#how much reprehensible action can you take before you lose yourself

[1-800-internal-damnation]

The funny thing about jason is that his logic is often extremely cop-like but he thinks he's exempt from thinking critically about his decisionmaking just because his identity is so far from a police officer. He's the fucking definition of "I could do it better" and all his good intentions rot immediately after he takes action. And I'm sure if you told him this he'd blow your brains out immediately.

[landoftheway]

With the latest GG Strive patch I’ve seen a lot of takes on Happy Chaos’ new dialogue with Baiken boiling it down to him just not finding her to be a good source of drama, and while I think that’s an element of his discomfort around her I also think the real source of it runs deeper.

We know from Another Story, Baiken’s arcade run, and her theme song that she and her blade have effectively become “mirrors” for the people she faces. One of Chaos’s new intros with also refers to this:

Chaos: "I've never seen an eye like that before."

Baiken: "That's 'cause I've never seen one like you before."

In this case, her eye as Chaos perceives it is different (and from his tone of voice some degree of uncomfortable) specifically because of what Baiken is seeing with it when she looks at him. And I think this is precisely where Chaos’ discomfort lies: having to look at himself. He outright says to Asuka in one of their intros that “You know I have no interest in myself”, and in the Main Story when driving with I-No he tells her that “I don’t even have a self to lose sight of.” That last statement is of particular importance because it’s more or less the crux of his character: The Original was so buried under all the combined information of the Backyard that he was warped into what he is now, a being composed of nothing but the sum total of humanity’s collective desires.

But here’s the thing: Chaos DOES still have a sense of self. As muddled as his memories are he can still recall specifics of his past with Asuka and clearly has a particular attachment to him as his student, and even if his methodology has drastically changed he’s still ultimately working for what he considers the benefit of humanity. The Original is still there underneath all the noise, but Chaos clearly doesn’t want to acknowledge that presence. As for the why of that, I think Baiken says it best with three of her unique taunts against him, the first two being in the game and the third being cut content you can only find by digging through the files (you can hear it and other special dialogue here for those curious):

“Forgetting’s your thing; feelings, memories, everything. But what’s left of you when they’re gone? Forgetting’s the only way to embrace the chaos inside you. Can’t fathom what that’s like. But I bet I’m the last one you wanna meet.”

“Scared of yourself? Huh, same here.”

“My blade can’t touch those who don’t doubt themselves. But you... you’ve rejected yourself entirely. But your reason for being holds firm. Something keeps you tethered, but what? How can you possibly win? What do you hold in your heart? Atonement, salvation, ruin? Hope, desire, equilibrium? You’re prepared for all of it? I hate to admit it, but you’re fighting your own battle. That can’t be easy, being nobody’s friend or foe, not having anyone to rely on. You didn’t choose your path, so why accept it? Why take on this eternal curse? Don’t tell me I’m the only one who can save you...”

So all of that is still kinda vague, but I think it paints a clear enough picture of why Chaos doesn’t like or even want to acknowledge himself: his self as The Original is to some extent incompatible with his existence as Happy Chaos. Maybe it’s the former’s guilt at the more extreme and reprehensible actions of the latter, maybe it’s that their interpretations of what’s best for humanity have just drifted that far apart, or maybe it’s just fear at what looking back at how much he’s changed might do to him. Either way, it seems pretty clear to me that the big reason Chaos wants to stay far away from Baiken is because whenever he looks at her he has to look at himself, and as he says if he beats her in a fight, “Win or lose, there's nothing in it for me. This is the worst.”

[chiwhorei]

gun bunny

pairing: mafia!s. aizawa x fem!reader

genre: mafia!au, quirkless!au, smut- 18+ minors dni

word count: 2.5k

warning: somnophilia, voyeurism, violence, attempted kidnapping, attempted assault, mentions of blood, mentions of guns and knives, degradation, age-gap (reader is 19 and aizawa is 31), spitting

a/n: hello! this is my contribution to the smut pile mafia!server collab, this is both my first smut pile collab (this is so late i am so sorry sksksksk) and my first full-length bnha piece, be sure to check out everyone else’s amazing work here! thank you to @10millionyearsdungeon and @messwriting for your constant support while i trudged through sad pal hours for a fucking month and crawled out of the pits of writer’s block

hymns: hayloft by - mother mother, i’m on fire - awolnation cover

Blood pours over decades like syrup, the tinny-sweet smell was distinct but all too familiar. A muffled gun’s buzzing frames 19 years of life. The barrel feels cool, sitting precariously by the highest angle of your cheekbone.

“I told you not to cause trouble, brat. Now I have to clean up your little mess.”

Aizawa’s body is tall and broad above you, holding you against him with a protective grip on the small of your back. Every word is sneering, punctuated with a growl-- you feel it reverberate against his chest.

The bullet is resounding even through the silencer; a deafening sound, final bell tolling next to smeared streaks of mascara.

Aizawa Shouta has always been around-- whether bringing your dad a hefty stack of reports to thumb through or loosening his tie in the parlor and toasting him to another job well done. A carousel of chauffeurs and bodyguards encircle you, but all are nameless faces except for the man that can make people disappear in an instant: Eraser.

Otsuka y/n, the only daughter of the most powerful man in Japan, is a weighty title against your shoulders. Your father’s reputation has cradled you for almost two decades, keeping you draped in fur and balancing on red-bottoms. He has more money, more power than God. To most of your father’s inner circle, you are the dutiful, angelic heiress to his blood-soaked empire. You play the part well enough, polite, temperate- your hands are painted red in culpability, but perfectly manicured.

Your father’s business isn’t a secret, no matter his attempts to shield you over the years. There’s only so many nights spent humming to the tune of cracking skulls in the next room before “investments in oil” starts to lose its validity. Whenever you ask him, he pats your head, smoothing stray strands of hair, “I do it all for you, bunny. Everything is for you.”

You decide not to think about rouge splatters of blood and bruises against his knuckles, ignoring the clicking of a loading gun before he leaves for the office.

It’s better this way.

“You can’t be serious, Otsuka.” Aizawa paces across the hardwood, heel to toe with Italian leather from one large bookshelf to the other. A familiar habit, you’ve seen the contemplative marching before and know it to mean one thing: Aizawa is pissed.

“Have you ever known me to joke around? Especially with y/n?” Your father’s elbows hit the table in front of him, the jagged scars lining his face seem even more intimidating when coupled with a harshly set frown. You perch on the side of his large desk, swinging your feet lightly.

“Oh daddy, I’m not a child. I don’t need Eraser to babysit me.” You huff, crossing your arms and providing a pout to your father’s hard expression. You hear the mumbled, “Don’t call me that,” from behind you, but decide against a response.

“He’s going to look after you while I’m in Musutafu. I have to handle some…” he trails off slightly, one of his hands coming up to rub against his bald head, “noncompliance, but I shouldn’t be gone for more than a few days.” His disfigured fingers curling around yours, you look up to meet his eye, “Be a good girl, bunny.”

You give your father’s temple a kiss, pulling back to smile sweetly. Your next words have Aizawa snorting, rolling his eyes far enough into his skull to be painful.

“I always am.”

A bend downwards at the hips frames your ass perfectly, the lace of your panties curls around your pussy tightly, hooking against the lips and showcasing your soft skin. Questions swirl in the bowl of cereal in front of him, all but forgotten as soon as a cup“fell” from your fingers and clattered to the floor. The taste, the smell, the feeling of--

“Take a picture, it’ll last longer.”

Aizawa is ripped from the reprehensible desires of his senses to meet your eyes, your form still folded over on itself and displayed for Aizawa in the otherwise empty kitchen. You giggle at his scowl, snapping back up and smoothing out your skirt. Aizawa bites down on the spoon in between his teeth, he swears he can feel his teeth cracking. Better his canines than his will.

This only marks the beginning of a long week for your father’s right-hand man. The proceeding days turn to nights at a snail's pace. The past week has been inching towards disaster with every minute of alone time you could steal with Aizawa.

“Eraser, what are you doing up so late.” Your voice curls around his shoulder, the whine tugging him towards your open bedroom door. It’s late, far too late for you to be up to anything good.

You always like to push your luck, playing a game you know Aizawa won’t let himself win. Pressing firmly against the line but never pointing your heel across. Maintaining your immunity, feigning innocence behind a soft pout. Your appointed guardian isn’t fooled by any honeyed façade you build around his associates. He knows what you are at the core.

He tries to shake off your pull, but the way your voice lilts against the long hallway is magnetic. The past few nights have been the same song and dance, your disarming call to him as he trudges to one of the many guest bedrooms. Every night he gets closer, heavy feet and tense nerves guiding him towards your warm voice. He’s weathering a sea, you’re the siren hell-bent on his drowning.

“I told you not to call me that, little girl.” His response to your wanton call is shallow, the nickname is one he hates the sound of, especially rolling past your lips.

“Do you like what you see?”

Aizawa’s brows set harshly as he looks on to where you lie nestled in pillows and silk. You have nothing but a loose, light pink camisole to cover your body, cotton panties pulled down to your ankles with shameless intent. Your legs are spread wide for your viewer’s pleasure, two fingers brush against your lips, dragging lazily- up and back down.

Aizawa knows what you really are, a petulant brat.

You pull at the soft skin, spreading yourself to unveil the tight, clenching hole. He leans his shoulder against the jam, eyes drinking you in where his body shamefully wishes to be. The groan aching deeply in his chest is not lost on you as your other hand pulls the hem of your shirt upwards to catch in between your teeth.

The soft plush of your breasts bounces slightly, nipples peeking out from the folds of fabric, now fully exposed to the inky-black stare of your voyeur. There’s nothing left to his imagination now, the question that haunts sleepless nights, palming a large hand up and down his cock and imagining something softer and smaller. The picture of what his boss’s precious daughter would look like squirming under him becoming clearer beyond all reason.

Aizawa should turn heel and walk away, he should slam your bedroom door shut and count the days until your father’s return with a measured distance. He should walk away. He should-

A soft whimper drags him from contemplation and back to the writhing succubus center stage. Your fingers move quickly against your aching clit, drawing out babbled pleas to hit harshly against the tall, brooding presence at your door.

“I’ve had about enough of your games, bunny. Your father tasked me to keep you out of trouble, but you are the trouble.” Aizawa’s words hit your ears mockingly, but they sound more like an invitation than a warning, especially as his body inches forward, breaching the threshold of your bedroom inch by inch.

Two fingers slip past your lips, pushing in and drawing back slicked with arousal. You repeat the action, slowly, ensuring the boring set of eyes are trained on where you clench desperately; wanting to put on a good show with your bodyguard in the front row.

Aizawa’s head is swimming, dizzy and drunk. He wants to tear you apart, to lay claim to the twitching prize between your legs. If you struggle around two of your own much smaller fingers, it would be nearly impossible to wrap you around his thick cock.

That is, not without breaking you.

The heated pants escaping you pick up in canter, your audience winding a tight cord with his presence alone. Aizawa is unrelenting in his deep, unblinking stare, stepping towards your bed slowly. Once his body is looming over you, the coil in your stomach has turned into a hair pinned trigger.

“Such a messy little slut. Getting off to the attention aren’t you?” You’re rendered dumb at his comment, Aizawa barely has to press his thumb into your chin before your mouth hangs open. You look up with glassy eyes, fingers sore from working against your pussy, chasing a high you can only imagine how fast Aizawa could steal from you. His expression is as neutral as always, but the despondency doesn’t quite shadow the fire burning in his eyes. You watch him lean forward slightly, a string of saliva falling downward to land against your tongue. His spit feels hot, you can taste the remnants of cigar and mint gum as you swallow.

You come undone in a litany of cries, pleading with your captor. His hold is passive as he looks at you, watching you cum against your fingers, the squelching sounds make his mouth dry. The only source of hydration is at the apex of your thighs. Visions flash before his eyes, images of what the curve of your breasts look like as he’s buried tongue deep, lapping you up post-orgasm and pushing you over once more for good measure.

Aizawa retreats, lest he pulls you against his mouth while your cunt is still pulsating, he needs to escape before your knees are pressed to your shoulders. He slams your door closed harshly, leaving you with the taste of his contempt for you on your bottom lip.

You’re quick to sleep, body falling into the warmth of unconsciousness coupled with dreams of what a certain set of fingers would feel like against you. How the scars and calluses would brush against your most intimate inches of spongy flesh, how he would stretch you.

You can almost feel the soreness in between your legs and the heavy slap of something against your stomach. You can almost remember the whispered confessional swimming in the back of your head, the soft grunts from above your sleeping form. As sunlight stretches across your sleep-stiff body, your hand trails down over your naked skin, maybe you aren’t the only one playing games this week.

You could have almost sworn you had gone to sleep with panties on.

The car ride to your father’s bar was filled with unflattering tension. You had protested in vain that going with Aizawa wasn’t necessary, but had been met with a dismissive, “I don’t trust you to behave.”

“I’m not a child, Eraser. I don’t see why I couldn’t just sit at home.” You wobble behind your escort, heeled boots clacking against the gravel.

As you enter the building, a young mop of violet hair flanks Aizawa down with a stack of papers. The man is nameless to you but is familiar enough to be assumed under your father’s thumb.

Aizawa looks over the document’s now held in front of him with care, rolling up the sleeves to his crisp dress shirt as his eyes scan the pages. You note the shimmering silvered skin of a scar under his left eye, pronounced by the harsh lighting surrounding you. His hair is held up partially by a tie, the loose strands framing his face.

