#coming out swinging because this platform is already dead to me

[leafnyx]

I definitely need a part 2 of the Nam-Gyu x male reader you posted! It was subtly cute asf

Death Games and Attachments # 2 (Nam-gyu x male reader)

Word count: 5.5k

Warnings: American reader ‼️, gunshots, betrayal, canon divergence, no forks 🍴, no use of y/n, dead characters in canon don’t die, probably ooc, Nam-gyu & reader aren’t together but have feelings for eachother, not proof read

Setting: Season 2 Episode 6

A/n: omg my first fic ask!!! I was thinking about writing a part 2 anyways but this gave me the push to do it :]

Faint music plays over the speakers in the room as you slowly begin to wake up. You open your eyes, your sight still a bit fuzzy, and see the blank ceiling of the game’s sleeping room.

The music is now louder as you realize you aren’t at home but at this game. You do somewhat wish you were back home but you push that thought to the back of your mind, you have more important things to worry about, with the man who is sleeping next you you and who you are hugging.

You quickly untangle yourself from Nam-gyu, your bodies craving the warmth of the other while you were sleeping.

Nam-gyu still seems to be sound asleep, snoring quietly, but you decide to wake him up. The next game will probably be staring soon.

You shake Nam-gyu softly, then a bit more rough when the first doesn’t wake him up.

His snoring stops and he lets out an irritated groan as he pushes your hands away.

“Fuck off bitch, let me sleep” He says towards you, probably trying to sound intimidating but he doesn’t at all because of how much he slurs his words, still half asleep.

“The next games starting soon, come on” You say, tapping him on the shoulder for emphasis.

He opens his eyes, blinking away the tiredness, more willing to get up after hearing your voice. He seemed to not realize the fact that he was in the games previously as now a look of dread somewhat crosses his face. You question that, since you haven’t seen him with that expression yet. It’s probably the lack of drugs.

“Why do they make us do these games so early” Nam-gyu groans and pushes himself up into a sitting position beside you.

You shrug. Nam-gyu quickly scans around the room, his eyes landing on Thanos and probably his drugs.

“Let’s get with the rest of the group” Nam-gyu says, swinging his legs over the side of the bed and onto the stairs. He puts the white shoes on and quickly rushes towards where Thanos has gathered with Se-mi and Min-su.

You quickly follow suit, putting your shoes on and tailing behind him.

“Nam-su, [name], good morning!” Thanos says excitedly, in English. Nam-gyu doesn’t bother correcting the name as he sits down beside Thanos and whispers something to him.

You sit down beside Nam-gyu and Se-mi gives you a deadpan, knowing, look. Most likely referring to Nam-gyu.

Thanos pulls out his cross and opens it, handing one of the brightly colored pills to Nam-gyu who quickly pops it into his mouth.

Thanos tucks the cross back under his collar.

The drugs seem to kick in quickly, a minute or so later Nam-gyu is already looking more up beat.

Right on time too, the masked guards walk into the room and announce that the next game is starting.

“No matter what game is next we’ll kick ass” Nam-gyu says, practically bouncing from where he’s standing. He goes up beside you, now directly talking to you. “I’ll help you through the next game if you don’t know what to do, ok?” He’s close enough to you that your arms are practically rubbing against each other.

“Alright” You reply, glad for the assured help.

You and your team get into a line, following one of the guards through the maze of stairs. You have to admit, as weird and terrible as the games are, the sets are pretty cool looking.

You reach the end of the stairs and walk into a large room with a bunch of doors on the walls, too many to count at first glance. There’s also a circular platform in the middle of the room with three statues of horses in the middle, it looks like a merry-go-round.

“Your next game will be mingle” The almost robotic sounding woman’s voice rings out through the room.

“Mingle?” Nam-gyu says.

“Mingle!” Thanos yells suddenly, making the people around him, including you, flinch. “I remember this game! They call out a random number and you have to get into groups with that number.” Thanos says.

“Oh yeah!” Nam-gyu says. “I remember this game! We’ll be fine as long as they don’t call out a number less than 5.”

“They definitely will” Se-mi says.

Nam-gyu doesn’t pay her any attention as he hops along beside Thanos who is now sprinting towards the circle.

You follow behind the two of them with Se-mi and Min-su.

The 5 of you huddle up on the circle as the lights turn off and the circle suddenly starts rotating.

You get pushes off balance slightly, holding onto Nam-guy’s shoulder so you don’t fall over. He doesn’t seem to mind.

Lights turn on in the middle of the circle and music starts up. Thanos begins beating his fist upwards to the beat of the music, Nam-gyu grinning and nodding his head beside him.

You feel nervous, worried that they’re gonna make you split up the first round. Suddenly the platform stops and the woman’s voice calls out a number. “10”

You look around frantically. You need five more people.

“We need five more!” Se-mi calls out, taking initiative.

“Five!” Nam-gyu yells.

A person bumps into you in all the chaos but you don’t fall over.

“How many” She quickly says.

“Five” You reply.

“We’re five too! Come with us!”

“I found a group!” You yell towards your team as the girl rounds up her group.

“Let’s go!” Thanos yells out in English, running towards a door labeled 47. Everyone follows him, dashing into the room. 10 seconds left.

You run into the room, being the second to enter after Thanos. You’re not able to slow down in time and slam into the back wall. Quickly, you turn around to see the rest of the group.

Nam-gyu runs in with Se-mi and Min-su, the other group of five following suit, all running in. The last person in shuts the door as the timer hits zero.

You let out a sigh of relief as Thanos cheers. Nam-gyu begins cheering as well, seeming to do everything Thanos does now. The other group with you looks uncomfortable, you see that all of them have red X patches.

“Let’s go team!” Thanos yells out in English again. No one seems to fully understand what he’s saying but they get the message.

“Woo!” Nam-gyu yells.

After yelling towards their hearts content the two go quiet, the room now silent. You can hear the gunshots outside. People from the other team flinch slightly at the sound. You begin to wonder how many people just died but you push that thought to the back of your mind.

Nam-gyu goes to stand beside you, nudging his shoulder against you, grinning. You do your best to replicate and smile back.

Thanos raps under his breath, hoping his head almost violently. You can hear the sound of machinery outside. They’re most likely bringing coffins in for the bodies.

You hate how the coffins look like gift boxes, it feels disrespectful but you suppose it doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things. The game is horrible itself, what does it matter what coffins the brutalized bodies are put in.

The lock on the door clicks open and Thanos immediately rushes out. You follow after him, walking, with Nam-gyu beside you. You step into something sticky, blood. Your face twists into a look of disgust as you look at the sole of your shoe.

Nam-gyu stood infront of you and looks back. You quickly walk forward towards him and the two of you step onto the circle where the rest of the group already is.

The room goes dark again, the circle moving. You now expect the jolt do you don’t move as much, your feet planted on the ground. The middle of the circle lights up and music starts.

Out of the corner of your eye you see Thanos nudge Nam-gyu and say something to him, though you can’t hear it over the music. Nam-gyu looks confused but Thanos links arms with him and begins dancing in a circle. Nam-gyu quickly catches on, grinning and shaking his hand as he skips around.

You’re somewhat jealous of how carefree the two of them are. You know it’s the drugs working but still. You now somewhat wish you’d asked Thanos for drugs. Before you can finish your thought process the circle jolts to a stop and the number is called out. “Four.”

You panic, there are five of you. All of you look around at each other, one has to leave. You want to sacrifice yourself, say you can go and find a group, but you’re frozen in place out of fear.

“Min-su” Se-me says. “Come with me, we can find a group.”

Min-su glances around quickly before grabbing Se-mi by the hand. The two of them run off leaving you as a group of three.

“That fucking bitch! I knew we couldn’t trust her!” Nam-gyu yells out at the same time as Thanos yells, “Min-su! My boy!”

You quickly glance around and your eyes catch on to a man yelling that he needs a group of three, his patch reads 001. You quickly rush over to him. You look back for a second and you see a look of betrayal on Nam-guy’s face. You quickly look back forward as you come to a stop before 001.

“We’re a group of three!” You yell above the chaos. His head quickly turns to you and he nods, following you as you run back to Nam-gyu and Thanos. Nam-gyu looks relieved as you run back.

“Come on!” You yell, running towards the first room you see with an open door. You don’t look back, knowing the three will follow you.

You run into the room and Thanos, Nam-gyu, and 001 follow in quickly. 001 shuts the door as you look towards the timer, 2 seconds left.

As the door clicks shut Nam-gyu begins to speak.

“I knew those pussies would betray us! You can’t trust women, man, and Min-su basically a woman.”

001 looks irritated. You now remember on the first day where 001 broke up a fight between Thanos, Nam-gyu, and that crypto bro. He was probably the worst person you could have brought but at least you’re all alive.

Thanos pushes up against the door, looking through the crack.

“Min-su!” He yells, acting like he actually cared for him.

Nam-gyu lets out a huff and leans against the wall beside you. His arm touching yours again. You only now realize how touchy he’s been. With anyone else you’d assume they might like you but you think this is just how Nam-gyu is. After all you saw how clingy he is with Thanos.

“Fucking bitch..” He mumbles, still not over the betrayal. You sigh.

“It doesn’t matter,” You tell him. “We’re alive and her and Min-su are off somewhere else. We can survive with just the three of us, we don’t need them.”

He looks over at you and lights up slightly. “You’re right, we don’t need those fuckers.”

“Hell yeah! Thanos team!” Thanos barges into the conversation, not caring about Min-su anymore.

He puts his hand face down in the air, after a second you realize what he’s doing and place your hand onto of his. Nam-gyu puts his hand over yours.

Thanos counts from three and the three of you lift your hands up and Thanos yells “let’s go!” In English.

Somehow, that made you feel a bit better. Just barely, as you can hear the fading gun shots in the background.

001 stands off to the side, not talking, just observing.

“We don’t need any girls!” Thanos says, bringing your attention back to him.

“Yeah, girls are weak anyways” Nam-gyu continues.

You don’t add onto what they’re saying, Se-mi seemed fairly strong but that doesn’t matter anymore. It’s just the three of you.

The door unblocks and once again thanos is the first to rush out. Nam-gyu bouncing along behind him. You follow Nam-gyu with 001 behind you.

Before you can say anything to him, 001 rushes off, probably back to his own group.

“What do you think the next number is gonna be?” Nam-gyu asks you, putting his arm around your shoulders.

“Hopefully three, then we wouldn’t need any more or less.” You reply.

Nam-gyu hums as a response as you glance around, unconsciously looking for Se-mi and Min-su. Your eyes lock onto them, walking out from a room with a random player. Min-su locks eyes with you but immediately looks away, probably for the best.

It starts up again, this time though Nam-gyu and Thanos don’t dance along to the music, the just stand there.

“3”

“Let’s go team Thanos!” Thanos calls out, making a sprint toward the door. Nam-gyu grins at you, your prediction correct. The two of you follow behind Thanos. You enter the room with 20 seconds left to spare.

“You were right!” Nam-gyu says, paying your shoulder.

“We got lucky.” You smile, somewhat genuinely for the first time since you joined these games, relieved that you don’t need to give anyone up.

20 second pass, the door locks, and gunshots ring out. To your shock, and slight disgust, you’ve gotten used to the gunshots and screams.

Your smile fades from the sound.

“We’re good at this.” Nam-gyu says.

“It’s cause we’re fast, and young, we can get to the rooms in time.” Thanos replies, shifting from foot to foot, unable to stand still.

“Hell yeah, it’s good that the weaklings got left behind, we don’t have to get dragged down by them. They’re probably dead by now anyways.”

“Do you think mg coin is dead?” Thanos asks.

“God I hope so”

“Why do you guys hate him so much?” You ask.

“He scammed us man!” Nam-gyu exclaims.

“That piece of shit scammed me out of all the money I got by busting my ass rapping!” Thanos says.

“You both bought the crypto?”

“He said we’d get more money.” Nam-gyu says.

“Huh, alright” You refrain yourself from making a comment about how stupid it is to trust some random guy on the internet with your money, especially when it comes to crypto.

The door clicks open and all of you walk out, Thanos first. As he steps out of the door he says “welcome back, my friends” in English, followed by Nam-gyu saying “skrrt!” You hold back a laugh.

You’re shocked with how quickly you’ve gotten attached to Nam-gyu, a warm dealing spreading through your body. You suspect it’s because you’re stuck here in this horrible place with him. Your mind latched on to the first person you got somewhat close with.

But you don’t feel nearly as close to Thanos as you do with him. You push this thought off, deciding to deal with it after the game.

The the of you reach the circle again and the process repeats.

“6”

Three more.

“We need three!” Nam-gyu yells out.

“Three people!” You yell alongside him.

Your eyes look frantically around and you spot three people. Se-mi, Min-su, and one other. You have no other choice.

“Come on!” You grab Nam-gyu and Thanos and run towards them. Se-mi spots you and begins running with Min-su and the other guy towards an open door. You run in behind her with Thanos and Nam-gyu, shutting the door once the six of you are in.

The awkwardness is immediately palpable, everyone seems uncomfortable. Except for Thanos, of course.

