#i am looking at YOU tech nation
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have we really got to the point in fandoms where characters can’t have partners? and people can’t self ship, even if a character has a partner?
not to be ‘fandom old,’ or bring up the ‘good old fandom days,’ but back in my day, it was encouraged for canon characters to get partners, and self shippers to continue self shipping, even if said character has a partner.
fiction is fiction, after all. it isn’t real. and there is no harm in simply having fun - for both you, and the fictional characters alike.
characters are allowed to have partners. you are still allowed to self-ship, or even pair them up with an OC. none of this is ‘real,’ so have fun, just stop being a baby if your blorbo winds up with another blorbo
#fandom#fandom space#self ship#self shipping#oc#canon x oc#canon/oc#reader insert#i am looking at YOU tech nation#the bad batch#star wars#tbb#techphee
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Given the misinformation that's been going around and will be going around, thought this might be helpful to some people
For a lot of reasons, I'm very good at this/at searching, to the point where I have worked as a professional fact-checker for two different publishers. So, here goes:
My Article Fact-Checking Protocol
Thorough Version
Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language
Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true
Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy
Go to the website's home page and read through the headlines. Look at what topics they cover/prioritize, sensationalist headlines, and whether they're framing anything in a way that feels odd/off to you
Do a search related to the topic. This can be keywords, a question, or even just copy-paste the article title (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo so the results don't change based on what Google thinks they can sell you)
If multiple highly credible sources that say the same thing pop up, and there's no major societal biases that might affect the coverage of the topic in those sources (e.g. anything related to the Israel-Palestine conflict/Palestinian genocide, no matter which side), then I'm done!
If there are major societal biases, or I can't get a consensus of sufficiently credible sources, then I do some combination of:
(1) search the topic again + the words "controversy" and/or "fake"
(2) search the opposite of the topic, or do some sort of other filtered search
(3) look up a sufficiently credible news outlet with the opposite point of view of my source, and see what they have to say
(4) if it's a big enough topic, start by looking up 2 of the top national papers and 1 major paper for your region (I usually do the ones in the US, because that's where I am In the US: the LA Times, the Washington Post, and the NY Times)
Adjust "news" to "relevant type of source, e.g. tech, environmental" as relevant for all of the above options
If no red flags come up, and it's a topic I understand enough to smell huge bullshit,
Then I'm usually done!
If there are red flags, or I actually need a certain amount of detail/understanding, then it gets more complicated, but that would be a whole other thing to break down and such
or
tl;dr
Quick Version
Read the full article. Keep an eye out for emotionally loaded words, and all-or-nothing language
Keep an eye out or anything that sounds too good to be true, and in contrast, anything that sounds so awful it must be true.
If I don't know the website:
Run the website/source through the amazing Media Bias/Fact Check. They'll tell you about a publication's bias and history of accuracy
If I trust the source, but something else pinged my radar:
Do a quick web search to verify anything that sounds suspicious or too good/bad to be true (Recommended: use DuckDuckGo)
#should I make this a flowchart?#it might actually be professionally useful#and it would be good practice for work - I haven't gotten practice on building infographics or diagrams in forever#genuinely want feedback on if anyone would be interested in a factchecking process flowchart#it would look very different than this post it definitely wouldn't be just this with arrows between the paragraphs or something#because the best way to convey complex processes in text is NOT the same as the best way to convey it visually#anyway#not news#guides#masterpost#fact check#misinformation#politics#science
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Czech Miku at her worst, she is beauty, she is grace, she has spent 3 days on majáles consuming nothing but lukewarm pilsner and langoš and now she has fallen straight on her face.
Breakdown of her design below the cut!
Her hair is badly dyed with schwarzkopf live electric blue dye because thats usualy the only blue you can get here in regular stores without ordering online or looking into specialized stores and usualy winds up being the first unusual dye color people try.
Her shirt being RUR is a refrence to a play by Karel Čapek which coined the term "robot", felt fitting for her as a vocaloid.
Cargo shorts, plaid shirt, fanny pack and socks with sandals are just a must like thats tradition at this point.
Her bag is the rainbow pride bag from flying tiger. Many queer people here just own this bag because its easy to get and looks fun.
Can of caffeine pomelo birel - caffeinated non alcoholic pomelo flavored beer, i'd draw her with a regular pilsner because yeah but i felt like this better showed the deranged shit czech people do with beer for the fun of it
Smažák - deep fried block of cheese with fried and tartar sauce my beloved. Ofc it has to be on a greasy paper plate.
I also put a Pilsen tram card on her belt loop :)
Her hair is meant to be shaped to resemble a lion mane and 2 lion tails as a refrence to the czech lion ☆
Her tattoos are:
(Right arm) Alzák - an alien mascot for a tech seller company alza, known to have am extremely annoying nasaly voice which quickly made him a huge meme. People usualy wanna murder him.
(Left arm) Robot Zajac - a side character from a russian cartoon called Nu pogodi zajac that many people in czechia (including me) grew up with. He's fucked up and i love him.
(Left leg) Linden tree leaf - linden is the national tree
(Right leg) Vodník by Jozef Lada - a czech folk creature guy
Vole cože - "bitch what"
I♡ pórek - "I♡ leek"
Nikam vole - "nowhere fucker"
I love this trend and thought it'd be fun to do my own spin on it :D I live in Pilsen now so i considered drawing her in a Pilsen kroj but i figured i'd have more fun designing her to look like me and my friends :3
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Caitvi being endgame was the thing that ruined season 2.
I don't mean that in a homophobic way - I am literally a lesbian and in the first season, I rly liked Caitvi's dynamic. Vi was given a space to heal and a person who helped and cared for her. She didn't need to protect and lead Caitlyn like she did with Jinx, Mylo and Claggor, and as a result we got to see her heal and be vulnerable as she didn't have to be strong for the people she loved. Caitlyn, on the other hand, had grown up sheltered and privileged, and her relationship with Vi allowed her to see the people of Zaun more clearly and encouraged her to help them and set aside her prejudice. This dynamic was also reflected in how the show portrayed the people of Zaun. In the first season, it's very pro-Zaun, pro-revolutionary, anti-fascism, all that.
And then the second season, Caitlyn pulled a complete 180, started acting like a fascist and hating the people of Zaun, and in the end... Vi forgives her.
Is this in character for both of them? Yes, actually. Caitlyn has grown up sheltered and was raised to look down on the people of Zaun, it's very easy for her to just turn back to that way of thinking. Vi is also incredibly dependent and forgiving when it comes to those she loves. We see how hard it is for her to let go of anyone - Vander and Powder are obvious examples. So it isn't strange that she doesn't leave Caitlyn and forgives her in an instant.
Would it have been so much more interesting if Vi didn't forgive her? Yes. A million times yes. I would've loved to see that character growth for Vi, of her establishing that boundary and deciding that she had to leave Caitlyn behind. I'm honestly kind of mad that they gave Jinx so much development and growth throughout the story and Vi has barely changed. Her political beliefs seems to be the biggest thing that has changed, and even those are rooted in the same character traits - first she was fighting for powder, now she's fighting for Caitlyn.
It's not just that I'm mad that they never address how toxic this relationship becomes in season 2. I saw someone else mention how it went from "privileged + oppressed" in s1 to "oppressor + oppressed" in s2 and if that doesn't just sound like literal abuse to you idk what to say. They frame this in the show as a normal relationship - at best, it's both of their faults and their both in a bad place mentally. They never address how horrible Caitlyn acts throughout act 1.
As a result of this, they kind of lose the whole "Piltover is an oppressive force and the people of Zaun should revolt" plot line. Instead it becomes "both sides are bad and in the wrong", just like with Caitvi's relationship. After all, the show can't properly condemn Piltover and yet support Caitlyn at the same time. And if they want Caitlyn and Vi together in a relationship that looks healthy, they have two options - either they address the flaws in the relationship and take the time required to fix them, or they ignore the flaws and pretend it's not a big deal.
They don't have the time in 2 seasons to address those flaws, though, so they decide to ignore them, and in doing so ignore the flaws in Piltover's overall treatment of Zaunites. This creates a contradicting message between the first and second seasons. In the first season, it was obvious that the Zaunites were being mistreated and that they should rise up. In the second season, they suddenly ignore all of that, and instead make the nations unite to face the "bigger problem". I didn't really like the hex tech plot line to begin with because I felt like it distracted from the more important plot line, which was the whole Piltover v Zaun thing, which they completely brushed under the rug.
Maybe this would've been better if they'd had more time to properly flesh out Caitvi's relationship, but as it is, it would've been better if it wasn't endgame at all imo.
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You Are In Love (Gojo Satoru x You)
summary: you can't stop dreaming about him, and your friends start to notice a change in your behavior. (2.4k words)
cw/tags: mild angst to comfort, friends to lovers, pining, idiots in love, profanity, elder sorcerers being assholes, pet names (doll, gorgeous, etc), uhh gojo loses his cool and blows up a building lol, kissing, one instance of foreshadowing manga spoilers but only if you squint
note: HELLOO GOJO NATION. ok so i'll be so honest with you, this stupid man was my #1 for so long and i think those feelings resurfaced so i got a little carried away with writing this (it's my longest fic so far, my bad). but yk something about gojo, hawks, and kuroo all being played by the voice actor just gets me. the prompt for this is from the AMAZING @creativepromptsforwriting and was supposed to be a drabble but turned into a full fic. anyways, hope you enjoy it!!
likes/reblogs/feedback are always appreciated!
“It’s too quiet. Can I tell you guys a joke I heard on TV?”
“Mmm, please don’t.”
“But it’s funny!”
“Satoru.”
“Ooh, using my first name. Something’s up with you.”
“Something is not up with me, weirdo.”
“No, something is definitely off with you today.” You thought Suguru and Shoko had stopped listening, but they chimed in with evidence of your odd behavior.
“You said good morning differently,” Shoko added, casually taking a sip of her soda and peering at you over the rim. Her hair sways gently in the breeze outside of the convenience store you four had stopped at before heading back to Jujutsu Tech. You glare at her and open your mouth to defend yourself when Suguru adds his two cents.
“You tripped up during that last mission that should have been a cakewalk,” which was true, but you thought your mistake had gone unnoticed. The truth was, the spirit had caught you off guard with a simple teleport trick. It warped behind you and unlatched its grotesque jaws to end your life faster than you could blink. You should have been able to predict the movement with your eyes closed, but you’d been too focused on making sure a certain white-haired sorcerer was alive after your group had been ambushed several hundred feet underground. Suguru had given you a curious look after one of his demons saved your ass, and you’d flipped him off hoping that would be the end of it. “And you also flipped me the bird instead of saying thank you,” he shrugged.
“You also finish your food the fastest out of all of us, and today you haven’t even taken three bites,” Shoko says, finishing her drink and standing to toss it in the trash bin. “Something’s going on with you, and I, for one, am incredibly curious as to why.” Satoru watches you with a smug glint in his eye, and it takes all your willpower not to strangle him.
“As glad as I am to know that you all pay such great attention to my habits, I promise there’s nothing wrong.” The three of them stare at you skeptically but thankfully decided to drop the subject, instead pivoting to who’s most likely to go to jail first (it’s Gojo).
After the late lunch, you begin the walk back to Jujutsu Tech as the sky transforms into faded shades of orange and pink. The vanishing sun casts shining reflections on the surrounding skyscrapers, bouncing off the windows of speeding cars and zooming trains. Satoru and Suguru walk ahead, playfully shoving each other and almost falling over doing so.
“Alright, are you gonna tell me what’s going on now that Dumb and Dumber aren’t here?” Shoko asks as she falls into step with you. The sides of your mouth turn down, realizing that she didn’t forget about your conversation at lunch. It wasn’t that you didn’t want to tell your closest friends what was going on; you just didn’t know how to explain what you had dreamed about the previous night and the night before that, and all the nights the past two weeks.
