#ill delete this later but may he rest here for like. a few days post new years eve

[chimeriad]

pharaoh sweep

[xxmolls]

***I just wrote this long ass post, posted it, and accidentally deleted the whole thing less than 20 min later. Here's a rewritten version.*** As long as I'm in the (ill-advised) habit of posting work-in-progress songs I'm writing and then rambling about the inspiration and writing process and things I need to fix... Here is a song I wrote tonight. It still has some work to be done on it. The recording is shitty... my voice and breath support have been struggling because of my recent bouts of anaphylaxis... but whatever. Song inspiration / spilling my guts about recent things going on in my life + songwriting nerdery + lyrics under the cut (it long):

My sister has been with a shitty abusive boyfriend for over 6 years now. He will do something fucked up and terrible, they will break up, and my family will be so excited that we are finally getting rid of him.

Each time, he will write her whining about how much he misses her, how he loves her, how she's the only one he has in his life so he's lonely and sad and he needs her... ... and she immediately goes running back to him.

About a month ago we were so hopeful that they had finally broken up for good. He had some manic break, kicked my sister out of their house, moved in some other girl, and cut off all contact with my sister. She moved back in with my parents, and started working on bettering her life.

She got a really good therapist to work with on her trauma (finally), she was legitimately sober for the first time in like... years, she got a job to support herself (he has purposefully made her financially dependent on him for years)... and in the absence of being yelled at and berated by him constantly, she became really pleasant to be around. I actually liked hanging out with her for the first time in... well... ever, and started to hope that maybe we could become friends and strengthen our relationship.

I have never been close with her. For most of our lives, I have felt more like someone who has to help take care of an incredibly fucked up and incompetent toddler than I have felt like a sister to her (at least from my point of view). But as she started to flourish and heal in her distance from him, our relationship began to strengthen. I even thought I may be able to rely and depend on her in the future instead of always being the one she relied on.

Of course, on the very first day of her new job, and after 4 weeks of ghosting her, he contacted her again. He said the usual things, how he missed her and loved her, and how lonely he was.

She immediately packed up her things and went running back to him, no matter how much our parents and I, basically her only stable support system, begged her not to (though we learned long ago that nothing we say to her makes a difference in what she chooses to do).

That was a few days ago, so I've been pretty upset about that. And tonight apparently that resulted in a song!

What I plan to work on in the song (since I do not want to deal with what I need to work on in the real life situation right now): The melody needs some work.

I need to get more comfortable with some of the vocal things (though to be fair I did just write it tonight). In the recording you can hear it's shaky in parts.

In particular, I think I need to start in a head voice in the pre-chorus and then switch quickly to chest voice. As my voice is pretty worn out right now, I am hoping after it heals and rests a bit I will be more capable vocally of making those voice switches more seamless and less shitty sounding. The bridge is similar to the pre-chorus and has the same issue. In the recording, I lost my place in the lyrics and ended up half-assing and shitifying the head voice part, so Future!Molly needs to work on that.

I'm also trying to find ways to make the verses sound more distinct from the chorus. They are virtually the same melody at the moment (and maybe the same chords). I think they need to sound more distinct. I don't know that I necessarily have to mess with the verse melody too much to do that. But that is a way I could change things.

I have been playing power chords on the verses and full open chords on the chorus to make them sound more distinct. I also think I could try to make the verses a bit quieter ... especially after the 1st chorus, so there's kind of an emotional jolt with that abrupt shift.

The song structure is a little wonky. I thought the song sounded too repetitive and that I repeated the chorus too much (you would think that since I have Tourette's I like repetitive songs, but they actually drive me completely up the wall). To deal with this I took out a chorus, made the 2nd verses go straight into the bridge and then from the bridge to the last chorus.

I don't know if that's the best way to do things for this song. It is certainly shorter that way... but doesn't drive me insane with the repetitiveness so that's a plus.

I also may change the very last line. I am playing around with the timing of it, and I also don't know if it's the best way to end the song with "I don't want to fall for you." My sister (if the song is about her) already fell for that motherfucker long ago unfortunately... so that's not a very logical ending (though is logic really necessary in a song about this shituation...). POST EDIT: wait, just realized “I don’t want to fall for you” has a double meaning. We’re good. That probably works fine. Could even title the song ���Fall” or “Fall for You”

Anyway, after that long ramble about this song and things that Future!Molly is going to work on... here are the lyrics (if anyone is interested): Back 2 U (tentative title) I feel strong like my mind knows right from wrong I worked hard to stay this calm and clear-eyed Did my time even though my only crime was my mental decline running wild But you need chaos to thrive And you need to hurt to stay alive And you feel better when you're high and you want me to be flying by your side When you call I don't feel strong at all You know I'm gonna crawl back to you When you call you know I'm in your thrall But I don't want to take this fall for you Runs through my head that I'd be better off dead so all those pretty words you said would cast no spell They sink right in and pull me back to you again I think you're branded on my skin and you can tell All those little things you whispered to me All those little flaws you held over me All the dignity you squeezed out of me I'm terrified you'll never set me free 'Cause when you call I don't feel strong at all You know I'm gonna crawl back to you When you call you know I'm in your thrall but I don't want to take this fall for you I don't want to take this fall for you I don't want to fall for you

[tvmblrdothailey]

Bnha x trans woman reader

A/N: I decided to write an x reader where the reader is a trans woman. To any trans woman reading this I just want you to know thAT I FŪCKING LOVE YOU💙💖🤍💖💙🥰😘🥰😘🥰😘 YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL AND I WILL LITERALLY FIGHT ANYONE WHO HURTS YOU.

Warning: Cursing, Transphobia, mentions of Sex Reassignment Surgery, Gender Dysphoria. Karen

(Y/N): Your name

(D/N): Your dead name

Summary: It took a while for your parents to accept you for who you are, you just hoped your classmates and teachers would accept you as well.

- Before the first day, you had recieved your school uniform, but it turned out to be a mens uniform. To which you had to “politely” ask them to send you the correct uniform.

- Once you made it to class you were immediently introduced to a green haired male who you’d later find out was named Izuku. Then you met Uraraka, Iida, Asui, etc.

- Eveything was going well until your teacher showed up and immediently had you all sent to change into P.E uniforms.

- It wasn’t the uniform that was the problem, it was the fact that none of them knew you were trans and had to share a changing room with other woman. And even though they seemed friendly at first, you still were unsure how’d they react.

- In the past you had to learn the hard way that a smile can really hide someones true colors and that not all people are willing to accept you for who you are and not what you are.

- It’s worth noting that you havent had Sex Reassignment Surgery yet, because you couldnt afford it. (You did take medication though)

- And even though you were generally confident about your Gender, you still had your moments where you started to doubt yourself abd even questioned if you were a real woman (WHICH YOU FRICKING ARE OKAY!!! 😤💙🤍💖)

- Once you were in the womans lockerroom, you tried your best to find a place where you could change without any of them seeing you. So far it was going good until Uraraka came looking for you. She blushed and in a panic you told her you were a trans woman.

- You froze for a few seconds before hearing Uraraka’s voice “Oh...okay, well just so you know, I think you’re a very beautiful woman!” My god you had to hold back from giving Uraraka a hug right then and there.

- Later down the line you had come out to the rest of the girls as a Trans woman, to which they all responded with hugs and affection.

- “We don’t care if you’re trans, you’re still the same (Y/N) we know and love.” -Hagakure

- “It doesnt matter whats in your pants, if you identify as a woman, then you’re a woman.” - Jirou

- “I am literally pink, and you think I’d judge you because of your gender? Hell nah, get over here and let me love you!” - Mina

- “If anyone tells you otherwise you come to me and I will have a ��friendly” chat with them.” -Momo

- “Ribbit, You’ll always be our friend (Y/N), no matter what.” -Tsu

- They would die for you

- With the help of the other girls, you eventually came out to Aizawa, and he promised that you would be treated the same just as any other student. And if anyone gives you any problems you bring it to him for him to deal with. (Protective dad tm)

- Eventually the entire class knew and you felt the biggest weight fall of your shoulders.

- “It does’nt matter, you’re still (L/N) (Y/N). And we all care about you. 💚” -Izuku

- “I don’t give a damn about your gender! So stop it with that self-concious shit.” -Bakugo. Although his words may seem harsh, he really cares about you and is willing to blow up any wall, building or mountain to chase away any Dysphoria you may have.

- You had to exaplain it a couple of times for Todoroki since he was never educated about that kind of stuff, but once he got it he immediently replied “I didn’t know people could do that. Thank you for telling me, and I’ll do everything I can to support you.” 🤍❤️

- Of cource there were going to be some students who felt the need to belittle you...

- One time in the Caffiteria, Monoma had walked up to your table and desided that today would be the day he would be the biggest dick in the world

- “It’s shocking how people say Class 1A is one of the hardest courses to get into, yet they let someone like you in.” He said

- You looked at him “Excuse me?”

- “I’m just saying when you think about it scientifically, you’re still a man no m- “ Monoma didn’t get to finish his sentence before Kendo slapped him, knocking him out cold.

- “Hey, sorry about him (Y/N). I knew he was low but I didn’t think he was that low.” She then smiled at you “Don’t listen to him, he’s just desperate to finding ways to make his class seem better because of some imaginary rivalry that’s only exist in his head. Anyway, I need to take him to Recovery girl to get his brains checked, but I’ll see you later!”

- Kendo was the best, and she made sure that Monoma got a stern lecture from Vlad later that day.

- Then there was the Mall incident, when the class was going on a trip to the mall to buy supplies for Summer training camp, but then you ran into an Ex friend.

- Emphasis on the word EX

- “(D/N)?” They said. To which you froze, you recgonized that voice anywhere and you could already tell that this conversation wasn’t going to be friendly.

- You slowly turned around “Hey Karen...” She didnt look that diffrent, fake nails, fake jewlery, fake personality...what?

- “Why are you dressed like a woman?” She said.

- You groaned before responding “Because I am a woman, Karen.” You tried to walk away from her in order to avoid confrontation, the last thing you needed were hundreds of eyes on you. You made a note to yourself to come back tommorow when you would’nt have to deal with her. But you’re taken out of your thoughts as you feel someone grab your shoulder and spin you around.

- “Do you think it’s funny? To make fun of mental illness?” She said.

- There was a point in time when Karens words didnt offend you anymore, they just frustrated you because of how dumb and ignorant she sounded.

- “Karen, I have told you multiple times that I am a woman, I am not mentally ill, I am human. I get that it might be confusing for you but it’s not for me. I am happy the way I am okay?”

- “You’re the one that’s confused. You think you’re a girl but you’re a boy no matter what? That’s just how the human body works.” She shot back. At this point multiple eyes were already on you two. Some looked uncomftorable, others look confused and then there were a few that looked disgusted. Just a few people had the power to send Dysphoria crawling back into your mind.

- You started to hear fast footsteps before hearing “WHAT THE FUCK DID YOU SAY YOU BOOTLEG BARBIE BITCH?!”

- Oh hey bakugo (we’re gonna pretend him, Kiri and Shoto came along aight)

- “Bakugo, It is unacceptable to call a woman by such a deragatory term! Even though she was being rude to (Y/N) there are better ways to-“ Iida was cut off by Bakugo

- “SHUT THE HELL UP FOUR EYES!” Kiri then had to hold bakugo back while Todoroki and Uraraka steped in between you and Karen.

- “Don’t ever talk to our friend like that, she is more of a woman than you’ll ever be. I’d suggest that you walk away right now, our friend can only hold back Bakugo for so long.” Todoroki said

- Uraraka helped calm your nerves and whispered to you “Don’t listen to her, she’s just jealous because you can wear a dress better than her.”

- AIGHT, now the training camp.

- During the training camp, Tiger had not only helped you get stronger, but also helped scare away any Gender Dysphoria that remained inside your head.

- “Don’t ever let peoples harsh words get to you! You are doing this for yourself and that’s what matters!” He said

- When it was time to take a bath, you didn’t hesitate to get into the hot springs. The encouraging words Tiger gave you along with the constant support of your friends had made you feel safe and happy. You could’nt ask for better friends.

Bonus:

* IF YOU DO NOT PLAN ON HAVING SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY THEN YOU CAN IGNORE THIS PART

- One moment that stuck out was when momo dropped the question “Hey (Y/N), you dont have to awnser this but I was wondering, why have’nt you gone through Sex Reassignment Surgery? Are you not comftorble with it or...?”

- “Oh, I just dont have the money for it.” You responded

-Way way later on.

- your birthday was finally around the corner

- On the big day you woke up to your friends Uraraka and Midoriya at your door and they dragged you to the main room where the rest of the class along with Mr. Aizawa were.

- You noticed a large envelope on the coffe table and they looked at you before Hagakure urged you to open it.

- When you did you found two gifts, one was a shirt

- And the other was a smaller envelope with the words Class 1A written on the back. You opened the envelope and pulled out a card and opened it to which a small keychain fell out that said “trans woman are real woman” and if that wasn’t wholesome enough...

- You looked inside the card but before you could begin reading Aizawa interupted and asked you to read it outloud.

- “Dear (Y/N), words can not describe how wonderful you are, how brave, how strong, or how amazing of a person and classmate you are. We all love you! When you came out to us as a transwoman, we all immediently wanted to make sure you knew you were valid and loved. It’s come to our attention that you haven’t had sex reassignment surgery because you are unable to afford it. So we banded together and decided we would help pay for your surgery-“ you couldn’t finish as you were allready in tears and you looked at Aizawa and the rest of the class to confirm that they were not messing with you.

