#i blame some Puerto Rican guy

[beardedmrbean]

CARROLLTON, Texas — A North Texas woman allegedly stabbed her husband and then drove into a retention pond with her three children inside the car, according to the Carrolton Police Department.

Police said officers on Friday afternoon were still investigating a domestic violence incident involving a man stabbed with a knife in the 4400 block of Tall Knight Lane, as well as a related accident where someone drove a vehicle into a retention pond near the 900 block of Hebron Parkway in Lewisville.

Carrollton police, along with Carrollton Fire Rescue, responded to a call at 7:48 a.m. Friday from a man alleging he had been stabbed by his wife. Carrollton Fire Rescue transported him to a local hospital for further treatment. As of Friday afternoon, officials said he is expected to survive. 

In a separate 911 call in Lewisville, the Lewisville Police Department said officers responded to a report of one adult woman later confirmed to be the wife of the stabbed man, and three children, ages 8, 9 and 12, who were inside a vehicle that had been driven into a lake. 

Lewisville police told WFAA first responders were able to pull the woman, identified as Wei Fen Ong, and two children from the vehicle, and the third child was able to free himself. One child was resuscitated at the scene, and a second child was resuscitated on the way to the hospital, Lewisville police said.

Police said one child remains in critical condition, while the others are reportedly stable. 

Police said Ong is now in custody at the Carrollton Police Department and will be transferred to the Denton County detention facility. She's facing one count of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon resulting in serious bodily injury and three counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police said all charges are being filed with the Denton County District Attorney. 

Family members have been notified of the incident and are cooperating with the police investigation. There was no active threat to the public.   

[stairs-feooff]

An Open Letter to White Emo Kids

When I was thirteen years old, I googled ‘how to be emo.’ The music, the aesthetics, the darkness of it all captivated me. There was transgression there, with boys in makeup and girls who weren’t ashamed to be bisexual. The online emo community on google plus (anyone else remember google plus? Just me?) took me in with open arms. I was allowed to be depressed, I didn’t have to hide my burgeoning sexuality or the starts of my struggle with depression, something I now know was caused by intense amounts of dysphoria and life in an abusive and queerphobic household.

Only, there was one problem. I wasn’t white. 

Certainly, nobody would say they had an issue with me being Latino to my face. Most people in the scene genuinely believed they were not racist. After all, they loved Latino people, they thought the guys in Pierce the Veil were so hot. They appreciated the culture too, sombreros and maracas were the full extent of Mexican culture, right? 

But to be emo, you had to be pale. I remember Onision saying that Black people couldn’t pull off emo, and while everyone I knew talked about how horrible he was for saying that, they all secretly believed it. The emo kids I knew stayed out of the sun, they wore long sleeves to stay whiter and some on the more goth side carried around parasols. It was just part of the gothic, to stay white and dead looking. I hid myself from the sun, my skin tanned quickly and well, we couldn’t have that. 

Every guide on emo aesthetics emphasized stick straight hair. Every emo kid I knew reinforced that idea. I begged my mom for a relaxer, she refused. It was alright, I figured out how to damage my hair well enough on my own. Pete Wentz kept his hair straight, spent his time with a flat iron to press down the curls that made him inpalatable to white suburban teenagers. I could too. The burns, the split ends, the fact that my hair didn’t start to return to its natural texture until I cut several inches off this year, that was the sacrifice kids like me needed to take to come into the scene. If not, you would be made fun of. You’d be compared to Ray Toro, everyone’s favorite ‘princess fro fro.’ He was Puerto Rican, just like me. No one talked about that, beyond whispering it around like a dirty secret. No one acknowledged his pride in his country, mirrored by my own pride instilled in me from my mother. Every piece of him, every feature identifiable as nonwhite was sneered at. His hair, his nose, his lips, the white kids said he was the ugly one because of them. I was too, I suppose. 

That was back in 2014. I remember it vividly, still.

Turn back the clock to the early 1980s. Dischord records has just signed seminal emo group, Rites of Spring. There is change in the humid Washington DC Summer air. A new genre would be born from it, branching from the existing hardcore movement. To say Dischord records created emo would be no exaggeration. Without them, the music all of us in the scene know and love would be nonexistent. Dischord was seminal in the scene, Dischord was also founded by Ian MacKeye, vocalist for Minor Threat and later, Fugazi. 

Minor Threat is not emo in the tradional sense. Musically, it’s similar to punk and hardcore groups of the time, lacking the distinct musical flourishes of MacKeye’s later emo group, Fugazi. Still, Minor Threat helped shape the hardcore scene emo was born from and created the record label that signed Rites of Spring, the first emo band. Fugazi is legendary in first and second wave emo circles, influencing bands like Thursday. MacKeye’s stamp on emo is inescapable, even in the third wave. MacKeye also penned the song: Guilty of Being White. 

Guilty of Being White is a minute of MacKeye complaining about systemic racism - or rather, being blamed for systemic racism. He’s sorry for being white, he’s so so sorry, don’t you feel sorry for him, a white man in the 1980s? Isn’t it horrible that white people are blamed for systemic inequality? Isn’t it horrible that he actually has to put work into allyship with people of color? 

MacKeye says he never meant for the song to seem racist. Surely, the fact that it’s become a favorite of white power groups is a coincidence. 

All that is to say, racism was baked into emo from the very beginning. The label that created the genre was founded by white men with very clear issues with racism, even if they did not see it that way. Pete Wentz flat ironing his Black hair and Tyler Joseph refusing to say he’s influenced by rap aren’t bugs unique to the third wave. Instead, they’re features of the genre. 

Now, I’m not writing this to ‘cancel’ emo. I love emo dearly, I still consider myself emo. It, in every wave, is my favorite genre of music. Rites of Spring, Jawbreaker, My Chemical Romance, these bands have shaped my life like no other. Through emo I have met some of my best friends, white and nonwhite alike. Emo allowed me to express my gender and sexuality freely. Emo changed my life for the better, and it continues to do so. No, I am not writing this to cancel emo, whatever that means. Instead, it is because I love the genre so much that I feel the need to point out its flaws, its shielding and harboring of racism since Dischord herself began. 

They say you should end essays like this with a call to action. Personally, I don’t know what I can say that hasn’t been reiterated a thousand times. Really, what am I supposed to say here? Stop being racist? I, like so many other people of color both in and out of the scene are tired of telling white people to do just that over and over. We are tired of seeing white people stop saying what isn’t acceptable anymore, not due to any sort of active unpacking of white supremacy on their part but simply out of a wish to not be ostracized. I am tired of going to emo spaces outside my friend groups and explaining to white thirty year olds what racism is, over and over and over again ad infinitum. I am tired of seeing white people try and take the lead on discussions of racism, whether it is to rapidly assert ‘im not racist but-‘ or to be on the opposite extreme, to jump the gun and form a dog-eat-dog circus, where the end goal is not to actually form a safe place for people of color but to prove how not racist they are. I am tired of watching white people jump on whatever they can to demonize people of color in the scene. I am tired of watching nuanced conversations about racism and complicitness in racism be overshadowed by people upset their pet white man isn’t going to kiss their other pet white man anymore. I am tired of watching children be called slurs. 

Perhaps my frustration is coming loose. It’s hard to be in the middle of all this and not be frustrated. At this point, I am disillusioned. These conversations are seemingly brought up every month, and yet, there is no systemic change. All I can say is I hope that one day, emo becomes actively hostile to racism and racists. Perhaps being aware that racism has been integral to the scene since the beginning is a good place to start. 

[mayearies]

TALK ABT ★⭑ ——— jotw

next part ->

“and you’re sure you’re not gonna switch up this time?”

miles had been dealing with this for months. you said you wanted a boyfriend, and he agreed to help you. what kind of best friend would he be if he didn’t? he always supported you. always. you had been eyeing this guy for a while now, after switching up 3, 4 times. with a verdict, you had to come over to his house immediately and tell him.

“so, what’s he like? he handsome?” he asked, something about it made his head ache a little bit. he watched as you paced around his room while biting your finger. “this guy got you worked up, huh?”

“like no guy i’ve ever known! he’s just so…” you sighed in delight against his sheets, “everything i’ve ever wanted in someone.”

miles played at the loose string on his sweatpants, “that seems like a lot. so, what’re you gonna do about it?”

“just- ask him out i guess. no use in hiding it for so long now. you think it’ll go well?”

he sighed, flopping next to you and staring towards the ceiling, “i mean, i cant say for certain but like, if it doesn’t go well, i’m here for you. i’m just a little nervous about it.”

“nervous?” you sat up to loom over him in curiosity, he had a bothered look on his face and avoided your gaze, “you’re nervous?”

“you know, the whole boy best friend thing. some boyfriends aren’t a fan of that.” he puffed and looked at you, “i just dont want things to become awkward between us. that’s the last thing i would want.”

you understood that well, but miles had always been overprotective and possessive of you when it came to boys. can you blame him? yes and no. sometimes he would scare them away. but you know you could promise one thing: “it wont, i promise. we’ll still be that annoying, shit-talking duo that the whole school knows about.”

he laughed under his breath, “you’re bad at keeping promises but, i have hope for this one. you swear?”

“i swear.”

“good,” miles sat up with a groan and dragged his backpack to the middle of the mattress and pulled out this binder. “now, let’s finish this homework before my ma complains about my spanish grade.”

“you’re failing spanish again?” you moaned in annoyance.

“its different from puerto rican spanish.”

“you can’t keep using that excuse, she said it’s getting old already” miles rolled his eyes against your remark. that night, you went back and forth about it for around 10 minutes then falling asleep. still getting no work done. 

⭑ SHUSH! QUICK THOUGHT! … idk this series seems really fun already according to my notes LMAO

@ mayearies , no swiping!

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

Tony/Brooklyn & Lynn/Manhattan going on vacation, Lynn said she’d also help carry bags…alas. Anyways they’re in a Leyendecker color study I did & that I am very proud of how it came out ! Tony & Lynn are only married for legal purposes cause of the 1898 amalgamation of NYC (which gives us 5 boroughs).

Also I haven’t talked about the boroughoes in ages! I’ve been very focused on my Alfred & states lore that I haven’t touched my NYC lore 😭❤️ my OG lore. I’ll share some major changes and other thoughts below the cut. Also scroll the bottom for a little doodle of the boroughs :D

I do love my borough ocs dearly they’re my oldest babies (9/10 years and going ❤️). And I love working on their lore BUT I feel a lot of the depth of their lore can be better discussed if I also work on lore at a state (Jennie/ New York State) and a national (Alfred/USA) level. Don’t worry I haven’t casted them aside, just cooking and learning new things as I work on Jennie & Alfred so I can better understand how different relationship dynamics impact each borough (especially as Lynn/Manhattan is basically their boss).

Before I delve into major changes in my lore, for newer folks, I’m gonna give a brief description of each borough oc:

Manaháhtaan “Lynn Cooper” / Manhattan borough is essentially the “boss” of all the boroughs. She’s born slightly before European colonization to Ms. Munsee Lenape and Mr. Mohican. For various reasons, she’s not particularly close to her parents nowadays. Lynn is a bit like a princess. She expects only the finest things in life, and she’s known to be perhaps a bit greedy and definitely cut-throat ambitious and will squash you like a bug if she deems you unworthy, but she’s quite charming. Her loud, bold, intense, no nonsense, but with perhaps a flirtatious smile makes her someone people wanna be around. She’s close friends with her fellow boroughs, Jennie/ New York State, and Alfred/ USA.

Anthonij “Tony” Cohen/ Brooklyn is a proud man who is always been rather peeved his best friend and greatest rival is essentially his boss and his legal wife, but he can’t ever really hate her. However, Tony will absolutely dig in his heels and give Lynn a hard time like pretending he’s a separate city still. His gregarious nature, and his interests in many topics from fashion to politics makes him someone you want to get know better. On another note, Tony was born to human parents during the New Netherland period, and he’s of African-American and Ashkenazi Jewish descent. Tony began to connect more with Judaism in the late 1800s specifically Reform Judaism. Tony is dating Andy/Queens, and he likes hanging out with his friends (and also making fun of them). Tony is always a bit peeved at Jennie for making him and Lynn marry, but they mostly get along, and they often celebrate Jewish holidays together (alongside with Jennie’s sister Elise/ New Jersey). Tony is also good friends with Alfred.

Andrew “Andy” Perez/ Queens was born to human parents some point during the late 1800s and is of Dominican and Chinese (probably Cantonese) descent. He’s a rather reserved man. He does have a bit of a bitch face, but he’s honestly quite friendly if you get him talking. He enjoys a more quiet pace of life. You’ll find him hanging around his neighborhoods, playing chess or helping folks out or just yapping. During the summer, you’re highly likely to find him at Rockaway beach catching some waves.

Rodrick “Rodrigo” Madden/ The Bronx was born to human parents in the late 1800s and he’s of Puerto Rican and Irish descent. Nowadays, he does try to act like Mr. Tough guy, but that’s to hide the fact he doesn’t wanna be hurt again. He’s not been treated well by Lynn as a friend in the past and he somewhat blames his more naive and rather naturally friendly nature as the reason why. But Rodrigo is a sweetheart. His heart has almost always been in the right place. He’ll give you the clothes off his back even if it hurt him. He has a pet calico cat named Teddy that was once a barn cat from he used to be farmer (also I randomly decided the cat also immortal cause I can’t mentally kill off this cat).

François “Frank” Russo/Staten Island was born to human parents during the New Netherland period and is of Walloon and Italian (probably Neapolitan) descent. He can be rather intense especially when he’s passionate about something, and often thinks of himself as the center of universe. He may off as an annoying asshole but if you put aside the self centered attitude, the extreme bouts of passion and stubbornness, and maybe his lack of manners- you’ll find he’s not a bad guy.

Also why borough ocs, Egg? Uh cause I can. When I made them, no one else was doing this and I felt a New York City character can’t be explained in just a character alone plus culturally and politically the boroughs are actual entities thus for me mentally justifies why I could personify them.

OK also one of the more major changes to the lore is that Lynn & Tony are now legally married due to the 1898 amalgamation. As I mentioned numerous times on this blog, I want to explore more serious and complicated themes especially as I’ve gotten older. I now interpret the amalgamation a bit like a marriage between New York City (then just Lynn) and the city of Brooklyn. They’re still friends/rivals. Also Tony is gay. But I’m interested in exploring the idea of these personifications being public figures and how aspects maybe like tokenization, homophobia, misogyny can also impact them. I’ll expand on this another time as I don’t want to take away from the point of this post.

The other major update is that Andy/Queens & Rodrigo/the Bronx only come into existence as aeterni (borrowing term from a pirenaia on twitter) when they’re older kids and at some point btwn 1870s-1890s. This just changes their aging timeline a bit is all. I made this change cause I really want my borough ocs to reflect the inhabitants and groups that have had significant influences on the culture of this city. As Rodrigo is Puerto Rican / Irish in his ethnic background and Andy is Chinese / Dominican, the most significant beginnings of the migration of these groups to the city started in the late 1800s (picked up x1000 post wwii). It wasn’t like impossible before but I felt the explanation was too loose ++ the Bronx & Queens were just beginning to urbanize at this period & beforehand I’m gonna argue did not have much of a major cultural thing. I need both a major cultural aspect and some sort of political aspect to create ocs. Alsooo eastern Bronx as a character no longer exists in this universe- Frances rip 🙏

hehe that’s all (for now)- here’s a boroughoes doodle

[jackiequick]

—SpiderMan OC | Antonia ‘AJ’ Morales 🕸

— I blame @hanlueluver for creating a cool Andrew Parker ;)

Full Name: Antonia Julia Luz Morales

Nicknames: Toni, Annie, Luzia, AJ

Age: 28

Height: 5’6

Birthday: February 27th

Family:

Sister -> Rio Morales

Nephew -> Miles Morales

Brother in Law -> Jefferson Davis

Nationality: Puerto Rican 

Preference: Guys but she can always make room for a lady in her life ;)

Alliance: Spider-Women, Spider-Scale, Diamond, XS.

Power: She was given her powers after sneaking around a train station to spray paint the walls with her nephew and boyfriend at the time, being of course bitten by a spider and you know the rest ;) Her power are similar to every spider man/women however she got an added skill.

— That’s teleportation! Popping in and out of places during fights, surprising people and phase between walls when possible. It’s nothing specific or special but she believes it’s rather cool, however she doesn’t use it too often.

Weapons: Aside from powers, she still uses her gun and taser. As well as whatever is around her to fight.

Career: She refers to herself as a cop. Well mainly works at NYPD, as assistant detective and helping keeping order of filming for case studies. She’s pretty skillful with a camera and note taking.

Personality: AJ is kind, smart, strong hearted, can be very sweet, easily annoyed at time and she tends to be clumsy. But she’s a good friend to have when you need a shoulder to cry on. She is someone who doesn’t always catches onto clues too quickly, it takes her time but she’ll get there.

Side-note: She sometimes tends to run in first and ask questions later, never taking time to exactly explain something. So she needs to slow down and get her facts straight sometimes.

—//-

Her 2D animated/comic book version + style of her suit

—//-

When AJ was bitten by the accidental spider, she didn’t feel anything at first until she felt a bump on the side of her wrist later on. She didn’t think anything of it in the beginning, taking care of the bite like any other bite waiting for it to heal.

That was until she started expecting heavy headaches, dizziness and a few climbing hot flashes at work. She didn’t like it one bit, thinking she was sick or something. It felt like anything was going wrong, she couldn’t focus and even her fingers tips started sticking to the files.