It began with a look he had given you after a meeting with some higher-ups in the sorcerer world. They had visited Jujutsu Tech unexpectedly, stating that they would be evaluating the skill levels of random students. Out of your group of friends, only you and Satoru had been pulled to be tested. Principal Yaga had instructed both of you before entering the room to give the evaluation your best effort and to not become indignant if they judged you poorly.
The brass declared your evaluation to be first, and you poured all of your energy into showcasing the power of your Cursed Technique. You even managed to pull off a few strikes of extension techniques that you’d been perfecting for months. Though the entire performance lasted less than ten minutes, you were breathless and light-headed when the panel told you to stop. After bowing deeply, you moved to exit the room, desperate for fresh air, but they stopped you and began listing every single reason why your demonstration was unsatisfactory. Besides “inefficient technique, predictable attacks, weak offense, insufficient defense,” and a general lack of power compared to that of other sorcerers at your level, they informed you that your Cursed Technique was obsolete and would eventually render you useless as more innately talented sorcerers take your place. You were speechless at their blunt criticism of your effort, on the verge of breaking down, but you managed to nod in acknowledgment as you stepped out of the room.
But then you saw him sitting there, waiting on his phone and looking up at you with a bright smile as he stood to greet you. A confusing blend of disappointment, anger, sadness, and loneliness panged in your heart and spread to the rest of your body, and you rapidly tried to blink away the moisture welling up in your eyes while Satoru approached. He was halfway through a snarky remark about you blowing away their expectations when his smile dropped and his eyebrows furrowed with concern. Shit, he’d noticed you crying.
“Hey, hey, hey, look at me. What the fuck did they do to you?” Dashing blue eyes found yours through the clouds in your vision, and his thumbs gently brushed away stray tears that escaped down your cheeks.
“Do you think I’m weak, Satoru?” Your voice cracks when the words finally spill out, swallowing hard to push down the sobs threatening to break loose from your constricted lungs. Satoru freezes, eyes searching yours. He doesn’t answer your question immediately, but instead asks again.
“Doll, what the fuck did they do.” You can’t get a reply out in time before his focus snaps up to behind you, and a second later you hear the door roll open, one of the officials commanding Satoru to enter for his evaluation. His large hands hold your face and turn you to look up at him, and you move unconsciously to cover his hands with yours. “Stay here for me, okay?” He glanced at the official waiting in the doorway, blue eyes dark with suppressed rage. “This won’t take long.”
His evaluation lasts two minutes and four seconds. At first, the room was silent and you couldn’t hear any demonstration of Satoru’s technique, almost as if the panel was having a conversation with him before they began. Then, at two minutes on the dot, the room was blown to splinters. The door, the ceiling, the porch, and all of the furniture inside were violently thrown outward in an explosion that made the ground beneath your feet tremble. Curiously, none of the debris had hit you, but you coughed through the dust and saw that the panel hadn’t been so lucky, all of them buried under shredded beams of wood and canvas. And, standing at the center of the room’s remains with a satisfied grin plastered on his beautiful face, was Satoru. He found his way over to where you stood in disbelief and took your hand in his, interweaving your fingers and guiding you away from the ruined building.
You two walked hand-in-hand in silence back to your dorm, where he seemed reluctant to let go of your hand. Before he walked away, he finally answered your question from earlier.
“I tell you this not just as your friend, but as another sorcerer. You are not weak. Your technique is special and something that those shithead elders haven’t seen in decades, and they don’t like what they don’t understand. I know the thought of leaving Jujutsu Tech crossed your pretty little mind, but you shouldn’t. People need you here, Shoko, Suguru, Mei Mei...” He hesitated, taking a shallow breath and reaching back for your hand.
“Me,” he said, his voice low, and his voice got even softer until it was almost a breath. “I need you here.” As quickly as the fondness in his voice appeared, it disappeared. “And, plus, you definitely can’t leave us here with ol’ Yaga. What the hell am I gonna do if I can’t hide in your room while he’s trying to beat my ass?”
You laugh, and the feeling makes you feel better. He makes you feel better. You smile back at him and finally bid him farewell, and he raises your hand to his lips as he says goodbye.
After that, he’d appeared in your dreams for two weeks straight. The dreams started as a continuation of what would have happened if you didn’t just say goodbye to him, if you’d invited him into your dorm, or if you’d let him pull you into his. They transformed after the fourth day into what it would be like to love him and receive his love in return: stolen kisses, flirty whispers, and movie dates to name a few. All these dreams added up to the previous night’s nightmare, where a mission had gone bad and he’d been imprisoned with no hope of breaking him free. You’d startled awake covered in sweat, and barely fell back asleep before your alarm forced you to start the day.
“It’s… hard to explain,” you reply apologetically, and Shoko looks at you with so much skepticism written on her face that you have to turn away and look in the other direction.
“So something is bothering you.”
“Yeah, there is. I’m sorry; it’s just really, really hard to verbalize.”
“Can I take a stab at what’s bothering you?”
“If you could actually stab it that’d be great, but sure. Knock yourself out.”
“It’s Satoru, isn’t it?” You stop mid-stride and her face lights up with amusement. “Holy shit, it’s Satoru. You like Gojo Satoru.”
“Jeez, Shoko, go ahead and say his name four hundred million times, why don’t you? But really, what tipped you off?”
“Ten seconds ago when you asked me to stab your problem, I figured it out,” she chuckles, bumping her shoulder against yours playfully. “If it’s any consolation, I’m 99% sure he’s felt that way about you for a while.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
“How do you know?”
“Would you let me off the hook if I said it was hard to explain?”
“Har, har, very funny. Could you at least try?”
“Mmm, I think it’s better if he explains it himself.”
“You’re no help, Shoko.”
“Yes, and you love me anyway. But not as much as you love Sa–” You groan, covering your burning face in both hands and increasing the speed of your steps to escape your friend’s teasing chuckles.
When you finally arrive at school, the stars have started rising and the moon hangs in the sky. You walk in the direction of the dorms when Shoko suddenly unlinks her elbow from yours, winking at you over your shoulder.
“Suguru, can you help me move something from the gym real quick? I forgot a few things over there.”
“Sure, but why do you need my help?” Shoko gives him a pointed look and realization quickly washes over his features. “Oh, OH. Okay, of course, sure.” Suguru turns on his heel awkwardly, briskly walking in the direction of the gym.
“Satoru, walk them back to their dorm. Don’t want anything happening to them after their little slip today,” she adds before heading in the other direction with Suguru, who tries and fails to communicate something to Satoru with a nod of his head.
“Alright, pretty girl, you heard Shoko. C’mere and let me walk you home before she beats my ass.”
“I think you have too many people on this planet that want to beat your ass. And, for the record, I’m one of them.”
“It’s the price of being this gorgeous, gorgeous.” A soft laugh escapes your mouth, and you swear Satoru’s smile gets a little wider. The rest of the short walk to your dorm is just as easy and comfortable, Satoru making stupid comments and you replying with a quick remark over and over until you’re back in the same situation you’d been in two weeks ago. But, this time, you realized that Satoru was a lot closer to you, leaning back against your door with your hand touching the handle but not opening it. You both spend a few moments there, just looking at each other, and his mesmerizing eyes flicker to your mouth when you unconsciously lick your lips. He opens his mouth to say something smart, but you beat him to it.
“If you’re gonna look down at my lips and say something stupid about it, you might as well do what I’ve been wanting you to do for ages.”
“Oh? And what’s that, pretty girl?”
You sigh in mock disappointment and look up at him through your eyelashes. “If you don’t know what it is by now, then I guess… you don’t deserve to do it.” His pupils are blown wide with desire, and you resist the impulse to laugh.
“God, you’re intoxicating,” he says, before pressing his lips to yours. Your eyes flutter shut and you melt into him, arms snaking around his neck while his hands find your waist and hold you up from your knees that have turned to jelly. The first kiss is gentle and experimental, but having the flirtiest asshole in the country chasing your lips as you briefly pull away gives you a newfound wave of confidence, pulling him closer and closer until his body is flush against yours. When you finally pull away from each other and catch your breath, he doesn’t go very far, resting his forehead against yours.
“You know, I wanted to kill them. Those wrinkly assholes two weeks ago that had the gall to call you weak. And I would have, you know I would have, but you were outside… and you were crying… I just didn’t know what to do. I saw red, and, uh, then the building exploded.” You chuckle at his confession and he presses a kiss to the corner of your mouth, rubbing his nose against yours.
“I had a dream about you. Well, a lot of dreams.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“Really?”
“Mhmm. Got a little nervous today when I heard you talk with Shoko about liking a boy, but it helps knowing now that the boy is me. And, hopefully, it will only ever be me.”
“You pretentious asshole.”
“You know it.”
“You’re a dork.”
“Yeah, but I’m your dork.”
“I know you are.”
“And I’m never going anywhere.” He kisses your forehead sweetly, and it’s just like the dreams that had plagued you for weeks before. “Ever.”
if you enjoy my writing and would like to support me, you can buy me a coffee on my ko-fi! you can also check out my full masterlist here :)
#gojo x you#gojo fanfic#gojou satoru x reader#gojo angst#gojo x reader#satoru gojo#satoru x you#satoru x reader#satoru x y/n#jjk x y/n#jjk x reader#jjk x you#jujutsu kaisen x reader#jujutsu kaisen#jjk shoko#jjk suguru
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Unmanageable 1
Warnings: non/dubcon, and other dark elements. My username actually says you never asked for any of this.
My warnings are not exhaustive but be aware this is a dark fic and may include potentially triggering topics. Please use your common sense when consuming content. I am not responsible for your decisions.
Character: Pete Brenner
Summary: your manager sets his eye on your (plus!reader)
Part of the Backwoods AU
As usual, I would appreciate any and all feedback. I’m happy to once more go on this adventure with all of you! Thank you in advance for your comments and for reblogging.
A thump jolts you from your work. You glance over lazily, chin cupped in your hand, as the murmur of voices follow. You cluck and reach for your earbuds, popping them in your ears before you can hear the subsequent disturbance.
Your job isn't glorious. Nothing really is in Hammer Ford. You're the line IT tech at the local bank working on ancient PCs which can't handle the national system's updates. Most of your time is spent trying to make a simple process work.
Work is work. You could do much worse than sitting forgotten behind a desk as the bank manager gets his jollies off with the clerk. This decrepit town can't offer much better, in terms of both male counterparts and career prospects.
The wired buds don't really block out the ruckus. You lean on an elbow and clack away at your keyboard. It never lasts very long.
You pluck away as the clock above your door ticks on. You yawn with your eyes open, dropping lower and lower as your eyes glaze over. A knock has your spine straight.
You clear your throat and call out, "yes?"
The door opens. Pete, the manager, fixes his tie as he enters, one tail of his shirt untucked, "hey, uh, I was having some issues with my laptop. I know it's not a work device but... I don't wanna drive all the way to the city."
"Hmm, I can have a look after work," you shrug. It's usually nothing. You typically have people calling on you for support outside your office walls.
"After work..." he repeats, "the wife kinda is expecting me to take her out for dinner, so..."
You repress a sigh. He is the manager. If you fall behind, it will only be his own fault.
"Sure, you need me right now?"
His eye brow tweaks and he drags his fingers around his half-grown goatee, "need you... oh, yeah, should I bring it to you or..."
"What's easier for you, sir?"
He chuckles, "you know, you're the only person who calls me that."
You just stare at him. He's your boss and you'd like to keep it that way. You get up, "here, I'll just come look."
"Thanks, sweetie," he grins as you cross the office, "life saver."
"Mhm," you hum as you near him.
He doesn't move. He just stands, his arm across the doorway and watches you. You look past him and clear your throat.
