#rittenhouse is still a problem

[titanicnerd-blog]

DONE! :)

Chapters: 3/3 Fandom: Timeless (TV 2016) Rating: Not Rated Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Relationships: Garcia Flynn/Lorena Flynn, Garcia Flynn & Lucy Preston, Amy Preston & Lucy Preston Characters: Lucy Preston, Garcia Flynn, Amy Preston, Jiya (Timeless), Rufus Carlin, Iris Flynn, Dave Baumgardner, Lorena Flynn, Connor Mason, Denise Christopher, Emma Whitmore, Ethan Cahill Additional Tags: Post-Season 2 (Timeless), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Rittenhouse (Timeless), Garcia Flynn Lives, Garcia Flynn & Lucy Preston Friendship, Garcia Flynn Deserves Better, Rittenhouse won't die, Mentioned Jessica Logan, no wyatt logan, Amy Preston is alive!, We like Dave Baumgardner, flynn's family doesn't die, Soft Garcia Flynn Summary:

In 2023, Lucy wrote a letter for Flynn, making a decision to save his family in 2014. They need Flynn to defeat Rittenhouse, and Flynn deserves to keep his family.

It was what Lucy should have done the first time around. She got Amy back, so why shouldn't Flynn get to keep his family?

December 7, 2014.

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Fabiola Cineas at Vox:

It took less than a day for the world to start rallying for George Floyd in late May 2020. The events that led to Floyd’s murder unfolded over hours, but a viral 10-minute video recording of the deadly encounter with Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin was enough to send floods of people nationwide into the streets for months.  In the weeks after Floyd’s killing, the number of Americans who said they believe racial discrimination is a big problem and that they support the Black Lives Matter movement spiked. As books about racial injustice flew off of bookstore shelves, corporate leaders, politicians, and celebrities pledged to fight racism. The events of 2020 disturbed America’s collective conscience, and the movement for justice captivated millions. Until it didn’t.  

In retrospect, there were signs of brewing right-wing resistance all along. While many peacefully protested, others called for their defeat. Arkansas Republican Sen. Tom Cotton demanded that the US military be brought in to fight “insurrectionists, anarchists, rioters, and looters.” As police officers used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse crowds across the country, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to “dominate the streets” and defend “life and property,” sending thousands of troops and federal law enforcement officers to control protesters in Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; and other cities.  Some Americans who wanted to stamp out the unrest took it upon themselves to practice vigilantism. One of them, Kyle Rittenhouse, fatally shot two unarmed men and wounded another when he brought an AR-15-style rifle to protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin. (Rittenhouse was later acquitted of all homicide charges.)

Though the mass mobilization of 2020 brought hope, it’s clear today that it also marked a turning point for backlash as the mirage of progress morphed into seemingly impenetrable resistance. Historically, backlash has embodied a white rejection of racial progress. Over the past few years, the GOP has built on that precedent and expanded its reach.  The right watched progressives rally for change and immediately fought back with the “Big Lie” of a stolen election. In many of the states that Biden flipped in 2020, Republicans rushed to ban ballot drop boxes, absentee ballots, and mobile voting units, the methods that allowed more people to vote. Since then, we’ve seen the passage of dozens of regressive laws, including anti-protest laws, anti-LGBTQ laws, and anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion laws. In state after state, these bans were coupled with incursions against reproductive rights, as some conservatives announced plans to take over every American institution from the courts to the schools to root out liberalism and progress.

[...] “There’s a backlash impulse in American politics,” Glickman said. “I think 2020 is important because it gets at another part of backlash, which is the fear that social movements for equality and justice might set off a stronger counter-reaction.” The protests of 2020 did. And though race is still at the core of the post-George Floyd backlash, many Republicans have gone to new lengths to conceal this element.  "One of the things that the civil rights movement accomplished was to make being overtly racist untenable,” said Anderson. “Today they say, ‘I can do racist stuff, but don't call me racist.’” For Anderson, backlash is about instituting state-level policies that undermine African Americans’ advancement toward their citizenship rights.

By early 2021, alongside the effort to “stop the steal,” legislation that would limit or block voting access, give police protection, and control the teaching of concepts such as racial injustice began spreading across Republican-controlled state legislatures — all in the name of protecting America.  “They cover [voter suppression] with the fig leaf of election integrity, with the fig leaf of trying to protect democracy, and with the fig leaf of stopping massive rampant voter fraud,” Anderson said. And, she said, laws banning the teaching of history get covered “with the fig leaf of stopping indoctrination.” That coordinated legislation was a direct response to potential racial gains for Black Americans and other marginalized groups. “After the death of George Floyd in 2020, it seemed like all of our institutions suddenly shifted overnight,” conservative activist Christopher Rufo said in a 2022 interview. Rufo’s answer was to release a series of reports about diversity training programs in the federal government and critical race theory, which, he argued, “set off a massive response, or really, revolt amongst parents nationwide.” 

[...]

The new era of backlash is grievance-driven 

That racial resentment has since taken on a particularly acrid temperament since Floyd's death. At the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump, facing a litany of criminal and civil charges, stood on stage and told the audience, “I am your warrior. I am your justice. And for those who have been wronged and betrayed, I am your retribution.”  Trump’s words summarized the political discourse that has spread since the killing of George Floyd and highlighted the absence of a formal Republican policy agenda. “[What he said was] not policy,” said historian John Huntington, author of the book Far Right Vanguard: The Radical Roots of Modern Conservatism. “It was just vengeance for some sort of perceived wrongs.” He added, “policy has taken a backseat to cultural grievances.” 

What Huntington calls out as “endless harangues against very nebulous topics like critical race theory or wokeness or whatever the current catchphrase is right now” are an important marker of this new era. ��A key element of the current backlash we’re seeing is a politics of grievance,” he says. “‘I have been wronged somehow by the liberals or whoever, and Trump is going to help me get even with these people that I don’t like.’” Glickman calls this backlash tactic an “inversion” or “elite victimization”: “It’s a reversal that happens in backlash language where privileged white people take the historical position of oppressed people — often African Americans but sometimes other oppressed groups — and they speak from that vantage point.” To be sure, Republicans have passed dozens of laws through state legislatures to do everything from restricting voting to banning trans athletes from participating in sports. But for Huntington, these reactionary laws don’t amount to legitimate policy. “It's very difficult to convince people to build a society rather than trying to tear down something that's already existing,” he said. “Critiquing is easy. Building is hard.” Nationally, Republicans only passed 27 laws despite holding 724 votes in 2023. 

Vox has a great article on the right-wing backlash against the racial reckoning of Summer 2020 has had effects on our politics the last few years, such as waging faux outrage crusades against CRT and DEI.

[strawberryblondebutch]

I agree with everything you said about Curl. I believe everyone deserves a second chance. Has this ideology hurt me personally? Yes on multiple occasions. And I also think that most people have good in them. What I don’t understand is, apparently Wisconsin is a very gay team (idk for sure I’ve just seen that said before, but I also don’t know the culture there), and to still have those views while being surrounded by so many members of communities you apparently have problems with, is insane to me. I sincerely hope she grows while in Minnesota, but who knows how their team culture is currently with everything going on. I completely understand people being upset, and I’d never tell them to not be upset, but we have to allow people to grow or else they’ll have those beliefs their whole lives and maybe become even more harmful. And I know it’s not our responsibility to educate people or give them such grace, but if not us, then who?

My alma mater was a feeder school for programs like UW, so I know a ton of players who went there, and the city of Madison is sometimes called "77 Square Miles Surrounded By Reality" because of how liberal the general populace is (being very careful with my wording here, because like every other Good Liberal City, boy do the people who live there have opinions about addicts and the unhoused).

While there's no way to know exactly what conversations happened in the Wisconsin locker room, the people I feel the worst for in all of this are the Edwards sisters. I'm a white gun owner and I would be uncomfortable sharing a locker room with someone who was pro-Kyle Rittenhouse.

I like to tell people my superpower is being annoying, but I really wish I could lock Curl and the Lamoureux twins in a room and just needle them until they told me why, exactly, trans people in sports hurt them. I want specific examples. I've done it with liberal-but-not-leftist friends about addicts before. You force them to get past the fearmongering and make them come up with a reason why that stranger with track marks on the subway is personally affecting them.

Because, and I've said this before, hockey is maybe the stupidest fucking sport to generate trans panic. It's idiotic in any sport, trans people are trying to live their lives, but you're telling me someone would really go through years of hormone treatments to make $30K in the PWHL when there are guys in the NHL who trip over their own skates every shift? Give me a fucking break.

[galactic-pirates]

Ok buckle up. I just realised that I never actually watched the Timeless movie. So I’m going to watch and live ramble.

I wrote a fic theorising on how they managed to time travel within their own lifetime when it wasn’t supposed to be possible. Like a post-season 2 fic.

Ok anyway starting rambles! Episode One.

Not a fan of the “work it out together” aka pushing Lucy and Wyatt together. Also the immediate dismissal of “there was no baby” but I guess it was too complicated a plot to resolve otherwise when the show got cancelled and this movie was all they had.

A little confused about switching the lifeboats. There feels like a paradox in there somehow.

The whole “not without side effects” thing seems a bit of a cop out? Like we always knew that Lucy had time travelled but Connor was so insistent it wasn’t possible which is why I had the theory that it was, but it broke the timeline so they could never go home.

Wyatt being all “no you can’t look it’s just us two” erm why? All they did was say to work together - not don’t work with other people. And naturally he sneers like “you and Flynn” and walks off. Jealous possessive arse. He can’t even tolerate their names being linked in the journal.

I do like the auto pilot on the lifeboat. I made a sad version in my fic but otherwise yes.

