#ragestroke

[qqueenofhades]

Love how republicans were like “let each STATE decide if they want reproductive rights” until they realized that purple states like Michigan and even red states like Ohio and good old Kentucky keep choosing reproductive rights. Then they pivoted to “national ban!!!” once they realized that abortion was actually popular amongst even *gasp* red voters. Funny that

I mean, Republicans talking about "states' rights" is, and always has been, thinly veiled code for "we don't believe the federal government should be able to enforce anti-discrimination/civil rights laws across the whole country, because we are terrible pieces of shit who exist only to do performative cruelty, so STATES' RIGHTS TO BE TOTAL DICKS! YEEHAW!!"

....except when suddenly the states don't do what they want, THEN they are all for sweeping government mandates, because lmao what is intellectual consistency. I do have to say, you can bet that somewhere tonight Samuel Alito is very mad that the states actually keep protecting abortion, just like he wrote they should have the right to do in the Dobbs decision (while obviously intending for it to be outlawed instead). And oh, that warms my cold, cold heart.

[artielu]

Sunk cost fallacy is a god damn fallacy

I swear to god, if they left Arya and/or Jon alive only to kill Dany, with assistance from Tyrion....

I hate myself so fucking much for falling for this bullshit.

I stopped watching in season one because misogyny.

I came back in season seven because they got past the books and I wanted to know how it ended because it seemed like GRRM was never going to finish the fucking series and sunk cost fallacy because I read all the damn books.

This is GRRM’s fault I’m even here. He should have published the next book years ago. And the fault of his attorney for letting him sign over creative control to HBO. You guys fucked up so badly.

And so. Season eight. Fridged the last WOC, abandoned multiple seasons of character foundation and development for Dany and Jaime, turned the POC unsullied army into savages who murdered white Lannister men who surrendered... and so quickly dispatched with TNK after seven seasons of build up.

So now they’re going to kill Dany. Because she’s a legit war criminal, despite her abhorring the killing of innocent common people for seven seasons. Because ruling by fear means watching for assassins at all times. Because Bitches Be Crazy. Maybe Jon will do it (hopefully not by faux seducing her because a woman losing her senses when offered a savior dicking, particularly by mr honest to a fault, would really be the cherry on top of this misogynistic sundae) because War Crimes and Guilt and then fuck off to the free folk and Ghost. Or Arya does it because she’s Good At Killing People and is mad about the burned mother and daughter.

No more iron throne. That shit burned down today anyway.

Tyrion lives through the finale and gets to stew in his many, many regrets. Jaime would have lived if Tyrion did not release him and send him to Cersei.

Sansa continues to do a good job rebuilding the north and feeding her people.

I hate that I spent any time on this.

I should have just stayed in The North Remembers. Stupid stupid me.

[village-skeptic]

skeleton key?

skeleton key - Is there a room that you are not allowed inside?

No. When you pay your share of the rent, you can go into any damn room you want to. Unfortunately, you’re also then expected to do your bit to keep them all clean.

Yes. I haven’t quite managed to make it into “The Room Where It Happens.” (Then again, these days the trouble seems to be keeping anyone in these rooms. And I can think of a few people who should be on the inside of some rather smaller rooms. Permanently.)

Yes. We should all cultivate a metaphorical “room of one’s own,” that necessary bit of mental separateness, remove, and autonomy that reaffirms our own independent, sovereign selfhood.

No. The thing is to knock, and ask to be let in, and then to be permitted the renewable pleasure of temporary entry and all the intimacy and trust that implies.

[gothic heroine asks here!]

[wildcard47]

to celebrate good friday, i am watching my coworker crucify himself and his career in real time

[dwagom]

yesterday had sebbie kurz resigning, the czech neoliberals losing the elections, now zeman being a sore loser and getting a ragestroke, the european centre-right isn't getting a moment to collect itself from all the left hooks and uppercuts, it's a fuckin meltdown over here

[notlucy]

Fic Update #73

Words Written This Week: 3,102 (Y-I-K-E-S. This is what happens when I have a 40+ hour certification class + insomnia + ragestrokes + trying to edit 90k worth of Sunbeams)

1,392 on my CBB fic, which I’m enjoying, but not sure how far into to get, since I like to collab with my artist.

1,294 on sunbeams are never made like me revisions because I’m gonna keep on keeping on, I guess

416 on a new fic in the Brownstone universe which was requested by one of my MTH winners. It’s a very cute, very fluffy “WW3some go on a tropical vacation” thing. However, it’s been so long since I’ve written the Brownstone trio that recapturing their dynamic has been an exercise in patience. But I’m getting there!

Did I Make My Goals?

Line edits on chapters 8-12 of my RBB Yup, managed exactly this. 

Another 2k on my CBB fic How about 1.2k instead?

Working on a WW3some thing for one of my MTH winners Yes, shockingly!