“Are you listening to me, little girl?” You're snapped back from watching his mouth curling around syllables to actually make out what they’ve been saying.

“Go sit down, I’ll only be a few minutes.” You nod along and turn to perch at the bar, but stop at the grip pulling you back for one final order. “Don’t get yourself into trouble.”

Aizawa leaves you to stew in the subtle brush of his pointer finger against the tender skin of your wrist, he rubs the skin subtly before disappearing to the back rooms.

The minutes ticking by are agonizing. Aizawa, usually the epitome of brief, has been gone long enough for the condensation on your glass to mar the wood below it in countless ringlets. You twirl the straw against the strawberry liquor, willing time to crank by faster with the action. The drink in your veins isn’t nearly enough to get you drunk but does make the opening of the front door unnoticeable.

Your back is facing the heavy wood, unaware of the two strangers now approaching until the curdling sound of one man’s voice hits the shell of your ear.

“Well, well, look what we have here. Why don’t I buy you a drink, princess?” Each man steals one of your sides, enclosing you into a tight, predatory huddle.

“This is my bar. I don’t need you to buy me anything.” You try to shake off the nauseating feeling of their bodies so close to you, gut twisting uncomfortably as one man’s breath crawls across your shoulder blades. They’re both so close. Too close.

“Wow, this little kitty cat’s got some claws, don’t she?” You feel hands curl around each bicep, a bruising grip right below your armpits. Your body is hoisted up, your balance off at the jarring upheaval.

Possible escape routes flash across your mind but all seem impossible. Would trying to shake off the still faceless strangers even work? And even if you sprung free, would you make it to the back office before they caught up? Should you try to scream? Would Aizawa hear you?

Before you can make any moves, you feel the flat side of a knife at your collarbone. A chill rattles down your spine at the contact, two inches of metal keeping your entire body compliant.

Their intent is clear, you’ll be coming with them, and by the sharp point of a blade digging into the first layer of skin-- you’ll be coming quietly.

A mixture of shock and disbelief compels your body into compliance, dragging you to the front door and closer towards an awaiting trunk.

“Your carriage, princess.” You hear the shorter man on your right, his voice at your neck sounds waterlogged through the blood rushing in your ears. Any protests die at the knife against your skin, digging in shallowly and pricking a small trail of red along your clavicle.

A sharp snap sounds behind you, like a piece of thin wood under a heavy boot. One of your captors falls in a pile next to you. You’re turned around to meet a familiar pair of venomous, black eyes, Aizawa’s words roll from his tongue with a growl.

You’re pulled at the wrist, stumbling back into the strong chest of your appointed bodyguard.

“What the fuck do you think you’re doing with my bunny?”

all writing is dymphnasprose’s original content, please do not repost or modify. do no read my content as asmr.©️

[genderheaven]

part 2:

I am extremely sorry for how I acted and the vile shit I said. it was reprehensible, and to say the least, I think I'll always be disgusted by how I acted.

but also, I'm not sure how to say this. the mogai community has a problem with people who Do A Bad Thing and believing absolutely anything and saying whatever they want about that person. and unfortunately, I absolutely didn't help that. this kind of rumor mongering wasn't ever my Intention with stuff like the NCB, but it's unfortunately taken me a long time to realize that intention and behind the scenes attempts to be fair don't matter if the outside interpretation at large is something else. I think this community always had the potential to do this stuff to X Bad Person Of The Week, but things like my NCB just exacerbated it.

specifically, I'm talking about the fact that someone I used to consider a friend, Tumblr user @neopronouns, posted a completely anonymous ask about me/the headmate in this system who i split from, Ez. this anonymous ask says that I told someone to kill themselves over the ncb.

and dexter himself later admits that he has never been shown screenshots of proof.

https://archive.ph/1wpeh

https://archive.ph/aUmkw

Dexter, I used to respect you very much. your blog has over 2000 followers, which is double the amount I ever had.

shape /up/.

this community is not a safe space to be in if people like us in the 900+ follower count space can literally just publish and therefore endorse anything someone completely anonymously tells them. (not to mention it is VERY easy to convincingly Photoshop screenshots!!!)

I can definitely understand being sad and scared when I acted the way I did, but there is also a complete lack of critical thinking being displayed here that lends to this entire community being unsafe. anyone can just say anything. this isn't the first time anons claiming I did X have been sent around, btw. remember those anons about me being antisemitic that never came back with evidence? remember when X other mogai blogger got accused of being Y and there was a whole callout post that got tons of notes - fill in that blank yourself, I'm sure someone came to mind.

I'm aware I'm not really in any position to be believed because I did shitty things and therefore that means I MUST have done every other bad rbinf, but basically: I would REALLY like to implore to you all, no matter how much you hate me in particular, to get PROOF before publishing things like this. about anyone. this could happen to you. this could be your blog tomorrow. I've dealt with suicidal thoughts for literally about… 5 years straight, with gaps of a few months in between but never completely losing the thoughts entirely. and I have survived multiple suicide attempts, and been hospitalized four times in the past two years for suicidal thoughts. I find telling someone to kill themselves absolutely abhorrent. I didn't do this. I would never tell someone to kill themselves. I don't think my little Google doc on a website is worth losing one's life over, it's ABSOLUTELY not that serious.

telling someone to kill themselves could very easily be the trigger that encourages a suicidal person to actually take action to end their own life. telling someone to kill themself is potentially actually killing them. I did not think "(name I don't use anymore and don't want to be called) tried to kill someone" was a real thing that would occur in the mogai community, but apparently it is! this community will genuinely hear this information and publish it to an audience of over 2000 people with no further thought. it seems that no Dexter has added this edit below, but in my opinion, it is a shallow excuse for this action. as I work on things in therapy [to prevent me from ever treating people the way I did again,] I'm finding myself literally kept up at night by the fact Dexter thought publishing this ask was EVER okay. there is no sign of looking for proof in the original published ask. there is nothing to indicate he did not believe it wasn't factual, and if you take a look at the replies on the post, someone raises a genuine concern about this, and he responds with essentially "well but kris did a bad."

(don't worry, this is the last time I'm gonna be screenshotting anybody's anything. I've lost respect for Dexter or anyone who reblogged this post that to the extent I don't want to see any of these blogs and once got very anxious after seeing a reply from one on a random post a mutual reblogged. so, I'm popping on to queue this and then once again changing the password of these accounts to something else new and not saving it. im out of here, it's a shitshow.)

thank you, I'm sorry for what I actually did, & goodbye. take care of yourselves. if you or a loved one experience suicidal thoughts, contact local or online resources like chat lines or telephone numbers. and if you're presented with a screenshot, look into a concept called EXIF data. https://gadgetstouse.com/blog/2021/01/09/6-ways-to-tell-if-an-image-has-been-edited-or-photoshopped/#4_check_exif_and_geolocation_data

kris

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP  meme from Werewolf: The Apocalypse "Black Furies" Tribebook (Revised Version) Ch 2 "Pegasus’ Flight"

"But how can you be here?"

"I’m sorry. I’m easily sidetracked. Where was I?"

"Every day the possibility exists that you will find some great treasure — a companion, a fetish, riches, secrets or whatever is important to you."

"Divine justice is not something that can be safely left in the hands of mortal men and women — or even certain sky goddesses, as Athena’s blindness showed."

"While limits and strictures are frightening to many, I take peace knowing that purposes exist for all things."

"The problem comes when limits become absolute."

"It’s a human mind-twister — and I love mind-twisters — that the only rule to which there is no exception is that there’s an exception to every rule."

"I said before I love mind-twisters, but it’s good to know when to stop twisting your mind."

"Change hurts."

"The questions do not always need to be answered, often just asking them is enough."

"If they lead only to more questions or to simple answers (I remember well learning the answer to “What do bees smell like?”), then that also is learning and therefore good."

"Laughter doesn’t have to be mirthful; it can be bitter or rueful as well."

"How many of these stories actually happened?"

"Take from a story the wisdom that is in it; one of humanity’s biggest problems, I think, is that many of them take their legends too seriously."

"Contemplation is good, but too much of it causes the topic to become irrelevant."

"Beautiful, isn’t it?"

"The average first-time mother can expect an ordeal of fourteen hours."

"Everyone agrees that breast milk is best for babies; doctors, researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and parenting gurus."

"I am sorry for your discomfort, but you can just suffer through it a bit longer."

"A woman’s sexuality is hers, and can be a closely guarded secret or a gift to the world, as she chooses."

"Only the weak deserve pity."

"And yet we’re still spit on as often as not. Unfair, isn’t it?"

"Sex and childbearing is all about responsibility."

"There is no honor in blood for blood’s sake."

"These assaults take place far from the eyes of humanity, and the large-scale ones are most frequently mistaken for natural disasters."

"First, while faith might be eternal, religion must evolve."

"The world is often random, and believing it to be loving and fair is just as false as believing it to be cruel."

"They aren’t thieves, mind you; they just seem to know where to find things."

"I’m quite sure you’ve heard it all. Stay awake and listen again. This is important stuff, you know."

"That kind of cruelty doesn’t really help anyone, does it?"

"Note that there’s a big difference between “breeding” and “having sex.”

"My opinion has always been that announcing one’s presence and intentions when entering another’s territory is polite and proper behavior."

"A predator sees any encroachment on her territory as a threat. If the intruder nears her den, expect her to become very violent."

"If you enter another’s territory and announce yourself, that doesn’t mean you can stay. The one who lives there can still tell you to leave, and you should respect her wishes."

"Be careful when traveling."

"Look, we’ve all got anger control problems. It’s part of who we are."

"If you’re hurt, quit."

"Die to be a hero if you want, but don’t die to prove you were right."

"When the challenge is over, when the winner is declared, accept the ruling and live with it."

"Challenges are serious business — never initiate one without good cause."

"Do not look away. I hardly need to explain what that will lead to."

"We all know why it isn’t good to eat humans; for one thing, their flesh is fouled by the chemicals they eat, and for another, we’re meant to protect and avenge them, not prey upon them."

"If it becomes necessary to kill humans, do so, but remember that you are what you eat."

"From the face you’re making, I can assume you find the notion of cannibalism to be truly repulsive."

"Find other ways to hide your action."

"The problem is that humans are resilient and tenacious, especially in fear or hatred."

"Sometimes, however, we must let go."

"When the time comes for me to die, assuming, of course, that I do not die in battle, I shall walk into the sea and let the waves take me on my last journey."

"They can’t be challenged if no one can find them."

"I’m not saying that the system is corrupt, only that it could be."

"Such a small place, yet so many differing cultures!"

"Any biologist will tell you that you may measure how well an area thrives by the diversity of life it supports."

"Women are, on average, not as physically strong as men. This means that they sometimes need protection. I hardly need to tell you who should provide it."

"Unless I missed a major theological event, there haven’t been any immaculate conceptions recently."

"No matter your personal feelings on men, they are and always have been one half of the equation."

"A man is not evil simply by dint of his sex; to believe so is no better than calling women “the weaker sex.”

"Weak people produce more weak people, and since humans have virtually no method of natural selection, it is up to us to try to correct their weaknesses as best we can."

"Something is urging the citizens towards these evils, for I cannot believe that they did this themselves."

"The idiot humans continue to think that if they could just clear away the trees, they’d have wonderful land for agriculture, never once realizing that it’s the forest itself that preserves the land."

"Tell me why you think you could do better."

"So many believe the courts will do nothing — and if their attackers are rich and privileged enough, that is sadly true."

"Celebrities and advertisements show thin and unhealthy looking women being adored and generally enjoying life. So, young girls are made to feel abnormal and loathe their bodies."

"The Church decries sexuality for any reason but procreation — and women learn to fear their sexual power."

"Time may dull the memory, but we still have blood on our claws."

"It’s harsh, but good exercise."

"Don’t let their foul behavior and mannerisms fool you. These bumpkins and slum-dwellers have contacts all over the city. I avoid them when possible, but when I am left with no other choice and need information in the city, I go to them. Of course, that information does not come cheaply."

"Some of them can get a little corny at times, I admit, but I’d rather have them with us than against us."

"A more serious bunch of assholes was never born."

"They are reprehensible dogs."

"They have money, they have places to stay, they know good places to party, and they have access to guns, and explosives, and body armor, and — well, you get the idea."

"They have a lot of hate, and the near-extinction of their species isn’t something that one just gets over."

"No one ever identifies herself as “evil.”

"You will get far more than you bargained for."

"Most national leaders are ridiculed without mercy, because every mistake they’ve ever made is on display for the world to see."

"Too much time spent mucking with forces beyond their control taints these people, if you ask me."

"Bloody opportunists."

"I’m not going to say they planned it that way, but they sure didn’t stop it either."

"Sure, they got fucked, but they’re still assholes."

"A quaint story, I thought, no more than a sort of urban legend."

"However, they do learn many secrets that we miss. Getting them to give up these secrets, however, is usually more trouble than it’s worth."

"Maybe they aren’t all dead?"

"Greek myths are replete with dragons; Ladon, Typhon, Python, Hydra, and so forth. They are never cast in favorable roles; most of them only exist for a hero to kill."

"I’ve never liked practical jokes, and I don’t like the notion of pushing someone’s buttons just to teach them not to respond. You can lose your head doing that to the wrong person."

"Other creatures share the unseen world with us, and it would behoove you to know something about them."

"The spirits of the dead do not always rest easily."

"The dead aren’t staying in the ground."