OMG I thought… ahhhh I’m screaming. I thought Lucy and Flynn were on a mission in the journal - not that they were together!!! But way to crush me in a single scene of “oh yeah we were together but it ended badly”. Although I do like the “saw another side of you, I already have” because yeah 😍 it’s like one shining moment and then slap in the face. Let’s push the Lucy and Wyatt again :( do not want /sigh

Flynn empathising with the Zorro bandit :( I’m just relieved at least they are giving him some screen time. I was worried. Also I love the character development of Flynn saying that revenge doesn’t help, and hinting that he has released it due to his love for Lucy.

Wyatt jumping to “to save Rufus, should kill Jessica” I’m side eyeing a bit. He has been so obsessed with her up until now. I feel like he’s only switched sides so to speak because he thinks he can have Lucy.

I am a bit worried about Flynn having gone. His “if you all die who fights Rittenhouse” and coming to the conclusion that it’s him. I’m like thanks I hate it. And then he steals the Time Machine? Did Wyatt know where he was going? Would be convenient for Wyatt if so, get Flynn out of the way.

Isn’t that an obvious answer? “Connor Mason creates the Time Machine” - just destroy them before they ever get made back in the past. Then none of the show ever happens. I hate it but it fixes the “rittenhouse has the Time Machine” problem.

OMG Flynn went back to kill Jessica! I had thought maybe it was to recruit his past self/hand over the journal. Wyatt being a jealous arse - very on brand.

Noooo Flynn. Nooooo. Don’t explode your brain. Oh yikes Jessica knows how to fight that’s not good. If Flynn’s brain explodes and he isn’t even successful… oh thank Merlin. Ok go get back to the ship.

I like how Lucy is yelling for Flynn to help and Wyatt is already being ungrateful.

Whaaaaaat it’s Rufus.

Kinda confused as to how that works with where Flynn and the lifeboat is. I mean they remember the timeline where Rufus dies as they were out of time - but so was Flynn. So ??? doesn’t make sense.

And naturally Wyatt’s first thing is passive aggressive “guess this is why you end up with Flynn”.

What expendable?? No. Love Wyatt fuck that noise. Why did Flynn jump out? There was no need to sacrifice himself like that. Oh he’s seeing his family now he knows it’s possible :( :( that’s so sad.

“All my love Flynn” crying forever.

I can’t believe this a two parter and they already wrote him out :(

The toast was nice and actually Wyatt’s words weren’t bad.

But holy paradox Batman. If Jessica was written out and they never went to China Town then how is Emma still in charge and Carol and Nicholas still dead? My head hurts.

And how can Jia still have scars from something that didn’t happen?

Make it make sense.

Oh lord they are doing the “there was only one bed” trope. I hate it. But it makes even less sense if they were together, because Jessica wasn’t there. Lucy still has cuts from the China town fight, and why would they have gone on the mission to the gold rush in this new timeline? Rufus remembers that they did but he doesn’t know China town or Jessica.

I’m with Janeway I really hate time travel.

[mushi-shield]

[Verse 1] They're angry that they will never shut me up I'm making more noise Turn me up or turn me down It's your choice Black lives only matter when they got a corpse to exploit Cause the media made millions off of protests for George Floyd That's called ad revenue They make cash selling you All the crap and the Ads when they broadcast news, ooh The network full of liars Got investment capital and segments sponsorеd by Pfizer And the freedom fighters I feel likе the left just plants them To infiltrate the right its extensive planning Then it happens overnight it's impressive branding Making a million off of shirts that say Let's Go Brandon It's a cash grab Everyone's a lab rat Amazon made billions of dollars from sanitizer and black masks And that's that Funny how the terrorist's who attack Always come from places that are oil rich and have gas Democrats they don't give a damn What is this about? Our military trapped in the middle east can't get them out Heroes are the ones who have the constitution written down Y'all are using hero while describing Kyle Rittenhouse

[Pre-Chorus]

One cent, two cent, three cents, four We get less and they get more Bought and sold since we were born They want money We want war

[Chorus]

Dirty dollars fill their pockets While our coffins fill the ground They make profits solving problems They create to keep us down Dirty money (cha-ching) Dirty money I don't want your dirty money [Verse 2] They might kill me for this song it’s all classified intelligence Don't need to go to war to secretly be gettin' benefits When Russia launches rockets we condemn them, but there's evidence A U.S. politician owns the screws they're assembled with Ain't no war on drugs it's economic You make money off an inmate, every jail cell is profit Our prisons are privately owned Illegal marijuana just means kids smoking weed Turn the dollars in their pockets Let's be honest domestic threats ain't a comparison To nuclear powers who hate the west it's embarrassing Still we label Truckers in the convoy as terrorists And confiscate donations we have no idea where it is A pipeline leaks, price of gas goes higher Stock market crash, everybody get's fired Economy is weak while we're trying to beat a virus One trillion dollars in debt to China We celebrate the smallest battles we're winning So that they can publish the headline that's' gonna' fuel the vision But if we champion the crumbs, then its crumb's that we’re givin' We don't make any progress, we're stuck at the beginning [Pre-Chorus] One cent, two cent, three cents, four We get less and they get more Bought and sold since we were born They want money We want war [Chorus] Dirty dollars fill their pockets While our coffins fill the ground They make profits solving problems They create to keep us down Dirty money (cha-ching) Dirty money I don't want your dirty money [Bridge] It's all about the money, money, money, money, money Not enough soap to scrub it's soaked in blood It's all about the money, money, money, money, money Every time we make a buck, they take from us It's all about the money, money, money, money, money The dollar runs our lives until we die It's all about the money, money, money, money, money It controls your mind and it controlling mine [Chorus] Dirty dollars fill their pockets While our coffins fill the ground They make profits solving problems They create to keep us down Dirty money (cha-ching) Dirty money I don't want your dirty money

[lunarcovehq]

Poppy Reed is a Witch that currently resides in Downtown and has been a Lunar Cove resident for about 26 Years, with a little break in between when she said she was going out to “get some potions ingredients” for a couple years.

ITS THE END OF THE WORLD

GENDER/PRONOUNS: Cis Woman, She/Her

DATE OF BIRTH: June 6, 1989

OCCUPATION: Bartender & Owner of Starlight Bar

FACECLAIM: Rebecca Rittenhouse

AS WE KNOW IT, AND I FEEL FINE

SPECIES: Witch

INHERENT ABILITIES: Duplication, Telekinesis, & Fire Manipulation

COVEN POSITION: Supreme

COVEN ABILITY: Audible Inundation

WELCOME TO LUNAR COVE, POPPY REED

Trigger Warnings: Memory Loss, Gaslighting, Rejection by Parents

Alyssa Reed was a naive witch who fell in love with Silas Chamberlain, a man more hungry for power and notability than he was for love. When Alyssa married the covens most eligible bachelor and got pregnant with twins shortly after she thought she had secured their relationship, unfortunately all it did was make the flaws in their relationship more gapping. That was until heirs twins were born and Silas seemed to change for the better, he fawned over his children and talked constantly about the legacy that they would one day take over. Alyssa had thought things were better until she found Silas’ cheating with Violet Cartwright; while she knew about the affair Alyssa’s position in society meant more to her so she stayed silent. Instead making sure to soak up as much of Silas’ time as she could, even getting pregnant by him once more which resulted in the birth of their youngest daughter. For a while she hoped that Silas would turn his attention back to his family, he did for a short time, but with his thirst for power and Violet Cartwright right around the corner Silas always had his attention on anyone but Alyssa. Even when word went around about Jasmine Chamberlain, all Alyssa did was brush it off. Claiming that Silas’ true heirs were her children, never once would she acknowledge Jasmine as the children’s half sister. Instead she claimed Violet Cartwright was just a groupie who had wanted the fame. No matter what he did still though she stood by his side and played the role of the faithful wife.

Well that was until Silas went too far, while Alyssa had been on board with being the wife of the supreme she hadn’t signed up for the all the additional eyes on them. What was once a play for power and a good idea had turned into a liability, she wasn’t willing to pay with her life or her children’s lives. As Silas threatened to expose them to the world Alyssa made the decision to call The Council, asking for refuge from her husbands mad ways. Once her passage had been secured she packed up her three small children while Silas was out and took off in the night with them. Vowing to Silas and the children that they would never see one another again, Alyssa went as far as making sure that none of them remembered their father. Alyssa and the supreme both made sure to slip the children memory altering charms to wear while they decided it was best to rewrite history- going as far as changing their last names back to their mothers surname. Instead of growing up with a father for the short few years they had the Reed siblings were told that their father had just been some man who ran out on them after getting their mother pregnant with the youngest; they claimed he wasn’t ready to be a father but had tried for a few years. While The Council had their eyes on Silas, they also kept a watchful eye on The Reed Siblings, waiting to see if they showed any signs of remembering or if they would become problems like their father.

Time moved on though with no one besides The Council any wiser to where Alyssa Reed or her children had came from. Instead Alyssa went out of her way to climb the ranks once more in the coven, used her children the whole way with their sweet smiles and blue eyes to charm her second husband - Miles Hale. By the age of eight Poppy was once again packing up her things to move into her new home with a step father she didn’t want. All Poppy had wanted was her real dad, not an imposter who her mother was passing off as the perfect new father. Instead it just fueled Poppy’s rebellion and by the time she got her powers she was sneaking out and constantly running off - in the hopes that she’d be able to get out of the town and to actually be free. While she’d got close to the border a few times her mother and step father always caught her at the last second, then she was back to trying to put on a show for the coven that she was the perfect daughter just like her younger sister.

