#someone talk sheeple universe to me

[inkymoths]

Angels but if they were sheep and they were called sheeple ahsahhs get it sheeple hehheemeh

Anyway Archangel Raziel my beloved

[exoticraven]

{Vergil x reader} I will always be there...

|I have this idea swimming in my head for Vergil from DMC all day and thought heck why not write it. Also if you are new to fanfiction we sometimes said fuck cannon and rewrite the story. I may not be very good but Tumblr tells me to go for it and if it fails just try again|

{The idea is like Lucrecia mixed with Steven's universe mom. Where She is still alive but in another person}

[I do write in a female pov I am sorry but feel free to change the Pronouns for your liking. I do use a name for my writing it just helps me be I will have a (y/n) beside it so you can change the name to whatever you like Of course, I don't own any of these characters that I am about to write about/with. This is my first attempt at writing for Vergil hope it turns out ok]

The night was cold and wet but there was a strange calmness to it. A woman rocked herself back and forth in a rocking chair rubbing her belly smiling but behind the smile was sadness. She know when her son was born that she could not be with him. All the book on witchcraft was no help either. She wanted to see her son grow up but knew that this form of her couldn't she had to find a way to somehow become someone else but how?

-----Time skip-----

Nero walked around the destroyed town thinking no one was alive when he hear a sheep cry for help then a loud scream of anger or frustration he couldn't tell. He did however could tell where it was coming from of course he had to check it out. He ran as fast as he could to see humans fighting multiple demons while one was hiding behind a broken wall. He Jumped down to help. With Nero's help, they made quick work of the demons. He approached one of the females that seem to be the leader of this little group.

"Is everyone okay?" Nero ask looking around for anyone that was injured.

"Nope I think we're all good" The female helped up on her fellow group members "Whatcha name kid?" She asked Nero

"Nero and yours?" He questions

"I'm Serah, that is Alistro" Points to a guy with a red ponytail, "Abby and her brother Tera their mother thought she was having twin girls" Serah points to a guy with short cut hair that was jet black helping up Abby his sister which he couldn't tell if it was abby or tera. "and that" She looks around "guys where (y/n) Raven?" Serah was looking around for this said, person.

"I'm here" (y/n) Raven said coming out from the broken wall. "exactly where you left me (your pn)" (y/n) Raven Said sheeple.

Serah walks over to (your pn) them and hugs them tightly "This is my baby (sister/brother/PN) (y/n) Raven. I don't know what so special about her that makes every demon drawn to her"

"Maybe she (Your PN) is an Angel!!" Alastor said happily

"Maybe or maybe She (your Pn) is something else?" Tera question

"Whatever she (Your PN) is she still my baby sis nothing going to change that" Serah smiled at (y/n) Raven.

Nero looks at (y/n) Raven seeing a scared girl. (y/n) Raven was playing with her hair timidly not really saying a word to anyone.

"she (Y/PN) is naturally shy so when she (Y/PN) does talk we all try to be supportive and not downing her (Y/PN)" She said looking over at another person in the group Nero has not met yet.

"why are you looking at me for?" he said while cleaning his blade

"That Zack or Zachariah he goes by Zack cause he hates Zachariah" Serah chuckles

"Why do you have to do me like that?" Zack asks frowning at Serah

"Because if you had not put (y/n) Raven down then we all would have been comfortable in a bed by now but no Zack knows everything" Serah scold Zack

"Okay fair that was my bad for losing my temper and taking it out on (y/n) Raven but she should not have run off!" Zack rise his voice almost yelling at Serah which made (y/n) Raven cover her ears Shaking. (y/n) Raven close (y/Pn) she closed her eyes and was taking deep breaths. She (y/Pn) tried to calm herself down.

Serah stop arguing with Zack knowing it was not going anywhere. "we have to move it getting dark and you know how the temperature downs around here" She said holding (y/n) Raven close to her.

Nero agreed and followed them to their hideout. Tera and Abby went to their shared room and stay in there for the rest of the night. Zack headed to the room that he shared with Alastor who just so happens to be brothers Alastor is older by a day. Serah got some food for her, Nero, and (y/n) Raven to eat. While they ate Serah pulled out a syringe filled with a blueish liquid. She injected it into (y/n) Raven's arm which made Raven's (y/n) eyes grow for a short second and then stopped. After they ate Serah lay(y/n) down for bed and tugged her in. Raven (y/n) went right to sleep before Serah could even leave the room. Serah walk out to Nero who was confused about what just happened with the liquid and Raven (y/n).

"you have a question and I have answers," Serah said sitting down grabbing a beer.

"Why did you inject that liquid into her and why did her eyes glow for a short second" Nero questioned

"Well me and the rest of the people here are lab rats. Doctors had their "agents" come and kidnap us from our homes which were orphanages and great places for lab rats cause no one would come looking for them. I and (y/n) Raven were sisters even then people picked on her for no reason she stay to herself and didn't bother anyone. I watched her once play fairy princess once all by herself. She was even now so pure for this fucked up world we lived in that is why I started standing up for her. She needs someone who always had her back. I and (y/n) Raven were walking back to the orphanage cause it was our turn to go buy candy and toys with the money we saved up for doing our chores in the orphanage. That is when they grab us. They separated us it was torture. I could hear (y/n) Raven's screams from where I was in that building. They fucked her up the worst I don't know what they did but it fucked her up. We were 18 when we all escape that lab. but we all were changed for the worst or for the better I don't know but we promised each other we would stay together no matter what. only us lab rats know how to put each other down" Serah said finally taking a sip of her beer.

Nero's mouth hangs open in shock at the story. He did not know what to say. What could you say to a story like that? Nero hears the pitter-patter of bare feet on the tile floor. He looks up to see (y/n) Raven in the doorway of the hallway.

"(y/n) I thought you were asleep already," Serah said confused

(Y/N) Raven walks past Serah and sits in front of Nero. Her eyes widen in awe. "It's...actually you," She said in a somewhat whisper.

Nero was taken aback by the comment and the way her voice sounded. It was (y/n) Raven but wasn't. There was another voice behind (y/n) Raven's voice. She touches his cheek and smiles. "It's really you" Tears fall down her cheek. Somehow (y/n) Raven's touch did not feel like her own. Nero was stunned by (y/n) Raven's actions. "right I look different, sound different and you've never seen me except when you were a little baby" (y/n) Raven said happily

"Who are you and what did u do to my sister?" Serah asks angrily

"She fine Serah she is asleep in a safe place for the time being. My name is not important." The "ghost" that harbors (Y/n) Raven's body Smiles. "My little boy is all grown up into a man now"

"Wait are you saying your my mother!?" Nero asks almost shouting

"yes, I had to...well fall into a deep slumber for you to live on but I found a way to be here to see you and watch you from far away" The "ghost," Said with sadness "I wanted to be there and help you grow up but my physical form could not bear it."

"wait then how are you-" Before Serah finishes her sentence the "ghost" hold up a finger to shush Serah.

"When (y/n) Raven was in that lab she was close to death. She was calling for help. The poor child was scared alone and was about to die so I stepped in to keep her safe. That is why she started to be the scientist's favorite" The "ghost" said

The "ghost" touched Nero's cheek smiling "I am sorry I left you alone in this cruel world" With those words (y/n) Raven's body fell right in Nero's arms. Of course, Nero caught (y/n) Raven's body so it did not hit the floor. (y/n) Raven's eyes flutter open and she leans up looking around. "wasn't I in bed?" She questions

"Yeah well umm see here the thing I think you got possessed by Nero's mother," Serah said with confusion trying to figure out what just happen.

" Um yeah, do u remember anything before you came out here?" Nero asks (y/n) Raven

"I just remember the nightmare that I had which is the same one every night. I was back at the hospital or Alsyum whatever you want to call that place." (y/n) Raven said while thinking

They all seat there in awkward silence for a bit. All three of them processed what happened. Not one could figure out why Nero's mother want to come to him now of all times. All three of them just went straight to bed without another word. (y/n) Raven was the one that could not fall asleep something was bothering her. She felt like she is not alone in her own body. She felt like someone was watching her using her own two eyes. She was scared of her own being. She had to figure out what going on with her. Why Serah and Nero said that Nero's mother came to him through Raven. The only person Raven knew to go find an answer or at least start asking questions was a Gypsy woman known as Alamina Pettigrove. So Raven pack a supply bag and some weapons and set off on her journey. Raven was scared of what answer she would find but was ready to face it.

--Morning--

Serah woke up before everyone else. She usually was the one to wake up first to get breakfast started for everyone in the household. She did not wake Raven due to she wanted her little sister to get some sleep. She walk into the kitchen and made coffee. While that brew she started getting out the tools and food she needed for breakfast. The smell of brewed coffee started waking Serah up a bit which help with getting breakfast done. The first one to wake was Zack then Nero. They sat at the table and talked while Serah was making the food. Nero told Zack about what happened last night with Raven. Which confused Zack too. Abby and Tera came into the kitchen and sat with the other two. They got filled in on what happened last night as well. Alastor came in right before they started talking about last night. Serah set out the food and pour everyone a cup of coffee and took her seat. Serah made her plate then made Raven's plate. She yelled for Raven to come to get breakfast which usually woke her up When Raven did not appear after a few seconds or even the second time Serah yell for her, that was when Serah's stomach flipped. She got up and went into their shared room. She turn on the light and went to Raven's bed which looked like Raven was in bed but when the cover where pulled back to reveal a pillow in place of Raven she knew something was up. She ran back to the Kitchen where everyone was.

"Raven is missing," Serah said

"Are you sure she didn't sneak into Alastor's bed and got comfortable with him" Zack Joked

"I am sure Zack!" Serah said angrily giving him the death stare.

"oh, your serious she actually missing?" Tera said in shock"She could be in her usual hiding-" Serah cut off Tera "I am sure you know she would not use a pillow to hide the fact she is not in bed when she goes there"

"I have a bad feeling about this let's get ready and head out maybe stop by those gypsy sisters. They might know something or saw her?" Abby said getting up to go get ready.

Everyone but Nero left the kitchen and got ready. Nero made a quick to a friend of his for a ride they could all use so they didn't have to go on foot. Nico arrive shortly after the call Nero place to her.

"Well isn't it my favorite asshole" Nico chuckled seeing Nero come out of the hideout he was in.

"Nice to see you too Nico," Nero said

Serah and her group came out behind Nero. "Meet some new friends of mine Nico. Their leader Serah, The two trouble makers Abby and Tera both twins, Zach also known as Zachariah, and his brother Alastor the jester and the jokers." Nero smiles at the group, Serrah like the introduction Nero gave.

"Can people not use Zachariah please I hate that name" Zack said with a bitter tone

Nero opens the door to the van "Why not it funny when you get mad" Alastor said getting into the van. Zach shakes his has and follows his brother into the Van. Abby got in behind Zach and Tera follow suit. Serah took a deep breath and got into the van. All she thinks about is the bad things that could happen to Raven. Serah grabs her necklace and rubs it. Nero got in the passager seat and they seat off.

--Hours before--

Raven walks up to the Gypsy caravan door. She was about to knock when they open the door. "Welcome Raven we've been expecting you for quite some time now." they chuckle.

Raven gulped "You have?" she question

"Oh yes we know that you question who you are" They smile and move to the side to the side to let her in. She went into the caravan and sat on the plush couch. "Now take a sip from this tea" They gave her a cup of tea which she took sips from. " you have a lot of hidden secrets inside you Raven," They said together.

Raven looks at them confused "What do u mean" She took couple more sips from her tea.

"Well for starters you harbor two souls." They chuckle "One is yours and one is someone else's." They look at each other and then back at Raven. "The two souls are starting to come together to form one being."

Raven finishes her tea and set it on the coffee table. One of the sisters grabbed the cup and look at the leaves. "ooh this is some spicy tea" She chuckled "I wonder what he would think of this dear sister" She show her sister the tea leaves.

Raven's Vision start to become blurry. "what was in that tea?" she question as the room started to spin around her.

