#but what good is healthcare if I get murdered on the road or I get into accident and accidentally kill someone

[veganhamsalad]

[AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH]

[186-3]

courting antisemitism

so i recently decided to take a look at the latest stonetoss comics (probably because i love suffering). and while i was expecting some content on the israel palestine conflict, what i did not expect was how... standard it seemed. well, most of it at least, but i'll get to that in a second.

for context, if you don't know what stonetoss is, it's a (poorly drawn) webcomic known for having radical alt-right views - meaning it's incredibly racist, homophobic, transphobic, islamophobic, antisemitic. all that fun stuff.

so while i was expecting to see bad stuff, one of the first things i saw on the topic of israel was this:

terrible art aside, this comic is making a point that i usually see in left wing circles: that israel is pinkwashing genocide.

curious if there was more like this, i kept looking, and the comic right before that one was this:

again, this makes points that i usually see in left wing circles. that american healthcare is crazy expensive, that canada tells poor people to commit suicide, and that israel is bombing hospitals.

why does stonetoss, this well known alt-right nutjob, now seem to be bringing up left-wing talking points?

curious, i kept going deeper:

well this is... odd. clearly, stonetoss is trying to say that israel is on another level of bad, even worse than russia, iran, and north korea. i can possibly see someone on the left making the argument that the russian invasion of ukraine isn't as bad as what israel is doing in gaza, or that at least north korea isn't invading any other countries, but... iran??? the country that has a police force designed to enforce religious law, and gets away with murdering women who do not properly cover their hair? the country that props up paramilitary groups in countries all over the middle east, including lebanon, yemen, and yes, palestine?? that's completely ridiculous

but, given how much more israel is in the news nowadays than any of these other countries, i could see why someone would buy this

and now, we're starting to get to the crux of what stonetoss is trying to do. when someone sees this, they might be inclined to agree with it. they might begin to think that israel is the worst country on the planet

and that might not seem so bad at first. but the more you hate israel, especially irrationally, the more you feel allowed to dehumanize those who support it. the more you might be willing to agree with this comic, which came out two days prior to the one above

this comic says that jews, as a whole have no desire to exist with other people. it is blatantly antisemitic

i'm sure you could imagine some young leftist who sees the comics above this one and thinks, "this guy makes some good points". and then, when they get to this one, they might realize that this is antisemitism

or, they may not.

and that would start them down the road to becoming an antisemite.

this is what stonetoss and other alt-right nutjobs are hoping to achieve. to take left wing fury at israel, and direct it at jews.

we saw it with those neo-nazis at the palestine rally, and we're seeing it again here.

and if you've found yourself agreeing with what stonetoss has said so far, i would like you to see the last comic stonetoss put out before october 7th:

this horrifically racist comic is in reference to an environmental activist who was murdered by a black man in early october. this blatantly racist garbage is the kind of stuff stonetoss usually puts out.

but as soon as october 7th happened? these were his next two comics:

stonetoss completely changed the comic's tone as soon as the current crisis started. why?

to get as many people as possible to get on board with hating jews.

and i know many of you might be thinking that "well, everyone knows that stonetoss is racist garbage. nobody is going to fall for this"

except, as we saw with the neo-nazis at the rally for palestine, it's not always that obvious who the antisemites are and who is just rallying for peace. they are often a lot better at disguising it than stonetoss is.

AND EVERYONE NEEDS TO BE AWARE OF THAT

EVERYONE, no matter HOW much experience you have, can fall victim to propoganda. EVERYONE needs to be aware of what people around them are saying, and able to pick out hateful rhetoric, because even the stuff that is just kind of toeing the line of what's hateful is still putting your foot in the door

be cautious, everyone. and stomp out hate where you see it.

[c-optimistic]

For months now, I’ve watched in horror as posts about genocide and stopping a war have stopped and turned into talking points for the election. ‘Vote blue no matter who’ I see plastered everywhere, as though this messaging is anything but a fresh coat of paint over a rotten and dirty and collapsing structure, unable to hide the stench or the oozing of the blood of those who suffer every single day under the policies enacted by the current administration.

I don’t particularly care who any of you vote for. And I’m happy to reassure you I live in a red state where my vote is meaningless. I just don’t really comprehend this refusal to admit that we’ve been down this road before. ‘We gotta save our democracy,’ and ‘don’t you know that we’ll be living in Gilead,’ and ‘how can we save anyone else unless we secure our rights first?’

A lot of people much smarter than me, more eloquent than me, with bigger followings than me, have spoken on this. And I don’t particularly care to rehash political arguments beyond pointing out one thing: when a party stops talking policy and starts only fear-mongering, we’ve already lost. Blame citizens united, blame the Supreme Court, blame lobbying groups, blame dark money, but at the end of the day, the two parties have far more in common than they have differences. They got the time to send billions worth of weapons to kill innocents, got the time to ban TikTok, got the time to make the rich richer, and while they’re doing all that, they have us squabble over scraps. The red guys drape themselves in a flag and shout that the gays and immigrants are out to get them, and the blue guys drape themselves in a rainbow and say actually no, men with guns are gonna force us into nuclear families.

It’s funny, isn’t it. How both these parties get along just fine when it comes to money and murdering babies. But somehow, when it comes to helping vets or giving kids a good education or respecting a small government or caring about the environment or getting affordable healthcare, then the other guys are intransigent and out to get us.

I don’t care for the lesser of two evils argument. I don’t believe that our only choice every four years is to be scared enough to vote for a politician who seems to keep doing the same thing no matter whether there’s a R or a D next to their name. It’s heartbreaking to see people I respect choose to turn away from those who suffer in the name of minimizing damage, as though we’re all powerless somehow.

Most of all, I wonder if any of us truly comprehend what those who suffer at the hands of our policies hear when we say these things. That our safety matters more? That it’s okay for us to halt pressure on our elected leaders for the sake of a democracy that we’ve convinced ourselves we have? Do we think the homeless vet with cancer in California dealing with sweeps by a democratic governor has time to wait? Or that kid with polio in Gaza? While innocents are sentenced to death as a result of a broken criminal legal system and the democrats have—for the first time in over a decade—removed death penalty abolishment from their platform? We scream ‘vote blue no matter who’ and our tax dollars go to bombing kids in shelters, go to separating families at the border, go to funding wars and havoc and pain worldwide, and we ignore that both the nominees are more willing to appeal to the basest of human behavior rather than choose to make the world a better place for everyone and not just a few.

I didn’t watch the convention. I couldn’t. Why this celebrity worship of politicians who have done nothing to deserve the praise? Why turn our political leaders into paragons without reproach rather than what they all actually are: people. People who are corruptible, greedy, easily manipulated, and willing to sacrifice large swaths of innocents for the sake of their careers. Why should we celebrate either of these nominees? Why shouldn’t we instead demand better? Demand real policy outside of just ‘the other guy is worse.’ I know he is. That’s not the issue.

I don’t want slogans and pretty words. I don’t want to be scared into voting for someone I know will carry on a genocide, all in the name of saving myself. I want real actionable plans. I want to keep pushing those in politics to fight for something other than lining their own pockets. Civic duty is about more than harm reduction. It’s about more than merely securing the best outcome for ourselves. It’s about fighting, with each other, not against, for a fair and equitable society for everyone. I don’t believe we are without power, that true change is out of reach. They wouldn’t try so hard to silence us and keep us distracted by fighting each other if we didn’t have power.

And yet, I have no hope whatsoever that we will obtain any meaningful political change. Not today, not in November. Not for those children in Gaza, not for those unhoused folks in California, and certainly not for the average American, who has more in common with her flag waving and rainbow wearing neighbors than any politician.

But don’t you worry, I’m sure in four years’ time, we’ll all have a new bogeyman to be scared of, and we can start this whole process yet again.

[aperfectangelgirl]

tw: mentions of genocide, SA, graphic descriptions of murders, general nihilism and doom & gloom

i’ve always made it my business to be aware of what’s going on in the world.

so i know. i know that the genocide in gaza is one of the most horrific things humanity has ever witnessed. i’ve seen the photos; a little girl’s body dangling from a window, legs blown off. a man who was run over with a tank from the legs up, so he was alive while he was crushed, his insides splattered across the road. i know they are training dogs to rape palestinians. i know that they are raping women and children in front of their families before they kill them. i know that there are concentration camps. i know that the US is arming and funding this campaign. i know that they are getting away with this because most people choose not to see. not to care.

i know that climate scientists believe we will have no fish in the oceans by 2055. i know that this is the hottest summer we’ve ever felt and it will only get worse. i know that one billion people are projected to die, quickly, in the next decade; due to heat, infrastructure failures, lack of food from heat killing crops. i know that AI is consuming so much power that it is an environmental crisis. i know that the bombs going off in palestine are speeding up the process. i know that as the ice melts, ancient diseases we are not prepared for will be released. i know that there are already other pandemics waiting to occur, and we (at least in the US) have proven that we don’t care enough about anyone, even ourselves, to take the proper precautions against these sicknesses. i know that the population has already been weakened from the current pandemic and another one will be catastrophic.

i know that the US is speeding towards fascism; we’re already there. i know that women have lost the right to abortion, and even can be criminally prosecuted for having one, in 15 states. i know that gay marriage and gender affirming healthcare are on the chopping block. i know that tuition rose exponentially over my lifetime because universities invest in weapons manufacturers. i know that rising prices are not just greed, but by design; we are all meant to lose our means of survival, be turned into the streets, and get arrested, because homelessness is illegal. i know that the US’s end goal is slavery for us all. there is no labor cheaper than prison labor.

i know all of these things. i know most people are too apathetic to care. i feel absolutely fucking insane trying to talk to anyone about these things. no one cares. when i mentioned palestine on father’s day, my mom said, “lets talk about something that isn’t doom and gloom.” as if the death of thousands is simply an unpleasant topic, and not something we should care about. something we should be fucking angry about. something we should do something about.

so what am i to do with all of this knowledge, anyway? i can’t do shit. no one wants to care with me. and what good does caring do? it tears me apart. it keeps me up at night.

apathy is what they want so they can continue to kill us all, one way or another; but apathy seems to be the only way to survive without falling apart under the weight of it all.

seriously, what the FUCK am i supposed to do with all of this knowledge. someone tell me.

i wrote this BEFORE chevron was overturned and by god…….

[junkartie]

I'm hearing 2 opinions on Erdogan and idk I wanted to ask you bcs I got both of them from non-natives. So the first says that he IS a good president, there is just too many outside factors trying to bring him down. And the second told me that he WAS a good a help for the country until he decided to care about some other things (colonisation ?) which eventually led to the current downfall. Maybe both are right or both are wrong, what do you think?

(can you tell I love political discussions because I don't I'm just really invested cause you're one of my fav blogs hehe)

Non natives love to defend Erdo which is why us Turks have a whole term for them. Most of it however DOES stem from the second option being true.

Erdogan was in fact a very good leader in his first few years of power, now my family personally never liked him, he technically was in power on the sidelines for 10 years until he became president 10 yrs go. He did many things like make hospitals and healthcare way more accessible, fixed a lot of roads and built bridges etc. Now you may go “jay, isnt that what a normal president is supposed to do ?” Well, yes. But the guy before him didnt do a whole lot, so him doing his literal job was enough to convince people he was good enough to keep around.

As time went on he started to take a way harsher approach. Slowly but surely the price and tax on everything went up. Religion started to be the hottest topic in turkey despite us being a secular country on paper.Slowly festivals became too loud, protests were bothersome, pride parades were sinful, gays werent considered people, music after 12 wasnt allowed, Eurovision was something too embarrassing for our country to take place in, alcohol was a luxury that only the desperate & sinful tried to buy, women were not obedient enough, the legal age to get married was too high, sex before marriage became a big topic, rapists and murderers would walk freely, femicide got to a brand new high and a whole lot more.

This all happened slowly and gradually. By the time we thought to speak up on any of this the i-don’t-even know, 60% yearly inflation rate had worn us down. A dollar was no longer 2.5 TL, it was close to 25. Nothing could be bought with minimum wage. Whatever you bought, you bought a second one for the govt in tax (a phone here costs twice the price of one in america). People who vote for him mostly do so because all media outlets are heavily censored and totally in his favor. He has control of literally everything. Literally!! He hosted a referendum where he legally was given so much power that he can change whatever he wants on a whim. He will confidently lie out of his teeth and tell his supporters that the reason everything is so expensive is because of his opposition (who have virtually no power) + its fine because even if we’re poor we’re closer to god and his supporters eat it up because they have some fucked up parasocial relationship with him.

Right now we’re screwed beyond belief. The election was rigged in his favor but despite everything he either wasnt able to end it on the first round or intentionally didnt so he could win by a higher margin on the next round. The house is fucked, the opposition lost a ton of seats to highly religious islamic fanatics who straight up advocate for sharia law. That and the president literally had an alliance with a terrorist organization who want 15 year olds to get married, theyre also in the house. Its great.

Now we wait for the 28th, but its going to take a miracle for Erdogan to lose. I have virtually 0 hope at this point. One thing is foreigners defending him, but any turk who does so deserve everything they get. I truly hope anyone who voted for him suffer a fate worse than death (at this rate, they will). It may sound harsh, but ive seen no one in power except for this absolute sorry of an excuse, cunt of a man. My teens and childhood was wasted away with terrorist attacks and a staged coup, along with a power hungry man who made every walking day of my life worse than what it could have been.

Basically, wish us the best of luck i guess lol.

[the-firebird69]

**Going after pharmaceutical companies and another group of companies these pharmaceutical companies are ridiculous I can't stand it anymore I'm going to finish up the insurance companies and take his and jamming up his ass I'm also going to send him all the bills of these road all over every character I'm going to hound him and bring him to court I'm so sick of this a****** we have a bunch of businesses we have a collections department and we're going to put it to use against this a****** and I'm going to believe him for other people getting bills collected I'm going to start doing it now but pharmaceutical companies need to pay with their lives they're murdering people and our son is very very sick and it says John remillard a****** and his son. And he needed some of it but not this much he had way too much in the system it's getting to a reasonable level and it's because of the antidote and he's going to take some of it and a little bit but these people need to pay they really do and once it's administered it's going to sit in the system a little bit so it's still working and I'll tell you I'm trying to work him out trying to get it out and we're going to hit them for it and take this pharmaceutical companies it says to go in and occupy all the large ones that are isolated cuz usually big ones are they're going to do that and we're going to surround it and if they get blown up so what we're providing essential drugs not drugs that make you sick I got to do it now I don't know why we're not and he doesn't either I need people to think on their feet and they say that things are being threatened but really we need to we need help to prioritize this is a priority if our people getting hurt by it and I don't know if they are but really if you know that and I know it is doing something possibly you need to help me get it done and for crying out loud I know what it is and stuff is always complaining about that's right they'll switch to something else but we have to start on these pharmaceutical companies are going nuts they got stupid s*** on every channel they're making up stuff faster they can blink he says use it as a way to get rid of the ones that are left after tonight that's a good idea so we're going to start reading and pull all the stuff out and then by tomorrow we'll start taking over there's a few other genre like that they were going to do that too.

