#day of history

[drabbles-mc]

Ninety Days

Walt Breslin x GN!Reader

For @narcosfandomdiscord's Day of History: exes meeting unexpectedly

Warnings: 18+, language, talks of addiction/drugs, angst

Word Count: 2.9k

NMX Taglist: @ashlingnarcos @garbinge @hausofmamadas @artemiseamoon @proceduralpassion @cositapreciosa (If you want to be added to any of my taglists, please let me know!)

It’d been a long time since you found yourself getting jittery at the thought of a meeting. The nail of your thumb pressed hard into the 60-day chip that was in your pocket. It was hard to believe that you’d gotten it thirty days ago already. Today you were up for your 90-day chip. Maybe that was the source of the nerves.

Ninety days wasn’t a small feat, not after how long you’d been dragged through your downward spiral after everything. You didn’t get that far on your first try, either. You were sent back to the starting line, a couple stumble and missteps at the beginning. Who could blame you? To go from being the person tracking down dealers to lock them up, to tracking them down so you could ask—

You stopped yourself, shaking your head like the physical action of it would really rattle the thoughts out of your head. It worked, somewhat. You picked up other things to think about, focus on. You pulled open the door of the community center, the same place you’d been going at least twice a week for the last ninety days. You’d gotten to know most of the people who showed up consistently the same way that you did. There were only a few people that you really spoke to outside the meetings other than your sponsor, but it was a good support system. That was the whole point, right? There must’ve been something to it. You were still here, after all, still clean by some string of miracles after three months.

A few people greeted you as you walked in. You stopped long enough to make a little bit of small talk, all the while you just spun the coin in your pocket between your fingers like that would somehow take away all of your anxiety. Hopefully it at least made it a little less noticeable.

You slipped away from the conversation and took a seat in the circle of chairs that were set up. They always made a point to set up more than necessary, not wanting a meeting to accidentally become standing-room only, you supposed. Most times it also had the benefit of leaving a bit of a buffer between you and other people. You slouched a little lower in the chair once you sat, removing your chip from your pocket so you could fidget with it with both hands. The large 60 staring you in the face, trying to be something with gravitational pull, but it just didn’t seem to be doing the trick in the moment.

“That’s about to be obsolete,” a voice piped up from next to you.

You flinched, so sucked into your own thoughts that you hadn’t heard them walk over to you, hadn’t heard them sit down in the chair beside you. Clearing your throat, you turned to face them, relived to see the face of your sponsor. He might’ve had about ten years on you age-wise, but he carried himself like he was about ten years younger than you. Sometimes you wondered when your de-aging process was going to start.

You forced a light chuckle. “About to be, yeah. All these chips,” you let it lie face-up in your palm, “and still no salsa.”

He chuckled and shook his head. “Never gets old.”

“I’m just saying, I think it’s a missed opportunity in the snack department.”

He waited for you to look at him again. “You alright?”

You knew he was only asking because he already had the answer. You sighed, knowing better than to lie. “It’s good that I’m here.”

He nodded. “It is.”

There wasn’t time for either of you to chat more as everyone came and took their seats for the meeting to get underway. The circle filled in, empty chairs scattered about. On the opposite side of you from your sponsor the chair was empty which afforded you a little bit of breathing room. You listened as introductions were done for anyone new, responded when needed, but your eyes were glued to your hands as you forced them to still in your lap.

The only thing that got you to look up was the sound of the door opening a few minutes after the start of the meeting. There were no punishments for tardiness obviously, but you were curious to see if the person was a frequent flyer or someone new. The only thing that the information would change was your level of curiosity.

When you saw who it was that had walked through the door, your entire body locked up. The metal coin in your hand fell to the floor with a clatter that seemed to echo in the room. You felt your sponsor’s hand on your shoulder for a moment, and over the blood rushing in your ears you were fairly certain you heard him ask you again if you were alright. Rather than waiting for you to answer he leaned down and plucked your chip off the ground, placing it into your palm once more.

The sound was enough to draw his eyes to yours even though there was an entire group of people in front of him. Despite the ways that your appearance had changed in the months since you saw him, Walt was still able to recognize you immediately. You knew it, too, because even though it seemed impossible for his face to grow paler than it started off, it did.

Whether the gentleman running the session didn’t notice what had just transpired, or chose to ignore it, you didn’t know. It didn’t matter either way, because he gestured to the few empty chairs that were left and said, “Come and join us. We were just getting started.”

