#or does that sound like Austria x America

[hetalia-text-messages]

4:57

[rebellconquerer]

hi, I don’t know if your inbox is still open for requests,if not that’s completely fine :). If so, I would like to request “Fuck, I need a drink to deal with you.” For Bucky x Sarah. Thank you.

It's a little long and a little different from my other bits of writing, less cute, more character study but I hope you still like it anon! Cross posted to AO3

She watches them get out of the truck, loud and boisterous in that way she's learnt means that they're ok. She knows they've been back stateside for several days already, spending extended time at the base in DC while Sam trains Torres and James continues his cross-country journey training special forces personnel. Hell, she had even video chatted with them but there is some part of her that does not settle, cannot settle, until she can touch them and see for herself that they are safe.

"You're a menace Buck, you know that right? Is it something about the 40s that made you and Steve like this or did the two of you find each other because everyone else saw how fucking crazy you were?" Sam asks, voice light with laughter.

Sarah watches the easy line of James' shoulders as he reaches into the back for his duffle, she can tell a lot about the headspace he's in based solely off of how he holds himself. She's had to learn his little tells because he still doesn't talk as much as she'd like.

"I trained with 12-year-old Dora's that were more impressive than this asshole and that was practically their after school program. It's not my fault he took exception to that comparison." James replies, glaring mockingly at Sam. She can tell they've been having whatever conversation this is for a while.

"You know if you keep breaking their soldiers the US military isn't going to continue inviting you back." Sam's smirk is playful though, clearly harassing James more for the sake of the harassment than out of any actual concern.

"Thank-fucking-Christ. See if I miss them." James grumbles, turning to face her with his duffle draped over his shoulders.

She is moving towards them before she consciously tells her feet to go. She isn't some damsel left behind though, so there will be no running and leaping into his arms, no matter how much she may want that. Instead, she strolls casually out her front door and down her porch steps with her arms tucked safely in her pockets, face excited, but in a cool and controlled way.

She watches as his smile broadens into a grin at the sight of her and her cool and controlled expression fails immediately as she grins back at him.

Sam makes a retching sound somewhere to the right of her but she isn't paying him any attention, thank you very much.

"Welcome back." She manages around her smile, technically to both of them but she's staring at James.

"Thank you, kind sister. You know it was a really rough couple of weeks, but it's the support of family that really holds us togeth- oh Christ, just kiss him already. It's not like watching the two of you make eyes at each other is any better." Sam ends in an exasperated mutter.

She chuckles lightly, her eyes darting around James' face, taking in the familiar blue of his eyes along with the healing bruises high on his left cheek. Her brother occasionally has good ideas.

He drops his bag on the dew-wet grass of the early morning and is reaching for her as she stretches up slightly to meet his soft, chapped lips.

"Sam, is it very hard being Captain America and having to stop white panther over there from doing stupid shit every ten minutes? As a matter of fact, yes, it is. Thank you for asking, sister of mine." Sam's voice grumbles as he moves away from them towards the front door.

His solo conversation forces a huff of laughter from her lips. It's become one of her favourite things, laughing into James' mouth. She pulls away from him, feeling sorted for the first time in weeks.

"Hi Sam! How are you? It's been so long since I last spoke to you 10 hours ago." She says brightly.

She watches the back of Sam's headshake ruefully as he keeps walking away from them and hears James pick back up his bag as he begins strolling lazily beside her.

"What's all this, then?" Sam asks as he gets to the porch, looking down at the three boxes piled outside.

"I'm not sure. It came last night. It's for you." She says with a small twist, turning to face James.

He raises his eyebrows in surprised confusion.

"For me? And it came here?" He questions.

Sam leans over, grabbing the still-sealed envelope off the top of the boxes.

"It came 'Care of Captain America' but yeah, it's for you." She says easily, hopping up the steps in one go and turning to lean her hip against the old wooden railing.

"Do you mind?" Sam asks James, already moving to open the envelope. James shakes his head, leaning on a post on the other side of the staircase.

Sam's eyes scan quickly back and forth over the letter before his mouth narrows into a small frown.

"It's from the Smithsonian." He finally says, handing the letter over to James.

"The Smithsonian?" James mumbles, taking the letter and she watches his expression freeze then go utterly blank as he reads it.

"Why is the Smithsonian writing to you?" She asks with concern.

Neither answer her for a moment just long enough that she starts to feel genuine concern.

"Dear Sergeant Barnes," James begins to read, pausing to clear his throat.

By the end of the sentence, James' voice has just the barest hints of a wobble.

"My name is Eloise Lambert and I have been the lead curator and researcher behind the Captain America and the Howling Commandos exhibit for nearly 40 years. I understand this must seem a drop in the hat to you, but it has represented my life's work. While I cannot begin to understand what it must be like to find out strangers have been heavily involved in the study of your life while you were still living it, please forgive me the eccentricities of an old woman to tell you that you were always my favourite.

During the initial stages of the creation of the exhibit in Washington and at its sister sites, several pieces of memorabilia were gifted to the institution by your family. In the intervening years, through research and the continued graciousness of your siblings, we have amassed quite an impressive list of items from your pre-war life. Additionally, in the often hard and lonely years that followed the blip, Captain Rogers also donated several items related to both your lives. It is my belief, however, that he gave us these items in good faith, believing you were permanently gone.

In the aftermath of the returns and the continued examination of the cultural damage that can be wrought by museums, especially with the years of discourse that followed the attack on The Museum of Great Britain, the Smithsonian has wrestled with what to do with the pieces that we have that are not fit for public showing. It is my honest belief that not only would your family and Captain Rogers want you to have these items, but that good morality compels us to return them to you. This endeavour has turned out to be harder than initially anticipated as though I am assured you returned after the blip, no one seems to know quite how to find you. With our continued efforts to locate you failing, and possible sightings of you with Captain America, we have decided to send these items to Captain Wilson in the hopes that they will eventually find their way to you.

Time is a cruel mistress, and as I approach the end of my life, the meaningfulness of old memories has become increasingly clear. I hope this has remained true for you as well, even through your painful but most extraordinary journey, however, should these items bring more pain than happy remembrance, please feel free to return them. The appropriate address is enclosed below."

He looks down at the unassuming boxes with the same carefully blank look on his face.

"Well… that's unexpected." He finally says, looking over at her with questioning eyes.

James drops to his knees, pulling one of the boxes to him at random and opening it gently. He lets out a soft breath as he pulls out the object on top.

Sarah strays closer, looking over his shoulder. It's a framed photograph of him in his military uniform, smiling easily at something behind the camera and in the right lower corner, held in place by some kind of cloth housing, is a small medal.

"Holy shit. Is that a Silver Star, Buck?" Sam asks, stooping down beside James whose thumb brushes reverently over the frame.

"Yeah," James says, voice cracking a little but a small smile curving his lips. "They gave it to me after Azzano, when I got back from Austria… the first time Zola…" he drifts off, glancing over at Sam.

The first time he had been captured. The first time he had been experimented on.

"I had sent it to my ma. They'd sent her a letter listing me as missing and presumed captured. Becca said she'd spent every spare minute she had in the pews at St. Leo's." He huffs out a small laugh, eyes going unfocused. "So I sent her the star and the picture in my next letter, as an apology."

Both Sarah and Sam are quiet, unsure what to say. A moment later James seems to shake the fog away and pushes the photo back into the box, standing abruptly.

"I'm gonna grab a shower, get cleaned up before the boys wake up." He mutters, old Brooklyn accent seeping in around the edges to soften his consonants, the way it always seems to when he gets lost in his past.

Sam stands slowly, making eye contact with her for a second before she steps up beside James.

"Are you ok?" She asks lowly.

He pushes the open box to the side of the door with his foot, then leans in and drops a quick kiss on her cheek.

"I'm good. Honest. I'll come back to it." He replies, shouldering his bag and stepping inside. She turns to look at Sam. He just shrugs and follows James into the house.

**********************************

The rest of the day continues like every one of her weekends since she began to be called mom more often than Sarah.

AJ wakes first and is downstairs pulling out dishes and mixing bowls for her because 'weekend mornings mean pancakes, mom!'

Then he's in the living room, TV on, watching whatever cartoon is his latest obsession. This month it's Clone Wars.

Sam comes down next, surprising AJ who hadn't noticed the truck in the driveway or the shoes by the entrance, so he's folded into the mandatory cartoons.

Cass is a late sleeper. Will sleep till the early afternoon if left to his own devices usually, but if Sam is AJs favourite adult, James is Cass's, so she's not all that surprised to see him at James' elbow when he does come downstairs in grey sweats and an old, soft-looking graphic T proclaiming Wakanda Forever. Bucky wanders into the kitchen, Cass right behind him and sets up to help with breakfast.

So the morning goes, with laughter and sticky spills and chocolate chips, until Sarah all but forgets about the boxes heavy with history sitting on her porch. It's not until much later, when the dishes are already washed and packed away, loads of laundry completed and her eyes tired from staring at income and expense spreadsheets from the restaurant, that she realises she hasn't seen hide nor hair of James and his shadow in some time.

Needing a break from excel, Sarah stretches languidly, feeling the bones in her back pop and realign before she stands, strolling through the house to find them. She hears the soft murmur of James' voice and the gentle cadence of Cass asking questions coming from the porch.

The door is propped open, only the screen door closed, so she can see them from the entryway and she has to stop to take it in for a moment. They are sitting on the floor, Cass in between James' outstretched legs with his back curved into James' chest, going through one of his boxes from the Smithsonian.

"And what about this?" Cass asks, pulling out a piece of ancient-looking folded paper.

"You tell me," James replies softly, unfolding the delicate age stained paper, hand over hand with Cass.

"Um, it's another letter. From Ruth?"

"My youngest sister,” James mumbles. “What does it say?"

"De-dearest James,” Cass begins to read. “I was so ple-ple-as-"

"Pleased," James corrects lightly.

"Pleased to read your most re-recent letter. We are so glad that you are away from the front for the next few weeks… what does that mean? Front of what?" Cass asks, turning to look up at James, whose eyes are sombre but kind, seemingly unable to look away from the old words.

"It means where the fighting was during the war."

Sarah stands watching the easy care James takes with her son and feels like she can't catch her breath. He's not doing it for her, she knows. He is sitting and sharing his life with her child, going over his reading with him, solely because he wants to. Because Cass wants to be near to him. She moves her hand to her chest, rubbing absently, trying to work out the heavy feeling that has settled over her heart.

"Why didn't she want you to fight? You're really good at it." Cass says with the carelessness of the young.

James hums consideringly, going through the rest of the letters in the batch in his hand. "I wasn't as good at it then, and she was worried about me."

She chooses that moment to join them. "What're ya'll up to out here?" She asks, coming to sit cross-legged on the other side of the boxes.

James looks up at her, eyes lighter than she expects, and smiles. "Just going through them, you know," he replies. She wants to ask if he is ok, if he needs time or space or any of the 20 other things she could probably come up with but thinks it might be better to just let him be.

She reaches into the box in front of her and comes out with another stack of papers. She gently pulls them apart then freezes. They're copies of his enlistment documents. The top right-hand corner of one has a faded, black and white photo of a man, barely more than a boy really, with familiar blue eyes but no hint of the darkness James carries.

"Bucky Barnes I presume." She says softly, holding the picture out to him.

Cass' little hands pull James' arm down to his level as he takes the photo so he can see too.

"That's not you!" Cass says, scrunching up his nose.

James makes a face and looks down at him askance.

"And why not?"

Cass shrugs. "You look so old now"

James absolutely cackles at that. Head thrown back, hand over his heart. Sarah tries to stifle her own laugh and look disapprovingly at Cass. Nothing beats the open honesty of the innocent.

"Real vicious, kid. I think I look ok for 106." He finally gets out.

Cass seems unimpressed, scrambling away from James to poke at another box as Sam’s head appears around the front door.

"What's going on out here? Grandpa is laughing?"

James just shrugs.

"Your nephew is speaking truth to power," Sarah replies with a smirk. James gives her a baleful glare while Sam takes in the scene around them, giving Sarah a significant look that she can't really read.

"Is this you too, Uncle Buck?" Cass asks, holding up a sketchbook.

Sarah looks over to see an impressive likeness of a young James in side profile, a small smile curving his lips as a thin cigarette dangles from the corner of his mouth.

James nods, holding his hand out for the sketchbook as a grin overtakes his face. Sam comes to sit, dropping down heavily beside her as Sarah switches to laying on her stomach, head perched on her hands. James places the dog eared book on the floor between them.

Cass scrunches up his nose again. "Is that a cigarette? Those are bad!"

James nods, looking up as Cass comes to lean heavily against his shoulder. "You're right but gimme a break. It was 1938. We didn't know that yet."

Sarah reaches out and flips through the book. There are drawings of the view from a fire escape at different times of day with the vague outlines of people coming and going, a few of a young woman with old, old eyes and a lot of sketches of James. Sometimes just bits and pieces of him, how his eyes look happy or sad or tired. His hands holding a cigarette or a beer or fixing things. Some are whole body portraits, from James in a full suit to him in nothing but an undershirt and trousers, his suspenders hanging off his shoulders.

The last few pages have several drawings of a delicate-looking young man who’s almost pretty, soft hair and a pointed chin, but with eyes that blaze.

"Who's that?" She asks.

James gets a complicated look on his face, wrapping an arm around Cass's small frame.

"Portrait of the artist as a young man." He whispers.

"No shit," Sam says softly, reaching to twist the book more towards himself. Sarah is so shocked she doesn't even remember to yell at Sam about his language.

She stares down at the image. She's seen the hologram of Captain America before the serum in museums, like everyone else, but it's always the same image: him in some military clothes with an ill-fitted helmet on, before it slides into that famous shot of him, almost 6 and a half feet of righteous fury. She studies the picture some more. She thinks she can see it, see him, in the curve of his mouth and the intensity in his gaze. She supposes America doesn't want the world reminded of the small boy behind one of the greatest symbols of 'American Exceptionalism'. She doesn't really know much about the man that Steve Rogers was. She never particularly cared for what he represented. She wonders now if he even liked what he came to be seen as.

"And the woman? She's in here a lot too." Sam asks.

James smiles crookedly. "His ma. Her name was Sarah."

When Sarah's sharp eyes flick to him, he's already looking at her, smile widening minutely before he sighs.

"She died a month after my 18th. TB. Money got even tighter after that. Eventually moved with him into a tiny little apartment near Red Hook, let my Ma rent out my room at home. Anything for a buck, you know."

Cass gets bored with the conversation and wanders back inside, probably to harass his brother.

Sarah looks at her namesake, trying to wrap her mind around this whole other life that James has lived. She flips through the pages again. By far the most common subject is James, the lines of him traced with familiarity and clearly with love. Sarah flicks her eyes up to James who is watching her quietly.

“Ask” he commands.

She makes a face. “What? I don’t know what you-”

“Just ask, Sarah.” he interrupts, eyes playful. She looks back down at the drawings, unable to resist trailing her fingers lightly along the charcoal lines.

“Well… I mean there are a lot of drawings of you here… were you two ever-”

“No,” he says with a put upon smile.

“Hey! You told me to ask! I didn’t even get to finish my question!” she chuckles. James rolls his eyes heavenward.

“God, I need a drink to deal with you,” he mumbles. Sarah pouts and Sam also starts to laugh. “You think you’re the first person to ask if I was sleeping with Captain America? God, if I had a nickel every time someone asked me, I’d be a millionaire.”

Sam shrugs. “Man, if I had a nickel every time someone asked me if you were sleeping with Steve, I’d be a millionaire.”

Bucky laughs at that. It takes him a minute to settle down.

"Steve got real sick winter of '37. Didn't really shake it for the rest of the next year. Would get a couple of good weeks then his breathing was shit again. Spent most of the year in bed. Couldn’t manage to do too much but draw… didn't have too many models though. So it was what he could see from the window and well… me. I think the priest came to the house 3 or 4 times that year.” he trails off, eyes seeming to stare past the sketches.

“Priest?” she asks.

Bucky nods, leaning back against the house. “Steve's ma was real religious. Wouldn'ta let us live it down if Steve passed without last rights. It was touch and go a few times.”

They’re all silent for a bit after that, letting it sink in. She looks back down at the drawings, how much they seem like they are about to start moving, how well they seem to capture James’ essence.

“He loved you though, you can’t draw someone like that without a lot of love.” She whispers looking up to see Sam and James share a look.

“Steve loved… hard,” Sam replies. James nods.

“Could be real irritable about it, but yeah. His pa died when he was real little. Ma never remarried. Between Steve being so sickly and his ma being a single mother, things were rough. My parents owned a little deli. Wasn’t much but it meant we were doing a lot better for a lot longer than a lot of people until we weren’t.” James says with a shrug. Sarah barely breathes, she’s never heard him talk about his past so freely.

“We lived in the same building. My ma had a real bleeding heart. Came over from Italy as a teenager… I don’t think she ever forgot how people looked at her in the beginning when her accent was real strong.” he scoffs. “Never forgot being run out of her own country either. Didn’t much take to what other people thought. Helped out whenever she could, practically adopted them. There were times when things got bad, I was all he had.” James eventually finishes.

She supposes she can see it then, why Steve Rogers risked his life, risked his freedom, to get James back. Sam just nods slowly, like he’s heard it all before. Hell, he probably has. Sam pulls the last unopened box to him and starts carefully going through it as Sarah relaxes in the gentle breeze in the early afternoon.

“Damn. Didn’t think they’d give this back.” Sam says, pulling a dusty old leather case with a glass front out. He flips the case open slowly, turning it to face James who lets out a quiet release of breath.

Sarah frowns. It’s a medal of some kind, but she doesn’t recognize it. “What is that?”

Sam looks at her, his face very solemn. “It’s a medal of honour. Highest military award you get. A lot of times posthumously.”

James takes the medal, looking down at it with wonder. “I’d never seen it,” he says softly. “Steve said it was Peggy who made sure we both got them. Wanted the world to know that we died for something even if no one could be told exactly what. I don’t even know who it was presented to." James stares at the small medallion with an expression of adoration on his face.

A moment later there is a loud crash from inside the house followed by a suspicious silence. Sarah moves to stand but Sam waves her off, standing first to go investigate.

James leans back against the wall, just staring at the small medallion while Sarah watches him. He's occasionally so much more than she expects and yet still so very human.

"You are handling all this a lot better than I expected you to." She says, unable to keep the thought in.

