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naptoons · 5 years ago

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May I ask for an imagine of Brandon making a song about you cause he misses you during quarantine :(

Big bet I got you, I love these cheesy concepts.

Butterflies - Brandon Arreaga

Summary: Brandon has been missing you so much during this whole shutdown, so to ease his need to have you next to him, he writes and produce a song solely about you.

Warning(s): Nothing Fluff is all

A/N: so I wrote a song/poem for someone long time ago cause I had a crush on them but I ended up not giving it too them lol so I’ll put it too use.

Proofread: yes/no

Laying on your bed, you went through the pictures of you and Brandon, you were reminiscing on all the good times you spent with him, pressing on the pictures to hear what happened in the background, smiling everyone you heard Brandon yelling “that’s my girl!!” Or “damn you look really good” as you were going to text Brandon his caller Id popped up to FaceTime you.

“I was just thinking about you” you state, seeing his smile appear followed by the giggle you’d always melt over, you watch him fix his hair for what seemed like the third time.

“You’re just everlastingly perfect” Brandon’s voice hits a lower octave, rolling my eyes You hear his soft scoff “aye none of that! You’re beautiful end of discussion okay?”

You scrunch my nose up “but I didn’t even say anything!”

“Baby, I’ve been with you for a year, I know all your facial expressions” Brandon fights you on your debate, he licks his lips moving his bangs out of his face.

“I wish you would’ve dyed your highlights that color, you’d look even hotter” you state, grunting as you get up from your bed walking towards the kitchen. You hear nothing for him after your sentence so you looked back at him just to see his dazed orbs on you. “Jesus Brandon it’s been a year and you’re still zoning out while looking at me?”

“You act like I’m still not nervous by your presence y/n, you’re beautiful to me no matter how long we’ve been together”

“You’re going to still say that when I’m covered in wrinkles?”

“Fuck yeah, wrinkles don’t stop your beauty” he laughs, You grab a bowl for ice cream then open the freezer. “What you’ve been up to babygirl tell me about your day”

“Oh just looking at pictures of us and missing you even more, I also broke a nail” you show him the band-aid wrapped around your index finger. Brandon pouts at your injury and adorable you are.

“Aw my baby I’m sorry about your finger, how’d that happened?” Brandon softens, his fave coming closer to the screen giving his undivided attention to you.

“I bought new furniture to decorate my room” You pout

You guys spent quite some time talking hearing what one another has done for the day, you guys ended up watching a horror movie together, which made you slightly mad at Brandon, knowing full well that you couldn’t sleep without him around to hold you after a horror movie. But here you were in bed three hours later falling asleep.

“I won’t leave, I’ll stay until you fall asleep babygirl, stop fighting it” Brandon laughs slightly

“Wouldn’t be in this situation if we didn’t watch it, you’re just a sadist” you mumble, only fueling his laughter even more, you turn your back towards the camera hugging the teddy bear he bought you.

“Aw pretty girl, look at me I’m sorry” Brandon pouts, you look at him over your shoulders seeing him take off his sweatshirt “I’m sorry babygirl, let me see your face beautiful” Brandon’s voice sounding serious.

“Fine only cause you’re adorable, and I need to sleep” which makes Brandon beam bigger, you saw him sitting in front of a computer, sighing you just knew he was constantly working, but this time he was working on something for you. Brandon looked over once again to see your eyes were closed. His smile growing the more he wrote and erased, changed the beats on his laptop, strummed his guitar. He was determined it be perfect. Not only for his sake, but for you. He wanted to let you know you’re loved. And those kind gestures doesn’t stop after he asked you out. It was for a lifetime.

The next morning you woke up to your phone constantly vibrating, confused you thought your phone would’ve died from how long you were on FaceTime for, but it turns out you put it on the charger while talking to Brandon. Pressing the lockscreen you see you’ve been tagged in so many posts. So many twitter mentions. Did Brandon post a screenshot of you from FaceTime last night? Ignoring it you thought to yourself it wasn’t the first time he’s done something like that. Walking towards the bathroom, more and more notifications ringed.

Curious to know you walked back swiping on of the mentions, and typed in your passcode.

“ Just when you thought their relationship couldn’t get any cuter!!! 🥺 @y/n @brandon_arreaga STREAM IT GUYS!! “ you read one tweet. You favorited it then moved onto the next one.

“The beginning of the song starts off with her giggles when he visited her from tour......I’m soft dont touch me😩😩😩😩 go stream this people @y/n @brandon_arreaga” you favorited a couple of tweets, sliding down your notifications you stumble open his SoundCloud that he’s uploaded something. The cover art was a picture of you two on your first date. the Polaroid picture that is in his wallet till this day. Turning on your speaker you press play.

The intro was just as they said, you giggle when he came and visited you with your favorite flowers, you were crying if pure happiness. The guitar strings comes in right after you said “I love you”

‘Babygirl, got a heart like a garden, but she’s too scared to ever let it bloom’

‘Don’t wanna cave into love if it’s to soon,but she’s the girl I pray about to the moon’

Your eyes started to welt up in tears, he wrote a song for you? He used to love singing to you and still does, but now he gets to sing a song for you.

‪‘She doesn’t realize the pull she has on me‬

‪Honey golden eyes that just melts on me‬

‪A fragile sunflower in the garden sweep by the sea’ ‬

‪‘No matter what the tides bring, you gotta know you’re still my baby’ his soft voice brings the tears down your cheeks, after the song was done, an audio was played at the end, you remember exactly what it was. The day Brandon took you out to watch the lanterns. ‬

‪“I’ve never been this deep in love, ain’t these like the butterflies your mom tells you to run away from?” You hear you’re voice ask ‬

‪“Yeah, doesn’t mean they’re dangerous, just means you’ve found the right one, and you know they are, cause everytime you see them the butterflies just won’t stop” ‬

‪Smiling you wiped you face, calling Brandon on facetime, in a matter of a minute he answered seeing you wipe your face with his hoodie sleeve. “Hey babylove you okay?, what happened?” Brandon’s voice honeyed in on you, making you miss him even more.‬

‪“your song is happened” you choke through‬

‪Brandon feeling a sigh of relieve giggles through the phone “god you really are beautiful, I’ve missed you so much so I thought I’d write a song about how much I loved you” ‬

‪You heard your doorbell ring in the background “give me a minute baby” you tell Brandon, clearing your throat you walk across your wooden floor towards the front door, unlocking it there he stood, with his sultry eyes, he pulled his mask off to show you his beautiful smile. “And drove all the way here just to see you” in one hand he held a self care basket for you and his overnight clothes. In the other was his hand on your lower back, while your tears fell on his shoulders.‬

‪“I’m here baby” Brandon mumbles kissing your neck, backing away you let him in, as your dog runs and jumps on his legs “oh hey princess/prince I’ve missed you” he coos at your dog, placing the basket on your kitchen counter and his overnight bag on the living room floor.‬

‪“You’re staying baby?” You pout ‬

‪“Yeah, you thought I was just coming by and not staying? You’re crazy” Brandon chuckles you run over to him but this time he catches you his fingers hooking underneath your thighs.‬

‪“I love you so much” Brandon mumbles softly on your skin, kissing every part of visible flesh his lips can reach. Giggling you roam your fingers through his hair.‬

‪“I love you more”‬

#prettymuch #prettymuch imagines #brandon arreaga #brandon arreaga concepts #brandon arreaga imagines

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problematicwelshman · 5 years ago

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Not everyone’s an angel

Going to go off on a little side journey here, please stick with me.

I know it’s out of character for me to show concern, but don’t worry. I’ll be back to my regularly scheduled self soon enough I’m sure.

A post came across my dash today that highlighted many of the times Michael Sheen has responded to a fan’s tweet for help, so to speak. It’s heartwarming to see how much he really cares about people, and I’m sure it’s a thrill for those he contacts directly.

However, being the skeptical bitch that I am, I saw several red flags in those threads.

First- many of the tweeters are minors, sharing intimate details of their lives for all the Internet to see. Remember when people pushed to get Michael more than 500,000 followers? He’s now at over 505,000 followers and the number keeps going up. So now when he responds to tweets over HALF A MILLION PEOPLE potentially see it. And they can see the tweets to which he’s responded. While I know that neither mental illness nor struggling through hard times are anything to be ashamed of, exposing those struggles and illnesses to hundreds of thousands of strangers can lead to SO MANY BAD THINGS I can’t even wrap my brain around them. People, especially minors, need to be careful. There are predators online and many of these tweeters just told “the bad guys” what they need to know to manipulate them. Someone less honourable than MS could start targeting these fans and take advantage. The “Sheendom” is small and exclusive, not everyone who follows Michael is in it.

Second- at least one of these stories was debunked a while ago. I don’t have the details, I wasn’t the one who debunked it, but I saw the screenshots that prove it. A response or a like from Michael Sheen has become currency, with people doing all sorts of underhanded things to gather it. What the hell is wrong with people who are so desperate for attention that they’d fake a sob story and tag a celebrity? I’ve seen non-Sheendom Sheen fans joke that the only thing they need to get his attention is a heart in their Twitter name and a sad tale. People are noticing.

And finally- We know he’s a soft heart. He seems to genuinely like helping people. But we also know that he’s had some BIG struggles of his own over the last year and a half, he’s said it himself. He also said that support from the Good Omens fandom helped him through the rough times and I believe that. I’m sure he wants to give back to the group that supported him, but how much can someone expend before they’re depleted? Things are still really stressful for everyone, I get that, and we all need someone to vent to, to talk to, to ask for help from. If you need help, reach out to someone with whom you can make a real connection, not a celebrity in his 50s, with his own baggage to carry, no matter how angelic he seems.

TL;DR: Be careful with how much you spill on the 'webz. Not everyone is as nice as he is. Also- don’t make shit up.

#Michael Sheen #Twitter #be careful out there

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klarolinedrabbles · 5 years ago

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sorry if i'm nosy but i live for drama and the quarantine ain't helping lmao so do you have any more wild anecdotes from the kc/tvd fandom besides the ones you told a while ago?

Oh there’s definitely more.

There was the muffin incident. Which, sounds ridiculous, and I assure you it both is and isn’t. But basically, one of my dearest friends in the world, Jenn, @jonsnowbitch, decided one day she was going to conduct an experiment, if you will. And this experiment entailed sitting through an entire episode of TO and in that specific episode, replacing Camille’s presence with an inanimate object, and determine whether or not the story remains the same. Spoiler alert, it does. And the object Jenn chose was a muffin. Which didn’t sit well with some CK stans, who missed the entire point of Jenn’s post, and/or chose to ignore it. You can read it here. It’s the reason we have these amazing gems;

Uhhh there was a point where we had confirmation Carina was just hangin around on the blogs. She’d done an interview where she’d said her two most visited sites were these two blogs who hated TO, me and Hillary were like well that could not more obviously be us. Then like a year or so later, someone had sent me a screenshot of a tweet of hers, because I’m blocked by her on twitter, where she said she was just scrolling on a blog and came across a post that said ‘carina get off my blog’ which was something I’d written like the day before, lmfsksks.

Uh let’s see, SOME WRITER LEFT TO, idr who exactly it was, Charlie something, I wanna say. He’d officially departed as a TO writer and he’d posted a picture of his goodbye letter on twitter, and he ended it with, ‘and yes, I love Klaroline too’ the kill bill sirens were real. We were like wtfwtfwtf. The fact that he didn’t say that till he was out the door, plus the way it was written. We’d had this theory that there was a Klaroline gag order, and that all but confirmed it for us.

Uh the last week or so of TVD’s series finale filming was pretty wild. 10/10 do NOT recommend, that was horrendous, no one knew wtf was going on. For some god-awful reason, this new girl popped up during S8 of TVD with information. But she had about a 60% success rate, which caused heaps of confusion in my inbox and on twitter. Every damn day was something whacked. She had this unprecedented access to sides, which are usually audition script pages, or misleading one’s. Like she’d posted a script page of I wanna say Matt or Alaric idr in a hospital bed scene, and it wound up being Stefan. It was just chaos.

The day they leaked the board in the writer’s room during TO S5, spoiling that Hayley died mid-way through the final season. My running gag used to be that there was something in the water over there. The amount of times they themselves spoiled shit. Leah spoiled Camille’s vampire arc by posting a bts where she was very clearly wearing a lapis lazuli ring, some guy in S4 spoiled his character’s death, I mean the list goes on.

Narducci had given some interview once about how ‘tHIS UPCOMING EPISODE HAS THE MOST CHILLING ENDING WE’VE EVER DONE’ and I was like oh well I gotta see this, so I watch the entire episode just for the purpose of whatever this ending was, and it was just Aurora telling Klaus how she’d got the one-up on her brother that day and to come back to bed. I sat there for like five minutes going ‘....what’ because I couldn’t believe that was all it was. They had a notorious habit of overhyping things. Like who’s death was it in S2, I think? I honestly can’t even remember, that’s how whack it was. BUT THEY WAY THEY HYPED IT UP, LMFSKSK. Those weeks leading up to it, they had us convinced it was like Marcel or someone who was kicking the bucket. And then it was...no one.

Which is why when spoiler anon said ‘in less than half a season they kill x, y, and z’ I didn’t believe them. Lemme think, the invasion of the sterobots. SC was up against CS in the finale of a poll, and there is absolutely zero way that fandom had the numbers to beat CS. Then one of their own went and said ‘we’ve been using bots’ and the rest is history. We were up against DE in a poll on EW. I don’t remember if it was the phone call or the letter though. But point is, they were gaining on us, while also competing in another poll on the same site and someone came to my inbox and snitched. Said she was in a gc and they were discussing how to overtake the poll. We lived some Wild times, ya’ll.

#long post #stephanie talks fandom #Anonymous

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kittywildegrrl · 4 years ago

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MamaCat Has Been Sick of This Conspiracy Theory Crap Since Before This One Existed

Yea, though I stagger through the final bloody chaotic days of the Trump “presidency,” I shall fear no evil, for the Constitution is with me. Kamala and Joe, they comfort me.

On the real though: scared shitless of the evil.

Rightfully so, for here is the welcome some of our fellow Americans have for the incoming Administration. Almost makes ‘em seem... un-American. May these creeps fail mightily and may Inauguration Day be free of violence.

“‘He has an obligation to them’: Attorney for ‘QAnon shaman’ asks Trump to pardon rioters,” says Politico. “He felt like his voice was, for the first time, being heard,” Watkins said. “And what ended up happening, over the course of the lead-up to the election, over the course of the period from the election to Jan. 6 — it was a driving force by a man he hung his hat on, he hitched his wagon to. He loved Trump. Every word, he listens to him.”

Ugh. There it is. The continental divide between objective reality and Trumpism reality. “Every word, he listens to him.” I saw a classic strongman dictatorship rising, somebody else saw Jesus. I saw my least favorite showman in my lifetime doing his best P. T. Barnum a la Mussolini, somebody else saw the only plausible leader for troubled times.

Perhaps as many as a few thousand of those somebodies attacked our Capitol, and I am not over it. Some more of those somebodies, who knows the actual number, are contributing to online chatter about setting loose further chaos in the next five days.

It’s literally insane, and a lot of it is attributed to the Q conspiracy phenomenon. Two crazy ladies who buy into it have been sent to Washington, D.C., as elected representatives (rollcall.com).

A week after the attempted coup, as the wheels of a second impeachment were grinding over his legacy, the Dear Leader of those who used to watch “The Apprentice” delivered a disingenuous, if carefully-worded, video. In it he denounced the violence. He also employed the No True Scotsman argument, perhaps my favorite of the logical fallacies.

I didn’t buy it, but it wasn’t for me. No, it was for his base, and for his attorneys. Whether he made the attorneys happy is not for me to say. Allegedly Rudy Giuliani is his attorney, and allegedly Rudy’s not getting paid.

No, it’s the latest iteration of Q nonsense on my mind this snowy morning. That video? I saw a beaten man, a would-be Caesar, out of options, doing as he was told for once. Somebody else saw a Q message. Go on over to secondnexus.com and check it out, I’ll wait. You’ll enjoy the screenshotted tweets.

Adding to MamaCat’s recent attack of nostalgia, one learned recently that a former lover, a very bad boyfriend from days of yore, had passed on. Big, strong, handsome, witty, fantastic in bed, cruelly abusive, and possessed of sketchy background, he was champion and nemesis to me in those bizarre days of the mid-90s, when (among other things) I experienced a noticeably short second marriage and met some conspiracy theorists. May he rest in peace. I, for one, am actually relieved. Talk about smart women making foolish choices. I got a million of ‘em. But the mind will cast its glance backwards at such moments.

Wait till you’re old and crochety, kids, your stories may be wacky and bizarre one day too!

So there was this couple, both my late problematic boyfriend and my second husband knew them, so in the course of things I came to know them too. They seemed like a pretty cool couple, we had interests and friends in common. Then one evening at their house, they began to explain, very carefully and for my own good, about Area 51, Ancient Astronauts, and why the income tax is illegal. Why I should read Ayn Rand, become a Sovereign Citizen, and stock up on guns & ammo.

I was insecure enough in the first place, so at the time, it seemed like the polite way to avoid confrontation was just to listen and not argue too much. I was at their place, without my own car, thinking maybe this won’t go on all night, how can I change the subject to Star Trek… but when we got to the taxes portion of the presentation, I just couldn’t stop myself.

“What about the roads and bridges?”

There was a lot of incoherent babbling about per-use fees and private property and so forth. And as I sat listening, politely, hoping my ride was about ready to go, I was thinking, “They don’t understand how any of this works. They’re grown-ass adults, regurgitating faulty reasoning, telling me mad re-interpretations of what the 1st and 2nd Amendments mean, and they really don’t know how little they know. It’s like an alternate reality. I want to go home.”