WIP Updates/Goals for Next Week:

To Write & Edit:

Line edits on chapter 13 + epilogue of my RBB

Chapters 1-2 of my MTH WW3some

A bit more on CBB

To Publish:

Chapter 10 of This Side of the Blue

Chapters 4-7 of sunbeams

Things that are likely to fuck with my progress:

@crockzilla will be in tooooooown

Busy work day Wednesday

I have plans two (2) nights this week, including a sporting event which...what?

Gif of the week (IE: me):

[windwayward]

i just got to th eend of the cavern of remberence and my final form is not leveled high enough for me to actually finish the level. i MIGHT just ragestroke.

[qqueenofhades]

Okay, I desperately need to think/post about something else before my entire head explodes, even if the world is still burning down around us and we want to block that fact out for a few hours.

My inbox is open to asks on, say:

Star Wars/Kenobi

The Umbrella Academy (I have watched 6/10 episodes of s3)

Other ships and fandoms that you and I are both known to like

History

General chat or random questions

Anyway. Go for it.

[artielu]

"Shithole countries." That's what he said about countries like Haiti and Nigeria.

You know, where black people live.

And then said he wanted immigrants from countries like Norway.

This racist bigot is the president.

You all need to vote in the 2018 election and take back Congress.

[artielu]

I posted 1,348 times in 2021

10 posts created (1%)

1338 posts reblogged (99%)

For every post I created, I reblogged 133.8 posts.

I added 606 tags in 2021

#dramione - 178 posts

#dramione fic rec - 127 posts

#pretty dresses - 51 posts

#fuck trump - 41 posts

#about artielu - 41 posts

#yes please - 35 posts

#nature photography - 34 posts

#life advice - 34 posts

#best of tumblr - 33 posts

#darklina - 32 posts

Longest Tag: 140 characters

#soak your plants in water now so that they have time to get the water in before the heat arrives and they lock down to try to preserve water

My Top Posts in 2021

#5

Americans in Afghanistan

Hi team. A serious adulting moment here.

The sudden, violent, and thorough fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban is utterly fucking terrifying. The immense suffering of the Afghani people, most especially girls and women, is wretched, horrifying, and completely heartbreaking.

If you know/someone in your network knows an American citizen or green card holder currently trapped in Afghanistan who wants to get back to the US, I am sure you are absolutely terrified for them and their safety and the safety of their families.

This topic is all over my Facebook feed, which is full of adults because I am Tumblr-old. Here's the consensus advice, which I am using now for a citizen friend who is trapped. We are getting responses on the below methods. I do not know if my person will be able to be rescued before they are murdered, but I am doing what I can.

(We must ALSO do what we can to help the Afghani people, but this post isn't about that incredibly necessary and important work that deserves decades of our effort and attention).

1) call (not email, they get too much email. CALL.) your Congressional representative and your senators/ the Congressional representatives and senators of the trapped person. You may need to leave a voicemail. Be very clear in your voicemail that there is an American citizen or permanent resident stuck in Afghanistan and they need help. Your representative's or senator's office will call you back. This is their job - to protect their constituents. Bonus points if you can also go through your network - activate everyone who knows anyone. We are going through a friend of a friend of a friend whose sibling's spouse works in the house representative's office. Work every angle for every person in Congress who is supposed to represent you.

2) get in touch with the Afghani-American's employer. Particularly if your person works for a major industry and/or a major corporation ... Think Fortune 1000 companies, think big industries like tech or oil&gas or pharma or banking or aviation or auto or defense contractors or universities or whatever. Get your person's manager to reach out to that company's top people - CEO, CFO, CIO, head of legal, head of compliance, head of security, head of government affairs. Someone In Charge Of Shit. Big companies and big industries have group lobbying arms, if not their very own lobbyists and/or direct connections to the federal government. The employer's people in charge will activate company networks to work on getting your person out of Afghanistan.

3) contact the US State Department. Again, go through a network -however indirect- if you can.

I don't know if it will be enough. My person may be murdered in the next few days. Their family may also be murdered. They are absolutely terrified and utterly heartbroken at the state of their deeply beloved country. Maybe we will get lucky enough to get them out.

This situation is so, so horrible for the Afghani people.

4 notes • Posted 2021-08-16 07:31:11 GMT

#4

disney broke contract because they knew they could get scarjo to settle for less than what they owe her. they're going to drag their heels and throw up roadblocks and draw it out as long as possible to the point where she's just gonna be like "okay anything is better than nothing"/the judge is gonna be like "just take this offer and go" which is bullshit. i hope she fights as long as she needs to to get back every penny they owe her. fuck disney

I agree 100%. Even if she wins big, she still needs to pay her lawyers and she's still lost the time and gained the stress that it took her to deal with this bullshit.

