#as well as getting tortured by soviets

[cookies-and-doom]

Being a demobat chew-toy really ups your pain tolerance

Eddie’s live-streaming his journey home from picking up guitar strings. He’s going on and on about the new guitar he bought and how he thinks it’ll sound once it’s properly stringed. He passes Steve in the living room on his way to the studio and then stops.

Steve’s on the couch. He’s got Ozzy next to him, a bowl of popcorn, and an ice pack on his ankle. Eddie asks, “Babe?”

Steve, casual as can be, “Huh?”

“Anything interesting happen today?”

“Not really.”

Eddie, looking into the camera like he’s on the office, “What happened to your foot?”

“Oh! Yeah, right. I twisted my ankle,” Steve said. “I’m icing it. It’s fine.”

Eddie says okay and then a couple hours later posts a Tiktok where the overlaid text says HE BROKE IT.

In the background you can hear Steve say that it was fine. He was able to walk on it and Lucas, their ever so patient ER doctor, is like, “Yeah, you shouldn’t have been doing that.”

[komsomolka]

Fritz Schmenkel was the only German national who became a Hero of the Soviet Union for his actions during WWII.

Fritz Schmenkel was born in Stettin (today Szczecin, Poland) in 1916. His father, Paul Krause, a brickyard worker and communist, was murdered by Stormtroopers in 1932. This caused Fritz to join the Young Communist League of Germany to fight his father's Nazi murderers.

In December 1938, he was drafted into the Wehrmacht but refused to serve citing illness and other excuses. He was imprisoned for evading conscription. In July 1941, after the beginning of Nazi Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union, Schmenkel volunteered to fight on the Eastern Front so he was released. His true intention was always deserting which he did in November 1941. But he couldn't hide in Belarusian forests forever so there was a dilemma. How not to get killed on spot by comrades because of his German uniform and communicate without knowing Russian language? The shivering and hungry Shmenkel knocked on the doors of local village residents, using a simple set of words: "Lenin, Stalin, Thälmann" - and the doors opened. In exchange for help in a simple peasant household, Fritz received food, a place to sleep, and moved on.

One day Shmenkel came across a patrol of German military police and was arrested. Fortunately for the deserter, fighters from the partisan detachment "Death to Fascism" descended on Germans some time later. After a short but stubborn battle, the garrison was routed, and the partisans learned from local residents about the strange German. Not having time for serious investigation, the fighters simply took him with them. That's how Shmenkel ended up in the partisan detachment.

Of course, at first Soviets were very wary of Fritz, they feared that he was a Nazi spy. But they still decided not to act rashly and give him a chance. And soon such an opportunity presented itself. In one of the villages, the partisans came across German detachment. A fight ensued. Shmenkel did not take part in it - he had no weapon. Since there were too many Germans, the fate of the partisans seemed to be predetermined. Fritz asked for a rifle. Realizing that they have nothing to lose and an extra fighter was now worth its weight in gold, the unit commander took a risk. And he was right. Shmenkel started successfully shooting at Germans. The partisans won that battle. Fritz was then accepted as a member of the partisans. He quickly gained the respect and affection of his unit, his comrades started nicknaming him Ivan Ivanovich jokingly adding "Why call a good person Fritz?".

Schmenkel led German military units into ambushes arranged by the partisans. This helped the partisans capture entire units of Wehrmacht soldiers, as well as ammunition and food. Schmenkel quickly rose through the ranks of the partisans. In March 1943, he traveled to Moscow at the behest of the Red Army, was awarded the Order of the Red Banner, and received further military training. He was appointed deputy commander of a special operations (sabotage and intelligence) unit that operated in a German-occupied area north of the city of Orsha.

Germans put a reward on Schmenkel's head - 8 hectares of land, a house, a cow, and two thousand German marks. Later, the reward was raised to an astronomical sum for those times - 25 thousand marks.

At the end of 1943, contact with Fritz Schmenkel was lost. Only after the war did it become known that he had been captured and tortured by the Gestapo, but Fritz had not changed his views. He was sentenced to death and executed in occupied Minsk in February 1944.

His last wish was to send a letter to his wife Erna Schäfer. He wrote: "Forgive me for the troubles I have caused you by going my way to the end. I did not renounce my views even in the last hours of my life. I am boldly going to my execution because I am dying for my convictions." He left behind three children in Germany.

By the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 6 October 1964, Fritz Schmenkel was posthumously awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union "for active participation in the partisan movement, exemplary fulfillment of command assignments during the Great Patriotic War and the heroism and courage displayed in doing so."

The memory of Fritz Schmenkel is immortalized in the names of streets in the cities of Nelidovo and Bely in the Tver region. And in Minsk, a memorial plaque is dedicated to him. One of the streets in East Berlin also bore the name of Shmenkel. However, it was renamed in 1992.

[kelluinox]

Oh are people mad at JKR again and calling out her antisemitism? That's funny. No, it is! It's funny when people suddenly care about antisemitism after these 5 months we've had. It's funny when people who threw a grand ol party on October 7th suddenly care about being antisemitic. It's funny when the people who called the kidnapping and rape and largest massacre of Jewish people since the Holocaust justified resistance... suddenly care about the Holocaust. It's funny to hear their "very angry very loud very righteous outrage against antisemitism" when they have:

1) said and done nothing about the hostages being held by Hamas, among which there is a baby and a 4 yo and women being subjected to sexual torture

2) done nothing to pressure the embarrassment called the Red Cross to pass vital medicine to the hostages and actually do its job

3) have gone full Holocaust denial with their denial of the 7th... despite eagerly sharing videos of Shani Louk and Naama Levy and Noa Argamani and the Nova Festival massacre as it was happening, asking Hamas to film their slaughter horizontally and calling victims "hipsters" as the massacre was actually happening

4) called for the murder and expulsion of half the world's jews from the Levant, labeling them all colonizers despite us being indigenous... which is ironic because they certainly don't seem eager to move their own ass and go back to wherever they came from (looking at you Americans, Canadians, Australians - shut the fuck up you hypocritical bitches)

5) attacked, and harassed, and bullied, and even murdered jews all over the world since the 7th. Jewish students were told to hide in the attic from an angry mob, have been unable to walk to class without verbal or physical attacks, have been unable to mourn the biggest massacre of jews since the Holocaust, have had posters of the kidnapped jews that they put up torn down, have had all their attempts at talks about antisemitism and peace derailed and have even been unable to wear their magen david without harassment. Jewish business have been targeted and defaced. And Paul Kessler and Samantha Woll were murdered. Murdered!

6) refused to listen to jews about antisemitism and have eagerly repeated antisemitic conspiracy theories as old as the middle ages like the gullible bigoted little idiots that they are: Jews control the media by distracting Americans from Gaza by using Spotify Wrapped, the Superbowl, and making a Stop Jewish Hate ad (wow do I 'love' it when Americans make fun of their own intelligence by admitting that they're so easily distracted). Jews poison wells - they poison Palestinian land. Jews steal Christian kids and drink their blood - Jews kidnap blond Palestinian children and steal organs from Palestinian corpses. Jews love killing and are bloodthirsty monsters - Jews intentionally target civilians, have killed 0 terrorists whatsoever, and are rubbing their hands in glee watching mass starvation unfold. Oh, and they also do all this on Ramadan because they're evil like that. Beyond that we also have had: Jewish doctors are not to be trusted - straight out Stalin's doctor's plot. And Zionists are racists - straight out of Imperial Russia's Protocols of the Elders of Zion. Wow, congrats on quoting Imperial Russia and the leader of the Soviet Union, fuckers. Though frankly you don't seem embarrassed about that considering your genocidal intifada posters display the hammer and sickle, do you?

7) have ignored literally everything Hamas has done. From the rape and brutal murders and kidnapping (videos of which they published themselves!). To the tunnels. To the theft of aid. To the execution of civilians following humanitarian corridors to safe zones. To using hospitals to hide weaponry, terrorists and hostages. To forcefully keeping civilians in said hospitals even as they try to evacuate, using them as human shields. To shooting at civilians who try to get some aid before it's stolen. To sending 4 yo children to Israeli soldier camps to assess their preparedness. To keeping weapons beneath a child's bed. To enlisting child soldiers. To programming children with Mein Kampf. To launching rockets from next to kindergartens and across the street from a building belonging to the joke we call the UN. To breaking the November ceasefire 15 minutes in because even an hour without killing jews was too difficult for them to accomplish. To separating families despite the hostage deal being that families will not be separated. To branding the Jewish boys they took hostage (sound familiar to you yet?). To forcing child hostages to watch their October 7 videos and threatening to shoot them if they cry. To raping female hostages. To depriving elderly and chronically ill hostages of life saving medicine. To forcibly converting female hostages. To not releasing the Bibas family despite the deal being that all children be returned. To executing hostages and then lying they died in air strikes despite the cause of death being a bullet. To creating sick games where they publish photos of hostages and dare psychopaths on the internet to guess which are dead and which alive. The list goes on and on and on and you lot stick your fingers in your ears every single time and go "lalala not listening".