It surprised no one when Poppy opted to forgo college, but instead insisted on leaving not only the coven, but Lunar Cove. With her grades there wasn’t a shot in hell that she was any getting in to any decent or respectful college, so instead they cut a deal. She could take a gap year, but after the year was up she had to return to Lunar Cove and take classes at the local community college. While she didn’t plan to uphold the deal she agreed, deciding that she had to take her only ticket out of town while she could. So she packed what she could fit into her red Volkswagen Beetle and headed out of the safe heaven. Once she got past the border the weight that had been on her chest for years finally lifted and she felt like she could breathe. She drove all night just taking in the different scenery and not bothering to look at the map once, wherever she ended up she was meant to be. She lived that way for the full year, only stopping in each place until she had enough money to move to the next, not putting roots anywhere.

When the year was up her mother and step father stood at the border waiting for Poppy to return, for a second she had concerned it but the little red car never crossed back over the lines of the safe haven. It was in that moment that Poppy made her decision clear to everyone in the family, she wasn’t coming back, at least not right now. To Poppy it felt like there was world out there that she was dying to see, she didn’t care about the threat of hunters that her mother warned about constantly. Instead it just pushed her even more from home until she hopped a plane to Europe, she spent time aboard working and backpacking. For a whole the only people Poppy even allowed herself to talk to was her siblings, with the promise that they wouldn’t tell her parents where she was in fear that they would once more try to drag her back kicking and screaming.

It wasn’t until her twenty-eighth birthday that Poppy even returned back to the States full time, she found herself on the West Coast with as many miles between her and her mother as she could. Along the way she’d caught the attention of her father Silas and he sent other supernaturals out to watch his offspring in the hopes that maybe the could bring her to the coven or find a way for him to use her. Unfortunately before anything could play out Poppy was attacked by hunters, while she’d always heard about the hunters never had she actually seen one in person. As she stood there frozen one of her fathers goons protected her and helped hold them at bay. As chaos erupted around her all Poppy could do was set everything ablaze while her nerves took over, rather than stick around she took off running with them. They didn’t stop until she practically passed out from exhaustion, as she sat in the middle of nowhere with them, realization set in, she knew there was only one choice now. The hunters knew what she looked like and potentially who she was, her right to safety would be forever compromised.

Poppy left everything to her name behind, headed back to Lunar Cove, the one place that could protect her from any situation. As she crossed over the border she wasn’t met with warm welcomes or open arms, instead she was shunned by her mother and step father for her disobedience. While she’d tried to explain the situation to them all her mother had to say was she got what she deserved for leaving Lunar Cove, instead of trying to reason with her mother anymore she left. Instead of begging as her mother wanted she chose to take her exile from the family she’d grown up with, figuring if they didn’t want to be in her life then she wouldn’t force them. Taking a job as a bartender at Neon Nights, she stayed in the apartment above the bar for the first year while she got on her feet and rejoined the coven with some rather cold glances from its members. While she passed her mother and step father constantly at meetings and in town, they were nothing more than strangers to her.

That was until the past year, when the previous supreme and her step father were murdered and the trials started. Poppy had sat in the stands watching her mother showed off her younger sister and swore to everyone that she’d followed up in her step fathers foot steps and could do even better than him, she’d be the supreme. But as she watched her siblings, mother, and witch after witch fail the test, Poppy’s time came. As she flew through each trial she found herself doubting that it would actually happen and that eventually she had to wash out, right? That was until she found herself in front of the ancestors and reality set in. By the time they offered the position to her, she had fainted. Rather than decide when she came to she asked for a few days to think before meeting with the ancestors once again. It was in those days that the news had leaked, she’d became the talk of the coven. While she still wavered on the decision, she wanted more than anything for one of her siblings to take the position, but it was Alyssa who ended up pushing her towards the position. Alyssa had stormed in demanding that Poppy give up supreme, that she wasn’t worthy, that if she took this she’d turn out just like her father had. After all she’d taken after him, more than her.

As Poppy’s time ran out and she found herself in front of the ancestors once more her mothers words replayed and rang in her head like a broken record. Instead of listening to her though Poppy took the position, promising that she’d show not only her mother, but the coven that she was worthy of this position. After all this was her story, not her mothers or her fathers, she was in control of how it ended.

[thenobleclearlightbulb]

Can I just say that I hope to god the actual abusers and people like Kyle Rittenhouse try to sue for defamation after the Depp v Heard case. You have to prove that what was said was wrong and that it was said with malicious intent. Do they really think no one’s going to find out more about who they really are when lawyers start looking into their past? Do they think their victims are going to be lying about their ptsd and ones like Megan Thee Stallion are going to have doctors say it was self inflicted? It takes a special type of selfcenteredness/narcissism (one that imo Amber Heard suffers from) to ignore those whose lives have be destroyed by their lust for power. I feel bad for the victims who will have to readdress their trauma to satisfy these people’s stupid wish, but they should know that they’re not Amber Heard and many of the people cheering ‘justice for johnny’ want to believe victims when they come forward and only switched after her story made no sense with all the evidence. Having one picture of a split lip or one doctor finding scarring is worth more than 100 videos of a possibly puffy face or a red face that has been altered or your abuser with drugs. And that is true to all the alleged victims who the media has said dropped cases against their alleged abusers. You are not Amber Heard. You are not going in to tell an unbelievable story of how you covered up and broken nose and split lip with make up. You did not buy the person you thought would kill you a deadly weapon (or at least you didn’t after realizing they might try to kill you). You did not send a video to the paparazzi and then claim you didn’t. But if you are in the 0.00001% like her and are trying to play the victim as a form of revenge or to get money its a good thing you dropped your case. She’s already fueled enough people who think victims are all liars and we don’t need to give them anything more.

And to anyone who hasn’t watched the trial I invite you to clear your head and take a couple of weeks to listen before making a decision on the matter. If you think Depp is perfect or Heard wasn’t at least majorly exaggerating then you haven’t watched it. The courthouse website should have all of the evidence in an unbiased format as well

[wilwheaton]

Wil, no matter how repugnant the person or act, every person charged with a crime in this country is guaranteed certain rights. They're presumed innocent until the State proves every element of a crime beyond a reasonable doubt. Even if an act is broadcast on television around the world, it's still the state's responsibility to properly bring proof before the court to get somebody convicted. That's what our Constitution demands.

As a public defender, I hold the State to that standard no matter how appalling I may find my client, because knowing that client's rights are safe is how I know yours and mine are, too.

While Rittenhouse's defense team has taken approaches I might not have and the judge it has made decisions I wouldn't necessarily make it his place, it disturbs me to see so many people, particularly people like you with whom I hold a good number of values in common, seem to be infuriated that this specific defendant has constitutional rights that are being protected in his trial. Are his rights being respected in a way that many of my poor and minority clients' rights aren't? Yes. But the problem there isn't that his rights are being protected but that's so many others aren't.

The second we start fighting against protection of constitutional rights because 'so-and-so is a criminal and doesn't deserve them,' we give the state the power to strip each and every one of us our rights by declaring us a criminal.

Is it unfair for me to direct this rant to you rather than any of the thousands of other blogs I see it on? Probably. But you have a profile that many other people don't and I usually see you using that position on this platform a bit more carefully and responsibly.

I don't blame you for being appalled by Kyle Rittenhouse and the crimes he's alleged to have committed (and they're still alleged because a jury hasn't made the call that the State is proving them beyond a reasonable doubt). They're atrocious.

Just please remember where the responsibility for doing justice in the situation lies: whether or not he is convicted is solely the responsibility of the State. I would love to see someone somewhere express more of a problem with what a crap job the State is doing prosecuting this case than they are expressing problems that a criminal defendant has constitutional rights that are being protected.

I deeply respect your work as a public defender. I am not a lawyer, just a dude who wants Kyle Rittenhouse, that fucking judge, and everyone in this world who is like them or supports them to go to hell forever.

I appreciate you taking the time and effort to share these thoughts with me. I can't disagree with you.

[magic-can]

Don’t let the convictions of Ahmaud Arbery’s killers distract you from the fact that it hasn’t even been a few weeks since Kyle Rittenhouse, a white supremacist who murdered people who were fighting for equality, was released and celebrated by fascists as a hero. Don’t let it distract you from the way the legal system in the United States is built around upholding white supremacy. Don’t let it distract you from the fact that every day people of color are scared to simply walk outside on the street out of fear of being killed.

A single case have some sense of justice delivered doesn’t eliminate the systemic problems at hand. That shouldn’t take away from the fact that this is still some form of justice, however. The people who murdered an innocent man who was just going for a jog are behind bars for the rest of their lives.

In short, the fact that these men were punished for their crimes is something we should be glad about, however that doesn’t mean that we should stop fighting the system. If anything, dismantling systemic white supremacy is what justice, TRUE justice, is.

[anamericangirl]

I'm glad the shooter in the latest shooting was killed by a person carrying a gun. Apparently, there wasn't any Mall security. How does a person enter a Mall with two rifles and not get stopped? On another subject, I'm not happy that Kyle Rittenhouse was treated like a hero however. He went there looking for trouble in the guise of being an EMT. EMTs don't carry AR-15s when they're going to "help" people. This was a case where the prosecutor didn't do his job.

I was with you all the way until you brought up Kyle Rittenhouse. How do you guys still get everything about him wrong? There is an abundance of information regarding his case and the facts were available minutes after the shooting and there's no excuse for saying shit like that anymore.

He didn't go under the guise of being an EMT. He went there to help and offer medical assistance to anyone who might need it. He brought the gun for protection, not looking for trouble. And it's a good thing he had it because people ended up trying to kill him that night. I don't know why you're not upset with the grown men who tried to beat and kill a teenager but you have a problem with the teenager who defended himself against attackers and did literally nothing wrong.

Just do me a favor and don't talk about Kyle Rittenhouse anymore. You obviously don't know anything about the case and you haven't tried to educate yourself on it, which is super easy. Your opinion here is completely worthless and your ignorance isn't excusable.

