#that and the fact they’re all racists lol

[evidence-based-activism]

all stereotypes are rooted in some reality (e.g. women being bad drivers). It wouldn’t be so pervasive if it wasn’t somewhat true. Men drive more, and many of them who drive vehicles for a living do it for longer periods of time through harsher conditions, they drive more difficult to manoeuvre vehicles e.g. lorries, buses, trucks etc.

Also, recklessness doesn’t mean that men aren’t skilled drivers. Recklessness is a choice, but driving aptitude and ability generally isn’t. Men are proven to be far more skilled and able drivers. You can argue that they are more antisocial drivers than women or that they don’t make conscientious choices when driving, but that is a different conversation. Women being better rule followers doesn’t mean they’re skilled lol.

So, this is in response to this post, where I explain – thoroughly – how men cause more car crashes and engage in significantly more risky driving behaviors (measure both objectively and subjectively).

I am genuinely amazed, Anon, that you somehow seem to think that men can be the more "antisocial", more "reckless", get into more crashes, and still somehow be a "better" driver than women. However, I actually have even more sources for this topic, so allow me to explain in more detail how men are worse at driving than women.

---

all stereotypes are rooted in some reality (e.g. women being bad drivers).

Incorrect. Just because you believe something is true, Anon, doesn't make it true. For example, here are my posts about how women are not worse at mathematics or spatial ability than men, women do not have lower IQs than men, and men and women do not feel attraction in fundamentally different ways.

So, no stereotypes need not be rooted in reality.

It wouldn’t be so pervasive if it wasn’t somewhat true.

I broke this out primarily to inquire if you also believe in the pervasive antisemitic conspiracy theories about blood libel? What about the pervasive stereotype that gay men are pedophiles? The racist, unscientific comparisons between Black people and monkeys?

Are you capable of recognizing that all (any?) of these ideas are baseless and bigoted? (Either way, I suggest doing some reading into the "argumentum ad populum" fallacy.)

Men drive more, and many of them who drive vehicles for a living do it for longer periods of time through harsher conditions, they drive more difficult to manoeuvre vehicles e.g. lorries, buses, trucks etc.

(Some of the following information is repeated from the replies in the original post.)

Riskier behaviors

Previous work has estimated that ~70% of all road accidents are the result of risky behavior (e.g., driving under the influence, distracted driving, speeding, etc.) by the driver(s) [1]. That makes the fact that men are substantially more likely to engage in these risky behaviors – as indicated by sources 1 and 5-9 in the original post – relevant. Within source 9 from the original post, their sources 12-17 confirm men’s greater riskier driving behaviors and 18-27 address men’s riskier mentality surrounding driving.

A bad driver is someone who puts themselves or others at risk on the road, and, clearly, men are substantially more likely to do this. And an additional report by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety [2] further indicated that "60% ... Most Dangerous Drivers were males, whereas 57% of the Safe Drivers were females," further supporting this finding.

Driving exposure adjustment

Men have a higher crash rate even when you adjust for their greater driving times, as supported by sources 3 and 9 from the original post. (Within source 9, their sources 8-11 also adjust for amount driven.) Source 3 also demonstrated men had greater fatalities involvement, adjusted for distance traveled, in each vehicle category.

In addition to that, this longitudinal study from Australia [3] shows that men had a higher crash rate than women even after adjusting for driving exposure. In fact, they have a higher crash rate even after further adjusting for drug/alcohol use, risk taking, training and experience, and several other factors.

They were also more likely to be in a crash in dark or wet conditions, at high-speeds, and in single vehicle crashes, again even after adjusting for all of those potential confounding variables. The only crash type women were in at a higher rate was crashes resulting in hospitalization, which can be explained by how car safety features are not designed for women. (Again, see the original post sources 10-11.)

This study from Russia [4] examining serious crashes further confirms these results, finding men were more likely to be involved in crashes even after adjusting for the number of drivers and distance driven. They are also more likely to commit “ aggravated road accidents" and drive under the influence.

This older American study [5] confirms these results again, finding higher crash rates for men than women in both the daytime and nighttime, after adjusting for the amount driven.

In other words, men get into more crashes than women, even after adjusting for the amount they drive, the conditions they drive in, and even the risks they take.

Driving for the job

Now, men make up much more of the professional drivers’ workforce (e.g., truck driving) than women, although I have spoken many times about how this is because men deliberately prevent women from joining male-dominated jobs.

Regardless, the demographic makeup is irrelevant, since when women do become professional truck drivers, they do better than men [6-7].

Male truck drivers are more likely to be "cited for a major violation of rules" and "to have a major unsafe driving violation" [6]. In addition, a 2022 update by the American Transportation Research Institute found "males continue to be more likely than females to have violations, convictions, and crash involvement" [7].

Another study [8] found "male [bus] drivers not only have more accidents but also are more likely to get involved in higher severe accidents." A result which is confirmed in a more recent analysis [9].

So, no, men's higher crash rates are not because they drive trucks or busses for a living. Male truck and bus drivers are also more likely to get into crashes/be unsafe than female truck and bus drivers.

Bonus: traffic tickets

This review article [10] indicates males are more likely to repeat traffic violations. These articles [11-12] also found men receive more traffic tickets/citations than women. As did source 5 in the original post.

Also, recklessness doesn’t mean that men aren’t skilled drivers. Recklessness is a choice, but driving aptitude and ability generally isn’t.

Anon, what exactly do you think makes someone a good driver? If someone is placing themselves and other people at risk, then they are bad at driving.

Now, not engaging in reckless behaviors may not be sufficient to make someone a good driver, but it is absolutely necessary. We are operationalizing our definition of "bad driver" as "gets into a crash and/or engages in high-crash-risk behaviors", which is necessary for us to quantify the data for analysis.

That being said, as shown above, men get into more crashes even when you adjust for their greater propensity towards reckless behaviors. So, no, men are not simply hiding their superior skills under their poor choices.

Men are proven to be far more skilled and able drivers.

No, they aren't. I have, at this point, provided you with 30+ sources explaining how they are not. Your refusal to accept factual information does not make it any less true.

