#it’s a propaganda movie by Big Meats

[feather--down]

Hmmm

[centrally-unplanned]

I watched two documentaries recently that were very "2000's nerd culture" which I thought were very fun! In like a meta way as cultural commentary, of course, it is me after all. The first was Indie Game: The Movie, a 2012 documentary on the making Braid, Super Meat Boy, and Fez. It is a "creator-focused" documentary and in particular for the latter two games the film crew actually filmed them mid-production & release, which does make for some authentically heartfelt scenes.

So in a certain sense all eras of documentary will contain this, but the 2000's going into the 2010's was absolutely rife with a new wave of films, often supported by crowdsourcing funds like Indie Game was, primarily concerned with the self-legitimization of niche subcultures. By creating something cohesive, academic, and prestigious like a documentary, the film can codify the subculture as "real" and "worthy", and additionally lend credence to narratives about the subculture that have grown prevalent. And to be clear, this is not a criticism, even if there are parts that are - all meaning and identity is forged in similar ways. But for nerd culture in the 2000's, there was a particularly intense need for this process, because this was the era of nerdom going mainstream. That level of culture shift generated demand for all the above, which films like this aim to supply. There were lot of films of this type - we made a brony "documentary" propaganda film guys, nothing was exempt.

Indie Game is overwhelmingly the story of outsider artists bleeding and dying for their art, which will triumph above all odds. And it leans, heavily, into the bleed; at one point Phil Fish (creator of Fez), openly states he might commit suicide if his game fails. Much screen time is spent on personal sacrifice, financial poverty, the "doubters", etc. This is of course a classic tale for artists, but if I may be so bold that is something of an easy sell - emotionally, narratively - for someone writing the Great American Novel. It is maybe harder to sell if you are making this?

(Cover art by Bryan Lee O'Malley btw - very era appropriate!) How do we make "dude in hat solves puzzles" worth the Starving Artist life?

We do that by positioning these games not as games, but as paradigms. These games, by dint of being the independent vision of unitary creators, are making games that Big Gaming never could. New digital means of distribution are allowing artists to cut out the middleman of publishers, groups that corrupt the real vision of creators. And with no barriers to development, now anyone (maybe...even you?) can make games that can compete in the big leagues. Indie games through this lens are a different product than mainstream titles, and these creators are opening doors. And their suffering is going to be financially rewarded with success and money to boot! That is the narrative Indie Game is selling to its audience of gamers, to understand why the indie games they bought and loved are meaningful.

And to be clear, as much as I am about to deconstruct this, it isn't like totally false or anything. Starting in the late 2000's digital platforms like Steam, more accessible development tools like Unity (released in 2005), and so on did in fact make smaller games appealing to more niche markets more viable, and by virtue of their nicheness yeah they can do things big budget games maybe can't. These creators absolutely had passionate visions for their games, sacrifice for your passions is fine (not bashing that part here), hats off to them. Indie games in this era would absolutely "change gaming".

But not really in the ways this narrative wants them to, nor with the "meaning" people of the time expected it to have. For one, there is a conflict in this documentary of them wanting to highlight "bold new visions" and also wanting to highlight...popular indie games. This is Super Meat Boy, for example:

Yeah, never had a 2D platformer blob guy dodging traps before in gaming! "No see its retro" yeah retro to what, old games? Like those Nintendo made back in the 90's, which you explicitly mention in your documentary? You know, niche indie studio Nintendo? This isn't a bash, at all, at the game itself, but instead the idea that "AAA Studios would never"; they totally would, and always did. There has never been an era where the large gaming studios weren't also making creative games, but for this narrative they need to be propped up as static for it to make sense. And the actual niche indie stuff that big studios wouldn't touch don't sell well enough to justify being in this film!

And the idea of the "solo developer" is also, hm, let us say a bit sus. Not that these developers weren't solo or small teams, they were (though ofc a solo core creator will often have dozens of helpers on supporting roles that get sidelined in this "unitary vision" narrative); but that such a model is all that new? How big do you think development teams were in the 90's for so many classic games? The original Pokemon Red/Blue game had less than a dozen core developers (the total staff list, including American localizers, is ~30 people - Super Meat Boy meanwhile seems to have 16 for comparison). You wanna bring up the dev teams for PC-98 visual novels? They were made in an Akihabara cave with a box of pixel art scraps by like 6 people! You think those games didn't have "unitary creative visions"? Small gaming companies have always been a part of the ecosystem, getting niche titles funded & published using insane magic and pure luck. The "indie boom" is better seen as a change in the numerator.

Though what did change is that, by being self-published, development was approachable by outsiders in new ways. Though even then, this is a bit of a lie - Jonathan Blow of Braid was an industry veteran, and everyone here plays the "convention circuit" and networks with people like the PAX crew and Xbox representatives. But with the games being published by an individual over a studio, even a studio of a half dozen people, it is far easier for the audience to see the creators as "one of them". No office, no suits, just a man in his gamer den banging out his dream. That aesthetic is core to why this narrative was potent at the time, and why making a documentary to codify it was seen as compelling. It takes an already ascendant idea, polishes it, packages it as nonfiction, and then sells the idea back to the people who invented it. LIke so much media, to be clear! I always enjoy seeing it, it is the dialectic of culture in action.

I also find it very funny to see a documentary made in 2012 playing tropes that will become far more ~problematic~ just around the corner. Burnout and work-life balance - in a documentary where a developer, crying, discusses suicide if his game fails, to remind you - is pretty much never mentioned, and a successful game launch is absolutely presented as justifying endless crunch. You would never see that today. The only women in this documentary are wives and parents - which is very amusing, because the co-creator of the film is a woman! No one thinks gender is relevant to mention. Boy would that change in a few years.

Indie games today, of course, are just a segment of the gaming market. They are incredibly common now, so much so that most people lose money making them, people discuss oversaturation, big studio companies have "indie wings" to cover consumer preference ranges, etc. There is no magic in it anymore, it is just dev strategy. So yeah, very enjoyable as a representative time capsule in a strain of culture that is pretty much gone now! The Capital-R Romantic Era of indie gaming; what a time.

In the next post, we are going much more niche, so stay tuned for that. Or don't, I don't know you, and like this was a loooot of writing. Maybe i'll, idk work on that for the next one? ...I probably won't -_-

[superemeralds]

i think about ur piece with shadow captioned “welcome to the promised land” ALOT… with that, i wondered what your thoughts are on the sonic movies (both the ones that came out and the new one thats coming) in regards to their portrayal of the police/military/GUN.

I’m personally really disappointed in whats been done so far (with Tom being a cop, like cmon man what. and with the goofy portrayal of the military, especially that old general guy in the second movie) and im really nervous about whats coming, with team sonic working WITH GUN (and now Tom and Maddie wearing military uniforms) in the trailers. I have a suspicion that Maria’s death will be an “accident”, like a very MCU style “sometimes the military makes mistakes…” bullshit. itd really suck to see this series become another piece of copaganda, especially since like. its so out of character, like sonic is unique in the way its been blatantly anti military (for the most part) in the games. it wasn’t revolutionary by any means but it is arguably a core part of the original story.

What are your thoughts? sorry for the long ask, I’m a big fan of your writing and thoughts on sonic (huge heart of a monster fan!). Hope youre having a good day!

big same. I've made the comic in question as a response to the first trailer for sonic 3 actually.

the trailer made me feel a LOT of emotions, mostly negative if im honest, and the only thing that I liked from it was the scene of shadow bursting from his tank thing and being sloppin wet that looked like he was standing in the rain. so i went and made a comic of shadow in the rain. and i made it as anti military and anti capitalism as i could.

becasue sonic 3's marketing, in my opinion, especially after the second trailer came out, is a perfect axample of everything wrong with the current western (mostly USA, but the USA influences the entire world so.) society. it exemplifies capitalism, militarism, consumerism, a lack of emotional depth and the infantalization as well as mliking (for a lack of better word; i mean how advertizements are usually heavily marketed at kids because parents will buy anyhting to shut up their crying annoying meat bags and therefore spend money on shit they dont want nor need) of children (that detective pikachu bit was so painful). and let's not forget the fatphobia. it was so painful to go back and watch the first trailer to freshen my memory for this reply oh god.

when sonic 2 came out i was really happy with the movie. i think sonic 2 is miles better than 1 in terms of characters and fun, most obviously because there's more of actual sonic characters in it now then the first. the first felt mostly like a pilot honestly. the second one had much more fantastical details and elements thatreally leaned into sonic's world. Or at least... the environment artists tried with it. I remember being OBSESSED with the fact tehre was a mural of perfect chaos in that labyrinth for like 1 second and theorized about what it could mean. while watching the movie i even speculated it was foreshadowing that perfect chaos was gonna be the secret final boss of the movie as that was only the halfway point of the runtime. having sobered from the hype i understand its a neat detail from the cg department that means absolutely nothing.

the worst thing is that the movie (sonic 3 now) itself might be like. a well made movie with good (enough) writing and good visuals and whatever. sonic might betray the military and go his own way bc here he's a little younger and he's learning (he didnt grow up w military so he might be blissfull yunaware bc hes only been fed propaganda through hollywood movies so far) and him meeting shadow and learning about his fate might change his mind. we don't know yet.

