#get this fucking poor fox kid therapy

[ramblingguy54]

Nine’s Betrayal: A Predictable Route, But Important Execution.

     To no surprise, the idea of Nine becoming more antagonistic in Prime came to pass, but I’d like to breakdown why it just works so well in execution. Prime from the get go had set up Nine was a super vulnerable kid. Obviously, a kid with a high IQ in having great mechanical talent, although still a hurt and highly jaded child, nonetheless. Nine has easily been one of my favorite parts of Sonic Prime. Taking such a simple concept of reverse good guy doing something more interesting with it. He isn’t just a run of the mill polar opposite, rather one whom has been dealt a bad hand in turn lashing out at everyone and everything. Nine hasn’t ever taken chances in opening himself up after countless times being abused for his two tails. It wasn’t until Sonic arrived in his dimension, Nine began slightly letting his guard down.

     This moment between them in Prime’s very first episode is extremely crucial because it sets up the real solitude of Nine’s characterization. Immediately I felt sympathy for Tails’ polar opposite, given his unfortunate circumstances. Nine had to fend for himself with no real mentor figure to guide him, other than his own experiences. Nine buried away any sense of identity, or happiness, in favor of going full on coldly detached. Hiding those two tails in shame because it made Nine feel like a freak of nature. Suddenly, a happy go lucky guy, like Sonic, comes crashing into his reality. Boldly stating they’re close companions praising his natural gifts and calling those other mechanical tails seriously amazing.

     Nine has become desensitized to being seen as some disfigured individual, yet here someone is not mocking or assaulting him just because of his appearance. He didn’t know what to do in emotionally processing the fact someone is saying, “Embrace who you are! It doesn’t matter anyone else thinks!”, in a world where fears rules with an iron fist as their status quo. Perhaps, Nine reluctantly saw someone he could call a friend at long last, even if the kid didn’t want to fully admit to himself. As I had hoped, Sonic & Nine’s dynamic in Prime is a big aspect of the story getting explored. Honestly, with the way things have been handled thus far, I’d arguably say Sonic & Nine’s dysfunctional bond may pan out to be my favorite iterations Sonic & Tails iconic brotherly concept. There’s more going on underneath in their friendship.

     Shadow had warned Sonic from the start about being weary of Nine, to which he severely opposes him on said notion. Sonic’s optimism of seeing the best in others completely 180′d on him in the worst fashion. Nine’s highly self-conscious, jaded nature, and intelligence brought him to the same conclusion Shadow previously reached. If he returns all the Shatter pieces to normal, then there’s a likely chance he’ll disappear in exchange for restoring Sonic’s home world. He realized this after seeing the other Tails’ counterparts. Especially looking directly at the original Tails whom started it all scoffing at him. Any affection, or respect for that matter, Nine had toward Sonic began to fade away.

“You just assumed I’d go along with you, no matter what! Did you ever consider what I wanted!?”

     Nine was putting the pieces together in his mind realizing, “Sonic only likes me because he believes I’m just like his Tails. That I’ll agree to what he says and thinks.”, feeling very hurt by this revelation. He always had different intentions of what his “happy ending” was going to be. Seeing someone disregard his beliefs in favor of comparison to what is supposed to be an original counterpart did more to Nine than just sting. It felt like he been stabbed in the back after opening up his heart to someone. Something this poor kid hasn’t done in a very long time. Who’s to say Nine wasn’t questioning his place in all of this, as well?

    Throughout these new batch of episodes, Nine has been trying his best to give Sonic a helping hand. Putting his life on the line, so he can get a chance to return the favor of helping Sonic. Sonic had made Nine reconsider maybe there’s more to a life than simply a preference of being just another loner in a world where everyone fends for themselves. Only to have it thrown to the way side because Nine came to that same conclusion as Shadow did before. If Green Hill is to be restored, then himself, the Shatter-verse, and all other realities must apparently cease to exist. It not only terrifies him, but also makes Nine view himself as just another small cog in the system. A means to an end.

“Look’s like I can’t ever be happy.”

“Sonic doesn’t see me for who I truly am.”

“My very existence is irrelevant.”

“I don’t matter.”

     Wouldn’t surprise me if these thoughts were bubbling around in his mind before this heated confrontation happened. Nine doubles back down on his loner attitude because ultimately it has been what kept him getting hurt for so long. Getting dealt yet another hard dose of truth that Sonic stuck to his guns on Nine because he thought they would see eye to eye, like his own Tails. However, Shadow was completely right about Nine being different from who they know. Nine has been through a ton of emotional torment, even though there is still good in him. Any kindness is buried underneath a mountain of insecurities. Hence, the whole outcry of, “I AM REAL! Just not your real friend...”, is Nine hardly reaffirming his value as a person. That he isn’t defined by anything.  

    It’s what makes their dynamic so refreshing to watch between Sonic & Nine because he can’t just simply give an uplifting speech to make Tails feel better about himself. He’s gonna have to show some strong actions to Nine about his existence having significance. Breaking through those mental barriers of his isn’t gonna be easy after this falling out they’ve had. Nine has assumed Sonic didn’t genuinely ever care about him, despite standing up for him against Shadow earlier. To say I’m excited for Prime’s third season would be an understatement.

     Prime’s central conflict being centered around Sonic & Nine’s dynamic was a terrific idea, instead of simply going against different incarnations of Eggman. This makes matters a lot more dramatically complex. It isn’t simply about Sonic fixing his serious mistakes, but having to battle someone he never wanted to hurt. Sonic is gonna have to acknowledge his major oversight in not treating Nine for who he actually is. Nine isn’t Tails. He’ll never be Miles Tails Prower. Nine is a child molded by a world that was cruelly unfair to him and told he could never been proclaimed as an equal, ever. He had to do growing up on his own.

    This shot hurts to look at because you can see every ounce Nine’s remorse written all over his face thinking, “I should’ve known better than to ever put faith in someone other than myself. Why did I get my hopes up for thinking anything good would come of it?”. All the aspirations of wanting a clean slate with someone he deeply valued only to find out it was based on an empty comparison shattered Nine’s own hopes and dreams in the process.

“The only person I can ever trust is myself...”

     Sonic Prime Season 2 ends with our iconic protagonist hurting someone he never intended to, turning him into the next bigger hurdle to overcome. The writers took such a basic straight forward idea on paper making into an emotionally charged story testing Sonic’s resolve in facing down a friend.

     Taking well known tropes in stories should never be viewed as a bad thing. It’s what you go about doing with these ideas that truly matters. Sonic Prime is simply another reminder of that with Sonic & Nine’s contrasting personalities.

[neverchecking]

AALIYAH BRINGING HOME A BLANKET AND THATS HOW SHE ANNOUNCES IT! YES!

Sage is so happily delirious that he doesn't stop smiling for a whole two days minimum. (It freaks a lot of people out.) Tia gets given the baby booties and a card that says "World's Coolest Aunty". She's in tears too. Champ of course is sobbing. He's finally going to be an Uncle. (No matter how much Aaliyah and Sage keep teasing him.)

Champ accidentally overhears half the conversation where Sage thinks Tia is pregnant and is immediately off to neuter a certain blue-scarfed knight. And then potentially a wolf-furred rancher or red-scarfed hero. Sage'll help, right? While Aaliyah distracts Tia? (Too bad Tia catches wind of the whole thing. Although it wasn't hard with him screaming profanity halfway across the castle.)

That might be the kickstart for the Three to start explicitly courting Tia, if only for their own safety.

But yes, Baby Fever Exposure Therapy. All the babies. All the children. If they ever have five minutes free? Tia is asking them nicely if they wouldn't mind taking care of the kids? It'll reassure some of the workers to know that their kids are safe without having to worry about them underfoot. Thank you dears!

Aaliyah and Sage know exactly what she's doing. It is sneaky and conniving and it is working. The last bit annoys them the most. Like how dare she encourages their growth and healing by exploiting their love of kids and giving them room to choose.

Aaliyah smiles at every baby in her arms and there are three heroes down. People need to stop giving Aaliyah babies to look after when she's in the presence of the triplets. They are swooning and Champ is actually starting to get concerned.

"On Wednesdays, we wear pink. So you can't sit with us." Aaliyah with a straight face to First who was hoping to have a private tea with Tia , but that damn Sheikah is already there.

I imagine Fox Form Tia has two sizes. One is normal size, travel-sized for convenience if you will, which is best for swiftly taking out a few enemies and the occasional snuggles with Wolfie or someone in need. The other is Giant Horse-sized for when shit's really fucked. Champ likes to sit on her back and fight like that. All three of them can fit on her back and it's fun watching the world burn from that high.

Tia's kinda making the moves, but this is very new to her. She is smooth and confident and sweet and once she's out of their sight, a completely flustered dork. Or until one of them ramps up the flirting and then she's just bright red. She is soo smitten and the twins plus sister-in-law are so mad about it.

THAT WAS THE EXACT VIBE I WAS GOING FOR. Champ being like "I FORBID YOU FROM TAKING ONE STEP OUT THAT DOOR WITHOUT TELLING ME WHO YOU'RE SEEING >:(." Tia is straight up "Alright. YEET!" out the window only to be caught by one of her suitors.

(One of them pulls a really slick move and both Sage and Champ are "Ok I don't like you but that was smooth and I'm using it on my own s/o")

BESTIE I'M THIS 🤏 CLOSE TO PUSHING ALL MY WORK TO THE SIDE AND WRITING THIS OUT FNIFNFI

Sage is like...uncharacteristically friendly. Like, he waves at people thats how happy he is (They send word to the castle to get Tia for help RIGHT NOW). I imagine they tell Tia and Champ together and there's a few seconds of processing before they're freaking. Champ is sobbing and squeezing his twin, who's so happy he doesn't even care. He even hugs back with one arm for a whole three seconds. Tia and Aaliyah are talking about things they don't have to worry about for months yet.

Champ is bursting out the seams trying not to go straight to Zora's Domain to spread the news fonfnf

FNFOBF POOR WARS. Won't even see it coming rfonfnf Especially with SAGE on his side. Aaliyah is trying her damnedest to distract Tia, but she knows them too well. (And champ gets loud when he's angry).

I feel like this is the perfect kickstarter because they survived two out of three guard dogs trying to kill them. They have no more time to waste when it comes to Tia.

OKAY with the Baby Fever Exposure Therapy, imagine the three trying to court Tia bringing in all sorts of kids to distract the trio to actually ask Tia's permission to court her. And the trio can't even do anything because the second one of them leaves, one of the kids notices and starts crying.

Aaliyah and sage knowing and hating that Tia has managed to find a way to get them to lay down like dogs. It's actually kind of funny how quickly they de-escalate when it comes to babies. How dare she look past their defenses and choose to accept them. That's...the opposite of what's supposed to happen!

Wild and Cal have no idea about the baby fever thing and don't really pin her as the type before Sage is giving them a smirk, All like 'Watch and learn boys." And they can only watch as one of the moms in the village they're in (Probably Tarrey Town), lets their toddler down only for the little bean to bolt straight for Aaliyah. Aaliyah who's gone from >:( i hate it here to OH MYGOSH ITS *Insert toddler name* C'MERE BABY LOOK AT HOW BIG YOU'VE GOTTEN :DDD.

It's a one two knock out. Champ is looking into therapists in the area (And psych wards foff)

AALIYAH BEING A MEAN GIRL IS SO CANON FHOFBF Especially with First. She's foiling him ever. Chance. She. Gets. Tia is both amused and fed up with it.

You said travel-sized and I immediately thought of her just poofing into her fox form whenever she doesn't wanna walk and just...scaling one of the trio's legs before wrapping around they're necks to take a little snooze. Or, if wolfie is there, sleeping on his back <33 (I'm assuming this means she knows Twi is wolfie).

FCIFBFB IMAGINE YOUR JUST A RANDOM BOKOBLIN AND IN COMES THIS GIANT ASS FOX WITH FLAME THROWERS AND CANONS AND THREE LUNATICS ON ITS BACK FIFBF I'D QUIT PERSONALLY-

I might've mentioned this in our last one, but I find it so funny that Tia has to make the moves bc the trio won't let the others even think about it. They can't stop Tia. (It is just a little painful listening to her gush about the three like a school girl with her first crush.)

(there are moments when Aaliyah has to pull Sage aside and just be like "I-...I wasn't that bad...right?" and he's like "Nah. I'd know if you were." When they were both, in fact, worse.)

Should one of the three ramp up the flirting, I think that's when they realize if Tia instigates it, the trio won't CAN'T do anything about it. So it becomes a game to them. When Tia falls, it's all over.

RFHFIBFF ITS SUCH A GOOD SCENE

I also feel like they're the type of group, that just-

Tia, sneaking in:

Champ, lighting up a lantern to reveal he was there: Where were you?

Tia:...Out with the sages.

Sage and Aaliyah, lighting their own lanterns from across the room: Wanna try again?

(FBIFB SAGE AND CHAMP JUST "I don't like you, but for ten minutes of alone time with Tia, I get to use that and you can't claim credit for it.")

[darlingbudsofrae]

Neil Josten Appreciation Post

Foxes Appreciation Series : 1 || 2 || 3 || 4 || 5 || 6 || 7 || 8 || 9 || 10 ||

Alright, let’s just start this by addressing the big elephant in the room: everyone loves Neil Josten. EVERYONE.

If you don’t, you’re lying. 

Okay, first up- I’m glad this is getting addressed more on AFTG tumblr but Neil is literally so much smarter than the fandom gives him credit for.

Like yes, he’s a little dumdum on the social aspect of things (you could argue he kind of has a low EQ but also not really, I would argue that later)

but that doesn’t dismiss that he is smart af and that he can kill you and make it look natural if he wants.

For example, he literally outrun and hid from the mafia for years. Like, that in itself is an obvious point but we often forget that he did this at a very young age.

Like, he was presumably what? 16?? (when Mary kicked the bucket?) And kid was already playing hide and seek pretty well with a freaking mafia.

He does not get enough credit for this.

The survival skills it takes- the mental strength to survive as a runaway and technically he’s also homeless- at freaking 16, that’s just insane.

