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bookaddict24-7 · 2 years ago

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REVIEWS OF THE WEEK!

Books I’ve read so far in 2022!

Friend me on Goodreads here to follow my more up to date reading journey for the year!

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321. Friends, Lovers, & the Big Terrible Thing by Matthew Perry--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I remember watching Friends in its entirety when I was in University (this was only like a decade and a bit ago) and finding Chandler to be this awkward character who was played by an actor whose physical appearance changed a lot. I knew nothing about what Matthew Perry was experiencing and knew even less about his life. His new memoir helped me understand him better (even though I never thought I'd be sitting here, writing a review for a memoir about a celebrity I barely know.) At the heart of it, this memoir is devastating. Perry shares with us the deadly addictions he carried with him during his whole adulthood and a good chunk of his teenhood years. I can't even imagine the turmoil he experienced while struggling and living his dream career all at once. He made a good point when he stated that having your dream job doesn't guarantee happiness. Since I knew pretty much nothing about him, this book was incredibly jarring. I have no idea how this man is still alive. While the main messages were incredibly impactful and heartbreaking, the writing itself was...something else. Very rarely do I read memoirs where I don't give it a four or five star rating because I find that it's a privilege being able to have such insight into a stranger's life. My issue is that Perry tends to repeat himself a few times. He also...used his book as a dating opportunity? While I found that to be cringe and kind of funny, I also thought, "Shoot your shot, man." But it was definitely interesting because it felt like I was reading an ad for a dating service. In all, I did laugh at times, felt awe at how the world works because if something is meant for you it's meant for you, and a good chunk of the time I felt so sad for Perry and the actions his addiction made him take. With that being said, this book has some strong TWs for alcohol use and drug use (and their repercussions.) I'd recommend this if you're a fan of Perry, but if you don't know anything about him like I did, you're in for a wild ride.

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322. Icebreaker by Hannah Grace--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I have seen the hype EVERYWHERE for this book. I've been craving reading this book for months because of said hype. I finally gave in and let me say, for me, personally, the hype is real. I loved everything about this book--from the way these characters hated each other until thee inevitably gave into their feelings for each other, to how emotionally intelligent they both were when they argued. One of the things I absolutely hate in some romance novels is the miscommunication trope, so I was very, very happy to see these characters talk it out and resolve issues together, or with the help of others in their lives. The spice was spicy. Like...

Wow. Y'all weren't kidding when you mentioned how spicy it was when hyping this book up. It was a very fun experience reading those scenes. If you love some smut in your books, definitely add this to your TBR. I also LOVED the side characters. This is one of those books I'll want to re-read in the future purely because of those side characters. The female MC's best friend was hilarious and all of the hockey players in the house made me feel like I was a part of the fictional family. I highly recommend you check out the TWs before reading because there are some serious signs of gaslighting, fatshaming, disordered eating, and verbal abuse. I read this on KU and have already ordered a physical copy for myself. Now I need the next book...

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323. The Weight of Blood by Tiffany D. Jackson--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

When I first read CARRIE years ago, I was unimpressed. Even though we had more details when compared to the movie, the book felt like a hot mess. Which, in retrospect, is understandable because I believe it was King's first novel. THE WEIGHT OF BLOOD by Tiffany D. Jackson was, in my opinion, everything that CARRIE tried to be (but with a more modern twist). Both books have their merits, but I loved that there is a cohesive narrative in this re-imagining and that we actually get to see the perspectives of some of the other characters (in a descriptive way). I liked being able to learn more about these characters and how they either affected or were affected by the MC, rather than just being told. Also, this one had some great podcast and news segment moments that sounded great over an audiobook. I enjoyed seeing the multiple perspectives of the situation. I think this book, much like CARRIE, is a great example of how bullying can break a person down further, especially when no one really knows about a person's home life, or worse, has an idea of it but disregards the knowledge anyway because of their bigotry, racism, and/or other forms of hatred. There were definitely some gory moments and jarring instances, but this was entirely scary--it was more disturbing because of how dark human nature can get. I recommend it if you're looking for a horror that touches more on the human experience than the classic tropes of horror. This definitely played more with the concept of terror.

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324. Solito by Javier Zamora--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Immigration is a topic I hold close to my heart because I myself was an immigrant to the country I live in now. I've found that reading more and more about the topic has helped me understand the different kinds of stories and journeys many have taken to reach their new homes. This one, by far, is the most jarring one (in a nonfiction sense). When that one book came out a few years ago (we all know which one), there was an outcry because in the now disappeared Note from the Author or whatever it's called at the end of a book, this particular author mentioned that they didn't see a lot of stories like the one they wrote in the world of books. Well, SOLITO is not only one of those books you can now read instead, it's also NONFICTION. The importance of Javier Zamora's journey goes beyond his experiences, but the effect his story can have on those who either have similar experiences, or want to learn more about stories like his could be life-changing, or just incredibly eye-opening. Just knowing that this text exists is magical. SOLITO is the perfect example of human kindness. This memoir follows a nine year-old child as he journeys into the dangerous world of immigration in the form of crossing borders until the final destination: the US--or as Zamora says in his audiobook, La USA (pronounced oosaah). Along the way, Zamora meets a group of other immigrants who become a sort of found family. Without their kindness, I don't know if we would have this book. SOLITO, in a way, is like a love letter for those who helped young Zamora during his deadly journey. While I did have an ARC of this book, I listened to the audiobook and I cannot recommend it enough. The text is brimming with Spanish and even features questions in the Spanish format. I loved it because it felt so incredibly authentic and Zamora often didn't translate the Spanish text (which is one of my favourite things that authors do to help make their books feel more genuine.) I'm not going to lie, there were moments of anxiety and moments where I wanted to cry. There were moments full of childish joy and so, so, so much hope. I remember thinking that Zamora was lucky to not have experienced some of the even (somehow) darker aspects of his journey, but then I had to remind myself that he was nine and the world he saw at that age was through the lens of innocence. While I'm not giving this a perfect rating because I found that the beginning dragged a bit, the writing was incredible--to the point where I forgot it wasn't fiction because the experiences were so intense and the writing so enthralling (past those first few bits, of course.) I recommend this to everyone, especially those who want to learn more about immigration of this kind and those who want to expand their world of reading. I highly recommend the audiobook. Also, please, read up on the TWs before picking this book up!

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325. Delilah Green Doesn’t Care by Ashley Herring Blake--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

DELILAH GREEN DOESN'T CARE was such a delightful read and I'm so angry with myself for not having read it sooner. I immediately was hooked by the story and by the idea that this black sheep of a character returned to her small hometown looking like a whole snack--especially a snack one of her childhood enemies was a bite of. Of the two perspectives, I enjoyed Delilah's the most because I love a character who proves everyone wrong, especially one that is so heavily misunderstood. Also, she's just a hot badass? I appreciated her character growth and how both the characters around her AND the reader got to learn more about her than just the facade she shows us all. She may be this tough, tattooed, and flirty woman, but she's also a cinnamon roll who had to learn to take care of herself in her lonely childhood. Claire, the second MC, was someone that took me a while to like. I DID love that she was always questioning the treatment of Delilah when they were kids, but I found her to be a kind of...annoying mom? Listen, I don't have kids and I know I can't add any real opinions to this, but I was wary of her as a super overprotective mom who also sometimes ignored the happiness of her kid. I did like watching her come to better understand her situation. I was happy with how her character was when the book ended, but that beginning was rough. But again, I'm not a mom and her baby daddy, while he had the best intentions, didn't have the best past record with Claire. Anyway, I really, really enjoyed this book and the friendships and loyalty, and how each character essentially finally communicated. I really need to read the second book because I need to see Astrid find love and a better sense of love for herself.

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326. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree--⭐️⭐️⭐️

I think this fell into the trap of being hyped up by my friends. That being said, I thought this was cute and very relaxed, to the point where I was kind of thinking...what's the point? LOL. That being said, this would be a great palate cleanser for those who are always reading heavy fantasy books. I thought it was adorable how these two characters were slowly figuring out how to make their little coffee business a success. I liked seeing the cast of characters that would enter the shop and who would join the team--especially the surprise pet. I'm sure that this is many people's favourites and I totally get that. Maybe I will re-read it one day and fully understand the hype. I WAS reminded, however, of my years of working at a coffee shop and getting those customers who would sit around and not order anything.

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327. A Prayer for the Crown Shy by Becky Chambers--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I love these two characters and need more from them! I also always love the messages that I get from these books about life and how goals and happiness look different for everyone. I especially love how Mosscap always looks at things literally and analyzes everything, even if it irritates Sibling Dex sometimes. One of the things that always makes me smile about Sibling Dex is how realistic they are. They may be seen as this person who brings wisdom with their tea, but then they'll hit you with those horndog moments. I literally laugh every time. These two characters are always so comforting and I always wish I could travel around with them. The main reason why I didn't give this five stars is because it took me a little bit to get back into the world of this series. The first book in this series was so eye-opening and really made me think, right from the beginning. But this one took me a little bit of time to remember how much I loved these characters. I highly recommend this series--especially if you want a relaxed sci-fi series that makes you think, laugh, and just smile at the interactions between characters, and the pureness of curiosity.

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328. Boyfriend by Sarina Bowen--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I'm a big fan of Bowen, so I'm not surprised at all that I enjoyed BOYFRIEND. While it wasn't my absolute favourite book by her, I thought that it was sexy and fun and full of really cute moments. I found this book randomly while looking for a sports romance and now I want to read the rest of the series, since all of the side characters in this book were so much fun. Also, I'm curious about what tropes the other authors writing in this series will use for the rest of the hockey players. The male MC was such a sweetheart. Since we get to see the story from his perspective, we get to an outsider's view into what the female MC is experiencing in her life and how he feels about her. I love stories where the player just falls HARD for the female MC. BOYFRIEND also dealt with the heavier topics of grief, sexual assault, and the aftermath of a horrific marriage breakup. (I'm still on the side of the dad and I found it to be really sad how everyone else told him that he needed to chill. But I guess I'm chaotic like that.) I enjoyed BOYFRIEND. I thought it was a quick read full of adorable and spicy moments. I wouldn't call it a favourite and I don't know if I'll ever crave a re-read of it (it's not the most memorable read), but I enjoyed it for what it was and I would definitely recommend it for anyone who loves a fun hockey romance without a lot of hockey in it. Or for those who love characters who are in college, but that's never really shown in the book.

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329. The Girls I’ve Been by Tess Sharpe--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Super TWs in this one: Physical, Sexual, and Verbal abuse. (Among others--please read up on them before picking up!) THE GIRLS I'VE BEEN was a surprising read for me. It had been mentioned to me a few times and that finally convinced me to check it out. I wasn't disappointed and I think the hype surrounding it is definitely warranted. We first start with a bank heist. In said bank, one unlikely person is being held with the other victims--a girl with a dark past and a very twisted history of identities. What follows is a recollection of the different identities she's had to adopt while growing up with a thief and con artist of a mother. The depth of the characters grew as the story progressed because we get to see the MC's perception of her mother from the innocence of her youth, to the moment where she started losing all faith in the woman who twisted her life to an unrecognizable point. This book is dark. It's a dark and traumatic exploration of how relationships can shape us--especially the toxic ones. Throughout the whole book, not only are we hoping to see what the MC does to get her and her friends out of the bank safely, we're also chasing this darkness that overshadows everything of the MC's past. We know that something absolutely horrible above all of the other horrible things is waiting for us at the very end--because how else was the MC able to be telling us her current experience? My main issue with this book was that it was sometimes dry, despite the topic being talked about. BUT I can also dispute my own opinion of this by mentioning that perhaps this was the result of her needing to separate herself from those events so she can survive in her present life. I LOVED that this has very clearly stated bisexual representation. I know we're in 2022, but there are still some books where the MC is clearly bi or pan, but the words aren't used. Good on Sharpe for using the word, even if one of the top tags of this book on Goodreads is "lesbian". Just wanted to say that because that bit of bi-erasure pissed me off. Anyway, I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves a great YA thriller with some great rep in the story. Be aware of the trigger warnings because this is a heavy one.

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330. Love Radio by Ebony LeDelle--⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW: Sexual Assault, Illness While LOVE RADIO dealt with some heavier topics, I thought that the main romance was adorable. In fact, when the book ended that was my first thought. "They're adorable!" and they were--especially because of how long he had a crush on her. But adorable relationship aside, LOVE RADIO dived into the topic of Sexual Assault and the misconstrued idea that there is a level of SA that only truly matters. This is a topic that lingers on the edges of the story as we get to know the female MC and why she has essentially ostracized herself from her friends and family. The effects of that one night marked her in ways that she finds too difficult to talk about and her fear of being told "I told you so" keeps her away from her closest friends. The male MC is dealing with his own stuff--especially his mom's illness and the guilt he feels about continuing to live his life despite all of the responsibility on his shoulders. I loved seeing his relationship with his little brother, his uncle, and especially his mom. I wasn't the biggest fan of his friends, but he always kept his own mind, which I liked. The two of them together worked so well because they both helped each other realize that there was more to the lives they currently lived and the futures they could potentially have--even if sometimes it was hard to believe these were teenagers. My main issue with this was how adult it felt at times. I know that teenagers act very different now than they used to when I was one, but this dealt with some topics that felt like it was a little too early to deal with. For example, when one MC complains that the other MC is settling for a life below what they can accomplish--this is a teenager with some pretty huge responsibilities. I don't think it's realistic to expect a seventeen year old to fully know what they want just yet (even if there ARE some outliers). Overall, I enjoyed this. I loved seeing this beautiful Black YA love story. I also loved the familial relationships and how all of the love is represented. I'll most likely pick up another book by this author! Add this to your TBR if you're looking for stories full of Black love, joy, family, and friendships!

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Happy reading!

#books #bookish #booklr #bookworm #bookaholic #book reviews #review #reviews #on books #on reading #read #reading #reader #Features #reviews of the week #my opinion #my writing #book list #long text post

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x-nephophile-x · 2 years ago

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15 Get to Know Questions

I saw @fereldanwench do this and wanted to fill it out for fun! 1. Are you named after anyone? My mom named me after a baby she used to babysit; my name is not Cas of course, its a pseudonym I use for social media.

2. When was the last time you cried? Like full-blown unhappy tears? Uh, last week. My one family dog passed.

3. Do you have kids? No, and I don’t want any, but as I’m getting older, I’m considering it.

4. Do you use sarcasm a lot? So much. I use text tone notes though if I’m writing, or say I’m being sarcastic to people like my mom who doesnt get it lol.

5. What’s the first thing you notice about people? Usually physical traits, like colored hair, eyes, and brows. I’m very hyperaware so I’ll notice the way they sit or if they feel left out in a conversation. I feel like I’m very aware of people’s moods as I can usually spot if people are less happy than usual or something is bothering them.

6. What’s your eye colour? Green.

7. Scary movies or happy endings? I really enjoy happy endings! I like scary movies but not gore fests. Psychological thrillers screw with me too much anxiety wise. But slashers are fun and so are paranormal films. My favorite horror film is the 2006 Silent Hill or They/Them.

8. Any special talents? I can do that one yoga pose where you throw your legs over your shoulders and balance on your hands and have been able to do it since I was 5. I’m also double jointed in most of my body, most notably my hands.

9. Where were you born? Pittsburgh.

10. What are your hobbies? Projecting onto fictional characters, liking morally gray or bad fictional men, being a raging bisexual. I write fanfic and play the same twenty games.

11. Have you any pets? 4 dogs now that one passed. Two small, two big, all are elders except for the one big who is 3.

12. What sports do you play/have played?

I was never much of a sports person. I like watching hockey occasionally during the play offs mostly but other than that, never played anything outside of gym. I did do color guard and dance for several years though.

13. How tall are you? 4′11 / 149.86 cm

14. Favourite subject in school? I always enjoyed English, Reading and History. I’m in college taking several history electives for fun. I love learning new things and I always found reading assignments fun as it encouraged me to explore new stories.

15. Dream job? Youtube, actually. I want to start doing it but I have no ideas for content. Like I said, I play the same twenty games, Bioware and Bethesda titles mostly, so I have no real ideas since I’m not a horror fan nor do i play most triple A title games aside from the occasional like A Plague Tale (Did that count as a Triple A game?? The second one did for sure right?) And RDR2. I would probably love to do some Sims content and Bethesda game challenges though! No pressure tags! <3 @travelbystarlight @the-delicate-disaster @thebookwormgal and @themechaneer

#get to know me #misc tag: Cas Rambles #tag game

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reavenedges-lies · 3 years ago

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I loved that elaborate answer, thank you so much for that! 🫂 Two more because they're quite hot issues around the league: 1) the Flyers benched Yandle when he's 11 games away from 1,000 straight games played during his career worst season. I get the outrage, but if he was playing so bad shouldn't they have sat him out earlier? 2) your honest thoughts on that incident during the Yotes vs Ducks game. What was it like live? I've heard the TV commentary was really bad

Glad to hear the answers were well received, and no problem.

I understand the outrage, I really do but I don't think the loss of his streak is any problem. If anything it could possibly be better for him. He is 35 and has had a steep cut of in his quality of play over the course of the last 2-3 years, and while he is on lower value single year contracts, the idea of Having to keep his streak going regardless of his play is a tough sell. His average TOI drastically decreased this season from the 17/18/19 minutes range in the two seasons prior, to roughly about 14:30 and in his last five games it was honestly closer to 10 minutes of ice time. That's even with the amount of injuries through the season for the flyers and I think that makes it worse, that even though he should've had more ice time, due to quality of play he was played even less. I will genuinely say I don't think his Ironman Streak meant anything as no team/coach wanted to be the person to break it even when it should've been. The streak should've ended sooner, but with nothing left to really lose it is just a slap in the face to be so close to 1000 games in a row and see it end like this.

I had a blast at the game, I was surrounded by other Yotes fans and we we're all joking up a storm and talking shit about the refs. The community here at the games is amazing because we aren't going because our team is good. We go because its fun, and we love the team and the game.

So I will say this about the Beagle fight and what Nash said. I was at the game and in the upper bowl on the Ducks side, so i was watching it from across the arena. From my viewpoint Zegras was digging at the goalie/blue paint after the whistle blew and that lead to Beagle cross-checking him. Terry then came up in defense of Zegras and swung at Beagle first, Beagle then beats the snot out of Terry because the Refs couldn't get a hold of the situation as quickly as they had in the prior scrums. I don't like how far Beagle took it as it looked like Terry never got his gloves off and while he didn't necessarily start to turtle he wasn't a super active participant in the fight. If Beagle had stopped at the Cross-check and it got called it would've been fine, but with how quickly each of the prior incidents had been quelled without any steam really getting released (and the lack of any physical response after the Keller injury during the SJS game) i wasn't surprised at the intensity of the situation. I don't think what Beagle did was wrong in terms of protecting Kořenář, I do think he could've stopped sooner as he had proven his point.

I didn't hear what Tyson Nash said until I had woke up this morning as I hadn't had the opportunity to grab the game footage before going to sleep. What he said and how he said it was out of line. Nash saying "I love it" and "That’s the problem with these young players. You wanna embarrass guys? You wanna skill it up? You better be prepared to get punched in the mouth.” is the problem with the scenario. People are getting mislead with what is happening as Nash isn't calling the game as he should nor is he framing it correctly and going after Beagle for what he did under that context is wrong.

Also all the people who're saying "Yeah the young skilled players are the problem with the league not you guys playing in a college hockey arena lmao give me a break" are part of the problem. The arena and where we are playing has nothing to do with our players skill or lack there of. It was emotional and letting the color analyst/broadcaster's biased words color how you think of a player or franchise as a reporter is disgusting. Genuinely what does where we are playing have to do with last night?

I can and will elaborate more if needed but those are my two cents on the matter

#anon ask #rea answers #thanks for rhe ask lovely!

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comphersjost · 4 years ago

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Being a dancer and Matty finding out. He would get so cheeky so fast with all his chirps and when y’all eventually get together he definitely tests your flexibility😏

oh my god okay

smut under the cut

hear me out

like, you’re on an internship with the flames as a junior athletic trainer

and like, it’s your last year of college and you really just want to get this degree and go

and your kinesiology advisor was some washed up hockey player and had given you two options:

apply for a different physical therapy related internship

or work with the university’s hockey team

and after a few run ins with those guys at parties well, there was no way you were working with your university’s hockey team

so you applied for the flames position

and got it

but like, youre still a college student, and you still have to do things like make rent and pay your car insurance and your health insurance and utilities and groceries and billion other things that sucked all your money out of you

so, you found a nice little side hustle that only required a few hours a night for a couple hundred dollars

and it was perfect because it didnt just help you with your expenses, but also made you comfortable

you were financially secure with this job - as long as you kept your face covered

and you did

one night, it’s matthew tkachuk’s birthday

you only really know because noah hanifin had come down to the trainer’s rooms to get his knee checked out and taped just in case - he had an awkward fall and wants to be safe

he’s nice enough, always smiling politely and asking how you are

and then matthew shows up, waiting for you to finish

the two talk about their plans for the night, and you pretend not to listen

your ears perk when you here noah say “come on man it’s your birthday, let loose”

“i know dude, theres just one thing i really wanted for tonight and i cant have it,” matty replies, and when your eyes flick up at him hes already staring at you. “ill still come out with you guys though”

you finished up with noah’s knee and tapped him, signaling he could go

“look man, just try to have fun,” noah hops off the table, “dont think you much you know - thanks y/n - you know dude?”

matthew rolls his eyes and shoves noah in front of him, ignoring his yell of protest

“bye, y/n” he says, his gaze too intense for you to keep eye contact

“bye guys, see you tomorrow,” you say softly, the clean up in front of you suddenly the most interesting thing in the room

you push them out of your head as youre finally leaving the arena

youve got somewhere to be and you werent going to let whatever these two hooligans said make you late

you make it to the club you work at just in time

you get ready in a rush, trying to fasten all the clips and tie all the ribbons as fast as you can

one of the other girls helps you, fasting the last few clips while you tie a masquerade mask over your face

and like - you shouldve double knotted it

or at least double checked it like you normally

because you get out there and your boss tells you

“you’ve got a private booking first, some hot shot kid’s birthday”

the description makes you uneasy but you figure, calgary is a big city, theres not way its him

but you walk into a room set a side for private shows and -

there he is

dumb navy suit and dumb curls and all

he looks up when you enter the room, a smirk on his lips

but youve been around the team long enough to know when its fake

his eyes dont have the fire in them

you drop your voice a few octaves, purring to make yourself sound seductive but more importantly - different

every thing is going well, and youre almost through

matt has a hand on your hip as you grind on him and then -

it’s your fault really, you reached up to brush your hair out of your face and the same time matthew reached up to do it for you

your hands knocked together and his finer catches on the ribbon thats looped through your mask

it falls into his lap and he stares at it for a moment, before staring at you

you’re looking at him with wide eyes, while he stares between you and the fallen mask

“you’re-”

“please don’t tell anyone!” you blurt out before he can say anything “please matthew don’t tell any of the team or anything, please, i’ll owe you whatever you want”

“woah, hey, relax,” matthew laughs, calming you by squeezing your now-still hips with his abnormally large hands “i wont tell anyone, its okay”

with an uncomfortable and short conversation about you doing this because you needed the money (and quickly shooting down matty’s offer to help you out, the two of you stumble through awkward goodbye’s

he double knots your mask for you this time, making sure it’s on tight before promising you your secret was safe and walking out the door

you pretend not to notice the tent in his pants that started growing the moment your mask fell off your face

you and matthew dance around each other for a few weeks, until some gala thing you were required to go

“the event is mandatory for all staff, even the interns. the organization will pay for all of your attire and transportation necessary to arrive at the banquet hall” your advisor had emailed you, making it clear you werent being given a choice here.

you showed up at this event dressed to the nines

your best friend had been in town visiting you when you had gone shopping for the event, refusing to let you wear something she deemed anything less then goddess-like apparently

matty doesnt see you at first, hes at the bar with his back to you

hes a few drinks in already cause like, he really doesnt wanna be here

and then elias shoves him in the shoulder, motioning with his head over matty’s shoulder

you watch as matty turns around, your mouth going dry at the burgundy suit, white shirt, and black tie he was wearing

his lips are parted, frozen in his spot

and really - you didnt mean to match with matty, you and your best friend had just seen the dress and fallen in love with it

until his friends chirping turns into sean shoving him again to get his attention

without even sparing a glance at his teammates matt is barreling for you

hes dodging higher ups and execs and reporters and everyone who wants to talk to him like it’s his goddamn job

you finally release a breath that youre holding when he reaches you

he grabs a hold of your hand, pulling you along as he weaves through the people

both of you catch your breath when youre finally out the door and into the garden area of the venue

“you said anything” matt says abruptly, turning to you

“what?” you say, confused, and matt wants to kiss the pout off your lips

“at the club,” he says, and your blood runs cold. “you said youd owe me anything i wanted if i kept your secret.”

you nod slowly, apprehensive of what his ask was going to be

“well, it’s you,” he repeats, sighing when you stare at him, not understanding what he wants

“i. want. you.” he punctuates every word with a step towards you. “you said anything but i’m letting you choose, let me take you home, or take you out, but any part of you that you’ll let me have, that’s what i want.”

hes towering over you now, his bright blue eyes darkening with every second his eyes roam your skin

it takes you a moment to find your voice, but you clear your throat and say

“how about both?”

a smile tugs at matty’s lips, and his hands slide around your waist

he leans down to your ear, whispering “both sounds just short of heaven pretty girl”

“what will it take to get you to heaven, mr. tkachuk?” you whisper against his mouth, arms looping around his neck

he chuckles darkly, stealing a kiss, then another, and another as he pulls you closer to his body

“let’s just say,” he hums, trailing kisses down your neck, “it definitely involves some of that flexibility i saw in the club that night”

and, well, you’re okay with that

#do yall want a smutty pt 2 to this hc #lmk #smut night #matthew tkachuk #matty #ratthew #calgary flames #nhl #hockey imagine #blurb #*concepts #hc

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disengaged · 4 years ago

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alright this might be a bit of a weird ask but. seeing all ur posts on hockey teams n whatnot makes me Interested in hockey but i have absolutely no idea about the majority of it like all the positions n shit so. where do i start

not weird at all omg !!! it's probably one of the only sports i enjoy, cuz it's super easy to understand and very active :'-) 💘💘💘

i've written out a basic guide to rules, penalties, and positions below the cut:

(ITS SO LONG IM SORRY SJDNDKNDNDJDN I GOT EXCITED)

ok first off: the object of the game is to score the most goals :-) yayyy! nice n easy. it gets a little more complicated when you start looking at things like points, stats, player rankings, etc in the NHL, but you don't have to worry about that right way.

each team normally has 5 players on the ice at a time (3 forwards, 2 defence, plus a goalie).

there are also referees around! the NHL has 2 refs and 2 linesmen for every game, but community leagues/kid's teams would prob just like.... hire a teenager and pay em $50... yknow...

sometimes we have what's called a powerplay, which means one team is serving a penalty, so one team has more players than the other. (e.g: "a 5 on 4 powerplay", which means there are 5 guys playing against 4 guys. easy stuff.)

(ok now let's talk abt rules, penalties, and positions...)

