#but is it funny timing to do it after the republicans have spent all this time and energy bashing him lmao

[the-scarlet-witch-22]

How mad would Hilary Clinton be if Kamala won the presidency lmaoooo

[wutheringmights]

Nightbane by Alex Aster opens with a quote from Cato, A Tragedy (1713) by Joseph Addison: “My bane and antidote are both before me.” Very important. Very cinematic. 

Quotes can rarely, if ever, be taken out of context without any loss of meaning. So I have a personal policy to research the origins of whatever quote an author opens their book with. After all, a good quote should provide important framing or context for the book you’re about to read.  

To summarize a very fascinating Wikipedia article: Cato, a Tragedy is an Enlightenment era play about Cato the Younger’s last days and his opposition to the reign of Julius Caesar. Cato was an icon of republicanism and, fittingly, the play deals with themes of “individual liberty versus government tyranny, republicanism versus monarchism, logic versus emotion, and Cato's personal struggle to hold to his beliefs in the face of death.” 

Nowadays, the play is obscure. Modern productions of the play are rare, if ever staged. The text is also not included in most academic curriculum. Yet, Addison’s work seems to have been highly inspirational for America’s Founding Fathers. According to Wikipedia, quotes like “give me liberty or give me death” are theorized to be references to Addison’s play that the founding fathers assumed their audience would understand. George Washington even attended a production of it while in Valley Forge in 1778.

With its considerable influence on the founding of this country, it’s mind-boggling to me that this play is not only not taught in school, but is largely forgotten. I even asked my father, who is almost 70 and is a giant history buff, if he knew anything about this play in the vain hope that maybe some previous generation learned about it. But, no; even he had no idea what it was until I told him.

My bane and antidote are both before me comes from a soliloquy from act 5, scene 1. In it, Cato contemplates the merits of committing suicide. The bane and antidote is a sword he places his hand on and a copy of Plato’s Immortality of the Soul. He does not want to kill himself. How could anyone? But if he does not die now, he will have to live in a world made for Caesar. But Plato’s writings provide reason to the universe, which gives him comfort: “the stars shall fade away, the sun himself / Grow dim with age, and Nature sink in years; / But thou shalt flourish in immortal youth, Unhurt amid the war of elements, / The wrecks of matter, and the crush of worlds!”

There’s something undeniably fascinating about pieces of art that were highly influential during a period of history that have been lost to the passage of time now. Cato, a Tragedy is a cornerstone in American history, yet that did not save it from being a victim of obscurity. It failed to flourish in immortal youth. 

Joseph Addison is best remembered as an essayist. His simple prose style was credited by John Julius Norwich as the marked end of the conventional, classical images of the 17th century.  You can hardly believe it with the ease of poetry in Cato’s words. 

What does this have to do with Nightbane? 

Absolutely nothing. I am ninety-five percent certain that Aster found this quote on an enemies-to-lovers moodboard and declared it good enough! Sure, the quote has nothing to do with romance, but hey! Who would go through the effort to research the original context? 

I spent so much time waxing poetry about Cato first because it's a funny bit; but mostly because it’s at least interesting. There’s nothing to say about Nightbane except that it’s bad. But you already knew that. That’s why you and everyone else in my life wanted me to read this book. It has to be bad to warrant any real attention. 

Hell, even I wanted to read this book because it’s bad. Aster’s books are my guilty pleasure, largely because she sucks. Aster writes like she has never written anything before and is quickly realizing that it’s not that easy. When I read Lightlark and Nightbane, I feel like I am thirteen years old and writing my first story all over again. It brings me joy and comfort in a way that’s completely unmarred by irony. 

That’s why I can almost forgive Nightbane for all the times the story goes out of its way to respond or correct a criticism from the first book. Aster definitely reads the comments, and it’s comical all the lengths she goes through to retcon bad ideas or retroactively add lore. It reminds me not only of how I wrote when I was a pre-teen, but how I write now with my way too long, just publish the first draft it’s fine, writing project. 

One of the somewhat interesting ideas Aster introduces is a plot line about the ethics of having your peasantry’s lives literally tied to their monarchs and Isla’s budding admiration for democracy. Of course, she only brings either up because these were among her critics’ common talking points. It’s obvious she has no real desire to explore either idea for all it’s worth.

The democracy plotline ends with a big slap to the face to Cato, A Tragedy’s legacy. Isla promises to make the Starling kingdom a democracy in the future. Why? She personally doesn’t want to be a ruler. She has no problem with the idea of the monarchy and has no real passion for self-determinism. She just doesn’t want to have any responsibility. It’s too much work. 

Plus, she only wants to make the Starlings a democracy. Not the Wildings. She may hate having any form of responsibility, but she’s not inclined to unseat herself from power. She can still be the Wildling’s shitty ruler. No democracy for them. Sorry. It’s so blatantly hypocritical that it turns comical, and I fall a little more in love with the absurdity of Aster’s storytelling. 

While there are a lot of flaws I can forgive, I can’t forgive when the plot “goes through the motions.” Aster clearly wanted to include scenes where Isla and Grimshaw (I still refuse to call him Grim) recite bog-standard dialogue and recreate tropey romantic moments. The lead up to these scenes are vaguely, choppy, and inconsequential. The why does not matter; only these scenes do. 

Except when these scenes happen, they are so generic that your eyes skim over them. Isla and Grim already do not feel like real people. I can hardly call them characters, or even concepts. To call them shadows suggests there is some kind of substance they spring from. I can’t even think of a good metaphor to describe them. 

They are nothing. The plot is nothing. The prose is nothing. There is nothing worth chewing on. It’s not even worth composing a long rant about it. 

It’s easy-bordering-pathetic to dissect a book everyone knows is bad, especially when your only purpose is to explain why it’s bad. Where is the critical thought? What effort are you actually putting into your analysis when everyone already agrees with your arguments? I will always prefer a critic who goes after works that are genuinely popular and well-liked. If you want to win an argument then, you have to work for it. 

Yet, I’m still here doing this. You’re still here reading it. Ultimately, we’re all victims to the smug pleasure of believing that we are not capable of producing trash like this. Obviously, we are all secretly the world’s greatest artistes. We are the next Great American Novelist. None of us are capable of writing anything thoughtless, absurd, or shallow. We are infallible, unlike the sinner Alex Aster. 

So, yeah. Bad book. Really wish someone will let me read a good one soon. 

--

Nightbane by Alex Aster

⭐/5 stars

--

Now that I have finished lording my moral superiority over all of you, here is a miscellaneous list of stupid shit that happened in Nightbane. Even I can’t resist kicking the dead horse:

Oro reveals that he is deeply traumatized from  accidentally killing someone by turning them into gold. Isla proceeds to demand a gilded blade of grass as a romantic tribute. He gives it to her. It’s romantic. 

Oro is rich, has a job, and a healthy group of friends, and is somehow still going to lose this love triangle. What bullshit. 

After emphasizing how traumatic if was for the Skylings to lose their ability to fly, the narrative tries to convince you that the Skylings would choose not to fight a war where them refusing to fight will lead to them losing the ability to fly again.

This is so stupid that when there’s a debate about it, Aster provides no examples as to why they shouldn’t fight; she just states she happens.

So much of the story is just told-- isla’s feelings and motivations, the lore, character relationships: it’s all just told to us. 

Isla is confronted with having to fix the social issues of both the Wildlings and Starlings; instead of solving them herself and learning something new, an extremely competent lesbian volunteers to fix everything for her.

One of said problems is that Wildings, who have plant-based magic, do not know how to grow crops.

Wildings have also never cooked the hearts they have been eating. Like, ever? Not once in five hundred years?

Isla shows prejudice towards the Vinderland because they are cannibals.

It’s increasingly unclear how the immortality rule works about the nobility

New lore reveals that the Nightshade have so many extra cool magic abilities because of lore reasons, and not because Aster likes them the best.

There’s a rebel group that got fed up with the rulers not fixing the curse; they also managed to make no progress in solving the very easy mystery in less than 500 years. 

During flashback time, Grimshaw saves Isla no less than 7 times

There is a night market on Nightshade that has to take place during the day time, due to the curse. They still call it a night market.

There are multiple Nightshade events where the dress code is on a scale from”instagram baddie” to actually just naked. Isla’s clothes are described in detail, but not Grimshaw. I can only assume that his dick and balls were out every time.

Grimshaw seems to also be the only unfun prude on an island of hedonistic extroverts. 

There is a sword that had been stolen no less than three times by different thieves.

New starstick lore clarifies it’s a device (not a wand!), and that Isla can’t use it to go anywhere she hasn’t been before; this renders her entire backstory impossible.

Instead of disengaging a bunch of traps, Grimshaw decides to Looney Tunes his ass and trigger each one by one.

There’s so much on and off screen cannibalism and flaying that neither are cool anymore. Sorry! We have to find new imagery for our toxic situationships.

The plot structure being a jump back and forth between the past and present made me question my own ability to write a storyline like that lmao

Isla and Grimshaw have been married the whole time, in a plot twist shoved in at the last second with very little thought put into it. 

Isla should divorce his ass. I hope Lightlark is a no-fault state. If not, she luckily has a fuckton of faults to bring up. 

[rastronomicals]

  So, how was your day?

I've tried for 15 years to keep this just to music or maybe occasionally movies, but sometimes this shit's gonna spill out. And apologies, that time's today.

You might say I was disappointed by the results of the US election last night . . . but disappointed wouldn't be the right word.