Also, let’s not mention the fact that it takes skills to forge official papers and all that.

We also do not talk enough about Neil and how he freaking have to relearn an entirely new position just to play exy.

I don’t think most remember that he’s actually a backliner, but have to play as a striker because it was the only available position in that local high school he attended in Millport, and that was how Kevin saw him so he was recruited as a striker.

We also additionally do not talk enough about how Kevin “literal and figurative Son of Exy” Day found potential for court in Neil “I’m a backliner but I’m playing striker because it’s the only thing available and I’m an exy junkie” Josten who only played it for like a year or less. 

Like yeah, Kevin said he needs more training but it’s not even Neil’s official position. 

The talent on this man- I cannot, he is such an icon. 

Aside from his great survival skills and being literally great at picking things up- he’s also like freaking academically smart.

Like that also doesn’t get enough credit- I mean, he does math for fun.

Frankly, I think if you did Kumon or if you had an awesome teacher you could also do math for fun (I know I did) but this should be noted with the fact that he didn’t have proper schooling.

He went on a run at a really young age so there is no way he received formal education.

Which means he is naturally like really smart.

He’s also a polyglot. And the languages he has under his belt are all freaking difficult to learn- like, no kidding: French, German, and he can assumingly speak intermediate Spanish, and we don’t even have an idea if this is all the languages he can speak.

Also, he and Andrew learns how to speak Russian, right? Like, that’s crazy.

The brain on this man and the power that he has- my son, I am so proud.

I mean, for all we know- there’s more than that and the fact that he’s like 18 at TFC screams supremacy.

This is where I argue about his EQ but Neil is crazy perceptive.

It took him like freaking 3 seconds to figure out the team dynamics the foxes have, and how to work against it.

He later figured out how to make it all mesh together.

Like the way he do things isn’t conventional but reading him analyze his team despite his lack of empathy really makes me shudder.

Like, this kid is so freaking smart. I remember reading his thought process for the very first time and being like, okay- I definitely did not think about that.

The main problem with his EQ though is that he doesn’t know how to process positive stuff when he’s involved, but when he’s the outsider- his perspective is so amazing.

Like again, he kind of lacks empathy but the way he understands things and is just so sharp is just noteworthy.

I’d argue he doesn’t understand social cues and “modern teen things” but he isn’t so completely clueless on the social aspect in general as to not manipulate an entire team of misfits with issues to work together.

He’s literally the key to unity in AFTG. Even Dan says so.

Also, the way he puts things into play- like he’s a master manipulator, and I love that for him.

We do not talk enough about manipulative Neil, like I just really love manipulative characters in general so much- especially if they’re just owning it. 

I mean, he freaking manipulated Andrew and Aaron into therapy. Kind of evil but also wow. (just a sidenote, please don’t force people into therapy lol)

Going completely dark for a second, Neil also has a freaking high pain tolerance.

The amount of horrible things he went through in the books were just so sad and the fact that he just kind of moves on from it? That’s just completely oh my gods.

My poor summer child, even if you can kill me at any given time, let me just hug you for a second with consent.

Everyone also gives shit about Neil’s fashion choices and granted it is said he kind of bags the homeless looks but the fact that he values utility above all else-

Yes, we stan a resourceful king. 

Lowkey though, am I the only one who appreciate Neil’s average style?

Speaking of style- I love the way Neil narrates. Like, the way he doesn’t give much attention to how the character looks- it’s just so realistic?

Because if I’m talking to a person in real life, there is no way I am noting how his blue polo makes him kind of casual but clean-cut and how his brown eyes is as warm as my morning coffee. Like, who even does that?

The thing with Neil’s narration is that it’s just so authentic- like it easily engages the readers and the way he gives importance to every thing the same way, it really makes it easier for the reader to discern things objectively, y’know what I mean?

He just has that quality in a main character and narrator- he’s laidback and sarcastic but not trying too hard, and he’s just really easy to love.

Like, I normally don’t like narrators/main characters in books because I favor a side character more or just because they’re annoying, but Neil Josten is legit lovable. 

At the same time, he’s also a really well-written character. Like, for all the technicalities I point out in AFTG, Neil is an asshole. He’s not perfect and I don’t 100% love everything that he does and I love that.

He’s a flawed character but he gives you something to root for- and I just really want to appreciate his characterization for a second. Most books make their characters’ flaws not even their fault to put a check to the flawed character but at the same time still have that perfect character. Eeww, no- give me real flaws to work with.

He’s one of the realest protagonists I ever read.

Like people give him shit for wanting to hide but also choosing to play a nationwide-discerned sport on an infamous collegiate team but for me it’s kind of realistic.

Because I think we, as human beings, also do things we love too much regardless of logic. I don’t know, like it’s kind of funny the way Neil is written but I honestly didn’t see him joining Palmetto as a loophole.

Like, just think of all those successful people who hid their identities via pseudonym or other necessary means to do things they weren’t expected to do or weren’t allowed to do.

For me, his character was really just looking for excuses to play his favorite sport a second longer and if anything, that’s just kind of sad.

But also, his dedication and love to exy is really admirable- like I never understood it but the way he literally does everything to stay on the court for a second longer just makes me want to root for him.

On a random note, Neil may not have an eidetic memory like Andrew’s but the way he memorize most phone numbers by heart? 

Bruh, I don’t even have my phone number memorized and I freaking have it for two years now. 

He also memorizes every twists and turns at every trip, every exits at a room he enters, and most people’s tics upon the first meeting, and other things and that’s just crazy perceptive but also really crazy on another level.

Also, we don’t get much ace/demi representation and out of the few I’ve consumed, demi Neil Josten validates me. He’s legit my favorite character that belongs in the ace spec in books.

I just really love Neil’s character so much- he’s just so amazing.

One thing I always appreciate about Neil Josten is that while he’s not a total angel (sadly), the way he loves the foxes- like he legit tried to mend the team and make sure everyone is going to be okay before walking straight to his death- like I’m with Andrew on this one, what a fucking martyr. Why are you like this and why am I crying?

Neil Josten is by all means not soft, that much is established, but the way he’s just still as precious and must be protected at all costs-

"You know, I get it," Neil said. "Being raised as a superstar must be really, really difficult for you. Always a commodity, never a human being, not a single person in your family thinking you're worth a damn off the court—yeah, sounds rough. Kevin and I talk about your intricate and endless daddy issues all the time."

I love him, your honor- where can I file this adoption papers and do I have anything else to sign?

[generallyunskilled]

Why I sympathize with or apologize for these Dream SMP characters

Since I’m very unwell and watch just about every perspective on the Dream SMP, I’m a sympathizer or apologist for just about every character. I figured I’d share my thoughts on that. This is probably gonna be long.

Before I get started, here’s who I’m not a sympathizer or apologist for

c!Dream: fuck this guy. You’re not supposed to sympathize with him. He’s just all around evil, man. He’s an abuser, manipulator and he preys on those weaker than him. I still enjoy his character however, he’s just so delightfully hateable and I love when villains are hateable.

c!Sam: I get Sam. I really do. I understand where he’s coming from. But good god, it’s just not working! His little system keeps fucking up and he doesn’t really seem to get that it’s the system itself and not the people fucking it up. He’s too damn lawful for his own good. The prison is eating at him and you can see how he’s becoming more and more a bastardized version of the man he used to be. I want to be able to sympathize with him, and I’m not going to excuse the shitty things he’s done, but I understand him. As he is right now he’s gone off the deep end and doesn’t even know it yet. However I do think he can change. There’s still a chance for it.

Any other character not listed I simply just do not have an opinion on them. Maybe I don’t watch them often, there’s just not much to their character, or they simply haven’t done much for them to need apologists or sympathizers.

Now onto the list

c!Tommy: this kid has been through so much and received so little support. Like yeah, he’s done some wrong things, but he’s been so disproportionately punished for them. Like almost everyone else does the things he does without any repercussions. He’s also stopped doing most of the things people had issues with, or is at least trying. I feel like people don’t realize half the reason Tommy did any of his ‘bad’ things is he’s simply never been taught better. Everyone wants him to learn his lesson but never actually teach him anything but violence and pain. Also, half the things the fandom calls him an asshole for are literally mental illness symptoms. Stop that. Kids got some things messed up in his head. I’m not one to diagnose but he gets pretty damn close to the criteria for C-PTSD. You know, from the near constant trauma in his life. Kid needs a break. And a doctor.

c!Techno: I’m really flip floppy with him. His motives are understandable but his morals are wack as hell. I get wanting something against people who’ve wronged you. I get disliking government. What I don’t get, is the absolute disproportionate retribution he delivers. I also don’t get his moral high ground. He has his reasons for distrusting government. He has his reasons for disliking L’Manburg (o7). And I think it’s perfectly valid to want to air his grievances. He’s got a very admirable combination of “do unto others” and “an eye for an eye”. Mans just bungles the execution of these ideas. He’s got a lot of problems, but however, I feel like he’s got something coming to him. cc!Techno’s a better writer than this. And now with it seeming like a lot of miscommunication is getting cleared up, some of Technos past transgressions might come back to him. I think he’s headed in an interesting direction.

c!Phil: a lot of what I said for Techno applies to him as well. In addition, we know he also blames the government for his son’s spiral and death. It makes sense based on what he knows. I had something completely different here in the drafts but now we know that Wilbur didn’t tell him the truth about what happened in Manburg-Pogtopia era of the SMP. He’s been completely misinformed and you can TELL this has shaken his world up. He’s gaining a lot of new knowledge really fast. It’s becoming clear that maybe he’s beginning to regret some of what he’s done. But beyond the misinformation, he also just never got much time to actually grieve for his son and heal before the plot moved on. I feel like Phil is one of those guys who sorta just stuffs all his emotions away, but now it’s getting to be too much. He has a lot of hidden depth and I think he’s definitely on the way to a different role than what he’s played.

c!Wilbur: before his death, Wilbur needed help. No one realized anything was wrong until it was too late to pull him out of his spiral. We now know he started falling after Eret’s betrayal. He was paranoid and growing to hate what he had created. It seems like Eret was the catalyst, but the election was the straw that broke the camels back. Everyone just kind of sat around and hoped he’d change his mind. The only one willing to try was Tommy, and Tommy was just a kid. Something could have been done for him. He wasn’t a villain. He was just someone who went down a dark path that could have been pulled away if someone who wasn’t a 16 year old boy tried to reach out to him. Post-resurrection, he seems to be happy to be alive again. I’m not saying he’s completely out of the spiral but clearly something changed in limbo. And yeah him saying Dream is his hero is hella sketch but I mean, he doesn’t have the full story yet. I need to see more of revivedbur to make an opinion on him entirely.

c!Tubbo: this kid has had so little agency for so much of the plot. Most of the bad things he’s done were under duress or because he was practically being used. He really was a pawn in other peoples games, unfortunately. Any action of his that wasn’t like this was something he did out of pure reaction. He’s a very reactionary guy. He doesn’t start shit but he’ll try to finish it if he can. Tubbo is mostly just trying to get by. He’s been a soldier, a spy, a president and whatever else he needed to be or what others needed him to be. His time as president had him being pushed around and put under pressure he should never been put under. He was backed into corner after corner and expected to make the right decision with different people telling him what that was. Now he’s just trying to have some peace for himself and his family. He made the nukes for defense and defense only. It’s extreme but he’s been taught that extremism is the only thing that works.

c!Ranboo: dude literally doesn’t know what, when, or how he did any of the bad things he did. He’s not himself for most of the wrongdoings he’s done. Hell, we don’t even know if he actually did do some of the things or if it’s Dream manipulating him. Dream is literally taking advantage of Ranboo having the Enderwalk state. This makes him one of the most dangerous people on the server as Dream puppet, but also one of the most victimized. Now this doesn’t absolve him completely because harm was still done but it’s a reasonable cause behind his actions. Like I mentioned he’s also a victim of Dream in this way. Even he’s scared of what could happen and the possibility that he could be a danger to the people he loves. Granted his moral code used to be pretty wack but he’s getting better at that. I really like his “choose people” stance bc at first it was just him making his own side but now he’s genuinely picking and choosing people and being with them because he likes them as people rather than their stance on things. He and Tubbo were already friends before they got married, he’s not an official part of Snowchester though, iirc, and the only reason he joined The Syndicate was to make sure they don’t go after Tubbo.

c!Fundy, c!Niki, and c!Jack all go in the “seek some healthy coping mechanisms for the love of god” pile. Niki has already started on this as she’s baking again. c!Fundy honestly hasn’t done much wrong afaik, but he still needs to go to therapy that poor fox boy has so much daddy issues and sadness. c!Jack literally just needs to work through his issues with Tommy bc dude only knows murder as an answer to his problems. There’s other ones and he should learn them. These three are just traumatized and don’t know what to do with themselves.

[bisluthq]

Oh she definitely fuckin does. Both his parents seem like the type who have keys to their kids house and definitely get into Josh's house uninvited like it's nothing. Probably even walked on him once AND not jusr doing drugs. Seriously poor guy

JOSH BABY GET THERAPY. LIZ SPIERS AND VICKY WARD AND EMILY FOX ARE BEHIND YOU. THE BISLUTS ARE BEHIND YOU. MIKEY AND MISHA ARE BEHIND YOU. THE FUCKING SUSSEXES ARE BEHIND YOU. YOUR WIFE AND CHUBBY BEBE ARE SOOOO BEHIND YOU.

WHAT MORE DO YOU NEED JUST GET THERAPY AND KAREXIT Y'ALL!!!!!