"Right, right," he steps back and swings his arms down, "the computer."
He retreats and turns away. As he does, you see Marska giving him a flustered look. Gross.
You follow him into his office and waits by the door as you pass. You try not to think of what just happened in there. Thankfully, you're not his type.
You wince as the door clicks shut.
"Oh, you don't have to--"
"Right," he overrides your protest, "I'll just get my laptop."
He goes around his desk and pulls out a sleek macbook. You don't see many of those. He puts it facing you and opens the lid.
"I'll let you poke around," he says as he presses his fingertip to the censor to unlock it, "it's just the damn mousepad."
"Right," you step up and squint at the screen. You lean in touch the pad. It's definitely lagging.
He strides away, pacing on the other side of the desk, hands in his pockets.
"Thing's too fancy for me," he scoffs, "but I like the look of it."
"It's a good machine," you confirm as you go into his drivers, searching for updates.
You feel him watching you but shrug it off. Everyone's a little touchy when you're on their personal device. He stops and bounces on his feet.
The cursor continues to jump around as you scroll and suddenly a window pops open. Safari resumes it's last tab and you quickly hit command W as you see a pending wheel atop a very explicit video. Yikes.
You try to not show the slip up as you go back to searching the drivers, "you got antivirus?"
"Uhhh, I think," he answers as if it isn't essential.
"Hm, doesn't look like it," you mutter, "I'm updating the mouse driver but you need security software."
"Right," he comes around as you click through the system window to update. He stands behind you and watches over your shoulder, "got any recs? I'll get it set up right away."
"Bitdefender's good," you suggest.
"Mm," he leans down, against you, putting his hands on the desk on either side of the laptop, "think you could show me where to find that."
"I can send you a link," you grit out, prickling at his proximity.
"Well," you move your arm back, prodding him with your elbow, soft enough for it to seem accidental, "that should be fine once it updates."
He huffs but backs away. Your neck is stiff with tension. You face him and check your watch.
"I'll get back to it," you say.
"Yeah, thanks, sweetie," he chimes, "sure you don't want a coffee? Take a load off."
"I'm good," you insist, "got a lot to do."
You open the door before he can catch up to you. As you leave, Marska watches over her shoulder from the front desk. You ignore her and quickly hide in your office. Knowing Pete isn't too aware of security procedures, you should do a review of the serves to make sure everything's safe.
#pete brenner#dark pete brenner#dark!pete brenner#pete brenner x reader#drabble#au#backwoods au#series#unmanageable#pain hustlers
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Stellantis wants to make scabbing woke
I'm coming to Minneapolis! Oct 15: Presenting The Internet Con at Moon Palace Books. Oct 16: Keynoting the 26th ACM Conference On Computer-Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing.
I know, I know, it's weird when the worst people you know are right, even when they're right for the wrong reasons: like, the "Intelligence Community" is genuinely terrible, pharma companies are murderous crooks, and Big Tech really does have a dangerous grip on public debate. The swivel-eyed loons have a point, is what I'm saying:
https://locusmag.com/2023/05/commentary-cory-doctorow-the-swivel-eyed-loons-have-a-point/
When conspiratorialists and reactionaries holler about how the FBI are dirty-tricking creeps who are framing Trump, it's tempting to say, "well, if Trumpists hate the FBI, then I will love the FBI. Who cares about COINTELPRO and what they did to Martin Luther King?"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FBI%E2%80%93King_suicide_letter
It's a process called "schizmogenesis": forming new group identity beliefs based on saying the opposite of what your enemies say, and as tempting as that is, it's extraordinarily foolish and dangerous:
https://pluralistic.net/2021/12/18/schizmogenesis/
It means that canny reactionaries like Steve Bannon can trick you into taking any position merely by taking the opposite one. Bannon's followers are even more easily led, so it's easy for him to convince them that we have always been at war with Oceania. The right has created an entire mirror world of "I know you are but what am I?" politics.
Anti-vax co-opts "bodily autonomy." Climate denial becomes environmentalism ("wind turbines kill birds"). Transphobia becomes feminism ("keep women-only spaces for real women"). Support for strongmen becomes anti-imperialism ("don't feed the war machine in Ukraine"). These are the doppelgangers Naomi Klein warns us against:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/05/not-that-naomi/#if-the-naomi-be-klein-youre-doing-just-fine
The far right has even managed to co-opt anti-corporate rhetoric. Culture warriors rail against "woke capitalism," insisting that when big businesses take socially progressive positions, it's just empty "virtue signalling." And you know what? They've got a point. Partially.
As with all mirror-world politics, the anti-woke-capitalism shuck is designed to convince low-information right-wing pismires into buying "anti-woke pillows" and demanding the right to pay junk fees to "own the libs":
https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/owning-the-libs/#swiper-no-swiping
But woke capitalism is bullshit. Corporations – profit-maximizing immortal transhuman colony organisms that view workers and customers as inconvenient gut-flora – do not care about social justice. They don't care about anything, except for minimizing compensation for workers while maximizing the risk those workers bear; and locking in and gouging customers for products that are as low-quality as can be profitably sold.
Take DEI, a favored target of the right. It's undoubtably true that diversity, inclusion and equity initiatives have made some inroads on correcting bias in hiring decisions, with the result that companies get better employees who would have been excluded without this explicit corrective.
However, corporations don't value DEI because they abhor their history of hiring bias. Instead, DEI is how corporate management demonstrates to workers that their grievances are best addressed by trusting corporate leadership to correct their error of their ways – and not by forming a union.
Before the passage of the National Labor Relations Act in 1935, corporations would create fake "Company Unions" whose leadership were beholden to the company executives. These were decoy unions: they looked and sounded like unions, but when they negotiated with management, they were actually working for the bosses, not the workers.
This is more mirror-world tactics. They're the labor equivalent of the "crisis pregnancy centers" that masquerade as abortion clinics in order to fool pregnant people and trap them with endless delays until it's too late to terminate their pregnancies. Company unions get workers to trust in negotiators who are secretly working for the bosses, who emerge from the bargaining table with one-sided, abusive contracts and insist that this is the best deal workers can hope for.
Company unions were outlawed 90 years ago, and for decades, labor had a seat at the table, with wages tracking productivity gains and workers getting protection for discrimination, unsafe labor conditions, and wage-theft. Then came the neoliberal turn, and 40 years of wage stagnation, increased inequality, and corporate rule.
Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. Finally, finally, we have reached a turning point in labor, with public approval for unions at levels not seen since the Carter administration and thousands of strikes and protests breaking out across the country:
https://striketracker.ilr.cornell.edu/
It's not just the Writers Guild and SAG-AFTRA, either. For the first time in history, the UAW is striking against all the major automakers, and they are winning:
https://arstechnica.com/cars/2023/10/striking-uaw-workers-win-key-battery-plant-concession-from-general-motors/
The automakers are getting desperate. Stellantis – Chrysler's latest alias, reflecting the company's absorbtion into corporate-human-centipede of global carmakers – has mobilized its DEI programs, trying to get marginalized people to believe that scabbing is a liberatory activity:
https://theintercept.com/2023/10/10/uaw-auto-strike-stellantis/
Stellantis calls each of its DEI silos a "Business Resource Group" (BRG): there's a "Working Parents Network," an "African Ancestry Network," "Asians Connected Together," a "DiverseAbilities Network," a "Gay & Lesbian Alliance" and more:
https://blog.stellantisnorthamerica.com/2021/07/20/business-resource-groups-drive-inclusion-and-diversity/
The corporate managers who lead these BRGs have established a scab rotation for each subgroup, calling on members to cross a UAW picket-line at a Michigan Parts Distribution Center run by Stellantis subsidiary Mopar:
Each BRG will pick a specific day of the week/weekend to volunteer as a team. Help continue to be the RESOURCE the BUSINESS can count on! Stellantis needs your help in running the Parts Distribution Centers (PDC) to ensure a steady supply of parts to our customers while negotiations continue. Working Parents Network has identified Friday, October 13 as WPN’s BRG Day at the PDCs!"
Now, these BRGs weren't invented by marginalized workers facing discrimination in the workplace. They come from literal union-busting playbooks produced by giant "union avoidance" firms that charge bosses millions for advice on skirting – or breaking – the law to keep workplace democracy at bay. All the biggest anti-union consultancies love BRGs, from Littler Mendelson to Jackson Lewis. IRI Strategies touts BRGs as a way to "union-proof" a business by absorbing workers' grievances in a decoy committee that will let them feel listened to.
BRGs, in other words, are the Crisis Pregnancy Centers of workplace discrimination. They're a Big Store Con, a company union dressed up as corporate social responsibility.
Now, let's not pretend that unions have a sterling record on race and gender issues. Giant labor organizations like the AFL had to be dragged into racial integration, and trade unions have sometimes been on the wrong side of anti-immigration panics:
https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/summer/american-labor-movement.html
But unions have also been the most reliable way for people of color and women to win better workplace treatment. The struggle for racial and gender justice was fought through labor organizing. Remember that MLK's "I've Been To the Mountaintop" speech was given in support of striking sanitation workers in Memphis:
https://www.afscme.org/about/history/mlk/mountaintop
Black organizers have always been militant labor organizers. Labor Day commemorates the victory of the long, hard-fought Pullman strike, where Black workers brought one of the most powerful companies in America to its knees:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Strike
And women have always fought for gender justice through the labor movement: the New York shirtwaist strike is the Ur-example, when women-led unions fought thugs and scabs on icy New York streets:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_shirtwaist_strike_of_1909
It's no surprise that labor activism, anti-racism and feminism go together. Since the earliest days, the labor justice struggle was also a social justice struggle. To learn more check out Kim Kelly's Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor:
https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Fight-Like-Hell/Kim-Kelly/9781982171063
The most exploited, underpaid, and abused workers in America are also the most marginalized (duh).
From nurses:
https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/kaiser-healthcare-union-says-week-long-strike-possible-early-next-month-2023-10-09/
To teachers:
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-04-18/l-a-teachers-win-21-wage-increase-in-new-lausd-contract
To Amazon warehouse workers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Labor_Union
To publishing assistants:
https://apnews.com/article/harpercollins-union-strike-ends-0a94238718879066d9b21af6266be526
To baristas:
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/29/business/starbucks-union-wages/index.html
To fast-food workers:
https://www.ufcw.org/about/
The vanguard of today's labor surge is Black, brown, female and queer. Without a union, workers who face discrimination are on their own, hoping that their bosses will voluntarily do something about it. Black workers in Tesla's rabidly anti-union shops face vicious racism, from slurs to threats to violence. Without a union, they have to rely on the shifting whims of an Apartheid emerald mine space-Karen for relief, or hope for help from the NLRB or a class-action lawyer:
https://apnews.com/article/tesla-racism-black-lawsuit-class-action-21c88bddf60eca702560be58429495de
The far right isn't wrong when they holler that woke capitalism is bullshit. As with so many of their mirror-world causes, they've got a point, but only a limited one. The problem with woke capitalism is that it's no substitute for a union. The problem with relying on Business Resource Groups to fight racism, sexism, homophobia and transphobia is that these struggles are all class struggles, and a BRG is never going to fight against the company that created it.
To understand how bankrupt woke capitalism is, conside this: Stellantis is calling on its "Working Parents Network" to scab this Friday. Stellantis is also being sanctioned by the Department Of Labor for discriminating against nursing mothers – the same "working parents" that the BRG is meant to protect:
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2023/02/08/investigation-finds-stellantis-violated-rights-of-nursing-mothers-at-sterling-heights-plant/
Woke capitalism is just another kind of "predatory inclusion," like Intuit's campaign defending its "Free File" tax-prep scam, where they're claiming that ending this ripoff is racist because it denies Black families the right to be tricked into paying for something they are entitled to get for free:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/09/27/predatory-inclusion/#equal-opportunity-scammers
When I learned about Intuit's wokewashing, I thought I'd found woke capitalism's rock bottom, but I was wrong. Stellantis's call for woke scabbing is a new low.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/10/11/equal-opportunity-class-war/#inclusive-scabbing
My next novel is The Lost Cause, a hopeful novel of the climate emergency. Amazon won't sell the audiobook, so I made my own and I'm pre-selling it on Kickstarter!
