#darrell x patron

[bluecoolr]

There was an attempt. 👉🏼👈🏼

Former Crusader, disgraced knight - Sir Darrell

Forever grateful to @ace-of-hearts-and-spades for suggesting the idea 💜

For Wifey, who wanted to see Sir Darrell and Sir Eric kiss @goldrose-star @solmints-messyocdiary (Just wanted you to know I doodled your guy! 💕)

[goldrose-star]

@bluecoolr @rottent33th @solmints-messyocdiary Darrell, Clay and The Patron aka. Eric @ AJ?? Works the other way around as well. Sorry, this kind of has me all soft and clutching my chest 🥺👉👈 🫠

[the-pinstriped-hood]

Everyone please excuse me as @solmints-messyocdiary's The Patron slowly gives me the BEST case of Brainrot I've ever experienced.

Will I be doing a Claudia x Patron thing set in a branched timeline?

Possibly.

Will I also be working on the Main timeline with Claudia and Darrell? Yes.

Do I also have a handful of other OC's to work on and write for? Yes.

Will I be leaving to go to Disneyworld at the tail end of May for a week so you'll barely hear from me? Yes. (So that's the 26th-7th.)

I am also mentally working on a Disney piece for Bo x Percy taking Mia and Darrell along for a family vacay! That will begin work after my trip.

I also have to work on A few other Bo x Percy pieces and their bachelor/ bachelorette party + Wedding.

As well as getting an actual start on Izzy and Archie.

I have a lot to do.....hoo boy.

[sosation]

On the Passing of Michael Brooks

I only relatively recently became aware of Michael, less than a year ago. In that time he has impacted my life more than any other media personality, more than anyone I’ve never met.

Even though the first time I voted was for Obama in 2008, my political consciousness really began during my 2nd stint of college at UTA circa 2014/15. My history undergrad was waking me up to the power dynamics and hegemonic systems that exist in our society. I was beginning to understand geopolitics under the tutelage of Dr. Joyce Goldberg and getting really wrapped up in 20th century diplomacy. The Snowden leaks had happened and the Michael Brown demonstrations in Ferguson were drawing attention to the militarization of our police forces and their tactics on US citizens. I began to see capitalism as consisting of, and causing and contributing too, countless problems. Then, the 2016 election cycle stoked my already burning interests.

During this time, there was little “left-tube” to be found. Since 2012, streaming on our X Box has been my wife and I’s primary means of entertainment. Slowly more and more of our time was being spent on YouTube. The Young Turks was really the only progressive voice on Youtube, to my knowledge, at that time. (I wasn’t yet aware of Pakman, Kulinski, Seder and Brooks.) And even though they were my primary source of news, I wasn’t crazy about the hyperbolic presentation, Cenk’s ego, or some of the attitudes expressed by various hosts at various times. That being said, I learned a lot. I was exposed to many many great journalists and they certainly helped me solidify and articulate many of the arguments I had been thinking and feeling during this time. I even became a Texas Wolf-Pac Volunteer right after Trump’s election. 

I ended my bachelor’s and master’s programs under the Trump presidency. (May ‘17, Dec ‘18 respectively.) During this time I read and wrote more than I ever have in my life. Under Dr. Christopher Morris, Dr. Patryk Babiracki, and Dr. Pawel Goral, I read Marxist historical theory and studied the history of the Cold War  from the perspectives of the US, USSR and Europe. I also began watching less and less TYT and more Secular Talk, David Pakman, and David Doel. While these shows are great, there was little to no international perspectives or geopolitical discussions happening. (Doel being Canadian accounts for something but, IMO, anyone who lives in the 5 Eyes is hardly a non-western perspective and therefore significantly less valuable in regards to gaining the insight of the peripheries of the globe. As the hegemonic “leader” of the world, Canadians, New Zealanders, Aussies and Brits, can point and laugh at the US all they want but they are taking our lead-systematically and economically.That’s not to say that their perspective is unimportant, just not the same as those outside the western sphere) Furthermore, there is still even less of a historical perspective being represented in regards to current events anywhere on YouTube. No one seems to have a long dureé, an understanding of how history plays out- again and again, and how capitalism is responsible for much of our recent history. Marx did. Michael did. 