Hell even the stapler got stuck

“Aye no!” She muttered to herself, sitting in her office trying to remove the papers from her fingers and throwing the stapler across the floor.

She left work that afternoon, spending two days just to herself trying to everything out. It made her head hurt. She realized her nephew left a SpiderMan comic book in her apartment, reading and raised an eyebrow.

“Okay that’s impossible! There’s only one Spider-Man, there is not such a Spider-Woman. But it all matches up…” AJ said to herself, throwing the comic book aside when she heard the doorbell.

She quickly answered it. It was her sister with her son smiling brightly saying that she needed someone to babysit Miles.

Miles sighed, “Mami! I told you already I don’t need a babysitter. I’m 13! I turn 14 in a month.”

“You’re still a child, Miles.” Rio replied with a smile, then thanking her sister.

Later on, the two spend the whole rest of the day together. Even uncle Aaron joined them, before heading off to work. She loved her family especially her nephew and her boyfriend Aaron, who just so happens to be her sister’s husband’s brother, but still. She will do anything to keep herself and themselves safe.

~~~~~~~

Some time past, AJ kept reading her nephews comic books and secretly watching Spider-Man speed across the city taking note of his every move. Her brother in law may not like Spider-Man to a certain extent but she did. She found him brave, strong, kind, funny and caring towards the people of New York.

Sadly, it hurt that she had to kept herself a secret. Her boyfriend couldn’t even know, hell he was always suspicious and wondering what was going on in her head. She tended to come home late, didn’t hear very often, studied more often than not and sensed everything around her.

One afternoon, she was walking to work with Aaron when suddenly she caught into a robbery accident downtown and quickly ran into place, as the detective she is to look into it. Her boyfriend screamed telling her not to do it, call the other police instead but she didn’t listen.

Spider-Man on was the screen protecting others and trying his best to save the day, when he thought everything was taken care of a robber swooped in and catches AJ taking her hostage. It was a crazy fight, people got hurt.

She tried to fight, smacking his face using her gun and whatever metal plate was next to her, when Spider-Man raced in to help her. She let Spider-Man save her, as she tried to drop the plate but it was stuck to her hands and her physical body popped in and out of place.

Looking over her shoulder to notice the hero glancing at her.

Once he knocked the man unconscious, it was when her fingers suddenly released and she stopped phasing. Spider-Man senses tingled having a feeling he knew what happen as he mutters, “You’re like him, uh, me..?”

“What? Oh no! I’m not. I was just…” She exclaimed trying to explain what happened.

“Your fingers uh, they stuck to the item you were holding..”

“I don’t know what’s happening, alright? I guess we are the same…”

“I can show you the ropes, if you uh, like. It’s crazy but you will get the hang of it.”

AJ half smiled at the New York hero and nodded, as Spider-Man brought her back outside safely away from the robbery.

That moment she went home, figuring out that she didn’t have to hide who she was exactly and maybe living a little different would be good. A detective during the day and turning into a vigilante at night, finding herself spending more time with Spider-Man.

Saving a few lives when possible, seeing the city take flight and keeping her cover.

AJ has met a few allies as she started fighting to save the day. Miss Siren, SliverStone, Tigress and etc.

She went as far as saving her nephew and his friend, once when there was citywide blackout and other time in the park. Miles after being saved twice, having heard the saviors voice and smiled muttering to himself, “Tia..? Cool..”

~~~~

It was all fun and games, until AJ found herself fight one of the quick villains of the week. The Prowler.

She has been watching his movements for a week, having Spider-Man bring in information if possible. She even went far as to go out as Spider-Women to scout what the hell he wanted to do. But nothing.

It sucks. The whole week felt like a downer, hell she was supposed to go on date nights and lunches but Aaron kept canceling. His exact excuses were work, friends need his help and what not. He was hiding something, but she didn’t know what.

She found herself that Saturday night, alone waiting for him to show up, until she got an entertainment report from a friend that The Prowler was out again. She ran out leaving a note for her boyfriend and strapped on her suit, rushing out to the crime scene. She didn’t having time to suit up as the vigilante, so she worn her black uniform and a mask to cover half her face due to the cold weather.

A downtown build held the man in question, as her team rushed in to search for him and hold him captive. Her and her brother in law, Jefferson Davis, run up the stairs racing to get him. SpiderMan was VERY running late.

AJ pulled together finding The Prowler in the building before her brother in law, by teleporting around. A few officers came running behind her, holding up their guns.

Hoisted her gun high to his back and yelled, “Turn around, buddy! You have two seconds to turn yourself in or i shoot!”

“Tsk, tsk, tsk, sweetheart…” He muttered to himself quietly, turning around to face the officer.

The two held their stance, bouncing around the room being quick on their feet. He pounded the ground, trying to scoop her up as she flipped and turned around the room, trying to swiftly take the items he had behind his back.

The fight didn’t last long, running around the stairs where fellows officers and detectives were behind held waiting for a signal but fell short, since it resulted in a fight. It got to a point where an officer shot The Prowler as AJ grabbed the items.

The items were weapon to be transferred to Oscorp.

Spider-Man showed up late to the fight, beating up the villain.

The second The Prowler hit the ground, he was starting to bleed deeply and bruised. AJ raced to detect the situation, after tossing the information to SpiderMan. She quickly unmasked The Prowler as she gasped, removing her own mask…

“No..no, no, no! Aaron!” She screamed out softly, “…why?”

“Oh baby..I’m sorry I didn’t tell you..” He replies coughing with a soft smile, placing a hand on her cheek.

“I..i saw him fight with you..that’s why you weren’t home…”

He simply nodded whispering, “…we what we love..my secrets safe with me, baby..”

“..w-what..? Oh no! Jefferson!” She yelled out to her brother in law.

