#it doesn't need covid giving it any more ideas

[thirddeadlysin]

if you do get it, the number one way to protect yourself is vaccination. the number two way is MAXIMUM REST. I mean like flat on your back for five days at a minimum and then as many days as possible sitting up in bed and maybe walking to the kitchen a few times a day. For the first week though you go to the bathroom and take paxlovid and go back to bed. You want to compete with Charlie Chocolate Factory's grandparents for most effective bed-holder-downer and win by a landslide. Your only job is to let your immune system use as much of your energy reserve and calorie intake on fighting the infection and preventing damage as possible.

A secret third thing is to immediately start an antihistamine regimen like detailed in this post (or their MCAS post):

know someone who enjoys horror stories? share this one! it's true!

hahahahahahahahahaha aarrggghhhhhhhhhh 3,000,000 deaths due to COVID-19 last year. Globally. Three million. Case rates higher than 90% of the rest of the pandemic. The reason people are still worried about COVID is because it has a way of quietly fucking up your body. And the risk is cumulative.

I'm going to say that again: the risk is cumulative.

It's not just that a lot of people get bad long-term effects from it. One in seven or so? Enough that it's kind of the Russian Roulette of diseases. It's also that the more times you get it, the higher that risk becomes. Like if each time you survived Russian Roulette, the empty chamber was removed from the gun entirely. The worst part is that, psychologically, we have the absolute opposite reaction. If we survive something with no ill effects, we assume it's pretty safe. It is really, really hard to override that sense of, "Ok, well, I got it and now I probably have a lot of immunity and also it wasn't that bad." It is not a respiratory disease. Airborne, yes. Respiratory disease, no: not a cold, not a flu, not RSV.

Like measles (or maybe chickenpox?), it starts with respiratory symptoms. And then it moves to other parts of your body. It seems to target the lungs, the digestive system, the heart, and the brain the most.

It also hits the immune system really hard - a lot of people are suddenly more susceptible to completely unrelated viruses. People get brain fog, migraines, forget things they used to know.

(I really, really hate that it can cross the blood-brain barrier. NOTHING SHOULD EVER CROSS THE BLOOD-BRAIN BARRIER IT IS THERE FOR A REASON.) Anecdotal examples of this shit are horrifying. I've seen people talk about coworkers who've had COVID five or more times, and now their work... just often doesn't make sense? They send emails that say things like, "Sorry, I didn't mean Los Angeles, I meant Los Angeles."

Or they insist they've never heard of some project that they were actually in charge of a year or two before.

Or their work is just kind of falling apart, and they don't seem to be aware of it.

People talk about how they don't want to get the person in trouble, so their team just works around it. Or they describe neighbors and relatives who had COVID repeatedly, were nearly hospitalized, talked about how incredibly sick they felt at the time... and now swear they've only had it once and it wasn't bad, they barely even noticed it.

(As someone who lived with severe dissociation for most of my life, this is a genuinely terrifying idea to me. I've already spent my whole life being like, "but what if I told them that already? but what if I did do that? what if that did happen to me and I just don't remember?") One of its known effects in the brain is to increase impulsivity and risk-taking, which is real fucking convenient honestly. What a fantastic fucking mutation. So happy for it on that one. Yes, please make it seem less important to wear a mask and get vaccinated. I'm not screaming internally at all now.

I saw a tweet from someone last year whose family hadn't had COVID yet, who were still masking in public, including school.

She said that her son was no kind of an athlete. Solidly bottom middle of the pack in gym.

And suddenly, this year, he was absolutely blowing past all the other kids who had to run the mile. He wasn't running any faster. His times weren't fantastic or anything. It's just that the rest of the kids were worse than him now. For some reason. I think about that a lot. (Like my incredibly active six-year-old getting a cold, and suddenly developing post-viral asthma that looked like pneumonia.

He went back to school the day before yesterday, after being home for a month and using preventative inhalers for almost week.

He told me that it was GREAT - except that he couldn't run as much at recess, because he immediately got really tired. Like how I went outside with him to do some yard work and felt like my body couldn't figure out how to increase breathing and heart rate.

I wasn't physically out of breath, but I felt like I was out of breath. That COVID feeling people describe, of "I'm not getting enough air." Except that I didn't have that problem when I had COVID.) Some people don't observe any long (or medium) term side effects after they have it.

But researchers have found viral reservoirs of COVID-19 in everyone they've studied who had it.

It just seems to hang out, dormant, for... well, longer than we've had an opportunity to observe it, so far.

(I definitely watched that literal horror movie. I think that's an entire genre. The alien dormant under ice in the Arctic.)

(oh hey I don't like that either!!!!!!!!!) All of which is to explain why we should still care about avoiding it, and how it manages to still cause excess deaths. Measuring excess deaths has been a standard tool in public health for a long time.

We know how many people usually die from all different causes, every year. So we can tell if, for example, deaths from heart disease have gone way up in the past three years, and look for reasons. Those are excess deaths: deaths that, four years ago, would not have happened. During the pandemic, excess death rates have been a really important tool. For all sorts of reasons. Like, sometimes people die from COVID without ever getting tested, and the official cause is listed as something else because nobody knows they had COVID. But also, people are dying from cardiovascular illness much younger now.

People are having strokes and heart attacks younger, and more often, than they did before the pandemic started. COVID causes a lot of problems. And some of those problems kill people. And some of them make it easier for other things to kill us. Lung damage from COVID leading to lungs collapsing, or to pneumonia, or to a pulmonary embolism, for example. The Economist built a machine-learning model with a 95% confidence interval that gauges excess death statistics around the world, to tell them what the true toll of the ongoing COVID pandemic has been so far.

Total excess deaths globally in 2023: Three million.

3,000,000.

Official COVID-19 deaths globally so far: Seven million. 7,000,000. Total excess deaths during COVID so far: Thirty-five point two million. 35,200,000.

Five times as many.

That's bad. I don't like that at all. I'm glad last year was less than a tenth of that. I'm not particularly confident about that continuing, though, because last year we started a period of really high COVID transmission. Case rates higher than 90% of the rest of the pandemic. Here's their data, and charts you can play with, and links to detailed information on how they did all of this:

Here's a non-paywalled link to it:

https://archive.vn/2024.01.26-012536/https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/coronavirus-excess-deaths-estimates

Oh: here's a link to where you can buy comfy, effective N95 masks in all sizes:

Those ones are about a buck each after shipping - about $30 for a box of 30. They also have sample packs for a dollar, so you can try a couple of different sizes and styles.

You can wear an N95 mask for about 40 total hours before the effectiveness really drops, so that's like a dollar for a week of wear.

They're also family-owned and have cat-shaped masks and I really love them. These ones are cuter and in a much wider range of colors, prints, and styles, but they're also more expensive; they range from $1.80 to $3 for a mask. ($18-$30 for a box of ten.)

[lotus-tower]

The Swiss Cheese Model of Covid Prevention

An edited version of the swiss cheese model tailored towards the measures that you as an individual can take to minimize your risk of infection. Public health is ultimately what its name implies, public, but that doesn't mean you're powerless.

Covid prevention is not all-or-nothing. Think of it as risk reduction, rather than a binary.

Let's go through these step by step.

VACCINES

The current vaccines are meant primarily to reduce chances of severe illness, hospitalization, and death. They will reduce your chance of infection a bit--but not nearly as much as you might think. You should still get your boosters regularly, because avoiding severe illness is of course worth doing.

If you haven't gotten the updated monovalent vaccine yet, go get it. It is not a booster. Think of it as a new vaccine. It's targeted towards the XBB lineages, which are now the most common variants. Your last boosters were likely of the bivalent type, aimed at both the original Covid strain from 2020 and Omicron. The new vaccine is monovalent, meaning it targets one family in particular.

Some studies suggest that the Novavax vaccine, which is a more traditional protein-based vaccine, is more effective and safer than mRNA vaccines, and offers better protection against future variants. Of course, the data we have so far isn't 100% conclusive (the last paper I linked is a preprint). Make of these findings what you will, just something to keep in mind. The new Novavax vaccine's availability is still limited, especially outside of the US.

MASKS

Masking is one of the most effective ways to protect yourself. While it is true that masking and reducing Covid transmission protects those around you, the idea that masks can't protect the wearer is outdated information from the early days of the pandemic when medical authorities refused to acknowledge that Covid is airborne.

The key to protecting yourself is to wear a well-fitting respirator. You want to minimize any gaps where air might leak out. If your glasses get fogged up, that's a sign that air is leaking.

Headbands will always have a tighter fit than earloop masks (and therefore provide better protection). However, you can use earloop extenders to improve the fit of earloop masks. You can find these online. Your comfort in wearing a mask is important, but there are options for compromise.

The above graphic doesn't include elastomeric respirators. While some (like the Flo Mask) are expensive, they can be much more affordable than buying disposables--look for P100 respirators at your local hardware store, but make sure it fits your face well.

For more general information, see this FAQ. For mask recommendations (NA-centric, sorry!), see my list here or Mask Nerd's YouTube channel.

For situations where you need to hydrate but don't want to take your mask off, consider the SIP valve.

Not even N95s are foolproof (N95 means it filters at least 95% of particles--with the other 5% potentially reaching you). Most people will likely not have a perfect fit. There will be situations where you'll have to take your mask off. The key is risk reduction, and that's why the Swiss cheese model is crucial.

If you can't afford high-quality masks, look for a local mask bloc or other organization that gives out free masks. Project N95 has unfortunately shut down. In Canada, there's donatemask.ca.

AVOID CROWDED INDOOR SPACES

This is rather self-explanatory. Indoor transmission is much, much, much more likely than outdoor transmission. If it's possible to move an activity outdoors instead, consider doing so.

If possible, try going to places like stores or the post office during less busy hours.

Viral particles can stay in the air for a considerable amount of time even after the person who expelled them has left. Do not take off your mask just because no one is currently present, if you know that it was previously crowded.

A CO2 monitor is a decent proxy for how many viral particles may have accumulated in the air around you. The gold standard is the Aranet4, but it's expensive, so here are some more affordable alternatives.

VENTILATION AND AIR FILTERS

Ventilation is effective for the same reason that outdoors is safer than indoors. If it's warm enough, keep windows open whenever possible. If it's cold, even cracking them open occasionally is better than nothing. Try to open windows or doors on different sides of a room to maximize airflow.

HEPA air filters can significantly reduce viral transmission indoors. Make sure to find one suitable for the room size, and replace the filters regularly. You want to look for devices with HEPA-13 filters.

You can use websites like these to calculate how long it takes for a device to change all the air in a room. Remember what I said about viral particles being able to hang around even after people have left? If an air purifier provides 2 air changes per hour, that means that after 30 minutes, any potential viral particles should be gone.

If you can't afford a commercial air filter, here's a useful DIY filter you can make with relatively simple materials. The filtration capacity is great--but due to being built with duct tape, replacing filters will be a challenge.

If you have to hold meetings or meet with people at work, having a smaller filter on the desk between you will also reduce chances of infection.

As a bonus, HEPA filters will also filter out other things like dust and allergens!

REDUCE LENGTH OF EXPOSURE IF EXPOSURE IS UNAVOIDABLE

Viral load refers to the amount of virus in a person's blood. If you've been exposed to someone with Covid, how much you've been exposed matters.

You might escape infection if the viral load you've been exposed to is very small. Or, even if you get infected, there will be less virus in you overall, leading to milder illness--and crucially, a lower chance of the virus penetrating deep into your body, creating reservoirs in your organs and wreaking long-term havoc.

A low viral load is also less contagious.

This is the same reason that wearing your mask most of the time, but having to take it off for eating, is still much better than not wearing your mask at all.

RECHARGEABLE PORTABLE AIR FILTERS

You might attract some odd looks. But if you're at high risk or just want to be as protected as possible, small portable air filters can help. Try to find models small enough to take with you on public transportation, to school, or while traveling.

These devices will be far too small to clean the air in the whole room. The goal is to have it filter air in your immediate vicinity. Be sure to angle the device so that the air is blowing in your face.

Unfortunately, rechargeable devices are much rarer and harder to find than normal air filters, and many are also expensive.

The best option at the moment, apart from DIY (which is possible, but you need to know what you're doing), seems to be the SmartAir QT3. The size and shape are a bit clunky, but it fits in a backpack. Its battery life isn't long, but it can be supplemented with a power bank.

NASAL SPRAYS

There's some research that suggests that some nasal sprays may be effective in reducing risk of infection by interfering with viruses' ability to bind to your cells.

These sprays are generally affordable, easy to find, and safe. The key ingredient is carrageenan, which is extracted from seaweed. So there are no potential risks or side effects.

Be sure to follow the instructions on the packaging carefully. Here's a video on how to properly use nasal sprays if you've never used them before.