And you're right. They're going to settle confidentially because almost every lawsuit does, and she's not going to get everything she asked for or everything she deserves, so Disney will end up paying her less than they owe her. Like almost every lawsuit. And then she still has to pay her lawyers.

And Disney is a unique beast.

I have had clients say that they would rather pay millions in legal fees to get the settlement award lowered by a few hundred thousand because they don't want any precedent that they settle big. I have had a few clients pay millions in legal fees and sanctions for refusing to comply with court orders because they simply refuse to settle for anything less than a paltry sum. And often, the plaintiff caves from all that fighting, exhausted financially and emotionally. And these are enormous corporations with enormous profit margins, so they can afford to do this and still come out ahead.

I bet Disney is like those clients.

So yes, I agree completely. Fuck Disney.

Best wishes to Scarlett.

15 notes • Posted 2021-07-30 23:27:03 GMT

#3

Every American needs to read to or listen to this phone call. This is absolutely criminal and utterly insane. How is this real?!?!?!

Trump badgered and berated Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger in a call Saturday, repeating falsehoods about his election defeat in Georgia — the latest example of the extraordinary pressure he’s exerted on state Republican officials ahead of critical runoffs for control of the U.S. Senate.

Raffensperger refused demands from Trump to overturn the election results, telling him that the “data you have is wrong” as he pushed back on Trump’s sham theories of “stuffed ballot boxes” that the president said would reverse Joe Biden’s roughly 12,000-vote victory in Georgia.

24 notes • Posted 2021-01-03 22:09:25 GMT

#2

[Yes, this is long, but it is worth your time to read the whole thing.]

January 6, 2021 (Wednesday)

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

This morning, results from the Georgia senatorial runoff elections showed that Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff had beaten their Republican opponents—both incumbents—by more than the threshold that would require a recount. The Senate is now split 50-50 between Republicans and Democrats, so the position of majority leader goes to a Democrat. Mitch McConnell, who has bent the government to his will since he took over the position of majority leader in 2007, will be replaced.

With the Democrats in control of both Congress and the Executive Branch, it is reasonable to expect we will see voting rights legislation, which will doom the current-day Republican Party, depending as it has on voter suppression to stay in power.

Trump Republicans and McConnell Republicans had just begun to blame each other for the debacle when Congress began to count the certified electoral votes from the states to establish that Democrat Joe Biden won the 2020 presidential election. The election was not close—Biden won the popular vote by more than 7 million votes and the Electoral College by 306 to 232—but Trump contends that he won the election in a landslide and “fraud” made Biden the winner.

Trump has never had a case. His campaign filed and either lost or had dismissed 62 out of 63 lawsuits because it could produce no evidence for any of its wild accusations. Nonetheless, radical lawmakers courted Trump’s base by echoing Trump’s charges, then tried to argue that the fact voters no longer trusted the vote was reason to contest the certified votes.

More than 100 members of the House announced they would object to counting the votes of certain states. About 13 senators, led by Josh Hawley (R-MO) and Ted Cruz (R-TX), agreed to join them. The move would slow down the count as each chamber would have to debate and take a separate vote on whether to accept the state votes, but the objectors never had anywhere near the votes they needed to make their objections stick.

So Trump turned to pressuring Vice President Mike Pence, who would preside over the counting, to throw out the Biden votes. On Monday, Trump tweeted that “the Vice President has the power to reject fraudulently chosen electors.” This would throw the blame for the loss onto Pence, but the vice president has no constitutional power to do any such thing, and this morning he made that clear in a statement. Trump then tweeted that Pence “didn’t have the courage to do what should have been done.”

It seemed clear that the voting would be heated, but it was also clear that most of the lawmakers opposing the count were posturing to court Trump’s base for future elections. Congress would count Biden’s win.

But Trump had urged his supporters for weeks to descend on Washington, D.C., to stop what he insisted was the stealing of the election. They did so and, this morning, began to congregate near the Capitol, where the counting would take place. As he passed them on the east side of the Capitol, Hawley raised a power fist.

In the middle of the day, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani spoke to the crowd, telling them: “Let’s have trial by combat.” Trump followed, lying that he had won the election and saying “we are going to have to fight much harder.” He warned that Pence had better “come through for us, and if he doesn’t, that will be a sad day for our country.” He warned that Chinese-driven socialists are taking over the country. And he told them to march on Congress to “save our democracy.”

As rioters took Trump at his word, Congress was counting the votes alphabetically by state. When they got to Arizona, Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) stood up to echo the rhetoric radicals had been using to discredit the certified votes, saying that public distrust in the election—created out of thin air by Republicans—justified an investigation.

