#network TV has always had this pattern

[lemotmo]

As a standalone episode I think it was good. One of the best we've had in a while. What I think is throwing some people off is just where it landed in the season. After last week, I can get why there's frustration at the lack of any movement in some arcs. It does feel very much one step forward, two steps back by interrupting the flow of some of those arcs and not addressing them at all. I get it. It can feel like emotional whiplash. Investing and then expecting viewers to pause that for a silly fun filler can throw people out the plot.

But isn't this a classic 911 thing to do though? We as a fandom, have been complaining about this problem for as long as I remember.

911 has one or two character driven episodes that give us some insight into the character's minds. And then the next episode when we all expect something to happen? Nothing.

I'm used to that rhythm by now. So I kinda knew, going into this episode that it wouldn't give us anything big. It's just the nature of 911 and... most network shows to be honest.

I grew up on network shows, before the streaming era. I remember watching 'NYPD Blue', 'ER', 'The Practice', 'Law & Order', 'Ally McBeal', 'JAG', 'Third Watch', 'The X-files', 'Stargate Atlantis', 'The West Wing', 'Without a Trace', 'Star Trek - Voyager', Star Trek - DS9', 'Castle', 'Bones' and so many other shows, and being frustrated sometimes with the fact that we got filler episodes after a really emotionally intense story arc. It's ensemble shows on network TV. That's the way it works.

Yes, we all want to see these character's personal storylines progress, but we can't see all of them progress at the same time.

Does it feel like an emotional whiplash sometimes? Especially because we love certain characters so much and we finally want to see some progress in their storyline? Well yeah, it does. But that's how it's always been.

And to be fair, we did get to see major character growth in this episode. We got to see a new facet of Athena. She is starting to realise that she's getting a little older, no longer able to do it all by herself and she wants to pass on all of her knowledge to a rookie. That's major progress for her and I'm willing to bet the Athena fans had a blast watching this episode. As they should. Next week it'll be time for someone else to have some character growth. Again, that's the way this works.

So, I'm here, I'm sat and willing to wait it out. And in the mean time? I'm just enjoying my show. You know? 🤷‍♀️

Anyway, this is just my two cents you guys. Feel free to disagree with me and ignore this. You know I don't mind. It's all good. This is just the way I see it.

[monst]

Where are those Bruce Wayne hcs 🤨

Oops my b forgot to post them lmao

Bruce Wayne General Hc’s

  Kinda random, Kinda angsty, 

700 wds

I don’t know where I cooked this up but a big Indiana Jones fan. And sue him he loves “Raiders of the Lost Ark”. He also enjoys rewatching “The Mummy”, “Alien”, “Jumanji”  and “Jurassic Park”. Adventure movies are his favorite. Science fiction movies are also right up his alley. 

His most prized possession is his parent's old vinyl records. He remembers learning how to dance atop Alfred’s feet as his parents danced next to them, they’d swap partners after each song. His mother's laughter as one of her favorites played “Tom this is the song we met too!” Thomas telling Bruce all about how “you should sweep your partner off your feet. After all, it worked for me~” After their passing, Alfred had made an offhanded comment “They were the worst dancers on the floor that night. But they were so happy.”  He hadn’t had the heart to play them or part with them. Also, no one play “Angel of the Morning” Near him too many memories of his mom belting the lyrics in the morning. 

Baths. Bruce Wayne is a bath whore and few people know this. Background music, incense, bubbles, candles, wine, body scrubs, and some Epsom salt for his sore muscles. He rarely gets the chance to take them since he’s usually busy but he’s always looking at his calendar to see if he can squeeze one in. Lotions up after, and ends up sleeping like a rock. Those who don’t know this about him think that the bath bombs he gets gifted him are gag gifts. 

Obligatory sock mention. Very plain sock wearer they’re either navy, white, or black. They also end up bunched up at the legs of the bed. The pets in the manor love it when his door is open because the socks accumulate and the pile gets divvied up between the two dogs and cat. He’s not very happy when he has to buy new ones either because he can’t find them or because he can’t use them. 

That being said he carries a lint roller. At all times. Has to use it frequently and since Damian doesn’t care about having his shirt look patterned he ends up going through two rollers per week. Three, if the Waynes™ need to show up. 

He has a sweet tooth. It’s not that he hides it, it’s more of a ‘They ate all the cookies’ so he can’t have any. It’s fine since they’re usually the typical sugar or chocolate chip cookies good but not his favorite. His favorite cookies are Oreshki’s and he doesn’t play about them. No one knows he likes them because this man will never share them. 

It’s not that he can’t cook. It’s more that he’s very utilitarian about it. He’s more worried about hitting his macros than he is about whether the chicken even has salt. Doesn’t have to be edible just has to fuel him. It’s not something he favors which is why he doesn’t usually cook but if not grabbing the species saves him time well your eating the most tasteless of foods. It’s not that he can’t make it taste good it’s that he doesn’t bother. Besides he can barely taste it if his attention is wrapped up in another case so no big right? 

Suffers from Google translateitis. Especially in high-stress/traumatic situations. Meaning, that brain-to-mouth filter sometimes gets run through Google Translate, and what the heck Bruce why would you say that?! Or How could you say that?! Look now you're drawing conclusions and putting words in his mouth. He was getting to it, he had to get out the negative before the positive. His brain just sorts things a bit differently, let him gather his thoughts and re-word them. And on no, they left. Story of his life and a symptom for all who suffer from Google translateitis. 

Was on Shark Tank once but his deal was so generous that they didn’t want to invite him back. “We’re supposed to take a shark deal Mr. Wayne and you just gave him a handout.” However, after the episode aired and it did numbers on tv&social media the network was blowing up his phone. So every once in a while Brucie Wayne is throwing around money in the Tank. 

[mayasdeluca]

I wanted to share this thread from Twitter on here because I feel it's so important and sums up how I feel so accurately. Credit to Blue for putting it into words better than I could.

We're two episodes in and while they may not seem like a lot and there's still plenty more to go, it's really not when you consider it's a shortened season and there's so many things the show is trying to fit in when it can be the last of the series. I want to hope our time is coming but like Blue said, this has always been a pattern. There has been constant excuses for Maya and Carina. Why? Why is it always them that's treated differently? We know why. And the fact that the show got moved to 10pm, where they can show more and do more, and the network actually had the audacity to use Marina as the promo when saying the season will be 'hotter than ever' every single time and yet we're still experiencing the same tiresome treatment? I really hope I will be able to eat my words later on in the season but it's hard to feel that way at this point. The double standards are insanely frustrating.

Why this show has forever chosen to shy away from Maya and Carina as the ship of the show when they caught lightning in a bottle with these characters and the actresses who portray them will truly never make sense to me. They can come up with any kind of excuse, it's not justified. They can try to write ships like Ross and Sullivan as this epic romance (when in reality they have been established for five minutes in comparison to Marina) and they can give them cheesy dialogue and all the sex scenes in the world that they refuse to give to Marina...it doesn't make them anything like them and it will just continue to show the glaring double standard that continues to be a huge problem on network tv. WLW couples deserve better.

[gentlebeardsbarngrill]

01/28/2024 Daily Crew Recap

TLDR; Hoist The Ads Charity Donations; Campaign Status Updates; Hunt For the Pirate Home Watch Party; General Morale; Past Renewal Campaign Comparisons; Cast & Crew Sightings; Upcoming Events: Pets for Pirates Jan 29; Love Notes; Daily Darby / Tonight's Taika

=Hoist The Ads Updates =

Looks like the voting is done, and the results are in! @gingerlyvibing was kind enough to break down how much is going where. Just a reminder-- you all made this happen! Everything over the $10K it cost to get the billboard is going to help out these awesome charities! Links to threads: Tumblr / Twitter

Funnily enough, apparently one of the trucks still has the ads on it

== How To Help ==

How To Help Save OFMD Task List - US

How to Help Save OFMD Task List - Outside US

I'm helping some folks over on FB get similar/ the same updates right now, if anyone would like to help give me feedback I'd appreciate it, please just PM me! I have a couple ideas and I want to run them by folks.