- “I’ve already talked with your parents all you have to do is set up an appointment and all that fun stuff.” Aizawa said.

- Your tears turned into water falls and your classmates all went to give you hugs and affection. You thanked each of them through your tears of joy and hiccups.

- Definitely a Birthday that would be remembered.

TUMBLR DESITED TO DELETE 65% OF THIS POST THAT I POURED MY HEART AND SOUL INTO 😭

[plague-of-insomnia]

🍋 🍌

Thank you for the ask 💕!!

🍋 Your descriptions are transportive

Wow... 😶☺️🥰 Thank you.

🍌I want to pick your brain about your creative process.

This will be a long post, FYI.

Chaos.

Haha, I’m joking.

Or am I?

Honestly, I’ve tried a lot of different things over the years, including outlining, and it never works for me bc my characters control the story. I really am just their interpreter, putting their lives and words onto virtual paper.

I’m a “character first” kind of writer (as opposed to a “plot first”), and that means I could probably tell you what any of the main cast of my stories ate for breakfast on the morning of their 8th birthday, but I couldn’t tell you what happens in the end, or sometimes even in the next chapter, bc I don’t know until I “get there.”

I’ve done my best to break my process down into 8 steps.

Step 1: The Idea

When I first get an idea, it usually comes to me in terms of a really vivid scene, like the chapter in Where Demons Hide called “Spark of Madness.” Usually that scene ends up in the beginning of the story but not normally the first chapter. Sometimes it’ll give me some story/plot to help me begin to flesh out the idea more, like in that example, where the main antagonist/conflict is introduced, though normally I have to work at it a bit more.

Step 2: Flesh Things Out

This is where I brainstorm, usually thinking about the main characters, who they are and what their flaws might be and what they might want to help me “find” the story. Sometimes I’ll make a character sheet (normally I don’t if I’m working alone bc I don’t have to). I do normally make a file for notes where I’ll jot down possible ideas about the characters and where the story might go.

I’ll be perfectly honest and say while this process does get me jump started, most of the notes I jot down I don’t end up using bc as the characters and story formulates, they both tend to change from my original ideas.

Step 3: Research

This can often be tied in with #2 and it’s not as if it just stops here. But as I often write about disabilities, mental and chronic illness, I like to make sure I can get as much info about the disease/condition I want to represent as possible so that I can:

represent it appropriately and accurately and

so I can find story/character details along the way.

For example, in my novel UnConventional, I was able to talk with a friend who is not only an orthotic user (and has been for years) but is an engineer of sorts so he understands very well *how* they work. By talking with him about various orthotics and his own struggles with them, I was able to find new plot and character details that help make the story more vivid and real and also allowed me to drive it in directions I may not have been able to otherwise.

Step 4: Write, Write, Write.

Two things you need to know about my writing process:

I usually do better when I write out of order.

I need to visualize the scene in my head to write it effectively. My “writers block” comes from not being able to see things in my head

My method isn’t the most efficient, but it’s how my brain works, and I’ve learned to go with it rather than fight it.

I brainstorm with myself (or a friend or my husband if possible) when necessary, or sometimes I’ll just close my eyes in a quiet place to allow myself to “see” the next series of scenes. Before I can forget the vivid movie I saw in my head, I do what I call a “scene sketch.”

I call it a “sketch,” bc just like a sketch is usually the foundation for a piece of art, mine are the basic structure for a completed scene. I do this also if I have a pretty solid idea but don’t have the time to write or I’m too tired or something like that, bc sketches allow me to simply sit down and flesh them out to create a completed scene.

They’re kind of like what an outline might be for other writers but less organized. Sketches are like a little treatment of a scene, including the basic setting, an idea of POV, and even dialog and body language, but jotted down really quickly without quotes or dialog tags. Sometimes there’ll be things like “maybe this happens” bc once I actually write the scene I’ll know if that idea feels right or not.

Here’s an example from a rejected chapter of WDH (I ended up going in a slightly different direction):

Seb answers when room service knocks. Bard is hovering, maybe bc he heard Seb’s scream. He sees the bad bite on Seb’s bare chest, sees he’s trembling and drowning more than ever, his eyes almost pleading for rescue. But when Bard asks if he’s OK he smiles and says yes, sir. Takes the food from the room service person and says he’s been ordered to wait on the guests personally. Shuts the door in Bard’s face.

Sometimes these sketches can be very detailed, other times it’s more of a general, quick jot of what happens or the scene I want to set. It depends on my brain and the scene.

I like to set goals based on scenes (or sometimes chapters), and do my best to complete a scene in its entirety if possible before I stop. If I can’t bc of time, then I’ll write a really brief sketch so I know what I need to do when I pick back up again so I won’t forget.

I’ve been writing and editing long enough that depending on the project I’m able to self-edit as I write. That doesn’t mean I don’t revise or edit later, but it saves some time overall as I am more aware of certain things than I used to be.

Because I write out of order, my process often entails being a puzzle master and piecing things together. Especially for something like Where Demons Hide, which has a lot of flashbacks, since I write those separately from the main story, I then have to figure out where they “belong.” I’d say 98% of the time for this fic I have already written the flashbacks before the chapter(s) they end up in.

My original serial fiction I write in a similar fashion, where I often will write scenes out of order and then assemble them into chapters later. So sometimes I’ll make a kind of “outline” of plot points that I need to cover. It’s not so much a fixed thing as a memory aid and place for me to put notes of ideas that might come to me that aren’t completely fleshed out.

Step 5: Rest

Once I’ve completed a chapter, I try to let it “rest” for at least a few days, if not longer. Especially if it was a long chapter or something that was difficult to write and took me awhile so I’ve been working on it for days or even weeks at a time.

I do this for three reasons:

��In process” brain lies often and says a scene/chapter sucks and I should just burn my computer/phone and take up accounting instead, and that the pacing is awful and it’s boring and lots of similar untruths.

Especially if the chapter took me a long time to finish because it’s lengthy or complicated or has difficult subject matter or whatever, it means there’s a good chance I’ve been working on it for days or even weeks and I’m SICK TO DEATH of it and never want to see it again, so taking a break from it is a welcome relief. It’s like taking a vacation after you’ve been working overtime for months. Sometimes I’ll do writing-adjacent things during this time, like reading, organizing/typing my notes, jotting down things I need to work on, reading/watching stuff that will energize and inspire me. Other times I work on another project or other scenes/chapters in the same project. Sometimes I’ll just take a break if I’m feeling burnt out or stressed.

I can come back to the project with fresh eyes, so that I can read it and see what things are actually good (suck it, in-process brain) or what things may still need work in a way I couldn’t do so soon after finishing.

Step 6: Revise

I revise in different ways depending on how much I feel something needs fixing. The first revision is my chance to see how the puzzle pieces knit together, work on scenes that I noticed aren’t pulling their weight or that need to be fleshed out. Sometimes this means I will completely, totally rewrite—and by that I mean “retype.” I open a fresh document, and referencing the original, start over. This allows me to streamline and better hone my language and ensure each scene is working hard.

This is something I do if I feel like a scene isn’t working as-is or I have a shit-ton of notes and comments on the first draft and it’s so chaotic I feel like I can’t focus anymore. This is especially helpful for dialog.

Other times the revisions are less drastic. Sometimes I means moving a scene around or deleting one that isn’t working. Sometimes it means finding all the times I’ve repeated the same word and fixing that, or fixing places where I’ve used the same sentence type too often.

Revision can be a very long process, depending on the quality of the first draft and what my goal is. If it’s just fan fic I’m doing for fun, then I don’t obsess too much: usually 1-2 read throughs and adjustments are OK. If it’s something I’m going to submit for publication, then that’s a different story bc the quality of the edit of your submitted draft makes a good impression (or a bad one).

Step 7: Beta Reader

If I have one, which I don’t always, then this is where I’ll send it to them. Usually what I want in a beta reader isn’t stuff like proof or copy editing, but rather “big picture” stuff. I want them to tell me: “this scene isn’t working” or “this feels contrived” or “I don’t like the main character.”

It can be frustrating and disheartening to get feedback that means I have to go back and do some major revising, but that’s why they’re there, bc often it’s either things I couldn’t see bc I’m too close to the story, or stuff I was in denial about (lol). Listening to my betas always leads to a better draft.