"oh nothing special." they smile as they Watch Raven trying to stand up. "but there is a mighty fine dollar on you Raven. So they came to us for help" They smiles. Raven reach for her phone to call for help but one of the sisters snatch it away before she could grab it. Raven fell to the floor.

"You sold me?"Raven said angrily as she started to fade in between consciousness.

"Sold is a harsh word but yes. They must find him so you important" Those were the final words Raven heard before she fell unconscious. Two men came in and carried Raven's body away. A nice well dress came in and handed the sister a suitcase of 100 dollars bills.

"Pleasure doing busy with you ladies," He said as he left. Back into a car with tinted black windows.

-hours later-

The group that trying to find Raven arrives at the gypsy sister caravan. Serah and Nero went to the door and went to knock but like before they open up the door before they could. "well well well isn't it Serah the brave knight of Raven." they said mocking her

"you already know why we are here where is my sister," Serah said pushing past the sister into their caravan.

"you just missed her an hour too late," they said turning towards Serah "She wanted an answer that we could not give her just yet so she went on a self-discovery journey" They gave Serah a piece of paper that was a map of sort on where her sister was going. "that should leave you to her. now go on we have other business to attend to the shud Serah out the door closing it and locking it. Both Nero and Serah went back to the van. Alastor ran up to them "Those sisters lie to you."

"What?" Serah said as they came to the van with Zack holding up Raven's supplies bag and phone. "an older gypsy told us that they were paid off by a good dress man." Zack said piss offed.

There were storms of rage in Serah's eyes. AS she spon on her heels and march back to the sister caravan. Nero was about to go after her but Zack stopped him. "She going to get an answer and will karma come to collect," Zack said as Serah punched open the sister's door yelling at them where her sister was.

-an hour later-

Everyone was in the van in silence. Serah still fuming from the gypsy betrayal. Abby was asleep using her brother's lap. She jerked away yelling out Raven's name. Which startled every in the van almost causing Nico to wreck the van.

"What's wrong Abby" Tera was trying to calm her

"I saw Raven she was being swallowed by the darkness she yell for help but I couldn't reach her," Abby said tears streaming down her cheeks.

Serah was mixed with fear and anger. Scared they weren't going make it to Raven in time. Nico and Nero had to make a stop somewhere. Which added another person to the group. {of course, it would not be a DMC fanfiction without} Dante Sparda's climbing into the back with the group which made Abby fan girl from hell. Serah would have if she wasn't so worried about her sister. They got back to driving filling Dante in on what had been happening. Of course, he shooked every one hand but not Serah she was focused on her sister. Once Dante shook Abby's hand she got a vision. Tera was trying to call his sister back and she came back shocked and breathing heavily. "I saw Raven with someone." That made Serah perk up "he had the same hair color as Dante but he was wearing a blue jacket he was shacking asking where someone was."

"well that sounded like my brother," Dante said thinking.

-time skip to the factory-

Nico slams on the brakes jerking everyone in the van. "There is a huge ass creator with a damage Factory in the middle of it."

Serah looks out the window "Let's get out and have a look around and see what we can find."

Every one climbed out and made it down safely into the creator. Dante and Serah were tasked to look into the damaged factory. "so you really care for your sister?" Dante asks Serah

"When I close my eyes I can still hear her scream my name out for help. I can still see the look of her giving up. I can still see her laying on her floor barely moving. I thought she was dead at times. I promised I would protect her whenever we got out of that hell hole. Thanks to the gypsy sister and my friends we all got out we never looked back since then. We were lab rats that know how to kill each other." Serah said looking around.

That hit Dante hard. He had no words to say to Serah after that. They search in silence for clues that Raven was there. They got to this big room with a platform and four pletal stood around it. Serah went onto the platform and dipped her finger in the blood and tasted it. "It's Raven's blood," she told Dante.

"look someone or something was chained over here" he called to her

They hear a gasp for air coming from under the rumble of the ceiling collapse. They started clearing the rumble way to see a barely alive man under the rumble. They got him out and started patching him up.

"they told me I could," the barely alive man said

"what?" Serah said

"Those gypsies told me I could control the beast that lay in the stars."

"you son" Dante had to stop Serah from killing the man

"The beast was too powerful I lost but she shine the brightness and-" the man died before he could finish.

"he was talking about raven I am sure of it," Serah said

Abby came into the room to fetch Dante and Serah. She stopped right on the platform seeing the story of what happened there. Seeing the death the lies and the star. She came back from the vision and ran to Serah. "Raven was here but the person guy who that Dante said must be his Brother took her with him away from a dead beast that was absorbed by Raven."

"She absorbed the best?!?" Serah said

"Yes she did"

-Raven's pov- She awoke in a strange place her head ache. Her body ached and was sore. She lends up in bed looking around the dimly lit room trying to get her bearings. "awake I see" a familiar voice rings out in the room as she looked for the source. Her eyes fell on a person in the corner of the room. "who are you where am I. How did I-" he hold his hand stepping into the light. "You don't remember anything, Raven?"

"How did u-" Raven was cut off again "Lucrecia does that name ring a bell," he asked. Raven's eyes teared up as she covers her mouth. as she remembered what happened. She and Lucrecia had to become one to destroy the monster of the stars. Meaning Lucrecia was gone. "she was your lover Vergil wasn't she?" Raven looked at the man in front of her. He just shook his head yes. "I am sorry I could not save her I-"

Vergil raises his hand "She not gone she is u"

TO BE CONTINUED.....

[lulu2992]

Who wrote Eden’s Gate’s songs?

Of course, the person who actually did is the game’s composer, Dan Romer, but who is supposed to have written them in the Far Cry 5 universe?

A popular assumption (often presented as fact) is that Jacob was the cult’s songwriter. I suppose the rumor started because of this line said by “Cult Security Male 04” (CSM4 for short from now on):

Have you heard anything as heavenly as the music Jacob makes for us?

To my knowledge, this is the only time in the game that someone implies Jacob “makes” music. While it could signify that he composed it, it can also simply mean that he plays it for other people, which is something we know he does when he uses “Only You” and his music box to condition recruits.

The first reason I believe CSM4’s comment was actually about Jacob’s training techniques rather than the cult’s songs is that Resistance NPCs sometimes mention “Jacob’s music” too, but when they do, they say he uses it to train his soldiers and that it messes with people’s brains, which suggests they’re talking about “Only You”.

The other reason is the context of the line. In the game, each line of dialog is triggered in a specific context, and we can know what that context is in the files. Here, the context of CSM4’s line is:

contextual_idle_filler_region_north\Theme\Regional_Resistance\Resistance_Level\Res_Level_3

It means it can be heard anywhere in the Whitetail Mountains region once you reach Resistance Level 3. It’s a generic comment and the character isn’t reacting to the cult’s music specifically.

This matters because NPCs can react to the cult’s songs when they hear them. In this case, the context is:

reflex_singing\Song_Cult_ANY

And when NPCs make comments about the cult’s hymns... no one talks about Jacob being the songwriter. The only person they mention, several times, is Joseph.

Resistance fighters and civilians will say:

Thanks for the earworm, Joseph.

A song for the sheeple, written by Joseph Seed.

Music for the lunatic fringe. Thanks a lot, Joseph. Dickhead.

And cult members will say:

Oh, Joseph's music always puts a smile on my face.

Joseph's songs give me life.

My favorite song. Praise Joseph.

I love Joseph's songs.

Joseph is a gifted songwriter.

This is why I personally believe that the person who wrote (at least some of) the cult’s songs is actually Joseph, not Jacob. In my opinion, the comment about the oldest Seed brother “making” music is most likely a reference to him using it to train people.

It’s also worth mentioning that cultists will sometimes say this in the Henbane River region:

Faith's song and the Bliss is like a match made in heaven.

Faith's lyrics just speak to me on so many levels.

This could mean Faith also wrote a song (most likely “Oh The Bliss” because she frequently hums it), but the lines are generic comments and not reactions to the cult’s hymns, so they could simply be about her singing the song and not necessarily about her being a part of the creative process.

So, in the Far Cry 5 universe, which Seed sibling wrote Eden’s Gate’s songs? Contrary to popular belief, there is no definite proof that Jacob did. Faith might have worked on at least one, and nobody says John has ever written music. However, NPCs clearly say that Joseph wrote several (if not all) of the cult’s hymns.

And, according to “Cult Follower Female 04”, the Father does more than just compose songs…

You haven't lived until you've heard Joseph sing this live.

…he performs them to his congregation, too!

[ultraintrovertedgryffindor]

Trauma Nightmares - Ben Miller (Escape Room)

I believe I will be at least one of the first people to make an x reader for this character, which is like, unacceptable. Ben is a cinnamon roll and deserves more love. Get👏🏻with👏🏻the👏🏻program👏🏻sheeple

! ! ! Spoilers for the Escape Room movies ! ! !

~~~~~~~~~~

(my gif)

You awoke to the sound of whimpering.

At first, your thoughts immediately went to your dog, maybe he needed to go out? But as you gained more consciousness, you realized it wasn't your dog at all.

You looked over to see your boyfriend's sleeping form in the dark, but you quickly noticed that something was wrong.

You quickly turned on your bedside lamp, illuminating Ben's face to show you his face contorted in a fearful expression, his eyes shut tightly and his fists clenching. He was whimpering and whispering words that only sounded muffled to you.

He was having another nightmare.

As soon as you saw tears streaming down his face, you gently shook him. "Ben." You said as softly as possible, caressing his face. He woke with a jolt, grabbing you by your shoulders tightly, wildly looking around the room in a panic. "Hey, it's okay. It's okay."

Ben was still tense, but his panicked look calmed when his eyes finally landed on your concerned face. He slowly released the vice grip he had on your shoulders. The tension finally being released made you want to wince, but you stayed quiet because you knew he'd feel awful about hurting you, even unintentionally.

Ben frantically ran his fingers through his tangled hair, exhaling a loud shuddering breath.

You took hold of his hand, bringing it up to place a kiss on his knuckles. "It was just a dream."

Ben frowned, "Yeah..."

It was more than just a dream. It was a memory that was even more fucked up being replicated by his subconscious every time he closed his eyes. There were nights where it wasn't so bad, but it was almost always the same...

Ben was in a large room, every inch decorated in a way that would make you think you were in a rich person's mansion. The walls covered with ornate looking wallpaper, the burning fireplace giving the gold patterns a reflective shine. It felt cramped, fancy furniture filling the room that emitted an old, sweet musk that permeated his nostrils. It might've been a cool place to hang out in, if only he wasn't trying to fight for his life.

The walls were closing in as Ben's mental timer counted down, only seconds away from getting crushed to death along with all the expensive looking and fragile furniture, pieces of splintering wood getting lodged in his skin and shards of glass from the chandelier quickly slicing flesh and making him bleed a bright red.

Ben thought he had gotten all the clues, he could've sworn the code for the door was correct. But the walls didn't stop pushing further and further in. The doors wouldn't open. There was no escape. He could never escape...

But he did. He did escape that wretched Minos building and he was here with you, the sweet scent of your freshly washed hair relaxed him more than you could ever know. Just you sitting with him was enough most of the time, he appreciated you so much.

Ben allowed his eyes to close when he felt your soft skin against his, gently running your thumb across his knuckles. Sometimes he wondered if you were an actual angel sent down to help him overcome his PTSD, it felt like it in moments like these.

"Do you want to talk about it?" You voiced softly.

Ben slightly shook his head. "It's the same as always. There would be no point."

You noticed the sweat stains on his shirt and came up with an idea. "How about I run you a hot bath?"

Ben looked at you. "Why?"

You offered a small smile. "It'll help soothe you." And without another word, you pushed your duvet off and stood on the cool carpet, walking to the joint bathroom without waiting for an answer from Ben.

You turned the valve almost all the way to the left, got water soon flowing out of the faucet and quickly filling up the tub. You stepped back into the room to see Ben blankly staring off into space, most likely thinking about his dream over and over again like he usually does.

You didn't understand what he was going through, because you were never in that type of situation. You were never trapped in those escape rooms, and you hoped you never would. The way Ben described it to you, you wouldn't wish it on your worst enemy. You wished you knew exactly what he needed, but alas, you weren't a psychologist and you felt helpless when it came to his nightmares/flashbacks. But you did research soothing techniques for people with PTSD, and it helped some.

Whenever Ben had a horrible nightmare and couldn't escape his own head, he'd allow you to take the lead and you'd try your best to help calm his mind. And tonight, it was a hot bath.

You lead Ben into the bathroom like a toddler, gently undressing him and slowly easing him down to sit in the tub. You smiled softly when you heard him let out a sigh, the hot water feeling like heaven against his skin. But he didn't have to say anything to let you know he wanted you to sit with him, his big green puppy dog eyes were practically begging you.

You quickly undressed, not as gracefully as you undressed Ben, but you soon placed yourself to sit behind him. You wrapped your arms around his torso, and he instinctually relaxed against you, your warm skin proving to be more soothing than the hot water that engulfed the two of you.

You soon entangled your fingers in Ben's long, blonde locks, gently working out the knots from his bedhead and massaging his scalp. You smiled softly when you heard him let out a whiny sigh, feeling the muscles in his back finally untensing in your embrace.

"I hate these fuckin' goddamn nightmares..." Ben voiced.

"I know." You frowned, giving a soft kiss to his shoulder. "I know...I wish I could do more to help you."

Ben turned his head to look at you. "Hey..." He brought his hand up to caress your cheek. "Just being here, with me, is more than enough. I honestly don't think I'd be able to keep my sanity if it weren't for you."

You gently shook your head. "You're strong, Ben. You would be okay."

Ben frowned, turning his head back to stare forward. "I'm not as strong as you think I am."

"You are strong. I wouldn't even survive the stress of a situation like that."

"You'd never know until you were in that place. That was the whole point of that goddamn murder maze. Seeing what someone is capable of when their life is on the line." He huffed, tensing once again at the thought of being back at Minos.

You hugged him tighter, laying your head on his shoulder. "You won't have to deal with that evil place ever again, okay? You're safe now."

Ben chuckled bitterly. "Zoey wants me to fly to Manhattan with her, to try and take down Minos. I don't the universe has much safety in store for me any time soon."

"Ben, I thought we talked about this. You don't have to feel obligated to go with Zoey when you want to move on. It's not your fault if she's still stuck there."

"She saved my life. I owe her everything."

You sighed, you knew you couldn't talk him out of it. Now, life debts, you could understand well enough. Zoey was a sweet girl, a bit intense, but for a good reason. If Ben was going to help her take down Minos, you wanted to help too.

"I'm going with you."

Ben's eyes widened, quickly shaking his head, turning around in the tub to face you. "No. No, you can't. It's too dangerous. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something happened to you."

"And I wouldn't be able to live with myself if something bad happened to you. If you're going, I'm going too, and you can't talk me out of it."

"Y/n..."

"I love you, Ben. And I'll be damned if I don't do anything I can to help you." You finally snapped.

Ben blushed, his lip trembling slightly as tears built up his in eyes once again. "I don't want you to go through what I had to. Minos is run by psychopaths and they'll do anything to people for money. I just want you to be safe, at any cost...I've never felt that way about someone before..."

You smiled softly, leaning towards him and placing your hands on his cheeks before fully connecting your lips with his. "As long as we're together," You started once you pulled away, "I believe we'll be okay."

Ben finally nodded, enveloping you in a tight hug and releasing a shaky sigh. "I hope so..."

