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primussavethesemechs · 1 year ago

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I want the human/cybertronian life difference to be talked about more in canon

Cuz I mean. it’s RIGHT THERE.

Just a smidgen of true acknowledgment I BEG YOU HASBRO‼️

i mean come on all it takes is someone mentioning how long the wars been going for one of the humans to go “4 MILLION YEARS???? WHAT THE FUCK HOW OLD ARE YOU???”

And optimus or ratchet to be like “…5/7 million?” And all of the humans to have a break down CUZ WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOUVE BEEN ALIVE SINCE BEFORE THE HUMAN SPECIES EXISTED??? WE WERE MONKEYS WHEN YOU WERE BORN???

And the (woefully uniformed) cybertronians to be like “??? What do YOU mean your species was still evolving when I onlined, how long do you guys live?? A thousand?? A few hundred??”

And the gobsmacked humans to be like “??? NO WE HARDLY LIVE OVER A HUNDRED ITS CONSIDERED AN ACCOMPLISHMENT?? AVERAGE OLD AGE DEATH IS LIKE MID 80s!! TECHNICALLY THE AVERAGE LIFE SPAN IS 72 OR SOMETHING???”

Cue the autobots being like “😨 72??? THATS A CHILD WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT⁉️”

the more attached/emotional bots looking at their charges and realizing that not only are they sparklings compared to them but they’ll die as sparklings too in just a few decades, causing them to straight up have a mini meltdown.

Yeah they’re in a war and they’ve lost plenty of friends, but never to anything as predictable and inescapable as old age.

It’s the seeing-it-coming part that gets to them, the slow dread of knowing that even if they do everything right and keep them out of danger and they stay healthy there’s nothing they can do to stop them from withering away in a couple of decades.

Most versions of bumblebee looking at their charge/friend and realizing his assumptions about the fact that since they’re both still young that they’ll have plenty of time to just. Live together and have fun- are wrong?? Immediately tears. Even if cybertronians can’t cry tears he’s doing whatever the equivalent is and running away to cry in his room. And then running back to snatch them and take them with him cuz HE CANT WASTE A SECOND IF THEIR LIFESPANS ARE REALLY THAT SHORT HES GONNA JUST HAVE TO SPEND 24/7 WITH THEM

This whole concept ESPECIALLY applies to TFP since all of them got their own little human buddy and there’s only like 5 autobots to begin with (of the main season 1 crew) they’ve lost so many of their own so recently, their numbers are already dwindling down to nothing, they’re losing the war and the kids are what’s given them a major morale boost. To continue fighting they need hope, and the kids have kind of become their hope for the future- to know they’ll die off in under a century despite how young they still are is a shot to the spark.

Look me in the eye and tell me bee wouldnt panic hearing that Raf only has 70-80 years to live. LOOK ME IN THE EYE AND TELL ME HE WOULDNT HAVE SOME KIND OF FIT OVER BEING TOLD THAT HIS LITTLE BUDDY (from a cybertronian perspective) HAS A LIFESPAN EQUIVALENT TO A LATE STAGE TERMINAL ILLNESS DIAGNOSIS. Bee would start treating Raf like a kid with stage 4 cancer 😭

I just KNOW bulkhead would have the worst reaction other than bee, maybe even worse cuz he looks at miko and realizes she’s used up basically a fifth of her entire lifespan already and she’s Still So Little and straight up starts weeping. That’s his DAUGHTER you can’t take her from him so soon it’s not FAIR! He might have to go destroy a canyon wall or something to let some of the anger and grief out

Arcee is Not taking it well either.

She JUST got attached to this one, just got used to a new partner and your telling her that no matter what she does he’s never going to last as long as tailgate of cliff jumper did?? Even if both he and she do everything they’re supposed to do to protect him and extended his life?? Depression time baby

Optimus and ratchet don’t react as much outwardly to the news as the others but inside they’re both 💔💥

These kids have brought optimus a level of contentment he hasn’t felt in vorns, and he sees how bright their spirits shine- Only to now know those precious spirits will burn out in less than a century- it gnaws at him inside, yet another strike from the cruelty of fate

Ratchet is devastated but refuses to acknowledge it, these kids- yes even miko- have become his pseudo grandkids and he’s not ready, nor will he ever be ready, to outlive them. Jacks reminds him too much of a younger optimus, still learning and still hopeful. Miko is… well she has a fire to her that ratchet can appreciate (when she’s not actively annoying him) she’s determined enough to make anything happen which he does begrudgingly respect even if he wishes she wouldn’t just throw herself into any and every situation just for fun.

And Raf…

Raf is his apprentice, the only one of the kids to understand him and listen intently to his stories of cybertron. To show appreciation for his work and his ideas, to Listen and Learn and Improve his inventions. He harbors the most fondness for Raf since he sees so much potential in him, and has taken him under his wing in teaching him cybertronian language and biology.

He feels almost like he’s training a student to take his place- only for the ground to be ripped out from under him to know that Raf will never have the chance to succeed him, will never even outlive him.

A parent should never have to bury their child, and ratchet already feels that he has.

TLDR the autobots find out humans have fruit fly lifespans next to them and become one big soggy mess of tears, optimus and ratchet included although they try to have a stiff upper lip about it (and fail to varying extents)

I swear this was supposed to be about any and all continuities but TFP took over completely😭 idk it just fits the best since they focus so much on how attached the bots get to the kids

Edit: btw this was inspired from the fact I found out that the cybertronian equivalent to a year (yes I know technically they have solar cycles which are roughly a human year but what they consider a year vs their lifespan/time perception is different) is a vorn. A vorn is 80 HUMAN YEARS. I saw that and went “oh wow a vorn is like a whole human lifespan!😃” and then I went “OH A VORN IS A WHOLE HUMAN LIFESPAN 😀“

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antimony-medusa · 11 months ago

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"There's just something about that guy that means I don't trust him"

Okay so, Phil has got the wrong read of Sunny. I'm gonna start off with that. He thinks they're a confident unconcerned material girl who is comfortable in the fact that their dad loves them, and potentially he thinks that they're a bit older than they are? Whereas people who have been able to see her one-on-one with Tubbo know that she's quite a bit more shy and insecure and young than she puts on! He's been taken in by the facade they're putting on, and I think that's part of why he is making jokes and comments that don't hit well. To understate how yesterday went. I think he botched the interaction with Sunny in the musuem and I hope someone tells him that, so he can apologize and fix that. And to be clear, as a phil viewer, this does interesting character work with Sunny as a sensitive child and I'm in favour of Sunnymin pursuing this line of lore. I'm staring with my little cube guy watching googles looking for the result when Phil realizes he scared a child, with great interest.

Because when you look at the musum one in context, my read is that was phil pivoting badly from an out of lore discussion into "oh hey I can explain something to sunny, who is confident and centred and knows her dad adores her" and then jokingly tried to explain the tallulah experience, and then we know from Sunny signs later that that went over like a ton of bricks. Mistake. However, when we're discussing it, I think it's fair to not have that understanding of the lore though, and to take a more pointed, villainous read of the lore! Go for it with discussing phil as cold and brusque to people who aren't his family, discuss Sunny feeling all alone in the musuem, fill your boots.

But guys, when you're discussing this as meta, I am seeing a lot of tags that are really really eager to paint Phil entirely and unequivocally as a villain and specifically cruel to children and cruel within the family, and there's an element to that that concerns me.

Phil, the cc, the guy, acts working class. He has an accent from a particular part of england that is traditionally working class, but he also has storytelling cadences and humour styles and attitudes towards challenges that are very familiar if you are from a working class or lower income community. I'm from an entirely different continuent, but the area I'm from is the sort of area that people make jokes about, and the whole way Phil acts as a CC is very familiar to me. (Note: even when he's talking about travel or stuff, he still has the "worked retail for a decade" mentality and pays attention to the staff and stuff and what they're doing, check out the brazil storytelling vod.)

And Phil's cubito, when he's not deliberately making a character like osmp crowfather, tends to have the mannerisms of someone who is working class. Even if you're not from a lower income area, I think most people can clock this, subconciously if nothing else. He swears a lot! He banters and roasts his friends and family but would absolutely do anything for them. He's informal in a very specific way.

Which is why when people pivot immediately into "why is he threatening and bullying children again" and "his wicked is showing", and "oh he's a evil stepfather/cruel stepmother" and "can we kill the child abusers now" I go Oh No.

Working class mannerisms are already stereotyped as especially prone to domestic abuse, among other ills. If you are going "oh something about him just always seemed like he would be cruel to children" maybe— push back on that one?

In the same way that during the election I was going "that may not be the play" about americans who didn't know what it was but something about Forever was just so angry and agressive (and they were talking from a perspective that viewed forever as a person of colour, regardless of how he's perceived at home), you might be talking from a perspective that encourages you to interpret Phil's behaviour with children as especially suspect. Potentially. Consider it.

And again, Phil biffed it in the musuem. That was a misstep that had me (autistic) going "oh no I see how you got there but you can all but see the sims negative relationship marker thing pop up". But I'd ask you at least to consider that it wasn't intentional cruelty, and that people can make social missteps before you jump immediately to interpreting their actions in the worst light possible.

#discourse #fandom meta #qsmp #philza #qphilza

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greenerteacups · 3 months ago

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oooh please someday tell us what you think of GOT

oh, no, it's my fatal weakness! it's [checks notes] literally just the bare modicum of temptation! okay you got me.

SO. in order to tell what's wrong with game of thrones you kind of have to have read the books, because the books are the reason the show goes off the rails. i actually blame the showrunners relatively little in proportion to GRRM for how bad the show was (which I'm not gonna rehash here because if you're interested in GOT in any capacity you've already seen that horse flogged to death). people debate when GOT "got bad" in terms of writing, but regardless of when you think it dropped off, everyone agrees the quality declined sharply in season 8, and to a certain extent, season 7. these are the seasons that are more or less entirely spun from whole cloth, because season 7 marks the beginning of what will, if we ever see it, be the Winds of Winter storyline. it's the first part that isn't based on a book by George R.R. Martin. it's said that he gave the showrunners plot outlines, but we don't know how detailed they were, or how much the writers diverged from the blueprint — and honestly, considering the cumulative changes made to the story by that point, some stark divergence would have been required. (there's a reason for this. i'll get there in a sec.)

so far, i'm not saying anything all that original. a lot of people recognized how bad the show got as soon as they ran out of Book to adapt. (I think it's kind of weird that they agreed to make a show about an unfinished series in the first place — did GRRM figure that this was his one shot at a really good HBO adaptation, and forego misgivings about his ability to write two full books in however many years it took to adapt? did he think they would wait for him? did he not care that the series would eventually spoil his magnum opus, which he's spent the last three decades of his life writing? perplexing.) but the more interesting question is why the show got bad once it ran out of Book, because in my mind, that's not a given. a lot of great shows depart from the books they were based on. fanfiction does exactly that, all the time! if you have good writers who understand the characters they're working with, departure means a different story, not a worse one. now, the natural reply would be to say that the writers of GOT just aren't good, or at least aren't good at the things that make for great television, and that's why they needed the books as a structure, but I don't think that's true or fair, either. books and television are very different things. the pacing of a book is totally different from the pacing of a television show, and even an episodic book like ASOIAF is going to need a lot of work before it's remotely watchable as a series. bad writers cannot make great series of television, regardless of how good their source material is. sure, they didn't invent the characters of tyrion lannister and daenerys targaryen, but they sure as hell understood story structure well enough to write a damn compelling season of TV about them!