[surveys-at-your-service]

Survey #338

“i can’t decide if you’re wearing me out, or wearing me well”

Are you a fan of techno? I've gotten more into it lately, actually. I've never minded it. Who’s your favorite horror movie villain/monster? Pyramid Head, though he's called Red Pyramid Thing in the movies. Do you have a favorite muscle car? Nah. I'm not big into cars. What would be a total deal-breaker for you, relationship-wise? You so much as lift your hand at me, bye, motherfucker. Would you consider yourself to be accepting of others? Yes, but not as much as I used to be. There are certain opinions I just don't tolerate in people anymore; I feel like by staying associated with people whose views invalidate or in any way harm others (racism, homophobia, transphobia, etc.), you're on the side of evil as well, even if indirectly. However, I genuinely do feel I have a wide range of viewpoints I'm willing to accept in others, even if I don't agree with them. Are you flirtatious? No. I think I'm only capable of flirting with someone I'm already with and very comfortable around. I'd feel way too shy and awkward otherwise. Have you ever just felt "drawn" to someone, but you didn’t know why? "Didn't know why," no. I've felt drawn to people with good reason, like if I was romantically interested in them. Is there anyone you currently want to reach out to? There's a number, honestly. Especially with the aid of therapy, I'm being motivated to strengthen bonds with old friends and/or acquaintances via Facebook. Freddy or Jason? I think Jason is scarier. Freddy tends to come across as cheesy for me. Have stickers or gems on your cell phone? Nah. Ever teased your hair? Bitch I damn well tried in high school because I wanted the ~ l e g i t ~ emo hair, but mine was just too heavy to hold, at least with the hairspray my sister had. Have any friends with benefits? Nah, that's never been my thing. Ever lost of bunch of valuable information? Ummm I don't believe so. I've lost massive RP posts before, but I can't really call those "valuable information." What drinks or food make you hyper? None, really. Most expensive thing you ever bought? With my own money, my snake. She's a champagne morph ball python. What type of toothpaste do you use? Crest. How much time to spend putting on makeup daily? Zero. When listening to a song, what do you listen for (lyrics, bass, beat, ect)? The beat, more than anything else. What is the color of your toothbrush? It's a white electric one. What is your favorite color(s) of eye-makeup? Black. Just black. Are you sexually active? I'm not. Do you have sensitive skin? Very. Are you attracted to several guys atm? I'm actually not attracted to any guys in my personal life atm. How many toilets are in your house? Two. Do you have an older sister? Excluding the one I don't know, I have three older sisters. Favorite song by Owl City? Probably "Hot Air Balloon," but I don't know many at all. What color is your mum’s car? White. Do you truly understand the (LDS) Mormon religion? I don't know what "LDS" means, but as my former best friend developed into a Mormon, I learned some stuff from her in her self-discovery. I don't remember a lot of it, not that I knew all that much in the first place. Where do you keep your kitty litter box? Ugh, Mom's unmovable about it being in my fucking room for some reason. And we have an extra goddamn room no one uses yet. Roman's shit STINKS, like we think something might actually be wrong, but nope, it has to stay in here. e_e It would literally inconvenience nobody if we moved it in the spare room. Are you a lighter complexion than your father? MUCH lighter. He's very tan. Do you like apricots? No. Solid soap bar or liquid body wash? 100% body wash. Bar soap slips so easily, and as someone who lives with another person, I'm not rubbing my body with the same bar my mother uses, no offense to her. Sharing it's just gross. Where do you live (country or state)? Shitty 'ole North Carolina. Do you use plastic, wooden, or wire hangers? I think we have a mix of them, actually. What is your favorite shade of yellow? I only like pastel yellow. Otherwise, it's one of my least favorite colors. Are there any shades of blue that you don’t like? If so, which ones? Ehhh not really. What is something you want to accomplish before you turn 30? God, can I please have a stable career by then. Who has the best decorated house in your town? I don't know. We live in a cul de sac community thing where it's just houses next to houses, so there's a lot to choose from. I don't pay attention to them. What is your favorite part of Halloween? The decorations. Do you feel a connection to the moon? "As above, so below," as the saying goes. What does your heart long for? Peace and contentness with myself. Did you decorate a pumpkin this year? Last year, I didn't. I do want to this year, though, if I can just think of a really good idea. I have to be motivated. What are some fall activities you would do with your kids? I'm not having kids, but I'll follow along, hypothetically. With how much joy Halloween brought me as a kid, I'd want to do SO much as a family with them. Homemade decorations, carving or painting pumpkins together, and hell yeah I'd be taking them trick-or-treating once I felt they were ready and they wanted to. I'd be one of those parents that probably spends too much on whatever costumes they want, haha... Oh, and then besides Halloween, I'd certainly rake leaf piles together for them to jump and play in. This question has brought to mind like ONE thing I could enjoy as a parent, haha. Have you ever seen a fox? I have; besides in a zoo setting, I've seen one or two in the wild run out of sight, and I also found one poor fellow as roadkill that had been disemboweled by I'm assuming vultures. With my whole roadkill photography thing, I literally almost kneeled into a strand of intestines I didn't see at first. :x What color are the squirrels where you live? We only have brown ones. Is there anything about Halloween you find offensive? lol no What do the trees look like where you live? Lots, and lots, and LOTS of pine trees... There are others, but I'm not well-informed on tree species and such. Oh, then of course there are dogwoods (our "state tree"), which are unmistakable because they smell like fucking manure. What is your dream vacation? Maybe the mountains on the western side of NC during the fall... ugh, that would be breathtaking. We actually have an abandoned The Wizard of Oz-themed park around there that allows tours at certain times of the year, and I'd love to visit and photograph there. As well, western NC has the zoo, which would be spectacular to visit with autumn weather and, once again, load up on photos. Did you like field trips when you were a kid? I LOVED field trips. Do you find museums boring or interesting? Very interesting! Would you ever wear a shirt with your country’s flag on it? No. I'm not patriotic enough at all for that. What’s a medicine that makes you sleepy? Historically, larger doses of Klonopin can knock me the fuck out. Do you like bath bombs? Never used one, because I don't do baths. Who are your favorite small YouTubers? I'm going to guesstimate you mean less than 1M subs as "small," because I really don't know what you consider to fit that description. I watch a lot of people with less than 1M, so it's hard to say, but lately it's probably been a let's player John Wolfe. He's really funny. Then there's some tarantula YouTubers, along with the animal educator Emzotic... and really just many others. I think most of the people I watch actually have sub-1M, but more than 500k. Who are your favorite big YouTubers? Markiplier is absolutely, positively #1. I also really enjoy Snake Discovery, GameGrumps, Jeffree Star (don't judge me ok, he's a fuckin hoot), and while I haven't watched them in years, Good Mythical Morning will ALWAYS be deeply, deeeeply embedded in my heart. What was your favorite girl group when you were growing up? Ummm probably the Spice Girls? Have you ever used an outhouse? Ugh, yes, at old childhood sports games. What was the last good cause you donated towards? When I cut off like 8+ inches of hair to accomplish the style I have now, I donated it to Children With Hair Loss. My hair has always been mega-thick and healthy, so why in the world waste it? One of my most cherished items is the certificate I got in return many months later that my donation had been used. Have any of your exes gotten married or had kids since your breakup? I haven't had contact with Juan in many years, don't know what Tyler's up to either, and I haven't spoken to Jason since 2017, so. I'm very doubtful he's married or has kids yet, though, just knowing him and how "I need to be fully prepared for this" he is with big life stuff like that. Does it bother you when people get super emotional? Not at all. I'll do my all to comfort them. Have you ever worked in a restaurant? No. Do you get a lot of thunderstorms where you live? Depends on the time of year. Summertime? Brief but super intense thunderstorms every late afternoon. What was the last drive-thru you went through? Taco Bell w/ Mom. Do you know anyone who claims they can see/feel spirits or other supernatural ‘things?’ No. Do either of your parents have a mental illness? My mom has depression, and Mom is also convinced Dad has either depression masked as anger and/or bipolarity, but following the divorce, I don't see it in him at all. He's never seen a doctor in that field to be diagnosed with any mental illness. What fun things are there to do where you live? Jackshit. Do you know anyone with a really poorly-trained dog? Mother of fucking god, yes. My little sister lives with her best friend, and said friend has a colossal black lab named Hudson that is absolutely uncontrollable because she neglects the shit out of him. Won't listen to you even if it saved his life. He jumps on you, barks endlessly, and if he escapes the house? Good fucking luck getting him inside. She has absolutely no right to own a dog with how shitty of an owner she honestly is. When you were growing up, did your family rent or own your home? They owned it. The idiots who were moving in after us accidentally burnt the place to a fucking crisp, and my parents were SO not happy to lose that house because people were dumb enough to place boxes atop the goddamn stove. Do you do meal-prepping? No. Do you know anyone who got preggo less than a year into their relationship? Multiple people, not that that's my business. What did you dream about last night? I don't remember it clearly, other than I was with Jason and his mother was also present. What's the biggest age difference you've ever had in a relationship? That would have been with Juan, but I don't remember exactly how old he was. I just know I was a freshman and him a senior that got held back a year or so in HS. If you could save one animal from ever becoming extinct, what animal would you pick? Probably bees, given how vital they are. Name the coolest thing about one of your grandparents. My maternal grandmother worked at Disney World. I can't remember what her position was, though. Do you ever eat peanut butter straight from the jar? If I want a healthy snack, sometimes I'll have a scoop. Do you prefer your clothes loose or close fitting? They need to be loose. Favorite thing you’ve ever painted? This big painting of meerkats grooming on burlap I did in high school. Do you always wear a bra? I question the self-love of anyone who can sleep with a bra on. ;__; Do you normally finish one book before starting another? Oh yes, I can't read more than one at a time. Do you prefer reading books, comic books, manga/graphic novels, magazines, or the newspaper? The normal book. Do you know how to play chess? I don't. Are you watching anything? No, but I do have Manson's "Third Day of a Seven Day Binge" on in another tab. What is your blood type? A-. Has anyone ever borrowed something from you and never returned it? Yes. Do you twitch when you're falling asleep? Dude, I more than "twitch." I can just suddenly spaz out and look like I'm seizing for a moment. Another side effect of my nightmare suppressant medication. Are any of your pets “overweight”? No. Has anyone ever bought you a ring? My mom has bought me a few, and Jason gave me one for one of our anniversaries. Where was the last place you took a bath/shower, other than your own house? My sister's place. What first attracted you to the last person you kissed? Just how unique and happy that way she is. And her pretty much undying loyalty. Has someone ever taken a pic of you while you were making out with someone? No, considering I wouldn't go that far with someone unless we were alone. Had a crush on someone you thought shared your sexuality, turns out didn’t? Yes. What’s your favorite color to wear? Black. Does it gross you out if a guy has hair on his chest? I personally don't find an excess of it attractive, but it doesn't "gross me out." If they bathe themselves just like everyone else, why should it? Do you think sexuality is a choice or not? It is absolutely not a choice. If it was, I'd assume most people would choose to be straight, given phobias, hatecrimes, etc... I could write an essay on this. Do you like industrial piercings? Yeah. Do you think stretched ears are disgusting? "Disgusting" is, once again, the wrong word. Gauges don't really gross me out - hell, I want tiny ones -, but they can reach a size that, to me, is not visually appealing. Did you watch animated Barbie movies when you were little? I do remember loving Princess and the Pauper as well as the Rapunzel one; my sister was addicted to them. Oh yeah! Then there was the Swan Lake one that she adored, too. We usually watched movies together. Do you like fruit in your cereal? Big No. Do you like raw vegetables? Ugh, no. Do you listen to A Day to Remember? I do! They're on my list of faves. Do you like funnel cake? I actually don't. Have you ever been with someone while they were getting a tattoo? Yuh.

[tessatechaitea]

Justice League International #8 (1987)

Is it weird that I have a newsstand copy of a comic book when I definitely was shopping at my local comic shop in 1987?

This cover has so many jokes to talk about that I probably won't have time to review the entire issue. My stomach is already sore for laughing so hard! Look at how the box marked "fragile" is about to fall onto the floor thanks to the carelessness of Blue Beetle and Booster Gold! Ha ha! And they're carrying the large box upside down! According to the label on the upside down box, it's going to Paris, France so it must contain Crimson Fox who is almost certainly swearing in French because have you ever tried to masturbate while upside down in a box being jiggled by two men?! The incompetence of those guys is hilarious! But the best joke is the one where the only woman on the team doesn't lift a finger to help and also can't make up her mind about the placement of a gigantic box that hasn't been opened yet! See how funny that is? Because who cares where the box is placed?! It's not like they're moving a desk or an end table and Black Canary is coming up with a floor plan! It's just a box that will need to be opened and then broken down and then thrown out! The other funny part is that yellow spray around Beetle's head and the shape of his mouth because I think it suggests he's about to call Black Canary a bitch! Ha ha! I probably left out the joke about the hernia although that one might just be implied. Also, it'll probably be a blatant joke later in the story. The issue begins with Jack Ryder on his right-wing radio call-in television "news" program fiasco of a show Hot Seat trying to get the masses to shit blood over the Justice League. It'll work because the masses in comic books (as well as the masses not in comic books because we've all seen how people who listen to and watch right-wing radio call-in television "news" programs easily believe the alternate reality fed to them because it speaks to their inherent biases and selfishness) are idiots. (That might be my favorite interruption by parenthetical reference I've ever written.) I also know that it will work because Glorious Godfrey only recently did the same thing a year or two ago and it worked. But comic books don't recognize time and space in the same way that we more logical and real readers do so the masses won't remember that they were fooled just a year ago by idiotic television pundits who don't mind seeing the world burn as long as they can cash a fat check over it. I doubly also know it will work because Millennium is coming up and I think that might be proof that maybe Jack Ryder was sort of right because aliens have infiltrated Earth and are pretending to be heroes and possibly even right-wing radio call-in television "news" hosts. I don't really remember much about Millennium except that it was weekly and there were Manhunters in it.

My favorite comic book characters when I was a kid were Blue Falcon and Dynomutt. I bet Jack Ryder was Sean Hannity's favorite. Tucker Carlson's favorite was probably Hitler.