“Min-su! My boy! I was so scared you died!” He goes over and hugs Min-so, who tries to wiggle away from him.

Nam-gyu scowls.

“This means nothing.” Se-mi says. “We split up again after this round.”

“Yeah, I’m not being with these pussies again. They’re just being us down.”

“Calm down” Thanos says, putting his arms out.

“We weren’t-“ Nam-gyu gets cut off by Thanos again.

“Se-mi is right, we don’t talk about this, the Thanos team doesn’t include Se-mi, Min-su and the random.” Thanos says, suddenly sounding serious, but you know that he isn’t actually.

Nam-gyu seems disappointed that Thanos remembers Se-mi and Min-su’s names but not his. Se-mi seems disappointed that she’s agreeing with an idiot like Thanos.

The room goes quiet again, Thanos nodding his head a beat only he can hear and everyone else feeling too weird to talk.

The door clicks open and the six of you walk out.

“Final round” The voice calls out. You let out a sigh of relief, glad that you have to only deal with one more of these rounds.

You step onto the platform, Thanos and Nam-gyu beside you. Se-mi and Min-su walk to the other side of the circle.

The lights shut off and the platform begins to move. The light in the middle turns on along with the music.

You begin to zone out, the bright colors all blurring I your vision and the music getting quiet.

The music stops.

“2”

You quickly snap back, two. There’s three of you. One has to go.

You look wide eyed at the two men beside you.

Thanos quickly shakes his head from side to side, between you and Nam-gyu. He’s still not taking any of this seriously and it’s beginning to piss you off.

Thanos quickly stops and grabs Nam-gyu by the arm, running off. You freeze in place as Nam-gyu looks back at you. He looks regretful, being dragged along more than actually following.

But his survival instinct is stronger than any bond you thought both of you had.

A wave of betrayal goes through you, more than you’ve ever felt before, more than when Se-mi and Min-su left you.

You thought maybe Nam-gyu was as attached you you as you were to him but you were wrong. All he cares about is survival, not you. You suppose you can’t blame him though.

Suddenly, snapping you out of your thoughts, someone grabs you and drags you towards the one empty room, pushing you in and closing the door before the timer stops and the door locks.

The man lets out a sigh, you recognize him as the person with Se-mi and Min-su.

You don’t care all that much, though. Emotions crashing down onto you, all the adrenaline leaving your body leaving you feeling deflated.

You lean up against the wall, exhausted even though it probably hasn’t been more than an hour. You just want to go back to sleep, you want to go home.

You don’t think about the fact that you won’t even have a home if you don’t get enough money. But that doesn’t matter now.

The minute or so you spend in the room feels both like an eternity and lite it was over in a second. The lock clicks open and you walk out, not bothering to speak to the guy who saved you.

You don’t look around the room, not wanting to see Nam-gyu or Thanos now. You keep your head down and follow the pink guard out and back into the stairwell.

After a minute of walking you enter back into the ‘bedroom’, you’re one of the last people in. The mood is somber, theres not many people left.

“[Name]!” You hear someone rushing towards you, you recognize the voice as Thanos, the last person you want to see right now.

He hugs you, a feeling that makes you want to crawl out of your own skin, and of course Nam-gyu is behind him. Though Nam-gyu doesn’t look very happy.

“I’m so happy to see you again bro!” Thanos says in English, smothering you in a hug. You give up trying to escape as he unwraps from you, still holding on to your shoulders.

“”I thought I was running with you the I looked back and saw I was with this idiot” He points to Nam-gyu who tries his best to smile and laugh.

“Come on, let’s play just one more game, alright?” Thanos says, wrapping an arm around your shoulder and walking you towards you guys’ spot on the stairs. Nam-gyu follows.

Right when you guys reach the spot, guards enter through the front and announce that it’s time to vote. It’s from last number to first.

The voting starts with 456 who votes X, from then the votes seem fairly split.

Thanks goes up to vote and kisses the blue button. The thought of how many dirty hands had touched that before him makes you grossed out.

Nam-gyu goes up, but not before telling you once more to vote blue, sounding less convincing than he was before.

“Just one more game”

It’s your turn to vote now, you walk up to the podium and stare at the two brightly colored buttons before you.

Even though Thanos and Nam-gyu had just betrayed you, leaving you for dead, their words keep repeating in your head. ‘Just one more game’. The button lights up blue under your hand and you walk over to your side.

Even if you did go home now, you have no money. The amount that they’re offering now is good, but it’s not enough. You’ll soon be back to where you were before this game.

Either way you’ll probably end up dead, if not literally then figuratively. But still, you can’t help that part of your mind that yearns for home, even if that home is a shitty studio apartment that you can barely pay for.

You don’t pay attention to Thanos patting you on the back, saying that ‘he knew you would make the right choice’ and ‘he’s proud of you’.

Nam-gyu continues to stay unusually silent, almost like he feels bad for leaving you. You remember the look on his face as he ran off with Thanos.

The drugs are probably just wearing off.

The last person goes up to vote, 001. He stands there for a second, like he’s contemplating which button to push, but in the end he pushes red.

You look up at the board and it’s 50/50. A tie.

The guards say that you will all be able to vote again tomorrow for a tie breaker. You don’t mind this all that much, it gives you some time to get your shit together and hopefully even if you do say there will be a break from the games for the day.

The voting buttons are taken out and food is brought in. You, Thanos, and Nam-gyu are some for the first few people getting food so it’s not soon before you walk off with it to your spot on the stairs.

You do want to split off from these two, but it’s probably better to stay in a team, just in case. And now atleast you know that you can’t fully trust them, so if you get too suspicious you can break off and find someone else, maybe Se-mi and Min-su if they’re willing to let you back in.

You don’t acknowledge another part of the reason you want to stay with them. You’re still attached to Nam-gyu, you don’t want to leave him. Even though you’re pissed at him, you still want to stay for whatever reason.

You unwrap the food you were given and see sushi inside, atleast it looks good.

Only now do you realize how hungry you are. You haven’t eaten since yesterday and even then it was just some bread. You quickly eat one of the pieces of sushi. It isn’t amazing but it’s food. You scarf down the rest of it.

Once you finish your food you wish there was more, you’re still hungry, but there’s nothing you can do.

You drink the soda that you had forgotten about the second you saw the sushi.

“This soda tasted like shit” Nam-gyu says, breaking the silence.

“It’s like knock-off coke” You reply.

“Yeah! They tried to make coke but it just tastes like dirt.”

“I think dirt would taste better than this.”

Nam-gyu snickers and you smile faintly. You hate how easily you’re talking to him, like none of the last hour happened. You wish you could hate Nam-gyu, but you know that you don’t. Well maybe you do a little bit but not enough. Thanos, though, you do hate. But there’s nothing you can do about that, the two of them are basically a package. Buy one get one free.

As if on cue Thanos speaks up. “Those fuckers voted red”

You look to where Thanos is pointing and see Se-mi and Min-su.

“I knew that bitch was bad news from the beginning, we should kill her.” Nam-gyu says.

“Let’s just talk to her and Min-su first” Thanos replies.

You know that ‘talk’ will probably lead to a fight so you bud into the conversation.

“Let’s not, we should just leave them be, they aren’t worth our time” Both Nam-gyu and Thanos look over at you. “They’ll probably die in the next game with how weak they are, let’s just let nature take her course.”

You say the last part to save face, trying to not seem like the odd-one-out of the three of you.

Nam-gyu gives in easily, agreeing with you. It takes Thanos a bit more time though, but be eventually agrees.

The peace doesn’t last for long though. A group of O’s and X’s begin arguing in the middle of the room.

Thanos seems too eager to join the argument. Before you can stop him he jumps up and runs forward.

You lean back, giving up trying to stop him from being stupid, it seems like it’s just part of him.

To your shock Nam-gyu doesn’t follow Thanos and stays put in his seat.

“You’re not going with him? That’s a first” You say, jokingly bashing Nam-gyu.

“I don’t feel like arguing right now, I’m too tired.”

“That’s fair. You just usually follow along behind Thanos like a lost puppy.”

“No I don’t, I’m more like a guard dog. People see Thanos and they’re like ‘okay this guy looks stupid and weak’ but then they see me and they’re like ‘oh shit I can’t mess with him!’ Ya know?”

You barely hold your laugh in until Nam-gyu finishes his spiel, then you can’t help how you laugh in his face.

“That’s the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard” You say, gasping between breaths before laughing again.

“Oh come on! It’s not that funny.” Nam-gyu looks embarrassed, that makes you laugh even more, until your stomach hurts.

“Oh my god, I haven’t laughed that hard in so long.”

“Asshole”

A feeling of disgust passes through your brain, you’re having this much fun with some asshole who just left you for dead, but you don’t dwell on it, preferring to focus on the good mood.

“You’re not an attack dog, look at you!”

“What do you mean look at me?!”

“You’re more like a tamed hyena, you follow behind Thanos and snicker and taunt along to his comments.”

“I’m the leader of the group, not him.”

“As if”

Nam-gyu rolls his eyes.

“Then you’re like a ratty street cat, we picked you up and you just stuck with us”

Before you can think of a comeback Thanos sits back down.

“Those asshole X’s” He says, practically pouting. “Who do they think they are.”

The fight looks fully broke up, everyone back in their previous spots with their groups.

“Thanos,” Nam-gyu says suddenly, having just remembered something. “Can I have another, you know”

“Yeah yeah, a reward for getting through the game.”

Nam-gyu grins.

Your stomach twists at the mention of the game but you ignore it.

Nam-gyu looks over at you and motions towards the cross Thanos is taking out of his jacket, as if to offer you one again.

But your mind hasn’t changed since yesterday so you shake your head.

“Hey man you can’t just go offering up my pills, we’re running low on stock.”

“I know I know, just gimme”

Thanos hands Nam-gyu a pink pill and Nam-gyu immediately puts it in his mouth and swallows it. Thanos grabbing another for himself and doing the same thing.

It feels a bit odd being the only sober one here but you’re not gonna give in to your fomo.

“After this game I should have enough to pay off my debts.” Nam-gyu says. But you know in reality it’ll never be enough, it’ll always be ‘just one more game’.

You’re gonna click X after the next game. Probably.

“Yeah bro, and then mg coin can pay us back” Nam-gyu eagerly nods along to Thanos’ words. You don’t bother to comment on the fact that they said, earlier today, that they hoped he was dead.

The woman voice on the speaker says you have 30 minutes until bed and the screen lights up with the timer.

It hasn’t felt like a whole day has passed, maybe the game took more than the hour you thought it did. Or maybe you just don’t have a good internal clock.

Thanos lets out a loud, dramatic, yawn.

“I’m tired man, that game took too much out of me.”

“Yeah, I’m ready pass out.” Nam-gyu says, agreeing with Thanos as per usual.

“Mhm” You hum, but you’re not all that tired, similarly to last night.

“Do you think any of the X’s are gonna switch sides?” Nam-gyu asks Thanos.

“Nah man, they’re all stubborn as hell, they won’t listen to reason.”

“Shit, well we can’t have another tie, it’ll drag this on longer. I just wanna be out of here with my money.”

“Yeah bro, I miss my vape” Thanos says, speaking like this vape is his child.

“I’m craving a cigarette so bad” Nam-gyu says.

You still don’t fully know how you got caught up in this group of junkies but it doesn’t matter now.

“I need to piss” Thanos says suddenly, not holding back with how he speaks.

You realize that you haven’t peed all day so you decide to go along. Nam-gyu follows the both of you.

The three of you enter the bathroom and piss, you finishing first.

You go up to the sink and wash your hands before getting some water and splashing it on your face, getting a bit into your hair too but not drenching it. You grab a paper towel and wipe your face as well as your hands.

You look back to the other two to see if they’re done and you catch Nam-gyu staring at you. Once he realizes you saw him he looks away, pretending like he wasn’t ogling at you.

The three of you walk out of the door, through the hallway, and back into the main room.

You look up at the screen which says 20 minutes.

“I’m gonna head to bed early” You say even though you aren’t too tired, you just don’t want to sit around for another 20 minutes.

“Goodnight bro” Thanos says in English. Why does he speak in English so much?

“Night” Nam-gyu says.

You nod towards them and walk up to your bead, taking your shoes off and climbing in.

You get yourself under the covers and just lay there, staring at the ceiling. You can hear the noise of 99 people talking around you but you’re not close enough to any conversation to hear what exactly they’re saying.

Soon enough the timer says 10 minutes, the chatter dying down, then it hits 0 and the lights go out. Everything is now quiet, almost eerily so.

You hear footsteps walking up the stairs and you think you already know who it is if yesterday was any indication. You look over and see Nam-gyu who says nothing this time but you scoot over in the bed and he quickly gets in.

He isn’t even trying to make an excuse this time, and you don’t fully know why you’re letting him sleep beside you. You think part of you craves the closeness, especially in this situation.

Nam-gyu gets under the sheets and turns away, lying on his side and looking towards the other beds.

You move your arm over and lay it over Nam-gyu’s body. You immediately regret it, feeling somewhat embarrassed at the thought that he might not reciprocate, and try to pull your arm back but Nam-gyu grabs it. He hold your arm to his chest. You don’t try to move it away anymore.