so but then: what gives? i actually do think it's a problem with the books! the show starts out as very faithful to the early books (namely, A Game of Thrones and A Clash of Kings) to the point that most plotlines are copied beat-for-beat. the story is constructed a little differently, and it's definitely condensed, but the meat is still there. and not surprisingly, the early books in ASOIAF are very tightly written. for how long they are, you wouldn't expect it, but on every page of those books, the plot is racing. you can practically watch george trying to beat the fucking clock. and he does! useful context here is that he originally thought GOT was going to be a trilogy, and so the scope of most threads in the first book or two would have been much smaller. it also helps that the first three books are in some respects self-contained stories. the first book is a mystery, the second and third are espionage and war dramas — and they're kept tight in order to serve those respective plots.

the trouble begins with A Feast for Crows, and arguably A Storm of Swords, because GRRM starts multiplying plotlines and treating the series as a story, rather than each individual book. he also massively underestimated the number of pages it would take him to get through certain plot beats — an assumption whose foundation is unclear, because from a reader's standpoint, there is a fucke tonne of shit in Feast and Dance that's spurious. I'm not talking about Brienne's Riverlands storyline (which I adore thematically but speaking honestly should have been its own novella, not a part of Feast proper). I'm talking about whole chapters where Tyrion is sitting on his ass in the river, just talking to people. (will I eat crow about this if these pay off in hugely satisfying ways in Winds or Dream? oh, totally. my brothers, i will gorge myself on sweet sweet corvid. i will wear a dunce cap in the square, and gleefully, if these turn out to not have been wastes of time. the fact that i am writing this means i am willing to stake a non-negligible amount of pride on the prediction that that will not happen). I'm talking about scenes where the characters stare at each other and talk idly about things that have already happened while the author describes things we already have seen in excruciating detail. i'm talking about threads that, while forgivable in a different novel, are unforgivable in this one, because you are neglecting your main characters and their story. and don't tell me you think that a day-by-day account tyrion's river cruise is necessary to telling his story, because in the count of monte cristo, the main guy disappears for nine years and comes hurtling back into the story as a vengeful aristocrat! and while time jumps like that don't work for everything, they certainly do work if what you're talking about isn't a major story thread!

now put aside whether or not all these meandering, unconcluded threads are enjoyable to read (as, in fairness, they often are!). think about them as if you're a tv showrunner. these bad boys are your worst nightmare. because while you know the author put them in for a reason, you haven't read the conclusion to the arc, so you don't know what that reason is. and even if the author tells you in broad strokes how things are going to end for any particular character (and this is a big "if," because GRRM's whole style is that he lets plots "develop as he goes," so I'm not actually convinced that he does have endings written out for most major characters), that still doesn't help you get them from point A (meandering storyline) to point B (actual conclusion). oh, and by the way, you have under a year to write this full season of television, while GRRM has been thinking about how to end the books for at least 10. all of this means you have to basically call an audible on whether or not certain arcs are going to pay off, and, if they are, whether they make for good television, and hence are worth writing. and you have to do that for every. single. unfinished. story. in the books.

here's an example: in the books, Quentin Martell goes on a quest to marry Daenerys and gain a dragon. many chapters are spent detailing this quest. spoiler alert: he fails, and he gets charbroiled by dragons. GRRM includes this plot to set up the actions of House Martell in Winds, but the problem is that we don't know what House Martell does in Winds, because (see above) the book DNE. So, although we can reliably bet that the showrunners understand (1) Daenerys is coming to Westeros with her 3 fantasy nukes, and (2) at some point they're gonna have to deal with the invasion of frozombies from Canada, that DOESN'T mean they necessarily know exactly what's going to happen to Dorne, or House Martell. i mean, fuck! we don't even know if Martin knows what's going to happen to Dorne or House Martell, because he's said he's the kind of writer who doesn't set shit out beforehand! so for every "Cersei defaults on millions of dragons in loans from the notorious Bank of Nobody Fucks With Us, assumes this will have no repercussions for her reign or Westerosi politics in general" plotline — which might as well have a big glaring THIS WILL BE IMPORTANT stamp on top of the chapter heading — you have Arianne Martell trying to do a coup/parent trap switcheroo with Myrcella, or Euron the Goffick Antichrist, or Faegon Targaryen and JonCon preparing a Blackfyre restoration, or anything else that might pan out — but might not! And while that uncertainty about what's important to the "overall story" might be a realistic way of depicting human beings in a world ruled by chance and not Destiny, it makes for much better reading than viewing, because Game of Thrones as a fantasy television series was based on the first three books, which are much more traditional "there is a plot and main characters and you can generally tell who they are" kind of book. I see Feast and Dance as a kind of soft reboot for the series in this respect, because they recenter the story around a much larger cast and cast a much broader net in terms of which characters "deserve" narrative attention.

but if you're making a season of television, you can't do that, because you've already set up the basic premise and pacing of your story, and you can't suddenly pivot into a long-form tone poem about the horrors of war. so you have to cut something. but what are you gonna cut? bear in mind that you can't just Forget About Dorne, or the Iron Islands, or the Vale, or the North, or pretty much any region of the story, because it's all interconnected, but to fit in everything from the books would require pacing of the sort that no reasonable audience would ever tolerate. and bear in mind that the later books sprout a lot more of these baby-plots that could go somewhere, but also might end up being secondary or tertiary to the "main story," which, at the end of the day, is about dragons and ice zombies and the rot at the heart of the feudal power system glorified in classical fantasy. that's the story that you as the showrunner absolutely must give them an end to, and that's the story that should be your priority 1.

so you do a hack and slash job, and you mortar over whatever you cut out with storylines that you cook up yourself, but you can't go too far afield, because you still need all the characters more or less in place for the final showdown. so you pinch here and push credulity there, and you do your best to put the characters in more or less the same place they would have been if you kept the original, but on a shorter timeframe. and is it as good as the first seasons? of course not! because the material that you have is not suited to TV like the first seasons are. and not only that, but you are now working with source material that is actively fighting your attempt to constrain a linear and well-paced narrative on it. the text that you're working with changed structure when you weren't looking, and now you have to find some way to shanghai this new sprawling behemoth of a Thing into a television show. oh, and by the way, don't think that the (living) author of the source material will be any help with this, because even though he's got years of experience working in television writing, he doesn't actually know how all of these threads will tie together, which is possibly the reason that the next book has taken over 8 years (now 13 and counting) to write. oh and also, your showrunners are sick of this (in fairness, very difficult) job and they want to go write for star wars instead, so they've refused the extra time the studio offered them for pre-production and pushed through a bunch of first-draft scripts, creating a crunch culture of the type that spawns entirely avoidable mistakes, like, say, some poor set designer leaving a starbucks cup in frame.

anyway, that's what I think went wrong with game of thrones.

#using the tags as a footnote system here but in order:#1. quentin MAY not be dead according to some theories but in the text he is a charred corpse #2. arianne is great and i love her but to be honest. my girl is kinda dumb. just 2 b real.#3. faegon is totally a blackfyre i think it's so obvious it may well be text at this point #it's almost r+l = j level man like it's kind of just reading comprehension at this point #4. relatedly there are some characters i think GRRM has endings picked out for and some i think he specifically does NOT #i think stannis melisandre jon and daenerys all will end up the same. jon and dany war crimes => murder/banishment arc is just classic GRRM #but i think jon's reasoning will be different and it'll be better-written.#im sorry but babygirl shireen IS getting flambeed. in response stannis will commit epic battle suicide killing all boltons i hope #brienne will live but in some tragic 'stay awhile horatio' capacity. likely she will try to die defending her liege and fail #faegon will die there's zero chance blackfyres win ever #now jaime/cersei I do NOT think he knows. my brothers in christ i don't think this motherfucker knows who the valonqar is!!#same with tyrion i think that the author in GRRM wants to do a nasty corruption arc + kill him off but the person in him loves him too much #sansa i have no goddamn idea what's going to happen. we just don't know enough about the northern conspiracy to tell #w/ arya i think he has... ideas. i don't think she's going to sail off to Explore i am almost certain that the show doing that was a cover #because the actual idea he gave them was unsavory or nonviable for some reason. bc like.#why would arya leave bran and jon and sansa? the family she's just spent her whole life fighting to come back to and avenge?#this is suspicious this does not feel like arya this does not feel right #bran will not be king or if he is it'll be in a VERY different way not the dumbfuck 'let's vote' bullshit #i personally think bran is going to go full corruption arc and become possessed by the 3 eyed raven. but that could be a pipe dream #the thing is he's way too OP in the show so the books have to nerf him and i think GRRM is still trying to work out #a way to actually do that.#i don't think he told them what happened with littlefinger or sansa. i think sansa's story is vaguely similar #(stark restoration through the female line etc)#but the queen in the north shit is way too contrived frankly. and selfishly i hope she gets something different #being a monarch in ASOIAF is not a happy ending. we know this from the moment we meet robert baratheon in AGOT #and we learn exactly what GRRM thinks of the people who 'win' these endless wars of succession #and they are not heroes #they are not celebrated #and they are neither safe nor happy

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pearwaldorf · 9 months ago

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I have been trying to write this on and off for a while. I figure the second anniversary of the show is as fine an occasion as any to shove it out into the world. It is not everything I want to say about it, but I think the important bits are there.

It is a human impulse to be seen. To be told, through art, you are not alone. It is universal, but of special importance to people who are not well-represented in media (i.e. everybody who isn’t cis, white, able-bodied, skinny, and conventionally attractive).

This show speaks to me as a queer person who figured things out later than most of my peers. (Not quite as late as Ed and Stede but not terribly far off either.) It’s not super common to see queer media address this, and I didn’t realize how much I needed that reassurance until I got it. That it’s okay to find these things any time in your life. To be told “A queer is never late, they’re always fashionably on-time.”

They’re not my first canon queer ship. But they are the first ones where I knew it was true from the get-go. Multiple people assured me this was the case. And yet, I still didn’t believe it until I saw it with my own two eyes. This experience is not unusual for fans around my age.

After I finished up season one, I laid in bed and cried. It’s not something I thought would affect me so much, but it feels like a weight I’d carried so long I didn’t realize it wasn’t supposed to be part of me is gone.

One of the reasons people unfamiliar with the fandom seem to think it’s absolutely crazy (which some of it is, to be fair, but every fandom has that) is the way fans of the show get extremely super intense about it. It took me a few weeks to realize this is a trauma response. I’m not even sure “trauma” is the right word. It doesn’t interfere with my day to day function, but it lasted for years. Decades. So it was definitely something that fucked me up. And in the way you can only start to see something as you’re moving past it, I’ve spent a lot of time trying to get my head around this. (I don’t know if I have anything to say about it yet. Maybe I need more time to sit with it.)

I know this sounds contrary, but I’m really glad David Jenkins does not come from fandom. Sometimes it’s good to know where a line is, and others it’s better to not know there’s a line at all. And this is, sad to say, remarkable to somebody who has had to deal with this for so long. With so many writers and showrunners aware of the line, and getting right up next to it, but never crossing it.

