused. “You don’t think…?” Logan trailed off.

Penny just shook her head. “No. Patton can’t be the donor. I’ve been going to his cafe regularly for a couple of months and he’s no longer a suspect.”

Roman deflated. So Penny couldn’t be Raz Keeran. She couldn’t be looking for the donor if she was the donor herself. How would that make sense?

Logan seemed to come to the same conclusion and glanced over at Roman before speaking to Penny once again. “Do you have any other suspects?”

“Only one.” Penny replied. “This girl who lives down the block from me. She’s a couple years older than me and inherited this large sum of money from her grandmother. Her name is Cherry and I sometimes see her chatting with Patton and a couple of other people there at the cafe. Other than that, that’s all I got.”

Logan nodded. “Well, thank you for your help and time. We really should get going.”

But Roman piped up before Penny could respond. “What does this Cherry look like?” He wanted to know what the newest suspect looked like. Whereas with Patton, they only got Penny’s name and nothing else, he wanted to know this person’s appearance.

Penny began putting her stuff back in the banker’s box. “Well, she’s tall.” She raised her hand above her own head to demonstrate. “And she’s got a messy bob kind of hairstyle. Brunette. And Harry Potter glasses.”

“Harry Potter!” Roman exclaimed. Finally. He understood something. “You’ve read the books?”

“About a million times.” Penny said, her eyes lighting up.

Out of the corner of his eye, Roman could see Logan roll his eyes. But he decided to ignore it for the time being. “What house are you in? I’m a Gryffindor.”

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lilyvandersteen · 5 years ago

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Out of the Blue: Chapter 2

Cover art: @redheadgleek

Beta extraordinaire: @hkvoyage

Links: AO3, FF.net

Author’s Note:

The Twitter feed mentioned in this chapter circulated around Tumblr a while back, and I just KNEW I had to turn it into a fic one day :D

This is the blog post in question: https://lilyvandersteen.tumblr.com/post/190456831744/thesorrowoflizards-awful-brew

Chapter 2: A Good Idea

“This was a lucky idea of mine, indeed!” said Mrs. Bennet, more than once, as if the credit of making it rain were all her own. Till the next morning, however, she was not aware of all the felicity of her contrivance.

(An excerpt from Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Kurt sipped from his cocktail and leaned back contently. It was Friday night, he didn’t have any shifts at the diner the following day, and all his favorite girls were here for a night out, even Mercedes and Brittany. Life was good.

It was fun catching up with everyone. He told them all about the photo shoots he’d helped his boss Isabelle with at Vogue, and the articles he’d written for the website. Quinn was interning with a district attorney at the moment, and talked about the court cases she’d attended so far. Tina had been helping out a vet treating farm animals exclusively, and told stories about cows calving and a horse that had to be put down after breaking its leg. Mercedes’ tour was a big success, and she was thinking of taking it overseas. Brittany, who was one of the back-up dancers at Mercedes’ concerts, was all for that plan, and summed up all the cities she wanted to visit.

Rachel, for once, wasn’t monopolizing the conversation, seeing as she was sad about another short relationship that hadn’t worked out. And Santana was more mellow than usual, seeing as she had Brittany with her.

The two of them were cuddling and whispering softly and smiling, and it sent a pang of jealousy through Kurt. He didn’t envy Santana the long-distance relationship. He’d witnessed first-hand how hard it was for her sometimes. But he did long for that bond that Santana and Brittany had. He too wanted someone who’d understand him with half a word, who’d move mountains just to be with him and who’d look at him as though he were the most precious jewel on earth.

All he’d ever had in the way of relationships was an admirer called Chandler when he was still in Ohio. Kurt had liked the compliments Chandler had showered him with, and had liked getting Chandler’s undivided attention. It was flattering, and it did wonders for his self-esteem. See? Someone thought he was worth talking to! Someone appreciated his fashion sense!

That was why he’d agreed to go on a date with Chandler, and after that a second one. They’d gone to the cinema together, and then shopping at the mall another time. And Kurt was pretty sure that Chandler expected more to come of it, looking at Kurt with hope in his eyes at the end of each date. But Kurt couldn’t bring himself to kiss Chandler. Not when he didn’t feel anything for him other than gratitude and kinship.

So their relationship petered out before it could even begin, and Kurt couldn’t say he regretted it. But he’d very much hoped that his dating prospects would improve upon moving to New York City, and that hadn’t been the case.