~~~~~~~~~~

Ben is my boy, he is very precious so me😊

[volturialice]

so i saw a post on tumblr a few days ago about how jasper would handle the loving a human situation so much worse than edward. because, you know, we are talking about jasper-vampirey-totally-traumatized-ex-war-machine-and-an-empath. and i've been thinking about the vampire jasper x human alice thing. considering that, for any reason, he doesn't want/won't kill her, how do you think it would proceed?

I’d be interested to read that post! I actually disagree that he would handle things "worse" than edward, although that's a low bar. I think there are a couple key factors at work with vampire jasper/human alice.

[longass meta under the cut]

1) jasper's terrible control

let's face it, this dude cannot stop snackin on human blood. there's no such thing as cute one-on-one meadow time with him—if you're a delicious blood-filled human and you go into the woods alone with jasper, you ain't coming out alive. and if you're his singer? forget it, you're dead the second you walk over the threshold and so is the rest of your biology class.

there was always some suspension of disbelief involved in buying into the idea that edward was able to get near enough to kiss bella etc in the first place. smeyer tried to have her cake and eat it too with the whole "I could snap and kill you at any second...but let's make out" stuff. she justifies it in-universe by first giving edward Super Control and then having him claim he's simply incapable of hurting bella now after the whole believing she's dead thing in NM, and therefore his Super Control is even better. but ngl, that second part always struck me as pretty lazy writing (“the Power of Love did it!”)

so when people write vamp jasper/human alice, that's something to take into consideration. I personally think the best way to solve jasper's control issues is to make human!alice's blood smell actively bad to him, either because of medication she's on or for some supernatural reason (a reverse-singer? why not.) I went with option A in Perihelion, because it's easy to put Crazy Asylum Girl™ on some good ol' fashioned Brain Drugs.

and even then, I think jasper would still struggle a lot with control. there would be close calls. there would be times he insisted on having conversations in public, or not getting too physical too fast. times he would irish goodbye mid-makeout in order to go drain fifteen deer. from a narrative standpoint, it's a very fun conflict with a lot of potential for drama and comedy.

(especially since alice has far less patience than bella and is constantly trying to speed things up and skip ahead in her relationships lmao)

2) jasper's attitude toward humans

like you said with the traumatized war machine thing, he's much further removed from human experience than edward, who is actively trying to reclaim his humanity at every turn. jasper doesn’t see being human as a morally superior or aspirational state. he was conditioned for 80 years to devalue any life, and to view humans as Food, Not Friends. we get a glimpse in MS of the way he still struggles with that. so to suddenly be in love with someone whose humanity you struggle to recognize would lead to some wild cognitive dissonance. he might end up taking the same She's Not Like Other Humans view as edward.

he’s also a far less...teenage-y character than edward (bella in book 1: “the two older guys looked like they could be teachers”) who is used to adult levels of responsibility and agency, so that’s another big obstacle to falling in love with a human high school kid.

I think the one respect in which jasper and edward react the same is their horror at falling in love with a human, albeit for different reasons (edward: oh god, I'm a monster stealing this pure angel's future and putting her in danger!) (jasper: oh god, I'm attracted to my food source! a puny adolescent mayfly! what is wrong with me?) a pre-alice jasper has zero romantic ideas about One True Loves or whatever (consider how his last relationship went), so it would take him longer to come around to the idea that it's even worth it to try dating a human.

what I take away from this whole thing is that alice would definitely have to be the pursuer, at least at the start of the relationship. jasper’s not gonna go out of his way to get to know her, which is usually step 1 of falling in love. sure, her gift might intrigue him, but she’s the one who would have to go the extra mile to communicate with him. he’s giving her nothing.

3) jasper’s attitude toward vampirism

this one is really the kicker for me, because, as I touched on above, jasper sees nothing special or remotely useful about being human. to him, being a vampire is everything—it makes you safe, it makes you powerful, it makes you live forever. souls? souls are a fake thing the Church came up with to frighten the sheeple into compliance. humans have nothing to lose and everything to gain from becoming vampires.

so accordingly, once he accepted that he was in love with human!alice, jasper would want that girl bitten asap. every second she stays human is a second she’s in danger. another thing jasper has in common with edward is paranoia and overprotectiveness, which in his case is even more justified due to his violent background. the difference is that jasper is extremely practical and solution-oriented, and the obvious solution is “turn alice into a vampire,” not “hide in her bedroom and kill every spider.”

this can lead to its own interesting conflicts, of course. maybe human!alice doesn’t want to be a vampire, or isn’t ready, or lives under the thumb of abusive parents. maybe she gets institutionalized and goes missing. she’s vain enough that maybe she refuses to be changed until her bad haircut grows out, or she gets the chance to be drunk in las vegas at least once, or she gets just a little taller (“pleeeease I know I’m totally gonna hit five feet if we just wait one more year!”) jasper usually respects her agency, but this is one situation in which I can see him way overstepping and going so far as to change her without her consent (though he would probably need to enlist help from someone other than carlisle.)

in conclusion

so is jasper “worse” at dating a human? maybe, but he also doesn’t let her stay human for long, which in my book means he’s already handling things waaaaayyyy better than edward. there are no weird marriage ultimatums or “let’s try to have sex while i’m still human” bargains with jasper. no ghosting for six months and leaving alice unprotected. no soul-related arguments whatsoever.

how I think things would proceed

I mean, it totally depends on all the other factors I listed! I know that feels like a cop-out answer, but there are sooo many ways to execute vampire!jasper/human!alice (or vice versa, though that’s a somewhat different ball game.) for a long time I avoided writing the dynamic myself because it felt like other people had done it better, but then I completely caved and ended up with Perihelion. that story is definitely on the back burner, but any time I’m inspired and think of some specific thing I think would happen with vamp!jasper/human!alice, that’s where I’m gonna put it!

[thegeminisage]

some SERIOUS flea market drama under this cut, lemme tell u. don’t r*blog or i’ll kill you. warnings for isms, mostly racism

my mom & i are in the secondhand business & we go to a bunch of different places to sell

in one place, an outdoor place, we share a small storage building with a friend of ours named bert and another guy i hate named barry (not real names). bonus of the storage building: out of the weather, don’t have to pack & unpack on selling days. bummer of the storage building: more money per month, hence needing to split it between multiple people

so this guy barry is a huge asshole. he hates animals, he’s racist, he’s homophobic, he votes trump, he’s anti gun control, etc etc etc

one time my mom told me this dude made an AUDIBLE NOISE OF DISGUST when an interracial couple walked by with their baby and got started running his mouth after they left about how horrible that was. and i’m like, “mom, how can you be friends with someone like that? he’s a terrible person, how can you stand to be around him?” and her answer was a shrug and a “well, he’s always nice to us. people believe what they wanna believe and i don’t judge anybody on anything you know you have pink hair but i don’t judge you for that even though i wouldn’t dye my hair pink” and i’m like “mom we are not talking about hair color preferences we are talking about living human beings” but it didn’t really...sink in

well apparently this asshole barry is also an atheist. so when he & other vendors are shooting the shit & he asks how they are & they say something like “well the good lord woke me up this morning so i can’t complain” HE’S been going off on tirades about how he doesn’t believe in god

people have stopped coming to our booth in that location. 

like, they just don’t fucking want to talk to him, and they also don’t want to give their money to an atheist

so now we’re stuck. do we kick him out? he works with us in a bunch of other locations cause the flea market community be like that so it would make tons of waves because we’d literally see him EVERYWHERE & this is part of our livelihood. do we just let him keep doing his thing and let his badmouthing keep ruining our business? we almost don’t make our share of the rent for that building some months as it is. are we just gonna pull out and let him be bert’s problem? bert says my mom’s the one who needs to talk to him because barry’s “her friend” but she, in anguish, said earlier tonight: “he’s not my friend he’s just a BUSINESS PARTNER”

here’s the thing tho. he had all the red flags. racist, homophobic, pro-gun, gets angry if someone even wears a shirt with a picture of a dog on it around him...all of those were acceptable both to my mother & the other people in this location. mom was happy enough to call him her friend when he let her use his pickup once in awhile & it didn’t matter if he was racist, even if he was a loud asshole about it

but now that he’s being a loud asshole about not believing in god, THIS is where we draw the line. this is where he’s getting blackballed. and everyone is SO SHOCKED that he’s being SUCH AN ASSHOLE but COME ON - he was being an asshole all along! the signs were there! everyone just thought he was exactly the same kind of asshole they were

like i’m sympathetic to my mother because i love her but...this. is what. we get.

like obviously if you’re on tumblr you already know this but the point i guess is that when you excuse things like racism and you tell yourself thats ok because that hatred and ignorance and lack of empathy isn’t aimed at YOU...no!!! that stuff is IN this guy’s heart. now it’s aimed at everyone and now you have to deal with it but you WOULDN’T have to if you had decided from the start that racism was unacceptable and the place to draw the line. being selfish and not caring about other people (”he’s nice to me, who cares about his ~beliefs”) is ALWAYS going to fuck you over!

