#consider this compensation for all the stuff about dead men you might be seeing

[certifiedcoffeeaddict]

is this anything

[holycow99]

石田お寿司 19/7/21 stream translation Part 1

This is not the full translation of the stream. I only translated the parts I could understand & interpret or parts I found interesting/important. I’m still a beginner in Japanese, so the translations may not be accurate. If you want to repost, please repost at your own risk. 

(t/n: Sorry for the late update. I had so many distractions these past 2 weeks. This translation may have a lot of mistranslations as I couldn’t really catch what he said since the bgm was super loud. I tried my best to separate the voice and the bgm so that the voice would be clearer, but I didn’t manage to do that.)

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I: Hello. You guys, are you ready for Ghosts n Goblins? I am.

C: You’re in high spirits tonight.

I: Of course. I’ve been busy with the rough sketches. I’ve spend the entire day fixing the sketches for chp 5.

*Fixing the sound

C: Contrarily, won’t you feel stressed playing this game for a change of pace?

I: I’m already used to this game.

I: I’m stuck in the same place so I’m gonna play this game from the start.

*Choosing mode.

I: I’ve played this game before (referring to the old ver.), so I’ll choose the harder mode.

*Choosing stage.

I: I haven’t progressed at all. I haven’t seen the other stages yet. Graveyard, execution chamber. I played the execution chamber stage for a bit during the stream with Ms. Towada. I progressed a little only. Should I play the graveyard stage?

*Playing the stage.

I: The armour used to get destroyed with just one hit. The armour has a ranking. If you collect a lot of armours, it’ll become a bronze armour. This one is probably a metal armour.

C: Fighting!

I: Kamsahamnida. Is it Kamsahamnida? Thank you.

(t/n: Kamsahamnida means thank you in Korean. He’s talking in Korean.)

C: Have you decided on the date for Kagoshima trip?

I: That’s right. What should I do with the trip? Looks like I can secure 20 buses.

(t/n: Ishida had been jokingly planned on a trip with Japanese fans.)

C: Is the stage different from the old one?

I: It looks similar, but I think it’s a completely different stage. Yeah, it’s completely different. What’s this creature? What’s his name again? Everyone said they didn’t like this boss. I like it. He’s like a friend to me.

C: Russia loves you, sensei.

I: Really? I heard that illegal uploading of manga is widespread in Russia. Haha. I have a grudge against Russia. Haha. Spasiba (thank you in Russian).

C: I like Russian girls. They’re cute.

I: I don’t think it’s because they’re Russians. I heard that their nose tends to be taller due to the climate effects. This isn’t considered as discrimination, right? That’s why they’re good-looking. The same with their white complexion. People adore those with tall nose because their noses are small and cute.

(t/n: I’m not sure about the translation of this part since I couldn’t hear him clearly. He said something more but I couldn’t catch it. Sorry.)

Y****: Are you about to snap?

I: Ah, Y****?! You’re here. You weren’t in the prev. stream, right? I’m not angry.

Y****: I was busy with club.

I: What club are you in? You must be busy. What club are you in as a middle schooler?

Y****: Theatre club.

I: Theatre club?! You’re kidding, right?! Really?! It’s so unexpected, hahaha. Theatre club? I thought you’re in a sports club, like soccer or something. So cool. That’s nice. Seriously? Do they have theatre club in middle school? Amazing.

*Ishida struggling to kill the monsters and then died.

I: I was looking at the comments, waiting for Y****’s to show up, then I became like this.

*Someone commented that they did vocalisation training in theatre club.

I: Vocalisation training? So they do have that. Wait a min, did Y**** say something? Wait, tell me when I die again.

Y****: I’m a high-school student.

I: Eh, Y****, you’re a high-school student?! Didn’t you say you’re 13?! Were you a high school student all this time?! Wait, can I talk to Y**** for a bit? Hahaha. Eh?! Have you been a high-schooler all this while?!

*Continue playing.

I: Hurry up and tell me. I suddenly become interested in human world. Y****, hurry. Did he say something?

Y****: I’m in my first year.

I: I see. A first year student. So, last year you’re 13? I remember you said you’re 13. You’ve enrolled to high school. Congrats for your admission! It must be hard with the COVID-19 situation. Y**** has further modified. His DPS (Damage Per Second) has increased to 1980.

C: I envy the youth.

I: Well, you can become anything as a high-schooler. If you work hard, you can become an actor or a playwright, though I’m not really sure. (inaudible). I think it’s a very good career.

C: What club were you in?

I: I was in volleyball club. I was in the badminton club for 3 months. I joined because of similar reason I joined volleyball club.  I joined because I wanted to be good at smashing. Then, I quit the club after I’ve mastered it. Same with volleyball. I wanted to master spike. I had other stuffs I wanted to do. I wanted to play games all day long. I didn’t wanna go for club activities. I skipped club activities and played Smash Bros. I was a boarding student, after all.

C: Have you read Look Back? (t/n: Look Back is a one shot manga by Fujimoto Tatsuki, author of Chainsaw Man.)

I: Yes, I have.

C: Which console is this?

I: This is switch. I play this because I was tired from fixing the rough sketches for chp 5.

C: Did you go and watch Yamakasa? (t/n: Yamakasa refers to the float carried by men during Hakata Gion Yamakasa festival. You can google it up for more info.)

I: I watch when there’s one. Ms. Towada went and see it. Where did she recently visit?

*Ishida having a hard time defeating the monsters & passing the stage.

I: This is harder than RE. RE is way easier compared to this.

C: Sensei is getting tired!

I: Actually, I should be resting at times like this. It’d be better for me to rest after I did the rough sketches.

*Someone commented they had to work that night.

I: It must be hard to work at this time. Night shift? Nurses and… is it correct? I’m not so sure though, but caregivers also have night shifts. Well, good luck on your job. Take care of your health, eat a lot of delicious foods, and don’t forget to wear an armour. You don’t know when you’ll be absorbed into this game.

C: I need to do excel as my assignment.

I: Must be difficult. I copy pasted the stuffs I found on the internet for my assignments. I wasn’t the only one who did that. Everyone else did the same too.

I: I like summer. If I were to pick a season…but I prefer autumn. Still, summer is great.

C: I have test tomorrow.

I: Then, you should study.

C: I hate summer since there’ll be a lot of Terra Formars.

(t/n: terra formars is a manga about humanoid cockroaches. So, OP referred cockroaches as terra formars.)

I: Yup. They’re in the drawers the other day. They’re always there mostly. 

C: What are you drinking today?

I: Barley tea. I want to drink juice. Ginger ale as well, but I’ll gain weight drinking that. I drink it occasionally. Do you guys know root beer?

*Ishida constantly failed and died.

Comments: Are you getting angry?

I: This is pissing you off, right? I’m pissed off. Of course I’d be pissed off with something like this. The ones who made this game, show yourselves. I’m gonna bring this to court and claim for compensation.

Comments: Please calm down.

I: I’m calming down. Okay, I’ve calmed down.

*Finally progressing a little.

I: Yes, finally! I’m gonna do this calmly.

*Fighting a bunch of monsters.

I: (whispering) Calmly! Calmly!

*Dead again.

I: (whispering) Shit! Just now…It might be impossible without the armour. Let’s do this calmly.

I: This game is more of a psycho break than Psychobreak.

Part 2

[momo-de-avis]

what are 2 books you feel you should be financially compensated for reading (beyond reimbursement for purchasing them)?

hard mode: nothing by zuzas.

now those are high stakes

first of all, this is hard for me to answer because I genuinely cannot read a book through to the end if I don't like it. I won't go past fifty pages if it's annoying me. So there are only a handful of books I can say I hated because I wasted time reading them, and even those I didn't finish.

But there are two, and one of them I actually talk about it all the time

First of all, fuck you, Flaubert. Fuck Emma Bovary. Fuck that book. Not only financial compensation, but emotional of some sort, cause you go through the 7 stages of grief reading that piece of garbage. Not after, during.

Like, every time I try to explain why I hate Madame Bovary so much I tell this little anecdote about my life. It was probably 2AM, I was still living with my mom, and I was in the living room. Back then, the History Channel---before it became exclusively devoted to Aliens, Hitler, and World War II---had a super interesting show called, I believe it was, Great Books. I caught only a few episodes, there was one on Janes Austen, another on Dostoevsky---and yes, one for Madame Bovary. Which was the one I saw that night.

And on that night, I was just chilling on my ass, and there was this expert on Flaubert explaining how the guy came up with the idea for the book. This woman had a PhD in literature. She studied Flaubert's life and history down to the letters and his intimacy. And I chuckled to myself, completely alone---and listen, you're free to believe whatever the hell yall want, but I swear on my cat this shit is true---and said to myself: "I bet this guy ran away to a cabin and dressed himself as woman to write this book." In fact, I hate Madame Bovary SO MUCH I've making this joke for YEARS, and it's why I call that pile of regurgitated french trash "literary transvesty" because it is literally a man playing dress up with no counter-balance to the absolute derailment of this woman's down-spiral. It's just the story of Emma Bovary going off her rockers, and there's no point where there might a slight indication of societal criticism. She's just a piece of shit. You know, at LEAST Tolstoi gave us Kittie and Levine as a counter-point. At LEAST Tolstoi built-up an immense backdrop with Stepane's adultery to understand the horrid treatment Anna is subjected to. At LEAST we are given a good characterisation of Karenine enough, whereas Charles Bovary is limper than a soggy sock. The only Ken doll I owned as a child had more charisma, and that bitch had no clothes.

And AT THAT POINT in the documentary, that lady expert with a whole PhD says something to this effect: APPARENTLY, Flaubert DID run off into a cabin in the fucking woods or some shit, and he did so with a locket, and what was in that locket? The hairs of his lover. Like, oh my God, I hate you so fucking much.

What I hate THE MOST about Madame Bovary is that despite being a shit book and shit story, and having been written by a guy who purposefully isolated himself from the woman he loved in the ass of the world, with a piece of her hair, as he dead ass attempted to "become a woman", whatever the hell that meant (but then again, so did every romantic writer back in the 19th century), this motherfucker was trialled in a court of law for this book (because adultery, women are frail, scandal, blah blah blah), and his defense was so amazing he actually coined a very important term in writing called Indirect Free Speech. Like, I genuinely hate this motherfucker but this absolute genius final take on his shit book just makes me hate him more. (For reference, this is where I learned this, Hans Robert Jauss explains this in his book Reception Theory)

The second book I think I deserve financial compensation for wasting the like, 3 days I wasted reading those first 100 pages or so, was Juliet Marillier's Daughter of the Forest. Oh my God. Listen, back in the day, like every teenage girl in the early/late 2000s, I was discovering paganism and that kind of crap, so I had a lot of wiccan friends. And there was Charmed. Not the rebooted crap, the OG Charmed, when Rose McGowan was closeted terf and we believed she was cool. Everyone loved Charmed. And everyone who bought into the new-pagan stuff and wiccan stuff, they were all introduced by one of two ways: either it was Charmed, or The Mists of Avalon. Either or. No other way. At least around my circle, that is.

So I had a lot of friends squealing over this one book from Marillier. I was absolutely obsessed with Arthuriana because of Mists of Avalon, and my wiccan/goth friends were all over me telling me "OH you GOTTA read Daughter of the Forest if you love Mists of Avalon". It's comforting to know the one wiccan friend who persisted with that crap went wacko and literally vanished into the horizon because I wanted to smack her in the face with that stupid book.

Basically, at the time, I was balls deep into Irish Mythology. And as I read it, I thought it was EERILY SIMILAR to the Children of Lir. Evil stepmother transforming her step-children into swans? Hm? The one thing that threw me off was that, in the story, the hero had to sew these shirts from some godawful plant that fucked up her hands, and that ISN'T in the original Children of Lir story. Then again, Children of Lir is genuinely not a compelling story. Of all Irish myths, it might be the least compelling.

However, I recently learned that IT IS the same tale, despite what Marillier sold as being "inspired by the Brother Grimm". It turns out the Children of Lir is a tale known throughout Europe, spanning from Spain to Ireland, with some variations, and it exists in Germany, where the sewing of the shirts with that weird plant is a plot point. So I guess that was a determent, considering the story is set in Ireland. Also, you can tell the story was written by a herbalist because, oh my god she goes off about plants all the time.

I basically stopped reading because the heroine is a bit obnoxious and it felt like the plot was going nowhere. And at some point, it was literally a book about plants. Like, Marion Zimmer Bradley's books can be boring (take the Forst House, which is one of my favourites, there's gotta be like 100 pages in there about Eilan's boring life picking flowers, but it builds up to her character, at least). But this one, it was going nowhere, while at the same time, Bretons were landing in Ireland? What? My anger came from when I checked the wikipedia page before I gave up because I wanted to see if there was something redeemable in that shit, like, come on, motivate me. And when I read that there's a fucking rape plot thrown in there that bears no relevance for no other reason than... I don't know, fear of men? I gave up. That was definitely when I stopped reading and decided to set it aside. It's weird cause, from what I remember, I think the author wanted to write it in pagan Ireland, but I don't remember a single mention of a pagan god? It was so convoluted, man.

And why the Children of Lir??? I 100% share the opinion of Sorcha Hegarty from Candlelit Tales regarding the Children of Lir: it is THE LEAST interesting tale in Irish Myth, and also---and these are her words, not mine---the least Irish lmao

Honourable mention: Thérèse Raquin by Zola is another one that made me SO FUCKING PISSED OFF that piece of shit book REQUIRES psychological counseling. Like, financial compensation isn't even enough to go through that crap.

[what-is-your-plan-today]

Stark Spangled Banner Ch 15: That Tie Looks Real Expensive

Summary: On the run from SHIELD, Katie and Steve encounter Natasha at the hospital when they head back for the memory drive. Their search for the truth leads Steve on yet another trip down memory lane, and as more truths bubble to the surface, the three of them are left reeling and are forced to seek help...

Pairing: Steve Rogers x OFC Katie Stark

Warnings: None for this chapter bar them saying some bad language words and someone gets pushed off a roof but he’s Hydra so, meh

Stark Spangled Banner Masterlist

Open for Tags- Ping me an Ask!

After a bit of a skirmish on the bridge out of the Triskellion with a Quinjet, they headed to the small boxing gym they trained at so Steve could change, leaving his suit behind in the hope that the tracking systems would give whoever came looking for them a bit of a detour. He also locked his shield in his locker, with the view they’d collect it when it was safe to do so, in an attempt to keep them as unnoticeable as possible.  

Surprisingly they reached the hospital, both relatively unscathed. Katie was feeling bruised but she kept pace with Steve as they strode down the corridor. When they reached the vending machine, Steve stopped and peered into it, frowning as he realised the row where he had hidden the stick was empty. Then someone appeared behind them, and he saw Natasha’s reflection in the machine, blowing bubbles from the gum she’d obviously bought to retrieve the stick.

Steve spun round, temper reaching boiling point as he grabbed her by the neck in a display of anger Katie had rarely seen from him, pushing her into a room opposite.

“What happened to you?” she looked at Katie’s face, which was already bruising from the blow she had taken before.

“Rumlow.” Katie snapped back, unwilling to discuss any further. Her patience with this whole situation was running thin and she was sick of not knowing who she could trust. She had resigned from SHIELD for this precise reason, and here she was, getting dragged back into their shit.

"Where is it?" Steve demanded, looking at Nat as he threw down his hood.

"Safe."

"Do better." Katie suggested, glaring at the woman she thought was her friend, not sure anymore whether or not to trust the red-head.

"Where did you get it?" Natasha asked.

"Why would I tell you?" Steve countered.

"Fury gave it to you," she narrowed her eyes at him. "Why?"

"What's on it?" Steve ask, ignoring her question.

"I don't know," Natasha answered.

Steve lightly slammed her against the wall his patience thinning quickly, anger blazing from every inch of his body. "Stop lying," he said through gritted teeth.

"I only act like I know everything, Rogers."

"I bet you knew Fury hired the pirates, didn't you?" Katie said, looking at her.

"Well, it makes sense. The ship was dirty, Fury needed a way in..."

Katie let out a frustrated laugh before she spun around, away from Natasha groaning.

"I'm not gonna ask you again," Steve threatened.

"I know who killed Fury." she said as Katie turned to face her again. "Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years."

"So he's a ghost story." Steve concluded releasing her and taking a step back.

"Five years ago, I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran and somebody shot out my tires near Odessa.” She said, looking him straight in the eyes “We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him, straight through me."

Natasha pulled up her shirt, revealing a scar on her lower left abdomen.

"Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye bye, bikinis."

"Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now," Steve half joked.

"Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried." She stated before she pulled out the thumb drive and held it out for all of them to see.

Steve eyed her before taking it and putting it in his pocket before he looked at Katie then back to Natasha.

"Let's find out what the ghost wants."

*****

“You know you could have picked something a little more subtle.” Nat said as she lounged in the backseat of the truck that they had taken from an industrial estate opposite the gym when they had stopped to pick up Steve’s shield and ditch Nat’s Corvette heading to New Jersey.

They had gotten what they needed from the Mall, including the location of where the AI that kept countering Natasha's commands on the pen drive was coming from, which to Steve’s shock had been Camp Lehigh, the place he had trained and been selected for Operation Rebirth. After a close shave with the STRIKE team they had bolted for Natasha's car and made it out, unscathed and thankfully with a few new changes of clothes each.

“It’s a truck, lots of men drive trucks” Steve replied, as he comfortably drove with one hand on the wheel, the other on the gearshift, eyes focussed on the road.

“Because they think it looks cool when in fact it just makes them look like douchebags who are compensating for something” Nat responded.

Despite himself he couldn’t help but quip back playfully “Maybe I am.” “Well I know that’s not true” Nat said, her voice full of a smirk “Katie told me.”

Steve felt his cheeks flush as Katie shifted in the seat besides him, whipping her head round to face the woman. “Jesus Nat…”

“What were your exact words?” she teased “If that thing wasn’t enhanced by the-” “If you don’t shut up I’m gonna come back there and slap you into next week.” Katie said cutting her off. She turned back round, glancing at Steve. His cheeks were flushed red with embarrassment but there was a faint trace of a smirk on his face, his eyes still focussed ahead. He could tell she was looking at him so he kept his eyes on the road, fully aware he blushing. But as far as discussing their sex life with her friend he supposed that there were worst things she could be saying…

"So where did Captain America learn how to steal a car?" Natasha spoke again a few minutes later as Katie noticed that they were passing a sign welcoming them to New Jersey. All things considered they’d made pretty good time.

“Nazi Germany” Steve said, looking over his shoulder at her “and we’re borrowing, take your feet off the seat."