James pauses. "Honestly, I don't think I ever expected to get any of these things back, and I certainly never expected to have anyone to share all this with." He replies, looking at her with such deep affection, she has to look away.

"Can I ask another question that may make you uncomfortable?"

"You literally asked me if I was fucking my best friend 10 minutes ago, I don't think anything is off the table." He replies with a small smirk and a head tilt. She huffs out a quiet laugh at that.

"How come more things from this century don't seem to… shock you? No 'for coloured only signs', gay marriage, interracial dating… “ she adds, pointing between the two of them. "Most people your age have pretty set opinions on a lot of those things. "

He frowns, tilting his head in that way that she knows means she has shocked him.

"Where's this coming from?"

She shrugs, reaching for one of the small piles of letters littering the floor between them. If she's honest it's a thought she's had before, but always assumed it had something to do with him not being fully unaware of the passage of time given the intermittent awakenings of the Soldier, or the fact that he'd basically been kept as property himself. She'd never felt entirely comfortable asking before, but this James, the one who reads his old letters to her son, seems so much more like an open book than ever before.

"Just… being reminded that you really were born in 1917 and the world of your youth looked very very different." Is what she chooses to say.

James seems to think for a minute and she appreciates that. Appreciates him trying to give her an answer that feels honest to him.

"A strong man who has known power all his life may lose respect for that power, but a weak man knows the value of it. Erskine said that to Steve before he gave him the serum. Steve was fond of that quote." He says quietly.

She frowns.

"Not to call you out James but this guy might have been a few pounds lighter than you but I don't know if anyone would call him weak." She replies holding up the enrollment form with his picture.

He shakes his head, digging into the box in front of him and pulling out another old frame with an ancient-looking sepia portrait, colour bleeding at edges. He hands it to her.

She looks down at it. It's a family. Woman, man, four children. Taken in that old-timey way that you only ever see in horror movies these days. James looks like he's maybe 16 or 17. It's truly stunning.

"This is them, isn't it? Your whole family." She asks. He nods, looking down at his hands.

"You know how I said, my ma came over from Italy?"

"Yeah"

"Well she did, but her first language wasn't Italian. It was Romani."

"Romani?" Sarah asks with a frown, she doesn't think she's heard of that before.

"They used to call them gypsies. Weren't real popular in the US. Neither in Europe. She'd spent a lot of her life afraid simply for being born what she was, but she was proud and tough and unwilling to be afraid anymore. She wasn't going to let any of us forget her roots. Wasn't going to allow any of us to turn into bullies."

Sarah stares at the faded photo focusing on the woman.

"What was her name?" She questions.

"Maria." He replies, voice soft.

She looks tiny next to the man in the photo, a dainty little thing with full lips set in a stubborn looking line and proud eyes. She can see the resemblance to James though, can trace the lines of his features in her face.

"She sounds like an amazing woman," Sarah says looking up, surprised to find James studying her with almost the same intensity that she was studying the photo.

"Yeah… I seem to know a lot of those." He replies, with a strange, crooked little smile.

She blushes at that, feeling heat spread along her face and down the line of her throat at the unexpected compliment. She holds his gaze though, lets the moment sit between them warm and heavy somewhere in her chest as the bird songs continue and the wind rustles through the trees. For a moment, sitting amongst the ancient memories that helped create this impossible man, time finally seems to pause in deference to them.

[collapsedsquid]

In Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future (2018, Verso), we examined what futures could plausibly emerge from the current geopolitical order. Will the nation-state-based zero-sum parceling of territorial sovereignty persist in the face of what is commonly described as the world’s biggest collective action problem? Will that world remain in the thrall of capital? Even among the very rich, the notion that modes of life that do not exacerbate climate change are incompatible with the endless accumulation and energy throughput of contemporary capitalism is beginning to sound like common sense. As the author of the UK government’s 2006 Stern Review famously put it, climate change “must be regarded as market failure on the greatest scale the world has seen.”

These two questions—of sovereignty and of capitalism—point toward four rough paths. We call these Climate Leviathan, Climate Mao, Climate Behemoth, and Climate X. Climate Leviathan describes an emergent global order committed to the consolidation of capitalism via the organization of a form of planetary sovereignty that can overcome the collective action problem. Climate Mao would represent a similarly planetary-scale “solution,” but one dedicated to an anti-capitalist order. Climate Behemoth describes a global arrangement animated by a chauvinistic capitalist and nationalist politics that denies—until it can only denounce—the threat climate change poses to national capitals. Climate X is the name we give the collection of movements that pursue global climate justice: movements that build non-capitalist political economies, and construct solidarities at multiple scales that reject the political logic of sovereignty.

These four broad trajectories are not equally likely. Climate Leviathan is the most plausible, if not the most preferable, for reasons similar to those behind Fredric Jameson’s famous line: “it is easier to imagine the end of the world than to imagine the end of capitalism.” We are already witnessing Climate Leviathan emerge as common sense in much of the liberal- capitalist part of the world. It is a planetary mode of power organized around adaptation, in an effort to perpetuate the current global distribution of power and wealth. It has the power of incumbency, along with the political-economic, military, and ideological power of the states and regimes that judge the existing order worth preserving. The collective desperation with which much of the progressive community in North America and Western Europe watches events unfold at the Copenhagen or Paris climate negotiations shows a widespread desire for a climate sovereignty that decides who can emit and how much, who and how to adapt, and how to apportion the costs. Many of us seem to long for someone to determine how things are going to be, in the interest of saving life on Earth.

Climate Behemoth also has an orientation toward the capitalist status quo, but unlike Leviathan it is vociferously “anti-globalist”—in other words, it is a capitalist order characterized by a reactionary, usually racist, macho-nationalism. Climate Behemoth today expresses itself most fiercely in climate denialism, a conspiracy-mongering fear that an emergent, cryptically hegemonic Climate Leviathan is the foremost “globalist” threat to the nationalist-capitalist ideal that animates much of the contemporary Republican Party and segments of the Conservative parties in the UK and Canada.

Behemoth is a significant threat to global stability especially insofar as its current seats of power number among them the United States. We finished the book in mid-2017, soon after Donald Trump was installed in the White House, not entirely prepared for how well he was cast in this role. Similarly belligerent reactionary denialist blocs, mostly led by Trump sycophants, have captured executive power in a few other states in both the Global South and North, most notably Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil. Trump and Bolsonaro are among the few world leaders to label climate change a “hoax”; Vladimir Putin and the House of Saud also occasionally express “skepticism,” and there is a not insignificant degree of support for similar posturing in some countries whose states acknowledge the challenge of global warming. At the electoral level, this is particularly visible in the ascendance of a few Trump wannabes at the subnational level, like Doug Ford in Ontario (Canada’s most populous and powerful province).

Still, it is fair to say that a big part of the reason Climate Behemoth seems so threatening today is attributable to its Americanism; Russia and Saudi Arabia’s provocations have much to do with their relationships with the White House. The largely white, male, sexist, and racist right wing with which Behemoth is associated can wreak havoc even when it acknowledges that climate change is real. Witness how Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland and host of the 2018 UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) meetings in Katowice, doubled down on coal and derailed the EU’s decarbonization plan, or the actions of the far-right FPÖ government of Austria, which does not so much deny climate change as refuse to talk about it. Yet setting aside the real possibility that Trump might refuse to cede power peacefully, the precarious electoral basis of the few actually existing Climate Behemoths is good reason to doubt its long-term endurance.

[crashdevlin]

Bottle- 17: Goodbye Sokovia (FIN)

Bottle Masterlist

Author’s Note: Originally posted to ao3 (This is an edited and improved version), I work in info from the comics (Like Hawkeye was married to Mockingbird and Red Skull had a disappointing daughter) and I took a few liberties with what the scepter could do (but not really because the Mind Stone was used to create the Twins so what I did is not that far-fetched). This is a lot more angst than I realized when I wrote it, but it’s compelling angst.

Summary: Cassandra Campbell is a Stark Industries lab tech with dubious genetics and a history with the new Director of SHIELD. She’s been working in New York since right before the Chitauri invasion. What does she have to do with Loki, and what will happen when he returns? Starts post TDW and continues to the end of AoU.

Pairing(s): Phil Coulson x OFC (Past), Loki x OFC (Non-con), Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC

Word Count: 3571

Story Warnings: So many, worst (to me) are bolded. Younger woman/older man relationship,non-con, mutilation, torture, mind control, PTSD, depression, alcoholism, forced abortions, bad things (non-con) in a church, insomnia, memory manipulation, eventual consensual oral sex (female and male receiving),

Chapter Warnings: canon-compliant violence, 

Cassie sat in a jump seat as they flew into Sokovia. Pietro stared down at her from the seat next to her. "You've really never killed anyone?"

A flash of a lab hit her brain, but she shook it off. "No. Never." The words came out with a slight accent.

"What are you called?" Pietro asked.

Cassie chuckled. "I've had many names. Vierhundert Zweiundfünfzig, Junior, Joanna, Cassie, Alex, Red Queen. 'Cassie' is my preference."

"Why do you speak with an accent when you talk to us, but not to the Avengers?" Wanda asked, from her seat on the other side of Cassie.

"Because you're in my head, I think. Because you can hear the truth of my thoughts, which are coming in more and more as German. Why do you think that is?"

"You have... hidden pieces that are starting to leak," Wanda said, staring uncomfortably into Cassie's eyes.

"I was afraid you'd say something like that."

"This is your fear. That the hidden pieces might come out. Why did you see the man in the armor?" Cassie looked away and Wanda gasped. "You made yourself see him. How?"

"He is a fear. He is a painful memory and a future fear. But he's one that I know I can deal with. I thought of him as soon as I saw your... red electric mist. I couldn't let you show me the other thing."

"You are very strong," Pietro mused. "Even I can't hold her back from my mind."

"Neither could I. I just pushed the influence a little."

"I can't do that."

"No one can. I mean, that I've met," Wanda said.

"I'm sure it's not a big deal. I just have good fortitude. Strong will of mind." Cassie looked away as she realized Clint was listening.

"It is big deal," Wanda insisted, staring at her in that uncomfortable intense way again. "You don't want-"

"Wanda," Cassie interrupted, her voice strong and clear, with no sign of the accent. "I've had people in my head. You aren't the first and you probably won't be the last, the way my life goes. If I were not able to control, even a little bit, of what my brain does in these situations, I would have gone mad instead of going to Austria."

"You had no control when you were a child. They were completely in-"

"I don't want to hear it, I don't want to know," Cassie whispered, standing. "We're about to go into a huge, deadly fight and I can't have my attention fractured."

"You're afraid it will break you, if you know," Wanda whispered.

"It would."

**********************

Steve stood near the cockpit of the jet as everyone finished their final prep before the fight. "Ultron knows we're coming. Odds are we'll be riding into heavy fire, and that's what we signed up for." He smiled slightly at Cassie. "But the people of Sokovia, they didn't. So our priority is getting them out. All they want is to live their lives in peace, and that's not going to happen today. But we can do our best to protect them. And we can get the job done, and find out what Ultron's been building. We find Romanoff, and we clear the field. Keep the fight between us. Ultron thinks we're monsters and we're what's wrong with the world. This isn't just about beating him. It's about whether he's right."

"Orders?" Clint asked.

"Pietro is our warning system. He can make it around Novi Grad to quickly to make sure those in charge get the evac started."

"I will get people started leaving. I don't how many I can reach at one time, I've never tried, but... as many as I can," Wanda offered.

"Clint, take the high ground, keep us apprised of movements around the city. Thor, you take Bruce to the fortress where Natasha is being held. Banner finds Nat, you find out what he's building. Vision, you follow Tony and burn Ultron's ties to the internet so he can't run. Cassie, until such a time as you are needed elsewhere, you work on getting people out of the city, and take down as many Ultrons as possible. Okay?"

Cassie smiled, slightly. "Well, it's nothing special, but at least you aren't trying to leave me behind this time." She tightened the holster belt around her waist and stepped toward the door. "Let's go kick some robot ass."

"Language," Steve said, with a smile.

"You want lift?" Pietro asked, picking Cassie up and running without waiting for an answer. He came to a stop and dropped her off on the other side of the bridge into Novi Grad. "Not too fast for you?"

She laughed. "Pietro... glad you're on our side now. Get to the Polizeistation."

"Good to be a good guy, huh?"

"What, you didn't see that coming, Pietro?" She smirked and ran for the far buildings.

*********************************

The robots were easy. A few well-placed bullets, a hit to the processor with a heavy baton, a knife in the same locale... one time just a well-executed kick. No, it was when the landscape started to hover higher and higher that Cassie had a problem. "How are we supposed to save the people from a flying city?!" she shouted at the Ultron closest to her, before ripping its head off.

"Do you see? The beauty of it, the inevitability. You rise, only to fall," Ultron's voice answered her from a robot clawing its way to her from underground. "You, Avengers, you are my meteor, my swift and terrible sword and the earth will crack with the weight of your failure. Purge me from your computers, turn my own flesh against me. It means nothing. When the dust settles, the only thing living in this world will be metal." Cassie stomped on its head, growling at the implication.

"I'm not a fucking meteor. Spent my whole life trying to avoid causing-" she mumble to herself, grabbing an Ultron and ripping its arm off. She bashed it into the robot's head repeatedly.

"Cap, you got incoming," Stark said, over comms.

"Incoming already came in," Steve groaned. "Stark, you worry about bringing the city back down safely. The rest of us have one job: tear these things apart. You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed, walk it off."

"Funny." Pietro was suddenly right next to her, pulling a robot to pieces. "Is Captain America always so funny?"

"Only in a fight. How you doin'?" Cassie asked, breathlessly.

"Better than you. You're bleeding."

"I'm fine. Not dead yet. How are you not bleeding?"

"Too fast to bleed. None of them can see me coming."

Cassie laughed. "Okay. Sounds good. I'm going to the bridge. Sounds like they need a bit of help there. Find Wanda, meet me there?"

Pietro gave a small salute and disappeared. A few moments later, Barton came over the comms. "All right. We're all clear here."

"We are not clear!" Steve responded. "We are very not clear!"

"All right. Coming to you."

"I'm halfway there!" Cassie said, picking up her pace. Cassie jumped onto the back of an Ultron and plunged her knife into its processor as Natasha and Steve destroyed several over by the bridge. "Welcome to the fight, Natalia. How was your downtime?"

"Cramped and cold. Just like I like it," Nat answered, smirking a little as they finished off the last Ultron in their area.

"The next wave's gonna hit any minute. What have you got, Stark?" Steve asked, stalking through the city.

"Well, nothing great. Maybe a way to blow up the city. That'll keep it from impacting the surface. If you guys can get clear," Stark came over their earpieces.

"I asked for a solution, not an escape plan."

"Impact radius is getting bigger every second. We're going to have to make a choice."

"Cap, these people are going nowhere. If Stark finds a way to blow this rock..." Natasha started as the three of them looked out at the clouds, creating a thick fog.

"Not 'til everyone's safe," Steve insisted.

"Everyone up here versus everyone down there?" Natasha pushed. "There's no math there."

"I hate to agree, but this is thousands versus billions. Literally," Cassie whispered.

"I'm not leaving this rock with one civilian on it."

"I didn't say we should leave." Steve took a deep breath as he turned to Romanoff, who just nodded to confirm she was saying what he thought she was. "There's worse ways to go. Where else am I gonna get a view like this?"

"Glad you like the view, Romanoff. It's about to get better," Nick Fury's voice came through their comms. Cassie laughed, excitedly, as a helicarrier broke through the clouds. "Nice, right? I pulled her out of mothballs with a couple of old friends. She's dusty, but she'll do."

"Fury, you son of a bitch," Steve said, with a smile.

"Ooh! You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

"Not since the ‘40s, he doesn't," Cassie wrapped her arms around Nat and Steve and jumped down, excitedly, as Pietro showed up in front of them.

"This is SHIELD?"

"This is what SHIELD's supposed to be," Steve answered.

"This is not so bad."

"Let's load 'em up," Steve said, rushing to grab Sokovian citizens.

"You know, this might not end horribly, after all," Pietro said, to Cassie as she rushed for a building full of people.

"Don't say things like that. As soon as you start being optimistic, things go bad."

"Oh, what can go bad now?" Pietro asked, before disappearing.

"So much," Ultron said, dropping down behind Cassie, grabbing her and flying away. He dropped her on top of a building and examined her. "You're the Hydra one, right?"

"I'm not-"

"Made by Hydra in 1989. Trained by that horrid Strucker character. Honestly, anyone who wanted to know about the Avengers need only look to you, their latest recruit. The wolf in sheep's linen."

"What? What are you- you're making less sense than usual."

"You really think you're a righteous woman? How sad for you. You're more tangled in their strings than I ever was. Assuming you make it to that battlecarrier, ask your friend Fury about Operation Playtime Distortion. I think it'll change your life," Ultron said, before flying away, leaving her on the top of the building.

"Playtime dis- what?" she mumbled to herself as she grabbed an electric cable and used it to abseil down the building.

"Thor, I got a plan!" Stark said when she was about halfway down the building.

"We're out of time. They're coming for the core," Thor responded.

"Rhodey, get the rest of the people on board that carrier."

"On it."

"Avengers, time to work for a living."

"Screw you, Stark. Your suit and your computer do all your work," Cassie said as she got to the bottom of the building and started running for the church.

"I'll buy you a drink when we get out of this," Stark said. "Romanoff? You and Banner better not be playing hide the zucchini."

"Relax, Shell-head. Not all of us can fly."

"Thank you, Nat!" Cassie said, running up to the church as Natasha crashed a truck into the fence around the perimeter.

"What's the drill?" Natasha asked.

"This is the drill. If Ultron gets a hand on the core, we lose."

Hulk jumped into the church as Ultron flew closer. "Is that the best you can do?!" Thor shouted. Ultron just lifted his left hand and a swarm of silver entered their vision.

"You had to ask." Steve said, sarcastically.

"This is the best I can do," Ultron answered.

"If they're all here, then they aren't there, so... let's do this," Cassie whispered.

"This is exactly what I wanted. All of you against all of me. How could you possibly hope to stop me?"

"Well, like the old man said. Together," Tony said, looking toward Steve.

Hulk shouted, sending a chill down Cassie's spine that readied her for the fight, as Ultrons ran and flew at them, full force. She pulled her knife with her right hand and a baton with her left and went to work, feeling alive and right as she rained destruction upon Ultron. 'Ask about Operation Playtime Distortion', rang through her mind over and over as she stomped and beat and stabbed the robots. As the primary Ultron was lasered down in the ruined churchyard, Cassie beat another one's head into the rubble. Clint put his hand on her shoulder and she had to stop herself from crushing it.