You can argue that they are more antisocial drivers than women or that they don’t make conscientious choices when driving,

Yes, I have provided you with substantial research to that effect.

but that is a different conversation.

Again, it really isn't. Men choose to create dangerous situations for themselves and others on the road. This makes them bad drivers.

If a heavy machinery operator chose to violate safety regulations, you would say they are bad at their job. If a doctor chose to endanger their patients by practicing drunk, you would say they are a bad doctor. If a construction worker or architecture designer ignored building codes, you would say they are bad at their jobs.

It's the same for driving; men choose to ignore the rules and choose to put people at risk. Therefore, they are bad drivers.

Women being better rule followers doesn’t mean they’re skilled lol.

Again, following the rules for driving may not be sufficient for being considered a skilled driver, but it is necessary. Not to mention the fact that, as indicated, adjusting for risk taking did not eliminate the gender gap in crash rates.

Conclusion

Women are better at driving, as per decades of cross national research. Often repeated, misogynistic, stereotypes do not change this.

References under the cut:

McCarty, D., & Kim, H. W. (2024). Risky behaviors and road safety: An exploration of age and gender influences on road accident rates. PLoS one, 19(1), e0296663.

AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. (2023). 2022 Traffic Safety Culture Index (Technical Report). Washington, D.C.: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety.

Cullen, P., Möller, H., Woodward, M., Senserrick, T., Boufous, S., Rogers, K., ... & Ivers, R. (2021). Are there sex differences in crash and crash-related injury between men and women? A 13-year cohort study of young drivers in Australia. SSM-population health, 14, 100816.

Belov, M., & Kazun, A. (2024). Beware of His Car: Why Are Men More Dangerous than Women Behind the Wheel?.

Massie, D. L., Green, P. E., & Campbell, K. L. (1997). Crash involvement rates by driver gender and the role of average annual mileage. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 29(5), 675–685. doi:10.1016/s0001-4575(97)00037-7 

Scott, A., Davis-Sramek, B., & Ketchen Jr, D. J. (2024). Men at work… unsafely: Gender differences in compliance with safety regulations in the trucking industry. Production and Operations Management, 10591478241235145.

Markus, A., & Murray, D. (2022). Predicting Truck Crash Involvement: 2022 Update. American Transportation Research Institute.

Feng, S., Li, Z., Ci, Y., & Zhang, G. (2016). Risk factors affecting fatal bus accident severity: Their impact on different types of bus drivers. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 86, 29–39. doi:10.1016/j.aap.2015.09.025 

Zhu, T., Qin, D., & Jia, W. (2023). Examining the associations between urban bus drivers’ rule violations and crash frequency using observational data. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 187, 107074.

Kaur, A., Williams, J., Recker, R., Rose, D., Zhu, M., & Yang, J. (2023). Subsequent risky driving behaviors, recidivism and crashes among drivers with a traffic violation: A scoping review. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 192, 107234.

Mohammadzadeh Moghaddam, A., Sadeghi, A., Jalili Qazizadeh, M., Farhad, H., & Barakchi, M. (2018). Investigating the relationship between driver’s ticket frequency and demographic, behavioral, and personal factors: Which drivers commit more offenses? Journal of Transportation Safety & Security, 1–20. doi:10.1080/19439962.2018.1477

[fantastic-nonsense]

i usually don’t get into these discussions lol they’re too much trouble, but on your nightwing run rankings i honestly think it’s crazy to call devin’s run objectively bad when it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did. taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.

Also because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it, but it is quite good

I think her Nightwing run is bad because I've read it. Her sexualization and fetishization of Dick is gross, her characterization of Dick was mid, her characterization of Babs is horrible, her approach to writing both Dick and Catalina Flores was incredibly racist, most of her plot was just trauma porn, and she spent nearly all of her 45 issues on the book destroying everything narratively that had been built up by the previous several years of writing. And this is not even touching the way she handled the rape and rape aftermath issues.

As I stated in the original ranking, there are redeeming features: her early issues with Rick Leonardi, before Catalina shows up, are much better than anything she wrote after he left the book. The transition from Dixon to Devin's run was handled well and she competently finished all of Dixon's plot threads before doing her own thing. The Renegade arc is not an objectively good piece of writing, but it's enjoyable to read and has some top-tier comedy in it re: Dick and Slade's interactions. The Wally-Babs scene after she and Dick broke up was lovely. She writes Dick and Tim's relationship well. None of those things outweigh how bad and genuinely unpleasant Devin's Nightwing run is to read overall.

As for the rest of your comments:

it’s kind of THE nightwing mythos, so many writers after were trying to do what she did.

"THE Nightwing mythos" as we concieve of it today was actually created by Chuck Dixon. Despite his other crimes (and there are many), Dixon remains the man who created Bludhaven, moved Dick there, and did the worldbuilding necessary to make a Nightwing solo work in the first place. Everything every modern Nightwing writer does ultimately goes back to something Dixon did in the 1990s when he had near complete control over Dick Grayson's character.

In fact, every writer since Dixon has struggled with the book in part because Devin Grayson spent her 45 issues on the book systematically tearing down the foundation Dixon built (Dick's supporting cast, his rogues gallery, his relationship with Barbara, his life in general, etc) instead of building on top of it, and no one's been able to properly been able to create a new foundation since.

Like, "so many writers after her were trying to do what she did" is a HILARIOUS statement to make considering that most of Dick's writers since then (excluding Tom Taylor) generally do everything they can to ignore as much of what she wrote as feasibly possible. Are we ever bringing up Tarantula again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up the mob infiltration arc again? NOPE! Are we ever bringing up that Haly's Circus burned to the ground and his apartment building got blown up and he got shot twice and that he stood aside and let Catalina kill Blockbuster? NOPE! The list goes on.

taylor’s run is entirely based off hers, some moments beat for beat, and watters is taking notes from her as well.