Imagine doing a show with a queer romance and not understanding why this was received with such emotion and fervor, because it’s just two people in love right? What blissful ignorance that this needed to be explained to him! And then he listened to people’s experiences with queerbaiting, and went “Oh my god you thought I was going to do WHAT?” And then you go “Huh. That is really fucked up.”

The problem with being told something enough, even though you know it’s wrong, is you start to believe it regardless. All the excuses and hedging. It’s so very difficult to do they tell us, when we hear from queer creators how they had fight tooth and nail to make it as gay as it already was.

And then comes Jenks, just yeeting it out there: majority queer and (not and/or. and) POC cast, an openly non-binary person playing an openly non-binary character. The ability to not have to make one queer (and/or) POC character speak for everybody, so you can inject a tiny bit of nuance into the conversation. The way you can tell more kinds of stories, like the one where the smol angry internalized homophobe comes into his own with the support of a queer community, even though he was a giant fucking asshole to them before.

So many people were like “You can just DO that? It’s really that easy?” And wasn’t that a fucking Situation, to have that curtain pulled aside. What next? Majority POC casts with stories about POC written by POC? Absolute madness. (Please please watch The Brothers Sun on Netflix. It’s so fucking good.)

And people will scoff and say “Of course a cishet(?) white man would be able to get this pushed through.” But do they usually? The thing I don’t think people understand about allies is they use their privilege to wedge the door open. You still have to do the work to get through, but at least you have a place to start. And it really fucking matters.

The press keeps trying to tell me The Completely Made-Up Adventures of Dick Turpin is the OFMD substitute we need while we float in the gravy basket. I’m sure it’s a perfectly fine show, but I don’t know who has watched OFMD and decided the itch we needed scratched was anachronistic historical comedy.

I want stories written by people that reflect their lived experiences, with actors and crew committed to bringing that to life. And I would like streamers and studios to commit to giving them a chance, and marketing them properly so people know they exist.

You can keep people satisficed with scraps for only so long. At some point, somebody is going to give them a whole seven course dinner and people will wonder why they’ve been putting up with starving this entire time.

#our flag means death #ofmd #our flag turns 2 #pear watches ofmd #pear text

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my-unorthodox-life · 2 months ago

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okay can i vent for a minute? get real personal with all y'all?

i've been a tumblr user since i got my first tablet at age 12, over a decade of having at least one active blog (usually more) so it's safe to say i've both gotten my fair share of hate and found ways of using this app to benefit me and keep me detached from this hate

currently i have 4 active blogs, my main where i do the typical reblogging and updates on my fanfics, this one where i post like a proper blog and reblog jewish things that matter to me, my mental health recovery blog where i talk about my eating disorder and ptsd, and my adult one where i reblog fun sexy stuff and chat about the struggles of dating as sex positive people with trauma.

all very important to me and all have various levels of anonymity when it comes to knowing about me as a person. some have my name, some a nickname, one just my age. plus various tidbits so people know what to expect from my posts and what we can chat about, basic blog rules essentially

in the past few months as antisemitism has gotten more and more common place i of course get more anon hate, i don't turn of inboxes since i do get nice stuff from time to time, and that's kind of the territory of running a blog (i had a trans rights one in the age of kalvin garrah, i think i'll live)

out of those four blogs the one that gets the most antisemitic messages, i mean full paragraphs of truly vile ramblings that read like a nazi fever dream, is the one for my mental health recovery. a blog that i block all but mutuals on, meaning either a stranger or someone i've interacted with is sending these messages

i've started replying to them, cause i feel if they want to be mean and make a fool of themselves i might as well let everyone see (poor guy keeps sending me weird reviews of "my" wattpad fics. i've never had a wattpad account but this doesn't seem to stop him), but what gets me is that blog has the least personal information on it. no name or nickname, no hobbies or interests listed, nothing about what i do for work beyond "pet care", and the only mention of my religion or politics was one post that joking about how my mental health often gets worse around the high holy days (very demure, very mindful)

and yet that's the blog that gets straight up death threats, not even disguised as anything else, just straight up calling me a pig who deserves to burn. not the personal blog where i've posted about israel and palestine, or about dating while religious, or hell even this one that might as well be a "i'm a sensitive jewish minded person! thoughts?" blog.

no the one blog that people feel safe harassing is the nondescript recovery and relapse blog. that's where people feel comfortable.

and it makes me sad, not because of what was said, but because it *was* said. that there's people out there comfortable enough in their bigotry to go up to someone and spew vile hate like it's nothing, but only of course if they can't put a name or face to the person they're talking to

what this reminds me of is when i was in high school i had an art teacher who didn't stand for antisemitic jokes, and there were a lot in my school. one day a kid just asked him "Mr.Dexter, are you a jew?" and his response really stuck with me. he said "It doesn't matter, maybe I am, maybe I used to be, maybe my wife is. But you shouldn't not say mean things just because you don't want to get in trouble, you shouldn't say them because you know it's wrong. If you didn't know, you wouldn't ask."

and i think that really sums up all these trolls i've seen running through jewish blogs or even ones that casually mention it, they know it's wrong but the aren't saying it to a jewish face, they're just saying it to the idea of judaism

these people wouldn't walk up to you on the street and look you up and down and say half of what they feel comfortable typing, but here where they can not only hide their face, but seek out a target that has hidden their own they've found a way to give themselves free reign to say and do whatever they want. to them it's not a person on the other side of the screen, it's the strawman caricature of a jewish person, out here just for them to yell at to get whatever anger they have out of their system

of course there are some people who would say truly despicable things to a random person on the street, but cmon is that person really on tumblr hunting through buzz words to send hate?

anyways i know the compassionate thing to do would be to pray for them to heal what's hurting them so bad, but yanno what, they can suffer a bit first

#jumblr #jewish #jewblr #jewish conversion #jewitch #tw antisemitism #antisemitic asks #peace and love stay safe out here 🫶🕊️#sorry for any typos glasses are off and i think faster than i type

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stars-and-clouds · 1 year ago

Note

what is your personal take on astarion remembering the first decade of his slavery and the "darling boy/sweet man" that he didn't bring back? do you think he had romantic feelings for this person or do you think they were just the first of many other innocent souls that he had to stop feeling sorry/caring for because of what happened afterwards?

I have made a post about this before. Not exactly this, but I reference that incident as a sign of how protective a person Astarion naturally is.

I think Astarion is naturally a protector. Hence the fact that he even chose to be judge so he can help people find justice. Might not be the only reason he studied law, but certainly would've been a part of it.

I think when one is in the situation Astarion was in, one would find oneself finding anything to justify one's actions, especially when one can't control them. So, Astarion must've told himself, "most people are flawed or bad in some way so it's okay if I take them to Cazador." It's their punishment for not being better people. It's fair in a twisted manner of logic.

But, that logic must've not worked when he met this innocent guy, who was a "sweet, sweet man," and a "darling". I'm sure he would've felt very protective of the boy and maybe even liked him. It would've been wrong to take him to Cazador because there is no reason. That's why he ran away.

So, I don't think he was in love with the boy. Astarion is a realist and he would've been under no illusions that he can sustain any relationship with anyone outside of the palace (or even inside it. Slavers keep slaves separate bc there's power in unity.), nor would he have had the emotional availability for love. He doesn't even the emotional availablilty for it in the main campaign until act 3 lmao. He could've had a soft spot for the man, but not love.

I think Astarion stopped caring not after the boy but after Cazador's punishment. I cannot imagine even a few hours of being inside that tomb, let alone an entire year. That has to completely change a person. It is a lot of time to panic, think, breakdown, reflect, create resolutions and completely 180° your entire perspective on life. That's when I think Astarion became as selfish as he did.

He prayed to be saved, no one did. He tried doing good by saving the boy, and he got punished severely for it. He wanted to be a magister and be on the side of justice, but he got kidnapped for it. I feel like the boy was taken anyway by some other spawn, just to spite Astarion as well, so him running away was useless too.

I think being in that tomb changed Astarion completely and that's when he decided that being helpful and 'good' is not the right thing to do, so he became who he we meet in the main campaign. Selfish, ruthless and a realist.

#bg3 #astarion #Baldur's gate 3 #Astarion ancunin #Astarion analysis #Bg3 analysis #Asks #Ask #Answer

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partyanimal167 · 1 year ago

Text

How Fitting- Crocodile x F!Reader

I'm so happy to see all the new Crocodile content here after that nice man's birthday, so I wanted to add something for all my fellow Croco simps. I've been meaning to write something, so it all worked out. The prompts for his birthday event were certainly helpful too (fashion, au). Requests are open too if anyone has any ideas.

CW: modern au, fluff, fem reader, no pronouns

In all fairness, you were not expecting to be measuring such a specimen within the first week of your job.

The family trade had been sewing for generations, and you were no exception when the call was at your door. Your slight rebellion got you into men's fashion however since you had fond and not-so fond memories of dresses, fluffy underskirts, and berserk brides. Oddly enough, you found yourself to be one of few women in that sector, but you didn't mind so much. You weren't a big name designer, so blending in was easy enough when necessary.

You worked at a well-known shop that had been a community staple for decades. You paraded around in the backrooms where bolts of fabric of all kinds of patterns and materials were stored. You weren't new to this line of work, but you figured you would do simple alterations since most repeat customers had their favorites amongst the tailors.

As you hemmed a pant leg, you heard the bell ring from the front. Soon after, your name was called by your beloved elder boss. You cheerfully walked towards the front not prepared for towering figure at the counter.

It was comical in a sense. Your boss was small and fragile looking compared to tall, muscular man who didn't seem to fit the quaint ambiance of the shop. However, your boss simply beamed at the man who despite having a serious demeanor held some fondness in his eyes.

"I want you to meet Sir Crocodile. He's a very loyal customer here, a familiar face."

You smiled kindly at the man and shook his hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you."

The man's lips tugged in a slight grin as he lifted your hand for a soft peck. "Pleasure's all mine." You were surprised by the gesture, but didn't say anything.

"They're quite spectacular in their work. I hope you don't mind, but I'll have 'em take over for today's suit fitting." the old man went on.

You were caught off guard and held up your hands in defense. "Oh I couldn't possibly. I'm sure the gentleman would prefer your work."

The boss looked at your softly. "Please. My arthritis is acting up." He rubbed his hand for emphasis.

Well you couldn't argue with that.

...

The two of you moved to the back, and you couldn't help but notice the strength of the man's presence.

As you set up your work station, you peeked over.

Crocodile was a man of class. You weren't sure what he did professionally, but the fur-lined coat definitely meant money along with the adornment of rings. You made note of the sleek prosthetic as well that was just as much of a luxurious accessory as well as a functional piece. You could appreciate the sight.

You shook your head slightly before reaching for the roughed suit jacket draft. You glanced over the previously noted measurements and turned again.

Crocodile had taken off a few layers and seemed relaxed. He noted your expression and chuckled. "I'm not new to this."

You blinked before nodding and handing the jacket. "Certainly not."

He put it on and pressed it against himself. You held a couple pins between your lips as your checked the lengths with your tape. You hummed as you worked, but soon felt eyes watching you. You looked up and were met with those captivating golden eyes. "Is something wrong?"

The man grinned and shook his head. "Not at all. It's always satisfying watching a professional at work. "

Your cheeks warmed at the compliment and you turned away to feel the shoulders. "Everything comfortable?"

"Quite."

You two went on through the other elements and noted the addition of a notch for a lapel chain.

"What can I say? I'm a bit old fashion."