I began my teaching career in earnest last summer, 2019, as a Geography teacher. First time I’ve ever had a salary and the first time that I didn’t have to wear a hat (or hairnet) to work. My lunch was 2nd lunch, 12:35-1:15. Here in Texas, The Majority Report was live and it began showing up consistently on my youtube feed so I began watching them while I ate my sandwich and apple, before students from guitar club would show up for a quick lesson before 6th period. I had watched TMR before, particularly live streams on twitch during the first few primary debates this cycle. They reminded me a little too much of an east coast morning talk show for me to take them too seriously at first but I eventually began to see that while Sam is--well-- Sam, the others on the show had quite a lot to say and clear, logical and articulate reasons for their positions...especially this guy Michael. Once I heard that he had his own show it quickly became the most listened to podcast in my feed. (This in itself is no small feet. I’ve been listening to podcasts for hours a day (sometimes 8) since 2012. It, too, no doubt contributed to my education and understanding of our world during this same time period but that is another blog all itself.)

Michael was everything that I was looking for. He was unabashedly a Marxist. He was intelligent and enjoyed rigorous thinking and leftist theory. He was hilarious and did fantastic impressions. He also was compassionate, kind and empathetic. He was a humanist, in the truest sense of the word and he understood, and articulated to me, that Socialism is a humanist movement. After I became a patron, I once asked him on Discord what his credentials were and he said that his Bachelor’s was in International Relations, which explained so much. Again, he was the only media personality that I was aware of that was knowledgeable and curious about the same things I was. He understood history. He valued history and its importance, so much so that he dedicated a separate Sunday show just to “Illicit Histories” where he would invite Historians from all over the world to discuss leftist movements in their own countries and how we could apply those lessons here and vice versa. This was it. This is what was missing from our national discourse--an international perspective and voice, and a historical perspective and voice. Michael was both and he was damn good at it. 

The Michael Brooks Show was an inspiration. Michael, Matt Lech and David Griscom were smart, eloquent, young men who articulated the systemic failures of our time, who critically discussed and analyzed our current political discourse and who pondered possible solutions based in history. The guests of TMBS, the network Michael created, really were the shining feature. Ben Burgis, Artesia Balthrop, Molly Webster, Glenn Greenwald, Adolf Reed, President Lula De Silva, Slavoj Žižek , Noam Chomsky, Dr. Cornel West, Dr. Richard Wolff...the list goes on and on and on. These people brought so much insight to the state of our world. Professors, Journalists, people who have spent their lives working on the cause, a cause for a better future, one based in humanity and empathy. Michael was able to bring his own empathy for humanity into his interviews, asking thoughtful direct questions that got to the heart of the issue-- while simultaneously bringing levity to a serious topic by making jokes in the voice of Gandhi, Mandela, Obama, or Bernie, to name a few. He, fucking, got it man. He understood how the world was connected. He understood that we are ALL humans, and that we all deserve to be treated with dignity, and he understood that Marx was right about a ton of shit and he wasn’t scared to remind you of that. 

Michael, for me, was an exemplar. He was a role model. I looked up to him. I had no idea he was only 13 months older than me, I thought he was probably in his early 40’s just based on the amount of shit that he knew. My personal 10 year goal was to be on his show. I wanted to either become a writer or go back into academia. I even wrote into a show a couple of months back and asked him which was a better choice. He was honored to be asked such a heavy question but didn’t feel comfortable giving that kind of life advice and I don’t blame him. He recommended that I continue teaching high school if that’s what I enjoy doing, and I do, and I likely will. He has shown me how to speak up for ideals that are right, regardless of what people think. Like, I understood that in the abstract, but watching someone do it multiple times a week really put it in my head that I need to advocate for my position publicly. I tell people that I’m a marxist- which in Texas is unheard of, even among leftists. Mostly due to people not understanding labels and what that even means. So I tell them. Thanks to David’s weekly recommended readings I haven’t stopped reading leftist theory even though I finished grad school over a year and a half ago. If TMBS never existed I never would have had the opportunity to read any of that. 