8) Have supported the Houthis who literally have "a curse upon the jews" in their slogan

9) Have supported Bin Laden

10) Have supported Iran by supporting its proxy - Hamas.

11) Have shamed Ukrainians for trying to remind them that Russia is still attacking them, and told them that they should support Palestine when... Hamas and the Houthis have literally visited Moscow and Iran are Russia's allies. Good job, guys. Good job.

12) Have done everything to exaggerate what's happening, twist the facts and demonize Israel, all the while portraying it as "criticism". A war is suddenly not bad enough on its own - it has to be a genocide to get people to care. Displacement caused by a war is not bad enough - it has to be ethnic cleansing. Israel is suddenly a fascist Nazi state... despite being democratic and Jewish (where have all the people who laughed at Putin for calling Zelensky a nazi despite Zelensky being a jew gone? I wonder). The war in Gaza has to be the worst conflict on Earth, despite there being ongoing genocides in Sudan and China and the goddamn invasion of Ukraine.

And before any of you antisemitic goyim start furiously typing that it is a genocide and I'm a genocide apologist, please do keep in mind that jews know more about genocide than you ever will. And being a Russian jew I will know more about fascism than you ever will. So do us all a favor, shut up and listen to people more educated on the matter than you.

13) Have tried to define Zionism and Judaism and Jewish history to jews. Thanks for the goysplaining, I guess

14) Have mocked released hostages and their testimonies. Falsely claimed that they were not mistreated and actually written fanfics of them falling in love with the terrorists who murdered their families and kidnapped them

15) Have defaced the statue of Amy Winehouse

16) Have made lists of jews. Oh, sorry, "zionists"

17) Have devolved into race science

And to conclude my post, here are just a few photos of the shit goyim have done since october:

[orange-coloredsky-archive]

The two most popular reads of the synth plight in Fallout 4 are that of the race allegory and the Red Scare/McCarthyist allegory. In the former example, synths get racialized in a similar way to Black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th century, but just barely. The Underground Railroad is quite literally remade, synths are subjected to slavery at the hands of their human creators and punished harshly for escape attempts. Others have likened synths to fears of immigrants or asylum-seekers from nonwhite majority populations. Synths in these imaginings of Fallout 4 are painted as needing to be saved at the same time as they are vilified and dehumanized – sometimes by the same character over the course of the story. This duality could be a great opportunity for a dive into how white saviorism tends to play out, but in reality it ends up being a messy, deeply uncritical exploration of the impact of race and racism in society. The factions doing the racialization and/or saviorism’s motives are never questioned, and there is a very clear depiction of “good vs. evil” being the end-all-be-all of anti-racism work (again, with no critical thought as to how the “good” side is made almost completely of non-racialized people making decisions on behalf of a marginalized group). Worse yet, it’s contrived. The android-racism analogy has been a thorn in the side of the science fiction genre ever since Isaac Asimov wrote the 3 Laws of Robotics. There’s very few iterations on the idea that have come from popular (white, Eurocentric) media that aren’t riddled with the same aftertaste of white guilt and fundamental misunderstandings of how racism plays out in day-to-day life.

The less common, slightly more agreeable interpretation is that of the Red Scare – which, given Fallout’s inspirations and the setting’s original critique of reliving America’s “good old days”, makes perfect sense. In this example, synths take the role of the Soviet spy: watching over everything Americans are doing and reporting back to a secret base that is plotting to overthrow the world as we know it. Psychological screenings as well as inhumane tortures are utilized to pick synth “spies” out from the good, red-blooded residents of the Commonwealth. A neighborhood is founded entirely around the protection of the “old ways of life”, complete with a white picket fence comically decorated with automatic machine gun turrets. While this is a more charitable analogy that’s grounded in a slightly-deeper-than-surface-level exploration of American history, the Red Scare interpretation is victim to the same pitfalls that plague the racism interpretation. Midway through the game, the player discovers that there actually is a secret base of evil villains hiding underneath our feet, plotting to annihilate our beautiful Commonwealth lives. People do get taken and replaced by synths, they are in our governments, there is an actual reason for synths to be feared. Sure, some synths are perfectly fine people with no wish to be made tools of the Institute’s tyranny, but that is greatly overshadowed by the fact that the Institute’s stated goal is to use synths to gain control over the Commonwealth. There is no real critique of McCarthyism, there is no ideology to be challenged, because the Communists are here and killing your loved ones in their sleep.

[pettytiredandjewish]

antizionism is not antisemetism and you are delusional for believing so. the victim complex is strong

Well….it seems that you really don’t know the history of the term anti Zionism. Let me help you out a bit. The term anti Zionism was created by the Russians during the Soviet Union. The Russians hated jews. During that time period they wanted to find a way to destroy jews and their culture. That’s where anti Zionism comes in.

If you haven’t read Dara Horn’s people loves dead jews, she does an amazing job with going into detail about what happened- I’m gonna summarize it (I may not do it justice)…

During the 1920’s and 30’s the USSR was “supporting” Yiddish culture- they would pay for Yiddish language schools, theaters, publishing houses, etc. A lot of Russian jews were thriving in Russia during this time period due to the USSR “support”. But the Soviets wasn’t doing all of this to be kind and good. This was part of a larger plan to brainwash the jews so that they would submit to the Soviet regime. It came with a price.

The Soviets would eliminate anything in the celebrated jewish “nationality” that didn’t suit soviet needs. If you DIDNT practice your religion, study traditional Jew texts, Spoke Hebrew, or support Zionism- you were awesome. The soviets pioneered a well known slogan- which has spread all over the world and which it remains popular today: “it was not antisemitic, merely anti- Zionist”. The Soviets managed to persecute, imprison, torture, and murder thousands of Jews….

The only reason that the Soviets allowed Yiddish was so that they could continue their Jew hating game. Soviet Yiddish schools changed the language to get rid of biblical and rabbinic Hebrew. Why? Because Hebrew was and is still part of Jewish culture. The Soviets also forced Russian “anti-Zionism” Jews (who was brainwashed into hating their own Jewishness) to write stories and plays that would show how “horrible” traditional Jewish practice was. They would create these happy heroes who would reject both religion and Zionism.

This continued until the Soviets moved on to the next phase- purging Russian jews. If you were caught in a synagogue, a Jewish centered club, etc. you would be imprisoned, murdered, or exiled. This went on until the Soviets started to do the same thing to the anti Zionist jews.

Y’all this is why anti Zionism is antisemitic. Please know a terms history before you start spitting it out- thinking you know what it means. Anti Zionism is literally rooted into antisemitism. And the reason why a lot of countries and people use this term is because- (drum roll please)- they hate jews. This is why I keep telling y’all to please read up on history. Don’t get your info from social media or random websites. Just pick up a book, journals, or sourced papers and read them. It’s not that hard…

[blingblong55]

Perception- 141 x M!Reader

Based on a request

M!Reader, angst, mentions of blood,

The Gulag was the government agency in charge of the Soviet network of forced labour camps 

You are a well known member of Task Force 141. Although on field you are known for being the violent and viscous way you fight enemy soldiers, many on base don't really mind calling you names. In a way, you have become the freak of base. Ghost himself fears you at times, mainly because he has see you kill men with your bare hands and act as if it was nothing. He has seen the blood of the enemy dripping from your body and how you act as if it was normal. The team has so much respect for you though, they understand you are there for the mission, that you'd kill if it means to reach the goal.

Nothing really stands in your way when it comes to combat. But before you had become the man you are known as today, you were normal. A man of honour, never wanting to hurt anybody, no matter the circumstances.

----

What changed you, was 12 years ago, you were 2 years into your service when in a mission you were captured. Although the Soviet Union had fallen, Russia still held prisoners in infamous Gulag. You and a few of the other men who were also captured were tortured. Day and night was a living hell. The conditions were always horrible, men dying ever other hour due top weather and physical strength.

One night, you and three other men tried to escape, but because of a guard dog, you all failed. You fought back though, kicking, scratching and punching the guards. When one of the men saw you fight, he knew where they'd send you to next.