Covixyl is another type of nasal spray that uses a different key ingredient, ethyl lauroyl arginate HCI. It also aims to disrupt viruses' ability to bind to cell walls. Unfortunately, I think it's difficult to obtain outside of the US.

CONCLUSION

None of the methods listed here are foolproof on their own. But by layering them, you can drastically reduce your chances of infection.

The most important layers, by far, are masking and air quality. But you should also stay conscientious when engaging with those layers. Don't let yourself become complacent with rules of thumb, and allow yourself to assess risk and make thought out decisions when situations arise where you might have to take off your mask or enter a high-risk indoor area, such as a hospital.

Remember that the goal is risk reduction. It's impossible to live risk-free, because we live among countless other people. But you can use knowledge and tools to keep yourself as safe as possible.

[darcylindbergh]

I want all you vote blue no matter who folks to suffer just as much as all the disabled ppl you left on the wayside as soon as biden said the pandemic was over. All of you talk about solidarity but as someone disabled by covid its all so shallow. You are all so happy to stop masking and let covid keep killing. You cant even pretend its not true. 95% of dems stopped giving a fuck as soon as their guy said it was fine to. And every time i bring this up i get told i just gotta vote biden or other people will be in danger. Like me and those like me havent already been sacraficed by all of you. You all will have to live with that because i wont be alive much longer. Vote Blue! Vote Blue! Close your ears and vote blue because now YOU are afraid.

sure, we can deconstruct this one too.

this one's cleverer than ms terf because frankly a lot of disabled people DO feel abandoned vis a vis the pandemic and masking, and that's definitely something that needs to be addressed. but this anon is not addressing THAT - they want to address how i shouldn't vote blue.

here's a couple things we can pick out:

i've recently responded to posts about gaza and terfs, so this anon has simply picked a topic i haven't addressed yet like they're playing whack a mole

blames biden specifically for their topic of choice

pitches a you versus them division while explicitly attacking the idea that the left can express sufficient solidarity (implying it doesn't matter whether you vote)

specifically disparages voting for biden while scoffing at the idea that failing to do so will place other people in danger

make it personal while using inflammatory language: "i've already been sacrificed" "i wont be alive much longer"

mocks voting blue out of fear or out of the idea that failing to vote or failing to vote blue will result in a negative outcome

of course, not voting blue (either by splitting the vote, as in 2016, or not voting at all) will certainly not result in an improved outcome for disabled people. anon doesn't even pretend like there's a viable alternative that will improve life for disabled folks in the us.

failing to vote blue will just result in republicans in power - who are as a national platform anti-masking, anti-vaccinations, anti-obamacare, and anti-healthcare reform. so what we have here is someone who is using the disabled community as a cudgel to divide the left and discourage voting - because don't you know you specifically are a bad person for being against disabled people?

anyway here's a short list of things the biden administration has done over the last 4 years to improve the situation of millions of disabled folks in the us:

Biden's first 100 days re: disability reform

Biden admin recognizes long covid as disabling

Biden admin directs $200 million to programs supporting aging Americans and their caregivers (5 days ago)

HHS strengthened rule banning discrimination based on disability (May 1, 2024)

Dept of Education cancels student loan debt for over 300,000 disabled borrowers who cannot work (Aug 2021)

Biden admin seeks to end subminimum wage for disabled (and tipped) workers (2021) - Biden's DOL has been actively working on new regulations regarding disabled worker protections, although the recent decision ending Chevron deference by SCOTUS's conservative bloc will make it much more difficult.

there's definitely still more work to do - passing the marriage equality for disabled adults act, for example, and seeing through the end of subminimum wages - but republicans aren't gonna do it. these bills died in the republican-controlled house. voting blue down-ticket is the only way folks are gonna see any progress.

[derinthescarletpescatarian]

I must say: I’m genuinely impressed by how creative all your stories are. I have three questions related to your writing process, if you don’t mind.

1) How do you stay motivated to keep creating?

2) Where do you find inspiration?

3) have you ever had an idea for a scene that you struggled to execute? How did you work through that to write the scene?

I love your stories! I look forward to every chapter of Charlie McNamara.

1) Motivation to create has never been an issue for me -- there's always some new thing to write about! My issue, and the issue faced by a lot of other writers, is the motivation to stick with a project to completion. That's hard. Everyone's got a hundred "works in progress" they'll never touch again because they took a break and when they came back, their attention was on something new and shiny.

My solution to this? Money.

The reason I started Curse Words as a web serial and opened a patreon for it wasn't because I ever expected to be able to make a living as a writer. I'm as surprised as anyone that so many kind people have put their support behind me and let me keep writing these fucked up stories instead of getting a real job. I did it because I wasn't getting my projects finished. I was doing what we all do; getting three quarters of the way through any given project and then finding something more fun to work on instead. And when you risk disappointing readers by doing that, well, that'll get you back in the seat over the little bumps, maybe pull you back to a project a few times. But when people are paying you actual cash in return for consistent output, on time, to story completion? That's a way bigger motivator. Even if it's just one guy. For a long time, I had one patron! It was enough! It worked! It's not about making a lot of money, which is borderline impossible as a writer (again, I still can't believe my supporters are so generous enough that i can make this my career). But it acts as some level of both proof that your work is valued, and an active obligation on your part to keep producing it on a consistent schedule. My readers are giving me something valuable for this. I can't let them down.

Sorry, I'm sure you wanted a more uplifting kind of answer. But that's just what works for me.

2) I've never really been sure how to take this question. This is basically the age-old 'where do you get your ideas?' and it... doesn't have an answer. You think of a thing and you write about it. As you resolve the problems and inconsistencies in the thing, that fills out more and more of the world of the story.

Angel is born of a mediocre Goosebumps book called Chicken, Chicken. There's a part in the book where the protagonist, slowly shapeshifting into a chicken, rips all his feathers out every morning in an attempt to slow the transformation. The book isn't really about that but it stuck with me for a good two decades until, stuck in the house for two months at the beginning of Covid, I wrote Angel.

Void Princess and The princess in the Tower are both me musing on the old 'princess kidnapped by a dragon' trope. I get really fixated on this trope for some reason; I have four or five others swimming about in my head that aren't full stories ready for the page yet. Wasting Time is just the song Pushin' the Speed of Light, World Builder was written in a fever right after watching Jacob Geller's The Shape of Infinity, Copykate was initially going to be a SAYER fanfic but required enough alterations to the setting that it worked better as a story of its own. The inspiration is out there, the ideas are out there. It's just a matter of practice to turn them into stories.

3) I try to avoid scenes that are hard for me to depict, but this isn't always possible. I'm aphantasiac and struggle a lot with scenes that have a lot of heavy visual elements. Scenes where there's a lot going on that needs to be fairly precisely depicted are tricky, too.

One particularly difficult scene for me was a fight scene in Time to Orbit: Unknown. There's about six people in a small room fighting over the fate of a bunch of other people who are not present, and the reader needs to be kept up to date on the physical positions/activity/intentions of all the combatants, the villain explaining what he's doing and why (lying), the protagonist figuring out that he's lying, the physical condition (injuries, being restrained, et cetera) of all of the combatants, and the fate of the half of the crew not in the room, all with enough detail that the reader can understand the stakes, consequences, and enough of the moment-to-moment logic of the fight that nobody's decisions are confusing. The whole thing is very fast paced and... it's a lot. It's always a difficult balance in these scenes because you want to be detailed enough to keep the reader following everything they want to follow, but you don't want to dramatically slow down the story by describing every detail. If you're using a limited viewpoint, it's a blessing and a curse; you can avoid narrating the stuff your character can't see or isn't paying attention to, but you also have to find a way to get across information that your character might not be able to see, either by forcing them to see it or by having it conveyed in some other way in the scene. With busy scenes like this, I like to work backwards -- decide what specifically the reader needs to know, decide what is needed to get the characters to the places I want them at the end of the scene, and write a scene with as little as possible in it except for those two things. Sometimes, communicating those two things requires a bit of setup.

In Curse Words, there's an ancient magic spell passed down a family line from parent to child. It's a communication spell that allows people to see through each others' eyes and hear through their ears. Before the existence of long-distance wireless communications, this sort of information transfer was enormously powerful; wars can be turned with that power, trade networks created or conquered. It made its family enormously powerful, to the point where they're the most powerful magical family in the world even in the time of the story, with the spell long buried and its advantage lost to an age of mobile phones and cameras. It's massively influential to the worldbuilding of the story.

I introduced it for one reason and one reason alone -- I knew that eventually, I would be writing a climax to the story where a lot of people were doing a lot of things in a lot of different locations, and the protagonist was only going to be in one of those places. And I knew that I was going to need some way to tell the audience what the fuck was happening while he was running around in caves and shit.

[oconist]

I posted a note saying how bad I feel for Esteban but how glad I am he's leaving Alpine (meaning to say that I hope he goes to a good team) and a good friend of mine replied with "yeah I don't like him, bad driver, agreed" and I have no idea how to respond to that... I'm a new F1 fan so no stats ready but I DO know he's not a bad driver but all I can talk about is his background growing up but IDK I need help responding pls?

hi!! same sentiment here, hope he has a contract but glad he left that toxic team.

he's not a bad driver, despite what people say. if u check his stats in feeder series like f3 n gp3 he was a consistent driver that was usually in the podium. if you check his early f1 stats, he had good first full year in force india (points in every race except a retirement and a p12) and was usually close to checo in the standings (if he wasn't being disqualified or had retirements) or his other teammates (last year with 6 retirements vs gasly's 2 and like a 4? 6? point difference)

the year with the biggest position difference is 2020, covid year, in which esteban had not raced in an f1 car for a year against dric who had already a year on the team.

most people think he's a bad driver because of the collisions he has been in, specially with his teammates, but only two of them have been fully his fault (a collision with perez and now in monaco with gasly). the problem is the people he gets in collisions with, and the reason why most people are quick to blame him. drivers that, as usual, blame the other before checking the on-board after the race (which is normal behaviour btw and totally expected, it's weirder if a driver doesn't defend themselves) but ocon never really defends himself, and his biggest/most memorable crashes are with drivers like checo, alonso and verstappen that have big diehard fanbases.

it's true that his style is agressive, but he has also proven he is a team player when needed (defended gasly in australia 2023 after the crash, does follow team orders on the radio, not to mention that he has never talked badly about any team nor teammate he has had and is always cheering the team up on the radio [radio this year after alpine sucked, he was the first to open the radio and cheer the team up, while gasly said the car sucked (true)]). people forget that your teammate is your first rival, but ocon doesn't and unless he is told otherwise, he races them as if they were any other driver. and he normally is on par with his teammate, so of course there are going to be fights between them.

most of the time he does deliver with his overtakes and defense. he is good at managing tyres (record for longest stint in c3 tyres in baku, turkey 2021 where he didn't change tyres, alpine relying on him to manage tyres for all their one pit stop strategies all these years) and good at qualifying.

also, he has never been in a good car, either backmarkers (now and his first half year in f1) or midfield cars and yet he has a win, a 2nd place and a 3rd place. he is consistently in the points if the car allows it, has been praised by prost and is a good test driver and at giving feedback.

i hope the reason why he left alpine is because of the disrespect he has been put through and i really hope that he has a contract for next year. i have never seen a driver been more attacked by his own team (rossi, bruno, otmar) than ocon in the recent years.

[nothingbutnowhere]

Hockey player au! Simon "Ghost" Riley headcanons. Based on the NHL

Note: suggestive of ghoap and ghoap x reader (she/her used)

Goalie. Starter. Tall, large, and most importantly: weird. Goalies are always weird, idk they just are, it's what happens when you spend half the game hanging out alone I guess

The best part of goalie Ghost is his flexibility. Have you seen how flexible goalies are? These huge, muscular men can do the splits. It's very important to me that you consider flexible Ghost, thank you.

His mask is black and white, matches his tattoos. He's the unshakable goalie, not flashy, never frustrated. Just a brick fuckin wall. If he sees it, he's going to stop it. You cannot snipe on him and score. Also his rebound control is unreal, no second chances.

He never retaliates against opposing players fucking with him because no one fucks with him due to:

His death glare, it's enough to make any and every enforcer or net nuisance shake in his skates

The Incident in the minors where he sent a guy to the hospital with a jab from his blocker and almost got kicked out of the league and banned from the NHL

On the off chance that something untoward does happen on accident, someone else will do that for him. The bond between a goalie and his defensemen cannot be understated. Ok fine. Soap. He's the defenseman, there's the spoiler.

Very superstitious, has his routines and does not deviate. Doesn't ever take his mask off on the ice, except when it breaks. Doesn't even pull it up to squirt water on his face or drink.

The loyalty that his skaters have towards him and vice versa is off the charts. Even if the media and fans don't see it, it's there. Usually guys don't speak poorly of their goalies, but this is on another level. Ferda.