(Think about it. The Internet barely existed yet. This was mainly spread face to face and via phone trees at the time.)

That friendship didn’t blossom much after that. Nice enough folks on the face of it, but the crazy talk kept returning to the word, “militia,” and I was not a fan. At that time in my life, I was actually a pretty decent shot, with a number of different firearms (not an owner, though). I let go of this friendship, and not long after, I let go of guns. What I couldn’t let go of was the nagging sense that if this sort of conspiratorial thinking were to get out of hand, become somehow mainstreamed, the only logical outcome would be eventual violence. You can’t combine hatred for the notion of government itself, with fantasies about actual extraterrestrials, with disdain for taxpayer-provided goods and services, with guns and ammo and militia identity, without eventual violence.

And for just a moment, late last night, it felt like the intervening 20 -25 years had never happened. In my actor’s imagination, I could see it like a film cut, from the sepia tones of that living room in New Mexico so long ago, to the craziest damned January in American memory. Nonexistent voter fraud, Q, rightwing hate media; these lie along a straight line from that Sovereign Citizen baloney my friends served for dinner that night. A straight, incredibly white, line.

I really, really hope that the Biden administration comes on like gangbusters in the first hundred days. I hope people’s lives improve drastically, quickly, especially for people who think we voted in Stalinism or something. I really hope we can raise the standard of living across the board (below, say, $250k/annum, you $250k+ guys are actually fine up there). I really, really hope we can address the pandemic. I don’t see any way to controvert the conspiracy-based thinking, unless we just take this opportunity to actually govern for a change, and lift everybody up.

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someguy1023 · 6 years ago

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Something I realized since Holly’s Thread came out, and its relation to Heidi’s tweets

(tldr, because people probably don’t/aren’t gonna want to read this all the way; I realized its possible Jared was lying to Holly (and his friends) about Heidi, manipulating them and leading to this complicated mess. This whole thing compares what both Heidi and Holly said, what was confirmed and denied, calls out parts of Holly’s thread, and is basically connecting some dots that I’m probably just imagining. I have no defense for Jared, and Holly isn’t completely innocent in all this, but based on the facts given, it’s possible theres more to her story than simply “i’m gonna divorce my husband and go against everything I showed I stand for” like everyone wants to believe.)

Okay so lets get this sorted first; I admit that I was a huge fan of Holly before all this. Ever since Heroes of Cosplay, I looked up to her and think that she played a major role in making me a much better person. I am extremely heartbroken and disappointed by her actions.

The reason I mention this is because I’m sure some will accuse me of being biased, completely one-sided in what I want to say. And while I promise I’m trying to stay 100% to remain neutral, I’m sorry if I come across otherwise. Feel free to call me out if need be. But don’t pull the whole “youre pathetic and should die” thing with it like some others are doing please, a simple “this part sounds a bit biased to me and i have a problem with it” is fine.

So. Let’s talk about what Holly said. (I assume most of you are up to date with this, so I don’t want to waste any time or bore you) Holly metioned in her thread that Heidi has shown abusive behavior towards Jared, and had screenshots of texts Heidi and Jared had talking to each other that relates to the whole affair thing. Heidi mentioned they were true, but were out of context, and said that Holly purposefully showed them that way.

...I’m sure some of you are ahead of me, but I’ll still gonna mention it because it plays into my “epiphany”; Holly got the screenshots FROM Jared.

Now, before going more into this, I want to mention that yes, it’s entirely possible that she recieved the screenshots from Jared after the news broke, so obviously, I want you all of this to take this with a grain of salt, and admit that at the time of typing this, we don’t have all the facts, so its pretty much a theory.

(Small correction; considering Holly was in the hospital for her mental health, and people have pointed out phones aren’t allowed, it seems more likely she couldnt have gotten these after Heidi’s announcement. I know people are accusing her of lying about that, but a few of Holly’s friends confirmed they visited her, so I want to give them the benefit of the doubt on that. Also, for people saying the Keemstar artwork picture proves she had her phone, which isn’t allowed for those in the mental health ward, I’m pretty sure she took it after she got out. I know, it probably sounds hypocritical considering what I said a moment ago, but, like i said, grain of salt.)

Heidi had mentioned Day 1 (i believe) that texts from Holly talked about her very negatively, speaking ill about her trying to convince Jared to leave Heidi. Granted, we don’t know when this started in context to the screenshots, especially in regards to the ones regarding DCA and her desperation, considering the timestamps weren’t included, but if we Assume (key word here) that it was after some of these were sent, it kind of makes sense. Jared showing Heidi in this light, claiming to be “scared” of her, would cause Holly’s demeanor towards her to change.

Another point I wanted to bring up is Heidi pointing out how much Jared had lied to others about his marriage. To many of his friends. She also noted that Holly was taking his word on a lot of things, as well as her, abmittably sarcastic, notion that “no, baby, i only lie to my wife, i swear.”

...well, would he?

This brings us to my realization; what shows that Jared didn’t lie to Holly about any part of his actions? Out of everything shown, outside of simply taking him at his word, do you really think he would be completely honest in this situation to Holly, but not Heidi, or his friends/fans?

There a few other things I wanted to note as well;

-Heidi had mentioned before that she put a stop to them trying to hook up while she and Jared were trying a poly relationship, insinuating she never gave permission in the first place. Holly’s text, however, show that she gave them permission, and admitted that she didn’t expect them to have sex, but didn’t seem to have a problem with it. (at least, from the texts she sent to Jared) Holly and Heidi both confirmed in their tweets and the screenshots that, at least at the time that happened, they didn’t have sex and went walking together. I’m not saying this to call Heidi a liar by any means, as the screenshots could have deliberately showed it like that as i mentioned before, and yes, Heidi did change her mind, its simply something I noted.

(Addition; I looked at the screenshots Heidi sent out, and noticed something else. Heidi said that Jared and Holly weren’t being transparent with her, and called it off a short time after Jared and Holly talked. However, and I’m a bit confused by it, it was seemingly due to Jared not texting her back while they were walking. She even told Holly she understood that they didn’t have their phones when they talked. So...was that the reason she called it off? I do want to say, poly relationships can be called off whenever the other person wants to, and she was perfectly allowed to change her mind. It just seems weird that was the turning point. I don’t know, maybe I’m letting my personal opinion leak out, I’m sorry.)

(Addition pt. 2; This had cross my mind when reading this over and realized I never brought up Heidi/Jared’s conversation about Heidi’s other partner when they were poly. Heidi had noted she called it off when she realized she wanted to go back to Monogamy. But, did Holly know that? I doubt Heidi would share that with Holly, and considering Jared’s behavior, I don’t think he would share this with Holly. As I noted, we don’t know when these texts were sent/screenshotted, and, while I admit this could be another stretch, Jared could’ve sent that to Holly to paint Heidi as a hypocrite, seemingly continuing to be poly.)

-Heidi and Holly also confirmed that Holly apologized profusely to Heidi in those same texts with each other, so we can prove that it was true in some way or form. I would also say that Heidi calling Holly also checks out, as it was related to that event, and Heidi said it was true. (I’ll get back to that in a sec)

-While I do want to talk about this more seperately, I also want to talk about the situation with Ross during all this, as many still think Holly and Jared were having sex behind his back. Holly said that they had talked about their feelings in January/Febuary 2018, which Heidi confirmed in her response. Heidi also said that Holly and Jared weren’t together (at least) sexually until October the same year, a month after their divorce. Again, this is a can of worms I want to open seperate from this, but I wanted to at least clear the air that based on the evidence and confirmation provided, no, Holly was not fucking Jared while she was still married to Ross.

(Addition; More tweets have come out recently with Holly saying that she was transparent with Ross about this situation up until their divorce, and that she did not cheat on him during their time together. Obviously, there’s no way to confirm or deny this as Ross said he wanted to be kept out of this, which Holly also noted and said she intended to respect. I simply wanted to include this both to update this, and to keep others in the loop who were uninformed of this.)

(Addition pt. 2; It seems the tweet about Ross has been deleted for unknown reasons. Many say they think it’s a lie, and some have begun to harass Ross with it. Ross skips on streaming possibly due to this. On that note; can you guys who keep harassing everyone just fucking stop? He’s not gonna answer, so stop harassing everyone he replies to thinking he’s gonna answer you.)

-I also want to add, after looking through Heidi’s tweets again, that Holly apparently wasn’t the only one he was having sex with. According to Heidi, he was also having sex with other fans while he was married. When this took place isn’t clear, as well as if Holly knew or not. I’m not sure what to make of it, but I personally doubt Jared would share such facts with her or Heidi. I’m not sure, though, not unless/until more evidence comes forth.

Alright, now to move on to the flaws in Holly’s thread that should be pointed out. I said I wasn’t going to be biased, and I intend to keep my word;

(Okay, I already said this seperately, but it seems like a lot of people, including myself, misread it. It wa/ literally phrased “Why would Heidi go back To Jared’s House after she already moved out?” I understand the confusion, and am not defending its phrasing, but no, its not asking “Why did Heidi go back to Jared and keep their relationship going”)

-The part questioning why Heidi didn’t try to get away from Jared if she was abused was, admittedly, a Big Yikes. Needless to say, people suffering from abuse for long stretches of time can’t just do that so easily. (Being a victim of abuse from my father in many of the same ways Heidi was abused by Jared, which I’ve seeked treatment for over the last few years since his death, I know) This also brings up her follow-up comment about Jared trying to leave his relationship 4 times, as well as an intervention by his friends to convince him to leave. Until the friends in question come forward to confirm this, I’m not sure how true this may be. Also, Heidi had pointed out that she had legally acquired the pictures and texts Holly said she aquired illegally, as well as dismissing Holly’s claim that she broke in to the house they shared together and stole Jared’s play button, which she provided a shot from Facebook to support (more on that later.) Obviously, I’m not an expert on law, so I can’t really comment on this.

(Note; I read over those tweets again, and realized the phrasing is what made it so weird? kinda? Basically, in the second tweet, it looks like she was trying to say “why would Heidi go back to the house if she already moved out?” which makes more sense. I don’t know, its not so much as cancelling what she said, moreso my own realization about what was meant vs what people took away.)

-Speaking of Heidi’s call, I want to bring up the biggest contradiction; Holly texting Jared afterwards. Yes, that does sound very odd, as Heidi had called From Jared’s phone. Many people point this out as a major lie, and I can understand why. However, while this is the Biggest Stretch in my whole throught process, I have considered the possibility that she texted his other phone (i.e. his old phone, though some have noted that old phones don’t have numbers anymore. This is true, but depending on if it was a trade in/upgrade, the old phone can still work. I personally had that very thing happened my last upgrade, as I had bought my new phone while I still had my old one, was able to use both normally before transferring everything to the new device. I imagine that some of you will accuse me of lying on this, but I promise you I have no reason to lie about this.) Additionally, there are a number of messaging apps outside of the pre-installed texting app (Skype, Kik, Facebook Messager, etc.) Regardless, it is a very odd way to put it regardless, and I could understand that being a lie.

-Speaking of Facebook, Holly’s use of Heidi’s private account to support her claims is a bit sketchy. Heidi has said these were said as a joke, and that they were used to further villify her in Holly’s attempt to gaslight others to take her side. I admit that this is possible, and that use of her private account as ammo is a poor move. However, that being said, I do feel that some of them, mainly those related to the Play Button and Perez Hilton are phrased a bit sketchily, both in and out of context. (Though as I mentioned, Heidi claimed them as using humor to heal, which I understand.)

-A minor note, but I also agree that while she claimed not trying to spread hate or be used to bully either Heidi or Jared, Holly definitely didn’t seem to keep to that in tone. While it started out that way, and I want to believe she was truthful about that attempt, it definitely went in a harsher tone as it went on. So, yeah, you dropped the ball on that, Ms. Conrad.

-Another minor note, but I do find it odd that no one has said when the screenshots about DCA and Heidi becoming desperate were taken. I’m primarily talking about Holly, but Heidi hasn’t clarified when they took place, either. This isn’t an attack on Heidi, she’s not obligated to fill in that blank for us. It’s a bit odd, though.

-Finally, I’m not totally sold on the “revenge plot” thing. Heidi had mentioned before and in response to Holly that she had nothing to gain from the whole thing, as she claimed that Jared had tried to use his money for her to keep quiet. So I’m not clear on how such a scandal would benefit her outside of popularity. (Which the Facebook posts whose phrasing I had mentioned having a problem with both held a common theme of, mentioning the various articles about her and her cosplays, as well as her comment about Perez Hilton)

I do want to mention as well, mainly because someone else had pointed it out, that there was a 30+ hour difference between her Facebook post announcing her divorce and Jared’s statement on Twitter, as well as Heidi’s reveal that it was Holly he had been cheating on her with. On the other hand, Heidi also noted that she posted it in an environment of people close to her to vent the pain she had been dealing with, while Jared’s statement was in a public form, allowing him to potentially twist the facts to people who wouldn’t know better, which makes sense. Similarly to the text messages about the walk Holly and Jared took, it’s something I wanted to note.

This brings us to my last point, and arguably the most important one; Jared’s solicitation of and sending to nudes from fans, as well as his former Tumblr account.

Many have pointed out that Holly never really talked about them during her thread. On this, I disagree. Near the beginning of her thread, before mentioning what happened in February, she noted her disapproval of influencers and celebrity soliciting fans in any sort of way, noting it as an abuse of power, and that no one should do such a thing. She also went on to note that Jared had made poor decisions in that regard. Holly also said that she supposedly had proof that Jared had consent from the fans involved, as well as their age being legal. I’m willing to say, this doesn’t really prove Jared’s innocence in that regard, as he could have easily lied about such facts or omitted details proving otherwise. She also went on to mention that posting such photos without the consent of those involved is considered “revenge porn” and is illegal in most of the US, including a list of said states and the facts about the law in each state (minimum sentancing. I understand and agree that this could be considered a blanket statement or too light of a stance, but I believe that this was her way of acknowledging and disapproving of Jared’s actions. However, Holly also claimed that she can’t legally go more depth into it based on the legal ramifications of the claims, while Heidi noted that while there are legal things related to the subject, she noted that there wasn’t really anything stopping Holly from talking about it further outside of, what she believes, is advice given to her from Jared. At the time, I cannot find there’s anything that proves or deny this, so if anyone can add on to this, feel free to do so. There is also no current evidence that either Holly and Jared are still together and/or still talking.

So what does this all mean?

...honestly, I don’t know. Maybe I have a point, maybe I’m pulling off the greatest ventriloquist act and talking right out my ass. As I said before, there is the chance that I unintentionally looked over or forgot something. I’m more than willing to be corrected. Personally, this whole thing has been heartbreaking, confusing, and just an all around shitshow.

Holly put it best; “People can lie on the internet, and omit information.” As outsiders, we have no real way of knowing how much of the truth is being shared with us from anyone, though that shouldn’t mean we should immediately dismiss Heidi’s word on the matter. Until something else comes to light, whether it’s the truth or otherwise, she’s still the victim in all this, and we should stand by her side to help her. It’s the right thing to do.

All I wanted to do is point out here was a possibility that Jared lied to Holly as well, or at least tried framed Heidi as the villain before all this started. Maybe a stretch, sure, but in context with everything said, with all the facts we have, it’s still in the realm of possibility, at least a little.

So I guess the only real moral of the story is; regardless of what the truth is, Jared is still a lying scummy douchebag who I have no sympathy for :]

(If anyone wants to add, question, or call out something I said/mentioned, feel free to send me an ask so i can reply directly and correct myself. I want the truth, not personal opinions or emotions, to come to light. Additionally, while I didn’t mention it previously, for those curious on why I didn’t simply ask Heidi or Holly about all this, it comes down to two reasons; 1. the possible opportunity to openly lie without the other knowing and present it as fact, and 2. mainly due to Heidi’s insistence that she wants to move on from Jared and all the drama, wanting to heal and start her life anew. The worse thing to do right now would be to keep pulling her back in after her vocal desire to do otherwise.)

#heidi o'ferrall #atelierheidi #jared knabenbauer #projared #holly conrad #commander holly #heidi o'farrell #projared scandal #ross o’donovan #rubberninja #rubberross

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nivks · 6 years ago

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i feel like #followforevers and online love letters etc etc havnt really been a thing in 2018 but u know what. thats dumb. 2019 is better and were all gonna be emotional and loving towards the people that make us feel emotions speciffically - Love! so heres a #followforever emo loveletter ashdfg gahwahh OKAY EDIT: kjhsdf i finished writing this mess and its SO LONG i am SO OSRRY i cant even SPELL im so sorry whatever im gonna post it still cos maybe hopefully simething i have to say mihgt make someone smile. just skip to ur namee. happy 2019 kids! nick WILL become a dad!.

@harryfeatjack @rightgirl @happilygryles @rocketmommy @19-million-memories @drugsnotwar @ithadmefromhello @spyro2018 @acuzena @carswinky @shiftylinguini @bourgeoix @hiatusniall @julesg @itsallaboutzarry @ihavea1dbloghelp okay we might have been close but you dont post much anymore, we might be new mutuals or like?? might just have that special follow and love from afar type thing happening but you all do make my dash a happier place and i hope 2019 is incredible for u all and u are all amazing people who do brighten my day. thanks for making 2018 better!! love u.