**there's a lot of things happening and one of them is John rebelord is a dead man and we hear it all over town people are saying we should sue you and get the money and the stuff and get you out of the stupid racquets and s*** and the light computer and all sorts of stuff you took and they get it too cuz you took tons of stuff from them so thankful for the college education the movie on you shortly and we are going after insurance companies the remainder and the insurance is almost ready to sign by tomorrow afternoon it should be because we're going to have meetings tomorrow blue cross Blue shield should be ready as well if not we're going to sign with what we have and we're going to leave some caveats but they're not going to leave the main portion open it would just be a few areas we'll have to negotiate later but most of it's done and a lot of it is mac and he wants to talk about stuff but it won't change the whole deal and that's good and that's a percentage of the company and the other one is United healthcare and we are in the process of finalizing and we have a lot to say about it but they don't want to hear it and we're pretty much going to be able to close but yeah he says where are the centers of the health centers and let's try to get to the center of it the leadership area. And we know where it is and no it's not San Francisco but it sounds like it it's New York City now it's his first guess and we're going to have to rent some pretty big places right now they're open and he says health insurance and the other big one a pharmaceuticals and they'll hand in hand he wants to rent all of them in New York City that are open yeah so suddenly suggested something that we do that cuz it's going to be big and they have about five really big ones and 10 really big ones in the outskirts I'm going to win the line earlier and they're rented and we give them incentives that would fix things and stuff like that it's because we want to set up tonight all night the guy was not laughing and I said we'll set up on the outside and put the sheriffs of hours and yours on the inside I said no kidding inside thinking about I said probably I said oh yeah we need to do that too with those guys and mac. And we're going to go ahead with this. Brand new Brandy and here comes the wise ass with his bulletproof sunglasses on cuz he knows his eye sockets her phone will the rest of him is super human and he's been telling people that and what we say is terrific and like little boy he's proving he has his mail oh no it's par Avion and we know what that means

Yeah you're thinking about going overseas good we want you to go overseas anywhere anytime make it tonight. It's a letter from one of his jerk offs and he's telling him he's a f****** and a loser and a dead man so everybody died just like you said I've been saying all sorts of s*** about our son like he's lying is not telling the truth and it's because of this computer the end of the letter and said I'm already on a plane by the time you get this I've already made it there and I'm going to be gunning for you both not for him he's just been saying no you're idiots the computer won't work and everyone's going after it and they are and we know they are cuz we were he's going to read and get real mad he's going to start saying all sorts of dumb s*** like our son sent it and the guys here already with a big team and they'll have a certain amount of time before they have to leave or they'll get executed along with the d****** next door I think this is the night that they get arrested and put in prison and they get transferred oh no they get to put in prison in the escape in Central Florida from Stan. It's happening shortly and they get arrested by Stan and his people for treason against them they listen to our son lately and what he said made sense they're going after everybody cuz they're morons.

Tomorrow will be a huge day and it's the pharmaceuticals and it is healthcare insurance and we're going to start working on hospitals again we have two hospital systems yet to take over and we were talking about those no we are now those two are

**Bayview and bayfront but they're both the same yes and they're pretty big it's the East Coast and they got real big when he was here you always keeps happening to him this is the second one too it's a little bigger and he was in it in the West Coast and we want them bad

**healthcare systems and they own a lot of hospitals around the world are 30% of the health care industry and with regards to hospitals and the above to are about 10%. The rest of it we are still in the process of taking over but these two are going to go for first we're actually going to send it up for tomorrow and we're going to nail it and we're going to go over the figures what we tell them is we're majority and we're just going to take over your shares his companies can do that if they have a right reason and we have the power in the right reason so it's either negotiate or they're done and we've been saying that to everybody they're not different and that's for tomorrow and we're going to rent every single place like you said

I'm not picking on the healthcare industry but they're really one of the worst Bunches of people you've ever met but taking stuff from them is easy we must get on it they're horrible we're starting to build more hospitals and we have permits on many of them so we're going to have a meeting tonight with Mac at the event center in Florida he wants to know if you can go and no some dangerous battles down there John Riva Lord would be able to run by you since he has any money to get up there. So what aspect of the healthcare industry says we're missing is huge and we're not missing we go after it with the healthcare system for example University of California to Los Angeles is part of bayfront and we go after the university it's medical school at the same time the whole thing this is language and that's a big place stuff everywhere so 3 million square feet and a secret tunnels and all sorts of s*** he said and it does it's been up there and it's really complicated not to get around it's pissed off by the time you came out. BjA tried to follow him is moving in out of the buildings trying to figure his way out. He looks he sees the trenches all around him he called his people and started grabbing him and figured out what they're doing it's like a war after that boy that sucks it was hard to find your way out so he just looks at buildings that I look for the buildings memorable.

That sounds pretty funny you found the morgue what he's doing is figuring out what people are doing he's asking them and they're freaking out someone's coming by and getting it out of me so don't worry it's just the drugs are on.

I got to set these meetings up for all and we're going to go to nuts on healthcare get them all in one place I'll see what conspiring and I'll try to do military maneuvers I'm going to take him down it's going to make it easier and we'll go after some cash and weapons to have one in facility and more

One more group and we'll have to have it an internationally now for all of it actually is the products hospital products and we want to take a nice big chunk out I'm going to pick the companies we have a running list and we're going to start having meetings every day all day and all night until all of its hours and we got to press for it you're going to be out tonight but our son says they'll be around until it's over and it's going to help identify him and about 3 or 4 days later and I'll be gone it's true too it's a quick burn but it has to be done this timing worked out great. We are ready to sign on several contracts and it takes 15 minutes and we're going to set that up too he said we set up we should set up a block like afterwards cuz it's already set it is already set and we'll set up a block in New York City a couple hours for all sorts of businesses and it starts with

**citgo, and it's good progress to other companies like that like BP, and a huge firm and finally ready to sign and they're ready to sign and trumpsters will pushed out occidental petroleum and gasoline and products and shipping and it's huge half the world's oil and gas, Chevron is still did not sign and finally ironed it out, shell and we did finally iron it out and Sunoco you finally ironed it out, and mobile and Arco Wawa Marathon 76 and about 20 miscellaneous and they're small companies they're not the same company and they're about a hundred small companies after that and we're going to do it in 3 hours and we'll tie it all in together and we're going to have a big humongous international buffet and we're going to serve and we can have our service wear masks and stuff you're not going to reach into those damn things.

That's good for now but those are Siamese is asking if they're already critical businesses and food and water and distribution of such and waste of all kinds gases and plastic we're going to add to the above gases and we're going to make it for the signing because we're ready

**Comgas half the world's gas, and her son seated Comcast is Comcast and it's not the problem is that they plan to sabotage the conduit all over in different conduit too and pipes of all kinds so we're taking over gas and gas deposits everywhere including below and it's a huge huge company it's the biggest and it's coming to us tomorrow at the block and we're going to set aside 4 hours after probably 6:00 p.m. they usually all make it it's New York City and we're going to have this huge ongoing buffet and we'll switch it out every hour if it's not and probably put new platters in a different stuff full bar you have a plastic beer cans this is what sucks we have a mix though it doesn't really suck it says I know it doesn't suck that's a good idea if you have some of the plastic and put them in a separate bin with ice first people won't touch it and then we'll drink all of it and roll two out. And there's going to be a reckoning but there's several gas companies this is the biggest they have equipment everywhere we need to sign on it and we're going to do that

**true gas another stupid name by John remillard and we're going to take it over completely and he sold the shares and we bought them and we're taking the money back and we really need to he's such a huge a****** he's a massive a****** and there's a whole bunch of other stuff that we need to do and we have to get done because that's good with people and that's the most valuable commodity well really our people are not a commodity but okay we need to and what needs to clean up the hospitals are a mess no one can work there and universities are a mess it's a pity they're a disaster zone okay this is so stupid the people that work there are dumb they won't leave he'll leave if we take over cuz we're starting we start enforcing the rules right away most of them get arrested in the first 10 minutes

And for Tuesday and that was the last block last night for signing we are going to concentrate on finishing up food distribution and food production farming food preparation grocery stores restaurants and any other kind of eatery or food distribution area and it is going to be huge we have all sorts of stuff that goes in to make sure it's safe the whole time. Firstly we have a home safety program available at home Depot and Lowe's and the ones we're taking over we put it in and Grossman's has it it's very recommended secondly we are taking over several companies fully in the signings will be Tuesday

**Lane foods it's a huge huge chain and it has a giant number of distribution trucks and facilities I'm going to take it over completely most of it's still in use and we're opening up the stuff that wasn't and we were building homeless shelters too and supplying them fully using this type of facility. And we need volunteers for the service and for this duty new people to sign on please. It's the world's biggest it's 35% of the business and Tuesday we sign it over to ourselves now they signed it over and John remillard is not invited he's fired and his will be let go all of them

**Agway it's the second largest food distributor and farming of the first is a primary outfit too most of the farming done by us right now and they kind of hired out, to us. This company does about 30% of the food production and distribution and that would make 65% is very large they have tons of equipment and like the first one tons of farming equipment huge huge harvesters giant planting machines and we're going to be doing it all and Tommy f is going to ignore us he says he has to he's engaged and Max are working with us no they're not there in this area these two companies are mostly separated from them and more or less took them over we're going to finalize and take over everywhere tired of the dumb phone calls.

**Hello hello hospitals gas and oil we're taking over retail space hotels motels and other retail land and wholesale land let me do that with converting it into stuff to hold our things and we have a lot of stuff and more. I'm going ahead and doing that now all over the world will keep doing it as spaces are transferred over to us and usually it's storage for production or distribution.

**a major manufacturing company the build just about anything and it's acme. I'm going to use it as motivation did they say it's funny and a joke and we are and so on but we need to take this company over they build so many different things for all sorts of companies it's going to figure out for whom and it's Giant it's impressive when it's way too big I haven't been taking it over slowly it's taking too long so were going to take it over now.

I'm going to have you beaten up Johnny Millard you can't tell someone not to take their own mail out and to stop it from tampering with theirs I'm going to beat you to hell every day until you move out and then tell you to move out you don't move out you're going to be dying and losing stuff we had tons of stuff we're going to tons of companies. You don't need you in the way and threatening it's ridiculous and right in front of Tommy f so I want to wait your threatening for any researched it and I'm pulling your people out and executing them immediately

Thor Freya

We are all doing it to you and yours John remillard and I'm going to have you executed and I'm putting the order out now

Hera

Finally

Zues

It's taking way too long we got to get this guy the hell away from him, you see the order I'm sendeing it to Olympus and they're proving it and I'm sitting it out now

Thor Freya

We got it back and we're sending people to make sure he dies and doesn't come back

Thor Freya

Olympus he deserves this and we need to make sure that he stays away so put it out there to everyone and sending teams after him specific ones until he's dust

[forsetti]

On The Right’s Response To Covid: The Backlash of Losing Cultural Relevance

Right now we are in the middle of a surge of the Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus, a virus that has already claimed the lives of 640,000+ Americans. Yet, in spite of hospitals in the hotbed states of Florida, Alabama, Texas...being filled to capacity, people suffering from the virus being sent out of state for care, makeshift patient rooms being set up in hospital garages, and the new variant hitting younger people much harder than its previous version, there is an angry sector of the public that is still adamant the virus is a hoax, refuses to get vaccinated, protests any mask mandate, and is getting more and more violent against anyone who disagrees with them. Whenever all this madness comes up in conversation with anyone not part of the anti-science, anti-functioning cerebral cortex, the following always comes up, “I just don't understand why they are acting this way. It makes no sense.”

I fully understand and appreciate why it is difficult to grasp why there is a very vocal, very angry faction of our country that is actively doing whatever it can to undermine even the most basic solutions for dealing with a world-wide pandemic. Their words and actions defy fundamental common sense and basic humanity. When things like this happen a lot of people respond with shock, amazement, and even anger. Whenever someone expresses these feelings to me, a part of me completely understands and sympathizes. It is when the discussion shifts from, “Can you believe?” to “Why are they acting this way?” is where a discussion about the hard truths need to happen.

Whenever someone asks, “Why are they acting this way?” what they mostly want is some quick, easy explanation to make them feel good about why some of their family, friends, coworkers...are acting so horribly. I wish the answer to this question was something that was easy and allowed the person asking the question to feel good when they heard it. Most people have a difficult time believing people they know, care about are not the sweet, caring, smart people they think they are. The hard truth is, in a lot of cases, this is exactly who these people are. This answer may be difficult to come to terms with but it should be is easy if you understand the big picture of how/why of belief systems, a passing understanding of American history, and a grasp of modern-day conservatism.

The main reason there is a good-sized chunk of American society who are standing in the way of properly dealing with a pandemic is the same reason the U.S. is the ONLY major economy that doesn't have some form of universal healthcare. It is the same reason twenty three school children were murdered in cold blood and not one single law could be passed to protect against future school shootings. It is the same reason a significant number of Republican voters still believe President Obama was not born in the U.S. It is the same reason these same voters believe the 2020 election was stolen. There is a significant portion of American society who have been on the losing end of the “culture wars,” and instead of adjusting their belief systems to adopt even a fraction to meet these changes, they've dug in their heels in order to protest not only past loses but the ones they are certain to lose now and down the road. These cultural loses can be traced back to the South losing the Civil War. More recently, the loses go back to the Supreme Court decision in Brown versus Board of Education. For a good number of Americans, black people are naturally inferior to whites and that is just the way God intended the world to be. How dare anyone suggest or make mandatory that their precious, God-blessed, God-preferred white children be in the same classroom, be considered in any way equal to black children. To make matters worse, a few years later, these “inferiors” were legally given the right to eat at the same diners, drink from the same water fountains, swim in the same public pools, and *gasp be allowed to vote. In 1964, black people didn't have one iota of economic, legal, or political power. Hell, one can easily argue they don't have these things in 2021. Yet, to those opposed to the Civil Rights Act, it doesn't matter what black people really have. The ONLY thing that matters is the very idea that black people can be equal, even theoretically, to whites. The next “L” American conservatives took was with women's rights. No matter how adamant they have been that women don't belong in the workplace, shouldn't be treated equally to men, have no rights over their bodies...our society has delivered them one loss after another and continues to do so. Conservatives feel “forced” to have a woman as the Vice President. They are “forced” to see women referees and assistant coaches in major league sports. They are “forced” to have women as their bosses, doctors, state representative... Deep down, they don't want any of these things and see these changes as a slap in their face and in the face of God because, like whites being inherently superior to non-whites, men are naturally superior to women. People don't “get over” things like this. They internalize them. They fume about them. They build up anger and hatred about them. They do not get over things like this or cope with them. The next major cultural losses conservatives experienced was the election of the first black president which was quickly followed with gay people being granted the right to marry. Despite what the Civil Rights Act says, for a lot of Americans, black people are inferior to whites. For conservatives, having a black man sitting in the Oval Office was like having Judas being granted sainthood or Bin Laden being given the Congressional Medal of Honor. It was an affront to God, America, apple pie, and the ghosts of the Founding Fathers. Instead of coming to terms Barack Obama was president, even if they didn't vote for him, the conservative outrage cottage industry fed their base's already built-in racism to undermine not just his policies but the very legitimacy of his election. This didn't happen by accident or came out of nowhere. It was already baked into the belief systems of conservatives and has been reinforced over and over and over again for decades. As bad as having a black man as their president was for conservatives, it wasn't nearly as bad as gay people being allowed to marry. For these people, blacks are inferior. However, gay people are an abomination. America may have elected an inferior to be president, that can be rationalized as a one-off, a Black Swan event (no pun intended,) something that will never happen again. Barack Obama was a single individual. Gay people being allowed to marry is an entire subset of people and, unlike a one-off, happens over and over and over and over...again. After eight years in office, the black man in the White House went away. Gay couples legally being able to marry doesn't have an end date. It may be decades before America elects another person of color to the highest office in the land. Every day, gay couples are getting married, having kids, attending PTA meetings, being accepted as normal, fully functioning members of society. If Brown versus Board of Education and the Civil Rights Act were the genesis of American conservatives losing their minds, the election of President Obama pushed them to the edge and Obergefell versus Hodges pushed them right the fuck over. Because these two events took place directly after a major financial crisis, a lot of people missed the real underlying reasons why conservatives lost their minds and blamed it on “economic anxiety.” Excusing racism and bigotry on “economic anxiety,” allowed people to “feel good” about the batshit nuttery coming from every pore of the American conservative movement. White people, in particular, will go to amazing lengths to avoid viewing or calling a fellow white person, “racist,” “bigoted.” Deep down, we know being a racist/bigot is really, really horrible. This is why we have such a difficult time calling out people when they say/act in racist/bigoted ways. Yet, this is exactly what has been going on and driving American conservatism since the first European stepped foot in the New World. As deeply ingrained as racism and bigotry are in conservatism and even though it has been this way for centuries, the one thing white conservatives could always rely and fall back on has been the fact they are the majority and had all the power in society. However, since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, in spite of their majority, it has been one cultural loss after another for American conservatives. Each loss doesn't count as a single loss to be added to the total. Because of the personal nature of the issues involved, each loss increases the sense of loss by a factor. It isn't three straight losses equals three. It is three straight losses equals eight. Four losses becomes sixteen. The more they've lost, the more angry they have become. In Trump, they really believed they had someone who was going to reverse this losing tread and put them back in their self-appointed place of prominence in society. Trump knew this and used it to his advantage and in the process, gave conservatives a false sense of hope which is and will continue to be dashed on the rocks of reality, only fueling their outrage.

