#infected is like skateboard but worse

[dawnleaf37]

swap au phighting regretevator except we don’t swap them with each other normally and we literally just drop spud in phighting and see what happens

[marlynnofmany]

Not Special

The refueling station was on a small moon in the back end of nowhere, close to nothing but a couple of wormhole junctions. Since it had a little convenience store and everything, it really gave off “7/11 next to a desert highway” vibes. Just, y’know, in space. The moon wasn’t big enough for proper gravity or air on its own, so someone had installed a gravity generator under the dusty red ground. And turned it up just a smidge too high, but I wasn’t going to complain.

I was going to buy pre-packaged alien snacks at the store while my coworkers handed the refueling. Mimi was calling the shots, tentacles waving and gravelly voice audible from here, while the Frillian twins handled the heavy lifting of connector hoses and Captain Sunlight was at the payment kiosk. The others were either staying onboard or already browsing the aisles.

I’d just picked up a pack of something colorful (doing an artful fumble-and-recovery because of the gravity) when a rowdy group of Armorlites trooped in. I didn’t pay them too much attention — just a bunch of macho dinosaurs with holstered blasters and bipedal swagger; totally normal here — but one of them said something that brought me up short.

“Hey look, another human,” said the cheerful voice. “Maybe you can get some tips on how not to be such a disappointment.” Raucous laughter followed.

I frowned in their direction and saw that they did have a human with them: a pale and unassuming guy just a bit shorter and stockier than me. He looked annoyed by the comment, but not surprised.

When he walked over to me, I asked, “What’s that about?” The Armorlites were already ignoring him.

The guy sighed. “They heard a lot of stories about humans before they hired me, and I don’t meet their expectations.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Humans doing daring things, like running for hours to get medicine to dying people, catching a diseased rat before it infected an entire space station, throwing fruit at charging fauna hard enough to make it leave…” He ticked things off on his fingers. “Exorcizing a ghost, and riding a hoversled like a skateboard fast enough to catch a bomb before it blew up. How am I supposed to compete with that?” He threw his hands in the air.

“Um,” I said, putting down the snack I was still holding. “Would it make it better or worse to know those were all the same person?”

“What?”

“The rat wasn’t actually diseased, the ghost was a howling dog, and I didn’t know the thing was explosive when I rushed to catch it,” I said. “And I wasn’t the only person throwing things at the fauna.”

“What?” he repeated, with a spread-arms gesture that smacked into the shelf. Rubbing his hand, he asked, “That was all you?”

“Yeah,” I admitted. “Unless there are other humans doing the same things, which is possible.”

He raked fingers through his hair, setting it at odd angles. “I can’t believe this. I’d tell them, but they’d just want to hire you instead.”

I rushed to assure him, “I’ve got a job already, and I don’t want to take yours.” I glanced over at the Armorlites, who were grabbing food and accessories. One clicked a flashlight on in another’s face, prompting curses from him and laughter from the others. That tracked from what I’d seen of Armorlite culture before. Toughness was important. Kindness, not so much. “What do you do for them?”

He sighed again. “Bookkeeping, officially. They needed somebody to handle the boring stuff like money and permits while they focus on hunting the biggest animals they can sell.”

“Gotcha. That sounds … exciting.”

“It’s not. It’s like going on a trip with my cousins again, except they’re even bigger and make fun of me for not having claws.”

“You’ve got other stuff going for you, though!” I said. “We just need to figure which of your differences they’ll respect most.”

“I’m all ears,” he said with a certain level of sarcasm. “Please tell me what about my fragile human physique will get me respect from the Mighty.”

Oh right, they did call themselves that. I’d almost forgotten. At least they were a straightforward species without a lot of mysterious depths.

“Well,” I said, thinking. “They like fighting. You’re more suited to stealth than they are, small enough to hide and do sneak attacks that they wouldn’t see coming. What if you introduced them to rubber band warfare, and sniped from hidden parts of the ship?”

“Nope,” he said. “That would just end with me cornered somewhere, and them showing off how even thin scales are tougher than my skin.”

“Good point. Oh! What kind of animals do they hunt? You said big ones, but do you know the specific names?” I got out my phone and brought up the database of known fauna that I’d talked Captain Sunlight into buying for me. As her own hired animal expert, it was really the kind of thing that I should have. My vet training on Earth only went so far.

“Uhhh, I think the last one was a treehorn,” he said. “Wait, they talked about going for Argoshan Dagger Birds next.”

“Right. Now what kind of noises do those make…” I typed quickly. Big creatures indeed, by the looks of it: Dagger Birds had prevented more than one colony from getting a foothold in the wilds of a nearby world, and were unlikely to stop being a threat anytime soon. I skimmed the rundown for the vocal files. “Here we go. Mating call.” Keeping the sound low enough for just us to hear, I played the croaking warble.

“Okay?” the guy said, confused.

“Can you imitate that?” I asked. “Give it a shot. Kinda like a frog. Woarrrk.”

Looking skeptical, he did. The expression on his face said he wasn’t impressed with his own efforts, but it sounded accurate enough to me.

“Great!” I said. “Give that a bit of practice, then you can go out with your crew and impress everybody by luring in some targets for them.”

“I could,” he said thoughtfully. “I usually stay on the ship while they’re hunting, but it might be worth a try. Can I have a copy of that sound for practice?”

He got out his own phone and I played it again so he could record it. The Armorlites were dumping things onto the front counter, ready to pay and leave. I caught sight of bright packaging that I recognized, and I had another idea.

“Thanks,” the guy said. “This might actually help. What was your name?”

“Robin Bennett,” I said with a belated handshake.

“Oscar Tennyson,” he replied. “Thanks for your help. Looks like I should grab my stuff and get going.”

“Before you go. See those tall cans with the purple labels?” I pointed at something the Armorlites were buying.

“Yeah?”

“Have you ever tried that?”

“No! They get wasted on it; I’ve steered far clear.”

I grinned with all my teeth. “That’s not alcohol. That’s caffeine.”

“What?”

“Humans can process caffeine better than most species on our own planet, and just about everybody in space. It’s a poison to most. It gets them super drunk, but for you—” I pointed at him with glee. “For you, it’s just a bit of energy. Pick your moment, then walk in casually while they’re getting wasted, and slam one down. See what happens.”

He was smiling now. “You’re sure? It’s really just caffeine? How much?”

“I checked into it before. One of those huge cans is like a watered-down coffee. These guys are absolute lightweights, and they don’t even know.”

He grinned to split his face. “That is the best news.”

One of them called for him to hurry up, and he bid me a quick goodbye before scampering off. I saw him grab food cubes, water, and a six-pack of caffeine, which he bundled onto the counter as the Armorlites headed out the door.

“Be right there! Just getting some stuff!”

They didn’t look, simply telling him not to waste any time. He smiled his way through the purchase.

