#civic ed

[timetochaing]

[littlegildedswallow]

one of the great things about living on a university campus with the punishment for sexual harassment ALLEGATIONS being immediate suspension and a 25k penalty is that i can go on a 10k step walk at midnight to burn off the calories I gained from this blueberry muffin.

[jelreth]

im doing assignmence and i showered and repierced my ears so i can wear spiders for halloween and it hurts a little but the payoff is phenomenal. why am i so productive today

[pinkflashlight]

[armchairsoapbox]

You vote for your ideal candidate in the primary, you vote in the general to limit the damage.

You get the Dems to move leftward by showing up in the primaries and making sure folks who care about your priorities — including fighting fascism — get elected and funded and have ground support within the Dem party. Go campaign, knock on doors, write and call your representatives, protest. You guys know you supposedly have all these civil rights for a reason right?

Also I don’t know “never take any actual meaningful action” maybe vote Dem anyway because one side is standing up for abortion and reproductive rights and not trying to criminalise trans folks out of existence, trying to protect unions instead of bosses, trying to fight big monopolies via antitrust instead of being all pally with them, lowering the fucking price of insulin and boosting Medicare instead of lining the pockets of pharma companies and insurers, etc. etc.

That doesn’t look like doing nothing to me.

Stop substituting hare-brained cynicism for actual thought.

Post that will get me labelled a psyop but honestly the moment that a party realizes that "you might not like us but you have no choice but to vote for us because otherwise the fascists win" is an effective way to rake in votes it practically ensures that they'll never take any actual meaningful action against the fascism problem. They gotta keep the fascists around bro they're their electoral strategy.

[starphaserdisco]

sitting through this playlist to find a good stab to sample for a Pop Culture/Idols type thing cuz the one i was working on before was ass

[gravitascivics]

VIABILITY OF THE LIBERATED FEDERALISM, VI

This posting will address another concern of Eugene Meehan’s criteria as they are applied to the social construct, the liberated federalism model.[1]  This blog has been applying that criteria to describe the viability of that construct.  The sixth Meehan criterion asks:  does the construct align with other responsible models explaining the same phenomena?  That is, does it have compatibility? 

There is nothing in this proposed model that either contradicts the parochial/traditional federalism model or the political systems model and its offshoot models that have, to some degree, been previously reviewed in this blog.  What follows is a description of how liberated federalism is compatible.

          From this perspective, the model offered here can be seen as an open-ended one in which all of these models and theories are called into play by the activities of the deliberative process which the model in question highlights.  The federalist model of government is a more encompassing one.  These other models – those that have emanated from the political systems model – are mid-range models that describe and attempt to explain how political actors work their processes for a given context. 

As such, the mid-range models are useful in understanding political conditions, given specific political challenges, and in devising effective strategies.  As stated in an earlier posting, the model that has the closest overlapping content to liberated federalism is group theory.  Roy C. Macridis writes:

… [T]hey [group theorists] tell us that in order to understand how groups behave and how they interact, we must study the political system, the overall behavior patterns, the values and beliefs held by the actors, the formal organization of authority, the degree of legitimacy, etc., etc.  Without realizing it, they reverse their theoretical position.  They start with groups only to admit the primacy of the political phenomenon and suggest that in order to explain group behavior we must start with what group behavior purported to explain – the political system![2]

In a similar way, if the liberated federalism model were presented for purposes of generating hypotheses which would lead to empirical studies, this criticism would similarly be a serious one in terms of the model’s usefulness.  But that is not its purpose.

          The model is presented as a foundational construct for the study of American government and civics and, therefore, the Macridis statement is seen as having a functional quality because these are exactly the types of concerns that one wants secondary students to tackle in their study of government and civics.

          The literature about groups has been concerned mostly with the actions of interest groups, i.e., groups that have the on-going role of bringing demands to the political perspective of group behavior.[3]  While this type of group concern is not excluded from the liberated federalism model, it, liberated federalism, is not limited to that concern.  Besides, the emphasis is not limited to questions of effectiveness, although also included, but the emphasis is also heavily concerned with the communal interaction of entities with arrangements/associations and the moral quality of their actions.