Walt was taking mercy on you just as much as himself by not choosing the empty chair next to you. However when he sat down in the one across from you, you wondered if that was really any better. It was hard not to look at each other.

You listened to Walt introduce himself with a name that was not his, and your stomach dropped. It wasn’t bad enough that he somehow managed to turn up at the same meeting miles and miles away from the last place you saw him. No, he had to show up at the same meeting as you and he was there doing fucking undercover work. Even when you were trying to get away from it all it just kept following you. He couldn’t look at you while he was introducing himself, but you couldn’t take your eyes off of him. your blood felt like it was boiling in your veins, a different kind of burn than you had become so accustomed to before. Whatever they made their coins out of must have been legit because it wasn’t bending beneath the inhuman amounts of pressure you were gripping it with.

The sharing started. You were usually much more attentive, but it was hard to really listen to what people were saying when your mind was racing with a million other things now. You wondered who Walt was here for—he wouldn’t have chosen to go so far out of his way for nothing. You wondered how he ended up here, how he didn’t know that this was where you had landed if this was a place he’d been looking into for a while. You wondered, when he started to talk, how much of what he was saying was actually true and what was exaggerated. Something told you that most, if not all, of the things he was telling everyone were true. Of course, the only time he was anything close to honest with you, was when he was pretending to be someone else. And he was being honest with a room full of strangers too.

You didn’t want to share. From the second you’d pulled into the parking lot you had been on the fence about whether or not you were going to really speak up at all. Maybe just make a quick comment and get your chip but other than that just sit back and listen. But now Walt had made even just sitting there and listening feel like a herculean task. It felt like you were about to crawl out of your skin, so when the question was posed about whether or not anyone else wanted to share, your mouth moved faster than your mind.

“I’ll share.” You waited for some sort of cue, a gesture to continue, which you got. You couldn’t help but to notice the way that the only person who looked like they were on the edge of their seat due to that piece of information was Walt. Go figure.

You cleared your throat, kicking yourself for deciding to just jump into the center of the ring that way. You weren’t going to go back on it now. Running your thumb over the triangle on your coin, you finally got yourself to speak. Introducing yourself was half the battle. After that it wasn’t quite smooth sailing but it was traversable waters. “Today is ninety days. So, you know,” you chuckled and held up your coin between two fingers, “get to collect another one for the display case.” The comment got a few scattered chuckles out of the room—good sports.

“But this…journey has been a lot longer than ninety days. And not, you know, not just because I kept fucking up at the beginning, kept slipping. That didn’t make the trip any shorter, but this road I’m on took a sharp left way before I first showed up here with you all. I was, um, I was thinking about it a lot today. Kinda psyched me out, to be honest.” You locked eyes with Walt across the circle. “Feels like no matter how far I make it down the road, the past just keeps catching up. Like an asshole driver tailgating me, I look into the rearview and there it is. And I try not to spend too much time looking in the rearview, but it’s hard not to when you hit a milestone of some kind. I think about how far I’ve come, sure, but I also think about what happened that made me had to claw my way here.”

You were sure that no one else noticed the way that Walt began to squirm in his chair. That was okay, though. You noticed. “I didn’t lose everything because I started using. I started using because it felt like I had lost everything. My job. My partner—who was my partner on and off the clock. My friends, who were also my teammates. My purpose. It was all gone. And it felt like I had nothing. And then a few months went by and I learned what it felt like to really have nothing. Things took such a harsh left turn and I’ve just been trying to keep the steering wheel straight ever since. And, I don’t know,” you shrugged and let out a tired chuckle, “I think I’m doing a pretty good job.” A few more warm, quiet laughs. “My grandfather used to say, affectionately of course, that my sister and I had screws loose. I think I’ve always just been looking for ways to tighten ‘em. For a long time it was work, but then I didn’t have that. What I picked up instead clearly didn’t do the trick either. But I’m figuring it out. Finding the right screwdriver. This helps—you all help. So,” you cleared your throat, “thanks.”

Your share led into the next, and then the next. You felt a little better afterwards. Walt had hardly blinked the entire time you were speaking, and even once you were done you noticed the way that he was only looking at you. There was no way that you were the reason that he had shown up, but whoever his real target was, he hadn’t paid them any attention almost all evening. Walt Breslin and his one-track mind. If he didn’t straighten out his own wheel soon, he was going to be in some deep shit. You wondered if he was still working with Jaime.

The meeting ended. You got your chip, made the appropriate amount of conversation with the man who had been running meetings since you’d started, who had seen you go through your whole journey up until this point. You tried to slip out without talking to anyone else. The only two people who noticed were your sponsor, and Walt. Walt was smart enough to let you go a few strides ahead, keep a little difference.

