#gun shop in Arizona

[goliathindustries]

Trigger Discipline and Its Critical Importance in Responsible Gun Ownership

Understand why trigger discipline is crucial for safe gun handling. Use these essential guidelines to avoid accidents and maintain responsible firearm use.

[batboyblog]

Senate Elections 2024!

At the Start of the year I made a post about the US Senate elections this year. However a lot has changed since then (not just that) So I thought I'd make a new version.

How successful a President Kamala Harris is able to be will come down to who controls congress. A Republican House or Senate could frustrate many of the important agenda items Harris wants to get done. Also the Senate is key to appointing Judges, right now many America's rights are being decided in the courts where Trump and Republican appointed Judges are consistently ruling against trans rights, voting rights, abortion rights etc. Any hope of a smooth pipe line of Harris judges depends on the Senate. Senate Control hangs by a knife's edge, there are 6 soft blue seats we have to hold onto, two swing seats Dems are defending, and two soft red seats we can pick up, you can make all the difference!

If you don't live in one of the states below but want to help, you can Donate to the DSCC or sign up to phone bank with the Democrats

Arizona

Ruben Gallego (Hold)

Winning Arizona will be key to the outcome of the 2024 Presidential election. Congressman Ruben Gallego was a leader in the effort to replace Democrat turned Independent Senator Sinema with a real Democrat. Gallego was raised by a single mother, went to Harvard, and is a Marine combat vet. First elected to the Arizona State House in 2010 he advocated for immigrant rights. He was elected to Congress in 2014. Since coming to Congress Gallego has been a progressive voice, gaining attention for blunt attacks on the Trump administration. Republicans nominated around former TV host and conspiracy theorist Kari Lake. Lake rose to become a Republican star by supporting conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and Covid. Lake ran for Arizona Governor in 2022 and after losing to Democrat Katie Hobbs she refused to concede and still maintains she won and is the rightful Governor of Arizona. Lake has called Democrats "Demonic", totally opposes abortion in all cases, and is the self proclaimed "Trump candidate". If Gallego is elected not only will he be a reliable Democratic vote and Progressive vote in the Senate, he'd be the first Hispanic to represent Arizona in the Senate, ever. If you live in Arizona please make sure you vote, but more if you have any time between now and November, volunteer to help Gallego! and if you don't live there you can still give.

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Florida

Debbie Mucarsel-Powell (Flip)

Florida's current Republican senator, Rick Scott, has spent his first term in Congress being one of the most extreme Republicans. Scott has pushed to defund education, roll back Social Security and Medicare, attacked trans rights, and wants to ban Abortion in all cases. Rick Scott is the wealthiest member of Congress and also was in involved in the largest case of Medicare fraud in US history. Scott challenged Mitch McConnell for the leadership of the Senate GOP getting support from extremists like Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and JD Vance, and now is running to replace McConnell. Scott won in 2018 with less than 10,000 votes. The Democrat is former Congresswoman Debbie Mucarsel-Powell. When she was elected to Congress in 2018 she became the first South American born immigrant and first person of Ecuadorian heritage to be elected to Congress. In Congress Mucarsel-Powell was a member of the Progressive caucus, she fought to expand medicare, and secured $200 million for Everglades restoration. After a narrow defeat in 2020 Mucarsel-Powell joined the gun control advocacy group Giffords to fight for gun control a personal issue for her. If you're in Florida please make sure you vote, and volunteer to help remove one of the most extreme Senators. Everyone else give what you can.

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Maryland

Angela Alsobrooks (Hold)

Maryland is normally an easy Democratic win but two-term Republican former Governor Larry Hogan announced he was running, turning what should be an easy race for Democrats into a real fight. Hogan is trying to sell himself as a Trump septic moderate, but he's endorsed by Trump, JD Vance, and Mitch McConnell. Hogan spent his final year as Governor frustrating Democratic efforts to protect abortion, legalize marijuana, and take serious action on climate change. In the Senate he'll be a vote in the pocket of Republican leadership. The Democrat is Angela Alsobrooks, the executive of Prince George's County. As County Executive Alsobrooks got high marks for her response to Covid. She's worked to expand pre-K to all students in the county, as well expanding health care access including mental health access. As a candidate for Senate Alsobrooks has been a strong supporter of Abortion rights, pushing for more action on gun violence, and has been a strong supporter of LGBT rights her whole political life. After Vice-President Harris left the Senate there were no black women represented in the upper house. Together with Delaware's Lisa Blunt Rochester Alsobrooks could make history, if both are elected this year it'll be the first time ever that two black women have served at the same time in the US Senate. If you're in Maryland make sure to get out to vote, to volunteer as much as you're able, and everyone give whatever you can to protect abortion rights and support progressive black women!

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Michigan

Elissa Slotkin (Hold)

Michigan is a critical 2024 swing state. Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin is running to replace retiring Senator Debbie Stabenow. Slotkin worked for the CIA, the State Department, and the Department of Defense rising to be an Assistant Secretary of Defense under President Obama. She is fluent in Arabic and Swahili. First elected to Congress in 2018 Slotkin won and has been re-elected repeatedly to represent a swing district, becoming the first Democrat elected there since 1998. In Congress Slotkin has supported gun control, and ending money in politics. Her national security experience made her an important voice pushing for the first impeachment of Trump in 2019. She gained national attention for holding open town halls on her choice to vote to impeach Trump facing down Republican protesters. In her run for Senate Slotkin has continued to stress her support for gun legislation, ending money in politics and stresses protecting the right to choose. Republicans have consolidated around former Congressman Mike Rogers. Rogers retired to Florida after his time in the House only moving back last year to run for Senate. During his time in Congress Rogers tried twice to ban the abortion pill mifepristone. Rogers is endorsed by Trump and controversial former Detroit Police Chief James Craig. If you're in Michigan vote to protect the right to choose and stop a Trump Republican, and make sure to volunteer as much as you can, and every give what you can to help win this key swing state.

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Montana

Jon Tester (Re-elect)

Normally deep red Montana represents one of the hardest Senate seats for Democrats to hang onto. Jon Tester is the only Democrat to hold statewide office or represent Montana in Congress. Elected narrowly in 2006 Tester has beaten the odds time and time again and is trying again. In his time in the Senate Tester has been a consistent voice for small farmers and local businesses against big corporations and mega companies. Tester has fought against corruption and for openness, and is one of the most effective members of Congress consistently having the most bills past into law of any member of Congress. Republicans have embraced an ultra wealthy former CEO, Tim Sheehy as their nominee to unseat Tester. Sheehy was caught lying about being shot in Afghanistan as a Navy SEAL, when he in fact accidentally shot himself at Glacier National Park in Montana. Past his embarrassing war wound story, Sheehy is an ultra rich CEO who has spent 2 million of his own money on the race so far. Sheehy has been endorsed by Trump, and Marjorie Taylor Greene. Sheehy wants to ban all abortion, repeal Obamacare, and remove any limits on gun ownership, despite having shot himself. If you can only donate to two races, this and Ohio are the most important, if you can only donate to one? flip a coin. Everyone in Montana make sure you get out to vote and just as important volunteer, there will be no Presidential or Governor or any other campaign to help Tester along its all on him, and everyone give what you can.

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Nevada

Jacky Rosen (Re-elect)

Nevada is a critical swing state in the 2024 election. Jacky Rosen first came to Congress flipping a Red House seat in 2016 and then unseating a Republican Senator in 2018. Since coming to Congress Rosen has been a champion for turning Nevada into a clean energy leader. She's also has helped pass gun control legislation and is a fierce advocate the right to choose. Republicans have nominated Army veteran and conservative influencer Sam Brown to run against Rosen. Brown unsuccessfully ran in a Republican primary for the Texas State House in 2014, and for the Republican nomination for US Senate in Nevada in 2022. Now with the endorsement of Donald Trump Brown finally managed to win a primary. Sam Brown is the only Republican candidate Trump mentioned in his 92 minute convention speech at the RNC. Brown wants to roll back Nevada's Green energy progress and boost fossil fuels, he also wants to roll back any and all restrictions on guns. If you're in Nevada make sure to get out and vote, and volunteer to keep this key Senate seat out of the hands of a Trump Republican. Everyone else give what you can.

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Ohio

Sherrod Brown (Re-elect)

Ohio is one of the hardest senate seats for Democrats to defend this year. Senator Sherrod Brown has been the only statewide elected Democrat in Ohio since 2011. First elected to Congress in 1992 and to the Senate in 2006 Brown has defied the odds by being a popular Progressive in an ever more Red state. Brown consistently ranks along side Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren as one of the most left wing Senators. From his first days in Congress Brown refused the Congressional health plan, repeatedly introducing single payer health care bills going back to the 1990s. Brown has been a proud and consistent ally of Unions, particularly the UAW, and tough on banks and big business. Republicans have nominated used car salesman and crypto enthusiast Bernie Moreno. Moreno is a weirdo, he accused LGBT activists of a "radical agenda of indoctrination" and then got caught looking for "men for 1-on-1 sex" on AdultFriendFinder. Moreno supports a federal abortion ban, has been sued by former employees for wage thief and discrimination, and wants to end birth right citizenship. Moreno has been endorsed by Turning Point USA, Donald Trump Jr., Vivek Ramaswamy, Kari Lake, Ted Cruz, JD Vance, and of course Donald Trump. If you're in Ohio make sure you get out to vote, and volunteer to support a great Senator. Everyone outside of Ohio give what you can, if you can only donate to two campaigns this and Montana need it the most, if you can only give to one, flip a coin.

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Pennsylvania

Bob Casey (Re-elect)

Pennsylvania is a key swing state in the 2024 Presidential election. Bob Casey was first elected to the Senate in 2006 defeating right wing extremist Rick Santorum by the largest margin in state history. Starting his career as a moderate to conservative Democrat Casey has become a strong advocate for gun control since 2012 voting for every gun control measure to reach the Senate. Casey also made strong opposition to the Trump administration a cornerstone of time in office. While personally pro-life, Casey has endorsed the right to choose and voted codify abortion rights. Casey has been a leading critic of corporate greed during the inflation and authored a bill to ban shrinkflation. Republicans have nominated multi-millionaire former CEO and Bush administration official David McCormick. McCormick served in the Treasury under George W. Bush, his wife worked at the NSC under Trump. He lived in Westport, Connecticut as the CEO of an investment management firm, till he decided he wanted to be a US Senator in 2022 and he moved to Pennsylvania. He lost the 2022 GOP primary to Dr. Oz and is giving another go in 2024. McCormick is endorsed by George W. Bush, Mitch McConnell, Rick Santorum, Karl Rove, Doug Mastriano, Jim Jordan, and of course Donald Trump. If you're in Pennsylvania make sure you get out to vote, and to volunteer to keep Pennsylvania blue. Everyone else give what you can.