Speaking of, social media people can never catch him. Like seriously where does this guy even walk in the building?? Where does he go during intermission?? Surely he practices at some point right?? He won the Veznia trophy (voted best goalie) and straight up did not show up to the ceremony.

He will go to the children's hospital to do visits with the team and the kids are either terrified or love him. Picturing him giving out the little teddy bears 😭

Caught covid despite his vigilant PPE usage (hockey locker rooms are cesspools like ew), got really sick, and developed myocarditis; ie almost died multiple times, recovered insanely fast and then just showed back up to practice one day at 100% like "put me in coach". No one outside of the trainers and locker room even knew why he was gone to begin with. Wild stuff.

Hockey players tend to tack on an '-y' or sometimes '-er' to a name for funsies but no one gets to call him 'Ghosty'. (Maybe Soap can call him that in private, as a treat 🥺)

Hockey hair status: he shaves his head boooo (not that you'd even be able to tell really with his mask and use of hats and hoods). Won't even grow out facial hair during the playoffs. Maybe if he did then he'd have a cup. Smh.

Roster pic: the meanest mug you've ever seen on a guy

Mic'd up status: everyone thinks he's unmic-able, however he's secretly telling jokes to himself when the puck is in the other zone. But no one needs to know that.

WAG status: if he had one we would never know... Right? He's always in the background of photos that Soap's girlfriend takes and posts of her and Soap? Much speculation.

...

I do NOT consent for my works, part of my works, or my ideas to be used for ANY form of AI.

Note: WAG stands for wife and girlfriend or the plural, used to refer to sports guys significant others. Yes it is heteronormative.

A/N: I'll never actually write fics for this, but I have headcanons. I know a moderate amount about hockey and next to nothing about cod so apologies. Completely unserious. Just some silly little thoughts :) plus letterkenny reference!

Edit for typo

More hockey au: Soap | Gaz | Price

[buddiebeginz]

The bt fandom is absolutely having a melt down of scary proportions

They had and posted a 4 hour Oliver stark Lashing video meeting just absolutely saying the most disgusting and horrible things about him because of last night and for not liking Lou

They are going through all of the pages Ryan follows on Instagram and looking for any post they can say is problematic and saying Ryan personally thinks and believes it and is responsible for them just because he follows the page.

They have been dragging Kenny’s name over some Paris convention that removed Lou’s name from a poll after learning about the issues he’s caused. And dragging Ryan into it even though the entire convention had nothing to do with 911. It was about swat.

I wouldn’t be surprised if Aisha is their next target at this rate.

I wish I could say I'm surprised by any of this but I'm not. I honestly think it's going to get worse with some of them once they realize B/T isn't going to be the big endgame ship they thought it was and even more so when they realize Buddie is happening.

I really think our fandom needs to try our best to distance ourselves from them. I'm talking about the more fanatical abusive people in their fandom. We really need to stop engaging with them. It just makes our fandom look bad and they're not worth the effort. They want to be pissed off because they saw Buck kiss a guy twice and think that meant they were soulmates let them but don't fall for the bait when they say something offensive online. I've been really guilty of that myself even making posts with their content trying to show how bad they've been but it's only been giving them attention so I'm trying to refocus on what matters.

I genuinely feel like this is going to be the season Buddie goes canon. I mean I don't know for certain 100% (I don't work for the show) but everything seems to be lining up that way. It's a really exciting time for our fandom and our ship and the show and we all should be focused on that and not some ship that won't even matter all that much soon.

---

Oh also about Ryan.

Putting this under the cut cause it got long.

The B*mmy's can say whatever the want about him but what happened was his ex fiance used the n word in some old tweets. When they were brought up and she was called out (after Ryan was on 911) he tried to defend her. But later issued multiple apologies :

At the time Oliver and Aisha were clearly upset about this because both of them put out tweets and there's other stuff that was going on behind the scenes to indicate Ryan had a falling out with them. But he's clearly worked to repair the damage because since then he's been a guest at Aisha's wedding and has spent a lot of time with the cast outside of work.

As for him being anti-vaxx or Republican, as those are other things the B*mmy's try to claim about him, I'm not even sure where they get some of that from. I think one of it was because he shared something about Covid from Joe Rogan (during Covid) but a lot of people were scared and confused during that time and there was tons of misinformation going around. The idea that celebrities are immune to that just because they're rich and famous is just ignorant. Also show me where he's shared other vaccine and or health related misinformation because sharing one thing during a really confusing time doesn't make him an antivaxxer.

Also during Covid no one could film on the show without getting vaccinated (this is why Rockmond Dunbar was fired he refused). And since Ryan was a big part of s3 and s4 he clearly was vaccinated. If Ryan was as staunchly antivaxx as B*mmy's make him out to be he would have left the show before getting vaccinated. He's a more well known actor than Rockmond he could have found work elsewhere.

They try to use accounts he's following on insta as proof he's far right but I haven't seen any that are blatantly far right. We also don't know when he started following these accounts or who followed them. His ex could have used his account to follow people when they were still together. I'm also following a ton of accounts on my insta that I don't even remember or interact with anymore this could be the case for Ryan since to my knowledge they haven't found likes by him just that he's following.

One of the accounts in particular they're using as a gotcha for Ryan is this one:

Ryan is following them but I haven't seen any posts of theirs he's liked. It looks like an account about home schooling and living off the land but they do have at least one transphobic post I've seen (about pronouns). Here's the thing though immediately when you look at the front page of their account they aren't marketing themselves as anti lgbtq. Ryan is not responsible for what they're posting. And given all of their other content he likely started following them for one reason and didn't know about their more transphobic views. It's also unrealistic to assume that a busy actor is on social media 24/7 monitoring every single thing that the accounts they follow are posting. If that was an obvious alt-right anti trans account I could understand but it's just not the gotcha B*mmy's are trying to make it out to be.

I'm not excusing that account or their transphobia btw. And I don't think anyone should be following them just that there is nuance to a conversation like this. B/T stans try to say Ryan following this account is the same as Lou having posted an obvious racist post about Nicki Minaj's skin color is the same thing. It's not.

It's pretty hypocritical of them to say we should excuse Lou's old insta posts but yet we're going to hate on Ryan for accounts he's following but isn't even interacting with.

And again I don't know where B/T stans are getting that Ryan is a Republican. He's repeatedly posted anti Trump stuff:

This is from 2016 ☝️and it's because Trump has repeatedly talked about deporting Mexican people.

And like everyone has the right to see feel however they want about what Ryan said in the past (especially bipoc people). But knowing that Ryan is no longer with his ex who I think wasn't the best influence in his life. Seeing him take accountability for what he said and did. Seeing the cast forgive him. That's all enough for me to continue to be a fan of his.

B*mmy stans don't have to like him but they don't get to keep attacking him for stuff he's done in the past. Lou on the other hand has never apologized for his insta stuff even when called out about them. You'll also never get me to believe he was hacked when he responded with that spitting on blind children thing on twitter. Plus him minimizing T*mmy's racism and homophobia down to teasing.

If Ryan was still doing messed up stuff I'd call him out too and expect others to do the same. The problem with B/T stans is no matter what Lou does they'll defend him. It's part of why they attack Ryan. They want to get the attention off of Lou. But they can't sit there and say how dare you defend a racist and then defend every single thing Lou did even just this year.

Sorry this got so long anon. I've just been seeing people (one account in particular) attacking Ryan on twitter recently and I'm so over it. If you made it down this far I love you forever. ❤️

[sgiandubh]

Hello! I have a new drinking game suggestion! If you haven't listened to that podcast yet (the part about Outlander and Sam starts at 51:00) how about a sip every time she mentions her recommendations for watching the series, stressing that it's something scorching? Also, every time it is said that he is single and dates a lot, in addition to being 🔥 The segment lasts about three minutes, surely no one could get drunk in such a short amount of time!

Dear Drinking Game Anon,

Please forgive the delay - almost everybody, even the trolls, answered the salvo of Deux Moi (that is a bastardized translation of 'Me Too', I bet the farm) Anons and perhaps you found me wanting. Oh, well: I never gave three dried shits about being FIRST.

Not even #sorry for the length, Anon.

That podcast is some mighty BS you are kindly asking me to dissect for you. So I just listened to that S focused bit again, as I am writing the answer. Fasten your seat belts.

I mean, where the hell do I begin? Everything is so unlikeable and so cheap about that podcast, I could start wondering if *urv is not poor man's Deux Moi, if you see what I mean (she came in first, alas). No, they don't give a flying fuck about S, in fact both of them have no idea even who he is, since they are mispronouncing his name repeatedly and need to check Wikipedia for his basic trivia. Their cackle does not really bring anything new to the table and it has all the predictable bits: his fandom 'who thinks he is dating his costar' (zero about the Mommies, its most vocal part, who definitely think he doesn't - interesting, huh?), him being on Raya and 'obviously dating' (yeah, yeah, we've seen the results, Dubai Hooker and then 'No Toxic People' on top), OL being a 'historical fantasy series, like GoT' (Lord give me strength), but you know, chock a block filled with sex (😱🤣). So it all boils down to the girl being 'identified in DMs' (by who, I wonder? 'Always Hands On' *urv?) as a 'creative type'. The core of the debate was, in fact, whether it was or not a first date and what about the lack of drinks on that table - it never occurred to them Einsteins that was a dead giveaway of those pictures being totally staged, eh?

Nothing to write home about and I honestly fail to see where the fuck did those women notice the girl 'lovingly gazing' at S. At any rate, this is so artificial I could cry and it does sound like a quid pro quo type of favor Deux Moi did to PR. It actually gave me the same 'shoehorned in' feeling as C's Remarkable Weekend non-photos featured in that magazine, in 2019. The two 'gossip columnists' clearly didn't prepare anything at all about it and DGAF pretending to be plausible liars. One more time, it felt cheap and a desperate retcon of the Dubai Hooker Walk of Shame, plus the added insult to injury Alice Don't Panikian was.

But, as always, there's more to it. And at this point, I do wonder why and actually how on Earth nobody in this fandom ever thought to find out what the fuss was about Deux Moi, at all.

[I was brutally cut, just here, Anon, by the worst power outage in our neighborhood for ages - heat does that to old, clunky European capitals. Sorry for that.]

Deux Moi came out of obscurity during the COVID-19 pandemic, when people were locked down at home, bored and depressed. It markets itself as a gossip column with a twist, almost never checks facts and apparently has no problem being seen by many as a neo Hollywood Dumpster Diver of sorts. To counter all sorts of possible legal problems, it launched itself and prospered because of the mandatory 'Anon pls' opening to each and every submission. It allows them to never feel or take any responsibility for the content it posts. The reason she can do this is the US Supreme Court's 1964 decision New York Times vs. Sullivan, which allowed media (including gossip sites) more liberty in expressing their opinions. It only sanctions actual malice in doing so, which simply means that if you hate Steven Cree (random example) and publicly comment he is a talentless bore, there is nothing he or his PR can do about it. But if you publicly comment that Steven Cree is a pedophile or a drug addict (OTT made-up stuff inserted here on purpose) and you fail to prove it with facts, well - that is actual malice all the way. You'd better pawn your silver spurs and sell your first born, because they will come to get you and won't do it with grace. In fact, as recently as 2022, the US Supreme Court refused to revise its doctrine on this particular point of law, further linking it to the US Constitution's First Amendment, that deals with free speech and strongly protects it:

[more on this, here: https://edition.cnn.com/2022/06/27/politics/supreme-court-new-york-times-sullivan/index.html - make no mistake, this is a very high profile political decision, for obvious reasons; therefore, I shall not further comment, you make up your own mind about it, according to your own creed. But I know what I think, and what I think is the analogy was promoted by a very conservative Supreme Court].

Deux Moi will never be that sophisticated, but that does not mean it was never above any possible threats & scandal. Its public image heavily relies on the mystique of an incognito mastermind, who, like the Mahdi, Shia Islam's Hidden Twelfth Imam, walks this Earth and sees/knows everything. From there to eternity, victimization is never far away:

[full article, here: https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a43620663/deux-moi-identity-dark-side/ - I don't believe a single word of what the person shares, just so you know; for many reasons].