Peeking over the shelves, I smiled too. Then I went back to my own purchases, with thoughts of getting an energy drink or two in his honor.

~~~

These started as backstory tidbits for the main character from this book, and turned into a sprawling adventure series in their own right. The sequel book will feature a return of some familiar faces. And Patreon is coming soon — even the free tier will be a handy way to keep up with the ongoing shenanigans of this particular human in space.

[annimator]

BOM DIA QSMPBLR!

Mds I can’t believe it’s been an entire year since the Brazilians crash landed onto Quesadilla Island… LITERALLY

Wonder how they’re holding up?

(Once again, this is purely from memory :p)

Cellbit - Got married to the first person he saw when he crashed onto the island. Amidst all the chaos, Roier appears in the glass… wait what was I talking about. Anyways blah blah blah he got experimented on by the Feds and is now technically working for them, Purgatory fucking happened and separated him from his husband and that irreversibly fucked me up, he was rescued by Richas like 3 months later, and now hes a skateboarder. He doesn’t know that his Husband is currently a rat.

Pac & Mike - The bond they originally had when they first arrived is weaker, but it’s still there and they still enjoy each other’s company (/p). Mike currently lives alone with his birds and Pac got into a relationship with Fit and has basically adopted Ramon. Granted, it’s been a while since he saw those two :’)

Felps - Felps (Was disfruta la isla’d by the Feds but was rescued alongside Cellbit on June 1st. He was working on mining Felps square for the past year. He’s been MIA since January’s Prison Event)

Forever - Was elected as President and shit basically went downhill from there. His son went missing, he got forcibly medicated on Happy Pills, was quite literally thrown into hell, came back from hell with some kinda dark matter infection, got thrown into Purgatory the day after escaping from hell, and everything was mostly chill after that, but then the dark matter infection he had got worse to the point that he got possessed by @v@. The Feds ended up locking @v@ in a faraway prison and executing them, taking Forever down with them since @v@ was still possessing his body. (Forever was kicked out of QSMP due to grooming allegations)

[evermorethecrow]

EVERMORE THE CROW 1K SPECIAL..... EXPOSING MY PAST.................

ages ago when i was younger i had to write this letter talking about times i got injured for school work and it was so bad i went through it with a friend of mine and because i thought i wouldnt hit 1k before the end of the year saying id post it if i did.

AND NOW IVE DONE IT

so heres my letter :(

Dear sir, I chose to write about a dangerous situation I've been in but I found it so difficult to pinpoint one situation.I am such an impulsive and spontaneous person and I rarely think before I act .Therefore instead of just one dangerous situation I have composed. Before i start i would like to issue a warning under no circumstances should a person attempt to recreate any action in this list for it is ill advised and i don't want to go to court again Kind regards -------

Okay so let's start out small ,i mean like when i was small really small i couldn't walk, but oh boy i could climb and unfortunately for the better of my own health climb I did,climb out of my cot and i know because gravity people who drop out of things tend to have this annoying habit of hitting the floor.Lets just say my mum put PE mats on my bedroom floor after that.

Next…uhhhhh incident??? Oooh it's another escaping story  maan maybe i should change my name to houdini or something,anyway this was a little later like i was able to walk (uh oh) i reckon i was good a walking, a little too good, my mum looked away from my pram for a second a second too long when she looked back i was gone, everyone in the park was looking for me and after 10 minutes of looking my mum saw me walk out the playground, i left and went to the playground.We went home after that.

Time for the third story  I was two years old and was running buckwild in Greenwich Park and having a fun time, in fact I was having such a fun time I didn't hear my mum shout “LOOK OUT”.  I had a comically large bump on my head got concussed and had to go to hospital, Not for too long though the very next day i got sent home for using a IV as a skateboard

Just a heads up befor the next story alot of these storys will be me being stupid and endeing up in hospital so if you have idiotphopia or are scared it would be advised to leave now or buy todays sponsor raycon earbuds.

Anyway next accident  When i was five I was in bed as a five year old should be when I had a genius revelation Hmmm i I dont wanna use my legs to get out of bed so why not roll out instead….i did roll out of bed,right onto a plastic dinosaur and cut my eyelid, there was blood all over my face.But hey at least i got to meet an old friend of mine.The hospital waiting room.

So yeah you can probably see how i'm quite an accident prone person but i never really did anything that bad.SO WHO WANTS TO HEAR ABOUT THE TIME I JUMPED OFF MY SCOOTER WHILE GOING SUPER FAST ON IT DOWN A HILL? I was seven and i was at our local park blythe hill and my seven year old brain wanted nothing more than to go down that hill at record speeds on my scooter,and i'm not talking about one of those fancy stunt scooters no i'm talking about a kids micro scooter, you know , the one where you would always put elastic bands on it, any way I was about halfway down the hill when i decided I was going too fast on it and i could get hurt and since id never had an injury before i wanted to prevent that so what did i do? I jumped of the scooter I was a smart kid. I jumped off my scooter and pretty much removed all the skin on that side of my body and too make matters worse it got infected and i had to take antibiotics for 4 weeks. Fun times

As you can probably see i might be a bit reckless and might be a bit bad at planning ahead  Which leads me to our next story, this ones a bit different you see this time  I didn't actually get hurt. I was at a friend's house and that friend's house had a garden with a tree,a tree and a garage which was placed close to the tree, and I, being a master climber since birth, scaled the tree with ease. But that wasn't enough for me no I wanted to climb the garage.So i went across the tree to the branche nearest the garage ,and climbed on top of the garage,the lovely,brick garage.my friends dad came out and saw me on top of the garage simply chilling and as you can probably predict he asked me to get down so instead of doing the rational thing and using the tree to et down.. I jumped of the garage onto the stone floor.I didn't go to their house for a while after that

I have another garage related story,This was in 2017 I was nine surely I was smateer by then and learned my lesson Right……Right? Me and my siblings were playing marco polo out the front of our house (never a good sign) And it was my turn to be blindfolded and find my siblings.I decided to run straight forward and hit the brick wall between two garages , I fractured my nose, chipped my front tooth and had to go to hospital.oops.

Now they say save the best for last and boy did i. It was 2020(oh god ) and we were celebrating my mom's birthday and all was going smoothly, well until i decided to leave our living room by jumping out the room from the sofa.it didn't go as planned.yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah i jumped off the sofa hi my head on the top of the door landed on my arm and spent 5 hours in hospital on my mums birthday.

That's all we have time for today However here are some honorable mentions 

.The time i used my scooter on a tall thin brick wall (someone really ought to take that thing of me honestly)

.All the times I hit my head on bins 

.And that time this year I literally without thinking put the hairdryer on my face after I used It and burnt stripes into my face 

Well thats the list of the most dangerous things ive done, of course ive done more dumb things but this paper has gone on long enough and I have school in the morning so bye I guess.

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MY LIFE IS RUINED

[kumeko]

A/N: For the Seasoned Love zine! Kojiro coaxing Kaoru into a relationship is like an owner calling for their cat—will it happen? Who knows, not even the cat.

…

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…

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The bed was empty. Kaoru cracked an eye open as his hand hit the empty spot beside him, the bedsheet long cooled and any impression of Kojiro’s body faded at best. An alarm blared on his side lamp and Kaoru reluctantly opened his other eye and sat up. “I’m awake, Carla.”

The alarm cut off.

Kaoru glanced at the spot next to him as he ran a hand through his hair. “What time did he wake up?”

“Six-thirty,” Carla stated, her soothing monotone voice filling the empty room.

And it was empty because Kojiro, for all of his numerous, numerous flaws, always woke up earlier than Kaoru. It irritated him more than he cared to admit. It was far easier to think of Kojiro as a slob—even now, his clothes were scattered haphazardly across the floor, long forgotten after last night’s activities.

Yet in this one aspect he had Kaoru beat. Grinding his teeth, he slipped out of the bed, carefully picking his way past Kojiro’s crumpled jeans and unzipped sweatshirt as he made his way to the bathroom. “What’s my schedule for today, Carla?”

There was no need to ask. His day-to-day remained more or less the same, and to Kojiro’s credit, he wasn’t as impulsive as he pretended to be. Stability was the only thing Kaoru craved and he found it in his schedules, his plans, his organization of even the minute details.

Like his toothbrush holder, which now unfortunately housed a tacky neon green brush. A manual brush, something best left behind with childhood toys and dreams. Even worse, Kojiro had looked ridiculously proud when he’d slotted it in two months ago, as though he had won an award instead of just ensuring they both got proper dental health.

Kaoru grimaced as he reached past it to grab his own electric brush. “Why does that oaf insist on using such a relic?”

“He claims that his technique makes up for it,” Carla replied unexpectedly. “Your first appointment is at nine.”

Kaoru frowned as he glanced at the speaker in the bathroom. And what was that response, Carla?

His worst fears were coming true: Kojiro was infecting Carla.

A small red mark caught his eye and Kaoru turned slightly as he examined his neck in the mirror. A small red mark that clearly was a hickey. He clenched his jaw. A love bite. Again. He’d have to wear a high collar today.

“Why does that moron always do this?” he grumbled. There were few rules in their strange arrangement—this was a casual thing, they weren’t dating, and no one could ever find out about this. That last one was important. Kaoru could barely handle Adam’s insufferable smirk whenever he saw them together; add in Reki’s and Langa’s innocent questions and he’d die.

Why was Kojiro’s cologne in the cabinet? Because it was easier that way.

Why was a quarter of the closet filled with loose-fitting shirts? Because Kaoru refused to let Kojiro leave in the same clothes. Who knew who would pick up on that?

Kaoru’s brow furrowed as he studied his closet. Actually, Kojiro’s handful of shirts was starting to dominate the space, taking up almost half of the rack. “He brought more clothes.”

“Two weeks ago,” Carla chimed in helpfully.

Something must be wrong with him if hadn’t noticed in two weeks. Kaoru gingerly flipped through the outfits. “How far is the nearest donation bin?”

A few seconds later and Carla answered, “A ten-minute drive or a fifteen-minute skateboard ride.”

As tempting as that was, Kaoru wouldn’t be able to carry any of this while skateboarding.  The warm aroma of freshly toasted bread wafted in and he whirled around, marching to the kitchen. At least the culprit hadn’t gone too far.

A culprit who looked as innocent as can be as he leaned against the kitchen counter, a garish green mug in one hand, his phone in the other. His thumb slid up the screen as he looked up. Spotting Kaoru, Kojiro smiled softly. “Morning, babe.”

The pet name should have rankled him more but Kaoru had gotten used to it. Tugging on his collar as he stepped forward, he growled, “I told you, below the neck.”

“That’s not what you said last night,” Kojiro teased, giving him a wolfish smile.

He coloured slightly. “That’s not the point.”

“Is it?” Kojiro shrugged as he took a sip of coffee. “It’s not my fault you contradict yourself.”

Kaoru gritted his teeth, forcing back his blush. “Well, I’m not contradicting myself now. I’m running out of collared shirts.”

“Alright, I’ll keep that in mind,” Kojiro replied blithely, sounding every bit as insincere as he was. He gestured at the plate next to him. “I made you breakfast.”

“I could smell that.” Kaoru glanced at the plate as he grabbed his own coffee mug. More than food, he needed the caffeine, especially if he had to deal with Kojiro now. As usual, there were sausages and eggs on the plate, the former only in the apartment because Kojiro had restocked Kaoru’s fridge after he started spending the mornings here.

The man had claimed it was appalling to find a fridge in such an empty state. As expected of a cook, he cared more about the fridge than any other room.

“You know there’s thing called Japanese breakfast?” Kaoru asked lightly. He inhaled his coffee with a sigh. Even the merest whiff was enough to kickstart his brain. “We don’t need to have toast everyday.”

“I’m an Italian chef.” Kojiro smiled crookedly. He leaned past Kaoru, his muscular arm brushing his chest as Kojiro plucked the lightly browned bread out of the toaster. “I’m making you an Italian breakfast.”

“I’m pretty sure this doesn’t count as an Italian breakfast,” Kaoru scoffed, gesturing at the sausage. “Those are German, I saw the packaging when you bought them.”

“Close enough,” he chuckled. Setting down his mug with a hard thud, he grabbed a sausage and ripped a bite off. “Still tastes good, no?”

“Definitely a no.”  Kaoru frowned as he glanced at the mug. “And don’t put that down so hard, you’ll chip it.”

Kojiro scowled. “Hey, you said I could do what I want with my mug.”

“That doesn’t mean you should—” Kaoru froze.

Kojiro’s mug. Toothbrush. Clothing. Perfume. The food in the fridge, the space in his closet, the piles littered around the floor. Now that he was thinking about it, there was a lot of Kojiro’s things in the apartment. Especially considering they weren’t even dating.

Quietly, he stated, “You’re here a lot these days.”

“Yeaaah?” Sensing something off, Kojiro replied slowly, stretching out the word as he tried to figure out if he was in trouble or not. He eyed Kaoru wearily, like he was facing an angry bull.

“You have a lot of your…shit here,” Kaoru clarified diplomatically. There were a dozen worse abuses he could think of to describe the garish items in his house, each looking more and more out of place in comparison to Kaoru’s sleek minimalist and traditionalist style.

Kojiro reeled back, mock offended. He clutched his chest. “It’s not shit.”

“They are shit. You know this is my apartment, right?” Kaoru set down his mug, watching him carefully. A strange, unknown feeling unfurled within him. He hated unknowns.

Taking the matter as lightly as ever, Kojiro burst into laughter. “Wait, seriously, that’s what this is about?”

Kaoru clenched his jaw. “Answer the question.”

“Fine, fine. I got it.” Kojiro laughed again and wrapped an arm around Kaoru, pulling him close. He nuzzled his neck affectionately. Kaoru could feel his smile on his skin as he placated, “This is your apartment.”

Somehow, that didn’t make him feel as good as it should have. Actually, if anything, it bothered him more. That strange, unknown feeling grew and Kaoru couldn’t describe it as anger or disappointment or some other myriad emotion. The only thing he did know was that he didn’t like it.

The only thing he did know was that it was Kojiro’s fault he felt like this.

“As long as you understand,” he mumbled.

“Just one thing.” Kojiro lifted his head and leaned close until their noses brushed. His breath warmed Kaoru’s cheeks, his eyes glowing a dark amber.

“What?” Kaoru breathed, spellbound.

His voice was husky as he asked, “You know, isn’t this starting to feel like our apartment?”

“Our?” Kaoru’s jaw dropped. A single word broke him from his stupor.

Kojiro shrugged. “Well, I mean, we’re dating—”

“We’re not.” Kaoru retorted, pulling away.