Your sponsor stopped you in the parking lot, not that you put up a fight about it as you pulled your pack of cigarettes from the pocket of your jacket. You offered him one and he gladly accepted. “Wanna grab a bite?” he asked. A polite, roundabout way of asking if you needed to talk more, if you were on the brink of spinning out.

You shook your head before taking a drag of your smoke. “I’m alright. I was rattled earlier but I’m, you know, I’m feeling better now.”

“That’s good.” He looked over at the door of the building where Walt was standing, smoking his own cigarette. “Anything else you wanna share?”

You let out a puff of an exhale, something that almost could’ve passed for a laugh, sending smoke swirling into the air around you. “Nothing but old history and bullshit.”

He chuckled. “Want me to leave you to it?”

You nodded. “I’ll be good.”

He gave it a beat to see if you gave any tell that you were lying to him. You were all adults, though—he wasn’t going to force you into anything, wasn’t going to babysit you if you didn’t ask to be babysat. And you had asked to be babysat before. He clapped your shoulder. “Call if you need me.”

“Thank you.”

You watched him go to his car and drive off. It wasn’t until he was off the lot and out of sight that Walt finally walked over to you. It crossed your mind to get in your car and peel off too, but your curiosity won out the way that it always did.

He stopped with hardly a stride’s worth of space between you. “Hey.”

You tapped ash off the end of your cigarette. “I’m not calling you by—”

“I didn’t know you were here.”

You scoffed. “Maybe if you’d called me at some point over the last, oh, I don’t know, eight months? You would’ve known.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You fuckin’ should be,” you snapped. Part of you regretted it, the harshness in your voice. But he wasn’t innocent in this, either. He hung you out to dry, left you all alone.

“What you said in there tonight…” he trailed off for a moment, “I’m sorry you went through all of that.”

“Me too.” You pulled another inhale off your cigarette. “I think that was the most honest you’ve ever been with me. What you said in there, I mean. You never…you never talked like that with me.” You sighed, pressing the heel of your palm against your forehead for a moment, careful not to touch the cigarette to your face in the process. “Guess I should’ve just invited a fuckin’ audience into our living room.”

“Look—”

“What the fuck are you doing here?” It should’ve been the first question, but Walt did have a way of making you sentimental. Always had. Something about those big, sad eyes of his.

“Workin’ a case.”

“Who?”

He shook his head, “You know I can’t—”

“You’re fuckin’ shitting me, right?” You scoffed. “You come here, traipse into my fucking meeting and you—”

“I didn’t know you were fucking here,” he snapped, voice low and harsh. “If I had known, trust me, I wouldn’t have shown up.”

“Of course you wouldn’t have. Willingly facing the destruction you cause while you’re trying to get what you want? Why the fuck would you ever do that?”

“I said I’m fucking sorry.”

“And I didn’t say that I fucking forgive you.” There was a long, tense pause between you before you let out a sigh. Dropping your cigarette to the ground, you snubbed it beneath the toe of your boot. “I can’t sit there across from you for however long you’re here, sharing and pretending that I don’t know you’re trying to get one of these guys caught.”

“If they didn’t want to get caught, they shouldn’t—”

“Watch your goddamn step,” you said like a growl, a warning.

He sighed, dropping his chin to his chest. He could try to stand there and argue with you that it was different, that the guys dealing were a completely different category than the people using, or trying not to use, but it wouldn’t do him any good. “Sorry. But I can’t just leave because you don’t want me here.”

“This is a dangerous game to play for a man who already doesn’t like himself very much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” he asked.

“You thought that was rough?” You gestured towards the building. “What I said in there tonight? That was me sharing on a good day. You,” you laughed without humor, “you better hope you’re done and out of here before you have to listen to me share on a bad day.”

“I didn’t want it to go down like that,” he offered up, like that was any fucking use to either of you now.

“And yet, it, did,” you punctuated each word like it was its own sentence. Pulling your keys out of your pocket, you said, “I know I can’t make you leave, Walt. But I really fucking hope you don’t stay.”

He knew he deserved it all and then some. “I’ll try not to stick around too long.”

[charlesoberonn]

Mammu! Finius and Ferbingetorix built Rome in a day!

[tyger-land]

ᴇᴢʀᴀ ᴊᴀᴄᴋ ᴋᴇᴀᴛs Artwork from his 1962 book The Snowy Day.