I mean, she is no Louella Parsons, no Hedda Hopper, hell - not even Liz Smith. And funny she mentions Taylor Swift (who I like more and more by the day, hahaha), who went for her via her PR, recently, in quite a clear fashion:

Wow, mother of all dragons: ' a marriage ceremony in the UK', that 'wasn't (...) legal (...) and wasn't made official'. Excuse me? RINGS A FUCKING BELL IN OUR OWN BACKYARD? Hell yes, rings a fucking steamer foghorn. Anyways, Tree Paine was not amused at all and the excuses were paltry, to say the least:

Sorry for the long quote, Anon, but I found Glamour's piece very enlightening, for once:

[our Spanish mafia girls could read the whole article here: https://www.glamour.com/story/taylor-swifts-publicist-tree-paine-thinks-deux-moi-needs-a-reality-check]

I still wonder why this 2021 'Anon pls' was never disputed and at least partially proven true:

Even better, check out this Reddit thread, just to see what The Casuals commented:

[whole thread, here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Fauxmoi/comments/nzx8mw/ok_i_am_dying_to_know_who_this_is_about/]

I wouldn't describe this as people being exactly 'shocked'. Interesting reactions, at any rate, and not a Stan in view.

Go figure, indeed.

I hope this answers your ask, Anon. It took me a long while to write, due to unforeseen reasons, but I certainly did it with pleasure and two or three well-placed grins.

[willalove75]

Hii, can I request Rebecca X reader. Something similar to the plot where she met the Dutch man and had an amazing day . She met reader is Paris (the most beautiful woman line is so 🥺). they met in a bar or coffee shop and spent a wonderful weekend together ? Rebecca is surprised that reader still wants to see her considering she's younger . She actually felt free and happy ,no stress and not judged . Flirting, fluff , anything. You write her character so well and accurately 😁

I LOVE THIS🥺🥺 And thank you so much!! I'm glad I'm able to do her justice!😄💕

Thank you so much for the request!!💕💕

Walking through the streets of Paris, you're trying your best to not get lost. You left your hostel almost an hour ago trying to find the café you went to the day before but since you know virtually no French, your search hasn't been going well.

You stumble across a different café, it wasn't the one you were looking for but you're in desperate need of food and caffeine so you cut your losses and walk in.

You walk up to the counter and butcher your order of a tea and croissant, the barista manages to understand you, but you still receive a ton of dirty looks from the staff and other patrons of the café.

You're handed your order and turn to find a place to sit down. In the corner of the shop you see a beautiful blond woman gazing out the window, sipping on her drink. The café isn't super crowded, but you decide to shoot your shot and ask her if you can join her. She's absolutely stunning so it takes you a few seconds to gain up the courage to put one foot in front of the other.

As you're walking over she looks away from the window and your eyes meet, her gorgeous green eyes take your breath away for a moment. It's in that second you realize that there's a good chance she's French and doesn't speak any English and you start to panic, but you can't back out now. You take the last few steps up to her table and she smiles at you.

"Hi, um, is this seat taken?" You shyly ask.

The woman smiles, her eyes sparkling, it would be a miracle if she understands you right now.

"No, not at all."

You exhale a sigh of relief and sit down.

"Oh thank god you speak English. It didn't dawn on me that there was a really good chance you only spoke French until it was too late for me to abandon ship." You say with a laugh as you sit.

The woman softly laughs. "Well today must be your lucky day."

"It certainly seems that way. I'm y/n, sorry for interrupting your breakfast, this might sound super cheesy but I saw you and I was like 'wow she's absolutely beautiful' and I had to at least try and talk to you." You look away as you feel your cheeks getting red.

"You're so sweet, thank you so much. I'm Rebecca." She reaches out her hand and you shake it. "So what brings you to Paris y/n?"

"My friend and I were supposed to come here together but she got covid before we left so she couldn't come."

"Oh no, so you're here all by yourself?" She asks.

"Yup, it's even more unfortunate because she was the one who spoke French and I don't speak an ounce of it, so it's safe to say that most of the people I interact with are not my biggest fans." You say as you look over at the barista who catches your eye and gives you a dirty look. You turn back to Rebecca and you both laugh. "So why are you in Paris?"

"I had some time off from work so I decided to go on a little trip by myself."

"Oh that's cool, I'm guessing you speak French?"

"Oui, je parle couramment le français."

(Yes, I am fluent in French)

"I have no idea what any of that meant but I'm going to take a wild guess and say that's a yes?"

"Yes," she says with a laugh. "It means 'yes, I'm fluent in French.'"

"Oh that's really cool! Where did you learn French?"

"I learned it in school, we started learning young and I picked it up really easily. Do you know any languages?"

"Not really, I took Spanish in middle school and high school but I didn't like it and forgot just about all of it by the time I graduated. I do know sign language though. Well, American sign language that is."

"That's really interesting, how much sign language do you know?"

"I'm pretty much fluent." You begin to sign as you speak. "I can practically have this whole conversation in asl. I took a few classes in high school because my friend convinced me to sign up for it and I fell in love with it. They offered asl classes at my college so I just kept with it. I don't get to use it often, but it's a fun party trick." You say with a laugh.

You watch Rebecca follow your hands as you sign, she looks mesmerized by it, like she's watching a ballet dancer.

"That's really, really fascinating." She says with a smile.

"Yeah, but I do have to be careful when I'm not in the US because signs in asl could mean something completely different in another languages sign language. With my luck I'll sign a song I'm listening to or something and end up accidentally cursing out an old man." You say with a laugh.

Rebecca laughs and you take a sip of your tea as you giggle.

"Where are you from in America?" Rebecca asks.

"I'm from New York." You say with a smile.

"Oh you're from New York City?"

You laugh "No, although it's always really funny to me that everyone assumes you're from NYC when you tell someone who's not from New York that you're from New York. I'm from the suburbs, but the city is only like an hour or so away. Where are you from?"

"I can understand that, I'm from London."

"Oh cool! I'm actually going there on Monday! Where in London? Like near Buckingham Palace?"

Rebecca laughs "No, New York and London are similar in that it seems that people assume when you say you're from there, they automatically think of the city. I live in Richmond, about 45 minutes from Buckingham Palace."

"Ah, I guess New York and London are much more similar than I would have expected."

"Will you be travelling to London by yourself as well?" She asks.

"Yup, we were going to spend five days in Paris and five in London and then head home, although I may extend my stay if I'm really enjoying myself in London, but we'll see."

"Ten days is a long time to be alone." She says.

"Oh it sure is, I was starting to go a little stir crazy which is also one of the reasons I decided to come talk to you. But mostly because you're really beautiful and I knew I was going to kick myself if I didn't at least try to strike up a conversation with you."

You swear you see Rebecca blush a little as she brings her cup to her lips. She looks out the window and back at you.

"This may ridiculous, and please don't feel obligated to say yes, but I was going to take a walk along the Seine, would you like to join me?"

You begin to feel butterflies in your stomach and you immediately try and squash them.

"Yes, absolutely. I would love to."

You finish your drink and your croissant and you both leave the café and head towards the Seine. You make small talk as you walk, Rebecca points out different buildings and structures, talking about their history. You watch her as she talks about what you two walk past, the passion she has in her eyes and the excitement that radiates off of her is precious, even though you barely know each other, you feel a bond already.

"So what have you done so far since you've been here?" She asks.

"Well, I got in really early Wednesday morning so I checked in and just wandered around for most of the day, truthfully I got lost for about three hours and managed to find my way back by some miracle." You both laugh. "And Thursday I went to Versailles and spent the day there and yesterday I walked around the Louvre for the entire day on accident, that place is massive. But I've just been doing touristy things for the most part."

"You haven't been to the Eiffel Tower yet?" She asks.

"Not yet, I mean I've seen it, but I was planning on doing that sometime today, I want to see it sparkle at night. I heard it was beautiful."

"It is very pretty, although I did tell a friend of mine once that the Eiffel Tower was just a lamppost with a publicist."

You laugh out loud "Stop, that's really fucking funny."

The two of you walk around some more, making small talk, laughing, just genuinely enjoying each others company.

After a few hours of walking around you both decide you need a rest. Rebecca says she knows of a good restaurant that's more of a "locals" place where you can get lunch and you two head there.

Rebecca asks for a table for two in what sounds like perfect French, although you genuinely would have no idea if it was perfect or completely butchered, but whatever she said, it sounded great. The waiter brings you to your table and hands you menu's. You both look over the menu's and she translates everything for you. You both decide on what you want to order and the waiter comes back to take your orders. Rebecca orders in perfect French, once again, and you completely butcher the name of the dish you want. The waiter gives you a dirty look and takes the menu's and walks away.

As soon as he's out of ear shot you and Rebecca bust out laughing.

"Holy shit that guy hates me."

"I can't believe he gave you that look!"

"Oh I can, I've been getting that look from everyone since I got here." You say as you laugh.

"Oh no!" Rebecca says as she laughs.

The waiter comes back over with your drinks and you both try your hardest to hold back your laughter, the waiter gives you both that look this time and as soon as he turns his back you both burst out laughing again.

You food comes out and you enjoy your lunch, Rebecca leaves to go to the bathroom when she's finished eating and when she gets back she grabs her bag.

"Ready to go?" She asks you.

"Wait, what about the check?"

"I took care of it."

"Oh my god no you did not!"

The waiter hands Rebecca the receipt and she thanks him in French.

"Dude! You did not have to-"

"I know, but I wanted to treat my new friend to lunch for her first time here in Paris."

"Thank you, but then I'm buying dinner!" You pause for a second and try to save yourself, you don't want her to think she has to be stuck with you all day because you're alone, or make her think you assume she'll go out to dinner with you. "Or something." You quickly add.

Rebecca puts her hand to her chin and thinks for a second.

"Um, nope. I'm buying you dinner also." She says with a smile. "If you would like to have dinner with me as well, that is." She says a little shyly.

"I would love to, but I don't want you to feel like you have to pay for me!" You say as the two of you leave the restaurant.

"I don't, I want to."

"Are you sure? Dinners here can get expensive and I would hate to-"

"Don't worry about that, trust me, it's not a problem." She says with a smile. "So what else were you planning on doing today?"

"I wanted to see the Notre Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle, I'd like to see the arch, your usual first-time in Paris touristy things."

"Well then allow me to be your tour guide."

"Are you sure? I mean don't get me wrong I'd love to keep hanging out with you, but I'd feel so bad if you wasted your whole day chaperoning me around and not get to do whatever you planned on doing today."

"Well actually my plan was to find a pretty girl that was in Paris all alone and give her a tour of the city." She says with a wink and you laugh. "No but truthfully, my plan was to walk around and shop, that's it. I'd much rather do this with you."

"Okay, if you insist. Where to next my lovely tour guide?"

Rebecca spends the rest of the afternoon showing you the city, you see the Norte Dame, the Sainte-Chapelle, and make your way across the city to the arch. You feel like you're spending the day with one of your best friends, not a stranger you just met that morning at a random café you decided to wander in to.

"Do you want to come get a drink with me before dinner?" Rebecca asks.

"Yeah, absolutely." You say with a smile.

"Okay, the bar in the hotel I'm staying at is gorgeous, and I can make reservations at one of my favorite restaurants."

"That sounds perfect. Is there a dress code for the restaurant?"

"Oh good point,"

"I have fancy restaurant clothes in my hostel I can change into."

"You're staying in a hostel?" She asks, surprised.

"Hell yeah, it's actually pretty nice, and it was like dirt cheap."

"Where is it?"

"Close by the Notre Dame!"

"The Notre Dame?! How the hell did you end up all the way by the café this morning?"

"I was looking for a café I went to yesterday but I couldn't find it and got lost, so I just walked into the the first café I found, and it was that one. It's quite serendipitous if you ask me."

Rebecca shakes her head at you and hails a cab and you both get dropped off at your hostel.

"This is it?" She asks.

"Yeah!"

"Okay, it's actually nicer than I thought it was going to be."

"See? I told you!" You tease her. She rolls her eyes at you and you walk inside.

You bring her to your room and she looks horrified when she sees that you're sharing the room with two other people.

"It's not bad, they're a nice German couple."

"You can't stay here."

"What are you talking about?"

"Grab your stuff, stay with me in my hotel, I have a suite with an extra bedroom you're more than welcome to stay in."

"Oh god Rebecca I can't do that I don't want to impose-"

"You aren't and you can, I can't let you stay in this hostel, alone, with two random German people. Come on." She says with a smile as she grabs your bag.

"Are you sure?" You ask as she walks out.

"Yes!" She says, walking down the hall with your luggage.

You check out of the hostel and take a cab to Rebecca's hotel. Your jaw hits the floor when you realize she's staying at the Hôtel Plaza Athénée.

"Rebecca, are you fucking joking?"

"What?"

"The fucking Hôtel Plaza Athénée? This is your hotel? Where you have a suite with two rooms?!"

"Yeah, I stay here in the presidential every time I come to Paris."

You look at her like she's insane. "What the fuck do you do for a living?" You ask as she pulls you into the hotel.

"I run a football club."

"Football? I didn't even think football was popular over here."

"Soccer."

"Oh, right." You laugh. "Ah, gotta love the American ignorance." You joke and the two of you laugh.

