#andi's law school insanity

[this-broken-band-girl]

my last final of my first year of law school is today holy hell how did that happen

[gruesomejack]

"You really think it's safe for me to bring the kids out here with that wacko on the loose?" Andy was leaned against a tree, his thumb in his mouth as he bit at a hangnail. His eyes were moving over the lush greenery-- It was gorgeous and this place used to be great when they were kids, but with the recent murders and talk of a serial killer lurking about, it brought him the heebie-jeebies rather than a sense of adventure. Glancing at Alex, he dropped his hand to fold his arms against his chest. "We can't all be as batshit insane as you and hang out in the deep woods for fun. -- That cougar shot was nutty, and you know it."

Hanging out with Alex on the weekends had been part of his regular schedule since high-school. It took a little lapse when during his brief stint in the league, but the second he was back home again, it fell right back into place. It was a little strange! The disappearance of a mutual friend had been what brought them together-- They didn't really have a bunch in common outside that, but despite it, talking to him came naturally. They'd gone from a pair of kids that felt obligated to mourn together to whatever this was now. Andy wouldn't give the other man the pleasure of knowing it because it'd be used to tease him ruthlessly, but Alex was his best friend.

Andy opened his mouth to say something else, but paused. Through the trees, past where he could see, he could hear the baying of a hound. It was too early for deer hunting season, wasn't it? Unless some dick was out breaking the law-- Which wasn't entirely surprising. Deep enough in here, nobody could really keep track of what you're trapping. And if you were skilled enough to clean your own game, nobody would ever know. The dog bayed again, and the group of quail the two of them were setting up to photograph immediately hurried for the brush. Pursing his lips, he frowned. "Sorry, bud." He said softly, "Maybe we can find something else for you to get some pictures of?"

The crunch of leaves had his attention pulling. The dog made its appearance near the treeline, but it wasn't what had him freezing. Following behind was a looming figure in a white rabbit mask. Andy watched his heavy steps and felt a hard shock run up his spine. Skittering closer to Alex, he smacked him gently on the back and forced his face towards the trail. "WE'RE SO DEAD. IF HE SEES US, WE'RE DEAD. THAT'S HIM." He whisper-hissed. "That's-" The witness accounts were right. He had to be close to seven feet, and that mask was terrifying, knowing the person behind it was out looking for blood. "We gotta GO. RIGHT NOW."

@purposefully-lost

[stevesxyellowxsweater]

Nothing stays the same

PAIRING: Gator Tillman x fem!reader WC: over 2000 CW: MINORS DON'T INTERACT!! Forced kiss, calls her girl, Gator being an ass. That is about it. If I have missed anything please let me know! SUMMARY: Returning home is something you never wanted to do, but your brother is getting married so you have no choice. When you're pulled over, you find yourself face to face with your high school bully. Someone you hoped you'd never have to see again. AUTHOR NOTES: This has been in my head for a while, as long as it does well there will be a second part. A massive thank you to @entermxnson for everything she does for me, she's my biggest fan and the person I can count on most. Love you to pieces thank you for your constant support. Enjoy! Credit to @cafekitsune for the amazing divider.

You'd promised yourself that you'd never return here; you could feel your body tensing as you crossed past the welcome sign. You'd hated it here, countless bullying, torment, and an awful time. When you left for college, you promised you'd never come back. You promised that no matter what, you'd leave this life behind.

Your brother had other ideas.

He'd moved back after being made redundant, met a girl and fell in love. The usual cliche crap that you couldn't stand. So now here you were, returning to the place you hated the most, just to watch your brother get married.

Your music rumbled low as your eyes focused on the road ahead. You didn’t even notice how your knuckles had become white from gripping the wheel so hard. You didn't want to be here; you wanted to turn back, go home, maybe claim to be sick.

But Andrew would never forgive you.

Your music stopped, and the familiar ringtone of your cell filled the car. Reaching the button on your steering wheel, you answered.

“Hello?”

“Munchkin, where are you?”

Rolling your eyes as you heard your brother's awful nickname for you, you smiled.

“Hey Andy, I'm about fifteen minutes away.” 

“Great, I can't wait for you to meet Catherine. You're going to love her!”

You smiled. Andy had been saying that for months. You weren't sure, however.

“I can't wait.” 

A simple lie never hurt anyone. You thought to yourself as you carried on down the road. 

“Andy, I'm going to be a little longer.”

“Why? You okay?”

“I'm being pulled over.” 

The flashing lights behind you make you tense. You stare at them in your mirror for a moment.

“I'll see you soon.”

Hanging up the phone, you found somewhere to pull over to park. Maybe they'd seen New York plates and assumed theft. Leaning over, you found your license and registration. Sitting up, you looked out and cursed as you saw who it was.

Gator Tillman, he was a cop now? How fucking insane! Your high school bully now upholds the law. You cursed yourself as you watched him walk toward your car, that usual swagger he'd had since high school.

“Do you know why I pulled you over?” He asked as he looked over your car, not even looking at you. You could see the gum in his mouth, a disgusting thing to see if you were honest.

“If it's because my car isn't from around here, it's cause I'm driving in to see family.”

He looks up at you, flashing his pearly whites in a charming smile. It sends shivers down your spine - just like how it used to when you were both teenagers. The hard truth was even though he was a bully, you had a crush on him. 

“You were speeding.”

“What? I was going forty-five.”

“The limit is 30. Got changed about six months ago.”

Fuck, you'd been speeding and caught. That was the last thing you fucking wanted right now. You just wanted to get to your parents' place, was that too much to ask?

“License and registration please.”

Swallowing hard, you bit your lip and watched him. He glanced between the card and you.

“Step out of the car. Please, Ma'am.”

Opening the door, you climbed out and looked at him. You watch his eyes scanning your body as he bites his lip. He didn’t recognise you. You'd changed a lot since high school. You think the term was glowed up. You'd changed, but not Gator. He looked the same.

He casually leans against the side of your car and crosses his arms over his chest as if taking his sweet time with this traffic stop, like it's no big deal at all. 

With deliberate slowness, he reaches into your car and takes the keys. 

“Wouldn't want you running off now, would we?” He smirks, that damn annoying but knee-weakening smirk that awakens the butterflies inside you.

"I'm afraid I need you to take a sobriety test." His eyes lock onto yours as they narrow slightly; it feels more like an accusation than a request. The last thing you want to do right now is take a Damn test to prove you're sober before midday. 

“Really? You think I'm drunk?” You questioned needing him to clarify it.

“It's routine, Ma'am.” 

You watch him taking out his little black book and opening it to jot down things. 

He lazily pushes himself off your vehicle and steps closer to you. The space between you narrows, and you find yourself stepping back.

"Now let's see here... You were going 45 miles per hour in a 30-mile-per-hour zone."

With that seemingly innocent statement comes an undercurrent of satisfaction in his voice - almost like he'd been waiting for this moment to show you up all these years since you left school. 

As if sensing your discomfort with being so close together, he begins walking around the front of the car towards where his cruiser is parked close.

The air between you feels tense; every move is made deliberately aware of each other's presence. For just a second, there's a flash of recognition in Gator's eyes before it disappears once more behind his slicked-back hairline, leaving nothing but speculation on what might have been running through the devious little brain cells of his at any given point during this encounter thus far.

“Speeding, and a sobriety test. It's going to be one hefty fine." Gator chuckles as he opens the back door of his patrol car and climbs in. He looks at you over the vehicle, a smirk playing on his lips as if daring you to say something smart-assed back.

As you stand there fuming under the glow of the morning sun that seems far too bright suddenly, Gator leans forward slightly in his seat before reaching down towards what appears to be a laptop. With deft fingers, he begins typing away at its keyboard - presumably logging your infraction into some sort of system for later processing or review by higher-ups within the department.

Despite yourself, you can't help but watch him mesmerised almost against your will by how effortlessly this charming snake slithers through life without regard for others around him. It's terrifying and exhilarating all at once - much like everything else about being pulled over by Officer Gator.

As if sensing your growing unease, Gator finally looks up from his work on the laptop and locks eyes with you again. There's an almost predatory glint in those eyes now - like he knows what sort of thoughts are running through your head, and he likes it.

"Well," He draws out slowly, leaning back into his seat with a lazy shrug. "What do we have here? Someone could use a little lesson on behaving behind the wheel." A wicked grin spreads across his face as he tilts his head slightly towards yours, inviting further conversation or maybe something more. Depending on just how far you're willing to go with this whole getting out of a ticket.

“Can we get on with this, please?” You ask as you sink your hands into your pockets and look at him. 

Gator let out a sigh; he was going to have to work harder for you. He usually managed to get girls into the back of his car, for head or a fuck.

“Sure,” Gator grumbled as he climbed out of the car. 

Grabbing his kit, he walked over. There was a look in his eyes as he set up the machine to take your alcohol level. He looked almost disappointed as he put the tube in it. 

“Blow on the beep, please.” 

Holding it up, he studied your lips. His mind wondered how it would feel to have your mouth around his cock instead of the plastic tube that you had taken into your mouth. The look in his eyes was more predatory, the ideas running through his head getting increasingly erotic as he watched you.

You waited for the beep and blew until the second beep. Removing your mouth, you folded your arms and waited for the reading. 

“Alright, it's clear.”

You couldn't help but roll your eyes; it was frustrating. You felt like Gator was just doing it to be an asshole.

“Shocker.” You muttered to yourself as you watched him taking the tube from the machine and putting the whole thing back in his car.

“Look, can I just have my ticket? So I can be on my way?” 

Gator adjusted his belt and walked toward you; there was a look in his eyes that you couldn't quite explain. You watched him as he placed his hands on either side against your car. 

"Oh, come on now," Gator protests with a head shake. "That's no way to end this chance encounter."

Before you can say another word, he's closed the space between you, that sly grin still plastered across those lips like they were made for each other or something equally as cheesy. 

As he reaches for your door, he leans in close enough so your faces are almost touching and whispers into your ear: "Maybe I could make it up to you by giving you something else instead?" 

The warmth of his breath sends shivers down your spine. His words echo dark desires deep within yourself that you thought long buried under years upon years of pain and heartache inflicted by none other than Officer Gator Tillman himself back when everyone called him 'Daddy'.

“Ticket would be fine.” You manage to say, your eyes locked onto his as you swallow hard.

"Ticket?" Gator's eyebrows shoot up in surprise before he chuckles softly to himself. "Look, I know who you are, and you have changed for the better." he shakes his head again with a bemused smile playing at the corners of those full lips. "The past is just that. That was then, this is now. Let us not waste it, yeah?."

Without another word, he straightens back up and steps away from your car door - leaving you feeling strangely vulnerable out here, alone. There hadn’t been a single car pass since he stopped you, and you had a feeling there wouldn’t be anytime soon. Sensing this shift in power dynamics between them, something dark and predatory stirs deep within him. An almost primal instinct takes over, as it often does when faced with perceived weakness or fear. 

Time seems to stand still as their gazes lock onto each other's. It’s the predator versus the prey, sizing up their opponent; which will run first? Then suddenly - without warning - everything changes once more.

“I will be on my way, if you aren’t issuing a ticket. I have things to do.” There was almost a cocky undertone to your voice, one that Gator picked up on and caused his expression to turn dark. 

"Now hold on just a damn minute," Gator's voice booms across the quiet country road as he stomps towards you again. There is an undeniable anger simmering beneath the surface. Gator almost can't believe what he's hearing.

Up close and personal once again, his hot breath against your cheek as he leans in. He’s so close your noses are practically touching. His gaze bores into yours with such intensity that it feels almost like he's trying to crawl inside your head- seeking some dark secret or hidden desire buried deep within your soulful eyes.

“What exactly is your problem here? So you know who I am. Does that mean I owe you something? No, It doesn’t. I owe you nothing, Gator! You said no ticket. So, I will be on my way. Now move.” 

"You think this is some kind of game?" Gator snarls, the anger in his voice finally boiling over into something primal and raw. There he was, the snotty little teen you remembered from high school. The one that made your life a living hell. 

"Well, let me tell you something,” he growls lowly, dragging his hand through his slicked-back hair in frustration. “You might’ve gone away, become something fancy stuck-up piece of shit, but here in this town, you’ll always be nothing!”

Before you can say another word, those full lips are pressed hard against yours - he forces his tongue into your mouth. He tastes you like he’s been starving for years. There's an almost savage intensity to this, almost like he’s unleashing everything that he’s been holding onto for years.,

Your hands managed to move and shoved him back hard, almost causing him to fall over. You looked with irritation and anger in your eyes. “I swear to God, Gator if you weren’t a damn cop! I’d be kneeing you in the balls!”

"Is that a fact?" Gator smirks as he leans back against the hood of your car, his gaze never once leaving yours. The predator inside him comes to play in his smile, like he knows exactly what buttons to push to get you where he wants - which is right there underneath him for all eternity.

He can sense the power shift, his prey weakened by a single kiss. Those full lips part into a soft grin once more/ His fingers run along the hood of your car, his eyes still locked on you. 

"Look," he said, closing in on you. His arm leaned on the top of the car as he looked at you. 

"Maybe we could make a deal here? I let you go without a ticket, and maybe..." He pauses deliberately, letting the tension build up inside both of you reach breaking point before finally saying: "...maybe next time things will be different."

“There will not be a next time officer.” You assure him.  

"Oh really?" Gator raises an eyebrow in disbelief as he straightens back up once more. "We'll just have to see about that, won't we?" 

Without another word, he turns around and walks back over to the driver's side door of his patrol car - leaving you alone, feeling strangely exhilarated and nervous despite (or perhaps because of) everything that just happened between you two. 

As he climbs back into the vehicle, a mischievous glint appears in those dark eyes. It's almost like he knows something about this town or its secrets that maybe even YOU don't yet... And for now, it seems Officer Gator Tillman will continue slithering through life without regard for others around him while you watch on helplessly from afar.

[enlighten3d]

WELLL claps hand together

the story is about these teenagers trying stop an evil cult from destroying the entire multiverse, so they go to different dimensions to stop their evil ways. Also they are teenagers so they have to deal with personal angst, family issues, morality, school ect ect while trying to stop the cult leader and their right hand men

Caroline is technically the main character of my story, she is basically the bubbly, positive one of the group. Her family is rich as hell, they used to live in Taiwan as successful business people but they moved to America because they wanted to make more money. Her family doesn’t really like her and they emotionally and physically neglect her since she came out as a transgender girl and her older sister is kind of a coward and doesn’t stand up for her (fun times)

anyway she ends up having to do a group assignment with her childhood friend which she kind of drifted apart from (Andie) and some punk girl she probably has a crush on (Mimi), they eventually end up in an abandoned house and find out that their town is run by an evil cult that can teleport to different dimensions. So they feel guilty enough to stop it.

they think the best course is to beat the 7 plane hoppers who are in the way to kill the main cult leader, the stag. though out the whole thing Caroline is basically pushing through by toxic positivity saying everything is alright even though they have killed many people, she also kind of convinced herself that this is a video game and is probably more okay about sacrificing people and herself (for the better good)

Also her sister possessed during her 17th birthday party for funsies

HIII SO RRYYY IM ONLY GETTING SROUNF TO THIS NOW falls over and dies

thank you for the food that is oc lore, i am eating it om nom nom

that all sounds FUCKING AMAZING ACTUALLY. cults ?? universal travel bullshit ????? all while dealing with normal teenage bs ?? thats beautiful. poor little guys. they need a break. i CANNOT imagine trying to exist as a teenager while trying to take down a cult qyehdjdkkdks

dont worry.. your eldritch horror loves you... i am so glad to know that ! /silly

..fuck her family ! they can rot ! caroline )): you dont deserve any of this..

