#learn how to shoot a gun texas

[marksmanrange]

Discover Top Gun Classes and Firearm Training in Houston Texas

Hey there, fellow shooting enthusiasts! Whether you're new to the world of firearms or a seasoned shooter looking to hone your skills, finding the right place for gun classes in Houston can make all the difference. In a city as vibrant and diverse as Houston, there are plenty of options, but if you're looking for top-notch training and a stellar shooting experience, Marksman Range is the place to be.

Why Take Gun Classes in Houston?

So, why should you consider taking gun classes in Houston? Well, there are several great reasons:

Safety First: Understanding how to handle and operate a firearm safely is crucial. Gun classes teach you the fundamentals of gun safety, ensuring you can enjoy shooting responsibly and securely.

Skill Development: Whether you're a beginner or an experienced shooter, there’s always room for improvement. Professional training helps you refine your techniques and become a more accurate and confident shooter.

Legal Awareness: Gun ownership comes with responsibilities. Classes often include lessons on local laws and regulations, helping you stay compliant and informed.

Fun and Community: Learning to shoot can be a fun and social activity. Gun classes provide a great opportunity to meet like-minded individuals and enjoy the camaraderie of the shooting community.

Comprehensive Firearm Training in Houston

When it comes to firearm training in Houston, Marksman Range offers a wide variety of courses designed to meet the needs of shooters at all levels. Here’s a glimpse of what you can expect:

Beginner Classes

If you’re just starting out, beginner classes at Marksman Range are perfect for you. These classes cover the basics of firearm operation, safety protocols, and shooting fundamentals. You'll learn everything from how to properly hold a gun to the correct stance and aiming techniques.

Intermediate and Advanced Training

For those with some experience, Marksman Range offers intermediate and advanced courses. These classes delve deeper into shooting techniques, precision, and tactical skills. Whether you're looking to improve your marksmanship or learn defensive shooting skills, there's a course tailored to your needs.

Specialized Courses

Marksman Range also provides specialized training for those interested in particular aspects of shooting. From defensive handgun courses to long-range rifle training, you’ll find a class that fits your interests. These courses are ideal for individuals looking to develop specific skills or enhance their proficiency with certain types of firearms.

Learn How to Shoot a Gun in Texas

If you’re eager to learn how to shoot a gun in Texas, you’re in the right place. Texas is known for its strong gun culture, and there's no better way to embrace it than by learning to shoot with expert guidance.

Marksman Range’s instructors are not only highly skilled but also passionate about teaching. They take the time to ensure you understand each aspect of shooting, from the mechanics of the firearm to the nuances of aiming and firing. With their support, you’ll gain the confidence and skills needed to handle a gun effectively and safely.

Why Choose a Marksman Range for Your Training?

You might be wondering what makes Marksman Range the best choice for learn shooting in Texas. Here are a few reasons:

Facilities

Marksman Range boasts modern facilities that provide a safe and comfortable environment for learning. Their gun range in Houston is equipped with advanced safety features and a climate-controlled indoor shooting area, ensuring a pleasant experience regardless of the weather.

Experienced Instructors

The instructors at Marksman Range are seasoned professionals with years of experience in firearms training. They bring a wealth of knowledge and expertise to each class, offering personalized instruction that caters to your unique needs and skill level.

Comprehensive Course Offerings

Whether you're a novice or an experienced shooter, Marksman Range has a course for you. Their wide range of classes ensures that you can find the right training to match your goals and interests.

Commitment to Safety

Safety is a top priority at Marksman Range. Their classes emphasize safe handling practices, proper storage, and responsible use of firearms. This focus on safety ensures that you can enjoy shooting with peace of mind.

How to Get Started

Ready to take the plunge and start your journey into the world of shooting? Getting started with gun classes in Houston at Marksman Range is easy. Simply visit their website to view their class schedule and sign up for the course that best fits your needs. Whether you're looking to learn the basics or refine your skills, there's a class waiting for you.

The Benefits of Ongoing Training

Taking one class is a great start, but continuing your training can bring even more benefits. Regular practice and advanced courses help you stay sharp and improve over time. Marksman Range offers memberships that provide ongoing access to their facilities and discounts on classes, making it easy to keep learning and growing as a shooter.

Join the Community

One of the best parts about taking classes at Marksman Range is the opportunity to join a community of fellow enthusiasts. You’ll meet people who share your passion for shooting and gain valuable insights from their experiences. Plus, Marksman Range hosts events and competitions that add an extra layer of excitement and camaraderie to your shooting journey.

Conclusion

Whether you're new to shooting or looking to take your skills to the next level, Marksman Range is your go-to destination for gun classes in Houston and firearm training in Houston. Their comprehensive courses, expert instructors, and top-notch facilities make them the ideal choice for anyone looking to learn how to shoot a gun in Texas. So why wait? Dive into the world of shooting with Marksman Range and discover the thrill and satisfaction of mastering your firearm skills.

[casually-salad]

Is it cold outside? Is it cold out?

[gg-pedro]

can you hear the music (ch. 1) - joel miller x reader

masterlist

even here, at the end of all things, some things persisted. one thing in particular, throughout all the places you had been. music.

summary: everyone in jackson is trying to distract themselves from something. you teach ellie piano and find yourself trying to help more than one miller settle into their new world.

warnings: post outbreak!joel, jackson!era, platonic!ellie x reader, implied age gap, joel x reader, AFAB!reader, they kiss lolz, smut to come, pining, feelings.

words: 1.8k

a/n: a little sweet, a little bitter, a little self indulgent. I'm planning on this being a series! I hope you enjoy. warning tags only apply to this chapter.

-

Two knocks. Three. More knocking, hushed squabbling from outside your door. You got up from your seat at the kitchen table, a piling mess of sheet music and scribbled notes.

Opening the door revealed your newest student, Ellie, looking very much like Joel was leading her to the gallows with that scowl on her face. 

“Can we just get this over with? I’m fucking hungry.” Ellie pushed past you, shrugging off her coat and kicking off her boots. 

“I’m sorry… ‘bout her. She likes doin’ this, I swear. Always comes back talking about it. Just give her some time to warm up to you.”

Joel had this particular look on his face whenever he talked about that little girl. His dark eyes would soften and he’d push a hand through his graying hair, his thoughts seeming like they were somewhere else entirely from his surroundings. The most he ever said to you was about Ellie. Everything you knew about Joel was from Ellie, naturally.

He was from Texas. He was fairly older than you– you didn’t have much experience from when it was before the end of the fucking world. He sounded tightly wound. He could play the guitar, and he’d taught Ellie a few things. Once, she’d said that he only liked piano music if Billy Joel was playing it, whoever that was. That made you laugh.

You gave him a thin smile, crossing your arms over your chest to ward off the draft that was blowing through the open door. “I know. She’s a great kid, I can tell she wants to learn. I think it helps her– you know, keeping busy.”

Joel met your eyes for the first time since the conversation had started, something painful and poignant seeping into his expression. 

“Yeah. I think so.” He was quiet for a few seconds before looking straight over you to grab Ellie’s attention. “I’ll be back in an hour. I’m down the street helpin’ Tommy with that old building. Be good,” he warned, before giving you a grateful nod and turning back. 

And that was your routine. Joel was usually short with you, a little quiet, a little shy. You thought he was a sweet man– and a painfully attractive one at that. All southern and rough, broad shouldered, puppy-dog eyed. He seemed like he would do anything to keep that girl safe. You were glad the community had someone like him.

You had started teaching Ellie a few weeks after they had settled into Jackson. It was mostly because of Maria’s recommendation, who you were fairly close with. Ellie had hated taking lessons from you more vehemently in the beginning, but the more you worked at it, the more comfortable you saw her get. 

“Come on, kid. This is good for your brain,” you would say, beckoning her to sit next to you on the piano bench. 

She scoffed, but yet she obliged. “This is dumb. I could be doing something useful. Like shooting guns.”

“Art is as important, Ellie. More important than shooting guns. For you, anyway."

Her fingers tapped gingerly on the keys and she played a scale they had learned the week before. “How would you know? You aren’t even old,” she countered. “How long have you been playing?”

You glanced over at the clock. You two were wasting time, but at least she was talking. “My whole life, give or take. I tried to hold onto it whenever I could. It was my favorite thing in the entire world.”

She nodded, seeming to understand. “That’s cool. I get why Joel likes you.”

You didn’t think Joel was someone who particularly liked you. He didn’t dislike you, clearly, but if he had given any hints, they had been falling on deaf ears. You tried your best to keep your expression neutral. “And why’s that?”

She giggled to herself as she flipped through the pages of her sheet music booklet. “‘Cause you’re both fucking weird.”

You laughed too, punching her gently in the arm. “Fair. Now stop stalling and play me whatever you remember.”

Life was special nowadays. More precious than it ever had been. You would have to cherish moments like these. Loss was all around, and loving always risked the hurt. You were really, really fucking tired of hurting. 

-

Walking back to your home, trudging through the snow, you were tired. Working in Jackson’s small clinic was easy enough, but it was draining. You saw to children mainly, bandaging up wounds and dosing out rations of antibiotics when needed. The kids liked you, the parents liked you, and that was rewarding, but plastering on a smile and a light-hearted tone all day sometimes felt like too fucking much. 

So naturally, you were ready to pick a fight when you felt a broad hand consume your shoulder. 

You turned around to match the disembodied hand to a face, only to see Joel Miller. He looked tired, more tired than you, and a little sad. 