[stealingpotatoes]

some alternative eras of lady normalgirl and her eunuch <3

[forthegothicheroine]

People talk about Elsa's "Let it Go" moment having killed the men of the Terror and the Erebus, but it goes farther than that. That same historically cold winter of 1846/1847 also caused so much snow that it led to an infamous American tragedy, as I learned when I read the nonfiction work The Indifferent Stars Above.

If Elsa killed the Terror and Erebus men, then she also doomed the Donner Party.

[amnhnyc]

Have you ever seen a giant worm? 👀🪱 While there are thousands of earthworm species known across the planet, only a handful are supersized. Members of the genus Martiodrilus can grow up to an incredible 4.9 ft (1.5 m) in length and weigh up to 1.1 lbs (0.5 kg)! Inhabiting underground burrows in parts of South America such as Colombia and Ecuador, these worms are rarely seen above ground—but can sometimes be heard as they move through the soil. 

Photo: OWP / oliverpatrick, CC BY-NC 4.0, iNaturalist

[enidtendo64]

More Stowaway AU

Pacifica dynamics with each Grunkle. Happy late Father’s Day and birthday to the grunks!

[keyara-nyasha]

[liberaljane]

Women's Not So Distant History

This #WomensHistoryMonth, let's not forget how many of our rights were only won in recent decades, and weren’t acquired by asking nicely and waiting. We need to fight for our rights. Here's are a few examples:

📍 Before 1974's Fair Credit Opportunity Act made it illegal for financial institutions to discriminate against applicants' gender, banks could refuse women a credit card. Women won the right to open a bank account in the 1960s, but many banks still refused without a husband’s signature. This allowed men to continue to have control over women’s bank accounts. Unmarried women were often refused service by financial institutions entirely.

📍 Before 1977, sexual harassment was not considered a legal offense. That changed when a woman brought her boss to court after she refused his sexual advances and was fired. The court stated that her termination violated the 1974 Civil Rights Act, which made employment discrimination illegal.⚖️

📍 In 1969, California became the first state to pass legislation to allow no-fault divorce. Before then, divorce could only be obtained if a woman could prove that her husband had committed serious faults such as adultery. 💍By 1977, nine states had adopted no-fault divorce laws, and by late 1983, every state had but two. The last, New York, adopted a law in 2010.

📍In 1967, Kathrine Switzer, entered the Boston Marathon under the name "K.V. Switzer." At the time, the Amateur Athletics Union didn't allow women. Once discovered, staff tried to remove Switzer from the race, but she finished. AAU did not formally accept women until fall 1971.

📍 In 1972, Lillian Garland, a receptionist at a California bank, went on unpaid leave to have a baby and when she returned, her position was filled. Her lawsuit led to 1978's Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which found that discriminating against pregnant people is unlawful

📍 It wasn’t until 2016 that gay marriage was legal in all 50 states. Previously, laws varied by state, and while many states allowed for civil unions for same-sex couples, it created a separate but equal standard. In 2008, California was the first state to achieve marriage equality, only to reverse that right following a ballot initiative later that year. 

📍In 2018, Utah and Idaho were the last two states that lacked clear legislation protecting chest or breast feeding parents from obscenity laws. At the time, an Idaho congressman complained women would, "whip it out and do it anywhere,"

📍 In 1973, the Supreme Court affirmed the right to safe legal abortion in Roe v. Wade. At the time of the decision, nearly all states outlawed abortion with few exceptions. In 1965, illegal abortions made up one-sixth of all pregnancy- and childbirth-related deaths. Unfortunately after years of abortion restrictions and bans, the Supreme Court overturned Roe in 2022. Since then, 14 states have fully banned care, and another 7 severely restrict it – leaving most of the south and midwest without access. 

📍 Before 1973, women were not able to serve on a jury in all 50 states. However, this varied by state: Utah was the first state to allow women to serve jury duty in 1898. Though, by 1927, only 19 states allowed women to serve jury duty. The Civil Rights Act of 1957 gave women the right to serve on federal juries, though it wasn't until 1973 that all 50 states passed similar legislation

📍 Before 1988, women were unable to get a business loan on their own. The Women's Business Ownership Act of 1988 allowed women to get loans without a male co-signer and removed other barriers to women in business. The number of women-owned businesses increased by 31 times in the last four decades. 

Free download

📍 Before 1965, married women had no right to birth control. In Griswold v. Connecticut (1965), the Supreme Court ruled that banning the use of contraceptives violated the right to marital privacy.