Step 8: Proofreading/Copyediting

The last step. I’ve done this professionally so I’m usually pretty good at finding typos and inconsistencies myself, but some people will hire someone like me to do that work bc they don’t have the skill or the time. Even if it’s “just for fun,” proofing is important bc it affects readability, and it’s embarrassing to me if I post something with glaring proof errors 😶.

~~~Anyway, that is roughly how my brain works. I don’t know if this is what you were expecting or wanting, but here it is!

[ladylynse]

Hello, I apologize if you have already answered what I am about to ask. When you write a story how do you develop the plot? And do you ever think about plot holes? If so how do you prevent those?

Hi, Anon. Thanks for asking!

I start with my idea. Sometimes it’s as simple as “it would be hilarious if Maddie saw Phantom get hit with the Booo-merang when she knows it reacts to her son”. Sometimes it’s a paragraph or two or ten of random ideas smushed together(technical term)--this is more or less the stage my DPxML fic is at. There’s a lot of me going, “Oooh, this would be fun” or “ooh, or I could do this”, and I’ll actually talk to myself like that in my notes. It’s long, ramble-y, grammatically incorrect, and basically the equivalent of me brainstorming some sort of initial idea, the root of the story. (I’m already rambling, so the rest of the answer will be under a read more.)

I then start doing a bit of research on stuff I’ll need to write the story. Depending on how long I’ve been in a fandom, this can be very basic stuff (people’s names) to more specific things (what day does Adrien have fencing?) and will always include some sort of cheat sheet for myself if the characters use slang (like Randy. And Jake.). If I come up with any ideas--or potential ideas--while doing that, I jot them down. Even if it’s a couple lines of dialogue or a way to end a scene, at some point, if I can write that scene into the story (eg Gwaine saw Merlin’s eyes glow gold.) All of this starts in my initial fic document and eventually gets moved to a scrap file associated with that fic. Do not delete ideas/scenes/dialogue/anything even if you aren’t currently using it. You might be able to recycle them into a different fic or later in the current story.

Then I start writing. To see if it’ll work. Even if I don’t have a very clear idea of where things are going yet, and certainly no idea of the end. Sometimes I need to try a few different ways to start a story (Reflections went through various iterations. Mockingbird and my DPxML fic are still in that stage) before I find one that seems to flow. That’s when I look at the situation the characters are in (or about to be in) and try to figure out their actions and reactions to the stuff I’m putting them through. And then I try to let that drive the plot. It’s something I’ve gotten better at over time--making it less obvious that the characters are doing that because that’s the way I want the story to go--but my best plots tend to be character-driven. (This may or may not help you avoid some plot holes. Depends on what the plot hole is. It’ll hopefully help you cut down on the “well, why didn’t they do that like they always do?” sort.)

If you need a character to do something that’s not in character for your plot to go the way you want, you need to give them a reason to act out of character (eg Danny not telling Jake his secret because there’s a paranormal studies/ghost hunters convention in town--and because Jazz keeps ragging on him). If you can’t give them that reason, then you need to find another way to achieve what you want to happen without them doing that--or change your initial idea for the plot. Even if you start with a plan in mind, you will probably have to tweak it at some point. This is normal. You’re just adapting to your story. Sometimes, a story will get away on you--it’ll write itself in a direction you weren’t expecting or past the point where you’d initially figured it would end (hello, Treachery)--but, at least in my experience, if it’s the characters driving the story that way, and you let them, it can actually turn out to be a better story than what you’d initially planned. (Again: Treachery. The unplanned part ie second half is much better than the planned part.) It’s just a matter of keeping them reasonably in character so that things don’t get too out of hand. 

I only think about plot holes once I notice them. Honestly, I’ve gotten good at patching. If something doesn’t occur to me, I can’t prevent writing it in. It’s not so much plot hole prevention for me as adaptation of the story to make it more acceptable once I realize it’s there.

Sometimes, when I’m editing a chapter or rereading something to remind myself of the story thus far/what’s happened, I’ll see something that doesn’t work that I’d missed before. (Random note on the ‘remembering what’s happened’ bit: if you plan a long fic taking place over multiple days, do yourself a favour and make a timeline for yourself in your scrap file. So much easier. That’ll allow you to make accurate references like “last week” and “three days ago”. I did this with Shattered and regretted nothing.) Once I notice a plot hole, I consider the damage. Have I posted something where it’s already stated? If I haven’t, repairing it typically isn’t that hard, though of course it depends on what it is--you just need to give it some justification, shaky or otherwise, or do a bit of rewriting to patch it up. Once it’s firmly written in and you don’t notice it until chapters later, your best bet is writing in justification for it later. In some cases, this involves you turning your plot hole into a plot point. It may be a small plot point or it might be a significant one that will actually shift your intended story a little bit. I did this a lot with my earlier Doctor Who crossovers. I got quite good at retroactive patching there, and my plot hole turned into foreshadowing, although in all fairness all of those involved time travel to one degree or another so that made things a bit easier; I didn’t have to stick to the rules of the actual universe. 

So here’s a plot hole of mine that’s recent that you might have noticed if you’ve read Down the Rabbit Hole: the note on Toby’s bed. Why...why are they communicating that way? Why go to the trouble of sending a note to him that way? Why not just phone or text or email? I missed that initially. And now I see it. And now I have justification (that hasn’t yet appeared in-fic) for not communicating by normal 21-century means. Depending on how things go, it might be hinting at something bigger, or it might just be a small one-off thing.

Now, in case you’re interested in my disaster of a ‘planning paragraph’, this was how Masks began--and please bear in mind I’d seen ten episodes, subbed, at this point and wasn’t entirely sure on what stuff was called:

Blademaster. Fights with knives. Unless it’s someone fromAdrien’s fencing class; the transformation could make that thing deadly sharp.That’s better, actually. Go with that. Marinette actually beats Adrien to thetransformation because she was skulking around waiting for him to come outafter class/lesson/club/whatever it is is over (to just ‘happen to be there’and try to ask him to catch a movie or something in casual conversation) andheard the commotion, while he got caught up in the fleeing people beforemanaging to sidestep and transform. Ladybug hasn’t managed to get the swordaway from Blademaster in the meantime and nearly gets the cord of her luckycharm thing cut for her trouble. Chat Noir shows up and pretty much fences withhis quarterstaff thing until Blademaster starts to cheat, at which point hevaults over him and tags him from behind, hoping the distraction is enough forLadybug to free herself from whatever she ended up in. Evil moth guy isdemanding the gems, so Blademaster starts trying to take a slice out of ChatNoir, who evades rather than parries, trying to draw Blademaster awayfrom…something…and Ladybug takes over when he’s backed into a corner and needsto turn to scale the wall. She yells at him to get the something away if he’sfigured out what Blademaster is after—she hasn’t, yet; just that the blade isprobably what the akuma is in—and Adrien, being there for the transformation,knows exactly what happened and can oblige. But he isn’t long out the door whenhe hears Ladybug scream; Blademaster had either grabbed another blade orsomehow acquired something sharp—I’ve never fenced; I’m not entirely sure howsharp those things are—and while avoiding one blow, she jolted off the courseof the other and got her earlobe sliced off/the gem ripped out. Blademaster hasa gem—moth guy is rejoicing and demanding he now get the other one—andMarinette, with one hand clamped to her ear, has to get out of there despitethe pain because as much as she needs to get Tikki (?) back, she doesn’t wantto risk her identity and—more importantly—she’s not sure how much longer shecan remain upright. She hits the change room or office or something, aiming fora first aid kit or at least a wad of toilet paper, and Chat Noir is shocked theLadybug is gone. He manages to defeat Blademaster and retrieve her gem, but itis inactive, and while he manages to catch the dark butterfly in a fencingmask, he doesn’t have the means to banish its evil OR to erase the ill that hashappened here; that’s Ladybug’s turf. But how is he supposed to return hergem—return her—when he doesn’t knowwho she is, and his own transformation is wearing off? (Marinette will bepulling a new hairstyle or modelling a hat or just plain skipping school—ifthere IS school; what day was fencing class again?—and getting Alya to coverfor her with her parents on the pretence that she’s trying to work up thecourage to do something with Adrien, perhaps, and she really doesn’t want tohave that conversation with her mom,when in reality she’s just trying to find Tikki. Not sure what happened withTikki, exactly. Needs to regain energy, which Plagg (?) would know and informChat Noir accordingly, but with them trying to keep secrets from each other….)

and that will give way to notes like this:

Tikki, PlaggMiracle Stones/MiraculousHawkmoth

Ladybug – lucky charm at end, always ends up with somethingshe doesn’t know what to do with at first and then figures it out; yo-yocompact; BOTH EARRINGS for the miracle stones…but maybe ripping one out woulddeactivate the other. She is the ONLY ONE who can cleanse the akumas. Chat Noir – (allergic to feathers), ancient destruction/cataclysm; batonYeah, if that ring comes off, the Kwami is forced out and the detransformationis right awayPlagg is SUCH a glutton, he’ll even chase after stuff he thinks is food

----

Okay. Adrien picks up Tikki and Miracle Stone, so Marinettefinds nothing and tries to track down Chat Noir, but Tikki, once recovered, canjust tell Adrien who Marinette is. Problem solved. That’s not fun. Unless Tikkidecides to respect Marinette’s wishes?

Or maybe they each find one earring, and Tikki isn’t wellbecause they’re divided?

Adrien and Marinette can both find nothing—Marinette because she hasn’t achance to look, Adrien because he doesn’t know TO look—but unless Tikki’strapped there, she gotta be able to get out.

Wait, Adrien’s chivalrous. He’ll respect Ladybug’s wishes.Even if he hates it

----

If Plagg can’t see, when they transform, Adrien won’t beable to see, either.

“What do you mean, I can’t transform?”“If we transform, this thing would get sucked in, too, and you won’t be able to do anything.” [lines from the Rogercop episode]

Statue set on green stone (granite?) with the top edgejutting out about chin height for Adrien

-------------------------Nope, gonna have to go back and change Blademaster’s restoration to Phillipebecause that DOES seem to be after Ladybug’s restoration. [turns out I was right the first time with this, but I’d checked with someone else and they’d thought no one changed back until after the Miraculous Ladybug bit, so I’d changed my initial plans here, and a few months later we got an episode that confirmed that, no, the magic link just needs to be broken, things don’t need to be fixed yet.]

[dovesdanceatdusk]

Long post reply ahead:

@dreamsfrozenincandyland-blo-blog, I had to give your response some thought because I could be riding the high of 14x08 like I did in season thirteen and I don’t want to do that. What I mean is, I enjoy the episode on first watch/premiere airing, only to be confused and disappointed if and when I rewatch. 

I was upset Jack and Sam didn’t hug. I could chalk it up to Sam being less tactile than Dean, but then I remember all the times Sam hugged friends and family members in his inner circle the past three seasons and I’m left coming up short on that theory. 

He watched Jack, his kid, die when Castiel and Dean walked out of the room. As painful as that was, I was happy Sam didn’t leave. I normally see symbolism when it’s not there, so forgive a young bird of doing so, but Sam sitting by Jack’s side and not leaving tells me Sam cared for Jack more than the scene let on. Sam didn’t leave, abandon, or write off Jack in season thirteen. He didn’t leave Jack when Jack was about to die. He stayed by his side, even if it killed him inside. 

To me, Jared’s acting was pretty good, not subdued. [Reasons why, I saw how Sam tried to keep it together, how Sam held back tears when Jack and he talked right before Jack died. How Sam left Castiel and Dean after Jack died after Dean talked about making a pyre, abrupt, determined, and hurting. When Sam tried to chop down a tree to make a pyre, only to strike hard enough to break the ax. 

I saw Sam’s sorrow when he told Dean he couldn’t even build a proper pyre for Jack. His determination to help Jack by agreeing to Lily’s deal--and the desperation to try when Dean didn’t think the deal was a good idea. His outburst when Lily retracted her end of the deal (”He’s our kid!”). Holding Jack and telling him to read the spell to activate the angel magic and save his life.] 

I saw all of that--Sam’s grief, his helplessness, desperation, determination, relief, and elation. I mean, I could have ridden the live-blog high, too caught up in the feelings to register that maybe what I saw was more muted than I realize (hence why I dread rewatching sometimes). But that’s what I got from it. The subtleties in Jared’s acting, as well as the overtness, led me to believe Sam’s actions, feelings, and behavior last night felt real. 

But then those thoughts led me back to your response again, and I thought some more. I thought of Dean’s reactions to Jack, including that hug, and yeah, I wanted that for Sam.

I could see Sam laugh with tears spilling out of his eyes, holding Jack tight after the spell was complete and Jack was saved. I could see Sam hitting the tree after he broke the ax, pounding the side of his fist on it and crying until he didn’t have the strength anymore; and after he would walk over to the Impala and sit by her tires lost and hurting because his boy died and he couldn’t do a flying fig about it. I could see Sam rest his head against the table’s surface in the library after the failed attempt to get Anubis to help Lily. He takes a deep breath, then we hear that shuddering exhale--I could see that too. I could see him shoving Dean a little after Dean tells him the deal is too sketchy to try--then again I couldn’t, not after watching the later seasons. Would that make me happier? Would those theoretical examples fill up the drying pool of want and Sam wishes from this old horse of a show? I don’t know. I would be more satisfied, yes.

Which brought me to my response to your first reply last night. In comparison to what I saw in previous episodes this season, 14x08 gave me more Sam feels and Sam and Jack feels. That was why I was satisfied. Not, “I’m over the moon, stop the online presses,” joy, but I’m glad I saw Sam’s grief instead of him burying it down deep into the abyss for others. How I saw it, what Sam did to bring Jack back was because of his grief, his frustration he couldn’t do anything for him before (I chalked ‘before’ up to Jack’s terminal illness). Sam made calls, got Lily Sunder to help because he was desperate to help Jack, to do something. Sam chopping a tree for Jack’s pyre, only to break the ax, was his desperation, his grief, his loss bleeding through. I remember reblogging a post last night pointing out the reason why Jack is alive was Sam, Lily, and Castiel. It was Sam who got the ball rolling. Sam reached out; he found Lily and came together with a plan. From there, Castiel, 100% on board, agreed to carry out a key piece to the plan: go to heaven, find Jack, and send Jack’s soul back to his body. Sam went to lengths to get Jack back, without having to make a crossroads deal. 

There’s not a lot of Sam and Jack moments in season fourteen. When I do get them, somehow it gets nuked and destroyed in the next episode like it never happened (Looking at you, Bucket of Lemmings, and maybe the Singer-Dabb duo of questionable decisions). In comparison, season thirteen was the opposite. There were a lot of Sam and Jack moments, enough to warm my theoretical house. Only a handful of last season’s episodes had Sam and Jack more distant with each other. 