“Sorry, I wasn’t tryin’ to scare you. I saw you, and I…” He paused, looking down at the two sets of footprints that had outlined both of your paths. “Ellie isn’t feeling well. I think it’s best she skips y’alls lesson tomorrow.”

She released the breath she'd been holding. For some reason, he had the tendency to precede the things he said as if he was about to tell you that the world was ending. Again.

“That’s fine, don’t worry about it. Is she alright?” 

“Yeah, she’s alright. This whole things a big fuckin’ adjustment, and I… I worry she’ll push herself too much if nobody stops her,” he explained. “She’s been with Maria all day. But yeah, she’ll be okay.”

Ah. He was worried about her. It seemed like he was always worrying about her. “I understand. Can’t imagine what it must be like for her. And you.”

She’ll push herself if nobody stops her. Who stopped Joel? Who looked out for him? His brother, surely, but was it like that? Did those two, hardened and stretched thin, have the time to be concerned about things like that? How long had he just been… going?

You reached a hand out to touch his upper arm, rubbing it a little before pulling away. “You’re a good man, Joel. I really think that, and I hope you know it.”

He laughed a little at that. “I haven't done any good, trust me on that.”

You dropped your gaze and looked away. You knew that everyone here, without a shadow of a doubt, had done things they weren’t proud of. Things they never would’ve done if not at the end of the world.

You were maybe 20 steps from your front door, standing out in the Wyoming cold with him. You tried to meet his eyes before speaking again, but he wouldn’t face you. 

“Come in. Please, I insist. Warm up, I just traded for coffee.”

He looked like he was fighting with himself for a few seconds, raising his head and looking off to the side. “Yeah, alright. Why not.”

-

Joel Miller was sitting in your living room, sipping from a mug so carefully that you’d think he was afraid he’d break it. The fire was lit and casting warm shadows across the dim room. It was endearing. You hadn’t felt like this in a lifetime. 

“I couldn’t do it. What you do. Dealing with all those kids,” he said after a long lapse of quiet.

You shrugged, sipping on your own cup. “I love it. I never thought I’d have the chance to play music again, much less teach. It’s not perfect, but it's something,” you said. “Ellie tells me you play guitar.”

Joel rolled his eyes and finally sunk back into his chair instead of hunching over. He groaned a little as he did it, as if he stored all of his tension in his back. “Yeah, used to. I ain’t good at it anymore.”

“But you used to be?” You pried.

He finally looked at you, his eyes infinitely more dark in this light. “Maybe. Don’t think I’d be able to forget how to play even if I tried, so might as well put it to some use.”

You smiled. “I know. Funny how things stick with you. Muscle memory.”

He nodded. “Somethin’ like that.”

And it was true. There were lots of things neither of you would forget how to do, no matter how much time had lapsed in between the before and the now. And sure, most of what you had learned happened after the world had ended, but that was irrelevant. The most important things had always been there. You’d known how to love for your entire life.

His eyes wandered over to the old upright piano situated on the wall in the living room. “Is she any good on that thing?” He asked.

You thought about Ellie, who would curse everytime she slipped on a scale, who would argue fervently about how that squiggly shit on the sheet music could possibly mean anything, who learned faster than any of your other kids.

“She is. She’s impressive. She picked up Old McDonald Had a Farm like that.” You grinned, snapping your fingers for effect. 

He smiled thinly, his mind clearly somewhere else. “Explains why she won’t stop humming that shit. Thanks for that, by the way.”

“My pleasure, Joel.” You laughed. “You finished with that?” You gestured to his empty mug.

“Yeah. Hey, I’ll help you.”

You were elbow to elbow with each other at the sink, cleaning out the liquid and the scattered coffee grounds from the bottoms of your respective cups. Joel took yours and placed it on the drying rack, wiping his hands off with the towel you passed to him.

You leaned back against the island as he turned his back to the sink. He was so tall, so rugged, so handsome. His age only added to it. He had a softness around his eyes now, his features slightly obscured by the absence of much light.

“Should probably take off… Thank you. For the drink,” Joel began.

“Don’t thank me, I’d do it anytime. Tell Ellie that I hope she’s feeling better soon.”

He nodded, and he swallowed. He wasn’t making any moves to leave, save for his eyes on the door. They flicked back to you, watching you, scanning you up and down until he finally said, 

“You’re gonna kill me, sweetheart, lookin’ at me like that.”

You weren’t really sure of how it all happened, but in an instant your bodies were pressed together with your lower back digging into the dull edge of the island counter, Joel’s lips pressed to yours like he was seeking oxygen.

His free hand felt up your body, and your skin was on fire. A match thrown onto a pool of gasoline. Everything was electric. He kissed you like he’d learned it in another life, back when love was free, when forever was a tangible thing, when strings weren’t attached. You felt it all on your lips and tongue, in the bonfire that was being fanned in your abdomen.

When he stepped back, you pulled him in for more. The opposite reaction to the Earth pulling down on you is you pulling the Earth back up. You tangled your hands in his soft hair, and his dug into the fabric of your jeans on your hips.

You both came up for air after a while, having migrated to the entrance of the kitchen. He had you backed up against the beam of the open doorway, tucking both sides of your hair behind you ear to see your face.

"Shouldn't be doing this," he mumbled, nipping at the warm skin on your neck.

"Maybe not," you conceded. I didn't mean you couldn't want it– what he could give you. You'd all done wrong things. "You could still stay."

"Yeah," he responded, pressing his body against yours and sweeping a hand over to cradle your lower back. "Still could."

Maybe it wasn't a lie. Maybe that glassy, far off look wouldn't be permanent. It could be like this. You could have a reason.

And yeah, maybe Joel knew more than he let on. Some things never really left him.

-

[kaytheday]

Dallas Winston In New York Headcanon

I've been wanting to do some of these for a little while because I am fascinated with Dallas's life before the events of The Outsiders.

Story Headcanon's

Dallas had a bad home life. His mother was in and out of the house and when he turned ten she was gone for good.

Later he grew to understand that his mother was a prostitute. 

His father canonically hit him and ignored him. I think this messed young Dallas up, and definitely contributed to his ‘look out for number one’ attitude.

He was ten years old the first time he was in jail or juvie or whatever they called it in the 1960s. He was put in jail for a robbery with some other boys.

Being in juvie for the first time also changed him. The reformatory in the Bronx wasn’t a good institution. While he did his time, other boys and the workers there beat on him, boys often didn’t have enough to eat, and the conditions were filthy. He came out hardened and meaner with black eyes and a selfish attitude.

He would be in and out of juvie or reformatory for the rest of his time in New York.

He was twelve when he started middle school and in the same year he started doing favors for an official outfit. He mostly just ran errands or did other low level stuff. Though this didn’t mean that he didn’t see anything terrible. He definitely did.

Later when he got into the 13-14 year old age, they let him do more high level crime stuff. 

He saw many murders while living in the impoverished neighborhood that he did. A couple of the ones were similar to the way he died. (getting shot while shooting at the police) Whether or not he got the idea from those shootings or it was in his subconscious can be debated. 

When he became an official mob associate, he became very paranoid and careful. After getting beat up by mob members for a stupid mistake, he became worried that he would be wacked.

He was anxious and was always watching his back. He worried constantly about being followed.

He was always prepared for a quick getaway, though he never originally planned on leaving New York City.

He left New York when he was 15 because he did a job wrong and accidentally got someone killed. Due to his paranoia he got out of town quickly and went down to Dallas Texas. 

While in Dallas he meets Buck Merrill who offers him a room in return for some work at the bar. That's how he gets into Tulsa.  

General Headcanon's

Dallas was born and raised in the Bronx. (I just see him as a Bronxy boy)

He got his St. Christopher's necklace from some Roman Catholic guy who lived in his building. The guy gave him a jacket as a favor and the necklace was in the pocket. He slept on this guys couch more than once because of his dad.

He learned how to bartend by watching bartenders at the Snakehead bar. Which was a gang hang out for some guys Dallas was associating with. 

He quickly learned not to trust anybody. He gathered this through his interactions in his home life and gang stuff. Because of this, he didn't have very many close friends and was always disappearing when he thought people were mad at him.

There were some kids in his building that used to beat him up. They stopped when they heard he had gangster friends.

He watched many gangsters die, he threw up the first time but after that he became indifferent to it. 

When he left New York, he took none of his parents' possessions. There was nothing he wanted.

There was one night a few weeks before Dallas left for good that his father was beating him. In between hits Dallas managed to get a gun out of his pocket. His father stopped and left the house. Dallas still doesn’t know why he didn’t kill him. 

He cried after his mom left.

He stopped crying all together when those kids made fun of him and then beat him up so bad he could hardly walk for the next few days. The next time he cried was in the hospital when died.

Upon comparing the reformatory he spent time at in New York versus the reformatory in Tulsa, he would say that the one in Tulsa was significantly nicer.

[beuatifulbuttercup]

pjo/hoo characters who use a gun (bc it's cannon we know camp has them)

Drew Tanaka- This bitch refuses to learn to fight so Piper says fuck it and allows her to use a gun. She's surprisingly good at it.

Will Solace- He's from Texas, do I need to say more? He probably knew how to shoot a gun before he got to camp.

Malcolm Pace- IDK man the gays deserve guns

BONUS- the Hermes kids are not allowed guns. They're just not. Those dumbasses forget to turn on the safety on. Even though training is with fake rubber bullets it still resulted in someone losing and eye.