THAT MUSTVE BEEN A REVELATION ?? WOAH ?? just. doing a school project and ope government is a cult (/hyp)... insane

i actually fucking love the whole like. unwilling chosen one Vibe to all of this ?? yes theyre not chosen nor are they truly unwilling but. the Vibe is the same. the guilt (on thier part) is real...

caroline. love. youre fucked up. just like me frfr. agh thats. so cool tho ?? 'EVERYTJING IS FINE, ALL OF THIS IS A GAME !!' and ljke. fuck thats such a fun thing in fiction when a character copes using that ?? its the perfect level of fucked up bcs it rlyyy drives rhe point home and. im giving them all a shock blanket okay ?

oh boy !! thats fun !! poor sister..

what does the cult worship‽‽ i am so fucking curious..

lso like, whats the difference between each plane? is it an alternate reality sorta situation where things are relatively the same but Different, or is it judt flatout. different EVERYTHING (people, laws of physics, all that jazz)?? or somewhere in between or outside of this ofc.

do all the plane hopper guys like.. stay in different universes and have a branch of the cult established there..

why does the cult run the town in the first place ? was it a thing where like. they wrre the original settlers but then the town expanded aorund and beyond the cult ?? or did they move in and do a slow takeover.....

fuck i have so many questions /pos

this is. so cool. i love the Vibes. theyre so... Impending.. ahdjskdisjjdjsks

[desertsanpedro]

X-(twitter): Charlie Kirk

As the invasion of America unfolds, Joe Biden celebrates the demographic replacement of America with the Congressional Hispanic Conference Institute:

"I've directed my team to make historic increases in the number of refugees admitted from Latin America." (massive National Security Hazard)

X(twitter):" Ted Cruz Merrick Garland's memo directing the FBI to target parents speaking out at school boards is still in effect...This is a brazen example of using law enforcement as a tool to go after your political enemies...(proving yet again Marxist Democrats are a Public Safety Hazard)...

Rand Paul issues warning i.e. massive Biden Admin borrowing money from China to hand over to Ukraine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu0EcL-NK9U&t=38s&ab_channel=ForbesBreakingNews

X(twitter): Charlie Kirk @charliekirk11 "Jesus Ayala, the Las Vegas teen who filmed his hit-and-run murder of fmr police chief Andy Probst, mocked the police arresting him: “I’ll be out in 30 days, I’ll bet you. Slap on the wrist.” This is what Democrats’ soft-on-crime insanity leads to. Criminals feel emboldened to terrorize our streets because punishing criminals is “mean” or “oppressive” or “racist.” Savages like Ayala require maximum punishment or else they’ll turn America into a violent, third-world hellhole. "

National Security Alert Zerohedge: The BidenAdminDisaster https://www.zerohedge.com/political/victor-davis-hanson-our-self-induced-catastrophe-border

X(twitter): James Woods How in God’s name are these worthless vermin allowed to prowl civilized society while OUT ON BOND FOR CAPITAL MURDER? The activist judges and liberal DA’s who allow this madness should be tossed in a dumpster with the lid welded shut. #BlueCities..https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-gang-member-life-parole-killing-boy-free-bond-capital-murder

X(twitter): Sen. @RandPaul on Ukraine: "They’ve canceled the elections ... They banned the political parties, they’ve invaded churches, they’ve arrested priests, so no, it isn’t a democracy, it’s a corrupt regime." (Ukraine)

China flooding the U.S. with Opium / Fentanyl https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2023/09/the_new_opium_wars.html

X(twitter): Ted Cruz @tedcruz By ignoring the Biden border crisis, the corrupt corporate media is complicit in covering up modern-day slavery. They won't cover the multibillion-dollar criminal cartels, the murder, the torture, or the drug smuggling.

X(twitter): Ted Cruz If we had a free and fair press, the media would be covering the invasion at our southern border 24/7. This is a national emergency, and Joe Biden’s border policies are throwing gas on the fire.

X(twitter): Collin Rugg BREAKING: An emergency declaration has been issued in Eagle Pass, Texas after a surge of migrants invaded the southern border...Most of the migrants are coming from Venezuela by train according to Fox's @BillMelugin_....The Emergency declaration was made by Eagle Pass mayor Rolando Salinas after over a thousand migrants crossed the border.

X(twitter): Elon Musk @elonmusk Strange that there is almost no legacy media coverage of this. About 2 million people – from every country on Earth – are entering through the US southern border every year. The number is rising rapidly, yet no preventive action is taken by the current administration.

x(twitter): Bill Melugin @BillMelugin_ It’s a total free for all in Eagle Pass right now. Mass illegal crossing taking place for over an hour and a half. Almost 2 years to the day we saw 15,000+ Haitians under the bridge in Del Rio, we now have thousands of predominantly Venezuelans gathering under Eagle Pass bridge.

X(twitter): Ted Cruz @tedcruz This month is projected to be the highest month of illegal immigration ever recorded. Joe Biden has not stopped the invasion at our southern border because he wants it to occur. Kamala Harris, Alejandro Mayorkas, every Democrat Senator, and every Democrat Congressman are rubberstamping what is happening at our border because they want it to occur.

X(twitter): James Woods @RealJamesWoods The true enemy of America is the Republican Party surprisingly. The Democrats will always complain, grift, cheat, and gleefully ignore the law. Who will stop them? In a real two-party system it would be Republicans, but they are weak, milquetoast losers who do nothing but talk."

American Thinker: " "It is moronic to believe the 2020 election was not stolen. The Democrats main election strategy is to steal as many votes as possible, always. That is why they fight like honey badgers against any form of Voter ID requirement and same day voting. Democrats lie and steal. Those are their skill sets. They only win by cheating. So, be prepared in 2024 because they will cheat again, this time even more blatantly. They are doing it right now with their lawsuits and their demand for mail in voting. And worse, Republicans let all this happen."

x(twitter):" End Wokeness Biden in 2015: “An unrelenting stream of immigration” will make white people a minority in the United States “That’s a source of our strength” Sitting beside him is the man currently in charge of the border, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. " (The Enemy Within)..

x(twitter): "Charlie Kirk Illinois becomes the first state to abolish cash bail today. Criminals will run wild and cops will have no tools to stop them. Retailers are already fleeing Chicago because rampant theft makes it impossible to turn a profit."

x(twitter): "Jason Miller Costs are going up and the impact of cumulative Bidenflation is crushing American families. Our cities are buckling under the weight of dealing with Biden’s illegal immigrants. The UAW is on strike, with no end in sight, and Biden won’t even go to Detroit. "

x(twitter): "Rep. Jim Jordan How many times has the White House changed its mind on Joe Biden’s knowledge of Hunter’s shady business deals? Further evidence that if Democrats are talking they are lying"..

x(twitter): "Rep. Matt Gaetz @RepMattGaetz We have the evidence. It’s time to impeach Joe Biden. Not following through on an impeachment of Joe Biden would be a dereliction of duty.

Zerohedge: "The BidenAdminDisaster https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/video-shows-freight-train-migrants-heading-southern-us-border

Zerohedge: "The BidenAdminDisaster.. The Ukraine war caper has pretty clearly lost its appeal as a supposed crusade for “democracy.” The yellow and blue flags vanished from the front porches and car bumpers months ago. It was a lie from the get-go that we have any national interest in that sad sack country. Our own government engineered the fiasco, and from every angle it has been a dead loss for all parties on our side. Ukraine has been reduced to a failed state in-waiting; Euroland has sacrificed its industrial economy for nothing; and the USA has squandered its last bits of prestige among other nations in this ignominious game of Lets You and Him Fight. Also, Americans have begun to notice that the billions funneled into Mr. Zelensky’s cadre of neo-Nazis and kleptocrats is money that is not going to places like East Palestine, Ohio, Lahaina, Maui, and the towns along our tortured southern border from Matamoros to Tijuana. Even the people who supposedly elected “Joe Biden” are becoming a little concerned about blundering into World War Three over the mess created by Victoria Nuland & Company." We can't afford to keep borrowing millions and millions to hand over to Ukraine.."

[faxpress]

To view this email as a web page, go here.

Clay & Buck in a Hurry

Highlights of the Podcast Feed

Week of March 27 to 31, 2023

Andy McCarthy's Take on the Trump Indictment

The former federal prosecutor explains the overcharging in the case and why it's dangerous.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...

Fox's Benjamin Hall: The Ukraine War Changed Me

He's a survivor, a journalist, and author of Saved: A War Reporter's Mission to Make It Home.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna's D.C. Rebel Dispatches

The congresswoman from Florida's 13th District dishes on what's going on behind the scenes.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...

Shannon Bream's New Book and Legal Analysis

The Fox host and Supreme Court legal analyst talks the law and The Love Stories of the Bible Speak.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...

Tudor Dixon on the Nashville Tragedy

Straight from the Tudor Dixon Podcast, we get the mother and gubernatorial candidate's take.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...

Jack Posobiec: Trump's in the Driver's Seat for 2024

The U.S. Navy veteran and senior editor at Human Events sees the witch hunt as a boon for 45.

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST...

The Fun Never Stops: Your Big Weekend Dose of Sanity in an Insane World

Sunny Hostin Says She Doesn't Care About China's Uyghur Concentration Camps Because of Blacks in U.S. Jails

So, her kid goes to Harvard, but somehow he is a victim 'cause he's tall?

WATCH IT...

Show Quotes of the Week

"I think they'll be surprised how unified the right has become around Donald Trump." —Buck

"My biggest takeaway is this is a cross-the-rubicon moment. You want to talk about an actual threat to democracy. This has broken 240 years of democratic tradition." —Clay

"Ethical prosecutors who have good cases don't bring a million counts because you don’t need a million counts." —Former Federal Prosecutor Andy McCarthy

A C&B VIP Video Must-See: The Police BodyCam Video from Inside Nashville School

If you know someone who hates the police, show them this video of bravery.

WATCH IT...

Show Brought to You By

Clay & Buck Show Notes

ClayAndBuck.com

Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Tell a Friend | Contact

Unsubscribe | Edit Subscription | Sign Up | Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy

The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show 2023 © PO BOX 7298, VAN NUYS, CA 91409-7298

[burgundybmw]

Munson's Mixtape

MASTERLIST

Pairing: Eddie Munson x Cunningham!Reader

Word Count: 3,470

Warnings: Mrs. Cunningham being a bitch, Mention of the Devil, Death (Chrissy, Fred, Patrick), References to Jason being an asshole.

Summary: Chrissy has been acting weird, and like a good big sister Y/N drives to Hawkins from Notre Dame to check in on her. Only to find out she has plans to meet up with Eddie Munson. Things take a turn for the worse and now Y/N gets wrapped in to the horrors of Hawkins. Hey, at least she has the company of the guitarist she was sweet on back in high school for comfort.

Author’s Note: Hope you guys liked this chapter! The next one will have Eddie reuniting with his lady in the trailer... but be warned. Next chapter won't be all sunshine and rainbows.

Track Fifteen

Y/N has never been in the back of a police car. Not once in her 20 years of life. She was always careful, anything to avoid her mother's wrath if she dared to do something untoward. However, her two decade long streak has come to a screeching halt. She was currently sitting in the back of Chief Powell's SUV, with Max Mayfield sitting beside her. Dustin and Lucas were in another car, and they were all heading to the Wheeler household. Y/N had asked the chief of police to stop at Rick's car to grab the duffle bag she had taken from her house. He agreed, and now she was peeling through Chrissy's diary trying to find something to back her story up. If she was going to successfully pin this thing on Jason, she needed more solid proof than her word.

Max was looking at her like she was insane, but kept her mouth shut. She was a smart girl, and knew better than to ask her what she was going in front of the cops. Y/N was reading her sisters most private thoughts as quickly as she could. She knew that if she found something useful, the police would confiscate it as evidence. They too would know every detail of Chrissy's life, the good, the bad, and the embarrassing. Y/N just hoped Chrissy would forgive her, wherever she was. She was framing her sister's boyfriend for murder, but Y/N held on hope that it wouldn't get that far.

The Carver's had influence, and once the panic eventually died down they would probably find the best lawyer they could to free Jason. She didn't think claims of a satanic serial murder would hold up in court, at least not for him. Hawkins was crazy enough to believe Eddie would do such a thing, but not All Star American Good Ol' Boy Jason Carver. By then Y/N would have enough evidence to prove Eddie's innocence, and then the cases would go cold. It made her sad to think Vecna couldn't be punished in a court of law, that he would never serve jail time for his crimes. But hopefully he will be dead by the end of this, and Y/N will have comfort in the thought that Chrissy could finally rest in peace knowing her real killer is gone forever.

Throughout Y/N's search she found a few entries in the diary that could be helpful, with a good enough spin. There was one from September that mentioned Patrick.

September 8th, 1985

Dear Diary, School starts tomorrow, and normally I would be excited for the new year, but this time I'm not. Last night Annie threw a last weekend of summer party at her house. Jason picked me up as usual, and everything was going great until Andy suggested everyone play spin the bottle. I didn't want to do it, but Jason said it was just a silly game and that it didn't mean anything. During the first half of the game I had to watch Stephanie, Michelle, and Crystal all kiss my boyfriend on the mouth. I tried not to feel jealous, they all said it was just fun. It didn't feel like fun to me. None of the boys landed on me at first, and I didn't know if I should've felt relieved or upset about it. I don't want to kiss any boy other than Jason, but it hurt seeing it happen to him over and over again. I wanted to get even, and I had my chance when Patrick spun on me. Jason gave him such a dirty look, and Patrick told me I didn't have to if I didn't want to. That was nice of him, and even though I was jealous of other girls kissing Jason, I didn't want to upset my boyfriend. So I just kissed him on the cheek, it was a bit closer to his mouth than I would normally do, but I never made contact with his lips. After I sat back down, Jason pulled me up by the arm and dragged me into the kitchen. He threw an absolute fit! As if he wasn't doing worse! He said it was different for girls, that I was his and his alone. I told him it was just a kiss on the cheek, but Jason wouldn't listen. He never listens when he's angry. After that he left me at the party and drove home. Patrick gave me a ride himself, and said he would talk to him today. I just hope I don't have to start senior year without a boyfriend, I already know what prom dress I want to buy.

After Y/N read the entry she thought of different ways she could make it seem like Jason had it out for Patrick. It would be difficult, considering the fact that they were friends, but not impossible. A second entry from the beginning of March mentioned Fred.

March 4th, 1986

Dear Diary, I got interviewed by the school paper today! Fred wanted to do a piece on the cheerleading squad and I was picked! My picture is going to be in it and everything! I'm so excited to tell Y/N about it. Even Jason's sour mood can't bring me down. He was sooooo convinced Fred was going to say something bad about me, because according to him Fred only writes bad things about Jason, and because I'm his girlfriend that means he's gonna write bad things about me too. I just think he's paranoid. Jason can be a little narcissistic sometimes, thinks the world revolves around him. He said the world revolves around us, which is sweet I guess. I don't know, he's been stressed out about his last basketball season of High School and getting into Yale. So I won't hold it against him.

Those two entries were all Y/N had to defend her case. There were others that talked about fights her sister and Jason had, but the rest of the diary sang his praises. She was sad reading how Jason had treated her sister, and that she didn't realize how cruel he could be. Chrissy didn't deserve Jason's bullshit, but it was too late for her to say anything about it now.

Before she realized it Chief Powell was pulling into the driveway of the Wheeler house. She could see a half dozen cars parked there, her mother's car included. Y/N's heart started pounding, she didn't think her mother would bother to show up, but she was here, waiting for her. The thought gave her little comfort.

Chief Powell opened the back door of the car and let the two girls out. There was another police vehicle in the driveway, so Dustin and Lucas must already be inside. As they walked through the door, all Y/N could hear was yelling.