          Therefore, the judgment here is that for pedagogical reasons, liberated federalism is not only compatible but also solicits a functional role for systems-based models in guiding civics instruction at the secondary level.  The next criterion to be addressed is predictability.

[1] That is, this posting continues the blog’s review of Eugene Meehan’s criteria by which to evaluate social science theories and models.  For readers wishing to read the previous postings relating these viability claims that the blog is making, they can read the last five postings found in the online site http://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/.  As for Meehan’s criteria, see Eugene J. Meehan, Contemporary Political Thought:  A Critical Study (Homewood, IL:  Dorsey Press, 1967).  To date the blog has reviewed comprehensiveness, power, precision, consistency/reliability, and isomorphism.

[2] Roy C. Macridis, “Groups and Group Theory” in Comparative Politics:  Notes and Readings, edited by Roy C. Macridis and Bernard E. Brown (Chicago, IL:  The Dorsey Press, 1986), 281-287, 286.

[3] Current academic political thinking concerning group theory has a mixed opinion as to its viability.  See “Political Group Analysis,” Encyclopedia.com (n.d.), accessed August 23, 2023, https://www.encyclopedia.com/social-sciences/applied-and-social-sciences-magazines/political-group-analysis AND for a more positive view, see Robert A. Heineman, Steven A. Peterson, and Thomas H. Rasmussen, American Government (New York, NY:  McGraw-Hill, Inc., 1995).

[ourfag]

love those aus where one of them is a mailman and the other one is a resident on his route. imagining one where they have a little routine when stede comes by every afternoon of standing and chatting and it’s the highlight of ed’s day so he’s not about to let a little cold interrupt it. but the fact of the matter is he’s bundled up in blankets and still shivering and noticeably subdued bc just standing there at his front door is making him feel dizzy and exhausted and suddenly stede’s sense of civic duty does not feel anywhere near as strong as his sense of get ed inside and make him some soup. OH so everybody’s mail is a couple hours late just for one day. they’ll survive. if the message was really urgent they’d be using the phone wouldn’t they

[dionysus-complex]

you mentioned you specialize in roman violence. can you rec any good works on the subject, especially during the late antique period? how much (or little) time/writing did latin authors spend on the question of the necessity/morality/glory of violence, especially when bound up with empire and borders? did rhetoric around domestic violence evolve?

It's obviously a massive topic, so it's difficult to know where to begin! For looking at violence in Late Antiquity, I highly recommend the work of Maijastina Kahlos as a starting point - most of her scholarship deals with tensions between religious communities in the Roman Empire in Late Antiquity, and I've found it extremely clear and illuminating. For Late Antique slavery, I'd look at Jennifer Trimble's work, especially "The Zoninus Collar and the Archaeology of Roman Slavery" (2016, JSTOR link here). On the intersections of violence and the legal system, I'd recommend Sarah Bond's 2014 article "Altering Infamy: Status, Violence, and Civic Exclusion in Late Antiquity" (JSTOR link here) as well as Julia Hillner's 2015 book Prison, Punishment and Penance in Late Antiquity. Amy Richlin is essential reading on Roman violence in general, and I'd highly highly recommend her piece "Cicero's Head" in Constructions of the Classical Body (ed. James Porter, 1999) if you have access to an academic library and can get a hold of it; it's explicitly framed as a Jewish, post-Holocaust reflection on the violence of the Roman proscriptions and civil wars and has been profoundly influential on my own thinking.

In general, Imperial-era Latin authors spend a lot of time thinking about the necessity/morality/glory of violence, to the point that I'd say violence is the key theme in Imperial Latin literature. It's often bound up with Stoic philosophy (in the 1st-2nd c. CE; Seneca's De Ira is a key text - you might take a look at sections 3.18-19 on torture under Caligula), and given the bias of our sources which skew toward the elite/senatorial-class perspective, it can be harder to track down texts that explicitly make the link between violence and Roman imperium. One famous example is the speech of Calgacus in Tacitus' Agricola 29-32 (link to a translation here), which purports to be the speech of a Celtic general in Britain rousing his troops to battle against the Romans in the 80s CE. Given that speeches in Roman historiography are generally regarded as being compositions by the historian, it's important to ask why exactly Tacitus of all people gives a prominent place to a scathing critique of Roman imperium - there are lots of ideas on this and few definitive answers, but it's a startling passage to say the least.

