#spoilt by a male Karen

[lulublack90]

Prompt 9 - Sprint

@wolfstarmicrofic August 9, word count 611

Previous part First Jegulus part

They fell into a steady routine at the café. Sirius and Remus always arrived at the same time. They prepped for the day ahead. They served their customers with a smile. Tidied up, ready for the next day and left at the same time each evening. They’d stayed late a few times when they first opened, but they’d both decided that they’d rather leave a bit of mess that they could clear away in the morning than reduce their hours away from the café. This worked out best for them both.  

So far, they hadn’t had any trouble with their customers, until one Wednesday morning when a grumpy-looking man stormed into the café and strode right up to Sirius, getting in his face. Remus turned away from the customer he was serving and put his hands on the counter, ready to hop over it if he needed to come to Sirius’s aid. 

“Can I help you?” Sirius asked, trying his hardest to keep his customer service voice even. 

“YOUR BLOODY COFFEE KEPT ME UP ALL NIGHT!!! I MISSED MY EXAM BECAUSE OF IT!!!” The man yelled in his face, little specks of spit showered Sirius’s face. Sirius took a step back and used his sleeve to very obviously wipe his face. 

“Sir, we are very open about the fact that the wolf’s brew coffee will keep you awake. It is strong, and we have a disclaimer on the board and on the counter where you order.”

“IT'S STILL YOUR FAULT I MISSED MY EXAM!!!” The man screamed in Sirius’s face again, prodding a finger into Sirius’s chest with each word. Sirius’s left eye began to twitch. His mother used to do that to him when she was shouting at him. It was like his mind shut off and someone else took over. One moment he was calm and the next he saw red.

“I DON’T SEE WHY IT’S MY PROBLEM IF YOU’RE TOO STUPID TO READ SOMETHING THAT IS POSTED ALL OVER THE SHOP AND REMUS WILL HAVE TOLD YOU WHEN YOU WERE ORDERING!!! IF YOU HAD SUCH AN IMPORTANT EXAM YOU SHOULD HAVE ORDERED A HOT CHOCOLATE!!! NOW GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY CAFÉ YOU IGNORANT SWINE!!!” Sirius stepped forward menacingly and the man hurriedly stepped back. 

“I-I-I’m never coming here again, and I’ll tell all my friends not to come here,” He stuttered as he backed towards the door. 

“GOOD, YOU’RE BARRED AND IF YOUR FRIENDS ARE ANYTHING LIKE YOU WE DON’T WANT THEM HERE ANY WAY! NOW SLING YOUR HOOK!” Sirius was still shouting. The man turned tail and took off at a sprint to get away from the nutter in the apron. 

“Well, that could have gone better,” Remus sighed from behind his counter. His knuckles were white where he’d gripped the wooden counter edge too tight during the argument. Sirius blinked a few times as he came back to himself.

“We don’t want idiots like that in here. Better that he knows not to come back,” Sirius jutted his chin out and went to take more food orders as though nothing had happened. He walked up to a man typing on his phone. It had a grey rat on the back cover. Sirius didn’t think more of it than it was an odd choice. “Sorry about the wait, what can I get you?” He asked politely. 

“Oh, just a cheese toastie and a caramel macchiato, thanks,” The plump man said with a smile. 

“Coming right up,” Sirius smiled back and took the drink order over to Remus before he continued into the kitchen to get the man with the rat phone case his cheese toastie.

Next part

[popanalysis99]

What we learnt from The Society’s Controversial Cliffhanger?

The Society was one of the most-talked about Netflix series of 2019 when it first aired, the series starred Kathryn Newton as the “angry young woman” Allie Pressman who alongside her friends gets trapped in a version of the town with no adults around and after the death of her sister, she steps up as the leader of New Ham, but with some complicated results. The season ended on a disappointing cliffhanger as the villain Campbell formed a coup with the Guard, Harry and Lexie and overthrown Allie and imprisoned her and Will. And then it moved back to West Ham where Allie and Cassandra’s mother was reading a book about Peter Pan to the kids and behind her was a memorial plaque dedicated to the teens who are stuck in New Ham. While we were curious to know more about what was going to happen, unfortunately we will never know as the series got cancelled in 2020 due to COVID complications, which left a lot of unanswered questions out in the open. And the ending did have a lot of controversial elements. So let’s take a look at it, shall we?

What were the positive elements in the finale?

The only positive things that happened were when Grizz and his expedition crew found an empty land where they can grow fruits and vegetables for food sustainability and Becca gave a healthy birth to a baby girl and named Eden Gelb, but none of them could’ve forseen a depressing future that Campbell was bringing upon them.

What was Allie all about?

Allie was shown to be a bit angry if not complicated. Allie was and will always be a mystery to us as a character. She is basically an anti-heroic puzzle that we have to solve. She might represent the “disgruntled outcast who is angry at the society”, which is usually for angry male leads. She first begins the series as a disgruntled shadow of her sister Cassandra, who takes the lead and does whatever she can to reduce any chaos that is happening in a world without adults. But when she dies, Allie is forced to step up as the leader, but slowly becomes comfortable with the position, so much so she ends up taking decisions while she tries to do good for the society, it sometimes complicates the situation more. She even appears a bit cold towards anyone like when Lexie was sexually harrassed by the Guard and Allie told her to get over it. While it’s understandable because of her disdain towards Lexie due to her insensitive improv play, this was still inexcusable. Allie had some points about being a leader of New Ham, but she should’ve also have taken time to even focus on her mental health as well, as she even showed subtle signs of suffering from Manic Depression and Bipolar Disorder. The season 1 finale even showed her to be even heading towards a mental breakdown, which we would never know of.

What did Campbell really want?

Campbell was first introduced as a typical bad boy character in New Ham, but his brother Sam exposed him as a dangerous psychopath to the other characters and it was shown clearly when he physically and psychologically abuses Elle. When Elle gets taken by Allie for protection from him, Campbell proceeds to form a coup with Harry, Lexie and the Guard to overthrow Allie and imprisons her and Will. It is never known why he does what he does, why he wants to be a leader of New Ham. But it is known that his motives are likened to that of the Joker: cause unlimited chaos and satisfy sadistic pleasures by torturing others. Basically “For the Evulz.” It is possible that since the series got cancelled that he might put Allie and Will through an uncertain doom of misery. And the reason why the Guard (except Grizz) were completely agreeing with Campbell’s policy is because they basically represent a group of angry young sexist white men who are scorned by a woman’s reign. 

Why the ending was so controversial?

While it is disappointing that the series got cancelled at such a cliffhanger, it had a lot of controversial elements. Specifically Campbell, Harry and the Guard represented the powerful men who get away with a lot of crimes towards the marginalized groups while Lexie represented a typical “Karen” who complains a lot. The series ended on a downer note with them overthrowing Allie, a young woman leader and Will, a black man by accusing them of stealing the election and imprisoning them under these false pretenses. And the worst part to top it all off, Elle is back in the arms of Campbell, so basically, two women and one black man are imprisoned under a thumb of a psychopath, a spoilt rich kid, angry young men and a Karen.

In the wake of the Me Too/Times Up movement where so many women are standing up against their abusers and exposing them for their misdeeds against them and the Black Lives Matters where so many POC citizens are exposing the brutality and racism against them, the ending of The Society probably wouldn’t have fared well in today’s standards and had there been a season 2, they would’ve made up for the ending and redeemed the controversy surrounding it and improved the storyline.