[sunshinexlollipops]

You do realise that Kyle Rittenhouse is Hispanic and shot white dudes right? One was a mentally ill pedophile who anally sodomized five young boys and was released from a mental hospital that same day, the other was a serial wife beater and the other was a felon who tried to kill his own family. All of which were trying to blow up two gas stations and burn down businesses own by brown people, Kyle did his community a great service, what you should be worried about is that you have these absolute garbage people causing trouble in the name of BLM.

hey anon, I think you're considered one of my first hate inbox messages. lemme be frank with your ass for the occasion. 🎉

(also, unless I need to correct something, like a typo or something akin to that, I won't be replying to any shitty notes on this bc I don't care lmao. this will also be the only ask I am to answer as well.)

Kyle Rittenhouse is white. in fact, here's a report from Snopes stating that the Kenosha police department the night of the shootings, as well as a previous unrelated court case, listed Kyle as Caucasian.

only ONE case lists him as Hispanic, which is where you're stating he's POC from. 🤦‍♀️

also, ironic you're trying to tell me he's POC because you think opinions should change just because you're telling me he's "Hispanic?" are you serious?

"Yeah guys, we actually let the Golden State Killer go... Turns out he was 10% Latino."

oh, and if you're saying that calling Kyle a white supremacist while being "Hispanic" is what I'm fucking up on lemme just show ya this--

Kyle is holding up the white supremacy symbol. so yes. go on and tell me that he needs to be viewed as "Hispanic" instead of a racist POS.

secondly, you know I made my comparison between Kyle and the George Floyd situation, bc the right said George deserved to be killed by police bc he was a "druggy" and he "had a fake $20"

it always funny that victims of white men with guns have mile long rap sheet that you say earned them a casket under 6ft of soil

why is it that the right ONLY sees crime when it's tied to the names of people that a self-appointed antagonist like Kyle have killed?

and if you want to talk about what the people he shot have done, here is another article by Snopes that fact checks the victim's own, previous court records.

some of your claims are disturbingly wrong. some are outright false. some take a little away from the truth. and there are so many claims for this and that and honestly, I'm surprised you didn't say one ate babies at this point.

what you can't argue is that KYLE HAD NO WAY OF KNOWING ANYONE'S CRIMINAL HISTORY WHEN FIRING AT THEM.

meaning: these people are complete strangers, and I'm rather positive that criminal history was not being discussed that night between them.

yet you give kudos to Kyle for murdering them, saying he's a hero for taking them out, when he had a just as equal 50/50 chance to shoot someone without any criminal history at all.

tell me, would you still consider him a hero if those people had no criminal histories?

or do you even take into consideration that Kyle has his own previous criminal history as well, no matter the severity?

or does it still only matter when you want to justify his actions?

I'm not saying the people don't have pasts or that I condone certain actions taken. but Kyle decided he was personally responsible for making the decision of whether they got to have a future or not, and you cannot argue which choice he made for them.

also, Kyle's victims being white doesn't change that he 1) made a white supremacist symbol, and 2) he showed up to a BLM protest to counter it and shot and killed 2 people. he's part of the fucking problem.

how is it that the right always sees this as someone taking justice into their own hands, when it's literally just individuals like Kyle inciting violence to try and feel like Rambo with an anti-vaccine swag-rock soundtrack?

Kyle is not a hero. he's a guy who decided to take matters, and a gun, into his own hands. he left his house with the intent to shoot people on his own merit.

the point of these protests is that individuals like Kyle MAKE THESE CHOICES and are allowed to by the system, whether they are a cop, or a little fucker from Illinois with a gun and desire to protect a fucking CVS.

Walmarts can be repaired. items can be restocked. cities can be rebuilt.

the lives of those lost can never be replaced. the wrong from their loss will never be right.

and the system? it remains to be reformed.

you don't want to mention how police purposefully escalated protests. how they wrongfully attacked uninvolved BYSTANDERS and people in their own buildings while going after protesters. how police planted officers as instigators, and damaged their own vehicles while staging pallets of bricks in cities.

police paralyzed and even cost some people their eyes with rubber bullets.

police even use tear gas, which the US has banned for military use because it violates international law.

yet, it's perfectly okay to use on BLM protesters who are peacefully organizing, right?

but, anon, if you REALLY want to talk about violence, it's the constant, racist violence that black people/POC undergo just for fucking existing around pieces of shit like Kyle Rittenhouse.

black kids like Trayvon Martin are killed for holding items like Skittles. black women like Sasha Johnson are shot at parties for being community activists. black men like Ahmaud Arbrey are wrongfully murdered for just jogging in public.

cops jail, injure, and murder even more. Breonna Taylor. Kenneth Walker. Jacob Blake. in fact, here's a current site of victim names BLM has collected, alongside what they were doing when they were targeted by police and harmed.

there is no peace in protest when there is no peace in just coexisting for black people.

in fact, African Americans had to fight the bloodiest war in American history to not be slaves, did they not?

and again, they had to fight in the 60's because everything from voting rights to water fountains were barred and segregated for them.

and now, you want to say that I need to worry about peace because of looters and damaged storefronts?

you also think that BLM protesters want to damage black-owned businesses? are you serious? do you hear yourself?

but in general, do you not think that the BLM movement wants to peacefully protest?

or do you just assume they want the same violence you say earns them a death sentence?

never in the history of America have black people/POC been granted the option to earn equality through only peace.

this is because the system and those who benefit from it don't WANT equality, they want explotation and imbalance because it gives them priveledge and power.

all POC have been forced by these people to fight tooth and nail for what centuries of racists refused to give. from the civil war to keep slaves, to near genocide of Native Americans for their land, this country was created and reliant upon the oppression and murder of those who aren't white.

for today's African Americans, they are tired of being mistreated. they are tired of being ignored. they are tired of being screwed over. but more than anything, they are tired of being fucking murdered.

so, when you ask for peace, maybe you should look at the system that allows such inequality and inhumane tragedies to happen. about the duality of justice, the hypocrisy of laws, double standards among society, and this country's long-standing inability to equalize any POC individual to one who is Caucasian.

because Kyle didn't defend himself. he didn't defend businesses. he didn't defend police. he didn't defend Kenosha.

he defended what always was: the only thing that has kept white people in such power in the first place.

and you wanna know something? there's a reason you chose this anon feature.

because despite whatever conspiracy theory that's currently caught your fancy, and the horse ivermectin I'm sure you're shoving up your ass right now, you don't want anyone to know you're openly defending it too. 💕

[puckmetwice]

CALLING ALL OFF CAMPUS LOVERS 🚨📢

Y’all… I am a huge reader and I have read every single hockey series (like…. So many) so you don’t have to ✨ here are my recs and rankings of the series:

1. Maya Hughes/Kings of Rittenhouse Series: YALL. If you have not read Kings you need to exit this app right now and download it. I am not kidding when I say that I’ve reread this series like 7 times. The general plot line is that this group of guys went to high school together and now two of them are in college, three went straight to the NHL. By the end of the series they’re all graduated and in the NHL and it is simply just such a well developed series of books. Each boy is so different and I really appreciate that. One of the things I struggled with in Off Campus is that every boy is the same person in a different font. Ugh I simply just adore this series <3

1. FAVE BOY: Ford makes me feel some typa way… but I also love Colm and Emmett. BUT I LOVE ALL OF THEM ASDFJKJS.

2. Odette Stone/Vancouver Wolves Series: YALL this one is NEXT LEVEL. Puck Me Secretly is the first book and it’s ICONIC. The mc is the GM’s daughter and she essentially has to step into his role and has an enemies to lovers ish with one of the players. I love having a strong feminist mc. The next three books still work in the universe but explore really different tropes. They’re my comfort books when I want drama and romance.

1. FAVE BOY: Max <3 but Ryan is such a close second

3. Kendall Ryan/Hot Jocks Series: these books are SO FUN. They explore a group of guys that play for Seattle and I personally really resonate with them being out of college and dealing with real-world-grown-adult problems. She really covers all the tropes in this series (starts with brothers best friend, then friends to lovers, fake dating, etc.)

1. FAVE BOY: GRANT OMG <3 But I also love Owen

4. Sawyer Bennett/Cold Fury Hockey Series: okay I only read the first 3ish in this series but I really did love it. The first and second book were very good; the second explores an mc that has cancer, which was a really unique plot line. It was heavy but so well done. I cried a lot but the author did a wonderful job.

1. FAVE BOY: Alex was just…sigh. perfect.

5. Elle Kennedy/Off Campus/Briar U: first hockey series that I ever read. Obviously is the blueprint but as I’ve explored other series I don’t regard off campus as the best. A lot of this is because the books deal with simply resolved/trivial plot line conflict. That is perfect when you’re in the mood for something light and goofy.

1. FAVE BOY: ugh this changes on the daily but after my first read through Logan was who I was drawn to. But Jake has a spot in my heart alskdfhlaskdjf.

6. E. Cleveland/Westbury Warriors Series: I read these so long ago and remember generally liking them but not enough that I remember the details of each books very clearly. I liked them, they were entertaining, but not the best series I have read. That being said, these books are written by a man which was interesting because I rarely read romance written by a man simply because I usually don’t love the way they characterize women. But he did a great job!

1. FAVE BOY: Reed for sure! (His nickname is Gucci LOL)

7. Helena Hunting/Pucked Series: I wanted to like these but I simply just could not get into them. Definitely more quirky and humorous as a series but I tend to gravitate towards the ones with a big controversy or drama, so it already wasn’t my thing.