The marketing sometimes is detatched from the movie itself so it'll misrepresent things for the sake of "bait" to get ppl to spend money to watch it (the teenage kraken movie suffered from that bc it was fun imo i liked it). Or even just to get people to make viral reactions to get even MORE news of the movie out and attract more people. Especially when adapting a story that already exists I think it makes them reveal a LOT of the movie (I saw ppl complain they reveal the entire movie in the trailer, i think given the fact we already know all those key moments shown it's fine)

actually. does anyone know if the us army funded this movie? i know it does a lot of movies ever since iron man

idek where im going w this rn im just. eghh.... def not gonna see it in cinema ♥ my money goes towards literally anything else

[bestfictionalplant]

Round 2 Group 4

Blessed Eternal artwork by @bortmcjorts

Propaganda and spoilers under cut

The Blessed Eternal:

it is there to ruin douglas eiffel's life personally. it is a failed experiment or perhaps if you think about it a successful one from dr hilbert and i'm not sure if it really deserves to be here since it has an eyeball and teeth but we get a little silly with it. can build nightlights and plays a mean game of backgammon and has hypnotic abilities and was possibly on the ship for the entirety of the show Previous Propaganda: Round 1 and additions

Morbuzakh:

bionicle lore gets weird so i'll do my best to simplify. okay. so first things first, the little meat robot mayor has been replaced by a power-hungry ex-protector whose job is to make fucked-up animals and shit. he's called makuta. he makes this semi-sentient plant, promises it that it can rule the city once it's done what he wants it to, and plants it in a fucking furnace. its job is to round up all the little meat robot civilians so they can be put into amnesia-inducing orbs. incidentally, its efforts result in some of them dying. six little meat-robot civilians get picked out by the local superhero and turned into big meat-robot superheroes. they go on a quest to find a bunch of magic frisbees in order to defeat the giant evil plant. the frisbees destroy the king root, and it dies this plant is notable because, though it was mostly cut from the animated movie adaptation of that arc, it appeared in one brief scene that led to many bionicle fans developing a bondage kink

[sleepyhead-poll]

ROUND 1C, MATCH 13 OUT OF 16!

*If it isn't obvious, she is the one who is the princess in the green dress (third from the left on the coach) who is passed out asleep.

**If it isn't obvious, she is the one in the forefront with the brown hair with dark pink highlights who is holding a rose.

Propaganda Under the Cut:

Sleeping Beauty:

She can sleep on command, and used it to great effect during the Royal Prison Princess Riot Thing that happened in Shrek 3. She has a brief instance of (presumably) non-voluntary sleepiness in a previous movie, but we love ourselves a girl who weaponises her so-called curse! (Also, she's so pretty in entirely non-fairytale-standard ways! Freckles (and a couple moles), round face, straight light/medium brown hair, and, though it's a bit hard to tell with her empress waistline dress, we can tell she's definitely got some meat on her bones! Solid, but in a subtle way. Plus, just look at her confident grin, that sassy pose, and her "I Dare You" little chin tilt - augh! I love her!!!!!)

She used her sleepiness to her advantage to trip up guards by passing tf out in front of them. She can also kick ass. We love a baddie

Briar Beauty:

snorkmimimi

BRIAR!!! OMG ok so Briar actually has superpowers when she sleeps. She can hear for MILES and retain information. And when she's awake? She's an adrenaline junkie with some of the deepest characterization I've ever seen in a doll line. I know she's not a traditional sleepyhead but she's GREAT vote for her please

You know what I'm going to say but vote for Briar. She is such an interesting and complex character. Like she wanted to follow her mother's steps because it seemed like there was no option. But at the same time she never wanted to sleep 100 years and suffering from falling asleep anytime anywhere is already problematic for her. She's afraid of losing all her friends. What did she do to avoid this fear? She did everything she could, putting herself in danger, being a party animal and living her "best life". But the closer she got to signing the book that would force her to follow her mother's path, the more she realized no party, no big discovery and nothing could ever make her feel less sad, angry and scared. She knows she'll lose all her friends by sleeping for a hundred years and it's OBVIOUSLY not what she wants. But at the same time she's responsible and it's her duty. So she finds an alternative to push the decision away and... she's still confused but she's iconic. She's really way more than this party animal you may think she's at first.

[cherry-bomb-ships]

Ruby's F/o Tournament - Round 3 - Match 4

The battle of iconic video game villains who were really hot in a film adaptation where they were played by a famous comedy actor!! Vote however you'd like; whichever ship of mine you prefer, which character you prefer, or even whoever's vibe you dig more! Propaganda will be below the cut. May the best f/o win!! 🧡💜❤️

Bowser

From @edencantstopfallininlove : Bowser has the raaaaange. He can go from silly and affable in one moment to ruthless and intimidating in the next. He can BREATHE FIRE for frick's sake. Also a good dad! In the words of the King of the Koopas himself, "Losing is not an option! And neither is giving up!"

Notes from Ruby: Bowser has been close to my heart since I played "Bowser's Inside Story" when I was 10 and ADORED the way he was characterized, so you can imagine how wonderful it was to see him portrayed in the same way in the movie all these years later. Of course he's still an intimidating villain, but he's also so enjoyably meat-headed and secretly a big softie. 🧡🧡🧡

Dr. Robotnik

This f/o has received no propaganda.

Notes from Ruby: Robotnik was love at first sight for me. Well, maybe it's more accurate to call it infatuation that became love, but from the very first trailer for the first Sonic film, I knew I was struck. His coldness toward others paired with his manic behavior was a one-way ticket to my heart. Oh, and it helps that I have a major celeb-crush on Jim Carrey. ❤️❤️❤️

It's not too late! Click here to submit propaganda for any f/o!

[mushiemellows]

Okay SO I've been thinking a ton lately about the post-monoculture american franchise vacuum and how american art is in this really weird stage. It's happening in all levels, too, like I left working in contemporary art spaces last year because they're struggling to figure out how to present american identity in an outward facing way (rn big name contemporary art spaces are still very much stuck in that 2010s neoliberal palatable acceptability politics rut and they refuse to get interesting with it anyways).

So like, a few different things are coinciding with the way american mainstream media is structured that make it so right now, we are producing literally nothing on a mass cultural level. In some ways, I think that this is a good thing, america needs to step the FUCK back and reanalyze QUITE a lot of things. But regardless, culture is a byproduct of existence and therefore will be created regardless. There's two sides of mass scale art production, internal propaganda (art made by and for the people of the same culture) and external propaganda (art designed to advertise/project the image of/signify/idealize etc for those who are of a different culture). The way art production in america woks (namely: film, tv, AAA video games, a particular caliber of pop record label music) has been so stratified under the creator class of capitalism that the blood flow of culture is being cut off. The way global exporting also works, the mass marketability of a thing outweighs its cultral connections (think like, what's going on with Disney/Pixar movies atm).

It's easy to associate propaganda, particularly internal propaganda, as having strictly a nationalistic context, but keep in mind that I'm using a much broader definition. All art is propaganda because all produced art is an artist trying to establish or normalize a particular worldview. And I am two minds about this (as one should be when engaging with ALL art) but it boils down to like, for example, Captain America TWS. I can both like that film as a film, enjoy the ideas that it plays with, AND maintain a critical eye about how a nationalized protagonist icon is being fed to me (a post-modern aryan buff super hero symbol of america is still an aryan buff super hero symbol at the end of the day. The russians are still the bad guys. the black man still plays support. the tropes are still old. I'm getting off topic)

Anyways, so in terms of how america makes art right now, I think the three things we make quite effectively are youtube videos, indie music, and steam games that go for $15 and under. Everything else is a fucking headless chicken because shareholders and those with the MEANS to make art are only motivated by the PROFIT of making art, and therefore generally do not fund things that feel culturally resonant. But at the same time, America in the 20th century made A LOT of it's money in global art export, so there's this sense of like, lost glory almost. Like the profits are still being made or whatever so this shit's still getting produced but like. I feel more culturally connected to Stardew Valley than I do to the Rise of Skywalker does that make ANY SENSE?!

This is only getting worse because in america, the production of essentially everything gets shifted into in import. We don't make many things (except fucking WEAPONS jfc), we don't grow as many crops as we once did (the majority of crops I believe are for feeding livestock, and the only reason we don't import meat is because it would go bad lol) and the big shift of the last 25 years has been to start importing essentially all of our art (hey! I'm posting this on my blog devoted to the biggest global export comic in the world! What a coincidence!).

This process has only been amplified by the writers/actors strike. We still havent felt the effects of it because of how the pipeline works, that'll catch up in about 6-10 months from now. Last time we played this game, the void was filled by low budget trashy reality tv, but they can't really play that card a second time in a row so it looks like the next move is eastern imported media (kdramas and shounen manga tbh) (Netflix isn't investing their whole pussy into one piece because they think Luffy's brand of leftism is cool, they're doing it because infinite tv generating box prints money) (one of the reasons i like studying this fucking show and fandom is that it has so much potential to be bastardized by ai and bullshit and then the people keep putting the heart back into it and I just think that's neat, but it still is valid to criticize the infinite money printing box is what I'm saying)

There's this really fascinating void that is being filled by export because the means of art production under capitalism prioritize what's cheap over how communities have naturally created culture over the years. I moved 3,000 miles a few years ago and I ate at the same restaurants and bought the same groceries and watch the same movies at the same amc's. If we were living just like 150 years ago that would not be the case, that big of a distance should take you to a culture wildly different from your own in most other contexts (or like. Europe.)

What I'm saying is that I don't want a new face of propaganda, I don't want art assigned to me. I want to live in community and make shit with my hands and i want that to be enough.

Anyways, in summation, Franky's one of the best post-modern caricature the american man ever penned to paper because he processes the external projected propaganda while also acknowledging that the real fun shit that is kinda commendable is when we're dirty angry kinky fuckin rock and roll queers and true freedom comes from relinquishing positions of power in this essay I will...