Yes, the leader of the Adam’s Apples show choir had recruited him with a serenade, but he’d made no move beyond that, and Kurt hadn’t dared ask him out.

And when he’d started his Madonna cover band, he’d developed a crush on Elliott – could you blame him? – and admitted to it one night after a gig, half-drunk and giggly, only to be told that he was about five years too late to make his move. That was how long Elliott had been dating his boyfriend, and when he brought Mark along to rehearsal the next time, they proved to be ridiculously happy and in love. So no luck there, either.

It wasn’t his looks, he knew that much. In his stage combat lessons, he could see other students check out his body, which had filled out nicely. But none of them ever came on to him, and anyway, Kurt wasn’t sure he’d be interested in just a hook-up.

Still, it wasn’t fun to be the only one of his friends who’d never even been kissed. Other than by a girl or a bully, but that didn’t count. It didn’t, okay?

When Kurt tuned back into the conversation, he heard that they were talking about a tweet Tina had found on her Twitter feed that encouraged people getting married to send an invitation to all billionaires they could find the address of. If you got lucky, those billionaires’ secretaries would think you were a friend or relative of their boss and would send you a gift.

“Wouldn’t it be great if one of us got married so we could get some decent stuff for the loft?” Santana asked. "We barely have anything, and we could ask for all of it! A blender. A coffee machine. A panini maker. And, you know, bedding. Sleeping on the sofa would feel a lot better if I had a decent pillow and comforter. And bath towels. Big and thick ones."

“Oh yes,” Kurt chimed in. “A wok, a food processor, a real Le Creuset pan. Good knives. Matching sets of plates and cutlery. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but just more. Now we have to wash up after every meal because we only have six of everything.”

“A vacuum cleaner that actually works,” Rachel sighed. “It was nice of Carole to give us her old one, but let’s face it, its best days are over. Oh, and what about a quality throw blanket to hang over the sofa, to hide the stains?”

Kurt nodded. “I also want a full-length mirror for the bathroom, and a nicer hamper for the dirty laundry. The kind that doubles as a bench.”

Rachel put her chin in her hands and stared dreamily into space. “Wouldn’t that be wonderful?”

“It would,” Santana and Kurt agreed.

“Too bad none of us are getting married anytime soon,” Kurt mused.

“Well, I’m not seeing anyone, and neither are you,” Rachel said, “so technically, we could get fake hitched, but I don’t think anyone would buy you and I getting married. The wedding would be fabulous, of course, but obviously fake.”

Kurt suppressed a shudder, and Santana threw her head back and laughed.

Rachel pressed on, “But Santana could totally get married. What about it, Santana? At least you and Brittany are dating.”

The proposition shut Santana up at once. She stared at Rachel with her mouth wide open.

“I’d like to be married to you,” Brittany piped up, smiling softly and kissing Santana on the nose. “And I’m sure Kurt would help us plan the wedding, wouldn’t you, Kurt?”

Kurt grinned at her. “You know it!”

“And I know just what the invitation should look like!”

Brittany took a piece of crayon from behind her ear and started sketching a tree with hearts instead of leaves.

“That’s beautiful, honey,” Santana murmured, and Brittany beamed at her. “So we’re doing this?”

Santana nodded, and claimed Brittany’s lips for a lingering kiss.

“Okay, okay, that’s as much foreplay as I can stomach,” Kurt said. “Let’s get back to the loft. You can have my bed tonight if you promise not to be loud and not to get the bed linens dirty. Use a towel.”

Brittany kissed Kurt on the cheek. “Thank you, Kurtie!”

When they reached the loft, though, Brittany made no move to join Santana in Kurt’s bedroom. Instead, she badgered Kurt into opening Photoshop on his laptop so she could recreate the love tree in digital format. She added a recent picture of her and Santana, and looked up examples of wedding invitations on the internet to see what information should be on the card.

Before Kurt knew it, Brittany had commandeered all of his expensive ivory drawing paper to print the invitations on, and she set Rachel to work Googling names and addresses of billionaires.

Soon, Kurt was calligraphing these addresses onto hot pink and deep purple envelopes from Rachel’s stationary set, while Brittany was setting up an online wedding registry.

When that was done, she used up all of Rachel’s stamps to frank the invitations, and then ran out to go post them.

Rachel and Santana were already fast asleep by the time Brittany came back, and Kurt had almost drifted off when he heard a cheery, “There, all done!”

