#speech and the reason he hates Joseph so much is cause he was in the players shoes

[dandunn]

Why do I get the sneaking suspicion that at the end of Joseph's route in DD his "talk" with Mary amounted to him convincing her to keep things together for the kids and his social image (because we know how easy it is to get a divorce in conservative Christian communities esp if you're a woman amirite).

Like people are real quick to throw the book (and the rest of the library) at Mary when she's evidently depressed enough to resort to substance abuse and can't even summon the energy to take care of her kids. She's just so very clearly at the end of her rope with all this and it ruffles me that people get more enraged with her flirting with other men while her husband has been going out and actually fucking them (potentially more than once).

And idk. The lived in state of the boat and how convinient the 'oh no we ran out of gas and the radios out!' thing was made me think my guy. This has happened before, hasn't it? Like you really didn't think to grab a backup canister of gas?

And if they got divorced what would she even do, is the house hers? Who owns it??

Idk I don't hate Joseph but i don't trust him either. I'm #teamWomen

[the-cat-chat]

February 17, 2024

10 Things I Hate About You (1999)

A high-school boy, Cameron, cannot date Bianca until her anti-social older sister, Kat, has a boyfriend. So, Cameron pays a mysterious boy, Patrick, to charm Kat.

JayBell: I don't know if it's the nostalgia, but it seems everyone everywhere loves this movie. So since I had never seen it, I was excited to finally watch it for V-Day 2024. And I was shocked.

So here it is: 10 Things I Hate About 10 Things I Hate About You

Heath Ledger's character. It has almost 0 redeeming qualities. Not only is he a deceptive liar, the movie never gives him a sympathetic reason for him to accept money to date Julia Stiles' character in the first place. I kept waiting for the movie to say he was poor or he needed the money for school or a sick mom to help us think better of him. But no. Also, when Julia's character is suspicious, he gaslights her into thinking she's an insecure bitch for questioning his motives (like what???). Why do we like him?

The inability of any character to apologize. Heath Ledger is the one in the wrong. But in the end, Julia's character gives this "romantic" speech as if she wasn't the victim of the plot? And his apology? Oh yeah I bought you a guitar. AND instead of apologizing at one point, he just tries to force kiss her? Also where is the sister's apologies?

The physical gags. Why were they in the movie at all? The bike accident, the gym teacher getting hit by an arrow, a guy getting hit by a golf ball, the dad throwing the exercise equipment into a neighboring yard. WHYYY. It wasn't funny in the slightest and felt out of place.

The dynamic between the sisters. At one point, the sisters get a nice moment of vulnerability where Julia Stiles' character reveals something significant. And her sister is an insensitive, uncaring brat about it. And then the movie never shows their "reunion" or a moment where they actually come to an understanding. Instead the sister is selfish, cries about it on a swing, and all is better.

David Krumholtz's character. It hurts me to say cause I was a Numb3r's fan, but wow was his character not easy to watch in this movie.

The entire plot. Okay I get that they were adapting Shakespeare. But the original deal is that the girls can't date until they graduate. And then the dad's like nevermind it's when your sister dates. The change makes no sense. Why does everything depend on the sister? How is that fair?

The English teacher's behavior. He has it out for Julia Stiles' character because she has opinions? Anyone that engaged would normally make a teacher happy. Also he kicks her out of class after like 2 minutes multiple times for seemingly no reason which is so odd.

The flashing scene. I think the fact that her character would do that is so weird. I know this is probably an outdated "joke" that just doesn't resonate today. But the idea of flashing your teacher and whole class is just gross to me and not funny in the slightest.

The guidance counselor or principal or whoever she is. Why is she so horny? This might be another case of humor not aging well cause none of her actions or jokes quite landed.

The relationship between the sister and Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character. JGL falls for the sister on first sight and defends her to everyone. I wish that JGL wasn't a new student but a guy who had a crush on her for a long time. I think that would give more weight to their feelings.

Now that I'm looking back at this list, maybe I just hated all of the characters, the jokes, and the entire plot? Which is crazy for how much people love this movie.

Rating: 3.5/10 cats 🐈

Anzie: I was going to be cute and make my review like the little poem and like 10 things blah blah blah. I can’t. I honestly can’t. Every time I’ve thought of writing my review my mind was entire overwhelmed by how physically affected I have been by Heath Ledger’s hair in this movie. God rest his soul but I want to go back in time to this movie set with some shampoo and a hair brush. I know he’s a rebel but plllssss does that mean his hair has to be greaser than the rats hanging out in the Burger King dumpster???? Anyway. I feel better now. And I’m sooo peeved bc Heath Ledger!!! Little baby me loooved Heath Ledger. And Julia Stiles. The Prince and me??? Hheeeeelllo??? Gawd I’m an idiot we should’ve watched that. Ugggg. Okkk. Baby JGL???? Forget it. Okkk. I have to say- I never read the entirety of The Taming of the Shrew, but I’m gonna go out on a limb and say even in Shakespeare’s day it wasn’t this offense. Bc it is. And I now know that the odd feeling of false memories that I had “seen” this- weren’t “false” at all it was my sweet, kind brain once again trying to protect me from myself. Okkk so now that that’s out we’re speed running the review.

1. Pls let me shampoo HL’s hair.

2. The guy from Numbers. no. It’s a no. I can’t stand him. Idk why. I can’t. I think it’s Santa Clause related- can’t be sure.

3. What is the dad’s actual malfunction? He needs therapy and chill pills. Bc his obsession over his daughters becoming pregnant is so insane.

4. Also no back story really on the mom leaving thing??? Right? I’m sure it’s totally related to the dad’s nutso thing.

5. Everyone needs to lay off Kat? Like seriously. And the teacher??? Bc she’s got an opinion? And the stoopid model guy. And her sister?

6. Yes model guy gets his own spot.

7. Yes her sister gets her own spot? How could she not?

8. And this whole plan???

9. And the whole reason she hates model guy??? I’m sure you’d tell your sister that if she actively going after him???

10. And the whole Kat finds out/peter buys her love and forgiveness back/ but at least they’re self aware about it????

Ga. Oh make it 11 things I hate.

11. The scene where her and her sister “fix” things??? Just non existent- but sure show us numbers guy flying off the hill with his scooter.

Gaaaaa.

12. We can’t forget Ms. Perky. Whyyy??

13. The more questions the more I honestly fell I need to read taming of the shrew just to understand.

14. Ohhhh. And how did it literally take to the last scenes to learn HL character was called Peter?? (Patrick). Is that on me or was it never talked about? I’m sure it’s me.

Gaaaaaaa. 14? 😬

Rating: 4/10 Cats 🐈‍⬛

[mistaeq]

Tuesday, 29th December

Greek Mythology!Duwang Gang AU: Headcanons

TW // sliiight nsfw-ish or non-con hints in dionysus' part. come on it's dionysus.

Today I offer you these babies. Tomorrow who knows. Hope you enjoy, I had fun with writing these.♡

Greek Mythology AU: Duwang Gang Headcanons. [includes: Higashikata Josuke, Nijimura Okuyasu, Kujo Jotaro, Hirose Koichi, Yamagishi Yukako, Kishibe Rohan]

WORD COUNT: 2k

HIGASHIKATA JOSUKE as APOLLO

Seen as the most beautiful god, Apollo has been recognized as a god of archery, music and dance, truth and prophecy, healing and diseases, the Sun and light, poetry, and more. One of the most important and complex of the Greek gods, he is the son of Zeus (Joseph) and brother of Artemis (Holly). As the protector of young, Apollo is concerned with the health and education of children.

He's seen every early morning, on his chariot, to bring the sunlight up in the sky, all over the Olympus. Josuke's the dream of many nymphs, who look at him from afar, singing songs for the god with their sweet voices, a sound so sweet, a sound so celestial... which is covered up by Apollo's voice fucking around the Olympus with young Dionysus (Okuyasu), pulling pranks on Poseidon (Jotaro) or getting drunk.

You're the most envied creature out of everyone in the Olympus, because Josuke only has eyes for you. Envious nymphs stare at you, and comment on you, trying to convince themselves that they're way better than you are.

"Don't listen to their envy and their insults, they don't know how to cope with the fact that I have clear preferences..." he'd say, caressing your cheek and neck. "This is what poisons relationships and romances... envy... jealousy... but we don't have these useless problems, do we, love...?"

His relationship with other gods on the Olympus is usually fine, but it's not like he cares about hiding his feelings. Almost everyone who knows Josuke, will get to know after not even a week that the god is crushing on you, and that he wants to marry you. You sure hope he's not gonna behave the same way he did to Daphne...

It seems that he has healing powers, and if you happen to not to be a deity, he'll gladly use them on you, Josuke wouldn't forgive himself if anything happened to you.

NIJIMURA OKUYASU as DIONYSUS

Surely not known for his capability to reasonate, Dionysus was the ancient god of wine, fertility, ritual madness, theater, and ecstasy. The god is shown to be a beardless, sensuous, naked or semi-naked youth. Though Dionysus was mostly a kind and generous deity, he could be cruel when he needed it. For some reason, Aphrodite (Yukako) doesn't want to get close to him. She looks scared.

He doesn't do much, during the day. Let's say his favourite thing are feasts. Not really chaste ones, to be completely true. Okuyasu's mind is almost totally hedonistic, and won't feel guilty just because he spent a day watching dancing maenads and had fun teasing them with his Thyrsus instead of caring about whatever mortal dude needed him on Earth. Most of the time he's drunk, but Josuke has his back for some reason.

Many say they don't envy you for being the god's favourite creature, but you don't really care. You enjoy lying down with Okuyasu, caught in a ecstatic feeling as he turns you on with his touch and teaseful words whispered at you.

"Tell me, is it embarrassing for you to be the only one to lie beside me during feasts?" He'd run his lustful gaze and hand all over your body as he asks so, and smirk a little. "No? It isn't...? Sounds like you really like it instead, to be completely honest. Good... really good, in fact. Kiss me now."

He doesn't really have a brilliant relationship with other deities, apart from Apollo. He sometimes sees Echo (Koichi), but not much more. Still, everyone knows it when he has someone he's interested in. The man becomes possessive, Okuyasu will make sure everyone knows you're his. He might give a demonstration during feasts.

He likes to feed you grapes, and in case you liked wine, Okuyasu would want to hold the glass for you as you drink. He likes to do this for you, and you don't mind letting him.

KUJO JOTARO as POSEIDON

Poseidon is the violent and ill-tempered god of the sea. He is nowadays known exclusively as a sea god, but in ancient times, he may have been the god of the earth and fertility or even the supreme god of the sky. His huge height and strength come from his Titan parents, Cronus and Rhea. What he can't acquire with romance and gentleness, he does with violence and craftiness.

He sometimes uses the sea as a coping mechanism for his tiring life. Jotaro doesn't find his ocean so bad to be in, he concentrates and spends his time doing stuff gods... do? What does he really do, is not clear? Apollo and Dionysus tried to stick their heads into the water to spy on him several times, without any result. It's not like he's so happy when mortals need his help, but he can't pull back from his duty.

Poseidon probably noticed you because you weren't bugging him for pointless stuff. He likes pleasures too, like most of the deities do really, he just needs to find the right creature for him. Jotaro doesn't enjoy partners who talk too much.

"Don't worry about being a bother for me. You're the first one who isn't truly bothering me, I take it as a goal by now." he'd say, after he closed you in a bubble in order to bring you under the sea with him. "I never dare to show my realm to people who I judge as annoying, remember that."

It's not like he doesn't have a good relationship with other deities, he basically doesn't really care. He'll just be happy with being under the ocean whenever he feels Josuke and Okuyasu approaching, or not to be there during Apollo and Calliope (Rohan) debates. Give him some deserved peace and an ocean and he'll be grateful forever.

If Jotaro lets you in his private place which is the ocean, consider yourself special for him, for he hates having people there, above all people who are there for him purposely.

HIROSE KOICHI as ECHO

Echo is a mountain nymph, or oread. The myth says that Echo offended the goddess Hera by keeping her in conversation, in order to prevent her from spying on one of Zeus' lovers. To punish him, Hera deprived him of speech, except for the ability to repeat the last words of another. Because of this, his good heart is often misunderstood, but he managed to be appreciated nonetheless.

Koichi would rather have no conversations, for he's not able to say nothing more than the last words his interlocutor said. But he's down to make people understand what he wants to say, by writing it down or through gestures. Apollo approached him once, and brought Dionysus along. He doesn't know how to feel about hanging with gods, but since his issue isn't a problem to them, he'll keep them around. Until they misbehave...

When he gets to know you and notices you aren't willing to exclude him for he doesn't talk properly, his heart melts. Echo wants to spend most of his time with you now, since you make him feel comfortable about the problem Hera caused him.

"I love you, I love you, love you, love you, you, you..." he'd repeat, after you told him that. When he wants to say something like this, you say it for him, so that he can repeat it and say it as well. "You're important to me... important to me... important to me... to me... to me... me..."

Look, he's trying his best, really. Deities aren't known for their inclusive ways, and when he asked you if it was because of his past, you quickly said it wasn't. Nobody cared about it there. Deities were like that with every nymph. Echo had a chance to build up a good relationship with Calliope (Rohan). The muse taught him a lot.

He has fun bringing you to places where your voice echoes, to make you judge who does it better between him and the nature. Needless to say, Koichi always wins.

YAMAGISHI YUKAKO as APHRODITE

Aphrodite was known primarily as a goddess of sexual love, beauty, fertility and even occasionally presided over marriage. Even prostitutes considered Aphrodite their patron. She's had many mortal lovers, and none of them should have ever dared to make her upset. She won't be down for forgiveness, she's really never been. Still, Aphrodite found herself often in trouble due to her personality.

Differently from many other deities, Yukako's real fun consisted in watching humans' love stories bloom and wither. Sometimes she was the reason, sometimes she wasn't. Mortals were so easy to play with. It was when she thought that playing gods was just as simple, that she got caught into a trap. Since that mistake, she decided she would have been amused enough to be happy by mortals' love stories.

Oh, Aphrodite's so used to creatures - above all gods - who tried to stick around her for her body only, so that when you give an appreciation for her intelligence, she'll remember it and love you forever. It's like you signed up a free trial to be loved.

"You know, it's difficult to make me feel love so strong I don't even think about the lustful part... but apparently you managed to do so..." she'd say, sitting in the calm forest as she hands you a flower. "It's good to know someone doesn't love you for your body only but for yourself as well."

Yukako's relationship with other deities and creatures is just... ambiguous? She may never judge what's behind everyone's gaze. Hatred? Love? Lust? Who knows. All she knows, is that the only sight of Dionysus makes the ground under her feet disappear in fear. Compared to him, she'll just be fine in everyone else's company.

Everything she does, it's for the good. If it happens to harm you, Yukako definitely didn't mean it. It'll be enough to tell her, and believe me, it won't happen again.

KISHIBE ROHAN as CALLIOPE

In Greek mythology Calliope is the muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry. He's called the "Chief of all Muses". He's down to help every literate artist who needs him, gives inspiration and guides the mortals' talented hands, as far as they deserve his power. Calliope's used to be mentioned, and might happen to get upset if not. Even if he's only halfway a deity, he's known for his confidence.

The most famous out of the Muses, Rohan won't forgive anyone who's never heard about him before. He can be seen around Echo a lot lately, since he found the nymph's story interesting and won't hold back from inspiring a mortal with writing about what happened to Koichi. He's used to collect creatures' stories, in order to be written by someone who's talented enough to talk about them properly.

He probably got interested in your story first. Then, for some reason he grew possessive of it. Calliope won't let a mortal put their filthy hands on a story so pure. Let the Muse be the only one who can properly love you.

"This story of yours is so beautiful, I can never have enough... and it's mine only, is it, y/n? Is it?" he'd ask him forever until you answer yes, he'll find no peace at all. "Let me get inspiration from you. Let me be the only one who can properly appreciate your life... just like you deserve."

His relationship with other creatures and deities is... rather good? Rohan's used to have debates and discussions with Josuke, and most of the time they just disagree. Though, many envy his capability of being so creative and smart, mortal writers ask for his help several times. Aphrodite and him sometimes fight over Echo.

He'd write lots of poetries in order to edulcorate your feelings towards him and make you forgive him for his excessive possessiveness. Rohan often succeeds.