== Status Updates ==

Good news! Wb is still having trouble recovering, as it should. Thanks @btweenhisteeth on twitter

==Petition Status==

Over 82K -- going slow, but still ticking up! Takes time all, especially since we're focused on the networks right now. Don't give up!

== Hunt For The Pirate Home Watch Party ==

Had some great turn out all over the world today for the Hunt For the Wilder People watch party. Thank you again to @dandeebakes for getting those coordinated!

Saw some great trends during it, and a lot of people having fun. If you haven't actually seen the movie, I highly recommend it, it's incredibly good!

==General Morale==

So despite things being fairly quiet today, the general vibe from folks has been that we're just in a holding pattern and we're just gonna keep clowning and polite menacing until we hear more word.

== Other Cancelled Series Comparisons ==

Something cool that I saw more of today was several groups doing comparisons with other cancelled TV Shows. Thank you to @OFMDCrew for these stats on twitter.

After they were posted, I did hear conflicting feelings on these (some felt it helped raise their mood, some felt it made it worse). So I wanted to point out a few things:

1. We've done a hell of a lot in 3 weeks (and signatures were our priority for most of the first two weeks, but once David Jenkins lit the beacon 8 days ago, we changed our focus). 2. We had a leadership change mid-all of this with Renew As A Crew. 3. Oh and there's other stuff in the world going on (Palestine) 4. As @saltpepperbeard says in their post "David only posted his "call to arms" just a little over a week ago. Eight days ago." So much has changed and we've STILL accomplished so much in that time too.

We are kicking ass, we really are, I promise you!

Across Twitter / IG / and Tumblr, several people have mentioned they feel like something's "in the air". That's totally a second hand "I have a feeling" thing but as you probably remember, quite a few of us had that as a bad feeling the morning before the show got cancelled. Now, if you're not into that kinda thing-- I would like to mention, that could just be because this crew is so fucking awesome, and that's why the vibe is so good-- because we're leaning on each other and take care of each other. Also when lovely people like @saltpepperbeard (as referenced above) write lovely responses to asks that can always help too. This post made ME feel better, I recommend giving it a read for a little perspective :)

= Cast & Crew Sightings =

1. The weekend is still pretty scarce as usual. Our pirate queen Ruibo Qian has been enjoying a lot of everyone's artwork lately. 2. Nathan Foad announced his con dates 3. Renewal Campaign Related: mostly seeing updates again from our boi Erroll Shand supporting the campaign.

== Pets For Pirates ==

Tomorrow, Jan 29, there will be a Pets for Pirates Even! Share your Pet pictures and use the hashtags:

#PetsForPirates

#AdoptOurCrew

#SaveOFMD

==Love Notes==

I know, I know "Jeez Abby, Shut Up We Already Know How Awesome We Are" Well good! Cause you should! But that won't stop me from saying so again! I'm serious when I say the vibe is so good right now in general because we have such a great crew. You all take such good care of each other and it shows every single day. You helped raise an extra $11,578 that are now going to charities that are going to help so many families, and kids, and that's just from the extra stuff from the Hoist The Ads Campaign -- not including everything else going on. I'm going to include a picture from one of my favorite people @thelatestkate because she does awesome work, and this one applies significantly to all of you. <3

Daily Darby/Tonights Taika

Tonights gifs are brought you by the wonderful @celluloidbroomcloset's Posts: Rhys / Taika

I'm literally watching Green Lanturn this moment because I needed to remember this youngin Taika, so thank you / no thank you for that, but hey I've watched worse for Rhys so I guess I can't complain.

Goodnight Lovelies <3

[bethelighthalazia]

9 makes 1 team!

Bandmates (Relationships with the members)

Summary:  What if ATEEZ had debuted with one more member? What if they had debuted with a young woman? Her name is Choi Hwa Young, younger sister of Choi Jongho.

Genre: n/a

Pairing: ot8 & fem!OC Choi Hwa Young

Word Count:  n/a

Warnings: n/a

networks: @mirohs-aurora-society

back to masterlist

© by bethelighthalazia. Do not repost, copy or translate. Unless stated otherwise, those works are mine and born from my own ideas. I don't have any claim on the mentioned real existing Idols whatsoever.

Group Info

They´re best friends, almost like found family for her, but Hwa has a huge crush on Mingi, Mingi has a big crush on Hwa, Yunho knows about it without Mingi even telling him, but he doesn't tell anyone

The boys are very protective of Hwa, often a bit too overprotective

The boys know about Hwa´s insecurities, fears and especially about her allergies and always make sure to keep her safe

It's often Wooyoung and Hwa who cook for the group

since Hwa always loses her lip balm and the others find these, they have a big collection of Hwa´s lip balms in almost every room

when she's upset or mad, the boys actually get scared of her sometimes

The boys take turns looking for Hwa when she gets lost, often even playing rock, paper, scissors to determine who has “Hwa duty”

there were many arguments about Hwa´s stage outfits being too revealing in the beginning, which none of the boys let happen; after kingdom though, they still tried, but Hwa now has a word in her outfit choice as well

When Hwa is out with friends, the boys tend to be in contact with said friends, or send some texts to check up on the girl

Most of the times, it's Seonghwa or Hongjoong who try to make her behave and stay calm, but soon give up (especially when Woo or San are involved as well)

Seonghwa (Park Seong Hwa (박성화)) (Oppa)

Tends to mother her quite often, which Hwa never complains about. She loves to ask her oppa for advice, since he usually is the most mature and calm one. He and Hwa are sometimes called by the same nickname, which confuses her quite often. When she needs comfort, Seonghwa is usually the first one she goes to. He’s like her big brother and is rather protective, especially when other male idols or fans are around her. Seonghwa often calls her ‘little one’, unless he's mad at her, then he uses her full name.

Hongjoong (Kim Hong Joong (김홍중)) (Oppa)

Hwa loves to annoy him, he's the main target of her teasing and pranks, but she also trusts him and, if Seonghwa is not nearby, she asks him for advice and help. Cuddles and hugs are exchanged, but more often when no cameras are around since Hongjoong doesn't want to potentially give material for scandals that could be harmful for her, plus he's quite shy of affectionate skinship in public. Hongjoong is the one who has to find her everytime they attend an event, because she tends to wander off and get lost. His nickname for her is shorty, since she's the only member who's shorter than him.

Yunho (Jeong Yun Ho ((정윤호)) (Oppa)

Yunho is her big teddy bear. She loves to hug and cuddle him, holding hands when she walks besides him is almost mandatory. He's like a big brother to her, and he takes this trust and responsibility very seriously. His nickname for her is tiny, mainly because of their height difference. Hwa often likes to tease him with pranks, but more than that, she loves to team up with him to prank the others. Piggyback rides are also often a given, especially when they're in a crowd and they don´t want to lose her in it (again…). Her nickname for him is YuYu.

Yeosang (Kang Yeo Sang (강여상)) (Oppa)

Yeosang´s favorite activity is to brush and style Hwa´s hair. He's the only one who can make her sit still for hours. When they sit next to each other, he usually either draws patterns on her palms or caresses her arm to keep her calm. Hwa likes to join him when he watches tv or reads, often she can be caught styling or just brushing his hair in such moments. Yeosang and Hwa are both very different personalities, but still quite similar. His nickname for her is Bun (since she was called Bun Bun once in a show, he calls her that ever since because it causes her to get all shy and blushy). 