He chuckled at Brittany’s enthusiasm, closed his eyes and was out like a light.

The next day, they all woke up with hangovers and no recollection of their wacky wedding scheme nor the fake invitations Brittany had sent.

On Monday evening, though, Santana blanched and gasped when she checked her e-mails during dinner. “Dios mio!”

“What is it?” asked Rachel, spearing three green beans onto her fork.

“Brittany! She actually sent out wedding invites! And somebody has accepted the invitation. Who goes to a wedding of people they don’t know at all? And what on earth are we gonna do?”

“Wait, what? Who is this person?”

Rachel looked over Santana’s shoulder at the screen. “Cooper Anderson… Oh yeah, that’s the guy from those FreeCreditRating.com commercials, you remember? We all had that jingle as our ringtone for a while.”

“You mean YOU did,” Santana muttered, rolling his eyes.

Kurt wisely didn’t mention he’d had that ringtone, too.

Oh, he remembered the FreeCreditRating guy only too well. He even had a signed poster of him somewhere, that dated back to a talent show at the Westerville mall. Cooper Anderson had been one of the judges of the show, and Kurt had taken part just to get to see him in the flesh. Kurt had been the runner-up of the competition, after Rachel, and had gotten to shake Mr. Anderson’s hand and stammer about how much he admired him. And Mr. Anderson had been so gracious about it all, giving Kurt a 1,000 Watt smile and asking him if he’d like an autograph. So Kurt had whipped out his latest edition of Vogue and had Mr. Anderson sign a perfume ad he starred in.

Kurt smiled at the recollection, and nodded along when Rachel continued to gush about Mr. Anderson.

“He’s ever so handsome. And ever so rich. He’s a Westerville Anderson, so he comes from old money, and then he started this advertising company that everyone uses nowadays, so now he’s a billionaire ten times over.”

“Nice!” said Santana. “So whatever he buys us as a present, it’ll be worth it. But how are we going to pull this off in… What?! Less than a week! Britt put this Saturday as the wedding date!”

“WHAT?!!” Kurt and Rachel shrieked in unison.

Santana waved at the screen. “See for yourself. This Saturday, at 6.30 p.m., in our loft.”

Kurt shook his head in disbelief. “Five days! Neither of you have wedding dresses, we don’t have an officiant, we don’t have a wedding cake nor any other party food, we don’t have any flowers or decorations fit for a wedding. This is a disaster!”

“But you CAN do it, right?”

Santana’s hand clamped around Kurt’s arm like a vice, and she looked up at him beseechingly. “Please help us out? You organized Burt and Carole’s wedding in a week too, right?”

“Two weeks,” Kurt corrected absent-mindedly, his brain already working overtime. “I suppose I could manage it. But you’d owe me. Big time. I want at least half of the wedding present haul.”

“Done.”

Rachel clapped her hands and cheered. “Can we look at what people have bought you already?”

Santana clicked through to the wedding registry, and her face went slack with horror.

“What?” Kurt asked.

“Britt only put cat stuff on the list,” Santana groaned as she scrolled through the list. “Nothing but cat stuff.”

“She did what?” Rachel screeched.

Kurt didn’t say a word. He took over the mouse and checked what had been bought already. So far, Cooper Anderson was the only one who had chosen something. He had put his name down for a pet pavilion that was worth a cool 25 grand. 25 grand! For something so ridiculous! You could fit out an entire kitchen with that amount of money! What a waste!!

“Ugh, as much as I love Britt, I kind of hate her right now,” he murmured, and he heard Santana and Rachel hum in assent.

Kurt clicked on “Edit your wedding registry” and started to delete all of Brittany’s choices, one by one, muttering curses under his breath when he arrived at the costly pet pavilion that he couldn’t delete because it had already been bought.

“Now, before anyone else buys something we don’t want or need, let’s add all the stuff that we DO want,” he said, and between the three of them, they compiled a decent list.

When he’d clicked on “Save changes”, Kurt let out a deep breath. “Well, looks like I’ve got some wedding planning to do. This had better be worth it, San!”

Santana was still too shaken up to snark back. She just looked at Kurt like a deer caught in the headlights. “Can we do this?”

Kurt nodded. “We can do this. Calling Isabelle straight away!”

Isabelle, when she heard the story, laughed for five minutes straight, but then promised all the help she could offer. “Bring the brides along tomorrow, I’ll find them dresses and shoes, no problem. And you can use whatever decorations we have lying around here. What else do you need?”