@chantillystars Miss Starsadrift, lover of my hart. ur so fucking BRIGHT andsweet and u always make me laugh and ur always there when im crying and u light up whatever place youre in and i know that for a fact cos when we went on holidays together you honest to god were like. the brightest and beautifulestestest in the whole street. youre also an excellent cook and the kitchen we were in was just shit. love ur snaps and msgs and how much you love gardens and flowersand sunshine. glad youve been working on feeling better about Life and its been helping cos u deserve it alllll <3<3 love u like u love yoongi. 2018 wouldve been terrible without u. @clipsandstuff your tags at times make me crack up and your love for nick is so warm and iv followed ur blog for years and youre always so consistently lovely and i hope 2019 treats u well <3 @ladsfm you barely ever have time to be on anymore but youre like. out there. living your life and i see u on instagram and ur so incredible and SMART and beaiutful and then whenever i text you a #nickupdate or more specifically a #harrynickupdate your all caps replies always make me smile so big also you are quite possibly the most lovely person iv met i lvoe you! @lordendsavior i made my url dikolasgrimshaw. for you. for me a bit too but you were that final little push. the voice of reason that said yeah! do it! thats how much i love you. akjsg anyway JOANNA you are somehow so lovely and kind but like Real at the same time and u have a way of saying your opinions that makes me wish i knew how to fucking get my thoughts out as put together? as you. idk everytime i see you like giving advice and stuff im always like YUORE SO good you really are just! so good for this world and the people you talk to. i hope everyone knows how lucky they are that gets to talk to you and stuff ily. @cashewdani your tags. iv been following your blog since like? 2013? and i have no idea what your look like and im only guessing where youre from and what youre name even is but pretty much every post you make has incredible tags and has inspired me to watch movies/tv shows that i use to skip over and you are alawys so fucking delightful to see on my dash and i feel like everytime i see you posting it brings a smile to my face. also youre writing is incredible and i feel like iv seen you posting about new jobs and new living places so i hope 2019 is super amzing for you cos you deserve it! @yourghostcat <3<3<3<3<3 gamZE you are! you ar so bright and loving and warm and sweet and gentle and FUNNY and i feel liek every single time we talk im alawys just like ‘i love you gmze’ but honselty i DO and i hope u know youre super important and im so glad i know you. every single on of youre edits are beautiful and all the work u put into them is so appreciated and ur so talented! i hope 2019 is so good to you <3 @sehunchis u barely go here anymore but im including you anyway whocares KELLY i love you. your love for vivi?? feel that. love for vivi and sehun togeth? fukcing Feel that. youre so funny and rly smart and thoughtful and u make ppl so happy by just being there and i miss being in new york with you but seeing ur tweets still makes me smile just as biggggggg lvoe you. @lollipop-popsx youre so damn funny whenever youre done with anons purposely trying to start shit but you are so so lovely to everyone else and u pretty mch always come across as genuinely happy and caring and i rly hope that you have a super amazing 2019 love uou. @fullstopmgnt again u dont go hre anymore but just in case! i LOVE you and im so GLAD ur doing better and feeling better and working on getting even better im proud of you my lovely. miss u i WILL see you soon i have gifts for youuu @meliora i was gonna say i got to hug you TWICE this year but dunkirk came out in two thousand and seventeen im a fool whatever i got to hug you ONCE this year and while thats not really a lot its still!! im so happy i got to meet u cos ur SO FUKCING lovely and beaituful and warm as a person and so chill and have such good taste in music and hair colours and i know theres been some tough times this year for you but you deserve the fucking world so i hope 2019s nothin but great stuff ILY @baaatgurl bby gir lover darling MARIE light of my life. u are! incredible and i feel like whenever we meet up im laughing and smiling constantly and even when were not together i can like. listen to audio messages u send me and even when im sad i know i got something to smile about cos ur right there! u mean a lot to me and im so so so happy we met on this dumbass website in like 2013 youre so so so important. shits been tough but 2019s gonna be The Year and 2020? were leaving australia together. @cptkirked finish the walking dead. ALJHFGLDS okay FOR REAL first of all thankyou for making me watch love actually WAIT did i tell you! when u and me watched it and my brother was like ‘that movies terrible’ HE TXT ME LIKE 2WEEKS AGO and was like ‘just rewatched love actually. i get you both now. was good movie.’ ghhhhhahh i think ur relaly great and u always make me laugh and from your tweets i feel like youve had an up and down year so i rly hope 2019s good for you in every single way cos u really deserve it. love u. @nightandstarlight milesssss we havnt talked too mcyh this year but knowin youre out there living youre life! just happy. thankyou for alays been sweet and kind and positive and making me smile. hope 2019 is beautulf for you. @plaintoast TAELOr i know 2018 has definyely had highs and lows for you but 2019 IWLL be great and u deserve honeslty SO MYCH happiness and i hope u get all of it. u are so soft and lovely i lvoe u truly. @gettingdizzy giggled when i saw your url just then dont know why. SAVANAH do u have any idea how incredble u are? ur so important and ur texts like 90% of the time make me laugh and the other 10% i wanna like fight someone on your behalf. ur smile is 100/10 and i can not wait till the day we get to MEEt. ur gonna fuckign graduate this year and finish school and 2019s really gonna be your year and i love u so mcuh. @twelvegrimmyplace LIZ! LIGHT OF MY life. u are one of hte most beautiful and funniest and ur so fucking Good and lovely and always make me smile. u also make me laugh a lot and i lvoe ur tags and ur love for nick and nick and m/esh and nick and Glasses is the reason why 2019 has to be a good year. thankyou for ebing you. love you. @erinsbreakfast cheesed real hard with my smile then as i typed your url. thankyou for always making me smile big time and making me LAUGH and thanks for loving nick the way u do. ur super sweet and super beautful and i hope 2019 is everything u dream it to be. ur incredible and i voel you. @silveredsound YOU are BEAUTUFUL and always alawys making me smile with your tags and posts and ur heavenly pictures of Harry Styles and Harry Styles’ Hair in HQ and ur thoughts about nick gshaw. thankyou for being you and i hope u know how amazing u are. i love you. happy 2019 darling. also thnakyou for the gift that was TOWEL FIC. ur a hero. and ur wrtiing is!!!!!! stuff of dreams ur so talented hoenslty @magog83 ur literally the hero that goes above and beyond for the whole nick fandom and we will never be able to thankyou enough. you are increbible and amazing and lovely and you deserve so mych happiness and good things. thaknyou for so mych youre BEAUTIFUL. @junkshop-disco every single cow i pass by in my day to day life i automtically name mabel. ur posts make me smile and ur so lovely and kind. you are so fucking talented. i hope 2019s super super lovely fro you. @kilimiria !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mariE!!!!!!!! do u KNOw how big i smile whenever i see i have msgs from you? okay i know it takes me forever to reply a lot of the time but like literally msgs from you can turn my whole day from shit to the happiest of days. thanks for existing and being you na dmaking me smile u are sososo lovely and funny and beaitufl and i hope 2019 gives you the entire world. i lveo you. @apopstarontheradio thakns for making me smile a lot this year and being funny! and kind and lovely and having a big heart. hope 2019 beings u nothin but happiness loverlyyyy @thegreenaubergine i love YOu you make me laugh and make me smile and ur so so sweet and so lvoely i really relaly hope 2019 is great for you!!!!!! @hinickgrimshaw everytime i see u posting amd ur tags i feel like. ur just really great and amzing. sounds lame typing it out auhfhahhhhh BASICALLY everytime i see you saying things and read ur tags on nick posts im just like ‘youre SO good i trust everythignu say.’ youre so so lovely and u make me smile and im pretty sure i have a screenshot of a post u made once cos it made me smile on a bad day. anwyay i hope 2019 is GREAT for u and i think ur fucking incredible and ur love for nick is so soft. @writsgrimmyblog i smiled at your url like you could see it or someting kjhasdk WRIT u are. so organised and smart and FUNNY and beautiful and LVOELY and i am soossoso lucky to know you. youre nick thoughts and posts are a joy to read and ur writing is incredible and u made grimmy appreciation fest happen whcoh was!!!!!!! i Love you. 2019 better be the best for you <3 @fapfapfashion ayhhhh!!!!!!! ZHENya. i thnk i first saw you when u started leaving anon msgs for joanna you ARE so so so soft and kind i love you so much. you ALWAS make me laugh and you have some of the best tags and i hope everyone that knows you in real life knows how lucky they are to know youuu LOVE you a lot. hope 2019s super freakin amzing. @blueskybuzz77 youre so sweet and lovely and i hope so much good happens fro you in 2018 also u make me laigh and u deserve the WOrld LOVE you @fantofirehazard ur lovely and super sweet nad ur tags make me laugh and i hope 2019 is increible for you because you deserve it a lot <3

@grimshaw @brckhmptn i would die for you.

#i am SO sorry

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badmousestuff-blog · 6 years ago

Text

Unheard Voices of WANA

PragerU: The most persecuted population in the world are Christians

Prager U is correct.

SUBSCRIBERS: 0

Ok, jokes aside, this is a serious topic, I hope you watch till the end.

Last month CPGB-ML released this reactionary article, it’s been a common trend of their online presence and really stinks, but then I also remind myself I am in a left that is no longer respectful of these vulgar, outdated gestures, and the left of today truly is a very progressive bunch. We fight for the rights of gendered minorities, stand with people at the forefront of racial oppression, far outside simply the economic realms. They say that oppressions align, and when you look at the left of today, you really see that.

But as time goes on, there can be a tendency for our viewpoints to become clouded with a prevailing dogma.

This is a video about one of them.

This is West Asia [or “the Middle East”] and North Africa, a region collectively termed WANA or MENA, it is home to many different ethnicities that are not of Arab Origin. Some you know, some you don’t. Within here are numerous ethno-religious minorities. Assyrian Christians, Coptic Christians, Yazidis, Mandaeans, just to name a few.

2 years ago, Caabu did a study to find out the nature of racial profiling in the UK. Only 1% of respondents listed the Middle East as being linked with Christianity.

Image:https://i.imgur.com/JHYsKPj.png

Source:https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/racial-profiling-british-people-muslims-arabs-support-security-anti-terrorism-attacks-survey-caabu-a7966666.html

The on the ground reality is that millions of Christians live and breathe in the Crescent, it is after all the birthplace of the Yahweh religion.

Contrary to the very bland, pastiche Christianity that tends to fill the Western temples, Christianity in the WANA is distinctive in being very diverse. To the followers, the faith is particularly sacred and, in many times, a physical part of their identity, in a similar way to how Irish Catholicism in the north might be.

Images to use:

http://www.just-images.com/media/k2/items/cache/768cfd00cdf8b0455e0493699392583d_XL.jpg?t=-62169984000

There are maybe somewhere around 16 million Christians in West Asia, a number that has been gradually decreasing throughout the 20thcentury, and largely this is due to a considerable amount of persecution and repression, including genocide, and within all this, they have very little access to representation.

Source:https://harpers.org/archive/2018/12/the-vanishing-christians-in-iraq-syria-egypt/

Which to PragerU’s credit, they’re right, when we’re talking about religious minorities, Christians are one of the most highly persecuted. But I know that these people are being insincere here. Dennis and his entourage represent, or at least promote, is what could only be described as the white man’s Christianity, the collective Western tradition of Imperial, Crusading, Nation conquering religion of Manifest Destiny and Got Miht Us [what is this? Couldn’t find anything on google]. Malcolm X was not wrong when hecalled Christianity a white man’s religion - that was all he could see at the time. And all of these people’s religious conceptions would appear highly unorthodox if they were to ever go and visit these groups.

Yet how often is it that you see right-wing commentators and outlets picking up on Christian oppression in the global south to regurgitate their hatred and vitriol and encourage further discrimination against Muslims in the west [Show following tweets]:

https://twitter.com/PrisonPlanet/status/953302360637493248

https://twitter.com/KTHopkins/status/1058426287948218368

https://twitter.com/StefanMolyneux/status/993593881341059072

Just a quick search on Breitbart, and you’ll see how many times they’ve covered the plight of Assyrians and Copts alike [show screenshots]:

https://i.imgur.com/VM3DnAg.png

https://i.imgur.com/CMi3eyo.png

And when right-wingers do resort to the lowest of the low of arguments (whataboutism) in order to get their points across, the Left responds in a very appropriate and effective manner… (gurning)

“What about the crusades?”

I can’t be the only one thinking this…

There’s a contradiction here that we need to talk about.

On the one hand, we’re advocates of intersectionality and dynamics of oppression, looking out for the nuances of thought and removing ourselves from binary choices and assumptions. But on the other, we can’t help getting away from very Euro-centric conceptions of various topics. In other words, we do choose binaries here.

Christian = Oppressor

Muslim = Victim

Many Western leftists tend to look at religion through this lens. They incorrectly view Christianity as a global oppressor, completely overlooking the many cases where this isn’t the case and thus ignoring many groups who are severely marginalized, particularly when it comes to some indigenous groups like Assyrians and Copts.

When discourse gets going, it picks up like a steamroller. And after a while, we forget about the fact that we’re just regurgitating a dogma.

For us, “Islamophobia is racism” might be fine to say, because we realize that in Western society, Islam is heavily racialized and so those that may “look Muslim” are also targeted. But often, expressing this to a WANA Christian can rightly come off as reductionist, especially when that’s the few times they’re given attention here in the West. Add this onto the fact that when WANA Christians want to speak up about their oppression, they’re often accused of being racist themselves, along with other accusations of bad faith.

how the criticism and mentioning of muslim persecution towards christians [?] is all seen as islamophobia = racism which to them is fine but to us its scrutiny - the wording of the first line

Just as Islam has largely been racialized in the west, the same formula applies to Muslim majority nations regarding how Christianity is viewed. When attacks are caused in the west by Islamists, Muslims in the area are rightly quite terrified and anxious about upcoming reprisals that might be made against them. We do not, however, see why an attack from a White Supremacist against Muslims would also result in a similar effect to Christians in the East. Even though Religion might not even be uttered in these atrocities, Anti-West rhetoric has been heating up over the last 70 years, and with it the false assumption that Christianity is intrinsically Western. The result has been the demonization of WANA Christians as 5thcolumns to western Imperialism.

The effects of the Left’s lack of vigour can be observed. quite harshly.

Assyrian Christians are one of those ethno religious minorities indigenous to the region and have faced over a century of persecution and genocide.

Many of us know about the Armenian genocide of 1915 by the Ottomans – which is still denied by Turkey today, and still not recognized in the UK and US . But what many of us don’t know is that at least 300,000 Assyrians were also victims, alongside the Armenians.

· Images:https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/images/large/5ff06342-7a14-4ce6-89d2-c59a04deb676.jpg

A book that discusses the 1915 Assyrian genocide in detail is Year of the Swordby Joseph Yacoub:https://global.oup.com/academic/covers/pop-up/9780190633462

In 1933, in the village of Simele in Iraq, after waves of anti-Assyrian propaganda, the Iraqi Army slaughtered 6,000 Assyrians and decimated over 60 villages.

Image: https://i0.wp.com/www.nationalreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/simele-massacre-survivors.jpg?resize=789%2C460&ssl=1

Sources:

https://medium.com/@DeadmanMax/the-simele-massacre-in-iraq-a-legacy-of-trauma-and-british-neglect-ae21d96afe4d

https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/simele-massacre-1933-assyrian-victims-still-seek-justice/

Both the atrocities of 1915 and the Simele Massacre in 1933 is what prompted Polish lawyer Raphael Lemkin to later coin the word ‘genocide’.

Image of Lemkin:https://www.ushmm.org/m/img/2453436-700x468.jpg

After the assassination of Iraqi Prime Minister Abdul al-Karim Qasim (KASIM) in 1963, the following decades saw the rise of Saddam Hussein and his Baath Party in Iraq, and what came with it was a new wave of violent anti-Communism. Many communists were killed and imprisoned, effectively culling the Iraqi Communist Party – of which a sizable percentage at the time were Assyrian. In fact, the party’s first secretary was an Assyrian named Yusuf Salman Yusuf, who was found hung over a decade prior, on 14thFebruary 1949.

Image of Qasim:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abd_al-Karim_Qasim

Image of Yusuf:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yusuf_Salman_Yusuf

Source:https://www.marxists.org/history/etol/writers/alexander-a/2008/xx/iraqcp.html

With this, and general increasing repression towards their identity, thousands of Assyrians fled the country between the 60s and 70s.

The most recent mass exodus was from the Iraq War. In 2003, there were around 1.5 million Assyrian Christians in Iraq. That number is now less than 275,000. It was only five years ago [2014] that IS committed a genocide. Christian homes were marked with the Arabic letter “N” [show image] for Nazarene, to denote Christians, followers of Jesus of Nazareth.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/for-christians-symbol-of-mideast-oppression-becomes-source-of-solidarity/

The population of Assyrians is now between 2 - 4 million, with most of them in the diaspora. There are half a million across Europe, Australia and Canada, and around 400,000 in the US.

https://unpo.org/members/7859

The lack of vigour in the west to understand their plight and the plight of other minorities can be felt severely.

A large portion of the diaspora in the US were supportive of Donald Trump during the 2016 election, a politician who appears to be completely against their interests, the very group that would be the first on the pecking order of deportation. And in due course, that is what the reality has been for them, now after putting in their pledge to live and work, they are now thrown asunder and betrayed by whom they thought they could trust.

Yet just as the opportunity might arise for a show of solidarity, left wingers from across the spectrum were largely silent, and many liberals even said they deserved to get deported, effectively defending their genocide. Did anyone even think about asking their story?