That’s the problem I’m facing with season fourteen in regards to Sam and Jack’s relationship. For Sam and Jack positive people, all of those moments we saw in season thirteen, those moments that warmed our hearts--at least my heart if yours melted or burned the good burn--is barely even noticeable this season.  There’s an imbalance. If the writing team played their cards right, the Dean and Jack bonding moments wouldn’t be so glaring if they included some Sam and Jack bonding moments. Anyone out there who believe the Dean and Jack bonding moments were okay is another sliver of pie that must be accounted for as well. So, perhaps a slower bonding progression, easing into the Dean and Jack bond instead of, “BAM, they’re thick as thieves. Dean is Jack’s other father and the rest is shredded grass.”

The progression would be more organic, but Dean and Jack’s relationship needed to happen quickly in order for the writers’ plans to come together. Dean needed to have a closer relationship with Jack in order for his actions and reactions in 14x07 and 14x08 to play out the way it did. That’s what I’m getting from it. I don’t like it, but that’s what I’m reading. Add in the fact you have a writing team that needs to not only work together but needs to work with the showrunner’s (showrunners’) vision. That’s a tough cucumber if you were a writer rallying Sam and Jack’s relationship.

I also read a discussion a few days ago pointing out side characters’ relationships with the brothers. 

Analysis: missjackil(.)tumblr(.)com/post/180864904367/captainsteelandsunshine   

The last comment of the thread gives a different perspective on the matter. I found it to be an interesting read, but your mileage may vary on the topic. I’m putting this here to widen the net a bit on this topic. Take away the parentheses before using the link.

I hope my response makes sense. You’re not wrong, and not alone on your thoughts on 14x08. On my dash, I saw some Sam and Jack positive viewers just as disappointed. My attitude toward the episode might change if I can get myself to rewatch. The downside is I don’t think what the show is doing is going to change. I could be wrong.

(What will sting is if the deleted scenes of the season were Sam and Jack moments. Boo.) 

Note to anyone pointing out Jack and Castiel scenes: I’m only addressing Sam and Jack and Dean and Jack in this post. 

[fightersagainstnarccistic]

Scrutinizing Valkyrie’s Bullshido

Let’s first talk about Randy Packer, who is the founder of Valkyrie and creator of their training curriculum, which is basically like the Scientology version of HEMA. 

Randy Packer’s first involvement in HEMA comes from doing rapier classes with Devon Boorman in the SCA, and eventually they started a club in Vancouver, British Columbia together called Academie Duello to teach historical fencing. Eventually Randy decided he wanted to teach HEMA in a different way than Devon did, and so he left Duello to start his own club. He started Nova Spada first and then Scatha Combat Guild, and now Valkyrie.

Devon continued to develop Duello into one of the largest HEMA schools in the world, operating out of a space in downtown Vancouver across from the Gastown district.

Randy did not gain any similar success with his various clubs.

This is all fairly well known information.

What is not seemingly as well known is what exactly Randy wanted to teach and why he was not able to teach that at Duello. And this is very important to understand to put Valkyrie’s current accusations against Duello into proper context.

Randy wanted to start a personality cult around himself that taught bullshido. That is why he left. And now he’s formed one such cult by advertising his school as a “safe space” for vulnerable people, specifically members of the LGBTQ community who may have limited or no prior experience with martial arts and cannot call him out on the dangerous stuff he teaches and believes. 

What kind of danger, do you ask?

Let’s talk about what happened in 2008 before Randy left Duello.

Randy decided to have a duel with another Duello student in public with real sharp blades and no protective equipment except sunglasses. So Randy convinced Justin Ring (who is now one of his coaches at Valkyrie today) to participate in a duel with sharp swords where they cut each other for real. 

This duel is documented on Justin’s own blog from back then.

https://scienceofdefence.wordpress.com/2011/03/25/duel/

And we’ve documented the entire blog post here in case they try to delete it now but here is a few key quotes from it,

So even as far back as 2008 Randy was able to manipulate a person such as Justin to engage in an extremely dangerous sword fight with him that if any one of them had made just one mistake, could have killed or seriously maimed them.

This is important to take note of. Even that long ago Randy was able to manipulate someone against their own self interest so he could say he had a match with sharp swords using no protective gear. This is toxic narcissism at work, as well as a strong indicator of his mental illness since he put his own life at risk by doing this with Justin.

Now, take note that Justin records the event on his blog as being amazing and positive for him, but was it truly?

Narcissistic manipulators will often use trauma bonding tactics in order to build relationships with other people. And that we believe is precisely what Randy does, and this is an example of one of the ways he recruits his cult members into his sphere of influence; using martial arts as a way to trigger dopamine releases alongside the adrenaline to get people to attach themselves to him.

As quoted from the following article, https://blogs.psychcentral.com/recovering-narcissist/2019/03/narcissists-use-trauma-bonding-and-intermittent-reinforcement-to-get-you-addicted-to-them-why-abuse-survivors-stay/

We’ll talk more about these manipulation tactics the Valkyrie cult uses later. Let’s get back to the specific bullshido they teach as self defense.

You see, Randy does not actually teach HEMA anymore. Actually he feels superior to everybody else in the HEMA community because his art is so much better.

Valkyrie has a reputation in the Vancouver HEMA community that maybe not everyone is as familiar with in the rest of the wider HEMA community. They don’t show some of their more extreme stuff on their YouTube videos however.

Randy has created a cult at Valkyrie that teaches a lot bullshido, some of which is actually aimed at teaching “self defense”courses. Courses that teach things like how to fight gun wielding robbers with knives instead of just running away like a reasonable person.

Swordfighting from a “self-defense or police control tactics point of view”.

Just let that sink in a moment.

This is a neat post here that illustrates some of the rabbit holes Randy goes down in developing his “modern” HEMA inspired self defense stuff,

Sure, Randy, make some kind of magical mathematical equation to prove you can beat a gunman with a sword by being faster than the bullet.

In this blog post from 2014 Randy outlines his updating of historical fencing to make it more relevant for self defense in today’s world,

http://boxwrestlefence.com/blog/2014/10/15/leaving-past-behind/

Randy is making a sword based martial art for "future fighters”.And here I’ll bet you thought we were joking about “Scientology of HEMA” thing, didn’t you?

However they have done some of their more extreme bullshido training at events like Vancouver International Sword Symposium. Here is one workshop they did in  2017

https://www.vancouverswordplay.com/changes-to-viss-instructor-lineup/

The key part of this is “differences between fighting in school settings versus fighting on the street” and “part two will apply the same approach to swordsmanship.”

That will be SUPER relevant if you intend to carry your sword around town to defend yourself in case of a possible mugging, right? RIGHT??

Yet what the session actually devolved into was Kaja and Randy trying to teach people how to get angry enough to make themselves trigger the Fight-or-flight response and enter a “hyper aroused state” so they could practice “realistic sword fighting” by swinging at people in limited safety gear as hard as they could. The workshop was deemed so dangerous for participants it was shut down early. 

But Valkyrie doesn’t want you to focus on that part of VISS 2017. They just want you to focus on their newly invented accusations against others in attendance at the event who were very critical about their unsafe training methods (i.e. Academie Duello). 

They were also allowed to teach a similar workshop at Swordsquatch last year too, which should really surprise nobody given the organizers are heavily under the influence of the Valkyrie cult.

http://boxwrestlefence.com/valkyriewmaa/the-valkyries-are-going-to-swordsquatch/

This type of training is probably one of the biggest bullshido things they teach right now, and despite their claims of it being “safe” it is anything but.

From the workshop page,

http://www.swordsquatch.org/2019fridayworkshops/2019/5/31/the-violence-ladder-a-stress-testing-model-for-realistic-training-kaja-sadowski

Emphasis on the highlighted parts.

Why the hell does anyone need to learn how to fight in a life or death struggle for historical fencing? Well it’s because Valkyrie thinks sword fighting is relevant for modern day self-defense, that is why. So go do some dangerous bullshido with them where people swing wildly at you while pretending to be in “hyper-aroused states”. 

You know actual real hyper-arousal is a state people go into automatically during heightened stages of fear. It is triggered by fear. Even if you feel angry, that anger comes from being in a situation that makes you feel like you are not in control and afraid.

This is the exact opposite of what real combat oriented training is. Real combat oriented training teaches you how to calm down and mitigate the effects of hyper-arousal so you don’t have tunnel vision, so you don’t have severe loss of fine motor control and so you breath normally and don’t hyper-ventilate yourself in a couple minutes. To restore your ability to employ some critical decision making.

And yes, while the military and law enforcement do have some training scenarios designed to allow soldiers and police to experience to experience a degree of stress that can invoke hyper-arousal the point of this training is to weed out those who cannot cope with the stress in an even artificial environment. It’s not for them to wildly attack each other with uncontrolled strikes while pretending to be a berserker. 

And they market their training courses as self-defense for women, too.

Three people with no law enforcement experience, no military experience and no experience whatsoever using their martial art to fight against people that truly want to kill them, are going to invent their own training course that is “absolutely unmatched by any other self-defense course in Vancouver”.

Yeah, we rather doubt that, considering the source.

The below post below is a fun one.

Amazing. Who would have ever thought that fucking around with gymnastic tumbling exercises could add “20% more power to my punches”? Clearly you are such a gifted coach that you should be training professional boxers. So why don’t you?

Oh, that’s right. The sport of Boxing requires validating your beliefs in a competitive environment where others could destroy them. And you don’t like that, because it would reveal your nonsense is bullshido.

That would be too honest for you though. So naturally you re-frame this to make it sound like you hate competitive tournaments because they aren’t “realistic enough” for your bullshido to work.

He wrote a blog article about this as well,

https://boxwrestlefence.com/blog/2017/03/14/balancing-reality-and-fantasy-in-martial-arts-practice/

This is basically Randy bad mouthing competitive environments he knows are stress tests that his art will not be able to survive in, as well as Randy feeling intimidated by martial arts instructors who have far more experience with real combat situations given their professions.

From the bottom of the same blog post,

Like most of Randy’s writings this part is is a’bit incoherent and disconnected from the other things he says but looking closely you can pick out that Randy believes only certain types of martial art techniques work depending on the local community. He also thinks reality based martial arts are a “great avenue” to finding new training ideas he can use in his martial art, which is true we suppose but also somewhat contradicting other things he is saying elsewhere in the same post.

Which is probably why the training program at Valkyrie is such a mess. 

Here is a video clip of their instructors screwing around with training knives, going full contact, with no protective equipment at all. One takes a hard shot to the throat.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mRLfEq1a-T4

They call themselves a “safe space” but engage in very unsafe training behavior like this. People wear a gorget to protect our necks in HEMA for a reason yet you do your classes with little to no protective gear while labeling them as “intense sessions”. 

Also they use spinning attacks with weapons, here is one depicting some of their “stick fighting” featuring a spinning attack delivered at close enough range the person could be struck in the back of the head if they tried this against a real person that actually wanted to hurt them

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFx4Nok19_4

You should also note they disable comments on their YouTube videos so nobody can point out their BS. 

But here is a clip of what Randy means by his supposedly high intensity workouts that are so much better than everyone else.

And another,

Their conditioning program is....unique among martial arts claiming to be focused on reality based combat. 

It is described by Justin Ring in his blog,

https://scienceofdefence.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/in-the-middle/

I don’t know about you but Capoeira and break dancing doesn’t really scream “reality based combat conditioning” to us. 

The video below showcases some of this “original” unarmed combat fighting style that Randy teaches. A highlight of the video is around 1:17 where Randy starts crawling around on the ground, while reffing, for some reason.

You should notice how neither student knows how to do anything but try to attack the other. Neither have learned how to form a proper guard or how slip a punch. Their grappling is also unimpressive for something claiming to be “reality based”, and in reality the mounter could have ripped into his opponent’s testicles many times over with his free hand while the other guy attempted to recover after losing control with his guard. Anyway the guy in guard keeps losing control regardless. 

It’s also worth noting toward the end of the above video, the students engage in high intensity free play with rapiers without using any protective jackets. This is fairly dangerous, since just as with foil even rapiers blades can snap, and if they break the jagged broken end of the blade from where it snapped can fly and puncture someone with a lot of force. That is why fencing equipment in both Olympic and HEMA fencing uses puncture resistant materials for jackets and pants. 

Also in the process of crossing blades, the blades can chip as they clash against one another, creating small jagged edges that can easily cut open the skin. Therefore no exposed skin should be seen during high intensity fighting with any sword. 

While some light driling or slow very controlled sparring without jackets on is perfectly okay, free sparring without puncture resistant fencing jackets is not safe.

Yet this high intensity matches without proper gear is something Valkyrie engages in all the time.

Here is more clips of Valkyrie students and coaches engaging in free play with rapiers without using proper protective equipment.

And if you still had any doubts at all about whether this was intended to be highly competitive sword play, here is a tournament that they hosted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw1H9z599aE

Again, no fencing jackets were used in the tournament for rapier fencing. The only jackets seen were for side sword fencing.  

Here is Kaja in an interview with Guy Windsor. At 18:07 minutes into the audio they talk about Valkyrie’s methods and she says safety equipment is a ‘last line of defense’ in her mind, that she doesn’t want students to feel they are relying on safety equipment during training and that “trust” is more important.

https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/the-sword-guy-podcast/id1520556121

Safety equipment is not a “last line of defense”. It’s the first line of defense.  When you don’t practice proper safety, irreversible damage can occur. Also this is what happens when people rely heavily on “trust” between students and instructors (which is prone to human error), instead of trusting their safety equipment as a first line of defense.

https://www.oregonlive.com/portland/2018/09/man_stabbed_through_the_eye_by.html 

You’ll note she speaks with a lot of pauses and hesitation about what specific equipment they use. This is because she is lying about what she is saying, as anyone who has looked at the videos we shared about on how they actually run high intensity fighting can see for themselves. Kaja is at least consciously aware their training methods are unusual among the wider HEMA community because Valkyrie has been criticized for it in the past.  

Again at 24 minutes into the podcast, Kaja talks about people getting concussions because fencing masks aren’t resistant enough. Guy is surprised she is referring to rapier fencing as he assumed at first long sword. The missing context here is because Valkyrie does ‘hyper aroused state’ bullshido they end up using more force than they should even with specialty training rapier blades intended to bend in the thrust, and numerous Valkyrie students -- including Randy himself -- have had concussions from training sessions.  

(Also to nitpick, their comparison to boxing gloves is inaccurate, boxing gloves aren’t to prevent concussions but rather to protect the bones of the hand from breaking while reducing chance of inflicting cuts to the face, as well as preventing eye gouging attacks that were common to bare knuckled fighting. Using boxing gloves to justify the fencing mask discussion is a bad comparison and the problem is they use more force than is necessary in training)

It is also interesting how she says she has had “5 or 6″ concussions. If we take her at face value that is a lot of traumatic brain injuries for someone who is not a professional athlete. Just saying. 

So let’s contrast this.

Here’s some free play fencing at Academie Duello, with Devon Boorman as one of the fighters.

So who really is a safer environment between these schools?

Also Kaja participated in a supposed “devil’s advocate” podcast debate with another martial artist, Randy King (ironically a different Randy). Here is a link to the YouTube video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SENFiYSUrYA

While Randy King tries to setup the debate with it just being a “we might not agree with what we are defending” setup, the thing is Kaja is saying things that Vakyrie teaches in order to defend the argument. Statements such as fighting only being 20% about physical ability and so on, is all part of the rabbit hole of stuff Valkyrie teaches.

Here is some additional insight into how Valkyrie’s training program was created.

Justin Ring would leave Duello with Randy to form a few different clubs, and remains among his coaches at Valkyrie.

On Justin’s blog you will also find his account of some of his training with Randy since leaving Duello and the bullshido that Randy was inventing. Here is a key part,

https://scienceofdefence.wordpress.com/tag/scatha-combat-guild/

So basically, despite no prior experience with modern combatives or even law enforcement or military experience, Randy decided to make his own self-defense martial art.

How original.

Now there is nothing wrong with wanting to invent your own martial art, in and of itself. The problem arises in WHY you are doing that.

Firstly, almost everybody who invents a martial art today is doing so because they don’t want to put in the work to get certified in another martial art. That is usually been the situation.

Secondly, if you don’t have any prior experience with REAL COMBAT such as from the military or law enforcement, you probably have no business inventing your own “self defense” oriented fighting style. Because you have no experience validating your art as effective against people actually trying to kill you, for real. Martial arts that teach realistic self defense are based on techniques originally created by people with extensive experience with people trying to kill them for real. These are the kinds taught in modern militaries today.  

Randy has no business inventing his own martial art for modern day self-defense. He has no experience with using his skills to protect his life in real life or death situations. He is teaching Bullshido in the very real definition of the word and he been able to fly below the radar because when people look at his school they think it is a HEMA school and don’t look closer at what he actually does and teaches.

Of course, we have more of his public postings that provide insight into this very unique and special brand of bullshido he teaches his cult members at Valkyrie,

If you still had any doubts that Valkyrie under Randy does not teach historical based martial arts and is leeching off the community to teach dangerous ideas and promote unsafe training habits, read this.

http://boxwrestlefence.com/blog/2020/05/26/gravitas-and-the-rainbow/

Here is yet another article he wrote about why he believes sword fighting is relevant for modern combatives,

http://boxwrestlefence.com/blog/2016/04/26/modern-ancient-moving-forward-with-historical-martial-arts/

The thing here to point out, that those from outside of the HEMA community may not readily realize is that nobody sane is seriously studying HEMA for real combat in today’s world.

The goal of HEMA is to reconstruct lost martial art traditions for modern day sport purposes.

Trying to make sword fighting relevant to combat scenarios of the present day has nothing to do with HEMA!

The “Old masters” are focused on so extensively because we want to recreate THEIR MARTIAL TRADITIONS as closely as possible as part of the sport. Whether they could be “more effective” with your own inventions is entirely missing the point. This would be like saying Kendo or Olympic Sport Fencing needs to change their rules to be more “realistic” and missing the entire point of why people do these sports.

No sane person studies swordsmanship for self-defense or battlefield combat in the present day. Randy’s ideas and the Valkyrie training program taught by their coaches are very eccentric and not aligned with the rest of the HEMA community.

They are leeching off the HEMA community to promote a cult.

Randy is a narcissistic mentally unstable person driven by a deep need to feel superior to other people. That in itself would not be a terrible thing except he has decided to create a cult around himself that teaches bullshido and then turn his cult upon a rival school he is competing for students against -- a school which actually teaches HEMA, and is consequently FAR MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN HIS SCHOOL.

Academie Duello is a well organized HEMA school that welcomes everyone regardless of race, gender and is very accepting of differences. That is why they are successful.

Valkyrie is a bunch of bullshido and ran by abusive narcissists who try to love bomb and bully people into their cult. That is why they are less successful.

And Randy cannot accept this, and nether can his cult followers, either. So therein is part of their motivation to ruin Duello’s reputation. They cannot compete with them honestly so they will now employ dishonest tactics.

Yet the truth remains.

Duello is a legitimate HEMA school; one of the largest in the world.

And Valkyrie is one of the worst schools that does not even attempt to teach historically based martial arts, but instead leeches off the novelty of the HEMA community to teach Randy’s special brand of bullshido.

In the next article we will show how Valkyrie operates as a cult.

Why Valkyrie is a Cult https://fightersagainstnarccistic.tumblr.com/post/624517817683886080/why-valkyrie-western-martial-arts-in-vancouver

[a-pretty-nerd]

It Feels so wrong, but SO RIGHT: Part 5

Rodrick Heffley x reader story

A/N: I’m sorry this took so long. I have been lazy with my entries latley, and its only because of person events going on in my life. I apologize. I have been getting so many requests for more Rodrick, specifically more of this story, and I am happy to! As always, enjoy, and don’t be afraid to make requests! ❤

Warning: Angst, jealousy, makeup sex, etc.

P.S. This posted early, and then when I tried to finish it, it deleted. Fml.

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It was an average day for you at this point, sitting with Rodrick ar lunch. Enjoying your homemade meal you made for yourself eariler that day. Often times sharing a few things with Rodrick, who adored your cooking by the way. You were no kitchen wizard, but then again, Rodrick was easy to please. Not only that, but Rodrick adored you to death. Sometimes you would catch him staring at you from across the classroom, or even while he was sitting right next to you. You couldn’t help but blush, and smile.

On this day in particular, a friday, you were seated, with Rodrick’s head laying in your lap. He was chatting with his friends, now your friends, the other band members. You exited the conversation for a moment, only to look up for a moment. Walking across the cafeteria, a familiar silhouette clicked across the tile. Those heels, deafening, that walk, nauseating, that body, threatening. You tensed up, you watched her as she walked by. For a brief moment those piercing blue eyes stared into yours. Blue like the ocean, or perhaps a large lake. Either way, they could drown you. She glared at you for a moment before flicking her golden hair and walking off. Heather Hills was the most retched being you had ever laid eyes on. From the beginning, she hated your guts, and you hated hers in return. Memories of a little Y/N crying in the playground, alone, and scared, were all because of her. She was a down right bitch, and yet the world seemed to adore her. Even Rodrick, had once had a crush on her. The thought of Heather and your Rodrick made you ill. Perhaps you could live without him, but the idea that he would ever choose her over you, was soul crushing.

“What do you think babe?” Rodrick’s voice pierced your train of thought.

“What?” You looked down at him, while he gazed up at you.

“Party tonight, at David’s. You up for it?” He gave a smile, and raised his brow.

“Uh, yeah, sure. Sounds fun.”

“Its gonna be bangin’ his parents are out for the whole week, and we are gonna raaaaage!” On of the band members shouted with glee. You laughed, and tried to kick your previous thoughts to the back of your brain. The rest of the day went on as usual, and sure enough the final bell rung and you left the school with Rodrick. You walked hand in hand into the parking lot, he looked over and watched you. You were quieter than usual, you were deep in thought.

“You okay?” He asked, giving your hand a small squeeze.

“Oh, yeah Im fine. What time is that party again?

“Around 6, I think. Ill pick you up around then, is thag cool?”

“Yeah, yeah that works fine.” You were still having a hard time shaking these thoughts from your head, you were off today. Rodrick looked around for a moment, and then back to you, concerned.

“You sure you’re okay”

“Yes, Rodrick, I’m okay. I promise.”

“Okay, just checking.” He kissed you on the cheek and let of your hand as he walked away. “I’ll see you later hot stuff!”

“See ya!”

You got home, you did your homework, the usual. All while still in a thought provoked haze. You looked up at the clock, 5:30. Shit. You only had half an hour to get ready. You couldn’t exactly go in your usual get up, which was mostly wore purley to please your parents. You had to be trim and relativley proper. You had to be the smart girl, the girl with good grades. Rodrick, however, brought out this other side of you. You squirmed for a moment, just thinking about your first time with Rodrick, the first of many. You stood, and went to get ready when a loud knock on your bedroom door shook you from your state of mind.

“C-Come in!” You stuttered. Your mother stepped in.

“Dinners ready.”

“Oh um, I’m not feeling very well. I know it’s early, but I don’t want to risk it.” Your mother nodded, appearing to be fooled by your lie.

“Gonna see the boy again?” She gave a smile. You tried to lie again but she was too quick. “Alright, just be safe. I’ll tell your father you’re, ‘sick’. Have fun. Use protection!”

“Mom!” And with that she left you to your own devises. Half an hour went by fast, and before you knew it, you got the text from Rodrick that he was out front. You had to rush out of your window, and sneak across your lawn to his van.

“Hey cutie!” He leaned over and gave you a kiss before starting the car, and driving away. “You feeling better?”

“What?”

“Earlier, you seemed off.”

“I told you, I was fine then, Im fine now.”

“Okay, okay! I was just asking.” The rest of the car ride was filled with music, and a joke here and there. Something about it helped settle everything going on in your mind. It put all your worries aside. When you arrived at the party, hand in hand, Rodrick was loudly greeted by some friends. You chatted along side your extrovert boyfriend, all while holding his hand as if he were a security blanket. Some time passed, things were going great. Even better when Rodrick pulled you onto the dance floor, and started goofing around. He had this incredibly way of making you laugh. You regreted never giving him a chance before the whole tutoring thing.

“I’m gonna grab a drink, do you want anything!?” You had to yell over the music.

“Sure!” So you turned towards the kitchen to fill a red cup. You had just taken one in hand when you heard it. That sound. The familiar click clack of those retched heels. You snapped to attention, her figure stood, leaning against a wall with her friend. Acting too cool, and utterly bored with the whole situation. You tried to ignore her, filling your cups with drinks. You turned to go back to Rodrick, but when you looked up, as if by some evil sorcery she was there. Talking to Rodrick. She didn’t even like Rodrick, you knew that much, what the hell was she doing…flirting with him?

“Hey! Aren’t you that guys from that band?” Her voice was like nails against chalk board.

“Uh, Löded Diaper. Yeah, we played at your birthday party last year. Don’t you, remember?” He was clearly nervously, and visibly blushing. He had even stuck a hand behind his head and was leaning against a wall.

“Oh my god! Thats right! You played my favorite song!” She leaned in closer, reached out with her bright pink claws and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Yknow, I never got to repay you for that.” She purred. Rodrick nodded, nervous, and shifted away. He arm sliding off of him.

“I mean-” Rodrick stopped mid sentence, the loud crashing sound shook him from his train of thought. He watched you storm off up the stairs of the house having dropped your drinks. His heart sunk, he had been in a similar situation with you before. He cursed Heather for this again. “Y/N, wait!” He yelled after you. He searched for you, but you were too fast. You had hidden in what you could assume was a family room. There were others there, but it was empty enough to sulk. You sat down on the empty couch, and hid your face in your hands. That bitch, how could you be so stupid? Rodrick has had a crush on her since god knows when, and you actually thought you had a chance of-

“Hey, Y/N. You okay?” You heard a boy’s voice ask. You looked up to see a familiar face sit down next to you. A fellow classmate. Someone you were acquaintances with at most.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” You lied, again.

“Is it that Rodrick guy?”

“What?”

“Look Y/N. If that guy isn’t treating you right, it wouldn’t surprise me.” You were just so confused. “You deserve better, you can do better.” He placed a hand on your knee. You stared at him wide eyed, hoping he would get the hint and leave. “If you ever need someone to talk to, I’m here for you.”

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” Rodrick’s voice rang in your ears. He stood above the two of you, and swatted the boy’s hand away from your knee. “Get out of here, creep.” He pulled the guy up, and shoved him gently to the side. The boy gave this begrudgingly fustrated look, and leaned in.

“If you need anything-”

“Fuck off!” You shouted at him, and he scattered like a roach. Rodrick sat.

“Are you okay? Is this about Heather, because!”

“Of course it’s about Heather! Why wouldn’t it be? She was all over you!”

“Im sorry Y/N, she came on to me.”

“I know she did! That’s why Im pissed, you know how I feel about her. And you, you’ve had a crush on her for forever! I mean, what chance do I have if that bimbo is throwing herself at you?”

“Okay, yeah. I used to have a crush on her, but that before you. Look, I may not be the smartest guy, but I’ve made up my mind. You are my girlfriend, and I love you. I don’t want anybody else.” You watched his face, he was dead serious.“

"I love you Rodrick.” You smiled, and he kissed you. A tender kiss while he held you close. A kiss that was deepened by Rodrick pulling you closer, and closer until you were practically in his lap. Your hands ran through his hair as his hands ran up and down your sides. A full on, make out session broke out. Pretty soon Rodrick’s tounge was wondering your mouth, and his hands were proudly placed on your ass. They squeezed and needed affectionately as he leaned forward to continue the kiss. Before you knew it, Rodrick’s erection was bulging through his jeans, needy, he rubbed you against it. Swaying your hips back and forth. If it wasn’t for you, he would have probably fucked you right then and there. You got off his lap, and with a small whimper he looked at you with that lust filled gaze. He stood, and pulled you out of the room, and down the hall to some random room he found. Luckily, there was no other couple. Rodrick quickly shut the door behind him, and shed his shirt and other clothes before taking off yours. The rest was a blur as you layed down on the bed, and spread your legs for him.