Bringing up Tom Taylor's run is also funny because I've actually discussed at length before how if you read Devin’s run and Taylor’s run back to back, you realize Taylor is basically just rewriting her run "BUT I CAN DO IT BETTER!!!" Blockbuster's back in town and a big deal again, DickBabs are suddenly together again despite them having been broken up since Devin's run in the mid-2000s, Dick's trying to clean up Bludhaven from the inside again (though as a philanthropist instead of a cop), Tim and Wally are randomly popping up in guest issues…he basically soft-rebooted Dick back to the Dixon era so he could write his fun little self-indulgent fanfic of what could have happened if Devin hadn’t taken over the book and destroyed Dick's life.

Which is one of the many reasons I ranked Taylor's run significantly higher than Devin's run. I prefer bland mediocrity and Taylor's ignorant #resistlib attempts to address the roots of crime to dealing with the "absolutely worst year of Dick Grayson's life" arc, and if I'm going to get Babs character assassination either way, I'd rather her be a bland supportive girlfriend than clingy and codependent at best and actively hostile at worst.

As for Watters, per his own statements what he's taking from Devin's run is the fallout from Chemo nuking Bludhaven (which happened because of Infinite Crisis and was not actually Devin's decision) and the Dick-Babs dynamic from her issues with Leonardi (which. again. are her best issues because she was basically just wrapping up Dixon's run and hadn't had time to blow anything up yet). More relevantly, he said that Snyder's The Black Mirror, Morrison's Batman and Robin (2009), and Dick's tenure as Batman in general are much more influential in terms of how he characterizes Dick and that he loves what Sam Humphries did in his short run to add depth to Bludhaven as a city. That's not exactly taking notes from Devin lmao.

because of fandom and corporate misogyny most people hate her for reasons that are outright lies or exaggerations, so that adds to the stigma around her run with younger readers wanting to avoid it

Devin is not a uniformly bad writer. I genuinely enjoy her Titans (1999) run and the first few arcs of Gotham Knights (2000). She wrote a solid Stephanie Brown in the opening issue of War Games, and was apparently against killing her off. I think generally when she has to balance team dynamics and is not writing Her Personal Blorbo™ that she trauma dumps onto and self-therapizes through, many of the problems I have with her Nightwing run are largely mitigated or minimized. But she fundamentally cannot be trusted with writing Dick Grayson unless he's in a group title and not in a romantic relationship, and her Nightwing run is case in point as to why.

Anyway. I will never forgive and I will never forget her explicitly stated reasoning for why she wrote the Romani retcon ("Dick's from the circus, of course he's Romani" and "it gives him a reason to be all hot-blooded and alluring to people")! Die mad about it!

[haveihitanerve]

The Book Game: Slugs and Chinese-

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU DON’T READ CHINESE?!?!?!

(I am working on Toby’s Pocket commentary I swear) I saw this one yesterday and its too fucking funny and also shorter so here you all are :) hope you enjoy

Tom: did anyone come to a comedy show- Audience member: *my time has come* Tom: *wait I wasn’t done with my epic monologue, its really funny I swear :(*worried that it would be boring as hell- Sam: *laughing maniacally* AJ: jesus

Aj: *opens book, stares, shock, turns to audience*

I love how the second the audience starts laughing at AJ’s shock, Tom immediately knows its because of him and cuts off to look at him. They’re so fucking cute

Luke going to inspect the book, finding nothing amiss in the title, and then exploding when he sees the writing inside- I’m having flashbacks to Lonely Planet When Europe

Luke so delighted he has to cross the stage and almost falls into Tom 🫠😭

Tom having to inspect the book too because ok now Luke has been laughing for too long and he’s curious lol

“Yeah tom you bigot!” Sam needed an excuse to join the chaos and of course, insulting tom is the way to go XD

Tom’s resigned sigh and drop of the book as AJ and Luke lose it. They delight each other so much its absolutely wonderful to see

“So lukes gonna introduce this game now-” Tom wants to be a part of the chaos XD

“Make sure its not racist okay?” Tom had to shift the attention to someone else lmaoo

I just adore how they did not, in fact, think to return the book and get one they understand because, for the bit, they know this book is best, and that they specifically made AJ keep it, because he is the chaos king and would do best by it XD

“A little knowledge…” Luke: *waiting expectantly for him to finish the sentence, then finishes it for him because the sentence in the book is not that* i love them so much omg

“OH! BAD TEMPERED THOUGHT!” LMFAOOO WHAT???

“Ooh… ohhh malice!” Sam i adore you XD

Here comes aj XD

“What does that say?” YESS AJ!!! SNEAKY CLEVER BOI!!! YES!!!

“YOU MEAN YOU DON’T READ CHINESE??!??!” BETRAYED AJ HELPPPP- his life is flashing before his eyes dude is panicking

Audience member: *frantic* my dad does! AJ: *quickly scoots further* oh!

Aj having to break for a second and just lay still as a dying slug because what even is his life XD

“Play hateful, this.” His face helpppp-

Also love how that actually worked really well in the scene???

Tom: *introducing himself into the scene, literally* Sam: *reciprocating* AJ: [desperately] does anybody else speak chinese?!?!

“It goes with high heels.” AJ needing to fold his head into his arms to laugh, Tom pausing the scene because he heard that and what, Luke laughing at AJ’s pain, and Sam trying to keep them focused XD

AJ’s little leg kicks im crying

“MAKE NO MISTAKES!!!” Tom sounds genuinely distressed lmaoo

“OOOOHHHH!” *frantically trying to find a good line comeback*

“Variation in your tactics!” Confirmed that all that matters while speaking is proper tone because that sounds withering coming from Tom, but is actually a very mild sentence lol

Aj standing and Tom genuinely surprised while Luke and Sam fake surprise XD

“THAts not FAir!” Tom’s hands shooting up in surrender and his little grin at AJ that makes AJ smile back 🫠😭

Sam: “Troublemaker!” it is true 🤷‍♂️ AJ: *flipping open his book, forgetting he doesn't speak chinese* chapter four. Brilliant words, truly eloquent aj🤧

Aj and Sam doing “and scene” in unison, every time they do it it kills me for no reason

AND SCENE

Ahhhhh that was fucking glorious. Loved every single second of it, and this means that when I finally get to go to one of their shows, I’m bringing a German book, it has been decided lol. 