Okay I believe that these are all of the series that I’ve read, although it is hard to keep track because I read so quickly. I’ve read a couple of one-offs and they were solid but series are just so much more developed. I still need to check out the following series: Nashville Assasins by Toni Aleo, Off Sides by Sawyer Bennett, Chinooks Hockey Team by Rachel Gibson, New York Blades by Deidre Martin, Bellevue Bullies by Toni Aleo, and Boston Terriers Hockey by Jacob Chance.

If you have any recs or thoughts about these books PLS DROP THEM BELOW!!! I LOVE TO TALK ABOUT BOOKS <3

[odinsblog]

After Kyle Rittenhouse trial, Biden still thinks the jury system works. He's wrong.

The president is willing to treat the Rittenhouse verdict with kid gloves if it means moving on from a polarizing political fight.

(by Max Burns, Nov 20, 2021)

Thanks largely to Republican political tactics, the courts were already losing legitimacy for millions of Americans before a jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty Friday. Progressives are now afraid that President Joe Biden doesn't even see the problem.

Biden’s knee-jerk claim that the jury system works further convinced skeptical progressives that the president simply does not recognize the scale of the problems plaguing our courts.

Rittenhouse will face no penalties despite shooting three protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin, ultimately killing two. Rittenhouse mounted a self-defense claim for each shooting, arguing that he had been the victim of repeated physical attacks by the protesters that left him in fear for his life that day in August 2020.

For critics on both the left and right, Rittenhouse’s acquittal offered further evidence of the legal deference shown to self-defense claims by white men, leading even conservative pundit Charlie Sykes to opine, “If Kyle were black, he’d be dead.”

Yet Biden, asked for his reaction to the news, immediately affirmed the judicial status quo. “I stand by what the jury has concluded,” he told reporters outside the White House shortly after Judge Bruce Schroeder adjourned the session. “The jury system works.”

It does? While the progressive left may be the loudest voice condemning the Rittenhouse verdict, it’s not alone. Our country has become increasingly skeptical of the judiciary, with only 54 percent of Americans claiming a great or fair amount of trust in our federal courts, compared to 67 percent just a year ago. The Supreme Court is experiencing a historic loss of faith, with only 40 percent of Americans supporting the high court — the lowest number in Gallup’s polling history. And how much you trust juries varies widely based on your race: Back in 2008, a Harris Interactive poll found over two-thirds of white people trusted the inherent fairness of juries compared to just over one-third of Black people.

While Biden was offering reassurance in the wake of the verdict, many prominent Democrats instead spoke to the injustice of what had occurred and the problems inherent in a process built to disadvantage nonwhite Americans.

In a tweet, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York condemned “a system functioning as designed and protecting those it was designed for,” adding, “My heart still breaks for the communities … who will be denied and deprived in similar scenes across the country.” And in a statement posted to Twitter on Friday evening, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts said, “There are two justice systems in America,” and that, “It’s time to dismantle systemic racism & fundamentally transform our broken justice system.”

…

“I knew it,” is how journalist and author Keith Boykin put it. “Kyle Rittenhouse is proof that white people can still break the law, carry illegal weapons, shoot and kill people, and get away with it in America by shedding tears and claiming self-defense.”

(continue reading)

[wakemeupfrommyslumber]

I JUST FINISHED TIMELESS AND I'M AAAA

It is going to be a huge text, so I will just highlight some points to the people who don't want to read it all. If you don't want to read everything just search for paragraphs like this

So, basically, I started watching timeless when it first aired in 2017. I passed trough the cancelling drama and stuff, but ended up not watching the second season because I was too busy for that.

Now, five years later, I have finally got my hands onto a streaming that has Timeless (I'm not from USA, so this took a while) and was ready to watch it. I finished everything in like three days and I'm just... a.

There's a lot of things that I think that happened just because they couldn't explore the plot well in 90 minutes. These thing's I'll highlight in green.

About Wyatt, Lyatt and Jessica

I actually liked Lyatt in the first season and the Hollywood episode was pretty nice. It was clear that they liked each other, and even though It wasn't mega exciting, I was happy for them. But then Jessica happened...

Wyatt was nice in the first season, but in the second one I think the writers tried really hard to make him despicable AND MANAGED TO DO IT.

I didn't hate him, but he was clearly dumb, selfish and the things that Jessica said about their marriage were never prooved to be wrong, so he was also explosive and dangerous. I was actually waiting for the series to reveal that he wasn't that cheating drunk man that Jessica portrayed, but it never did it.

Just look at how he punched Lucy! It was without intentions, but he couldn't control himself when she came closer! Man...

I think Jessica was really pregnant, but they didn't have time to explore it in the short season's finale so they just gave that terrible and quick excuse.

Like:

- Hey, what about that baby that would cause a big trouble or at least a really sad scene of Wyatt discovering that he was being fooled? - Oh, just make future Wyatt tell it was a lie in one line.

C'mon guys!!! The way the series portrayed before S02x11, Jessica actually really loved Wyatt and it was going to be a big problem for Rittenhouse in the future.

I understand that, just like Wyatt said, his situation was without precedents (usually your dead wife doesn't come back from the dead XD), BUT he was still acting terrible. Just like my babe Flynn said: Lucy is not your wife, the blonde girl is.

I can fully understand Wyatt and still despise him so much, it is just hard.

About Garcia Flynn and Garcy

First, I have to say that I have always loved Garcia Flynn. I watched the first season a long time ago so I couldn't remember exactly why, but it didn't take too long until I had fallen in love with him all over again.

Garcia is just charming, smart, funny and even though it concerns me, I felt completely in love with him everytime he punched a bad guy. This man is just... wow.

I have always tought that he and Lucy where just friends, really. I thought that he only admired her for who she was and for helping him (even though we didn't know how at the beggining) to revenge his family.

But man... It all started when Jessica came back. The way Flynn waited until she was clearly single to make a move on her... Not only smart, but so cute!

As they were always next to eachother we were able to see the way he looked at her... just... so sweetly. He knew her from the diary and started admiring her by that, but I believe that as soon as he started to know the person behind those writings it just was impossible not to fall in love.

That moment between them in the Chinatown episode I went just AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA When she read about the kiss in the Titanic also, man! My heart even started racing! He takes care of her and knows how to do it, it was so obvious that he was in love and I just- I JUST CAN'T DEAL WITH IT.

She started to look for him, to trust him and actually pay attention on him in a romantic way...

They have only killed Flynn because he was a HUGE loose end. In a universe where Flynn exists Lucy would never end up with Wyatt.

His chemistry with Lucy was CLEAR and only growing every episode.

The way he was always there for her, the way their friendship was growing and revealing to be way more than that... Lyatt could never.

Lyatt was obvious and quick, something that I could have easily accepted to watch ending. Garcy was being built carefully with a good foundation. It was suposed to be Flynn with Lucy in the end.

Other points

It is also sad how Jiya's powers were just ignored in the last episode. I think that time related powers would have probably become a thing in the series and generate a lot of plot for us.

Timeless, in my point of view, could have been here with us for at least two more seasons.

I feel sad about how it was cancelled. I don't think it was a 10/10 series, but I still had a emotional conection with it and its characters. I almost cried when Rufus died and I didn't even knew that I loved him this much.

Lucy also decided out of nowhere not to save her sister because this was ALSO a loose end. I believe that her sister could have been a new villain.

And her father just giving up on Rittenhouse like this? A big no for me. It just happened for the series finale. We have already learned that people in Rittenhouse struggle a lot to get out.

Emma wasn't that weak to die so quickly and had already proofed herself to be actually dangerous. She KILLED the head of the Rittenhouse and people did nothing out of FEAR.

About characters

Jiya Marri was awesome with her powers and inteligence. I was completely OMGOMGOMGOMG when she ran away from Rittenhouse!

Rufus Carlin was cute, even though I have found him annoying sometimes.

As I said, I can't even remember why I did like Wyatt Logan in the first season.

Garcia Flynn will haunt my dreams just as Lorenzo from TVD has done (literally, I dreamt about him for weeks). I think that it is becoming too common for me to fall for european bad guys and I need to find my own XD

I can't believe how I started to like Lucy Preston. One of the saddest things in the series ending is that I won't be able to see more of her.

In the end, after 40 minutes writing, I just have to say that I enjoyed Timeless and it is really sad that it just has 2 seasons.

I give it a 8/10 for making me love the characters, even though i think that some dialogue lines where a little bit cheesy.

Thank you, Timeless, for everything that you provided to us.

~Especially Flynn~

[thatboomerkid]

FIRST TEAM: LAST CHANCERS

Pentex is up to something.

... and it’s something BIG. 

This is a pitch & solicitation for a game, which I will run online for interested players. This text will serve as a living & public-facing reference-document, designed for use by my players, to be regularly updated over the course of our Chronicle.

Brought to you absolutely free to enjoy, to dick-around with, & to share – as always – by the fine folks of my Patreon.

Hugest of all possible special thanks to Daemon R. Allwardt, Matt Banach, Phil Brucato, Sye Cole, Nick Esposito, Dylan Hanny, Christopher Hazlett, Josh Heath, Derek Reeverts, Rich Rittenhouse, Amul Tevar, Joey Wallace, Joe Weinberg, and Owen Westcot.

And whatever kind of hot, nasty, oozing new extinction-level bug-fuckery Pentex has got brewing in the back offices, one thing is for damn sure: it ain’t good.

... which, incidentally, brings us to you & your new pack.

You’ve just been sworn-in to a most-sacred mission, and stride now to war for the literal continued existence of Gaia herself: your righteous vow commands you strike fast, move in shadow, conceal your strength, sow great confusion among your innumerable enemies, leave neither a single stone unturned nor a single witness standing, and -- above all -- puzzle-out precisely what the fuck these smug, devious, buttoned-down little corporate-psychopath shitheads are trying to pull for the foul “glory” of their grotesque master, the Wyrm.

And then to kill every mother-fucking last one of ‘em.

Or die trying.

Introduction

[Table of Contents, which you are reading right now]

Chronicle Themes

Suggested Media

Player Requirements

Character Requirements

[A Storyteller Solemnly Swears]

Setting Notes

Rules Notes

New Backgrounds

- Board-Certified Seal-of-Approval

- Infrequency

Celebrity Guest-Stars! ... or “Important NPCs of this Chronicle”

Because this is no ordinary black-ops monkeywrench operation, friend.

Whatever horrifying, nightmarish new “Special Project” the grinning bastards on the Board of Directors at Pentex are cooking-up, those schemes are bound in bane & balefire, sealed with silver & sorcery, wrapped skintight in unutterably-ancient-yet-somehow-still-shrieking White Howler flesh: a full-ass six-hundred-&-sixty-six levels above top-secret, locked-away so snug that even the most leet hackers, data-pirates, info-sec operators, and dumpster-diving ninja-assassins in service to Gaia haven’t been able to pry-loose more than the barest echoes of whispers from the churning belly of the great beast.

Not that we haven’t tried, obviously.

Problem is, Earth Mother’s chosen have very recently lost three full packs of our best & brightest cyber-warfare specialists: proud champions reppin’ the Random Interrupts, the Rat Finks, and the Corporate Wolves (alongside their Kin, their allies, their Fetishes, their Caerns, and their tech) ... all taken-out with extreme prejudice, military-grade ordinance, and unholy, blinding-fast surgical precision by rapid-response First Teams that -- if one were properly paranoid -- might lead one to suspect that Pentex has themselves an “inside man”. 

Or two. 

... or three.

Well, guess what?

Gaians can play at this game too, assholes.

Pentex likes to think that their treacherous, conniving, lily-white Ivy-League asses invented double-double secret-reverse counter-counterintelligence state-military-industrial espionage-operations? 

Lol. 

Your boy Cockroach, just as a ONE example, came-up hard on the mean streets of the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event, which aced-out 95% of the life on the planet, and was over two hundred million years old at the time of the Eocene epoch – a 22-million-year period of flaming radioactive planet-wide upheaval that included a particularly unpleasant winter (which just so happened to last somewhere in the range of 100,000 years) – a solid-ass thirty-five million years ago, back when the world, no bullshit, had mo’fucking rings around it.

It was metal as shit.

Note that his ugly little ass survived -- thrived -- up to the release of Morbius on Blueray at Blockbuster (and beyond!) without the benefit of thumbs.

Cockroach don’t fuck around, is the point.

Sneaky & clever though he may be, however, he’s just a Totem of Wisdom ... meaning that even his most intricate, complex, wheels-within-wheels, man-behind-the-man nine-part-harmony Xanatos Gambit plots are nothing against the dizzying designs of Coyote, Cuckoo, and/or Fox.

SO, THIS JUST IN: Pentex has won the coin-toss & chosen to receive; according to this note I was just handed by my producer, they also wanna ... wat. omg lazers, does that say, “we trash the rulebook & play dirty lmfao”?

Well ... alright, alright, alright. So mote it motherfuckin’ be, motherfuckers.

We’re doing this shit olde-skool now: deep-cover, deniable ops. No records, no receipts, no witnesses. No paper-trail, no chain-of-command, no back-up, no plan B. No limit, no quarter, no exit-strategy; no brakes on the Apocalypse-train. 

Underground, radio-silent, safeties-off; going full dark: inner circle only. 

Your handler has pulled-in every favor, ringer, expendable, has-been, old dog, youngblood, wash-out, dirty dealer, troublemaker, loose cannon, burned asset, low bastard, basket-case, wandering drifter, retired killer, and rainy-day BREAK GLASS ONLY IN THE EVENT OF EMERGENCY secret hold-out weapon she’s been quietly collecting-up over the last three & half decades.

Calling all freaks, as they say. ‘Cuz that’s the name of the game.

If you or any member of your pack is caught or killed, the Garou Nation will disavow all knowledge of your existence.

Hope you enjoyed getting to watch your own funeral from the nosebleed seats, kid. Might wanna strap-in & kiss your sweet ass goodbye. Because it’s about to get bumpy ... and real, real ugly.

Welcome to your new job at Pentex.

image by jim pinto

Chronicle Themes:

SMALL WORLD: y’know all those old borders & ancient rivalries? Like, say ... the ones dividing the Western Cordordiat of the Garou Nation from the Beast Courts of the Emerald Mother for, like, untold millennia? Well, thing is, they shatter into utter, insignificant meaninglessness before the sheer awful, global scale of Wyrm & Weaver locked in final battle.

BIG BUSINESS: the legions of Pentex are endless, outnumbering the champions of Gaia not by two, not ten, but by UNCOUNTABLE orders of magnitude; they can outspend us a thousand-to-one without even trying. ‘Course, the nice people over at Dynamic Technology International, the Mikoshi Conglomerate, Star-Mart, and Shinzui Industries are no slouches, either ... and they, interestingly enough, also want you dead!

PAST IS PROLOGUE: anyone who tells you the War of Rage was, quote, “a long-ass time ago” didn’t learn a goddamn thing: the unforgivable sins of our tragic, blood-streaked history shall not be forgotten ... or, I guess, we could just go ahead & round-off the next million years to yet another “particularly vivid, gore-drenched grind of ceaseless, ever-escalating, and infinitely-recursive fun-house-mirror horror-shows”.

FUTURE-SHOCK: ... but those internal memos outlining Pentex’s plans & operational schematics for the next century of their uncontested control over Earth? Yeah. Uh, they’re actually quite a bit worse: hyper-detailed, high-definition, vivid, full-color, glossy, and sickening in the extreme (with pie-charts!). We’re up against an all-star assemblage of clever & detail-oriented motherfuckers with an agenda-most-obscene... and, one financial quarter at a time, very increasingly with the means to make it happen.

Suggested Media:

6 Underground

Angel (Season 5)

Archer

The Boys

Bunraku

The Defenders

Inglourious Basterds

The IT Crowd

Mayhem

Shaolin Soccer

Sneakers

Player Requirements:

bi-weekly (every other week) availability for a 4-6 hour online game.

basic-to-intermediate experience with tabletop roleplaying games.

basic-to-intermediate experience with Werewolf: The Apocalypse and/or the greater olde-skool World of Darkness setting.

willingness to help every player at the table, as an active participant in shared-world storycraft, to create a fun, memorable, and above-all-mutually-satisfying tale: a high-octane, heartfelt, hilarious thrill-ride of action-packed international espionage in which super-powered warriors of Gaia rip monsters & finance-bro into festive intestine-confetti.

Character Requirements

each player will create a new, unique character using the Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th Anniversary Edition Core Rulebook and Changing Breeds texts, building a PC of any Breed, Auspice, Tribe, and background the player desires, subject to the Infrequency Background (below).

characters may begin play with extra Renown, up to an amount required for the character to reach Rank 2.

characters may begin play with up to 50 Experience Points.

a character created for play in this Chronicle must be both willing & able to “go deep-cover” as a member of a Pentex First Team.

a character created for this Chronicle is, by default, legally dead ... and is counted among the honored (or, I guess, dishonored?) dead by the Garou Nation / Beast Courts, depending on which way the player wants to go with it: any PC who wishes to maintain Allies, Contacts, Kinfolk, or a Mentor within the greater worldwide society of Gaian-aligned Fera will need the Lying-Ass Liar Social Merit (detailed below).

As an aside, the spirit-world is -- on the other hand -- very much aware that the PCs are still alive & kicking: long story short, the PCs do not lose access to the cool benefits of their Rank or their Renown. 

“So ... uh? How precisely are they ‘secretly faking their deaths,’ then? If the whole spirit-world knows they’re alive?”

Lol. You mean the same spirit-world that’s casually kept Gaia’s Breath (W20 Changing Breeds, pg. 116) and Veil of the Wani (W20 Changing Breeds, pg. 160) out of the hands of the Garou Nation for literally ever, possibly just for shits & giggles at this point? The shadow-universe of dreams uncoupled from thought, populated entirely by unreliable narrators & constructed entirely of unreliable narration? Where use of the term “veracity” in a sentence has a non-zero-chance of causing the actual floor to scream “IT’S PRONOUNCED VORACITY” at you & then try to eat you?

That spirit-world?

Yeah, the PCs & their secrets will be fine.

Note that neither players nor characters will be forced to do evil or icky crap to “prove their loyalty to Pentex or the Wyrm”: while the characters may have to work hard & be clever to preserve their dirty secrets, I’m very not interested in running a game where the players are forced to do evil in ANY capacity

In fact ...

===

A STORYTELLER SOLEMNLY SWEARS

I, Clinton J. Boomer, do hereby promise & avow to never present my players with a “If you’re so evil, eat this kitten” scene or conflict within the context of this, our Chronicle.

Sincerely. Do not worry that it’ll happen. It won’t.

... that said, players are allowed to incorporate such moments into their own backstories & preludes (with Storyteller approval), if they so desire:

For Example: Kyle is playing a cunning Garou who has infiltrated Pentex in the guise of a Ferectoi; he & I decide, together, that -- during his character’s prelude -- he was given a sadistic “loyalty test” by a superior: handed a pistol & told to execute a captured Kinfolk wolf. Through incredible, awesome cleverness on Kyle’s part, his PC was able to prove his loyalty to Pentex beyond a shadow of a doubt ... while also keeping the wolf from being harmed!

Similarly -- and mostly only because it’s literally the focus of the Chronicle -- players will very often be presented with observably evil assignments by their superiors, which they (as a pack) will have to be clever & creative about completing ... or not completing, as they decide.