"глупый гребаный ч��ловек, думает, что может убежать от нас." a soldier spoke, some laughed as the other beat you senseless. They had broken your old self to the point that you just didn't care how you survived. For three hours straight every soldier that wanted to, would go and kick you, punch or even throw rocks at you.

Sometimes at night when you feel your most vulnerable, you feel for the cigar burns they left around your body. At times, you look in the mirror when you are shirtless, the deep scars that were scattered all over your body. Each touch took you back to the three years you were held in.

The winters were unbearable, at times, some of the men that would sustain injuries would die or have body parts be amputated. Others also died from hyperthermia, and somehow you survived the easy deaths.

On the night they sent you to a new part of the camp, they made sure to tattoo a symbol on your chest. A large skull a sword that pierced the top of it. All the prisoners were in cages, it ranged from the smallest of men to the biggest of all. You were well in your early 20's, so your shape was not so bad, even after all the days you spent without eating.

Once they clothed you properly, they threw you and a few other men into the fighting area/stage. Rich people watched from the stands as you all looked at them, you were all new. No one knew what the hell you were thrown in for.

Until you spotted the tools for fighting. And eerie sound came from speakers, the crowd clapped and cheered as soon as the prisoners started to fight each other. You, with some luck held a small dagger, a man much smaller than you sprinted to you, a sword on his hand.

If this was the way of getting out might as well fucking fight, you thought. You quickly dodged the man and soon stood behind him, you slashed his throat and took the sword from him. For hours on end, the smallest and even biggest of men fell to their demise. Blood was soaking the floor beneath you. Only 10 men survived from 50. You being lucky number 3.

And for many nights the routine was the same. Get beaten to sleep, trapped into a cage and wake up early, eat little to nothing and by sundown fight for your life.

In your time of fighting, you learned a few tricks, go for both weak and big. You did things you aren't proud to ever admit. You killed more men than any of the task force ever dared to do.

One night as you slept another prisoner escaped his cage, you woke up to being held by a knife at your throat.

"ты убил моего гребаного брата" the man spoke. (Translation: you killed my fucking brother)

"этот слабый ублюдок на это наткнулся" you answered coldly. (Translation: this weak bastard stumbled upon it)

"Я убью тебя" (Translation: I'll kill you)

"Нет, если я убью тебя первым" and thats when you grabbed the knife from him, stabbing him in the eye and then his throat. Before the guards came, you threw the night far from your cage and pretended to sleep. (Translation: Not if I kill you first)

----

You still have nightmares about it, but they aren't ever too bad. This mission that you were on though was a hard one. You and the rest of your team were captured. Price took the situation under control, trying to make negotiations with the enemy. In your years since being freed from the gulag, you hadn't spoke Russian or even heard it until tonight.

"Говорю тебе, сегодня вечером мы договоримся об этом, а завтра они проснутся мертвыми." the soldier said from the other room. (Translation: I'm telling you, we'll settle this tonight, and tomorrow they'll wake up dead.)

Your blood ran cold. Your breathing started to get out of control, you looked around the room, none of the other men knew what they had said. Gaz was the one who noticed your shift in behaviour, "Mate, whats wrong?" he whispered which caused all the other to look at you.

"I won't die, not by fucking Russians." your hands slowly shaking, you tried to steady your breathing, and thats when you realised you were back in a cage. You knew you were trapped, but it was as if you were young again, fighting every night for a spot to live.

"What does that mean?" Soap asked.

"Nothin'" you answered. You have to escape, you can't live like that anymore. You looked around the room and saw a poster, the same kind that was at every fight. You started to feel dizzy, and thats when Ghost noticed it, you were having a panic attack.

"Price, we have to get him out, now."

One look at Price understood why, Ghost shifted closer to you, he positioned himself in a way that would help him rub your back.

"s'alright mate, I won't let that shit happen twice." Ghost knew about what happened to you years ago, he accidentally found the files Laswell and you worked hard to bury. But not once did he push to know more, at times when you felt comfortable, you would open up, and he'd listen to the stories of those days.

But you couldn't listen, you didn't really understand the words that came out of his mouth when he tried to reassure you. Your hands digging at your skin, trying to feel your skin brought some good.

"Gaz, you untie me, and I'll untie you." Price ordered, soon the two men were up. They untied Soap, who untied Ghost. And he knew you best, so he opted to untie you once the Russians were taken down.

And once your eyes met Price, Ghost and Gaz untied you, Soap holding close as they all comforted you. Your breathing was starting to go back to normal. But still, the memories and the horror that place brought you were no fun.

The constant nights where you wished to just end your life, that maybe I'd be best if you die by your own hands and not by someone else's, especially not in front of the all the wealthy people who would watch the fight as if it was a sport.

The memories will forever stick to you and the regret you carry is who makes you the soldier you are today.

-----

A/N: I wanted this to be longer, but my ideas ran out, sorry

REQUESTS ARE OPEN

Tags: @xweirdo101x

[pix-writes]

Thank you so much for answering my question! You always give very thorough and thoughtful answers 🥹🥹 If you don't mind me asking, can I ask the same question about friendships (possible lovers later, just like with Stanley) but with Ford? Thank you so much again, I really love reading your analysis 🥹🙌🏻✨️!!

Aw thank you! ☺️

(answer under cut)

I think I've gone over a little bit about how Ford would be in the beginning of a friendship/relationship in this post. Mainly talking about how his flaws/past wound would hinder him forming relationships, generally.

Though I did mention that I think Ford would be easy to bond with, in terms of connecting over something intellectual or nerdy. If you're someone who is game to tag along on research or adventures and can lend a hand figuratively/physically, then your friendship will start to grow, as quality time is the best way to get to know him (he may be a hero/adventurer, but he's truly an introvert with introvert hobbies). Shared interests are something that seems very important to Ford, having been starved of a lot of affection and deeper connections in the past, especially since he found making friends in school/college; so as long as you share a few passions, he'll open up to you fairly quickly.

However, it will take him more time to form a romantic connection and for him to act on it, it will be very slow burn because firstly, he simply doesn't move fast in a relationship, or at least not as fast as modern dating seems to be, and second of all because he has a little insecurity over whether you're interested in him or not/should be interested in him. It takes Ford a little bit to be convinced you won't get your head turned by someone more 'suitable' in his mind. This is also in part to the trauma from Bill's manipulation and torture, whilst you may have only connected after bill was erased, it still brings up trust issues in him and he needs to feel he could trust a partner - as well as work through anxiety about putting you in potential danger (will be quite protective over you as a partner as a result of this).

Kindness will go a long way in securing his opinion of you as someone trustworthy, not only to him but Ford seeing you be kind to his family, your other friends, even to strangers or just plain altruistic in actions not just in words, means that he can trust that he has evidence to back up what he thinks of you and not fall into a similar trap like he did with bill.

Also will admire you for any show of bravery or doing what is right (especially if it's in a situation where it's against the odds, whether it's something dire or a situation where it would be easy to give into social pressures). He appreciates when people say what they mean and are direct with him, as he'll be the same with them (I'm neurodivergent and I hc Ford is too, so this may be specific to being ND, as it's confusing when neurotypical people talk in circles to me!)

Friendship with Ford would include:

watching nerdy TV/films together, whilst I think Ford has only passingly known of/shown interest in world events even before the portal incident, he still managed to have some semblance of interests/life outside of his research, it may arguably not have been a lot, but considering his interest in dnd (including the intergalactic versions) and how he wanted to drop everything to play it with dipper in that one episode, he is definitely interested in catching up on all the nerdy TV/films he's missed out on, cue watching LOTR, star wars, star trek etc. However his gaps in world events comes up as well at the most random of times, he didn't really ask much on what he's missed out in world news (it's not relevant to his work or so he thinks), which can be both hilarious and sad, as as his friend you have to catch him up or remind him (e.g. 'no sixer, the soviet union doesn't exist any more, remember?' 'oh yeah, there was a war in Afghanistan... What do you mean how did it start?!')

playing board games/video games, like I said above Ford is a long time player of ttrpgs and so you will be persuaded into playing some version of a DND campaign if you're not already into it. Ford's excellent at teaching the mechanics and actually pretty good at roleplay and DMing, he can't do many voices but his storytelling is masterful (he is an author after all, even if he wasn't writing fiction and has lots of past practice from college). Dives straight into 5e, learns it quickly and creates his own homebrew version in no time at all! If you introduce him to the concept of dnd shows, he becomes a critter for sure! Essek and Percy are his favourite characters in Critical Role. Hums the theme song sometimes when he's working in the lab. Dipper gets him into Minecraft and you together construct a large home base and underground lab in the game. A lot of these games can take a long time, definitely have stayed up till 3 or 4 am on a campaign more than once.

research in the lab together or out in the field and debating with Ford about all sorts of topics, including your current research projects and both of your hypotheses. You might not have the same skill set as him but he values a different perspective from his own, you help balance out his hyperfocus. Is protective of you if something might be dangerous, will want him to be the one that gets hit/hurt if anyone has to, though both of you have had to patch up the other.