Imperial Latin epic poetry (e.g. Lucan's Bellum Civile; Statius' Thebaid) is well known for being graphically violent in the extreme (as in brutal torture, dismemberment, and one infamous instance of brain-eating in Thebaid 8), and there's a lot of work on how and why violence becomes highly aestheticized for Imperial Latin poets. There's also the genre of Roman declamation (difficult to explain, but essentially something like mock trial cases that were used for rhetorical education and showmanship), which frequently explores extremely violent scenarios involving torture, kin-killing, etc. Most scholars these days tend to read declamation as a space where (elite, male) Romans worked out and interrogated various cultural anxieties and taboos. Because of this, you get some of the strongest condemnations of violence found anywhere in Latin literature in the declamatory corpus, but it's difficult to extrapolate from that because again it's something like mock trial and rhetorical showmanship that does not necessarily map on to real-life Roman attitudes.

I've barely scratched the surface and there's a lot more I could say but I'll cut myself off here - I might be able to offer more specific recs if you're interested in e.g. violence as spectacle, aesthetics and artistic representations of violence, etc.

[aachria]

And what if I said I was gonna make a summary of each chapter so I wouldn’t have to reread every time I forgot something—what then?

Lmaooo I have all of the written fic summarized and laid out in an Obsidian map and when I tell you it is incomprehensible — like did I make it just so I could quickly find all the chapters I mention xyz or Ed has a weird dream? Yes. But that's no one’s business but my own. I love Obsidian man it’s so fun.

I’ve mentioned before that I have all of the writing split between google docs for each saga and they all have the same summary scheme and I need an excuse to tell you this shit so I’m doing it now.

East Blue

Maybe the real One Piece was the red Honda Civic we got hit by along the way.

Alabasta

Maybe the real One Piece was the self worth issues we resolved along the way.

Skypiea

Maybe the real One Piece was the hostage situation got rescued from along the way.

Water 7/Enies Lobby

Maybe the real One Piece was the poor choices with interpersonal relationships we made along the way.

Thriller Bark

Maybe the real One Piece was the disregard for personal saftey we comitted along the way.

I legally cannot show you the next ones because of SPOILERS but they do exist.

[piratecaptainscaptainpirates]

it is my civic duty to ask what the Ed and Stede in your brain are doing right now

Hmm, right now, Ed's teaching Stede how to put his hair up in a cool complicated updo (they are going on a date later!). They're sitting in front of the mirror and Stede's holding his tongue between his teeth as he focuses so hard, and Ed's a little nervous because he's never taught someone else how to do his hair, but he knows Stede will take care of him. Ed's explaining the steps so patiently and carefully, and Stede's touching him with so much reverence and his hands are shaking just a bit because he cares so much about getting it perfect.

When they're done it's gonna look awesome and Ed's gonna get so many compliments! That hairdo is NOT gonna last all night because Stede's gonna get his hands in there eventually, but it'll make both of them so happy <3

[bi-numi-aliyani]

Proclaiming the Year of Aliyan-Ba'al

KTU 1.78 is quite a peculiar piece of ancient literature. It's an astrological report from Ugarit written in the City's own language and alphabet.¹ Despite being only six lines long, it has been the subject of extended discussion among scholars due to an ominous description of an astronomical event.² This event was identified early on by researchers with a solar eclipse dated to 1375 BCE, but a 1989 reexamination by astronomer Teije De Jong and Assyriologist W.H. van Soldt pointed to another solar eclipse, of 1223 BCE, as a more likely candidate.¹,³,⁴

This challenged the prevailing view of the timeframe of the Ugaritic texts.⁵ An even fuller picture thereof has emerged from research upon texts including those discovered in the house of a Diviner named Agaptharri.⁶ Three of these are particularly intriguing in relation to the Ba'al cycle, one of them even providing insight into the ritual aspect of the myth. It's classified as RS 24.293 and it involves 𒀭Mot, the God of Death who swallows up 𒀭Ba'al before being destroyed by 𒀭Maiden Anat to restore Her Brother to life.⁷