While driving home this eve in my foul mood, I wrote a buddy in the great State of Alabama who I knew could sympathize (and since I dictated to the phone let's keep its censorship):

I feel broken, I feel set free. All my platitudes and my illusions, flying away.

Guess what? We're NOT better than this.

There's no doubt we've got the president that we wanted and that we deserve.

Also angry. I told M--- I was blow something up angry.

I spent my day in between counter sales, surfing across Substack, alternately leaving bitter comments about the piggish electorate, and trolling the exultant Republican trolls. On one blog I told the maghat to 'eat it for dinner you Nazi f***'. On Wonkette, I very pedantically corrected the awful grammar of another one.

Self-destructive I know, but also funny.

I am, I'm all f***** up.

Apologies if you're not ready to read something like this, if I had sent myself this text this morning I would have thrown my phone out the window. But I just laughed for the first time all day, somebody let me in; I was trying to change lanes, so I gave them the peace sign and said to myself 'ah, Harris voter!'

So, some light returning, but still I feel like it's f****** war.

So there's that.

But then another buddy, one who *just might* have voted for Trump, but more likely didn't vote at all, sent me the SOD video, just as a way to say what's up, and listen, Milano might have voted for Trump, too. So I watched the video and some good times listening to some good music came back, so I wrote him this

Okay, it's been a tough day, but I figured out how to get my car stereo to play the music through my phone and I watched the SOD video and that s*** made me f****** smile. That band is so much f****** fun. It's a shame I/you/we never saw them.

Thank you for that

and boy did I ever mean that Thank You, whoever the fuck my bud voted for. And whoever Billy Milano voted for.

'Cause I needed it.

Let it be a reminder that no matter what fucking clown is fucking up your shit, music can always give you an escape, as I escaped for a few minutes there watching Billy Milano stagedive as I drove down 22nd avenue in that weird six o'clock darkness right after DST expires.

But the other thing going on is, I still wanna blow something up. I need to do something.

I'm an old man. It's late in life but I will do something to fight this incoming President and fight this country who so dearly loves him. We'll see what form it takes.

File under: Metal that will melt your face

[drumpfwatch]

The Final Plea: Trump's Gone Full Hitler

Originally I was going to write this huge, multi-part essay about how Trump is bad and how Project 2025 is evil and how he’s definitely going to do it but I don’t need to. Thanks to Trump’s big stupid mouth, and his recent dive into dementia-driven madness, I think I have something that any sane person can’t hear without being worried about.

Trump says immigrants are 'poisoning the blood of our country'

This? This is unacceptable. He is literally saying the exact same thing about immigrants that Hitler did about the Jews.  If you have any moral fiber whatsoever, this should be the thing that gets you to see Trump for what he is. A fascist.

“But,” you say, “what if he’s just talking? He obviously doesn’t believe that! They’re just words!” And with all do respect I do not fucking care. There are only two possibilities here: either Trump is an actual honest to god fascist who legitimately sees the “pure blood of the American people” being threatened by the existence of brown people who want to breed us out of existence, or he knows his fan base does and is happy to rile them up with this kind of talk. And at the end of the day, that is a distinction without difference.

This sort of rhetoric breeds anger and violence, and keeps him nice and distant. He can claim that all he did was tell people to protest “peacefully and patriotically” ignoring the two months he spent before that lying and riling them up. Stochastic terrorism at its finest, on display at its worst on January 6th. It’s funny how many republicans I can encounter who can identify, say, Alex Jones’ rhetoric as inflammatory and inciting but immediately shut their brain off when Trump starts doing the exact same thing. 

Honestly the fact that he’s cultivated a following like that should’ve told you all you needed to know in the first place. No other President’s fan base has attacked a federal building and interrupted government actions about their candidate losing. No President has been so butthurt by a loss that he shot over 60 frivolous lawsuits off that were all pretty quickly defeated because his people wouldn’t tell the lies they told to you under oath. You don’t get that kinda crazy by accident, you cultivate that.

Even if Trump himself were a good guy (he’s not), and had no intention of putting immigrants in camps (which he already did), his base - those lunatics he counts on to commit insurrections for him - are more than happy to do the dirty work. 

But how do I know that? Because they already have. After Trump broadcasted the story about Haitian Immigrants eating dogs and cats, those places supporting them received bomb threats. Bomb threats that would continue for two days and be followed by the homes of those immigrants being vandalized. Threats so serious and numerous the children needed police protection just to go to school. Haitian immigrants who are there legally, by the way. Haitian Immigrants who were invited to Springfield, by Springfield, to take up jobs that the white folk there are apparently too good for. Jobs that benefit the community. These are people who have already suffered immensely and now they have a target on their back because of a bullshit racist story that isn’t even true. That’s right, the person who started this whole mess admitted they made the whole thing up! But the MAGAts don’t care, and neither does Trump, because he keeps spewing this god damned lie. 

Why? Why would he do that? Why push this fake story so hard? Because Trump wants to scare you into voting for him, and whether or not he actually holds to the Nazi Propaganda of the Great Replacement, he is absolutely fine with all the suffering it’s causing as long as it helps build up the Fear Wave he’s hoping to ride into the White House on. 

It’s the same reason he keeps lying that we’re in the worst crime wave of all time, ever, when crime is the lowest it’s been in 50 years. There is no migrant crime wave because migrants are, as a whole, less likely to commit crime. 

That’s why I say if you have any moral fiber what so ever, you’d have dumped him. You’re willing to sacrifice the wellbeing of over 70% of the population of women, blacks, LGBT people and other minorities on the altar of Trump, and for what? 

No, really. For what? The economy?

Trump only cares about the economy in as much as it helps him. That’s why the man who promised to drain the swamp of financial corruption appointed the freaking CIO of Goldman Sachs as his Secretary of the Treasury. No, it’s not because Mnuchin knew what he was doing, he had never worked with public funds once in his life. It was because he knew how to get rich people more money. That’s why the only thing that benefited from him was the stock market. Which, by the way, is doing even better under Uncle Joe. Every other measure of wealth indicated hard times for the middle class specifically. The unemployment rate, the deficit, housing prices and more. All of these things were worse under Trump.

Now, I understand that the economy is complicated. A whole bunch of things affect it and not every bad thing that happened under Trump was his fault (in the same way that not everything that happened under Biden was his either). COVID in particular really screwed everything over, and while he didn’t exactly handle the crisis well he didn’t exactly manufacture the disease for funsies either. That said, if Trump gets to take responsibility for the $1.00 gas prices that happened during lockdown because people weren’t driving all that much, then he also gets to take on the responsibility of the hundreds of thousands of jobs that were lost because of it too. 

And that’s the crux. If Donald Trump were truly actually good for the economy, there’d be no room to equivocate. A healthy economy raises all ships, and his did not. That’s what you’re willing to summon at that altar. Mediocrity.

Besides, we know for a fact that some of the things he specifically did were bad. Those tariffs on China hurt American manufacturing arguably more than they hurt China. After all, tariffs end up being a tax on the consumer. All those promises he made to rebuild and protect American industries? He never did any of that, because that would require tax money and empowering workers, and his rich friends really don’t like either of those things. I know, a politician lied, truly a shocker! But if he actually gave a damn about the poor and working class, if he actually cared about the economy, he would’ve done something besides making his merchandise in China. But he doesn’t care about the working class except for how he can abuse them to get what he wants out of them. Every Trump Supporter who isn’t directly working for him is, in his mind, a gullible mark who exists purely to be a tool. Trump does not care about you.

And, you know, even if it were true - that Trump were great for the economy - you know who was? HITLER. While he was chancellor Germany had a 100% employment rate! Of course that was partly because they kicked all the Jews and women out of their jobs and had the unemployed men take them over, but that’s still a pretty impressive success. He also generated an astounding amount of wealth for his people by fueling his Wehrmacht and invading other countries. It was this stability he offered, contrasted with the horrific death of the Papiermark after the First World War, that allowed him to get enough people behind him to seize power. Because most Germans didn’t actually want to exterminate all Jews, but they did want to buy a loaf of bread for less than a bajillion dollars and were willing to look the other way for the sake of that.

Now, I’m not saying Trump is Hitler, or that we’re in as equally perilous a situation. 1920s Germany was 1920s Germany, Hitler was Hitler and there will never be another monster like him. But Trump is his own monster, and whatever color his soul is, whatever he actually believes, he has surrounded himself with people who are all too eager to commit treason in his name. 

Literally, is that worth it to you? What price could possibly be worth putting the worst thing to happen to American Human Rights since Dredd-Scott into office? What good does he bring that are worth the continued strength of our democracy? What policies has he enacted that make supporting him worth it? The death of Roe v Wade, the Muslim Travel Ban, the decreasing enrollment of minorities due to the peeling back of affirmative protections, the encouragement of book banning, the aggressive attacks on free press that accurately report on his crimes? The violent use of police to silence peaceful protests? The Supreme Court that gave him the powers of a King while stripping power from other branches?

Or maybe you’re excited for what he plans to do! Like restoring the Alien and Sedition Acts to evict migrants. You know, those horrible blights upon our country? The ones that allowed us to imprison innocent Japanese citizens in camps just because they were Japanese, or allowed the government to restrict the free press because it didn’t say what they wanted it to? Don’t pretend that he won’t, or that he can’t. It’s happened before so it can happen again, and now that the guard rails are gone, there’s no stopping him. This country has done darker things under better presidents than he, and if you think the lackies he’s going to staff as much of the government as he can with are going to stop him this time, then you are a gullible tool. 