Within an hour, a violent mob stormed the Capitol and Cruz, along with the rest of the lawmakers, was rushed to safety (four quick-thinking staffers brought along the electoral ballots, in their ceremonial boxes). As the rioters broke in, police shot and killed one of them: Ashli Babbitt, an Air Force veteran from San Diego, QAnon believer, and staunch Trump supporter. The insurrectionists broke into the Senate chamber, where one was photographed on the dais of the Senate, shirtless and wearing a bull costume that revealed a Ku Klux Klan tattoo on his abdomen. They roamed the Capitol looking for Pence and other lawmakers they considered enemies. Not finding them, they ransacked offices. One rioter photographed himself sitting at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s desk with his feet on it.

They carried with them the Confederate flag.

Capitol police provided little obstruction, apparently eager to avoid confrontations that could be used as propaganda on social media. The intruders seemed a little surprised at their success, taking selfies and wandering around like tourists. One stole a lectern.

As the White House, the FBI, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security all remained silent, President-Elect Joe Biden spoke to cameras urging calm and calling on Trump to tell his supporters to go home. But CNN White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins later reported that she spoke to White House officials who were “genuinely freaked… out” that Trump was “borderline enthusiastic” about the storming of the Capitol because “it meant the certification was being derailed.”

At 4:17, Trump issued his own video, reiterating his false claims that he had been cheated of victory. Only then did he conclude with: “Go home, we love you, you’re very special.” Twitter immediately took the video down. By nighttime Trump’s Twitter feed seemed to blame his enemies for the violence the president had incited (although the rhythm of the words did not sound to me like Trump’s own usual cadence): “These are the things and events that happen when a sacred landslide election victory is so unceremoniously & viciously stripped away from great patriots who have been badly & unfairly treated for so long. Go home with love & in peace. Remember this day forever!”

Twitter took down the tweet and banned the president for at least twelve hours for inciting violence; Facebook and Instagram followed suit.

As the afternoon wore on, police found two pipe bombs near the headquarters of the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee in Washington, D.C., as well as a truck full of weapons and ammunition, and mobs gathered at statehouses across the country, including in Kansas, Ohio, Minnesota, California, and Georgia.

By 5:00, acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller issued a statement saying he had conferred with Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, Vice President Pence, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), and Representative Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and had fully activated the D.C. National Guard.

He did not mention the president.

By late evening, Washington, D.C., police chief Robert J. Contee III announced that at least 52 people had been arrested and 14 law enforcement officers injured. A total of four people died, including one who died of a heart attack and one who tased themself.

White House Counsel Pat Cipollone urged people to stay away from Trump to limit their chances of being prosecuted for treason under the Sedition Act. By midnight, four staffers had resigned, as well as Deputy National Security Adviser Matthew Pottinger, with other, higher level officials also talking about leaving. Even Trump adviser Stephen Miller admitted it was a bad day. Quickly, pro-Trump media began to insist that the attack was a false-flag operation of “Antifa,” despite the selfies and videos posted by known right-wing agitators, and the fact that Trump had invited, incited, and praised them.

Former Secretary of Defense James Mattis laid the blame for today’s attack squarely at the feet of Trump himself: “Today’s violent assault on our Capitol, and effort to subjugate American democracy by mob rule, was fomented by Mr. Trump. His use of the Presidency to destroy trust in our election and to poison our respect for fellow citizens has been enabled by pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.”

The attempted coup drew condemnation from all but the radical Trump supporters in government. Former President George W. Bush issued a statement “on insurrection at the Capitol,” saying “it is a sickening and heartbreaking sight.” “I am appalled by the reckless behavior of some political leaders since the election,” he said, and accused such leaders of enflaming the rioters with lies and false hopes. Senator Mitt Romney (R-UT) was more direct: “What happened here today was an insurrection incited by the President of the United States.”

Across the country tonight are calls for Trump’s removal through the 25th amendment, impeachment, or resignation. The Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee have joined the chorus, writing to Pence urging him to invoke the 25th. Angry at Trump’s sabotaging of the Georgia elections in addition to the attack on our democracy, prominent Republicans are rumored to be doing the same.

At 8:00, heavily armed guards escorted the lawmakers back to the Capitol, thoroughly scrubbed by janitors, where the senators and representatives resumed their counting of the certified votes. The events of the afternoon had broken some of the Republicans away from their determination to challenge the votes. Fourteen Republican senators had announced they would object to counting the certified votes from Arizona; in the evening count the number dropped to six: Cruz (R-TX), Hawley (R-MO), Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-MS), John Kennedy (R-LA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), and Tommy Tuberville (R-AL).

In the House, 121 Republicans, more than half the Republican caucus, voted to throw out Biden’s electors from Arizona. As in the Senate, they lost when 303 Representatives voted in favor.

Six senators and more than half of the House Republicans backed an attempt to overthrow our government, in favor of a man caught on tape just four days ago trying to strong-arm a state election official into falsifying the election results.

Today the Confederate flag flew in the United States Capitol.

[Heather Cox Richardson is a Professor of History at Boston College. She has daily posts on Facebook that summarize the day's political events and puts them in historical context. The Facebook post link's first comment are her citations to sources.]