Natasha eyed him in the mirror, but did as she was told before she leant forward between the two front seats.

"Alright, I have a question for you both, which you do not have to answer. But I feel if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it, you know?"

"What?" Steve said exasperatedly.

"So before in the store… you guys were like engaged…” she began a hint of a smirk on her face. “Any chance of that happening for real?”

Katie moaned, the red head had no idea how close to the bone she was. Upon hearing the moan, Steve felt something in his stomach stir.

"That bad an idea huh?" he asked stealing a glance over at her.

"I didn't say that." Katie sighed.

“No but it kinda sounded like that’s what you meant.” Steve continued.

“I not even gracing that with a response” she shot him a look.

“I’m still waiting on you telling me whether you’re gonna move in with me or not.” he said, his tone teasing.

“You asked her?” Nat raised her eyebrows. “Will you fuck off?” Katie snapped. She’d had enough and well and truly reached her fill of Natasha’s sarcasm, SHIELD, everything.

“Take it easy Stark.” Nat drawled back, nonplussed. “You know, if you don’t want to answer a question straight you could try making something up…”

“What, like you?”  Katie scoffed, looking at her over her shoulder

“You know the truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I."

"That's a hard way to live," Steve commented as he took in the red-heads words. Besides him Katie shifted, agitatedly and he knew she was pissed. Natasha was supposed to be her friend and all this had shaken her trust.

"It's a good way not to die, though," Natasha mused unconcerned.

"You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is." Katie shot the red head a pointed look and Steve held his breath for the sarcastic response he was expecting back. He really didn't want to have to split up a fight between the two. But knowing his girl as he did, he had a horrible feeling it would go that way if Natasha bit back. Thankfully, she didn't, her tone was soft, almost wistful when she answered

"Yeah." Natasha replied, looking through the window. "Who do you want me to be?"

"How about a friend?" Steve jumped in.

"Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers." Natasha smirked returning to her comfortable position in the backseat.

They sat in silence for a bit and Katie turned to look at Steve. If there was one person in all this she could trust, she knew it was him. She had no idea what they were going to find, what they were going to walk into but she trusted him with her life, and loved him with every bone in her body. And she wanted him to know, just in case this all went wrong, just how much.

Steve shifted in his seat as he could feel her eyes on him for a while before she spoke finally.

“I’m not gonna move in with you.” she said, shaking her head, and his head whipped round, mouth dry at her refusal, before he returned his attention to the road, trying not to read too much into her rejection, as she continued to speak. “Your flat is full of bullet holes, your bed is in the wrong place and frankly it’s too small for all my stuff. You’ll have to move in with me.”

Wait, what? That wasn’t a refusal. She’d just said yes. She wanted to live together. 

He looked at her, aware a grin was spreading across his face. “Seriously?”

She nodded, returning her gaze to the front, and he did the same as her fingers tangled into his right hand where it was resting on the pillar between their seats, gently pulling it into her lap so she could trace shapes on his palm.

“Gross…” came a voice from the back seat.

*****

"It's some kind of recording," Natasha said frowning as she tried to make sense of what was happening in front of them. They’d scoured the camp, Steve having identified that the munitions building was in the wrong place, and that had led them into a huge, underground bunker. After an hour or so more of searching they had discovered a secret Elevator that led down to a huge room full of ancient computers…and a more modern USB terminal. They had plugged in the USB device which had activated the system and now…well, now Katie had no idea what the fuck they were looking at.

"I am not a recording, Fraulein. I may not be the man I was when the Captain took me prisoner in 1945..."

Steve sighed heavily as the computer screen showed a black and white photo of a familiar odd looking man with round glasses. Zola.

"Who is that?" Katie asked as Steve glared at the photo on the computer screen.

"Do you know this thing?" Natasha questioned sceptically.

"Armin Zola was a German scientist who worked for the Red Skull. He's been dead for years," Steve explained shortly as he walked round the back of the screen, looking for anything that would explain how it was working.

"First correction, I am Swiss. Second, look around you. I have never been more alive. In 1972, I received a terminal diagnosis. Science could not save my body. My mind, however, that was worth saving. Two hundred thousand feet of data banks. You are standing in my brain," Zola explained.

"How did you get here?" Steve questioned, returning to the front of the television monitor.

"I was invited."

“Operation Paperclip," Natasha supplied as her and Katie exchanged a look.

“What is it?” Steve asked.

“After the War Shield recruited German scientists with strategic value." Katie said.

"They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own." Zola continued.

"Hydra died with the Red Skull," Steve snapped.

"Cut off one head, two more shall take its place." Zola said confidently

"Prove it," Steve challenged and Katie had to stifle a sigh as she was pretty sure they were going to regret that.

"Accessing archive."

The computer screen began to screen old footage of the Red Skull and of the original shield founders.

"Hydra was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize, was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, SHIELD was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside SHIELD. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed."

Various photos flashed up as he spoke of events through the course of modern history. Besides him Katie gulped when they reached the assassination of JFK, and the photo zoomed in on a grainy image of the masked man with the metal arm in the distance, aiming his rifle, The Winter Soldier.

"That's impossible, SHIELD would have stopped you," Natasha said quickly countering the computer.

"Accidents will happen." The computer screen then revealed a very familiar item, the newspaper reporting Howard and Maria Stark’s deaths. Steve felt his mouth go dry as he realised what Zola was telling him, whilst besides him, Katie took a deep breath as she looked at the screen, her Parent’s faces looking back at her in black and white print. And then the ringing started in her ears.

Her parents had been killed? By the Winter Soldier? By HYDRA? When she spoke again, her voice was desperate as she was, desperate for this to be nonsense. “No, that’s not… they died in an accident… it was a car crash…”

“Things are not what they seem...” the screen drawled back

“You killed them?” she said, the anger now evident in her voice as it coursed through her veins, her voice loud as she balled her fists “HYDRA killed my parents? Why?”

A photo of Director Fury flashed up.

"HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security." Pictures of three helicarriers were shown next, and Steve feel the angry heat spread up his neck, blistering and raw. "Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum."

Steve's anger boiled over, and it appeared Katie's had as well as the pair of them surged forward. Katie lashed out with her right foot kicking over a chair in anger and Steve brought his right hand crashing into the TV, smashing the screen. It only resulted in silencing the Swiss man for a moment, before he spoke cockily once again from a different monitor

"As I was saying…”

"What's on this drive?" Natasha asked quickly stepping in front of both Katie and Steve to avoid the pair of them destroying anything else.

"Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm."

"What kind of algorithm? What does it do?" Katie demanded.

"The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it."

Suddenly, the doors they came through started to close. Steve threw his shield attempting to catch them before they shut completely but it missed and he caught it as it ricocheted back.

"Guys, we got a bogey, short-range ballistics. Thirty seconds tops." Natasha announced looking at her phone, her voice earnest.

"Who fired it?" asked Steve, as he starting to look for an escape route.

"SHIELD." She looked at him, then to Katie.

"Admit it Captain, it's better this way. We're both of us, out of time," warned Zola.

Katie looked around for any sign of a way out, knowing it was pointless. She spotted a grate in the floor not too far from where we were and yelled at Steve. He easily threw the top off as Natasha pulled the drive out of the port that was on the desk.

"Get in!" Steve yelled. Natasha hopped in, then Katie jumped down as well, the two girls getting as close to one another as they could to make room for Steve in the small space. He jumped down and pulled them both in close before holding his shield over their heads.

The missile hit just as he did so. Instantly heat, smoke and pressure surrounded the three of them. Steve could feel the ash and heat in his throat and he had to fight with all his strength to keep his shield above them, as the debris from the collapsing building above us rained down. Letting out a groan he braced himself and simply stayed as strong as he could, and eventually the noise subsided. He could hear Katie’s heavy breathing as she struggled to maintain her calm, coughing slightly a she spoke.

“Nat…”

No answer.

Steve grunted again as he pushed against his shield trying to clear away the debris on top of it just enough to get out. He let out a sigh of relief as he gave a strong push and light flooded down into the chamber. With another almighty cry and a heave, he managed to clear a path for him to climb out. He scrambled up, checked around to make sure it was safe and the he glanced down at the two women.

"Hey," he called “You ok?”

“I think so… Nat’s passed out.” Katie said, awkwardly shifting Natasha around carefully in order so Steve could lift her out. Carefully he set her down and then wrapped his hand around his girl’s wrist and pulled her out of the hole. Immediately she crouched next to Nat.

“Her pulse is strong…I think she just fainted…she doesn't do well in tight spaces, like me...”  Katie said, coughing harshly before she paused at the sound of a familiar hum growing steadily closer. Quinjets.

"Let's go." Steve ordered quietly, scooping Natasha up in his arms. Ensuring Katie was in front of him at all times, they quickly began navigating their way out of the rubble. "Get back to the truck."

Katie climbed into the backseat and Steve laid Natasha down along the seat so that her head rested in Katie’s lap before he jumped into the driver's seat, starting the car and taking off down the dirt road.

Neither of them spoke for a good 5 minutes. Katie was still trying to make sense of what Zola had said. HYDRA had killed her parents, for no other reason that she could think of bar the fact her dad had worked tirelessly against everything they stood for, as part of SHIELD. Her eyes misted over and she tried to blink back the tears, keeping her breathing even. She knew if she started crying, after everything that had happened, she wouldn’t stop. 

In the front of the truck, Steve’s head was also reeling. All this time, HYDRA had grown within SHIELD, he’d gone into the ice for what? He wiped his hand over his face and glanced in the rear view mirror. Katie was looking down at Natasha, gently carding her hands through her friend’s hair, but he could see her eyes were wet. He felt another flash of anger. How could Fury have not noticed? How could Peggy have not noticed? So many goddamned questions…

“What…” Natasha’s voice was croaky and Steve glanced back again to see the red head’s eyes fluttering as she looked around.

“You passed out” Katie said, looking down at her “we’re alright now, we got out ok.”

She sat upright and blinked again, “Thanks…”

Steve turned back to the windscreen as the car fell into silence.

“So…where to now?” Nat asked the question. No one answered which caused her to suggest “Tony?”

“No” Steve and Katie both said at the same time.

“For one thing he isn’t in the country.” Katie said, “He’s in Aus working on some deal.”

“And they’ll be watching the Tower.” Steve continued, “It’s not safe”

“We need to get hold of Hill.” Katie said, “She’s the only one in any of this I trust now.”

Steve pondered, and then had to concede she was right. “Alright, but we need to lay low whilst we do…any ideas?”

“Yeah.” Katie said, and it was a crazy one, but one that no one would even suspect, as no one in SHIELD knew the man existed. Not yet anyway.  “Nat, any chance you can look up an address?”

“Sure…” she said, pulling her phone of out her pocket.

Steve shot her a questioning glance in the mirror, which turned into one of realisation as she spoke.

“Sam Wilson.”

“Honey we hardly know the guy.” Steve said, voicing his concern

“Well trusting people we do know hasn’t exactly worked for us so far, has it?” she snapped back, a little tetchily. Steve opened his mouth to argue back but Natasha cut him off.

“Nova’s right. Sometimes the person you have to trust is a stranger.” *********

Sam let them in without so much as a question, the fact that the three of them were battered, bruised and filthy declaring everyone they knew was trying to kill them told them all he needed to know. He offered up his guestroom and Steve being the gentleman that he was let both Natasha and Katie go before him, giving Sam a brief overview of what had happened.

Katie and Natasha both showered quickly, and now they were currently sat quietly in the guestroom while Steve used the en-suite. He washed his face and looked in the mirror, letting out a sigh as he glanced back at his reflection, various bruises already covered his arms and upper body thanks to his accelerated healing but that wasn’t what bothered him. He was completely and utterly at a loss as to what to do next. Well, whatever it was, he wasn’t going to find the answer in here. Turning, he opened the door and saw Katie sitting behind Nat on the bed, drying the back of the woman’s red hair. He locked eyes with her, gave her a small smile and then looked at Natasha who was staring into space.

"You okay?" 

"Yeah," she replied quickly, too quickly.

Steve set down the towel he was drying his hands with and entered the room then sat on the chair across from the girls. He leaned his elbows on his knees and looked at Natasha carefully. "What's going on?"

"When I first joined SHIELD, I thought I was going straight. But I guess I just traded in the KGB for Hydra," Natasha confessed, looking down at her hands. "I thought I knew whose lies I was telling, but I guess I can't tell the difference anymore."

"There's a chance you might be in the wrong business." Katie teased earning a small smile from the redhead.

"I owe you." Natasha said quietly, "Both of you." She added looking at Katie

"It's okay," Steve said.

"If it was the other way around, and it was down to me to save your lives – and be honest with me – would you trust me to do it?" asked Natasha quietly, her green eyes locked onto Steve’s.

"I would now," said Steve. "And I'm always honest."

"Without question." Katie said as well as Nat turned to her, a smile growing on her lips.

"Well," she said as she looked back at Steve. "You seem pretty chipper for someone who just found out they died for nothing."

"Well, guess I just like to know who I'm fighting," Steve said in response, although she had hit a nerve.

"I made breakfast," Sam's voice came and the three looked to see him leaning up against the doorframe. "If you guys, eat that sort of thing." He added as he left.

Steve inclined his head slightly, smiling as Natasha stood up and left the room, shouting after Sam to see if he had a hair dryer, earning her a sarcastic response about him not having had an afro since the late 80s. Katie made to follow her but Steve caught her arm gently as he too rose from his chair.

“Baby…” he started, wanting to talk to her about the discovery but she cut him off, shaking her head. She didn’t want to talk about it. It was too painful and the fear of what Tony would say…

“You know, after mom and dad died, Tony lost it.” she said gently, voicing her fears. “When he finds out they were murdered it could push him over the edge again.”

“Don’t tell him then” Steve found himself suggesting. He didn’t approve of lying, but sometimes if knowing the truth was detrimental then…

“And then if he does find out, and then realises I knew and didn’t tell him?” Katie sighed “I don’t know what’s worse…”

She looked utterly lost and broken and he felt a lump catch in his throat as he pulled her to him, kissing the top of her head. He was desperately trying to think of something that would raise her mood, and then he found himself for some strange reason thinking back to the banter the 3 had shared in the truck. He looked down at his girl.

“Did you really tell Natasha I had a big…” She gave a small chuckle, the sound music to his ears. “No I said you were a big dick…she must have misheard me”

He rolled his eyes and a sarcastic “ha ha” fell from his mouth as she smiled, sliding her hands up his chest.

“What I actually said was that if that thing…”she glanced down at his crotch before looking back up “Wasn’t supersized at the same time you were, I have no idea how you managed to stand upright before the serum.”

Jesus she was incorrigible at times. But he loved her for that. And he was also secretly pleased she thought he was packing, so to speak. He smirked as his hands slid to her hips “you’re a nightmare…” he looked at her.

“Yeah but you love me.” she grinned.

“Yeah, yeah I do…” he said, his lips meeting hers in a soft kiss before the pair of them sighed, the moment of humour and good nature slipping away as they both remembered exactly where they were and why they were there.

“Come on…” Steve said, taking her hand and together they headed down the hall into the kitchen area, the smell of food hitting his nostrils made his stomach grumble.  

"You all look a hell of a lot better." Sam commented as Katie grabbed a few things for her plate- a couple of pancakes, fruit and toast. Steve smiled a bit at the quasi-compliment before he sighed, biting into a piece of toast.

"Well, it's been an eventful twenty-four hours." he responded as he slipped into a chair.

“I aint got anywhere to be.” Sam shrugged as he looked a Steve “I know you gave me the overview but how about you give me the details?”

Katie sat down next to Steve at the table and looked at him, then to Natasha before they launched into a detailed explanation of what had happened as Sam listened intently asking questions and serving coffee out to them as they continued explaining over the next 30 minutes or so.

"So, the question is, who in SHIELD could launch a domestic missile strike?" Natasha asked from where she was stood, leaning comfortably back against Sam's countertops.

"Alexander Pierce," Katie confidently answered, finishing her coffee.

Steve looked at her, smiling softly. She was at it again, that analytical brain was going 10 to the dozen. It was amazing how different and better everything seemed once you’d eaten and how much of the situation now was starting to slot into place.

"Who happens to be sitting on top of the most secure building in the world," Natasha said as she walked towards the table, standing behind Katie, almost snorting at the irony of the situation.

"He's not working alone, Zola's algorithm was on the Lemurian Star." Steve continued.

"And you told me that Jasper Sitwell was too." Katie said, and there it was, another piece of the puzzle.

"So, the real question is…” Steve looked at her and Nat “How do the three most wanted people in Washington kidnap a SHIELD officer in broad daylight?"

"The answer is, you don't," Sam dropped a file on to the table to the right of Katie.

"What's this?" Steve asked, standing up as Natasha picked up the file.

"Call it a resume."

Katie stood up as well so the three of them could look at the file.

"Is this Bakhmala? The Khalid Khandil mission, that was you," Natasha then turned to Steve. "You didn't say he was a para rescue."

"Riley?" Katie asked nodding to the photo of Sam and another man.

"Yeah," Sam answered.

"I heard they couldn't bring in the choppers because of the RPGs," Natasha recalled. "What did you use, a stealth chute?"

"No. These."

Sam handed Steve another file and he looked down at what could only describe as a pair of mechanical wings. He shared an impressed look with Katie before he glanced at Sam.

"I thought you said you're a pilot?" Steve asked Sam.

"I never said a pilot," Sam countered with a smirk.

"I can't ask you to do this, Sam. You got out for a good reason."

"Dude, Captain America needs my help. There's no better reason to get back in." Sam almost scoffed.

"Where can we get our hands on one of these things?" Katie said, looking up.

"The last one is at Fort Meade, behind three guarded gates and a twelve inch steel wall," Sam supplied.

Steve looked to Natasha who nodded with a shrug. "Shouldn't be a problem." he said, looking at Sam with a smirk before he turned to Katie. “Reckon you can track down Sitwell?”

“Sam, you got a Laptop?” She looked to the man who nodded.

“Then yeah, I can track him down…”she said, dropping her StarkPhone onto the table.

********

The plan was as solid as they could make it. Steve and Nat were taking Sam’s car to Fort Meade to break out his kit whilst Sam and Katie stayed behind, in an attempt to track down Sitwell. It wasn’t ideal splitting up, but it was the best option they had. All 4 of them travelling would have attracted attention, plus this way if 2 of them did get caught, the other 2 still had a chance of getting the job done.

Steve drove the truck down the freeway, Nat lounging in the front seat as she looked at the plans of the base that they had courtesy of some expert searching on Google Maps.

“If we go in from the East Side we should have the element of surprise.” she said.