That’s right! If Trump’s in office, expect, at the very least, rigged trials against his opponents, terrifying police oppression of non-violent protests and crimes! So many crimes! Crimes from Trump! Crimes from his friends, his family, his loyal mooks! Crimes for everyone! Crimes that are immediately pardoned - or even pardoned beforehand! How exciting! And if he does even part of what is in Project 2025 - which he’s very likely to - then expect wonderfully horrible stupid things like total federal bans on birth control, females getting arrested for crossing state lines while pregnant and teachers being put in jail for calling their student “Sam” instead of “Samuel” because their parent never signed a permission slip for that. 

This is not hyperbole, this is not conjecture of a potential future, these are things that have already happened because of Trump, and things he has said he was going to do. Do you believe him? Because it’s the one thing I believe him on, because he did them all before and people like Trump only ever get worse.

What reason do you have to support this man? Do you think Harris is going to be worse, somehow? Harris, the most pliable politician we’ve had in decades - for better or worse? What, is she gonna let the woke mob take over America? The woke mob that barely exists? How terrible, people might have to treat Transfolk with the respect they deserve! Truly, a nightmare! 

For the record, no one has been arrested for any trans discrimination law. Because most of those laws simply add transpeople to the list of people who are considered valid targets for discrimination/hate crimes. So if you weren’t planning on burning down a transperson’s house or denying them a job because they’re trans, you don’t have to worry about being arrested/fined for not liking transpeople. You’re allowed to be a bigot in your own house, just like bigots always have been, that hasn’t changed. I promise no one’s going to arrest you for deadnaming and misgendering a trans person. The fact that people won’t LIKE you for doing that, well, that’s a problem you just have to deal with if you really believe in free speech, now isn’t it? 

What other reasons are there to think Kamala is worse than Trump? Do you think she’s a Marxist? I’ve heard people call her that before and it’s fucking hilarious to me because it displays either a profound ignorance of what Marxism is, a profound ignorance of who she is, or both. Yes, Kamala’s dad was a Marxist. He also barely talks to her - Kamala refers to their relationship as “strained but cordial,” - in part because his daughter is an avid participant in the free market. If you want to know who's a Marxist, you ask a Marxist. And if my experience has taught me anything, it’s that most of the Marxists don’t like Harris at all.

Of course people like Jordan Peterson have twisted the meaning of the word around so hard that it doesn’t mean anything anymore anyway. I’ve heard people call DEI initiatives Marxist because they don’t like it when people don’t agree with them? Because they don’t understand that calling an action racist doesn’t mean the one who did it was racist? Look, this stuff is complicated and I’m not going to litigate it right now, but the whole point of DEI isn’t to brainwash people into believing white people are all secretly evil. It’s meant to spread awareness so that people don’t accidentally say stupid, hurtful stuff because not everyone has the time of day to research the entire history of racism in America. The more important point here is that whatever you wanna call it, it’s not Marxism just because both Marx and your DEI speaker both get mad at you for disagreeing with them, and no one is teaching Critical Race Theory to children in school.

But to be clear - if we define Marxism as “extremely to the left,” she’s not. Entire progressive cultures are furious that Joe stepped down because Kamala turned her back on them. They felt they had a chance with Joe, but they definitely don’t think they do with her. A lot of leftists are disappointed in her. You should’ve seen how pissed they got when she said she’d appoint republicans to her cabinet. Anyone putting her in the same category as Angela Ocasio-Cortez or Bernie Sanders is either ignorant or malicious. Conversely, if by Marxist you mean  the economic system by which the means of production are owned and controlled by the working class and that profit thereof is evenly distributed amongst all beneficiaries, be it at the company level or the governmental level, Kamala Harris does not believe that, never has, and probably never will. The PACs who back her campaign are way too interested in continuing the status quo to let her do that. 

And that’s what this is about, isn’t it? I’ll admit it, Kamala Harris may be a change in the Democratic Party, appealing to patriotism in ways the democrats haven’t in a long time, breaking with certain party lines where it’s convenient but she’s not ever going to completely contradict party orthodoxy, not at this point. She chose Tim Walz instead of Josh Shapiro like the party wanted her to, but she didn’t choose, say, Bernie Sanders or even Pete Buttegig. She still plays the system, and at this point I think both sides can agree the system is broken. 

And hey, Trump does offer a new system! But that new system is fascism, and if that’s what you want, then, well, I guess I can’t stop you. But if it’s not what you want, if you want to guarantee American democracy will prosper as democracy, vote for someone else. And if you want that vote to matter, vote for Kamala.

You have the right to vote for whoever you want. I can’t stop you, and I won’t. This essay doesn’t exist to deny you that right. But I want everyone who reads this to know that if Trump wins, his track history shows that he’s going to do the terrible things he says he’s going to do, especially now that he’s kicked out all the people who would stop him and has perfect immunity.

Or maybe not. Maybe he won’t. Maybe Trump will have a miraculous change of heart, realize that he actually has a responsibility when wielding all that power, tell the Supreme Court to reverse their decisions on immunity and tell the people behind Project 2025 to go eat bricks instead of pretending like he hasn’t heard about it for the 500th time this week. Maybe every one of his previous actions was just part of some super-uber-complicated 4D Chess game with the Deep State of The They™ that totally exists and is actively trying to evilly keep him out of power so the evil space lizard jews can continue to drink the blood of sexually abused orphans and destroy things with natural-disaster making space lasers. 

And maybe I’ll win every single state lottery on the same day with the same numbers.

I feel like a crazy person, sometimes. It seems so strange to be staring down the loaded gun of a dictatorship, but history tells us this is how it always goes. But we have a chance to stop it this time. And hey, maybe I’m wrong about all of this. It wouldn’t be the first time. But I’d like to think I’ve grown up from my foolish days believing every conspiracy theory I found online, and feel that I’ve brought sufficient evidence to the table. Trump has done nothing but lie, be stupid, and step on whatever is in his way to get what he personally wants, damn the consequences. And at the end of the day, people tend to do more of what they’ve done, except occasionally more. So ask yourself, before you check that box, what has Trump done? In what ways has he helped this country and in what ways has he hurt it? And are you willing to risk more, or worse, of that harm? And if so, for what? Whose wellbeing are you potentially putting on that altar? Because if I’m right, and he wins, I did warn you.

[redtalksaboutstuffandthings]

The fact that the Republican party is so tied up in Trump worship is the kind of thing that I call funny, for a lack of a better word. Like, Trump lost the popular vote. Just straight up lost. The only reason he won the presidency is because the electoral college is weird and fucky. His only term in office was so abhorrently bad that, despite the advantages that come both from being an incumbent and serving during an active crisis (namely, the COVID pandemic), he lost his bid for re-election.

Actually lost, this time.

He lost the vote to Joe Biden, a man who (even at the time) Trump was calling old and unfit for office. Even if that was true (at the time or now) doesn't matter. The American people decided to put literally anybody else in the White House.

But because he won one election-on a technicality-the entire Republican party decided to pivot their entire campaign strategy. Now, the thing that got you votes was walking in the footsteps of a failed business man who thought injecting bleach was sound medical advice, who responded to a potential market collapsing pandemic by cutting everyone a check for a few hundred dollars, and who (allegedly) stored secret government documents in a golf course bathroom. A man who made his own social media website so he could continue spending all day writing short form fanfiction about Joe Biden, even as Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

Harris and Walz are not just "literally anybody else," at this stage. They are capable statespeople and have gone to great lengths to show people that they're just ordinary folks. Voters are now going to have to choose between "The Vice President who oversaw the war in Ukraine" and "the Ivermectin Guy."

Like, what was the plan in the Republican party? I'll admit, riding the Crazy Train for a few years seems to have given them some gains. There's a lot you can do, when the voter base is unmobilized and you can keep repeating the phrase "woke" like a prayer against the Fae. But-and I can't stress this enough-there's only so long you can keep yourself in power by being crazy at your constituents. I still remember reading headlines about how Donald Trump was suggesting people take horse medicine, while at the same time he was forcing states to engage in bidding wars over life-saving medical equipment. It was madness.

Now the voter base is starting to mobilize. Registrations to vote are up, and they spiked hard after Harris entered the race. A lot of people are gonna be going to the ballots, and they're apparently all hoping for a candidate who's fucking normal. Republicans, who've spent the last eight years trying to gaslight people into getting upset about drag queens or wtfever they're spitting about, now have to deal with the fact their front-runner for the presidency thinks Jeffrey Dahmer endorses him, and their vice president is a known (alleged) couch-fucker.

So, yeah. "Funny" is the word I would use, to describe this election cycle.

[maroonghoul]

Terror Time 2023: Days 7 thru 12

Possession (1981) I don't know what happened in this movie at all, and that's not a complaint. I came for two balls-to-the-wall scenery chewing performances, along with sex with Lovecraftian creatures, and I got it all.

As for everything else, I don't know where the creature came from, or what it's supposed to represent, in-universe or out. Though considering the bookends with Same Neil's employers here, and how one of them had pink socks like his unseen target described at the beginning... Maybe this all a situation similar to Possessor, where because he didn't want to come back, the creature was sent to replace him. After all, how do we know it's the only one? I guess what I'm saying it, this is about a quite literal destruction of the nuclear family. Getting rid of that might as well feel as earth shattering as actual nuclear destruction to the current generation. Though speaking of monster duplicates with possible plans of world domination...

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978) I first watched this around 20 years ago, coming away scared of the idea pod people could ever come for me. Now I watch it, knowing on some level, I became one of them long ago.