Anyway hope you guys found as much enjoyment in AJ’s distress and the other guy’s mutual delight as I did, and I shall return as quickly as possible with Toby’s Secret Pocket and Jingle Boys commentary :) 

BYEBYE!!!

@snek-of-eden @dawn-speckled

[slightlyobsessedwitheverything]

a breakdown of tommy kinard’s past appearances

so. like many of you, i’ve been getting a little bit tired of seeing the same “wait wasn’t tommy a racist/homophobe? why do we like him now?” posts for the last few weeks. so i wanted to do a small breakdown of every time he has previously appeared on screen, along with his action and inaction regarding the casual bigotry of the 118 under captain gerrard.

this is gunna be a long one boys so, strap in lol

season 3 episode 12: chim begins

i’m going to go in chronological order here rather than episodic order just for character development’s sake

tommy’s first appearance in this episode is about 11 minutes in, after the first commercial break. the current 118 are sitting down to dinner when chim arrives. tommy spots him and asks, “hey eli, you forget to tip the delivery guy?” i would say this could be a genuine question based on the fact that chim’s in his civvies, but he’s got his go bag that says “FIREFIGHTER” on his shoulder so. seems like he’s just being a smartass.

(*edit: it’s been pointed out to me that considering they had ordered chinese food, this could have been an instance of casual racism, and i am inclined to agree)

he’s not seen much during chim’s montage of just doin’ shit around the firehouse, until the point where the 118 come back covered in mud. tommy spots chim and asks him, “you still here?” again, just kind of general dickishness. not really anything to write home about.

a small kind of background tommy moment we get after chim’s montage is right as the team is returning from a call, and chim tries to tell them about the older couple who he helped earlier in the day.

tommy: what about that burger place?

gerrard: tommy, you know i hate that place

chim: hey guys, weirdest thing happened today… *he is ignored*

gerrard: hey, wasn’t your girlfriend supposed to come and cook us dinner?

tommy: uh, next tuesday.

gerrard: promise?

tommy: uh— uh, yes. yeah, i will promise…

now. i’m going to leave that up to interpretation, however i have opinions regarding that bit going forward. but! that’s ultimately not what this post is about, so perhaps another time.

the next scene is a pretty major one. chim is getting ready in the locker room, and tries to strike up a conversation with tommy when he walks in to gather some things (deodorant, toothbrush, soap it seems like, none of these details matter i just think they’re fun).

chim repeatedly tried to get tommy to open up to him about the things he likes, saying “tell me what your thing is and i’ll make it mine.” though, tommy just ignores him. we see a close up of him closing his eyes and sighing in exasperation.

chim asks, “…you just really don’t like me much, do you?” and tommy, for the first time, responds to chim’s questions with, “if i thought about you at all, honestly, i probably wouldn’t.” and he leaves.

later, after eli recruits chim to be a paramedic, they have a conversation regarding what he witnessed in the locker room between chim and tommy. eli tells him that it’s not personal, and that “in this job, friends die. funerals are held. they’re not going to just give you their friendship until you earn their respect. they’re not just protecting you, they’re protecting themselves.” and this ultimately makes sense with what we saw in tommy in that earlier scene. he didn’t really seem annoyed or upset at chim’s insistence to get to know him, just apprehensive mostly. he wasn’t cruel to him, and he hasn’t been. just… kind of a dick.

in the fire truck, on the way to the barn burner, tommy is sitting next to him and looks over at chim, as chim seems to be exhibiting signs of nervousness (this is his first real call as a firefighter after all)

(however, this is a moment where chim’s reality and his past start to bleed into each other so i am not sure how accurate this is to the moment.)

we don’t get much in the next scene aside from tommy’s presence at kevin’s funeral. when chim is ringing the bell, tommy is behind him and briefly looks toward chim, likely noticing how chim is attempting to hold himself together.

the next major scene is the call at the shopping mall, where there was some sort of structural collapse. based on the symptoms of the people that were in the mall, chim assumes there is a gas leak, which gerrard waves off. he calls for tommy over the radio, and receives no response.

chim has a realization that they’re dealing with a methane leak, and runs inside the mall to retrieve tommy.

just as the building explodes, chim runs out with tommy over his shoulder. though in this scene “tommy” is clearly a dummy prop and it is so fucking funny once you notice how floppy it is.

then we get probably the greatest scene in all of 911 where chim is in the waiting room waiting for news on tommy and reality starts to bleed into the flashback while “exit music (for a film)” by radiohead plays . it has pretty much nothing to do with this post i just wanted to say how much i LOVE this scene. anyway.

the penultimate scene of the episode starts off with chim in the locker room tucking in his shirt. tommy walks in and, with no preamble, says, “love actually, monster trucks, craft beer.”

chim realizes that this is a response to their last locker room interaction. he asks tommy how his head is feeling, tommy replies, “still fat, but clearer. you saved my life. thank you.” and shakes chimney’s hand, before pulling him into a hug. this is where their friendship begins.

in this episode, i didn’t notice anything that could really be construed as bigotry (see edit*), he was just kind of a dick at first and most of that can boil down to him being closed off and not wanting to open up before there’s a level of respect there.

(though, keep in mind i am white so there is a definite possibility that i could have missed something more racially motivated, however i didn't see anything glaring)

season 3 episode 9: hen begins

tommy’s first appearance (ever) is about 13 and a half minutes into the episode when captain gerrard introduces the team to their new “diversity hire” (after greeting her himself with a few blatantly misogynistic comments)

when tommy first sees hen, he smiles and asks “who’s this?”

when gerrard calls her a “diversity hire,” the smile leaves tommy’s face and he looks back at gerrard with somewhat of a blank expression, contrasted with sal deluca’s disbelieving smirk and comment of “for real?”

chimney then defends hen, gerrard walks away after saying they’re screwed. tommy once again looks between hen and gerrard before ultimately following him away from the railing.

it is not clear what exactly his reaction to hen joining the team actually is at that moment, whether he wanted to speak up like chim or express disdain like sal, as he remained silent.

at dinner, tommy asks sal what he and his girlfriend did the night previous, where the movie “twilight” comes up. sal makes a comment about kristen stewart being hot, and hen joins in thinking she found something in common with these guys to talk about, but sal ignores her and she walks away. (i think the writers may have genuinely forgotten kstew was only 17 in that movie but that’s neither here nor there)

tommy chimes in saying he “doesn’t get that” and that she’s “too brooding” for him, to which sal responds, “maybe you’re more of a team jacob kind of guy.”

tommy says he has no idea what that means, and chim clarifies that sal is insinuating that he’s gay.

sal laughs at this and at tommy’s reaction, and tommy jokingly blows him a kiss, smiles, and goes back to his food.