"They'll try to leave the city," she heard Thor say, so she stood.

"We can't let 'em, not even one. Rhodey!"

"We gotta move out. Even I can tell the air is getting thin. You guys get to the boats, I'll sweep for stragglers, be right behind you," Steve said.

"What about the core?" Clint asked as Cassie watched the last few Ultrons being destroyed by Vision and War Machine.

"I'll protect it," Wanda volunteered. Clint turned to her in surprise. "It's my job."

Clint nodded and started out. "Nat. Cass. This way."

"You have a silent thing with the Maximoff chick?" Cassie asked as they ran.

"You have a thing with her brother? Pickin' you up and runnin' off with you."

"He's nice. Fell in with the wrong crowd. I can relate," Cassie said, running ahead of them.

"Cass- I'm gonna hotwire-" Clint shrugged as she disappeared from view and wrenched open the door of a two-seater convertible. "Only enough room for the two of us, anyway," he said to Natasha.

She was already on the helicarrier when the city fell and she watched in horror as it disintegrated just a few moments later. When she greeted the last lifeboat, she was dismayed to see Wanda crying over Pietro's body. "He saved my life," Clint whispered.

Cassie turned into his arms and cried for a few minutes, before pulling away. "What about... Tony? Thor? Everyone else."

Clint just nodded, prompting her to break down further. Clint helped her down to the bridge, where Fury stood staring at the hole that used to be Novi Grad, Sokovia. "This is the best we could have hoped for, Campbell," Fury said, turning and walking up to her as Clint disappeared from her side.

"I know. I know. This is just... we saved as many as we could but... Pietro died... it's just..."

"You thinking of getting out of the superhero game?"

"No. Yes. I don't know. I just... this isn't, at all, how I pictured my life five years ago. When Phil told me that you okayed my release, I... expected to get my Bachelor's and spend the rest of my life in a lab. This... death, carnage... so much destruction."

"If it weren't for Phil, you'd've been in the Fridge when Hydra took it. I wasn't planning to let you out."

Cassie turned to him, swallowing. "You put me in a cell. I've always wondered why. Surely there were better places to put me. Back then, I was just a normal, non-super, child. You could've found a home for me, but you put me in a cell like a criminal." She wouldn't ask. Operation Playtime Distortion wasn't something she wanted to know, she was sure of it.

"Clint mentioned that you might be remembering things. Are you entirely certain you want to be askin' questions, Cassie?"

"You put me in a cell because I did something to deserve it, didn't I?"

"You don't want that answer, Cassie. If I were you, I'd do anything in my power to keep those memories under lock and key."

"Thank you, sir," she said, before turning and walking away.

********************

"We going for shawarma, this time?" Natasha asked, as they approached a Quinjet set to fly them back to New York.

"What?" Cassie asked, looking over at her.

"After the whole thing with Loki and the Chitauris, we went out and Tony bought us shawarma. It was good," Clint said, putting his arm around Cassie's shoulders.

She turned her head slightly. "Clint, can I talk to you?"

"Course. Hey, Tasha, get the jet started. We'll be in in a minute," Clint called, before leading Cassie away from the jet. "What's wrong?"

"When we get back to New York... I'm not going to stay."

"Wha-what do you mean?"

"I'm not quitting or-or running away, this time, but... I need some time to... find myself again. This whole event, it just showed me that... I started running long before Austria. The last few years, I've been running. I ran from telling Phil about Faye, I ran from telling anybody about what Loki did to me. I dropped everything on that one. Stopped going to school, just drinking and working and getting as little sleep as I could survive on, which is very little when you're a superhuman." She looked down at her hands, the dirt and blood caked under her fingernails. "Clint, I don't want to run any more. I want to try for a... a new normal. I want to go back to school, finish my Bachelor's degree. I want to... work in one of Tony's labs again and sleep without fear for a while."

"And you need... space for that?"

"No. I would want you to come with me, or visit me between missions or something."

"I've been considering retirement. I mean, Laura's about to have another baby and she might need some help around the farm. You willing to live-"

"On the farm? Hell, no," she said, with a smile. "But if you live at the farm, I'll visit... as often as I can."

"And where would you be living? Where would you want to start this new normal?" Clint asked, taking her hand and walking back toward the jet.

"I don't know. I haven't had time to think about it. Maybe, West Coast again. Washington, Oregon, maybe," Cassie said, as she walked up the ramp to sit in one of the jump seats.

"What's on the West Coast?" Steve asked.

"She's got to talk to you, Boss," Clint said, pulling Cassie out of the seat pushing her toward Steve and replacing her in the chair.

Cassie looked down, then up into Steve's eyes. "I want to go back to school. Life's short... unless you get frozen for 70 years. I... haven't accomplished any of the things I set out to do when I got released from the Fridge and I just... want to finish something."

"On the West Coast? There aren't any schools in New York?"

"I... I just feel like there might be too many distractions if I stay in New York."

"Distractions. Okay. Will you be coming back after you get your degree?" Steve asked.

"Of course. I love being an Avenger. I love the team, but I have to take this break. I promise it won't be long. I'm only 12 credits from my Bachelor's and then, I can come back."

"You're gonna need a job while you're playing student." Tony walked up. "I've got a small R&D lab in Olympia. You wouldn't be interested in running it, would you?"

"What?"

"Yeah, guy I had on it before had to transfer, or something believable, like that. I don't, actually, have a lab in Olympia, but I could by next week. We doin' this?"

Cassie scoffed in surprise. "People are going to complain about favoritism, Tony."

"Who? To who? Not to me, and Pepper loves you. Besides, who better to head up my experimental R&D division than an exper-"

Cassie put her hand up. "Don't finish that sentence. This is... amazing, thank you." She stepped toward him. "I'm gonna hug you."

"Don't do that. Oh, y-you don't listen." Tony put his hands up as Cassie wrapped her arms around him. "Maybe I shouldn't put you in charge, if you can't follow instructions."

"Shut up, Tony. Don't ruin it," she said, squeezing him before pulling back and looking around the jet.

"You'll come back, though?" Steve asked, again.

"Definitely," she said, with a smile.

"Might be a good time to mention that I, uh, am gonna be heading out, too. Need some family time after what just happened," Clint piped up.

"Nobody saw that coming, did they?" Tony quipped, heading toward the cockpit.

"We won't even be in the same state, Stark. Shut up," Clint said as Cassie looked away from Steve.

"Are you and Clint-" Steve whispered.

"This isn't a conversation for-" Cassie started.

"Yes. Since the party, Steve," Natasha called from the cockpit

"It's no one's business!" Clint shouted, his hand going over his face.

"You're not wrong, Barton. I'd rather not hear about it, honestly," Stark answered.

"I thought you weren't... dating?" Steve whispered.

"I wasn't... but... life is short. Too short. I realized that after Ultron attacked... I'm sorry."

"I really... have poor timing with women," Steve said, walking away.

Cassie flopped down next to Clint. "I feel like we just kicked someone's grandpa," Clint said, under his breath.

Cassie giggled and hit him on the shoulder. "Stop it. That's... not funny."

"Yeah, it is. Come on. He's a hundred."

"And? Mind and body of a thirty year old. You?"

"That's low, Queenie. I expected better from you," Clint smirked, though.

"I've never claimed to be a nice person."

"Oh, but you are."

"Says you," she whispered, leaning her head back against the metal of the jet.

KITCHEN SINK TAGS

@heyitscam99 @wonderlandfandomkingdom @unlikelysamwinchesteronahunt @mrs-meghan-winchester @henrymorganme @lonely-skys @allykat2108

[childofthemoon86]

@francisandtheworldweek Day 4: Demon/Angel au

A Demon’s Pet

Pairing: (pre)FrUk Characters: France, Austria (mentioned), Prussia (mentioned), England, Germany, Russia, North Italy, Sealand (mentioned), Japan, America, Canada. Rating: T for mild suggestive themes Word count: 3209 Cross posted on FF.net Summary: Historically, Demons and Angels have never gotten along, and neither are allowed to cross into the others domain. But for Francis, there’s just something terribly alluring about breaking rules, and no one has to know about his special new pet… But perhaps there’s a reason why some rules mustn’t be broken.

Ah Hell. Francis sighs contently as he walks through the fiery halls. He really does miss this place sometimes. Sure he likes the Top World Just as much as the next Demon, and it’s always a pleasure to carry out an assignment from the Hell King himself, but nothing quite measures up to the sweet scent of Hellfire Ash in the morning. Though, Hell may have it’s certain appeals to other Demons, for Francis, there’s something in particular that he misses. Where other Demons come back for the fires, or the songs of anguish souls, or to bathe in the Blood of the Fallen pools, currently none of that holds his interest. Sure he’s seen how Roderich commands the screams, treating the entire Hall of the Damned like one big orchestra, every soul a string to be plucked at just the right time, every cry of pain or despair tuned to perfection. Frankly, it’s mesmerising, and for Demons who such sound is like sweet music, it’s an utter pleasure to experience. He’s even heard tale of the King personally requesting him to… play, as it were. And he knows Gilbert enjoys his free time in the Ever Soldiers Fields, running gruelling sieges full of suffering. Starvation, disease, gun shot wounds, stab wounds, infections, the works. Fran’s even joined him a few times. As far as Demons go, Gil’s one who really knows how to party. But right now, Fran couldn’t care less about all that. Right now, he only has one thing on his mind. After all, if Roddy can have the Damned to play with, and Gil’s got his toy soldiers, then it’s only fair he has a special play thing too. And he does. But, unlike the others, no one else can find out about Fran’s special little pet project. He’d surely be sent to the Coal Pits for the next millennia if his new toy was discovered, and he can’t have that. Despite what humans may think, Demons do have rules, though not many and most can be bent with the right persuasion, but there is one rule that is absolute among Demons. And Fran might be breaking it just a tiny bit. He grins happily as he skips down to the first level of The Works as they’re know. The Works is the low levels of Hell built to contain all the souls sent to them for ‘eternal damnation’, but for most it’s really more like a stint in a crappy hotel for a few decades before they get recycled back into the living world, — out of the thousands upon thousands of souls that end up in Hell, very few ever receive a sentence past the second or third levels — and here at the first level, it’s pretty much just that. Rooms upon rooms stretched out seemingly endlessly before Fran, but he knows there is a limit, just one too far to be seen. He travels on down the hall, growing more excited as he goes. It’s only been a few days, but he can’t wait to see his pet again. Finally he comes to a stop at a door, much the same as all the others, only the number 3049652287 defines it to be the room he’s after. Cautiously checking that no other Demons are around to see him go in, he stealthily slips inside. There, just were he left him, the Angel sits. It is the one Absolute Law of Hell, no Angels allowed, but come on, Demons are notorious for being mischievous rule breakers, they can’t really fault Fran on this, it was bound to happen. Fran’s red eyes shine as he smirks at his pet, ankle still chained to the bedpost, sat moodily upon the wrinkled and stained red satin sheets of the sleazy motel styled bed, dressed in a simple cloud white toga. The Angel glares back, green eyes full of defiance. But Fran’s smirk soon turns to a sour frown as he looks over the Angels wings, tucked tightly behind his back. Stomping over, Francis unceremoniously grabs a wing by the end, and pulls, sharply tugging it out to full view. The Angel winces, but, like always, refuses to show any other sign of weakness. Fran’s dark eyes scan the wing as his mouth twist with a look of distaste. “What did you do?” He demands, “These weren’t like this before.” The wings, previously pristine white before he left only three days ago, now have a distinct grey colour to them, like they’ve lost their sheen. “What’s the matter Frog?” The Angel smirks, pleased to see Fran annoyed for once, “Not good enough for you now? Guess you’ll just have to get rid of me then.” Huffily, Francis gives another sharp tug on the wing, this time electing a small yelp of pain from the force of it. “Your not met to be like this, your supposed to be perfect! Why aren’t you perfect now?” Francis’s eyes flash in anger, his tails swishing at his feet, but the Angel only looks more smug as he sits up more, though he makes no move to pull his wing back. When no other answer is given, Fran growls in frustration, before letting the wing go, where it limply returns to its owners back. He huffs, before something else grabs his attention. Sitting on the bedside cabinet, is the tray of Soul Dews he left for the Angel, completely untouched. Again. He still won’t eat? Is that why his wings have dulled, hunger? Or… or has someone else done this to him… Fran’s tail twists in worried nots around his feet at the thought. If anyone has so much as laid a claw on a single feather, so help him, not even the King will be able to shield them from Francis’s wrath! He huffs a calming breath out his nose. No, no. If someone had been here, he’d surely have been caught by now. It must be something else… Maybe it’s the ash? Though, there isn’t much in the rooms, but perhaps it’s enough to sully the pretty wings? But something tells him a Bloodbath won’t fix this. Shaking his head, Fran returns his glare to the grey wings. Oh how that annoys him, but, if he wants to get the pretty white back, then he needs to figure out why they’ve dulled, which means… He smirks, eyes shining with mischief again as he slinks over to the bed, sitting down beside the Angel. “Well, no matter, we can still have fun, even if you’ve lost some of your shine.” The Angel recoils away, sliding back across the bed until the chain clangs tight, preventing him from escaping any further. Unbothered by the move, Fran simply crawls after him, pushing the Angel to lay back as he straddles over him. “Come on, don’t you want to have some fun? Hell’s all about fun.” He purrs. “Piss off, beast!” The Angel spits, using his unchained foot to kick Francis between the legs, but Fran expects the move, and with a single hand, easily stops him, holding the thin, pale limb in place. “Now now,” Fran grins, sitting back on the Angels bare knees and pinning his legs to the bed, “No need to be like that. Come,” his smile widens as he claps his hands together in glee, “tell me your name.” The Angel struggles to get him off his legs, but soon tires — much faster than last time, Fran notes curiously — choosing to lie slumped beneath him. “No.” He huffs. “Come on, pleeeease?” Francis begs, batting his eyes. The Angel remains silent, only glaring tiredly up at Fran, much to the Demons annoyance. He knows humans see Angels as the ‘favoured race’, all kindness and benevolence, great guardians who steer them from harm and send them on the path of good. But Demons have a much different view of them. To Demons, Angels are arrogant, self entitled, ‘none holier than thou’ type pricks. They lord the humans favour of them over Demons, acting all high and mighty all the damn time, it’s so irritating! And Francis just had to catch the one Angel would couldn’t embody the Demons views better if he tried. No matter what Francis has tried for the past three weeks, the only conversation he’s been able to get out of the Angel is insults. He’s tried being nice, he’s tried alluring, he’s tried trickery, he’s offered souls and blood, himself, but nothing. Not even so much as a name. He leans forward, his dark suit contrasting nicely with the Angel’s white, but, before he can brush a clawed hand over the blond’s cheek, he receives a mental summons. Sighing at the bad timing, he hops back off the bed. “Don’t go anywhere.” He winks, before leaving. What does the King want now? X Francis hurries back to his pet, a grand grin playing across his features. He’s so giddy, he skips most of the way there. A request from the King himself, in person no less. There’s going to be a hunt — they haven’t had one of those in ages — and he’s to pick the prize. The King must know of his knack for acquiring rare items by now, ohh what an honour this is! And he know’s Just what he’s going to choose, but first… “I’m back~” He sings as he walks in, but frowns when he finds the Angel asleep, the sheets bundled up around him. “Hey, wake up.” Fran huffs, setting the fresh tray of Soul Dews down beside the still untouched one. It’s not that late, and he was only gone for a few Hell hours, surely the Angel can’t be tired yet, they still have work to do! He shakes the Angels arm roughly until dazed green eyes slowly blink open. “Urghh…” He groans, curling in on himself. “Hey, what’s wrong with you?” Fran demands, ripping the sheets back. But as soon as he does his eyes widen in shock. The wings… those pretty wings are even duller than before, but what’s worse is dozens of feathers litter the sheets, and more fall free from the wings as Francis stares. “What in Hell?” Panic starts to seep into Fran’s mind. He’d planned on figuring out how to get the Angels wings pristine again to use one of the pretty feathers as the hunt prize, but now… The Angel shivers, and Fran sees that those pretty green eyes aren’t shining with defiance anymore, there not shining at all, now they look more like dull glass balls, staring unseeingly out in a lost haze. He quickly kneels to get a better look at the Angels face, seeing how much paler it is than before, and his breaths come in short, laboured gasps. He touches a hand to the blonds face, his fingers dampening with the sweat droplets beading his brow, and can feel an unnatural heat burning beneath the skin. Fran bites his lip in worry. Forget the wing prize, if he doesn’t do something soon the Angel might not last the night. “Non, Non, non, stop this. Stop it now!” He shouts, eyes flashing, his agitation causing him to unconsciously slip into his Hellian French accent. But no matter how much he shakes the Angel, he doesn’t get any response besides a pitiful groan. “This can’t be happening…” He only wanted to play with him, he doesn’t want to kill him! After such a short time, he can’t lose his pet now! Frantically, he looks around the room for something, anything to fix this, but nothing jumps out. Things can’t end like this! Growling in anger, Francis turns on the chain, snapping it apart with his bare hands, before turning back to slip his arms under the Angels body. “Don’t you dare die on me!” He warns, hurriedly standing and lifting the Angel to him. X Sneaking out of Hell with a dying Angel is a lot harder than you might think, especially one shedding feathers all over the place. But then, you might also think that Angels and Demons hate each other, so why would one care if the other was dying? Francis wonders that too as he knocks out the last guards by the Fire Gates. But before going through, he halts in his tracks. Just where should he go? No human could possibly help them, and no demon would give a damn if the Angel died here. So… He turns to look at the Plains Map. Looking between the map and the dying Angel in his arms, Fran closes his eyes, frowning deeply, before making his choice. Kicking the dial, he switches the Plains selection from the Top World to the High Sphere, otherwise known as, Heaven. The view through the portal swirls and changes from a grassy park to a bright white hallway, and alert blinking across the portal warning of Forbidden Passage to the Un-ascended. Well, he’s gotten this far, might as well do what Demons do best. Disregarding the warning, Fran tightens his hold on the Angel, and steps through. The world twists and warps around them for a moment, before settling in the long — almost painfully bright for Fran — white hall, and the humid heat of Hellfires turns to a cool breeze blowing from air conditioners in the ceiling above. But the second Francis lays a foot inside, a deafening alarm starts to blare, and dozens of Angels come rushing to the alert. “Warning, Unauthorised demonic presence detected in the entrance of Hall Beta. All available Archangels to Hall Beta immediately, this is not a drill. Repeat, All available Archangels to Hall Beta immediately.” Before Francis can even think up of a plan, he’s surrounded. The Archangels, Heaven’s security, are the first to arrive. These Angels, unlike Fran’s delicate pet, are much bigger and bulky looking, armed with swords in their belts, and golden symbols decorating their much larger wings. “What is going on here?” A tall and very muscular blond Archangel demands. “Seems a Demon has gotten himself lost.” Another violet eyed one smiles, but the look makes Fran more uneasy than a Demons grin. It’s then that the blond one looks to the Angel limp in Fran’s arms. “Arthur?” He asks in surprise, quickly striding forward to get a better look, “By Heaven, what have you done to him?” The Archangel gasps at Francis. “Please,” Fran begs, holding the Angel out, “you have to save him.” “Quickly,” The blond calls over to his smiling partner, “take him to the Halo, and hurry.” “Right away.” Violet eyes nods, and Fran puts up no protest when he scoops his pet out off his arms, flying off. “As for you,” the blond glares, drawing his sword and pointing it at Fran’s neck, “your coming with me.” Not having much option otherwise, Fran smirks, bowing mockingly, “Lead the way.” The Archangel huffs in distaste, but before leaving he turns to look down a corridor at one of the other Angels who arrived while Fran was distracted. “Feliciano, go summon the High Council, inform them of what’s happened.” The small brunet Angel jumps at being caught snooping, but quickly recovers, saluting the blond. “Sure thing boss!” But just before he runs off out of sight, the blond calls out again, “And Feli?” “Uh, yeah Luddy?” The blond sighs, “Go tell Peter to come to the Halo too, he’ll want to know.” “Right away!” X It seems Fran’s pet wasn’t the only Angel to despise him. As he’s marched through the Cloud Fields down to the Rain Fall Pits, every Angel he passes sends him a look of contempt. He hears their whispers, and sees how they turn their noses up at him. They all act so high and mighty, as if he wasn’t even worth the clouds they walk on. “Look at that.” “Is that a Demon, here?” “Disgraceful.” “Such a foul beast.” “What’s Hell playing at now?” “The Council will hear of this.” “Be careful, don’t get too close or it might sully your Grace.” “Keep it away from the Souls, who knows what foul things it’s planning.” “Urgh, I feel sick just looking at it.” Growing annoyed by all the whispering, Fran’s lips curl back in a snarl, growling at the next Angel he passes who dares to make a comment on his appearance, smirking when the Angels go scurrying in fear. But his fun ends when they reach the pits, giant wells of fresh Holy Water several hundred of meters deep, with a system of rain constantly falling to keep them from running dry. Fran had heard all about Heaven and it’s weird wonders like this, but never cared for it much. But now he wishes he’d payed a bit more attention to the tales as he’s unceremoniously kicked down into the well. The sides far too high and smooth to climb, Fran’s forced to swim to an inner ledge to stand, treading water up to his waist as he looks up at the Archangel. “You’ll stay here until the council decides what to do with you.” Is all he’s told before he’s left all alone. X Fran’s not sure how long exactly he spent in the well, but long enough for his nice suit to be utterly ruined, that’s for sure. He’s soaked to the bone and uncomfortably cold when the violet eyed Archangel from before peaks over the edge. “Hello again,” he smiles that same unnerving grin, “ready to get out?” “Quite.” Fran huffs, flicking at the water around him, “This Holy Water is terrible for my complexion.” “Are all Demons so funny?” He giggles, spreading his giant wings to fly down and pull Fran out of the well. “Why don’t you go to Hell and find out.” Fran smirks. The Archangel giggles again, dropping Fran from higher than necessary as he remains in the air. Groaning from the landing, Fran quickly picks himself up, huffing at having to look up even more to see the Archangel. “Well, now what?” “Now,” The Archangel drawls, waving a hand signal in the air, “you talk.” Suddenly a small group of Angels and Archangels fly over, they settle into a circle above Fran, before all dropping down together to surround him. “Talk?” Francis parrots, worriedly glancing around. “Perhaps we should explain first,” A short dark haired Angel starts, “It might be easier if we’re all on the same page first.” “Kiku’s right,” another blond with purple eyes nods. “But first, introductions. My name is Ivan,” the violet eyed Archangel starts, “mr muscles over there is Ludwig, and the annoying brat beside him is Alfred.” “Hey!” Alfred cries, but Ivan continues regardless. “We three are Archangels, though you probably new that.” Ivan smiles, gesturing to the smaller Angels next. “This here is Kiku, and the sweet little thing next to him is Matthew.” Fran wonders why he called Matt little when he’s almost the same size as the Archangels, but nods along anyway. “And lastly, the bag of nerves next to Ludwig is Feliciano.” At his name being mentioned, the brunet jumps, shifting closer to Ludwig for protection. “Now tell us,” Alfred cuts in, his wings fluffing up behind him in a display of strength, “what happened with the Hell Gate in Singapore?”