You giggled before finishing some adjustments. "I can certainly appreciate that."

"You seem to have a bit of personal style yourself." Crocodile motioned towards your silk tie.

You touched it fondly. "Ah this, it's a memento of my grandfather. He was an excellent suit designer."

"I've seen the design before, but I'm afraid to say I don't have one in my collection."

You stepped off the stool and without thinking much replied, "Well I'll be sure to make you one," then you realized, "of- of course, if you're interested."

Crocodile began to dress in his original clothes. "Certainly. I'd be honored."

You weren't quite sure how to respond, so you hummed as you looked over your notes. "There are only minor adjustments to be made before we finish off. We'll be sure to reach out as soon as your suit is complete."

The man nodded before turning to go. "I look forward to it."

~~~

It was just your luck that you were off the day that Crocodile picked up his suit. The custom tie had been included in the boxes, so there was that at least. You could only hope that you'd see him again. Though, a part of you was nervous that he would find something wrong with suit, but your boss simply stated that it was your newbie jitters.

You were out doing some errands outside the shop when you walked passed a well-known cafe. The smell of savory cigar smoke caught your attention, but you were going to continue walking until you heard your name called.

You turned and saw that well-dressed man approaching you--no suit coat in place and appreciated the fitted vest.

Your heart raced when he again kissed your hand in greeting. "Ah I'm sorry to have missed you when picking up my items."

You waved your hand simply and glanced away. "Oh it's alright. I just hope everything is to your liking."

"Of course, I'm happy to say that many have appreciated the new tie as well. Thank you again." he went on.

You swayed a little and scratched your cheek. "Ah that's wonderful news. I'm sure many would try to get it. Too bad that fabric is very limited in its production."

"I'll treasure any one-of-a-kind piece from you, my dear." that made you lost for words.

"Oh, I'm flattered."

"Only stating the truth." he paused. "How about you join me for lunch?"

You totally wanted to, but looked at your watched. "I'm afraid I have some more tasks to complete."

Crocodile looked a little shock to see someone turn him down but it was quickly replaced with a grin. He reached into his pocket before pulling out his wallet. He handed you a card and looked deep in to your eyes. "Well please reach out when you have a chance. Don't keep me waiting." the eyes kept you locked in and you nodded shyly.

"Of course not."

~~~

I was totally counting on this being a model au and that totally didn't happen. I liked this intimate version though. Crocodile is certainly getting his suits custom and tailored.

Happy birthday to that gruff bossman.

Thanks for reading!

#one piece #one piece x reader #sir crocodile #crocodile x reader #birthday piece #modern au #seamstress au #one piece fanfiction #fem reader #mine #partyanimal167

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five-rivers · 4 months ago

Text

Danger First Chapter 14

Wow! It's been a while!

"So, Midoriya," said Ms. Kayama, "putting together anything special for the Athlete's Oath?"

Izuku looked up from what was shaping up to be a fairly in-depth analysis of the second event of a sports festival that had occurred about a dozen years ago, a sense of dread pooling in his gut. "What?"

Ms. Kayama smiled, brows pinching together just a smidge. "The Athlete's Oath. You were the top scorer on the entrance exam, weren't you? I didn't get you confused with someone else, did I?"

"Oh, no," said Izuku, as he finally managed to put Ms. Kayama's question together with facts he'd known for years. "I forgot the Athlete's Oath."

"Athlete's Oath?" repeated Yoichi. "What's the Athlete's Oath? Was it something Eighth had to do? Nana, do you know?"

Nana raised an eyebrow. "I was under the impression that all of you were here when Toshinori went here."

"Yeah," said En, "but that was about a hundred years ago."

"It was not," said Hikage.

"It was just as long ago for me."

"Sure, but he was your kid," said Yoichi. “Everyone remembers their kid better."

Nana made a face. She… couldn't actually dispute that. All these years later, she could still remember things like Kotaro's first day of school with blinding clarity.

… and Toshinori's first day at UA, for that matter.

"It's just a little… not a speech. A recitation. Just a few lines about playing fair and trying your best. Used to be the top student of the third years would do it, but I guess they must have the top students for the first and second years do it as well, now that they're televised as well."

"Is Izuku the top student, then?" asked Yoichi.

"The only test they've had is the entrance exam," said En with a shrug. "Ninth got top in that, so…"

"And so, Eighth's bribery has led to Ninth's downfall," said Banjo in a falsely serious tone.

"He didn't bribe anyone!"

"Izuku got in on his own merits!"

"Jeez, you guys can't take a joke."

Nana huffed. "I just don't understand why they're so excited about it. It's just a tiny thing. You can read it from a little card."

As always, Izuku’s first resort was research. He searched HeroTube for compilations of the most recent UA Athlete’s Oaths, and hit play.

He watched the videos, chewing his lip. There was just so much to do, so much to say– How could he capture the spirit of Plus Ultra competition, his will to win and everyone else’s, the honor of competing, the honor of speaking for his entire year, all in only a few minutes? In only a couple days, too.

And without stuttering.

He was going to die.

No, no. That was the wrong mindset entirely for a UA student with a shiny new hero name, much less All Might’s successor! He could do this! He would do this!

He’d just… break down into tears a few times first.

Nana felt eyes boring into the back of his head.

“Just a thing you can read from the back of a card?” asked Yoichi. “This guy’s been talking for ten full minutes, and I don’t think he’s going to stop anytime soon!”

“I can feel you all judging me,” said Nana, “but I’ve been dead for decades. It’s changed. That happens.”

“You don’t have to feel me judging you, I’m doing it out loud.”

Izuku stared down at the pages and pages of repeatedly crossed out lines.

“I don’t know why I thought I could do this,” he whispered. “I couldn’t even come up with a hero name on my own.”

“This really isn’t a big deal.”

“It’s a huge deal! Do you know how dangerous public speaking is?”

Nana turned to squint at Yoichi. “When did you ever do public speaking?”

“Probably about the same time he went to school,” said En.

“I did go to school! Why will you not let that go?”

“Bizarre petty grudges and jokes are pretty much the only thing we can hold onto,” said En. “That and the quirk.”

“Seriously, though, this isn’t going to kill him.”

“It isn’t? What happens when my brother sees him on TV? Speaking for the hero class?”

“Oh, yeah,” said Banjo. “That’s a thing.”

Yoichi threw up his hands. “How did you guys forget?”

“I didn’t forget,” said Hikage.

“Maybe I should ask Dad,” said Izuku. “He probably talks to lots of people for his work…”

“No!” screamed all of the ghosts.

“That's different than public speaking, though, isn't it?” He let his head drop onto his open notebook, heedless of the ink and graphite getting on his face. “At least it's only the first year speech.”

He sat up with renewed energy.

“And there's no way it’ll be worse than Endeavor's!”

“That's the spirit!” cheered Nana.

“I thought we were the spirits,” said Hikage.

“It's just an expression.”

“Are we spirits, though?” asked En.

Banjo groaned. “Please, kid, don't start on that again.”

Kaminari waved furiously from across the field as the purple-haired boy next to him did his best to hunch into his uniform and disappear. Far behind them, Snipe sat reading a paperback novel. “Hey! Welcome to our awesome training montage!”

“You can't have a montage in real life,” said Jiro.

“Watch me!”

Once everyone arrived, Iida started chivying them all into a loose circle. Well, Izuku reflected, Iida obviously wanted them in an exact circle but… even Izuku could see that was never going to happen. Then Iida cleared his throat portentously and Yaoyorozu stepped into the center.

“Thank you for coming, everyone,” she said. “Especially those of you who aren't in 1-A, we understand this is a leap of faith, and what we're doing here is a little radical. For today, our goals are for everyone to get to know each other and to start working out strategic teams. So, let's start by just introducing ourselves. I'll go first…”

The purple-haired boy was named Shinsou Hitoshi, and he had thus far been very reticent about his quirk. About talking at all, really, which was interesting, given his attempt at a declaration of war earlier.

Interesting, not strange. In a similar position of not-quite-enmity, Izuku would probably be on the lookout for potential weaknesses, too. As long as Shinsou waited until the third event, though, that was fine. It wasn't as if everyone in class 1-A didn't know each others’ quirks already.

That was all a very uncharitable way of thinking about Shinsou, though, and Izuku felt a little guilty thinking about things like that. He wanted to become a hero, too.

“Alright,” said Yaoyorozu, “now, remember, the first event is the elimination event. Our researchers say we'll probably be racing, competing for some limited resource, or trying to avoid being tagged out in some way. Even with the teachers trying to be unpredictable, the number of students does limit them. All of the events we've been able to brainstorm favor mobility, so you want to be in a group that you can move well with. Defense is important, too. Bakugou, at minimum, is a problem, and we have to assume the other classes will target us.”

“Bakugou's the crazy guy who chased Midoriya down at lunch the other day,” said Kaminari to Shinsou at a volume that was obviously meant to be a whisper, but fell far short of the mark.

“He's not crazy,” protested Izuku. “He's just. Passionate.”

Everyone regarded him dubiously.

Predictably, the groups initially split along lines of friendship, acquaintance, and obligation. Yaoyorozu and Iida walked around for a while, trying to keep the groups more or less equal in size before settling into their own class leadership group, along with Monoma.

“A waltz of darkness and chaos,” muttered Tokoyami, barely getting out of the way of Satou, as his group, consisting of himself, Ojirou, Sero, and Hagakure, trundled towards a shadier spot.

Hatsume laughed. “If you think this is chaotic, wait until the sports festival!”

“She's right,” said Uraraka. “So, Midoriya, what do you think we should do?”

“Eh? Me?”

“Your battle trial plan was quite impressive,” said Tokoyami. “Your strategic acuity will cast a long shadow in the sports festival as well.”

“I don't know about that,” said Izuku. But then he glanced at Monoma. They probably only had about ten minutes left. “I guess- I guess the most obvious thing is for us to be a rocket.”

“Ow,” said Uraraka, rubbing her head.

“I think,” said Iida, also nursing several bruises, “we should have come up with a better way to steer before we tried that. And brake.”

“Yeah… We did go fast, though.”

“But, Hatsume, your, um, your ba- your inventions–”

“Call ‘em my babies with your whole chest, grappling hook.”

“I think your babies would help any team, but that you'd do really well with Yaoyorozu. And Uraraka and I should probably be on different teams, since we both have flight-capable quirks. Even if we both have time-limit issues…”

“Aww,” said Uraraka, “you're probably right. I was looking forward to working with you, though.”

“What about Fumi and me? We can be on your team, right?” asked Dark Shadow.

Tokoyami ducked his head and tried to push Dark Shadow down. “Don't ask questions like that.”

“I don't know if that'd be a good idea, since Bakugou's explosions can make a lot of light.”

“That just means we're destined to be arch-nemeses!”

Izuku sat down next to Hagakure, Aoyama, and Ashido.

“Okay, Midori!” said Ashido. “Come up with a super move for us!”

“I’m sure you will come up with something that sparkles,” said Aoyama.

“Uh, um,” said Izuku, flustered. “How about, um, Aoyama, is your laser just light? Maybe it could go through Hagakure - if lasers going through you doesn’t hurt.”

“No, that’s one of the first things my quirk counselor tested,” said Hagakure. “My parents wanted to make sure that all the light going through me wasn’t going to give me turbo cancer or something. The real problem for me is that for me to do anything with my quirk, I’m going to have to be naked. We have to wear our PE uniforms for the festival.”