Jefferson slide over in shock at the reveal, sending a glare at SpiderMan for a quick moment before hushing his brother’s worries. Quietly talking knowing he didn’t have long. The family stayed there in horrible shape of what just happened..

~~~~~

Late that night after that scene, AJ sat down at the rooftop of her building dressed in her Spider suit, whimpering and sighed. She wished she knew earlier or maybe she could’ve done something to stop it.

Spider-Man found her on the rooftop and just held her close. He told her that this life comes with mistakes, heartbreaking times and plenty of unfortunate situations. But you have to make the choice to stand up and fight.

Make the right decision to take on a new day.

Thank you for reading! Hope you like it

Tags: @gaminggirlsstuff @msrochelleromanofffelton @mandylove1000 @superspookyjanelle @sherloquestea @gcthvile @hanlueluver @blackheart-beauty @terry-perry @daughter-of-melpomene @meiramel @rooster-84 @blueboirick and etc

[life-in-the-monster-haus]

you sound extremely white…. especially in your posts defending Gil and blaming shit on Lagoona, like….

your posts only convinced me even more that those two shouldn’t be together.

girls shouldn’t have to put up with racism for the sake of a guy and implying that lagoona should just go “that sucks 😢” whenever gil mentions his parent’s racism? Like wtf how is that a better lesson for kids than her wanting her boyfriend to stand up for himself? and if protecting lagoona from racism is oh so terrible for gil, just…. have them break up ffs. don’t encourage kids to stay in relationships like that where one has to endure racism for the other cus otherwise the person with racist parents gets punished.

Like, way to make it POC’s fault for racist parents being abusive to their kids? “it’s all lagoona’s fault cus she forced gil to take a stand against racism even tho his parents would punish him” like wow. you truly sound very white.

let’s also not gloss over the fact that you called Lagoona a bitch at one point for crying when Frankie asked her about boys. or you calling Draculaura a cow at one point too like wtf??? so maybe lay off the gendered insults for girls??? before jumping to the defense of a character POC dislike and who’s flaws you excuse as trauma cus you see yourself in him.

I'm gonna put this answer under a cut because some folks get cranky when I make long posts, even though there is a feature in your settings that can auto trim long posts, I get blamed anyways... it's easier to blame the person than to address the problem directly isn't it?... hey! that's kinda what happens to Gil! let's discuss.

Saying someone sounds white based off text and nothing else. 🚩🚩🚩

I'm Puerto Rican, thanks for asking. But I blamed shit on Lagoona because, some stuff was her fault, specifically stuff that put Gil directly in harms way. Maybe your cool with dumping your personal baggage on a disabled 16 year old but I'm not and no one should.

My posts were never written to prove that Gil and Lagoona are meant to be together, perfect for each other OR even good together, you're confusing me with a shipper, at most I've stated Gil is decent boyfriend material and I stand by that. The entire reason I write them is to prove Gil is an innocent and defend him from slander that this annoyingly prevalent sub-section of the fandom has been spreading that has absolutely NO basis in canon, if you read my posts like you claim to you'd have known that. I'm not really sure WHY Gil has become the fandom punching bag, Maybe it's because he's less masculine than the other MH guys? is it because he's Asian coded? is it because he needs a device to breathe? Maybe it's some unholy combination of homophobia, racism and ableism. fuck if I know, so I went looking: I watched hundreds of webisodes, days worth of movies and countless pages of teen wank in diaries so that y'all didn't have to and I put it in an easily digestible format but I guess that wasn't good enough for you hmm?

Girls shouldn't have to put up with racism for the sake of a guy. you're completely correct and I don't think I ever made that claim. UNFORTUNATELY saltwater people DO face racism in the G1 Monster High universe and Lagoona would face that same racism regardless if she was dating Gil or not. The racism isn't radiating from Gil, Lagoona says herself there is a long standing system of oppression against saltwater monsters which I covered here.

Also don't put words in my mouth, it's poor form- especially in a text based forum where people can go back and re-read everything we both said. I never once implied "that lagoona should just go “that sucks 😢” whenever gil mentions his parent’s racism" I said it was wrong of her to force him to tell his parents that he was seeing her, especially when she knew they had a threat hanging over his head. Also Gil doesn't just go around mentioning his parents are racist, it's just a fact that exists in this universe and when he IS forced to talk about it, it's always spoken with great shame. Like when he tried to dump Lagoona during the Gloom Beach arc, Y'all think they should have broken up? well here you go. Gil tried to break things off with Lagoona before they were even officially dating, he knew it was painful and tried to spare her. But she likes him and he likes her, so obviously that didn't work.

Gil DID stand up for himself, A LOT. I documented it WELL with pictures, links and colored words for emphasis! I practically spoon fed it to the reader from a silver platter, a child could understand it. If you read my review well enough to understand it to the point that you have a problem with it that you just HAD to tell me about, you'd know that. But clearly you gave my review as much attention as you gave canon because here is what happened in canon again since I don't think you listened the first time it aired or when I said it. In Episode 24 Gil defends Lagoona against Mr. Hack's bigoted statement that Sea Monsters are bad parents, they weren't even dating at that point they were just classmates. He defends Lagoona directly again in Volume 2 where he speaks directly to his parents (Probably his Father?) On the phone in front of Lagoona. THAT phone call? got him sent to a Boarding school far away as punishment for defying his parents wishes and wanting to be with Lagoona and he was there for the entire summer and half of the next school year. They are still TECHNICALLY not dating by this point they are just hanging out and into each other - even without the reward of Lagoona, Gil STILL stood up for her, got punished for it and came back for more because he directly defends Lagoona to his racist parents AGAIN in Volume 3 where Lagoona isn't there, it's just him and his parents so you know how he feels is genuine and not performative, there's a whole episode about it called "Defending your Lagoona" ... I didn't even need to write what I did, the episode should have been enough proof but clearly no one pays attention to either canon or context because some key component of understanding clearly got lost in translation. I'm gonna ASSUME that most of y'all just haven't watched G1 in literally 9 years and have FORGOTTEN the subtle things that make Gil a good kid, it's like y'all watched the first half of skull shores and were like "Wow, Gil is a piece of shit!" - without finishing the movie to know that he saved everyone in the end. People cite Gil being "wishy washy" or "spineless" as reasons why they don't like him, but the shit this kid has been though? He could be getting flogged off screen like Jesus in "the Passion of the Christ" for defying his parents for all we know: he's scared of his parents for a reason but he has been ALWAYS loyal to Lagoona and he stood up to Mr. Hack, Farnum and his own parents for her... the kids spine is made of iron. Some of y'all can't get your man to take a shower for you meanwhile Gil is out here chewing bigots a new one for Lagoona.

Rebelling against your parents prejudice and wrong beliefs to live a life that makes you happy is a GREAT message for kids to learn.

"if protecting lagoona from racism is oh so terrible for gil, just…. have them break up ffs. don’t encourage kids to stay in relationships like that where one has to endure racism for the other cus otherwise the person with racist parents gets punished."

Do you want to watch a show where they are constantly pining for each other because they can't be together? Because I don't... If I wanted to torture myself with love that is there but also isn't there I'd watch Miraculous. Lagoona also never endured any racism directly at the hands of the Webbers, she was just told not to date their son and they didn't even tell her themselves, Gil was always the messenger and he softened the blow as much as he possibly could. while it sucks that she keeps getting bad news it's not really quite the same as experiencing it first hand. But any story-line where the racists get what they want is a bad story-line.

"Like, way to make it POC’s fault for racist parents being abusive to their kids?"

... Did you seriously just try to tell me that G1 Lagoona is a person of color. Blonde haired, green eyed, beach waved hair, light skinned, tiny nosed, Australian, voiced by a white woman, Lagoona... is a person of color... I'm not saying that any of these traits in of themselves automatically makes G1 Lagoona white OR that people of color can't have any of these traits. I'm just saying that all of them PLUS how she's handled in the show with her privileged Yacht owning parents AND the sheer nerd rage from fans at her being Latina in G3 and thus "no longer white" are things that make her white. I know many people have head-canons that shes Aboriginal and that would be fantastic if it was true. But let us not give Mattel too much credit to think that far ahead. for all intents and purposes, G1 Lagoona is white.

HOWEVER, what she is going through IS a common struggle among people of color and I think Mattel did this intentionally to avoid torturing an actual person of color. Little brown kids get subjected to racism enough, they don't need to watch the cartoon mermaid go through it too. or maybe now I'm the one giving Mattel too much credit they probably just wanted to show "Look! white people have it tough too!"... Honestly? this whole allegory would have worked better if Lagoona was a dude and Gil was gay. None of you would have dared to force Gil out of the closet if Lagoona was a dude and his parents were homophobic, but for some reason because it's racism and not homophobia it's okay!? to put Gil at risk!? Would y'all be like "Maybe if Gil just wasn't into men he wouldn't have these problems!" being homeless because of being gay and being homeless because of racism is STILL being homeless, he gets disowned either way.... Make it make sense folks, because it doesn't. Didn't an actor recently get forced out of the closet and it was widely regarded as an awful thing? So why are we so gung-ho to make Gil tell his racist parents he's dating a girl he knows they won't like? Would you do that to him if he was gay and wanted a boyfriend? probably fuckin' not.

I never said everything was Lagoona's fault she is ALSO young and still learning, but somethings were - like him getting sent to boarding school. I realize that Lagoona is a fandom darling and most of y'all's precious little meow meow but she was wrong for that. And I don't hate that, I LIKE that we get flawed characters! Do I love it? No! she was wrong! BUT I LIKE that she was wrong, part of being young and learning is screwing up and making mistakes! we deserve complex characters who aren't perfect in every way. Being pushy and assertive is part of what makes Lagoona a compelling character - but it got someone hurt in this instance and she should learn from that... THAT is good writing... and it's one of the rare instances of good writing we get with these two but I'll get to that in a minute.

"let’s also not gloss over the fact that you called Lagoona a bitch at one point for crying when Frankie asked her about boys."

Once again putting words into my mouth, By making this statement it LOOKS like you read Page 2 of my media analysis but did you though? because context is SUPER important. I did not call Lagoona a bitch for crying, I called her a bitch for being mean to Frankie. Frankie went to Lagoona whose supposed to be their friend for advice but instead Lagoona made it all about her and was then sarcastic to Frankie's plight because her problem is worse and She's aiming for the gold medal of the Pain Olympics. I hate the pain olympics, there are no winners, only losers.

"you calling Draculaura a cow at one point too like wtf??? so maybe lay off the gendered insults for girls???"

And why DID I call Draculaura a cow?... Was it because she was cheating on her black boyfriend with a white guy? 3 seconds after he walked off screen!? because I'm pretty sure it was because she was cheating. once AGAIN we are in a situation where context is important! In the exact same page just discussed I took an entire sidebar to explain why Draculaura was being a cow. I have absolutely zero respect for cheaters and I could have (and should have) called her a lot worse. I'd also like to say that as far as insults for girls go? Cow is fairly mild I could have called her another C word that is frequently used against girls but I went with cow to keep it classy~. also side note: there are male cows, I think they're called Steers... but it's still a cow. Anyways I don't think you really care what I call Draculaura, I think you're now just trying to paint me out as some type of misogynist... which, just proves you don't follow me or know anything about what I preach here you're just mad that I defended a boy whom you're assuming is white.

"before jumping to the defense of a character POC dislike and who’s flaws you excuse as trauma cus you see yourself in him."

UHM... I don't recall reading anywhere that Gil is disliked by POC specifically!?!?! I can't track the barometrics of Monster High tumblr... In fact from what I can gather if TikTok & Twitter are anything to go by most of the people who are hating on Gil are overwhelmingly white... but at the same time I'm not polling anybody either. But just for the record I'm Latine and my friend who helps me out with MH & Gil lore, @peppapigvevo isn't white either... Sooo if your point is that POC are the ones who don't like Gil... I'm here to tell you that POC are also the ones defending him.

But Gil canonically doesn't really have a ton of flaws and the tiny ones he does have stem from him being young and inexperienced, frankly I wish he had more, it would give people a legit reason to hate on him instead of their reasoning now which boils down to: "His parents are racist and even though HE isn't racist I'm gonna blame him anyways because someone on social media told me to and I haven't watched the show in a decade so my memory of the lore is fuzzy at best but I saw Lagoona cry once so Gil MUST be the bad guy!." Which... Y'all are expecting perfection from Gil and that's a ridiculous standard for anyone to live up to let alone a 16 year old boy. But I'm not like... making up trauma for Gil, based on how much he fears his parents THAT is a trauma response that they have instilled in him, it's there I didn't invent it. healthy normal kids don't fear their parents the way Gil fears his, I can only assume he is afraid because they have given him a reason to be afraid. a statement I have also said, several times, in my posts that you claim to have read and take issue with.

Was Gil and Lagoona's relationship written extremely well? No. But do I think Mattel should have never touched the issue of racism in their show? also No! it took a lot of guts to put a story about prejudice in a kids cartoon and MH is for little kids, their target demographic is 6-11yr olds, obviously MH skews a bit older, otherwise none of us would be here. But I'm glad they covered this topic, I don't much care for shows that shy away from scary issues or talk to kids like they're stupid because kids aren't stupid, they're little proto humans who learn things way faster than we do and we should treat them as such. Not only did they touch the topic they did so with a main character and they didn't sugar coat it! we saw the pain Lagoona AND Gil went through because of his parents racism. Touching this topic at all is huge, was it perfectly handled? absolutely not! they never actually resolved the issue, Gil's parents never learned a lesson, got comeuppance or accepted Lagoona, Gil never got to date the girl he likes with family approval there was always something looming in the background. which is... fine?... things aren't always wrapped up nice and pretty with a bow in real life, sometimes things are messy. However, one thing that bothered everyone, including me was towards the end of G1 the writers didn't really know what to do with Lagoona and Gil so they just kinda... rehashed the same fight 3 or 5 times... it happened in the webisodes, diaries and the movies. and that's sloppy on the writers part, the same fight being milked for drama isn't Gil's fault and shouldn't be blamed on him... but it is. Gil is just the messenger and y'all shot him on sight.

Mattel:

Gil:

However, that wasn't the end. Gil and Lagoona may not have got the fairy tale ending some people think they deserve or the tragic breakup that other people think they deserve but they did get closure. Gil's Mansters diary takes place after the events of 13 wishes and his parents wrote out a list of chores for him to do while they are out on a trip and before he goes to stay with Deuce for the weekend and the last thing he SAYS they put on the list is as follows:

"+ Don't date Lagoona. They didn't actually write that. I just know what they're thinking. Actually, we don't really talk about that directly very much anymore. We kind of just agree to disagree, especially since Lagoona was wished into a freshwater monster and back again. I think they saw how miserable I was during that whole time, and I believe it made some kind of an impact.. hopefully."

and that was how the saga of Gil, Lagoona & The Webbers ended. Not with a roar but with a whisper. It's also canonical proof in his own words that Gil was, in fact miserable during 13 wishes just in case anyone doubted it after my review.

It's not a happy ending or a sad ending it's not even a peaceful ending. it's an uneasy cease fire... which is good enough? I suppose. Gil's parents love him enough to let it go (after both Lagoona and he endured great personal struggles), They know he's dating Lagoona and he knows they don't like that, Lagoona knows they don't like it, I'm sure Lagoona isn't welcome over for dinners or anything but the issue has been dropped. Gil and Lagoona can finally date, no strings attached.

I'm sure that's not the ending you would have written, my very grumpy anon. But relationships are complex and sometimes the solutions to their problems are complex too but love finds a way to triumph over bigotry.

And that is a message that we could all learn from.

[omg-im-such-a-masochist]

I saw that you did stripper!reader with malakai black and I was wondering can we get some headcannons with our Puerto Rican Papi because that seems perfect for him👀🥴 

Oh fuck, here comes trouble 🚨👀😈 Damian’s gif is by the beautiful Melissa aka @hungmanhorsecarriage Thank you, babe ❤️😘

@theworldofotps , @ziasaph , @alyhull , @aerynscrichton , @sophiewolfheart-blog , @irish-newzealand-idian-dutch , @sunnyyeoo

The most coveted client was him

Every girl wanted him

Every girl wanted an opportunity to dance for him

Every girl wanted to sit on his lap

And you can’t blame them

The guy was hot!

Deep voice that spoke soft words

Dark brown eyes that were filled with mischief

Full lips that make you wonder what he can do with that mouth

A nice body

Boyish face

Captivating smile

Soft tanned skin

He dresses like the rock star you wanna fuck

And has this aura of ‘unforgettable dirty sex’ that makes every woman kneel in front of him

There were three girls around him right now, a blonde, a brunette and a red

One on each thigh and the third one behind him, caressing his chest while she kisses his neck

But his eyes were elsewhere

They were on you

On the stage

Where you were dancing right now

No matter what the girls did

Or how hard they tried

They couldn’t get his attention away from you

When you slowly rolled your hips in sync with the beat of the song

You saw him licking his lips while adjusting himself on his pants

The music was over, so you walked towards the bar to get a drink

That’s when you saw, from the corner of your eye, him briefly get away from the other girls touch

And come to you

“You’re a great dancer” He spoke in your ear, due to the loud music

“Thank you” You smiled

“You do private dances?”

You finished your drink in one big gulp before turning around to face him “I’m sure my colleagues do private dances. Why don’t you ask them?” And pointed with your chin towards the girls who were previously with him

“Nah, I want you. You turn me on, they don’t. You’re a mystery, I like mysteries. I like to hunt, not to be hunted, baby” He had this predatory look on his face that was making you wet already

“I just got here...I’m not looking for trouble with the older girls-“

“I’ll pay double if you give me a private dance... at my place” His tongue darted our, licking a soft stripe on your neck “Just you and me, bebé. Double payment, all night long. What do you say?”

[mixed-theater-faisty-tings]

Lovin’ Kind

Chapter Two

Pairing: Riff x Latina! Summary: With Tony back it means The Jets hanging around Doc’s more often and Catalina has some stuff to figure out that Riff and his intolerance isn’t helping.

A/N: Here comes Chapter 2 thanks so much for reading and I will see you Thursday for Chapter 3! As always feel free to message me for tags or even feedback!! Enjoy!!!!!

———————————————————— Riff Pov

“Now that Tony is back everything can be as it used to be and we can get our turf back. Those no-good spics ain’t worth shit.”, I rally at my guys. “Riff, Tony ain’t want nothing to do with us?”, Ice says. “He just needs time okay he just got back.”, I defend. “Face it he done with the jets.”, Diesel adds. “Ain’t no such thing as done with the Jets. Meet at Doc’s at 2 and we will talk to him.”, I order before walking off.

Ever since Tony left I took over as leader of the gang but, I ain’t as confident as him and I don’t have the ideas he does or even the self-control. I start running my mouth and get us in deeper trouble than we need. I sorta blame myself for him landing upstate…that dumb Egyptian King was running his trap so I boasted up Tony causing him to nearly kill the kid. We created the Jets it’s our only source of family and I couldn’t let it fall apart after he left. As I walk towards Doc’s trying to make it there before the rest of the guys I begin to think about my conversation with Tony last night. He was blabbing about wanting to change and be better but I don’t know what he is going on about. He has never been as angry as some of us Jets and I think Catalina had something to do with it those two were about as close as Tony and I outside of the gang and i’ve never hated her for being around but, the guys and I do poke at her causing her utter annoyance. I’d bet everything I got which isn’t much…that she hates me just for being me and getting Tony sent away. Maybe I should’ve been there for her when he left she was alone with the old bat. She probably would’ve laughed in my face. When I finally approach the entrance of Doc’s I see Cat sweeping the floors and dancing around to music from the juke. I walk through the door and lean against the doorframe watching her glide across the floor. I am unaware of how long this take places until she spins around dropping the broom and letting out a small squeal.