“Rings for the brides. Dresses for two bridesmaids, I’ll bring them too. A three-piece suit for both me and the officiant,” Kurt started listing. “The others are on their own and will have to dig up whatever formal wear they’ve got lying around. Then, what else, let me think… Chairs for the ceremony. The weather will be nice on Saturday, thankfully, so we’ll have the ceremony and the reception on the roof of our building. There’s a railing all around, so it’s safe, and I’ve already made a cosy corner there that we sit in when the loft gets too hot. Very sturdy and well-made trelliswork. I will just have to decorate it.”

Isabelle hummed. “White roses. We’ve got tons of fake ones from the May issue, remember? You’re welcome to them, but make sure we get them back afterwards.”

“Will do,” Kurt promised. “The guests will have to go through our loft to get to the roof, though. You can only get there using the fire escape. So we will need a cover for our sofa. It’s in a terrible state. Stains all over. Ugh, we’ll have to start by cleaning the whole loft top to bottom. Girls, you WILL help!!”

Rachel and Santana murmured their agreement, and Santana went to look for cleaning supplies, while Rachel started to tackle the piled-up dishes in the sink.

“Oh, and could I borrow a few of those high tables people can stand around to eat finger food? We’ve got no room for a sit-down dinner.”

“Reception tables,” Isabelle said. “Yep, we have about twenty of them, and you’re not going to need that many, are you?”

“Nope. Five or six will do. Plus decent tablecloths for those tables, so that they don’t look cheap. I’d also like twinkle lights. As many as you can spare. And some sheer fabric or tulle I can wrap them in before I drape them all over the terrace.”

“Right, I’ll find you some,” Isabelle promised. “Do you need vases for flowers?”

Kurt hummed, thinking hard. “Nope, I’ll repurpose some empty wine bottles. Dipped in silver glitter, they’ll look fab. I’ll hang some on the railing and I’ll put the others on the reception tables. And some in the loft as well. And maybe some twinkle lights there, too. If you have some other decoration ideas, please let me know. Oh, and wedding favors! What do I do for wedding favors? For my dad and stepmom, I put a wheelbarrow with seed packets in the garden, with a sign that said, ‘Take one and watch love grow’. But that only works for a garden wedding.”

Isabelle hummed. “Let me think about it and get back to you. What are you going to do about the food?”

“Make it myself. Thank heavens we have a big fridge and freezer. We’re going to need every inch of space.”

Isabelle tutted. “Don’t overdo it, Kurt. You don’t want to fall asleep halfway through the wedding because you’ve been working day and night to make this perfect.”

“I’ll make everyone help.”

The steel in Kurt’s voice made Rachel and Santana look up from their work in alarm, but they didn’t protest. They knew all too well it was futile.

The rest of the week passed in a frenzy of cleaning, cooking, baking, decorating as well as inviting and briefing their other friends.

Elliott agreed to act as the officiant for the wedding, Artie offered his services as a DJ and Tina volunteered to be the photographer. Mercedes and Artie rehearsed the song for the first dance while the brides worked on the dance itself. Sam made himself invaluable running errands and assisting Kurt from dusk till dawn, and didn’t give a peep in protest when Kurt sat him down for a haircut.

By Saturday afternoon, the loft and the terrace both looked splendid. The twinkle lights wrapped in tulle gave the loft ceiling and the terrace a dreamy but festive air, and the silver bottles holding colorful flowers added to the splendor without making it tacky.

Kurt was hard at work decorating the top tier of the wedding cake while Elliott rehearsed the ceremony with San and Britt, Rachel prompting them whenever they faltered.

When the cake was safely stowed away in the fridge, Kurt checked the wedding registry one last time. It seemed like all his work had served some purpose after all. Their scheme had worked out pretty well. Brittany and Santana had received a gift from no less than eighteen billionaires, some of it pricey stuff. The Louis XV pet pavilion was a sad waste of money, of course, but Kurt was pleased with the other gifts, and was mentally already picking his favorites.

Humming happily, he helped zip up dresses and arrange the brides’ and bridesmaids’ hair, and then went to his bedroom to put his suit on and check on his coif.

When he headed back to the living room, he noticed that all their friends had arrived, and grimaced at all the noise they produced. He hadn’t slept properly in days, and he felt a headache coming on, throbbing at his temples.