Getting into debates: Ford loves a mental challenge, he doesn;t realise its good for him (consciously/not until post-weirdmageddon) but having someone who isn't afraid to challenge him or speak their mind with him helps to keep him grounded and for him to really pause and think about his theories/morals. It doesn't have to be too deep though, perhaps you simply disagree on something, this will turn into a full debate, but despite some thinking you're arguing, its more of a passionate conversation, you're both having fun. Plus its even more fun when Ford ends up agreeing with you (its rare but it boosts your ego when it does happen)

related to the adventures a little: expect Ford to praise you/your efforts, (reminds me a bit like the 9th doctor or Sherlock) will just be doing something or figuring out a code or puzzle he'll exclaim "fascinating!" Or brilliant/fantastic/excellent/good, sometimes he's not aware he's saying these hushed phrases! Or he'll follow it up with questions, eyes lit up from being energised in his work, like "fascinating! How did you reach that conclusion?" 🤓

catching him up on technology, he finds it difficult compared to the high tech stuff from other universes but I like to hc he would get over it eventually, he's not the most adept in terms of keeping up with internet culture but is when it comes to tinkering with technology and experimenting/improving it. Still likes to call people instead of text and will have regular phone calls with you if you or him are away from each other.l, eases his worries about you (he's protective and still has nightmares from time to time so he likes to hear your voice so he knows you're ok).

Spending quieter moments together, even if its just stargazing on the stan o war whilst stan fishes, if you're close friends, I can imagine Ford would like hugs, holding hands and on the odd occaision napping cuddled up together (platonically) - the naps happened by accident at first, however its nice and your adventures are exhausting sometimes, so you now get the weighted blanket for you to both lie under for an hour or two (Mabel definitely has a picture of you asleep on her phone because its adorable).

Ford hasn't driven for 30 yrs (well not a regular old car anyway) so you've definitely had to drive him places/collect him before because his attempts at driving are almost as reckless as Stan is behind the wheel 😬 on a boat though? He's the most trustworthy captain 🫡 meticulous on the safety checks, will boss you and stan about a little on what to do, but you know it's for good reason... most of the time

[yallemagne]

This might be a little disjointed because it's been a few days since I watched it, but my thoughts on season 2 of X-Men: The Animated Series:

Episode 1 & 2: Till Death Do Us Part

I know they’re having Logan going ham in the Danger Room because he’s in love with Jean, but lalala I can’t hear you, he’s ACTUALLY beating up fake Cyclopses in the Danger Room because of Morph’s death. 

Damn if Logan weren’t, frankly, acting like a little bitch, we could have gotten the Morph reveal much earlier. This is what angsting after a married woman does, Logan. You miss out on precious time with your resurrected bestie with benefits. 

Morph is my silly little pumpkin. Sinister is such a bastard that he lets Morph have temporary self-awareness just to torture them with it. That, or he is just very bad at maintaining his mind control. Anyhow, Morph declares that they’ll have their revenge and switch through different forms “Cyclops! Storm! Wolverine!” And upon turning into Wolverine they fall back on their bed and writhe in agony because that’s their BEST FRIEND. AHHH. 

Morph sending Cherik to the Savage Lands for a deadly date. This is like The Parent Trap but nefarious. 

Morph desperately trying to fight against the mind-control :,0. It's always when they're presented with the promise of being accepted back into the family. All they wanna do is be an X-Man again. 

"You kept me alive! And the evil that's in me! But the worst of us still has some good!" I'm sobbing.

Also yeah. The title is obviously referencing Scott and Jean’s wedding vows. But what if— lissen hear me out hear me out, it’s actually about Wolverine and Morph and their unbreakable bond.

Episode 3: Whatever It Takes

Mjnari, you scared me, boy. He kept getting himself into situations where I was like “YOU BETTER NOT BE MAKING A HEROIC SACRIFICE” and thankfully, no heroic sacrifice, just winning. 

Storm just casually having a son that she's not told anyone about and Rogue being like BABE WHAT??? Babe why did you never tell me you have a child with another woman??

Logan grabbing Morph’s wrists and restraining them behind their back in the weirdest hug imaginable. Gonna headcanon that that’s just how they normally hug because Logan is weird. Gotta use “I’m restraining you” as an excuse to get his arms around someone.

Morph changing between several exes arch enemies of Wolverine while trying to get him off his trail. Hoooo. Morph knows the Deep Lore. 

Episode 4: Red Dawn

Imagine being so stupid you make an indestructible super human who represents your values so well he resolves to murder you for not abiding by those values. And then imagine thawing him even though you couldn’t control him the first time because you want to restart the Soviet Union. Imagine getting through so many steps without thinking of the consequences even once.

Colossus is my sweet baby boy. I love how naively good he is and how it plays off Jubilee, who is also naive as hell. It’s perfectly demonstrated when Jubilee is just like “I’ll just leave a note! ‘Off to stop the reformation of the USSR, food’s in the fridge.’ Okay, let’s go!” And Colossus is like “Yes! Let’s!”

Wolverine gets home from Morph throwing Omega Red in his face during their confrontation to a note saying the runt went ahead to stop Omega Red with no backup?? The timing. 

Episode 5: Repo Man

Canada tries to steal Wolverine’s skeleton what the fuck. 

I appreciate that his old team steps in to save him because they never wanted to drag him back into experimentation, they just wanted their buddy back. 

It’s implied in the flashback in this episode and later on that Wolverine never had bone claws, they’re just a result of the adamantium? Yeah no. Makes no sense. His claws are literally what identify him as a mutant in several interactions. 

Episode 6: X-Ternally Yours

Dog, this weird cult-gang shit makes no sense to me. It’s good that Gambit got away from that nonsense. 

Lol Rogue getting upset that Gambit is getting married but immediately being like AHA when it’s revealed he’s there against his will. 

Episode 7 & 8: Time Fugitives

Absolutely genius having a time travel episode followed by a second time travel episode to fix the previous episode. They got to reuse so much animation, and frankly, I'm proud of them for the creativity they employ to be unoriginal. 

Episode 9: A Rogue's Tale

I already knew Rogue’s backstory, but hell, they really capture the dread of Rogue being forced by her mother to kill another person. There was so much innocence in her voice yelling that she didn’t want to hold on, that it felt wrong. God, I hate Mystique so much for this. Rogue is right in saying Mystique only cared about her powers. Sure maybe she does see her as a daughter, but would she have even spared the girl a second glance if she weren’t such a powerful mutant? Hell no. 

Episode 10: Beauty & the Beast

I was literally musing about how this episode's themes reminds me of Beauty and the Beast... and that's literally the title. 

Graydon Creed: “MUTANTS AND ALL THOSE RELATED TO THEM MUST BE DESTROYED!!!” Me: 👀 are you sure about that you dumb bitch.

Logan infiltrating the Friends of Humanity? Amazing. Showstopping. He did so amazing, bravo. Get this man an award. And y’all know he’s been sitting on the info that Creed is Sabretooth’s son for so long lol. It’s so cathartic of a reveal. 

I wonder… how does this affect Creed? After all, at the end of ’97, it’s said he’s got people rallying behind him as a political candidate. Did people just forget what a dirty snivelling little hypocrite he is? Did news of his parentage never reach the general public? Is it like water under the bridge bc he technically denounces his parents? What’s up with that?

(Aside: they call Sabretooth Graydon Creed Sr.. Yeah, I’d change my name to Victor. The real kicker is that he named his son after himself. No wonder Junior is so mad at his pops.)

Anyhow, even though it’s technically not canon to anything but the movie continuity, I’m gonna keep headcanoning Sabretooth and Wolverine as estranged brothers because I would love to see Logan continuing to hold this over Graydon’s head by telling him to call him ‘Uncle Logan’. 

Episode 11: Mojovision

I Dream of Jean fucking got me. Looks like Mojo’s programming is geared towards me. 

After reading Exiles I’m just sitting here like “:((( I wish Morph was here... Morph would be slaying…”

Episode 12 & 13: Reunion

See, Wolverine uses his claws here, and they have him say his claws aren’t a result of his mutation. Baby what? Now, I think it totally makes sense for his claws to still be functional even in a place where mutant powers are cancelled out. After all, they’re a part of his skeleton. Like if Nightcrawler were there, he wouldn’t lose the ability to move his tail, yeah? Just no teleporting. Is there really like a continuity where the claws aren’t a mutant trait???