This issue begins the long running joke that Martian Manhunter is addicted to Oreos. I fucking get it, man. Have you ever tried to melt an Oreo into a spoon, fill a needle with the liquid contents, and inject it straight into your bloodstream? Me neither because that's stupid, you dumb idiot. Why would you even suggest it? You need to inject them straight into your taste buds. J'onn, Mister Miracle, and Captain Atom are setting up the New York Embassy which leads to lots of jokes about shoddy construction and terrible wiring and lazy movers. At one point Captain Atom electrocutes himself and then destroys all of the wiring because he's the guy the United States wanted to represent them on the new international team. I'd say his penchant to escalate a situation straight to violence proves the United States made the right decision. Batman and Guy Gardner oversee the outfitting of the Russian Embassy with a little help from Rocket Manhunter #7.

Even Rocket Red has heard about Guy's serious brain trauma and yet nobody has even discussed getting him a medical check-up. What a bunch of bastards!

This is also the issue that begins the "Bwa-ha-ha-ha" gag (I think. Did it happen in an issue previously? Maybe?! Anyway, it really gets going here). That's the gag where somebody laughs when something terrible happens to somebody else. It's a great team building exercise, to laugh at a co-worker's pain! Or if it isn't, it, at the very least, helps develop personal morale. Nothing better than laughing at your manager after her credit card was stolen by a prospective new employee while the entire company was in a meeting, especially after learning that said card was pretty much just used at The Honey Baked Ham. Does that make if funnier? Or is this one of those dark humor things like when the same manager was super pissed at an employee I was training for not showing up for work the day before Thanksgiving only to learn later that she had died of carbon monoxide poisoning the previous night which caused her to erupt into crying jags for the rest of the day which I'm positive weren't for my poor co-worker but for her guilty feelings of being so angry at her. That's dark humor, right? The "Bwa-ha-ha-ha" gag begins when Booster tries to hit on a Parisian woman and gets shot down. Later, she winds up being the League's Paris Bureau Chief. And also maybe Crimson Fox?

This scene is well done in a book that often tries too hard for stupidly silly humor.

I'd say that these three pages (the scanned page being the third of the three) of interaction between Blue Beetle and Booster Gold is ground zero for what would become a great best friend relationship. Any interaction before this was just of the generic Blue Beetle making a stupid class clown comment to the group. But this foundational scene in Paris already feels like these two at their closest which, admittedly, is mostly Blue Beetle laughing at something dumb Booster Gold did. But I like to view this entire relationship through the lens of a Booster Gold mostly driven mad and insane from having to live through so many alternate timelines. Sure, the reader doesn't know about that aspect of Booster Gold yet (and won't for more than a decade). But I can't help but understand Booster Gold through that lens now. And his need for some kind of consistency and whimsy and, almost certainly, a need to be able to laugh at himself must be expressed through this relationship as a kind of therapy. In a universe where not even the timeline lacks consistency, Booster Gold finds solace in getting his balls busted by Blue Beetle.

Maybe I'm a dick who doesn't understand true friendship but this is totally what it looks like, right?

The issue ends with a Keith Giffen drawn story about the end of the Global Guardians, or at least the end of their United Nations backing. I'm sure it's a set-up for a future story but even if it were just a couple page story acknowledging the Global Guardians and how they're affected by a new United Nations backed team, it would remain an interesting moment. I don't need iron clad continuity in my comic book universe but I am entertained when writers acknowledge the waves their stories are making in that continuity. Plus it's drawn by Giffen which always makes it seem like I'm reading a story from the perspective of a madman. Justice League International #8 Rating: B+. How come when I publish a manifesto, people refer to it as a 'zine?! How do you get the fucking power to have your photo-copied screed with "art" considered a manifesto?! How many people do I have to rant at to get some Goddamned recognition?! "The Truth About Star Trek Transporters" is not a fucking fanzine, people! It's a manifesto of the alternate reality we're being asked to accept! The alternate reality of an alternate reality where people are being sent to their deaths every fucking mission only to be replaced by clones of themselves and nobody fucking cares! Probably because they're all clones of clones of clones and their ability to think rationally has diminished to the point of dogmatic stupidity! Am I the only one witnessing this while others simply think its some kind of retrograde perspective?! Does my antediluvian intellect subquester the means of proliferating the parallax of reality?! Does the inclusion of three hilarious dick jokes deny me the mantle of manifesto writer, oublietting my ego into an infinite mirror trick of endless zineian declarations?! Fuck this shit! And fuck that satellite that's been following me throughout this meandering conclusion!

[underneaththesurface]

The Martinez Murder

Omi: Good Evening Riverdale! I’m Omi Klyde

Estelle: And I'm Estelle

Omi: And this is Underneath The Surface, where we dive into the history of our town, Riverdale.

Today, we’ll be discussing the Martinez Murder

Estelle: And since this is a special occasion, we've decided to switch it up.

Why, you ask?

Omi: because I’m nosy

no, because I got to do the research this week. Lemme tell you. There’s some stuff that might get us in trouble if we reveal too much

Estelle: Luckily, we like living on the edge.

Omi: Yesss

a lot of this information I actually got from my older sister, who reported on this case at the time

Estelle: So we know this is going to be gooooood.

Omi: Adelfa knows her shit

Estelle: Can you say shit on a podcast?

Omi: Well I just did so, I mean, we’re not sponsored-are we sponsored???

Omi: Abe! Are we sponsored??

Estelle: I- I don't think so.

Abe: How the hell should I know? I just joined y'all!

Omi: alright, so, as we all know, the Serpents and Ghoulies have been in opposition since their creation, basically. Well, this whole thing was started by the waterboarding of Abdiel Martinez’s -the leader of the Ghoulies at the time- teenage son

sometime around 2009

Estelle: Wait-

They waterboarded a teenager?

Abe: what the-

Omi: the serpents weren’t as soft as they are now. The ghoulies were actually a lot less rowdy in the 90s/2000s

Estelle: I see.

Abe: Why, though?

Omi: Honestly, because of a simple wrong place wrong time misunderstanding. the leader of the serpents at the time was actually apologetic to Abdiel because apparently it really messed the kid up

Estelle: That's-

Abe: How you do accidentally waterboard the wrong person?

Estelle: But you said the leader of the Serpents actually apologized?

Omi: yes! 

Actually, he even paid for some therapy. 

The two groups had a truce

Estelle: Wow!

What happened to that guy?

Omi: oh, the leader? 

Not 100% sure. 

Think he died in combat or something

Estelle: huh. 

Omi: But...

Estelle: That’s pretty tragic

Abe: I knew there’d be a but

Omi: it is. And he seemed nice too, from what Adelfa told me 

yup, there’s always a but. 

Well, not long after that, the ghoulies went after the leader’s kid

Estelle: Of course.

I mean- why actually accept the truce if you just- you know-  go after the kid.

Abe: You said "kid", does that mean he was younger than the boy who was waterboarded?

Omi: eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. 

 the ghoulies might’ve been soft, but they still had some wild members from the 80s there advising 

yeah, he would’ve been about our age then 

the age of the boy who got waterboarded was 16 I think?

Estelle: Oh. That's-

Abe: NINE OR TEN????

Estelle: That’s just horrible 

Omi: nine or ten...poor kid

Estelle: But what did they exactly do to the 9/10-year-old?

Omi: they jumped him. 

Kid came out with cuts and bruises according to medical reports

Who the heck jumps a literal child??

Estelle: Ghoulies, apparently.

Abe: Didn't they do something like that to someone from our school?

The beanie guy.

Estelle: (wheezes) the beanie guy...

Omi: Nuggethead? Yes

a serpent himself

Estelle: I- I want to correct both of you, but-

His own name isn't that much better.

(whispers) Is that mean?

Omi: am I wrong??? I’ve seen him eat the entire menu at pops in one sitting

Abe: He's why you left the Blue & Gold.

That guy eats everything.

Omi: ok one more bash and I’ll get on with the story- 

but I have seen him eat a burger off the floor

Estelle: That's not just Jughead...

Abe: Yeah I'm pretty sure Mark's done that, too.

Estelle: No, I thought it was Brian.

Omi: wouldn’t put it past either of them

Estelle: Pretty sure Jonathan would do it too, if it wasn't for me.

Omi: teenage boys are something else, aren’t they? Like little creatures

anyways I should definitely go back to the topic because you’re usually the one who reigns me in

Estelle: The struggle is real.

Abe: Can't relate.

Estelle: (laughs) Let's save this for another time, yes. Please continue.

Omi: So, of course, the serpent leader was not happy bout this.

therapy stopped for the Martinez boy

Estelle: My respect would be gone if he didn't.

Omi: in fact, he was so angry about this, the serpents captured both Abdiel and his wife

the truce was over

which, is understandable

Abe: Oh no, not the wife.

Omi: the wife. But, the kids were left out of this part

Abe: Oh good, he has some morals.

Estelle: (wheezes) Better than the Ghoulies.

Omi: i don’t think the ghoulies ever had morals, minus maybe a few members. those young ghoulies scare me-they had the whole town scared of clowns for a year, remember that?

Estelle: Oh yeah.

Abe: Not a violent person but I was this close to buying a gun, yes.

Omi: those were some times 

Anyways, what is known about what happened next is the following: the couple was taken, reported missing for a few days, and Mrs. Martinez returned blind and widowed. Information was either redacted or they were unable to attain the exact details of the murder

Abe: Wh-

Estelle: Oh, that-

Abe: Blind??

Omi: blind

Estelle: I have to say, that is an effective way to lead

Abe: Are you seriously condoning this?

Omi: she stumbled into the south side emergency room, bleeding, and sobbing hysterically

no I get what you’re saying

Estelle: I mean, he was pretty chill and they abused that and now they paid.

Omi: makes sense to me

Abe: Y-yeah but-

Omi: y’all wanna hear something interesting tho?

Estelle: Oh Yes.

Abe: Oh No. 

Omi: Guess who’s kid runs the ghoulies now

Estelle: I- shut the fuck up.

Abe: Estelle-

Estelle: It all makes total sense now.

Omi: does this mean I can say fuck on this podcast

Estelle: We'll take the fine, should we get one.

Omi: daddy can pay for it we’re fine

Abe: Okay, but let's not overdo it please.

Omi: yes his son is now the leader and that is why the ghoulies are reclaiming their 80s wild child glory

also thats why they seem especially brutal towards the serpents

oh, want to hear another thing?

Estelle: Yes.

Always.

Omi: law enforcement never found the body, BUT

there are rumors

Estelle: Not surprised, honestly.

Abe: What rumors?

Omi: well, supposedly, there was a scavenger hunt

set by the serpents, for the ghoulies

Estelle: Oh.

Fun.

Abe: (laughs)

Omi: the body hasn’t been discovered to this day, as far as we know. But, that’s why there are so many random holes in fox forest

allegedly

and here I was, thinking we had massive gophers

Abe: Oh my god.

Estelle: Maybe they helped.

Omi: who knows, there’s lots of shit in that forest, especially that creepy funeral home and crematorium, which is also supposedly linked to the ghoulies but law enforcement hasn’t found proof of that

Estelle: How?

Omi: also we’re close to greendale and that town has lots of weird happenings. I suspect radiation

They searched the place

Abe: Yeah I believe that.

Estelle: See this is why I don't go to that forest.

Name one good thing that's happened there.

Omi: Absolutely nothing. 

too many kids go missing on the paths through it no way am I stepping foot in it

Abe: But y'all are dragging me to that house on Wabash Avenue?

Omi: its not in the forest. Free range baby

Abe: I don't wanna run into an angry man as we wander around his house.

Estelle: I'll get you some holy water, you'll be fine.

Omi: we’ll be fine. ill do a crazy dance to distract him

Estelle: If Omi screams, we'll run.

Omi: and I’ve never screamed

because we will be fine and if not I will ask Queenie for her bat

do you think ghosts like 90s r&b?

Estelle: I'd go for EDM.

Abe: Oh yeah.

Omi: so you have nothing to worry about my dear sweet Abe

theyll be dancing

Estelle: Now, some of you might have been wondering why it's the three of us.

You wanna introduce yourself?

Abe: Hello everyone! I'm Audrey Lincoln. Last time, Omi and Estelle decided to investigate the case of Wabash Avenue, and they've been thinking about turning it into a vlog.

Estelle: And of course, our lovely friend Abe came to mind.

Abe: So, the following weeks, I'll be part of the team.

Omi: shes talented, beautiful, stunning, spectacular, amazing, wonderful

Abe: Omi-

Estelle: And if our talented, beautiful, stunning, spectacular, amazing, wonderful friend likes it, she's more than welcome to stay part of the team.

Omi: i’d definitely like her to be apart of it, then we’d see you more!

well, I think that wraps up this week

Estelle: Feeling a little more unsafe in this town.

Omi: wait, you’ve felt safe in this town?

Estelle: When I was a little girl, yes.

Abe: Before History class.

Estelle: Or before I started following the news.

Omi: Valid points.

Well, I’m Omi 

Estelle: I'm Estelle.

Abe: And I'm Audrey.

Omi: Don’t forget to tune in next week for: The Truth Behind Pickens Day!

Estelle: See y’all then!

Abe: And sweet dreams

[im-a-book-kinda-dude]

Honestly I'm just going to scream for a bit, sorry

But honestly what the actual fuck was Ivy thinking when she essentially told someone she was terrified of to 'square up, bitch' and then proceeded to fucking ruin her, and then proceeded to do that everytime she met a challenge, with a mixture of brains, absolutely no sense of self preservation, and a mildly mentally unstable fulled rage. Like this ligitimate child is just out there, taking down murderers and abusers, 99% of the time scared shitless, and her main focus isn't even on them, it's on her sister and the other kids around her, and Ivy is filled with protective rage like 24/7 now, god help the poor soul who gets in her way as an adult. Also like she's actually baited murderers into attacking her???? Like what the fuck, my child needs therapy (though not in her time period.... I'm so sorry Scarlet) because that's very self sacrificial behaviour. And, like the only person who actually sees anything wrong with this has just kinda accepted it'll happen by the end of the second time. And it's just terrible, that Ivy's been forced into this role, because she's still shy, but she needs to be strong because Scarlet can't be anymore. And so Ivy has sacrificed so much of herself in order to try and keep everyone she cares about safe, and she will keep doing it.