[show initial tweet, and responses to it]

https://twitter.com/VivianHYee/status/882599546244747264

and the comments here:

[show article, then the comments]

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2017/06/27/detroit-judge-halts-deportations-of-more-than-1400-iraqi-nationals-nationwide/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.46e259345883#comments

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2017/09/michigans-iraqi-chaldean-community-is-fighting-to-protect-dozens-of-people-from-deportation.html

We [western leftists and liberals] further egg on this anti-Christian backlash in the way we discuss these topics via previously mentioned binaries. For instance, take a look at the travel ban. Eventually, it hurt everyone in the region, regardless of its initial intent to target Muslims. Liberals, instead of taking on a general anti-xenophobic stance, instead increased anti-Christian sentiment by mocking the insertment of preferences towards Christians (which again, never materialized). Take a look at the way that John Oliver and Stephen Colbert discussed the travel ban, for example. And while trying to mock Republican politicians, Colbert inadvertently mocked Syriac patriarchs and made off-handed comments about them and their language.

“While his administrationhas reducedMuslim refugee arrivals 93 percent compared to the final months of the Obama administration, it has still slashed Christian refugees 64 percent. He has also cut Syrian Christian refugee arrivals by 94 percent and those from Iraq by 99 percent. He has admitted just 20 Syrian Christians in all of Fiscal Year 2018.”

Source:https://www.cato.org/blog/trump-has-cut-christian-refugees-64-muslim-refugees-93

Source 2:https://www.forbes.com/sites/stuartanderson/2018/08/13/trump-admits-only-23-christian-refugees-from-mideast-in-2018/#175295838dd7

The right has been the stickler when it comes to appropriating leftist talking points, as I’ve spoken about numerous times. The EU used to be a more conservative tradition, opposed by many factions of the left including Tony Benn, but after sections of the Right-Wing discourse took it by their shoulders all the left could seem to do was go “No, EU good” in response. The EU is an undemocratic monolithic entity that controls large hegemony over the continent. This is what the left has always been against, and how we seem to have been shuffled into the Pro-EU corner to own the Right is baffling, how dare we allow them to take charge of the narrative.

Many on twitter were stunned a while back with the revelation that Alt-right youtuber Braving Ruin, formerly EdgySphinx, was of Egyptian descent, in other words he’s not white, in a movement almost entirely made up of White Nationalists this seems like a baffling contradiction. It’s not.

He’s a Copt. Another Christian minority native to Egypt that have been increasingly targeted in recent years <quickly show various screenshots of articles from NPR and others about this to prove the point>.

In November 2018, seven Copts were killed by gunmen and 19 more were wounded. “All but one of those killed were members of the same family, according to a list of the victims’ names released by the Coptic Orthodox church, which said among the dead were a boy and a girl, age 15 and 12 respectively.”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/03/egypt-attack-gunmen-kill-coptic-christians-bus-ambush

It was from Braving Ruin’s own testimony that we find what led him towards the right was very much so a conflict of his knowledge.

Because for all we try and ignore the issue, these groups are dying. There isn’t that convenient option for the displaced, vulnerable diaspora, coming to a place where they no longer fear being lynched. For them, when they arrive to see a Left whose only regurgitated knowledge has been Eurocentric, they gravitate towards the side that is saying “The Left hate Christianity”. While this might sound silly to you, these minorities don’t have that privilege. And when the right-wing are the only ones talking about their issues, with mostly silence or dismissal from the left, what more would you expect?

We’re not even presenting faux dramatizations of anger. We’re completely turning our back to their voices in favour of pleasing narratives.

One of those narratives that has sprung up in recent years been the conflict in Northern Syria. There can be a good case made for Kurdish autonomy, and this is in part something that has galvanised support from Leftists in the West towards the issue. Yet it ignores that there are serious issues with the new governments and hegemonies that have taken root, going far beyond US funding.

You may have seen the images below of protests breaking out in Northern Syria against the school closures. (Show Images)

PYD authorities ordered the closure of Assyrian schools that refused to teach the DFNS-Rojava curriculum on August 7th, 2018. Members of the Assyrian security force, Sutoro, opened fire to disperse the crowds, but were overwhelmed. (Show Video)

https://www.assyrianpolicy.org/news/assyrians-in-syria-protest-pyd-s-closure-of-schools-in-qamishli

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOS5VKckUpA

Western leftists, rather than question the establishment, instead drew attention to the flags that they were holding. Those are Syrian government flags yes, but it does not mean they are fanatical supporters. In the essence of oppression, anti-Imperialism requires the use of certain representatives as a rallying cry, which is the very reason why Assad still has so much support.

https://www.assyrianpolicy.org/news/kurdish-self-administration-in-syria-release-assyrian-journalist-souleman-yusph

http://www.asianews.it/news-en/Christian-journalist,-betrayed-by-the-indifference-of-the-West-over-Syria-45312.html

Despite the oft claimed assertion of the progressive and inclusive constitution, we should know by now that on paper does not always mean in practice, actual reports from the ground level by Assyrians are skeptical to a high degree. The school protests have come after a series of attempts to impose an aggressive series of actions largely targeted at minority groups, including seizure and occupation of property, forced reparation payments, and all manner of targeting and assaults.

On paper, the MFS (Syriac Military Council) are allied with the PYD. But were you aware that the council is mostly made up of Arabs and Kurds, not Assyrians? And that the groups claimed to have been showcased as examples of Syriac-Kurdish unity are in fact on the fringes of Assyrian opinion?

In a similar situation, the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in Iraq have forcibly removed mayors and are occupying Assyrian towns. Assyrians have protested consistently, to, again, little coverage or outrage on an international level.

Image:https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Assyrians-outside-the-Kurdisch-Regional-Government-office-in-Stockholm-protest-against-the-removal-of-the-Assyrian-mayor-of-Alqosh-north-Iraq-e1501247282519.jpg

Source:

http://www.aina.org/reports/erasingassyrians.pdf

We can talk romantically about the Kurds. But why should their self-determination come at the expense of Assyrians?

As Westerners we have this privilege, we can pick what we like from the orient, but ignore the darker sides of the conflict. Anti-Imperialism is a no brainer, but there can be a tendency amongst some leftists to end up ignoring how imperialism often affects the most vulnerable – indigenous and minority groups. It’s not “too complicated” to talk about this. There’s also the case of generally just needing to listen women and minorities without an immediate assumption they all have an alternative, reactionary agenda. They do have a voice, big and small, and the least we could do is respect that in line with our standards.

And we may also want to even look at our standards in how we might engage with folks who have not regretted their participation in butchery vs the coverage of the Yazidis who who have faced a very recent genocide.

There was recent discussion surrounding a British ISIS bride who was extensively interviewed by a variety of Western outlets, portraying her as a victim. Yet she had no regrets for what she did to communities ISIS subjugated via violence. Western narcissism gave this ISIS bride more coverage than to victims of genocide like Yazidis, who recently protested outside the White House [show tweet]. Again, the only coverage given to them was except from far-right outlets [show breitbart article].

https://twitter.com/Free_Yezidi/status/1106623531939438597

https://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2019/03/19/trump-admin-yazidi-protest-outside-white-house-youre-not-forgotten/

I don’t make this video with the intention of bringing about more hatred towards Muslims, yet I can’t help but feel disheartened that this is even assumed. There arenuances we need to start to come to terms with, that will include understanding the different power and privilege dynamics outside of the West, and how that might affect the mindset of the diaspora. Some leftists say this is too complicated to discuss, but it never stopped you before.

You must be able to breach the topic of understanding both Western Islamophobia, and Islamism in the Middle East, without caving into a Western reactionary narrative or allowing right-wingers to continue to fill up the void in these discussions, which they already have done so quite successfully.

So, it’s time we as leftists take back these narratives and rectify our ignorance on the situation instead of continuing to allow the right-wing to dominate this. It’s simply not right to ignore this problem because “conservatives already talk about it”, when we know their intentions are not for the betterment of all, especially when it comes to the oppressed. We cannot grow as a movement when we are pushing so many people away.

So how can we help? The first thing would be to remove Eurocentric understandings of race and religion from our mind, to realize how dynamics work in the global south. And as with everything else, keep up with what’s going on in the region, discuss these issues with your friends, family, comrades. Use your platform to raise awareness. Reach out to and listen to these people and don’t speak over them or use them as props for ideological or partisan fighting.

It may feel good to say, “Jesus was a brown Jewish socialist from the Middle East!” as a “gotcha” to the Conservatives, but we know they don’t really care about that, and more to the point what are you doing for the Christians of the region right now?

Organize with them, declare statements of solidarity, make this a part of your activism. Let them know you’re there for them when they need it. These are marginalized, oppressed people with real, pressing concerns, and deserve more than token appreciation.

The left has brought about, in recent times, a grand spectrum of inclusivity to more oppressed groups. If it wishes to continue this line, then we must start strengthening ourselves and asking the difficult questions. There need not be any slander of groups here. 1 can be split into 2, and we must break away from our Eurocentric understanding of global geo-politics in all aspects if we are to build ourselves and our credibility to the larger world.

Like I said, its never stopped you before.

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myvideosscripts-blog · 6 years ago

Text

ONISION'S ACCUSATIONS DEBUNKED + RECEIPTS

Hello everyone, and before you make a comment on the sound, consider not doing that and reading the description box first and I am aware that my videos are low quality. Please understand that this is what I do in my spare time, it's not my job and I don't have the kind of time Greg has to dedicate to my channels, I actually take care of my family. Thank you and remember to reach out on my social medias down below if you wish, just give me a little request! Let's begin (and if you already know everyone involved please just skip to the time stamp where I debunk Greg's accusations against Madison and Ayalla: 10:30

Greg has struck again. I have a few videos on the back burner because this dude just wants to dig himself a hole so deep, he's about to go straight through the earth's crust and hit the mantle. The video we are debunking today is Greg's attempt to smear those who are coming forward with accusations about how absolutely trash he is.

Before we dissect and debunk his video I think we should take a look at the history of each party involved. For the sake of continuity, I'll be referring to Kai (formerly known as Lainey and Taylor, and I think even Eli at one point) as Lainey and I will be using they/their pronouns. I also want to address comments I made about Lainey changing their mind on... everything, because they do. That's no excuse for me to question their gender and I deeply apologize for that. There's no excuse for that and I won't attempt to make one.

We'll start with the largest figure in all of this. Onision, also known as Greg and more recently "character" but because nothing out of his mouth is blatantly fact, nor opinion, nor joke, we'll refer to him by his biological given name, Greg. Remember how I said in my last Greg video regarding the allegations that he is both technical and metaphorical when it suits his narrative. Keep that in mind throughout this video. It's very important.

To keep things as brief as possible while also hitting the main points, Greg has always been problematic on youtube. These days he chalks it up to being a jokester and everyone else just not getting it. Sure, Greg. He has a history with younger girls and publicizing his relationships, and exploiting his "personal experiences" and those involved, whilst getting upset if the other party does the same, these are facts. Forums like lolcow and kiwifarms and Greg himself have documented this. Greg has also exploited his own drama, claiming to want to squash things to garner sympathy from his audiences and the skeptics among us. He has ALLEGEDLY rated inappropriate photos of underage girls on his forum... I'll be using that word, allegedly quite a bit in this video. He has allegedly coerced women into having sex with him. He has allegedly harassed women via text, phone call, twitter, video - women whom are either easy targets, like Eugenia Cooney who I've voiced my opinion on, Jaclyn Glenn whom is staying neutral and/or not voicing her opinion on the current situation (as of right now), Shiloh who was "too much to handle" but also was so underage at the time that he ALLEGEDLY drove her across the country so that he could legally consummate their relationship. Speaking of which, according to this 2017 twitter interaction, Greg seemingly replies to Billie saying "I'm not a liar or a criminal. I'd take 1 person like me over 100 like you any day. You got dumped, again, you can leave now." To which Ayalla, another big part of this, replies, "this coming from the man who told Billie to shave her head and get a tattoo that says, "I'm a liar" to prove herself". Thanks to tumblr I found the following screenshots. Shiloh said on her blogspot that shaving off the rest of her hair caused her to become depressed and that her femaleness had been stripped from her completely. In the next screenshot (which looks like a wiki article) it reads: "On June 30th, 2011, Shiloh uploaded a video titled "BALD!!!" to one of her channels to announce her newly full shaved head. Throughout the rest of their relationship she dyed her short hair different colors and wore wigs. This did not cause controversy until later when Shiloh revealed more of her side of the relationship on her tumblr. She claims that Greg forced her to shave her head and told her, "I want you to shave your head cause you're a good bitch." She says he took her into the bathroom and shaved her head. She says she felt ugly and de-feminized because of it. Could it be a coincidence? Sure, suuure. There are a plethora of details I could go into to make this an hour long video to absolute kill my computer, but rather than doing that, just comment with anything you'd like me to cover and I'll do my best to do that. Until then, explore the rabbit hole that the internet has to offer about this.

Next, let's explore Lainey. Lainey has been at the center of quite a few controversies mostly due to their proximity to Greg. Lainey is 24 years old and claims that Greg and them started dating February 7th 2012, however the article on their wikia page, states that they were married in November 2011, so that's a little conflicting. That would mean they married Greg when they were around 16 years old and Greg was 25. When they met, Lainey had a striking resemblance to Shane Dawson, a particular obsession of Greg's, however that could be attributed to Lainey's scene/emo phase... and not any pressure from Greg to look like a guy he kissed and has since made numerous accusations about. Lainey specificly said in a livestream with Sarah that they were Sarah's guardian, which makes this entire situation a little messed up. I can speculate the Lainey Sarah relationship, but I'll save that for another time. The last thing I'll mention is that Lainey has made numerous tweets using slurs that I won't repeat.

There's an interesting timeline on reddit regarding Greg and Lainey, which I'll leave in the description if you want to dive a little deeper into those two. And though Lainey is an adult therefore fully accountable, I have a little more sympathy for them, despite their seemingly blind loyalty towards Greg. Lainey is complicit in everything that has happened in the house of horrors. At 24 years old, that needs to change or you need to be ok with the drama channels calling you out.

Next in this is Sarah, who was a long-time fan of Lainey. I need to correct myself in saying that Sarah was actually 14 when she and Lainey interacted, but was 16 years old upon meeting in person, which strikes me as odd, especially given that Greg has used the age of consent technicality before and how 16 years old is the age of consent in Washington. It's a little odd to me. Sarah was allegedly having... home trouble when she joined the household. There's been a lot of vague alluding to... well... abuse, it seems. Despite the fact that Sarah might be mature for her age, she still was only 14 years old when they interacted vs Lainey's 20 years old, a 6 year age gap. There's been a bit of drama with her online, like confusion about her mental disorder (borderline, not bipolar - apparently those two still get confused). Sarah used to confide in Lane, and frequently ask her to delete texts. During a livestream with Sarah and Lainey, when the first grooming accusations came out a couple years ago, Lane watched the broadcast and both Sarah and Lainey allegedly "freaked out" on Lane. For the record, Lane had no direct contact with Greg and Lainey, and there was nothing beyond brief twitter interactions between Lane and Lainey.

Next we have Madison who was strictly friends with Greg and Lainey, and states to have only ever had platonic feelings for the both of them. But given that Greg has accused her of inappropriate conversation and over-staying her welcome at Greg's house of horrors, and Greg's history with rejection... the following information is not so surprising, but keep in mind we're seeing things from a very limited scope. Madison and Greg were friends for just a few years shy of a decade when she found out she was blocked, to her it was out of nowhere. But there could have been discussions between Greg and Lainey about how one or the other felt uncomfortable, and since Greg is a manipulator, he may have even told Lainey half-truths about Madison, and their interactions. The only reasonable explanation for being blocked was that she had made a video explaining to her audience that Greg's DDlg video was done preemptively on his part with cruel intentions behind it, and/or misleading her to make the uncomfortable video. She clearly states, and I've never seen him actually deny it, that Greg brought up the idea of doing his usual diaper bs, and she could actually explain and give context behind the kink (although if kink isn't the correct term in this case, please let me know in the comments). There's also been some controversy with her making a statement against Greg, retracting the statement and apologizing for it, and lashing out at RSN for inciting drama.

The last player in this situation is Ayalla, easily the most consistent and honest out of everyone here. Ayalla is a musician here on youtube who was introduced to Lainey and Greg through Billie and Social Repose - the former is her best friend and the latter being her now ex. Her previous experiences with Greg and Lainey have not been positive - having resorted to posting a cease and desist against Greg when he wouldn't stop posting about her, which makes one of his recent videos all the more... ugh gross.

With all that said, we're going to thoroughly debunk this video made alleging that Ayalla and Madison are creeps. Bear in mind, he is attempting to discredit them after these allegations came out to sway his audience and any skeptics watching that they are not credible sources.

It starts off saying "the truth will set you free", which probably should say "the truth will send greg to jail or at the very least to the authorities possibly resulting in having to register as a sex offender, so why not make a video making allegations against those brave enough to speak out against greg and lainey's inappropriate and immoral behaviour (if not blatantly illegal... allegedly)"

The next slide is a screengrab of Madison with the caption "Onision ended his friendship with this girl for repeatedly trying to be in a relationship with him and his spouse despite him having no interest in her, cheating on her boyfriend with his boss at Fred Meyer and going behind Onision's back to trash talk him all while pretending to be his friend". I haven't seen the deleted tweets that Madison made with regards to her and Greg's friendship ending and I can't find them (though if you have access of them, feel free to leave a comment of the link below or DM me on instagram or twitter, all links are in my bio). Madison has gone on stream herself to debunk this, and Lainey has also made statements about this situation. The statement that has absolutely zero proof is that Madison tried to be in a relationship with either of them, and she has vehemently denied those claims. Greg mentions that his zero interest has to do with the cheating and gives details, but Madison herself has stated that her now fiance is her daughter's father. Bringing up specific details like that, repeatedly, is a diversion tactic so that his viewer will hopefully not think twice to ask for the evidence. Whether or not she cheated on anyone is irrelevant in this video.