“Oh, non,” said Aoyama. “I’ve been given an allowance for my belt, surely they would give you one for your suit. Anything else would be quite unfair.”

“Or you could ask Hatsume, see if she can make something for you that would work temporarily,” suggested Izuku. “She’s really eager to work with everyone. Or even just plastic clothing, from Yaoyorozu.” They'd all have to be careful not to overtax Yaoyorozu, though. Anything else would be unfair. She had to save something for the final event.

“Okay, okay, okay, but what about super moves?” asked Ashido.

“Or some things we can do during the event, anyway,” said Hagakure.

“Well, if you're with Aoyama, like I said, and his laser can go through you, that could be a really good way to get in a kind of sneak attack. No one expects a person to be in the same area an attack just went through.”

“Lowest setting first, mademoiselle?”

“Just hit me already, Twinkles! I can take it!” shouted Hagakure from the other side of the field.

“Are- are you okay, Aoyama?” asked Izuku, after they'd tested Aoyama's laser on a number of settings.

“Oh, oui, my quirk just upsets my stomach somewhat, you see. And it seems as if Hagakure is, how should I say this, my natural enemy.”

(In truth, Aoyama was feeling ill, but not because of his quirk. Rather, the problem was his quirk’s origin. The man had demanded that Aoyama keep an eye on Midoriya - and, if possible, make him win the sports festival. A minor thing, really!)

(If only Aoyama had the courage to defy the man.)

(He hoped Midoriya would be able to survive whatever All for One had planned for him.)

All for One sighed. He wondered if he could find a good enough disguise quirk to take Izuku out for ice cream after he won the sports festival. Or after he lost and was properly filled with hatred for hero society.

“Sensei?” said Ujiko. “Are you alright?”

“No. You're being incredibly boring.”

“Ashido, how acidic does your acid have to be? And is it always the same substance, just at different concentrations, or can you make different substances, as long as they're acidic?”

“Um,” said Ashido.

“I think that's it for me, today,” said Ashido, sitting down. “I'm going to have to drink, like, a dozen liters of Gatorade or something. You're brutal for someone so cute, did you know that, Midori?”

“He'd have to be, to get through the entrance exam without using a physical quirk,” said Hagakure, dragging Ashido back up. “Come on, we still have the gym for fifteen, and I want feedback.”

“You're both brutal.”

“Um,” said Izuku, sidling up to Shinsou, notebook in hand. “Your quirk is a mind control type, right?”

Shinsou, scowled down at Izuku. “It's Brainwashing,” he said, rather gruffly.

“Oh, wow, that's great. Mind control quirks are actually perfect for hero work, but the stigma means hardly any heroes have one. Like, you could stop a fight before it even started, or get villains to surrender right away, or help civilians who are too panicked to move properly, or heroes who are compromised, or who would otherwise have trouble cooperating with each other, for whatever reason. It’s really too bad that the entrance exam is all robots.”

Shinsou stared at him.

“Any- anyway, I've heard that some- some quirks can interact unexpectedly with mental quirks, and I've noticed you're not- You don't seem to be using it, much, even though we have permission here, and… Um. Just saying, you can practice on me, if you'd like.”

“Oh! Or me!” said Kaminari, popping up seemingly out of nowhere. “We should test and see if you can get me when I'm in wheyyy mode, or Satou when he's powered up!”

“What does that even mean?” demanded Shinsou. He allowed Kaminari to drag him on, however.

“Oooooooh,” said Izuku, his plan to test out the ‘hallucination’ thing Mr. Yagi had explained all but forgotten. “That's a great idea! I'll take notes!”

“I know it's a little disappointing that we didn't get a chance to appear to Ninth,” said Nana, “but don't you think you're overdoing this a little?”

Yoichi rolled over so that he was face up in his Bog of Despair. “No,” he said, before rolling back over.

“Forget that,” said Third. “Am I the only one at all disturbed by how he's picking apart all the other kids’ quirks?”

“Yes,” chorused the other ghosts.

Izuku stood at the classroom door for several blank minutes. Where was everyone? Did he… Get the date wrong? No, there was enough security outside to defeat a small army. Which was probably the point, come to think of it. Was he late? Had he missed the sports festival? When he was the one giving the opening speech for the first years?

Forget public humiliation, he was going to be expelled. As soon as Mr. Aizawa saw him, he would–

“Midoriya, what are you doing here? Why aren’t you in the prep room?”

Izuku squeaked. Then he registered what Mr. Aizawa had said. “Prep room?” he repeated. “Oh, yeah! The prep room! Thank you, Mr. Aizawa!”

Shouta sighed as his number one problem child scurried away. How illogical… But there would be time to work on his memory and situational awareness in the future, and it would be downright hypocritical to scold him about it now.

He shuffled into the classroom, careful about his bandages, because he had just been scolded by Recovery Girl. The lights buzzed when he turned them on, more obvious without the students there… although they did have competition from the roar of the crowds in the festival stadium.

He walked over to his desk and knelt to retrieve his stash of jelly pouches, especially the coffee ones. Which he also wasn’t supposed to have, but what Recovery Girl didn’t know wouldn’t hurt her. Or cause her to hurt him, which was the more pertinent issue from his perspective. If he was going to survive announcing the first year’s festival by himself, he was going to need them.

Now weighted down, he started hobbling back to the stadium and the announcer’s box. Jelly was heavy, as it turned out.

Recovery Girl really would kill him if she found out. He sped up. Not a lot. Just a little. Just in case. He certainly wasn’t moving as fast as Midoriya had.

He made his way through staff passages, avoiding most of the crowds and pleasantly nodding to heroes who had been asked to come serve as security. Finally, and in good time, too, because his stupid injured body was starting to get winded, he reached the announcer’s box and opened the door.

“Yagi,” said Shouta, “what are you doing here?” He shook off the sense of deja vu.

“Oh,” said Yagi, brightly. “Young Aizawa! I was getting worried that something had happened to you. Principal Nezu thought that you could use some assistance here, with young Yamada being otherwise occupied.”

And so he’d replaced one loud blond with another. He couldn’t even be that mad about it.

“You have any training for this?” he asked instead.

“Well, not for announcing sports events in particular,” said Yagi. “But I have a lot of media and commercial experience and I’ve been practicing cheering on my students!”

“Right,” said Shouta, who was feeling as if he’d somehow asked a stupid question. “Just don’t show too much favoritism.”

“Oh, I’d never! After all,” and here he grew much more grim, “you know as well as I do, the risks of putting too much attention on young Midoriya. Besides, young Yamada gave us a ‘cheat sheet!’”

Izuku, dressed in his PE uniform, stumbled into 1-A’s prep room.

“Hey!” said Kaminari. “It’s Midoriya! We were getting worried about you, man!”

“Ah, y-yeah,” said Izuku. “I wound up going to the classroom instead.”

“Huh,” said Jiro, “you’d think your quirk would have warned you against that.”

“Um, yeah,” said Izuku, “but I guess it wasn’t really dangerous to go to the wrong spot at first? Especially since I got here okay, eventually, right?”

There was a murmur of agreement, but with a slight uneasy undercurrent.

“There’s not any real danger in the sports festival, either, though, is there?” asked Yaoyorozu.

“I- I mean, there’s the danger of getting beaten up?” And he’d been able to feel danger from wrong answers on a test before, so… This should be the same kind of thing, right?

Yaoyorozu nodded. “Right. There is that.”

“Don’t worry, Midoriya,” said Uraraka, “I’m sure you’ll be fine. We did so much studying for this, after all.” She held up a fist. “I’m feeling confident! That’s for sure!”

“Yes!” said Monoma, who twirled over with Aoyama. “I, too, am confident that we will defeat those philistines in class 1-B, not to mention everyone else!”

“Oui,” said Aoyama, “our performance will be tres magnifique!”

“Don’t forget we have allies in other classes, you two,” said Yaoyorozu, slightly exasperated.

“Yes,” said Monoma, “but neither of them are in 1-B. We have the excellent Mock and the ingenious Brigid to support us.”

Ashido sighed heavily. “Speaking of support, I sure wish I could’ve used my costume.”

“It’s to keep things fair,” said Ojiro with a shrug.

Iida power-walked into the room. “IS EVERYONE GOOD AND READY?” he shouted, clearly as nervous as Izuku, but trying to cover it up with sheer volume. “THE EVENT’S ABOUT TO START! Ahem. Where is Todoroki?”

“Oh, jeez,” said Ashido, raising a hand to her lips. “He never came to any of our practices, so I just sort of forgot he should be here…”

Honestly, so had Izuku. Todoroki had quite the presence, but he could also fade into the background with surprising ease. Maybe it was just because he hardly talked? More importantly, what had happened to him? Was he sick? Did he get lost like Izuku did? Did he get kidnapped by people trying to get at his father? Endeavor might not have the social and political weight that All Might could bring to bear, but Number Two Hero wasn’t an empty title at all. Maybe he–

Izuku’s thoughts ground to a confused halt when Todoroki casually walked into the room.

Oh. He was just late.

Todoroki stood up in front of the room, clearly intending to make some sort of address.

“Er,” said Izuku, “Todoroki, what is it?”

“Objectively speaking,” said Todoroki, “I’m stronger than all of you. Even if you’re all working together… even if All Might has his eyes on you, Midoriya, no matter the reason… I will beat you.”

"Did he just… declare a rivalry with… all of us?" asked Sero, quietly. In the hush that followed Todoroki’s words, he might as well have shouted.

"Can you do that?" asked Kaminari. "Is that allowed?"

“He's got a point,” said Banjo. “A rival is like a nemesis, or a girlfriend, you can only have one at a time.”

“That's not true,” said Yoichi. “You can have more than one girlfriend at a time.”

En squinted at him. “Again, aren’t you gay?”

“Multitudes, En, multitudes.”

“Aw, come on, man,” said Kirishima, “do you really have to pick a fight with all of us, now? We’re about to go on and fight anyway. Make your statement on the field!”

“I don’t care. I’m not here to make friends.” He shouldered past Kirishima and left the room.

“Uh,” said Midoriya, “that… was something.”

“Yeah,” said Jiro. “Does he intend to just wait in the hall or something? We’re all going to the same place.”

Tokoyami shook his head, Dark Shadow mirroring him. “What a mad banquet of darkness.”

“Wow,” said Yoichi, chuckling. “Sometimes I forget how needlessly dramatic teenagers can be.”

All the ghosts, except Second, turned to stare at him.

“How needlessly dramatic teenagers are?” repeated Nana.

“Yes?”

“Have you not been sharing the same afterlife as the rest of us, or what?”

The class waited in the tunnel, fidgeting, bouncing, flexing, whispering. Any minute, now, they’d be called in, to take their place on the field in front of the cameras.

Any minute, now.

“Is it just me,” whispered Uraraka, “or is this taking a really long time?”

“I am sure our eagerness is only making time appear to be passing more slowly than it really is!” said Iida.

“No,” said Monoma, frowning, “they really are starting late. I wonder if it’s a problem with the cameras, or if something else happened. Midoriya, have you noticed anything?”

Izuku shook his head. “I d-don’t think so? Just, um, just nervous for the event! I think. I hope nothing’s– nothing’s gone wrong.”

Shouta and Yagi bent their heads over Hizashi’s so-called cheat sheet.

“I’m not reading this,” said Shouta.

“This is… I thought we were supposed to avoid favoritism in these things,” said Yagi, sounding incredibly confused. “What– What’s this about a ruthless grand battle? That doesn’t really… sound heroic…”

“Yeah, this is just typical Hizashi. Trash it and come up with one of those inspiring speeches you like so much.”

The intercom speakers crackled into life overhead.

“Welcome to the UA Sports Festival!”

“Is that…?”

“All Might!” squeaked a Gen Ed student several rows back.

“The once-a-year event where our new students show how they can go PLUS ULTRA!”

The crowd outside, in the stadium, cheered wildly.

“First, put your hands together for a class that has already faced some of the worst the world of villains has to offer and PERSEVERED! Class 1-A!”

Somehow, they managed to turn their initial rushed stumble into a confident march before they emerged from the mouth of the tunnel. Izuku squinted against the light at first, but recovered quickly and attempted to mimic Iida’s wave.

“And next up, we have an equally worthy group of young heroes, who have been polishing their skills until they shine like the stars they are! Class 1-B!”

As the classes emerged, Mr. Yagi continued to read out names and short accolades, and Izuku started to feel like he was about to throw up. Oh, there were a lot of people here, and once all the classes came out, he would be speaking in front of them.

“Well, this is it, guys,” said Yoichi. “The last minutes of Hisashi not knowing Izuku is in the hero course.”

“I'm still not sure why you think he doesn't know already,” said Nana, crossing her arms. “You were listening to the conversation they had about hero names, right?”

“Are you kidding? That's how I know he has no idea. That was classic Hisashi, existing in his own world, having a completely different conversation than the other person. That's why he got my lab partner deported when I was an undergrad. He heard the word partner, and he immediately assumed our relationship was romantic.” Yoichi shook his head sadly.

“New question,” said Banjo. “Did All for One ever go to school?”

“When in reality, Chan and I had only just started discussing the possibility of a QPR…”

“No, seriously, what is that guy's level of education?”

“They had to go back to China… It was tragic. Almost as tragic as Izuku inheriting that particular personality quirk.”

“Ew, don't talk about Ninth inheriting quirks from him,” said En.

“I agree,” said Hikage.

“Thank you,” said En.

“That was indeed a tragic turn of events, Yoichi.”

“Is no one else interested in whether or not All for One graduated high school?”

“Furthermore, I believe that the danger involved in a non-ceiling vaulting and the preceeding kidnapping would trigger far more anxiety that Ninth is currently experiencing.”

“Er, thanks, Hikage, but you don't have to say ‘non-ceiling.’”

“Hey!” snapped Nana. “Ninth's speech is starting, and I, at least, want to hear it.”

“Now!” said Ms. Kayama, brightly, snapping her whip to get the attention of people close to the stage. “The athlete’s oath! Your student representative, from class 1-A, is Wonder!”

Izuku pasted on his best smile and climbed the stairs.

#danger first #bnha #fic

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cakesandfail · 1 year ago

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Do you have any headcanons about how Vetinari ended up taking power?

Actually yes I do!

I wrote a fic about his first day in power that vaguely referenced this and while I don't have like, a fully fleshed out story, there are a few bits and pieces that I sort of bodged together from things in the books and what I personally find entertaining about him as a character:

There's a bit in Soul Music which says that there was a rat plague in Ankh-Morpork shortly before Vetinari came to power, and that his solution was "tax the rat farms". It's unclear in context whether this means he suggested it at the end of Snapcase's time in power or if it was one of the first things he did after he became Patrician. I've just gone ahead and assumed that the rat plague was the last straw for Snapcase and that actually having a good suggestion was one of the reasons Vetinari was in people's minds as a replacement

That then leads us to ask, well, what on earth was he doing there? He's been in power a fair while even by Guards Guards but chronologically must still only be in his early 40s by then, to have been in his late teens in the 30-years-ago bits of Night Watch (and he can't be older than that, because it's made fairly clear that he's in the Guild equivalent of secondary school at that time, and Vimes knows that the two of them are approximately the same age). Given his canonically hilariously long list of postgrad qualifications, he probably went straight from Assassins Guild grad school to the Oblong Office, more or less. Conclusion: he was the fucking INTERN. (or possibly working as a clerk, but calling him the intern is at least 500% funnier)

Given the running joke about him being this weird posh dude who doesn't seem like a threat until you remember where he was educated, I would imagine that his whole "ah capital jolly good here I go getting slang wrong again" bullshit started here. We know that among the Ankh-Morpork elite, pretending to be stupider than you really are is something that can both keep you safe and help you get away with a lot, because we see Vetinari and Vimes and Sybil do it. So this is where he got his practice. Bertie Wooster the FUCK out of your working day, quietly get on with the things that need to be done while nobody's looking, and nobody will realise because they just think you're Madam's weird nephew with the shit beard and the puppy

So, bearing all that in mind, picture this:

Snapcase is dead. The important people (at least, the people who think themselves important) converge on the palace. In a small room off the Oblong Office is a young man steadily working through a large pile of paperwork. Oh, yes, that's Madam's nephew, you know... Havelock, isn't it? They ask if he knows what's happened, and he says no, he has no idea, he's just been working his way through all these regulations, and gosh, they really are very dull. And... well... nobody else is here. And nobody else seems to understand the filing system, or the rest of the staff, or anything really. But he does.

This guy's had a few good ideas when he's been doing the minutes at various meetings, that makes him a plausible candidate surely? And he's so young, so he's going to need a lot of guidance from helpful, experienced folks, right? How useful. He's just smart enough not to be an obvious puppet. Very handy indeed.

And the cream of Ankh-Morpork society being what they are (truly the cream- rich and thick) they don't realise until it's far too late that this lanky goth weirdo they'd thought would do their bidding knows everything about everyone and he's been quietly furious about the result of the Glorious 25th for over a decade. And, whoops, they'd somehow forgotten that he didn't spend all of that time on Guild postgraduate courses doing resits. Oh dear. And now he's their boss.

#patricianblogging #i have wanted to go into detail about this for AGES thank you for giving me an excuse

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things-about-cars-in-posts · 6 months ago

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Do you have anything to say about my baby, the Honda CR-Z?

(Please excuse the low resolution, I wanted to introduce it with a pic from my collection and this was the only stock one I had)

Oh, the CR-Z... Pepperidge Farm here remembers obsessively following its debut on Top Gear Magazine! Pepperidge Farm and not many others, it seems, as in present day the CR-Z seems to be as relevant in today's car world as basket weaving. Wait, no, less.

In fact, coming up with an answer to this question was the most I thought about the CR-Z in almost a decade.

But thought I have, so here's your answer:

I don't get it.

I mean, don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't like it! I am on record as a serial Honda liker -hell, to those who think it counts I own one- and I see no reason this one should buck the trend (although I've always felt it would look better with something between the headlights to stop it looking so big-snooty, as the bumper below does a good enough job of exemplifying that I won't bother rendering something better).

It's just that... I don't know what the point of it was. And looking at its sales that seems to be the experience of most vertebrates.

(To be fair, U.S. sales started in August 2010 and production ended in 2016 with the following years's sales just being stock clearing - but still, pretty bleak picture.)

It's not like we don't know what Honda were going for, they told us plainly: it's a sporty hybrid car, light on the wallet but heavy on the fun. And Honda would know of sporty compacts - what were they producing as the CR-Z rolled out?

Oh. It's the most hated of all six Civic Type R generations. Hm.

It's a joke, "most hated Civic Type R generation" is a bit like saying "most normal Kia Soul commercial".

If that car looks unfamiliar to you yankees, however, that's because y'all got different looking Civics for a while, such that your sporty Civic was this, the Si - seen here in the bewinged Mugen trim.

The Si is meant to sit below the Type R, but, since America wasn't getting the Type R, the yankee Si and non-yankee Type R were free to get the same 200hp from the same venerable engine (one day I'll go over all that makes the K20 so great) and the usual great handling, courtesy among plenty things of a limited slip differential. Wait, why is that not a link? Ah, right, I've never explained differentials... well, for now you can just trust that it's a cool type of differential that helps maintain grip when you're giving it the beans. Wait. Is it "giving it the beans" because you're stomping the gas pedal? Surely not. What is it from? Let me google this... Okay, sources seem scarce and shaky but apparently the idea was that if you fed horses beans they wou- wait this post is about the CR-Z. How did we get here? I swear this NEVER happens.

In short, Honda knew, and has always known, how to make proper sporty cars and give them great engines, whatever their size. So can it possibly have been a surprise when this thing came out and, forget motoring journalists, even the more talkative stray cats were meowing that the CR-Z did not have the engine grunt to back up its sporty pitch?

And look, if anyone here will say a car with as little as 120-130hp cannot be worth bothering with, it won't be a diehard of the Mazda Miata, which sold well over half a million units no more powerful than that. But that's a car that focused on open top enjoyment and getting a lot out of a little, just like the 60s European spiders it threw back to. What did the CR-Z throw back to?

Well that'll be the CR-X.

Introduced in 1983, the CR-X was a coupe version of the Civic of the time (hence its 1987 update corresponding with the Civic's). And just like the Civic in question, it is most fondly remembered for its sporty, proper-fun Si guise (pronounced "ass eye", because eye me dat ass) and the even sportier SiR that yankees never got. Which makes perfect sense, considering its main appeal against the Civic was the sportier looks.

Sure, since the CR-X left us North America got a Civic coupe in its stead, but am I going to pretend this thing looked half as good as the CR-Z that was about to join the lineup?

Not for free I'm not.

So now, imagine the stellar engine and manual transmission from a Civic Si/Type R, but now with electric assistance for even more power AND fuel efficiency, all in a car hundreds of kilos lighter, significantly shorter -thus more agile- and with the sleek CR-Z looks.

Then keep imagining.

The CR-Z never got an Si or Type R version, it was just left to sit there with its 122hp (later begrudgingly upped to 130) that, forget the contemporary sporty Civics, compared unfavorably to its 30 year old predecessor.

The CR-X was the sportier Civic. If its successor gets walked not just by the Civic but even by the CR-X itself, what's the point of the resurrection?

However, I concede there's an objection to this argument: this graph.

These are the US sales figures for the second generation CRX (which I think dropped the dash?), and, if you were to be able to parse it, you'd notice that the sporty Si version made up about a third of the sales - meaning most buyers forewent the sportiness in favor of the lower cost of the standard DX model or the High F-iciency of the even slower HF model. So if those versions sold well, why shouldn't the CR-Z have?

Well, if you ask me: image is more than looks.

This blog -and other affiliated entities- touched on the concept of race wins on Sunday bringing sales on Monday, and the same phenomenon happens with cool sport versions. Today's Corolla is a much cooler car in the eyes of the people who see in it the underlying foundation of its extraordinary GR version, and this phenomenon is most amplified the smaller the gap -or perceived gap, at least- between the version you're admiring and the more modest version you could realistically be interested in. I strongly believe that many people bought the dog slow CRX HF because the CRX Si ingrained within them the idea that they were buying something cool.

And Honda, as we touched on, had the perfect engine to dump into the CR-Z to make a wicked sport version. Hell, they could even have just given its regular engine forced induction - and we know it because the CR-Z Mugen RZ did just that!