[dinosaurtsukki]

haikyuu!! team christmas parties

a/n: this is a suuuuper late christmas-themed post because it was kinda crazy here but i hope you guys enjoy these headcanons of how christmas parties are like with the teams

karasuno: 

a very chaotic yet very festive christmas party

nishinoya and hinata especially are very excited for it you could tell by the way they hum christmas songs in the locker room

naturally sugawara suggests holding a christmas party in his house but the only one he sends invitations to is tsukishima because he's the likeliest one to back out

in fact, sugawara probably sends an invitation to tsukishima's house every single day and at this point both akiteru and his mom are anticipating 'kei's first christmas party with friends'

hinata was too excited that he was there at sugawara's house two hours early but they spent a lot of time decorating the entire place

yamaguchi was there just as early because he thought it would be polite and he even brought a box of chocolates for sugawara's family

all of them also decided to do a secret santa gift exchange to make things fun and so they wouldn't have to give everyone gifts

the only ones who gave everyone gifts though were asahi (HE MADE UGLY CHRISTMAS SWEATERS FOR EVERYONE) and yachi who gave everyone some cookies that she baked

everyone mentally thanked kiyoko for getting yachi as assistant manager

ennoshita's secret santa was tanaka and because he knew that ennoshita has been wanting a starbuck's planner, he enlisted noya's help in getting one

did this mean they both chugged 12 starbucks drinks all by themselves in one day? yeah pretty much

when ennoshita got his gift everyone understood why tanaka and noya were extra hyper that day

kageyama also got tsukishima as his secret santa

tsukki actually tried to exchange with yamaguchi but daichi caught him and said that there were no exchanges

he was also planning to get kageyama a plastic tiara as a gift but daichi also caught him (is2g he's everywhere)

eventually tsukishima settled on giving kageyama a volleyball cause he couldn't go wrong with that

kageyama was actually really happy with the gift but kinda pissed that it came from tsukishima of all people so he was just kinda squinting at tsukishima wondering what to say

anyway they didn't fight that's a christmas miracle

yamaguchi got daichi's name for the secret santa and gifted him a coupon for a free spa visit

daichi has a new favorite child

jk yamaguchi has always been his favorite child

hinata actually got KIYOKO to give a gift too and he was anxious for an entire week worrying about what to give her

he ended up asking natsu for advice and then gifting kiyoko a cute little phone charm

she thought it was sweet and still keeps it to this day

seijoh:

oikawa already had a group chat for a christmas party when december started hanamaki and matsukawa spammed it with memes and santa emojis for the first two weeks

finally when they got around to planning, iwaizumi offered to hold the party at his house 

surprisingly, the earliest one there was kyoutani because ofc he's helping his senpai set up

imagine the both of them trimming the christmas tree i'm jlgkjalg 

kyoutani even brought his own christmas decorations (they're little dogs with santa hats on them) 

kindaichi and kunimi were next to come in and they brought a little gingerbread house that they made themselves

y'all oikawa came in last because of 'traffic' but iwaizumi's like 'bullshit, you live next door'

he was late because he was watching the doctor who christmas special 

matsukawa and hanamaki are of course in charge of all the party games that last throughout the night

they have a newspaper dance game and they intentionally paired up oikawa and kyoutani 

they were the first ones to lose the game because kyoutani wouldn't come a foot near oikawa and that's about how wide their newspaper was

iwaizumi and kindaichi easily won but kindaichi was flustered that iwaizumi carried him bridal-style

you can bet they also brought karaoke and yahaba surprised everyone with his rendition of 'all i want for christmas is you'

also matsukawa and hanamaki did a really good duet of 'baby it's cold outside'

oikawa wanted to make a speech about his friends being his family and them being his best christmas gift ever but hanamaki stopped him

oikawa ended up giving one anyway when the party ended up going on until much later and everyone cried

everyone except kyoutani who was wondering why everyone was crying until he realized that iwaizumi was going abroad for uni

shiratorizawa:

these guys are so close that they just had to have a christmas party together 

goshiki ofc volunteered his own house and was deadset on making it the best christmas ever for his senpais

except tendou may have told him that ushijima's favorite decorations were mistletoe so ofc goshiki hung mistletoe ever

the funny thing is ushijima DOES like mistletoe. he thinks its classy and simple but he doesn't know about the kissing thing

meanwhile shirabu and tendou are on the side wondering if they should tell either of them

semi lost some kind of bet (probs with shirabu and kawanishi) and now he has to dress up as santa claus for some reason

lmao angry santa semi i love it already

tendou made some handmade chocolate truffles and half of them are delicious but the other half have a piece of onion in the middle

but the delicious ones are like REALLY delicious so everyone plays this sort of russian roulette game with tendou's chocolate truffles

semi kept on getting the onion truffles until reon felt bad for him and gave him his chocolate truffle

it ended up becoming a christmas tradition

ushijima actually gave everyone a gift and it's matching knee pads

shirabu actually loves them except he doesn't want to wear them out so he never wears them

also he gets cold really easily so even though the christmas party is indoors, he's wearing a sweater and a coat and a quilt on top of that

he honestly looks so cozy that by the end of the night everyone is cuddled up next to shirabu

EXCEPT USHIJIMA ALSO INVITED COACH WASHIJO TO COME IN

ushijima: he's our coach and therefore a part of our team so of course i invited him

no one can argue with him there

coach washijo was surprisingly a nice guest but everyone was extra courteous around him

semi served him some hot tea and shirabu even gave his quilt

goshiki was hiding in his bathroom because he might get lectured on his serves

they didn't know what activities to do with coach washijo around so tendou suggested watching their volleyball games (yes, goshiki has them all on tape) and coach washijo was all like 'i watch you play all the time why would i want to do that now?'

eventually they settled on watching Polar Express and it was nice

nekoma:

their christmas party is also a costume party because kuroo said so all of them came in christmas-themed costumes

AND THEY WERE ALL GROUP COSTUMES

the third years roped in shibayama and they all dressed up as the characters from 'A Christmas Carol'

shibayama was christmas past, kai was christmas present, kuroo was christmas future, and yaku was scrooge

kuroo: it's perfect because you're short and mean

it's funny because they all end up capitalists

okay but tbh the second years plus lev also went all out for their costumes because they come in as HOME ALONE

i'm clearly biased when it comes to my favorite christmas movies

fukunaga and taketora are the two robbers, kenma's kevin, and lev comes in as the house

it's basically a cardboard cut-out of a house that he and alisa made

the first twenty minutes of their christmas party is basically just them arguing about which group had the better costume

eventually they decide to actually enjoy the party

they end up playing a lot of parlor games and even though kenma hates how loud everyone is, he's still determined to win all of them

i swear, he ended up pushing lev out of the way during musical chairs, also grabbing the chair before sitting on it

but then after that kenma decides to play games for the rest of the night except kuroo confiscated his game console (again)

you can bet yaku and fukunaga cooked the christmas dinner for everyone

kai takes a million pictures for the memories but he's really a perfectionist about it and go crazy whenever lev moves two millimeteres too far to the left

when the pictures are developed kuroo has them developed on matching t-shirts and forces everyone to wear them during practice matches

tsukishima: nice shirt

kuroo: why THANK you

kenma: thanks, i fucking hate it

inarizaki: 

ngl they're not SUPER into christmas but they're just mildly curious about the celebration

it's mostly the miya twins who initiate it as a way for all of them to have a get-together during the winter break

kita thinks it's a good idea and invites them all to his house

he's actually quite curious about christmas as a religious celebration so he reads up on it a lot and even starts to up his own nativity scene as decoration

he ends up asking his teammates if they want to bring anything to add to the nativity scene

suna brings his gundam figurines and atsumu has an acrylic standee of momo from twice

and now those are joseph and mary

aran and kita take one look at the nativity scene and go 'this doesn't look right' but atsumu looks so happy to have momo there that they just leave it be

osamu is in charge of food ofc but he can't make up his mind on what to cook so he ends up cooking a little bit of everything

ofc atsumu has to be the one to help him but he ends up tasting and eating a good portion while osamu's cooking

*insert fighting in the kitchen*

suna's just walking around taking pictures of everything and uploading them to his snapchat (which has a lot of followers)

"our chaotic team christmas party part 1 of ???"

aran and kita just want some chill time and drink hot chocolate while watching christmas specials

kita also hung up stockings for everyone and suna was expecting it to have candy but its full of fruit and healthy snacks

they still taste good though

suna’s also the first one to fall asleep right smack on kita’s couch 

atsumu’s just about to draw on his face with permanent marker but kita has a disappointed look so he stops instantly

in fact, ALL of them end up falling asleep in the middle of kita’s living room 

they look so cute aran is in the middle with each of the miya twins on his side. suna is sprawled all over the couch with his face buried in the cushions. kita is sleeping right next to the coffee table with his arms crossed over his chest

kita’s grandmother walks in on them in the living room and knows FOR SURE that she doesn’t have four grandchildren but she’s making them breakfast anyway 

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

taglist (still open to anyone who wants in!): @montys-chaos​ @miyumtwins​ @strawberriimilkshake​ @pocubo​ @sugawara-sweetheart @akaashisbabydoll @laure-chan​ @therainroguefanfiction​ @atetiffdoesart @stephdaninja @oikaw-ugh​ @charliefredb​ @dramaqueenweeb1469 @tremblinghearts @applepienation @doodleniella @haikyuu-my-love @waitforitillwritemywayout @kattykurr @tpwkatsumu

[lonelier-version-of-you]

Jac Naylor!

- Why I like them: She's just an excellent character. Really complex and fascinating. Plus she's beautifully acted by Rosie Marcel, and I also just love seeing a female character who isn't good at emotional stuff or social stuff, because you don't see that often.

- Why I don't: She can be quite cruel and manipulative sometimes.

- Favourite episode: I haven't seen as much of her earlier stuff as I'd like, so I'll go for S21E36 "The Perfect Storm" (the Darwin special). She was just excellent in that episode. She's also at her best in S09E48 "Trial and Retribution" (the speech she gives Joseph about him wanting to see her as a victim and feel sorry for her is incredible).

- Favourite season: Again, not seen as much of her earlier stuff as I'd like, so I don't feel like I can pick one here.

- Favourite line: The aforementioned S09E48 speech to Joseph:

Joseph: Doesn’t matter what you say, I wouldn’t wish sexual assault on my worst enemy.

Jac: No, Joseph. That is a downright lie. Alan Clooney trying to rape me… that makes you feel good!

Joseph: That’s an appalling thing to say!

Jac: ‘Cause it turns me into a victim, doesn’t it? And if I’m a victim, then you can feel sorry for me. And you like that! If you can put me in a pigeonhole, the world falls into place. You can feel strong again. Your bleeding-heart sympathy reinforces the great Bryne sense of moral righteousness. You feel powerful. Just like Alan Clooney wanted to feel powerful. Frankly, when you think of it like that… you and Alan? You’re pretty much the same.

- Favourite outfit: That grey pantsuit she wore a couple months back was great.

I also liked the long red dress she wore in S21E01, and her suit at Mr. T and Inga's wedding in S19E13 was iconic. There are probably more Jac outfits I love - they pick some great clothes for her, they really do - but I can't think of them right now.

- OTP: I liked her with Kian up until they ruined that. Now, IDK. But I am fond of Jac/Connie. Jac/Zosia is cool too.

- BroTP: Jac & Sacha, obviously. But I also adore her friendship with Henrik, for obvious reasons. I loved her mentorship of Nicky, too.

- Headcanon: Does it count that I have accepted Rosie Marcel's headcanons about Jac and Connie having slept together? Lol.

If that doesn't count, then: I headcanon her as genderqueer, but not necessarily in the nonbinary sense like I headcanon Henrik or Ollie as, moreso in the umbrella-term "complicated relationship with gender" sense. I'd call her a genderqueer cis woman.

I have a number of headcanons relating to her friendship with Henrik, unsurprisingly. Particularly, I'm convinced she knows he's autistic but has never brought it up because she just assumes he doesn't want to tell people. (Little does she know he has not, in fact, figured it out yet and could actually really do with her bringing it up. 😂)

- Unpopular opinion: Okay, she's not Parent Of The Year because none of the Holby characters are, but why do both the show and the fandom seem to have this idea that she's the worst parent at the hospital or something? Fletch is much worse, and then there's Henrik and I mean... we all know how THAT turned out. Why don't either of them get hate for being neglectful parents? (Rhetorical question. I know it's misogyny.) (I was also going to say "get hate for, or be punished by the show for" but to be fair Henrik very much was punished by the show for it. Fletch, though... we're supposed to think Fletch is the best dad ever and he's never really held accountable for his mistakes and I can't stand it.)

Similarly, people generally give Jac way too much hate for things other characters are allowed to get away with. Even when something Jac does or says is completely out of character and obviously the product of bad writing, people still use it as an excuse to hate her, and it's unfair. Obviously it's fine for people to dislike her, but she seems to be held to much higher standards than other characters are.

- A wish: For her to get her happy ending. Preferably, for her to get a happy ending now, move to Casualty in a few years (having retrained like Connie), stay on Casualty for a while, then get another happy ending.

Also, I want her to be explicitly confirmed as bi. And if she moves to Casualty I want her to have a proper romance with a woman.

- An oh-god-please-don't-ever-happen: They had BETTER not kill her off.

- 5 words to best describe them: I'm not very good at these things. Can I say "really badass bisexual heart surgeon"? That's a 5-word descriptor, surely it counts... 😂

- My nickname for them: Don't have one, lol.

[sailorbadger]

Robin Hood episode ranking part 5 (10-1)

Finally, the top 10 of my Robin Hood episode ranking. The previous parts can be found here [link]. If you’ve enjoyed and/or hated my commentary or want to chime in with your own opinion, feel free to comment or send me an ask. So here it is, the top 10:

10. 3x4 – Sins of the Father

Watch 1x6 and then this one right after and tell me these aren’t the same episode. I fought so hard to get this episode to the top 10. At first I was shocked to find an episode in season 3 that I enjoyed this much, but here we are. This episode has the fun feeling of adventure that a lot of season 2 has. I didn’t remember much from this episode before my rewatch, and I was pleasantly surprised. Kate had a lot of potential at this point, and I don’t have much to complain about her besides her terrible braid. Tuck was a great therapist, and I enjoyed his scene with Edmund. The reason why I think this episode is a better version of 1x6 is because of the story of the guest characters. The biggest negative thing in this episode is the Much-Kate-Allan love triangle. But aside from that, I truly enjoyed this episode, and I don’t care what anyone thinks, this belongs in my top 10.

 9. 2x7 – Show Me The Money

Marian finding out about her father’s death is one of the saddest things in the whole series. Allan and Robin’s fight is also amazing. Those two things are the highlights of this episode, and together with everything else in this episode they make this a great and fun adventure. Allan works so well as a bad guy, and it’s almost a shame he didn’t get to do this longer. I don’t have a lot to say about this episode other than that I really like it.

 8. 1x4 – Parent Hood

In this episode we see for the first time someone dying for Robin. The episode is just very solid, and I originally had this on the number 5 spot on this list. The scene with Roy and his mother is heartbreaking. In this episode the Sheriff is finally becoming the unapologetic villain I love. I wish the fact that Gisborne had a bastard child he almost got killed had been brought up later on. Overall, this episode has always been one of my favorites, and it is the first one from season 1 I included in my rewatch.

 7. 2x11 – Treasure of the Nation

I loved Prince John, so of course I’m going to love his mother. The queen is a delightful guest character, and she steals any scene she’s in. The real reason why this episode is this high on the list is Marian’s plotline. I love her and Allan’s interactions in this episode, and it’s great to get the Nightwatchman back after such a long time. It’s a shame that she had to give that role up, because as I said earlier, this is where a part of her character died. This episode also inspired us to have a conversation about how everyone would act like in an escape room, so it gets a few points for that.

 6. 2x10 – Walkabout

I want to watch a play that is written, directed, and acted by the Sheriff. He is so wonderfully dramatic in this. Unlike in the season 3 finale, in this episode the idea of Nottingham being threatened is executed a lot better. I like how Allan tries to keep every option open for himself. The scene where Much finds out about Robin and Marian’s engagement is so sweet and touching. (In case you haven’t figured it out yet, I love Much and want happiness for him.) This episode also highlights well the differences between how each of the characters approach their cause. It’s obvious that John just wants to do good, but he is unable to view the larger picture. This episode has the right amount of tension, and with a little bit of tweaking, it could have been made into a two-part season finale.

 5. 1x7 – Brothers in Arms

When we were watching this episode, my friend was so tired that after the episode finished, I had to answer the question “Wait, was one of them Allan’s brother?”. This episode is the first one where the heroes truly fail, and even though they manage to just save Marian, she still ends up engaged to Gisborne. The scene with Allan and Djaq (and Will, because even though he doesn’t speak, he’s there, and it says a lot about their dynamic) is sweet, and it adds a lot to her character. The necklace storyline is intense and keeps the story interesting until the very end. I had not expected this to end up being the best episode of season 1, but then again, there were many surprises when I was making this list.

 4. 2x12 – A Good Day to Die

I love this episode. It’s rare to get an episode where the characters just sit down and talk about their feelings. Allan has his small crisis and ends up switching sides. It’s also great to once more see someone punch him in the face. I love the scene where the Sheriff is practicing his speech like any good villain. Will and Djaq are cute, even if their scene is very cheesy. I wish they had gotten together a few episodes earlier or stuck around for season 3, so that we could have seen more of them together and how it affects the rest of the gang. The highlight of this episode, however, is Much’s speech. The line “just because I love you doesn’t mean I can’t hate you too” is one of my favorite lines in the whole series. It’s a shame that Much gets sidelined in season 3. The characters have to face each other and themselves, and it makes this episode stand out.

 3. 2x9 – Lardner’s Ring

I love this episode. It’s the best fun adventure episode this series has to offer. The Fool is a wonderful guest character. Where did he come from? What are his motives? It doesn’t matter, he’s here for comedy and chaos. He’s living my ideal life. Robin’s proposal is very in-character and sweet. There’s so much comedy in this episode, but it doesn’t overshadow the more serious scenes. This episode provided us with a great and frequently used “I hope you’re enjoying it, Allan. I couldn’t live with myself if I were you” WhatsApp-sticker (the line may not be completely accurate since I don’t remember how it goes in English). This episode has everything I could want from a Robin Hood -episode. The only reason why it is not on the first or second place is that there are two episodes that are even better.

 2. 2x5 – Ducking and Diving

No placement in this list was as difficult to determine as deciding between the first and second place. After a very long conversation and going back and forth with it many times, this is the end result. Ducking and Diving is a perfect episode. Trying to find the spy is like a round of Among Us. Allan’s conversation with Djaq and final confrontation with Robin are amazing scenes. Robin’s plan of making it seem like the spy is Will confused me back when I first watched the episode, but looking at it now, it’s one of Robin’s better plans. Matilda is also one of the greatest guest characters this show has, I would watch a whole show about just her life. Everything in this episode ties together nicely, and the plot works both in the context of this episode and for the whole series.

 1. 2x4 – Angel of Death

If I could only show one episode of this show to someone in order to convince them to watch the entire series, I would show them Angel of Death. And it is exactly what I did when we started this very chaotic viewing (and rewatch for me). This episode has everything. The plot is amazing, and the characters work well. Joseph is a good character. He reminds me of an academic who is really passionate about one thing in his field, only to find out someone has done research on his thesis topic and disproved his whole theory. I like that John is the one to come up with the cure for the poison. But really, Will is the character that shines in this episode. He didn’t get an episode for himself in season 1, so it’s good to see it happen here. He flips completely after seeing his father die, and even though Luke doesn’t get a lot of time in this episode, the relationship between the brothers is portrayed well. Allan’s betrayal also gets a body count, which sets up him having to be unmasked in the following episode. On top of all this, the sheriff is just plain evil, which is fun to watch. This episode is just perfect, and at this point I’ve seen it at least three times in the past few months, and I would still watch it again.