You don’t know why you decided to hug him in the first place. Could you have developed feelings for him in the span of a day? Maybe, and It seems like he might have caught feelings for you as well.

Like yesterday you begin to get tired with Nam-gyu there with you.

After a few minutes you give in and fall asleep.

——

A/n 2 - I don’t plan on writing a third part because if I did it would probably be them out of the games (majority voted X) but if anyone would want to read that lmk

[nugatorysheep]

lmao can we stop pretending like my stevencest art is some huge secret. literally everyone who follows me on all of my socials knows what kind of content I make. They know that my stance on shipping is that I don't care what people do so as long as it's tagged. I've never been secretive about this fact. This is not some smoking gun

Newsflash for the people unaware, there's a 60% chance any half-decent artist you've seen in this fandom has made some stevencest or gregpearl or stevinel or aged-up connverse whatever other 'bad' content you can think of, and I would know because I've seen it. Almost every creator still kicking it around here is a fucking freak, they're just in denial or pretending not to be

[pocketsizedquasar-3]

you know. white liberals would be far less annoying (still deeply annoying) and far less difficult to take seriously (still deeply difficult) if they stopped lying to themselves and everyone else about what they were doing. ‘cause y’all either sound completely stupid and removed from reality at best or violently callous at worst.

(and before anyone fails their reading comprehension here, i am not telling anyone to vote or not vote or who to vote or not vote for. get off my dick.)

but no, you’re not doing “real leftism” by voting for kamala (something i have actually seen countless people say. “real leftists” would vote for kamala!!1!!1!! if you don’t vote for her ur not a “real leftist!!!!”). that’s not what that is. words mean things. you’re actually engaging in pretty textbook liberalism. it’s not “real leftism” to vote for a genocidal fascist who is actively employing genocidal fascistic policies both overseas and domestically, and who has pledged gladly to continue doing so. (again, bc this is the bad reading comprehension website, i’m not telling you if you vote for kkkamala ur not a “real leftist” (mostly because that’s meaningless); i’m saying that that act itself is not a """leftist""" action). if you feel the need to justify what you’re doing to yourself by pretending you’re doing ~real leftism~, stop.

you're not “stopping fascism” or “saving democracy” or whatever else. you’re not “stopping fascism” by voting for a fascist. you’re not “saving democracy” by voting for a fascist. if you genuinely can’t see in this current moment that kamala harris & the democrats are fascists, you are deliberately ignoring and excusing fascism as long as it’s happening to nonwhite people. it is willful, deliberate ignorance at this point and it is violent. you genuinely do not see victims of fascism unless it happens to white people.

you’re not “protecting palestinians” by voting for kamala. you’re not making their chances better or being better for them or improving their conditions. you’re not “more likely” to sway kamala on palestine; you can’t even threaten to withhold your support for her because of her wanton slaughtering of palestinians. 13 months of ongoing genocide and ongoing mass protest movements and multiple polls showing that she would literally guarantee the win in key swing states if she would just call for an arms embargo / ceasefire as part of her platform have not swayed her. she constantly, constantly reaffirms her willful, enthusiastic support of this genocide. she has said over and over again that she will not end her support for israel, that she would not have done anything differently than biden, that she has no intentions to stop sending israel arms and money so they can keep slaughtering palestinians and now lebanese. you are not “protecting” or helping palestinians by voting for her. keep their names out of your mouths.

you’re not protecting """minorities""" or """poc""" either. not when the candidate is a cop whose administration has already funneled billions of dollars into the police and the military, who is priding herself on wanting to create the most lethal military, on being tougher on the border&immigration than trump, who is happily continuing to perpetuate racist atrocity propaganda to justify the mass slaughter of palestinians, who continues to reaffirm and support the escalation of imperialism and war even elsewhere in the so-called middle east, who is gladly seeking (and securing) endorsements by racist white supremacist republicans (like dick fucking cheney. come on), whose administration has been for four years enthusiastically accelerating the climate crisis, whose campaign has been littered with examples of both their supporters and the politicians themselves being virulently racist. you’re not protecting us. you’re not helping us.

your candidate wants us dead. your candidate wants me dead. your candidate wants my people in iran dead. your candidate wants my sister peoples in palestine and in lebanon dead. your candidate is actively orchestrating their slaughter.

kamala might be better for you, white liberal american. fine. vote for her if you wish. no one is stopping you. but stop white knighting about it. stop pretending you’re doing this for anyone but yourself. stop lying to yourself and everyone else about what you’re doing. stop speaking over us the with fucking audacity that you’re somehow doing us a favor, and stop talking down to us, palestinians especially, like they are children who need to be ~explained~ the right way to save them. stick your white savior complex up your ass.

vote however you want, but stop lying about what you’re doing and who you’re protecting.

and if you want my vote too? fucking earn it.

[opiumsturn]

LES-CHILDISH GAMBINO

IN WHICH-Chris and Y/n are in a toxic relationship. (inspo by the song les)

THERE WILL BE ANOTHER VERSION INSPIRED BY LES

warnings-Smut,use of mama,ma,baby,princess,dollface, toxic relationship, arguments,use of y/n,song lyrics,nsfw

| for better experience song is recommended and linked |

⟡C. STURNIOLO.⟡

⟡•STURNSGIRL •⟡

It was dark with only colored and flashing illuminating lights around. People drunk and wasted, others making out, and some smoking.

I was at a party I don't know whos but who evers it was it didnt matter. I was in an argument with my boyfriend before we came here but not to mention he was also here sneaking glances at me and smirking even staring me dead up and down holding a red solo cup. He was pissing me off more than I already was, girls dancing on him and touching all up on him, kissing them even. I did the same at this point. Grinding my hips and swaying on other guys, drunk. Sitting on another man's lap smoking a blunt leaving my dark red lipstick stains on the mouth of the blunt and other guys face's.

FLASHBACK.

"YOU'RE A FUCKING MESS? YOUR WHOLE LIFE IS AND IM ALWAYS IN THE MIX OF IT."

"IM A MESS? YOU'RE HERE FUCKING WITH OTHER GIRLS?" I yell at chris with my mascara running down my cheeks wondering how i got into this in the first place.

"YEAH? AND I CAN BECAUSE NO ONE KNOWS, ABOUT.. US!?" He saying swinging his hand

"CHRIS REALLY? WHAT EVEN ARE 'WE' AT ONE POINT YOU WERE SOME ONE I REALLY LOVED. WHEN IM DEPRESSED YOU'RE SOMEONE I'LL RUN TO, BUT NOW I CANT EVEN TALK TO YOU ABOUT ANYTHING!"

I say silencing him as i wipe tears and run out the door with my purse hanging off my shoulder and my matching black and red out fit in my hand.

Chris chose my outfit, dressing me as a complete slut.

The outfit was a tight black corset with red accents within the ribbons that laced the top with the back of it only being a the ribbon, so my back was fully exposed. Topped with a small red bow at the middle of the corset between my boobs. The matching extreme short and tight shiny skirt it came with not even fully covering my ass also topped with a red bow at the, and see through black tinted tights that only dimmed my shade of legs. I decided with a red bow in my hair and red bottom platform heels with red bows in the back.

I got ready at my friend Maya's house for the party not seeing Chris until we got there.

END OF FLASHBACK.

I get off the boys lap im in, walking to the bar stumbling, and barely managing to walk ordering a lemonade and vodka mix, and dowing it within seconds on my way to the dance floor, but im stopped.

"Hey pretty lady, can i make you my toy tonight?" A man says coming to me trying to slide his hands to my waist.

*les by childish gambino starts to play*

"No she wont and shes not a fucking toy asshole." Chris says coming up from my side snaking his arm around my waist pulling me towards his side and moving me away.

"Oh your claiming me again?" i say rolling my eyes crossing my arms.

"Fuck you. Can i have this dance?" he says sliding both his hands to my waist down to my ass gripping it causing me sway around him.

Lights flashing

Chris's arms around me

Spinning me around

Gripping and grabbing on me

Kissing me.

colors everywhere.

My vision lost around and everywhere.

"C'mon Doll." He says in a more demanding way grabbing my wrist to a room upstairs closing the door behind us as we enter.

He immediatly starts gliding his tounge on my mouth giving his own enterance picking me up from my ass not breaking the sloppy makeout we were in. I could taste the alcohol, and weed in him and I know he could taste the same in me. He starts to kiss down my neck and down my boobs til he reached the top of my corset his arms curling around my back lifting me up pulling the strings of my corset as well as my corset it’s self off throwing them off. Childish gambino muffled still playing outside of the red dim lit room with candles.

'Baby you're the baddest. Baby you're the baddest girl and uh-'

Trailing off as Chris has ripped off my skirt, and tights already while I kick off my heels. Chris groaning against my skin kissing, and rubbing up my thigh. Pulling my red thong to the side wiping his two finger up, and down a few times still kissing on me before licking a stripe onto my wet core making him groan, causing vibrations to be sent through my body allowing me to moan. His tounge flicking up, sliding his fingers into me curling up, and down,pumping in and out,sucking and kissing on my pussy, muffled groans and high pitched moans tugging on his hair ever so lightly while his other hand rubs the top of my clit. Til I feel the knot in my stomach.

"oh sh-shiiittt..umph c-hri..FUCKK..MM-gonna c-" I moan not even finishing before I release on chris

"Fuck baby you did so good mmph mama." He huffs out breathless.

He cleans me up. Tying my corset, and putting my skirt and thong back on. He pulls me into his chest from my waist standing me up.

"look baby im sorry. i wanna try,and i know, im an awful guy and im always but i wanna try and i know im a piece of shit but we can make this work."

"make it work by fucking our ways into apologies everytime?!" I reply

"no mama please listen. we can work i know it. im sorry baby. forgive me please?" He apologizes

I dont reply and just kiss him as a 'its okay'. but really we knew it wasnt. Our relationship is a mess and always has been. Hes out with other girls hurting me, but 'he will change' according to him.

2 days pass and again chris is away somewhere. Until I get a text.

CHRIS🫀

Chris🫀- hey dollface can i come over ?

why?-me

Chris🫀- cs i want too?

Sorry. Yeah u can-me

^- loved by CHRIS🫀

I put my phone down and huffed. I got up off the couch and got ready for chris. about 15 minutes had passed and there was a knock at my door. I run downstairs to go open the door and to no one's surprise it was chris.

"Hey mamas" He says hugging me by my waist.

"Hey baby" I say taking in his embrace while he lets go and walks away, I close the door and walk over to chris.

"why'd u wanna come over?" I ask

"so I can see my pretty girl?" he says in a duh tone

I chuckle as I straddle his lap and lean into his soft lips for a small kiss.

"why dont we go to my house, hm?" he says holding my lower waist

"but chris-"

"I know, I know, every time we see each other im taking you home but cmon"

"fine."I sigh.

They get home

"Mmph chris!" I moan into the kiss. As soon as we got home we were kissing in the bathroom making out and moaning. I hope nobody catch us.. but I kinda hope they catch us.

"shh baby their gonna catch us."

"sorry." i whisper

We went on for around an hour fucking in the bathroom while nick and matt were home still.

"fuuck you did so good princess" he breaths out kissing my temple, cleaning me up.

I cant manage any words still huffing out catching my breath

"did i fuck u dumb ma?" he chuckles picking me up and laying me in bed dressing me in his fresh love set.

"th..thank you baby" I managed as he dressed me.

He just kissed my head and walks to the closet changing

"wanna go get food mama?" he asks

"please" I say softly still dumb fucked.

"can you even walk?" he giggles

I try to stand up he fail almost falling as he grabs me holding me up he chuckles softly before speaking.

"c'mon mama i got you dont worry" he says holding me stable as i take step after step hoping nick and matt dont see us.

we walk out the house and he sits me down in the passenger seat and buckles my seat belt for me kissing my temple before going to his side

"can we get chic fil a?" i ask softly

"yes mama" he says intertwining our fingers and resting them on my thigh.

"you know i love you right?" chris speaks up

i look at him confused as because our 'relationship' if you can even call it that is a mess. Hes out kissing and sleeping with other people and everytime he sees me hes taking me home. As if im one of his hoes. We were a mess mentally. Both of us and us together.

"baby your the baddest girl i know. i love you so much and im so sorry for everything ive done i love you and care about you. no body else matters. only you ma." he says

"what?.. i- chris.. you mean that?" i say on the verge of tears.

"yes my princess." he says squeezing my hand

"i love you too. im sorry for everything and-"

"dont be sorry ma" he says cutting me off stopping at a red light giving me a quick but sweet and passionate kiss.

naz speaks- this took so long and its short nd sucks ass im gonna cry.. but i love this song sooo..

request are open feel free to leave them!

@is4belle and I's tiktokt acc-sturnsma.

[blackjackkent]

All right, Hammer in hand, it's time to go save Hope and get the hell out of Dodge.

I distinctly remember Hector making use of the Hill Giant Strength gauntlets to bypass a lockpick check on the prison hatchway, but Minsc was able to open it without any sort of check, which is odd. I wonder if this is another thing that is just easier since everyone in the House is dead, although I'm not sure why killing the debtors would remove the hatch's lock.