Certainly, there have been cultural “wins” for conservatives since 1964 but they have been few and at best, briefly slowed the culturally shift. They have never completely stopped or reversed the changes they've spend their lives fighting against. Deep down, conservatives know, when it comes to culture wars, their winning record is in Washington Generals territory. This has to sting. It sure as hell has led to some very nasty and dangerous consequences. Consequences we are seeing played out right now when it comes to dealing with a pandemic.

If you feel your belief system, which in turn becomes inseparable from your self-identity, your self-worth, is always under attack and no matter what you do, you can't get a “win,” you will latch onto anything and everything that might remotely make you feel like you are on the right side of things. If you've lost a bunch of large battles, this means you are relegated to fighting small, often meaningless ones. Conservatives can't win the war against blacks, minorities, women...being viewed and treated as equals but they will damn sure try to win the war over wearing masks or getting vaccinated. Because they've lost so many big battles, making sure they win the smaller battles take on even greater importance. The fights whether to wear/not wear a mask or get/not get vaccinated are not really about these particular issues. If they are, it is only tangentially. The fight is about winning a battle against their opponent, against a world, that has kicked their ass up and down the cultural field their entire life.

This is why so many people on the right are willing to risk the health and well-being of others. The “others,” are viewed as the enemy and must be defeated, no matter the cost. This cost even means the health and well-being of themselves and their own children. If someone is willing to sacrifice their kid's health to “own the libs,” which really means, “win a culture war,” they can't be reasoned with. There are not arguments or data point sets or incentives that will change someone's mind who is willing to let their own child get sick, suffer, and possibly die rather than wear a small piece of cloth over their mouth when in public or get vaccinated just like millions and millions of Americans of all political persuasions have done for decades. It doesn't take much to see just how far conservatives are willing to go right now to get a cultural win. They will willingly inject bleach into their system. They will happily inject medicine specifically to rid livestock of worms. They will scream at grocery store cashiers for wearing a mask. They will be on their deathbed in a hospital, dying of COVID-19, and with oxygen-depleted lungs, insist they don't have the virus. They will assault cancer clinic workers and patients over a mask mandate for the clinic, even though they themselves don't work their and aren't a patient. They will threaten public health experts with harm and death for telling them things they don't want to hear and/or believe. They will literally put themselves, their families, their friends, their coworkers...at risk of a very transmittable, dangerous virus rather than wear a piece of cloth other their nose and mouth when they are out in public. If this sounds crazy, it is because it it.

As crazy and seemingly unbelievable the right has been the past few months with their reactions to the 2020 election and the pandemic, they are only going to get worse. The world where they have relevance and where their ideas are deemed even marginally acceptable is shrinking. There really are not many big cultural battles for them to fight anymore. This doesn't mean they have or will stop fighting these large battles. They do and will continue to do so. However, I don't think they really believe they can win battles they lost years ago and continue to lose. This means they are reduced to fighting smaller and smaller battles-battles that have crazier and crazier rationalizations and justifications. The size of the battle no longer matters. What matters is getting a win, even if it means the deaths of hundreds of thousands of their fellow citizens. Even if it means losing their own lives or their children's. This kind of mindset cannot be changed through persuasion. An individual here or there might change but it will only be because of some deeply personal reason. For the masses, they are going to be who they are. The only thing the rest of us can do is make sure they don't get the levers of power because as they continue to rack up cultural losses, they will lash out in more and more violent ways against anything and anyone they see as being responsible for their losing streak. America has been moving towards this moment for a long time. It is very much at a “make it or break it,” moment where it either becomes the multicultural democracy it has promised it could be or it becomes some form of an apartheid, authoritarian state. My heart is always with the former but knowing how mean, angry, and spiteful conservatives are, the latter is more of a possibility than I like to admit.

[bellaslilpapercut]

The combination of how the cullens behave towards people and how little they care (as per therealvinelles metas) and fuckmeyers metas and how often they are incredibly immoral and strange, what is their motive for vegitarianism? Like, their reasons for why they do it are clear sometimes but what is their internal justification for it? What do they think their motives are?

This is an interesting question!! I think for some of the cullens it's clearer and more consistent than others:

Carlisle: was prepared to die rather than violate the "sanctity of life" right from the moment he was turned. Now, what he considers life is definitely influenced by his (and meyer's) christianity*. He had no qualms with eating animals as a human or as a vampire. He also cares about the shifters up to a point. Based on book canon, he would never kill one of the pack members and he does value the treaty more than the others Cullens (especially Edward) but I think he also sees himself as somewhat superior to them. He ran tests on Jake's blood without consent, valuing his own curiosity over Jacob's right to his own body. But that's a whole other meta lol. Anyway, I think Carlisle, like many christians*, values "human" (he's added vampires and shifters to this) life period over quality of life. He didn't let Rose die because it would have been a "waste" but he didn't consider what a curse immortality would be for her. Alive in any condition is better than dead for Carlisle and I believe that is his core motivation for continuing the diet (and for turning the 4 vampires that he did).

Jasper: I put him second because I agree with @therealvinelle that Jasper might have figured out the vegetarian diet on his own eventually even if he'd never met alice. Jaspers gift made it painful for him to feed and in Eclipse he tells Bella that he went so far as to starve himself for periods of time just to avoid the emotional pain of feeding. His self control still isn't perfect but he is the only Cullen who personally needs the diet, not for moral reasons like Carlisle, but because feeding from humans is almost traumatizing for him.

Esme: her only motivation for the diet is carlisle. Honestly during my reread Esme comes across as nice, not kind, and very nearly agoraphobic. She avoids most humans except for Bella and only works in isolation (renovating a house by herself during NM). She isn't doing the diet because she likes being around people and needs to control her urges and blend, she isn't doing the diet out of compassion (she told Edward he could eat Bella in MS if that's what he needed to do), and she has no physical or emotional need like Jasper to refrain from eating humans. She only does it because Carlisle, the man she had romanticized and adored since she was 16, "saved" her and taught her this diet. She does it for him.

Rosalie: Rosalie is also in a unique position within the Cullen clan because for her the diet is not about morals or need but control. And with her "origin story" so to speak, it makes perfect sense. The last moments of her life were senseless violence. For her, whether she would admit it or not, the diet is entirely about exerting control over her current undead life. Regaining the agency that was taken from her in her last moments of life and in the first moments of her life as a vampire. You can see it in the way she speaks of her record as well- she doesn't care that she isn't killing humans or drinking them, she cares because she has self control. She is empowered by her spotless feeding record and she feels justified in the deaths she did cause (even brushing off the two guards she killed to get to Royce).

Edward: Edward only does the diet for his own internal theater. He's wrapped up in his own unfolding drama- when he turns away from Carlisle he turns himself into a vigilante, scouring the night for sexual predators, drug abusers, pedophiles, and deviants. It's very Film Noir for him. He tells Bella that he couldn't bear to kill "good" humans which was why he went after "villains" when he did break from the diet but as we learn in MS when he fantasizes about killing literally the entire Quileute tribe, Edward doesn't care about killing "good" humans either. Edward would kill anyone as long as the reason was justified by his own theater. He'd kill Mike Newton out of "love," he'd kill deviants on the street to "prove" himself, he'd even try to kill to whole Volturi just to martyr himself and "prove" that they really were evil after all. Edward only does the vegetarian diet while it fits with his self image. With Bella, he sees himself as saintly, "like carlisle," punishing himself with thirst so that he deserves the Bella Madonna he invented in his own head. And of course, a lot of his self image and image of world is warped into a wonky Carlisle shape because he's fully obsessed with his creator. He does the diet in part for carlisle (which we see in NM when Alice "sees" edward killing hundreds of tourists in volterra and then changing his mind so that he doesn't disappoint carlisle) and in part because of his own mental theater.

Emmett, Alice, & Bella: all three do the diet because "that's what cullens do." They aren't motivated by love of carlisle, like Esme, even if they may all respect carlisle (tbh I wouldn't believe that any of them feel love for anyone though that comes down to meyers ability to show genuine love in the first place. But again that's a whole other meta lolol). They don't really care about humans at all as all three have the "slip ups happen, lol" attitude about eating humans. Alice does the diet because she "saw" it, Emmett does the diet because Carlisle turned him, Bella does the diet because she's a Cullen. If edward wanted to leave and go on a binge-eating road trip through every city in america, Bella would tag along.

Renesmee: honestly I don't remember BD well and I'm not there yet in my reread but I vaguely remember Renesmee being capable of biting humans (and Jacob) without killing them. If this is the case, I don't think Renesmee will be following the diet for very long at all because why bother reigning herself in if she can sip on a human with no real consequence of murder?

Of course, I assume Renesmee will still be "vegetarian" in meyers threatened sequel because the out of universe reason the cullens have to be vegetarians is simply, they need to be superior. They need to stand out from those other nasty vampires who are only vegetarians for sex or worse, aren't vegetarians at all! The theme of valuing existence over quality of life is really consistent throughout the saga, from Carlisle's choice to turn the cullens that he did to Bella's decision to keep Renesmee. Its a very pro-life series through and through.

* I didn't want to get too wordy there but I mean the US's specific brands of christianity like evangelicalism and mormonism. In the US, christians value "sanctity of life" over quality of life in every way. (Ergo why it's easier to pass abortion bans than universal healthcare here.) I don't think meyer really paid much attention to historical accuracy when she wrote Carlisle (if she thought london had sewers in the 17th century, I doubt she would know the nuanced differences between modern and early protestantism) so I think his own religious beliefs are more reflective of modern US christianity than 17th century britain's christianity. *

[thedreadvampy]

"But if there's a revolution people might get hurt!!!"

Ok so first off not all revolution is violent revolution so jot that bitch down, there is in fact several steps between "vote every few years" and "form an organised militia to conduct guerilla warfare against the state apparatus"

but also yeah I'm with you, those who are harmed in times of turmoil are usually the most precarious and marginalised - the poor, disabled, sick, unhoused, othered, dehumanised, etc. Revolution often does cause huge harm to those at the bottom.

but you know when else people might die? LITERALLY CURRENTLY. RIGHT NOW. The fear of how, say, people reliant on medical support will survive infrastructure disruption is a valid one. It would be a more valid concern if those people were getting access to their basic needs now.

I remember sitting on a bench outside the jobcentre in 2015 bawling my fucking eyes out at the idea that the Conservatives could win a landslide victory at a time when disabled, elderly and poor people were starving and freezing to death in their homes as an explicitly deliberate result of Tory policy. And things have got a lot worse over the interceding decade. Right now a lot of lifesaving medication is straight up unavailable and people are waiting over a year for urgent surgeries.

Is it so different, starving or dying or being imprisoned at the hands of the status quo, to starving or dying as an unwanted side effect of change, that the hypothetical possibility of harm from revolution is enough to outweigh any amount of death, trauma and deprivation in reality?

It's good to be concerned about who might be unintentional casualties of a revolutionary act. The next step after that isn't to write off the idea of any kind of action, it's to think about ways to mitigate and minimise that harm. Let's talk about who might be harmed if you block a road or blow up a pipeline, and then we can plan to negotiate emergency passage, or build up mutual aid support in areas affected by blackouts, or consider which wires to cut to shut down an arms factory without blacking out the neighborhood, or look at alternative food and medicine provisions during an action which might limit them.

We probably can't see a revolution which fully avoids harm to human life. We absolutely can plan revolutionary action which does less harm than the murderous systems it opposes.

"but what about the people you might hurt" should always be the first question, not the last. if you're so worried about the fallout of revolutionary action, the best place to be is in the midst of organising it, so you can make sure that those concerns are accounted for.

People are already being killed and wounded. tens of thousands in Palestine, of course, but closer to home too, hundreds killed crossing the Channel every year, thousands kept in internment. Millions living in the everyday injuries of traumatic poverty. A third of UK children born after 2010 are malnourished. People are being denied healthcare through austerity, underfunding and means testing. A majority of the country live in houses which are so poorly maintained that it's making us sick, and with the stress of precaution that comes from living month to month.

We are privileged by our relative safety in the imperial core but nonetheless a huge, huge chunk of our population are dying deaths of poverty and neglect, and marginalised people particularly are increasingly subject to direct state violence as well. The great political project of this government is literally to defy the law in order to round up disenfranchised people and send them to an Overseas Fucking Concentration Camp. All any of the major parties disagree on at the moment is the best way to do the harm - they all agree that harm is the goal, whether it's against migrants, Muslims, trans people, disabled people, or just The Poor.

so fucking no I don't think that the possibility of collateral damage is an argument against trying to take action against the reality of deliberate violence, actually. I am a pacifist in that I don't believe in violent escalation or violence for violence, but I also think that shoving someone off you if they're beating you to a pulp is morally justified, even if there's a risk they might accidentally hit their head and die falling back.

Pacifism isn't passivism - it means the goal is to minimise violence and not to cause it, but that doesn't mean ignoring the vast amounts of violence already in fucking play.

I never know if I'm getting more radicalised or my old friends are getting more centrist but the amount of "just vote! work within the system! revolution is nice in theory but should never be allowed to happen!" posting I see on dash - from people I used to feel on the same page as - is. exhausting.

[butwhyduh]

The Batmobile

Jason todd x reader

Warning: angst, fluff, smut, it’s fucking in the fucking batmobile 🤷🏻‍♀️😏

It was a whole year ago that you found out about Jason being Red Hood. He had left a spare helmet in the back of his closet and you had pulled it on top of you when you grabbed a hoodie. After mentally freaking out, Jason had gotten you a bag of ice for the knot on your head.

It took a whole freaking year of knowing his secret and almost 2 years of dating for you to be invited to the Wayne Manor. Okay, actually Bruce had invited you within the first 6 months of dating. Jason was the one who wanted to keep you a secret.

You spent a good 2 hours looking through your entire closet to find something to wear. What the hell do you wear to dinner at a billionaire’s house? You relaxed a little when you saw Jason wearing plain jeans and a hoodie. Okay, yeah good. Casual was better. Not to mention that you were taking a motorcycle there.

You arrived in skinny jeans and a leather jacket that felt like a protection. You could act like a punk and most people won’t touch you. Especially when Jason had the scowl he was currently wearing. You followed his eyes to see the unmistakable form of Bruce Wayne in the drive.

Did Bruce specifically find children that resembled him? Much like Jason he was tall and muscular with dark hair and as you got closer you could see he also had blue eyes. He had a few wrinkles around his eyes and grey in his hair that seemed to add to his beauty rather than take it away. You’d never met a billionaire before.

“Hello,” Bruce said.

“Hello.” You shook his hand.

“I apologize for not having you over sooner but Jason seems to have wanted to keep you a secret,” he said with a tiny smile you almost missed.

“I wonder why,” Jason whispered sarcastically. Bruce ignored it. “Hello demon spawn,” he said and you gasped at the person you hadn’t seen before standing only a few feet from you.

“Damian Wayne,” he said with his hand out to you. You shook the young man’s hand and stated your name. He was only a inch or two within your height despite his youth and heavily resembled his father except for his deep olive skin tone and green eyes.

The door opened and a voice called out, “perhaps you should bring your party inside the manor. It will be snowing soon.” The polished English accent must have been Alfred.

Bruce moved to the side and you all walked in. Alfred had walked to the dinning room. The hallway had deep polished wood walls and was dimly lit by candles on candelabras. As you walked towards the room, a warm body grabbed your hand and you shrieked.

“Sorry! Sorry!” He said releasing your hand. You flushed, embarrassed. “I thought you saw me. I’m Dick.” He rubbed the back of his neck with his hand.

Jason grasped your hand and stepped towards Dick with a look of murder on his face. You put your hand on his shoulder. “It’s okay. It was an accident,” you said with a little awkward laugh. Jason relaxed a little.

Alfred stood in the doorway to the dinning room with a small smile. He gently cleared his throat and you all followed him in the dinning room. It was then that you truly took in the beauty of the house. You had been too nervous about meeting his family when walking in.

The room was breathtaking. A long mahogany table was lined with emerald tuffed chaired and heavy gold curtains over the windows. The wooden floor gleamed and you noticed that your feet were the only ones making any noise as you sat down.

“Hello master Jason. It’s nice to see you here again. And you must be y/n. I’m glad he finally brought you around,” Alfred said quietly, shaking your hand. “Excuse me, I must serve dinner.”

A lovely smelling soup was placed before you all and water and wine was served. You watched as everyone ate. Bruce ate casually while Dick animatedly told a story. Another brother, Tim, shook your hand across the table before eating and typing away on his phone. Jason stared at Damian while eating and the teen glared back. You put your hand on Jason’s knee and he seemed to relax a little.

“I need to speak you, Jason, about work after dinner,” Bruce said casually. All of Jason’s tension came back.

“Not today,” he said. “We can talk later.”

“Well it’s quite important WE business,” Bruce said and everyone at the table watched the two closely.

“Is that why we came over? For you to talk business?” Jason said. He almost had a grimace on his face.

“Of course not. We wanted to meet your girlfriend,” Dick interjected. Jason ignored him.

Bruce finally spoke. “He’s right. We can talk about it later. Tell us more about yourself, y/n.”

“Oh, uh...” you said quite put on the spot. “I’m a photographer.”

“You should have brought your camera. The courtyard can be very pretty in the evening,” Bruce said. “Do you work for a newspaper?”

“Of course she doesn’t,” Jason scoffed.

“I don’t. I mainly take portraits but I have been taking urban photos lately,” you said. “Like the effects of urban areas. I mean-“ you felt a loss of words to describe what you meant.

“She takes photos of the worst parts of Gotham to expose the poverty. That’s where we met. I don’t really let her go alone anymore,” he said with the smallest hint of a smile. “It’s pretty damn dangerous.”

“I’ve been fine,” you insisted and Jason thought back on the multiple shady characters he’s had to beat for you to get your shots without knowing what he was doing. “But I’m putting together a piece for South Gotham Gallery. A few more shots and it will be complete.”

“I’ve heard certain areas can be very dangerous,” Dick commented. “I would be very careful. Especially with a camera.”

“Yeah, like the East End,” Tim said.

“I grew up there,” you admitted with a laugh. “Stay away from Crime Alley and you’re probably okay. During the day.”

“It’s unwise to visit at all. Crime has risen 11 percent in the past 3 years,” Damian said. Alfred served a salad next.

“And unemployment by over 15 percent in the Bowery. That’s why I’m doing my piece. Poverty and crime is caused by wealth,” you said frankly before realizing that you just said that to a bunch of billionaires. Jason stifled a snicker.

[[MORE]]

“I suppose so,” Bruce said slowly. Jesus, you had just insulted your boyfriend’s adoptive father.

“Sorry,” you said quietly looking at your salad.

“It’s fine. It’s true,” Jason said with a shrug.

“So do you two live together,” Dick asked, changing the subject.

“You’re saying that crime is caused by wealth? Can you explain,” Damian said. Jason almost crushed the stem of his wine glass.

“I just mean, Gotham’s rich have gotten richer and the poor poorer and the ones with the money can control that,” you said delicately.

“So the rich can prevent poverty? All poverty?” Damian asked. And to the 13 year old’s credit, he just seemed to be curious. He could clearly feel the tension he was creating but didn’t actually care as he wanted answers.

“Paying people enough to live, healthcare for all, rehabilitation services that actually rehab, good education. All will help prevent crime and poverty. Many studies have shown this,” you said and you wanted to remain impartial but your voice betrayed your passion for the subject.

“We donate and run many foundations that support most of those things. Right father?” Damian asked. You sighed but kept silent. Throwing money doesn’t solve a problem.

Bruce cleared his throat. “Yes.”

“Drop it Damian,” Tim said. He roughly stabbed at his salad.

“I just want to know how she could possibly know what the rich do if she has always been poor.”

Jason crushed the stem at this point. “Shit,” you said quickly wrapping his bleeding hand in a handkerchief from the table. He looked close to exploding.

“Don’t forget that she’s not the only poor kid at the table. I grew up on the streets and moved here. Rich people are shit,” Jason said. He started standing and Damian watched him with a glint in his eyes. He was ready to fight too.

“Sit down, Jason,” Bruce commanded. “He’s just a curious boy.”

“Not surprising. He gets it from his old man. Disregard for anyone else,” Jason all but growled. Tonight was only the tip of the iceberg. You put a hand on his forearm. The last thing you wanted was a fight.

“You’re angry,” Bruce said quietly. He swallowed harshly. “Sit down.”

“I’m a grown man,” Jason said scoffing.

“Not acting like that,” Bruce said. Jason’s hands twitched towards his gun on his hip but he resisted the urge.

“Come on. Let’s get out of here. Alfred, food was great. Fuck you, Bruce,” Jason said grabbing your hand.

“Don’t leave,” Dick called as Jason pulled you down the hall. He didn’t go towards the front door but downstairs to a garage. There was probably 20 cars. Many of them were cars you had never seen in person.

“You wanna go for a drive?” He asked and you felt a thrill.

“One of these?” You asked.

“Nope,” Jason said pressing a code into a computer. A hidden garage door opened to expose a very conspicuous vehicle. The batmobile. You’d definitely never seen that car in real life.

“Seriously? Won’t he get mad?” You asked a little shocked.

“Fucking furious. We’re just going to get something to eat,” Jason said grabbing the key and unlocking it.

“Ugh... what the hell? Why not? Yeah,” you finally said. You knew the value of not missing a ride in the freaking batmobile. He grinned and opened the door for you. You climbed in and noticed a billion buttons. As Jason started the car, a string of lights pulsed on before the car showed multiple sensors. Jason pressed a few buttons before shifting the gear and driving out of the garage. The front gate automatically opened and he started putting on some speed once the car hit the road.

It felt like he was driving 50 when the speedometer was showing a cool 120. Your heart beat quickly in fear and excitement. Jason slowed down to 70 and grasped your hand. You could see tiny little cuts on his hand from the glass he crushed earlier.

“Is your hand okay?” You asked looking it over.

“It’s fine. Doesn’t hurt at all. Let’s get some food. I know a spot. But you’ll have to wear this,” he said pulling out a small black mask to cover your eyes. He took his own. “Can’t exactly drive the batmobile and show our face.”

The spot he knew was a tiny little taco truck strung with Christmas lights and a white board advertising “elotes con chile y limon.” It was on an empty corner lot in a not so great area of Gotham. It was extremely conspicuous as the pair of you got out of the car. Most people watched but as they thought they were watching freaking Batman order tacos, they didn’t say or do anything.

“Hello,” said the truck owner nervously. “Would you like something to eat? Elotes? Carnitas?”

“Yeah, 6 carnita tacos with cilantro and lime. A Mexican coke. 2 orders of sopapillas. What do you want?”

“That’s all for you?” You laughed always amazed at the amount he could eat. It made sense with all the energy he used but still. “Same but just 2 tacos and and a coke.”

Jason wrapped an arm around you waist and swayed slightly to the Mexican music playing in the truck. People started to get used to you both being there. Maybe Batman just wanted some tacos?

After receiving a plastic take out bag with foil wrapped tacos, a sign of good tacos, you both climbed back in the car. The masks were haphazardly tossed on the dash. Jason drove you both back the way you came and you wondered if you were going back to the manor when, no he was taking you to a quiet rest stop outside the city. You ate the tacos and sopapillas on the hood of the car. You watched as Jason added way to much spicy green chile sauce to his tacos.

“Want some?”

“I choose life but thank you,” you said. You giggled as he cleared his throat and gulped down his coke. But to his credit, he ate it. Maybe he just enjoyed pain? “Now what?” You asked watching the stars. They weren’t visible in the city.

Instead of answering, Jason pulled you close. Your back against his chest and he wrapped his arms around you. You held his hands and looked at the little scars that littered his skin. Always fighting. Jason bent to kiss your neck.

“Wanna be really bad,” he asked with audacity that you knew meant something interesting. You leaned into him more.

“What do you mean?” You purred. Dating a guy like Jason Todd, you weren’t exactly new to taking some risks.

“Let’s fuck. Right. Here,” he said and with every word he slowly spoke in a husky voice, he pushed his hips against you and you knew exactly what he wanted. You went to turn in his arms but he moved quicker and you were quickly bent over the car with a gasp. He pulled off his jacket and threw it on the hood. Little did you know but he was covering the camera.

Jason’s hand ran along your back and you shivered as your skin pressed against the hard metal. He kissed the back of your neck and kneaded the flesh on your hips and he ground his hard on against you. “Fuck you’re pretty. And letting fucking Bruce know what you think of the rich. That was hot as shit. I’ve been wanting to do this for months.”

“This was on your bucket list,” you asked grinding your hips back against him. “To bend me over the batmobile and fuck me?”

“Jesus,” he said before pulling down your jeans and panties in one push. You shivered at the cold air touched your ass. “Your fucking mouth, Princess. I love it.”

You weren’t cold for very long because after a few seconds of rustling with a belt and zipper, you felt Jason press against your ass. He rubbed his cock through your folds a few times before pulling away. You turned to whine only to see him rolling on a condom. He sunk into you without ceremony. His fingers roughly held your hips as he thrust into you.

You moaned and the echo reminded you that you were outside. Anyone could come up on the pair of you fucking on the goddamn Batmobile. It made you moan even louder. He rubbed his hand up and down your spine before sliding down to the front of your body to rub your clit. It didn’t take long for you to grip him tighter.

“Fuck, Princess, are you close?” He moaned in your ear. His thrusts were rough and deep and his fingers moved quickly over your clit.

“Yeah, oh shit, yeah,” you moaned. “Jay,” you whined when he readjusted his hand.

“I got you. Let go, Princess,” he purred in your ear. You reached a hand up and grabbed his hair. You pulled him close and moaned his name on repeat as you came. He grunted and a few more thrusts found his release. Jason pulled out and pulled up your pants with a pat on your ass and took care of his condom.

“We probably need to get the car back before Bruce come looking for it,” he said grabbing his jacket. Jason gave you a long sweet kiss before getting back in the car.

“Does he have a tracking device in it,” you asked with sudden realization.

“Yeah but all we did was get some tacos and stopped to eat them,” Jason said with a wink. “He won’t care too much. Plus he’ll only be mad at me anyways. Don’t worry about it, Princess.”

You held his hand all the way back to the front drive of Wayne Manor. As soon as you were in his car, his phone lit up and before he put it away, it was a message from Tim. “Clean it before you bring it back. I don’t even want to know what happened and Bruce is ofc mad.😩”

You laughed a little and Jason went from grinning to laughing out loud. “At least we didn’t fuck in the car,” you said. He laughed some more.

“Maybe next time, baby,” he said with a wink before speeding out of the drive.

“Oh god. I wouldn’t do Alfred like that.”

“I knew I liked you for some reason. Let’s get home. It’s cold as balls out here and I’d like to spend some time with my hot as shit girlfriend before the other shoe drops,” Jason said taking your hand again.

“That’s a fan-fucking-tastic idea.”

[itslieutenanthawkeye]

A Knight’s Oath

Day 6 of Jeankasa Week 2021: Royal AU

AO3

Sir Kirstein aids the princess of Hizuru escape a coup d’état organized by the marleyan Jaeger brothers.

There isn’t one inch of my body that isn’t yelling this is wrong, not one bit that isn’t shouting at me to return, to go back to my chambers, cover my ears with both hands and ignore that letter until the signal comes from within the palace. I came here to do a job: become her close guard, infiltrate the institution, take down the royal line.

That one job could have me swimming in silver. One job would be enough to buy myself that lifestyle I can only dream about. One job, and I could leave knighthood behind, buy myself a castle, a royal title and a woo wife to go with it. A pretty young wife with dark hair and big eyes and a whole army of servants to fulfill our every wish.

And yet here I am, walking with more purpose than ever before in my life, heading towards her.

Like most upper class Hizuran structures, the Azumabito royal palace is built atop a tall stone base. It’s an intricate maze of buildings, rooms and sliding doors that I’ve spent two years memorizing. I should know, better than anyone, how hard it’ll be for us to sneak out. Even if we do it without anyone being aware, even if nobody knows what the princess has found out.

“Jean, over here.” her voice calls from behind one of the doors. I follow like a bee searching honey. I enter the place where she’s been waiting for me and encounter her wearing the peasant clothes I procured for her a couple of days ago. She’s as lovely in them as she was the first time I saw her, sitting atop a high throne next to the regent, Kiyomi Azumabito, wearing a wonderful kimono of red fabric and golden threads.