74 notes • Posted 2021-01-07 14:57:11 GMT

#1

I'm really fucking angry about Texas, y'all.

Also, Afghanistan and Haiti and covid and my state is on fire and my air is smoky and my in-law's area is flooded.

And then here goes Texas with

-no permit needed to carry a gun (what the fuck)

-voting restrictions and permission to intimidate voters at the polls (what the fuck)

-banning abortion after six weeks, without exception for rape or incest, and putting a $10k bounty for private citizens to harass anyone who helps a pregnant person get an abortion. Like a doctor. Or a spouse. Or an Uber driver. Or the parking attendant at the clinic.

Private citizens can report alleged violations of this law and private citizens can sue under this law. THIS IS SO FUCKED UP AND ALSO UNFUCKING CONSTITUTIONAL. Also, the people who no longer need a permit to carry a gun. Those people.

And yet the Supreme Court, with three seats stolen by Fucking Mitch McConnell and Fucking Orange Fraudster, refused to block the law.

Of course, people with money will just travel to another state. Hard, but not impossible. But for the millions of poor people in Texas, that's impossible.

And Texas will then do NOTHING to support the life of child after the person is forced to keep the pregnancy and deliver the baby.

Abortion rights are reproductive rights are human rights.

But Texas will not require people to wear masks because people have the right to control their bodies. What the actual fuck.

Donate to Planned Parenthood:

190 notes • Posted 2021-09-02 16:52:22 GMT

Get your Tumblr 2021 Year in Review →

[groovesnjams]

[[ GROOVES N JAMS S.O.T.Y. 2017 ]]

[ nO. 48/50 ]

“Always There When I Need You” by Salt Cathedral

MG:

In an endless now that’s rattled until lifeless by the soft patter of steel drums, “Always There When I Need You” manages the impossible -- countering my rapid dismissiveness, holding my waning interest -- by marrying a sound that should have been ephemeral with a lyric that is. The stakes are low, not just by planet hurtling toward sun or dance til death standards, but full stop. It’s a little be with me tonight and a lot of interiority is secondary to prettiness. It’s that blithely adult contempo summery shimmer, personified absolutely appropriately as a nameless “girl.” It’s fine if you play this during those pure nothing moments where you’re willing your life to morph into a static Salem ad from a 1985 issue of Redbook, but it’s even better suited to your daily ragestroke. 

DV:

As the world gets darker by the day, we turn to the “pure”: things that are sweet and uncomplicated and low-stakes; the 2017 version of “delightful”. It’s a descriptor that punctuates blog posts and twitter threads, that headlines listicles. They’re completely understandable and likely necessary, especially if you’re spending lots of time in the social media hellscape where those instances can seem like a rare breath of uncontaminated air. But these things court dullness too, especially when compiled or consumed in bulk. This is just to say that I’m not sure I could ever need an album of songs that sound like “Always There When I Need You”, but dropped into a mix or on shuffle in the car I’m wholly won over by its quiet charm. The production evokes the gentlest alarm clock ever created, the vocals walk the line between repetitive and lulling, and the lyric evokes a simple, clear, ideal sort of devotion. Who could say no to an escape like this?

[village-skeptic]

If my thirteen-year-old self time-traveled forward to the present hellscape that is American politics, I’m pretty sure the first thing that she would do would be to slap me straight across the face and ask “HOW does ANY of this SURPRISE you?!?!?!”

(Okay, fine. She would have to put down her book first. But STILL.)

[village-skeptic]

I have literally no idea who this person is, but I want to hire a skywriter to spell out “I’m not your friend and you have no say over what I do with my body” over every Republican-dominated legislature in this country.

[blyanten]

THE DUCK AVENGER: #49-50 IF...

This issue opens a dark night where, once AGAIN, an alarm is going off in Ducklair Tower. Even the High Priest in Dhasam-Bul says it. Once again. But this time, while Everett is shocked (again), he decides it’s not important.

This is because he’s up to something. Later, while lighting candles, Everett ponders the great threat that he, personally, is responsible for. Which is another «again?» moment. But we do learn that his dedication to science and voluntary exile to Dhasam-Bul was a way of avoiding the responsibility. 

However, during his stay as Dhasam-Bul he learned of a great secret that can alter reality. As Everett is walking down a set of stairs and setting of alarms during this internal monologue, we can only assume that he’s gonna use that. However, setting of the alarm bell, a literal one, alerts the High Priest.

The secret turns out to be The Book of Destiny. Not very creative, but what you see is what you get. Everything that’s happens is somewhere in this tiny book. All of world history. In that. The only reasonable thing is that it shows you what you want to see.

I always want to know who makes those things.

Anyhow, what Everett wants to do is to alter a few events and indulge his need to know what would have happened if it went differently.

... this is cheating.

