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sunlightmurdock · 1 year ago

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Safe Zone | 1.0 | Bradley Bradshaw / Jake Seresin x Reader

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Synopsis: A team of elite naval aviators holding down the fort at the North Island Air Base while they wait for reinforcements after a virus sweeps the continental U.S. - only, it’s been three months and no one has shown up.

Warnings: gore, death, violence and pretty graphic mentions of all things zombie related, love triangle, smut (18+, minors dni), angst etc. smut, unprotected pinv, graphic violence at the end of the chapter

…

You had married Michael in a simple courthouse ceremony. You’d been dating a while, your careers were steady, he had gotten down on one knee at La Jolla and it had seemed like a sensible decision at the time. Everything back then was about sensible. After the childhood you had had, stability was your entire focus.

He was kind. He knew to refill your water bottle without you having to ask, and that you hated taking the trash out so he’d always make sure that was taken care of. He’d play with your hair for hours, cry at sad movies, sit with you until you laughed so hard that your stomach hurt.

He hadn’t deserved to die, but on the days that you can stand to be honest with yourself, you’re glad that he did. You’re glad that he died that first night. That he won’t ever have to know how bad it got, or how it’ll never get better.

Your legs stretch out across sheets soft enough to convince you that your leg might just brush his again, one last time. But the second you touch skin, you know that it’s not him. Michael always ran cold. This skin’s warm, you can practically see the pink flush that dusts it behind your eyelids. Nudging your leg closer to his, you budge experimentally closer, without daring to open your eyes.

His arm snakes around your waist and you draw into his chest, pressing your cheek into the soft flesh. It’s like the exhale is knocked out of you, relief flooding your core.

“Are you awake?” It’s muffled by his skin. His fingers skim your waist as he makes a sound of gruff confirmation. You feel the rumble in his chest against your cheek and press closer. It gets warmer quickly, too warm to be trapped under all of the covers but the feeling has grown all too unfamiliar for you to dare pull away from it.

“You were talking in your sleep.” Another rumble from within his chest as speaks this time, his voice deep with still deep with sleep, himself. You’re quiet, certain already of what he’ll ask next. It’s a sunny morning, sunny enough that you can tell without even having opened your eyelids yet. “Were you having a bad dream?”

He cards his hand tenderly over the top of your hair, surprisingly sweet. It catches you off guard, the tactful way he approaches the topic. Most men would be quick to ask why the hell you had spent all night mumbling another man’s name.

“Yeah.” You mumble against his chest. He squeezes tighter around your waist, resting his chin on top of your head. Inexplicably, your body makes the decision before your mind’s even there, hooking a leg around his waist. “Sorry if I kept you up.”

Bradley’s hand catches your leg, guiding it tighter around him, his large palm sliding from your knee to the hem of your shorts and back again. He squeezes the joint softly, pressing his chest closer to yours.

“The talking didn’t,” Amusement drenches his tone, his heart beating steadily against your cheek would be almost enough to lull you back to sleep if you weren’t so intrigued to see where he’s going with this. “You’re kind of an aggressive cuddler, though. Had to drop you back onto your side of the bed once or twice.”

“Shut up.” You scoff, pushing away from his chest finally and blinking at him. He smiles, his eyes flickering briefly between your eyes and your lips. You almost do it. It would be easy enough to do, just lean forwards and kiss his mouth softly.

But then all that you can see is that puddle of blood on the kitchen floor, hear the sickening gargling sound of someone choking on their own blood. But it’s not Michael, it’s Bradley. It’s a new loss this time.

You push away from him slowly, sitting up and shifting back until you’re not touching a single inch of him anymore. Bradley cranes his neck, trying to get a better look at your face. First, he thought you were just mean for the sake of being mean. Now, he’s onto you. You’re just scared.

Jake wakes up with a bad feeling in his stomach. He’s always had good intuition, it’s what made him a good pilot and it’s what got this place secure so quickly. He stands under the stream of his shower, knowing that this warm water will only last so long. Soap, toothpaste, air conditioning, electricity, ammo. It’s all finite. Admiral Caine knew that, he chose not to stick around long enough to see it go.

Now, that leaves them with a problem. They can only pretend that the guy is hiding in his office for so long. With quarantine in C Block ending today and still not a single answer for the people that live there, Jake knows well enough that trouble is coming.

He buckles his belt and steps out into the hallway, noticing that Bradley’s mud-covered boots are still set tidily outside of his door. He’s still in there, which means you are too. Jake just gives a shake of his head as he trails down the hallway. His hand rests on the pistol strapped to his hip, thumb grazing the safety.

Even after a morning cuddled up next to Bradley, it’s Jake that you wind up fucking once again. After the comment he had made about marriage yesterday, you roll up to your shift so pissed off that you’ll barely look at him, much less speak to him.

Jake doesn’t apologize either. You’re the one with something to hide, not him.

None of it matters when you’re on your back on the floor of the watchtower with his warm mouth working feverish kisses across your bare stomach, his fingers raking along the soft flesh of your thighs.

Your shoulder is hooked over the muscle of his shoulder and his mouth is working lower, lower, until he’s at eye-level with your still clothed core. This underwear is from the clothing store, which means that Bradshaw has really committed to the whole boyfriend act now — the idiot’s bringing you panties while Jake’s the one fucking you every day.

You inhale sharply as Jake presses his mouth to the soft cotton, his tongue trailing from your hole to your clit over the fabric. Moisture from his tongue and between your legs meet through the cotton, saturating it as his mouth works slowly.

He doesn’t stop until the material is spit-soaked and see through. Until your heel is pressing into his shoulder as you try to rock your core against his mouth. Until Jake’s confident that when Rooster tries to take your panties off tonight, they’ll still be wet.

Fucking Jake is the easy option. You know it’s the easy option. He’s an asshole, so you know you won’t get attached. If you lose him, it won’t be much of a loss at all.

Well, it will. Losing this will be a loss. Jake’s fingers curled tight around your hip and his soft groans right against your earlobe as he fucks into you. Dirty and hard, right on the floor of the watchtower.

Jake’s something you’ve never had before. He’s not the sensible choice. Maybe if you had known the sex would be this good, you never would have settled for sensible. There’s a moment where he takes a brief pause, and the sun’s just about high enough in the sky to be shining bright through the windows of the tower.

He skims his open palm along the warm flesh of your thighs and squeezes, exhaling slowly. As many times as you have been this close to his face, you’ve never quite noticed the way the freckles under his eyes form intricate constellations. His lashes have nothing on Bradley’s but his eyes always feel like they see right through you. It’s just that they’re pretty enough that you don’t mind.

He wets his lips with his tongue and sits back on his knees. The breath is forced out of you as he grabs your hips and maneuvers you closer, pressing deeper into you now that he’s upright. The muscles in his abdomen tighten as he rolls his hips slowly forwards, a stark contrast to the pace he had set before.

Your eyes flicker from his defined stomach up to the shining green of his eyes and he almost smiles.

“Say my name.” He grips your hips tighter, almost mean in the way that he does it. Your mouth twitches, then sets into a straight line. He leans over you, eyes darkening as the light shifts on his face. You gasp, hands reaching for purchase as he thrusts forwards sharply. “I said: say my name.”

“Hangman.” You bite back, knowing how much it gets under his skin to hear you say it. If only you knew that Rooster was the one to first call him it.

Jake’s lips quirk just slightly. You pretend that he can’t feel the way your walls squeeze around him when he’s smiling down at you like that. He gives a slow shake of his head, letting you know that you hadn’t answered correctly.

He rolls his hips slowly again, and then stills completely. Your eyes widen as you feel all hopes of your building orgasm start to ebb away.

“Say it.” Jake smiles down at you, flexing his hands around your hips. Your heart thuds in your chest and you’ll hate yourself for giving in later, but in the moment, there’s just no way you could deny.