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Texas

Colin Allred (Flip)

Texas Senator Ted Cruz might be the most hated man in politics. Since his election in 2012 Cruz has been on a single minded mission to be totally unlikeable. Shutting down the government under President Obama, endorsing Trump after Trump insulted his wife, supporting Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election, fleeing his state to go on vacation in Mexico after an ice storm and power outage (and abandoning his dog), blaming the Uvalde school shooting on video games, yes Ted Cruz really has done it all. Cruz is one of the most right wing members of the Senate and a loud Trump supporter. Last election in 2018 Cruz barely hung onto his seat and Democrats are hoping with 6 more years of radicalism Texans are ready for change. Democrats have nominated Congressman Colin Allred. Allred is a former professional footballer, played Linebacker for the Tennessee Titans. After football Allred went to law school, and got a job with the Obama Administration. In 2018 he won an upset victory unseating an 11 term Republican in a district that had been Republican since 1968. In Congress Allred fought for gun reform, to keep down the price of proscription drugs, and invest in American infrastructure. In his run for Senate he's standing up for the right to choose against one of the most radically anti-abortion Republicans in the country. If you're in Texas make sure you vote and volunteer to give Ted Cruz the boot, and everyone give what you can to get Blue Texas.

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Wisconsin

Tammy Baldwin (Re-elect)

Wisconsin is a critical swing state in the 2024 Presidential election. Senator Tammy Baldwin is a historic trailblazer, when she was first elected to Congress in 1998 she was the first woman to ever represent Wisconsin in Congress, the first open Lesbian elected to Congress, and the first openly gay non-incumbent to be elected to Congress. She co-founded the Congressional LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus. When she was elected to the US Senate in 2012 she was the first and is still the only openly gay person ever elected to the Senate. Past her advocacy for LGBT rights Baldwin has been a progressive her whole time in Congress endorsing single-payer health care, and being a strong voice for abortion rights. Republicans are supporting a California bank owner and weirdo named Eric Hovde. Strange mustache owner Hovde has attacked trans kids, flip flopped on abortion (totally against, now open to some abortion), and insulted farmers as "not hardworking" and thats why the retirement age should be 72. If you're in Wisconsin make sure to vote and volunteer to protect a progressive trailblazer and stop a California weirdo banker. Everyone else give what you can.

VOTE VOLUNTEER DONATE SHOP

Where ever you live in the US there is a critical race happening, so please check out ways to Volunteer and where ever you live there are options to phone bank text bank write letters or postcards to voters (postcards 2) but like I said wherever you are there are local candidates who need your help, and if you live in any of these critical states please give your time and energy.

[incorrectbatfam]

What last minute gas station gifts would the bats buy for someones birthday?

Dick: a snow globe but instead of snow it's glittery water because half of Louisiana sits below sea level

Jason: an overpriced wooden deer antler because Minnesota Nice is more like Minnesota Passive-Aggressive That Digs Into Your Conscience

Tim: a coupon book for the car wash even though they both know they're not going back to Idaho

Damian: a local author's book on gardening because he's not gonna find anything else in rural Manitoba

Duke: off-brand Gatorade near Area 51 with warnings for children and people who are pregnant

Cullen: a mixtape from a guy in the parking lot claiming to need the money to get to Nashville even though it's not that far and $8 is the exact same price as a pack of cigarettes

Stephanie: maple syrup in a pretty leaf-shaped bottle so no one pays attention to the fact that it was produced in Albuquerque and does not in fact contain any maple syrup

Cassandra: Gary Gator, a plushie dressed exactly how you'd expect for a Fort Lauderdale gas station mascot

Barbara: the exact same novelty license plate sold at every gift shop across Pennsylvania

Harper: a t-shirt for some place called Salty Moe's Burger Bucket off of I-94 just outside Eau Claire

Carrie: taffy from the fifth place claiming to be America's oldest candy shop even though Arizona was the 47th state to join the union

Kate: room temperature beer from a 100 square foot place claiming to be the best rest stop in Eastern Montana

Alfred: a gun 'cause it's Texas but also because he can appreciate a historically accurate replica

Selina: cash from the ATM after the asshole manager refused to do something as simple as giving her directions to Boston

Bruce: the gas station even though there's no point trying to drive in NYC

[deadmotelsusa]

First it was the Buena Vista Motel, then it was the Holiday Lodge, now its a modernized apartment building and gun shop that manufactures AR-15 style rifles. Located in Prescott, Arizona.

[laiqualaurelote]

for the wip ask meme: cover story!

Thank you for this ask (from this WIP game)! a couple of folks have asked about this one. It's the Ted/Trent spy-AU-in-a-Notting-Hill-bookshop-AU, which stalled because the premise got too unwieldy and the literary references got out of hand. (It did have a playlist I was quite fond of, with a number of Kinks songs including, presciently, A Well Respected Man). Because I am unlikely to ever finish it, I thought I'd just fic amnesty the whole thing here, so:

Cover Story

Trent is about to wind up stocktaking when the door to the bookshop bangs open. “We’re closed,” he calls irritably, and then he turns and sees who it is.

“I got something of a reading emergency,” says Ted Lasso.

Trent takes him in: breathing hard, collar askew, perspiration plastering a lick of hair against his forehead. In his hand is a gun. Trent recognises it as a Heckler & Koch P30L.

Trent ought to be going for his own weapon right about now. Instead he says: “So it is you.”

“Yep,” says Ted.

“I knew it,” hisses Trent. “I fucking knew it.”

“Boy, you sure do like to be right about stuff.” Ted pauses, then staggers. Trent sees that he is favouring his left side, and that the shirt beneath the puffer jacket is darkening with blood.

“Ted,” he begins, “wh – ”

“Like I said,” Ted grits out, “emergency.” And then he collapses in the middle of Trent’s bookshop.

Five weeks earlier

“You wouldn’t happen to have the latest John le Carré, would you?”

Trent has to climb a little ways down the ladder to see the man speaking to him. It’s one of the American tourists who wandered in after lunch. There are always Americans underfoot these days, trawling the aisles of the bookshop as if in hope of a meet-cute out of Notting Hill. Trent, as a rule, finds Americans tedious and does his level best to avoid them in all his lines of work; he achieves this in the bookshop by hiding in the stacks and leaving them to the tender mercies of his assistant. Unfortunately, this appears to be a particularly persistent specimen. Trent descends a few more rungs and braces himself.

“Is that the one with Brexit?”

“The one with the bookshop.” The American has a very distracting moustache. He looks almost exactly like a slide Trent once saw in Disguises 101: How Not To Overdo It. He is also wearing multiple layers beneath his puffer jacket, like some sort of Midwestern matryoshka, even though the shop’s heating is working perfectly well. Trent is automatically suspicious of customers with many layers, lest they are shoplifters. But a shoplifter would not go to such lengths to gain his attention.

“If you mean the posthumously published one, it’s not yet in stock. Shipping delays, I’m afraid.”

“Ain’t that a pity,” says the American. “I was sold on the premise. A bookshop that’s secretly a base for spy shenanigans? Tell me you don’t want to see how that turns out.”

Trent removes his glasses, keeping his expression bland. “You could put in an order, but if you’re not in town for long then I daresay there isn’t much point.”

“Oh, we’ll be here for a while. Long vacation. Thought we’d take it easy, like the Eagles would say. Though this ain’t Winslow, Arizona.”

“You can place an order with Miss Bowen at the counter,” says Trent, after he has cast about for a response to that string of gibberish and come up empty.

“You bet I will. If I could just – ” The American reaches out, and Trent almost breaks his wrist on instinct, but he simply brushes past Trent’s sleeve and pulls a secondhand copy of Call For The Dead off the shelf. “Maybe we ain’t see the last of le Carré, but at least it’s a first.”

“Ah, ha,” says Trent, to mask his surprise that they even have a copy of Call For The Dead in stock. It’s probably languished in here for years, unsold. “Good eye.”

“Well, I thank you for the consultation, Mr…”

“Crimm. Trent Crimm, The Independent.”

“Well, Trent, I appreciate you. Keep fighting the good fight.”

Trent blinks. “Against…?”

“Amazon,” says the American brightly. “Which, as an American, I apologise for.”

“Er, quite,” says Trent. “Sorry about Brexit, and all that.”

The American’s name on the order form is Ted Lasso, which makes him sound like a fictional character. He collects his bearded friend from the philosophy section and they depart, engaged in a discussion so animated that Lasso walks into the shop door, rebounds with no perceptible damage and continues his argument without missing a beat. Trent and Miss Bowen watch them go, mildly perplexed.

“Is he a subscriber? I don’t recognise either of them.”

“Just an ordinary customer, from the looks of it. He wanted to talk about books.”

“I suppose it must happen from time to time, in a bookshop,” says Miss Bowen dryly.

Trent crosses to her side of the counter, which is built in such a way that a customer, standing in line, would not be able to see what her hands might be doing. He leans down casually to check the automatic shotgun mounted under the countertop. 

“He was talking about the new le Carré. It’s about spies in a bookshop, apparently.”

“Oh,” says Miss Bowen, eyebrow raised. “Is it now?”

“Yes,” says Trent. “We ought to get hold of it quite quickly, I think. In case there’s been a breach.”

“Come now.” She turns to him sharply. “Le Carré couldn’t have written a novel about us. I mean, he’d never been in the shop. We’d know, wouldn’t we?”

“I daresay we would, Miss Bowen. But put in the order anyway.”

“Certainly, Mr Crimm. And did you want new grenades on top of that?”

“I did, yes, thank you for reminding me.”

“Of course.” A pause. “We are quite sure that man wasn’t a subscriber, are we?”

Trent scoffs. “What, that guy? Come on.”

*

Trent’s childhood dream was to own a bookshop. He thought of bookshops as places where you could read all day and avoid people, which seemed like paradise. However, his family being who they were, his skills being what they were, the job market for English degree-holders being what it was – he spent a year at odd ends, haphazardly weighing the pursuit of postgraduate studies against attempting to break into the publishing industry, until finally he gave up and took the path he knew had always been there, lying in wait for him. He became a spy.

It was another fifteen years before he revisited the idea of the bookshop, in the wake of his abrupt and unceremonious retirement from the Circus. Cleis was one and a half years old by then, and he knew he must find something, for her sake – he had promised –  even though he could not stomach the thought of going out in the cold again. He was mulling over his various options – heaven forfend he wind up in something horrible, like insurance – when his mother dropped by for tea and said peremptorily: “Mae is retiring, don’t you know?”

Mae – the only name anyone ever knew her by – was a veritable battleaxe who ran the Crown and Anchor, a pub that doubled up as the London station for agents of every stripe working in or passing through the city. The stations, by the unspoken rules that governed their universe, were neutral ground; they served every agency and freelancer without question and in turn brooked no conflict within their confines. To move against a station was to move against the combined powers of the rest of the agencies. Nobody had tried it in Trent’s lifetime.

“Oh?” said Trent. He was only partially listening to his mother; most of his attention was focused on trying to get Cleis to keep her yoghurt in her mouth. “Who’s taking over, then?”

His mother fixed him with the glare she had honed on some of the finest intelligencers this side of the Atlantic, as well as his teenage self. “I rather thought you might throw your hat in the ring, dear.”

Cleis mawed at her in surprise and dribbled watery yoghurt down her bib. Trent sighed. “I’ll talk to Mae.”

Mae thought it was a ridiculous notion to run a station as a bookshop. “You wouldn’t catch half that lot dead in a bookshop,” was her take on it. “Who has time for reading these days? And you’ll have to get in books! Actual books!”