Also Scarlet, Scarlet, Scarlet.... God my child needs therapy but she's never going to get it... I feel so bad for her and she has much the same issues as her twin, but instead of being fulled by a protective rage she's just so scared... Their personalities kinda flipped, but Scarlet is still trying to be strong and brave but really that's Ivy, now, and all Scarlet gets is into trouble. She's all bluster, bark and no bite, and it fills her with shame because, in her mind, she's supposed to be the one protecting Ivy, because that's what she did when they were little (because their step mother is abusive and their father is neglectful), but now all she wants to do is run away, to cause trouble without conscience, just to prove she can (the without conscience thing is important, it's so so important, because Scarlet needs to be in control, she needs to have her sense of self back, but punishment = Miss Fox and so she can't face being punished, not really, because I'm like 90% sure she has PTSD, or some trauma related mental illness, and so punishment = Miss Fox = flashback, and Scarlet hates feeling weak). Scarlet is absolutely desperate for a form of control, and her entire world still revolves around Ivy, because Scarlet has never made a friend on her own when Ivy has (Ivy no longer revolves around Scarlet, and that hurts her, and she doesn't fully understand why) because Scarlet is not well. Scarlet is too abrasive, and she doesn't know how to stop.

[hauntedoghouse]

The AFTG BNHA!au Absolutely Nobody Asked For

okay okay okay my dudes, buckle up because BNHA TFC au????????? it should happen 

In which Neil is Todoroki and Nathan is obviously Endeavor, a famous certified hero under investigation/suspicion for being tied up with the League of Villains behind the scenes and being a fucken brutal murderer, but nobody can prove fucking a n y t h i n g because he's so elusive and the #2 hero, right??? And so Mary, the Ice Mom, is practically ‘given’ to him by the Hartfords as part of a deal in a quirk marriage, which she obviously doesn't wanna be part of, her family practically sold her, the fuckers

The purpose of the quirk marriage is of course to ensure that the kid would be part of the elite in the future, someone powerful to surpass the current top heroes, an order given out by the Moriyamas, who control the League 

Nathan was supposed to be grooming young Nathaniel to be the next ‘double agent’ as a powerful hero loyal to the league, bringing both profit and high security intel, which is currently Endeavor’s job

BUT, due to his abusive nature, his hatred and his reluctance to have his son surpass him, he drove Neil to fucking psychological trauma and in combination with good ol’ spite that’s so central to Neil, he eventually unconsciously (or not) completely suppresses his fire side, which angers Nathan even more leading to even more fatherly torture

Eventually, Mary steals Neil away and they run, Neil dying his hair completely white and wearing a colored lens in his blue eye, pretending to be a normal low level ice yielder

....Until *badam* Mary fucking d i e s and Neil, driven by grief uses his fire quirk for the first time in a long time to burn her body, my poor dramatic boy probably sees it as a metaphor for Nathan finally finishing her off, defeating him :(

In his subsequent aimless wandering he stumbles upon attack scene with villains and shit, and while everyone is distracted by the main action he accidentally saves someone from a burning building using his ice

Here he meets All Might aka Wymight Wymack, who is really a mix of Aizawa and Toshinori, (let's say his og quirk was erasure and then he also got OFA)

Wymack then tells him to go to UA as he would be a worthy hero 

He initially refuses and tries to run cause Danger, but the idea gets stuck in his head (being a hero was his dream like exy is in canon) and eventually he gives in and goes through with the exam

He still pretends to be a low level ice yielder, but since his life experience on the run taught him A Lot about difficult situations, he passes easily while trying to not stand out, doing the bare minimum to pass 

Obviously he gets in, class 1-B, the underdogs, all the talented problem kids (and in which 1-A are the ravens) 

Sidenote: this would be more like real life police academy or something, where you would need an undergrad degree before you can attend, so they’re all aged up to fit tfc 

As to the others: 

Andrew = Bakugo (explosion) but not really - he is talented, calm and calculated in combat, smart, rough around the edges, often misunderstood and seen as a villain, emo and blond dhgdfl (also gay) 

always fights with Kevin/Deku 

sees Neil/Todoroki as a threat 

(beware the angst: his quirk was too uncontrollable/unpredictable due to his mental state before he went to therapy and before Nicky took the Twinyards in, so he never used his quirk as a kid against his abusers in fear of getting kicked out/hurting who he didn’t want to hurt/angering the abuser even more; instead...well y’all know what he did instead in canon 

Aaron = Monoma, copying others’ quirks - cause he is a doppelgänger, get it?? 

(again, angst: spent his life wishing he had a different quirk, something worthy to convince his mother that he was capable of becoming a hero, something to make her notice him, be proud of him, and later - something to protect himself)

Renee= Uraraka, zero gravity - she could be Shiozaki cause ,,,jesus,,, but i thought Uraraka suits her better, because she float!!!!!!!! and she Extremely!!!! Cute!!!! and had that training with Gunhead so will Not Hesitate 

also lesbeans

Seth = Hagakure, invisibility - simply because Seth is invisible in this fandom gfdhjkh 

Jeremy = Mirio (permeation) and Jean = Tamaki (manifestation) cause this is just perfect 

Nicky = Aoyama, laser belly sparkle - i mean come on, do i have to explain? they’re the same person 

Allison = Momo, creation - smart rich girl that can and will fuck you up

also (in) lesbeans (with Renee) 

Matt = Koda, can control animals with his voice - gentle giant, could be seen as intimidating due to his height but is really a sweetheart 

Dan = Kendo, big fist - assertive but sweet, will fuck you up if you’re out of line 

Kevin = Deku (One for All, super stronk) with Iida's personality, cause ya know.....Wymight is his dad dhhsksks 

Riko = Shigaraki (decays everything he touches, manchild) except not really - he was sent to UA to become a hero and therefore to become one of the assets of the League, bringing intel from the school and observing the enemy. 

He was constantly ignored by both his bro and All for One, the quirk set to be inherited by Ichirou. 

He and Kevin knew each other since they were kids, but then Kevin inherited One for All from  Dadmight and Riko threw a tantrum and destroyed Kevin’s dominant hand with his decaying quirk 

Except Kevin is too cool for him, so he adjusted his fighting style and learned to use his other hand and legs, sorry manchild, this aint yer lvl 

Tetsuji = Kurogiri, warp - is somehow one of the teachers at UA, in charge of 1-A and Riko 

So: 

Neil gets there, catches Andrew's attention and the classic Gay Bonding via 20 questions happens

After Riko exposes his true appearance and makes him use fire in public, Neil is immediately exposed to both the League (the Moriyamas, in which All for One is Kengo and after his death - Ichirou) and Nathan 

The Moriyamas don't do shit cause this is where they wanted him anyway, but Nathan is seething 

The media, with the help of fucknugget dickinson rick hoe more yamas discovers that Neil is Endeavor's son, and those who are suspicious of Nathan diss Neil

(a lot of people suspect him of being the leak that provided info about scheduling and locations that allowed villains to attack the school)

Some people - Endeavor fans - are happy for him, it's a hot mess

However, nobody can deny that it’s weird that Neil never reached out to Endeavor after coming into light, and that he hid his true quirk 

Nathan was then forced to make a public comment ie bullshit  about how this was done for protection and educational purposes so that Neil could learn to be a hero of his own, and that he always knew where his son was, what a bastard 

Nathan acts all happy with being able to reconnect with his son again and makes him come to him during summer vacation where he tortures him thoroughly (i love pain)0))) and then sends him back to UA, since he can't really kill him cause it would be too suspicious with his current reputation

Neil, out of spite and with the help of Andrew, Kevin and the foxes trains his fire quirk and enhances his ice, finally showing his true colors as a powerful hero

When he becomes stronger and has a solid footing and support, he exposes Nathan for who he is

He gets arrested and put into tartarus or some shit idk (he can die, im not picky)

As for the League, Neil tells about his father being a double agent and everything that he knows about the organisation to Wymight, and with Neil's consent he becomes a double agent of his own, except unlike his father he's really on the hero's side duh 

They take it apart piece by piece, until in the end the League gets defeated by the new age heroes since Wymight is by that point retired as a hero but still teaches at UA 

Riko is exposed as the traitor, along with his uncle

He later goes completely insane in his failed villainous pursuits, Azula style, and is taken out by the League themselves before their defeat 

Kevin, Andrew and Neil are the top three heroes, closely followed by the rest of the foxes and trojans

After graduation and all of the crazy shit that happens, Andreil become the Ultimate Power Couple, quite literally 

[darthkieduss]

Reasons I hate Fat Donnie Trump (will update frequently)

#Republican, duh. #Narcissistic Personality Order #He lost the Popular vote. #No previous political experience #Has unrealistic ideas about how to solve America's problems, such as getting Mexico to pay for a wall to keep illegal immigrants out. #Vice President is a crazy fundamentalist Christian homophobic wackjob who thinks electroshock therapy cures homosexuality and can't be alone with a woman without his wife present. #Believes in unscientific ideas such as the idea that vaccines cause autism (I am autistic so this is a bit personal) #Has made comments alluding to sexual harassment. #Can't let any slight go. Even comments made about his sign. Jeez, Obama simply shrugged off the trolls and haters. #Won't stop bitch-tweeting. #Enacted the separation of children from their parents. #Tried to ban trans folks from the military. As long as they serve our country, who cares? #Suspended CNN's press pass after some tough questioning. #Is imposing insanely high tariffs on imported goods, mostly from China. #Supports unconstitutional profiling of Muslims. #Supports killing civilians in war. “We gotta take our their families” WHO THINKS LIKE THIS? #Posted troops on the border just for political advantage in the 2018 mid-terms. #Is a shameless self-promoter. #Can't admit his own faults. #Believes he's qualified for president because he's rich (said this in 2013) #Has passed insane tax cuts for the rich, which only increase America's budget deficit and national debt. TRICKLE-DOWN NEVER WORKS. #Had to be discouraged from invading Venezuela, who hasn't done anything to us and poses no threat to us. #Gets advice from Fox News. #Pulled out the Iran deal which was working. #Thinks that the way to show strength is by being a dick. #Cheated on every one of his wives and lied about it. We impeached Bill Clinton for it. #Has increased the military budget way too much. We spend $664 BILLION on the military. It doesn't need anymore. #Claimed Obama spied on him by wiretapping the Trump towers. Provided no evidence. #When he is criticized for something, he claims “Obama started it...” *facepalm* #LIES ON A CONSTANT BASIS. I think he lies just to see what his fans will believe... #He won't admit he lost the popular vote. He says "If you deduct the illegal voters." Oh please... #Is undoing everything Obama did just because it was Obama that did it. If he could bring back Osama bin Laden, he would. #WORLD LEADERS ARE LAUGHING AT HIM AND US #He has his cabinet kiss his ass on a constant basis. #He committed campaign finance violations during the election. #He fired FBI Director Jimmy the Giant Comey just because he wouldn't swear loyalty to him and was investigating him. That’s Obstruction of Justice. #Attacked former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not closing the Mueller investigation. #He said he wanted to lower the minimum wage back in 2015. #The infamous "Mexicans are rapists" Comment. #Attacked the late John McCain for being a Prisoner-of-War. #Gave out a Senator's cellphone number out of spite. #Blamed Megyn Kelly's tough questioning on her period. #He said "Bring back torture EVEN IF IT DOESN'T WORK". (2015) ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! #Tried to have his political opponents locked up. #"Jokes" about being president-for-life. If Obama had "joked" about this, the right would've lost their shit. #Threatened martial law in Chicago. #Praised Protestant bigot Norman Peale, who only opposed JFK simply because he was Catholic. #He violated the Presidential Records Act. #One of his tax cuts gave the poor $40, the ultra-rich $940,000 #He appeals to insecure men. #He and Jeff Sessions said it is ok to discriminate against gay people. #Complains about people not respecting the flag, says the guy who molests it. #Wants North Korean-style Military Parades. #Started that Obama birth certificate bullshit... He only said Obama was born in America in 2016...when it was politically-convenient. (*cough* back-pedaling) #He believes women are beneath him. #Doesn't believe in Global Warming. #Wouldn't stop saying interrupting Clinton in the debates. #Has more in common with the criminal Richard Nixon than anyone else. (Edit: He called for an end to investigations like Tricky Dick did in ‘74) #3.2 MILLION Americans lost their health insurance in Trump's first year. #"A terror attack would help me politically bigly." or we could NOT have a terrorist attack, thank you. #Claimed he would've run into a school shooting to confront the shooter without a weapon. BULLSHIT. #His lawyers say "I can't let him testify because he can't stop lying." #His budget obliterated funding for Science, Education, EPA & labor. #He encourages Republicans to break the law. #Tweeted FAKE photos to convince his fans that the border wall is being built. #Has committed obstruction of justice. (Edit: Confirmed by Mueller) #Said he's in favor of bombing civilians. #He had the USAF bomb an antivenom medical facility in Syria. #He said he only received $1 Million from his father. HE GOT $400 Million. ANOTHER LIE. #He makes everything about himself. Even 9/11. Who makes 9/11 about himself? #Claims he's completely immune to lawsuits over constitutional violations. Nixon said that, but it didn't work for him. #He's driving us to another Great Depression. #He threatened to punish the media if they weren't nice to him. #He calls the press "The enemy of the people" when they don't kiss his ass. #He calls Sean Hannity every night. Sean Hannity is a partisan hack who wouldn't turn on a Republican president even if he found out he was using JFK's Eternal Flame to light farts. He’s so far up Trump’s ass he can taste his lunch. #He still uses his private NON-SECURE cell phone, creating HUGE National Security problems. #He admitted his attacks on the media are just to discredit negative stories. #He claims he has the power to pardon himself. NO THE HELL HE DOESN'T. #Giuliani said Trump can't testify because his memory keeps changing. #THE MOST THIN-SKINNED PRESIDENT. #He is against the protections for pre-existing conditions. HE is a pre-existing condition. #When told Kim Jong-Un is a murderer, he responded "He's a tough guy." #He says Americans should obey him like North Koreans are forced at gunpoint to obey Kim Jong-un. #He trusts brutal dictators, but not our closest allies. #He is jealous of Kim Jong-Un's absolute grip on power. #He lied about the German crime rate to justify his immigration policies. #He suggested destroying the Constitution so he can deport immigrants faster. #Authorized USING LETHAL FORCE ON UNARMED MIGRANTS!!! #Lied to the United Nations, saying poverty in America doesn't actually exist. I PERSONALLY know people who are living in poverty. #He issued a gag order to stop government employees from talking to reporters. #He said, on tape, that if Senator Elizabeth Warren proved she was Native American, he would donate $1 million to a charity of her choice. When she did, and someone pointed it out, he said "I didn't say that." Whether or not he’s obligated to pay, he said he would but now he’s saying he didn’t say it. #Says people who criticize him are a threat to America. #His trade wars have cost 100,000+ American jobs. #People who work for him tend to be convicted of crimes... #Makes slanderous lies about us Democrats. #Told German Chancellor she owes him $1 Trillion even though she doesn't him shit. #76% of the claims Trump makes during his rallies are LIES. #He has committed at least NINE impeachable offenses. #He said he believes Russian president Vladimir Putin over OUR OWN intelligence agencies. #He once said in December 2016, "Fuck the law! I don't give a fuck about the law! I want my fucking money!" #Claimed we've won the war on poverty, so let's cut food stamp programs. No we haven't. #He threatened to nuke the economy to spite China. #He said he'd drain the swamp, yet he was 86 lobbyists on his staff. #He thinks everyone else is as stupid as he is. #Corporations are PRAYING that Trump tweets us into a war. #He told a crowd "reality isn't real" so they should ignore it. #Wages have tanked after Trump's wealthy tax cut. #Nixon was guilty as hell and Trump sounds just like him. #He actually claimed you need a Picture ID to buy cereal....CEREAL...WHO IS THIS STUPID?!?! #He claimed people will die if we don't make cars less fuel efficient. #By August 2018 his lie count topped 4,200+. By May 2019, it’s now 10,000+. #His administration is now allowing more toxic asbestos into our daily lives. #His wife plagiarized Michelle Obama in a speech during the election. #He watches tapes of his rallies to marvel at his own "brilliance", if that's what you call it. More like jerking off to himself. #He said military might is more important that jobs. #He said violating ethics rules to meet with Fox news is in "the public's interest" #Discreetly called for Hillary Clinton's assassination by firearm (”Second Amendment people”) if she had won. #Claimed he would ONLY accept the results of the 2016 election IF HE WON. #Said "Let's fucking kill him" of Bashar al-Assad. Yes, Assad is a bad man, but WE DON'T ASSASSINATE PEOPLE. #He said he wants to separate migrants kids from parents INDEFINITELY. #He acted like a total ass on the 2018 9/11 anniversary. #He denies that 3,000+ Puerto Ricans died in Hurricane Maria. #Pentagon officials had to stop Trump from tweeting us into a war. #American taxpayers spent $77 MILLION on Trump's Golf trips. #Criticized Obama for golf trips...has taken more golf trips in 3 years than Obama did in 8. #Said the FBI is a "Cancer to the country". #His administration cut cancer research funding to pay for child prisons. #Puerto Rico won't get statehood simply because they were mean to him. *His administration said Planet is burning down, so let's just ruin it now. *Says he loves North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. “We fell in love”. *Talked about his dick at the debates. *He is being investigated for tax evasion and fraud. *Hates immigrants, married two Eastern European immigrant, son of a Scottish immigrant and grandson of a German immigrant. *Claimed Iraq War was wrong, yet he has increased troop numbers there. *Compared sexual assault victims to arsonists. #He denied Saudi Arabia financial interests...AFTER bragging about them. #He hasn't condemned Saudi Arabia for their murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. #He mocked decorated Navy SEAL, saying they should've gotten Osama bin Laden sooner. WHAT? #He banned 2 Million Federal workers from discussing his impeachment at work. #He demanded that he leave the G20 during the climate change discussion. #He told about skyrocketing national debt: "I won't be here." when it explodes. #Called a US Senator "The Dick". #*His hush money payments were done ILLEGALLY, with campaign cash. #His cult sent bombs to everyone he criticized. Not saying he's directly responsible but that's how cultist his fans are. #He threatened to bring Saturday Night Live to court simply for making fun of him. Awww poor baby, is someone making fun of you? Good. #Never has a president been under so much investigations except Richard Nixon. #He pulled us out of the Paris agreements. #His 2018 government shutdown lasted 35 days and was over a stupid wall. #He only works 40% of the day. He's the laziest POTUS ever. #He pulled us out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. HE STARTED A NEW COLD WAR. #He won’t release his taxes. If he’s got nothing to hide, why HIDE EM? #He threatened us Democrats, saying he has the support of the police, the military and “Bikers for Trump.” Bikers for Trump=BrownShirts. #Claims that windmill causes cancer and kill birds...Are you fucking kidding me? #His son Donny Douchebag got a crowd to chant “AOC sucks” like the douchebag he is. #Claimed his father was born in Germany. Fred Trump was born in NYC, how stupid can you be to not know where your parents were born... #Claims he should get 2 more years added to his term because those 2 years were “stolen” by the Mueller report. *facepalm-cringe* #He told 4 Progressive non-white Congresswomen to “Go back to where you came from”. 3 of 4 were BORN HERE, YOU FUCKING RACIST #One-uped the “go back to your country” but viciously attacking Elijah Cummings and Baltimore in a racist Twitter tirade. #Extorted the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden (finally being impeached) #He's always blaming everybody else, complaining, never taking responsibility. #"I inherited a mess." You inherited millions of dollars, you whiny...little...BITCH!