📍 Before 1967, interracial couples didn’t have the right to marry. In Loving v. Virginia, the Supreme Court found that anti-miscegenation laws were unconstitutional. In 2000, Alabama was the last State to remove its anti-miscegenation laws from the books.

📍 Before 1972, unmarried women didn’t have the right to birth control. While married couples gained the right in 1967, it wasn’t until Eisenstadt v. Baird seven years later, that the Supreme Court affirmed the right to contraception for unmarried people.

📍 In 1974, the last “Ugly Laws” were repealed in Chicago. “Ugly Laws” allowed the police to arrest and jail people with visible disabilities for being seen in public. People charged with ugly laws were either charged a fine or held in jail. ‘Ugly Laws’ were a part of the late 19th century Victorian Era poor laws. 

📍 In 1976, Hawaii was the last state to lift requirements that a woman take her husband’s last name.  If a woman didn’t take her husband’s last name, employers could refuse to issue her payroll and she could be barred from voting. 

📍 It wasn’t until 1993 that marital assault became a crime in all 50 states. Historically, intercourse within marriage was regarded as a “right” of spouses. Before 1974, in all fifty U.S. states, men had legal immunity for assaults their wives. Oklahoma and North Carolina were the last to change the law in 1993.

📍  In 1990, the Americans with Disability Act (ADA) – most comprehensive disability rights legislation in U.S. history – was passed. The ADA protected disabled people from employment discrimination. Previously, an employer could refuse to hire someone just because of their disability.

📍 Before 1993, women weren’t allowed to wear pants on the Senate floor. That changed when Sen. Moseley Braun (D-IL), & Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) wore trousers - shocking the male-dominated Senate. Their fashion statement ultimately led to the dress code being clarified to allow women to wear pants. 

📍 Emergency contraception (Plan B) wasn't approved by the FDA until 1998. While many can get emergency contraception at their local drugstore, back then it required a prescription. In 2013, the FDA removed age limits & allowed retailers to stock it directly on the shelf (although many don’t).

📍  In Lawrence v. Texas (2003), the Supreme Court ruled that anti-cohabitation laws were unconstitutional. Sometimes referred to as the ‘'Living in Sin' statute, anti-cohabitation laws criminalize living with a partner if the couple is unmarried. Today, Mississippi still has laws on its books against cohabitation. 

[spirkbitch]

one more opinion about star trek fashion

it actually shouldn’t look like stuff you would wear (or at least a lot of it shouldn’t)

i’ve seen a lot of praise for modern trek fashion being better than classic trek because ‘people would actually wear that’

look at what people wore as everyday fashion 200-300 years ago, would you wear it? probably not, maybe for the novelty of it, but definitely not every day.

like, yeah this stuff looks crazy

it’s 300 years in the future. some of them are aliens, makes perfect sense to me that they would wear ridiculous extravagant clothes that look strange to my 21st century eye

similar to how if you showed modern fashion (especially alternative fashion/runway fashion) to someone dressed like this,

they would probably think we’re crazy.

yet for some reason modern trek wants us to believe that hundreds of years into the future people still just wear zip up hoodies?

(idk if the spock fit actually is a hoodie or not but come on man, the zipper? nothing more futuristic than a zipper?)

or this dress that looks like i could buy it in a 21st century target?

(not to hate on chapel, she’s just the only one i can find decent pictures of out of uniform)

also why is everything so grey now? when was it decided that people don’t wear colors in the future? i can not find out of uniform pictures where any of these people wear color, all black, white, grey, and maybe a bit of muted green.

tldr

clothing design in star trek should be just as important as clothing design in a period piece. i don’t think a screencap from any star trek should look like it could just as easily take place in the 21st century, i should see some crazy outfits. the clothes can do a lot of the heavy lifting to remind us that this is supposed to be far in the future.

[bethanydelleman]

Just sitting here thinking to myself, it's only been 75 years since it became normal for parents not to bury their own children. It's only been about 3 generations since we mourned a quarter of our children. It's been a tiny sliver of a slice of the history of humanity since surviving your first 10 years was a coin flip

source

and I can't even imagine it. I cannot comprehend what it was like for 99.99% of history. How did they survive burying half of their children? I fully expect my own children to outlive me; it will be considered a rare, unexpected tragedy if they don't. How was this much misery normal for that much of history?

[cavalierzee]

THIS DIDN’T START OCTOBER 7th!!!

[leocadra]

Bruges | West Flanders | Belgium.

[hinamie]

surprise it's yuri!!!in 2024

[yesterdaysprint]

W.K. Haselden in the Daily Mirror, October 3, 1935