“That’s rather the idea, yes,” said Trent. “It can’t be harder than maintaining a liquor licence.”

“Well, it’s not like I was going to hand the tender over to anyone else,” admits Mae. “What will you call it, love?”

Trent considered. “The Independent. Because that’s what it is.”

Even Mae had to admit, a few years in, that it was working out quite well. He’d even managed to sell some books.

*

“How’s the le Carré?” Miss Bowen asks, amid her reshelving. “Are we in trouble?”

“I don’t think so.” Trent is perusing Silverview at the counter, book in one hand, the other on the rifle. “The bookshop’s in East Anglia, and the protagonist hasn’t the first idea how to run it.”

“Oh, well then,” says Miss Bowen. “It will put nobody in mind of us at all. Is it any good? I’m always wary of these late discovery manuscripts. I don’t think I ever got over the disappointment of Go Set A Watchman.”

“It’s unevenly weighted. Makes you miss him at his best.” Trent turns a page. “Still, I’m glad he didn’t go gentle into that good night.”

He tenses as the shop bell rings, then sees that it is Keeley Jones, resplendent in a fluffy yellow coat. “What can we do for you, Miss Jones?”

“Trading in,” sings Keeley. “On Jamie’s behalf.”

Trent takes off his glasses and gives her a forbidding look. “What, has he gone and lost the lot again?”

Keeley winces. “Only some of it.”

Trent sighs. “Let’s get it processed in the back.”

Jamie Tartt is one of the stars of the agency known as the Dogtrack. He’s also aggravatingly cocky and spectacularly laissez-faire with his equipment; Keeley’s always in here, making apologies for him having thrown his Glock into a volcano, or something. Trent has no patience for the likes of Jamie Tartt. One already has so many people trying to kill one in this line of work, but there he is, giving even more people reasons to want him dead.

The back room is behind a reinforced steel door that can only be opened using either Trent’s or Miss Bowen’s fingerprints and a passcode that changes every day. The passcode is in fact a rolling alphanumerical series that progresses through the entirety of Hamlet, and if anyone ever cracks it, Trent will be very impressed by their grasp of Shakespeare. In the back room, Trent lays out the remnants of Jamie Tartt’s mission kit and purses his lips.

“To lose one dart gun, Miss Jones, may be regarded as a misfortune. To lose both looks like carelessness.”

“Oh, you needn’t have a go at me, I’m proper mad at him myself. You know what he did last week? Tried to murder Roy Kent. Roy Kent!”

“What, for work?”

“Not even that! Some kind of fucking…pissing contest.” Keeley makes a noise of exasperation. “Some days it’s like we gave a bunch of five-year-olds guns and let them loose on a jungle gym. You know what I mean?”

“I’ll just put it on his tab,” says Trent. “Which is astronomical, by the way.”

“I’ll chivvy the folks at the Dogtrack to send you a cover. Only they’re rushed off their feet this week – you must have heard.”

Trent has heard, but it always serves one in intelligence gathering to pretend to know less than one really does. “What’s happening over there?”

“The Mannions are going to war,” says Keeley, her voice lush with the juice of gossip - another reason why Trent likes having her in the shop. “The whole Dogtrack’s splitting up. Christ, but it’s a mess down there.”

“Who’s Jamie backing?”

“Hasn’t decided. Rupert’s putting it about that the whole agency’s going with him, but word on the street is that Rebecca Welton’s brought in someone from abroad to take him out. They’re saying it’s an American.” She sucks in an excited breath. 

“Why would you bring in an American for that?” demands Trent. 

“Beats me. It’s going to keep us all on our toes for a bit, to be sure. I reckon it’s some Tom Cruise type, all Mission Impossible Jack Reacher like. But nobody knows for certain.” 

“Surely not,” says Trent. “You at least must have some idea, Miss Jones.”

Keeley flutters her eyelashes at him. “Who, me? I’m just a humble secretary.”

“Of course you are,” says Trent. “And I’m just a poor bookseller.”

Keeley slants a sly look at him. “You haven’t seen any Americans around, have you?”

“We get Americans in the store all the time. Just this morning we had a Mrs Glenda Johnson from South Carolina complaining that we don’t have a café in the store.”

“Yeah,” says Keeley, “fairly sure it’s not Mrs Glenda Johnson. Isn’t there a Costa two doors down?”

“Precisely,” says Trent. “Americans.”

They return to the front of the store, the afternoon light streaming across the polished wood floors and touching the book covers. “It really is awful pretty, when the light’s good,” says Keeley, running a hand across a row of Sally Rooneys. “You know what you ought to do? You should do #BookTok.”

“That,” says Trent, “is the single worst suggestion I’ve ever heard.”

Keeley laughs. “Give me a pot of money and some Madeline Miller and I’ll do it for you. I’ll make you so famous, you’ll be beating influencers off with a stick.”

“Just tell the Dogtrack to pay for your boyfriend’s damage.”

Keeley sticks her tongue out as she swings out of the shop. “If you see the American, you’ll tell me first. Won’t you?”

*

“Tell me a story,” says Cleis. They’re curled up in her bed, her tiny frame pillowed against his side. 

“You’ve had two already.”

“But I want another.” Cleis looks up at him, her eyes clear and green as the sea. “Tell me about Maman.”

Trent stares up at the glow-in-the-dark stars that speckle her bedroom ceiling. Tell me about a complicated woman, he hears Coralie say in his head. She sounds slightly amused. This is an anachronism, of course. Coralie never lived to see the Emily Wilson translation of The Odyssey. She would have loved it.

“Where do I start with your mother?”

“Was she very beautiful?”

“Yes. She knew exactly how beautiful she was and what to do with it.”

“Do I look like her?”

“The spitting image.” Even at four, Cleis looks so much like her mother that Trent will sometimes look over at her, in the middle of something mundane like making dinner or brushing her hair, and the resemblance will strike him like a punch to the gut.

Cleis is pleased by this. “What else?”

“Well. She loved old poems, and she was a lot stronger than she looked, and she wasn’t scared of a thing. Never listened to anyone either.”

“Not even you?”

“I like to think she listened to me a bit more than most other people,” allows Trent, “but even that wasn’t very much.”

Cleis kneads her quilt between her small hands. “Why didn’t she come back?”

Trent swallows. “She couldn’t. She had to save everyone.” Including me, he doesn’t add. Instead he says: “She loved you more than anything in the world.”

“How do you know?”

“She told me so. It was the last thing she said, before – ” Trent stops. Cleis is silent.

“Go to sleep now, chouette.”

It’s another hour before she drifts off to sleep proper. He sits in the dark, her hand tucked in his, until she does.

*

“So that’s your subscriber number, which you should quote in all correspondence with us and over the phone when placing orders. Orders placed within less than twenty-four hours of pick-up will be subject to last-minute fee increments. Is that understood, Mr Rojas?”

The lush-haired young man beams at Trent across the counter. “Si, entiendo.”

“Book club notices are posted on the board to the right,” Trent goes on. “Those are for freelancers, I don’t vet them personally and you attend book club at your own risk. This is for your first assignment.” He hands over a copy of Roberto Bolaño’s 2666. Dani Rojas makes to open it; Trent slams it shut. “Don’t open your books in the store.”

“Okay,” says Dani, wide-eyed. He hefts the book experimentally in his hand. “It is very heavy. Does it have a happy ending?”

Trent snorts. “It’s a Bolaño, what do you think?”

Dani nods cheerfully. “I thank you for this, señor. Literature is life.”

“I mean, it actually isn’t,” says Trent, “which is sort of the whole point – but never mind. All the best, Mr Rojas.”

Dani leaves, whistling. He passes Roy Kent on his way in. “He’s not the American, is he?” says Roy, not quite sotto voce to Trent.

“I rather think he’s Mexican,” says Trent. “Are you all still going on about that? I’d have thought you’d have worked it out by now.”

“Nah,” says Roy. “No idea who it is. Mrs Mannion – that is to say, Ms Welton – is keeping her cards close to her chest. Old Rupert’s foaming at the mouth. They say he’s got hold of some kind of leverage, but fucked if we know what.” He studies the noticeboard. “Anything good at book club?”

“What, are you freelancing now?”

“Reckon I might as well, since it’s all going to shit at the Dogtrack.” Roy frowns at A Moveable Feast, Wednesday 8pm; A Gentleman In Moscow, Thursday 7pm; and Vengeance Is Mine, All Others Pay Cash, Thursday 9pm. He points at the last. “Where’s that one again?”

“East Java. I hear Indonesia’s nice this time of year.”

“Right, let’s give it a go then.”

Trent scribbles down a number on a Post-It and hands it to Roy. “Call it and burn it. You know the drill.”

“Cheers.” Roy regards Trent, brows thickly furrowed. “You’ve seen the American, haven’t you?”

“No comment.” 

Roy grunts. “Bet you have. You’re just being a prick about it, as usual.”

“Whoever it is, they’re probably out in the community already,” says Trent. “Bravely or stupidly.”

“Stupidly,” decides Roy, stalking off.

*

The problem with The Independent is that, despite Trent’s best efforts and the imminently prophesied demise of brick-and-mortar bookselling, it still continues to be a fairly popular bookshop. Trent has no idea why this is. He puts zero effort into the window displays. He shelves the books in no discernible order, so it is virtually impossible for a customer to locate anything. Sometimes he even leaves terrible TripAdvisor reviews for himself, to discourage casual browsers and tourists. And yet the shop continues to see customers – not subscribers, actual book-loving civilians. People keep popping in to have opinions on how Trent should run his bookshop, to complain that he doesn’t sell stationery or upbraid him for not carrying the latest Stephenie Meyer or insinuate that he should hold poetry readings (of their poems) in the store. It’s a marvel that Trent has gone all these years without shooting anyone in the face.

Still, the shop has regulars somehow. There are the subscribers, and then there are normal people who just show up and spend ages browsing, even though Trent has made sure there is nowhere comfortable for them to sit. There is the elderly gent who pops in nearly every morning to thumb through books and point out printing errors to anyone unfortunate enough to be in proximity. There is the teenage girl who spends afternoons seated cross-legged in an aisle, reading The Sandman in instalments. And then there’s Ted Lasso.

“Why’d you call it The Independent?” Ted wants to know. He’s come back to pick up his copy of Silverview, and despite having achieved this with little incident, has nevertheless once more sought out Trent where he is dusting the shelves.

“Because it is an independent bookstore,” says Trent, who is in fact sweeping for bugs. He finds one planted atop a birding guide and surreptitiously crushes and pockets it. “Can I help you with anything else, Mr Lasso?”

“I was wondering where I might find your Graham Greene.”

“I believe we have The Quiet American somewhere in the shop, if you can bear to wait while I excavate it. Though,” adds Trent, “you are a distinctly unquiet American.”

“You can say that again,” says Ted cheerfully. “You wouldn’t happen to have a copy of The Third Man, would you?”

Most people haven’t even seen The Third Man, let alone are aware that it was based on a Graham Greene novella. “You know your spy fiction, Mr Lasso.”

“Call me Ted, won’t you?”