You get into her suite and your jaw is on the floor, it's absolutely stunning, it has a full living room, fireplace, two big, gorgeous bedrooms, each with their own master bathroom. Rebecca pulls the curtains open and you see the Eiffel Tower perfectly from the view.

"Holy shit." You say quietly, completely captivated by the view. "This is amazing." You turn and look at her and see her with a smile on her face.

"Isn't it?" She says, gazing out the window.

You both admire the view for a moment and eventually you bring your stuff into your room and get changed. You walk out in a cute cocktail dress, your most comfortable pair of heels, your hair pulled back on one side and a little bit of makeup. You see Rebecca sitting at the little desk on the phone, you assume she's making dinner reservations. She hangs up and looks at you.

"Wow, you look beautiful y/n." She says with a smile.

"Thank you," you say. She stands up and your jaw practically hits the floor. "Jesus Christ," you quietly say. Rebecca is wearing a dark blue dress that hugs every curve on her body perfectly. You figured she had a good shape when you were with her all day, but the jeans, t-shirt and jacket she was wearing hid a lot of it. You never expected her to look like a fucking model.

"What?" She asks a little worried, looking down. "Does this not look good?"

"No, holy shit no, you just look amazing. Like I new you were beautiful, but I didn't know you literally had a perfect hour glass figure, wow." You shake your head to try and snap out of it. "I'm sorry, I'm no better than a man sometimes." You laugh as your cheeks turn pink.

You're worried you offended her, but you look at her and it actually looks like she found it endearing.

"Well thank you, I appreciate the compliment. Ready to go?"

"Yes! Absolutely."

You two head down to the bar and grab a few drinks before dinner. You chat and laugh as you enjoy your drinks. Once you finish, Rebecca pays the bill, against your wishes, and you head to the restaurant.

The restaurant is absolutely stunning, you can tell just by looking at it that it's a 5-star restaurant. You're brought to your seats and given menu's. Just like she did at lunch, Rebecca translates the menu for you and this time you let her order for the both of you in French, you've had enough nasty looks from waiters for one day. Your drinks arrive and you both cheers to new friends.

You're talking about your lives, where you grew up, what your friends are like, just generally getting to know each other.

"How old are you anyway?" She asks.

"I'm 28-"

"Oh my god. I could be your mother." She puts her face in her hands.

"Oh stop it no you can not! How old are you?"

"48." She says quietly.

"Oh shut up there's no way, I don't believe that for a second!"

"I am!"

"You look damn good for your age then, I thought you were like 40, 45 at the very oldest, and like in a 'wow she looks young for 45' way."

"Well thank you." She says as she laughs.

Your food arrives and smells delicious, you both dig in and laugh and chat over dinner. You order more drinks and dessert and when you're finished Rebecca pays the bill and you two head out.

"Okay, now for our last stop of the night." She says, looking at you. "The Eiffel Tower."

She grabs your hand and leads you to it. She buys two tickets and you take the elevator up to the very top. The sun is just setting and you stand by the railing, stunned by the beauty in front of you.

"Woah." You say with wonder in your eyes.

Rebecca stands next to you, both of you taking in the gorgeous view. You both stand there for a few minutes in silence, just enjoying each others company and the gorgeous sunset.

Once the sun sets Rebecca turns to you.

"Come down to one of the lower decks with me."

She grabs your hand and you follow her down a few flights of stairs to a lower level. You stand by the railing and look across the city, a cold breeze passes through causing you to shiver.

"Here," Rebecca says, taking off her scarf and wrapping it around you. "Better?"

"Yes, thank you." Her scarf smells like her, you close your eyes as you inhale the scent, you never though a scent would match a view so well, but for some reason, it just pulls the entire experience all together.

The lights on the tower shut off and you quickly turn around, unsure of what's happening.

"Woah, why did the lights go out?" You ask, looking around to see if anyone else is reacting.

After a few moments they come back on and you realize they're flickering. You look up to the top of the tower where you were earlier and you realize that the tower is sparkling.

Your eyes light up like a child on Christmas day, you stand there in awe as you watch the tower sparkle above you. You look over at Rebecca and see that she's looking at you, looking at the lights. The lights flashing across her face make her eyes glitter, you don't think you've ever seen someone look so beautiful as she does right now. You both look into each others eyes for a moment.

You're not sure how it happened or who made the first move, but in an instant your lips are together. You bring your hands to her face and she holds onto your waist. Her lips are the softest lips you've ever felt in your life, her tongue slides into your mouth and dances around yours. This moment is absolutely perfect and you don't ever want it to end.

What felt like hours later, but in reality was probably only a minute or two, your lips finally part. She gently brushes her lips against yours, you can feel her heart beating quickly as she holds you against her; she can probably feel that yours is racing too.

"Do you want to go back-" she asks quietly.

"Mhm." You mutter as you shake your head yes. Your lips meet once more and after they part you make your way back to the hotel.

You were worried that the moment would pass by the time you got back to the hotel, but the closer you got, the more eager the two of you became.

You get into her suite and you put your bags down, take your jackets off, you remove Rebecca's scarf and she pulls you into her again for another kiss. She kisses you passionately for a minute before leading you into her bedroom.

You both kick off your shoes and Rebecca comes up behind you and places her hands on your hips and kisses your neck. You sigh and lean back into her, tilting your head so she has more access to your neck. Her hands travel up your sides and you feel her move your hair aside and pull down the zipper of your dress. You let it fall to the ground and turn to face her and gesture for her to turn around. You grab the zipper and slide it down, you kiss down her back as the zipper exposes her skin. Her dress falls to the ground and you unclip her bra and you reach behind your back and unclip yours.

She leads you to the bed and pulls you into her, your bodies pressing against each other, your lips interlocked, your fingers tangled in her hair and her hands exploring your body. This might be the most passion you've ever felt in your life.

The night goes by in a blur. You have flashes of memories of you kissing her down her body, the way her skin felt on your lips, you remember the sounds you both made as you panted, the moans that escaped from her lips when you went down on her. How sweet she tasted, what her fingers felt like in your hair as she grabbed hold of you, the way her back arched when you hit that sweet spot deep inside her, how warm and wet she was, the way her skin felt under your fingers as you held onto her hips. The cries she made were the most beautiful sounds you had ever heard as you brought her to her climax and took her over the edge. You remember how her legs gently shook as she came down from her high, that she took a minute just to be able to catch her breath.

You remember the dominance she showed when she flipped you onto your back, how she definitely left marks as her lips traveled down your body. The ticklish sensations when she kissed and nibbled the inside of your thighs, what her tongue felt like when she finally made contact with your dripping center, the way her hair felt between your fingers as you grabbed hold of her. The sounds that you made when her fingers curled deep inside you, the way she felt inside of you, how your hips bucked wildly when she brought you to the edge. You remember seeing stars when you felt her lips wrap around your clit when she pushed you over the edge, the way you cried out her name when she had you ride out your orgasm as long as possible.

You remember her wrapping you in her arms when you were done, how she slowly and passionately kissed you, how your legs felt tangled with hers under the sheets. You remember looking into her gorgeous green eyes, how they reflected the sparkles from the glittering Eiffel Tower out the window. You realized in that moment you've never felt so connected, so bonded, so in love with anyone else in your life. Sure you had just met that morning, but over the course of the day you became closer to her faster than you have with anyone else. You let out a relaxed sigh and closed your eyes when she nuzzled her nose against yours, you felt her chest rise and fall against yours as she drifted off to sleep, you drifting off to sleep with her.

You wake up the next morning convinced that yesterday was just a beautiful dream. As your senses wake up you recognize her scent, you realize that you're still wrapped in each others arms, you try and savor the moment before you open your eyes, anxious that once you do, everything that you both had last night would be gone. You feel her shift in your arms and you open you eyes to meet hers, she has a worry in her eyes that makes your heart hurt a little. You can tell that she's worried about the same thing that you are, you smile and tuck a piece of her golden locks behind her ear, your hand coming to a rest on her cheek, caressing it with your thumb. A smile crosses her face and she brings her lips to yours, you hold onto her as you kiss her with a soft passion. Your lips part and you look into each others eyes for a moment.

"I was so worried I was going to wake up and this was all going to be a dream." You quietly say as you study the details of her face.

"So was I, or that I would wake up to an empty bed, or that I would wake up and you would tell me it was a mistake." She quietly responds as she strokes your hair.

"It certainly was not." You say with a smile as you gently kiss her.

You see a sadness in her eyes when your lips part.

"What's wrong?" You ask, concerned.

"When are you going to London?"

"My flight leaves tomorrow afternoon. Why? When do you go back?"

"Tonight." She says with a sadness in her voice that makes your heart hurt.

"Well, then I'll see you when I get in tomorrow."

"You don't have-"

"No, I want to. I don't want to not ever see you again after you leave tonight."

She looks a little surprised. "Really?"

"Really. I know it's crazy because we've known each other for literally 24 hours, but, I really like you. I haven't felt this close to someone in a long time, I don't want to lose this."

"Even though I'm 20 years your senior?"

"I don't care about that, not even a little bit. It wasn't even something that crossed my mind once."

She pulls you into her and kisses you, a smile left on both of your faces when you part.

"Where were you planning on staying in London?"

"Another hostel." You say with a smile.

"Well, that's not happening. Stay with me." She says as she looks deep into your eyes.

"I would love to."

"I'll have my driver pick you up from the airport and bring you to my house."

"You driver? How much fucking money do you have?!" You say as you laugh.

"A lot." She says with a laugh as she kisses you again.

"Hm, lucky me." You joke between kisses.

Rebecca laughs into the kiss.

You spend the rest of your last day together in Paris in her suite, most of it was spent in bed. You had breakfast and lunch delivered to the room and you both sat in the living room in fluffy robes laughing and cuddling while you ate. You laid in bed together for as long as possible, trying to stretch out every minute before she had to leave to catch her flight. Rebecca extended the room reservation for another night so you could stay. When it finally came time, you helped her pack her things and you got dressed and walked her down to the lobby.

You felt ridiculous for having a lump in your throat as you make your way downstairs, not only will you see her literally tomorrow, you've known her for less than two days. But in those two days you fell completely head over heels in love with her, even though neither of you have said it out loud, you're pretty sure she did too.

The driver puts her bags in the car and she stands in front of you and wraps her arms around you, you wrap your arms around her and you two hold each other for a minute. You look up at her and she meets your gaze, you look into her gorgeous eyes and she leans down and kisses you. When you part you realize her eyes are glassy, yours are too.

"I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?" She asks.

"Yes, absolutely."

"Good." She says as she lets go of you. "I l- I'll see you tomorrow." She catches herself from blurting out the three words you can't wait to be able to say to her.

"I'll see you tomorrow." She turns to get into the car. "Oh shit wait!" You say and she turns back to you.

"What?"

You start laughing and pull out your phone. "I need your number."

Rebecca starts laughing, a few of her tears escape and trickle down her cheeks. "Oh my god." She says grabbing your phone. "I can't believe we didn't do this yet."

She puts her number in your phone and hands it back to you. She kisses you once more and heads to the car.

"I'll see you tomorrow y/n."

"I'll see you tomorrow Rebecca."

She waves as the car pulls away and you watch it until it's out of sight. You look down at your phone and see her phone number and the contact name she put in for herself.

"Rebecca Welton💕"

You send her a text

I can't wait for tomorrow❤

You immediately get a response

Me either💕

You smile down at your phone and hold it close to your chest. You head back into the hotel and your phone starts ringing as you get into the suite. You look down and see that your friend is calling you.

"Hey!"

"YOU'RE ALIVE THANK GOD!"

"Yea, very much alive." You say with a laugh.

"Well I didn't hear from you for over 24 hours and I got worried that you died!"

You open your texts and realize you have 5 missed calls and 20+ text messages from her and a few other people.

"Where the hell were you?!" She asks.

"In heaven."

"Okay, you're gonna have to elaborate."

You tell her about your adventures with Rebecca and give her most of the details, there are definitely some you keep to yourself. You tell her that you're meeting Rebecca in London tomorrow and how excited you were.

"So honestly, it's a good thing you weren't able to come, because if you did, I probably would have never met her." You said.

"Is this the plot of some French rom-com you watched or did you actually just live in a Paris fairytale for the last two days?"

"Fairytale, for sure."

You talk to her for a while and your friend looks her up and freaks out when she reads about who she is.

"No, don't tell me anything, I want her to tell me when she's ready, I don't want to google her to learn about her."

"You're such a sap, but fine. But I will tell you, she's hot, and rich as fuck."

"Oh, I know, she spoiled the shit out of me. Honestly, even if she didn't have all of that money, I'd still be going to see her in London tomorrow."

"Are you in love with her already?"

"I know how fucking crazy this is going to sound, but yeah, I think I am."