[moonprincess92]

The Rebelcaptain Food Travel AU round robin

What the hell is the Rebelcaptain Food Travel AU Round Robin?  Basically, this all started with a video of Diego Luna eating stuff and naturally, our brains just went to ‘rebelcaptain food travel au’.��Jaded made a moodboard for it and @sambargestuff made the comment that it would be cool if different writers from all over the world in the fandom came together to write this story, since we are from so many different places, and we all apparently took to this idea with gusto, hahahahha. 

So what is this fic gonna be about?  Cassian is a famous food/cooking show presentor about to film a new show that showcases food from around all of Europe. Jyn is a freelance camera operator who gets offered the job to film this show last minute after their usual camera person can’t make it. 

Together they, along with their crew, travel around Europe for 3 & 1/2 months filming episodes based around all the different countries (AND MAYBE THEY FALL IN LOVE A LITTLE ALONG THE WAY, EEYYYYYYY)  

Sounds cool, but how is writing this fic going to work?  Basically, each chapter will be based around one city and/or country in Europe. A different author will write each one. I will write the first chapter that is set in London, England and if absolutely no one else wants to take a crack at it, I will also write the last one. 

Sounds cool as, how do I sign up?  Just let me know! Reblog this and add, reply, send me a msg, whatever you want just tell me what country/city you would like to write about. I will collect everyone’s responses to see whether there’s still interest in this idea and make a list. Then, we’ll go from there!

I want to do this, but I know nothing about food :(  It’s ok, you can always base your chapter more about the country, or the relationships, or the funny comments the show gets on Youtube, or anything else really. 

But I’m from X country and someone’s already doing that one :(  It’s ok, we can have six Germany chapters and zero Croatian, it’s totally fine if someone is already doing a country you’re interested in! 

I want to write about X country but I’m not actually from there :(  It’s ok, so long as you are comfortable writing about whatever country you want to pick. The whole idea of this is that people who are familiar with somewhere get to write about what they know, so this fic will hopefully feel authentic and realistic! I mean, maybe don’t write about Greece if you’ve never been there, don’t know anyone from there and aren’t familiar with Greek food, but perhaps you lived a year abroad in Romania once? Use good judgement and you should be fine. 

I’m from America/Asia/Oceania/Africa and don’t feel comfortable writing about Europe :(  It’s also ok! If anyone wants to we could always write a sequel based in other areas of the world! I’d love to be able to include absolutely anyone who wants to do this. For simplicity and organisation’s sake, we’re going to start with Europe, but there’s no telling where this could go in the future. 

Are there rules? Deadlines? Exactly how committed to this do I have to be?  The idea is that this is a fun way of everyone being able to come together, so there’s not going to be too many rules and/or limitations, and definitely no deadlines. We want to keep things as light and no pressure as possible. There will simply be a set of guidelines to give everyone a clear sense of what we hope to achieve with this project, which I’ll put in a seperate post 

Blah, blah, shut up Jordan, just give me the list of countries already  FINE lol, list of potential countries in the order that they’d be written in are:  England (story starts here)  Ireland/Scotland/Wales  France  Belguim  Netherlands  Germany  Denmark/all the Scandinavia  Czech Republic  Poland  Eastern Europe (Lithuania/Estonia//Ukraine/etc)  Southern Europe (Romania/Bulgaria/Croatia/etc)  Greece  Hungary  Austria  Italy  Switzerland  Maybe Spain and Portugal?  End of the story back in England! 

This list is not exclusive. We can add/take away countries as needed. Again, if more than one person wants to write about a particular country, maybe we can organise it as each does a different city there. 

Anyway, I think that’s enough info for one post. Again, for the guidelines I’ll link to the other post. I’m also going to tag some people who I believe have expressed interest in this in the past. 

Again, if you are potentially interested in being a part of this, please reblog & add or reply which country and/or city you’d like to do!!!!! 

Thanks so much guys xoxo 

Tagging: @ibonekoen, @k-lara7, @pingou7, @cornholius, @redstyxsora, @imsfire2, @scruffyhappaboreherder, @ruby-red-inky-blue, @thenewleeland, @polynesianhermione, @firefeufuego, @rinsantago, @rxbxlcaptain, @finns-roses, @the-space-narwhal

[feynavaley]

Nyotalia Names Headcanon

I’m procrastinating after finishing to write a chapter so I thought I’d polish up this word file and post it here, who knows, somebody might find it useful. It doesn’t have all the nyos, only the ones I have thought about (for several reasons) until now. EDIT: I deleted the surnames because I don’t think there should be set ones – I tend to use the same as their canon versions [x], but since the ties between canon and Nyo personifications aren’t established in canon they might also be different ones. I only left them for languages where masculine and feminine surnames have different terminations.

- America: Amelia F. (the F doesn’t really stand for anything, but could be ‘Felicity’, ‘Freedom’, or even ‘Fucking’, just like for Alfred [x])

- Austria: Anneliese

- Canada: Marguerite, Maggie for short (most people know her as the latter). I know that most of the fandom uses the name Madeline or one of its variants, but I just… really love the name Marguerite for Canada, I think it really fits her. It means both ‘daisy’ (‘marguerite’ is the French word for ‘daisy’) and ‘pearl’, I like how it combines something that is beautiful but easily overlooked with something extremely precious, difficult to find, fruit of years of labour. I use Maggie as diminutive because I don’t like Meg.

- China: Chun-Yan

- England: Rose

- Finland: Kristiina, she usually goes as Tiina

- France: Marianne or Francine Nyo!France seems to be quite different from France, so I’d use the name Marianne for her, while if I wanted to have a female version of Francis I’d choose Francine.

- Germany: Monika

- Greece: Hesper

- Iceland: Elsa Steinsdóttir Icelandic people don’t actually have surnames, but patronyms – this is the female version, which means ‘daughter of Stein’. It’s ‘Stein’ instead of ‘Steil’ (as suggested by Himaruya) because I’ve been informed that ‘Steil’ isn’t an Icelandic name, while ‘Stein’ is.

- Italy: Alice or Felicia The issue is the same as France. For regular Nyo!Italy, who has a completely different personality from Feliciano, I’d use the name Himaruya suggested for her, Alice (note: the Italian pronunciation is different from the English one, it’s something more like Ah-lee-che). For the female version of Feliciano, instead, I’d use Felicia (again, Italian pronunciation: Feh-lee-cha). This isn’t a common name in Italy, I actually don’t know anybody named Felicia, but it does exist. If anybody’s interested, I also wrote a more in-depth explanation on Italian feminine names. [x]

- Romana: Chiara or Lavinia Same as above. Chiara (pron: Kee-ah-rah) was suggested by Himaruya for Nyo!Romano (Romana), while for the female version of Lovino I’d use Lavinia. Most of the fandom uses ‘Lovina’, but the thing is: Lovina doesn’t exist in Italian (neither does Lovino, actually). Lavinia [x] sounds similar, and it’s a real name.

- Japan: Sakura I had said that I didn’t like it, but then I read a fic with this name and it started growing on me. Besides, it follows the same flower theme as Kiku, and, like the chrysanthemum, cherry blossoms have a strong association with Japan, which makes it a fitting name.

- Latvia: Rozalija

- Lithuania: Tatjana

- Norway: Sigrid

- Poland: Sylwia

- Prussia: Julia, with Julchen (the name that was suggested by Himaruya) as her nickname.

- Russia: Anna Braginskaya, but she mostly introduces herself and is known as Anya. In Russian, surnames have different desinences for males and females, this is the feminine version of Braginsky. About the name, I was talking to a Russian friend of mine and she told me that ‘Anya’ wouldn’t actually ever be used as the first name, the name is ‘Anna’. At the same time, however, Russian people rarely go with their full names, so she would normally be called with the diminutive, one of which can be Anya, hence my confusion about it. I apologize for the mistake.

- Spain: Isabel

- Sweden: Astrid

Part 2

[noicon]

This can be found in most African nations as well,  BY Oshiri Isaa   [ Unofficial bu CO-Signing Meme]

BY Oshiri Isaa

[TEXT SOURCE https://goo.gl/cLB8Sn]  · The ancient Africans were a global people. They did not identify themselves continentally . Dialect and spirituality was used as the markers then for identification. The concept of continents and borders is European, along with the names of these continents. Names like Australia which is close to Austria , Africa, Egypt, America, ethiopian, Phoenicia, are all European names, mainly from Vatican scholars . They are corruptions of Ancient languages rehashed. We black folk are so old that we don't even have a beginning. The "Greeks" referred to us as the Titans; the beings before the creation of the earth. The ancient literature wrote that we are gods and not men. This is most consistent with the book of Enoch and the dealings between the children of the gods and sons of men, reserved in the Ethiopian Chronicles but known to be much older. Most black people have myths of their origin beginning as an entrance from another realm or dimension. There is no Indigenous Genesis that starts with creation. Instead we, after we settled, created beings . In igbo mythology, which is often referenced preferentially by Hollywood as the most primal representation of Africans, such as movies like X-Men Origins, and even in the latest American gods, the story is that we came from the sky or heaven. The sky is igwe. Igwe is also the name given to the leader of the community. Literally meaning heavenly or sky being. Igbo itself means ancient. This can be found in most African nations as well, that we entered this realm from a superior one usually symbolized as sky. So you see... We are the gods. It is not our physical bodies they are concerned about, it is an ancient being that lives in our DNA that is asleep. When it wakes up...you will understand the reason for all the super hero comic books and the beast in revelations. VRIL.

O.7. Ikuku.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Philip Okonkwo Replies / adds

Oshiri Isaa does his thing again, brilliant, people l suggest we all read the  brothers status a few times, bookmark it and refresh ourselves with it perpetually, least we fall once again into atrophy.

.🙄🙄Added: Is there a possibility that the supposed Greek word misunderstood by the Greeks which we globally use in reference to the rulers of ancient Egypt, the Title/ word PHARAOH   [ PHA-RA-WOH ]. [P/F/ ra/woh ]

Could this be etymologically relative to the west African Yoruba word Afa IRAWO, afarawo, translated to the one who draws the stars or the Chief astrologer / the artist who draws the stars etc etc, l was tipped off by Erick Van Danikens pronunciation of the title Pharaoh, due to his accent he usually calls it Afarawo, (perhaps he has taken elocution lessons and he's stopped) But this is my addition, l urge those who speak yoruba as even a 3rd or 2nd language to ask their grandparents how Pharaoh was pronounced in Yoruba Language , or  even as biblical Christians. Once again, it sounds interestingly romantic and far fetched but the question is Afarawo, Pharaoh. Orion, Oranmiyan, some say Oroyon etc etc these cannot and should not be brushed aside and disregarded 🤔

(  PNM8 AKA Black Racist)

[so-many-efforts]

Maybe that's because Jackie grew up speaking and entire different fucking language??!?

Like German and English come from the same root language, so a ton of German words just sound like English words said with a heavy accent. Not to mention, everything basically follows the same pronunciation rules.

Where as Chinese is based on a different language system and doesn't even have the same type of letters and its alphabet. The only words in Chinese that sound similar to English ones that are ones that came over during westernization and that's certainly not the basis of their entire language.

Not to mention the fact that most of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies are American-made opposed to Jackie Chan who's movies are mostly chinese-made, although he did have several hits in America. Jackie Chan has an amazing list of movies, he's made so many over the years, but like I said before, a lot of them were made in his native China (where he still lives by the way, in Hong Kong).

Also on the Arnold Schwarzenegger side, English is the second most spoken language in Austria; the most spoken foreign language at 73% .There's a good chance he already spoke it at least well enough to get by. Although Jackie Chan grew up in Hong Kong, which is the prime place that English is spoken in China, it's still nothing compared to being the second language of your entire country and all of the surrounding countries around you, like Schwarzenegger.

To reiterate:

Arnold Schwarzenegger already spoke a language with the same root language as English, Jackie did not.

Schwarzenegger lived in a country where English was the second most spoken language, Chan grew up in a /city/ that did speak a lot of English but not enough to be called a second language.

Arnold Schwarzenegger moved to America and has stayed here since the 1960s (he was the governor of California, remember?), where as Jackie Chan still lives and has mostly always lived in China.

Most of Arnold Schwarzenegger's movies were made and produced in America.

Jackie Chan first started acting in movies in the early 70s and didn't start making movies in America until the 90s. While still continuing to make movies in Asia.

After his main commercial success was over in America he continues to make Asian based movies to this day.

Therefore majority of his work is done in Chinese.

Get off his dick about learning English, he actually does really well for such a different language!

Focus on some other things instead like:

"Chan is a noted philanthropist whose causes include conservation, animal welfare and disaster relief. In 2006, he announced that he would donate half of his assets to charity when he dies. The movie star has served as a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador since 2004, and in 2015 he was named Singapore's first anti-drug ambassador."

Or

"In 1995, Chan created his own comic book character, the central figure in Jackie Chan's Spartan X, a series that hit newsstands in both Asia and the U.S. That same year,...(Quinton Tarantino) presented Chan with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the MTV Movie Awards (Tarantino reportedly threatened to boycott the ceremony if Chan did not receive the award). "

May I point out that ^^this^^ was Two Years before his first big hit in America!

Another cool thing to focus on?

"In 1986, he formed his own production company, Golden Way. He also founded a modeling/casting agency, Jackie's Angels, in order to recruit talent for his films. Additionally, after numerous stuntmen were injured during the filming of Police Story, the actor founded the Jackie Chan Stuntmen Association, through which he personally trained and provided medical coverage for its members."