San (Choi San (최산)) (Oppa)

In the beginning, San wasn't too fond of the idea of having a female member in the group, but they quickly became best friends. If she's scared, he is at her side to protect her without even needing to be asked to. He likes to carry her around piggyback style, if he's not around Wooyoung, he can be found hugging and cuddling Hwa. San usually matches her energy, especially when she´s not holding back her naturally chaotic and often child-like energy. Hwa usually calls him San oppa or Sannie, when she calls him San, she's usually mad at him. San tends to call her gwiyomi (cutie).

Mingi (Song Min Gi (송민기)) (Oppa)

Mingi is the first to notice when Hwa feels anxious or sad and he can always tell if she's honest or if she's lying to them. Ever since the group formed, Mingi has liked her and has had a crush on her. Hwa trusts Mingi blindly, she knows he always will keep her safe and never will do anything to hurt her purposefully. She´s always had/has a crush on him. His nickname for her is princess/pretty, which causes her to get heavily flustered. Mingi also often just holds her hand or can be found hugging or cuddling her, often giving her piggyback rides as well. Hwa likes to call him Min-Min, but only when she knows that no cameras are around.

Wooyoung (Jung Woo Young (정우영)) (Oppa)

Wooyoung and Hwa are a bundle of pure chaos. If one doesn't see them, one certainly can hear them. These two absolutely match each other´s energy and it´s happened more than once, that Seonghwa or Hongjoong had to separate them to calm down. They both can often be found dancing (or causing trouble for the older members). Wooyoung and Hwa became best friends after she beat him in a dance off that he had proposed to prove that a girl shouldn't be in the group (he only lost because Yunho had distracted Wooyoung during that dance off). Hwa mispronounced his name in the beginning quite often, which is why she resorted to calling him Woo everytime (yes, also in interviews and such). His nickname for her is jagi.

Jongho (Choi Jong Ho (최종호)) (big brother, blood related)

Much to his annoyance, Hwa loves to call him little bear, even though she's younger and shorter than him. Jongho however usually calls her Hwa-yah or, much to her annoyance, moonpie. He started calling her this when he walked in on her binge-watching Sailor moon (while she was dressed in a sailor moon costume). Jongho doesn´t often show affection on camera, yet he does allow Hwa to cuddle or hug him any time she likes. They are quite close and he loves to join her vocal practices every time, mainly to give her advice and sometimes even get advice from her.

taglist: @mingis-mizu,@tinyelfperson

(if you want to be added to a taglist, follow the taglist-link in my pinned post)

[betterbooktitles]

I had placed a stack of albums on the counter of a tiny strip mall record shop when my smartest writer friend called me out of the blue to tell me I should “always have a mistress.”

Relax. She meant a metaphorical mistress. That is, a writing project on the side. You have your main squeeze (a novel or a script) but then you flirt with the idea of writing a YA Romance or a Thriller or (god forbid) poetry. You need something to write that feels like a break from your “Big Project.”

I was staring at the cover of Tears for Fears’ Songs From The Big Chair, imagining the person I would be once I heard “Head Over Heels” on vinyl when my phone rang. I only had the ringer on because I was waiting for a potential call from a casting director. A certain late-night show sent out a casting notice for “shirtless man” and I, without any shame, turned on the lights in my wife’s office and had her take a few shots with my phone. I had the ringer on in case a stranger got my (half) nudes in an email, and said “That’s it! Get me that torso!” I’m sorry to say, enough time has passed without a call that you will not be seeing my chest on TV any time soon. Usually, my phone remains on silent when I’m out in the world. It also remains on silent when I’m at home because I’m staring at it all day anyway. Who needs to bring noise into that equation? If you call, I’ll see it.

Between the tone of her voice and the occasional swoosh of a car going by, I could tell my friend was driving and had me on speakerphone. She was on her way to lunch with someone on the business/agency side of Entertainment, heading to a mix of pleasurable banter over food with a friend but also a business-minded networking session with someone she hadn’t seen in 6 months. This call, pleasurable to me but in retrospect a bit of business since we talked instantly and almost entirely about work for 20 minutes, was eerily fortuitous. It was like she knew I was writing this week about work and relationships.

“You have the mistress project because it makes you feel young,” she said, telling me about her decision to write 50 pages of a Romance novel. “The problem is that you think ‘Maybe I should leave my wife for this younger project.’” She had submitted the first chunk of her frivolous manuscript to an agent, and, to her horror, the agent loved it. Now she has to live with it for a while. She has to explain to her previous project that they are either in a polyamorous marriage now or about to enter a trial separation. Plus, she had to see if the mistress project was wife material or if she’d fall into the same patterns as her previous relationship. OK. We get the metaphor.

“I’m afraid my new mistress is buying dollar records,” I said, watching the traffic go by, sipping from a lid-off paper cup full of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee that, between the time I’d spent looking at records and chatting in the parking lot, had turned cold. I felt the urge to rush back into the store and apologize to Timmy the manager for stepping out. I worried he’d already re-shelved my copy of The Go-Go’s Beauty And The Beat or that someone had seen the Tears For Fears on the top of “my” unpurchased heap and bought it for himself. This shopping trip was supposed to be an Artist Date (I guess the metaphor is still going), a weekly outing you do solo to engage with your Muse before journalling about it because a book called The Artist’s Way says it’s the only way to remain creative. You woo the Muse by engaging with art alone. Typically, I’d go to a museum or a movie by myself for my Artist Date but I’d had a record player for over 2 months and had only amassed a measly hundred-plus albums in my house so far. My next Artist Date will be a trip to IKEA to buy a shelf to hold more.

“No, Dan.” My brilliant friend said, “Replacing your main project with records or books is like saying you’re not going to have a mistress and instead get into sex dolls. You need a creative project.”

Read the rest of the essay here.

[stellaluna33]

How about that time when ASP bragged that Rory only had her first time when she was 19/20 or something, wasn’t it weird that she was so proud of that, especially when she “made” her have such a lousy first time, married man and all?

Why was Rory being a virgin until “late” that groundbreaking for ASP, I wonder?

If I’m not mistaken she was shading other teen shows that had their protagonists/leading ladies having their first times earlier, and idk once again it just looks like she digs shaming girls for having sex.

Personally, I used to love that Rory was still a virgin until college bc I could relate to her even more because of that, haha, I just got kinda disappointed that Amy seemed to see it as some sort of quality?

Sorry, English is not my first language so idk if I’m expressing myself very well, but yeah I’m curious to o know more opinions about this.

The way I understand it, Amy was under a lot of pressure from the network to make Rory "sexier." But why should a teenage girl character HAVE TO have sex to be a worthwhile or relatable character? She shouldn't! But that kind of mindset was what ASP was pushing back against, and maybe it's an unpopular opinion, but I actually really appreciated that. What you have to understand is that when I grew up watching teen media from the 80s and 90s (and going into the early 2000s), there was persistent messaging that still being a "virgin" by the time you graduated from highschool was kind of embarrassing. Losing your virginity was widely viewed as some sort of necessary "milestone" instead of a very personal and optional choice. (Especially for boys, but there was a lot of that for girls in TV and movies also) It wasn't until right around the turn of the millennium that I remember starting to see movies/shows that QUESTIONED that idea, that started asking well, WHY, though? When there started occasionally being characters who expressed that they shouldn't HAVE to have sex just to fit in. That it should be a PERSONAL choice. And like, I'm not a historical scholar- I haven't done a STUDY of whether this is accurate or not, but this is what it FELT LIKE to me as a teenager. And it FELT LIKE Rory was a really refreshing character for nerdy girls like me and my friends- that it was OKAY if you hadn't had sex yet. It was OKAY for a teenage girl to be focused more on academic or career aspirations rather than "losing her V-card," or that maybe she just doesn't feel ready yet, and it doesn't make her a "loser" or a "prude!" Like, that felt like SUCH a rare thing! ASP wanted to write a character like that, partly because it hadn't been done much, and she got a lot of pushback from the Network about it (which is kind of gross?). And I just... don't think that necessarily means that she was "slut shaming" anyone else.