Her mother, a pure-blooded Azumabito royal, fell in love with an eldian man, and in the process of marrying him, she also fell into disgrace and was expelled from the balance years before conceiving the princess. After a wave of plague that caused the death of the shogun and his closest relatives, however, Kiyomi had sent a contingent to bring back the princess’ mother to serve as regent until the princess came of age.

Stories say Kiyomi found a ten-year-old princess orphaned, living of scraps she found in the field near her home. Her parents were also killed by the plague. Some people say they starved, some others that they were murdered. However they died, the princess came back to the ancestral home of the Azumabito alone and Kiyomi took her into her care. Even I am aware of the love the woman has for her adoptive daughter, how much she cares for her safety.

It was her the first to find out about Marley’s plans to overthrow Hizuru’s royal line, of the spies sent by Marley in the shape of knights for Hizuru’s princess. It was Kiyomi who came to me, asking for help for the princess. She knew my involvement in Marley’s plans gave me a lot more intel than any other servant could’ve collected…and because she saw the way I looked at the princess that day our delegation arrived, two days ago, and how I’ve seen her every day since. She figured out quickly how much affection I carry for the princess and knew, barely one year after my arrival, that I would never leave her adoptive daughter behind.

“Are you ready?” I ask, putting on the peasant clothes, hiding the katana Kiyomi left in my room in the folds of my own hizuran clothes. “Your highness, are you ready?”

“I don’t want to leave.” She says; she’s turned away from me, giving me what little privacy she can while I change. “I can’t leave Kiyomi. I can’t leave the people of the palace behind.”

“Many of your servants are traitors, princess,” I remind her, tapping on her shoulder to indicate I’m decent again. A slight tremble travels her back and I curse myself; I’d forgotten how reserved hizuran people are when it comes to physical touch.

She turns around and faces me, resolution clear on her face. “Traitors or not, a ruler owes herself to her people,” she says, more dignified than any other royal I ever saw in Marley. “Traitors or not, I cannot leave them alone. And Kiyomi—”

“You heard their plans, princess,” I say, wondering how many times I’ll have to repeat the same thing to get her to forget that commitment to the people the Azumabito care so much about. “The moment the clock hits twelve, the guards will be at your doors. Zeke plans on executing you at dawn, on the morning of your eighteenth birthday. It’s either that or be forced into marrying his brother.”

“And I must let Kiyomi’s head hang just for the sake of escaping?”

“Mikasa,” I say; using her name feels strange. It’s a lovely name, but also forbidden. No knight is allowed to address the princess by her name, nor try to give her orders, let alone try to convince her to follow a plan she doesn’t agree with. The princess widens her eyes in brief shock, but nods, inviting me to continue. “You’re the last of your line. Kiyomi is willing to sacrifice her life for you.”

The princess lowers her head. “I can’t leave her.”

“If you can’t respect her wishes, at least do it out of pity for me,” I say, in a last attempt to get her moving. Time is slipping away from us, and Eren’s retinue must be making its way across the mountain roads already. “I’ve given up everything by just being here. If you stay, I hang with you, dishonored, tortured first.”

The princess looks up at me, her eyes stone-cold. “You came here under false pretenses, betraying mefirst. And now you’ve betrayed your country by being here. How can I be sure you won’t betray me again?”

Ah, how can I assure her without looking like a lovesick fool?

“I’ve served your palace for two years now, haven’t I?” I say. Mikasa nods, her gaze softening somewhat. In an act of boldness, or perhaps a leap of faith, I take a hold of her hands and fall to my knees. “I’m well acquainted with you now, princess, I cannot bring myself to leave you behind or betray you even if I should wish it.”

“Why, though, Jean?” she asks, and the mention of my name from her lips wraps me up like a warm blanket. Suddenly I remember again why I don’t care about the lost wealth, about that castle and title, about the group of nameless women I could’ve wooed into marriage. It’s her. Just her.

“Because you deserve to live. A great leader deserves to live,” I reply, bringing the back of her hands to my lips. I graze them briefly; a royal courtesy from Marley, never performed hereabouts. Royalty in Hizuru barely touches each other, and I can feel her trembling at the mere touch of lips against her hand. “I mean it when I say I won’t betray you, princess. I’m devoted to you as I haven’t been devoted to anything in my life. All I can hope for is that you believe me.”

“I believe you, Jean,” she says after a moment of quiet introspection. “I’m not sure why, but your face always seemed honest. From day one, even when you were scheming against me.”

I can’t help but to smile. “I’m willing to use my whole life to convince you I’m no longer scheming.” I say, standing to face her, holding her hand still. “Are you ready, princess?”

A sad smile adorns her face as she nods, and I’m forced to not focus too much on her face as we sneak out of the castle. Apart from being well-educated, she’s been trained extensively in martial arts and acrobatics, so sliding across the various rooftops of the palace and jumping from one terrace to another proves an easy task for her. She looks back at me at a point, her pale face illuminated by the moonlight, and I manage to give her a tight, ridiculous smile in encouragement.

I’ve seen plenty of women before, but she is by far the most beautiful sight my eyes have ever witnessed. But her beauty is just one of the things that have drawn me to betray my homeland’s coup d’état against Hizuru. I met her when she was sixteen, and I nineteen; these two years, I’ve seen her grow into a fair, kind ruler, one that cares more about the wellbeing of her subjects than the wealth of the family mines or the expansion of her land.

At seventeen, she convinced the council to abolish arranged marriages for women, recognize divorces requested by wives as legal, increase taxes for royals and establish a free education system for the entire country. I know she had in mind to establish free healthcare within her fifteen-year plan. All in all, she is a great leader.

Then there’s the fact that she’s extremely good at sparring. And I’ve always had a soft spot for women that are good with swords, especially women who can beat me in a fight.

I guess, in a way, spending my days with her, being with her…it all makes me want to be better. Before Hizuru, before the princess, all I thought about was ways of getting a comfortable life. My whole childhood, I’d spent it scamming people. Then knighthood had seemed a good way to find myself a relatively wealthy wife or become rich by taking down a king, or by plundering a town.

Just being by her side makes me a better man.

I want to keep being that better man.

I also want to keep seeing that pretty face of hers. I want to keep hearing her rants. I want to keep sharing my thoughts with her. I just want to be with her.

___________________________

Hizuru’s capital is surrounded by tall mountains. It’s thanks to my military training that I know which rivers the Jaeger brothers will use to invade the city, and which ones will give us safe passage to the sea, where a boat provided by the queen of Paradis Island awaits. Hizuru is a large nation, however, and the possibilities of our escape plan going sour are high. Still, I cannot let any of my insecurities show on my face. I took it upon my shoulders to protect the princess, to take her to her new home to keep her from being executed, forced into marriage, or tortured to death by the royals who had aided the Jaeger brothers conspire against the Azumabito.

By the time the sun begins to climb the mountains, we are miles away from the capital. And yet, we can hear the execution bells ring across the watch towers. Heads are starting to roll in the palace, the bells across the Hizuran Mountain Pass tell us, and one of them must be Kiyomi’s. Mikasa sits next to me on the motorboat, crying into her sleeves, leaning slightly against my arm.

“I’m sorry.” I manage to muster. “I wish I could’ve done more.”

She shakes her head, not looking at me. “Why did your people do this to us?”

I say the first few words that come into my mind. “Greed…I’ve never interacted much with the Jaeger brothers, but I know that the eldest wants power, and the mines in Hizuru are too rich to ignore. And the youngest cannot stand monarchies. He says people in them aren’t free.”

“Why decide to impose a dictatorship instead? What kind of hypocrisy is that?” she asks, although it’s clear she doesn’t expect me to answer her. “Why kill the council members? Kill Kiyomi? Our people are happy, and I wanted to work to make their lives better. I really wanted to. Why invade a foreign land that has rightful rulers with the excuse of freedom?”

“I wish I could explain it all,” I say, and the sight of the tear streaks on her face turns me into a rambling idiot. “I’m sorry, princess. I’m sorry I was with them. I’m sorry I didn’t do more to stop them. I’m sorry I came into your palace with—”

“You’ve already said you’ll spend your whole life making it up to me, won’t you? It is a promise, isn’t it?” the princess replies, and something inside me tells me she might be too tired to hear my apologies. She took the news of my original plan badly and stopped talking to me for a whole week, not being able to just look at me in the eyes, with fair reason. We spent so many days together with me as her guard, we became friends over those long nights of study, our few sneaky expeditions outside the palace, the times when I brought her street food for dinner in our chambers, the times when she’d sung for me and Kiyomi from behind a white canvas…

All those memories of friendship are stained now, covered with the mark of my initial plan to help the Jaeger brothers with their coup d’état. “I mean to fulfill that promise, princess,” I say, more convinced than I thought I would. “I’ll do anything to redeem myself from the initial betrayal.”

“What if I ask you to raise an army for me?” she asks, wiping the tears off her eyes with the back of her hand. “What if I say that you will prove you’ve redeemed yourself once you help me gain my throne back?”

Her face has acquired that solemn expression she uses whenever she addresses the council. And, like the council members, I cannot bring myself to say no to her. “I-I will try my best, princess. I do not have any influence, and I’ve no money to offer. But I will raise you an army, I will do my best.”

“Do you promise?”

“I could swear on my knight’s honor, princess, but you and I know I don’t have any. I’m a traitor to you and to my own homeland, remember?” I admit with an awkward smile, scratching the back of my head. “I’m lucky enough as it is that you trusted me enough to come with me.”

Mikasa smiles, then wraps my hand with both of hers. “There is one way you can assure me.” she says, her eyes not meeting mine. The sunlight is bathing us both; we’ll enter the lowlands soon, and speed will be of essence to avoid getting captured. Perhaps my concern for speed is what keeps me from realizing her face is dangerously near mine for the first couple of moments.

“What way?” I manage to stammer.

“An oath on your soul,” she explains. “It’s not a thing we do often here, though.”

“Is it like a blood oath?”

The princess shakes her head. “It’s something a bit deeper than that.”

I swallow hard, wondering if she’s going to force me to cut my finger off, or something worse. I don’t have any gripes if that’s what it takes to convince her I would fight to gain her trust back, but I can’t help being concerned about the health implications of cutting a finger off in the middle of a river.

“I’m not going to ask you to cut a finger off, Jean,” she half-sobs, half-laughs, guessing my thoughts. “It’s nothing as ghastly as that.”

“From the way you’re talking, it seems like a big deal.”

A soft blush travels her cheeks. “It is,” she says. “It’s a soul promise. We don’t touch each other here, not after you’ve left childhood behind. Let alone if you’re from a royal family. These oaths only happen behind closed doors, or at weddings.”

“What kind of oath is it, princess?”

“Kiss,” she says, closing her eyes. “You close the oath with a kiss, and your soul is bound to that person.”

“A k-kiss?” I manage to say, realizing at last how close she is sitting to me. If I must be honest, for the most part during my first year on the job, I paid little attention to hizuran traditions. It wasn’t until she started talking to me more that I began to care for the country I was hired to take down. And despite paying more attention to the country she loves so much, I have never heard of such an oath. Could it be that she just wants to feel someone else’s skin on hers?

A smirk appears on my face, and she seems to guess what thoughts are going through my head. She withdraws from me, narrowing her eyes dangerously. “It’s not like I want to!” she says, her cheeks burning red, her murderous expression only increasing my smile. “Stop looking at me like that!”

“I’m sorry!” I say, coughing to clear my throat. Her hands are still holding mine. “I didn’t mean to disrespect you, princess. Please, tell me about this oath.”

“No.” Mikasa replies, shaking her head. “You are clearly not mature enough for it.”

“Please, princess.” I say, and she gives me a serious glance before sighing in defeat.

“If you do it, it’ll be important. You cannot back away from this; you must fulfill it even if it takes your life. Your promise will be bound to your soul; and your soul is bound to me.” Mikasa hunches her shoulders and exhales, her eyes set on the mountains we’re leaving behind, her eyes longing for the warmth of the castle, the voice of her caretaker.

Her home crumbled in the lapse of a few hours; all her friends in the palace, her adoptive mother, the members of the council that cared for her…they’re all dead by now, or tortured, perhaps, to get information on her whereabouts. Kiyomi is probably getting the worst of all. And that’s when it hits me: I’m all she’s got left. Me, one of the knights sent to infiltrate her palace, gain their trust, and stab them in the back.

What a grim scenario that is.

“Princess, please look at me,” I say. She turns to face me, and my lips press against hers for a couple of seconds. When we part, her eyes are as wide as plates. “I promise I will not fail you.”

She nods, her hands clutching mine, her cheeks tinted pink. “Thank you.”

I let go of her hands and wrap her face with both of mine. Then, I press my lips against hers. This time, when we part, her eyes are closed. “I promise I am bound to you, blood, bone and soul.” I say, then kiss her again, a little longer this time. “I promise I won’t rest until you get your throne back.”

She smiles at me. “You’re splitting your soul into a lot of little pieces there.”

I kiss her again, and this time her lips move against mine, her arms wrap around my shoulders. Many times these two years I dreamed about kissing her –no, I’ve imagined doing a lot more with her, if I must be honest. But it was all fantasies, half-built while I looked after her during royal events, while I guarded her in her sleep, while we had our quiet dinners.

“I swear, my princess,” I say as we come apart once more, grazing her cheek with the back of my hand. “I swear my soul, heart and body are yours, from now until I the day I’m ripped from you.”

“That sounds a lot like a wedding vow.” She points out, holding my hand in place against her face.

I smile. “I’m sorry, princess.”

“Don’t be, please,” she says, then places a quick kiss on my fingers. “You can call me by my name from now on, you know. I’m not a princess anymore.”

“You’re always a princess, though.”

She shakes her head. “You and I are fugitives,” she says, setting her eyes on the mountains again, a fire burning bright behind the grey curtain of her eyes. She wants revenge; she wants to gain her throne, her homeland, back, and rain fire upon the ones who dared to lift a finger against Hizuru.

And all I want, I realize with a bit of embarrassment, is to keep her safe, stay by her side.

“I’ll raise an army for you, Mikasa.”

“We’ll raise it together. I believe in your oath,” she assures me, leaning forward to press her lips against mine for a long moment. “And I swear to you that when I get my throne back, I will give you all the lands and wealth you desire.”

“I could do without all that.” I say, shrugging, eliciting the first smile I’ve seen from her in a while.

I want to protect that smile, I think as our boat picks up speed. We’ll enter the lowlands in a couple of miles, and it’ll be a race to get to the ocean. The island is the only safe option for the princess now; the only safe place for the both of us. Despite my oath to her, all my mind can think of is a peaceful life with her. No luxuries, no armies, no grand schemes for power. Just the princess and I, sharing our lives in a quiet cottage by a river, hidden away from the world on Paradis Island.

It’s a fool’s dream, I know.

“I’ll keep you safe.” I assure her, giving her hand a little squeeze, hoping this isn’t too much touching for someone like her.

To my surprise, she squeezes my hand in return. “And I’ll keep you safe.”

[fandom-necromancer]

Time for a vacation

This was prompted by an amazing anon! I really like Gavin and Eli as bros! Hope you enjoy!