“—and I’ve been staying over for months now.” Kojiro tightened his grip. He peppered Kaoru’s cheeks, nose, eyes with kisses in a futile attempt to distract him. “So, I think this is a good time as any, right?”

Kaoru bristled. “’Good time’—”

A tender kiss cut him off, Kojiro finally landing on his lips. Kaoru sighed despite himself, his fingers curling into Kojiro’s shirt, his hands half-heatedly pulling him closer. Kojiro tasted bitter, like coffee, like any spats they had. It was such a contradictory taste considering how soft the man could be.

All too quickly, it ended. Kojiro gently brushed away a lock of hair, his hand cradling Kaoru’s cheek as he pulled back. “Just something to think of.”

Kaoru wasn’t quite sure he could think of anything right now.

“Anyways, running late now!” Mission accomplished, Kojiro withdrew entirely, untangling their limbs with ease. He waved cheerfully as he headed to the door, acting like nothing had happened. “See you later!”

The door slammed shut before Kaoru regained his senses.

Our apartment.

Our.

Immediately, he dashed to the door and yanked it open. “You’d better pay half the rent then!”

From further down the hall, near the elevators, he heard a laugh. “Deal!”

There was a small ding and Kaoru closed his door just as the elevator left. Now that the adrenaline left him, he wasn’t sure if he’d made a terrible mistake or a good deal.

Our apartment.

They weren’t even dating.

Our.

God help him, that small word made him far too happy.

[scentedchildnacho]

Uhm I don't appreciate being used for being a mercury in Scorpio......but after that severe of battery last night then sleep deprivation I can't reserve my emotions and told people how I felt.....I wasn't too bad to them and avoided swearing....I tried to just leave my body and not find life the better choice but it didn't work.....

The batterers were really infective and if in private screaming I was saying some possessed metallic voiced things but if around people fortunately

My comments remained therapeutic

I was like yea be around me privileged jogger and have nothing to do with me that's okay

I was like yea jogger get your vain narcissists leisure time in...be sure nobody sees you ever once be kind or do anything for anybody

Then this black chick tried to smile at me so I was like especially thanks to you for being the new face of state establishmentarianism yea get your cash and little rules yea thanks for just leaving me on the beach to get raped and killed yea black State yea creepy African

Yea unionism I don't think the union army was a state though The Islamic State wants you to kill of id law ignorance and extremely small thinking

Then some guy came out of a restaurant on the beach so I was like yea good job keep that bathroom locked up while using public resources for your clients yea cause extreme pain in urination yea cut off people's sensitivity to their lower extremities yea

Well that's how I feel....they only care about bad vag amputations so they don't have to be ass

I don't like clean or locked bathrooms the homosexual constant groups of guys sports is too threatening and I can't wait till they heroin and glutton them again and they sit around freely off cess pools

Then to people down at the water I was like yea.....thanks for not showing up till this morning thanks for turning yourselves into ultimate selfish narcissists and leaving me to die all night.....then finally showing up on your selfish rude disgusting irresponsible worthless workless time yea save yourself and leave me to die cause white crime to yourself yea

I am grateful I could have a psychiatrist obsessed with my behaviour but now there is lots of behaviour disgusting ness

They are all kind of nasty concrete asses......so now I don't have to be an obsession

I really really hate commute patterns in San Diego so if it couldn't stop wishing me just put down on vaccines and tranqs I really hope it all gets put down mostly

There so scary like riding their skateboards right at me it's relieving it finally breaks it's ass on the pavement for expecting my ass broke for it's job fees

William....I'm so scared of how German klan clean freak athlete of an area it is I don't care if they steal a black man to put his hyper active psychopaths down on their opiate

I would maybe help steal a negro if they could put the things down and force a low commute area

It's so terribly painful around the car freaks I have a psychopathy problem if their not yet called heroin freaks

Anyway that long haired blond guy at the library I found out is really on vain plan so he has femmes that have to hate themselves and keep him on smokes all the time...that's relieving he just came at me in the library to walk too near me so I like when his vain femmes Jack ass him around on second hand smoke

This I said to his femme thank you for just sitting there doing nothing and smoking in it's face

No I don't want a sedative those club me to death beaters on the beach would have kept hitting me if I didn't get up

Well I wouldn't take psych drugs and just go die so the Russian violence gets worse and worse and worse

I found out from my peak class that homeless people are a ward quantity so I do like own my disaggregate granular data like my weekly shower allowance etc

So I guess it's difficult to find a tower and pump out all my ground water if populations aren't forced in a vicinity and quickly extracted from

I have a micro amount poor Russians could live off so put in....tried to batter me with golf clubs to quickly extract

Muslim nations to Christians to force sharing instead of wealth it never cures disease

Well when you want to cure disease you can't tell people how long to wash their hands

And all the jerks that job to live better then the public they use refused to ever pump water continually through public pipes they want people to mostly use so it just looks like a reek bomb on an enemy

Muslims have weird scary stories and hallucinative beliefs and just sit there blocking people up and refusing to let people have enough in life to ever truly feel their heart start just fair Arizona and Pakistanis

If you won't pray enough you will be a tree

[eddiesbug]

GOLDEN RETRIEEVEVR READER AND ROBIN ?!?!?!?! IM DISLECSIK IM SORRY I CANT SPELL RETREEEVAR

this made me giggle hehehe

“That girl of yours is causing trouble, Robin.” Steve singsongs, eyes following you skateboarding up and down the street outside Family Video.

“What’s she doin’?” she asks, rifling through various boxes of tapes for something to watch.

“She’s on that damn skateboard again.”

Robin’s eyes flit upwards just in time to see you wobble and fall headfirst onto the sidewalk. You sit for a moment, dazed, before leaping back up and hopping straight back onto the board. In the months you’ve been practicing, you haven’t gotten any better; in fact you’re somehow worse than when you started.

Before you can skate off, Robin is rushing outside and coaxing you back onto firm ground.

“No more skating today, honey.”

“Robbie!” you coo happily, tipping precariously on the edge of your board. Her slender hands grasp your waist, lifting you straight off and setting you down in front of her. Her head dips, thin fingers kneading your hips and travelling down as her hair tickles your cheek.

“Lemme see your knees, pretty,” Robin murmurs, bending to scoop your beloved skateboard off of the concrete; she laces your fingers through hers and leads you inside, sitting you behind the counter next to Steve.

“Hi, y/n,” he greets as Robin crouches in front of you, rolling your loose jeans up. Her thumb grazes the deep red scrapes and the sharp pain has you wincing and jerking away from her. She wraps her arm around your middle, murmuring encouraging words into your skin.

“Hi,” you manage to grit through clenched teeth, a halfhearted smile pushing past your lips in Steve’s direction.

“I know,” Robin sympathises as you squirm, pressing a cold flannel to your injuries. “Gotta clean ‘em, though.”

“Nuh uhhh,” you whine, bouncing slightly on the chair. Her free hand travels up to cradle your cheek affectionately. “Robbie, ‘m fine! Just leave ‘em.”

“No, honey.” Robin chides. “They’ll get infected. Just gotta wipe them clean and then I’ll stick a bandaid on, alright?”

“Do I get a fun one?”

“Yeah. Any one you want.”

“A Star Wars one?” you ask hopefully, the sweet cadence of your voice making Robin smile. Star Wars is your favourite.

“Sure thing, baby.”

Your knees bounce as Robin wipes them and Steve does his best to distract you.

“What’ve you been up to, then? Haven’t seen you as much.” You smile sheepishly at him, cringing as Robin swipes particularly firmly over your knee.

“Eddie’s had us all really busy with his Hellfire stuff. Dustin made me sub in when they lost Lucas and I guess I’m kinda stuck now! It’s good, though, he’s nice. I bet you’d like him!” you ramble, unaware of Robin sticking the bandaids onto your weeping knees and rolling your jeans back down.

“Yeah, yeah. Don’t really think D&D is my thing, though,” Steve says.

“Yeahhh.” You roll your eyes, “But you’d like Eddie.” You raise your eyebrows suggestively, elbowing him.

“Shut up,” he snorts. You giggle.

“All done, babe.” Robin interrupts your laughter, kissing your clothed legs. Steve mock gags, standing up to rifle back through the discarded boxes Robin left in favour of saving you from your skateboard.

“Thanks, baby!” you chirp, jumping up and into Robin’s awaiting embrace. “I missed you.”

She cups your jaw and your arms slide around her waist.

“I missed you too.”

You gaze up at her, eyes traversing the width of her face with wonder.

“What’re you doing, honey?”

“Counting your freckles, shh!” The very tip of your pointer finger traces the bumps and ridges of her nose and you smile, pressing a kiss to her cheekbone.

“Ooh, almost forgot!” you squeak. “Brought you these. You fish a box of milk duds out of your back pocket, frowning at the now flat box deflatedly. “‘m sorry, Robbie. Forgot they were in there. Sat on ‘em.”

“Thank you, pretty!” she exclaims, taking the box from your hands excitedly. “How’d you know I was craving these?”

“They’re your favourite, silly,” you murmur, a smile on your face from seeing her so elated. She kisses your forehead.

“C’mon, honey. Come and help me pick a video to watch and we can eat these!”

[transgenderteensurvivalguide]

URGENT: I’m in a lot of pain and I think it may be related to wearing a binder today and I don’t know what to do. I wore it for maybe four hours, no extreme physical activity, just the walk to school. BUT there’s been huge fires on the mountains nearby and I’m wondering if that makes binding unsafe? The smokes so bad you can see it in the air even down by the ground. I don’t know what to do I’m not out yet so I don’t want to explain to my parents what happened but I think there’s something wrong

Lee says:

What you can tell them depends on what activities you do in your daily life: gym class, sports, falling, bike/skateboard/etc. accidents, too tight sports bras, coughing fits/other illnesses, and many other things besides binding accidents/injuries can cause things such as bruised and broken ribs.

So because broken or bruised ribs are usually caused by a fall, a blow to the chest or severe coughing, you could say that there’s a lot of smoke when you walked to school and you were coughing a lot and you thought you could wait out the pain and it would go away, but it hasn’t gotten any better so you want to go to the doctor because you just want to make sure that there isn’t anything wrong.

It varies state to state, but I believe in many states you can only see a doctor and consent to treatment without your parents knowing if you are over 18, or your parents refused to get you treatment/are neglectful (but this may bring in the child protection services as most doctors are mandated reporters), if it’s sexual-health related (like sometimes pregnancy tests/abortions/std testing and treatment are okay without a parent) or if it’s a life-threatening emergency (like an injury, car crash or bad allergic reaction where it’s implied that your parents would consent to treatment).

You should look up the laws in your state to see if it’s legal to seek medical attention without them knowing at all- if it’s possible for you to have a friend or aunt or other supportive relative take to your doctor/an urgent care/a hospital ER (normally I’d suggest biking or walking, but uh,,, maybe not in your case!).

In the meantime, don’t bind again until the pain goes away!

I’ll copy Ren’s post below:

This post isn’t a replacement for a doctor, but it can help you figure out whether you need to see a doctor, or what you should do until you can!

Look at this cool picture of some bones. That’s your ribcage, pretty nice eh? We’re gonna use this to figure out what’s up.

To give you a general idea of what’s going on, let me explain what’s up. That big bone in the middle, connecting the sides of your ribcage, is your sternum. It’s super important, since it helps protect some Serious Stuff, and anything that affects your ribs likely affects it!

Connected to your sternum on both sides are your collarbones (clavicles). You can usually see and feel your collarbones, since they’re very close to your skin.

To give you a sense of which rib is which, ribs 4, 5, or 6 are usually the ones that are just underneath breast tissue. (Some people have more than 10 ribs, but the last one is the last one!)

The blue parts of this diagram are made of costal cartilage, connecting the ribs and the sternum. Where the costal cartilage meets your ribs is called a costochondral joint. Where the costal cartilage meets your sternum, on the other hand, is called a sternocostal joint.

Over top of all this bone and cartilage is intercostal muscle. They go in between your ribs, filling the spaces, allowing you to breathe in and out.

So just how many ways can you injure all of this by binding unsafely?

fractured bone

bruised bone

bruised muscle

bruised cartilage

torn muscle

torn cartilage

inflamed muscle (costochondritis)

not to mention all the stuff that’s deep down underneath - you can seriously harm your lungs, for instance

Here comes the actual troubleshooting part.

Which area of your ribcage hurts, and what is the pain like? (Tender? Shooting? Burning? Throbbing? Like something’s tearing? An ache, a sting?)

Can you make physical contact with the area? Does any physical contact make the pain worse, or do you have to press gently to worsen it?

Is the skin hot around the painful area, visibly red or bruised, or visibly swollen?

When you press at the very top of your sternum (in between your collarbones) does it worsen the pain at your rib?

Do you have chest pain that’s getting worse?

Do you have pain in your tummy or shoulder as well?

Does it hurt to breathe, or is it difficult to breathe? Do you have shortness of breath that’s getting worse?

Are you coughing, or coughing blood or mucus?

Are you experiencing fatigue (like you’re really really sleepy), or are you dizzy?

Check your pulse. Open up a timer with seconds on it, find your pulse, and count for one whole minute. Here’s an ask about healthy pulses (although YMMV if you are chronically ill).

If you develop any more symptoms or the pain does not go away in 24 hours, go to the hospital.

And the golden rule: when in doubt, get it checked out.

If you cannot make physical contact with the area, are experiencing significant pain and/or difficulty breathing, are coughing blood, or answered yes to #4, go to the hospital. You may have broken or fractured a rib, or something worse. You need immediate medical attention.

If you can make physical contact with the area but it seriously hurts to do so, and are experiencing any of the above symptoms, go to the hospital.

If you can make physical contact with the area and it only hurts a little, are experiencing some pain but mostly when you press the painful area, are able to breathe normally, and are not coughing up any discharge, follow these instructions.

There are some things you can do to help ease pain and speed up healing:

Do

Stop binding. No arguments. Do not bind until your symptoms are gone.

Take an NSAID. These are over-the-counter painkillers like naproxen (Aleve). Acetaminophen/paracetamol will not help with inflammation, but will help with pain.

Ice the area for 20 minutes. Don’t make direct contact with the skin - hold an ice pack (or a bag of frozen peas in a tea towel) to the affected ribs in a ziploc wrapped in a towel. You should do this regularly in the first few days to bring down swelling.

If you want to do more, you can alternate ice and heat. After 20 minutes of ice, do nothing for 20 minutes. Then heat for 20 minutes (heating pads or warm showers help) and rest again. Continue to alternate this.