Trent drags the ladder around the corner and retrieves The Third Man from a high shelf near where the ceiling dips. He looks down, head tilted, at the man beaming up at him from the foot of the ladder. You’ve seen the American, haven’t you? Ted Lasso does not look like the kind of American called in to bring down the head of an agency. He looks like a caricature of an American. He has worn the same pair of khakis every time he has set foot in this shop and it is likely he does so without irony. Yet Trent has the feeling that something is off, the way that shots in The Third Man are framed at a slight angle so that the city looks like a painting knocked askew. 

Ted clears his throat. “Kinda staring there, Trent. Makes a fella wonder if he ain’t got toothpaste in his moustache.”

Trent hands over the book. “Why are you here, Ted? Really?”

“First thing I always do when I land in a new place is find a local bookstore,” says Ted brightly. “Tells you a lot about the town, your local bookstore.”

Trent takes off his glasses. “And what, pray, have you learnt from this one?”

“That nothing is where you think it’ll be,” says Ted. “But it sure helps if you ask for directions.” 

“Perhaps you should ask him if he wants to get coffee,” says Miss Bowen after Ted has left. “Isn’t that why you hired me? So you could have more of a social life?”

Trent pinches the bridge of his nose. “I hired you so that in the event of a terrorist attack on the shop, we wouldn’t be short-handed.”

“I’m glad you did. It was this or go back to teaching kindergarten.” She raises her voice sharply as a man in a denim jacket emerges from behind a shelf and shuffles towards the door. “Stop right there!”

“Uh,” says the man intelligently. “What’s this about?”

“We have CCTV in the shop, you know,” says Miss Bowen. “So we’d appreciate it if you didn’t leave the shop with Jonathan Franzen stuffed down your trousers.”

The man leers. “Like to come over and check on it yourself, love?”

Miss Bowen meditatively flicks open the boxcutter she was using to trim plastic wrap. “You know, I just might.”

The man hastily removes the Franzen. “All right, no need to get all shirty about it. I’ll just put it back then.”

“The fuck you will, we’re not touching that again,” says Miss Bowen. “You’re going to leave twenty quid on the counter – with your other hand, mind – and then you’re going to back out the door and never come back.”

“Can’t do that in kindergarten, can you,” remarks Trent after their errant customer has complied and made himself scarce.

“There’s something to be said about the job satisfaction in this place,” agrees Miss Bowen.

*

Trent arrives at his parents’ just in time to see his daughter stabbing his father in the front garden.

“Ah! Ah! Alas!” cries his father, sinking dramatically into the grass as Cleis bashes him joyously with a foam sword. “You’ve got me, dread pirate!”

“Did you kill grandpa, chouette?” says Trent as she greets him by thwacking him on the shins with her sword. 

“Three times,” says Cleis modestly as she is scooped up.

“She’s a bloodthirsty one.” His father is rising ponderously to his feet, brushing grass stains off his knees. He dotes on Cleis in a fashion that was distinctly lacking in Trent’s own childhood. Trent still cannot get over the incongruity of it – the legendary Chester Crimm, scourge of the Stasi Circle, playing pirates on the lawn with a four-year-old. He does have the eyepatch for it, Trent reflects.

His father turns his good eye towards Trent. “Sell a lot of books today, son?”

“Hilarious,” says Trent shortly. “Where’s mum?”

“Getting her hair done.” They head back into the house. “What’s this I’m hearing about an American at the Dogtrack?”

“Christ, I’m sick of hearing about the American. How’d that even get to you?”

“I was at poker night with the old guard. It’s all everyone’s talking about, the Mannion split.” His father pulls a beer from the fridge and hands it to Trent as Cleis makes for the living room television. “Never liked Mannion. Did you know he tried to get off with your mother, back in the day?”

“Ugh,” says Trent faintly.

“That was before he got mixed up with the Welton girl, of course,” says his father with the alacrity of the generation who can get away with calling Rebecca “the Welton girl”. “The agencies are such a shitshow these days. You know, back in my day – ”

“By all means,” says Trent mordantly, “reminisce about the Cold War, dad. What a splendid time that was.”

“You know what I mean,” his father grumbles. “People just got divorced and got on with things. Didn’t go about involving Americans. You’ve not seen the American, have you? Why are you laughing?”

“I’m just thinking of the rhyme,” says Trent. “From The Scarlet Pimpernel.” At his father’s blank look, he recites: “They seek him here, they seek him there, those people seek him everywhere! Is he in heaven or in hell? That damned elusive Pimpernel.”

“Damned!” exclaims Cleis from the doorway. “Damned, damned, damned!”

Trent stares at her, aghast. “Now look what you’ve done,” says his father.

*

Ted isn’t in the shop today, though his bearded friend has put in an appearance. He has only ever been referred to as Beard, and Trent is coming round to the idea that it might actually be the man’s Christian name, because who even knows with Americans? He’s browsing in the back, which is fine, and has been engaged for the past fifteen minutes in a conversation with Jane Payne, which is not so fine.

“Should we say something?” Miss Bowen wonders.

“We are The Independent,” says Trent. “We have a policy of non-interference.”

“I mean, she’s literally toxic. Did you see the photos from her Dubai job?”

“No. Jesus. Why are there even photos?”

Miss Bowen shrugs. “No idea. Everyone’s been sending them around in the group chats. Did not know you could get blood that colour.”

“Miss Payne can do what she likes, provided she does it outside the shop.” Trent pauses. “Though you could ask him if he wants to get coffee.”

“No thank you,” says Miss Bowen. “I have no wish to be stabbed in the pancreas by Jane Payne.”

They are distracted by the shop bell. Trent is surprised and slightly disconcerted to see none other than Rebecca Welton bearing down upon the counter in all her glory. The agency heads rarely visit the shop in person; Trent typically corresponds with Mr Higgins for the Dogtrack’s interests.

“Ms Welton. What can we do for you?”

“I’d like to see your Canterbury Tales special edition,” says Rebecca without preamble. 

Trent blinks. “Certainly. This way.”

In the back room, he opens the case where the Chaucer collection is stored. Rebecca begins looking it over critically. She hefts a rocket launcher experimentally, testing its weight. “Which one is this?”

“The Wife of Bath. Gives you five shots.”

“Hm,” says Rebecca approvingly. “I rather like the sound of that.” She inspects the double-barrelled shotgun dubbed the Man of Law and the poison darts of the Pardoner. “I’ll take the lot for the rest of the month.”

“That’s a lot of firepower,” says Trent bluntly. “You’re not trying to kill your husband, are you?”

“I don’t know why you’d say that, Mr Crimm. Though I suspect he might be trying to kill me.”

“Is it all for you? Or is any of it for the American?”

“I’m sure I don’t know what you’re talking about,” says Rebecca, expression immaculate. “Do invoice Mr Higgins.”

*

“Darling,” says Trent in long-suffering tones, “please get out of the tree.”

Cleis responds by clambering to a higher branch. She’ll be a while. Trent sighs and puts his hands on his hips, gazing out across the green. It’s a pleasant Sunday morning in the park, though it doesn’t stop him from tracking every jogger and picnicking couple in the vicinity, combing the milieu for hands in pockets and inside coats, calculating distances and trajectories. 

His gaze moves across and catches on a lone jogger making his way up the path in their direction. That’s Ted Lasso, he’s sure of it: head down, shoulders hunched against the bite of wind off the water, but there’s no mistaking that moustache. As Trent watches, he raises his head and their eyes meet. He does a very convincing double-take. He’s either genuinely surprised to see Trent here, or his acting skills are commendable. That Trent can’t tell says a lot. Then his face splits into a broad grin.

“Hey there, Trent Crimm, The Independent!”

“Hello, Ted Lasso from America.” Trent eyes Ted as he jogs over, beaming affably. He waves his hand awkwardly. “You…live around here?”

“Oh yeah, Beard and I have digs around here. Like to come out for a run on the weekends.”

“Your vacation is stretching on rather,” Trent informs him.

“Oh, we picked up some work,” says Ted evasively. “Thought we’d stick around, make hay while the sun shines. Though you ain’t got a whole lot of hay around these parts. Not like what I’m used to, at any rate.”

“What sort of work do you do, Ted?”

“Human resources,” says Ted blandly.

Trent removes his glasses and fixes Ted with a searching look. Ted meets his gaze, perfectly amiable. Trent narrows his eyes. Ted doesn’t blink. The whole effect is ruined when Cleis leaps out of the tree unannounced and tumbles onto him.

“Oh for f – ” Trent bites off invective as he staggers. “For the last time, my love, climb down.”

“But this is faster,” says Cleis innocently. She appears to notice Ted, and peers at him curiously as Trent sets her down.

“Well hey there, sweetheart,” says Ted. “What’s your name?”

“Cleis.”

“Fais attention,” says Trent, more sharply than is his wont. Cleis stiffens and tucks herself behind his knee. She always takes her cues from him, and he realises too late his body language has been telescoping an ease with Ted that he should not have brooked. She has never introduced herself to a stranger before.

Ted must pick up on some of that, because he stops short of coming over, instead maintaining the distance between them and crouching down till he is at Cleis’s eye level. “That’s a real pretty name,” he tells her. “It’s from a poem, ain’t it?”

“Sappho.” Trent’s throat feels tight.

“Yeah, that’s the one,” says Ted. “Like a small golden flower. Did you name her?”

“No,” says Trent. “That was her mother. She's – she liked the classics.”

On Trent’s first mission to Morocco, he was paired with a young agent with a French accent and a Classics degree. The former was nearly imperceptible except when she was under pressure; the latter was of no use whatsoever on the mission, any more than Trent’s own English degree was.

“You’re gay, aren’t you?” she said after they had spent four minutes making out pointedly in an alcove to distract the security guards of the Casablanca mansion they were breaking into.

“I’m afraid so,” said Trent, picking a lock.

“That’s a relief. I was worried I was losing my touch.” The lock clicked open, and she whistled appreciatively. “Sing to me, Muse, of the man of twists and turns.” 

“The Odyssey? Really?” Trent was secretly delighted that he was no longer the only one pretentious enough to quote classics during a field op. Or Casablanca in Casablanca, even.

She winked at him. “I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.”

Her name was Coralie Chénier, though they called her “the Owl”. Trent used to envy her this; everyone, despite his best efforts, referred to him as “Chester’s boy”. Then came the Cuba incident, which was such a bloodbath that it earned Trent the moniker “the Jackal”. After that he decided monikers were overrated. At least they matched: the Owl and the Jackal.

Coralie was an orphan – the service preferred either orphans, or those to the manor born, like Trent – and so for the ten years they spent in the field, he was the closest thing she had to next of kin. It was him she told first about Cleis.

“The father?”

She waved a hand dismissively – not in the picture, then. She did not say who it was. Trent knew it to be a crowded field.

“Are you keeping it?”

“I shouldn’t, should I? It’ll take me out of the field for a good stretch.” But he already knew, from the way she rested her hand over her still-flat stomach, that she would.

“I could marry you, if you liked,” he offered.

She laughed. “That’s the sweetest thing any man has ever said to me, darling. But I think I’ll be just fine.”