The Fourth Tablet of Ba'al itself, written by the scribe Ilimilku of Shuban under 𒀭'King Niqmaddu IV of Ugarit around the same time as the apparent eclipse, also contains a portion of broken text which bridges 𒀭Ba'al the Victorious' Great Theophany and His instructions to the Lads 𒀭Gapn and 𒀭Ugar to deliver His message to 𒀭Mot. Restoration of the text shows it appears to refer to the Sun, personified as 𒀭Shapshu the Luminary of the Gods, being cloaked in gloom as a grim omen.⁸,⁹ I think it's easy to see the connection I'm making here; I believe these two eclipses can be taken together as a sort of symbolic epoch.

The date was recorded as the Month of Khiyyaru during the New Moon which was the first Day of the Month in the Ugaritic calendar.¹ This lunar calendar has twelve months beginning just before the Autumnal Equinox in September. There was a modern version on Tess Dawson's Natib Qadish website but it's no longer present and I'm interested in repurposing it if I can figure out the math involved (especially with intercalation).

In any case, under the De Jong and van Soldt dating we are now in Year 3248 of Ba'al the Victorious starting in late Summer of 2024 and ending in late Summer of 2025. This is of course the first actual use of such a dating system, so it's only appropriate for it to take place on the civic New Year's Day. Shulmu 𒁲𒈬 and Happy New Year to all!

References

Wyatt, Nicolas. Religious Texts from Ugarit, 2nd ed, 366–67. The Biblical Seminar 53. London: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002.

Pardee, Dennis. Ritual and Cult at Ugarit, 131–32. Edited by Theodore J. Lewis. Writings from the Ancient World 10. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002.

De Jong, Teije, and Wilfred H. van Soldt. “Redating an Early Solar Eclipse Record (KTU 1.78): Implications for the Ugaritic Calendar and the Secular Accelerations of the Earth and Moon.” Jaarbericht Ex Oriente Lux 30 (January 1989): 65–77. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274720180_Redating_an_Early_Solar_Eclipse_Record_KTU_178_Implications_for_the_Ugaritic_Calendar_and_the_Secular_Accelerations_of_the_Earth_and_Moon.

De Jong, Teije, and Wilfred H. van Soldt. “The Earliest Known Solar Eclipse Record Redated.” Nature 338 (March 16, 1989): 238–40. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232779160_The_earliest_known_solar_eclipse_record_redated.

Pardee, 242.

Olmo Lete, Gregorio del, ed. “(Bn) Ảgpṯr / (Binu) Agapṯarri’s House:  The Functional Analysis of an Ugaritian ‘Archive’ (PH Room 10).” In The Private Archives of Ugarit: A Functional Analysis, 27–54. Barcino Monographica Orientalia 11. Barcelona: Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona, 2018. https://diposit.ub.edu/dspace/bitstream/2445/129766/1/9788491682394%20(Creative%20Commons).pdf.

Pardee, 211–14 (for the other two texts noted: Wyatt, 388–90 & 414–15).

Gibson, John C.L. Canaanite Myths and Legends, 66. Edited by G.R. Driver. London: T&T Clark International, 2004.

Wyatt, 111–12.

[mariacallous]

Are you, like millions of Americans, feeling hopeless and fearful about the dawning of a new age of fascism? And are you, like millions of Americans, in search of a New Year’s resolution that won’t require you to lose weight or go to therapy? Happily, both of these problems can be solved with one action: resolve to make 2025 the year of no snitching.

Choose as your New Year’s mantra that great civic-minded slogan: “If you saw something, no you didn’t.”

Bad times are coming. In less than a month, Trump will return to the White House, with far fewer checks on his power than he had the first time around. He will be surrounded by a team of sociopaths, internet-poisoned bigots and single-issue quacks who have figured out that for the low, low price of absolute loyalty, their boss will grant them the absolute right to pursue their deranged passions as far as they please.