----

ICE HOCKEY RULES

short version, i promise!! first, you kinda gotta know what the rink looks like (this diagram looks complicated but i swear it's not skdjskndj):

to kick off the game, (& every time the game stops and starts again), a faceoff has to happen. this means two players get in one of the 5 faceoff circles, the ref drops the puck (aptly called the puck drop lmfao), and they do that little swipe with their sticks. you gotta love it !!

from there on, it's really pretty simple:

the only person who can grab the puck (closing hand on puck) is the goalie

you can't shoot the puck out of the rink or move the goal ("the net") on purpose

you can't raise your stick above shoulder height to smack the puck out of the air (called "high sticking"). if you score a goal that way, it doesn't count

when your skates crosses the blue line (#4 on the diagram) before the puck does, you're offside. (if only one skate is over the line, you're "onside")

icing happens when you're on your side of the center line, but you shoot the puck all the way across the ice and it crosses the goal line (#7 in the diagram) on either side of the net. when that happens, the game stops and another faceoff has to happen in the offending team's zone (#6 on the diagram). HOWEVER, icing won't be called if the goalie is outside of the crease (#10), if the other team just lets it happen on purpose (lmao), or maybe if the ref says it was an attempted pass.

if you were about to score, but another player tripped/yanked/whatevered you (or knocked the net outta the way), you get a penalty shot! this means the other players clear outta the way & you get to take a shot on the other team's goalie >:-)

GOAL HOLES lmaoooooo why r they called that + a fun infographic

stick side low

glove side low

glove side high

stick side high

five hole! (hardest place to score)

WHAT IF THE GAME IS TIED AT THE END?

the game goes into sudden-death overtime! this means the timer is set for 5 minutes, and whoever scores first wins

if no one scores in overtime, the game goes into a shootout! this means the teams take turns taking penalty shots (3 each)

if that STILL doesn't end the game, the shootout continues until one team scores and the other team doesn't match it... ta-da !!!

FIGHT RULES (per the NHL):

the ref blows a whistle, everyone else has to stop what they're doing and go to their bench

the players have to drop their gloves

they can't remove their helmets before the fight starts. (if it falls off while they're getting whacked that's fine, but taking it off beforehand is a minor penalty)

the fight is allowed to keep going until one player hits the ice, or the refs decide to stop it

both players automatically get major penalties, plus any other penalties that apply. (this site explains it really well!!)

(in community leagues and kids' leagues, fighting is either not allowed at all, or it's a lot less regulated... it could really go either way lmao. in 2021 we know that concussions = bad, but back in the day... hoo boy!!)

---

PENALTY BASICS

3 types: minor, major, and misconduct

penalties are basically decided on severity/degree of injury, etc

a standard minor penalty is 2 minutes and it's served in the penalty box. if the other team scores during this time (the powerplay), the penalty ends and the player can hop back on the ice.

examples of minor penalties could be high-sticking, tripping, elbowing, hooking, slashing, roughing, boarding etc ... like. if a player is acting shitty but didn't do any real damage, that kind of thing

there's also a thing called matching penalties (aka coincidental penalties), which means both teams have a player in the box at the same time. in that case, they usually just keep playing 4-on-4, and the penalty keeps going even if a goal is scored. (except if the game was already 5-on-4 before the matching penalty was called, in which case both teams would be allowed to make substitutions to keep shit moving lol)

there are also double minors or triple minors, which just means 2-3 minor penalties all at once lmao ... so a player could be stuck sitting in the Shame Cube for 4-6 minutes, and if the other team scored, it would only cancel out one penalty at a time

a standard major penalty is 5 minutes in the box, and the player can't get out early if a goal is scored. (if there are matching major penalties, both teams sub players in)

fighting is always a major penalty!!! other examples could be spearing, boarding, butt-ending, charging, clipping, or cross-checking

misconduct:

there are 3 "subtypes": misconduct, game misconduct, & match penalty

a misconduct penalty means 10 minutes off the ice, & the team can sub a guy in. if the player returns and then get another, they can get ejected from the game lmao

misconduct calls also usually come with a minor penalty (called a 10-and-2), which is served at the same time. so like ... the player with the misconduct has to leave for 10 minutes, the substitute joins the game, and then a separate player is picked to serve a 2-minute minor penalty in the box

if you get a game misconduct penalty the player is ejected from the game. their team replaces them, plus there's usually a major (5min) penalty served by a different guy. (you also still get charged with 10 or 20 penalty minutes, which go "on your record")

you can get a game misconduct penalty by getting 2 misconduct penalties, butting into a fight/joining a fight (called "third man in"), leaving the penalty box early, or if you board someone & they get a head/face injury

a match penalty is serious shit but they're less common, i'm just gonna drop screenshots if you wanna read:

(also here's a handy chart off wikipedia lmao:)

----

POSITIONS

ok this is gonna the MOST basic guide lol. here they are on the ice:

2 types:

FORWARD = center, right wing, or left wing. job is to score. they're usually smaller and faster than the defense players.

DEFENsE = right D or left D. usually physically larger, their goal is to protect their zone.

GOALIE: ok everyone knows what the goalie does lmao

they all have different jobs and skills specific to their positions, which you can find on this site in really great detail!!

---

ok, we're done !!

i think this should cover all the basic areas of ice hockey... there's definitely a lot more to it if you feel like doing more research (like how the NHL draft works, the different players and teams, the different divisions etc), but i hope this will be enough to get you started ..... it's also fun to watch even if you don't understand all the rules imo, i could probably sum all of this ^^ up by saying "ten players, two goalies, put on skates, chase puck, put puck in net" LMAO.

i genuinely love ice hockey so much, it's such a huge part of my personal sense of culture & community :'-) if you have any more questions, please feel free to ask em and i'll do my best to answer !!!

#asks #anon #this turned out rlly long but i tried to keep it super simple !!!#hockey is great !!!!#best sport in the world imo. i am biased but it's true #hockey

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hanhughsegbarzmarn · 5 years ago

Text

Nolan Patrick - Christmas

A/N: HI! So idk what made me write this and I kind of just couldn’t not write it the more it thought about it. It’s my first imagine though so please be nice - also if you have any comments about it - Let me know cause I think I’ll write more of these (: thanks! - h (*also sorry about the cheesy ending - it’s Christmas and im feeling super cheesy)

Summary: Who ever decided that Christmas is “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” was obviously is out to spite you. Wonderful, my ass. Between the constant pressure of finding everyone the right gifts on a tight budget and not knowing which family member you’re going to see next it is safe to say that the only thing you’re looking forward to on Christmas is crawling into your bed after wining and dining with family you haven’t seen all year and probably wont see for another 364 days. I guess it’s a good thing you have Nolan by your side.

Christmas is supposed to be about spending time with family and friends - but when your family gets you so wound up you can barely think straight, all you can be thankful for is the rest of the year when you don’t have to put up a happy facade and tell everyone about your plans for the future or why there isn’t a special someone in your life. So when your friend Nolan, who you’d recently met as the newest tennant in your housing complex tells you he’s going to be alone over Christmas Break you decided that it would be a great idea to invite him to your families Christmas Party.

A buffer would be great, you thought. Nolan would be exceptionally helpful at keeping your father and uncles away from you as they could talk sports until they were blue in the face. Now it was just your mom and aunts that you needed to be wary of.

“You know Nols, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. If you want you can just drop me off I can always Uber back to the house.” As you were riding to your parents home, you couldn’t help but feel overly anxious - maybe it was better if you didn’t subject Nolan to the craziness that is your family. After all, once he has to deal with them, you probably won’t be seeing him anymore.

“It’ll be fine, Y/N. Besides regardless of how this goes, it’ll be a lot better than staying home alone watching the 24 hour marathon of A Christmas Story.” He chuckled at your nervousness and grabbed your hand from your lap before rubbing small circles on the back of it.

“I’m just saying my family can be a little . . . Much at times. I just want to apologize in advance - I’ve never really brought anyone around them before, so I really don’t know how this is going to go. I mean its not that your my boyfriend or anything and need to be worried I just really don’t know how this is gonna look. I mean my mom -“ You started to ramble but were cut off when Nolan gave your hand a tight squeeze.

“Y/N, It‘ll be fine - Now we’re on the right street. . . But what house is it?”

“1220 - it’s a few houses down on the left.” You could feel your leg shaking - dealing with your family alone was stressful, and while you thought that having Nolan would make it less of an issue, you’re starting to wonder whether or not this was a good idea.

As soon as Nolan pulled into the driveway you hurried to get out of the car and met him at the trunk to grab the box of gifts you have for your family. Nolan carries the bottle of whiskey and the flowers he grabbed for your mom at the supermarket close to your place, before placing his hand on the small of your back to lead you to the door.

After a quick knock you opened the door only to be met with the shocked faces of your family. Your dad was the first to speak up “Y/N, we knew you were on your way but who is this? We didn’t know you had anyone else coming”

“Hi Everyone, this is my friend Nolan. He wasn’t able to spend Christmas with his family this year so I brought him with me, I hope that’s okay”

“Of course it is hun, I mean a little warning would be nice but I can add another setting to the table quickly. Thanks for coming Nolan.” Your mother quickly hurried to the dining room to make a space for your plus one. You couldn’t help but feel confused as you put your presents in everyone’s designated piles - your parents were being awfully nice . . . which was so unlike them.

“So Nolan, is your team going to continue to shit the bed this season? Or should I pick a more reliable team for my fantasy hockey league?” You’re chest clenched - this wouldn’t end well - you knew your dad liked sports but didn’t think he paid that much attention to hockey

“With all due respect sir, we definitley are trying our hardest. We haven’t had the best start to the season but that’s not for lack of trying. “ You could tell that Nolan was trying to be nice, but was still getting frustrated.

You could hear your dad huff from behind you, “ but the capitals . . . “ if this conversation were to continue, you had a feeling you would be leaving with one angry Flyer.

You went to ask about the food, hoping that by stuffing their mouths, it would prevent Nolan and your Dad from getting into it over hockey “Mom, is dinner ready?”

“Is that all you think about food? Y/N its not like you need much more” You began to shake your head knowing your mothers had issues with your weight since you were a child. “Go get everyone while I grab the food out of the oven, then we can say grace at the table.”

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

After a long and trying to avoid as many questions as you could from your parents about any potential relationship between you and Nolan, you all sat around the tree getting ready to exchange some presents and enjoy a nice hallmark Christmas movie together. Your mother brought out a tray of cookies and hot chocolate for everyone to share. Reaching for one of the larger sugar cookies you couldn’t help but stop yourself when you felt your mother’s hand on your wrist.

After giving her an odd look you felt her lean over the side of the loveseat you and Nolan were sharing before she whispered in your ear. “Y/N, you already had so much at dinner maybe a cookie isn’t the best idea right now. Wouldn’t want to have to exchange the clothing I got you for a bigger size. I got a gift receipt for a reason, but that wasn’t it”

You shook your head and leaned back against the couch. Now there was the family you knew and loved. You could tell that Nolan knew something was up when he offered you a portion of his chocolate chip cookie and you politely declined. It was time for presents and your family has a tradition of pulling names out of a hat to see who gets to open up their gifts one at a time, and you couldn’t wait for the exchange to be over so you and Nolan could head home before you each went your separate ways.

Of course, this year your luck really had run out and you ended up being the last one to open your gifts. While you all usually only exchanged one or two things you never knew what your family would find and think of you, so mix the anticipation with your large want to leave and you couldn’t help yourself from bouncing your knee and tapping your fingers.

Your pile was small, not that you expected or needed much. So when you pulled out a few new workout outfits only to find a gym membership at the bottom, you couldn’t help but sigh. After muttering a quick and silent thanks to your parents, you began to get up from where you sat, frustrated that the only thing your parents could find for you was workout clothes. Your apartment complex had a gym included that you didn’t even need to pay for, but obviously your parents thought you needed to do more. Before you could leave the room, your mom was quick to grab one final gift from under the tree and handed it to you with a laugh.

“Here Y/N, we thought that this was an appropriate gift for you. Something you’ll never be able to find for yourself.” Scrunching your nose in confusion, you once again sat beside Nolan and started to unwrap the small box. Everyone started laughing at your reaction, and it was clear that your mom had made it known that she was proud of the Grow a Boyfriend toy she had found.

Pushing the toy back into the box you grabbed onto Nolan’s wrist. “Well thank you for the presents but I think it’s time Nolan and I headed back to our complex, we wouldn’t want to travel in this weather after all.” Everyone seemed confused as you looked outside where the lightest dusting of snow remained - Nonetheless, your family bid you goodnight and you and Nolan both started your drive home silently.

“I’m really sorry you had to sit through that. . . I was kind of hoping for a miracle to happen and for my family to not be dicks this time.”

Nolan grabbed your hand again and sighed. “It wasn’t that bad, I can tell that they stress you out though. You don’t deserve the way they treat you. While it isn’t necessarily as bad as physical abuse, I can still tell they find ways to put you down and that isn’t okay.”

You could feel tears in your eyes. No one else had been around long enough to notice the snide remarks your family made about you or how what they thought was funny would actually hurt your feelings.

“I really don’t want to end Christmas on a bad note, so instead of going straight back to our respecitve places . . . how about we go do something fun instead?” You looked at Nolan with a look of confusion - you hadn’t expected him to want to spend anymore time with you after having to deal with your family.

After giving him a positive answer, you started to get worried once you drove past your apartment complex. It wasn’t until you reached the next red light that he hurriedly pulled a beanie out of the arm rest between you. “Hold this over your eyes, I want this to be a surprise.

It wasn’t much longer until you felt the car stop. “Nolan where are we?”

He chuckled under his breath, “You’ll find out in a minute. Now I’m just going to sit you here,” you felt yourself being lowered into a seat. “And I’ll be right back - don’t move and don’t peek, okay?”

You nodded your head yes and waited for him to come back to you. You heard a big click almost as if it was a set of overhead lights being turned on, and almost jumped out of your seat when you felt an arm on your shoulder.

“Yo, chill out, it’s just me, Y/N. Go ahead and take the hat off so you can see again”

You couldn’t help but laugh when you realized that his version of a surprise was taking you to an ice rink.

“I should’ve known Nolan - what are we doing here?”

“We’re gonna skate, duh. And before you say anything about not having skates, I already grabbed you one of the extra pairs they have here. First though, I got you a Christmas Present and after seeing what your family got you, I figured it was best to wait.”

Out of his pocket Nolan pulled out a small ring box. “Nols you didn’t have to get me anything. I mean I don’t have anything for you.” You started to get antsy but he was quick to shush you.

In the box was the cutest silver ring with your initials on it. You were in shock at the sight of it. “Now I know its not anything fancy but TK got one for his mom and I couldn’t help but think it would be nice for you . . .”

“Nolan, I love it. Thank you” You couldn’t help but tear up at the thought of him getting you something so dainty and personalized.

“Those better not be tears, Y/N. After all we haven’t even made it onto the ice yet.”

As you both put your skates on, you couldn’t help but feel like the luckiest girl in the world. For the longest time, Nolan was just a neighbor - the cute guy at the end of the hall. But now it felt like there was so much more which made you think that maybe Christmas isn’t so bad afterall.

#nhl imagines #nhl #nhl fanfiction #nolan patrick #philadelphia flyers #flyers #this probably sucks so im sorry in advance #cheesy af #christmasy

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csykora · 5 years ago

Link

[A tabby cat curled up in the middle of a bubble hockey board. Or you, being comfortable in an athletic community that’s good enough for you]

Hiiiiii! I’ve been looking at ice hockey and it seems a cool sport and something that I might want to do as a hobby. Only Im disabled. Do you think I could still do the thing? Do you have ideas on how to start doing the thing? Ive often found it hard to do sports because coaches or trainers don’t know shit about disability and so have no clue how to teach you things or what you may or may not be capable of and telling them is useless because they make assumptions about your body and gah. Cheers

Hey—

Yes. Do the thing. Please go do it! I am not your coach, not your trainer, only friendly local bone witch—which I am very annoyed to have to say because you are a great athlete to work with.

Can I point out a couple things you just said?

You’re offering to do a trainer’s homework for them.

The early game didn’t have coaches. People milled on and off in whatever situations they felt like. Coaches and trainers came onto the scene so that someone was keeping track of who was actually good at what, when they needed support, and how to use them to best effect. That’s their whole gig.

Talking to folks on this blog, I’ve learned lots of people have this impression that capital-A Athletes have some factory-settings-standard body, any deviation a disaster (and they themselves can’t be athletes because they don’t.)

I think it’s very useful to smash this idea. Every athlete is a grab bag of weaknesses and weirdnesses, from old injuries down to handedness. Every coach longs to have three right-shot defensemen, and has made peace with the fact they’re not going to get them. Their job is to play with all the mismatched pieces they do have until they fit into a team.

If you present a coach or trainer with information about your abilities, and they don’t want to use that information, the problem you got right there is a shit coach.

Despite what the National League believes, there are more than 32 coaches in the world.

Throw a stick up here and you’ll hit another amateur coach. When we’re little, if we get a shit coach or PE teacher, we get stuck. That does real and lasting harm, which I am happy to go on at length about, but to flip it around:

Now, you are a big Zee, who wants to learn to play as a hobby, with the goal of having fun. That’s a powerful place to be.

I won’t say there aren’t stakes: you could get hurt, physically or emotionally. Sharing information about your body with other people to try to keep yourself from getting hurt all the time can be hard. Playing can make you feel physically accomplished and capable in your body, which is a deep need I think we all have, so having to back away if a team does turn out to be shit is hard. So I don’t say “you can always quit a team” lightly, but…there is no threat if you quit a shit team, no one (who matters) will get mad or make you go back.That means you can advocate for yourself, and if a reasonable shot at advocacy reveals that a coach isn’t just unfamiliar with how to do their job for someone with your disability but uninterested in doing their damn job for a disabled person, you can wave them farewell and find another.

Now, our goal is for you to find a good trainer, who just needs to be given information about what you (not someone with the ‘same’ condition, but you specifically) have got going on.

I’m going to tell you to look up an adult learn-to-skate program. Most rinks will have regular learn-to-skate and learn-to-hockey programs spaced throughout the year (often paired so you spend “first semester” on skating before the people who want to move up to hockey). Look up different rinks, talk to people about the rink culture and the coaches there. If you have the time, maybe spend a while hanging out there watching the open skates, local team practices or public classes, getting a sense what it’s like and telling yourself you have as much right to be in that barn as anyone else. Then sign up for a class. But first I want you to be devastatingly, Hepburn-ishly confident in talking about what your disability means for you.

From the information you’ve just given me, I don’t know almost anything I would need to work with you. You may or may not know that information about yourself already, but you can figure it out.

“Mild hemiplegia” is not a super-medical phrase. Hemiplegia is complete paralysis on one side of the body, where you are unable to move those muscles on purpose. A mild to moderate loss of muscle strength on one side is hemiparesis.

These terms are, to be honest, mostly used to organize medical literature. They describe very specific signs that might happen for a variety of reasons. Other symptoms like loss of sensation, loss of range of motion, involuntary muscle spasms, or loss/delay of involuntary motion (reflexes), which may or may not occur with plegia/paresis, have to be specified and described. If I were treating you I definitely wouldn’t describe your case as “hemiplegia”, I would call it “hemiparesis” with a lot more descriptive words around that (and I probably wouldn’t use either when talking to you).

It’s not that you used a word wrong. I’m concerned that 1. people have made you think you have to use A Medical Name for your disability for it to be taken seriously, but also 2. because the stroke happened so early, you’ve actually been denied care and opportunities to learn about it.

1. First, for the record, you don’t have to justify your disabled identity to me. And while I really (really) understand the self-protective urge a lot of us have to try to say, “my condition is really real and serious, it has a Real Medical Name, please believe me”, I think that (outside of a legal context where you’re seeking protected accommodations) that strategy often isn’t as useful as we hope it will be to communicate with other people in our daily lives. The people who demand to see your Really Medically Serious card before making accommodations will always find something else to demand, while people who aren’t trying to be assholes will be better able to help you if they know exactly, practically how.

It’s not that one way of talking about your disability is wrong, but I want you to talk about it in ways that are useful to you, that help you connect with other people and get you what you want.

2. I’ve worked with a lot of elders who have paralysis or hemiparesis from strokes later in life, after being able-bodied for most of their lives, and doctors and therapists jump right up in there teaching and training them to “recover” that “lost function”. They/their families can’t not know all the medical words just from hearing them over and over. But what often happens when a person is disabled since childhood is that…they aren’t seen as having “lost capacity” that can be “saved”, but as having a baseline “low level of function” that’ll never change, so much less attention is payed.

I’m using the air quotes because many people’s disabilities are present throughout their whole lives, and someone’s disability or disabled identity is not just a “problem” to be solved or gotten rid of. But people with disabilities grow and change, especially when we’re, you know, children. What often happens is that parents/authorities encourage able-bodied children to play, practicing motions and building up their bodies’ ability to move, while children with disabilities get benched from practice, benched from not just one activity but from being active at all, which means being benched from developing their bodies in the ways that might actually work for them, and from developing relationships with their bodies.

Proprioception, for example, is a combination of some fundamental ability/capacity/threshold/potential/whathaveyou and skill developed through experience that changes in context. Ever seen a baby? None of them know where the hell they are. A baby that can crawl is let loose to explore the world and bump into things that trigger their nerves until their body learns to fit all that sensation information together and use it. A baby that doesn’t crawl for some other reason often doesn’t get a chance to explore, to experience those sensations or train up that skill. And a kid that has a different threshold for stimulation, who naturally seeks out more or less or a different sort, is often stopped from stimming in ways which would provide their body information they could process.

As an adult, you get the chance to look at what you want to do and how your body can do it again.

So…

I want you to go throw a ball at a wall. Try to catch it. If you do any exercises already, sit-ups or pushups, do some of those. Run around the block, jump around on your bed. Stretch or just swing your arms and legs around. Find some small objects to use as weights and lift them, with either arm and then either leg (or set them on the floor and see if you can push them).

Work your way up your body one limb at a time, first thinking just about that limb on its own and then comparing the two sides after you’ve done them both. Don’t put a value judgement on anything yet, just pay attention: if your feet feel okay after running around, if you had more strength in one spot than you expected, if you had fun jumping, if there was a time you thought you might wobble but were able to correct, count that too! Think about each activity you did, the sensations around it, and whether that stim was satisfying, overstimulating, or not stimulating enough.

I want you to be able to go to a learn-to-play program, ask to talk with the coach at an appropriate time during the application or orientation, and say things like, “I have this condition. This is what it means: I have less strength with one arm, but I can move it as fast as the other, and with the same range of motion. I don’t grip items as well with one hand, or I tend to grip very hard. I don’t feel this type of sensation in this area, but I do feel that”.

Your coach is then going to recommend exercises to build strength in particular areas, or modifications to exercises so that you can do them without needing to use a particular area; they might have you try different equipment (find a tape job or adapted hand position that helps you keep hold of your stick, etc), and they may also encourage your towards and start training you for a particular position where you could do the most. When it comes to sensation, they’ll know to watch you closer for injuries in that spot that you might not notice.

This came in while I was applying to go back to university, and I bribed myself through the short essay section by pausing every hour to eat chocolate and sketch out what I would have you do for hypothetical positions and exercise plans. That’s still a long way off, but I’m very invested, so a couple things I want you to think about as you work towards the goal:

Keep sled hockey in mind. It’s not always a fit for people whose disability involves their arms, but it’s a cool community and most rinks will offer clinics where you can try out a sled and get a sense of the game.

How do you feel about getting hit with a puck? From your description, stickhandling and shooting may not be super fun for you. They may be, but if you give them a fair try and start to fee discouraged, try picturing yourself as a defender focussing on positioning or shot-blocking, or a goalie. Some people never ever want to do it, which is fair, but if you’re at all interested I’d love to see you try some time in goal! Everyone’s different but some folks the weight of the pads and the focused role can be really good stimulation. If your handling or footwork doesn’t feel great, goaltending would let you focus on moving your body more naturalistically as a whole to position in front of shots. And everyone else will love you for volunteering!

Write back and tell us how it goes!

#long post

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ficclique · 5 years ago

Text

In addition to our own personal top fics (which you can view here), we asked you all to send us your choices for your fics of the decade and why you loved them. We received so many wonderful submissions, and now want to share them with everybody! In an effort to not make this post too long we’ve edited down the comments that people left us, but everyone had some really lovely things to say, so if anything catches your eye here we really encourage you to take a look at the complete list of comments here.

Without further ado, please enjoy the top fics of the decade as chosen by you, our listeners:

Submitted by: Cricket

Fic 1: pilgrimage by wolfsupremacist

Info: EXO RPF, Baekhyun/Sehun

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18411497/chapters/43607615

Cricket’s comment: I can't get over all the building in this fic -- the world building, the character building, the relationship building. The main character’s development was like watching a child grow: it's hard to see it happening, but once you reflect on who he became versus who he was, it's so obvious how he changed.

Fic 2: the eye of providence by minhyukwithagun

Info: NCT RPF, Jaehyun/Taeyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14981330

Cricket’s comment: I have genuinely never laughed so hard while reading a fic.There were so many little details that the author added that were unnecessary to the overall plot but just made the characters so much more real. You get to learn so much about everyone in such a (relatively) short amount of time.

Fic 3: so collect your scars and wear them well by addandsubtract

Info: Hockey RPF, Connor McDavid/Dylan Strome

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5075128

Cricket’s comment: I feel like this fic changed me as a writer. It touches on such a relatable subject: that feeling of being completely unsure of what you should do with your life when Plan A doesn't work out, and discovering who you are without the thing that you previously thought defined you.

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Submitted by: Claire

Fic 1: The Baffled King and The Idiot Hero by Ellarose C

Info: Hetalia, ?

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5819880/1/

Claire’s comment: This fic launched 3 of my high school friendships that continue to this day. It's cute and Hallmark levels of unrealistic, and I LOVE it. The overwhelming nostalgia and gratefulness I feel towards this fic (and all of Carrie's work, honestly) still blows me away.

Fic 2: Embers by Vathara

Info: Avatar: The Last Airbender, gen

Link: https://m.fanfiction.net/s/5398503/1/

Claire’s comment: The best, wildest, most comprehensively worldbuilt ATLA fic I have ever read. Tea, dragons, realistic motivations, that ending... perfect. *chef kiss*

Fic 3: Of A Linear Circle (series) by flamethrower

Info: HP, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/755028

Claire’s comment: I linked the whole series because I simply cannot pick a favorite installment. OaLC focuses on fixing the glaring plot holes in the Wizarding education system, accurately depicting the Founders' Era thanks to copious research, and showing that no one is truly irredeemable (except Voldemort himself, who more than earns it).

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Submitted by: Threepwillow

Fic 1: All the Other Ghosts by rainjoys

Info: Glee, Kurt/Blaine

Link: https://rainjoyswriting.livejournal.com/146587.html

Threepwillow’s comment: All The Other Ghosts and its direct sequel, Grey, are some of the most incredibly original and simultaneously incredibly transformative works of fanfiction I have ever read. The way they masterfully twist elements of canon to fit into the lore of their AU is second only to the profound, revelatory character studies that they've executed. This shit is extraordinary.

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Submitted by: Segs

Fic 1: Hemostuck (series) by roachpatrol and urbanAnchorite

Info: Homestuck, various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/8470

Seg’s comment: THE WORLDBUILDING. THE ARTWORK. THE NARRATIVE VOICE(S). THE INCREDIBLE GRASP ON CHARACTERIZATION. DID I MENTION THE WORLDBUILDING.

Fic 2: transistor by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18760093/chapters/44503969

Seg’s comment: Rips my heart to shreds piece-by-piece and then gently puts it back together in the end. It's another put-these-characters-in-a-darker-setting sort of thing. It is brilliant and beautiful and I love it dearly.

Fic 3: any sign of spring by bluecarrot

Info: Hamilton, Hamilton/Burr

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7523227/chapters/17100376

Seg’s comment: This fic is so dang atmospheric. It feels very physical -- the temperature, the environment, the drawing. It's bittersweet, but ends on the sweet, and I think the sweetness is all the more emphasized for it. Rereading it feels like coming back to a familiar place.