“Right, we get in, we get out, minimum casualties, minimum fuss” Steve nodded.

Natasha hummed her agreement as Steve stopped at a red light.

“So, you actually asked Stark to move in?” Nat grinned.

“Yeah.” “I’m impressed.” she drawled “Your 40s programming has been well and truly broken.” He rolled his eyes “Well I figured I want to spend the rest of my life with her so…” He realised what he’d said instantly and let out a groan as Natasha grinned “You wanna marry her…” she said in a sing-song voice.

“People don’t always get married now…” he said, trying to shrug it off and she snorted.

“Bullshit Rogers!” she laughed “Soon as you can get a ring on it we know you’re gonna.” “You know I kinda already asked her.” he said, looking at the red head who turned to him, mouth open. He had no idea why he was telling her this, absolutely no idea, other than the fact it felt nice to talk about something positive. “Well, not properly but when I asked her to move in she was teasing me about us not being married so I said we could get married if she wanted…” “Great proposal.” Nat sniggered, rolling her eyes “And what did she say?” “Told me to ask again with a, and I quote, big, fuck off tiffany diamond.”

“Every girl deserves a bit of sparkle…” Nat mused “Unlucky for you, you’ve chosen a Billionaire to date.” “She’s not like that.” Steve instantly jumped to his girl’s defence.

“I know.” Nat soothed with a smile “I know.”

They fell into silence for the rest of the way and upon arriving at the base they crept round to the best point of entry, following the heat scanners on Nat’s phone. Steve easily dispatched 3 guards, Natasha another 2 before they reached their room, and she hacked the security codes. They met no one on their way out, and all in all it went far too smoothly for Steve’s liking. He just hoped Katie had got on as well with locating Sitwell.

And she had.

Once Steve and Nat had left, Sam fired up the laptop for her and she plugged the end of her StarkPhone into the USB port.

"So you know this guy we’re looking for?" Sam asked, placing a coffee down next to her as she waited for the programme to run its magic.

"Vaguely." she sighed out, knowing it would be easier if she knew him better. "But I can work with what I have…”

“So using what you have, how do we find him?" he asked

“First, I’m going to check his calendar.” Katie said, nodding at the laptop

 “And you can do that?” Sam asked

“Not on my own.” she grinned

“Good morning Miss Stark…” JARVIS’ voice rang out from the laptop, causing Sam to slop coffee down his shirt in surprise.

“Hey JAR, I need a favour…this is urgent.” “Of course…” “I need you to by-pass the SHIELD firewall and get me into their server without being noticed.”

“Certainly, but permit me to ask…is everything ok Miss Stark?”

“Nope it is not…” she sighed “I’m in trouble J, but I’m hoping this is gonna help…”

“Should I alert Mr Stark…call him back from Australia?” “Absolutely not.” she shook her head. “There’s no time, in fact I forbid it…”

JARVIS set to work, informing her he was going to scramble the IP address and set up a ghost server which would, in turn, allow her to access the SHIELD remote log in without being detected.

It didn’t take long, 15 minutes later the SHIELD log in page flashed up.

“So People are lazy and 9 times outta 10 use the same passwords for all their accounts.” she said as she tapped away “And Sitwell is an arrogant ass hole, thinks he’s smart, clever so his password will be something to remind him of that, something that every time he types will feed his ego, remind him of what he’s doing right under everyone’s nose…”

And then it came to her. She took a deep breath as she typed in the words.

“Here goes…” she said, pushing the enter button. There was a short pause, before the Welcome Screen flashed up and she gave a yell of success.

“What was it?” Sam asked, hi-fiving her

“Heil HYDRA.” she smirked, tapping again. "Right, let's see where you're at, you fucker.” she said, as Sam peered over her shoulder.

“Look, briefing over lunch with Senator Stern at Occidental… 13:00 hours…” he read.

“Then he has another meeting at 14:30 back at the Triskellion… so Lunch is our window.” Katie looked at Sam.

“Gives us an hour and a half…”

“Cutting it fine…” Katie mused.

She had a quick scan through his emails, but there was nothing incriminating in there at all. Not that she had expected there to be, whatever HYDRA were up to it would be held on a completely different, hidden network.

“Ok, thanks J…” she said, logging out of Sitwell’s account “Can you disconnect.”  “Certainly Miss Stark. Good luck.”

Just as the AI had shut the link down her mobile rang.

“We got it…” Nat’s voice said as she put the phone on speaker. “All ok your side?”

“Yeah, we’re good.” Katie replied

“Any luck finding Sitwell?” this time it was Steve

“Yeah, he’s having lunch at Occidental with Senator Stern at 1pm…”

“Oh, how nice, they have a Senator involved.” Nat said sarcastically.

“Doesn’t give us much time…” Steve mused.

“What’s your ETA…” Sam asked.

“About 25 minutes.” Steve said.

“Ok so let’s do the brain storming whilst you’re on the phone…”  Katie said, tapping at the laptop.  “The restaurant they’re going to is in the Business District…so we need somewhere secure that’s close by to take him for a little chat…”

She brought up the Google Map images so Sam could see.

“There…” Sam said, tapping at the screen, “There’s a multi-storey parking lot a few blocks down…take him up high…”

“Kick him off the edge…” Katie said, shrugging.

“Stark, I like your style.” Nat replied, and Katie could hear the smirk in her voice.

“Ok so we got there where, now we need the how…” Steve sighed. “Well can’t just pick him up at lunch, if the Senator’s there security will be a nightmare.”

"So we wait until he’s finished.” Sam shrugged

"But how do you get him to get in the car?" Steve asked

“We make him…” Katie said, simply, eyeing her gun where it lay on the table.

***** Turns out fear is a very, very good motivator. The plan went off perfectly. They spoofed a phone number, had Sam call Sitwell once lunch was over to instruct him to head to Sam’s car which was parked round the corner. As predicted, Sitwell had been his usual cocky little shit of a self, until Katie had aimed her gun sight at him.

“Because that tie looks really expensive, and I'd hate to mess it up” Sam smirked.

Katie stepped out from her hiding place behind the wall of the restaurant and pressed the muzzle of her gun into Sitwell’s lower back as he passed.

“Agent Sitwell.” she said “One move and this goes straight into your spine. And I’ll make sure it doesn’t kill you, just leaves you with no feeling from the neck down…” Sitwell instantly tensed.

"Miss Stark," he grumbled out, seemingly annoyed, "Of course you're involved with this."

She took in a breath and glanced around, making sure none of his security had realized what had happened to him. Sam was a few paces behind them and he gave her a nod to say they were clear before she turned back to Sitwell.

"You made me a wanted fugitive." she managed out through gritted teeth. “Didn’t have much choice. Get in the car." she ordered, sternly.

“Where’s your boyfriend?”

“Get in the car…” she said again. He stared at her, looked down at the gun before he swallowed and decided to do as he was told.

"We good?" Sam asked. Katie let out a breath and swiped a loose hair away from her face.

"Yeah, let's go."

They drove 2 blocks away and pulled up outside the large Starbucks on the main road.

“You know I could have got a coffee at the Restaurant” Sitwell said, sarcastically. But his cocky demeanour soon dropped when both the rear car doors opened and Steve slid in one side, Natasha in the other.

“Good afternoon Agent Sitwell…” Steve turned to him, aviator shades covering his eyes. Sitwell looked at Steve, then to Natasha before his shoulders slumped and he bowed his head.

“Shit.”

******

Sitwell really was a cocky little bastard, Steve had to give him that. He easily manhandled him onto the top of the Car Park roof, demanding to know what the Algorithm was, backing him up right to the edge where the agent almost laughed, stating that it wasn’t Steve’s style to throw people off the edge.

Well, he had a point.

"You're right. It's not." Steve said releasing Sitwell and smoothing out his suit letting the man nearly sigh in relief. Katie exchanged a glance with Natasha behind Steve’s back, the corner of her mouth twitched up slightly as Nat looked back. They were both going to enjoy this.

"It's theirs" Steve finished, before standing aside as both Katie and Natasha aimed strong kicks to his chest, the two of them sending him tumbling over the edge.

"So you’re definitely moving in together, then huh?”  Natasha asked, peering over the edge as Steve and Katie did the same, listening to Sitwell’s screams growing fainter.

“Yeah…” Steve said, looking down off the side of the room, hands in his pockets. “Although I’m not sure how I’m going to cope surrounded by your mess.”

Katie rolled her eyes, her too looking down as Sitwell's screams started getting louder again and suddenly Sam flew over with him in his grasp and dropped him back onto the roof, before landing a few feet away. The three of them turned toward Sitwell and he stuck his hands up in surrender, telling them everything.

"Zola's algorithm is a program, for choosing Insight's targets!" he rushed out.

"What targets?" Steve demands.

"You! A TV anchor in Cairo, the Undersecretary of Defense, a high school valedictorian in Iowa City. Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Stephen Strange, anyone who's a threat to HYDRA! Now, or in the future," he continued to rush out failing to catch his breath.

"The future? How could it know?" Steve asked in confusion. At this Sitwell laughed as he stumbled back to his feet, looking at Katie before he glanced at Steve.

"How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book. Zola taught HYDRA how to read it," He said getting confused looks from the Soldier in return, "Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e‐mails, phone calls, your damn SAT scores…Zola's algorithm evaluates peoples' past to predict their future."

Steve swallowed. He’d heard and seen more unbelievable things.

"And what then?" he asked, already thinking he knew but didn’t want to know the answer. Sitwell shook his head in disbelief as Katie exchanged a glance with Sam who was stood behind Sitwell. He shook his head in disbelief.

"Oh, my god. Pierce is gonna kill me," he mumbled to himself and he tried to back away from the advancing super-solider but Sam reached out, holding him in place with a firm hand on his shoulder.

"What then?" Steve demanded louder.

"Then the Insight Helicarriers scratch people off the list. A few million at a time," Sitwell answered hesitantly after a moment.

Tags

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[arecomicsevengood]

QUARANTINE MOVIES PART FOUR

It’s wild to watch any movie knowing that none will be made for the foreseeable future, and that the whole collective experience of filmgoing might be dead. I tend to have a certain sad, scared lonely feeling when I contemplate the future at night, and while I attempt to put off by watching movies, it only partly works. Now, more than ever, movies are a larger part of my processing of the world than the ongoing conversations I have with friends.

Smithereens (1982) dir. Susan Seidelman

There is something particularly powerful about movies where people run around, socializing. These things are pretty resonant with my youth, but “youth” in this broad sense that just means “the before times,�� because if there’s anything quarantine is bringing home it’s the importance of a form of adulthood based around domestic partnerships with someone you like and having “real jobs” that can translate to telecommuting. Of course, socializing of the sort no longer allowed is really useful, and shouldn’t be written off as youthful frivolity. Smithereens is not a particularly romantic movie: While it might be famous for being “punk” in a “cool” way, documenting young New York nightlife in a way where David Wojnarowicz’s band 3 Teens Kill 4 is on a club’s marquee, it’s really about young people as these sort of upwardly-mobile opportunists with no real talent trying to exploit one another for a mixture of sex and social clout, and ignoring those who are not actively useful to them. It’s a useful document of people being shitty where the appeal now is how cool they look, and it’s interesting to watch in this moment where I’m worried that the whole idea of community will be lost very soon, in a way we won’t even be able to articulate. We’ll all be scrambling for jobs and security but everything will be further hollowed out, and we’ll be left with an even more vicious and dog-eat-dog citizenry. So a movie like this has nostalgic appealing, but by depicting the seeds of what will only become more widespread problems, it avoids feeling dated or idealistic.

Gloria (1980) dir. John Cassavetes

Oh shit this movie rules! I was under the impression I disliked Cassavetes, based on the others I had seen, and watching the first twenty-odd minutes reminded me of why: Sort of circular conversations, involving a lot of people being upset with one another. But this ends up feeling more like a movie, and less like a play. Once Gena Rowlands kills a carful of people I was completely on board. She’s great in this, playing opposite a child, who is also amazing in it, tons of dialogue that should be quotable: “You’re not my mother, my mother was beautiful” being but one amazing bit of poetry. Both extremely cute and extremely badass from moment to moment, the parts of this movie are in tension with one another where it also feels like it’s going from strength to strength, and ever scene, every moment, is great. Incredible music, and also great documentation of a world that doesn’t exist anymore, of telephone booths, smoking sections, and places that’ll develop photos for you. Highest possible recommendation.

The Naked City (1948) dir. Jules Dassin

Seemingly the first movie to be shot on location throughout New York, rather than studio backlots, and it milks the city for all its worth, shifting frequently from one location to another, introducing to new characters. Initially guided by omniscient narration but quickly focusing to become a police procedural. I knew Dassin from Rififi but this feels more exciting, I would gladly watch movies bite the techniques from this every few decades, though Gloria does a good job of moving through the streets of New York in a less-contrived way. There was a Naked City TV show ten years later, shot on location and focusing on a police precinct.

Near Dark (1987) dir. Kathryn Bigelow

I consider this Kathryn Bigelow’s best movie, but circumstances have not led me to watch it as many times as I’ve seen Point Break, so the memories I’ve retained of it were kind of inaccurate: Specifically, the thing I thought of as the climax, the part at the hotel where light is getting shot through the blankets taped up to cover windows, happens like halfway through. Screenwriter Eric Red wrote this at the same time as he wrote The Hitcher, and that’s another one that just GOES, moving from one scene to another where they all have this climactic intensity constantly but the scale is shifting of what you’re invested in? The Hitcher is a nightmare and this is more of an action movie. People point out this movie has a bunch of the cast from Aliens but I didn’t realize there’s a shot where Aliens is actually on the marquee of a theater. I also wonder if this whole horror/action/western/but with vampires thing was an inspiration to Garth Ennis? I kinda feel like the pacing I find so powerful could not really be sustained over the length of an extended comic run.

Hero (1992) dir. Stephen Frears

Dustin Hoffman plays a criminal schlub, doing a weird voice. It’s almost like he was told that the role was written for Sylvester Stallone, but Stallone’s insistence on getting a writing credit on every movie he acts in complicated the premise in a weird way, so Hoffman just attempts a Stallone impression. One of his few redeeming characteristics is he’s a loving father, but that isn’t why he’ll remind you of your dad. Maybe most men are just Dustin Hoffman doing impersonations of Sylvester Stallone! From 1992, so Hoffman’s I guess in a post-Rain-Man mode, but the film also feels very early nineties in its commentary on television news turning stories into celebrities, and an analysis of the problems with professional cynicism that seem very much of their time. It’s not like a more sophisticated critique has found its way into any mainstream film I can think of, we’ve just stopped thinking about these issues, as they’ve become much worse. Joan Cusack’s good as his Hoffman’s ex-wife, and Susie Cusack’s good as his lawyer. I would like to see Susie Cusack in more things! Geena Davis plays a television reporter, Andy Garcia plays a decent guy who is a contrast to Hoffman, there’s also small roles for the likes of Stephen Tobolowsky and Tom Arnold, really placing this in a moment of time.

The Age Of Innocence (1993) dir. Martin Scorsese

I didn’t like this one, for all the obvious reasons: I don’t like costume dramas about rich people, and I don’t like Daniel Day-Lewis. It’s an Edith Wharton adaptation, all about a world of well-mannered old money with very rigidly defined rules of behavior. Michelle Pfeiffer plays the true love Day-Lewis is kept from by the mores of the day, and part of her romantic appeal is she’s able to see through the rituals and make fun of them, while Winona Ryder fully buys into them, and thus reaps the benefits. Everything is repressed, all behavior is affect, this is of course the point but very much not my thing. There’s also a lot of a narrator reading the text of the book while the camerawork fades between lavishly composed image, while the cinematography probably looked great on a big screen I would still be very anxious about getting to the storytelling.

Experiment In Terror (1962) dir. Blake Edwards

This one starts off super-intensely, with a home invasion scene, the sense of horror in this is palpable but the fear is just used as this blackmail structure for some noir stuff? It straggles the genre line pretty well, feeling weird because of this horror energy of sheer creeping malevolence defines it. This is also considerably longer than most of the other film noir I’ve watched recently, because those moments extend and take away from the sense of a building plot, to instead feel like they might derail it. Lee Remick is the lead, and she is this terrified victim, which makes the film more interesting than if it were focused on the cop played by Glenn Ford. The main character’s younger sister gets kidnapped at one point, it gets creepy. The climax occurs at a end of a crowded baseball game, and there’s shots that I assume were done via helicopter, which seems like it would’ve upped the budget considerably.

The Harder They Fall (1956) dir. Mark Robson

Humphrey Bogart stars as a former sports writer, working to drum up publicity for a fresh-off-the-boat boxer who does not know how to fight, but is naively participating in fixed matches, for the economic benefit of the mob. While the boxer is being exploited and making no money, despite his celebrity; Bogart is being well-compensated to sell out his conscience and he is very good at playing a dude in moral conflict with himself, struggling to do the decent thing. While this isn’t the best boxing movie, or the best Bogart, it’s still pretty good.

The Devil And Miss Jones (1941) dir. Sam Wood

Heard about this one in the context of it having good politics. It’s about a rich guy who goes undercover at a department store hoping to bust the union only to realize that the guy organizing the union is supremely decent and the middle manager should get fired. It has some scenes that feel like they might play for “cringe comedy” but also are just so fucked up? One where the rich dude is forcing shoes onto the feet of little girl who is crying saying “I don’t like it! I don’t like it!” feels way too much like a pervert’s fetish for me to be comfortable with. The female lead is played by Jean Arthur, who is very good at playing a genuine, kind, and idealistic person. I am very grateful she dates the union organizer and the old rich dude’s love interest is someone age-appropriate. Interesting to see a pro-union movie from a time when unions were popular, so it functions as populist entertainment while Sorry To Bother You gestures at being radical propaganda for self-congratulation’s sake.

Human Desire (1954) dir. Fritz Lang

Another noir from Lang, with the same leads as The Big Heat. This one made me worried about age-inappropriate relationships too, as it begins with a dude being back from war, moving in with his friends, and their daughter having “become a woman” while he was away. Luckily the title refers  to a desire he ends up feeling for a married woman who as an accomplice to a murder committed by her abusive husband. Glenn Ford stars in this one, and he has this very boring morally upstanding male lead quality that makes these well-made movies feel generic. This thing is happening to me watching movies where I get kind of hung up on how no one ever explains themselves or their feelings: I don’t think they should, I think the whole thing of watching a movie where you watch it thinking like “Why don’t you just tell her you love her??” is interesting because… a writer doesn’t need the characters to explain their feelings to each other if the viewers understand them, these feelings are the most obvious things and so can go unspoken, and so you would really only have them say these things if they were lying or being manipulative? But maybe in more modern movies people really do state their motivations because screenwriters are dumber now? I don’t know.