[sars-wulf]

From Dust to Dust AU explanation:

The story behind this AU is that Anne is a farm girl. She lives in the new state of Texas, and is your average honest farmer. But one day, when she’s away from home, the outlaw, Bog and his gang raid her farm under orders from mayor Andrias to squash any dissenters. Anne’s parents are vocal about Andrias’ acts of corruption and they’re a thorn in his side, so he has them killed. They hurt Hop Pop, and scared Sprig and Polly.

Anne actually meets them on her way back, and Bog says “you’d better go on home, Boonchuy.” He doesn’t kill her because he doesn’t see her as a threat.

She arrives to the burning farm, and is just in time to see her parents take their last breath. They die warning her not to do anything, as Andrias is untouchable. But Anne doesn’t listen.

She takes her father’s revolver, and her mother’s bloody yellow poncho, and leaves in the middle of the night to avenge them.

On her journey, she catches up with bog and his gang, but they defeat her before they shoot her in the chest. They leave her body for the coyotes to eat, but her trusty steed, Bessie, drags her to a light in the darkness. This light is the camp of one Tritonio. Tritonio patches Anne up, and teaches her how to shoot a gun, shoot on horseback, and over all just how to survive. They even rob a train together!

After Anne learns all she can from him, he leaves (not after stealing her cash). Anne wanders into a bar to find a job doing bounty hunting, and encounters Sasha “the blood heron” Waybright.

Sasha helps Anne retrieve her stolen horse, and they end up bonding over wanting to capture and kill Bog. Turns out that Bog was part of Grime’s gang, and he ran off after shooting Grime in the arm, leading it to get amputated. They’re both after revenge. They end up bonding even more and Sasha catches feelings first. She rides off into the night as she can’t fall in love, she’s a hardened outlaw. So she leaves Anne alone, heart broken.

ATP, Anne has made a name as Calamity Anne. She’s a bonafide outlaw now, and she’s getting closer and closer to Bog and his gang. One day, she walks into a bar and encounters the sheriff, Marcy.

Marcy was Anne’s childhood friend, and they had a sort of strange will they won’t they thing. Marcy has been looking for Anne all this time, and Anne is looking for clues on Bogs whereabouts. They talk for a bit, but Anne finds out that Marcy is supposed to bring her in. She panics but a confidant of Bog’s sees her and calls out her name and causes a bar fight.

Marcy is like “YOU’RE CALAMITY ANNE?!?”

And Anne is like “Did the shoot out clue you in or was it the guy calling my name out?”

Marcy tries to convince Anne to give up her outlaw ways, but Anne is hellbent on killing Bog, and then going after Andrias. Anne catches up with Bog and his gang, and she kills them, FINALLY. But Marcy was watching from a distance and she’s shaken by how cold blooded Anne has become. What happened to the warm farm girl she fell in love with?

Marcy is also gathering evidence and documents to expose Andrias’ corruption. She begs Anne to wait, but Anne can’t wait. She needs to see that man dead in the ground. They part ways, finding that they can’t be together, if Anne is an outlaw and Marcy is sheriff. Anne rides off into the sunset, her heart grows colder as she hears Marcy’s cries for her to come back.

Now, about sasharcy. When Marcy was just a deputy, she met Sasha. Sasha wanted to get some incriminating documents for her gang to use. So she used Marcy, and basically swindled her into falling in love with her. Unfortunately (fortunately), Sasha kinda felt something back. So she runs away with the documents, never to be seen again. Marcy had her heart broken that night, and it was one of the reasons she doesn’t trust Sasha after they all get together.

One day, deputy Yunan is sent to capture Anne. After an intense firefight, Anne is captured, and dragged to the town to be executed. Sasha hears about this, and decides to save her, as she’s done some soul searching and doesn’t want to give up on love anymore.

Marcy also hears about this, but by the time she makes it back, Anne has already disappeared and the town is in chaos. She displays the evidence to everyone and gets Andrias outcasted from the town. But after that, she runs after Anne and Sasha, hoping to catch up with them. She also discards her sheriff badge, tired of politics and the job she’s become disillusioned with.

Marcy catches up with the two outlaws, and joins them in trying to go after Andrias, who has now fell into his role as a crime lord. Anne learns to open her heart up again, and finally accepts the two women as her romantic partners, (only after a lot of sweet talking and I’m sorry’s). Ofc Sasharcy gets together after they have an argument and tussle on the ground, kissing. Hate kisses!

There will be more details later, but this is what I have for now!

Thanks for reading all of my rambling lol

[stagbeetleboy]

I literally can’t stop thinking about how bad Texas chainsaw massacre 2022 was.

The conflict was poc lead gentrification, where they were attempting to chase out the residents of a white town. And that the scary poc trying to steal an old lady’s house and remove her confederate flag causes her to die of a heart attack. (The white final girl feels real bad about this) (the final girl is the one where supposed to sympathize with)

The secondary conflict was the final girl that was traumatized by a school shooting learning to get over her anti gun stance and pick up a gun and defend herself.

[soleminisanction]

Since Jason has a lot of conservative talking points, like his war on drugs or punitive justice, I wanna see a fic that explores that in relation to Tim coming out. Let Jason respond negatively, let it drive a wedge between him and the rest of his family, and ultimately be the cause of Jason looking at his own beliefs critically. Let that be a huge part of his redemption arc. Meanwhile lmao Tim doesn't really care except Bruce and Dick are fussing and take him out to a baseball game.

I could see that being interesting with the right writer, though TBH if Jason was written to respond negatively, I feel like it would be less about "conservative talking points" for him, in a political sense, and more from a more nebulous social sort of toxic masculinity -- y'know, that thing straight people do where they learn you're same-sex attracted in some way and they start immediately assuming you're attracted to them specifically, that you're going to hit on them or oggle them in the changing room or whatever.

That feels a little more in line with Jason as a character in terms of potential flaws that could then get a negative response from the rest of the family and provoke a change of heart. The way he gets written reminds me a lot of the libertarians I've known in Texas and Alaska who don't care who you fuck but think it's their god-given right to rig their property with land mines and shoot anyone who looks at them funny.

Nah, the character who tends to get written with full conservative political talking points, on top of a canon personality with some pretty blatant heteronormative baises that mean she really should've responded more negatively than she was written to, is Steph. Little miss "I need to defend the suburbs from the invasion of inner-city Black thugs gangsters with guns" who rants about how much she hates Bill Clinton and thinks the guy who's very obviously trying to jump her like a poorly-trained dog in her Batgirl run is clearly dating the female friend he called a bitch in his first line of dialogue, right up until she sees him hug an unnamed male friend, at which point she (or at least her audience) apparently? decided he was gay??? despite the fact that he spends the rest of the series making sad puppy dog eyes anytime she shows another man affection.

That's not even getting into all the times she accused Tim of cheating on her at the drop of a hat...

(Yes, I'm still salty about the Tim Drake Pride Special bullying Tim into outing himself to Steph to soothe her delicate ego and let her play the ~perfectest most supportive widdle ally who ever lived~. I don't blame Fitzmartin for it at all but fuck that shit.)

[auroradragon]

Border Chase {Frontier Part 1} Alejandro x F!Reader

Summary: You're an American who's in the special forces. (c/n) in the fic is short for Code name. You were commanded to join colonel Vargas and his second in command Rodolfo Parra who are part of Los Vaqueros, along the border to capture Hassan Zyani.

Warnings: Violence, gun violence, near-death experience, death, cussing, etc.

Also... I've never learned Spanish, I really apologize for this especially if I were to get anything wrong grammar-wise, so for all my Spanish-speaking girlies, please ignore anything that may say or imply the reader doesn't know Spanish :)

Gif by icaxrus on Tumblr

You heard the yelps of coyotes as you walked along the border U.S. and Mexico wall looking at the dirt, dried brush, and cacti beyond the tall rusted fence. You were unsure of the area around you don't know much about the territory surrounding the border of Mexico. Although ever since you’ve been put on missions all over the country and out, you’ve learned to gain familiarity and adaptation to new and foreign places.

Laswell called you late that night since knowing you were down south of Texas lately at an army base. You were a highly trained and skilled soldier, you had earned your ranks because of your intelligence and combat skills, so when Laswell called you that night, she knew it wasn’t making a mistake. The two of you had met each other in person a few times and gained her friendship fairly quick. The feelings you had towards her when it came to trust was mutual.

You were provided with information about two men you’d be meeting up with. Alejandro Vargas and Rodolfo Parra. Why you were being put with two of the best soldiers in the Mexican Special Forces? You had no idea. But you didn’t push the question onto Laswell as you truly believed she knew what was best for you and everyone else involved in the situation.

You wore your American flag on your thick black bullet-proof vest. You had hooked your gun holders to your hip and loaded up on ammo. You were in El Paso Texas, a place you were barely familiar with, and on the search for a terrorist named Hassan Zyani, who was trying to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexican border. You knew nothing about him so far, the only thing you did know is that he’s a threat to this country, and is believed to be targeting major cities in the U.S., you weren’t told how, but you found it better not to pry.

You trail along the border listening and watching closely for any sign of smugglers. You stop in your tracks beyond a tinted light for cover before reaching for your mic that was strapped to your chest.

“This is (CN), where are these boys I’m supposed to meet?” You ask Laswell on the other line.

You wait a moment before she responds over the intercom.

“You can’t miss them if they cross over, I’ll put you on with them,” And then there was radio silence.

You heard a thump behind you from a distance. You quickly turn your whole body with your gun out. You face it toward the noise, the area was pitch black, and you didn’t see a single source of light. You started moving your feet towards the noise, still hiding from the yellow lights than hung along the wall to keep yourself invisible. Your steps were light and quiet as you made your way toward the caliginous terrain. You heard another loud pound against the solid dirt as though someone had just jumped.