Self-depreciating aside, the big thing I noticed this time around was "anvilicious" the theme was. the original movie was about communism, the 1990s version was supposedly about AIDS and the military, and the 2007 version was about the war on terror, all to varying degrees of quality, I hear. This one, I heard it's about the rise of the baby boomers and all the self-absorption that came with it, and we're still dealing with today. But I also saw a theme of city alienation, along with gentrification caused by conservatives. (That "maybe he's a republican" line also aged too well, especially with who became president just a few years later).

The famous ending scene of the movie, (moreso then all other scenes, so the surprise is ruined basically forever), can be a metaphor that if force doesn't make you assimilate, total hopelessness will do the trick.

I'm surprised there still hasn't been a fifth version at this point. I guess one of two main themes they can make it about (destruction of global culture via the melting pot of America) they touched on here, and, as demonstrated in a video by La'Ron Readus (https://youtu.be/9rJt6SeZfC0?si=kUC3A6gm9ysN8Q60), Get Out pretty much ending up tackling that already. Check his video and his channel out!

The other theme I can think of is climate change, but they even implied that here too. How much you want to bet their "dying world" died because of them? That they spent 100% of their energy surviving, they didn't stop and think about the actual big picture of the world they live on? The common perspective on logic vs emotion is that emotion is dumber, and more chaotic and hurtful then logic, but I liked to think of it as a gut instinct about the world around you that, even though you have no proof, can warrant analysis and investigation. That can at least help your psyche, and at most get a new angle on an issue you and everyone else takes for granted but can gain more. Logic is a tool, not the end.

Ending this by getting back to my opening joke metaphor, I'm hoping that it's more I'm nodding off and my duplicate is still a work in progress that can still be stopped. Part of the reason why I write, as well as just watch horror movies in general, is my effort to not become like them. It's helping a bit for now, but I think in the near future, I'll have to do more.

You Might Be The Killer (2018) This was kind of a funny idea. A slasher having a confidant to try and work out how he got to this point. Along with what I think was a subversion of a Final Girl. They kept expecting it from a supposed pure person, but is instead one that is a little too comfortable killing people, even takes to being the new killer more then the previous host. But yeah, they didn't do enough with this to justify feature-length. Honestly, a normal person brainwashed into a slasher, old family curses, the "hero" actually might being the real villain; the Fear Street Trilogy handled alot of the same stuff here, and frankly, better.

Spree aka the most Zoomer slasher ever. That's not an insult, either of zoomers or the movie. It's effectively in the same family as movies like Taxi Driver and American Psycho but with Tiktok lingo. That sound like a bad cut and paste job, but a good cut and paste job, like this one is, proves that really, all these new developments in technology and social connections have done nothing to solve societal problems that have been with us for generations. Scary and sad, but if it's true, it's true. This was uncomfortable in a good way for the most part, pretty impressive for a premise that could've been so in a bad way (besides all the secondhand embarrassment I felt with our villain protagonist). This movie's essentially about a spree shooter, so I don't think it's an accident he (mostly) doesn't use a gun. When he does, it's saved for near the end and a moment that's the final nail in the coffin for him being actually sympathetic.

Given that I'm talking about a movie about social media ON social media, I have to reflect a bit on it. I'm not looking for loads of followers. Sure, there was a time where I thought it was something amazing, when I joined Facebook for the first time. Until I realized that, even though I went to high school with all those my first few accepted friend requests, I had nothing of substance to talk about with them. So now, I'm either trying to find people with common interests, (especially in my area) or trying to express my honest thoughts on a subject I can engage in good faith about. Besides monetary reasons, I never understood being obsessed with having the most subscribers or views. I guess they're looking for fans rather then friends. Like I said with Pearl, it's a pursuit that is over before it's started if you can't find people who want to see it. When it comes down to it, I'd rather make connections with only a few people rather than a chat filled with gremlins. Showbiz is only worth it if you have something to show, not just something you think you want.

Hell House LLC II: The Abaddon Hotel The original was one of the most unsettling found footage films I have ever seen, with a fairly original set up and one of the creepiest clowns ever, mostly because it took the less is more approach. This one got rid of one of those; padding it out with so many people we supposed to believe are stupid enough to enter a haunted house with a confirmed body count! Even the scares felt less diverse; a lot of ghost woman with the same eye contacts.

Eh, to be fair, it's still unsettling, thanks to them using the same set. Sure, the last scene wasn't scary, but hey, it was near the end so they could get away with it, and Tully still pretty much won so...

The Sadness It's either Mayhem, but more larger scale and darker or the Crazies remake but bloodier and with a darker ending. I knew things wouldn't end well for the main couple just from how lovey-dovey the first few scenes were, but it was actually bleaker than I expected. I expected them either one of them to die or both to die and they'd all be real sad about it. I didn't expect one, if not both of them to get infected, and when they died, neither of them were giving a shit about the other. Yikes.

Also, I knew I was warned about the content going in, but I didn't have a reaction to it. I'm weird that way, I guess. I'm warned that this and Crimes of the Future were too intense, and I just shrug it off. But Malignant for some reason, gets me light-headed? Maybe it's more I can't stand hospitals, at least in movies.

The Babysitter (2017) This was super goofy, though a bit too pop culture heavy. I could've done with a bit more satanism, either more rituals or an actual demon. Also, move aside Home Alone; this the real Die Hard with a kid. Yeah, Samara Weaving's charisma is apparent even this early ( and really funny she's in a movie about two years later that has a similar premise but with her on the other side), but my favorite cultist is actually Max. I always liked seeing this himbo henchmen we've been getting the past 20 years or so. The guy who, if he's not trying to kill you at the moment, is actually trying to be your friend. I even been seeing this archetype in anime, so obviously the appeal is close to universal. Though I did find the age appropriate love interest a bit too sickly sweet that it takes me out of it. This was goofy fun, all the same. Maybe I'll get to the sequel one day.

[riflebrass]

This reninds me of a guy I used to know. He wanted to be an artist. More specifically he wanted to do traditional hand drawn animation.

So he went to college for hand drawn animation around 2012. The industry was almost entirely digital by this point but he didn't care. Hand drawn was "who he is" and he took on nearly $100k in debt to get this degree.

After he graduated he was shocked to discover that there wasn't much demand for traditional animator anymore. It's all digital and he wasn't trained in digital. I'd like to add that even if he COULD do digital the actual quality of his art was way below industry standards anyway. He really sucked at it.

Anyway he blamed his joblessness on the industry changing rather than his inability to see it coming and adapt. He had a gig cleaning his church for a couple hours a week and occasionally got some art commissions from his friends for a little pocket money but he refused to get a job because anything other than art wasn't his dream. Both of his parents had to delay their retirement for the better part of a decade to pay off his student loans. Meanwhile his girlfriend was working full time to support them both while he spent all day drawing and watching cartoons. Funny enough this jackass was a hardline Republican.

Anyway the point here is that you should do something you're passionate about but push come to shove you have to put on your big boy pants and contribute your fair share. Whether it's capitalism, socialism, communism, whatever, the system doesn't work if the people who are capable of working refuse to. Ditches need digging. Sewage lines need to be built and maintained. Raw materials for everyday items need to be logged, mined, and pumped out of the ground. Garbage needs to be collected and disposed of. If you can't find someone who enjoys doing that stuff those jobs still need to be filled whether it pays an enticing price or they put a gun to your head.

ANTI-CAPITALIST AFFIRMATIONS

i am allowed to spend my time creating things, even if they are not beautiful.

there is no such thing as a "real job." all forms of work are real and valid.

there is nothing that i need to accomplish to be worthy. i am already worthy.

doing nothing is good for my soul.

i am not defined by what i produce.

my worth cannot be measured by my paycheck, my job title, or a list of professional or academic achievements.

i do not need to monetize my hobbies, it is enough to spend time doing something i love.

i will not let society decide what success looks like. i can define what successful life looks like for me.

[not-so-secret-wonderland]

Hey folks,

Heads up, this is a very politically charged and emotional post, not at all related to fanfiction. I am still planning on updating. I will not let Again die, scout’s honor, but I want to explain where I’m at right now. So, if you wanna read that, cool, if not, expect a short chapter Monday :)

I know not many of you will read this and that’s okay! I’ve been trying to finish the next chapter for Again for about a month now but things just keep happening. At first it was just working two jobs and going to trade school, then my car almost getting repossessed, and then there was The Election.

I was up until three in the morning watching the polls. I cried myself asleep and woke up in mourning. I spent the entire day grieving with my sister, reaching out to loved ones and making sure they were safe.

There are no words to describe it. There’s fury, despair, the need for vengeance, worry so consuming I cannot think of anything else. Every woman in my life is on the chopping block. Every person of color I know. Every queer person I have ever had the joy of meeting.

My friends and I are all queer, living in the fucking South. We haven’t been safe for years and I am terrified of what violence awaits us. I know how bad it already is, I grew up talking my queer friends out of suicide, being the person on the phone keeping them sane after blatant abuse and that was BEFORE the fucker was president the first time!!

I am terrified for the woman of color in my life. I have been for years, but this is abject terror. One of them has a little brother who graduated high school this year. And I am so scared for him. All he would have to do is breathe and that would be enough to end his life and I cannot understand how anyone could see him as a threat. I still see him as a nerdy middle schooler interrupting our BTS marathons because he wanted to play action figures.

I am scared for my niece and nephew. For my sisters and friends and neighbors and coworkers. Even for my republican ass mother.

But more than anything, I am angry. The burning kind that wants to rip everything apart. That bears is teeth and tears off skin in the name of protection.