Next, it reads: "Not long after Onision cut ties with her she decided to connect with a girl who cheated on Onision and gather dirt from the very same girl Onision dumped for cheating on him." The amount of exes Greg claims to have, also who he claims cheated on him, is such a large number that Madison could walk down the street and bump into anyone who he says he dated. She's allowed to befriend others, especially given that she was hurt by the random ending of said friendship. And if Madison had made them feel uncomfortable, either of them could have voiced that instead of coming up with this elaborate story of all the terrible things she did while never taking responsibility for their own actions. Greg is incapable of doing that, but Lainey gives half-hearted, almost disingenous apologies for any of their wrong-doing.

Next the slide reads, "Onision and his ex started dating legally, consentually, however this girl lied to everyone and told everyone that Onision had dated her when she was younger than the age she was. And here are the receipts." Notice how Greg is not naming this person at all. The receipts he shows, are between him and Madison and this seems to be about the clip of her and BillytheFridge about Greg's alleged interactions with underage girls. Greg is blue, Madison is white. I'll do my best Greg voice for you all.

It's dated Saturday December 29, 2018, just last month. Greg says "Unfortunately we're going to have to sue you for slander. Best of luck to you." Madison replies, "Okay. I will press charges for this then." And Greg replies, "For?" The next message is a screenshot or document that says Washington Wiretapping Laws, and I'll provide the larger image which states that Washington is a two-party consent state. In his next message he says, "Like I said, there is no recording of your voice without consent." He sends a separate message a minute later saying, "We are going to have to sue you however, as there is a recording of you publicly slandering me." She never outright slandered him, she questioned his motives and stated some simple facts.

Madison responds, "You stated out loud, verbally to me that you were presently recording me. If you deleted it then great. But you verbally stated to me on the phone call you were recording me." Directly after, and her message was cut off in the screenshot, she says, "Be my guest. I don't have a fn dime. So you won't get anything out of it but paying for your own legal fees. And what I said wasn't untrue." Greg replied, "You were informed on the phone that you were wrong about Shiloh's age. You need to publicly state that." He never actually denies verbally telling her he was recording her, he just says that there isn't a recording. As for Shiloh's age... when they started recording videos together, Greg was 24-25 and Shiloh was 17, there's been speculation that Greg was talking to Shiloh while he was still married to Skye. There's a lot of conflicting information regarding when Lainey and Greg got together. I remember reading somewhere that Lainey was 15 when they first started talking, there are texts between the two that state they were 16 when Greg asked them about being his soulmate. In 2012 they were already married.

Moving on, he says, "You also implied I was a pedophile, you need to retract that statement as well. Otherwise we have to sue. It is our only option." I do find it interesting that just a couple days after the stream where she had made the comments, and RSN made the video with all of the clips, Greg texts her. I can definitely see where it looks like Madison has inside information on Greg. The general consensus is that she's afraid of Greg and that's why she retracted her statement, flippantly saying it was a poor choice of words, however I believe if she does have information about him and underage girls, she should join the other brave people who have come forward and say something. With the recent wetland situation, which fines are up to 10s of thousands of dollars, and given that Greg complains about his finances, and he even stated that he was using the money from his bogus gofundme for a forum (rather than paying himself, if he's so financially stable), it's safe to assume that Greg does not have the money to pay a lawyer and court fees in order to sue anyone. Don't be afraid to tell the truth. Stand by your convictions.

Madison replies to his message saying "I'll speak to Shiloh and I'll say what ends up being the truth. If I was wrong I will happily state that. I already publicly retracted the statement regarding you being a pedophile. Multiple times. But have you retracted yours regarding Shane? No. Have you retracted your comments regarding me being a sexual predator toward you or your family? No. You have not."

Greg responds "Please watch the documentary I made on Shane. It proves your wrong. Also I never called you a sexual predator. You are wrong about that as well." In this text we're seeing technical Greg. He implied many times that Madison made his family feel uncomfortable, that she overstayed her welcome, etc. Though I think it's a jump to use the word sexual predator, I can understand why Madison would feel that way. Technically he didn't call her that. His Shane Dawson "documentary" had no clear point, but even if she wasn't refering to that, Greg has made a lot of statements against Shane Dawson.

Madison replies, "You want me to dig out the texts you decided to publicly tweet about me?" I think those are deleted now by the way, but with Greg's audience, it doesn't matter if they're deleted, the damage is done.

Greg's reply is, "ALso why would you be in contact with a self-admitted pathological liar (my ex of over 7 years ago)? Do you not see how weird and inappropriate that is? I broke up with her for cheating on me, then I end your and my friendship/refuse to work with you, and this is what you do?" He makes a few more messages, but this one speaks volumes because it looks as though he is trying to make her out to be the bad person when he's been accused of something. Classic deflecting Greg.

The next three texts say, "Like I said, I never called you what you say I did. However I do have proof you slandered me, heavily. Retract, completely or we sue. And you need to retract it on the same place you accused me. On both the Drunken Peasants and wherever else you wrongly acused me." That was at 1:28pm. At 4:11pm Madison's response to him is cut off which says "Do not contact me again." So if there's anything in between those messages, Greg hasn't show us.

Greg reponds to her, "Expect to hear from my lawyer."

Madison says, "I retracted the statement you requested me to retract. Do not contact me again." But that's not good enough for Greg, and this next text of his shows us the controlling nature behind this "man". He says, "Unless you completely retracted your implication that I was ever with a 16 year old and also retracted your implication that you believe I am a pedophile on both The Drunken Peasants & Twitter (as well as anywhere else you said it) I will still be pursuing you legally, making an example out of people" (and it cuts off, but we can assume what it says). The words Greg chooses to use speaks volumes. Unless you do this, I'm gonna do that - whereas she already retracted what she needed to saying that it was a poor choice of words. Her opinion is not something that she legally needs to change. She can believe he's a pedo all she wants. We can believe that shady stuff goes on in the House of Horrors all we want. You can't sue someone for having an belief or opinion.

Next slide is where he highlights the message from her and uses the caption, "She made a public false claim about Onision, and admits it was false. Yet the damage is done. People continue to believe her lies, despite the fact she admitted she did not tell the truth." Once again, the use of his words speaks volumes. He always stresses the words honest and truth. As for the damage being done, the same can be said about his implications and accusations against Shane Dawson. Shane actually has the money and the means to sue Greg for the malicious things Greg has said about Shane. But it only counts if Greg is in that position, right?

The next slide is what Greg probably thinks is an unflattering photo of Ayalla. You could google a better image of her, but Greg uses this tactic that we see so often in the news and media of using unflattering images of people to paint them in a negative light. The caption reads, "This is the ex girlfriend of Social Repose. Onision defended her when she was being blackmailed by Social Repose. She is also the friend of Onision's ex girlfriend, who Onision dumped repeatedly for lying, cheating, and illegal drug use." Greg once again attempts to put himself on a pedestal by saying he defended someone, whilst also victimizing himself claiming that Billie lied, cheated, and participated in illegal activity. Which is interesting given that by all accounts, Greg himself is a criminal. In true Onision fashion, let's go over the definition of criminal: Criminal. noun. 1. a personal who has committed a crime. Destroying wetlands is a crime. Also, Greg is a cheater as well, considering he continued his relationship, or at least attempted to, with Billie, the person he refers to in this, while Lainey was taking care of their kids.

Next he says, "This girl claims that Sarah, a girl Onision and Laineybot first met in person when she was 16 and were only friends (and remained just friends even after she turned 18) "groomed" the girl." He conveniently left out the fact that Lainey was in contact with Sarah when she was as young as 14 years old. Lainey was 21 at the time. If it was a cis-man in contact with a 14 year old girl, it would be considered disgusting and creepy, so how about we toss out the double standards and call it like it is.

Moving on, in the next slide Greg mentions everything he did for Ayalla as though that has any bearing in the situation... especially since it was years ago. Notice that this is one of Greg's favorite tactics making him seem like a caring, good guy. It reads, "This girl spent about a week total around Onision, free housing, free meals, collaborating in videos, free plane ticket paid for by Onision, and knows for a fact we never did not do anything inappropriate with Sarah. In fact she knows very well that I (Onision) was often mean to Sarah. Which I have since apologized for."

What strikes me as odd is that Greg, the literary guy, says "we never did not do anything inappropriate" Freudian slip or just a rush in editing? What also strikes me as odd is that he says, in fact she knows I treated Sarah like crap, as though that makes any of this better.

Next slide reads, "In fact the only reason this girl was even around Kai and Onision is because Onision's ex begged Onision to bring her, despite Onision preferring not to take care of another adult's expenses." This is a world of crap right here. For starters, Greg can't stay consistent and switches from referring to Lainey as Lainey and as Kai. He also fails to include Lainey in the relationship.... Lainey was the one who initially pursued Billie and the intent was for those two to have the relationship, to which Greg sorta invited himself into and whether by spousal pressure or insecurity, Lainey allowed for a very short time. It's clear with how many failed poly relationships that this marriage should not be poly but rather just open. As for the begging, I believe this was debunked already. Billie did not beg for Ayalla to be there but asked. However by using the term beg, Greg attempts to make Billie and Ayalla look as though they had stepped on his toes. He could have said no, but he didn't. That's on him.

Next slide reads, "Onision's ex indicated that this girl was the reason why previous relationships did not work out because her ex-boyfriends did not like her." That has absolutely no fact behind it, we're literally supposed to take Greg's word for it. This is Greg attempting to pit Billie and Ayalla against each other. Notice how he uses "indicated" instead of "stated".

Next, "Other than her previous boyfriend who allegedly cheated on her with Shannon (the youtuber) according to Onision's ex at the time they were dating." This is one of the few times Greg mentions a person's name, and he uses the word allegedly. Allegedly to cover his own ass. I'm sure this is to deflect and create drama between other people. Remember when it comes to Onision, he loves to deflect from his own issues and stir up stuff between other people... allegedly.

Next is where it gets real with allegations. Greg states in this slide, "While this girl lies about Sarah being groomed, she leaves out the fact that she asked Sarah if Sarah would have sex with her in just the short week she was around Onision, Sarah, and Kai. So you can understand why I regret ever flying her out. She is a liar and a pervert." Meanwhile Ayalla ain't stressing because she knows that's not true. Greg asked Sarah to make a video saying that there was no sexual intercourse between them and Sarah, but doesn't ask her to make a video with these allegations? Is Sarah even aware that he's using her as a pawn in his twisted game? Furthermore, the evidence is stacking against Onision and Lainey about the grooming allegations. Whereas there's nothing remotely substantial to back up the claims of Ayalla asking Sarah to sleep with her, besides Greg's statement. Not even from Sarah herself, this is coming from Greg.

Next, "Remember how the first girl asked Onision to stop contacting her right after she realized she was wrong and retracted her slanderous statement? People often do this when they realize they have lost the argument. They have nothing left to defend themselves with, because the truth is not on their side." Wrong on so many counts. Let's bring the texts up again, part of them are cut off. Madison retracted her statement multiple times already, but Greg really wanted it in text. She did not lose anything. People often tell others to not contact them when they are tired of being harassed and/or don't want contact with that person. Since he continued to threaten her with being sued via text - rather than actually following through with it - he did not respect her statement. Greg does not understand what the truth is, given how biased this video is. Next slide he says here are the receipts (spoiler alert they aren't actually receipts, just screenshots, in which he proves that he doesn't respect the wishes of anyone telling them to stop contacting them):

We can assume he has tried to call her and she texts him: "Anything you have to say to me you may say in writing. I don't know what you could possibly discuss with me." Straight to the point.

Greg's response: "It's ok. Our lawyer will contact you." Again bringing up the lawyers that he allegedly doesn't have the money to pay for.

Ayalla responds: Looking forward to it.

And rather than ending it there, he texts her at length the next day: "Sarah very clearly asked you to not talk about her/to leave her alone. Why are you harassing Sarah? Can you please stop causing problems in her life?" I'm gonna stop to say, there's no evidence or screenshots of harassment. The fact that Ayalla slipped up and used Sarah's name in a stream is very clearly just a mistake. Anyone who had tuned into the livestream was there because of the allegations against Onision and Laineybot with Sarah. I understand her not wanting to be named, and Ayalla did her best, it was clearly not malicious. "Additionally Sarah has made it clear you hit on her when you were at our house. You even asked her if she would be willing to sleep with you, and these are Sarah's words." Unless Sarah comes forward to accuse Ayalla, it bears absolutely zero truth. Given what both Lane and Ayalla have had to say about Sarah and what Sarah has said about her possible future relationship with Lainey, I cannot believe Greg.

"I keep hearing about the things you are saying and you admitted you have brain damage acording to Sarah who watched your live stream." Having brain damage does not equate to memory damage, it could be that she has trouble with finding the correct words, and needing extra time to find the correct words. Classic Greg trying to discredit someone with more evidence than he could provide.

"Please get help for your issues and leave Sarah, who has asked you to not discuss her in any way, alone." And this is the Greg who has shown a little bit of concern and empathy lately, but by Greg's own admission, it's easy to fake. "You are harassing her and she just wants to live her life." Again, no evidence of harassment. You got receipts on that, Greg?

"Lastly, you will be receiving a cease and desist soon." Except he continues not just in this same text, but in another.

"You told me long ago to move on, and I did, yet here you are, trying to get back in all of our lives. Please take your own advice, leave Sarah alone and be happy with your own life. Thank you and get well soon." For starters, I feel as though if Ayalla wanted to actually be in their lives, she would reach out to them personally instead of speaking out against them. Secondly, Greg attempts to put himself on this pedestal by showing us his fake concern by telling her he wishes her well.

"Additionally Sarah confirmed most everything you're saying about her is a lie. I'm going to assume you are saying these things as a result of the brain damage you mentioned. I do hope you get well soon." Again, Greg tries to discredit Ayalla and claims that Sarah has confirmed Ayalla being a liar, without providing a lick of evidence. She can't confirm anything, all she can do is say, "uh yeah, false." And I understand why Sarah would say none of this is true, if she's attempting to stay in Greg and Lainey's lives, and maybe she thinks she's the exception because she's just so mature for her age, but she's still young and fully capable of being manipulated by Greg.

Ayalla replies, "I have asked you repeatedly to stop contacting me Greg. You may paint me however you wish but I know the truth and you can't hide from it anymore." Again, short and to the point.

Greg says, "Then why does everyone involved, both Sarah and Kai, claim you are lying? You, a person who was only around for one week, who also hit on/asked Sarah to sleep with you?" Ok, before we continue, I want to mention that if Sarah truly was 16 at the time and Ayalla was 18 or 19, it would have been legal. I'm going to read this for all of you, so that you may get a better understanding of why Greg is wrong on so many counts:

The Washington Age of Consent is 16 years old. In the United States, the age of consent is the minimum age at which an individual is considered legally old enough to consent to participation in sexual activity. Individuals aged 15 or younger in Washington are not legally able to consent to sexual activity, and such activity may result in prosecution for statutory rape.

Washington statutory rape law is violated when a person has consensual sexual intercourse with an individual under age 16. The age of consent is raised to 18 when the partners are a foster parent and foster child, when the older partner is at least 60 months older than their 16 or 17 year old partner and abuses their significant relationship(as defined by RCW 9A.44.010) to have sexual intercourse, or when the partners are teacher and student(this law was actually interpreted by the Washington State Supreme Court to extend to students up to 21 years old).

I don't personally believe that Ayalla would say that considering she was in a relationship with Social Repose at the time, but even if that was the case, it would have been legal for her to ask, or even act on it. It would have been completely illegal for Sarah to have sexual relations with Lainey if she were 16 because of Lainey's guardianship, which they spoke about in a stream. Now that Sarah is 18 years old, it would be legal. Morally questionable, but legal.

Continuing, Ayalla responds, "Your lies will get you nowhere." Greg says, "That's Sarah saying this." Either she is using his phone to which she would probably not refer to herself in the third person the way Greg does. Also, she never states that Ayalla asked her that, or remotely hit on her. Ayalla responds, "Please stop contacting me." Greg does not respect this and continues, because he has a fundamental lack of respect for all women. That's nothing new though.

"Stop talking about Sarah, publicly humiliating her. None of us are saying anything bad about you publicly, you are the one who needs to stop. Sarah asked you, I'm defending her right to privacy. You need to move in with your life, finally." Sarah is an adult now, at 18 years old, so she will be treated as such. No one can defend her using harassment.

Ayalla simply says, "Do not contact me again." Take a shot every time she has to say that. Don't do that, you'll get alcohol poisoning.

Once again, Greg disregard her wishes and says, "All right! Just please don't ask people like Sarah to sleep with you and then years later claim others were as perverted as you are." Oh, Greg. You're doin too much. He literally says, don't ask people like Sarah to sleep with you... what? People who you want to possess or...?

"Best of luck to you and reviving from your brain damage. Seriously, wish you will. Cease and desist is being sent soon and legal action will be taken against you if you continue to humiliate and harass Sarah." Again with the brain damage to which Greg doesn't even know the extent of. Why bother mentioning cease and desist if you already said that if not to use it as a scare tactic? And he also says he'll pursue legal action if she continues to humiliate and harass Sarah... which there's no evidence of anyway, so clearly he's not going to.

Greg being Greg doesn't even end it there, "Heal, get well and find a better use of your time than harassing victims of your sexual harassment (Sarah was 16 at the time you asked her if she would sleep with you) - Get help and become a better person. Goodbye." Was Greg a cheerleader when he was younger because I can almost hear him chanting, "Be aggressive, passive aggressive." Again, no evidence and big if, but if it were true it would not be illegal for Ayalla to ask Sarah to sleep with her.