Hope bursts out of thin air again as Rakha approaches the door of the jail. Rakha is really not a fan of this jumpscare approach to conversation.

"Careful," she hisses. "The jailer will swallow you whole if you take another step!" Her voice abruptly cracks up an octave and she shrieks anxiously, "AND YOU WON'T BE ABLE TO SAVE ME WHILE YOU'RE BEING DIGESTED!"

She twitches from side to side frantically, then goes on in a lower voice again. "You found my prison. My body is held in chains just beyond. The whole House is tumbling down, and Raphael's striding across the planes to come catch a mouse. Now swing that big, beautiful Hammer, crack open my chains, and let's get out of here!"

A pause, and then another abrupt, loud cry. "IT'S TIME TO FLY THIS COOP ON A HOPE AND A PRAYER!"

"Let's do this," says Rakha, who deeply just wants to get this all done with as quickly as possible and leave.

Hope laughs, maniacally, desperately. "YOU SOUND SO BRAVE BUT REALLY WE DON'T HAVE A CHOICE!" she squeals, and vanishes again.

-----

"I really wish she would stop doing that," Rakha mumbles to no one in particular.

-----

The fight against the spectators in the prison goes off pretty much without a hitch. As usual, the scariest part is trying not to fall off the stupid platforms. :P But we managed it. I did have to reload because a perfectly normal jump seemed to glitch out part way and Lae'zel just fell like a stone, which was quite weird.

With the spectators out of the way, Rakha takes the Hammer and smashes the chains holding Hope prisoner.

"Free!" Hope squeals excitedly. "I never thought I would be, believed I could be, hoped I might be. HEADS WILL ROLL!" Her voice rises to a pitch almost out of hearing range, and Rakha's teeth ache.

Then the dwarf's face falls abruptly, and she scuffs her boot against the platform.

"But we must address the hollyphant in the room," she mumbles. "I can see how you avoid looking at me. I must be so terribly mutilated after all these decades of torture..." She swallows, risks a glance up at Rakha. "Don't hold back. Tell me how bad it is."

Rakha blinks. Mutilated? She herself looks far worse, with what the Astral Tadpole has done to her face, than anything that appears to have happened to Hope. She shoots a quick glance at Wyll, who shrugs, puzzled.

"You... look perfectly normal," she ventures cautiously.

Hope smiles sadly. "We both know that's not true. But thank you for being so kind."

Rakha blinks several more times. "No, really," she says after a slight pause. "You look fine."

Hope looks at her for a moment, and then that sad smile deepens. "You truly are the kindest fool I've ever met," she murmurs.

Rakha stares at her. In all her broken memory, no one has ever said something like that to her, not even Wyll.

Hope, after all, does not know her.

Luckily, she doesn't have to think of something to say in return. Hope has already moved on, her anxious attention going towards the battle ahead.

"We'll carve our way to the entrance hall and chop Raphael into messes!" she says brightly. Then she adds in a lower voice, "That's the hopeful version, of course. The likely version is that WE ARE THE MESSES AND HE IS THE CHOPPER! ONWARD!"

[the-haunted-office]

(A starter for @alabonshay!)

"As Stanley came to a set of two open doors, he entered the door on his left."

Stanley has forgotten how many times he's heard those words spoken in that order by that voice. Enough times that he doesn't need to be told to take the door on the left anymore, but the voice still feels the need to tell him. That's just how the Narrator is, though. Omnipresent, though perhaps not omniscient. Controlling, but not in control.

Stanley goes ahead and enters the door on the left, though. He has no reason to deviate this time around. Nothing in his gut telling him to go right instead, or to jump off any platforms, or to head down any dark and ominous corridors. Besides, it's not that he wants to listen to the Narrator this time around or that he has any particular gut feelings. He simply wants to see outside, even knowing it isn't real.

It may be the last time he sees the outside ever again, and in his yearning for freedom, he can't help but take whatever he can get.

"-2845- Stanley, have you even been listening to me? I swear, it's like talking to a wall with you sometimes. I don't know why I even bother."

Stanley presses his lips together and enters in the code behind the boss' desk, although he manages to resist rolling his eyes. He hadn't realized he'd been tuning out the Narrator. Everything is on autopilot this time around, it seems, and most of the time through the Story he doesn't even need to listen to the Narrator to know where he needs to go. It's the same thing every time, so what's the point?

The fireplace swings open, the Narrator drones on, and Stanley continues his march, onward toward the Ending he's reached dozens if not hundreds of times before.

Getting there is the boring part, and as the clank and clang of his shoes echo on the concrete floors and metal catwalks, Stanley begins to tune out the voice in the ceiling again.

The voice in the ceiling notices.

Meanwhile neither of them notices when something goes fantastically... different.

"-Stanley decided that this machinery would never again exert its- Stanley, you're just not listening to me, are you? Here you are, seconds away from your freedom, and you're acting like you're a walking corpse. I might as well be talking to one. I don't know why I bother with you sometimes, if I'm honest."

Stanley gives a small shrug in acknowledgment as he enters the door into the room with the Mind Control machine. He can see the blue glow from the enormous monitor just beyond the door. Here, he'll have to make his choice whether to turn the machine On or Off.

"Well, if you're so content with being dead already why don't you- .....What the HELL is THAT?"

Stanley comes to an abrupt halt, because he sees it too. Something is standing there in front of the controls. Something a lot bigger and bulkier than he is, and better dressed to boot.

Lacking any other reasonable way to respond to this situation, the office worker just stands there. And waves a hello.

[morkitten]

thoughts on Sonic Frontiers so far

I was clowning a lot on Sonic Frontiers before release and it took me until now to play it because it really looked like a cynical half-baked attempt at trend-chasing open world stuff, a genre that I already feel is very much not good. But, playing it, I feel better about it than how I thought I would feel playing.

Now, I still think it's a problematic game and definitely not one of my favorites, but when it comes to "open world games", again, a genre I really don't like, I find this as definitely one of the better/more tolerable ones I've played, simply because of the garish floating structures strewn all over these environments.

These look like shit and they're all over the place, but, it does mean that exploration requires you to do actual Sonic action-platforming to explore and to collect stuff, which is a lot more Game than the dull meandering of many open world games. All the problems of open world games are here - million collectibles for a million different things, a lot of things are just thrown out there and don't feel designed, but controlling Sonic is fun, and he's fast, meaning these environments don't feel as tiringly huge as they may appear at first.

The story so far is weirdly mature and it has this strange melancholy feel that I think is very interesting, even if I wouldn't write Sonic like this, it's fun to have a game that takes such a different swing. Sonic's friends are forced to confront themselves and their failings and sadness as they've been reduced to, uh, spirits hanging on cyber-purgatory hell. Sonic's friends are fucking dead and he needs to rescue their souls and hang out with them to comfort their loneliness as they interact with the ghosts of the last living memories of people of a genocided ancient civilization. That's, uh, something!

I do think the constant name-dropping other past games and events and characters feels a bit too much. It does feel like Ian Flynn trying to overcorrect or overdeliver on "fandom complaints" about past Sonic games, about how their stories don't feel meaningful, about how they seem to pretend no other game exists, etc. Sometimes he'll slip in some meta commentary based on fandom complaints about past Sonic games too, there's a line where like, Amy asks Sonic if it feels nice to roam around freely "with no guardrails", as if addressing complaints that people have with games like Sonic Unleashed, Colors, Generations and Forces relying on "hallway"-style level design a la Crash Bandicoot, or, and I haven't gotten to Tails yet, but I do know there's a line where Tails complains about his own character writing in Sonic Forces, and it's like, this is a bit too much. I don't need to be informed of what Sonic reddit discusses about in their spare time, this kinda stuff is lame and insular.

The combat isn't superb but it's interesting that they had to rethink so much in order to give Sonic combat at all. Every big enemy is like a completely different beast that takes specific parts of Sonic's moveset to use against them, and they're decent attempts at doing that! I would just rather not fight them again after fighting them once, though. Also, Sonic has fun and flashy moves that feel fitting to him.

Those are my impressions so far, might reblog this later with more of my thoughts as I progress through the game.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

David Rowe

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

October 31, 2024

Heather Cox Richardson

Nov 01, 2024

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has responded to news stories about his plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) by claiming his comments at the closed-door campaign event on Monday were taken out of context. But they weren’t. The tape is clear. Johnson said that Republicans want “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” Johnson laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

MAGA Utah senator Mike Lee reposted the video of Johnson and commented: “Kill Obamacare now[.]”

Trump today posted on social media that he never mentioned repealing the Affordable Care Act, “never even thought of such a thing.” But this was either a memory lapse or a lie, because in 2016 he ran on repealing the ACA and his 2016 platform called for “a full repeal of Obamacare.” Within hours of taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order weakening the law, and when the Republican-dominated House voted to repeal the law, Trump held a celebration in the Rose Garden and declared the ACA “essentially dead.” 

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) bucked Trump to protect the ACA then, and Trump began this year’s campaign with a promise to get rid of it before backing off. Even still, the vague promise in the 2024 platform to “increase Transparency, promote Choice and Competition, and expand access to new Affordable Healthcare” sounds a lot like Johnson’s promise to restore “the free market” to health care. 

While Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Trump today held a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state President Joe Biden won by almost 11 points in 2020 and that Democrats are likely to win in 2024. Trump had to hold the rally at a private airplane hangar after city officials refused to rent the Albuquerque Convention Center to the campaign because it still owes Albuquerque almost $445,000 from a similar rally in 2019.  

Once there, he made it clear he was trying to repair some of the damage caused by the extraordinary racism and sexism on display at his Sunday rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where a comedian called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” 

Courting offended voters, he said: “Don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here, OK? Look, I came here. We can be nice to each other, or we can talk turkey. I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.” That outreach might not be enough to bring back the voters lost after the Madison Square Garden event.

The campaign is seeing other weaknesses, as well. Meredith McGraw and Jessica Piper of Politico reported today that nearly half of the ballots already cast in Pennsylvania have come from voters over the age of 65, and although the numbers of registered older voters are divided evenly between the parties, registered Democrats have made up about 58% of Pennsylvania’s early votes, compared to 35% for Republicans. Those numbers might well simply reflect different approaches to mail-in ballots, but they also might explain why Trump is already claiming fraud in Pennsylvania. 

He is also seemingly nervous about Pennsylvania because women are voting there at a much higher rate than men in the early vote: 56% to 43%. And Democratic women are the biggest group of new voters in the state. New voters who were too young eight years ago to hear the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women, have been hearing it on TikTok lately, as younger users record their reactions to it and call out their older male relatives for voting for anyone who would talk as Trump did. 

“I moved on her, and I failed,” Trump says in the tape. “I’ll admit it. I did try and f*ck her…. I moved on her like a b*tch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p*ssy. You can do anything,” he said.

The Harris campaign and pro-Harris organizations leaned into the history of women’s suffrage today with videos highlighting those who fought so that women could vote and reiterating: “We are not going back.” To assist those women who might not feel safe letting their husbands know how they voted, women have been posting notes in women’s public bathrooms assuring other women that their vote is secret. A Democratic advertisement voiced by actress Julia Roberts powerfully makes the point that women do not have to tell their husbands how they vote.

Right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk have expressed alarm at the gender gap in voting. As well, there has been a right-wing backlash to the idea that women will vote for Harris while letting their husbands assume they’re voting for Trump.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who famously cheated on both of his first two wives, expressed dismay at the idea that a woman might need to keep her vote secret from her husband. “For them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption,” he said. “How do you run a country…saying wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives? I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?”

On the Fox News Channel’s The Five this morning, host Jesse Watters said that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair…. That violates the sanctity of our marriage.” Christian pastor Dale Partridge posted: “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial.” But, he added, “submission does have limits. A wife doesn’t need to submit to her husband in sin (in this case voting democrat).”

Tonight, at an event with right-wing host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump seemed to move beyond misogyny to murderous intent. He turned his increasingly violent rhetoric against former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has urged Republican women to vote against Trump. “She’s a radical war hawk,” he said, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”  

Carlson is friendly with authoritarian Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has undermined democracy in his own country and is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Today Orbán posted that he had “Just got off the phone with President [Trump]. I wished him the best of luck for next Tuesday. Only five days to go. Fingers crossed[.]“

Meanwhile, a lot more major endorsements for Harris have been coming in. 

Today basketball legend LeBron James released a powerful one-minute ad with clips of Trump’s many racist statements and drawing a straight line from him back to the most violent days of the civil rights movement. “HATE TAKES US BACK,” it says. In a post sharing the video, James wrote: “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!” James has 53 million followers on X. 

The Economist today endorsed Harris, warning that “a second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks.” Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg also posted on social media that he had voted for Harris “without hesitation,” and added that he hoped undecided voters would join him. “Trump is not fit for high office,” he wrote in a Bloomberg op-ed. He praised Harris’s positive vision and bipartisan outreach. 

Conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, titled: “My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say ‘Enough’ With Trump.” The former president is unfit for office, Luttig wrote. “When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy to him before, he betrayed us.” Luttig assured readers that “[t]here  could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate” Trump.