Rest. Keep your chest relatively elevated - do not lay down flat or lower than your heart.

Keep pressure off your chest.

Breathe normally and cough when you need to – this helps clear mucus from your lungs to prevent chest infections.

If you need to cough, hold a pillow against your chest.

Walk around and sometimes move your shoulders to help you breathe and clear mucus from your lungs.

Take 10 slow, deep breaths every hour to help clear your lungs.

Try to sleep more upright for the first few nights.

Rest and take time off if you need to, and don’t do gym class activities.

Don’t

Take ibuprofen for 48 hours after your injury as it may slow down healing.

Do not wrap a bandage tightly around your chest to stop your lungs expanding properly or wear a binder.

Do not lie down or stay still for a long time.

Do not strain yourself or lift heavy objects.

Do not play any sports or do any exercise or gym class activities that makes your pain worse.

Do not smoke – stopping smoking may also help your recovery.

Again: broken or bruised ribs heal in the same way and usually get better by themselves within 3 to 6 weeks, so you don’t always have to go to a doctor depending on what your symptoms are. But if you’re able to, then definitely do!

I’m not joking around here, friend. Your body is important and you gotta be kind to it! If that means you need medical care, so be it. As long as you’re safe.

Followers, any other suggestions on things to tell anon’s parents that will allow them to go to a doctor without outing them?

[xserpx]

Battle Ground Thoughts

Major spoilers below.

The Good

I really enjoyed the last part of the fight with Ethniu. Hendrick's sacrifice was well done, and the Marcone reveal was fantastic. The action was really great, although it did get too much at times, especially the beginning of the fight with Ethniu where it’s more like reading a shonen manga, lots of huge ‘final’ attacks and mist clearing as they wait for the blood spray before someone pulls a trap card. Still pretty likeable.

Marcone as a Knight of the Blackened Denarius is intriguing. My one caveat is that I think it diminishes his post-Small Favor achievements quite a bit, knowing he had access to all that power. It makes sense, especially considering just how much Marcone was able to get done, but yeah, I liked this little twist. Marcone is probably the main reason I would keep reading the books, as things stand.

I like the fact Harry's finally been kicked off the White Council, as he should be. I'm not sure why this is controversial, though. He’s clearly broken several laws, and tbh I was kind of surprised they kept him on after becoming the Winter Knight, like... conflicted interests, much?

Drakul and the Blampires were cool. Wouldn't mind seeing them again.

The Bad

Justine's reveal, while interesting bc omg Outsiders infesting the characters we love, it also absolutely terrifies me in terms of what it actually means for Thomas/Justine both in the future and in the past. A future that might not even happen, now. And considering how long it's been since she was infected, it's entirely possible a lot of Justine's feelings have been manufactured as well. One of the things at the top of my Do Not Want list was Justine or the baby getting hurt, and now we’re here.

I'm severely disinterested in Harry/Lara. I have no idea where it's going, but it's boring at best. Maybe Jim Butcher has an idea for it that doesn’t result in me rolling my eyes, but I’m not feeling charitable today.

Ivy and Harry never got a proper conversation. Also why tf was Ivy dressed in a school uniform for that fight? Unless she's a sailor senshi or something, it just doesn't make sense. Plus she should be in her mid-late teens by now, ffs, not her early teens.

We're still drawing out the Starborn mystery? Ugh, ok.

Michael's cursing out the White Council for kicking Harry off the team... Completely OOC, sorry, I hated it. Michael is a great character because he doesn't swear as a matter of principle. If he had to start swearing, that was a bad hill to choose.

The way the morality of the White Council flip flops depending on Dresden's mood is getting annoying. At the meeting at the end, he says the Council is the biggest defender of humanity, and that he's clearly sitting at the monsters' table, but they're also supposed to be the enemy for treating him as such? Ebenezar and some of the Seniors are douchebags, for sure - especially Eb as it's personal - but Carlos and the rest are solid good guys trying to do their best. After everything that's happened, Harry shouldn't be so freaking bitter. He’s a monster now. Either own it, or make different choices. Also Carlos should’ve told him what Molly did to him. I hate that this hasn’t been addressed and that Carlos just looks like a suspicious bastard when he’s actually sustained life-changing injuries and trauma. Communication generally between Harry and the White Council needs to start happening like yesterday.

Butters needs to just go away, please. Give me a break from this shithead. He's had a few months of training and can keep up with literally everyone. He gets all these Crowning Moments of Awesome, but he never suffers for it, and at this point I'm genuinely wondering whether he'll ever suffer any consequences whatsoever. Also he constantly outshines Sanya, who is ostensibly better qualified, and the Sword of Hope should have been the stronger of the two in that last fight. I’m sick of hearing how great Butters is, and being expected to laugh at all his dumb, nerdy references.

Harry barely thinks about Thomas when he considers his recent losses. Sure Thomas is still alive, but barely, with no guarantees he'll survive or that he'll come back the same person. Harry should be grieving for him as much as he's grieving for Karrin at this point. I also wanted there to be more reason behind Thomas's actions, some sort of conspiracy within the White Court, but there wasn't. It's bad enough being anxious for Thomas, but being anxious for his whole goddamn family is just way too much, ffs.

The Ugly

I mean, I've told people: if I'd tried to imagine a worst case scenario for Karrin Murphy's death, it would have been better than the ending we got. It's worse than James Norrington dying at the hands of Bootstrap Bill. It's worse than Superman's dad dying while trying to save the dog. She shouldn't have died at all, period, but if she absolutely had to go, there is no fucking way in HELL that that was the best way for it to happen. Whether she comes back or not, there is no way to justify that scene. Gard saying she saved everyone by defending Dresden might be a satisfying Watsonian explanation for some, but of all the times, of all the places, of all the ways, and of all the people... JB picked the absolute worst possible combination. Absolute. Garbage. It's not that he can't write decent sacrifices. Hendrick's death was superb! So why the FUCK couldn't Murph get the same treatment? Why the FUCK was she killed off so FUCKING pointlessly? This isn't a real life story. This isn't some hyperrealistic, anyone can die, Game of Thrones type bullshit, where you can just kill off the second main character as shock value and have it be valuable to a bigger theme. This is the Dresden Files, a fucking series where all the women are Playboy models, and there's a middle-aged dweeby guy in sports goggles riding a skateboard and wielding a lightsaber and facing off with a Titan after just a few months of training, and having threesomes with bisexual women half his age, one of whom wears a fucking Avengers t-shirt to bed. It's a fanservice show. So it is not too much to ask for the main female character to be given the kind of death she actually deserves, let alone that she be allowed to live long enough to enjoy a relationship that's been so fantastically built up over 15+ books. (Query: was any of her family at her funeral? Audiobooks make searching hard, and I can’t find out if that was mentioned.) It's not unfair to hate the FUCK out of JB for pulling such a horrible, awful, LAZY move. I didn’t cry when it happened. I actually laughed quite a bit, maniacally, because it was that much of a train wreck. I'm not crying now, either. I'm just so, so tired. RIP Murph.

Granted, I haven't had to wait for a Dresden Files book like this before. Skin Game had a very neat ending, whereas this asks way, way, way more questions than it answers, which is probably more par for the course in this series? But now my two favourite characters are out of the field and may never come back, and I'm just so fucking tired and disappointed, and tired of being disappointed. I don't know whether it's worth staying invested in the vague hope Jim Butcher will start giving a shit about anyone other than Butters, but I can't see the next book being much good when Thomas and Karrin won't be there. When Karrin may never be there again. When I don't even know if the next book will show up, or if there'll be another hiatus resulting in a mediocre story.

I'm predicting that there'll be a Murph-centric short story in the near future that'll probably be a "gotcha!" to all the fans like me who fucking hate how BG turned out. Either it'll finish her off entirely or hint at a resurrection, which may or may not come. Either way, it won't justify her death. It won't make this better.

If I wasn’t as invested in Karrin, I’d like this book more. I can understand if people like it, and there are definitely some good things about it, but it’s hard to appreciate those bits when there’s such a massive pile of stinking shit sitting smack bang in the middle.

[komahinasecretexchange]

Title: Silent Courtroom

Author: @redakara

For: @asktheshadowprince

Pairings/Characters: Hinata/Komaeda, mentioned Nanami

Rating/Warnings: Teen/No warnings

Prompt: Amnesia

Author’s notes: Not gone, only forgotten.

The building wasn’t quite moving, rather shifting, half-formed and transparent, completely white like the sky with hot pink outlining where walls should be. The outlining, too, glitched away and reappeared, the verticals and horizontals slowly stretching and receding in a form that loosely resembled a building. A completely uninteresting rectangle with similarly shifting outlines that were some forms of walls, furniture, and pillars.

Geometrical shapes floated innocently throughout it all, as if they were attempting to convince him that the content of this strange place didn’t defy logic’s dictating hands, that it made completely sense for buildings to shift in such a strange manner. Still, logic clung onto him like a leech and boldly insisted that everything here wasn’t right. Maintaining some degree of lucidity, just enough to recognize that this was a strange existence, he watched the nonsensical chaos continue as if it was supposed to happen. He clutched his skateboard.

Even so, the acknowledgement wasn’t enough to pull him out of the irregularity that was this half-dream, half-awake world where he watched the scorchingly bright white cityscape form and deform on repeat, looping until he memorized the patterns and anticipated each movement. How utterly boring.

What he didn’t expect was the complete halt.

The building’s outlines stopped stretching to touch each and make ends meet, the carefree polygons ceased in midair, and the rectangular building attained a new hue- brick red, the glue between the cracked bricks nearly tangible despite his distance from the building. Maybe a kilometer?

A failed attempt to take a step forward proved that his legs didn’t exist in this world, a huge inconvenience along with having no arms or mouth, just sight and hearing. Wind swished undramatically past his ears, masking the ominous echoing footsteps. He only knew someone else was in this world because of the sudden black, almost piercing his eyes.

Though they stood on the distant balcony of the nondescript, dirty brick building, he could feel the scathing glare from them and the sudden jolt ensuing from nearly undetectable, but alarming eye contact.

The person’s long, untangled black hair shifted as they turned slightly to their right in annoyance, leaning their left arm on the banister with a suppressed sigh.

“Clearly, you don’t remember me either.” Their voice was distant, emotionless, and cold, and nearly a whisper, yet completely audible. Laced into their voice was a nearly imperceptible hint of concern, almost as if they cared about his fate.

With a strangled attempt to return the remark with confusion, he realised that he also lacked a mouth.

“I suppose you could call us something like…best friends. Or maybe roommates fits the bill better.” They responded, answering the unasked question completely calmly, as if they knew they hit the nail right on the head and didn’t bother lingering on their incredible intuition. Instead, they simply turned back to their original position, relieving themself of a resting position.

With a loud finger snap, the front of the banister shifted away, and a brick staircase to his position replaced it, and black began infecting the once white areas like an injection, but the ever-present pink remained, holding their positions as outlines. With that, they began their drawn-out decline on the newly formed stairs.

“I am sure that he-…they all are worrying about us. Succeeding such an incident, all of them should be afraid. Perhaps we are the spine of it all.”

Five steps descended, twenty-six left.

“You could call this our vacant room. One of us is out, the other is here. Something is wrong is both of us are here at once. They are awaiting your return, not mine. Go back, Hinata.”

Eleven steps descended, twenty left.

“There’s not enough space in this world for us to meet here simultaneously. I will not disappear if you leave.”

Twenty-two steps descended, nine left.

“I am once again asking for you to leave.”

Twenty-eight steps descended, three left.

The person halted. “You know what will happen if you don’t move.”

He couldn’t move. His legs were gone.

Thirty-one steps descended.

“Very well, then.”

With slow, practiced, and daunting footsteps in his direction, the person suddenly wielded a knife. A voice whispered in his ear. “This world is whatever I wish it to be.”

Without an expression shift, despite claiming to be best friends, they emotionlessly stabbed the knife into his side. The obscene sound of metal piercing organs replayed itself in his head, looping like a catchy rhythm. The audio of the knife divorcing from his body was worse than the original noise, somehow.

“Forced pain. I’m sorry.” They didn’t sound sorry.

“Goodbye.”

He awoke surrounded by unfamiliar faces. Two of them, to be specific. A girl, purple choppy hair and a permanent meek expression carved into her muscles. An androgynous man, shoulder-length curly white hair appearing more brown at the ends like color escaped from his hair. The girl was visibly shocked, the man just teared up with a bright smile. She ran off, calling out an apology and a brief explanation.

“Hajime…” The man let an unfamiliar name slip past his lips. And in an unbelievable flash, the white-haired man was sobbing into his chest, bending in an uncomfortable position from his wooden chair.

“Tsumiki said you..you might never wake up.” Hiccup, sob. “But…I knew you could get through this. I’m so-” He paused once more to rub his eyes, smiling. “-happy.”

“Oh..yeah, that’s, um great!” Was it too rude to push him off after expressing his happiness at his well being? Yes, likely. After such a strangled response, surely he would pull himself off of him, right? Of course, he was right. The beautiful- wait, what- male sat upright in his chair in abrupt fear. If nothing else, he was predictable.

“Oh, is something wrong, Hajime? I’m sorry I touched you, I-” Somehow, he already knew a self-deprecative rant was incoming.

“No, it’s just-”

His sentence cut off when the purple-haired girl walked back in with a file in her hands.

“Hinata! Y-you’re awake now, so, i-if you don’t mind, I just want to ask you s-some things.” She said, clenching a file in her hand. The paper already crunched slightly in her hand. Gentle, indecisive, scared of being too confrontational or confident. Predictable, once more.

He ignored the oncoming chill sourcing from those thoughts.

“Actually, I’d like to ask you something first.”

“Yes, a-anything.”

“Um…well…who am I?”

——————————–

Once Komaeda and Tsumiki (as they had introduced themselves) came down from the sudden shock of his question, Tsumiki handed him a file and left to alert the rest of the island residents. Was it a small community? Did he have many friends?