The last thing she said to him, before she pulled out her comm and charged back into a building rigged with explosives, was: “Promise me you’ll look after her.”

“There must be another way – ”

“I’ve got to do this, Trent,” she said, too gently. “Make sure she knows how much I loved her. All Croesus’ kingdom.”

“I promise – ” but by then she was already gone. 

“I’m sorry,” says Ted, bringing Trent back to the present. His hand tightens on the shoulder of Coralie’s daughter. 

“Thank you,” he says, for lack of anything better.

“Heck of a poem,” Ted adds. 

“Oh yes,” says Trent. I wouldn’t take all Croesus’ kingdom with love thrown in, for her.

[rodentchild]

Shit I've Heard Or Said As Prompts Part 22

"Cars can move. It's not a hard concept to get."

"You can get used to water but you can't get use to SKY!"

"Gotta go see the plug at the Target pharmacy."

"I'm a depressed, queer socialist, of course I love Star Trek!"

"I found the library by accident because I wandered into the bagel shop."

"You are far more than just your rage."

"I'm more of a seven dollar wine in a thrifted mug kind of guy."

"These markers are so juicy!"

"If there's teeth in the dick pit ..."

"I'm not three-pennies confident in my cards this round."

"If I can't have caffeine then I will have my 80s music."

"It's not mind games, you're just gonna lose."

"No one's ever getting anywhere near my butt. I have IBS."

"Shut up! I am a short king!"

"You're weird, like Ozzy Osbourne weird."

"Do you have to say that while I'm drinking my Arizona?"

"I can't do a regular pushup without dislocating my shoulder."

"You had me at bull semen."

"So they called you fruity?" "THAT'S ALL THEY EVER DO!"

"I'm pretty sure I used to buy my weed here."

"Well, what's the point of having a pretty boy in my bed if I can't make him cry?"

"Shove your dick in a toaster."

"Oh no, excuse me for not realizing my skeleton puppy dog panties are a weapon of mass destruction!"

"No no no, you've got it all wrong! My favorite party trick isn't stealing everyone's wallets! It's stealing your wallet."

"You have to have a mind to play mind games."

"We love being young and having crunchy joints."

"I'm a sticky boy."

"What's up, babe, I'm half werewolf and all piss."

"I know it's gonna be a good day when I wake up with diamonds for eyes and piss in my pants."

"Sounds like the setup to a bad joke: four dinosaurs and a gun walk into a bar..."

[bevadryl]

had a dream where i did a shit ton of blow with @yari-mutt and we also stole some guns from some punks that were mugging a mom & pop shop. we beat them up, they scurried off, we did blow, and shot guns in the arizona desert.

[squeakyfir]

I'm your huckleberry (Tombstone 1993) (Doc Holliday)

Description:

The joys of modern inventions and miracles are often taken for granted. Your hungry or thirsty? Get something from the fridge or make it. You need to go somewhere? Drive or call an uber. Your hurt? Go to the doctor.

Your bored? Watch a movie, play video games, watch videos on the internet, talk to people without ever leaving your house.

Some much time is in our hands... but back in the 19th century... you wouldn't last very long.

Diseases are rampant, gun violence is higher, no modern technology, barely any good medicine, almost all of your favorite food doesn't exist and most of the people are rude as hell. But... That doesn't mean all of them were so bad. Love was not something most people in this time really cared about. At least, in the town of Tombstone, Arizona.

After falling asleep with a nice looking stone you bought at a small stand at the carnival, your whole world becomes the opposite. Six people from the past discover you unconscious and alone in the blistering heat and offer help but it was their help that let you meet the most amazing man you've ever met.

John Henry "Doc" Holliday.

Chapter 1

Next

Time is not a thing, but it keeps things in balance, and it never stops. You learn new things every day. Like today, you bought a ticket to go to the local carnival and once you entered, you started to regret the decision. There was a lot of people, more than you can handle, and it was still a bit damp from the rain earlier. The sounds of people talking, the cliche carnival music and game sounds were definitely a sight to see.

The carnival also had small kiosks and shop stands. There was one doing face paints and another selling cheap jewelry. But there was one that caught your eye. It was definitely out of place for all of the bright and flashy colors of the carnival. It was illuminated with dark orange light and had a small sign that read, "Mrs. Hatches shop".

No one was there and from strictly looking at it, it looked like a witch shop. It was a bit odd for it to be here but you still went towards it. The strong smell of incense burners and herbs were very potent and made the little shop very eerie.

"Hello" you called out.

"Aah, a customer"! An old voice said. "Come in my dear".

"Who's there"? A shadow moved from the corner and as it stepped into the light, a very old lady with a wooden cane came forward. She was a bit shorter than you and her skin was very pale with veins appearing near the surface. Her gray hair was put up in a bun loosely with loose hairs being freed and she wore and black woven dress with what appeared to be an emerald ring. "I am" she said as gently as she could. "Who might you be"?

"Uhh... I'm (Y/n)".

The old woman quickly took your hand and examined it. "What are you doing"?

"Reading your palm".

"Ok, great" you said in a slight sarcastic tone, "But please don't touch me".

"Hold still now" she said like a mother scolding her child. "Hmmm... Oh yes, yes, yes! How wonderful"!

"What? What's so wonderful"?

"When I read people's palms, I can tell what their fortune is".

"What is it" you asked curiously.

"Come, I will show you"! She quickly went over to a table that became visible when she lit an old oil lamp. On the table was a glass sphere sitting on a marble stand. "Let me guess" you said sarcastically, "A crystal ball"?

"I know people believe that these are not accurate but I assure you my child, this is what it seems to be". She motioned for you to come sit and you hesitantly did. "What's your name, anyways" you asked.

"Glinda Hatches"! As soon as she said her name she rubbed the glass sphere and smoke appeared inside the sphere and was illuminated with white light. "Wow".

"Now, you may ask one question".

"Why only one"?

"The first question is free but any other questions will cost $5".

"What"?

"That'll be $5 since you already asked two questions-"

"Alright alright alright"! You sighed and you did have cash on you but you were gonna save that for some funnel cakes but after seeing this, you were still very curious. You couldn't think of anything. "Would you like some suggestions"?

"Sure".

"You can ask things such about your family, your past life, your soulmate, you can see things that you can't remember-"

"Wait" you said interrupting her. "Did you just say soulmate"?

Glinda grinned. "Would you like to see you soul mate"?

"Sure".

Glinda rubbed the glass sphere and you muttered, "This should be interesting". The light inside the sphere turned bright white and revealed an image of a man with a black hat, a short-hair moustache and goatee. His skin looked really pale but he looked like a very capable man. "Ooh, he's cute".

"Oh my" Glinda said, "I have never seen this before".

"Seen what"?

"Your soulmate is already dead" Glinda said in disbelief.

"How is that possible? That doesn't make sense". You looked back at the image of the man. "Who is he anyways"?

"His name is John Henry Holliday. As in Doc Holliday. He was a famous gunslinger and poker player".

"Ooh, I like him already! But how is he my soul mate if he's already dead"?

"I'm not sure. But hold on, I have something that may help you". Glinda stood up and rushed over to small chest rummaging around inside. While she was doing that, you took in the features of your supposed "soulmate". He looked very serious and you could see his eyes, he looked so tired. It looked as if his eyes had dark circles around them. He was truly interesting and you decided to Google more information about him but Glinda came back before you could and handed you a small stone.

"This will help you".

The stone was white with black blotches on it and was smoothed out with a silver frame around it. "How does this help me"?

"When used correctly, it will bring your soulmate to you".

"Uh-huh. Sure" you said sarcastically.

"Do you want it or not" Glinda asked.

"Well" you examined the stone and decided that it was good enough for a necklace at least. "Ok. I'll take it".

"Great"! Glinda gave you the stone and said, "That'll be 35$".

"WHAT!? Why"!?

"Remember what I said, 5$ per question". You knew you only had 20$ cash but the rest would be paid with a card. You were about to deny the purchase but you saw a literal crystal ball and had a feeling that everything she has shared with you was factual. "Do you accept credit and debit"?

"Yes, here". She pulled out a chip reader and charged you the exact amount but then had the nerve to push a glass jar near your hand that read "Tip Jar".

"Are you serious"?

"This is how I make my living" she said honestly.

"Tell you what" you said, "If this really does work, I'll come straight back here and give you a 100$ tip".

"Will you" she asked doubtfully.

"I will, I promise". You took your card back and left. That was all your cash and some of your money from your card but you decided to just go home. You were very confused. Going through the large crowd of people to get back to your car felt like an eternity. You would just go home and sleep instead. When you got into your car, you examined the stone more closely, it really was a nice stone and you think you could actually make a necklace out of it. You just put it in the pocket on the dashboard and drove home.

It didn't take long to get home and you were greeted by your dog, Gracie, a golden retriever. Happy to see you as always. You didn't even bother to change into your pajamas and fell onto your bed with Gracie quickly joining you and plugging your phone into your solar panel phone charger. It was odd to have that but your original charger was broken and this solar panel charger had back up power on it to still keep itself powered. You examined the stone on your bed under the dimmed light from the moon and just fell asleep with it in your grasp.

Not knowing, it would literally change your life...

[chaezcake]

THINKING BOUT YOU! A HUH YUNJIN FF

Warnings: my humor, might be suggestive and by suggestive I mean VERY LITTLE since I don’t do nsfw!! Also angst towards the end of the series.

Genre: comedy, fluff, suggestive, but again very little!!! Angst

Synopsis: Yunjin tries to act tough when reflecting back on a past relationship, but ultimately still has strong feelings for her ex-lover, and wonders if they have been able to move on or feel the same way she does.

Authors note: the synopsis is literally just the song meaning. The chapters have to do with the lyrics, so if you have a guess on what the next chapter will be about, lmk, in my asks. This isn’t proofread so sorry for mistakes, haha.

THIS IS STRICTLY FICTION

The sun shone just like the time you first met, Yunjin. The girl that came to California and left you.