He reminded his fellow Republicans that they had always “proudly claimed they would be the first to put the country above all else when the time came. That time has come…. ​​All Americans, but especially Republicans, will live with their decision the rest of their lives.” “The choice for America next Tuesday,” Luttig wrote, “could not be clearer.”

Ever since Vice President Harris tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Democratic governors have been demonstrating their support for one of their own. Today, for Halloween, Democratic  governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Janet Mills of Maine, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey each dressed to match a photograph of Walz.

“No tricks this Halloween!” Whitmer posted. “Just dressing up as our friend [Tim Walz]—excited to elect him and [Kamala Harris]. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to vote: http://iwillvote.com[.]”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[dogwatch05]

Bored in economics

@mmemory1

(I should mention this is over chat in a google doc) So after arguing about check vs cheque we have this during our econ class:

A:"Utopia" "Unobtainable"

B: econ is great

A: I want to write a monologue

C: do it

A: a villianish hero human monologue

B: the unobtainable utopia: the story of the world's nerdiest villain

threat to the economy

threat to society

And here starts the story that took place in econ. Each paragraph is a switch between C and A, starting with C:

"'Utopia.' Something that will remain unobtainable under the rule of your king. He sits upon a throne made of blood and lies and you all bow your heads to him, lapdogs to your dearest tyrant.

Then the smart ass human in the back of the room pipes up and says "Utopia will never be obtainable long run, ever, so your point is invalid"

The villain stops, looking over slowly at the human in the back of the room with venom in their eyes. "Say that again, boy."

"Utopia will never be obtainable long run, ever, so your point is invalid"

The villain sighs and walks down from the platform the throne sits on. With a wave from her sword, the crowd in the room parts to show the human standing alone in the back.

The human was a sickly looking stick of a boy with glasses that made his eyes the size of his forehead. Unfazed, he walked forward to the edge of the crowd. "You see, when economics and basic human nature is considered, utopia will never be possible. Everyone being employed will lead to skyrocketing prices and inflation and along with that there would be-"

The villain rolls her eyes as the explanation drags on. "Stop, stop." She waves her free hand in front of the boy. "You talk to much. I'm not here to lead these people, I'm hear to end a tyranny and that will bring a utopia for those who have long suffered. I do not care for their economy because it will fall no matter the outcome."

"Ah but here comes human nature. When everything is taken care of, every need and want fulfilled, humans become complacent and vain. And with complacence and vanity come rapid reproduction and violence until the whole of the place is dead"

"The you rule. You and your scrawny form obviously know *so much* about humans and their primitive tendencies. The king is right there," she places a cold hand on the boy's shoulder and gestures up to the king struggling in his restraints.

(B pops in) A bystander stares silently at the spectacle happening before him. He thinks, hoping she cannot hear his every thought, "Damn. Economics is intense." (Back to C and A. A starting)

"Yeah see, that's my dad and he disowned me because he didn't want a smart son, he wanted a strong son. Try and beat this family reunion."

"Then kill him and take your rightful place on the throne," she bellows out into the room. The crowd murmurs and nods, some cheering for the boy. "Show him your strength of mind and willpower. I will lend you the strength of my five sons if you do so."

"Why kill him? He's already lost all credibility to his allies and his people. No one will take him in to their kingdom after his failure of an economics plan. But yes kill him," The boy waves the sword she had given him around in the air and turned to face the woman," kill him even when he poses no threat. Encourage violence and only make the situation worse." He slammed the sword in a downward motion wherever it was swinging. Behind him he heard a gurgle. Turning around he saw the tip of the sword resting at the end of a long gash down his father's throat. "Whoops"

The crowd erupts in a cacophony of cheers and chants. The villain grabs the boy's arm and raises it in the air, lifting him off the ground. "To your new king! May he bring you prosperity and health in this new age!"

[theotherrookie]

Echoes Of The Past ((for mah girl Willow!!))

That was it, then. The outskirts were burning at last and the Citadel was shaking before the army of misfits and forgotten pressing at its glass gates. The flimsy barricade thrown together by the Carthage Guard barely held the crowd that had gathered around the bridge and only kept growing under the watchful eye of a storm of drones.

One man stood among it all, a bloody sledgehammer in his silver hand and the frail arm of a scared little girl in his other.

"I don't give a shit about your revolution!" Johnny shouted to the crowd below, "Give me Mantis or the girl's dead!"

The clicking of heels on the steel platform announced her arrival. Willow stood with her arms folded behind her back and her blue gaze was fixed on the man. After he had been so insistent in disproving her death, he had no right to look like he had just seen a ghost.

He had no right to still be breathing, for that matter. She was disgusted by this cockroach of a man and the lengths he willingly went through to get what he wanted. Johnny didn't stop before anyone. Not his gang. Not a scared child.

He was getting restless now. Willow brought her right hand up to her chest and bowed, her gaze never trailing off Johnny and the kid trapped in his steely grip. "Here you go, Johnny. I'm right here where you wanted me. What can I do for you today?"

Johnny Steelhand was a man who knew too much. He had learned her weaknesses and discovered her true nature. Then, he had tried to kill her because of it, as well as because of her previous murder attempt. As he stared her down, Willow had a good idea of what he was thinking about. She could read it on that ugly mug he called a face.

"Come on now, you've never been shy with your questions before." she added.

He motioned at her with the sledgehammer. "How the hell did you survive?"

"The same way as you did, I suppose. I crawled out of Hell and got back on my feet." She glanced over one of her gloved hands, "With some much needed improvements. Now, release the child so we can settle this argument already."

Oh, he couldn't wait. Johnny eagerly kicked the little girl out of his way as he braced his sledgehammer. He took a step forward, expecting a reaction, only for his taunting grin to turn into a frown when he got none.

"Aren't you gonna defend yourself?"

As if on cue, a cold night breeze blew over the platform. Willow spared a glance to the crowd below, as the kid was reunited with her family, while her hand reached up to unzip her coat. Johnny immediately caught a glimpse of the hilt of a katana, though it took him a whole two seconds to look back to his hammer and dismiss the threat.

He sneered, "Ready for a rematch, darling?"

Willow saw no reason to reply as the two circled each other. She didn't have to wait for long before Johnny took a swing. A sledgehammer to the face was his trademark, he had taken down so many in the same gruesome way.

So he couldn’t help a surprised grunt when his hammer suddenly stopped, even more when he realized it was Willow's hand alone that was holding it in place.

"I'm sorry, Johnny. I'm afraid I can't let you do that. These people are ready to follow me and I can't afford to humor your little tantrums right now." She tilted her head, "And to be honest, your sight offends me. Stay back."

Johnny was shoved back with ease and as expected, reached for his gun next. Three shots were fired and promptly deflected by Willow's sword, before the madman reached to grab the blade with his robotic hand.

"So you found a good Ripperdoc. Big deal. Don't think you can take me out with that." A harsh twist of his wrist and the sword went flying. "I've got the experience while you're just a faulty soulless machine."

Johnny leaned forward like a predator ready to pounce, only to be met by the same unfazed look Willow had kept throughout this exchange.

"You still haven't realized, have you?" Willow replied, a fanged grin spreading across her face, "I don't need a weapon to kill you."

There was no witty comeback, only a gasp as Johnny felt a cold grip around his neck. Willow watched closely to not miss the instant he realized that it was his very own hand that had turned against him. He stared at her in sheer horror while his fingers dug further into his skin. His heart pounded in his chest. His lungs were burning. Somehow, he knew that she could sense all of it like that prosthetic belonged to her.

He was her captive, a prisoner in his own body.

"See? You're way more bearable when you're quiet."

She stepped away to retrieve her katana as Johnny fell to his knees.

"I have plans, Johnny. I'm going to take this island and Carthage for myself. Then… Well, I suppose the sky is the limit. In any case, I cannot afford to be sloppy. You must go and take my secrets with you."

She gladly relieved Johnny of his weapon and flicked the switch. The battery buzzed quietly before she lifted the sledgehammer above her head, and struck his legs and organic hand. Johnny Steelhand's last words were nothing but a confused gurgling as the katana was drawn through his chest.

Satisfied with the result, Willow kicked Johnny's bloody carcass towards the edge.

"Burn in Hell. And this time have the decency to not come back."

The crowd below cheered as the river below claimed what remained of Johnny Steelhand for itself. Willow then stood up and turned back to the bridge and the Carthage tower off into the distance. She exhaled and let her mind wander until she met those of the humans she had come to call her brothers. It was time.

"Delenda Est."

Four shadows joined her while the security drones turned around and began shooting against the barricade.

[yourreddancer]

Helen Cox Richardson  10/31/24

Helen Cox Richardson  10/31/24

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has responded to news stories about his plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) by claiming his comments at the closed-door campaign event on Monday were taken out of context. But they weren’t. The tape is clear. Johnson said that Republicans want “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” Johnson laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

MAGA Utah senator Mike Lee reposted the video of Johnson and commented: “Kill Obamacare now[.]”

Trump today posted on social media that he never mentioned repealing the Affordable Care Act, “never even thought of such a thing.” But this was either a memory lapse or a lie, because in 2016 he ran on repealing the ACA and his 2016 platform called for “a full repeal of Obamacare.” Within hours of taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order weakening the law, and when the Republican-dominated House voted to repeal the law, Trump held a celebration in the Rose Garden and declared the ACA “essentially dead.” 

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) bucked Trump to protect the ACA then, and Trump began this year’s campaign with a promise to get rid of it before backing off. Even still, the vague promise in the 2024 platform to “increase Transparency, promote Choice and Competition, and expand access to new Affordable Healthcare” sounds a lot like Johnson’s promise to restore “the free market” to health care. 

While Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Trump today held a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state President Joe Biden won by almost 11 points in 2020 and that Democrats are likely to win in 2024. Trump had to hold the rally at a private airplane hangar after city officials refused to rent the Albuquerque Convention Center to the campaign because it still owes Albuquerque almost $445,000 from a similar rally in 2019.  

Once there, he made it clear he was trying to repair some of the damage caused by the extraordinary racism and sexism on display at his Sunday rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where a comedian called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” 

Courting offended voters, he said: “Don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here, OK? Look, I came here. We can be nice to each other, or we can talk turkey. I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.” That outreach might not be enough to bring back the voters lost after the Madison Square Garden event.

The campaign is seeing other weaknesses, as well. Meredith McGraw and Jessica Piper of Politico reported today that nearly half of the ballots already cast in Pennsylvania have come from voters over the age of 65, and although the numbers of registered older voters are divided evenly between the parties, registered Democrats have made up about 58% of Pennsylvania’s early votes, compared to 35% for Republicans. Those numbers might well simply reflect different approaches to mail-in ballots, but they also might explain why Trump is already claiming fraud in Pennsylvania. 

He is also seemingly nervous about Pennsylvania because women are voting there at a much higher rate than men in the early vote: 56% to 43%. And Democratic women are the biggest group of new voters in the state. New voters who were too young eight years ago to hear the Access Hollywood tape, in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women, have been hearing it on TikTok lately, as younger users record their reactions to it and call out their older male relatives for voting for anyone who would talk as Trump did. 

“I moved on her, and I failed,” Trump says in the tape. “I’ll admit it. I did try and f*ck her…. I moved on her like a b*tch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p*ssy. You can do anything,” he said.

The Harris campaign and pro-Harris organizations leaned into the history of women’s suffrage today with videos highlighting those who fought so that women could vote and reiterating: “We are not going back.” To assist those women who might not feel safe letting their husbands know how they voted, women have been posting notes in women’s public bathrooms assuring other women that their vote is secret. A Democratic advertisement voiced by actress Julia Roberts powerfully makes the point that women do not have to tell their husbands how they vote.

Right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk have expressed alarm at the gender gap in voting. As well, there has been a right-wing backlash to the idea that women will vote for Harris while letting their husbands assume they’re voting for Trump.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who famously cheated on both of his first two wives, expressed dismay at the idea that a woman might need to keep her vote secret from her husband. “For them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption,” he said. “How do you run a country…saying wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives? I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?”  (NOTE:  YOU are the amoral cheating bastard who started the "us vs them, take no prisoners approach to Democrats during Reagan's era!  )

On the Fox News Channel’s The Five this morning, host Jesse Watters said that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair…. That violates the sanctity of our marriage.” Christian pastor Dale Partridge posted: “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial.” But, he added, “submission does have limits. A wife doesn’t need to submit to her husband in sin (in this case voting democrat).”

Tonight, at an event with right-wing host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump seemed to move beyond misogyny to murderous intent. He turned his increasingly violent rhetoric against former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has urged Republican women to vote against Trump. “She’s a radical war hawk,” he said, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”  

Carlson is friendly with authoritarian Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has undermined democracy in his own country and is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Today Orbán posted that he had “Just got off the phone with President [Trump]. I wished him the best of luck for next Tuesday. Only five days to go. Fingers crossed

Meanwhile, a lot more major endorsements for Harris have been coming in. 

Today basketball legend LeBron James released a powerful one-minute ad with clips of Trump’s many racist statements and drawing a straight line from him back to the most violent days of the civil rights movement. “HATE TAKES US BACK,” it says. In a post sharing the video, James wrote: “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!” James has 53 million followers on X. 