He's a business man and instead of trying to pay off the stuntmen who got hurt on his sets he actually trained them to make sure that they wouldn't get hurt again. They never paid anything at all for these lessons or Healthcare related to their stunt injuries.

And.

" he reportedly completed the highest fall in the history of the Chinese film industry, earning the respectful notice of the formidable [Bruce] Lee, among others."

Here's link to the article where I got all of this from

https://www.biography.com/people/jackie-chan-9542080

Here's the link to the thing about English being the second language in Austria

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Languages_of_Austria

Get off Jackie Chan's dick about learning English!

Arnold Schwarzenegger had to take lessons to maintain his Austrian accent, but Jackie Chan can still barely speak English.

[js2-hetalia]

Can’t believe it’s been a whole damn year since I created Hetalia Tomodachi Life. So I thought I’d make a little list of things that happened in the game that made me laugh, or get mad, or something. (Warning: it’s long!)

1. China is a dirty old man who pursues young women. Especially Nyo!Russia. He went after her at least a dozen times before she got married. Then he just started picking random girls left and right. For those familiar with Vinesauce Tomodachi Life, he’s basically Karl, except he actually gets the girl a couple of times, only to break up. His boy charm score typically sits at the -200 mark.

2. Denmark has been my best friend since the very beginning. Early on, everybody on the island, including us, shipped us together and wanted us to go out. I, the look-alike, wanted none of that, and foiled every single attempt. I got so mad that I made a song about it. But anyway, HTL Denmark is even cuter than canon Denmark. If I had to besties with anyone, I’m glad it’s him.

3. Estonia was a typical school nerd (still is) and Spain, the “baddest of the Bad Friends,” was his bully. Nowadays, the two get along fairly well, even making an agreement to leave their past behind them.

4. Nyo!Macau, a character with no canon personality whatsoever, actually wound up as one of my favorite characters. After I gave her the Meadow interior, I thought to myself that it kinda looked like the standard Windows 7 (?) desktop. Combined with her voice, I got it in my head that she was the personification of Windows, so I changed her name to that. Later, she started dating Ladonia. Fitting, since he’s the Internet future boy. But she’s WAY older than him. So then I got it in my mind that she was an old cougar. So. Her name’s now pronounced “the old cougar,” although one of her phrases is still “Error,” a leftover from her Windows days.

5. Austria had a jester phase. Seriously. I even made the game pronounce it “Jestria” for a time. Basically, I gave him a jester outfit and he just kept wearing it all the time. I eventually got sick of it and made him wear women’s clothes and other ridiculous outfits, which he still does to this day.

6. Nyo!New Zealand is all white. Empty white interior, white-painted hair, and only white clothes. It is white on white on white. I honestly can’t remember why I started doing that, but I did, and I will not stop until I have given her every white hat and outfit that I can possibly give her. Somehow she still hasn’t made it up to the top of my most pampered list.

7. Sealand is permanently known in my head as “Piss Stain.” There was this one time when he had a fight with New Zealand. He was wearing an all-yellow outfit (a body suit, I think), and I thought to myself, wow, he looks like a piss stain amidst all this white. Ta-da! Piss Stain. I think it fits his canon bratty personality, too. I can see England calling him that.

8. Rome x Liechtenstein is a thing. And they are boring as fuck, despite all odds. They don’t do anything of interest, and so far, they’re the ones who have had my least favorite baby by far. And they’re showing no signs of breaking up anytime soon. Fuck. At least Nyo!Russia x Finland was interesting, even if they pissed me off for reasons I don’t know.

9. Oh by the way, Nyo!Russia is married to Nyo!Belarus. HUZZAH!!! Now have a fucking kid already.

10. Fart Voice Bulgaria. I don’t know. I gave him the lowest-pitched but also squeakiest and, well, fartiest voice I could. I ran with it. I also love fucking around with how the game pronounces things in his voice, making his angry phrase nothing but a string of euro signs. It just sounds like “Yurururururuurururururu.” It’s hilarious. He has a son with a voice that’s just as glorious. I made a song about it. Bulgaria is proud of Nathan’s voice and likes to show it off. Nathan himself is ashamed.

11. Nyo!Germany and Romano were the first couple to get married and have a baby. Their first baby was all right. Nothing too exciting. Their second baby was a tree-hugging hippie.

12. France is called “Daddy.” It was a stupid joke. But one of the news clips made it amazing. The news about how a burger with a random-food ingredient completely fails, and it’s at the restaurant called “Big [islander name]’s.” It randomly picked France’s name, so the restaurant’s name is pronounced “Big Daddy’s.” It was so glorious I had to make his full name Francois “Big Daddy” Bonnefoy.

13. Luxembourg was given the catchphrase “High-claas!” That is not a typo or misspell. I accidentally typed “claas” instead of “class” and I liked how it sounded, so I kept it. lol

14. Nyo!Iceland is a wannabe fish. (Or a mermaid. But I like “wannabe fish” more.) She has the Seabed apartment and her worried phrase is “Time to spawn!” because I’m a weird fucker like that.

15. Somehow Japan always raised his hand to the really dirty Quirky Questions. Nice to know, dude...

16. EGYPT IS BORING AS FUCK GOOD GOD. I don’t like any coupling with him in it. Seriously considering deleting him even though he’s a mainstay. Also, I figured out a way to make him say “...” without the game pronouncing it as anything (normally it says “dot”). There’s period marks in the Greek keyboard. Those will stay silent. All of his phrases are “...”

17. Nyo!South Korea is also known as “That Bitch” with a trademark sign. Thing is, the game actually says “trademark sign” in her catchphrase. It’s soooo good. Plus, her best friend is Nyo!Poland, a catty girl herself. They’re absolutely perfect alpha bitches together. Her husband Australia was likewise given the catchphrase “She’s MY bitch!” They had two beautiful children.

18. Nyo!Spain is a teacher who’s hot for at least one of her students, and has no qualms about asking them out.

19. Spain and Nyo!New Zealand make the CUTEST babies. Too bad I have a strict two-per-couple limit. Also that they, uh, divorced. (Their son, Elijah, is a wannabe supervillain. Or is he just a wannabe...?)

20. There are two Carters. That’s Seychelles and Hong Kong’s son. The first one is forever stuck as a traveler on This Damn Island (who even streetpasses around here). The second one was recreated and lives on the island, but has a love for travel.

21. Winter is still the funniest character by virtue of how out of place he is.

22. For the longest time, I just typed the characters’ names and let the game try to pronounce them, and just run with it. (Now I actually try to get the game to pronounce them as correctly as it can.) This is especially hilarious when listening to the game mangle Finland’s or Chris’s (Russwe) last names. But even some of the simpler-seeming names get mispronounced - Natasha, notably, gets pronounced as “NAT-uh-shuh” without further fixing.

23. I made sure Nyo!Latvia’s name got as many A’s tacked on to the end as I could. It’s still funny.

24. Greece started life as a furry. Now he’s not, at least not openly. I remember calling him into his apartment when he was in a good mood, and as I’m searching through the menu, he says “Let’s get laid!” and I completely lost it. I did NOT remember giving him that phrase. The other great phrase of his is “Fuck Sadik!!1!” which he pronounces as “fuck SAD-ik exclamation point one.” It’s hilarious in his slow, monotone, dead voice.

25. Switzerland is another character whose voice is hilariously out of character for him. It’s high-pitched and the pitch curves upward at the end of his sentences. He’s still as pissy as he is in canon, with phrases like “GET OUT!!!” and “I’ll shoot!” This combination makes him one of my favorite islanders.

26. For whatever stupid reason, I gave Liechtenstein surfer dude slang for phrases. She also lives in the Ring (like, a boxing/wrestling ring) apartment. Maybe it’s just me, but Liechtenstein is my favorite character to make out-of-character.

27. Serenity, born to Japan and Nyo!Norway, is by far my favorite baby. Owen, Chris, Elijah, Alyssa, Sophie, and Nathan are really good, too. The HTL babies are my OC’s and I will cherish them. Don’t know if I’ll make fics with them or not...

28. Nyo!Lithuania is known as “Heartbreaker.” Why? Because she divorced Denmark on Valentine’s Day, and she’s only been dumping guys ever since. Although she has hung on to Romania for a while now...

29. Finland is known as “That Finnish Ass-Hall” (can’t say “asshole” in the game). I hated him for dating Nyo!Russia and being extremely persistent about marrying her. I don’t even know why I hated them so much, I just did. He still has his phrase “Fukk off, Yao!” from the days when he was chasing after her booty.

30. Nyo!Canada used to have the phrase “Please, Daddy...” because she dated France (”Daddy”) for a while. I’ve since changed it because it was weird, plus she’s married to Turkey, but I might change it back...

31. I originally planned for Nyo!Ukraine to be a total friendless loser, even giving him the phrase “I’m a loser.” Mostly because of my headcanon that he just has no confidence in relationships. Except, he made a lot of friends really fast, and it was Ripper, Nyo!France, and Monaco who were the friendless losers for the longest time.

32. Italy is living in the haunted mansion interior. For reasons.

33. I’ve noticed that in Judgment Bay, characters tend to form the same groups over and over again, and I’ve made some songs out of the results, such as “Slaughter Planet Earth” (all three Italy brothers, Australia, Nyo!Lithuania, America, Nyo!Prussia) and “Just You and I Here” (America and Nyo!South Korea, and later Owen).

34. Oh, yeah. There was that series I did with Egypt and Sweden where the lyrics to all the songs were just “..........................................” and “mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.” One of the songs crashes every time lmao.

And that’s all I have for now. Damn, I invested a lot into this game.

[seonghwa-things]

The Korean Wave: A Developing Relationship Between Korean and Western Music

This paper aims to explore the music of the Korean Wave, or Hallyu. Hallyu, which directly translates to “flow of Korea”, is a term for the rise in popularity of South Korean culture on a global scale.. The Korean music industry was greatly influenced by the American industry, and this can be seen clearly in their style of music, clothing, and videos. Over the course of 30 years, a large increase in students wanting to become entertainers can be seen, much of this was due to the fact that the industry had grown, making this profession more accepted..  Now, in 2018, the industry is large enough that idol groups, such as BTS, are bringing their music back to the American industry. Many companies in South Korea are creating larger groups, that include different ethnicities, further spreading their culture by bringing in fans from other countries. The increase in popularity can be seen statistically across YouTube, Gaon, and other platforms.

The Korean Wave, better known to some as the Hallyu, is the term used to describe the rising popularity of South Korean culture globally. The term “Hallyu” was first used in China, in 1998, to describe the sudden craze for Korean cultural products from Chinese youth (Kim 2014).   Now this is seen through things such as k-dramas (television shows), k-movies, and k-pop. K-pop is the industry which has taken off the most. It has been influenced by the American industry, shown both within their music and their styles. Because of the growing popularity of k-pop, it has become a more welcome occupation in Korea. The amount of fans has increased worldwide, giving k-pop the ability to enter the American industry, and for international members to join groups.

The American industry has had a huge effect on k-pop. During the Korean War, Americans and Koreans had a fairly close relationship. The American troop stationed in Korea -  USAMGIK - brought a radio channel called AFKN. The channel’s original intent was to inform American’s of Korean culture, yet instead seemed to do the opposite. Koreans became increasingly interested in the style of American music, and starting including it within concerts. Korean artists had to learn American songs and dances to perform for the soldiers. As the USAMGIK started leaving for the Vietnam War, the artists who once performed at these camps had to integrate these American elements with a Korean style to gain a more domestic audience. In the 1980’s and 1990’s, genres like hip-hop, pop and ballad became prevalent in the Korean industry - to the point that artists like Seo Taiji starting including rap and rock styles into their own hits (Stephen 2018).

This type of influence can still be seen heavily today. After the popularity of the Latin-American song “Despacito” by Luis Fonsi, the style seemed to reappear again a few months later in Korea. Songs like “Lo Siento” by Super Junior featuring Leslie Grace, “Senorita” by VAV, and “O Sole Mio” by SF9 became popular hits, all featuring Spanish lyrics, and a strong Latin guitar line (Herman 2018). As we see Charlie Puth rise in the American industry, we see males in the k-pop industry wanting to mimic his falsetto sound. Singers like Jungkook and Jimin of BTS have covered his songs, and groups such as NCT are showing males doing falsetto much more often (e.g. The 7th Sense or Simon Says). Jungkook even got a chance to perform a duet with Charlie Puth at the 2018 MGA, before BTS performed their hit “Fake Love”, with Puth singing the chorus (TWOWAIISHU 2018).

With this increase in popularity, the acceptability of being a performer has also improved. Statistics taken from elementary school students in 1981 showed that students didn’t even toy with the idea of being performs. When the survey was retaken in 1999, the amount of students that wanted to be entertainers was up to 9%. This study was done again in 2012, and the statistic had again grown - up to 38.8%. The main cause of this growth is “what some researchers call “cosmopolitan striving” or“han/melancholia””. Koreans tend to see Western success to have more social legitimacy. With the rise in popularity of k-pop, some of their own success has become legitimised, therefore making being an idol, or entertainer, more acceptable (Oh and Lee 2013, 115).

As the entertainment industry grows, so does the fanbase. The k-pop industry is giving fans many bands and groups to choose from, and very rarely is a fan part of just one fandom. Groups that don’t gain as much recognition in Korea are greatly recognized in Brazil, Japan and Europe. Countries like Austria don’t have as large of a fanbase, but the fans are still just as supportive. As stated in Song’s essay, “ German and Austrian people are very conservative, and they have a very strong pride in their own things.” This explains why in some countries, the fanbase grows slower. Many countries, including the United States take pride in their own industries, and aren’t always willing to open up to new things — especially in the older generations. Since “Gangnam Style” by PSY has gotten popular, the amount of k-pop fans in Austria has increased. And has been growing slowly, but steadily in the past years (Song 2013, 93-94).

K-pop’s popularity has recently increased significantly in the United States. Groups such as NCT and BTS have attended the AMAs in the last two years (Jin 2017, 1). Both groups, plus others like K.A.R.D, and Monsta X, have also released songs that are mostly in English within the past year to try and attract more attention from their American fans. While these hits have gotten quite popular, they aren’t the first to do so. Groups like Girls’ Generations, also known as SNSD, had their hit “The Boys” released in both English and Korean back in 2011, and were even on Good Morning America — which was easily accessible to them as several members are from America.  The Korean wave has been growing stronger and stronger over the years. CL, an idol formally from the group 2NE1, released multiple English songs with her group, such as “Can’t Nobody”. More recently, she has released her own song “Lifted” which is fully in English, and has worked with the group Black Eyed Peas to release the song “Dopeness” (SBS 2018).

Many Korean artists now tour North America, hitting big cities in both the United States and Canada. BTS had a world tour this year, going to America, Canada, and Europe. The tour was received so well that they are already planning another, perhaps even larger tour in 2019 (Vivid Seats 2018).  Groups such as Monsta X and GOT7 have become regular guests for big events, such as KCON, which has been held in both LA and New York over the last few years (KCONUSA 2018).  NCT, GOT7 and Day6 have plans to further their promotions in America, as they have members coming from the country.

While these groups may be sharing their music internationally, some of them are actually quite diverse within their groups. NCT, an eighteen — and soon to be twenty-one — member group under SM Entertainment, has male idols from all around the world. NCT stands for Neo Culture Technology, and the group’s concept is to have an unlimited amount of members. The group includes nine Korean born members (Taeyong, Taeil, Jisung, Jeno, Jaemin, Haechan, Jaehyun, Doyoung, Jungwoo), one American (Johnny), one Canadian (Mark), one Japanese (Yuta), seven Chinese (WinWin, Xiao Jun, Hendery, Renjun, Chenle, Kun, Lucas), one German (YangYang), and one Thai (Ten). NCT is split into many sub-units, to save them from the struggle of performing with so many people on stage. As of right now, they have 4 units, and a fifth one, NCT Vision — the Chinese members — will be debuting by the end of 2018. SM’s CEO, Lee Soo Man, has stated that he has plans to create a new unit, currently called NCT Vietnam. There have also been recent rumours of debuting a female unit within NCT (kprofiles 2018).

Many other idol groups are diverse as well, though most times with a smaller amount of people. RaNia, a female idol group under DR Music had Chinese (Ttabo,Yijo) , Thai (Namfon, Joy), and African American (Alex) members, and GOT7, a male idol group, under JYP Entertainment has Chinese (Jackson), Thai (BamBam), and American (Mark)  members. Not only is the diversity being seen in idol groups, but also within Korean bands. Day6 includes American (Jae) and Canadian (Young K) members, and W24’s lead singer is from Chile (Howon). This diversity is only able to happen because of how widespread k-pop has become. Many young fans dream of becoming idols, and sometimes an audition pulls through. (kprofiles 2018).

The diversity may seem great, but it must be done with care. EXP Edition, an all male, non-Korean group under IMMABB (I’m Making a Boy Band) has been met with malicious and hateful comments globally. The fact that they are mostly of caucasian descent isn’t the problem; many fans love the diversity. The problem is that this group has not gone through the years upon years of training that most idols have had to go through. For example, Johnny from NCT was in training for nine years before he could finally debut in 2016; he had been training since he was ten years old. Most of the anger about EXP Edition was that they spent no time training whatsoever. They wouldn’t have necessarily had to have started as young as idols like Johnny, but the training is necessary to compete in such an industry. A three member female group from Japan, Honey Popcorn, made their debut as k-pop idols in March of 2018. While none of the members in this group are Korean, they were received better, as they had gone through similar training to what k-pop idols would in Japan. It is understandable that with the spread of k-pop, there will be more people who want to become idols. To be successful in the industry however, you must go through the same training and struggles that other artists do (Blessedkpop 2018).

The Korean music industry has grown in America, reeling in many international artists. Due to this k-pop is becoming a bigger topic at households in Korea, and due to the fact that being an idol is more generally accepted as an occupation. Korean idol groups will be continuously touring North America, and likely releasing even more English tracks. The Korean Wave has certainly taken off, and it doesn’t look like it will be stopping anytime soon.

“15 Amazing English-Language K-Pop Songs.” 2018. SBS News. SBS News. May 22. https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2018/05/22/15-amazing-english-language-k-pop-songs.

“2019 Concert Tours: Predicting the Top 2019 Tours.” 2018. Vivid Seats. Accessed December 1. https://www.vividseats.com/blog/2019-concert-tours-predictions.