the terrible irony in all of this is that most atheists* aren’t assholes and aren’t hurting anybody whereas racists have quite a long history of doing terrible harm to other people...but in this god-fearing community, only one of these ideas is bad enough to get someone ex-communicated, and it’s the one that comes with a big side-helping of “historically includes genocidal maniacs”

this is why i can’t with religion, especially religion around here. it’s too much like a cult. someone who actually followed the teachings of god as i know them would abhor racism and lack of empathy towards other human beings. but people around here don’t abhor those things, they EMBODY those things. even if i did believe in god** i would never ever set foot in a church. ironically, i think churches are where the devil’s work is done

and anyway that’s why i hate south carolina, thank you & goodnight

*there are stereotypical atheists who won’t shut up about how morally superior they are and how smart they are by not being “fooled into being one of those dumb sheeple tricked by Big Religion” or whatever (barry is one of those) and they’re assholes! just like those vegans who call all non-vegans animals murderers! but like those people aside obviously

**technically i’m “strong agnostic” which means “i REALLY don’t think there’s a god but i COULD MAYBE POSSIBLY be wrong but seriously i don’t think i’m wrong” but it’s easier to say atheist because in my heart i believe that if i AM wrong and there IS a god then he must truly hate us and that’s why tr*mp is president and the ice caps are melting and frankly it’s more comforting to believe in a godless chaotic universe

[kendrixtermina]

SU’s true villain

Despite its cute, feelsy and  magicky aesthetic, SU  actually strikes me as very smart Sci Fi at times - 

The aliens are kinda humanoid but also really aren’t in a lot of ways, it’s the first time I’ve seen a disparity between their biology and the society built around it much like we have, at one point Steven happens upon a war crime scene but because h’s used to human stuff doesn’t realize what it is whilst Garnet is reacting with visceral horror etc. 

Like the common belief among the “crit” community seems to be that the show is naive and bit off more than it could chew, but that’s not it at all.

Actually I feels its doing something very intellectual, sophisticated and ambitious that I’ve never seen another show do to this extent - The true villain of Steven universe is the system.

Much of Sci-Fi and Punk is very system-critical, but usually the way it goes about it is either to still use a personal villain who can be beaten and conflicted wth to embody society - or, “society is to blame” just gets thrown out as the final aesop for the viewers, an observation why the personal villain was tragic - it feels like this greater scope background thing that isn’t gonna change anytime soon. 

But Steven Universe? Actually shows the changing of a system with all its components. He’s been fighting the system from day one, first by growing up from a child that is barely aware of it to being in a position to understand it, by helping the CGs deprogram themselves from its influence and heal from the losses of the war, by winning others to his side and helping gems like the off-colors to unify, and now a logical step is to try & get some of the leaders on his side

That’s also why I do’t think that White diamond will finally get the “This one is definitely unredeemably awful” treatment - but she’ll be a harder nut to crack since she probably created the system and believes it is necessary (unlike Yellow and Blue who were just raised with it)

Beating a personal enemy is very cathartic, but it’s not really how the world works. Take away George Bush, and the far right nuts still continued to get worse.  Also IRL you don’t always get that catharsis either because people get away with shit, or because they’re so narcicistic they’ll always twist the facts so your to blame and they arent

No, things won’t be solved by killing one person and certainly not by mudering everybody who disagrees

In the real world you need to live with your enemies after the war, unless you plan on killing them all, and then the question is less “What do these bastards deserve” but what will create a stable society so all your gains actually last and solidify. It’s not that “you will be as bad as them who opressed you”, it’s that you’re doing this to build a better world and your actions impact what it’s going to be like. 

Rome wasn’t built in a day but it burned down in a single night - civilization is fragile and it takes time and work to restore. The controlled, deliberate change of reform always beats the chaos of revolution with the associated risk of even worse rulers taking over..

Like watch some ted talks guys, the power of friendship changing evil people is totally legit, and pointing that out through someone willing to give time to that because thats how they chose to help fix the world do that is NOT the same as telling you people who wronged you are owed your time and attention. 

I mean due to his mom, Steven’s approaching the Diamonds from an in-group perspective, so that’s more like a younger, woke-er person talking sense into their older relatives who didn’t really quuestion society before. 

A lot of your classical sheeple are all about appearance, so being looked down at by their peers can make them fall in line. 

[shrapnelstars]

I finally sat down to watch this.

I think that when people use the term "genuine", they don't mean "the real person", exactly. I think they mean that they appreciate a host who is not exacting psychological warfare on them and trying to make them feel bad about themselves, or tries to lay out a case for the viewer being a bad or foolish person for engaging with them on inevitable terms.

If I call you a loser for walking on floors and try to make you feel bad for doing so, that's not a valid argument, because you have no choice but to walk on floors, and you cannot fly. Those are universal rules.

That's something that I hate about these types of comedians, youtubers of that caliber, and even certain games that try to claim moral or ethical victory over the viewer by manipulating them into an unwinnable situation, or one where the only winning move is not to play.

"Hah! You fell for my character! Don't you look stupid?" I can only go by what you show me. I am not psychic, and cannot know what you hide from me. I go about my life in peace by not assuming that people are hiding things from me or pretending to be someone that they are not. To do so would be pure paranoia, which is a tortured way to live. Are you then implying that my only choices are to be an "idiot" or to be perpetually paranoid? Then you are the fool, and that gives me a small peek into the morose life and mindset you must lead.

That kind of reminds me of the cope youtubers come up with when their audience turns on them for doing something shitty. "I'm putting up a persona that's an exaggerated version of me! It's not the REAL me! You need to learn the difference between a played up personality and a real person!" Audiences only know what you show them. If you've shown them a reasonable, level-headed person this whole time, and then you do something shit, they're going to assume you're a shitty person who was pretending to be nice for views. You can't pull "I was doing a character the whole time" out of your ass as a saving throw. It only makes you look worse. Because now, not only do you look like you've been manipulating people the whole time, you are also attacking the viewer for not living on the edge of insanity and assuming everything they see is a 6-layer deep illusion.

It is pretty universally understood that you will never know the entirety of a person's heart. People are fine with that. The types of "entertainers" who think they're being clever and deep by exploiting the concept of identity and reasonably understood pattern recognition of human behaviors only reveal how discontented and maladjusted they are compared to others.

And no, I'm not talking about neurodivergency and the inability to process certain behaviors that most people exhibit. (I have ADHD and struggle quite a bit with navigating conversations myself.) I'm specifically talking about the edgy bullshit I mentioned above, where someone acts one way, the person they're acting toward assumes they are the way they acted, and then the actor laughs at how the observer "foolishly fell for their grand manipulation scheme! Oh, the feebleness of the sheeple mind!" And when you take a step back and listen to what that acting person said and how they behaved, you get a clearer picture of them than they could have ever hoped to get of you.

You are always going to leave an aspect of your true self with someone when you have an interaction. You can never hide the entirety of yourself. By making the attempt, you have given the information that you prefer to keep yourself private. That's still a true bit of information about you. Some people engage often enough with others and leave enough of these pieces behind, that the person they left these pieces with can start to form a full picture with them. It may have chunks missing, but they will eventually be able to form a coherent picture. That's just how being human works. They can form an incorrect picture, and it's your choice on whether or not you want to correct it, but a picture will be formed.

You cannot stop a picture from being formed. You can only influence the form it takes.

(For Nathan specifically, I don't fully get the sense that he's trying to be an edgy fuck. He seems slightly more inquisitive than mean-spirited. But what I said still applies.)

[aglitchinemotion]

Tagging: YOU. Wait, no, sorry. I thought you were someone else. Tagged By: Nobody. I have sticky fingers and zero shame.

Rules: Answer the questions in a new post and tag some people you’d like to know better.

A - Age: 26, or very soon to be, despite how CERTAIN PEOPLE insist I’m actually around twelve.  B - Birthplace: Ontario, Canada or from the weird dredge puddle at the bottom of a glass of chocolate milk. Take your pick. C - Current Time: 4:09 PM. Gotta go to work soon. May have to finish this later. D - Drink you last had: Water. Girl’s gotta stay hydrated, ya know? E - Easiest person to talk to: My best friend, my boyfriend, my sister. F - Favorite Song: There’s no one favourite, but lately I’ve been weirdly into songs I remember from the late 90′s early 2000′s, when I was growing up. I’M JUST A TEENAGE DIRTBAG, BABY. G - Grossest Memory: I work in a career that is sometimes inherently gross, so not too much phases me. That said, post-bean-consumption dumps are the worst to clean up after. God, the smell. H - Horror yes, or horror no?: Yesss! I love horror let’s plays and scary stories and creepypastas. I’m a complete sissy for jumpscares and stuff, though, so I don’t play scary games or watch scary movies myself. Look, I jump when the toaster pops. Even after promising myself I won’t. I - In love: Yes, despite the ENDLESS FUCKING TROLLERY. J - Jealous of people: Sometimes? I’m sure I am occasionally, but I couldn’t tell you when, to be honest.  K - Missing: Honest to god roleplay, like just a back-and-forth four-hour-long session with a friend, y’know? I haven’t done one in ages and it can be so much goddamn fun. I guess I’m nostalgic because I’ve been rereading a lot of old skype roleplays. L - Love at first sight or should I walk by again?: No such thing, if you ask me. Infatuation at first sight, sure. But not love. As a wise robot once said, ‘Love is needy. Love is greedy.’ M - Middle name: Leigh. My full name kinda rhymes. N - Number of siblings: Older sister, younger brother, with me stuck in the middle.  O - One wish: ENERGY. Not anxious energy, but the kind that gets shit like tidying up the apartment done. P - Last number you called: Not sure, probably my parents or my sister. I was texting with my sister, if that counts. We were insulting each other over who was prettier.��‘NO, YOU’RE PRETTIER, YOU STUPID GORGEOUS PIECE OF SHIT.’  Q - Question you were always asked: ’Why do you rock like that?’ One, because it’s a weird comfort thing and I’ve done it since I was little and most people do something similar, just less obvious. Two, I just rock, motherfucker. R - Reasons to smile: Something heartwarming, like when my kitty does that stupid adorable flop onto his back and sticks his arms straight in the air. S - Song You Last Sang: Probably ‘Love Like You’ from Steven Universe. I like that song. WAIT, no, I sang the lyrics to Teenage Dirtbag while writing ‘em down. T - Time You Woke Up: About 10 am - would have slept longer or gone back to bed to nap, but I work today. U - Underwear Color: Lame-ass pastel colours, probably, or some cutesy design. I don’t pay attention. V - Vacation Destination: Part of me very much wants to do ‘real’ travel, like go see my best friend in the Netherlands IF SHE WAS GAME OF COURSE (BUTTPLUG GNOME) or go see my boyfriend in the States. However, part of me also just wants to go somewhere warm and luxurious for a week of all-inclusive hedonism.  W - Worst habit: Picking at my skin, usually. I hate weird little marks and hairs and stuff. I’m also a nail-biter.  X - X-rays?: I once got an X-ray of my head to see my wisdom teeth, but forgot to take off my glasses for it. Hence my X-ray pictures were just a row of glowing teeth and glasses above them. I am the spoopiest. Y - Your favorite food: All that shit that’s real bad for you - poutine, wings, pizza. I love roast chicken, too. Omnom. Z - Zodiac Sign: Aquarius. TITANTIC WAS AN INSIDE JOB. MY MONEY’S ON ROSE. WHY? COS SHE A THOT. WAKE UP, SHEEPLE!

Originally posted by laweyd

[feeshies]

snowflakes, mittens, hail, frost! for you

aaa

snowflakes - what’s your least favourite genre of books or movies?

“let me tell you about my novel/screenplay/etc.  it’s a deconstruction of hollywood.  okay it’s about a guy and he’s not like other sheeple because he’s an artist(tm).  but here’s the thing he...has writer’s block!  tragic!  so he has sex!  lots of sex, but he’s sad about it so it’s art.  he has lots of sad sex but he still can’t write.  because he’s waiting for his muse.  but then he finds her--some chick with some colorful shit in her hair.  but she has a mean boyfriend already :(.  so i have more sad sex and i walk along train tracks with my hoodie up and my hands in my pockets.  then my muse dies and i cry at the cvs we had our meet-cute at.  but it’s okay because i write my book about her and my writer’s block is cured.  if only i could have sad sex with her.  it’s a deconstruction.”

i...i have memories from writer’s workshops.

mittens - describe one of the most selfless things someone has done for you.

basically, anyone who has ever talked to me on here ever.  like...you don’t have to do that.  no one has to leave comments on my art.  no one has to send me a message to check in.  i’m still flabbergasted that people actually take the time to do that for me.  i know i’m bad at responding, but it means a lot.

hail - if you could live in any video game universe, which would you choose?

i’m still figuring out the rules for this one, lol

frost - which historical figure fascinates you, and why?

my mind is still dumb, but my great grandfather was a freedom fighter who was briefly exiled from his own country.  i want to learn more about his life, but most of the resources about him aren’t in english (wikipedia’s english article was sloppily translated so there’s a lot wrong).

[redvalravn]

Victoria: A Novel of 4th Generation War - Chapter Two: Hamburger University

When President Eisenhower of the old USA visited Dartmouth in the 1950s, he said it looked exactly the way a college ought to…those were the days when art was defined as whatever was ugly or shocking or out of place, rather than what was beautiful.

Art is supposed to be expressive, not just beautiful. The best art might highlight ugliness or use it to say something profound. William Lind strikes me as someone who has awful taste in art.

Professor Sanft had retired from the German department in 2012. He was driven out by the weirdos who then populated college faculties –the feminists, freaks, and phonies who had replaced learning with politics. I found him at a house in Hanover, which turned out to be not his residence but the college-in-hiding, otherwise known as the Martin Institute. It seemed some conservative alumni, recognizing that the barbarians were within the gates of their alma mater, had bought a house in town, brought in Professor Sanft and a few other genuine scholars, and were offering Dartmouth students the courses the college would no longer teach, like the great books of Western civilization.

Sounds cult-y.

The philosophy he teaches the author’s Mary Sue is a good indicator of why he was unpopular and makes one sympathetic to the feminists, freaks, and phonies. 

The Professor asks Mary Sue what he thinks an education is. It’s not getting a degree, that’s just credentialing. It may help you get a job, but real education leads you out beyond where you are, in terms of your understanding of life, the universe, and everything. He says that without the songs and stories of our Western culture, we are impoverished, Luftmenschen—German for “airheads.”

Our Western culture. Meaning white, male, Protestant Christian culture.

Mary Sue loves history, especially military history. Guess what William Lind has a Master’s degree in?

“In the Marine Corps,” I said, “I saw that people who hadn’t read much military history could only follow processes, which they learned by rote. They could not understand the situation they were in. They had no context.”

“That’s an insight most Dartmouth students don’t have,” said the professor. “And it is what I’m talking about, on a larger scale. Just as your fellow Marines could not understand a military situation, so you can’t understand your situation in the war for our culture. Literally, you can’t see your place—situ—in it.”

Mary Sue is soooo much smarter than the other Dartmouth sheeple.

For a guy who loves military history, he sure tends to insult the US Marines often.

It’s really weird that in the time this scene takes place, in 2016, after Black Lives Matter got started, LGBTQ marriage was nationally legalized, and Donald Trump’s candidacy brought the urban vs. rural culture clash into the public spotlight, Mary Sue has no clue about the concept of a culture war. Granted, this was published in 2014, but political correctness has been around a lot longer than that.

Chick Tracts frequently start this way. The protagonist is put in a monumentally exaggerated situation that wouldn’t happen in reality, and then is completely ignorant of the world around him so the Christian/Alt-right Obi-Wan can impart their propaganda.

Professor Sanft says Western culture is under attack, and that the universities, entertainment industry, and many politicians are “active and conscious agents in its destruction.” Code-words such as racism, sexism, and homophobia are the sounds of the worms gnawing at the foundation. So if you call someone out on their racism, sexism, or homophobia, you’re actively and consciously destroying Western culture. That’s nice.

The Professor gives Mary Sue a book to read called Smiling Through the Cultural Catastrophe, and tells him to watch a video documentary on the Frankfurt school on TraditionalRight.com.    

What a surprise, both these things are real. Cultural Catastrophe’s synopsis seems academic enough and not quite like an obvious alt-right shill as this book’s synopsis did, though it’s probably just more subtle. TraditionalRight.com is William Lind’s own site, with his own blog. You can guess the content. There’s one interesting post where he advocates that the hard-leftist cities in culturally traditional states such as Portland should secede from their states and become free cities. He does say that Donald Trump “is rapidly being relegated to the role of the crazy uncle who lives in the attic.” So at least we agree on one thing.

Mary Sue asks about the Frankfurt school, “Is that McDonald’s Hamburger University?”

Pfffft. I’m not sure if that was meant to be a serious question on his part. It’s definitely the book’s attempt at humor.  

In an article for the Southern Poverty Law Center, Bill Berkowitz describes Lind as a key proponent and popularizer of the Frankfurt School conspiracy theory--a theory which alleges that a cabal of Jewish-German philosophers have seized control over American culture and have been using that control to systematically subvert American values. Because the supposed architects of the putative Frankfurt School plot are Jewish, and because many proponents of the theory emphasize the supposed conspirators' Judaism or even blame Judaism for the conspiracy, Berkowitz and the SPLC characterize the Frankfurt School conspiracy theory as anti-Semitic.

“Political correctness” in the author’s, and Professor Sanft’s, worldview, is a Marxist conspiracy created by Jews.

Of COURSEEEEEEE this guy is German. There’s no description of him (or of anyone, anywhere), but I imagine he looks like this.

[howtolivealifelessordinary]

Egypt Day 13/14- Dahab, Mt Sinai

The day started off relaxed and non-committal with a leisure breakfast. We started planning the days itinerary and we were all keen on stand-up paddle boarding so Ramy made the arrangements. Our group had dwindled significantly and we were down to only 8 ladies so we decided to only rent 4 and do a half hour each. I’ve paddle boarded before so I just got up and went to get out on the water to practice head stands and balancing poses. I thoroughly enjoyed it and when I was all finished, retired to the roof to take pictures of the other ladies. We all had a great time and when we were finished, Ramy offered to take us to “the caves”. “The caves” is a small village outside of Dahab, their own little niche. It’s full of palm tied beach cabanas and pillows overlooking the ocean from a rocky cliff. It’s just as clean as Dahab but there was hardly anyone there. We hung out and rowed a boat, swam in the cool sea, and ate a large feast of rice, dips, and fresh fish. It was all pretty phenomenal until I got a heart breaking message from home. I won’t go into the details but it completely changed my mood and demeanor and I withdrew entirely. Some of my friends noticed and asked but I just silently shook my head and cried to myself. After our meal, we were all relaxing and soaking up the sun but I couldn’t be present. My heart and my mind were in so many directions, all I could do was quietly cry and look out to the water, wishing I didn’t exist. When we finally left we headed back towards the hotel where some of the ladies took a nap. Our itinerary was a little different this time as we had to leave at 10:30 p.m. to take a bus to Mt Sinai so we could hike it and catch the sunrise. A couple more ladies would be departing early the next morning so we all got together for dinner one last time. We ate, laughed, and enjoyed each other’s company and we all pitched in to contribute to a gratuity for Ramy. When the time came, we loaded onto the bus and headed off being promised a snack stop before we arrived so we would have some food for the hike. The driver never stopped even though he assured us, a few times, 5 more minutes. It took two hours to drive there and when we arrived we were greeted by the usual heckling salesmen. They tried to sell us flashlights and ponchos but I’m a seasoned hiker and assured them we didn’t need any of it and they eventually left us alone. The air was cool and crisp and the stars and moon were bright, so bright that, GASP!, we didn’t need flashlights! The hike by moonlight felt much more genuine and I thought, perhaps, I’d finally have some time for quiet contemplation. That was until I looked up and saw the line of flashlights ambling along and being obnoxiously loud in the distance. My frustrations were confirmed when we quickly gained on the group and had to maneuver through them while they stumbled and struggled along. My annoyance grew when I looked at them all closer. Everyone was wearing brand new head lamps and brand new carbon fiber walking sticks. These are the types of people that go out and buy all the right “gear” for their “adventurous” excursion when in actuality, no amount of equipment could compensate for their lack of athleticism and knowledge on nature and survival. If the zombie apocalypse happened, this group would be the first to be eaten. I quickly maneuvered ahead of them and their unnecessary noise and light and put as much distance between myself and those technological imbeciles as I could without completely leaving my group. When I looked back, I couldn’t help but think that those bobbing lights were everything that’s wrong with humanity. Here they were completely detached from nature and themselves with their artificial lights and cell phones shining their flashlights at the stars hoping to get a picture to prove to their loved ones they’re adventurous. When in reality, the stars are dim and non-magical through that LED screen and the artificial light only dims their natural brilliance and no matter how many snapchats and face-times they captured they were still missing the point of it all-to be present, take it in, and appreciate it all. These are the same types of people that leave plastic bottles on hiking trails and broken glass for “nature to take care of”. The same types of people I constantly clean up after on my hikes in my attempt to “take care of nature”. It’s hard to set aside my animosity and it didn’t help my already somber mood. I eventually kept hiking at my own pace and had to stop frequently for the rest of my group to catch up and catch their breath. Most people aren’t used to exerting so much while gaining altitude but I was in my element. I didn’t mind waiting for my gals, they were silently appreciating the stars and moonlight and I was happy to let them take their time to adjust and enjoy the beauty. I found the climb to be really easy and was able to keep my breath as long as I wasn’t sobbing. But everytime I looked up my heart ached and I just wanted to be anywhere out there. Anywhere but on this planet. I kept having to look down to force myself to be present and dry my eyes but the stars made me cry everytime sending all my hope, love, and prayers to the universe for guidance and acceptance for some kind of break from the heartaches of life. I found no solace but one shooting star that I wished for all the love and happiness in the world for one really great and wonderful man. Along the way are little stop shops where you can purchase snacks and drinks. I had no interest but I utilized them as stopping points for the others to catch up. The last stretch of trail are steps that lead to the summit and I was happy to finally get a workout in. We arrived shortly after 4 AM and had an hour to wait for the sunrise, so we posted up in a little corner and huddled together for warmth. My roomie, Nicole/ Miss Melbourne, was especially hilarious in her slap-happy and tired state. I was really happy to have her near me because her quirky self is really good at making me smile and laugh. She really wanted to do a reenactment of a Mel Brooks movie- history of the world- and we all had a giggling fit at her making the video of Moses coming down from Mt Sinai with 15 (drops and breaks stone tablet) 10 commandments! Then I heard them, the lemmings, the sheeple, cheering loudly as they reached the top of the mountain. It was all fine and good until it just didn’t stop and then they started singing loudly and turned on some speakers and music. Do they not realize the sun sings to your heart when it peeks over the horizon? Of course not, because they’re too busy trying to capture it on video and start garbling it with their WiFi and radio frequencies. Like I said, everything that’s wrong with the species. Too detached to even appreciate our only home and all the gifts she offers us everyday. The one time they had an opportunity to leave the city and societal pressures and they brought it all with them to taint this untarnished and magical place. As the sun rose, their music got louder and it drowned out all potential for contemplation and they all started primping themselves for the 90 selfies they were going to take to show the world where they were without ever actually being there. Normally, hiking and sunrises give me a lot of therapy and sense of oneness and connection but this one only confirmed my feelings of alienation from most of the humans on this planet and I walked away with a heavier heart than when I came up. The hike down was just a lot of steps. 3,000 I think but it was equally easy. We just took our time even though we’d had zero sleep and no food. By that point tensions were starting to rise because we hadn’t eaten and animosity started to build towards our driver for lying and not ever stopping. When we got back to the van, we had breakfast boxes waiting for us from the hotel and we devoured them in a matter of minutes. It was about 7:20 AM and it was already starting to warm up significantly. The driver started heading back to the hotel but not before stopping at a routine check point. He parked us right in the sun and I decided to try and get some sleep. I awoke from intense heat and when I looked at the clock realized it had almost been an hour we were just sitting there. Irritably, I asked what was the holdup and he said we had to wait for a convoy. We asked if he could at least turn on the air conditioner because we were roasting and he did just to sit for more. I was starting to get really irritated as it was our last day in Dahab and we were wasting it sitting here. He left the van to talk to someone and after letting us sit in there for another twenty minutes got back in the car and angrily asked if it was ok if a policeman rode in the van with us. He kept asking in such a rude way that I finally snapped and said, “YES, we don’t care, we’re just sick of sitting here! Let’s go!” He huffily started the car and a policeman got in the passenger seat and we were on our way. I was drifting off to sleep but our “lovely” driver kept slamming on the breaks before speed bumps, I swear, to wake us all up. This guy was seriously the only bad experience about the entire trip and I stormed off of his van when we finally arrived. When Ramy asked about the trip we all mentioned our driver and he apologized and called the guys manager. I don’t know or care what happened from there. Since none of us were able to sleep on the drive back, several of us laid down for naps. I kept tossing and turning, my mind too busy to actually rest and after two hours gave up and sat outside to read over my PADI manuals. At 6, I was picked up to head to the dive center to do my final dive, a night dive, to complete my advanced open-water certification. Ahmed was happy to see me and after going over a few differences from day diving, geared up to get in the water. It was sunset so we’d still have a tiny bit of daylight. To be honest, the idea of night diving really freaked me out but once I got in the water felt completely comfortable and at ease. Ahmed’s kind demeanor and level of skill would make any student feel more comfortable. He’s an amazing instructor. The sea life at night is completely different. There are more needle fish and urchins and the needle fish have different patterns until you shine your light on them. There’s also certain corals that only come out at night and curl in their fronds when you illuminate them. The fish barely move, so you can get a better look at their patterns while they slumber in their underwater home. There were so many more lionfish floating weightlessly in the water away from the coral hideouts they usually reside in. We saw a Spanish dancer(?) a type of sea slug moving along the bottom and a stone fish so big I thought it was a piece of broken pottery. There were also what looked like furry black starfish littering the sea bed. We swam around and explored some more before we went for our 5 meter safety stop where we hung out for 5 minutes. At that time, Ahmed instructed me to switch off my light. We all turned off our lights and when I looked in his direction I could barely make out him making a lot of motion with his hands. Little bioluminescent creatures must riddle the water because the more rapidly you move your hands around the brighter and more little fluorescent lights you see. It was magical. After 5 minutes of this, we made our way back to the shallows and even there you could see flickering little fish actively eating away, swimming rapidly in all directions. It looked like sparkling new years confetti and I sat and stared before finally resurfacing. It was completely dark at that point and we headed back towards the truck to load our equipment. The drive back was cold from the wetsuit but the hot air quickly warms you once you have it off. I showered, redressed, and completed some forms to register my advanced open water training in the international database. I’m now officially an advanced open-water scuba diver. One step closer to master and then instructor. Ahmed and I said our final goodbyes and he invited me back whenever because he enjoyed teaching me and thinks I’ll make a great instructor one day. I left to meet my small group of ladies for dinner at a Thai restaurant on the beach and Ramy came and joined us. The food was excellent and I left with a full and happy belly. We headed back to the hotel and I laid in my bed one last time. My mind was racing but my lack of sleep over the last 48 hours made it easy to drift off and I dreamed of painful memories and all the what ifs of the past.

[almaasi]

reaction post typed while watching SPN 12x15 “Somewhere Between Heaven and Hell”

I HAVE A LOT TO SAY ABOUT THIS. including (but not limited to) smart!Dean, headcanons about demon reproduction, Destiel, children wishing death on an enemy, Sam’s pink eyeshadow, fandom theory, politics, bears, and the pronunciation of Cas’ name

05:15

i’m sort of pre-offended by this because cas wasn’t in the promo

why would you put dean in glasses if cas isn’t there to appreciate it huh???

(that said, davy perez wrote “stuck in the middle (with you)” so he clearly gets it)

-

05:20

this bear video reminds me of that girl screaming at the bear who’s eating her kayak 

“BEEEAAAARRRRR”

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nU5cMZymSr0)

wow ignore the youtube comments. much salt very negative

i thought the whole thing was hilarious

-

05:24

“will you marry me”

shoot this can only end horribly

-

05:27

“first of all it’s weird you know how much underwear i’ve packed”

this script tho

-

05:27

“inside out”

bruh that’s not gonna fucking help

-

05:28

MISHA COLLINS IN THE CREDITS AT THE BOTTOM MY EXCITEMENT JUST WENT FROM A 5 TO A 10

EEEEEE

-

05:29

can someone tell me why the winchesters are referring to the bmol as hobbits

sam’s got mike down as “frodo”

i guess it’s to do with the accents. idk i always thought of middle earth as a new zealand thing rather than “an actor from britain” thing

-

05:32

sam: “the computer told me”

dean understands the fucking computers okay, don’t give me this “simplify it for lil deanie weenie” shit, you motherfuckers

who built an EMF meter out of an old walkman in season 1, huh

who fixes his car and, i assume, fixes the wiring too, huh

who uses the internet to find porn and probably download a lot illegally and therefore needs to know how computers work, huh

who has evaded law enforcement while using their software to find cases, huh

whO HAD A BEST FRIEND NAMED CHARLIE BRADBURY WHO KNEW HOW COMPUTERS WORKED, HUH

TELL ME SHE DIDN’T TALK ABOUT COMPUTERS AND GEEKY SHIT NON-STOP AND DEAN WAS ABLE TO KEEP UP

HUH

HUH

CASH ME OUSSIDE HOWBOW DAH

seriously i’mma fucking fight you if you say dean doesn’t understand how a computer program could send cases to his phone

-

05:34

sam’s still wearing pink eyeshadow

headcanon: it’s a fasHION CHOICE QUIT JUDGING ME DEAN MEN CAN WEAR MAKEUP IF THEY WANT

-

05:35

i love that dean went straight from “baby wipes in the car” to “i’m using the fancy shampoo”

wow when this asshole decides to delve into self-care he goes all the fucking way

sidenote: then a zoom in on john’s baseball bat, ie. symbol of BRUTAL MASCULINITY which dean left behind to use the fancy shampoo

-

05:38

OH MY GOD IS SAM TALKING TO MARY WHILE DEAN TALKS TO CAS

IDK WHY BUT THAT’S REALLY CUTE

for a second i forgot dean and cas aren’t actually married BUT THEY TOTALLY ARE

-

05:40

I’mma cry cas still puts the fbi badge upside down

oh god i fucking love him so much

i don’t understand why anyone would dislike him

i really, truly don’t

he is the purest more wholesome character and I’M LITERALLY VIBRATING RIGHT NOW I’M SO HAPPY TO SEE HIM

I’VE MISSED HIM

OH GOD IF I’M THIS DELIGHTED TO SEE HIM I CAN’T IMAGINE WHAT DEAN FEELS WHEN HE SEES HIM

honestly if i told dean right now how happy i am to see cas, would he roll his eyes, or would he duck his head and smile ?

...option one? probably. option two: that’s jensen about misha

-

05:44

“agent solange”

OKAY THERE IS ONLY ONE OPTION HERE AND THAT IS THAT CAS IS A HUGE APPRECIATOR OF BLACK CULTURE AND MUSIC AND/OR THE KNOWLES FAMILY

I’M SO PROUD OF HIM

-

05:46

see this?

he-heyyyy!! herb nelson who runs this joint

the deadly duo need to fucking pay attention, this is how you get a random side character to be interesting and not just rattle off boring by-the-book introductions

-

05:48

THE QUEEN’S HEAD ON AN ALIEN

I FEEL LIKE THIS ROOM WAS DECORATED TO MAKE MISHA BREAK CHARACTER AND LAUGH

I ALSO SEE “LIZARD PEOPLE” AND ILLUMINATI TRIANGLES

-

05:51

herb: “most sheeple can’t handle the truth”

me at age 12

-

herb: “i’m woke”

i’m ENJOYING THIS SO MUCH

herb: “palm pilot, more like a tracking device”

and this was written before all the stuff about samsung tvs recently. that kind of shit never stops and it’s been going for forever. what is it about people and wanting to spy on other people

i just googled “samsung” and apparently the south korean president was just removed in correlation, one hour ago (disclaimer: i only read the headline, i’ll read the rest later)

oh boy, what a time to be alive (/sarcasm)

(but actually tho. something big happens in south korea and we know about it by typing a single word, that’s cool)

-

05:57

cas just taking things and walking away

imagine him shoplifting in plain sight and security just being like “???”

-

05:58

dean’s undercut seems fresh

i wonder if he shaves the back of his head himself or he goes to a barber every few weeks or if sam does it

-

06:00

“much handsomer brother”

at least we can say that, for all dean’s insecurities, at least he knows he’s hot as shit

(but also that could easily be overcompensation, and he thinks sam is more attractive. oh god what a mess he is)

-

06:02

if i were gwen and two giant dudes came to the door i’d probably ask for them to stick around while i wait for someone else to COME TO MY FUCKING RESCUE

jeez who lets two men into their house just because they have badges and well-balanced faces

-

06:04

yeah you go gwen!!!

don’t need nobody telling you bullshit

-

06:06

this scene of dean saving gwen from the hellhound seems reminiscent of that time he got torn to shreds by hellhounds

the room setup seemed similar at least

i wonder if that makes her a dean parallel character, or if it’s meant to remind the audience of dean’s history with hellhounds

-

06:09

lucifer to crowley: “hm. kinky.”

this show does this amazing thing where it gets as close as fucking possible to being the gayest thing on earth with every character being canonically and violently queer without actually being gay or queer or canon or count as representation at all

i don’t think queerbaiting has ever, ever been done to this level in history

sometimes i wonder what all the heterostraight dudebros (TM) think when they see this kinda stuff

i personally know a giant black dude in his late 30s who watches this show and 100% of ALL of this stuff goes right over his head. he watches for the brothers fighting monsters, and doesn’t understand cas. his wife Gets It and she’s a feminist who Cares About Things, and even though she doesn’t analyse the show, she understands why i ship destiel and feel the need to write novels about their relationship

my only other experience meeting heterostraight dudebros in my life (holy shit how lucky am i) was at a convention a few years back, kim rhodes was up on stage and there were these two sweaty, snotty dicks in front of me, buttcracks showing, booing every time anyone dared to mention female characters or cas or destiel. like i’m p sure they were just there because kim rhodes is hot and has boobs and talked about guns one time (i mean, not that that isn’t a valid reason to watch the show or enjoy it.)

but i found it interesting to see the difference between them (the minority) and the rest of the people in the room (flamboyantly queer mostly-women with hearts full of love for cas)

(on that note, why does cas seem to be the dividing entity between pure wholesome fans and the aggressive hate-speech kind of fans? is there some kind of thing about cas that makes you love him if you have a good heart or something idk)

(although that’s not strictly true because kim rhodes said jody would use cas as a human shield because he’s sorta useless, and kim was still one of the coolest and kindest people i’ve ever met)

-

06:29

i love the thought of fetus gwen wanting a) a hello kitty backpack, or b) the death of an enemy

...........i was joking but typing this immediately makes me think of that time i was like 7 or 8 or 9 years old and took extracurricular maths at a lady’s house after school, and she was nice, and she gave us juice and biscuits. except i hated the fact i had to do EXTRA MATHS so, so SO MUCH that i used to wish she’d drop dead and i wouldn’t have to do it any more.

and then she died of cancer. and her kids (my age) were left motherless and i’ve never really gotten over that

i try and remind myself that death doesn’t work like that but how the fuck /?? why

i really hope i don’t have death note psychic powers

but after that experience i’ve never once wished anything bad on anyone. if i do by accident i immediately un-wish it just in case. come to think of it, i think that experience alone turned me into a more tolerant, empathetic person

rather than wish bad things on bad people, i wish that they learn how to understand the people they’re hurting and work to reconcile their wrongdoings

but dear god i still feel bad

(edit: not that i’m saying my maths tutor was a bad person, i’m talking about like... nazis. punching nazis is still a means to an end though)

-

06:39

quietly wondering if dean ever wanted a hello kitty backpack

OH NO

TINY FETUS DEAN LOOKING AT NICE PRETTY THINGS AND JUST KNOWING HE CAN’T HAVE THEM SO NOT EVEN TRYING TO HOPE

wow it’s way too easy for me to hurt my own feelings

(see also: Raising Hell in a Hotel)

-

06:42

regarding the theft of demon babies

given we’ve never heard about demons breeding (as far as i know), i’ve long held this headcanon/theory that demons (who were originally angels, corrupted by torture) bred by sealing deals. that’s their motivation for making demon deals: they make a deal, they collect a soul at the end of 10 years, take it to hell, make it torture other souls, and eventually a new demon is sired/born. and the new demon is the sire demon’s baby, in a way. they make deals as a form of reproduction.

which doesn’t fit with the idea that demons have actual small crying babies

so... i guess those would be made if two possessed people copulated? but if angel babies are a huge deal in this universe, wouldn’t demon babies be some other bizarre plot twist? or is this demon baby stealing thing meant to be a throwaway line????

someone explain me a thing

-

06:48

OKAY SCRATCH THAT THE BABIES ARE FOR EATING

all right we’re all good

i still think demons breed by making deals

..........but actually though, what happens if two possessed people made a baby (not that i want to know in canon, because consent issues)

also where the fuck are demons getting babies to eat

is there a black market baby eating demon ring

is this a common occurrence

did a dingo eat her baby or was it demon interference

are there legends or competitions about the most daring baby thefts

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS

-

06:54

dean either likes posies or koalas

or both

someone please make cute fanart of dean happily cuddling a koala, lying down in a field of pink/bisexual-flag-coloured posies

please

i need it

because of reasons

-

07:00

i like how it’s the white demon who’s grovelling and the black demon’s just chill and talking to lucifer like an equal

that’s cool

-

07:02

dean’s gentle “take care of her”

IT’S OKAY SAM I THOUGHT HE WAS TALKING ABOUT GWEN TOO

sometimes i forget dean’s an asshole who cares more about his car than anything else

-

07:03

i still want that episode, where the impala is either a beautiful badass 45-year-old black woman with tattoos and scars, or a foxy grey-haired dude, either of whom could seduce dean in 0.3 seconds

-

07:06

mmmmmmmmmmmm i loooove how this angel says cas’ name

“kas’tyl”

mmmmmmmmm say it again

i love how everyone always says it differently but it’s always beautiful

(my own name has been pronounced 300 different ways and it always sounds like me somehow, and i’ll still respond. everything from “al-may-oze” to “ee-lumz” to “el muss”. my nickname Elmie is a derivative of Almaas because of mispronunciation followed by an autocorrect error and i love it anyway)

-

07:11

kelvin: “all the paaw’r of heav’n behand you”

dear god i love how this angel talks ;A; i’m swooning

-

07:13

kelvin: “don’t get me wrong, i love earth, it’s quirky. it smells like hay. but it’s not home, is it?”

OOOH BOY MORE CAS CHOOSING HIS HOME ARC

YEAH GIVE ME SOME OF THIS

but please let him choose dean

(or don’t, and watch dean die inside some more. that’d be fun) (/sarcasm)

-

07:19

JOSHUA

FOR YEARS I’VE BEEN WONDERING ABOUT HIM

ALL HAIL DAVY PEREZ FOR INCLUDING SO MANY ACTORS/CHARACTERS OF COLOUR

I’M SO RELIEVED SOMEONE ON THE WRITING TEAM HAS THEIR HEAD SCREWED ON RIGHT

-

07:22

cas is so beautiful ;~;

-

07:23

white demon: “only thing i care about is Making Hell Great Again”

i think it’s fair to say that anything akin to those words in that order inspire a fireball of R A G E inside me

-

07:25

fuck

i saw it coming

is anyone making a death toll for characters of colour this season

of all the things i’m enjoying from this episode, the aspect of “as soon as a black dude sees a white dude as an equal and wants something in return for his services to their shared society, he deserves punishment” is not one of them

not cool

i mean the white dude dies too, which turns it into a political “trump fucks with minorities first and the white people are next and somehow they think they’re being blessed” but STILL

i guess the fact there’s other surviving characters of colour this episode makes it less shitty

-

07:28

DEAN IN GLASSES

i’m still salty but AAHHH

-

07:33

eyyyyyyy dean said thanks to crowley for saving cas

good

-

07:33

crowley: “maybe i’ve rubbed off all over you”

aaaaaaaaaaand we’re back to the gay

mm

i hope people never forget that they canonically banged, as problematic that relationship is/was

-

07:35

they. look. so. damn. good. in. glasses.

-

07:36

dean looks like he either belongs in the x files or scooby doo

-

07:38

oooo the carrrrrrrrrrrr

dean’s gonna be pissed

-

07:43

oh shit the music changed very very subtly as lucifer hits crowley’s face

i suddenly get the feeling crowley’s gonna die

he just got his redemption and NOW HE’S GONNA DIE ISN’T HE

I HATED HIM BUT

LIKE

NOW I DON’T WANT HIM TO DIE

-

07:45

oh good

okay

man that was a weird emotion

now i’m back to hating crowley again

i guess it’s fun to hate the baddies

-

07:47

it’s really nice to have a phone call between dean and cas but see both of them

weird how rare that is

-

07:48

DEAN BEING ABLE TO JUDGE CAS’ EMOTIONS THROUGH HIS VOICE AND THEN GETTING WORRIED

-

07:49

sam: “no... it’s.. uh.... mick davies”

oh so THAT’S why gwen told sam her story about lying to her boyfriend. i was thinking it was odd sam was the one hearing that, since dean usually gets an earful of people’s sob stories that Mean Things In His Own Life

so her story made sam tell dean the truth

gwen did so much this episode!!! affecting the season-long plot and saving herself and shit!!! yee

-

07:51

THIS PINK EYESHADOW THOUGH

-

07:56

wow that was a lot of stuff for one episode

good!!!! very good

9.5/10, could be improved by a bechdel test pass

i don’t really have much to add, since i said it all while watching, which is why this took me nearly 3 hours to watch (over 3 hours to finish this post)

but yep. good solid episode, i wish more were like this

so damn good to see cas!!! but the fact he still doesn’t feel like he has a home makes me sad

DEAN AND SAM REALLY NEED TO INCLUDE HIM IN MORE THINGS AND SMOTHER HIM IN HUGS AND GIVE HIM GIFTS AND STUFF

i think it’s because he’s still riding the border between brother and not-brother and doesn’t really know where he stands

poor baby

dean, you gotta cowboy up and tell your angel you love him back already

aaaah

also shoutout to director nina lopez-corrado for that super neat shot of the hellhound, seen through the glasses on the ground

[friendlyneighbourhoodlucifer]

i got tagged to do this by @radioactivebroccoli

Tell us your favorite character from 10 different fandoms & then tag ten people

(now, it doesn’t say i should give motivations for which characters i chose but i will anywas bc why the heck not)

Harry Potter – Harry Potter

Now see, i’m a sheeple and i tend to enjoy the main character in the media i enjoy, that’s just life sometimes ok, and like i wouldn’t spend all those years reading books and watching movies abt a character i didn’t like and feel with and shit. And like obvs I like herm and ron and the others but like they’re not harry ok let me live (also idk how hard we are on this “one character per fandom thing” and if harry potter and avps are the same fandom bc if not, my fav avpm character is Voldemort)

 Pearl – Steven Universe

She’s trying so hard ok and she’s grown so much and she’s such a repressed gay nerd but like she also was co-leader of a rebellion and she’s poofed so many gems and like she’s so selfish but also selfless and, like, every single character in steven universe is amazing in their own way and like just fkn watch the show my dudes

 Tina Belcher – Bob’s Burgers

Tina is such a teen girl ok and I love her so much for it, like do you ever hear that shit abt how teenage girls are too passionate and weird and people call everything they do ugly and they act like their feelings are in some way a personal offence to society and then someone like tina fucking exists and feels and acts and is confident and insecure and weird and amazing, fuck dude

 Blue Sargent – the Raven Cycle

Ok so like this weird thing happens when you only watch visual media and like things that are made in like the us and maybe the uk where men are like 90% of everything and women are so unrelateable ffs, And then you like read a book again bc like you haven’t read books in forever bc mental health am I right, and then the female character is just so darn likeable, in like the way where it’s not that she’s perfect, it’s just that she’s a person, and she’s so cool ok Blue is /so cool/ and smart and she has good believable opinions and like I wanna be her and also u know maybe make out with her when she turns like 22 or something

 Jake Peralta – Brooklyn 99

Ok so b99 has so many good characters, it’s such a good show and like I do love amy and rosa and gina and charles and the gang but like jake is so well arched and funny and enjoyable ok he’s just so easy to watch and like espec in these later episodes and he’s really nice as a funny asshole-ish dude-character that’s not actually offensive (mostly there might be some fat-jokes in there but that’s more the fault of the show and not a thing that’s part of the character)

 Gayle Waters-Waters – Gayle

Sometimes you don’t really like a character but like it’s still 100% ur fav bc u just wanna watch them forever like yeah she’s horrible but I love it, watch gayle on youtube kiddos

 Guinevere– Merlin (bbc)

She’s so kind and strong ok and she did so much to shape Arthur and like yeah I ship merthur as much as the next one but like I can still love the heck out of gwen outside her relationship with Arthur and I do think the love story was beautiful ok, I did, my heart might often be cold towards the ~romantic~ stuff but like she deserved it so much and I would 100% watch anything more with angel as gwen ok she was so good for the role and while on the topic of romantic shit her and morgana was the shit, honestly, the stuff with morgana breaking gwen in the tower was the saddest betrayal in the entire series ok frick, and like ok if ur gonna watch merlin, or rewatch it, do it and watch is as the story of gwen ok, she’s just as much the hero and she has a hero’s story just as much as merlin and Arthur

 Steve Rogers – Marvel

So I’ll be the first to admit that I do not know all that much abt comics canons or even that much abt the mcu, I watched the first avenger and then avengers and winter soldier and like yeah I love that steve at times but the steve I really love is my head version that’s based on fics and different posts and headcanons and shit, that’s how we do it up in here ok, and for a character called captain America who’s almost made to be a beacon of hope, a symbol, I really think it’s kinda ok to make that symbol mean something unique to u ya feel. And ok I know peeps have different opinions abt what kind of heroes they like, and like yeah I like a good chosen one obvs but steve is just so fkn heroic ok he chose this life and he’s doing it and no one could tell him he has to really like the world will not really end if he just fucks off but he still does everything he’s such a saviour ok also he’s a lil’ shit, love him (sam is missing out on this spot only bc he wasn’t in the first movie like I already loved steve when I saw sam but rest assured I love the heck out of sam too)

 Cecil Palmer – Night Vale

I’m so fond of cecil, like sometimes I don’t like him and I want to fight him with a wooden spoon, but he’s one of those characters where the fondness you feel for them stems from the way they act and feel, more than their opinions (which is like a whole other thing that is so weird on tumblr, like how you are almost expected to look at people as a bundle of opinions and like or dislike them based on that but w/e that’s not what we’re talking bout here) and idk, just a solid good character

 Miss Marple – Agatha Christie

Idk dude it’s a comfort thing

i tag: anyone who wants to do it, yes i know that’s cheating but when ur out ur out u feel let me live

[useyourwordspodcast]

Intolerant Karens are ruining the internet

The year 2020 is going to be remembered for a few things - one of those is the spread of a new coronavirus around the world, the other is the proliferation of the Karen meme, cancel culture being everywhere, and life just being a little crazier then any of us expected.