"Some of them are complete pigs, so I’m told, but even so, they can be quite seductive."

[quakerjoe]

Biden, #MeToo, and why I can’t support him.

Anyone who supports Biden, by my reckoning, is fine with putting their name to yet another sexual predator in the White House

Where’s the outrage, people? All you #MeToo supporters out there are fantastically quiet about the accusation leveled against Biden. Where are all of you who were appalled at the recording of trump bragging how the rich and powerful can just walk up and grab a woman by the pussy? That’s what Biden actually DID (allegedly). If you’re fine with Biden, hand in your #MeToo card and strike the word ‘feminist’ or ‘humanist’ from your personal bios. 

If you don’t know a woman who’s a survivor, then you don’t know women. That means that none of them have trusted you enough to tell you their stories. I’ve heard many. Once upon a time, I was in a relationship with one and I heard her horror story. She felt that her freaking out when we tried to get intimate with me was unfair so she left. Then she killed herself.

Is Biden REALLY better than trump? Really? Really? Of trump, whom I loathe more than anyone else on Earth, I can say, with all honesty, this much: I KNOW where I stand with him and his band of fuckwits. ALL of his fuckery has been mostly done out in the open. While everyone’s freaking out over it, they’re all huddling behind Biden; many out of such sheer desperation to remove trump that they’ve literally allowed the Democratic party to compromise them and their morals and core beliefs. IF you’re supporting Biden, you’re not compromising, YOU’VE BEEN COMPROMISED. You ALLOWED the Democratic party to lower their own standards SO low they’re practically as filthy as the GOP only there’s one sad, horrible difference between them and just one- While the GOP is openly vile, reprehensible, and are more than willing to fuck you all to your face; fuck you and fuck yours and go fuck yourself... Democrats smile, say nice things, then stab you in the back. Democrats now only pay lip service, make half-baked and half ass attempts to try to convince you that they’re Left in some way, all while being far right of where they were years ago. There IS no Left anymore, and you’ve been dragged along with them. When is enough, enough, people?

There’s clearly only ONE person the Democrats hated more than trump- Bernie Sanders. Between mainstream media ignoring him and Dems ganging up to defeat him, clearly the party doesn’t give a flying fuck about YOU. They’re just not into you, baby; it’d interrupt the cash flow from their donors, most of them being the same rich twats buying GOPers. Look how fast Bloomberg bought Dems!

Now you’re all acting like trump supporters for the BlueMAGA. Seriously? Really? The rapist? The guy whose motto is essentially “Don’t worry, I won’t change shit; I’ll just bring us back to normal (meaning back to the era that brought us trump in the fucking FIRST place).

How many of you BOTHERED reviewing Biden’s super-shitty policies and actions over his career? (crickets) How many of you have any spine enough to see just how fucking useless he is at this stage? Fuck me, man; this asshole can’t even speak! We already have that. He’s already got various degrees of sexual assault on the books. We already have that. He’s all to eager to work with the GOP and cater to the rich. We already have that! He’s boring as fuck, abrasive and he does NOT inspire voters to come charging out this November.

Trump does, though. His fanatics are breaking down the gates during a pandemic; you can bet your privileged asses that they’ll be out come November assuming they did’t keel over dead from COVID-19. That may be the only edge that Biden gets as he does and says fuck-all nothing except hope that trump screws up enough to get his base to stay home and enough of his own Biden Bros to show up. That’s his big plan, kids.

Kiss your $15/hr good-bye. You don’t seriously thing team biden will really pull that off, do you? For fuck sake, according to Liz Warren, if the min. wage  kept up with cost of living and inflation, it should be at $23/hr NOW. According to Robert Reich, it’s even higher. $15/hr was what we needed well over a decade ago. If biden does pull it off, it’s a token fist in your ass at best, you puppet.

Kiss M4A good-bye. It’s evident that you’d rather dump your cash into the overpriced, empty promises of insurance companies, big pharma, and stoke the fires of endless war with financing the Military Industrial Complex than live a safe, healthy life.

Kiss any sort of Green New Deal good-bye while Pelosi and the others sneer at it and look down their noses at you.

I certainly don’t WANT more of trump...

...but thinking biden will make things better is foolish. Trump will happily stab you through the chest, but the likes of biden prefer to smile while they stab you through the back using the blade forged out of empty promises and lip service. Fuck, if you’re keeping track of the Dem. pundits, they’re already lining up to blame biden’s apparent loss on Sanders and people like me. They’re ALREADY gearing up for him to LOSE. What does THAT tell you? His popularity is utter shit compared to HRC back in 2016.

Let’s not forget that most of Bernie’s supporters backed HRC in 2016 and voted for her. Before that, let’s not forget HER followers’ loyalty when MOST of them bailed on Obama to support McCain. 

I won’t put my name to a vote for Biden. I won’t. I’ve heard too many tales of horror from Survivors and given that Al Franken’s career was burned for much less, I don’t appreciate the HYPOCRISY of the #MeTooExceptBiden rhetoric. MY moral compass, my values, my principles will no longer be something I give the DNC permission to shit on and compromise. If the US needs another 4 of trump burning the house down to wake the fuck up and LEARN that the Dems are a band of feckless twats on the take and actually start voting for PROGRESSIVES and those who are actually LEFT, then so be it. Let the children learn by touching the hot fucking stove; I’ve warned them enough, for years and years now. It’s time to grow a pair of whatever inspires you and wake the fuck up and stop fronting rich, white guys who are all for helping the rich scam us into tax breaks and socialism for them and their corporations while fucking us all in the ass without a kiss first, a grease up, or so much as a reach-around.

Year after year we do this shit and it’s getting worse. Yay, we won the House. So fucking what? What have they ACHIEVED? Pelosi scoffs at saving lives with M4A and we, as a party and a nation failed to get the Senate. The GOP is still cock-blocking everything, good or bad, passed by the House, so really, no big “blue wave” there to brag about.

These people are not stupid. They know the general population is complicit and disinterested in change. Look at all the anti-gun protest after every school shooting? Has much been done since? Technically, trump’s been more hard-ass over gun control than Obama! Holy shit, guys! The “Pussy Hat” march. What’s changed? Meh. Not much. To the GOP and corporate/establishment Dems, women are cheap and nobody cares. Point gone like a fart in the wind. The GOP and the Dems alike know that they can keep you all punching DOWN instead of taking a moment to glance up and see who’d really punching YOU. So long as they let you march, protest, bitch and scream now and then, you’ll get it all out of your system and then it’ll settle down and go back to “normal”.

“Normal” didn’t used to be finding it acceptable to have a documented sexual predator in the White House.

IF you have no problem with Biden, then you must also have no problem with Weinstein, right? Cosby? Judge Kavenaugh?

Uh huh.

I don’t want trump. I want him gone. I refuse to do it with biden taking his place because seriously, the guy wanted to shitcan SS and Medicare/Medicaid. He was gung-ho for Iraq and Afghanistan. He’s a bucket of charred turds.

Look all the women you love, if you have the courage to do so, and you tell them “Hey, I’m fine with electing another rapist for president!” because that’s literally what you’ll be doing. Why don’t you beat and slap her around for a bit before you go out to vote while you’re at it. Backing biden only continues giving permission to the Dems to offer you the worst possible candidate so they can keep their cash flow going.

Have some courage. Have some dignity. Have some fucking empathy and compassion, for fuck sake. Then, maybe, a woman might trust you enough to tell you HER horror story of survival.

[bighirm]

Accident Lawyers in Savannah GA

Allow me to share the very best benefits associated with hiring one of our Savannah personal injury lawyers from Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C.

1. Free Legal Consultations

We provide all our potential customers a no cost consultation. You will have the freedom get in touch with other lawyers and attorneys before making the choice to hire a lawyer that will match up for your situation and case. You can gather information around the details of your claim during the initial consultation with one of our lawyers. It is strongly suggested which you ask all that you need to understand abut the state they obtain a better idea of it.

2. Less Stress for your Law Case

Immediately you make the decision to employ an attorney to represent your interests in your personal injury claim, he/she will begin to contact insurance providers for you. That can mean less concerns and worries for you and will provide you with enough time to center on coping with the injuries you sustained.

3. An Effective Comprehension of the Savannah Law

Most people are not too knowledgeable about exactly how the legal procedures surrounding personal injury claims actually work. Your lawyer, alternatively, works on and specializes in such types of claims each day.

Our lawyers understand specifically which kind of legal documents must be filed, the easiest method to complete the claim forms, and also the applicable statute of limitations. We are also aware of precisely how insurance companies try hard to avoid paying you for that settlement you happen to be entitled to by invoking legal technicalities and our attorneys will usually protect you from insurance companies which may make an attempt to take full advantage of you.

In case you have opted to attempt to cope with an insurance company yourself, you may be in danger of losing out on quite a lot of money regarding your settlement.

4. Our Attorneys Will Handle All the Dirty Work

The battle against the vast majority of insurance companies is generally incredibly frustrating understandably and might be somewhat time consuming. Opting to fight the battle yourself is comparable to arriving at an authentic battlefield without having any weapons. Insurance companies know about this and know they have more bargaining power.

Insurance firms won’t hesitate in any way to utilize the tactics above against you. Our attorneys understand specifically how insurance companies operate regarding the paying out of claims. Your lawyer is the most valued ally in relation to ensuring that you receive fair compensation. Allow us to increase your chances of receiving the maximum possible settlement amount.

5. Our Attorneys Are Not Afraid of Planning to Trial

If all tries to settle your claim out of court fail, you can be sure that our lawyers will fight for you if the case ever goes toward trial. In legal circles, it can be well known that lots of the injuries will most likely rule against insurance companies.

In case you have a highly skilled lawyer representing you, it indicates to the insurance providers that you will be not really happy to down again. It is almost always a motivator for ensuring that you receive an even more equitable offer that’s settled much sooner. Insurance firms can also be more accessible to negotiating a settlement offer in the event you hire a lawyer to represent you.

What Type of Compensation Can You Plan to Receive?

Compensation is of two main categories in relation to the damages awarded within a personal injury claim. The 2 categories are punitive damages and compensatory damages.

Compensatory damage types are of several different types, but in the broader level may be categorized into either general or special damages. Compensatory damages are directed at reimbursing or compensating the victim for harm and damages sustained. This type of damages is manufactured available for almost all injury cases including auto accident, slip and fall, in addition to malpractice cases.

Compensatory damages may also be often awarded in wrongful death cases, nevertheless the damages available for such cases are generally unique and can not be found elsewhere.

Punitive damages are only ever awarded within a select number of cases. Such damages are usually awarded just for punishing the at-fault party beyond doubt specific types of behavior such as gross negligence. Compensatory damages and punitive damages both are awarded straight to the victim.

The following is an even more in-depth look into the different kinds of compensation presented to victims in personal injury cases.

1. Special Compensatory Damages

The special compensatory damages are directed at compensating you for almost any monetary expenses incurred due to the injuries. The damages are unique for your specific circumstances and customarily range between one case or victim to another. The special compensatory damages are made to make you the victim whole in association with the cash lost or the expenses that have already been incurred to the incident or accident that caused the injuries.

Special compensatory damages cover every one of the expenses and losses associated with injuries. Addititionally there is no limit in relation to the special compensatory damage claim types that could be claimed and even the amount that could be claimed for. Here are among the most frequent special compensatory damages that accident/injury victims often seek:

- Medical bills

- Costs linked to future medical costs

- Reduction in earnings

- Household expenses

- Reduction in future earnings

2. General Compensatory Damages

The general compensatory damages will compensate you for that non-monetary damages incurred due to injuries sustained. The damages are called ‘general’ mainly because they address the damage that’s typically or generally sustained from an accident. All personal injury victims will most likely have a few general damages. Listed here is a list of the more common types:

- Pain and suffering

- Mental anguish

- Reduction in consortium or companionship

3. Wrongful Death Damages

The wrongful death damages are directed at compensating the surviving family or family members from the deceased. The most frequent types of wrongful death damages include:

- Reduction in consortium or companionship

-  Emotional distress from the family members or kids of the deceased

- Costs associated with medical treatment prior to the death from the victim

- Funeral and burial expenses

- Reduction in service and support

- Reduction in financial contributions

4. Punitive Damages

The punitive damages are generally awarded to victims provided that the defendant’s wrongful action was despicable/reprehensible. The typical types of situations where punitive damages are awarded arise if the defendant is accountable for wanton or malicious acts.

Had you been recently involved in an accident that led to injuries and damages, you need to get in touch with our law practice today at Kenneth S. Nugent, P.C. Just about the most important decisions you are going to make is hiring one of our lawyers.

Our team of attorneys always has your best interests at heart in relation to negotiating a settlement with an at-fault party’s insurance company. We are also ready and happy to represent you in the courtroom in the event you fail to reach a decent settlement with the insurance company.

Get in touch with is today in case you have any concerns or queries about your own injury case and leverage the free consultation which we offer our clients to ensure that we can help you better understand what you are able actually claim for

[khiphop-stories]

Umbrella - Chapter XXIV

You can find all previous chapters here.

Lesson Twenty-Four: The Gray Area

[Christian Yu, DPR Live]

“I didn’t mean it like that,” his voice softened.

“No, Christian, that’s exactly what you meant.”