I confess to being surprised when I started seeing people on here saying that Gilmore Girls had a "negative" view of sex. (This got long, sorry!)

Like, Lorelai has an active sex life with a variety of different partners over the course of the series, and that seems to be portrayed as normal and morally neutral. Sookie has an active and healthy sex life. When Rory is sleeping with Logan in college, the narrative seems to paint Richard and Emily (and the unfortunate Reverend they brought in) as ridiculous and controlling for objecting. Paris and Doyle have an active and enthusiastic sex life, and the narrative doesn't seem to judge them for it... I do admit that there does seem to be a pattern of unfortunate "first times" for the younger characters, but I wonder if that's more about Amy's addiction to "drama" than her views on sex. About Paris specifically, I always interpreted her paranoia about being "punished" for having sex as being commentary about how SOCIETY judges girls for having sex (because Reality for girls was a lot different from the pop culture fantasy norms). Gilmore Girls just wasn't interested in portraying some kind of "ideal world." They were just "putting these guys in Situations." And I mean... it's a show largely about generational trauma stemming from a teenage pregnancy! The characters are going to have some complicated and probably even unhealthy feelings about sex! And can I be honest for a minute? Much like attitudes towards our bodies, I'm honestly a proponent of what I'm going to call "sex neutrality." Because, yeah, sex is supposed to be fun and feel good and even be beautiful... And ideally it is! But sometimes it's not. Sometimes it's bad or painful or awkward or emotionally messy or damaging or degrading. Are we supposed to pretend that doesn't happen? Because it does. Are TV characters just not supposed to acknowledge that side of it? I don't know. I don't think Gilmore Girls is a perfect show. I don't agree with everything ASP thinks or everything the characters do. But I do think sometimes viewers want to see some kind of "message" where there just isn't one. Anyway, this is just my opinion, and I may be wrong about one or several things! 😆

[queersatanic]

"Lucien Greaves" and The Satanic Temple have a lot to answer for

When confronted with examples of Doug “Lucien Greaves” Misicko’s pattern of reactionary words and actions over the past two decades, usually, The Satanic Temple’s sycophants offer one of a small handful of stock excuses to deflect and otherwise resist actually dealing with it.

Their most recent tack has been “Lucien Greaves has changed! Actually, ‘The Satanic Temple is a church for imperfect people‘, which is why our religion is great!”— an excuse that exceeds parody but more seriously points to the dangers of what is now required of TSTers by way of loyalty.

And yet as we have said, “When it comes to The Satanic Temple, there’s always more and it’s always worse.”

Starting February 26, the admin(s) behind The.Satanic.Wiki began releasing more clips on Twitter and Kolektiva from audio and corrected transcripts of old Internet radio shows The Satanic Temple’s co-owner Doug Misicko used to make with his friend and longtime collaborator Shane Bugbee, primarily from the incomplete audio of a show called The ABCs of the Alphabet.

This was back when Misicko was using the pseudonym “Doug Mesner” rather than “Lucien Greaves” as he mostly does now.

These conversations—intended for public consumption!—are incredibly bad, but of course all context added to them makes them even worse.

We’ve censored the slurs below, but in the actual audio clips, they are presented as they were said at the time: in full and without obfuscation or shame.

Jump-to links:

“Lucien Greaves” wants to write a “[ableist r-slur] story”

“Lucien Greaves” on the Oklahoma City Bombing and the bad PR of killing children

“Lucien Greaves” talks about “The View” (TV show) and network [n-slurs]

“Lucien Greaves” on Black co-workers and cunnilingus

“Lucien Greaves” talks about the KKK and killing [Jewish people]

“Lucien Greaves” talks eugenics and “who decides”

“Lucien Greaves” on “N-words”

“Lucien Greaves” makes his case for fascism

“Lucien Greaves” really hates Detroit

The Satanic Temple’s co-owner “Lucien Greaves” on public displays of religion like Judaism and Islam

“Lucien Greaves” recalls his pilgrimage to fascist Italy

“Lucien Greaves” talks about arson and high school bullying as Nazi national anthem plays

“Lucien Greaves” on burning down churches (and temples) plus why we should nuke the “Holy Land”

“Lucien Greaves” and the OfficeMax gay Hindu organ harvester “prank call” story

“Lucien Greaves” on domestic abuse (he blames the victims)

“Lucien Greaves” explains the (true) importance of abortion access: “It’s not so much about dead babies as less people”

The titles The Satanic Wiki gave them are fairly short, and it’s often difficult to describe fully all of what makes them terrible. For example, while Misicko is talking about arson and high school bullying, Bugbee plays the Nazi anthem along under Misicko’s story; how do you best emphasize and summarize that?

In any case, if you still have friends who are supportive or otherwise ignorant of The Satanic Temple, and they don’t want to read a long article about it, any of the below clips should encapsulate quickly why these people are not to be trusted.

(For those not up to date, while these clips are from 2003-2004, the issue is that Misicko and Bugbee were close up through 2013 when Misicko tapped Bugbee to help re-launch TST after the first attempt failed, and their leaked emails and gravestone-teabagging stunt together demonstrate how little change had actually happened in that decade. More of that history here.)

[haggishlyhagging]

The eviction of TV's single women repeats a pattern established in television's last backlash. Early television actually offered quite a number of single-woman shows, although most featured hapless schoolmarms, maids, and typists in such fare as "Private Secretary," "Ella Miss," "My Friend Irma," "Our Miss Brooks," and "Meet Millie." By the mid-1950s, however, every program with a single woman in the lead had been canceled. And the unwed heroine would remain out of sight throughout the early and mid-1960s, appearing only as an incidental character, a reminder to female viewers of the woes of unwed life. On "The Dick Van Dyke Show," single Sally Rogers served to throw into relief the good fortunes and greater femininity of Van Dyke's doted-upon housewife—played by Mary Tyler Moore. In the many doctor and hospital shows of the '60s, single women surfaced only as patients, their illnesses typically caused by some "selfish" act—getting an abortion, having an affair or, most popular, disobeying a doctor's orders.

But in 1970, Mary Tyler Moore traded in the Van Dyke dollhouse for her own apartment and show. Moore's Mary Richards was not only unwed, she was more than thirty years old. Marriage panic did not afflict her. She had real male and female friends, enjoyed a healthy sex life, turned down men who didn't appeal to her, and even took the pill—without winding up on a hospital bed in the final scene. (She was, however, still the subordinated pseudo-schoolgirl to her boss; while her officemates called their chief "Lou," she always said "Mr. Grant.") Female viewers adored her. The program maintained top ratings for its entire run, won twenty-five Emmys, and it spun off two other successful sitcoms with independent female leads. Meanwhile, other programmers got the message and drafted their own shows about strong and independent unmarried women, from the realistic in "One Day at a Time" to the superhuman in "The Bionic Woman."

In 1986, a decade after her previous triumph, the networks returned Mary Tyler Moore to prime time—as a burned-out scowling divorcée whose career is only an object of derision. In "Mary," she writes the consumer Help Line column for a trashy tabloid. She has no confidantes on or off the job, a fact that heightens an already bleakly drawn existence. Next door, her earthy best friend Rhoda is replaced by a narcissistic single career woman, an ad executive who is desperate for a ring from any man. In one episode, the neighbor meets a mobster and announces her engagement the same day.