Fail Safe (1964) dir. Sidney Lumet

I have talked about this movie a lot since watching it, and in a way that doesn’t even mention that the opening is amazing, and the title and credits sequence are all-time greats. Instead I mention that Henry Fonda’s performance seems to have inspired David Lynch’s performance of Gordon Cole, and how the weird, fucked up nightmarish ending doesn’t really change the fact that watching it in 2020 it feels like a sort of pornography of competence when contrasted against our own reality. The whole movie is about an accident that leads to a U.S. military plane flying to Moscow to drop a nuke, and everyone (except for the pilots) realizing this is a mistake and trying to avert global nuclear war. The ending is pretty astounding in its darkness. Walter Matthau plays a guy whose role is to argue for the pragmatic value of mass death, but the moral calculus that ends up being embraced is far beyond the nihilistic death drive he advocates for. Mutually assured destruction is such a motherfucker of a concept. I am really hung up on the idea that unilateral nuclear disarmament never became a thing really set a precedent for how political parties in this country will never unilaterally dismantle their propaganda machines. 24-hour news is a nightmare, not really on a par with nuclear weapons, but similarly something that should be illegal, but for the calculations made. We would be a different country if we were willing to make these kinds of sacrifices but we really are not.

The Deadly Affair (1967) dir. Sidney Lumet

James Mason stars in this John Le Carre adaptation. He plays a spy whose wife is cheating on him, with another spy. None of the twists in this are unforeseen, in fact, the title alone explains a bunch, but the title is also so generic you might forget what the movie is called while you’re watching it. James Mason is good in it, although it’s weird that he’s playing a likable guy who sort of doesn’t seem to understand why everyone can’t get along or be honest adults with one another considering his work in the intelligence community. Another solid Sidney Lumet movie.

Three Days Of The Condor (1975) dir. Sydney Pollack

This movie does a very good job of not explaining things up front, and then portioning out understanding as it goes on. The movie begins with Robert Redford getting his office getting shot up, and we eventually learn he works for the CIA, but he cannot rely on them for his protection. It doesn’t introduce the female lead, played by Faye Dunaway, until like halfway through the movie, when our hero takes her hostage. Redford can’t really explain the situation to her, and just sort of acts like a psychopath, but they are able to have a quasi-romantic relationship where she trusts him because he’s played by Robert Redford, who is in some ways the seventies’ answer to Glenn Ford. The movie star aspect allows him to sell his agreeability, although he’s also supposed to be something of a nerd, a guy whose job is just to read books and analyze the information. Max Von Sydow plays the villain.

The Third Shadow Warrior (1963) dir. Umetsugu Inoue

Watched this because it’s made by the dude who made Black Lizard, it’s a samurai thing about a warrior who employs body doubles. It follows one such body double, overshadowed by the man whose existence he supports, at the expense of his own individuality or happiness. Interesting enough, feels like it occupies the solid middle of samurai movies- Something sort of common to stuff on Criterion is something that doesn’t blow you away but it is definitely a “real movie” at the very least.

La Cienaga, (2001) dir. Lucrecia Martel

That said, you kind of do need to be careful with newer Criterion channel stuff, because some things feel more like they’re just trying to engage with an art house history in order to earn their place in the canon. This movie isn’t bad, but I do feel like the reason it’s interesting stems from a context the film itself has nothing to do with: After Martel made Zama (2017), there was talk of her being asked by Marvel to do a Black Widow movie, which is insane. The studio also volunteered to handle the action for her, which she said she would actually be interested in learning how to do herself, but she had no interest in working with Marvel. Let Lucrecia Martel make a big-budget action movie without corporate properties you cowards! This movie is pretty difficult to follow, with no clear narrative thread, a lot of characters, weird pacing, etc. There’s moments of poetry or tension but this is one of those things that’s just beyond my preferences enough to remind me of a certain aesthetic conservatism I possess. I didn’t finish Zama, though I had read the book. It’s honestly tough to imagine Martel making a movie with straightforward plot that can easily be followed, it doesn’t seem to be what she’s interested in, even in terms of editing a movie so that you have a sense of where scenes stand in relation to one another in time. Many scenes still maintain a sense of beauty or mystery but at there’s no velocity. She’s closer to Apichatpong Weerasethakul or Carlos Reygadas or Bi Gan, to name three people whose names I absolutely had to Google because I couldn’t think of them off the top of my head.

All these movies are streaming on The Criterion Channel, if you want me to recommend things on other streaming services, please DM me your login information.

[hell-heron]

The mighty crusaders 1957 - Liveblog

First of all this is a terrible title, second can't believe this is really the only adaptation available. I really have been spoiled by all the previous classics-related obsessions. But yeah, because I hate myself I decided to watch this extremely weird and unfaithful movie, thankfully not mute nor black and white but in English and unsubbed so I'll try I guess 

- We open on a war council. Goffredo is good, Rinaldo is a fuckin brat, nothing new. Then we cut to Tancred leading his troops + war prisoners back to the camp. Tancredi is cute enough, he's slightly mean to Erminia bc when a Muslim soldier tries to escape he blames her saying she should have prevented him and save his life which?? How?? But overall he's nice enough, which is important because really so many girls fall for him just because he's pretty, honorable, nice and overall boyfriend goals. Erminia just gives him an half smile before being scolded by some old man for fraternizing with the enemy but oh well. Erminia's character is actually quite well presented. She has a very melancoly line about how for a soldier life as a prisoner is worth nothing, but she as a woman has no such pride which really feels like something she might say in the poem. Going back to Tancredi, because he is nice, he allows a groups of Muslim (?) merchants to spend the night in their camp under his protection. Among the merchants is Clorinda, in incognito, who Erminia calls the daughter of King of Persia (No???). She and Tancred banter a little with the usual "This is no place for a woman" "I'm used to danger" schtik. Obviously everyone involved is snow-white but whatever, its the fifties

- "You should not trouble your pretty head with matters of war" and then he asks her out to dinner... Tancredi... It turns out Clorinda actually wanted this to get the battle plans, which is...weird bc why would you send the famous warrior literally everyone knows to spy? But she says only Erminia will recognize her and she won't snitch... cut to Erminia snitching. Slander, bc Erminia takes seven years to make any decision and she and Clorinda are bros but fine I guess. At least she asks him not to harm her. Also Tancredi has a tiger skin hung in his tent which miiiiight be foreshadowing but I'm sure Clorinda will not get to wear her awesome tiger helmet so whatevs. The costumes are pretty nice tbh, I love Erminia's dress. Less Tancredi's sparkly emerald green doublet but eh.

- The dinner date is HORRIFYING Movie Tancredi: "A woman with your elegance is wasted in battle. You were born to help man live not to let them die" Poem Tancred: *sees Clorinda* "We don't have to fight here is my chest for you stab you I'm glad to die if it's you my heart is already yours take it out would you like me to take my plate off so it's easier baby I'm all' yours"

- "It was not my choice to be the only child of the King of Persia but I have my duties" HELLO???? "Your words are strange for a soldier" "What, because I have the needs of a man?" AAAAAAAH The two dumbasses remember that if they meet again it will be in war and there is a brief pissing contest where he slashes stuff open and she throws knives around, which is a welcome reprieve.

- Random guy: "We were waiting for your arrival to give the final assault" Tancredi: "Don't be overconfident, my arrival won't make it any easier" Away from Clorinda he sounds vaguely more like himself. Though they are equally good Rinaldo is the action hero, not Tancred and that is important. Passing on the Christian side, Clorinda looks way better in armor and badass red cloak than in a dress, though still no tiger imagery to be seen, Olindo and Sofronia look like they're out a terrible R&J movie, Clorinda proposes to trade them for Erminia (who is here the king's niece) which is a concept the learnt from Tancredi apparently bc no one else knows how war works.

- We meet Argante. He's bald and a dick but has an interesting moustache. He and Clorinda have a chat. Clorinda: "I'm sure you would kill and woman in your captivity who denied you her favors". Because that's you talk about your best friends. Argante: "You refused to marry me and I didn't kill you." Yup. I would like to say "Ugh, the fifties." But frankly what I really must say is "Where has all the willingness to let men and women be purely platonic close friends gone in the last 4 centuries" because it's not like it's any better now. Pity because their relationship in the poem was so lovely. OH WAIT no so Clorinda is BETHROTHED to Argante by her father, the king of Persia, who is a person that exists and raised Clorinda, his actual daughter, alright, but the marriage will only be valid if celebrated on free land, so he will have to wait until Jerusalem is, uh, delivered. Argante then says something about if she leave him for another man it will be trouble -FORESHADOWING

- Tancredi: "You can return to your people! Aren't you happy?!" Erminia: *sobs*. Cut to her, who famously is an oversensitive, tormented shy nerd who understandably is conflicted about her feelings and keeps everything to herself, babbling everything to Clorinda, saying he would have been hers had Clorinda not come along. Clorinda is not amused. Then an harem dancer with a terrible accent announces Argante. We can see, unlike Tancredi, Argante is a dick because, unlike Tancredi, he is glad Clorinda is a worthy fighter and considers her an equal. Also because he's the only visibly darkskinned person despite being probably the one with less reason, being from *googles* the Northern Dead Sea area. Also Clorinda "I didn't get enough melee fighting today, must compensate with arson" is """"tired of fighting"""". Yeah. Poem Argante: No, no, thy fellow have I been in arms/And will be still, in praise, in death, in harms Movie Argante: "If you don't love me its the same thing as if you despised me He also suspects Clorinda might fancy a Christian, but changes the subject and proposes a plan to kill Rinaldo. Meanwhile Rinaldo, who is Tancredi's best bro and absolutely not a reckless teenage nuisance, is bantering with the aforementioned as a messanger announces Argante's attack. Battle scene. Irrelevant stuff happens, they do NOT kill Rinaldo, but Tancredi and Clorinda (who now wears a badass leopard skin tunic) meet. He disarms her way too easily and asks her to promise he'll leave fighting to the warriors and stop endangering herself. She tries to set him up with Erminia to get rid of him, no use. He keeps insisting on his love, she demures, they kiss, she goes away but he said he won't give up on her.

 - They celebrate a funeral for some dude named, I shit you not, Dudone and Rinaldo swears revenge. This person was killed by Argante with a blue steel sword taken from a murdered Christian and a big deal is made of it but it's absolutely not, to my memory, in the poem so?? Rinaldo and Goffredo fight because Goffredo is not enough of a dumb reckless bitch, apparently. Cut to Argante shit talking Rinaldo. My boy never disappoints. The king (I know this is not a dumb movie thing but I can't bear to call him Aladin) proposes to use Armida, witch slash seductress in hot flowy sleeves, to sow discord. Argante says women in war are only useful if they know how to fight like Clorinda. Armida has a surprisingly feminist speech affirming the contrary. Clorinda, who was introduced to us as an undercover spy, says it would be unfair to use such deceitful means, the king says Armida is not a warrior and she's not honest (rude) so no other way, she goes

- Armida, all in virginal white but tiddies out, goes to Rinaldo who is disputing with Gernando who will take Dudone"s army. "Your great generosity is known even to us" EHM.... She gives a slightly different story but to the same effect, that she turned Christian so now Aladin is persecuting her native town of Damascus and the Crusaders have to help them. Rinaldo compelled by chivalry and the power of pussy accepts but no one listens to him. I can't understand if Tancredi is present or not because all the dudes look alike to me. I can set apart Rinaldo just because he is dressed in white to emphasize his nonexistent youth. More drama goes on, Rinaldo kills Gernando way too ungruesomely, but he will be mourned because he had style. We lose Tancredi trying to Relate To The Youth providing Rinaldo with unsolicited advice, instead he just advises him to run away.

- Clorinda talks to Erminia and says she doesn't want to fight because the enemy is too virtuous and generous... again? This is really not how it goes, neither of the too really gets a lesson about peace from falling in love. This is not Romeo and Juliet, it's not a completely senseless feud, it is a war that by Tasso's point of view being a guy in a religious crisis writing during the counter-reform, needs to be fought and, on both sides, is virtuous. That's why the love is tragic and doomed. But whatevs. Someone snitches about her feelings at Argante, Argante snitches at Aladin and requests to fight Tancredi in single combat. The duel is boring and they both fight dirty in an out of character fashion. I changed my mind about Erminia, she's so fucking bratty and horribly butchered. Then she gets her illumination (obviously no monologuing about her femininety and powerlessness bc why valorize the nice moment of real empathy and sensitivity from a male author) puts on Clorinda's armor and goes to look for Tancred. She's chased away, Tancred goes to look for her, he finds out about Armida's trap. Things go a bit different for Erminia than in the poem, instead of finding the shepherds she joins the Christian camp and then Piero, the priest, sends her to to the shepherds. Clorinda (horrifyingly) gives Tancredi information to find Rinaldo so he goes away telling no one. The discussion with Argante re: postponing the duel happens and Raymond, bless the old man, is appropriately badass. Argante botches the treaty and the king insults him, though in the poem he was like this kindly old man who kept hugging the warriors in inappropriate moments

- Cut to Armida's palace with beautiful visuals, horrifyingly skinny harem dancers and HUGE dubcon undertones by Armida to Rinaldo but I still like her, though any real magic and wonder is completely stripped from the whole situation. Tbh I'm not invested in this plotline enough to bitch much.Tancredi sneaks in and lasts in his disguise about three seconds before starting murdering people. I might start spiteshipping him with Rinaldo, so much I dislike the situation with Clorinda. Armida hits on Rinaldo once more then lets them go.

- Clorinda: "You forget they are fighting for a cause they are dedicated to and would die for their leader without hesitation" again... so would the Muslims it's kind of the point... She and Argante have a little sweet conversation that contrasts horribly with the rest of their relationship, but her feelings are like... general presentment of dying, no thirst of glory, desire of doing more, feeling of inadequacy and everything else. Also it's HIS idea to destroy the siege tower which Ugh. I'm frankly gonna skip the siege until the duel now. It's clear that we are going to miss Erminia's time with the shepherds, the reveal about Clorinda's identity and tbh all' her beautiful relationship with her adoptive father, so che changes faith just because cute crusader is cute I guess and based on the time remaining, nothing of Tancredi's complete, poetic, heartwrenching mental breakdown either. Nice. The duel is in a nice location but all fucked up, it's not wild and energetic at all, no simbolism of it lasting dusk to dawn, none of all the raw dialogue, not even "What do you bring" "War and death" "Death and war you will have of you pray for them", no Clorinda refusing to reveal her name and claim her glory to reveal how her priorities have shifted, Tancredi recognizes Clorinda as soon as she falls so no moment where he thinks she's just some random guy but he still is moved to tears from her desire to convert and is willing to forgive her (which is imho what led Clorinda to fall in love with him). They exchange a few words but no hand holding in sign of peace which I guess wasnt necessary when it’s not the only tragic, bittersweet touch they’ll ever exchange but still :( and overall I just feel nothing. At least they don't kiss. Also I feel like there is something very compelling about Tancredi shutting in and saying nothing for the whole scene and it's lost here. Also he can't push everything inside and then let it out when Clorinda dies bc when Clorinda dies Argante comes and they duel right here so we also lose the BADASS scene of eberyone mourning Clorinda and him swearing revenge. One bright note is we get to see Tancredi dramatically fainting as he is famous for at least once, but it's from Argante's wounds, not Clorinda's, which is meh. Then Erminia finds him and there's some sort of victory celebration where Erminia and Tancredi are implied to be getting together. Yay. What the fuck happened to the Armida plotline?? Well, no matter. This is over, we have learned that being clingy and selfish but traditionally feminine gets you the man, and everyone is happy

[kewltie]

high-end escort!izuku au: where rising top hero ground zero seriously need a date to a super important mandatory gala and his idiotic friends bet that he can’t wrangle a date. while katsuki knows bullshit when he sees one he can’t help wanting to rise to it bc his agency is getting super annoyed that he keep bailing out of this function and to shut his so called friends so now he is stuck to find a date in 2 days. katsuki is GOOD but he’s not that good so he resorts to the discreet world of escort service and picked the most famous agency and asked for their number one. what he got was his former childhood friend who had spurned and hurt all grown up now and about to fucking rock his world. 

izuku 100000% never actually wanted or intended to be an escort. the sludge villain never happened so he’d never met all might and therefore never received OFA so he never got a chance to go to U.A and become the greatest hero that he is meant to be :((((. with his dream thwart izuku focuses on his study and kind of move listly through life with no goal bc if he can’t even become a hero what’s even the point. eventually during college days money became super tight and izuku doesn’t want to rely on his mother and make her carried the burden of it. so he started to pick up multiple jobs on the side along with his studies... and it get harder and harder to remain his grades so his education suffer and he’s kind of stuck bc if he give up on his job he has to worry about the cost of living and school but if he focus on just earning money then his of education suffer :((, the vicious circle of a poor college student. 

so on one of his more uh colorful jobs where he works as a server at a hostess club down in the night district of downtown and that’s where he meet all these women and learned all their tricks and trade just from watching them every night. there he sees how they convinced their clients to give up more and more money to the store and stay longer and it surprisingly isn’t them seducing their clients but knowing what to say and how to say in a way that appeal to their clients ego and personality. izuku may not be into it or understand it completely but he watches and learns bc though these women may not be working at a place that society deem as deplorble but they make do with what they have and they use it to the best of their ability and that izuku can understand and he admires them for it. 

one night while he’s working, there’s a v drunk customer who had mistaken izuku for one of the girls and izuku got severely hit on and groped but instead of punching the man izuku calmly removed the man’s hands from his ass and waist and says with a smile, “sir, i’m not a cheap thing that you can touch that easily. if you want me to service you why don’t you buy yourself and your group a drink?” and that’s how izuku got the man to shell out more money to store and so drunk that he can barely stand and totally forgot about izuku. he diffused the situation w/o making a huge deal out of it and that’s what bc he’d pay attention to his surrounding and adapt to the situation so it doesn’t escalate. 

during the entire scene, there’s this lady who has been sitting on the side (ladies customers are rare but not like deterred) but is there to scout host/hostess clubs around the area for her own escort agency and she saw how izuku managed to deal w/ the customer with just a few words and a smile and she wants him to work for her. she approachs him after work and offers him a deal and compensation plan that looks too good to be true if he come work for her and use what he learned in that club for her clients. izuku ofc doesn’t right away accept it bc it’s kinda suspicious but she told him to look her up and give her a chance. he ends up doing it and that’s how izuku fall into the escort profession. 

