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dreaminginthedeepsouth · 1 month ago

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LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

February 23, 2025

Heather Cox Richardson

Feb 23, 2025

Something is shifting,” scholar of authoritarianism Timothy Snyder posted on Bluesky yesterday. “They are still breaking things and stealing things. And they will keep trying to break and to steal. But the propaganda magic around the oligarchical coup is fading. Nervous Musk, Trump,

Vance have all been outclassed in public arguments these last few days. Government failure, stock market crash, and dictatorial alliances are not popular. People are starting to realize that there is no truth here beyond the desire for personal wealth and power.”

Rather than backing down on their unpopular programs, Trump and the MAGA Republicans are intensifying their behavior as if trying to grab power before it slips away.

Trump’s blanket pardons of the people convicted for violent behavior in the January 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol were highly unpopular, with 83% of Americans opposed to those pardons. Even those who identify as Republican-leaning oppose those pardons 70 to 27 percent. And yet, on February 20, the Trump Justice Department expanded those pardons to cover gun and drug charges against two former January 6 defendants that were turned up during Federal Bureau of Investigation searches related to the January 6 attack.

Then, on February 21, a number of people pardoned after committing violent crimes, including Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio—who was sentenced to 22 years in prison—and Proud Boy Ethan Nordean (18 years) and Dominic Pezzola (10 years), as well as Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes (18 years) and Richard “Bigo” Barnett, who sat with his feet on a desk in then–House speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office (four and a half years), held a press conference at the U.S. Capitol to announce they were going to sue the Justice Department for prosecuting them.

Kyle Cheney of��Politico reported that the group followed the route they took around the Capitol on January 6, 2021, then posed for photos chanting as they had that day: “Whose house? Our house.” Protesters nearby heckled the group, and when one of them put her phone near Tarrio’s face while he was talking to a photographer, he batted her arm away. Capitol Police officers promptly arrested him for assault.

A number of the January 6 rioters were visiting the Capitol from the nearby Conservative Political Action Conference being held in Maryland. There, MAGA participants continued to normalize Nazi imagery as both Steve Bannon and Mexican actor Eduardo Verástegui threw fascist-style salutes to the crowd.

Yesterday, Tarrio posted a video of himself following officers who defended the Capitol on January 6 though the lobby of a Washington hotel where the anti-Trump Principles First conference was taking place. According to Joan E. Greve of The Guardian, Tarrio followed officers Michael Fanone, Harry Dunn, Daniel Hodges, and Aquilino Gonell, saying: “You guys were brave at my sentencing when you sat there and laughed when I got 22 f*cking years. Now you don’t want to look in my eyes, you f*cking cowards.” Fanone turned and told him: “You’re a traitor to this country.”

Today, the hotel had to be evacuated after someone claiming to be “MAGA” emailed a threat claiming to have rigged four bombs: two in the hotel, one in Fanone’s mother’s mailbox, and one in the mailbox of John Bolton, Trump’s former national security advisor turned critic. After listing the names of several of the conference attendees—and singling out Fanone—the email said they “all deserve to die.” The perpetrator claimed to be acting “[t]o honor the J6 hostages recently released by Emperor Trump.”

Billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump are also ramping up their behavior even as the public is starting to turn against the government cuts that are badly hurting American veterans, American farmers, and U.S. medical research. The courts keep ruling against their efforts and their claims of finding “waste, fraud, and abuse” are being widely debunked. Rather than rethinking their course in the face of opposition, they seem to be becoming more belligerent.

On Saturday, Trump urged Musk to be “more aggressive” in cutting the government, although the White House has told a court that Musk has no authority and is only a presidential advisor. “Will do, Mr. President,” Musk replied. He then posted a command to federal employees: “Consistent with [Trump’s] instructions, all federal employees will shortly receive an email requesting to understand what they got done last week. Failure to respond will be taken as a resignation.” Shortly after, emails went out giving workers 48 hours to list five things they had accomplished in the past week.

This sparked outrage among Americans who noted that Musk has spent 24 hours tweeting more than 220 times and engaged in public fights with two of the mothers of his children while allegedly running companies and overhauling the government, while Trump spent at least 12 nights at Mar-a-Lago in his first 29 days in office. S.V. Date of HuffPost noted on February 18 that Trump has played golf at one of his own properties on 9 of his first 30 days in office and that Trump’s golf outings had already cost the American taxpayer $10.7 million.

Reddit was flooded with potential responses to Musk’s demand, scorching it and Musk. The demand also exposed a rift in the administration, as department heads—including Kash Patel, the newly confirmed head of the FBI, as well as officials at the State Department, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Department of the Navy—asserted their authority to review the workers in their own departments, telling them not to respond to Musk’s demand.

Then users pointed out that the new government employee email system the Department of Government Efficiency team set up explicitly says that using it is voluntary, and that resignations of federal employees must be voluntary. Musk responded by sending out a poll on X asking whether X users think federal employees should be “required to send a short email with some basic bullet points about what they accomplished” in the past week.

The entire exercise made it look as if the lug nuts on the wheels of the Musk-Trump government bus are dangerously loose. Josh Marshall of Talking Points Memo commented: “Drunk on power and ketamine.”

Historian Johann Neem, a specialist in the American Revolution, turned to political theorist John Locke to explore the larger meaning of Trump’s destructive course. The founders who threw off monarchy and constructed our constitutional government looked to Locke for their guiding principles. In his 1690 Second Treatise on Government, Locke noted that when a leader disregards constitutional order, he gives up legitimacy and the people are justified in treating him as a “thief and a robber.” “[W]hosoever in authority exceeds the power given him by the law and makes use of the force he has under his command…ceases in that to be a magistrate; and, acting without authority, may be opposed, as any other man, who by force invades the right of another,” Locke wrote.

Neem notes that Trump won the election and his party holds majorities in both chambers of Congress. He could have used his legitimate constitutional authority but instead, “with the aid of Elon Musk, has consistently violated the Constitution and willingly broken laws.” Neem warned that courts move too slowly to rein Trump in. He urged Congress to perform its constitutional duty to remove Trump from office, and urged voters to make it clear to members of Congress that we expect them to “uphold their obligations and protect our freedom.”

“Otherwise,” Neem writes, “Americans will be subject to a pretender who claims the power but not the legitimate authority of the presidency.” He continues: “Trump’s actions threaten the legitimacy of government itself.”

In the Senate, on Thursday, February 20, Angus King (I-ME) also reached back to the framers of the Constitution when he warned—again—that permitting Trump to take over the power of Congress is “grossly unconstitutional.” Trump’s concept that he can alter laws by refusing to fund them, so-called impoundment, is “absolutely straight up unconstitutional,” King said, “and it’s illegal.”

“[T]he reason the framers designed our Constitution the way they did was that they were afraid of concentrated power,” King said. “They had just fought a brutal eight-year war with a king. They didn’t want a king. They wanted a constitutional republic, where power was divided between the Congress and the president and the courts, and we are collapsing that structure,” King said. “[T]he people cheering this on I fear, in a reasonably short period of time, are going to say where did this go? How did this happen? How did we make our president into a monarch? How did this happen? How it happened,” he said to his Senate colleagues, “is we gave it up! James Madison thought we would fight for our power, but no. Right now we’re just sitting back and watching it happen.”

“This is the most serious assault on our Constitution in the history of this country,” King said. “It's the most serious assault on the very structure of our Constitution, which is designed to protect our freedoms and liberty, in the history of this country. It is a constitutional crisis…. Many of my friends in this body say it will be hard, we don't want to buck the President, we'll let the courts take care of it…. [T]hat's a copout. It's our responsibility to protect the Constitution. That's what we swear to when we enter this body.”

“What's it going to take for us to wake up…I mean this entire body, to wake up to what's going on here? Is it going to be too late? Is it going to be when the President has secreted all this power and the Congress is an afterthought? What's it going to take?”

“[T]his a constitutional crisis, and we've got to respond to it. I'm just waiting for this whole body to stand up and say no, no, we don't do it this way. We don't do it this way. We do things constitutionally. [T]hat's what the framers intended. They didn't intend to have an efficient dictatorship, and that's what we're headed for…. We’ve got to wake up, protect this institution, but much more importantly protect the people of the United States of America.”

Senator King, along with Maine governor Janet Mills, who stood up to Trump in person earlier this week, are following in the tradition of their state.

On June 1, 1950, Senator Margaret Chase Smith (R-ME) delivered her famous Declaration of Conscience, standing up to Senator Joseph McCarthy (R-WI), who was smearing Democrats as communists. “I think that it is high time for the United States Senate and its members to do some real soul searching and to weigh our consciences as to the manner in which we are performing our duty to the people of America and the manner in which we are using or abusing our individual powers and privileges,” she said. “I do not want to see the Republican party ride to political victory on the Four Horsemen of Calumny—Fear, Ignorance, Bigotry, and Smear.”

On July 28, 1974, Representative Bill Cohen (R-ME), who went on to a long Senate career but was at the time a junior member on the House Judiciary Committee, voted along with five other Republican members of the committee and the Democratic majority to draw up articles of impeachment against Republican president Richard Nixon, fully expecting that the death threats and hate mail he was receiving proved that that vote would destroy his political career. But, Cohen told the Bangor Daily News, “I would never compromise what I think is the right thing to do for the sake of an office; it’s just not that important. Only time will tell if the people will accept that judgment.”