It was a very hot day. What better way to cool down than with ice cream? I ordered my ice cream then sat back down at one of the tables. The girl a table ahead of me immediately caught my attention. She was stunning, blonde hair up to her white short sleeves. I must’ve been staring for too long cause the girl looked directly at me, eye contact and all. What the fuck oh my lord I want a fat bus to crush my face right now. I want a whole pack of people to jump me, any way to make me disappear from this awkward situation was alright with me. Surprisingly, she walked up towards me and sat right next to me. I froze. Eyes wide open as I stared at her. Watching her every move. “A bit bold of you to stare at strangers y’know?have some class!” She said jokingly as she folded her arms. “I’m sorry my eyes just follow pretty girls! Specifically you.” I said as I did finger guns. Lame. Oh my goodness that was lame. She giggled. “You’re very nerdy, in a good way.” She said, smiling at me. Waiting for my response. How do I respond to that! “Thank you?” I said raising one of my eyebrows. “How do I respond to that?” I told her. “Noo, I said in a good way! I like nerds.” she said as she jokingly smirked at me. I chuckled to myself. “Whatever!” I said as I joking rolled my eyes at her. “Are you from California?” She said, slight tilting her head to the right. “Umm, no. Is it obvious?” I said with expectant eyes. Waiting for an answer. “Kinda, I mean your dressed like your ready for rain.” She said, genuinely confused. “Well obviously!” I said, eating some ice cream off my spoon. “You shouldn’t worry about that, it usually doesn’t rain in southern California, much like Arizona” she said, eyes looking up as if she was thinking. “Who’s the nerd now!” I said pointing at her. “I’m just explaining the weather to you!” She said as she put her hands up to defend herself. We both laughed, I was fighting with a complete stranger. “Well, I gotta go. I had a fun time talking!” She turned around to walk away but then stopped in her tracks. “Need anything?” I said. “I already know I’m gonna regret not giving you my number, especially to a pretty girl like you. So, may I give you my number?” She said, eyes glistening. “Ok, just don’t kidnap me! I said, as she put her number in my phone. Surprisingly she laughed at my joke, she liked my silly jokes. I thought as I smiled. “I’ll text you when I get back home!” She said with a very excited smile. “Your so obsessed with me!” I said as I jokingly rolled my eyes. “Maybe I am!” She said as she playfully hit my shoulder. “Alright, bye! Love you!” She said as she practically ran out of the ice cream shop. Did she just say she loved me? I just made friends with a absolute weirdo! I said as I laughed,waiting for her to leave so we wouldn’t awkwardly go in the same direction and have to say bye 3828282 times.

It usually doesn’t rain, in Southern California much like Arizona.

Thinking bout you, part 1!

Part, 2 will drop soon, since I’m already working on it soooo. DONT MISS IT, pls 🙏😭

[lilithism1848]

Atrocities US committed against LATINO PEOPLE

On June 14th, 2019, an off-duty cop, Salvador Sanchez, in Corona, CA, shot and killed a mentally ill man, Kenneth French,, as well as shooting his family 8 times, while his family was with shopping for fathers day at a Costco. “I begged and told him not to shoot,” his father Russell French said. “I said we have no guns and my son is sick. He still shot.” Sanchez then fired at least eight rounds, striking all three family members. A man inside Costco stood and prayed over Russell French as he lied on the ground bleeding, he said. Kenneth French was shot twice in his back, Galipo said. There were also two gunshot wounds in his armpit and shoulder area. After the shooting, Corona Police said Sanchez was assaulted “without provocation” before Sanchez opened fire. He was placed on administrative leave days after the shooting, into which the LAPD is conducting an internal investigation.

On Feb 7th, 2019, a US border patrol officer shot and killed 21 for old Mendivil Perez, an American citizen, in Nogales, AZ. More than six months later, CBP won’t name the officer who fired his gun, or explain why he fired, or acknowledge the killing.

In early June, 2019, several reports of abuse surfaced about the US’s migrant prison camps, run by US customs and Border Patrol. One such facility, named “The Dog Pound”, by border patrol agents, had no running water, no tarp or safety from the elements. A group of prisoners were held in a single cell for 30 days without shower or clothes changes, in 100 degree temperatures. There is severe overcrowding in the El Paso camp, with as many as 76 migrants packed into a tiny cell designed for a maximum of 12 people. A number of children have died while being held, including one baby born in an overcrowded cell. The mother was never taken to a hospital. 4 toddlers in a Texas facility were so ill and neglected, that a lawyer intervened to force the government to hospitalize them. Children are often taken from mothers, due to the horrible conditions in the camps. In several Rio Grande Valley facilities, migrants were not provided soap, toothbrushes, and were sleep-deprived. Health and Human Service says it is past capacity with over 13,000 kids in its care at the moment. A mole exposed a Facebook group containing 9500 border patrol agents, with incredibly racist and sexist rhetoric, including threats against US rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who was planning a visit to the camps.

On January 29th, 2019, Tempe Arizona police shot and killed a 14 year old, Antonio Arce. He was shot in the back between his shoulder blades while running away. Police at first delayed, then released a small section of the bodycam footage, intentionally cut right before seeing the body, 3 days after the shooting. After backlash over the shortened video, they held a private showing to select reporters, barring any cameras or recording devices, seemingly showing Arce with the orange-tipped airsoft gun found near his body. They’ve refused to release that video to the public, leading many to believe it to be doctored, with police planting an airsoft gun on him after the killing as a justification. The original video has no such airsoft gun. The officer who murdered him is currently on administrative leave.

On Nov 25, 2018, US customs and border agents fired tear gas at hundreds of Central American migrants on the US border. “We ran, but when you run, the gas asphyxiates you more,” Honduran migrant Ana Zuniga, 23, told the Associated Press while cradling daughter Valery, 3, in her arms. The use of tear gas is banned in warfare, while its use for riot control is internationally accepted. Protesters and amnesty seekers would have more rights and protections if they simply declared war on the US government.

In May 2018, at a California press conference regarding Sanctuary cities, Trump, referring to Mexican immigrants stated: “These aren’t people. These are animals”.

Starting in April 2018, the Trump administration began a policy of separating families who attempt to cross the border. Separated children have been housed in a number of newly constructed tent facilities, such as one in Tornillo, TX. Another facility in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, the same military prison that held Japanese and Apache civilians, will hold south american migrants. Andrea Pitzer, the author of “One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps” writes, “While writing a book on camp history, I defined concentration camps as the mass detention of civilians without trial, usually on the basis of race, religion, national origin, citizenship, or political party, rather than anything a given individual has done. By this definition, the new child camp established in Tornillo, Texas, is a concentration camp.” Recently it has been found that the Trump administration has been drugging children without consent. Children as young as 14 were abused at a Stanton VA ICE facility. “Whenever they used to restrain me and put me in the chair, they would handcuff me,” said a Honduran immigrant who was sent to the facility when he was 15 years old. “Strapped me down all the way, from your feet all the way to your chest, you couldn’t really move. … They have total control over you. They also put a bag over your head. It has little holes; you can see through it. But you feel suffocated with the bag on.”

Throughout 2018, I.C.E. started another wave of deportations, breaking up hundreds of families, and mandated the legal separation incoming parents from their children (presumably to deter future asylum-seekers). ICE arrested 114 people in Sandusky OH. Trump and Jeff Sessions have ramped up a trend of forcible deportations started by Clinton and Obama. Between 2016 and 2017, apprehensions of undocumented immigrants jumped by a third. In 2017, President Trump deported more than double the number of noncriminals than Obama had the previous year. Those deported include a 10-year-old girl with cerebral palsy in San Antonio; a grandmother described as the “backbone” of a Navy veteran’s family; a father of two in Detroit who had lived in the U.S. since he was 10 years old. A major consequence of this new policy has been an explosion of fear among immigrant communities “When everyone’s a target, no one is safe,” says Luis Zayas, dean of the Steve Hicks School of Social Work at the University of Texas at Austin. He cites instances of ICE agents arresting people who had just filed paperwork for a green card, left church or dropped off their kids at school. “The arrests feel arbitrary, and that’s different,” he says. “The fear is worse now than I’ve ever seen it.”

In July 2017, police shot Ismael Lopez, a Mississippi car mechanic, in the back of the head at his own home, killing him. While the police say that he was holding a weapon, his guns were nowhere near his dead body, and police also killed his dog, and bullet holes were found from police shooting through the front door. No officer has been charged.

The United States Department of Homeland Security rescinded DACA, or Deferred Action on Childhood Arrivals, a program which protects ~ 800,000 minors from being deported, on June 16, 2017, while continuing to review the existence of the DACA program as a whole. The DACA policy was rescinded by the Trump administration on September 5, 2017, but full implementation of the rescission was delayed six months to give Congress time to decide how to deal with the population that was previously eligible under the policy.

Beginning in May 2017, ICE began another wave of deportation targeting Mexicans. Hugo Mejia and a coworker, Rodrigo Nuñez, were imprisoned by ICE officials, despite living in the US for 17 years, and having clean records.

Beginning in 1994, sheriff Joe Arpaio opened up a “tent city”, outside of phoenix, a facility which he called, his own “personal concentration camp”, used to house prisoners, in terrible conditions. In 2011, inmates complained that fans near their beds were not working, and that their shoes were melting from the heat. During the summer of 2003, when outside temperatures exceeded 110 °F (43 °C), Arpaio said to complaining inmates, “It’s 120 degrees in Iraq and the soldiers are living in tents and they didn’t commit any crimes, so shut your mouths!”. Arpaio reinstuted chain gangs (for female prisoners as well), forcing people to work 7 hours a day, 7 days a week. Arpaio also entrapped 18-year-old James Saville into an assassination attempt against himself. Saville’s attorneys eventually discovered that MCSO detectives had bought the bomb parts themselves, then convinced Saville to build it even though he was not predisposed to commit such a crime. On July 9, 2003, a Maricopa County Superior Court jury acquitted Saville, finding that the bomb plot was an elaborate publicity stunt to boost Arpaio’s reelection bid. On April 4th, 2017, newly elected Phoenix sheriff Paul Penzone finally closed it down due to public pressure, after 23 years of operation. Trump pardoned sherriff Arpaio in August 2017, after holding a rally in Phoenix AZ in which police tear-gassed protesters.

On March 25th-27th, 2017, ICE agents arrested 84 immigrants in Oregon and Washington. Many arrested had no criminal background. Oregon Governor Katie Brown complied with ICE, but received vitriolic responses when she tweeted in support of immigrant families.

On March 27th, 2017, ICE agents in Chicago broke into the home of Felix Torres, and shot him while he and his family slept in their home. After speaking with Torres’ daughter, the People’s Response Team added that “no members of the family are undocumented, and the family has lived in the home for at least 30 years.”Carmen Torres said, “They didn’t say anything. They just came in and pointed pistols in our faces and dragged us out,” DNA Info reported. “It’s a lie when they say he was holding a gun. He doesn’t even own a gun,” she said. “They shot my dad. They shot him, and I don’t know why.” He is in critical condition.

In early 2017, ICE began a campaign of arrests and deportation of undocumented immigrants. 700 People have been arrested so far.

In the present day, ICE (U.S._Immigration_and_Customs_Enforcement), the police tasked with immigration enforcement, operates over 500 prison camps, holding over 34,000 undocumented people deemed “aliens”, 20,000 of which have no criminal convictions, in the US system of immigration detention. The camps include forced labor (often with contracts from private companies), poor conditions, lack of rights (since the undocumented aren’t considered citizens), and forced deportations, often splitting up families. Detainees are often held for a year without trial, with antiquated court procedures pushing back court dates for months, encouraging many to accept immediate deportation in the hopes of being able to return faster than the court can reach a decision, but forfeiting legal status, in a cruel system of coercion. After the creation of DHS and ICE, the budget for immigration enforcement doubled from $6.2 billion in 2002 to $12.5 billion in 2006 under Obama.

In 1996, in response to increased immigration from countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala ravaged by US imperialism and authoritarian dictatorships, the US passed the Anti-Terrorism and effective Death Penalty Act, allowing deportation of any immigrant ever convicted of a crime, no matter how long ago or how serious. Lawful permanent residents who had married Americans and now had children were not exempt. The New York Times reported in July that “hundreds of long-term legal residents have been arrested since the law passed.” 

By 1984, during the Reagan-era of social services and welfare cutbacks, 42% of all Latino children and one-fourth of the families lived below the poverty line.