#pluralistic#race#gender#uaw#stellantis#gm#general motors#woke capitalism#wokewashing#strikes#labor#liberalism#company unions
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Happy Solarpunk Aesthetic Week and Winter Solstice! ❄️
While we do celebrate here, we don't actually experience winter in my region, or any of the classic four seasons! The weather here is basically a coin toss between searing heat and torrential rain lol. So while I was musing over how to adapt a solarpunk aesthetic to a tropical lifestyle, I came up with this!
Lengthy explanations and chaotic ideas below:
Disclaimer: I am not a science-y person, so I'm not sure how any of these would technically work or what materials would go into making them. Hopefully one day someone could figure it out, but I'm just having fun sharing these ideas for now :)
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What works well both in harsh sunlight and heavy downpours, plus is already something that people here use everyday? Umbrellas! How cool would it be to have an umbrella that absorbs sunlight during the day, and turns it into a personal spotlight at night? Or perhaps it could absorb and store large amounts of rainwater, to be re-used later or released somewhere more useful?
My main inspiration for this is the bamboo. This plant already plays a huge role in our lives here -- culturally, economically, and from what I recently learned, ecologically too! Our region suffers from floods often, and bamboo can help to control the flow of water, for example through their roots providing a barrier against soil erosion, or their ability to store large amounts of water and release it gradually during drier seasons. (And that's just one of the many reasons why bamboos are awesome and solarpunky!) I thought it would be cool to have water stored in the 'bamboo nodes' of the umbrella shaft, which could then be detached and used individually, or as components in other tech!
I chose the Amazonian lily pad as the canopy design because 1) it looks big enough to cover a person, 2) it has a wide surface for solar panels to 'photosynthesize' energy, 3) its container-like shape looks as though it could hold rainwater like a funnel while it trickles into the shaft, and 4) it just looks really pretty! Realistically, this canopy might not be able to do everything at once, so I'm hoping for this tech to be modular and highly customizable -- as in, you could replace this 'lily pad' with something else that serves a different function! I did play around with some other designs, here they are hehe
Hibiscus: Our national flower! Have these bad boys growing in my yard so I thought why not. Not sure what functions it would have yet... perhaps the pistil could be a sensor for gathering weather data? Or maybe the anthers are little lights? Maybe it attracts BEES???
Mushroom: Not familiar with the fungi in my area yet so I went with the classic Amanita. Though now I'm kinda regretting because! Wouldn't it be so cool and lunarpunky to design it based on a bio-luminescent mushroom, so it would make sense for the umbrella to glow in the dark? AGH missed opportunities ;;
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Anyway while I was designing the umbrella I thought about giving the model a cool fit too, so tadaaa! A customizable pair of pants that can be worn as a shorts + half-skirt/sarong combo during hot weather, or extended to become a full pair of jeans during colder/rainy times! I used zippers as the connectors because they seem easy to sew on and I like the punky vibe it adds to the outfit. HOWEVER, I'm realising that might be inconvenient or way too time consuming for some people. Maybe buttons, magnets or hook-and-loop fasteners would be easier?
As for the shirt, idk that was just for fun. Maybe it changes colour/design based on the surrounding temperature?
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So YEAH that was my longer-than-expected idea dump for this week! Thank you for reading <3 If you have any thoughts or ways of expanding on these ideas please please please share them with me I'm just really excited to see what people think waaaaa!!! ok bye stay hydrated
#art#artists on tumblr#solarpunk#solarpunk aesthetic week#winter solstice#no im not late im not I M NOT#fashion#roobiedoodle#tl simmer#i did not intend for it to be her but she looks similar enough! should use my OCs as models more often actually
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You're A What Now?
Just some silliness and then angst with Ghostbusters König because I can't commit to one genre.
TWs: Discussion of Nazi occupation of Austria, Nazis, Graphic Descriptions of Violence
Wordcount: 1.75 K
Story Below the Cut
Visuals [1] [2]
You're A What Now?
“DUCK!”
You dropped to the floor with a thud as the phantom screamed overhead.
“SHOOT”
ZAP!
You could see the electricity arcing overhead in great bright branches of lightening, scouring the wallpaper a charred black as Horangi wrangled the proton blaster under control.
“Nikto she’s coming your way!” Roze screamed over the sound of crackling lightening.
“On it,” a heavy Russian accent called back as a hulking machine of a man barrelled down the hallway, “south entrance clear!”
Horangi spit and hissed like a barn cat as he leaped over a broken chaise-lounge to dart after the phantasmal spectre, nearly tripping over you in the process. He looked down at you and barked, “On your feet, recruit!”
You scrambled to get your limbs under you as you watched the posse careening down the hall. You leaped to your feet and ran up behind them.
Okay, so, as of your first day on the Ghostbusters team, you can officially say that you believe in ghosts. Damn your lifelong skepticism, you weren’t going to fuck around and figure out just how bad a possession was gonna be on your first day.
You slammed into the wall before crashing into the kitchen where Roze, Nikto and Horangi were all running around like they’re heads were lopped off. You nearly missed it, but König was ducked in the corner with a screwdriver in his hand, cursing under his breath in his other tongue as though he could peel wallpaper with his venom.
“König where’s the trap at?” Horangi ducked under a piece of antique china being thrown his way.
“I-Verdammt-There’s a problem!” he called back.
“We don’t got time for problems, big guy,” Roze bellowed as she zapped the ghost with another blast.
“Then make time!” he spat before turning back to his tech.
“I thought Germans were great mechanics!” you yelled as you joined Roze with your own proton stream.
For just a brief moment, everyone in the room stalled. A plate crashed against the side of Horangi’s head, breaking the tension.
“Did you just call me German!?” König rose up to his feet as though he were a wraith himself.
“No no no not the time König!” Roze growled as she wrestled with the ghost.
“Now’s the perfect time!” König crossed his arms as he widened his stance, “I will not tolerate this clear display of intolerance and xenophobia from our newest recruit!”
Nikto took the opportunity to snatch the trap from König and got to working on it himself.
“I am not a German! I am not of such inferior breeding!” König crowed proudly as Horangi jumped over a flying chair.
“I thought you said the recruit was the xenophobe over here,” Horangi ducked behind an overturned table.
“Germany is a country of thralls and ignoramuses! The entire nation is devoted to blood and genocide!” König stamped his foot for emphasis, “I will not allow such a people to overrule my homeland any longer!”
“It was a brief occupation during Nazi Germany,” Nikto was barely legible over the sound of the spirit being slammed into a wall.
“And we will never forget!” König pumped a fist into the air defiantly.
“I’m sorry!” you wailed as you threw yourself behind the table with Horangi.
“Sorry is not enough! What, do you think I am some sort of Nazi!?” König spat.
“Your grandfather nearly was,” Horangi drawled blithely as he ducked behind the table to avoid a flying toaster.
You, Roze and Nikto all stopped what you were doing to look at König. Even the spirit stopped her struggling to watch the 6’10 scientist turn redder by the second.
“YOU SWORE TO NEVER SPEAK OF THAT.”
And with that, König vaulted the table to lunge at Horangi.
“Get off me fatass!” Horangi growled as he hoofed König in the gut.
"Shut up you slimy little shit!"
"Tasty," Nikto drawled sarcastically.
Seeing an opportunity, the ghost quietly phased through the back wall of the kitchen while Nikto and Roze were distracted. You only noticed because you were watching Nikto drop the trap to try and haul König off Horangi, only to trip on the slime left behind and fall face forward onto the others in a cluster-fuck of legs and arms.
“Get off of me you commie bastard!” Hornagi howled as he thrashed at the bottom of the pile.
“Stop your squirming, I can’t get up!” Nikto snapped back as he tried to extract himself from the group.
Roze dropped her proton blaster back into its sheath before lumbering over to help Nikto get back to his feet while you stooped to extract Horangi from König’s grasp.
Once the group had all gotten to their feet, Roze sighed and stepped back before tapping the side of her headset, “Okay so, we lost track of the ghost.”
“What?” Hutch’s voice came through the static, “how? You were right there.”
“König had a shit-fit,” Roze grumbled as she stalked down the hall, “can you follow the readings through the house?”
“I’ll get right on it,” Hutch replied before the line cut.
You watched as Horangi wiped himself down as he shook the dust from his back. He looked at you, one of his spectacles cracked but somehow miraculously intact. He looked at König, who was doubled over wheezing while the adrenaline left his system and the pain from Horangi’s kick sunk in.
“You owe me a coffee,” Horangi joked, clapping your shoulder before following Roze and Nikto to the next room.
This, of course, left you alone with König.
You awkwardly nudged over to the door, worried that the man would clobber you next but he stopped you with one raised hand.
“Ah, recruit, I’m sorry you had to see that,” König huffed and puffed as he slowly drew himself to his full height again, “Gott in Himmel I’m getting too old for this.”
“I mean, you still seem pretty young,” you offered him politely.
“You’re too nice,” König hacked and heaved, “mein Gott, I thought he was a physicist, not a damn kickboxer!”
“Yeah, it looked like it hurt pretty bad,” you chuckled.
“I think I might need a minute,” König righted a fallen chair and plopped down onto it. Without a word, he pulled up a second and patted the seat, leaving it empty for you. You tentatively took the seat, a bit concerned the man beside you might keel over any minute.
“Sorry about getting so upset,” König sighed, “I just… Ever since coming to America, everyone here calls me German! Everyone! It’s not too hard to notice the difference, is it?”
“I mean, I don’t think I’ve ever met an Austrian before,” you told him.
“Really?” König sat up to look at you, “how long have you been in this city?”
“Long enough to know there’s not many Austrians here,” you laughed.
“Well, then consider me your first,” König determined, “but yes, um, I’m sorry about making such a fuss. I just… I cannot stand being called a German. Those damned Germans…” he shook his head, “never forget.”
“Never forget what?” you asked.
“The occupation,” König said, “Austria used to be a part of Germany, but it separated in 1866. Then Hitler comes around and he drums up all this Nazi support and tricks my people into falling for his lies. Then, he comes and steamrolls my country.”
“So there’s still a lotta tension, I’m guessing?” you tried to make a joke, but it fell flat on its face.
“Like you wouldn’t imagine,” König said, “but I guess I don’t hate them that much. I just hate how everyone calls me German! I’m not a damn German, I’m an Austrian! My family’s been in Austria for generations! It’s like no American knows how to look on a damn map.”
“Maybe,” you shrugged.
“And how would you feel being called a citizen of a country that once tried to crush you beneath its boot? My poor Opa… Well, you heard Horangi,” König spat.
“He was a Nazi?” you cringed despite yourself.
“Nearly a Nazi,” König swiftly corrected you, “he was a good soldier once, but he didn’t respect the Germans or what they stood for, so he broke his own leg to stop Hitler's men from sending him to war.”
“Wait, really?”
“Oh ja, but he was worried that might not be enough. So, he took on a new identity and moved across the country,” König explained, “he first tried to be an accountant, but he couldn’t do math so good so he went to go be a mechanic in my village. He used to be a panzermensch, so he was able to take some of those old skills he learned to get by.”
“Did anyone ever figure out who he was?” you asked curiously.
“Only one person,” König shrugged, “my Oma.”
You chuckled, “So he married her to keep her quiet?”
“Not then and there, but he did promise her that he would one day,” König snickered, “so they stayed low until Austria became independent again. Then my Opa took back his old name and married my Oma.”