Fandom: Detroit become human | Characters: Elijah & Gavin | Background Ship: Reed900

‘Ah damn, when was the last time we were here?’, Elijah sighed as he exited the car he had parked manually after the automated driver had refused to go off-road. ‘I would guess before you decided to play god?’, Gavin answered, smiling as Elijah looked at him insecurely. ‘Hey, just a joke. But seriously, haven’t been here in a long time. But I still remember it. We used to play volley ball over there.’ ‘You were terrible.’ ‘Says the one who was even worse than that.’ That made Elijah chuckle and shut the door, while Gavin was already excitedly gathering his bag and tried to get a hold of the next one. By then, Nines and Chloe had also made it out of the car and it was the RK900 that shoved his human away from the boot. ‘I will take care of that, Gavin, go and look for a nice place, will you?’ Immediately, the human had let go and bolted.

‘Good to see he is still as easily excitable as he was when we were young’, Elijah chuckled and took his share before locking the car and walking over to the spot Gavin was already frantically waving from. ‘He is’, Nines nodded. ‘And he really meant it as a joke, he told me on multiple occasions I was the best thing to ever happen to him and you were the reason for my creation.’ He winked at Cyberlife’s reinserted CEO. ‘Use that information however you may wish.’ He left Elijah standing there and walked the rest of the way. The human smirked, then followed.

They sat down on the blanket in the sand and stared ahead over the Lake Huron, that, if you didn’t know it was a lake, seemed to stretch endlessly like the open sea. Nines and Chloe had decided that sitting around and talking about the olden times was something inherently human ergo boring and had taken to exploring the beach. What left Gavin and Elijah alone on their blanket. ‘I still remember Lizzy and Dad taking us up here’, Gavin spoke up as the silence stretched and only the waves could be heard. ‘Simpler times.’ ‘You think so?’, Eli asked. ‘I don’t know, 2020 was a bitch.’ ‘Yeah, alright. But except that… I mean, it was all still… working out, you know?’ ‘You mean mom?’ Gavin nodded. ‘I mean I didn’t really know my mom, stayed with dad and never really saw her, but from what I’ve heard…’ He swallowed. ‘I always looked up to Lizzy and thought that she would never be like that.’ ‘Yeah, I’d hoped my mom would be different, too’, Elijah agreed. ‘I know I wasn’t home a lot back then but… Well, some things reached even me at Colbridge.’

‘Phck, this was supposed to be fun, not us getting depressed over the past’, Gavin laughed and leaned back. ‘Come on. We both know what happened and that it was shitty and that we were far better off in Detroit far away from them. That’s like... canon now. Tell me what I don’t know! What are you working on at the moment?’ ‘Err…’ Kamski threw him a nervous side glance, Gavin immediately caught onto. ‘Hey, I know I won’t understand a thing. Just try to explain it. If I can’t figure it out, it’s my shitty brain’s fault.’ ‘I believe the best Detective of the DPD is cleverer than he likes to think’, Eli teased. ‘Whoo, someone stared at the employee of the month posters a bit too long’, Gavin waved it away. ‘Come on, humour me.’

‘Pff, I don’t even know Gavin. These days I’m not stuck in the lab all day. Honestly, I mostly am a representative and manage finances… There’s little room for creativity and I believe the politics of companies are one of the least interesting things for you.’ ‘I know Cyberlife’s trying hard to hide their racist views. Gotta be the new android-healthcare supplier that helps them build mods and get their own bodies and stuff.’ ‘Hey, it wasn’t racist as they really just were machines.’ ‘Oh, come on. Do household robots really need to look human? Can’t tell me deviancy wasn’t a shiny experiment gone too far.’ ‘We are actually looking into this’, Elijah remembered. ‘Where did it come from? It’s a really interesting questions, because we don’t really know and… What?’ Gavin had crossed his arms behind his head, smiled and closed his eyes. ‘Ah, nothing, just that’s my brother. Doesn’t matter if you are working numbers all the time and are immensely frustrated over… I don’t know copyright strikes or something. You still have that spark you had when you first soldered together your first circuits and almost burned yourself.’ ‘Oh come on, I didn’t-‘ ‘You didn’t, but who is to thank for that?’ ‘You’, Eli chuckled. ‘Alright, yes, I still sit alone at home in my lab when I’m back from work and I might have to tell the researchers to turn a blind eye on some lines because I might not be entirely innocent when it comes to deviancy, but-‘ Gavin had opened his mouth at that point, but Eli shushed him. ‘Hey, I certainly didn’t expect this, I wanted to prove a point, that’s all. But anyways, I wanted to ask about you. What are you doing lately?’

Gavin exhaled deeply, frowning. ‘Not much, really. I’m still living in my flat with my cats. Well, and Nines, who is amazing and awesome and sweat and-‘ ‘You have a boyfriend, yes, I’m aware, what else?’ ‘Hey, we’re engaged, okay? I’m serious. Might even marry that one.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Hey, my other boyfriends were assholes, it seems I inherited my taste in bad partners from dad, but that doesn’t apply to Nines, because he’s the driving force for once. Anyways, Nines is perfect, and I plan on spending the rest of my life with him, because I’ve been lonely and miserable for too long.’ He took a break to breathe and continued: ‘Yeah, cats, Nines, flat. What else? I’ve nearly finished repairing that old bike I’ve bought.’ Eli blinked. ‘That’s been sitting in that garage for how long now?’ ‘Too long, but it’ll be finished next summer, I swear! Also, might finally get back to narcotics now that the others have homicide back under control. I’ve seen enough murdered people and crying family members for a while.’ ‘And narcotics is better, because...?’ ‘Because there generally isn’t as much drama. I mean come on, who uses Red Ice? The super-rich people I don’t care for-‘ ‘Hey!’ ‘And the lowest people that have done far worse than drugs. Everyone in between uses the normal stuff. You don’t have to explain a grieving wife or husband why their partners aren’t coming back. Or what’s actually worse: you don’t have to talk to severely traumatised androids who will be punished for a crime that was self-defence. Like you know no court will let them go, not yet, not when everyone still thinks they are machines.’ ‘And there we are at the depressive part again…’

Gavin chuckled. ‘Yeah, I guess. But I’m really happy to get back into it and Nines will get his Detective badge soon too. Has to retake Academy classes now because programming isn’t enough anymore. Well, once he made it, we will be partners. Can’t wait for that.’ ‘What happened to “I don’t do partners”?’ ‘He became “I do partners”’, Gavin smirked. ‘If you know what I mean.’ ‘Argh, why do I even talk to you?’, Elijah asked equally disgusted and amused. ‘Hey, as long as you are happy…’

‘We do have to meet more often’, Gavin demanded once his laughter had calmed. ‘I miss you, even if you are the slimiest person alive. Was a good idea coming here for the weekend.’ ‘I have to agree’, Elijah nodded and focussed back on an enormous container ship in the distance. ‘I missed talking to you, too. Calling over the phone simply isn’t the same.’ ‘Yeah.’ Gavin sat up again and suddenly perked up as he looked at someone behind Elijah, causing the man to turn, too.

‘Oh, Chloe, I could kiss you, there’s nothing better than hot-dogs on the beach, I’m starving!’ That marked the end of their conversation, as the two androids had come back with food and drinks. But Elijah had gotten to know what he had wanted to hear. And there would be plenty of occasions for more now.

[brandilovevip]

What I Believe About Coronavirus

It’s been a HOT topic on Twitter...

So what do I think is really going on and what do I think about Coronavirus? 

Read on.

WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON

When health events like this happen ( and they happen often ) 

there is always some fear and trepidation.  In recent times however it has become an obsession in the media to track and breathlessly report the number of deaths especially with the flu and/or any other viral outbreak.  They don’t do this with any of the actual leading causes of death in the USA which are:

1. Cardiovascular Disease  deaths each year 647,457 2. Cancer deaths each year 599,108 3. Accidents deaths each year 169,936 4. Respiratory Disease deaths each year 160,201 5. Stroke deaths each year 146,383

So every flu season, despite the flu not making the top 5, we are fed a steady diet of fear and mounting death.  When you add in a “rogue” virus like the Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus, things get really out of hand. You would think that they believe The Walking Dead and Outbreak are documentaries.

This FEAR drives ratings and the progressive left’s globalist agenda. This agenda is the agenda of 90% (+) of the global media,  the EU , China etc.  There are few countries left in Europe and Asia that don’t want globalism. They have already been pacified.  The great spirit of America however has not. Donald Trump’s election was a shock to the globalist agenda which is clearly on display in the democratic party.  They are now out in the open as unabashed, socialist/communist “progressives”

meaning… globalists.

There are a number of “conservative” publications out there that believe that Covid-19 was created in a lab an purposefully unleashed. I do not believe that is the case,  although I do think it is possible.  I do however believe that they had foreknowledge of the virus and it’s potential spread & impact.

Why do you believe this Brandi?

Because of Event 201.  If you haven’t read about this, you need to educate yourself. This ACTUALLY took place. The “players” and sponsors should be looked at closely.

Only a few months ago, in OCTOBER 2019, Johns Hopkins, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Economic Forum (a fraternity of self-professed globalists) ran a “pandemic simulation” called “Event 201” specifically focused on CORONAVIRUS.  Not Ebola, or Swine Flu or even Avian Flu – but CORONAVIRUS.  The simulation features the spread of coronavirus in South America, blamed on animal to human transmission (pigs). The conclusion of the exercise was that national governments were nowhere near ready. 

Event 201 played out almost exactly as you see it in the world today.  Even their propaganda pieces are eerily similar.  

Some very disingenuous or perhaps rather stupid people have been arguing that this kind of thing is “normal”, claiming that we are “lucky” that the elites have been running simulations in advance in order to “save us” from a viral outbreak.

I believe that Event 201 was not a simulation but a war-game, played out to study the possible outcomes of an event the globalists already knew was coming. They played it out to see how to use it to their advantage.

In their simulation 65 million people died worldwide.  A number they knew was false but it would certainly scare the sheep into submission.

Does anyone really believe that Event 201 is pure coincidence? Does anyone really believe they left up their “findings” for any other reason than to frighten readers?

But what do globalists have to gain directly from a coronavirus pandemic beyond simple chaos that can be exploited?

Interestingly, a representative from Johnson and Johnson, one of the companies that may end up designing a “vaccine” for the Coronavirus, suggested during Event 201 that a “centralized” global economic authority in charge of funding and procuring vaccines for various nations in crisis was an option for solving the pandemic.

The reason why globalists want a collapse is simple – They need crisis in order to manipulate the masses into accepting total centralization, a global monetary system and global governance. They are also rabid believers in eugenics and population reduction.

Regarding a “centralized” global economic authority  and a global monetary system ...  did you notice the Democrats included language pertaining to a digital currency in their bloated, globalist agenda filled coronavirus bill after pulling the rug out from under America.

The US and China are still currently in the middle of a trade war. This trade war has been demonized by Democrats and RINO’s alike. And despite it being the right thing for America, the Phase 1 deal was always a joke because it demands that China quadruple its purchases from the US within the next 1-2 years. This was never going to happen. 

The Chinese cannot be trusted.  They are the most evil, unfeeling regime in the world. They are cold , calculated and intelligent. They have made, through money,  slaves of many of the worlds largest, most influential and wealthiest corporations and people.

Now, because of the impact of the Chinese Wuhan Coronavirus,  there is no chance that China will meet the requirements of the Phase 1 deal as China’s economy will slow under the weight of the pandemic.

Coincidence? 

If Trump continues tariffs against a nation in the state of a viral emergency, he will look like a monster.  If he doesn’t continue the lockdown and one person dies thereafter, he will look like a monster. They have him in an almost impossible situation. He knows it, which is why he looks so somber & frustrated.

Another advantage of the viral crisis is that the globalist establishment will undoubtedly blame “climate change” for its impetus.  Even though there is absolutely no concrete evidence linking human carbon emissions to climate change or viral outbreaks, given enough public fear, globalists will attempt to link the things together as if it is a proven fact. 

 Not only will they have a rationale for an economic collapse THEY created, but they can also present a virus as an “act of nature”, and use it as a rationale for implementing carbon controls. (ALSO PRESENT IN PELOSI’s DESPICABLE BILL)

So what is really going on:

The globalists are using COVID-19 to their advantage to wrestle back control and complete their globalist mission. They know that if Donald Trump gets re-elected their horror of a dream is over.

BUT BRANDI THIS IS A DEADLY VIRUS, YOU ARE BEING STUPID.

It is a deadly virus. It is highly communicable. But is neither as deadly or communicable as the fear mongers want you to believe. I’m not going to go through all of the FACTS here. But I would encourage you to read this excellent article:

http://archive.is/yuaUq

If the USA follows the pattern in SIMILAR countries with similar population demographics and geography then we should see maybe 250,000 total who have contracted this and a death rate of 1.5% for total deaths around 3,750

We have all been around death. Iv’e lost most of my family and it’s always gut wrenching. But if the numbers hold true, the 3750 deaths due to Coronavirus are about 5x less than the number of homicides we have every single year.

Where do I agree with the trolls that bombard my Twitter account?

I agree that we need to have a far better protocol in place for WHEN pandemics happen and I believe we need to make a HUGE investment into our healthcare system. Some things I would love to see them consider:

1.  Everyone wears masks during a “Pandemic Protocol”  I know , I know…  surgical masks don’t stop the virus from getting in.. but if EVERYONE is wearing them it does stop a lot of the virus from getting OUT.  Japan has an 80% adoption rate for masks.  They have major population centers and yet.. their numbers remained low.

2. Have tests ready.  Jesus. Everyone on the planet seemed to have more tests than us.  That’s embarrassing. Test everybody.

3. Isolate & quarantine the most vulnerable to death, first.

4. Immediately close borders and international travel

5. If needed, in extreme situations impose a reasonable self isolation and social distancing period not to last longer than 21 days.  

6. Have teams at CDC ready to collaborate with local and international physicians to discuss treatment modalities & vaccines.

7. Build regional medical facilities in conjunction with private, non profit health care systems to handle sudden increases in medical emergencies.

This closing down of the country however and spreading fear the way they have is grotesque and evil. Do you think it’s any less horrible to die from  Cardiovascular Disease , Cancer an Accident, stroke, suicide or murder?  No. Death is horrible and sad.  But it is in fact part of life.  I don’t want to die, I’m not looking forward to death but I do know that at some point, it will occur.

I’m ever thankful that in addition to my thirst for facts vs fear, I also have contacts across the medical landscape. In every single case, they tell me the same thing. If you don’t smoke, If you don’t have major underlying medical conditions and are in good health… then you have very little to fear even if you do contract the virus. Yes, it may have a 1.4% - 2.0% death rate but those numbers are skewed toward those 65+ and those with major medical issues.  Regardless of age if you are generally healthy, you are looking at a death rate equal to or less than the common flu.

And they also tell me that if you do get it,  demand that you be treated with the combination of Hydroxychloroquine and a Zpack unless there are contraindications.