(here is a gifset of the scene)

chim then invites hen into the conversation by asking where she’s from. when he tells her he assumed she was an east coaster and that it was a compliment, tommy replies with “new york bitchiness is a compliment?” (score 1 for the misogyny bucket)

chim calls him out, and he just kind of huffs and looks at gerrard, but ultimately moves on.

tommy doesn’t really say or do much else in this scene besides sit silently while gerrard is sexist towards hen and hen stands her ground. in the end, sal looks toward tommy and nods his head in the direction of the kitchen. they both get up and leave the table.

nothing of note happens in the mudslide scene with tommy, most of the conflict is between hen and gerrard. the scene where gerrard makes her man behind as well. tommy is in the background and sees this happen, but says nothing. though, i also need to add that in these moments, chim does not say anything either.

the next scene tommy is in is when hen makes her announcement to the team about how she is not going anywhere.

i once again want to point out the difference in tommy vs sal in this scene. sal has his hands on his hips and his lips tight in a somewhat annoyed looking fashion, and he looks to the side where tommy is to gauge his reaction.

whereas tommy, has his arms folded and is looking down at the floor at first, before looking up towards hen. and while gerrard and chim have their arms crossed as well, i want to point out that tommy is holding one arm while the other sits around his waist. he looks a bit sheepish if i’m being honest, like he knows they’re about to be scolded.

when hen says for them to “see me as i see you, as a proud member of this department,” tommy turns to look behind him and makes eye contact with chim.

now, there’s not a whole lot i can glean from this interaction as is, but as we know from “chim begins,” tommy trusts chim so it’s possible he wants to get chim’s opinion. he seems to do this a lot i’ve noticed, looking between the people around him to gauge their reactions to what is going on.

nothing much of note for the car accident scene, HOWEVER. in the scene immediately after, sal and tommy address hen directly for the first time to give her some praise for her call on that scene. sal tells her “nice work yesterday,” and tommy tells her that they would have found the other car eventually, but eventually would have been too late.

hen states she “just got lucky,” to which sal responds, “screw that. you’re good,” and both he and tommy shake hen’s hand. tommy even gives her a light smack on the shoulder as he walks away and hen absolutely BEAMS.

then of course, hen is told that gerrard was removed from his position because his conduct was reported and “more than a few of your fellow firefighters have your back.” we know chim is absolutely one of them, and i can infer that based on tommy and sal’s reactions to hen’s speech and their interaction with her just before this scene, it is very likely they are as well.

in this episode, there were definitely some more moments of blatant bigotry in this episode, but other than the “new york bitchiness” line, tommy doesn’t really directly contribute to any of it. he seems to be more of a follower, constantly gauging how others feel and just playing along. complicity is still an issue of it’s own, do not get me wrong, but considering i keep seeing people say he made racist/homophobic comments, i feel like its a reasonable thing to point out.

season 3 episode 16: bobby begins again

tommy’s final on screen appearance begins with hen taking bets on how long the new captain will last. tommy asks hen to put him down for 4 weeks on credit, and they (hen, tommy, sal, and chim) banter a little. they all seem to have a pretty good relationship with each other at this point.

bobby pops out of the firetruck and places his own bet on himself, and tommy just kind of looks sheepish since they got called out.

to be real, tommy doesn’t do a whole lot in this episode either. most of the conflict is between bobby and sal. most of what we see is him in the background silently judging bobby’s lack of LA knowledge along with hen and chim. he does have some silly little moments during the chicken chase though.

(here's a great gifset of that scene)

bobby calls out to sal to talk to him after the restaurant fire, and sal keeps walking but tommy stops and waits, looking between bobby and sal.

sal says, “you’re a piece of work. you come in here with your nose in the air and your eyes looking down–” tommy interrupts sal and tells him to stop.

sal keeps digging into bobby, and tommy in the background, looks to chim and hen and shakes his head, seemingly telling them not to get in the middle of it.

sal says he has the skill to lead the 118, bobby retorts with, “but not the temperament.” sal then drops his bag and stomps toward bobby so he can get in his face. tommy moves to go after him, but chim gets between sal and bobby before anything can happen.

bobby fires sal, and tommy is just standing there with the rest of his team wondering what the hell happened.

we then have the bar scene! chim, hen, and tommy hanging out at the bar before bobby ends up joining them.

they have a good time and show off their scars to each other. tommy quotes fight club, chim laughs, bobby leaves to solve the arson.

(again, here's another gifset)

at the end we see a bit more of the team together, bobby starting to cook for them, and finally the scene of chim and hen popping out of the ambulance with balloons and a cake for tommy as he transfers to the 217. they all seem to be fairly close at this point.

(another gifset for good measure)

and other than chim calling on him for a water drop in 2x14, that’s about it until he returns in season 7.

in conclusion

to me, it seems like tommy is a bit of a follower and tends to just go along with what the people around him are doing, ESPECIALLY under gerrard. captain gerrard fostered a really toxic work environment and its no wonder others like sal were never really called out on their shit. and tommy mostly seemed to follow sal’s lead or stay quiet.

“chimney begins” takes place around 2006-ish, “hen begins” around 2008, and “bobby begins again” takes place around 2017 i believe. and between 2006 and 2024, based on what we see, its easy to see that tommy has indeed grown and changed many of his attitudes, especially when in a healthier work environment. now can we please stop acting like he’s this irredeemable piece of shit and see him for what he really is: a flawed person who grows and learns from others, like every other character on this show.