My heart bleeds for Matt and David. I can’t imagine what they’re going though. I want them to continue, to keep the community alive in his name. But I completely understand if that is just too painful. 

I was thinking earlier, trying to find an appropriate historical comparison to his passing. There are many but as a North Texan, the one that I ended up landing on was the passing of Dimebag Darrell Abbot. He did a lot. He accomplished a lot in a short amount of time. He inspired many to do things like him. It was entirely unexpected and not one person, not one, has a bad thing to say about the guy. Dimebag was adored. He listened to people, strangers, fans. He was kind and open-hearted and treated everyone with respect. Which made it extra hard when he passed. The same can be said for Michael. For Michael, since Socialism is more than just music, he inspired us to educate ourselves, to ask questions, to remember the periphery-Latin America, Africa, and Asia,-- to remember history and value it, to be compassionate, to educate others and to be active in our own communities. 

He will be sorely missed. The one thing I keep telling myself is that his death has the potential to bring even more attention to his message-- to help further catapult this movement into something undeniable. To bring more awareness to how power works and to finally activate us to become, as Michael said at Harvard on Feb 1, 2020: machiavellian.

 “...we still have to put work into reminding everybody that (Dr. MLK Jr.) was on the left. He wasn’t a guy who came out once a year and said ‘everybody should treat each other nicely. ...The other thing I loved about this speech was he talked about the fallacy- that certain Christians misunderstand love as a seeding of power. And then Nietzsche came along and rejected christian morality because he thought it was denying someone’s vitality- the will to power in a healthy sense, and he said ‘Love without power is sentimental and anemic. And power without love is abusive and corrosive’ I’m paraphrasing. And that was when I saw, I thought, ‘well here, ok, we know the left-wing Dr. King. Well here is the machiavellian Dr King, and I love it.’ I want the left to have Machiavelli, so we can have the strategy, the ruthlessness, the clarity, to actually win these battles. And be ruthless with institutions. And then I want us to learn how to be really kind to each other, welcoming of a broad set, and actually have a movement that has the capacity to do that.”

Let’s do the best we can to make that happen. Educate yourself about power. Educate yourself about ideologies. Read Marx and Engels. Read Slavoj Žižek and Adolf Reed. Read Michaels book Against the Web: A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right. Don’t get caught up in identity politics. Never lose sight of class dynamics. Use this knowledge to educate others and make informed decisions. Register to vote. Run for office. Effectuate real change. Do the intellectual rigor that was happening on TMBS every week, multiple times a week. Thank you for all that you brought to us Michael, you will be sorely missed and I hope to see you at the clearing at the end of the path. 

Anthony Sosa

7-21-20

[scrawlingskribbles]

Keep up the good work!! Also do you have any Radlights headcanons?

O H   B O Y   D O   I ? ? ? ?

Well I mean, as the founder patron saint most vocal/content-producing Radlights shipper at this point in time, I’d better have some headcanons for these nerds, right???? x,D & I mean I am working on a fic right now actually (( ;3c )) so I don’t wanna spoil toooooo much of That, but!!!!:

It started off with Raymond obviously~ which kind of made the other two mad for Reasons, but moreso Darrell than Shannon; he was suuuuper envious & bitter about it until [Redacted for Spoilers], and then after that Shannon was feeling COMPLETELY left out and ended up [Redacted for Spoilers], and That’s how Radlights came to be~! ¯\_( ᐛ )_/¯ - (not counting Radlights+ that includes the other Boxmore bots as well bc Rad has sO MUCH LOVE OKAY HE’LL SMOOCH EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THESE ROBOTS JUST WATCH HIM~ 💙💙💙💙) 