The worst thing wasn’t the words he had said, but that the truth behind his words. If you went to dinner with the Vice President, being well aware that this was no business meeting, your actions wouldn’t be that much different from an escort. In return for a permanent position at the company, you would go and meet someone you had no interest in. Right now, you were still in the gray area. It wasn’t right, but not completely morally reprehensible either. But how long would it take until you cross the limits and enter a dangerous zone you won’t be able to escape again?

You were doomed, no matter how you decided. Every path you chose from now, would lead you into a even deeper hole. If you agree to meet him, you would never be taken seriously as an employee. You would get labelled as the girl who slept her way in. But if you refused, you would lose this opportunity and you would have to start again from scratch. People would look at your application and see that you interned at one of the biggest software companies in Korea, but you weren’t good enough to get hired as a permanent employee.

“This is how the world works, Christian. Your achievement won’t mean shit. You just have to suck it up to people who pull strings. But of course that’s something you wouldn’t understand.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“First off, you have a dick. And you were born with a silver spoon.”

“That’s what you think of me? You think I never had to fight for something I believed in? You think I just got here by taking a walk in the park?” He looked at you utterly offended. With one sentence, you had diminished all of his hard work he had put in day and night, the blood and the tears he sweated, to establish DPR.

“I know you fought for your dreams and worked your ass off for your team. But you always had a plan B. If things didn’t work out, you had money and connections to fall back on. But I don’t have that. I don’t have a backup plan and I don’t have influential parents to back me up. If this doesn’t work out…” You shrugged your shoulders and let out a sigh, shaking your head. You never actually thought about it. It had to work out, no matter what. You had to follow this path until the very end, because there was no other.

“You know what got me here? I believed in my skills and I believed in my vision. Jenn, you’re damn good at what you do. You don’t need to fall back on your sexuality to get what you want. Why don’t you trust yourself a little more?”

“Sometimes being good is not good enough.”

“I believe in you,” he looked straight into your eyes and held your gaze. The expression in his eyes was different now. It was gentle and it made you feel safe. His words felt like a warm blanket wrapped around your body, shielding you from any harm that was coming your way.

“I believe in you and your skills. Maybe you should start believing in yourself too.”

You turned away from him and ran your hands through your hair in frustration. He wasn’t entirely wrong. You knew you were good at your job, you never doubted your abilities. But you tried it the honest way. You tried to rely on your skills only and it got you nowhere. That alone wasn’t enough to climb up the ladder. You had to play your charms. You had to play dirty and at some point you had lost your sense of judgment. You didn’t know what was right and wrong anymore.

“You know, hard work doesn’t always pay off. You could work your butt off and still be stuck in one place. You can believe all you want, sometimes things just don’t fall into place.”

Christian stared at you silently. He could see that you were struggling with yourself and it tore his heart into pieces to see you like this. If only he could be your umbrella and shield you from the rain that was pouring down from the dark heavy clouds hovering above your head.

Stepping closer to you, he gently wrapped his arms around you from behind, pulling you against his firm chest.

“Whatever you choose to do, I’ll support you,” he softly whispered into you ear when he realized it wasn’t worth fighting over. You were already going through a though time, without him judging you. He shouldn’t be adding burden to your shoulders; no, he should be helping you to carry them.

You turned your head to him with stunned surprise plastered across your tired face.

“You wouldn’t mind if I go?”

“I’d hate it. I would hate it so much. Just the thought of him lusting over you and taking advantage of you makes me outrageous. But I have no right to ask you not to go. It’s your choice…”

“Christian…”

“You wanted me to be honest with you. That’s how I feel, Jenn. I can’t tell you that I would be ok with it. I’m not, but I’ll get over it, if that’s what you choose to do. When I said I love you, I mean it, Jenn. I’ll stand behind you, no matter what.”

You turned around in his arms and stared at him speechless. “I don’t deserve you,” you whispered almost inaudibly.

Standing in front of him today, you finally believed him. Those weren’t just empty words he blurted out lightly and spontaneously. No, he truly loved you for who you were. In all the relationships you had been in, nobody ever looked at you like he did. He saw you; he saw straight through your soul. He saw you with all your flaws and your struggles. He saw you with your scars and broken parts; and despite seeing everything as raw as it was, he didn’t turn his back on you.

You buried your head into his chest, your arms hugging him tightly, not ever wanting to let go. If only you could stay in his protective arms forever.

“I won’t go,” you mumbled in his chest.

Christian sighed in relief and you could feel how his muscles relaxed. He planted a soft kiss on top of your head and held you even closer.

~*~

[Time leap]

Christian was in midst of making finishing touches to the music video he was editing, when he heard gentle knocks on his bedroom door.

“Just come in, Babe,” he said with a chuckle, as he immediately turned his head to the door, swirling his chair around. With a big smile on his lips, he waited for you to appear in front of him.

You carefully opened the door and peeked inside with your head first.

“Am I disturbing you?” You pursed your lips together and squinted your eyes, giving him an apologetic look.

“You’re never disturbing me,” he smiled at you sweetly.

Entering his room, you walked over to him and raised your brows. “How did you know it was me though?”

“Dabin doesn’t knock,” he replied simply as he let out a chuckle.

“I brought you some food,” you lifted your arms and showed him the plastic container in your hands. “Dabin told me you haven’t come out of your room for two days, so I just wanted to make sure you’re still alive.”

The corner of his mouth twitched up and he got up from his seat. He was less interested in the food, but more so in you. Gently laying his hands on your hips, he pulled you closer and pressed a kiss on your head. This was the first time he got to see you again after the fight you had a few days ago. You weren’t avoiding him, but you did keep your distance, knowing this was the busiest time for him and he needed to be completely focused. Their company was slowly growing bigger and bigger and more and more people were involved. With their growing popularity came heavy responsibility, so they had to carefully plan ahead for the rest of the year, financially and strategically. A lot of investors had taken notice of their little independent label and they saw great potential in them, so they were in meetings every other day. In addition to that, he also had a few external projects he was working on as visual director and editor. With all of that on his plate, you thought it was the best not to distract him and give him some space; and it wasn’t like you had a lot of free time on your hands either.

You affectionately stroke his smooth hair as you inspected his face through narrowed eyes. The pressure and stress at work was visible on his face.

“You pulled an all-nighter again, didn’t you?” Your eyes softened at him with worry.

“But I almost done with this video!” He told you excitedly. “Do you want to watch it?”

You nodded your head eagerly, before putting the container filled with food down onto his table. That’s when something shiny caught your eyes. At loss for words, your hands automatically reached out and you took it into your possession.

“Christian…”

“Hmm?” Hearing you calling his name, he averted his gaze from the huge computer screen in front of him and looked at you. He noticed that your attention lay somewhere else, so he followed your gaze and saw the silver bracelet in between your fingers.

“Oh I totally forgot to give it back to!” He exclaimed, shaking his head at himself for being so forgetful.

Your eyes travelled from your hands to his face and you stared at him with your jaw hanging wide open. You didn’t expect to see the bracelet ever again. When the staff member had called you to tell you that they didn’t find it , you had given up all hope.

“How did you…?”

“I went to the cinema. You were right, it was still there. They were just too lazy to actually look for it,” he shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.

“But when…?” You blinked at him dumbfounded.

“The next morning. I would have taken you with me, but you had to go to work.”

“Is the cinema even open that early in the morning?”

“No, but one of the cleaning ladies was nice enough to let me in,” he let out a chuckle.

Christian truly never failed to amaze you. It were those little things that made you fall for him more and more, perhaps even in too deep. He was so genuine in the way he treated you and the people around him. Although he was up to his neck in work, he still made time to go look for it. Not because the bracelet was valuable, but simply because it meant a lot to you. He probably didn’t even really understand why you were so attached to it, but he didn’t question it.

“The lady who helped me was old,” he clarified with a hint of amusement in his voice, “…in case you’re jealous right now,” he added teasingly. He thought you were having a rush of jealousy again, since you were being so silent.

“I’m not jealous,” you rolled your eyes at him and let out a groan.

“Then why are you being so quiet?” He laughed out loud. You’d usually talk like a waterfall most of the time, especially when you were with him; so he wasn’t used to the silence from you at all.

“I was just thinking,” you shrugged your shoulders lightly, before releasing a big smile at him.

“About what?”

“About how I’m head over heels for you,” you told him straight forward, earning a huge grin from him.

“I could get used to this,” he let out a soft chuckle.

“To what?”

“You being all corny and cheesy,” he stuck out his tongue at you teasingly.

“Shut up, Rome,” you rolled your eyes at him, but then the expression on your face changed.  “Thank you. Thank you for finding it.”

“For you, anytime.”

~*~

[Time Leap]

As you entered the elevator, you reached your hands inside your handbag and fumbled around, trying to find your cell phone. When you finally got a hold of it, you pulled it out and checked your messages.

You had two missed text messages from Christian. One of them was a picture of the food he was preparing for dinner tonight and the other read "can't wait to see you 😍”. The corner of your lips rose into a big smile while you typed in your reply. 

“Oh my god! It looks so good! I’m starving!”

Today was date night. Despite his busy schedule, he had promised you that at least once in two weeks, you two would just sit down and spend quality time together. He would always turn off his phone and dedicate his entire attention to you. Those dates only lasted for a few hours, but it was exactly what you need in order not to go crazy.

You were about to hit the send button, when suddenly the metal block slid open again, revealing none other than Mr. Choi himself — the one person you had been trying to avoid for the past week.

You released a friendly smile and bowed your head at him. Hurriedly, you locked your phone and threw it back into your bag, as though using your phone was a crime.

“I heard you don’t want to work on the revamping project,” he remarked in a seemingly indifferent tone. The expression on his face was stern. You could feel your heart anxiously beating inside of your chest.

“It’s not that I don’t want to work on it. But I think there are people who are more experienced than me, thus more suited,” you answered politely.

“Just a little advice, not as your superior, but as a fellow colleague. If you want to succeed in this field — in this company, turning down such an important project that got assigned to you, is not the wisest decision. You will be branded as someone who’s difficult to work with and that image of you could stick with you forever.”

Was it really an advice though? Or was it a threat, disguised as a friendly advice? Examining his facial expression closely, you tried to read his face. But nothing leaked through his calm and collected exterior. He wore a poker face, his emotions and feelings completely sealed away behind his thick mask. Looking at him, you felt a shiver run down your spine. His face was blank, his eyes expressionless, his voice cold as ice. You couldn’t tell what kind of person he was. This was actually the very first time you had held a conversation with him which lasted more than thirty seconds.

Now that you were standing right next him, you began to wonder where his sudden interest in you came from. You merely exchanged words with him other than simple greetings when running into him in the building. He had never treated you differently, nor did he make any attempt to approach you prior to that. He actually didn’t even have a bad image or bad rumors surrounding him. No, it was quite the opposite. Within the company he was known as a diligent and hard-working person. The female employees were all crushing on him, wishing he would notice them. If they could they would put a ring on his finger. The whole situation didn’t really make sense.

“Thank you for your advice. I’ll keep it in mind,” you feigned a respectful smile.

“Do you really think you’re not skilled enough to help implementing a new system?” He turned his head to you, looking straight at you. For this first time, you saw the corner of his lips twitch. Was he giving you a smile?

“I do think I have the skills, but—“

“Then you should be on the project,” he concluded, as though it was the most obvious thing one earth, like one plus one is two.

“I’m actually working on something else right now,” you tried to turn down his offer without sounding too rude.

“We’ll reassign the tasks. You’re too good to be grammar checking business proposals anyway.”

“I appreciate it, but I’m too far behind now. I know nothing about the processes and development of that project,” you carefully told him.

“I can fill you in. It won’t take a lot of time. Do you have plans tonight?”

“Excuse me?” You furrowed your brows together.

“I mean, is it ok for you to stay a bit longer today? Then I can brief you and explain to you what we’ve done so far, so you can start working on the project starting Monday? Of course you’ll be receiving overtime pay.”

Your eyes darted around the small space in hesitation. You didn’t want to stay at the office for any longer, especially not with him. You wanted to go home and eat the delicious food Christian had spend hours to make for you, you wanted to listen to him telling you about his day and you wanted to lay in his arms. But if you turned down his offer again, you future at this firm would evaporate into thin air...

What do you think Jenn will do? Wow...this is already the twenty fourth chapter! Feels like I only started writing this series yesterday lol. By now I’ve hidden enough hints in all the chapters for you to guess what will happen in the next chapter and the rest of the story. All you have to do is connect the dots haha :P Let’s see whether you will be able to guess it. Let me hear your theories! :)

[gffa]

I AM READY TO CRY ABOUT STAR WARS IN APPROXIMATELY A WEEK FROM NOW, so here in the meantime have some crying about fic because, oh, I REALLY LOVE THESE SPACE NERDS. STAR WARS FIC RECS: ✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by A_Delicate_Fury, obi-wan & anakin & luke & leia & han & ahsoka & cast, time travel, 27.7k wip    After a disaster on the cosmic scale that Obi-Wan is still trying to wrap his mind around, he finds himself back in the early days of the Clone Wars, Commander Cody loyally at his side, Anakin at his back, and Sidious plotting against the Jedi at every turn. He’s been given an unasked for chance to do everything over again. And with the Force as his ally, he intends to set the galaxy on a brighter path than the one it’s currently on. ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, 59.4k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone. ✦ Time To Go by light_mantled_albatross, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 35.2k wip    A version of the “Anakin doesn’t find Ventress at the end of season 5, with the result that Ahsoka gets Dramatically Sentenced To Death” plotline. Obi-Wan makes choices, Anakin freaks out, the Jedi Council behaves somewhat questionably, Darth Sidious behaves completely reprehensibly, and Ahsoka is generally her bad-ass self. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, anakin & rex & mace & cast, 2.3k    “General Skywalker, we have an incoming transmission from Coruscant,” Rex says, standing straight and with his arms crossed behind his back—stiff and formal. Anakin’s eyes narrow; that kind of posture generally means a transmission from the Council… ✦ Lose Myself Tonight by sinosei, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, mild d/s, sith!obi-wan, 1.5k    Anakin cannot help but test Obi-Wan. ✦ To Stand Before the Council by Raven_Knight, depa & mace & yoda & cast, 3.7k    This is the story of how Mace Windu and Depa Billaba became Master and Padawan. ✦ Rescue on Stygeon Prime by BarbaraFett, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & luminara, 4.3k    When Ahsoka Tano uses her newfound freedom as a Force spirit to explore obscure corners of the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker will have to confront a nearly-forgotten piece of the Sith’s legacy of darkness. ✦ River at Dawn by Lalijinx, obi-wan & padme (& background anakin), 1k    Obi-Wan goes to confront Padme about Anakin’s location. Instead, his emotions get the better of him, and everything spills out. ✦ A striking resemblance to the embers of the past by victoria_p (musesfool), luke & leia & rey & finn & kix, 3.6k    Leia insists Rey have a DNA test to make sure she and Finn are not related. The results are not what anyone was expecting. ✦ a gift with a price by wreckageofstars, obi-wan & anakin, 1.8k    Miscommunication is the soup of the day, and Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t fully understand the power that he holds. ✦ Tumblr Prompts by Darlings (FromDreamstoEmpires), obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 3.8k (collection of prompts)    A collection of prompts that I’ve filled on Tumblr. ✦ Starrunner by rinzukodas, obi-wan & jedi & oc, 17.3k wip    n what would have been the year 17 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine is found slumped over his desk, dead to rights and emitting a foul odor. The coroners declare the body victim to a heart attack and the smell a result of a lack of a timely embalming—a bit of bowels humor, the head coroner says with a nervous laugh when interviewed by the Galactic Enquirer. ✦ Sanctuary by shadowsong26, anakin & rey, 3.1k    Rey wants to find her place in all of this. When she finds a reference to Mortis in one of Luke’s books, it seems as good good place as any to start looking… ✦ Talking Points by victoria_p (musesfool), luke & rey, 2k    Rey knows there’s a connection between them–something more than the Force, more than destiny. ✦ this is unexpected by MarbleGlove, obi-wan & palpatine & cast, 4.4k    a self-indulgent response to the many, wonderful time-travel Star Wars stories that send a more experienced and more knowledgeable Obi-Wan Kenobi back in time to change the many tragedies to come full details + recs under the cut! 

✦ The Dark Path Lit by Sun and Stars by A_Delicate_Fury, obi-wan & anakin & luke & leia & han & ahsoka & cast, time travel, 27.7k wip    After a disaster on the cosmic scale that Obi-Wan is still trying to wrap his mind around, he finds himself back in the early days of the Clone Wars, Commander Cody loyally at his side, Anakin at his back, and Sidious plotting against the Jedi at every turn. He’s been given an unasked for chance to do everything over again. And with the Force as his ally, he intends to set the galaxy on a brighter path than the one it’s currently on.    Oh, this fic is so gorgeous and wonderful and beautiful already! It’s everything I could ask for–the characterization is spot on, it has a lot of plot and worldbuilding that grabs from canon and builds something really cool with them, and MOST IMPORTANTLY it has satisfying resolution to some things (while other things are just kicking into gear) that has me absolutely hooked. What I mean is–the plot and the fallout of this are just getting started, there’s still the whole future looming over them, but we’ve also gotten some reunions that left me with that happy, satisfied, emotionally touched feeling. Obi-Wan and Luke’s first meeting here is absolutely everything I could have asked for from it, it’s one of those that could have been glossed over too much and I would have felt cheated, or it could have been overdone and I’d have felt like the fic was trying too hard. But instead every moment of it absolutely worked for me, it found the balance it needed to find, where shit’s still happening around them, but there’s this gorgeous moment of stillness between them, this gorgeous moment of meaning and connection, that just reminded me of every single Obi-Wan & Luke feeling I’ve ever had.    But there’s more! There’s an escape off a desert planet where they have to go Full Jedi Of Old and seeing it from Luke’s point of view, getting to see the Jedi as they were is so incredibly satisfying, it takes a fun action sequence and gives it emotional resonance. It’s got incredible Obi-Wan characterization, as he struggles with what to do about all this, but also is so kind and warm, that it’s these little touches with Luke, the way he leaves his hand out if Luke wants to touch him, the way he makes himself available for Luke to lean against his side, the way he doesn’t get bothered by these scared kids being kind of snappish at him, because he has an idea of what they’re going through. As much as I love everyone here–Han and Luke and Leia’s are all SO GREAT, Ahsoka is BEAUTIFUL AND PERFECT, Asajj actually gives me FEELINGS, especially the way Obi-Wan treats her–for me, Obi-Wan is the real star of this show.    Which isn’t to say the plot part isn’t interesting, because I am so here for how it happened, what it means with Palpatine’s fingers digging into everything, the use of the Force that’s mixed up in all this, the way OH MY DARLING ANAKIN is talked about in Obi-Wan’s relating what he knows, the way Obi-Wan feels a little spun around, because he’s both his clone wars self and his future self, it’s a bit of deja vu, which isn’t a tack I’d seen taken before. All of it is just really, really a great read already! ✦ Equinox by lilyconrad, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, sith!obi-wan, 59.4k wip    During the Clone Wars, Obi-Wan and Anakin crash on a remote planet and take shelter in the ruins of a grand estate only to find they are not alone.    Chapter 11: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter rather than the fic as a whole. This is the aftermath of the Shadow (or whatever it is) having sneaked in and curled around Obi-Wan, which I still find to be an intriguing choice, that the one that has the strongest sense of balance and surety of himself is the one that it also pulled whatever from and I love the use of that, because it shows so much of where Veris comes from, while not taking away that Obi-Wan Kenobi truly is a good person with such a strong sense of self. And this chapter follows up on that, where the fic does this really great thing of playing around with the different interactions, how these different versions of the same person are running around, so it’s both a character piece and a relationship piece, that it’s all about highlighting things that are true down to the foundations of Obi-Wan and Anakin, whatever form they take. Not that the Sith versions are them, per se, because they’re not, but that they’re small, tiny aspects given life, which means that it’s like staring at part of yourself, but alsosomething different, which isn’t always a fun thing when looking at yourself–but when looking at the person you love? Suddenly the undercurrents shift.    Which is illustrated so well for me in the Obi-Wan and Isten scene, where Isten may be a Sith version of Anakin, but he’s still Anakin, an Anakin who will always love Obi-Wan, in whatever form he’s in, and so when the Shadow passes by them in a dream/vision/whatever, of course he turns his face to Obi-Wan and hides it, of course Obi-Wan shelters him and pulls him close and takes on the heavy weight of watching this terrible thing, because that’s what Obi-Wan does, whenever he can, for Anakin. I loved the Veris and Anakin scene as well, the groundwork that’s being laid for Anakin to see just how much this man with Obi-Wan’s face, who is connected to Obi-Wan, but isn’t him, loves his own version of Anakin, how he can be polished and smooth, but also at the same time the cracks in his shell are all about Anakin, Anakin, Anakin. The need to work together, to touch minds, the way this prickles at Anakin and yet will obviously linger with him is so much fun to watch! But, oh, that scene with Obi-Wan and Isten. It really was the standout for me–but, then, just about anything with Isten is a standout for me in this fic, because he’s so perfectly written. Wild and fey, yet settled in his skin. Bratty and arrogant, yet there’s something that is almost calm. And you can see that it’s because of Obi-Wan, that trust he has and how much he’s able to not have to worry about things. It’s such a good complement to every single other character in this fic! I will gleefully read about him with ANY of the other characters!    But, then, there’s the Shadow and whatever it’s doing and, oh, the scene with the party was so creepy. Like, it’s almost a bit understated (while also being very directly horrible), like there’s this shimmer of glitz and elegance over the terrible thing that’s happening, and that makes it so much worse, the feeling of body horror as the Shadow takes over the people and hurts them. The way the sense of something large and looming is moving through the space around Obi-Wan and Isten, how it could so easily see them and would rip them to shreds. It’s such a lovely character piece, but also SUCH A GOOD HORROR FIC, TOO. But also!! Isten waking up and, oh, the way Veris just seems to calm and you really get to see how much he loves this version of Anakin, that the actual Anakin sees this and of course we cannot help but compare and find the parallels between the two! And such good cliffhangers! And I have NO IDEA where any of this is going! And yet I’m so, so engaged! Just, ugh, what a wonderful, perfect fic. ✦ Time To Go by light_mantled_albatross, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & cast, 35.2k wip    A version of the “Anakin doesn’t find Ventress at the end of season 5, with the result that Ahsoka gets Dramatically Sentenced To Death” plotline. Obi-Wan makes choices, Anakin freaks out, the Jedi Council behaves somewhat questionably, Darth Sidious behaves completely reprehensibly, and Ahsoka is generally her bad-ass self.    Chapter 7: This is an update rec and will focus on this chapter, rather than the fic as a whole. It’s been a long while since I read the previous chapters, so I can’t judge how much it does or doesn’t get the Jedi, but I remember thinking that a lot of it could be down to the point of views of the specific characters and the places they’re in (since this is during The Wrong Jedi arc) and I mention this only because it’s a thing I almost always mention, and also because I love this fic. The author just absolutely, utterly nails the banter between the characters, all three of them are a scream, but especially Obi-Wan and Anakin who just cannot stop bickering, in really sharp and genuinely funny ways! Like, read this fic for that alone! But I do enjoy Padme when she shows up here (and that she doesn’t care about Anakin’s approval for what she’s going to do!), I enjoy the way Anakin uses the Force, I enjoy that the writing is really smooth and I very much want to know what happens, I enjoy that the author is really good at building up a plot, a mystery that I want to know how it ends up! But, seriously, read it for the banter, it’s so much fun. ✦ untitled by stonefreeak, anakin & rex & mace & cast, 2.3k    “General Skywalker, we have an incoming transmission from Coruscant,” Rex says, standing straight and with his arms crossed behind his back—stiff and formal. Anakin’s eyes narrow; that kind of posture generally means a transmission from the Council…    Note: This is part of a series that should be read in order by this point, but this rec will focus on this fic in particular. Ahhh, it was so hard to finish this one, because now I want more immediately and I just want to read 100k of this all in one sitting! But I love this piece, I love Anakin’s panic attack and how it builds and builds and builds until he can’t breathe, because he just connected wtih Obi-Wan again and now he found out that his Master might die, might be dying right that minute, and, oh, it really just makes me feel so much for the character. Mace understanding that Anakin needs more gentleness right now, him having the reserves and room to be able to give that, is spot on and so wonderful. For all that this is an angsty piece (in an absolutely delicious way) it’s also a really good and kind one. ✦ Lose Myself Tonight by sinosei, obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, mild d/s, sith!obi-wan, 1.5k    Anakin cannot help but test Obi-Wan.    Oh, this was such a good read! It’s one of those that’s both well-written andhits every iddy button I have–that Anakin is impatient and cannot help testing Obi-Wan, that he wants the reassurance, wants the attention, while also wanting to be taken seriously, while also wanting that heavy hand to come down on him and keep him in place. That Obi-Wan is gentle with him, is kind and caring with him, but also will not be disobeyed, is perfect here, that it’s what Anakin responds to and thrives under, that he’s turned on by it when his Master and his Emperor tell him how to dispaly himself. And, oh, the sex was so good, it was beautiful in the way Obi-Wan had him stretch himself while watching, that he’d been so insolent that he would only get his Master’s hand today (and, of course, he’s so beautiful and perfect that eventually he gets to ride his Master’s cock anyway), that it’s about the dom/sub relationship in how it gives Anakin structure and works for him so well. And is scorchingly, ridiculously hot when Obi-Wan won’t let him otherwise touch himself, when Obi-Wan tells him that he loves him, that Anakin is his, that Obi-Wan ordering him to sit on his dick was used as a way to show that unbreakable connection and love between them. And so, so ridiculously hot, that Anakin can’t touch himself while he’s touched and is so spread open and willing for his Master, so content in this place where he has no questions. I maybe kinda lost my brain a little to this one! ✦ To Stand Before the Council by Raven_Knight, depa & mace & yoda & cast, 3.7k    This is the story of how Mace Windu and Depa Billaba became Master and Padawan.    Oh, I just practically wanted to wrap myself up in the adorable warmth of this story, how absolutely cute it is, as little Depa stands before the High Council to try to deliver a message she wants to tell them, but can’t quite get the words out. I love the building of Jedi traditions (since canon gives us almost nothing! I need more!) and that the Council takes the time for Depa to gather her courage, to help explain themselves to her, to encourage her, to find her adorable, how likable everyone is in this. It’s one of those stories that puts a warm smile on my face to have read, I love the thought and care given here, I love how I can just picture all of it, too. Such a fun read! ✦ Rescue on Stygeon Prime by BarbaraFett, obi-wan & anakin & ahsoka & luminara, 4.3k    When Ahsoka Tano uses her newfound freedom as a Force spirit to explore obscure corners of the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker will have to confront a nearly-forgotten piece of the Sith’s legacy of darkness.    It would probably help to have read at least The Apprentice Returns Homebefore this one, to understand why everyone is where they’re at, but also you could probably just know that Anakin helped Ahsoka become a Force Ghost and know they’re wandering around the universe and fixing stuff. I am so very into how good everything is there, that Anakin and Ahsoka have returned to the Jedi, but that their journeys weren’t without their narrative weight and importance, that they can still be something a little different, even as they’ve found their way home again, I guess is what I’m feeling more than anything. That they go to help Luminara here, that they put something right, that I get to see my favorite Jedi being good and happy and at peace in their afterlife, was like being in a nice, warm bath all over again. ✦ River at Dawn by Lalijinx, obi-wan & padme (& background anakin), 1k    Obi-Wan goes to confront Padme about Anakin’s location. Instead, his emotions get the better of him, and everything spills out.    I really enjoyed this fic for doing exactly what it set out to do–have Obi-Wan’s reserved nature break because Padme wasn’t believing what he was telling her about what Anakin did. It works for me because I have a lot of really intense feelings about Anakin’s actions at the Temple and this fic really gave them the weight they deserved, that it wasn’t just turning to the dark side, but the actions he did were truly monstrous and should be given this kind of narrative weight. It was cathartic as hell and I enjoyed it for being so! ✦ A striking resemblance to the embers of the past by victoria_p (musesfool), luke & leia & rey & finn & kix, 3.6k    Leia insists Rey have a DNA test to make sure she and Finn are not related. The results are not what anyone was expecting.    Oh, I love fics like this, that take an interesting theory about Rey’s background and give me a fic that shows the immediate fallout of it, that reveal that I’m looking for (I love reveal moments!) and some great build-up tension to that reveal, plus some really lovely, touching character moments. The highlight of this fic is the way Luke and Leia look at Rey once they discover who she is, the weight and legacy she carries just because of her birth, the struggle that they allface because of it and to find out what it means. It’s poignant and painful and, most of all, hopeful. And that is exactly in the spirit of Star Wars! ✦ a gift with a price by wreckageofstars, obi-wan & anakin, 1.8k    Miscommunication is the soup of the day, and Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t fully understand the power that he holds.    This was such a good, cute fic! Obi-Wan and Anakin early days are some of my favorites and I love how much Obi-Wan reaches out to Anakin, even though he’s been through so much shit lately himself, that he cares very deeply in his non-effusive way, that that’s just how he is. And the fic is really good-hearted and kind, there’s something almost a little sweet about it, that Anakin this being sick will get him sent away and Obi-Wan and everyone care so much about the little moppet and of course Obi-Wan reassures him that that’s not going to happen, but it’s so hard to reach through all those layers Anakin has even back then, but it’s still so good here, that Obi-Wan finds a compromise that moves them forward, and then hugs!!! It’s one of those fics that gets me right in the feelings place in the best way, but then was also like slipping into a warm bath, which is my favorite. This was wonderful and so lovely to read. ✦ Tumblr Prompts by Darlings (FromDreamstoEmpires), obi-wan/anakin, NSFW, 3.8k (collection of prompts)    A collection of prompts that I’ve filled on Tumblr.    I’ve recommended at least one of these on tumblr before and I’ll probably continue to rec them individually in the future because a) it’s my blog and I do what I want and b) because wow do they hit my id straight on and I want to flail about that! And I love this collection because it really does hit those iddy wants just perfectly, it embraces them whole-heartedly and clearly enjoys the hell out of itself as it does. Anakin getting fucked while being ordered to watch himself in front of a mirror, a fantasy AU where they can’t be together and it embraces the quiet angst, and then a modern AU where Anakin wears lingerie and is a bratty sub who wants to get bent over the desk and fucked. Like, SIGN ME UP, it’s just pure fun and sexy times that know what they’re about and are having a blast writing them and are great for when you just want some lightly kinky porn that’s full of love and care and everything is soft and sweet and loving and all of it hits that OTP place hard. ♥ ✦ Starrunner by rinzukodas, obi-wan & jedi & oc, 17.3k wip    n what would have been the year 17 BBY, Supreme Chancellor Sheev Palpatine is found slumped over his desk, dead to rights and emitting a foul odor. The coroners declare the body victim to a heart attack and the smell a result of a lack of a timely embalming—a bit of bowels humor, the head coroner says with a nervous laugh when interviewed by the Galactic Enquirer.    I have two brief caveats before I begin–the first is that I felt like this fic sort of dropped me into the middle of things in a way that I went to look and see if I was missing an earlier story (this is the only one the author’s written, though!) and that sometimes the sequence of events/context for them is a little unclear, especially when dealing with an OC that we don’t know much about. The second is that I don’t have a good feel for whether or not the fic is going to go the attachment = any kind of love thing that doesn’t work with the canon Jedi, because most of it is really, really great at showing the Jedi, but there have been a few moments that have made me wonder. But also I’m hypersensitive, so take it with a grain of salt! OKAY THAT SAID I fucking love this fic, it’s so sharp and good, the characterization of Obi-Wan is absolutely fantastic, he’s perfectly his canon self! And I really enjoy the OC, she’s got her own personality and she’s got narrative weight, but the fic doesn’t try to make her exactly like everyone else in their snark. She has her moments, but instead she’s more quiet and reserved, but with deep care and kindness and quietly delightful. She feels like she fits with the canon!    There’s a plot brewing here–she and Master Kenobi are tasked with investigating the Chancellor’s death, one that’s genuinely interesting to me and has new characters being brought in in a way that, again, feels like it fits with canon, with genuinely good storytelling! And there’s such great banter, like it’s so very easy to picture Obi-Wan in my mind’s eye, it’s so very easy to imagine everyone here! And, oh, the life this breathes into the setting it uses, that this is a living, breathing world it inhabits, that there’s history between Master Che and her patients, that there’s details about the Jedi life/culture and their Temple, it feels very much like this fic loves the characters and world that it’s writing, that there’s this warm glow of affection through the whole thing, that combines with the legitimately sharp writing, so that I tore through the whole thing and will look forward to future chapters. ✦ Sanctuary by shadowsong26, anakin & rey, 3.1k    Rey wants to find her place in all of this. When she finds a reference to Mortis in one of Luke’s books, it seems as good good place as any to start looking…    Rey finds herself on Mortis and winds up having a conversation with a spirit there and, oh, it’s such a lovely, engaging read for it! It captures that sense of how weird Star Wars can be at times, especially a place like Mortis, but the conversation between her and Anakin, the weight of the history there, but also that it’s Rey’s story going forward, that this touches on what came before, that the journey of Star Wars has led us all here, but it’s hers going forward, is really well done. And I love this more reflective Anakin who may still be angry in some ways, but has gained so much balance, has come back, has gained so much wisdom. It’s a perfect little fic as a point on the journey to wherever Rey is going and I loved it. ✦ Talking Points by victoria_p (musesfool), luke & rey, 2k    Rey knows there’s a connection between them–something more than the Force, more than destiny.    I really enjoyed reading this, there’s something so warm and lovely about every single moment of it! It’s a collection of smaller moments with Rey and Luke during her training, just all these quiet little touches that form a more detailed picture between them, and it’s just so good, everything feels hopeful and bright, even in the greater darkness of the galaxy. It felt like this is the core of who I see these characters as and what I want for them, the best for them without breaking SW to do it. And that made this a treasure to read! ✦ this is unexpected by MarbleGlove, obi-wan & palpatine & cast, 4.4k    a self-indulgent response to the many, wonderful time-travel Star Wars stories that send a more experienced and more knowledgeable Obi-Wan Kenobi back in time to change the many tragedies to come    This was a delightfully cracky piece with a few serious moments! I admit, I almost turned around at that Obi-Wan wouldn’t train Anakin, but then Anakin had stars in his eyes for Obi-Wan, who was basically playing chess with Palpatine and wiping the floor with him, sure, it’s not how things would seriously go, but it has that sharp sense of gleeful fun, it was so satisfying to the id, that I had a smile on my face the whole time and it was a great read!

[vio1315]

So one of the panels I went to involved a guy trying to explain why Link/Zelda/Hyruleans were immoral in BotW and Ganon was good (to further a point about ethics being bs or whatever)

But he was factually wrong on a lot of things, so I’ll go through it

Point about monarchies being a poor governmental system, fine. Everything in that sort of category, I’ll give him.

The rest though

Monsters being intelligent, and thus wrong to kill:

Monsters often are shown to be smarter than animals in multiple games, yeah. They use tools, some of them have language, some can even start fires and show indication of cultures. Regardless on where we rate them on sentience though, the fact remains that they’re an invasive force who attack humans on sight. Even if we look at them on the same level as humans, they’ve essentially entered into someone’s country in an attempt to eradicate that people group or control them. If we believe at all in self defense, it’s justifiable. You can however question some methods as needlessly cruel.

Along with this point, it was also referenced that as long as people stayed in their towns and such, monsters didn’t bug them. So they were clearly living at peace until you decided the monsters needed to die

This is incorrect.

If you notice, every town is either walled off (in varying capacities) or in a defensible position. There are also generally guards of some sort.

(I think that fishing village is the only one not this way...? Though it does have a mountain on one end and ocean on the other, idk how good they’d handle an actual attack)

We never hear of this being a defense against people

Rather, we do see two women directly outside their town being attacked by monsters.

People on the roads being attacked by monsters

There’s not boundaries with these being newly established territories. People are staying in their towns for the added protection from monsters who attack on sight.

They would surely attack the towns as well if they weren’t defended.

So again, this is more akin to the country being taken over by a foreign power/people. The monsters, without proper guidance, can’t make coordinated attacks however, and thus are mainly built around. This doesn’t make self defense morally reprehensible however. Attacking their camps isn’t much different if say some foreign country sent groups to set up camps in our country with the intent of killing as many of us as possible to take over. 

(Stables are another beast entirely, though)

Ganon possibly being a good leader, which we have no proof either way on due to him never successfully gaining the position:

If we go back to OoT, we see that after Ganondorf takes over, everything is destroyed. People are dead in Castle Town, and he rules with an iron fist, hurting people in every civilization just to ensure allegiance. He about wipes out all zora and gorons.

Even if we don’t go back, in BotW, he is more beast like (though he maintains some amount of understanding due to his handling of the guardians) but I don’t think this would help his capacity as ruler.

Historically we see him commit evils, though we get less chance to see him do so in a direct capacity in BotW due to his being sealed.

The best we know is his destruction of Hyrulean cities/similar, killing them, all in their own country and capital. So in his current state, his version of ruling over Hyrule involves wiping them out. There doesn’t seem to be much distinction made between targets. Again, calamity ganon is different than Ganondorf was when he had his mind. Even back when he was human, he had a tendency for wiping out people groups, but as calamity ganon, there’s really no holding back in an attempt to have survivors to serve him

He also spreads the malice which seems to make monsters and the pollution that is harmful to humans (and all living creatures, as it even has extremely negative effects on a dragon, which is much more powerful than humans.)

If he has enough mind left, this at best is him wiping out all Hyruleans to have the land for his own... monsters? 

Not even his own people, as the Gerudo are not free from his targeting.

Likely, calamity ganon has lost his humanity, and is not capable as a ruler on any level, lacking strict control of his thoughts and actions. I mean, calamity is in the name.

The attack against Hyrule (resulting in the guardians being overtaken and Ganondorf sealed) being a justified attack:

It was mentioned that the Hyruleans were looking for weapons to destroy Ganon once and for all, and so his attack was self defense.

This required rewatching cutscenes, as I didn’t honestly remember, but basically the guardians were built before his return 10,000 years prior to BotW. They were employed after he struck again, which is where he got his knowledge of them

So they were made in preparation to fight against him. The fact that he knows about them when they’re attempted to be used again, 100 years in the past, suggests it’s the same Ganon, not a reincarnation.

Thus, they have reason to seek out weapons against him as they prepare for his next attack.

At this point they know he’s been doing this over and over again since the beginning of time

It being wrong to assume Ganondorf will be evil in all reincarnations:

Interesting, but this depends on what theory you go with.

I have usually felt it’s the same Ganon(dorf) without resurrection each time.

Such as

from OoT to TP, it’s the same Ganondorf

From OoT to WW it’s the same Ganondorf

in Zelda to Zelda II it’s the same Ganondorf (though he was killed and Zelda II is trying to /resurrect/ him)

in the seasons and ages games, I forget if they’re trying to break a seal or resurrect him, but it ultimately succeeds and he comes in as Ganon

That’s just from memory. 

So I always had the sense that while the heroes tend to reincarnate, through being sealed and breaking out of seals on top of resurrections, Ganondorf is the same, or very rarely reincarnates

This tends to make Ganon (the beast forms) make more sense in my eyes as he kinda loses more and more humanity in the process each time.

But if we are assuming each Ganondorf is separate unless explicitly stated otherwise, and we are assuming he doesn’t get any memories through the triforce of power (which I don’t think has ever been confirmed, and I forget any hints to it honestly, so it might be fanon) In that case, then yes, you’d obviously want to not just murder him as a preventative measure

That said

Every game where he appears does have him do something bad before you’re sent to face him. In BotW, as mentioned before, they’re expecting the same Ganon, who already seems to be in calamity form. And really, when you look at that, do you really think ‘Yeah that looks super mortal and killable’

No, they were expecting that same thing to return

Like they never went baby hunting or any such thing

In the old days, that would have been really easy too. Find any male Gerudo and kill him? Like before Ganondorf became a beast, it would have been simple.