“Jake,” You whimper out softly. He leans closer, pressing his fingertips hard into your hips. His eyes never falter from your face as he starts to rock his hips once again. “Jake. Fuck, Jake.”

He slides his hand around to cradle the base of your skull as he pulls you closer to him, picking up the pace. You whimper against his shoulder, sensitivity making you grip his bicep.

As much as he has the capacity to be an asshole, even after he made you cum on his face, he won’t send you back to Rooster without making sure he does it again. His palm presses tight over your mouth as you writhe under him, seeing stars, digging your nails into his thick shoulder.

He groans softly against your throat as he comes undone, swiftly pulling out, just in time to coat your stomach in ropes of cum. Your fingers smooth along the swell of his shoulder, up onto the nape of his neck. He stays there for just a moment, leaving lazy kisses against the curve of your neck.

Then, Jake turns and rolls onto his back beside you, closing his eyes as he tries to catch his breath.

“Fuck.” Jake breathes out. You hum at his side, eyes closed. He reaches out between the two of you. You’re quiet as he loops his fingers between yours.

There’s a moment of quiet between the two of you before he speaks up again. “I, uh… I pulled some strings. Got you tomorrow off if you want it.

You turn your head, blinking, to look at him.

“Figured you would want to spend some time with your mom and your brother after the quarantine.” He tells the ceiling rather than you, but that’s okay. The second that you drop his hand, he feels you sit up. The first thought that crosses his mind is that he must have pissed you off and you’re about to leave.

Instead, you rest your palm gently against his bare chest, lean forwards and kiss his lips.

“Thank you. That’s really kind of you.”

Tonight’s the last night of quarantine. Tomorrow, you’ll be keeping him at arms’ length again. Rooster has spent all day thinking about last night. He can’t help but wonder if you mumble Michael’s name in your sleep every night.

More importantly, he can’t help but wonder who the hell Michael is. An ex-boyfriend, probably. The pain in your voice suggests something more.

Either way, he’s trying not to let it get to him. Holding you in his arms while you mourned another man. He’s silent for once as he walks between posts, making sure that everyone’s where they are supposed to be.

His boots thud rhythmically along the tarmac, his hands pushed deep into his pockets. He hasn’t noticed yet, but his watch has stopped ticking. Despite the ocean being right there, the birds aren’t singing. Like the sky itself knows what’s about to happen.

Static crackles on the radio. Rooster slows, waiting for the message to come through. He’s met with silence. Enough silence to make him realize exactly how quiet it is. It’s 3pm — and the courtyard is empty. There’s not a single person here. He looks around him, turning in a slow circle. No one.

More static follows. Finally, a cracking message breaks through.

“Rooster, Coyote! Anyone?”

Rooster’s eyes blow wide open. He snatches the walkie from his hip as he takes off running. It’s Logan’s voice, which means the disturbance is by the armory.

“We need backup here, now!” Logan begs over the channel, his voice strained and fearful. Rooster picks up the pace, running towards the action in long strides.

Even from as far away as he is, once he rounds that corner, he can see the huge crowd of people that has gathered around the armory. This area is off limits to citizens, there’s a — gate.

He turns his head to blink at it over his shoulder, no time to examine. The padlock has been smashed, or snapped. Broken either way, and the gate’s wide open.

“Thomas, just calm down, man!” Bradley can hear Logan pleading over the silent crowd. He’s faintly aware of Coyote sprinting behind him, but Bradley doesn’t wait as he starts to shove his way through the crowd.

“He’s gone! Nothing fucking matters, no one’s coming!” Another man’s voice bites back. Bradley shoves through. Thomas. Tall, dark hair, always has had purple bags under his eyes. He’s got one hand curled around the door to the armory, and a knife in his dominant hand, pointed towards Logan.

Rooster’s eyes widen as he looks between Logan and Thomas. Thomas hasn’t even spotted him yet, too busy trying to break in. But he’s talking about Admiral Caine, which is not something that shy Thomas from the breakfast crew has clearance to hear about.

“Thomas.” Bradley starts cautiously, but his hand flies to the gun on his hip, his finger on the safety. It’s then that Bradley shoots a look over at Logan, who has lost all colour and is trembling against the wall. Rooster finally notices.

The empty holster on Logan’s right side. The black handle sticking out of Thomas’ belt as he turns slowly around. He stole it.

“What’s the matter?” Bradley doesn’t acknowledge the stealing, or the bloodied man behind his shoulder. The crying children in this crowd. The trembling adults. The look in Thomas’ eye that sends a chill along Bradley’s spine.

“You here to try to stop me?” Thomas challenges. Rooster narrows his eyes. The crowd is just growing. No one dares to lunge for the crazy guy with the gun. The sun is hot overhead. There’s no breeze today.

“You know I can’t let you go in there,” Rooster tries. He raises his hands in defense and takes a cautious step forwards. “It’s against the rules.”

“Caine’s gone, asshole, there are no rules anymore.” Thomas grins, eyes unfocused, swaying just slightly like he’s moving with the wind. He lifts the bottle and takes a long drink. Rooster’s head tilts just slightly, looking straight ahead at the man in front of him. Joining the back of the crowd, Jake cranes his neck to look around. It’s on everyone’s faces all at once.

“What did he just say? — Admiral Caine’s gone?” More and more murmurings. Bradley’s eyes remain focused, steadfast, but his hands clench into fists as his sides. No one is supposed to know. Simpson hasn’t given them other orders yet.

Bradley takes a slow step forwards and Thomas takes a stumbling step back, laughing to himself loudly. “Hit me, Rooster! — Who’s gonna check you for it? — What’s it matter? — We’re all fucking dead anyway!”

That’s why he wants to get into the armoury. He thinks that everyone’s going to die, and he wants to make sure that everyone takes the easy way out.

Rooster checks around. There’s a little girl to his left, younger than Amelia had been, which is his gauge for all kids nowadays, she’s got tears in her eyes, grabbing onto her mother’s hand.

“We’re all going to fucking die. We’ll run out of supplies, or the dead will come, or these fuckers will start killing us one by one!” Thomas screams into the crowd. His head is red, hair drenched in sweat, his movements jerky.

Still, Rooster continues forwards, grabbing two fistfuls of Thomas’ shirt and shaking him, “Shut up, shut the fuck up.”

He can’t let this happen. The murmuring is still happening behind him. He can hear children crying. Tugging at their mother’s sleeves, asking if that’s true.

“If Caine’s gone, then who’s in charge?” Another person asks from the crowd. A guy that Rooster has already had problems with before. He knows that trouble is coming. Thomas’ smile grows.

“Rooster.” Phoenix warns, taking a step towards the collision about to happen in front of her. It’s too late. Thomas is seconds from getting that door open. As Bradley’s footsteps grow closer, Thomas grabs the handle of his stolen gun and turns to look once more.

“We’re all going to fucking die! What does any of it matter?” Thomas barks out. Wailing begins behind him. Amongst it, Bradley can hear as small voice asking if that’s true.

Roooster’s knuckles whiten around Thomas’ t-shirt. Swiftly, Rooster lifts all hundred pounds of him off of the ground. There’s a second where Thomas has time to scramble, his feet inches from the ground, before Rooster uses all of his weight and slams his scrawny body into the concrete. There are a few gasps. The thud is sickening, Thomas stops moving for a second. Joe flinches, turning his head away.

“Shut your mouth or I’ll shut it for you, kid.” Bradley spits, pressing Thomas harder into the ground as the younger guy writhes in pain under him. Once again, Thomas opens his mouth. Jake’s fist hits him square in the tip of his nose, knocking his head back and slamming it hard into the floor. Again, over and over.