And of course, in all caps, Ayalla says "STOP CONTACTING ME".

In the next slide, he says "Sarah asked this girl to stop talking about her, directly, and in response this girl tweeted "the plot thickens" - Ok, for starters, Ayalla could have been talking to multiple people about this situation and found out more. Your attempt at correlating is not a direct causation.

"Then proceeded to live streaming, exploiting Sarah for personal gain despite her asking for her to not speak of her. She then uploaded a youtube version of her live stream, where she made hundreds of dollars on her channel, which prior got barely any views." He doesn't know how much she made, and since it is her channel she is allowed to do what she wants. Also, Ayalla has 50k subs, so I'm sure she gets more than just barely any views.

Next slide, "In response to this liar/pervert who asled a 16 year old girl if she wanted to sleep with her making false claims about Kai, the now adult Sarah made the following public statement." Again, harping on the accusation, making it seem like it's illegal. The now adult Sarah did not address anything other than what Greg allegedly asked her to address... something no one was even accusing them of. Grooming has been speculated and there's more evidence of that than anything.

Over this video, Greg has made captions, which read, "Sarah asked this girl to stop talking about her/stop srpeading lies, yet she continued. This video was made as a public plea to discontinue the lies. The girl simply refuses to stop harassing Sarah"

Let me repeat. The accusations were about the inappropriate nature of Lainey and Sarah's relationship and grooming.

"The ex girlfriend of Social Repose" keyword ex and they are no longer associated with each other. "the friend of a girl who was dumped repeatedly for lying, cheating, breaking the law" Greg's way of being a hypocrite. "The girl with nearly no views on her youtube channel" actually about as much if not more than Greg, so... "who was asked by multiple parties to not try and exploit their lives with lies," which she didn't do. "the girl who has everything to gain off lying to the public through revenge and monetary gain for her friend being dumped" why does he keep bringing up Billie... the dude doth project too much if you ask me. "The girl who also asked a 16 year old Sarah to sleep with her (and Sarah backs up this claim)" Sarah just said she didn't want others speaking for her, so she herself can accuse Ayalla publicly, and even then, it's not illegal - whereas anything between Sarah and her former guardian was entirely illegal.

"The girl who also, with Onision's ex, Onision's ex tried to convince a 16 year old Sarah to starve herself like she did, to become part of her eating disorder" that is so grammatically incorrect I can't properly address it, but again, Sarah's an adult now she can address it herself. "and the friend of Onision's ex who offered Sarah illegal drugs, as a 16 year old" no evidence, Greg, "who tried to get Sarah to move in with them as well..." and honestly if the latter is true, I'd assume it had something to do with being concerned about Sarah's wellbeing... you know, like how Lainey took her in for Sarah's wellbeing.

"Again, all facts backed up by Sarah's claims." If you're going to use the term facts, back it up with evidence. Claims are not evidence. "Sarah, a person who is does not have Youtube channel and does not try to turn drama into money" except when she livestreams about the drama?

The next slide is of Madison again where he harps about how desperate she was to date Greg and Lainey. "And this girl, someone who tried to get in a relationship with Onision and Kai and was repeatedly rejected." EVIDENCE. "A girl who cheated on her boyfriend with his boss, who was drunk while slandering Onision, someone who went out of her way to connect with Onision's ex of over 7 years." Hang on though, it's not really that hard to get in contact with another person... like you type some words... sorta how it wouldn't really be that hard for Greg to look up laws about age of consent laws and the EPAs stance on wetlands.

"A girl who lost her friendship with Onision for going behind his back while still trying to be his friend, dishonest." Sure Jan.

Next slide he completely contradicts what he had texted to Madison, "And admitted she was wrong about Onision, issued a public retraction of what she said about Onision." So it's almost like he manipulated her into the retraction to specifically discredit her in this video. Hmm... interesting.

Next slide is of both Ayalla and Madison. The above heading reads, "You trust these two people, one of which admitted she lied.. and the other asked a 16 year old girl if she wanted to have sex with her..." Under the photo of Madison it says "Lied about Onision publicly and later admitted it/retracted." She didn't lie though... she admitted it was a poor choice of words but not that it was a lie. And under Ayalla, it saus "Asked a 16 year old girl if she wanted to have sex with her and offered the 16 year old drugs illegally" do i need to harp on the legalities like Greg harps on his ex, who was initially just supposed to be dating Lainey until he forced his way into the relationship. Was that a poor choice of words? Allegedly.

In the next slide there's a picture of Lainey with what looks like Greg's mom and he has a caption pointing the picture, "And this is the person you think is guilty? THIS is the person you guys are demonizing and trying to ruin the life of? Over what?" Then a caption pointing to a picture of Ayalla reading, "This girl's attempt at five seconds of fame?"

This is Greg's poor attempt at mimicking what the news and media does by using a flattering picture of Lainey and an unflattering one of Ayalla, because he thinks this sweet picture of his mom and Lainey will make us change our minds when there's a lot of shady stuff online that doesn't paint Lainey as this innocent party.

In the next slide, he lines up a well done photo of Lainey, a well done selfie of Sarah, and a photo of Ayalla midspeech, basically just repeating what he had already claimed.

Then he dedicates a slide just to the word and and an elipses, followed by a slide, again harping on Madison, which says that Madison "claims she publicly retracted her statements about Onision" except using the phrase claim is incorrect because she factually retracted her statement by saying, I REPEAT, it was a poor choice of words. Next to an image of Greg and Lainey, with the caption "if very happy he is no longer friends with a liar like her." She may flip flop, but at least the chick corrects herself.

Long story short... is the next slide. Followed by a slide of both Sarah and Ayalla but with the word pervert over Ayalla's photo... The caption says the same shit he's been claiming in this video. The next slide of Madison is pointless really and pretty much his attempt at being gracefully petty, but falls short because it's Greg.

Next, Greg says in true narcissistic fashion - oh no, there I go diagnosing a narcissist without any credentials, just my diploma from Google University - he says "To everyone else, I forgive you for being wrong... But now you have no excuse to continue being wrong."

Then Greg asks everyone to go to twitter and apologize to Lainey, and to comment an apology to Sarah on that video... because he needs the engagement that badly I guess.

And in his next slide he alleges, "We are still pursuing legal action against this girl, who has yet to retract her statements and will be pursued in court with three separate witness and other evidence that remains private." I love that he claims he has evidence and conveniently states that it's private after previously saying that he's taking Sarah's word for it and Sarah is the one making all of the claims. I repeat, claims.

TL;DW: Greg is trying to manipulate his audience into believe that he and his spouse are not predators by attempting to discredit one person who has come forward, and another person who made a passing statement in a livestream and apologized saying it was a poor choice of words.

If you've had any interaction that you find odd or questionable or has made you feel uncomfortable, don't hesitate to reach out. My twitter and instagram require requests and you can reach out to me, but I am not the only one willing to listen. Ayalla has made a tweet saying her DMs are open, and if there are any other youtubers, streamers, etc who are open to listening, please feel free to comment and I will the comment a heart.

I'll catch you guys in my next video.

#scripts #onision allegations

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fluffairy · 3 years ago

Text

I Still Miss Everyone I’ve Ever Loved

A bouquet of flowers in a vase, on a canvas.

Tulips, or irises, or maybe lilies.

Vanitas, memento mori,

Fly levitating at the edge of the frame.

One last coffee at Ditta Artiginale, a hug and a promise,

Then radio silence forever.

Blocked for no good reason,

With no answers available.

I turn away, click clack, down the hall, then

Return and look at the painting again.

She hurt me so many times in so many ways, but I still think:

C would love this, but I can’t send it to her.

A half-liter carafe of house wine split between two

(Red, because of her blood sugar), smiles over risotto,

Going out of my way to Ponte Santa Trinita

because I didn’t want to leave her.

She studied anatomy and flayed bodies and

Sculptures made of wax 500 years ago,

Slowly melting off their metal armature.

I come across an anatomy book that seems perfect for P,

But I can’t send it to her.

The golden boy who didn’t want to commit,

Who turned to a dull grey once the rose-colored glasses came off.

Tall, comfort, closeness, a special something that nobody but the two of us understood.

Comics and movies and Shirley Jackson novels,

Remembering how it felt to be pressed between him and his car in the middle of a park at dusk,

Big hands around my waist, glasses thrown to the side.

The golden boy who was a grown man, actually,

Who messed with a young woman’s head, who refused to blow out his torch

Just for me.

I’m supposed to be over it, but I still think about him.

I see books on comics culture and the history of horror at work,

I think that he would love it, and I never want to see his face again,

But a dull ache burrows into my chest.

I lost M, and I am glad I did, but it doesn’t make it better.

I close my eyes and I’m back in Texas, speeding down the highway to Houston,

Eating tacos and kolaches and guzzling iced coffee.

I think of the days I spent with K in our senior semester,

an overnight in my dorm room for fall break,

Christmas lights twinkling and Trader Joe’s ravioli on the stove,

Thinking even as it all happened that this would be something I would remember, and long for, someday.

She was strange and had so much traumatic baggage and weird interests,

and we called each other Dante and Virgil,

And I didn’t think I had ever had a best friend as good as her.

A letter written in anger on a train ride home from Philadelphia,

A letter that came in the mail two months later, ending a friendship

That had changed and determined so much about my life.

She hurt me, and was not a good friend to me at the end, but maybe

I wasn’t a good friend to her either.

I read a book, I watch a show, I screenshot a tweet, I want to send it to her,

But I can’t.

I’m better off without these people,

But the feelings still inundate me.

These people haunt me like ghosts, a foot behind me but just within reach,

Just close enough to bring back whenever I want.

Am I their ghost, too?

Do they see a Michelangelo sketch or a photo of Santo Spirito or

An Old Hollywood film and want to send it off to me?

These ghosts are conjured by myself, nostalgic to a fault

And lonely beyond belief.

I’m glad that I hold my memories and experiences with me, but

Sometimes I wish I could leave them behind.

Pack up the vanitas painting and the carafe of wine and the parking lot and the ravioli

And shove it under my bed.

Ghosts don’t always have to haunt you.

But I don’t quite know how to let them go.

KS 10/17/22

#ugh yikes #wrote this in one go and had an uncontrollable urge to put this *somewhere*#poetry #my writing

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adotblog · 7 years ago

Text

Brave Part 14

Pairing: LMM x Reader

Warnings: Mentions of death, quite a bit of crying, much fluff.

Notes: Way too autobiographical, forgive me for the therapy session.

Words: 2435

You pull your knees up to your chest as the wooden slats of the bench creak underneath you. The wraparound porch only has a low rail around the edge, so you have a clear view to the simmering ocean ahead of you. The waves bustle softly onto the sand, the swoosh of their retreat hypnotic like a metronome.

You watch the glint of the moon off the water, examine the visible trails through the sand dune to your left, anything to try and empty your brain. You had fallen asleep sprawled across Lin’s body, content, satisfied. You had woken at 2am, traumatised and sweaty from a dream. A Dad dream.

You scold yourself that you should’ve known that being here would have you thinking of him. No trip to the ocean would be complete without a heart-wrench of grief. Burning bright as it did all those years ago, ever-changing and never changing. It shapeshifts, it retreats, it hides in a corner-but it never truly leaves.

You close your eyes and rest your forehead on your knees as you listen to the ocean. It’s still freezing cold but the blankets you’re wrapped in make it bearable. It’s eerily quiet so there’s nothing to stop your brain wandering back to the dream, to Dad. As they always do, the memories flood in.

You still remember the sound of his voice. You worry sometimes that you’ll forget. He called you Petals, neither of you knew why. He always wore Old Spice. He swore there was nothing better than “a good rock and roll tune”.

You squeeze your knees in a self-hug and let out a shaky breath. The screen door creaks and makes you jump. Lin emerges, a hoodie over his pyjamas, rubbing his arms to fight the chill in the air. “Hey, you.”, he begins hesitantly. You smile weakly at him. “Are you O...No, you’re not ok...”, he blurts and crosses the few steps to your bench to immediately wrap his arms around your huddled body. He instinctively holds you in such a way that your head comes to rest on his shoulder.

You allow yourself a tiny sob and once it’s out, more follow. Lin very gently rubs your back in slow circles, never shushing you or asking what’s wrong. You’re not sure how long it takes for your sobs to subside into sniffles but Lin never lets go, barely moving except to squeeze you gently every now and then. Eventually you straighten up, wiping at your eyes with your sleeve.

“Ooof, sorry.”, you say, embarrassed. “No, no it’s ok.”, he says as he takes your hand in both of his. “Do you want to tell me, mi cariña?”, he asks, eyes filled with worry. You nod and take a second to compose yourself a little.

“I had a dream. It...I had a dream about my Dad”., you say. Lin nods, waiting for you to go on. “Tomorrow...today, I guess...it’s a shitty anniversary.”, you breathe a long, wavering breath. “It’s the anniversary of you losing your Dad?”, he questions gently. You feel your face crumple as you nod. Lin strokes your back as the tears roll down your face.

When you quiet a little he squeezes your hand. “You could’ve told me”, he scolds gently. “I just...I thought I might be ok. I thought that maybe this year is the one where it gets easier, y’know?”, you say. Lin smiles sadly. “Mum and I, we used to spend the anniversary together, do something distracting. But as the years pass, she just wants to kind of go past it without much acknowledgement. It’s easier for her that way.”, you explain. “Ahh but not such a great coping mechanism for such a heart-on-their sleeve girl as you?”, Lin guesses. You give a short laugh at that-it’s not taken him long to have you all worked out.

You turn to fold your legs over Lin’s so you can huddle closer and share the blankets. “He would’ve loved you”, you say as you sniffle. Lin clasps a hand to his heart and looks choked up. “Really?”. “Yeah! I mean not at first, he’d have been like ‘Writer? That’s not a real job!’.”, you chuckle and lin breaks into a grin. “But when he met you, he’d have loved you.”, you say. “That’s...lovely”, Lin says sincerely. “I was his little girl, always-and his only child-so he valued people who took care of me”, you smile at him through new tears. “I will always try to do that.”, he promises. “You always do.”, you say.

“I wanna hear more, if you want to tell more?”, Lin offers. You nod as you wipe at your eyes again. “Pero, inside, yes?”, he says. You gather up your blankets and make a dash for the bedroom. Lin had pushed the bed against the wall before you slept as he was convinced one of you would fall out if it remained in the middle of the room. Now he piles up all the pillows at the top so you can lean back on them and pull the covers up high. Then he heads to the kitchen to make hot chocolate.

When he returns he places a giant mug in your hands and you relish the warmth. He asks some questions about your dad and listens to years of anecdotes. By the time you finish your drink you feel as if a little weight has lifted. Lin washes up the mugs as you go to the bathroom and you meet back at the side of the bed. You put your arms around his waist and pull him into a hug. “Thank you”, you say. “Of course, anytime”, he replies as he strokes your hair. “Come on, sleep now, love”, he says as he gets under the covers and holds out his arms so you can cuddle up to him.

You climb in next to Lin and bury yourself in his arms. “I know tomorrow will be hard.”, he says. “But I’ll do whatever I can to help it pass.”. You smile against his chest. “Thank you.”, you say as you feel yourself begin to drift off. “Love you.”, he whispers.

—————————————————

When you wake, you instinctively know it’s late because the winter sun is forcing through the curtain tops. You rub your eyes and fumble around for your phone. Almost 11. You pad through to the bathroom, brush your teeth and jump in the shower, feeling weary despite the lie-in.

When you’re dressed, you walk through the house, looking for Lin. It’s quiet and you half expect to find him with his nose in a book. Instead there’s a note on the counter “Back soon, make coffee!”, with a smiley face. Lin’s notebooks are scattered across the dining table, along with a discarded coffee cup, indicating that he’s definitely been writing. You make fresh coffee and stare out at the sea from the warmth of the living room.

Within a few minutes you hear the lock turn and Lin carries a bag of groceries into the kitchen, dumping them on the counter to come over and kiss you. “Good morning, love”, he says and gives you an awkward hug as he tries to avoid spilling your coffee. “Good morning”, you smile. “What did you get?”.

Lin leads you over to the kitchen. “Well, look, I didn’t know what you’d want to do today but I figured a treat might be the way forward, and I knew just the thing”, he says mysteriously. “What’s that?”, you wonder aloud. Lin doesn’t answer but grins at you and then starts to pull things out of the bag. Butter. Molasses. Flour. Brown sugar. Ginger.

Ginger.

You feel a lump in your throat. “You bought the ingredients for gingerbread?”, you ask. Lin grins and nods. “Is that Ok?”, he asks, faltering. “Yes of course, but I...how did you know?”. Lin unpacks the rest of the groceries as he says “Every Sunday, just the two of you. You’d bake gingerbread-he’d make you grease the tins and you hated it, but you loved baking together”.

You clap a hand to your mouth, as if to catch the emotion that was threatening to pour out of you. Lin finishes unpacking and turns to you, his face dropping when he sees your expression. “What?”, he asks. You fold your arms across your chest. “You remembered that? When did I even tell you that?”, you ask. “Ummmm...when you were fitting me for Alexander’s glasses. We talked about the bakery on 42nd and you told me their gingerbread had nothing on your Dad’s”, he answers. “We weren’t even together then, that was months ago.”, you say, overwhelmed that he remembered. “Nah, but I was really into you, and it was wonderful to have you share such a sweet remembrance with me. So, I remembered it.”, he says and gives your shoulder a squeeze. You struggle to keep your composure as you tell him “This is...exactly what I want to do today. Thank you.”. He beams at you.