turns out not only did the skills he’d picked up at hotess club was extremely helpful to him in his new job but natural analyze skill with his clients is the core of his job bc then he learn swhat they like and become whatever they want. he is able to read the mood & body language of his clients and knows what to say and how to say it so they response positively toward him. 

like for example one of his regular clients is a hieress to a mass fortune and she’s beautiful and smart and highly skill in corporate trade so it’s a double edge sword bc she’s so talented and beautiful that men finds her intimidating and get scared of her. so she look for in izuku is a lover/friend who can she can lean on: letting her rant about her job & frustration, offer her emotional comfort, cuddles with her from time to time, and treat her like every other girl, like she MATTERS and izuku delivers it in spade. he would bring her her fav food & flowers whenever he meet her, they have sleepover where he would paint her nails as she vent to him about her job and the ppl she work with, and he takes on date where they go to hole in the wall small family run resturants that she’d never went and nobody else even consider she would go bc well she’s an ELITE so ofc she wouldn’t be caught dead there but SHE LOVES IT. like these things he do to consider his client personality and their life choices is v v v important to his job bc he’s constantly adapting and changing to meet their needs.

what work for one doesn’t always work for other bc he also have an older male client who is divorced and lonely bc all his kids are grown up now so he’s looking for a companion, someone that make him feel needed and useful. so izuku acts spoiled and demanding, wanting the man to buy him stuff that he doesn’t actually need and requesting to meet him when the man is supposed to be in a meeting or throw a tantrum when the man cancelled a plan and it’s seem dumb and innocous but the client ABSOLUTELY LOVES IT bc it’s exactly what he wants to have someone rely on him and make him feel importat like they need him for his money and position even though it’s shallow but he wants that and izuku is there to give it to him. so maybe at first izuku felt super guilty that he’s lying or faking it for the money but the more he’s in this job he realize it’s just playing the part of their boyfriend, lover, friend, etc he’s selling an idea and the idealized version of what they want so he’s doing it for them as much as it is for himself... or so he thinks. 

but first and foremost izuku ISN’T PAID TO have sex with his client. he’s paid to be their perfect fantasy boyfriend/lover etc but if he does have sex with client it’s bc he genuine likes them and wants it for himself. but ofc ppl will misconstrued his job as soon as he say escort and think prostitution instead and though that may be true in other cases where the business can get sleazy and $ in exchanged for sex but not izuku and his agency. over the years of working at this job izuku climbs all the way to number one and is highly requested bc he’s so terrifyingly good at his job and is able to become the perfect bf/companion/lover you need just by understand and breaking down his client char, personality, and desires. 

so this is where katsuki comes in years later when izuku is already firmly established in the business and is damn ass good at his job. their relationship splintered during middle school years and they’d never recover and so they lost contact. during the time izuku was in college and working, katsuki was climbing the rookie heroes and he grown out of his own shitty behaviors thanks to his friends and U.A. curbstomming out the toxicity of his attitude and he realized he fucked up with izuku but even though he has grown up and grown better for it he has never got a chance to redeem himself in front of izuku. so when he’d managed to break into the top 10 pro heroes and there’s this important gala he has to go he found himself face to face with izuku the boy who he had hurt and torment and he’s a fucking escort now? WTFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF. 

katsuki doesn’t know what he should say to izuku, probably apologized he thinks but what came out is “what the fuck are you supposed to be?” and izuku blinks and then he smiles, slow and sure. “you’re date, kacchan,” izuku says and katsuki feels like his heart is knocked out of his chest bc that’s a name he hasn’t heard in years and just like that it’s like they are back to their childhood youth again except izuku stands before him not as that awkward nerdy useless kid but a man confident in himself and his place in the world and he’s fucking beautiful and katsuki IS WRECKED. 

look heroes don’t really hire escort (i mean some of them may do it but it’s all hush hush) so izuku doesn’t have a lot of interaction with the pros. he’s just as surprised as katsuki but he’s a professional so he doesn’t show it and though always with clients they have to filled out the form of what they’re looking for in their escort and information about themselves katsuki left his form blank on both his request and himself  (bc he’s like i want the best you got bc i won’t bring anyone lesser) so izuku literary went in not knowing who he is supposed to be so he can of adapt into this cool & charming default persona but as soon as he saw it’s katsuki it BLEW OUT OF THE WATER. he is so used to be other ppl for his client that now he found himself caught out and strange that he can’t put back his mask on in front of katsuki bc katsuki is a reminder of all his past, his heartbreak, his crushed dream, and the boy he’d admired and inspired him. it was a rude wake up call for izuku but he tries to recover and fixed the mask back on but ofc nothing goes as plan. 

when they went to the party together katsuki has to watch izuku plays the charming date and become an actual life of the party.  a lot of people flit around katsuki bc he’s the kid that broke into top 10 but katsuki is bristling w/ contempt bc he hates all this hanger ons and fakers pretending to be interest in him just bc he’s known now but izuku is there to distract them and get them off katsuki back. for the civilian izuku just say the right thing at the right time like how he does with his previous clients but when the pro heroes come over to congratulate and talk to katsuki. izuku is able to recite all their achievement, compliment on their latest heroic jobs, and ask them questions about their powers and it’s just really wholesome and sweet and EGOBOOSTING for the pros. and then when the heroes leave izuku and katsuki alone, izuku’s mask immediately dropped and is like “OMFG kacchan that was X and Y, they’re so much more amazing in real life i can’t believe i met them” he went back to fanboy mode and is gushing hopelessly about it and katsuki inwardly smile bc that’s his izuku right there, that’s something he can recognized and cling to. 

katsuki’s friends eventually come over to bother him and him about his date and katsuki doesn’t know where to start bc how does he explain izuku the boy whose ghost had haunted him since middle school and how he had changed as much for himself but also for a chance to meet izuku one day and be the hero that earned izuku’s admiration and regard. izuku is the one that took care of it and just said they’re old childhood friends and doesn’t bring any of their intense violate history up. he easily assimilate into katsuki’s group and katsuki’s friend keep making questioning eyes gesture like they can’t believe someone as good and perfect as izuku is dating katsuki LOL but it’s all just a mask that izuku play to this best ability. only when he’s alone with katsuki that izuku feels like himself and tells hims how katsuki’s friends are eclectic and hilarious and he’s very happy that katsuki finds a group of ppl that support and loves him truly and that alone more than the perfect date MORE THAN PERFECTY WOOING KATSUKI’S COWORKERS AND FRIENDS it’s that ultimately slayed katsuki bc despite everything izuku still wishes the best for katsuki. 

by the end of the night, katsuki demands to take izuku home and when izuku got out of the car katsuki grabs his hand for a moment. “i should have said this sooner but i’m sorry for everything. you didnt deserve what i did and say to you. i was mean and terrible to you as child but i hope, i hope that you can see  that i have changed,” he tells izuku and though he’s not even looking izuku and his words are even and practiced but the sweat of his hand holding izuku’s and the slight tremble that carried through is all izuku needed. izuku nods his head and said, “i know,” with the truest smile that he doesn’t even give his client. 

After that event, izuku assumes that once katsuki made his apology that he has been waiting years to do they’re done then. he won’t see katsuki again but STRANGELY his boss tell him he got another request to go to an even with katsuki. 

on katsuki’s side his agent is kinda giving him a weird look bc why does katsuki of all people want to go to all these black tie events that he has been avoiding like the plague but it’s all just an excuse so he can request izuku again and again lol. even though katsuki finally release all his pent up guilt and frustration with himself over izuku and thought that his past with izuku can be put to the rest... now he wants to see what kind of future he can have with izuku. he started off as mostly curiosity and the chance to see how his childhood friends is doing and why is HE ESCORTING so he keep asking for izuku and the more they spend time together the more he realize how little izuku had changed. he’s still pretty awkward and clumsy and such a nerd when it come heroes once he stopped pretending to be someone other than himself. bc katsuki doesn’t WANT SOME PERFECT BOYFRIEND OR DATE he wants izuku and only izuku. he doesn’t response well when izuku put on that perfect boyfriend mask of his so izuku just dropped his mask more and more with katsuki until he realizes his mask had been long gone. they’re the only two people who knows each other past so intricately and who despite the years having been past and how they all grown up now, their childhood memories still clings to them and that’s hard to erase despite their complicated history with each other. it add layers to their relationship and though their future doesn’t have to include each other they want IT TO BE bc these two are hopelessly drawn to each other by their share past and youthful dreams and wishes.  

so they hang out more and more, getting to know each part of each other, and they even go on more casual dates until izuku is going over to katsuki’s house now. izuku even talk about his former dream of being a hero that had never bore any fruit and how that had haunted him for years. he had thought he put it all behind him but close to katsuki and his pro heroes friends open his old wound again. katsuki doesnt mock or make fun of him about it and even seriously takes in consideration that izuku doesnt have to be a hero to save and that's theres many part of the hero sector he can do like management, support, and analyses which izuku had never consider bc he was so intensely focus on being like katsuki and all might. eventually and surprisingly katsuki is the one to make the first move and asked if it’s okay to kiss izuku and izuku dazedly nods bc it seems like he has been waiting for this moment his whole life. maybe he didn’t love katsuki this way when they were little but he did admire as someone who inspired him but this katsuki all grown up is someone he knows he can safely give his heart to. so they start to date ish but they never talk about their relationship status bc they are both afraid this fragile relationship of theirs may break and ofc THEY NEVER talk about izuku’s job until that happen. 

izuku got a job to go to this event with some pro hero and katsuki wasn’t even supposed to be there but a coworker cancelled so katsuki had to replaced him and there he sees izuku clinging to SOME GUY. izuku is wearing one of his mask and is acting completely DIFFERENT like he’s another person in front of katsuki. it suddenly hit him right there what izuku’s job actually entails and he’s ENRAGE SO MAD BC HE THOUGHT MAYBE MAYBE THIS MEAN ALL THESE TENDER MOMENTS HE HAD WITH IZUKU WAS IZUKU PRETENDING TO BE WHAT KATSUKI NEEDED ALL ALONG. WHAT IF HE’S FAKING IT. WHAT IF HIS FORGIVENSS WAS A LIE AND HE’S PLAYING A TRICK ON KATSUKI :(((((((((((((. 

he confronted izuku later that night when izuku got off work and bc katsuki is dumb and in love he said the exact wrong thing and hurt the person he’d never want to hurt again. “do you sell your body as much as your affection too huh, deku?” he sneers. 

izuku punches katsuki in the face and cries and katsuki is so stunned by it that he doesnt know how to react bc seeing izuku crying undo him completley, it reminds him of their childhood and how he had made izuku cry so many times and now he’s doing it again. “don’t ever contact me again, kacchan,” izuku tells him through a waterfall of tears, leaving katsuki completely numbed. 

from that night onward izuku goes back to his job sealing his heart and going through the motion. while kastuki felt like he had ripped a hole in chest and doesn’t know how to fix it. i think once katsuki realizes what a fucking mess he did through a lot of his friends helping through it that he will eventually confront izuku again and begged him for his forgiveness in the most dramatic way possible LMAO. 

izuku is with one of his regular client again and they’re at a big social event he knows katsuki is unlikely to be there but katsuki IS THERE and he’s storming through the crowd and grabs Izuku, dragging him away from his client and crowd. he takes izuku to back garden and there izuku had enough and about to push him away and go back but kastuki get on his knees and said, “look i know i can be a fucking dumbass around you and i realized i fucked up royally but this is me at my lowest and im on knees for you and only you. only you get to see me looking this pathetic and that drives me insane but i want you so please gimme me another chance to prove that i deserve you,” katsuki confesses and it’s the most rawest emotinal confession that he can delivered and izuku is crying again but this time he’s so happy that he launched himself at kastuki lol. 

they do work it out and get better and communicate more now!!! and they’re so much fucking happier than before. i think eventually izuku does quit his escorting service bc it isn’t viable in the long run and he knows that while katsuki isn’t exactly happy with izuku’s job he has long accept it and have 10000% trust in izuku. izuku eventually finds a job in the hero sector bc that’s all he wanted to do and he get to do and katsuki supports him 100000% all the way AND THEY LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER. 

[pomegranate-salad]

ÜbeR-rated

For whatever reason, Word War 2 and Nazism have been on my mind a lot lately, so I finally got around to reading Über, all 27 issues of it, plus the specials and the beginning of Über Invasion. And I wrote a 5K analysis of it in the context of the fictionalization of Nazis. This is a thing I did to myself. And if you don’t want to feel left out, now you can read it too.

Heavy spoilers for the whole Über run, TW for pretty much everything you’d expect from a WW2 comic (except screenshots, because… well). Enjoy (?)

…

 What am I looking at here ?

  It’s 11 pm here and I’ve been staring blankly at my computer screen for thirty minutes, trying to find the proper way to kick off this essay, when all I had to do was to take a look at the additional rewards of the Kickstarter for the new Über arc, in order to introduce the point I want to start this piece on : I AM VERY, VERY WARY OF WW2-BASED FICTION. It’s not to say I’m opposed to it on principle, as I know some people are ; no matter how hard the topic, there’s always use for fiction. Fiction is a vector. It can be used right and it can be used wrong, but while on some levels it cannot hope to ever hold the same value as historical content, there are similarly elements only a piece of fiction can grasp. And if this kind of ethical discussion is always going to be around, it’s because fictionalization of real-life events is always going to be around. It’s an inevitable processing device of the human mind, and as much as possible I try to examine artistic material without resting my entire appreciation on their rapport to their source material, if only because part of their value comes from their ability to stray away from it.

But if there’s one event around which the tensions between history and fiction have made themselves an integrant and even a central part of any discussion of their artistic merits, it would be World War Two, and more specifically the Third Reich aspect of it. Maybe that’s unfair. But the historicity that has to be worked with on other topics here becomes a prerequisite concern : if the transposition from real events to fiction is handled poorly, it stands at risk of disqualifying the entire work. And even in works from thoughtful, ethically-minded creators (as it is the case with Über) you’re never safe from a “what the hell were they thinking” type of blunder. I hope they still sell those shirts next time I visit an Avatar booth so I finally get something to go with my “I <3 Auschwitz” tote bag.

 However, once we get past the fact that the “offensiveness” of the work is always going to be part of the discussion, there is a lot to be said on the link between historical events and their fictionalization on a pure narrative level. Even when this fictionalization is done wrong from an ethical point of view, it can teach us a lot about our own need for fiction and the inner workings of real events-based artworks.

 I felt this introduction was necessary, as this piece is going to feature both discussions of the ethical stakes raised by the choices Über made when fictionalizing WW2, and discussions of the same choices from a storytelling and aesthetic perspective. Nevertheless, even when these two aspects – ethical and artistic – are discussed separately, it should be understood that they are coexisting lenses of appreciation of Über as a whole, and that a negative or positive appreciation of a narrative choice from one perspective should in no way be taken as a validation or denigration from the other. To put it simply, the fact that I will praise some of Über’s creative decisions doesn’t mean I consider them free of ethical issues ; reciprocally, my criticism of Über’s handling of some ethical issues doesn’t mean I consider it worthless as a piece of art.

If you are of the opinion that ethical deficiency should prevent any artistic analysis of this work to take place, I will not argue ; similarly, if you want to avail yourself of a right to enjoy fiction without concerning yourself with ethical debates – well, you’re wrong, but that’s not an argument I will start here. Personally, I think these two aspects need to be analysed concurrently here, as Über is kind of a perfect case study in WW2 fictionalization in that it’s a thought-provoking work in large part because it is riddled with questionable choices, instead of being thought-provoking in spite of them.

 In conclusion to this introduction folks, Über is a land of contrasts.

  The Three Big Bad Wolves

 At its most basic level, the premise of Über is nothing that hasn’t been done before : at some point in WW2, we enter an alternate timeline in which Nazis somehow manage to take the advantage thanks to a technical breakthrough. It’s a handy premise as it has long served as an oblique way to discuss the American use of the atom bomb in Japan, and the subsequent nuclear race, without being hit with the “would you rather have had the Nazis win the war ?” inevitable defence. Put the dangerous toy in the hands of the most recognizable villainous figure of the 20th century, and suddenly, the conversion loses its controversial aspect. However, I’d also argue it loses its pertinence. It doesn’t have to, but more often than not, the identification of debatable means to an undebatable villain tends to wash out any reflexion on the mean itself to instead reinforce the evil of the character. The Nazi atom bomb is evil because it’s Nazi, not because it’s a weapon of mass destruction. There’s no equivalent to the nuclear escalation started by the US bomb in the Nazi atom bomb timeline : any technological progress made to counter Nazis is ultimately being coloured as good, because it’s fighting Nazis we’re talking about.

This is where Über does something interesting : instead of trying for a weak “no blameless sides” approach that could only pale in comparison with the culturally engrained goal of stopping Nazis, it turns the original premise to eleven and watches it unfold. The Nazi atom bomb is not just the American one with the eagle painted black, it’s one that dons an unmistakably Nazi idea : the rise of a superior race of men. So when the USSR and the UK and then the US have to retaliate, they have to do so by implementing a technology that is tainted with the very ideology they are fighting against. In that sense, it’s very telling that we see this technology collide with the Allies’ own racist ideology : America is willing to put itself at a disadvantage by under-employing some of its potential “enhanced men” because they are black. In the war of ideas presented in Über, Germany has already won : it’s now fighting on its own field.

 That’s the enhanced men premise in terms of sides ; what about the enhanced men on their own ? Where do they stand in the context of fictionalizing WW2 ? There’s of course an inevitable comparison to be made between Captain America and Über, but one I will leave to someone who actually knows their stuff about Captain America. Instead, I want to look at this premise from a larger perspective : is there a use for a superior version of Nazis ? A sci-fi device is handy to compensate for an overpowered adversary ; in Über’s case in particular, any modern WW2-based fiction has to work with the limitations of hindsight : we live in a world that was built on a Nazi defeat, therefore it is hard to conceive of a winning Germany without somehow rebalancing the odds. This is where fiction might benefit from a re-actualization that is inherently impossible for historical material : we could make Nazis win, so we can beat them again.