[moonaft]

Night and Silence

Rosemary and Rue

A Local Habitation

An Artificial Night

Late Eclipses

One Salt Sea

Ashes of Honor

Chimes At Midnight

Interlude : Full of Briers

The Winter Long

A Red-Rose Chain

Once Broken Faith

Interlude : Dreams and Slumbers

The Brightest Fell

Interlude : Of Things Unknown

I read this the day after Halloween. 

Spoilers up to Night and Silence and October 2018 for the Patreon stories.

To answer a question from the book summary: who remembers about Gillian?

Well...

Simon Torquill, obviously. Evening. Raysel. Sylvester, Luna, and the staff of Shadowed Hills 20 years ago. Most of Toby’s allies, including Quentin and his parents. The Lordens. The Luidaeg. Several of the night haunts. Brucer and probably some other people from Home. The SF police department. Literally any one who was listening at the elf-shot conclave. 

In short, there’s a lot of people who know about Gillian.

Anyways, onto the main story. 

Does Faerie not have therapists? If you can go away for a hundred years and come back fine, you probably don’t need therapists. Danny is the closest Toby’s got. 

It’s good that Tybalt doesn’t blame Toby for her mother’s actions. 

Back to therapy with Danny and Quentin after catching the flying pig-hedgehogs. Point of clarification: deposing Rhys is not treason because Toby never swore to him.

“No longer the custom to greet those of no family name with the name of their species” - Is that why Simon called May “Milady Fetch” last book? And mixed bloods and changelings would have it rough. “Milady Siren-Sea Wight-Banshee” for the false Queen? 

Nolan seems to be settling in well. 

Dianda would be an excellent mother-in-law, just saying. 

Hi May! Sounds like both Jazz and Tybalt have major depression and PTSD from last book. Poor Jazz, poor Tybalt. 

Hi Cliff!

And Cliff has turned to stalking now? At least Miranda knows that she’s stepped too far. 

At least Gillian is an adult now and can visit her estranged mother if she wants to, assuming she survives this. Poor Gillian. 

Yes, May usually doesn’t get to go on field trips. She’s not missing this one.

Poor Raj. The fallout from The Brightest Fell is hitting everyone hard. 

Has Arden actually talked to Toby about shifting loyalties before, or is that what Toby thinks is coming next?

I really hope this isn’t Simon’s work. 

Toby has a fan! I knew there must be fae out there who look up to her!

Well, those marshwater charms aren’t suspicious at all... At least Jocelyn isn’t affected. I wonder if it’s like iron for the fae. 

Hi Bridget! Who else in the cast of characters are we going to get today? Berkeley means Walther and probably Jack the grad student, and then maybe April? Or Mags?

Nicely done on the magic, Toby. I wonder if the red hair is the color of fox fur? 

Don’t swallow glass, Toby, it’s not good for you. 

Poor Gillian. 

OK, they found a weird pocket dimension. Not what I was expecting. 

Do Quentin and May see something different than Toby? She sees only one house.

Weird chicken house is weird. 

Confirmed that April is no longer the Countess of Tamed Lightning. I guess she could take over if her mothers wanted to take a long vacation.

“Get your fuzzy butts over here” - Toby, that’s still not how we talk about royalty. I hope Shade will be amused. 

Is cinnamon Jocelyn’s magic scent? It’s certainly not close to Simon’s. 

Hi Arden! What do you mean, you’re not supposed to be here? Not even going to Annwn triggered that response. 

So the fae did come to North America before the Europeans, or at least before the 19th century. 

So Shade rules the Court of Golden Cats, which isn’t really part of the Court of Dreaming Cats. This really doesn’t jive with how Tybalt and Colleen were in London.

Jocelyn, I had such high hopes for you. 

I love Toby pretending to be Jocelyn’s mom and I don’t know why. 

Jocelyn, no. Don’t do this. 

Weird house #2. I’m over 1/3 of the way through this book, why has no one brought up the Luidaeg yet?  

That must be terrifying for Marlis - “hey sis, can you check on the false queen who is still sleeping in your basement? No reason.” 

I bet it’s some sort of illusion magic, making Toby think it’s the false queen, like Oleander did. Or maybe Simon could grab the false queen’s blood to do magic. 

Yeah, that’s not Gillian.

So that’s not another doppleganger...

Baobhan Sidhe, that was mentioned in April’s interlude. 

Hi Tybalt! And Toby’s covered in blood again.

Are Baobhan Sidhe Maeve’s bloodworkers? Or does Titania or Oberon get two bloodworking races? Water can be used for illusion magic, sometimes. 

The last time they couldn’t get in contact with Dean, Evening had returned. That’s not good. 

So Toby got attacked by a vampire, fun. 

Has Goldengreen become a replacement Home? Marcia is good. I remain curious about how much the war against the merlins is common knowledge, she seems to know a lot about it. 

Marcia, can you lend Toby some non-blood-covered clothes? Please?

The “long lost estranged sister” card can only played once, Toby. I guess if you ever need to explain August to them, she can be your cousin, the daughter of your “Uncle” Simon. 

Fuck off, Miranda. 

She has a fae-repealing thorn, what the hell? 

She’s her grandmother??? And Janet - that’s Janet Carter who broke Maeve’s Ride, for sure. Amandine’s mother is Janet Carter, makes sense. And completely josses the idea of any non-Three-derived fae, ok. Everyone’s fae or human or both, no aliens here. 

May’s right, there’s something disturbing about Janet’s relationship with Cliff, her granddaughter’s ex-fiancee, and the father of her great-granddaughter. 

Clearly Janet hasn’t been paying attention to recent news. 

It sounds like Amandine went with the Torquill boys to California, if Janet’s been there long enough that Gilad’s parents knew about the spot. She followed Amandine, after Amandine followed the twins. 

Dammit Toby, you need to tell Quentin his mother was a changeling. This is Sylvester all over again. 

So breaking the Ride led to Faerie being sealed away? So Janet breaks the ride, Maeve curses Janet, she leaves?, and Oberon seals the deeper lands and leaves as well. Titania is not mentioned at this point in the story. 

Or, the Luidaeg implies she’s still there for the Ride? At least, Titania is not implied to be missing at this point. 

Tam Lin was going to go somewhere - or, he was going to die to feed Faerie, and then Maeve had to go instead, except it wasn’t death for her. If humans are sealed in deeper Faerie, that might kill them but not one of the Three. And then Maeve was gone, but Titania wasn’t or Faerie would have been thrown out of whack before the Ride. 

So what did Maeve do to Titania in response to the Luidaeg’s binding? 

Janet is reminding me of August here.

Tam Lin would get a peaceful death, I hope Maeve isn’t actually dead. 

Yeah, it’s implied that Maeve could come back one day. 

So there isn’t a geass on the world to make it forget about Dawn. Toby remembers that Dawn existed! Not enough to ask about why Evening pretended Dawn was her sister, and clearly neither Patrick nor Sylvester are bothering to ask why. So who killed Dawn? 

Who constructed the old knowe? 

“...whose only job is constructing life-threatening situations.” Sounds right, Quentin. 

Hi vampire lady!

And May and Quentin are elf-shot. Again. 

Poor Gillian, elf-shot again. 

Yes, please, go get Dianda. Toby has so many allies these days. 

How old are these kids? Gillian was what, four, when Toby went into the pond? She’s out fourteen years later, and it’s been four years since then. She should be twenty two or so. If Jocelyn’s the same age, Home closed when she was eighteen. Toby went to Home when she was twenty five, but Dare and Manuel were twelve, I think. Jocelyn wasn’t too young, in that case. I don’t think Home had an age limit. 

DUGAN’S NOT DEAD??? My God. 

Hi Kennis! Toby has a new ally.

Hi Dianda, Patrick and Sylvester. Good to see you all awake, unharmed and ready to help. 

So is Dawn Evening’s changeling granddaughter turned pureblood? I’m not getting the sense that Evening ever had changeling kids. Maybe Dawn is a former changeling and Evening’s daughter?

ARE YOU SERIOUS? They’re ALL human descended? It’s not just Maida, Aethlin is descended in part from a human? And Septiminus is Evening’s grandson, so either he or his parent was a changeling-turned-pureblood? It’s not just the twins? Unless the family name came from Glynis? And Dugan too!

The Merrows’ Firstborn is the child of Titania and a human, but not all Merrow are Lordens, so there’s another human in the Saltmist family’s history. Toby, why aren’t you reacting to this? Gillian, I know. But this is important!! 

Where are all these hope chests?

Oh, poor Gillian. Poor Toby.

Is Dugan working for Evening? Or maybe Simon? 