——————————————————————— Catalina Pov

I love having music playing while I am cleaning it fills the empty space surrounding me. I am dancing around the store sweeping when I turn around and find Riff just standing there watching me causing me to jump, drop my broom and squeal. “What the hell are you doing?”, I say picking up the broom and praying it sounded like I was mad. “Watching you dance? I think?”, he smirks, god that smirk. STOP IT! “You never just stand there like a creep and what do you mean you think?”, I roll my eyes walking away from him. “Well that’s not how ya dance sweetheart.”, he snickers.

“Sorry was it too Puerto Rican for you”, I spit. “Why so catty?”, he follows me. “Knock it off! I’m not dealing with you today.”. “Well clear your schedule cause yes you are. The Jets are coming by today and isn’t today the only day the old bat never sets foot here? Leaving you to fend for yourself?”, He remains on my tail. “And you know this how?”, I face him. “You may ignore me but doesn’t mean I ignore you.”, his eyes locked on mine. What does he mean by that? “Why don’t you go find some wall to paint on. Preferably a blank one that doesn’t have a Puerto Rican flag”, I push him away and go behind the counter.

“Come on don’t dump on my best work. Thought it needed some touch ups.”, he boasts. “No Riff! It was disrespectful and you knew that. It was hurtful to us and you know that but, that is what makes you happy huh seeing everyone around you miserable except for the Jets. We left Puerto Rico to find better opportunities the same way your people did and all we have been met with is hate by people like you! Screw you and the Jets all we want is a home just like you!”, I am livid. “Well at least you got family! The Jets are the only source of family I have and we aren’t letting some dirty spics ruin that!”, he fires back. “Look around gringo! Where’s your family now? Causing a ruckus without their hot shot leader. Half of us leave our family behind sometimes because they can’t come. My dad left my mom and me so we came here for my Tia and within a few years of us being here my mom fell extremely ill causing her to leave me too. My tia is all I have left and these Puerto Ricans that are “stealing” your turf are my family the way the Jets are yours. Ever think about that? No of course not! All you ever think about is you!”, I spat in pure anger, careful not to let my tears fall no way was he gonna see me this way.

“Cat? I-“, he stumbles through his thoughts. “Catalina. Just leave it alone Riff, I have a job to do.”, I get back to sweeping. Tony comes upstairs for the first time all morning ready to get to work. “Morning Catalina. Oh hey buddy boy what you doing here.”, Tony smiles unaware of the spiel I let out. “Came here to see you. The Jets are on their way we all need to talk business.”, Riff says acting like nothing happened. Typical. Why do I care? “I told ya I ain’t getting involved in that.”., Tony says taking the broom from me. “There ain’t no leaving the Jets you know that”, Riff steals the broom from him.

“Okay if you two are going to argue about this can you do it elsewhere so I can do my job. Just because Valentina doesn’t come in today doesn’t mean this place can be unorganized.”, I steal the broom from Riff and push past the boys. “Riff I have to start work can‘t we talk later?”, Tony pleads. “Sure I’ll just sit here and watch you and the princess work till the guys get here.”, he takes a seat at a table crossing his arms and a smug look across his face. I roll my eyes and tell Tony how we keep the store clean and organized. After he brings up some inventory he and I start to stock up the shelves. As I fill up the Snickers I notice Tony removing them. “Would you stop they need to be filled up.”, I laugh at his small joke. “What do you mean it’s a ghost.”, he chuckles tossing the candy back into the inventory box. “Uno de estos dias lo juro.(One of these days I swear)”, I say.

The bell rings signaling someone entering the store, a click of heels hitting the floor and a voice I know. “Alta como estas?’, Anita walks towards me not noticing the two white boys in the store with me, “Anita..que haces aqui? Mi tia no viene hoy? (What are you doing here? My aunt doesn’t come in today).”, I say meeting her closer to the door. Riff sits up in his chair amused at the sight in front of him and Tony is frozen in his tracks. “Medidas necesarias pero pareces ocupado.(Needed measurements but you seem busy)”, she says finally acknowledging the boys. “Hola señora”, Riff comes closer to us. “Riff back off”, Tony says catching everyone’s attention.

“Tony watch the store. Anita follow me. Riff don’t steal anything.”, I say guiding Anita towards the back of the store so she could get what she needs. “There’s a white man working here? And The Jets leader is just sitting there?!”. “Tony is harmless my Tia offered him a job after he was released from prison”, I explain. “Prison! Como que harmless!”. “It’s a long story. Tony is my friend and unfortunately Riff is his best friend. Please don’t think different of me.”, I beg. “I could never..you are one of us. Just be careful I don’t want you getting hurt.”, she says. “I have my ways around them…don’t tell Nardo please I don’t wanna deal the Sharks getting territorial”, I ask of her.

She nods and gets her measurements while I poke at her for details about my dress that she is keeping from me. I walk her out finding Tony and Riff exactly where I left them. “Acabo de pasar por el apartamento el jueves y haremos los toques finales. Puedes llevar el vestido a casa después de eso para la danza.(Just come by the apartment Thursday and we will do final touches. You can bring the dress home after that for the dance)”, she smiles giving me a hug. “English ladies.”, Riff says with yet another Milkyway in his dirty hands. I roll my eyes ignoring him. “Gracias. I will see you Thursday and tell Maria I said hi.”. “Of course. And Junior said he would be happy to escort you so we can all meet there.”, she explains. “I look forward to it. Adios.”, I say as she walks out.

“So kitty cat is going to the dance huh?’, Riff mocks. “Of course I am.”, I say taking the candy from him. “So do you know Junior?”, Tony asks. “I’ve met him a few times. He is pretty nice. They just wanna set Maria and I up with some nice Puertorriqueños.”, I walk towards the shelves to finish stocking. “Don’t wanna make like your tia and marry a white man?“, Riff interjects. “I don’t care about that and if you knew me at all you would know that.”, I spit. “Just saying I could always take ya to the dance doll.”, leaving Tony and I confused.

As if perfect timing, the bell rings again and in walks the rest of the Jets followed by some of their girls Graziella, Velma, and Minnie. Grazi and I were on okay terms since she was Tony’s girlfriend before he went away but I guess she is keeping Riff company now. After hugging Tony she places herself in Riffs lap causing my stomach to churn. “Cat it’s been a while.”, Diesel says scooting close to me. “Not long enough.”, I say moving away. “Don’t be like that. Come on.”, he pulls me back. “Enough!”, Riff shouts causing everyone to look at him. “Touchy touchy.”, Ice chimes in. “Mind your damn business”, he spits back. “Grazi calm your man down”, Ice chuckles.

Tony and I exchange some looks, listening to the nonsense these guys were talking. I could feel Riff’s eyes locked on me for some reason as I went about my duties. “Anyway the reason we are all here is for Tony boy! He’s back and ready to reclaim his position as leader right?’, Baby John, the youngest and least harmless of the Jets speaks up. “I told Riff I can’t be getting mixed up in all that.”he glares at his best friend. “Ya know his parole officer and all that he can’t get sent back.”, Riff pushes but the Jets don’t buy it. “Riff is right. With Tony’s parole if he gets caught doing something dumb he can get sent back and they won’t be as nice as they were.”, I defend. “Just give me some time to figure things out.”, Tony says clearly upset with his two best friends. “So ya’ll hear about that dance next week?”, Velma speaks up. She never talks much. Just kind of hanging around I’ve tried to play nice with her but, she is closer to Grazi.

“Yeah. Everyone is going. Shark and Jets alike.”, Riff smirks in my direction. “You and Grazi will have loads of fun dancing together.”, I push at him. “No gang business please let’s just dance and have fun.”, Grazi begs him. “I make no promises.”, he looks back at the girl in his lap. “I’m leaving you dogs to your love fest”, I walk away from the conversation and place myself behind the counter to count the till.

After a few hours and a lot of back and forth the Jets leave their hangout leaving Tony and I to have a conversation. “Why would you do that? I thought we were friends.”, He says. “You’re my best friend you know that. I guess I was trying to help Riff in a way.”, I admit. “Help him?”, he is as confused as me. “Yeah I mean when he took over as leader he forced it on himself so he didn’t lose them. I figured if I backed him up a little bit with the whole parole thing maybe they would take him a bit more serious.”, I explain. “Neither of you are wrong. My parole officer will kill me if I get involved with anything hence my want to stay only in Doc’s and lay low.”, he looks at me. “I’m sorry you know I’d never do anything to get you into trouble with anyone.”, I plead for forgiveness. “You’re lucky that as my best friend I can’t stay mad at you.” He hugs me. “Good now make sure you can see your reflection in the floor or Valentina is going to murder us both.”, I giggle. We clean around the store humming to ourselves till it was time to close.

————————————————————-

A few days pass

It is now Monday and the Jet’s have been at Doc’s every day. Today my Tia gave me the day off so I decided to go around to the markets and maybe find a new dress just for me. I have always been very scarce with any money my tia pays me at the store but I had saved enough for the classes Maria and I had discussed since I had been thinking about it for a while and had a few cents to spare. I invited Tony out but he declined and my tia didn’t need any errands done so it was just me in the hot New York Sun. I was encapsulated by this beautiful skirt that was the perfect shade of dark red and it flowed perfectly with a black off the shoulder top I had hidden at home. Lost in thought I don’t realize that there is a body now next to me.

“Oh buying something pretty to wear for our date?”, the body speaks and I turn over my shoulder to see Riff. “No you see the skirt is actually for you. I’ve heard you’re just a vision in red.”, I remark. “You’ve heard correct.”, he does his signature smirk. If a look could send me it would be that one. “What are you doing here? Following me like a puppy?”, I say. “Woof woof sweetheart.”, I can’t help but let out a small laugh at that. “Seriously why are in the market?”, I ask. “I wanted to thank ya for backing me up the other day ya know.”, he looks down at his fingers.

“I did it for Tony”, I half-lie. “No no i’m sure I just..it made the guys respect me a bit more.”, he admits. “Good now get them to leave the Puerto Ricans alone.”, I say. “You know I can’t do that and even then I won’t do that. We were here first.”, he says. “What are we five years old fighting over the sand box?”, I say aggravated. “I’m just saying that we don’t share.”, he doesn’t help his case.

“So let me get this straight. You’re allowed to terrorize us but we can’t fight back?”, I ask. “Exactly see you’re getting it. Thought you were supposed to be smart.”, he remarks sarcastically.

“Between us two..I am the smart one and that isn’t fair. We don’t purposely come after you and your guys. The only reasons the Sharks do anything back is because they won’t let themselves be disrespected. You guys just start everything but the Sharks are determined to finish it”, I explain. “That is the problem right there.”, he points out. “No the problem is you.”, I say walking away from him. I push past the groups of people shopping realizing I didn’t get my skirt. I sigh to myself and go over to Maria’s.

—————————————————————————— “Maria want to go get some coffee?”, I ask. “Sure let me grab my purse and tell Nardo.” She smiles.

We both head over to a diner that was decently neutral territory nothing ever happened here thank god for that. She talks me through all the things Anita and Bernardo have said about Junior and I they have some high expectations. Although we are not blood they are like siblings to me but, sometimes they treat Maria and I like kids. “I know I agreed to go with Junior but, I am kind of rethinking it.”, I admit to her. “Why?”, she asks. “I’m not a kid..i am eighteen years old I can find my own dates to things and who is to say that I even want to be in a relationship.”, I say. “ Is there someone else?”, Maria inquires. “What? No. I just mean I can get my own dates.”, I defend. “Okay mentirosa”, She sips her coffee picking at her piece of pie. “Cállate”, I say eating my pie.

“Kitty cat what brings you here this afternoon.”, Diesel says pulling out a chair next to me. “Diesel now is not the time. Please leave me alone.”, I beg. “Shooing me off before introducing me to your friend.”, he looks at Maria who has now gone silent. “You don’t need to know her. Don’t you have to meet the guys at the docks or something?”, I say. “Nah they won’t mind if i’m a little late on the account of pretty girls.”, He wraps an arm around me. “Diesel please.”, I beg beginning to get nervous. Diesel is the more angered one of the Jets he doesn’t care. “Please what?’, he says his index finger tracing down my arm.

“Diesel back off!”, Riff’s voice booms through the diner. “Come on bud it’s Cat I wanna see how scratchy she can get.”, he looks at me. “If I have to tell you one more damn time you’re going to be limping out of this diner.”, his voice stern and stance strong. “Whatever. I’ll finish this later.”, he whispers in my ear before leaving us. “Are you okay Catalina?”, Riff asks. “Screw all of you.”, I say through gritted teeth, and setting money down on the table and leading Maria out of the building.

“How do you know them?”, she asks me. “ I grew up at Doc’s and so did the Jet’s usually they pick on me but, never to the extent of what they do to the Sharks or the rest of us.”, I explain. “Who was Riff?”. “He is their leader. Just never make eye contact with them okay.”, I say. She nods and I walk her back to her apartment before returning to Doc’s finding a worried Tony. “Are you okay!? Riff told me what happened with Deez did he hurt you?’, he asks checking my arms and legs for evidence. “No he didn’t do anything he was just slightly touchy and saying things that were uncomfortable but I am okay.”, I pull my arm away from him. “Riff was worried about ya.”, he admits. “Sure he was. I’m going to bed think you can handle locking up?”, I ask.

Tony nods and I head off to my little corner in the back of the store. Laying in bed I mourn the dress I left at the market and wonder why Riff would be worried about me he has never once in his life showed he cared about anyone besides himself and after our conversation at the shops I expect no different.

@whisperofsong @theforgottenmcrmy @belenchies @riffheartsgraziella @dellaspinstales

[puttingherinhistory]

“PORTLAND, Oregon—Outfitted in a flak jacket and fighting gloves, Enrique Tarrio was one of dozens of black, Latino, and Asian men who marched alongside white supremacists in Portland on Aug. 4.

Tarrio, who identifies as Afro-Cuban, is president of the Miami chapter of the Proud Boys, who call themselves “Western chauvinists,” and “regularly spout white-nationalist memes and maintain affiliations with known extremists,” according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Last month, prior to the Patriot Prayer rally he attended in Portland, Tarrio was pictured with other far-right activists making a hand sign that started as a hoax but has become an in-joke. Last year, Tarrio said traveled to Charlottesville, Virginia, for the Unite the Right rally that ended with a neo-Nazi allegedly killing an anti-fascist protester. (The Proud Boys said any members who went to the event were kicked out.)

Tarrio and other people of color at the far-right rallies claim institutional racism no longer exists in America. In their view, blacks are to blame for any lingering inequality because they are dependent on welfare, lack strong leadership, and believe Democrats who tell them “You’re always going to be broke. You’re not going to make it in society because of institutional racism,” as one mixed-race man put it. 

If racism doesn’t exist, I ask Tarrio, how would he explain the disproportionate killing of young black men by police? “Hip-hop culture,” he says. It “glorifies that lifestyle… of selling drugs, shooting up.” Because of that, “Obviously you’re going to have higher crime rates. Obviously you’re going to have more police presence and more confrontations.” (Police kill black males aged 15 to 34 at nine times the rate of the general population.) 

Elysa Sanchez, who is black and Puerto Rican, attended the “Liberty or Death Rally Against Left-Wing Violence” in Seattle on Aug. 18, joining about 20 militiamen open-carrying handguns and semi-automatic rifles. 

Sanchez says, “If black people are committing more murders, more robberies, more thefts, more violent crime, that’s why you would see more black men having encounters with the police.” 

Also in Seattle, Franky Price, who said he is  “black and white,”wore a T-shirt reading, “It’s okay to be white.” 

They are among nearly a dozen black, Latino, and Asian participants at far-right rallies on the West Coast interviewed by The Daily Beast recently. They represent the new face of the far right that some scholars term “multiracial white supremacy.” 

The Proud Boys and Patriot Prayer, which overlap, embrace an America-first nationalism that is less pro-white than it is anti-Muslim, anti-illegal immigrant, and anti-Black Lives Matter. “Proud Boys is multi-racial fraternity with thousands of members worldwide,” a lawyer for the group’s leader, Gavin McInnis, said in a statement. “The only requirements for membership are that a person must be biologically male and believe that the West is the best.” 

Daniel Martinez HoSang, associate professor at Yale University, co-author of the forthcoming Producers, Parasites, Patriots: Race and the New Right-Wing Politics of Precarity, says “Multiculturalism has become a norm in society” and has spread from corporations and consumer culture to conservatism and the far-right. 

Indeed, Patriot Prayer’s leader is Joey Gibson, who is half-Japanese and claims Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., as a hero. But his agenda is the opposite of King’s. Gibson’s rallies have attracted neo-Confederates and neo-Nazis. 

His right-hand man is Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, a 345-pound Samoan American who calls himself “a brown brother for Donald Trump” and is notorious for brawling. By bringing diversity to what is at heart a white-supremacist movement, people of color give it legitimacy to challenge state power and commit violence against their enemies. 

David Neiwert, author of Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right in the Age of Trump, says, “The ranks of people of color who show up to these right-wing events are totally dominated by males.” He says the alt-right targets white males between the ages of 15 and 30 with a message of male resentment, which ends up attracting black, Latino, and Asian men as well.

Neiwert says many young men of color in the far-right grew up on conservative traditions common in minority communities. Their journey to the far-right has been enabled by the ease of recruitment in the internet age and the endorsement of extremism by Trump. 

Entry points to the far-right include male-dominated video-game culture, the anti-feminist gamergate, troll havens on 4chan and 8chan, and the conspiracism that flourishes on websites like Infowars. Libertarianism is another gateway. 

“A lot of these young guys,” Neiwert says, “especially from the software world, who are being sucked into white nationalism, start out being worked up about Ayn Rand in high school.” 

Andrew Zhao, 25, a software engineer, says his parents, physicists who emigrated from mainland China, “are Trump fans.” He found out about the Seattle rally from Reddit and Facebook and said, “We need more patriotism. A lot of liberals don’t like America.” 

Daniel HoSang says some people of color are drawn to the far-right because they “identify with the military, with nationalism, with patriotism, with conservatism.” 

Wearing a Proud Boys hat, David Nopal, 23, came to the Seattle rally alone, like others. Nopal, whose parents crossed illegally from Mexico, said, “I’m very patriotic. The U.S. isn’t perfect, but we are a hell of a lot better than other countries.” 

Sanchez comes from a military family. “They all love America. It’s a big part of the reason I’m a patriot.” 

Similarly, Tarrio attributes his anti-socialist politics to his grandfather’s experience in Cuba under Fidel Castro. 

They proudly identify as “American” without modifiers. In their America they’ve never experienced racism. They eagerly talk politics, but evidence of their America is scant beyond the internet. Institutional racism has been ended by affirmative action, “black privilege,” and equal protection under the law. Any remaining black inequality is caused by social welfare and liberal policies. In any case, it was Democrats who started the Klan. 

People of color within the far-right play a role that “excuses white racism and bears witness to the failure of people of color,” HoSang says, adding that they make “white supremacy a more durable force.” 

HoSang said the far-right is trying to broaden its appeal from a whites-only movement in a multiracial America, so it is “laying claim to the ideas of anti-racism, racial uplift, and civil-rights progress.” 

HoSang says, “It’s hard for people to wrap their head around how Dr. King and civil-rights language are being used to legitimate positions approaching fascism and violence to restore hierarchy and order. But they are.”

[allhailthewicked]

Random JATP Headcannon: The Wilson’s and Street Food

Do you ever think about how after the boy’s death Bobby was probably extremely weary of all take-out, street food, and basically all food that he can’t see how it is prepared? Because I do! SO I decided to write a headcannon about it.