Moore's neighbor was not the only single television woman willing to lower her expectations in the quest for a marriage license. Under pressure from the network, the creators of "Kate and Allie" married off divorced mother Allie to a colorless suitor she had known only a short while. That same season on "Moonlighting," a pregnant Maddie Hayes got hitched to a dishwater-dull accountant right after they met on a train. Cybill Shepherd, who played Maddie, was adamantly opposed to this plot twist, and viewers were similarly disgusted. The show, in fact, was swamped with so many outraged letters that the producers finally had to annul the marriage.

Maddie's coerced matrimony was only the latest development in a long-running campaign to cow this independent female figure. David Addison, a carefree bachelor and Maddie's employee, ultimately tames his "queen bee" boss the old-fashioned way; he slaps her, and she surrenders to his advances. Still not satisfied, the series' producers later have her grovel before the preening David, literally on her knees. The shaming of Maddie Hayes was no idle writing exercise. It mirrored a behind-the-scenes campaign, conducted by both executive producer Glenn Caron and actor Bruce Willis (who played David), to curb the single Shepherd's "aggressive" personality. They told the press they didn't like how she was always voicing her opinion when she disagreed with the show's direction. At Caron's behest, the network sent Shepherd a disciplinary letter. The memo ordered her, on penalty of suit or the show's cancellation, to follow the director's orders, submit to timed breaks, and ask for permission before leaving the set. "I felt ill when I received it," Shepherd said at the time. "It was like reform school."

-Susan Faludi, Backlash: the Undeclared War Against American Women

[miniscrew-anon]

Merry Whumpmas - Day 4 "Chills"

Okay now I'm really getting into the meat of Shadows backstory. Because of who he is as a person I fully believe he was a little shithead for his whole life. Not necessarily because he wanted to be but because that's what life handed him.

Trigger warnings for mentions of human trafficking

It was another special order. Delivered word of mouth, as usual. 

Tween, pale, male. Under four feet and 100 lbs. Dark hair, purple eyes. Park Twili. Unused, perfect condition.

Shadow mentally filters through his memories for someone to fit that description and comes up empty handed. He’ll have to go outside his usual search radius to find someone that specific. Twili aren’t common in Hyrule, and certainly not this far South. 

He clicks his tongue and strolls away from the meeting house, annoyed. It’s unlikely he’ll find someone that matches. So he can kiss that commission goodbye. Still, there are other jobs. Routing cops and spotting Sheika aren’t necessarily easy but it’ll tide him over, for a little while. 

Until another special order comes through. Those, he’s learned, are the real money makers. 

Young, teen, Brunette, blonde. Green eyes, blue eyes. Goron, Zora, Gerudo - Vaati liked to pride himself on customer satisfaction and filling orders to a T. No customer of Vaati’s ever had to settle for second rate wares. High quality, he liked to say, nothing worn or used. No diseases, no defects, no behavioral issues. A perfectly healthy stock. 

In other words - free range.

Vaati often uses his network of young eyes to find potential… merchandise. Their homes, patterns, and ideal pick up locations were all reported to higher ups and left to bagmen, who’d secure and ship out the goods. 

It was a much more risky business than the run of the mill trafficking that relied on easy prey. It meant fewer lost souls from the gutter that no one would miss and more from nice homes and happy families. But the value far outweighed the cost; Shadow isn't sure how much a single person is worth to Vaati’s clientele, but they must be willing to pay exorbitant fees to have their every demand met. 

Sometimes, when Shadow finds himself in a strange mood, he finds himself thinking about what might have happened to the poor bastards he reported on. What kind of life they were living, if they still were. It always made his spine tingle.

But he never lingers on it long. And why should he? It’s not like he’s really responsible for anything that happens. All he does is search out someone who fits the description and tell someone else about it. Not like he does any smashing or grabbing. He never laid a hand on anyone.

And besides, if it wasn’t Shadow doing it, it would be some other kid selling out someone for a handful of cash. This cog turns with or without him. No point in holding onto dumb ideas of morality when the alternative is starving in the streets, or falling in with some gang where he’d end up killing someone anyway. 

No, there wasn’t any point in trying to take the high road. Shadow knows from experience that that kind of shit is for TV - the real world isn’t going to change because someone decides to be a good person. It won’t make a difference anyway. There’s always going to be another asshole ready to step in and take his place, so why give up his spot? 

Better to be scum with a full belly and a roof than to be scum wasting away on the side of the road.

------

I don't think Shadow is an innocent at the end of the day. I think that just like Dark, he was kind of forced to take what was available to him and do what he needed to to survive. He's going to justify it any way he can, but deep down he knows what he's doing is fucked up. But fuck if he's going to acknowledge it.

Idk what the full timeline of events are but I'm going off the assumption that the Dragmire Empire has just been toppled about a year or two ago, Dark is currently in prison and the hold that Ganon had over Hyrules underbelly is basically dissolved. Vaati is just one of many smaller time guys who rose through the ranks and gained a shit ton of power. And his particular domain is the human trafficking going on in Hyrule.

[gothprentiss]

i keep seeing people say the criminal minds reboot wasn’t necessary. this is a massive lol but also just the weirdest critique. beyond the general lack of necessity for any reboot (and the wider lack of necessity for most tv, especially formulaic crime procedurals which i think are probably quite bad for us culturally in ways that the true crime obsession is only highlighting), there’s not much on criminal minds that was happening because it needed to happen, because it furthered certain character arcs, or told an important story, or explored a topic worth exploring. in some ways, this is the first time i’ve seen criminal minds really have to justify its own existence.

on one hand, sure, the storyline is wildly fucking stupid and poorly conceived, serialized where it should be episodic, and too expansive to allow any individual episodes to probably be good on their own merits. but that’s also what criminal minds has been for almost all of its existence. the dynamics among the characters, on the other hand, are genuinely interesting. the show used to be genuinely terrible at reintroducing characters or exploring change, but that was because it never had to reintroduce them all at the same time, so you got (e.g.) the miserable and slapdash reintroduction of prentiss, or jj’s absence being poorly retrofitted seasons later; or you got the weird failure to appreciate the very high personal stakes of reid dealing with addiction, or morgan’s attempts to reconcile with faith. i don’t know if where we end up will be great in comparison— the show, because of reid, has had a sort of de facto main character for a very long time, and that old pattern is emerging around rossi and garcia (i suspect it’ll shift from him to her in the next couple of episodes but what do i know).

but the point is that this is the first time i’ve seen the show really actually evaluate itself. first, of course, the nearly defunded bau struggling to function and the question of whether the unit survives increased negative scrutiny naturally are figures for this season itself, especially as they try to get greenlit for more seasons. the bau racing to justify its own existence may pan out to merely be what it’s always been— the good agents versus the bad administrator, who will either die horribly or be shown the error of their ways— but it may also, along the way, involve the characters being given the space to properly explore both their purpose in the bau and what they want from life.

criminal minds has always struck me as a character-driven show which simply didn’t know this, or at least didn’t know how to deliver on this. given the season’s organization— the network of serial killers, dumb as it is, provides an overarching plot which could ostensibly meaningfully link together a series of disparate crimes— there’s space for each character to have an individual case/episode which explores them and their life, or for everyone to take stock and explore their options thematically. for example, 16x02 sicarius was the relationships episode; you can imagine a sort of progression through different facets of life from there. reboot press has said that the early episodes in particular are exploring the characters’ lives— part of this is literally just establishing where they are now, as we’ve seen. but the question of where they’re going, and the extent to which it will be as a group, seems entirely open. the season will almost definitely end with rossi’s retirement. it may not end with anyone else leaving, considering that they’re trying to get more seasons, but the show’s fondness for will-they-won’t-they cliffhangers suggests that the season might end with any of the characters poised to leave. penelope, for example, has carved out a totally functional life outside of the bau, one which she seems extremely reticent to give up. jj is on her, what, 11th? 12th? season of being torn between her marriage+family and the bau, and as the season opens with her early-onset empty nest syndrome, it’s not unimaginable that this might be the year she finally does it. maybe tara’s girlfriend will be trying to snag her an opening at the doj, where hours are more normal and safety is more assured. prentiss and alvez don’t currently have obvious outs, but with the potential impending dissolution or near-dissolution of the bau, each could be easily reassigned, and for a variety of reasons.

this is long. my point is that criminal minds evolution has, so far, first-season energy, which has genuinely regalvanized the show. it’s not amazing tv by any stretch, but it does feel both better and more thoughtful than the latest seasons were. i suspect it won’t end with any finality, but it’s quite well poised to, and regardless of how the season turns out it will likely have done more work exploring its characters as people beyond their work (i.e., establishing ground for finality) than most of the rest of the show combined.