We start of with #1 Shadows on Venus, where Angus Fangus is kidnapped by Evronians and is promptly rescued by the Avenger and Xadhoom.

Then Everett throws a wrench into the event. 

Alternate timeline 1 (Shadows on Venus).

Angus now fails to get into Ducklair Tower and is instead kidnapped outside, and therefore also outside One’s sensor range.  Rather than a kidnapping attempt, One registers a minor failure with the security cameras.

And so Angus is left in the hands of the Evronians. Everett refers to this as a «small change», which might be fair on the grand scale, but come on, you’re playing with lives here.

Sometime later in that timeline, the Avenger complains that Agnus going missing has only brought him headaches. One disagrees, claiming that there have been positive aspects. 

And this is where it gets interesting, because Angus not being there allowed One and the Avenger to intercept the farmer Russel (#6 Spores), who had Evronian spores growing in his fields, suggesting that that mess was sorted out earlier. It also leads them to the desert military camp like it originally did. 

This time, however, the Avenger walks up to the front door, rather than being caught spying, and basically accuses Colonel Westcock of treason to planet Earth. He utterly unimpressed by the big men with guns, and when Westcock tries to have him arrested we learn why.

The Avenger at the gates is a hologram, the real one has already gotten into the giant robot, and it appears that One’s side of things have gone basically the same as they originally did, because he’s inside the system. 

Making enemies and allies at the same time!

The Avenger starts burning the spores, while Westcock has a ragestroke, activating Defense Code Sigma-Zero Sigma Red. 

And this guy shows up.

Why the hotpants?

The Avenger quickly realizes the new guy isn’t from Earth because he doesn’t crack stupid jokes. Wisecube, watching the fight is pissed, as he never authorized Westcock to bring in aliens to help with defense and demands a phone.

Meanwhile, the Avenger is in trouble, as his opponent gets stronger the more he gets hit. The Avenger does manage to get in a blow, knocking the opponent’s mask off. 

The worst nighmare of anyone who knows Angus Fangus.

It’s Angus. Or, something like Angus. Angus-thing takes a moment to explain that Zoster’s experiments on Angus opened a whole new world for the Evronians, allowing them to create  new kind of Evronian super-soldier.

He’s the first of many.

The art in this issue is great, by the way. So I mean it in the best way possible when I say "Gross”.

Westcock finally picks up on the fact that he’s been played and orders everyone to attack. The lack of talking during this fight gives it an air of seriousness that is often missing, mostly likely to show that this is bad. And it is. Unlike normal Evronians, the Angus-things gets stronger during the fight and there’s an entire field of them.

Repeating myself here, but the decsion to have no one talking: Great.

But then the Avenger tells everyone to stand down. He’s figured it out, the Angus-things draw strength from the negative emotions of the people they’re fighting. This plays right into Angus’s talent for pissing people off, and the Avenger thinks that, well, it’s time to let go of the rage and go to your happy place.

Westcock grumbles, but decides the Avenger is the one who’s showed good sense unlike a lot of bigwigs, and goes along with it. 

Looking at those smiles, I am okay with not knowing what their happy places are.

The soldiers turn out to be shockingly good at focusing on the good memories considering that they were just in a firefight, and the Angus-things slowly collapse into nothing.

And then everyone is happy because they won, and the Evronians are beaten. To make things even better, the changes in this incident causes the Evronian delegation that Earth was negotiating with at this point in time to be arrested and sent back home with the message that Earth now knows they’re enemies. If they come back, the satellite missile defense systems will give them a warm, and presumably short, welcome.

It’s like they’re throwing acid at them.

Everett, however, is unimpressed. As far as he’s concerned, this scenario only makes things worse for him. He’s also forced to grab the book and go somewhere else, as the senior monks have come looking for the intruder. 

So sneaky.

While on the move, we learn that whatever Everett is planning requires Angus to be on Earth. So he changes his focus to a different event, one he was personally involved in.

This time, the alteration Everett makes is stopping himself from going to help the Avenger and One stopping Two (#2 Two). 

Alternate timeline 2 (Two).

This one opens right at the beginning of the issue, with the Avenger in the virtual reality bubble he’d asked One to construct.  This time, however, when One starts the disconnection program, the Avenger gets stung by a red, virtual wasp before he can leave. When he actually tries to leave, the door is slammed shut on him as an anomaly has been detected. 

Something is happening.

The Avenger is trapped until the anti-virus is satisfied, and it’s going to take about 20 minutes. Which isn’t that long, but the Avenger wants out. Now. One actually tsks him, and tells him no dice, not even One can override that program. 

I appreciate how insulted the Avenger’s mindless body looks here.

The Avenger gets in a dig at One, claiming that the mystery hacker has gotten into his programs, and Once basically calls him a whiner and to go make himself useful. The Avenger again says to let him out, but right after some data goes flying by a tiny frog with tentacles on its head appears. The Avenger goes back to taunting One, claiming that finding the virus was easy.