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Submitted by: Ang

Fic 1: Anarchy In The U.K. by Yahtzee

Info: X-Men First Class, Erik/Charles

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673552/chapters/1232410

Ang’s comment: the writing of this one made it so easy to get completely lost in the au while still knowing the characters so well from the source material! super engaging, totally consumed my life for a week

Fic 2: blackjacks running down by back by dangerbears

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/499474

Ang’s comment: this is like my comfort blanket fic! every time i reread it (even though i'm not in that fandom anymore), it's still just as funny and cute as it was the very first time i read it - again the au is so easily believable because the characterizations are so familiar.

Fic 3: this city bleeds its aching heart by renne

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/835829

Ang’s comment: unsurprisingly, it's another au that is so easy to fall into! this is another one that i've been consistently rereading since i first read it (in 2015, for this one) because it's my absolute favorite trope with a ship that i'm still very much into!

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Submitted by: Scout

Fic 1: she called it a void by vans88

Info: Star Wars, Finn/Poe/Rey

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5493500

Scout’s comment: Short and powerful and essential to anyone's viewing of the new Star Wars trilogy. Seriously one of the most careful, tender, and graceful queer addendums to a piece of pop culture this decade.

Fic 2: The Love Song of The North American Douchebag by gyzym

Info: Star Trek RPF, Chris/Zach

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/852395

Scout’s comment: JESUS FUCKING CHRIST, I HOPE I CAN SWEAR. I'm not even in this fandom. The world building is just THAT good. It's one of my highlights *because* of its power to draw me in as a standalone. So much fucking talent in the transformative work community. The banter, characterization, sardonic-ness of this – international impact baby!

Fic 3: all this learning here is by you by decinq, nighimpossible

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5105441

Scout’s comment: Revolutionized – and I would argue – drove the GROWTH AND SURVIVAL of hockey fandom. One of the best known works in the fandom, and a masterclass in how to build a set of characters that you're genuinely envious you don't get to see or know. Two incredible authors and a plethora of personality. Fun and sexy and lighthearted but poignant. Chef kiss.

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Submitted by: Em

Fic 1: the subtle science and exact art of chess-boxing, by fishcola

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18931885/chapters/44945971

Em’s comment: fishcola is definitely one of the top reasons i actually started reading/writing polygon rpf. this fic!!!!! i sWEAR its so /so/ good oh my GOSH. yes, full disclosure im fish's beta for chessboxing but also i am enthusiastic simply because it is a very beautiful and powerful narrative on trauma, healing, and how the people we choose to interact with affect our emotions.

Fic 2: the old men call me by my mother’s name by theviolonist

Info: HP, Hermione/Ron

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1044467

Em’s comment: as a certified Trans(TM) im always pursuing and consuming trans content. the old men call me by my mother's name is an hp fic that i still cherish years after first reading it. trans!ron is a concept not often explored in hp fic, much less trans /girl/ ron. massive gender feels, folks.

Fic 3: national hot dad alliance is now calling… by dicaeopolis, owlinaminor

Info: Haikyuu! , various

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5663683/chapters/13045579

Em’s comment: national hot dad alliance really is the perfect evolution of a groupchat fic. i laughed, i cried, i fell in love with the characters all over again as these captains from different teams bond over graduating. and also being Dads(TM). in some cases-- pining over their fellow volleyball players-- plus star wars, the x-files, and memes. overall its is very good and i will stan it eternally

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Submitted by: Staci

Fic 1: No Homo, by orphan account

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1148039/chapters/2326073

Staci’s comment: Literally my favorite AU ever written. The characterization is SO on point and it truly is a super fun read. It’s also a super long which helps with painting such a detailed picture of these two dummies who are-totally-just-bros-with-added-benefits. I’d recommend this to anyone, even if they’re unaware of Teen Wolf, but if you’re a Teen Wolf fan then it’s even better.

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Submitted by: Nadine

Fic 1: Too Long, Too Close (series) by callmejude

Info: MCU RPF, Chris/Sebastian

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/253528

Nadine’s comment: kink exploration and bdsm done well.... and so thoroughly. but there's more! theres FEELINGSSSSSS uhhhhhhh it made me CRY it's so good.

Fic 2: On a Clear Day by Saras_Girl

Info: HP, Harry/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/879841

Nadine’s comment: I could've put a few other fics by this author because they write the best drarry but uhhhhh. I had to choose and it was either gonna be TURN or this one. Idk why but this one makes me so unbelievably emotional bc it was Harry who's Going Through Stuff and I just loved it a lot.

Fic 3: around the world in eighty thousand days, by fallfreely

Info: 1D, Liam/Harry

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/856935

Nadine’s comment: It was hard to pick a 1D fave but I think that this fic always had a v special place in my heart & I can't even explain why. I love the dynamic of this pairing (even though it's not even my OTP, wtf. I'm a Gryles and Narry truther... *eye emoji*) and the whole FEEL of this fic and it's slow burn tour fic, soo.

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Submitted by: Frecklebomb

Fic 1: Shalbatana

Info: Mars Trilogy, Gen

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6629

Frecklebomb’s comment: A beautifully-written gen fic (with an incredibly gorgeous podfic by Luzula) in the near-future-scifi Mars Trilogy fandom but very easy to enjoy without canon knowledge. I revisit this story over and over and always marvel at the presence of the landscape and alien planet in it, the way it feels like a character. Bonus Mars rover feelings (I cry every time about the robot).

Fic 2: Through a Glass Darkly, by susiecarter

Info: DCU, Clark Kent/Bruce Wayne

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19395793/chapters/46155535

Frecklebomb’s comment: Sprawling post-apocalyptic epic, so rich and cinematic that it feels like a movie I somehow read. The worldbuilding and tension of the focal ship are what sucked me into this fic, but what stayed with me was the richness of the ensemble characters. I find myself just thinking about their character arcs, and imagining what they'd be doing post-story. I want fic of this fic.

Fic 3: Too Far Down The Road, by SoniaVice

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13208136/chapters/30212907

Frecklebomb’s comment: An amnesia trope origfic set in handwavey hockey fandom (author said they 'set it free' to be OMC/OMC when the dynamic needed to be different from the RPF ship it started out as). It gives me so many good feelings about family (of choice and otherwise) and ageing and self-acceptance and sexuality, and the way you can choose to be changed by the people you spend your life with.

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Submitted by: Em (Springsteen)

Fic 1: Pull Me Under, by zarah5

Info: 1D, Harry/Louis

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/870766

Em’s comment: first of all zarah5 is a fandom legend. second, this is like the pinnacle of fake relationship fics to me it's 140k and so much of it is pining and like truly, who among us doesn't love harry styles with their whole heart. I can't think about the '10s without thinking about one direction and when this fic came out I remember a lot of people fully losing their minds.

Fic 2: Door to Door, by Ferritin4

Info: Hockey RPF, Jamie Benn/Tyler Seguin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3478298

Em’s comment: this is one of the first hockey fics I ever read and I still come back to it so often. The relationship builds so well, Tyler's dogs are in it, it's just so sweet, and plus it's a very readable 10k.

Fic 3: Darling It Is No Joke, by thehoyden

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/399194

Em’s comment: look I can't be retrospective about this decade and /not/ include a sterek fic. the first half of this decade for me was all 1d and teen wolf and full disclosure, it's been a while since I've reread this fic, but I remember the banter being really stellar and thehoyden is another one of those authors who I just. Adore.

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Submitted by: Dan

Fic 1: The Heart Rate of a Mouse (series) by Anna (arctic_grey)

Info: Bandom, Ryan Ross/Brendan Urie

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/712953

Dan’s comment: This fic is incredibly iconic. It’s definitely one of my favorites of all time—the way the story is told is just heart wrenching, and it manages to always keep you on edge about what’s going to happen. The portrayal of self discovery, love, jealousy, down to the settings and all the social issues of the time period (the 70s), is amazingly done.

Fic 2: The Cat’s Miaow by Pennyplainknits

Info: Bandom, Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/930529

Dan’s comment: This fic is unlike anything else I’ve read. First off, I LOVE historical AUs, and the noir setting is everything I could have wanted and more. The author has managed to create such a delicate and profound romance along with an interesting plot that borders on thriller without ever going too far with either side of the story.

Fic 3: Get Real Get Right (Fuckin Right) by sophiahelix

Info: Riveyonce Cuoknowles, Sufjan Stevens/Drake

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9029020

Dan’s comment: Honestly? This is just art.

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Submitted by: Carina

Fic 1: Bite Marks by provocative_envy

Info: HP, Hermione/Draco

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3580953/chapters/7894464

Carina’s comment: i've shied away from aus in harry potter fic for years, especially american college aus but this fic in my opinion kept the best of the characters and modernized them in a way that felt true to who they are.

Fic 2: old jokes from a wild youth, by knightspur

Info: SEVENTEEN RPF, Mingyu/Minghao

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18127073

Carina’s comment: mingyu and minghao are in love, but they're not soulmates. i love the dynamics and the quiet intimacy between them, and also how they work through wanting to be together despite them not having a bond in the way soulmates have.

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Submitted by: Katy

Fic 1: The River and The Deep Green Bend by liquidmeasure

Info: 1D, Harry/Niall

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6005275

Katy’s comment: this fic honestly surpasses the genre of fic. it is a genre all its own. it is the pinnacle in catharsis and heartbreak and having a satisfying end that is completely unsatisfying as well. I will never recover from this fic.

Fic 2: Out of the Dead Land by Orphan Account

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1871955

Katy’s comment: there is a specific phrase in this fic that has and will continue to stay with me. I will never hear the phrase "up or down" without feeling immense heartbreak. an amazing blend of source material to create something altogether its own - but could still take place in either canon

Fic 3: Up We Go by Oh_Hey_Tae

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Jimin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12297168

Katy’s comment: this fic is one that I found more recently, but I can already tell that it is one that is going to stick with me for a long long time. it is another fic that I feel transcends the genre of fic entirely

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Submitted by: Corie

Fic 1: Build A Temple In Me by Authoress

Info: Haikyuu!, Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3716002

Corie’s comment: A wonderful and moving fanfic with fantasy akin to studio ghibli. If I have to recommend Haikyuu fanfiction this is it.

Fic 2: Close to the Chest by darkmagicalgirl

Info: Haikyuu!, Kyoutani Kentarou/Yahaba Shigeru

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3898771/chapters/8721568

Corie’s comment: Another haikyuu!! Fic! I remember reccing this to my friend and she said it was more akin to a novel then any fanfiction she has read. High praise IMO

Fic 3: Fake Sugar by minverse

Info: BTS, Jungkook/Seokjin

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14707098/chapters/33987549

Corie’s comment: Oh sweet god I love minverse’s writing and this fic has it all. Romance, smut, and a nice dollop of humor.

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Submitted by: Abby

Fic 1: an awful curse by blinkiesays

Info: Teen Wolf, Stiles/Derek

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/604092

Abby’s comment: Non-linear timeline, au within the story, "every me loves every you," domesticity but also heavy angst, and it's so beautifully written it makes me want to cry reading it. also it harkens back to the time of when the show was still good.

Fic 2: dance this silence down (the emergency room remix) by Fahye

Info: Les Miserables, Enjorlas/Grantaire

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994140/chapters/1966093

Abby’s comment: It's such a great, understandable ensemble fic for a dense canon, with such a great modern day au setting, but the whole time it really deals with the main character's depression and alcoholism and the complete overwhelming love that he has for the guy he's shipped with. it's so gritty and real but the ending brings so much hope I love it.

Fic 3: comment fic by anon

Info: iCarly, Sam/Spencer

Link: https://author-abz.livejournal.com/35003.html

Abby’s comment: this is an ANONYMOUS comment fic someone wrote me when I was feeling down on LJ and it's so short but so complete, and it says everything it needs to about it being okay to mess up and just be messed up together. also: "glitter emergency" (technically a cheat, it's from 2008; I forgot it was so old)

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Submitted by: Kassie

Fic 1: An Exercise in ‘Worthless’ by beastofthesky

Info: Supernatural, Dean/Castiel

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/535676

Kassie’s comment: an exercise in worthless introduced me (indirectly) to my favorite musician and (directly) to the subject i almost minored in during undergrad, so honestly i would put it as a fic of the decade even if it wasn’t one of the best fics i read in the supernatural fandom.

Fic 2: Superstition (series) by Superstition_hockey

Info: Hockey, OMC/OMC

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/413233

Kassie’s comment: superstition started out as a tropey, fun, lighthearted short fic, and grew into a big thing that deals with a lot of serious topics incredibly well while also being still very funny and emotional and having honestly some of my favorite fictional characters i’ve read in years

Fic 3: United States v. Barnes

Info: MCU, Steve/Bucky

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2304905/chapters/5071058

Kassie’s comment: united states v barnes is the multimedia fic of my DREAMS. this is what i want to show people to explain why i love fanfic so much. it does so much with the medium its working in and the presentation of the fic, and fits that perfect fanfic niche of exploring the kind of background that will never appear in canon but that everyone wonders about.

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Submitted by: Kat

Fic 1: I’ve felt and I’ve Been by autotunedd

Info: Big Bang RPF, Seunghyun/Jiyong

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15349758/chapters/35616516

Kat’s comment: Possibly the fic that marked my entire decade. The characters are so human and real, the plot is heavy and winding and the twists sometimes seem life ending. It is heavy, it is painful, it is sad, it is angsty, it is maybe even a smidge too real and dangerous at times, but it makes a solid read, a long, relatable novel about real people with real fears and problems.

Fic 2: Eversion by thespectaclesofthor

Info: Detroit: Become Human, Hank Anderson/Connor

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15754140/chapters/36638253

Kat’s comment: Beautiful, long, detailed, well written, hard hitting, serious, sweet, painful, kinky, all in one! The characters have so much depth, their issues and inner workings seem so real and the plot is so carefully crafted and detailed, every chapter keeps you at the edge of your seat. All in all, beautifully crafted, passionate, hard hitting piece that I couldn't help falling in love with.

Fic 3: Eggshell Landscapes and the Burden of Love by NoContractTermination

Info: NCT RPF, Taeil/Johnny

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10446438

Kat’s comment: Short, sweet, angsty and charming! I loved the intimate look into their relationship this fic brings, the trials and tribulations and the struggle to communicate. It all seemed so raw and real and coupled with the author's beautiful writing, it all came together in a perfect read, with bounds of re-read potential.

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Submitted by: Wen

Fic 1: the bellwether by highoctane

Info: Polygon RPF, Brian/Pat

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18634426

Wen’s comment: Feelings!!! It's really refreshing to read a character who, as an established adult, is reconfiguring an understanding of himself without it being either a whole crisis or a sudden seamless lightbulb moment. It's very fair to both characters' emotions, letting them both react in a way that feels wonderfully human and real rather than idealistic.

Fic 2: Five Times the Potion Seller Refused to Sell a Potion (and One Time He Didn’t) by misura

Info: Potion Seller (Justin Kuritzkes Short Film), Knight/Potion Seller

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5441447

Wen’s comment: It's based on a 3 minute meme video and if it was just a tweet or post with the title alone it would be a great joke but... someone went and wrote the dang thing! And it could have been ridiculous crackfic, and while it certainly toes that line it's also got a really fun flow of dialogue that leaves a lot to the imagination without it getting confusing.

Fic 3: I Am The Horrible Goose That Lives In The Town by Daniel Lavery

Info: The Untitled Goose Game, gen

Link: https://www.shatnerchatner.com/p/i-am-the-horrible-goose-that-lives

Wen’s comment: the writing is tremendous and sits beautifully in that razor's edge space where english is used just strangely enough to create a fantastic character voice without going too far and falling into some kind of awkward english language uncanny valley. it's so hard to pick out the best line because every line is the best line. "Here I am coming, with the good news of me, and you hate it. You can think only of the bell and how much I have it, and you are never the goose."

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Submitted by: Mage

Fic 1: Fog, Sheets and Thunder by theopteryx

Info: My Chemical Romance RPF, Frank/Gerard

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/351396

Mage’s comment: i have literally thought about this fic at least once a week since i read it in 2012. do not ask me why. i have no answers.

Fic 2: Flowers in Bones by fringecity (indiachick)

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16256390

Mage’s comment: sometimes i just wanna be a careful selection of small animal bones that yoongi gently unearths and meticulously crafts into an altar of pressed flowers and ink

Fic 3: It Happened Quiet by hobimo

Info: BTS, Taehyung/Yoongi

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15070646/chapters/34939646

Mage’s comment: haunted woods :) cryptids :) that deeply unsettling feeling that there are greater, mysterious forces at work and there's nothing you can do about it :)

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Submitted by: BirdieLeonie

Fic 1: Reprise (series) by Elfpen

Info: Star Wars, various (Obi-Wan centric)

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/series/454408

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I spent about seven months of my life reading nothing but Star Wars time-travel fix-it fics. (I am not exaggerating; there are enough of them to last that long or longer.) This is my favorite.

Fic 2: Friday Night Arrives Without a Suitcase by marycontraire

Info: Hockey RPF, Danny Briere/Claude Giroux

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/534247

BirdieLeonie’s comment: This is a fic I have kept coming back to again and again in the years since I first read it. It's domestic and sweet and still adult. It's like curtainfic, inverted; the leads live together and parent their kids and go grocery shopping before they have a romantic or sexual relationship.

Fic 3: The Hero’s Journey; or: What Jasper Sitwell Did Last Summer (podfic), by artzbots, blackglass, daroos, girlwithabubblegun, kalakirya, Opalsong, reena_jenkins, RsCreighton, sabinelagrande

Info: MCU & Welcome to Night Vale, Jemma Simmons/Jasper Sitwell

Link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6462223

BirdieLeonie’s comment: I love podfic, I love crossovers, and I love this fic. Again, I picked this because of all the thousands of MCU fics I've read, this is the one I find myself coming back to repeatedly. This crossover is creative, fun, and plays with one of my favorite tropes: what was happening to a minor character in the background of the story we saw?

#fic clique #fic recs #multifandom #minisode #top fics of the decade #fics of the decade

6 notes · View notes

fortheheavenssake · 5 years ago

Text

PG MM Anon Interpretation Collection- 10

65: Sept. 20

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG INTERPRETATION OF MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON HAVE AN AWESOME WEEKEND 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON … it’s a bird’ it’s a private plane ‘ it’s an Archificial!!!!!…… Canada why?…… three weddings and a numeral …… an unnecessary company …… not buying the lying ……” Rome , Bloody Rome!!”…………” one makes ones bed Philip”…… tabloids ‘ mud sticks, it’s official!!…… hated ‘ not rated …… This spotty leopard is def!! …… “ To boldly go……… “

it’s a bird’ it’s a private plane ‘ it’s an Archificial!!!!!

It’s Superman!!! Was the original third part. The ever elusive doll baby with magic powers to change size, hair colour, eyes, eyelashes etc etc all while wearing a Christening gown🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂 Again MM ANON are you confirming this? Private planes have been used because as we all know, there is no baby in her care, it’s always been a doll, and/or actors getting on/off private planes and or going to their local. For some reason EJ and ED are lying! Allegedly.

Canada why?

Canada Dry🤣🤣🤣😂😂MM ANON are you teasing me because l didn’t know that rare song🤣🤣😂😂? Seriously, l wonder if this is about Cameron Ortis and enquiring why Canada’s issue occurred and who was given what information.

three weddings and a numeral

Movie Three Weddings and a Funeral. Interestingly the write Richard Curtis is working with Catherine DOC , a new mental health initiative. It was in the paper the other day, if l recall there was a suicide he experienced, sibling? I cannot recall exactly. So Three weddings and a numeral. Let’s review what a numeral is, its a figure, symbol, or group of these denoting a number. MM ANON are you affirming something for us? Oh pretty please!!

Madam alleged annulled 1st marriage, divorced second and PH was the golden door number three, let’s make a deal, who remembers that game show? Does numeral represent a part of the law which denotes annulment and was it done legally? We know the divorce was legal because TE has remarried or is engaged. Oh my stars, are we getting affirmation?l have said awhile now why did PH hold the book when he was ‘signing’ the register after the wedding ceremony, he held the book so the camera couldn’t see it. Oh this clue has me buzzing! I know it’s can’t be III. Roman numeral three for three weddings they have attended as a married couple, the horrible blue and white dress, Princess Eugenie and Jack B and now MN?

an unnecessary company

Is this the Sussex Foundation? They could have worked as a team with the Cambridges but her jealousy and craving of $$$$$££££££££€€€€€ far supersedes any philanthropic or truly real humanitarianism.

not buying the lying

No one is believing anything she says or does except sugars and celebrities who share management or SS PR.

” Rome , Bloody Rome!!”

Again PP, disgust continues to rile his anger. Raging at yet another trip, how many flights is this now in six weeks or so? If they are all true it must be close to ten. He is a strong man, served his country for decade upon decade, to see this madam, l cannot imagine his blood pressure!

” one makes ones bed Philip”

HMTQ and PP , or maybe LG, the phrase you made your bed, now lie on it. This means your life choices have consequences and you have to deal with them The speaking if first person here, in a manner, leads me to believe this is HMTQ talking to her husband and the incredible burden of a booty call turning into this horrendous mess and PH playing his role, in his due to HMTQ, his grandmother is him having to deal with his poor choice. We still love and pray for him, as do his family. It must be desperately hard to watch him , but it will all be worth it, once justice is served, and make no mistake, it may not be tomorrow or next week, it will come! My word for madam, she will not understand this but Ask not for whom the bell tolls, for it tolls for the.

tabloids ‘ mud sticks, it’s official!!

Monster Meghan nanny tells all, TMZ shows fake photos of pub visit days and days after it allegedly happened, the pub owners denied they were there, the meta data on the photo said it was taken September 17,2019. More and more in the tabloids both paper and online tabloids, the truth is coming out and people are believing it more and more thus the term the mud sticks. MM ANON, the other riddle you used ‘ stick and stones’may break my bones, but names will never hurt me. I added the rest, after the part she mentioned. So in this case, the ‘names’ which in fact is truth are most definitely hurting her already bad reputation. Way to go SS!! You’re really earning your $$$$£££££€€€€! NOT !😂😂😂😂🤣

hated ‘ not rated

If one goes by social media et al, she doesn’t rate as a royal, but oh my the level of absolute disgust, anger, has built into hatred. Rightfully so, she blew in, rather flew in on her 🧹, paid backers. Manipulated a marriage, a ‘fauxmegnancy’, wastage of money on an epic scale, disrespecting the British and Commonwealth every step of the way. Trying to Americanize the Royal family and the biggest of all is the complete vile disrespect to HMTQ. To me, all the misdeeds, ? maybe illegal, those are all left for LG to manage. The thing of HMTQ at this stage of her Reign and her life, to be so utterly disrespected, repeatedly is utter gall. Yet another major reason she is hated so much by so many!

This spotty leopard is def!!

Def Leopard…awesome band and takes me back to hockey games music and after parties. She is def, not physically def,but tone def in an abstract meaning. She doesn’t accept any opinion except her own. Any questions she immediately cries troll, racist, hater, a plethora of descriptors. I still cannot believe all the time twitter was going last night either in Italy or as leaving to go there. Who cares if l or others misread the riddle. I am not embarrassed to acknowledge l misread something! Hey this is for fun, if it angers or irritates someone, perhaps reset this or take a break. In saying that, l work very hard in processing what the options are that a clue may mean and then writing it, in a manner that is as clear and concise as l can do.

“ To boldly go……… “.

To boldly go where no man, since changed to no one , has gone before, from the opening of Star Trek episodes. So madam has boldly gone to Rome sans archficial, and the Africa trip is pending shortly. Wonder why the journalists flight to Capetown has been cancelled?? She sees herself as the worlds answer to anything and l am sure she will display her narcissistic brilliantly while there. Oh this is going to be fun to watch!

As an aside, the HMS PRINCE OF WALES was taken out of drydock in Forsyth, Scotland. Some interiors are still being constructed. This is a massive beast of a sea faring ship. Check it out!

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Wow! How do you do this dear PG! You take so little and turn out a masterpiece! So impressive, thank you so much! As always, greatly appreciated! Thank you!😃💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

Sep 20th, 2019

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66: sept. 21

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

MM Anon

skippyv20

MM ANON …The wedding r/deception … the bigger picture …… easy does it! but do it…… weasel words …… not an option …… a collection of miss-fits…… heads or tails?……… home alone 7…… A sensible emptiness …… “don’t forget to wind the clock”……… no public appearances …… a good WHO-done

The wedding r/deception

So, this variety of people gather for big wedding number two in less than five years for the same bride,,different groom. It looked like a political conference with the level of security and who was there. Why did they attend, as far as l know the paper said they weren’t part of the evening prepared, l didn’t see them there in the photos from that evening. They were at the wedding, why? If you’re all close friends why not go to the fun bit and socialize, have a few drinks and a dance. I’ll tell you why BECAUSE THEYRE NOT A COUPLE THATS TOGETHER, it’s a charade. There must have been some reason they went, especially l enjoyed the cheeky photo of Harry where he SOUGHT out the camera and grinned. That told this girl all l need to know. Something was up, and we may never know what the agenda was but something was up!

the bigger picture

When one says look at the bigger picture here, it means take a step back from your situation, look at pros, cons, what you have invested into the issue and make the best decision that way. Here l think it’s literal, look at the whole picture, who was at that we’d and why. I have no answers but l think that’s one option.

I also think this is PH, going to the wedding was one small part of his time with mm, MM ANON is telling us don’t yippity yap about who was wrong or right about them going to the wedding or not. I admit it freely, l completely misread the clue about the wedding. Am l still lived?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂💜💜💜💜💜 l hope so😊. Seriously now, look at the big picture who set him up, what’s happened since then and so forth. I feel we need to continue to brain storm and put forth opinions here, this is fascinating and sometimes what we have talked about is in the paper the next day and l think wow! So let’s keep our eye on the prize and on the bigger picture!

easy does it! but do it

Slow progress in extraction from this sordid tale. Many many things have changed and been revealed l he is back to being called PH in the media no more DUKE🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂. There is so much negative PR it’s incredible and SS has only made things worse. So easy do it with the extraction but DO IT ! HMTQ and LG have this. The thing l fear presently is that speech she is going to give shortly after landing.

weasel words

Weasel words are words or statements that are intentionally ambiguous or misleading AKA word salad. That’s how she speaks, gobble de gook , just all kind awesome kind, yet kind but also awesomely kind, but kind of awesome, yet kindly kind. You get it, you know it. As l said , my massive fear is that first speech with the domestic murder rate off the charts, she goes in there yammering like that, there is serious damage that she could do. This is no joke, l worry about this. She on the other hand thinks she’s so awesomely kind that her speeches save the world and just her presence there will make things all better especially if she uses a darker bronzer!

not an option

Giving up is not an option. There were years invested into planning this and years have been invested into investigations. This must be allowed to play on as long as it needs to. They cannot afford to not pull out and follow every piece of yarn they unravel, this is too internationally important to just give up now. The general public is angry both at home and the a Commonwealth, its an incredible game being played but we have God , HMTQ and LG and PW and PH on ours! Let’s remember to keep them in prayer 🙏🏻💜🙏🏻.

a collection of miss-fits

Well l could say the stolen name SmartSets was a collection of things that fit a very select few and a bag, that cost more than the clothes that the fit on was terrible. The trousers she woke had a big bit of extra fabric right in the front lower area yikes! I do think, the almost inbred crew that was at that Italian wedding was a bunch of misfits. I am not judging but my reading tells me, her first marriage took place in Venice and was a massive affair, that marriage didn’t last three yearsish. Here we have a massive affair in Rome, l don’t get this flaunting of wealth. I just do not get it. The guest list, why are the Kushners, be it Jared or Josh always at any event? The connections in that guest list that was posted in the paper again reminded me of a genealogical family tree. This all so bizarre. Has she grafted her way into money as well? They keep saying she’s a fashion designer, l keep myself pretty in the know of stuff like that because it interesting to me. Before mm, l had NEVER heard of mn and her stupid white shirt. That’s her big contribution to fashion a white shirt? Okay then…..moving swiftly along…….

heads or tails?