 However, this is where the unicity of WW2 as an historical event comes to undercut the use of fiction. WW2 and the Holocaust aren’t just real events : they were a cultural breaking point. To grossly paraphrase Theodor Adorno, one cannot think in the paradigm that led to Auschwitz anymore. With the end of WW2, a page of the human book of thoughts was turned. Our intellect, our culture, came across something that couldn’t be assimilated : both had to be profoundly rerouted to make sense of the world. Nazism is an intellectual dead-end : it represent the moment an entire intellectual and cultural paradigm imploded into total loss of meaning. What it means is that, even today, Nazism is Nazism precisely because we can’t conceive of it, and yet it did come to exist. Understanding the historicity of Nazism takes more than faith in the facts ; it takes suspension of disbelief IRL. The key factor in understanding the cultural impact of WW2 is its reality. Nazis aren’t scary because they were evil, they are scary because they were real. So if your premise is something along the lines of “Nazis, but scarier”, all you can accomplish is further remove Nazism from what gives it its cultural impact and straight into fiction territory. By pushing it into deliberate incredibility instead of forcing the audience to confront its actual incredibility, you anchor your story into a sanitized environment in which Nazism has been replaced by its cultural shorthand. Your Nazi is evil, but they’re not real, and therefore not scary.

This is why to me, using fictional enhancement to compensate for the historicity of Nazism is a device that is doomed from the start. This is a case where Reality wins ; even the slightest confrontation to real-life Nazi brutality has more narrative impact than all the sci-fi body horror in the world. What it meant for me reading Über is that I was aware of the impact the übermensch were supposed to have on the reader but I never felt this impact for myself. I’d argue the scariest moment in the whole Über run occurs in the Special, specifically Markus’ backstory. Here we see a child born into national-socialist ideology commit a hate crime. The implacable use of infantile impulses to indoctrinate hatred ; now this is a taste of the unbelievable Reality of Nazism. In comparison, Klaudia destroying all of Paris elicits no emotion because it belongs wholly in the cogs of fiction.

Now this would be alright if Über’s only ambition was to tell a story set in the context of WW2, but it’s a comic with the ambition to make a statement about WW2, meaning it wants me to be invested both in its actual story and in the fact that it’s a WW2 story. But it doesn’t work as a standalone story because its stakes are so rooted in its historical basis, and it cannot hope to one-up this basis as a work of fiction. As a result, Über sits uncomfortably between its premise and its stakes, lowering the latter by furthering the former.

  Killing cities in a night, repeatedly

 The fictionalized and historical aspects of Über also come to collide in its graphic decisions. Violence – both its level and its regularity – is a recurrent issue encountered by WW2-based works, including non-fiction ones : what to show ? How much to show ? This is a matter of responsibility but also impact : setting a standard of violence is also what will help you to highlight and judge these actions relatively. What kind of violence do the “good guys” allow themselves ? What is the line that indicates a wrongdoing ?

WW2 here comes with its specific set of problems, as it is an era in which brutality and barbarism wasn’t only pushed further than ever before, it was also generalized and systematized ; meaning that violence can virtually be present at every instant and not feel like an exaggeration. Moreover, there is such a variety of ways this violence can be painted, from clinical and cold to outrageous and unbearable, that each representation of violence cannot help but feel like a statement.

Every WW2-based work has provided us with its own answer to this problem. In Merle’s Death is my trade, the violence of Auschwitz is perceived through the eyes of a detached, efficiency-minded SS top officer : here, violence is a numbing succession of technical examination, the result of a cost and benefits analysis devoid of any empathy. In Inglorious Basterds, Tarantino went in the opposite direction : this is one of his least violent films from a frequency perspective, but when violence occurs, it is never anodyne. Sometimes it is glorious, other times gruesome, but the movie makes sure you are there to appreciate every single bit of it.

 So safe to say there are many ways the litany of horrors of WW2 can be approached. But the solution Über came up with is in my sense a particularly creative, meaningful one, and one I can’t recall ever seeing before. Violence is Über is ever-present, ever-extreme, and yet somehow always centred. Generally, representing violence in WW2-based work takes the form of an arbitration between frequency and impact. You either use violence to world-building purposes in order to create an ever-brutal environment, or you save it to put emphasis on a couple of significant moments. But in this debate of violence as a beat versus violence as a drop, Über never really takes position. Every other panel features someone being ripped apart, some mash of flesh on the ground, every confrontation brings its lot of snuff visuals. It should be numbing or acclimating, but we are forced to keep paying attention by the constant spot the story shines on it. Violence in Über is both the stage and the play ; even when it has relatively little effect on you – as it is my case – you are always half-forced to integrate it and half-forced to focus on it.

But even more interestingly, if everything is violence, then it means there is no background or forefront violence. A plot-wise insignificant rape of a nameless character in the first issue is depicted with the exact same crudeness as HMH Churchill’s leg ripping off during the most decisive battle of the first arc. No violent act is either meaningless or meaningful. No violent act is ever narratively highlighted, therefore no violent act is ever justified. I’ve often read that Über “doesn’t pick sides”, but it definitely does ; what it doesn’t pick is a demarcating line. Violence is the great equalizer of Über : brutality is brutality, whether it’s kicking a puppy or winning a war. This is a courageous position because it goes beyond the “all sides are bad” easy rhetoric of most Manichean WW2 narratives. The violence in Über is not a rhetorical tool, it is not up for discussion, it resists both analysis and relativizing. It is a whole that cannot be picked apart and deconstructed. This is a very punk rock use of violence in that it says almost nothing but makes it emptiness meaningful.

 [I can’t help, however, but point to the only narrative decision so far I consider unequivocally wrong : to wait until the story takes place in the US in Invasion to dedicate some consequent space and speaking time to casualties and civilians. I know where this decision comes from – render the stakes of a Nazi invasion more personal to an historically untouched America – but the fact that this is the first time this aspect of war is evoked on its own feels not only like a gross erasure of actual history, it perpetuates the long Hollywoodian tradition of only being able to care about things when they happen to good US citizen. Somehow I feel like if millions of people can march around the world in preventive solidarity with the US, any member of the presumed Anglo-Saxon readership should be able to grasp at the horror of devastated Europe and Asia without being able to spell the last name of the victims. Anyway, Über Invasion #2 is a perfect example of how a good standalone chapter can lose all of its compelling power when taken in the context of its own series. Back to the essay.]

  The Jewish Question

yup and I’m sure this header will never bring in my notifications the delightful people who frantically search it on every website

 Because violence is an equalizer in Über, it means everything that’s represented in the comics stands at the same level of horror as everything else. What this entails is that, if there is something the authors do consider reaching a superior level of horror, this superiority cannot be expressed within the pages ; there is no way to double down on ultraviolence. Therefore, the only solution to do this particular act justice is to leave it out. There are no degrees of violence, only representation or lack thereof. And this is a determining factor Über uses extensively.

Despite being described in virtually review as “uncompromising”, I find Über to be on the contrary built on compromise ; only the compromising happens before anything makes it onto the page. Because of its particular subject matter, it gives ethical significance to anything “making the cut”, which reveals a level of thoughtfulness of the creators that I wish I could see more often around difficult material.

 And maybe with no surprise, there is one thing Über is decidedly not showing. I call Über a WW2 comic, a Nazism comic, but it is not, by any means, a Holocaust comic. You could count on one hand the number of times the camps are mentioned ; we witness but two acts of antisemitism, and that’s if we include the special ; of the two featured queer characters, one is a Nazi ; there is no Rromani character ; and if not for Leah Cohen, the comic would be entirely devoid of named Jewish characters. Really, this is such a glaring hole in the comic’s narrative fabric that it cannot be something other than intentional. The comic twists into at times frankly comical contortions to avoid the subject : the Nazis are experimenting on humans, but they’re mostly non-Jewish Slavs. Bloody doctor Mengele shows up and he doesn’t do a goddamn thing.

So I think the intentionality is pretty clear here. Now I’ve said in my Tara piece that I will always respect a creator’s decision to stay away from a topic if they don’t see themselves having the legitimacy or the shoulders to handle it properly. It’s especially true when this decision was made out of respect for that topic, which I believe was the case here. I do see why one would want to avoid discussing the Holocaust in their comic about human nuclear bomb Nazis wiping off most of Europe.

 However justified – and possibly right – this choice was, it begs a different question regardless : can you make a comic about WW2, and one exploring literal Nazi doctrine at that, that mostly ignores the Holocaust ? Well obviously you can, but can you make this work meaningful while cutting out the most central and recognizable aspect of WW2 ?

Let’s say it straight up : I don’t have an answer to that. I don’t think an abstract answer can even be given here. But we can look at the answer Über gives us.

 On a pure narrative level, Über does evacuate most of the problem by situating its story after the liberation of the camps. I’d argue that given what a pressing matter the imminent discovery of the camps by the Allies was to losing Germany (google “death march” next time you feel like your life is going too well), it’s hard to conceive why Sankt didn't just take one of the battleships for a stroll to the camps and have them literally blink every evidence out of existence, but let’s accept there are in-universe reasons why the topic can be cautiously worked around.

On a conceptual level, things are more complicated. Über is a comic about WW2, but one that explicitly focuses on Nazis and Nazi ideology. It’s natural for a work about Pearl Harbour not to peep a word of the Holocaust. But when the foundation of the comic rests on Nazi soldiers and the people directly fighting them, the absence of the Holocaust aspect feels like there’s something missing. As a thought experiment, I tried to imagine if the comic would have worked if it had taken place in WWI instead. The protagonists are similar, so are, roughly, the battlefields. There is virtually no reason why WWI Germany wouldn’t work as an antagonist in a sci-fi comic. In fact I’m pretty sure there’s at least one comic out there with this scenario. And yet it feels like Über wouldn’t work at all in WWI. As a second thought experiment, I wondered if the premise would have worked if the Allies had come up with the enhanced human first and realized I’d invented Captain America.

In both instances, the transposition doesn’t work, because of one reason : Nazis. As I said earlier, there is something irreplaceable in the combination of Nazi characters and Nazi ideology-based sci-fi. Über doesn’t work as simply “a war comic in which one side gets enhancing technology” because its core relies way too much on our shared understanding and approach to Nazis. And this is where the absence of a Holocaust narrative in the plot can deprive it of meaning. Nazism is Nazism and not Any Other Nationalist ideology because of the Holocaust. The world we live in today is built on the identity between Nazism and the Holocaust. You cannot think of one without thinking of the other. So when Über rests its premise on Nazism while consciously avoiding discussing the Holocaust, it’s effectively using Nazis out of their context and into a made-up one. It borrows the cultural significance of Nazism while cutting out its signifier.

This leads to a bizarre situation in which only two of the Nazis featured in Hitler are ever seen partaking in Nazi ideology, and the people who are actually seen torturing an –  albeit willing – Jewish character are British. A situation in which the entire core of the racist Nazi ideology feels like a bygone idea destined to die with an insane Hitler to make room for tacticians and economists.

 To reiterate, I don’t know if leaving the Holocaust out was the wrong decision or not. Maybe the risk of feeling exploitative was too great and the creative team was wise to leave it out as much as possible. But as a result, it can’t help but lean a bit more on erasure. The fact is that when your mean of respecting something is to leave it out, then you won’t have the opportunity to compensate for whatever opposite content does make it in the comic. There is nothing offensive about the Holocaust in Über, but there’s nothing reverent about it either.

  Prisoners of fate

 In fact, there’s not much reverence for anything inside Über. There is respect as I’ve discussed earlier, on a structural level, determined by what makes it into the comic. But what gets to be on the page cannot expect any kind of special, tasteful treatment. I think Über readers only learned exactly what they were in for with the concurrent deaths of Hitler and Churchill. If Hitler gets regularly offed by more or less talented creators, Winston Churchill is one of the Gandalfs of WW2, an immediately reassuring presence who eases out your reading by bringing one certainty to it : no matter how bad things get, he’s not going to die. This is the most commonly adopted bias in WW2-based materials : preserving historical figures in order not to throw the audience too much off track. In Über, historical figures enjoy no such immunity. This is an extreme but equally crafty solution to the coexistence of reality-based and purely fictional characters. This is a problem with which a fair share of WW2-based works struggle. Take something like Costa-Gravas’ Amen : the superposition of real-life figure Kurt Gerstein and fictional character Riccardo Fontana doesn’t work at all, as they both serve basically the same narrative purpose and diminish each other’s impact on the story. But in Über, a character’s real-life basis always comes second to the internal logic of the story. That’s not to say there isn’t room for them in the grand scheme of things, but as more and more enhanced characters take the stage, these characters can’t help but feel more and more irrelevant. That is maybe the great paradox at the heart of Über, that it still features a division between the enhanced soldiers instead of one between them and regular humans – a transition Wicdiv underwent recently. I suspect the simplifier or this paradox lies on what Über has to say on Authority, but I’m saving that subject for a separate essay.

 But this “no character is ever safe” stance contributes to another sentiment that runs all the way through Über : implacability. This is a very fatalistic comic, probably even more than Wicdiv. This is particularly palpable in the fight scenes. Despite what the covers would have you think, battles in Über are quite short : four, five pages at best before something breaks it down. But most importantly, they are predictable. There is no last minute turnaround in Über : the second the protagonists collide, you know who’s going to fall short. The only unknown factor is just how scarring this defeat will be. Not only that, there is no narrative logic as to who’s going to emerge the winner : Allies are not due a victory because they last suffered a loss, no side can expect proportional returns to its sacrifices, no battleship is guaranteed to win out of virtue of being a charismatic character. There is only one law in Über, and that’s the Rule of war. The winning side wins because they had the superior technology, the superior information, the superior strategy. The issue of a battle is settled long before the two enhanced fighters even meet, as two groups of high-ranking officers stand above some maps. This is why the story of Über so often seems to be happening in its own background : most of the time, what we see is a consequence of the plot more than the plot itself.

The story is not completely devoid of typically Gillen-esque clever bits, like the “cloning” of Hitler and pretty much everything about Maria. But those are outstanders waiting to be integrated in the grand logic of the story, and until then, often feel out of place – Maria in particular.

 Then there is the second lens we have to see the story through, one that gives the story the full measure of its fatalistic weight : the narration. I said I wasn’t particularly touched by the art on its own ; however, the contrast between the extreme graphics and the cold, factual narration is one of the comic’s best assets. One of the issues’ back pages feature a script excerpt describing a gory mutated monster in very graphic details ; but this sort of writing never makes it into Über. The narration is abundant, but always curiously removed from the visual action, at times even clunky and annoying to read. I wasn’t sure how to make sense of it until I got to a particular description of a piece of art created by the power of the enhanced men. What was interesting is the mention that it was the “first” one, something that would be impossible to know unless you were observing the scene from a distant point in the future. The narration is dry for a reason : this is archivist talk. Whatever perspective we’re observing the story from, this is one that is way ahead of us, possessing some additional information, short on more trivial matters. Über only tricks you into thinking this is a re-actualisation of WW2 : in its own timeline, the war we’re looking at is long over. The fictional heroes, the historical figures, the technological progress, the countries, they are all trapped in their little sandbox, playing a game that only seems undecided, when in reality everything that will happen will do so to arrive at that unknown moment in the future, the vantage point from which we are watching the ants burn each other.

  How can you read Über while holding this intense feeling of vanity ? You can’t ; you have to get into the story, do what the narration cannot do, get closer to these characters, and try to understand them. But you can never fully connect with them either : you are from a different world, both outside and inside the story, a world built on the ashes of the one fuming under your eyes. A world that had to reinvent itself to make sense of the contagious barbarity born of revenge, ideology and desperation. What does the world Über is talking to us from look like ? Does is look like ours ? Is it better ? Worse ? Only one thing is certain : it, too, has suffered a scar. One that may never actually have healed. And this is why, despite the inherent limitations of its premise, despite maybe being too well-minded for its own good, despite the tragic irony of trying to one-up the Nazi threat right at the time it’s being proven the world doesn’t need any kind of incentive to fall for the exact same act a second time, I still think there’s a place for something like Über in WW2-based material. At its core, like several other works over the last year, and maybe premonitorily, Über is about what killed the world.

[doedipus]

LP D&D: Your Reward is the Satisfaction of a Job Well Done

Between sessions, Ludovik and Rich’s longstanding rivalry came to a head, and Ludovik decided to leave. Thankfully, the group was able to work things out like adults, and the separation happened pretty cleanly. To this day, I don’t really get what was going on between them, but I guess everything worked itself out in the end, so whatever. I’m just glad the saga didn’t turn into the kind of clusterfuck people on /tg/ like to talk about.

At the beginning of the session, Rap was playing around with a voice changer for whatever reason. Apparently, one of the presets sounded enough like me that nobody could tell the difference. Am I truly a unique person, with my own wants and needs, or am I some sort of construct off an assembly line, an excitation in the Kim field no different than any other? Is there some hidden land of Kims deep in the woods, where we could find solace from the often terrifying and confusing non-Kim world, free to swear like sailors, nurse our wounds, and watch Neil Breen movies long into the night? 

...Uh, that took a weird turn. Content under the break.

Merrow thanks the party for saving his life

Hier is arrested

Graham lays hands on Esmeralda

Nudge nudge, wink wink

Coy attempts to locate the body of the gnoll shaman, but is unable to

Coy retrieves a handful of the coins the sisters use to communicate

Escrima and Graham try and retrieve some lost equipment

The ship and estate are on fire, so the gang decides to bounce

They make it back home without incident

Lucas wants barkeep to get him the strongest drink on the multiverse

Coy goes to say hi to Akim

Akim thinks the explosions are the hypest

Coy wishes him a happy birthday

Akim thinks her hugs are better now

The players think about that too much

Graham hangs out with Frederick, his squire

He breaks the news of Osric’s death

Graham declares himself “duke”

Fred reminds him that “those of the fairer sex” aren’t in the line of succession

Graham suggests they consider his uncle, then

The alcohol is strong, and everyone is completely smashed

Except Coy, since she was away for the first round

“Did I ever tell you about the time I rescued Esmeralda from a dragon?”

Coy orders a round of coffee for the party so they can sober up

And then orders a round for herself

She’s a little buzzed, but not like the others

“Coy, I love you, I don’t care what your hair looks like, I don’t care if you cut your hair, you’re a beautiful butterfly... creature...”

Greg has a personal crisis

He starts his routine in the pond

GregnLucas ERP in the pond

Coy pulls them out so they don’t drown

Connie has an epic battle with the stairs, and loses

The next morning afternoon, the party wakes up, and is hungover

Except Graham, because paladin or something

Thankfully, Rocky keeps potions of restoration in the attic

Coy stays in “bed” for some short rests

There’s some mail

One letter is from Rolen

He says that the hallucinations he’d been having have gotten to be too much, and he is heading to mithril hall to search for his ex //Honestly, the most disappointing thing about the whole OOC situation was that we never got to figure out what that stomach spider bullshit was going to go

One is for Coy

That will she altered turns up. Apparently she’s owed some inheritance. The attorneys want her to drop in //During the vampire subplot, Coy found some victims dead in their apartment. She also found their will, and wrote herself in

One is from the sheriff’s office, for Lucas

They are grateful for our help

They’ve found out what happened to his brother

Lucas runs off to check it out

Graham gets a letter from Merrow

It’s about Hier’s trial

Hey Coy, what’s that in your pocket? //Coy stole a pendant off a noble later revealed to be Merrow a couple sessions back for no particular reason

Is that Merrow’s?