Except it’s not a virus, it’s the anti-virus and take a wild guess at who doesn’t belong in virtual reality? That’s right, it’s the Avenger.

...no, I am not going to ask why Everett felt the need to make a tentacle monster his anti-virus.

Which One finds strange, as the made sure the Avenger should have been recognized as belonging there. He’s gonna need more time to find the problem than originally expected. 

The Avenger is pissed at One blocking his exit from VR again, and demands to be let out. Again. One refuses and the Avenger responds by saying he thinks the hacker has infected One.

One graciously ignores this and tells the Avenger to chill. He’s working on it.

The Avenger does not chill.

The Avenger, not dealing well with doing nothing, tries to find his own way out.

This goes poorly. 

Level 1 of intruder management, and it’s already overkill.

One tells the Avenger to run through a door at the end of the corridor he’s trapped in, and the Avenger does. 

On the other side of the door we find this.

Three?

One, now appearing in cyberspace, says that the impostor in the Avenger’s body was too hostile when told he couldn’t leave. And when One later detected the trace of a direct path to a protected memory location, he became even more suspicious. 

The real Avenger is more annoyed at being stuck in a fishbowl and would like some details about what happened. Well, the Avenger, when in cyberspace, has personality files that can be transferred. And that’s basically what happened, someone switched out the files in the Avenger-body hanging around in cyberspace with something else.

Fake!Avenger tries to claim this is all a trap, and One agrees. Fake!Avenger walked right into it, just like One planned.

The smugness is delightful.

Fake!Avenger admits that this was clever, but he already has the Avenger’s body, so. The Avenger asks who he is, and we get this lovely image.

Of all the things in this issue, this image actually disturbs me the most.

One recognizes Two… okay…. And we get the villain rant. It’s pretty much the same as the first time.

The Avenger asks for suggestions on how to deal with this problem, but One doesn’t have one. With the way the system is set up, Two has a direct line to the Avenger’s body and will take control if he’s let out. They can do some things, leading to this nonsense.

"Who’s a good boy” is the obvious joke, but I’m gonna go with it. Who’s a good boy? Not you. Definitely not you.

But in the end, Two has the upper hand and threatens to erase the Avenger if he’s not let out.

One gives in.

The Avenger says "Stop”.

This issue got dark fast, by the way. Murder, murder, suicide doesn’t even register as out of the ordinary.

He asks One to shut down everything, all power to the computer system. This means that all three of them will die. 

One gets ready, the Avenger stands strong and Two panics. He switches places with the Avenger again, muttering about how he didn’t take the spirit of sacrifice into consideration. 

Your dedication to heroic poses and one-liners is an inspiration.

In the real world, the Avenger gets out of the bubble. One is impressed, the role of superhero suits the Avenger well now. 

When asked, One says that Two is back in standby mode. There also one other anomaly the Avenger needs to be made aware of. 

While leading Two into the trap, One tried to copy the protected memory location to examine it in peace. This process was interrupted by Two, with the unexpected result of creating a Cyber-Avenger. 

Cyber-space is now safe.

And again it seems like Everett’s alterations have made things better for Earth. 

Not that he’s happy, this doesn’t help him at all, it just makes the Avenger an even bigger problem. Luckily, none of these changes are permanent. 

Meanwhile, the senior monks are getting serious, moving on from looking to using magic to find the book-thief. Everett blocks the spell for now, just enough to give himself one more try.

Alternate timeline 3 (Day of the Cold Sun).

Everett prevents Lyla from helping the Avenger from stopping the reactor blowing up, and a large part of Duckburg is destroyed as we were told would happen in the original… original timeline. The Raider gets the Avenger out of there, just in time, but everyone else within range of the explosion…

And Everett cuts of here, because this is obviously not helping... nah, of course not. 

This is actually awful. A+ to everyone involved.

In Time Ø, Lyla has asked to be suspended, but her request has been denied as her knowledge is too valuable when it comes to stopping the timecriminal known as the Retaliator. In-universe we seem to have gotten all the was to #33 The Day That Will Come.

The Raider invades Time Ø, and Retaliator is with him. And Kronin. They must have gotten him out earlier, or prevented his arrest to being with.

How is the Avenger not the best name for someone driven by a desire for vengance?  I question your life choices.

It’s the Avenger, and we learn that it wasn’t just a large part of Duckburg being destroyed, as originally stated. Instead, there’s now no one left.

Nooo, One! 

Suggesting that the delay in the reactor going boom caused a bigger explosions. Slow clap for the Time Police, people. I also fail to see how that’s in any way helpful to anything, Everett.

Kronin demand the release of the prisoners, and the Time Police folds like wet tissue paper. Because 90% of them are useless.

Lyla tries to talk to the Avenger, but he won’t listen.

THIS IS NOT HELPING. 