Max went to sit down next to the boys on the love seat, and Y/N slowly walked to stand beside them. She purposefully ignored her mother's frigid stare. When the Chief walked in everyone stopped speaking for a moment, waiting for him to speak first.

"Okay. The story I've heard tonight is something I, quite frankly, find hard to believe. If you would have asked me a month ago if I thought the Devil was in Hawkins, I'd tell you to check yourself into the loony bin. But now, I don't know what to believe. So right now we are going to get to the bottom of this. Starting with you three." Chief Powell said sternly. Before any of the kids could speak the parents in the room started shouting again.

"The Devil? What's this about the Devil?" Mrs. Sinclair yelled. Lucas sank deeper into his seat. That was her I-mean-business-voice, and he knew he was about to be in deep shit.

"Oh God, Dusty what is he talking about?" Mrs. Henderson asked her son, wiping stray tears off her face with a hanky.

"What on Earth?" Mrs. Wheeler gasped in shock.

"I knew it! I knew Satan himself was involved with this!" Mrs. Cunningham shouted, and Y/N held her head down. She tried to stop herself from shaking. She looked up for just a moment only to find her mother staring daggers at her.

"That's enough!" Chief Powell shouted, but Y/N ignored him. The officers started asking the kids questions, about what they were doing at Lovers Lake. She couldn't focus on them, she was frozen by her mother's icy eyes. They were locked on to her, like a missile about ready to strike. The rest of the parents were shouting again, but Mrs. Cunningham never said a word.

"Shut up!" Chief Powell shouted. Y/N looked over to him, the spell her mother had on her finally broken.

"We're gonna try a more civilized approach. One at a time. You first." Chief Powell said as he pointed at Max.

"Wait, what? Why me? I'm not even in Hellfire." Max protested.

"Follow me." Said Officer Callahan as he lead her upstairs.

"And you, stay right here." Chief Powell said pointing to Y/N. "You two go in the other room, I'll deal with you later."

Dustin and Lucas gave Y/N a pitied look, before they nodded and walked into the kitchen, Lucas' little sister trailing behind them. That left Y/N alone with Chief Powell and the rest of the parents. She moved to sit down on the love seat, when she barely made contact with the cushion her mother went in on her.

"You have a lot of explaining to do missy. First, you selfishly ruin your sister's funeral, embarrassed me and your father in front of everyone, and now this? What is wrong with you! I knew your father was wrong, he should have never bothered calling Notre Dame. You should have stayed away before you ruined absolutely everything!" Mrs. Cunningham shouted. They stopped and stared at her mother's harsh voice, the other mothers in the group turned back to look at Y/N with a sympathetic look on their faces.

"That's enough Mrs. Cunningham, it's my turn to ask the questions." Chief Powell said sternly. Her mother looked like she wanted to continue, but she knew not to embarrass herself in front of the police.

"Okay Miss. Cunningham, can you continue what you were saying earlier? About Jason Carver?" Chief Powell asked. Mrs. Cunningham whipped her head around to face the Chief, protest ready on her lips before he raised a hand at her to keep quiet.

"I believe it was Jason who made a deal with the Devil... I think he wanted revenge against Chrissy, Fred, and Patrick. Jason... he's not who you think he is. It sounds crazy, but I know he somehow made contact with Satan himself, and through whatever means he was able to use black magic to kill all three of them. My sister often singed his praises, but she always saw the good in people... She didn't see how wicked he was." Y/N replied. She tried to make her voice sound haunted, scared out of her wits. Chief Powell was about to ask her to elaborate before her mother cut him off.

"How dare you. How dare you point the finger at Jason. You have no idea what you're talking about." The words were laced with venom as Mrs. Cunningham said them.

“Mom, it was Jason. I know it was him.” Y/N pleaded, but her mother ignored her.

“Shut your mouth young lady. Jason is a good, sweet, God fearing young man. He loved your sister! He wouldn’t make a pact with the Devil, stop spreading these lies.” Mrs. Cunningham replied, sick of her daughter's antics.

“I’m not lying! She told me they fought a lot, and Jason was paranoid she was going to leave him! See here, I have Chrissy’s diary." Y/N grabbed the book she hid behind her and opened it up to show the pages she marked.

"They went to a party and played spin the bottle, she kissed Patrick on the cheek and Jason flipped out." Y/N flipped the book over to show her mother and Chief Powell. She turned the pages frantically to find the next entry she dog eared.

"And here, Chrissy wrote that she did an interview with Fred about the cheer squad, and she said Jason didn't like him because Fred always wrote about his failures in basketball. Jason is the only one who's connected to all of the victims! That’s the only explanation! Jason signed his name in the Devil’s black book!" Y/N shouted. All of the parents in the room looked at her in shock and horror, all except her mother, who looked at her as if she belonged on a stake ready to be set aflame.

“Are you sure about this young lady?” Chief Powell asked.

“Yes. Something is wrong with Hawkins, so horribly wrong. We all know it, but are too afraid to admit it. I don’t know how Jason made his evil pact, but it’s the only thing that makes sense." Y/N felt the tears fill her eyes, this time she didn't have to fake them.

"I saw how Chrissy died, she levitated from the ground. Her bones shattered in place, her eyes... oh God her eyes were ripped out from the inside. No man could do that. Jason is trying to pin this on Eddie, he knows what people in town think of him. It would be so easy… but he didn’t fool me. He won’t get away with this.” She held firm throughout her tale. Y/N prayed that it was enough to convince Chief Powell. His face was still a bit unreadable, but he looked less skeptical than he did at Lover's Lake.

“Alright then. If you wouldn’t mind going into the kitchen with the others Miss. Cunningham, I’d like a word with your mother.” Y/N nodded and slowly walked away, leaving her mother and Chief Powell to speak privately. When she walked into the kitchen Dustin, Lucas, and his sister were all standing in the hallway next to the stairs.

"So, what if, with each kill, he's not simply killing them, he's making a powerful psychic connection with his victims? A connection powerful enough to rip a hole in the fabric of time and space." Dustin whispered loudly. Y/N stopped right in her tracks, the group didn't notice her presence yet. A feeling of dread so intense it gripped her from the inside out. Vecna was far more powerful than she had feared.

"He's opening more gates." Lucas replied.

"Bingo." Dustin replied. They heard another officer walk by the hallway and slowly headed back to the kitchen, Y/N quietly trailed behind.

"Why would he be opening more gates?" Dustin asked.

"To take over the world." Lucas replied, and that idea made the dread inside of Y/N grow thicker with every passing moment.

"And who do we know who wants to take over the world?" Dustin asked.

"The Mind Flayer." Lucas whispered. It was like the two of them were having their own private conversation, oblivious to Y/N and Lucas' sister's presence.

"So if the Demogorgon was just his foot solider, Vecna is his five-star general. A five-star general with the power to open gates." Dustin whispered frantically.

"Holy shit." Lucas said has he put his hands behind his said.

"Holy shit." Dustin replied in turn.

"Holy shit. That was incomprehensible. You lost me at Mothergate. Please be kind. Rewind." Lucas' sister said with distain.

"I agree, I have no idea what any of that meant." Y/N said finally making her presence known.

Dustin groaned and went back to the beginning of his theory. He explained what he knew about the massive gate that was in Hawkins Lab, the first one they found when Will went missing. He further explained how that gate remained open for a year before their friend Eleven, the girl with superpowers Dustin had told her about days prior, had closed it. They thought the gate was closed forever, until the Russians tried to open a new one under Starcourt Mall. A part of The Mind Flayer had possessed Will, and from there possessed dozens of other people in Hawkins. After they defeated the corporeal Mind Flayer in the mall, Eleven lost her powers, and they thought everything was finally over. That was until Vecna appeared, with his ability to open gates wherever he killed his victims.

Y/N's mind was racing. She hated every word that came out of Dustin's mouth, each statement more horrifying than the next. How was she oblivious to everything? Living her happy-go-lucky life as if there wasn't a living hell that casted it's dark shadow over Hawkins. Dustin had only given the cliff notes version of the story before, this, this was way worse. Lucas' sister, Erica she now knew, had led them to the dining room of the Wheeler house, convinced someone could hear their conversation. They all sat down at the table as Dustin paced back and forth in front of it, rambling on about his theories on Vecna.

"So our working theory is that Vecna makes remote contact from his attic. We don't know why. We assume he can do it from anywhere." Dustin sat back down when he noticed Erica staring into space. Y/N followed her line of sight and noticed the light from the chandelier was flickering in a pattern.

"Are you even listening to me?" Dustin asked.

"Yea, I'm listening. It's just..." Erica said as she walked towards the light fixture in the ceiling. "You said you followed Vecna through lights, right?"

"Yeah, why?" Dustin replied.

"Because I think he's here." They all stood up from the table to see what Erica was talking about. Y/N didn't look away once as the light maintained its steady pattern. A bad feeling settled in Y/N's stomach, she feared that whatever it was that was causing the lights to flicker was up to no good.

"S... O... S..." Dustin whispered. "Hey, uh, remember when I said they wouldn’t be stupid enough to go through Watergate?”

“Yeah?” Lucas replied.

“I overestimated them.” Dustin said in a disappointed tone. Y/N walked over and stood in front of the kids, her arms crossed against her chest.

“How do you know it’s them? What if it’s Vecna or something else? What if they’re trying to trick us?” Y/N asked, she was skeptical that it was truly Eddie, Nancy, Robin, and Steve on the other side of that light.

“It’s Eddie. I know Steve, Robin, and Nancy don’t know Morse Code, but he knows S.O.S. Nancy knows about Will communicating through the lights when he went to the Upside Down, it has to be them.” Dustin replied.

“Eddie? Eddie if that’s you can you show me a sign? If it’s Vecna you can kindly go fuck yourself, I’m not in the mood for this.” Y/N turned to face the lights, her arms moving from her chest to her hips with a serious look on her face. If Vecna wanted her he could just stop wasting her time and do it already, she didn't want to play any silly game.

The pattern of the lights stopped for a moment, the light maintaining a consistent glow, before it started up again. This wasn't the same S.O.S Dustin pointed out earlier, it was something else. The light flickered once and held the glow before dimming, then it did it a second time, and a third in the same way. Then it started flickering again, a steady 1, 2, 3, 4 beat. Other lights on the chandelier started to flicker as well, all following a consistent beat. Y/N began tapping the rhythm on the chair in front of her, and just like that, muscle memory kicked it. It was the same motion she made when she tapped the steering wheel of her Buick, every time she listened to Eddie's mixtape. It was the beat to For Whom The Bell Tolls. She started to softly sing the lyrics of her favorite song, the one she told Eddie and only Eddie.

"Make his fight on the hill in the early day… constant chill deep inside… Shouting gun, on they run through the endless grey. On they fight, for they’re right, yes, but who’s to say… Oh God Eddie baby you’re a genius!” Y/N cheered. She turned around to face the rest of the group, a massive smile on her face. Eddie was here, in a way, and he was alive.

“Hey! Meet us in Nancy’s room, I’ve got an idea!” Dustin yelled. Y/N followed the kids as they stole the Lite-Brite from Mike and Nancy's little sister and headed upstairs. She hoped that whatever Dustin was planning would work. Y/N hated the idea of Eddie staying in the Upside Down for a single minute longer.

Taglist:

@imchangkyunned , @creativedogs , @nightless , @kik51199 , @kik51199 , @thecraziestcrayon , @dabzzallday420 , @science--hoes , @efvyqrs , @justanotherkpopstanlol , @kikis-writing-world , @secretsicanthideanymore , @heartandhead2018 , @piperd06 , @kellysimagines ,

[pinkyshy101]

So I got bored and decided to type out a list of the cartoons/tv shows I’ve watched, cause why not! I think this is all I’ve watched, or at least recent enough (I’m thinking like…. 2014/15 onward, when I actively started to watch more cartoons)

It’s kinda long, and I’m kinda rambley, so I’ll put it under a keep reading thing (if I can) so you don’t have to scroll through that if you don’t want to. Idk who will actually read this, but hey maybe it’s an idea of what kind of things I might reblog on here! I’m always taking any suggestions for shows to watch, I love learning about and watching more and more cartoons! So if there’s something I didn’t list as something I watched and you think of be interested, feel free to please recommend it! I may update this with a reblog or an edit or something at some point in the future, idk though. For now, its September 19, 2020, and here’s what I got for ya

This ended up way more rambley than I meant for it to be but I started writing it at maybe 12:30ish am and now its almost 2am when I’m getting ready to post it so oops 👀 I’m not really expecting anyone to read this but hey, it’s something! Read if you wanna know what shows and other stuff I watched lol idc

Cartoons I’ve watched in their entirety (or what’s all aired as of today 9/19/20):

(updated 12/2/20 as starting with ATLA)

Gravity Falls - watched since late 2014

Steven Universe (including the movie and Future) - watched since mid June 2015, right before the second stevenbomb/sworn to the sword (early season 2)

Over The Garden Wall - watched back around when it first came out, can’t remember exactly when but sometime in 2015

Star vs The Forces of Evil - watched the first 2 seasons as they aired, then stopped watching for a while and rewatched the whole show in June 2019

Hilda - watched for the first time in I think October 2018, rewatched in May quarantine

She-ra and the Princesses of Power - watched all 5 seasons about/not even a week after season 5 came out, idk why I waited so long to watch it

The Owl House - started watching it after the grom episode aired, idk why I waited so long to watch it but molly and noelle and everyone was screaming about grom on twitter, so of course I had to watch it then

Kipo and The Age of Wonderbeasts - watched it all in early August, right before I watched The Owl House

Infinity Train - watched the pilot back in 2016, then the first season when it came out, but then I started college and didn’t get the chance to watch the 2nd/3rd season until I decided to watch the whole series (s1 again, 2/3 for the first time) this past week

Ouran High School Host Club - ok I know it’s anime not a cartoon and I can’t see myself reblogging anything from it but it’s literally the only anime I’ve watched more than like 1 or 2 episodes of/the only one I’ve seen in its entirety so I figured eh I’ll mention it

Camp Camp - I almost forgot to mention this one! I started watching it when there was I think only 3 episodes of season 1, so back in 2016, and I’ve loved it since then! I guess this summer’s season couldn’t happen cause of covid.... But I’m still excited for when/if it does eventually come out!

Avatar the Last Airbender

Shows that I’ve partially watched but not completely:

We Bare Bears - I’ve seen the first 2 seasons, maybe some of the third I can’t remember, I watched it when it first came out but I haven’t watched it in a while, so I would probably need to rewatch a bunch of it (I did rewatch I think the first season sometime this year? But it was while working on school projects so I wasn’t giving it my full attention), apparently there’s also a movie now???

My Little Pony Friendship is Magic - I was huge into the brony fandom from roughly 2013ish-2017ish, I’ve seen up to season 8 and a few episodes of season 9, and the 4 equestria girls movies, and the mlp movie; I probably know seasons 1 - 4 the most, maybe a little of 5, 6 and 7 are kinda fuzzy but I’ve seen them, 8 I watched over quarantine (since it’d been a few years since I had watched any of it, I also rewatched bits of 5-7) as well as I think the first episode or so of season 9, but I don’t remember them too well. I watched the movie (the pony one, not eqg) when it came out in theaters, and not too long after that I drifted away from the mlp fandom (tbh I was drifting a little bit before it came out, but I knew I had to stick in there at least until it came out since I had been waiting for so long for it). The equestria girls movies, I saw them all when they first came out (I even saw rainbow rocks in the theater). I think there’s like, half hour shorts or episodes or something?? That’s in the eqg universe?? But I don’t think I’ve seen any of them, and if I have it was probably a really early one a long time ago because I haven’t really kept up with anything after Legend of Everfree came out

Animaniacs reboot - I’ve seen the first 5 episodes and it’s nice!