“Rooster.” Jake starts, abandoning you beside him and rushing forwards. “Rooster, stop, you’re gonna kill him.”

Thomas stops moving, going limp against the floor. Close enough know to see the blood pouring out of Thomas’ nose, Jake hesitates, certain that he has just allowed these people to witness an execution. It takes a while, but Thomas’ chest begins to rise and fall with deep, slow breaths.

“Show’s over.” Rooster calls out, pushing himself up from the ground. “Everybody go home.”

Tags:

@momc95 @shawnsblue @thedroneranger @cherrycola27 @zbeez-outlet @harper1666 @abaker74 @xoxabs88xox @cowboybarbie @shanimallina87 @ohtobeleah @top-gun-rooster @blue-aconite @laracrofted @bioodforbiood @kmc1989

#bradley bradshaw #bradley rooster bradshaw #miles teller #bradley bradshaw smut #jake seresin #rooster x you #rooster bradshaw imagine #top gun smut #bradley bradshaw x reader #jake seresin x you #jake seresin x reader #Jake Seresin fic #Jake hangman Seresin #hangman x you

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dingochef · 2 years ago

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Pairing: Jake "Hangman" Seresin x You (OFC)

Warnings: Swearing, Smut (MDNI 18+ Only), Angst with a Happy Ending, Stalking, P in V, oral (female and male receiving), Semi-public sex, light spanking,

Word Count: 1.8k

Summary: Life throws another curve ball at you and even after last night, Jake is there to help you, leaving you more confused than ever about him.

Masterlist

Chapter 11

Chapter 12: Cliche

Morning dawns and you see the sun entering your room with gritty eyes. Rolling over, you sigh in frustration, as much as your mind is weary with the betrayal of last night your body still has the edgy after effects of righteous anger on it. Deciding that a bike ride will help, you pick the most brutal and punishing route you can think of, straight up Mount Soledad.

At the top of you take a few minutes to rest on a bench and look over La Jolla and the Pacific Ocean and contemplate everything that's going through your mind right now. You sigh, your life was perfectly fine a week and a half ago and then this fucking guy came in like a laser guided missile and broken open the Ice Queen's heart. Every part of you screamed not to get in too deep, but you know that even after all the heartbreak everything you've experienced and then locked your heart away about yourself, there was a tiny spark of you that thought, maybe, just maybe that you'd find someone to go through this life with. There was definitely that possibility with Jake and that's what's hurting most right now, that tiny flicker of hope extinguished, you can take men doing stupid things. It's that possibility, that chance, being crushed that hurts the most.

Taking stock of your emotions you feel so frustrated and angry with Jake, with yourself, and with fucking Rooster. You look around and see that you're alone and you scream at the top of your lungs,

"God fucking damn it! Fuck you Jake Seresin!"

You wanted to feel cleansed and have some cathartic experience but all you feel is more pain and your throat is raw. You ride home knowing at least you'll be physically exhausted when you crawl into bed and hide from the world.

Pulling up to your house you walk your bike to the shed where you store it in the backyard. There is a bouquet of red roses in a vase on the front porch that you assume are from Jake. Rolling your eyes at the cliche you snap a picture with your phone and leave them where they are.

After a shower and some lunch you sit on your couch steadying your nerves to open up the text conversation with Jake's name on it.

Jake: Please don't run. I'm here waiting for you when and if you want to talk. I'll respect your choice and space. Know that I care for you deeply.

You snort at his text and send a picture of the roses.

You: You can come get your cliche as shit roses. It's gonna take a lot more to get back in my good graces you lying piece of shit. I don't give third chances, you asshole. Give them to the next trophy in your sick game.

You had hoped that an outburst would make you feel better, but it just makes you more tired. The phone pings back almost instantly.

Jake: Elsa, when I said I was giving you space I meant it. I didn't send those to you.

Confusion bolts through your brain, and you run out to the porch and pull the card out from under the vase and read:

My Dearest Elsa,

I want you to know that my love for you is eternal and as beautiful as these roses. Your beauty outshines even the brightest stars.

Yours forever,

Bill

You drop the card like it's 3,000 degrees and a sick feeling immediately comes to your stomach and bile rises in your throat. Bill has been here, he's figured out where you live and it feels so violating and invasive. You frantically scan around your neighborhood to see if you can spot Bill anywhere.

You grab the card and step back inside, locking your door immediately and double checking the back door and all your windows.

Your phone dings again.

Jake: Elsa, are you okay? Just let me know that you're safe and I'll let you be.

You: They're from Creepy Bill from the cycling group.

Jake: Can I call you?

You: Yes.

Your phone rings immediately and Jake is talking rapidly as soon as you answer,

"Elsa I understand that I'm the last person you want to talk to or ever see again and I respect that. I just need to know you're safe. I'm going to ask you a few questions, okay?"

"Yeah, that's okay," you reply, your voice has more tremble to it than you expected.

"Do you feel safe right now?"

"Yes, I've locked the doors and double checked the windows.".

"Do you have a security system at your house?"

"No, I've never needed one."

"This is a situation where you need one. I'm going to text you the name and number of a friend that installs them. He will be over today if you want to install a system."

"Okay," you are starting to come undone with a spike of terror and just hearing Jake's voice. The tears start to well up.

"You can go to the police station today and file a restraining order against Bill. You don't have to wait till tomorrow. Is there anyone who can go with you? "

"Yes, I think Beth can come with me."

"I'm going to let you go now so I can call my buddy about the security system. Just know that if you need anything from me I'll be there as fast as I can."

The way he says anything is plaintive and sad and it breaks your heart.

"Okay, Jake, goodbye."

Contact info for a home security firm comes through via text. You call Beth and tell her about the situation and she agrees to come over immediately.

You wait a few minutes and call the home security firm, a deep voice answers,

"Hello, this is Mark of Advanced Home Security. How can I help you?"

"Hi, my name is Elsa Matthews and I got your info from Jake Seresin and he said you could install a system at my house today."

"Yup, Hangman just gave me a call and explained the situation. I can be there in about 30 minutes if that works for you, ma'am."

"That'll work," you give him your address and phone number and wait for the calvary to show up.

Millie from the cycling group is your next call to let her know things have escalated and you need Bill's info for a restraining order. She says she's got it on a liability waiver and will send you a picture with it within five minutes.

Beth arrives first and gives you a soul crushing hug. The undeniable love radiating from her breaks the dam that's been holding everything in. You let her know everything and you eventually end up on the couch with your head in her lap as she gently strokes your hair. There's a knock at the door and you sit bolt upright as your heart begins to race. Beth and you tentatively approach the door and ask,

"Who is it?"

A booming voice calls back,

"Mark Anderson of Advanced Security Systems, I'm a friend of Hangman's."

You let out the breath you didn't know you've been holding. You open the door and see a giant hulk of a man filling your doorway, he reaches out a hand, which dwarfs yours, to shake yours,

"Elsa, I hear you need a security system and you need it quick."

"Yes. Come in and you can look around and see what you recommend."

The next half hour is spent discussing the type of system he'll install and some outside features he's going to install like motion detection lights, cameras, etc.

"That sounds good, can I get an estimate of what all of that will cost?" you ask.

Mark scoffs and waves your question away.

"No cost, it's repaying a debt to Hangman."

Your cynical tongue is quicker than you like and you ask,

"Did you lose a bet?"

Mark laughs as he starts to unpack his tools and says,

"Not a bet, but I do owe a lot to Hangman. He saved my life in Afghanistan. Same night I got this piece of hardware."

He pulls up his right pant leg and taps a prosthetic leg with his screwdriver.