Blessedkpop. 2018. “Honey Popcorn Expresses Gratitude And Discusses Divided Opinions About Their Debut.” Soompi. Soompi. March 21. https://www.soompi.com/article/1143605wpp/honey-popcorn-expresses-gratitude-discusses-divided-opinions-debut.

Herman, Tamar. 2018. “K-Pop Turns Toward Latin American Market With Collaborations And Tours.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine. June 1. https://www.forbes.com/sites/tamarherman/2018/05/31/k-pop-turns-towards-latin-amerian-market-with-collaborations-tours/#1d519513960d.

Jin, Dal Yong. An Analysis of the Korean Wave as Transnational Popular Culture: North American Youth Engage Through Social Media as TV Becomes Obsolete. Simon Fraser University. 2018.

“KCON USA OFFICIAL SITE.” 2018. KCON USA OFFICIAL SITE. Accessed December 1. http://www.kconusa.com/.

Kim, Youna. 2014. “The Korean Wave (Hallyu).” Accessed October 28, 2018.http://seaa.americananthro.org/2014/07/the-korean-wave-hallyu/

“Kpop Band Member Profiles and Korean Celebrity Profiles.” 2018. Kpop Profiles. Accessed November 28. https://kprofiles.com/.

Oh, Ingyu and Lee, Hyojung. K-pop in Korea: How the Pop Music Industry Is Changing a Post-Developmental Society. University of Hawai’i Press. 2014.

Stephen. 2018. “American Music Influence on Kpop in the Past and the Present.” Accessed December 1 https://blogs.ubc.ca/asia327girlsgen/2018/10/01/american-music-influence-on-kpop-in-the-past-and-the-present/.

Sung, Sang-Yeon. K-pop Reception and Participatory Fan Culture in Austria. University of Vienna Press. 2013.

TWOWAIISHU. 2018. “Charlie Puth, Jungkook, BTS Perform ‘See You Again’, ‘We Don’t Talk Anymore’, ‘FAKE LOVE’ @ 2018 MGA.” YouTube. YouTube. November 6. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pTA0260QKs.

[thatsnotcanonpodcasts]

Dune, Epic Games Store & Quantum Tunneling

In this latest episode we start with news that Dune is set to start shooting soon and the central cast is listed. It appears it is not a remake but a complete reimagining of the story, with promise it is going to be close to the book. At least it does not have Dwayne “the Rock” in it like some many other dismal remakes over the last few years. Also it is not a Disney remake or a Marvel movie so it should be completely different and fun. Next up we discuss how Epic is possibly “stealing” personal data from Steam and the possible implications involved. That’s right, Bill Gates has warned of the arrogance of software developers/studios etc catching the attention of governments and here is a prime example. This is right on the heels of Google being fined by the European Union again. We also hear about a possible link between Epic and the Chinese government from the Professor; who also raises the question of who is stealing the data. Last topic of the week is the break-through in Quantum Physics that will see a need for new textbooks to be printed. The best part about it is that some of the people involved are from Brisbane. That’s right folks, roll up and admire the great minds delving into physics and shaking the world from Brisbane. Remember to take care of each other and stay hydrated, till next time, stay Nerdy.

EPISODE NOTES:

Dune Movie - https://comicbook.com/movies/2019/03/18/dune-reboot-synopsis-production-begins-frank-herbert/

Steam vs Epic - https://www.pcgamer.com/valve-doesnt-sound-too-happy-about-the-epic-store-copying-steam-data/

Quantum Tunnelling - https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/this-will-go-into-textbooks-queensland-scientists-clock-quantum-tunnelling-20190318-p51592.html?fbclid=IwAR0HWaRlMa2TunPtabCvYWq1lGeQ3TrhPu2V_fOWifpQ8iorI_R91rjanqQ

Games currently playing

Professor

– Tetris 99 - https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/tetris-99-switch

DJ

– Apex Legends - https://www.ea.com/games/apex-legends

Buck

– Game of thrones by GT Arcade - https://got.gtarcade.com/

Other topics Discussed

Philippines church bombings

- https://edition.cnn.com/2019/01/27/asia/philippines-church-explosion/index.html

Dune (1984 movie)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(1984_film)

Dune (Frank Herbert novel)

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dune_(novel)

Dune: The Musical

- https://www.timeout.com/edinburgh/theatre/dune-the-musical

Sony pictures hack

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Pictures_hack

Google loses antitrust lawsuit and fined $1.7 billion

- https://www.ibtimes.com/google-loses-antitrust-lawsuit-fined-17b-blocking-rivals-ads-2777873

Bill Gate’s warning to tech companies

- https://www.theverge.com/2018/2/13/17009146/bill-gates-big-tech-companies-apple-inviting-government-regulation

Everybody wants to be a cat (That’s not canon productions podcast)

- https://thatsnotcanon.com/ewtbacpodcast

Justin Trudeau explains quantum computing

- https://insidetheperimeter.ca/canadian-prime-minister-justin-trudeau-explains-quantum-computing/

Crysis melts fast gaming computers 10 years on

- https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2018-why-crysis-still-melts-the-fastest-gaming-pcs-10-years-later

Scientist from China defends human embryo gene editing

- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/nov/28/scientist-in-china-defends-human-embryo-gene-editing

Sydney united to build a Quantum harbour city

- https://sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2019/03/12/sydney-united-to-build-a-quantum-harbour-city.html

Apex Legend News

- Season 1 battle pass - https://www.pcgamer.com/au/apex-legends-first-battle-pass-shows-how-badly-it-needs-better-cosmetics/

- New hero : Octane - https://au.ign.com/wikis/apex-legends/Octane

Game of thrones characters

- Robb Stark - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robb_Stark

- Tyrion Lannister - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyrion_Lannister

Johann Sebastian Bach’s bio

- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Sebastian_Bach

Supermoon 2019

- https://www.theguardian.com/science/2019/mar/20/rare-super-worm-moon-will-loom-large-as-it-coincides-with-equinox

- https://www.news.com.au/technology/science/space/best-time-and-place-in-australia-to-see-tonights-spectacular-supermoon/news-story/a71bde874e489251ae1099ba1f60d705

Shoutouts

19 Mar 1953 - The Academy Awards were televised for the first time. “The Greatest Show on Earth” was named best picture. Gary Cooper won the best actor award for “High Noon.” Shirley Booth won best actress for her role in “Come Back, Little Sheba.” - https://wtax.com/news/030030-today-in-entertainment-history-march-19/

19 Mar 1965 - The wreck of the SS Georgiana, valued at over $50,000,000, said to have been most powerful Confederate cruiser, discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence exactly 102 years after its destruction. - https://www.onthisday.com/day/march/19

20 Mar 2003 – Invasion of Iraq, was the first stage of the Iraq War (also called Operation Iraqi Freedom). The invasion phase began on 19 March 2003 and lasted just over one month, including 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq

Remembrances

15 Mar 2019 - The Christchurch mosque shootings were two consecutive terroristmass shootings at the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand, during Friday Prayer on 15 March 2019. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern referred to the attacks as "one of New Zealand's darkest days". - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings

15 Mar 2019 - Larry DiTillio, American film and TV series writer. He is famous for his works such as the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. He wrote the most episodes throughout both seasons, totalling 17 episodes as well as directing one. In 1985, he wrote the feature-length film He-Man and She-Ra: Secret of the Sword. He was responsible for the original bible of the spinoff show, She-Ra: Princess of Power, and came up with most of the character names. DiTillio is known for his role as executive story editor of the science-fiction series Babylon 5 and for writing or co-writing most of the episodes in the animated series Beast Wars. He was also a writer for the updated 2002 He-Man and the Masters of the Universe series. He died of Parkinson’s disease at 71 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Larry_DiTillio

19 Mar 2005 – John Delorean, American engineer, inventor and executive in the U.S. automobile industry, widely known for his work at General Motors and as founder of the DeLorean Motor Company. DeLorean managed development of a number of vehicles throughout his career, including the Pontiac GTOmuscle car, the Pontiac Firebird, Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevrolet Cosworth Vega, and the DeLoreansports car, which was later featured (in modified form) in the 1985 film Back to the Future. He died of a stroke at 80 in Summit, New Jersey - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_DeLorean

Famous Birthdays

19 Mar 1848 – Wyatt Earp, American Old West lawman and gambler in Cochise County, Arizona Territory, and a deputy marshal in Tombstone. He worked in a wide variety of trades throughout his life and took part in the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, during which lawmen killed three outlaw Cochise County Cowboys. He is often erroneously regarded as the central figure in the shootout, although his brother Virgil was Tombstone city marshal and deputy U.S. marshal that day and had far more experience as a sheriff, constable, marshal, and soldier in combat, born in Monmouth, Illinois - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyatt_Earp

19 Mar 1955 – Bruce Willis, American actor, producer, and singer. He has since appeared in over 70 films and is widely regarded as an "action hero", due to his portrayal of John McClane in the Die Hard franchise (1988–2013), and other such roles. His credits also include Pulp Fiction (1994), 12 Monkeys (1995), The Fifth Element (1997), Armageddon (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), Sin City (2005), Red (2010), The Expendables 2 (2012), Looper (2012), and as David Dunn in the Unbreakable film series: Unbreakable (2000), Split (2016) and Glass (2019). He was born in Idar-Oberstein, Rhineland-Palatinate - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Willis

22 Mar 1947 - James Patterson, American author and philanthropist. Among his works are the Alex Cross, Michael Bennett, Women's Murder Club, Maximum Ride,Daniel X,NYPD Red, Witch and Wizard, and Private series, as well as many stand-alone thrillers, non-fiction and romance novels. His books have sold more than 300 million copies and he was the first person to sell 1 million e-books. In 2016, Patterson topped Forbes's list of highest-paid authors for the third consecutive year, with an income of $95 million. His total income over a decade is estimated at $700 million. Born in Newburgh, New York - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Patterson

23 Mar 1912 - Wernher von Braun, German rocket scientist, He was one of the leading figures in the development of rocket technology in Germany during World War II and, subsequently, in the United States. He is credited as being the "Father of Rocket Science". He was born in Wirsitz, Germany (now Wyrzysk, Poland) - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wernher_von_Braun

24 Mar 1874 – Harry Houdini, Hungarian-born American illusionist and stunt performer, as a magician Houdini started out by performing card tricks before moving on to escape acts. He began first to escape from handcuffs, challenging local police to cuff him first. He moved on to an act escaping from a locked water filled milk can, straitjackets and then most famously a Chinese water torture cell where Houdini had to hold his breath for 3 minutes. He became the most famous vaudeville act in America, often filming his escapes. Born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_Houdini

Events of Interest

19 Mar 1932 – Sydney Harbour Bridge opens, a heritage-listed steel through arch bridge across Sydney Harbour that carries rail, vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic between the Sydney central business district (CBD) and the North Shore. The dramatic view of the bridge, the harbour, and the nearby Sydney Opera House is an iconic image of Sydney, and Australia itself. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_Harbour_Bridge

19 Mar 2008 – GRB 080319B: A cosmic burst that is the farthest object visible to the naked eye is briefly observed. - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GRB_080319B

20 Mar 2015 - A Solar Eclipse, Equinox, and a Super moon all occur on the same day - https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/03/150318-total-solar-eclipse-equinox-supermoon-astronomy-spring/

Intro

Artist – Goblins from Mars

Song Title – Super Mario - Overworld Theme (GFM Trap Remix)

Song Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-GNMe6kF0j0&index=4&list=PLHmTsVREU3Ar1AJWkimkl6Pux3R5PB-QJ

Follow us on Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/NerdsAmalgamated/

Email - Nerds.Amalgamated@gmail.com

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NAmalgamated

Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/6Nux69rftdBeeEXwD8GXrS

iTunes - https://itunes.apple.com/au/podcast/top-shelf-nerds/id1347661094

RSS - http://www.thatsnotcanonproductions.com/topshelfnerdspodcast?format=rss

[benrleeusa]

[David Kopel] The 1986 Plastic Gun Panic

How the gun control lobbies nearly tricked Congress into banning millions of ordinary guns.

Have you heard about the "undetectable plastic gun"? The gun control lobbies call it is "tailor-made for terrorism." The Washington Post reports that a state sponsor of terrorism is already attempting to obtain these guns. A Post columnist warns that the police "vehemently oppose the introduction of plastic guns into our armed society." Newsweek predicts the NRA will face a member revolt for opposing legislation to ban plastic guns: "This time the gun lobby may have shot itself in the foot."

The above is not today's news. It's the news from 1985 to 1988, the years of the first plastic gun panic. The supposed "plastic gun" was the Glock pistol, which contains more than a pound of metal, and is easily identified by metal detectors.

Today, millions of Americans own Glock pistols, and they are widely recognized as among the most common and ordinary of handguns. But back in 1985, the Glock was brand new, and the gun control lobbies found a brand new opportunity to terrify the American public. Many politicians and much of the press were eager to embrace the panic. Congress came close to enacting a wide-ranging gun ban.

This article tells the story of the first plastic gun panic.

The origins of the first plastic gun

In 1963, Gaston Glock, an Austrian engineer, created the Glock company. The Glock factory was near Vienna, in Deutsch-Wagram. It manufactured plastic and steel products, including curtain rings. After developing expertise in products combining plastic with steel, Glock became an Austrian army supplier field knives, machine gun belts, practice hand grenades, plastic clips, and entrenching tools.

In the early 1980s, the Austrian army asked a wide variety of manufacturers to submit bids to manufacture a new duty pistol. Although Glock had never made firearms before, it was invited to bid. Glock won the contract for what became the Glock 17 pistol. The Glock was the first firearm to use plastic polymers.

Most parts of the Glock 17 were still made of metal: the upper receiver, the barrel, the trigger assembly, the magazines, and so on. But the frame was made of plastic polymers. The frame is the biggest part of the gun; it is the structure to which all the other parts are attached. The Glock's plastic frame weighed only 14% as much as a steel frame, yet was stronger.

The stronger frame helped the gun absorb recoil better, thus improving accuracy and comfort for the user. The much lighter frame also made the Glock more comfortable to carry or wear for extended periods.

Even without the plastic, the Glock would have been a major innovation. Nobody had ever made a modern full-sized pistol with so few parts. The Glock was easy to disassemble and reassemble for cleaning. Compared to other pistols of the time, it was less likely to jam or misfire because of lack of cleaning. The gun was also extremely sturdy, and resistant to cracking or other damage even after firing thousands of rounds of ammunition.

After being adopted by the military and law enforcement in Austria, the Glock 17 began to find a world-wide market. Norway was the first NATO country to adopt it. In 1985, Glock opened an office in Smyrna, Georgia, the first of what would be Glock offices around the world.

As explained in Paul M. Barrett's book Glock: The Rise of America's Gun, the company aimed its initial promotions at the law enforcement market. The light weight and other improvements made the gun naturally attractive to officers and deputies. And Glock offered very generous terms to adopting agencies, including buying the agencies' former service handguns.

As law enforcement agencies adopted the Glock, other citizens could see that the new-fangled "plastic" guns were reliable and effective for lawful defense of self and others. Lawful defense is the only reason that law enforcement officers carry firearms. American citizens have always looked to law enforcement officers for good examples of appropriate arms for keeping the peace. That was true for the 1873 Colt "peacemaker" revolver and over a century later for the Glocks.

In 1986 the Washington Post sounds the alarm about plastic guns

"Qaddafi Buying Austrian Plastic Pistol." That was the headline from columnists Jack Anderson and Dale Van Atta in Washington Post on January 15, 1986. According to the article, "The Libyans are said to be trying covert methods to obtain these weapons."

Today, Glocks are ubiquitous, one of the most common pistols, with many models. But in January 1986, they were little known in America, where only a few thousnd had been sold.

Swiftly, the gun control lobbies began warning Americans about the "plastic pistol." They dubbed them "terrorist specials" or the "Hijackers Special." Supposedly, this plastic gun was designed to sneak through metal detectors.

Government experts explain that the Glock—and all other handguns, are readily detectable

Phillip McGuire testified to Congress on behalf of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. McGuire was not exactly an opponent of gun control. He would later would take a job with the leading gun control group of the day, Handgun Control, Inc. McGuire testified before Congress:

There is still no evidence that we hold that a firearm intrinsically capable of passing undetected through conventional x-ray and metal detector systems exists or is feasible under any current technology immediately available to us.

Testimony of Phillip C. McGuire, Associate Director, Office of Law Enforcement, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms before the Senate Committee on Judiciary, Subcommittee on the Constitution, July 28, 1987.

At that same hearing, Raymond A. Salazar, Director of Civil Aviation Security for the Federal Aviation Administration testified: "We are aware of no current 'non-metal' firearm which is not reasonably detectable by present technology and methods in use at our airports today."

FAA Director for Civil Aviation Security Billie Vincent told Congress: "despite a relatively common impression to the contrary, there is no current non-metal firearm which is not reasonably detectably by present technology and methods in use in our airports today, nor to my knowledge is anyone on the threshold of developing such a firearm."

Congress was shown photos of Glocks under a metal detector, reveal that the Glock's easily visible profile.

Sen. Metzenbaum's gun ban gains momentum

In the late 1980s, the Senate's leading gun control advocate was Howard Metzenbaum (D-Ohio). In the November 1986 elections, Democrats won control of the U.S. Senate, and Joe Biden (D-Del.) would be the new Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee. The party change much improved the prospects for gun control bills getting a committee hearing and a floor vote.

In February 1987 Sen. Metzenbaum introduced legislation to outlaw all guns that contained less than 8.5 ounces of steel, because such guns could supposedly pass through metal detectors easily. (The original bill can be found in the Feb. 4, 1987, Congressional Record, at page S1792. The Library of Congress' Thomas website does not have full texts of bills from this period. The Thomas website only has a summary of the bill as it later passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, following a gut and amend that greatly changed the bill.) The original Metzenbaum bill would have allowed grandfathered owners to retain possession, but not to sell or transfer them. So upon the demise of a grandfathered owner, the heirs would immediately become illegal possessors of contraband.

The Metzenbaum bill did not ban the Glock, which contains 19 ounces of steel. The Glock was winning adoptions by law enforcement at a rapidly increasing rate. It was no longer plausible to claim that these law enforcement handguns were "terrorist specials."