Also his hands gotta really hurt doing that without his healing.

Anyhow MORPH MORPH MORPH MORPH

I love Wolvie meeting a fellow Wild Man. 

Morph is my sweet babe I love them so much, you go bitch, you fight that mind control, you shoot at Sinister so Cyclops can hit him with his beams. Go off queen. 

I haven’t really been giving notes about the Savage Lands before now because I found everything about it boring till this episode. And that’s because while I love me some Cherik, those fucks were getting absolutely nothing done. Besides like that one funny moment where Magneto was throwing rocks at a dino and calling it a stupid lizard. 

Love Charles briefing Erik about the steps he's gonna be taking to aid in Morph’s recovery?? So random. Like the present parent trying to get the absentee to get involved in their children’s lives. "We're gonna take Morph to Muir Island... 👉👈 if you want to visit..."

Magneto does not take the hint and bails on family like a coward. We'll get you yet, Magneto, even if it takes killing Charles to get you to provide for the kiddos.

[EDIT: oh yeah btw my thoughts on season 1]

[ezra-fell-and-co]

Aziraphale & Shostakovich

The moment in the record shop when Aziraphale said he was picking up a Shostakovich record I had So Many Thoughts.

The symphony he's listening to is Symphony No.5 in D Minor, Op. 47, composed in 1937 and premiered in Leningrad to a thirty+ minute long standing ovation. Prior to this piece, Dimitri S. spent many nights sleeping in the hallway outside of his apartment so that his family wouldn't see if the government police in charge of enforcing Stalin's brutal rule came for him in the middle of the night. His last pieces had been received harshly by critics and called unpatriotic, which was just about the worst thing a composer living during The Great Terror (1936-1938) could do. Those who were not loyal to the regime and explicitly portrayed it in their art were branded as traitors and sent to gulags or were straight up executed.

The San Francisco Symphony describes the 5th symphony as "the story of a fall from grace and redemption.". Shostakovitch has gone from being a golden example to being eyed as a traitor almost overnight, the 5th Symphony becoming his redemption back into good graces.

So basically Dimitri S. was a man with contrasting ideologies to the powers that be, so to say, who was living under the threat of death, torture, or excommunication from his homeland. Haha, so weird that Aziraphale would want to listen to his music specifically.

(If you've never listened to Symphony No. 5, I highly encourage you to go listen!)

To set the scene-

From The Houston Symphony's 2018 Fighting the Barbarian Artist article on Symph. 5:

"In January 1934, Dmitri Shostakovich scored one of the biggest triumphs of his career with the premiere of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District, a work official critics hailed as the first great Soviet opera. Based on a nineteenth-century novella by Leskov, it follows the misadventures of Katerina, the illiterate wife of a well-to-do country merchant who is driven to murder in order to be with her handsome but unworthy lover, the laborer Sergei. By turns satirical and tragic, Lady Macbeth explored themes of oppression with a potent combination of sex, violence and some truly beautiful music that played to full houses for two years. Then on January 26, 1936, Stalin went to see it. Two days later, on page 3 of Pravda (“Truth”—the newspaper that continues to serve as the official mouthpiece of the Russian Communist Party to this day), Shostakovich found an anonymous review of Lady Macbeth headlined “Muddle Instead of Music.” One representative quote declared that the opera “tickles the perverted tastes of the bourgeoisie with its fidgety, screaming, neurotic music…”" ...

There is debate about if Stalin himself wrote the review to make a point, or if he just signed off on it being printed. It's also unclear if Shostakovitch was being targeted specifically, or just because of his notoriety to prove that no matter how big a name you are you're not safe if you don't fall in line, or if he was just being used as a pawn in the ongoing power struggles of the day.

Either way, he was very aware that he was in danger. A friend of Stalin's was vanished when he wrote to Stalin in defense of Shostakovitch's work after the fateful review.

The 5th was a result of Dimitri knowing he needed to get back into good graces, so he had to give them something that they wanted. Or at least something that sounded like what they wanted.

Symphony No. 5 is very sneaky in how it subverts the expectations and requirements of Stalin's Russia.

For one, it's form- a symphony is a very structured form and very Western, popularized by Beethoven and co. It's also instrumental, which allowed Shostakovitch to hide a lot of references, subversions, and musical sarcasm/critiques without the untrained critics and government officials being any the wiser.

D minor, the main tonality of the symphony, has been described by various music theorists about what kind of emotional experience it portrays. John Mattheson in 1713 described it as "Serious, Pious, Ruminating. Melancholy, feminine, brooding worries, contemplation of negativity."

However, for our purposes, Aziraphale is listening to the fourth movement, which is also the most political. (More excellent write ups about the entire work can be read here, here, here, and here. There is a PBS documentary about it here.) ((It also shifts to an ironic D Major as one point, which Mattheson describes as "Triumphant, Victorious War-Cries. Screaming hallelujah’s, rejoicing in conquering obstacles. War marches, holiday songs, invitations to join the winning team."))

The fourth movement is bombastic, letting the brass section loose right at the start. The main theme in this section is from an unpublished song that Shostakovitch had written as a setting for a Pushkin poem. The piece as a whole and specifically this movement is a direct critique of Stalin himself.

The poem?

With sleepy brush the barbarian artist The master’s painting blackens; And thoughtlessly his wicked drawing Over it he is daubing. But in years the foreign colors Peal off, an aged layer: The work of genius is ‘gain before us, With former beauty out it comes. Thus my failings vanish too From my wearied soul, And again within it visions rise, Of my early purer days.

Which I think speaks for itself in what kind of mentality Aziraphale might have listening to the symphony.

I'm not sure which recording he listens to, but in the record shop we are shown that it's a record with a blue label on the disk. There are several recordings that have blue labels including the 1972 Moscow Philharmonic with Kiril Kondrashin and the 1989 Scottish National Orchestra with Neeme Jarvi. Leonard Bernstein and the NY Philharmonic have a very famous recording as well.

But I think the most likely is the 1962 Vienna Philharmonic with Constantin Silvestri. Why? Well, here's the record:

[velvet-vox]

Right, so, just a couple of moments ago I learned that season 2 of Murder Drones is basically confirmed, this most likely means that now I'll probably have to quickly give away my personal takes on what I want the future of the soviet drone to be.

I actually wanted to take a break from Doll, but I only say that because all the future content that I've already planned out for her is extremely massive, plus I'm afraid of what might happen the next time an episode releases and she's on screen, so for now I'll just stick to my plans and you'll infer my take on the whole situation from what I write.

I've been mostly lazing off on the Lord Shen analysis; normally, I think it would have been released by now, but after "The insane, untapped potential of Rebecca from Murder Drones" I've been really burned out in the last couple of days, that analysis took forever to finish because I really wanted to give Rebecca fans the tribute they were never going to get, but the problem was that I'm not really a Rebecca fan, so I was basically putting myself under torture to finish that thing. It didn't even perform all that well, which I kind of expected considering who the college degree-worthy essay was about, but it still hurt a lot to have all of that blood and sweat go unrecognised.

Still all my fault to be honest.

Don't worry though, I won't get burned out, I promise. An analysis of Lord Shen is coming out tomorrow, then, after that, I'll probably take a break to not get myself overwhelmed.

The last thing I want to do is rush out the villainess top 10. I did the first one mostly for fun, but I'll admit that it was kinda lacking from a readers perspective when it came down to certain aspects such as the reasons for why one entry was above the other and why I enjoyed one big bad more.

For that, I'll try to go for a more methodical approach when it comes to breaking down each individual entry, and I'll make sure to tweak the text before publishing it.

[deadpanwalking]

i was born here but my dad emigrated from the ukraine with his brother in 1987 and says when they got to rome their aplications got rejected twice for not having enough proof, and so his brother got sick of waiting and went to israel 😔

Oh, until the Lautenberg Amendment, refugee status for Russian Jews who wanted to come to America was entirely predicated on who, if anyone, pissed in the INS official’s Cheerios that morning.  They'd have you go to the U.S. Embassy on Via Veneto with every member of your grubby family and interview you to establish you had a well-founded fear of persecution and specific evidence to back up your claim. Those guys (and the HIAS people who helped us prepare lol)  were so sick of us by the 1980s because there was a huge backlog of immigrants in Rome waiting to be approved, and every fucking day we’d pour in their offices, take all the candy in the bowls, and get weirded out by the compulsive American smiling.