"Hangman and I were on patrol when we got winged by some enemy fire from the ground. I was his WSO. We had to ditch in the middle of the desert near the Iranian border. The good news was that we were only 20 miles from a NATO outpost, the bad news was that the missile hit launched a whole bunch of shrapnel into my leg and left me unable to walk. I was expecting Hangman to follow protocol and head out for help alone after he stabilized me and stashed me somewhere safe. But if you know Hangman, rules aren't his thing. That motherfucker carried me piggy back style 20 miles through the desert in the night to get to that outpost."

You add this to all you know about Jake and you just feel even more confused. You can't reconcile how all the different pieces of Jake fit together.

Mark paused for a moment, "Well, thanks for listening to an old man's war stories. I should be done in about 3 hours with the installation."

Beth and you go to the closest police station and file the paperwork. The officer said that Bill would be served with the order within 24 hours and that they would add your block to their routine patrols.

By the time Beth and you get back to your house Mark is almost done. He walks you through the system and gives you his cell number if you need anything.

After you convince Beth that you'll be fine and you'll sleep with the panic button and call if you need anything it's nearly 11 pm.

You check your phone and see one last message from Jake.

Jake: Bill won't be bothering you anymore. Take care, El.

@starswholistenanddreamsanswered

You crawl into bed and toss and turn for a while. All the pieces of Jake, of Hangman, float in your mind. You turn them over and over to see how they all fit together, how they fit with you. How the sweet, funny, respectful man fits with the asshole who bet on his ability to fuck you. They're such opposite ends of the spectrum that it taxes your brain to figure out who Jake is and more importantly, how you feel about him. After all he has done today, you know that he cares for you and somewhere in the darkness that little ember of hope, of possibility flickers back to life that maybe this isn't the end of you and Jake.

Chapter 13

@mayhemmanaged

@callmemana

@dempy

@hangmanscoming

@lanie-k

@callsign-viper

@senjoritanana

@djs8891

@atarmychick007

@memoriesat30

#top gun maverick #hangman #hangman fanfiction #hangman x you #jake hangman seresin x reader #jake hangman seresin x you #jake seresin fanfiction #top gun fanfiction #jake seresin x you #top gun smut

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the-hinky-panda · 11 months ago

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The Medic Series: Part I

Title: The Medic Series

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Johnny Coco Cruz x OFC (Morgan "Stitches" Fox)

Summary: Morgan Fox is a nurse who is looking for a fresh start. She leaves La Jolla the night before her wedding for a fresh start in Santo Padre.

Author's Note: This series takes place in the same universe as @bullet-prooflove's Community Series.

Everyone had warned her about taking the job at the Santo Padre Clinic.

Morgan Fox had graduated at the top of her nursing class. She went through her Emergency Room training in East LA at one of the busiest trauma centers in the state of California. She could treat a gunshot wound blindfolded, find and administer narcan in under five seconds, and she’s enough of a scrapper to hold her own with violent junkies.

She liked working in LA. She felt like she was actually making a difference when she sat with a prostitute who had a botched abortion and held her hand until the tears stopped. When she was the only nurse that would buy and stash electric blankets for addicts that were going through detox and wracked with chills. When a gang member was killed, she would sit with their family members and assure mothers that there was nothing more they could have done for their children.

Her father, the CFO for Wells Fargo West Coast branches, had a heart attack and her mother needed help with his recovery so she returned to La Jolla. Unfortunately, survival was not in the cards for her father and a month later he died of a brain aneurysm. Her sister was already married to a megachurch pastor so it was just Morgan and her mother alone in the seaside mansion. The work in the La Jolla hospital was less than satisfying. Women recovering from plastic surgery and malnutrition from starving themselves to fit into expensive gowns for charity events didn’t bring much satisfaction.

The only thing that kept her in La Jolla was the arrival of a new heart surgeon. He had been doing his fellowship with the cardiac surgeon that operated on her father. Shortly after her father’s passing, Dr. Jasper Wilcox was placed as the on-call heart surgeon and was spending his breaks down by the ER nurse’s station where Morgan worked. He would bring her terrible cups of coffee to hold her over until he could take her out to a five star restaurant. He came from old money and was not opposed to spending it. Morgan’s mother loved him so after six months of dating, a Christmas wedding was being planned.

Then her world fell apart. She caught Jasper with another nurse in the locker room showers. That was when the rumor mill finally reached her, that Jasper had banged just about every nurse in the hospital. When she went to her mother with the revelation, her mother told her to look the other way. And if that didn’t work, look at his bank account and investment portfolio. But Morgan started looking elsewhere: another LA, another place in need of compassion. That was how she ended up getting the job offer at Santo Padre Clinic.

It was Christmas Eve when she called the Santo Padre Clinic to let them know she was accepting the nurse position. She waited until her bachelorette party was over before packing her car with clothes and a couple boxes of belongings, and leaving under the cover of night. She left a note for her mother and Jasper, short, sweet and to the point about wanting something more than money and a sham of a marriage.

She arrives in the bordertown Christmas morning, feeling very much like the refugee family of Mary, Joseph, and Jesus: scared and alone. However, there is room at the town motel and Morgan spends her Christmas day looking for an apartment online and ignoring the texts and calls that are blowing up her phone. She drinks a bottle of expensive champagne and watching re-runs of “The Christmas Story” on the TV. By six am the next morning, she’s dressed in her scrubs and sitting on the cracked concrete steps of the clinic. At 6:30, another woman arrives in faded scrubs, graying hair, and a tired face.

“Are you Fox?”

Morgan jumps to her feet. “Yes, ma’am.”

She scoffs and unlocks the door. “You can drop the ma’am. We don’t stand on much ceremony here. I’m Fernanda. Most people call me Nan.”

Morgan follows her into the building and helps turn on lights. Nan gives her the tour of the workplace. It’s small, outdated, and falling apart. Their supplies are minimal, the equipment barely functioning. Nan watches her with a skeptical eye.

“So what do you think, Nurse Barbie?”

“I think it’s perfect.”

Nan laughs shortly. “I give you two weeks before you’re back in La Jolla.”

#coco cruz x ofc #johnny coco cruz x ofc #mayans mc fic #mayans fic

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ladythatsmyskull · 4 months ago

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This world is bent.

Rich people, instead of chillaxing and having fun for the rest of their lives, choose to become literal cartoon villains, living parodies of evil characters like you'd see in WW2 comic books.

You are set for life. Why can't you mind your own business and have to expose yourself as some racist, controlling sociopath?

One thing about working in La Jolla is how terrified my supposed 'betters' were. Watching folks open up a wallet with 100 cards in it swiping card after card after card trying to pay for $80 in groceries.

Sad, frightened people horrified at the thought they are just like everyone else so they spend millions trying to prove otherwise.

The pathetic creeps I see on the news every single waste their entire lives meddling, controlling and for what? STFU, take your money and go away.

Stop being such weirdos.

#the gop is a terrorist organization

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bundracky · 2 months ago

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Summer Recap: August - September 2024 ♡

Happy October, Vampunnies!

I can't believe it's already autumn, it feels like the year is flying by! Before I fully indulge in the new season, I wanted finish up the last of my summer recap posts~

Today I'll be writing about my trip to San Diego, OMORI, NIKKE, and Chiikawa pop-ups, outdoor movies, and meeting my Hololive oshi Nerissa Ravencroft?! This is also a pretty long one, so read more under the cut!

One of my goals this summer was to work on my tan, as I lowkey was looking sickly after the insane rainy season we had earlier this winter and spring. So I decided to plan another visit to the beach, this time a two-day trip to San Diego, a city on the Pacific coast!