Days later, the tape proving Nixon had been part of the Watergate coverup came to light. “Suddenly there was a switch in the people who had been defending the president,” Cohen recalled. “That’s when people back in Maine, Republicans, started to turn around and said, ‘We were wrong, and you were right, and we’ll support this.’ ”

It’s a good week to remember that politicians used to use as a yardstick the saying: “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

#Letters From an American #Heather Cox Richardson #Oligarchy #Bernie Sanders #Timothy Snyder #American History #The US Constitution #breaking and stealing

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pinturas-sgm-aviacion · 3 months ago

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1942 10 24 Daylight over Milan - Graham Turner

After attacks on Genoa on 22/23 and 23/24 October, which were designed to coincide with Montgomery's El Alamein offensive, Harris at the morning conference at HQ Bomber Command on 24 October decided to switch targets to Milan. Unlike Genoa, with its ports and shipyards, or Turin, with its war industries, the attack on Milan - the political and commercial centre of northern Italy - was for morale purposes and the effect on the civilian population. As a result, this attack was unusual in not being one single night raid. Instead, Harris chose to split the attack: 5 Group's Lancasters by day - perhaps to highlight British air superiority over a major Italian city - and the other Groups' 'heavies' at night. This battle scene features the daylight attack, which saw 88 Lancasters take off to bomb the aiming point of 'Milan "A"' - the city centre - though this caused controversy afterwards when it became public that the Duomo had been the aiming point . Seventy-four aircraft dropped 51.8 tons of HE bombs and 81.5 tons of incendiaries on Milan. As cloud over Milan was down to 3,000 ft, and since the bombs dropped included a good number of 4,000-pounders, release from below this height was in some cases avoided so a number of Lancasters stayed above the cloud, bombing at between 8,000 ft and 12,000 ft. A number went below the cloud and down to 2,000ft to identify the aiming point, however, and this is depicted in this battle scene. One Lancaster even got down to 50ft, where, the Italian authorities claimed, it strafed buildings and machine-gunned people in the streets; indeed, the Lancaster of Wg Cdr J. M. Southwell, 9 Squadron's CO, admitted later to having 'used 7,000 rounds machine-gunning two trains on the Milan-Novara railway and strafing what he said was Novara'. Nonetheless, photographic evidence - taken both during the bombing and later on by a reconnaissance aircraft - revealed that a large amount of damage was inflicted - mainly by fire - on industrial premises all over Milan, and the railway lines to Bologna,Genoa and Venice and along the St Gothard route had been severed. The main railway station had been particularly damaged, as were areas around the Porto Novara Station and the Parco Solari and many industrial premises, such asthe GEC Engineering Works, Municipal Tramways and the Caproni aircraft factory. Mussolini publically admitted damage to nearly 2,500 houses, with 450 completely demolished. For the British, the losses were three Lancasters(3.4 per cent), one having crashed over Milan and two others shot down by Luftwaffe night-fighters around Caen in France. These were light considering this had been a risky long-distance run in daylight across Axis-dominated Europe.Damage to aircraft was another matter, however. Several bombers had been damaged either by flak over Milan or enroute, by colliding with a seagull over the target, by a Macchi C.202 Folgore, by hitting high-tension electric cables,or by crash-landing at an emergency airfield in Sussex. A total of ten aircraft (11.45 per cent) were damaged, half ofthem seriously. While the day raiders were landing at their bases in England, another force of 71 aircraft, comprising the Stirlings,Halifaxes and Wellingtons from the PFF, 1, 3 and 4 Groups, was already over Milan. Although thick cloud covered the target, they could see the glow of the fires started by the Lancasters five hours earlier, and proceeded to bomb those. Further destruction to Milan, although not extensive, was caused

#graham turner

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misfitwashere · 1 month ago

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February 23, 2025

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

FEB 24

Rather than backing down on their unpopular programs, Trump and the MAGA Republicans are intensifying their behavior as if trying to grab power before it slips away.

Kyle Cheney of Politico reported that the group followed the route they took around the Capitol on January 6, 2021, then posed for photos chanting as they had that day: “Whose house? Our house.” Protesters nearby heckled the group, and when one of them put her phone near Tarrio’s face while he was talking to a photographer, he batted her arm away. Capitol Police officers promptly arrested him for assault.

Senator King, along with Maine governor Janet Mills, who stood up to Trump in person earlier this week, are following in the tradition of their state.

It’s a good week to remember that politicians used to use as a yardstick the saying: “As Maine goes, so goes the nation.”

—

#heather cox richardson #letters from an american

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fatsamsgrandslamspeakeasy · 18 hours ago

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BORIS KARLOFF: NOVEMBER 23, 1887 - FEBRUARY 2, 1969