Artie was testing the music installation, and soon all of the former Glee clubbers were singing and laughing and dancing. Kurt slunk away to the kitchen and put his head against the cool metal of the fridge to soothe the pain.

He’d almost dozed off when a loud voice rang through the loft. Mr. Anderson! He’d arrived!

#bbb2020 #blaine big bang 2020 #klaine fanfiction #my fic #out of the blue

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migleefulmoments · 5 years ago

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cc proof.

“Some fun photos like the time M/ichael from TV Line tweeted there had to be more between them from the below panel that was instantaneously deleted”

Abby’s newest master post of “proof” that cc is real. This quote was lifted from a fanfiction translated to English in 2012 and erroneously attributed to news. I have written about this fanfiction many times. It contains many of the ccers favorite “facts” to prove cc is real- of course it is so effective, it isn’t real. How apropos that they continue to use this fabricated, debunked story as proof of cc August 23, 2019.

The fanfiction was translated and erroneously posted as news by Geek in the Pink on May 7, 2012.

The rumors about both actors began towards the end of 2010 when various anonymous people tweeted about seeing the pair eating together and joking around during events. This is nothing new however, since they’re both good friends, but the rumors intensified when producer Brad Falchuk (in joking…or not) had to yell “CUT” two times when the both actors were filming the sex scene between Kurt and Blaine ( a scene that didn’t get to be aired on Glee ) . Later two girls that witnessed the car scene during filming for “the first time” episode whet to their tumblr blogs to spill about how Darren and Chris interacted outside of filming. Both girls’ blogs tell about the same events, in some detail about what they witnessed. Both Actors played around, laughed, they hugged, and finally they both went to finish the scene. Producers had to clarify that the scenes between Kurt and Blaine were deleted from the episode because they had been very strong for the time and Glee in general, saying:”Darren and Chris really went for it”This is still not rare at all, to a note he gave to the magazine Max Ehrich OUT. Max Ehrich is a very fine actor and dancer on Broadway and is the former boyfriend Chris Colfer. When asked about his relationship with Chris, he responded short, clear and controversial: “We separated because of Darren Criss”. The actor [Max Ehrich] didn’t talk about the topic much less Chris Colfer whose private life continues being a mystery.Many people confirm that Darren Criss already has a girlfriend [ Mia Swier] , but truth be told he’s never confirmed it himself. Yes, there has been multiple sighting of the pair together in public events/places but again he has never stated that she is his girlfriend, much to the contrary, he admitted to “People” magazine that he’s crazy for Dianna Agron but that she was to amazing for a guy like him. Just a few months ago en the magazine “The Advocate” Darren had confessed that he has kissed a few guys when he was in college and has said that he falls in love with the person not the gender. Ashley Fink, otherwise kwon as Lauren Zizes from glee, is best friends with Chris Colfer . She has been questioned a lot about the kiss that Darren Criss stole from Chris Colfer on the Glee Tour in Dublin, which she responded “Darren was planning that for the entire day , he told us “ I’m going to kiss him, don’t say anything” everyone knew except Chris . He thought it would be fun in the moment, the crowd was going crazy, but the truth is it brought on many problems for Chris”. During that time Chris was still going out with Max [Enrich] which we imagine to go over very well with him.Finally, the rumors resurrected last Tuesday during the Glee press Panel. Darren and Chris were sitting next to each other and could not stop joking the entire night. Until the moderator had to call the attention of both. Again this really doesn’t say much, This again tells us nothing ,until the editor of TV Line, Michael Auselio tweeted from the back to the panel of reporters, “Colfer and Criss seem really close for being just friends” , but the tweet was deleted from his account within a few minutes .You draw your conclusions, there’s plenty more rumors (all of the hand of Darren Criss, phrases like: "Anything can happen with him, never say never” "Chris and I are more than friends and less than lovers”, but those are just … rumors.The reality is that social networking is very difficult to maintain privacy, although much of the cast has done very well so far (especially Chris Colfer who has confessed in Chealsea Lately to have had 3 relationships which she only knew of one, Max Ehrich. This was only for kicks, only worth discarding and to respect all the actors of Glee and their private lives … but these rumors are often a guilty pleasure.(X)

You can see this piece of fiction is jam-packed full of some of the cc fandom’s favorite “proof”.