Well obviously cuddlepiles are a given and definitely a common occurrence lmfao - and one of the gr8 things about robots is that they tend to be cooler in the summer and warmer in the winter—perfect for cuddling year-round~! :D 

Sometimes they all hang out/go out and do stuff as a group, but other times they go on separate one-on-one dates/adventures & Rad always tries to make sure to keep the number of times spent with each bot as close to even as possible so that it’s Fair for all of them - (The bots secretly keep track of the numbers themselves too & make jokes about who The Favourite is based on who has the highest number at the time x,D it’s mostly jokes tho, they just like keeping track bc of their competitive nature & they all know it, but they still don’t tell Rad about it just in case he gets the wrong idea) 

Plaza fights are uhhhh Interesting when one of the Bodega employees is dating literally All of the enemies that come to attack it now x,D so it usually ends up with Enid & K.O. (& Gar if he’s there) doing the majority of the actual fighting (bc Rad’s “fighting” more often than not just ends up devolving into time-wasting flirting) while Rad’s just kinda off to the side cheering for both sides back & forth, and if it ever actually does get down to That Point where the bots defeat the other heroes then Rad will step up to finish the ““fight”” where the first one to land a kiss on the other is the winner (another personal number/score that all four of them keep track of & make jokes about) & regardless of who actually wins That battle, the robot(s) always gets defeated/knocked back to Boxmore in the end bc yanno~ 

It’s a little mmmmm Tense to take the bots around just anywhere (at least in the beginning) so Rad ends up spending a lot of time hanging out over at Boxmore & getting familiar with the factory & the other bots & how everything actually works over there and Boxman l o a t h e s every moment of it

SPEAKING OF BOXMAN: of course that old fool is not gonna be happy about this situation At All x,,D - However!!!! when [Redacted for Spoilers], and he sees how serious they all are about it (and he can’t just discontinue all THREE of his main/biggest selling attack models or he’ll go out of business) he verrrryyyy begrudgingly accepts the fact that THREE of his kids are dating a Hero—BUT JUST BARELY bc he might be a bad dad but he still does love them deep deep down I s2g—- (And hey at least it’s all for the same one hero & not three separate ones so that’s some comfort at least~? x,3 ((we don’t talk about the universes where Shannon is Also dating Enid)))

This happens A Lot & Boxman pops a blood vessel every time x,3

Okay Okay that’s enough for now tho bc I could go On & On honestly—my well of love for this mess of a ship is never-ending but I’ll spare y’all any more for the moment~ x,3c

[bluecoolr]

@solmints-messyocdiary Regency AU Patron x Darrell

👀

Poets are for each other.

Gabriel Byrne as Byron and Julian Sands as Shelley in Gothic (1986)

[cajunroe]

skinny x shifty + olympics!au ↳ it was unprecedented, really. no one saw it coming. wayne didn’t even see it coming, but now, as he stood on the pedestal to receive his silver medal, he realizes that he should’ve been looking harder. but here they were. and as his rival bent over to receive his gold medal, with a wide, happy smile permanently etched onto his face, wayne understood exactly why he hadn’t seen this coming. darrell powers had completely blinded him from the moment they met. when they first met, wayne had honestly thought the other man was just an excited fan. but once he found out that he was part of the team and that he was the best shot wayne had ever seen, among being happy-go-lucky and downright gorgeous, he was done for. after it all, while they’re celebrating their wins with the rest of the team, everyone asks how shifty made the shot won him the gold. and while shifty shyly tells them that he didn’t do anything special, skinny watches him intently, watches the easy smile form soft spoken words and he realizes far too late that shifty is staring right back at him. it shakes him and he rushes out of the bar. but shifty finds him, has always found him. and what happens shifty finally catches up to him, he doesn’t see coming. never saw coming. but he’s happy all the same.

skinny burst through the exit of the bar in need of fresh air. 