“Stop right the-” You were about to flick on the light on your gun before you were cut off by the sound of intimidatingly close gunfire. The smell of gunpowder filled your nose. You dove behind a large rock as a shield unsure of where the fire was coming from,. The rust bars made the sound of bullets echo, making it impossible to tell where the source was coming from. You never heard a single bullet flick against the rock cover, so you weren't sure what the hell they were shooting at.

Then the fire ended almost as soon as it started. You heard static across your headset. While a few voices broke in.

“Despejado” You heard along with a few other lines you couldn’t translate since your Spanish sucked ass. You got up from where you sat, choosing to keep your light off to prevent jump scaring the two, you knew the men were Laswell's. You heard the sounds of hallow rusty iron as you see two men with their lights making their way down, as they haven’t yet seen you as you made your way towards them

“This is a friendly, please do not shoot me when you get down here,” you said over the intercom. You heard the thump of their boots hitting the floor. You walked up to them with your hands up so they wouldn’t shoot you, your gun wrapped with a strap around your shoulder.

“You let him get away?” The first man stomped towards you with anger expressed on his face. He wore tactical gear in army colors. Classic beige and army green. His brows were furrowed, had black hair, a thin beard, and intense dark eyes seething with anger and frustration. Your brows mirrored his, except with utter confusion. You didn’t see anyone pass through after the gunfire, hell you knew nothing about the area you were in. 

“What- I didn’t see-” You started but the other man finished before you could

“Alejandro, we have to go” The other was getting irritated, but nowhere near as Alejandro

“Maldito gringas” He muttered before turning his back to you.

You rolled your eyes understanding what he just said.

The whole group of now three had turned in the direction where an intense crash was heard. You lifted your AR to your chest, both hands grasping it as you made your way with the boys who had already left before you to a citizen’s gate. They continued talking to each other in Spanish, probably expecting you to understand (you in fact did not)

“I’m sorry I don’t know very much Spanish, is there something you wanted me to do?” You genuinely asked.

“Why were you sent here if you can’t even understand what the hell we are talking about?” Alejandro asked in his deeper voice and thick accent.

“Like I said, I’m sorry, but I’m not going to be able to get anything done if Ya'll won’t help me understand” You huffed in more of a mumble to keep your voice quiet. You felt awkward in this position, your first impression with them was awful and now you felt like you were making demands from someone you just met.

“We are moving into town, we have to be careful about the Cartel, there will be more of them than us… That’s what he said'' The man translates with a much softer tone than Alejandro's

“Thank you…” You smiled through your words, hoping he’d get the idea that you never intended the venom in your previous words

“Rodolfo” He states his name

“(c/n)” You chose to say your code name, a habit that came out of preserving your identity.

You waved your lights around the ground listening to the boys’ footsteps and the sound of a dog barking in the neighborhood you were approaching.

“HEY! GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY YARD” You heard a man call from his home.

“Won’t you guys get in trouble for this?” You ask as Alejandro, who’s crossed into the U.S., unsure if police around the area know what’s going on, and that it's a bigger deal than what they usually see.

You are well aware of how hateful some people in the state of Texas are, and if they had any reason to shoot a motherfucker, they would.

“Yes” Rodolfo answers, with 0 hesitation

"Lovely" You sarcastically muttered followed by a sigh

Your group gets through the gate into the backyard of someone’s trailer home.

“Someone’s out there” You heard a woman state from her home as you flickered your light towards her as she stood in front of the window

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!” The man storms out of his home, his door slammed against the side of his trailer.

“We are special forces. Stay inside” They quickly stumble back into their home with their hands up as Rodolfo points his gun toward them. 

You ran across the street and made your way inside someone’s home through the garage, you couldn’t help but know you were completely violating someone and their property, but you still continued compelling to orders that Alejandro gave. You kept silent until you made your way through the home where the Terrorist, Hassan, had already flown through. The couple living there were scared shitless but again, you didn’t stop and continued through their gate and down an alleyway behind Alejandro and in front of Rodolfo.

The roar of an engine echoed through the alleyway. And like deer in headlights, you stood finding your nearest place to hide before Alejandro gripped your layered forearm and pulled you down next to him. You crouched behind a white vehicle clinging close to the man to prevent yourself from getting shot. You glanced up at him to see he was looking at you through the corner of his eye. You shuffled closer to his side to be able to peek out of the corner of the vehicle letting your gun go ablaze with Rodolfo following right after. It was hard to see. Dust flew into your vision, stinging your eyes, and the truck's headlights didn't help. When you heard no more gunfire, you knew it was safe to move.

With sirens blasting around the community, you made your way into another home and were told where Hassan was located. When the three of you ran into the street you were stopped by a roadblock of red and blue lights. They demanded you put you conceal your weapons as you walked forward with the boys. You place your gun on the street as you make your way to the police with your hands up in surrender.

“I'm Colonel Alejandro Vargas, special forces! We’re after a known terrorist!” He defends himself. Yet a cop had wrapped his arms behind his back ready to handcuff him.

A cop with a cowboy hat stops one of the cops from cuffing him, saying we were called by Laswell

“Heh, hard to tell you boys apart from the Cartel,” He says leaving you and Rodolfo stealing a ‘what the fuck’ glance from each other. As the cop begins to let go of Alejandro and asks where the suspect is then you see it. A pin of a military weapon races towards you from the second floor of the house behind the cop cars. By the time you had reacted, it was too late.

Everything around you is on fire, the bodies of cops lying motionless and bloody. Your whole body ached on the ground. Your back felt like it was banging against your body. You knocked your head down against the concrete too. Everything around you trembled and moved 100 miles an hour. The muffled noises slowly become audible. You roll on your side, breathing heavily after getting the wind knocked out of you. You press your weight on your aching arms and stumble up while grabbing your gun off the road. You pressed your back against the now-destroyed police vehicle. Your heart pounded against your chest, and at the same rate as your back and head pounded.

“Rodolfo! Alejandro! Are you okay?” You yell needing the sound of their voices to reassure you. The flames were blinding you from any view of the guys. The Cartel’s guns shot through the police car you tucked behind. You groaned in pain before getting up to face your weapon towards the enemy and let out a few rounds.

You walk low around the flames in search of your group members. You stand tall as you get past the blistering heat to find an enemy above Alejandro. You kick the butt of your gun against the man before he slumped against the pavement. When Alejandro looked up at you to see your bleeding forehead and loss of breath. You offered a hand. He looked at your hand then back up at you. He grips his hand in yours and stands up a little slumped, possibly in the same amount of pain as you. He mumbles a thank you. Rodolfo ran to the building while you and Alejandro keep the firefight outside to cover him. 

Over a matter of minutes of a gunfight, you smelled a strong stench of smoke, nothing like the gunfire smoke from the bullets, no, it was different. Flares started emerging from the side windows of the house. Your eyes bolted open in fear for Rodolfo. Alejandro picked up on it mere milliseconds after you. You both looked at each other and knew what was flying through both of your minds. “Stay” He commands you. You stand up, watching Alejandro run inside the building. You heard the two continuously talk over the com in Spanish, again didn’t understand what they were saying but you at least knew they were still alive. You never took your eyes off the house waiting for them to emerge from the flames. After a while, they stopped talking over the coms and your body tensed in panic.

“Rodolfo, do you copy?” Your finger is still on the button of your mic, too scared to move it

“Alejandro?” Your voice cracks

You stood in front of the home to see Alejandro carrying a weak Rodolfo out of the front door. You immediately run to Rodolfo and help Alejandro pick up his other side to move him away from the house. An ambulance and more cop cars pulled up near the burnt cars. You carried Rodolfo toward the ambulance, they busted the door open and brought him inside. He forced himself to sit on the ground of the ambulance so they wouldn't place him any further.

“I’m fine-I’m fine” He coughed. His face was covered in smudges of smoke, and so was Alejandro's

You ran to a medic and got some water for him, you quickly gave him a bottle and watched as he chugged it down.

“... Are you sure you're alright?” You ask. He looks from his water up to you. He simply nods with a smile that only lasted a second.

“Still alive, aren’t I?” He asks. You give a bit of a skeptical glance before a medic came up to you.

You waved them off saying you were fine, but you were then given another water bottle to give to Alejandro. You look behind you to see him take a step back into an area that wasn’t being overrun by medics and cops. You were about to turn and walk to him before Rodolfo called for you.

"(c/n)" You look back at Rodolfo

"Don't take any... Rude things Alejandro says to heart" He looked up at you from where he still sat in the ambulance.

"It's nothing against you... He's just a complicated person" Rodolfo lets out a smile. You stick a hand out in front of him to shake.

"Thanks, Rodolfo" You smile as he shakes your hand as a farewell.

You turn around again and start to jog over to Alejandro but keep your distance as soon as you saw how strained his shoulders were. You slowly walk over closer to him and call out for him. He turns around aggressively before getting close to your face.

“If you captured Hassan as soon as he crossed the border, this never would have happened.” He spits, with an intense stare that is intense and menacing. You could feel your eyebrows dropping into a frown just for a second, but caught yourself looking at him with a glare, trying to give a confident lie, but really you already blamed yourself. You hadn’t given yourself time to think about the cops that were killed, who probably had families they expected to go home to that night, all because you weren’t quick enough to catch Hassan before he booked it to civilians. All because you didn't make a move as soon as you heard the first thump.

“I’m sorry” You squeak at this point. Every bit of assertiveness you had in yourself was now gone. 