On January 31, 2013 she wrote this

http://geeknthepink.tumblr.com/post/22585761785/whats-going-on-between-chris-colfer-and-darren-criss

Okay im just putting this in your tag bc i just noticed its being reblogged again and i want to make things clear. THIS IS A FAKE ARTICLE. I only translated this from some fan site from Argentina because it was interesting at the time and I honestly thought it was true and well yeah it turned out to be an excerpt from some CC fan fic apparently, so i was told years ago, but that was 3 years ago and it was when i was first getting acquainted with fandom and didnt know what real life shipping was. . IDK why this is making rounds again, but I’d just thought i would make things clear.

Let’s hope ccers stop reposting this nonsense- frankly it’s embarrassing.

#cc #ccer #ccers #cc blog #cc fandom #cc family #cc fan #crisscolfer #darren criss #Chris Colfer #fanfiction as proof

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phandomficfests · 5 years ago

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Writer’s Corner Self-Recs: phloridas

if you want to be happy (in a million ways) Excerpt:

One frozen December night, a little boy with bushy blonde hair and Winnie the Pooh pajamas sends a wish to the blackened skies above as he snuggles against his pillow with a heart far too heavy for this festive season. Maybe one day he’ll have parents who won’t constantly brush him aside for his baby brother. Maybe one day he won’t be blamed for every tiny mess in the house.

Maybe one day (no, Dan, you know that’s too much)--maybe one day he’ll have a family that won’t treat him like a burden in a house he didn’t even ask to exist in anyway.

wait for me to come home Excerpt:

Living as a squishy red sofa in the downstairs of a British Starbucks, especially one in the heart of Manchester, means you’re constantly meeting all kinds of people.

Very few come back, though--except for a couple of tall lanky guys in the early stages of adulthood.

They fell rather ungracefully onto the sofa that first October day, slumping as if they hadn’t had the chance to sit down in ages. Or maybe it was because something (a lot of things, perhaps) were brewing beneath the surface.

Hints of caramel and sugar drifted out of their large white mugs sat on the round wooden table in front of them as both pairs of eyes darted all around the tiny shop for a few loaded seconds until they landed on each other. It was only a brief moment, though, before the brown-haired one, with a long fringe falling over the left side of his forehead, bit his lip, and the black-haired one let out a soft giggle, tugging at the fringe falling just above his right eye with shaky fingers.

Come Closer Excerpt:

New tweet from @danisnotonfire: there are absolutely no good magazines in any of the whsmiths. ended up purchasing a kerrang because xbox magazine was shit. ON THE TRAIN :)

Those last three words did more for Phil than his morning coffee ever did.

It didn’t feel real.

Any second now, Phil expected a blazing sun to force his eyes open to see his usual messy room, phone still behind his glasses on his bedside table. He blinked hard but sure enough, Dan’s tweet remained, in all its black and white (and blue) glory.

It was enough to send his stomach into his throat.

To avoid turning into every cliche in the book, he switched over to his text messages, pulling up his miles-long thread with Dan.

Come back tomorrow for our interview with @phloridas!

#writer's corner

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pithybehavior · 6 years ago

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Kevin, Taraji, Erykah and Liam: Movie Gonna Tank? Blame Black People.

On December 4, 2018 Kevin Hart was announced as the 2019 Oscars host. That same day, a writer named Benjamin Lee posted an excerpt from an old interview and multiple tweets showing Hart making homophobic jokes and comments. From there, the timeline was quick. So quick that for some, it became suspect.

December 4:

Announced as Oscars host.

December 5:

Benjamin Lee writes a scathing post for The Guardian

Adam B Vary does a search for homophobic tweets (and finds them)

Jonah Weiner finds what Hart called an apology (It wasn’t)

December 6:

Hart posts IG video stating Oscars asked him to apologize

Refused to apologize

Claimed he’d apologized years prior (He hadn’t)

Steps down as Oscar host

Posts non-apology to twitter

December 7:

More tweets emerge this time a “joke” about AIDS

Almost a month of relative silence as he continued on his comedy tour out of the country.

January 4:

Ellen appearance where she absolved him despite concerns from Black gay community.

January 9:

Good Morning America appearance saying “I’m over it.”

January 10:

Early premiere of “The Upside” opens at the box office.

Why now? Why was this the moment these tweets came to light? Kevin Hart has had so many big public events over the last decade but he’s also had people bring up the old tweets so what was different this time?

Kevin Hart’s concern about his movie opening.