I mean my man watched his three brothers die a horribly painful death because they wanted to have a quick bite to eat. Don’t think about how he was probably the person who found them dying from food poisoning, in excruciating pain probably scared out of their goddamn minds. Don’t think about him clutching their bodies sobbing. Don’t think about how Bobby 100% most definitely didn’t eat anything for the next few days after the guys’ death. Don’t think about how he was probably too scared to trust any foods that he doesn’t make himself. But honestly, he is terrible at cooking that was Reggie’s and Alex’s jobs. I mean he can make a couple of Filipino recipes that his Lola taught him how to make like halo-halo, adobo, liempo sinigang rice.

Then eventually, he started to eat again, well not exactly, I mean Dr. Crystal seemed hopeful. But like he would go to restaurants with like multiple EFFING Michelin Stars and like refuse the food because he’s so scared that he might choke, or get food poisoning and die like the others. Like he low-key throws a tantrum because he is freaking and upsets the chef, but can you blame him?

Without any contexts the public and gossip magazines were like:

 “woah I know he’s a rock star but what a spoiled brat”

“TREVOR WILSON: A FOOD SNOB?!?!”

 “I Can’t Believe (It’s Not Butter sorry back to the headcannon lol) That This Rising Star Threw His Soup at the Chef a Michelin Star Restaurant”

(It was completely by accident btw!!! The matching friendship ring with the guys fell in the soup and he didn’t want to lose another part of his friends. So he started to rush to the bathroom with the soup to find the ring and fix it. .....and the chef just happened to be right behind.....and the gazpacho just happened to spill all over him. But he did get the ring so..... that’s good!!! But he also cried a bunch washing the tomato off of it tho)

Rose started to swing by his house every couple of days with bags full of ingredients and she checks in with him as she is making classic Puerto Rican comfort foods. She quickly realized that his vegetarianism wasn’t a lie and adjusted the recipes that she grew up with to suit his needs. Rose also realizes that if Bobby doesn’t know how a certain food is made and if he can’t see all the ingredients that went into it then he would refuse to eat it. So she fell into a pattern where she would cook at his mansion as he looks over her shoulder seeing how she make the dishes, sadly laughing at the terrible dad jokes she makes. (The jokes remind him of the one Reggie use to make)

Rose “The Queen of Meal Prepping Before Meal Prepping was Popular” makes enough food the next couple of days. Together they would sit down together to enjoy a meal. Rose just tells him it was to  make sure that she made the recipe correctly. But really it was to ease his anxiety about eating and to prove that the food isn’t poison. However, deep down it was to also show him that it is okay to make new friends and the boys probably would have wanted him to at least try to move on a little. Quickly Rose discovered that his favorite dishes are arroz con gandules (basically white rice with peas and olives), mofongo (think like mashed potatoes but with plantains), and some many pasteles and empanadas. And even after Julie and Carrie were born they have family dinners once per week that Rose cooked.

Well I mean until her chemo started of course because that when the roles started to reverse..... (but I’ve given y’all enough angst today, so that’s a story for another time)

I mean at some point he probably had to learn how to cook for himself and Carrie or at the very least he goes to a restaurant that personally shows him how the food is prepared/ he can see most of the steps on how it is prepared. Like one time The number of professional chefs my manz personally knows is ridiculous!!! I mean once he became FILTHY LIKE DIRTY LIKE I WOULD EAT HIM rich he definitely got a personal chef to either meal prep or cooks meals for both him and Carrie.

Bobby had one of the worst anxiety attacks of his life (I mean other than when he found out the guys died) when Carrie was 7. She went to Flynn’s birthday party at an arcade and found out that she ate cheese pizza and hot dogs (I mean Lukie, Lexington, and Reg died from street glizzies for fuck’s sake). Sobbing he called Rose freaking out as he drove Carrie (who was blissfully ignorant singing along to the Kidz Bop CD she got from the party favor) to the ER. “Rose I can’t lose another person who I love” Rose right before she had to perform at a gig she convinced him to turn around and go back home.

This is @iamthefryiestfrench-blog genius idea and I love it so, so much but Carrie and Bobby definitely started to cook dinner together like a couple times a week as Father-Daughter bonding time. Well until Carrie started to get super busy with Dirty Candy and before Trevor started touring again at that point they started to drift away. Fights started to happen more frequently. Carrie started to get more and more take-out to spite Trevor, but she didn’t realize that Trevor stopped eating again. A major fight erupted after Trevor passed out from hunger a couple of weeks after the Orphuem concert.

 “Carrie sweetie it is NOT DRUGS”

“Then why did I walk in to you knocked out on the floor” 

“I just hadn’t had time to eat today mahal”

“Dad do not lie to me! I cannot lose another person who I love. I can’t Dad. I’m going to call Dr. Crystal!!!”

And that was when the truth was revealed...

Carrie’s channel is slowly started to be sponsored by hello fresh, cookunity, or blue apron every single week without fail. Both of them wouldn’t admit it, but this was her offering the olive branch and Trevor took it IMMEDIATELY. (He missed cooking with his little girl). And in the sponsorship ad you would see Trevor cooking a meal with his hair in little pigtails with pink scrunchies.

Of course, they get the vegetarian meals and if you use here promo code “DIRTYCANDI10” then you can get up to 10 meals for free!!! So thank you so much Hello Fresh for sponsering today’s video!!!

It took almost 25 years but cooking with Carrie again made things feel almost alright again and that’s all Bobby could have asked for.

A/N: Hi! Thanks for reading this it was really fun to write :) (because I love to write pain lmao) But please let me know if you want to be added to my taglist down below by either replying to this post, reblogging this post, or sending me an ask! I would appreciate reblogs and feedback because I love reading your guy's comments and tags they seriously make my day but it's fine if you don't want to :)!!!

~✨My Taglist is Under the Cut Lol✨~

@poppin-peters, @sunset-bobby, @theobligatedklutz, @soupforfree, @iamthefryiestfrench-blog

[foodbytesback]

The Rise and Fall of Bon Appetit

Sometimes life comes at you fast.  Sometimes, that means stories in the food industry break in such rapid succession that you have no time to blink in between.  Sometimes, it means someone found out about something racist you did a few years ago.  What happens when it’s both?  Ask the fine folks at Bon Appetit.

In recent years, Bon Appetit made a name for itself, rising from the ashes of dying print media, through its Youtube channel featuring a diverse cast of personalities.  But over the course of this past week, many of the publication’s executives have been found to foster a toxic workplace culture, rife with racism, sexism and homophobia.  

Before I get too deep (because this is going to be a long one), I feel the need to point out that while this story’s breaking happened to coincide with Black Lives Matter protests across the country and gained traction from people’s outrage towards inequality, the events that have unfolded should not be blamed on “cancel culture,” “political correctness run amok” or any other reactionary dismissal of critical thinking.  Adam Rapoport didn’t lose his job because Black Lives Matter, Black Lives Matter came to be because of the damage that many in positions of power like Rapoport have done in both mainstream media and society as a whole.

[Also, yes, there are going to be a lot of links to Instagram posts that have been screenshotted and uploaded to Twitter.  Clearly the real takeaway from this debacle is that I need to get an Instagram account.  Also also, thanks to Tumblr’s new rules about offsite links, you’ll have to go to my main site for the full receipts.]

Preamble

Shortly after the killing of George Floyd, Adam Rapoport, Editor-in-Chief at Bon Appetit, wrote an editorial highlighting some of the coverage they’ve given to black chefs.  Many criticized this as being superficial and performative, with others saying that BA has, on numerous occasions, shut down articles relating to black culture for not being “trendy” enough or otherwise was discriminatory towards black employees. (Also, the repeated use of “uprisings” instead of “protests” seems a little suspicious.)

An article from Eater criticized the role BA played in the appropriating and whitewashing of many cultures’ ingredients and cuisines (gochujang, Aleppo pepper, and sumac seem to be some of BA’s favorite ingredients) that had become prevalent in food media in recent years.

While it’s a fairly minor offense in comparison, it may also be worth bringing up the time Rapoport accidentally called Priya Krishna “Sohla,” the name of his other Indian employee.

Monday, June 8th

Food writer Tammie Teclemariam posted a screencap of an Instagram post made by Rapoport’s wife, which depicted the two of them donning Puerto Rican stereotypes as Halloween costumes, brownface and all.    

Many were quick to declare their outrage and demand that Rapoport either resign or be fired.  Meanwhile, Sohla El-Waylly, one of the leading stars of the Youtube channel, was one of the first BA employees to speak up, and disclosed that this kind of behavior was just the tip of the iceberg.  She said that BIPOC workers have been paid disproportionately for their work, including not being paid a per-video commission that the white stars of the Youtube channel receive. 

Molly Baz, one of the aforementioned white stars, announced that she would no longer make videos for BA until all of El-Waylly’s demands were met.  One by one, their white coworkers chimed in in agreement.  

Former staff photographer Alex Lau also wrote an extensive tweet thread about his experiences at BA, including how he had futilely tried to fix the system from within.

By the end of Monday, Adam Rapoport had resigned from his position as Editor-in-Chief.

Tuesday, June 9th  

Since Rapoport’s official resignation did little to fix many of the systemic problems in place at BA, many began to turn their attention to other senior members of the staff.

Some came for Andrew Knowlton, the Restaurant Editor, for behaviors such as gaslighting an employee for trying to bring up racist practices in the offices.

Others called out Matthew Duckor, a VP at Conde Nast and BA’s former “Head of Video” (Did a 3 year old come up with that job title?), for a series of old racist and homophobic tweets.  He tried to apologize by saying that he was young and didn’t know any better at the time, but many were quick to point out that he was, at the youngest, 20, aka for all intents and purposes An Adult when he wrote those tweets. 

Tammie Teclemariam returned to ask current and former BA employees to DM her information about Duckor that they didn’t want to go public with themselves, ranging from his hand in the aforementioned pay disparity to making inappropriate comments towards women.

Teclemariam also did even more social media muckraking and found that Drinks Editor Alex Delany had once decorated a cake to look like a Confederate flag, while others found things like a Vine where he says the f-slur and some questionable comments about women on this Tumblr.  He later deleted his Tumblr and Twitter, and issued a cookie-cutter apology on his Instagram.

She also vague-tweeted that Brad Leone, one of the most beloved stars of the Youtube channel, is “possibly not a great guy,” but later added, “don’t fret.” At that point, some began to accuse her of just trying to stir the pot.

Ultimately, Matt Hunziker, director and camera operator for Leone’s show, reported that the higher ups were ignoring the situation regarding the pay disparity, and that they were not “learning and growing.”

Wednesday, June 10th

By this point, journalists were able to do more thorough investigations and put together exposés that were more than a blurb about an accusation followed by a nut graph.

Business Insider published an article where they interviewed 14 current and former BIPOC employees of Bon Appetit.  In addition to information already discussed above, it also described events such as an incident where several BIPOC staffers were told they weren’t allowed the test kitchen. (Carla Lalli Music, the Food Director at the time, would later defend her stance in the affair on Twitter.)  Ryan Walker-Hartshorn, a black woman who served as Rapoport’s personal assistant, recalled that she would often spend her day doing menial tasks like polishing her boss’s golf clubs or trying to teach his wife how to use Google Calendar.  In another incident, Knolton called Rick Martinez a “one trick pony” for only developing Mexican recipes, which is what he was being forced to do so BA could tout “diversity” bonus points.  Martinez would also say that the magazine under Rapoport’s tenure “went from old and irrelevant and white-washed content to young and trendy white-washed content." (Martinez would also upload a more graphic description of the treatment he received  to his Instagram that same day.) Later that day, Business Insider would also report that Duckor had left the company.

Vice would liken Rapoport to Michael Scott from The Office, but noted that that kind of bumbling, endearingly insensitive bad boss archetype isn’t as charming in the real world where real employees are being affected.  Parallels were also drawn between the Youtube channel and The Office itself, stating that the “quirky workplace” facade put on in the videos helped hide the more sinister practices that lurked beneath the surface, and that the notion that they were “one big family” often pressured BIPOC into doing more than their fair share for the greater good.

Jezebel showed email transcripts where Rapoport argued the semantics of having his costume be called “brownface” when he wasn’t wearing makeup, and had to be explained to, like a child, that the term refers to the racist caricature and not the literal act of putting brown makeup on one’s face.  What a douche.

Bon Appetit published an official apology on their site, a whole two days after the controversy began.  Many believed that their empty promises of “learning from their mistakes” were a day late and a dollar short.

Meanwhile, on Twitter, former BA writer Alyse Whitney said that senior editor Andy Baraghani had, on several occasions, used his influence to undermine her efforts. Whether this had to do with racism, sexism, or just Andy being petty is up for debate, but still constitutes as unprofessional behavior to say the least.

Thursday, June 11th

As interest in the story seemed to wane for many in the industry, Claire Saffitz, arguably the face of the Youtube channel, released another statement on her Instagram.  She said that her relative silence was due to taking time to find the right words, and that the same-old promises to “learn and grow” that most had been giving felt empty and performative. Unlike many of her white coworkers, she directly apologized for being complicit in the toxic environment  and for not using her status to try to leverage even pay for her BIPOC coworkers.  

Another BA Youtube personality, Amiel Stanek, also released a statement in response to BA’s official press release, where he demanded Conde Nast to stop avoiding action by setting vague timelines for changes or making excuses for not giving BIPOC workers raises like “the money just isn’t there.”

Associate editor Christina Chaey also opened up about her experiences with being pushed into more and more videos to “diversify” them- all without compensation.  

Friday, June 12th

The biggest scandal of the day was that, as Teclemariam predicted, Brad Leone is possibly not a great guy.  A leaked screenshot of an Instagram DM showed him making callous, almost Trump-y comments regarding El-Waylly’s demand for better pay.  He also allegedly said that if Delany were to be fired (as of that day he had been sent on leave), he would quit.

Saturday, June 13th

The New York Times published an article suggesting that the issues prevalent in BA’s management may go all the way to the top of Conde Nast.  Highlights include Chief Executive Roger Lynch chastising the whistleblowers within the company for raising their concerns in such a public manner and an account of an incident where he gave his black assistant a guidebook on how to speak “proper” English.

The Sporkful released a special episode of their podcast containing interviews with several current and former BA BIPOC workers.  Nikita Richardson divulged that after she was laid off, a story she had already done all the leg work for was picked up and credited to Amanda Shapiro, a white staff writer who is now acting Editor-in-Chief in lieu of Rapoport.  Sohla El-Waylly confirmed that the self-congratulatory editorial Rapoport wrote in the wake of George Floyd’s death was the real beginning of the end, and that the racist photo was just the final straw.  She also described a company-wide Zoom meeting held after the photo began to be spread around where Rapoport issued a half-hearted apology, and began talking about how he would “fix the brand” before El-Waylly demanded he resigned.  Furthermore, she revealed that after her Instagram posts began circulating rapidly, Duckor had offered her a new contract with increased pay, but she is refusing to sign it until all BIPOC have received similar compensation.  She also said that she had a hand in the wishy-washy statement that BA had published on Wednesday, and said that it originally had taken much firmer stances on the issues but their PR office made them tone it down.  Also, she commented that Leone, for the most part, just seemed like she “genuinely think[s] [that he] just found out racism is real.”  Ultimately, she was glad that the story was getting as much coverage as it was, since it made her feel that her voice was finally being heard.

Sunday, June 14th

Baraghani released a statement on Instagram apologizing for his behavior, saying that trying to achieve his personal goals in BA’s toxic, competitive environment made him lose sight of solidarity with his fellow BIPOC.  

While that may seem like the end of the story for now, it’s important to note that, even with the resignation of two executives, nothing has truly been done to fix the systemic problems at hand.

[land-of-brains-and-chocolate]

here’s the entirety of the paywalled businessinsider article interviewing charles beacham about marvel’s racism in staffing and editorial decisions! 

In the early 2010s, Marvel's comics business focused on a diverse slate of new characters, but by 2017 comic sales had fallen, which resulted in the exit of editor-in-chief Axel Alonso.

Three former Marvel editors and one current editor told Business Insider that in the years since, Marvel has recommitted to nostalgia and classic, mostly white characters, often at the expense of some of those diverse characters like Miles Morales, a biracial teenage Spider-Man.

That shift was guided by an editorial department that lacked diversity, particularly in leadership roles. Today, there are no Black staffers on Marvel's editorial team of about 18 people, and only two people of color, Marvel confirmed.

"My voice and what I brought to the table wasn't valued equally," said Charles Beacham, one of two Black editorial staffers to work at Marvel in the past five years.

Have a tip? Email the author at tclark@businessinsider.com or DM him on Twitter @TravClark2.

Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Miles Morales was the character who pulled Charles Beacham into the world of comics.

Beacham was studying journalism at Brigham Young University, in Utah, when he walked into a comics shop in 2011 and picked up a copy of Morales' first appearance. Beacham, who is Black, said he was amazed to see Morales — a teenage Spider-Man who has a Black father and Puerto Rican mother — in its pages.

"When I was growing up, I always wanted to be the red Power Ranger, and the other kids would say I had to be the black Ranger," Beacham said. "The same thing happened with Spider-Man. They'd say, 'You can't be Spider-Man because Peter Parker's not a Black dude.' Seeing Miles Morales made me wish I had that as a kid."

Morales propelled Beacham into comics and into Marvel itself, where he worked as an assistant editor.

"I didn't have job prospects when I moved to New York in 2013, but the goal was to work for Marvel because of Miles Morales," Beacham said. When he landed a job at the company the next year, he loved it.

But Beacham, now 31, was living in New York City with a child on a $38,000 salary. He said that after three years as an assistant editor, from 2014 to 2017, without a promotion, he was ready to leave. It wasn't about the money as much as the lack of a path forward.

"I thought I'd be at Marvel forever," he said. "If they had promoted me I'd probably still be there and surviving on ramen."

Beacham is one of two Black editorial staffers to have worked at Marvel in the past five years, the company confirmed. The second Black staffer, also an assistant editor, left this year after five years without a promotion or raise, a person familiar with the matter said. The editorial team of about 18 people now has two people of color.

"I want to be back there all the time," Beacham said. "But when it comes down to it, my voice and what I brought to the table wasn't valued equally."

Disney-owned Marvel has grown into a cultural force that extends beyond its comic books and into movies, video games, and other media. The comics are the foundation for it all, including the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which has become the highest-grossing movie franchise of all time.

The stories that Marvel's small editorial team helps shape are central to popular culture in the US and around the world.

"Who works on these stories can help broaden them," said Regine Sawyer, the founder of Women in Comics Collective International, which helps to spotlight the comics work of marginalized people.

That was clear from 2011 to 2017, when Marvel ushered in a new era for its comic books under then editor-in-chief Axel Alonso, who is Mexican American.

New and diverse characters like Morales took center stage instead of Marvel's decades-old classic characters, who were primarily white. These characters inspired new fans like Beacham, and continue to inspire new fans as they make their way to other media.

But by 2017, Marvel's comic sales had fallen. Marvel's president of sales, David Gabriel, publicly blamed it on diversity. Alonso exited the company and was replaced by a white man in the role of top editor. Marvel reversed course.

Now, in the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed, Marvel is promising to once again introduce more diversity to its ranks and its stories.