So there we go, the full ranking of all RH episodes. This rewatch was my favorite so far, because I got to watch the show with someone who had never seen it before. I’d like to thank anyone who read this 6000-word essay on a show that ended well over a decade ago. You didn’t need to, but you did anyway.

[birdwonder]

Hey, I was just wondering could you do a Phantom Blood Dio x female reader where they sneak around everyone's backs to be together and pretend they don't get along when with others? Thank you and have a wonderful day.

|| Love the request ! This is going to be set before Dio puts on the stone mask and George’s death, but both he, Joseph and the reader are young adults.

Phantom Blood Dio | Behind Closed Doors

“Come now, Dio, certainly Lady [L/N] isn’t as irksome as you claim her to be,” the calm yet mildly concerned voice of George Joestar spoke, a heavy sigh following his speech as the stubborn frown upon Dio Brando’s lips refused to falter or leave.

The blond crossed his arms tightly around his chest, refusing to directly face the man that he had taken in him despite his need to show him the upmost respect.  “I have told you repeatedly father, that ... impudent girl has no tact nor manners to her high end name! She is a thorn in my side no matter how pretty her petals may be.” He spoke with such disdain and venom in his voice that he would believe the older man to be brain dead to not understand how he felt about you.

The ageing father of both Joseph Joestar and Dio Brando pinched the bridge of his nose slightly, a hand gripping his cane as he tried to recall exactly when the feud between [F/N] and Dio had came to be. 

“But father! I don’t want to be betrothed to some girl I’ve never met,” a younger, yet still just as well mannered as now, Dio complained, internally retching at the idea that George was attempting to have him marry some unacquainted, noble child who was probably as juvenile and pretentious as all the other high standing  sons and daughters he had met through his adopted father’s parties.

“Dio I am only doing this so that finding someone to wed won’t be a concern in the future,” his father attempted to explain, placing a gentle hand on the teenager’s shoulder, “you have shown no interest in any other young females that you have met, or in finding someone to love at all!”

With a huff, Dio continued to desperately convey why an arranged marriage was out of the question, “what if I wholeheartedly dislike her, hm? What if she talks too loud or flirts with other men behind my back or doesn’t even like me?”

“None of which will happen, Dio. Lady [F/N] is a polite, upstanding girl who is always happy to greet me when I visit her family’s home. Imagine coming home from work to a beautiful, welcoming smile? I’m sure that’s any man’s dream.” 

The blond quietly scoffed, as to not insult his father directly, and refused to listen to any more reasoning. George did nothing to pester him further however, a bright smile on his mouth as he gestured towards the door of their home where a butler was approaching and starting to open. “No matter, she should be here now! Look smart now, Dio, and do try to smile a little.”

Dio was not ready to be meeting her right now. Or at any point in time for that matter, but especially not now. With slightly widened, golden eyes he glanced over to see that the doors were now open and two figures were entering. A woman who was definitely close to George’s age, if not a few years younger, and a man around the same age too, both dressed as fine as aristocrats as if they were attending a meeting with the queen. ‘Rich people. Too much money for their own good,’ Dio thought, looking the presumed couple with a hidden disgust. 

“Ah, if it isn’t the great [L/N]’s! Looking as dashing as ever,” George greeted with open arms, only to then shake the man’s hand with a hearty laugh and ‘good day’ , afterwards politely kissing the woman’s gloved hand. 

“I’m sorry if we have kept you long, our little flower was a little difficult to convince to come, I think it’s just a young woman’s time where she’s too bashful to talk to a man face to face,” the woman joked, a light-hearted look and sound to her as she side stepped from her husband, hands moved to gently push a third person in front of her.

There, stood in a neutral pink frock, was a fairly beautiful girl, hair pinned, neatly teased and brushed back to be styled into a perfect bun, with the small  exception of a few strands purposefully let loose to carefully frame the delicate face of a young lady. Her eyes seemed to travel anywhere but somebody’s face, as her hands laced in front of her fiddled tenuously. 

Even with an averted gaze, Dio could tell that her eyes had a pretty look to them, though he couldn’t tell if it was the colour or how long her lashes were, or if it was even something as trivial as her eye shape altogether. No. It couldn’t be any of it! She was just some girl, nothing about her was special at all!

“This is [F/N], our little diamond girl, she is so enthusiastic to be meeting your son, Dio. I can already tell the two of them will be make for a great pair!” The man introduced, something Dio was quick to disagree with in his head. He hadn’t so much as made eye contact with the girl yet and they assume they would be perfect, how stupid.

After some encouraging from her parents to say hello, she finally looked directly at the other teenager, eyes scanning him from his shoes all to way to the top of his head. It made him feel a little awkward. It was like she was judging him in her head, or analysing every detail of him, while most women he knew just threw themselves at him in an instant. 

“He’s nothing special. I don’t see why I have to marry him,” she finally said, monotone and blunt, eyes dull and general expression no different. Dio almost choked in response, gawking momentarily at your words.

“Young lady! You should not speak about your future husband in such a manner,” her father scolded while the mother gasped and looked down at her with disappointment.

Similar to Dio’s attitude earlier, [F/N] huffed and continued to speak tersely, “future husband or no, he’s just some child. I don’t even want to be here!” 

Something in her had seemed to snap as in the next second, she had spun on her heel and made a bee-line for the front door, dashing outside to who knows where.

Instantly, both of the parents began to apologise on behalf of their daughter, even bowing their heads in shame to which George reassured them that it was no problem. Dio was only standing there, staring at the ghost of where the girl once was near the door and hummed to himself with thought. It didn’t take him long to ponder over his decision since he quickly knew that he wanted to find out what could possibly drive a woman to not only go against her own parents, but a man too, something that was frowned upon by everyone.

“It’s alright, I’m sure it is just the nerves,” Dio added in, sending the three elders a warm yet faux smile before he started to head out the door. “I’ll go find her and talk to her! After all,” he paused at the entrance, turning his head with a closed eyes, “is it not a husband’s duty to support his wife?”

That was as much as George was able to remember of your first meeting, never truly understanding what had brought upon your reaction unlike Dio, who knew a lot more than what he did.

After five minutes maximum of searching, Dio had finally spotted a pink blob in the distance and knew it could only be you. You were under a tree, knees hugged to your chest which caused you skirt to ride up slightly and crease in the most un-lady like fashion, head buried into your arms as small sobs came from your balled up figure.

Now Dio wasn’t the best at comfort. In fact, he hadn’t been able to recall a single moment where he had tried to ease anyone side from his crying mother once upon a time. Nonetheless, he knew that if he couldn’t get to you, he’d never find out what brought one such a display earlier.

“Oi, woman. Stop your crying,” he demanded, realising a little too late that wasn’t exactly the most or at all comforting thing to say, but it did cause you to raise your head and look at him with watery eyes and tear stained cheeks. A pitiful show, and still Dio thought of it as an oddly precious look. He’ll just pretend that’s the pity talking.

“What...What do you want? If you’ve come to convince me to marry you, forget it! I won’t marry a man I don’t love, know or need, ever!” You yelled, unafraid of the consequences that would come from being a woman with such an outspoken voice. 

Clicking his tongue against his cheek to make a ‘tsk’ sound, Dio placed his hands onto his hips and looked down at you with a stoic expression. “Who said I wanted to marry you, girl? I’m only here because your parents are causing an unnecessary ruckus and I’m here to understand why you’re being so damn difficult.” 

You blinked up at him. A tear rolling down because of your fluttering lashes, even if you were no longer crying. Sighing, you gazed ahead of you at a serene scenery that captivated you well enough to soothe your inner troubles. A lake weaved before you, water glistening underneath a setting sun which was slowly painting the sky different hues of pinks, oranges and yellows; even a purple was blended in somewhere in the mix. It was so beautiful, and all you could really come back to was the issue at hand. 

“I... Don’t take this personally, Dio was it?” You checked, to which he affirmed by nodding once, “I don’t hate you directly, and it’s not that I loathe my parents either. It’s just that I don’t want to live the rest of my life under another man’s roof who I hardly know, and love, while being expected to sit around all day until he comes home so that we can try to have a child I probably won’t care for because all I’ll see is the product of an unhappy life.” Your longwinded rant paused briefly, as you inhaled quickly to continue.

“I want to live on my own! Under my own rules and start my own business where I can provide for myself and work hard for what I need and want, not have it boringly handed to me on a silver platter.” 

After you were done, Dio blinked a few times in amazement. Were you really telling him all this? Something so controversial and so strangely endearing? Fascinating. He was actually quite hooked on your story, and understood where you were coming from. Dio would feel identically to you had he been in your position.

“I see. Well, there’s only one way to go about this then.” He piped up, kneeling down beside you with slight cringe as he sort of wanted to avoid dirtying his trousers. Giving him a curious look, you tilted you head to ask ‘how’ when he suddenly placed a hand on your cheek. 

“From now on, we’ll show those stupid old people that we have no other relationship than one filled with hate, and if we’re successful enough then they’ll have to release us of our burden to marry.” His plan sounded fool proof, at least it did when he said it in such a confident and certain way, though you still had doubts. 

“What if they get angry and disown us? Or worse...” You trailed off, cringing at the harsh hands that could come into play if things went south.

“Then you’ll just have to be Mrs Brando and live only to bear my children,” he returned, smirking in a way that reminded you of a smug cat that had caught the canary. Shuddering, you shook your head. 

“No, that sound horrible!”

“Oh? Does [F/N] Brando not have a ring to it? I think it’s quite fitting.”

“Don’t joke like that!”

The memory faded there as the rest wasn’t important to Dio. From that day, for at least two years the two of you have yelled, bickered, insulted, chastised, teased and even lightly hit each other to send across the message that there was no romantic interest between you and still, the both of you were pressured into marrying. It was like the message wasn’t going through their thick skulls!

Some things had changed since then as well. The two of you had slowly grown closer, away from your parents’ eyes of course, and even found comfort in each other’s company. Dio had somehow ended up confessing his backstory to you and his dislike for Jonathan, in which you assured him that he wasn’t any less of a man for coming from a poor family, and you had even given him a comforting kiss on the cheek. The rest of your time together was in embarrassing silence, mainly for Dio as you were contently resting your head on  his shoulder after you had teased his denied blush,

Honestly, even some of your fake arguments were like flirting, but just ten times more attractive and it made Dio genuinely want to see you again every time you left.

Snapping back into reality, Dio realised that George had resumed conversing with him and to his luck, it was to remind him that you would be shortly arriving for another one of your ‘arranged dates.’ 

Acting disgusted, the trickster scowled. “Does she have to come? She’s better off a thousand feet from me and then some.” 

“Dio, please. It’s been years, surely you have warmed up to her enough to at least not talk about her in that way!” George scolded, raising his cane to gently tap his son’s head with it. 

“You could stretch my life span to an infinite amount of years, and it still wouldn’t be enough.”

No more was said then as a butler had entered the room, announcing your arrival in which you entered on cue, cold as ever and not even greeting your supposed fiancé, just a ‘hello’ to George who sighed and greeted you in return, shortly excusing himself to his study to leave you two to do your own thing, expecting the both of you to carry out your arranged date though he doubted it.

As soon as he was gone, you smiled at Dio and giggled, slowly walking up to him once the door was closed by the exiting butler. “My, Mr Brando, don’t you look god awful today,” you noted, a joking flirt in your tone as you hooded your eyes and pinched your skirt to raise it a little.

Dio had managed to both scoff and smirk at the same time as he slightly opened his arms out, allowing you to approach him ever closer and press your blouse covered chest against his broader one, one hand slowly mimicking a walking motion up from his chest to his neck so you could wrap your arms around him. “Not as wretched and hideous as you, Mrs Brando. Did you just roll out of a sewer or is this your usual afternoon attire?” He teased, loosely holding your waist and staring down into the eyes that he had noticed so well when you first met. Still as perfect as ever. 

“Oh love, you know all of this is for you. If you’re good, I’ll let you see what’s under all this sewer gunk,” the purr in your tone and the feeling of your breasts pressing onto him made his mouth dry and you only laughed at his reaction to your unabashed tease. “I’m only joking, Dio, I can’t very well go sleeping with you just yet if I want to prove to my family I can be independent!”

He cleared his throat slightly and nodded with agreement, “of course, of course, we can do no such thing,” he recited, coquettishly grinning at you before he repeated one of your words, “yet.”

You gasped and stuttered, slapping his arm gently. “Oh hush! You know what I was going for.” You really didn’t know where your relationship with Dio was heading, if the two of you really were going to marry due to your parents or your own free will, or if it would all be over once you had your business plan approved, but you made an effort enjoy what strange intimacy you had now. 

“Do I, love? Perhaps you should explain it to me in further detail,” he hummed, moving his head down a little to brush his nose against your own. 

“No! Now be quiet, shouldn’t you be taking me somewhere?” You reminded, quickly changing the subject and taking a step back. Tittering, Dio starved for the feeling of you against him once more, moving to walk beside you with a hand on your lower back, guiding you to the door. It was arranged that he would take you to a restaurant in a carriage and spend until the evening at least socialising and perhaps touring the town. You both knew that you could actually talk until tomorrow’s sunrise, but for the sake of the message you wanted to send, it was better to cut it off sooner than that.

The two of you continued to silently banter all the way to the carriage.

Dio, in all his years, had never been more happier to spend time with a woman, as sharp tongued and stubborn as you were. He knew that once he had gotten rid of George and Jonathan Joestar, that he would appoint you head of his household and name you his wife and let you do as you wish, provided you swear to love him until death do you part.

[nightwingshero]

OC Mannerisms

I was tagged by @risenlucifer and @mackie-hattwie thanks lovelies! I updated Wren, so I added her on here, too. 

Tagging: @deathvalleyqueen because uh...I’m interested in hearing about two wonderful boys you got there. I think everyone has pretty much done this...

Wren Blake

How they smile

Wren smirks, a lot. She’s not arrogant, it’s just how she smiles sometimes (she’s not smug, I swear...well, not all the time). If someone makes a sly joke, pun, or says something amusing, she’ll chuckle and smirk. A lot of times its just a pull on the side of her mouth, indication that you did amuse her, but she’s not gonna make a big deal with it, you know? Sometimes it’s going to be hidden behind her hand/finger though because she likes to hold her face and cover her mouth (its easier for her to hide her expressions that way and to keep her from saying things she shouldn’t—also a nervous thing), or she may even be biting her thumbnail. If you make her super happy or excited, she smiles wide and shows teeth. The girl BEAMS. Her actual small smiles are caused by nostalgia or contemplation, or something super thoughtful and cute. If she’s recalling something sweet or soft, a good memory of hers, she’s looking to the side with a small and soft smile, almost like in a daydream.

What their “tell” is for lying

Wren doesn’t like to lie; she hates it and values honesty. That being said, that doesn’t mean she’s bad at it. It can be hard to tell when she’s lying because well…she’s genuinely a trustworthy person, only very few people can tell. She gets more defensive and arrogant when she’s lying. She’ll jut her chin out and dare you, in her own way, to accuse her of lying if you’re doubting her. If it’s someone she loves, she will avoid eye contact and hide her hands, closing herself off from them. Whether that’s shoving them in her pockets or tucking them with her arms crossed over her chest. She grows a bit cold and distant, to help or ease the guilt of lying. She’s way more obvious about it then. But the more she likes/loves/cares about someone, the worse she is at it.

Posture

Wren is usually pretty straight-spined and stiff with people she doesn’t know. She’s on her guard, and she won’t let it down. She will be very tense and her nerves…they’re going to be shot, and she’s going to be a bit jumpy and defensive (my girl is claustrophobic, okay? She will tense up in a closed off space or feel boxed in around people she doesn’t know. Cut her some slack). If she’s in a comfortable place, or with people she’s comfortable with, she’s much more relaxed and open. She leans against things often or has her hands on her hips on occasion, completely at ease. If she’s sitting, her legs and feet are up in the chair/couch with her. She will hold her knee as she leans back or sit up straight with her legs crossed under her. The girl never sits in a chair properly.

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

Wren has a pretty even tone, sometimes leaning more towards the soft side. But she’s been known to raise her voice when she’s angry or if she’s more serious, it’ll have an edge to it—borderline sharp. When she’s taunting you, pulling that dark siren/judge thing, her tone is gonna be subtly venomous. Its not like Whitney, where it’s sugary. Its more…husky and seductive. She’s so damn articulate and smooth when she’s in her element. She may not like talking to people because she’s introverted, but she knows how to (it’s actually doing it that’s the problem). She’s pretty easy to approach, for the most part, even though she not to put herself out there to be. If she’s nervous, her introverted nature–her true nature–will show. She will clam up, stutter, ramble, and even talk in circles. Most of the time, it’s usually around someone she’s not comfortable with/doesn’t know, someone that has taken control of the conversation away from her, someone she’s attracted to/really likes, or if something happens out of the blue that throws her off completely.

Nervous tics

Wren will get super quiet and avoid direct or focused eye contact if she’s nervous. She’ll bite her lip (or her thumbnail) or shove her hands in her pockets, maybe even cross her arms. She’ll sway and constantly scan the room (most likely looking for an escape route—she’s a runner). Wren will also sigh, and she rubs her thumb, tracing her vine tattoos if she doesn’t put her hands in her pockets. Honestly, that’s a go-to. Its usually with her thumb, pointer, or middle finger, and she will lightly trace the whole tattoo on her wrist/thumb. She gets fidgety with her hands/fingers, mostly tapping rhythmically as if she were playing a piano or drumming them to a song that’s in her head. If she’s sitting, she’ll steeple her fingers, or cover her mouth with her fingers while resting her head on her hand. Just pretty closed-off behavior, to be honest.

How much eye contact do they make

A decent amount, it’s really big with her. Wren likes to look people in the eye, mostly because it’s respectful (or at least, that’s how she was raised. It was kinda drilled into her) and because she’s also genuinely listening to the other person. Like, obviously don’t pull a Joseph (dude, seriously, take notes), but I mean, keep some to let them know you’re listening. The only times Wren won’t meet your eye is when she’s nervous, unsure of herself, lying (depending on who you are), and because she knows herself well enough that her true emotions live and show there. It also helps her feel connected to you, in a way. Like, she’s not very touchy when she first meets you (although it’s one of her love languages, and it’s something she craves), so that eye contact is gonna be important to her.

In a group conversation, how close do they stand to others? Are they off to the side just listening and occasionally speaking or are they right next to people?

With people she knows, she’ll stand closer in the group. She has no issue with being a part of a group she knows, especially if they’re friends. She participates, although she would be so drained afterwards. Girl hates crowds, no matter who it is. If it’s a mix of people she knows and doesn’t know, she will either keep her distance, or choose a person she knows well (Randy, Jane, Ro, a SO, for example), and sticks with them. If she’s too uncomfortable with a group (which definitely happens), she’s going to be leaning against the wall or sitting at a table away from the group, listening and only talking when she needs to. Wren is very much to herself, and she hates being put in those situations. It’s honestly hit or miss with her, but she’s guarded, so she will try and distance herself if the people are new. If she’s sitting on something like a table or a box, she will drum with her hands to a song that’s in her head and sing to herself.

When standing, what do they do with their hands? Talk with their hands, cross their arms, put hands in pockets, prop up against the wall, etc

This all depends on who she is with and what the situation is. Wren can be animated, and she definitely talks with her hands. She’s just an expressive person, even if she doesn’t mean to be. The more open she is with you, the more expressive. Touching, gesturing, light punches. It depends. Now, on the other hand, her closed off behavior involves her crossing her arms, being stiffer, and if she’s away from the group, she’s leaning against something. She doesn’t mean to come off as standoffish, but she doesn’t want you in her space, either. If she’s nervous, she will absolutely shove her hands in her pockets. But that’s if she’s wearing her jacket. If not, she’s tracing her wrist tattoos absentmindedly. She will also place them on her hips.

The sound of their footsteps

Wren can be light on her feet (have you seen how tiny she is?), which is why stealth works well for her. She has no issue going barefoot (she grew up in Oklahoma, this was a regular thing), and her combat boots (or converse) aren’t super loud. She also knows how to stay silent when it’s needed. But you bet your ass she’s stomping away when she’s pissed. Her in heels is another story. She genuinely loves to hear the clack of her heels, so you’ll definitely hear her coming. It’s probably one of the reasons she loves wearing them. Plus, they make her ass and legs look good, so there’s that.

Nonverbal greetings: do they wave, nod, hug, glare, punch, high five, something else?

Wren will nod or give a small wave to acquaintances with a small smile. With friends, it’s more personal. She waves and, depending on who, will hug and give high fives. Now…Wren will lightly punch or smack if she has a crush. She will also playfully shove. She will do it significant others (established relationship), too, if she’s feeling playful. Other than that, it’s a hug and a quick kiss to the cheek, because Wren is always affectionate to her SOs (and best friends).  

How do they get others’ attention? Raise hand, clear throat, etc

She’ll clearing her throat or try to catch their eye and give a nod, kinda like a “come here” gesture. She will touch their shoulder with a squeeze and lean into whisper. (Mostly with friends or SOs). Most of the time, she might just touch your arm in passing with a verbal greeting. Wren is not above putting herself in your line of sight, either. She can be passive aggressive about it if you’re ignoring her. That’s the point where she will go out of her way to make sure she has your attention, especially if you’ve pissed her off.

Randy Miller

How they smile

Randy doesn’t always smile, but that doesn’t mean he’s in a bad mood. He just…he’s so damn laidback. Randy has his arms crossed, mostly with his hands open and pressed against his chest, and when he laughs, he’ll bend forward a bit and his shoulders shake as he nods. He’ll go a lopsided grin as he strokes his beard, looking off to the side or shaking his head. Sometimes its just his lips pressed together with a small smile.

What their “tell” is for lying

Randy isn’t a liar. That’s…that’s not how he is. It’s always “I ain’t gonna lie to ya…”, because he’s gonna give it to you straight, whether you want it or not. He’s not a sugar coater. I mean, he’d rather not say anything at all than lie to you, but Randy is more direct than that. He’s gonna just tell you how it is.

Posture

Not the best, honestly. Like stated above, he mostly has his arms crossed and is looking down with his shoulders hunched a bit. That’s 99% of the time. Most of it is because it makes him less intimidating, but he’s just mostly contemplative and silently listening to everything going on around him. He slouches in chairs, leaning back with his legs spread and stretched out in front of him. He’s a leaner, too. He’ll lean forward on things or against a wall, because he’s just chilling.

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

Randy talks lowly, most of the time. He has somewhat of a deeper voice, and its definitely husky. It can take a lighter tilt when he’s being super expressive and exaggerating. When he’s pissed (don’t fuck with the people he cares about, yeah?), his voice raises and fuck, is he scary. He’s been known to bellow, and yeah, that’s terrifying. But so is when he gets in your face and whispers very lowly and menacingly. I don’t know which is worse, either way: you’re fucked.

Nervous tics

Mostly just nodding and stroking his beard. He might clear his throat here and there out of habit. He’s also known to shuffle his feet in the dirt or gravel while he’s looking down. Randy will also shift is weight from one foot to the other and crack his neck.

How much eye contact do they make

It’s a toss up with this guy. He doesn’t shy away from it, but he’s just usually looking down or scanning the area around him. But when he does make eye contact, its piercing and intense (not a creepy way, he’s not Joseph), and just direct. Some people can’t handle it, to be honest, because its just…raw, in a way. It’s unfiltered, unapologetic, and it’s like he sees right through you—and knowing him, he probably does. His eyes are usually hold his emotions, but sometimes they’re super hard to read because is eye contact is direct and focused.

In a group conversation, how close do they stand to others? Are they off to the side just listening and occasionally speaking or are they right next to people?

It depends on the group, to be honest. Randy is more outgoing, though he can have introvert tendencies—mostly around people he can’t stand/trust or because he doesn’t want to deal with people (just his dogs). He has no issues being a part of a group in general. But he’s been known to sit or stand further away, slouching or leaning while listening to what’s being said. Randy is super attentive and observant that way. But he can strike up a conversation with anybody when motivated to do so or if someone talks to him, he’s quick to engage. He’s just comfortable in his skin, and honestly, he could be with a group of people he’s never met, and you’d think they were all good friends. He’s so sure of himself.

When standing, what do they do with their hands? Talk with their hands, cross their arms, put hands in pockets, prop up against the wall, etc.

Randy isn’t much into talking with his hands. Like I mentioned, his arms are crossed most of the time (people don���t complain—have you seen his arms???), so his hands are pressed against his chest, with his thumbs up. He might pull a hand up and stroke his beard as he’s nodding in the middle of a conversation. If he’s making a point, being exaggerative or going into a huge “speech” moment, then he might wave his arms around to emphasize his point (like the moment he confronts Wes in the WrenWes canon). He might use the hand he’s rubbing his beard with, and wave it or do a slow “karate chop” movement when discussing things like strategy or something that requires deep thinking.

The sound of their footsteps

Randy tries to be stealthy, he really does, but its not his strong point. The man is…he’s big. And he wears boots most of the time, and that combo isn’t very good. He’s tried hunting, he’s bad at it. The only time he’s good at that is when he’s tracking someone down—kidnapping or capturing them for Eden’s Gate (*cough*WREN*cough*). Most of the time, you can hear him coming. He doesn’t stomp, he’s just a bit heavy on the heel. He might shuffle his feet along if he’s not looking forward to doing something or going somewhere.

Nonverbal greetings: do they wave, nod, hug, glare, punch, high five, something else?

Randy is a nodder. He’ll give you a quick and polite nod in acknowledgement. If he’s walking up to a friend, he’ll give a playful little elbow nudge and a nod. He will also tilt his head down a bit and raise his shoulders a bit, and that’s more for the people he has a deep respect for. But yeah, he doesn’t really wave. He might playfully shove people he’s super close to or clap them on the shoulder with a nod (yes, again with the nodding). The only people he really high fives are Wren, Jane, or a few others depending on the verse. He also grips your hand, wrapping his hands around your thumb/hand and give you a slap on the arm/shoulder. He’s also known to grasp your forearm with a nod.

How do they get others’ attention? Raise hand, clear throat, etc

Yeah, I dare you to try and ignore this guy. Randy is huge and will get in your direct line of sight when he needs your attention now. He’s a direct guy, he doesn’t deal with bullshit when things need to be discussed or dealt with. When he has a purpose, you will see him coming. He will do a sharp whistle while making his way to you to grab your attention or make you aware he’s about to approach you. And no, he’s not doing it to be offensive. He’s a dog dad, he’s honestly just used to it. If you know Randy, you’ll know he’s super respectful towards people (until you don’t deserve it). Randy will nudge you or walk up to and use his either his pointer or middle finger knuckle to kinda gently tap your arm if he needs to be discrete.

Rowan Palmer

How they smile

Rowan smiles brightly and shows her teeth. Same when she laughs. She’s honestly just a bright and sunny person. Not like a cheerleader, but genuinely warm. Ro just kinda has an optimistic disposition. She’ll also so a side smile, soft and a bit funny, but it shows off one of her dimples, and it’s adorable.  

What their “tell” is for lying

She’s actually a good liar. She’s super outgoing and charismatic and has a spine. If she has to lie to you, she absolutely will, and good luck telling the difference. Rowan will always do what she has to, and if she has to lie for your own good, she absolutely will. But her tell is her becoming more…cold. She’ll hold her head high, her back will be straight (straighter than normal, that is) and purse her lips only slightly. Honestly, if you don’t know her really well, you’re not gonna make the connection. But she’s a bit more detached when she lies.

Posture

Ro has good posture, mostly thanks to her time in the Air Force. It just never really left her. Her arms are always loose at her sides, her back straight and her shoulders back a bit. She’s very confident in how she presents herself. She might lean against the bar on occasion or slouch in a chair, but not that often. She will sometimes bend a knee with her hands shoved in her jacket pockets or with them on her hips

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

Rowan has a rather even tone, which has kind of a…I wouldn’t say deepness, but it’s definitely not tilted. I wanna say its deep with a warmth to it. It’s very calm. Even when she’s mad, she won’t raise her voice, it just hardens. But most of the time, it’s a lower to even tone.

Nervous tics

She’s really bad at biting the side of her cheek and doing that puckered-mouth-to-the-side thing. She’ll also scrunch up her nose a bit from time to time. Ro will also shift her gaze from person to person. Rowan also rises up on her tip toes sometimes, just for the movement of it. She’s fidgety when it comes to her feet. She will also mess with her camo ball cap, if she’s wearing it, or her braid/ponytail.

How much eye contact do they make

Rowan is a lot like Randy in this aspect, at least in terms of directness. Ro isn’t one to shy away from eye contact. She’s naturally observant (especially when outdoors), so she’s always scanning fields and the tree line. It’s the hunter in her, she gets excited seeing deer and other wildlife. While she gives direct eye contact, it’s not that intense. She’s actually a bit soft on the eyes, so she doesn’t really come off as intimidating (and if you assume that she’s not a threat, that’s your mistake, buddy), but rather open and warm. When pissed off, that changes drastically. She can be a hard ass, glaring at you heatedly and making you feel six inches tall.  

In a group conversation, how close do they stand to others? Are they off to the side just listening and occasionally speaking or are they right next to people?

Rowan is very much in it. She’s less likely to be off to the side, because she likes talking to people in general, even if its meaningless small talk. Rowan’s gonna be close to who she knows best, while making herself warm and open to those she doesn’t. She’s not a bubbly person, she’s just…warm. I really don’t know how else to explain that. She’s more extroverted than introverted, so crowds never really bother her.

When standing, what do they do with their hands? Talk with their hands, cross their arms, put hands in pockets, prop up against the wall, etc.

Mostly they’re at her side or tucked in her jacket pockets with a knee bent with her weight shifted to the other leg. She gestures with her hands in her pockets and does a lot of shrugging and nodding. She’s not one to really talk with her hands unless she’s pissed. Then it’s a lot of waving around, pointing, and throwing them up in the air in exasperation.

The sound of their footsteps

You’ll never hear her coming, honestly. Stealthy as hell, this one. Rowan has been hunting all her life and being Survival Instructor (in the SERE program) helped with that too. The girl is a fucking camo ninja with a compound and recurve bow. Ro is so damn light on her feet, even when she’s pissed. Some people get used to it (like Wren, Randy, and Jane), but most people jump because she sneaks up on them unintentionally (insert the Dwight and Angela meme: here).

Nonverbal greetings: do they wave, nod, hug, glare, punch, high five, something else?

She waves at mostly everyone, to be honest. You’ll most likely get the casual wave: her hand near her shoulder as she gives a quick wave or wiggles her fingers. If you’re further way, her arm is higher, and depending on how excited she is to see you, she’ll wave harder. Ro will also tip her hat, because she’s often wearing a ball cap (yes, it’s camo). It’s more of a respect thing and it’s usually when she’s doing her ranger thing.

How do they get others’ attention? Raise hand, clear throat, etc

Mostly waving or calling “hey, ___!”. If she’s super excited to see you and trying to get your attention, she’ll bounce on her tip toes as she waves high in the air. Any other time, she’s putting herself in your space, immediately taking control of the conversation/situation. She’s an assertive person, she doesn’t do passive aggression. If she wants your attention, she will get it. She tries to be respectful about it, really, she just has a tendency to grab attention when she needs it, and it can rub people the wrong way (mostly Hurk Sr and Jess).

Jane Williams

How they smile

Ha! Jane smiling…that’s the best joke I’ve heard ever. Jane…she’s not very expressive when it comes to positive emotions. Her laughs are more scoffs, low chuckles, or snorts with a roll of her eyes. Her “smiles” aren’t much better. She doesn’t really show her teeth, and when she does, it’s a tight-lipped smile where you’ll see the tiniest sliver of white. But you gotta get close to her for that. Mostly you’re getting sarcastic or condescending smirks or sneers. Yeah, she’s an asshole, but honestly, it’s just a front. Once you get to know her and she’s warmed up to you, you can catch the slight upturn of the corner of her mouth. Not saying that you have to be close to cause her small smile, but most people don’t catch it. It’s not a tell people, who don’t know her that well, catch onto.

What their “tell” is for lying

There isn’t one. Jane doesn’t really have a second thought to lying, she’ll do it with a straight face if you’re not someone she’s close to. She doesn’t care, you’re not her problem. Jane will not spare your feelings. Her expression is usually impassive or deadpan, almost bored….and irritated, at times. Now…if it’s someone she has a lot of respect for, or someone she begrudgingly cares about (it happens more often than not, guys. She tries to shut those emotions down—doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them), you can catch a tick in her jaw and her nostrils will flare a bit.

Posture

Jane—in blatant terms—either has a stick up her ass or doesn’t care. Depending on her mood. 9/10, she’s gonna fuck off, and lean against anything she can find with her arms crossed and a scowl or a bored expression. If there’s something to sit on top of—table, bar, car, etc—she’s mostly gonna be sitting. Jane will also climb up on a low branch in a tree and just chill. She’s also known to just sit against a wall with her arms resting on her knees. She’s also super proud (*cough*andenvious*cough*), so if you insult her, rub her the wrong way, or just piss her off, her spine is straight, shoulders pulled back, and head held high. She will dare you to step up and say it again all from her body language…good luck with that.

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

A bit on the lower side and sharp. Naturally, it’s a bit of a higher tilt, but she sometimes makes the conscious decision to lower it, and mostly because she mutters a lot or doesn’t want to bring attention to herself. Once she gets nice and irritated (or passionate/emotional in general), you’ll hear her voice on a regular octave, and honestly, she really does have a nice voice. She just…doesn’t like bringing attention to herself and she’s a grumpy asshole most of the time.

Nervous tics

Jane clenches her jaw when nervous. Honestly it comes out as frustration than anything, so a lot of sighing, rolling her eyes, crinkling of her nose, and death glares. She hates being put in uncomfortable situations and will direct it towards you (which is why people joke about her stabbing you). You just gotta learn to read the room, honestly. Because her being genuinely pissed off is her getting in your face and posturing like said above. Most people don’t know that though, so people keep their distance which is what she wants (she’s been through it, guys, cut her some slack). She will also bounce her leg, tap her foot, or play with her knife…okay, the stabbing thing might have some truth to it.

How much eye contact do they make

That depends. If she’s disinterested (like she is most of the time), she’s not gonna spare you a glance. That doesn’t mean she’s not listening. Yes, she’s one of those “pssh, I don’t care, so I’m not gonna look at you…but hear every little thing you say and remember it” people. Mostly because she can get information to use against you, but sometimes she really does care, she just can’t show it. On the other hand, if you get her riled up, she will get in your face and stare you down. Her gaze is sharp, piercing, and—unlike Randy—means to be intimidating. When she’s uncomfortable (emotionally or physically), she will avert her gaze, mostly to glare at something because her pride is wounded, and she really doesn’t want to show you emotions. She’ll do what she can to avoid that.

In a group conversation, how close do they stand to others? Are they off to the side just listening and occasionally speaking or are they right next to people?

You’d have to drag her kicking and screaming if its people she doesn’t know or want to associate with. You’re probably wondering “Jane, how are you gonna get to know them if you don’t try?” and her answer would be “I don’t fucking want to.” She hates socializing, she hates crowds of people, she’s gonna be hiding in a corner, huddled up and giving the vibe of “come near me, and I’ll fucking kill you”—figuratively…and literally.

When standing, what do they do with their hands? Talk with their hands, cross their arms, put hands in pockets, prop up against the wall, etc.

Definitely crossed. Jane doesn’t do a lot with her hands or arms, because she really does try to be impassive and unexpressive. She will occasionally flip someone off while making a face, but mostly because someone (looking at you, Wren and Randy) decided to poke the bear. She’ll clench her fists and keep her arms stiff at her sides when she’s super pissed and yelling at someone. The only time she uses her hands is when she’s gesturing to make a point and can’t find the words.

The sound of their footsteps

She’s light on her feet, not as good as Rowan, but pretty damn close. Jane is very much a silent killer—both with her sniper rifle and her capability to sneak up on people. She will stomp her feet when she’s pissed though, and it’s not really on purpose, but Jane is…she’s a force to be reckoned with and that emotion has to come out somehow. While Ro will sneak up on someone and make them jump when she greets them, Jane won’t even bother. She’ll stay there until you notice her and its…I swear, she does it on purpose sometimes. It’s payback a lot of times.