Flip a coin, choose a side, you win or lose the bet.

home alone 7

Home Alone aaaaahhhhh Kevin!!! Love it, the sequels not the same. Is this now, the trio to Italy, the 7th time archficial has left left alone by his ‘parents’. Well yes l sure Nannyficial has things all in hand, in fact maybe they will Nannyficial to take care of Archficial in SA??

A sensible emptiness

Emptiness can mean a human condition is a sense of generalized boredom, social alienation and apathy, which means a

lack of interest, enthusiasm, or concern.

Sensible can be a statement or course of action chosen bearing in mind wisdom and prudence, and is likely to be of benefit. It can also be something that is practical and functional rather than decorative. Well we know mm is not the latter definition of sensible. So sensible emptiness, PH has made a life changing, mane lives actually, decision that night at soho, and here we are today. I truly believe this description of sensible emptiness could apply to him, HMTQ, those who live both, their families and all of us who are loyal to the Crown and love our royals. We know justice has to be brought to bare or is it bear, you know what l mean. So these feelings we talk about with our 💜🐼💜 and we share here are normal. We need to pray for justice seekers and truth seekers in all forms, they are doing Gods work.

“don’t forget to wind the clock”

Old clocks need winding to keep them running. To wind somebody up means to get them excited in a good or bad way. I think this means quite literal don’t forget to take care of yourself, PH, sleep, exercise, eat well, check your emotions with those you love, do what you need to do to stay fit (and oh is he fit,😁) so as the clock needs to be wound to function well, these things are essential to him being able to function well.

no public appearances

Amw will stay MIA, this is stupid ridiculous, but the lie has to continue. There has to be a reason and we must pray for PH , HMTQ and LG. Especially PH, he will have to maintain his composure. How they are going to keep this lie going l don’t know but l read they are taking 12 staff, that is NOT counting RPOS!!

a good WHO-done it.

This clue has a double meaning. It can mean a really good storyline in a book or film or tv really, that doesn’t tell us straight away who the criminal is but lays clues to figure it out….kinda like your riddles MM ANON. WHO is the World Health Organization. I don’t know if anybody noted the article l put on my blog last night or read it in the paper/saw or heard it on the news, this is a run on sentence for the ages, my goodness! There has been a spate of relationship homicide in SA, with 30 women being murdered in the last month alone. There has been a dramatic rise in statistics of violence. The WHO commenting means this is a severe issue needing addressing! With great dread do l await madams first speech shortly after they land, where she will speak on the topic of violence against women. This is a very dangerous decision with a lot of potential blowback!

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Wow! Amazing….so appreciate this dear PG! Things are getting interesting now! Thank you so much!😃💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

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67: Sept. 22

💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

I have had a massive increase in my sciatic pain, that’s been building since flu last week, today was brutal. But better now so l thought l would give the riddle a go. Please continue praying for me, l really am in need of it. Lots of love and gratitude 💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻PG🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜

MM Anon

MM ANON … Azurelee Drive…… “ we are interested” … … between 6 and 10……🎼 California scheming 🎼……((wedding gems…… “ SA ‘just a fuc#@g nuisance”…… “£uck the press, we can do anything I want”…… “ I don’t lie, I embellish”))……” is on our watch list “……… “HEADS ‘ I win”…… a draconian solution … “when The devil drives”. 🎼 “over and over and over again my friend”🎼………(🤫🤫🤭💎💎💎💎👩🏽‍💻👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️ when in Rome!!!!)

Azurelee Drive

Azure is the bluest of blues it is a gorgeous colour. As l suspected, Azurelee Drive is in Malibu, another clue to reenforce her long term plan is Malibu. Are there any prisons with an ocean view in Malibu? Maybe someone could let me know if there are, l am serious!

“ we are interested”

Again with the first person royal”we”. HMTQ is very interested in what’s going on. I think we are nearing some sort of climax with this trip. I have said this before, l trustmyngut, l have a very strong feeling something is going to happen. Perhaps the reason they flew to the wedding for such a short time, hardly worth it, was for her to use someone else’s computer to engage in a blood diamond deal? Again does she not get she is being monitored? Obviously not!

between 6 and 10

7, 8, 9, are between 6 and 10 literally. But l think this is the amount of time they spent at the wedding. They weren’t part of the party the night before, the next day wedding breakfast or the second night party the night after the wedding. Wow besties eh? Isn’t it awesome to have such great best friends?🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂

🎼 California scheming 🎼

This is a play on the song California dreaming, MM ANON has used this before, so it’s reenforcing for her plan to live there after all this is over. Yes perhaps in a dark cement building! Her plan, get all the $$$$€€€££££££ she can, set up her blog again and divorce rebuilding her life in Malibu was the last place l read was the mansion search. She is scheming her way into the marriage, during the ,arriage, out of the marriage and after the marriage

((wedding gems…… “ SA ‘just a fuc#@g nuisance”…… “£uck the press, we can do anything I want”…… “ I don’t lie, I embellish”))

Gems has an obvious meaning, which is also involved in this riddle.Gems can also be snippets like best song on an album etc. These are the gems of conversration/comments she made the night of the wedding. She really is stupid, has no filter and no judgement whatsoever!

” is on our watch list “

Of course, with the international security issues at , her past involvement with many, many individuals of dubious character during her yachting decades, and the current work LG has been doing l am certain she is on a watch list. Here l assume everyone knows what a watch list is, a person, or persons, group, or items requiring close surveillance, most usually for legal or political reasons.

“HEADS ‘ I win”

We had heads or tails yesterday. HEADS all caps, what’s the meaning? Who has HEADS and is the winner? I found one definition but nothing in all caps, heads a shouted warning that something is falling from above one’s head.

a draconian solution

We had a case, few years ago where l live, they wanted to build a casino in part of a local pub. Our city had a by-law preventing gambling and alcohol on sale in the same establishment. I can still see AND hear the owner when he was interviewed on the news about how Draconian our laws were. The definition of draconian is of laws or their application) excessively harsh and severe. I might add old law not updated. Many many places have old laws in the books that are never used anymore but still would be enforceable because they still exist as binding law. So LG and his team may have found just such a law or set of laws that they believe fit this situation and can be utilized to the benefit of the Crown. Oh please, please pretty please, let this be so!!

“when The devil drives”.

There is a novel by Scottish write Chris Brookmyre, with this same title. A dual plot, one a Shakespearean play being performed outdoors and a sniper kills someone, second plot a terminally ill woman wants to find her missing sister. The first is obvious, we don’t want that but security will be very tight on the tour l am certain. The second plot, are we being told there is a sister that is missing and still being searched out? Or is this nothing to do with the novel and the obvious meaning, once you’re riding with the devil nothing good and only reviled happens. I am inclined to think maybe a bit of both.

🎼 “over and over and over again my friend”🎼

This song has been performed and covered by many. The endless ways one tried to do things to be loved and keep someone happy. This is PH over and over and over,he is publicly acting this out, the loving supportive husband and “anything Meghan wants Meghan gets”. He has done such a great job and this has resulted in him taking lots and lots of media heat!

(🤫🤫🤭💎💎💎💎👩🏽‍💻👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️👷🏿‍♂️ when in Rome!!!!)

Blood diamonds! We have had this in a previous riddle. Shhh, diamond, laptop, four workers with hard hats of colour. Did she order, or pick up her diamonds??. Or sell some??? I suspected from an earlier riddle blood diamonds were on the table for her, here l have confirmation . I am thinking with the use of laptop she communicated the deal and will pick up in Africa. Oh kids, this is getting good. HANDCUFFS CLANG CLANG,

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Fantastic PG! Things are heating up it seems! Thank you, we so appreciate all the work you put into this….especially on your days! ThNk you🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️

Ask Skippy submission

12 notes

Sep 22nd, 2019

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68: sept.28

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

IT IS SOOOOOO GOOD TO BE BACK!!

MM Anon

MM ANON …… a slippery halo… … AFRICANT …… 🎼” you must have been a beautiful …” 🎼……… faux mother… no British archificial …… a crowd of booooos await……” so’ she Hates the bloody Brits”…… PB will destroy her thunder …… “ Malibu-hoo welcome “…… a $6 million drive in …… an uninterested Africa … PR pays for local hysteria … a white black imposter … well paid unimpressed mothers feel used …… “beef it up for Pakistan”

a slippery halo

The Halo Trust, the anti landlmine charity that a Princess Diana was such a part of and still thrives today because of her work . I remember 1997 , the land mine on the news, her walking, seems like yesterday. This is a double entebdré by our dear MM ANON. Harry has been slaughtered by the media for being a spoilt petulant entitled man. The halo or crown of the Prince 🤴 is slippery now in public opinion. LET’S PRAY FOR OUR HARRY🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

AFRICANT

Can or can’t, the version of cannot. Nothing has been good, happy, meaningful about her presence on this holiday, it’s not a royal tour. Just wonder what other stunts she is going to pull, because we are going to get another video of amw with oh happy day in the background music. By the way, is she paying royalty rights for using that music , the performers? Catherine cannot and does not put a foot wrong. This one cannot even put a hair right!

… 🎼” you must have been a beautiful

You must have been a beautiful baby, you must have a beautiful child! Singing as l type, great old song. Drive all the girls wild, l think is one line. He sure is a cutie, that’s for sure!

faux mother

As below, she doesn’t possess an ounce of mothering instinct. She can’t because that takes away from attention on her. This is exactly why amw was not at the play date.

no British archificial

So is he born in SA? Not royal, less than that not even British. Good God this woman is moronically stupid! Makes sense that he was in SA, that’s why the dolls have been in use, Christening photo, photoshopped, first photo that was barred by the palace from being used after June, can’t recall exact date. She picked this child up while in SA so she could throw him up in the air, climb up steps in five inch heels to copy Catherine , show off a real baby, who didn’t respond to her at all except when she dug her hands into him and he involuntarily winced. THIS US MADNESS PEOPLE!! This poor child, now his face is forever plastered. In one photo, l thought l noticed a strong resemblance to papa TM!

a crowd of booooos await

Oh Kuwait, l am rubbing my hands together, wait until the return to the UK! NOW the gloves are off, she will be booed and booed, good luck to her on any engagement or public appearance. Boo boo boo are coming. People are beyond furious in the UK and Commonwealth!

” so’ she Hates the bloody Brits”

This is PP, piping in his comments l oh Sir, l feel so bad for you having this to deal with. HMTQ needs your love and sumore than ever! Steady on Sir, steady on!

PB will destroy her thunder

I am so happy for Princess Beatrice and Edo, their engagement photos both the colour ones that Eugenie took, and the black and white ones, l cannot recall the photographers name just now. I was soooooo happy to see the news and what a payback for her stealing the thunder meaning spoiling someone’s excitement, on Eugenie and Jack’s wedding day by wearing that huge coat to stir attention to possibility of her being pregnant. Who knew how that fauxmegnancy would turn into such a mess. As does everything with her!

“ Malibu-hoo welcome “

Will she be welcomed with hoos or boos in Malibu when she just leaves once she has her nest padded, or so she thinks. I don’t see her living the high life in a mansion. She might check into hotel California but she may never leave. Justice is coming! The IRS will want it share of the 250K as well as all she has purloined. The US , l believe is the only country in the world where no matter where you live you still pay taxes on EVERYTHING!!!

a $6 million drive in

Ha ha, reminds me of summertime, movies st the drive-in, l think the place she will eventually live will be mouth many tens of millions, have the best security and the best staff. It will also require wearing of an orange jumpsuit or its equivalent!!

an uninterested Africa …

As l have written below, NOBODY CARES ABOUT HER, People are struggling to get by. SA has had water problems for years! Droughts, poverty, the sky high murder rate and domestic abuse, she isn’t even in the radar of importance.

PR pays for local hysteria

The ‘crowds’ on the tree stump she stood🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂😂 the great Plato sharing infinite words of wisdom and insight. The video with DT was privately arranged, paid for. People have been bussed in as paid extras so it appears she has people who adore her. I saw an interview with three regular women walk-in down the street, he asked if they knew of a big event, they looked at each other , nothing. He said royal, then they came out with Harry but not a one of them knew her name. Ooooooo the sting!The burn! I hope she saw that!

a white black imposter

Blackface used to be a thing decades ago, Al Jolson, in the first talking picture/movie made it famous, well it already was actually. White people putting black on their faces and pretending to be black to perform or at parties etc. Here we have the screamer of racist, troll, racist troll, her two twitters that l follow are.CcccRrrrraaaazzzzyyyy. She talks to herself, to Sam, sometimes tweeting from both alternately. She of the racist card, has spent her life identifying as Caucasian, her immense use of bronzer gets worse day by day, except it seems to me on this ‘tour’ her makeup is less, her clothes are dishevelled, she looks a mess. She is trying to pass as black so it’s fits her narrative right Sister?!? Passing, years ago meant someone of colour who appeared Caucasian could appear or pass as being white and avoid the racism. She disgusts me 🐍.

well paid unimpressed mothers feel used

These women who allegedly paid 50K to have a half hour ‘lunch’ with her, made to sit on the floor, which culturally is soooooooo inappropriate given that is done when grieving or in mourning. God please bring the Justice and remove her from this family right into a nice colour of orange, she seems to like jumpers or whatever they are called in the UK, that one piece thing she wore, so orange to match her bronzer which she has amazingly used so much less of, in the photos l have seen.

“beef it up for Pakistan”

To beef something up, is to make it stronger, better more secure. The Cambridges are heading off for a Royal tour, let me say that again, A ROYAL TOUR😁 to Pakistan. Security issues have been in discussions and this trips itinerary will be not be as publicized due to those issues. Now it is sounding like, by this clue, that they have had to increase the already planned security measures. There is always the possibility the risk is too great and things would have to be cancelled. That would be a disaster in relationship building but safety first! Remember Harry is #1 on the Taliban hit list and that risk is by extension a factor.

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Fantastic! Thank you PG! You are right on your game! So appreciate this!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

Sep 28th, 2019

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69: Sept. 28

Is this a new thing MM ANON. Two riddles in one Day?🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU MM ANON, ITS SO AWESOME TBE BACK DOING THESE🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

MM Anon

skippyv20

MM ANON …… second son walks alone … bonfires of PR. …… a great rip off … another archificial field trip… a home run …… a lot of backlash back home …… sugar coated photos……… “is it time to go it alone “…… “THE TAPE HAS BEEN SOLD” …… “ for posterity old thing”…… burying it with the rest. ……… 🎼 “ riders on the storm” 🎼

second son walks alone

Our Harry, walks alone, many in the public have been so critical of him, they can’t see the truth or haven’t taken the time to inform themselves. He is our Harry, l don’t care what anyone says, he is a man literally physically fading away, he’s so thin, dishevelled, being with her, l cannot imagine. To me, he deserves a medal for serving to HMTQ ! He has been and will remain in my prayers. Literally speaking he was walking alone in that minefield, or former minefield. What a metaphor for his life eh? 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

bonfires of PR.

I remember being in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 for Bonfire 🔥 night as we called it or Guy Fawkes day . Old history about Scottish rebellion and a bomb being placed in parliament etc etc look it up, its interesting. Anyhow it’s still great fun in Scotland 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 every November. So MM ANON is using bonfires to describe the PR , basically it’s all explosive!

a great rip off

The fee she is charging especially that lunch just using people for maximum cash value. I am positive she has other side deals going on. I recall that last riddle l dud days ago with the clue being diamonds, workers in safety coloured vests, men of colour, a woman at a laptop. You remember it, lead me to think she is sourcing blood diamonds for resale. Everything with her is a rip of, all a grift, capsule collection, using people even a baby for her personal gain!

another archificial field trip

Oh as l said in the other riddle, we are going to see another privately filmed, ore arranged appearance of amw, l bet she is being paid for these appearances. I just hope his socks fit this time and may a pair of shoes, a blanket, a toy/stuffier and a bib or rag for drool.

a home run

Baseball, America’s game. Home run, hit the ball out into the stands, run all the bases until the final base which is called home base and you’ve made a home run. But MM ANON you sly lady🤣🤣🤣, you are not talking baseball. She is going to do a runner and head home! Be gone, be gone, go face the IRS🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂🤣

a lot of backlash back home

Oh my oh my, showing him publicly live in the flesh for the first time in SA and not in the U.K. has lit a match under a huge pile of 🧨 dynamite. She is and has been playing with fire. People are FURIOUS and they already hate her! I cannot wait to hear the boos. I think the English politeness is gone, as MM ANON has said in other riddle, she has made her bed or beds🤣🤣🤣, she must lay in it. But the sad thing is she doesn’t give a whit of care or respect for HMTQ, the BRF nor the public of the U.K. or the Commonwealth!

sugar coated photos

Oh the sugars have literal gone crazier seeing archficial , like Pinocchio is now a real boy, not rubber anymore but flesh and blood. No seeing what’s so obvious, no relationship, the child doesn’t know her, climbing those steps in stilettos , holding him, unsafely, then roughly, tossing him in the air, the look of concern on DT daughter she even put her own arms up lest amw get dropped. Oh heavens how tacky were those cookies, sweets with words written on them, banana-gate2.0!

“is it time to go it alone “

Is the her or him going it alone? I doubt at this point, if Harry ended it, there would still be screams of racism. I think she is padding her nest in SA and planning her post-divorce life. Good luck with that project Rachel!

“THE TAPE HAS BEEN SOLD”

The infamous tossed salad tape sold at last. All uppercase. I am certain either the BRF has it, or a good friend of the BRF has secured it for them and they have it!! Who hoo !! Happy day! 😂😂😂😂😂just reminded me of her abuse of that beautiful song Oh Happy Day. I really wish she took those words to heart, the second line is when Jesus washed my sins away. I want no soul condemned but she has to choose.

“ for posterity old thing”

Again our PP, speaking, saving the video and dossier perhaps for posterity. When you save something for posterity, it means you hold onto it, keep it safe because you never know when you might need it!

burying it with the rest.

Wondering did the BRF buy the video, and just keeping that and all the other things in her dossier burying it in the secret files. I highly doubt they will reveal too much species publicly. The marriage will dissolve as a natural course, she can’t adjust etc etc. The BRF and PH. Publicly have done everything and then some to welcome her, they are spotless in this!

🎼 “ riders on the storm” 🎼

The Doors, classic album. He died in Paris and is buried there, it’s a place to visit for many fans.This is a classic song but dark in lyrics. Speaks of home one is born into poor ie dog no bone, don’t want lyric infringement so l adjusted that. Speaks of a killer , a family dying in a car crash. Speaking in the chorus that a woman needs to love and support her man. Put these all together at , pardon the pun, but they are a perfect storm for describing what’s Harrys life has been and is. Lost his mum is a car crash, his wife born into grifting family allegedly. Certainly getting no love and support from her. Today, well yesterday now, but seeing him sitting where she sat, with the now woman who was the girl she comforted, him all alone by the tree, didn’t you just want to take him in your arms and comfort him? Tears now……

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you dear PG! I am in awe! You are brilliant! A very rough day for Harry I am sure….🙏🏻💜💜💜

Ask Skippy submission

Sep 28th, 2019

————————

70: Sept. 29

💜💜💜🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻THANK YOU SO MUCH DEAR MM ANON, I KNOW YOUR TISK IN DOING THIS FOR US, TO SEEK THE TRUTH AND GET IT OUT IN THE OORN🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻💜💜💜

Did l ever tell you all, l do the riddles from bottom to top? I don’t know why, l used to look at the Sears catalogue from the back too, l still look at magazines back to front. A fun wacky PG fact!🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂

MM Anon

skippyv20

MM ANON …… Cape Town closure ……bells and whistles farewell … on returning, a tour… an unpopular reluctance …… disinformation …… the fence that won’t mend…… club class flying isolation …… Heathrow paps…… no rest for the wicked …… “Hello Boys”…… “He needs a parade”…… “ not another bloody investigation” …… now D&G not H&M. …… cosmetic records!!!! O,no

… Cape Town closure

They officially closed the Cape atone part of the tour and flew out September 29,2019. I was going to say today but l know this is a worldwide blog so l thought l would put that in there. The itinerary has them leaving from Johannesburg, and returning to London. I am sure most of Cape Town citizens had no idea they were there, if they did, no one cared really.

bells and whistles farewell

This whole entire holiday has been just bizarre, her behaviour, a real live baby, was that baby really a boy or just presented as such. We all know the baby shower was for a girl baby, the BRF/LG so so so clever!!! Turned things around that it was a boy baby, that video of them showing amw to a few selected UK and US/CBS reporters was bizarre, at Windsor Castle. She looked so nervous, and PH said they grow so much in two weeks, the glare she gave him!! You know it, you all saw it! Will there be a whiz bang goodie doo? I think likely, paid, bussed in, waving goodbye. I have visions now of O showing up!

on returning, a tour

Oh my goodness, is SS already planning a return trip, as she has been showered with love and praise by thousands and thousands , the crowds have been massive and amazing , kind, amazingly kind, and kind of amazing! NOT!!! I hope you got my attempt at using her favourite words and l tried her amazing kind of word salad, so kind and amazing of me to be so amazingly kind!🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣😂😂😂😂

an unpopular reluctance

Reluctance means unwillingness or disinclination to do something. She is unwilling in any way shape or form to put celebrity aside and take on her proper duchess role. But this makes sense because there was never supposed to be a wedding let alone a baby. Using the word unpopular putting it mildly.

I do think this may refer to PA and his reluctance or downright refusal to be part of the F.B.I. requests for an interview with him regarding his friendship with JE, GM. and other things like VRG allegations. I do not know how long his refusal can go on.

disinformation

PR PR PR PR constant disinformation. One might use the word lies!! It’s been sickening to see and read in the papers. It has Albee’s thus wth her and it will forever be. Oh l just had to let out a big sigh because it’s so sad, and the baby ring used, disinformation about his age, everything about him is one huge example. There is nothing worse than using a child. Scripture says “Suffer the children to come unto Me, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven “ the exact is

Matthew 19:14 King James Version (KJV)

14 But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven..

the fence that won’t mend…

Mending fences has an obvious meaning, fix a broken fence. However it can be used as a metaphor, fixing a brook relationship for example. I think this is what MM ANON is referring to. Madam, initially when she came on the scene was ‘a breath of fresh air’, marvellously inclusive and welcomed into the U.K. and Commonwealth, and into the ‘family she never had’. Many , including PW had grave concerns. It didn’t take very long for the bloom quickly began to fade. There is ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE IN A MILLENIA INFINITY! that her relationship with the British public, most members of the BRF, the Commonwealth and many around the world , can ever be mended. It has been irrevocably broken. Complete disregard and blatant disrespect for HMTQ! And a laundry list of grifting, disgusting behaviour, plus her complicated filthy past. No mending of this fence is even wanted, never mind attempted. GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

club class flying isolation

The return flight, again commercial l am sure, back to London should be interesting. She and her team, will again be prattling on about how successful and awesome the tour is, IF BY THE WAY, she and her smuggled alleged living diamond , amw, if she wants baby in London, or just leave is SA. and carry on with dollies. My sentence structure is horrendous but IF BY THE WAY, l meant IF she can get through customs. Do babies need passports, Royal Allegedly babies? Was he sleeping on arrival and she got archficial through that way. I don’t know how, strict customs are with royalty.

On the flight, Harry will be alone, not involved in anything because it’s all about a madam. I noted today how sloppy he looked catching that flight in t shirt and jeans, wrinkled, he has been wearing those ratty brown suede shoes the entire time. He suited up well though earlier and l an certain when he means the High Commissioner he will hopefully be dressed for it. I keep repeating myself, but his looks and behaviour are SCREAMING FOR HELP, HE HAS COMBAT FATIGUE! I am so worried, he’s wasting away, remember the interview when he was in uniform and something urgent was happening, he took off his mic and ran to see what needed doing? Remebhow fit and muscular he was? Look now, dishevelled clothes, those brown shoes😩, looks like he cannot sleep etc etc etc. I know l keep repeating myself but please LG, l know he is getting help behind the scenes, but our Harry is at such risk now, in his depression, l do worry greatly for him!!🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

Heathrow paps

Oh my my my my my!!!! The media and paparazzi will be waiting at Heathrow, if that’s where they land, they might be cheeky and land at Gatwick or elsewhere. The media when they return and subsequently is going to be scathing!!!!! Again read her twitters, petal is in SA talk about the Sussexes non-stop but denies being her, petal calls her baby bubs has done for quite sometime. In SA, big reveal, amw nickname is Bubba ☺️☺️☺️🤣🤣🤣. We are not talking about Einstein here! It would be funny if it weren’t so dangerous!

no rest for the wicked

She had all her private things planned during this holiday. Yet she still manages centre stage by foisting herself via IMessage or Skype l think to be with the classroom where PH was in Malawi. All about CAMFED campaign for female education . She just cannot let him go, except when he could have really needed love and support, in Angola, the mine field, him sitting all alone by the tree named after his mum. Oh self seeking narcissistic behaviour, she lives a Master Class of it.

“Hello Boys”

I can’t remember the name of the film, it might be Hello Boys actually! It’s fantastic Bette Midler at her finest, set further war, WWII, she goes on tour to entertain the troops, she would appear on stage all gussied up looking gorgeous and sing for them, she is amazing. Great film! I wonder MM ANON are you relating madams behaviour to the character in the film?? Going on tour and putting on a show!!! I might be way off but that’s a great film!

“He needs a parade”

Support and love for Harry! Agree wholeheartedly! Yes he made a bad choice of bootycall that was his choice,who of us is without sin and can cast the first stone? This was all pre-planned, they would have kept at it, until it worked. I think he needs medals of the highest order for service to the Crown, HMTQ, his granny. He needs away time, months of privacy, therapy, perhaps medication, he ,Ishtar we’ll be on anti-depressants already! HE NEEDS PRAYER🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻. This is evil at work, it’s a nefarious web planned, he was shared in it.

“ not another bloody investigation”

What now? What’s the next thing? Well PA is in a spot of trouble, putting it mildly. He has hired a new PR guy, Jason Stein, former Amber Rudd’s bulldog, lost his job when she quit recently! The paper says he is a ‘master of the dark arts’! The same was said about SS. What are the ‘dark arts’ these PR people use??? Anyhow, there are more accusers , resulting further Epstein investigations in America. The F.B.I. are more insistent upon an interview. The palace statement and PA years ago when this first came up, were emphatic he had NO sexual contact or interaction with VRG. They are not commenting today, read the article in the Daily Mail, if you’re inclined. They are saying, royalty is not an issue, years ago it was swept away. Since the #metoo movement the world has changed. Many many famous men have been charged, Bill Cosby, many famous American media personalities, actors, Weinstein, . This week l was chuffed to hear Wexner been charged in connection with Epstein! If you don’t know Les Wexner, look him up. He’s an American billionaire, one of his many businesses is Victoria’s Secret! Buy from them, you give money to an alleged sexual predator! I am not recalling just now his other businesses, but very very wealthy men have been and are being brought to justice. PA is in serious trouble. The ,ore he refuses to cooperate and scream he’s royalty, he is dragging out the inevitable. Poor poor HMTQ, l just feel so bad for her!

now D&G not H&M

Baby Archie wore H&M to meet DT, which was subsequently marched and appeared officially on H&M advert and website l think website. Now baby Archie will appear wearing D&G. Dolce and Gabbana highend designer Italian clothes. This woman never fails to put a foot wrong. I don’t know if Archie was wearing it while she carried him to catch the plane to Johannesburg , the photos again captured through a clear glass walled corridor. Did anyone else think the ‘baby’ she was carrying looked a lot smaller than amw who met DT? Or was it just me? I would love a side by side photo. Maybe l am totally off.

cosmetic records!!!! O,no.

I am not sure if these two clues go together but this is how they appeared to moi. Are there records surfacing or in possession of the BRF and LG’s team of investigators that show the extent of work she has had done, especially since coming onto the scene with PH? We know something was up at U.S. Open, she had that invisible medical tape over her nose 👃🏻, yes l purposely use that colour of nose! We all have seen her nose appears to be collapsing, those darn hobbies can show up in real physical manifestations ie wide eyed , dilated pupils, agitation, hyperness, just read the twitters feeds that will show you bizarre behaviour, also noted the times tweets are sent!

As far as O, no…..PH is/ has reportedly been working with an O on mental health programs for a fruit tv channel. I have no idea where things are st with that. Is she going to come back on the scene in Africa. I know she has sponsored a school there, where there had to be some firings of l think the administrator , look it up!! I have visions now of her showing up for a surprise appearance with madam. Oh gracious, make it stop! PLEASE😩😩😩😩😫😖😖😖

GSTQAOBC 🇨🇦

Thank you so much dear PG! Seems much coming….Seeing your humour and wonderful personality shining through….is wonderful, you are BACK! Thank God for our Dear PG!🙏🏻💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜💜. Sept. 29, 2019

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lobsters-on-their-heads · 6 years ago

Text

Continuing Travels of Cophine, Part 2, Ch. 9

Hey, look, I finally wrote something! And it has smut (eventually)!

The mention of Delphine stitching behind Sarah's ear comes from @mlleclaudine's delightful Cophine series. If you haven't read it yet, I don't know where you've been. Get reading it! <https://archiveofourown.org/series/314495>

Speaking of @mlleclaudine, thank you so so so much for checking this over and making sure I don't get too much wrong.

Also, thanks always and perpetually to @afrenchclone for helping me with all of the French. Merci toujours !

The entire Continuing Travels can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13525500

No matter how much time she spent with Charlotte, no matter how recent that time had been, every time Delphine saw her, she thought of the night she first saw her – bundled from head to toe, wrapped in Cosima's hypothermic arms. Her face was much the same for each new interaction with Delphine as it had been then, skeptical, closed off, wary. Delphine was never sure how much of it was an act, and how much a genuine defense mechanism.

“Bonjour,” Charlotte said.

Well. Maybe it was just her resting face.

“Bonjour!” Delphine replied. “Ça va?”

Charlotte nodded but gave no reply, instead limping across the room with her bearded dragon perched on her right shoulder and kittens frolicking around her feet. She'd been studying French for a few years, Delphine knew, but only for the past several months had those studies taken place in a classroom with multiple students. That “Bonjour” a moment ago was the first French word Delphine ever heard Charlotte speak. “I thought Cosima was coming with you,” Charlotte said.

“Yes, she needed to use the bathroom, so - ” She pointed upstairs to indicate where Cosima was at the moment.

“Oh.” Charlotte looked down at the bags they'd brought in, and her resting wary face opened up. It might've been Delphine's imagination, but it seemed that the bearded dragon perked up, too. “Are we going to use all of that? That's a lot of eggs.”

Before Delphine answered, Sarah thumped down the stairs just behind Kira, who treated Delphine like she'd been there for Kira's entire life. “Did you get any chocolate?” Kira demanded.

“Oi, say hello first,” Sarah said. As Kira mumbled a quick hello, Sarah faced Delphine and said, “Took you long enough. I thought you'd be here an hour ago. Where's Cosima?”

“She's using the bathroom,” Charlotte said. To Delphine, she said, “You didn't answer my question. Are we going to use all of those eggs?”

The varying pulls on her attention raised Delphine's anxiety, and there were still two other adults in the house. “We might,” she told Charlotte. To Kira, she said, “and no, we didn't get any chocolate.”

“Can we throw them at people?” Kira asked, hoisting one of the egg cartons in one hand.

Delphine and Sarah spoke in unison. “No.”

Kira pouted and slumped onto the couch with her phone. In a few seconds, various bloops, bings, and plops emanated from the device, and Kira's eyes and fingers darted around the screen while the rest of her body remained perfectly still. A dozen academic articles popped into Delphine's mind, all proclaiming the dangers of too much screen time for developing brains and eyes, but Sarah let it slide, so Delphine followed suit.

Cosima bounded down the stairs with her hands flapping beside her. To Delphine's arched eyebrow, she said, “The towels are damp. FYI.”

Sarah gave her unresponsive daughter a kiss on the head, hugged Charlotte, and then threw on her jacket. “Yeah, we don't quite have room service here like you two are used to. You a'right otherwise?”

Delphine looked over at Kira on the couch, and at Charlotte in the kitchen feeding a piece of apricot to her bearded dragon. “Euh, yes, I think so. We'll call you if we need anything.”

Sarah was halfway out the door before Delphine's comment registered, and she turned around. “Uh, you can do that, but I can't promise I'll answer. The girls know where everything is, and emergency numbers are on the fridge. Oh, and Art said he'll be here at seven.”

“Sounds good to me,” Cosima said. “Have fun, okay? You deserve a little time to yourself. See you later.”

After Sarah left, Delphine's first instruction was for the girls to wash their hands, but when Charlotte's bearded dragon stepped down Charlotte's arm towards the counter, Delphine stopped her. “Could you put... euh, what's its name, again?”

“Saphira. She's a girl.”

“I think Saphira should go back into her cage right now.”

Charlotte leaned against the counter and fixed Delphine with a small-mouthed stare. “She likes being on my shoulder.”

“I'm sure she does, but I don't want her getting into our food.”

“She's allowed to have human food sometimes, like fruits and vegetables. It says so in the book of bearded dragon care.”

Delphine looked around for some backup from Cosima, but Cosima was trying to pull Kira away from her phone, and both of them were giggling. “Charlotte,” Delphine said, “please put Saphira back in her cage. I don't want her roaming free while we're preparing food. It's not sanitary.”

Charlotte jutted her chin out to one side like Cosima and Sarah both did when they dug in their heels and gripped the counter top like she expected Delphine to physically pull her away, so she needed to brace herself. Before Delphine could ask again, or explain her request further, Cosima steered Kira into the kitchen.

“Yo, Charlotte,” Cosima said, “you should probably put Saphira back in her little house before we start in with the food, okay?”

Charlotte sighed and dropped her shoulders. She didn't reply, but limped away, up the stairs to her room, and for just a moment, Delphine hated both clones equally.

They spent the rest of the morning in the kitchen, more or less following Delphine's written and spoken instructions for deviled eggs (oeufs farcisto Delphine and Charlotte) and carrot cake with crème fraîche frosting. Delphine had cooked with the girls before, during their Christmas holidays and with Alison's participation, but she had never cooked with Cosima before. She'd assumed going in that cooking with Cosima would be like running a science experiment with her – Cosima would be diligent, methodical, and professional despite frequent bad jokes and pop culture references.

None of that was the case now.

Cosima was not concerned at all about the specifics of their recipes. Instead of weighing and sifting the flour and sugar, she directed Charlotte to simply dump the dry ingredients into a bowl after leveling off the measuring cup with her finger (of all things), and then she showed Charlotte how to blend the wet and dry with her bare hands. The girls, at least, found it delightful. When they tried doing that with the deviled eggs filling, though, Delphine put her foot down.

“Use a spoon, Chérie, please.” The cake batter was at least cooked after mixing. The eggs were not.

They smeared caked batter on each other. Cosima, Kira, and Charlotte all dabbed or wiped globs of the ochre gloop on each other's faces, necks, and arms, and while they exclaimed some version of “Oh no, you don't!” they all laughed together. When Kira lunged at Delphine with a handful of mayonnaise, though, Cosima grabbed Kira by the waist and spun her around to face the other way.

“Nuh uh. Nobody puts food on Delphine but me.”

In fact, the one time they'd tried using chocolate syrup with sex, the stickiness put them both off of doing it ever again, but the children didn't need to know that. Delphine kissed Cosima's sticky cheek while Charlotte fended off Kira's mayonnaise attack with a wooden spoon. “Thank you, mon amour. And please tell me that all of you are taking showers after this?”

“Oh, yeah. The girls can shower before Art gets here, and then I'll clean up real quick at the Rabbit Hole before the party. We've got time.”

And Kira talked the entire time. She talked about her school, her classmates, her teacher, and everyone in the neighborhood. She talked about Minecraft, Minecraft videos, and the children's hockey league she had recently joined. She talked about her mother, her late grandmother, her father, and all of her genetically identical aunties. She talked about her Uncle Felix and how he and Colin were having a bit of a rough patch right now because Colin wanted them to be exclusive and Felix was having a hard time with that.

“What's it mean to be exclusive, anyway?” she asked.

Delphine was washing out the mixing bowl they'd used for the cake batter, and exchanged a look with Cosima.

“It means you only date one person,” Cosima said. “One person at a time.”

“I thought that's what dating was,” Charlotte said. “Like, when people are dating, that means they don't kiss anyone else or whatever.”

Cosima's face was much calmer that Delphine felt, but Cosima still took a moment to answer, making a show of checking on the cake in the oven. “That is sometimes what it means. But sometimes people have open relationships, where they're allowed to kiss other people. Or whatever.”

“But then they're not dating,” Charlotte insisted. “They're...” She waved her hands around in a way reminiscent of Alison Hendrix. “They're doing something else.”

For the first time since they'd all gathered together in the kitchen, both girls' attention was fully on Cosima and Delphine.

“An open relationship means that two people love each other,” Cosima said, “and they put each other first, but they're allowed to... see other people on the side. They just need to communicate really well so no one's feelings get hurt.”

“Does that mean they have sex with other people?” Charlotte asked.

“Sometimes,” Cosima said. “But only if their partner is okay with it. Communication's the most important thing. And consent, of course. But that's true for any relationship, really.”

The girls thought that over. Charlotte had her serious face on again, and she watched Cosima and Delphine more closely, like she was putting their relationship into the context of what Cosima had just said. Delphine was on the verge of clarifying and she and Cosima did NOT have an open relationship, by mutual agreement, but Kira changed the subject to a story about a recent afternoon she'd spent with the Hendrixes. Delphine took a deep breath and went back to washing up, tuning Kira out for several minutes and letting Cosima do all the little “uh huh” noises. When Delphine tuned back in, Cosima had her hand on her hip and her eyes were narrowed.

“Oscar tried telling us we couldn't be there,” Kira was saying, “`cause him and his friends were gonna build a fort or whatever. Like, their yard isn't even big enough for a stupid fort! But then Gemma said that he used to wet the bed until he was, like, ten, and then he got really mad.”

Charlotte giggled at the story, but neither of the adults did.

“That doesn't sound very nice,” Delphine offered.

“We were allowed to be there!” Kira said. “He didn't, like, reserve it, or anything.”

Cosima adjusted her glasses. “Yeah, but there were better ways to handle that than embarrass him in front of his friends like that.”

“Well, maybe he shouldn't have told us to leave! He was being rude first.”

“That's not the point, and that's not really how people work,” Cosima said. “Just because someone else is mean to you, that doesn't give you the right to be mean back at them.” She tapped Charlotte's shoulder. “You and I have talked about that before a couple times.”

By the time the kitchen was cleaned up, with Cosima's insistence that the girls helped, the cake was out to cool and the eggs covered and stored in the fridge, Delphine was swaying on her feet. The girls went off to shower without encouragement, and Cosima rested her hands on Delphine's waist. “You might need a nap. I think the kids took it out of you.”

“A nap sounds good.”

The master bedroom, the best room to nap in at the moment, was remarkably tidy for what Delphine had come to expect from Sarah. Hell, it was cleaner than Cosima's living spaces were once Cosima spent more than a few days in them. The queen sized bed in the middle of the room was made, if not neatly, and the floor was clear. Books and papers littered the desk by the window, but it was clearly used as a desk rather than as storage. Delphine flopped on top of the bed, on the fleece blanket rather than under it. She was asleep in minutes.

Cool Mediterranean breezes blew sand all around her as she waited at the light rail terminal. No one else on the platform seemed to mind. In fact, the sand didn't even touch them.

They jostled onto the train, speaking in tongues and smelling of stomach acid. The train hit bumps on the track that no one else noticed. Only Delphine lost her footing and needed to grab at the back of someone's seat to stay upright. Then the train sped up onto a raised track overlooking the city. The view was beautiful, but no one else looked at it. At the next curve, the train hit a gap in the rails and bounced everyone up in the air...

“Oh, sorry, Delphine!”

Delphine panted, face up in the bed, clutching the blanket beneath her. No one else was in the room with her, but the bedroom door was open, and water was running. No. Not water. Someone was peeing. The air was cool with a hint of pine scent, and the pillow was wet right next to her head. By the time the toilet flushed, the sink ran, and the master bathroom door opened, Delphine's breathing and heart rate were almost normal again, but nothing else made sense.

“Sorry,” Kira repeated. “I forgot you were here, and I really had to use the bathroom.”

“Nnnh,” was all Delphine could manage, and then Kira was gone again.

Through the open door, Cosima's voice called out, “Okay, this time try to get it in without touching the edge, okay?”

Delphine propped herself up on one elbow and rubbed her face. The curtains were closed, but sunlight winked through the cracks. Her phone was nowhere, and there was no other clock in the room. She stumbled into the bathroom, awake enough to lock the door behind her in case anyone else forgot she was there, and took in the varied marker graffiti that edged the bathroom mirror. Some of the words (like pay taxes,, Kira dentist, and in prime place at the top of the mirror, BOLLOCKS) were clearly Sarah's, but others (I <3 kittens and Boys are dumb) were scrawled in childish writing, along with various flowers, mushrooms, and cat faces. Cosima's bathroom mirror back in Minnesota had had a similar ascetic, albeit with different messages.

She found the girls in Charlotte's bedroom, surrounded by scraps of fabric, string, ribbon, stickers, tape, and markers. A carton with five remaining eggs sat open on Charlotte's desk. Cosima joined them a moment later with a box of bendy straws, some broken-down cardboard boxes, and a pair of scissors. At least it wasn't a box cutter or a blow torch.

“Oh, hey, sleepy head!” Cosima grinned at her and pecked her cheek on her way into the room. “How'd you sleep?”

“Euh, well, I think.”

“We're doing science class!” Kira said.

“With crafts,” Charlotte added. “So it's like science art.”

Delphine ran her fingers through her hair and took in the mess. “It looks like fun. What are you doing, exactly?”

The girls looked to Cosima, but she gestured for them to answer. “We're dropping eggs out of the window,” Charlotte said.

“But we're not allowed to break them!” Kira added. “And now we have to get them to land in that tub down there, but without hitting the sides. Cosima keeps making it harder.”

Kira was not the first person to make that claim, and Cosima knew it, because she gave Delphine a pointy smile. “You wanna try?”

“Okay.” She sat on the edge of the bed and sorted through the supplies, not awake enough yet to form a plan. An egg appeared beside her, accompanied by another kiss on the cheek. “How many have you broken so far?” she asked. “These were $6 a dozen.”

Cosima sat beside her, careful not to upset the egg, and wrapped an arm around her waist. “Not very many. The girls have some pretty good designs so far, so most drops have been successful. It is no more or less wasteful than make two dozen deviled eggs that might not all get eaten.”

As she spoke, Charlotte tucked an egg into a little basket with a plaid parachute, leaned out the window, and dropped it. A few seconds later, she cried, “Oh no! It's in the neighbor's yard!”

“Well, sounds like you have to go get it, then.”

“Can't we just let them keep it?”

“Uh, no. That's called littering. Go on, we'll still be here when you get back.”

Delphine picked up her egg and considered it. It could have been an omelette, an oeuf farci, or part of a cake. Some countries would have pickled it and eaten it that way. Instead, it would be cloaked in cardboard, fabric scraps, and plastic, decorated with markers, and dropped out a residential window into a tub of dirty water. And considering Delphine's experience with this activity, the egg was just as likely to simply smash open on the ground, feeding invertebrates instead of people. Delphine picked up a Sharpie and drew a sad face on the shell.

Dropping eggs from Charlotte's window for another hour, as Cosima put more constraints on the girls' projects like size and material requirements, and the girls seemed halfway to jobs with an aeronautics firm. Delphine's own eggs did better than she expected, although the girls were divided in how many points to give her for style.

“They're sleek,” Charlotte asserted. “Missiles don't have frilly ribbons on them, so Delphine's eggs don't have to, either.”

“But they're not missiles!” Kira argued. “Eggs need to have some fashion sense when they go down.”

Delphine leaned against Charlotte's desk and took in the feedback. To Cosima, she remarked, “You know, I keep thinking we're talking about different kinds of eggs entirely.”

Cosima giggled. “Me too, sometimes. It's true, though. Your eggs don't have to have frilly ribbons if you don't want them.”

* * * * * *

After handing the girls off to Art at 7, going to the Rabbit Hole just long to clean up and grab presents for the sisters, then they were off again, in another Lyft car, to the address Alison sent that morning.

The resort overlooking Lake Ontario was reminiscent of their hotel in Muscat, except that here the temperature was in the 60s and the ethnic blend of patrons and employees was a bit more mixed. Clone Club had an entire spacious wing of the property to themselves for the night, including an indoor and outdoor bar, heated pool and heaters outside under a partial roof, and table and pub games inside. There was also a kitchenette tucked in behind the games area, where Alison puttered away. When Cosima and Delphine arrived, the rest of Clone Club was already there, many of them in some kind of swimwear. Helena was the only one not prepared to swim. She stood in a sweater and baggy jeans, watching Scott and Sarah play foosball and eating from a heaping paper plate.

Adele intercepted them just as Cosima handed off the carrot cake and eggs to Donnie at the food table. “Oh hey y'all! Welcome back to civilization and all that shit.” Despite the multiple sources of alcohol present, Adele did not have a drink in her hand. Yet.

Delphine returned Adele's hug. “Did you just arrive?”

“Oh, yeah. Flew in this morning. Last minute. Felix only just told me a few days ago that you were having this little shindig, and you know I can't turn down a good party. Besides, I missed everybody.” She looked over at the food they’d brought in as Donnie set it on the table. “Delphine, honey, if you made that, I'mma have to get me some. That looks too good.”

Delphine would have been flattered, but she could serve Adele a plate of week-old carrot shavings with a dusty radish on top and Adele would gush about “French haute cuisine,” and pronounce it “hoat kwezeen.”

“The girls helped,” she told her.

“Oh, well, that's another reason to try it. I have to tell them what a good job they did.” She waved to Cosima. “Happy late birthday, by the way. You and half the people here. Well, I guess some are early birthdays. Whatever. Twenty-one's the last birthday anyone really cares about, isn't it?”

“Euh...”

“Anyway, Felix'll be here in a minute. He had to run back out to the car for something. Oh, shit, hang on.” She rushed over to Alison in the kitchenette, who was balancing a few trays in her hands.

“Can I offer you ladies something to eat?” Donnie Hendrix wore blue swimming trunks and flip flops with a hooded sweatshirt, and his hands were clasped in front of him like any good customer servant. The poor man had probably had to serve guests at his own wedding, too.

“Um, sure,” Cosima said. “I see Helena's already been at the buffet.”

Donnie chuckled and handed them each a paper plate as he moved around to the other side of the table. “Helena's been to every buffet in Ontario, I believe. She makes them reconsider their pricing policies.” He picked up some tongs and clicked them a few times. “What can I get you?”

Nothing on the table would have prevented Cosima and Delphine from helping themselves, but Donnie seemed to enjoy his role as host, so they let him load up a single plate to share with bruschetta, mozzarella with basil, sliced vegetables, and cucumber sandwiches, some of the deviled eggs they'd brought, and a slice of carrot cake. Then they sat quietly together on a waterproof sofa under an outdoor heater, nibbling on the healthier foods first. All of it was good, almost certainly made by Alison, but like most food they'd had in the past few days, it had a certain blandness after two months of Middle Eastern and African dishes.

“Hello Sestra.” Helena slid herself into a cross-legged position on the floor in front of them, her plate freshly piled with carrot cake, eggs, and various brownies, just as Cosima and Delphine's plate was almost empty. “Much birthday happiness, yes?”

“Oh, yeah,” Cosima said. “Happy birthday to you, too, bub. Cheers.”

Helena giggled as they clinked their drinks together, but then she sat up straight to look at Cosima's. “You have only water tonight, sestra? Why not something better?”

“I don't drink if I'm swimming. Personal rule.”

Helena made a face at that but did not argue. “No drink, okay, but food, yes? You need more food, with all of the traveling around the world. You cannot save our sestras if you are hungry.” She transferred a piece of carrot cake, two brownies, and two eggs from her plate to theirs and gestured for them to eat it.

If Delphine ate as much as Helena wanted her too, she would most certainly not be as trim and fit as Helena managed to be. Not for the first time, Delphine wondered at the levels of malnourishment Helena must have experienced growing up that prohibited her from putting on more weight as an adult. She'd met enough clones by now to know that svelte wasn't necessarily genetic. Cosima was eating more carrot cake, though, and Helena was telling them to tell the girls how good it was, so Delphine went along. She'd had enough carrot cake already to last a week, though, so she took a brownie instead. It was delicious, heavily dotted with butterscotch chips, and she ate all of it before Cosima even picked at hers, but all the brownies lack Alison's tell-tale sharpness. In other words, it looked like a human made it, rather a team of cake robots.

“Who made these?” she asked Helena, as Cosima broke a corner off the other brownie, sans butterscotch, for herself.

“Brother-Sestra Felix made them. He said they are all special.”

At the same moment, Cosima swallowed her brownie piece and made one of the most interesting faces Delphine had ever seen. “Holy shit. That is very special. Um, babe? How much of that did you eat?”

“I ate the whole thing, why?”

“Oh, shit.” And now Cosima was laughing and waving at Felix, who stood in Donnie's place at the food table. “Felix! Did you seriously bring space brownies, man?”

He sashayed over in form-fitting shorts and a T-shirt with a rainbow dinosaur on it. “Yeah, why? D'you want some?” Looking down at Cosima, Delphine, and Helena, and at their plates, his face and posture drew together and pulled back. “A bit late for me to offer, though, I see. Shit. How'd you get some? I only just brought them in from outside.”

Cosima and Delphine looked to Helena, whose mouth was chipmunk-full. “Sorry,” she managed.

“How many did you eat?” Cosima asked her.

Helena shrugged.

Delphine looked down at the crumbs on her fingers. “Let me guess. Cannabis?”

“You could say that,” Felix said.

“Even the butterscotch ones?”

He nodded and Cosima put a hand to her own forehead. “And you haven't had any in a while, so...”

Felix draped his hand over Delphine's shoulder. “So you're about to have quite the interesting evening, I'd say. Stick to the short end of the pool if you get in, yeah?”

“I don't feel any different, I swear. And the water is wonderfully warm. You should come sit with me.”

Cosima crouched down beside her and brushed back the stray cluster of hair escaping Delphine's ponytail. “You're not feeling anything yet, but you will. Edibles just take longer to kick in.”

“You had some, too.”

“I had, like, two bites, and I'm way more used to pot than you are. You had a whole fucking brownie, a big one at that, and you haven't been high since Rachel had both of her eyes.”

“That's not true.”

“Okay, when have you been high since then? Don't tell me you toked up with old PT on the island?”

Delphine splashed a handful of water up at her and got a satisfying yelp in return. “I have smoked with you, mon amour, in the Rabbit Hole, before we left for Latin America.”

Cosima flicked Delphine's arm in retribution. “Smoked, my ass. I smoked, but you took, like, one drag and passed out.”

Delphine was not about to argue about that, and anyway it didn't change how she felt right now, which was full, content, loved, and a delightful mix of cool and warm at the same time. A hip-hop artist she didn't recognize played on the speakers and at the other end of the pool, Sarah, Alison, and Adele were doing something that looked vaguely like water aerobics but probably wasn't. Adele was starting to look an awful lot like a scarlet ibis when Cosima's phone rang.

“What the fuck?” Cosima muttered. They had their purses with them at all times out of habit, so Cosima could grab her phone before it stopped ringing. “Hello? Yes? Oh, hey, Gabriela! How's it going? Yeah, hang on, lemme go somewhere a little quieter.”

Gabriela. That could be anyone. She watched Cosima's shorts-clad ass hustle inside. It really was the cutest butt Delphine had ever seen.

When she turned back around, the chlorine vapors coming off the surface of the pool were green, reminding Delphine of nothing more than the absinthe fairy, and Adele had gone full scarlet ibis. Absinthe. Now that was something she hadn't had in looooong time. The last time had been, when? 2004? 2007? Too long ago, at any rate, and now here she was, sitting on the edge of a whole pool of it, it's little waves massaging her calves and the soles of her feet and singing a little song for her.

She slipped in, up to her ribs, and bounced. She bounced! It was the funniest thing she'd ever felt, so she bounced some more, up and down and side to side in the steamy green pool, laughing her head off and watching the stars dance around overhead to a mixed up mash of the hip-hop song playing and “Prét-à-Porter,” that song she'd listened to endlessly on the island because PT deigned that she could have a record player with one record and somehow or other she never hated it. Him, yes, but never the song.

And Sarah'd killed him with an O2 tank to the skull, and that's how she tried to remember him, but instead, the green water turned red and his gnarly fingers crept up her waist and she

did

not want

this.

“Oi, Delphine, you doing a'right over here?”

Cosima stood in front of her, but it wasn't Cosima. It was Not Cosima, with wet loose hair and a British accent. She'd said oi. The clones didn't say oi unless they were Sarah. Delphine twisted her head side to side and confirmed that, indeed, this was Not Cosima, and Not Another Clone, but Sarah. Then she laughed at her own cleverness and slipped on the pool floor. “Quoi?”

“I said, are you doing alright? You seem a bit, uh...” Sarah moved her hands in a way Delphine didn't understand, and when she tried to follow them, the world tipped sideways, but everything was funny again so it was okay.

“A bit?” Delphine dropped her knees and floated with her chin just above the water so the vapors went up her nose.

“Oh shit, did you eat one of those brownies Fe brought in?”

“Mmmm...” Brownies would be perfect right now. With some of that frosting they'd made for the cake today. However. “You know what I really want?” Still floating, she put a hand on Sarah's shoulder, which was damp and covered in little goosebumps, but curved in a way Cosima's didn't, in a way Delphine had never noticed before.

Sarah giggled and looked around everywhere except Delphine. “If you say more brownies, you're not getting any.”

“No. No no no.” Delphine now had both hands on Sarah's shoulders. “A döner kebab. With extra sheep’s cheese, and... and and and and...” The English and tripped over her tongue until it because a blur of “dudududududududu” and the only thing keeping her from slipping under the surface of the absinthe pool was Sarah's shoulders. Delphine dangled from her shoulders and bumped against Sarah's body, distracted by the scar behind Sarah's left ear.

“Okay, this won't work.” Sarah nudged her back up onto her feet and pried her hands away, but Delphine leaned in to point at the scar.

“I remember that. I stitched that.”

“Yes, you did. You were sober for that, thankfully. Come on, now, let's get you back up on this ledge before Cosima fuckin' murders me.”

“She won't. She loves you too much.”

Sarah's laugh had a strange tone to it then as she turned Delphine 180 degrees. “Not enough for all that. Come on, up you go. Outta the water.”

Now, though, the ledge of the pool was continents away, and despite soaking in absinthe, she still hadn't drunk any, so she cupped her hands and drank a few mouthfuls. “It doesn't taste like I remember it,” she told Sarah. “It tastes like... like grade school.”