“fuck,” he exclaimed and moved quickly away from the other patrons looking at him oddly.

he couldn’t help it though, his mind was racing and his thoughts flooded with warm eyes and a wide smile. he didn’t plan for this. any of this. he didn’t plan for shifty to join the team. to be better than him. the win the gold. and he most certainly didn’t expect to fall for his teammate, but here he was. breathing harshly into the cold night air because of darrell powers. when their eyes met and skinny realized that shifty was staring back at him just as intently as he was, it shocked him. 

he hastily excused himself, missing the longing look from shifty, and rushed out of the bar. there was no way that shifty felt what he felt. he must’ve been staring back because skinny had been staring so intensely at him.

skinny sighs loudly and throws himself down onto a bench against the side of the bar. 

and as he loses himself in thoughts of touches and looks and feelings and sensations, he misses the sound of someone sitting next to him. 

“it’s okay if you hate me, you know?” 

skinny jumps a foot into the air before sitting harshly back onto the bench.

“shit you scared the fuck out of me.”

skinny looked over and saw that damn smile still on his face, he looked away quickly. 

“s-sorry,” shifty laughed quietly, “i didn’t mean to.”

“it’s okay,” skinny sighed, looking into the night sky, “and i don’t.”

he didn’t have to look over to know that shifty was staring at him, “don’t what?”

“hate you.”

“oh,” 

they fell into an awkward silence but skinny swore his heartbeat could be heard by the both of them.

shifty sighed and skinny swore it sounded tired.

“you sure make it seem like you do.”

skinny looked over to shifty in shock, “i do?”

the other man nodded, “yeah. i mean you don’t talk to me as much as the others do and whenever i try to talk to you, you’ve sort of shut me down. and out of everyone on the team, you’re kind of the only one i want to talk to.”

skinny’s small smile rose on his lips, “and why would you want to talk to me?”

shifty grew silent and it took skinny a long time before he could look over.

shifty was just staring at him...through him. 

that same damn smile still on his face.

and skinny knew that if he kept doing that or said something untoward, he’d just have to kiss the smile off his face.

“why wouldn’t i want to talk to you?” shifty replied simply, eye locked onto skinny’s.

and that was just the kicker, wasn’t it? shifty made it all sound so simple and skinny was seconds away from ruining any potential friendship because he hasn’t been able to get those eyes or that smile out of his head since they met. 

“you’re perfect.”

skinny’s head jolted to the side and found shifty way too close.

but it was perfect because skinny couldn’t have stop himself if he tried.

in an instant his lips were one shifty and kiss him within an inch of his life.

it took him a full minute to realize that shifty was kissing back and quite thoroughly he noticed.

he torn them apart and asked the most ridiculous question.

“why are you kissing me?” he was breathless and couldn’t fight the smile on his face.

shifty laughed warmly, breath chilling skinny’s wet lips.

“because you kissed me?” 

skinny looked at shifty, really and fully looked at him. shifty was happy, happier than when he got his gold. and skinny knew that everything he felt was reciprocated as he looked into warm brown eyes.

“can i kiss you again?”

shifty laughed again, “you can kiss me ‘till the day i die.”

skinny laughed, “deal.”

their lips met again and skinny knew that he’d never kiss another set of lips again. 

and he knew he’d never love someone as much as he loved darrell powers.

anonymous - thank you!! i don’t see enough of these two babes.

send me a pairing and an au and i’ll make an aesthetic post + ficlet

[goldrose-star]

<- I also had to add Sol's tags because yass 💕

There was an attempt. 👉🏼👈🏼

Former Crusader, disgraced knight - Sir Darrell

Forever grateful to @ace-of-hearts-and-spades for suggesting the idea 💜

For Wifey, who wanted to see Sir Darrell and Sir Eric kiss @goldrose-star @solmints-messyocdiary (Just wanted you to know I doodled your guy! 💕)