[nthspecialll]

how do you think different people in the gang would go about being with someone of a different race given the time period? they’re criminals so it’s not like they care too much about what the law says but i wonder what your thoughts are

i don’t expect answers for every single gang member, so you could pick whoever you want to talk about. i imagine some care more or less than others. feel free to use this ask as an excuse to yap about john/javier too lol

I feel like the majority of the characters would not mind at all, most of the white characters are accepting of people of color, and similarly the POC characters don't show a district dislike towards white folk.

I think the most obvious one that would struggle with it, is Micah. Micah is a racist and would not in a million years date a POC person.

To be honest I am a bit cautious about saying if Dutch would be open to it. He talks about freedom and no discrimination but he absolutely has some racism harbored in there. I think he would struggle to accept a POC person as his partner.

We know Lenny would be open to dating a white person due to Jenny.

I think John would be open to dating a POC person as well, there isn't one instance where he shows any discontentment towards POC folk.

Javier and Charles are both flirting with white girls in the Valentine saloon, that is just for a one night stay, but I imagine that if they are willing to have sex with white folk they are likely also willing to date white folk.

I think with Bill he would be able to fall in love with a POC person, but he would struggle to accept it, and that likely it wouldn't be a very healthy realtionship because sometimes the racism he got bonked into his head in the army does bubble up despite the fact he is actually quite friendly with most of the POC characters (like complimenting Javier to the skies and calling Lenny his son).

[duncebento]

while theyre dunking on homie i will add my bot which is that this is so divorced from any reality that i’m familiar with…..first of all “neolibs and radlibs” are a strange group to address here; i think it makes more sense to assume they just mean liberals….anyway neither is an example at at “attempted diversification” (like it’s an assassin’s creed game lol.) the first one quite obviously because jesus was. brown. and that’s not a headcanon. i can’t speak to racist caricatures of biblical figures bc i haven’t seen any that i’m aware of. “god the father being a woman” is not by any means modern; in fact imo any leftist worth their salt and with some basic knowledge of history would be able to correctly guess that the firmly gendered establishment of a god WITHOUT feminine, mothering qualities is a modern construction. what did u think the pussy wounds were about….god who will “comfort us like a mother” without forgetting us at the breast…who will cry out “like a woman in childbirth”…..like that’s not even interpretation that’s just text! but whatevz

anyway it’s such weak sauce analysis attempting to cram the recognition of biblical diversity into a framework of identity politics, because god is not a material system over which we have control, in the way of a presidential election or police force. who are the ppl interested in christofascism but like only if the icon is a brown woman? frankly the people who are identifying with a non-binary christ or somesuch are unlikely to be the same people with religious paranoia abt damning sexual sinners. ‘western’ christians who bring up jesus’ brownness, his palestinian jewishness, are more than likely to be doing so in order to oppose a christofascist emphasis on purity originating in whiteness. so they’re not the same groups of ppl….

now of course i have a million critiques to make about the way liberalism intersects w christianity….but to boil it down the primary failure of liberal christians is the inability to recognize the systematic; privileges systemically denied to the oppressed become personal “blessings,” and so on, and so no material action is taken against these conditions bc they’re not recognized as conditions of human design. but the belief system held therein isn’t represented in this post either, so it truly seems like a post about no one…..

[demonqueenart]

im just gonna be so genuine and say i love you but i dont understand what racist remarks you're talking about and it's really frustrating for me to hear people talk about this like its so serious when i havent seen anything at all thats bad. im white so i think i may have genuinely missed things but could you please just give me some examples? i really am trying to understand where you guys are coming from its just getting hard because everyone is just getting mad at each other whenever they talk about it. i know people are mad bc of something dan said about not being able to come on tour to third world countries and possibly something he said in like 2011 when he was in his crazy fake tan phase? i just really am not seeing anything here that i think would get people so worked up and i would love to understand better

Hey anon, I understand where you coming from. And I really appreciate you trying to understand better.

To be really honest, why things have blown up now is because of the upcoming tour. It’s not really about why they couldn’t go to the other continents when they’re planning to do 32 shows in US, even though that’s also fishy af cause they could’ve easily dipped into Mexico, and the route they using feels like they’re avoiding latam specifically. The way that they handled this with poc fans is the problem, because while they’re being excited from the tour or whatever, they have not once tried to explain why they couldn’t go to poc fans (or the majority of us that is. Some of us might live somewhere else.)

The way they keep retweeting and being hyped about the tour, while basically intentionally avoiding talking to us is just.. it hurts. Most of us complain about this, and even more expressing how they just need dnp to give them an explanation. But never once did they do it. Instead, they even launch more trailer lol. And I know they saw it, there’s a lot of us and they like snooping on social media anyway. It makes us feel like we’re not part of the tour, that it wasn’t meant for us. And it was actually the first time I questioned if I was really a part of this community at all.

Turning back to phandom with that state of mind, it can feel like everyone is abandoning you. Because just like dnp, everyone is only talking about the tour, and not about how this exclusion needs to be addressed. It’s understandable why people would feel angry when they just keep being ignored like their voices didn’t matter. But I know now, just because people didn’t interact with me, doesn’t mean they didn’t want to be there for me. We just might come from a different place. (Btw, if you’re western and you have poc friends who’s affected by this, please reach out to them. The reason why I’m still here rn is because of all my friends, western friends included, saying they’ll be there for me throughout this racism thing. They might be angry and hurt, and even assume the worst of you. And I won’t ask more than you can do. But saying you understand (or at least empathize the situation they’re in) and that you will support them no matter what, will help them a lot.)

Dan clearly carry a micro aggression around latam, and the fact that this still occur in wad really says a lot about how they’ve not grown from that. When dan said brazil and mexico were 3rd world country on was, that makes us feel like he’s looking down on us. And the fact that they have avoided latam specifically without giving any reason why they couldn’t go, well, there’s only so many things you can assume is happening under the surface. This makes us feel like they’re looking down on us, and that they’ve never seen their poc fans as equals.