“I... I don't even know what to say to that. Come on, sit up here.”

The ledge was rough, with pebbles and craters to dig into her skin, and it was moving, crumbling under her hands and sliding back and forth. Never mind the height. She couldn't possibly pull herself up there. “Non. Je ne peux pas.”

“That so?” Sarah turned and gestured into the distance. Her hair was wet, falling over her skin and leaving rivers of water that pulsed with her heartbeat. When she turned back to Delphine, she was smirking. Only then did Delphine have the fleeting thought – Sarah might not speak French.

“You have Cosima's eyes.”

And Sarah thought that was funny! She was laughing, so Delphine laughed along. “Do I really?” Sarah asked. “Isn't that something?”

A hand caressed the back of her neck, under her hair, and the pleasure was so strong she almost fell over.

“Hey, babe? You doing okay?”

Cosima's lips were the best of all the clones. They had so many different shapes and her bottom lip gave just the right amount of resistance between Delphine's teeth. When she tried to kiss her now, though, Cosima pulled away.

“You're feeling those brownies now, aren't you? Ho-ly shit.”

Sarah asked Cosima where she'd run off to, anyways, and Cosima said something about Puerto Rico and infertility and vaccines and uteruses, but she had the cutest little toes Delphine had ever seen, so Delphine didn't really catch most of what she said. She stroked each little Cosima toe individually, then ran her finger over the tops of all of Cosima's toes and kissed the top of her foot.

When she looked up, Cosima had that little sideways dimpled smile, and when she stroked Delphine's cheek, Delphine almost lost her legs again. “Let's get you out of the water, yeah?”

Delphine slid her hands up Cosima's calf and lost herself for a moment in the shape of her muscles. “Can I kiss you then?”

“You can kiss me all you want, just on dry land so no one drowns.”

A few moments and an eon later, she sat on the couch near one of the outdoor heaters, alone. The absinthe vapors flickered in the distance to the undulating beat of the music while the scarlet ibis flitted in and out of the water. Her heart beat to a different tempo, expanding until it filled her entire self, rubbing against the backs of her eyeballs and her nasal passages and worming its way into her pelvis and the soles of her feet. If she squinted, she saw her heart beat pushing out from her toenails. Then her heart contracted again, and her body shrank into itself, smaller and smaller until she imploded into her own navel like a Popple. Blood in, heart expansion, explosion. Blood away, heart contraction, Popple.

Repeat. And repeat.

“Drink this.”

She took the glass of water and drank it, gulping at first and then sipping to feel the drips and drizzles down her esophagus. Food stirred inside of her along with her blood and breath, food breaking down and turning into energy, each little molecule sucked into the lining of her stomach and intestines and moving along through her ever pumping blood stream to her brain, her liver, her muscles, her skin.

“We should do a study,” she told Cosima, “with brownies. To see how much of that brownie is in each skin cell.”

Cosima giggled. “Uh, somebody's probably already done that study.”

“We should do it again. For my skin cells, and those brownies over there.”

“You are not getting any more brownies.”

Music washed over her and burst in the air beside their heads. Like a blaze of light, ready to ignite, we are made of dynamite “We are,” Delphine said, nuzzling the side of Cosima's neck.

“No,” Cosima said. “No more brownies.”

Delphine didn't know what she was talking about now, but Cosima smelled like cloves and oranges and her skin was warm and soft. She ran her tongue over Cosima's neck to her throat to nip her chin. The texture change from Cosima's shorts to the skin of her waist distracted her, though, and she pulled back to watch her own hand move back and forth, from warm soft skin to cool crisp fabric.

“You're dry,” she remarked. “Why?”

“Um...” When Cosima laughed, her stomach quivered. “I, uh, I wasn't in the water like you were.”

“Why not?”

“Because I had to take a phone call.” She stroked Delphine's hair and the back of her neck so Delphine purred like a kitten. “I'll tell you about it tomorrow, when your sweet beautiful brain is working again.”

Tomorrow didn't exist yet, but Cosima's legs did. They were firm and silky smooth with subtle moving valleys of muscle conforming to Delphine's hands. Cosima gasped when Delphine moved her whole hand up the inside of Cosima's right thigh.

“Delphine? Babe? We're, um, we're in public. People can see us.”

Maybe they could, but all Delphine could see was the cute little hollow at the base of Cosima's neck, which was just the right size for her tongue, and the rise of her shoulder muscles from her clavicles. “So?” she whispered.

“So, I don't really want to do this in front of everyone and their sister.”

“You don't want to?” Cosima never said she didn't want to. Okay, maybe sometimes she did, but that usually coincided with Delphine's agreement. She pulled back to look at Cosima's face, and the world swam around again for a minute.

“Not right here. But...”

Cosima stood and led her by the hand to the room with all the games and the little kitchenette, grabbing a bottle of water along the way. They passed Scott and Helena playing a violent game of air hockey, and Helena laughed until she was bent over and banging on the table while Scott shouted something about cheating. Four empty, crumb-covered plates sat nearby. Helena's curls snaked and twisted around her head in time with the Hozier song playing softly on the speaker in the corner of the room.

“They're different songs,” Delphine remarked.

“What's that?” Cosima held her finger tips in hers, both of their arms extended as Cosima tried pulling Delphine along.

Delphine pointed outside and then to their current location. “There. And there. Different songs.”

Cosima's smile was sweet as she cocked her head and stepped over to her. “Yup. They sure are. Come on.” She hooked a finger into the waistband of Delphine's shorts and tugged a little.

Through the door beside the kitchenette was a storage room, filled with folded metal chairs, stacks of bar towels, extra game equipment, and pool toys. Off-white canvas bags were piled up in one corner, and Cosima pulled Delphine down beside her after flopping down herself. Delphine peeled off her bathing suit, rubbed her arm across the low-thread-count fabric, and smelled salt in the air. “Amatique Bay,” she said.

“Hm?”

Delphine positioned herself to hover naked above Cosima. “It's like Amatique Bay, remember? From Guatemala to Belize?”

“Oh, yeah, right. On Latin America's cheapest legal ferry during a tropical storm. We had more clothes on then. I'm surprised you're still smiling at that memory, even if you are high off your gourd.”

“I was with you.” And she bent down and her kissed her lips.

Cosima's mouth was everything. Sweet and salty, soft and firm, wet and giving all at once, and Delphine gave it all of herself. She pushed into it, into Cosima's body against the lumpy bags of laundry or whatever was in them, and she raked her fingernails up Cosima's torso, up under her bathing suit top to brush the soft undersides of her breasts. Cosima arched her back to let Delphine's hands behind her, but as much as she fumbled, Delphine failed at removing the garment separating her from Cosima's chest. She dropped her forehead onto the bag beside Cosima's head, and pouted.

“Having trouble? Here.” She wriggled out of the top and caressed Delphine's face, and Delphine's mouth went dry. Uncomfortably dry. “Here,” Cosima said again, and there was the bottle of water Delphine had forgotten all about.

Delphine drank a few mouthfuls and let the water molecules permeate the membranes inside her mouth and her throat, filling each cell to a plump ripeness, like grapes on the vine.

And speaking of plump, Cosima's nipples were right there! Delphine dropped her mouth onto Cosima's left breast and licked her nipple until it puckered up in her mouth. Only when Cosima laughed did she realize that she'd still had water in her mouth, which now covered half of Cosima's torso and part of the canvas bags they lay on.

“Oh. Sorry.” She tried to mop the water up with her hands, but her hands failed at being absorbent, and Cosima took her wrists to stop her.

“It's okay. A little wetness never hurt anybody, right?”

There was that cheeky smile, and Delphine giggled, too. “Right.” She dug her fingers into Cosima's hips and kissed her breast a few more times. “Touch me?”

Cosima didn't answer right away, but ran her hands over Delphine's back, shoulders, neck, and arms while Delphine nipped at the underside of Cosima's breast. “If you want me to touch more of you, you'll have to let me up.”

She would have, but mixed in with the Amatique Bay salt and canvas smell was Cosima's smell, and what she needed more than anything was Cosima. The little string on the front of Cosima's shorts came undone easily, and then Cosima was naked, too, on her back with her knees spread and her thighs framing Delphine's head.

And she knew this taste. She knew these textures, the tiny soft ridges and loose folds; she knew the flavor of Cosima's body when she was aroused, the heady mixture of vanilla and citrus, or sometimes it was sweeter like a freshly baked custard tart, and then sometimes, every good smell in the world made her think of Cosima.

From across the universe, Cosima whimpered. Each movement of Delphine's mouth elicited another little squeak, moan, or whine, and when she adjusted herself to put her fingers inside Cosima's body, she heard a low rumbly, “Oh, fuck.” Before long, Cosima's heels beat against the canvas bags she rested on, and her cries echoed in the little storage room.

“Stop,” she said, her voice shaky, “that's enough, no more.”

So she stopped, and pushed herself on shaking legs to lay beside her. The scent in the air was thick now, so Delphine swam in it as Cosima flopped her arm over her waist. When Cosima twitched against her, hips spasming in tiny recursive orgasms, Delphine laughed. “You can swim with me,” she said into Cosima's hair.

“One day. When you're sober.”

Delphine's leg found its way around Cosima's, and the pressure and heat between both of them yanked her heart down into her groin. “We can swim right now. You can swim inside of me, if you want to.”

“Hmmm... You've taken all my energy, though.”

Cosima's hand slithered down her side, though, to cup her right ass cheek, and Delphine wiggled herself against it. “I can give you more energy if you need it.”

She smiled against Delphine's neck. “Oh, really? You gonna spit more water on me?”

“No.” In reality, it didn't matter how much energy Cosima had, so long as she was awake. Delphine took Cosima's hand from her ass and tucked it in between her legs, fingers in just the right places. The simple presence of her hand there nearly pushed her over the edge, but Cosima pulled away. “No!” Delphine cried.

Cosima kissed her lips, then her chin. “Shh, it's okay. It's just easier if I'm on top right now. I can use my body weight that way. Don't worry, you'll get there.”

Still, Delphine grabbed at Cosima's skin as she moved herself to Delphine's other side. “Come here. Just come here.”

“I'm here, gorgeous, don't worry.”

And then Cosima's fingers were inside her and her mouth was on Delphine's breast, and her body opened like a ripe peeled plum. She pushed herself against Cosima's hand and body and dug into her scalp and the back of her neck and the room sucked into her before exploding in countless points of light and sound and taste and sensation blended together in every speck of her being, forever.

Otters swam with dolphins all around her. One of them whispered in her ear, “I'm pretty sure everybody heard that.”

She would have laughed if she had the energy. A talking otter, with breath like a fresh clementine. Instead, she just smiled.

Soft lips brushed her shoulder. “Are you gonna fall asleep here?”

“Hm?”

“I asked if you're gonna fall asleep here. It's not exactly comfortable for me, but I'm not baked like you are.”

“Am I baked?” Images of bread and cookies floated around with the otters, who themselves turned into dinner rolls with eyes. It wasn't entirely pleasant.

Another giggle. “You are super baked, my love. You probably don't even know where you are right now.”

Nonsense. “I'm in space,” she said. “Obviously.”

“Obviously.” Another kiss. “It's pretty cold in space, though. And you're not allowed to go outside naked.”

Come to think of it, it was a little chilly here. She moved her head from side to side, and the dinner roll otters vanished. In their place was a cluster of pool noodles watching her with disapproving expressions. “Mais putain, allez tous vous faire foutre,” she told them, and raised her middle finger.

“Hey, I didn't make the rules.” Cosima stood and stretched, her strong little body marked with red lines.

Delphine watched her put her bathing suit back on and retie her hair. Then Cosima opened the door and leaned halfway out. She said something, called out to someone out there, but her words were drowned out by the judgmental chatter of the pool noodles. “Écoutez,” she told them, rising off her seat to point at them. “Je m'en fous!”

“Hey, babe?” Cosima touched the small of her back and steered her away. She had a bag on her hand. “We're gonna get you dressed, okay? Then we're gonna get you back home and in bed. Can you help me with that?”

“Mmm. Okay.”

She didn't remember getting dressed, but there were lights flashing outside the car window and Cosima's hand held hers. When the door opened, she almost fell out.

“It's red,” she said.

“Yup,” Cosima said. “Alison's van's been red the whole time. Come on, up inside now.”

Alison said something, and then Delphine was in bed, a heavy comforter weighing on her, and Cosima kissed her temple. “Goodnight, beautiful. I hope your dreams aren't too fucked up.”

#continuing travels of cophine #cophine fanfiction #my writing #my fanfiction #delphine cormier #cosima niehaus #orphan black fanfiction

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amisbro · 6 years ago

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A UtaPri Q to answer

“How Long did it take you to like HEAVENS?” THIS is an interesting question to answer because we need to do the backstory how we got here and also compare them to say...QN and STARISH (or more specifically the individual members of the two in a way) Wanna go on a trip? LET’S GO!

So If we take a look at S1 of UtaPri (1000%) we had an interesting landscape. I say this because of the fact that literally I knew NOTHING about any of the characters that would be included in this series at the time and when I say “nothing” I mean jack squat. The reason for this is because I wanted my reaction to the characters in the show to be genuine and I refused to let any “outside influence” persuade me one way or the other. I can tell you this too...the characters I liked then were almost different to whom I like now which is interesting. Like if you made me literally break it down for you it went something like this Masa ,Tokiya and Otoya were locks (especially Tokiya cos his reactions to how he had to handle having Oto as a roommate were priceless) Ren was in the category of “You annoy the shit out of me but I’m going to see what you got to show me” And then you had Syo and Natsuki that ,for whatever reason, weren’t exactly high on my faves list...more like on the outs (spoiler: As far as the ANIME goes this doesn’t change...Shining Live I actually enjoy Syo and Natsuki more) and there were reasons but even I couldn’t tell you what they were. I think a big one is cos ,for me, Syo just wanting to fight people cos of his height (which was a big thing in Season 1 and 2 to a lesser extent) was kind of ridiculous so that grated me. Natsuki well...we know the reason as I make no bones that I was NEVER a fan of the “Satsuki Persona” and that just grated me (although his event story with Ren is cute af and if you never read it then SHAME ON YOU!) You will note that I conveniently leave out Cecil (sorry @baku5ds) but that was because ,at THIS POINT, while the cat storyline was an important one (and it was) and then his first appearance near the end of the season and I was just like “I need to see what the heck your angle is” Now as we know come Season 2 I liked Cecil a lot (he almost “replaced” Tokiya in the top tier but I still enjoyed him) but there was one other change Ren ,whom had been on my s**t list in Season 1, showed his maturity for me and we kind of came to an understanding ESPECIALLY after his reconciliation with Seiichirou. THAT really helped me with him but every one else kind of stayed the same (and I was fine with this). When we got to Season 2 also we had two new groups added to the fray QUARTET NIGHT and HEAVENS Now full disclosure: While I never really paid attention to the blurbs that were wrote on the UtaPri wikipedia page for STARISH or any other characters the ones I DID read were for QN...I actually read theirs more before I started Season 1 and when I first read the name “Ai Mikaze” and then “Aoi Shouta” my first thought was “Is this a woman?” (Before we go any further I would like to formally apologize to Shoutan for thinking he was a “she”. For some reason I sometimes hear voice pitches and it screws me up so there we go) Now in QN there weren’t really any members that made me want to throttle them (save Reiji) and I really loved Ai and also the Baron himself in Camus and if there needs to be a breakdown of why Camus well Long hair occasional megane Royalty Good enough...aight! Alright I half told a lie about STARISH...there was ONE member I think I read their blurb the most and IT WAS Nats believe it or not...yet he was one of the two I didn’t really care for...aight! The wild card in ALL of this comes when I meet HEAVENS for the first time as a trio and we know them by now but what the hell I’ll list them out Kira Sumeragi Nagi Mikado Eiichi Otori NOW...if you were to go back into my archives (and have fun with that) you would know that I wasn’t always the biggest fanboy of HEAVENS and I wanted to see them get theirs in the end...well they did and I was happy even if the ending of Season 2 was confusing as all hell! Now this kind of brings us to the question which is “How long did it take me to like HEAVENS?” Here’s why After I saw HEAVENS lose the first time in my mind I was like this “Well these three lost and now Eiichi got knocked down a peg so now can I consider rooting for them at some point later and if so what will cause it?” Now keep this in mind when you read that 1. HEAVENS had no Canon information on them so building sympathy was going to be harder 2. It actually took me TWO full viewings of Season 2 (before Season 3 ever aired) to really come to the idea that I might want to really get in THEIR CORNER because watching them get beat stopped being fun THEN! (That second point is going to come into play real quick...just wait) Season 3 happens and we have QN and STARISH battling it out to see whom is going to win the spot to rep the Shining Agency for Super Star Sports (from this point on the “Triple S”) and in the final episode of Season 3 (6/27/2015) HEAVENS reappears as a 7 member group. Now I think here is where things get a little weird with the fandom because people say they are “still new” and stuff like that. I would like to remind people of something HEAVENS is a 5 year old group. You use the ORIGINAL date they debuted vs. when they became a 7 member group and that’s how it goes. Its weird to me because when you look at the fan art for STARISH I think there was one that celebrated them being 7 years old but I also saw one where they had acknowledged HEAVENS being 3 years old...that’s NOT how it works in the Music industry but I digress When we were getting ready for Season 4 I had “officially” made the decision that I wanted to see what Broccoli did with HEAVENS and I wanted to see what their role in Season 4 would be. Now we know how HEAVENS was treated both in the Anime and on this website during the whole season and it was the first time I ever got legit angry but that was a culmination of things - I had wondered WHY the fandom ignored the times that a HEAVENS member was under distress like when Shion flipped out even Eiichi getting manhandled by his dad...the latter there were people that legit believed Eiichi DESERVED that because of “what happened to Otoya” (despite us knowing that he didn’t mean for that to happen and he basically stated such the following episode after NEXT DOOR) - The other thing is that it felt like the fandom just never wanted to see HEAVENS happy...yeah I’m saying it and I don’t care who gets mad. I know there were some that wanted the best for them but they always got drowned out by the people that LOVED STARISH so much that if something negative happened to HEAVENS I bet they were happy Then of course EVERYONE knows about my thoughts and feelings about 6th stage and why I thought that was a complete dumpster fire and I still do. That show is one I pretty much ignore it unless you show me the intro from QN because...Maeno! Now HEAVENS has had some positives (although they get consistently overshadowed by STARISH in most cases) HEAVENS has had a group single go to #3 on the Oricon chart (and beat STARISH no less) A Drama CD unto themselves that went to #5 on the same chart (but unlike the Anime single this one dropped like a rock after the fact) They also had their own birbs and now they DO have bears and Eiichi has his own plush (which I still want for damn sure) and next year they will start their own web radio show and store...although unlike the Shining Store theirs isn’t going to be separate and instead its going to be a part of an Animate store which...not sure how I feel about that (oh yeah and Shuffle Units they are with a QN/Starish member and you know they are gonna get buried again...fuck I wrote a fic about my displeasure for it when I had Camus beat the **** out of Eiji!) Here is going to be my period on all of this YES...HEAVENS has the movie single ,the shuffle units and even are going to be involved in Dolce Vita...this is GREAT! Here is my problem They have always been treated like 3rd class citizens by both Broc and the fandom and they deserve better and we all know this to be fact BUT as it appears if you are a HEAVENS fan on any social media you get run off because of the fact that we have this “Seniority complex” bull shit! HEAVENS and their fans deserve a lot more than we get and one thing we definitely deserve is our “moment” because I’m sorry but STARISH got theirs HOW MANY TIMES...AND I LIKE MEMBERS OF STARISH BUT SHIT MAN! People have asked me before why I like HEAVENS...I have said this in video form but I will do it again for new people Because there are things about each member that is literally a part of me Eiji is the shy kid to a degree...I can relate to that Yamato had his issues with his brother...you have NO IDEA how I relate to that and in his case he was the younger...for me I’m the older one! Shion is shy/anxious around new people...I REALLY can get with that for sure (and I have had my share of freakouts like he did...never hid in a closet though) Van loves him some baseball...I used to too (and with me my sport of choice to really watch is Hockey oddly enough) Nagi is smart as a tack and sassy af...I at least relate to the whole thing with his smarts...and some would say the sass too I’m sure! The BIG one though is Eiichi because you have NO IDEA the shit I went through with my mother many years ago and the times she decided to get physical with me...we won’t even talk about one of my grandparents and his short fucking temper! If you wonder why I am always quick to protect Eiichi there we go! Do we get it yet? Like I LOVE HEAVENS because I probably share more personality traits with them or experiences than I ever could say STARISH...then again there are the members I like there for different reasons and the big one was Tokiya because he (kind of like Camus to a degree) was someone that was organized and was good at getting shit done...yeah that is kind of me right there (and I am working on the “getting shit done” part). When people say about HEAVENS you “need more time” I respond like this It is 2018 and soon to be 2019...you have had over 5 years and a total of 18 episodes to figure the fuck out whether or not you were going to like them or not. It LITERALLY only took me two watches of S2 and the duet project of S4 to figure out that I was going to “Ride and Die” with HEAVENS and for me that is where I will mark my grave and die with my boots on. Maybe there are some of you that need just a little bit more (and genuinely which I can respect) but I wonder if when people say “I need more time” its just a way of saying “I will NEVER like them” This is just something I wanted to write about for a while and now I did and I enjoyed writing this...good therapy! I’ll be back in the near future with a brand new fic I promise!

#Amisbro #HEAVENS #utano princesama #Why do I like HEAVENS?#now you know

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streiknine-blog · 6 years ago

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Task 001.

BUT RED WAS WHAT YOU WRAPPED AROUND YOU. BLOOD RED.

—Ted Hughes

BASIC INFORMATION.

Full Name: Vincent James Ouellet Nickname(s): Vin, Vinny, Strychnine, Striker; Strike Age: 28 Date of Birth: 13 February 1990 Hometown: Québec, Québec, Canada Current Location: Dertosa, California Ethnicity: white Nationality: Vincent is Canadian, but his mother was American, so he’s got dual citizenship Gender: cis male Pronouns: he/him Orientation: Vincent is bisexual — but also fun fact he’s never had sex Religion: agnostic — he doesn’t think too hard about it, but I could see him going for something like Roman Reconstructionalist if he actually put thought into it. Political Affiliation: (I don’t know stateside politics and neither does Vincent) Occupation: full-time Poison babey — see also: hitman Living Arrangements: he’s got a small apartment with sparse decorations — really what he was looking for when he got it was somewhere that he’d be able to relax and cook.

The kitchen is the most put-together part of the one-bedroom place, with well-loved pots, pans, and bakeware. A couple nice dishtowels in a white with navy stripes pattern hang from the handle of the oven, and a much more ragged bleach-worn dishtowel is usually seen on the counter (used for wiping up messes as they happen). Little (fake bullet) shell casing salt and pepper shakers sit on the back of the stove, along with a little porcelain rooster — “You have to have a rooster in the kitchen.” Vincent would say, “It’s good luck.” — which its paint is chipping from how old it is.

The living/eating area has a navy and grey rug that looks like he’s had it since he was in his early twenties (and, honestly, he has) and a dark-stained wooden table with four chairs — the insert to make it into a six person table for if he ever had the Poisons over sitting against the far wall, in plain sight — and just a single placemat, that is pastel and multi-coloured and looks like he stole it from a sixty year old’s kitchen décor, sitting on the table at all times.

He’s got a small, grey, apartment-sized couch that he likes to curl up an nap on, so there’s a throw blanket and a single pillow always on it.

Language(s) Spoken: English; French Accent: Light buzzing on ‘TH’, ‘Z’, and ’S’ sounds — a holdover from his Québécois upbringing; for the most part has a fairly neutral “Seattle accent” that he’s taught himself as a consequence of being around Americans and wanting to sound less ‘different’. Still has a light Québécois accent tinging his words.

PHYSICAL APPEARANCE.

Face Claim: Zane Holtz Hair Colour: dark brown Eye Colour: blue Height: 6’1” Weight: 220ish lbs Build: lorge Tattoos: n/a Piercings: n/a Clothing Style: Simple, dark sweaters (navy, forest green, maroon, black), white dress shirts (buttoned to the top), dark sports coats, charcoal or black slacks are the standard, but he’ll wear dark wash jeans occasionally. Usually the jeans are paired with a crisp dress shirt (in any of the sweater colours) that may be rolled to to the elbows. If he’s doing the sweater + dress shirt + jeans outfit, his favourite combination is his maroon sweater with a navy dress shirt. He thinks he looks fancy in it. He’s not opposed to wearing light, airy colours (like powder blue, or dusty pink) but he gets a bit self-conscious when he wears them — thinking that they don’t suit him well enough for him to pull it off. So he sticks to dark colours and neutrals. They’re easier to hide bloodstains anyway, and the white shirts can be bleached.

Fan of French cuffs but never wears them because cufflinks are easy to lose at a scene. When he’s not on the job he’s totally breaking out the French cuffs and his silver cufflinks. There’s the occasional t-shirt + sweatpants combo but usually reserved for when he isn’t going out anywhere/not seeing anyone but the other poisons or the flower he’s booked.

For accessories, he’s got a dark grey tungsten carbide band that he wears on his left ring finger.

Usual Expression: neutral, vaguely aggressive leaning. His eyebrows make him look mad when he’s not holding them up in some form of expression. Distinguishing Characteristics: I’d say his biggest distinguishing characteristic is that he is tall and wide — like not only is this kid over six feet tall, he’s jacked as shit too.

HEALTH.

Physical Ailments: needs glasses, and he’s nearsighted — it’s partly why he prefers knives to guns. Neurological Conditions: nothing I can peg but I’m sure there’s Something. Allergies: n/a Sleeping Habits: king of the cat nap, and honestly whenever he can knock out he’s gonna. He snores too. Eating Habits: he eats a Lot and he’s decently healthy… please see his favourite food section for a more detailed food thing. Exercise Habits: Boy loves to workout — gotta keep fit for murder, y’know? He’s fond of free weights, and bars… boy loves a heavy deadlift, and he’s gotta bench press his friends at least once. He’s also one to do sprints for his cardio, especially resistance sprints. Gotta go fast.

He works until it burns and he’s comfortably sore. Totally one to have a protein shake with oats added after a hard workout.

Emotional Stability: Vincent isn’t necessarily the most emotionally competent but he’s also not especially volatile. He’s got his moments — blind fury or just enjoyment of a kill can cause him to go a lil overboard. When he laughs it’s a whole body laughs — boy’s gonna feel things all at once if he’s going to feel them at all. Sociability: He likes to be with other people but he is just so painfully awkward. He doesn’t quite realize sometimes that he’s making jokes that aren’t funny and that he should stop making poisoning jokes to the flower that is eating the meal he prepped himself but, hey, we can’t be perfect and Vinny certainly isn’t. Body Temperature: I’d say he’s a slight onto the warm side — summer is hell for him. Addictions: can I say the high of a kill? But nah he ain’t a straight up murder-obsessed guy, he just really loves that feeling. In all honesty, he loves sweet things. Drug Use: Never Alcohol Use: Rarely drinks — he doesn’t like the feeling of being drunk/tipsy, but he will go for a lite beer or two, or a mixed drink that is “light on the alcohol, heavy on the mix, please.”

PERSONALITY.

Label: the aggressor; the cold-blooded; the loyalist Positive Traits: Fearless, determined, willing Negative Traits: Ruthless, detached Goals/Desires: his biggest thing is having a balance to things, it’s a driving force behind his actions. Fears: spiders — too many legs they creep him out. Hobbies: cooking, reading, watching movies Habits: absently rotates his wrists/cracks his fingers when he’s focused on something. Mutters in French under his breath if he’s trying to figure something out.