Instead, the Metzenbaum bill banned many small handguns. Again, the BATF had testified that these too were readily detectable. According to the NRA (American Rifleman, Jan. 1988), the Metzenbaum bill covered many derringers (up to .38 caliber) as well as .22 or .25 caliber handguns from companies including Beretta, Colt, North American Arms, Raven Arms, Rossi, Smith & Wesson, Stevens, and Walther.

The bill's use of "steel" rather than "metal" for the minimum weight made a big difference. Many guns use zinc or aluminum in alloys. The thirteen ounce .25 caliber Raven pistol was made with zinc alloy, and had only 3.2 ounces of pure steel. Similarly, the Beretta 950 weighed over nine ounces, but the frame was aluminimum alloy, so the gun's steel weight was less than 8 1/2 ounces. Small handguns had long been a target of the gun control lobbies. The lobbies had been unable to prohibit such guns nationally by calling them "Saturday Night Specials." Now, small handguns were again set for prohibition--supposedly because they had something to do with the fuss about "plastic guns."

Other handguns, including historic models, had frames made from iron, brass, bronze, rather from steel. They too were set for prohibition.

In early December 1987, Metzenbaum tried to attach his legislation to a bill to increase aid to veterans. He narrowly fell short, 44 to 47 (counting two Senators not present, but who said they would have voted for the bill).

Senators Howard Metzenbaum found a powerful cosponsor for his gun ban: South Carolina Republican Strom Thurmond. Thurmond was the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. He had first come to national attention in 1948 when he bolted the Democratic Party to run for President as a "Dixiecrat." Thurmond and his supporters objected to the civil rights plank in the party platform, which had been spearheaded by Minneapolis Mayor (and future Vice-President) Hubert Humphrey.

Thurmond had a long career as governor and senator from South Carolina. In 1964, he became a Republican. He was the opposite of a civil libertarian, and a frequent sponsor of legislation that opponents said would infringe much of the Bill of Rights. (See, e.g.,

Being from South Carolina, Thurmond sometimes voted "pro-gun." Yet later, in the first Bush administration (1989-92), Thurmond took the lead in supporting administration gun control proposals, even when most other Republican Senators refused to go along. For example, one Bush-Thurmond theme was legislation to simultaneously abolish the Exclusionary Rule and enact more gun control.

Over in the House of Representatives, leading gun control advocate Mario Biaggi (D-Bronx, later imprisoned for felony corruption) had an even more ambitious "plastic gun" proposal. He favored prohibiting any firearm "substantially constructed of plastic or other nonmetal material." This would cover all long guns, since their stocks are made of wood or plastic, not metal. The ATF's McGuire testified that the Biaggi "definition covers almost every existing rifle and shotgun in commerce and almost any handgun using rubber, wood or plastic oversized grips."

Although the Biaggi idea did not advance, Metzenbaum was making progress. Even the Reagan Department of Justice was poised to endorse a "plastic" gun ban. Only the intervention of Vice President Bush (who was running for President, and seeking gun-owner support) stopped the DOJ. The "plastic gun" panic from 1986 had been cultivated so well by gun control advocates that they could still use the momentum to ban something that could be called "undetectable."

Congress passes the Undetectable Firearms Act

Given the apparent imperative to "do something," pro-rights legislators had introduced alternative legislation. House Majority Leader Thomas Foley (D-Spokane) introduced H.R. 4014, the Firearms Detection Act of 1988. It garnered 95 cosponsors, most notably Rep. John Dingell (D-Ann Arbor), who was a member of the NRA Board of Directors. In the Senate, similar legislation came from Sen. James McClure (R-Idaho), who had been the lead Senate sponsor for the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, a major reform of federal gun control laws.

What resulted was a compromise, the Undetectable Firearms Act of 1988, H.R. 4445. Its sponsor was William Hughes (D-N.J.), chair of the House Subcommittee on Crime, and a leading gun control advocate. Hughes was will to negotiate, and produced a bill that won unanimous support from the House Judiciary Committee and NRA endorsement. The minimum steel weight was reduced to 3.7 ounces, which must be in the general shape of a handgun. Language that arguably would have given the Secretary of the Treasury gun-banning discretion was removed. Industry research on prototypes was protected. As enacted, the bill banned no firearm that had ever been made, including the Glock. The Act is codified at 18 U.S. Code section 922(p).

As applied today, the Defense Distributed company has produced files for the production of a singles-shot plastic handgun, which it calls the "Liberator" pistol. (Named for a single-shot handgun distributed by the Allies to anti-Nazi resistance forces in Europe during World War II.) The gun can be manufactured in a home workship with a 3D printer. Complaint with the UFA, the Liberator includes the legally-required amount of metal, with a handgun profile. In prior litigation with Defense Distributed, the U.S. State Department expressly acknowledged that the Liberator complies with the UFA.

What happened later

Massachusetts Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy, a strong anti-gun advocate, had remarked that the "plastic gun" issue was an opportunity "to get the debate on handgun control back on the right track." Indeed, the gun control lobbies in 1988 got to tell their members, correctly, that the lobbies had actually pushed a bill into law. The Act was the first time that Congress had actually voted to ban a type of gun—albeit a type that did not exist and had never existed.

The 1988 Act helped set the stage for the 1994 Congressional ban on "assault weapons." Conceptually, the 1988 and 1994 bills were very different. Yet the gun control lobbies were prescient that voting to ban things that don't exist can be a gateway to banning things that do.

For example Nebraska Democratic Senator James Exon had a generally pro-Second Amendment voting record. Yet in November 1993, he explained on the Senate floor why he was supporting Senator Feinstein's "assault weapons" ban:

Those who have been here long enough will probably remember that as the plastic gun problem. Plastic guns were becoming very common. They were guns that could be smuggled very easily through any surveillance system at an airport, for example, or any public facility where we have certain regulations and equipment in place to detect weapons.

I crossed the NRA on that particular proposition, and we were able to solve that finally by not outlawing plastic weapons but requiring, by law, that the weapons no longer be invisible to screening devices in public places because they had to have something that would show up on the screen that does the screening when we go through, for example, airport security.

Congressional Record, vol. 139, No. 156--part II, Nov. 9, 1993.

The leading promoter of the 1986 plastic gun panic was Handgun Control, Inc. In 2001, the group changed its name to the "Brady Campaign," belatedly realizing that many Americans were skeptical about being controlled. So instead of saying "gun control," the group now says "gun safety." An officer of the anti-gun "Million Mom March," which was later absorbed by the Brady group, explained: "Changing the name from Handgun Control to the Brady Campaign will have a positive effect, especially since this organization is a key player in the fight against the powerful gun lobby. The word 'control' suggested that gun safety advocates wanted control over gun rights activists by infringing on their Second Amendment right to bear arms. This couldn't be farther from the truth." Karie Stakem, Letter to the Editor, "Gun 'Control' Isn't Our Aim—Just Gun Safety," Virginian-Pilot & Ledger Star, June 29, 2001, at B10, available at 2001 WLNR 2096578.

The name may have changed, but the principles remain the same. In a 2016 amicus brief supporting the U.S. State Department's prior restraint against the Defense Distributed company posting gun manufacturing files on the Internet, the Brady brief pointed out: "The UFA was passed in part in response to reports that then Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi was in the process of buying more than 100 plastic handguns that would be difficult for airport security to detect. Jack Anderson, Dale Van Atta, Qaddafi Buying Austrian Plastic Pistols, The Washington Post, Jan 15, 1986." Brady Center amicus brief, Defense Distributed v. United States Department of State, 2016 WL 704978 (5th Cir. 2016).

The words in the Brady brief was literally true—although a more candid amicus might have informed the court that so-called "plastic handguns" of 1986 were actually not "difficult for airport security to detect." A candid amicus might have also explained that the "plastic handguns" were Glock pistols, which are now recognized as common, constitutionally-protected handguns.

The 1988 law had ended efforts to ban the use of plastic polymers in firearms. The only place where Glocks were prohibited was New York City. There, the police refused to issue handgun permits for Glock pistols. A police spokesman "said that the police banned the pistol because it was partly plastic and difficult to detect electronically."

But former NYPD officer Stephen D'Andrilli was running a business that helped guide New Yorkers through the City's arduous gun licensing process. When the Department rejected a client's application to purchase a Glock, D'Andrilli fired a freedom of information request, and discovered that Police Commissioner Benjamin Ward was licensed to carry a Glock 17. The Department claimed that Commissioner Ward's Glock carrying was "part of a controlled test." (N.Y. Times, Sept. 28, 1988.)

The day after Ward's Glock was revealed, the Department rescinded the ban on Glocks. The Department announced that it had concluded that the Glock can "in fact can be detected with today's present technology in the security field." According to the Department, the Glock ban would have been lifted in the next week; the revelation about Ward's Glock had only affected the timing of when the decision would have been made. (N.Y. Times, Sept. 29, 1988.)

D'Andrilli, now retired, runs a website that provides research and advocacy on firearms policy issues, and offers New Yorkers guidance on how to comply with the state's confusing gun control laws.

Post-1988, the Glocks continued to catch on with police commissioners and everyone else. By 1999, Glock had sold two million American pistols, in a wide variety of calibers and sizes.

Today, any gun store will have modern handguns and long guns from many manufacturers that use plastic polymers. Plastics are a very ordinary thing for modern firearms. They make guns better for all lawful purposes, including self-defense. Guns in the right hands save lives. Better guns for lawful defense save more lives. Yet technophobic panic in the late 1980s nearly thwarted life-saving improvements in gun safety.

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[crashdevlin]

Bottle-7: Nightmares

Bottle Masterlist

Author’s Note: Originally posted to ao3 (This is an edited and improved version), I work in info from the comics (Like Hawkeye was married to Mockingbird and Red Skull had a disappointing daughter) and I took a few liberties with what the scepter could do (but not really because the Mind Stone was used to create the Twins so what I did is not that far-fetched). This is a lot more angst than I realized when I wrote it, but it’s compelling angst.

Summary: Cassandra Campbell is a Stark Industries lab tech with dubious genetics and a history with the new Director of SHIELD. She’s been working in New York since right before the Chitauri invasion. What does she have to do with Loki, and what will happen when he returns? Starts post TDW and continues to the end of AoU.

Pairing(s): Phil Coulson x OFC (Past), Loki x OFC (Non-con), Clint Barton x OFC, Steve Rogers x OFC

Word Count: 4004

Story Warnings: So many, worst (to me) are bolded. Younger woman/older man relationship,non-con, mutilation, torture, mind control, PTSD, depression, alcoholism, forced abortions, bad things (non-con) in a church, insomnia, memory manipulation, eventual consensual oral sex (female and male receiving),

Chapter Warnings: insomnia, nightmares, depression, alcoholism, general identity issues, bad German from Google Translate, mentions of suicidal thoughts

Cassie's dreams hadn't been what would be called 'pleasant' in a couple years, but her nightmares had steadily become more distressing. When she woke, she took a deep breath to steady her heart rate and it fell immediately. She rubbed at her eyes with the blanket and folded it, throwing it next to her jump seat.

"You okay?" Clint asked, from the pilot's seat. Natasha had traded for the seat beside him.

"I'm fine," Cassie said, her voice monotone as she stood to walk up between the two agents.

"Well, maybe this’ll cheer you up. Welcome home," Clint said, reaching over to flip several switches on the jet's console.

Cassie looked out at the New York skyline. Twinkling lights and skyscrapers greeted her as she looked out the front of the jet. Right in the middle of the picturesque landscape stood Stark Tower, the visual confirmation of Tony Stark's ego. She might have found it beautiful if it weren’t the building where Loki Laufeyson had turned her into a monster... twice. 'Home' was not the word she would use.

As they walked into the top of the Tower, Steve walked out of a door to their immediate left. "Romanoff, Barton, mission debrief."

The agents split off from her without a word. Cassie looked around, seeming a bit lost as she set her bag against the closest wall. "Lab tech!" She heard from her right. "Come talk to me."

Cassie nodded and headed over to Tony. He shut the door behind her and headed to a wet bar behind to his desk. He poured two glasses of scotch and set one on the opposite edge of his desk, right in front of her. He sat down and took a sip, eyeing her. "How was Austria?" he asked as she picked up the tumbler.

She looked down at the glass. "It was good. Nice." She took a sip. It was smooth and strong. Much better than the home-made vodka she'd been downing every night to help her sleep. "All I had to worry about was bratwurst and God."

"Well, that sounds... so boring. Boring like listening to Cap extol on the virtues of the 'good ol' days'."

"Well, it might not be saving the world, but I wasn't putting it in danger, either. And it was quiet. I thought it might help me to... deal." She whispered the last word.

"Yeah. Everybody has their coping methods. Me, I drink a lot," Tony said, lifting his glass. "Or, I make metal suits. Hawk shoots stuff, Romanoff kills things. You and Banner seem to be fans of the 'disappear into the middle of nowhere and get a taste of the simple life' method. Whatever. Diff'rint strokes. But what's important is you come back when you're needed. And here you are."

"I hope it doesn't diminish anything that I tried to run when... Barton showed up." She didn't feel quite up to 'first-naming' Hawkeye, yet.

"Not at all. Figured you would. Look, you're here and in not a whole lot worse condition than when you left. I had Pepper put you on a leave of absence when Loki grabbed you, so you have a job downstairs, if you want it. And you're still what Fury calls 'enhanced', so you have a job up here."

"I don't know. I mean... I haven't even considered coming back to the lab."

"You've got time to think about it, but I'd really like you on the team when we go searching for the sceptre. It's like an epic quest. It'll be fun," he encouraged.

"Maybe."

"Well, either way, why don't you head over to the lab, let Banner scan you? I'd like to make sure Austria didn't fuck you up."

Cassie nodded, finishing off her scotch and standing.

**********

She opened the sliding door to the lab and smiled, timidly. Banner wasn't a man she'd spoken with much before, but he seemed to be the only one who didn't have judgement in his eyes when he looked at her. "Oh, hello. Welcome back. Why don't you get a seat?" Bruce said, adjusting his glasses and tapping away at a tablet.

She jumped up on the exam table and looked around at all the equipment, most of it familiar, but some of it obviously specialized. "So, 'Red Queen', huh?"

"Well, it's just something I was tossing around. Everyone's got a superhero name, you know. The big guy's The Hulk, Tony is Iron Man. Hawkeye, Black Widow, Captain America. I thought you, you know, you ought to have one, too."

"Well, I like it. It's better than 'Red Skulletta'," she said, with a small smile. Bruce just continued looking down at his tablet. "That was a joke." She leaned forward. "Maybe I should try it in German. They got a kick out of me back in Hohenhems."

Bruce looked up from his tablet and gave a little smile as he took off his glasses. "Sorry. I get lost in the science sometimes. How was Hohenhems?"

Cassie smiled. "It was quiet. The people were really nice, worked with me, helped me learn German, well, relearn it. It was simple. I was... almost happy there. Working on happy, anyway. Until Loki found me, again. That always puts an end to 'happy'."

Bruce scanned her from head to toe. "Well, at least you're here now," he said, absentmindedly.

"Yeah." Everyone seemed to think that was a good thing. Who was she to argue?

"Let me just get some blood and you can head down to your apartment." Anxiety flooded her at the mention of her apartment and Banner’s tablet beeped. "Or, judging by that spike in your blood pressure, you might want to find one of Tony's couches to crash on."

She smiled, embarrassed. "Speaking of crashing, you got anything that would help me sleep?"

"Yeah. I have a couple sedatives around. Insomnia?" he asked, straightening her arm and wrapping a rubber band around her bicep.

"No... uh, nightmares," she whispered, as he gently pushed a needle into her vein.

Bruce nodded. He pulled out the vial of blood and labelled it, before walking over to a cabinet and grabbing a bottle. "This is Lorazapam. Take one about half an hour before you try to sleep. It'll relax you and your mind won't be so anxious. It should work on the nightmares better than Tony's scotch would."

She felt her cheeks heat up at that. How'd he know she was planning to steal her boss' amazing scotch? She jumped down and grabbed the bottle from his hand. She smiled and thanked him. She had her hand on the door when Banner turned his back to her. "Scrutiny sucks," he said, suddenly. The words sounded awkward from the quiet scientist.

Cassie turned back, pushing the pill bottle into her pocket. Bruce took off his glasses, setting them on the table next to him. "I mean... it's no one else's business what happened between you and Coulson. No one's business why you left that base in the Alps. But they will be watching, judging, because that's... human nature."

She sighed, sadly. "I left because I wanted to try to outrun the scrutiny. Guess that was wishful thinking."

"Well... I... I'm not the judging type. The other guy has done some horrible things, so I don't judge. If you need an ear... I'm in this lab, most of the time."

Cassie smiled a little, stepping forward, then jumping back onto the exam table, leaning back on it. "Can I hang in here with you, for a little while, then? I don't want to deal with Steve's cold looks, or the weirdness with Barton. Eventually, we're going to get a call from Phil, and I'll have those questions to answer. I'll take a judgement-free zone where I can get it."

"Why don't you have one of those Lorazapams, take a nap?"

She took the pills out of her pocket and placed five on her tongue. She took a deep breath and rolled over on her side, curling her arm under her head and closing her eyes.

********************

Cassie had read somewhere that dreams of running for your life, being hunted by something that you can instinctively tell is faster than you, were normal. She'd never been able to find anything about being the one on the hunter side. Her dream-self cornered its prey and pulled them to her. "Hail Hydra," she whispered in her prey's ear as she brought a knife to their neck. "Sie werden nie dein schicksal besiegen, [You will never defeat your fate.]" she whispered, before violently pulling the knife across her victim's throat. As the body fell to the concrete beneath her dream self, Cassie could see her own face on the victim.

Her eyes flew open, her whole body tense. "Sie werden nie dein schicksal besiegen," she whispered, sitting up and rubbing her eyes. She looked around and saw Tony and Bruce, standing outside the lab doors, looking at a tablet. She looked at her watch. She'd gotten six hours. She hadn't gotten that much sleep in one go since she left the Playground. "Thank you, Ativan," she said, grabbing the bottle from the table next to the exam table and jumping down. She opened the lab door and smiled at the scientists.

"How'd you sleep?" Bruce asked.

"Better than I have in months, actually. Made it past hour four, so..." Cassie cleared her throat. "Um, Tony... sir. I'm in a good... well, a rested mindset, so I wanted to tell you that I'm going to respectfully decline going back to work in the lab."

Tony shrugged. "No biggie. I'm sure we can-"

"I'd like to focus on Ops training. I'm excited to make sure Loki never lays hands on that scepter again. I'd like to go on that quest. But being strong and fast won't do me any good if I can't fight. And if I can't fight, then I'm useless here."