PERSONAL FAVORITE MOVIES: FRANKENSTEIN (1931), THE CRIMINAL CODE (1931), THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1932), THE MASK OF FU MANCHU (1932), THE MUMMY (1932), THE GHOUL (1933), THE LOST PATROL (1934), THE BLACK CAT (1934), BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1935), THE RAVEN (1935), THE BLACK ROOM (1935), THE INVISIBLE RAY (1936), SON OF FRANKENSTEIN (1939) TOWER OF LONDON (1939), BEFORE I HANG (1940), THE APE (1940), THE DEVIL COMMANDS (1941), THE HOUSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1944), THE CLIMAX (1944), THE BODY SNATCHER (1945), ISLE OF THE DEAD (1945), BEDLAM (1946), DICK TRACY MEETS GRUESOME (1947), ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET THE KILLER, BORIS KARLOFF (1949), THE STRANGE DOOR (1951), ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET DR. JEKYLL AND MR. HYDE (1953), THE HAUNTED STRANGLER (1958), FRANKENSTEIN 1970 (1958), CORRIDORS OF BLOOD (1958), THE RAVEN (1963), THE TERROR (1963), BLACK SABBATH (1963) THE COMEDY OF TERRORS (1963), DIE, MONSTER, DIE! (1965), MAD MONSTER PARTY? (1967), CURSE OF THE CRIMSON CULT (1968), TARGETS (1968)

PERSONAL FAVORITE TV APPEARANCES: STARRING BORIS KARLOFF (1949.....13 EPISODES), TRUTH OR CONSEQUENCES (1954), THE GEORGE GOBEL SHOW (1954), I'VE GOT A SECRET (1955), THE RED SKELTON SHOW (1956), THE $64, 000 QUESTION (1956), HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: THE LARK (1957), THIS IS YOUR LIFE (1957), THE VEIL (1958....12 EPISODES), THRILLER (1960 - 1962....66 EPISODES AS HOST, 5 EPISODES ACTED), HALLMARK HALL OF FAME: ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1962), ROUTE 66: LIZARD'S LEG AND OWLET'S WING (1962...AS FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER), THE GARRY MOORE SHOW (1964), THE TONIGHT SHOW (1964), THE WILD WILD WEST (1966), THE GIRL FROM U.N.C.L.E. (1966), DR. SEUSS' HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS (1966), I SPY (1968), THE RED SKELTON SHOW (1968), THE JONATHAN WINTERS SHOW (1968), THE NAME OF THE GAME: THE WHITE BIRCH (1968)

BROADWAY APPEARANCES: PETER PAN (APRIL 24, 1950-JANUARY 27, 1951..... 321 PERFORMANCES AT THE IMPERIAL AND ST. JAMES THEATRES IN N.Y., CO-STARRED JEAN ARTHUR AS PETER PAN AND BORIS KARLOFF AS CAPTAIN HOOK),

THE LARK (NOVEMBER 17, 1955 - JUNE 2, 1956..... 229 PERFORMANCES AT THE LONGACRE THEATRE IN NY, FEATURING JULIE HARRIS AS JOAN OF ARC, AND BORIS KARLOFF AS BISHOP CAUCHON)

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shatcey · 5 days ago

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Victor (theories and route)

Theories

His curse His curse + cursed ability Contradictions and links

Trailer: After the trailer

Line compain: Line compaign

Video with the song: Analysis of video with new song

Route preveiw: Predestined love Music box and balerina

Main route

1 chapter: Liar Elbert Matchmaker

2 chapter: Compliments Assistant Willy's hint

3 chapter: Harry's warning

4 chapter: History Willy's lesson?

4 chapter (NA chellange): Second Elbie Music box

5 chapter: Cute face Willy's fingers

6 chapter: Horror sight Roger

7 chapter: Challenge What the boys think of Vivi

8 chapter: The bird The child

9 chapter: Strong-willed Kate

10 chapter: About evil Victor at the party Vogels Got lost

10 chapter (NA challenge):

11 chapter:

12 chapter: (-)

13 chapter:

14 chapter:

14 chapter (NA challenge):

15 chapter:

16 chapter:

17 chapter:

18 chapter:

19 chapter:

19 chapter (NA challenge):

20 chapter:

MAD LOVE ENDING

21 chapter:

22 chapter:

23 chapter:

24 chapter:

24 chapter (NA challenge):

25 chapter

BLIND LOVE ENDING

21 chapter:

22 chapter:

23 chapter:

24 chapter:

24 chapter (NA challenge):

25 chapter:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

🔝 𝕊𝕋𝔸ℝ𝕋 ℙ𝔸𝔾𝔼 🔝

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

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serialadoptersbracket · 1 year ago

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Round 2, Match 23: Kaname Date vs. Jack Starbright

Submitted kids:

Kaname Date: Mizuki Okiura (or Date in AINI), and Iris Sagan

Jack Starbright: Alex Rider and Tom Harris (and i wouldnt be surprised if by the end of season three she's also adopted Kyra Vaschenko-Chao)

Propaganda under the cut!

Kaname Date:

1. "uhh implied spoilers i think but well. mizuki was literally legally adopted by him. as you can probably tell by the name change. and he was just dating iris' mom for only like 3 months before she went "hey so when are you going to marry my mom and become my dad. no i'm serious marry my mom. anyway can we play ratty cake." also the way he advices ryuki and bibi in aini is fatherly to me, even if i don't think the relationships r pseudo-fatherly i just think he's a good role model and if that's not what a good adoptive father is that goddamnit what's the point"

2. “Literally decided to take Mizuki away from her abusive family (he’s friends with her father) after just hearing about it, and called them bad parents for doing so. He meets Iris like once and then was like damn guess I’m a stepfather now and hangs out with her for a whole route like. He would adopt anyone. (AINI SPOILERS) I feel like Amame counts a little bit.”

Jack Starbright:

"was about to quit her job of looking after alex but then alex's guardian died and she went "guess he's my kid now" and didn't look back. and alex's best friend is always around so fuck might as well adopt him too while we're here. (to be clear, she does become alex's legal guardian at the end of season two, tom is not legally her kid he's just always at her house even when alex isn't home.) i'm almost certain she's trying to adopt kyra as well. jack is a twenty something year old woman who went from "i just look after this one kid when his uncle is away on business trips" to two "i have two teenage sons" pretty much the minute her boss died and she never looked back. she never asked for these kids, but she loves them more than anything and sacrifices so much to keep them safe."

#kaname date #aitsf #ai the somnium files #hayato yagyu #alex rider #alex rider tv #jack starbright #serial adopters bracket #round 2 #tumblr tournament #tumblr polls

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employee052 · 4 days ago

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no tsp art (save for a few doodles) but heres an art dump bc im almost done the semester and im not dead ajdjsjddb

tired narry:

skip button narrator at different stages of time

OC STUFF FOR MY WEBCOMIC @route23-webcomic :

yasuo and harry vs a fake (note the height difference)

some stuff i did on my phone, yasuo and harry (middle one lowkey looks like the cover art for a webtoon page)

perspective practice of my room irl:

and lastly, one assignment i had:

see yall in two weeks :,3

#artswin #tsp narrator #tspud #tsp #tspud narrator #route 23 webcomic #oc #oc art #yasuo fraiser #harry jameson #ocs #route 23

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route23-webcomic · 10 months ago

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been in hella artblock so im tryna do small blorbo shitposts based on audio for a bit, so heres smth with Harry n Yasuo (plus eclipse)

#artswin #animswin #suggestive #suggestive cw #just in case bc they REALLY goin in for da smooches for a bit #the audio is from waitress too btw i didnt know that for a bit so ty reese askdjh #route 23 webcomic #oc #ocs #webcomic ocs #blorbo art #harry jameson #route23 ocs #route23 #yasuo fraiser

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oswinunknown · 11 months ago

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sorry for no art today, had a shit day n had no motivation to draw, but i did doodle a lot so heres a small hurt/comfort comic with my webcomic blorbos yasuo and harry

idk, i think harry's face is so cute in this sdkhf. n yasuo my boy <3

(@route23-webcomic)

#artswin #update #ocs #webcomic oc #route 23 webcomic #r23 webcomic #yasuo fraiser #harry jameson #oc #original character #doodle #comic

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yeahimwiththeband · 8 months ago

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—> with the band chapter 23

no, i won't.

warning: huge, huge, huge blow up. Second biggest fight in the book after tell the truth.

A/N: love on tour fic. big romance, so fluffy, with moody harry (who is growing and changing!).

word count: 3.2k

The week after the open mic, Olivia didn’t have a record deal with Eddie’s new label—but she did have a deal memo for new recordings at his studio, including access to a sound mixer who could work with her (somewhat stolen) vocal tracks.

She and Izzy took the long bus route—three transfers, plus a long wait—to the studio, where Izzy dropped her off before heading over to her parent’s for a weekday shift at the store. Izzy found her mom hunched over a sewing machine, totally focused. Vast parchment sheets of new hand-drawn patterns spilled out of her cramped office into the new hallway. Izzy watched, impressed. She peered in at the patterns: not a frill in sight. New spools of thread crowded the kitchen table, and Izzy even found a couple of bolts of fabric stacked into her room. Izzy wandered into her room, her old phone charger still poised for hours of scrolling beside her bed, her old bottles of skincare from her elaborate and time-consuming evening routine covered in dust on her vanity.

Izzy had an idea.

When Eleanor stepped out to check out a new raw fabric supplier, Izzy and her father ransacked Izzy’s old bedroom. Anything from her grandmother, Izzy left. But they took apart her childhood bed and emptied the closet, storing the frame there along with the heavy end tables and four of six lamps. Izzy's dad moved the desk to the window, and started to move in Eleanor’s sewing materials, machine, and serger. Izzy lined up her thread spools in colour-sorted rows on Izzy’s now-empty bookshelves. She glanced at herself in her old mirror: the whole room looked so small now.

Her dad disappeared downstairs to keep a lookout for Eleanor’s return, so he could put his hands over her eyes and do the whole surprise thing. Izzy pulled back the closet’s accordion doors and dragged her old mirror inside, when it caught on something entangled in the carpet. It was her green dress, the one she wore her first night on tour. That she had ordered secretly and hidden away, then put on for an unnamed singer that Lydia really wanted her to go to, that she couldn’t get out of.

Izzy picked it up and smoothed it out—the Satin was creased, and the smear of lipstick where Lydia had drawn a heart on her chest had darkened over time. Izzy held it up, when her dad burst in with her mom, taking his hands off her eyes. Izzy smiled brightly and lowered the dress. Eleanor's face opened up in happy shock.

“So?” Her dad asked, wheeling around to see his wife's reaction. Eleanor took it all in. With the heavy curtains pulled back and furniture mostly gone, the room looked lighter. Two desks were pulled together with her sewing machine, and her thread lined the shelves like trophies. The ironing board and empty hangers in the closet begged for new styles to be made. It was a huge upgrade from her sewing corner in their office, and it meant her little girl wasn't moving home.

Izzy fixed her eyes on her mother expectantly.

“I love it,” she said. Izzy and her dad smiled, and gave each other a jokey high five. Light poured in across the sewing machine and serger, making them look almost magic.

Izzy’s father disappeared to find the family’s bottle of celebratory grappa.

“Thank you, Izzy,” Eleanor said quietly.

“My bed’s still in the closet. I may still need to crash at some point.”

Eleanor smiled and looked around. She very much doubted that.

“What's this?” she asked, uncrumpling the green ball in Izzy’s hands.

“Just an old dress, found it in the back of the closet. Construction isn't great.”

“I remember this,” Eleanor said, turning the dress over. “It’s so pretty. I don't think I ever got to see it on you.”

Izzy’s eyes filled with tears. She looked at her mom, lost for words.

“You should get dressed up more often,” Eleanor continued.

“I should,” Izzy replied.

“I can get this stain out for you,” Eleanor said, running her hand across the fabric. She pulled out a tray of intimidating looking solvents from a cabinet in the hall and laid out the dress on the ironing board.

“Lydia’s in California now? With her husband?”

“I think so,” Izzy said, laying bare their rift.

“Quite a shock for your uncle.” Lydia had reconciled with her dad that Christmas, before she married George. “But Lydia's a good girl. She’ll be alright.”

“I hope so,” Izzy said, adding, “I think so.”

“She convinced Mrs. Shepherd to leave you that heap back home, you know.”

“What?”

“She pleaded with her. I was there, for a visit. Though Mrs. Shepherd wasn't that hard to convince. She wanted you to have a great adventure.”

“I think she got what she wanted.”

“I’m glad she did,” Eleanor said.

“Me too,” Izzy replied.

Eleanor worked on the dress and Izzy sat down in front of the sewing machine. She took out her phone.

Another veil had been pulled back and Izzy felt she could see almost everything clearly. Lydia, trying to crash her into Harry on the tour, then in Italy. Lydia, trying to fix everything.

Izzy opened her albums of the trip and its amazing flowers.

I know what you did, she wrote. She selected several photos and sent them. Thank you.

…

I know what you did.

Lydia nearly dropped her phone. She glanced across the studio at George, in the middle of his solo, worried she had made some imperceptible noise. Lydia smiled a bit: they were talking again. Izzy wanted to talk to her.

Then the photos arrived, and the second message. Lydia lifted her hand to her mouth—even without Harry, Izzy seemed happy. Her attempt to control everything was all for nothing, and that was okay. Harry was nowhere to be found, and Jess had written three new bangers: all astoundingly real and bitter love songs. Harry hadn't been returning her messages, but they were meant to go to a “dinner date" Ryan had arranged in Malibu so they could be papped. Lydia could read Ryan’s lips from the other side of the glass.

“It’s so fire,” he said into his phone, frantic. He planned to send the tracks out as soon as they were done recording them—he needed these ones to work, and he was insisting in several intense phone calls that Jess was ready to headline, that this had been his plan all along. He was pushing for their own tour—longer, bigger, louder. But maybe it would be different this time, Lydia thought; Tara wasn't using, and maybe out of respect for her—or just their own terror from her overdose—Lisa and Jess weren’t using either. Moving into the hook, George squeezed his eyes closed and dropped his face down, inches from his finger. He was totally lost in the music. And it was fire, real rock’n’roll. Lydia stole a photo of him and posted it.

…

Harry, all of a sudden, was done. Understanding, maybe for the first time, had Izzy had felt when she left California, he had finally procured a copy of the contract he had signed that fateful morning after the best and worst night of his life.

“Mate, what did you get us into?” Elijah dropped the contract back down onto his coffee table. “Rights in perpetuity, throughout the universe, to leverage voice recordings in AI applications for any purpose?”

“Sorry,” Harry mumbled.

Mitch, sitting opposite him, shook his head, holding up one of the contract's many pages in front of him. “Stipulates that riders be confined to a limit of two fruit plates per person, melon selection only?” Mitch read.

“Again, sorry.”

“No mango, Harry?”

“My voice is going to be used to sell mattresses?” Elijah asked.

“Bruh,” Mitch added.

Naomi leaned back on the seat next to him, eyes closed. “I can’t play anymore of your fun teen tunes,” she wheezed, joint in hand. “I’m almost 30. It’s just wrong.”

“How do we get out of this?” Mitch asked.