In 1983, a mostly latino workforce lead the 3-year long Arizona Copper Mine Strike of 1983, in which the police, national guard, and Arizona governor assisted in one of the largest strikebreaking incidents of the 1980s, ending with the Phelps Dodge Corporation replacing most of the workers and decertifying the unions. Miners were subject to undercover surveillance by the Arizona Criminal Intelligence Systems Agency, to identify strikers engaged in violence, with the governor sending 325 National Guard soldiers to Morenci, and increasing the number of state policemen there to 425. Meanwhile, the local government passed injunctions limiting both picketing and demonstrations at the mine. The Arizona copper mine strike would later become a symbol of defeat for American unions.

From 1929 - 1954, the US implemented Mexican Repatriation, and Operation Wetback, a US law enforcement initiative under Eisenhower to curb Mexican immigration, in which over 1 Million Mexicans were arrested. After implementation, Operation Wetback gave rise to arrests and deportations by the U.S. Border Patrol that were civil rights violations, which resulted in several hundred United States citizens being illegally deported without being given a chance to prove their citizenship. From 1929 - 1939, ~400k-2 Million people were deported, 40-60% of them lawful citizens, and many of them children. About 1.1 Million people were deported in 1954 alone. A total of 750 immigration and border patrol officers and investigators; 300 jeeps, cars, and buses; and seven airplanes were allocated for the operation. Teams were focused on quick processing, as planes were able to coordinate with ground efforts and quickly deport people into Mexico. While the operation included the cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Chicago, its main targets were border areas in Texas and California. Overall, there were 1,078,168 apprehensions made in the first year of Operation Wetback, with 170,000 being rounded up from May to July 1954. In addition, many illegal immigrants fled to Mexico fearing arrest; over half a million from Texas alone. 

In 1951, the Los Angeles Police Department severely beat up 5 Latino and 2 white men, in an event called Bloody Christmas, leaving them with broken bones and ruptured organs, and covered it up. After pressure from the Mexican-American community, the LAPD opened up an internal inquiry, resulting in eight police officers being indicted for the assaults, 54 being transferred, and 39 being suspended.

[transboysokka]

chris watches twilight for the first time

omg this blueish filter is wild is this like a Pacific Northwest thing

that girl is not tan enough to be from arizona

also I’m getting big gay energy from her so idk how this movie is gonna be like. plausible.

if the dad wasn’t a cop I’d definitely smash

do u guys remember though when they used to cast ACTUAL teenagers for teen roles? refreshing

wow this guy in the cowboy hat has MAJOR swag

oh nooo Taylor Lautner I grew up with him and he sucked (real)

idk why ppl always shat on kstew being like inexpressive in this??? seems fine??

all these vampire siblings date each other?? lolololol

so far this seems like a fun little teen drama idk. it’s so blue though

Edwards stare is so intense I KNOW rpat had a great time with this lolol

Lolllll imagine seeing someone try to switch classes to avoid u but u don’t even know them??

the daughter-distant father awkwardness is v nice, v realistic

ugh this dad is so hot

Does Edward have RED eyes girl that sounds like a red flag get away

Ok this soundtrack sucks

Wait so his eyes change? Why?

wow he stopped a bread van for her w his muscles how romanticccc

also how small is this school like how does everyone know her?

vampire doctor creeps me out

lol his name is carlisle what a square

taking bets at how soon he tells her he’s a vampire it’s probably pretty soon I’m gonna say like around the one hour mark

girl is she having sex dreams about him

God Edward really is so creepy eh

Lautner’s Michigan accent is sooo bad in this omggg I can’t

are these new vampires?? the whole eating people thing really disrupts the tone of the story

So gay of bella not to care about the dress shopping. And also just skipping prom lol

Edward just following her everywhere RUN GIRL

“I should make sure Bella gets something to eat” most awkward and obvious way to ask for a date

So she’s def a vegetarian and he def doesn’t eat people food

We’re like 40 minutes in and he’s already telling her lol

Anyway why can’t he read her mind is this like a soulmate thing

This is soooo fanfictiony lmao

So she finds out he can read minds and just lets it go lol

Edward is such a dumbass though she figured him out so easy lolllll

And now she’s having vampire sex dreams lmaoooo this movie is great

Oh here it comes the “I know what you are” “say it” lol I only know this scene bc it’s from a meme or something

lmao this speed animation

is he about to sparkle

BAHAHAHAHAHA THIS IS SO UNSERIOUS

god they’re both crazy girl why are you so into him and Edward why are you so obsessed w her

ok yeah some of these lines suck

First of all these kids are missing class and for what

Second of all I cannot IMAGINE being a teenage straight girl seeing this for the first time when it comes out and basing my ENTIRE personality on this shitty ass self-insert fanfic ass plot

Girl how the hell can you be in love with him already

That’s so high school, they’re only walking together and people somehow know they’re together?

oh wow so the doctor turns these kids to stop them from dying that’s neat

I used to live only off tofu and I was very satisfied thank u very much

Wow he’s special about reading minds that’s convenient

He’s such a kid w her that’s not what I was expecting but I like it

They’re making Italian food for her bc her name is Bella lmfao

WOW anger issues much

He doesn’t sleep, he doesn’t stop going to school, he doesn’t eat, terrible existence

Was that the author in the diner

HOLY FUCK HE SNEAKS INTO HER HOUSE AND WATCHES HER SLEEP RED ALERT

DONT KISS THE GUY WHO WANTS TO EAT YOU NOOOOO

there are so many problems here lol

Dad just messing w his gun at the kitchen table, so cop coded

So American coded actually lol

Wait Edward is gonna meet him w the gun there lmao

Vampire baseball lolllll

This is just one big incest nerd family

They could have tried a little harder w the cgi for such a big budget?? This looks like the CW. Feels like it too actually

FRENCH bad guy vampires??

These stakes seem suddenly way too high??

Don’t break the hot dads heart nooooo

This really does feel like the CW though

Yeah no Rosalie is right why does that family care about Bella so much like she’s a high school girlfriend not a wife lmao

I think I’m dumb but I don’t entirely understand what’s happening here like did Bella go back to Arizona?? Why did she have to go so far to get away from this guy

FUCK is he gonna run all the way to Arizona now lol

I just don’t know how things got so suddenly so dramatic like can’t this James guy just let it go why is he going to so much effort this just all seems so silly

Wow Black Swan

yeah again idk why everyone was hating on kstew’s performance in this, it’s good

How did Edward get there so fast is there like some portal between Arizona and Washington isn’t that like a 1-2 day drive?

This is a fancy ass ballet studio btw

Yeah this fight scene sucks

So Mufasa coded “Remember who you are”

What is happening to Bella now she doesn’t turn until the last book right? (I’ve never read it idk)

Why did that guy have venom?????

Wow finally creepy Edward gets what he wanted and can drink her up…… he ain’t gonna stop

Oh I get it he stops w the power of love. Okay. Whatever.

This SONG sucks

“You lost a lot of blood” yeah THANKS Edward

Oh god the old ass cellphones. Throwback.

Not sure why she’d need oxygen w the injuries she had tbh am I missing something or is it for drama

“You’re in here bc of me” damn straight

Go to Jacksonville Bella (I know she won’t)

Don’t be a baby about it Bella????

Oh fuck is she going to prom? THATS not gonna create School Drama at all…

“Alice lent me the dress” yeah you’re too gay to own any

I know it’s bc of my issues w lautner as a person but I hate Jacob and I ALSO hate that lautner claims to have “distant” indigenous heritage bc that is another thing that he didn’t have when we were kids so why is he playing this guy

“Should we dance?” “You’re serious?” Bro you came to prom together wtf did u think u we’re gonna do

All the music in this movie sucks ass

I don’t usually advocate for this with vampire stuff but I’d have less of a problem with the creepiness of this relationship if he DID turn her

If MY bf was a vampire I wouldn’t want to be human either wtf

Okay yeah I mean that movie was whatever. Glad I understand the pop culture references now I guess

Oh no oh wait oh god I gotta watch the rest of these movies now don’t I…. Please tell me they get better

[goliathindustries]

Trigger Control 101: Mastering the Art of Precision Shooting

Refine your shooting precision with expert advice on trigger control, covering grip, finger placement, and essential drills. Strengthen your accuracy and confidence right away!

[bunglehead]

U know how in Goodsprings, Nevada there’s fallout nv references and gift shops? i htink we should do that but with Paradise, Arizona and there’s just a shit ton of dead people everywhere and there’s a postal giftshop where you can buy guns to kill people

[edupunkn00b]

Arizona's Journal, Ch. 7: I Wanna Come Home

Prev - I Wanna Come Home - All - [ AO3 ]

June 25, 2018 

It seemed like maybe, maybe the fourth time was the charm. The Kid went back to work, nothing under his own name, he said that was too much pressure, made it too easy to let himself drown in his work. In fact, he almost quit, but Dino had convinced him to stay and he did, mentoring and supporting the new batch of designers who’d come in back when he took his leave.

“It’s good,” he’d said. "It's real good." I couldn’t tell if he was trying to convince or himself. Maybe both. “Somebody’ll notice right away if I don’t get up,” he’d said. He was out on his patio, with enough silences between his words that I could hear the crickets out in the grass. I didn’t say his brother would notice. His brother did notice, every time. It’s what had kept him going before.

Now, we talked each night. Well, night for him. And maybe I needed it, too. I fiddled with the ribbon on arrangement the Kid had sent for Jamie's birthday. Whether he visited or not, he sent them every year for her birthday. And her funeral. “So tell me about the new game, Kid.”

“It’s a shooter,” he sighed. “It’s beautiful, snow-covered… Snuck in a little shot of the woods out behind my old school." His lighter clicked and he sucked in a deep breath. "Doom, this is not, but…”

He got quiet again. The team had decided on the overall gameplay while he’d been at Hovedstaden. He never would've okayed guns in one of his games. All it did was make the whole fucking project a reminder of shit he’d rather forget. I listened to him smoke, waiting him for to continue. He didn't. “Are you still working on your other design?”

The insects answered for him. “Yeah,” he said after another slow exhale. "When I can."

After a while, the calls, the hachee warmed over in the microwave, all the stone cold hotties of Denmark couldn’t fill in all the cracks living alone had left him. “I just… I’m not gonna, I swear, Arizona, I’m just…” 

My heart broke at the crack in his voice, this sweet kid. He’d fought so hard every day. And he woke up every morning, wading through those same slimy thoughts asking him if it was worth it.

Another night he’d put me on speaker, the phone resting somewhere near a drawer. I heard the clink of silverware, something sizzling in a pan. His voice echoed against the empty walls of his beautiful apartment. He had everything in Copenhagen, a dream job, money to take care of himself. His last boyfriend had even proposed. The Kid had everything he wanted. Everything but what he needed.

“I just…” He was hard to hear past his tears. “I miss you and Ro and… and Janus. I miss the shop, I miss the stupid Seattle traffic… I miss it all,” His words were choked and he sniffled like he had that day we’d met. “I wanna come home.”

“Then come home, Kid. Come home.”