From where I am, it's about a 2-3 hour drive depending on traffic. My hotel check in time was in the evening, so I wanted to spend the day going around! After my drive, I knew I was going to start getting hungry, so the first thing on my itinerary was visiting Mitsuwa to buy some food to eat at the beach. My toxic trait is always having to do gacha whenever I end up in a Japanese market, and so I bought some Blue Archive wafer cards and a Sonny Angel Hipper! I'm really happy because all my pulls ended up so cute~ In that plaza, I found a cute cafe called Flour Atelier, and got a lavender matcha latte (surprise) and some macarons ♡

My hotel was by the Crystal Pier, so I decided to spend my day there! My sister was with me during this trip, and she wanted to check out the Brandy Melville before we went on the actual beach. I ended up buying a cute tote bag. After shopping, we went down to the beach! It was a particularly hot day, so jumping into the cold water of the Pacific healed my soul. After playing in the water, I ate my yummy rice bowl from Mitsuwa and took a nap in the sun~

After heading to the hotel and getting checked in, I ended up going to a Thai restaurant for dinner. I had salmon with mango and rice, and it was so good. I was pretty proud of myself because I realized I have worked my way up to 2 out of 4 on Thai spice levels! (I used to be a 0 once upon a time...)

The next day, I went out to La Jolla! And of course, I had to go look at the seals and sea lions. There were so many! Apparently, the reason why this famous for them is because they go here to rest on the shores. I wish I brought my bathing suit with me that day since there was a cute little cove area you could swim by! Definitely next time~

For brunch I visited a super cute cafe called Sugar and Scribe. I had their "Blueberry Love" pancakes and a lemon lavender mimosa~ It was super good, and I'd love to visit there again!

And as my last activity out here, I visited the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. I'm not as familiar with contemporary art, especially when a lot of them are more localized to their community. However I always enjoy learning about new things, and seeing how museums curate their collections. Plus there were actually a few artists I did recognize! There were a lot of interesting pieces here, and I'll attach some of my favorites to the post.

One of the fun things about summer is alllll the pop-ups!

In Anaheim, there was an OMORI x Requiem Cafe pop-up. Which I was pretty excited for as I actually just started getting into OMORI after playing it on stream this month. My favorite characters are Hero and Mari, so I decided to get their themed drinks, as well as the Sweetheart Sundae! Everything was super tasty, and while you enjoyed your drinks you could take in the ambiance of the cafe's fantasy decor and OMORI bgm~ They had pretty cute exclusive merch too, so I got Hero and Mari's keychains, and a pink tote bag with the collab art.

Another pop-up I attended was the NIKKE x Animate LA collab at the Del Amo Shopping Center in Torrance. There were so many cute cut-outs and they had huge advertisements for the NIKKE x Evangelion collaboration. I mostly went to purchase some of the NIKKE Exhibition items they imported from Japan!

There were a couple activities to do for freebies as well! For the opening weekend, they had cute cosplayers host a quiz game for prizes. The question they asked me was literally "Name a Nikke who has a bunny suit!" Of course I answered so quickly with Alice~ Now, for reference, the prizes were also gacha because you had to pull from a jar and you would get an A, B, or C prize. So far this whole time, people were either getting A or B prizes, which were can badges and desk mats respectively. But if you don't know, my NIKKE luck is kind of insane, so I was the only one who pulled a C prize-- an acrylic stand!! Which was my preference as I love acrylic stands hehe. I got one of Rapi and I cherish it a lot since I have so many good memories attached to it.

After the NIKKE pop-up, I also visited the Mitsuwa in that mall to once again do more Blue Archive wafer pulls and buy lunch. I didn't realize how close this mall was to Redondo Beach until recently, so my friends and I decided to check it out. It's a quieter beach compared to the more touristy ones, so it was a great place to chill. Before going home, I found a super cute and pink cafe with jelly bunnies! Very Alice core~

The last pop-up I attended this summer was the Chiikawa x Miniso Pop-up at the Irvine Spectrum! It was heaven on earth (literally just a huge store of just Chiikawa stuff). I actually proxied the Chiikawa crossbody from this collab from Japan since I didn't know it was coming to SoCal at the time. So I really only had my eyes on one thing when I went for myself: Giant Chiikawa plushie!!! It's literally the biggest plushie I own, and is currently taking up so much space in my room, but it was so, so worth it. I've also attached a photo of him at Barnes and Noble at the mall because it was hilarious carrying him around that day.

Also, I feel the need to mention this somewhere in this post, Sunright Tea Studio was having a collab with Ace Attorney Investigations! I tried Edgeworth's Oolong Oolong Milk Tea and got a cute sticker too! It was a pretty basic drink, but still good. In a way, I think it suits him haha!

Another fun summer activity I got to enjoy was watching outdoor movies! I found out the Huntington Library was having a cute summer movie night event every month, so I came by to watch Tangled in August and Jurassic Park in September! Grab a picnic blanket and some snacks and enjoy these movies in the garden lawn!

Tangled is my favorite Disney movie, it's just such a comfort to me. I think for this day I spent some time in the gardens just to chill and then picked up some snacks for the movie at Hmart. I also visited Lacey Park while waiting for the Huntington to open up for the evening. It was a really cute community park!

As for Jurassic Park night, I invited some friends to come along with me and it was really fun! I haven't seen this movie since I was a kid, and it's kind of crazy how well this movie aged? Like the animatronic work was amazing! I think this day I visited Erewhon and got a smoothie, as well as a bag of Ludivine Macarons-- of which by the way, I would love to visit Ludivine in Los Angeles in the future...!

And now for the final topic of my summer recap series!

So, I wasn't planning on going to Anime Impulse OC this year... but hololive was like, yes you are! They announced a lottery to meet either Callie, Ina, or a member of Advent. Nerissa is like, my kamioshi of all vtubers ever. I was pretty casual about liking vtubers before, but after hearing Nerissa's singing during Advent's debut well... I had to stan, y'know?

Now, I did not win initially. I wasn't surprised at all since the chances were so low. There are many dedicated Hololive fans, including people willing to fly in from out of state or even Japan for this. However, literally two days before the con, I was eating dinner, and suddenly got an email notification saying one of the winners couldn't make it, and I won the second draw!

I didn't have much time to prepare for this con, so I just brought my trusty Maison de Fleur boston bag and decorated it with the few Nerissa goods I could decorate it with. Anime Impulse is a pretty chill con, which I appreciate. I've been going to the LA one for a few years now, but this was my first time going to AIOC! Despite being a smaller con, they've been growing a lot these past few years.

I did go around getting some freebies from some gacha games I didn't know but had cute stuff, perused Artist Alley, and bought some cute Korean deco stickers from the K-Pop section of the con. Hoyoverse also ran an official Honkai: Star Rail merch booth, from which I got the ticket themed Acheron keychain~

Also, I just want to make a quick shoutout to one of the shops I often collaborate with: Sora Gumi! They were vending that day and kindly gifted me some official Wuthering Waves goods. Male Rover is one of the coolest MC designs, ever. I don't talk about it much, but I'm obsessed with him (˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) Anyway, the staff working there is really cool, please show them support at their stores either at Little Tokyo and The Source OC! (You can also buy official game, anime, etc. goods from them online at Nekotwo, and use my code "daiyastone" for a % off your order!)

And finally, Meet & Greet time! I actually had practiced what I wanted to say a few times, but when you're standing in line waiting for your turn, it's a little nerve wracking!! The fellow Jail Birds in line were really nice and we all hyped each other up! Nerissa was so kind and sweet, it was easier talking to her than I thought it would be. I actually wrote down how the conversation went, so you can read it if you'd like! I was 100% rizzed by her in this three-minute window...

This was such a wonderful experience and I'm so grateful for the opportunity! Also, I just want to say a big thank you to my bestie for helping me afford purchasing my tickets!! T^T

And that was my summer! Honestly I didn't even get to writing about everything because there's just so much, and I'm already just trying to recap since it's literally October... I still can't believe it.