Por Ejemplo: The PCs are assigned by Pentex to rendezvous with a First Team operating out of Dakar and to thereafter provide material assistance with the unit’s mission:

infiltrate a local cell of the Ahadi (via exploitation of a Kerasi who doesn’t “ping” as Wyrm-tainted)

locate the cell’s hidden Caern

exterminate all members of the Ahadi, including Kinfolk

claim the Caern for the Wyrm

generate evidence pinning the attack on a well-known Silver Fang

The PCs decide, instead, to kill all the members of the First Team & pin the whole fiasco on a “particularly rascally Nuwisha”.

Can they get away with it? Let’s find out!

===

Setting Notes

This is a Werewolf: The Apocalypse Chronicle -- not a more-general World of Darkness Chronicle, nor a “crossover” Chronicle -- which means that a couple of very important things about the setting need to be addressed & clarified pretty much right away.

Among them:

The grand history & cosmology of the universe, as understood by the Garou, is -- essentially -- correct.

Now, sure ... there are a few fiddly little fine-grained details about the true secret history of reality (like, say, the Insect War mentioned in Ananasi: Changing Breed Book 7, on pages 25-26) known only to non-Garou Fera; these are also true, even if the Garou -- who are only about a million years old, after all -- don’t know about ‘em.

All other supernatural entities, on the other hand, are -- at best -- ignorant about the true shape & meaning of the universe; at worst, they’re tools of Wyrm, of Weaver, or of both: dangerously deluded and/or outright liars.

More specifically: leeches within the context of this Werewolf Chronicle lack things like a “generation,” a “clan,” a “Humanity score,” or even “Disciplines”; they do have what might be referred-to as bloodlines -- the foul undead that, in ancient days, forced the Silent Striders from their homeland in Egypt are said to have been spawned from the cursed, night-black veins of Sutekh, for example -- but anything you think you know about vampires that isn’t on pages 453-455 of the W20 Core Rulebook is pure conjecture (and also probably bullshit).

The same goes double for wizards, ghosts, fair folk, and monster-hunters.

If you really, really wanna be an expert on all the various horrible & mysterious creatures that go bump-in-the-night, be sure to buy up some dots in the Occult Knowledge (and also the Secrets Background).

===

Rules Notes

So. 

Remember how I said, above, that any supernatural entity who isn’t one of the Fera is, and I quote: “at best, ignorant about the true shape & meaning of the universe; at worst, they’re tools of Wyrm, of Weaver, or of both: dangerously deluded and/or outright liars”?

Okay, so that’s all true: the Traditions & the Technocracy are both wrong, as is -- to a lesser degree -- any Nephandus who think he’s a servitor of anything but Malfeas: any “Infernal” entity encountered within the context of this Chronicle is, in all probability, just a member of the Maeljin Incarna randomly cosplaying-as-Satan for cheap shits & giggles.

Furthermore, any supernatural entity (who isn’t one of the Fera) is also at least slightly down-powered & sidelined: this is a W20 Chronicle, which means that the Technocratic Union is small-scale, underfunded, hopelessly corrupted from within, and mostly made up of Extraordinary Citizens. 

The odds of a HIT Mark out-of-nowhere gunning-down the Perfect Metis at the last possible second to avert the Apocalypse, in other words, are approximately zero-point-zero-zero-null-&-fuckkin’-not-gonna-happen.

... that said, tho, the Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary books are really excellently written, and -- as such -- the M20 texts will serve as this Chronicle’s default “canon reference-documents” in such instances as a W20 book is silent on a particular rules-issue:

you want to play a Martial Artist? M20 pg. 424-426 has got you covered!

your character wants to shoot the gas tank? M20 pg. 459 it is!

you want a weird Merit or Flaw that’s not in the Corebook? Yo, check out the M20 Book of Secrets, friend-o.

===

New Backgrounds:

Board-Certified Seal-of-Approval

The massive, multiheaded hydra of Pentex trusts no one.

... and that’s not, like, hyperbole, by the way: the PCs, over the course of this Chronicle, will be taking orders from people who all goddamn HATE each other (see below), the majority of whom are actively trying to get one another killed.

It’s a squirming pit of monsters, my friend.

You & your pack are gonna be the one group of people that every member of the Board of Directors trusts to have their back ... and then you will betray the shit out that trust, for great justice, in the sacred name of Gaia.

zero dots (default): an outsider to the dark inner-workings of Pentex, you are – at best – a cog in the machine that it would be mildly inconvenient to Pentex to murder outright; this level of clearance covers everyone from a minimum-wage overnight counter-clerk at your local EndRun 24-hour gas-&-food convenience mart to an average lab-tech who works at Magadon, watches RED Network, and eats at O’Tolley’s three times a week.

1 dot: you’re a bottom-ranking peon who is (nonetheless) initiated into the foul, dark inner workings of Pentex: a First Team private, an associate executive, or a white-level scientist with Special Projects Division. You are cleared to know that “fomori” and “lupines” exist; you are also expected to die (or go to prison) at the whim of a superior.

2 dots: you’re a low-ranking, expendable cog: second-in-command of a First Team, a junior executive, or a green-level scientist with SPD.

3 dots: you’re a middle-ranking, slightly-more-expensive & slightly-less-expendable cog: leader of your own First Team, a supervising executive, or a blue-level scientist with SPD.

4 dots: you’re a high-ranking power-player: a chess-master directing the actions of multiple First Teams, a managing executive at a powerful (and lucrative) Pentex subsidiary, or a yellow-level scientist with SPD.

5 dots: you’re just one step down from the Board of Directors: overseeing multiple elite First Teams, an executive with your own subsidiary, or a red-level scientist with SPD.

6 dots: you’re at the level of the Chief Executive Officer of Global Pentex Security: not technically a member of the Board of Directors, sure ... but you’re on the short-list for membership (and you answer only to them)

7 dots: you’re at the level of a Subdivision Director -- someone like Kiro Yamazaki, Francesco, or Mr. Pochard -- and are a full-fledged member of the Board of Directors

8 dots: you’re at the level of a Division Director -- someone like Adrian Newberry, Chase Lamont, or Harold Zettler -- and are a ranking goddamn member of the Pentex Board

9 dots: you’re at, no shit, the level of actual motherfucking Peter Culliford, Executive Vice President of Pentex

10 dots: you are -- dear, sweet, hot, buttery Jesus -- at the real & actual level of Benjamin Rushing, Executive Director of Pentex

The difficulty of any Investigation, Streetwise, or similar check made to dig-up dirt or secrets on a character who possesses this Background is increased by +1 for each dot in this Background the target possesses over-and-above the investigator.

For Example: The PCs decide that they want to find out the actual, specific address of Adrian Newberry’s vacation home in Nantucket so that they can give him a shotgun enema I mean no, it’s so that they can have, like, flowers & candies delivered. For, uh ... Mother’s Day.

Anyway: since the Director of Operations has 8 dots in this Background and the highest score any PC has in this Background is 3, rolls to get any useful information are at a minimum of +5 difficulty.

This special Background may not be bought above 1 dot at character creation.

This special Background cannot be pooled, and PCs are expected to have different levels in this Background: the acting field-commander of a First Team will have higher “clearance” than her newest recruit, after all.

That said, the total level of trust placed in the PCs (as a team) will always be equal to the lowest Board-Certified Seal-of-Approval rating possessed by any member of the First Team.

This special Background can be used in-place-of & in the same-way-as any one of the following Backgrounds from M20 (pg. 303-328) at any given time: Backup, Influence, Requisitions, Resources, or Secret Weapons.

... of course, actually using your Board-Certified Seal-of-Approval to do shit like crush stories in the media, borrow sports cars & jets, or order a black-ops, attack helicopter extraction from a bad first date is the ABSOLUTE NUMBER ONE way to make your rating in the Background drop like a fucking stone.

Other than, like, fucking up a mission real bad, obvi.

Also, just to be as absolutely clear as possible: the literal, very specific goal of the Chronicle is to get your pack’s Board-Certified Seal-of-Approval rating as high as you can, so that -- just for example -- you can be placed in charge of security during an event where, if anything goes wrong, the entire Board of Directors will die in a horrible series of hilarious toilet-explosions.

===

News Merits & Flaws

Lying-Ass Liar (5 pt. Social Merit)

You have established (or have had established for you) a full alternate identity – complete with documentation – that passes with ease, drawing no suspicion, as a member of another community of supernatural entities. This very well might be the Western Concordiat of the Garou Nation or the Beast Courts of the Emerald Mother ... or it could be another organization altogether (like an international society of leeches, wizards, or even demon-hunters).

Regardless of who -- precisely -- you’ve infiltrated, you command the respect & trust of your “peers” within this organization, alongside a healthy measure of faith in your abilities from more-powerful members of the group.

To clarify, this is some next-level bullshit: a secret identity on top of all the secret identities you already have.

For example: you are Batman, currently operating in Gotham’s underworld as Matches Malone, after faking Batman’s death ... but you can also use the cash & connections associated with Bruce Wayne, if you want.

If you’re a Hakken (who everyone knows is dead) pretending to be a Ferectoi (while serving on your First Team), use of this Merit might mean that you’re also known to be a Child of Gaia Kinfolk: a disguise that involves slapping on some patchouli & a tie-dyed t-shirt, donning hemp sandles, and saying “whoa” a lot.

Or you might be known as the “blood-doll” or “familiar” of a powerful leech.

Or you & your Storyteller might decide that you’re an employee of a corporation like Shinzui International, or an agent of an organization like Strike Force Zero.

And yes, this is totally the sort of thing that a clever Ragabash, Corax, or Nuwisha could set up once the Chronicle has started, if given the time & materials to do so ... but this Merit is useful because it doesn’t involve any rolls (and thus it presents absolutely no risk of failure).

Note that this shit is also not bulletproof: if you’re ever “outed” as a member of a Pentex First Team (or, far worse, as your known-to-be-dead self), the reactions of those who know you only as the-identity-granted-by-this-Merit will be:

disbelief

followed by confusion 

followed very rapidly by outright hostility toward your accuser

followed immediately thereafter by you being restrained, detained, and very thoroughly investigated -- just in case! -- by the paranoid people you’ve infiltrated

which may very well wind-up with you dead, and/or with your cover blown (and then also very dead)

You’ll need to work with your Storyteller to determine what specific supernatural group or community – such as the Garou Nation, the Beast Courts, a cabal of wizards (such as the Five Metal Dragons or the Akashayana), or even a night-lit masquerade of leeches – you’ve successfully infiltrated, and in what capacity: while it’s pretty unlikely that you’re able to pass for a high-ranking undead blood-wizard, for example, you might very reasonably adopt the disguise of “a highly trusted servant to an eccentric, paranoid, and agoraphobic elder vampire”.

You’ll also work with your Storyteller to decide whether Pentex knows about your secret identity or not: they’d love to have an asset that can infiltrate a werewolf moot while disguised as a Kinfolk, obviously ... but, y’know, maybe you don’t feel like showing your hand & revealing all your little tricks just yet.

Note that your alternate identity can use your Backgrounds – like Resources (W20 pg. 138) – but that you can also purchase Backgrounds separately: your fake identity might have points in Allies (W20 pg. 135) or Contacts (W20 pg. 136), for example, totally separate from those possessed by any other identities.

===

Celebrity Guest-Stars!

... or “Important NPCs of this Chronicle”

Any NPC listed below, alongside any information presented herein about the NPC in question, is automatically known -- with no roll, check, or expenditure-of-resources required -- to ALL player-characters.

In other words: you - as a player - don’t have to memorize any of this crap, because your character has it memorized for you (and you can look it up, right here, any time you want).

Some characters, of course, will have extra information: you’ll want to talk with me (your friendly, helpful Storyteller!) about the very, very special dark & secret shit that only you know.

Your Handler (and her packmates, Sept of the Epic Quest):

Eva Hedwig “Bunny Foo-Foo” Hare, Metis Glass Walker Ahroun

---

John “John-Boy” J. Jonhson, Lupus Glass Walker Ragabash

---

Philo “File-[zero]” Taylor-Swift Farnsworth Jr., Homid Boli Zouhisze Theurge

---

Ignacia Rosa “Iggy” Leon, Homid Glass Walker Philodox

---

Very Online Larry, Homid Glass Walker Ragabash

---

Sister Kasmira, Homid Glass Walker Galliard

---

... vs. the forces of Pentex:

Benjamin Rushing, Executive Director

---

Peter Culliford, Executive Vice President

---

Adrian Newberry, Director of Operations

---

Chase Lamont, Joint Division Director of Acquisitions / Information-Collection

---

Harold Zettler, Director of Special Projects Division

---

Franklin Rubin, Director of Project Coordination Division

---

Francesco, Subdivision Director of Project Iliad

---

Kiro Yamazaki, Joint Subdivision Director of Project Odessey / Project Aeneid

---

Kathryn Mollett, Subdivision Director of Human Resources Development

---

Andre Baptiste, Subdivision Director of Public Relations

---

Ursula Crane, Subdivision Director of Finance

---

Ian Robertson, Subdivision Director of Process and Integration

---

Sir Frederick Appleton, Subdivision Director of Project Lycaon / Neuro-Dynamic Laboratories International

---

Frédéri Pochard, Subdivision Director without Portfolio

---

Michael Dragons-Wrath, Chief Executive Officer of Global Pentex Security

---

Ash Pyralis, North American Chief of Pentex Security

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I'm trying but I just can't forgive Wyatt for what he did to Lucy

Wyatt is a character that I've defended in the past, but make no mistake, he's done some rotten things. I've got to say, I don't think either of the ending routes wrap up his story especially well.

The official ending is much too easy on him, and the writing of his character does a completely 180 just to try and (unsuccessfully) make a Ly*tt happily ever after make sense, even though that wasn't even close to being in a place where it could work in Chinatown. All of a sudden, Wyatt, who was begging Flynn not to shoot Jessica and still trying to get her to come back after knowing she was Rittenhouse...he's the one to come up with the plan to kill Jessica for the sake of Rufus? No, no way. No way Jose. I don't even see Wyatt agreeing to that plan. He'd have to be dragged in kicking and screaming, or else the others wouldn't tell him about it for fear of him interfering. On top of that, he seems to have decided to act far more mature about the whole Lucy/Flynn idea, and accept the possibility - when as recently as The General, he was still expressing resentment and jealousy, and he and Flynn were still at odds with each other in Chinatown. The canon finale is desperate to erase any factor that conflicts with Lucy and Wyatt getting together. Like Flynn. Like Jessica, and her baby. Like all of Wyatt's flaws, pretty much. Like any negative impact his choices had on the events of the second season, up to and including Rufus' death. Lucy literally says that Wyatt bringing Jessica to the bunker doesn't matter because no one else remembers it...you kidding me?

But the Continuation doesn't fare much better. Actually, it has the opposite problem. Wyatt is basically never forgiven for his actions in Season 2, even though he's sorry, even though he never meant any harm, all he wants to do is make things right, and he just accepts it when everyone keeps him at a distance...for the rest of the series, pretty much. It's not like he's expelled from The Time Team, but he might as well have been. He's more or less demoted to a background position. Even into Season 4, characters are talking about how "far" Wyatt has come, and he says to Lucy that he hopes it isn't "awkward" for her to be around him. Like, guys? This was over two years ago now. Can we please move on? Can we please let Wyatt off the hook for this already? Because you seem to have totally forgiven Flynn for doing things that are arguably far worse? I didn't appreciate Rufus literally forgetting why he was angry with Wyatt in The Miracle of Christmas, but in The Fan-made Continuation...Rufus and Wyatt's friendship is never really the same after that. Between that and Flynn more or less becoming Rufus' new best friend, and Garcy being end-game...Flynn didn't really become the fourth member of the team, he basically usurped Wyatt's old position. Which is kind of depressing, and doesn't feel fair at all. Listen, Flynn's not exactly innocent himself. I love him, don't get me wrong, but he kidnapped Lucy and tried to have Rufus shot. I feel like that's worth as least as much as Wyatt choosing to trust his wife despite the red flags. Wyatt made mistakes, but they were well-intentioned and they're the kind of mistakes anyone could make.

I think Wyatt is a fine example of toxic masculinity. I think it's telling that he was raised by an abusive father, compared to Rufus and Flynn who were primarily raised by their mothers. I also don't think it's an accident that Wyatt is so obsessed with protecting the women in his life, but only the ones he feels a romantic connection with, and they're the only ones that he opens up to. I really love how the Continuation implies that his driving his father's car into the lake was a suicide attempt, and all of the other stuff it adds about his mother being a meth addict. Wyatt is such a tragic character and he's clearly in pain, but I think a lot of that pain comes from terrible lessons that he's imbibed from his upbringing. Mrs. Sherlock Holmes is easily his most obnoxious episode, because it really is rich that he thinks it's any of his business who Lucy dates, or that he's in any position to tell her off for it. Lucy handles the situation like a pro, as does Flynn. Both of them try to bring Wyatt back down to Earth but unfortunately, they're not especially successful. Chinatown also has the moment where, after Rufus dies and Jessica is gone, Wyatt tells Lucy he loves her. My god, not the time buddy, not the time. No, Rufus is not saying "about time" from the great beyond, he's face-palming. This is why I dislike the entire idea of having Jessica be Rittenhouse just so Wyatt is free to choose Lucy. That...has all kinds of problems. Wyatt should choose Lucy because he loves her, and realizing at this moment just doesn't convey that message.

I suspect the writers' intention was to redeem Wyatt in Season 3. I think the canon finale actually gave us several glimpses into what Season 3 would have been if it had been allowed to happen. Most notably, Flynn basically describes the Ly*tt subplot we would have gotten. He and Lucy kissing on the Titantic would have definitely been an episode, and them having a relationship that ultimately ends because Lucy still loves Wyatt, would have lasted at least six episodes or so. I can only hope that Jessica wouldn't have been shafted, nor her pregnancy ret-conned, though I suspect Flynn being her killer was always the plan, just that it didn't land well with how squished together it was. Anyway, Wyatt really had the potential to grow as a person and I love the moment between him and his future self where he decides that he's fighting for his child. I also love that last scene in The Recursion, between him and Jessica, how wistful and reflective it is, and "You always loved me more when I was gone." But even so, Wyatt felt like he was shunted off to being an afterthought in the continuation, when he was one of the lead characters. And in the canon finale, it felt like the story literally unwrote itself so that none of his mistakes ever happened, even though they did, and now the audience is just expected to forgive him when he has not earned it.

Because Wyatt wasn't ever a villain. He wasn't even an enemy. He was a friend to the heroes, he was one of them. But he became a real asshole in the second season, about his "Lucy/Jessica Soap Opera" as Rufus put it. He made all the wrong choices. He shouldn't be let off the hook so easily, but he should be given the chance to make it right, and then the characters should move on. I'm not saying Lucy has to wind up with him, either. I'm a Garcy fan myself. But Wyatt didn't exactly betray the team in ways that other characters haven't also done. Rufus spied on Lucy and Wyatt for Rittenhouse, and Connor was in their pocket for a while. Denise used Lucy as a pawn to backstab Flynn. See what I mean? The other characters get forgiven for crimes that are far worse. It just feels...well, I hate to say it, but I can really feel the writers' bias in both versions. Kripke and Ryan wanted a Ly*tt end-game, no matter what they had to do to get there. Meanwhile, QqueenofHades very clearly preferred Flynn to Wyatt.