Here at last was a perfectly respectable sport version that, while still underneath the Civic's best power-wise, was more than good enough to make car enthusiasts give a damn about the CR-Z. And what did Honda do with it? They limited the production to 300 units and only sold them in Japan. Take a fucking drink.

I cannot fathom why they would do that. It's not that they couldn't homologate the power additions or whatever, because a. that doesn't justify the limited production run and b. the supercharger (or at least a supercharger, not sure if it's the same) was made available in the US in the form of a dealer-fitted optional extra. Not by selling a supercharged special version altogether, no no, that may cause the public to -gasp- notice and care.

What was the point? Were they deliberately trying to keep the CR-Z's image one of an efficiency-focused... sleek hatch-coupe with minimal backseats?

Wait what?

Dear God, yankees, what have you done to Honda to get done so comically dirty?

Is it just that they thought y'all too big to fit back there?

That makes it even crazier!

Why in tarnation would they think people would care about a sleek, three-door, two seat, manual... efficiency-oriented hybrid?

Oh, right. Because they made the first generation Honda Insight. Which I myself love.

This was even sleeker and more hardcore than the CR-X: it was as light as the lightest ones despite the electric powertrain, it did without backseats entirely, it was the most aerodynamic production car that had ever been built... but all this wasn't about performance at all. It was about milking every drop of your hard-earned fuel for every single fucking inch of forward movement it was worth.

And it sold very well! I mean, look at the yearly sales figures!

Look how much America loved it! In a year of production that started from December it sold around a third the units the CRX sold in a full year!

So imagine what the production numbers were like for the year 2000!

huh?

Oh you mean these are the total sales. Like, all the first generation Insights ever sold in its entire six years and change of production. Oh. And it totals to like 17.000. Which is around how many CRX Si they sold in a year in North America alone. Hm.

Yeah, it suddenly makes a lot more sense how the second generation Insight was a Prius wannabe.

In fact, now that I look at it... that back looks familiar, doesn't it?

Wait...

Wait!

Well, now suddenly the car makes a lot more sense. And actually, come think of it, let me check the sales figures for the Mk2 Insight...

Considering, again, the CR-Z's US debut happened in August 2010, they match up pretty well, and it would be a pretty reasonable sales split if we were to consider them the 5 and 3 door versions of the same car.

Now, this may make it seem like it wasn't such a failure after all, and it did well in the segment it was actually intended to compete in. But let's give some context on how good those Insight sales figures are.

Yeah. Yeah no. The second Insight just wasn't a hit either.

But at least, now I can say I get the car. The Insight was pretty big and... uncool, so the CR-Z was a good way to offer that same hybrid efficiency to people who wanted a more compact, sleeker package - though perhaps not as extreme as the first gen Insight. Unless you're a yankee, I assume.

The name still doesn't make sense.

I mean, it would if I could see Honda seeing CR-X as just... a body style, and its resurrection of it akin to resurrecting, say, the Civic Shuttle.

(It was the only side picture I had saved.)

And Honda's press material made another point to this end, that I wasn't aware of.

So sure. Point taken. The CR-X was shaped by the quest for efficiency, so it follows that its successor would be efficiency focused as well.

But that's not how the CR-X is remembered. In everyone's minds, the CR-X is cemented as the sporty version (that Honda sold, mind - this is not like with the Supra, whose reputation was defined by modders). And the weirdest thing is, they don't just know that, they bring it up.

And indeed, they call the CR-Z's role "quite different from the original Insight coupe's" - they want this car to "change the current perception of hybrids" by blending hybrid efficiency and sportiness. They rightly sell its looks as sporty, take great pride in the manual transmission and explicitly state it's for driver engagement, over and over talk about 'enthusiastic' owners and 'enthusiastic' driving and 'enthusiastic' engine note etc etc. They brag about how much of a difference their Sport mode makes. They call attention to the valves per cylinder. They constantly remind of how (unlike the Insight) it has the legendary V-TEC. (If this is the first you hear of it, ask about it in the tags).

This is the press release for a sports hatch.

But when time came to give it a sports hatch's power? Japan got 300 units, North America got a dealer-fitted kit with a numbered plaque two years before the car's nixing, and we had to hope to never have a flat tire because Europe didn't get jack.

Was it to avoid stepping on the toes of the sporty Civics, because if the sporty CR-Z's potential buyers will otherwise just get a sporty Civic then why make two models to get the same amount of buyers? If so, I'll tell you why: because that was the only chance of moving regular CR-Zs, which surely must have been a worthwhile pursuit if you made the damn thing.

Was it the fear of a power-focused engine resulting in fuel economy so underwhelming it would undermine the model's eco premise? If so, heyo, you have electric assistance, which means you can either get more speed out of the same engine marking a win for the hotboys or get the same speed out of a more efficient package - and in both cases you're showing a hybrid powertrain bringing something to the table, which is how you actually "change the perception of hybrids" in the minds of people who consider them synonymous with boring.

I'm not saying my counters are bulletproof or that there is no argument against a hot CR-Z. I'm just saying that if there is, it's an argument against the regular CR-Z also. Because if the CR-Z was never to be something worth considering over anything that could be called sporty, then they should never have bothered to begin with - at least, if they were going to aim it so squarely at "the enthusiastic drivers".

In short,

Honda sought to make a sportscar - be it to sell the car itself or to sell a concept like "we're committed to preserving driving enjoyment even into electrification" or "hybrids are cool, so buy a hybrid, and please don't whine if we ever need to make a hybrid Type R or whatever thanks". And I'm always down for Honda building a sportscar. It was Honda that wasn't, for whatever reason. And so there the CR-Z stood, waiting until its passing for a sportier engine that would show the world how cool it was. But it never came. And it bugs me. Because I find it a shame. Because I remember reading of the Mugen prototype and waiting with bated breath for the production version that we ultimately never got. Because I still would love to see them about more than I do. Because I wish the second generation that apparently was in the works got to see the light of day.

Because, even after all these days of thinking about Honda's strategy and learning all we went over, and perhaps because of it,

I still don't get it.

Links in blue are posts of mine about the topic in question: if you liked this post, you might like those - or the blog’s Discord server, linked in the pinned post!

#because yes the things i act surprised by i genuinely found out / recalled as i was looking stuff up for this post #i'll now watch a couple of reviews i saved myself for after writing this to avoid parroting someone else's thoughts #so i will update this if i get some other insight #or rather some other cr-z hahahahahahaha #ok i'll go to sleep #honda cr-z #honda civic #honda civic type r #honda civic si #honda cr-x #honda crx #honda insight

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sunwarmed-ash · 25 days ago

Text

Thank You For Your Patience!! (Sinful Sunday Post)

As a thank you for being patient and sweet while I sorted my life out, I'm gonna post 4 lil Sinful Sunday snippets today! These will NOT be posted to ao3 until their debut! Get em while they're hot

Part 4: Alpha Dog & Omegalomaniac- Beta!El x Alpha!Peter x Omega!Neal

“Uh oh, I know that face,” El says, taking a seat at the kitchen table next to her partner of over a decade. “Don’t tell me you're thinking about Neal Caffrey again. I've been competing with him for years!”

“He would have been released today,” Peter sighs, taking El’s hand and squeezing. He loves her so much. She's so perceptive while also being emotionally skilled enough to navigate tough conversations with him. “He’s just started another 4 year sentence.”

“You considering his offer? Well, that’s a silly question,” she chuckles to herself, “obviously you are or you'd be in bed with me.”

Peter smiles and mentally praises her perception once again.

“There's more to this escape El. Some angle he’s playing. There has to be. It can’t just be some ‘lost love.’ Neal doesn’t do anything halfway.”

“Mmhm,” El agrees, looking at him suspiciously. “Let me see if I got this right. You’re suggesting he escaped a maximum security prison knowing full well you'd be the one to catch him, just so he could trick you into letting him out again?”

“Well I guess it does sound ridiculous when you put it like that.”

She smiles and kisses his fingers.

“He served the time you put him in there for. I think that’s fair, don’t you?”

“He just put himself back in jail for four more years and for what?”

“For what? Peter... You’re saying, if you were Neal, you wouldn’t have run for me?”

“I- of course I would!”

“Well there you go,” she beams.

“He’s an Omega,” Peter admits suddenly. He doesn't mean to, it just sorta flies out of him. And once he does, all of her body language shifts. Monumentally.

“How do you know that?”

“He told me.”

“When?”

“When I saw him a few weeks ago. I haven't been able to shake the feeling something is wrong ever since.”

“You knew that and you let him go back in there anyway?”

She’s right. He knows she's right. Peter should have done the morally right thing and at least found a way to move Neal into protective custody after he found that out. Just to be on the safe side. But he didn't.

“I thought, maybe he was lying. Ya know? A- A last ditch attempt, at getting freedom.”

El, his partner of 10 years and friend of 20 looks at him for a long time. In an instant, it's obvious how hard she's trying to hold something scathing back. Instead she just exhales and squeezes his hand tightly.

“No. I really don't think so Peter.”

Peter’s guilt feels like its about to swallow him whole. And maybe, it should.

---

Peter’s guilt only heightens when he sees Neal again. In the 17 days apart, Neal looks like he’s aged ten years. His beard has started to grow back out, and Peter hates to admit how unflattering it is on his face. The bags under his eyes are purple and the paleness of his skin insinuates he hasn't seen the sun in a few weeks.

But even that wasn't the most troubling visual cue. Across each of Neal’s forearms are newly wrapped gauze bandages. As soon as Neal comes close enough Peter can smell the dried blood and antiseptic underneath.

These injuries are new, less than 24 hours new. Peter’s instinct burns for him to find the person responsible for it and destroy them, but a voice in his head that sounds suspiciously like El says the victim and the perpetrator are one and the same.

“Peter, what are you doing here,” Neal finally asks and even his voice sounds defeated.

“It's the end of your four year sentence.”

“Yippie,” Neal scoffs hatefully, “except did you forget the part where you got me locked up in here for four more?”

“You breaking out got you four more,” Peter corrects, but not unkindly. He’s not here trying to start a fight. He’s here to figure out what the hell happened to Neal in their time apart. Because it doesn't look like anything good. “Now do you want your gift or not?”

“I get a gift,” Neal asks and Peter can see the hint of smile start to form. It’s not everything, but it's something.

“Well you gotta come over here to see it,” Peter smirks a little himself.

Neal’s eyebrow raises and he walks a little closer.

Peter eventually exposes the label of the bottle to Neal. It’s an 82’ Bordeaux. A real one.

“Peter,” Neal deflates, “you know they won’t let me have that in here...”

Peter’s really starting to hate the look of desperation on the man. Maybe that's really why he’s doing this.

“I know,” Peter smiles, waiting for Neal to piece it all together. And when he does, Peter feels floored by the magnitude of Neal’s gratuity. It's the first time in weeks he's seen a glimpse of his the old Neal Caffrey and the knot in his gut finally starts to ease.

---

When Neal comes out the south gate, he’s got quite a bit more pep in his step. Peter supposes getting released from prison can do that to a person’s attitude. But he can’t let Neal get too excited. Because this isn’t summer camp, this is a federal punishment. One that would come down hard on Peter if it failed. It needs to be treated accordingly.

“Let me see it,” he instructs when Neal is only a few steps away.

Neal stops walking to pull up his pant leg.

“You like,” Neal smiles, showing off the ankle monitor. “I’m officially yours.”