[robinniko]

What do you like to watch on YouTube? Do you have any recommendations? Up for anything really.

mainly video commentary about pop culture, other youtubers, lost media/dark media/true crime type stuff, videos about 2000s Disney/Nick/Cartoon Network shows, some gaming content/minecraft stuff. I definitely have a bunch of recommendations, some I won’t go super in depth in because this post would be so long lol

so my favorite youtuber to recommend is Ashley Norton, she does a lot of pop culture and youtube commentaries, she did a couple bachelor videos as well. I just really love her commentary and how she explains each topic, as well as her humor. She recently did a video on Don’t Worry Darling, and actually had done a video about Larry. She is just very understanding in her videos, she never outright mocks anyone and actually goes in depth, I have actually learned a lot from her videos as well! I started watching her because of her H2O videos where she recaps all the seasons, those videos are amazing lol.

Hugh Henderson is another of my fav pop culture youtubers, he recaps old and new award shows! He has done ones about the oscars, MTV VMAs, Grammys, golden globes. He is super funny as well, he basically just talks about how the award shows are always super messy, he is also from New Zealand!

Kayla Says is how I keep up with silly internet drama lol, she does a super good job of explaining current events in pop culture. She has a series on “Why the Internet fell out of love” and it is basically her talking about why the internet hates a celebrity who was once extremely beloved. Her takes are so super interesting and I like her commentary, she has a bunch of different pop culture series as well.

Nikki Carreon is another pop culture youtuber, theres a pattern with what i watch lol, but she does long videos about pop culture, other youtubers, she does a lot of videos reading the odd booktok books and Colleen Hoover books.

Nexpo, Shrouded Head, ReignBot, Fascinating Horror, Wendigoon, Tuv are all different horror/dark media/lost media youtubers that I really enjoy.

Blameitonjorge and Kylie Boggly are mainly lost/dark media, I highly recommend them it’s just interesting hearing them talk about that kind of stuff!

Keyan Carlile, LS Mark, Tronn, Jordan Fringe and Mr. Nostalgia make videos about tv shows/cartoons, their commentary is very funny and informative as well.

Casey Aonso makes funny as hell commentary on pop culture, she also did a video on One Direction which was funny as hell.

Chris James, Ted Nivison, and Andy King are also my three favorite white men who make funny commentary videos as well about pop culture and tv shows. Same with Danny Gonzalez, Drew Gooden, and Kurtis Conner, I actually don’t watch them as much as I did in the past but i occasionally keep up with their videos if i like the topic. Same with Eddy Burback and his brother.

Special shoutout to Billiam because he is wonderful and his videos are also wonderful!

I most definitely forgot a ton of youtubers on this list, I watch a fuck ton of different content creators so it’s kind of hard to remember all of them. I added the ones I think others would like or the ones I watch the most whether its repeat videos or new ones. Theres also some youtubers i didn’t feel like adding just because i know some of them people do not like on here.

If i think of anymore I will definitely add them to this post! Thank you again for this ask, it was super fun to discuss and mention my favorite youtubers, I don’t really get into a lot of the youtubers i like on here mostly because its not like they have a massive community on here. But hey if you watch any of these youtubers, let me know!! i would love to chat about them 😌

[fahrni]

Saturday Morning Coffee

Good morning from Charlottesville, Virginia! ☕️

Another very quiet week at home and work.

I hope you enjoy the links.

Dan Heching and Zoe Sottile • CNN

Estey said Simmons died early on Saturday morning. He had celebrated his 76th birthday the day before. “We lost an Angel today - a true Angel,” Estey added.

I remember Richard Simmons from the 80’s. Always the showman, always enthusiastic, always fighting to teach folks how to lose weight and talking about his own struggles.

R.I.P.

Carmel Dagan • Variety

Bob Newhart, the genteel but sharply satirical comic whose TV series “The Bob Newhart Show” and “Newhart” were huge hits throughout the 1970s and ’80s, died Thursday in Los Angeles. He was 94.

I know he’s well know for his television series but I really liked him as Papa Elf in the movie Elf.

R.I.P.

David Nield • ScienceAlert

The probe was recorded traveling at 635,266 kilometers (394,736 miles) per hour on June 29, the second time it’s reached that speed since it launched in 2018. We’re talking around 500 times faster than the speed of sound here.

It’s impossible for me to wrap my brain around the idea of going 394,736 miles per hour. 😳

But, it’s pretty cool!

Lily Hay Newman, Matt Burgess, and Andy Greenberg • WIRED

Only a handful of times in history has a single piece of code managed to instantly wreck computer systems worldwide. The Slammer worm of 2003. Russia’s Ukraine-targeted NotPetya cyberattack. North Korea’s self-spreading ransomware WannaCry. But the ongoing digital catastrophe that rocked the internet and IT infrastructure around the globe over the past 12 hours appears to have been triggered not by malicious code released by hackers, but by the software designed to stop them.

What a day for our global network, Microsoft, and CrowdStrike.

I feel terrible for any shop using CrowdStrike and their DevOps or IT Administrators and Technicians. The only way to fix this issue is to be in the room, in front of the computer.

I once worked at a pistachio and almond processing plant that ran on Windows PC’s. At times I needed access to certain computers and had to get someone to unlock a door for me. Can you imagine having to fix thousands of computers with this issue? Sure, developers and the techies in the organization can fix it on their own and help others, but what a pain in the butt. ❤️

Hafiz Rashid • The New Republic

“I have stood up in rooms with all of these people and I have said, ‘Game out your actual plan for me.’ What are the risks of this going to the Supreme Court? And no one had an answer for me.… I’m talking about the lawyers. I’m talking about the legislators,” Ocasio-Cortez said.

What’s the plan? Seems Democrats don’t have one.

This entire kerfuffle couldn’t have come at a worse time. More than ever we need to be united to stop the GOP in their tracks. They are the political enemy and you defeat a political enemy by beating them at the polls.

Turn out, vote for the Democrat, save democracy.

It really is that simple.

Maya Posch • Hackaday

With performance optimizations seemingly having lost their relevance in an era of ever-increasing hardware performance, there are still many good reasons to spend some time optimizing code. In a recent preprint article by [Paul Bilokon] and [Burak Gunduz] of the Imperial College London the focus is specifically on low-latency patterns that are relevant for applications such as high-frequency trading (HFT). In HFT the small margins are compensated for by churning through absolutely massive volumes of trades, all of which relies on extremely low latency to gain every advantage. Although FPGA-based solutions are very common in HFT due their low-latency, high-parallelism, C++ is the main language being used beyond FPGAs.

A friend worked on one of these high speed trading systems. The pressure on him to write bug free, highly performant C++ code was immense. These trading folks are crazy serious about making money and these systems need to be super solid. Their drive to be filthy rich depends on it.