“We are allowed to record new music,” Harry ventured, leaning forward.

“If?” Elijah prodded.

“If we walk away from our masters.”

“Our recordings!”

“All of them?”

“And all our profits from them forever, yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Naomi sat up. “We wouldn’t be allowed to play your old stuff unless we re-recorded it.”

“Harry’s version,” Mitch said.

“You signed this without us, mate,” Elijah said. “We don’t even have a band name. It’s just Harry Styles, and his crew of randos in the back whose names you don’t need to know.”

“It won’t be like that this time,” Harry promised.

“I know it won’t,” Elijah said, surprising himself with his tone.

“With a new band name, and songwriting credits,” Naomi said. “There’s no label who will push us out of the spotlight now. You’ll have to share it.”

Harry nodded. “There won’t be any fruit plates for a while, Mitch. It’s risky."

"Especially for those of us who don't just casually have an apartment in LA," Naomi added.

"It's a huge risk, to rip this up. I won’t be able to afford this place if we buy out the contract. If we don't, we'll be totally cut off from royalties, right away—no more monthly cheque.”

“Fuck it,” Mitch said, standing up. He picked up the contract and tried to rip it in half. But it was too thick. They burst out laughing.

“That would have been a cool moment,” Naomi said.

“I have scissors,” Harry said. “One second. We’ll cut it up.”

“We could try tearing it in sections,” Elijah said, “everyone take a page.” Together, they filled up his flat with torn up paper.

...

Olivia and Izzy and Meg had spent the morning at a pig farm an hour away, hauling two large aluminum tubs plus manure into the back of a rented van and driving them back to the store. It was the sort of errand that only best friends would do.

“Did you really need me for this?” Olivia protested, delicately wiping off her long fingers.

“I helped you with your open mic!”

“That was a little different.”

“I imagine the open mic involved less pig shit,” Meg added.

Izzy’s final project for her course was going to be a safe and sustainable street redesign model—no blind corners, lower speed limits—with her idea for plantings as the practical portion. Her mom had volunteered the space outside the store—full sun—for the planters. But the tubs were harder to move from the van to the sidewalk than she had imagined.

“Why are these so heavy?” Olivia sighed.

“Here, I’ve got it!” Meg eased the edge of the tub from the van bed toward the asphalt, but the whole thing tipped its weight onto her forearms a little too quickly—spilling onto the asphalt, denting its side.

“Meg!” Izzy complained.

“That side can face the windows,” Olivia offered.

With some effort, they were able to drag the tubs into place on either side of the store’s entrance.

“Now, just one more quick trip for the soil.”

“I have to record in an hour,” Olivia said.

“It’s date night, except lunch because of my new work sched, so I have to go too,” Meg said, hugging Izzy goodbye. “Also, aren’t you supposed to be opening now?”

“Why do you guys call it a date when you’re married?” Izzy asked.

“You’ll understand when you’re married.”

Olivia shot Izzy a friendly eye roll. After much thanks from Izzy and goodbye hugs, they left Izzy and her empty tubs for their very full lives. Izzy adjusted the planters and stepped inside, flipping the store’s sign from closed to open. The store was immaculate and much less cluttered than it used to be; there wasn’t much for Izzy to do.

A few customers trickled in within minutes: three in the first hour. A woman about her age bought a skirt, shocking Izzy thoroughly.

Izzy walked around the store with a duster looking for something to do when she caught a glimpse of herself in the store’s three-way mirror, polished up to a new shine. She surveyed her fit, which included a vest from the store and jeans she bought on tour; she smiled at her reflection, until she noticed her muddy shoes. Oops.

Just then, tires squealed to a stop and the front door flew open with such force that the mirror rattled. Izzy leapt off the pedestal to steady it, grabbing the frame just in time.

“Izzy?”

Izzy knew that voice anywhere.

A red cloud raged down the aisle toward her, suede fringe slapping the racks, heeled boots slamming against the floor like they hated it for existing.

“Jess Harper,” Izzy said, trying to control her tone. She couldn’t keep the shock out of her voice.

“What the fuck is your problem with me?” Jess shouted, stopping feet in front of Izzy.

“What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be—“

“In California? But you don’t care about supposed to be, do you?”

A customer scurried out of the store behind Jess, justifiably terrified. The door closed behind her, and Jess and Izzy were alone. Jess crackled with electricity, rooted in front of Izzy like a lightning bolt.

Izzy’s heart raced, but she didn’t feel afraid—something must have happened.

“I know it’s you,” Jess said.

“What’s me?”

“Please don’t insult me—I never believed your bullshit, Izzy.”

“I know. I always admired that about you,” Izzy fired back; it sounded like an insult, but it was true.

Jess stepped back, knocked off her guard.

“You and Harry,” she hissed.

“I haven’t spoken to Harry in months. Not since New Year’s Eve.” It hurt because it was true.

Jess searched her eyes.

“Bullshit.”

Izzy shrugged defiantly.

“I know you’re the one ruining his life.”