“Your name is Hinata Hajime. Your blood type is A, you’re one hundred seventy-nine centimeters tall. You weigh sixty-seven kilos and your chest size is ninety-one centimeters.” Komaeda listed off his physical traits in his soothing voice, but even Hinata could hear the hidden panic in his words.

“We seem…close.” Hinata pondered out loud.

“You were my first friend, Haj-…Hinata-kun. Of course we’re close.”

He couldn’t help but to notice that Komaeda kept more distance between them compared to when he first woke up.

The unspoken question hung in the air, but was left unanswered.

“You’re friends with everyone here too. I’m sure they’re dying to see you again.”

An obvious desperate attempt to ditch the conversation, but an attempt that he tried to follow regardless.

——————————–

Imposter is kind. Hanamura is perverted. Koizumi is harsh. Pekoyama is intimidating. Saionji is rude. Mioda is cheerful. Tsumiki is meek. Nidai is strong. Tanaka is…interesting. Komaeda is wonderful. Sonia is not princessy. Owari is hungry. Kuzuryu is strangely comforting. Souda is friendly. Mitarai is wary.

He repeats it to himself, over and over, until names and faces match.

——————————–

Tsumiki still smelled faintly of vanilla, but the pollen had disappeared and replaced itself with the factory aroma of chemical-loaded cleaning supplies. The smell was intoxicating, following her as she tripped over her own feet with a tray of empty syringes. To imagine her intentions with them was nearly terrifying despite her incessant, profuse apologies. As she rearranged the empty shots in size order, he could only feel like he could do better.

A ridiculous fantasy, but one that he couldn’t help but to entertain. Her hands were shaking as she set it down beside his uncomfortable hospital bed. She exclaims another apology as she excuses herself to go grab more supplies.

She was…adequate. She took care of people without expecting an apology or anything in return. He wondered if he, too, could do that.

Even as he sat, helpless in a purely white hospital room, he still had the nerve to think of himself as above her. The quiet voice in his head whispered it like a cacophony, but not in an unfriendly way. A silent reminder. Nothing more.

She returned, nothing but a filled syringe clenched tightly in her left hand, like it would disappear if he loosened her grip even slightly. He let a light sigh tumble from his lips.

How boring.

——————————–

A lone girl sat on a bench in front of a fountain. She sat there, without acknowledging the presence of the spectator. She flicked around a joystick and clicked buttons in perfect harmony, never missing a beat as her face remained placid. The left side of the bench appeared painfully empty when she sat closer to the right. If he closed his eyes hard enough, he could almost feel a similar console in his hands as he sat beside her, clicking the buttons with as much precision and expertise as her professional self.

But the memory was no more than an unattainable fantasy. It dissolved like an uncoated pill if he looked away for even a second. He didn’t sugarcoat it for himself, simply let the memory slip through his fingers.

When she appeared again, it was more painful. A fatal wound leaked onto the ground, drowning her in her own blood. With such wounds, breathing was laborious and even the slightest hopes of living died along with her body.

She already knew she was dead, yet her spirit refused to give up. A faltered attempt to stand on her destroyed feet only proved further that her life was already over. But she still found it in herself to breathe out meaningless words that she thought carried weight.

Her will to keep living meant nothing. She meant nothing. She was boring. She was weak and let herself die. He watched, a voyeur to her pain.

Somehow, he still found himself looting her Galaga hair clip.

Even stranger, he found himself crying, too.

——————————–

Nanami. Nanami Chiaki.

He hated forgetting her, but hated more to remember how he did nothing to save her.

——————————–

Most returning memories centered themselves around Chiaki, but this one was different.

It was Komaeda this time, but not quite Komaeda. His hair was clearly the same, but his mechanical arm was a real arm. But that wasn’t his, either. Long, merciless red nails and a mismatched skin tone gave the impression that it was a woman’s arm. Longing for a forgotten green and red oven mitt only grew at the disgusting sight.

The aforementioned arm fell quickly to his mouth as if he was laughing at him. No noises found their way out, he just kept it in the same spot.

“Isn’t it so disgusting?” Komaeda inquired.

“Rather, impressive that you’ve managed to keep her arm from rotting.” An empty compliment, just for the predictable flush to appear on Komaeda’s face.

Komaeda swatted her hand up and down as if in refusal. “Don’t waste your praise on me, Kamukura-san. I’m just a lowly servant.”

Feelings shifted through him like someone studying the contents of a file cabinet. Still, he remembered feeling nothing but the cold night air.

“Aren’t you cold, Servant?” Kamukura answered nonchalantly. “A metal collar is bound to breed cold, correct? Winter’s solstice is to occur soon.”

Servant’s face went redder, though he wasn’t sure if it was from the cold or the embarrassment. “If I was cold, what would you do about it?”

“Bring you back to the children, naturally. I’m rather busy today if you didn’t know.”

“Can’t you humor me just for a bit?”

——————————–

Time proved effective in restoring his memories. The puzzle was far from complete, but the edges were set in place and he began to form a vague picture of the past.

Nobody told him that they, on this island, had assisted in destroying the world in the name of Enoshima Junko. Nobody told him that they, on this island, had entered a program to help restore their hopeful selves where a series of gruesome murders and executions occurred at the hands of Enoshima Junko’s AI- one that another him released into a world meant for hope.

Nobody told him about his relationship with Komaeda.

——————————–

Hinata had asked Komaeda to join him on the second island’s vast library. With the bridge in progress, they ferried themselves over to it in silence. Komaeda was never the type to enjoy meaningless conversations, after all. So they kept to themselves, nervously poking at whatever while trying to get over to the island safely. It’s quiet, but not awkward as they step off the boat in sync.

The walk to the library wasn’t uncomfortable, but awkwardly brushing hands and stuttered apologies in response almost put him under the illusion that it was.

Memories of the past attempted to convince him that it was fine to be close to Komaeda, but it felt wrong when he wasn’t quite that him anymore. So he kept himself in line, stopped himself from impulsively grabbing Komaeda’s hand, and stopped himself from kissing him gently and calling him by his first name- at least until Komaeda was fine with that.

“So…why did you ask me here, Hinata-kun?” Komaeda asked, very obviously trying to lace innocence into the undertones.

“I know the truth now.”

Hinata was never the blunt type, but that definitely took the cake in terms of being direct.

“What truth? I’m sorry, I’m not sure what you-”

“I know we were together, Komaeda. I know about us being the Remnants of Despair, and I know about the Neo World Program.”

There, it was out. Komaeda looked incredulous for a moment, but blinked. His eyes weren’t quite so wide anymore. He breathed out a sigh in apparent acceptance.

“It was stupid to think you’d never know, huh?” Hinata could hear the fake smile hidden in his voice, dying the tone a soft shade of red.

“I guess you know now. Surely you’re disgusted, right? To think that you were close to someone like me….I don’t know if I’d be happy, either.”

“No, that’s wrong! I’m…I want to try this again. I might not be exactly the same, but I want to be by your side. If you’d like that, I mean.”

The boy opposite him didn’t say a word, instead took both of his hands in his and smiled. And that was confirmation enough.

——————————–

As long as it took to remember Nanami, Komaeda, and Enoshima, it took longer to remember the strange file resting in the only computer on the island. With a vague name such as PCS as a folder with only two items, two folders with the names “Observers” and “Users”, it left him clueless as to the true nature of whatever the nature of the files were. Nobody else seemed to know either.

Saionji told him to figure it out for herself and continued walking with Koizumi, who said that though the words seemed familiar, she didn’t know quite what they meant.

Owari shrugged and continued eating meat, never giving a conclusive answer. But the confusion in her eyes was enough to see that she didn’t know at all.

So skimming the files within the folder was sufficient at the moment. Two files rested quietly in the observer folders, code destroyed beyond belief. The one called Teacher.exe simply opened to a screen of editable binary, letters half-complete and words irrecoverable. It was nearly impossible to figure out what it was, other than that its name was Usami.

Student.exe was more confusing. Rather than the expected text editor of messy binary, a screen opened but full of missing pixels. A sound played, unidentifiable and sounded like a noise a computer would make. So he closed the files, hoping that whatever was in there remained intact, which it likely would.

The memory rush was like watching a horror movie with a sudden jumpscare. That was Nanami, it was Nanami fucking Chiaki. Her code was nearly unsalvageable, but in just good enough condition to be understood and rewritten. He guessed that, since the computer sat in the room he was told he went to often, he was trying to repair Student.exe or Teacher.exe.

With the Student.exe file nearly cohesive, already starting to be pieced together once more, it was more likely that Student.exe was almost repaired, that maybe they could have Nanami back again.

With that in mind, he let his talents take over.

——————————–

A knock at the door tore him away from the screen. More accurately, two brief knocks that were firm and almost loud, as if their fingers joints alone kissed the door. Groaning as his nearly numb legs carried him over, he opened the door unenthusiastically, rubbing the grogginess out of his eyes.

Komaeda stood there, hair tied back into a small ponytail, wearing no jacket and pajama pants with his everyday shirt as he walked in without an invitation. He simply smiled, sat beside the chair that Hinata was already returning to, cupped the side of Hinata’s face in his hand, and kissed his cheek tenderly.

“Komaeda, I-”

“Shh…she’d be so happy that you want to bring her back, but I think she’d also tell you that you’re overworking yourself. Come back after you rest.” Komaeda insisted. He wasn’t the insisting type, so Hinata could already taste the desire for him to rest hidden in his words.

“If it makes you happy.”

Hinata stood up, legs slightly less tingly and shaky, and walked away from the computer, not before forgetting to save his progress.

Somewhere, a half-finished program contained in a computer smiled for no reason other than her own happiness.

Student.exe just watched, program left open and let out a small laugh.

[all-souls-matinee]

Paranormal Activity

I went through ‘a very strange time in my life’ a few years ago where I watched every single Paranormal Activity movie, some multiple times, thinking that would have no impact on my psyche. So here I am, someone who thinks the the franchise is bad and yet can remember every plot thread and every scare, and I might as well do something with that. These will be graded on a curve (scale of 1-5 stars) and not by their overall worth as movies.

Paranormal Activity (2007)

★★★★☆

Today the first movie in the franchise is lampooned for being boring and amateurish, with unlikable lead characters and a plot that doesn’t really go anywhere, but how are those not points in its favor? Isn’t that what found footage is all about? Critics and scholars contend it’s singlehandedly responsible for the genre craze that swept the United States in the 2010s after a relative lull in the early aughts, and it’s easy to see why. I’m not going to go so far as to say Paranormal Activity is a good movie (it’s not), but it is a very easy and engaging watch. 

With a cast of only two people and hardly any outside characters the story plays out as a domestic drama; yes, there are long stretches of nothing happening but it ratchets up suspense in a way that was unusual and refreshing at the time. Using a camera to feel in control of an out-of-control situation was a theme broached by the much better Blair Witch Project, and Paranormal Activity leans into it as a central thesis, making sure it’s a white hetero rich guy that’s doing the recording and only subverting that expectation in later films. The movie was even supposed to end [mild spoilers] with Possessed Katie beating her obnoxious husband Micah over the head with his beloved camera and the film cutting to black, and I think it leaves the story weaker and more scattered for having left that out. 

Paranormal Activity 2 (2010)

★★☆☆☆

Before I get into why this one sucks, I’ll give it the benefit of being the most solid entry in the franchise by far. As a prequel to the first movie it does its job by introducing additional family members in a bigger house with more cameras. They have to contend with the same demon, so it’s the same thing we’ve seen before but with much higher stakes, and that’s a perfectly good idea for building a franchise. I admire it for that.

Anything beyond structure and pacing is so much worse it’s laughable. Where PA1 had some originality going for it PA2 throws in every horror stereotype it can think of, including an insanely awful running bit about how the family’s Mexican housekeeper is the only one who can sense ghosts. The most novel addition to the franchise is extensive lore about the demon wanting to own a baby because of a pact made with a coven of witches, which made audiences across America lean forward in their seats and say ‘... what?’ Decisions like that cost the movie any kind of levity, scares, or interest in the characters, which were kind of essential things for the movie to have.

I’d honestly give it 1 star if it weren’t for the extensive drama over the automated pool cleaner. We spend so much time watching this thing I think I developed an emotional bond with it.

Paranormal Activity 3 (2011)

★★★★★

Paranormal Activity 3 is another prequel that takes us back to when the leads of the first two movies- Katie and Christie- were little girls experiencing demonic activity in the 80s (their stepdad is a videographer, which gets us past the question of how anyone in the 80s would have tens of video cameras skillfully set up around their home.) Objectively it sounds like even more of a pathetic cashgrab than PA2, but, and this might be the hottest take I will ever have when it comes to horror movies, it does its job it in a way that’s such a prefect mixture of original/bizarre content and safe bankable boringness that it’s the best movie in the franchise. It certainly cemented it for what it is today.

Movie no. 3 drops the ‘this really happened’ show the first two movies put on in trying to be like other found footage horror (read: The Blair Witch Project.) No more actors and characters sharing names, no more title cards thanking the police for footage, we’re all in on the game at this point and you don’t realize how much of a relief that is until it’s happened. Instead of trying to make the characters realistic and falling flat, they let them be a little more like characters to great success. Everyone plays their role in the story and makes the shaky plot work. It’s not good writing, but it has people react to things in interesting ways and builds up the lore of the franchise more effectively than either of the first two movies (helped along by a batshit insane finale that makes no sense but is so much fun it doesn’t actually matter.) 

This is also by far the ‘scariest’ movie in the franchise, and I think it’s a combination of practice and not taking everything so deadly seriously. Comedy helps balance things out (my favorite is a sex scene that folds into an earthquake scene that folds into a shot of earthquake dust landing on a ghost), and they’ve gotten tension-building nothingness down to a science. Using a camera attached to a slowly oscillating fan and a camera trained on a mirror in a dark room? Perfect ideas for freaking your audience out.

Paranormal Activity 4 (2012)

★☆☆☆☆