You two continue to talk and catch up for the next hour, after you get off of the phone with her you text Rebecca your flight info and you go out to a little restaurant for dinner and walk around for a bit. You get back to the hotel and get ready for bed, impatiently waiting for tomorrow to come.

You phone dings and you roll over in bed and see that you have a text from Rebecca.

12 hours left, I miss you.

You smile and your heart does summersaults, you reply to her.

12 hours too long, I miss you too. I can't wait to see you. Goodnight Rebecca.

You put your phone down and try to fall asleep, excited for tomorrow to come so you can hold Rebecca in your arms again.

[kiefbowl]

kief do you have any advice on becoming less dependent on a male romantic partner? I'm in such a shitty situation where my boyfriend of 3 years is my closest connection. I have a 10ish year history of very traumatic connections to women and shockingly i just haven't had anything really bad or weird happen to me with men. so now I have a really hard time branching out and making new connections bc i feel he's the only 1 that gets me yk? idk i kinda hate my life and want more friends but i'm stuck

I'm going to give you a short-ish answer, and if you want to talk about it more, feel free to dm me :)

your own money - having your own money that is entirely yours and controlled by you is the best way to be less dependent on anyone. if you're not working, try to work some to branch out into your community. if you are working, try to make that a bigger focus now than your relationship. a loving partner will understand the ebbs and flows of a relationship and not fault you for wanting to give some more focus in that area of your life for a time. if you are working, but you dislike your work, try to put the focus on whatever work you need to get the career you want. this can include school, a class, a hobby group, volunteering, doing some sort of project on your own time, etc.

get out of the house by yourself to do fun activities - your bf being your closest connection and you feeling like you have few other friends doesn't mean you have to do everything with him. go to the movies by yourself. go to the beach. the library. but better yet, go do some sort of group thing. a class, volunteering, I said those above - but maybe a museum tour, maybe take a weekend trip by yourself. it's practicing independence while also creating opportunities to meet more people. perhaps you'll meet no people, but you'll still be doing things for yourself, by yourself, which is important for self growth.

reconsider your relationship - feeling stuck and alone with your partner could be a natural progression of organic elements in your life, I get that. We came out of Covid, you've had bad friends in the past, maybe you're in a small community...I don't know, but I get that this might just be the way of it and he's not abusive. However, feeling this isolated might be in some part a design by him if he is abusive. I honestly can't tell you that, I don't know you. And I'm not trying to scare you, I just think it's a good idea to consider: does my boyfriend encourage me to be dependent on him? does my boyfriend encourage me to be at home with him? does my boyfriend discourage me from making friends with other people especially women? have I had any fall out with a friend since dating him? A loving relationship with a loving person is one that encourages you to thrive, explore, self-actualize. A loving boyfriend would want to see you have friends, would want to see you have independence, would want to see you have a balanced life and not just focused on him.

Good luck, I appreciate the question, and I really hope you find some good fulfilling things or people this year! :)

[chelemlem]

oooh what kind of things do you bake? I'd love to try them sometimes 💞 have a sweet day!!

hello anon!!!!! thank u for giving me an excuse to talk about BAKING

sooo just before covid i took a 3 week dessert course and kind of became obsessed??? during lockdown i used to watch tons & tons of videos on process nd technique instead of physically yaknow Doing Anything bc i hated the idea of ~wasting ingredients~ at my mediocre skill level which looking back was an insane approach but i kinddd of think it helped bc when i started making things more regularly the improvement was p quick !!

my fave thing to bake is pastry (puff, choux, shortcrust, filo) so basically any kind of sweet tart/croissant/eclair/profiterole/pie ❤️ i also love a savoury curried egg or chicken puff but that's kind of a gamble bc what EYE think is an okay level of spice does not fly for everyone else. when it comes to large batches for a party or something i usually stick to sweet 2 be safe

pictured: fruit mascarpone tart → mango danish → tiny baby pains au chocolat <33

course i make cake and stuff too and it's FINE but i also know lots of ppl who are better at it lol. i'm pretty Terri at piping anything more complex than a simple swirl so when it comes to deco i tend to stick to covering the top with store-bought macarons/fruit and calling it a day. also maybe it's just me but full layer cakes are such a hassle to cut and store...... i adore a cutieful low commitment CUPCAKE tho <33

my order of preference when it comes to baking is pastry > cookies/brownies/cupcakes > layer cakes >>>>> bread. ugh BREAD i cannot figure her out but i Want to...... someday...

thing is bread is honestly such a delicate process where ur final product will flop unless the ratios are justé right and u proofed at something.000001 degrees and mercury is in retrograde whereas the rules of pastry are more relaxed and intuitive and involve doing vaguely unhinged things like holding fistfuls of ice cubes before you handle ur dough so the heat from ur palms doesn't melt the butter... it's also great for LAZY BITCHES LIKE ME because a "4 hour recipe minus baketime" sounds intense until u realize 3h15 mins of that is just chucking the thing in the fridge between rolls

choux au craquelin is probably what i make the most often. love a textured little cream puff!!! versatile and scalable and easy to transport... she's that girl truly

also today i remade the mango one i was telling k about and it turned out muchhh better with a chunkier filling yay 🥭

convinced i'm never going to get a pretty cross-section in my life but wtvr they still tasted good !!!

goals for the future:

bread but specifically this yummy pesto babka i had in february

creme brulee donut......... need her

crookie but less dry bc i've been kind of unimpressed by the ones i've had so far

something citrusy w/o relying on chocolate as a crutch

basically i really love baking! like experimenting/trying new recipes ofc but also just the process of consciously altering and improving upon stuff you've already made :')

and yeah feeding ppl is bonus <3 hope u have a good day too!!!

[butterflydm]

wot s2 trailer: detailed second look

Okay, that's a lie, I've watched it more than twice. But, yes.

Spoilers mostly for show stuff but also for relevant book stuff through around The Great Hunt.

I have sadly been persuaded that we will not get Rand In The White Tower. One of my earlier speculations (around a month ago), I did suggest the idea that Siuan might go to Cairhien, though it was in the context of "going with Mat" and Mat's plotline still seems so up in the air, so who knows where he'll be. But Siuan going with Logain does set up some interesting opportunities.

When I was thinking Siuan would go with Mat, I was thinking it would happen after the girls had been tricked to leave by Liandrin, but if she's going with Logain, I think it's more likely that her absence leaves an opportunity for Liandrin to pounce on the girls while she's gone. Especially if Siuan doesn't give them any information.

I am really excited by the idea of Rand and Logain having a conversation here, it sets up some interesting things for the future.

I feel like a lot of @markantonys's thoughts here are still pretty likely in light of what we saw in the trailer: https://markantonys.tumblr.com/post/720125468680060928/my-rough-guesses-2x01-a-taste-of-solitude

Maybe Siuan's trip to Cairhien is around episode 6-ish (making Siuan and Moiraine's reunion in ep 6 in both s1 & s2).

It really is hard to figure out where Mat's storyline is going because the covid change really did take him pretty far off-book (and since he's still in his Two Rivers clothes in Falme, that implies he's had no chance to get a change of clothes at any point).

I am also really wondering how action-packed the finale will be vs emotional beats -- will Rand reunite with his friends or will we be focused on the action?

So, we see wanderer Rand in one shot: with 'Selene'. I'm guessing that's right after she arranges for him to 'save' her from something dangerous. Then we have a few shots of him in plainer shirts or in no shirt. Then we have the blue robe-like overshirt. Then we have the fancy black emo coat that it looks like he wears for the rest of the season.

We have Moiraine in her traveler's clothes for a bit, including I think when she first sees Rand again. Then she takes a bath and changes her clothes, probably, and tries again with Rand.

We're probably going to see Egwene & Elayne in novice whites for pretty much the whole season after Egwene arrives at the White Tower. It looks like Nynaeve has a bit more variation but mostly in episode three (probably) when she has her Accepted Test. It does seem like we're going to have at least one flashback (Moiraine and Siuan New Spring'ing it up) so we may get more flashbacks for each of the characters -- Perrin's flash of happiness with that young girl might be a flashback.

So, attempting to place things in order --

Episode One: Perrin & co start on their Hunt for Horn and dagger; Rand wanders the countryside, Moiraine & Lan... maybe end up researching with Verin (and that's how we're introduced to her and how she works her way into the plotline?) or something else; Mat gets nabbed by Liandrin and taken prisoner; and Egwene & Nynaeve arrive at the White Tower (meet Elayne?). Nynaeve tells Alanna that she's not sure anyone should have as much power as they tell her that she has.

I suspect all the scenes of Moiraine & Lan at night with the Fade are episode one, since it vibes like Moiraine still looks like she did at the end of last season, so this is them leaving the Blight maybe, because Moiraine needs to process a lot of shit right now. The Perrin riding scene could happen here or in the next couple of episodes. This also might be when he encounters The Wolf Who Might Be Hopper that we see later in the trailer (or... etc).

Episode Two: Rand spends time with Selene (the cuddling shots). We may start with a cold open relating to either Ishy unearthing bloody Lanfear or something related to the Seanchan. I'm guessing this episode will cover basically the entire Rand and 'Selene' relationship, with them separating either at the end of this episode or the very beginning of episode three.

Episode Three: Nynaeve's Accepted test! All the shots of her in her shift and all bloody go here. Her surge of power near a house that looks like it's in the Two Rivers style goes here. I'm guessing that Lan on Mandarb in the woods also goes here. We will probably also get Egwene and Elayne building up their friendship in this episode. This is maybe the episode where we get shirtless Rand as he broods in Foregate.

Episode Four: Moiraine catches up to Rand (finds him in Foregate; he pins her; she and Lan have a conversation about Rand; I'm guessing she sends a message to Siuan that inspires Siuan to decided she needs to go to Cairhien with Logain, to help get Rand under control; has a Sad Bath; and dresses like a Cairhienin).

Episode Five: Perrin & co have their run-in with the Seanchan. This might be the episode where we meet Aviendha and have a run-in with the Whitecloaks as well? If Loial gets captured by the Seanchan at the start of the episode, then Perrin can run into the Whitecloaks later as he's trying to figure out how to help Loial. Has Fain given the Seanchan the Horn yet? I'm curious about how they'll pepper the Seanchan throughout the season. Siuan leaves the White Tower with Logain to travel to Cairhien.

Episode Six: Starts with Liandrin at the Darkfriend social and ends with her delivering the girls to the Seanchan (so all the damane capturing scenes & etc; "if our friends are in trouble, why would I ever stay here?" scene with Egwene and Elayne). Rand talks first to Logain (more casual blue robes) and then gets dressed in his fancy black emo coat that he'll wear the rest of the season and talks to Siuan. Might go off on his own at the end? This might be the episode where we get the New Spring flashback, see Moiraine & Siuan happy and young and then hear Gitara's Foretelling?

Episode Seven: Focus on Egwene in captivity, which I expect to be really brutal. We'll probably get a lot of Seanchan-related info in this episode. How long she is in captivity probably depends on how Rand is traveling to Falme (because I think this will be his traveling episode). Mat is also approaching Falme at this same time maybe? We have so little info to go on regarding Mat, lol. Perrin is already in the area. It's possible that this is when Perrin meets Aviendha, depending on how many episodes we have her for this season.

Episode Eight: Rand faces off against Turak. Whatever that explosion at that gate is happens. Mat stabs someone with a spear (that potentially has raven detailing). Probably lots of other (Horn-related and breaking-Egwene-out related) stuff happens too! I really hope we get some emotional moments of people realizing that Rand isn't dead, though (unless they find out earlier -- Liandrin might tell Egwene & Nynaeve that Rand is alive).

I am hardcore mourning that I can't see any place in this structure for my Randlayne meet-cute. Rand really isn't in an emotional place for meet-cutes. :-(

I am really curious to see how Moiraine and Lan's relationship evolves in this season. It looks like they run into some friction between each other and so I wonder if we'll get Lan offering Rand suggestions on how to face the Amrylin Seat and Moiraine disapproving (like happens in TGH), maybe because now that Rand is a person and not an idea, Lan wants him to have control of his own destiny?

There was no sign of Moiraine or Lan in the Falme-related shots, but we did get those still of them walking on a beach, with Moiraine in her Cairhienin dress. If she were traveling on her own with just Lan, I'd expect her to be back in her traveling clothes.

We're going to be getting Perrin losing himself in the wolf and getting scared of it, when he kills that Whitecloak. Pretty sure that the wolf we saw in the trailer is going to be Hopper. We didn't get any shots of Elyas but I think he's been confirmed for the season? We also didn't get any shots of Loial and we know that he's there because of that earlier still that was released. We know that he's the first of the group to end up in Seanchan territory, because Loial has been captured by the Seanchan as of episode five. I do still suspect that Verin will be in Perrin's plotline mostly, but there's a chance that we first get introduced to her via Moiraine searching for answers.