Nonverbal greetings: do they wave, nod, hug, glare, punch, high five, something else?

Jane isn’t too big on greetings that’s not her just giving a small, sharp nod. Like, her glancing you and acknowledging your presence is greeting enough to her in most cases. She shoves Randy, though, because they’re close, or she’ll punch his arm. Usually the greeting is verbal and clipped, her calling the person by their last name.

How do they get others’ attention? Raise hand, clear throat, etc

Jane isn’t normally out to seek someone’s attention. You need to talk? You come to her; she’s not coming to you. Most of the time, anyway. If it’s in regard to something that needs to be done (like for Eden’s Gate or performing her duties as a Chosen), she’s gonna walk up to you fast, tell you what needs done, and walk off. She’s not gonna put up with the “needing to grab your attention” bullshit, she’s gonna take your attention, and not care how you like it, because chances are she didn’t want to really talk to you anyway. If she’s pissed or greeting a friend, she might yell: “hey asshole!”. Yeah, good luck figuring out which one it is…chances are if you’re not sure, it’s the former.

How they smile

Ha! Jane smiling…that’s the best joke I’ve heard ever. Jane…she’s not very expressive when it comes to positive emotions. Her laughs are more scoffs, low chuckles, or snorts with a roll of her eyes. Her “smiles” aren’t much better. She doesn’t really show her teeth, and when she does, it’s a tight-lipped smile where you’ll see the tiniest sliver of white. But you gotta get close to her for that. Mostly you’re getting sarcastic or condescending smirks or sneers. Yeah, she’s an asshole, but honestly, it’s just a front. Once you get to know her and she’s warmed up to you, you can catch the slight upturn of the corner of her mouth. Not saying that you have to be close to cause her small smile, but most people don’t catch it. It’s not a tell people, who don’t know her that well, catch onto.

What their “tell” is for lying

There isn’t one. Jane doesn’t really have a second thought to lying, she’ll do it with a straight face if you’re not someone she’s close to. She doesn’t care, you’re not her problem. Jane will not spare your feelings. Her expression is usually impassive or deadpan, almost bored….and irritated, at times. Now…if it’s someone she has a lot of respect for, or someone she begrudgingly cares about (it happens more often than not, guys. She tries to shut those emotions down—doesn’t mean she doesn’t have them), you can catch a tick in her jaw and her nostrils will flare a bit.

Posture

Jane—in blatant terms—either has a stick up her ass or doesn’t care. Depending on her mood. 9/10, she’s gonna fuck off, and lean against anything she can find with her arms crossed and a scowl or a bored expression. If there’s something to sit on top of—table, bar, car, etc—she’s mostly gonna be sitting. Jane will also climb up on a low branch in a tree and just chill. She’s also known to just sit against a wall with her arms resting on her knees. She’s also super proud (*cough*andenvious*cough*), so if you insult her, rub her the wrong way, or just piss her off, her spine is straight, shoulders pulled back, and head held high. She will dare you to step up and say it again all from her body language…good luck with that.

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

A bit on the lower side and sharp. Naturally, it’s a bit of a higher tilt, but she sometimes makes the conscious decision to lower it, and mostly because she mutters a lot or doesn’t want to bring attention to herself. Once she gets nice and irritated (or passionate/emotional in general), you’ll hear her voice on a regular octave, and honestly, she really does have a nice voice. She just…doesn’t like bringing attention to herself and she’s a grumpy asshole most of the time.

Nervous tics

Jane clenches her jaw when nervous. Honestly it comes out as frustration than anything, so a lot of sighing, rolling her eyes, crinkling of her nose, and death glares. She hates being put in uncomfortable situations, and will direct it towards you (which is why people joke about her stabbing you). You just gotta learn to read the room, honestly. Because her being genuinely pissed off is her getting in your face and posturing like said above. Most people don’t know that though, so people keep their distance which is what she wants (she’s been through it, guys, cut her some slack). She will also bounce her leg, tap her foot, or play with her knife…okay, the stabbing thing might have some truth to it.

Whitney Seed

How they smile

Whit has a bright, warm, contagious smile when she’s happy. She shows teeth most of the time, and her cheeks will get a little rosy. Now…you have to be careful, because Whitney has a lot of different smiles. That bright, sweet, motherly smile will have sickly sweet poison dripping in it if you’ve crossed her. You can usually tell when that is because of how she says “honey”, “sweetheart”, “bless your heart”, “sweetie”, or “darling” (much like Wren). You can usually tell you’ve crossed a if you catch the infliction is off, and it will definitely make a chill go down your spine. She will also smirk proudly and condescending when she’s “right” or you “prove her right”.

What their “tell” is for lying

Whitney can overdo it with the sweetness if she lies and you’re onto her. She becomes more expressive with her hands, more touchy-feely, trying to ease you and convince you. Of course, if you know this, it can be obvious. But if you don’t…well, she can come across as super reassuring and safe. Despite the kinda sickly sweet nature of Whitney, she really doesn’t like to lie. Not really. So it’s not only to try and convince you, but also herself.

Posture

Whitney tries to be the perfect lady, like Nancy raised her to be, so her posture is almost perfect. She crosses her legs and always presents herself well. At home, when she’s not around people, she slacks a bit (good for her though, right?) and just relaxes. She’s more reclined and at ease. But outside, she has a role to keep, there’s pressure with being the Mother of Eden’s Gate, so she has to be perfect. Her posture is no different. She holds herself high in that regard.

Volume of speech, if they’re verbal

High tilted with a twang. While Wren’s Oklahoma accent slips, Whitney’s southern twang is something that woman embraces. It gives a honey feel, adding to the motherly/homey persona that she is, so it’s definitely to her benefit. When she’s pissed or frustrated, her voice can be a bit shrill, sometimes like nails on a chalkboard if she’s worked up enough. You don’t want to be around for that.

Nervous tics

Her voice goes up an octave, and she talks faster. She’s gonna flip her hair more often too and examine her nails. Honestly, do anything she can to appear put together and confident, in her element even though she isn’t. Fake it till you make it, baby! Whit will also laugh a little bit more, and you can sometimes tell it’s forced, but the woman is really good at hiding it. She’ll also tap her heels if she’s antsy enough.

How much eye contact do they make

Whitney is naturally charismatic, outgoing, and open, so she’s big on eye contact. Healthy and normal eye contact (take notes, Joseph). It helps her gain trust with people and honestly, it’s easier for her to read you that way. And Nancy always taught her to make eye contact, it’s only polite to do so. She’s also just used to it, it shows you’re listening and engaged, and she genuinely is. Whitney is an active listener, despite all the manipulation and stuff. She does genuinely care about conversations and hearing people. She’s gonna show that with eye contact, establishing trust and offering a safe feeling.

In a group conversation, how close do they stand to others? Are they off to the side just listening and occasionally speaking or are they right next to people?

Close! Whitney has a way of becoming the center of attention without trying, part of the reason Joseph chose to marry her (don’t…ugh, don’t get me started on that). People are drawn to her because she’s shiny, bright, and a bit bubbly. The girl has no issues with crowds whatsoever and will always make a place for herself in someone’s group, and they don’t say a word because it’s not long before they’ve forgotten she wasn’t really apart of them in the first place. And it’s not fake, its so genuine, but it does get manipulated and used later.

When standing, what do they do with their hands? Talk with their hands, cross their arms, put hands in pockets, prop up against the wall, etc.

Whitney is very touchy-feely and expressive. She’s either going to wave her hands a bit, but most likely will touch you. Like a squeeze of your arm/shoulder, rubbing your arm, picking lint off your shirt, or just messing with anything she can get her hands on (purse, phone, anything within range etc). Even go as far as holding your hand in both of hers. She will also flip her hair or momentarily mess with it. If she walks past something reflective while talking, she’s gonna check her makeup while continuing the conversation.

The sound of their footsteps

You’ll always hear Whitney, she’s not really sneaky, and she’s always wearing either heels or wedges. On the days she wears flats or regular sandals, her steps are a bit softer by nature, and hard to pick out. And it’s not like she stomps, because she doesn’t. Even when she’s angry, she tries to avoid overly expressing negative emotions (hurts the image, you know?). So, it just really depends on what she’s wearing, I suppose.

Nonverbal greetings: do they wave, nod, hug, glare, punch, high five, something else?

She’s a hugger, to the extreme. Whitney is hugging you, touching you, even if you don’t know her (much to Wren and Jane’s distaste). Whitney is so damn accepting and loving, and just overall affectionate. Don’t be surprised if she grabs the tops of your arms and kisses each cheek—whether its an actual kiss or just kissing the air while pressing her cheek against yours. If she’s greeting you from further away, she’ll twiddle her fingers at you or a polite wave.

How do they get others’ attention? Raise hand, clear throat, etc

Whitney is going to gasp and call your name a bit excitedly with that twang of hers. And yeah, I dare you to try and pretend to ignore that. Woman is relentless once her sights are on you, be prepared for a conversation. She will also “politely” clear her throat to get your attention if she’s trying to get your attention and ignore her in some situations. She will grab your hand, arm, or shoulder with a squeeze, pulling your attention to her, as well.

[arcticdementor]

“Culture is the secret of humanity’s success” sounds like the most vapid possible thesis. The Secret Of Our Success by anthropologist Joseph Henrich manages to be an amazing book anyway.

Henrich wants to debunk (or at least clarify) a popular view where humans succeeded because of our raw intelligence. In this view, we are smart enough to invent neat tools that help us survive and adapt to unfamiliar environments.

Against such theories: we cannot actually do this. Henrich walks the reader through many stories about European explorers marooned in unfamiliar environments. These explorers usually starved to death. They starved to death in the middle of endless plenty. Some of them were in Arctic lands that the Inuit considered among their richest hunting grounds. Others were in jungles, surrounded by edible plants and animals. One particularly unfortunate group was in Alabama, and would have perished entirely if they hadn’t been captured and enslaved by local Indians first.

These explorers had many advantages over our hominid ancestors. For one thing, their exploration parties were made up entirely of strong young men in their prime, with no need to support women, children, or the elderly. They were often selected for their education and intelligence. Many of them were from Victorian Britain, one of the most successful civilizations in history, full of geniuses like Darwin and Galton. Most of them had some past experience with wilderness craft and survival. But despite their big brains, when faced with the task our big brains supposedly evolved for – figuring out how to do hunting and gathering in a wilderness environment – they failed pathetically.

…

How do hunter-gatherers know how to do all this? We usually summarize it as “culture”. How did it form? Not through some smart Inuit or Fuegian person reasoning it out; if that had been it, smart European explorers should have been able to reason it out too.

The obvious answer is “cultural evolution”, but Henrich isn’t much better than anyone else at taking the mystery out of this phrase. Trial and error must have been involved, and less successful groups/people imitating the techniques of more successful ones. But is that really a satisfying explanation?

…

All of this is cultural. Henrich is kind of cruel in his insistence on this. He recommends readers go outside and try to start a fire. He even gives some helpful hints – flint is involved, rubbing two sticks together works for some people, etc. He predicts – and stories I’ve heard from unfortunate campers confirm – that you will not be able to do this, despite an IQ far beyond that of most of our hominid ancestors. In fact, some groups (most notably the aboriginal Tasmanians) seem to have lost the ability to make fire, and never rediscovered it. Fire-making was discovered a small number of times, maybe once, and has been culturally transmitted since then.

…

Human children are obsessed with learning things. And they don’t learn things randomly. There seem to be “biases in cultural learning”, ie slots in an infant’s mind that they know need to be filled with knowledge, and which they preferentially seek out the knowledge necessary to fill.

One slot is for language. Human children naturally listen to speech (as early as in the womb). They naturally prune the phonemes they are able to produce and distinguish to the ones in the local language. And they naturally figure out how to speak and understand what people are saying, even though learning a language is hard even for smart adults.

Another slot is for animals. In a world where megafauna has been relegated to zoos, we still teach children their ABCs with “L is for lion” and “B is for bear”, and children still read picture books about Mr. Frog and Mrs. Snake holding tea parties. Henrich suggests that just as the young brain is hard-coded to want to learn language, so it is hard-coded to want to learn the local animal life (little boys’ vehicle obsession may be a weird outgrowth of this; buses and trains are the closest thing to local megafauna that most of them will encounter).

…

Another slot is for gender roles. By now we’ve all heard the stories of progressives who try to raise their children without any exposure to gender. Their failure has sometimes been taken as evidence that gender is hard-coded. But it can’t be quite that simple: some modern gender roles, like girls = pink, are far from obvious or universal. Instead, it looks like children have a hard-coded slot that gender roles go into, work hard to figure out what the local gender roles are (even if their parents are trying to confuse them), then latch onto them and don’t let go.

In the Cultural Intelligence Hypothesis, humans live in obligate symbiosis with a culture. A brain without an associated culture is incomplete and not very useful. So the infant brain is adapted to seek out the important aspects of its local culture almost from birth and fill them into the appropriate slots in order to become whole.

…

I was inspired to read Secret by this review on Scholar’s Stage. I hate to be unoriginal, but after reading the whole book, I agree that the three sections Tanner cites – on divination, on manioc, and on shark taboos – are by far the best and most fascinating.

…

But being genuinely random is important in pursuing mixed game theoretic strategies. Henrich’s view is that divination solved this problem effectively.

I’m reminded of the Romans using augury to decide when and where to attack. This always struck me as crazy; generals are going to risk the lives of thousands of soldiers because they saw a weird bird earlier that morning? But war is a classic example of when a random strategy can be useful. If you’re deciding whether to attack the enemy’s right vs. left flank, it’s important that the enemy can’t predict your decision and send his best defenders there. If you’re generally predictable – and Scott Aaronson says you are – then outsourcing your decision to weird birds might be the best way to go.

…

Rationalists always wonder: how come people aren’t more rational? How come you can prove a thousand times, using Facts and Logic, that something is stupid, and yet people will still keep doing it?

Henrich hints at an answer: for basically all of history, using reason would get you killed.

…

Henrich discusses pregnancy taboos in Fiji; pregnant women are banned from eating sharks. Sure enough, these sharks contain chemicals that can cause birth defects. The women didn’t really know why they weren’t eating the sharks, but when anthropologists demanded a reason, they eventually decided it was because their babies would be born with shark skin rather than human skin. As explanations go, this leaves a lot to be desired. How come you can still eat other fish? Aren’t you worried your kids will have scales? Doesn’t the slightest familiarity with biology prove this mechanism is garbage? But if some smart independent-minded iconoclastic Fijian girl figured any of this out, she would break the taboo and her child would have birth defects.

…

There’s a monster at the end of this book. Humans evolved to transmit culture with high fidelity. And one of the biggest threats to transmitting culture with high fidelity was Reason. Our ancestors lived in Epistemic Hell, where they had to constantly rely on causally opaque processes with justifications that couldn’t possibly be true, and if they ever questioned them then they might die. Historically, Reason has been the villain of the human narrative, a corrosive force that tempts people away from adaptive behavior towards choices that “sounded good at the time”.

Why are people so bad at reasoning? For the same reason they’re so bad at letting poisonous spiders walk all over their face without freaking out. Both “skills” are really bad ideas, most of the people who tried them died in the process, so evolution removed those genes from the population, and successful cultures stigmatized them enough to give people an internalized fear of even trying.

…

This book belongs alongside Seeing Like A State and the works of G.K. Chesterton as attempts to justify tradition, and to argue for organically-evolved institutions over top-down planning. What unique contribution does it make to this canon?

First, a lot more specifically anthropological / paleoanthropological rigor than the other two.

Second, a much crisper focus: Chesterton had only the fuzziest idea that he was writing about cultural evolution, and Scott was only a little clearer. I think Henrich is the only one of the three to use the term, and once you hear it, it’s obviously the right framing.

Third, a sense of how traditions contain the meta-tradition of defending themselves against Reason, and a sense for why this is necessary.

And fourth, maybe we’re not at the point where we really want unique contributions yet. Maybe we’re still at the point where we have to have this hammered in by more and more examples. The temptation is always to say “Ah, yes, a few simple things like taboos against eating poisonous plants may be relics of cultural evolution, but obviously by now we’re at the point where we know which traditions are important vs. random looniness, and we can rationally stick to the important ones while throwing out the garbage.” And then somebody points out to you that actually divination using oracle bones was one of the important traditions, and if you thought you knew better than that and tried to throw it out, your civilization would falter.

Maybe we just need to keep reading more similarly-themed books until this point really sinks in, and we get properly worried.