Marvel chairman Ike Perlmutter sent a letter to employees on June 18 saying the company would "support more Black voices."

And in a memo to staff sent July 6, Marvel's president, Dan Buckley, outlined three areas of focus for Marvel moving forward:

broaden Marvel's creative landscape, which includes identifying "what has traditionally prevented us in the industry from recruiting and fostering more BIPOC talent."

build a foundation of lasting growth by "examining our internal culture and rebuilding our long-term process for talent recruitment, retention, and outreach to communities of color."

create new initiatives and expansion opportunities by "looking to explore new projects that will enable us to reach and represent an even broader audience."

In addition to Beacham, Business Insider spoke with two former Marvel editors and a current editor. Aside from Beacham, the Marvel insiders spoke on condition of anonymity to protect their stance at the company or job prospects. They said they weren't confident in Marvel's latest initiative.

"The guy who made a commitment to diversity and wanted to try new things was fired," a former Marvel staffer said, referring to Alonso.

'Spider-Man with an asterisk'

Alonso led Marvel through a bold era during his time as editor-in-chief starting in 2011, helping to establish a diverse slate of characters.

Jane Foster was the new Thor. Sam Wilson, aka the Falcon, a Black character, replaced Steve Rogers as Captain America. Riri Williams, a Black girl, was introduced as an Iron Man-like character named Ironheart. Kamala Khan, a Pakistani American Muslim teenager, was the new Ms. Marvel.

It wasn't a new phenomenon in comic books. Characters are regularly passing on their mantles, at least for a while. Dick Grayson, the first Robin, was DC's Batman for a time in the early 2010s, for instance. Sam Wilson wasn't the first person to take over as Captain America. This era at Marvel Comics, however, was notable for how it emphasized diversity.

But by 2017 — Alonso's final year as editor-in-chief — the company's print sales had plummeted (Marvel in 2014 said that Ms. Marvel's solo title was a top seller digitally, but digital comics sales aren't released to the public).

"What we heard is that people didn't want any more diversity," David Gabriel, the vice president of sales at Marvel Entertainment, said that year in an interview with ICv2, a website that covers the comics business.

"I don't know that that's really true, but that's what we saw in sales," Gabriel said. "Any character that was diverse, any character that was new, our female characters, anything that was not a core Marvel character, people were turning their nose up."

What Gabriel meant by "core Marvel character" were the classic, decades-old characters being sidelined for new, younger, and more diverse characters.

Seven months later, in November 2017, Marvel's Alonso stepped down from his role and was replaced by C.B. Cebulski, a white man who faced controversy when he was hired after admitting to writing comics in the early 2000s under a Japanese pseudonym.

"The comics that [Alonso] made me think I could work in comics," Beacham said. "But when a Latinx guy is scapegoated for diversity and replaced by a white dude, and the sentiment was that Marvel was 'getting away from its roots,' what does that mean?"

In a statement after his 2017 comments, Gabriel emphasized that "our new heroes are not going anywhere."

But in the months between that retailer summit and Alonso's exit, Marvel introduced an initiative for editorial staff that had been discussed internally for some time: Phase out the familiar superhero codenames for some newer, diverse characters and give them their own, two former assistant editors including Beacham said.

Marvel confirmed to Business Insider that it had previously considered stripping Morales of his Spider-Man title and giving him a new name, but has no plans to do so right now. Marvel added that it discusses status quo changes for all of its top characters.

Today, some of the classic characters have been thrust back into the spotlight. Steve Rogers has taken back the mantle of Captain America, and Thor is a man again. Miles Morales shares the Spider-Man title with Peter Parker, the original Spider-Man.

Morales has grown in popularity beyond comic books, having starred in Sony's Oscar-winning animated "Into the Spider-Verse" movie in 2018 and in a coming PlayStation video game called "Spider-Man: Miles Morales."

Beacham said he was glad that Morales continued to be a Spider-Man.

"It would have made him less important," Beacham said of Morales' losing the Spider-Man title. "He becomes Spider-Man with an asterisk. It takes away the power for kids who relate to this character."

'There's not a lack of people who can do the work'

Now, Marvel's comic-book slate is once again largely focused on classic characters, though characters like Morales and Khan remain. And there are some comics starring diverse characters from creators of color, like Ta-Nehisi Coates' "Black Panther." But their stories are in the hands of an editorial department run by an establishment of white male leadership.

"There's not a lack of people who can do the work," said Yumy Odom, the founder of the East Coast Black Age of Comics Convention, which helps to showcase the talents of creators of color. "But it's about how receptive the industry is to them. I can think of 20 creators, mostly African Americans, who would be ready to work at Marvel."

Women faced an uphill battle at Marvel as well, the Marvel editors said. A female former assistant editor told Business Insider that she was never promoted or given a raise from her $30,000 salary in her three years at the company. She said she got promoted within a year at her new company, a different comics publisher.

Marvel declined to discuss employee salaries.

The Marvel insiders said a notable exception was Sana Amanat, who is Pakistani American and a former editor. She is now Marvel's head of content and character development, a leadership role outside the editorial department.

'There's a whole cohort of young readers'

Marvel has significantly bounced back from its 2017 sales decline, which might suggest that the refocus on its classic characters reeled longtime readers back.

Of the top 100 best-selling comics of 2020 so far, 69 belonged to Marvel, as of Wednesday, including four of the top five, and the company has accounted for 41% of comic sales this year, according to industry website Comichron. Three years ago, Marvel was lagging behind DC, its biggest competitor.

An example of the start of this resurgence was the first issue of Marvel's "Amazing Spider-Man" relaunch — starring the original Spider-Man, Peter Parker — which ranked fifth in 2018 out of all comics, according to data from Comichron. In contrast, when Marvel launched a series called "Miles Morales Spider-Man" in that year, the debut issue didn't crack the top 200 best-selling comics.

"People of a certain age have a connection with Peter Parker, not Miles Morales," a former Marvel staffer said. "Years from now, that may be different."

The current and former Marvel staffers Business Insider spoke with said they were hopeful that readership could broaden, particularly now that characters such as Morales and Khan are being introduced to audiences in other media like movies and TV. Khan is to appear in a Disney Plus TV series and the upcoming "Avengers" video game, for instance.

There are signs that the comics industry is going through a larger shift in how people read and who is reading, which could also spur change.

Last year, comic sales through the "book channel" — which includes chain and independent book stores and online retailers like Amazon — surpassed comic-book stores for the first time, driven by the increased popularity in children's graphic novels, according to an analysis by ICv2.

Milton Griepp, the chief executive of ICv2, said at the New York Comic Con conference last year that the shift could usher in a new audience for superhero comic books.

"There's a whole cohort of young readers that are being introduced to this medium and may graduate to other forms of content in the comic format over the course of their lifespans," Griepp said.

Beacham said: "Marvel needs to figure out the next stage of its core demographic because it could change rapidly."

[darklightmiwxo]

Mcr history

[B]MCR HISTORY IN DETAIL:

This is MCR history it is long and in details. This is different since I'm adding many details that not many people know. Hopefully you will enjoy this. I worked hard on this. These I found in websites,videos,fandoms,MCR magazines,etc. From baby to today but by dates.

[B]Babies/young kids:

[I]Gerard way/Mikey way :

Gerard Way was born on April 9th 1977 in New Jersey. He is half Italian. He later on had a back problem that affected him for the rest of his life (scoliosis) Gerard is allergic to cats. Mikey way was born September 10th 1980. Gerard and Mikey were very close to each other. They became best friends. Gerard and Mikey couldn't go outside and play with other kids since new jersey was very dangerous with murders and kidnapping happening often so Gerard and Mikey would just play with each other. Ms Way said that when Gerard ran mikey try to learn to walk but instead he try to run but he fell on his face. Gerard and Mikey grandma help them get into art she would give them papers and markers for them to use.

Here is baby Gerard and mikey:

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[I]Frank iero:

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Frank was born on October 31 1981 in New Jersey. Who has Italian in his blood. Frank was a only child. His parents divorced when he was very young.Frank's dad and grandfather played drums in their own band. Frank went to the hospital a lot and had lots of health problems he had ear infections, broncadus and he has a weak immune system he also had asma. Frank became a vegetarian when he found out about animals getting killed so he decided to not eat meat anymore.

Frank visited his dad only in the weekends he would take him to bars so Frank would watch him play. Frank's mom was poor she couldn't even buy milk which was said by Frank.

[I]Ray toro:

[IMG=2LH]

Ray toro was born on July 15 1977 in New Jersey. He is Puerto Rican. He has 2 older brothers. Ray couldn't go outside to play with kids since new jersey was too dangerous.

[B]Kids:

[I]Gerard way/Mikey way:

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Gerard and Mikey went to the same schools. Gerard would often draw since he loved to draw. Gerard and Mikey often share music to each other. Gerard was bullied badly at school that he had to change school. Gerard joined to be part of a play at his new school he was Peter Pan. He sang his part on stage. Later on middle school started and Gerard and Mikey stayed in the same school but they both deal with bullying.

[I]Frank Iero:

[IMG=HHZ]

Frank was bullied often at school. He went to hospitals often still. He is very close to his mother. Frank's father made Frank try to plays some drums but he didn't want to play drums he wanted to play guitar so they gave him a guitar he played a few notes. frank self taught himself.

[I]Ray toro:

His older brother knew how to play guitar he would often give CDs for Ray to hear. His brother taught him how to play guitar and Ray learned guitar.

[B]Teenagers:

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[I]Gerard Way:

Gerard Way learned to play a little bit of guitar. he gotten really good at drawing. He joined a band in high school but he got kicked out for not playing a song they wanted. He also wasn't good at guitar. So Gerard and a friend of him made a comic book together. But some how they couldn't sell it in a comic book store. Gerard spread all summer copying another art style of another comic book but soon he made his own style. Gerard was still bullied at school.

[I]Mikey way:

he dreamed to be in a band and it was always his dream.

[I]Frank Iero:

Frank played guitar well he would often get beaten up at school. Frank created a band called pencey prep with his school friends.

[I]Ray Toro:

Ray toro became a pro guitarist he learned to play metallica songs.

[B]Young Adults:

[I]Gerard:

He went to art school after he finished high school. They taught him some things. Gerard met a friend who introduce him to Ray Toro. Gerard art did well that he worked for cartoon network to make a tv show. Gerard was drawing for a show He was working on a show called the breakfast monkey show. Gerard and Ray made a song together for the show. The intro of the song. On September 11th 2001 Gerard went to New York for a final meeting for the tv show. On his way to the meeting he saw a plane hit a tower. Then another plane hit the other tower. Gerard watched people around him cry and with fear but Gerard said he didn't sad. He was afraid of what was going to happen to the world he though are you happy where your life is right now. Is this really important. So the meeting was canceled. Gerard went home and wrote the first MCR song "Skylines and turnstiles". Gerard met Oliver who worked at a bar he was his friend and he often chatted with him. Gerard asked him if he could be part of his band he was making.

[I]Ray toro:

Gerard called him. Ray haven't seen Gerard for a while since Gerard was always in his house avoiding human contact. He asked Ray if he could be part of his band. He told him to come over to check out what they were making he didn't have to join but he wanted him to come over. So Ray went over to Oliver's house. Gerard showed him the song he was making Ray joined the band.

[I]Mikey Way:

Mikey heard of gerards band. He heard their music and he loved it that he took bass classes and joined the band.

[I]Gerard way:

The band created a few songs then they went to eyeball records they were outside their door and they asked them if they could be signed they gave them their music for the label to hear. The label loved it so they signed them. A radio host who was there heard of the band and he said he will put them on the radio which he did and it gain them fans.

The band didn't have a name.

Gerard and Mikey worked in Barnes and novel. Gerard worked in the music area while mikey worked in the book area. Mikey one day looked behind a book and the reviews said tales of chemical romance so mikey thought what if you put my in front of it. Mikey told Gerard his idea and Gerard loved it he thought it fit the band with their music and the band in general.

[I]Frank iero:

Frank worked on a album for pencey prep once he was done they sign with eyeball record and started to do tours. Frank once went to a party and he saw a woman fighting with another woman she punch the girls face. Frank fell in love with the girl that girls name was jamia.

Frank heard of MCR since the label would gave random CDs to the bands part of the label. Frank said we often hear Mcr demos in the car when we go around town to do shows.

[B]Bullet era:

Gerard went to a bar with mikey and Alex from eye ball. They went for a drink. Gerard saw pencey prep playing their show. Gerard Said he was amazed by Frank who was destroying the stage with the energy he had he looked like he was playing for thousands of people and that was what the band needed. Gerard knew they needed a new guitarist since he couldn't play guitar. He met the kid and they became friends.

Pencey prep would often travel to many states in a podcast Frank said that pencey prep would work on their music in each other's parents basement. They rented a building in a warehouse which was shared with other bands they knew mcr during this time. They would play music in a small room in that place even one of the band members live in that place with some other band member of a different band. One day one of the members of pencey prep broken down the wall of the room they played in to make it bigger since it was 2 separated room they made it to one big room and that is where mcr did their album and other bands pencey prep invited. Gerard and Frank painted in that room together at night and the chemicals of the paint had made both Gerard and Frank high. They later on blame that another band that run a party and made a big mess broken down the wall and lying saying that they didn't actually break it. They did get away with it.

*casual interactions on YouTube podcast*

Later on Pencey prep tour with Thursday and MCR. MCR was poor but Frank was nice enough to let them use the back stage room.

MCR played a few shows and gain fans. The radio host said fans were obsessed with vampires will never hurt you.

They often ask him to play it.

MCR were recording bullets but Gerard had a teeth problem and also anxiety. His tooth hurt him so much he would hit his head on the wall,bang his head on a car hood and he would cry and scream so badly that he often went to the hospital. He also had fear. He was going to give up he said "I can't do this anymore" the producer yelled and slapped his face to get his shit together and do the recording. Gerard later on got surgery on his tooth.

Pencey prep broken up

[B]I am a graveyard

Frank's band that didn't go as great as pencey prep. Only three members of pencey were in this band and one of the members of pencey left. They played a few shows but then they broken up.

Gerard asked Frank if he could join the band since they needed a guitarist and Ray couldn't play every guitar part. Frank said yes you guys are my fave band. MCR created have already created a few songs without Frank but 3 songs on bullets had Frank in it. Like early sunset over Manhattan for example. Ray and Frank said their ways are different Ray was more the metal kid while Frank was the punk rock kid but it worked. Frank could play parts Ray couldn't play and Ray played parts Frank couldn't play.

I brought you my bullets you brought me your love was released in 2002. The radio host played the album on the radio. MCR opened for Thursday,taking back Sunday. Fans loved MCR and they gain fans. Soon MCR traveled outside the state's Gerard and mikeys grandma brought them a van for tour.

The band went on tour as they played for fans in small venues. Even the place was too small for the fans since many people wanted to see them. Brian their tour manager made Gerard meet the used. He met bert and thought he was crazy but they later on became good friends

(Very good friends they became boyfriends)

Gerard started drinking and doing drugs with bert. Frank and jamia became girlfriends and boyfriends. MCR were poor they didn't have much food or clothes. They said they were used to a hungry stomach. But other bands were kind enough to give food and clothes to them. Their album didn't make it to record stores. So fans didn't have a way to buy the CD it was limited. MCR didn't even have merch to sell. Gerard made his own merch called thank you for the venom.

MCR became more popular.

Gerard was sexually confused

In 2003 there was a party mcr attempted. This was planned. It was filmed.

Frank was with Gerard and jamia next to him.

A guy was fighting Gerard. Frank fighted the guy to protect Gerard he ran after the guy but Ray stopped him.

Gerard and bert tour together and they made a song.

[B]Revenge era:

Gerard and mikeys grandma died. Which affected the band they made a song for her.

Warner brothers wanted to sign MCR but they rejected many labels they soon said yes to them. The band gotten a tour bus.

They had a producer named Howard who helped them create a album the band would create something and they think he will like it but he hated it he told them what is this going to be, what are you saying. They soon made songs he would like.

Once the album was done they kicked out Oliver when they finished the bullet tour. They kicked him out for not playing well he didn't want to use drum beats. He mess up often when playing so they kicked him out. They gotten Bob who he played in other bands as a dj and they didn't know he could play drums. Bob is from Chicago. He was all about tech and that is what the band needed. He joined the band.

Gerard was on his worst of the drugs and achohol that it made him sick he was very depressed and suicidal they were going to finish the album when Gerard was going for a walk and he wasn't seen for 2 days Frank was asking for help for people to find him.

Gerard was found.

Gerard said he did men favors for cocaine.

(Gerard and Frank started to be more than just friends they became boyfriends. Frank was a swinger so he had both Gerard and jamia. She seem ok with it because if she wasn't Frank wouldn't date Gerard. This is part for the frerard shipper)

Three cheers for sweet revenge was release they started touring. They went to Europe and Japan. While in Japan Gerard was getting worst he was throwing up so much. He once throw up for 45 mins then he said he was done.

Gerard became clean.

Their first music video was made it was I'm not okay and they gotten popular the shows gotten bigger they played in bigger venues and outdoor concert places.

MCR were always dirty they couldn't shower for many days and they smelled bad their clothes were always dirty. They toured with fall out boy for a while even Jimmy eat world and other bands. They were nominated in the vma.

The album gotten awards later on.

They did a world tour.

Gerard gotten a girlfriend named Ellie (aka the crazy fan)

[B]The black parade era:

The band were done touring they created some songs in the tour bus (I don't love you,teenagers) they wanted to stay in a cheap house. So they stayed in a haunted mansion. Mikey said he was feeling lost and depressed when they were on their way to L.A and the haunted house was making his problems bigger. The mansion name is called the paramour house. There were rumors of ghost and the place being haunted. Celebs would stay there often to make music or work.

[IMG=I4P]

They stayed there for 6 months.

Mikey didnt want to stay in the room upstairs so he stay on gerards floor. He often sneak from the bathroom to sleep on the floor next to Gerard. Some friends of theirs ask who had one of the rooms which was where Mikey was suppose to stay in and Gerard looked at Mikey in a joke kinda way but Mikey didn't want to say it. Frank stayed in a room away from the other rooms, Rumor said that the actor of friends ran out the room screaming. Plus a singer made a song with a ghost. Frank said the room was fine but he heard stuff that he thought was a raccoon and he said if it's actually a ghost she has a bad voice. Water would often suddenly start in bobs room. While they often hear door slamming and saw a few ghost around. Gerard was going crazy he was writing words on the wall. Ray was playing a random song that Gerard was mad at him for not playing a song for MCR. Ray played the song really fast since he was very stressed. Mikey left the house to see a therapist he was seeking help for his mental health. But he would come to the mansion to record songs. All the band had a problem with depression,anxiety,self doubt,and stress trama. The band often hear door slams and Mikey said he saw a few ghosts. Bob said in a interviews for the alternative press book that the band often had family breakfast. They played music in the ball room. Bob said we have a support room we would put up notes if we have a problem and we would talk about it. One day Bob went to rays room and he saw Ray brushing his teeth he was shaking. He asked him what happened and Ray said he saw a old lady ghost walking down the stairs.