The Economist today endorsed Harris, warning that “a second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks.” Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg also posted on social media that he had voted for Harris “without hesitation,” and added that he hoped undecided voters would join him. “Trump is not fit for high office,” he wrote in a Bloomberg op-ed. He praised Harris’s positive vision and bipartisan outreach. 

Conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, titled: “My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say ‘Enough’ With Trump.” The former president is unfit for office, Luttig wrote. “When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy to him before, he betrayed us.” Luttig assured readers that “[t]here  could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate” Trump.

He reminded his fellow Republicans that they had always “proudly claimed they would be the first to put the country above all else when the time came. That time has come…. ​​All Americans, but especially Republicans, will live with their decision the rest of their lives.” “The choice for America next Tuesday,” Luttig wrote, “could not be clearer.”

Ever since Vice President Harris tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Democratic governors have been demonstrating their support for one of their own. Today, for Halloween, Democratic  governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Janet Mills of Maine, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey each dressed to match a photograph of Walz.

“No tricks this Halloween!” Whitmer posted. “Just dressing up as our friend [Tim Walz]—excited to elect him and [Kamala Harris]. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to vote: http://iwillvote.com[.]”

[misfitwashere]

October 31, 2024 

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

NOV 1READ IN APP

House speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) has responded to news stories about his plan to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare) by claiming his comments at the closed-door campaign event on Monday were taken out of context. But they weren’t. The tape is clear. Johnson said that Republicans want “massive reform” to the Affordable Care Act, also known as “Obamacare.” When an attendee asked, “No Obamacare?” Johnson laughed and agreed: “No Obamacare. The ACA is so deeply ingrained, we need massive reform to make this work, and we got a lot of ideas on how to do that.” 

MAGA Utah senator Mike Lee reposted the video of Johnson and commented: “Kill Obamacare now[.]”

Trump today posted on social media that he never mentioned repealing the Affordable Care Act, “never even thought of such a thing.” But this was either a memory lapse or a lie, because in 2016 he ran on repealing the ACA and his 2016 platform called for “a full repeal of Obamacare.” Within hours of taking office in 2017, Trump issued an executive order weakening the law, and when the Republican-dominated House voted to repeal the law, Trump held a celebration in the Rose Garden and declared the ACA “essentially dead.” 

Senator John McCain (R-AZ) bucked Trump to protect the ACA then, and Trump began this year’s campaign with a promise to get rid of it before backing off. Even still, the vague promise in the 2024 platform to “increase Transparency, promote Choice and Competition, and expand access to new Affordable Healthcare” sounds a lot like Johnson’s promise to restore “the free market” to health care. 

While Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris has been campaigning in the swing states of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Trump today held a rally in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a state President Joe Biden won by almost 11 points in 2020 and that Democrats are likely to win in 2024. Trump had to hold the rally at a private airplane hangar after city officials refused to rent the Albuquerque Convention Center to the campaign because it still owes Albuquerque almost $445,000 from a similar rally in 2019.  

Once there, he made it clear he was trying to repair some of the damage caused by the extraordinary racism and sexism on display at his Sunday rally at New York City’s Madison Square Garden, where a comedian called Puerto Rico “a floating island of garbage.” 

Courting offended voters, he said: “Don’t make me waste a whole damn half a day here, OK? Look, I came here. We can be nice to each other, or we can talk turkey. I’m here for one simple reason: I like you very much, and it’s good for my credentials with the Hispanic or Latino community.” That outreach might not be enough to bring back the voters lost after the Madison Square Garden event.

The campaign is seeing other weaknesses, as well. Meredith McGraw and Jessica Piper of Politico reported today that nearly half of the ballots already cast in Pennsylvania have come from voters over the age of 65, and although the numbers of registered older voters are divided evenly between the parties, registered Democrats have made up about 58% of Pennsylvania’s early votes, compared to 35% for Republicans. Those numbers might well simply reflect different approaches to mail-in ballots, but they also might explain why Trump is already claiming fraud in Pennsylvania. 

He is also seemingly nervous about Pennsylvania because women are voting there at a much higher rate than men in the early vote: 56% to 43%. And Democratic women are the biggest group of new voters in the state. New voters who were too young eight years ago to hear the Access Hollywoodtape, in which Trump bragged about sexually assaulting women, have been hearing it on TikTok lately, as younger users record their reactions to it and call out their older male relatives for voting for anyone who would talk as Trump did. 

“I moved on her, and I failed,” Trump says in the tape. “I’ll admit it. I did try and f*ck her…. I moved on her like a b*tch, but I couldn’t get there, and she was married,” Trump said. “You know I’m automatically attracted to beautiful— I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab ‘em by the p*ssy. You can do anything,” he said.

The Harris campaign and pro-Harris organizations leaned into the history of women’s suffrage today with videos highlighting those who fought so that women could vote and reiterating: “We are not going back.” To assist those women who might not feel safe letting their husbands know how they voted, women have been posting notes in women’s public bathrooms assuring other women that their vote is secret. A Democratic advertisement voiced by actress Julia Roberts powerfully makes the point that women do not have to tell their husbands how they vote.

Right-wing figures like Charlie Kirk have expressed alarm at the gender gap in voting. As well, there has been a right-wing backlash to the idea that women will vote for Harris while letting their husbands assume they’re voting for Trump.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA), who famously cheated on both of his first two wives, expressed dismay at the idea that a woman might need to keep her vote secret from her husband. “For them to tell people to lie is just one further example of the depth of their corruption,” he said. “How do you run a country…saying wives should lie to their husbands, husbands should lie to their wives? I mean, what kind of a totally amoral, corrupt, sick system have the Democrats developed?”

On the Fox News Channel’s The Five this morning, host Jesse Watters said that if he found out his wife “was going into the voting booth and pulling the lever for Harris, that’s the same thing as having an affair…. That violates the sanctity of our marriage.” Christian pastor Dale Partridge posted: “In a Christian marriage, a wife should vote according to her husband’s direction. He is the head and they are one. Unity extends to politics. This is not controversial.” But, he added, “submission does have limits. A wife doesn’t need to submit to her husband in sin (in this case voting democrat).”

Tonight, at an event with right-wing host Tucker Carlson in Glendale, Arizona, Trump seemed to move beyond misogyny to murderous intent. He turned his increasingly violent rhetoric against former representative Liz Cheney (R-WY), who has urged Republican women to vote against Trump. “She’s a radical war hawk,” he said, “Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK? Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”  

Carlson is friendly with authoritarian Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, who has undermined democracy in his own country and is close to Russian president Vladimir Putin. Today Orbán posted that he had “Just got off the phone with President [Trump]. I wished him the best of luck for next Tuesday. Only five days to go. Fingers crossed[.]“

Meanwhile, a lot more major endorsements for Harris have been coming in. 

Today basketball legend LeBron James released a powerful one-minute ad with clips of Trump’s many racist statements and drawing a straight line from him back to the most violent days of the civil rights movement. “HATE TAKES US BACK,” it says. In a post sharing the video, James wrote: “When I think about my kids and my family and how they will grow up, the choice is clear to me. VOTE KAMALA HARRIS!!!” James has 53 million followers on X. 

The Economist today endorsed Harris, warning that “a second Trump term comes with unacceptable risks.” Former New York City mayor Mike Bloomberg also posted on social media that he had voted for Harris “without hesitation,” and added that he hoped undecided voters would join him. “Trump is not fit for high office,” he wrote in a Bloomberg op-ed. He praised Harris’s positive vision and bipartisan outreach. 

Conservative judge J. Michael Luttig published an op-ed in the New York Times on Tuesday, titled: “My Fellow Republicans, It’s Time to Say ‘Enough’ With Trump.” The former president is unfit for office, Luttig wrote. “When we entrusted our Constitution and our democracy to him before, he betrayed us.” Luttig assured readers that “[t]here  could be no higher duty of American citizenship than to decisively repudiate” Trump.

He reminded his fellow Republicans that they had always “proudly claimed they would be the first to put the country above all else when the time came. That time has come…. ​​All Americans, but especially Republicans, will live with their decision the rest of their lives.” “The choice for America next Tuesday,” Luttig wrote, “could not be clearer.”

Ever since Vice President Harris tapped Minnesota governor Tim Walz as her running mate, Democratic governors have been demonstrating their support for one of their own. Today, for Halloween, Democratic  governors Wes Moore of Maryland, Janet Mills of Maine, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, and Phil Murphy of New Jersey each dressed to match a photograph of Walz. 

“No tricks this Halloween!” Whitmer posted. “Just dressing up as our friend [Tim Walz]—excited to elect him and [Kamala Harris]. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to vote: http://iwillvote.com[.]”

—

[syrupspinner]

i just defeated Ben and Ed

dead game, am i right?

ill come out and say that, for better or worse, the most notable thing about this game is how much it shows its age.

so, indie games have always been innately countercultural in my opinion. people make indie games because theyre inspired to do something the AAA industry lacks, and a lot of the indie games that pop off into popularity do so because they offer something that mainstream gaming cant. in the current zeitgeist, we can see that best by comparing the innate simplicity and modest of indie games compared to sony's big 10-years-in-the-oven blockbuster. thats not to say indie games dont have work put into them, id never say that the year after pizza tower and sea of stars game out, but those are video games for gamers, not cinematic experiences for the general public

all this is to paint a picture of the mid-aughts, where gamers were freaking the fuck out about their hobby being made casual. the industry didnt want to cater to the same closed circle of hardcore dedication forever, and wanted to follow the wii's success by making gaming something everyone can enjoy. in other words, less call of duty, more wii sports. also unignorable is super meat boy hitting the shelves in 2010. i bought a copy from walmart as a kid (a physical disc that made me download steam to play it) and was shocked by the difficulty and the humour trying way too hard to be offensive. woah, an aborted fetus is the bad guy, youre just like the kid in my class whos mean to girls for attention. either way, it was a runaway success, and set the standard for indies to be rude & tough even if they werent directly inspired

so, ben and ed happens. an unflinchingly difficult platformer that has a meanspirited and gross edge to it. and yeah, this sure reads like someone wanted to make a difficult game all right. it's not I Am Bread levels of fuck-you-just-because, but it still feels like it cares more about being hard than being fair

like, the penultimate level has buzzsaws swinging back and forth across a pit of acid that the platforms dunk you into sometimes. add some laser sharks and we have an avgn bit. but it doesnt feel like ive been given a fun challenge here, just something hard for the sake of saying "look at me i did a tough thing" to all my friends. it doesnt feel intrinsically rewarding to overcome, because the difficulty is cheap

also, in the very same level, you can press tab and ragdoll under everything for like... two minutes straight. thats not hard, dude.

my final conclusion is that this game feels like its chasing trends from the time and doesnt hold up as a result. maybe itd feel less like that if the game didnt have the same "look at me im so dark and yucky" vibe that every newgrounds game had? like, the premise of kidnapping a zombie and making them play wipeout is already bleak enough, you dont have to make the antagonist jontron with acne and litter the game with ads for meat-flavoured dentists or whatever the fuck.

to close this off, i think this whole thing can be summarized by saying if you know about this game in the current year, at least if youre anything like me, you probably know about markiplier losing his shit

whats at the end? ...a facebook link, to a page trying to kickstart an ARG that fizzled out due to lack of interest and seemed to just be a roundabout reference to a creepypasta from almost 15 years ago.

alright

[minalune-lettersto]

March 17th, 2016

Memories of Cheaters, Lovers, and Emptiness: Part Three

Part Three

...

Emptiness

I am writing this on the day I surrender. I have been a battleground for 7 years. My mind waging war on my body. So many battles were won but the war was lost today.

I woke up dead.

I perfected my makeup with steadily shaking hands. My face expressionless; I let my hair down out of its bun. I clipped back the hair framing the left side of my face, revealing my ear and showing off my high cheekbone. I methodically arranged my hair and pulled on my yang tattoo necklace and re-centered my Supernatural necklace, the twin to the one resting my boyfriend's neck. I pulled on my black dress, the one that makes my figure look perfect; its neckline starts where my necklace ends. Added the leggings because it is the middle of winter and chose my black platform lace up heels; I am ready to depart. I turn my dead eyes away from the mirror and turn off the light. I grab the Beautiful Day perfume and engulf my dead lungs in it. My spark-less body now smells like a spring day. I gather my stuff and leave the house saying “I love you” to my dad as I close the door. I walk to the bus stop getting on the bus to the mall.

It is pouring rain.

My umbrella in hand; waiting for the next connecting bus, I take one last picture of myself.

I still look alive.

I get onto the connecting bus I take it all the way to the bridge stop. Getting off I let the rain pour over me. Matting down my hair and soaking my dress; the rain is never ending. I walk all the way up the sloping bridge to the apex where I set my backpack containing my school books and materials. I sit down on the cold and wet concrete. Pulling out my phone I send a video message to my boyfriend in New York apologizing with my dead tongue. The words are poisoned in my empty mouth and they fall flat.

I do not cry; my eyes are dried up from years of holding back tears.