Shows that I’ve only seen an episode or few of that I (probably) intend on continuing to watch:

Glitch Techs - I saw the first episode! Definitely want to continue it

Rick and Morty - I watched a few episodes of the first season in like March/April quarantine, but I was still dealing with online school at home finishing out last semester then. I think I want to watch this eventually, but I have other shows that I want to catch up on/watch before I’d get to this one

Tangled the Series - idk if that’s the name I’ve seen multiple names but I hope you know what I’m talking about, I saw a handful of episodes from the first season I think sometime around fall 2019, but I’d probably have to rewatch the whole thing

Adventure Time - I’ve never had cable/cartoon network so I didn’t watch this growing up, but I’ve heard really good things about it and seen a bunch of stuff from it (I’d have to be living under a rock to have not seen anything lol) but it’s so long and I just haven’t gotten around to it yet! Well I’ve seen maybe a dozen or so episodes of the first season but it was a while ago so I’d have/want to start over probably

Shows I haven’t started

Amphibia - I’ve heard it’s good! I just haven’t gotten around to it yet

Avatar the Last Airbender - probably next on my list to watch, I’ve been meaning to watch it for years but I haven’t yet, its on Netflix now so that should make it easier to watch and a friend from school made me promise that this would be the next one I’d watch so that’s what I’m doing (I did watch the last 2 seasons of infinity train that night though, since I was really wanting to finish it first… But atla is next) watched it! (updated 12/2/20)

The Legend of Korra - obviously I’m waiting to watch it until after alta, and I’m probably going to watch it right after I finish atla

The Dragon Prince - idk really anything about it other than I think it’s on netflix? and apparently it’s good and maybe gay idk but I’ve heard it’s good thus why it’s on here lol

Black Horseman - idk too too much about this other than apparently it’s good but also kinda depressing. Similarly to rick and morty I want to watch it eventually but its not insanely high on my list

OK KO - don’t know a ton about it other than it’s decent, a step up from r+m/bojack on where I want to watch it but not urgently

Ducktales Reboot - similarly to OK KO, don’t know much about it other than it’s decent, same level of want to watch

Milo Murphy’s Law - saw a couple episodes when it came out, haven’t watched it in forever so if I ever do want to rewatch it I’d have to restart it, not super high on my priority list though

Bee and Puppycat - another one I almost forgot! I don’t know a ton about this but I’ve heard its nice! Plus from what I’ve seen I like the artstyle so  👀 maybe someday

Animaniacs (original) - I started to watch the reboot and I think I want to watch the original eventually! Just haven’t gotten around to it yet

Clone High - listen it’s not that I desperately WANT to watch this, I just have friends who are like, hey, watch this lol it’s apparently not super long so why not

Other non cartoon shows I’ve watched:

Brooklyn 99 - idk when I started watching it, maybe around season 4/5ish? I think sometime in 2018 so idk the season, idk, most of the episodes I’ve only seen once so I couldn’t tell you exactly what happens in every episode but I still like it

Rise - ugh I miss this show, I started watching it after/around when the 3rd episode came out (end of March 2018?), and I don’t think I’ve watched any of it since it ended (mid may 2018) cause its not on any streaming services anymore :/ at least not that I know of but I loved it and would love to rewatch it

Andi Mack - I’d heard it was good but hadn’t watched it after it ended (early august 2019 I think I watched it), haven’t rewatched it since then but it was decent, I mainly watched it cause I had seen clips of gay but yknow it was alright

Sex Education - watched 1st season sometime in 2019, when rewatched it/watched season 2 when it came out January 2020, this is like WAY more mature than like anything on this list but like it has an interesting story

Love Victor - watched first/currently only season when it came out mid june 2017 (how was June so long ago what)

Queer Eye - I’ve seen a couple seasons of it idk I figured why not add it lol

Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist - I think I watched this around when there were maybe a few episodes of season 1 left (well there’s only one season now but still), idk I liked it cause like musicals and stuff idk

Idk what else to add to this section but if I think of anything (to any category on this list) I’ll probably update it later maybe idk (again I’m not necessarily going to be reblogging stuff from all/any of these but like, I figured I’d mention it cause idk)

Musicals:

Another thing I love is musicals, like I’m a design/tech major in college rn so yeah I like theatre lol so I’m going to list some I’ve seen (mostly watched bootlegs of, but I’ll list some professional/tour ones I’ve seen in person)(but if it doesn’t say anything special I probably just watched a bootleg, 2017 was a big year for me and my google drive being filled with bootlegs…) This might not be all of them and I won’t go into as much detail (I hope, I haven’t typed it yet) but we’ll see:

Broadway tours I’ve seen: (I swear this isn’t bragging they were cheap seats way up high lol)

Dear Evan Hansen (May 2019)

Wicked (first professional show I saw, October 2017, haven’t watched a bootleg or anything of it since then and I went in completely blind)

Mean Girls (November 2019, last professional show I saw before quarantine)

Come From Away (September 2019)

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (November 2018)

The Book of Mormon (August 2018, was hoping to again this August but quarantine :( )

Non professional/high school/college/other shows I’ve seen in person/been on crew for (not all of them, but some) (assume I’ve also seen bootlegs/proshots if there are any)

Newsies

Spring Awakening (spot op)

Shrek (props)

Legally Blonde

I’ve seen done way more but I don’t feel like listing them or that they’re anything I’d want go reblog/actively look at fandom content for (that’s not saying it reblog stuff from shrek the musical but still lol)

Other shows I’ve seen only in proshot/bootleg form:

Basically every Starkid show

Spies are Forever

The Solve it Squad

Hamilton

Heathers

Be More Chill (yes I was in that big amalgamation of musical fandom stuff with these and deh in 2017 aaaa)

Falsettos

Beetlejuice

Spongebob

21 Chump Street

Les Mis

Phantom

(Again maybe not necessarily all but some there’s a slight chance I might reblog things about)

Musicals I still need/want to watch/listen to:

The Prom

Six

The Great Comet (not typing it all out)

Hadestown

Waitress

Bonnie and Clyde

Something Rotten

Tuck Everlasting

Again there’s more I want to see I’m sure but I haven’t really watched bootlegs in a while…. Idk feel free to suggest shows tho

Movies I’ve seen/like: obviously I’m not gonna just every single movie I’ve seen but heres a few I like:

The Sound of Music

The Wizard of Oz - these 2 have actually always been my favorite movies since I was little, I can’t dee myself reblogging much of anything about them but figured I’d mention them cause why not

Love Simon

Some but not all Disney movies (I grew up with no cable/mostly just pbs)

Most pixar movies?

I don’t think John Mulaney shows count as movies but eh whatever I’ve seen them on netflix

Idk what else lol I know I’ve seen more movies than this but eh

If anyone actually read all of this... Wow I’m surprised honestly lol have a free cookie or something for your struggles or smth, idk, thanks for reading this though lol I appreciate you (but also slightly worry, this was a lot of words and a lot of rambling)

[this-broken-band-girl]

yknow what asking for help is important and can make things better

[heart-eyes-kippen]

“Everything is Red” - Chapter 2: The Dealing Tree

Summary:

“Cyrus Goodman and TJ Kippen weren’t desperate by any means, they just happened to find comfort in old, run-down motels where people wouldn’t dare come looking for them. There was no particular reason for this - or so they would tell you. Faded motels just had a certain charm about them, Cyrus would say with one of his naturally bright smiles.”

~

The fall of 2006 finds TJ and Cyrus on the run from the law, seeking the highs associated with risk wherever they can and maybe even learning a thing or two about love and the inevitability of fate.

Warnings for this chapter:

-Non-graphic depictions of violence and death

-Non-graphic depictions of crime

-Gun usage

-Nightmares

ALL LINKS IN THE REBLOG

~

Jefferson High was an intimidating looking place, with it’s cracked brick and it’s tall metal fences, towering over the students as they walked inside. It was located on the busiest street in the neighbourhood, littered by potholes and tired looking parks with rusted play equipment. It wasn’t rare that Cyrus had a nervous pit in his stomach upon entering, but over the next week he couldn’t shake off a feeling of dread. Not even TJ’s reassuring glances toward him could calm his nerves as he walked in on that particular day, looking about distractedly as he went.

 “They know,” he mumbled, already on the verge of hysterics.

 TJ calmly shook his head, briefly taking Cyrus’ hand to give it a reassuring squeeze.

 “Cyrus. Listen to me, okay? They don’t. We’re going to be fine.”

 The words, although easing some of his panic, didn’t do anything to still his wildly beating heart.

 Buffy and Andi approached them then, smiling blindly, no clue whatsoever about the secret TJ and Cyrus had spent the last week desperately trying to bury.

 “Hey boys,” said Andi, looping an arm over Cyrus’ shoulder.

 Buffy squeezed between him and TJ, looking over at Cyrus with increasing concern.

 “You okay, Cy? You kind of look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

 It was just a saying, but somehow it still managed to rattle Cyrus. He had been getting repeated nightmares about Lester, to the point where he wouldn’t be surprised if his ghost had somehow came back to haunt him.

 Guilt wracked him whenever he thought about that night, the deserted alleyway etched stubbornly into his brain, filling him with panic whenever it came into his conscious.

 “I’m fine,” he managed weakly, not convincing Buffy at all if her worried glance towards Andi was any indicator.

 The subject was dropped soon enough in favour of discussion about subjects and college courses, which didn’t do much to ease Cyrus’ mind either with Buffy constantly mentioning the criminology course she wanted to get a scholarship for.

 They separated when they arrived at their locker bay, Cyrus and TJ lingering behind as the girls continued on.

 Cyrus’ eyes swept over his locker for a moment. The telltale dents from having been kicked one too many times were all there, graffiti too, and-

 “TJ,” he whispered, tone urgent.

 The boy’s gaze fell upon what Cyrus was staring at, horror written all over his face.

 “It’s just a note, babe,” he mumbled back, plucking the paper from the grates in Cyrus’ locker and unfolding it.

 Cyrus watched as his face went from neutral, to concerned, to furious all while glancing about madly in a way he knew would’ve probably looked suspicious.

He shoved the note into Cyrus’ hands, opening the boy’s locker in the most casual way possible.

 Dear Cyrus and TJ.

 You don’t know who I am, but I know you are.

 And I know what you’ve done.

 Meet me by the dealing tree at lunch or I expose your secret to everyone - including the cops.

 Cyrus had to refrain from having a meltdown right then and there, his hands shaking violently and his mind reeling as he shoved the note back over to TJ, taking a moment or two to glare up at the ceiling.

 He focused on the sounds of the pattering rain for a moment, trying hard to centre himself.

 “Cyrus,” TJ murmured, and he felt hands rest gently on his shoulders, rubbing back and forth soothingly. “Don’t panic, okay? We’ll deal with this. We’ll meet this person at lunch and see what they want.”

 “I...I can’t do this,” Cyrus choked out, eyes filled with tears as his gaze fell on TJ again.

 “I know, babe. I know. It’ll be a quick thing, okay? Promise.”

 Cyrus inhaled deeply, letting the cool air fill his lungs, before exhaling and nodding.

 “Okay.”

 The next few periods crept by at an agonisingly slow pace. Cyrus has his eyes glued to the clock almost every second as it ticked away in the background, unnoticed by the others in his classroom. The rain fell in bursts, picking up suddenly and subsiding almost just as quickly. It was freezing inside, but Cyrus was so preoccupied he could barely focus on that.

 His heart was pounding as he approached the dealing tree, tucked away behind shrubbery in the very corner of the school grounds. It was a place he had never dared approach before due to its reputation as a drug-dealing site, and he found his grip on TJ’s hand tightening anxiously as they fought past the shrubs and stepped up to the small tree that stood there.

 They waited in silence, not moving despite the occasional splatters of rain that fell down on them.

 Cyrus took a breath in, then a breath out. In. Out. In. Out. In-

 “I’m glad you guys showed.”

 They whirled around in shock, only to find that a boy who Cyrus recognised as having graduated last year was climbing over the wired fence, dropping down in front of them soon enough with a soft thud.

 Cyrus swallowed thickly and let go of TJ’s hand.

 “No need,” said the boy, smiling as he pulled an envelope from the pocket of his hoodie. “I’m cool with that stuff.”

 “...That stuff?” TJ inquired, an eyebrow raised in question.

 “You know - that gay stuff,” he supplied, as though it was obvious.

 Cyrus nodded slowly, his blood rushing in his ears as he hesitantly took the envelope that was being offered.

 With shaky hands, he fumblingly managed to tear off the tape and open it, glancing worriedly up at TJ as he pulled out its contents.

 He felt like throwing up when his eyes landed on them.

 “Pictures,” he choked out, shoving them into TJ’s hands. He could barely look at them without feeling guilt begin to claw violently at his insides, rising in his throat and settling there.

 TJ scanned over them for a moment, his eyes sliding shut. Cyrus braced himself for an explosive outburst of some kind, but it never came, and for some reason that seemed to unsettle him even more.

 “Those photos are incriminating, and I have copies,” said the boy, sounding scarily business-like. “I won’t rat you two out, but it’s going to cost you.”

 TJ swallowed. “How much?”

 “Four thousand.”

 Cyrus wanted to cry.

 “Four thousand? Where the everloving fuck do you think we’re going to get our hands on four thousand?” TJ demanded, which had Cyrus instinctively resting a placating hand on his shoulder.

 “You seem like smart dudes, I’m sure you’ll figure it out. That’s my final offer, and I’m not going to lower it. I’ll give you a month. Do we have a deal?”

 Fighting back the tears that were stinging at his eyes, Cyrus stepped in front of TJ and solemnly held out a hand.

 “It’s a deal,” he agreed, voice slightly hoarse.

 “Cyrus are you fucking insane?!”

 “Go! Please just go, it’s a deal okay? We’ll have four thousand in a month.”

 The boy grinned and nodded, briefly shaking his hand before climbing gracefully back over the fence and leaving Cyrus standing there, completely numb.

 “Four. Thousand. Fucking. Dollars,” TJ managed through gritted teeth, looking after the boy with a scowl. “That bastard-“

 “TJ,” Cyrus interrupted, turning around to face the boy. “In case it hadn’t sunk in for you yet, we’re criminals now. And you’re a murderer. We aren’t exactly innocent either, so we might as well play his game. If we don’t, we’re fucked.”

 TJ’s scowl softened. He stepped up to Cyrus and wrapped the boy up in a tight hug, noticeably shaking.

 “How are we going to get four thousand dollars?” he asked, voice wavering.

 “We’ll find a way,” Cyrus assured, melting right into the hug and burying his face in the crook of TJ’s neck.

 Deep down, a part of him knew they would never be able to, but he managed to push that part of him aside and focus on the rhythmic rise and fall of TJ’s chest.

 ~

 He heard a step. Then another. Then another after that, which prompted him to move ever so slightly from his position, squinting as his eyes adjusted.

 Cyrus recognised TJ’s outline amongst the darkness almost instantly, hovering by the edge of the bed, clearly oblivious to the fact that he wasn’t the only one awake.

 He froze as the boy slowly bent down to retrieve something from the ground, straightening again and gently padding his way over to the door.

 Cyrus remained perfectly still as the door opened with a low creek, before gently closing again with a thud.

 What was TJ doing?

 Somewhat groggily, he managed to untangle himself from the bedcovers and sit up, his senses immediately attuned to the slightest signs of movement around him.

 Probably just getting cereal, he thought to himself with a soft laugh as he slowly made his way over to the door and opened it, stepping hesitantly out into the narrow hallway and heading towards the kitchen.

 He came to an abrupt halt before turning the corner, his heart beginning to pound as he peeked around at the front door. TJ was stepping outside in the cool evening air, and Cyrus was at a loss as to why.