“'I’m sorry' isn’t going to fix what just happened” He glared and burnt his disappointment into your soul. Your fraud façade was over, and your face finally fell with shame.

You shoved the plastic bottle into his hand before looking back up at him. You turned away from him and walked back talking into your mic, calling for Laswell confirming your mission was unsuccessful and that Hassan got away.

(Word Count: 2740)

A.N I'm literally going to apologize for every story I make since I'm fairly new to posting fanfics. So if it's bad I'm really sorry :,) But if you made it this far, thank you so much for bearing with it, and Ily sm.

More Alejandro x Reader:

[mr-styles]

Harry Styles and Everytown Partnership Gets Young People Involved in Gun Violence Activism

“He’s using his platform to help save lives," one Everytown organizer says.

BY RACHEL JANFAZA for Teen Vogue | FEBRUARY 27, 2023

Mia Tretta was 15 years old when she was wounded in the Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita, California. On that day, a student opened fire on the campus quad, killing two students, one of whom was Tretta’s best friend, and wounding three others, including Tretta.

Just months after the shooting, Tretta, who is now 18, joined Everytown for Gun Safety’s Students Demand Action, a network with more than 500 groups of student activists across the country committed to ending gun violence.

As a survivor and activist, Tretta has advocated for gun safety, met with members of Congress to push for gun violence prevention methods, and introduced President Joe Biden at an event that celebrated federal action to help prevent the sale of ghost guns. She is also part of a group of Students Demand Action organizers who, over the past year, worked to engage other young Americans in the movement for gun safety via a partnership with Harry Styles’ Love on Tour.

Just days after last spring's tragic shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, Styles announced his plans to team up with Everytown for Gun Safety. At the time, Styles said he was “absolutely devastated by the recent string of mass shootings in America,” up to and including Uvalde. 

Beyond the partnership, Styles and Live Nation — the entertainment company that produced his Love on Tour — donated $1 million in proceeds from the tour to the Everytown Support Fund, the group’s education, research, and litigation arm.

In cities such as Los Angeles, Chicago, and Austin, gun safety advocates and gun violence survivors with Students Demand Action met Styles’ fans at 44 shows. Whether handing out Students Demand Action wristbands to fans in line or setting up Student Demand Action tables in the concourse and encouraging fans to text "LOVE" to 644-33 — a system that connects interested folks with Students Demand Action staff who help them get plugged into local work — the organizers worked to spread their message and reach Styles’ fans, most of whom are young people.

Beyond engaging young people, the Styles and Everytown partnership inspired corporate engagement too. According to Everytown, the Moody Center in Austin donated $100,000 to the organization and put custom T-shirts on every single seat in the stadium for concert attendees.

The Styles and Everytown partnership was recognized by the concert industry as a success, winning a Pollstar Award for brand partnership/live campaign of the year.  

Tretta, for her part, spread the word about Students Demand Action at a Love on Tour stop in Los Angeles in November. “People walking by were just so happy that we were there, happy that we were fighting for this cause, and really eager to sign up and learn more,” Tretta tells Teen Vogue.

She says fan reactions ranged from, “something as simple as, ‘Oh, my God! I'm so excited to use this hashtag, #endgunviolence, on my post later today with this backdrop,’ to ‘I'm going to sign up, I'm going to start a chapter in my school.’”

Tretta's been in touch with one group of fans from a nearby school, she adds, who want to start their own Students Demand Action chapter to help them with that process.

“It was great seeing how eager people were to kind of fight for what we believe in, what I've been fighting for for three years," she recalls. "And then, of course, we got to see the show, which was amazing.”

Tretta says she is grateful to Styles and his team for championing this issue and highlighting the role of young people in the fight for gun safety. And, she continues, the people she spoke with at the concert also appreciated Styles’ decision to get involved in the fight against gun violence. 

“Obviously, most of the people going to Harry Styles are around my age — not everyone, but a good majority. I think hearing from other people your age is much more powerful than hearing from someone older or just reading a tweet or seeing a post about the next shooting," says Tretta. "I think it’s so much more powerful to have someone standing there in front of you who is doing something about this problem and realizing that you could too.”

Chloe Gayer, a Students Demand Action volunteer and fellow with the Everytown Survivor Network, decked out her car with information and drove roughly six hours from Iowa to Chicago to attend a Love on Tour show — her first concert ever.

“I got the text that asked if I wanted to go to Harry Styles, and I think my entire dorm building could hear me scream at the top of my lungs that I was very happy about it,” recalls Gayer, a student at Drake University. Of the partnership, she says, “It was amazing to be able to have an artist that I love as well as something that I am so passionate about.”

As a student survivor fellow, Gayer, who tells Teen Vogue she experienced abuse in a relationship that “involved firearms as a means of control,” shares her experience of domestic violence to empower other young people affected by gun violence and show her peers they’re not alone. She says she started advocating for gun safety when she was in eighth grade, after the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. And she’s been involved with campus initiatives to prevent teen dating violence and advocated for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act, which was signed by Biden last year.

Says Gayer, “It’s really powerful” that Styles decided to partner with Everytown. “He obviously knows who his audience is. The majority of us are Generation Z, a generation that has grown up surrounded by gun violence. I am a survivor of gun violence, but I also take into account that pretty much everyone in my generation has been affected by gun violence. We all grew up surrounded by mass shootings. I was eight years old when Sandy Hook happened, and so many others as I was growing up."

Gayer continues, "It’s very powerful to know that an artist who has an audience like he does, who has the standing that he does — and he isn’t even from the United States — is taking the time to stand with us. Even though it’s a very controversial issue, he’s using his platform to help save lives.”

Justin Funez, a national advisory board member with Students Demand Action, tells Teen Vogue that he is originally from Honduras and grew up around gun violence there and in Compton, California. He tabled at two Love on Tour concerts in Chicago, where he attends the University of Chicago. Many of the young people he spoke with at the concerts, he says, shared their own experiences of gun violence.

Says Funez, “Because it was a young audience, using the fact that gun violence is the number one killer of kids and teens in America, a lot of young people actually related.”

Though Styles isn’t from America, Funez says, it’s powerful that the pop icon is engaging in work to prevent gun violence here in the US: “It’s important for him to engage with these issues because it’s his fan base that this issue affects.”

[1loser-going-2-hell]

Richard Ramirez

Born February 29, 1960, Died June 7, 2013 (Age 53)

Richard Ramirez was an American serial killer who was active during the mid 1980s, who was mainly known as the Night Stalker, but was also known as the Valley Intruder and the Walk-In Killer. Ramirez killed at least 14 people and committed 21 assaults, most of which took place during home invasions in the Los Angeles area, which caused a panic that caused gun sales to go up.

CHILDHOOD

Richard Ramirez was born in El Paso, Texas, on February 29, 1960 and was the youngest of 5 siblings. His parents, Mercedes and Julian Ramirez, were Mexican immigrants, and his siblings all had birth defects due to the fact that his mother worked in a boot factory that exposed her to harmful chemicals while pregnant with them. Richard's father, a former policeman in Mexico, was prone to having violent fits of anger that caused him to be physically abusive to his family. When Richard was 2, a dresser fell on his head, which caused a large laceration, a swing hit his head when he was 5, which caused him to have epileptic fits, and according to Biography.com he also suffered multiple other head injuries when he was young. He was also diagnosed with epilepsy after he had seizures in class.

When Richard was 12, he became close to his older cousin, Miguel, who also went by "Mike." He used to be in the military, and fought in the Vietnam War. Miguel told Richard about the torture he had inflicted onto multiple Vietnam women, and shared some polaroid photos with Richard that showed Miguel posing with the decapitated head of a woman. Mike also taught Richard things that Mike had learned in the military, like how to fight.

One quote from Richard Ramirez's biographer when he spoke to A&E network states: "When his cousin showed him those photographs, Ramirez became sexually aroused. And it was right around the age of 13." Also when Richard was 13, he witnessed his cousin, Miguel, shoot his wife, Jessie, fatally in the face with a revolver. Miguel was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was released after four years of incarceration at the Texas State Mental Hospital. After he was released, he and Ramirez continued contact with each other. When Richard was 15, he got a job at the Holiday Inn, and was given the master key to all the rooms. He would watch people in their rooms until they were sleeping, then broke into their rooms to steal their valuables. One night while Richard was doing this, he wanted to rape a woman. He hid in the closet of the woman while she was in the bathroom, then tried to rape her. Her husband caught him, and successfully fought him off. Ramirez was arrested, but the charges were dropped.

EARLY ADULTHOOD When Richard was 18, he moved to Los Angeles, California, where he was homeless and living on the streets. He also became an alcoholic and a cocaine addict. He befriended many friends that were similar to himself, and they all started living at the bus station. Richard spent the last of the little money he had on a master set of keys to Toyota and Honda cars, and every night he would steal a car and drive around Los Angeles to find a house to burglarize. One night, a woman asked Richard to buy her PCP, but later at her apartment she turned down Richard's advances, and then he raped her. Within two years of repeating this process every night, he began committing more severe crimes. He started raping women and robbing them when he was through. By the time he was 23, he had lost contact with his family.

VICTIMS Victim #1 - Mei Leung

Mei Leung's story has been embellished in multiple news articles for publicity and shock value, which is rather disgusting because she was only 9 years old when she was raped, stabbed, and strangled by Richard Ramirez. According to the most recent news stories of Mei's murder, Mei was walking back home from a friend's house with her younger brother, and while they were walking up the stairs in their apartment building, Mei dropped a dollar bill down the stairwell and into the basement. She went down to go get it but she never came back. Eventually, her brother came back to look for her but instead he found her hanging from a spigot.