I need to preface this episode with something - in order to do this episode I had to run a little experiment on twitter - and I had to intentionally troll online. It doesn't make me feel the greatest to have to do that - but it is what it is. If I would have prefaced my tweet with the words: this is an intentional troll for a podcast - I would not have gotten the responses that I did. And boy did I get responses.

Before we get into what I did let's define a few things. In current culture, Karen is almost a universal meme. It stands for a person who wants to call the manager for any slight inconvenience. Did their drink come too hot? They want to talk to the manager. Too cold. Manager. Person used the wrong tone. Manager. Person did....you get the idea. And of course - the male version of Karen is Ken - and honestly I feel sorry for people named karen/ken as they have to live with the knowledge of the meme that their name has become.

Tolerance. I'm going to read this right from Merriam-Webster. sympathy or indulgence for beliefs or practices differing from or conflicting with one's own or the act of allowing something. The oxford dictionary further defines the word as: the ability or willingness to tolerate something, in particular the existence of opinions or behavior that one does not necessarily agree with.

America is a melting pot - we allow people to come from all over the world here. And we welcome people here - there is some shared values as Americans that we share - but for the most part we are tolerant of other's cultures/opinions/views - well at least not online - and America has been made better for it as we get to learn from others we may never have interacted with otherwise.

But tolerance is required in order for that to work - and online it seems more and more if you don't espouse the views of the vocal minority then you are threatened, shouted down (virtually), berated, insulted, and a whole host of other things.

When I say vocal minority - I am not kidding. Only 7% of the United States population uses twitter. 87% of people have heard of twitter - but only 7% use it. On the flipside - 88% of people have heard of Facebook and 41% have a profile on Facebook. This would be crazy enough - but it gets worse actually. Of all the content created on twitter, 80% of the content is generated by the top 10% of twitter users - and the top 10% of twitter users tend to focus on politics - specifically left leaning politics. Breaking this down further - 77% of twitter users are wealthier then the general public, and 41% are making 75k or more per year. Something important to know about all of these statistics - business accounts were taken out of the data and are not considered when averages are generated.

Now I bring up all these stats to give you an idea of what the average twitter person is. They are a very vocal minority (minority because they are typically less then 10% of the general twitter population) but they are the squeaky wheel that gets the oil. It is because of this low engagement and usage that I personally have not really engaged with twitter too much - both personally and with the podcast.

Now with all of that - what did I do last week?

Last week Kroeger (the parent company for a chain of grocery stores, jewelry stores, medical clinics, etc) posted on twitter that they were going to mandate face masks be worn by all people entering their stores starting on 7/20/2020 - and let me make this very clear - this is a privately owned company on private property - they have every right to mandate conditions of entry into their stores and if they want to require masks they are well within their rights to do so and if people do not want to wear a mask - they can be turned away at the company's discretion - and no I don't believe a store requiring a mask is an attack on anyone's rights. Now if you want to have a conversation on the effectiveness of wearing a mask and want to come at this with scientific (peer reviewed) papers - then lets have that discussion - but entry into a business is an open and shut case - as they can control entry into their business in areas where there is no local mask mandate.

So back to that tweet. I had the idea for this episode swirling around in my mind for a little bit - but had never setup a second social media account - so I decided to just go ahead and do the deed from my main social media account. So I went onto twitter and responded to the Kroeger tweet (sorry Kroeger for trolling) with the tweet of "Thanks for letting me know to no longer patronize your stores - appreciate it" - nothing incendiary about masks, nothing calling mask wearers sheeple (I have seen that way too much on social media), nothing on this being against anyone's rights, nothing about hating on people for going there wearing masks - just a simple - I choose to take my business elsewhere since your requiring a mask - and twitter did not disappoint.

You of course had a decent number of people liking the post - which is going to happen no matter what is said - but the responses - those were the things I was looking for. There were a few "glad you won't be there" posts - but those are everyday run of the mill. Then there are the intolerant karens/kens. So since this happened (and after I thanked them for participating in this experiment) a lot of the people have since privated their twitter accounts or deleted their response - one would imagine (and hope) because they were ashamed of what they wrote and did online.

So the responses? I had one person threatening to contact my employer since I was such a threat to "myself and others" with the ending of "fking winger terrorist" - because I was taking my business elsewhere? I had a bunch of others calling me "dirty and nasty mexican", idiot, and many other hateful things (again most deleted now). I had one person - one - who engaged civilly with me - and due to his civil engagement I let him in on why I was doing what I was doing and he admitted that his initial reaction was probably over the top and not necessary.

For everyone that responded to me - I responded with "I have had this virus already and recovered - please tell me why I should have to be mandated to wear a mask". Not one person brought up that it was the store requesting that I wear it (if they had - I would’ve said your right) and instead just continued their insult. One person brought up the red herring of Chicken Pox and how adults can get it since they loose resistance over the many years and say this is the same as covid stating this as a fact - when (unfortunately for them) the CDC said they are not sure on the state of immunity. If they had brought up it could be possible since we don’t have the science - they would’ve gotten a point (and as I check my list on Sunday - looks like one person did bring that up - good for them!)

A few people brought up news websites (which were not marked as safe by newsguard) and said this was their proof on why I was an idiot. I then asked for peer reviewed scientific papers on the effectiveness of either makes, immunity, etc. Their only response - there is no time for science we have to do what they say because science takes too long to be useful.

:: head scratch ::

Not one person wanted to engage in any conversation on this and instead just used twitter as a platform of outrage - using it to shout their insults with confidence that no one should even have the right to talk counter to them. They were the law - and I had to bend to their will - and if I didn't - I was an intolerant evil biggot because I dare say that I will take my business elsewhere. It would’ve been one thing if they engaged in a conversation about why I said I was taking my business elsewhere - but nope - just a quick jaunt from taking my business elsewhere to your a dirty nasty Mexican. (BTW my twitter handle is @averagehalfmex - my old twitter handle has been archived and I have reserved it in case I want to use it again)

I got all of this and to thank those involved - I tagged all the most vile people in the threads in one tweet - and I was rewarded. I had a very nice moment of schadenfreude. These people started going after one another - accusing each other of being hateful conservatives and how they dont deserve to have opinions, and they were less then human, and many other insulting things. They didn't realize they were all on the same side - and instead just went after one another. One person responded with "Did i just get punked?" because I thanked them for sharing their opinions with another going "oh you god a podcast - that’s nice - all your X number of twitter subscribers" - again I point back to the fact that only 7% of Americans use twitter to begin with and only the very loud vocal minority tend to be there.

I started out this experiment with the thesis that social media was toxic, but one of the people (as they were trying to backpeddle and insult me at the same time after I said I was going to do a podcast on this) convinced me on something - it is not social media that is toxic - it is people that are toxic - specifically the intolerant Karens/Kens that congregate on twitter.

So what can you do to not be part of the toxic online culture? Good question.

The first thing is to assume that the intentions of the person posting something comes from a place of good. Now obviously if someone is saying to kill yourself, or other things along that line you can't assume anything about that is good - just ignore those people - they are too far gone to be able to do anything about. In fact they are just looking for other people to react to their content as they enjoy the attention - the best way to destroy a troll is to just ignore them. But for everyone else - if they post an opinion that you do not agree with - assume they are coming from a spot of good intention. They have an opinion that you do not agree with - but does that necessarily mean that they are bad? No. It doesn't - I'm sure you have opinions that you hold that they would disagree with an would want them to show you respect as well if they knew about it. Social media (especially for people we don't know personally) gives us just a small glimpse into the other person's life - we don't know the full story behind why the person may hold that opinion - we all come from a variety of backgrounds which shapes our views and opinions. Plus in order to have a tolerant society - we must allow for others to have different opinions then us - show me a family that all people in the family have the exact same opinions on everything and I'll show you a boring family that is lying to everyone else and keeping their opinions secret.

Second thing to do - ask questions. Try to get to know why the other person has the perspective they have. They may have a great reason to think like they do - and once you know why their opinion might shift to the "oh that makes sense" category instead of the initial emotional based ranking of that opinion.

Third - know that people are people - they are going to have differing opinions - and this melting pot is what makes life entertaining and interesting. Everyone having the same opinions is boring - and a big red flag - group think is a dangerous thing and that is how people abuse power by using social manipulation to make group think the norm.

But above all - be good to people - don't immediately cuss someone out or insult them just because they have a different thought then you - take the opportunity to learn why they think the way they do, because when opinions are brought into the sunlight - things that are incorrect and toxic not only are exposed but are disinfected - you are unable to change a person's mind with insults - however engaging in a relationship with a person and making connections with them on a personal level is the most effective way to change a person's opinions.

By the way - I will not be releasing the screenshots of those that tweeted at me. They didn’t know they were going to be part of this experiment - and I don’t believe anyone deserves hate/cancel no matter how off base they may be at times.

Links:

https://www.omnicoreagency.com/twitter-statistics/

https://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-strategy/7-surprising-statistics-about-twitter-in-america/

https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2019/04/24/sizing-up-twitter-users/

Paul

[vivalasthedas]

ya know

getting a bit tired of teenager and non kid having young adults screeching about how everyone who goes to see the lion king is a moron who’s responsible for the bad film industry. 

The Lion King remake is fine. 

It’s not good. No. It’s unnecessary and it’s a cash grab. But it’s fine. It got a lot of genuine laughs, and I heard the distinct sniffling of trying not to cry. Which made me feel bad for laughing. 

The average viewing audience might not think it’s cutting edge, but it’s fun. Especially for kids. It’s a known entity. 

I saw both Lion King and Dumbo at around the same time of day, within the first two days of release, when there were kids loose. There was one mother and her kid in dumbo, and the kid was clearly bored as shit and loud the entire time. Lion King was crowded. 

And check the audience score on places like rotten tomatoes. People are really quick to shout about how those damned critics know nothing when they give a film a low rating that the audience turns around and raises it, but only if it’s a film the loud folks want to like. Like Venom. Whose audience score is lower than lion king. 

Just fucking admit it yall. Just cause you don’t like the animation style and you don’t like something, doesn’t mean there isn’t an audience for it which will enjoy it. 

This isn’t a case of people going to see it to ‘see how bad it is’ this is people genuinely seeming to enjoy it. So maybe shut the fuck up saying that people with kids, or not who just like it, are morons are killing the film industry, you sound like a bunch of pretentious cunts. 

i find it especially funny that i’ve seen people claim that ‘at least dumbo tried to do something different’ like yeah, and that’s why it was god fucking awful. It was terrible both critically and in audience reception. Because it wasn’t dumbo. It was a poorly conceived mess of a story focusing on under developed human characters which weren’t interesting. 

The lion king remake is fine because the original was so strong and because it just stuck to those characters and that story. Had dumbo decided to rip off a different shakespearean play iin the remake maybe it would’ve done better. 

Dumbo fucking sucked. The elephant was cute as shit, holy hell was it adorable. But I would kill for baby simba. 

Like I’m totally with you about cash grab remakes, but I also want to point out that remaking films isn’t a new thing. Like. At all. Everytime film technology progresses, we remake movies. That’s a thing since the fucking 30s when dialog became an option. 

It isn’t some new trick. It’s also a safe thing for disney to do. It’s safe money at a time when risk isn’t rewarded. And this isn’t a new trend either. Stop putting it on the viewing audience. 

It’s a shitt practice and if you don’t want to go see it, don’t. But don’t act like your opinion is universal and that anyone who goes to see it is a brainless sheeple directly responsible for the bad movies when talking specifically about films for kids. Kids want to see shit in the cinema. It’s the day out. You want to tell a seven year old who wanted a cinema trip that sitting at home with a dvd and microwave popcorn is the same thing? You have not dealt with a lot of kids. Some might not mind. But I know many who would. I was one of them as a kid. 

The cinema itself is a treat. Let kids see shit movies. 

Like I’m going to bitch and moan about the royalist hellscape queens corgi movie everytime i see it mentioned, but i wouldn’t say what’s wrong with you going to see it ergh why would you support that to someone with kids who took them to see the funny dog cartoon. 

It’s like minions. I might hate it. But I am not the audience. And my adult opinions on it do not matter.