I want to know a world where we are undoubtedly safe. Where my neighbors and I don’t worry about making ends meet for the month. Where my sister isn’t texting us every week trying to figure how the fuck to be a parent right now. Where my friends can go anywhere they please without fearing for their lives. Where medical access isn’t spun into “gofundme success stories”. Where we are not denied the very fact of our existence. Where we are not constantly looking around and seeing the dead pile up.

In order to get there, I have to make it through this. We have to make it through this.

So, if you are terrified and angry, if you are apart of any minority, please keep living. We have to make it through this.

Be with your loved ones, don’t isolate and drown yourself in the doom of it all. Play a game, watch a movie, get shit faced, anything. Feel your emotions, burn something in a fire safe manner, scream, cry, rip apart paper, just don’t bottle it up. Find joy. Even if it’s just for a second; a beam of sunshine, your animals doing something silly, a funny meme - your mere happiness is an act of a resistance now.

Our mere existence is an act of resistance now.

So please keep existing.

[1surfrocker]

10/14/2023

Last Friday Amy and I went out carousing in Downtown Long Beach. We ran into Craig at The Ordinaire, who I hadn't seen in god knows how long (since before Amy and I were a thing, so over 7 years). Craig lives in Long Beach now as well, but commutes into LA as he's still with the LAPD. Craig's one of those friends I didn't think I'd ever see again, as we're so different (he's a republican cop, and I'm me). But it was really good catching up with him, and I'll have to get a beer with him again soon. I spent most of the evening watching him and Amy debate about the housing crisis and what to do with vacant buildings owned by Chinese Nationals. It was like an episode of Bill Marr.

He mentioned that he hadn't talked to Josh in many years, and that Luke lives in Florida now with Toluca and has 2 kids.

After we parted ways, Amy and I walked down to the lighthouse and I smiled as she ran through the sprinklers twice.

The following day Matt and Chloe came over to record a song that they had very recently written together, a lovely ballad that reminds me a bit of Radiohead's Creep with a tinge of soul and R&B. It was the weekend of their 2 year anniversary, and I was honored to record them for this occasion, and thrilled they wanted to be in my studio instead of out at a nice restaurant or vacation getaway.

We wrapped up at 5 and then Amy and I headed to Sarah and Andrew's for dinner, ate porks chops with carrots, sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts, caught up with them regarding their Scotland hijinks (Sarah spent a month there this past August for the Edinburgh Fringe Festival) and soaked in the hot tub. At the end of the night we played Mario Kart while I slaughtered and Andrew pretended to have a good time.

Lisa came over on Sunday and we watched Fair Play, an amazing drama that kept us both glued to the edges of our seats while we watched the young wall street couple's relationship spiral out of control and take violent turns. Highly recommended.

The work week was slow but steady. I do wish I had some more exciting projects on the books right now, though if this deal with Raffael in Argentina goes through, that would give me a much needed jolt! We'll see.

Yesterday, there was an interesting incident with a crazy customer who was asking me to price match what looked to be a fake Vintage King listing for used Adam S3XH's almost a month after I sold him brand new S3XH's. He must have emailed me the same message three times in 30 minutes demanding I issue him a $224 store credit. I had to bring Steve into the mix to see if he was on the same page as me when I told him to basically go fuck himself. I was kind of hoping the customer would call me after I sent the email, just so I could bask in the drama. This guy's a really odd duck, always calls me from a blocked phone number and talks in this loud, overly formal monotone. It'd be funny if it wasn't so annoying.

Today we clean the house like crazy. It's finally looking good again after weeks of having all our stuff from the attic piled into the living room. Speaking of the attic, it's basically done. We went shopping for curtains and runs at IKEA last night (what a romantic way to spend a Friday night!) and so I'm feeling oh so domesticated as I write these words.

Off to Niloo's birthday shindig tonight at Dirty Beetles. Tomorrow: Me time.

Cheers!

[xtruss]

TikTok Hearing a Five-hour 'Hilarious Cyber Witch-hunt' By Congress Internet Illiterates: Netizens

— Global Times | March 24, 2023

TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew (center) testifies at a US Congressional hearing on March 23, 2023. The hearing, which was supposed to discuss data security and protection of children, was described by many netizens as a barbaric witch hunt and pure bullying. Photo: VCG

The five-hour US Congressional TikTok hearing has made quite a splash on Chinese social media platforms, with netizens saying it fully revealed American lawmakers' harassing interrogation methods, unreasonable challenges and that the hearing had nothing to do with data security, but was nothing more than an anti-Communist witch hunt.

Many media outlets used the word "grilled" to describe TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew's situation attending the hearing, which Chinese netizens fully agreed with.

At the Thursday hearing, bipartisan lawmakers lined up to throw up several vague, speculative questions at Chew about data privacy, content moderation, child safety, and potential ties to the Communist Party of China (CPC), but barely gave him a chance to respond.

"The hearing left me the impression that they [lawmakers] care nothing about data security or youth addiction, but just used the hearing as a stage to perform a political farce," a user wrote on Sina Weibo.

I have never heard so many "CPCs" from an American than at the hearing. Can't they spell China? another Weibo user asked.

"The ghost of McCarthyism is haunting the US again."

Another source of amusement for Chinese netizens came when Republican Dan Crenshaw claimed that Chinese citizens must cooperate with Chinese intelligence and if they are called upon, they are bound to secrecy. "That would include you [Chew]." The CEO responded: I'm Singaporean.

People shared the feeling that Chew was not attending a hearing, but was being interrogated barbarically by a group of rude internet illiterate.

One Chinese net user told the Global Times after a post on WeChat: I have to say I am sympathetic to Chew, who had to sit there for five hours listening to nonsense and respond to ridiculous accusations. He could have spent that time on more meaningful things, if it were not for the irrational, hysterical US."

"Chew: Spending five hours in gym would be better than staying here," the net user wrote.

Chinese netizens generally felt sympathetic watching a well-educated, decent executive of an internet company attempting to answer questions like "Does TikTok access the home WiFi network?"

In response to that, a Chinese netizen jokingly wrote: "Using 5G is also fine, but first you need to lift the bans on Huawei and ZTE."

Another similarly "funny" question came from Georgia representative Earl "Buddy" Carter, who asked: "Why do you need to know where the eyes are [for a sunglass filter]?"

Twitter user Scott Hanselman wrote: "There's not a single congressperson who has the technical background to ask or understand the questions and answers. Not even close."

A WeChat moments post seen by Global Times read: "Basic education in STEM - science, technology, engineering and mathematics, if not human decency, is necessary."

It was a great moment of disillusion for some people who still have a rosy idea of a US where internet giants like Google are born. But the golden age ended a long time ago and the US has turned from a cradle of innovation into a robber, observers said.

By asking these ridiculous questions, the lawmakers have exposed not only their internet illiteracy, but also hegemonic mindset and pure arrogance - they didn't even bother to really use the app before launching vicious accusations against it.

As for a question blaming TikTok for content on gun violence, drugs and even suicide, netizens urged the congresspersons to understand that TikTok is not "creating" them, it is only "showing" them as all platforms do. "TikTok is not a guardian," one tweet read.

"It doesn't matter what Chew says, it doesn't even matter whether he appears or not. The hearing is just part of a witch hunt in the cyber era, and the verdict has already been written."

— Global Times

[zenosanalytic]

They voted "present" instead of voting "no" because Republicans are turning this into culture war ratfuck-fodder(for instance: see how they're using it to go after universities right now).

Anyone who voted "no" on this Republicans are going to run ads against accusing them of antisemitism, supporting terrorism, and being fine with the Holocaust. Never mind that the Republican party spent all of Trump's presidency blaming Jewish Space Lasers for wildfires in California and microchips in Covid vaccines. Never mind that the Republican party is home to Holocaust deniers and unapologetic Neonazis. Never mind that the Republican party is currently purging every member who refuses to say there's a Jewish conspiracy to replace "white" USians with black USians and non-white immigrants. They know their voters hate Jews(because they tell them to all the time), and so they know their voters don't take accusations of antisemitism seriously, and will think their hypocrisy on this is Funny. To them there's no downside to this: Dems vote against and they can attack them for antisemitism, which their voters actl care about); Dems vote For it their own voters will be pissed off cuz they hate colonialism, war crimes, and genocide; meanwhile antisemitic Republican voters won't punish them for their votes cuz the whole thing is just yet another way conservatives are watering down the social taboo against antisemitism.

I know it's frustrating but politicians can't always vote their consciences. Sometimes they've got to think and act with an eye to future elections(which: for allot of them will be next year). We KNOW that this isn't what Dem reps actl think cuz Biden's going crazy over how many angry conversations he's having with them --and voters, and funders-- about Israel's Gaza invasion right now. Absolutely pressure these people, but don't look at this vote in isolation when deciding what you want to do in 2024.

If you see your rep here, call them and tell them that you no longer will vote for them next election. This is ridiculous. Who the hell passes a law about having a political opinion other than fascists.

[supernatural-bias]

Teasing a character could be /r or /p and any character, any fandom.

first excuse to do something star wars related!! hell yeah!

•Obi Wan doesn't understand why you are so set on acting like this in battle

"(Y/n), why do you always—" He blocked another blaster shot with his lightsaber. A grunt slipped from his lips, strands of his hair falling in his face. "—insist in this frivolous banter." He spared only a moments glance at your grinning figure before continuing to send the enemies ammo flying back at them. He heard your laugh. Along with the sound of your own blaster sounding out and hitting its mark.