Gerard gotten ideas he showed his idea to the band and they use it they recorded songs. One day they were trying to finish the last song. The band went to get coffee. Gerard was left alone thinking of ideas when they band returned Gerard created the song. They were inspired by his words. The band quickly left the mansion they were tired of it. They gotten a apartment that they stayed in for a while. The black parade album was made. Soon they started to tour. They first open up for muse in their concert in the U.K they were the first American band to play in that arena then they brought muse to tour with them in america.

They made a music video for famous last words but frank knocked Gerard which tore the muscle of his foot that he had to use a cane. There is fire in the video that Bob burned his leg he got a 2nd degree burn and the burn infected his face area that it enter his blood and he went to the hospital it almost went to his brain thankfully they saved him.

One day the band were in virgina with muse. Frank didn't go out for dinner since he is vegetarian and Gerard slept over that day (hmm it seems like something else huh)

Ray,bob,and mikey had dinner with muse matt,chris,and dom. They gotten food poison by the restaurant that both bands were sick for many days.

When they went to the U.K they gotten hate by the British people since the news said that MCR is a cult leader because one MCR girl ended her life. They treated MCR badly but they didn't care they won over them.

Frank often was sick on tour.

Then project revelation (Gerard broken up with his girlfriend) they toured with mindless self indigent,linkin park,blink 182,and the killers. (The most gay era for Frank and Gerard)

Gerard falling love with lynz. He broken up with Frank. A month later he married her. The frerard fight happened.

(Rumor said that Ray saw Frank sobbing in the bathroom)

Frank broken his toes that he had a cane.

Break:

Frank married jamia.

Ray married his girlfriend.

Frank created leather mouth.

While Gerard was making his comic books since revenge. The Umbrella academy comic book gotten awards. And Gerard was working on doom patrol while making more umbrella academy books. Ray had a kidney failure.

Frank had to remove his wisdom teeth since it infected his mouth that it made his mouth and nose bleed. He also had stomach pains that he would take pills for it.

[B]Danger days era:

The band had children (gerard,frank,and ray)

The band thought they were running out of ideas. They made a song for a movie then they try to make conventional weapons but they gave up on it they scrap it and they then made the danger days album. Basic off Gerard ways comic book series danger days the true lives of the fabulous killjoys. The band became superheroes. Once they finished danger days they kicked Bob out over drama something to do with mikey cheating on his wife with another girl that Bob bullied him. Gerard kicked him out of the band. They gotten Michael who they made him the new drummer.

The band went on tour around the world.

Soon they finished touring they kicked out Michael for stealing in the band he was stealing band stuff.

Gerard decided to break up the band suddenly he didn't tell Frank

Frank didn't know about the break up so he was confused. Mikey divoide his wife.

[B]MCR broken up.

[B]During the break:

Frank created death spells in 2012 before the break up happened. Below I posted during the break wiki and Frank's band history wiki.

Frank created another band called Frank iero and the celebration.

Mikey was very depressed he taken drugs and he overdose in them that he was in a coma for many weeks. This also made Gerard depressed.

Gerard made solo music he created a album and was touring around places. He became a vegetarian.

Ray toro made solo music he created his own album.

Mikey joined a band called electric century.

Bob became a real estate agent also a plane flyer.

In 2017 Frank created another band called Frank iero and the patience.

Gerard worked more on his comic books.

Mikey married his girlfriend.

Ray was unknown in this era.

Frank was touring around the world. he went to Australia his band were in the car of the parking lot in the airport when a bus ran the car over it pulled Frank a few miles away from the car the band went to the hospital. Frank broken his arm while everyone else broken their legs and arm. Frank can't play the same again so he can't jump around stage and play guitar for a long time if not his arm will hurt he did not have surgery. Gerard,Ray, and Mikey went to Frank's show. Once a year mcr would bring their wife and kids and have a barbeque together to talk about plans.

In 2018

Gerard was working on the umbrella academy tv show and his other umbrella academy book. Plus more doom patrol stuff.

Mikey was making his own comic books also his wife had 2 kids by this time.

2019:

Frank created a new band Frank iero and the future violents his album barriers came out may 2019. Gerard release the umbrella academy tv show plus his other umbrella academy books.

Mikey release more comic books for collapser.

Ray collab with Gerard with 2 songs for the umbrella academy. They are cover songs.

On Oct 31 2019,

Frank's birthday was happening and fans said happy birthday to him. Frank then said it's raining outside today I can't do nothing today so we have to do something else. Then Frank tease a image he was the first one to say mcr returned then the other band members did it too. So MCR reunion happened MCR is back on Halloween

On Dec 20 2019,

It was the first MCR show since the break up in California 2019.

Now in 2020 MCR are touring now but due to the virus the band has to move some dates.

More dates will be added.

Gerard Way is working on season 2 of the umbrella academy tv show.

That's all of mcr history hopefully you readed all of this. Hopefully you enjoyed this. I will update this page if anything new happens. Check out the other wiki. If I forgotten anything I will add it here.

Here is info you can find for some of these.

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[IMG=8BA]

[IMG=YCT]

[IMG=HRP]

[IMG=LAW]

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[IMG=FJO]

There is another video I can't find but I saw it ages ago.

The other details I got them from the book in the first photo which you can get in the alt press website it's cheap but they got stuff in there about the band.

Please check out the wiki below they are part of mcr history too.

Thanks for having the patience to read this wiki.

Please share it.

I will add pictures later to this wiki. This took me hours to make this.

[thequeenkrys15]

His Woman

This fic is dedicated to Miss Nadia, aka @flamediel​​

First off, I would like to apologize to you Queen, because this took much longer than I imagined, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

About a month ago, Miss Nadia underwent a lot of unnecessary hate for no reason. Really all hate is unnecessary, but it was hate nonetheless. I would like to remind everyone who reads this fic that it there is never a good reason to be malicious to someone, and that it is always better to spread positivity. In my eyes, we are all kings and queens and should treat each other as such. 

Miss Nadia, please know that to me, you are awesome. You are amazing, and marvelous and every positive word in the dictionary in every language. You are a queen, an empress a GODDESS, and if anyone tells you differently they can kick rocks because they’re peasants and queens don’t have time for peasants. And if no one has said it today, I LOVE YOU! And so does this man right here!

Pairing: Zabdiel de Jesus x Nadia!Reader

Word Count: 2950

Warnings: Slight Angst, Smut, 18+, minors DNI, protected sex (no glove, no love), fondling, fingering, oral (female receiving), fluff, and google translated spanish

Without further adeu, Miss Nadia sweetie, enjoy!

Dating a musician was hard for anyone, especially when that musician was in a famous band like Nadia’s man. CNCO was often doing promo and concerts, sometimes it was hard to find time. And it didn’t help that the two of them were in a long-distance relationship. Some of the guys trying to hit on her in Cairo were so rude. And Nadia could only imagine all the women making themselves look “too available” for Zabdiel. But alas, he always made sure to silence her insecurities. “You’re the only one for me, Nadia, mi amol”, he would say in that thick Puerto Rican accent that always made her swoon. They always Facetimed each other every day and flew out to see each other when they could. They say time apart makes the heart grow fonder, then the two of them must be infatuated, because Nadia and Zabdiel were in love.

           Time seemed to align perfectly for Zabdiel and Nadia. CNCO got some vacation time to relax, and Nadia saved up enough sick days and vacation days two get a whole two months of paid leave. How would the two choose to spend this newfound time? Why with each other of course! Zabdiel put everything in motion the second he knew she was coming. He wanted this time off to be stress free and be filled with love and romance for his woman, Nadia. The next two months were about to be the best she has ever had.

           After getting off the plane in Miami, Nadia was overrun with happiness and joy, and just in a few moments, she would see the love of her life. As she approached Baggage Claim, it’s like the world stopped. Zabdiel had been searching for Nadia for the past 15 minutes, and once his eyes locked with hers, a huge smile spread across his face. It started as a sprint, and then a full-blown dash as they ran to each other. When the two finally had their arms wrapped around each other, a wash of calm and clarity overcame them both. This felt right, this felt like love.

“Hola mi amol, estoy tan feliz de que estés aqui”, he whispered into her ear.

“I missed you so much, baby”, Nadia cried into his shoulder happily.

           Zabdiel and Nadia broke apart after a few more minutes, wiping their eyes and walking hand in hand, grabbing her suitcases, and striding out of the airport. The two headed to his car and put the bags in the trunk. Zabdiel opened the door for his woman, and the two of them climbed in and started their ride home.

“Te amo mi cariño”, he kissed her hand.

“And I love you”, she said sweetly.

Nadia knew that these next two months were going to be a blast.

 Time Jump

             These two months were going nothing like Nadia thought it would. Don’t get her wrong, Zabdiel was treating her like a queen in every sense of the word, from feeding her fruit, to afternoon massages, to late night lovin! When it came to Zabdiel, Nadia was on cloud nine, but it was something else that was bringing her down more than usual: the fans. Now in the beginning, the CNCOwners were ecstatic about the relationship Nadia had blossomed with Zabdiel, and for the most part, they still are. There are positive messages in her inbox from the fans all the time, and they always lift her spirits when she’s down. But lately, somethings been off with them, or at least some of them. It started when Nadia was giving weekly updates to the fans about what Mr. de Jesús was up to. Even though the band was on break, he still did somethings band-related, like producing music. Sometimes when he’s in his element, she likes to get a video of him because she knows the fans would love the content. Or when you catch him doing something cute like playing with Appa, she knew the fans would swoon. Even though most of the fans were showing her love, some were showing her hate. Like HATE, hate. Like hate to the point where they were telling her to kill herself. Like, who does that? At first, she didn’t pay them any mind, because of course there were always the nay-sayers. But the comments started getting worst, like to the point where they were making her cry. She couldn’t believe there were people like this on the internet. She tried to keep this from Zabdiel as long as she could, this time was supposed to be about them, not some asshats that were trying to bring her spirits down. But of course, Zabdiel knew his woman way too well for her to keep a secret like this.

           Zabdiel had just got home from a dinner run when he walked in and noticed the apartment was eerily silent.

“¡Nadia, estoy en casa!” he shouted through the home to place her. She didn’t respond.

           He placed the food in the refrigerator and went in search of his girlfriend, finally finding her in the bedroom.

“Nena, ¿me has oído? Why didn’t you respond?”

           He turned her around in the bed, just to find she was crying her eyes out.

“¿Por que estás llorando? What happened?”

           Still trying to save face, Nadia pushed it aside to change the subject.

“Everything’s fine honey. What did you get to eat?” She was totally lying in his face, and Zabdiel was not having it.

           Before Zabdiel could ask again what had her in distress, her phone lit up with a notification, and before she could redirect his attention, he snatched her phone away.

“What is this, Nadia?” he tapped on the notification.

“It’s nothing Zab. Please don’t open---”

           But it was too late. He had opened it, and what he saw made him bubble with anger. Countless negative comments on her social media degrading her, berating her, calling her names and how she was worthless. One he scrolled past literally told her to kill herself. Are they serious? He could not believe that his so called “fans” were the ones harassing her like this. Oh, he was going to put a stop to this once and for all.

“¿Por cuánto tiempo ha estado sucediendo esto?” he asked in sorrow.

“Zabdiel, please.” She just wanted to forget about it, but he wouldn’t budge.

“How long, Nadia.” His tone was firmer, and because she knew he wasn’t going to leave it alone, she conceded.

“A few weeks.” She sighed. He huffed in frustration but spoke to her in a soft tone.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” he asked in curiosity, not understanding why she would keep something like this from him.

“Because I didn’t want you to worry, okay? This time together was supposed to be about us, not some mean fans. I just shouldn’t have let it get to me so much.”

           At the sound of her blaming herself for this nonsense, Zabdiel wrapped Nadia up in the tightest hug he could muster, quieting her claims.

“Escúchame mi amol. None of this your fault, and I am sorry this has happened. Those are not my fans; they are just evil people with nothing better to do. I’m gonna put a stop to this in the morning.”

Nadia tried to protest, but he shushed her concerns, leaving no room for discussion. He kissed her forehead.

“If this happens again nena, you have to tell me so I can fix it. I can’t help if you don’t let me. Okay?” he held her face in his hands as she nodded, showing she understood.

           He kissed her lips tenderly, savoring the taste of her. It started off slow, but the kiss grew hungrier, more primal than anything before. His tongue slid into her mouth, dancing around each other, until Nadia’s tongue gave in to his, accepting his dominance.

“I’m gonna make you forget all about them hermosa” he whispered into her ear.

           He laid her down on the bed as he began to kiss under her jaw, moving toward her neck and shoulder juncture, suckling her pulse point. She moaned, knowing that tonight was going to be a long one. His hands held her waist, as he slid her shirt up, exposing her stomach. He kissed and nipped along the sides her tummy, forcing her shirt up. He pulled away for a split second, finally pulling her shirt off, getting frustrated with the fabric. He was mesmerized by the way her breasts looked in her black bra; he was practically salivating at the mouth.

“Eres exquisita” he leaned down to kiss her neckline, traveling to her cleavage, nipping at the rise of her left boob, and then the right.

“You have too many clothes on” Nadia said as she slid her hands under his shirt, desperate to feel him as he was feeling her.

           He pulled away to get his shirt off, as Nadia threw her bra across the room. Zabdiel was back on her in seconds, sucking her left nipple into his mouth while he fondled the right breast in his huge hand. His warm mouth was doing wonders for her body, and all the pleasure she felt was shot straight to her core. He kissed the valley in between her breasts and down her stomach, knowing exactly where he was headed. Undoing her zipper, he worked her pants off her body and tossed them to the side of the bed, leaving her in her black underwear. He sniffed between her legs, nuzzling her nub which sent a jolt up her spine.

“Hueles dulce” he sighed as he pulled her panties off her body, leaving her bare.

           He pulled her legs over his shoulders, gripped her thighs, and licked a long stripe up from her slit to her pearl, making her gasp.

“But you taste even sweeter.” Zabdiel was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

           If there was one thing people knew about Zabdiel, it was that he had an oral fixation. He always had something in his mouth, whether it was gum, a lollipop, or in this case, her pussy. And he was an expert with his tongue, knowing just where to lick to get his woman stimulated. He licked in between her lips, just so she could get a feel for him. He then licked at her clit, drawing her favorite star pattern, sending her to another galaxy. Nadia was a moaning mess, her hand flew to where his head was, physically telling him not to move an inch. But Zabdiel wouldn’t dare, he was enjoying this just as much as she was. Knowing that it was him causing his woman so much pleasure, made him painfully hard in his pants. But his woman had to cum first.

“Do you want more, my love?” Nadia was gasping for air, nodding her head frantically, but that wasn’t enough for him.

“Usa tus palabras, hermosa” he breathed into her core as he licked down her slit.

“Yes! Baby please, I need more!” she begged, desperate to chase her high.

           Zabdiel inserted his middle finger into her hot channel, and then his index, massaging her inner walls. He found that one spot inside her that made her back arch, hips rising off the bed. This action made Nadia’s eyes roll in the back of her head; she was gripping the sheets for dear life, whining. She was so close, he just needed to say it. And he knew it too.

“It’s okay nena, I got you. Dale” he sucked her pearl into his mouth, hard.

           That one word and one action, lit her body on fire. Her orgasm was explosive, mind and body in the clouds, she didn’t think she would ever come down. Zabdiel worked her through her orgasm until she returned to earth, drinking up everything she had to give him. He sat up, and peering at his face he looked like a glazed donut. He hopped off the bed for a split second, getting his pants and boxers off in one push. Nadia would have had to seen it a thousand times, but she will never get tired of seeing just how magnificent Zabdiel’s penis was. She reached out to grasp it, but Zabdiel pushed her hand away, leaning over her.

“No nena, tonight is about you. Relájate” he said as he nestled in between her thighs.

           He kissed her first, slow and sensual, pouring out all his emotions in one action. He leaned over to the side to grab a condom out of the night drawer. Once he put the condom on, he lined himself up at her entrance, and ever the gentleman, he peered up at her to make sure she was okay. Holding on to his biceps, she nodded, and he eased the head of his cock into her tight channel, taking the breath out of both of their lungs.

“Carajo nena. Eres tan apretada” he gasped into her ear.

           Once fully seated, he took a minute to let her adjust. No matter how many times they’ve had sex together, his girth always took her by surprise. Zabdiel could feel Nadia hips moving slightly against his, signaling him to move. He drew back his hips all the way, leaving only the tip in to tease her, then he slammed himself back in, to the hilt. His thrusts were slow, making love to her through his actions.

“Eres perfecta” he whispered into her ear as he kissed her neck.

She felt euphoric in every sense of the word; not only was he making her feel good physically, he was also making her feel good emotionally. Every stroke he took pulled all the negative comments out of her mind and replaced them with deep and utter bliss. She was on cloud nine, but she needed to get to the moon. She wanted to forget, and Zabdiel was the only way how.

“Faster, Papi” she pleaded, begging him to take her pain away.

           It was like a switch flipped inside his head. Nadia knew if she wanted a different side of Zabdiel, a more aggressive side, that was the one word that would do the trick. “Domdiel” appeared in a matter of seconds, gripping her hips harder, and his strokes started matching the speed of a jackhammer. Nadia felt him everywhere, from her neck down to her core. She knew there would be bruises in the morning, but she didn’t care, all that mattered was this moment right now.

“Papi, I’m close!” She held on to him for dear life, nails running down his back so hard they almost broke skin.

           Zabdiel was in the same boat, as his thrusts were starting to lose their rhythm. He reached down between her legs, drawing a nice figure eight on her bundle of nerves, sure that it will help her reach a final high.

“Cum for me, Nadia.”

           That was all it took. Her body arched and convulsed off the bed. She screamed out in pleasure as her orgasm washed over her. A white-hot light flooded the back of her eyes, leaving her in a state of pure ecstasy. Zabdiel wasn’t far behind, getting three more pumps in before he stilled, spilling himself into the rubber. He collapsed onto her, but she didn’t mind, welcoming the warmth. After a few seconds Zabdiel got up and retreated to the bathroom to throw away the rubber. He returned to Nadia with a washcloth in hand, leaning down to clean her up, being mindful that she was still very sensitive. When he was finished, he tossed the rag into the laundry hamper, and crawled into bed, snuggling up to his woman.

“Te amo, mi vida” he whispered as he drifted off to slumber.

“Te amo, mi cariño” she said back as sleep overcame her.

           In that moment, Nadia felt at peace. Not anger, not sadness, just simple peace.

Time Jump

           When morning came, Nadia found herself in bed, alone. Finding Zabdiel’s discarded shirt, she slipped it on and made her way to the living room, in search of her boyfriend. The sight that she came across almost made her cry. Zabdiel was on the couch with his phone in hand, going completely off on the fans that were spewing hate towards her. He said that he was disappointed and angry that some of his so-called “fans” would go so far as to hurt his woman intentionally. He also said that true fans would want to see him happy, and that if they were real fans, they would either show you two some love, or just simply be quiet. He saw Nadia out of the corner of his eye and decided to end the video there.

“Ahora si me disculpas, voy a salir con mi mujer.”

           He motioned for her to come sit with him, so she did. He placed her on his lap and wrapped his arms around her waist.

“You didn’t have to do that, you know. I could have gotten over it.” She said as she leaned against his chest.

“You shouldn’t have to. Tú eres mi mujer, and I’m not gonna tolerate any disrespect, no matter who it’s from.” He kissed her on her forehead.

           The two stayed like that for a moment, just basking in the peaceful silence, until Nadia spoke up.

“So the day has just started, what do you want to do?” She looked into his eyes.

“How about my woman decides for today?” He gave his signature dimple-filled smile.

“Your woman? I like the sound of that!” She cheesed as they hugged each other tightly.

           Yeah, their relationship was hard sometimes, but being his woman, makes it all worthwhile.

[mooifyourecows]

hi moo!! I am also in distress bc of stress :/ just came here to say that ur posts throughout the day give me life. tell me more about ur stories! idc which one. u choose. it’ll make me happy either way :)

hey there anon, i woke up in the middle of the night, immediately stressed myself out (ayy solidarity), and haven’t slept since so let’s talk about ‘Force of Impact!’ 🤙

Okay so ‘Force of Impact’ is actually one of the first original stories I began in this era. (we don’t talk about Moo’s previous eras of writing okay shhhh just move on)

So let’s start with the characters of this story and some basic info on each of them:

Conrad Savage (main)- 24 years old, half Korean/half Jamaican, born in Boston, professional MMA fighter (injured)

Nash Boone (main)- 20 years old, Caucasian, unemployed, student

Peyton Baines (side)- 18 years old, Caucasian, student

Layla Love (side)- 18 years old, African American, student

Milos Love (side)- 30 years old, African American, big brother of Layla, professional MMA fighter

Cassie Leigh (side)- 34 years old, Caucasian, police officer

Mani Najafi (side)- 69 (nice) years old, Pakistani American, retired vale tudo fighter

Lane Gage (side)(derogatory)- 28 years old, Puerto Rican, Professional MMA fighter

+others

Also, here is the Playlist for this story in case you’re interested. I really like this playlist because I used a lot of Nick Murphy and he just VIBES HARD with the mood of the story, especially Conrad as a character in general (i can’t listen to Dangerous or Believe (Me) by Nick Murphy without thinking about this story and hnnnnnnn help):

Force of Impact Playlist

Alrighty, alrighty

So, the story begins with Conrad moving to a new house in a different state... right across the alley to his old coach, Mani, in hopes of convincing him to coach him again. Mani had been Conrad’s old high school wrestling coach who also trained him in other various martial arts outside of school and is basically the sole guy that got Conrad into the UFC world. He retired from coaching when Conrad turned twenty and earned his first Championship middleweight win, making him the youngest champion since the establishment of weight classes. 👀 Mani was like “wow, i trained the youngest champion, time to retire before things go downhill”

But nuh uh, like Conrad was gonna let him go that easily. He held his title for the next three years and then suffered his first loss against Lane Gage in a fight where he also injured his shoulder. The injury put him outta professional matches for the next year and he now thinks he’s ready for a comeback. But he blames his injury on his previous coach and wants Mani back because the old coot was like... aggressively about that personal upkeep/health stuff and always made sure Conrad wasn’t overexerting himself and yada yada

Alright so Conrad moves into the house literally right across the alley from Mani and is like “be my coach” and Mani is like “no” and Conrad is like “be my coach please” and Mani is like “no” and Conrad is like “be my coach or i’ll never ever leave you alone ever again” and Mani is like “ugh fine.”

But who lives right next door to Conrad’s new house? That’s right. 

Nash.

Soooooo, Nash is a twenty year old guy who just so happens to still be in high school for personal, tragic backstory reasons. He’s got ADHD and has a problem with getting REALLY INTO something, swearing it’s something he’s gonna do for the rest of his life, maybe as a career, but then completely drops it a week or two later. That’s just his thing. He comes home like “I’ve decided I will be a professional baseball player” and then quits the team two weeks into the season. Then he throws all his money at painting supplies like “I’m the next da Vinky, just watch” and they wind up growing mold and dust in the corner of his room after just a few failed attempts.

Nash is a quitter. He knows he’s a quitter. Everyone does. Nobody really expects much from him at this point. It’s fine. Don’t worry about it.

First thing Conrad notices about living next door to the Boones is that they’re fuckin LOUD. Right from the get go, Nash is yelling and his dad is yelling back and doors are slammimg and glass is breaking and holy shit Conrad is like “should i call the cops?”

But it’s fine, it’s okay, that’s just how they communicate. Seems pretty toxic but hey who is he to judge? He hasn’t spoken to his parents in years so he’s not really in a position to judge other people’s familial relationships, is he?

Anyway, Nash and Conrad bond pretty quickly. They’ve got really similar personalities, even if they express them differently. Nash is loud and unabashed and Conrad is lazy and relaxed but they are both mentally and emotionally immature and overly passionate. They’re both well-intentioned but flub the landing more than stick it.

So Conrad begins training with Mani and Nash insists on watching/participating because why not, he’s interested and has nothing better to do anyway.

Thus begins Conrad’s journey into getting back into shape in order to redeem himself after his humiliating loss to Lane.

But it’s not easy.

Like, not at all. 

Because on top of having the shoulder injury that threatens to come back at the first sign of strain, Conrad is also like, kinda, really, depressed.

He tries to hide it. Like ahaha ain’t nothin’ to see here, buddy boyyy, just a sexy man growing a beard and drinking lukewarm beer in his back yard at ten a.m. like sexy men sometimes do hahaha...

Turns out, the shoulder injury did more than kick him outta the fighting world for over a year. It also reminded him that he’s a high school drop-out who has dedicated his entire life to a career he’ll be too old for by the time he’s in his thirties to early forties. And then what? What next?

Nothing. There’s nothing next. Because since Conrad first started fighting, that’s been the only thing he’s cared about. Fighting and winning and fighting some more. It doesn’t matter that he’s just 24 years old, got his whole life ahead of him. Fighting is his life and he doesn’t know how to do anything else. The thought of giving it up terrifies the shit out of him.

So while Conrad is training, doing well, getting fit, feeling great, everything is awesome.

But at the slightest hitch... it’s time to spiral.

Mani is careful not to let Conrad push himself too hard and aggravate his injury but the idiot is a little desperate to get back into the game. He can’t help it. If he’s going to make it back to that level of prestige he held for three years, he needs to start winning. He needs to get people talking about him again. It’s the only way to make it up in the ranks. That’s how the UFC works. You need connections, you need a record, you need to win and garner people’s favor to even qualify. Since he’s been out for over a year, he has to prove that he’s still worthy. Granted, he was a popular fighter before his break. Fans loved him, his fights were entertaining, and he was good.

Honestly, he’d probably make it back in, easy peasy, without too much effort. But he wants to be extra certain. So he starts accepting fights against rookie fighters trying to make a name for themselves.

It’s just to get him used to it again, he swears.

On average, UFC fighters only do a small handful of fights a year. But Conrad is like lol nah I can do more than that.

So dude just starts winnin’ left and right. Look at him go. Good as new. It’s like he was never injured. People start noticing. He’s being talked about again. Everyone is excited for his comeback.

He gets confident and accepts a fight against Milos Love, a trans man who has been makin’ waves in the MMA world.

Aaaaaaand Conrad gets his ass kicked. Damn. He forgot how it felt to lose. Sucks man. But it’s alright. Because even though he lost, the fight was a good one and everyone is buzzing about both Conrad and Milos. They would loooove to see a rematch one day.

So Conrad has pretty much secured himself a spot in the UFC again.

Sweet. Things are going so well.

So well.

Until...

Welp. One day in training, Conrad injures himself.

Fuck.

He’s so frustrated and pissed at himself that he goes to a club and gets drunk. Nash goes with him to try and keep him out of trouble but Conrad refuses to listen to reason. He blows up at Nash, calls him a child who needs to keep his nose out of adult business. They cause enough of a scene that Nash gets kicked out of the club. Instead of going home though, he sits on the curb and waits, stewing in his anger, swearing to really give Conrad a piece of his mind when he finally comes out.

Well, all that planning goes out the window when Conrad does finally stumble out onto the sidewalk, drunk, in pain, crying. Nash sets his anger aside and helps get Conrad home. He gets him inside and into bed and just as he’s about to leave, Conrad apologizes. “You’re not a child. Sorry. I’m sorry. You’re more of a man than I am.”

Because see... this is a sore subject for our buddy Nash.

He’s stuck in between, after all.

And there’s some tragic reasoning for this.

First of all, when Nash was in the first grade, his ADHD was misdiagnosed as being “not emotionally prepared for second grade” and he was held back. Okay, no big deal. Whatever, right? He didn’t mind being a little bit older than his peers. He was immature, after all. He had fits of anger and got into fistfights on the regular, even though he’s weak and always got his ass handed to him. It was fine though. He bounces back quick.

Then, in the summer of what should have been his senior year of high school, Nash and his little sister were staying with their grandparents for a few weeks. One day, he argued with his grandparents and decided to stay behind as they took his younger sister to the zoo. Unfortunately, on the way there, there was an accident on the bridge and their car was sent over the side and into the river. None of them survived the accident.

Due to the traumatizing nature of the accident and the events surrounding the accident, Nash was plagued with survivor’s guilt and had to miss the first several months of his senior year of high school. He decided to take the entire year off instead of try to make up for the lost semester, thus making him twenty years old and not yet graduated from high school.

Nash now feels torn between adulthood and childhood. He’s still treated like a child by his teachers and the other “adultier” adults he faces because he’s still in high school. But he’s also treated as more of an adult than his classmates. Not to mention he’s had to “grow up” following his little sister’s death in order to be there for his parents, who did not take the loss well at all. In a way, he had to be their caretaker over the year following the accident, all while still being infantilized by pretty much everyone else.

He’s in between. Not quite an adult but so much more than a child. He doesn’t know what he wants or needs. Ideally, he wants to erase the past few years, go back, have a do-over to do it right, without the trauma and growing up too fast. But he can’t do that so all he asks is to be recognized as the adult he is and respected as adults expect to be respected.

“Just drop out then. Get a job.” is what he’s been told, over and over again by adults he calls out for treating him like a child. “don’t be playing a child’s game if you don’t want to be seen as a child”

But he perseveres. Nash is a quitter, but he can’t bring himself to quit this. He wants to finish high school, no matter how long it takes him. If for no other reason than to prove it to those stupid adults that look down on him that he’s not stupid, he’s not pitiful, he can do it, so shut the fuck up.

Conrad is different though. He’s not like other adults. From the beginning, there was solidarity and understanding between them. Conrad never treated him like he was some naïve little kid who doesn’t know anything about life. But he didn’t treat him like an old, jaded adult either. He was just... Nash. A guy he had a lot in common with. Who he enjoyed hanging out with. Who he respected as someone also in his twenties, just 4 years younger than him, facing his own, important troubles.

So hearing Conrad call him a child hurts more than when other people say it.

He hates it way more.

Especially when his feelings for him start budding romantic. He doesn’t want to be seen as a kid by the guy he wants to kiss, man. That sucks.

When Conrad calls him a child, he thinks, “ah man maybe i don’t have a chance with him like at all.” 

And that sucks. It triggers his defense mechanism of alienating people before they can disappoint him first. Following that night, Nash tries to separate himself from Conrad a little bit, even though he apologized and took it back.

Still.

Damage was done, homie.

So Nash decides to be a prick. Says some shit to piss Conrad off. But Conrad sees straight through him. He can feel the insincerity. And he refuses to take the bait.

Stupid hot bastard.

Well fine. Nash will continue to be his friend. But he won’t expect anything more than that. It won’t happen anyway so-

And yet.

It’s inevitable, ain’t it? They’re better together. Do not separate.

Anyway, through their relationship, they develop as humans, of course. Nash finds passion for something he considers worth sticking with. Conrad finds the relief of letting go of something he used to think was the only thing that mattered. 

There are twists and turns, obviously. Nothing good comes easy.

And the other side characters have their own little journeys. 

Milos falls in love with Cassie and works to woo her. Peyton challenges her personal view of feminism after growing close with Layla, who represents everything Peyton’s internalized misogyny rejects. Mani finds joy in coaching again and realizes it doesn’t matter what note his career ends on if it never ends in the first place. Lane gets his ass kicked. Maybe more than once. Nash’s parents take steps to moving past the mourning they had been holding tight to over the past year and a half after the death of their daughter and are able to support Nash the way he deserves.

Etc. etc.

Obviously there’s more story stuff I’m leaving out for the sake of not giving it ALL away... but that’s the gist of the story!

Okay okay okay okay I dunno how good this explanation actually is but ehhh don’t mind me, I’m tired but drank coffee so I’m up for the day now.

Hope you like the synopsis, Babe! Thanks for your interest 🖤 I kinda wanna go make Conrad and Nash on artbreeder now 🤔

[darkarfs]

single moments from the Trump presidency that would have defined/ended any other politician’s career

- saying he could “buy Greenland” - suggesting it was a good idea to nuke hurricanes - saying there would be fewer forest fires if we just got rid of all the leaves - asking Trudeau if Canada had tried to burn down the White House - autographing pictures of shooting victims - when he kept talking about how they drop bowling balls on cars to test them in japan and no one could figure out where he could have even gotten the idea - when he suggested Seoul should just move away from the North Korean border - introducing West Virginia’s governor as ‘the largest, most beautiful man’ - when he tweeted SEE YOU IN COURT! right after an appeals court ruled against him. like. yeah man. they just did. - the time he didn't know how to close an umbrella so he just dropped it and walked away - fighting with the Vietnam vets over whether napalm or agent orange is used in the Ride of the Valkyries scene in Apocalypse Now and then when they insisted it was napalm, Trump said they disagreed with him because they didn't like the movie (The line is famously, literally “I love the smell of napalm in the morning.”) - using his position as the single most powerful person in the world to promote Goya canned beans - when he bragged about the crowd size at the hurricane shelter in coastal Texas (”what a turnout”) - signing Bibles. What. - thinking the F-22 is invisible to the naked eye - smiling and giving a thumbs up during a photo op with a baby orphaned by a mass shooting - putting a candy bar on a Minion’s head because he’s never interacted with a child before -  when he interpreted some stray comment about transparency in the process to mean his border wall should literally be transparent, so passersby are not beaned by bundles of drugs and cans being thrown over the wall - the time he talked about having to flush his massive dumps 10 times and then immediately tried to blame the dumps on his supporters - the fake Sharpee’d hurricane map, which he did solely to not appear wrong on television - suggesting that federal employees working unpaid during the gov shutdown should just “do a work around” at the grocery store if they can’t pay for groceries - the fucking eclipse thing - the fucking three-pointers with paper towels to Puerto Rican hurricane victims - when he told thousands of Boy Scouts a story about his rich friend's fuckboat and then complained about Hilary for the remainder of the speech - when the called the CEO of Lockheed Martin “Marilyn Lockheed” (her last name is Hewson) which was objectively funnier than “Tim Apple” - when he picked an argument with Baltic world leaders because he thought the Baltics were the Balkans - the first time his team had a meeting in the cabinet room they couldn’t figure out how to turn on the lights and ended up just having the meeting in the dark -  The time he said Andrew Jackson was "really angry that he saw what was happening with regard to the Civil War, he said 'There's no reason for this.'" (Jackson died 16 years before the Civil War, and he owned 150 slaves.) - told a 7-year-old boy there was no Santa Claus on Christmas - the team of staffers whose only job was to tape back together documents he had torn up because he’s just THAT used to destroying evidence, because they couldn’t get him to stop ripping them up, but legally, the documents had to be archived - when he said the Continental Army took over the British airports during the Revolution - no sanctions on Russian soldiers killing American soldiers - “I take no responsibility for this pandemic.” - when touring the damage the Louisiana gulf coast after Hurricane Laura (just a few months ago!), he started giving first responders autographed pieces of paper, which he told them to sell on eBay for $10,000 - when he thought "clean coal" meant that the miners dug it out of the ground and physically cleaned it - the goddamn fast food catering - trying to trick the family of a teen killed by a US diplomat's wife who fled justice into meeting her, Ellen-style - pushing the Prime Minister of Montenegro out of the way to preen - that time he called into Fox & Friends and ranted for so long that they politely but firmly kicked him off - hiring an Obama impersonator solely to berate him - having a button installed on his desk that let him order Diet Coke on a whim. And sometimes using that button upwards of 13 times a day. - that time when a kid handed him a hat to sign, and he signed the hat, but instead of handing it back, he just threw it into the middle of the crowd - autographing the guestbook at the Holocaust memorial, with an added “had such a great time!” - when he zoned out and wondered where a woman's dead relatives were DIRECTLY after she had said her mother six brothers were killed. (Actual exchange: “They killed my mother, my six brothers...” “Where are they now?”) - sending 2,000 soldiers to the border to stop “the caravan,” having their pictures taken, and then recalling them all. - consoling a dead soldier’s family by saying “he knew what he was getting into.” - when he said no one could climb over the border wall because there would be no way down, and then belatedly remembered rope - when he congratulated the Great Lakes on their "record deepness" - calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas” at an event meant to honor Navajo code talkers  - “Shithole countries” - calling Baltimore “rat-infested” - tweeting “too bad!” right after Elijah Cummings’ house was broken into - calling the White House “a dump” a month into moving in, which led to first both him and Melania, and then just Melania by herself, staying in Trump Tower for almost 5 months, costing taxpayers around $100,000 a day - an entire quarter of his presidency spent on his own golf courses, costing taxpayers around $141,000,000, NOT counting the Secret Service detail (they were charged for rooms and golf carts, since these were Trump’s OWN golf courses) - using “Pocahontas” again to slur Elizabeth Warren while talking down to a Native American journalist - holding a rally in Pittsburgh and trying to woo the locals by ranting about how the statue of Joe Paterno, the accused pedophilia enabler who was coach of a rival sports team, should go back up - confusingly having bigger salt and pepper shakers than everyone else in his administration, because everything to him is a dick-measuring contest - when he said he would “run in and take care of” school shooters, to school shooting victims - appointing fucking DeVos, Miller, Pompeo, Mnuchin, Nunes - inciting a seditious white supremacist mob to make sure he’s president until he’s 85, resulting in 5 dead (for which I am constantly wondering...”really? FOR THIS GUY?”) - drafted a proposal to open 94% of previously protected American shorelines to offshore drilling - when he walked up the stairs to Air Force One with toilet paper stuck to his shoe -  at least 44 times in March, April and early May in which he downplayed the threat of the virus calling it “very well under control” again and again - when somebody asked him his favorite book and he pointed at a bookshelf and said “there are some over there” - meeting with the goddamn MyPillow guy to discuss overturning election results and declaring martial law - impeached twice, was golfing both times the vote went through - 70 pardons for known criminals (including Bannon), 70 sentences commuted, just to be a spiteful little toad - when he blathered on about how much he loved the queen, the totally hacked her off - when Hope Hicks steamed his pants as he was wearing them - getting mad-pissed at White House kitchen staff because they couldn’t recreate McDonald’s and it was too late to order  and I wonder how much I missed. I bet there’s a McSweeney’s article listing all of it.