Coy says she’ll commit seppuku before telling

It might be a good idea to get it back to him somehow

Connie gets a letter too

It’s from her parents, Ida & Ingo Cooper

It’s been circulating for a while

Ingo has died. Ida wants her to come to the funeral. It’s in Neverwinter

Apparently, they’re waiting for her to get there

Lucas goes to Castle Waterdeep

On the broom

He’s broken a law, is he stupid?

But I saved the ci-

WATERDEEP IS A CITY OF LAWS, NOT OF MEN

Lucas tries to rules-lawyer his way out of a 500 gp fine

WATERDEEP IS A CITY OF LAWS, NOT OF MEN

Saving cops isn’t worth edgyLucas’ time

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WRrAeQqVs8

The gang catches up to him

Graham asks for a copy of the paperwork

Coy tries to steal the money back

Despite a poor sleight of hand roll, she gets 800 gp

Graham and Lucas have a brief heart-to-heart

They’re the only original party members left

Coy totally didn’t steal that money back

She becomes inspired again

She gets pissed at Lucas for fucking up pronouns

Before they get to the sheriff’s office, they pass by the attorney’s office

Coy decides to pop in

She says something offensive to the gnomes that work there about their tiny baby arms

Coy signs some paperwork, and obtains a winery estate, and a house.

Winery is in Baldur’s Gate

House is in Waterdeep

They arrive at the castle

Vigo is happy to see the gang

He has a report on Lucas’ brother.

He was wounded in the raid of Mossstone

He was later redeployed to the front lines again

Apparently the sisters’ army has sacked Athkatla

Lucas wants a flying license

It’s 1000 gp

Gotta take tests and stuff

Lucas no longer wants a flying license

The gang remembers that they only have like 5kgp, and decide to confront Rockseeker about it

Rocky congratulates us of our victory

But he reminds us that they remain a threat

He predicts that they will throw everything they have against the city soon

Connie tells Rocky about the coins //Soldiers in the Sisters’ army carry coins that their superiors communicate through

Apparently, they’re stones of sending

Rocky says they’re short range only. Lame!

He says he can reset them to work for the party, so that’s cool

He tells us that we’re to participate in the trial of Lord Hier, and shouldn’t leave town yet

Lucas wants cash

Rocky is reluctant to pay up

He points us towards Merrow

Lucas breaks the news of Gandalf’s death to the party

Lucas says that he killed him

Necromancy, torture, I had to do it, pushed into lava

Angered with their lack of compensation, the gang decides to go see Merrow

Of course we have an appointment! Who do you take us for?!

Someone who doesn’t have an appointment, duh

Graham just tells the guards who we are

The guards are “a little bit pissed off, having to like, do things”

Merrow’s assistant says he’s busy, and we should wait a while

The anteroom is pretty nice, though, so it’s okay

Coffee and pastries are served

He wants a DEAL

Connie gets promoted to LORD OF WATERDEEP HOLY SHIT

Representing Athkatla, of course

You know, since she’s been a lord from there for like two weeks

Merrow offers us 500 gp

He wants Graham to serve as a judge during Hier’s trial

Merrow assures Lucas that the matter of Beydale will be addressed soon

Kim reminds the party about the black shield of blackness //A suspicious magic item from before my time.

It’s a +3 shield! Holy cow!

PVP!

Coy is brandishing her sword, and accidentally makes a swing at Lucas

It goes straight through Lucas’ leg

He pulls it out, spraying leg viscera all over the ground

Lucas cures wounds

He’s not giving the sword back

Shopping ensues

As per usual, the party gets in a fight with a shopkeeper for not having good enough wares //We should’ve waited until Connie could go the the dark assembly the Waterdeep city council meeting to pass a “more expensive stuff” bill

Max wants to learn minor illusion, and JP says it’s gonna be tough

Connie goes to get her clothes fixed.

It’s gonna be a week

The gang visits Coy’s new house

It’s a little bit of a wreck

The bed’s still gross

Coy wants to set Akim up there with a tutor/nanny

He’s looking for Julie Andrews

Or Dick Van Dyke

Probably that guy

She spends a few days looking for a suitable caretaker

Coy leaves him in Waterdeep with Rich, the tutor

Akim is ecstatic about the house

He gets his own room!

He can store all his toys

Like his ragdoll, and, uh,

That’s kind of it, actually

It’s name is “Alfie”

Coy thinks about getting him some new toys

“Will you be my mom, Coy”

Coy gives him a noncommittal answer

Rich the tutor gets 7 gp per month

Coy decides to take the displacer cub with her to train

Akim is devastated

Constanza sends a letter back to her folks detailing her situation

She also summons Paz, the slithering metal gear reference //It’s a tsuchinoko

During the ritual, she has a vision of her parents finding her as a baby, and also some commotion

Lucas and Graham resume shopping

Lucas orders a suit of medium armor with Graham’s help

They head to a jeweler next, to look for a decent wedding/engagement/whatever ring for LucasnGreg

Coy gets some daggers/throwing knives

Graham goes looking for a bag of holding

A shady street vendor approaches him

It’s 1kgp

It’s covered in blood

Graham doesn’t want to know where he got it from

He buys it, and the guy runs off

Coy goes to sell the shield

The shopkeeper isn’t buying that the shield is magical

Coy offers to demonstrate it

The shopkeeper is convinced, and pays 300 gp

Lucas wants some Lupe venom

Escrima is gatekeeping her “precious fluids”

They get half a vial of venom

Graham attunes to the shield

Lucas tests out sending to talk to everyone he knows

He gets no reply from his parents

He recalls that Baldur’s Gate uses anti-magic materials in prisons. Oh no!

His brother and his buddy are okay, though

Lucas teaches Coy minor illusion, in exchange for more draconic later

Coy gives Akim a hand crossbow. It’s giant and dangerous

The warehouse roof is finished //We wanted to have the roof of Lupe’s hangar open on the off chance we could use her for something

As are the other orders we placed

Summons for Hier’s trial arrives

Items are recovered from Rolen’s room

Connie is to be at peaktop aerie at midnight for confirmation as a lady of waterdeep

Connie asks the whole party to accompany her

Merrow arrives in a carriage to take the party to the aerie

Merrow reminds the party that only the lords are supposed to speak

But they can appoint an assistant that can whisper to the lord

She appoints Graham

Apparently, Rocky is a lord. This surprises nobody

A lord asks where Catarina is

A nat 20 convinces them that she’s not full of crap //In-universe, “Catarina” is a kingdom in a children’s book Connie used to like. “Constanza de Catarina” is not actually her given name. She just made it up because it sounded cool and foreign.

They seem to like that the party saved Amswater

All except one lord vote to confirm

What a bitch!

Connie suggests they move to retake Beydale

Some lords agree

Rockseeker throws some shade over the sisters of dawn incident

If the army secures Esmeralton, they’ll move for Beydale

Other topics of discussion include

Increase the number of garbage collectors

A motion to increase taxes on magic shops gets shot down

50k soldiers are to be drafted to the war in the south

Merrow talks about Hier’s trial

Meetings are monthly, but not mandatory

The party gets some winter clothes

During the week, Escrima handled Lupe. She seems trained!

Greg is grateful for Connie’s assistance at the council meeting

He’s also disappointed that Lucas is gonna have to leave again

Lucas suggests that he try and pick up bard-ing

The gang gets a message from Narcovi saying that they couldn’t find crazy eyes’ body

Jake had moving stuff to do, so the session was called there.

[briefbouquetcreatorlove-blog]

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"Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

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i recently turned 18 and am in need of Knee surgury. if i got health insurance right now, would it cover the surgury? or would it be like trying to get a totaled car insured? if insurance doesn't cover it, what should i do? i live in NJ.""

Cheap auto insurance?? PLEASE? :(?

My friend she needs car insurance or her car will get repossessed. She's 19 and has only had her license for a year and is being financed a vehicle($200 monthly payments-in 2yrs it'll be payed off). She doesn't have a steady job yet but she's starting college at hcc this fall. She's living with her mom right now. The downfall is that she's already gotten a speeding ticket and hasn't had insurance for 6 or 7months. She needs a non-'name-brand' auto insurance. The cheapest offer so far was $406 a month and she can't afford that. By the way..this is in florida. Can you please inform me of a cheap car insurance place? It doesn't have to be any good..just cheap...thankyou..

Will my insurance agent report to my car bank that car is not covered no more.?

I'm with state farm. I been playing 190 monthly. Now they want me to pay 450 dollars. I just paid yesterday and my agent said my next due payment is due on 7th this month for 450 dollars. He said it was to be paid when I first got with state farm but I switched agents and now I am expected to pay next week. This is unfair and without fair notice. My insurance is going a cancle if not paid in weeks from now. What do I do. Is my car bank gonna find out car insurance got canceled. I was told it was 190 per month. I thought deposit was high but why 400 ?

Anyone can explain to me how to acquire cheap SR-22 insurance?

what does it mean? explain please...

Would insurance cover it if i get my teeth bonded?

my teeth are chipped pretty badly, and it's causing me a lot of discomfort. i've had them sanded before to smooth the chipping, but they're already little. would insurance cover this? (united healthcare)""

Health insurance in the United States?

Hi! Im not certain how things exactly work in the USA with insurance. 1) Is it compulsory? 2) Secondly, if I have insurance and suppose I want a procedure that insurance will not cover such as laser eye surgery (elective ) or say an elective cesarean. If I am willing to pay for the procedure myself can the doctor refuse to treat me and deny the procedure just because Im insurance isnt paying? Am I allowed to pay out of pocket if Im willing or is insurance legally required? Category""

Can your car insurance rates go up...?

Can your car insurance rates go up if someone gets tickets in your car and They are not listed as a driver.. .

I'm looking for THE CHEAPEST auto insurance I can find. Any advice?

My mom just kinda dumped my insurance bill on my lap. I ahve a 98 CRV and I'm looking for cheap cheap insurance. I really only drive about 10 minutes to and from work a day. I'm thinking the cheapest ones probably won't even advertise on television, so Im looking for word of mouth. Thanks guys!""

Car insurance and name transfer

Hello everybody, I have a car (well, it's under my husband's name), there are no payments on it, since it was bought cash, the insurance on it (from LA, CA) is under my name, and his name now, I'm thinking of getting a divorce, and was wondering, if I were to get a divorce, and have the car under my name, will the insurance be more expensive, I have less than 2 years experience in driving, and get a lot of discounts through the insurance. So of course If I leave, a lot of those discounts would go away, but still, just for the name change, will the insurance go up? Thank you.""

Progressive insurance help?

im going to be getting my permit in a few weeks but i was wondering: will my parents' Progressive car insurance rate go up wen i get it?

My fiance got hit in my car is it an insurance problem?

I bought a car about 5 months ago and got full coverage insurance through State Farm with myself listed as the driver of the car and only my name on the insurance. My fiances car recently broke down so we sold it to salvage and canceled her insurance for it. I have two cars so I let her borrow the newest one today because its an automatic. Pulling out to turn a woman struck her passenger side with a minivan. I haven't seen it yet but the damage she says is very light a scratch and the front corner of the headlight broken. The other woman agreed it was totally her fault and provided all her insurance info but they didn't call the police to make a report :( So will this cause a problem when I call the womens insurance company or if I have to call mine if her insurance won't pay and who should I contact first just her insurance or mine and hers? I don't want to tell my company if I don't have to I turn 25 in a week and my rate is suppossed to drop big time and I don't want to screw that up.

Question about insurance liabilty when driving a drunk friend home in his car?

My friend asked me to drive his car for him to pick him up because he was drinking. I picked him up and on the way home got into a fender bender at my fault. His insurance paid for the damages done to the other vehicle, but he does not have complete coverage for his car and wants me to cover 800 dollars in damages done to his vehicle. I do not feel responsible for this. I have minimum coverage. Will he be able to take me to claims court? Am I liable for his damages?""

What will happen when the car dealer finds out I lapsed on my insurance?

I financed a car from an in-house (buy-here-pay-here) finance car dealer, about 2 months ago I lapsed on my insurance, and now the finance company is asking for proof of insurance. I also got into a car crash about 1 month ago, and its currently getting the damages fixed by my hook-up, but not drivable yet. My payments have been made on time every month, as well. So my questions are * What will happen when the car dealer finds out I lapsed on my insurance? * If they repo my car, can I get it back? if so, and how long do I have to get it back?""

Does anyone know where a couple in their early 60's might find affordable insurance.?

We had really great insurance but, it went up from a little less than $600.00 to over $1000.00. We cannot afford that.""

Unemployed 18 to 25 year olds forced to have health insurance under Obamas plan?

if you where laid off, then your ok. But if you quit your last job you will be required by law to keep health insurance or be fined $2700/yr. And by the way thats $225/mo. for the ...show more""

What is the cost for home insurance based on?

I am thinking of buying properties in other states to use as rental income. The properties are cheap so i can afford to pay cash the issue how ever is that the rent is also cheap in Update : Yes i know being a distant landlord is difficult so if it makes economic

So is there any health insurance for those with serious medical conditons?

My younger brother who's only 20 years old has a host of serious illnesses: crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, irritable bowel syndrome, and a few more conditions that has constantly kept him sick for a good portion of his childhood. He's missed at least half a school year on a number of occasions, and despite his maturation he's still heavily affected by his conditions. Obviously, it's practically impossible for him to hold a steady job, he'll work for a while and then he'll have to take off a month or two just to deal with his illness, with that said he surely won't have employee health insurance. Currently, he's using our state's medicaid, however once he turns 21 he's no longer eligible for medicaid. With the health care system being the way that it is, is there any possibility that he could continue receiving health care despite his ineligibility? He takes a ton of drugs daily, and even takes some of the same medications that our grandparents take lol. I know some of you heartless conservatives believe he should provide his own health coverage, but how? His drugs cost thousands, and he's in the ER constantly, thus making his health-care only affordable to extremely rich individuals. When healthy, he does contribute as much as he possibly can, however for someone in his condition it would be downright shameful if he can't continue to receive any healthcare.""

How much should i be paying for car insurance?

I'm a 18 yr old male...driving a 94 Pontiac Firebird. How much should i be spending? appreciate the help. [ my GPA is 3.6 if that has anything 2 do with it]

Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

Why does my old insurance company want to see my new policy?

I recently switched car insurance companies (from country insurance to allstate) and when my husband called to cancel our old companies policy they refused until we fax them a copy of our new policy with allstate. I dont understand why thy need this information. We arent asking them to back date and pay us for any time we already paid for (we arranged our allstate policy to begin the day our country insurance ended) and in the years we have been with country insurance, we have ever once filed a claim. Never payed late (had automatic withdrawl). If anyone knows why country insurance would need our new policy info before they cancel our old policy i Would greatly appreciate any input. Thanks!""

""Got a dui in ny, how much will car insurance go up?""

OK so i recently was caught for a DUI in NY state , i am under my sister's insurance (geico) and the car is in my name....i want to know how much will the insurance go up even though my sister never had a claim and i am under her...""

""Car Insurance, i passed my Drving test yesterday,Insurance Premiums?""

I live in Manchester(longsight), passed test yesterday, age:17...,can anyone plz tell me that how much will be the insurance premium for me(new driver), i asked from some of the insurers and most of them told that my insurance premium will be at least 2000. is it? Can any one tell me about some cheap insurance company who's price is 1000 or near about. Thanks.""

Mazda miata insurance?

okay so im 16 getting a miata, is the cost of insurance going to be high?""

How much would it be for a 16 year old kid to buy a 2010 Chevy Camaro LT1 and get insurance?

How much would it be for a 16 year old kid to buy a 2010 Chevy Camaro LT1 and get insurance?

Car Insaurance for 17 year old?

Hi, I have been riding on the road for two years now (or will be when I get a car) I have had a 50cc moped when I was 16 and since turning 17 have a 125cc motorbike. I know that my no claims on bikes are separate but is there a chance I could get insurance cheaper? If so, roughly how much? (If you can could you recommend some cheap and cheap to insure cars, or some things I can do to get the price down? e.g. explanation of black box etc.? Cheers, Kieran.""

Car insurance: keep my car if its a write off?

Hi I had a car crash other night....i wasn't at fault anyway the front bumper, bonnet, one headlight and paint above drivers wheel has taken bad damage....but im pretty sure the engine and things under the bonnet are fine....even the radiator isn't damaged....only looks slightly bent so basically im pretty sure its just cosmetic damge its a 2002 lancer ce sedan the person who hit me....her insurance company racq will be inspecting it...but i fear they will say it will be a write off i paid $7000 for the car in september 2010 and the market value for it then was $7500...how much market value will the car be now?? :/ will i get $4000-$6000 for it?? and if they pay me out do i still get to keep my wrecked vehicle or will racq keep the car? i have put so much effort into this car spent an exta $2000 on it. then some crazy b***ch runs a red light n smashes into front of my car so basically my question is....if my car is a wright off will i still get to keep the car? cos if i can i can just keep it at a mates place and buy spare bumper n bonnet off ebay""

What is a good (cheap!) health insurance?

i'm a college student so i have no money but i need health insurance so i can get my birthcontrol pills every month. whats a good company?

What are the insurance rates on a chevy S10?

it is a 2-door, v6, 2WD, extended cab truck, no mods, just stock""

What is the type of insurance that protects against the cost of injuries of others that's our fault?

What is the type of insurance that protects against the cost of injuries of others that's our fault?

Affordable Health Care Who is really paying for it?

32 Million in the US uninsured. Pre ACA, the uninsured would show up in the ER, get whatever treatment they could then leave, most of them not paying the bill. The hospital prices ...show more""

Does school require health insurance?

I live in California, USA and my brother and I don't have health insurance. We are in middle and high school(public school). What are the disadvantages of not having health insurance?""

Can i freeze my car insurance?

Hi i am from ireland, and i am insured with Quinn insurance, I am 20. I am goin travelling for a few months in February. I am insured under my fathers policy, but he doesnt drive my car as he has his own van. I have to pay nearly 1000 at the end of January to insure my car but i am wondering could i freeze my insurance and pay for it when i get back. During my time away i am also going to try sell the car. so any help please.""

Insurance cost for a BMW 325i?

So I am 19 bought a 2004 BMW 325i for 12,000 dollars and was wondering how much the insurance would be? I live in CT and are only planning to use for school.""

""Car Insurance costs for a 17 year old in Las Vegas, Nevada?""