I think we won't get confirmation that Liandrin is a Darkfriend until maybe episode six, when she tricks the girls into going into the Ways. Maybe the cold open for that episode is the Darkfriend social? Either that or it's the cold open for episode five and the audience learns about Liandrin the episode before her betrayal of the girls (maybe this is when we see her up by the Flame of Tar Valon and the place where the rings are melted).

I'm guessing that Min will pop up in two or three episodes, maybe? She's not listed as a regular, I don't think, so she won't be in all eight. She's likely in Tar Valon and will likely go along with the Wondergirls to Falme, like she does in the books, so we may get her meeting Aviendha in Falme. It really depends on the pacing of the final episode and how much post-battle time we get.

I do feel like Rafe is invested in showing the realistic emotions of our characters, so I'm hoping we get some downtime where all the polycule all gets to meet each other and we get some reunions between the characters.

It looks like we'll be getting a lot of Egwene & Nynaeve's emotional beats from the show. We'll be meeting Elayne and getting introduced to her brothers and potentially Elaida. They'll probably spend five episodes in the White Tower and then head to Falme for the last three.

Mat remains our biggest question mark. We know he starts in Tar Valon, spends some time captured by Liandrin, and then somehow ends up free in Falme, wielding a spear. And that's pretty much it.

Here is all the detail I wrote out about each of the shots (so where I'm getting some of my guesses from):

Shot 1: Moiraine in Foregate. We know this is episode four because of the photos we got earlier of this scene. I'm assuming that this is her working on locating Rand at the moment. She's dressed up Cairhienin style, high and modest neckline and keisera.

Shot 2: White Tower from above, craning down to get a better look at the sides, where we see a bright blue dress. This might be part of what is likely a flashback that we'll get to later. I am guessing the Moiraine does not go back to Tar Valon this season at all, at this point. It also just might be another Blue Ajah Sister in a wide shot!

Shot 3/4: Moiraine is sad in her bathtub. I'm guessing this is in one of the first three episodes, but it might be episode four. I'm guessing this is the Bath of Sadness that will lead into her dressing up in her Cairhienin outfit.

Shot 5/6: Rand stands on a floodplain-ish area that I'm guessing is him approaching Falme (...I don't know geology). He appears to be alone in this shot but he also might be out of camera view of whoever he's traveling with. We see here that his fancy new emo black coat has a rising sun motif. I feel like we saw something in the promos about Aviendha having a rising sun thing somewhere? Is my brain making that up or is it real? Plus it also would connect to both Elayne & Moiraine for obvious reasons. And it's the opposite of Lanfear's moon motif. We do see Rand both from behind and from the front and he looks alone in both shots. Probably episode seven or eight.

Shot 7/8: These appear to be connected. Moiraine facing a Fade. This might be Moiraine and Lan leaving the Blight? Or just them traveling at night? But I think Moiraine is wearing her traveling clothes from last season in this shot, though the lighting is pretty dim, so it's hard to say. And she has the knife from last season too. So my guess is that this is from episode one.

Shot 9: Ishy looking kinda business-casual, just in a shirt, though it looks like he may have a tie-holder. Darkly-lit scene. He bamfs away, using... well, if you know, then you know. It goes beyond the spoilers I listed at the top. I think this is the same outfit he's wearing later when he's hanging with Suroth (which is different from the outfit he's wearing in the scene with Loial that we only saw a photo of).

Shot 10: Egwene... maybe in the Testing Chamber?

Shot 11: Liandrin staring forward. Might be the same place? She looks a bit like she's dressed for travel, though, so this could be the prepping to leave for the Ways.

Shot 12: Super quick glance at the Darkfriend social.

Shot 13: Nynaeve telling Alanna, I think, that "no one should have that much power". So instead of Alanna trying to be a busybody because she's interested in Rand and she's honing in on the girls by proxy, I think she'll be interested in talking to Nynaeve because she's so strong in the One Power. This is from one of the first three episodes, I would guess. Before Nynaeve does her Accepted Testing.

Shot 14: Ishy is in a different outfit than he was in Shot 9. He's got a jacket on and no tie-clip thing. This might be what he was wearing last season? He's doing something with the Power and the way it's shining is reminding me of the constrained look of the damane's flows that we see later.

Shot 15/16/17: We cut to bloody Lanfear (I'm guessing but I feel like this is probably Lanfear), with the implication that maybe this is Ishy waking her up?

Shot 18/19/20/21: Two damane are launching an attack on a village at nighttime. In the second to last of the shots, I think that I see Uno & his eyepatch, and I'm pretty sure that Perrin is in the last of the shots, so this may be when Perrin & co encounter the Seanchan and Loial gets captured.

Shot 22/23/24/25: Opening the door to the Accepted Testing chamber -- probably episode 3. We see Nynaeve revealed by the opening of the door and then switch to behind her and see the archways for the testing. There are three Sisters with her. Actually, it looks like Liandrin might be wearing the outfit from Shot 11 so that might actually be her reacting to Nynaeve's Test. I think the lady on the left is Sheriam but I'm not sure who the woman just behind Nynaeve is.

Shot 26/27/28: Perrin & co riding down a hilly area. Guessing that this is early on, searching out the Horn & dagger? This is Perrin in his new S2 outfit.

Shot 29: 'Selene' cuddles Rand, who is still in his wanderer outfit, so this would be early season. I really am fascinated by her choice to cosplay Moiraine here (someone mentioned Selene being in her 'Moiraine cosplay era' in the tag, and the thought definitely stuck). Unless that's just a blue cloak that she threw on and her actual outfit isn't blue. Lanfear looks way more into the touching than Rand does -- he's basically just standing there while she plasters herself against him (her hand is even around his back). At least it looks that way from this angle. She does fit pretty neatly under his chin.

Shot 30/31: Rand walks down a hall with arches. He's wearing the same outfit here that we'll later see in his conversation with Logain, so I'll place this around episode 5 or 6.

Shot 32: Tar Valon (?) at night, with lightning flashing.

Shot 33: Moiraine races away on a horse, during the night. A dark horse, so this is not Aldieb (who is a white mare).

Shot 34/35: Lan listens as Moiraine passionately explains that guiding Rand is the only thing that matters. Moiraine is dressed in her Cairhienin clothes here, so maybe episode four.

Shot 36: Siuan on her fancy throne that was probably just set up now, because this is likely all in Cairhien, tells Moiraine, maybe, "You can't control him" possibly talking about Rand. This might be after the conversation that Siuan and Moiraine have that we see later in the trailer, because Siuan has An Opinion about Rand. She's in her super-fancy Amyrlin clothes.

Shot 37/38: Rand is in a dark room, shutters drawn, and we can see him surrounded by yellow-red flows. He's wearing a plain shirt but it looks nice.

Shot 39/40/41: Perrin looks at a wolf. A wolf looks back. Hopper? Perrin's eyes shift to gold.

Shot 42: Rand pins Moiraine up against the wall of a room. By her throat. He looks very intense and I'm pretty sure I can see the black tendrils of the taint in the flows as they pass over his neck. It looks like Moiraine is in her traveling clothes here, so it could be that she doesn't change into her Cairhienin duds until after she's encountered Rand again for the first time. The subtitles says "Kill them all" here and you can kinda hear it if you concentrate. The first glimmers of you-know-who?

Shot 43: Egwene is in the collar and she looks WRECKED. Blood-shot eyes. Bloody cheek. Hair damp (with sweat probably). Either episode seven or eight is my guess for this one.

Shot 44: Nynaeve in her shift in the Testing room, covered in blood. She also looks pretty emotionally wrecked.

Shot 45/46: Panning shot of the dagger on a fancy table as Mat sits in a chair, with some great conflict on his face. This is interesting because it implies that Fain is in Tar Valon? I like all the emphasis on how all five of the ta'veren are going through these intense emotional journeys. It's not just Rand who is struggling with himself.

Shot 47: This shot is fascinating. Rand is standing in front of 'Selene' while the Power is flowing all around him. Very creepy vibes.

Shot 48: Rand tells Logain that he wants to learn how to control it. And he's wearing the same kind of robe-ish overshirt that he was wearing when he was walking down the hall in Shots 30/31 but which is very different than the formal clothes that we see him wearing when he talks to Siuan at the end of the trailer. Rand and Logain both in blue here.

Shot 49/50/51: Wide shot of Suroth & Co being domineering over a village, then going to a closer shot of Suroth sitting on the throne while her Voice and Ishy are on either side of her. I think Ishy is wearing the same outfit here that he was wearing in Shot 9. Oh, I think there are people actually carrying that palanquin! Yikes, that has to be so heavy. So maybe a ~procession~ of the conquered territory?

Shot 52/53: Turok opens the box for the Horn. It's interesting that he doesn't have the mask that Suroth has. His nails also appear to be more functional than hers, or less likely to get in his way. His costuming is actually pretty different from hers. I wonder if we're going to keep seeing different variations between the Bloods. Because she has that metal theme while his theme feels more... bone-like?

Shot 54/55/56/57: I believe all this is the capture of Egwene. Looks very intense. It looks like Egwene goes on the attack while Elayne runs. I can't see Nynaeve at all in any of the shots.

Shot 58/59: But we do transition from the burst of power over Egwene into one over Nynaeve, probably during her Accepted Test, because both her clothes and the house behind her look like the Two Rivers. So this is likely episode three.

Shot 60: I think this is the Whitecloaks riding towards Falme.

Shot 61: Liandrin stands at the Flame of Tar Valon and stares down at the big forge-bowl-ring where the old rings get melted and new ones made.

Shot 62/63: A child and Perrin playing together. Might be a flashback? He isn't wearing what we've seen him wearing in most of the S2-related material.

Shot 64: If it is a flashback, then it would pair well with this shot of Moiraine and Siuan kissing, because I feel like this is most likely a flashback as well, because Siuan is in blue.

Shot 65/66: Egwene (in her kitchen outfit) hugs Nynaeve (in her Two Rivers outfit). Are Egwene and Nynave going to arrive at the Tower separately (why would they do that? Hmm).

Shot 67: Nynaeve's Accepted Test beginning, as the Aes Sedai channel into the archways.

Shot 68/69: Egwene talks to Elayne - "If our friends are in trouble, why would I ever stay here?" So this is probably the conversation that leads to Elayne coming along with Egwene. Hmm, given that Elayne doesn't know literally any of the other potential players involved, I wonder if they're going to lean on the "friendship" angle or the "adventure" angle with why Elayne leaves with Egwene. In the books, Elayne already had a level of investment going on.

Shot 70: Moiraine walks out of a door at night. Maybe the same scene as Rand pinning her against the wall?

Shot 71: Moiraine from much earlier in the season, judging by her vibes.

Shot 72: Lan on Mandarb. I'm still guessing that this is from Nynaeve's Accepted Test in episode three, because Moiraine and Lan don't appear to be near any nice woodlands in their current travels.

Shot 73: Lan tells Moiraine: "You can't do this by yourself." Guessing it's part of the conversation about guiding Rand, because I can make out the pointed collar on Moiraine's outfit.

Shot 74/75/76/77: Aviendha veils up at nighttime, with Perrin in the background. Then she fights some Whitecloaks. Aviendha has a head injury here, some blood near her temple.

Shot 78: Nynaeve spars with the Warders -- we saw this back in the earlier teaser as well.

Shot 79/80: Lan fights a Fade. Guessing this is the same scene as Moiraine & the Fade from Shots 7/8.

Shot 81: Nighttime overlooking shot of Tar Valon. Maybe the same night as the one with the lightning flashing earlier. Maybe the night when Liandrin & the girls leave? /wild speculation

Shot 82: Liandrin with her red all covered up with a black cloak, walking through the streets at night. I saw someone speculate that she's on her way to the Darkfriend social and that would be a pretty great way to bring us into it.

Shot 83: Shirtless Rand stares out the window at maybe the morning light. This is another shot that we've seen before. Guessing Foregate because those shutters look like the ones we saw earlier in the trailer.

Shot 84: Nynaeve exits one of the archways in a burst of light, and we can see blood on her shift. More of her Testing.

Shot 85: Perrin kills a Whitecloak. It does not look like the same location as where we saw Aviendha fighting the Whitecloaks.

Shot 86: Egwene screams in the collar.

Shot 87: Rand is bound shirtless on a huge wheel in the desert (almost certainly in the dream world).

Shot 88: I think Liandrin is talking to Egwene here, though we can only really see her hair. "It's not always the most powerful who write history. It's the ones who survive." Same outfit that we saw on her before.

Shot 89/90/91/92/93: Rand in a plaza at Falme, in his fancy emo black coat (now covered with a brown cloak), about to fight Turak. Rand talks about being tired of being "a spoke in the wheel".