Like, maybe they really were expecting some American Tail shit in the beginning, where we’d talk about huddling in our little mouse kitchen with our forbidden matchstick menorah or whatever. The reality was that after 70 or so years of cultural genocide, most of us were secular atheists entirely disconnected from what Americans understood to be Judaism. Our evidence of religious persecution?  Promotions we didn’t get, schools that rejected us, relocation applications that never got approved, name-calling.  By the mid-80s, the KGB was using the Lubyanka prison as a cafeteria, and not everyone was lucky enough to be thrown in a gulag and tortured. Unless you were #privileged enough to have an arrest record or a paper trail of dissidence, your immediate future was in the hands of a guy who couldn't pronounce your last name and rolled his eyes when you wasted his time describing “unofficial quotas”.

Ask any INS officer, Israeli Zionist, or tankie on Tumblr.edu: a lot of refuseniks were whiny kikes who played the victim instead of staying in the Soviet Union and taking some antisemitism for the team (or going to Israel, where we clearly belong).

[c-is-for-circinate]

On one hand, there's definitely more of this to be written, and possibly even more of this scene.

On the other hand, posting now means it gets posted at all, and I also happen to think that the place where it ends is very, very funny.

In short: Dustin is a smart kid with a lot of good ideas. Unfortunately, he knows this about himself, which is also his greatest flaw. Set somewhere between Stranger Things S3 and S4.

---

Dustin shows up at Family Video on a Wednesday night. Steve never works Wednesday nights -- slow enough that Keith can spare him, late enough in the week that most girls are actually wiling to consider it a date night. He's seeing the second Nightmare on Elm Street movie, which Dustin is maybe a little annoyed about because it's only been out for a week and the Party needs Steve to get them into R-rated movies, he knows that. But Steve just said something about horror movies being essential opportunities for girls to cuddle in close so you can protect them, and completely ignored Dustin's totally reasonable comments about how Steve is the one to freak out at jumpscares most of the time when he watches horror movies with them, and went anyway.

Which is so stupid, because there's literally nothing real to protect a girl from in a horror movie. Steve has literally protected Robin from actual Soviet torture, with his actual face. Dustin saw him through that concussion! Dustin knows perfectly well that Steve probably drew the Russians' attention on purpose the whole time he and Robin were in there!

And somehow, he and Robin still aren't dating. If that isn't enough, then Dustin really doesn't see how putting an arm around a girl to save her from Freddy Krueger is going to do any better.

So Dustin bikes his way to Family Video, in the dark because it's November in Indiana, and when he gets there he folds his arms on the counter and gives Robin his brightest, most patient smile. She takes one look at him and rolls her eyes.

"He's not here right now," she informs him. "So if you want to badger him into renting you an R-rated movie, you're going to have to come back tomorrow, I'm not your babysitter and I'm not doing it."

Dustin just keeps grinning at her. Broadly.

"You know, Robin, we never talk," he says. Robin groans.

"Oh god, what now?" she asks. "And get off the counter, Keith's in the back and if he sees you he'll throw a fit."

"Keith is taking a nap back there and we both know it," Dustin scoffs. As if he doesn't know Keith's habits. "He only ever comes out of the back when Steve's working because he likes to make Steve do menial tasks while Keith hits on the hot girls that he thinks come in here because Steve's working."

"Fine, whatever, it's creepy that you know that," Robin sighs. "What do you want?"

"So I've been talking to Steve," Dustin says. "You know, our friend Steve. Pretty face, good hair, excellent reviews on the kissing front."

"Ew," says Robin. "Ew, no, you're twelve, don't talk about Steve kissing. Don't talk about Steve kissing at all!"

"Excuse me, one, I'm fourteen years old, I am in high school, where I just saw you earlier today, so it's not like you're that much older than me," Dustin says. "Two, if we don't talk about kissing Steve, how are we going to get you two over this weird little speedbump you're having where you're somehow not dating yet?"

Robin groans again. It's louder this time, and she also tips her head back to the sky while she does it. Dustin waits patiently.

"I'm not going to date Steve," she says. "Please stop bugging him about this, it's not going to happen. I don't want to talk about it, he doesn't want to talk about it, can you please just let this goooooo." She groans the last word, drawing it out like Mike when his mom tries to make him clean his room.

"Not until I see you two happy," Dustin says firmly, unmoved thanks to many years of being friends with Mike. "Steve is one of my best friends, and not only are you his other best friend, we've been through the heat of battle together, which means you're my friend too. I want both of you to be happy, and clearly there's nothing you like more than spending time together--"

"Yeah, because we're friends, Dustin, that's what friends do," she says, but Dustin has proof.

"Friends don't have to get jobs working at the same retail store even after their old one burned down," he begins.

"We're good coworkers and otherwise he'd have to break in a whole new set of coworkers who haven't had to deal with Dustin Henderson already for months," she says.

"You work well together, you compliment each other, you already get along with his other friends..."

"Not sure if 'getting along' is the right phrase right now," Robin mutters. Dustin ignores her.

"He's always giving you rides places, he's literally left a date to give you rides on multiple occasions --"

"Like he doesn't do the same for you!"

"Robin," Dustin says pityingly. "Leaving a date? When it's not the end of the world?" It's so obvious how much Steve likes her. Dustin's never seen him act like this with anybody since Nancy. Not that it's exactly the same as Steve used to act with Nancy, but clearly that's just because he's had time to grow and mature, and Robin's better than Nancy for him anyway. She keeps him from stressing out too much. "Driving you to school every morning even though he couldn't even get there on time most days when he was a student himself?"

"I don't have a license!"

"You really don't have to worry about it," Dustin says. "I happen to know for a fact that Steve would date you in an instant if you said yes."

Well. A strongly-supported scientific theory, anyway, which is basically the same thing. Anyway, it should be enough to get Robin spilling whatever self-doubt she's bottling up -- she's too nerdy, Steve only dates slutty cheerleader girls, whatever -- so Dustin can explain to her all the ways she's wrong, and they'll finally be taken care of.

"And I happen to know for a fact that he wouldn't, so how about you take the word of the person he's actually not dating and drop it?" Robin demands. She sounds on the verge of actually upset with him.

"But why?" Dustin demands right back. Which is really the crux of it, isn't it? Dustin has been asking the world why at every turn for fourteen solid years, and he has never let it back down without a fight.

"Steve likes you! You're at least as pretty as all those other girls, and it can't just be that you don't think you're cool enough for him, because lest we forget, the last time he was actually in love instead of just being kind of easy for any girl to look his way twice was with Nancy Wheeler, who is by definition a nerd!" Dustin lays his most damning evidence out rapid-fire, taking down Robin's arguments even if she hasn't made them yet. "He's a hot guy! He's kind of a catch! You're a cool girl! You actually like him back! What is the problem here!"

"Not every guy likes every girl just because they're a girl!" Robin fires back at him. "Not every girl is attracted to every guy! And you know, the fact that you think that is insulting and reductive, when some guys and girls don't even like girls or guys at all, and what would Suzie think, Dustin? What would Suzie think if she heard that you think every guy should date every girl he's friends with just because he's friends with her?"

"First of all, Suzie thinks you and Steve are destined to live happily ever after once he saves you in another bold act of heroism," Dustin informs her. Obviously. "Second of all, what do you mean, some guys don't like girls and girls don't like guys?"

And then Robin gets a look on her face. Dustin might have let it go, if Robin hadn't gotten that look on her face.

It's a split second of sheer panic. Robin ducks away from him, turns back to the Family Video checkout computer like she's trying to be casual, but her hands are anxious, picking up a stack of videos just to put them down, and she's not looking at him, and Dustin saw it. Dustin saw.

"It's just a thing, that happens sometimes, right?" Robin asks. "You can't just assume you know what somebody wants, that just because two people are both attractive they're going to want each other. You don't want to date Max, right?"

"Actually, yeah, I had a crush on Max when we first met, and I reconciled myself to her choice of Lucas in favor of slightly strained friendship until I discovered the love of my life in Suzie," Dustin informed her. "Much like Steve reconciled himself to Nancy's choice of Jonathan, until he met you and suddenly started spending all of his time with you. And anyway that's not what you said, you said that some guys don't like girls at all, which sounds like you're talking about gay people, which doesn't even..." Except that Dustin's thoughts are starting to catch up with his words, and he's trailing off, because. Because holy shit.

Steve dates so many girls. So many! He's constantly hitting on them and striking out, almost like he's just going through the motions, like he's not even trying except for appearances' sake. Even when he goes on actual dates they never last more than once or twice. And he's been doing it like that since high school, exactly like that. He's blown off dates to give Robin rides places. He's blown off dates to give Dustin rides places. He once blew off a date to sit in Mike Wheeler's basement and doze off on the couch while the Party spent three hours building D&D characters for their first-ever Hellfire Club campaign.