“Fuck, Y/N.” He whispered between heated kisses. He lined himseld up, and pushed into you. You gasped as his cock started to thrust in and out, in and out. Slowly, until Rodrick became more and more needy, and started slamming his cock in you. He held your hips, and when you arched you back in pleasure, he went wild. He left hickeys and kisses all over your body. As if marking you as his own. He grunted, and huffed as you moaned loudly with pleasure corsing through you. You came with ease, as you normally did with Rodrick, who moaned loudly when he felt you convulse around him. He drove in as deep as he could, hitting against your cervix. His thrusts quickly becoming erratic, and unstable. He was losing his mind with you, and he hunched over your body, kissing your deeply as the two of you came. You felt his cum flood you, and you moaned. The two of you had to take a moment, panting. He kissed your neck and affectionately and moaned your named. You quickly realized exactly where you were, and you bounced into action. Throwing your clothes on before the two of you were caught. Rodrick did as he was ordered.

“Hurry up! I don’t wanna get caught.” You said in a hushed tone. He gave you this content little smile, and once completely clothed, kissed your cheek as you left the room to continue the party.

“Hey! Where were you two?” A friend cried in excitement.

“We got lost.” Rodrick lied, and the rest of the night went off without a hitch. All the while, you had to walk, and talk while you felt Rodrick’s pervious load slowly fall out of you and into your panties. The feeling of it, sent a shiver down your spine, and if you were honest, turned you on a little more than it should have.

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Ahhh! It feels good to be back! Sorry I’ve been away for so long! As always, I am now accepting for requests, as backed up as they may be! ❤

[ileolai]

I’m a bit nervous about posting this, because it’s a big nerdy splurge about Doctor Who, and why it is so very important to me, and there is quite personal stuff in it that I have never posted publicly, but. It’s a little over a day out from the finale, and I can’t not talk about something that totally consumed me for seven years.

When I say personal stuff, I mean stuff like suicidal ideation and mental illness, so there’s a content warning.

I wish Steven Moffat, and everyone else who has poured their lovely hearts into making this show, could know what it has done for me.

I've found it somewhat difficult to pinpoint what my favourite episode of Moffat era Who should be. It puzzled me for quite a while. Not because there are no tremendously stellar episodes that stand above all the rest -- there are quite a few of those to pick over. In terms of actual writing skill, narrative cohesion, magnificent direction and all that pretentious stuff, it would have to be Heaven Sent. I could watch that episode over and over again until the heat death of the Universe. 

But I think my actual favourite episode, the one nearest and dearest to my little anarchist care bear heart, has to be The Beast Below. The one with the whale that was technically more up in space than it was below. I realize fandom consensus does not consider it the pinnacle of Moffat’s storytelling, but I don’t care. The ideas in that episode, and it is so full of lovely ideas, are what made me sit up and start paying attention to the potential this show had. 

Specifically, what got me was what it said about child abuse and neglect as an essential cog in the machine of fascism, or something. Which I had never, in my whole entire life, seen so earnestly articulated on TV before-- in a children’s television show-- with a goddamn whale. I can pinpoint that as the exact moment this show snatched me and hurled me, screaming, into fandom.

[Later, A Christmas Carol would draw big red underlines and exclamation points all around these ideas... that's my other favourite episode. But The Beast Below did it first and hooked me.] 

There’s more to it besides that, though. This is the deeply personal emotional context stuff.

So, here is something you may or may not know about the nerd creature that is me. I was quite homeless at the time The Beast Below aired. And I had nothing -- literally nothing, you see. I was in a totally unfamiliar city in a fairly unfamiliar country, post-psychotic break, post-marriage-engagement breakdown, and I was more alone than I'd ever been -- and I'd been your standard lonely friendless geek my whole life, being Autistic, and what have you. I had just escaped an incredibly abusive, toxic group of people upon realization they were not so much a group of friends, but a cult. Yes, an actual cult! I was in one of those. I was also very, very ill with an immune disorder. And the only member of my family who ever accepted me, the only one actually still talking to me after I gave my narcissistic rage monster mother the finger, had just died of cancer.  This had all occurred across the space of, oh... one year? Almost entirely within 2009, leading into 2010. I was a wreck. And if you piled all this nonsense on a fictional character all at once, I'd probably say you were being gratuitous and change the channel. I was too miserable to even know how miserable I was-- just sort of wandering around in a dissociated haze, surviving entirely by the instincts of my autonomic nervous system. A good friend of mine described it to me later as ''you were sort of frozen'', and she was right. So. I downloaded the space whale episode over a wi-fi connection, illegally, on an ancient computer, in a library [haha how appropriate is that?] because I quite liked all the other Doctor Whos I had seen before, and this new writer fella had done Press Gang, a fond highlight of my otherwise wretched childhood. 

I watched Amy Pond and the Doctor cavorting around dystopian space Britain, having casual conversations about the nature of fascism, in a show marketed to 10 year olds. My sad little eyes pressed right up to the computer screen, irradiating my retinas, and I whispered: ''I've waited 20 years for My Show, and someone finally wrote it. It even has a mad ginger immigrant in it, and she's me. The Universe made this just for me.''

It also had a whale, and the whale was in space. 

And that is how I was propelled into my seven year character arc, my precious nerds. Because this show, from series 5 onwards, has done more for me than anything else on the planet. And I don't care how ridiculous it sounds to attribute my self-actualization to a goofy TV show about loveable alien miscreants saving space whales, because it's true. It took a while, but I learned what I actually value and what actually properly matters to me through this show. Or rather, I re-learned it, because I'd become so lost chasing approval and moulding myself to other people's perceptions to withstand their abuse, I didn't know what I was anymore. 

This show, and this goddamn fandom, helped me pull all the chopped up little bits of me back together more than any therapy or self-help nonsense I had tried. I went back to university and got serious about doing actual work, in part, because ''we're all just stories in the end... make it a good one.'' kept looping in my brain. It made me determined that my life could never be summed up with a single sentence like: ''He was sad and boring, and he wasted away in his apartment -- achieving nothing, leaving no trace''. 

[I still don’t get out much, to be honest. But I’m trying. At the very least, my epic marathon through 500 wildly divergent university degrees says something, yes? Maybe I can set the official record for ‘’the world’s most reluctant to graduate student’’.] 

Anyway. This show, this fandom... gave me so much. It gave me my voice as a creator of things, as a writer, and an analyzer, and it gave me people like me, real and fictional, people I didn’t even know existed anywhere. 

And you know…. this is heavy stuff again-- but it honestly gave me the motivation to get through to another weekend sometimes, when I was apathetic enough and in enough physical pain to contemplate not doing that. It really did. I didn't want to miss an episode of Doctor bloody Who, arthritis and schizophrenia and poverty be damned, and that kept me here. There were points, where one of the few things that restrained me from taking a decisive dose of Oxycontin, was River Song's storyline. I'm serious. And as shameful as that probably is, it's still better than being dead, and not getting to watch Doctor Who anymore. 

Cuz Doctor Who had a whale in it, right? A great big pink whale filled with benevolent intentions, and it was in space, and everybody hugged at the end, on top of the whale, after overthrowing the government! Moffat Who came out of the gate telling ten year olds ‘’OVERTHROW THE GOVERNMENT’’! I needed that with all my aching nerd heart. The Universe made it for me.

And then they put queer characters in it, and mentally ill characters, and abuse survivors, like me, and it valued them, and it valued children. And then there was River Song, and hugs, and self acceptance, and found families, and sparkles all around, and Bill Potts. And a big Jungian tapestry of meta and mythology. Just for me. There was nothing else on TV like it.

So now here we are, the eve of the final episode of series 10, which I have slobbered and fawned over almost as much as series 5, the one that grabbed me. And... I’m kind of terrified, to be honest. Because all the connections I made here, are so tied up in this show, and talking about this show, and picking apart this specific era of the show... I’m afraid I won't have anything to talk about anymore? and I'll drift apart from my friends, and…. never have something quite like this lovely little hive of internet debauchery and meta and space whales ever again. 

That actually scares me so much. Some of you have been here nearly a whole seven years, longer than almost anyone else in my life, apart from my husband, and I am grateful the vast and mysterious machinations of the Universe dumped us all together in the seething hell-pit of fandom. Those of you who have not yet run screaming into the night from my 957 daily posts about Doctor Who... you don't know how much you have helped me, and brighten my day, just by existing.

Yes, even Proton, who is old, and frequently incorrect, and a cyborg. And Elisi, who speaks utter nonsense that confuses my head. Really. I know my primary method of interacting with people is emphatically, and tactlessly, listing every single way they are wrong about things, but I do occassionally have actual emotions like ‘’appreciation’’. 

Do not worry, though. This audaciously out-of-character display of sincerity will now be deleted from your memory. 

Gone? Good. 

So it's been seven wonderful transformative years for me, and the Doctor Who they made just for lil gay anarchist crazy pants care-bear me is ending forever soon. I mean... there will always be Doctor Who, and it will always be Doctor Who, of course. It will be there at the heat death of the Universe, while I’m still salivating over the utter perfection of Heaven Sent. And a sentient gas cloud in a jar will be running it, or something-- because the show has gained its own level of quasi-sentience, furiously transcended all sensible laws of television, and refuses to die.

But the Moffat era came into my life right when I needed it, and it changed me, and I can’t imagine any other era can be that personal to me. It won’t be my Doctor Who anymore. 

Steven Moffat doesn’t know I exist, and yet, has tormented my televisual experiences since I could barely even comprehend television. I have him to thank for two glorious book-ends to my childhood and adolescence: Press Gang, and Doctor Who. Thank you so much, Moffat, you scheming Scottish bastard. Thank you for everything. 

I don’t think I would be the sort of person I am now without this damn show, it’s fandom, and its unapologetic, space whale flavoured idealism. I honestly just wouldn’t be.

[trulymadlysydney]

Birthday Girl (submission)

On your birthday you wake up to tons of notifications on twitter and Instagram, from family and friends but also fans wishing you a happy birthday and other well wishes. Your heart is warmed by the kind messages from people all over, you think that maybe a little bit later you’ll do a quick Instagram live stream to thank everyone. 

It’s tradition that whoever’s birthday it is gets to pick what’s on the menu for breakfast (or in this case, brunch, since it was so hard to get out of his cozy grasp this morning). You kindly ask Harry for his famous pancakes, but instead of bananas (like he always requests), could he pretty please throw some chocolate chips in, and maybe some whipped cream and strawberries on top, and even though you know he’ll say that “it’s too much sugar for this early in the mornin’ love, but since it’s your birthday…” he’ll reluctantly toss the chocolate chips in anyway. 

As he’s getting everything ready, he hands you your coffee with a kiss to the forehead, telling you to go cuddle up on the couch and he’ll call you when everything is ready. 

As you shuffle over to your shared living room, with your favorite fuzzy blanket wrapped loosely around you and your favorite morning playlist softly drifting through from the kitchen, you get comfortable in your self-designated corner of couch. You take a sip of your coffee and open up Instagram, ready to make your short little live message for the fans. 

"Good morning friends! Or should I say afternoon since it’s almost 11 here,” you giggle. “I woke up to so many lovely messages and I just wanted to say a big thank you to all of you for helping to make my birthday so special already.” 

Immediately you see lots of followers have tuned into your live stream, with messages starting to appear at the bottom, and a rising number of viewers showing at the top. You answer a few of the messages popping up at the bottom, as Ed Sheeran’s "Perfect” starts to echo through the speakers in the kitchen, and you smile thinking that it’s one of your favorite love songs. 

“It’s pretty cold here today, so I think I might say in my blanket for as long as possible. Maybe find a good movie to watch while I eat my birthday pancakes." 

As you continue to talk to your phone, your ears perk up to Harry’s voice starting to sing along with the song and you start to panic ever so slightly. Whenever Harry sings, your heart always slightly flutters, but this time it’s for a totally different reason.

Of course everyone knows that you are with Harry, you have been for years, but you purposely make it a point to not make a show of it. You both like to keep your private lives private, something that is hard to do when he has the job and life that he does. The last thing you want is to cause any drama with his fans, to have anyone thinking you are showing him off, or invading his privacy, especially on your birthday of all days. So with a frozen smile, an ever so slight wide eyed expression, and multiple messages from quick fans who already picked up on the fact that it was indeed Harry’s voice in the background, you try to gently get up from your seat the sneak to the next room, hoping that it will all go unnoticed. The video is in fact live, it’s not as though you can delete it later or suddenly end the video just as his voice appears without causing suspicion.

As you start to make your move, he hollers, "Oi you don’ like my singin’? Get paid to do this ya know, s’not very nice to jus’ ignore my performance.” He is standing across the room from you, watching you with his infamous smirk, his arms folded across his chest. That’s when he sees the way in which your holding your phone and he asks, “whatcha doin’ love?“ 

Panic runs through you as you swallow and answer, “Umm, doing a live video thanking everyone for the birthday wishes.” He knows you better than anyone, so you hope that the look in your eyes will tell him what he needs to know. 

But instead, he makes his way to you and plops himself down on your lap, trapping and slightly crushing you with his weight, not that you would normally mind, but under this particular circumstance, you begin to worry. He keeps his gaze on your phone as his face appears in front of yours.

He’s not one for social media, using it minimally for both his personal and professional life, never wanting to be in his friends’ snapchats or have his personal pictures being posted too often. In your two years of being with each other, you’ve posted maybe two or three photos of the two of you together, only with his permission to share these personal moments. So for him to willingly put himself in this live stream, you’re confused and a bit anxious. Maybe he doesn’t understand what this is? Maybe he thinks you can not post it at all, or even delete it later? 

He continues to stare at the screen, watching the mass influx of messages popping up at the bottom, and the dramatic increase of viewers at the top. He seems unphased. 

"Haz it’s live,” you gently whisper with a smile, almost hiding yourself behind his large frame. “Can’t delete it.”

“S'why it’s called a live stream, innit?” He quips. 