Shot 94: We go back to the shot of Rand bound on the wheel and then pull way back. It does look like there's something directly in front of him, but I can't tell if it's a person or if it's just... set up to look like a person, if that makes sense.

Shot 95: Someone kills a Fade with a flaming sword at night. On reflection... not Rand, I think? (which would make sense -- Rand still has his dad's sword). It might belong to the same scene as Moiraine and Lan facing the Fades?

Shot 96: Mat stabs someone with a spear. He's still wearing his Two Rivers clothes. Given the earlier photo we got of Mat, I'm guessing this is Falme.

Shot 97/98: Hard cut to that explosion. It's actually a top-down view at first and it looks like someone is exploding the door to a gate. Maybe fireworks but maybe channeling? It looks like Falme, though, either way.

Shot 99/100/101: Siuan tells Rand that he's the water that turns the wheel of time. He's in his fancy black emo coat here.

[www-webwarriors]

How 2 Fix: Paul Rabin

Good afternoon fellow webheads. As I stated in my last post, I was going to fix one of the most despised characters in recent Spider-Man comics: Paul Rabin. I personally think he gets a bad rep for being caught in the middle of MJ & Peter's split. Before you say anything else, I'm aware of everything else surrounding his character. But the point of this is to spin him into a character that any writer can deploy in their story. Remember: a bad writer gets rid of stuff that doesn't work. Whereas a great writer makes that stuff work. With all that said, here is how I would fix Paul Rabin.

Widowed, around late 30's or so

Has two twins: Owen and Claire

Wife died of Covid back in 2020 due to lung failure

Has a twin brother himself: Patrick Rabin (Basically muscular, man-bunned version of Paul) who works as male model and currently dating his former Pilates instructor Stephanie (MJ duplicate with brown ponytail)

Pat helped pay for sister-in-law’s medical bills and later funeral

Frequently rips on Paul for being an unaccomplished loser

Paul's own kids look up to their uncle more than their own father

Works as a researcher at Parker Industries (NYC Branch)

Inspired to create the "Jackpot" watch after seeing original Ben 10 show with his kids

Came up with the name "Jackpot" after nightclub owned by MJ Watson at this point in time

Rejected by executives for being too clunky and impractical.

Has habit of self-pitying and as a result, can come off as being oblivious or too self-involved

Scores a date with Shay (nurse from current Spider-Man run) but frequently bails due to work and the kids needing him.

On the verge of being dumped due to his lack of punctuality; implying that this has been going on for a while now.

Before he can feel sorry for himself, the date is interrupted by a gang of muggers outside causing trouble.

Paul, having finally had enough, goes outside to stop them.

Shay tries to talk him out of it, but it falls on deaf ears.

She decides to call the police instead.

Paul tries to talk the muggers out of their shenanigans but to no avail.

They even hold him at gunpoint and threaten to kill him.

Paul then pours his heart out, telling the muggers about his life and how if it doesn't go well, he could very well lose a chance at romance since his wife died.

As he's going on, one of the muggers pulls out his gun and tries to kill him, only for the leader to dissuade him due to him wanting to hear the rest of what Paul has to say.

They are so distracted that they don't see/hear the cops arrive.

By now, a crowd of onlookers have formed outside the restaurant and even the police are bewildered by his bravery.

After Paul is done talking, one of the muggers puts him in a chokehold and threaten to shoot him if the police don't comply.

Paul nut-punches him and runs like hell; giving the police enough time to take them down.

Once they are arrested, the cops praise Paul on his bravery and the crowd claps/cheers for him.

Shay runs over to him, hugging him tight

She asks if he really meant all that stuff about loving her.

He says yes I do, to which she promptly kisses him.

Shay apologizes for doubting him and Paul apologizes for always being late; promising to be more punctual in future.

After getting home from his date, Paul's kids praise him for his bravery after witnessing it on TV. Thus earning Paul the admiration of his twins.

Even Patrick has to admit that his brother has guts he never knew he had.

At work, Paul pitches the idea again. But the higher-ups turn him down. However, one of the supervisors suggest that they modify into a deluxe version of their current Web-Ware watches.

Paul is delighted at his idea being taken seriously.

True to his word, he pops by Shay's work with flowers and to keep her company in-between shifts.

He even volunteers at F.E.A.S.T every so often just to set a good example to his kids.

With that entire backstory in mind, this could be one of many ways one could renovate a character such as Paul. It isn't that hard. Hell, I did it using elements from the current storyline. The trick is to separate Paul from MJ as well as Peter and Blam-o! You've got yourself a spicy yet well-crafted character arc/background. Thank you and good day.

[anexperimentallife]

el has gotten so big! crazy to think how much time has passed. hope your family's doing well, and i'll definitely spread the wishlist/any donation posts

Thank you! We're doing alright now. Well past the crisis at this point, and just struggling to pay off all the debt from The Situations while also trying to save for the surgeries and other treatments I need (thanks to long COVID).

As long as the China situation doesn't escalate, we SHOULD be okay. Hope you're doing well, too! (If you weren't aware, China is beefing with both the Philippines and Taiwan, to the point at which the US is about to pour a bunch of troops onto the northern tip of our island.)

And yeah, El is like, 93 or 94 cm now! She's starting preschool in the fall! The few pics of her I post these days, I'm pretty careful with-- I mean, she loves the idea of our friends seeing her pics, but she's three, so it's my job to make sure there's nothing floating around that will embarrass her when she gets older.

(And I don't post very many pics of her AT ALL anymore because of that one weirdo. What kind of sicko makes rape threats against a literal BABY?)

On donations... On the one hand, yeah, it'd sure be nice to not be in so much debt (and having to go into MORE debt for my crutches, teeth, etc.), but there are so many people suffering so much worse (especially in Gaza, Sudan, Ukraine, Congo, Darfur, and so on--and even in the US and other so-called "developed" countries) that I wasn't even really comfortable posting that wishlist link for my crutch pads and stuff. @thesurestthing was like, "a donation post just gives them the OPTION; it doesn't actually take away from anyone else."

Thing is, our daily needs are taken care of, so while we're not in the greatest shape, we're able to keep our heads above water. (If that English school hadn't backed out on sponsoring Zoey's work visa we'd be in EXCELLENT shape. That 800 bucks a month would have gone a long way here, but they reneged at the last minute--AFTER they had assigned her students, even!)

So I dunno. I would welcome your thoughts on whether I should do another donation post.

[sawthatmountainburn]

I haven't watched the barbie movie and don't really plan to, I just have a problem with some arguments people have been making in its defense, as they are weak arguments regardless of what piece of media they're defending. specifically it's the "this is just feminism 101 for kids, it doesn't have to be a whole manifesto!" type of dismissive arguments.

first of all, if a movie is marketed as feminist and the fanbase praises it for its feminism, people who go see it will have certain expectations based on their own idea of feminism, since feminism is an umbrella term for different ideologies whose common trait is that they want rights for women. who counts as a woman, what specific rights they should have and how we should get them are all points of contention, without even getting into intersecrionality just yet. (very broad generalization, also some leftist feminists disagree with the 'rights' framing) there's only so many grains of sslt you can take, before you decide this is just too far away from what it was presented as and clearly, many women feel this way about the movie.

second of all, regardless of how a piece of media is marketed, it is always fair game for critism, whether that be from a feminist perspective, an anti-racism perspective, a leftist perspective or whatever else you can come up with. to demand that people simply not bring up these critiques because it's ruining people's fun or it's not that serious (but still serious enough that you call people misogynists for criticizing it?) is blatantly reactionary. it's the same thing angry geek boys do when you point out their funny little sci-fi and fantasy shows have weirdly few POC in them. you can say a criticism is in bad faith or based on a misreading of the text (I've seen this about the gynecologist scene, for example), sure, but what I'm seeing more commonly is just a total dismissal of these critiques and perspectives, as if the movie simply isn't subject to it for whatever reason.

expounding upon this, the "feminism 101" part of the argument is similarly reactionary. to reiterate what i said in my last reblog about this, the way people talk about this movie gives me the impression that it's way more suited to the ~2012-2014 pre-gamergate era of tumblr feminism, when people said stuff like "eyeliner so sharp it could kill a man" and feminist criticism was treated as more of a checklist of good and bad tropes. we're almost a decade past that era, with many events that changed the political and pop cultural landscape in the meantime, so what was passable back then might not be such now. we've talked extensively about intersecrionality, issues of race have been brought up time and time again, especially in light of the BLM movement and anti-Asian racism in the COVID era, queer issues have also been gaining more and more traction, etc etc, I can't and won't recap the last decade of political development. my point is, if you're a feminist in 2023 (or any other type of left-leaning politically active individual, but the barbie discourse is about feminism, so that's what I'm talking about specifically) you cannot simply ignore these issues and say multiply marginalized women will have their time, but they need to wait for the privileged women to go first. actually, it was always unacceptable to demand marginalized women support more privileged women while getting nothing in return, but it's even more obvious and ignorant in the current era, after we've been trying to make people understand intersecrionality for years.

it's also insidious how the implication is that feminism needs to be dumbed down for kids (a dubious claim in the first place) and for some reason, that dumbing down involves flattening everything to being about the most privileged women possible. why shouldn't young privileged girls learn about the issues that face their less privileged peers face? why should girls of marginalized groups have to sit and listen about the issues facing their privileged peers, but never being given the tools to discuss their own issues? whom does this dynamic serve exactly and why is it not only acceptable to continue to exist, but it also important to so vehemently defend?

I'm not trying to tell people not to like the barbie movie, that's really not what I care about. I'm saying the types of arguments being made reveal a failure of intersectionality and a dismissal of multiply marginalized women's issues, coupled with a self-centeredness which should be unacceptable to any serious feminist. stop making excuses for a hollywood blockbuster funded by a multi-billion(!!) dollar toy company and start giving a shit about the women in need right in front of you!

[pumpumdemsugah]

And divestors will whine about how white women always got to be pink princesses or some shit. How the box of acceptable women hood has narrowed so much. I swear if a young black woman wore Halle berry’s old cut they would whine about how evil and masculine it is. How I wish all those women a white boyfriend, with the full blessing of the monkey’s paw.

Since covid in particular, divestors have become a cult of the worst self help advice masquerading as Black women empowerment just because now and again they're right about big issues. It's not all of them, but the ones that are hostile to feminism are usually just not smart at all. They don't read and I remember watching one and her saying she avoids anything feminist so she doesn't change her mind lol. Many of them have jumped out of the role of Black women being a sacrificial lamb for the Black community and think because they're right about that, they shouldn't be reflective of any other beliefs they have. If the Stepford wife thing isn't and hasn't worked for other women, why would it for us ? So many are so fixated on ' Black women didn't get to do X ' they're not even thinking ' is this even a good idea?' , ' am I going about this in a sensible reality based way ?' And they will hear this and think they're being asked to lower their standards and date a drug dealer and not, think about your pension if you're going to be a stay at home wife because men die before women; make sure you have work experience because "good men" leave women all the time

Literally all they do is make the box for acceptable femininity for Black women smaller and harsher and then pretend it's doing us a favour. They're pretending their doltishness is refinement because they don't act like cardi b. They're never avid readers or interested in art. They think because 19yros are taken in by their act because they wear midi-skirts that's going to be impressive by itself

They just like the aesthetics of social media ' old money ' style and that's not a problem by itself but the way they build all their ideas from that is stupid. They encourage the most irredeemable form of vacuousness for us like Black women benefit from people thinking we're dumb. They will call behaviour that's obviously a trauma response " masculine" and pretend they're worldly without any of the " work" of knowing anything about the world.

Black women and girls should be reading, going to galleries, building relationships based on compassion, travelling but these goats will have you believe it's masculine to be career focused as if inflation doesn't exist and we need more money for the same shit . A man that comes from ' old money ' typically marries within their social circle like all wealthy people do and if you want a wealthy man, you better get a good education and a good career so you're at the same conferences and office buildings as them

There are so many forms of anti- intellectualism on social media masquerading as self help. If you're fucked up in the head, seek help and if you want to transform your life it's not happening because you made a blog and use cursive font

It's good for Black women to focus on ourselves but Black Femininity types and divestors are getting crazier and crazier as a group ( individually some divestors are fine ). Many YouTube Black Femininity types hate ForHarriet but she is literally the one with an educated, probably high earning, I go to charity ball man because even though she's on social media, she's not acting loud and stupid and being a Harvard dropout still means you went to Harvard and they didn't.

I don't believe in lying to women about shit. Give them the facts and stop selling a fantasy and then an e-book. There are lots of ways to have a beautiful life full of love and safety as a Black woman but that takes effort and planning not content consumption

Black girls gain nothing by being isolated ( in an effort to stay pure ) and not learning about the world. If you can't figure anything else you can do but go to the club like those other ' hoodrats' congrats you don't have any hobbies or interests or friends. Work on that