I stand up my entire body is now soaked but I don't feel cold. My body already chilled to my core. I scoot up onto the ledge and swing my legs onto the other side. They dangle off, swinging in the wind coming off the freeway below me. I watch the cars looking for my semi-truck that will end this. When I find it I know this is the one; it is red and is going faster than the other cars. It is still far off so I look up and see the view.

The freeway below is a speedway of curves and straights.

The hills are vibrant green leading up into the white snowcapped mountains. They look crisp and untainted by the smoke of the city. I look past the mountains and into the sky. The clouds are grey above me but where the mountains are the is sun turning the sky various shades of reds, pinks, purples, and oranges all fading out into the blue gray of the raining sky.

It is pure beauty.

My semi is rounding its last corner and I ready myself for the push off. I hold my legs out and measure out the distance and time. When the semi passes my ankles I close my eyes and push off. I feel the air passing through my hair creating a wild show.

I am flying and free.

The semi hits my body midair and I stop. I am still on the ledge but I am lighter. I killed the dark part of me but I am still alive. I see the Emptiness, crushed by the semi, lying dead on the freeway. I slide my legs back over the ledge and slide off. I gather my school books and materials and walk back down from the bridge. I walk into my class early and start writing. I write of my memories and of my future hopes.

I write to fix my life.

I’ll try again tomorrow night.

[phoenixyfriend]

#9 “Tell me to stay and I will be here for as long as you’ll have me.” with Obi-Wan & Jango & Satine? (... or Obi-Wan/Jango/Satine, I'm not picky)

Hurt/Comfort Dialogue Prompts

Oh, I'm going to make this deeply stupid and AU because I got struck by a plot bunny and I'm taking it out on a prompt.

Satine hates the man named Jango Fett.

They've met before, once or twice. He'd known her father, before the latter's assassination. She'd met Jango when she was a child, before he'd lost his people at Galidraan, before she'd lost her sister to a terrorist group and her father to a blaster shot. She'd thought him gruff but kind, at the time, and very sad.

Now, she just wants him to trip on a pipe and brain himself on one of the many rusted, broken beams around them. She won't strangle him herself, won't turn her back on her oaths and commit violence, but she's not too proud to hope for an accident.

"Pick up the pace, princess."

"I am a Duchess," she snaps, lifting her skirts to step delicately over something that might have been machinery at one point.

The only light they have is from his helmet, and the only reason she hasn't fallen from the fabric catching on some matter or other is that he has a sense for when she gets caught.

He'd suggested that she pull the skirts up to gird her loins, and then found that the numerous layers made it impossible. He'd offered to cut the skirt down to something more manageable, without depriving her of the coverage she still needed in the cold of these darks, dank ruins. He'd then found that the vibroblade did nothing against the skirts.

(She was a pacifist, not stupid. Of course her clothing was reinforced.)

"I don't care," he says back through grit teeth. She's not sure why he hasn't just left her for dead, but she's not going to complain. Much. "Just move."

They've been making their way through the ruins for hours. They still don't know how they got here. They have no way to find out.

They just head up, and hope it gets them somewhere.

(Signs litter the walls, all in a script unfamiliar to them. Archaic, or simply foreign, they don't know.)

"Wait."

She freezes.

Fett moves behind her, light shifting with the noise of his beskar, and then he says, "I'm going to turn out the light for a second. Give us a minute to adjust to the dark after I do. I think I saw something glowing, but I can't tell with the flash on."

She nods, sure that he can see it, and they are engulfed in the dark again.

It's not for long, because the glow that Fett described is real. Faint, far off down the hallway and a pale blue that winks in and out in multiple spots at once, but there.

"We'll need the light to make it there without you getting rust sickness," Fett mutters. He flicks the headlight back on. "Might get some kinda hint out of it, whatever it is."

"You'd risk it?"

"Don't have any other choice," Fett tells her. "Move out, Princess."

----

They reach the blue glow, entering a large, cavernous atrium, just as dark as the rest of the ruins so far, but much less cramped than the previous hallways.

It is mostly floating motes of something, and the something in question makes Satine's skin crawl. She has no idea what it is. She doesn't think Fett does either, but he's a little busy trying to get a scan of the room around them. Satine can just barely see the floor from the blue light, and she steps closer carefully. Part of her screams about deep sea fish and wild space ancients, creatures that use light to hunt, but they've had nothing else yet. No hints.

This place feels ancient. Perhaps the spirits that linger are even older.

"Kryze!"

"I'm fine," she calls back, deliberately refusing to understand the man's worry. She just... reaches out.

And one of the blue lights comes to her.

Fett swears and comes closer, but Satine pulls her hands to her chest, cradling the little light to herself. It's larger than she'd expected, perhaps the size of a Chandrila plum. It's warm, too.

"You're going to get yourself killed," Fett snaps.

"It's friendly," she says. "I think."

"You think," Fett hisses, the noise crackling through the vocoder. He puts a hand on her shoulder. "Listen--"

The lights coalesce. They are, for the moment, blinding, and Satine flinches away.

Fett has a blaster out before Satine can even open her eyes again. She knows the noise better than she'd like. She can identify which blaster it is by the click of the safety alone.

Any Mandalorian her age can.

"Oh dear," an unfamiliar voice says. "I'm afraid that--well, yes, Mando, hello there. I'm afraid that the blaster won't do much to me. I'm already long dead, you understand."

When Satine manages to blink the spots out of her vision, it's to see a glowing, slightly blue-tinged human figure in clothing that is distinctly Jedi, if very... very outdated.

The man--she thinks it's a man, beards usually indicate such--smiles and waves at her. "I apologize for the light show. It's been quite some time since I've had reason to take a solid form."

"I can imagine," Satine says, her voice weak even to her own ears. The man isn't much older than her, or at least wasn't when he... died? Or perhaps he was elderly when he died, and just rolled his age back as this spirit for some reason.

He smiles kindly, and then looks past her shoulder to Fett. He rolls his eyes, and smirks, and says, "Su cuy'gar, Mand'alor."

"I am not Mand'alor," Fett growls out. "I don't hold that title anymore."

"You do in spirit," the figure claims. "None other can say the same, not yet."

Before Fett can argue further, the man smiles pleasantly, and says, "I don't suppose you could remove yourselves from my shrine? Just a few steps back, thank you."

Satine looks down. She notices the raised platform and carved sigils and the stone column she hadn't seen in the earlier darkness, and flushes. She steps back and down, and Fett does the same.

"Now," the figure says. "As I was saying--"

"What are you?" Fett demands. "Ghost of a Jedi?"

"Something like that," the figure allows. "I was not just a Jedi, but... yes, I'm something you could call a ghost. I'd prefer simply a spirit."

"Like the ka'ra," Satine mutters, and grunts in disagreement.

"Those, Duchess, are only Mandalorians."

"Then I suppose it is fitting that I am both," the spirit says, and his form shifts.

Armor. It does not cover all of him--his pelvis and head are distinctly bare--but the shapes are distinctly Mandalorian. The colors aren't quite exact, with the blue glow he carries about him, but she's fairly certain she's seeing blue, green, and black. Reliability, duty, and justice.

Fitting, for a Jedi. The symbol for the Order is on his pauldron, even, and the hilt of his saber hangs easy at his side.

The gasp that comes through Fett's vocoder is harsh. She can't imagine he likes this.

"You--" he cuts himself off, takes a breath audible even past the helmet, and tries again. "There is no way you are Tarre Vizsla."

"No, I'm afraid not."

"So you must be Obi-Wan Kenobi."

The man smiles and tucks his hands into his sleeves, the swinging of the fabric allowing them the glimpse of vambraces beneath. He ducks his head in a shallow nod. "I am indeed."

Satine feels how empty of blood her own face is. She can't imagine Fett is doing much better.

"This is the Kar'ta-yaim be talyc rang," Fett mutters, horrified in a way that Satine feels her own self echoing. "You..."

"Well, we certainly never called it that," Kenobi says, head tilting faintly. "But I imagine that after the siege... Yes, Temple of Bloodied Ash would certainly reflect our final days."

It was one of the few stories that didn't pit Jedi and Mandalorians against each other, in the histories.

It had been the first attempt to coexist, the warriors of the saber and the warriors of iron. None managed to wed the two philosophies the way Kenobi had, but that hadn't mattered. They'd lived together, in peace. The reports had been clear enough, that there hadn't been weapons storage. There hadn't even been real defensive measures, barring the force fields. The Jedi had refused to let war reach this building, even whilst the Sith still raged across the galaxy. The other temples could handle the atrocities afar. The children, the elderly, the infirm, they were all to find a home here. The only weaponry were the sabers and whatever metals the Mando'ade carried in their armor.

Just a place of peace, a home to research, to children, to hospitals, all slaughtered to the last man, and set ablaze after. Nobody had ever tried such an attempt at peace between Mandalore and Jedi since. The location has been lost for longer than anyone remembers, but...

"Why are we here?" Satine asks.

"I wonder," Kenobi says, seeming far too pleased for the revelations of the last minute. He strokes at his beard, and then turns and sweeps an arm across the air. As he does, a whirring noise surrounds them, stuttered and heavy, but growing in power. Bit by bit, the sections of the wall that he'd gestured at begin to glow.

There are lights set into the wall like circuitry, warm and bright. The generators, which much be centuries old, at the least, continue to run.

"They draw energy from the river in the mountain," Kenobi says, before either of them thinks to ask. "Come along, my dears."

Satine hesitates. So does Fett.

Kenobi turns, presumably noting that their footsteps aren't following him. He smiles, and the corners of his eyes crinkle.

Satine can't remember how old he supposedly was, at his death. His eyes are much older, but...

"I assure you, it's perfectly safe," he tells them. "The building won't hurt you."

"The building?" Fett asks, sounding perhaps a little more dubious than the situation warranted. They were already talking to a figure of legend.

"Yes, the building," Kenobi repeats, indulgent in a way that Satine would have found irritating if aimed at her, but rather approved of like this. "The walls are already straightening out, I feel. And the droids are going to be clearing out the debris soon enough. The rust will be a little difficult to manage, of course, but..."

"What do you mean the walls are going to straighten out?" Satine asks. "And how... this place has been dead for centuries, hasn't it? How did you wake it?"

"Duchess Kryze, I didn't wake the Temple," Kenobi tells her. She doesn't know how he got her name. "You did."

She doesn't know what to say in response. She stays quiet, and waits for him to elaborate.

"Is it because she woke you up?" Fett asks, clearly unwilling to play a waiting game. "You're a... guardian? The keyholder to the power?"

"Mand'alor," Kenobi says, with a smile playing on his lips behind the carefully-groomed beard, "I am the Temple."

What.

He smiles and starts walking backwards, gliding in a way that makes it clear he doesn't need to step, really, because his feet don't stay planted where he puts them. They have to follow, now, or risk losing him. "My consciousness, my very self, is woven into every bit of this building. I have no flesh, not anymore, but while my sense of self stays coherent in the Force... the Temple is my body."

"How?" Satine demands, hurrying to keep up. She tries to ignore the way the flagstones shift and settle ahead of her, still and level by the time she steps forward. She tries to ignore the grinding of metal, as it's pulled into the walls like it's soup instead of stone. She tries to ignore the creaking of the foundation about them, and stays focused on the pleasant smile of one of the only two Mandalorian Jedi in history that maintained the balance.

"Do your history books carry the name of my apprentice?" Kenobi asks.

"Skywalker," Fett says immediately. "And... Tano, I think, before she changed it. She escaped, didn't she?"

"Yes, she was away at the time," Kenobi says, voice distant for but a moment. Somewhere far off among the tunnels, there is a mighty crash. "I'd fought until I couldn't any more. My armor, what I had of it, protected me from the flames. I'd worn a helmet during the siege, and it filtered the smoke, even as I lay dying from other wounds... between that and the Force, I lasted long enough that Anakin found me. The others had all died of smoke inhalation, if they hadn't succumbed to their injuries or the flames themselves by that point."

"The fire didn't reach you?" Fett questions.

"Mm, no, the alcove I was in was all stone, and there wasn't anything flammable enough nearby to reach," Kenobi says, sounding distant again. "In any case, Anakin found me. He was... distraught. Desperate. Not entirely sane, I think, but with what he walked into, I can't find it in myself to fault him."

"Master Kenobi," Satine finds herself saying. "What did he do?"

Kenobi's smile is sad. She'd call it resigned, really. He's lived--sort of--with this situation for centuries now. It makes sense. "He took my mind, my soul in the Force, and 'saved' it in a way that would leave me tied to the world past my death. It was ingenious, but... I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy. I don't think Anakin realized what he was doing until long after he'd already succeeded at the impossible."

"He cursed you," Fett declares.

Kenobi shrugs. "I think he expected the temple to be cleaned and re-inhabited again soon enough. It wasn't, as you can see. The generators have been gathering power for centuries, but the fire destroyed most of them, and we didn't have anything in reserve with how much we poured into the shields during the battle. I couldn't fix the ruins, and with the horrors that had occurred, nobody was coming back. Anakin said he would, he promised, but... he disappeared. He visited, and he spoke with me, but a few years in he was simply... lost. I had a connection to his ship's signal, and it winked out in the blink of an eye, and never came back."