I will be getting my license early next year and I will be 17 years old. I am a male, and I get decent grades. Usually alway's A's and B's, maybe one C. I plan on getting an SUV, particularly a 1999 Ford Explorer with over 100,000 miles from my uncle. What would your estimate on insurance costs be? How do I apply my good grades to my insurance policy? Would it be cheaper to go on my parents account? Thank you, Damon Reis""

Should I go through my car insurance company or not?

My car was parked on a decline, stalled, and ran into the back of my friends wagon. My repair quote is about $940, hers is about $615, at a total of about $1555. The excess I have to pay towards insurance repairs is $1045 (standard excess, age excess for being under 25, and some flexi-excess p.o.s). At the moment I only have enough money to fix her car, although that means waiting another few months to fix mine, and I'm impatient. Hers needs to be fixed asap for roadworthy and registration. I also have the option of finding a new bumper for hers at a much cheaper price, although that is proving difficult. Also, my insurance company only likes their choice of repairer. My panel shop has done jobs for the company before, but I'm not certain if they will let me use them. I won't have anyone else repair my car, as the money was going to go to repainting a new bonnet instead of repairing, which insurance won't cover. On another note, I'm not sure how long going through insurance will take. So my question is, do I go through insurance, even though I might not get to use my panel shop and it will cost me almost the same? Or do I leave it, and do what I can to fix my friends car cheaper? Then just suck it up and wait to have the money for mine, therefore also saving a rise on my insurance premium and a drop in my rating.""

About how much will motorcycle insurance cost me?

i am 18 and have been driving for around 1 and a half years (car) and would like to get a motorcycle, i've never missed a payment, have never been in an accident, and have taken the msf course my first bike will most likely be a used kawasaki vulcan 500cc or a used yamaha vstar 650cc""

What is the best automobile insurance for a classic car?

I have a 1953 Ford Customline, chopped. I currently have Mercury, but it is not for classic cars, so they will only pay ACV.""

Riding a motorcycle without licence?

I just bought my first motorcycle today, and I'm enrolled in the msf course but it dosn't start for a few weeks. Can i still ride my bike legally?""

""The lug nuts on my tyre are too tight to take off with my socket wrench, any ideas on how to get them off?

I don't know much about cars but I have to change a flat tyre myself as the car doesn't have insurance and can't be taken to the shop. Would there be a tool that i could use to make it easier to take the lug nuts off??

Car insurance policies?

Okay so a friend of mine hit my brothers car in our driveway today. We live in Alabama ... my friend has Alfa insurance and my brother has country financial. Both have full coverage. When we called to make the report the officer that came said that since it was on private property my friends insurance will not pay that my brothers insurance will.. my brother has a 500$ deduct able. So basicly I have 2 questions. 1.) Just because its private property why will my friends insurance not pay for it? 2.) How much will be played out of pocket because the damage is about 1500 if not more. (Its a new car 2011, the door is pushed in to the point the door can't open and window can't go down)""

State based car insurance?

Looking for new car insurance that covers only a couple states for a cheaper price. Looking for one that covers in FL

How much is car insurance for me?

If you are a sixteen year old with A's and B's, no accident/criminal history, about how much would insurance be on a 1968 olds 442 convertible with a V8? Please don't consider me stupid if this is unanswerable, I just don't want to put my information onto an auto insurance website.""

Can I be forced to pay insurance for stepchild?

Here's the situation. My husband makes very little money. I have him covered under my insurance policy. Until recently, my stepdaughter was covered under Child Health Care Plus. Coverage stopped when she turned 15. Her real mother is being a real witch and demanding we buy her insurance. Hubby can't afford it. I can't enroll her under my employer's plan because there's only open enrollment one month per year. I really don't WANT to put her on my policy, as she seems determined to get pregnant ASAP, and also she hates me and steals from me. Can I be FORCED to get her insurance? Oh, and did I mention her real mother doesn't work? HELP!!!!""

How do i buy car insurance and how do I find a insurance company that suits me (cheap)?

ok so I've seen a car I would like to buy, how do I get car insurance? should I ring a call or get insured online? Also a list of names of insurance companies would be helpful? thanks""

Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

Is there Constitutional precedent for requiring people to buy health insurance?

Car insurance is mandated because you're licensed to drive and the license can be revoked, but you're not licensed to live, so is there legal standing for requiring purchase of a product (health insurance)?""

Car insurance?

I have been looking about getting a small car and i was just wondering how much younger people have paid for their insurance. Im 18 and it is really high and i was wondering if it was like this for everyone??

State Farm Full coverage Auto Insurance?

Ive been with mu current insurance company for about 5 years now. My policy will be ending soon. I have a good driving record except for one speeding ticket back in 2009. Im proud to ...show more

How much is Car Insurance for a 16 year old?

I'm 16 year old guy, I have a 2004 Pontiac Grand AM sedan, I get good grades in school, about how much would it cost monthly?""

Question with progressive insurance?

Ok heres the deal. Last September we were backing out of our driveway and bumped into our neighbors drivers door on his late 80's mazda mx3. It caused a little dent in his car and just a tiny scratch on our car. We agreed that we will just handle it outside of insurance once spring came. Now that the snow finally melted here, he left a note on our door saying he wants payment in full in 7 days or he will report to our insurance. My question is, progressive told us they put it under property damage so there is no deductible but what will this do to our rates if anything? Thank You""

For my first car I'm thinking about getting a 1983 Mazda RX-7 but what is the cost of insurance?

I really need to now because I found one cheap....please I need help!

Cheapest Car Insurance For Me?

I currently have commerce insurance company. I drive a Nissan Versa Hatchback 2011 I have been a licensed driver for the past 8 years without accidents or tickets I am looking for the cheapest auto insurance I can get I am currently financing my car for the next 5 years just to build on credit. I would like for you to let me know what I should. Oh I am also on my own and paying rent on a two family home I pay all my bills on time so there is no issues I have Three jobs and one of them being my full time job. Thanks

""Used Car, How Much Insurance?""

How much would I have to pay for insurance on a 1998 Nissan Sentra for $1,495? How much are taxes in Canada? 13%?""

Will my car insurance monthly payments increase AFTER i rent a vehicle (READ BELOW)?

I already own a 4-door sedan, which I cover with monthly insurance for a reasonable value. Although recently, I had to rent a pick-up truck from Enterprise Rent-A-Car to move some furniture from a friend's house to my place. Upon sigining of the necessary rental documents, the rental car agent and I came across the section about insuring the rented vehicle; as Enterprise Rent-a-Car will always offer their own insurance services, I mentioned to them that I already have car insurance of my own, of which I can look forward to saving the additional $39 which Enterprise Rent-a-Car originally offers. I encouraged Enterprise Rent-a-Car to contact my insurance provider so that both of us can be sure that my car insurance provider will cover the pick-up truck I am about to borrow from them. (Full coverage that is) Everything went smoothly and Enterprise Rent-a-Car agreed to insure their truck under my own car insurance. My car insurance provider also approved of my intention to borrow the truck and cover the said truck using my insurance. Two weeks later came the insurance bill, and to my wondering, I saw that my following monthly insurance payments all jacked-up their prices to one dollar addtional per month! Huh?!?!?! What could have caused this? Could it be the fact that I have had the rented pick-up truck and the request to insure the said truck under my own car insurance resulting to a somewhat considerable claim of some sort? Any opinions or personal experience you may have had? Thanks Alot YaHoO Readers/Responders! A vote comes to the most sensible and brainstormed answer!""

Is motorcycle insurance less than car insurance?

Alright so I am 18 and I just purchased a 2001 GSXR 600 and some tell me that it will cost more to insure than a car..and some say less..I personally think it will cost less considering that a bike will cause much less damage than a car would. Please help me out and tell me about how much a month this bike will cost, thanks!""

Flipping Cars - Insurance?

A few friends and I are looking into flipping cars while we're in college to make a little extra money. I'm not sure where to turn as far as insurance goes. We're not driving the vehicles ourselves - just parking them until they sell. What kind of coverage would we need and where can we find the best rates for our situation? We would only drive it from the auction house and with potential buyers on test drives. Thanks for the help!

Dental insurance ? Or medical insurance payment plans ?

Hi I'm a 20 year old and I currently am looking for a dental insurance an in California but I don't know what good company is good and not as expensive since I do live on my owns and stuff. I really need to go get my teeth checked up but I can't afford to go in a visit with no dental insurance. Someone please help. What are good entail company's that get get me approved on a good payment plan or something pease ans thank you for your time?

I am 17 how can I get cheap car insurance?

I have an ac cobra with a LS3 V8 in it. Is there a way to get cheap insurance. Could I get my dad to get insurance for the car from another country allowing anyone to drive the car insured?

What's a good first car for low insurance?

I'm buying a first car soon, and I don't want the insurance to go through the roof. My mom offered to just give me her 3-Series but I'm afraid it'll make our rates go up if I'm the primary driver, but I know nothing about insurance so help me out here... I don't really care what the car is AS LONG AS... It is 1995 or newer Has the basics (power steering, air conditioning) Reasonably comfortable Reasonable gas mileage--doesn't have to be too great NOT a Honda. At all. I really hate Hondas with a passion and that kind of lowers the list, but oh well.. It doesn't really need all the fancy bells and whistles--just needs to be comfortable, cheap-ish insurance, and easy to fix. I'm looking into Buicks right now. My mom said she likes the Scion tC, and I don't really mind either (but it does look kind of girly). Any other good options? Thanks!""

How much does it cost to get insurance on a motorcycle?

whats the average cost? do you know the cost in vancouver, canada?""

Car Insurance Question..?

I don't have car insurance, but I have a driver's license. I am 16 years old living in Arkansas and I don't drive much. My parents have insurance and when they added me to the policy (of 2 cars), it went from $150 a month to $350, which we can't afford. We cancelled that insurance (with geico) and now have esurance, where my parents pay $135 monthly (with the same coverage), without me added. Should I be added on the policy, even though I don't drive much? If I'm driving and get in an accident, can I say that I was just burrowing my dad's car? Will I be covered under him then? (since i don't have my own car) I am confused. How does this work? thanks""

Whats the best health insurance for a pregnant mother?

best health insurance thats practically freee......

Is it a good idea to combine my car insurance with home owners insurance?

With Farmers Insurance? Is there a catch to it, since it sounds too good to be true. My old policy is only liability and covers around $15,000 per accidents, (monthly is $43.00). The new policy covers 100,000 per accidents and up to 300,000 (Monthly is $45.00). I was told there is a discount for the homeowners insurance too if i add all the cars in (3). And only saved $100. But with all the car insurance Were paying for, am i really saving anything?? I am confused??""

How much roughly will my car insurance go up if I make a claim to have it resprayed due to vandalism?

How much roughly will my car insurance go up if I make a claim to have it resprayed due to vandalism?

Auto accident in Texas insurance policy?

I was in a car accident today. It was the other driver's fault she admitted to the police that she was doing 60+ on a 40, she slammed her brakes but she couldn't stop so she rear ended me and made me hit the car in front of me, anyways the car I hit was scratch less (go figure) but my cars rear and front bumper will need replacement her car was almost totaled. I have liability insurance (96 honda) and she has Full-cover I would just like to know what's going to happen now? I have never being in a car accident before Will my insurance go up (I'm 19)?? will her insurance pay my damages??""

What is general insurance?

i want to know abt general insurance.

Question about insurance differences for regular vehicles and motorcycles?

I currently have a car through my parents car insurance but I really want to branch out on my own and get my own insurance so I've been thinking about finally pursuing my dream of getting a motorcycle. They're cheap, run well, and from what I gather insurance is very cheap. Could anyone tell me what kind of money I might save in Pennsylvania or New Jersey in comparison between a motorcycle and a regular car? Thanks.""

Cheapest Car Insurance Company In NY?

Hey i am really need to help with car insurance. Is my first time buying a car and i am really looking for a good deal for a car insurance company here in NY. Either the cheapest or the one that you personally recommend for my age (21 years old) I really appreciate your time. I have been searching for a lot of them before i make a call.

Affordable medical plan for newborns?

i know there is WIC to cover if dont make enough money to pay for alot of food besides the bills, and the childs shots are covered through the pregnancy medicaid (if you have it) for ...show more""

""How to get the cheapest car insurance, when just passed test ?""

How to get the cheapest car insurance, when just passed test ?""

Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

Shannon Georgia Cheap car insurance quotes zip 30172

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-my-car-insurance-comp-come-after-me-money-paid-out-jacob-tate/"

[up-healthbeat]

Olive Oil for Skin & Hair Care.

Olive oil, away from the thoughts of cooking with it, it’s a very useful substance. Considered to be liquid gold by Greeks who would reward athletes with vast quantities of the highest grade stuff (worth a fortune at the time) and even Cleopatra – the definition of ancient world beauty – used it. Olive oil can be used for a myriad of different things and research from healthcare experts around the globe has shown the benefits of olive oil, it even helps prevent cancer & heart disease. Graduates from Saint Peters university know all too well the significant health benefits of olive oil and in terms of taking care of yourself the benefits come when you use olive oil for hair & olive oil for skin. If you’re hard up or looking for a natural product for skin care then olive oil can be used every day to take care of your skin & hair, rather than shelling out on expensive moisturisers & face scrubs.

About Olive Oil First let’s come to terms with what we’re talking about. Olive oil comes in a variety of different grades. ‘Extra Virgin Olive Oil’ is the best – roughly the meaning can be read as ‘untouched’ because extra virgin olive oil is taken from the ‘first press’ (an outdated term) of the olives which is generally thicker, unprocessed and unrefined. By not processing the oil it retains its best contents and the most natural substances.

Olive oil is composed of many different things of benefit to humans; monounsaturated fatty acids, polyphenol antioxidants, vitamin E, omega 6 fatty acids & oleic acid just to name a few. The lower grade oils such as virgin olive oil or simply olive oil contain less of these beneficial substances, so from now on let’s just rely on the fact that Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVOO) is the best.

The Benefits of E.V. Olive Oil The Human body naturally produces oil to lubricate the skin and this is called a ‘sebum’. If your face or your hair is dry then the body naturally produces its own sebum to help protect the skin. Olive oil itself is closest to natural human sebum. Off the shelf products (such as soap) can strip the skin of it's natural oils, so the body compensates by producing more oil, leaving you with greasy skin or an outbreak of acne or blackheads.

Many people think that using olive oil for skin and olive oil for hair will leave a greasy look or cause an outbreak of spots. However, by applying extra virgin olive oil to your skin and hair your body doesn’t have to apply its own sebum & is allowed to function as normal. So by working with the body then you’re more inclined to see benefits in your skin and hair rather than battling a self induced oil slick.

Olive Oil for Skin Olive oil penetrates deep into the skin & locks in natural moisture and works at its best when mixed with carrier oils such as Canola oil, coconut oil or avocado oil. By being able to penetrate into the skin olive oil can target a fundamental part of your skin called keratinocytes.

Keratinocytes make up the majority of the upper layer of human skin (the epidermis). This part of the skin makes up basal layers of skin that protects against pathogens (bacteria, fungi, parasites, and viruses), free radicals, heat, UV radiation and water loss. The Keratinocytes form very strong bonds with each other to form the barrier against all the nasty’s your skin doesn’t like and olive oil helps to protect this barrier of keratinocytes, this not only prevents things entering, but also helps to prevent water leaving your skin, keeping your skin moisturised.

Another benefit of olive oil is that when it’s penetrated the skin it helps to stimulate the synthesis of collagen and elastin, these two chemicals work to maintain firmness and to keep your skin supple.

Olive Oil for Hair Just as the skin on your face produces oil to protect itself so does your scalp, this is the reason that if hair is left unwashed it becomes incredibly greasy within a few days. So again, the reasoning here is simple; by adding a small amount of oil to your hair and scalp, your body doesn’t have to, greasy hair is prevented. Simple.

However, aside from the above, olive oil also helps to maintain the condition and appearance of hair, and in some cases helps to prevent hair loss. Hair loss can occur for many reasons however one of the main reasons is a hormone called DTH which causes the hair follicle shaft to decrease. Olive oil is a big help in preventing the production of DTH which consequently slows or prevents hair loss.

How to use Olive Oil So, now that we understand the benefits of olive oil, you’ll need to know a few methods on how to use it. It’s worth mentioning that you should keep a small amount of olive oil in your bathroom, just as you would keep shampoo and soap. Olive oil works best when it has been warmed slightly, so keeping it near a hot shower works great.

Olive Oil for Skin Olive oil is best used after a shower for a number of reasons; the heat of the shower warms the oil, and by applying the oil when your skin is still wet you’ll avoid any unwanted greasiness. Here’s how to use it;

As a moisturiser -simply rub on the skin- just use a small amount, about the amount on a tea spoon. Pour the oil on to your palm & rub it gently on to your upper torso (chest, arms and face). You’ll notice the difference instantly & especially when you get dressed, fabrics won’t feel as harsh on your skin.

As a facial scrub -mix olive oil with salt or sugar and use as a scrub (if you like you can add parsley as a natural antibiotic, but you might smell of parsley which is a bit weird) and a squeeze of lemon, the acidity of the lemon juice helps to remove dead skin cells. Lemon juice can also be used to add a zingy freshness, use only a squeeze though as the lemon juice is acidic.

Oil Cleansing Method (OCM) - This is a very simple method, very much like the Romans used oil and a strigil to scrape the oil and impurities from their skin.

1. Pour olive oil onto your hand – about half a table spoon full

2. Rub the oil between your palms to heat the oil and gently rub it into your face

3. Get the hot tap running, the water needs to be hot enough to steam your face, but not too hot to scald or too cold to close your pores.

4. Soak a wash cloth with the hot water and squeeze out the excess water.

5. Lay the cloth across your face for 20 seconds or so. The oil will purge the impurities out of your skin as your pores are opened by the steam.

6. Wipe your face clean with the wash cloth. Job done.

Olive Oil for Hair Before you get in the shower work a small amount of olive oil into your hair by gently massaging with the palms of your hands, don’t spend too long doing this just make sure you get an even coverage. The idea is to let the olive oil soak into your hair, some people will say this takes about 20 minutes depending on the length of your hair, but even if you leave it for 5 minutes you’ll see positive effects. Make sure the last thing you do before getting out of the shower is to just wash your hair normally with your regular shampoo. The benefit of the olive oil is that the olive oil softens and coats your hair, like an off the shelf conditioner would but without the added chemicals.

source: The Rules of Style -the men’s style guide, written by: Daniel Johnson. Daniel Johnson is a full time mens stylist. He currently only works with private clients in both the corporate and commercial industries and focuses only on individual males at any one time.