The reason why the old stuff was brought up is because this isn’t the first time this has happened. Dan has made a lot of racist remarks, and while it’s understandable to slip up from time to time, and even more understandable why he might be afraid to actually apologize and own things up, it doesn’t excuse the patterns that are being repeated here. When he doesn’t take accountability to his past mistakes and keep repeating the patterns of racism and exclusion, that indicates he’s going to keep oppressing us forever without ever acknowledging it. And THAT is not okay.

We don’t want to cancel them, never once do we want that. We only want dnp to hear us and actually talk to us about this. They are not beyond redemption, but it’s going to be hard for them to open up considering the past fifteen years of them not doing that. So the only thing we can do at this point is to be more opened up about their racist remarks. We’re bringing up past mistakes now, because there’re still a lot of people who have been affected by this, and them not bringing it up is not going to make all that hurt go away. So I suggest, we should bring it up, not to cancel them or demonize them! But to acknowledge it exists so that we can heal from it. We can learn to love dnp despite being flawed, and normalize how to take accountability to make this place safer for poc. These voices can’t be avoided because that’s also a form of exclusion in this community. I want everyone to feel welcomed here, so I’ll listen to their voices when they need it. That way, there will be a place for poc to belong in this space. We can learn to include each other in, or at least I hope so :3

*also, this will be very funny if this ask turns out to be dnp, but whatever lol xD Hope we can catch up someday whoever you are (✿˵ ꒡3꒡˵)৴♡*

[thegreatimpersonator]

since y'all seemed to want this.... here's the live notes i took while listening to each song for the first time (bold are thoughts i had during later listens)

fortnight: 

‘i was a functioning alcohol till nobody noticed my new aesthetic’ what the fuck does that even mean…

love the fact she gave post the female collab treatment. don’t wanna hear what he has to say. 

they’re voices sound actually good together? 

some pockets of the melody are catchy

okay i don’t hate this 

ttpd:

her red flags are on fire in this song lol

this seems very half-cooked

also jacks weird mixing continues to plague us all

CHARLIE PUTH???? WHAT THE FUCK WHY HE HERE

tattooed golden retriever??? ……no way

my boy breaks all his favorite toys:

i blinked and it’s half over

this also is like… half cooked and didn’t need to be released tbh

i love the way she sings the second verse tho

down and:

the production does not match the vibe

did tpain produce this

i’m… kinda bored lol

like i have nothing to say this also didn’t need to be released tbh 

this grew on me a lot actually

so long london 

the production is so futuristic? 

oh im obsessed with how she sounds on this one

her talk-singing in the verses is great

honest lyrics without any clunky unnecessary metaphors! a win!!

the fast-paced verses with th slow chorus is really really cool

a favorite so far

daddy i love him

i can barely hear her? the bad mixing continues 

‘growing up precociously sometimes means not growing up at all’ oh yeah WE KNOW

is this…… is this about her dating matty and loving how people hate him… no fucking way she’s this stupid

SHE IS BEING THIS STUPID

‘it’s white noise’ yeah yeah that’s exactly how id describe him  

.... anyway y'all remember when fans really believed the little mermaid theory and this song was supposed to be about how 'joe stole her voice' lmaooo

we will pretend this one doesn't exist!

fresh out the slammer

are we getting another ‘i didn’t cheat technically’ song lol

what is this weird tempo change….

okay kinda catchy

it’s sounds exactly like you are in love at the end….. jack is really out of tricks

florida

‘my friends all smell like weed or little babies’ what the fuck is she even talking about anymore 

i’m sorry but i’m laughing at the phrase ‘fuck me up florida’

again the production sounds so detached from the vocals 

i honestly still have no idea how i feel about this one

guilt as sin

an real instrument?? wow crazy 

okay she’s kinda cute? catchy and fun, love the melody

i love when she goes up at the end of the vocal 

okay…. i don’t mind this one she’s catchy, a little too long and drawn out but cute

who’s afraid of little old me?

what is this production? it’s way too soft to be as threatening as they’re trying for 

why did jack push her vocals back so far when she’s supposed to scream…. that’s ruins the whole thing…. she’s supposed to be screaming and threatening….. not quiet and far away…. hello

this song is trying very hard to be threatening but it’s not... vigilante shit 2.0

‘you wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum they raised me’…………… upper middle-class pennsylvania? 

‘i’m drunk on my own tears isn’t that what they all say, that’ll  sue you if you step on my lawn’ okay bar?

the bridge was good but that’s about it.

i can fix him 

…………… not another matty song oh god

‘i can handle a dangerous man’…… im too stunned to speak this is so embarrassing 

wow taylor really is that girl who like ‘women supporting women’ and then dates/defends a racist bf…. a walking example of white feminism

intersectional feminism found dead.... twice....

loml

okay this is really nice? 

I WAS ACTUALLY ENJOYING THE SONG WHY DID SHE RUIN IT BY SAYING ‘MR STEAL YOUR GIRL’ 💀

if we ignore that one line we're good this is good. im refusing to let that line ruin such a good song

i can do it with a broken heart

‘bitch smile’ why are there so many cringey lyrics on this album lol

what is this song omg why do i kind of like it 

taylor please learn depressed isn’t a synonym for sad 

they recycled the mastermind production 

wait till taylor finds out most of the entire world is sad while they're doing their job and has to pretend they're not

smallest man who ever lived 

oh i think i like this?