Well, thank you for reading if you got this far! I hope you enjoyed reading about my summer adventures! From here on out posts will be more focused on specific topics and travels, so I hope you continue to checking out my posts in the future! Until next time!

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melissamontoyaphotography · 1 year ago

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Scripps Beach La Jolla Family Photos | L + J

Scripps Beach La Jolla Family Photos | L + J As a La Jolla family photographer, the fall season brings an influx of family portraits. Families are getting ready to send out their holiday cards! The good news about living or visiting San Diego is that you can pretty much take family photos all year round! Only certain parts of San Diego give way to a season feel, but most people opt for the beach…

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#la jolla family photographer #la jolla photographer #Melissa Montoya photography #San Diego family photographer #san Diego lifestyle photographer #San Diego photographer #San Diego portrait photographer #scripps beach

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drsabourindds · 1 year ago

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Dr. David A. Sabourin, DDS- La Jolla Cosmetic & Implant Dentistry

Address- 9850 Genesee Ave #760, La Jolla, CA, USA 92037

Phone- +1 (858) 452-2333

Email- [email protected]

Website- https://drsabourin.com/

Are you searching for a trusted name in cosmetic and implant dentistry in the beautiful community of La Jolla, California? Look no further than Dr. David A. Sabourin, DDS. With years of experience and a commitment to excellence, Dr. Sabourin and his team are dedicated to providing the highest quality dental care with a focus on enhancing the aesthetics and function of your smile.

Business Hours- Mon: 9AM - 4:30PM | Tue - Thu: 7:30AM - 4:30PM.

Payment Methods- Cash, Credit/Debit cards.

Owner Name- David A. Sabourin.

#Cosmetic Dentist in La Jolla CA #Cosmetic Dentist in San Diego CA #Dentist in La Jolla CA #Dentist in San Diego CA

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sandiegoautorentals · 2 years ago

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San Diego Auto Rentals

Introduction :

San Diego, known for its stunning beaches, vibrant culture, and year-round sunshine, is a dream destination for many travelers. To fully immerse yourself in the city’s charm and explore its countless attractions, renting a car is the ideal choice. In this article, we will provide a comprehensive guide to San Diego auto rentals, ensuring you have all the information you need for an unforgettable adventure.

Convenience and Freedom :

Renting a car in San Diego offers unparalleled convenience and freedom. Whether you’re arriving at the San Diego International Airport or exploring the city from your hotel, car rental agencies are readily available throughout the city. Having your own wheels allows you to tailor your itinerary to your preferences, granting you the flexibility to visit popular attractions like Balboa Park, the San Diego Zoo, and the USS Midway Museum at your own pace.

Finding the Right Rental Company :

When choosing a car rental company in San Diego, it’s important to consider factors such as reputation, pricing, and available vehicle options. Major national chains like Hertz, Avis, and Enterprise have branches in San Diego, providing reliable services. Additionally, local rental companies like Pacific Rent-A-Car and San Diego Auto Rentals offer competitive rates and personalized customer service. Online platforms such as Expedia, Kayak, and Rentalcars.com can help you compare prices and find the best deals. Be sure to read customer reviews and check for any hidden fees before making your reservation.

Requirements and Policies :

To rent a car in San Diego, you must meet certain requirements. Generally, renters must be at least 21 years old, although some companies may require drivers to be 25 years or older. International visitors will need a valid driver’s license from their home country along with an International Driving Permit (IDP) if their license is not in English. Rental companies may also request a credit card and a refundable security deposit. It’s crucial to understand the rental company’s policies regarding mileage restrictions, insurance coverage, and fuel refill requirements.

Exploring San Diego and Beyond :

With a rental car at your disposal, you can fully explore the diverse wonders of San Diego and its surrounding areas. Cruise along the scenic Pacific Coast Highway to witness breathtaking ocean views, venture into the charming neighborhoods of La Jolla and Coronado, or take a day trip to the nearby attractions like the historic town of Julian or the stunning Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. The possibilities are endless, and having your own vehicle allows you to make the most of your time in this beautiful region.

Conclusion :

Renting a car in San Diego opens up a world of possibilities for exploration and adventure in America’s Finest City.

#San Diego Auto Rentals

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christophermfowler · 7 years ago

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San Diego, CA | May 2017

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calprivatebank · 4 years ago

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Types of Business Loans

Most small businesses need some additional capital at some pint. This may be to improve cash flow, hire new team members or grow the business through expansion. There are a wide number of business loan options that company owners can choose from to ensure their business financial needs are met.

Term loans are one of the most popular business loan options if you want to make an investment in a particular area of your business to meet ongoing needs. Term loans are suitable for business owners that need working capital. They are not suited for emergencies, buying real estate, buying another business or investing in or renovating commercial properties.

A business line of credit is another option which is ideal if you want an improved cash flow or you need money for an emergency. It is not suited for business expansion or paying off existing debts.

SBA or Small Business Administration loans tend to be a favored choice for small business owners. These loans offer an excellent credit for long term loan solutions, but are not suited for quick capital or if you have a poor credit rating. SBA loans are different from traditional loans in that the Small Business Administration stands as guarantor, which enables you to secure the funding you need with lower interest rates and a more flexible payment term.

Some companies can do well by securing equipment financing, which is ideal if you need to purchase expensive equipment, machinery or vehicles for your business. This could be due to an expensive piece of machinery breaking down or being outdated. You might also need new equipment because your business is growing. This loan uses the equipment as collateral, thereby reducing your risk to the lender and making it an easier loan to obtain when you need it.

Commercial real estate loans are used when you want to fund the purchase of a commercial space, such as a shop, office or building. It provides you with the funding you need with a shorter term and higher interest loan.The nature of this loan does vary depending on the lender, so you will want to do some research to see what product options various lenders offer that can meet your needs with confidence.

Microloans are small loans often used by small business owners.These are loans for up to $50,000 and are not suitable if you need a larger amount of funding. The majority of microloans come from non-profit lenders that offer financing to early stage businesses. The SBA also offers a microloan for up to $50,000.

Some new business owners will choose a personal loan for business purposes. This is not normally recommended due to the importance of keeping your business and private finances separate from the start. When it comes to starting up a new business, it isn't always possible to secure a business loan since you don’t have any revenue to show yet. A personal loan can be used to start up a small business if you have a stellar credit history and the discipline to pay it off on time.

Some commercial banks that offer merchant cash services will offer an advance, which is ideal for all types of business activities. This is when the lender provides the advance, taking repayments from credit and debit card payments received. The benefit is that you pay back according to incoming money, which means when business is good you pay more and when there is a lull in business, you pay a percentage of that income.

Before choosing a business loan, do your research to ensure your business can maintain the repayments. Get your documents in order before making your appointment with the bank manager to complete your application.

About Us: CalPrivate Bank, formerly San Diego Private Bank, is a leading private bank serving clients throughout Southern California in the United States. This very well-established bank services high net worth individuals and businesses of all sizes. CalPrivate Bank's focus is to provide a Distinctly Different Banking Experience through unparalleled service and creative funding solutions for individuals and businesses with complex financial needs. They offer a wide array of financial services, including checking, savings, time deposit accounts, treasury management and related tools. To find out more, visit https://calprivate.bank/.