You’re shocked to say the least, that he would insert himself like this, that he would knowingly make his private life public like this, but you suppose there’s no more use in questioning now, not with the camera still pointed on both of your faces. 

“Wha’s tha’?” He asks, pointing to the bottom right of the screen.

“Hearts.” You murmur, your chin resting nervously on his right shoulder. 

“ ’N what’re the numbers?“ 

"How many people are watching.”

“Hmm,” he hums, “Wha’s all this?” He points again, this time to the bottom left. 

“People commenting, saying hello. Asking questions.“ 

He pauses for just a moment, continuing to let his eyes wander over the screen, smiling occasionally and then furrowing his brow. 

"Why’s everyone sayin’ happy birthday? Mine’s not fo’ two more months.” He waits a moment before turning and giving you a cheeky smile.

You roll your eyes at him but can’t help but laugh. “S'my birthday, Harry” and you give him a pout. 

He just laughs at you, and turns back at the screen. He gives the screen one last furrowed look, then begins to stick his tongue out at the screen. Repetitively. He raises his eyebrows and continuously sticks his tongue out, and you are extremely confused as to what is going on.

“Harry, what are you doing?“ You giggle softly. It’s hard to give a true laugh with his heavy weight still on top of you. 

"Wanna be the dog,” he states matter of factly, sticking his tongue out once more. “Where’s th’ dog?“

You laugh again, this time a little more loudly, “That’s snap chat love, this is Instagram. It doesn’t have all those filters." 

He frowns, looking like a little boy who didn’t get his way, and you just want to give him kisses all over because he looks so damn cute, and if your phone wasn’t in front of both of your faces, with thousands of fans tuning in, you would. 

Your tummy gives a soft growl, bringing you back to reality and you are reminded of the breakfast (well, brunch) that awaits you. 

You let out a soft sigh, "Pancakes done?” You ask, as you rest you head against him, watching him watch the screen. 

“Oh shit!!” He all but yells. He pops up from his seat on your lap, slightly knocking you over in the process. Your phone jostles and you’re thankful he didn’t knock over the coffee mug that is sitting on the coffee table before you. 

You stay seated, laughing loudly, as you watch him rush into the kitchen, grabbing the spatula to check the damage, but you just know these ones must be burned. You turn you attention back to your phone, pursing your lips as you try to contain the love and joy and utter bliss you feel. He may be a tall, lanky, soft, silly dork, but he’s yours and you love him with your whole heart. 

You give your phone once last playful eye roll, and whisper so he can’t hear you, “And he brags he used to be a baker.”

“Oi! I hear’ tha’! Jus’ cause it’s your birthday doesn’ mean you get t’ be mean t’ me!” 

You glance down at the comments one last time, seeing all the loving remarks from his fans, but the ones that stick out to you the most are the ones that tell you something that you already knew. You smile, “Yeah, ‘m one lucky girl,” you think to yourself. 

With one last thank you and goodbye to the live stream, you ditch you phone and your blanket on the couch, and make you way to the kitchen where Harry has already put new batter into the pan. You smile as you snake your arms around him, nestling your face and nose into his back, giving him a small squeeze.

“New one’s ‘ill be ready in a mo’,” he murmurs, slowly swaying back and forth with you to the new song playing. 

You hum in response, forgetting all about the pancakes, just wanting to be in this moment with him, to feel his warmth, to smell his smell, and to remember that you are indeed one lucky (birthday) girl. 

------

THIS is one of the cutest submissions I have EVER gotten holy shIT I'm so in love 😍

[greetingsfromthebottomofthewell]

CORRUPTUS

[directory]

graven images.

[source] [triggers]

If you really believe in something, it can be yours.

That's how we've been conditioned to think. Mostly, I suppose it's a coping mechanism to keep us from eating the rich. We all think we'll be rich someday if we just want it hard enough. How long has it been since there was a good, old-fashioned culling of the wealthy elite?

That probably wasn't a good way to start this blog post... I'm more than a little tired, but fuck it. I'm leaving it.

"Corruptus".

That was the subject of an email I received before my ISP dropped me. My phone turned into a brick the same day. Hell, I think it was the same precise moment, though it's difficult to know for sure since I only tried it after my laptop couldn't connect.

"Corruptus"... I'd never heard the word before, and to be honest I'm not exactly sure it IS a word at all. It could be Latin. It sounds like Latin. I haven't been able to look it up, and this is the first time I'm getting on the web since my unexpected removal from the grid.

I tried to sign on at the local library, by the way. My card was revoked... unpaid late fees for books I'd never read, much less checked out. Mostly borderline fetish material and self-help books for various mental illnesses. The apparently quite detailed tome on weapons of mass destruction seemed to be of the most concern for the librarian.

I hung around the library for maybe a half an hour, until someone left a computer logged in and unguarded. When I went to check my email, to tweet a complaint about what happened, those accounts were gone, as well. Honestly, I was a pretty huge dumbass for expecting them to be there.

It wasn't long before I noticed the computer's rightful user pointing me out at the front desk. I guess she wasn't a fan of the direct approach. I was out the door before anyone could cause a real fuss.

It's been over two years since I left Mowgli's Palace and never looked back.

The original blog post has come and gone so much... across so many different sites... that I can barely even remember the first place I tried to host it. If I'd known how far this would go, I don't know if I would've been able to hack out that clumsy, flawed account of what happened. The pressure would've been too great, and I suppose there's a certain level of comfort in the idea no one will actually see or care about your work.

It seems like a lot of sites removed the information, either upon direct request from Disney... or on their own in fear of reprisal. I know a really popular YouTuber who pulled readings of my posts from his channel. The rumor was that someone threatened to sue him, some supposed "author" of the "story". Bullshit. I know first-hand that he took it down in a bout of pants-shitting fear when he realized Disney's connection to his partner company.

I tried to keep up my "After Abandoned" blog for a while. I don't know how many people out there saw my notes on Room Zero, Club 22, and so on. They're still around if you look... at least at the time of this writing.

Yes, "Club 22" exists. No, it's not a typo of "Club 33". I later learned, from the same contact, that there's an 11 as well, and supposedly the debauchery only grows as the numbers get lower. I heard of a "Club 00", but I can't confirm that as clearly as I can with the previous contact. I also don't know if it has any connection to the "Room" of a similar name.

Yes, the door probably said "Characters" or "Cast Members" instead of "Mascots". I know, I know, I hear you all. Thank you so much for that. I'm sure your memory is crystal clear in moments of abject terror, right?

Overall, I'm glad that my words have spread so far and wide... but the down side is that so few of you are taking this seriously. I can't stress this enough... Treasure Island? Real. The Utilidors? Real. Just because you can't substantiate the rest doesn't mean it's "a cool story". Instead of picking apart the inaccuracies and making games about how cool it would be to have been in my position, maybe people can start taking this seriously and digging into what's going on.

Maybe?

I don't know. I don't want this to be a rant. I want to stay focused and make sure I post exactly what I wanted to make public. All of the stress... the stalkers, the phone calls, the broken windows... I know that's all supposed to keep me off track. They want me confused, scared, and most of all they want me quiet.

There's a team of men and women in suits that I've seen at random times. Here and there. I call them "The Focus Group" because they pop up with clipboards and pens, taking notes about everything I do. They all have the same outfits, the same thick-rimmed nerd glasses, the same red pens that just scream "we're judging you".

The first time I noticed them, they were following me through the Mall. I looped and turned, trying to be SURE they were following me... and there they were, every step of the way. Days later, I spotted them again in the laundromat window across from my new apartment.

I chased one down, once. The tubbiest one. They stayed silent through the entire chase and even the scuffle that ensued. When I wrenched the clipboard from his hand, I only found page after page of off-kilter, random gibberish coupled with crude Mickey silhouettes. All in the same red ink.

I know it sounds insane, to say that a group of men and women in black are following me and taking nonsense notes, but I think that's the point. I think the idea is that it SHOULD drive me insane, and if it doesn't, you'll still think I'm crazy just for saying it.

It's a no-win situation.

I will forever regret that trip to Emerald Isle, but on the other hand I'll always be grateful to the people who have come forward, anonymously, to share their experiences with me. Whoever mailed me the suggestion box from the resort is basically my hero at this point. To read what I'd written about the place and still brave the journey... wow. I can't imagine how that felt, whoever you may be. You even left the original, corroded lock in the box so I'd know it was legit. To do all of that without even taking a look inside for yourself must've been really hard. Thank you.

If you haven't noticed, I'm treating this post a lot like my "final installment". There's a reason for that. I don't know how long I can keep subverting Disney's attempts at silencing me before some sort of final action is taken. I have no doubt that somewhere, at this very moment, someone is using my identity to commit a crime that would discredit me. That, or the men in white jackets are about to show me a lovely little padded cell. I don't know what's going to come of this, and that's the worst part I suppose. All I know is that it's coming.

So what is "Corruptus"? Well, as I mentioned it was the title of an email I received. One that was presumably deleted along with my account. It was blank, and seemed to exist for the sole purpose of placing an attached text document in my hands.

Too bad for the powers that be... I had already printed it the moment I saw it.

Not much they can do to reverse that, can they?

I should've mentioned... remember that library? I used their copier to run off a few thousand duplicates of that letter. A few hundred are stapled in random places, a few hundred were passed out to random people, and the rest... let's leave those as a little surprise. Have fun trying to stifle THAT, you horrible mouse-fuckers.

Without any more rambling, here's the letter. Word for word. It arrived from a source whose email address I won't disclose... though I assume it's an untraceable dummy account, anyway.

—

Summation of CORRUPTUS incidents for January, 2015

For office use only. This message contains information that may be confidential or proprietary, or protected by the attorney-client privilege or work product doctrine intended solely for the use of the addressee(s) named above. Any review, disclosure, distribution, copying or use of the information by others is strictly prohibited. If you have received this message in error or without authorization, please advise the sender by immediate reply and delete the original message. All email sent to this address will be received by the Disney corporate email system and is subject to archiving and review by someone other than the recipient. Violation of this disclaimer as written will result in prosecution.

Please refer to official guidelines with relation to "known" and "unconfirmed" incident reports. Respect regulation as per ongoing and/or finalized designations.

Known CORRUPTUS incidents up to and including January, 2015

Treasure Island

Extreme agitation/inappropriate activity within Vulture population.

Mild to moderate agitation/inappropriate human activity.

Resolved CORRUPTUS: Unidentified Avian Species

Abandoned. Final.

Disney's Pop Century Resort

Misplaced and mobile objects.

Chronological Displacement/Anachronism.

Unresolved CORRUPTUS: Wandering entity.

Pending.

Disney's River County

Microorganism infestation.

Unresolved CORRUPTUS: "Clear Man" aka "See-Thru Man" aka "Friendly John".

Abandoned. Final.

ImageWorks: The What-If Labs (2nd Floor)

Multiple missing persons reports regarding Dreamfinder's School of Drama.

Pin screen fatality.

Vibrating mirror sickness.

Unresolved CORRUPTUS: "Wily Wizard" installation

Abandoned. Final.

Mowgli's Palace

Auditory hallucination and/or projection.

Misplaced and mobile objects.

Moderate to severe agitation/inappropriate human activity.

Unresolved CORRUPTUS: Inverted Character

Abandoned. Final.

The New Global Neighborhood

Resolved CORRUPTUS: Fiber Optic Worm (NGN C 1)

Resolved CORRUPTUS: Digital Howl (NGN C 2)

Resolved. Repurposed.

Room Zero

Sudden-onset mass-hysteria.

Auditory hallucination and/or projection.

Unresolved CORRUPTUS: Unknown

Contained. Final.

Please note: Nara Dreamland is not an officially licensed Disney park and no information or resources are to be shared with any responsible for containing its residents.

A complete list of suspected CORRUPTUS incidents and reports may be available.

—

It took a few readings before I could get my head around this. Essentially, if the attached file was to be believed, then the events I had experienced were not part of an isolated incident. The events within Room Zero... the Gascots... they seem like part of a much larger problem.

What is "Corruptus"?

Corruption. I mean, I don't need to run Google Translate for that, even if I felt like I COULD take a break from writing without the risk of someone finding and disconnecting me at any moment.

Corruption of what? Dreams? Ideas? Desires?

I've never been a religious man, but I was dragged to Sunday School more than enough times to know about Golden Calves. False Gods created by man... icons, graven images...

Characters. Mascots.

If you believe in the Bible at all, and I'm not sure I do, especially not after what I've seen... then maybe God wasn't angry because people worshiped other things. Maybe he was afraid. Maybe if enough people believe in something hard enough, there's a chance it will come to be. Since we're naturally flawed beings, that means there's a very good chance such a thing would become corrupted.

If you think about it, Disney's animated films have always had one overriding message.

Clap your hands and believe hard enough, and Tinkerbell will live. When you wish upon a star... anything your heart desires...

People like to say Disney has some connection to Satanism, but I never bought into that. I still don't. I think they've been trying to create that Golden Calf... a God-Idol that everyone believes in... one that everyone loves... It's almost as if any dream or idea that is shared by enough human hearts and minds has a real chance of being born into the world.

The creatures... if any exist beyond what I saw with my own eyes... I think they're the deformed half-starts. Random manifestations of some dark, unquantifiable non-life that seeped into our state of being. They're mistakes of reality. Cosmic abortions.

The Corrupted.

Did everyone in Emerald Isle harbor such a negative impression of Mowgli's palace? How potent was the fear of nuclear war on the day Room Zero became full? If you want to find Gascots and mystery voices, does that search bring about the very thing you're looking for?

How many children have been disappointed, confused, or scarred for life when they saw Mickey without his "head"?

These are questions I'm never going to be able to answer. I don't know if anyone can. Speaking personally, this will probably be the last time I talk to you about Disney and everything I've learned about them. I'm truly sorry for that, especially since there's so much more I could say... unconfirmed rumors, documents and items I received that now seem to be gone forever...

I thought they were just trying to contain that Mickey costume. I thought that's why they went out of their way to keep the public in the dark about so much. Why they coerced and bullied to get their way.

Now I realize I was wrong.

It was this, all along.

They didn't want anything like THIS getting out.

I wish you all good luck, and I know I need the same from you.

Thank you.

[previous]

[tortuga-aak]

6 rogue employees who did crazy things on their last day of work

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

• US President Donald Trump's Twitter account went down for several minutes Thursday night.

• Twitter released a statement blaming the disruption on a departing employee.