“That’s really cute,” you smiled brightly.
“They were very cute,” König agreed, “but ja, if it weren’t for the Nazis, my Opa could have been a much richer man. The work in the village did not pay well, but he could have earned good money in the army. Mein Vater did not grow up with much, and he didn’t make much more for us when he married meine Mutter.”
“So Germany really fucked up a lot of your life,” you concluded.
“And then people go and call me German! It’s…” König sighed, “I do not like it very much.”
“Makes sense,” you nodded and leaned forward on your knees.
The silence between you stretched on forever, but a part of you never wanted it to end. There was something comfortable about being able to just enjoy the quiet with a man like König. Something about how he filled the space of the room left little space for conversation to try and shake the solid grounds you both stood on. It wasn’t like you often had a chance to talk, and when you did it normally was curt and strained in tone. This moment was a welcome break.
“Alright you two,” Hutch’s voice crackled through your headset, making you nearly jump a good five feet out of your seat, “the other guys need some help setting up that trap.”
“On it,” you replied as you dusted yourself off.
König stretched up beside you, hitting the ceiling with his hands before slumping back down.
“You ready?” you slipped the safety off your proton blaster.
König nodded and pulled his goggles back over his face.
“Alright,” you grinned, “let’s go bust some ghosts.”
AU Masterlist
#konig au#konig#cod konig#konig cod#konig call of duty#konig mw2#konig x reader#konig x you#konig fluff#konig fanart#fan art#digital art#cod mw2#cod#cod mwii#cod x reader#call of duty#modern warfare#konig fanfiction#konig headcanons#cod headcanons#konig hcs#horangi#horangi cod#roze#roze cod#hutch#hutch cod#nikto#nikto cod
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Okay maybe it's time to make an actual designated pinned post
Edit: hiya! A new pinned post will come, but quick note that I am starting my transition MtF now. This pinned post, and all the pictures in it, predate that, however. General guide is that I'm referring to pre transition me as a femboy, and will be referring to myself as a trans woman to moment I start HRT. But I'm leaving this old pinned post up for now.
Hi! I'm CatboyBiologist. I'm a grad student in Molecular Biology with a passion for the ocean, nature, Fromsoft games, national parks, and weird tech stuff. I tastefully hornypost about men, women, and all others (so be warned), post spicy hot memes (fuck you I'm the funniest mfer alive), type out long rambles about science and nature, and play Fromsoft games. PLEASE send me cute pictures of your pets.
Oh yeah, I'm also a cis man who does this sometimes:
I also make shitposts out of myself sometimes
I've also made a couple guides on how to replicate these kinds of looks.
General overview of femboy stuff:
How I create cleavage looks from a relatively flat chest:
If you want a somewhat more realistic idea of what my figure looks like:
The best way to specifically see those posts and filter out everything else is probably to use the femboy tag on my profile.
Pronouns? Uuuuuhhhhhhhhh, idk dude just use whatever. It's far more gratifying to me to throw a look out there and see what people wanna use for it than to declare my pronouns. If that doesn't make sense to you, they/them or he/him is cool.
Asks and DMs are always open for science talk, cute animal pictures, casual non creepy flirting, or whatever else... With the SOLE exception of these two questions that I get WAY too often and will give final answers to here:
"Are you a biologist who studies catboys or a biologist that just happens to be a Catboy?"
Both. Do humans not study human biology?
(also I'm actually studying bio irl)
"why is it not catboyologist, hmmm? I am very clever"
To give a serious answer to a joking question I get way too much: This online persona (or whatever you want to call it) is about balancing and integrating two large parts of my personality: my career in and passion for biology, and my queerness and gender nonconformity. I wanted both of those parts to be clear, in a cute and fun username. Basically, "catboyologist" only has the same effect as my actual username if you already know my actual username- you can't interpret the "biologist" part from "catboyologist".
Plus, "catboyologist" has too many consecutive wide vowels. CatboyBiologist breaks it up so it sounds punchier.
Oh yeah and apparently I was a 196 microcelebrity? I never to thought I was popular enough for that but apparently some people do 🤷♀️. So uh, hi 196 tag, I'm abusing you for my pinned post LOL
I'll also abuse other tags I use somewhat frequently, so hi y'all
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Sing for Me
5. Devoted to You
Cooper Howard x Fem!Reader / The Ghoul x Fem!Reader
She's a singer the nation adores. He's the actor everyone respects. What happens when these two get entangled in a heated affair? Passion, regret, rage, and even murder will commence. From before the bombs drop to the vast wasteland, these two souls live for one another.
Previous Chapter
Series Masterlist
Tagged: @fallout-girl219 @harmfulb1tch @themadhattersqueen
We pull up to the Howard residence. Each step of the entrance was familiar under my feet. The once relaxing walls now filled shoulder to shoulder with pricks. It’s lively, with music playing and guests exchanging conversation. I didn’t seem to recognize many people majority of them being Vault Tech employees. Louis grabs a couple of drinks before dragging Heather and her boyfriend away to meet people.
“This ain’t much of a party. Looks like a big business deal.” Johnny notes. I shake my head in disappointment. “This party sucks. Just wait until you come to the after-parties of the tour. They’re so fun.” Johnny smirks as he swipes two glasses of whisky. I hate whisky. Cooper would’ve never gotten me a glass of whiskey. He knows my favorite wine and would have it on tap waiting for me.
We made acquaintance with a few people on the camera crew. One happened to be an assistant on the set of a music video I made a while back. “I LOVED that song!” She sings it drunkenly causing me to laugh. I took pictures with several of the Vault Tech employees mimicking my famous Nuka Cola pose. Little by little the night eased with the whiskey. I was relaxed. Given it had something to do with the amount of drugs and alcohol in my system but I’ll take happiness as it comes.
Now outside in the large gazebo in the garden we loudly socialize. Johnny sits smoking away, Heather and her boyfriend are all cuddling up talking to some other couple, Louis is in the middle sweet-talking some businessman for all he’s worth, and here I am swaying drunkenly to a song in my head in the middle of the freshly cut grass.
I spot a familiar figure exiting the house. The skinny guy walking down our way. “My piano man! Henry!” I laugh with open arms beckoning him into a hug. His face is bright red as he pulls away. “(Y/n), it… it’s so good to see you. I didn’t think you would remember me.”
“Friends, this is Henry MacLean. He can play the piano like no other. On the spot too!” My group welcomes him in nicely, all of us too buzzed to give a damn. Johnny stands with a smile, “there’s a piano inside.” I look at him and scoff, “Ah, don’t make me sing.”
Henry shrugs, certainly not going to turn down the opportunity to play for me. “I can play by ear,”
“You should've heard her earlier in the shower. She was singing this beautiful song. I had never heard it before.” Heather says as she leans up. “That’s because it’s unreleased. I’m still working on it. It’s a new project.” Heather frowned, “it was so beautiful but sounded so sad.” I shrug, “All my songs can't be happy.” Especially when all I can compose is depressing ballads. The only emotion I can feel when I try to write a song is want, and an ache burns in my chest. I want Cooper. I dream of a life where we were together. I love him, and I forever will. I am bound to him as roots are to a tree. Never seen, hidden beneath the beautiful growth of nature.
Johnny tosses his arm over my shoulders. “Come on everyone, Miss America here is going to sing us a song.”
~
I walk down the steps leading to the pool, “Excuse me. Your wine.” I place my cigarette in the glass before passing the waitress and sitting in front of my friend, “Well, shit, Seabass. You might be the only one of my invites who actually showed up.” He nods with a small smile. “Not all true, (y/n) seems to be having a swell time.” I look in the direction of his gesture. She’s swaying in the grass barefoot, without a care. A pure beauty in the mixture of facade company. I would give anything to go over to her, sweep her off her feet, and drag her to the bedroom. Peppering her skin with kisses as I make up for the time I have lost with her.
I suck in a breath, returning to the conversation at hand. “Not our usual scene, I’ll give you that.” He hums with a flat smile, “I think our Hollywood actor friends don’t want to be seen celebrating with the pitchman for the end of the world.” I shake my head, “Oh, you don’t know the half of it. You hear I lost a movie over these ads?” He looks at me in all seriousness, “No.” “Yeah, showed up to set, the actors wouldn’t come out of their trailers. Bonnie Lewis said it was on moral grounds.”
He scoffs, “Bonnie Lewis? She’s done more ads than a fucking billboard.”
At that point, I couldn’t help but hear the annoying voice of (y/n)‘s friend. “Come on everyone, Miss America here is going to sing us a song.” They trail past us, his arm thrown over her shoulder so casually. He smiles at me as they pass. She avoided all eye contact. I may not be able to touch her, but I can still allow myself the pleasure of watching her perform, especially since I am the host. It would be rude of me to not attend.
~
We stand in the large living room, Johnny clinking his glass catching everyone's attention. "If I could have everyone's attention!" All eyes on us, Johnny holds me out at arm's distance. "Who wants to hear my girl sing?" The applause begins, as it always does. Henry sits at the piano I lean over humming the intro to him. I turn back to the crowd, and I see him. Clad in a black shirt his hair brushed and jelled to perfection. I intake a brethe. The corner of his lip twitches, threatening a smile.
"Well, this is a very special night. I'm so thankful to Vault Tech for looking toward the future and keeping us American citizens safe. As a token of gratitude, I would like to perform a song that I've been working on. I hope you enjoy." I end the speech looking into Cooper's eyes, this song was for him after all. The piano starts slow, I take a deep breath in begin to sing.
"Guess mine is not the first heartbroken
My eyes are not the first to cry
I'm not the first to know
There's just no getting over you"
Cooper watches intensely as I sing. I look towards him touching my chest.
"I know I'm just a fool who's willing
To sit around and wait for you
But baby, can't you see there's nothing else for me to do?
I'm hopelessly devoted to you"
I was devoted to him. Even if I were to date someone, hell even marry them. I wouldn't ever be able to let go of my feelings for him. I burned for him, I craved him, I couldn't live without him.
"But now there's nowhere to hide
Since you pushed my love aside
I'm out of my head
Hopelessly devoted to you"
He took a step forward, beckoning to my call, to my song, to my soul. I was indeed out of my head for him. I was trying to replace the missing touches and whispers with drugs and alcohol. He was my cure. Sadly, he was unreachable. So all I could do was fall deeper down into the hole, only dreaming of him.
"My head is sayin', "Fool, forget him"
My heart is sayin', "Don't let go
Hold on to the end", that's what I intend to do
I'm hopelessly devoted to you"
I would wait for him, in this world, or the next. Maybe we got the timing wrong, but one thing was true. Our souls were meant to love one another. Cooper stares at me as a starved man looks at his first meal. Moving closer to the stage he acts as a lion, priding through his field, coming to take what belongs to him.
"But now there's no way to hide
Since you pushed my love aside
I'm outta my head
Hopelessly devoted to you"
I lean down, reaching out, directing my attention to Cooper. Silently, begging him to grasp my hand, hold me tight, and tell me everything was okay. One more step would be all it takes for us to be in the vicinity. "Hopelessly devoted to you," Cooper nods, understanding my message. I would wait for him. Unhealthy, and toxic, but I would do it just for him.
Applause rings out loudly breaking my trance. I back away from Cooper, now feeling the tears in my eyes. I smile at everyone, waving as I exit the living room, dashing for the door. The overwhelming emotions threatened to tip over. I was spiraling, without him. My soul was starving without its flame.
I made it down the driveway until a hand caught my wrist. "Stop, honey. For me, please." I turn to see Cooper. His finger curled around my wrist softly. Tears flowing down my cheeks I attempted to tear my arm from his grasp. I was drowning in a sea of emotions. I didn’t know if I wanted to yell at him or throw myself into his arms. He keeps his grip firm, placing his other hand on my bicep. “(Y/n)”, he breathes out as if I’m a dream.