Plasedon’tbeSimonpleasedon’tbeSimon - ok, it’s Dugan, or maybe Simon pretending to be Dugan. 

Whoops, there he is again. Played your last card there, Dugan. 

At least Cliff is taking the lies well. I’m not sure Gillian’s going to understand the whole Amandine-August-Simon-Evening thing. 

Hi Siwan! Toby, if you ever piss off Arden too much, you can hang out in Portland. It’ll be fine. 

Hi Jolgier! This should be a good solution. Though shouldn’t Shade take charge? Well, seven years should be enough to put Raj on the throne. 

Maybe Dean can make Goldengreen into the new Home. Marcia’s already halfway there. 

Interlude: Suffer a Sea-change

Oh poor Gillian. 

This is taking place right before Christmas, that sucks. 

Yes, punch Jocelyn in the throat. You are going to like Dianda, maybe you can hang out at Goldengreen with Dean. 

She doesn’t remember the Luidaeg at all. 

OK, whatever Miranda’s line needs to do, it’s related to the fae blood they have. Gillian isn’t bound why whatever Amandine, August or Toby need to do. Is it taking Maeve’s place in eternal sleep? 

Poppy gets to go fight spiders, apparently. Good to know she’s doing well. 

Hi Firtha, sorry you’re dead. You seem cool. 

Oh poor Toby and Gillian. She never knew how much Toby cares for her. 

I do appreciate having Gillian’s POV on all this. Wonder what’s going to happen when she gets the cliffsnotes version of the entire series?

Gillian, you are the best. 

Hello Miranda, it is very creepy you married the ex-fiance of your granddaughter and the father of your great-granddaughter. I think you wanted a second chance to raise your daughter since Amandine pushed you away. 

Oh shit, she’s dead again. 

Wait, no, she’s ok. I think the skin is invisible outside of Faerie but she doesn’t know it yet. 

Aw, Poppy’s apprenticed to the Luidaeg! 

Yep, the Luidaeg is terrifying but Gillian doesn’t have the old tales to know what the rest of Faerie thinks. 

Yeah, Gillian can’t outrun the elfshot by being Selkie for a hundred years because I’m pretty sure there won’t be Selkies in another year, depending on what the bargain is. 

Look Miranda, you’re getting off easy at the moment. You’re also acting like a homophobic mother whose daughter just came out and can’t reconcile your hate with your love. 

Gillian, you’ll love hanging out with Quentin and May and Jazz. It’ll be great. 

I can’t fault Elizabeth Ryan for always having a drink in her hand. 

Yeah, I think the Selkies that currently have skins will become Roane or Roane-equivalent - no more passing the skins down the line. Anyone who doesn’t have a skin is going to turn human or die.

This is a good ending point. 

One more book to come. 

[canaryatlaw]

So today was interesting. Overall better than the rest of this week, though I probably couldn't point you to any specific factors there. I guess I just mentally felt better so things followed that. Morning was a bit of a lol, my alarm goes off at 7, I turn it off and pick up my phone, then close my eyes for a few seconds. When I open my eyes, my phone now reads 7:40. What the fuck??? Like okay, it wouldn't be the first time I've over slept an alarm, but doing it just like that was weird. Thankfully it left me just enough time to get to work mostly on time if I ubered instead of took public transit, so I did a mostly normal morning routine and then ubered to work, getting there at 9:05 so that's enough for me to call it a win, if an accidental one. So for the morning I did some of my paperwork setting up the timeline from the other day, and about mid-morning I think I popped over to see if our tech guy was in and he was, so I let him know that I still couldn't get the prison calls to play on my computer which I felt bad about because they'd already like, switched out a computer and everything to make this work haha. But he was like nah it's cool, imma call my supervisor and we'll take care of this. And a little while later they came and did something (while I sat on the chair on the other side of my desk and scrolled through Facebook on my phone) and pretty soon they had it up and working. Okay, I forget if I provided any context for this when I first mentioned them, but I don't think I did so I'll give some here. To my understanding, we have recordings of prison phone calls from a man and the mother of his daughter, who is in DCFS custody. I'm not totally sure here, but I think he might've been in prison for some sort of child abuse (I don't think it was sexual, probably aggravated battery to a child). But basically they want to argue in court that mom is gonna get back together with dad when he gets out which would put their daughter in danger and they shouldn't regain custody, so the attorney wanted me to go through the phone calls between the two of them to see if there was any talk about getting back together or anything about their daughter specifically, them trying to get her back. So I set off with 530 audio recordings, most of them listed under "time limit exceeded" for reason of termination, which means they were 30 minutes long. WOAHBOY. So the first few I listened to were in the early days of his prison sentence and they had lots of good stuff for me to write down, but they started getting more monotonous so I like, checked my email and did some other random shit while still listening (I didn't read any fic, because I knew if I did that I probably wouldn't N able to focus on the calls). Soon enough I switch over to the more recent calls (so switch from August 2016 to March 2017) and suddenly there's a much different tone. The first one had them arguing over the fact that he said he'd call her right at 8:45 and he called her at 8:46, which I was laughing at pretty hard. Fun little prison break reference here, but the prison is called "Big Muddy River Correctional Center" located in Illinois, which of course isn't too far off from "Fox River Correctional Center (or facility?)" also fictionally in Illinois. So that made me smirk a little. So I kept listening, and then they decided to have phone sex, and I was very thankful for the fast forward button because having to listen to that I'm pretty sure is a violation of my 8th amendment constitutional right against cruel and unusual punishment. Lol. But for the most of the afternoon I just let the conversations play (I had headphones in so they weren't being broadcasted to the whole office) and noted when they said something relevant. For the record, they didn't need to talk about getting back together because OH, THEY'RE TOGETHER, and there was plenty of mentions of "getting their daughter back" (smh). So then I was just left to marvel at the strange range of tasks my job has me carrying out, lol. But anyway. My physical therapy options were pretty limited this week since I could only come after work and my normal guy is in Europe, and despite being there yesterday the only other appointment I could get this week was for tonight at 6, and of course I get off of work at 5. I figured if I ubered though I could probably make it with enough time to run to my apartment and get changed from my suit into physical therapy appropriate clothing, lol, however, my uber driver didn't take the best route and we got caught in traffic and I didn't end up getting to PT until 6:20 and I was such not a happy camper because if you pay attention on here at all, you know being late is my biggest pet peeve possible. It was okay though, it was just a little shorter of a session. Not a big deal. Now we just know 6 pm appointments are a no-go, lol. The girl I worked with was fine, I like my regular guy so I was kind of meh about working with other people but she was nice enough and she did a pretty good job, so that's good. When I finished there I walked back home and ate some dinner- I forget if I ever discussed my weird eating issue I've developed lately on here so I'm just gonna talk about it now. For weeks now, no matter what my big weekend meal I use for leftovers throughout the week is, when it comes to eating those leftovers it feels like I have to shove the food into my mouth. And then I get stuck in the whole quandary of "oh well I should eat it anyway because it's healthy" ("healthy") and no, don't force yourself to eat something you don't want to, but obviously a ton of meals I make have been going to waste because of this and I have no idea what to do about it. This week I was gonna try to really test it because I did my creamy Parmesan chicken pasta (I definitely mentioned that on here recently, but I don't remember the rest of the context) which is like phenomenal and I'd see if I had an issue with that, and yupp, when it came down to eating the chicken it felt like shoving concrete in my mouth. This is a totally new and out of nowhere development?? Like this has never been an issue before. And it's not just chicken, because I've tried other meats and it's the same thing (I can have like, two slices of turkey on a mini sandwich, but that's really nothing). And I just don't know what to do about this because I feel like I started the whole weekend meal thing because I wanted to make sure I was getting enough protein in my diet, because I wasn't really eating meat unless I was intentional about it. But I mean, I have been making eggs very often since getting my rapid egg cooker off amazon (seriously, I'm in love with this thing, it does them perfectly every time) and I also eat yogurt very frequently which are both good sources of protein so maybe not? Idk why but I have this idea in my head that protein = healthy which is true in some instances but not when my mind wants to apply it to like, a McDonald's hamburger because that's what it tries to do. I did just remember though when I was reading the info about acid reflux on my new doctors website he had one of the trigger food listed as "high protein foods" which I thought was weird that that would cause a reaction, and I hadn't noticed one.....but maybe now I have? It's obviously a different reaction but hey, if the latest theories are true my acid reflux has been fucking up pretty much all my systems with random ass symptoms like furious coughing, not being able to breathe while running, and of course not being able to eat anything that hits the mild salsa level of spice (that's not an exaggeration, that's legit how I describe it sometimes or people just don't understand when I say I can't have just "spicy" foods, like it's much worse than that) so who fucking knows if this is a result of it too. It just makes me anxious about my other eating issues that I purposely have never talked about openly on this blog for a lot of personal reasons that I just don't want to be out there for the whole world to see quite yet. It's just....concerning. Sigh. I need to move on. I ate dinner and listened to the flash podcast for a little bit because I was very into the episode, before turning on Riverdale about 20 minutes into it (thanks TiVo). I vaguely remembered it was the season finale so it should get some good drama. And there was some good drama, for sure. But damn, I gotta say, I feel so damn sorry for Cheryl Blossom. I mean the girl just lost literally half of her family and found out her entire family's business was a criminal sham. Like I feel like having her go out into the frozen lake was maybe one of the only times I've seen in tv where a character resorting to attempting suicide in reaction to an event actually felt genuine and not contrived. But goddammit Archie, just let someone else help you punch through the ice ffs because there was a LOT of blood in that last shot before the ice broke and boy you probably hurt yourself real bad there. As far as the other plot stuff, I was irritated of course by the inaccurate portrayal of the child welfare system getting involved in Jughead's life. First of all, he's in a safe fictive kin placement right now, even if it's unofficial fictive kin don't have to be licensed. Fred Andrews having a single DUI on his record would not disqualify him from fostering children. He also cited money, but now that the state is involved he would get a stipend for Jughead that would take care of the money issue. Second of all, they don't take kids into care when they have another perfectly capable parent who's just in another state and "overextended." What is that word even supposed to mean? To me it feels like it could only really boil down to finances, and there are legit laws in every state saying you can't take a kid into care just because his family his poor. They even have these cool things called Norman funds to assist families in those positions. So in conclusion, if this were real life, Jughead would either stay with Archie or go to live with his mom and jellybean (which is the cutest nickname ever). I don't know why I still care though, because it's not like there is ever an accurate depiction of the child welfare system on tv or other sorts of media. And that's an issue because it perpetuates ideas like "don't call CPS, they'll just make it worse" which is how kids end up staying in abusive homes and KIDS END UP DEAD. So this is an actual problem, believe me. Sigh. The one other note of feedback I will give is I do like Archie and Veronica together. When I finished that I turned on Blindspot, which I knew was the penultimate episode so there was gonna be some big firefight with a hidden twist at the end, and of course that was exactly what happened, lol. It was a pretty good one though, and I'm looking forward to seeing what they do to wrap it up next week. And I'm glad they got another season to work with. And that was more or less it for my day, and it is late and I don't want to be dead exhausted tomorrow- oh that's right, today was the first day in like, 5 work days that I didn't fall asleep at work!!! So that's progress!!! But uh yeah, I need to sleep now. Goodnight loves. Happy Friday.

[thetaylorfiles]

Hi! It's been over a year that I habitually come to your blog to see what you're up to & it's comforting. I hope you're doing well. Anything fun or new happen recently? I've never tried Hinge-- I'll check it out!! Honestly, my roommate and I have been struggling with quarantining, knowing some peers have been going out. We are on the same page about it, tho! And healthwise we're good! Everything else has been ok! I've been writing creatively more, and it feels good. Maybe Taylor inspired me!

It’s been a long time that I come habitually you my blog too! Hahaha! But Folklore brought me back and I’m so glad it did. I’ve really missed you guys. I absolutely love getting to talk with so many cool people. I feel like some of you are my friends.

And now, more than ever, with so much bullshit misinformation being pushed out there and Fox News brainwashing of people, and actual fuckimg conspiracies happening, this blog feels timely in a way. Conspiracies in the real world right now are actually matters of life and death. Ask Herman Cain. And thousands of other non-famous people.

I see my mother reading bullshit that spins in directions that they should never go to and I worry about her aging, fragile mind and I want to ducking smash the fucking far right and their goddamn conspiracies and lies.

So, yeah. If I can spend time on here, having fun talking about a celebrity that I adore, fighting against one tiny conspiracy (that, thankfully, isn’t that harmful), and having fun, then yeah. I’m good.

So, yeah. Check out Hinge! I told my friend that at the very least or best, you could meet a cute girl that you hit it off with and you could have one of those relationships with that we all had when the internet was new and we met people from all over and thought we were in love from talking all the time over IM and the phone. You may not be able to meet up now (unless you meet The One and take the right precautions), but you could have someone to flirt with and be excited about! That sounds so delicious to me! Seriously.

I think everyone is struggling with quarantining. If you’re not, you’re an anomaly. I think I’ve finally accepted it for the most part. But I’m very lucky. I have my best friend with me and I have my kids. I get breaks and I have my parents to see a few times a week.

However, school starts tomorrow. And not only do I fucking loathe homeschooling and teaching like crazy, but I’ve now got two kids who are really in it in terms of curriculum. Last year my girl was young enough that she didn’t have to do much. And my son is on the autism spectrum. Which, for him, means that he sees school as a place where you do school work. And home is for relaxing. He just CANT separate the two.

The last few months of distance learning last year was a nightmare with him. Constant, bad fighting to get him to do anything. And I hate fighting him. He’s not trying to be bad. His brain just works differently. I got him to do a few assignments a day last year but he didn’t learn shit. I had to beg him or bribe or fight him on it. It was AWFUL. And I hope to god it’s now like this this year.

If I could, I’d say, okay, take a gap year. (Which btw, the schools should be saying that to everyone. Elementary kids (or all) should just get a gap year till we can do in person learning). Don’t do your work and you’ll just start next year at the grade you are now. But then he’d lose all his friends. And do you know how hard it was for him to make friends? He finally has this small group of girls and boys that love and accept him. I can’t take that away.