We are entering an age of boutique persecution, in which a broad swath of maniacs will be unleashed by a president devoid of ideology but full of narcissistic craving. A thousand petty tyrants will soon occupy the halls of the federal government. On the other side of this corps of gleeful little bullies sits the general public. We will all be enlisted, to varying degrees, as either collaborators or targets.

Yet hidden in this grim forecast is a chance for all of us to do something righteous. Government persecution requires a lot of informers. It is hard to deport immigrants, infiltrate protest groups and attack civil society without a lot of people telling the powers-that-be where all their enemies are and what they’re doing. None of the most oppressive regimes in history could do it with secret police alone. They needed the help of snitches. Fascism needs snitches everywhere in order to work. By vowing not to snitch, you can therefore strike a blow for justice, without doing anything at all.

It’s easy: when Ice shows up at your workplace asking whether you’ve got any immigrants working there – you don’t know. Have you seen any foreign-looking day laborers working around town? You sure haven’t. Has anyone speaking Spanish offered to babysit for you, tutor your kids, sell you food, do your yardwork or write for your op-ed page? Nope. Hey, have you left water for people wandering through the desert borderlands, or given money to immigrant mothers peddling candy on the train? No, officer, I’m sorry. It doesn’t ring a bell.

“But if you give me your card, officer, I’ll be sure to give you a call if I see anything,” you add helpfully, while dropping the card directly into an oversized envelope with “FOR ANTIFA” scrawled on the outside.

Protecting hardworking immigrants from red-faced deportation thugs is only the most obvious venue for not snitching. The principle can also be applied anywhere that a boss is likely to take advantage of our newly callous political climate.

Have you heard any whispers about a union drive here at our lovely workplace? Sorry, no. Have you heard any of your fellow college students plotting a new Gaza protest encampment? No, sir, not a word. We’ve gotten reports that your co-workers have commandeered one of the storage closets here at Walmart and turned it into an unauthorized nap room; can you point us in the right direction? There could be a promotion in it for you.

Gosh. You would love to. But you just don’t know anything about it.

A resolution not to snitch will, I assure you, be condemned as anti-American. So it is. The US relies on snitches to carry out secret drone strikes, to kidnap foreign nationals to black-site prisons, to send Swat teams breaking through the door of your friend who sells weed, to sic the code enforcement squad on your neighbor who has not kept their lawn trimmed to the mandatory length. Snitching is as necessary to the US’s most oppressive impulses as oxygen is to fire.

This dynamic will only get more true next year, since Donald Trump makes retaliatory decisions based not on the consensus advice of a meticulous team of professionals, but rather on the gossip he heard from a thrice-divorced Mazda dealership owner on the patio at Mar-a-Lago. The full apparatus of the state will now be conducted according to rumors and innuendo filtered through the addled mind of a reality television star. If there were ever a time to refrain from unleashing the authorities on a minor quality-of-life offender out of an abundance of concern for human rights, this is it.

Though always popular with normal people, “no snitching” has long been derided by the lords of public opinion: “Why, that is a slogan of rappers, and gang members, and people who are stealing cable straight from the pole! Hardly something that should be tolerated in civic society!” That haughty attitude is more wrong now than ever.

Set aside the slogan and consider the values that we are trying to promote here: protecting the weak from the strong; shielding the vulnerable from powerful sadists; and, above all, trying to make high-strung White House crypto-fascist Stephen Miller so frustrated that he bursts into a puff of smoke like the villain in a Looney Tunes cartoon. These are all proper – even admirable – ethical goals.

So stop asking yourself what you can do to help our nation next year. Channel your nervous energy into keeping your mouth shut. The truth is that the country’s problems are not, and have never been, caused by unlicensed taco vendors or people playing reggaeton a little too loud or people whose zealous Halloween decorations are not explicitly allowed by zoning bylaws.

The country’s problems are caused by the people most likely to be snitched to, not snitched on. What we really need to fear are those eager to lord their positions over everyone else. The boss, not the worker. The cop, not the vagrant. The president, not the protesters. Today, billionaires with White House offices are much greater threats to our quality of life than anyone whom those billionaires might brand an enemy.