I feel myself filling with rage, tears still streaming down my face. “What? What the fuck could you possibly have to say to me?” He stays silent, eyes begging, but I continue to chastise him. “You used me. You disrespected me. You coaxed my feelings, hopes, and dreams out. You learned how I ticked, and you used me to your advantage. So, please tell me, Cooper,” his mouth slightly gaping, he draws in closer. “What the fuck do you have to say now?”
Cooper pushes me against the wall of the entrance gate, shielded by the trees. His hands attach to my waist with force. Our foreheads together, our lips begging to touch. He licks his lips, never looking away from my eyes. “I… I'm sorry. Honey, I’m so sorry.” He grapples onto my body, holding me close. Pressed firmly against him I shutter. I shake my head, my thoughts fighting against the moment. “Cooper, we, we can’t. Your wife-“
“I love you.”
Cooper stares at me with overflowing eyes. So much pent-up emotion and passion was threatening to release. He breathes me in, trailing his nose up my neck, “I love you, (y/n).” Our lips hover over each other. I hold every restraint I can. I sigh in disbelief, I want it to be true, I’ve dreamed of this. Hearing those words spoken from his mouth. “I love you.” He says it again, almost in realization. He stares into my soul, allowing his to reach in and cradle my lonely heart. He massages my waist, a choked breath leaving his body, “say something, darlin’.”
I bring my hands to his chest, clawing at his shirt. “Coop, you’re married.” He shakes his head, “I’ll leave.” I scoff, “you said that before.” He holds my cheek with one hand, his other wrapped securely around my waist. “I will, I promise. I… I can’t lose you. Fuck if I lose everything else, I won’t lose you.”
He leans in with force, sealing our lips together. this moment it feels like fate. His hands move from my waist to the sides of my face, cradling my cheeks with surprising gentleness. The kiss is passionate, tender, everything I wanted. Our hands roaming across each other, he pushes me deeper into the metal gate. I moan out, shaking for him.
“(Y/n)?” I jump back at Louis’ voice. He’s walking down the driveway looking left and right. I move to leave, but Cooper pulls me back. Hands still on my cheek he nuzzled our noses together. “(Y/n), please, give me time.”
I smile, pulling him down once more, “I would wait 200 hundred years to love you, Cooper Howard.” His charming smile lights up the night. I slip away from him and catch up with Louis as he slips into the car. “Where did you run off to?” I watch the tree line near the gate, Cooper stands, hand sun his pants pockets as he watches me. “Just to get some air.”
#cooper howard#cooper howard x reader#fallout#fallout imagine#the ghoul#the ghoul x reader#cooper howard fallout#fallout ghoul#walton goggins
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Muse's Fanfic Masterpost
⚠️ Please read the rules before following and interacting. ⚠️
🌻 Muse [She/They] 🌻 Black 👩🏿🦱 🌻 35+. I was there, Gandalf. 🌻 Multi-fandom and multi-shipper. 🌻 Writer 👩🏿💻 🌻 EDM Enjoyer 🌈🪩 🌻 Cat Mom 🐈⬛ 🌻 Professional Griot 💃🏿🪘 🌻 I don't follow back mindlessly; authentic engagement is the only way I do social media. 🌻 No bad faith arguments will be entertained. I will block and never look back.
Below is a list of all my current works. Since I’m currently only active in the JJK fandom, those are the works that’ll be listed! Once other fandoms get active, this list will be sorted and updated!
⛩️ AO3 𑁍 FFN 𑁍 Parallax OCs 𑁍 Sonder OCs 𑁍 Headcanons & Meta ⛩️
Fic Status Key
[♡] - AO3 version.
[⭑] - Tumblr version.
[♤] - Fanfiction(dot)net version.
[🚩] - Dead Dove: Do Not Eat
[🔏] - Commissioned Fic
[∞] - In Progress
[☥] - Rewriting
[☯] - Complete
[📿] - Parallax
[🔮] - Sonder
[🪄] - Lost Worlds & Endless Nights
Relationship Key
🧿👹 - Satoru/Sundari
⛩️⚔️ - Sukuna/Nadja
🧿🧜🏾♀️ - Satoru/Asabé
⛓️👸🏾 - Toji/Akasha
⛓️👩🏿🦱 - Toji/blackfem!Reader
Relevant Tags
#muse writes
#fic rec
#jjk x oc
#jjk x black oc
#jjk fanfic
#jjk fanart
#fic: [ficname]
#series: [seriesname]
#ch: [charname]
#oc: [ocname]
#otp: [shipname]
noun [📿] par·al·lax ˈper-ə-ˌlaks ˈpa-rə- 1. the apparent displacement or the difference in apparent direction of an object as seen from two different points not on a straight line with the object. especially: the angular difference in direction of a celestial body as measured from two points on the earth's orbit.
Nadja Hikmat, an immortal warrior tasked by Heaven itself to hunt Ryōmen Sukuna, falls in love with the sorcerer instead. From that fateful meeting, a ripple of unforeseen changes echos across the sea of time.
Beast of No Nation [♡] [⭑] [♤] – One night, the King of Curses took an over-curious fugitive of heaven to task. Over the course that night, and the many that followed, she found herself continuously drawn to the jujutsu world. [☯] [📿] ⛩️⚔️ || 🧿👹
If [♡] [⭑] [♤] – One night, Satoru meets a woman with strange tattoos who sears a place on his mind and memory. Who is she? [☯] [📿] 🧿👹
Crystalline [⭑]– The night Itadori Yuji takes in Sukuna’s Finger, Satoru sees Sukuna’s cursed energy erupt in Roppongi and finds a familiar face at its epicenter. [A commissioned fic written by the lovely @septembersums. Thank you for contributing to my JJK 'verse!] [🔏] [☯] [📿] 🧿👹
We Might Even Be Fallin' In Love [♡] [⭑] [♤] – The miracle of existence bridges the infinity between them. [☯] [📿] 🧿👹
Daughter of Disgrace [♡] [⭑] [♤] – In the aftermath of Satoru Gojo’s sealing, Sundari must choose rebellion in order to free him. Lucky for them both, rebellion has always been her preferred modus operandi. [☯] [📿] ⛩️⚔️ || 🧿👹
The Godslayer Project [♡] [⭑] [♤] – Sukuna’s daughter, Sundari, is navigating her new life as a jujutsu sorcerer and instructor at Jujutsu Tech’s Tokyo Campus. There is still much to be done in the wake of Kenjaku and Sukuna’s schemes, and not all of Kenjaku’s secrets died with him. [TBD]
07DEC2019 04:00 AM JST [♡] [⭑] [♤] – Gojo Satoru comes home and wants to be in the arms of his goddess and sleep. [☯] [📿] 🧿👹
The universe conspires to keep one pair's love kept safe. Nadja and Sukuna walk Samsāra, no matter the form, recognizing one another's souls everywhere they meet. Here is how their meeting ripples across the multiverse. [Or: I am in love with these two and here are some AUs I'm cooking up.]
Highball [♡] [⭑] [♤] – The price of peace has a cost. The scales must balance eventually. [Yakuza/Found Family AU]
noun [🔮] 1. the feeling one has on realizing that every other individual one sees has a life as full and real as one’s own, in which they are the central character and others, including oneself, have secondary or insignificant roles: In a state of sonder, each of us is at once a hero, a supporting cast member, and an extra in overlapping stories.
A collection of fics in my sprawling JJK multiverse featuring various protagonists, including the Reader!
The Unforgiving Roads That Lead to You [♡] [♤] – Roxanne Abaza, the only foreign-born special grade sorcerer in existence, is called to assist with the wrangling and exorcism of Ryōmen Sukuna. What ensues is more than she bargained for. [☥]
Halfsleeper [♡] [⭑] [♤] – A young widowed sorceress seeks protection under the aegis of the Honored One, but he has a better idea for keeping her out of the clutches of her dangerous clan. [∞] 🧿🧜🏾♀️
Unsanctioned [♡] [⭑] [♤] – Bodyguard/Yakuza AU. Toji Fushiguro, who is in disgrace after having an affair with his boss’ now ex-wife, is now tasked with protecting her as the mercurial grounds of Tokyo’s Underworld begin to shift into uncertainty, putting the entire syndicate and anyone associated with them in peril. [∞] ⛓️👸🏾
Before It's Gone [♡] [⭑] – Toji’s been darkening your doorway for a while and is only now realizing what you already knew. [☯] [🔮] ⛓️👩🏿🦱
These are playlists for the fics and characters within my JJK ‘verse. It cannot be overstated how much music plays an integral role in my creative process, and it makes me happy to share it with you all to expand the picture I paint with my stories. A ☮︎ indicates a link to the Spotify version of the playlist. Keep in mind that due to licensing issues [yuck], my personal music library tracks can’t be played on some services so there might be more or less songs, different versions of songs, etc. Still bangers, tho. Enjoy.
🎧 [ fugitive of heaven ] [☮︎] – Nadja Hikmat's playlist. Like her immortal life, this playlist has been curated across decades, evoking imagery of a wild, twisting sojourn through many eras. 🐍
🎧 [ godslayer principle ] [☮︎] – Sundari Hikmat's playlist. Expect atmospheric haunting, psytrance, hard techno, some house, R&B, trap, and strange chanting. 🔱
🎧 [ ritual + bone ] [☮︎] – Roxanne Abaza’s playlist. Witchy, just like our girl likes it.
🎧 [ highball ] [☮︎] – The soundtrack for my Parallax AU: Highball.
© 2024 Hajara Asiri. Do NOT copy, translate, plagiarize, repost anywhere without permission [reblogging posts is okay]. This includes feeding any of my writing to an AI as well as copying my masterlist format. I only upload on Tumblr, AO3, and FFN. All general banners and dividers by @cafekitsune.
☕️ Member of the @pixelcafe-network.
🇵🇸 Palestinian Resources - A guide to Palestine as well as resources in order to help with relief efforts for individuals and families. You can also check my main blog for fundraisers I boost as well.
🇵🇸 Nominal - A Palestinian-owned jewelry company with many beautiful and inspired pieces in silver and gold.
🇵🇸 Olive Odyssey - A collective of Palestinian farmers who tend to the ancient olive groves in Palestine. They make a delicious olive oil, and also sell the Palestinian spice seasoning, Zatar. Supporting them puts much-needed funds in the hands of Palestinian farmers, as well as helping families in Gaza.
#writers on tumblr#black writers#jujutsu kaisen#jjk fanfic#fanfic masterpost#jjk x reader#jjk x oc#jjk x black!fem reader#jjk x black oc#jjk x black reader#呪術廻戦#black reader#black characters#black fem reader#black writblr#oc: guuradan#oc: asabé hayashi#oc: sundari hikmat#oc: nadja hikmat#oc: roxanne abaza#ch: ryōmen sukuna#ch: gojo satoru#ch: fushiguro toji#series: parallax#series: sonder#series: lost worlds and endless nights#satoru gojo#gojo satoru#sukuna ryomen#ryomen sukuna
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To All Americans doom scrolling Tumblr right now:
First and foremost I am so sorry for all of you guys. You all did your part but hatred seems to have unfortunately won. I am also incredibly disheartened for all of you and for once in my life I honestly don't know what to say (which is odd for me lol).
Just know
That you did your part. You voted and did your part and that's all you can do.
It's not your fault. Period. Not to sound defeatist but one vote will not decide the fate of an entire election
Life will go on and we will keep on living. I know it doesn't seem like it right now but we will keep going and we will keep living our lives.
Things will get better, it maybe doesnt seem like it right now but things will ger better
I have sadly seen many people on here talk about killing themselves or pleading others to stay alive. As sad as that notion is, it is a very real concern for many now.