FAVOURITES.

Weather: cold, crisp winter day with large snowflakes floating down lazily — not a flurry, just pleasant and relaxing. Probably around -15C / 5f. Colour: navy and light blue Music: top 40 hits — 22 year old Vincent was the type to sing along to ‘Call Me Maybe’ in his car by himself. Movies: comedies, supernatural themes, French and Québécois cinema. Sport: Lacrosse; hockey (fan of the Canadiens and the Maple Leafs) Beverage: Hot chocolate!

He’s one to pick the drink up from a coffee shop on the way to an appointment, or to make himself a fresh one after he’s back home. He has several different kinds of it — from those hot chocolate wands, to tins of powdered mix, to single-serve portions of it for a on-demand coffee machine — and he’s not picky. He likes the sweetness of it, and, if he’s getting one from a coffee shop, makes sure to ask for extra chocolate sauce. At home it depends how tired he is. It’ll either be basic, with just hot milk and melted chocolate or fancier on his days off with tiny marshmallows or peppermint syrup. He especially likes to make hot chocolate for those he considers friends.

Food: He’ll give most things a try, honestly.

He’s definitely fallen back on the ‘pan seared broccoli with wild rice and baked chicken breast (with smoked paprika, thyme, and black pepper)’ as a basic dinner meal for when he’s feeling lazy. If he’s not feeling lazy the sky is the fucking limit. He’ll make everything from a whole chicken or a roast with accompanying veggies, to stir-frying tofu and veggies. For lunch he’s usually eating something he’s packed — quinoa, lemon-dill salmon, asparagus; rare steak, sweet potatoes, broccolini; Cobb salad with an extra hardboiled egg or two; homemade “instant” ramen in a jar — and for breakfast he’ll either just straight up have a protein shake with oats and fruit, or some of the egg muffins he makes every few days (mushroom, cheese, ham,, quinoa) or he’ll really go all out and have French Toast or waffles.

Homemade stovetop mac n cheese is a comfort food he likes if he wants something quick (25 minutes, start to finish), but if he’s gonna make a comforting meal to distract himself he’s totally the type to go with a braised lamb sort of deal.

Animal: dogs

FAMILY.

Father: Étienne Jean Ouellet (53); president of an insurance brokerage Mother: Lillian Grace Ouellet née Richardson (51); homemaker Sibling(s): none Children: n/a Pet(s): n/a Family’s Financial Status: solidly upper-middle class. Don’t you know the insurance business is practically a license to print money?

EXTRA.

Zodiac Sign: Aquarius; 13 February 1990 MBTI: ISTJ Enneagram: type 8 — the challenger Temperament: melancholic Moral Alignment: totally pegged him as a Lawful Evil — uses murder to get his ends tidy, but has a strong sense of needing balance for things. Not one to just willy-nilly McMurder. Primary Vice: Wrath Primary Virtue: Charity Element: Earth

#tcrp.task #about #this is so extra i'm so sorry

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shananaomi · 7 years ago

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2017.

Giving myself an hour on the clock to get through this, if at all possible. (ETA: Done!)

Here’s 2016.

What did you do in 2017 that you'd never done before?

I have such a great answer to this that I’m still not ready to write about. Ask me in person and I might tell you. Also: went to yoga fairly regularly and found I both could and wanted to lay peacefully in one pose or another for 5 or 10 minutes at a time.

Did you keep your New Years' resolutions and will you make more for next year?

We did in fact #GetFitToFightFascism, or anyway on days when I didn’t know how else to treat the creeping anxiety I got up and hiked to the Observatory or somewhere else so ridiculously stunning that I felt slightly reassured we’d live another day. We were determined to see our BFF Jamie every Saturday night and except for weekends when one of us or the other was out of town or we had plans already for the weekend we had a near-perfect attendance record. And though I didn’t think I wrote that much, I got enough out in TinyLetter (now backposted at Medium) to add up to a decent Twitter thread last week.

I always feel like next year should maybe be its own post, but for now I’m thinking about: Writing, always. Reading more. And finding a way to host maybe monthly dinners for small groups of our friends at home.

Did anyone close to you give birth?

My childhood best friend’s daughter was born on New Year’s Day 2017 and we finally got to meet her last week. She is able to reach for and drink from a glass of beer so I think she’ll be just fine.

What countries did you visit?

This was a year between big adventures out of the country, but we just booked a February getaway to Puerto Vallarta to celebrate the 10th anniversary of our first date. Went back and forth to New York a few times, plus a quickie up to SF for work.

What would you like to have in 2018 that you lacked in 2017?

Confidence the pendulum will in fact swing back from fascism.

What date from 2017 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

I guess the run from January 19 (Hamilton) to January 20 (bus trip from NYC to DC, with the worst possible welcome from post-Inaugural attendees) to January 21 (meeting up with so many old friends at the Women’s March). The rest is still vividly sharp but not so much tied to any specific date.

What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Surviving it with some semblance of hope. Making the move to a better, bigger place in Pasadena. Leading a loyal and devoted staff through a major corporate transition and many other hard challenges.

What was your biggest failure?

I have never done anything as hard as being a boss lady, and I’m still not sure most days I’ve left things at least better than I found them.

Did you suffer illness or injury?

For the first 9 months or so I got super sick every single goddamned month: a recurring case of America, I called it. Overall I’ve been very lucky.

What was the best thing you bought?

The peace of mind that privilege allows when you need to pay your way out of a loud, anxiety-ridden neighborhood for the quieter (at least most days) and more serene outskirts of town. A weekly outlet and focus for my physical stress in the form of the most amazing personal trainer. A 40th birthday blowout weekend that included renting the most ridiculous house (as seen when CJ fell into the pool in The West Wing), hosting a dinner party and then pool party for so many of our friends and family.

Whose behavior merited celebration?

My wife’s, always. Because all I do these days is listen to Kesha, I’ve been thinking about these lines:

I know forever don’t exist But after this life, I’ll find you in the next So when I say “forever,” it’s the goddamned truth

Where did most of your money go?

The house and moving into it, the car, the trainer, the birthday celebrations.

What did you get really, really, really excited about?

Did I?

We discovered Two Bunch Palms, an old getaway near Palm Springs that soothed my soul in quiet calm ways I hadn’t realized could be so close at hand or that I needed so much. This year’s LA Pride parade became a protest and was the most joyous and community-filled day like that we’ve felt in a long, long time.

What song will always remind you of 2017?

This fairly goes to Kesha’s “Praying,” but since I already wrote a whole thing about that, I’ll say Julia Michaels’ “Don’t Wanna Think,” in part because I listened to it on repeat for so many hours in a row while flying back and forth from New York that it’s kind of embedded in my subconscious: I’m not really one for drinking songs, but — fuck it, here it comes. Heartbreak is annoying, and I’ll feel it in the morning. Swallow it down like a bitter pill. At least it will taste better than this feeling will. I don’t like myself when I’m just standing still.

Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder? Happier, though I’d say that’s grading on a goddamned curve for real.

ii. thinner or fatter? About the same, if trimmer and stronger in some places.

iii. richer or poorer? Close to a draw here, more or less.

What do you wish you'd done more of?

I was happiest when I was hiking, reading, sitting quietly on the couch with my wife and dog. I did a decent amount of all that but it was still to keep my head above water.

What do you wish you'd done less of?

Be on the goddamned internet. But I’m also aware that finding the right balance between awareness and mindfulness and rest and action is the most pervasive and elusive self-care challenge for literally everyone I know, so I’m trying hard not to give myself a hard time about it. And there’s probably something here to say about the betrayal and pain that came from incorrectly trusting people to be their best selves instead of being undeserving of the benefit of the doubt but I am working so fucking hard at leaving that behind in 2017.

How did you spend Christmas?

In Reno with my family and friends, bouncing between two houses full of other people’s people (and mine) and a lot of very rich and exotic meats and liquors. The last couple years have been really hard and not well-balanced or rejuvenating visits, and this year was much better if still not without its own drama.

What was your favorite TV program?

New: Star Trek: Discovery was almost everything I needed in a show this year. Also I loved The Arrangement and found it way smarter and more complicated and fucked up than I’d expected.

New to me: I was only a little late on Riverdale but found it very enjoyable.

Oldies but Goodies: Also I watched a lot of older Star Trek, from TOS to the early movies. Everyone keeps saying next week need to do DS9, so I guess that’s the kind of geek I am proudly now.

What friends did you make or meet this year for the first time?

All but one were not new but I really loved our all-girl get-togethers to watch hockey even when we barely paid attention to it.

What was the best book you read?

I didn’t make a real resolution about reading more but boy did I. It’s just so much better than being in the world or on the internet. The ones that really stand out are Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee (not from this year, but my fave read from it), John Green’s Turtles All the Way Down, and Amy Bloom’s White Houses, which comes out in a couple months. If we’re not already GoodReads friends come find me there—I’m terrible at writing reviews but I find it super helpful personally to know what y’all have read and liked?

What did you want and get?

A new house.

What did you want and not get?

A Japanese wooden soaking tub of my very own. (See below.)

What was your favorite film of this year?

We just saw Call Me By Your Name last night and now I can’t think of anything else. Though I’d say the sheer joy of Wonder Woman is still a solid contender.

What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

I was 40, and I took 5 days to basically do only what I wanted, and it did the exact trick I’d hoped for: I just enjoyed it instead of ruthlessly evaluating what I haven’t done with my life.

What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? What political issue stirred you the most? Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed?

I am going to charitably say the answer to all three of these is both obvious and tiresome. Be better, 2018.

How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2017?

Lots of jumpsuits and DVF, all courtesy a Rent the Runway Unlimited subscription, which also falls under where all my money went but was a ton of fun and practical in many ways too.

What kept you sane?

Remembering how many amazing women are already in my life and know exactly what I mean even when I can barely say it out loud.

Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Ugh, this one feels too much like work and also like tempting fate.

Who did you miss?

For the first time in a while there were frankly some people who I miss greatly but was glad didn’t have to live through this shit themselves.

Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2017.

Just because it could have been worse doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be better.

Quote a song lyric that sums up your year.

Here’s what I wrote about 3 songs that shaped my 2017. I don’t think I can do much better in one quote.

What’s one photo that sums up your year?

#2017 #yearly update

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isoboto · 4 years ago

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A Controversial Opinion: (Not) Taking A Knee, In Sports

▬▬▬

00 | PREFACE

Welcome to an episode where I try to break your echo chamber. This is your host, Eva. I hope you’re having a great day.

Have a seat and settle down because you, my lovely readers, are about listen to one of the silent voice you don’t know exist, or if you do you are usually very quick to attack/dismantle/dismiss.

The purpose of this is not to trigger or anger you. It’s to explain to you why some people acts and thinks differently from you.

Welcome to the real world.

Today, we will be tackling why some athletes won’t take a knee or why some leagues don’t mandate kneeling as part of their operation to eradicate racism. As well as the future implications of kneeling in sports.

Some context: I’ve only gotten into hockey recently as a form of escape from politics. I watched soccer and NASCAR with my dad, but we aren’t religious fan.

I’m from Vietnam, a regime where criticisms against authority or merely pointing out faults in the system is very much like asking for a death sentence. I’ve been political since I started middle school and had put myself into many risky situations for expressing my opinions.

I came to Canada for a better future and was determined to put my past behind me and not involved in more political talks. I followed the news, but I kept my mouth shut. Being agreeable is very easy -- all you have to do is nod and smile and parrot back whatever the other person is saying.

The death of George Floyd got me dialed in back to politics full-time. I initially did not chime into the discussion, simply because I don’t see the point of yelling something everybody agreed across the board. I agreed that Floyd’s death is unwarranted, the involving police officers should be tried and punished suitably, the police force should reflect and reform and take actions to prevent similar situation from happening again to anybody.

I continued to keep silence as protests sparked across the US, Canada and Europe. People have the right to exercise their free speech, free thoughts and demand the government to improve and be better and fairer.

There are many other things that happened in the past 3-5 months, but I will direct your attention to what happened between Colin Kappernick and Drew Brees, and the conversation about the meaning of kneeling during the anthem.

I was not invested in NFL or NBA or MLB, and only mildly involve in NHL and NASCAR. However, there were many talks about potentially allow players to kneel. I really didn’t get what was the anger all about, but whatever you know.

Fast forward to August 1, 2020.

MLB and NBA orchestrated a kneeling event where almost all players were kneeling (except for cases I’ll mentioned later). NHL’s Matt Dumba knelt during the American anthem after a speech, following by a few others on August 3.

I’ve seen both sides of the aisles, and I’d like to explain from the silent side’s opinion.

This is not mean to be a comprehensive list of reasons why people don’t/won’t kneel. If you support kneeling you don’t have to agree to all of these points. You may have already ran into these talking points, or you may not. You’re free to criticize the people, however, I’ll ask that you acknowledge that these opinions exist.

Alright.

Let’s dissect this down.

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01 | WHY WON’T THEY KNEEL?

» An examination on why some people don’t kneel or won’t kneel as a form of protest «

I’ve seen this question raised a lot across my dash and saw people criticizes why players wouldn’t kneel and instead chose to stand without considering what could go on through the players’ minds.

There are a several plausible explanation for why a player/an organization chooses not to kneel. The top 3 that I most often heard (and also deduce from my personal experience) are: 1) business tactics, 2) religious reasons, 3) political reasons.

What do I mean by that?

1. From a Business Perspective: “Where The Money Goes, I Go.”

Let’s not forget one thing: sports are a business, just like Tesla, Red Bull, Hollywood, the music industry or your local small stores.

It is an exchange of values. The players are getting paid to play games, to win and the owner/the audience are paying for entertainment.

Following the riots, just like many businesses and brands, sport teams and leagues began putting out pro-BLM and anti-racism messages. However, many also took (extreme) steps to show how woke and supportive they are.

Which, brings us to this unique perspective of how mixing politics and businesses can be very counterproductive and even harmful. The year 2020 is the year Get Woke, Go Broke manifests into existence, and we can physically and statistically see it happening.

Let’s go with some recent biggest examples:

The recent lawsuits against Patreon for banning users for some particular ideologies, specifically against conservative or right-leaning creators (Owen Benjamin vs. Patreon lawsuits breakdown, Viva Frei).

Patreon lost the case and they will now be forced to arbirate 100+ claims and pay up to $10,000 per arbitration just from the lawsuits with Owen Benjamin alone. Other creators and supporters who were previously shut down are now filing lawsuits against Patreon. The impending arbitration money are going to crushed Patreon in the matter of times.

A&E’s story of dropped viewership and revenue after cancelling “Live PD” (A&E Sees Viewership Drop 49% After Canceling Live PD, Rosa Escandon).

Live PD is responsible for 85% of the traffic and revenue for A&E and is the most popular shows out of all series they’re running. The cancellation is not definite, but it is probable that once this blew over A&E will bring Live PD back.

Or, since we’re talking about sports, just hot off the press, August 3: NBA Ratings Crash: Why are NBA and MLB ratings at an all time low after ‘Black Lives Matter’ protests, Gautham Balaji. August 5: ESPN loses the biggest number of subscribers in 4 years.

Here are some numbers:

via Ethan Strauss’s Twitter, August 2, 2020

via Rich Greenfield’s Twitter, August 5, 2020

Civiqs’ Poll

Let’s put ourselves into these millionaires’ (expensive) shoes for a second.

We all know how basic business model works. In order for a business to succeed, you have to understand your audience, understand who you’re trying to impress. You want to maximize your target market.

For sports, you want people to buy tickets or to tune in on the broadcast, buy merchandises, etc. Therefore, your target market would mostly be those who have disposable incomes, a stable job, middle-class. Splitting it down even more, the older group would most likely don’t want to be political while the younger group would most likely to be political; while people with higher education are most likely to be political while lower education are less likely to be political.

Examine the Civiqs’ graph:

Prior to April 2018, the opposition against BLM is greater than supporting for BLM. Noted that by the time George Floyd’s story hits the news and the peaceful protests began, support for BLM surged and opposition dipped.

However, immediately when the riots started, shifts began: noted the huge plummet in “Neither support nor oppose” corresponding with the big swing for “Oppose” and the slight change in “Unsure”. These people who previously didn’t care or chose not to be active politically “flipped”.

If you (the player/the league) outright supported BLM, you know you’re potentially losing 36% of your audience with current situation. At its peak you can lose up to 42%.

To put into perspective: that’s over 1/3 of a league’s revenue evaporating into thin air. Big leagues, like NBA or MLB or NFL, or big teams with more money, may be able to hold on. Smaller leagues, like NHL, which had to battle it out in places for people to take hockey seriously and was already strapped, will be hurt a lot. Especially if you take into consideration lower fan attendance over the years and other factors.

That’s not the worst case scenario.

See the “neither support or oppose” and “unsure” category? Remember, if they’re in those categories it doesn’t mean they don’t have an opinion. They may not care about BLM’s agenda -- perhaps they view BLM as an organization that did some bad and some good, or perhaps because they are not political at all.

So let’s assume they are not political at all. Neutral. Most likely, these fans don’t want anything to do with politics. They just want to work, come home, have the TV on and fall asleep. They may be passionate fans, they may be not.

Noted that leading up to the riots, the amount of people deciding to be neutral stays relatively the same.

But, a few things happened: the riots and big corporations/celebrities coming out endorsing violence, MSM constantly promoting anti-racism and pro-BLM materials day in and day out.

People go online, BLM. People go shopping, BLM. People go across a street, BLM. The news, BLM. BLM, BLM, BLM everywhere!

They just want a break. They put the sport channels on, and oh hey! BLM again!

They are sick and tired of it.

I spoke about this all days every day, browsed news about these, debated all of this for fun, and even I got sick of it too at some point. I physically could feel myself driven insane just from the divisiveness and anger I’ve chosen to surrounded myself in. I could feel my perspective skewed and warped far from I actually believe -- being polarized.

Guess how are these average, non-political people going to react to politics being shoved down their throats everywhere? They just want the country to do well economically, have a stable job, unplug from their work. They don’t want to keep stressing out about politics and turmoil. They are done hearing/talking about it at work.

They’re just going to turn off the TV, go on YouTube/Netflix and stream some dumb things. Or they’re going to change the channels.

The numbers don’t lie.

If you combined the current numbers of “oppose”, “neither support or oppose” and “unsure”, you’re staring at 50% potential loss squarely in the face. If you’re going for the extreme numbers, at their respective peak, “oppose” had 42%, “neither support or oppose” had 26% and “unsure” had 3%, for a combined 71%.

70% of your audience is going to tune out or abandoned you.

But, let’s assume the best case scenario. The 50% that supports BLM will also stand by you for doing the “right” thing (quotation mark, because I’ll let history be the judge).

But what if the 50% that you thought are going to applaud and support you aren’t doing that. They are criticizing you for your message, your delivery, your efforts. They’re going to call you phony, cheap, sell-out. You’re only claiming to support it, you don’t really support it, do you?

Are they going to quit watching you, too? Maybe. Potentially.

What if some of those 50% are like me -- self-proclaimed pundits trying to take a breather and reflect? Nobody can be on a job 24/7, for 365 days.

You get what I’m going here?

Look hard at the numbers for the NBA and MLB’s debut versus golfing.

Noticed the ratio? At best, 1.7M vs. 5.8M viewership. 1:3 ratio. 30% remained.

It’s already happening.

Kneeling and declaring allegiance to BLM are already crippling the sports.

The players can do whatever they want. Kneel, don’t kneel, support BLM, don’t support BLM -- whatever.

But the league should not affiliate itself with a political movement that started under problematic platforms and now unraveled into full unhinge-mode. It is extremely dangerous when leagues like NFL, NBA, MBL and NHL started endorsing BLM -- and I am very specifically talking about supporting BLM here. By pledging to BLM (ie. painting BLM on the courts, having giant letters at your stadium), the league as a whole is making itself political and aligning itself with an ideology, which is Marxism (Karl Marx).

When a league aligns itself to a particular ideology like that, players that have different opinions will either bottled up their real thoughts or they will receive backlash and be cancelled if they dare go against the grains (even if they intent to be political or not)

NFL Takes Hardline Stance Against Christian Players Attending Church

Marcellus Wiley (NFL) on BLM

NBA's James Harden Slammed for Wearing Apparent Pro-Police Mask amid Fight Against Racial Injustice

NHL: Bruins Photoshop Boston Police Logo Off Charlie Coyle’s Shirt In IG Post After Globe Reporter Matt Porter Criticizes Tuukka Rask For Wearing BPD Hat During Interview

ESPN Host’s Poll Mocks NBA Player Who Didn’t Kneel For Suffering Season-Ending Injury

Aligning themselves with BLM will also make the leagues primed to further metaphorically “bend the knee” for the BLM mob and make players do what they want for that “united” facade they want.

The BLM mob are demanding everybody to kneel because that’s the only appropriate way to protest, and so one-by-one down they go.

You can argue “but it’s for justice!”, but you and I both know that’s not how it works. BLM reared its ugly head and then people flocked to appease it. Say anything else other than “I Support BLM” and they will loot your store, threaten to desert you. They scream and scream and scream in your face. The media amplified that voices. Big companies like WalMart, etc. -- people immediately dismissed it because “they have insurance”. How about the small businesses that had to board up their fronts and spraypainted “Minority-Owned Business” because they’re terrified the mob are going to bash their windows and steal?

The recent scandal with Red Bull is a smart move. I’m not (necessarily) gleeful that people are getting fired, but it is a strategic move because Red Bull recognizes the “Get Woke, Go Broke” reality. This segment started with examples of businesses got broke and got caught in their own hypocrisy, and now here we are.

The reasons why some businesses or players will not “bend the knee”, physically and/or metaphorically, is because:

They recognize the political undercurrent and they do not want to be involved in it;

They realize supporting BLM doesn’t mean supporting black lives on the street in meaningful ways;

Bend the knee to the mob once, you’re going to bend the knee to the mob again;

Losing a bigger chunk of fans for supporting BLM;

“Get Woke, Go Broke” trend;

Or, simply: they don’t agree with this particular form of protesting.

2. From a Religious Perspective: “I kneel before no man but God.”

I know players are from various religious backgrounds and beliefs.

I am not a religious person by any means. I respect people who worships gods and follows religions, whichever it is. As long as they do not physically harm others in the names of their religious belief, then I’m all good.

Worshiping a religion means people will also following (some) of its beliefs, and by respecting their beliefs I must also accept that people will choose and act according to their faith.

The two prime players who stood up for their belief are: Sam Coonrod (SF Giants, MLB, July 23, 2020) and Jonathan Isaac (Orlando Magic, NBA, July 31, 2020).

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Jonathan Isaac Explains Why He Stood During National Anthem

From my knowledge, most religions featured common values (ie. be kind, be respectful, be considerate of your words and actions, understand karma and consequences, etc.). However, since the two examples I provided featured Christians, I’ll talk about the Christian perspective from here. That being said, God doesn’t necessarily just talking about Jesus Christ but could also be referring to Allah or other god-like figure they worship.

The following articles gave some good insights on how different Christians feel about this: 1) Kneeling for the Anthem: a Catholic Reflection on Protest, 2) The Power and the Threat of Kneeling, 3) Christian players frustrated by criticism for anthem protest.

I’ve had also chances to talk to some of the local Christians, gotten an array of answers.

Some Christians said they are willing to take a knee in the name of racial justice. Some Christians disagree with the method of protesting but don’t agree with stifling somebody trying to express their voice.

Some Christians refused to take a knee. Why?

They do not think any man is worthy of bowing down for, except for God

They do not believe BLM advocates for the values they follow or what God wants. Examples:

BLM is anti-Christ/anti-religion -- burnt down numerous churches, defaced and burnt the Virgin Mary, decapitated Jesus Christ, sexual harassment and physical assault to a priest in CHAZ;

BLM seeking to destroy nuclear family and permanent removal of father-figure in children’s life -- yes, this is stated on their official website;

BLM is pro-abortion -- Planned Parenthood has entered many discussion. The thing is: Margaret Sanger and Planned Parenthood is founded specifically to decimate minorities. Their message has been flipped due to the new “wokeness” (ie. going from “we will restrict your community from growth by killing off your babies” to “we will help elevate your voice by killing off your babies”).

BLM is Marxist -- one of the main idea in Marxism is the absolute removal of religion, and this is often interpreted as all religions. However, the attack on Christianity and Christians are the clearest example of this, at least in the US/Canada

Some articles on why Christians do not believe or support BLM: 1) Some Evangelicals Struggle With Black Lives Matter Movement, 2) The Stated Goals of Black Lives Matter Are Anti-Christian. This last one is very interesting because it breaks down similarities in Christianity and the method of protesting some BLM protesters choose, The Faith Of The Black Lives Matter Movement

As fellow non-religious folk, you and I may not have been able to comprehend why they are taking their relationship with God very seriously, or how much they use the Bible to guide them in life.

I’ve heard many others dismissing and even laughing at people because they’re religious, or criticizing people because they need an outdated book to help to through life. Both Sam Coonrod and Jonathan Isaac were slammed when they cited their faith as one of their main reasons for not kneeling.

If Christians chose not to protest against racial injustice by kneeling, and instead raising a fist, or standing and praying to God to purge racism out of human’s DNA -- why is it a problem?

All Christians that I have spoken to believe there are racial injustice and want to do their best to eradicate it and help those who are suffering. They want no harm and want the world to be a better place.

If we can accept that people can think differently, can act differently, can speak differently, why are we not accepting that people can protest or raise awareness differently?

Unless, it’s not about kneeling or raising awareness or protesting at all.

It’s about satisfying your own needs to feel vindicated, to know your favourite players are doing things you want them to do and are feeling the same way about things just like you.

3. From a Personal Perspective

Traditionally, and universally-accepted: kneeling can be in awe, in fear, in humiliation or in respect.

To me, personally, kneeling to someone/something is often being linked to “being terrified”/”being humiliated” rather than “being respectful”.

As someone who is small-frame, I don’t like kneeling. One knee or two knee bent, didn’t matter. Psychologically speaking, and, physically speaking, you’re making yourself smaller, lower to the ground and easier to hurt. You’re in a vulnerable position.

Kneeling reminds me too much of grovelling, powerless.

Obviously, this is my opinion and I don’t know if anybody else or any players who didn’t kneel share the same opinion. But. I don’t think kneeling is an empowering move.

You have to stand up for what you believe in even if it’s unpopular. Not: you have to bend your knee for what you believe in.

Standing had always been associating with rising, moving upward, becoming bigger and more powerful.

Some reasons people will cite for kneeling including: condemning police brutality, honouring the lives lost under police brutality, honouring black lives. Which are great causes. I still very, very much believe if you’re going to protest, stand up tall and firm. (Especially, since, you know, Floyd dies with a knee on his neck. Kneeling in remembrance of him is kinda funny ironic.)

So, an interesting case study: Recently, Matt Dumba (Minnesota Wild, NHL, August 3, 2020) made a speech and knelt. However, he only knelt for the American anthem but stood for the Canadian anthem.

I’m not ragging on Dumba. Kudos to him for speaking out.

He later said he’d have kneel for Canada anthem as well. I understand. There are pressures on him, and I think when hearing your nation’s anthem you’ll usually automatically stand up.

That being said, there are rightful, warranted probing questions. It raised doubts to the legitimacy of kneeling.

Kneeling for the US anthem but then standing for Canada anthem is a strange decision because it is implying that there are problems in the US, not in the Canada. Prior to George Floyd’s death as well as around the times when protests/riots broke out, a few Indigenious Canadians died during a wellness check (Recent deaths prompt questions about police wellness checks) and arguably perhaps police brutality.