[bnha-love-imagines-blog]

Mariska #1

Character Profile Full name: Mariska Josephine-Esmeralda Marie-Anne Arlovskaya

Pronunciation: Mar-e-ska Jo-sef-ene Es-mer-al-da Mary-Ann Ar-lov-sky-a

Meaning of Name: Mariska: Of Bitter Sea in Hungarian; Josephine: Diminutive of Joseph (He will add); Esmeralda: Emerald in Portuguese; Marie; Rebellion; Anne: God’s Favor; Arlovskaya; Surname in Belarus

Hero/Villain Name: Alegria (Joy in Portuguese) the Thoughtful hero

Nicknames: Mari, Jo-Jo, Alda, Annie

History of Nicknames: Mari: Diminutive of first name; Jo-Jo: Jealous cousin called her this when he would visit the Arlovskaya estate in order to make fun of her; Alda: Her parents called her this frequently; Annie: Diminutive of Anne

Aliases: N/A

Nationality: Portuguese-Belorussian

Affiliation: Hero

Student Number: 25

Quirk: this would be the official label of the quirk, the in-depth description of it is later: Telekinesis/Pathokinesis

Birthday and Astrology Sign: September 27/Libra

Age: 15 turning 16

How old do they look: 16

Mental Age: 19

Gender: Female/She/Her

Orientation/Sexuality Preference: Bisexual/Biromantic

Birth date: September 27

Birth place: Homyel

Death date: N/A

Death place: N/A

Appearance: Eye color: also mention if this is unusual in the family or society.: Sea foam green eyes

Eye shape: Deep set eyes

Do they wear contacts or glasses?: Reading glasses Hair: Waist length naturally wavy naturally dark blonde hair; dyed strawberry blonde ombre to ash blonde

Height: 5′5

Weight: 140

Body build: slim, lean, muscular, overweight, etc.: Slim thick (small, lean waist, good amount of muscle on bum and legs)

Body shape: pear, hourglass, rectangle, etc.: Hourglass

Complexion: Rose ivory

Cup size: D

Blood Type: O+

Handedness: Right handed

Hand type: big hands, tiny hands, delicate hands, long fingers, short fingers, calloused hands, etc.: Delicate with some callouses from baking and cooking, long fingers, small compared to any male’s

Nails: long, short, dirty, clean, etc.: Oval shaped, long, painted nude, clean

Movement: Graceful

How do they walk: fast, with a limp, slow, hop in their step, swinging arms etc.: Toe first from years of dance

Posture: Relaxed, straight

Flexibility: Ballerina/Gymnast level

Voice: Mezzo-Soprano Belorussian accented

Speech Mannerisms: do they pause, stutter, say “um”, etc.: Licks lips between words, lisp when saying c’s

Scars: A scar on her right hip from her grandfather over pushing her in training and stabbing her (nicked her uterus almost causing her to become sterile but didn’t); A burn scar on her left shoulder from when she made a comment about how she believed they killed her parents

Birthmarks: if any: N/A

Piercings: if any: Double standard earlobe; nose stud on the right

Tattoos: if any: N/A

General face structure: like high cheeks bones, or looks like (insert celebrity): High cheekbones; Facial features are that of Perrie Edwards

Defining physical traits: N/A

Statistics: Power: ★★★☆☆ C  

Speed: ★★★ ☆ ☆ C

Technique: ★★★★☆ B  

Intelligence: ★★★★★ A  

Cooperativeness: ★★ ★ ★ ☆ B

Extra Explanation: N/A

Quirk and description: Telekinesis: Ability to move things with her mind (includes lifting people) Will get bad migraines and ringing in her ears if used too much; Pathokinesis: The ability to sense and control others emotions, Unable to use it on loved ones and has less control over her own emotions after using it for 30 minutes

Clothing: Uniform: UA High School Uniform

Casual outfit: (Changes frequently)

Preferred outfit: Leggings, off brand converse, a faded guns’n’roses crop top

Hero/Villain costume: Catsuit

Equipment / Support Items: if used: Handcuffs, taser, retractable police baton

Accessories: N/A

Jewelry: Rose gold locket with both her parents’ pictures in it, a gold ring with an opal that her father gave her before he died

Characteristics:

Personality:Kind, intelligent, daydreamer; stubborn, frivolous, gullible

Myers-Briggs Type: ENFP-T

Alignment: Chaotic good

Big Five personality traits: Extroversion: 96%; Agreeableness: 95%; Intelligence/Imagination: 91%; Emotional Stability: 9%; Conscientiousness: 5%

Enneagram: Type 2: The Helper

Most prominent personality trait: Kindness

Best traits: that others can see, they believe, etc.: Her kindness

Worst traits: that others can see, they believe, etc.: Her inability to follow plans

Likes: Anything they like to do, eat or see. :  Music, dance, literature, culture (Portuguese, Belorussian, Japanese), yoga, cuisine Dislikes: Anything they don’t like to do, eat or see.:  Large bugs, clowns, her grandparents

Quirks:  (not the superpower but little silly things they do) Hums as she does something, taps her fingers, twirls her hair, rolling her tongue Fear: Her grandparents killing more of those she loves, clowns, large bugs, being too weak

Hobbies: Singing, dancing, reading, yoga, going to the gym, eating, playing guitar, and cooking/baking

Skills/Talents:  Singing, Dancing, Flexibility, Playing guitar, piano, and violin

Strengths: Combat, Intelligence Weaknesses: Her kindness, gullibilty

Reason to keep on living: It would make her parents proud

What is their self-image like: Appearance wise: She believes she’s beautiful except for her scars Personality wise: She is happy with who she is Overall: Okay but hates her past and everything relating to it

Any religious or spiritual faith: Freelance Catholic (Prays with rosary, confesses sins daily, goes to church during holidays, worships the saints)

How does this faith / lack of affect them: It connects her to her mother. She feels at home when she comes home and is able to pray the way she and her mother would when she was a child with the rosary beads

What superstitions do they have: Walking under ladders, breaking mirrors, spilling salt, using the Lord’s name in vain

Coping mechanisms: Prayer, cuddling with her love(s)/her dogs/both

Any life motto or quote they live by: don’t be a jerk, yolo, cup should be half-full always, etc.: “A little thought and a little kindness is worth a lot more than any amount of money”

Favorite things:

Favorite Food(s): Kletski, Galushki, Tsibriki, Arroz Doce, Dobradinha, and Bacalhau com natas

Favorite Drink(s): Water, Green Tea, Coffee

Favorite Color(s): Teal, Purple

Favorite Animal(s): Dogs, Red Pandas

Favorite Number: 13

Favorite Season(s): Fall

Favorite Holiday(s): Christmas (Parents favorite holiday)

Favorite Time of Day: Sunset

Health:

Physical: Healthy

Mental: Not the best because of PTSD and Depression

Emotional Stability: Not the perfect but not terrible when her pathokinesis hasn’t been used

If faced with crisis, what is their go-to: fight, flight, or freeze: If there is someone in danger, fight. If she is in danger or it’s a natural happenstance, flight

Nutrition: Very well, home cooked meals almost daily, has a bit of a sweet tooth though

Habits: this could be sleeping habits, eating habits, nervous ticks, biting fingernails, etc.: Sleeps on left side and mumbles in sleep, eats with mouth closed and as nobility style etiquette, bounces her leg when nervous as well as taps her fingers, meditates and prays daily, good care of body, if she's in a big crowd, she'll accidentally sense a negative emotion or will change someone else's emotion if she is very emotional around those she doesn't know

Family History: example, a certain mental illness or physical disease runs in the family: N/A

History, Background, and Future:

0-4: Happy; Her grandparents seemed kind enough

5-8: She understands more but her parents will protect her

9-11: Age ten, her parents are killed when a piece of construction from the new garden house mysteriously falls in. Her paternal grandparents care for her when her maternal side isn’t doing so; both begin to train her rigorously

12-14: Is trained to beating and pain, she loathes both sides as she knows they caused the “accident”

15-Present: Moves to Japan after getting into U.A

Did they like their upbringing: Loved it until her parents’ death

How has their upbringing shape them: She has become lowkey bitter to older people unless shown they are kind

What did they enjoy most about their childhood?: Cooking with her mom, playing piano with her father, running through the garden

What did they hate most about their childhood?: The pain of loss and the burden of becoming great

Current Dream: be the number one pro-hero, run a successful company, etc.: Be pro-hero with proud parents

Long-term goals for Future: get married, have kids, be successful, be a pro-hero, etc.: Pro-hero married with kids

Home:

Home Life as a Kid: abusive, supportive, neglecting, etc.: Happy then abusive

Home Life Now: abusive, supportive, neglecting, etc.: Generally quiet until moves into dorms and now it’s very supportive and loud

Relationships:

Parent(s): Chiara (Carriedo) Arlovskaya, Ivan Arlovskaya

Sibling(s): N/A

Relative(s): Carmella Carriedo and Antonio Carriedo, Natalya Arlovskaya and Dmitri Arlovskaya

Best Friend(s): Midoriya Izuku, Momo Yaoyorozu, Ochako Uraraka

Friend(s): Iida Tenya, Tsuyu Asui, Kirishima Eijirou

Crush(es): Todoroki Shouto, Katsuki Bakugou, Midoriya Izuku

Pet(s): A Husky named Chi-Chi and a German Shepherd named Vanny (both named after her parents)

Rival(s): N/A

Enemy: Villains, Mineta

Extra:

Smells like Strawberries and Vanilla

Works in a bakery

Social media queen

Amazing photographer with cell phone

Hates snack cakes

Theatre Nerd

Speaks Portuguese, Belorussian, English, and Japanese

Has met Gran Torino and is unofficially his granddaughter

I have edited @izukulove ‘s oc form but nevertheless, it is still theirs and I hope they do not mind my using and editing it! This is the newer, updated version of Mariska! I will number each post by order of release.

[musingsofmaniacs]

The Battle for Our Souls

The biggest casualty of strongmen getting elected that not a lot of people talk or think about, because as Trevor Noah puts ‘Ain’t Nobody Has Time for That’, is the social and personal psyche. There are always two ways to win over, rule or lead people. One is to unite them. To appeal to the similarity, to remind them that there are far more things that unite us than divide us. This is difficult, because humans are evolutionarily primed to focus on the contrasts. Woody Allen once said that if only two people remain on earth after rest of humanity has destroyed itself, the left-handed guy will take on the right handed one. Uniting people is slow painful task where success comes in excruciating increments, where for every one step forward, one risks sliding two back.

Or you could just divide people into tribes that hate each other's guts and make sure your tribe votes harder than theirs. This divide-and-rule strategy is as old as humanity itself, though the motto (divide et impera) is attributed to Philip II of Macedonia. Machiavelli called it an effective strategy to weaken enemies.  British used it in India and advanced into the subcontinent at an astounding pace. And Donald Trump used it to propel himself from a joke candidate to a joke President, only it’s not so funny this time.

Trump has succeeded so well in doing this, that his statement about shooting someone at 5th Avenue in New York and getting away with it seems horrifyingly accurate. In Trump’s tribe, The Man can do no wrong, and any evidence against him make people question the facts themselves. As Trump progresses in office, he keeps alienating his opponents more and more, while his base gets consolidated and strengthened by the day. At this rate 2020 will be less of a battle of ideals and issues and more of a ‘Might-is-Right’ contest between two group.

There was an article in The Economist on how moderates have become an extinct species. Moderate voices will always become a casualty when the discourse takes sharp turn towards ideological extremes. The Republican Party has effectively cannibalised voices with veneer of sanity, and replaced them with gun-toting-Bible-thumping-sons-of-soil; where they would rather vote in a peadophile with tribe loyalty than a moderate critical thinking maverick.

Technology was once a great uniter. It helped the cause of democracy with Arab Spring, India’s Anti-Corruption movement, Net Neutrality and so much more. We elevated the Techpreneurs to messianic figures proclaiming the gospel of hyper-connectedness and outreach. Today, we have to an extent confronted the damage these glorified advertising corporations and their tools can inflict on the state of the nation. The Cambridge Analytica scandal has cast Mark as the villian. The fact remains though that it is foolish of us to feign shock over what we always suspected, and in fact knew, these Ad-holes were up to, and that we would gladly give up privacy for the convenience of sharing a selfie of us with our breakfasts.

The mechanism employed to delegitimise the opponent is straight out of Joseph Goebbels playbook. By constantly referring to your opponents with an unkind adjective, like ‘Crooked Hillary’, ‘Low-Energy Jeb’, ‘Lying Ted’, he is making sure these people are dehumanised and reviled by his support base. Constantly badgering people with lies like election fraud, wiretapping, ‘witch hunt’ and crowd size makes the fan base buy into the idea of widespread conspiracy. Hell, Trump has even thrown FBI into jeopardy to increase his support among his base.

The ruling party in India has adopted a similar strategy to delegitimise opposition, with its highly effective social media machinery belting out catchphrases and blurbs like ‘Pappu’ and aggressively sharing memes about how great their Exalted Highness is. The discourse has descended into primitive tribalism so badly, that the supporters are finding it difficult to see any wrong in the rape of an eight year old girl. Systematic, some subtle and some not so subtle, efforts to equate loyalty and blind Nationalism to patriotism is underway. Party spokespersons ask us to be grateful that people are not jailed for speaking out against the government. Leaders bayed for arrest of the family after a man was lynched for alleged possession of beef, conveniently ignoring the brutal mob justice part or even describing the mob as innocent! That the most populous state in the country is now ruled by a fanatic whose government does not regard Taj Mahal as a monument worthy of endorsement. School textbooks are being tweaked to suit the ideology of the ruling party, extolling the virtues of debatable schemes rolled out by the government and disregarding achievements of previous governments.

That’s all OK, but what’s it got to do with you and me?

Image Courtesy: FunEcho, YouTube

Valid question. That takes us to where we started. Let’s begin with Trump. Everytime the POTUS tweets, that becomes the news. Trump is keenly aware of this. And he was a reality TV star. So he keeps peppering them with generous doses of outrageous statements. Martin Scorsese used a similar trick to get Taxi Driver approved with R rating with its bloody scenes. MPAA wanted to give the film an X, but by submitting the film uncut again and again, he desensitised the censors and got them to give an R. We now accept that the leader of the free world will bully anybody who opposes him using unkind words absolutely unbecoming of a man of his stature. We accept that a president can just support Nazis and not expect impeachment at all. As the administration turns the government into a cemetery, the public is letting smaller skeletons slide. In India, the fringe has come out of hiding. We are finding it okay, and even legitimate that there be a sound logic to murder of a senior journalist for her strong views against The Party. Demonising minority community and dissing them openly is becoming more and more mainstream. Leaders who have called for violence against the minorities, who have engineered riots, who have made fake exodus claims, are now finding themselves elected and popular, because they work ‘18 hours’ a day and ‘transfer non-performing bureaucrats’. That when a violent opposition towards a mediocre period drama resulted in a school bus with kids getting stones pelted, the social media devotees defended by commenting at least nobody was injured.  That when pointed about States violating freedom of speech, one gets responses such as ‘Do you have guts to make a movie on the other religion’.

There is a decline in the political and moral discourse. The emphasis is less on merits and demerits of ideas and more on the person or the party behind it. When this happens, debates gets infused with sentimentality. When you have an opposing political stand to a coworker or a friend or family, things get taken personally and suddenly, you are an enemy. You are to them, trying to undermine the effort of a man working 20 hour days trying to save the country from decay that everybody else had wrought upon for 60 years. Imagine the arrogance we allow when we idolise people that were once considered fringe and vilify everybody else who have had an important role to play in the country’s history. Nehru may have made mistakes, but he did what he thought was best for the country. So did Gandhi..

When we mainstreamise the fringe, where do we go from there? When we shut our eyes to rationality and reason and have unquestioning and blind faith in a party or a man, it undoes the centuries worth of works of soldiers and writers and philosophers and saints and statesmen who fought for ideals that ask us to rise above the petty tribalism. The very idea that the ideals, the morals, the rights, the institutions are greater than a person, a party, a caste, a religion or a group might be at stake here. The great war today is not between right and left, between Trump and Dems, between One Man and the 19 odd parties; it is between the works of centuries that has woven a fragile fabric of our socio-economico-politico-moral existence with enough checks and balances and our primitive instincts that threaten to tear it all apart, testing these checks to the limit.

In other words, it's a battle for our collective souls.

References:

1. Taxi Driver: https://books.google.com/books?id=40UTI-uUHpwC&pg=PA108&dq=%22We+got+congratulated+on+changes+that+we+never+made%22&hl=en&sa=X&ei=iU1mUqH7HYeTrgf6kYCQDA&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=%22We%20got%20congratulated%20on%20changes%20that%20we%20never%20made%22&f=false

2. The Economist Article: https://www.economist.com/united-states/2016/01/14/the-centre-cannot-hold?fsrc=scn/fb/te/pe/ed/thecentrecannothold

3. The war on textbooks: https://washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2018/06/01/indias-new-textbooks-are-promoting-the-prime-ministers-favorite-policies-critics-allege/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.0cfb5af3c8e4

4. Beef over beef: https://firstpost.com/india/dadri-lynching-take-action-against-akhlaqs-kin-for-eating-beef-says-adityanath-2811776.html

[fandomscenariosforyou]

i was curious as to if you had any headcanons about the guys and their weddings, like, what songs do you think they'd want for first dances and things like that aaa! i also hope youre having a lovely day ma cherie!

Can you do a preference where that they are married after the war. Please. -AnonHey so idk if you’ve done one already, but band of brothers proposals preferences? - @becauseflifeHey Jax I’m really sorry if I’m bothering you 😬 Could I have a BoB preference for what song you slow dance to? - @herewegoagainniall 

Richard Winters:

First Dance: Unforgettable-Nat King Cole

This dork of course is gonna plan some special trip and once your attention is taken back by some amazing landmark or architecture, he is on his knee and whispering that you’re more beautiful than anything ya’ll saw.

Lewis Nixon:

First Dance: Thinking Out Loud-Ed Sheeran

He is so nervous that he is just gonna be himself and pull it out of nowhere ‘Wanna hold onto this for me?’ and it leaves you confused which only makes him smile more, especially when your yes comes out as a question.

Carwood Lipton:

First Dance: All Of Me-John Legend

I love the idea of really nervous rambly Lipton so he gets into a groove and then loses it causing him to ramble on about why you should marry him until you’re laughing and nodding enough for him to get the message.