 Something in his gut told him that he shouldn’t make his presence known just yet, but he didn’t exactly want to leave TJ to his own devices either so he hurriedly shrugged on a coat and slipped on some shoes before stepping out after him, listening intently for any signs of movement around the house.

 There didn’t seem to be any after a few moments, so he gently closed the front door behind him and began heading in the direction he had seen TJ leave.

 He was well aware that his behaviour would probably look odd to someone from the outside looking in, but he really did just want to make sure TJ wasn’t getting himself into trouble somehow - they already had enough of that to deal with for a lifetime.

 The wind became biting almost right away, washing over him with a cold intensity that had Cyrus tugging at his coat and folding his arms tightly across his chest.

 He managed to remain on TJ’s trail for about 10 minutes, during which he repeatedly considered just forgetting about it and turning around to go home, but curiosity managed to get the better of him each of these times.

 TJ had a large black coat on, walking hurriedly through the darkness in a way that had an uneasy pit forming in Cyrus’ stomach. The street lamps were on, meaning he only got occasional glimpses of the boy before he was swallowed by darkness again.

 He didn’t have a good feeling about this.

 TJ came to an abrupt halt right outside an abandoned looking house, with boarded up windows, litter everywhere, and various smashed bottles scattered along the concrete. The grass was wild and unkempt, and the front door seemed to be about 2 seconds away from caving in.

 Cyrus held his breath and hid around a fence, heart racing as he glanced around to find TJ hesitantly approaching the house, his footsteps crunching loudly and breaking up the silence around them. Looking closely, it almost seemed as though TJ was shaking, and suddenly Cyrus felt like sprinting over and asking what the hell was going on.

 He refrained though, mostly due to the fear that was coursing through him, keeping him firmly rooted to the stop.

 The frail-looking wooden door creaked open, and soon enough TJ was inside.

 Silence.

 There was howling wind and the occasional screeching bird, but no sound whatsoever came from that house - or any of the other houses for that matter - over the next fifteen minutes.

 Cyrus began psyching himself up to go inside, squeezing his eyes shut and shaking out his limbs.

 He had no idea what TJ was doing, but he had to know.

 Cyrus took one step. Then another. Then another, dry leaves crunching beneath his feet as he slowly approached the house. His stomach was tying itself into knots.

 He froze when he heard a sudden outbreak of shouting, followed by the distinct sound of a gunshot, ringing out throughout the neighbourhood. Then another two right after each other, just as piercing and dizzying as the first.

 Cyrus could barely breathe.

 After a minute or so the front door creaked open, exposing- no. No. No. No.

 This wasn’t supposed to happen. This never happened!

 “Your boyfriend just learnt a valuable lesson about messing with the wrong people,” said the boy, dressed just like he had been days prior.

 Cyrus stood there, unmoving, the words echoing about in his mind endlessly.

 “No,” he choked out, staggering backwards. “This wasn’t what - I - what happened to him? What the fuck happened to him?!”

 Blood was rushing in his ears. Tears were filling his eyes. Nothing felt even close to being real.

 “Cyrus,” said the boy, and only then did he notice the blood was was splattered all over his clothes.

 “No! This isn’t what happened!” he yelled out, voice slightly hoarse as he buried his face in his hands.

 “Cyrus, listen to me okay? You have to wake up.”

 Cyrus slowly lifted his head again in confusion, giving the boy a blank look.

 “You have to wake up. Cyrus, wake up!”

 The voice had morphed into TJ’s somewhere along the line, and suddenly Cyrus was sitting upright in his hotel bed, face pale, completely covered in sweat.

 “It wasn’t real,” he heard TJ murmur beside him.

 Cyrus just shook his head frantically.

 “Babe, look at me.”

 He immediately obliged, looking over at TJ with wide eyes. The man cautiously brought a hand up to Cyrus’ face, brushing away a few strands of hair that had flattened against his forehead.

 “Name 5 things in this room.”

 Cyrus took a deep breath, collapsing into TJ’s side as he glanced around.

 “The...the sink, my camera, the lamp, our essentials bag and the counter,” he said quietly, still shaken.

 TJ nodded, wrapping an around him. “None of it was real.”

 Cyrus let out a breath he didn’t even realise he was holding, snuggling into TJ’s side. They remained that way for a few moments, TJ rubbing soothing circles onto his shoulder, before Cyrus spoke up.

 “I had a dream that...you were the one who died in that house,” he said, voice wavering.

 TJ let out a shaky exhale, pulling him in closer.

 “I didn’t. Only the guy did,” he assured.

 “I know. But...It just seemed so real...I haven’t had something like that in ages.”

 TJ nodded, pressing a kiss to his hair. “It’s over now. Let’s hope you don’t get another one for a while,” he mumbled.

 Cyrus nodded, shifting slightly to climb into TJ’s lap and wrap his arms around him, sending them both tumbling down onto the bed.

 “Oops,” he whispered, looking down TJ with an apologetic smile.

 “No problem,” TJ grinned back, seemingly grateful to see Cyrus smiling again.

 They fell silent again for a moment.

 “I’m sorry,” Cyrus murmured, resting his face against TJ’s chest. “I really didn’t mean it. Like - at all. I was just mad.”

 “I’m sorry too,” said TJ, running his fingers through Cyrus’ hair. “I don’t actually get tired of you that often.”

 Cyrus couldn’t help but laugh slightly at that, raising his head again and giving him a playful smack on the arm. “Rude.”

 He rolled off of TJ, settling down beside him instead.

 “Think you’re gonna be able to get to sleep again?” TJ mumbled, fingers trailing soothingly up and down Cyrus’ arm.

 “Probably not,” he whispered back.

 TJ nodded. “Wanna talk instead?”

 “Yeah,” Cyrus breathed out gratefully, throwing an arm over TJ’s chest. “That’d be nice.”

 ~

 Cyrus’ was buzzing as he stood there at the petrol station, adrenaline already coursing through his veins. He could feel himself overheating slightly in his black get-up, completed with a black ski mask and black leather gloves, but he didn’t dare take any of it off.

 A few days of laying low and focusing on getting a new car had passed by now. They were growing increasingly restless doing next to nothing all day, so this was a breath of fresh air (quite literally) for both of them. A cool breeze washed over them every time the sliding doors opened, and Cyrus let out a small sigh of relief every time they did.

 The plan had been simple. Visit a petrol station in the middle of nowhere at 1am - right around closing time for this particular station - get their hands on some money, ideally through some minor threats, grab some supplies and book it out of there.

 TJ was usually the one to concentrate on the confrontation aspect of their plans, but the young supervisor didn’t seem to be putting up much of a fight whatsoever.

 “I’m so fucking done with this job,” he muttered to no one in particular, watching as TJ raided the cash register for at least half of the cash inside, sitting back with folded arms. “I’m moving next chance I get.”

 Cyrus smiled slightly despite his nerves, rushing about the station to grab food supplies and stuff them into a large bag they had brought along with them.

 TJ kept his gun out despite the supervisor’s indifference, glancing over at Cyrus occasionally to make sure he was still okay.

 It was a quick operation, as it always was, and after about 3 minutes they were headed for the entrance again. Cyrus grabbed a magazine and some toothpaste on the way out, while TJ just grabbed a cheesy-looking baseball cap with the words ‘where’s my coffee?’ stamped across it.

 “You’re so dumb,” Cyrus whispered as soon as they were out of earshot, breath slightly laboured as they booked it to their car.

 It was freezing even for an autumn night, with both of their cheeks tinged red from the biting cold. The car door handle was cool against his skin as he pried it open, hastily dumping their bags inside and clambering in. TJ ripped off his ski mask and his gloves, tossing them onto the backseat before starting the car and pressing down on the accelerator.

 Cyrus watched through the rear mirror as the petrol station became yet another place to them.

 “That was good,” he panted once he had torn his own ski mask off, pulling his baggy black shirt over his head to reveal a blue one underneath.

 “It was,” TJ agreed, sending him a wide smile.

 He wasn’t exactly sure how long they drove down that highway, but by the time they pulled over into an abandoned looking strip with grassy hills as far as the eye could see, the first glimpses of sunlight were showing in the sky.

 A smile lit up Cyrus’ face as he jumped out of the car, grabbing his camera from the backseat and walking out into the open field to snap a few pictures. TJ shook his head and walked around to the boot of the car, watching fondly as Cyrus attempted to get the right angle.

 He rummaged around for a few blankets before closing it again, opening the backdoor to grab some of the sandwiches they had taken.

 “Breakfast!” he called teasingly, which had Cyrus sending him a playful glare. He lingered in the field to take a few more pictures, before lowering his camera and trudging through the grass again to approach the car.

 “Inside or outside?” TJ asked.

 The look that had crossed Cyrus’ face upon hearing the word ‘Outside’ seemed to be enough of an answer, because he laughed slightly and reached over to open the backdoor.

 “After you.”

 Cyrus gave him a sarcastic smile, climbing into the backseat and looking over at TJ expectantly.

 The man just laughed, throwing a blanket over Cyrus before joining him. He shuffled right over to Cyrus, pulling him in as close as physically possible and handing him one of the sandwiches.

 “Thanks,” he mumbled, snuggling into TJ’s side for warmth. TJ playfully knocked Cyrus’ head with his own, bringing an arm up to wrap around Cyrus’ shoulders.

 “Anytime.”

 That’s how they remained for next half hour; cuddled together in the back of their car, eating sandwiches and watching the sun rise through their window. Soon enough, the sky was painted with varying pinks and oranges, and Cyrus found himself almost completely entranced.

 “It’s pretty, but you know what’s prettier?” TJ mumbled.

 Cyrus rolled his eyes slightly, looking over at him. “I don’t know TJ, what’s prettier?”

 “You.”

 Cyrus snorted and gave him a playful shove. “That was so lame.”

 “More like ‘smooth as hell.’”

 “Sure,” said Cyrus, leaning his head on TJ’s shoulder. “Smooth as hell.”

~

Hey guys, let us know what you think either here or on AO3!!

Reblogs are appreciated in case this doesn’t appear in the tag <3

[chiseler]

“John Doe”, Alias God

On September 13, 1936, a man who called himself God led a parade of three thousand “angels” over ninety blocks south from the Kingdom of Heaven at 20 West 115th Street in Harlem.

God sat in a vintage automobile while young ladies in jodhpurs, derby hats and vivid green sashes danced and chanted to the music of kazoo-players and upright piano.  God later made a speech in Madison Square Park.

God went by the name Father Divine, who ran the Peace Mission Movement from a five-story headquarters where today stands the Martin Luther King, Jr. Towers.  A sign outside declared: “The abundance of the fullness occupies the entire area of this office; therefore, there can be no loitering.”

Father Divine was a rousing preacher, owned vast real estate, forbade smoking, drinking and sex, and evaded several attempts at criminal conviction by white authorities.  He arose from an errant root-and-branch pulpiteer living in the Pigtown waterfront ghetto of Baltimore, to buying a mansion in Hyde Park across the Hudson River from President FDR.

Harlem in the roaring twenties was a scene of artistic revolution, where Fats Waller smashed thirds and Claude McKay heard “the halting footsteps of a lass,” but in the 1930s the neighborhood was a theater of political awakening, where Communists, union bosses, black intellectuals and cult preachers vied for a voice on the squawk tub.  Father Divine acknowledged support from the Communists, but with the caveat that “just what the Communists have been trying to get you to see and do and be, I have accomplished.”

God was born George Baker, Jr. in 1879, in Rockville, Maryland.  His family shared a small cabin of fourteen people, including the family of Luther Snowden, the only black landowner in the county.  White religion in the area was chiefly Catholic, Jim Crow laws were brutal, and the local black neighborhood was called Monkey Run. When Baker was 18, his mother Nancy, a former slave to a tobacco planter, died.  She was five feet tall and weighed 480 pounds.

Baker set out for the big city where he worked as a gardener in white middle-class blocks and taught Sunday school at storefront churches on Baltimore’s east side.  Soon he took off South to walk the land and preach.  His ideas about Man and Spirit were influenced by “New Thought,” a philosophy that God was a being inside the mind and flesh of all Man and Woman.  New Thought had originated in the work of Phineas P. Quimby, a blueblooded clockmaker and doctor of mesmerism in Portland, Maine in the early 1800s.  All could know God by self-mastery of the journey within.

Baker ventured to Los Angeles in 1906, where he participated in the Azusa Street Revival and first spoke in tongues.  In L.A. he discovered his divine identity and cast off the personhood of “George Baker.”  He began to call himself The Messenger and walked back South to craft a traveling ministry.

In Valdosta, Georgia, the Messenger held worship in his house and invited followers to a cooperative and holy living environment where they would leave their former homes, give up matrimony and pool all wages. “God will provide,” spake the Messenger.

The bulk of early congregations was made up of working black women, who found little self-liberation in the prejudiced demands of house-wife and child-bearer.  As a result the Messenger incurred the anger of husbands who had him arrested and charged with insanity.  He did not provide a given name so court records show the signature of “John Doe, alias God,” who secured release after white lawyers and townsfolk feared how it might look in the supremacist public eye to defend a group of black men.  God agreed to leave town for good and take the message elsewhere.

By the late 1910s he was in New York City, setting up on West 41st Street in the old black neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen before establishing a co-op housing group and employment agency on Myrtle Avenue in Brooklyn.  Here he changed names a final time, assuming the full title Reverend Major Jealous Divine, after a passage in Exodus 34:14.  Devout followers shortened it to “Father Divine.”

He found opportunity to buy a house for the Peace Mission in Sayville, Long Island, from a German resident seeking to aggravate a rival neighbor by deliberately advertising cheap rates for a “colored” buyer.  As Father Divine had assumed a new identity, congregants too changed names to Beautiful Sweet, Faith Love, Holiness Love, Light Child, Beauty S. Love, Victory Luke and Onward Universe.

The speeches of Father Divine brimmed with invented words like “tangeblated” and “physicalating” to express new awareness. “God rematerialates and repersonifitizes!”  When he was arrested in connection to an angel who stabbed a New Jersey process-server with an ice-pick, cops found Father Divine hiding behind the furnace in his Connecticut abode, trying to “invisibilize.”

Father Divine often invested happenstance with the moral strike of divine intervention.  A clash with Savannah ministers once resulted in sixty days spent on a chain gang, after which the prison inspectors suffered a very bad car accident.  When Father Divine and his flock were denied access to a beach in Long Island, a week later the ocean was wracked with an unknown black tar substance and the beach shut down for the season. When Judge Smith of Nassau County sentenced Father Divine to a year in prison for disturbing the peace and fostering white and black cohabitation at his jampacked free Sunday dinners, two weeks later Judge Smith died.  Said Father Divine, “he sentenced God to prison and God sentenced him to death.”  

Father Divine acquired substantial property in Harlem and moved his base to West 128th Street.  He owned restaurants, laundries, barbershops, gas stations, huckster trucks and two newspapers.  He ran a coal business which the District Attorney once abjectly investigated for a connection to bootlegged anthracite in Pennsylvania.  During WWII the Peace Mission bought a 1929 hotel south of Atlantic City as a haven for war refugees and paid $3,500 in the property back taxes with $10 bills in a brown paper bag.

Newspapers exploited as novelty the legal troubles of a charismatic black businessman and gospel-shark claiming to be God.  The New York Age, a Harlem daily, compared the Research Bureau of the Peace Mission to Russian secret police. Bellevue Hospital conducted a psychiatric evaluation of followers and determined that 16 out of 18 had “well-defined psychoses.” Because Father Divine saw sickness and death as a punishment to the weak-souled, followers who departed were often abandoned to the potter’s field.