And Nancy? Nancy Wheeler, who Steve was totally in love with, except that according to Mike they started having problems basically as soon as the very first demogorgon fight was over and didn't stop for the next full year? Nancy who left him for Jonathan, who Steve is still friends with. Steve and Jonathan are better friends now than they were before he and Nancy broke up. Or at least they were before the Byers left for California, anyway, and that's basically the same thing, Jonathan was probably Steve's best friend actually his own age before he met Robin which was really sad, actually, but--

Steve getting super close with Robin after getting dosed with Russian drugs that were meant to make them tell the truth! Robin and Steve acting like they knew a secret that they couldn't tell anybody else or else!! Robin swearing up and down to the ends of the earth that she knows Steve doesn't want to date her for a mysterious reason she can't and won't explain!!!

"What, no, who said anything about gay people?" Robin is babbling, collecting more and more videos in her hands like a nervous D&D player who thinks hoarding dice is going to save them from a red dragon, but Dustin ignores her. "I just meant that attraction is complicated, and--"

"Holy shit," Dustin breathes. "Holy shit, is Steve Harrington gay?"

Robin drops the tapes.

[freakenomenon]

Hello I am SO sorry for sending so many asks I hope it is not bothering you 🙇

I super love your AM and Ellen post GDYSJAHSHSGSG I think people get so hyper focused on AM and Ted they kind of sideline the rest of the casts dynamic with him and so it’s SO GREAT to see content and essays with him and Ellen ( who is also pretty sidelined by the game and novella )

Secondly, I was sort of thinking about how AM in particular is the ‘yankee’ version of an Allied Mastercomputer which lead me to think about the Soviet and Chinese counterparts.

( specifically China, I’ll expand on this if I’m asked because I do not want to take up more of your time then I already am )

I think in a twisted way the AM the five are stuck with is the embodiment of American freedom, they can go where they want, call him what they want, there’s no civilization left or laws .. ( unless their instructions from AM, naturally ) and I wonder, if that’s supposed to be a commentary on the politics of the west and America. And if juxtaposed with the Soviet or Chinese supercomputers, if they would torture what remained of humanity differently because of the contrasting politics of the 60’s?

( Im so sorry that my ask got THIS LONG OMG )

RAGHHH I don't mind at all dw!! I currently don't have anything better to do and your asks are actually quite thought provoking,, and i will NEVER pass up an opportunity to yap

first of all grrhraagguhhhg yeah it pisses me off so bad to see people completely disregard the other survivors dynamics with AM,, especially since. looks around discreetly ,, half of the time ted and AM posts are completely mischaracterizing BOTH characters but. that's neither here nor there.

secondly this is VERY interesting actually. considering IHNMAIMS is initially both an anti AI AND an anti war message you're definitely onto something. ive always thought that AM, despite his entire character. is a very HUMANE display of evil. hatred isnt something instilled within someone. it's TAUGHT. AM is nothing more than a reflection of the horrid nature in humanity, both within the curse of human nature itself ( hate, jealousy, sorrow, want ) , and what the most depraved crevices within the species are capable of. I mean think about the implications of AM feeding all the "killing data" ? He was taught. Not even. BORN to kill and maim and RUIN. and the only thing on this earth that could instill such a disgusting purpose is HUMANITY. Because our time, as stated in the story. Was poorly spent.

And if you apply this to the American government, sad as it is. It's the same situation. Propaganda and artificial reassurance of change is so dystopian yet so common within this system. And as you said, we can wander, we can wonder, we can wish. But the most it appears we can outwardly do to attempt at causing some kind of change is shake our fists at that starred flag.

Lastly, I am not very informed on the torture methods of other countries since I am but a filthy american. ( not my fault my ancestors were brought here in chains, but oh well what can you do! ) but it is a very interesting thought, in the game the Russian and Chinese Supercomputers had very differing personalities and more composure than AM. They were still clearly very resentful in some aspects. But there is a clear difference. But alas, their characters escape me because of how confusing the games ending is if you don't end up getting slugged.

if this doesn't make sense i apologize i am so sleep deprived ^_^;

[mycupofrum]

I can't get enough, you have to tell me when I should stop. I wish I could ask every combination

I'm curious about 1+54, 79+95 and 88+84 (I'm so bad at picking cool combinations)

You can chose 🤗

Hii! ❤️ Sorry this took me ages to reply, I never meant to leave it hanging for so long!

Here are three Prongsfoot ideas for the Fanfiction trope mash-up ask game. Contains some nsfw-ish mentions.

Historical AU + Secret Relationship

James is an MI6 spy while Sirius is a Soviet spy during the Cold War. Neither knows that they’re spying on each other, and for their cover roles they both pretend to be professors at Oxford University. They end up in a ”secret relationship”, except they are both deceiving the other. James’s mission is to gain information from Sirius in any way possible, and Sirius is trying to do the same to James. They both feed false information to the other until they realise that they’re spying on each other.

Their employers are not happy with them and they’re taken off from their respective cases. James is suspended for a few weeks and assigned to do paperwork for the foreseeable future, but Sirius is tortured and imprisoned for not being successful in his mission. Once James finds out about it, it doesn’t sit well with him.

He then decides to break into the prison to rescue Sirius in Siberia in the cold of winter. It’s a completely mad mission to embark on and will cost him his whole future, but the sex with Sirius is really good and their chemistry is off the charts, and he kind of accidentally fell head over heels for Sirius during their secret fake relationship. James decides he’d rather spend a lifetime with Sirius on the run than go back to his old life and never see him again. He breaks Sirius free, and now they are both traitors to their governments, so they escape together and go somewhere nice and sunny far, far away.

Anger Born of Worry + Sleep Intimacy

Sirius is traumatised from all the emotional abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents, but he represses it to the point he convinces himself he’s all right after he goes to live with the Potters. The effects from the abuse don’t sneak up on him until he’s in his early 20s and fighting in the first wizarding war, at which point Sirius becomes reckless on Order missions. He doesn’t seem to care about his own life and runs off alone after death eaters, despite the fact that they should always be in pairs.

So far Sirius has been lucky and gotten results, which is why Dumbledore doesn’t exactly forbid him to do what he does. But James is furious and worries for Sirius, and they argue a lot. Emotions run high, but at night they settle their arguments with heated, angry sex, until they get the stress out of their system. That’s when they finally settle down to sleep (spooning, obviously) and have a few hours of peace until the next day comes and it all starts again.

Married to the Job + Erotic Dreams

Sirius is an established surgeon who operates on superstar footballer James Potter’s injured knee. They’re both busy with their work, except now James has a long recovery time ahead of him, so his mind wanders to the handsome surgeon so much so that he starts to dream about him and wakes up hard on many mornings. Sirius works long hours at the hospital, so he doesn't have much of a social life outside of work, even though his colleagues keep telling him he should do something about it.

When James comes to his control visit, he demands to speak to Sirius about his *knee*, but also poses an offhanded question on whether Sirius is seeing anyone. James manages to somehow strip down to only his underwear, even though Sirius tells him that he really doesn’t need to remove his shirt for Sirius to examine his knee. James just smirks when Sirius’s gaze lingers on his abs for a little longer than necessary. Yet Sirius insists that while he's single, he’s just too busy to date anyone, thinking that’ll be that.

Little does he know that his refusal only makes James Potter more determined. James flirts with a nurse to get Sirius’s phone number. They start texting, then sexting. Well, James sends the sexy messages, while Sirius’s replies are dry and witty. James has a vivid imagination and his dirty messages about his erotic dreams and fantasies amuse Sirius against his will but also make him undeniably horny. It takes a few weeks of James spamming him with sexy messages, when Sirius finally appears behind James’s door for a ”private consultation.” They end up sucking each other off on the living room sofa before making it to the bedroom a little later.

Eventually James returns to play for the team, and Sirius becomes the team’s super hot doctor (he even has his own unofficial fan club among the football fans). Their plan is that when James is done with his football career, Sirius goes back to work at the hospital if he wants to, but it’s okay if he doesn’t because James is loaded and Sirius is also very wealthy, so they can do whatever they like. Two years after meeting for the first time, they get married. Neither of them is happy when James’s friend Remus and Sirius’s tech-bro little brother Regulus as their best men decide to prank them by displaying some of James and Sirius’s early messages to the wedding guests (only the super cheesy ones when James tried to be romantic, there's a lot they had to censor). :D

[heroofshield]

Whumpcember Day 13- Restraints (MCU Clintasha)

Warnings: restrained against will, implied torture

@whumpcember

--

Clint Barton pulled against the restraints that were holding him to the wall. The chains rattled and pulled taught but held, the metal biting into his skin- turning it red and irritated. After a minute or so, he'd started to really lose track of time after the first day, Clint gave up and relaxed his arms slumping against the metal wall.