Denver ‘Bull’ Randleman:

First Dance: Everything I Do-Bryan Adams

Randleman is a very feel the moment kind of guy so there is no nervousness it’s just flat out ‘I love you and let me tell you why and let me tell you every day’ also I love the idea of it being in the idea because you both get caught in it and he can’t help but look at you okay I’ll stop

Joe Toye:

First Dance: I Can’t Help Falling In Love-Elvis Presley

OKAY LOOK-Toye loves to sing and though he may not be the best at it, I can totally see him singing to his S.O. just to make it different and special (bonus if his S.O. is trying not to laugh and he’s all stuttery and laughing along)

George Luz:

First Dance: Lucky-Colbie Caillat, Jason Mraz

Luz is gonna get your hopes up and then joke about it at the last minute to just see you smile and then he gets suuuuuuuper gushy and will leave you in tears by the time you say yes

Eugene Roe:

First Dance: Lay Me Down- Sam Smith

One of you most likely got hurt (even if it was a baby scratch) and he’s like ‘look I don’t have a ring but I can’t stand the thought of losing you and I need to make sure you’re always by my side’ and the attention goes to you saying yes rather than the blood on both of your uniforms

Joseph Liebgott:

First Dance: Iris-The Goo Goo Dolls

Liebgott is gonna bring back up some snarky comment he made when you first met or got to know each other and incorporate it into his proposal and let’s be honest he gets teary eyed when he finally gets to saying your full name before popping the question

Lynn ‘Buck’ Compton:

First Dance: Make You Feel My Love-Adele

He gets the boys to help him because he knows how much they care for you both and knew it would make you melt; it completely throws you off when every boy in the company got out their dress greens just to make it ‘fancy’

Donald Malarkey:

First Dance: Kiss Me-Ed Sheeran

Malarkey is the ‘wow so I’ve had this ring for weeks waiting for the right moment but you look stunning right now so what do i have to lose’ and does it when you’re doing the simplest thing with this ridiculous smile on his face

Warren ‘Skip’ Muck:

First Dance: Somewhere Only We Know-Keane

He definitely makes a sign or big portrait out of pictures of the both of you or little quotes/banter between the two of you and he is standing there with a rose in his hand, the ring sitting in the center and he is so nervous he forgets to get down on his knee

Bill Guarnere:

First Dance:L-O-V-E-Nat King Cole

It starts with Guarnere thinking to himself what he really wants and all he can think about is how he wants you and he just blurts out ‘Let’s get married, tonight.’ with the most confident smile you think you have ever seen because it’s the only thing he’s really sure of

Darrell ‘Shifty’ Powers:

First Dance: White Blood-Oh Wonder

Shifty goes off on this long speech about how you have impacted him and how the only shot he has at happiness is being with you because after all this time you have became happiness in its entirety to him (you’’ probably have to shut him up with a kiss)

Frank Perconte:

First Dance: Can’t Take My Eyes Off Of You-Frankie Valli

He starts it as a game ‘catch whatever I slide to you’ and then suddenly it’s a diamond ring and he is looking at you with those puppy dog eyes and half smile ‘so…what do you say?’

Ronald Speirs:

First Dance: You and Me-Lifehouse

He is so nervous omg it’s terrible he starts off good but then it fizzles into ‘okay I’m terrible with words and we all know this so I’m just gonna say it’) the proposal literally takes 10 seconds because he is so ready to get this butterfly feeling out of his stomach

Edward ‘Babe’ Heffron:

First Dance: La Vie En Rose-Louis Armstrong

It’s sweet and intimate and he is sweet and nervous but somehow finds all the right words to take your breath away and leave you with no words which leads you to just nodding your head and trying not to smile too wide

Chuck Grant:

First Dance: At Last-Etta James

You’re just doing what you usually do and for some reason he just blurts out ‘Will you marry me?’ and you’re like um?? and after he processes when he just said he’s like ‘wait no I mean it!! I’ll get a ring and everything’ it’s a spur of the moment but it’s absolutely perfect

Floyd Talbert:

First Dance: Perfect-Ed Sheeran

What a drama queen, he strides into the room with a tux on all confidently and just glides onto his knee, smirking at how your face looks during this whole montage ‘I’m pretty sure you know where I’m going with this so’ and he will drag out your name just to see you roll your eyes and make him get to the point already

David Webster:

First Dance: Thousand Years-Christina Perri

Romance geek! Lights candles, lays out rose petals, and makes sure its only the two of you because he wants it to be raw and intimate and before he can even get out the sentence his voice is cracking because it just feels so right

Harry Welsh:

First Dance: The Way You Look Tonight-Tony Bennett

His proposal is so sweet and he has tears streaming down his face which causes you to bend down and wipes the tears away ending the proposal in you both on the ground crying with sweet words whispered between the two of you

Alex Penkala:

First Dance: You Make Me Smile-Uncle Kracker

He proposes with a ring pop and don’t even tell me he doesn’t! It’s dorky and sweet and he doesn’t take these things super seriously he wants it to be a playful and pure moment

Wayne ‘Skinny’ Sisk:

First Dance:I’M Yours-Jason Mraz

You will both be having a casual conversation and he’s like ‘you’re my best friend you know? I want you to be my best friend forever’ he’s laughing at your expression and how unbelievably taken off-guard you are

Johnny Martin:

First Dance: When A Man Loves A  Woman-Percy Sledge

Martin is a funny case it’s probably due to you being flirted with or sarcastic banter and he just shouts ‘Marry me already! I hate the idea of you being with anyone else’ and it ends with him roughly pushing his lips against yours before you can even say yes

Donald Hoobler:

First Dance: Truly Madly Deeply-Savage Garden

Hoob probably surprises you with a gift and hides in the room as you enter and gets on his knee behind you waiting to see you jump and hands fly up to cover your mouth in shock at this little bean

[faithfulnews]

I’m learning about Bernie Sanders from his employees and supporters

This Bernie Sanders supporter shot Republican Congressmen at a baseball game

One way to learn about a political candidate is by looking at the kinds of people who work for them. Candidates don’t say anything in their campaign speeches or campaign ads that might hurt their chances of being elected. But if you listen to their employees, and look at the actions of their employees, you can find out where they stand. Let’s look at two employees of Bernie Sanders.

Here is the latest reported by the Daily Wire:

A far-left campaign staffer for 2020 Democratic Party presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) appeared to repeatedly advocate for the use of extreme violence in an undercover video that was released on Tuesday by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas.

Sanders campaign Iowa field organizer Kyle Jurek was busted making the following statements in a variety of settings:

On reaching people that he deems to be “fascists”: “The only thing that works, the only thing that fascists understand is violence. So, the only way you can confront them is with violence.”

On what happens if Trump is re-elected: “F***ing cities burn.”

On if Trump supporters should be “re-educated”: “I mean, we gotta try, so like, in Nazi Germany after the fall of the Nazi party there was a s**t ton of the populace that was f***ing Nazified. Germany had to spend billions of dollars re-educating their f***ing people to not be Nazis. Like, we’re probably going to have to do the same f***ing thing here. That’s kind of what Bernie’s whole f***ing like, ‘hey, free education for everybody!’ because we’re going to have to teach you to not be a f***ing Nazi.”

On Soviet gulags: “There’s a reason Joseph Stalin had gulags, right?”

On what will happen if Sanders does not win the Democratic nomination: “If Bernie doesn’t get the nomination or it goes to a second round at the DNC convention, f***ing Milwaukee will burn. It’ll start in Milwaukee and then when they f***ing, and when the police push back on that, other cities will just f***ing [explosion sound and gesture]. … Be ready to be in Milwaukee for the DNC convention. That’s all I’m gonna say. …”

On using violence against those who use offensive free speech: “Whatever it takes, and that’s why they’re like ‘oh, anti-fascists are violent,’ it’s because we’re willing to go about and beyond what the law says is acceptable, like oh free speech, yeah like they try to be like ‘oh you’re against free speech’ and no, we’re not against free speech, we’re against f***ing hate speech, and if your speech is something that like these people shouldn’t exist, then I don’t give a f*** if it’s free speech or not, you don’t need, like free speech has repercussions. … Yeah, there are consequences to your f***ing speech, right? And if your speech is calling for the elimination of people based on race, or gender, or religious like for whatever reason, things that people can’t change, then you should expect a f***ing violent reaction and you deserve a violent reaction because that’s just not an acceptable thing. It’s not acceptable.”

On wanting to “throw down”: “I’m ready to throw down now. I don’t want to wait and have to wait for f***ing DNC [against] the billionaire class. The f***ing media, pundits. Walk into that MSNBC studios, drag those motherf***ers out by their hair and light them on fire in the streets.”

On what will happen to those who oppose Sanders’ agenda: “Well, I’ll tell you what, in Cuba, what did they do to reactionaries? … Do you wants to fight against the revolution? You’re gonna die for it motherf***er.”

And here is the video:

OK, fine. So that’s what the people who work for Bernie Sanders say. But what about their actions? Do they actually put their words into practice in their actions?

The far-left Washington Post explains:

The man suspected of firing dozens of rounds into an Alexandria baseball field Wednesday morning has been identified by federal law enforcement officials as James T. Hodgkinson, 66, of Belleville, Ill.

A Facebook page belonging to a person with the same name includes pictures of Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, and rhetoric against President Trump, including a post that reads: “Trump is a Traitor. Trump Has Destroyed Our Democracy. It’s Time to Destroy Trump & Co.”

Now, you might say, “well that’s not what Bernie Sanders believes, that’s just what his employees and supporters believe”. The thing is, Bernie Sanders has been defending communist regimes FOR DECADES, and those regimes kill millions and millions of innocent people. So you really have to look at what Bernie Sanders says about those murderous communist regimes if you want to know what he thinks is an acceptable cost for implementing the communism he admires so much.

Here is a good re-cap about what Bernie Sanders has said in the past about countries that adopted communism:

Naturally, Bernie Sanders is not going to say anything in an election campaign that would cause voters to not vote for him. That’s why it’s important to look at his employees, supporters, and previous statements.

Go to the article

[survivor-iceland]

Finale - “they all think they can beat me and I want them all to think that” - Joseph

Jack

So I played my idol on myself, canceled out 3 votes on me :) and Raffy got one on himself from Zoe in case they went for him. Now we have the legit majority and hopefully it'll be straight to final 3. I'm like semi confident that I could beat Zoe and Raffy? maybe? Idk depends on whether I can like do a good jury speech, which idk how to do aRgUmEnTs. There's the like potential of taking Joseph as a "Goat" but also that's not that much fun sooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Raffy

Maynor is finally out of this game and I could not be happier. Our plan worked perfectly, and there are now no more idols left in this game. That means that, as long as I have the numbers which I think I do, I can take out whoever I please. It  has to be Jack and Timmy because they are the biggest threats to win. I have a feeling that I will need a strong case at jury to win, but I believe that I can make it. 

Timmy

I want to cry so bad. That’s why I had to turn my camera off because I love him and seeing him go was so sad to see him go. Like he is my person in and out of the game. And just thinking as well that it’s obvious I’ll be next, which is so dumb because I think raffy could win this. And I think he is a much bigger threat than me and if the f3 is Joseph, Jack, and Zoe I will die because what mess of an f3 that would be. It’s going to be a huge uphill battle and it’s so upsetting. I’m so sad and feel defeated, but there is no way in hell that I’m going to give up. 

Timmy

I hate that I’m not doing well in challenges. My thing is being good at challenges. There are games where I’m such a physical player and a threat because of that and I love being in that position because I’m weak beyond orgs so having that makes me happy. Here is not the case and I hate it. I think I’ve done well in this challenge but i wish I could have another live endurance challenge just to prove to myself I can last since I do alright in those. Not necessarily winning but at least second. I just want to win this game because i beat 6th which is difficult for me so I want to make it. It’s still only hours after tribal so I’m still emotional and want revenge because they took Maynor out and I hate them all for that. I would’ve rather risked myself for him to stay because he deserved it more. But I’m here so I have to fight hard and win. 

Raffy

Timmy and I were chatting last night, and he made some really great points on why Jack should go. I've always thought that he shouldn't make FTC, and, if he doesn't win immunity, it is likely that he will be the next juror. I am just scared that people will view this as Timmy's move rather than mine because they might see it as Timmy being manipulative. Both have great storylines, but it comes down to who I think I can beat in an immunity challenge. 

Zoe

I used my idol on Raffy last night at tribal after we finally voted out Maynor, who was becoming the challenge threat of the game. It ended up being a wasted idol play, but it ultimately protected my Raffy/Jack alliance until the final three, where I feel I can make a better case for myself than either of them. I did well in the challenge after I finally got it to work, and I hope it was enough to secure another two days for myself in... Iceland.

Timmy

Well I’m going. And these people are dumb for that. Raffy and Zoe are a big pair and Jack is gonna be an idiot and vote with them. But will I try to stay...well hell yea.

Raffy

I hate that I lost the immunity challenge because I am scared more than ever that I am getting the wool pulled over my eyes. Plus, I don't think anyone in my alliance has gotten the idol which means that Timmy or Joseph have it. I am scared for my game in this moment, but I hope that Timmy sees that Jack is a bigger threat than me in the long run. I just have to hope he's telling the truth, and that Jack is not betraying me. There are so many "what if..." factors in this tribal that I am starting to get freaked out. I think this is the moment where I either lose this game or win it. I have to decide now. 

Raffy

I made Timmy promise me that if he is pulling the wool over my eyes that he will lose my jury vote and I made the same promise to him. We got an unbreakable vow going on here. So, we shall see how this goes in the long run. 

Jack

I was dumb and didn't submit the other games i played of the challenge cause i thought it had to be just 5 so like WHOOPS IM DUMB. But luckily Zoe won and not like Timmy cause we're going for him tonight. Should be a simple vote unless hes got an idol but yeah. Also maybe were doing a live tribal and live votes like rn so WHOA. Also i finished an idol hunt path so dun dun dun maybe I WAS THE ONE THE FOUND THE IDOL. That would be coollllllllllllll 

Timmy

HOW TF DID IT WORK???? Like I’m in final 4!!! I love this so much!! 

Jack

WELL. So Raffy flipped and voted me but Joseph and Timmy went for Raffy so we had 2 votes Timmy, 2 votes Raffy, one vote me, and then a revote between Raffy and Timmy. We decided to go for Raffy because at the final 3 I think i could beat Timmy more than Raffy, plus for next vote we can get Joseph could be more easily be swayed to vote with us to get Timmy out if Timmy loses immunity. Me and Zoe are like accidentally like planning on taking Joseph to the end as a goat only cause original plan was with Raffy and not Timmy. I can see like 50/50 between me and Zoe winning, and honestly I'd rather do that and actually fight it out with our cases than like trying to do a flip on her or smthn. Maybe these are cursed words and that's exactly what she plans on doing to me, but hopefully it doesn't and ill get immunity on top of that too. 

Joseph Collins

Tis I, goat Joseph. Timmy wanted to vote jack out, but I put that thang down, flipped it and reversed it so raffys game could blow up in his face. This was MY plan, something I’ll get credit for. He voted for jack. The only vote for jack. And me and Tim Tim voted for raffy. And it doesn’t take much convincing to vote out somebody that voted for you. I’m feeling a small amount of regret. I think I could’ve beat raffy at the end tbh. Now I gotta keep my head low, get to FTC and see where the cards lie. I know they all think they can beat me and I want them all to think that. If I win this final immunity, it might mean nothing to the jury. 

Timmy

I can’t believe I just won final immunity!!!!!! I’m happy with the game I’ve played so far and to be able to plead my case is so exciting. I know there are people who are going to be bitter and angry at me for moves that I’ve made, but there are also people who are going to respect what I’ve done. I want Zoe out because i think she is my biggest competition right now. Hopefully all goes according to plan, but either way I MADE FTC!

Jack

So shitty IRL stuff with grandmothers passing away aside, in the game news Timmy won immunity (Jesus fuck we should have got him out and kept Raffy wtf) so Zoe or I will probably have to go against Joseph in fire making tonight. Zoe and I basically were like "Let's not flip on each other to get to final 3" and so hopefully she's not doing that. Timmy though is trying to get me to vote Zoe. Multiple reason's I don't wanna do that: 1. Above mentioned pact to not do that, 2. The accidental streak of people cursed to go home the second they flip on their alliance, 3. Because legit it could be like I vote Zoe and then Timmy and Joseph got for me and then i go home 2-1-1 so yeah no imma not.

[vox]

The Portland stabbing is the latest in a wave of racist attacks across America

Three strangers saved her and her friend’s life — and two of them died in doing so.

On Friday, 16-year-old Destinee Mangum and her 17-year-old Muslim friend, who was wearing a hijab, were on a Portland, Oregon, light-rail train when a man — now identified as 35-year-old Jeremy Joseph Christian — yelled what police described as “hate speech toward a variety of ethnicities and religions.” Mangum and her friend moved away from the man, fearing for their lives.

Strangers intervened, telling the man he couldn’t disrespect the girls like that. What started as an argument suddenly turned violent, however, as Christian allegedly began stabbing people.

Ricky John Best, a 53-year-old military veteran, and Taliesin Myrddin Namkai-Meche, a 23-year-old who graduated from Reed College last year, died as a result of their wounds. Micah Fletcher, 21, is being treated at a hospital after he was seriously injured, according to CNN.

In an interview with local news station Fox 12, Mangum’s mother, Dyjuana Hudson, thanked the people who protected her daughter. “I want to say thank you so much,” she said. “I couldn’t imagine what you’re going through right now as far as losing someone.”

Christian, meanwhile, was caught after several people chased after him and called 911, directing police to him. He’s charged with two counts of aggravated murder and one count of attempted murder.

It’s unclear if Christian will be charged with a hate crime, but he has a history of racist actions. Police said he went on a racist tirade on a train the day before the attack, but nothing was done about that incident. On his Facebook page, he appeared to support Nazis and Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh, according to CBS News.

The attack is particularly awful as it comes during the beginning of Ramadan, the Muslim holy month.

More broadly, it’s just the latest act in what seems like a wave of hate crimes following President Donald Trump’s election in November. Trump condemned the Portland attack on Twitter, but his racist, Islamophobic, and anti-immigrant rhetoric on the campaign trail has been widely criticized as a reason for a potential uptick in such bigoted acts.

Earlier in May, Sean Urbanski, who’s white, stabbed and killed Richard Collins, who’s black, at the University of Maryland. And before that, there were reports of mosques being burned, violent attacks against Indians, and a drive-by shooting at the Tulsa, Oklahoma, headquarters for the LGBTQ organization Oklahomans for Equality. Not all of these attacks have been verified as acts motivated by bigotry or directly linked to Trump, but they’re certainly a cause for alarm.

So is America experiencing a rise in hateful attacks? The unsettling truth is we just don’t know — in large part because the US does such a bad job tracking hate crimes nationally that it’s hard to find any good statistics to compare the current figures to. But the numbers we do have suggest that certain groups, particularly Muslims, have faced more hate in the past several years.

Read the full article here. 

[thisdaynews]

The #MAGA Lawyer Behind Michael Flynn’s Scorched-Earth Legal Strategy

New Post has been published on https://thebiafrastar.com/the-maga-lawyer-behind-michael-flynns-scorched-earth-legal-strategy/

The #MAGA Lawyer Behind Michael Flynn’s Scorched-Earth Legal Strategy

Misty Keasler for POLITICO Magazine

Keith Kloor is a writer in New York and adjunct professor of journalism at New York University.

The three-day conference in November 2018 was called “Operation Classified” and promised attendees they would “come away with a comprehensive understanding of the Deep State.” Featured speakers, gathered at a Hilton hotel in a Dallas suburb, included militia leaders, anti-vaxxers, a UFO activist, as well as a former federal prosecutor named Sidney Powell, who delivered a somber, noteless recitation in a folksy Southern accent.