Paranormal Activity 4 was the long-awaited actual-sequel to the events of the first movie, using the hours of information and lore given to us by the prequels as a backdrop, and it... really flounders under that responsibility. We’re introduced to an all-new cast of characters, with a teenage girl taking the lead for a change of pace that doesn’t really go anywhere, and spend the first half of the movie wondering why the family we’ve spent so much time with was pushed to the side (it must be important.) The reason we’re given is that this new family has an adopted son who is (twist!) the witch-stolen-demon-proxy baby from movie two.

PA4 has the opposite problem of PA2; it’s not awful, but is so shaky and has so much lost potential it seems to drop all of the pieces at once. It does some cool things with suspense an xbox kinect, and the acting is fine, but while no one is watching a Paranormal Activity sequel for the screenplay this one needed good, grounded writing and didn’t get that. The loose plotting of the third movie was saved by its characters and by being a little more tongue-in-cheek, but 4 doesn’t have that to fall back on and has way more moving pieces than 3 ever did. The ending is especially egregious, bizarre even by nth-sequel-in-a-horror-franchise standards, and is never brought up again. Points for a convoluted weird plot that makes no sense, points redacted for a convoluted weird plot that makes no sense.

Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones (2014)

★★★☆☆

Paranormal Activity 5 is so off-the-rails insane that it gets the coveted 3 stars, deserving or no. After back-to-back prequels and a disappointing long-awaited sequel, no one was sure exactly what this was going to be, and the movie seems to feel the same way.

Gone is the lore-heavy and tension-heavy stuff from the preceding years of footage. For the first half of the movie we follow a first-gen high school graduate named Jesse, who breaks into a mysterious neighbor’s house with his best friend. He gets bitten by a ghost and infected with ghost superpowers, then he and his friend group + love interest have a grand old time doing skateboard and levitation tricks using the ghost superpowers. I’m not exaggerating for comedic effect; it’s so dumb I love it ardently. Why aren’t all sequels like this??? 

Obviously the ghost superpowers turn out to be A Bad Thing tenuously connected to all the witch/demon stuff, and we have to get back to jump scares (now with added body horror), but the ways in which it does eventually tie back to the franchise are so ridiculous it’s delightful, and the twist ending, for once in this entire nightmare, is fantastic.

Paranormal Activity 6: The Ghost Dimension 3D (2015)

This one came out after my original paranormal activity run, and I considered watching it for the sake of being able to finish the article in good faith but I just can’t you guys. I couldn’t do it. Look at this.

That said, the thing about these movies is that none of them are a complete waste of time; even the worst entries in the lineup are entertaining and fun in a reality-tv-trainwreck sort of way, and that’s all very calculated. No matter what your opinion they earned the right to make this a franchise with too many movies and extensive lore. Happy halloween.

[whom-killed-markiplier]

I dunno how to phrase this exactly, but perhaps a soft moment between s/o and Dark, where Dark trusts them to help him with something, like perhaps his work or an injury or something? Basically a trust fic XD -NitS

Thank you so much for cute idea, darling! I’m super happy with this one, so I hope you enjoy it! 

-Trigger warning for blood and injuries-

It's hard to keep accidents from happening in a place like the ego manor, even despite Dark's best attempts. With idiots running around twenty-four seven, at least three things were bound to break in a week. And that's on a good week.Dark was constantly at his wits end with these fools, and if he didn't have you around, he feared that he would've ended at least three of them by now.

Starting with that stupid klutz of an android, Bing.

The incident that sparked such frustration happened when Bing was doing yet another skate trick in the house specifically after being instructed not to, because he'd already broken three vases and a window. Dark had been taking a walk outside when Bing came grinding down the stairwell railing, into the large window in front of it, and onto the grass. Dark definitely thought he saw sparks fly from a few cuts in Bings skin, but he was too angry to worry about his well-being right now. 

A large, pitch black aura began to surround Dark. He growled, deep and low in his throat, barring his teeth in anger. 

"What did I say about riding that damned skateboard inside?"

His voice took on a scary rumble that echoed and overlaid itself, so it sounded there were more of him then there really was. 

Bing flinched, visibly afraid. Realistically, he knew Dark would never hurt him. But in the heat of the moment he feared for his life.

Dark hadn't been close enough to actually get hit by the tumbling ego, but he was close enough to receive some damage anyway. This became clear as he exerted his powers and blood began to pour from a large cut along the side of his left palm under his pinkie finger, which was accompanied by a couple tinier cuts around it. His right hand was less damaged, but a couple cuts from where the glass had nicked him were present. Luckily, the rest of him was safe. His suit kept his arms unscathed and his hands, raised in front of him, served as significant enough protection for his face. Maybe he could make it up to his office without anyone noticing the damage.

He took a couple breaths, steadying his mood a little before drawing back his aura until it just barely outlined him, and crossed his arms behind his back. He clasped his hands together, his right over his left to keep the wound from bleeding everywhere. 

"Bing. Stand," Dark said, his voice still echoing in the lingering Void around him. Bing did as told without hesitation, scrambling to his feet in an instant. He saluted, which would have made Dark laugh in any other situation

"Google!" Dark called, eyes finding the onlooking android. Google was holding back a laugh, though it certainly wasn't for the sake of Bing's feelings. But he perked up when his name was called, no longer laughing.

"Take him to the infirmary and fix him up. That is an order."

Dark had to state that it was an order or else it wouldn't be done. Google would sooner sacrifice himself to the services of humanity before he'd willingly take care of Bing. 

With a grumble, Google grabbed Bing by the shirt and yanked him away from the wreckage. The rest of the egos watching the scene were quickly driven away by Dark's cold gaze.

Dark stood there in the grass, allowing himself to calm down from any lingering anger he felt. Once his dark aura dissipated completely, he uncrossed his arms and looked down at his hands which were slowly becoming wet and sticky from his blood. He frowned at the injuries and looked up to make sure no one was around. Then he clasped his hand over the large cut to stop the bleeding, ignoring the sharp pain, and stalked off to his office.

Once there he realized he didn't really know what to do. He'd never really had a major injury before. He'd only gotten minor cuts and bruises, those of which were easy to take care of and healed exceptionally fast thanks to his power. It didn't help that the injuries were on his hands, which would make patching himself up rather difficult. That meant that he would have to rely on someone else in the house.

There weren't many people around here that he trusted to help with this sort of thing, and even less that he trusted to see him in an injured state. He could always go to the infirmary and seek aid from Dr. Iplier, but he would rather not have the Doc tell him that he's dying every few seconds and then give him shoddy help at best.  Not to mention that Bing and Google were already there, and he didn't really want Bing to find out he hurt Dark and have him fret over him the entire time. Especially not while he was annoyed with him. 

Wilford was his most trusted friend among the egos, but he wasn't exactly... good at this sort of thing. Wil excelled with his marksmanship, not with his first aid skills. 

But there was one resident of the home that wasn't even an ego. One that he trusted with his life. 

As if being summoned by the mere thought of you, a humming came from the hallway, drawing his attention outside of his office. Both the tune and the voice was familiar, and poking his head out into the hall revealed the source of the sound to be you. You were on your way past his room, and when you spotted him you brightened considerably. 

"Good afternoon, Dark!" You said with a bright smile and a quick wave. A gentle smile tugged at his lips as he nodded in acknowledgement.

"Afternoon, (Y/n)."

He glanced over his own shoulder, considering his predicament before he called out your name. The call for you came out with a bit of urgency, against his will. The last thing he wanted was to worry you or make you think something was wrong. Or at least, make you think that something was seriously wrong. But something told him that this was a bit urgent. He needed help, and he didn't know who else to turn to. 

When you stopped your trek to wherever it was you were headed, tilting your head in question, Dark sighed.

"Could I perhaps ask for your assistance with something real quick?"

"Always. What's up?"

Dark smiled, then jerked his head back as a gesture to enter his office. As he retreated inside, you followed.

Your smile immediately fell upon entering the room and seeing the various scrapes and cuts inside his palm. You gasped, your hand clasping over your mouth in surprise.

"Dark, what happened?"

For some reason he was embarrassed and couldn't meet your eyes. 

"There was an... incident outside.," he said through clenched teeth. You raised an eyebrow, somehow knowing exactly what that meant. 

"Bing again?"

He sighed.

"Yes."

Though he was angry, you found the situation amusing. You pressed your hand to your mouth again, this time to suppress a laugh. 

"When will he learn?"

"I don't know. But now I must make arrangements to replace the window... again."

You stifled the rest of your giggles, trying to force them away so that you wouldn't upset him further. 

"Well... Let me help you patch up your hands."

"That would be appreciated, thank you."

You left his office as he pulled back one of the chairs from in front of his desk and sat down. You returned only moments later with a large first aid kit that you kept in the bathroom on this hall. Dark still remembered the exasperated face you made after your first experience of an injury here in the manor, when he told you that they didn't keep any first aid around. Even though you had been upset with him in the moment, it was rather funny now. He smiled fondly at the memory.

Before he could reminisce too long, you knelt down onto your knees in front of him and set the first aid kit on the ground. You picked up some tissues that you also brought with you and pressed it against the long cut under his pinkie. You pressed it for a long time until you were sure it was done bleeding, then set it aside to look at the cut.

"It's not too deep. Won't need stitches or anything..." You mumbled, more to yourself then him, it seemed, "It looks like there might be some glass in here..."

Dark cursed, but you smiled up at him and patted his knee.

"No worries, it won't be too hard to care for."

You took a pair of tweezers out, the pair you usually used to remove the Kings splinters. When Dark looked a little put off by this, you quickly assured him

"Don't worry, I sterilize these every time I use them."

That eased Dark and you went back to work, gently parting the skin of the cut. You gripped the glass shard and slowly slid it out, discarding it with the bloody tissues. You squeezed the wound a bit, pushing some blood out to wash out the germs, then patted it dry.

Afterwards, you stopped the more minor cuts from bleeding, checked them for glass, then wiped away the rest of the blood from his skin. 

When you pulled out the bottle of alcohol, he winced. 

"I don't really know how your body works. You heal at abnormally fast rates, and you can't really get sick, so... I don’t really know if you can get an infection... But, it's better to be safe then sorry."

You retrieved a baggie full of cotton balls and plucked one out. You opened the bottle and, careful not to spill any on his nice rug, you soak the cotton in the alcohol. 

You looked up at him in warning and he nodded, signaling you to continue. But when you pressed it against his wound he sucked in a sharp breath.

"I know, I know. I'm sorry. This'll be over before you know it."

You held his hands so gently as you paid each cut special attention. Even if it was barely worse than a paper cut, you still disinfected it like it was as deep as the first. Your soft hands caressed his so carefully, almost like you were worried that you would injure him further if you didn't handle him with care. He couldn't help the flutter in his chest over how caring you were to be so attentive to his wounds.

Once you were finally done, you put the used cotton balls with the rest of the trash and retrieved the bandages.

"I don't think the majority of your hands will need bandaging. Those little cuts will heal up pretty quick. But I don't know about the big one. I'd like to bandage it up, just in case. If that’s alright with you."

He nodded once again and you unraveled the roll of bandages. You started wrapping up the part of his palm underneath his pinkie finger. You made sure it was tight, just not too tight to cut off circulation to the finger. You grabbed a piece of medical tape and sealed it once you thought your work was sufficient, then leaned away from him with a smile. He momentarily wished that you would lean closer instead. 

"There! All done!" 

You piled all of the supplies back into the kit, then took out a box of band-aids and a tube of Neosporin. You stood up onto your feet and leaned down so you were face to face with him. Nearly inches away from you, he took in another sharp breath, this time not from pain but from surprise. 

You smiled coyly and with a quiet voice you said, "You have a cut on your cheek."

You were away from him before you even knew what was happening, attending to yet another wound that he didn't know was there. You put a dab of Neosporin on his cheekbone and rubbed it in(and only then did he notice the sting of an unattended cut). Then you opened up the bandage and pressed it over the wound. 

Your bright smile returned as you leaned in close again and pressed a kiss on top of the band-aid. A little thrown off by the show of affection, he barely noticed you kneel back down to pick up the trash and retrieve your first aid kit. You were saying goodbye and leaving his office before he even processed the kiss. You stopped by his door on your way out and grinned like you knew something he didn't. It quickly became clear, however.

"Oh, and sorry about that band-aid, by the way. It's all we had. Yandere prefers the ones with the cute little hearts."

You were gone before he had a chance to respond. Not that he could've anyway, still baffled by the events that just played out. 

Dark had a hard time trying to explain the bright pink, heart covered bandage on his face to the other egos during the meeting later that day. It became the main topic of discussion before Dark got fed up and shut it down. But he did not miss the way you smiled when you entered room with coffee for the others. And he definitely did not miss the way you tried to hold in laughter as the others joked at his expense. Though, you didn't miss the way he glared at you from across the room, either. He made sure of it.

That was all he could bring himself to do as payback, though. After all, you did spend your time caring for his wounds. He may have been upset in the moment, but perhaps what you did made up for it. Even the kiss. 

Especially the kiss. 

[thessalian]

Thess vs Perspective

I know that we’ve reached a point where culturally and sociologically speaking, it feels really important to pick a side and dig in because some jackass is going to hit you with either ‘alternative facts’ (read: lies) in a way that will cause aneurysms, or actual facts that will hurt your world-view and force you to think of someone other than yourself for ten seconds. I’m pretty sure most of the people I know are in that first category, so we’re cool, but still, I’m having an issue here with how both sides are handling things in terms of our so-called ‘lockdown’ over here right now.