As many others have mentioned: PLEASE DON'T KILL YOURSELF OR RELAPSE IN ANY WAY SHAPE OR FORM OVER THE ELECTION RESULTS!!!!!!!!! I know it may feel hopeless and like there is nothing else you can do but please don't. I mentioned many things you can do to distract yourself in a previous post if you want to look.
There are many $u1c1d3 hotlines and other mental health resources available you can access. Please do if you feel like you need to
List of hotlines/ help resources to call/talk to:
Sorry I can't link anything because I am not tech savy but hopefully a list is useful too. Got most of these off of instagram so maybe you'll see the posts circulating around. Keep in mind I am a minor who does not live in the U.S so if these are not the most helpful don't flame me.
LQBTQ Resources:
The 988 lifeline- 988lifeline.org (Call,text, or chat)
The Trevor project- thetrevorproject.org/get-help (24/7 crisis counselling)
SAGE x Hearme-sageusa.org/hearme (On demand mental wellness app)
LGBTQ center directory- lgbtqcenters.org/LGBTCENTERS (Centre directory, find one near you)
PFLAG- pflag.org/findachapter (Find a chapter near you)
QChat space-qchatspace.org (Online Lgbtq community for teens)
Suicide/crisis hotline
Dial 988 or visit 988lifeline.org
Warm lines that don't call the police:
Call blackline- 800-604-5841 (Centre's BIPOC, LGBTQ, Black femme lens)
Trans lifeline-877-585-8660 (U.S number) Canada has one of these too if you need it
Wildflower alliance peer support line- 888-407-4515 (Trained peer supporters
Strong hearts Native helpline- 844-762-8483
Thrive lifeline- 313622-8209 (Trans led and operated)
LGBTQ national help center- 888-843-4564
Hope that helps
Other easy ways to take care of your mental health:
Take a social media break/hiatus
Hang out with friends or family
Get out in nature (Go for a hike, bike ride ect)
distract yourself with comfort media
read
do something creative
practice a hobby
I already have a post with a pretty extensive list of stuff you can do to distract/cope if you need any ideas. I'm not going to copy it all out but its just a little down from this post in my account if you scroll.
Above all please stay safe:
Many have mentioned this but make sure you stay safe too, especially if you are in a red state where people may be looking for an opportunity. As fucked up as it feels to even type this out:
Scrub your socials of anything that may "Give you away" if you feel you need to
If you know someone who is queer, trans, poor, pregnant, an immigrant, needing an abortion, getting an abortion done, or anything that could make living dangerous to them- no you don't. try and keep loved ones safe if you can
Don't out yourself for being any of the above things if you can help it
Don't engage in politics talk with people if you can help it. If someone asks what party you supported don't tell them, they may just be looking for information they can use
One last reminder:
Please remember to:
Eat regular meals/remember to eat at all
Drink water
Take screen breaks (As it will hurt your eyes and give you a headache)
Go to sleep at a regular time
don't bed rot all day
don't doom scroll election content all day
turn off the news at some point, its not healthy to sit and watch the news all day
get out in nature/step outside and touch grass and get some fresh air if you can
talk to your loved ones and seek support if you need
get off social media for a bit (Even if you say all day social media doesnt make a difference to you I know it does)
make sure to take it easy today if you can, take care of your mental health and I hope that everything will be alright for you guys. Stay safe out there
#us elections#us gp 2024#us election 2024#election day#presidential election#election#2024 presidential election#kamala for president#mental health#mental heath support#mental heath awareness#kamala harris#kamala 2024#sad
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Why I'm Not Allowed On Twitter Unsupervised Any More: A Photo Essay
Key Notes:
Since this was posted I discovered that the books had briefly been available in the UK under the name Peter Beagle rather than Peter S. Beagle in the mid-90s, which is why they didn't show up on the British Library search
The article by Tor.com @torbooks: Peter S. Beagle Has Finally Regained the Rights to His Body of Work
If you want our gorgeous limited edition, I believe there are still a handful left (except for the US and Canada, sorry lads), and you can get it here. I'm not kidding when I say I got a little teary-eyed when these showed up.
[Image Description: A tweet thread from the Gollancz twitter dated 20th July 2022, which goes as follows -
Tweet 1: You may have seen that we're printing a Brand New Edition of The Last Unicorn. We're very excited! I was asked to tweet about it. I wasn't asked to do it quite like this, but I also wasn't asked NOT to do it like this, and I have the twitter login so whose fault is that? (Thread emoji, and gif from the film Scream reading 'The Call is coming from inside the house!')
Tweet 2: Imagine, if you will, you are a small child in the UK during the late 80s/early 90s. You might look a bit like this, or you might have had parents who didn't choose suffering (ask my mum about The Saga of the Hat) (an image of a small girl approximately 3 years old wearing a blue dress and a big white hat)
Tweet 3: Imagine you have a cool older cousin, one who, as you get age, introduces you to fantasy films like Ladyhawk and The Princess Bride and has a post the whole family knows as 'the vampire and the naked lady'. She's extremely responsible for the way you turn out as an adult.
Tweet 4: One year, for your birthday, this cousin buys you a video. It's the first video that is yours, not to share. It has a bright yellow cover. The butterfly scares you. But you watch it on a loop. You don't realise how special it is, but it's a seed that burrows into your brain. (An image of a VHS of The Last Unicorn)
Tweet 5: A decade or so later, in your teens, you rediscover it. None of your friends have heard of it, despite also being fantasy-inclined. That's odd, you think. Is this an outlandishly weird title? Then you get older and you realise: no, it isn't. (Principal Skinner meme reading 'Am I out of touch? No, it's the people who don't know about The Last Unicorn who are wrong')
Tweet 6: Time and tech march on, you get a DVD of the film. You realise it's got Christopher Lee in it! And Angela Lansbury! Your mum tries to get you to listen to songs by America other than the soundtrack, but the only one that really sticks is the other one they did about a horse. (Gif of Walter White from Breaking Bad singing along to Horse With No Name)
Tweet 7: You realise that the film is based on a book. Like The Princess Bride, which you've also read (after spending longer than you're proud of trying to find an unabridged edition). 'Neat,' you think, 'I'll have to read that!'
Tweet 8: And then you can't find it. Because, as mentioned previously, you're in the UK. The Last Unicorn was published for the first time in 1968. But, if you look at the British Library's National Bibliography (super neat resource btw), that was, uh, about it. (screenshot of the search results from the National Bibliography showing four editions of The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle, one from Gollancz in 2022, one from IDW in 2019, one from Tachyon Publications in 2018, and one from Bodley Head in 1968)
Tweet 9: The Tachyon edition is the unfinished first draft of the story. The IDW edition is a gorgeous graphic novel. But in terms of the novel? I don't know how many reprints it had (if anyone knows, I'd love to find out), but there's a good chance it went out of print in the 70s.
Tweet 10: The film, however, was released in 1982. Although it didn't make it to the UK until 1986. Conservative estimates could put that between 10 and 15 years since the book was last available in the UK. This gives you a generation in the UK who only know the story through the film! (A screenshot of the IMDB page showing the different release dates for The Last Unicorn around the world)
Tweet 11: The screenplay was written by Peter S. Beagle, and made by the legendary animation directors Arthur Rankin Jr. and Jules Bass. That's right, the guys behind Thundercats and 2 out of the 3 films based on The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.
Tweet 12: The Book has been in print in the USA (and possibly all of North America) constantly since its publication, so it seems baffling that people in the UK haven't heard of it. As the internet became more prominent, however, it became easier to just... import a copy of the book.
Tweet 13: But! This also isn't quite as simple as you think. You see, until last year the rights to The Last Unicorn were tied up in legal limbo. And the US edition of the book contained changes that Peter wasn't happy with. (Link to the Tor.com article about the rights)
Tweet 14: Back to you, the 80s/90s kid, who is now an adult, happy that unicorns are A Thing again and you're living your best life. You're very easy to buy presents for. Your partner despairs of unicorns. You get a job working in books about magic and space. (unicorn emoji and photograph of a collection of unicorn memorabilia, including three different versions of The Last Unicorn)
Tweet 15: You mention that one day you would like to publish The Last Unicorn. That if you did, you would like to do a really beautiful edition of it. And you would like it to be purple. Because since the film is what you know, you associate it with purple.
Tweet 16: And, after taking a very circuitous route, here we are! This is the original text, that was first published in 1968. Reading it after you have only seen the film is the strangest experience - like being introduced to a very dear friend that you have never met before.
Tweet 17: Peter's screenplay kept the voice of the story so well, you can hear the characters when you read the book. But now there's so much more depth, softness and warmth to it. The butterfly doesn't seem so scary any more. And, it's beautiful. And it's purple. (Image of a hardback edition of The Last Unicorn, with a black base, purple background, and a linocut image of the unicorn in her wood. On the black cover underneath is a foiled unicorn with the moon and butterfly, the page edges are sprayed purple, and the endpapers are black with silver butterflies)
Tweet 18: Anyway, I've taken you on a three day trip that could have been done in a single tweet, but that's what happens when you let me drive. This edition is the limited exclusive one only available through the Gollancz Emporium and you can preorder here: (link to Gollancz Emporium)
Tweet 19: But there is also a standard edition available through all booksellers! You'll be getting the author's preferred text, with an introduction from Patrick Rothfuss. There's also a brand new audiobook and it will be available in eBook for the first time ever.
Tweet 20: It's like going from famine to feast, and I wasn't able to talk about this for months so now I am able to talk about it, I'm going to make the social media team cry. UNICORNS. SPECIAL EDITION. PURPLE. The End.
Tweet 21: Additional behind the scenes bonus detail - I did take this cover to the art meaning while wearing a unicorn onesie.
Tweet 22: The comms team wrestling me away from the twitter account: (gif of Ross from Friends shouting 'Stop typing! Stop typing!')
End ID]
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Thoughts on:
The New Avatar Rumor
If you haven't heard Knight edge media has claimed to have seen the first 2 finalised storyboards for the Avatar tv show that'll follow the avatar after Korra.
Here's the link to their og article
There's also an article detailing a scene
Just in case any of this is actually true here's your chance to back out now, if your still here let's get into it.
The Kyoshi Parallel -
This post will mainly be me covering what jumped out to me from their two articles. The first thing that jumped out to me was how eerily similar the outline was to the Rise of Kyoshi novel. In RoK Kyoshi is a close candidate for being the Avatar, she's overlooked however, with Yun being chosen as he's a bending prodigy. Kyoshi struggles to survive as a maid/street rat, eventually being discovered as the avatar and thrust into the plot.
Our new avatar (possibly called Pavi) was also thought to be the avatar, passed over for her more adept sister, who's raised as a false avatar, and, whilst the imposter lives in luxury, Pavi struggles on the streets.
Obviously as more information comes out this correlation could strengthen or weaken. I don't mind it, and it could be a good "the Cycle repeats itself" otherwise it might be lazy recycling, time will tell.
Seven nations -
I..... hate this I think.
I love the fith nation and it's implications in RoK, and how it's spiritually lives on in Republic city, however 3 new nations?
I think it'll dilute the potents of what made the original great. The 4 elements are literally iconic, not just in Avatar but in, like, everything. History, alchemy, medicine, ect.
Avatar's cousin, The Dragon Prince, also tried using an expanded elemental system and I think it was weaker for it. Also what will set these 3 new nations apart? Will we have 3 new elements?
Now what could happen instead is that this is a post-apocalypse, and instead this is 7 new city states. THAT I don't hate. Infact it could be really interesting to see 7 last remnants of the Avatar world, after a massive disaster.
In that sense I think our survivors would be:
The Northen Water Tribe
The Southern Water Tribe
Republic City
Caldera City
Omashu
Ba Sing Se
The Southern Air Temple
I could also see any of the other temples, not just Aangs. Kyoshi island could also be a contender.