He didn’t stay for long. The stress wasn’t worth it.

Heather Cox Richardson • Letters from an American

This morning, after a day of Republicans insisting that it is political polarization to suggest that Trump is a danger to our democracy, U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon, who was appointed by Trump in the last days of his presidency, dismissed the classified documents case against the former president. She wrote that “Special Counsel Smith’s appointment violates the Appointments Clause of the United States Constitution.”

It seems Judge Aileen Cannon is in the bag for Trump. She’s been delaying and dragging her feet for months on this matter. Either she’s incompetent or corrupt or maybe a little of both?

Regardless, we can also thank corrupt Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas for planting the seed of this plan to dismiss the case. In the Trump Immunity decision he noted Jack Smith’s appointment may be unconstitutional. Of course the documents case has nothing to do with the immunity case. He just slipped it in there to sow doubt. It worked.

There is still a path to prosecution but it won’t happen before the election. If the Orange Clown wins it’ll never happen.

Dan Moren • Six Colors

Ultimately the reaction to 18’s initial public beta may be more about what’s not there than what is. When Apple first announced its latest annual update to the mobile software platform back in June, most of the attention went to a suite of features—the top-billed ones if you look at the company’s iOS 18 Preview Page—collected under the aegis of Apple Intelligence. These marked the company’s much anticipated foray into artificial intelligence and promise everything from image generation to a reinvigorated Siri.

TL;DR - if you’re expecting to see Apple Intelligence as part of the betas, don’t hold your breath. Those features will roll out over the next year and into the future.

Outside of the excitement surrounding Apple Intelligence there are plenty of nice features to explore and enjoy.

Nick Schager • The Daily Beast

Longlegs is the horror event of the summer—a serial killer thriller that plays like a nightmarish swirl of The Silence of the Lambs, Seven, Psycho and Zodiac, albeit with far less rationality and considerably more demonic derangement.

I’m excited to see this! I’d imagine this is one film I’ll be able to get Kim to see in theaters. 😃

Ploum

TL;DR: put your open source code under the AGPL license.

While I don’t agree with a lot of what’s said in this piece, it is worth a read to gain a different perspective on Open Source and the problems around maintaining it.

Jake Edge • lwn.net

At the 2024 Linux Storage, Filesystem, Memory Management, and BPF Summit, Wedson Almeida Filho and Kent Overstreet led a combined storage and filesystem session on using Rust for Linux filesystems.

I like how this was written. It’s basically meeting notes from the session.

The Rust developers will have to be the ones to absorb the pain of keeping up with changes to the filesystem. As a developer using a newer technology I wouldn’t expect anything less.

I’m looking forward to the day we see Swift showing up in filesystem components on the Mac. There is an effort underway to rewrite Foundation in Swift. That’s a great start.

Wes Davis • The Verge

Apple has approved UTM SE, an app for emulating a computer to run classic software and games, weeks after the company rejected it and barred it from being notarized for third-party app stores in the European Union. The app is now available for free for iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS.

I’d imagine European Regulators made this happen. Apple doesn’t need them crawling any further up their butts. They’re already in enough trouble.

Brett Berk • The Drive

This is the golden age of full-size pickup trucks. Because the market demands it, and because the market is enormous and extremely profitable, the latest breed of pickup trucks is comfortable, commodious, potent, and dare I say luxurious. The Ford F-150, Chevrolet Silverado, and Ram 1500 are, respectively, the top-selling vehicles in America. And with their Brobdingnagian scale, appliqué steer horns, remotely erecting towing hitches, and power-opening tailgates that drop like the rear flap on a cowpoke’s union suit, pickup trucks may be the greatest examples of overcompensation ever invented.

This is a piece from 2019 but it still holds up today. Trucks are definitely no longer the multipurpose towing and hauling vehicles they used to be. When I got one with power windows and AC I thought it was pretty luxurious, but modern pickups are like luxury automobiles.

I’d bet real farmers and workmen using trucks as trucks don’t buy the luxury models. 😁 I’ve seen the inside of real work trucks. They smell of dirt and oil and usually have mud all over the floorboards. Not to mention barebones interiors.

My grandfather was a mobile mechanic for his entire life. His trucks had flat beds with large generators, a boom, and tool chests and various tool compartments. When his motor or transmission wore out, no problem, he pulled them and replaced them, himself.

I’m sure those folks still exist today but luxury trucks weren’t made for them. 😃

[voxiiferous]

On Home

Home has been a number of places over the year, scattered with he few places that hadn’t been home so much as just where he's lived in that moment. During his childhood it had been his parent’s house, with a garden out front, and it’s creaking steps. There had been a tree in the front yard his mother always encouraged him to climb, and the gutter that acted like a river cutting the yard off from the street. 

It had been home, in the way that childhood homes always are, when you don’t know any better, or any different. Vox remembers it best as quiet. His father was quiet, in a shell-shocked silent way, instead of the peace of someone reading a book. His mother would hum and try to bring his father into duets or fun little spinning dances he was never present enough to join. Vox spent a lot of time in his room, reading or building something— little wind up toys or basic radios that scattered his bedside table and windowsill.

He's forgotten the finer points of it over the years, like the specific tile pattern in the bathroom, or the colour of the roof tiles. He left it at 18 and never looked back.

Next was his dorm room at university. That hadn’t been home but it had been his space in a way that Pennsylvania never had been. It had been… different. The light that slanted through blinds rather than lace curtains was a washed-out pale white instead of summer-gold. He learned to smile and how to hold himself against doorframes so he seemed charming and comfortable in his own skin in that dorm room. Towers of books, broken up with notes and loose papers had been the theme of the interior design.

It had been familiar, but nor had he ever been able to separate it from the school— he had never mistaken it as anything other than inherently temporary. The walls had never been decorated, the colours had been bland. There had been a light in the hallway of his floor was on that burnt out the weeks into his first year that was still burn out when he graduated.

The first place that had been his alone had been a downtown Manhattan apartment after he graduated. Small, with a kitchen, a fire escape that he spent many a night sitting on, with his back against the bars, cigarette burning down between his fingers as he looked up into a night that held no stars.

In late 1943, he moved into a slightly nicer apartment, a few streets closer to the network building, though still central Manhatten. It was always downtown Manhatten. It had been more like a home than the specific location of the house ever had been.

He stayed in that apartment until he died.

(In Hell, he's lived in the same penthouse, on the uppermost floor of the central Vogitek skyscraper since he first seized control of the TV, soon after he died in 1955, and its undergone a few various changes over the years as technology improved).

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

Anyone battling a life threatening illness has one (1) job: HEALING

When the Meghans are low on royal "information" that can be used to distract from their failures, they use Catherine's name and reputation as an online punching bag to satisfy their online temper tantrums.

This "confession" by MEgain Markle is another vain attempt to distract Catherine and her team away from their priorities and into the public for press attacks and online chatter.

MEgain's only talent is seduction. As a seductress we see an unfortunate pattern of ill people, elderly people & animals who interact with Sparry, MEgain and Dorito getting hurt, becoming sicker, or dying.

MEgain never desired a successful 2nd marriage, she wanted 1 thing: to be Princess Diana 2.0.

Wills & Kate were actually in love with one another, not with stardom. The Cambridge's were wise. They chose to focus on establishing a firm foundation in marriage & family BEFORE they became working royals.

William worked full-time PILOTING in his non-BRF Anglesey air ambulance job while his bride volunteered, managed their home, and studied to show herself approved in her new life as a member of a historic family. Even the Cambridge's housekeepers quit their jobs because they felt Kate didn't leave them any work to do.

Fortunately, the Cambridge's learned valuable lessons from the non-royal early years of the long marriage between Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth.