A police officer on the case, who was interviewed on the New York Post stated:

“If you can picture Christ on the cross, that’s the way she looked. Her head was drooped and her chin down. It was a sad sight to see. She kind of got to me.”

The case was not tied to Richard Ramirez until 2009.

Victim #2 - Jennie Vincow (age 79)

Jennie's body was found by her son, Jack Vincow, in their shared apartment. Her body was found with a slashed throat and multiple stab wounds. She was killed on June 27, 1984.

Victim #3 - Dale Okazasi (age 34) Richard Ramirez murdered Dale Okazasi on March 17, 1985, by shooting her in her own home. During this attack, Ramirez also murdered Maria Hernandez, who was 20, but she survived.

Victim #4 - Tsai-Lian “Veronica” Yu (age 30)

On the same day (March 17, 1985) of the murder of Dale Okazasi, Ramirez dragged Veronica from her car and killed her.

Victim #5 - Vincent Zazzara (age 64)

Ramirez broke into Vincent's home and killed him while Vincent was asleep.

Victim #6 - Maxine Zazzara (age 44)

Maxine was killed during the same attack of her husband, Vincent Zazzara, on March 27, 1985.

Victim #7 - Willaim Doi (age 65)

Ramirez fatally shot William Doy when he broke into his house in Monterey Park on the 14th of May, 1985.

Victim #8 - Mable "Ma" Bell (age 84)

Mable Bell was killed after Ramirez attacked her at her home in Monrovia, California, on June 29, 1985.

Victim #9 - Mary Louise Cannon (age 77)

Mary was killed at her home in Arcadia, California, on July 2, 1985.

Victim #10 - Joyce Lucille Nelson (age 61)

Ramirez beat Joyce to death, and also burglarized her home in Monterey Park on July 7, 1985.

Victim #11 - Max Kneiding (age 68)

Max was killed by Ramirez, and was attacked with a machete as well as shot on July 20, 1985.

Victim #12 - Lela Kneiding (age 66)

Lela Kneiding, the wife of Max Kneiding, was also killed on the same day after Ramirez broke into the home the couple lived in, in Glendale, California. He also robbed their home.

Victim #13 - Chainarong Khovananth (age 32)

On July 20, Ramirez was shot and killed while he was sleeping in his some in Sun Valley.

Victim #14 - Elyas Abowath (age 31)

Elyas was shot and killed on August 8, 1985, in Diamond Bar, California. He was killed during the burglary of his family home.

It is now known that Richard's crime were all acted out in a similar way. He would steal a car, drive around Los Angeles for multiple hours at a time, then find a house that was dark. Then, he would park his car and look around for a way in the house. While Richard was doing this, the people within the house were always asleep. Richard would then look into all the bedroom windows and figure out who was home, and then he would shoot all the men in the house directly in the temple so that they were killed instantly. However, this action would cause a loud noise which woke up the women in the house. Once the women were awake, Richard would tie them up with whatever was available while he went to go get the children out of bed. Richard would torture and rape the women in front of the children before he killed the women, and then he would let them beg for their lives and then rob them.

RAMIREZ'S BELIEFS IN SATANISM

When Ramirez was around 18, he started reading books by Anton Lavey, the founder of the Church of Satan. Then, he stole a car to attend one of Lavey's Satanic ceremonies. After this, he called his mother to say he'd been 'touched by Satan.' He believed that his Satanic impulses were in line with what Satan would have wanted. Later on, he would also carve inverted pentagrams on his victims' palms and even yelled "Hail Satan" in the middle of court.

SOURCES Note: please let me know if I got anything wrong! And if I did get information wrong, I am sorry. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xghc6gxWvi0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAnyT4JsnKs

[westdallasgang]

Bonnie starts a heated argument with Buck and Blanche:

"One day, just before Clyde came back with Billie, I was sitting in the car in the garage listening to the radio when I heard Bonnie and Buck cursing each other. Then I heard Bonnie tell Buck to call me in, that she could whip me. I didn't know what it was all about, but I went in just the same. She jumped off the bed and began cursing me. I never found out why. All I ever learned was that she was just tired of us being with them. I had tried to be so good to her. There wasn't anything else I could do for her that I hadn't already done. I couldn't understand her angry outburst. She wanted to fight, but she was a sick woman. I would take anything she said before I would ever strike her.

I told her if she still felt the same way when she got well then we could fight it out, but not now. Then she said she would have Billie do her fighting for her if she should come back with Clyde and her mother. And she would tell Clyde to whip Buck, then they would leave us. Apparently Bonnie and Buck were talking about W.D. Buck still thought Clyde should have never gone after him. Then Buck started talking about a certain officer in Texas. Buck knew him as a tough guy, not afraid of anyone. Buck said he hoped Clyde would never run into that particular law officer, that it would be just too bad for Clyde and anyone with him. Bonnie got mad and said Clyde wouldn't be afraid of that officer, or of any officer.

Then she said she was glad W.D. was back again, that he had more nerve than Buck and me together. Then Buck got mad when she had said I was afraid to shoot coppers and that I was excess baggage and in the way. He told her that when she was well he would show her whether or not I was afraid of her. He said he would have her settle this and see to it that it was a fair fight. He would make sure there was no gun play. "Well, call her in here," Bonnie said. "And don't wait until I am well. I am well enough now." That's when I came in. W.D. came in about that time too. He got Bonnie back in bed. She told him what Buck had said and that she was going to tell Clyde how she had been treated while he was gone. She said she wouldn't have anyone but W.D. to protect her if the cops should come in. She said Clyde knew she would get no protection from us and that's why he left W.D., to take care of her.

Buck told her she knew better than that! He said if anything should happen she knew she would be the first one put in the car and that he would fight for her just the same as he would for a sister, because Clyde loved her. Then he said she should be ashamed of her outburst. Bonnie told us to get out and leave her with W.D., that he could take care of her until Clyde came back. When she jumped off the bed earlier, her burns started bleeding and hurting her again. She had to have more Amytal to put her to sleep." — Blanche Barrow, "My Life With Bonnie And Clyde"

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Rick McKee, Augusta Chronicle

* * * * *

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

April 5, 2023

Heather Cox Richardson

In yesterday’s election in Wisconsin, the two candidates represented very different futures for the country. One candidate for the state supreme court, Daniel Kelly, had helped politicians to gerrymander the state to give Republicans an iron lock on the state assembly and was backed by antiabortion Republicans. The other, Janet Protasiewicz, promised to stand behind fair voting maps and the protection of reproductive rights. Wisconsin voters elected Protasiewicz by an overwhelming eleven points in a state where elections are usually decided by a point or so. Kelly reacted with an angry, bitter speech. “I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent,” he said. “But I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede.” Yesterday’s vote in Wisconsin reinforces the polling numbers that show how overwhelmingly popular abortion rights and fair voting are, and it seems likely to throw the Republican push to suppress voting into hyperdrive before the 2024 election. Since the 1980s, Republicans have pushed the idea of “ballot integrity” or, later, “voter fraud” to justify voter suppression. That cry began in 1986, when Republican operatives, realizing that voters opposed Reagan’s tax cuts, launched a “ballot integrity” initiative that they privately noted “could keep the black vote down considerably.” That effort to restrict the vote is now a central part of Republican policy. Together with Documented, an investigative watchdog and journalism project, The Guardian today published the story of the attempt by three leading right-wing election denial groups to restrict voting rights in Republican-dominated states by continuing the lie that voting fraud is rampant. The Guardian’s story, by Ed Pilkington and Jamie Corey, explores a two-day February meeting in Washington organized by the right-wing Heritage Foundation and attended by officials from 13 states, including the chief election officials of Indiana, Florida, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia, and West Virginia. At the meeting, participants learned about auditing election results, litigation, and funding to challenge election results. Many of the attendees and speakers are associated with election denial. Since the 2020 election, Republican-dominated states have passed “election reform” measures that restrict the vote; those efforts are ongoing. On Thursday alone, the Texas Senate advanced a number of new restrictions. In the wake of high turnout among Generation Z Americans, who were born after 1996 and are more racially and ethnically diverse than their elders, care deeply about reproductive and LGBTQ rights, and want the government to do more to address society’s ills, Republican legislatures are singling out the youth vote to hamstring. That determination to silence younger Americans is playing out today in Tennessee, where a school shooting on March 28 in Nashville killed six people, including three 9-year-olds. The shooting has prompted protesters to demand that the legislature honor the will of the people by addressing gun safety, but instead, Republicans in the legislature have moved to expel three Democratic lawmakers who approached the podium without being recognized to speak—a breach of House rules—and led protesters in chants calling for gun reform. As Republicans decried the breach by Representatives Gloria Johnson, Justin Jones, and Justin Pearson, protestors in the galleries called out, “Fascists!” Republican efforts to gain control did not end there. On Twitter today, Johnson noted that she had “just had a visit from the head of HR and the House ethics lawyer,” who told her “that if I am expelled, I will lose my health benefits,” but the ethics lawyer went on to explain “that in one case, a member who was potentially up for expulsion decided to resign because if you resign, you maintain your health benefits.” The echoes of Reconstruction in that conversation are deafening. In that era, when the positions of the parties were reversed, southern Democrats used similar “persuasion” to chase Republican legislators out of office. When that didn’t work, of course, they also threatened the physical safety of those who stood in the way of their absolute control of politics. On Saturday night, someone fired shots into the home of the man who founded and runs the Tennessee Holler, a progressive news site. Justin Kanew was covering the gun safety struggle in Tennessee. He wrote: “This violence has no place in a civilized society and we are thankful no one was physically hurt. The authorities have not completed their investigation and right now we do not know for sure the reason for this attack. We urge the Williamson County Sheriff’s office to continue to investigate this crime and help shed light on Saturday’s unfortunate events and bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice. In the meantime, our family remains focused on keeping our children healthy and safe.” The anger coming from losing candidate Kelly last night, and his warning that “this does not end well….[a]nd I wish Wisconsin the best of luck because I think it's going to need it,” sure sounded like those lawmakers in the Reconstruction years who were convinced that only people like them should govern. The goal of voter suppression, control of statehouses, and violence—then and now—is minority rule. Today’s Republican Party has fallen under the sway of MAGA Republicans who advocate Christian nationalism despite its general unpopularity; on April 3, Hungarian president Viktor Orbán, who has destroyed true democracy in favor of “Christian democracy” in his own country, cheered Trump on and told him to “keep on fighting.” Like Orbán, today's Republicans reject the principles that underpin democracy, including the ideas of equality before the law and separation of church and state, and instead want to impose Christian rule on the American majority. Their conviction that American “tradition” focuses on patriarchy rather than equality is a dramatic rewriting of our history, and it has led to recent attacks on LGBTQ Americans. In Kansas today, the legislature overrode Democratic governor Laura Kelly’s veto of a bill banning transgender athletes who were assigned male at birth from participating in women’s sports. Kansas is the twentieth state to enact such a policy, and when it goes into effect, it will affect just one youth in the state. Yesterday, Idaho governor Brad Little signed a law banning gender-affirming care for people under 18, and today Indiana governor Eric Holcomb did the same. Meanwhile, Republican-dominated states are so determined to ignore the majority they are also trying to make it harder for voters to challenge state laws through ballot initiatives. Alice MIranda Ollstein and Megan Messerly of Politico recently wrote about how, after voters in a number of states overrode abortion bans through ballot initiatives, legislatures in Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Missouri, North Dakota, Ohio, and Oklahoma are now debating ways to make it harder for voters to get measures on the ballot, sometimes even specifying that abortion-related measures are not eligible for ballot challenges. And yet, in the face of the open attempt of a minority to seize control, replacing our democracy with Christian nationalism, the majority is reasserting its power. In Michigan, after an independent redistricting commission redrew maps to end the same sort of gerrymandering that is currently in place in Wisconsin and Tennessee, Democrats in 2022 won a slim majority to control the state government. And today, Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer signed into law a bill revoking a 1931 law that criminalized abortion without exception for rape or incest.