Lastly…

Some things that have become perfectly clear:  

1.  Socialized Medicine would be a Disaster 2.  Open Borders = Complete Insanity

References: 

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/leading-causes-of-death.htm

http://archive.is/yuaUq

https://www.europereloaded.com/how-viral-pandemic-benefits-the-globalist-agenda-event-201/

https://docplayer.net/11605196-Foreign-affairs-april-1974-the-hard-road-to-world-order-richard-n-gardner-volume-52-number-3.html

https://www.technocracy.news/globalization-faces-disaster-with-supply-chain-leaving-china/

https://meaww.com/wuhan-coronavirus-warned-2017-lab-wuhan-deadly-diseases-escape-lab-level-4-safety-scientists

[mcsmmafia]

MC:SM Mafia - Round VI 🧠

THE 6TH ROUND OF MAFIA

On a chilling, but not yet snowy december day, a bus drived through the thickness of the swamp to transport eight patients to a asylum to which they have been relocated.

It was a confusing swamp… trees and vines everywhere, no proper roads… but the occupants felt confident that this was no problem for the driver. He was experienced… probably. I mean, he was responsible for the safe arrival of mentally ill patients, of course they wouldn't assign an intern with such an important task, right?

Anyway, the trip lasted the whole night, but just as the sun was rising, you finally arrived at the new asylum! … Which turned out to be a surprisingly old and bedraggled looking mansion? Geesh, talking about healthcare inequality.

Anyway, even though it was not snowing, the trees had frost on their leafs and the wind blew really cold, so you made your way inside without thinking about it too much. And thank goodness, it was actually warm inside! Ah, and there stood the receptionist, a girl with long red hair and a grey, comfortable looking beanie. You went on to line up - but suddenly, the girl turned around and activated a lever on the wall behind her. Huh? What was that all abou-

AND THEN IT WAS DARK AND YOU COULDN'T SEE AND OH MY GOSH I THINK I'M SEEING PUMPKIN FACES AND THERE WERE VOICES TOO, WE'RE ALL HEARING VOICES-

Oh, wait, that might actually be just your own voice… ahh, wait, you got a pumpkin stuck on your head! Well, how did that happen?? You sure didn't know!

… wait WHY ARE WE ALL WEARING PUMPKINS, WHAT IS GOING ON, WE CAN'T GET RID OF THEM, AHHHHH!!!!!

Meanwhile, it seemed like the red haired girl was trying desperately to announce something, but nobody would listen to her. She gave us a very annoyed glance and, in the next second, she put herself in a pumpkin too. And it didn't took a second for everyone to forget where the stranger was.

Dear patients, it is time.

To freak out.

AND-

GET REALITY AND HALLUCINATIONS MIXED UP AND BE EXTRA PARANOID AND PANIC!!!! A LOT!!!!

Oh, and also maybe you should watch out for stranger-danger.

☀ Results of Day 1:

After the patients were done freaking out, they played a nice little introducing game of saying hello to each other, but became bored quickly afterwards, so they split up to explore their new home on their own - I mean, they don't remember which one of them was the receptionist, so there was no other option really.

(Just for fun, I thought about why the MC:SM characters were in psychatric treatment in the first place for a bit: Stella has overwhelming seperation fear, Warden is not really mentally ill but a stalker, Nell has chronic fatigue syndrome, Harper has schizophrenia, Radar is not a patient but the bus driver XD, Ellegaard has bipolar affective disorder, Cassie is still a murderer, and Lukas has depression. (Sorry, Lukas, I couldn't think of any other interesting disorders 😂)

🌑 Results of Night 1:

Lluna wanted to stay in the entrance hall to monitor the front door. When Ellegaard and Lukas joined, Lluna noticed only an iron weapon in the room, so Stella knew she could trust her roommates and told them that she has the Flint & Steel. When she learned that Ellegaard has the iron sword, she asked for protection and stayed in the entrance hall to groom Lluna all night.

Warden ran after Winslow to pet him, and ended up in the attic, where he finally could give that good lil' boy Winslow a pet and happily fall asleep soon after professionally dabbing to his roommates.

Nell didn't have the energy to explore more than the surroundings of the living room, but when she spotted Radar entering, she decided the attic was probably a better place and used all her remaining energy to climb up there and hit the hay.

Harper desperately tried to outrun the creepy pumpkin faces she saw in all windows, and ended up in the attic, where there were no windows. Finally feeling safe, she was able to sink into a deep slumber.

After quickly peeking into every room to make sure nobody else was living in this mansion, Radar went back to the living room to sit down on the comfortable couch and spent the whole night trying to figure this blasted roadmap out…

Ellegaard did her best to protect Stella from stranger-danger.

CASSIE grinned when everybody decided to split up, so she wanted to make the best out of it and followed Warden and ordered Winslow to follow PAMA - but they all ended up in the attic together. Well, crud. With the night wasted, CASSIE decided to just grab her kitty and go to sleep.

Lukas didn't say anything to Stella's revelation, but didn't flee either; he just sat in a corner, silent all night.

☀ Results of Day 2:

The patients argued all day about who should cook breakfast. Before they knew, the sun was already setting, so everyone just grabbed whatever they saw first in the kitchen and scattered to find a good place to sleep. Very productively spent day.

Lukas has been suspended from the round due to inactivity.

🌒 Results of Night 2:

After Lluna reassured herself last night that the front door was indeed very safe and effective against the night monsters outside, she pushed Stella to go to an extra safe place to catch up on some sleep tonight, so she followed her to the attic. She was surprised to only see Radar there, but took the chance to ask for his identity. However, he did not respond… Stella eventually gave up asking and snuggled up to Lluna to visit the land of dreams.

Warden went to grab a snack like the others, but was disappointed by the insufficient selection… a few potatoes, some mushrooms… blergh! Where's the good stuff?? THEY DEMAND THEIR BREAKFAST CAKE! EVEN IF IT MEANS SEARCHING ALL NIGHT FOR IT!! 🍰 …However, they eventually got bored and fled to the gallery in hopes for more danger. (Little did they know that danger was coming right their way, had they only stayed!)

Oh great, Nell was already always tired, and now she's also gonna be hungry because nobody volunteered to cook the stupid breakfast! So, to conserve brain energy, she just went back to where she was last night and enjoyed her sleep in sweet solitude.

Harper couldn't shake the feeling of being closely watched by someone or something… she tried her best to hide her worries, but when night came, she skedaddled to the most isolated room she could find! …And, of course, that ended up being the gallery, because nobody cares for art, sigh. …But the feeling of being stalked remained - but now at last she realized where it was coming from: This weird calico cat in the corner over there with it's evil green eyes was watching her! What a creeper! 😼 She placed PAMA directly in front of Winslow to try and cover his glance, but this darned cat just walked around it. Welp, there was no way she would sleep with him around!

Oh gosh, everything is chaos… it's Radar's fault the patients are not safe in an asylum, and don't have regular meals, and now they can't stop arguing!! This is the absolute worst… and he was still really exhausted… maybe he should just go to sleep for a night. Perhaps, in the morning, things are gonna be better. So he chose a safe place to sleep, which of course only really can be the attic, and rested for a bit, after doing their best to ignore Stella's questions.

Oh my, Ellegaard was in full flow today! Was it the lack of sleep, or is she on her way to go hyper? Wherever this energy is coming from, it sure made her heat up the argument about breakfast today. Well, at least she snatched the only mushroom stew she found premade in the kitchen. Success! After being so harsh to everyone, however, she realized that she probably should try to calm down somewhere alone, so she went to the bed chamber. A big, nice pillow helps for meditation, you know? In fact, the pillows were so comfortable, ellegaard fell asleep almost immeditaly. That's how meditation works, right? 💤

CASSIE really had to contain herself to not burst out in laughter under her pumpkin mask when hearing the argument today. They're all distracting themselves, and CASSIE didn't even really have to do anything! Anyway, while the discussion was nicely heated, she had things to do. She needed to make sure that the next night would not be wasted! So she kept an eye on Warden to see where he would go this time. …And, as it turns out, he didn't go anywhere. He just stayed right here in the kitchen, searching for better food, CASSIE figured. So she ordered Winslow to patrol the hallway between gallery and bed-chamber and snuck up on Warden to cat-nap him… and was surprised when her hands could only grasp air! With the night wasted - again - she could only sleep her frustration away.

☀ Results of Day 3:

A new day dawned, and before anyone had the chance to address any hard feelings left over from yesterday, Harper spoke up to tell the patients that Winslow was following her everywhere she went. She also mentioned who else was in the room with her the past nights, skipping PAMA.

Stella then stated that she wanted to be locked up, and asked Harper to vote for herself too. Warden was quick to offer guarding them. Nobody else voted.

Warden also warned the group that he dabbed threateningly, and then tried to catch Winslow to throw him into the closet too, but he was fast to jump onto some high-laying shelf where Warden couldn't get him. 😼

🌓 Results of Night 3:

Stella had a hard time to going apart, but Lluna accomponied her all the way to the closet, and assured her with a bleat that she will reliably return in the morning to pick her up again. And she kept her word, to Stella’s great relief.

Warden regretted it a little to have volunteered as a guard, since he would rather do some detective word, but in the end he did not retreat from his duty and made sure to poke the prisoners the whole night through, even though he didn't really suspect them to be Cassie.

Nell just went to the living room again and slept like normal. She is really not afraid of traps.  

Harper was just glad to be safe from Winslow for one night, at least.

Radar took the chance and went to the entrance hall to see if there were any pets around. He could spot Lluna and PAMA, but also CASSIE - so he waited for a bit to see wheter CASSIE would leave and if one pet would go with her. As it turns out - Lluna and PAMA must belong to someone in the closet!

Ellegaard went back to the bed chamber, but when she saw that Winslow seemed to now be targeting her, she toyed with the idea of trying to figure out if she could activate a trap on Winslow - but of course, that grown kitty would be too smart to fall for his owner's traps. 😼 So Ellegaard dropped that plan and just climbed up to the attic instead.

CASSIE followed Radar - but of course he wouldn't go anywhere. CASSIE sighed in her streak of bad luck and sneaked away to the bed chamber to sleep.

☀ Results of Day 4:

Stella started the day by immediately confronting Warden about the sleeplessness-ordinance which he put her and Harper through, to which Warden apologized, stating that he didn't really suspected them to be Cassie.

Stella then went on to state that she suspects either Nell or CASSIE to be Cassie, since they are the only ones who haven't been checked by her best friend and pillow Lluna. Ellegaard vouched for this claim, only stating that she knew a thing.

Nell was about to vote Stella for the closet, but promptly retreated. Warden then voted to throw Nell out, stating that he is about 65% sure that Nell is Cassie, and 35% that it's CASSIE, which he subsequently voted into the closet.

Nell tried desperately to convince the others of her innocence, but had nobody who could vouch for her.

Stella voted for Nell to get thrown out too, but then retreated, saying that she wanted to lock her up first. CASSIE, Ellegaard and Harper agreed that there was not enough evidence yet. Harper then voted for the same thing.

(Oh my gosh, no offence to the person playing CASSIE, but I could hardly stop laughing about how they kept referring to Cassie and how nervous they were about her - and everybody just talked over that! I was so sure their cover would blow 😂😂😂)

🌔 Results of Night 4:

Stella realized that she has TWO arms, with which she was able to poke both Nell AND CASSIE at the same time! So she did that because IF STELLA COULDN'T SLEEP, THEY CAN'T EITHER! Also, it helped to distract her mind from Lluna and how she's doing.

Warden thought about sneaking to the closet and spawn-killing Nell… but realizing he had no weapon to do this anyway, he just went up to the attic and let the dream be a real dream.

Nell was really mad about being locked into a closet, and sang a song in order to try and annoy the guard so much that she would let her free - but was exhausted quickly and ended up just enduring the acupuncture. Stella really was NOT a great masseur.

Harper was paranoid when going to the gallery, but couldn't find a kitty anywhere - has he actually stopped following her? Harper was still a bit nervous, so she inspected some dusty, pixelated art about seven people with white pumpkins on their head before realizing how boring the pictures really were… but they freaked her out anyway, so she started counting all the pixels until she fell asleep.

Radar could barely follow the discussion that was going on… he was just too tired. He longed for the sun to set, and when it finally did, he concentrated all his strength to climb up to the attic before basically fainting on the floor face down.

Ellegaard was a little freaked out by seeing Winslow with her in the library, of all places. But she went to sleep anyway.

CASSIE very imperceptibly wishpered Winslow to patrol the hallway between dining room and library before she discontentedly followed Stella into the closet and endured being poked all night.

☀ Results of Day 5:

CASSIE started the day by complaining about being poked the whole night, which Stella interrupted saying that she didn't have Lluna with her in the closet, which was a problem. She also stated that Nell was singing "something about tissues", and that that was a crime because they were a Duck.

Note: The person playing Stella has a username referring to ducks.

After that, they realized that they (and it was totally not my fault) had overlooked a list that revealed that Warden and Radar were having a slumber party in the attic last night!

But that was quickly forgotten again when Warden decided to yell out loud that he wanted to throw Nell out. But when a voice from above told them to vote then, they retreated.

Stella went on to vote CASSIE into the closet, instead - but immediately rectified themself to Nell. Freudian slip? Warden voted for the same and asked Radar to guard, but Harper volunteered right after. They agreed to let Radar do it (even though Radar didn't use @Game Master ARRRGH but let's overlook that… this time.)

The patients then talked about cat-crazy people and the fact that PAMA was with them, but nobody claimed to own it, although Stella and CASSIE claimed to know who Harper is.

However, Radar revealed to have written the note last night. And then continued to ask if he could pet Lluna, because passing out is very exhausting. And thus, Lluna was promoted to stress therapy pet!

Warden also tried to vote to lock up the voice in his head. It wasn't very successful - Oh… nevermind. They put Alexa into the closet.

Radar also tried to order McMurder Fries. (Oh god, now he's losing his mind too…)

Nell brought them back on topic by loudly concluding that Cassie must be one of the people who have been locked up in the toilet, and that she's suspecting CASSIE.

Radar and Stella overheard everything but toilet and were so inspired that they wrote a survival guideline on how to survive murder and get rich. 🚽💰

Nell ignored them and voted to throw CASSIE out, to which Stella heavily disagreed.

Most patients were confused by Nell's use of the word "toilet" for the closet, but Warden approved the use of "toilet" for "closet" by saying how cruel society was for not letting him do his business in closets.

Stella brought up how she wanted to feed the zombies the flint & steel, and how a smooch would cure them… she was in her own world, for sure. She wondered if she could eat the zombies, and CASSIE too pondered how'd they taste.

Finally, the voice from above had enough and sent them all to bed. SERIOUSLY. This was long, but I had so much fun - doing this round in an asylum was the best idea ever. 😂

The Last Night 🌕

All Cassie ever wanted was to live a happy life with her 372,026,931 calico cats… but nooo, society had to declare that that was not "normal" and a sign of "mental illness" and that she should be put in an asylum for therapy. It was really their fault, not hers - the other patients constantly got on her nerves, and the staff wasn't much better as they treated everyone the same, no matter if they were sane, like her, or really crazy. So Cassie might have put up a few traps that killed a patient or two and maybe also the whole population of the house. It happens! She could impossibly have stood another second in this madhouse! Why does nobody ever seem to understand…?

Anyway, so she went outside - only to realize that she was stuck in this whole swamp dimension that was just created so that patients could never escape on their own. But the staff had to be able to get out somehow, right? She went back to the asylum, but it seemed like all their drops had disappeared already. Crud, she should've rushed to get them as soon as these people were dead!