Sophie followed this same advice from QE and today the Duchess of Edinburgh is one of the most respected members of the BRF.

Everything MEgain did in the UK was to create a resume that would advance her lifelong goal of becoming a STAR in Los Angeles.

The Queen advised MEgain to follow in Sophie's footsteps because there was no need to give up acting. MEgain rejected this sage advice because she was desperate to return to CA with a new resume as a humanitarian & a philanthropist. MEgain hired several PR Firms with the post-wedding goal of becoming Princess Diana 2.0. She was in a hurry to achieve international stardom---- if only she had factored in the impact of her unlikeable personality and her poor job performances. The watching world soundly rejected Mrs. Sparry Windsor on every level. Her goal, as explained by the Sussex Survivors Club, was always to FAIL & to BOLT. All of her mini "projects" were designed for her resume, not for the BRF.

MEgain truly felt that if she lived with a chef (Chef Cory) & took credit for the Chef's recipes, she would become a Food Network TV Star. She simply refused to understand why no one was impressed with her ability to make toast!!! She graduated from fake chef to grief grifter and tragedy vulture. She scammed the Grenfell survivors into featuring her name and photos amongst their own recipes & stories. In an effort to prevent the grifter from overshadowing their work, several cookbooks had to be reprinted.

MEgain was desperate to quickly meet A-list celebrities and political icons. She used Markus Anderson's Soho House "friend" to help her ruin the September issue of British Vogue. The magazine had to slash the price by 50% to move the issue. The project had nothing to do with supporting the BRF, and MEgain even stole the cover title and layout from a pair of Australian authors.

MEgain knows nothing about proper work attire, but she was desperate to have her name associated with stores that weren't "Reitman's, Really" so she scammed needy job seekers into dressing up like penguins and restaurant wait staff/hostesses. She fails to understand why DIOR didn't knock down her door with opportunities to connect their name to such a sloppy, messy, unkempt and vulgar member of the BRF.

DIOR has joyful, natural beauties like Sparry's former girlfriend Cressida Bonas to dress the part and to always carry herself in a respectable manner for their iconic brand.

Despite her LIGHT workload, MEgain managed to ruin everything she touched: 26 engagements in 5 months= 1 work hour per week

“I'm convinced "pretty privilege" exists. Kate's had incredibly low work engagements for years (something Kate's been highly criticised for years pre-Meghan), her Early Years "work" isn't exactly groundbreaking, and while I feel sorry she has cancer, I'm disappointed that Kate hasn't been raising cancer awareness (even a quick video call online) instead of attending flashy events like Wimbledon. For those whose say that "she's raising kids - leave her alone!" conveniently forget that she has help (nannies, aides…) and is living on the taxpayers dime…” - Submitted by Anonymous

[wheredidhiseyebrowsgo]

Hi friends! I've been (re)reading. Here's a list of my favorite 10k-25k fics. Enjoy.

Hemingway Can Suck It by orphan_account

(1/1 I 10,054 I Teen I Sterek)

“For those of you who just transferred into this class or simply decided that day one wasn’t important enough to attend, I’m Professor Hale. Welcome to English 346, The American Novel.”

Stiles is pretty sure his mouth is hanging open right now and that his eyes are wide with shock, because holy fuck, he thinks he knows why his students transferred. Hell, if he was still an undergrad, he probably would have transferred, too.

(Or: In which Stiles is a Biology professor and Derek thinks he's a student.)

cool story, bro by drunktuesdays

(1/1 I 13,087 I Explicit I Sterek)

“FUUUUUUCK, is it a sweet valley high situation where Stiles is very aware that his twin is way more attractive and confident than he is, EVEN THOUGH THEY'RE IDENTICAL, and he always ends up with the hotter significant others and more friends and Stiles guesses that's why he's attracted to the pack at first, because it's something that's just his, not his twin's too. But of course, Stiles's twin gets bit and now he's part of Derek's pack, and Derek doesn't snap at him like he snaps at Stiles, never slams him into things, fucking FIGURES, STILES'S TWIN GETS EVERYTHIIIIIIIING.”

Darling It Is No Joke by thehoyden

(1/1 I 13,250 I Explicit I Sterek)

The first thing Stiles thinks when he opens the door is that it’s not his birthday, but someone has sent him some kind of cop stripper.

Bones Straining Under the Weight by weathervaanes

(1/1 I 15,645 I Explicit I Sterek)

One of Stiles' favorite things about life is Derek Hale's food blog. He never expects to meet the man in person.

~

“Derek,” he says again, and the name feels very strange on his tongue. “You don’t mean Derek Hale.”

His professor’s eyebrows reach up, eyes widening. “You read his blog?”

"Uh. Worship. Would be a better more descriptive word. That is Derek Hale?"

Jimmy chuckles. "Good-looking guy, huh?"

"You mean to tell me the Food Network hasn't snatched him up to dethrone everyone else from daytime TV."

Jimmy smiles a small private smile. "I don't think TV is his medium."

Stiles raises an eyebrow. "Shy?"

The man laughs heartily at that. "No, I wouldn't say that. He just has particular forms of expression, like eyebrows and chili powder."

Patterns of Intention by drunktuesdays

(1/1 I 17,085 I Explicit I Sterek)

Derek looked like the stuff of his deepest fantasies. His shirt was rumpled where Stiles had his hands in it, and he was breathing hard as well, chest heaving. His eyes—his eyes were glazed over and he looked stunned, like he’d been—like Stiles had—

“No,” Stiles said, blood draining from his face. The word was croaky and felt like it had to be wrenched out of his chest. “God, no.”

I don't know why, but I guess it has something to do with you by LunaCanisLupus_22

(1/1 I 17,842 I Explicit I Sterek)

“You smell like me,” the guy says, scowling as he crowds in and Stiles staggers back between the coats and finally hits the wall. “Why do you smell like me?”

He barely lets out a garbled sound as the blood rushes to his cheeks. “No reason,” Stiles yelps, struggling to get his footing and grasping at a whirlwind of puffy fur.

Or the one where Stiles goes thrift shopping and steals an alpha's shirt. And gets a lot more than he bargains for.

Sweet Buns by skoosiepants

(1/1 I 17,936 I Teen I Sterek)

Stiles hasn’t seen Derek Hale this close up for over a decade. He looks almost exactly the same, except somehow he seems even bigger and broodier—criminally handsome, with soft-looking dark scruff, heavy brows, light hazel eyes. His gaze zeros in on Stiles almost immediately, and his scowl lightens minutely in what looks like surprise.

Stiles is acutely aware that he has melted butter and cinnamon all over his face, and tries to surreptitiously wipe it with the ends of his sweater-sleeve.

Or-

The a/b/o bakery au with feelings

Don't Worry Baby by kalpurna

(1/1 I 20,276 I Explicit I Sterek)

"You know you're allowed to ask for vanilla sex, right?" he says, afterwards. "We can do whatever you want. That's kind of the point."

Derek doesn't respond.

Binomial Coefficients by DevilDoll

(1/1 I 20,783 I Teen I Sterek)

In which brainy freshman Stiles Stilinski wants star quarterback Derek Hale to join the math team, AKA math nerds in love.

So Shed Your Skin and Lets Get Started by halfhardtorock

(2/2 I 21,801 I Explicit I Sterek)

He's sixteen and in the woods on the wrong side of the town-line and he's so fucking fucked.

He knows he's not supposed to run, they teach that to you in preschool (don't run from a Were, back away slowly and walk with care), but they never told you how it would feel, standing alone in the dark with your heart beating in your throat as those glowing eyes tracked you from the shadows.

To Have Outlived the Night by stillane

(1/1 I 23,448 I Mature I Sterek)

Derek steps away from the window. “You helped me. They took that as a declaration.”