Yes, I’m using scare quotes because it is nothing like the first one. And the fact that hospitals in London are having to send patients to fucking Newcastle to find an empty bed - or worse, having to treat them inside ambulances because, again, no room - is pretty much directly responsible for that difference. Miss me with that, “More virulent new variants!!!” bullshit; yeah, that’s a bugger, but consider - you have a more virulent variant of COVID, but you take fewer precautions. And you still don’t enforce worth a damn.

Now, the government’s clearly trying to blame the people for all of this. “People aren’t complying!”, they say. “It’d be grand if people just complied!”

So the people who don’t want the government to get away with their shambles say, “Fuck you! Survey says that 90% or so say they’re complying! It’s not our fault; it’s yours!”

Now, I’m not a government minister, but I do work in the health service. My office is in a hospital. I am seen as an essential worker, and for reasons that we’ll go into in a moment, I can’t work from home. So having seen the inside of a hospital a lot since lockdown started, not to mention all sorts of public transport, I will say this right now:

BOTH SIDES ARE WRONG.

Every day, I see people breaking the rules. People gather in tight little non-socially-distanced clusters in front of coffee shops, having a natter with their takeaway coffees in hands and their masks under their chins. People sit in the waiting area which is the main entrance to my hospital, mask off as they sip coffee. People get on the bus without any mask at all, or (somehow worse) wear it to get on the bus and take it off the minute they’re out of shouting distance from the bus driver. Tube and train? Ditto. People going to my corner shop? Same. Bunch of kids with no masks to speak of were skateboarding on a public pavement during rush hour today, making social distancing even harder. Businesses that will not under any circumstances make the necessary accommodations for their staff to work from home. (Like me, for instance. There’s exactly one piece of software they’d have to tweak to let me work from home. They said they were going to do so during the first lockdown last year, or so my office manager tells me. Apparently they didn’t bother so now I have to take the risk of infecting people. And me, I guess, but I’m vaccinated now and I’ve always been a tad more concerned about everyone else.) And this isn’t even taking into account the ones who just wear their masks wrong (IT IS SUPPOSED TO COVER YOUR NOSE).

So while 90% may say they’re complying with the guidelines, but they’re either lying or misinformed.

At the same time ... there would be a lot fewer people in violation of the guidelines with just a few tweaks from the government. Like ... maybe don’t make parents pick up those substandard school lunch substitute pieces of shit you ‘so generously’ gave them. Like ... maybe shut down the coffee shops, the way you did the pubs. Like ... maybe back up the poor sods who want to enforce the guidelines in shops and on public transport. Like ... honestly, just shut down damn near everything again. Estate agents should not be showing people around houses at this time. People should not be moving house at this time. Hell, at this point there’s no point in even keeping most of the health service open to anything but COVID patients in this country because at least three hospitals in London have had to cancel emergency cancer surgeries anyway because, again, no space, very little in the way of staff ... and the staff that’s there is now at breaking point. Much like the NHS itself.

Basically, we shouldn’t be taking the blame away from either side here. The government should be doing more, and they should be doing it in a more timely manner. At the same time, people should get over themselves and follow the guidelines properly. Yes, people would have an easier time doing that if the guidelines were clearer and better enforced, and if the people following them had better support, so that’s back to the government not doing enough. Still, every little helps, and even if these people just gave up their coffee and natter in front of the local cafe for a few minutes, or wore the ‘uncomfortable’ mask over their face for a twenty-minute bus ride, things would be better. Not ‘all better’-better, no, but better than they currently are.

Both sides are culpable here. Both should be held accountable. That way, the government can’t shunt the blame on the people like it wants to ... but people learn that their actions have consequences. Even if those consequences are just the scorn and derision of a bunch of people who actually behave in the public interest calling them ‘plague rats’.

[ploppythespaceship]

So I watched the Artemis Fowl movie...

Usually I make a list of good things and bad things in my reviews, but in this I literally do not have one good thing to say. Artemis Fowl fails as an adaptation, and it fails as a movie. It’s almost incomprehensible how terrible this film is -- Percy Jackson looks competent by comparison. So instead of my list, I’m gonna just talk about why it sucked.

The Plot

The movie combines the plots of the first two books in the series, with a few elements from later books tossed in for good measure. In the first book, Artemis learns of the existence of fairies and takes one hostage -- Captain Holly Short -- in order to extort them. In the second book, Artemis’s father has been captured, prompting Artemis to team up with Holly to rescue him.

The problem with combining these two is that they are fundamentally different stories. The latter relies greatly on the former to be well set up. Additionally, both are rather busy stories that need time and focus to do them well. The tension of Artemis holding Holly captive works because it lasts for a significant portion of the book. The development of Artemis teaming up with Holly works because they have hated each other for over a book now. This does not happen in the film. Everything is rushed, leading to a jumbled mess that barely makes any sense.

Artemis’s father is captured by Opal Koboi (a villain from the later books who does little to nothing in this film), who demands that Artemis give her something called the Aculos (a mcguffin that the movie made up). Artemis then captures Holly, and demands the Aculos as ransom. But when the fairies have no interest in giving him this ransom, Artemis teams up with Holly. Because it turns out her father, Beechwood, stole the Aculos years ago, and Artemis’s father knew Beechwood. The fairies send in a dwarf named Mulch to break in, and he locates the Aculos in the Fowl Manor. Mulch then teams up with Artemis, and there’s a long sequence where everyone fights a troll. Once that’s done, Holly uses the Aculos to rescue Artemis’s father. The end.

If you’re thinking that this plot makes no sense, that’s because it doesn’t. Information is presented at the strangest times, making things impossible to follow. Not to mention that character allegiances are constantly shifting for no discernible reason. There is no reason for Holly to trust Artemis, or vice versa -- yet they declare themselves “forever friends” before the end of the film. I can’t even tell you why Mulch sticks around, he just does.

The movie is also terribly paced. Despite only being ninety minutes long, it feels like it drags on for an eternity. Alternating between Artemis and Holly in the opening creates a distinct lack of tension, making it impossible to stay invested in any one thing for too long. Topping the whole thing off is the movie’s framing device -- the story is narrated by Mulch, as part of an interrogation that’s never properly explained. This setup feels so unnecessary, and it’s actually jarring every time we cut back to Mulch growling his exposition at the camera.

The Characters & Actors

I cannot think of one character that has not been butchered by the writing, the acting, or both. All of them are terrible. And across the board, the acting isn’t terribly good.

Artemis Fowl

The titular character gets it the worst of everyone. In the book, he’s a criminal mastermind. He’s cold, calculating, and eerie. He behaves so much like an adult that it unsettles people. He isn’t at all interested in typical child things, instead focusing on his own lofty goals. He’s an utter genius, learning the existence of fairies all on his own and coming up with the plan to capture one himself. Though he’s sympathetic in his own way, he’s also not presented as a terribly good person. As a protagonist, he’s almost unlikable -- it’s not until later books that he learns to have friends and become a better person.

But in the movie, Artemis is about as generic a fantasy film protagonist as you can get. He’s a more or less happy child who adores his father. He likes surfing and skateboarding. He doesn’t learn about fairies on his own -- his father tells him about them. And while he’s shown to be intelligent, it’s nowhere near the genius level he should be at. He’s so watered down and uninteresting that he’s unrecognizable as the same character. Even accepting that this isn’t the book character, he’s just boring to watch. There’s nothing interesting or compelling about this random kid. Ferdia Shaw’s performance doesn’t help -- while I’ve certainly seen worse child actors, I’ve also seen far, far better.

It’s worth mentioning that some of the best moments in the books are when something rattles Artemis so badly that the walls come down and he acts like a scared little kid. These moments work because they’re rare. This movie tosses them at you left and right. I don’t know who this kid is, but it ain’t Artemis Fowl.

Holly Short

In the books, Holly is an adult woman working an adult job -- she’s a police officer. She’s also described as having medium dark skin, with the phrases “olive” and “nut brown” being used most often. So the decision to cast a fourteen year old white actress... it boggles the mind. In fairness, Lara McDonnell did a decently good job in the role. But there wasn’t much role to do a good job with. Holly is a very bland character, with all of her drive and fire from the book simply gone. There’s also a backstory tossed in about her father, Beechwood Short, which is implemented in the strangest way and only comes up when it’s strictly relevant.

Domovoi Butler

Oh, Butler. Artemis’s bodyguard slash best friend slash pseudo father figure. A tremendously important character in the books who is barely in the movie at all. His role is so cut down that it’s absurd. I guess Nonso Anonzie was doing a fine job, but he was hardly there enough for me to tell. All indication that this man is a tremendously important figure in Artemis’s life is simply gone.

Edited to add: I didn’t initially think of anything wrong with Butler being a black man for the movie, but after seeing some complaints from others... yeah I think making a character from a family that’s been servants to a rich white family for generations now into a black man is uhhhhhhhhhh. It’s questionable.

Juliet Butler

Butler’s niece, Juliet, is in the movie so little that I kept forgetting she was there. Which is a damn shame, because I actually really liked Tamara Smart from The Worst Witch already and thought she was an excellent choice for Juliet. In the book, Juliet is the only other child around, and about the only kid that Artemis will remotely consider an equal. She’s great to balance him out and keep him more grounded. In the movie? Eh. She has a handful of lines.

Mulch Diggums

As far as being accurate to the book, Mulch is probably the closest. Though the decision to make a dwarf character not actually short boggles the mind... my main complaint is that Josh Gad likes to improvise his way through scenes, and his style of comedy is pretty grating. It gets old, fast. Throw in the fact that he’s also growling all of his lines to sound different, and you have a character that’s nearly unwatchable.

Julius Root

Speaking of growling all your lines! Commander Root is played by Dame Judi Dench in this movie, changing the character’s gender. I really don’t mind that, and the characterization is largely unchanged. What I do mind is Dench’s delivery. All of her lines are growled in such a low rumble that it sounds like she’s been smoking for eighty years. It becomes impossible to take anything she says or does seriously when she’s speaking like that. Josh Gad even pokes fun at it in a scene with the two of them, saying that they sound like “hippos with a throat infection” -- the only line to get a chuckle out of me.

Artemis Fowl, Sr.

To round it off, we have Colin Farrell as Artemis’s father. And... he’s here, I guess. Farrell mostly sounds bored in all of his scenes and it’s incredibly easy to forget about him.

Angeline Fowl

But wait! A fan of the book may ask. What about Artemis’s mother? How did the movie do her? Surely they didn’t forget Artemis’s mother! And my friends, I regret to inform you that the movie did, in fact, forget Artemis’s mother. She isn’t present, nor is she even mentioned. A major part of the books, a major force to drive Artemis’s character, just... gone. Lovely.

The Production Design

The best word I can think of is uninspired. Most things are serviceable, but unimpressive, leading to the film looking very generic. I was especially disappointed with the look of the fairy underground. A combination of magic and technology has a lot of potential to look visually interesting. Instead, the fairy police just look like the E.L.F.S. from The Santa Clause. And once you’ve seen it, you’ll never unsee it. So you’re welcome.

Additionally, the action scenes tend to be poorly shot and edited. Everything is extremely fast paced with a freely floating camera -- this makes things nearly impossible to follow. Several times I said out loud “what just happened?” because I legitimately could not tell where things were in relation to each other, and who was attacking, who was being attacked, etc. Thankfully there aren’t a lot of action scenes, but the few that do exist are pretty bad.

There are also several sequences of Mulch unhinging his jaw to burrow through the ground. In the book, it’s mildly amusing, but it doesn’t at all translate to film. It’s horrifying in every sense. The CG looks rubbery and fake, and Josh Gad’s performance doesn’t at all sell it. If there were any change from the books I would actually welcome, it’s this one. There are plenty of other ways he could dig. But nope. They stuck to that one. For some reason.

In Conclusion

This is easily the worst book to film adaptation I have ever seen. Please don’t watch it unless you’re a fan of the book and want a laugh.

[biillyhargroves]

hi!! for the Angst/fluff Prompt List could you do #85 for harringrove?? i love your writing so much!! you’re so talented!!! thank you (:

This is going to be a little post-S2, early relationship setting because that’s what I’m feeling!!!

that brutal youthsteve harrington/billy hargrove + “don’t lie to me.”(fic requests open)

Something is wrong with Billy. 

It’s something Steve has been told over and over again, and over and over again he is told what that something is. The list, so far, reads: 1) he stood up Carol for a date; 3) he cursed out a clerk at the drug store for refusing to sell him cigarettes; 3) he gets into too many fights, some of which have caused lasting damage to parents’ properties that come out of allowance money and whole teenage cashier paychecks of kids too afraid to out the new town badass as the culprit. These, however, are not the things that concern Steve- or, rather, they are not his primary concern. No, Steve doesn't care much about how all the things Nancy Wheeler and Jonathan Byers and the merry band of misfit kids he’s accidentally adopted say about Billy. These are the things that Steve takes in stride, the things he hears Billy’s take on (he had to go find his sister- stepsister -who had snuck out had scared their parents half to death, he had a bad day, people piss him off, so on and so forth). The thing that’s wrong goes far beyond all of Billy’s usual transgressions.

It’s the split lip that Billy swears is from a fight with Tommy H. at last weekend’s “no parents, let’s get wasted” bash. It’s the bruised knuckles that crack and bleed when he holds the steering wheel. It’s the way he sometimes leans on the door for support when he gets out of the car, or winces when Steve touches him unexpectedly, or how he shows up to school in yesterday’s clothes all crinkled and slept-in. 