Oh. Terrifying.

"For all that I am the Temple, now, there are still secrets here that I don't yet understand," Kenobi tells them. "Your arrival, for one thing. The sediment carried up the mountain has slowly buried the temple over the centuries. There isn't a way in, save for two tunnels leading to the river, both of which I know are untouched."

"We just woke up here," Satine admits.

"Yes," Kenobi says. "You did. And part of me knows why."

"...part?" Fett asks.

It's a fair question to ask of a man who happens to have a brain that is also an entire building, somehow.

"Areas are cut off from my awareness," Kenobi admits freely. "Cave-ins and the like, mostly. There are one or two that I think I cut deliberately, due to what lay within."

Also terrifying, thank you.

"But I do believe I know what happened," he says, with that same damnably soft smile. "You two are the leaders of your people, yes? Tradition on one side, and peace on the other."

Satine shares a glance with Fett, and then turns to Kenobi and nods.

"Then I do believe it's simply the right time," he tells them. "You'll need to work together."

"I don't think so," Satine immediately denies.

"The Force works in mysterious ways," Kenobi tells her. "And if it brought you here--and you couldn't have arrived otherwise, I promise you that--then it was for a reason. Two leaders, the same people, with ideologies that I do believe are possible to bring together into, if not mixing, then at least coexistence."

"Impossible," Fett says. "The New Mandalorians are cowards, Kenobi. To share a culture with them--"

"Is as unlikely as Jedi and the old Mandalorians?" Kenobi asks, smiling so very politely that Satine wonders at how they aren't frozen stiff at the sight of it.

The sigil of the Order gleams mockingly from his pauldron.

Kenobi huffs out a breath, just a shadow of a laugh the slightest duck of his head, and then he turns and waves open a door.

Beyond him, sitting clean and pretty and entirely free of dust on its ancient stand, rests the Darksaber.

Satine stares.

She's sure Fett does, too.

"That can't be real," she says, her mouth moving before she can control it. "The Darksaber is lost, but it's popped up in history too recently to have been here since the fires."

"I saw it in Tor Vizsla's hands less than a years ago," Fett confirms. The vocoder cuts emotion from his voice, but not enough. "This place has been locked tight for centuries. The saber can't be here."

"The same could be said of the two of you," Kenobi points out.

It's true.

Satine steps forward, when it becomes clear that Fett won't. She picks up the weapon, holds it like the antique it is, square and unwieldy, but so very, very old that she cannot deny its importance. Weapon or not, it is her people's history.

She lights it.

The blade burns black.

"Turn it off," Fett rasps, and she does.

Satine looks back at him, and then to Kenobi. She turns fully, and steps forward, and holds it out to Fett.

He looks at her, uncomprehending.

"If you'd like to check for yourself," she says, and her voice is too quiet, but she can't help it. Something is happening, something heavy and broken, and she can't ignore the pressure of the future in this moment.

Fett takes the saber. He looks at it in his hands, and she thinks he is shaking.

"Your people need you, Mand'alor," Kenobi says, and there is no room for question. "They also need the Duchess."

"Why you?" Fett asks, voice strained and shattered in a way Satine can't even begin to pick apart.

"It was either me or Tarre, really," Kenobi says, with an idle shrug unfitting of the situation. "And I'm a little more... accessible, shall we say, to those who aren't sensitive to the Force."

Kenobi steps forward and rests an immaterial hand on Fett's shoulder.

"I already failed my people once," Fett says, barely audible.

"And now you shall save them," Kenobi says. His voice is firm. It is as if there is no question, to him, about whether or not Fett will succeed. "You won't be alone, either."

Satine shifts her weight, refusing to meet Kenobi's eyes. Her hands fist in her dress, and her mind races.

"What do you need of me?" Fett manages.

"...Mand'alor?"

"What do you need of me, Master Kenobi?"

Satine looks up.

Fett... Fett removes his helmet, and looks at Kenobi with an expression that is more desperation than deference.

"To cooperate with those who would follow a different creed," Kenobi says, so low it's practically a murmur. His hand, still intangible, reaches out to cup Fett's jaw. Fett leans into it. "To protect those who cannot do so for themselves. Our people are warriors, Mand'alor, but to refuse violence for violence's sake, after the wars that have killed our home and rendered it little more than glass, that is its own bravery."

"Master--"

"Listen to me," Kenobi says, and Fett falls silent. "You will need to protect them. The Duchess may have the funds and the support to bring forth education, agriculture, childcare, and so on, but there are many who would take advantage of that peace. She provides the home for tradespeople, but you are the shield that keeps them safe."

It could be a balance, Satine tries to tell herself. Maybe.

Kenobi seems so certain of it, and Satine may hate violence, but she is far from unaware of the pirates and warlords that nip at their borders.

"The foundlings need homes," Kenobi continues. "The stories need to be told. The culture is fading, Mand'alor. Bring it back."

His eyes flick to Satine, and she looks away.

(Her pressure was only ever on violence. Her advisors had pressed at the erasure of the rest, but if it meant children grew up without the worry of their parents dying in pointless battle, then wasn't it worth bending?)

(Couldn't she look the other way as they tightened restrictions on even symbolic vambraces, if it meant few too-small bodies in the streets?)

(Her planet was a wasteland. What did culture mean in the face of so many dead?)

(She knows Fett doesn't see it that way, but she is the only governing New Mandalorian with any blood on their hands. She knows the weight of violence, of lives taken by her actions.)

(She knows it, and she rejects it knowingly.)

Fett breathes harshly, and Satine closes her eyes.

"I agree to try," she says. "If we can get out of these ruins and back to our people... I will try. I cannot speak for my people on this, but to instate the old Mandalorians as a planetary guard... it may be doable."

"Little steps, my dear," Kenobi says. He looks down at Fett, who's... not well, it seems. "The Mand'alor needs some help, I think. I'm no trained mind healer, but I imagine I can help. More than most, maybe. There are few who know what it is to be a sole survivor."

He smirks, just a little, at the joke that he is not, in fact, a man who survived.

It's not very funny.

"I'll stay," Fett says. "I'll... I'll learn. Master Kenobi, you... Tell me to stay and I will be here for as long as you’ll have me."

"As a student?" Kenobi asks, catching on to just the same thing as Satine has. "Not in the Force, surely, but... you truly wish to stay?"

"There are none left alive that I would trust to show me the way," Fett says. Beseeching, he reaches for Kenobi, and his hands pass through. There's a pain in him that Satine can't quite comprehend, and Fett falls to his knees. "Please."

"You need only ask," Kenobi says. "The Duchess will look after our people until the King takes his throne, and then you will rule together."

They'll have to, Satine tells herself, and steps forward. She puts a hand on Fett's shoulder, and pulls him to his feet.

"Where do we begin?" she asks.

[heyaeolus]

Hii, are you taking request? If it's not bothersome, that haikyuu as a parent was adorable XD and I would like to request something similar. How about Haikyuu as dads embarrassing their daughter/son, (maybe Kuroo, Bokuto, Oikawa and Atsumu) who would most likely do this 😂

HQ boys being embarrassing fathers

The length is pretty inconsistent depending on what situation I thought out for the character. I personally think I’m not that good with jokes he he he...

I HOPE U LIKE IT OMG

AND YES I TAKE IN REQUESTSSSS

Bokuto

We all know he is loud and we don’t even have to say it

You were usually the one who drives your daughter to school but today, you end up waking up late because a certain someone decided that you needed the extra sleep (yes he’s sweet but you have a meeting with the executives)

So you’ve now got two wonderful girls with Koutarou, they’re now 6 and 12 years old

“Koutarou don’t do anything weird, okay.” That was a fair warning for him but it goes right off his ear as soon as he zooms off because hE GETS TO DRIVE HIS PRINCESSES TO SCHOOL

Your youngest was the first he dropped off. He sent him off with a big smooch and an “I love you, little owl!” Your youngest shouted back an “I love you too!” to his daddy with a big grin before running off to her classroom.

The challenge came when he dropped off your eldest. Being in her school, your daughter doesn’t want everyone to see how much of a daddy’s girl she is so when Koutarou leaned in to kiss her on the cheek, she dodged

In a second, Koutarou’s hair deflated. Your daughter tried to reason, “Dad, not here. It’s my school!”

“Do you not love me anymore, baby owl? Have you found another guy to replace daddy?

“DAD, NO. You’re overreacting.”

“No, baby owl. You should kiss daddy when he wants one!” then he tries and leans in again but this time your daughter gets off the car and shuts the door on her father’s face leaving Koutarou to his despair

But alas, there’s a solution to it! Koutarou rolls down the window of his car and pops his head out and shouts “I LOVE YOU BABY OWL! HONEY BUNCH! MY SWEET LITTLE PUMPKIN!”

Your daughter is good as dead right then as the children around stared at her father, chuckling. Others even taking a video of what was happening. Your poor daughter is as red as a tomato as she bolted further into her school grounds.

“DADDY WILL ALWAYS LOVE YOU EVEN IF YOU DON’T LOVE HIM BACK”

“Mom, save me.”

The video of that incident instantly graced the internet, going viral in under 24 hours. It was safe to say Koutarou is not allowed to drive your daughters to school again. But he’s happy he got his kiss from his eldest now.

 Oikawa

Another dude here that is sweet with his daughter. Literally pours his heart to his sweet little angel and gives her everything.

Sometimes, you fade into the background with these two.

One Saturday, your daughter came with company. To your horror, it was a guy named Hiro. Although decent looking, you don’t like the fact that she is engaging in romance as early as her age.

But Tooru thinks otherwise, “Oh? My sweet little angel has inherited my charm!”

Your daughter blushes at her father’s comment and pulls her company into the backyard. Settling on the bench swing in there.

It was fine and everything’s going good with him and her company until Tooru’s voice rang from inside.

“Y/D/N-chan and Hiro-kun sitting on a tree~ K I S S I N G ~”

Your daughter turned and found his dad cruelly comfortable leaning on the ledge of the window overseeing the backyard, toying with a rose that she recognized were the ones you bought to put in the vase at the living room

As if once is not enough, Tooru repeated the verse again. Your daughter felt like bURSTING

She put her face into her palms, furiously blushing. She turned to Hiro who is now awkwardly laughing at the sight of your husband. She tells him, “Oh my gosh, I’m sorry for the existence of my father. Don’t mind his presence.”

“OuCH! Y/N-chan! Why’d you do that?! I was only entertaining our visitor! Come here watch them with me.”

 Sawamura

HA you bet Daichi is the model father but yes, you are partially right. He’s pretty tight with some things but is still sweet. But it doesn’t mean he doesn’t got some pretty embarrassing moments

You guys are in the mall for the weekend, shopping for new clothes as winter is approaching. You were separated from them when you followed a saleslady to find your size of the shoes you wanted

Your daughter was on her phone while her dad stood by her, shopping bags in his hands. He peeked into her phone a few times, finding her chatting with a guy. When she giggled to herself, it was peak protective father mode for Daichi “Sweetie, who are you talking to?”

“Oh. Just a friend, dad.”

Daichi scoffed to himself, skeptically glaring at the back of his daughter’s head. Thinking, “How could you lie to me, sweetie?”

Moments after, the father and daughter pair turned their heads to a guy’s voice calling out your daughter’s name. Daichi grew rigid as soon as he saw the boy

The boy, completely oblivious of Daichi’s mood, ran up to your daughter with arms spread. It was to Daichi’s horror that his daughter came into the guy’s arms and hugged him back. Daichi let them exchange a few words after but his aura is just hard to shake off with him staring hard at the guy. He soon bids goodbye, bowing at Daichi

But before he could go farther, Daichi talks to your daughter, rather LOUDLY.

“SWEETIE, I DON’T WANT YOU HUGGING RANDOM PEOPLE NEXT TIME” People around were already staring at them as Daichi continues his rant with a straight face

“Dad, geez, he’s a friend!”

“NEXT TIME YOU DO THAT THAT PERSON WILL MEET MY WRATH”

The next time your daughter had that friend over at your house along with some others, he was weirdly sweating and keeping very little space for himself

“Are you okay?” you asked the boy

“Ah, yes. Thank you, Mrs. Sawamura.”

Daichi smiled to himself while your daughter shook her head at the side in pure embarrassment

 Atsumu

Atsumu has a big internet fanbase. He also keeps all his accounts active, especially his twitter. Your son blocked him in almost every platform with the exception of Instagram and Facebook for formality.

Atsumu is, rather, a supportive father to your son.

Example number one: once, your son posted a sad quote in Facebook and Atsumu commented with “Let’s have a boys’ talk later, buddy” your son deleted the post

When Atsumu came home that night he went straight to your son’s room knocking at his door. Your son was quick to reject his father, “NO DAD. THANK YOU BUT NO.”

The next one was when your son advertised Osamu’s onigiris with a picturesque post over at IG and the piss-haired twin didn’t think before he commented, “I can make better onigiris than Samu, buddy.”

You came home that night with about two days’ worth of rice on the kitchen and Atsumu wildly rapping at your son’s door. “YOU HAVE TO TASTE THIS BUDDY THIS IS BETTER”