Plus, my daughter is now in 2nd and she’s got a full day every day. I just don’t know how I’m going to do it.

On top of that, this summer has at least given them their good mental health back. At the end of last school year I was dealing with depressed, anxious, angry children who felt suffocated and untethered. It was scary. Bad mental health for them both. I did what I could this summer to make it better for the both of them. And it worked. But now we’re going back into it and my sunny, happy kids are going to turn depressive. They both have said some alarming things when like this.

Kids just aren’t meant to be kept home, away from everyone.

Sorry. This got way too poor me. Thing is, so many of my friends are dealing with the same thing. Do you know how many 5-7 year olds I know that are now in therapy for deep depression, anxiety and self harm? It’s scary.

But we’ll do our best!! Got some ideas and I’m hopeful. And dear god let Biden win so he can eventually turn this around.

Wow. I’m so sorry to vent like that. Thank you for listening.

Hey. Do you ever want to talk off asks? My DMs don’t work. I can’t get any DMs. But if you send me a private anon, I can answer you privately and I’ll give you my number and we can text. I do it with another friend from here too. Would love to chat more! As long as you’re cool with someone who sometimes takes forever to reply and sometimes replies rapid fire. Hahaha

[automatismoateo]

Dear Christian mom that has abandoned me... via /r/atheism

Submitted November 01, 2018 at 03:44AM by rlee2718 (Via reddit https://ift.tt/2qnsXd0) Dear Christian mom that has abandoned me...

Mama, ​I feel horrible about the decision to not allow you to see my son in Florida. I assume that it must feel as though I am discriminating against you for your Christian beliefs. I assure you that this is far from the truth. I asked you many times that when you see him that you and Lee do not talk about religion or about Harry Potter with him. This is a request from me as his father, not me as your son. Unfortunately this request was met with a lot of resistance from you because you felt that I was limiting your freedom of speech. Let me explain to you why I am uncomfortable with the topic of religion and Harry Potter coming from you and Lee. ​When you married Lee I was five, I couldn’t understand English, I was raised in a quiet, safe, and respectful environment with Oma, Opa, and you. I didn’t know yelling or violence. Soon after the wedding we moved out and into a house with Lee. It was there that I learned English through Dumbo, Pete’s Dragon, and Herbie. Soon after we moved in together the yelling started, things were thrown around, and pictures of my biological father and his family were burned in the Kitchen sink. Although confusing and scary, the worst was yet to come. I woke up late at night to screams that made me think you were being killed. I ran into the living room, Lee had you on your back, sitting on your stomach, holding your body down with his legs, and hitting you over and over again in the face. I yelled at him to stop, he wouldn’t. I said I would call the Polizei, he got up, pushed me to the phone, handed me the phone and told me to call them. He yelled at me over and over to do it. I couldn’t, I was too scared, I didn’t know the number, and for years, to this very day, I am in pain for having gone back to my room. This abuse didn’t end that day; as we both know, it lasted until he went to Korea. ​After you left him, he came back promising you that he would never hit you again. Not sure if this promise was ever broken, but I did not see it first hand after that. The verbal and physical abuse toward me did not end however. A prime example was when I embarrassed him in front of his co-workers where he slammed my head onto a basketball court and rubbed my face across the asphalt. It is true, I only had scratches, and I did embarrass him by saying “old man, you want to go?” Something I said to show my friends how cool he is when we wrestle. ​As you surely remember, soon after this event we moved to Arkansas, a hard move for me because I was a skater, and where we were going there were no skate parks. This is when our lives changed forever. When GX Jam, an evangelical Christian skate and dance team under the umbrella of Youth with a Mission (YWAM) came to town, I had the great idea to ask them if I could skate on their ramps before the show. This would be the first time I could express myself as a skater since living in America again. I must say, when I asked the question, I was stoked that they said yes. They also asked me if I knew Jesus, and they even offered up their testimony to me. A lot of the members did this. I thought it was cool, I assumed they were high. I didn’t understand what GX Jam was, I only knew they skated. Since many skaters abused drugs, I falsely thought that they were using them and telling me about their fake friend in the sky. ​That day I skated so well that they asked me to skate in the show. That night before the show started they held a prayer meeting, they asked me to join, circled me with love, placed their hands on me and started to pray. I felt this warmth, this love, this community that I had never experienced before. When I started to cry, they told me that the Holy Spirit came down to me, and if I say that Jesus is my Lord and Savior, that I would be saved and would spend eternity in Heaven with him. I was ecstatic, all my problems were temporary in this world, and he was using me to skate my ass off in order to be the example kids needed, and a messenger for the Lord. After the show they asked me to follow them for the rest of the U.S. tour and to eventually follow them to Australia. ​During the same period, you and Lee were saved. Praise the lord I thought. What a change I saw in you two. You both stopped your smoking habit, you prayed before every meal and even volunteered to feed the poor. Both of you really studied the bible and shared your views with me. You invited me to your church, both of you proselytized both in person and online. You took hard stances against behaviors that the bible does not condone. You even taught me that a democrat can’t be a Christian because they believe in abortion. I really ran with that line of thinking. I argued with people about their morals and beliefs. When questioned, I could never give a real answer, I would just default to the bible. I really wanted to believe, I had blind faith that I am not cognitively capable of seeing the lords gifts and power in my own life. This led to me making some very ridiculous claims to friends and family. During one group prayer session someone mentioned that god turned tooth fillings into gold to show his might. We prayed for him to honor us in the same way. I was convinced that I had gold fillings. I told all of our German family about my new gold fillings. As any rational skeptic would ask, they wanted to see my teeth. They told me that they are silver, and I told them that they are wrong. I was on fire for the lord. ​When I was older and in the Air Force, I started to associate myself with the diverse members of my profession. This led to me drinking and having copious amounts of pre-marital sex, not to mention the things that came out of my mouth. When Lee would ask me if I am a Christian, if I ever was a Christian, and if my time with GX Jam was all just a lie in order for me to skate, I felt very hurt. Couldn’t he see that I had just back-slidden a bit? I still believe that Jesus was my savior, I still didn’t think that faggots were moral, I still loved Fox News and hated abortion. I just liked to party, that’s all. ​Soon the second biggest change of my life would happen. I met Amy and she motivated me to start my Ph.D. After enrolling and starting the first few classes I learned about arguments, fallacies, and critical thinking. During this period of cognitive growth I asked Amy to marry me. On the way home from your house we decided to get married in three days. The plan was to be wed by a Justice of the Peace downtown. A lawyer who we would pay 90 dollars to perform the ceremony. However, I felt bad. God was pulling on my heart, I felt this had to be done right. So I called a friend who is a minister and could legally marry us in a church. He agreed to do it only if we attended a few hours of pre-marital counseling first. We attended, I learned more about what it means to be the head of the household, and she learned what it means to be a Christian wife that serves and honors me. It was a great ceremony with just me and four of our friends. A few days later I learned about how a theory works; not sure if you know this, but let me explain. A theory in the scientific sense draws on facts gathered through the scientific method and are consistent with the emerging literature/findings on the subject. When a single piece of information is discovered that goes against a theory, then the theory needs to be thrown out or amended to include this new information. A good example of this comes from our knowledge on how evolution works. If a human was found buried next to a dinosaur in the Grand Canyon, the Theory of Evolution would have to be thrown out. This really caused me to stop and think about Noah’s Ark. Since I was a Bible believing literalist, I could not come to terms with the fact that a Koala Bear swam back to Australia from the Middle East. This caused a major issue with me believing in the bible as the literal word of God. The next step was to determine if the bible is real at all, and if the God I am worshiping even exists. That night I prayed so hard. I asked God that if he is real that he please give me a sign. I apologized for questioning the faith, I pleaded with him to please show me because I have lost it and I don’t want to burn in hell. I prayed so damn hard. I did believe in my brain, but my heart told me I am fucked if I stopped believing. The next morning I woke up an Atheist. I was 100% comfortable with this decision. ​For the next few days I read a lot, watched many videos, listened to a lot of podcasts, and realized that I can never go back to the faith again, knowing what I know now. This was awkward because I just talked my wife into getting married in a church. I couldn’t live a lie, she had to know, and whatever the result of this conversation was, I would have to deal with the consequences. She was relieved because she was playing the Christian game for me in hopes that God would reveal himself to her. Even though I despised the fact that so many people are not living their life on this world, that kids were dying from an attempt to pray them healthy, that so many wars were fought based on these beliefs, that so many people were marginalized due to a book, I respected your beliefs and didn’t tell you. ​I bit my tongue at your house for a few visits when Lee said that his biggest fear in life is that one of his sons may be gay. When he told me that Harry Potter is witchcraft (he said this before I became an Atheist, but strongly disagreed with his reasoning), I bit my tongue during prayers, and I even stood by as he disrespected your views and opinions because you are a woman. I did challenge the important things such as your decision to not get chemo therapy if your cancer returns, out of your faith that alternative medicine and prayers will either heal you are take you to heaven. I pushed back against your anti-vaccination claims. I even shut my mouth about your views on psychology and psychotropic medications. I laughed internally as the discussion came up again about how Lee couldn’t get promoted because of a Free Mason conspiracy in the Army. I looked at Lee’s social media posts in awe and disgust as I tried to rationalize a loving Christian spending the day online to belittle and offend every person that does not agree with his world view. The most amusing of which being his opinion of Ken Ham having won a debate against Bill Nye, not a scientist by the way, by simply repeating that the answers are in the bible, and using fallacy after fallacy to support his stance. ​Critical thinking is not part of your household. That’s okay, it is a learned skill that many have not mastered. Therefore, I tried to have intellectual conversations with you two where I point out the reasons for why I believe what I do on various non-religious subjects. This was also the case when we were all sitting around the patio table enjoying great conversation. When Lee asked me if I know what a strawman fallacy was, I honestly and confidently answered “Yes”. To impress him, I even gave my definition. I told him that it is a response to someone else’s statement, reworded in a slightly different manner in order to give a counter point using his own verbiage about what was said. He told me that I was wrong and that a strawman is a lie. I politely disagreed and said that many people who create a strawman do so by accident, and that this alone does not make them a liar. He again disagreed, at which point I pulled up the first two definitions on Google for a strawman, to which he still told me that those definitions are wrong. Then he went on a rant and created his own strawman. As a real-time example, I chose to tell him that he just created a strawman. Before being able to elaborate, he pushed the table into my stomach, and onto my wife, spilled the drinks, put his finger in my face and said, “don’t call me a fucking liar”. To this I angrily replied, “I did not call you a FUCKING liar”. Then he said, “don’t cuss at me boy”. I got up to pack my belongings, as I walked by him I said “Fuck You”. He followed me into the house, from behind he hit me in the head hard enough to leave a knot and knock my glasses to the floor. I turned around and broke my hand on his face. I didn’t hit him a second time as he laid on the floor in fear. I told him that this was the last time he ever lays a hand on me, I told you that you can live with me if you need safety. ​The next day you returned my glasses, asked me if I lost my mind. Told me that I could have really hurt him. You then drove off. Soon you would learn that I am an Atheist from social media postings. What really hurt me is that you took his side and stopped talking to me for the most part. When Ivan, my stepbrother died of cancer, the obituary said that he left behind Lee, You, my other two brothers and no mention of me. It was clear at that point that I was no longer a member of your family. ​It pains me that my son will no longer have the relationship with you that he would have had if I would not have defended myself against Lee and didn’t identify myself as an Atheist. I was happy to hear that you two are going to Florida to see him. Even though I worry about the example Lee sets when he disrespects you in public or around family, I still chose to be okay with this decision. What worried me is my son’s use of prescribed medication, his love for Harry Potter books, and the possibility of you telling him that this is witchcraft. I worried about his cognitive dissonance of hell and Harry Potter. I worried that you would tell him that he doesn’t need the medication he is on. I also worried about you undermining his wishes of becoming a scientist by telling him outlandish claims such as an Ark floating over mountains. All I asked is that you do not mention the bible or Harry Potter, a request that could not be met on your end. ​You literally believe that the bible is true. You know homosexuality is a sin. I raise my boy to respect all people, regardless of their beliefs. You told me that it states in the bible that homosexuality is a sin, and that it would be sinful to not spread the word of god to him. This is an issue. The bible supports slavery, the bible states you should kill a woman who is raped and doesn’t want to marry his rapist. The bible supports genocide, it also supports the killing of witches (a real concern at this point), and the Goat Herders Guide to the Galaxy also pushes a lot of non-science that will only confuse a developing mind. You may say that those examples are crazy and that a raped woman should never marry someone she doesn’t want to. You also don’t believe in slavery, and you won’t kill a witch. But why do you believe this? It is the literal word of the bible. Jesus said that the Old Testament is the word of god, and that “until Heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or strokes shall pass away from the law, until all is accomplished” (Matthew 5:18). How is it that I can trust your moral reasoning when you take the bible literally? It is for these very reasons that I do not trust you alone with my son when the topic of religion is introduced. ​Finally, I miss the views I had of you as a loving Christian family. As the people I can always come to when life gets hard. It pains me that you chose to not enjoy life with me on this Earth because you have to choose between me and you husband. It kills me that we won’t be in heaven together at all, more specifically that neither of us will live a life other than the one we have today. I am okay with your beliefs, I will hold your hand to pray if you choose to. I just want my mom. I just want to experience the rest of your days as your loving son, sharing memories and planning the future. I want my son to know you. I want him to become the man he wants to be based on his actions and beliefs, not based on a fear of eternal hell. As for Lee, he lied to you when he said I spit on him. Take that for what it is worth. I am sure that he is not a liar, he is too religious for that. However, his recollection, and his views on the world are flawed. As a Humanist, I am more than willing to bury the hatchet and to listen to his views on things, and hopefully an apology. Family is more important to me than any world view. If at any point your family becomes too violent, I am always here for you no matter how long you stay gone. I will always love you, and I will always have pain when thinking about the abuse you endured and the abuse that you may still be dealing with. In Love,

Ron