“There’s no me and Harry, Jess.”

“Don’t say my name like we’re friends. Why did he tear up his contract?”

“He tore up his contract?”

“He cancelled all his appearances. He spent all his money buying back his masters—I mean all of it. He’s flat broke. No producer will touch him now, Izzy. He won’t record again. Do you realize what you’ve done?”

“I had no idea—“

“If it weren’t for your meddling in California, he’d still ahve a good contract. He’s not a musician anymore, because of you.”

“I’m flattered that you think I’m this powerful. But I don’t think anyone can take music away from Harry. He’ll always have that voice.”

“That voice doesn’t belong to you.”

“I’m aware, Jess.”

“Are you? You’re not one of us, you don’t get it. You never did. That’s why you’re trying to separate him from our label—“

“I had nothing to do with—“

“—so he could, what, come here and work at this place with you? Do you honestly think this is where Harry belongs?”

Izzy looked around the store, cheeks burning in spite of herself. She refused to be ashamed, but as usual, some of what Jess said was true and it stung.

“I know you were the one behind his little scheme to send Dave away, packing him off to Eddie. George’s output is, like, nothing; I’ve had to do all the writing myself.”

A customer opened the front door, heard the commotion, turned around and left. Izzy was stunned. Harry sent Dave away?

“He could never be with you,” Jess went on. “It would never work.” Izzy was like a wall, and it surprised Jess. Jess couldn’t seem to make her crumple.

“He should be with someone creative,” Izzy thew back. “Someone who gets it, like a sculptor or a ballet dancer or like…a musician or something.”

Jess’s eyes widened wildly—Izzy felt pity for her briefly, lured into a fake relationship. Izzy knew that feeling. “What have you told Harry?” She said in a begging tone. “What plans have you two made?”

“We haven’t made any plans. We’re not together. You just said that would be impossible, anyway.”

“It would be impossible. But you may have temporarily affected his reason in California, when he was miserable, making him forget who he is and who he belongs with—“

“If I managed to do that, I’d be the last person to admit it, Jess.”

“Izzy, do you know who I am? Maybe the tour and all that time you spent following us around made you feel like we were vibing or something. I play arenas of 50,000 people. Just like Harry. You? You work here.”

Following us around stung. “If you and Harry are together, then you have no reason to worry about Harry and me.”

“We’re meant to be together. I can’t believe you’re trying to get your claws into him now, after I let you stay on the tour!” It was hard for Izzy to hold onto the sympathy she felt for Jess.

“You let me?”

“And kept my mouth shut about George so you could have your stupid little fling. Aren’t you done stealing other people’s boyfriends?” Jess pulled George’s name out like a knife.

“As you just said, I didn’t know about George and Lydia.”

“But you do you do know about Harry and me. Don’t bullshit me: are you two together?”

“No.” Izzy said, the resoluteness in her voice hurting her. “We’re not.”

Jess’s shoulders dropped. She tilted her head back, then brought her gaze back down to Izzy.

“And you’ll stay the fuck away from him?”

“No, I won’t.”

“What?”

Izzy took a breath and said it again, slower. “I won’t.” Izzy doubted she'd ever see Harry again, but she wouldn't promise Jess to stay away from him. She didn't want her to have that satisfaction.

Jess’s jaw tightened with rage. “You don’t care how much you hurt him, do you? His reputation is already destroyed because of you. Could you imagine what people would say if he throws it all away for this?” Jess gestured around the store. “For you?”

“I’d like you to get the fuck out of my store now, Jess.”

Jess turned and flew toward the door, turning back to toss out: “These clothes are fucking ugly.”

Izzy walked up to the door and watched Jess peel out, leaving rubber on the asphalt outside. She picked up a cigarette—still burning, evidently tossed there by Jess–from one of the tubs to drop it in a sidewalk bin, watching Jess’s car disappear down the street.

Izzy put her hand to her chest. She could hear her heart beat in her ears, faster and faster. Jess had come to the store all the way from California to break up her and Harry, a couple that didn’t exist. All the new pieces of their story swirled around her: Harry sent Dave away and the Jess Harper band was recording again, Harry broke away from Ryan, Harry and his band bought back their own masters. And Jess thought Izzy was behind it all, behind all of these good things he was doing to save his own life and soul.

Izzy closed the store for the afternoon and drove back out to pick up the soil, and bring down the seedlings she had been growing in her bedroom. As she planted them and watched their little neon green shoots reach up, she felt more and more hopeful. The feeling spread through her like that sunrise feeling she had; she felt calm, like things were going right, that maybe a good thing was happening. Her own words rang out with every heart beat: no, I won't.

Jess would probably tell Harry how ridiculous and delusional she thought Izzy was; or maybe she wouldn’t tell him about their little conversation at all. Harry had blown up his whole life in her absence, Izzy realized. Why?

#harry styles fic #harry styles fanfic #harry styles fanfiction #love on tour #hslot #love on tour fic #romance readers #pride and prejudice #pride and prejudice and anxiety

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