Today in particular, Steve is worried of the black-eye that has bloomed over the right side of his face. It is the most obvious injury that Steve has ever seen on him- worse than the bruising that sometimes speckles his chest or broken nose he swore was a keg party badge of honor; worse than the mild limp he sported for a week when he said that Jason Miller had blown it out during a pick-up basketball game. Billy cannot hide this one. He can’t throw a shirt over it; he can't ice it better or milk it for sympathy. It is partnered with a gnarly scab slashed through his eyebrow, puckered and swollen. 

“What the hell happened?” Steve asks when he finally sees. Billy has avoided him all day, has ducked away and dodged him in the halls, has skipped classes, even tried to book it out of the parking lot before his sister (stepsister, he’d always correct) made it to the car. 

“It’s nothing,” Billy says. 

“Nothing?” Steve asks. He is standing on the street outside the drug store where a different, younger clerk had forgone an ID check to sell Billy a pack of Marlboros. An unlit cigarette dangles between Billy’s lips and his hand is fishing in his pocket for his lighter. He stilled when Steve approached him, a deer caught in headlights, and now he flicks the lighter on. The little flame dances, but it’s shadows are not enough to obscure the deep purple surrounding Billy’s eye. 

“Yeah,” Billy repeats. He lights the cigarette and inhales, then blows a puff of smoke toward Steve. “Nothing.” 

“I haven’t seen you all day,” Steve says.

“I was busy,” Billy says. 

“You were avoiding me,” Steve says. Billy’s silence is all the answer he needs. “Am I seeing you tonight?”

Billy looks up and down the street. It is a Wednesday afternoon. There is a Girl Scout troops selling cookies outside the grocery store and an elderly man walking his dog around the far corner. A group of kids on skateboards practice kick flips down the road from the drug store. Billy pinches his cigarette between his fingers and lets the smoke swirl up in the wind. He sighs. “Fine.” 

They are discreet when they are together. They find quiet places, like back parking lots and the city limits. Tonight, Steve's father is away on business, and his mother has trailed along. Instead of a party, he kept his plans open for Billy. He paces by the back door, watching the Billy’s headlights in the window. They never go anywhere together- not in a way that they can be seen. Billy circles nearby blocks to avoid being obvious, then parks two streets over and takes short cuts to Steve’s backyard. Steve hates the secrecy more than he will admit, but he won’t fight it. Billy won’t have it any other way. 

In the evening light, Billy’s eye somehow looks worse. Steve tries to control his reaction as he opens the sliding glass door to let Billy inside. 

“There’s beer in the fridge,” he says, though Billy is already beelining toward it. He takes out two cans and leaves one on the counter. He cracks open the other and drinks the whole damn thing in one fell swoop. Steve hands the second beer to him and takes a third out for himself. He follows Billy into the living room, where Billy does not sit but instead paces as he sips moderately at the second beer. 

“So,” Steve says eventually. He leans against the doorframe, one hand holding a can of Miller’s and the other stuffed in his pocket. “Are you going to tell me about that?”

“About what?” Billy asks. 

“That,” Steve says, motioning toward his own eye. Billy shakes his head so that his hair falls over his face and he carries on his pacing. “Tommy H. again?” Steve asks. “Or maybe it was Jason? Or someone new this time?”

“What the fuck do you mean?” Billy snaps.

“Just that you tried to hide a black eye from me all day.”

“Don’t flatter yourself,” Billy says. “Our paths not crossing does not mean I was fucking avoiding you.”

“Okay,” Steve says. “But still. That looks nasty.”

“It’s fine.”

“Are you sure it’s not infected?” Steve asks, and when Billy pauses to glare at him he points to his own brow. “That cut. Right there. It doesn’t look good.”

“I can leave if you're so disgusted,” Billy snarls.

“Woah, hey,” Steve says. His tone softens and he holds out his hand defensively. “I didn’t mean it like that. Just that, y’know, if that hurts, I can maybe try to help. I mean, I don’t know jackshit about patching people up, but I know my way around a first aid kit. Generally.”

“What, you wanna play nurse?” Billy teases.

“I’m being serious,” Steve says, exasperated. Billy says nothing. He downs the rest of his beer and sets the can on the coffee table as he collapses onto the couch. Steve hesitates before approaching him, and he tries not to react to the way Billy flinches when Steve sits beside him. “What’s really going on?” Steve asks.

“What do you mean?”

“Come on, asshole,” Steve says. “The black eye. The bloody knuckles. The bruises. It’s not all fights.” Billy doesn’t look at him, but Steve studies his profile. His jaw is set. His head is down. He’s listening- he’s thinking. “I’m at all the same parties. I know shit in this town. I know that there was no pick-up game.” Billy stiffens, and he turns his head away so that Billy can no longer see his face. “I know there was no fight with Tommy H.”

“Fuck off,” Billy grumbles, voice low and sounding somewhere between guilty and furious. 

“Billy,” Steve says, and Billy’s head snaps toward him. “Don’t lie to me.” 

“Why do you even care?” Billy demands. “We’re not dating. There’s no feelings here.”

“Maybe there could be,” Steve says. 

“For you,” Billy says flatly.

“Yeah, for me,” Steve says. “Whatever. Even if it’s one-way, I fucking care about you, and you’re fucking worrying me. Okay? I care about you. So why don’t you just cut the shit and tell the damn truth?”

"That’s what you want, huh?” Billy says. He jumps to his feet, towering over Steve as he remains perched on the overstuffed couch cushions. He starts to pace again, in a shorter field this time, and Steve watches him carefully. “That’s what you want?” Billy says. “A fucking sob story? You want me to, like, share my fucking feelings? Spill out some dark secrets?”

“I want to know why you’re always hurt,” Steve says. He jumps up, too, as he says it and the suddenness startles them both. Billy stills. Steve hesitates, questioning himself, then square off his shoulders and moves toward Billy. “I want to know what this is all about,” he says, and he gently cups Billy’s cheek in his hand. Billy tears himself away, but his own hand reaches up where Steve’s had been.

“What if I told you?” he asks. “What if I tell that my old rails on me, huh? That he gets drunk and he gets mad and sometimes I get a fist to the face? What then, Harrington? Is that what you want to hear? That I don’t know when the next hit’s coming? That he knocked me out? What’s it matter to you?”

It takes a moment for Billy’s words to set in, but when they do, Steve’s heard sinks. 

“Billy,” he says, but Billy is shaking his head and moving for the door.

“I’m leaving.”

“Wait,” Steve says. He catches Billy’s wrist as Billy tries to get past him. 

“What?” he snarls. 

“Is it true?” Steve asks. His fingertips touch the edge of Billy’s bruise and while Billy flinches, this time he doesn’t pull away. 

“Just let it fucking go,” Billy says.“Does your dad hurt you?” Steve asks. 

“Why do you care so much?” Billy asks.“I just-” Steve stumbles, because what he is supposed to say? Nothing is official between them. They’ve never so much as said I love you. They don’t wear labels. They aren’t anything, formally, to one another. But Steve knows that he cares for Billy, and that seeing Billy hurt makes him hurt, too. He knows that he wants Billy safe. “I don’t like being lied to.” 

He cups Billy’s cheek and Billy lets him. Billy lets Steve’s thumb graze over the outline of his darkened bruise. He jerks his head back when Steve touches the angry wound across Billy’s brow. “At least let me clean this?” he asks. “Seriously, Hargrove. I don’t need you toting diseases around.”

This gets the smallest smile out of Billy, and it is enough to relax Steve at least slightly. Billy’s shoulders sag. “Fine,” he relents. “That’s fine.” 

[newstfionline]

Headlines

Anxiety and Covid-19 (CDC/Bloomberg) A special project by the Census Bureau has set out to map and measure all the anxieties that Covid-19 has brought in its wake. One finding: Almost a third of people in some states have little or no confidence they can pay August’s rent or mortgage. Some of the longest-lasting effects of the pandemic may stem from its adverse impact on mental health, and from enforced delays in medical treatment for other conditions. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in a study conducted in May and June, found that more than 10% of adults seriously considered suicide—a figure that rose to more than one-quarter among 18-24 year-olds. It also found a jump in substance abuse, and said mental health outcomes were worse among racial minorities, essential workers, and unpaid caregivers.

Making billions vs. making ends meet: how the pandemic has split the US economy in two (The Guardian) Stock markets are setting new highs driven by soaring prices for the tech companies that enable those lucky enough to work from home. Apple is close to being valued at $2tn. The total wealth of US billionaires has soared $685bn since the middle of March to a combined $3.65tn. Rock-bottom interest rates have triggered a home sales boom for some as those with the money reconsider their priorities in the work-from-home era. With nowhere to go, those Americans who can are saving at record rates. But only one in four Americans can work from home. Meanwhile roughly 30 million people are unemployed in the US, about 20% of the workforce. Almost 30 million Americans recently reported that they have not had enough to eat at some point in the previous seven days, according to the Census Bureau. The vast majority—about 26 million—had lower rates of educational attainment. “It’s white-collar professionals who are able to work from home. In some ways, this is a sign that the economy is just officially split in two,” Glenn Kelman, chief executive of property company Redfin, told NPR last week.

Protests, counterprotests, and violence (Washington Post) Far-right extremists and continued clashes between Black Lives Matter protesters and police this weekend renewed tensions in Portland, Minneapolis and other cities, pushing the country into its 80th day of consecutive demonstrations in some places. A group with ties to far-right organizations that have long targeted Portland gathered downtown Saturday afternoon to wave American flags and push back against Black Lives Matter protests challenging police brutality. The event ended with two gunshots. Protests in other cities also erupted into violence Saturday, as police grappled with small groups hijacking otherwise peaceful events. One clash ended in fistfights after Proud Boys marched in Kalamazoo, Mich. Police intervened as the Proud Boys retreated into a parking garage, about seven minutes after a large brawl broke out between members of the far-right group and their opponents. Officers arrested some counterprotesters who had come out to oppose the right-wing group. In Chicago, a protest also grew violent after people used umbrellas and skateboards to attack police officers, injuring 17. Twenty-four people were arrested. And just before midnight Saturday, a group of roughly 50 protesters, most dressed in black and wearing full-face masks, descended on the 5th District police precinct in South Minneapolis. The group lobbed rocks and fireworks at the building. The station’s front windows were sprayed with anti-police graffiti, and red paint was poured along the steps of the front entrance and the sidewalk.

Virus pandemic reshaping air travel as carriers struggle (AP) In a bid to survive, airlines are desperately trying to convince a wary public that measures like mandatory face masks and hospital-grade air filters make sitting in a plane safer than many other indoor settings during the coronavirus pandemic. It isn’t working. Surveys indicate that instead of growing comfortable with air travel, more people are becoming skeptical about it. In the United States, airline bookings have stalled in the past month after slowly rising—a reaction to a new surge of reported virus infections. Globally, air travel is down more than 85% from a year ago, according to industry figures. The implications for the airline industry are grave. Several leading carriers already have filed for bankruptcy protection, and if the hoped-for recovery is delayed much longer, the list will grow.

Staycations (Morning Consult) Fully 63 percent of U.S. adults said they had plans to take a staycation during the pandemic, with 26 percent having already taken one during the pandemic, compared to 17 percent who took a vacation. The staycationers—those realists who rejected false hope instantaneously, immediately wrote the summer off, and promptly made the best of a truly abysmal situation well beyond their control—were led by the Millennials, a generation forged in the fires of crushing societal disappointment, of whom 35 percent have already taken a staycation.

Death Valley hits 130 degrees, thought to be highest temperature on Earth in over a century (LA Times) Temperatures in Death Valley skyrocketed to a blistering 130 degrees on Sunday—possibly the highest mercury reading on Earth since 1913. If the National Weather Service’s recording is correct, it would also be among the top-three highest temperatures to have ever been measured in Death Valley, as well as the highest temperature ever seen there during the month of August. The reading comes amid an epic heat wave that continues to grip most of the southwestern U.S.

Belarus Protests (NYT) Minutes after President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus vowed to stand firm against protesters he reviled as “rats,” “trash” and “bandits,” antigovernment demonstrators staged their biggest protest yet on Sunday to oppose a fraud-tainted presidential election a week earlier. Tens of thousands of protesters—some estimates put their number at well over 200,000—turned out in the center of Minsk, the capital, dwarfing a rally of Mr. Lukashenko’s supporters earlier in the day. It appeared to be the largest protest in the history of Belarus, a former Soviet republic that Mr. Lukashenko has led since 1994. The protest had a festive air, in stark contrast to the tense moods of far smaller rallies last week that were violently suppressed by security forces, leaving at least two people dead, many injured and more than 6,000 under arrest.

Japan’s economy shrinks at record rate, slammed by pandemic (AP) Japan’s economy shrank at annual rate of 27.8% in April-June, the worst contraction on record, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed consumption and trade, according to government data released Monday. The Cabinet Office reported that Japan’s preliminary seasonally adjusted real gross domestic product, or GDP, the sum of a nation’s goods and services, fell 7.8% quarter on quarter. The annual rate shows what the number would have been if continued for a year. Japanese media reported the latest drop was the worst since World War II. But the Cabinet Office said comparable records began in 1980. The previous worst contraction, a 17.8% drop, was in the first quarter of 2009, during the global financial crisis.

New Zealand delays election because of coronavirus outbreak (Washington Post) Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday postponed the general election, scheduled for Sept. 19, for four weeks as authorities grapple with a new wave of cases that has set back the country’s pandemic recovery.

Normalizing ties with Israel (Foreign Policy) Israel’s historic agreement normalizing diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates seems to have opened the way for other Gulf states to do the same. On Sunday, Israeli Intelligence Minister Eli Cohen said that Israel is exploring similar agreements with several countries in the Middle East and North Africa, suggesting that Bahrain and Oman were at the top of the list. Both countries praised the accord shortly after it was publicized, but have not confirmed whether similar deals with Israel were in the works.

Death toll from attack on Mogadishu hotel rises to 16 (Reuters) At least 16 people were killed in an attack on Sunday by al Shabaab on a seaside hotel in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, a government spokesman said, as the Islamist group launched a similar assault on a Somali military base. Sunday’s toll includes 11 victims and five assailants, Ismail Mukhtar Omar said in a tweet late on Sunday, adding: “Security forces lost one, 18 people were injured.” Militants stormed the high-end Elite Hotel in Lido beach, detonated a car bomb and then opened fire with assault rifles, the latest attack by al Shabaab, which has been battling the country’s central government since 2008.