—

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[crackdaddycaine]

About the Leftöver Crack song “Shooticide” & its inspiration by Stza Crack

When I was 12, my step-father killed himself & the news was broken to me by an NYPD officer that was just inside of the apartment door when I got home from school. I was shocked, saddened & surprised. It felt like an ambush & they had no business being in our home. It was not a crime scene & was it the officers place to tell me this news when my mom was already there?

Growing up a block from Bellevue hospital, I saw police corruption, brutality & the victims of their violence up close all of the time & although I was “taught” that the police were there only to help us, as I grew, I soon learned to only loathe & fear them.

In 2014, with the public's access to video camera's on their smart-phones & with the advent & simplification of social media posting, holding police accountable for murdering people seemed to almost become a reality when news coverage momentarily shifted from the police departments “official” stories to the documented stories of civilian eye-witnesses. The evident & widespread abuse of police power & their flagrant lack of respect for human life started to trend until it was part of mainstream media & and unavoidable national conversation.

Then, all of a sudden, the "fad" waned, the media moved on to something else & nothing changed at all. Mandatory body cameras were either not worn or routinely shut off &/or "broken" at critical moments during confrontations with often unarmed black individuals many of whom were not even suspects in any crime.

With the botched “no-knock” raid that left Breonna Taylor murdered that March in Kentucky to the surfacing of footage of Sandra Bland’s arrest in Texas years earlier that led most people to the conclusion that she was murdered by the same police that had her detained illegally in a jail cell, by the time that George Floyd was murdered in Minneapolis, the people witnessing his mistreatment knew what to do & their film proved what most of us already knew, that the police were cruel & sadistic, but, as filming police violations became the norm & police started going on public trials for murder, the disturbing trend became more & more evident: the police were not only poorly trained & often racially motivated, but, time & time again, they explained that they were "scared". Now, this could seem like a "strategy" to get a police officer out of a murder charge, but, in the wake of the Uvalde school shooting & in light of the evacuations of their own precincts during national anti-police protests in major cities like Minneapolis & Seattle, even leaving behind guns, ammo & prisoners without food or water, a veritable checklist of state-irresponsibility, it became painfully obvious that police were very rarely "heroic" & almost always cowards.

Shooticide is about how the police in America have undermined their own authority by "outing" themselves as terrified of just about everything & that the farce of the slogan "to protect & serve" only applies to themselves & that 9 times out of 10, when they have their guns drawn, they are all pissing themselves in panic & afraid of their own shadows. Emptying their clips & their bladders simultaneously.

That's why "Defunding" the police is such an ill conceived idea (besides the fact that one vowel changed turns that slogan into “Defend the Police”, coincidence? Nobody’s that stupid, not even the cops), when these officers are so badly trained, less money means even less training. We believe that fundamentally, in its wide-spread corruption & systemic racism, policing needs to be abolished & people need to figure out a way to elect folks from their own communities to actually keep "the peace" instead of sowing chaos & fear through corruption & violence. The war on drugs needs to be suspended & condemned. And the judicial system needs to be reimagined & not as the even less equitable, zero tolerance of the cancel culture that is an essentially fascist style of moral policing that relies entirely on one person’s own testimony while ignoring any & all forensic evidence & the testimony of the only other witness present. Corruption & injustice collide with social media & the back lash of moral outrage & misinformation that used to set the dissenting & bigoted right apart from logical thinkers, but is now reserved for leftist activists in a political ruse to destroy us & our goals.

These are the themes in the song lyrics of “Shooticide”.

[ausetkmt]

On Feb. 15, 2023, a judge informed Payton Gendron – a white 19-year-old who killed 10 Black people at a Buffalo Tops market in 2022 – that “You will never see the light of day as a free man ever again.”

The week before, Patrick Crusius – a white 24-year-old who gunned down 23 people at an El Paso Walmart in 2019 – received 90 consecutive life sentences.

The threat of domestic terrorism remains high in the United States – especially the danger posed by white power extremists, many of whom believe white people are being “replaced” by people of color.

I am a scholar of political violence and extremism and wrote about these beliefs in a 2021 book, “It Can Happen Here: White Power and the Rising Threat of Genocide in the US.” I think it’s important to understand the lessons that can be learned from events like the Buffalo and El Paso mass shootings.

After decades of research on numerous attacks that have left scores dead, we have learned that extremists are almost always part of a pack, not lone wolves. But the myth of the lone wolf shooter remains tenacious, reappearing in media coverage after almost every mass shooting or act of far-right extremist violence. Because this myth misdirects people from the actual causes of extremist violence, it impedes society’s ability to prevent attacks. Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron was sentenced to life in prison in February 2023. Scott Olson/Getty Images

The lone wolf extremist myth is dangerous

FBI Director Christopher Wray said in August 2022 that the nation’s top threat comes from far-right extremist “lone actors” – who, he explained, work alone, instead of “as part of a large group.”

Wray is wrong, and the myth of the lone wolf extremist – the mistaken idea that violent extremists largely act alone – continues to directly inform research, law enforcement and the popular imagination.

I think that Wray’s focus on extremism is much needed and long overdue. However, his line of thinking is dangerous and misleading. By focusing on individuals or small groups, it overlooks broader networks and long-term dangers and so can impede efforts to combat far-right extremist violence – which Wray has singled out as the country’s most lethal domestic threat.

Not a new trend

Far-right extremists may physically carry out an attack alone or as part of a small group of people, but they are almost always networked and identify with larger groups and causes.

This was true long before the social media age. Take Timothy McVeigh. He is often depicted as the archetypal lone wolf madman who blew up the Oklahoma City Federal Building in 1995.

In fact, McVeigh was part of a pack. He had accomplices and was connected across the far-right extremist landscape.

The same is true of Gendron and Crusius, who were also characterized in media coverage as lone wolves.

“He talked about how he didn’t like school because he didn’t have friends. He would say he was lonely,” a classmate of Gendron said shortly after Gendron carried out the mass shooting.

Both were active on far-right extremist social media platforms and posted manifestos before their attacks. Gendron’s manifesto discusses how he was radicalized on the dark web and inspired to attack after watching videos of Brenton Tarrant’s 2019 massacre of 51 people at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Almost a quarter of Gendron’s manifesto is directly taken from Tarrant’s, which was titled “The Great Replacement.” This fear of white replacement, centered around perceived white demographic decline, was also a motive for Crusius. His manifesto pays homage to Tarrant, before explaining his attack was “a response to the Hispanic invasion of Texas.”

The lone wolf myth also suggests that extremists are abnormal deviants with anti-social personalities.

After Gendron’s rampage, for example, New York Attorney General Letitia James called him a “sick, demented individual.” Crusius, in turn, was described by the White House and news articles as “evil,” “psychotic” and an “anti-social loner.”