She doesn’t give up though and finally she reveals that she had made her own deal with the Raider. She was sure she’d be discovered and activated if she tried to help openly, so she would hand them over to the Time Police and in the confusion activate the othership, sending the inhabitants of Duckburg to a different dimension. Frightened, but alive.

I realize this is supposed to be a happy ending, but… One is still dead. And being an adult, well, if what we’re shown is where the Duckburgians are then they are stuck in a place where they’ve had to learn to hunt with spears, gather food, a place with no medicine… yeah, quite a lot of them are dead from diseases, injuries, most likely starvation, poisoning, etc. And that’s without the assholes who’d see this as a chance to be the big man around, by any means necessary.

So, again, NOT HELPING. Everett. Lyla.

This revelation explains why the Raider cared to rescue the Avenger and of course, causes the Avenger to turn on the Raider.

Kronin shoots Lyla to shut her up, and stops the Avenger from doing any damage. The Avenger is locked up with the Time Police, and they’re going to be forced into the cells and frozen for a very long time. 

The Avenger laughs, claiming it’s because he’s noticed that sometimes things go contrary to what one would expect, giving the Time Police commander a significant look.

The commander gets the hint, demonstrating that he’s not stupid at least, and when everyone is forced into the cells they remain safe while the villains outside are frozen. 

Seems a bit too easy, but okay.

They exit the cells, immediately beginning to move the villains back to their cells. The Avenger goes to Lyla, who was so damaged by Kronin’s blaster that she dies in his arms. 

I hate this timeline.

Like he did with Gina, the Avenger refuses to let them reactivate Lyla. You can do that with machines, not people. 

The Time Police commander goes right back to useless as he tries to have the Avenger arrested, but a release order arrives just in time for this to be avoided. Apparently, there was a deal in place to facilitate the capture of Kronin.

Normally, I’d say «Odin did it!», but we see the interior of Ducklair Tower being destroyed and there’s  much damage to the upper half. So.

The Avenger goes back to his own time, to a severely damaged Ducklair Tower, the only thing still standing, and starts talking to himself.

For once, fair enough.

He couldn’t let the repair Lyla, because if they did, they’d realize that Lyla gave him something.

We can rebuild her!

The Avenger goes outside, to a monument for the people of Duckburg, and throws his Retaliator uniform into the flames.

*insert sobbing breakdown*

Everett is baffled at this turn of events. Again, the new timeline is devastating. It’s almost as if the timeline he’s living in is the best one. He’d like to try again, but he’s out of time, the monks have found the cabin he’s hiding in now.

So he sets he book on fire, destroying the future we just saw, at least admitting that that shouldn’t happen. As the cabin go up in flames along with the book, Everett leaves while everyone else tries to put out the fire.

It turns out that the book is tougher than it looks, because it’s still there and recognizable. The monks still say it’s destroyed however, but the High Priest isn’t concerned about that. He’s worried about what has been saved, showing us that a page was torn out before the book burned.

As Everett walks down the mountain, he uses the torn out page to bring Lyla back to the Avenger’s side. He also realizes that he regrets betraying the monks’s trust in him.

Well, have a medal.

I am going to get a lot of use out of this one over the next 18 issues, aren’t I?

This moment of regret is interrupted by a flower growing out of the snow, making him realize that life tends to find a way. 

IT TOOK YOU ALL OF THAT TO COME UP WITH AN OLD CLICHE?!

And back in Ducklair Tower, the alarm is still going off.

This issue is a fascinating one. It’s a very nice look back at the first three issues, and it’s even nice to see how well the Avenger and One does even with these events altered. Everett calls them devastating, but, aside from the the last one, obviously, those specific events seem to have worked out better. Angus is lost, but Earth as a whole is saved earlier, Two is defeated earlier and is now in a place where One can keep an eye on him.

Now, we never see the consequences those events have on the timeline later, they could be devastating. I mean, it can’t be the first time the Evronians have met a species ready and willing to fight back and the much of the trouble with Two can just have been moved to a later point in time. But based on what we see… not bad.

Of course, Everett was talking about himself, so his view is biased. I just wanted to point out that our heroes are very good at their job.

It’s also setting up future events, which… it has the mystery of what Everett is talking about down, but I think the actual events of PK2 never quite matches what this one hints at. This suggests something… more? I guess, than the family drama we get. Maybe if PK2 hadn’t been cut short, it would have been different. 

I’ll have to get back to this later.

And that’s the end of PKNA. 

[goddamnwebcomics]

Look at Matt, he’s full of HATE. Actual HATE, not pissy pussy revenge hate like Adrastea and Snowsong. HATE. I’d do anything to see him fuck up Gene and slap that smug smile out of his face.

Does he actually see Gene and Catwhis or is he just having a sixth sense ragestroke?

[dwagom]

aux cord song to give your conservative family members a ragestroke: