#john thewall

[werewolfetone]

Hardy, Horne Tooke, and Thelwall at the 1794 Treason Trials

[asukaskerian]

Battlefield Terra is one of those works that just...changed my brain chemistry for so many reasons. I still go back and read it and think about it. This isnt an ask to return to it (though wouldn't be upset) but just to like thank you for putting the amount of it that you did out there

.__. *squish squish* thank you.

i cannot REMEMBER for the life of me if i ever posted any of the scene bits i had written in the chapter i never completed. first scene is actually one i love a lot, but then the battle scene was overtly complex and too long and had required so many rewrites and nothing worked. hghghhg.

but. anyway. this is the scene with the fallout from the "oh shit i kissed the alien am I GAY after all?????? oh fucking hell why did i notice JUST AT THE SAME TIME AS I NOTICE HOW MUCH HE'S NEVER GONNA *DECIDE NOT TO GO HOME* vfbndjh gnx;"

--

"And this is why it never pays to be stingy with technology," Jane said philosophically from the bucket seat next to John.

Strapped in like a sausage in its skin, John still managed to turn his helmet and grin at his sister. "Aw, come on, you didn't want the industry to cut into its profit margin, did you."

In the corner of his -- of all the pilots' -- glasses was an explosion of Spanish and Chinese sentences, nonsensical words, and Roxy-worthy typos.

The industry thing was mostly a joke; the think-typing-thoughts interface had first been developed for quadriplegics and amputees, and outside of hardcore nerds and professionals whose job required they be able to code very fast, people still preferred using their actual hands. One good reason for it: at the level of miniaturization necessary to put the brain sensors into glasses, it was new enough to still be expensive.

The new communication hub was a complete mess of hundreds of people trying it on for the first time, and it was hilarious.

"--Wow, hey, I know what that guy is doing! Oh my god, it's excellent, he's trying to think in sign language." Roxy giggled, tried to kick her feet only they were also strapped in. The craft was still accelerating, after all. Bleh. "Only then he has to transcribe into English, and he's doing it super literally! Hehehe."

Jane perked up a little. "Huh! No wonder the grammar was odd."

ID28YB: holy shit were all guna die in space aaaa

ID28YB: on the upside italics!

ID17NC: fuck how do you backspace backspacebacmlnpi

ID13JA: SARGANT MY CAPCLOSK IS FUCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ID01JA: Like shit it is, PrivatE.

ID01JA: DamN.

ID98NZ: fifty Nine bottles of beer ON THE WALL, take one DOWN pass itaround FIftynIneBOTTLES on Thewall!!!!!

"I'll be so glad when they lock it down to emergency communications again," Jade said from John's other side, and sighed.

"At least the bosses forbid them to use colors," John said, trying for consoling. (He kind of failed, mostly because he was snickering.)

Jake chuckled from his seat at the end of the line, on Jade's other side, but didn't add anything. He hadn't really been talking much ever since they took off, and since they couldn't lean out of their seats it was really hard to see what face he was making. John wondered if he was worried about --

Of course he was worried. And if John thought about all the reasons why, he was going to start to fret too. His stomach was already in a knot behind the adrenaline grin, no need to double down on it.

"Hey Jake," he threw out, with no idea what kind of light-conversation topic he was going to pull out. "D'you think--"

"Say, chaps, I think I feel lighter!" Jake interrupted.

"Huh, yeah, maybe?" John tried to bounce his leg and wasn't sure if there was a difference yet. It was hard to feel the lessening weight of his body when it was such a knot of anticipation already, and when he couldn't move. "Wow. Are we reaching cruising speed already? There was no announcement--"

The door opened and Corporal Vantas stepped through.

(Not Karkat. There was a difference.)

"Woohoo, you clean up nice!" Roxy said with a whistle as he stalked closer in his alien boots and his space-black flight suit, head bare but for the jarringly pink headset nestled against his horns. John noticed all over again that his skin was slate gray, that his eyes were violently red and yellow.

That he moved through the heavy gravity of the rocket's push like it wasn't even there, when John himself -- at least at first -- would have wobbled.

"What mean -- no, I don't care."

He sat beside Jake in the free seat at the end that should have gone to Dirk, and disappeared from John's view, what with the helmets and the protruding edges of the bucket seats. John swallowed and put a smile on his face, even though no one was going to see him. For a second he had thought Karkat was coming toward him. Haha, silly.

"No more talk with the Generals, Karkat?" Jane asked, tone forcefully light.

"Mm. No."

"Talk with us now? Do you have anything important to say or just hanging out?"

John's eyes flitted over the logs on his glasses, the higher ranks starting to organize to separate the chatter by platoons. It was still mostly banter and bad jokes.

"...Hanging out? Yes. Hanging out. Here, not... other here. I'm Corporal not General, it's not fucking right I'm with them."

It was the exact same tone the Marines John knew used when they got offended when their chain of command got dumbass ideas. Heh.

Maybe a little hesitation. Maybe just the translation issues.

JH: haha, you guys *wish* you could type in colors!

ID28YB: if by colors u mean rainbow fruity goodness then sure :(

ID28YB: i wanted mauve goddamn!!

JH: maybe better that you can't have it, echidna would have had to cut you. :'(

(Urgh. He missed Rose. He wished she were well enough to fight with them today.)

Jade joined the conversation, asked Karkat about... John wasn't listening. What the politicos had told him, when he was alone with them without a translator. Stuff. Boring stuff.

Karkat's low, gravelly voice kept slipping into his ears no matter how hard he tried not to pay attention to the words. ("You talk I fall on you a lot. Maybe you want --")

Anyway when the loudspeaker in the wall started talking he was pretty glad.

"Attention troops, cruise speed has been reached. Stay seated until your immediate superior allows you to stand..."

Two clicks echoed around him, Jade and Roxy undoing their security harnesses in unison.

"Oh my god, I'm so stiff," Jade groaned. "I'm going to check on Remington, anyone wanna come with?"

"You sit still for longer stretches of time in battle," Jane pointed out as she freed herself in turn, as Jake was still fighting his clasps.

"In battle my seat is perfectly adapted to my butt!"

The girls started to file out, talking about butts, and John almost heard Dave mentioning butt massages, almost mentioned it himself but. No. That would have been wrong even if two thirds of the lot weren't family.

He thought of following them. He would just skip along, snicker and stretch his legs and tease the Marines and...

"See you guys later," he said instead, waving without looking, heart a pulsating knot in his throat. "Karkat and I have to practice the telepathy-typing thing. Well, mostly me."

He closed his eyes for a few seconds, listened to the tread of boots on the hard plastic floor.

He didn't need to look in order to know which one of them was Karkat, getting up and moving one seat down the line.

Leaving one seat empty between them. Huh. John wasn't sure how to take that one.

"Huhn. You want telepathy now?"

John winced to himself. "It's pretty much now or in the middle of battle, isn't it?"

A beat of silence, and then Karkat grunted an acknowledgement. "Mm."

"Mm," John agreed, and kept on not making a move toward his own headset. Karkat's was already in place, possibly already turned on. John just had to tap.

"Maybe we speak and then headsets," Karkat suggested.

"... Yeah, maybe that."

John made a superfluous noise of agreement, and then groaned and pushed his helmet off his head, tucked it between his feet. He took his gloves off next, dropped them inside the helmet, and then buried both hands in his hair to scratch and rub with vigorous frustration. It did not soothe him as much as he had hoped for.

"This is the worst timing," he groaned, muffled, as he curled forward until he could prop his elbows on his thighs and lace his fingers behind his head. His spine cracked.

The worst timing, and the worst thing. He wasn't sure he'd have taken it much better elsewhere, with more time to take care of the fallout. It sucked. His head was a mess just when he absolutely needed to be as perfectly in the zone as he had ever been in his entire life.

"I'm sorry," Karkat said quietly. "We do big things today. I was stupid. Even if you said oh yes good, kissing! it's other things in our head and we can't have other things in our head now. I didn't do the good thing."

John groaned quietly, face prickling with heat, and closed his eyes. "No, it's... Yeah. Yeah, okay, that wasn't -- the right time. But you... You were right. I was looking."

He hadn't managed to stop looking even once since he'd seen Karkat naked, coming out of his slime. Maybe he had even been looking before that, playing it off as fascination with Karkat's alienness. Kind of like 'haha no I just like looking at his horns because they're weird, so random amirite!' only with everything else on top of the horns, like his little bitey teeth on goth-black lips and his bare toes and the fit of his goddamn dress suit at the summit--

"So why--" Karkat fell silent, drew in a breath, and then released it in a long, hissing sigh and muttered under his breath in alienese. John couldn't even offer a guess from the tone this time around.

Why did you kiss back, he could have been asking. Why did you stop kissing. Why did you never make a move. Why did you make a move now. Why are you such an idiotic mess.

Answer was the same for all of them, anyway. "I don't know."

"Why do you not know that?!" Karkat shot back -- more incredulous than angry, but John winced anyway. "How you look at a people and don't know, and other people tell you 'yes, them' and you say 'haha, no' and you're wrong?"

"Oh, shut up!" John snapped as he threw himself back into his chair, his arms coming up to cross tight against his ribs. Even now he couldn't look toward Karkat at all, shoulders curled in and away from the other man. His stomach felt like someone was squeezing it with both hands; his face still prickled with mortification. It was awful, he wanted to get up and run just to get moving, stop having to think on it -- leave the feeling behind -- but he knew better than to think it would work. He knew better and he still wanted to try, flinching and too tense; what a shit condition for battle. Fuck. "I know, okay? I'm the most stupid jerk--"

Karkat's hand was hot even through the glove.

He tugged on John's elbow, lightly, squeezed a little.

"Zhann."

"... Sorry."

"No, I'm sorry," he said, sounding tired, and his hand fell from John's arm. "It's shit words."

John sneaked him a look; Karkat wasn't looking directly at John either, mouth pinched in discomfort, eyes dim somehow.

"Is it I'm alien and it's gross? So you don't in your head because ... haha, gross, can't be true--"

"No!" John spluttered, turning in his seat as much as he could to face him. "No, no, you being an alien is -- it is weird, but it's not bad, it's just not normal. It's... You're a guy?"

Karkat looked up at him, eyebrows furrowed. "Huhn?"

God. It figured. For all the joking about Karkat being gay that John had been doing like an asshole, he'd mentioned an old girlfriend too, and the cat girl who liked him that he didn't want to lead on, and it had never felt like she was disqualified because of boobs.

Also -- ugh, thanks Dirk and his casual beach gossipping -- Karkat thought Jade's butt was nice, and so was Mr. Strider's. So. Bisexual.

The way he looked now, baffled and not liking it, it was a little like he had never heard of someone who wasn't. Oh boy. What a mess. John raked a hand through his hair, tried to get back into explaining mode.

"It's -- we're mammals, remember? We need a boy and a girl to. To make little humans. That means normally we don't want other males, or other females, because -- there can be no babies? So a boy doesn't have a boyfriend, he has a girlfriend, and... The other way around, too. Boy and girl, yes, boy and boy no?"

"... Huhn."

"I mean. Some men like men! Dirk and Mr. Strider like men. But they knew it pretty early on. They knew when they were kids -- when they were small? -- that they were like that. And I've never." He swallowed. "I've never. Thought about a guy. Like that."

"Oh."

"And it's really weird." He gave a twitch of a shrug, looked away. "... And I don't know if it's because of the telepathy."

"Oh," Karkat said again, but this time he sounded stricken, not baffled.

John dropped a hand on Karkat's forearm across the empty seat, patted awkwardly -- wanted to squeeze or hold his wrist (or hold his hand) but that was just -- even such a short touch made his stomach twist with odd queasiness, his face flush back to maximum redness. "It's okay, buddy. I don't -- it's just. ... Don't feel bad, okay, that's stupid, I just -- it is weird, but --"

Karkat's breastbone beeped. Scowling down, he fished his tablet out of his collar, unrolled it, shook it stiff. Oh. Little countdown shown in rows of dots, going one by one from red to dark.

Five seconds to a dot, fifteen dots to a row, and how many rows... Hm. Ten minutes left before... John wasn't sure. They weren't going to be there yet in ten minutes.

"My mech. Gotta wake up, it's slow." Karkat waved a brisk hand, eyebrows furled in worry.

John closed his eyes. "Do you want to practice the mind-typing?"

"It's not want," Karkat grunted, slanting him a look. "... It's going to be bad."

"Mm."

"We need bigger time, not this," he added, tapping the tablet with the outside curve of a claw.

John tried out a dry shrug, and thought to himself that he really didn't enjoy it, that 'if you fuck this up you will have fucked everything up' feeling. Dread was for the battlefield, not for stupid interpersonal relationships. 

"Probably. We can keep working on it once we're in our mechs, too..."

Karkat snorted, replied something in alienese that had to be 'We had better.'

Yeah, okay. John just had to put his helmet back on.

"We don't have time for this crap!" he growled -- whined, if he wanted to be fair, something strangled and pleading, frustrated.

"Mnh."

John curled forward, hands cupping his temples, elbows on his knees. "Damn it. I don't -- I can't -- in ten minutes, that's too--"

There was no way he was going to be able to stop thinking about all the things he didn't want to think about, all the things -- the petty, selfish things -- he didn't want Karkat to know about.

Like the incontrovertible fact that no matter what John figured out he wanted, whatever compromises they found with each other, there was no magic button that would make Karkat stay.

He'd been in Karkat's head too much to imagine for one second he would weigh out John and the dubious safety Earth offered him against his people -- his people abused and thrown out like shark bait to be mowed down by enemies and superiors alike -- and choose John.

John was pretty sure Karkat wouldn't even choose Gamzee.

"Do you want sex." 

John flinched around and back so fast he hit his shoulder blade against one of the edges of the seat.

Karkat was looking back at him -- steady, John thought at first, but his lower eyelids were tight, his cheeks just a little dusky. The heat on John's face cooled down just barely at that.

"I ask so it's not more alien bullshit thing. It's what you want?"

"Oh my god," John protested, looking around wildly in case anyone had managed to open the sealing doors to the small room without the hiss of pneumatics warning them. "I don't know! I'm not -- I swear I'm not lying, I don't -- this is freaking me out."

"I see that, dumbass," Karkat said, but almost nicely. "You're so bad in your head, I don't know you can get that much a clusterfuck."

John groaned, slumped forward again.

"... Mouth thing, was good?"

"... Yeah."

"Touching?"

John gave a little grunt, eyes closed.

"Want where?"

"Why do you need to know?!"

There was a moment of silence like Karkat rolling his eyes, or maybe just watching him, waiting. John didn't check. 

"Zhann."

"... Horns? Maybe your hands. I kind of. Want to see your claws. We could sit close? We could--" He choked. His face prickled so hot it almost hurt. He wanted to touch Karkat's face, follow his nose with a fingertip -- he wanted Karkat to allow that, the trust and closeness it would mean.

"That's where?" Karkat grumbled, gave John a frustrated look. John tore his eyes away, ducked his head. Where had he -- when they had kissed (his mouth tingled like an echo) -- when Karkat was so close, almost on his lap, what had he --

"Your thighs," he whispered, dizzy with nerves and shame. "Inside." He clenched his knees together, hands knotted between them -- oh, Karkat's legs clamped down on his hand, all warm and snug. Muscles bunching, straining. So close to his -- his. Oh shit, John couldn't pop a boner inside his flight suit, not while Karkat was watching, while they were hashing out how much of a total clusterfuck this was going to be.

There was silence for too long -- three seconds, ten, every single one tightening his shoulders, knotting his guts worse, nausea and heat mingling dizzyingly.

"... Put your head thing on, Zhann."

John groaned out loud. "Are you kidding me, I will die. I don't want you to -- there's too much, it's. We can't!"

But when he glanced at the tablet still across Karkat's lap they were down to the last two rows of dots and it was now or never. More accurately, now or on the battlefield when they were supposed to coordinate two forces that had never fought together against ... however many of those aliens who wouldn't have followed some random high-ranked asshole from nowhere into open rebellion.

He shoved the helmet down before he could think about it twice. It felt too tight, like he was going to strangle, to be crushed.

Karkat felt too close; an empty seat between them and John still remembered him in Excalibur's cockpit, how easy it would have been to slip on his lap and kiss and--

(Yeah okay definitely sexual there) flitted through his mind from Karkat, alongside ... surprise, oh wow, so violent, stop feeling, not the end of the world --

John flashed back to his previous thought -- sitting next to each other and his hand trapped between strong thighs and oh shit he was getting hard, no, no --

(hand pushing higher) echoed back briefly, edged with curiosity, a spark of -- Karkat shook his head, slapped his own hands down onto his knees, hard enough to sting. John startled. "Okay!" Karkat said, staring straight ahead.

He was maybe smiling a little.

Okay yes we need to talk later I don't fuck and run (do you?)

John spluttered. "How would I know!" I've never/and run where anyway we're on an island!

Take your mech, zip off? (laughter) (mister space pilot, so locked in.) Wait, never? How old-- oh right no one around only older adults and your tangleclan/friends and you can't with half of them because blah blah mammals (and not boys? Why not boys. Aliens what the fuck.)

John groaned again, hands on his helmet since he couldn't get to his face. Could have Rose or Roxy! Roxy was my first kiss! (haha sloppy-alright-nice but I saw you fingers up your nose too much as a kid sorry John I like you tender-nice but it all fizzed out) and Rose kissed me on a dare and it was like kissing Jane it was horrible.

And that was the entire fucking extent of your romantic and sexual experience oh my dear little dark gods that's pitiful. (sharp/teal/lovely-blade moaning over me (tight-soft-deep) other hurried hands in dark corners--) shit sorry--

Oh. Of course Karkat had had sex before. Of course he would know more, of course John was hopelessly late and useless -- he couldn't even bring himself to think about, about kissing, never mind what happened later, he was a kid--

The tablet beeped.

"Shit," Karkat said in English, and another few words that echoed as bounce me around on a bladed dildo. Which, yeowch. He turned to stare at John, already half out of his seat and leaning forward, a claw-tipped hand clenched on the armrest. "(I gotta get going now. John, do you--)"

He was leaning forward like he was about to kiss John, if John hadn't been wearing a helmet, and John knew full well that wasn't at all what he'd been doing, knew because he was in Karkat's brain, and still couldn't help but fear-hope for it.

(I'll kiss you if we win) flashed between them, too fast to hold back. No wait sorry (god it'd feel nice) we have to talk first and -- not now, cannot be now.

John laughed, mostly from nerves. I'll come with you (sit in cockpit think tappy thoughts oh my god they'll love transcripts of your foul mouth be hilarious what if I accidentally transcribe the sex thoughts too oh no oh no--)

Karkat's hand caught his wrist.

"(Do you trust me,)" he said low and intense, in an alienese that John almost didn't notice as not English from how strong the mind-echo was.

The response came embarrassingly instantaneous. "Of course I --" He swallowed. What do you want me to do?

Okay. (You are ridiculous) (thank you.)

Karkat crinkled his golden-red eyes at John and for the first time John realized he doesn't mind how I feel.

Crushes happen, Karkat replied almost casually, with a little pleased-flattered-glad trill running underneath. Crushes happen to me in particular all the damn time so I have no stones to throw. (I know this one is worse, tangled-odd with headsets but it was kind of predictable too especially because of the headsets.)

A harsh beep.

No more time. Follow me?

Follow you where, John wondered, and then Karkat showed him.

His mind nudged closer. Body alive with battle arousal, heart thumping too fast, just barely shaky in his body and he need-wanted John's cheerful-calm interest, his certainty. They should absolutely not kiss before the battle because he would cling and waste time hoping for time to stop instead and also they really needed to hash that shit out but oh, so smug that he'd been right all along. His face winced briefly at whatever echo John sent back, and then he --

(Terrifying/not right/I will never manage alone.) 

John's gorge rose. (can't let that happen/you're not alone (I'm not alone either can't be please god--)

(Good,) rang like a bell between them, and then Karkat's direct, almost forceful Dive(/echo/merge) with me.

John's hands closed tight enough on the armrests that the hard plastic cracked under his fingertips at the thought, visualized like two discordant graphs slowly entering resonance, like rebounding, endless echoes -- the pattering, muted thunder of armies in lockstep. But -- but too close so many things I can't share, how?! Can't sync if we're like this I'm mortified (want to die/hide/wash it out of my brain) you're -- you're --

I want to fight. (Scared to fight.) I need to fight. Silly flurry of thoughts -- bothersome, I have them too (misjudged when to tell people about psychics, misjudged you, (this is not a romcom where you are the heroine what the fuck Vantas,) could have endangered/maybe did endanger the operation twice) we can sync on that! (would be bad). Or we can sync on --

Mechs. Piloting.

Winning the goddamn battle.

We had better not think of beds, John sent Karkat, smile shaking on his face. Karkat snorted back, crooking him a smile.

They bumped foreheads -- or forehead and helmet -- and straightened up, because it was time to go.

They stood (John stood) and walked to the door, one-two, one-two. (Easier if we walk in sync, they agreed, and wondered if it would also work mirrored. But they would experiment later, John, now where was the hangar?)

It was… odd, not quite seamless, little twitches of individual thoughts -- not like last time, at the conference.

It was easier when a Marine came across them -- Sergeant, look at the shoulder bars -- and said, "I was assigned to escort, uh, you, Corporal Vantas..."

"We're coming," they assured her with two mouths (unnecessary) (but which is it again.) "How long do we have left?"

"Four minutes," she said, carefully expressionless in her bulking power armor, the helmet politely open still as she placed herself opposite from the claws side. 

Can you blame her though? haha.

It's not like I didn't help patch those weaknesses.

How'd you even find -- oh, yeah.

Of course horn sense would perceive the electricity field where crucial wires ran, the way a solid plate trembled under a headbutt at the weaker places, of course Karkat's terror would crank his pitiful amount of sensitivity up higher and the luck of frenetic, half-blind panic do the rest.

The upgraded armor would be a little harder but they had the brute strength to punch through and the claws to tear wiring free. Should be easy -- but the Marines weren't the enemy. Strong-respectful-friendly-safe. Distant-confused too (we're too young for how much weight/responsibility we carry) but nice, mostly.

The bay where they were keeping (dad) the mech was empty, if well-guarded; the Marines had taken the warning that the biomechs sometimes ate people to heart, it seemed. Which was hilarious, because (dad) was way too tired to lunge and chomp, which... wasn't funny at all, actually. (When they won, the first thing they'd do would be to put him to a feeding/repairs station.)

They scaled the black-shelled side of the mech, pushing and pulling each body from handhold to foothold -- chinks in the shell, the edge of a plate. (They avoided the gaping cavity of its ripped-away manipulating-arm, no matter how convenient it would have been for a step-up.) The edge of the cockpit opening was cracked open like a wound, ready to be pushed through -- convenient but loose because dad was tired; worrying but nothing to be done for now -- thank god they'd gotten the flight suit back because those weird cotton clothes were a clinging, heavy pain when soaked through with neural gel...

Oh right. John's flight suit might not react quite well to the neural fluid now that dad-mech knew it. What if it dissolved? Haha, naked in the cockpit. Or more like half-naked with strategically placed, slowly widening holes, talk about a porn flick setting. Didn't help that the dissolving/digesting gels used to clean dirt and dead skin cells might also trigger if Dad felt contrary enough and also eat through yeah okay, that was an unsexy thought. John/Karkat crouched, one body on the solid edge, one across the cracked-open plates, and then sinking, eyes closed.

It was the perfect temperature inside, but that never made that first deep breath of gel any easier. He breathed air deeper with the body still outside, like the unencumbered-lungs feeling could help (it helped, even though oxygen wasn't going to come through telepathically. Bodies were stupidly easy to trick.) and settled inside within the nest of coils, seeking out the one that went -- ow, yeah, there, in the flight suit slot at the base of his neck, between the vertebrae.

Wake up, he thought at it, through the neural gel and through the spinal tap, letting it feel his nerve impulses so they could sync more thoroughly. Wake up, (flight systems, weapon arms, no more standby) there's a battle coming. 

Once the process was started it was a matter of waiting until it was sufficiently awake (and burning through the last of its energy.) The Karkat body wiggled into place, let the other tentacles slot into their ports to read his every muscle twitch, so the mech would be ready to move before he even thought it coherently enough to decide exactly what movement he wanted, and then settled down.

It was easier to keep in sync if they weren't both doing different things. The John body waited until the other one was at rest and then stood up, let himself slide along rib covers until gravity flung him off entirely, still pretty high over the ground; he landed in a perfectly timed crouch, laughing a little in admiration (Gods of the Devouring-dark but this body was convenient) and walked out of the hangar.

The Marines at the door didn't look at him like a stranger-threat or even a superior-officer-threat, more like a low-caste soldier might look at a beloved high-blue who cared-possessive for them (still dangerous in the abstract, never quite controllable, but theirs.) It was so strange, so normal.

"Is Corporal Vantas going to stay inside his mech?" the sergeant asked him, falling into step.

"Yes, Sergeant," he assured her soberly. "Until we go."

They weren't sure why that got them a weird look, but it was probably nothing to fret about. The metal mechs' bay door was just there -- similarly guarded but they let John/Karkat pass without a word; one of them nodded at him, fierce and grim-eyed. He nodded back the same way, and then -- oh -- worried that it might worry them, because John usually joked before a battle and soldiers didn't like things to be different. Bad luck. But by then they were at the lift and it was a bit too late to fret about the mental state of grunts.

They opened the cockpit and walked in, swung around to sit. The butt-hollow still felt wrong. 

So many buttons and toggles and it was a wonder John never got them wrong regarding which did what. (Heh.)

The arm-rest where Karkat had sat ... for a moment John-alone was sent reeling, buzzing, experiencing it from the other side -- the tingle of excitement-certainty, that wordless moment when you finally knew the other person was interested, had been flirting back, the pleasure-relief of feeling wanted and known. So touching-surprising-soft to find John so far from cocky carelessness, from being sure of Karkat.

It was sweet, Karkat felt. John stared at the screens he was bringing to life and read the words he knew by heart like they might have changed somehow, tried to think war thoughts.

Weapons check, Karkat thought, tinged with apology-for-the-distraction, tinged with fondness/you-are-sweet.

John went through a weapons check.

They'd left him Excalibur's usual monofilament swords, breakable as they were -- one-hit kills was more Dave's thing than John's -- but he had his hammer too, and the more usual set of bombs and missiles.

Also two EMP bombs. He thought back to Karkat shying away from the microwave and the difference in yield and --

Yeowch vicious yeah that'll work. Not through the home-ship hull (gotta shield from star radiations) but it'll work. How come no one generals-making-plans told me we had that -- wait fuck I'm stupid of course no one would tell me when they were still considering using it on me. It'll work on the biomechs and probably the troop transports but I don't know about the range.

Excal's got good radiation shields, so we can get pretty close and make sure of the kill, John reminded him, and then Karkat reminded him they weren't supposed to wade in, just watch-coordinate from the back.

Like that'll last, they both thought, so closely that maybe neither one had thought it first, that they'd just both had the exact same amused-despairing reaction.

They went through the flight check in comfortable, whispering quiet.

[houl]

The Wall by John Lanchester Book 3 of 2023 3 stars . Promising then plain. A dystopian metaphor for racism and nationalism quickly abandons its core point and turns into a different novel altogether. For those that like: The Nights Watch parts of ASOIAF but with women as well; YA disguised as Literary Fiction; Bland dystopias; Thinly veiled metaphors. . #thewall #johnlanchester #minimonotonebookclub #booksivereadin2023 #booksivedrawnim2023 #booksreillustrated #bookstagram #houlart #houl https://www.instagram.com/p/CoG_98ShAlL/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[thealexchen]

Maybe unrelated balls-2-thewall bonkers LiS AU idea: John Chen Lives AU, no honking idea how this'd work. Either toss most the canon out (as normal)or somehow this happens w/ Jed still hailed a hero &coverup still a thing (I rlly don't get the Present Mystery, why would Typhon blow it up 2x it's already coveredup? dunno enough abt mining). John had a headwound? Be vague abt how John escaped after Jed&co left the rest behind? Are powers heritable? Flesh the mystery &vs Typhon conflict 2 ig.

Maybe he could've been one of the miners that survived, but Jun is so disgusted with Jed's cowardice and selfishness that he quits on the spot and leaves Haven. Then Gabe arrives and can never track his dad down so he decides to stay and the rest of the game plays out the same. The plot twist in the mine was very well done, but I still think it’s incredibly cruel and unfair that Alex lost her entire family– I was almost hoping Mr. Chen would be alive and Alex could have a chance to reconcile the way Sean did with Karen, but maybe that would’ve been too similar to LiS2.

[enlilwind]

O recenzie nouă a apărut pe canal, pentru Zidul de John Lanchester, roman tradus la @actsipoliton. Linkul în găsiți în bio 😊 . . . #zidul #johnlanchester #thewall #actsipoliton #thewalljohnlanchester #elenasbookshelf #booklover #bookshelf #book #bookgram #bookstagram #bookalicious #cartestagram #cartegram #eucitesc #citestecumine #cititulnuingrasa #cititoridinromania #cititoripasionati #booktubers #booktuberomania #booktuber #bookstagramromania (at Constanta, Romania) https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfb5dD2LF_Y/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[johnnys-place]

LaSpina: The Wall "John Hops" Dipa Abv: 8,8% IBU: 38 EBC: 13 Alla vista 👀 (Vedi foto 2) Bionda cristallina tendente all'ambrato chiaro. (tra i 10 ed i 16 EBC) dalla schiuma bianca intensa. Al naso 👃 Sentori fruttati di frutta a polpa arancione. Molto agrumata e dolciastra. Al palato 👅 Double IPA in stile, oserei dire quasi "Imperial" IPA data la gradazione. Il bel carico di luppoli regala alla bevuta sensazioni dolciastre, passando per quelle agrumate di intensità maggiore, all'ancora maggiore amarezza in fase finale. Conclusioni 🤔 Rinfrescante e beverina, in quanto poco pastosa. Rimane a lungo la sensazione agrumata nel palato. Il Birrificio THE WALL è un birrificio nato a ora lo cerco xD nel cerco anche questo, ormai rinomato ed acclamato da anni Scrive il birrificio "Vediamo che dicono." ________________________________ Aperto tutti i giorni dalle 17 all' 01. Lunedì chiusura. Via Bernardino Passeri, 14 - 16 Roma - Portaportese 00153 Vi aspettiamo all'aperto o all'interno con vini, birre, sidro, cocktails, amari, distillati. Be drinkferent. 🍺 ___________________________________ Tag zone 🚨 #thewall #dipa #ipa #johnnysplace #ilpubdiportaportese #birrartigianale #birrallaspina #birrartigianaleitaliana #craftbeerlover #craftbeer #wine #viniitaliani #pub #beerporn #portaportese #laspina #craftbeerporn #craftbeerstagram #beerstagram #instabeer #beerdrinkferent #bedrinkferent #roma #drink (presso Johnny's Place Pub) https://www.instagram.com/p/CdZC9pytAzv/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[ddrmuseum]

🇬🇧 US President John F. Kennedy at the Berlin Wall, 26 June 1963, standing on an elevated platform at Checkpoint Charlie in West Berlin. 🇩🇪 US-Präsident John F. Kennedy schaute am 26. Juni 1963 von einer Aussichtsplattform (West) über die Mauer. #ddrmuseum #ddrgram #instamuseum #instacollection #ddr #gdr #museum #berlin #history #kennedy #westberlin #eastberlin #thewall #coldwar #johnfkennedy #jfk #checkpointcharlie #berlinwall /mg — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/2lL6gwO

[go-redgirl]

Sen. Bill Cassidy's Doable Idea for Paying for the Wall Townhall ^ | 05/17/2018 | John Dempsey

One of President Trump’s signature promises from his 2016 campaign was to build that “tall, beautiful wall.” Often, he would receive loud, raucous praise when he talked about it. Trump has been in office for almost a year and a half now. He has received expected pushback from Democrats. But he has also felt resistance from some Republicans. Both parties have been stingy with funding, leaving very few options. However, Sen. Bill Cassidy recently proposed a creative idea.

Sen. Cassidy suggested that money seized from drug cartels should be used to fund the wall. It is a simple idea that could work.

Asset seizures have been a method law enforcement has used for a while. If an item is determined to be used in criminal enterprise whether that is a stash house, money, vehicles, firearms, home security systems, televisions, or anything else, officers will seize the items. After the case is decided, the pieces are sold at auction, and the agency keeps the money.

Law enforcement agencies will also use seized drug money for buying new equipment or assets for their departments. They will purchase new vehicles, bullet-resistant vests, firearms, and other unique items that are needed.

Trump would be a fool if he didn’t push this idea. He needs to quickly get behind this and make it a piece of the midterm election strategy when he campaigns. Immigration is the number one issue right now. Trump-aligned candidates should promptly make the Cassidy idea a crucial part of their campaign.

The border wall is estimated to cost roughly $21 billion. Cassidy stated the cartel transports approximately $110 billion in drug money a year. Trump was only given $1.6 billion in the omnibus he recently signed. That is well short of the $21 billion he needs. Democrats and Republicans are trying to impede Trump’s agenda, leaving him not much choice.

The suggestion made by Cassidy is no different than what law enforcement does. The border wall is needed for security. Our borders are too porous. Border Patrol agents are being shot from across the border, and it’s happened more than once. Men and women that patrol the border deserve the best protection.

Trump has been stymied by either liberal progressives, or Republicans who want to make sure cheap labor is in the country for the Chamber of Commerce or the potential for votes. The Cassidy suggestion would bypass those obstructionists, and create immediate funding for the wall. Drug cartels will continue to move drug money back towards the border as long as they can, so that gives an opportunity for continuous funding.

A line Trump often used to irk Mexican ex-president Vicente was “Mexico will pay for the wall.” There are some import tax repercussions that American consumers would have felt from Mexican imports. However, seized drug money won’t hurt U.S. taxpayers. It is mostly free money for the wall. And Mexico will still pay for it so to speak.

America needs a border wall. Cassidy’s idea is doable, efficient and will not drive up the debt. Wouldn’t that be ironic if the ones bringing drugs into the country end up paying for the wall?

TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections KEYWORDS: aliens; billcassidy; illegals; immigration; thewall

[redaxolotl]

My week in photos blah blah part 49. Photo 1: Football on Red Square, 1936, by Egorov Anatoly Vasilievich Photo 2: Advertising records of the 1960s: Harry Fields Quartet's finest hour Photo 3: In Passengers (1994 – 1996), John Schabel zoomed in on people seated aboard planes waiting for takeoff – “getting into that [flying] frame of mind.” Sat aboard an aircraft waiting to leave terra firma we are possessed by what Stanley Kubrick termed the “awesome awareness of mortality”, alive to the “the mind-paralyzing realization that only a few years of existence separate birth from death”. Photo 4: John Maher, former drummer with Manchester punk band Buzzcocks, moved to the Isle of Harris in 2002. For the past six years he’s been photographing abandoned croft houses. In this photo, plastic framed cat and dog portraits are accompanied by the skeleton of small bird on the floor. The two mugs on the mantelpiece commemorate the 1974 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand. Photo 5: German artists Sabine Haubitz and Stefanie Zoche’s photographs of abandoned Sinai Hotels point to what might have been in the Egyptian desert. In this photo, Sultans Palace, 2004 Photo 6: Alan Parker’s tour de force film of Pink Floyd’s 1979 album The Wall, with contributions from Roger Waters’ words and music, and artist Gerald Scarfe’s prophetic and biting visions of doom, is all about the images. Photographer David Appleby took stills on the film’s set, like this photo. Photo 7: Highlights From Le Livre de la Sante by Joseph Handler (1967) - this one is Les radiations emises par le Soleil, illus. Milton Glaser Photo 8: The work of Pierre Imans, whose mannequins were designed to be as lifelike as possible Photo 9: Vanth, Etruscan goddess associated with death Photo 10: Things I don't need but want: Demon Hunter Battle Stallion from Conan the Adventurer #art #painting #sculpture #pinkfloyd #thewall https://www.instagram.com/p/CDx_C0WpEDk/?igshid=8bqiam4fdqoh

[jorsehandmade-blog]

John Snow costume for a client is finished, I am happy with how it looks! Only have to place the 3D printed direwolf on the Cape. What do you think? #work #handmadeclothes #handmade #costume #cosplay #carnaval #werk #verkleden #handgemaakt #clothing #kleding #cape #johnsnow #gameofthronesfanart #gameofthrones #kitharington #thewall #direwolf #sewingjob #sewingonrequest #naaienopbestelling #naaien #handwerk #embroidery #borduren #kinginthenorth #winteriscoming #stark (bij Winterfell - Westeros) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7yhmKAJfmx/?igshid=h71vwsjf6tan

[werewolfetone]

Spy Nozy

Right. The Spy Nozy incident.

The setting: Summer, 1797. Holford, Somerset, South West England. William and Dorothy Wordsworth have been reunited after their childhood spent mostly apart, and are living together in Alfoxden House, a few miles away from where Samuel Taylor Coleridge lives with his wife, Sara, and infant son, Hartley, in Nether Stowey. Here's a picture of Alfoxden from a 1920s:

Wordsworth didn't own it, he was only renting.

The wider political context is also important to this story. William Pitt the younger is the Tory Prime Minister, and his crackdown on 'radicalism' as backlash to Jacobinism in the UK due to the French Revolution, is in full swing. People are expected to report on any 'radical' happenings that they witness, and there are government agents everywhere, which made the whole country tense and paranoid. It's even remarked on in Jane Austen's Northanger Abbey, with a comment on how it's impossible to keep secrets with the spy network.

This is also three years after the Treason Trials of 1794, which were a whole other wild affair, but for the purposes of this post let's just say that basically, the government was like "WE ARE GOING TO DRAW AND QUARTER EVERYONE WITH EVEN SLIGHTLY LEFT WING VIBES" and then everyone was acquitted, and they had to content themselves with simply obsessively spying on everyone else. Godwin was at the Treason Trials, as was Coleridge (he was thrown out for heckling the judge), and so was this guy, John Thewall.

He was a radical speaker, writer, and the guy who pioneered British speech therapy, for some reason. He met Coleridge, who invited him to come stay with the him for a while, and inevitably this led to him also meeting and hanging out with Wordsworth.

The incident: John Thewall, was, as I said, very radical, and Wordsworth and Coleridge were in their radical era (well, Wordsworth was in his liberal era, Coleridge was just coming out of his "I'm a Jacobin who hates France" era), so they wanted to talk to him about it. There was a lot of such talk, including one famous incident where they walked among the fells, which were beautiful, and Coleridge said "What a wonderful place this is to talk treason, Citizen John," to which Thewall replied with, "why, Citizen Samuel, this is a place to forget that there is any need for treason at all." They were definitely talking about radical politics a lot, and predictably, the government spy network found out about it.

So a guy was sent, probably by John King, Under Secretary at the Home Office, and the guy's name was either G. Walsh (no idea what G would be for) or J. Walsh (J probably for James), it's unclear. There's no depiction of him, and I can't find a picture of John King, so just uh. imagine them.

So this guy, Walsh, basically had the job of stalking Wordsworth and Coleridge for the next three weeks, trying to find something that would mean King could arrest them and throw them in jail. And he did a damn good job of it, too, at least according to Coleridge, even managing to stay within earshot when they were indoors. He had also "repeatedly hid himself, he said, for hours together behind a bank at the sea-side, ([Wordsworth and Coleridge's] favourite seat,) and overheard [their] conversation." While there he overheard them talking about "Spy Nozy" and became briefly convinced that they were talking about him, until he realized that that was just the philosopher Spinoza.

More things Walsh did:

Posed as a traveller to speak with Coleridge as Coleridge was walking back from his friend's house, which was when he basically was like "hi. are you a Jacobin yes or no" Coleridge's answer apparently "plainly made it out to be such a silly as well as wicked thing, that he felt ashamed though he had only put it on," so he went away and left Coleridge to return home and be like "hey Sara there was this weird guy I met today. he was wearing a fake nose? yeah anyway he asked me all about Jacobinism and I told him I think it's fucking stupid so he left. yeah it was really annoying. anyway" without suspecting a thing, which is further proof that Coleridge had no more than two active brain cells when not writing

Interrogated the local townspeople, including getting an account from a local man by the name of Thomas Jones who said that he was a serving man at a party held by Wordsworth, where Thewall stood up and spoke with "such a passion" he was too freaked out to go back

Flip flopped with the local person he was reporting to (a barrister? I think? Coleridge doesn't make it very clear) between "yeah they're cool nothing to worry about" and "revolution is imminent because of these guys" seemingly on a daily basis

Thewall left at the end of July, but there was still suspicion, especially because briefly a lot of energy was put into trying to find Thewall a house in the area (it didn't happen). Walsh wrote that the Wordsworths and their friends were a "violent sett of Democrats," and continued to stalk them.

\Walsh watched as they did normal Romantic poet activities, including going out at night and writing poetry under the stars, but was rather than impressed by the literary developments absolutely convinced that they were French agents from Bristol. They were apparently interested in a local brook, so he decided that they were trying to get French soldiers to sail up it, and wrote this back to King, who took it deadly seriously as well. In fact, who knows what would have happened to Coleridge and Wordsworth had Coleridge's landlord not noticed Walsh listening to their conversations for hours at a time at the beach and been like "hey. what the fuck."

The landlord set him straight by saying "why, folks do say, your honor! as how he is a Poet, and that he is going to put Quantock and all about her into print!" which made Walsh realize almost immediately how much he had fucked up and sent him running back to the Home Office with his tail between his legs.

Coleridge, of course, couldn't have known all of this, but he did know a fair amount, and he knew enough to joke that if he had written a planned poem called The Brook, which was what what Walsh overheard about the brook was actually about, he would have dedicated it to the Home Office: "to our then Committee of Public Safety as to containing the charts and maps, with which I was to have supplied the French Government to aid their plan of invasion."

[asimpleguyintime-blog]

Eternal Flame Falls - Orchard Park, NY Just your everyday average John Snow ❄ 👑 Plenty earth is rad #gameofthrones #thewall #frozenfalls (at Eternal Flame Falls)

[meineliteraturwelt]

Eine Mauer um England....

Eine Mauer um England.... @KlettCottaTweet #JohnLanchester #GreatBritain #Brexit #Future #Generation #Society #TheWall #Ocean #climateChange #makebritaingreatagain

Hallo liebe Freunde des Lesens,

das Großbritannien im Moment in aller Munde ist liegt daran, dass sie beschlossen haben nicht mehr Teil der EU zu sein. Jetzt ist das Gejammer groß. Der Autor John Lanchester hat mit dem Roman “Die Mauer” ein Zukunftsbild von England und der Welt entworfen, dass gar nicht so unrealistisch erscheint, so wie es heute aussieht. Erschienen ist der Roman beim…

[news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog]

Acting Attorney General Matt Whitaker's old tweets are really something

On Wednesday, Donald Trump ended the midterms news cycle by effectively firing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The acting Attorney General is now Matt Whitaker, Sessions' former chief of staff and a man who used to mooch WiFi from a taco restaurant.

We know the latter thanks to his old tweets, which he has not deleted.

My new law firm just got our high speed internet hooked up!!!! Don't need to hijack Taco John's free wi fi any more.

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) December 30, 2009

SEE ALSO: What you need to know about the state of weed laws after the midterms

There are many reasons to feel uneasy about Whitaker's new role: his use of the phrase "Mueller lynch mob," his disturbing fixation on Hillary Clinton, and the fact that he (unlike Sessions) probably won't be recused from the Russia investigation. 

There are also several reasons to be super weirded out by him, including his former campaign web domain — now a mirror for a Russian sports betting website — and his confident declaration that "Dave Matthews is the Jimmy Buffett of our time."

A few of his stranger assertions:

Is the #Borderwall going to be similar to #thewall on #GoT ? If so, where is #eastwatch ?

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) August 23, 2017

Jon BonJovi knows how to be a rockstar.

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) February 1, 2010

My senior Senator showing the "beautiful Naked Ladies" in his garden. https://t.co/ezQ6B2ROCA

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) August 11, 2017

Dave Matthews is the Jimmy Buffett of our time.

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) February 1, 2010

Few things are more enjoyable than a hot cup of coffee in the morning! Have a great day.

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) April 15, 2009

Article about lawyer who changed careers to be cat catcher. Got me thinking...The Weekly Non-Practice:Cat Catching http://t.co/V6UDDnYC

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) February 21, 2012

Very helpful graphic https://t.co/LGgKqUh0Q2

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) August 25, 2017

Do boots & guitar mean I am a little bit country and a little bit rock & roll? pic.twitter.com/IktvDBeJ5B

— Matt Whitaker 🇺🇸 (@MattWhitaker46) August 12, 2017

Weird dude! Also, very dangerous.

We imagine these tweets might not be long for the internet, so enjoy them while you can. Use the Taco John's WiFi if you have to. We won't tell.

WATCH: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez makes history as she becomes the youngest woman ever in Congress

[mayo505]

never mind about grandmaster 😂 who had the best charisma ? 🎩 ? Tommy or john 🤘#peakyfuckingblinders #newedition #instedit #Peaky Blinders#cillianMurphy#tomHardy#adrienBrody#annabelleWallis#goodmorning#aidanGillen#Netflix#hulu #got#gameofthrones #winteriscoming #thewall #johnsnow #rainsofcastamere #ireland🍀 (at The Wall Street Journal) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoEwyslBPCh/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=ztr2oupoi8t9

[olinet65]

#thewall #johnlennonwall (presso John Lennon Wall)