That is why it’s OK to maintain at least one exception to your New Year’s resolution: if you know a rich person cheating on their taxes, snitch away. Law and order, after all, must be maintained.

What’s giving me hope right now

Trump’s election in 2016 produced widespread shock, followed by a fruitless four years of quasi-religious belief that our precious norms would save us from his ravages. This time around, we have that experience to teach us all that those norms are utterly illusory. Resisting a slide into fascism means building institutions powerful enough to counter Trump on his own terms.

I put my hope in a resurgent labor movement, which is now boiling with grassroots enthusiasm, as well as the unavoidable fact that a growth in worker power is the only thing that can reverse our 50-year-long crisis of inequality. If you need hope, join a union. We’re all going to need them.

[flowerfan2]

They all get nightmares, it’s nothing new.  But something different is going on with Eddie, something worse, and Steve is losing his mind.

He notices it first when they are staying at his house, Eddie disappearing in the middle of the night and getting back into bed sweaty and shaky.  Then it happens again, and again.  The lack of sleep is clearly taking a toll on Eddie, and Steve will find him taking cat naps on his couch or in the car. His eyes are sunken, and he’s stopped playing D&D, stopped playing his guitar, stopped doing anything except sleep during the day and shiver with fear at night.

Finally one night when he disappears Steve confronts him, just wraps his arms tight around him and asks him what’s going on.  But Eddie won’t give any details, just mutters “nightmare” like they always do.  Steve strokes his hair and rocks him close, and doesn’t comment on the fact that Eddie seems even skinnier than ever.

It goes on for another few days, Steve starting to keep track of whether Eddie is actually eating anything at all, and thinking about whether he should say something to Wayne.  They’re spending the night at Eddie’s when Steve is startled awake by the sound of the walkie.  “What – I’m here – what’s wrong?”

It’s Dustin, and he says that he was riding his bike home from Mike’s and saw Eddie heading to Steve’s house.  On foot.  And Dustin thought Steve should know.

Steve doesn’t question this, just throws on shoes and speeds over to Loch Nora.  It’s after 1 a.m. on a hot summer night, and when he gets out of his car and bursts into his house, the air conditioning raises goosebumps on his skin.  He shouts for Eddie and runs through the halls, but he’s not there.

His heart sinking, he goes out back.  Past the pool, at the edge of the woods, he sees Eddie crouched down.  “Eddie?” he calls, and there’s movement in the trees just past the edge of his vision.

Eddie turns towards him, his eyes wide and glinting in the moonlight.  “Steve – you can’t-”

But he can, and he does, his nailbat solid in his hand as he approaches.  “Eddie, what’s going on?”

Eddie glances out at the woods and then back to Steve, shaking his head.  “It’s nothing.”  He looks as if he’s seen a ghost.  No, nothing as simple as a ghost.  A demon.

Steve reaches out for him, his whole body aching to give comfort, but Eddie ducks away.  “Really, Steve, drop it.”  Eddie skitters past him, into the house where he sits down on the couch and buries his head in his hands.

Steve comes inside, sets the nailbat aside and sits down next to Eddie, trying to get his breathing under control.

“Here’s the thing,” he starts, his voice tight.  “You’re not okay.  I don’t know what it is, but you are so not okay.”

Eddie lets out a muffled sob and presses his hands tighter against his face.

“And I am utterly unable to take it, Eds.  You know me – you know me, I am coming apart inside over this.  I love you, and I’m losing you.  I feel like my heart isn’t just breaking, it’s being chewed up by sharp demobat teeth and shredded.  You have to tell me what’s going on.  You have to let me help.  Please.”

Steve can feel the tears running down his cheeks.  

“There’s nothing anyone can to do help.”  

He’s never heard Eddie sound so broken.  “I won’t get anyone else involved if you don’t want me to.  I swear it.  Just let me in.  Even if no one can fix it.  Let me help you bear it.”

Eddie looks up at Steve and his face is streaked with tears too, but there’s a flicker of hope in his eyes. “Okay.”