"Because it's funny." You shrugged, doing a brief drop to avoid a red streak of deadly heat. Obi Wan rolled his eyes abd twirled his saber. You reminded him so much of Anakin sometimes. Just less physically and tactically reckless. That personality trait lied all in your verbal department.

•It's not just durring fights with speratist scum that you choose to make comments that—more often than not—fly over Obi Wans head

•Not because he didn't understand the jabs you made at him that is, trust me with a Palawan like Anakin he knew a quip when he heard one, but moreover the fact that you genuinely didn't mean to upset him. Like your teasing was just a way of bonding with him. After so many years fighting in battles and now a galactical war he wasn't used to having such a casual relationship with someone outside of the force

•Truth be told the action of your verbal berating never really upset him. In fact he had come to like it over time, the feeling increasing as he spent more and more time by the side of famous republican General (Y/n)

•The problem lied within one of the Jedis most important rules of code. To not form attachments

"I've been meaning to ask Kenobi. Whatever happened to that mullet of yours? I liked the look you were going for. Like uhhh, a middle aged dad having a mid life crisis." You moved your generals cap aside to scratch at your scalp, pace matching Obi Wans as the two of you strolled down one of the Jedi temples many hallways.

"Oh? Do you not like my new haircut (Y/n)?" He meerly hummed, stroking at his well trimmed beard absent mindedly. You mocked his tone with a funny voice, a smug and satisfied smile breaking out once you coaxed a small chuckle out of the auburn haired man.

Obi Wan caught himself before he could more however, suddenly straightening up and clearing his throat.

"Now, what did the council send you to tell me, General?"

You frowned slightly at the sudden change in attitude and title. But you relented, indulging him in your point of business; albeit with less of a pep in your step.

•Sometimes he wished you weren't so entertaining. Obi Wan hated the thought of losing someone else close to him. Someone he couldn't save. It only made it worse that Anakin had blossomed a similar relationship with you as he had, his walls coming down bit by bit every time he continued to meet you

•It got to the point where he'd be meditating almost daily; seeking help from Yoda about his predicament without directly mentioning your name (although the elder master had an inkling of an idea who Obi Wan spoke of)

•But for now, he had resulted in enjoying those fleeting interactions as much as he could, only wishing he could show how much you make him want to smile without straying from the Jedi

[beatrice-otter]

Heyyy I hope this isn't weird, but I just wanted to thank you for your addition on that post about global warming where you draw out (more clearly and succinctly than I've really seen put in layman's terms before (especially without undercutting importance)) how doable tackling climate change could be. You just put it very well and it managed to calm a panic attack I didn't know I was having. 10/10 post just wanted to thank you for it, I hope you have a beautiful day fam 💜

You're welcome! I get so frustrated by how doom-centered most rhetoric around the environment is. I get it; people are trying to scare the "global warming is a hoax" people into changing their minds. "Maybe if we scare them enough they'll stop saying it's a hoax!"

But the thing is, you can't scare someone with something they don't believe in. Climate change scares us, so we assume it's scary to everyone. And it isn't! That's like fundamentalist Christians whose main motivation is fear of hell going up to an atheist and telling them they're going to hell. The atheist doesn't care! The atheist is much more likely to think it's funny than be scared by it! It's not going to make the atheist go "oh, whoops, I believed the wrong thing this entire time, you're so right, I should convert to fundamentalist Christianity immediately!"

In the same way, there is absolutely no consequence of climate change that will convince a denier. You tell them the glaciers are melting, they'll say "no, they can't be melting because this specific one is growing by a teeny tiny amount, so hahahaha you're wrong!" And they're not just saying that, they absolutely believe in it. It is an article of faith with them.

You know who does get scared by all the focusing on the horrors of what will happen if we don't change our act and start fixing things? The people who care about the environment! The people who haven't bought into the big lie! And you know what that constant fearmongering does? Makes us depressed! You know what depressed people are shitty at? Organizing and working on a problem! So the doom-and-gloom focus (even when it's accurate on probable consequences if we don't drastically change things quickly) is actually counter-productive. It's not going to change the minds of the deniers, and it is going to discourage everyone else.

(Side note: the reason you hear so much focus on that, and not the stuff that is actually being done to make a difference, is the same reason Facebook's algorithm so heavily privileges stuff that outrages you--when you're upset, you're more likely to click that link and read the article, which boosts page views and advertising and the likelihood that you'll subscribe.)

So, you may ask, if we want to get the deniers to stop obstructing us, and scaring them isn't going to work, what should we do?

And the answer is, figure out a concrete way in which climate change is undeniably affecting the things they care about, and focus on that till you get them on board with a solution to that particular problem. So, for example, Stacey Abrams got Georgia to pass legislation on an environmental issue that focused on ameliorating climate change, with local Republican support, by not talking about climate change. Instead, she talked about the increase in property damage to homes and businesses along the coast due to a rising sea level and increased storm damage. Those Republicans still don't believe in climate change as a thing. But they do believe in the amount of money they and their constituents have spent to rebuild after storms, and how much that amount has increased in recent years.

But you can't do that if you're freaking out about our inevitable doom, or so depressed by it that you have no energy to do anything.

[catonline878]

21st Anniversary of mgs2

There are three different ways I have tried to explain Metal Gear Solid 2 to other people in my life in an attempt to get them to understand my love for it. One narrative I tell is "a cowboy possessed by the ghost of his ex-boyfriend's son betrays and tries to kill the former president of the United States (who is in a Doctor Octopus suit and dual wielding sci-fi katanas named "Democrat" and "Republican") using a giant robot". This is a true fact about the game, makes a funny story, and is hilarious every time. Another narrative I tell is a shitty, emotionally dishonest philosophical reading of the game or a vague metaphor for the effect that it had on me. Finally, I have been, on occasion, typically on late night Discord calls where all members are too tired to hold up barriers, been brave enough to tell the truth of what this silly little spy game is to me.   Metal Gear Solid 2 is the most game of my adolescence ever. I have spent my childhood and many of my teenage years blending into a person that I should be, I should be a straight, cisgender, Christian man who is nothing but quiet and respectful and whose opinions are informed strictly by those around them. A person who dresses in jeans and a t-shirt because its inoffensive and masculine. A person who holds the things they feel in their heart and the things they hear in church in contention with each other in their head forever unresolved. A person who nods their head at everything their parents say about American politics.   MGS2 was not the beginning of my individuation as a person, I played it when I was 16 it'd be real bad if that hadn't started earlier, but what it did do was turn it into a mission statement and something I actively strive for. Raiden's journey towards self-definition, presented in a manner that only video games could present, is simply one of the coolest things ever done in a video game. Comparing the clash between the illusory freedom of action video games have and their inherently restricted rulesets to the way that wider systems of cultural control box how we can define our own identities is simply the coolest meta shit ever.   When I showed the game to my friend once she joked after seeing its ending in which Raiden is asked to choose his own name, "of course you, who is in a different state with questioning their gender every 3 weeks thinks this is like the best game ever". Was a little out of pocket, but also probably the simplest and most genuine TLDR this post could have.   Thank you Metal Gear Solid 2, now for the love of god please make the game accessible on modern consoles, I personally have access to 2 copies of the game so I’m good to go but the fact that the general public can't play it unless they own outdated hardware or are “in the know” makes me immensely sad.

[eldritchamy]

I watched “Happiest Season” and no it fucking wasn’t.

Here’s a review so you don’t have to suffer like I did: if I wasn’t watching it as the host of a movie night, I would not have made it past 20-30 minutes in.

It was very uncomfortable to watch.  I feel like I just spent two hours on a plane with a crying baby.  Except the baby was a homophobic rich white Republican that I was forced to campaign for.  All of the people I watched it with, including myself, found it stressful, anxiety inducing, and deeply unpleasant.  The first thing I did when it was over was warn my best friend not to watch it.

90% of the movie is rich white straight people drama forcing lesbians into the closet.  It’s not fun.  It’s not happy.  It wasn’t enjoyable.  At all.  Watching this was an uncompromisingly depressing and miserable experience.

It was marketed as a romantic comedy and it was neither of those things.   I feel repressed for having seen it.  

Every relationship in this movie is toxic and hard to watch, with the sole exception of two other characters who aren’t part of the family both having much better chemistry with Kristen Stewart’s character than her girlfriend.

Aubrey Plaza playing Gay Aubrey Plaza one of two redeeming things in the movie and she’s in it for about ten minutes, and even one of her scenes was hard for me to sit through (the awkward and dubiously written drag bar scene)  The other 90 minutes are agonizingly drawn out and unbearable.

If you are determined to support this movie because god knows we need more (and MUCH better) representation and we live in a hellscape where money is the only way to ask for such things, press play on it and then take out your headphones and go read a book instead until it’s over.

For your own sake please do not watch this.  

I genuinely can’t tell who it’s even FOR.  If anything about this movie resonates with you, I am SORRY to hear that, because you are probably the lesbian daughter of a very rich white man running for office as a Republican, and watching any of the rich housewife reality shows probably gives you PTSD because those are the kind of people you grew up with.  

And even IF that is the case, spare yourself the trauma of watching your own life and watch something else instead.  This movie will only hurt you.

Nothing about the experience of seeing this was worth it.

Plot spoilers ahead.

The plot is as follows:

Abby (Kristen Stewart) loves her girlfriend Harper (Mackenzie Davis).  But she does not love Christmas.  After a night out together, Harper asks her to join her when she visits her family for the holidays.  Abby says yes, and gets her gay male friend John (that guy from Schitt’s Creek) to cover pet sitting for her. While running a few errands with him, she goes to pick up an engagement ring which looks completely unattainable for a woman who makes a living as a pet sitter.