However, most times the story is such a legend by the next game, that details like that tend to be lost to the people anyways

The Yiga clan being justified:

If Ganondorf can not be made out to be good, the Yiga also can’t.

They’re at a similar level to a cult in some ways, much as I enjoy them. They want Ganondorf to reign, though he destroyed half their country and has never spoken a word. We don’t see evidence that he’s even aware of them, I’d say? 

I’d argue they’re better than the monsters, since they only target Link as far as I recall (they’re human and thus capable of such coordination) but it still doesn’t really spare them for serving calamity Ganon who just killed half the country and then flew around the castle not saying anything for 100 years

(I might have missed some lore somewhere, idk)

And that’s without getting into all the ‘Link’s crazy, seeing his dead friends’ and so on stuff. We all know that stuff is part of the games high fantasy world, and we have been given no reason in the narrative to question the authenticity of seeing these things.

In terms of the point made about Link violating the Gerudos customs and cultures by forcing his way into their city? Desperate times is all I’ll say there. If we believe Ganondorf was a true threat, then we can excuse this sort of thing

Basically, the guy ended his presentation saying that ethics were bs (particularly in gaming?)

But honestly if you twist and misinterpret information, you can do that to anything. There’s very legitimate things to hook onto, but this doesn’t really drive home his point to think things through. If you don’t make legitimate cases yourself, why should I take you seriously?

You know in TP it’s implied that the royal family did pretty terrible things to the gerudo people? There’s literally a prison with torture mechanisms in the desert, classically depicted as where they lived, but no gerudo.

We know a lot of the prisoners were sealed away in another realm there too. It could be argued against, but there’s a lot more evidence for this sort of thing.

We know that in ALttP the soldiers who hunt down Link are being mind controlled/similar. They’re actual people that you kill. There’s something to be said there, and a lot of questions you can ask.

I mean, if you really want to stretch, in WW you’re working with pirates, and we never really know what they did before searching for new land. With how they handled things on Windfall, they did kind of do what they pleased to some extent.

These are off the top of my head, with a little effort, you could think of really valid points to question how we perceive good/evil in these games. I think it’s especially cheap to rely on player action to portray these matters.

If you went through a game like Skyrim, you can play it by joining the dark brotherhood and killing and stealing everything in your path. Or you can not steal, not kill outside of self defense, and so on.

The game gives you options, but it should not be assumed that the game’s protagonist has taken every single option.

You can steal in Link’s Awakening, but we can’t assume that as an inherent part of that Link’s character. That is entirely player choice.

So those are all my feelings involving the points brought up during the panel.

The inaccuracies bothered me is all, but I had little freedom to mention all my points at the time, so they go here.

[trashyeggroll]

Writing ask: 3, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 19, 21, 34, 38, 41, 43, and 48!

Wow wow wow!! Thank you!! Answers below the cut!!

writer’s ask game

3. Computer or pen and paper?

I do almost all of my writing on my phone 😅 Not great for posture or speed but extremely mobile, yanno? Usually I’ll edit on my computer though, bc the change in format helps spot errors.

8. Oldest WIP?

Technically I have L Word fanfic sitting out there from 2006, but right now it’s Witchstock, my OT3 Charmed fic. I am gonna finish it but it hasn’t caught my attention much until recently :)

10. Do you set yourself deadlines?

Not reaaally, more so I make a judgment on how my week is gonna go and aim for completion on a chapter or oneshot of something. Usually I get stuck on my multichapter fics when I have too many other ideas (hey, podfics) so I do force myself to put form to those shorter ideas to make room for finishing the longer ones!

13. Describe your writing process from idea to polished

I don’t write down ideas (hence when I keep losing people’s suggestions in asks 😭) until I am p much decided on the main points and ready to write the thing, and I can’t start writing a thing until I’ve picked out a title, which is annoying. I don’t outline in full, but I will write as many scenes as I can in a first go, and I’ll drop plot notes for myself in between paragraphs if there’s a scene that I skip for later. Then I just keep going back to the beginning and rewrite, add, rewrite, add, until all the notes are gone—most of the time, my multichap fics are almost completely done by the time I post the first chapter, but I’m hemming and hawwing over details in later parts for days or weeks. Once everything seems in order, I read it all one last time for spelling/grammar. That’s usually how you end up getting my AO3 posts at like 2 am.

15. How do you deal with writer’s block?

I write something else! Or if I’m not feeling like writing at all, I’ll dig into old fics I love. But really, finding new TV shows to watch and music to listen to is key for me, kinda like a content reset on my brain.

18. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be, and what would you write about?

I am VERY protective of my unfinished work… so this would be difficult for me. Honestly I would love to write a book, TV show, or movie with my baby brother, loosely based on our lives. Super extra Viet mom, emotionally unavailable but generally chill white dad, growing up in small town Oklahoma. I would want it to vibe like Everybody Hates Chris.

19. How do you keep yourself motivated?

Internally: oh my god my brain is too full, i need to get this out, help give me a google doc in which to dump my feelings

Externally: re-reading kind comments on my work! They give me life.

21. Who is/are your favourite character(s) to write?

Probs obvious, but Niko Hamada and Anissa Pierce. Canon lesbians, so I don’t have to put myself back into coming out headspace, older, so I don’t have to try to imagine high school or college again, serious professionals with corny senses of humor in casual settings. It’s the self-projection!! I also really love writing Maria Rambeau because I think she’s incredibly engaging.

34. What was the hardest scene you ever had to write?

The scene in RWSBC where the Charmed Ones rescue Niko from the wolf. I wrote, deleted, and rewrote the part from where Niko wakes up confused to where they escape more than anything else before or after, so far. It kinda reminds me of how J* R*wling said she purposefully mentioned all the time control things getting destroyed so they wouldn’t mess with later plots—the world I made was suddenly so open that I couldn’t hone in on a satisfying mix of description, action, and narration, in a way that wouldn’t create huge plotholes with my later plans.

38. Weirdest story idea you’ve ever had

Soooo… I guess my interpretation of “weird” might be diff than what others would use… But I guess I’d have to say, I have an original, perpetually unfinished work that is a trilogy, but it starts with a spy drama involving biological warfare, then that leads to Part II which is a zombie infestation, and then Part III is one hundred years later, after the zombie-infected American continents were evacuated, and the first humans are returning to the area. It’s all the same universe and related characters/forces at work. I’ll be lucky to finish Part I before I’m 85.

41. Any advice for new/beginning/young writers?

Write for YOU, first and foremost. Write to impress yourself, and the rest will fall into place. Do your research and stick to your morals; you don’t need to write a scene you find reprehensible to create conflict.

43. What do you do if/when characters don’t follow the outline?

Smoke a bowl and let them have free potshots at my plot until they’ve let me take over again. You know who’s the worst about this? Maggie Vera. She just drags me around by my ear.

48. What’s the most self-insert character/scene you’ve ever written?

😅😬🤓 welllllllllllll I meannnnn Niko Hamada is a self-insert that someone else made seemingly just for me (and subsequently blew it), BUT I think my most egregious self-insert scenes are in Pierce, where Anissa says “I love you” for the first time and when she asks Grace to marry her; both of those are conceptually stolen from my relationship with my wife.

[erosanova-blog]

Have you ever sat in a diner by yourself, eating your eggs over hard, your bacon crispy and your waffle covered with fruit and whipped cream? (Hold on let me finish.) Do you ever put your fucking phone down and listen for a second? Not to any conversation in particular, that would be morally reprehensible; no not eavesdropping. Just listening.

I laugh at people that sit on their phones when they’re sitting down for a meal, ESPECIALLY if they’re paying for it and ESPECIALLY if they’re with friends or family. The beauty of eating out is you don’t have to clean everything up and you can enjoy the pleasure of your company. Not check your fucking Instagram and post pictures of your damn eggs Benedict. Yeah we get it, we’ve all fucking seen it I don’t care if its some sort of wide-eyed variation, its the same shit. Put your phone down and eat your fucking meal. It’s atrocious and rude.

Anyways, back to my rant. Listen for a minute. The clatter of cutlery on china, the soft moans of ecstasy of a hungover group of friends enjoying their first cup of hazelnut coffee. Delight in the smells, even close your eyes for a minute.

Whatever you do, don’t quiver. Don’t let your lip start to tremble as you see the old man sitting by himself in a booth next to you and you think, “that’s me in sixty years.” Alot of people would kill for the lifestyle that I have, not that I’m a celebrity, but I feel appreciated by acquaintances, I love dancing and I don’t care what I look like doing it, and I generally tend to hang around some pretty amazing people and some fairly fetching females. Yeah. That’s an alliteration. Some people say that it’s weak to use in your writing but I say they can fuck right off and I’ll do what I want, this blog is for me not for them.

Back to the rant at hand, see how easily I get distracted? Anyways, lets return.

Sit there... muster a smile. Be polite and clean up your mess after your meal. Charming, witty conversation with the waitress or waiter, and always leave a big tip. Just don’t let your lip start to twitch or it won’t stop. You’ll think why you’re there by yourself in the first fucking place. Why you’ve poured your heart and soul into everything you’ve ever done, and in the end wearing your heart upon your sleeve is a terrible place to fucking wear it. You know how much you bump into shit over the course of the day? People are clumsy as fuck, and your extremities are the first to go.

You don’t even have to keep your eyes open. Often it helps accentuate the softer conversations and hold back the floodgates of your eyelids. Don’t let them see your smile droop when the acquiescent server leaves and you’re left alone with your thoughts once again. That is one thing most people never lose until the end, their inner monologues.

Try not to look at the happy couples holding hands, the pregnant wife and hubby, or even worse the single mom with the five fucking kids catapulting peanut butter towards the window as she pulls the remaining hair out of her nervously-chewed upper lip and wipes the boogers from the other’s nose while her ex-husband is off fucking some girl with single-digit I.Q. And it’s not her fault and it’s not his fault. Their ignorance is bliss. They can brush off the fact that she usurped a happy home and he threw vows into the trash like so many discarded prophylactics. After all, a contemporary American marriage is essentially a fucking tax write-off that you can liquidate at any given moment, for any given desire... real love is few and far between, it’s more like what people feel compelled to do or feel by society and then a general progression (through proximity or various chemical signals produced when a person feels affection towards another) to what people think is love. It’s not. It’s fucking not. If it was, this tattoo on my ribs that says forever would actually mean forever. It doesn’t. It mean’s I’ll remember it forever, an ephemeral phase of typically the end of a happy era, as I usually just received ink to equalize the inner pain with some outer pain. Did it work? I’m still here.

The lines are so blurry anymore... you have to wonder who is telling the truth and who is out to manipulate you.

Try not to look... try not to make eye contact. Just sit and enjoy the sounds of happy people, or just people in general. Disconnect from your Facebook and think of how it would be to live in someone else’s shoes that’s sitting across the room looking at you with the same haunting expression.

Don’t think about the fact that you woke up next to a woman you informed of your love every day, but that had stopped saying it after a short while. Try not to think about the fact that you have to let her go... because watching the sunrise alone, crying, but together, was too much for your 30th birthday. Try not to think about the fact that one day, even though you had to break it off because you wanted her to be happy but never stopped loving her... one day someone would come along and she wouldn’t want you coming around anymore. She wouldn’t respond to any of your messages. Seems like a dreary outlook doesn’t it? Let me ask you this, how many times do you touch a hot burner before you learn it really fucking hurts? 

But that’s what happens every time. You put yourself up against the impossible: someone who doesn’t want to be in a relationship, someone who doesn’t want to be in a relationship with you, someone who buckles under the pressure, someone who doesn’t actually see you as that amazing “catch” that they claim you are (if you were such a fucking catch why weren’t you caught?) and wind all the way down into Self-deprecationville. Because it’s easier to blame yourself sometimes; it’s realistic. If they tell you its not you its them, its definitely you. You’re not right for them, they just want to break it to you softly so it feels like you’re winning, like you’re coming out on top of the haystack; well that’s just not the fucking case is it? In reality you’re losing everything. Everything your life consisted of from how you wake up in the morning to how you eat to how you picture someone’s face to push you through the day.

Many have pushed mine, but then fall back or I shove them off. I think my mind wants me to suffer. When I suffer I write like this, I workout like a superhero and I work on myself for once. So all these women that pass me by because I’m not muscular enough or tattooed enough or I don’t have enough pigment in my skin (or I have too much), because I’m not successful enough or whatever. But then when I get there, and I’m alone, is that happiness? Because at that point your success and wealth are as attractive to some people as your character, charm, personality or even looks. So you have to wonder, unless they started from the bottom with you, are they a schooling fish or just another remora suckering at your underbelly?

If I really meant that much,

you wouldn’t have walked away

If I really meant that much

you would've listened to what I had to say.

But no, not you, you just turned and walked out, like I didn’t even matter. If you really cared like you said you did and saw this going somewhere then a little hiccup wouldn’t deter you from the one who “treated you like a queen, “ “touched you like nobody ever has before,” makes not your day or week, but “makes your world.” You wouldn’t just leave if you think I treated you the way you deserve to be treated.

Maybe I didn’t arrange the flowers or the notes properly, maybe you didn’t get the message as intended... maybe you just weren’t the one. It hurts me so much to walk away from a force that was so attractive it took me from hanging out with several girls to effectively breaking it off with all of them (because I wanted to and because we were hanging out so much I didn’t have time, or didn’t want to make time for them to being all alone, with all of them potentially upset with me.