“So!”, he rubs his hands together gleefully “Shall I grease the tins?”. You laugh and start to look through the cupboards for baking equipment. You find two loaf tins and hold them up for Lin to see. Then a thought strikes you “Wait, Lin...I doubt I can remember all the quantities”, you say regretfully. “Ahhhh, but I have the recipe!”, he says triumphantly. “How?!”, you gasp. He holds up his phone. “I asked the people in my phone!”, he jokes. Later you see his tweets:

@lin_manuel British followers! Help a fellow out! Apparently in the 80s there was this recipe book that came with your flour or something?

@nerdingalways That would be the Bero book, good sir. Grandma’s favourite.

@lin_manuel The Bero book! Ok next question: who has one and can tell me the gingerbread recipe?

@waitfritwait Hold on and I’ll send you a screenshot.

@lin_manuel @waitfritwait You TREASURE.

And so, half an hour later you’re both staring at the oven, willing the two cakes to hurry up and be done. You’d insisted on two because Dad always made two, knowing that half of one would be eaten while it was still warm from the oven. Lin sets out to find the thermostat, to try and avoid having a fire stoked all day. You check your phone for the first time and see a message from your uncle and one from a friend back home, both promising to raise a glass to your Dad later. You send short replies, your heart not up to much more. You haven’t told Jas, and she didn’t know you this time last year so she’s none the wiser.

Lin comes back, mission accomplished, and checks the timer to see how long the cake has left to bake. “9 minutes left.” he says. He comes to stand in front of you, offering a hug. You place your phone on the counter, then fall gratefully into his arms. You rest your head on his shoulder as he smooths you hair and asks how you’re doing. “I’m...ok. It’s all a little easier to handle sober, in daylight.”, you tell him. You pull back to hold him at arm’s length. “You were writing this morning.”, you prompt. “Yeah just some scribblings, dunno what they are yet”, he shrugs. “You need to work on it some more? I feel like I’ve hijacked this whole day with my wallowing”.

“Hey! Stop that, firstly-you’re not hijacking, I want to be here and I want to be doing whatever it is that you need. Second-you’re not wallowing, it’s ok to be grieving, y’know.”, Lin says patiently. “I know.”. PING. The oven timer interrupts and you carefully remove the two loaves, pressing the tops to confirm they’re done.

“Is it ok out? Could we go for a walk while these cool?”, you ask him. “Sure, it’s ok if you’re wrapped up”, he answers.

——————————————————

You walk for an hour, until your feet are too cold to go on and your cheeks are reddened and stinging. You return to the house and set the tea kettle on the hob. And then it’s time to unveil the gingerbread. You tease the first cake from its pan and cut a couple of slices. Lin reaches out to take one but you stop him and head over to the fridge. When you come back with butter Lin eyes you quizzically. You laugh as you tell him Dad always ate his with butter spread on. Lin tries it and declares it “weird but good”. You squirrel the rest away for later and collapse on the sofa.

Lin asks what you want to do next. “Ugh, nothing. My brain hurts from overthinking and under-sleeping.”, you answer. “I have an idea, if you like?” he says hesitantly. “Open Spotify, play me something your Dad loved?”. It’s a great idea, such a *Lin* idea. A sweet way for him to get to know your Dad a little.

You smile as you select the first song, Tougher Than The Rest by Springsteen. Lin smiles at you “Why this track?”. “Dunno. Money was scarce and so Dad didn’t buy a lot of records-he didn’t own any Springsteen albums but he bought this single over every other one. And not in a hipster ‘I only like his lesser-known stuff’ way either-he just liked what he liked and didn’t care what people thought.”, you explain.

Next came Dire Straits. “I remember Dad exclaiming to me that Knopfler could make a guitar *sing*. I was young, had never heard that expression before and just thought it was MAGICAL”.

You go through Queen, Neil Diamond, Don Williams, and end up in a Country wormhole of songs you remember from his VHS of stuff he taped from CMTV in the 90s. You sing loudly, you cry a little, you laugh a lot.

Eventually Lin asks if you want some dinner. You laugh as you realise all you’ve eaten all day is a slice of gingerbread.

As he starts to get up to go to the kitchen you grab his hand to stop him. Tears threaten to spill again as you say “Thank you for today. You’ve made a painful day infinitely more bearable. I should’ve known you would. You’re amazing. I love you.” “I love you too”, he returns and kisses you softly and at length. When he breaks the kiss, he squeezes you tight before he stands.

You yawn and stretch, causing Lin to suggest you nap while he cooks. “Have I mentioned that I love you?”, you joke. “Maybe once”, he chuckles as he kisses you again.

#lin x reader #lin manuel miranda x reader #lin manuel imagine #lin manuel x reader #rpf #hamilton rpf #reader insert

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literaryfaeriecorner · 4 years ago

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02/21/2021: Promotions, Old Friends, and Yellow School Buses

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February 21st, 2021

somehow i received a promotion at work last Friday even though i am literally probably one of the LEAST motivated people teaching at that school... fuck. so... now, instead of just being a regular-schmegular teacher, i am now the '6th grade head social studies teacher' which means that i have to run planning meetings for the social studies team, attend morning meetings discussing whole-grade growth and failings, and solutions for how we're going to get the kids to... not suck. uuuuuuggggghhhhhh!!! and this is for the rest of the year and the next!!!!

apparently, i am the 'perfect person' for this position because all of my classes have consistently performed better than the rest... but between you, me, and the entire internet, that speaks more to the abilities of my students than my own personal abilities as a teacher. i don't believe i'm a sucky teacher or anything but the fact remains that between work, grad school, delusional lovesick-related episodes, mental illness, and other varying distractions, i am not Doing The Best I Can. in fact, i'm literally in survival mode 95% of the time. the other 5% of the time, i'm in manic-as-fuck mode. so... do i really DESERVE this promotion? who even fucking knows? i like to believe, however, that i'll eventually figure out how to bullshit this new responsibility as well and no one will be the wiser. i mean, if this promotion came with a financial boost as well, i'd be more inclined to not fuck it up but, like... i'm doing more work for the same weak ass pay... i'm not as motivated with kind words and encouragement than i would be with a solid boost to my pay grade. anyway... whatever.

i was on tumblr the other day (i am fasting from all social media sites during the day for Lent but tumblr doesn't count because i literally just reblog five or six posts into the void, look at sad literature quotes, and log out just to do it all over again the next day... i am not addicted to tumblr as i am to twitter, instagram, pinterest, and linkedin... yes, linkedin. my quest to escape my job has led me down a very weird and addictive path) and i came across this post by user beetlejuices:

"isn't it all about old friends? like everything? all of it?"

and it is. i think so. i really do.

one of the things i've been conscious of in my early adulthood is that i am still chasing after the friendships i had in middle school. i wrote about this two Lents ago too. there is a memory that i remember so vividly in middle school and it reminds me constantly about how i felt so loved and appreciated and like the world couldn't go on without me if i somehow left or disappeared or went away. i think about it all the time. that is how freeing and loving and whole it is. just a simple memory of being three hours late to school (after a huge, blown out argument between parents who should've divorced years ago) and being startled by a flood of texts that starting pouring in at 7 that morning.

ashley: YOOOO where r u? they snagged all the donuts from the corner store!

alysha: you missed the bus this morning?

ashley: i bought donuts off eman 4 u... say im the best :D

kiera: U MISSED CRYSTAL'S FAT HEAD ASS SLIP DOWN THE STEPS LMAOOO

kiera: u're always here early u good?

alysha: are you coming 2 school today?

ashley: are u ok?

Christyl: don't forget we have a test in math!! where are you?

kiera: babe?

ashley: are you ok? why is ur phone off?

alysha: i just talked to ashley are u ok?

Christyl: where r u?

kiera: i just talked to ashley r u ok?

kiera: none of ur sisters r here either... u ok?

ashley: i'll call again @ lunch

alysha: pls be safe

Christyl: i'll tell the teacher you're sick and maybe you can take it tomorrow

Christyl: are you ok?

and even more messages that were sent during and inbetween classes... i thought it was a bit too late (and too time consuming) to respond to them all individually so after being signed into school three hours late, i decided to wait for all my friends at our table in the cafeteria to surprise them before explaining my mess of a morning. i was nervous because i thought they would be mad at me for some reason. but as soon as they saw me, ashley, alysha, kiera, and christyl, they came barreling towards me screaming my name. it was an entire scene. people looking at them crazy and then raising their eyebrows at me, not seeing what the big deal was. i probably looked the same exact way that i did the day before. unspectacular, bookish, awkward. they couldn't see what the big deal was. it embarrassed me but it thrilled me at the same time.

they nearly knocked me to the floor pushing each other to get to me first trying to steal the first hug. in the end, i stretched my arms out as far as i could and they all fell into them. we probably looked a mess. a tangle of brown legs, arms, frizzy hair, loose braids, and scuffed dress shoes. i remember feeling so loved and wanted. i felt bigger and grander than i was. i had stopped the world for five entire minutes and i didn't do anything. i was just existing.

i don't really talk to any of the girls anymore. i follow them on social media and i wish them happy birthday every year and we're all on each other's close friends list on insta... so i still know a few, if not all, of their secrets... but we'll probably never be as close as we were in middle school. and that's ok. i still love them as much as i did when they tackled me in the lunch room that day. i still root and cheer for them like we still spend every night after school on the phone for hours talking shit and planning presidential campaigns and gossiping about boys. i will never forget that day in the lunchroom. ever. and, like i said, it has only occurred to me now, as a young adult, that i've been chasing that kind of friendship and sisterhood since it happened.

i like to treat all my friendships as mini-romances. i remember a tweet that said, "friendships ARE romance," and i agree. i think i'm in love with all of my close friends, if not all of my friends. it's embarrassing (just a bit) but i have probably fallen in love with all of my friends at least once or twice. this is especially true for my group of college friends (at this point, they are really family). i have been in love, at least once, with all eight of them throughout our four years. i don't actually find this embarrassing like i said earlier. what's embarrassing is that this information might embarrass other people which, in turn, would thoroughly embarrass me. but the fact itself doesn't embarrass me. that is how i am. i fall in love and out of love at breakneck speeds. i think it's important to be a little bit in love with your friends.

i really enjoyed being in undergrad and planning literal dates between all eight or nine of us. and we would call it that. "what are we doing for our date next weekend?" "so who's going on the date tomorrow?" "are we cancelling the date or does the weather not matter?" (the weather always mattered.) my favorite college date was valentine's day senior year. we all went to korean-style karaoke and ordered so much food and drink we could barely stand to sing. we were all sat around the tv singing horribly to mariah carey or beyonce or rapping to nicki minaj verses. we took so many bad pictures and tone deaf videos and we kept leaning or hugging or holding each other's hands. that's another thing i love about my college family. most of us are touchy-feely people. i am a touchy-feely person. i'm southern and my mom is ridiculously gooey so one of my love languages, inevitably, is touch. i, usually, reign it in A LOT unless i have a partner but in college, i somehow discovered a whole group of people who loved to kiss each other on the cheek and hold hands and lean on other people, and lock arms. i felt at home. really.

maybe it's not only about old friends, though. maybe it's about feeling at home.

there was another post on tumblr and i think about it a lot. it's a screenshot of a tweet from twitter user @HumbleCore.

"HUGE NEWS: finally found my best friend from middle school on FB. We've both been looking for each other for over a decade. I told her I think about her whenever I play any boardgame or drive by a church. She told me she uses my name as her password at work. A perfect reunion."

when i read that the other night, i cried. i don't know why. it was heavy and ridiculous and i was worried my roommates would hear me. i don't know why i cried. at all. and even typing it out like that made me want to cry again. the feeling is not as strong or as overwhelming as it was the first time but it's still there.

i think about a best friend i had in first grade. even before i thought of ashley as my best friend (i have known Middle School Ashley since the first grade. i thought we were destined to be best friends forever and ever and ever, which is what i wrote in her middle school yearbook). his name was Malik. or Malique. my memory fails me. but anyway, i loved him like crazy. we didn't do anything without the other. we shared lunch together, we HAD to be partners on every field trip, i cried when Ms. Sanchez moved my seat from his in an effort to stop us from disrupting her lessons and i hated her for an entire week. (a very long time from a first-grade perspective.) even now, i think about him whenever i go to petting zoos or farms and when i ride on yellow school buses with my students.

Malik/Malique was my first kiss. we were hiding from Ms. Sanchez and the other chaperones so we could pet the goats one last time. while we were hiding behind a barn, he kissed me. "for good luck," he said. and then we sprinted across the farm to get back to the goats. and we pet them again before Ms. Sanchez found us and ordered us back on the big yellow school bus where we held hands for the entire hour-long ride back to school.

it's very silly to think now but in high school when i was trying to determine whether i loved my first boyfriend or not i remember thinking, "well, does he make me feel like Malik/Malique?" it's silly but sweet. at fourteen, still comparing the way he made me feel behind a barn at 5 years old to how another boy, years and years later, made me feel. it is silly but i think it's sweet.

i don't actually have any interest in finding Malik/Malique or knowing for certain what he does or how he's doing because i seriously doubt i had such an impact on his life, but i hope he's well and alive and happy because that's what i always naturally hope for when i pass petting zoos or farms or see bright yellow school buses.

so, yes. i think everything, us, our relationships, the entire world, is about old friends. all of it. every last bit of it.

i have a whole-grade data analysis, 300 pages of reading, and two mini-papers for classes to finish before tonight so i'm going to get going... i just wanted to write about old friends first.

#on love #on friendship #on teaching #on community #stream of conscious #crushes

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attract-mode-collective · 7 years ago

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Ready To Wear, Ready To Play

As previously noted, there’s been yet another change in direction for the Attract Mode blog… which I have dubbed Version 2.8 Final CE EX Λ Core Plus Alpha. BTW/FYI. But yeah, been posting on Twitter, a lot. So much so that you may have missed something, so here’s a recap!

Note: was originally going to cover everything tweeted throughout the month, but because there’s so much to cover (and February’s short)… am guessing bi-weekly might be the way to go. Am also going to present things mostly in order.

K, enough chatter: at the very top is another fine example of a Famicom being the ultimate in fashion accessory (via nintendu). And here we have, not designer threads but designer plastic (via gamefreaksnz)...

Speaking of plastic, Sega (or someone who got Sega’s blessing, or maybe not even) made Super Monkey Ball figures? Guess so (via magimacaque)...

I was under the belief that, if I truly wanted to make an impact with the relaunch of the Attract Mode Twitter, I couldn’t just post one single piece of Klonoa fan art, but two...

And I only have one example of Cuphead fan art, but it’s the one that counts (via jothelion)...

It was Kyle who helped kick the Attract Mode Twitter’s rebirth into high gear, with the reveal of his Nintendo Power covers. So to help replay the favor, I must insistent that everyone purchase the hard copy of RPG_Friends (which I first mentioned here)...

Nothing makes me happier than seeing such a dense assortment of Japanese game stuffs (via peazy86)...

... Yet that being said, I also believe less can be more, plus a nice breeze while playing Secret of Mana is... well... nice (via sixteen-bit.tumblr)

These gamer chairs perfectly embody Japanese sensibilities when it comes to furniture, plus are a total 180 to the junk they peddle in the US (via shmups)...

Time for another excellent toco toco vid, this one features your fave old school Capcom illustrator, and mine, Akiman…

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There's so much I love about this interview with the creator of Hong Kong 1997, whose goal was "to make the worst game possible”. Though this picture of the guy is near the top of my list...

I love these kooky kids, thinking they could possibly get away with stealing an entire Final Fight arcade cab (via videogamead)...

Yeah, I feel the same way kid (via tvgame)...

"This is Jesus. He lives inside my Neo Geo MVS cabinet. He was there when I got it. He is glorious." (via arcadephile)...

The pathos that is Sub Zero at the bat, in four modded screenshots(via lanceboyles)...

The pathos that is the Kachō interacting with kids, in just three YouTube screengrabs (via gaijira)...

And the pathos that is Splatoon 2, via two screengrabs and the piece of fan art that resulted (via lunaticobscurity)...

Though in addition to pathos, Splatoon is also filled to the brim with intensity (via thewaragainstgiygas)...

Welcome to VIOLENT CITY (via shmups)...

Also, STAY CHILL (via paperbeatsscissors)...

Not that any band in which music is performed via guitars hooked up to Famicoms is all that typical to being with, but this one is most definitely not typical (via miki800.com)...

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This "what the hell is going on exactly" illustration has motivated me to finally Wario Land a spin at long last (via it8bit)...

Remember Absolutely Rose Street, the Beverly Hills 90210 meets Degrassi meets Wayne’s World-esque show that was actually an infomercial for the Sega 32X in disguise that I wrote about a little whiles ago? Well here's ad for it (via oldgamemags)...

I'm a total sucker for old Japanese video game mags, primarily ones featuring models/statues on the cover (via miki800)...

Another cover to an old Japanese game rag, this one featuring the very first Metal Gear; I wonder if this slightly cutesy take helped to inspire the Metal Gear we meet in Snatcher (via mendelpalace)...

Here we have a page from an 11 page comic, done in a single sitting, for an event that celebrates various pairings of Solid Snake/Otacon, one that's called Snot Week for whatever reason (via millionfish)...

I want this woman to be my mom (via cyberfights)...

Am obsessed with this image of a man playing Xevious in the middle of a desert that's clearly fabricated and clearly from the 80s (via shmups)...

mendelpalace sez: "This picture gives me anxiety" and I feel exactly the same...