---

Chronologically, Happily Ever After comes next in this universe:

[seancamerons]

top 5 degrassi characters and top 5 stranger things characters? 💞

degrassi (no particular order, a long list for this 20+ year-old show !)

sean cameron

emma nelson

lola pacini

bianca desousa

fiona coyne

holly j sinclair

alex nunez

rick munro

jake martin

manny santos

craig manning

spinner mason

lisa guthrie

the late jt yorke

jay hogart

maya matlin

zig novak

christine 'spike' nelson

zoe rivas

stranger things

el/jane/eleven/011 hopper

nancy wheeler

steve harrington

robin buckley

max mayfield

lucas sinclair

jim hopper

the random sister of 011 who can make butterflies show up and shit happen that no one really cares about but i do kind of. i believe she was number 008, kali i guess is her gov't name. she was on some vigilante shit. hope she's doing good. maybe she can help hawkins crew kill vecna.

jonathan byers

argyle

the late, BARB, rip

murray

erica sinclair

idk why but, dustin's ld girlfriend suzi who sings and saves the friggin world

dustin henderson

joyce byers

rip BOB!

that one arizona doctor who broke el out of jail and tries to help her gain her powers is a real mvp (also helped her get adopted by hop and adjusted in california when she was living with joyce after hopper was lost after the battle of starcourt.)

rip alexi

rip EDDIE munson

rip chrissy!

will byers

mike wheeler

the benny guy who helped el in the first episode and gave her a burger and fries and was gunned down protecting her. later his abandoned burger shop is where lucas' weird basketball buddies hang out and plan to murder eddie with no evidence or basis and get basically trashed at. a real shame.

av science teacher at the hawkins middle school

..ok carried away with waaay more than 5 or 10 but, thanks again! 💕

[forever-eternal]

Under My Protection

A late night shopping trip goes wrong for the Four Corners.

*gun violence, implied cannabalism*

———————————————————————

It wasn’t often the States held genuine fear for their lives. They aren’t human, few things that do damage to the mortal meat suits do damage to them.

But sometimes, they were inexplicably human in their reactions.

Especially when it came to bullet wounds.

But with three of them ducked behind one of the shelves and another silently creeping along to join them, doing their best to void the shooter's gaze. A late night shopping trip in their pajamas to the local 24-hour supermarket.

Utah’s mouthing words, folding his hands in silent prayer. Colorado’s arm is thrown over New Mexico’s front, keeping the younger States close and behind himself, the other’s free hand twitching as he reaches for the knife attached to his thigh. Arizona is crouching, carefully crawling behind the shelves to join them. They flinch at each shout and shot, a few thumps of bodies hitting the floor.

Colorado meets Arizona’s gaze over the large open space between them, nothing for the other to hide behind.

“Stay over there.” he mouths, but Arizona’s expression goes grim.

He takes a deep breath, listening to the gunman shouting, and shifts his stance.

The aisle is long, and he knows he’ll likely be seen, but…if he waits just a moment…moves fast enough–

But their Do-Not-Notice-Me only prevents humans from noticing their abnormalities, it doesn’t stop humans from seeing them.

It doesn’t stop humans from attacking them.

Arizona grits his teeth to swallow a scream as a bullet hits in his side, barely managing to throw himself into the other aisle as another buries in his knee, a third striking the floor behind him. Colorado tugs him closer, the Grand Canyon State squeezing his eyes shut as Utah holds onto his shoulders, his body half laying on the other and half on New Mexico. The Land of Enchantment holds up his dirk as the gunman’s footsteps grow closer.

They’d teleport out, but there are humans here. In danger. And- look, States don’t really mingle with humans, but that doesn’t mean they want people to get hurt.

And the Do-Not-Notice-Me grows weaker when the people around them are afraid and hyper-vigilant, so someone would see them teleport.

And that would be bad.

Arizona doesn’t know what happens in the next few moments, only knows he’s holding back pained sounds– desperately wanting his Mama and Pa.

The shooter rounds the corner, gun raised and eyes maniacal– yet, calculating.

The Four Corners shift, Colorado– Joshua Jones shifting to put the other three further behind him even as Camilo snarls over his shoulder and Micah presses his hand against the bullet wound in Eric’s side.

But the shooter freezes, and with them do the States.

The feeling– the taste of Static in the air is thick. Two different sorts of Static.

One feels like Static electricity, tracing along the air like a protective embrace. It molds around them like a thick blanket, warm like the quilts their mother knits every year. It’s lighter, mostly harmless unless provoked.

The other is heavy. Heavy like a weighted blanket, like a boulder, like the weight of their father’s arms as invisible lightning arcs along their flesh– it does not hurt them, no, but the gunman’s sudden shaking and flinching and twitching say it is not as kind to them.

The gunman whirls in place, staring down the long, long aisle with a barely concealed, primal fear.

“What-” their teeth click around the word, hand on the gun shaking, “What- what is that?” they ask.

Something out of their sight rumbles.

They don’t notice how every other human in the store is closing their eyes and covering their ears– in a way that says its involuntary, that something is causing it, that something is protecting them.

“Th-the aisle isn’t– wasn’t that long.” the gunman whispers, taking a shaky step back.

The heavy Static grows heavier.

But the lighter Static shifts, focusing on one area.

Then, there’s someone kneeling next to them, pressing against Arizona’s side in Utah’s place.

His eyes open from their squint, and they all stare.

Their father.

“Papá-“

“Dad-“

“Whatever you hear,” he whispers, carefully pulling Arizona closer to study the bullet wounds, “Whatever you think you see– Do. Not. Look.” The man’s tone is firm, the same way it was when he was explaining something when they were younger– something that would have serious consequences if they did not listen.

“Look at me,” he says, as the gunman screams and starts to run down the main aisle, “Look at me.”

They obey.

“Camilo, put the knife away.” he says calmly, but his brows remain furrowed as he pulls off his jacket, tearing off one sleeve. The sleeve is tied around Arizona’s leg, the man’s pained groaning silenced by a harsh wheeze when the rest is tied tight around his midsection.

“Shhh.” Gov brushes a hand through lank hair, “Breathe, Eric.”

The shelves rumble, and the gunman’s shouting grows frantic, several more bullets firing until there’s nothing but a resounding clicking in the distance.

The heavy Static forms a barrier around them, but the bulk of its presence moves down the main aisle after the gunman.

The clicking is replaced by sickening cracking sounds, the screams replaced by wet gurgling.

Gov’s hand reaches to catch New Mexico’s face, the sounds drawing the younger entity’s attention.

“Do. Not. Look.” he says, a hiss underlying his words, “Focus on me, focus on Eric, focus on each other, but do not look anywhere else.”

“Pa…” Arizona wheezes, face scrunching in pain before the hand returns to his hair, the State’s head settled in his lap. “Pa.”

“Shhh.” the man whispers, “It’ll be alright, Ringtail, keep your eyes open.”

“Hurts.”

“I know, sweetheart.” the man says, “Just stay awake for me, okay?”

Arizona whines.

The sounds of struggling have stopped, the cracking of bones and the wet tearing of meat silent.

The heavy static returns.

Their mother appears on Gov’s other side, a few tears in her coat and shirt, but she doesn’t seem concerned by the steadily growing dark spot on the fabric.

Gov squints.

“You’ve been shot.”

“I’ll live.”

“Hn.”

“We need to get them out before the authorities arrive.”

They stare at each other for a moment, before, as one, Gov holds tighter to Arizona and rests a hand on Utah’s arm, as Assistant does the same with Colorado and New Mexico.

They land in the Statehouse, in the makeshift medical bay. The three States huddle together, watching in shock, fear, worry and awe as their father presses Arizona flat on the cot, their mother settling above him with tweezers, disinfectant— though unnecessary, most viruses cannot survive in their bodies— and thick rolls of gauze.

Arizona squirms, but it doesn’t deter their mother. She’s methodical and careful, gaze focused on Arizona with practiced movements.

The bullet in his side is removed, but the one in his knee had gone clean through. They’re disinfected, the needle threaded and skin stitched together.

“Camilo, dear, grab me one of the knee braces and crutches from the closet.” She says, “Micah, run down and grab some water and something light for him to eat. Joshua, come help wrap these.”

They disperse, Colorado grimacing when he lifts Arizona’s leg and holds it straight for his mother to wrap in gauze— she would’ve had to cut his clothes if he’d been wearing pants instead of shorts.

Arizona’s gritting his teeth, soothed only by the hand Gov has in his hair and having himself pressed against the man’s chest protectively.

New Mexico reappears a few moments later, compression knee brace in one hand. Assistant slides it up Arizona’s leg and straps it in place.

“There we go, sweetheart.” She says softly, humming as she slips down from the cot to run a hand down his cheek, “You’re all set.”

Arizona mumbles something, hiding further in Gov’s chest as Utah returns with a water bottle and a pack of Ritz crackers.

“Eat something,” Gov rumbles, “Then you can sleep.”

Arizona grumbles as he’s helped into a somewhat sitting position. Drinking half the water and eating about five of the crackers before he tries to hide again.

Gov and Assistant share a look.

“To bed, then,” Gov says, shifting around to stand.

Arizona grumbles at the movement, before an arm slides under his back and his legs to lift him. He latches his arms around the man's neck tiredly.

“We should check yours, Mom.” Utah hovers at their mothers shoulder, who only smiles.

“I’ll be fine, dear. It went all the way through. It’ll heal soon enough.” She waves it off, only for a choked sound of anger draws their attention to the doorway.

Massachusetts stands in the door, dressed in black sweatpants and a shirt with ‘Spilling the Tea since 1773’ in blue and red letters, alongside the silhouette of a ship.

“What the fack?” He barks, stepping further into the room, “What happened?”

“Shooter at the market.” Gov responds easily, shifting his hold on Arizona, “Eric was caught in the crossfire.”

Massachusetts studies the State in the other’s arms, his gaze trailing along the others before landing on Assistant.

“And you got shot too?”

“It’s fine.” She says, “It’ll heal.”

“Not if ya don’t wrap it properly!” The Bay State storms into the room, nudging Assistant to the cot, grumbling angrily all the while.

“Dad-“ she protests as Gov steadily makes his way out of the room, soon followed by the other three States.

“Sit down! Jesus fack Robin—“

The sounds of the argument fade as Gov approaches the door that leads into his own room, the one they added a few weeks ago to lead to any house they were staying in.

The bed is even larger than they remember it being.

He settles the other onto the bed, raising a brow at the other three.

“Are you staying here as well?”

“Yes.”

“Please.”

“Why wouldn’t we?”

Gov hums, waving a hand to the bed.

“Make yourselves comfortable. I need to save your mother from Popop.”

He vanishes back through the door as the four of them huddle together, curled over and around each other like cats.

They barely notice when their father returns a few minutes later with their mother, who’s both grumpy and with a new wrap of gauze on her side.

It takes them a few minutes, changing from their suits into softer clothes and muttering quietly to each other.

There’s a kiss pressed to each of their temples, one from both of the older entities, before they settle in on either side of the four States.

With the feeling of heavy and light Static curling through the air defensively— protectively, lovingly, nothing-will-hurt-you— they slip deeper into a comfortable sleep.