The vast majority of far-right extremists are, in fact, otherwise ordinary men and women. They live in rural areas, suburbs and cities. They are students and working professionals. And they believe their extremist cause is justified. This point was illustrated by the spectrum of participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection. People hug at a memorial outside the Walmart in El Paso, Texas, where a shooter killed 23 people in 2019. Mark Ralston/AFP via Getty Images

Tracing the lone wolf mythology

How did the lone-wolf metaphor come to misinform the public’s view of extremists, and why is it so tenacious?

Part of the answer is linked to white supremacist Louis Beam, who wrote the essay “Leaderless Resistance” in 1983. In it, he called for far-right extremists to act individually or in small groups that couldn’t be traced up a chain of command. According to his lawyer, McVeigh was one of those influenced by Beam’s call.

After Beam formulated this idea, both far-right extremists and law enforcement increasingly used the lone wolf term. In 1998, the FBI even mounted an “Operation Lone Wolf” to investigate a West Coast white supremacist cell.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks further turned U.S. attention to Islamic militant “lone wolves.” A decade later, the term became mainstream.

And so it was not a surprise when, after the Buffalo shooting, New York State Senator James Sanders said, “Although this is probably a lone-wolf incident, this is not the first mass shooting we have seen, and sadly it will not be the last.”

The tenacity of the lone wolf myth has several sources. It’s convenient – evocative and powerful enough to draw and keep people’s attention.

By using this term, which individualizes extremism, law enforcement officials may also depoliticize their work. Instead of focusing on movements like white nationalism that have sympathizers in the various levels of government, from sheriffs to senators, they focus on individuals.

The lone wolf extremist myth diverts from what should be the focus of deterrence efforts: understanding how far-right extremists network, organize and, as the Jan. 6 insurrection showed, build coalitions across diverse groups, especially through the use of social media.

Such understanding provides a basis for developing long-term strategies to prevent extremists like Gendron and Crusius from carrying out more violent attacks.

[thatawkwardmoth]

Part 3 of The Last Of Us headcanons (normal au)

Ellie is not allowed over at the neighbors. She can't act nice and sweet like Sarah barely can. Joel learned this the hard way.

Both girls have a quota they want to fulfill of how many times they make Joel laugh or smile. Has to be at least five times.

Joel is that dad that buys shit in bulk if one of his girls even slightly mentioned that they like it. Ellie used to only drink Cherry Kool-aid Jammers, all summer, it was all he could get her to drink. He still has five boxes in the Garage. Sarah religiously only ate Cinnamon Bagels and he still buys them for breakfast even after five years.

Ellie and Sarah evenly split shotgun. They do not share with Tommy though.

When Ellie came out to Sarah and Joel, both of them were shocked by how hostile she sounded with tears in her eyes and shaking like a leaf.

Joel makes every Christmas the best. He's not big on spending a little at any time of the year but he's definitely saving up more through the holiday months.

Ellie's favorite holiday is Halloween and Sarah's is Christmas. This is their excuse to put Joel through the Nightmare Before Christmas twice in a year.

Ellie will sing the best version of Jack's lament and Sarah will hit every note in Sally's song perfectly.

Ellie likes old Westerns but her favorite genre is horror.

Sarah's favorite is romance or historical dramas.

Sarah was never an IPad kid, she was constantly outside with Joel and Tommy, raised in the Texas sun.

Ellie, on the other hand, grew up in a cramped Boston apartment and sat in front of a TV for hours on end to distract herself from the hunger pains and the loneliness creeping into her bones. Nothing changed when they moved either. Mom was still gone all the time, sick when she was home. All that changed was the small apartment was in Texas, closer to some hospital.

Ellie has to have some electronic in her hand at all times if the car ride goes past three hours. She can't nap every ride away.

Joel bought Ellie her first pride flag and when someone in the Neighborhood said something about it, he placed one right next to the American flag in his yard.

Ellie simps over every cheerleader and it's Sarah's greatest pleasure to take photo and video and blackmail her.

Sarah played soccer for a rec team up until her first year of High School. She got tired of everyone, except her family, making it all about her future and less about the fun she had playing.

She now only plays when it's family dinner and Kevin and Tommy are up against her and Joel. Maria is sitting off to the side with the baby and Ellie is being the worst Ref.

When Ellie gets sick, like really sick, she only wants to watch Strawberry Shortcake and she'll call out for her mom all night long. Sarah curls up with her and Joel lays a sleeping bag out in the hallway just in case one of them needs him.

Sarah was a wandering kid. Not enough to be leashed, just enough to give Joel eyes in the back of his head and heart attacks on the daily.

Ellie has the biggest issue with some of the guys Joel works with. When she's helping on site, they'll make little remarks about little girls and not being fit for the job. Joel just waits for Ellie to snap and then he'll handle the aftermath.

Sarah and Ellie are both Taylor Swift stans. Sarah is Lover-Speak Now-Debut, Ellie is Evermore-Reputation-1989.

Sarah owned a pair of glittery pink cowgirl boots when she was a toddler and Joel cringes at every photo of her with them. They were horrible to put on and they broke ten days after she got them but she loved them so much, Joel bought her another pair.

Ellie has a nerf gun she keeps next to her bed to shoot anyone who doesn't abide by the rule list in the kitchen. Number 4: Ellie's room is off limits unless invited in (barring the exceptions listed at the bottom)

Joel made the rule list purely for Tommy and Maria, they're nice and they're family but sometimes they treat Ellie like she's feral and Sarah like she's an infant, stepping over every boundary.

Ellie has stabbed Joel before. There was only one time they don't regret. Man never should've snuck up on her while hunting and she stands by that.

Ellie loves basketball more than anything. It's her last piece of Riley.

Joel suffers no embarrassment buying things like pads and tampons. Even if he has to buy two different types, he'll never complain.

Sarah is a big Harry Potter stan. Can't stand the author but loved the books and movies and plays to the death.

Ellie, on the other hand, pure Percy Jackson. Constantly taking tests on who her godly parent would be and what type of quest she'd get.

When Ellie told Joel she was fine with any pronouns, Joel straight up at the next dinner was like "Ellie wants you to pass the potatoes Tommy. Listen to him or they can stab you."

Right off the bat, no qualms against it. Made Ellie cry into Sarah's bedsheets that night.

Everyone always acts like Sarah and Ellie are polar opposites, that they couldn't be more different. Joel prides himself on being the one who knows that's false.

Joel has a trophy case the living room, full of Sarah's soccer trophies, Ellie's basketball ones, every certificate and award ever given to them on display.

Proud dad #1.

Sarah and Ellie know that mother's day is a sore subject for them both so they both tease Joel and get him "Best mom ever" shit and watches him cringe and pretend to hate them. But at night time, when they're all curled up on the couch, he hears the soft confession from both about how he's doing great. They don't need mom, he's got this covered.

Father's day is always a giant spectacle with them.

Joel doesn't shame any parents, he can't because he had Sarah young as hell. But when he walks into a doctor's office and sees parents there that don't know anything about their kids, it makes him sick.

He can tell the people at said doctors office everything about his girls medical background without even hesitating. He knows their birthdays and middle names and everything.

Ellie is the main one he takes to the doctor. She hates it though so he always make sure to pack a "Diaper Bag" for her. Blanket from her mom that she loves, headphones, giraffe plush, etc. Even if she thinks it's to childish, he can see the fear in her eyes when they enter. The smell brings her right back to where she lost her mom.

Sarah wants to be a nurse when she grows up. Tommy and Joel are supportive but wondering how bedside manner is going to work with that sassy little shit.

Both girls will take as many pot shots as they want at Joel's age.

Sarah and Ellie love leaving flowers in Joel's hair.

A lot happened to Ellie the first few years of her life and it still haunts her. Joel holds nothing against her and will accept the feral look in their eyes and the new bruises he gets when she gets a flashback. As long as she's still fighting.

Ellie's tiktok is full of random jokes and skits. Teaching ASL to people alongside Sam. Some of them are about what she went through and he gives no fucks about what anyone thinks. Joel said it was OK, and that's the only opinion that matters to her.

Sarah's tiktok is all dances and photo trends. Her and Ellie love pulling prank videos on Kevin and Joel and Tess.

Tess once had a pregnancy scare and Joel was excited to be a dad again. When it was revealed she wasn't pregnant, just stress making her miss her period, they both sat down and talked it out.

Tess told Ellie a few months after that, while hiking with her and Sarah, that had the baby been a boy, she would've fought Joel hard as shit to name it Texas. Ellie loved the name and the meaning behind it and is now rooting for another sibling even harder.

Sarah's favorite inside joke with Ellie is to call her by any name that can be shortened down to Ellie when she's being called by Joel or Sarah.

Example: Eleanor, Elodie, Eloise.

Sarah will dip anything into ranch. Anything. Ellie will dip anything into hot sauce or Buffalo sauce.

Both need those at every dinner. Joel just needs ketchup and mustard.

Joel was introduced to Hozier through Ellie and will listen to it constantly because it makes him think of his girls and everything they've been through.

Bill and Frank are really the only people they ever go on roadtrips to see.

Sarah loves makeup, she loves doing cool looks and drawing little stars and butterflies. She just enjoys playing around and creating cute looks.

Ellie likes a little makeup, she'll even let Sarah do it for her when they're bored on the weekends.

Ellie was a play structure kid. She'd climb any and all things on the playground, hang upside down from the monkey bars and force Joel to spin her on the merry-go-round till she was sick.

Sarah was a swings kid. She'd just chill there and sometimes go to the merry-go-round with Ellie.

Joel still carries around what is essentially a diaper bag for both of his girls. He's ready for anything.

One vegetable that will never enter the house is peas. Everyone hates them.

Ellie will eat raw carrots but no cooked ones. Joel is still confused by it.