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Jesse Duquette, The Daily Don   ::  [Scott Horton]

* * * *

How Murdoch steamrolled Tucker

LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV ::  APR 25, 2023

Rupert Murdoch is 92 years old, and everyone just finished making fun of his brief engagement to conservative radio host Lesley Ann Smith, the ex-wife of California railroad heir John B. Huntington.  The engagement lasted just two weeks.  Murdoch has been married four times, the last time to Jerry Hall, model and ex-wife of Rolling Stones front man Mick Jagger.  That marriage lasted six years.  Murdoch reportedly told Hall he was divorcing her in an email.

Murdoch’s marital history is particularly interesting when you consider his recent divorce from Fox host Tucker Carlson.  That’s the way I think of Carlson’s departure from his seven-year career at Fox.  When Rupert decides it’s over, it’s over.  Here’s an excerpt from his email to his former wife: “Jerry, sadly I’ve decided to call an end to our marriage,” The Guardian reported. “We have certainly had some good times, but I have much to do.”

You get that?  It was good while it lasted, six years with those cameras flashing at the world’s wealthiest media-mogul with his supermodel on his arm, but now he was finished.  Moving on.  Busy man.

You don’t want to get on the bad side of Rupert Murdoch.  You don’t even want to be on his good side, because as his marriages and latest engagement prove, once he decides it’s time to pull the ripcord, you’re in the wind.

It’s been the same with his business empire.  It’s easy to forget that Murdoch was once just an Australian newspaper owner with big eyes to get off that gigantic island-continent and make his way in the wider world.  His first big move, way back in the 60’s, was to expand into Great Britain, buying the News of the World and the Sun.  Next was New York City, where he established a beachhead in 1976 by buying New York Magazine and the Village Voice in a hostile takeover.  I wrote about that battle for the late-lamented New Times magazine, and I have to say that I watched slack jawed as Murdoch steamrolled Clay Felker, the magazine genius who had created New York Magazine and then combined it with the downtown alternative paper I had worked for, the Voice.  Murdoch charmed, threatened, and walked over or past the board of New York Magazine, getting one after another of them on his side until he was able to, in a single sweep of paperwork and investment banking magic, make Felker’s mini-empire his.  The New York Post was next, followed by his purchase of the prestigious London broadsheet, The Times.

He became an American citizen in 1985 and set out on another buying spree, this time buying Twentieth Century Fox.  He used the Fox brand to buy up a small television network, Metromedia, which he transformed into the Fox channel.  In the early 90’s, the Fox channel began carrying original programing.  Then he formed the British broadcasting company, BSkyB.  In 1996, Murdoch started Fox News on cable, and in 2007, his holding company, News Corporation, bought the Wall Street Journal, which he had coveted since the days when he took over New York Magazine.

If you owned anything that published in print, made movies for the big screen, or broadcast shows on network or cable television, you were a target.  Murdoch hit more than he missed.  By last year, he was worth $21.7 billion and was the world’s 31st wealthiest man.  

Fox News became a cash cow for the Murdoch empire, taking in about $12 billion a year in recent years.  It’s money Murdoch earned by feeding a ravenous horde of conservative viewers a steady diet of right-wing red meat around the clock.  Fox News long ago ceased being a real news network and simply went into the business of raw propaganda with its wink-and-a-nod motto, “Fair and Balanced.”

Tucker Carlson became one of the channel’s biggest revenue generators with his nightly spew of conspiracy theories, racist garbage like “the great replacement theory,” paeons to authoritarianism with his worship of Hungary’s Victor Orban – Carlson even took his show there for an entire week in 2021, and produced a rabidly antisemitic documentary on the country last year called “Hungary vs. Soros: Fight for Civilization.”

All of this was fine and dandy for Rupert Murdoch as long as Tucker kept the bucks coming.  Carlson warmly embraced Trump’s Big Lie, beginning when Trump lost the election in 2020.  The Big Lie was a feature of his show almost nightly for the next two-plus years.  Carlson’s show featured many of the right-wing loons who made the allegations against Dominion Voting Systems that were defamatory – Rudolph Giuliani, Sidney Powell and many others.  Tucker sat there and listened to them spew their lies night after night, nodding and giving his patented look of puzzled curiosity.  But asking questions and looking puzzled wasn’t a defense when Dominion sued for defamation.  That lawsuit ended up costing Murdoch a whole lot of money, $787.5 million to be exact, when Fox News settled the suit without a court fight last week.

There has been a ton of speculation about why Carlson was fired yesterday morning, much of it settling on emails written by Carlson that were revealed by the Dominion suit.  Many of his emails were embarrassing to the network, and thus to Murdoch, as Carlson wrote repeatedly that he didn’t believe a word of the garbage he was putting out on his show about the Big Lie that Trump won the election.

The L.A. Times reported yesterday that sources inside Fox say that Murdoch himself was upset by some of Carlson’s emails that were not released by the Dominion lawsuit because they didn’t bear on its defamation claim.  These emails instead gave an insight into what Carlson thought about Fox management, according to the L.A. Times.

“Fox management” is one man:  Rupert Murdoch.  Carlson is said to have written some nasty stuff about lesser Fox figures such as CEO Suzanne Scott.  Murdoch doesn’t care about Suzanne Scott.  He doesn’t care if Tucker Carlson thinks Scott is incompetent or unlikable.  What Rupert Murdoch cares about is being considered a Big Man Media Mogul and making money.

The Dominion lawsuit, much of it caused by the statements made on Carlson’s nightly show, brought Murdoch low in the eyes of his Big Man Media Mogul contemporaries, the guys – and they’re almost all guys – who show up every year at Herbert Allen’s Sun Valley Conference of media Big Men.  It’s a kind of summer camp in the mountains of Idaho for media moguls, among whom Murdoch was arguably the biggest.  Herbert Allen is the CEO of the investment bank, Allen & Company.  Murdoch goes way back with Herbert Allen and his investment bank.  He and his company handled Murdoch’s takeover of New York Magazine way back in 1976.  Murdoch doesn’t like it when you do something that lowers him in the eyes of “Herbie” Allen, as he is called, or any of the other media Big Men.

And he especially doesn’t like it when he can put a name on a loss of $787.5 million.  That name is Tucker Carlson, who thought that he was a Big Man because of the adoring hordes who watched his show every night and the millions he was paid for attracting them.  But he wasn’t a Big Man.  He was a worker bee in the sprawling Murdoch media empire, and now he’s a worker bee who got squashed by the Murdoch steamroller, as so many have been squashed before him.

Murdoch still owns the Fox empire.  Tucker Carlson owns his trust fund check as an heir to Swanson Frozen Foods, however much he managed to put away when he was riding high in the 8 o’clock slot on Fox News, and whatever he can squeeze out of Fox in his so-called exit package.  And he owns the stack of bills that are piling up from lawyers representing him in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by former Fox producer Abby Grossman, because there is no doubt that in firing him, Rupert Murdoch severed Fox from Carlson in the Grossman lawsuit and is no longer paying his legal bills.

I often see businessmen like Murdoch referred to in the press as killers.  But Murdoch isn’t a killer.  He’s a taker.  He sees something he thinks he wants, like a magazine or a newspaper or a studio or a network, and he takes it and then he takes all the money it brings in.

Murdoch paid the legal fees for his four ex-wives, but he wasn’t married to Tucker Carlson.  Murdoch was once his employer, and he was happy to take the money Tucker earned for him, but he’s a busy man, and he moved on.

[Lucian Truscott Newsletter]

[skelegun]

So as I mentioned earlier I watched House of the Dead 2 which is a reskin of Aliens but with zombies and no budget. A tale as old as time. Well I had enough free time to watch another movie and after looking shortly I found one. I chose Navy Seals vs Zombies. The reason I picked it was two fold, the cover poster thing on Amazon Prime had Ed Quinn on it, Ed Quinn played the protagonist in HotD2, and when I read the summary I realized that it was ALSO A FUCKING ALIENS CLONE WITH ZOMBIES!! So I essentially watched the same movie twice in row, but like with a kinda Yin and Yang sorta thing going on.

House of the Dead 2 (2006) is unapologetically schlocky, and it flagrantly rips off the narrative structure of Aliens. Basically 2 agents who work for some kinda secret anti-zombie task force are paired up with some meat head soldiers to go and investigate an outbreak at university. The soldiers are all cocky and bantering with each other until two of them get taken out like 5 seconds into the mission. Much like in Aliens, The rest of the soldiers get picked off, they almost escape but realize they need to go back, someone betrays the group, big explosion, the heroes escapes. The two agents I mentioned earlier kinda fill the role Ripley had in Aliens, but instead of one character it’s two people (one being the aforementioned Ed Quinn) and they this kinda lame sexual tension thing going on. The movie is pretty meh. Given how catastrophically awful HotD1 is, this one is shockingly mediocre.

Navy Seals vs Zombies (2015) is somehow far more interesting than HotD2, and not for good reasons. This one is still an Aliens rip off like I predicted, but to a lesser degree. I’ve done zero research, but if I had to guess, I would guess that this movie was partially funded by the US Military, which isn’t some crazy conspiracy thing, it is well known and documented that the Military will cooperate with movie producers as long as you go ahead and make your movie into propaganda, the Transformers movies are one of the most flagrant examples of this. Well anyways, Aliens was not a very pro military movie, the soldiers are bumbling stereotypes who are being manipulated by evil corporations into assisting with unethical human experiments. This movie tries to be like “what if Aliens but the Military is good and competent” which causes some interesting narrative things to arise. There is no outsider protagonist, well there sorta is, but she is a pointless side character, instead 2 actual main characters are like Soldier Guy played by Ed Quinn, and New Guy who just joined the squad and has a pregnant wife and he repeatedly mentions how hot and pregnant she is. There mission is to rescue the Vice President, they do but his helicopter blows up because one of his interns or something was bit, so they get a new mission from HQ, go to the hospital and rescue a lab worker who is working on a vaccine. It’s mentioned that the zombies are caused by a bio weapon, one that America was working on a cure for it, because they “heard rumors” about it, but it super definitely was NOT America that caused the outbreak. It was someone else. Idk. The Navy Seals guys never display any negative character traits and the ones who die all die heroically and you never see any of them turn into zombies. So your probably like well how do they handle the traitor concept? Well they don’t. The closest thing they have to it is that New Guy gets separated from the crew early on, and gets bit half way through the movie, and I’m like oh dang that’s kinda ballsy considering he’s the closest thing we have to a character with some depth (he’s afraid of heights or something and he’s got a family), and when he shows back up there is like a second of disagreement as to whether to continue the mission or rescue him, doesn’t matter, they do both, and then at the end when they are getting to the escape chopper and they find out New Guy was bit, Soldier Man is like you have to come with us no man left behind and New Guy is like Noooo leave me I’ve been bit. Well eventually New Guy gets on the chopper and we cut to like a debriefing where some lady reveals that New Guy never turned into a zombie! He was immune, all the soldiers were! Turns out the vaccines they got when joining the military made them immune, cut to him going back home and telling his wife she is the sexiest pregnant woman on earth in a moment that is meant to be sweet. Wow a terrorist bio weapon that doesn’t effect the military is a pretty big design flaw when you think about it, also how was America actively attempting to synthesize a vaccine for a theoretical virus?

[jetravenex]

Speaking from what I've learned secondhand from my Dad.

I do not think we should have a draft in America in this moment in time. I don't know all the logistics, but my Father has told me that had he not been in the military when he was (joined in the 80s got out somewhere 80s and 90s). If he'd joined like in the 2000's, from my limited understanding, you could be called back. Even if you'd already served your country.

Now I could be talking out of my ass as again this is coming secondhand but that's what my Dad told me.

On top of, y'know the rampant lack of real prioritizing caring for our veterans. Or even a certain political figure belittling them (despite dodging the draft through bone spurs). And that guy is working to become president which is telling of America's disregard for those who serve her.

Which admittedly, without a draft is now only those desperate enough to sell their bodies, and even their *lives* (or been tricked by the extremely vast military propaganda pumped out through video games, television, and movies).

The one thing my Dad said about a draft WAS it meant everyone theoretically had skin in the game.

However, a certain individual born to wealth proved that with a draft those who felt they were 'too important' could dodge it by inventing excuses.

The reality is we have a society that's geared towards producing soldiers. We have vast wealth inequality and we already know even the draft couldn't stop wealthy draft dodgers. So those 18 year olds fresh out of high school with limited prospects for the future are presented with the military as one of their few routes for prosperity and opportunity.

And that was the case still back in the 80s when my Father joined the military. Because as far as he knew his prospects were limited.

Not to mention our Physical Education classes in high school seemedgeared less towards teaching kids how to stay fit and healthy. But throw them through the meat grinder and produce viable potential soldiers for their country. They don't teach you to pace yourself, everyone's limits are different they have expected numbers for your age range to meet because if you can reach them they'll have you off to a good start when you're fresh out of high school and primed for boot camp.

I think in theory there could be benefits to a draft. It could mean everyone has skin in the game (if politicians family were in the military they'd think more carefully or be less inclined to treat them as disposables. It could mean people get a better respect for fire arms and that having a gun is a BIG responsibility that has been thrown to the wayside as of late

However, both these ideas fall apart outside of theory. Even if we had a draft, people would dodge it. Even if we had a draft people wouldn't respect or recognize the full responsibility of carrying a gun. If we had a draft we'd be giving a system that has proven to let those that came out of it, fall to the wayside. If we had a draft, we'd be feeding a machine that already treats the people that are part of it as simply tools for the job.

If we had a draft we'd be denying young people a choice. While I do think some of those who are lower class are already stuck in a tough spot, they do still have a choice before throwing themselves into the military machine. It's a choice under duress as we are willing to throw our own to the wayside, but still a choice.

And ultimately with who could possibly BECOME commander in chief, I don't think we need to make it so all our youth have no choice but to be subjected to his whims. Because in the military under Trump, he declared on twitter a trans ban which threw things into chaos. He encouraged an increase in racism, he made it so far more individuals wound up sexually assaulted because he spewed harmful rhetoric and it led to the military becoming unsafe for women and POC.

And I don't mean just him alone disqualifies our military system from freely having our youth pumped in. We've seen the most dysfunctional congress the past 2 years. I think until we stop this idealizing of military that we've had while leaving our veterans behind. While leaving people in our country behind. We should not have a draft. Especially when we can put in power obstructionists who'd rather score political points than to govern. And would back a president who dodged the draft in the first place.

It is as long as people like that can get into power or get BEHIND someone like that. That any theoretical benefits of a draft in America imo fall apart.

I find it weird when people defend the existence of the draft because it's not happening but we might need it just in case

[injapanwithoutaplan]

Arriving

My journey started well early in the morning. German Railways were punctual, for a change and I arrived in time in Frankfurt. The flight was pretty full and it took my daily share of patience queing all the way through the various normal procedures.

Finally take-off. Japan, I'm coming!

The flight was pleasant, even though we had some turbulences. When the stewardesses started handing out dinner and told us there was only meat rice, I mentioned that I had pre-ordered a vegetarian meal. I never should have done that! Three off them in panic mode searching for a solution! In the end I got a tray loaded with rice bols (plural!) and several vegatables (all delicious), twice as much as anybody else. Wow!

To pass some time I watched a movie from the chinese film collection. It was quite a nice story about some volontaries durind Corona pandemic. The most interesting thing though was to see how subtle they put propaganda in such a film. Very interesting.

Stopover in Shanghai. People are obsessed with power banks! You see signs everywhere warning how dangerous they have the slightest fault (that includes not having the correct coding printed on it).

Next flight, next meal, next turbulences. We took the long way over Korea, probably because of the typhoon over Kyushu.

FINALLY IN OSAKA!

The first impressions are humid air, gashapons and lots of people.

I am a little overwhelmed and definitively overloaded with my luggage. An hour later I meet up with my daughter arriving from Okinawa. Now I have my private translater with me! This is great as getting the correct ticket and findind the right entrance and plattform for the train heading into town is quite a challenge. Then it finally arrives and....... it is the "Hello Kitty" edition of the Haruka Express! If I didn't realized it before, now I know that I'm in Japan.

Watching the landscape passing by it becomes even more clear that I am definitively in another world. Everything looks so different.

Water reservoir with floating solar panels! Genious!

The weather is cloudy, hot and humid and it dawns on me that it might be more stressful than I thought. August is definitively not the very best time to visit Japan if you can choose. The way to our accomodation is not far but with all the luggage and the sultryness I am sweating like hell. Approaching Osaka's Koreatown we see a man on the other side of the street waving vividly. It is Mr. Choi who came in search for us. He takes my suitcase and us to the house. Fantastic!

On the second floor (floor 3 in Japan) a typical japanese apprtment awaits us: a kichen with low table and floor seats, a bathroom and one big all purpose room with sliding doors and wall cabinet. We will be sleeping on futons (my first time). It is a pity the tatami mats are covered with a PVC lining but understandable.

Mr. Choi has not finished being fantastic. He offers to drive us to Dotonbori after we got a little refreshed. So, we take a comfortable ride in a nice car with aircondition to downtown Osaka.

It may seem very touristy and it certainly is, still it is a place crowded with locals too. Very impressing with all the lights and people. We get the full programm on our first night. JPop show on the river shore included. And firts Okonomiyaki, of course.

We walked our way back home with a small stop at a Konbini to fetch dinner. After eating we still wanted to make plans for the next day but as soon as I touched my futon, I passed out in spite of my sore feet and hurting back.

I will call it a day!

(video upload doesn't work 😭)

[faunabel]

um. i just had THE most disturbing dream of my life, i think. genuinely what the fuck was this dream. i'm going to write it down for documentation so uhh... if u read this, be aware it was like a horror movie with the intention of being as disturbing as possible. like... torture p*rn type stuff and the general Horrors of the world. i don't even watch this type of stuff so idk where the hell this dream came from... i feel sick and woke up panting lol but ANYWAY

so this dream started off with semi-lucid stuff i think? i won't get into all those details bc they're more foggy and confusing/disjointed and not as relevant to the horrifying part of this but BASICALLY i was in my childhood school but they'd completely remodeled it and it was now like a prison/military thing/propaganda factory. and the old classrooms still existed but were referred to as "the void" by a man over an intercom.

the vibes were just super... dictatorship-y? i went back there as an adult for something (possibly nostalgia) and i regretted it lol. the man in the classroom was explaining stuff and also had those vibes. the classrooms were remodeled to be way smaller than the old ones.

i was in there with one girl but we heard horrible screaming outside the classroom and left, and suddenly some guy was with us so whatever. ok now here's where the really fucked up part is.

so there was a person whose body was obscured to much to tell the gender, being dragged down the hall by long, thin(ish) tentacles, screaming, they were a pale, desaturated pink in color. and also u should know the sound of people vomiting is a severe trauma trigger for me, and that was there too. i think the guy was screaming to block out that sound once i noticed it, at first.

the person was dragged down the stairs(?). but the damage was done to the hallway. there was like... it wasn't quite blood i forget the color but it was just this weird Liquid all over the walls and floor? chunks of flesh? big chunks of flesh like the length of my arm, light pink and bumpy like a really big tongue, but also like... idk, other kinds of meat, with white bits and translucent bits. one of the people i was with picked a piece up to examine it.

i wanted to get the fuck OUT but i knew i would be... possibly killed if i left? or just really piss off the men in charge? so i had to go with them down the hall to investigate further.

further down the hall at the end of it, it was revealed the person was a woman, naked, being held by a sort of tentacle monster but the tentacles were actually TONGUES? and it had her bound and was force feeding her something, like some disgusting, thick-ish liquid with the tongues/tentacles stuffed in her mouth but she kept... rejecting it if u know what i mean, and since the sound of someone vomiting is a massive trigger for me i screaming nonstop to block out the door but my throat was starting to go weak and i had trouble screaming. the other two people were focused on investigating and didn't care about me, i think.

the actual visual details of the scene weren't that detailed (which i guess is good lol) but it was still so deeply disturbing from my emetophobia. i feel like i forgot a part of the scene so i wish i got to this part faster before i forgot :( i just remember something about it was absolutely horrific.

i think you could hear the slithering of the tongue tentacles, too? i don't remember hearing it but my brain keeps telling me that was a thing. the monster itself was this neverending pile of tentacles. you couldn't see where it's body was, it was just more and more tentacles looping around each other. they were like snakes in how they moved.

pretty sure the woman was also being fucked by them. u know how it goes... i guess the chunks of flesh in the hall were from here fighting back because it looked the same as the tongues did. nothing human.

idk basically it was tentacle p*rn but turn it from jap/ane/se k/ink to absolutely horrifying. malicious tongue tentacle entity set on torturing you for fun. eugh.

i still feel sick to my stomach :D i used to never really get nightmares but the past year i've gotten more nightmares than in my entire life put together... geez. and THIS ONE. WHAT. THE HELL. WAS THIS. my nightmares usually involve me being chased by something, NOT WHATEVER THIS WAS.

but the rest of my nightmares usually involve being trapped (or my emetophobia) so i guess it's not that weird. mostly what the fuck with the torture p*rn part. was that really necessary. it made it more disturbing than necessary.

oh now that i think about it, i think there was a man assisting the tentacles in dragging the woman. long, black hair like ai/za/wa from m/h/a lol.

anyway. bleh. HORRENDOUS start to my morning! when i tell u i woke up panting... it immediately started to calm after the first three big pants but they just become slower pants. but now i'm left feeling sick.

genuinely the gore part wasn't what disturbed me so much (but still absolutely insane), just the emetophobia part.

[bestfictionalplant]

Round 1, Group 4

Propaganda and spoilers under cut

Potted Plant: Well... it's a bounty hunter! The potted plant is a bounty hunter. Hater hires it to capture Wander - but don't worry, Wander's very forgiving, he even gives the potted plant a Christmas present in a later episode

Morbuzakh: bionicle lore gets weird so i'll do my best to simplify. okay. so first things first, the little meat robot mayor has been replaced by a power-hungry ex-protector whose job is to make fucked-up animals and shit. he's called makuta. he makes this semi-sentient plant, promises it that it can rule the city once it's done what he wants it to, and plants it in a fucking furnace. its job is to round up all the little meat robot civilians so they can be put into amnesia-inducing orbs. incidentally, its efforts result in some of them dying. six little meat-robot civilians get picked out by the local superhero and turned into big meat-robot superheroes. they go on a quest to find a bunch of magic frisbees in order to defeat the giant evil plant. the frisbees destroy the king root, and it dies this plant is notable because, though it was mostly cut from the animated movie adaptation of that arc, it appeared in one brief scene that led to many bionicle fans developing a bondage kink

[loosesodamarble]

AJFGAEUGRJAKEGTAEIGTEAJTEGAUIHEBGAIEUTH!

First, we need a few sappy and goofy Hallmark romances in life, at least to contrast the heart-shattering, tragic romances we see elsewhere (ObaMitsu and Jerza anyone?). The bitter and the sweet (or maybe overly sweet in Hallmark's case) keep the world balanced. 😂 And that Christmas with Holly movie sounds funny and ADORABLE! I will have to find it since you enjoy it!

Also, yes, I trust you with my OC and ship. Your analysis and depiction of Finesse and Space Bros. trio is wonderful so I know you like understanding characters! The way you handle others' ocs like Zera from Lyra also reassures me!

(So Nacsele is the ship you prefer? Hmmm... I must write more Morgsele propaganda I MEAN CONTENT! Nah but I get you. You like the deep and tragic themes, huh? 😌 Also, if you want to have two ships for one character be separate concepts instead of a love shape, you get your point across just fine.)

NOW! ONTO THE REAL MEAT OF YOUR ANSWER!

The set-up/scenario you gave Josele and Morgen is amazing kajshdaisruthrt!

The "cynical (for a Hallmark movie)" thing that you used twice had me in hysterics! You can only get so cynical in Hallmark movies and Josele is out there toeing that freaking line!

(Canon Josele isn't a big cynic when with Morgen [became a little bit of one post curse] but Momo was always the one instilling hope in her when she hesitated to hope. So we can definitely roll with cynical [for a Hallmark movie] Josele. 🤣)

Anyways anyways! KJAHDfsiuathrst!

I know why Josele's not liking the feel good stories she's writing about. Not enough life-or-death situations. She wants to write a feel good piece about a bunch of kids fighting off a kidnapper or someone surviving a bear mauling and crawling back to society all on their own. She wants something wild and adventurous to write about. But girl! 🙄 You're in a Hallmark movie right now! Lower your expectations, Josele!/lh

Morgen, doing it all. We love that for him. 💖 He is so giving and loving and sweet and hard-working and kjahiasurthrst! Girl, you're making me simp for Morgen with an even more idealized Hallmark AU version of him. How? 😂

Josele investigating Morgen... Following him and interviewing him about his life. What if people see Morgen and Josele together and are like "let your boyfriend ask some questions about you, sweetie." Leaving the two of them flustered. 😆

Morgen's deep dark secret is revealed! KAhfaiuthrst! "As heinous of crimes as allowed in a Hallmark movie"! Acacia, I'm crying! KAhfaisurhtaisrht! You're making this too funny for meeee!

And that cliffhanger... 😈

Josele's gonna choose her heart. I say so. Get your optimism and romance, Josele!

GAAAAAHHH! THIS WAS SUCH A GOOD READ! I WAS LEGIT LAUGHING OUT LOUD WHILE READING THIS!

I LOVE THIS! I LOVE THIS SO MUCH, ACACIA!

THANK YOU~! 💖

Hiya there Acacia~! Saw the Hallmark Movie AU post thing and like I said earlier, it looks like fun and seems like it'd be pretty funny. I don't really watch Hallmark but I hear that their movies are pretty goofy and I often get a chuckle listening to or reading commentary about them. Anyways...

So for the “If it was a Hallmark movie” game that you're doing, do you think you'd be willing to give it a try with Morgen x Josele? 👉👈 I'd love to see you interpret/play with my ship.

If you're not so sure about Morgsele though, how about a Hallmark Movie AU for Mitsuri x Obanai? 💖

Hi Erika! Thank you so much for the ask and for reblogging my game! I really appreciate it. 😊 I was really happy to see your tags that it looked fun and hilarious since that's definitely what was I was going for when I made it up. I hope you enjoy it! 🥰

I'm not a big fan of Hallmark Movies myself, honestly. I usually don't enjoy romance too much just as a general rule, and I especially find Hallmark-Style Rom Coms to be too soppy, goofy, and/or predictable. That said, I can appreciate that they are usually feel good and wholesome, but that's generally not enough to make it through the whole film without chuckling to myself at how unrealistic it is. My mom and sister, however, absolutely love Hallmark Movies and have whole marathons of them, but I have a reputation for being the cynical family member who watches 2 minutes of the movie and predicts the whole plot... (They don't really let me watch with them anymore unless I promise to be quiet 😅😂).

That said, there have been Hallmark Movies I have genuinely enjoyed but those generally break the mold of the usual tropes. My favorite Hallmark Movie, for instance, is called Christmas With Holly, and it's the story of three brothers who try their best to raise their niece (Holly) and put together a perfect holiday season (Thanksgiving & Christmas specifically) for her after the untimely death of their sister/Holly's mother. It's heartfelt and hilarious in a good/intentional way because these are three single guys who know absolutely nothing about cooking a thanksgiving feast or raising a 6-year-old little girl. 😂 I try to catch that one every year because it's so wholesome and I love the characters and the focus on family relationships rather than the usual romance (the romance really takes a backseat to the brothers sibling relationship with each other and their familial relationship with their niece), but the usual run-of-the-mill Hallmark Rom Coms generally aren't my cup of tea even if I've seen a lot of them thanks to my family...and that's kind of how the game came to be created. 😊

I would love to make up a Hallmark Movie for Morgen x Josele for you! It's very flattering that you'd trust me with your OC, and I hope I've done an okay job. (I know what I've come up with is a little goofy even for a Hallmark movie 😂). I really like Josele, and her and Morgen's relationship is really sweet and adorable--perfect for a Hallmark Movie, I think (A/N: though just between us, I think I prefer her dynamic with Nacht...🤫 That's just a personal preference though. Both ships are great, but I'll admit I imagine them as very separate things in my mind since I don't like love shapes--it's kind of similar to how I think of Finral x Finesse and Langris x Finesse as totally separate things even if they're (arguably?) all kind of connected in the canon, if that makes sense?) Anyway, without further ado, here is a Hallmark Movie AU for Morgen x Josele. I really hope you like it. I'm going to take you up on your offer to do an ObaMitsu one as well, but I'll make that it's own post (and tag you) since this one is kind of long. Also Morgen and Josele deserve their own post, in my opinion. They're great! (Hopefully I'm not totally off the mark with them here 😅). Thanks for the ask! 🥰

Morgsele If It Was A Hallmark Movie...

The Perfect Man: Josele is a somewhat cynical (for a Hallmark movie) journalist who works for the city newspaper, but she is still waiting for her big break as a reporter. She mostly reports on feel good stories and puff pieces like grannies who knit sweaters for cats, bakers who make dog treats for animal shelters, and schools that have toy drives for orphans. While this is all nice and good, Josele can't shake the somewhat cynical (for a Hallmark Movie) notion that most of the time things that seem too good to be true usually are, and she wants the opportunity to do some real journalism work.

She is assigned to write a story about a local doctor, Morgen, who saved an elderly man from getting run over by a vegetable cart during the harvest festival, and quickly learns that he is by all accounts "the perfect man." He helps pediatric burn victims, raises money for the local orphanage, offers to work pro bono for sick children in need, volunteers at a soup kitchen to provide food for the homeless, gives yarn to the grannies who knit the cat sweaters ect. ect. Josele finds it hard to believe that isn't something wrong with him and mentions this at work where she is then tasked with discovering his dark side and/or deep dark secret and revealing it in an exposé piece for the newspaper. At first, she is sure that he's hiding something and couldn't possibly be that perfect, but as she gets to know him better and starts to fall in love with him in spite of her reservations, she begins to feel very guilty about this and realizes that he truly is a genuinely kind and good person.

Morgen, who was smitten with her from the start, falls in love with her quickly and eventually trusts her enough to reveal the dark secret of his past: that he couldn't save his brother from becoming a delinquent and leader of a local gang of hoodlums who commit as heinous of crimes as allowed in a Hallmark movie such as jaywalking, riding bicycles in the middle of the street, vandalizing flower arrangements, and occasionally stealing candy and purses from little old ladies. Josele must then make the difficult choice of deciding whether to reveal Morgen's secret, but how can she choose between her dream reporting job and her heart?

[the-acid-pear]

I did my homework and i did my chores, time to tackle on the third book of this series, Son of Ogre

Chapter 1

Okay but the fuck is Baki planning to do if he stops fighting? That's literally all he has, he's not smart

WOOH THATS A BIT REALISTIC

PREHISTORIC ELEPHANT?!

King just went to have a snack. Also FUCK does that meat look tasty FUCKKK

This baby so cute 🥺

I'm so glad Yuji is doing stupid hilarious shit again it had been a while

Congrats on Baki for that mantis

Chapter 2

Who tf is this kid?

Poor kid lmao, i assume he will meet Baki

Look at my boyyy

HSTSRFAYDF DON'T CALL HIM A MANLET

Imagine Baki actually kills this kid HSJDYSSHCBT

Third comment with a ton of likes is "we do not condone child violence. We do, however, find it hilarious"

Chapter 3

AH SHUT UPPP KIDDO

But i like Baki memeing a round a lil

Chapter 4

🥺🥺 that's so sweet...

HELLOOOO STRYDUM MY GOD YOUR TITS GOT FATTER SIR 😳😳

Yujiro is such a fucking threat to society lmao

I love seeing Baki with his eyes open, he's looking more like his old self

Oh, shadow boxing incoming, alright

Chapter 5

Yuri? 🥺 /j

THE RETURN OF IRON MICHAEL?!

Chapter 6

I love how there's our silly little mains after every cover LUV em <33

Baki just dissociating his ass out and using it on his favor, the king

Why is Baki eating sour prunes aren't those meant to be sweet?

We all salivating

Chapter 7

Love to see there are even more swears there now

I can put my face next to my foot too tho

FAGDRJSEHARD YUJIRO CAN BEAT THE CANCER HOW ICONIC 😍

Also i would LOVE to see Yuji fight an Orca

WHAT?!

I love how everyone in the comments is calling out Rumina for not seeing issue going down to a dark hidden basement with a shirtless man older than him

Chapter 8

"piggy back me" USHSYFLFUDSY

This fight is going to be good

Chapter 9

Imagine Baki dies right here right know against an imaginary mantis lmao

Okay Baki getting damaged makes sense but the WALL?

Baki's dead (GOD IT HAS BEEN SO LONG SINCE I HAVE SAID THAT)

Ffs it's true Baki COULD create himself a stand 😰

Chapter 10

OH FUCK IT'S TRUE

Chapter 11

This fight is so boring i had to take a 6 hour break

Baki just can't win against nature eh

This reminds me of Garland pulling a suplex on that Anaconda

Chapter 12

I can't wait for the main cast to ACTUALLY appear, instead of just, you know, them in the covers

This fight is slow but cool but slow

To fight a mantis you must think like a mantis 😎

Though it's true in this manga you will most likely win if you steal your opponent techniques so

Chapter 13

I MISS IGARI FUCKKK

This is so dumb i luv it

That mantis be swearing lmao

Love it when Baki goes full Yujiro

Chapter 14

TOBA...

Holy fuck do mantis fly?

Secret Chapter?

Is this how Yujiro got born?

Idk girl i would have killed him if i was you

WHAT.

I KNOW THOSE FROGS THEY ARE FROM PUERTO RICO I THINK

I might just be sleepy but this is so confusing

AKSHSKGSKSGSJSG JUST KILL THE BABY IT AINT THAT HARD

Chapter 15

GAIA...

Why is he like this?

Is "he" with us right now?

...gotta admit that IS true...

I love Strydum sksgwhwg

Yujiro really went XD

I don't think my man Arun in the comments is aware how gay what he said is, though maybe I'm wrong

Chapter 16

GOD THESE FUCKING COVERS MAKING ME SO NOSTALGIC, LOOK AT SPEC!

ANIME KENNEDY?!

I can't believe Bush is dead

AN ASIAN BOY HAS JUST KIDNAPPED THE PRESIDENT...

8 of January? My god he's a Capricorn

I'm sorry, what?

LAHQIGWKQFWKSFWIWG 😭😭

I love Baki so much, THIS IS THE KID THAT I MISSED SO MUCH

This explains why Baki was in prison clothes in the anime teaser

Chapter 17

BIG NUMBER

That one mf like 😐

Glad Baki is 18 now at least 😌

Love to see Oliva back

Chapter 18

This page not even bothering to charge the pages anymore

I'm sure there were better ways to go to jail, well, actually, no, but still

Toba used to just chew that off

Baki did that mantis hit you in the head too hard?

I. I watched way too many prison movies and shows. I don't like seeing someone as young and pretty as Baki in such a place. I rlly don't.

Chapter 19

Yanagi baby i miss you...

IRON MICHAEL?!

Mfkhsjsys 😳🥴

Eh got my hopes too high

CHE BAKI PIBE... LA PUTA MADRE NI ACA ME ESCAPO DE MIS COMPATRIOTAS

I hope he swears too i want to see a boludo o pelotudo PLEASE

I mean para pelotudos lo veo a Yujiro todo el tiempo pero igual JSGWKEGWG me pone bien argento ver al Che carajo

Chapter 20

HE SAID BOLUDO SUAHWKWGAKSGSKSGSKGD

I can't take this omfg new fav I'm sorry Doppo but he just said boludo 😭

Pendejo is more used as pibe here but i will let it pass bc idk the lingo in Cuba and he spent some time there so

Why don't i speak like this too ffs? All i do is say eh and call it a day

He's cocky enough to call anybody any age pibe so I'll let that pass too

Por favor no lo hagas che sksgwj

Chapter 21

Che, pibe, it's a good day to die...

Chapter 22

GSHAGSTSG he should have said "no boludo"

I'm falling in love with this boludo myself

That's talented and brutal

OH RIGHT YOU LOSE YOUR BALANCE WHEN YOU DONT HAVE THAT

Chapter 23

Hm that's, cringe

YESSS HE SAID PELOTUDO

OAHWLGWKQFSKSGSJS SIII ROMPELO TODO CHE, ROMPELO TODO POR DECIRTE YANKEE KSGSSJGS

Honestly i too get pissed off when called American or European, though i won't throw shit to Baki, he's some random 18 yo japanese boy, no way he would recognize latinoamerican lingo lmao

King shit Baki boy

Chapter 24

Oh that's why he's called Jun Guevara, that's fair

I like how they are mixing a bit of truth and a bit of lie it's fun at least

Chapter 25

I like how they are drawing nipples now, occasionally

I can't wait for Viêt to complain about propaganda in the comments

OH SHIT

😳 :Y

He's sooo nice 😍

Chapter 26

Only three? You mean the third is... 👁️👁️

HAHA YEAH YUJI-CHAN <3

I can't believe he works for the USA I'm crying and shaking rn

What a progressive manga, the three strongest and most dangerous men and none of them are white 😍

GET HIS ASS BAKI

Chapter 27

Why is this guy sweating sm?

LDYDYSUGFUDT BAKI PLS

I like how the only time Baki was willing to kill a person was when he thought Sikorsky had hurt his girl

Chapter 28

I feel like Ian will die

Man i love how Baki is drawn in this book

Ffs i called it, i have watched way too many prison things to know how shit goes down

I have seen these three before in fanart but I'm curious to see what they can do

Chapter 29

Their faces remind me of Doyle

OH I CANT WAIT TO SEE EM IN THE ANIME

ASSHOLE DON'T CALL ME STUPID 😢💔

I'm gonna struggle to tell em apart but i think I'll manage

Okay I'm not the only one who thinks they look like Doyle, fair

Chapter 30

The mouth vs Yujiro when?

Someone mentioned the have the same vibe as the dudes that worked with Gaia and like 👁️👁️

Chapter 31

Lmao someone in the comments recommended the same thing

These three must be great at sex (sorry)

KSHALDHDKD NEW FAV COMMENT: "go to Japan and look for the word "defeat". That way you won't feel cocky anymore"

Chapter 32

Hehe hello Junnn~

KSHAKDHKWGS

La luna

Chapter 33

LOS TRES...

Okay that's funny, hocico instead of mouth (hocico is used for animal mouths)

I'm so glad i know Spanish

The two things that drive me insane and make me ramble are Doppo's beauty and this stupid argentinian

OSHSKWGSKSG

Chapter 34

Imagine he's doing that illusion thing Dorian did

With his own blood, that's so cool...

Hoho...!

I did that once when i had a terrible nose bleed, didn't go well

Chapter 35

This book is fucking boring NGL

"now that you got no more urine left in you"

AH.

GAHDYR LMAO

Chapter 36

HO THAT TITLE, PLEEEASE I NEED SOMETHING, ANYTHING, TO HAPPEN

HHH he kinda cute...

Oww :(

JDJSJFRGAJ

God piantao is an old word i had never heard it before

AND he took a piss.

LOCO NO SEAS HOMOFÓBICO NINGUNA MINA ACA ES MEJOR QUE ESTE PIBITO TE LO ASEGURO SKSGSKGSJAAGS

Se me cayó un ídolo y yo que le quería dar 😔

ÑSHWQLSGOSGDKW

Let's see if he lied to Baki about just liking eh /j

Chapter 37

I luv Oliva lol

AJSGSKSLAGHS BAKI SNAPPED

I too wonder where the fuck Kozue is

Chapter 38

LSHSLDGSLSGSIEG

He is jealous of what you two have, it's normal, el Che just rejected his love after all ;/

Oliva is a king

OH A HANKERCHIEF I THOUGHT THAT WAS UNDERWEAR SHSGS-

Oh shit Oliva is like 45?! He looked so young

Te fuiste a la mierda, Che, el chabón estaba siendo re bueno con vos

Baki is just dead

Chapter 39

I love how realistic Che's fear is, he's rather smart, though not this time

POOR GUY AJSGSWJW

I didn't realize Che said "what more, it may be a woman!" but to be fair they ARE in jail so

Chapter 40

I'm feeling kinda bad for him ngl

I feel happy for him tho 🥺

Bruh they added one page after the ending of some naked anime girl tf 😐

Chapter 41

These prisoners having fun is kinda sweet

YO INSANE

Bitches be complaining about Maria's looks are just jealous 🥰

Chapter 42

Damn she lorge

He loves fighting naked eh

Only valid person is the one saying Oliva deserves better treatment which tbh true

Chapter 43

Fun fact i wear my jacket like El Che too, unless it's too cold

El che with the hair lose is so cute bro,,,

Something something fingering joke

Sikorski could fold a coin too

I bet the bandana will break

Chapter 44

I would have just fallen on top of him, how is he gonna counter that, eh?

Oh that super fun to know!

Oh the good ol dirty technique, i have seen this one before!

Chapter 45

NOOO MARIA DON'T DO THIS TO HIM

This fight is super cool tho i love these two characters

Chapter 46

They just keep changing the rules i think Itagaki is just flexing at this point

LAAOSFKAGSKAGSKAF???

Baki wants his protagonism back

I'm getting pissed off they keep putting semi naked underaged girls at the end of every chapter 😐

Chapter 47

Bruh just realized, the mouth got so hyped as this new cool villain and they died in their first appearance 😭

His damn bandana...

[yikesharringrove]

Show Pony

Chapter 4: Summertime

Read on ao3

-

“See and this is my girl Patsy. She’s the smallest of the three, but she’s strong as all get out.” 

Steve gestured to the horse, brushing his hand down her long nose. She was a beautiful dark brown, her coat sleek and obviously well-kept. Steve said he washed and brushed his horses each night, keeping them free of flies and dirt. 

Steve’s three horses were together in the little paddock, grazing on the sparse grass. There was a large oil drum filled with water in the paddock for them, and a trough filled with hay and horse feed. 

Steve had brought a bag with them out to the paddock, and he whistled through his teeth, all three horses gathering around him at the fence. June used her nose to bump Steve on the side of the head. 

He smiled at her, one a’ those real sunshiney ones he had, and kissed her between the eyes.

He dug through the bag, pulling out a few apples, a pocket knife, and a Tupperware container filled with various pills. 

Billy simply watched as he cut one of the apples in half, digging out small pockets in the meat of the apple and meticulously inserting the pills. He repeated the exact same procedure with the other half of the apple and offered the first half to June. 

She crunched it happily, the second half of the apple going to Loretta, a beautiful dappled horse with a dark-colored nose. 

Each horse got three apple halves with the correct combination of pills. 

“They each get supplements twice a day. We get the hay locally every place we stop, and depending on where the hay is grown, it can lack nutrition they need. Plus, traveling horses can get digestive problems from working hard and not having a lot of grazing opportunities. I wanna keep my girls healthy, you know?”

Loretta had wandered away after Steve set the bag on the ground, huffing as she realized apple time was over. June stayed with Steve, softly knocking her nose into his head and shoulder, making Steve laugh brightly and pet her neck. 

Patsy stayed in front of Billy, and he felt like she could see into his fucking soul. Her brown eyes were huge as she appraised him, almost as if she was trying to suss out if he was good enough for her Steve. 

“You can pet her, if you like. All my girls have been raised with us since they were foals, so they’re real touchy. Loretta pretends she’s too cool for it.” Loretta, as if hearing Steve say her name, gave another huff from the other side of the paddock. “Yeah! I’m talkin’ ‘bout you, Letty. We all know you’re a softy!” Steve grinned at Billy after calling out towards her, like they were sharing a joke. 

Billy couldn’t stop the corners of his mouth from pulling up. 

He smiled a lot around Steve. 

He looked back towards Patsy and mimicked the way Steve pet June, keeping his hands gentle and soft as he brushed down the length of her nose. 

Her hair was so soft, and she felt like warm velvet underneath his hand. 

“I’ve never been this close to a horse before,” Billy said softly, not taking his eyes off Patsy and the way his hands brushed down her strong neck. 

“I love horses. Always have.” Steve had wrapped his arms around June’s thick neck, his cheek smushed to her as he looked at Billy. It was cute. Everything Steve did was cute. “Not to sound like a horse girl in a Lifetime movie, but they’re just so great. Sometimes it seems like they know everything.”

“Yeah, they’re real human.” Billy thinks it was all in the eyes. The huge, deep brown eyes. 

Billy had really come to appreciate brown eyes in the last two weeks. 

“June was born when I was nearly six. I’ve been riding her since I was seven or so. There weren’t a lot of kids around so she was kinda my best friend. Which. Sounds totally lame.” Steve’s cheeks went pink, and he hugged June tighter. 

“How long have you had the others?”

“I’ve had Patsy for seven years. Loretta’s the newest. I just started training her for the event last summer, although I’ve had her for a while. Horses are considered fully grown when they’re five, so we don’t make them do events before then. It can be bad for their backs if you start riding them too young.” Steve absentmindedly stroked down June’s neck. “I try to keep my girls healthy and safe. If you really take care of them, they can live to be about forty, although they shouldn’t do rodeo events past fifteen-ish.”

Billy did quick math in his head. 

“So, what do you think you’ll do with June when she retires?” 

Steve looked out past June over to Loretta when she was trotting about the paddock. 

“I always kinda had this dream. Like when I get tired of all this, of opening a ranch for old rodeo horses. Ones that are too old or sick to do events. I would take care of them and give them good food and exercise and stuff so they could have a happy retirement. Some rodeo horses are sold to people for, like, personal riding use, but they’re event trained, and usually aren’t great for, like, leisure riding, and people get mad. So, yeah. Retirement village for horses.” He buried his face into June’s neck, and Billy could see the tips of his ears were flaming in embarrassment. 

“I think that’s sweet.” He really did. “Hell, you said a well taken care of horse can live for twenty years past retirement, might as well treat ‘em right.” 

Steve pulled his face out of June’s neck and beamed at Billy. 

Billy’s hand trembled slightly and stuttered over Patsy’s neck. 

“I take each girl out for some exercise every day, you wanna help me? We can just walk ‘em.” He looked so hopeful, like all he really wanted was for Billy to hang out with his horses for the rest of the day. 

And lucky for him, Billy had already called out of work for the evening, and didn’t tell his dad about it. 

“Let’s do it.”

 Billy stood back as Steve got June ready, smoothly slipping a halter over her face, attaching a soft rope lead to the ring on the left side of her nose. 

He opened the paddock, raising one hand towards Patsy to keep her where she stood while he gently led June out, wrapping the rope lead once around his hand and holding it tightly. 

Billy walked next to Steve, June on Steve’s other side as they began making their way to the edge of the fairgrounds, passing the large spread of campers and R.V.s. 

The fairground was out in the boonies, outside of the San Diego city limits, and there was a significant amount of sprawling flatlands and hills, covered in emerald grass. 

June trotted happily along, tossing her head and bumping into Steve’s shoulder, making him giggle and throw Billy gleeful looks at her behavior. 

“Tell me something,” Steve said as they began moving downhill, guiding June on a long walk around the area.

“Like what?”

“I don’t know. Something about you. Something I don’t know.” 

Billy cast around in his brain. 

There’s a lot Steve didn’t know about him. 

And for good reason, too. 

He didn’t want Steve to know about that shit. 

About the way his father hates him for no other reason than who he is. 

The way his mother only calls him twice a year and posts on Facebook every other day about her new husband and their twin toddlers and their perfect life in Oregon. 

“When I was, like, eight or nine, I watched Almost Famous, and I just fucking loved everything about it. It made me wanna be in a band so bad. I mean, they’re like a family, all going on tour. It’s so idyllic to me. That’s, like, my retirement horse dream. Make it in a band. We don’t gotta be that famous, or anything, just, like, make it .”

Steve gave him one of those soft smiles of his, and slipped his hand so naturally into Billy’s.

“I’ve never seen that movie.”

Billy gasped dramatically, swinging their hands between them.

“Oh, Stevie, we gotta see it. I don’t even care, I’m gonna make you fuckin’ love it. You’re just like Penny Lane, actually. Kind of a wanderer. Free spirit.”

Steve’s eyes were bright, and they looked gold in the late afternoon sun. 

“Is that your favorite movie? Almost Famous ?”

“Yeah. Probably.” It definitely was, but he could let himself geek out over it later. He’s resolved to make Steve watch it with him, and he could be a little lame nerd kid over it then. “What’s your favorite movie? And if you say Black Beauty, I’m running away from you.”

Steve looked at him sheepishly.

“It’s not Black Beauty, but, I mean, it’s Spirit.”

“That animated one?” Billy thinks he’s seen it once or twice when he was a kid. He remembers his dad calling it propaganda. 

“Yeah. I mean, I just thought it was really beautifully done. It’s kinda hypocritical, since it’s about, like, freedom and stuff, and a rodeo is totally the opposite of that, but. I don’t know. I just like it.”

“We’ll watch that one, too, then. Favorite movie double feature.”

“I would like that,” Steve said softly, taking his gaze from Billy back over to June. Steve never made much eye contact, and constantly dragged his sight somewhere else when he was embarrassed. 

“Maybe I could come to your place. Hang out with you.”

Billy’s whole body went cold. 

It was like the temperature had dropped forty degrees, freezing and shattering the perfect warm bubble around them. Like the soft winds stopped making the grass and sparse trees whisper in its wake. Like Billy was trapped in a freezing block of his own panic. 

“No.” 

Steve stopped in his tracks, and Billy clutched his hand to stop him from slipping it out of his grip. 

“Sorry, I, that was really rude.” He stared at June’s front left hoof. “My dad. He doesn’t like. He hates that I. He’s a homophobe. If I-if he even thought that you, that we were, he would-”

“Hey, Bill, it’s okay. I’m, I understand.” Steve pulled their hands up to press them against his chest, brushing his thumb over Billy’s hand. “You don’t have to explain, if you don’t want. I’m sorry for suggesting it.”

“You didn’t know,” Billy said gruffly.

“And I’m not upset. Promise.”

Billy chanced a look up at Steve’s face. 

He was giving him a tiny smile, his chin tilted slightly down to give Billy the most sincere look he could possibly manage with those big earnest horse eyes of his. 

Billy leaned forward, pressing the softest of little kisses to that tiny smile. It was the only way he could think to let Steve know he was alright. No hard feelings. 

They kept walking June mostly in silence, bringing her on a big loop of the lush field. 

“My dad doesn’t really like that I’m bi,” Steve spoke unprompted, but it was clear he meant it as a response to their last conversation. “He told me when I came out to him that I’m just young and trying to be rebellious and acting out sexually and I’ll settle down with a nice girl once I’ve gotten it out of my system. I got so mad. I was fourteen. I once heard him and my mom talking about therapy. Like, you know. Therapy .”

Conversion therapy. 

Fuck. 

“Did they ever go through with it?”

“Nah. My mom told him that was fucked up and that whatever’s going on with me will work itself out. Now we just don’t talk about it.”

“She kinda had your back, that’s pretty cool.”

Billy told his mom he liked guys about two months before she left. She just told him not to tell his dad. 

“Yeah. Ignoring it is better than the alternative, I guess.”

Billy chewed on the inside of his cheek. 

They were still holding hands, despite their palms getting sweaty from being pressed together in this heat.

It was kinda gross. 

Billy never wanted to let go.

“I never even told my dad. He’s so clear about his feelings about. Stuff like that. He’s ex-military, and all that comes with it. Super conservative. Religious conservative, even. So he’s pretty much against everything.”

“So, that’s why you wanna move out so soon? Not to pry, or whatever.”

“Yeah. It sucks having to hide fundamental pieces of who you are from your family. The people that are supposed to love you, but instead tell you to change your shirt before you leave the house because you look like a queer.”

He left out the parts about the backhand slap and the much more aggressive wording that actually spelled out that interaction a few days ago. 

Billy had left his house feeling all kindsa cut up and pissed off and fucked Steve as hard as he could on the small table in the airstream, making the whole trailer shake and creak, just barely covering the sounds of Steve’s moans and cries. 

It was a good way to work out all that rage. 

There was something nice about stickin’ it to his dad by stickin’ it in Steve. 

They began the climb up the slight hill back to the paddock. 

“I’m sorry, Bill. I know I don’t get it, but I’m just. I’m sorry.”

“Me too.”

He wasn’t sorry for his father’s behavior. 

He was sorry for how his father has shaped him. 

How sometimes he was selfish and angry and closed-off. 

How he could get mean and snarl and attack before asking questions. 

But most of all, he was sorry that he was scared. 

Too scared to follow Steve to the ends of the Earth, like he was absolutely fuckin’ dying to. To live in these perfect few weeks together forever. 

Too scared to let go of their time together. So terrified that when their moments are finished, he’ll miss this happiness and peace so much he’ll wither into nothing. 

So terrified that this is the last time he’ll ever feel like this. Feel like there’s something good and worthwhile and beautiful inside of him. 

So terrified that the rage will eat away at that beautiful thing until there’s nothing left. 

Steve pulled his hands out of Billy’s when they reached the paddock, and he gave Billy a gentle smile, his eyes catching the sun in a way that made every warm summer afternoon wiggle its way into Billy’s heart. The cascade of fearful thoughts stopped in Billy’s brain, and he let himself watch as Steve pet June softly, removing her halter when she was safely in the paddock once again.

Steve placed a different one on Loretta, bringing her out of the paddock next. 

Loretta kept them walking a little faster, kicking her hooves up and making Billy laugh in the way she seemed to prance through the grass. 

She took off in a gallop, Steve jogging along next to her, the lead wrapped once around his hand again, and Billy could hear his laughter on the summer air. 

Loretta was full of energy, whinnying and braying all the time as she and Steve looped around the soft grasses. 

Billy cut up the hill, moving closer towards the fairgrounds and taking a seat on the ground. He crossed his legs in front of him, leaning to rest his elbows on his thighs, propping his chin up with his hand.

The grass was impossibly soft underneath him, and Steve was smiling so wide, pretending to swing dance with Loretta, using the lead as if it was the arm of his partner, spinning himself underneath it. 

There was a fat bumblebee buzzing around near Billy’s knee, landing on the tiny wildflowers sprinkled in the grass, wiggling itself in the pollen. 

It was fucking. 

Idyllic. 

Like something from one a’ those horse girl movies Steve no doubt loved more than anything. 

The sun was moving slowly through the sky.

He could just barely hear the announcer’s voice, echoing from the speakers in the event arena. 

And he wished, for some time, that this was his life. Traveling with Steve. Spending warm summer days sitting in the grass while Steve exercised his beloved horses. Nothing weighing on him but what they should do for dinner that night. Whether or not Max and her little rodeo friend Elle needed some extra cash for food. 

He let himself flop back in the grass, spreading his arms and legs out and watching the clouds roll by, sparse as they were. 

He hates to say it. He really does. But this is the happiest he thinks he’s ever been. 

Which is just. Sad. And dangerous. And not what he needs in this time-stamped little fling with someone he barely knows, despite how much he feels like their souls may be connected, or other shit the old poetry books stashed under his bed might wax and wane about. 

He tried to memorize everything about this moment. How Steve squinted in the bright light, the corners of his eyes crinkling just like they did when he smiled. The way the sun warmed his skin, almost as much as Steve’s touch warmed him up. 

Everything about these two weeks has been so perfect, it’s genuinely heartbreaking. 

All Billy wants is to cling onto Steve, and cling onto the month for-fucking-ever. 

He barely noticed the sound of hooves approaching him, and he grinned at Steve when he dropped to his knees next to Billy’s chest, his face tinged red, his brow slightly sweaty. 

Loretta leaned her head down to sniff at Billy’s forehead, and Billy made Steve laugh when he went cross-eyed to watch her dark nose twitch.

His laugh made something inside Billy keel over and die. 

Time is ticking down on how long he’ll get to hear that perfect sound. That lovely music of Steve’s happiness. 

“You ready for Patsy?” 

Loretta bumped Billy once on the head and moved to graze some of the grass next to Steve’s hip. 

“Yeah,” he said. 

He meant I’ll miss this too much when it’s gone.