At the 1936 Democratic National Convention, a Mission disciple called John the Revelator delivered the Divine Righteous Government Platform, which rejected the New Deal, labor unions, medical science and the insurance industry, but espoused laws against firearms, lynching and segregation.  On Election Day Father Divine affected 50,000 followers to boycott the polls in defiance of real estate development taxes.  “My duty,” he preached, “is to bring into the political field the very consciousness of God’s presence on earth as a living reality.”

In 1937 the IRS bugged him for $54,000 in tax liens while in 1938 he bought Hudson Valley property in the President’s neighborhood, where old New York has long stook family.  Father Divine was humble.  “I’m not God, but millions of people think I am…  lots say I am the devil.”

Railed by the New York press and chased by lynch-mobs, Father Divine tracked a record that was chaste, magnanimous, shrewd and shazam.  He might seem to have run a “vast collectivization experiment,” but built Heaven by the old-fashioned American gumption of land rights and evangelism.

The Ghost of Father Divine left his earthly body in 1965, and the last of the Harlem property was sold in 1984.  Mother Divine, his white widow, continued to operate the Mission from an historic estate in Gladwyne, PA., where at dinner engagements and meetings with lawyers an empty chair was left open for the seating of Father Divine.  Here the hexagonal marble crypt called “The Shrine to Life” holds the remains of George Baker, Jr. with gilt doors and crowned with a glass pyramid.

by Andy McCarthy

[the--blackdahlia]

Natural Born Killers Chapter 17 (Sam x Dean)

Title: Natural Born Killers Chapter 17

Summary:  It started as an accident. That’s what it was. But things escalated from there and now the law wants Dean Winchester, one way or another.

Warnings: Smut (18+ only please), language, hurt!sam

Present

Victor typed away at his computer, reading some information as it came up. It was like Dean Winchester’s record had been wiped clean. But he couldn’t figure it out. Outside of a couple juvenile things that were locked tight, Dean Winchester was spotless. He had to have someone on the inside that knew what they were doing. Or a really, really good hacker.

“You’re  going to slip up.” Victor mumbled. “I’m going to catch you.”

****

2006

“Sammy.” Dean said, racing back over to Sam as he attempted to sit up. There were finger marks around Sam’s neck, and it made Dean want to just fire a clip into Azazel’s body on principle alone. He cradled Sam’s face in his hands, looking for any other injuries.

“De.” Sam whispered, his throat a little sore from the abuse it had just been through. “W-water?”

“Kaelyn! Bobby! Get a water bottle!” Dean commanded.

“On it!” Kaelyn called back, racing down the stairs and out to the cars. Sam looked at Dean, a little confused as to why his high school best friend was there.

“I’ll explain later.” Dean said gently, which Sam seemed to accept. He rested in Dean’s arms, his head laying on Dean’s shoulder. Dean played with his hair for a bit before Kaelyn ran up with the water. “Okay, you should take small sips or you’re going to get sick.” He offered Sam the water and he listened and only took small sips.

“We should get out of here.” Bobby said. “I don’t know about you, but this looks like a haunted prison…”

“Wait.” Sam whispered. “We can’t just...leave them.” Dean gazed down from the catwalk to where Andy and Jake’s bodies lay.

“Who are they?” Kaelyn asked. Sam looked at Dean, who nodded, that he could talk freely around her.

“Psychics.” Sam explained. “There’s two girls around here too.”

“Can’t exactly burn this place to the ground. I think someone would notice that.” Bobby said. “Guess we can drag them out and give them each a pyre.”

“We just leave them.” Dean said. “I know it sounds bad, but this place is already haunted. I know they died violently more than likely, but it’s not like it’s going to disrupt anything going on here.”

“Dean has a point.” Kaelyn added. “If it was Graceland or Dollywood, I would say we’d take them. But here?” Sam just nodded and leaned back into Dean.

“Why don’t you two go ahead and head back to Sioux Falls?” Dean asked. “I’m gonna get Sammy and I a room so he can rest a little bit.”

“We can get you settled in your new room.” Bobby told Kaelyn. She just smiled and hugged him. “You boys call when you’re getting close to Sioux Falls. I’ll make some chili or something.”

“Sounds good.” Dean said. “Thank you both.” Dean helped Sam up and the four of them made their way out to the cars. Bobby and Kaelyn waved goodbye as the piled into Bobby’s and headed for South Dakota. Dean drove for a little bit before he got him and Sam a room. A little bit nicer than they were used to. Dean led Sam inside.

“Come here.” Dean said when the door was closed. He pulled Sam to him to wrap his arms around him. Sam liked to duck and curl himself in to make himself smaller, and Dean liked to stand taller. He held on to Sam, not wanting to let him go.

“D-De.” Sam whimpered, holding on to him.

“Fuck baby boy. I thought I had lost you.” Dean said, gripping the back of his shirt. “I…”

“I’m here.” Sam whispered. Dean led them over to their bed, breaking apart so he could look into Sam’s eyes.

“I don’t ever want to lose you.” Dean told him, cupping the back of his neck before pulling him in to kiss him. It was a little rough, a little passionate, but they thought they would never see each other again. Dean kept Sam close to him as he continued to kiss him, Sam letting him take control. He just needed to feel Dean next to him, to remind him he wasn’t back in that cold prison.

“De, I need you.” Sam whispered. “I need…”

“I’ve got you.” Dean kissed at the bruises on his neck. “Are you sure you want this though? You’ve been through a lot.” Sam just nodded.

“Please.” Sam pleaded. Dean nodded. He knew that they needed to talk about what had happened to Sam in the prison, what Azazel had done that led to the death’s of four people and almost to Sam’s. Dean wanted to know how Azazel had gotten Sam in the first place. But none of that mattered right then. All that mattered was Dean had his Sammy back.

He slowly unbuttoned the flannel that Sam was wearing and tossed it to the floor. He took his time kissing Sam’s now bare top, where his collar bone was, his shoulders, even taking his time to kiss and suck on Sam’s nipples, making him moan softly. He pulled off the layers he was wearing before going back to kissing Sam’s mouth. Dean was not in any hurry.

“I don’t know what I would do.” He murmured against Sam’s skin as he placed more kisses on his chest. His hands worked their way down, unbuttoning his jeans. He quickly bent down to get their boots off before turning his attention to Sam.

“I’m here.” Sam said, leaning into his touches and kisses.

“Let’s get these off.” Dean coaxed Sam out of the rest of his clothing before Dean followed suit. “I need to prep you, okay?”

“But…” Sam started to argue.

“I don’t want to hurt you.” Dean said. There had been times in the past where, in the heat of the moment, Dean didn’t prep Sam. But those times, Sam usually was ready in some shape or form. But they hadn’t had sex in over a week and Dean wasn’t about to be the reason that Sam was hurting. He made Sam lay back while he went to his bag to get the lube they always kept in there.

“De.” Sam said, making needy noises as Dean came back.

“Shhh, baby boy. Gotta make sure I do this.” He kissed Sam gently before slicking up two fingers. Sam was able to handle both, and Dean started scissoring them slowly, working him open. The noises that fell from Sam’s lips went straight to Dean’s cock and he couldn’t wait to have it in his love.

“Dean, please.” Sam begged. By this point, Dean had opened Sam up enough. He got the lube and rubbed some on himself.

“Ready baby boy?” Dean asked. Sam nodded, his eyes dark with lust. Dean lined up and slowly pushed in. No matter how many times they did this, the initial push always had Sam gasping at the intrusion. Dean looked down into his eyes, waiting for Sam to nod. Once he did, Dean started rolling his hips.

“De.” Sam moaned softly. Dean bent down to capture his lips as he angled his hips the way that he was sure Sam’s prostate was at. And he knew when he found it, because Sam gripped the sheets and wrapped his legs around Dean.

“There we go baby boy.” Dean chuckled. “You feel so good Sammy.” He braced himself so he was hovering over Sam as he increased his movements. Sam kept him from pulling out to far with his vice like legs wrapped around him. Dean glanced down, always enjoying the view of Sam’s hole swallowing his cock.

Then Sam started to make that beautiful noise he made when he was close to the edge.

“D-D-De…” Sam panted.

“What do you need sweetheart?” Dean asked.

“Need to....need to…” Sam didn’t even have to say anything then as he came on his stomach. Dean smiled softly and kissed him before he picked up the pace, searching for his own release. Sam before everything else, that was always Dean’s motto.

“Fuck!” Dean called out as he buried his face in Sam’s neck and came in him. “Oh fuck.” He smiled at Sam and placed gentle kisses on his neck.

****

Sam laid curled up against Dean’s side. Dean rubbed Sam’s back, just needing to touch Sam. They laid there, silent, for a little while before Sam spoke up.

“He stole their powers.” Sam said. “He had Meg do it.”

“Did he say what for?” Dean asked. Sam shook his head. Dean felt Sam tense a little. “Sammy?”

“He told me...he said mom knew about me.” Sam told Dean. “That she was going to bind my powers and right before it happened was when he came, and I stopped him from getting me and mom walked in on him trying to break through the power I put up to protect myself.”

“That’s insane.” Dean said. “You know demons lie right? And if she knew what was going to happen to you, why didn’t she do something to stop it? Or tell John?” Sam shrugged.

“All he said was she found the same grimoire as him. And it had everything listed in it. The future of psychics and stuff.” Sam sighed. “I wish that I could’ve found out more.”

“Sam, he was going to kill you!” Dean said, looking down at him. “If I would’ve been just a minute later…”

“You got to me in enough time.” Sam said, rubbing Dean’s bare chest.

“What was that light that was coming out of you?” Dean asked. “What was he doing to you, besides choking the life out of you?”

“He was trying to rip my power out of me.” Sam explained. “And god, it fucking hurt. I could feel it pulling, holding on to me. And he just kept trying.” Sam felt Dean pull him closer. “I don’t even know if he got my power or not. I don’t feel any different though.”

“How did he get you?” Dean asked. “Did he get the drop on you or something?”

“You’re going to be mad.” Sam said. Dean turned onto his side so he could look at Sam. “But, I willingly went…”

“What?” Dean asked, staring at him. “Why the fuck did you do that?”

“Because he implanted a vision in my head! I thought you were dying! And I…” Sam took a moment to compose himself. “If you were dead, I don’t know what I’d do. It’s been you and me my whole life.”

“Sammy.” Dean pulled him to him again, kissing his forehead. “I’m not going anywhere. And it’s funny that you think death is getting you out of this relationship.” He lightened the mood son, and was relieved when he saw Sam crack a smile.

“So, Azazel’s dead.” Sam said. “What do we do now?”

“What do you want to do?” Dean asked. “We can go settle someplace. You could go back to school. I guess we could get a dog.” Sam shook his head. “Then what are we doing?”

“I want to keep doing what we’ve been doing.” Sam said. “You, me, the Impala, the road.”

“If you say so Sammy.” Dean smiled. “Let’s get some rest. You need it.”

****

Dean called Bobby as they were leaving the motel and heading back to South Dakota. As they drove, Dean expected to feel some big weight lifted off his shoulders. Azazel was dead. John was gone. They had Bobby to back them up. Everything should have been perfect, but there was just something that kept bugging him.

“De?” Sam asked. “You okay?”

“I’m fine baby boy.” Dean flashed him that signature grin. “How are you feeling?”

“Throat still hurts some but the smoothie helped.” Sam held up the plastic cup.

“Just let me know if you need another one or a milkshake or something.” Sam nodded and rested in his seat, his eyes falling shut a little while later. Dean had the radio on low, softly singing and humming along to songs as they came on. But finally, they were at Bobby’s, parking next to Kaelyn’s car.

“We’re here.” Dean said, gently waking Sam up. Sam stretched a little and rubbed his eyes. They climbed out of the car and Sam stretched more, his shirt riding up some and Dean licked his lips.

“Dean! Sam!” Kaelyn called out, running down the porch to hug them. “How are you both?”

“Good.” Sam said. Dean had explained everything to Sam, even the killing of Hudson Davies. “How are you settling?”

“Good. We got everything cleaned out of the room and into storage. Bobby’s getting me a new bed, even though I offered to pay.” Kaelyn shot the older hunter a look as he made his way out onto the porch.

“I’m taking advantage of having someone here that isn’t these two idjits.” Bobby laughed. “Besides, you really don’t want to sleep on that gross old thing.”

“Let me guess, you want Sam and I to take the truck and go pick it up?” Dean asked.

“Nonsense. Sam’s hurt. You and I are going to pick it up.” Bobby laughed.

“I’m fine Bobby.” Sam said, his voice not as strong as it normally was. Bobby glared at him some.

“Did you, or did you not lose conscience when a demon choked you out?” Bobby asked. “And, I saw you hit that floor pretty hard. Your back probably hurts too, doesn’t it?” Sam nodded. “Then you stay here with Kaelyn and help her with stuff. Dean and I are going to go pick up the bed.”

“Okay, okay.” Sam said. He followed Kaelyn inside. Bobby grabbed the keys to his truck and pulled Dean out to it. They headed into Sioux Falls while Sam and Kaelyn worked on cleaning. Dean was a little shaky on the normal of it all. He knew that something was going to pull the rug out from under them, just like it had in Palo Alto.

And Dean’s gut was usually right about these sort of things.

Forever Tags: @anathewierdo @dekahg @marvel-af @nanie5 @feelmyroarrrr @imboredsueme @gemini0410 @aiaranradnay @babypink224221 @mogaruke @xxwarhawk @sandlee44 @shatteredabby @caswinchester2000

Supernatural Tags: @bandobsession98 @mrsdeanfuckingwinchester @fangirlsencyclopaediaofweirdness @ilovetardis @missihart23 @cloudyskylines @supernaturalwincestsblog @flamencodiva @sams-serialkiller-fetish @theas-bedtime-stories

Natural Born Killers Tags: @mysteriousharmony @webcraft4eveh @mereka18 @writinginthesecrettrees @i-write-for-all-soulmates

[jbuffyangel]

Weekly Rundown 10/14/18-10/20/18

Time to rundown what I’m watching, loving, hating and everything in between! Spoilers ahead!

Arrow (“Inmate 4587″)

William running through the woods, even if it is a dream, makes me so emo.

I love how Arrow fake kills Felicity because they'd rather walk into hell than do it for real.

Felicity and William's photo sits on top of his copy of “Count of Monte Cristo” because they are Oliver's way out.

Stan stans Oliver. Same dude.

If we get this much Oliver working out then I will survive the prison storyline.

Mystery GA is like old school Oliver without Oliver having to be old school. Nifty.

Oliver's voiced cracks just a little bit when he asked Diggle about William and Felicity. It hurts to even say their names.

Felicity is the most adorable pink haired barista to ever live

"Boxing is not gonna win you a fight in the Glades." Oh yeah? Tell that to LL. Oh wait. She's dead. Never mind. Kid is right.

DO NOT TOUCH THE WIFEY UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES OR DIE.

I don't remember all these villains. Smeh.

Who dat in da boat?

Listen dude you need to see a picture of her husband and then you'd know better than to even ask.

LL hit the streets as BC after a couple boxing lessons. BS hits a couple law books and is DA. You're right LL fandom. Totally same character.

Curtis has a job with ARGUS and please for all that is holy let him stay there.

Is anyone else unnerved watching all these characters fight crime legally?

He's looking for Robert Queen? Long lost son? Grave robber? Weirdo?

So now Rene wants to go to prison? Why didn't you just do that in the first place? Then Oliver wouldn't have to save your ass & leave everyone he loves behind.

Grown up William? Flash forward Roy? I AM SPIRALING Y'ALL

Just when we thought there was nothing better than Oliver fighting naked in a shower they gave us Felicity kicking Diaz's ass.

Oh god y'all that scene was incredible. Don't ever say to me Oliver and Felicity are not the foundation of Arrow.