She certainly wouldn't ever make that mistake again - but for now, she had no way to return to her home… luckily, however, her most beloved cat Winslow came to help. He risked being stuck in this mad-dimension with her for eternity! He was such a good cat. And he brought friends! 😼 😼😼😼😼😼😼😼😼

Although that really cheered Cassie up, she still didn't want to accept her fate of living here forever. Maybe some day new patients would be admitted, then someone would have to bring them there and get out again afterwards…

And, look at that, they indeed came. Five more patients and one quite young looking bus driver.

Cassie spent days thinking and plotting how she could effectively eliminate them without being noticed… because even though this is an asylum we're talking about, the patients were not yet crazy enough to just let her do her thing. So she tried to cat-nap them, but it didn't quite ever work out.

As the days passed, the patients managed to narrow down who could be responsible for not cooking them breakfast and dinner - and they almost unanimously agreed that it's either Nell or CASSIE. And in night 5, Lluna followed CASSIE to the living room - she knew that was practically her death sentence, since everyone so far seemed to unquestionedly believe Stella everything she said.

So Cassie took her chance, and finally went to the secret passage ways to activate a trap on Stella, Warden and Ellegaard - all or nothing!

And, look at that… when Cassie went to collect their drops, she found the FLINT & STEEL where Stella was. That was… easy.

Well. Cassie wasn't complaining.

Finally. Finally she can get out of this dimension and back to her other 372,026,922 cats who surely are still patiently waiting for her to return home! (And feed them.) 😼😼😼😼😼😼😼😼😼

Oh, and also, she may or may not have lit the mansion on her way out just for celebration. What, now that's making her a pyromaniac? OH SHUT UP, SOCIETY! SHE JUST WANTS TO MAKE SURE THE PATIENTS ARE WARM INSIDE!!! 🔥🔥🔥

Cassie has won the game! 🧠

[jaywrites101]

Why You Should be Voting Democrat: The Republicans are Hypocrites Against God.

This is an essay I now have to give to a person living in this house with me. Some context, they pinned a piece of Republican propaganda they received in the mail to the community posterboard with the words “why I vote Republican” written on it. I have interpreted this as an invitation to challenge their beliefs. And my response is in the essay below.

Sincerely, By Everyone in This House

Pro-life vs Pro-Choice

This argument is a messy one to argue, this is something our country is literally divided over this and each argument is so twisted it's hard for either side to understand one another. For this to be the hill you've chosen to fight on I'm going to have to assume two things—1: you believe abortions are murder, and 2: You believe abortions are a common occurrence made by lazy people who want to get rid of the consequences of their bad actions.

Both of these are common arguments made by the Republican party to defund Planned Parenthood. So it may surprise you that not a single person on the Left is trying to disprove your fighting points.

That's because this isn't about abortions at all. It's about women's rights. Abortions only play into this because it was the item that forced the issue before the courts and the public.

In 1973, Roe v. Wade was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court in which the Court ruled that the Constitution of the United States protects a pregnant woman's liberty to choose to have an abortion without excessive government restriction. This decision effectively guaranteed that a woman had the right to treat her body as her own property, meaning she could choose what she eats, who she has sex with, and, yes, whether or not to carry a pregnancy to term.

The decision ruled that the US Government has no right to decide the moral outcome of a single person's choices. Nor do they have the right to force a person to live in what they currently believe to be an ethical lifestyle.

This is the one and ONLY law in our country that explicitly gives women the same rights to life, responsibility, and authority that a man has. It also the only law that ensures a woman has the ultimate right to refuse to have sex with a man.

Republicans want to overturn Roe v. Wade and defund Planned Parenthood (not end abortions). They often cite the evils of abortions as the reasons why they want to overturn it. However, this is not their real motivation. Planned Parenthood has a multitude of other services for women and men besides abortions. They help people conceive children, provide safe-sex alternatives to reckless teens, provide both erectile stimulants and contraception, and even hormone therapy for trans people transitioning genders. They also provide pregnancy care for women just like any other hospital.

And as we've discussed Roe v. Wade is about a woman's rights to her body.

Republicans are trying to keep women from having equal rights. This much has been stated by Republicans in the 1970s and that mentality continues to today. It's blatant hypocrisy from a group of people who've only read the Bible enough to make real Christians like yourself believe they're doing God's work. And they are not shy about signaling how religious they are. God even has a Bible verse for them specifically:

 “Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward.” Matthew 6:2. (NKJV)

Government Spending

This one's actually a very easy argument to refute. Republicans are always talking about making tax cuts and spending less money. In truth, all the money they save goes straight into the military budget which increases by BILLIONS of dollars each year. We're currently spending $934 billion a year on our military budget. According to the last Discretionary Spending Audit under Obama, more than half of that goes back into the politicians in both the House and the Senat across both sides of the aisles. That's also why this issue is one many Democrats actively support; the military is giving them a kickback.

The tax cuts you experience is not the government saving an extra twenty cents by cutting out beef from their cafeteria and passing the savings to you. It's the Republican party throwing the US into more debt to artificially give you a tax break so you'll continue to vote for them, and force the Democrats to be the ones to have to put that back to normal so they look like the bad guys.

Long story short, if you want the government to save money, vote Democrat, pay higher taxes and demand a drastic decrease in military spending.

Fun Fact: If we succeed in cutting the military budget by one-hundredth of a percent, the excess funds would pay to empower EVERY SOCIAL SERVICE the democrats suggest (from healthcare all the way to free electricity.) for the next ten years.

Education (Really? This one's so backward you should know better without me explaining.)

Republicans have been so far on the wrong side of this debate I'm surprised I have to tell it to you. For decades they've cut school budget both in the public and private sectors. They happily cut millions of dollars a year from the federal grants that are supposed to help kids afford college, while also artificially inflating the price of school, school supplies, and class prices.

This is not some secret thing you'll have to search hard for. They brag about it on tv every other episode of Fox News. 

The document you gave me lists education but provides no real proposals or examples of problems they hope to change, it is preying on your ignorance in this situation to make themselves look good. (What follows was not any part of the document they left, but are bullet points I thought they should be thinking about when they go to vote.)

Gay Rights

People who are gay, or otherwise not cishet WASPS should have the right to live a life of their own choosing without persecution or judgment from us. Jesus says everyone has that right amongst man. We're supposed to leave all that to God, so leave it for God.

Racism

I direct you to the current protests as proof that Racism is a thing that still exists, and has only gotten more unmanageable as time has moved on. Also, every Black Lives Matter protest since Martin Luther King Jr.

Socialism

Roads, parks, schools, and social security are all social programs funded by the government for the people. We on the Left wish to expand these capacities to healthcare, electricity, internet, higher education, and phone services, while also insisting that the government provide the minimum funding needed for people to live. (This in a time when the cost of living keeps rising higher due to unchecked capitalism.) We demand the government provide for the homeless, and regulate the supply chain of food. (because over 70% of all food in the garbage across this country is thrown away while it's still fresh.)

We have the ability to end starvation, and homelessness in this country. We argue this means we have the responsibility to do so as well.

Gun Reform

Democrats believe no civilian needs access to weapons of war. It's too easy to exploit these weapons and it results in mass killings of innocents. There are far better and more effective ways to defend yourself and your family than buying a bunch of guns and shooting anything that makes a noise in the night.

Police Reform

This is the current agenda. Police have gone unpunished for their crimes against civilians, (especially civilians of color,) and our current system 1: Encourages police to kill first, ask questions never, 2: Forces cops to take on roles they are untrained for, and 3: Gives them too much power without any reliable method of accountability. We demand all three of these things be addressed and changed in a meaningful way.

All of this without even mentioning Trump, the man actively trying to be a dictator.

[nofacenocaseblog]

𝗡𝗢 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘 𝗡𝗢 𝗖𝗔𝗦𝗘 - 𝗗𝗼𝗽𝗲 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 2: Marseille: the New French Connection

“Arrive déjà la 4ème identité Marseillaise” (1)

More than 2600 years ago, Greeks founded Marseille (then Massalia).  Since then, immigration has been the backbone of the city. Here, the term melting pot takes its real meaning.  Throughout the centuries, Greeks , Italians, Armenians, Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans, Comorians...called it home.  Here you’re “Marseillais” before being “Français”.  

Born and bread in Marseille (in 1981), I saw the city getting divided before my eyes.  By the end of the 70’s, the french government parked an entire generation of immigrants from the Maghreb (who help rebuild France after WW2 and fought FOR France during the Algerian independence war) in an endless sea of buildings on the outskirt of Marseille (in)famously known as “Les Quartiers Nords”. Those white concrete structures were built in the mid 60’s, when “Corbusian” (2) architects applied their utopian visions on people’s lives.  The result: drugs, poverty, alienation, isolation, anger… Rage!

I left Marseille in 2004 to move to New York.  Back then, the gap between white “french” people and the 2nd generation of immigrant (100% French but some people tend to forget) was already increasing, the city was fractured.  

The French Connection

Once upon a time, Marseille was the mecca when it came to the processing and exportation of heroin.  Everybody remembers the French Connection: a 30-year heroin operation between Marseille and the US. A traffic worth more than $40 millions a year back then.  Orchestrated by Lucky Luciano, the French Connection provided up to 80% of the US heroin consumption during the 60’s / 70’s.  The morphine base from Turkey and Asia was shipped to the Marseille harbor, unloaded on the docks and processed in one of the many clandestine laboratories hidden in the Provence’s countryside to be transformed in the purest heroin ever manufactured (off medical diamorphine): La Marseillaise, as they called it, was 98% pure.

The network was dismantled, and after the 90’s pick, the heroin disappeared from the streets of Marseille (but this is another story...).  Today, the few die-hard junkies remaining shoot up Subotex (3) with benzos to “spice it up”… a deadly cocktail. But another traffic emerged: Cannabis and Cocaine.

“Ici on est à Marseille mon frère, Sortis tout droit du conteneur Le produit qui t’met à l'envers”(4)

Here cannabis is embedded in our culture, quality is high and price low.  Good Cocaine, on the other hand, was hard to come by, but now you can get dime bag of high purity cocaine quite easily.  Without the presence of organized crime (”le milieu”, as they call it here knew his golden age with the French connection but was dismantled by the early 2000), the city was left in the hands of gangsters (called “bandits” in Marseille) fighting each other to death in a turf war that caused 34 homicides in 2016 (5).  A heaven you’ll say compare to the 786 homicides the same year in Chicago, but in a country where firearms are illegal, it gave Marseille the title of “France Murder Capital” and the mainstream media did what they do best: spread the fear, pointing the finger to the common enemy:  “Les banlieues” (Ghetto in French) and their inhabitants… The dialogue was broken and the city split in two, the North and its “bandits” versus the South with La Canebiere (Marseille most famous street in the city center) as “unofficial” border.

“Rick James said cocaine's a hell of a drug Who else could put the hipsters with felons and thugs And paint a perfect picture of what sellin' it does? This is for the critics, who doubted the chemistry Two different worlds, same symmetry” (6)

I used to come back to my hometown once or twice a year for few days, a couple of weeks at the most. In 2019, I decided to stay over a month. The homicide number that year dropped to 9, I went to the “allegedly” worst ghettos in town: La Busserine, Les Oliviers, Brassens, La Castellane etc… Les Quartiers Nords.

Where no there was no illegal activities , everything was quiet and relax, not once my wife and I felt “in danger”.  Where drugs were being sold, everything was even more quiet… Don’t forget, murder and violence is bad for business... and business, in Marseille, is good: at La Busserine alone, the sales of cannabis and cocaine add up to 15,000€/day during the week and up to 25,000€ on weekends with over 500 clients daily.  The narcotics sale amounts to 70 millions €/year in Marseille (7), spent and laundered (re-invested) in the city.  After some violent years, violence went down and sales went up.

Like any other ghetto, you’ll find here the usual set up: look-out kids (called Chouf, in Marseille slang, translates “look” in arabic) “chilling” on the side of the  road and on top of buildings , hidden stashes in apartments, empty lots and  garages, dozens of "read-to-sell” bags concealed in pipes and cars’ bumpers, ‘menu’ openly written on wall, obvious selling points (yet distant from the main hang-out spot where kids are playing) and a clientele in and out in less than a minute.

A Les Oliviers, the line of customers almost goes around the block on Saturday nights.  Security is insured by the local “muscles” to avoid any “dispute”. Kids from the neighborhood point customers to the right building and tell them where to park their car.  The operation is seamless.  People are lining up, waiting to buy some hash or weed, a bag of coke for the evening, some K and possibly a couple of ecstasies and MDMA. Choice is broad at Les Olivers, one of the most profitable “cites” (another name for ghetto in France) in town with La Busserine (where the choice is lesser but the quality higher). 

Nothing exceptional you’ll say, just another drug traffic… but look closer and you’ll see something I’ve never witnessed in 25 years living in Marseille (and spending lots of time in those “ghetto” as I was boxing in one of their local gym):

I saw white kids hanging out in the "hood” -to buy drugs, I know... but still- with no fear, feeling welcome,  joking with locals, even getting drinks at the corner bistro. 

Something unthinkable 10 years ago. Something hidden by the media. Something politicians don’t want you to know, to not lose the “fear of the other” they spent so much time to insinuate in our heads. 

Let the people believe that only dirty, nasty junkies are going to those dangerous places to buy their dose of dope, whereas it’s their sons, daughters or even colleagues, who are going to get their weed, some pills and maybe a beer before going back to the “right side of the track” to hang out in the trendy and cool bars and restaurants of the “Corniche” and “La Pointe Rouge”

The French Connection is still alive but deeply changed in nature… french people are now actually connected.  They’re bounding around something they have in common: drugs. Good or bad, I’m not here to judge, all I know is that as long as there is demand, there will be offer…

In one of the the countries in Europe with the toughest laws on narcotics, French politicians keep on playing Sisyphus (8) with their “war on drugs”…Decriminalization and comprehension healthcare solutions remains the only efficient -and proven- solution to fight drugs… 

In the meantime, in the South of France, the new generation is getting together and making its own New French Connection.

============

NOTES

(1) Translate: “Already here, the 4th identity from Marseille” Kenny Arkana refereeing to the 4th generation of MCs but also the 4th generation born in France from immigrant descend (2)  Le Corbusier philosophy : his vision for residential architecture included a great deal of services, business and activities to have the building self-sufficient and sustainable. He dreamed of "cleaning and purging" the city, bringing "a calm and powerful architecture"—referring to steel, plate glass, and reinforced concrete... This utopian vision has then been applied to low income building ending up in the creation of actual ghettos. (3) Subotex is the brand name for buprenorphine, a drug used to get off heroin (like methadone, yet completely different in its use). If shot, it will get you high, add benzodiazepines such as Xanax or Rivotril (Marseille’s favorite) and you risk the cardiac arrest as it greatly slows down your heartbeat. (4) Translate: “Straight outta the container, the product that’ll fuck your brain up” Fonky Family - Le Retour du Shit Squat (5) https://www.20minutes.fr/marseille/1988379-20170102-marseille-34-tues-balles-lors-reglements-compte-2016-inexact-repond-prefet-police (6) Pusha T - Trouble On My Mind (7) From the show “L’heure des Pros” sur France on August 28th 2020 (8) In Greek mythology Sisyphus or Sisyphos was the king of Ephyra. He was punished by being forced to roll an immense boulder up a hill only for it to roll down every time it neared the top, repeating this action for eternity.