*****

If you like my tumblr ficlets, it would mean the world to me if you checked out my longer fic on A03 – I’m currently posting an AU where Eddie is a hot architect who specializes in accessibility:  How Steve Did His Civic Duty and Fell in Love With Eddie Munson.

[emeraldthelynx]

I got into these two series at the same time, so it was pretty much inevitable that I crossed them over! Instead of loosing an arm and a leg, Edward lost the person he is supposed to be! And with Alphonse currently tethered to a cell phone, well, they kinda want to track down those shady guys with the Ouroboros tattoos so they can get their bodies back!

(More detailed explanation below.)

Think of this idea as a modern Fullmetal Alchemist AU with elements borrowed heavily from Detective Conan. Edward and Alphonse are 'civic licensed' alchemists, who basically have permission to use their alchemy to help the public when needed. (Kind of like a first-aider.) The police force often goes to them when there's an alchemy-related case that they just can't solve. One day, after Winry cashes in the brothers' promise to take her to an amusement park, Edward and Alphonse notice a couple of shady guys. A shapeshifter, and a lady with nails as sharp as glass. The two have abilities beyond that of normal humans, and the only reason they didn't kill the brothers on the spot was because they didn't want to be detected.

Edward gets poisoned, and when he wakes up, he's much, much smaller. Alphonse is nowhere to be seen, or at least his body. He transferred his mind into his cell phone after getting concussed as to call for help, a feat he usually does with alchemized suits of armour, and unlike other times, he has not returned to his body after timing out.

Edward is forced to take on a new identity to prevent the Ouroboros guys from trying to kill him again, and Alphonse still cannot return to his original body. Only Winry and Pinako know their true identities.

Team Mustang is a private detective agency that Ed finds out about and often tags along with them on cases, much to the crew's (read Mustang's) chagrin. I don't have too much beyond this, considering Detective Conan is still going, but I really felt like completing this piece of art.

[missacidburn928]

Psst...

Indie Rocker!Eddie Munson x POC!Indie Rocker!Reader “Sug” x Former Fuckboy!Steve Harrington Early 2000s Indie Rockstar AU

Summary:

Eddie is playing around during sound check when Steve surprises you with a visit. Only to keep his attention mainly on you. There is no way that Eddie is going to let this slight slide.

Warnings: 18+ Only

Smutty smut smut. BDSM. There really isnt much of a plot here. Read at your own risk.

Divider by @firefly-graphics

Banner by @cafekitsune

The loud bass can be heard far into the parking lot of the little hole in the wall bar your band is performing at tonight. Like the good little starving artists that you are, you're making sure to get a proper sound check in.

The drive over with the equipment in the back of the van and the rest of the band following you in your drummers beat up civic, has Eddie all wound up. An excess of energy that he needs to expel so he can focus on the night ahead.

So of course, he’s playing around. Dancing around the tiny stage. Grinding up against you as you're trying to sing into the mic to check your sound levels. You decide you want to play along. His energy is contagious and why not have a little fun at sound check.

“Let’s really test the speakers and play I Wanna Be Your Slave.” You announce to the band. “We can do the duet version if you're up for it, Eds.”

“Anything for you, Sugar. Let’s do this shit. Gareth, count me in, man.”

Eddie starts to sing to the steady drumbeat Gareth sets out. After a pause the bass joins in. As you start your verse Eddie brings in the guitar. Showing off his very talented fingers. Fingers you’ve been thankful for and obsessed with for years.

From there it’s just a beautiful back and forth between the two of you as you play the gritty and raunchy tune. You're so into it that you barely notice that someone has entered the bar. If it weren’t for the sunlight striding in upon it opening, you don’t think anyone would have noticed.

You clock the very familiar fluffy head of hair before registering Steve’s face as he approaches the stage. You and Eddie play it up even more when you take in your audience of one. With Eddie’s final gravelly line you greet your number one fan.

Jumping off the stage in an act of complete trust, you sail towards Steve. As you knew he would, he captures you with ease in his arms and pulls you in tight for a deep kiss. Eddie makes his way over after telling the band sound check is over and to relax til showtime.

Continue: ao3 tumblr