• Plenty of people have quit their jobs in wild ways or devoted their last day at work to some pretty outlandish shenanigans.

Some people just like to go out with a bang.

This could be the reason why US President Donald Trump's controversial personal Twitter account was out of commission for a few minutes Thursday night. After some confusion, Twitter released a statement pointing a finger at an unnamed employee, who was apparently wrapping up their last day at work, Business Insider reported.

Some folks just can't resist delivering a parting shot before they walk out the door.

Here are some of the craziest things people got up to on their last day at work:

A Twitter employee shut down Donald Trump's account for 11 minutes

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The US president's personal Twitter account went dark for 11 minutes Thursday night.

At first, the social media platform claimed the issue was an error on the part of one of its employees.

Then, Business Insider reported Twitter released a statement blaming a "customer support employee who did this on the employee's last day of work."

Trump's Twitter behavior has come under criticism for everything from launching attacks against individuals and entities to escalating tensions with North Korea.

Business Insider's Pamela Engel wrote a Quinnipiac poll found 59% of Americans think the president should delete his personal Twitter account.

Trump himself weighed in on the situation, tweeting: "My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact."

A JetBlue flight attendant cursed out an entire flight, activated the plane's emergency slide, and ran off

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

One flight attendant's 2010 resignation has gone down in history as one of the wildest quitting stories out there.

It all started with a quarrel between an airline passenger and flight attendant Steven Slater. The JetBlue employee alleged one passenger ignored his instructions to remain seated, and accidentally hit him in the head with her bag. His account was later disputed by passengers on the flight, however.

Slater got on the plane's speaker system and proceeded to launch an expletive-filled rant.

Then, Business Insider previously reported Slater escaped the plane by activating the emergency slide, ran off to his car, and drove back to his Queens home.

He was subsequently arrested. Ultimately, Slater was sentenced to one year of probation, according to CNN. NJ.com reported that he said was under stress pertaining to his mother's illness and his own HIV-related health issues, and that may have been a factor behind his outburst.

A TV reporter quit – and cursed — while live on air

ABC News/Youtube

Charlo Greene, a reporter for Local Anchorage, left her job to focus on her real passion: legalizing marijuana in Alaska.

And the way she went about resigning is one for the books.

According to the Huffington Post, after telling viewers she would be leaving to focus on "fighting for freedom and fairness" by cultivating the Alaska Cannabis Club, she added, "And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, f--- it, I quit."

Needless to say, the news anchor on duty looked more than a bit flabbergasted by her departure.

See the rest of the story at Business Insider from Feedburner http://ift.tt/2yrCJkO

[arecibomanual]

The Saga of Lake City Quiet Pills, part four- the activity of /r/lcqp

Since this particular sub has now been made private, I'll be working with my archives starting from this page https://archive.is/tRmMQ

Gamejack or legit?

Sub created Tue Apr 7 17:18:38 2015 UTC by /u/lcqp_announcer, who bafflingly enough was fairly active in the few days before starting the sub, having joined on April 3rd... despite then posting only a few times in r/lcqp before vanishing with the rest of them. If they were trying to look like a normal user, you'd think they'd pick a different username... The sub is marked NSFW for some reason. I expect this stops it from showing up in search engines or being cached by Google, or the like. Fortunately archive.is can still grab it.

THREADS

Tue Apr 7 17:25:08 2015 UTC- RALLY VINCENT RALLY VINCENT RALLY VINCENT - 5097 1934 https://www.reddit.com/r/lcqp/comments/31rq0u/rally_vincent_rally_vincent_rally_vincent_5097/ "announcer" posts a PGP message. Dustoff (same day 17:30:54), lcqp (a separate user from the announcer; reply to dustoff 17:41:47 edited at 21:35:40), sam and phelan arrive. There's a deleted post (reply to lcqp, 17:52:09), to which announcer replies with another PGP message (18:35:09). Last post on the 10th. lcqp refers to dustoff as "Kimmy". sam's posting history seems to still have the deleted reply, which is Vietnamese for (according to Uncle Google) "Ah, beautiful girl, no Oscar!". Can't be sure this is *the* deleted post though. Sam makes sure to mention his alternate name of "Than", which he's referred to by in other posts. - The comment thread has posts fairly closely clustered together (5-10 minutes between replies) except for the last one, with lcqp's post edited hours later.

Fri Apr 10 18:12:29 2015 UTC- we roll! https://www.reddit.com/r/lcqp/comments/325985/we_roll/ announcer announces a new contact system will be put into place in "a week or two", which is about how long the sub was active as a messageboard, followed by another PGP message. AyoDende comments, a full 9 days later, ie after the next post effectively closing the sub. I think you may have missed out, buddy. - This is the one that baffles me most, honestly- why is Ayo so late? If lcqp is legit (regarding this sub, regardless of the legitimacy of the LCQP story at large), why would a soldier or ex-soldier do something dumb like reply to an outdated thread in a retired communications sub? Wouldn't he at least use the more recent thread, at least acknowledge he's late? If lcqp is a put-on this can be handwaved as essentially a plothole, but why would this be in the "script"? If AyoDende isn't a part of the "show" (regardless of the legitimacy of anything else), this could be explained as some bandwagon-jumping gamejacker kid being an idiot, but he uses military jargon previously used by phelan as though he knows what he's talking about. ... Then again, given the gafes required for the original LCQP incident to have happened, maybe these people really are just a little bit dumb.

Fri Apr 17 10:49:50 2015 UTC- STAND IN THE DOOR https://www.reddit.com/r/lcqp/comments/32ws89/stand_in_the_door/ Another PGP from announcer. Dustoff confirms the "new server will be ready on Monday". This is indeed the last time the sub is used for its apparent intended purpose.

Thu Jun 4 11:27:15 2015 UTC- Oscar Sayer, 1945-2015 - "de oppresso liber" https://www.reddit.com/r/lcqp/comments/38i71i/oscar_sayer_19452015_de_oppresso_liber/ announcer posts, reporting "Shade"'s death. Dustoff replies about 5 minutes after the thread is posted. This post is stickied. Title is the motto of the United States Army Special Forces, effectively translating to "from oppression to liberation".

Tue Jun 9 17:14:29 2015 UTC- Shhhhh.... Use the new server.... https://www.reddit.com/r/lcqp/comments/396nmv/shhhhh_use_the_new_server/ Posted by lcqp, seemingly in response to the Oscar Sayer post. (Could be AyoDende's fault, but it's a bit late for that.)

Through some posters' pages, we find one more relevant thread: Wed Jun 3 15:52:59 2015 UTC- i__hah's death thread. https://www.reddit.com/r/self/comments/38dtyt/well_so_long_everyone_thanks_for_being_here_i/ Outside of /r/lcqp, a rather sobering thread where a person who is apparently "Shade" announces their own impending death by (presumably) colon cancer. This is the user's last post, preceded by about 15 minutes by one about "soothing gels" and "gratuitous nudity". Well, that's one way to go out. I'm not to sure about the logic behind this one. Apparently his doctor miscalculated i__hah's remaining lifespan by three months the first time, but he was now sure of his time of death down to the hour, possibly minute. Unless he was commiting suicide (sanctioned or otherwise), I'm not sure how this is supposed to be possible...

THE CHARACTERS

Some of the users of r/lcqp were quite active outside of the sub, while others only posted a few times. Sex and porn subreddits seem to be quite popular among these people...

lcqp_announcer- Posts mainly in generic subs like AskReddit, eli5, showerthoughts, as well as some odder ones like HotAsianMilfs (unsurprising), weddingplanning and identifythisfont. A lot of the Askreddit threads seem to be about sex. Another favorite sub is progresspics, where he semi-aggressively hunts for opportunities to drop a bit of backstory (lost 100+ pounds in 7 months due to illness and surgery). There's also this gem https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/31m4ah/if_you_could_have_one_statistic_displayed_above/cq2uqx6/?context=3 Also included is a bit of random pointless white-knighting...

dustoff_avenger-joined 2015-04-07T17:29:50+00:00, first posted 2015-04-07T17:30:54+00:00 in the RALLY VINCENT thread. Possibly the most active r/lcqp user, she (gender mentioned in post history) started posting with the creation of lcqp and continued to post for a while after Shade's death, with her last post on Mon Jun 29 16:15:50 2015 UTC. Once again her post history includes a lot of sex-related subs and threads, as well as TwoX (a cringy sub where random men praise women for getting an abortion like you'd praise your 10 year old for going to the corner store on his own for the first time, apparently...). She also seems to be openly lesbian or bi. Also common are politics- and military-related posts and posts about her job, which is apparently some form of military pilot.

This post mentions post history I'm not sure I saw in her actually current... post history: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/38owbz/tgif_redditors_who_have_the_day_off_how_are_you/cs0kfzz/?context=3 Like RoP there may be posts still on threads that aren't on their profiles, self-note to google search these usernames too Also this. https://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/396m5a/assuming_that_reddit_is_used_for_secret/

Also mentioned is sex with Jerro, a post on KotakuinAction, jerbs, more pointless whiteknighting...

She's referred to as "Kimmy" by lcqp.

As of June 3 2017, she's returned as curator of r/lcqp-out-of-africa.

lcqp- joined Apr 4 21:01:28 2015 UTC, first post Apr 4 21:15:56 2015 UTC, last post is the "new server" thread on Jun 9 17:14:29 2015 UTC with the last post before that being Apr 18 13:09:17 2015 UTC. Last post before that is his one post in r/lcqp at 2015-04-07T17:41:47+00:00, edited same day T21:35:40+00:00. Once again there's plenty of military posts and sex posts, with a bit of whiteknighting, though unlike the others he seems to have quite a... problematic sense of humor. Also Death Note and Sailor Moon. Apparently he's old. One of his more recent posts before vanishing describes his "former employer"'s death, clearly referring to RoP.

i__i__i__i__i__hah- TwoX post, check, sex posts (with a particular focus on pegging), check, military posts, check... Whiteknighting, check... I think this might just be a common trait among military types, who tend to lean conservative and also be concerned with protecting "civilians", but having it pop up in the post history of every single person in this sub makes them look closer to a group of sockpuppets. Aside from being almost disgustingly cringy. Jesus While we're talking about circlejerks, bitching about religion also seems to be a common trait with this group... Anyway, i__hah was apparently deployed overseas in 1976 prior to meeting their wife, is old, etc. They have the longest post history of any /lcqp user, as you'd expect from their earlier registration date... amusingly, further back in their history (around April 1st?) they claim they usually abandon accounts after hitting 1000 karma to shake off trolls. The account has posts going up to two months after that and sits at over 3000 karma. I'm half-tempted to say the death post was simply a way to end the persona and abandon the account, as is theorized with Milo, but the other users' reactions to it seem sincere.

I_am_flat_sam: Joined Wed Apr 8 11:31:18 2015 UTC. Has less than a page of posts, first being the Vietnamese reply made Wed Apr 8 11:37:07 2015 UTC to RALLY VINCENT... which doesn't show up on the thread.

Next post is the one that actually shows up on RALLY VINCENT, posted Wed Apr 8 11:52:33 2015 UTC.

The user returns in June to post in i__hah's death thread (the Vietnamese text here apparently just translates to "goodbye, my friend", and then posts a handful of times in r/balisong (a type of butterfly knife), r/xray (sub for shopping picturs of attractive women so their nipples show through their clothes... yep), and r/DCcomics, over the course of a week. Last post Thu Jun 11 11:45:13 2015 UTC.

phelan_md: Joined Fri Apr 10 16:51:51 2015 UTC with only one post, to the RALLY VINCENT thread on Fri Apr 10 16:53:49 2015 UTC.

I've got this box of band-aids and tampons. You guys interested?

Doc, +1PA, +4MT

My best quess is they're medical support, ie a "doc"(tor). Tampons are sometimes used to plug up a bullet wound or a bloody nose in a pinch.

AyoDende: Joined Sun Apr 19 02:48:49 2015 UTC, posted once, Sun Apr 19 02:57:00 2015 UTC to we roll thread:

Halvidarx2 +6 +2MT (2 Poor English laddies who feel upon bad times. Both class 1 plus trauma)

Similar jargon used to the "doc" character phelan_md while talking about injuries. The grammar seems rather worse than md's, however, though of course it's difficult to tell from only one post each.

[tortuga-aak]

A Twitter employee reportedly shut down Trump's account on their last day — here are 5 other times employees have gone rogue

Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images

• US President Donald Trump's Twitter account went down for several minutes Thursday night.

• Twitter released a statement blaming the disruption on a departing employee.

• Plenty of people have quit their jobs in wild ways or devoted their last day at work to some pretty outlandish shenanigans.

Some people just like to go out with a bang.

This could be the reason why US President Donald Trump's controversial personal Twitter account was out of commission for a few minutes Thursday night. After some confusion, Twitter released a statement pointing a finger at an unnamed employee, who was apparently wrapping up their last day at work, Business Insider reported.

Some folks just can't resist delivering a parting shot before they walk out the door.

Here are some of the craziest things people got up to on their last day at work:

A Twitter employee shut down Donald Trump's account for 11 minutes

Mark Wilson/Getty Images

The US president's personal Twitter account went dark for 11 minutes Thursday night.

At first, the social media platform claimed the issue was an error on the part of one of its employees.

Then, Business Insider reported Twitter released a statement blaming a "customer support employee who did this on the employee's last day of work."

Trump's Twitter behavior has come under criticism for everything from launching attacks against individuals and entities to escalating tensions with North Korea.

Business Insider's Pamela Engel wrote a Quinnipiac poll found 59% of Americans think the president should delete his personal Twitter account.

Trump himself weighed in on the situation, tweeting: "My Twitter account was taken down for 11 minutes by a rogue employee. I guess the word must finally be getting out-and having an impact."

A JetBlue flight attendant cursed out an entire flight, activated the plane's emergency slide, and ran off

Joe Raedle / Getty Images

One flight attendant's 2010 resignation has gone down in history as one of the wildest quitting stories out there.

It all started with a quarrel between an airline passenger and flight attendant Steven Slater. The JetBlue employee alleged one passenger ignored his instructions to remain seated, and accidentally hit him in the head with her bag. His account was later disputed by passengers on the flight, however.

Slater got on the plane's speaker system and proceeded to launch an expletive-filled rant.

Then, Business Insider previously reported Slater escaped the plane by activating the emergency slide, ran off to his car, and drove back to his Queens home.

He was subsequently arrested. Ultimately, Slater was sentenced to one year of probation, according to CNN. NJ.com reported that he said was under stress pertaining to his mother's illness and his own HIV-related health issues, and that may have been a factor behind his outburst.

A TV reporter quit – and cursed — while live on air

ABC News/Youtube

Charlo Greene, a reporter for Local Anchorage, left her job to focus on her real passion: legalizing marijuana in Alaska.

And the way she went about resigning is one for the books.

According to the Huffington Post, after telling viewers she would be leaving to focus on "fighting for freedom and fairness" by cultivating the Alaska Cannabis Club, she added, "And as for this job, well, not that I have a choice but, f--- it, I quit."

Needless to say, the news anchor on duty looked more than a bit flabbergasted by her departure.

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