This is comparable to my own morning commute, except for the lack of floating cherry blossom petals and various other differences (via tightenupthe)...

Spring is almost here, which means it's time for a new wardrobe, which really means it's time to get new PaRappa attire (via miki800.com)...

If a glitched Nintendo logo when booting up a Game Boy looks fashionable to you, you're in luck (via gameandgraphics)...

Tho if a glitched Game Boy Advance start up is more your style (via corruptionasart)...

Has anyone received this Mega Drive/Genesis chiptune album on a cart (described as a "16-bit VMU") yet? (via catskullelectronics)

Ever wonder what a 3 part symphony, one performed via 5 different Nintendo DSs and 5 different copies of Electroplankton, sounds like? Well wonder no more (via mendelpalace)...

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And ever wonder what an Italian-based, US-born R&B, blues and disco singer (which is how Wikipedia describes Ronnie Jones) thought of video games in the year 1980? Again, wonder no more (via aestheticoftheday)...

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The new DDR, which will record your performance and also add snazzy video effects, is my early contender for GOTY 2018 (via @Sega_AM2)...

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I will never grow tired or bored of watching this run cycle, ever (via shmups)...

What appears to be a Nier motion study (via sixteen-bit)...

Sakura-ha (via rosscountertv)..

To commemorate the discontinuation of the Kinect sensor (via prostheticknowledge)...

Google Translate took the original Korean & translated it as: "Ittsumi! Maria", which @NotLikeFreddy re-translated as: "It's-a me, Mary-o"...

The medium of video games most certainly has many mountains to overcome yet, but there's little denying that we've made some progress nonetheless (via videofame)...

"I have to go now. My planet needs me.” (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz it's been a while since I shared a gif from Sin & Punishment (via n64thstreet)...

The SNES & Genesis had cool accessories and all, yet I often wonder what it would have been like if 3D printers & Etsy were around back then...

Pretty much the cutest lil thing you'll see all day is this Genesis CDX hooked up to a 5″ Sony PVM (via decideweapons)...

“'Club Sega during the Snow' is a top-tier aesthetic, I think." (via pr0jectneedlemouse)

I love old VG sound team photos, especially when they double as old band photos, like Capcom's Alph Lyra here (via videogamesdensetsu)...

You all have no idea how happy I am to finally see a decent sized version of the flyer for Deadly Sport... again, no idea (via melvanainchains)...

Here's an illustration of Terry Bogard eating a hot dog (with the rest of his Fatal Fury posse chowing down as well)...

... Turns out, Terry's affinity for hot dogs is somewhat of a thing (via busterwolf)....

... Or, perhaps SNK as a whole are simply huge fans of hot dogs? (via meldowiseau)

I absolutely love this familiar, yet thoroughly refreshing take on Samus (via lady--peaches)...

And nothing new to report, as it pertains to @deimosremus's Metroid redesign, so am just going to continue staring at this some more...

Love Hultén is mostly known for their handheld creations, like the Pixel Vision, though I mostly dig their full-sized cabinet, the Kabin 1...

"Damn Tecmo never let Microsoft live that design down" (via sixteen-bit)...

Cuz I recently began replaying Breath of the Wild...got the Switch version for the gf on her birthday... some fan art (via it8bit)...

I've seen my fair share of comics with Sonic & Tails, but never one that addresses the debug mode from the original Genesis games (via vg-libary)...

Here we have two cats, from the game Jingle Cats, occupied with the fridge (via obscurevideogames)...

And here we have just one cat, from the Sailor Moon anime, occupied with an arcade game that I am unable to identify (via sailormoonreblogs)...

Can you believe the music video for @MissyElliott's Sock It 2 Me is over 20 years old? Crazy, I know...

Speaking of Mega Man, I guess I need to finally check out Mega Man Zero, cuz apparently X goes through some kind of religious conversion or something (via omnilunary)...

And here we have Cut Man, the one we all know (and love) from Mega Man meeting his Captain N doppelganger (via mewymarsher)...

I absolutely need this on a shirt or jacket (via @buzz_clik)...

It's always a thrill, seeing a fighting stick made out of tupperware in the wild for the very first time, isn't it? (via @silva_hime)

Yes. Fighting Layer is that game in which you jump off a folding chair to smash another one on the head of a gigantic falcon (via lordmo)...

Tonight’s episode: PINBALL ALCHEMIST (via tonights-episode)...

Here we have a Tumblr thread giving suggestions on how to access a seemingly inaccessible area of a hotel lobby; my fave, for perhaps obvious reasons, is the ring path/light speed dash combo from Sonic Adventure...

Am kinda hungry atm and feel like slicing & dicing some celery & onions, plus making some Julienne Fries; anyone got a copy of Sonic 2 handy? (via sonicthehedgeblog)

A. thanks to this fan art, I now know you can also play OutRun in Hokuto no Ken PS4! & B. great piece & all, but...still a shame that Alex Kidd is missing (via inspiredfatty)...

I've legit been staring at these rotating NES and SNES gifs all day long (via 3d-bear)...

These photos from the Dreamcast Mobile Assault Tour, circa the late 90s, right before the system's launch are very... and I mean VERY... 90s (via posthumanwanderings)...

"What will your next dream be?" (via 081594)

You know that UK/US reality show Undercover Boss, in which a billionaire CEO disguises himself as the new mailroom guy? Well there's apparently a version in Japan, with an episode starring the president of Taito (via @MMCafe_Prof)...

On Valentine's Day I came across a horror movies blog that presented various horror movie Valentines, including one for Jason Voorhees that references Friday The 13th for NES (via cameraviscera.com)...

Also, for Valentine's, my girlfriend made me pixelated chocolate; the pic does the blue hearts in particular zero justice, which look like plastic toys, but most assuredly are made of milk chocolate...

... And that’s it for now! The rest of February coming up in a few!

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jjpocketbook · 5 years ago

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The Secret Guide to VSEO: Video and SEO

Since the Google Penguin and Panda updates, a lot of SEOs finally have realized that ranking a website in the long term is not just about building a large number of links. It’s also about creating high-quality content that will attract links naturally over time.

However, one type of SEO that still is underutilized is VSEO: video search engine optimization. Although a lot of brands are incorporating video content into their overall online marketing strategies, most SEOs don’t place a high priority on it. Usually, they opt for creating various other types of content (e.g., infographics, images, written content, etc.).

If used correctly, video can be an extremely powerful form of content and make a significant contribution to your overall SEO strategy, in more ways than one.

youtube

Avoiding a Common Trap and Defining Your Goals

Although the idea of producing a video might seem like a “nice” idea, it’s important to remember that it must compliment your overall SEO strategy and generate a return on investment (ROI).

If you fail to define your goals in the early stages, not only will the video end up costing you (or your client) a hefty chunk of money, it will be money down the drain that could have been spent better elsewhere.

Failing to clearly define goals is a common SEO mistake and one that often is seen with content such as infographics.

Many SEOs will commission the creation of an expensive, cool-looking infographic without putting enough thought into the overall goal. They get blinded by the idea that “infographics build links” without stopping to think whether they want the infographic to increase conversions, increase high-quality traffic (i.e., visitors who are likely to convert to paying customers), or simply provide off-page SEO benefits (i.e., links).

It’s the same with video content. You need to know what you want to get out of it. Without knowing this, it will be difficult to conceptualize/commission a production that has any hope of successfully captivating the intended audience and leading to your desired goals.

What Are Your Goals?

From an SEO point of view, there really are only two main goals that you possibly could have – to build links and generate social shares or to increase conversions.

Let’s start by looking at the first benefit mentioned above…

1. Build Links/Generate Social Shares

If it’s done well, a video can generate a large number of links for a website; and often from some pretty reputable domains, too. I’m not just talking about a few links, either. I’m talking about hundreds or thousands of high-quality links in some cases.

The problem is there’s so much online video content that unless you create an exceptional video and have a great outreach/marketing plan, its success is going to be limited.

People don’t link to or share any old rubbish these days. So, to get the success you’re looking for, it’s important for you to really think about who you want to share the video and who you want to link to it.

Essentially, your video has to offer something to the viewer. It might make them laugh, educate them, amaze them, shock them, or annoy them (or even a combination of these). The point is it needs to evoke a strong enough emotional reaction that they’ll want to share it, either by clicking the Tweet/Share button or by writing a post about it on their blog/website (with a link back to your site, of course).

DollarShaveClub.com

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Perhaps one of the best examples of a video that generated a massive amount of backlinks is the “viral” video from DollarShaveClub.com (above).

About a year ago, hardly anyone had heard of Dollar Shave Club, but shortly after they produced and marketed the video, that all changed.

Strangely enough, the Dollar Shave Club video wasn’t produced for link building purposes. It was produced with the aim of raising brand awareness. But in the modern world of SEO/marketing, brand awareness and link building are directly related, at least when it comes to online content.

Let me explain with a timeless viral example.

According to YouTube, the Dollar Shave Club video was uploaded on March 6, 2012. Following the upload, it didn’t take long for the video to start going viral. Partly due to a great PR/outreach strategy and, in large part, thanks to its very amusing concept, it started to gain a lot of attention for the company.

Within hours, it was featured on leading news sites across the web, including Mashable (pictured above), The Next Web, Techcrunch, and literally hundreds of others. Within a month or so, it also had been featured on many other leading sites that most SEOs would work extremely hard to obtain links from, such as Forbes and BusinessWeek.

Obviously, this is great for brand exposure, but what has this got to do with link building?

Every single one of those leading news websites mentioned above linked out to Dollar Shave Club in their articles, as did the hundreds of other sites that reported on the video.

In fact, this screenshot (taken from MajesticSEO back in the day), shows just how successful the video was for Dollar Shave Club in terms of SEO.

As you can see, around March 2012 (when the video was uploaded), Dollar Shave Club attracted approximately 18,000 backlinks and has continued to attract relatively large numbers of links every month since then.

If you take a look at the cumulative view of backlinks gained (pictured below) since the video was uploaded (approximately 12 months ago), you’ll see that it has attracted almost 90,000 links to date and the site still is attracting links naturally every month as people continue to write about it (like me).

The reason for this is the video struck a chord with its intended audience, and, as a result, went “viral” and attracted links. It was funny, original, and kept its target audience in mind.

There also was an excellent outreach/PR strategy in place, which was responsible for getting the video off the ground and starting the link building process.

These are all things to note if you’re looking to use video for SEO.

SEOmoz.org Whiteboard Friday

As I mentioned earlier in this guide, videos don’t necessarily have to be funny to attract links. They just have to offer viewers something they want to see. One good way to do this is to create a video that’s educational.

Every Friday, SEOmoz.org posts a “whiteboard” style video on their blog. Due to the regularity of these videos, they’ve become known as the “Whiteboard Friday” videos. These videos not only attract a lot of attention from SEOs around the world, but also attract a significant number of links, embeds, and social shares; therefore increasing traffic for SEOmoz.

According to Open Site Explorer (pictured above), a particular Whiteboard Friday video received 402 links from 37 referring domains and well over 1,000 social shares. Once again, proof that people love video content.

What Should I Learn from All of This?

In both instances above (DollarShaveClub.com and SEOmoz.org), video content has been responsible for successfully attracting a substantial number of inbound links and social shares for the website in question. This proves that, when used correctly, videos really can provide a huge boost to your SEO campaign.

However, both of these videos successfully attracted links for different reasons.

For Dollar Shave Club, it was all about the video seeding/outreach strategy. Mike Dubin, the founder of Dollar Shave Club, came from a video seeding background, which obviously played a big part in the success of the video. No one knew about Dollar Shave Club in the early days, so the outreach process definitely played an important role in getting things off the ground.

With SEOmoz, it’s likely that there was no outreach conducted in order to attract links/social shares, as SEOmoz already has an extremely large, loyal community of followers who are likely to share their content naturally. For them, simply producing a high-quality video targeted at their fan base is enough to attract links.

It’s important to consider this when using videos for SEO because all sites are different, and, therefore, will require a different approach. Ask yourself: Do I have enough high-quality traffic already to attract links automatically, or do I need to conduct outreach? And, if so, how much?

It’s also important to remember that it doesn’t matter how good your outreach plan is if your video isn’t of exceptional quality. If that is the case, it’s not going to attract a large number of links.

It’s tempting to cut corners and produce a sub-standard video in order to keep costs down. But, in the long-run, this won’t pay off. Ask yourself: Is my target audience going to be interested in this? Would I link to this if I came across it? Does it evoke an emotion? If you answer “no” to any of these questions, go back and rethink things before you produce your video.

One last thing: To get the full SEO potential of your videos, consider hosting videos on your own website (instead of Youtube or Vimeo). The reason for this is to get people to link back to your domain, which will help your overall SEO efforts as well. The possible downside would be reduced exposure or shares.

Also, on most video hosting sites you can link back to your content from the video webpage. Don’t forget to do this! It’s a free link

2. Increase Conversions

Although some SEOs might disagree with this, I believe that the job of an SEO isn’t necessarily to increase rankings, but rather to increase online sales/revenue for the client.

Obviously, this is a two-part process: attracting more visitors to a website and then optimizing the website so that more of those visitors convert into paying customers/clients.

Video content can be fantastic for increasing conversions on just about any website. In fact, more brands than ever are using videos on landing pages and on various other pages of their websites to keep visitors engaged and, eventually, convince them to make a purchase.

There are two main ways to increase conversions with video – by embedding a video on a landing page and by making use of rich snippets.

Video on a Landing Page

When a visitor lands on your site, you’ve literally got seconds to impress them and get them engaged with what you have to offer. This is the whole point of a landing page. But these days, people are so used to seeing rich media content on the internet that, quite frankly, text content often doesn’t keep them engaged.

Accordingly, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to you that embedding a video on your website not only will increase the length of time that visitors stick around, but, also, the number of conversions to paying customers, which, ultimately, is what SEO is all about.

Product Videos

Product videos are perhaps the most common way that retailers increase the conversion rate of their website using video content. Hundreds and thousands of retailers are making use of product videos these days, and it’s easy to see why.

According to Invodo, 52% of consumers say that watching product videos makes them feel more confident about going ahead and making a purchase.

Take a look at the screenshot above from the online retailer Zappos. It shows one of their product videos being used on the page for women’s Levi jeans. According to econsultancy, Zappos found that sales increased by between 6% and 30% on products with product videos.

Explainer/Introductory Videos

Obviously, not every business with a website has a product to sell, as some businesses are service-oriented.

For these, you can increase conversions with the use of explainer/introductory videos. There are varying styles for these videos, and, truthfully, there’s no exact science as to what style works best. It’s more about producing a video that explains/introduces a client’s business effectively and in an engaging way.

Dropbox found that they increased their conversion rate by over 10% by adding this video to their homepage. And considering that their homepage receives over 750,000 visitors a month, this means that it increased signups by several thousand every day and no doubt generated a huge ROI.

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This video on the other hand introduces a local mobile bar company by explaining the service, introducing the guys behind the business, and showing their services in action. It’s a similar length to the Dropbox video, but it is presented in a different style. When embedded on the “about us” page of the client’s website, it increased his overall conversion rate by around 7%.

Rich Snippets

Increasing conversions with video aren’t only about what you show the visitor once they land on your website, but also what you show the visitor before they even get there.

If you’ve noticed Google’s search results recently, you have seen a significant increase in the use of something called rich snippets, and, in particular, video rich snippets.

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If you’re new to rich snippets, you can watch Google’s official explanation in the video above. Essentially, though, this is what a site with video rich snippets looks like in the SERPs:

As you can see, Google displays information about the video embedded on the page, letting the Googler know that, should they click through to your website, a video is awaiting them.

To put it simply, video-rich snippets help you stand out from the other nine search results on that particular page, and, therefore, searchers will be more inclined to click your result, which will increase traffic to your website.

You’ll be able to show searchers a thumbnail of your video and the length of your video. Make sure the thumbnail stands out and sums up what the video is about if you want to maximize conversions.

How Do You Use Rich Snippets for Video?

To show rich snippets for your video in the Google search results, you’re going to need to self-host your video. If you’re using WordPress, there is a workaround for hosting your videos with YouTube using the Yoast Plugin, but it’s definitely recommended that you self-host your content, if possible.

There are a number of other SEO benefits to self-hosting your videos as opposed to using a free video host such as YouTube, as documented here.

Once you’ve gotten your video hosted and embedded on your site, it’s simply a matter of informing Google about the video. To do this, you’ll have to add the required Schema.org code to your page and submit an XML sitemap within Google’s Webmaster Tools.

It’s a bit of a hassle, but once you know how to do it, it’s pretty easy to do time and time again. Plus, if you’re already ranking for any high-volume keywords, it is well worth the effort, as the increase in conversions should bring significantly more traffic to your site.

Conclusion

The popularity of online video presents a huge opportunity for SEOs willing to get creative to achieve results. Producing videos isn’t always cheap, but it usually isn’t as expensive as people believe it will be, either. If you’ve commissioned and marketed infographics before, you definitely can afford to produce a video and use VSEO that will generate a good ROI for you/your client.

Remember, quality is just as important when it comes to online video as it is when producing any other form of content.

About the Author: Josh Hardwick is the founder of ShortyMedia, a leading production company specializing in viral, corporate, and web videos. He also is a freelance SEO and loves producing great content and building links.

The post The Secret Guide to VSEO: Video and SEO appeared first on Neil Patel.

Original content source: https://neilpatel.com/blog/guide-to-video-seo/ via https://neilpatel.com

The original post, The Secret Guide to VSEO: Video and SEO, has been shared from https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com/2020/09/09/the-secret-guide-to-vseo-video-and-seo/ via https://imtrainingparadise.wordpress.com

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