"I will always wait for you." Later. I have to eat my feelings.

Felicity gives William the hozen. I AM NOT OKAY.

GROWN UP WILLIAM WITH ROY!!!!! WE ARE FLASH FORWARDING PEOPLE!  

Okay they went no where near as dark with Oliver as I thought they would. Also, I should maybe look into a therapist because my dark & twisty is a lot darker and twistier than Arrow.

I am here for aged up Felicity. I am living for it.

Manifest “Unclaimed Baggage”

OMG we found out what Ben does for a living. The greatest mystery of Manifest is solved. HE IS A MATH PROFESSOR.

I want Ben to figure out to pay off my mortgage and keep $500K.

We finally meet Danny. Danny is the hot nurse from Grey’s Anatomy, the hot firefighter from Rescue Me and the hot FBI agent from Graceland. I love me some Daniel Sunjata. I prefer blondes so I’d still go with Dreamy McBlue eyes (Josh Dallas) but I understand Grace’s predicament more now. The struggle is real.

Michaela blew an operation with her Spidey sense and Jared took the blame, but it gave us this SWOONY exchange:

Michaela: You don’t have to protect me.

Jared: Yes I do. I can’t help it.

I still don’t really care about the plane mystery. The relationships are much more interesting.

The Gifted (”Outmatched”)

I was very bored this week. The best conflict is Lauren and Andy, but it was an anti climatic ending. 

This Is Us (”Vietnam”)

He got the "Breathe" from the army buddy. I'm ten minutes in and This Is Us has left me emotionally eviscerated. So your standard Tuesday night.

We are rehashing a lot of information I already know.

My father was drafted at the same time as Nicky. He was #5 in the draft. My dad was #8

Blindspot (”My Art Project”)

"I'm the work wife." LOL!!! Rich Dotcom is often the best of Blindspot episodes.

Reade is freaking out. SHE IS ALIVE READE DON'T BELIEVE IT!

I want to go to lunch with Rich Dotcom and talk Met Gala couture.

"You've done something with your hair. Your whole vibe is edgier." Boston is the only one who knows long hair = evil Jane.

Can no one see when Remi makes her cranky evil face after being nice to Kurt? It's her face! HOW DO THEY NOT SEE IT?

Wait. How is the puzzle a vetting process if other people don't have access to the tattoo? This makes no sense.

Madeline is sufficiently creepy.

Awww Rich is jealous. He's used to being Team Blindspot's favorite criminal. No one can take your place Rich Dotcom. You are one in a million.

Uh oh. Kurt saw that picture taking Remi.

Zapata is an accessory to murder. That ain't good.

That was too much Remi, Remi. Reel it back girl.

Remi drugged Patterson. This removes any doubt. She is evil.

Jane is a super ninja. She can't get out of being held hostage? She's done it millions of times before and yet nobody on Team Blindspot questions her helplessness?

Anyone else confused on this case? I hate it when I'm confused on case of the week.

Making a Murderer Part 2

I’m trying to hang in there on, but jeez this forensic science stuff is complex.

Brendan Dassey’s case is bounced between courts like a soccer ball. This is insane.

Oh holy hell I don’t know who did it. I give up.

That’s all for this week! I started my Daredevil binge so I have a bunch of shows to catch up on!

[eddycurrents]

For the week of 27 August 2018

Quick Bits:

A Walk Through Hell #4 focuses largely on flashbacks to the case the agents were working before whatever’s currently happening happened and...I’m not really sure of anything that’s going on. I think that’s kind of the point, unsure as to how everything is supposed to connect and what any of it all adds up to. Great art from Goran Sudžuka and Ive Svorcina, though.

| Published by AfterShock

Beyonders #1 is off to a great start. Between this and The Lost City Explorers, it seems like AfterShock right now has pseudoarchaeology stitched up and it’s wonderful. Paul Jenkins, Wesley St. Claire, and Marshall Dillon kick this one off with a wee bit more crunch, though there’s a very interesting upheaval this issue that will make you wonder what’s going on.

| Published by AfterShock

Blackwood #4 brings this series to an end and it is dark. Very dark. Evan Dorkin, Veronica & Andy Fish have crafted a wonderful horror story here, with some interesting twists, and one hell of an ending.

| Published by Dark Horse

Bone Parish #2 takes a deep dive in to some of the foundational moments of the Winters clan, even as they begin to deal with the fallout of one of their dealers dying from an overdose. This is great stuff. The art from Jonas Scharf and Alex Guimarães is incredible. Great detail and atmosphere, perfectly bringing to life the premise and characters from Cullen Bunn.

| Published by BOOM! Studios

Brothers Dracul #5 circles back around to the beginning of the story, as we reach the end of this interesting retelling and interpretation of the intersection of both the historical and legendary story of Vlad the Impaler, from Cullen Bunn, Mirko Colak, Maria Santaolalla, and Simon Bowland. There’s an interesting twist here that certainly paints Vlad’s action in a different light, and I hope we see it followed up upon in a second series.

| Published by AfterShock

Cyber Force #5 is a nice change of pace as Bryan Hill, Matt Hawkins, Atilio Rojo, and Troy Peteri introduce us to another old familiar face. This incarnation of the team definitely is taking its time to be brought together, but when the storytelling is as entertaining and the artwork is as gorgeous as this, it doesn’t really matter. To note, though, this is not the kind of decompression that feels empty or padded, it’s just fleshing out characters and their lives more than what we’ve seen before.

| Published by Image / Top Cow

Daredevil Annual #1 presents a standalone story of Misty Knight’s days as a detective and her first meeting with Daredevil. It’s good. It feels a bit more like a pilot for a Misty Knight series than necessarily a Daredevil tale, but, as I said, it’s good. The art from Marcio Takara and Marcelo Maiolo is nice. I really like Takara’s style which gives me hints of Phil Hester, Jim Mahfood, and Tomm Coker.

| Published by Marvel

Dungeons & Dragons: Evil at Baldur’s Gate #5 is another fun one, with a focus this issue on Boo. I’ve really enjoyed this series, with Jim Zub giving the party a bit of a breather between larger adventures and giving a great look at them as individual characters. Great art, too, including this issue from Francesco Mortarino and Jordi Escuin.

| Published by IDW

Edge of Spider-Geddon #2 gives us a view into another alternate Spiderverse, circling back around to SP//dr, and giving us a new twist on the power and responsibility rubric and VEN#m. It’s nice to see Lonnie Nadler and Zac Thompson play with more technological horror, with some incredible artwork from Alberto Alburquerque and Tríona Farrell.

| Published by Marvel

Euthanauts #2 is a thing of beauty. Nick Robles and Eva De La Cruz are seriously delivering some of the best art in comics right now with this series. The page layouts, character designs, use of colour, and incorporation of lettering choices from Aditya Bidikar, just elevate the storytelling immensely. Not even to mention how Tini Howard is making the weird science seamless in the dialogue. This is great.

| Published by IDW / Black Crown

Exiles #7 concludes the Old West-ish arc with cowboy T’Challa. Drop dead gorgeous artwork from guest artist Rod Reis. His depiction of the ultimate villain here shows some nice influence from Bill Sienkiewicz.

| Published by Marvel

Extermination #2 brings the fight to the school, even as the team (and the reader, although it’s not a bad thing) is still confused as to what is really going on. I love this, the tension that Ed Brisson, Pepe Larraz, and Marte Gracia are building is palpable, and the hints of kid!Cable’s actions are chilling. Also, the art is just phenomenal. 

| Published by Marvel

Harbinger Wars 2 #4 is kind of the end to this, but the ramifications and fallout are all supposed to appear in the Aftermath issue. That being said, Matt Kindt, Tomás Giorello, Renato Guedes, Diego Rodriguez, and Dave Sharpe go all out for the spectacle in this final confrontation between Livewire and X-O Manowar. It is still kind of insane how Capshaw could possibly consider what GATE and OMEN have done as being “good”, especially in light of Palmer going absolutely batshit insane, but it does lead to interesting set-up for future conflicts.

| Published by Valiant

Hillbilly: Red-Eyed Witchery From Beyond #1 begins the next adventure of the black-eyed tramp. I get a bit of a Beowulf vibe from Eric Powell’s set-up and I’m interested to see where it goes. This series sees Powell passing on the artistic duties to Simone Di Meo, Brennan Wagner, and Warren Montgomery and it’s an interesting visual shift from the washes of Powell’s own work in the original series. I quite like Di Meo’s style, which reminds me a bit of James Harren and Troy Nixey.

| Published by Albatross Funnybooks

House Amok #1 is something I’m not sure I can describe. It’s kind of a family drama, but if that family were all collectively sharing a hallucinatory experience or delusion. It’s a very interesting concept that’s only partially revealed by Christopher Sebela, Shawn McManus, Lee Loughridge, and Aditya Baker, but it leads to a very compelling start here. Gorgeous artwork from McManus and Loughridge.

| Published by IDW / Black Crown

Hunt for Wolverine: Dead Ends #1, like all four of the Hunt for Wolverine mini-series, is kind of a bit of treading water. I cannot say it or any of the previous series are bad, taken on their own separated from this “event”, they’re usually quite good, but as a whole it’s kind of disappointing. It’s a search for Wolverine that kind of comes up empty, acting as a prequel to the return of Wolverine, despite already having returned in Marvel Legacy and hopped across numerous different titles, before apparently being used for evil, as per throwaway bits in the fourth issues of those previously mentioned minis that didn’t necessarily connect with the plots of those minis. It feels a bit scattered and unnecessary, unfortunately, especially when it comes to comparing notes, coming up with the organization we already knew was behind it, and a bit of hand-waving mystery and grandstanding that still tells us a whole lot of nothing. It’s sound and fury. All of which is a bit of a shame because I otherwise generally enjoy the work of Charles Soule and Ramon Rosanas.

| Published by Marvel

Isola #5... Just look at the artwork. Karl Kerschl and Msassyk just keep delivering page after page after page of beauty.

| Published by Image

Jessica Jones #2 reaffirms that this is one of the best things that Marvel is currently publishing, with the next two chapters in this story. Kelly Thompson’s dialogue, narration, and banter throughout this issue is spot on, propulsive, and funny as hell when it needs to be, but what elevates it is that this isn’t your typical talking heads approach. The characters are doing stuff, like hunting sea monsters, instead of sitting at a desk or whatever. It’s a refreshing change that overall just makes this all the better. Not to mention Mattia De Iulis’ stunning artwork. It’s slick and polished with a line style that somewhat reminds me of Paul Gulacy and a bit of Rick Mays, and an approach to shadow and colour similar to Frazer Irving. This is a great series that really shouldn’t be missed.

| Published by Marvel

Judge Dredd: Under Siege #4 wraps up this entertaining series from Mark Russell, Max Dunbar, Jose Luis Rio, and Shawn Lee. I really like Dunbar’s take on Dredd and the Russell’s idea of people creating their own law in the absence of law is an interesting philosophical counterpoint to the idea of man naturally sliding towards a state of chaos. Even the mutants striving for society is an interesting challenge to the typical idea of things falling apart.

| Published by IDW

New Mutants: Dead Souls #6 concludes the series with Illyana putting the pieces together for what actually has been going on, it isn’t a pretty picture. This has been a great series from Matthew Rosenberg, Adam Gorham, Michael Garland, and Clayton Cowles and the revelations this issue are heavy. The implications for the X-universe is huge and I want more.

| Published by Marvel

The New World #2 essentially reveals itself as a romance comic, amidst the ultraviolence and social engineering. Didn’t really see that coming, but it’s an interesting move. Trippy art from Tradd Moore, Heather Moore, and Ludwig Olimba.

| Published by Image

Paradise Court #2 continues to be an entertaining horror comic from Joe Brusha, Babisu Kourtis, Leonardo Paciarotti, and Taylor Esposito. This gives us the part of the story where our protagonist is experiencing the horror and everyone else is telling her she’s just imagining it, but it’s still well told and well illustrated.

| Published by Zenescope

Rick and Morty vs. Dungeons & Dragons #1 is about as perfect a crossover of two properties as you can get. Morty trying to get into D&D because he thinks it will get him laid is the perfect in to the world of the game and the cartoon, perfectly blending the two for fans of both without alienating or diminishing either. Jim Zub, Patrick Rothfuss, Troy Little, Leonardo Ito, and Robbie Robbins are faithful to both and in doing so deliver a wonderful beginning to this story, that also educates along the way.

| Published by IDW & Oni Press

Runaways #12 is easily one of the best issues in what has already been an exemplary series. Rainbow Rowell, Kris Anka, Matthew Wilson, and Joe Carmagna focus here on forgiveness, acceptance, and second chances, with some truly beautiful character work between Gert & Victor and Nico & Karolina. If you don’t have a giant grin on your face by the end of the issue, I question your humanity.

| Published by Marvel

Submerged #2 is still weird, very weird, but there’s some really good bits in here demonstrating some of the emotional manipulation that family members sometimes employ. Beautiful, ethereal artwork from Lisa Sterle and Stelladia.

| Published by Vault

Venom: First Host #1 is somewhat strange to see in light of where Donny Cates and Ryan Stegman have taken the character, but this limited series from Mike Costa, Mark Bagley, Andrew Hennessy, Dono Sánchez-Almara, and Clayton Cowles serves as both an interesting addendum to the symbiote’s history and as a continuation (and likely capstone) to the previous creative team’s run. It’s pretty decent.

| Published by Marvel

Web of Venom: Ve’Nam #1 is a one shot fleshing out the backstory of Rex Strickland and the SHIELD experiment that bonded the early symbiotes to soldiers set loose during the Vietnam War. It’s an entertaining tale with some nice guest stars and sweet art by Donny Cates, Juanan Ramírez, Felipe Sobreiro, and Clayton Cowles. I particularly like the scratchy, faded look in the art to make it look a bit “old”.

| Published by Marvel

X-23 #3 is great. Mariko Tamaki has nailed the characters and the art from Juann Cabal and Nolan Woodard is incredible. The page designs alone elevate the storytelling immensely.

| Published by Marvel

The X-Files: Case Files - Hoot Goes There? #2 concludes the second of this new approach of a series of mini-series and it’s...weird? Funny, but weird. Definitely taking a page out of some of the more outlandish episodes of the series, where you question whether or not what you saw happened actually happened. Still, it’s entertaining, which is all that really matters. Fun from Joe and Keith Lansdale, Silvia Califano, Valentina Pinto, and Shawn Lee.

| Published by IDW

X-Men Blue #34 looks like it largely serves as a capstone to Cullen Bunn’s work with Magneto over the past four years or so, as he winds down his run here and continues to tidy the characters up a bit before he’s done and hands the reins off to the next band of storytellers. It feels like there’s a lot more here that he would have like to have told, but what we get here is still excellent. The hints at the next stage for Magneto and mutantkind are intriguing. Great art from Marcus To and Matt Milla. 

| Published by Marvel

X-O Manowar #18 gives an interesting transition from this flashback of Aric’s pre-Shanhara life to his return to Earth, focusing on how ideas, people, and culture keeps changing. Matt Kindt delivers a pretty chilling reaction to it. All with some nice artwork from Trevor Hairsine, Brian Thies, and Diego Rodriguez. 

| Published by Valiant

Other Highlights: Deadpool: Assassin #6, GI Joe: A Real American Hero #255, KINO #9, Marvel Two-in-One #9, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Shattered Grid #1, Modern Fantasy #3, Moon Knight #198, Ms. Marvel #33, Red Sonja #20, Rick & Morty #41, StarCraft: Scavengers #2, Star Wars: Lando - Double or Nothing #4, Star Wars: Poe Dameron Annual #2, Star Wars Adventures #13, TMNT: Bebop & Rocksteady Hit the Road #5, Wayward #28, X-Men: Grand Design - Second Genesis #2

Recommended Collections: 2021 - Volume 1, 30 Days of Night, Big Trouble in Little China: Old Man Jack - Volume 1, Black Cloud - Volume 2: No Return, DuckTales Classics - Volume 1, Eugenic, Factory, Femme Magnifique, I Hate Fairyland - Volume 4, James Bond: Hammerhead, Judas, Killer Instinct, Stray Bullets: Sunshine & Roses - Volume 2

d. emerson eddy is not the very model of a modern major general. Nor a scientist salarian for that matter.