When they are almost to Harper’s family’s home, she awkwardly brings up that she lied about coming out to them earlier in the year.  They still don’t know she’s gay and they have to make sure the family is perfect and scandal free because her dad is running for mayor or something and one of his donors? campaign manager? is going to be there.  So they have to pretend Abby is her straight roommmate.  They fight about it before Abby very reluctantly agrees.  This is a pattern that repeats until Abby can’t take any more.

The family is like upper-class-Republican terrible.  They are AWFUL people.  The parents treat their children like trophies in a display case, and the children all feel forced into brutal competition with each other to see who the parents will actually be proud of.  One of Harper’s sisters (Jane) is actually an okay person who does nothing wrong, but she’s an aspiring writer who has spent 10 years not finishing her book and she’s played like she belongs in a different movie, and it feels like she’s meant to be seen as the useless layabout sibling, in a cruelly funny way.  

The other sister is a nightmare of a woman (Sloane? I think?) played by a completely unrecognizable Allison Brie.  She’s a lawful evil cutthroat monster who is straight up VICIOUS to the other two, and is especially terrible to Harper, because neither of them even see Jane as competition.  Her own family is the thing she uses to try to be worthy of her parents’ pride and affection.  

The dad is focused entirely on his campaign and is more or less indifferent to all of them unless they aren’t “presentable” and “scandal free” enough to keep his potential donor/campaign manager satisfied, in which case he “expects better of them” until they behave.  The children are like 30.  

The mom is maybe the worst of all of them.  She’s invasive, ignorant in that forceful way where she doesn’t give a shit about anything except her own bubble of reality that she thinks she’s living in and blows past any contradiction to it like it’s not even there, nitpicky about what everyone’s doing, is willfully out of touch with everything she’s told (Abby’s parents died when she was 19, and she spends the movie acting like she thinks Abby grew up in an orphanage made of dirt and never had a Christmas before).  And she will not leave the two of them alone.  She insists it’s ridiculous for two grown women to share a bedroom and gives Abby a room without a lock in a basement that’s bigger than my whole house, while Harper’s room is upstairs.  Everyone is constantly barging into Abby’s room with less than two seconds of notice, which leads to the kind of tension and awkwardness you’d expect.  The first morning, Abby wakes up to Sloane’s children staring at her.

Abby is clearly MISERABLE.  And so are you, because you’re watching this movie.  Abby and Harper are constantly pushed apart by the family, and Harper pushes Abby away while pretending to be perfect and straight for her family.

Her family invited Harper’s ex boyfriend, who thinks they should rekindle things.  Super fun thing that I always love to see in my lesbian media.

While out at dinner, Abby and Harper have another mini fight in the bathroom.  Harper promises she had no idea Connor(?) was going to be there and that there won’t be any more surprises.  They walk out of the bathroom, right into Harper’s OTHER ex, her first girlfriend Riley (Aubrey Plaza, who literally just plays herself and is the only good thing about the movie).

This is the first 20 minutes.

There’s a party that leaves Abby feeling isolated and pushed away.  She goes outside to make a phone call.  She makes regular texts and phone calls to John for support and advice throughout the movie.  He’s terrible at taking care of fish, but he’s genuinely a good friend to her and it’s clear he cares about her a lot.  It’s probably unfair not to say his friendship is the second redeeming thing in the movie.  After Abby gets off the phone with him the first time, Riley comes out from around the corner and tries to be nice, saying she could relate to what she’s going through.  Abby kind of closes off from her and she takes the hint without any fuss and leaves her alone.

The movie slogs on with compounding stress and anxiety and a moment when Abby is LITERALLY forced to hide in a closet and pretend she was sleepwalking on her way to Harper’s bedroom at night.  It MIGHT have been an attempt at a joke?  I’m genuinely not sure because I did not come close to laughing once in the entire 100 minutes of this nightmare.  Harper instead sneaks into Abby’s room while she’s awkwardly trying to get away from Harper’s mom.  That’s where the gifs of the sneak-snuggle from behind the door come from.  Enjoy the gifs because everything that wasn’t giffed is not worth seeing.  Harper spends the night there.

Bright and early, Harper’s mom comes knocking on the door, trying to open it and barge in again but Abby blocked the door with something heavy claiming it was to “keep her from sleepwalking again” (her excuse for being in the closet) while Harper frantically gets almost-dressed and hides behind the door as BOTH parents come to bother them, and the evil sister’s children see her partially dressed through the crack in the door.

Later that day Abby has to go shopping for a present for the “White Elephant” Harper didn’t warn her about.  She bumps into Sloane at the mall, who dumps her kids off on her before quickly leaving.  The kids very intentionally frame Abby for shoplifting by putting a necklace in her bag, and there’s a really awkward and uncomfortable scene with her being interrogated by overly forceful mall cops who are yelling at her.  When she finally gets back to the house, Harper’s entire family now thinks she’s a criminal.

Abby spends the night alone during another (campaign?) party that Harper told her she’d probably be happier getting left out of, and she bumps into Riley on the street and gets to talking with her, still more frustrated by Harper and her family.  She says she needs some alcohol, Riley takes her to a drag bar which gave me really bad vibes and bonds with her there, telling her a bit about her relationship with Harper.  They dated secretly (obviously) in their first year of high school (which implies she knew she was gay before she dated Connor, and used him as a cover).  They would sneak each other romantic notes.  When someone found one in Harper’s locker, she threw Riley under the bus completely, outed her, and said she was obsessed with her so she could go on pretending to be straight.  They bond a bit and seem like they could be friends, at a minimum.  They have a few more scenes together over the next hour (yeah there’s still that much movie left, and if you’re wondering how it could be that bad, you’re welcome for the warning, because I was wondering that too) and they have better chemistry than Abby and Harper by miles.

Eventually Abby becomes so miserable she checks the movie-specific version of Uber to try to go home by herself, but it’s running at holiday rates so it would cost over $1000 for her to leave.  She’s still tempted to do it, and calls John again for advice and says she feels awful, completely alone, and with no way out of this horrible situation.  He gives her some more friendly support.

Abby still needs a White Elephant gift, but has no way to go by herself because Harper drove them there.  So she calls Riley to go with her.  They spend a day hanging out together while Harper is doing some other thing with her dad’s campaign, and Abby makes text excuses to Harper, who then immediately sees Riley and Abby walking by on the street together.  Before she gets a chance to run out and say something, she gets interrupted by something I thankfully don’t remember (I long for the moment this is true of the rest of it).

Riley and Abby bond some more but nothing romantic happens.  The plot only wants them to be good friends, even though their chemistry is really good.

At the end of the day Abby comes in and Harper immediately almost starts a fight with her but they get interrupted again somehow.

I have willed most of the next 20 minutes out of my mind, apparently.

There’s yet another party at this gigantic house because I hate the rich, Abby and Riley talk more.  This is the one with the really gay outfit.  Abby admits to Riley that she was planning on proposing to Harper, but at this point it’s like she’s a completely different person and she can’t tell who the real Harper is.  Riley says it’s probably both of them.

SURPRISE JOHN IS HERE.  He comes in the front door and calls for Abby.  After Abby’s last phone call he arranged for his therapist to do the pet sitting and he drove all the way here just so he could take her home.  Seriously, John has incredible Good Friend Energy.  Yet more awkwardness ensues, while John mixes some awkward flirting with Connor into his poor attempt to come off as straight.  Abby then walks right up to Harper, says “we’re done” and goes to grab some things to leave.  Harper follows her into the room and tries to get her to stay, Abby says she can’t take the hiding and the general misery, the whole experience has been terrible and she’s not sure if Harper is the person she thought she was.  Harper argues for her to stay and says she’s caught between being afraid of losing her family if she comes out and knowing she’ll lose Abby if she doesn’t.  She promises to come out to them as soon as the holidays are over because Abby is more important to her.  They kiss briefly and realize Sloane is in the doorway.

Sloane tries to run to tell the rest of the family because burning Harper’s reputation forever means she’ll be the one their parents love most.  They fight in the many hallways of this stupidly enormous rich people house (this is when “Stay out of it, Sappho” happens) and on the way to ruin her sister’s life Sloane finds her husband making out with another ....campaign person? in the pantry and or closet which is big enough to fit two people inside.   Now Harper has something to use against Sloane.  This family is fucking horrible.  Sloane gets to where everyone else is first, and outs Harper.

Harper tries to swear she’s not gay, and sees Abby watching her.  She silently turns and walks out the door with John.  Harper then grabs a giant painting that Jane spent 100 hours on for the white elephant and smashes it over Sloane’s head and yells at her before falling apart.

Abby and John have another heartfelt conversation where John asks how she came out to her parents, and she said they loved and supported her.  Then he said his dad kicked him out on the street and didn’t talk to him for thirteen years.  He says everyone’s story is different, and Harper was still going through hers, and it was a hard one.  I THINK he acknowledges that if Abby doesn’t feel like she belongs in that story, she shouldn’t force herself to?  But that might have been wishful hindsight.  Abby comes back into the house to grab her things and leave, Harper comes out to her family right in front of her, Abby says it was too late and leaves anyway.  Harper is crushed and the rest of the family starts to see how fucked up they all are.

And then in the span of 7 fucking minutes the parents realize they were shitty to Sloane and Harper and the only reason Jane turned out okay is because they gave up on her, they give a minimal apology to their children, who also realize they were shitty to each other, and then it’s the next day and Abby is there with them, Harper has the ring on her finger, and everyone is magically happy now because the dad turned down his campaign advisor who said she could still work with him if he kept Harper’s “problem” a secret.