#commercial real estate financing coronado #construction financing coronado #equipment loans #fixture loan la jolla #government guaranteed loans #industrial loan la jolla #loans for business acquisition newport #merchant card services san diego #sba lenders in beverly hills #sba lenders in coronado

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dailyunsolvedmysteries · 3 years ago

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The Weird Disappearance of David Stone

David Stone was a twenty-nine-year-old successful stock market analyst from La Jolla, California, who was deep into the New Age movement as he sought spiritual guidance. For years, he had struggled with control and anger issues, which seemed to come to a head on October 28, 1988. That day, he held a party at his apartment when he got into an argument with one of his friends. He then began attacking him, hitting him repeatedly. After this violent outburst, David told his friends and family about his behavior and said he ought to go on a walkabout to reflect on his conduct. He said he would return in a few days. According to deputy Sheriff Bill Cavaliere, the investigating officer, on the morning of Halloween 1988, he walked into the desert, 145 miles east of Tucson, Arizona. At around dawn, a farmer spotted him walking along a dirt road. The farmer briefly chatted with him, as it was seldom he saw tourists in this remote part of New Mexico. David told him that he was looking for the "beast". Throughout the day, several local residents had seen him around the desert. He was acting strangely, talking to himself, and walking through rough terrain. Five days later, his car was found abandoned along a desolate stretch of New Mexico Highway 80, fourteen miles south of Roadforks, New Mexico. David's family believes that he went on a "vision quest" which is common among people in the New Age Movement. In this quest, the person goes on a journey to learn more about themselves.

It was discovered that David had left several mysterious clues after he vanished. They appeared to relate to the New Age movement. First, he had left his car near pyramid-shaped mountains, and pyramids were important symbols in the movement. As a search for him began, his trail headed northwest from his car toward Granite Peak. Searchers found a pyramid of rocks surrounded by a triangle. On the next day of searching, another pyramid was found, and next to it was David's watch and two quarters. Three miles to the north, searchers found a string of numbers written in the sand. They realized they were Fibonacci ones, which are often used by engineers and stock market analysts. However, instead of 21 ending the sequence, David had mistakenly written 18. It may have a way of him leaving a cryptic message, as when he was a college football player he owned the number 18 jersey. However, as his car was found close to the number 18 mile marker on Highway 80, investigators think it may have been a coded distress signal. Bloodhounds tracked David's scent back to Highway 80. However, they stopped at a highway intersection with Interstate 10, which was thirteen miles north of where his car was found. While looking through items in it, his parents found a strange business card in a pocketbook Bible. It belonged to a man named Tony Ballesteros. He was interrogated by police, but claims he never met David. He was camping with friends, and it was likely his business card fell out of his pocket onto the ground, and was claimed by David while he briefly crossed through the campground on his excursion. David's parents also found a strange note that read: They think the WORD is in the safe. Six knives in Rob's room. Yous buys your tea and yous take your chances Halloween. Halloween just happened to be the day that David vanished. To this day, nobody knows what happened to him or why he acted so strangely before he disappeared. On February 23, 1992, two hikers discovered David's skeletal remains in the desert near Granite Gap, New Mexico. This is the same area where he left behind several clues before he vanished. Medical records confirmed his identity. Although police have been unable to determine when, how, or why he died, there was no evidence of foul play in his death. According to the medical examiner, there was no apparent trauma to his remains. While some still believe that David met with foul play, police have chalked up his death to dehydration and prolonged exposure to the outdoors, aka "death by misadventure".

#david stone #unsolved mysteries #unsolved #cold cases #sixpenceee

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antoine-roquentin · 4 years ago

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obliquely, this is in reference to how formerly working class bastions in the midwest that used to elect socialists now elect republicans. if we all gave up the theory that LGBT people are normal, we might once again go back to the days where we elected socialists across the country. thomas frank, what’s the matter with kansas:

But its periodic bouts of leftism were what really branded Kansas with the mark of the freak. Every part of the country in the nineteenth century had labor upheavals and protosocialist reform movements, of course. In Kansas, though, the radicals kept coming out on top. It was as though the blank landscape prompted dreams of a blank-slate society, a place where institutions might be remade as the human mind saw fit. Maps of the state from the 1880s show a hamlet (since vanished) called Radical City; in nearby Crawford County the town of Girard was home to the Appeal to Reason, a socialist newspaper whose circulation was in the hundreds of thousands. In that same town, in 1908, Eugene Debs gave a fiery speech accepting the Socialist Party’s nomination for president; in 1912 Debs actually carried Crawford County, one of four he won nationwide. (All were in the Midwest.) In 1910 Theodore Roosevelt signaled his own lurch to the left by traveling to Kansas and giving an inflammatory address in Osawatomie, the onetime home of John Brown.

The most famous freak-out of them all was Populism, the first of the great American leftist movements.* Populism tore through other states as well—wailing all across Texas, the South, and the West in the 1890s—but Kansas was the place that really distinguished itself by its enthusiasm. Driven to the brink of ruin by years of bad prices, debt, and deflation, the state’s farmers came together in huge meetings where homegrown troublemakers like Mary Elizabeth Lease exhorted them to “raise less corn and more hell.” The radicalized farmers marched through the small towns in day-long parades, raging against what they called the “money power.” And despite all the clamor, they still managed to take the state’s traditional Republican masters utterly by surprise in 1890, sweeping the small-town slickers out of office and ending the careers of many a career politician. In the decade that followed they elected Populist governors, Populist senators, Populist congressmen, Populist supreme court justices, Populistcity councils, and probably Populist dogcatchers, too; men of strong ideas, curious nicknames, and a colorful patois....

For a generation, Kansas has been the testing-ground for every experiment in morals, politics, and social life. Doubt of all existing institutions has been respectable. Nothing has been venerable or revered merely because it exists or has endured. Prohibition, female suffrage, fiat money, free silver, every incoherent and fantastic dream of social improvement and reform, every economic delusion that has bewildered the foggy brains of fanatics, every political fallacy nurtured by misfortune, poverty and failure, rejected elsewhere, has here found tolerance and advocacy.

Today the two myths are one. Kansas may be the land of averageness, but it is a freaky, militant, outraged averageness. Kansas today is a burned-over district of conservatism where the backlash propaganda has woven itself into the fabric of everyday life. People in suburban Kansas City vituperate against the sinful cosmopolitan elite of New York and Washington, D.C.; people in rural Kansas vituperate against the sinful cosmopolitan elite of Topeka and suburban Kansas City. Survivalist supply shops sprout in neighborhood strip-malls. People send Christmas cards urging their friends to look on the bright side of Islamic terrorism, since the Rapture is now clearly at hand.

Under the state’s simple blue flag are gathered today some of the most flamboyant cranks, conspiracists, and calamity howlers the Republic has ever seen. The Kansas school board draws the guffaws of the world for purging state science standards of references to evolution. Cities large and small across the state still hold out against water fluoridation, while one tiny hamlet takes the additional step of requiring firearms in every home. A prominent female politician expresses public doubts about the wisdom of women’s suffrage, while another pol proposes that the state sell off the Kansas Turnpike in order to solve its budget crisis. Impoverished inhabitants of the state’s most scenic area fight with fanatical determination to prevent a national park from opening up in their neighborhood, while the rails-to-trails program, regarded everywhere else in the union as a harmless scheme for family fun, is reviled in Kansas as an infernal design on the rights of property owners. Operation Rescue selects Wichita as the stage for its great offensive against abortion, calling down thirty thousand testifying fundamentalists on the city, witnessing and blocking traffic and chaining themselves to fences. A preacher from Topeka travels the nation advising Americans to love God’s holy hate, showing up wherever a gay person has been in the news to announce that “God Hates Fags.” Survivalists and secessionists dream of backyard confederacies out on the lone prairie; schismatic Catholics declare the pope himself to be insufficiently Catholic; Posses Comitatus hold imaginary legal proceedings, sternly prosecuting state officials for participating in actual legal proceedings; and homegrown terrorists swap conspiracy theories at a house in Dickinson County before screaming off to strike a blow against big government in Oklahoma City.