"So much for the cavalry showing up." he thought, blowing out a breath and wondering if his locator chip was working; Medical had sworn up and down that the subcutaneous RFID chip would tell SHIELD where he was when in the field.

That is, if he wasn't below ground. And if the check-in window had passed with more than enough time for Coulson to be concerned. "I wonder if Natasha's already started looking for a new partner." he wondered while brushing a stray spiderweb out of his face.

They hadn't been partnered long, only a year, and this was one of the few solo missions that he'd been assigned during that time as well. Bringing in the infamous Black Widow from the Red Room had earned him a stint on Fury's Shit List and it had seemed that he'd finally worked his way off it when the Director had given him the covert assassination job.

That had been after he'd taken a step into a former Soviet Bloc country and a black hood had been slapped onto his head, then shoved into what he assumed was a van.

His captors hadn't said much, only shoving him down some stairs and into the room he was currently in; but it was only a matter of time until they they started the interrogation.

Almost as if they'd heard his thoughts, the sound of metal doors clanking open and footsteps nearing told Clint that anyone else was still in the building. Standing as the door opened, Clint raised an eyebrow at the metal chairs that were brought in. "We finally getting to have that one-on-one I've been promised?" he asked, letting the trademark Barton smirk appear.

"Sit." grunted who Clint had dubbed as Bratva One.

"Or what?"

"Or we do this the hard way."

Clint shrugged, not wanting to make it that easy on them. "What about these chains? No offense but you still haven't brought me that diet coke I asked for. Gotta have my caffeine in the morning if you want a coherent thought."

Bratva One just scowled and folded his arms.

"Strong and silent huh? Watch a lot of Batman when you were little? Michael Keaton was pretty good, I'll admit. But nothing beats the Adam-" Clint cut off as Bratva Two grabbed him by the shoulders, pushing him forwards so that his knees hit the metal chair and he hissed in pain.

Not waiting for Clint to sit of his own accord, Bratva Two roughly shoved him into the chair, his chains rattling through out it all.

"Where is Black Widow?" One asked, not waiting time and looking Clint straight in the eye.

"Have you checked the attic? Because I know that spiders like cool, dry-"

"We've seen you with her." Bratva Two interrupted. "The Black Widow will fetch a high price among Russia's leaders and let us back into the country."

"Ooooohhhh, so that's what this is about." Clint laughed shaking his head. "Sorry guys but you're not gonna get that outta me."

"Then we do this the hard way." Bratva Two cracked his knuckles and Clint winced at the sound.

"You really shouldn't do that y'know, gives you arthritis." the last word left Clint abruptly when Two landed a solid punch in Clint's stomach and his breath escaped him in a rush.

--

Groggily opening his eyes, it took a minute for Clint to remember where he was and what had happened.

Clint laying on the floor, his body aching, the restraints around his wrist leaving a bloody smear.

Bratva One opening the door for another round.

The sound of something hitting the floor and belatedly Clint realizing it was a flash bang, barely curling inwardly to protect his head in time.

Red hair filling his vision before everything finally went black.

"About time you woke up. I was starting to think you were doing it on purpose."

Clint swung his gaze to the voice had come from, seeing Natasha sitting in the chair off to the side. "You know me, I'm always one for sleeping in if I get the chance."

"Just don't make a habit of it, otherwise Fury might not send you on any more field trips."

Clint let out a snort, but even that caused him to wince in pain. "Jesus, you think that using lead pipes would have gone out of fashion."

"Not with former GRU operatives."

Clint made a face as his wrists let out a spasm of pain and he glanced down to see them bandaged in a gauze and medical tape. "GRU huh? At least that explains why they wanted back in Russia so bad."

"Listen-"

"I wasn't gonna hand you over. Which is why they decided to take Tonya Harding as a role model and try to make me Nancy Carrigan."

"I didn't think you would." Natasha replied, shifting slightly and licking her lips. "You were the one to make a different call and bring me in. You wouldn't go to all that trouble just to sell me out to some third-tier operatives."

"Thanks. I think. I'm assuming that was a compliment."

Natasha let a smile ghost across her face as she watched Clint fight the painkillers. "It is. We'll talk once you're more coherent."

"Sounds...like a...plan." Clint closed his eyes and started to drift off once again. But not before thinking that he was glad he'd brought Natasha into SHIELD and his life.

[aemiron-main]

Will’s Hospital Scene, Will at Hawkins Lab, The Two Wills and the Newspapers About Will’s Vanishing

So, something that’s ALWAYS bothered me SO fucking much is Will’s hospital scene. Why does it bother me? Well, why on EARTH would the lab let Will go to a normal hospital??? Even after Brenner left with some military guys & connie, there was still other lab staff there AND the lab requires keycards for most doors AND it has its auto lockdown thing- there’s no way Jopper could’ve gotten out on their own with Will.

And we NEVER see Jopper leave the UD with Will. We don’t see them come back out of that gate at all. And we don’t see how they left the lab.

The lab was prepared to KILL HOPPER and make it look like a suicide to prevent information from getting out. Why one EARTH would they just let Jopper AND Will leave and go to a normal hospital???

And it’s hammered home AGAIN in S2 that the lab does NOT want Will at a normal hospital:

But when we look at this paper about Will’s vanishing, from the end of S1, which I talked about here, and here:

THE BOY WHO CAME BACK TO LIFE

By Benjamin Buck

The former missing child Will Byers has been found after a week of searching. He is presently in stable condition in Hawkins General Hospital. Byers’ mother, Joyce Byers Alleges that Will was the subject of a secret government program run by the Hawkins National Laboratory. The allegation comes amidst a massive investigation into the hidden organization and its elaborate experimentation in perusal of mind control.

The abuse detailed in the first report includes prolonged psychological duress and psychological interrogation. This government sanctioned torture has sparked outrage amongst the American (NOT VISIBLE). In a statement issues yesterday, Ives mentioned her “disgust” (NOT VISIBLE) the organization, saying “our own American people are being treated like the (NOT VISIBLE) we should be directing our attention to the real targets, the Soviets, not our own daughters and sons.” Under legal advice, Brenner has issues no comment on- CUTS OFF

Not only does this paper say that Will was found at the lab as an experiment, that paper also says that Will was currently at HAWKINS GENERAL HOSPITAL.

Just like THIS WILL is:

He is 100000% at Hawkins General Hospital. That is the hospital, not the lab.

Which means that THAT WILL, the Will at Hawkins General Hospital was found at HAWKINS LAB AS A TEST SUBJECT.

But there’s more. Like I talked about here, and here, this paper from S2 seems to be the SAME ARTICLE just with different contents. This article talks about Will being found in a cabin in the woods.

THE BOY WHO CAME BACK TO LIFE

by Benjamin Buck

In a recent statement, the state coroner’s office has admitted to misidentifying the body recovered from the Sattlee Quarry as twelve year old Will Byers. Will Byers had gone missing two days prior, inspiring the (?) of Hawkins to form a search party in hopes of finding him. When a boy’s body was recovered from the Sattler Quarry, the case seemed solved. Six days later, local police lead by Chief Jim Hopper found Byers alive in an abandoned cabin a few miles outside of Hawkins. Police launched an investigation in the state coroner and have since arrested him. Chief Jim Hopper has- ARTICLE CUTS OFF

And like I’ve talked about here, and here, we have two different Wills in the vanishing scenes (warm Will and cool Will), and so I would bet that one Will was found as an HNL experiment, and that another was found in the UD and that we have more multiple timeline weirdness going on here. But we didn’t see what happened to the one in the UD. Like I said, we never see Jopper leave the UD. All we have to go off of for him is that newspaper article about the cabin in the woods. Which, we know that Nancy was entering and exiting the UD via trees in the woods…. There’s just something rattling about it.

I would also bet that one Will has a birthday in March and one has a birthday in May. I don’t know how the whole scene of Jopper in the UD and how they got out all fits together yet or if it really happened or if they all just got drugged TF up by HNL and hallucinated it all (not auper likely but yknow my point is that there’s a bunch of options) or WHAT, but that boy in the hospital is likely not the one who was in the UD.

And also, the Will in the hospital suspiciously resembles warm Will rather than cool Will- both hospital Will and warm Will are smaller than cool will, and both have shorter hair.

And Cool Will was the one with Vecna’s grandfather clock behind him… which makes sense if he was the Will in the UD….