Powell was there as a leading proponent, on cable news and in op-eds, of a conspiratorial narrative advanced by the far right: that special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation was part of a plot by the intelligence communityto force President Donald Trump from office. Her talk was titled “Creeps on a Mission to Destroy the President,” a phrase she had coined on “Hannity” and then turned into a pro-Trump, T-shirt-selling website to denounce Mueller and his team of investigators. “This goes so deep and so wide, it is unbelievable,” Powell said with a heavy sigh during her 40-minute speech.

In the audience was Joseph Flynn, brother of Michael Flynn—the retired three-star lieutenant general who had served briefly as Trump’s first national security adviser before agreeing to cooperate with the Mueller probe and pleading guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Russia’s ambassador to the United States. The conference, in fact, was part of a fundraiser for Flynn’s legal defense fund, of which Joseph is a trustee, along with his sister Barbara Redgate. For more than a year, Michael Flynn had been defended by Covington & Burling, the powerful white-shoe law firm, but his siblings believed their brother’s guilty plea was “a decision made in haste,” as Joseph put it to me. They wanted to fight, not surrender. Michael Flynn did too, according to Joseph: “He never felt he was guilty. He never felt he committed any crimes. We only pled guilty because he had shitty legal counsel on this.” (Covington & Burling declined to comment.)

At the Dallas conference, Joseph Flynn introduced himself to Powell, who already knew his sister. The two spoke at length over coffee, finding that they saw Michael Flynn’s case the same way, they both told POLITICO Magazine. Powell believed that Flynn, like Trump, was a victim of a purported deep state plot, and that he had pleaded guilty only because he was coerced by overzealous prosecutors. “She was very much in tune with General Mike’s case,” Redgate told me. “Sidney,” Joseph says, “is a fighter”—which he says he emphasized to his brother.

Seven months later—after Powell had publicly exhorted Michael Flynn to withdraw his guilty plea and consider finding another lawyer—Flynn fired his team at Covington & Burling and hired Powell as his lead attorney. It was a striking turnabout: Flynn went from seeming to take the high road, by cooperating with the Mueller investigation, to seeking legal counsel from a Fox News pundit who thought Mueller was the perpetrator and Flynn the victim.

While Trump praised the new hire on Twitter, calling Powell a “GREAT LAWYER,” legal observers scratched their heads. Powell, who is in her 60s (she would not confirm her exact age), had shared content from social media accounts associated with QAnon, the wide-ranging conspiracy movement holding in part that Trump is doing battle with demonic, pedophile-loving Democrats and members of the deep state. The timing was also odd. Flynn’s sentencing had been delayed at that point because of procedural issues, but it was expected soon. And Mueller had recommended that Flynn receive no prison time because of the “substantial assistance” he provided in the special counsel investigation. (Flynn, under Powell’s advisement, is not speaking to the media.)

It was clear soon enough that Powell was taking a different tack. In August, she moved to have Flynn’s case dismissed for what she called “pernicious” prosecutorial misconduct, and requested that Emmet Sullivan, the presiding District Court judge, hold prosecutors in contempt for allegedly hiding FBI documents and communications that she said proved Flynn was pressured to plead guilty. In a court brief filed in October, she asserted that Flynn had been “deliberately targeted for destruction” by the intelligence community. The government countered that it had already relinquished any relevant material and that Powell was advancing “conspiracy theories” to fish for evidence that did not exist.

When I met Powell in Manhattan early last month, I asked if she was concerned the new aggressive legal strategy might backfire; Flynn had already reaffirmed his guilty plea a year ago in a testy hearing before Sullivan, who is respected as a fair-minded, no-nonsense jurist. But Powell was feeling bullish. “There’s not going to be a sentencing,” she said to me over breakfast at the W Hotel in Times Square. She wore a beige turtleneck sweater and a diamond necklace that sparkled, like the glint in her eye when she made her prediction.

“I don’t know how, but I can read the way these particular government lawyers say things to know that they are lying and hiding things,” she explained, referring to the prosecutors in the Flynn case. “And I knew as soon as I started hearing and seeing what was going on with General Flynn that he had been set up.” (The lead prosecutor in the Flynn case did not respond to requests for comment for this article.)

Reality struck several days after our breakfast, when Sullivan unequivocally rejected Powell’s requests for additional government documents and for the case to be dismissed. He also spurned her argument that Flynn had been framed, writing in an icy 92-page opinion that the retired general’s false statements to the FBI were “undisputed.” Sullivan set January 28 as Flynn’s new sentencing date. Shortly afterward, government prosecutors recommended that Flynn receive up to six months in prison—a reversal of the earlier recommendation that he not be incarcerated. “Maybe Hiring Sidney Powell Was a Huge, Monstrous Mistake for Michael Flynn,” one headline suggested.

This week, Flynn officially sought to withdraw his guilty plea “because of the government’s bad faith, vindictiveness, and breach of the plea agreement,” as Powell wrote in a court brief. Sullivan pushed back the sentencing by another month to consider the unusual request. But, says Barbara McQuade, a University of Michigan law professor and former U.S. attorney specializing in national security matters, “The scorched-earth strategy that Powell is using is rarely effective with judges.”

That Powell was seemingly blind to this likely outcome speaks to her full embrace of the Trumpian ethos of grievance and “alternative facts.” Which wasn’t always her M.O.: A federal prosecutor herself for a decade, Powell turned on her own ilk and spent years making a forceful case against prosecutorial overreach—a legitimate issue. It was when her cause came to align with Trump’s and Flynn’s plight as targets of Mueller’s probe that she worked her way intoa deep state-hating, MAGA-loving network that landed her a high-profile client.

But the MAGA echo chamber, it seems, doesn’t always benefit its residents once they’re outside that bubble. While a strategy of denial and attacking the enemy might have worked for Trump during the Mueller investigation (and might yet work for him in his impeachment trial), Michael Flynn is not the president. If her client ends up in prison, it might be because of the Trumpian strategy Sidney Powell embraced.

“Crackpot conspiracy theories get easy traction on the internet,” says John Schindler, a former NSA analyst who has been critical of Flynn, but also of Hillary Clinton and the FBI. “They’re less likely to do well in federal court.”

Sidney Powell’s story,up to a point, is the very model of a high-achieving lawyer.

She knew from an early age what she wanted to do with her life. “My mother said I used to come home from kindergarten and watch ‘Perry Mason,’” recalls Powell, who grew up in a tight-knit working-class family in Raleigh, North Carolina. She was 19 when, in 1974, she was accepted into law school at the University of North Carolina, after rushing through her B.A. at UNC. “I was on student loans,” Powell explains. “My family couldn’t afford to help. … I knew what I wanted to do. I didn’t see any reason in stringing it out.”

Powell’s close friends describe her as smart, fearless and intensely driven. At the outset of her career, in the late 1970s and early 1980s she worked as a federal prosecutor in the Western District of Texas, along the border, which back then “was on the front lines of the drug wars,” says Carl Pierce, her colleague at the time, who headed up a special drug trafficking unit. It was a harrowing period, he says: “They were trying to kill our witnesses, assassinate our prosecutors.” A judge in one of Pierce’s cases was killed six weeks after Powell arrived on the job. According to Pierce, there were times when the government attorneys had to wear bulletproof vests and be escorted by federal marshals. “I was trying these [drug] cases, and Sidney was keeping them convicted on appeal,” Pierce says. “She’s a superb appellate lawyer.”

After roughly 10 years with the Justice Department, Powell struck out on her own as a federal appellate lawyer. She would go on to represent an array of private-sector clients, appealing judgments and sanctions related to health care, medical malpractice and environmental issues, among other areas. As she would later boast in a 2015 talk, “People usually call me when the ox is kind of deep in the ditch,” and needs a way out.

A turning point for Powell came in the 2000s when she spent nearly a decade representing executives caught up in the Enron scandal, in which the chief executives of the Texas-based energy company were convicted for financial fraud. Some of the government’s Enron-related cases, including two of Powell’s, were eventually overturned by higher courts for various legal reasons. Whether government prosecutors involved in Enron-related cases were just being aggressive or had abused their power is a matter of debate. Powell, for her part, came away from the experience believing the prosecutors had bent the law to unfairly prosecute her clients and were never held to account for their actions. She became convinced that “prosecutorial misconduct,” in the form of suppression of evidence favorable to the defense, was a widespread problem in the judicial system.

In 2014, she laid out her case in a self-published book,Licensed to Lie, which, as Powell puts it on her website, “reveals the strong-arm, illegal, and unethical tactics used by headline-grabbing federal prosecutors in their narcissistic pursuit of power to the highest halls of our government.” Powell says she wrote the book “because I couldn’t get the system to work.” (When professional legal associations wouldn’t act on her ethics grievances against the prosecutors, Powell says, she considered quitting law altogether.) In his foreword to the book, Alex Kozinski, an influential federal judge who retired abruptly in 2017, after multiple accusations of sexual harassment, heaped praise on Powell but stopped short of endorsing her sweeping claims. Still, he wrote,Licensed to Lie“should serve as the beginning of a serious conversation about whether our criminal justice system continues to live up to its vaunted reputation.”

That didn’t exactly happen. In fact, for several years after it was published, Powell and the book were largely ignored, which infuriated her. Powell believes the media, even on the right, made “a significant effort to kill this book with silence,” as she put it in a 2015 talk. The conspiracy evidently extended to Amazon and Barnes & Noble, which, she claimed, made her book difficult to buy. “I actually thought we had freedom of press until I wrote the book,” she said in her talk at “Operation Classified.” (While reporting this article, I bought a copy at my local Barnes & Noble in Brooklyn.)

Powell says she does not care for politics, and there may have been some truth to this at one point: As the 2016 presidential campaign was ramping up, she took off for a six-month, around-the-world cruise and then athree-week trip to Antarctica, which she made a video about and posted to YouTube. But after the 2016 election, she eagerly hopped aboard the Trump train and startedplugging her book on Twitter, fruitlessly tagging conservative luminaries like Lou Dobbs, Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson and raving that it “reads like Grisham but it’s true!” Again, she was met with silence.

In the summer of 2017, Powell’s luck changed. The team of legal investigators Mueller assembled for the Russia probe included several Justice Department alumni who happened to have been the same prosecutors she had villainized inLicensed to Lie. Robert Mueller, she tweeted, was “hiring out of my book!” Powell issued red alerts via Twitter and op-eds: “It’s all about WHO they want to get & they’ll do ANYTHING to win,” she tweeted in June, tagging Newt Gingrich, Hannity and the White House press secretary. This time, her somewhat niche interest aligned with Trump’s own circumstances, and conservative power brokers heeded her call. Over the summer, Gingrich began promoting Powell’s book all over the media.Licensed to Lie,the former GOP House speaker and Trump ally said on Twitter, was “about to become a very important book.”

Powell rode her sudden wave of celebrity to political relevance and began appearing on the shows that had previously ignored her, embracing Trumpian talking points about not only the Mueller report but other issues, too. On Dobbs’ show, to take one example, Powell suggested that “the continued invasion of this country” by immigrants might be the cause of “diseases spreading across the country that are causing polio-like paralysis of our children.”

“Sidney the Media Figure,” as Powell describes herself on one of her websites, is a somewhat amped-up version of her real-life persona. One of Powell’s neighbors in Dallas, Patricia Falvey, an author of historical fiction who does not identify as Republican, told me Powell’s friends aren’t all in “lockstep” with her politically; Falvey and Powell mostly talk about family, travel and charity work. (Powell has a grown son from a marriage that ended in divorce decades ago, and she has long done volunteer work for women’s shelters, among other causes.)

But anyone watching Powell’s media hits or following her rat-a-tat Twitter feed—all operated on her own, she tells me—could see she was now an enthusiastic resident of MAGA-world.

Perhaps it was inevitablethat Powell and Flynn would come together in common cause. Flynn has always been something of a maverick, but he too had a transformation. A respected, if hard-charging, patriot, he grew disgruntled during his time as head of the Defense Intelligence Agency in the Obama administration. By the 2016 presidential election, Flynn was spreading outrageous conspiracy theories—including the accusation that Hillary Clinton was involved with a child sex trafficking ring—and found himself chanting, “Lock her up!” at the Republican National Convention.

Over the course of his legal battle, Flynn has attracted a group of supporters with similarly controversial views. By all accounts, Flynn’s legal ordeal has taken an enormous financial toll on him and his family; as of July 2019,he owed more than $4.6 million dollars in unpaid attorney fees, according to court records. Flynn’s legal defense fund, set up in the summer of 2017, does not officially disclose the identities of its donors or how much it has raised. Joseph Flynn told me the fund does not accept donations from non-U.S. citizens or the Trump organization, but other than that, “We will accept help from anyone who wants to help us.”

That includes John B. Wells, who organized the 2018 Dallas fundraiser, which, according to Wells, raised “a healthy five-figure donation” for the legal fund. Wells, 62, is a voice-over actor turned itinerant radio host with an internet-streaming show; Flynn called in one time during the 2016 campaign. Wells appeared on Alex Jones’ show, “Infowars,” in 2013 and talked about how “it’s been pretty much established that the CIA and al Qaeda are almost one.” In his opening remarks at“Operation Classified,” he spoke of the “criminal cabal we refer to as government,” and he praised QAnon, the conspiracy movement that seems to believe a global gang of Satan-worshipping pedophiles in the media, Hollywood and the political establishment is secretly running the world. “Q is a real thing,” Wells said to cheers in the audience. (Wells did not respond to a request for comment.)

Michael Flynn himself was set to appear at a QAnon-related fundraiser on his behalf this past summer, but he pulled out after news of the event became public. (It was around this time that the FBI listed the amorphous fringe group as a potential domestic terrorism threat—QAnon supporters have been linked to acts of violence.) Redgate and Joseph Flynn have also amplified QAnon, though both siblings deny having “any relationship to QAnon,” as Joseph put it to me. When I asked him about his and Redgate’s retweets, he responded: “There’s a lot of people that do investigative research on Twitter.”

Similarly, Powell, who told me she is being paid out of the Flynn legal fund but reduced her rates “dramatically” for him, has retweeted QAnon accounts too and, according to reporting by Media Matters, appeared on a QAnon-affiliated YouTube show, where she thanked the host for his “huge and extremely helpful” support. I asked Powell about this, and she responded in an e-mail: “I don’t know anything about Q Anon, or Q. I couldn’t tell you what that was. I speak [at] SCADS of places and would go to the gates of Hell and talk to the devil himself if it would help stop the abuses of law and prosecutorial power and corruption I have seen in our government.”

While “FlynnLand,” as Joseph calls it, has embraced Powell (“We love Sidney!” Redgate gushes), it was never clear that Sullivan, Michael Flynn’s judge, would follow along.

Powell, it seems clear, expected Sullivan to be on her side. In a 2018 article for theDaily Caller—more than a year before she would be hired by Flynn—she asserted that Sullivan was “ready, willing and able to hold Mr. Mueller accountable to the law and who has the wherewithal to dismiss the case against General Flynn—for egregious government misconduct—if Mueller doesn’t move to dismiss it himself.” Sullivan actually is known for bringing the hammer down on overreaching prosecutors, as in the trial of former Alaska Senator Ted Stevens. “Emmet G. Sullivan is one judge who knows a cover-up when he sees one,” she wrote in a 2014Observercolumn. “I love this man!” Powell has exclaimed in some of her public talks.

“Let me put me put it this way,” she said at our breakfast in New York. “If I were in the government’s shoes, I would move to dismiss this case before Judge Sullivan does anything else.”

Her conviction was bolstered by the release, in early December, of the long-awaited report by the inspector general for the Justice Department, which found that the FBI’s initial investigation into possible ties between Russia and Trump campaign officials (the precursor to the Mueller probe) was marred by sloppy and improper methods. Powell felt that the IG findings lent weight to a key component of her argument: that FBI agents manipulated the notes from their interview with Flynn to make him look guilty.

But in mid-December, Sullivan rejected the idea that the original FBI counterintelligence investigation of former Trump officials—Flynn included—was a deep state plot against Trump, and that Flynn had been tricked into his perjury by unscrupulous FBI agents. At the close of his ruling, Sullivan wrote: “the Court summarily disposes of Mr. Flynn’s arguments that the FBI conducted an ambush interview for the purpose of trapping him into making false statements and that the government pressured him to enter a guilty plea. The record proves otherwise.”

Powell stayed mum for nearly a month. She was careful not to respond to Sullivan’s rejection or reveal her next move—until she filed her own brief earlier this week, announcing that Flynn wanted to rescind his guilty plea. She sounded a defiant tone: “It is beyond ironic and completely outrageous that the prosecutors have persecuted Mr. Flynn, virtually bankrupted him, and put his entire family through unimaginable stress for three years.” Powell argued that government prosecutors had violated the terms of his plea agreement and asked for Sullivan to delay his sentencing to consider her argument and allow time for the government to respond.

“Withdrawing the guilty plea seems like an odd strategy at this stage,” McQuade, the law professor, says. “Her portrayal of Flynn as a victim of government overreach suggests that her strategy is to seek sympathy from a segment of the public and a pardon from President Trump.” (“It’s bullshit. Total bullshit,” Powell says about the prospect of fishing for a presidential pardon.)

It’s unclear how Flynn’s case will end, and what it will mean for Powell. Her defiance, in spite of Sullivan’s scolding, reminded me of an exchange I had with her toward the end of our early December meeting in New York. I had asked her about the widespread accusation that she was a conspiracy theorist. “I think it’s hilarious,” she said, smiling.

“Maybe you will get the last laugh,” I politely offered.

“I think I will,” she said firmly. “Let me put it this way: I will not quit until I do. The only question is, are we going to do this the easy way or the hard way?”

It wasn’t until we both stood up to leave that I realized how tall Powell was (six feet) and that she was wearing tight-fitting leopard print pants and matching boots with two-inch heels and gleaming spikes. She saw my eyes grow wide at the sight of the boots. “I call these my attitude adjusters,” Powell said with a big smile. “And I don’t mean my attitude.”

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