the problem with this simple story is that social liberalism actually grew in lockstep with an economic policy tailored to the poor. in the 70s, the most common place to get gender reassignment surgery was at a catholic hospital in small town colorado. in 2010, in response to deep opposition in the town, the practice was forced to move to california. the second most common place was at a baptist hospital in oklahoma city, where such surgery was viewed as routine until a number of religious leaders decided to oppose it in the 70s. at the same time, many other religious leaders spoke out in favour of the surgery, saying that it comported well with religious tenets.

likewise, colorado legalized abortion in 1967, as did states like kansas, missouri, georgia, and north and south carolina prior to roe v wade. today, these states are considered anti-abortion and anti-lgbt hotspots, yet prior to the late 70s, compassion for such people was viewed as paramount in the life of america’s christians. so what happened? it clearly wasn’t an emphasis on the social aspects of poor american lives that shifted the political arena in favour of religious conservatism. rather, as thomas frank points out in the same book:

Nobody mows their own lawn in Mission Hills anymore, and only a foot soldier in its armies of gardeners would park a Pontiac there. The doctors who lived near us in the seventies have pretty much been gentrified out, their places taken by the bankers and brokers and CEOs who have lapped them repeatedly on the racetrack of status and income. Every time I paid Mission Hills a visit during the nineties, it seemed another of the more modest houses in our neighborhood had been torn down and replaced by a much larger edifice, a three-story stone chateau, say, bristling with turrets and porches and dormers and gazebos and a three-car garage. The dark old palaces from the twenties sprouted spiffy new slate roofs, immaculately tailored gardens, remote-controlled driveway gates, and sometimes entire new wings. One grand old pile down the street from us was fitted with shiny new gutters made entirely of copper. A new house a few doors down from Esrey’s spread is so large it has two multicar garages, one at either end.

These changes are of course not unique to Mission Hills. What has gone on there is normal in its freakishness. You can observe the same changes in Shaker Heights or La Jolla or Winnetka or Ann Coulter’s hometown of New Canaan, Connecticut. They reflect the simplest and hardest of economic realities: The fortunes of Mission Hills rise and fall in inverse relation to the fortunes of ordinary working people. When workers are powerful, taxes are high, and labor is expensive (as was the case from World War II until the late seventies), the houses built here are smaller, the cars domestic, the servants rare, and the overgrown look fashionable in gardening circles. People read novels about eccentric English aristocrats trapped in a democratic age, sighing sadly for their lost world.

When workers are weak, taxes are down, and labor is cheap (as in the twenties and again today), Mission Hills coats itself in shimmering raiments of gold and green. Now the stock returns are plush, the bonus packages fat, the servants affordable, and the suburb finds that the princely life isn’t dead after all. It builds new additions and new fountains and new Italianate porches overlooking Olympic-sized flower gardens maintained by shifts of laborers. People read books about the glory of empire. The kids get Porsches or SUVs when they turn sixteen; the houses with asphalt roofs discreetly disappear; the wings that were closed off are triumphantly reopened, and all is restored to its former grandeur. Times may be hard where you live, but here events have yielded a heaven on earth, a pleasure colony out of the paintings of Maxfield Parrish.

america's workers and small farmers were saved by the reforms of the 1930s, as frank explains, then crushed as the wealthy found out how to squirrel away their taxes (in part thanks to the collapse of the british empire), accumulate wealth away from prying eyes, lobby the government for preferential treatment, and between 1976 and 2000, triumph completely in the political domain. mission hill donates more money to politicians than the rest of kansas combined. unions are swamped in state politics, and see declining fortunes. as a result, neoliberal social atomization takes effect, which sees even workers demanding beggar-thy-neighbour policies. and when thy neighbour is socially distinct from you, it becomes easier to justify voting for such politics based on a survival instinct. the majority of the working class tuned out and do not vote any more. among the rest, low skilled working class jobs in highly stratified and inequitable cities vote democrat, hoping for some patronage from the white collar creative class voters they serve, while blue collar skilled workers tend to vote republican, devoid of any examples of class politics in their lives with the death of unions and hoping to keep their share of wages against their only opposition, the tax man.

ultimately, any socially liberal politics sustained by donations from rich big city donors is unsustainable. on the other hand, the notion that “woke” politics is holding back leftism is, save for a few clearly absurd situations (robin diangelo, for instance) also wrong. economic leftism leads to social leftism, because respect to the working class leads to respect for its identities. neoliberal atomization is a much deeper force than can be surmounted at the ballot box, even in a primary, but it is always an economic force first and foremost.

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fuckyourselffff · 3 years ago

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This is absolutely maddening. Homelessness, tent villages, the lack of humanity, this is absolutely indescribable. At below minimum wage, I am living in luxury compared to some. I found the pan that probably caused this fire, this abomination. It’s no wonder people feel fucking lost and listless other emotions. What are you supposed to tackle first?

Hunger? I spotted a pan that probably caused this incident.

Cleanliness? Is a joke on the streets.

Shelter? Sorry if i went to target as a homeless person and bought a tent, it’s a red fucking flag.

Mental health? The system has demonized people in this position. Nuff said.

Physical health? #1 SLEEPING ON CONCRETE?? Oh yeah I’ll take that thanks.

Clothing? AKA how to not look homeless.

THE FUCKING SYSTEM THAT PUSHES US DOWN??! I say “us” because we are all little people, statistics or numbers to those that control the system. Once you lack something, it will all start falling apart, like a deck of cards. I’m barely maintaining the list above at 13.50$ per hour 60+ hours a week sometimes. I’ll earn like 1500$ every two weeks, and be burnt out. I have the luxury of having vacation time AND sick days, in a job that’s tied to my health insurance, of course. The above picture was taken in Downtown LA. I’m from NY, and it’s far from any fucking better there. If y’all are looking at me because I’m traveling, you’re the fucking problem. I’m social distancing and took this backpacking trip for my mental health. I don’t go to bars and I’ve barely met anyone.

Also since there is an immense discrepancy between the rich and the poor, just like NYC, there is a huge homeless population just trying to make it by. I’ve been warned/advised by local employees and friends from home to come in before sundown because the homeless and/or unmedicated people are roaming. Which albeit, sounds/is scary when it’s in front of you. But these people are also kind, generous, just trying to get by, will eat my half eaten food, are respectful. So when does that circle back to getting this population of people help? Taking advantage of them during a crisis by offering jobs that might support one or two needs. Yes, I’ve heard of all these resources, but what happens when these resources cut out or someone doesn’t meet the “qualifications”. What happens when the process to get such resources is just an obstacle on top of another obstacle? It’s more than likely exhausting just to bring yourself to ask for help, nonetheless coming to terms with your situation. In San Diego, i discovered there is a community funded clinic for those suffering with homelessness, and they’re currently constructing a building which looks like it would support affordable housing and a means to aggressively combat the situation. They are called father joes villages and father joes clinic. Research and donate if you can. This is an amazing start. We as humans owe it to ourselves and others to support each other through crisis’, in whatever way we can.

The below picture is off the coast of La Jolla, San Diego; where rich people have to continuously deconstruct and rebuild their homes because of natural erosion, oh poor them 😭😭. Due to Natural Erosion on the coast and losing property, one house doesn’t have enough space in their driveway to turn around, so they installed a rotating platform on their driveway, that’s nice. Apparently, this one guy built an infinity pool off the side of the cliff, SANDSTONE (which erodes when you look at it) after T W O W E E K S it fell into the ocean and i believe the only reason he had to clean it up was because it was on a reserve. They fined him like $74K a month until he got to it, months later. Imagine having the luxury of paying a monthly fine of that magnitude, and having a “I’ll get around to it” attitude. Imagine being so rich. —Someone please prove me wrong on this story, i only learned from word of mouth. —

-Martin Sheen

Someone please tell me what to do next. I’d like to be a pillar to stand on, or field some representation or some real action and quite literally fuck the system.

#eat the rich #tax the billionaires #tax the rich #homeless #anti capitalism

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