If this new world is just these last remnants that could be incredible.
Korra's feat -
Let it be said I hate power scaling fights. So the article saying this makes Korra the strongest seems weird. Secondly, this seems out of the scope of the Avatar world. I don't think Korra will actually rip apart the tectonic plates, more likely, a meteorite or such will threaten the world, and as she mitigates the damage it'll cause these new divides.
Twins -
Watch the DearFutureMe video on twin avatars for why it better not happen. Also if it turns out one is the Dark avatar I will chew my way through the floor until I land in the depths of hell.
If its neither of those I think it'll be a fun dynamic, similar to Zuko and Azula.
Hoverboards -
O H N O.
So, I've bitched about this to my friends constantly. I have always thought a third avatar show might be impossible. Aang's era is pre-industrial/industrial revolution and then Korra is the 1940~ plus a mech.
From this you get two meh options.
Either you kill Korra very young and aim for the 60s tech wise. That'll retroactively spoil LoK however. Otherwise you let Korra live and have it set roughly in the 2000's which just feels ... wrong.
This looks like we'll get the worst of both world, with 2000's era tech + future tech alla Kuvira's mech. Along with Korra dying tragically when the 7 nations disaster occurs.
I am hopeful that the disaster might create my pet theory. Where to avoid a Y2K avatar they create an apocalypse to reset the world.
Misc -
She's a girl and an amputee, that's cool, Avatar usually handles disabled and women characters well, I know they'll be discourse™ because diversity but that's only a problem if your a bigot sooooo.
Cat companion LETS GOOOOOOOOO can't wait to get plush of it.
Possible angsty teen airbender? Cool.
All in all I'm pessimistically excited, I want to hope it'll be great but I think that type of worship will just set you up to be disappointed. Either way, time will tell.
#new avatar#avatar pavi#knight edge media#new avatar rumors#avatar discussion#avatar the last airbender#avatar studios#aavatar legend of korra
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CRIMSOM SHADE
Chapter 05
Bitter Hearts and Burning Ashes
What do you want from me?
Why don't you run from me?
What are you wondering?
What do you know?
- ( The song of the Chapter is ''Bury a friend" by Billie Eilish)
"You are going to work for me."
His cold eyes fix on her scowling ones.
"He’s gotta be fucking kidding me," Khushi scoffs while her brain processes his words. It’s atrocious.
"Excuse me."
He shrugs as if it's already decided, as if it's inevitable.
Khushi lets out a sarcastic laugh. "Wow, didn’t realize I was in the market for a new boss. Thanks for the offer though, but my calendar is pretty full."
Unbothered, he just stares at her with his arm crossed across his chest. “If he led you to me, he can lead others to me as well. I don’t want my name dragged somewhere it shouldn’t be. I want you to find him for me, " he states as if he were talking to a child.
"Why me? Don't you have an entire IT Department at your disposal?"
“I don’t want Mr. Rathore finding out before I know exactly what I’m dealing with. An attack on me is an attack on him as well."
“And you can’t buy one competent IT employee to keep his mouth shut?”
“Why would I when I can get it done for free?”
“Didn’t know the great ASR was such a cheapo,” she snaps back immediately.
A ghost of a smirk threatens to curve in the corner of his lips, the tiniest of smirks, "I am actually doing you a favour, giving you a chance to find him yourself. "
"You know Mr.Raizada, your ego’s so massive, I’m surprised it doesn’t have its own zip code or a country, maybe even a national anthem." She looks at him so matter-of-factly that it almost feels like she’s stating the obvious.
Truth be told, his faint, teasing, barely-there smirk irritates the hell out of her. She wants to wipe that off his face. "And why would I need your 'favour' to find him?" she says, making air quotes around the word 'favour'. "I can find him myself."
"Hmm, Sure you can. I assume you have access to a highly protected network, plenty of cutting-edge encrypted gadgets and a satellite feed, right?" he says, raising a finger for each. His phone beeps in his pocket, momentarily diverting his attention.
What is it about Khushi that makes a guy two times hotter to her when he talks tech?
No, Khushi. Focus.
He is a trouble,
No matter how much tech he’s talking, No matter how cool his tech is.
Her internal monologue is interrupted by a small voice in the back.
"But Khushi, he said he can give you access to a satellite."
Every neuron of her brain, every single one of them, jumps at the idea and for a brief second, every one of them just... swoons. Her inner coder is tempted to reroute the current conversation to a different stream entirely. But no, that would be reckless.
"Engrave this in your mind, Khushi. I’m only saying it once. Mr.Raizada is like a Trojan horse, an unpredictable bug. If he crashes your Central Processing Unit, no amount of trouble-shooting would help you. Remember that," she scolds herself in silence.
Mr. Raizada, oblivious to her internal struggle, remains focused on his phone, the glow illuminating his features with an aura of confidence that only heightens her frustration. Shaking her head, she contemplates her next move for a couple of minutes, torn between her better judgment and the thrill of his cool tech gadgets.
“Miss Gupta, we need to wrap this up real quick. I have a meeting to catch," he states absentmindedly while typing on his phone.
"What if I say no?"
This time, her phone beeps with an incoming message. He glances at her, arching an eyebrow as if inviting her to check it. She unlocks the screen. It's a CCTV video of her, pinned against the wall by him in his room. Her voice says, coming from the screen, "The information the bastard of a hacker stole from me. It contains various pieces of evidence against the crimes Mr. Jha and the Serpents committed. I know he sold them to you. I want them back. I worked day and night to collect all of them." Her face is clear, as is her voice.
"Eww, do the girls you take to your room know about that?"
The moment that line leaves her mouth, regret floods in. Why, brain? Why is that the first thing you choose to process about this video? It is totally beyond her comprehension. Her brain does crazy shit like that sometimes.
Something akin to amusement flashes through his eyes for a split second. If she weren’t watching so intently, she might have missed it.
"You are the only lucky girl who'd the privilege. "
Huh.
She blinks.
"Oh, please." She doesn’t hold back the eye roll this time. A wave of heat rushes to her face. She bites her lips, feeling the heat spreading up her neck. She gives herself a mental shake. The last thing she wants to speculate is what Mr. Raizada does or doesn’t do in that room, preferably nothing involving the opposite sex........Shit.
No, nothing involving sex either.
Damn it.
"Khushi, enough with the mental gymnastics," she mutters to herself. And, then... "Wait a second, how did you get my number?"
He takes a deep breath, as if trying to gather some patience, then rubs the side of his temple with his thumb. Mr.Raizada has a scar under his right eyebrow, complete with stitch marks and all. It is old, almost easy to miss. It makes him seem darker, more dangerous. It adds just the right amount of menace to his otherwise polished, meticulously crafted exterior.
"You have no idea who you're talking to, do you?"
She stares at him, unblinking.
"It’s not exactly rocket science to find a phone number these days."
"How?"
He sighs, "Mr. Mathur found it out for me. And it doesn’t hurt that I own the network company you’re using."
Of course. There are hardly any big companies in this city where Rathore Industries didn’t have a stake. Fantastic.
Khushi can tell this is somehow important to Mr. Raizada. He wouldn’t be wasting so much energy on her if it weren’t. Maybe she can spin this to her advantage.
"What do I get in return? The most that video can do is get me killed. I don't fear death."
He lets out a short chuckle, "Liar."
She glares at him and in response, he just challenges her with that condescending look on his face.
"You find him, and I'll kill him for you."
She scoffs, "I can do it myself."
"Really? How many people have you
killed?"
The "bang" of the gunshot still echoes in her head, the memory vivid. Why is everything today dragging her back to that moment? She clenches her teeth nearly grinding them down. At this rate, she might not have any left by the end of this meeting. Arnav Singh Raizade sure knows how to pull her strings. Her next words come out laced with fury,
"I can fill today's quota with you."
"Sure, be my guest.
Exasperated by his antics, she spins on her heel and begins walking, desperate to leave the scene as quickly as possible. But once again, she finds herself flat against another surface, this time, his chest. His grip is firm, bending her arms behind her back as their chests are pressed tightly together.
"When I’m talking, don’t you dare turn your back on me," he growls as his hard eyes bore into hers.
"You can't make me work for you. I don't owe you shit, Mr. Raizada. Get your hands off me."
His grip tightens. "I don’t want to touch you any more than you want to be touched."
"Really?!" she rolled her eyes, sarcasm dripping from her words. "The two times we’ve met, it’s clear how much you hate touching me. You are particularly allergic."
She wiggles. He doesn't flinch.
She squirms. He doesn't flinch.
She twists. He doesn't flinch.
Not even a damn inch.
After cursing him for a thousand deaths in her head, she lets out through her struggle, “Is pinning people to flat surfaces your favourite hobby? If it is, it’s despicable.”
He towers over her, not moving, not speaking, not even blinking. His jaw set like stone.
"You’re nothing like the women I enjoy pinning. I certainly don’t hate them."
"Well, newsflash, Sherlock, I hate you too," she fires back instantly.
"Hate is too weak a word to describe the disdain I have for you." he grits out, his lips curling into a low, feral snarl. "I despise you, "
The sheer venom in his tone makes her flinch. She blinks in disbelief, taken aback by the utter hatred in his eyes. She had expected some level of animosity, given their families' rivalry. But this is different. It feels personal.
Her glare sharpens. "Why? Just because our families are enemies? That doesn’t give you the right to misbehave with me like that.”
His arms tighten around her, drawing them even closer together. Her heart pounds as panic sets in. His eyes lock onto hers. It's dark, darker than ever, mixed with a wild unexplained hunger, that sends shivers down her spine. It’s the most untamed reaction she has ever seen on his face since their paths crossed.
He leans closer, lips almost at her ear. His voice is a rough whisper brushing against her skin. “I haven’t even begun to misbehave yet, Miss Gupta."
She gulps but refuses to let him intimidate her. After a few moments of heart-pounding silence and a stare-down battle, he lets her go and steps back, the cold mask slipping back into place as if it has never faltered, as if he hasn’t just pinned her against him, as if he isn’t the asshole he is. His eyes grew harder with each passing second as she watched him take a deep, steadying breath.
She stands on shaky legs, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Her eyes shoot daggers at him while her fists tighten. Her body trembles with barely suppressed rage. The impulse to find the magazine to load her gun and shoot him is so profound, it nearly brings her to her knees. Shaking her head, she squares her shoulders and lifts her chin defiantly as their eyes lock.
"You’re a jerk. Stay the fuck away from me. I don’t give a damn why the hell he tried to frame you. Both of you can rot in hell for all I care."
This time, when she spins around toward the street, he doesn’t stop her. She slips into her car and shifts into reverse, about to pull out onto the road. She doesn't realize he has come out of the building as well. In the rearview mirror, she catches a glimpse of him, standing there with both hands tucked into his pants pockets. A picture of calm and collected. Unbothered and unfazed.
Through the glass,
His eyes lock onto hers.
His brown to her hazel.
Fire meets fire.
She sees something flicker in his dark, cold orbs while nothing crosses his face. It vanishes like a mirage in the desert, like it was never there.
She drives away. She doesn’t let herself focus on anything but the way her fingers grip the steering wheel. She doesn't let herself feel anything but the blood pounding in her ears.
And, most importantly, she doesn't let herself look back in the rearview mirror.
Not at all.
Not even a single time.
Author’s Note: Thank you for reading! I’d love to hear your thoughts and predictions for what comes next.
See you soon
Meanwhile, stay healthy, stay beautiful.
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@arshifiesta @featheredclover @phuljari @jalebi-weds-bluetooth @chutkiandchotte @titaliya
#arnav singh raizada#ipkknd#khushi kumari gupta#arnav and khushi#arshi#13 years of ipkknd#arshi fanfic#crimson_shade#ipk 13th anniversary fiesta
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