Jane’s book becomes a best seller and she’s friends with John now, because he was the only person who seemed genuinely interested in her passion.  He sits next to her at her book signing.  The end.

No, I’m not kidding.

As soon as it was over, I thought, wow that felt like a rushed happy ending that got slapped onto the end with nothing building up to or deserving it.

After further consideration, that gives it too much credit.

Because honestly? after the first hour and thirty five minutes of this hell, Abby and Harper being together at the end is not even something I would consider a happy ending.  I wasn’t satisfied at all.  It DEFINITELY felt like Abby ending up with Riley would have been a better movie.

If I had been told beforehand that a lesbian romcom starring Kristen Stewart and Mackenzie Davis, and featuring Aubrey Plaza as Gay Aubrey Plaza would have been an absolutely miserable experience that was hard to sit through and nothing but unpleasant to watch, I would probably have been shocked and disappointed.  

But at least I would have not seen this movie.  That is my gift to you.  Please do NOT watch this.

It was marketed as a romantic comedy and it lived up to neither of those claims.  Absolutely terrible movie.  The happiest season of all is one where you don’t watch this stressful, uncomfortable disaster.

[ashintheairlikesnow]

Whumptober Day 17: Dirty Little Secret

CW: Creepy whumper, whumper POV, implied whump of a minor, implied noncon references

“Well, Kelly, you’ve spent an hour talking politics, is there anything else you’d like to hear my thoughts on today?” Governor Oliver Branch sits easily in the padded chair behind his desk. It’s a deep, dark burgundy with little brass accents, and not that he intends to tell Kelly Donahue this particular bit of information, but it very comfortably holds the weight of two.

“Well, let me check.” Kelly smiles at him - bright, perfectly-applied deep pink lipstick, camera-ready stylish-but-demure blue dress, legs crossed politely at ankles, sensible heels. Shellacked hair. The cameraman, on the other hand, is wearing a t-shirt and jeans, and looks like he’s ready for a beer at the bar downtown.

Oliver would rather be at the bar, too.

Still, he’s just as camera-ready as Donahue - had his boy get his favorite suit out, a charcoal gray so dark it’s nearly black, while they played Interview. Baldur loves the game - one of the only times Oliver allows him to speak, when he pretends to be a reporter asking Oliver questions, and Oliver loves the sparkle he gets in his eyes.

He loves extinguishing the sparkle, at the end of the game, even more.

The color of his suit is carefully chosen to pop against the chair, and he hasn’t worn it on TV before. It’ll go over well, he’s sure of it. Even Nancy had nice things to say.

The tie he’s wearing - a burgundy that matches the chair with a brass-colored tie pin, just to hammer the coordination home - was wrapped around Baldur’s wrists this morning. There’s a delicious little thrill to wearing it now, knowing that some of Baldur’s sweat is still in the silken fabric. 

He takes a breath, thinking of the way the boy knows how to beg, and how delightful it is to read in his eyes how much he would like to beg for it to stop, but is too well-trained to do anything but beg for more.

The shameless scandal of it all, if they ever found out, always adds an edge to their moments together. Baldur is, of course, as close to a relationship as Oliver has had since he decided to run for Governor.

Got a little annoying to keep paying to keep rumors underwraps. Didn’t cost so much more to simply buy himself someone no one else will ever know about. An easy financial decision, nothing more.

A financial decision that knows exactly how to do that thing with his hips-

“Are you open to some questions about your personal life?” Kelly cocks her head, and her hair doesn’t move an inch. Oliver can’t help the way his eyebrows raise, very slightly. Whoever does her hair… Oliver would very much like to offer them double their wages at the studio to get them to do his hair instead.

“Oh, of course, Kelly. You know, I’ve always been an open book to my constituents, since I ran for city councilman and read my own ‘don’t ask about’ file out loud during a meeting.”

A nice bit of theater, that. He claimed to have gotten it from his opponent, but really… Oliver had written the damn thing himself. No one knows your dirty little secrets better than you do, after all. 

“Yeah, I remember - I was there for that.” Kelly laughs, tucks a bit of hair behind one ear.

Oliver blinks, looking her over. He thickens his southern drawl, one of the things polls routinely find his constituents find endearing about him. Just a good old boy from Charleston, somehow finds his way to California to settle down for good. Really, it adds a hint of sincerity to all is falsehoods. “No. Impossible! You’re hardly old enough, my dear.” It sounds like idle flattery, but for once, it’s all genuine. Oliver’s been governor of this great state for nearly a decade, and was city councilman for quite some time before that, and Kelly can’t possibly have been out of school-

“I was a senior in high school,” She says, almost shyly, apparently guessing at his next question. If he were a different man, he might flirt with her. But what’s the point, when he has someone - something better, hidden away just behind that door? 

“What led a senior in high school to attend a boring old city council meeting? Sure you weren’t such a good civic-minded young citizen as all that?”

She giggles a little, then glances over her shoulder, mouths something at the cameraman. Oliver can guess what. Edit that out.

Kelly Donahue doesn’t want the episode to be aired with her giggling like a schoolgirl at a bit of idle flattery. Well. Everyone has their things they like to hide, don’t they?

She has her giggle. Oliver has a teenage boy locked in his bedroom.

He almost wishes he’d had Baldur hide under the desk for this, instead. Imagines speaking with Kelly, all sincere interest and open honesty, while petting through Baldur’s soft, shining hair, hooking fingers into his collar to pull him up against Oliver’s leg… He thinks about hosting a perfectly normal interview while Baldur is drugged to dozing, right there. 

He’s done it a dozen times with field trips and one-on-ones. Flirting with disaster - with the absolute chaos that would ensue if the boy were found - is exciting in ways that nothing else in Oliver’s life ever has been.

Baldur’s so very good at holding so very, very still for him, and feeling that boy shaking with energy he isn’t allowed to expend, fighting all his own instincts... Oliver had his youthful indiscretions, and there is no drug, no girl, no boy, no drink… nothing in his life, absolutely nothing, feels as good as knowing that Baldur’s entire body is begging him to move - and one word from Oliver means he can’t.

And if he does - if he breaks the order, if he cannot help but disobey it… well, then Oliver gets to do his favorite thing on Earth. He gets to tell Baldur it’s time to play a game.

Then he gets to hurt him, and hear the way he cries.

There is no power on earth like the power you could hold over another human being’s very nature, and all for a bit of money changing hands in discreet ways. Thank God for shell corporations, or he’d be in prison by now.

“Oh,” Kelly says, blushing a little, interrupting his thoughts. He ticks his smile a little wider. “I was there to argue about something with the Pledge of Allegiance, actually.”

“Ah, yes. The Young Republicans Club. I remember that whole mess.” Oliver waves on hand, gives a soft laugh. “If you’re still in contact with any of them, I do hope you’ll give them my absolute apologies for stealing their thunder that night. I promise you, Kelly, Scout’s honor-” Oliver crosses his fingers up in a little salute. He was never once in his fucking life a Boy Scout.  A little money changes hands, a few documents are forged, and now he was an Eagle Scout who led community service. Funny how that works. “-I had no idea what any of the topics were going to be, I was too nerved up that night, really I was.”

“Oh, that was years ago.” She waves her hand a little, but her own smile has widened in response to his. “It’s not a problem. I was just… honestly, I didn’t see it at the time, but it was a privilege to see that kind of political theater in action.”

Oliver’s laugh is bright, and loud, and he wonders if the boy can hear it, through two doorways and a hallway’s worth of distance. If he’ll listen for the sound of his Sir’s laugh, to try and gauge when it’s over. If he’ll be waiting at the door to the bedroom, waiting to be allowed out, to be given permission to do… well, anything.

“Theater? I am wounded, Kelly. I was merely being honest-”

“Now, Oliver, I know a bit of showing off when I see it - I do plenty of it on my own.” Kelly laughs, too, and they are such good friends, Oliver and the journalists who come here to interview him. He’s a boring bit of story, honestly - a reliable progressive governor of a reliably progressive state. No wife and no kids, no scandals, no weekend indiscretions. 

Governor Oliver Branch does his job and does it well. His legislature likes him, more or less. His constituency adores him. He’s been re-elected in a landslide. There’s been talk about Presidential aspirations, although Oliver’s never thought any higher than the Senate.

Senator Oliver Branch. 

Now that sounds lovely, doesn’t it?

He’ll have dumped the boy by then, of course. No loose ends. The boy has plenty of skills to find himself a new keeper. Even if he doesn’t, he won’t be Oliver’s problem anymore, will he?

He’ll buy another, then.

He and Kelly chat, the interview going off without a hitch. It’s softballs all the way through, easy-to-answer questions, because no one has any difficult questions for him these days. No, Oliver is a good governor in a good state doing good things with good intentions.

Oliver smiles. The questions are easy and his approval ratings are high. There’s been some discussion about a Presidential run, although he’ll of course be bashful and refuse such an idea. His character can’t take the scrutiny, he’ll say, and everyone will laugh. 

All great men have things they’d rather hide, after all.

Although perhaps not things quite like this.

Down the hall, behind a locked door, Oliver Branch’s dirty little secret sits wearing only one of Oliver’s button-ups, knobby knees curled up to his chest, collar buckled snugly around his neck.

The boy rocks and rocks, staring through the tiniest gap in the drapes over the balcony door, watching the clouds move in the sky and wondering what it would feel like to go outside.

---

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