The men exchanged a look. "Okay. I'll tell Romanoff you need some ass-kicking lessons," Tony responded.

"Don't bother. I'll talk to Barton. That conversation's gotta happen sometime. Better now, when I've had an almost full round of sleep," she said, before walking away.

She found him, with the help of Jarvis, several levels below the penthouse in a large open room with dozens of targets. "Stark made a shooting range? How thoughtful," Cassie said, walking in behind him.

"There's also some foam mats in a closet somewhere, in case Tash gets the urge to kick my ass," he said, throwing the knife that sat balanced on his fingers into a target behind him.

"Got a minute?"

He nodded and grabbed two folding chairs from the wall next to the door. She sat in one, turning it so that her chest was leaning on the back rest. "I was deluded, back at der... the Playground. To think I could carry a Jotun baby... it would have killed me. You saved me from myself. And I hated you for it."

She rested her chin on her hands, on the backrest of the chair. "I understand now. I can't win against destiny. Can't run or hide. I was created to be a super-soldier. I wasn't created to be a scientist or-or a mother. So, I may as well fulfill that."

"I thought you weren't Ops material?"

"Well, I must be. Joanna was pretty good at all that stuff. Sliding down elevator cables, jumping from fire escapes to windows... I did that stuff. Somewhere in me is the fortitude for Ops training. So, I'm coming to you, the one person who has known me longer than anyone except Phil and Fury. Teach me Ops."

Clint looked down. "Who told you?"

"I must've known. Realized I'd seen you trailing me. Joanna knew. Fury confirmed it for her...me... and then you admitted to watching me with a high power scope. Pretty easy there.” She sighed, heavily, a thickness filling her chest. “I don't mind, well, I do, but... I'm Red Skull's daughter. Phil was a level 8 agent. Fury had to keep his eye out."

Clint sighed, disappointed in himself. "I'm sorry. I wanted to tell you. I just... didn't know how."

"It's fine, Clint. It's good to have someone around who knows me... because I don't think I know myself right now." Her eyes stung as she said the words.

Clint stood, before dropping to his knees next to her. "Cassie, you don't know who you are? I do. You are a scientist. You matched wits with some of the brightest minds in Stark Industries. You are a wonderful, intelligent, selfless woman who has faced so much in the last two years. To come out alive... I'm amazed by you. I've been amazed by you from the moment Fury put me on you." He grabbed her shoulders and turned her to look at him.

"I thought it'd be boring. I thought I'd just have to wait a week or so to get evidence of you meeting with Hydra operatives or using Coulson somehow. What I saw was beauty. I saw confidence. I saw a woman deeply in love with a man who was never really around to return that love.” Clint smiled, slightly. “I remember Phil going on a mission once, and you sat around sewing the holes in his suits, while studying tissue histology in a microscope. You never made friends, because Phil was all you cared about. You based your entire life around a man who was gone for weeks at a time. You got your school work done in between making sure everything was perfect every day, just in case Coulson came home. And the day he came home, and wouldn't shut his fucking face about that cellist he saved... I remember the look on your face when you decided to leave everything you had behind and embark on a life by yourself with his kid, so that he could be happy. You didn't even cry, because you were happy letting him be happy. That is you. Selfless, loyal, never thinking about yourself."

She couldn't deny the tears rolling down her cheek this time. "I don't feel like that woman anymore. I lost... everything. I lost Phil. I lost Faye. I lost my humanity, my optimism. I lost my second chance at being happy. Loki killed me. So, who am I now, Clint?"

Clint’s heart ached at the sight of her tears, the way her voice broke as she talked of her loss. "You are the same woman. You're just a little beaten down, right now," Clint said, taking her hands.

Cassie laughed, sarcastically. She pulled her hands out of his grasp and wiped at her tears. "Beaten down was miles back. I'm broken down. I don't sleep. I can't think. I couldn't even tell that Loki had replaced Father Nathan back at the church. That's why Hohenhems was so good to me, nothing required effort. Warm up some sausage, put it on a plate, go back to church and pray for the will to end it all, cry myself to sleep, wake up in cold sweats and do it all over again."

She stood, suddenly, pushing the chair and the archer away, stepping away from him. "I thought I could do this. I thought I could come back and answer all the questions and it could go back to how it was before. But I can't. I'm not... I can't do this," she said, rushing out the door.

********************

Cassie sat in the dive bar Clint had taken her to all those months ago, her glass half-full of a 151 white rum. She'd already downed three and she was happily starting to feel drunk.

"So, what's a beautiful woman like you, doing drinking hard liquor in a dive bar?" a man asked, sitting on the barstool next to her.

"Move on," she said, not looking at him as she downed the rest of her drink and raised her hand for another.

"What's that?"

"I said, 'Move on'." She raised her head and turned slightly to the attractive dark-haired man beside her. "I'm a beautiful woman drinking hard liquor in a dive bar. Don't you think that probably translates into trouble?"

He smirked. "What if I'm a guy who likes trouble?"

She let out an exasperated breath."Mein Gott, werfen sie einen hinweis. [My God, take a hint.] I don't know how to simplify this for you. I want to be left alone. Move on."

"Es tut mir leid. Ich dachte, vielleicht haben sie eine schwester waren. [I’m so sorry. I thought, maybe, you were a sister.] Heil Hydra," he said, before standing.

She put her hand out and grabbed his wrist. "Heil Hydra?" she whispered, before turning to him. "What would make you say that? Looking at me from across the bar, you think I'm one of you?"

"I... thought maybe you were..." The man looked confused. "There was a legacy we lost. You look just like..."

"Your legacy is dead!" she whispered, furiously. "There is no heir. There should be no Hydra." She stood from her stool and wrapped her left hand around his throat. His eyes went wide as she flexed her fingers to dig them into his skin. "All you pretty young American boys pulled so effortlessly into the jaws of Nazism and you don't even recognise it." She tightened her fingers' grip further around his throat. "You, though... you recognise me. You were SHIELD. Must've seen my file."

He nodded, as best as he could. "Fury never put it on the books that you'd been let out of the Fridge,” he croaked. “Whitehall was very interested in getting you back. John Garret and I searched for an hour, in the middle of what was practically a war zone, in order to get you back where you belong."

Cassie smiled and let her hand go from around his neck, stepping toward the door. "Everyone seems to think they know where I should be. I don't belong with Hydra. They might have created me, but they lost ownership years ago. If you want to pick up the shambles of your organization, don't look at me," she said, before walking out the door.

She walked in silence to the subway and sat down in the far back corner of the car. It was quiet. She relished the quiet. Until the doors opened at the next station and several people got on. They all took places around the car, some standing, some sitting. Cassie could see a pattern to their placement. Someone had planned the movements so that she was in the middle and no one was in the others' crossbeams. The person standing closest to her had done a good job of hiding the gun strapped to the inside of her thigh, but a knife was sticking out of the back of her jogging suit.

No one moved as the subway started toward the next station. "I take it you guys wouldn't be inclined to let me off at the next station?" she asked. No one even looked at her. She nodded, then shook her head. Fucking agents, but whose agency?

When the next station came, the doors opened to reveal a tall blonde woman in all black. "Joanna Schmidt?"

Cassie looked up at the Amazonian-looking woman with as much boredom as she could manage. "Wrong chick. I'm Cassandra Campbell. You are?"

The blonde smiled brightly and held out her hand. "Bobbi Morse, Agent of SHIELD. Director Coulson sent us to retrieve you. We weren't sure you were, you know, yourself, hence the manpower."

Cassie took the hand and stood, shaking it. "You're Mockingbird," she said, looking the beautiful woman in the face.

Bobbie chuckled. "I haven't been called that codename in a while. How'd you hear that name?"

"There wasn't much to do in Austria so, I went through some of the SHIELD files Black Widow dumped to the web. I was mostly looking up stuff on the AVENGERS INITIATIVE. I followed a link from Cli- Agent Barton's file to yours..."

"Ah, ex-husband #1. That was a... crazy thing. Come on, let's get you to the director." Cassie followed the woman out of the station, to the SUV waiting on the street above. They sat next to each other in silence for a while before Bobbi cleared her throat. "Clint's a good guy. It just... didn't work."

"Things rarely do, Agent Morse."

*******************

Cassie followed Bobbi through the new secret SHIELD compound, walking through a maze of hallways that seemed intentionally confusing. As she walked, her eyes caught sight of the agents she recognized from Joanna's attack on the Playground staring at her from their offices and labs. Bobbi opened a large wooden door and led her in. Phil stood behind a large wooden desk.

"We're okay, Bobbi. Thank you," he said, sitting down in a large leather chair. Bobbi nodded and vacated the room. Phil looked up at Cassie, standing in front of his desk. "You left before I could talk to you."

"Yeah, well, you had an agency to... that's a lie." She cut herself off, dropping down into the chair on the other side of the desk. "I ran because I didn't want to deal with it." She sighed, sadly, looking at her lap.

"You were never supposed to know about Faye. You weren't gonna be on her birth certificate, I was never going to ask you for anything. As soon as I made the decision to leave, she stopped being ours. She was mine. Only mine. And then she wasn't." Her eyes moved from her lap to the ground in front of her. "I went a little nuts after. Losing her, becoming this, everything that Loki did… did to me. It took a while to even be okay, but eventually I dealt with it. I was fine. I was sleeping, no one knew what he had done. I was okay."

Cassie put her head in her hands, her voice breaking. "I'm not okay, now. I left, chased simplicity, tried to find fine again, but I can't. I can't be okay, not after everything. I ran so that no one would see me fall apart, but I can't help it now. Everyone knows how fucked I am, and I have no way to hide this time."

Phil stood, rounding his desk to kneel in front of her, trying to catch her eyes. "You don't have to be okay. No one is expecting that. And you weren't really okay before. I just couldn't remember well enough to put my finger on what was wrong. You can't find fine and you can't fall into it. You need support, guidance. You need to talk about it."

He took her hand in one of his as she shook her head. "If you don't want to talk to me, that's fine. But you have to talk to someone. Do you remember me telling you about Andrew, May's ex-husband? He's an amazing psychologist and he's well versed in dealing with the Index."

Her eyes widened in realization. "Oh, my god. I'm on the Index, now, aren't I?" she whispered.

He nodded. "I put you on, myself. Listen, the Index isn't bad, Cassie. Remember, the Avengers came from that list."

She nodded. "Yeah. I'm on their list, too."

"You didn't expect Tony Stark to back off, did you?"

"Well, Rogers did. Steve backed off all the way to calling me 'Miss Campbell’ again."

"Yeah... sorry about that. I, uh, know you were looking forward to a second date with my hero," he said, bitterly.

She shrugged. "It wasn't something I wanted, Phil, until it suddenly was. I mean, you know him... he's a great man. But don't worry, he's cold shouldered me enough that I got the hint."

"I'm not worried. I don't have a right to be. I pushed you away, and if there was anyone I'd want you to... get over me with... Not him, come on!" he whined.

Cassie smiled, slightly. "Okay. So, Andrew."

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[iftekharsanom]

A brief but totally fascinating story of pornography

The Company's relationship with sex is not exactly what you would call an open and healthy person. Of course, we want to, but we like to stay away. We like other people have sex to see, but sometimes do not really want to see it. Pornography is always allowed control over measure, when we see, and if we do not have sex it.

In 2009, researchers Simon Louis Lajeunesse Montreal was forced to leave their study on how pornography affects men because it could do without group control identify. That is, he is not a single man of about 20 who had not seen pornography found. So, yes, pornography is out there. Porn is very popular. And it's been that way for a long time. Willendorf's Venus is one of the first appearances of people made naked body. 4-inch statue, which was discovered on the banks of the Danube in Austria, to date more than 25,000 years. The Greeks and Romans have many descriptions of heterosexual sex, homosexual sex, oral sex, orgy, and more. And the Kamasutra, a text of the third century, still enjoys its status as the cultural cornerstone of sensual life. Translation title: "A treatise on pleasure." But perhaps the largest collection of ancient erotica left the ancient city of Pompeii. The diggers found hundreds of sexually explicit images, sculptures and frescoes on the walls of brothels, baths and common houses. Won one of the most popular products was a sculpture of God making sex Pan with a goat. If the sexual act makes people scruples caused bestiality a full-on freakout. The piece, along with hundreds of other frescoes and sculptures were exhibited at the National Archaeological Museum of Naples. But it stopped after King Francis I of Naples for a visit, he ordered the explicit material in place, which would eventually be called the Secret Museum. The artifacts remained hidden for over a century.

New technologies bring new opportunities for storytelling. And sex is always a worthwhile story. As he writes once told Playboy writer Damon Brown: "If we have a machine, the first thing to invent, we do - to make an advantage is to use it to see pornography." If the Gutenberg Press was founded in 1440, pornography quickly found a home in literature. In 1524 the first book of erotic engravings was published. And in 1749, John Cleland wrote the erotic novels Memories of a Pleasure Woman, which later became known Fanny Hill. But still the material was not easy. Cleland and his original editor were arrested and detained immediately after the book was published. The Boston Globe reports that a bishop denounced the book as "the most indecent thing I've ever seen." The novel deals with issues such as bisexuality, voyeurism, group sex and masochism. The book was "obscene," as it was and remained under the ground in the United States until 1966 In 1839, the daguerreotype was introduced (an initial version of the photo). In fact found some entrepreneurs quickly to serve a way to technology for more pornographic effects. A 2006 article by Professor Joseph Slade suggests that the first pornographic daguerreotype depicted in 1846. The image was "a very serious man who is carefully inserted his penis into the vagina of an equally grave middle-aged woman." Eleven years later, the word "pornography" was officially added to the English language. At that time it was defined as "writing about prostitutes". Finally, the movie comes into play. Thomas Edison Kiss became available in 1896 in the trade, as the title suggests, the film represented the first kiss on the screen. It may sound a bit of vanilla these days, but it created something of a scandal at the time. In addition, filmmakers do not take the dirtiest long produced material to get started.

The early 1900s marked the era of "macho film." These films were illegally shot, consumed and distributed and were representative of the raw porn industry, though America's growth. Deer often leave disjointed filmmakers stories and vivid descriptions of raw sexuality. Joseph Slade suggests that the "confirmed the authenticity of human sexuality." "Beloved" These films Movies that were often smuggled from street sellers often seen exclusively male during stag parties, fraternity events and other meetings. Researchers at the Kinsey Institute believe about 2,000 films from 1915-1968 were male produces. Despite the complications arising from the production and distribution of pornographic material, the material was very popular. So much so that, in 1951, the classification of X was formally presented. Two years later, Hugh Hefner, 27, founded Playboy magazine. But it still was not without incident. In 1957, Samuel Roth was sending obscene material found guilty of his bookstores in New York. Finally, the case reached the Supreme Court. In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled that "obscenity" is language is not protected, and that Congress had the material could prohibit "totally unimportant social redemption." The batch of pornography in jeopardy. Roth was arrested on a charge of obscenity several times. One such case involved the banned novel Fanny Hill. In 1966 Lasse Braun came on the scene. Brown eventually became one of the most famous names in pornography. He started quiet 8mm short underground sex movies like Golden Butterfly, Blow-Up '70 ySex on the highway. In 1968, Brown (formally known as AGF) had several criminal cases against him, as editor, producer and distributor of "obscene" or "material against common morality." (Has Denmark to legalize the first European country, all forms of pornography in 1969) Some have cited Brown as "original porn crusader" and a leader in the struggle to legalize adult material. His film company AB Beta was to produce the first unconditional colored films. Brown is also the first European film director to be included in the AVN Hall of Fame of Adult Video News. (His son was Axel Braun second). Brauns business partner Reuben Sturman, controlled things on the American front. For the most affordable films Sturman Braun started working on his show "Peep Show Booths". Designed slot machine to cinema ties in enclosed cabins. When the money is over, stop the movie. Sturman, made sure that each cabin to fit in with a box of wipes, which became known as "pay and spray booths" later. Where 60,000 cabins in the United States and Canada between 1971 and 1974, Sturman. It was around this time that pornography was finally commercially. The '70s are often referred to as the "Golden Age of Pornography," and this is partially offset by a landmark US Supreme Court ruling. For Miller Vs. California, the court decided to redefine its understanding of "obscenity." The ruling has led to a dramatic decline in obscenity trials in the country. In these years, Ron Jeremy, Nina Hartley, Peter North and other known faces of the scene occurred. In 1972, the first international adult film was released Behind the Green Door. In the same year Deep Throat Theater met with Linda Lovelace as the sexually frustrated woman who discovers that the clitoris is in the back of the throat. But as you are conventional films so popular, the audience does not have the opportunity to enjoy them in a single sexual context. This has changed with the advent of video technology. In 1976 he released JVC HCV, a format that would make "video art" a term. The analytical PornHub team found that in 1978, it had less than 1% of US home video cassettes, but "a huge 75% of VHS cassettes sold" pornographic. Did we take for granted now, but the ability to stop forward, rewind, and again the video completely changed the experience. Fans of pornography on the internet. When it comes to the pursuit of pleasure, as an experience is often better. The home video allows people to continue to take a step and record their own sexual experiences (we now know why the term "homemade" sounds so dirty). This type of entertainment would make it great in a few years. Kim Kardashian tape, released in 2007, was the most watched video of all time with over 93 million hits. 1991 blows the Web world, and changed the world of pornography forever. The first porn site until 1994. By 2012, Xvideos had become a month, with 4.4 billion page views the largest pornography site on the web. At that time ExtremeTech reported that the site was three times as big as CNN or ESPN, and twice as big as Reddit, adding "Viva Jasmin not much less is YouPorn, Tube8 and Pornhub - they are all large and very large quasi-dwarf sites All except the Google and Facebooks of the Internet. "Today is Xvideos from popular world site 43 .. Most adult entertainment companies have found a home on the Internet. But they also fan sites, streaming sites, fetish sites and more. Now that interactive platforms gain strength, porn is a new phase, and it's more accessible than ever. Of course, pornography has never without the desire to eradicate what existed. Groups like NoFap and fighting the New Drug argue that Internet pornography begins to overload our brains and that addiction is inevitable. Anti-porn activist Robert Jensen, author of Getting Off: Pornography and the End of Masculinity, makes articulate arguments that deserve our attention. Not everyone agrees. Relationships with pornography will be different. Some choose not to participate. Others do. But what we all agree on is that sex sells. Particularly nonprocreative diversity.

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