The phrase catches Peter off guard, because Neal’s always been flirty, buts it's never been this direct. And that's why his neck and cheeks are flushed. No other reason… And he will be sticking to that story in court.

“You know what this means right,” Peter pivots.

“Yeah,” Neal agrees, “I'm released into your custody as property of the FBI with this horrible eye sore on my ankle as a permanent fashion piece. Anything I'm missing?”

“Yeah. if you run, and I catch you, which I know I will because I’m 2-0, you're not just back here for four years you're here for good. Got it?”

“Yeah Peter," Neal sighs a little irritably, "I got it.”

“You're going to be tempted to look for Kate, don’t.”

Neal’s earlier smile fades.

“Trust me, she doesn't want to hear from me.”

It's a very different dismissal than the way he reacted weeks ago. Harsh enough Peter almost buys it. Almost.

“Alright. Let's get going then.”

“Hey, uh, Peter?”

“Yeah?”

“Why... you decide to do this? Let me go, I mean?”

Peter opened his mouth to answer but his tongue freezes in his mouth.

Because, as soon as I set eyes on you today the bad feeling i've been feeling for weeks compounded tenfold. Almost like it was congratulating me for locating its source and scolding me for waiting so long.

Because, you looked like you were on death's door less than an hour ago and if those bandages are what I think they are, my mistake was seconds away from causing me to lose you for good.

Because, I can't have one more soul on my conscious. Especially not yours...

“Because my wife thinks you’re a romantic.”

ao3 kofi insta

Read the other 3 here!

#white collar #white collar A/B/O #peter burke #neal caffrey #elizabeth burke #p/e/n #peter x el x neal #el x peter x neal #el x neal x peter #alpha dog and megalomaniac #sunwarmed ash #find me on ao3 #buy me a coffee?#links in pinned #reblogs are free ways to support me!#i post new stuff every sunday #sinful sunday #omgomgomg im so excited for this one ive been writing it for MONTHS

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russellius · 1 year ago

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Tucked away somewhere in his parents’ Norfolk home, there is a photograph of George Russell at his first Silverstone grand prix. If Russell has his way, it will remain tucked away for ever. Rather embarrassingly for the Mercedes driver, he is wearing a Red Bull jumper in the shot.

In fairness, it was taken in 2009 and he was only 11 years old. Yet you sense a certain awkwardness when he talks about it. “When you are a kid you tend to get things you like the look of,” he says. “And I liked the look of that jumper.”

There was a lot more for Russell to like that day. His hero was Sebastian Vettel — of, er, Red Bull — and as he stood at the exit of Copse for the opening lap, he watched his favourite flash by in the lead. Vettel went on to win the race, with team-mate Mark Webber finishing second. Russell was smitten.

“That was the moment when I was like, ‘Yeah, this is what I want to do.’ The noise and the buzz was just immense,” he says.

At the time, Russell was already a junior kart racer and a regular winner, and he would carry on in that groove for the next few years. There was certainly no lack of belief. “With the naivety of a child I used to think I could do anything. I used to think I could fly to the moon,” he says.

“I was so confident. So, so confident at a young age because I was winning. I was almost arrogant, I would say. It was only when I got to 16 that I realised it was not as straightforward as I thought. There are obstacles and there are challenges.”

These things are relative. At the age of 16 Russell still won the British Formula Four championship. And while there were a few bumps on the road when racing in European events, he was still doing enough to attract a six-figure offer from BMW to drive in DTM, the German touring car championship.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, this is unbelievable,’ ” he says. “Formula One was almost put on the sideline at that point because that was so attractive. For a kid growing up in a field with a labrador, those sorts of figures had never even been heard of.”

Russell turned it down. An alternative offer from Mercedes to fund him in Formula Three kept his ambitions on track. More titles followed and in 2019 the kid who had stood saucer-eyed in wonder at Copse a decade earlier became a full-fledged F1 driver for Williams. He would spend three seasons with the Grove outfit before moving to Mercedes at the start of last year.

The change took him from the back of the grid to the front. It meant regular podium finishes and, eventually, a first race win in Brazil. It meant he was now one of a tiny elite, with all the attention that drew. But it also brought a reckoning.

Russell, 25, is a thoughtful and articulate individual. “Some changes are for better and some for worse,” he begins. “It is a bit of a strange position to be in when you find yourself in the limelight. A lot of people want to cosy up to you for the wrong reasons. It took a bit of time for me to process this.

“They weren’t necessarily friends, but people I knew well suddenly started acting differently, asking for this and asking for that. People I hadn’t heard from for a long time came out of the woodwork.

“Now I’m in this position, which is a privilege, I see people’s true colours. So I have a close-knit group of people around me and I know they are there for the right reason.”

Remember that old Volkswagen advertisement about the man who “moved into gold, just as the clever money moved out”? Russell arrived at Mercedes at a similar moment. Lewis Hamilton had just lost his drivers’ title to Max Verstappen and at the end of Russell’s first season with the team they also surrendered to Red Bull the constructors’ crown they had held for eight years.

And yet, perhaps it was not so bad to pitch up when he did. Russell played a big part in ironing out the problems of Mercedes’ 2022 car and making this year’s model more competitive. He also acknowledges that slotting in beside Hamilton could have been problematic had the team still been the most dominant in the sport.

Has it helped that Hamilton is Russell’s senior by a margin of 13 years, seven titles and 102 race wins? “I totally agree with that,” Russell says. “When you look at Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc [of Ferrari] or Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri [McLaren] these guys are trying to be the one to lead the team. They are almost fighting for that No 1 spot. With us, there is no fight because we are at different stages of our careers.

“Lewis has proven everything he has to prove. The team believes in me and believe I’ll be here for the long term. It is a very good dynamic. I would expect the dynamic to change a bit if we were fighting for championships, that’s only normal. But for now we have a good relationship and have had no real tense moments on track.”

The scale of the task facing Mercedes, and every other F1 team, can be measured by the fact that Red Bull have now won 19 of the past 20 grands prix. Their near-monopoly was interrupted only by Russell’s victory in Brazil. To all intents and purposes, this year’s titles have already been decided, but Russell still believes in his team.

“We’ve got some new things coming for the race, which will be a step in the right direction. Red Bull are still favourites, but out of all of the races so far I’d say this would be our best chance.

“As a team we are definitely going in the right direction. We’ve got clear views now and you’ve seen it already with our progress. We’re slowly reeling in Red Bull. It seems like they have taken a step backwards compared to the rest of the field.”

Regardless of what happens, Hamilton and Verstappen have already cemented their places among the all-time greats in the annals of the sport. Can Russell see himself joining them at some point? He seems ambivalent about the prospect.

“When I was a ten-year-old kid I dreamt about being world champion,” he says. “I didn’t dream of being famous.

“I got asked a question recently about what legacy I wanted to leave behind. I’m 25 years old and I hadn’t even thought about this. As a kid I didn’t think about legacy or what impact I wanted to leave, I just wanted to win.

“Maybe in five years’ time that will be something I do think about. I recognise the platform we have, but equally the more success you have the bigger your platform becomes. I need to focus on that first.”

#george russell #f1 #*m #q #23 #🖤

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bigfrood · 1 year ago

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so this is about the hozier statement please help me understand why his statement was so bad both herw and om twitter people are dissapointed but like .?!?! Isnt his statement rational and well thought out and balanced given that life has been lost on both sides yes the isralie government has been awfully unfair with palestinians for years almost 75? I think but hammas killed children and civilians took them hostages isralie government bombed hospitals and schools and churches two wrongs dont make a right an immediate cease fire with diplomatic talks is a good way to go and to call for that is a good statement so i dont get why people are so up in arms about this ? Please help me understand youre take if is different

Please check out these videos, they are about 8 minutes long in total and they worded what I wanna say better than I could ever hope to word it:

https://twitter.com/Hakeemfederer/status/1714734864086261838?t=lJARc717B09mqwfZmtF9tg&s=19

https://twitter.com/_TheRockII/status/1713975193339605115?t=9gKHtgV1f5T_heX6Xto2Bg&s=19

(This one is an Irish person, like Hozier who should know better)

One of my main problems with Hozier's statement is that it IS balanced like you're saying, because here's the thing:

The situation in Palestine isn't balanced.

To be neutral in a situation where there is an oppressive party and an oppressed party is necessarily in favour of oppression.

I don't disagree with most of his statement, my main problem with his take is also my main problem with yours, except you're saying "Israel has been awfully unfair with Palestinians" and he used language that was slightly stronger but still doesn't begin to cover the situation.

There is no place for "both sides" in this narrative. It is not a war or a conflict, but an occupation, where the apartheid state that has been committing war crimes for decades is now also committing genocide in front of the whole world with video! evidence! And no one is stopping it, countries and individuals are actually supporting it, even!

I can't believe that in the year of our lord 2023 I have to bring up the point that genocide, apartheid and settler colonialism are a big deal, and aren't just Israel "being unfair".

But the fact that you're willing to ask and understand makes me think that you are a good person who's trying to do what's right, so that's why I'm responding.

It's not fair to describe what Hamas did as equal to what Israel did in any capacity, starting from the very root of the problem, I'm asking you this:

If Israel hadn't STOLEN and COLONISED Palestinian land and occupied Palestine, do you think there would even be Hamas??

In Arabic we have an addition to the famous "an eye for an eye" line: ".. and whoever started is more unjust".

It's true that Hamas killed civilians, but what exactly do you think Israel has been doing in Palestine for almost 8 decades?? Hamas was formed in the late 80s. It has existed for less than half the duration of the occupation, with a vast inequality in resources in favour of Israel, yet one is considered a terrorist organisation and the other a country!!

Also, Hamas isn't every Palestinian, but every Palestinian is suffering at the hands of Israel. Israel is using Hamas as an excuse for their crimes.

Even the human cost is unequal, so many more Palestinian lives were lost!

Like any human being I am deeply affected by the loss of lives, however, anyone who blames any party involved other than Israel and by extension any international force that has the ability to stop it but hasn't for killing Palestinians and putting Israeli "civilians" in harm's way is being awfully unfair. Uninformed at best, and malicious with an agenda at worst.

I don't think the Irish or the Algerians or us Egyptians or any people in history who has been occupied got their freedom through peace talks.

But I don't mind an immediate cease fire and diplomatic talks, anything that would stop this genocide, really.

To answer your question directly now that I've made the previous points: what he's suggesting should happen isn't what bothers me. It's how he's describing the current situation.

I can't agree with a statement that's condemning resistance for RESISTING while also not coming close to properly condemning the genocidal occupation that started it all and keeps the violence going.

I can't agree that he's calling this genocide a "response" when what's happening now has been happening decades before Hamas even existed. The situation did NOT start 2 weeks ago or when Hamas was formed, but it started with the occupation and will only end when that occupation is gone.

I can't possibly agree when he calls what's happening a cycle of violence implying that there is anyone to blame but Israel, when it's a cycle of violence in the sense that Israel commits war crimes regularly and quite often, doesn't face consequences from any international organisation, or anyone really, which allows it to continue committing even worse war crimes.

I hope this helps you understand, and I hope you do the right thing and stand with Palestine.

#gaza #Hozier #free gaza #Palestine #free palestine #things are actually quite simple once you know the basic facts #occupation bad #freedom good #that's it. that's the situation.#I have about a million relevant tweets and screenshots but I don't want this to get longer than it already is

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