And you won’t even say more than a few words. None of them will. And at this point I don’t want to go to others and complain because it will chase them off too, even if they’re only friends. The point of the story is you can’t show people your vulnerabilities because then they don’t see you the same way. You’re suddenly weak and inferior if you complain. So just keep your mouth shut and your lip in line. You’re a man, act like one. Don’t snivel in your bed after three hours of sleep because you just realized that you have a hard time tolerating people for long periods of time because sooner or later you discover how truly ugly they are on the inside, despite their exterior appearance.

Just keep to yourself and write. Write away the pain. Write because the keys will listen even if the audience isn’t there. Write because thinking too much is what gets you into all those messes in the first place... and if you could just sequester them somehow and push them into some far region only accessible by a donkey and an AR-15. Lock it away. If they really cared as much as they said they did, they would read ever page in your book before just discounting it as a failed endeavor and moving on. But chances are, and I hate to be gloomy here but, chances are... they won’t come back. They were never yours. Accept it.

You’ve fought for your love before, either verbally or by taking action (usually a romantic notion). Why fight? How much are they fighting? Do they really want to fucking be with you? If you like someone, you like them for who they are at that point in time... planning a future is silly because everyone changes-- society demands it. So, instead of starting some big stupid fucking argument about wanting a little more that just a fwb or similar arrangement... write a little. Let your thoughts cycle through before you throw it all away.

Some words cannot be taken back, and some feelings cannot be retrieved. This goes out to all the girls that I gave pieces of my heart to, that walked out the door carrying it in a little glass case with their future husbands. I guess... I’m sorry I wasn’t what you’re looking for. I hope at least one of us is happy, and since I always (generally) put others before myself, it might as well be you.

What’s fucked is I’m not necessarily talking about one girl. Although the majority of this post is directed at a girl I was just recently involved with, alot of my relationships have ended this way. Me wondering what if...

What if I didn’t bring it up?

What if I didn’t give you those flowers?

What if I didn’t spoil you rotten?

Would it have changed anything? If this concept of “True love” exists, wouldn’t at least one of them have actively fought instead of just non-nonchalantly rearranging their lives to function without you in them.

And the worst part is... all you can do is walk away, be polite and thank them for the memories. And, if history repeats itself, you know that this will most likely be the last time you really even interact, and soon they will just fade away into another tattoo. Sweet dreams world.

[star-whispers-blog]

What to Do When You Consider a Work Task Unethical

Would you do something you thought was unethical?

What about if your job was on the line?

The Milgram Experiment became famous for indicating that people obey authority figures regardless of the awfulness of their instructions, but amongst younger worker, at least, this no longer seems to be the case. A recent Deloitte study revealed that 49% of junior-role Millennials, and 61% of senior-role Millennials have refused to undertake a work task “because it went against their personal values or ethics”.

Saying “no” to your boss is hard, and saying “no” in a productive, positive way is harder still. If you’re considering declining an assignment on ethical grounds, follow these steps first:

1) Leave the Room

If possible, leave before responding to the request at all. If you must answer, say something non-committal, then leave.

Our moral compass is a highly emotive aspect of our personalities. When you hear something that offends your ethics, you’re highly likely to lose your temper and say something you may later regret.

Immediately taking yourself into a neutral space gives you a chance to calm down and assess the situation properly.

2) Assess Severity

The very first question you need to ask yourself is this: “is this request illegal?” (If you don’t know, Google it.) If the answer is yes, then refuse to do it. Being complicit in an illegal activity can bring much more severe repercussions down on you than losing this job.

The same is true if the task is not technically illegal but is so morally reprehensible that knowledge of it would cause excessive brand damage to the company and individuals involved in it. In both these instances, skip straight to Step #6.

3) Assess Personal Importance

Often a request is neither illegal nor widely condemned, but problematic to you personally. Perhaps you’re a vegan being asked to promote an abattoir, or an environmental fanatic being asked to throw the recycling bin in a regular dumpster.

Just because it’s a personal problem does not mean you should do the task uncomplainingly. Instead, take some time to assess how much of an issue the task is to you. Refusing to comply with orders always carries a risk of repercussions, so is pushing back on this subject worth it to you?

4) Assess Reasonableness

Ask yourself both what your colleagues and the average person on the street is likely to think of your refusal to complete the task. Are they likely to be sympathetic, or think that you’re being ridiculous?

This ‘reasonableness’ of a request is irrelevant as to whether you should do it or not (see #3). But it will give you an inkling of how best to tackle the issue with your boss.

The more that people agree with your stance, the more likely it is that your boss will accept your refusal graciously, or that your company or HR department will back you up. Without this implicit support, you will likely be reliant on the goodwill of your boss, and have to work harder to make them see the situation from your point of view.

5) See the Bigger Picture

Remember that nothing exists in a vacuum. Whether you decide to do the unethical task or refuse, there will be some sort of consequences down the line. Working out the most likely possibilities now will help put your decision into perspective.

If you’re considering doing the job, ask yourself if it’s likely that your boss will continue to ask you to perform similar tasks, and whether that would exacerbate your uncomfortableness. Consider also the effect on your morale and productivity if you believe aspects of your work to be immoral.

Then think about the likeliness that refusing to do this task will get you disliked, disciplined, or fired. Would that be a complete disaster or simply an unpleasant situation on route to better things?

6) Gain Clarity

Whichever side you fall down on – accepting or refusing – first approach your boss and ask for greater clarity on the subject. Keep your tone neutral, but ask enough questions that you have no doubt about what they want you do, and that all the implications are laid out on the table.

Sometimes, talking things through will make the boss realize that what they’re asking is wrong, and cause them to back down. It should also give you a feeling for how militant they are about you performing this task; if they are largely unbothered by it they should have little problem reassigning the assignment or dropping it entirely.

7) Protect Yourself

Get a copy of your boss’ request in writing. If the initial conversation wasn’t over email, write it down after your meeting with your boss and send it to them under the guise of confirming that you’ve understood them correctly. Keep copies of this correspondence on a private server (never on your work computer).

Keep notes on everything to do with the situation as it happens, and if you feel comfortable about it, go to HR. Don’t present it as an accusation of your boss, but as a request for information on your rights to push back over this.

8) Push Back

Even if you’re not willing to outright refuse to complete the assignment, try to push back a little first. As long as you keep your manner friendly, you’re unlikely to create problems for yourself.

Firstly, offer an alternative solution for your boss, along with reasons that this would be a better course of action. If necessary, explain why you feel uncomfortable about performing the assignment. Stay calm. Try to frame your objection as an attempt to protect the business (and your boss) from unintended consequences.

9) Have a Plan B

Never let yourself get into a situation where you couldn’t walk out of your business if you really needed to. Life is complicated and messy, and it’s always best to be prepared for every eventuality.

Have enough savings that you could absorb the cost of sudden unemployment. Keep your CV polished and up-to-date. Build good rapport with clients and contacts and have their contact details to hand (or add them on LinkedIn). Stay abreast of opportunities and changing requirements in your field.

Ultimately, you should never be pressured into doing something that makes you feel uncomfortable. Jobs are important, but how we feel about ourselves matters more.

[rpmemesbyarat]

RP Meme from "Chapter Four: Grandfather’s Chosen" in the Shadow Lords Tribebook from "Werewolf: The Apocalypse"

The ambition to further one’s own glory or power is not as common as others might expect.

When all is said and done we have to ask ourselves one simple question; reprehensible though they may be, what if they’re right?

Don’t worry about it. I’ve taken care of everything.

You were always the curious type, ever since you were a pup sucking at your mother’s teat.

You always wanted to know how the world around you worked, why things were the way they were, and what everything you saw meant in the grander scheme of things.

Your siblings didn’t seem to care, and your parents didn’t, either.

They didn’t understand why you seemed to want so much more.

There’s so much to learn, and you won’t live forever.

Curiosity is what drives you, and if some people can’t handle that you aren’t going to lose any sleep over it.

You have no real interest in gaining or exercising power over others, which makes you a bit of an oddity.

It’s not in your nature to undermine the positions of others.

Tradition means nothing to you, and ceremony irritates you. Question everything, both because you want to know why and because you can get away with asking.

Be sure they deserve your confidence and trust.

Our only hope is to become a part of it, and to defeat it from within.

For as long as you can remember, the world has felt off to you in some fashion.

You could never quite put your finger on why or how, but you always suspected there was something else moving around beneath the skin of the world everyone seems to take for granted.

Now at last you understood why you’d always felt so different.

The poor fit between you and the people around you was explained, but the strangeness of the world continued to gnaw at you.

It was only when the others took you in that you were able to finally understand what it was you’d been sensing all this time.

It can only be fought from within, and that means you need to enter its midst before you can effect any lasting change.

You’re not alone in your opinions.

Crazy or not, the time is coming soon when you’ll have to make a decision about how to proceed.

The things you’re contemplating scare you a lot, but as far as you can tell there’s just no other way to fix the terrible things that are wrong with the world.

Political games bore you, but that doesn’t mean you have no understanding of power or how to use it.

Keep your more outlandish ideas to yourself

Time to atone.

All the politicking, all the lies, all the rationalizations — you’ve heard them all a thousand times before.

You always thought there had to be some better way of doing things, but this was the way life was.

It was simply your lot, so what could you do?

At that moment, something inside of you snapped, and you answered his plea by punching your fist through his chest.

Some have begun to look on you with favor.

They look to you for guidance and support.

Though it pains you to admit it, the truth is that you are no more experienced than they are when it comes to fighting.

Few are as dedicated as they ought to be, and many are impure in some form or another.

There is much work for you to do, but that’s fine. You are eager to get on with it.

Your memory is long and your strength great

The law is everything to you, and you will not tolerate any sort of deviation from that law.

Assert your authority in any way you have to

You know the right of things, and if others do not recognize that fact it falls to you to make them understand.

I don’t think you understand, chum.

See, all those allies you think you have are in my back pocket.

All the resources you depend on belong to me.

I’m the one with the power, and I’m the one in charge.

So let’s talk again about that favor you’re going to do for me.

Some people are just born to rule.

It’s the way of things — those who are alphas rise to positions of power, while those who aren’t inevitably become servants.

That’s how it’s always been, and that’s how it’s meant to be.

They know you’re a threat to the power they possess.

If they were as good as they thought they were, they would have dealt with you a long time ago.

The powerful don’t remain so if they don’t attend to their responsibilities.

You often suspect that your talents might make them feel like prey, but you haven’t confirmed this theory as of yet. It’s of no real consequence, though; so long as they obey, you’re sure all will remain well.

Privately, in that little part of your mind that you refuse to acknowledge, you know that a good portion of your talk is just that — talk.

You’re not quite as good as you pretend to be, and you know it.

Someday, if you’re not careful, that seed of doubt might catch up with you and destroy you.

You were born to rule, and you’re damn good at it.

You watch the world around you and seize every opportunity that comes your way, exploiting others in every way you can imagine so that you can cow them into submission.

Some have taken it upon themselves to teach you a lesson or two in an effort to see that you learn humility.

You haven’t yet learned to respect your betters.

As far as you’re concerned, the best a person can manage is to be your equal.

Treat everyone around you as though they are inferior and incompetent — it’s a safe bet they probably are.

It’s important that they always realize who it is they’re messing with.

The spirit of the storm sings in your veins, and it’s made your life fairly hellish.

You’ve had. . . anger management issues, let’s say, since you were a child, and they only became worse as you grew into maturity.

Most importantly, you learned that you were among the greatest of your kind, a warrior who’s tasted power and learned how to use it to crush others.

You had tasted power, and it only served to fuel your ambition.

They hope you will remain a useful pawn, but they fear that you’ll quickly grow too powerful to effectively control, and this leaves them feeling vulnerable.

The politics and the bickering can go hang as far as you’re

concerned.

Everyone else around you can either follow you or get the hell out of the way.

Your strength and rage are frightening, and they combine with a truly devious mind to produce a raw force of nature that even veteran warriors find impressive.

With strength and power come arrogance, however, and you have little respect for those you deem unworthy (which is just about everyone).

This has made you enemies, so you’d best watch your step.

People follow you because you’re very good at getting things done.

Sitting around and strategizing bores you; you’re much more comfortable in taking action now

It’s not like any plan ever survives contact with the enemy anyway, so why get bent out of shape over the details?

It was just his mind that evaded his grasp on occasion.

You see, he suffered from a madness that fosters obsession in the victim, and it was only a matter of time before that obsession found a target.

He began to understand the blasphemy that was his existence.

He could have ended it, of course, but that was far too

simple.

It did not address any of the harm he had already done, and it didn’t benefit the world as a whole.

Some sought to use his ideals to further their own ends, but he would have none of it.

Small wonder, then, that she developed an insular and severe personality.

While she’d already proven to be a competent warrior, she also discovered she was quite an effective leader.

He learned to think of them as his prey.

Humans were vermin as far as he concerned, and he vowed to exterminate them just as they were trying to exterminate wolves.

He was not alone in his debauchery.

The bloodbath he’d triggered couldn’t go on forever.

Humans have their limits, and once they choose to fight back they make clever and dangerous foes.

We do not choose to remember his name, for that would grant him unearned respect.

You used to be a kid who was high on life, intoxicated with the world around you.

They weren’t up to the task, and as a result you have had to step in and clean up their mess.

Now, nothing matters but winning.