Prior to the controversy, The Upside had a dismal low 30’s rating across multiple platforms. It went up slightly after the controversy but not much. With a Rotten Tomatoes score of 40%, a Metacritic score of 46% and an IMDb score of 6.3/10 critics weren't loving it before the controversy and only liked it slightly better after. This was one of the worst reviewed movies in Kevin Hart’s career but it wasn’t only the reviews this movie had to contend with. Along with bad reviews, guess what else go buried in the rubble of controversy? This is one of the last movies Harvey Weinstein produced before being ousted. That doesn’t look or sound good to most, so how to do you stop people from looking at critical reviews and make them forget that an alleged mad man produced your film? You shine a light on something that was always there. Always being brought up but mostly kept quiet. That is, until Kevin Hart wanted it to be an issue.

A closer look into Hart’s past will show you that this was written years ago. On his show, The Real Husbands of Hollywood there’s an episode called “The Bump Stops Here” where Kevin is announced as and then loses the Oscar hosting gig in a 24 hour period because of a PR stunt gone wrong. What are the chances?

Were the people digging up Hart’s old tweets plants? Doubtful, those tweets have been talked about for years and many of them were still there to be found. Was the Oscar hosting gig some big set up? That’s also unlikely. However, a bomb at the box office could do a lot more damage to his career than losing a hosting job. It was likely a reasonable sacrifice. If you doubt anyone would go to such lengths, keep in mind, we’re talking about a lot of money. He never really apologized. He knew he lied about a previous apology and knew people would look and never find one. Adding to the controversy. When things started to die down after the first week, he waiting until the movie was going to premier to come back out and say he wasn’t going to talk about it. Nothing about this situation makes sense until you realize that there wasn’t a single mention of Harvey Weinstein and very little mention of negative reviews.

No matter what happened with The Upside, Kevin Hart had an out. If the movie did well, it would be in spite of the backlash and if the movie bombed, he could blame Black gay people. It’s always okay to blame your failures on Black people and it’s always okay to use Black people as your scapegoats. Since this was Black gay people, Hart had no qualms about using their backs for his self-hyped controversy.

Kevin Hart isn’t the first to use this type of controversy when the general belief is that the movie will bomb but it looks like he may have opened the floodgates for other actors and studios to use this template.

On January 22, 2019 Taraji P Henson posted a cryptic message on her IG story that appeared to defend accused pedophile R Kelly. Within 24 hours, she posted a clarification on Twitter saying she believed R Kelly should be muted. Less than a week prior on January 19th (posted on January 20) Erykah Badu made a public statement during a performance that also seemed to support R Kelly.

Henson and Badu have a movie coming out on February 8th with an early premiere tonight, February 7th. The film currently sits at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes, 56% on Metacritic and has not-so-great reviews from sites like AV Club with lines like “Dumbs down an already dumb Mel Gibson hit.” R Kelly has infamously been accused of targeting Black children and young Black girls. To come out in support of him is to stand against Black girls. This is a society that accepts, encourages and forgives that.

If the movie bombs, it will be the fault of Black women. If the movie does well, it will be in spite of Black women.

Liam Neeson, another person involved in a self made controversy also has a movie coming out on February 8th with an early premier of February 7th. The misconception was that Neeson was asked about a time when he wanted to seek revenge but no, this story was unprovoked. It wouldn’t have made sense as a revenge story anyway since he didn’t seek the person who hurt someone he loved, but instead anyone who shared a skin tone. He was purposeful in describing of a hate crime. It made no sense to tell this story. If he felt there was a connection to his character, he could have told the same story while leaving out the racist element. Why not leave out asking about the person’s race? Why not leave out “Black bastard?” Why not tell the same story, looking for anyone who fit the description but not mentioning race? He did it on purpose. It was a plan.

Cold Pursuit isn’t doing as badly as the other movies on sites like Rotten Tomatoes where it currently sits at an 82% but it’s still lacking on most other sites like Metacritic where it sits at 60% and IMDb with a 6.9/10. As much as people make fun of Neeson’s movies being similar, he keeps making them because they do well at the box office and this one will likely do well too. Nonetheless, before the box office opens, this movie is shaping up to be the biggest flop of any of his movies. Only time will tell and with the support of racists who say they’re just like him and actively attempting to commit a hate crime is no big deal, it’s a good guess that while this may not be his biggest, it will probably do just fine. But if it doesn’t, you can blame Black people.

#Kevin Hart #Taraji P Henson #Erykah Badu #Liam Neeson #Black History Month

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