Here in Canada, we’re told we’re equally racist, but the mentality Canadians have is that we’re better than the US.

Therefore, I’d say it is rightful that a lot of people interpreted Dumba’s action as hating on the US and/or not actually raising awareness about racism or police brutality.

This brings us to the biggest reason a lot of people cite for being against kneeling: kneeling on the flag is disrespecting the country.

I’ve looked into the military history of kneeling on the flag/during the anthem. I’ve to wade through pages of different vets rationalizing their opinions and asked some of the vets/active-duty that I knew of, and here are my findings:

Some views it as disrespect because it shows cowardice

“I didn’t serve so you can kneel.”

Some doesn’t like it but doesn’t mind it because you’re excising your freedom of speech and thoughts.

Most people I knew of, and myself, fell into this camp

Some thinks it could mean respect and should even be a mandate form of greeting the flags.

I thought this was a good point and should be something we can consider

However, it’s worth pointing out there are also vets that supports kneeling specifically because they hate America or the government, either because the system chewed them up and spat them back out. There are also people that supported spitting and/or burning the flags for all the history it carries

I don’t agree with spitting and/or burning the flags. I think it implies symbolically you’re wishing your country to go down in flames (the fact that half of America has been literally burning down for over 2 months, and many rioters/BLM supporters talking about literally burning things down make me more alarmed and disgusted)

But. It’s freedom of speech and freedom of expressions. So.

Drew Brees’ speech is a very good way to sum it up how most average people feel about this: I would stand on the anthem, but you’re free to kneel even if I disapprove of the particular method of kneeling.

The take-away here is that the same action can mean differently to different people.

Some will not kneel or disapprove of kneeling because of the symbolic weight.

So, I’ll reiterate the biggest point: There’s no “correct” way of protesting.

Someone does not have to kneel in order to express that they are against racism.

We can achieve the same goal by different means.

You and I are okay with people kneeling don’t mean others have to agree with us. We should not be pressuring others to kneel and think and process and expression opinions the same way we do. It is impossible, and it is a dangerous mentality.

We are not a monolith.

4. From a Political Perspective: “BLM is doing more harm than good.”

4.1. Wrong messenger/mixed messages

Look.

People are free to kneel, but I do believe there is a right time, place for it, and the right people for it.

The NBA kneeling for racial justice and equality for all and police brutality yet the whole organization is built off the back of child labour and sweatshop in China and the CCP’s inhumane treatment to the Chinese, as well as actively stifling Hong Kong’s freedom.

Some dramatic irony there.

They have pulled down the option to put in anything for the player’s name, but history got it down: 1) NBA store says 'Free Hong Kong' was 'inadvertently prohibited' from jerseys, 2) Police fire water cannon, tear gas at Hong Kong protesters, 3) China’s Global Threat to Human Rights.

It really does undermined your message, NBA! Make the “kneeling for justice” idea got completely thrown out of the window! Try better next time!

We can also go over Disney or Colin Kappernick (lmao that July 4th tweet, Colin. Really bad move!), the awfully cringy “I Take Responsibility” video but you understand the point.

BLM is this exclusive “branding” that businesses and sport leagues slap onto their forehead so they won’t be branded racist while not doing anything for the minorities. BLM is a hoax, a front for privilege people to pat themselves on the back for “acknowledging” their privileges and their power.

You can think this is an excuse for me to rag on these idiotic big companies or individuals (and, you’re right), but it also leads me to this early conclusion that BLM is a scam.

However, with recent events and evidences I’ve been digging up, it’s increasingly difficult to say BLM as simply “a scam”.

4.2. BLM: the sinister Marxist agenda and the crazy utopia

Kneeling to protest against anti-racism, by now, is synonymous with supporting BLM.

I’m willing to bet if you’re pushing for everybody to subscribe to the “KNEELING! TO! PROTEST! AND! SHOW! SOLIDARITY!” deal, you’re also a BLM supporter.

You can support BLM. That’s fine.

I’ll tell you upfront that I don’t support BLM.

You are going to click away, or maybe already angrily typing something up to build your case against me.

Wait until the end.

All I ask is that you try to see what I and many others find repulsive and alarming about BLM.

Alright? Alright.

I will not go into excessive details on BLM, because I’ll dedicate another post at some point to BLM. That post will probably be up at somewhere some point early/mid-2024. It will definitely be on time with the BLM’s peak activity, during another waves of riots.

Anyhow.

So why won’t I kneel for BLM? Why won’t I do this for BLM cause?

Because I don’t believe black people should have more rights? Because I don’t sympathize with the black community? Because I’m a racist?

Listen.

I support black lives. I know the system is rigged, I know there needs to be improvement -- nothing will ever be perfect, and improvements are always needed.

I don’t support Black Lives Matter (BLM) because Black Lives Matter (BLM) the organization and the movement had already derailed too far too fast.

Zuby summarizes a lot of my points, so if you like listening/visual more than reading, feel free to listen to his rationale before continuing.

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Zuby - The Problem with Black Lives Matter

I cannot get on board with their actions or their ideologies, nor can I see they’re making an impact on black community they’re claiming they’re representing. I spoke to people, I shifted back and forth and remained neutral for a while before throwing in my towel and quit it. There were murder of kids in NYC and there are zero, ZERO anger. No riots, no protests. Nothing! Zit! Nada!

Yet they’re willing to come out and break windows for a criminal. Both Michael Brown and George Floyd were criminals. Isn’t it strange? The biggest riots/protests spearheaded by BLM are for criminals? Michael Brown’s case was a justified shooting. And although George Floyd’s death is unnecessary recent leaked footage had provided ample of context. Both autopsies also came back showing that he was high on meth and fentanyl.

BLM have a particular political vision Marxism (1) BLM co-founder describes herself as ‘trained Marxist’, 2) Is Black Lives Matter Marxist? No and Yes), and please, excuse me for saying this is alarming because they’re clearly demonstrating and glorifying communist ideas and practices. I’ve been through the grinder, I can recognize the signs.

It is very clearly not the Sweden-socialist model they are going for (which is a myth, btw, because Sweden is pro-capitalist). It is very clear they are angling for Marx-Leninism.

People will be screaming “all revolutionaries are led by Marxist ideas”, ignoring the fact that those revolutions, if succeed, often crashed and burnt and led to weak economy and terrible nations.

But, but. You know what? Fine. I’ll refrain from screaming Communism Doesn’t Work!!!

We will give BLM the absolute benefits of the doubts: that BLM do everything in line with MLK’s vision or the BPP’s vision.

We will not rip BLM base on its ideologies anymore and will examine its actions.

Alright. So how had they been beneficial to the community they claim to serve, so far in 2020?

More black people are dead during this fight for justice for black. More black people lives are ruined during this fight for justice for black. There are thousands of businesses in ruined -- black businesses in ruined, black people working hard, busting their ass gathering money and finally got their came true only to have it burnt down by their own people and destroyed in one night.

Does the Black community want to abolish the police?

Inside the Portland riots - this is what the media calls peaceful?

3 stories of black-owned businesses damaged in the riots

Black-Owned Businesses That Were Damaged and Looted

Affordable apartment project destroyed during night of protests

The 17 people who have died in the protests and riots so far

Chicago children killed by gun violence

In Wake Of Continued Gun Violence, Prominent Members Of Black Community Call On NYPD To Bring Back Anti-Crime Unit. Small crimes went down, but murders and shooting went up by 200%.

To rub the salt onto the wound, Mayor de Blasio deployed 27 polices guarding the BLM mural on the street (which is bigger than any of NYPD unit) instead of protecting the citizens.

To pour bleach all over the wound, these BLM activists and AOC insisted, that No! Defund more police! and making excuses for these murderers

Black Americans Want Police to Retain Local Presence, Gallup Poll, August 5, 2020

Say what? Americans (especially minorities) want more cops in their area? Yes. Check out Chicago’s latest news: Chicago Police: Violence drops after 2 new units rolled out. Having police presence, improving police training and bringing police and community closer, would deterred crimes and protected the minorities and those who are vulnerable, who knows!

I will now direct your attention to the Love Fest that is CHAZ (est. June 2020, rip. July 2020). Where if your stuff got stolen it’s an “unintentional donations”.

Born and raised, and buried, with all BLM’s Marxist loving ideas, safe and inclusive and funsies:

CHAZUpdates, Twitter

Welcome to Chaz!

The Economics of CHAZ / CHOP: Anarchy at its Finest

Video shows black-only segregated areas within CHAZ

Inside CHAZ (the Capital Hill Autonomous Zone)

CHAZ: where protesters/rioters actively practicing racism while preaching against racism, practicing police brutality while preaching against police brutality, leeching off America’s resources while wanting to burn the country to the ground.

CHAZ is the epitome of what BLM is advocating for.

BLM wants segregation -- again, it is literally spelled out on their website. “boycott white businesses” and basically implying black goes to black businesses only. Recent stories of BLM activists “demanding” stores or else meet with force: 'We're not an enemy of the Black community' and Cuban community plans rally at NuLu restaurant in response to Black Lives Matter demands, and opinion analysis breakdown

BLM promotes violence as the automatic first response -- look. stop telling people to fight police

The 'Black Lives Matter Foundation' isn't the real BLM, explaining differences between the two organizations’ approach -- which, very nicely, also points out the problem with BLM. They’re not seeking for healing or cooperation, they’re all about breaking and burning stuffs down.

Robert Ray Barnes explains why he chooses the name “Black Lives Matter Foundation”

BLM creates more racial tension and encourages people to fake police-brutality/racism -- The biggest, most-hated face in BLM, Shaun King, is actively tearing up people’s lives. He accused many officers to be rapists, murderers, dramatizing claims, etc. He makes money off of getting people riled up. You can hate him, but if you’re telling me he doesn’t have any influence you’re very mistaken. His followers had sent death threats, showed up at people’s houses, doxxing people’s identity. People had been pushed to suicide, money loss, reputation ruined.

Liar Liar Pants On Fire Series breaks down all the viral videos claiming police brutality, and you will see that videos featuring a black person is more likely to be shared and be viral without waiting for the context

I’ll put forth the Jussie Smollett hoax, which, congrats Jussie! You just now make people waving away the attacks that actually happened due to racism! You’re so lacking in “being oppressed and being discriminated” in America, you’ve to import some from Nigeria!

I’ll also put forth the recent Bubba Wallace hoax. It is not a noose, Bubba Watson oops I mean Bubba Wallace (copyright belongs to Don Lemon). 15 FBI agents confirmed it. You can see it through video footages. Don’t be a drama queen, Bubba. (btw, i don’t know why BLM aren’t celebrating this? i mean, 15 FBI agents are immediately dispatched to deal with the claims. that’s how important this is. the feds will not hesitate to deal with discrimination)

Affiliated Organizations and BLM itself are cult-like, putting criminals on a pedestal, endorsing the party that is harmful to the black community

Assata’s Daughters, Breakdown on Assata Shakur and insights about the organization

BLM endorsed DNC and Joe Biden, gave money for the same party that created the KKK and ran on a platform of unity but are made up of elitists

99.64% BLM’s Defund The Police Donations Go To Joe Biden Campaign Via ActBlue

They are donating to DNC instead of pouring funds into black community at the times of crisises

Do Black Lives Matter Donations REALLY Go to Black Lives?

Based from America’s Top 20 Cities for Crime, and What Party Runs Them (spoiler alert, 18/20 are ran by Democrats), if you cross check it with the black population in each city, you will find that a lot of these cities have majority of black population and that Democrats had been in office for decades. If they’re helping the black community, they’re taking an awful long time.

BLM encourages a culture of blaming and perpetuating that black people are powerless, becoming a husk for over white supremacist and sexist.

the familiar “blaming it on the white men” game is played for practically every new political movement right now, and the “us minorities and ‘non-racist’ whites up against those straight rich white men’” and the concept of “white privilege” and being recycled over and over to make minorities feel more powerless

“White privilege” isn’t the biggest barrier, because if it is, please explain to me why and how did Madam C. J. Walker became the first black female millionaire in the early 1900s? Before Civil Rights Movement?

(White) people “check their privilege” and feel good about themselves for being “aware” of their privilege and therefore protect the minorities’ fragility. You’re admitting that just by being white you have more power than other race? That sounds very, very racist.

You have white people in protests actively suppressing other minorities’ voices, because apparently due to “white privilege” whites feel like they’re the only voice that would be valid

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What it's like to be a Black officer policing Portland protests | Raw Interview (you can view the notable quotes here: Black Portland cop slams White BLM protesters using 'same tactics that were used against my people')

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'The most horrific displays of hate I've ever seen' | Portland police describe protests | full video (you can view notable quotes here: Portland police describe front lines of protests) // Analysis Breakdown

You’ve white people writing guides on how minorities should behave to get rid of the “whiteness” in them -- I cannot even find words for this. Notice how all these “whiteness” qualities are what holds a functioning society together? Hello, Asia existed long before European came along. The Indigenious people existed long before European came long. The assumption that other cultures/countries couldn’t have function without the European coming over and spreading their “whiteness” is extremely offensive. The fact that there are actual people out there who will follow this racist guide is crazy to me.

Whitesplaining white privilege

Poster defining “Whiteness” put forth by the National Museum of African American History & Culture. The poster had since been removed.

Robin DiAngelo, makes her fortune off of flexing her internal racism: The Dehumanizing Condescension of White Fragility

So please tell me: is BLM the organization and the movement really support black lives or are they acting out? They care so much for black lives they are going to kill their own people to express their discontent for the system they are stuck under?

But, “Oh, it’s the rioters! Peaceful protesters do no such thing!”

Yeah, and you know which banner are those rioters are rioting under? BLM. And BLM is doing nothing to stop this. Some protesters tried to stop, but the official BLM pages? Nope. Crickets. They want this. Black neighbourhood burning to ash will make black people’s spirit will be worn down and black will be suck into this cesspool of blaming others -- again and again and again.

Yes, Portland is still rioting (Day 71, as of this writing). They had started moving into residential neighbourhoods, vandalizing and terrorizing the streets and are attempting to kill people

Portland mayor condemns rioters for 'attempting to commit murder'

You can view livestreams from protests/riots across the US at WOKE.NET. Noted the differences between the peaceful protesters (morning till midnight) and the rioters (midnight till morning).

Andy Ngo covered Antifa/BLM riots

Thomas Sowell, an amazing American thinker that no one seems to talk about, writes the book Dismantling America (2010), and in it he predicts the downfall of America. And beat-by-beat, oh my god, 2020 is when we see all of his predictions come true in the BLM’s playbook and tactics.

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Thomas Sowell -- Dismantling America

BLM is a terrible, terrible organization -- and at this point, a terrible movement. I encourage you to also look into BLM’s history as well as what BLM is actually accomplishing and doing. They may be doing some goods, but I am seeing them killing black people, not elevating them to higher heights.

I’ll wrap this up quickly:

Not everybody out there support BLM;

Not everybody out there that doesn’t support BLM is a racist;

Not everybody out there that doesn’t support BLM doesn’t care about black lives;

Not everybody out there that support BLM also support the agenda they are pursuing;

Not everybody out there support BLM knows what are they supporting;

Not everybody out there support BLM really support black lives.

Some people are there genuinely because there is a problem, I’m not denying that. But you have to understand BLM isn’t what you believe it is. Take one very hard look at the movement you’re indirectly supporting. You’re under the BLM banner, but how much of it are you actually supporting? Are you just supporting because if you don’t support “Black Lives Matter” you don’t support black lives?

Alright. So why would I refuse to kneel because I don’t support BLM? How does that tie together?

As I stated in the beginning: kneeling on the anthem specifically to protest anti-racism and police brutality started with Colin Kappernick and the BLM movement. It is now associated with BLM. Just like the raised fist.

People like me who are opposing BLM views it as giving in, especially when we see things like this this all over the country -- people literally getting down on their knees in the middle of the streets for strangers, saying sorry for whatever the hell the mob demands because otherwise they will be call a racist, a bigot, or being beaten to death.

When I see not many people find this disturbing disturbed me. Some even gleefully says “Yes, that’s should be the future”.

Look: BLM cancels each own people for not falling in line. BLM local leaders had to stepped down because he feels like BLM isn’t a safe platform for him to fight for fair education for black children.

Blacks that spoken out against BLM, or black conservatives, are branded “coon”, Uncle Tom, such as the case of Terry Crew, Candance Owens, Brandon Tatum, Anthony Brian Logan, Candance Owens, etc. (If you’re interested, Uncle Tom is a great documentary that documents the journey and hardships black conservatives experience)

Look around you.

People are bashing others, cancelling others, for not supporting BLM, for not kneeling, for not following the trends. In sports, players that chose not to kneel is called “not doing enough”, “racist”, hoax, etc.

Do you see how this is problematic? Why do they have to kneel, specifically? You can show solidarity in many ways. Why do they have to kneel?

You’re free to support whatever you want, but don’t force other to follow the same thing.

BLM is a mob of mindless social justice warriors shoehorning a free society into their warped utopia where everybody speaks the same “right” thing and acts the same “right” way.

In 2020, it started out as “police brutality” and “George Floyd” but it is no longer that. I will not bend the knee for an organization that deploys unjust, racist approach while hiding behind a banner of “justice”. Antifa rioters are using BLM as a husk, and BLM encourages it, wanting it.

I will not kneel for an organization that is built on lies. I will not kneel for a hypocritical movement that has been murdering its own people, demanding outrageous deals and abolishing the system through force and violence.

Kneeling is pledging your support for BLM. And I cannot and will not support BLM the organization or the movement, especially when it’s becoming increasingly toxic and deranged.

I will die on my feet rather than live on my knees.

This doesn’t mean I’m not supporting the black community. But I will choose an alternative way to express my thoughts and sympathy -- because I’ll die sooner than following the way the mob and the terrible organization that is BLM dictates.

Kneeling is not the only way to express my opinion.

I know I’m not the only ones who see through this. For many people, athletes included, BLM is the reason why they are reluctant to kneel.

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02 | A (QUICK) ANALYSIS

» A look on the fans’ reaction «

From @mitchmarner, August 2, 2020

This message overall is a good representation of the situation and how people reacted to this. The criticism is respectful and on-point. The post contains both good messages that I agree with, and some subtle toxic undertone that I find problematic.

For context, this post is regarding NHL.

All the unhighlighted words are what I agreed with. Highlighted words are what I have some opinions on.

Let’s go through this.

1. “White players should be kneeling”

first of all, just a small thing, but I’m curious as to why only the “white” players are under pressure here. I find it’s strange that the post has to specified the race and what they should do. Hockey players are mostly white -- okay, sure. But I don’t get the emphasis on skin colour? I’m still puzzled why would you put pressure on white people. Because you’re white, you must do as we said and support us no matter what. In the hockey world, it’s easier to say whites have more power. But what about in the NBA, a black-dominated field? Jonathan Isaac, a black guy, refused to kneel and got grilled for it. Instead of specifying race, why not just use “players”? Anybody is welcomed to join in the movement.

You may think I’m being nitpicking over some words, but this is how media uses it to rile people. By putting races in it, they take out the actual humanity, making everything about racial identity and race politics. Ie. which headlines would make you be more angry? “Girl accuses classmates of cutting off her dreadlocks” or “Black girl accuses white classmates of cutting off her dreadlocks” (headline from CBS News, which had changed after the story came out as false).

A recent letter of a journalist from MSNBC reveals how cancerous are the current world is going, and how the media is exploiting it -- racial tension is just one of the facet they can exploit.

I also find the usage of “should” somewhat demanding, indicated obligation and duty. Again, people can say this kneeling is for human rights -- but as I pointed out in both part 1 and part 2, with the modern cancel culture and the herd thinking and BLM’s violence, there will be interpretation of kneeling as in bending the knee to BLM or the angry mob. Why not say “could”? Because, yes, there could be more players out there supporting this cause. They choose not to, and they should be able to choose. This is a free country. They do not have to support something if they don’t agree with it, and they also do not have to support it in a particular way if they agree with it.

2. Unhighlighted, but similar thing: “If you, like me, are white, we should focus on Ryan and [his] bravery”

Again, why are only white people being pressured into doing the right thing? I’m Asian, not white. So I don’t have to applaud Ryan Reaves’s bravery for standing up (or kneeling down) to his belief, right? We, as a community or fans, should all applaud when people choose to stand up for their belief.

You’ll also spy this subtle “white privilege” thinking hiding in this sentence -- “because we’re white, our voice is more valid and therefore we are the only people others will listen to”

3. “Many of his teammates [refused] to kneel with him”

I agree you can criticize their lack of support, but demanding people to kneel to show support, without considering why they refused to kneel is ignoring the diversity in thinking or someone’s personal rationale.

Other players could absolutely have supported Ryan, but they do not “have to kneel” to show it explicitly -- the same way family members don’t have to shower each other with grand gestures in public.

4. “Make it about white players who should’ve done this bare minimum action from the start comes off weird”

So. Guilt-trip them into submission? If every white player kneel from hereon, racism will definitely be solved in the league.

You know, this reminds me of the now infamous #BlackoutTuesday. Everybody races to post a black square to prove they are not racist (“bare minimum action”, right?), and then that ended up backfiring to the cause. This time, everybody kneel to prove they are not racist (again, “bare minimum action”). Perhaps those that are yelling at all athletes to kneel wouldn’t see this right away, but very soon at some point when (not if) kneeling will be the norm, everybody completes this “bare minimum action” that actually doesn’t solve anything or potentially backfires hard, racism still remains. The platform that provides these athletes power and spotlights may be shrinking, and sports become another divisive tool instead of bringing people together.

This is a very cult-like thinking to demand everybody to behave and act the same way you want/expect them to act. Yes, we should all take parts in minimizing racism. But, no, we do not have to kneel to solve racism -- especially if we can see that the action doesn’t necessarily solve racism, only a gesture; especially if we don’t agree with the gesture.

I’ll go out on a limb and predict that in 2024, there will be another wave of riots, another wave of “enough is enough” and a new trend to commemorate death due to police brutality -- instead of kneeling, everybody is now bowing down with their face to the ground.

Again, I agree with most of the message. However, I think it’s important to see how some other people are interpreting the same messages and pick apart the problems that is implied within the thinking.

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03 | SOME PREDICTIONS

This is a fun section where I’ll try to read where the situation with the “kneeling” is going to go. Feel free to skip to the end, but if you enjoy musing about the future then stay with me.

Kneeling has very high probability of becoming a tradition. The rating will continue to go down the tubes for the wokest leagues (at least from a current stand point). I don’t know if it will continue to stay low in the future.

Leagues that orchestrated mass-kneeling are probably banking on the fans deserting them will come back eventually (probably around 2021 or 2022) and ignore the kneeling, once the creeping normality settles in. Which, pretty much kind of defeat the purpose of kneeling and raising awareness, in my opinion. But, it’s not like kneeling is effective now so whatever, I guess.

Since NFL, NBA and MBL have way bigger budget and audience than NHL, those big leagues/teams could probably afford losing money for 1-2 years. Although if the owner deemed it’s killing the business they will quickly say Shove it.

I think NHL’s strapped budget is the one of the main reason why they are the only “opinion-open” league, ie. don’t force mass-kneeling but agree to facilitate and protect players that choose to kneel. If they had a bigger budget, things might have look different.

There is a very high probability that all leagues will adopt NFL’s way, “Stand for the anthem or Stay in the Locker Room”. This way, those that supports kneeling will be okay because the players are still technically still protesting/kneeling, and those that opposes kneeling or don’t want to be preached politics while they are looking for entertainment will not be ticked off.

A possibility that I think may be possible, albeit I don’t know if it will happen: all leagues stopped kneeling once this wave of wokeness swept over. There will be instances of players kneeling, but there won’t be mass-kneeling like what MBL and NBA are doing.

There is also a tiny chance that leagues/players will continue to orchestrated mass-kneeling and died with their ideologies rather than backtrack and change.

Prime example: LeBron James. LeBron James and his ego don’t take bruising well.

Colin Kappernick made more money being an activist than being a quarterback -- he was a terrible quarterback if you look at his number (How Good Was Colin Kaepernick When He Left the NFL in 2017?). But, that aside. Kappernick got offered some million dollar documentary and book deals (from Disney) for his spoiled “struggle” and “hardship”. From a legal and financial and medical viewpoint, I doubt Kappernick is going to go back into NFL and will wring this BLM activist thing for all that its worth. NFL careers are often short, while being an activist allows Kappernick to preach to the mass while monetizing his self-made misery.

Anyhow: cancel culture is very vicious, and the media amplified the most extreme voices. The kneeling culture will drag itself to the graves, believe me.

Ryan Reaves won’t get in trouble with his kneeling (from the business and the legal side. I don’t know about his knee). Full disclosure that I’m not well-versed with all the business and money and contract and only mildly familiar with US law. I applaud Ryan for kneeling down for a cause he believes and took risks with his knee (I’d assume he consulted his doctor first, but let’s give him the benefit of the doubt). But, I don’t think Ryan financially risked anything.

According to CapFriendly, VGK just signed Reaves to a contract 2-year extention in June 18, 2020. This shows that they are interested in keeping him around.

Logically speaking, Ryan is a great player and contributes greatly to VGK organization. Benching/trading him is suicidal, especially while VGK has consistently been a strong team since its infancy in 2017 and Ryan seems to be a part of the cornerstone. Ryan will probably stay with VGK until 2022 when his contract ends.

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04 | CLOSING WORDS

Am I implying that you can’t criticize athletes? No.

Am I defending these athletes? Not necessarily.

These athletes can absolutely do more than just posting pictures on IG and spewing some cookie cutter words, they can absolutely be more supportive of their friends. They can do more. They deserve to be criticize for not doing more.

However, I do not agree with this “you have to kneel” pressure. This is a free country, where you have the freedom of speech, freedom of thoughts, freedom of religious. We have the freedom to criticize people, but they also have the freedom to not listen to it.

Unlike the government where there is a duty to her citizens to consider her citizens’ wishes, these athletes are strangers and owe no obligations. It is true that sports had always have political aspects to it, but that there are some people that definitely would like to remain apolitical during their career. Michael Jordan remains apolitical until his retirement. Or James Harden, who was described as not involving in politics whatsoever and got dragged through the mud for accidentally wearing a Blue Lives Matter mask while his colleagues and NBA condone BLM.

Some athletes view “being a player” or a star comes with the burden of constantly being on your job 24/7. Stats do show that people are now more scared to disclose their political thoughts, and the further left one’s views, the more one believes they’re protected.

For someone who is political, kneeling started as a political statement, a symbol of cowardice, and it remained as one, especially considering how many people are tripping over their feet to kneel to sooth the mob. For someone who isn’t political, kneeling may be contradicting to their personal beliefs.

I’ve been stewing on this particular issue for some times, and the kneeling don’t make headlines as much anymore, but I figured this should be addressed regardless. I am concerned about the rise of cancel culture, the radical conformism, and the intolerable thinking rampaging in the US and Canada. Forcing people to kneel to just a late symptoms of what potentially can be the future if this cult-like behaviour is not call out or stop.

You may or may not agree with all the points, and that is OK. Again, this is not a whole list that details all the thoughts out there. This is based on a lot from myself, what I observed, what I scoped out from news. The athletes may have other reasons I haven’t covered. That being said, my point still stand: they have a reason for not kneeling.

Please realize that there are more than one way to view things, especially in a climate where everybody is forced to be political. The most important takeaway here are:

1) kneeling is not the only way to raise awareness;

2) people do not have to kneel to show that they support black lives.

#i promised i'm not gonna be political on tumblr but oops #blm #we got to talk about it #let's get into this #talk to the other side #nfl #nhl #nba #mbl #black lies matter #kneeling #us #us politics #canada #hockey #basketball #football #american football #baseball

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