[purplesurveys]

1354

Covid

How is Covid where you live? Going kinda crazy again, to say the least. We’re getting an average of 30,000++ cases a day and at this point everyone and their moms are getting Covid, so it’s no longer something that makes people flee in a panic if they find themselves near a Covid-positive person. We do have tighter restrictions in place until the end of January - curfew hours, back to 50% capacity for dine-in, etc. At least I was already able to see family and friends last month so the complete repeat of things isn’t something that would make me go insane.

Are you having a food shortage crisis due to drivers having covid and unable to work? I’m not sure what drivers (and in what sense?) have to do with Covid but no, we’re not experiencing food shortage. The situation isn’t as bad as it was in 2020 and that’s the biggest thing I’m grateful for.

Are you using check in QR codes or filling in manual check ins everywhere you go? We used QR codes for a time until we shifted to simply presenting our vaccination cards when the situation started getting better; but given the surge I wouldn’t be surprised if we’ll have to start presenting QR codes again.

Are you washing your hands/using sanitizer when you can? Yep, I usually have a tiny bottle of alcohol with me.

What is one thing about covid that is driving you insane? This is a me problem more than anything else as I have a low threshold for pain, but it’s why the methods to address it have to be so uncomfortable. I’m definitely NOT against vaccines and not against testing, but I hate the actual concept of injections and sticking things up to my fucking brain. I’m scheduled to have my booster today and have been cranky the moment I woke up; I’ve felt too anxious since last night that I ended up sleeping early :/

Are you sick of everyone talking about covid? Nah, I’ve since accepted it’s a part of daily life now and wouldn’t go away from conversations for a while.

Do you find you clash with anyone when discussing covid? If it turns into a conversation of politics, yes.

What are your thoughts on the vaccinations and boosters? I support them wholeheartedly. I just hate needles and getting injected.

What has covid taken from you or prevented? It took a whole-ass car away from my family; which still upsets me because I really loved that car and loved driving it, too. I lost a long-term relationship but I don’t think Covid had anything to do with that. Other than that...I’d say I’ve lost a chunk of my 20s, pretty much.

Do you know anyone that has covid? how are they doing? Like 80% of the people I know had Covid last week but I think they’re doing better now; this week I only heard of a handful testing positive. Anyway, everyone only had mild flu-like symptoms or was asymptomatic altogether; no one had to be admitted to the hospital or struggled with their oxygen level, which was a FAR cry from how it used to be.

Life

How is life for you right now? It’s great and I couldn’t ask for anything more. I do get bouts of anxiety here and there with regard to my ridiculously early promotion, but everyone has been really encouraging and helpful.

Are you Okay? Sure am.

What is impacting your life the most right now? Continued from last night. Probably just my work and how the new set of responsibilites has been something to adust to.

What is something positive that has happened to you recently? I earn way more now, so I’ve been feeling good about that.

Any goals for 2022? Live up to expectations.

Did you make any new year resolutions? Nah, I don’t make those.

Seeing many friends through the pandemic? I did before the surge. I was able to see Angela and Hans a bunch of times; then Reena, Andi, and Lui too here and there. 

Are you studying? Not anymore. Sometimes I can’t help but feel pressured as it seems like a lot of my friends are taking up master’s, law school, med school, etc so I have to remind myself every now and then that we have our own priorities and that I’m actually in a really good place now.

Are you working? Yep, I’m on this side of the spectrum.

Any new hobbies? I wouldn’t say I’ve picked up any, no.

Friends

Who is your best friend? I’ll go with Angela for this one as I’m closer to her in so many more ways.

How long have you been friends? It will be 17 years this year.

What is something about them that makes you smile? Her smile lights up a room, so when she smiles I do too.

Have they ever supported you through something major? Yes. I’m still wondering how she lasted with me throughout my post-breakup era; she listened when I cried my soul out and left me alone when I wanted to be, and she was also there when I was starting to find myself again.

Tell me a memory of you both together? I have a very vague memory of her introducing me to BuzzFeed Unsolved, back when it only had one or two episodes and no one had any idea just how big it was going to end up being. To this day I still think of her whenever I go back to rewatch the series.

Ever travelled together? In very limited ways, hahaha. We’ve been to Baguio together (though this was for school), and to Nasugbu. I’m waiting for the day we can travel to a different country altogether.

Do you share similar interests? Other than BTS, not really.

One band or artist you both enjoy? BTS. She was the one who got me hooked to begin with; she also helped me get settled in the fanbase once I finally started getting interested.

One hobby you both enjoy? We both collect photocards, but she’s a couple of steps ahead as she started way earlier than I did.

What is something you disagree on? Religious beliefs as she prays, but it’s kept to that. She knows the issues within Christianity and disagrees with them as well, and generally we never clash when it comes to this.

Name a movie you both love. I’m not sure, actually. Film isn’t a common interest between us.

Name a television show you both enjoy? We liked Start-Up when it first came out and were rooting for the same character, too.

Any nicknames for each other? She’s one of two friends allowed to call me Robina, and I’m pretty sure I’m the only person who calls her Anj. I will admit it was my ex who first came up with the nickname, but I’ve since claimed it lol.

Partner

Do you have a partner?

Where Did You Meet?

Who made the first move?

Have you or have they said 'I Love You'

Do you get bored in a long term relationship? I suppose this is the only question I can answer, so I will. Anyway, no, I don’t. I prefer long-term relationships to...anything else, essentially.

Much drama in your relationship?

Are they loyal and loving?

Name 3 things you have in common

Random

Where are you from? Philippines.

If you could travel ANYWHERE right now, money wasn't a barrier, where would you go and why? Iceland.

[your-dietician]

A New Era Dawns In College Sports, As The NCAA Scrambles To Keep Up : NPR

New Post has been published on https://tattlepress.com/ncaa-football/a-new-era-dawns-in-college-sports-as-the-ncaa-scrambles-to-keep-up-npr/

A New Era Dawns In College Sports, As The NCAA Scrambles To Keep Up : NPR

The March Madness logo on the court during the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis. Soon, some college athletes can get money when using their name, image or likeness.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

The March Madness logo on the court during the Sweet Sixteen round of the 2021 NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament in Indianapolis. Soon, some college athletes can get money when using their name, image or likeness.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

A new era in college sports begins this week.

Following Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order allowing college athletes to be compensated for the use of their name, image and likeness — known by its abbreviation “NIL” — at least seven states will put into effect NIL laws, on Thursday. The laws allow athletes to make money for things like endorsement deals, signing autographs and social media content.

That’s been prohibited under NCAA rules, but now, the organization is in the process of reforming those rules. Especially after the recent Supreme Court decision weakened the NCAA’s long held, but increasingly outdated, notion of amateurism in college sports.

States take the lead

In 2019, California struck the first blow against the NCAA, in a very California way — a bill signing by Gov. Gavin Newsom on the set of Lebron James’ HBO show, The Shop.

The state’s Fair Pay to Play Act, the first NIL bill, reflected the growing discontent about the NCAA’s shaky ideal of amateurism, with so-called amateur athletes in the major sports generating vast revenues and not sharing in them.

For the NCAA, California signaled the start of a problem. A state-by-state patchwork of NIL laws would create recruiting advantages — athletes choosing schools in states allowing NIL payments — and thus create competitive imbalance.

Although critics say that imbalance has long existed in big time college sports.

But the NCAA failed to come up with a one-size-fits all plan. A vote set for January of this year was indefinitely delayed.

Now, the NCAA finally appears ready to act, but only after the states did.

“It’s the NCAA’s fault for not taking action,” said New Mexico State Sen. Mark Moores. The former college football player was the primary sponsor of his state’s NIL law, one of those going into effect Thursday, July 1.

“States are sovereign powers,” Moores said, “and when we see a situation that’s unfair and needs to be addressed, we’re going to use our ability to pass laws to address those issues.”

A payoff for hard work

With NIL, schools don’t pay athletes, third parties do. And New Mexico’s law is one of the least restrictive when it comes to compensation.

“The gold standard,” said longtime college athlete advocate Ramogi Huma.

Among other provisions, the statute lets athletes have their own shoe deals and allows third parties to pay for an athlete’s food, shelter and medical expenses.

New Mexico State sophomore basketball player Molly Kaiser says it’s amazing athletes will finally benefit from their name, and appropriate, she says, since they work hard to get their name out there.

“I’m honored to be a part of the start of that,” Kaiser said. “I think it’s going to be pretty cool, and now I can continue to make YouTube videos and actually profit off of it.”

18-year-old Kaiser says she was raised by a single mom and can envision sending NIL money back home.

“I think it’s all about trying to feed your family and making a way for them,” she said, “and not necessarily about us. At least for me.”

If University of Michigan basketball player Naz Hillmon decides to use the extra year of eligibility offered by the NCAA because of the pandemic, she’ll be able to take advantage of Michigan’s NIL law — it’s slated to go into effect in December of next year.

If she does, Hillmon has ideas.

Naz Hillmon #00 of the Michigan Wolverines is among the college athletes speaking out about new laws allowing them to cash in while playing in college.

Elsa/Getty Images

hide caption

toggle caption

Elsa/Getty Images

Naz Hillmon #00 of the Michigan Wolverines is among the college athletes speaking out about new laws allowing them to cash in while playing in college.

Elsa/Getty Images

“I would love to do some [basketball] camps,” she said, “whether they be in Ann Arbor or [her hometown] Cleveland. Just to be around in some way, give back to the community and kind of show my face and be appreciative of those who have helped me along the way.”

Hillmon also would like the chance to openly promote friends and family members.

“Some of them have businesses,” she said, “and [under current NCAA rules] I’m technically not allowed to promote them and say ‘go visit them.’ I have to word it in a certain way on my social media.”

In Los Angeles, USC quarterback Mo Hasan is hopeful. The lawmakers behind California’s Fair Pay to Play Act want to move up the law’s start date from 2023 to this September. Hasan, a podcast host, would still be in school and already he’s thinking in terms of NIL.

“I just got off the phone with a podcast network,” Hasan said last week. “They presented the opportunity to sign with them and partner with them in order to continue growing the podcast, and, generating revenue through advertisements.”

The money would “go to me,” he said, adding, “it would be historic because it’s never been done before on a student athlete level. So it’s really exciting to be on the frontier of this.”

Hasan confirms the NCAA’s fear that a patchwork of state NIL laws would affect recruiting.

“I think it’s a competitive advantage for sure,” he said. “If, you know, the state of Florida or the state of Texas (both have laws going into effect July 1) can offer these resources that the state of California can’t, that’s really hard to recruit against. You know, if I’m a top quarterback and I can make over one hundred thousand dollars at the University of Florida and I can’t make that at the University of Arizona, then that’s an easy decision in a lot of cases.”

Plenty of value in athletes

So what can athletes make in the NIL era?

A study in SSRN, the Social Science Research Network, on college athlete’s NIL value, found “the NCAA’S claimed position that student-athletes lack meaningful NIL value is false.”

Studying the potential for monetizing social media accounts, the easiest way to turn NIL rights into dollars, researchers estimated Trevor Lawrence’s Instagram account had a value of more than $330,000. Lawrence was the star quarterback at Clemson and top pick in this year’s NFL draft.

While football and men’s basketball players get much of the publicity in those two major revenue-generating sports, women are not left out of the equation. And in fact, potentially they could eclipse their male counterparts in NIL earnings.

Basing, again, on social media popularity, Axios noted that 8 of the top 10 most followed athletes in the Elite 8 rounds of this year’s men’s and women’s NCAA Division 1 basketball tournaments….were female players.

According to The Washington Post, other research found star athletes in women’s sports and Olympians now competing in college, could make up to half a million dollars a year in endorsements.

That’s big money of course. The majority of athletes, many in so-called non-revenue sports, doing camps and lessons, making occasional personal appearances, or working their social media, there’ll be more modest sums for sure.

You get what you put in

“The reality is, [making money off NIL opportunities] is just like anything else,” said Jim Cavale, CEO of the content-providing software platform INFLCR (pronounced “influencer”). “What you put in is what you get out. Any student-athlete who thinks this is just going be an automatic windfall of revenue, is insane.”

“You’re going to have to work at it. Some athletes will have to do less work than others, just like playing time. Some athletes are so gifted they can get on the field very easily and play and score and do well. Other athletes have to work a little harder. But everyone is going to have to put in some work.”

Cavale started his company in 2017, and is now using the last four years of connections and business to give INFLCR a leg up on the dozens of companies that’ve sprung up to take advantage of the NIL wave. Cavale says more than 100,000 athletes nationwide have the INFLCR app, which helps them manage their name, image and likeness opportunities.

Managing that business, doing the work to create their own brands, that’s a valuable lesson for any athlete, he says. From the star quarterback to the softball shortstop to the setter on the volleyball team.

“Even though they [may not make] a ton of money off NIL,” Cavale said, “it’s going to help them make the most of the network and surroundings they have while they’re playing. So they can start to make those connections and build the foundation for the rest of their lives. A lot of athletes, unfortunately, experience the side of the ball being deflated. The game’s over and nobody cares anymore. They don’t care they used to play. They don’t care you were this position on this team. You’re now an adult trying to make it in a very tough world. [So], get a head start.”

The NCAA plays catch up

The question remains, who will have the opportunities?

College athletes in at least seven states will as of July 1st. And it now appears all athletes will be included.

The NCAA’s quick game of catch up has the organization finally positioned to offer NIL rights nationwide.

Meetings last week led to the draft of an interim plan that, if approved, would take effect July 1.

Under the plan, athletes in the states with laws going into effect will follow those laws; in states without laws, schools can create their own NIL policies.

There still are prohibitions included in the NCAA’s plan, including NIL compensation can’t be tied to an athlete’s performance — not allowing, for instance, more NIL money for more points scored. The organization is trying to hold the line against pay for play, a bedrock of the amateurism model the NCAA has preached throughout its history.

But the model has been harder to defend as the money has boomed in big time college sports.

Indeed, last week the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stinging and unanimous ruling that the NCAA can’t limit athletes benefits that are linked to education. It was a narrow ruling but one that eviscerated the NCAA’s claim that it should be exempt from the nation’s antitrust laws because the athletes are amateurs.

The decision is expected to lead to future challenges to NCAA rules. Patrick Bradford, a veteran anti-trust lawyer based in New York City, was part of a group that filed an amicus brief supporting the athletes in the Supreme Court case. Particularly the African American athletes who comprise the majority of athletes in revenue-generating football and men’s basketball.

Bradford predicts the Supreme Court ruling has a lasting impact.

“I think it’s just a matter of time,” he said, “before the NCAA will have to divorce itself from regulating the economics of student athletes.”

For now, with its temporary NIL plan, the NCAA, which did not respond to a request for comment, is stepping back by allowing schools to create their own policies. But the association also says schools and athletes should adhere to the plan’s guidance “until such time that either federal legislation or NCAA rules are adopted.”

The NCAA Division 1 Board of Directors reportedly will meet Wednesday to make a final decision on the interim plan. If, as expected, the board approves it, the NIL policy would go into effect the next day.

Making the NCAA a partner, albeit belated, in a new era.

Source link