‘you said normal girls were boring’ GIRL AND YOU DIDNT IMMEDIATELY GET UP AND LEAVE??? EWWWW??? she's not beating the pick-me allegations

'i just wanna know if rusting my sparking summer was the goal' okay love that line

i like this a lot

the alchemy

no….. no way this is real

i cannot

THE SPORTS METAPHORS WE JOKED SHED DO THAT AND SHE ACTUALLY DID IT OH NO 

touchdown ✅ teams ✅ benches ✅ winning streak ✅ the league ✅

she’s doing…… the worst thing ever this is so laughable 

the corny lyrics are on overload 

‘this time it’s heroine with an e’ didn’t she write folklore? i can’t remember 

that literally was an snl parody of a taylor song

clara bow

love how the guitar sounds… bet money this is an aaron track 

a stevie nicks reference!! a win!!!

i like this one a lot no cringey lyrics yet

nope never mind she name-dropped herself don’t like that

overall really liked it tho

the black dog

i think i like it?? this is kind of what i expected the album to be

okay for once the weird production choices kind of pay off

imgonnagetyouback

kinda catchy? 

she loves a fancy car getting wrecked line

the pre-choruses are the best part 

this would’ve been better without the jack of it all bc he loves a song that doesnt build to anything

this just comes down to personal preference: i don’t like her lighter vocals with jack’s heavy production (ie most of lover lol)

the albatross

a real instrument!!! production that matches taylor’s voice and is well mixed!!! aaron’s arrived!! 

i think it’s solid, has good writing and she sounds great. that's about it.

chloe or sam or…

took me a solid minute to have any semblance of a fuck to know what was going on but okay

okay i love this one

wayyyy more emotive than like… most of the original album

a lot of the 2nd version (or whatever this is lol) are way more emotive, maybe because her voice isnt drenched in reverb so we can actually hear her voice emote better

how did it end

this sounds like an old school adele song? 

i love this one too…. 

her being upset people wanna know what happened but then also feeding it while promoting the album oop 

i love the story of this one it's so refreshing

so high school

THE PRODUCTION is so good ugh aaron never fails 

the man here is a walking red flag girl and the lyrics are ~not it~ but the production is too pretty to hate it

fuck these lyrics are so bad lol

maybe if i disassociate hard enough i can ignore the lyrics and just listen to the production and vibe

give me a karaoke version of this song and we'd be so back

i hate it here

i mentioned disassociation and she made a whole song about it!!!! this one’s mine!!!! 

‘without all the racists’ GIRL HUH

WHAT WAS THE REASON

also... girl don’t act like we don’t know you’re fine with that lololololol

if i had a dime for every time i was liking a song to then have it slapped away because of a bad, out-of-pocket lyric…… 

thank you aimee

this isn’t grabbing my attention 

oh the bridge is interesting 

it’s meh 

i will never be thanking the people that bullied me thanks tho

i look in peoples windows 

what do you mean aaron didn’t produce this??? it’s well-made and has instruments? 

i love this one, again a really interesting and unique concept that's very refreshing to hear at this point when a lot of the songs feel repetitive

the prophecy

aaron guitar!!!! 

she’s nice i like her 

i've really grown to love how she sings this one, the melodies are cool.. however i feel like we've heard the same melody.. like on this exact album... where she upturns at the end of every line...

cassandra 

this seems very…. familiar… idk i feel like we’ve covered this (i mean there are 31 songs we’ve already covered everything lol)

this is such an aaron song, that's a classic 'the national' piano

i like her voice in this one tho, sounds good

peter

oh love i love this

now this? THIS feels the most like a taylor swift song

once again she’s at her best with a simple instrument and emotive simple lyrics

the piano reminds me of champagne problems

the bolter 

i like this! the chorus is so cute

oh i like that ending line a lot!

she’s cute, a little long and drawn out but cute

robin

i haven’t seen anyone talk about this one

welp…. i literally have no feelings toward this one but sounds pretty! 

the manuscript

oh this is soooooooo powerful 

i love this concept 

her ending the album on another introspective album that sums everything up a la dear reader yep yep!!

if you actually read of this ily 💗

[saintship]

Can i have a prompt #17 with Graves and a tm reader with a lik spice on the side?

Prompt #17 - “Don’t doubt yourself.”

My fics have been a little LAZY recently so this is my attempt at regaining my former glory, I haven’t written for Graves in a hot minute so I had to resurface some feelings lol

Also, I’ve never written mlm before, so if there’s anything that’s particularly off-putting, irritating, inconsiderate, etc, please drop a comment, also I didn’t really mention the fact they’re trans except for one part if you squint, I didn’t know if it was necessary to outright mention it, ALSO the spice is very mild I hope that’s okay :,)

Thank you!

Phillip Graves x tm!Reader - Snowed in

Warnings: description of injury, Gaz possibly being Graves’ gay awakening, internalized homophobia, suggestions of Graves’ racist actions, mild spice, some angst

To be a part of Price’s task force—to be an operator—was to be a team player. No matter what, no matter how genius your idea may be, no matter how good you are at whatever risky bullshit you’re into, you are never on your own until someone says so. This was articulated to Phillip Graves. But there was a reason he ran his own company instead working for one. There was something bold inside him; something demanding and mean. He used it to build Shadow Company, but that didn’t change the fact that his nature was what stranded him by himself in the first place.

You knew from the day you met him that he had walls up that may never come down for the rest of his life. Those traces of insecurity and fear that shot from him in the form of sharp words and trickling bigotry. He was good at ordering. Good at explosives.

Bad at people.

It was warm in the safehouse that the 141, Alejandro, Rudy, Graves, and one of his Shadows were laying low after your ammunition ran thin, and Gaz was grazed badly through the gaps of his vest. You sat at his side while the others gathered themselves, inspecting the wound. Gaz stripped to his bare torso, revealing a sizable chunk missing from just above his hip. The flesh was torn irregularly, and you struggled to find a solution that would avoid infection.

You heard Graves murmur to one of the Shadows,

“Go on.”

He spoke to his men like they were still in training, his tone a smooth blend of authoritative and encouraging. Sometimes you wondered if it was a bad thing that they’d follow his word without a second thought.

The Shadow gently replaced your spot beside him and began working on the wound, his medic badge partially torn from the rock face they had scaled to reach the cabin.

“You look surprised.” Graves’ low voice caught your attention. Your eyes met before he returned his gaze to the Shadow medic, his arms crossed.

“Maybe a little.” You muttered.

“I’m not that cruel, Sergeant.” The smile that he flashed was a dangerous one. His teeth a crystal white, his incisors pointed like a malinois’.

“So you are cruel—a little.” You reply.

“This is war, Sergeant.” He answered evenly, but he could never hide that underlying bite of defensiveness. ‘I’m right, you’re wrong.’

You tilted your head in resignation.

“This is war.”

Graves’ ego was effortless to satiate. He walked away without another smart comment.

“Getting friendly, hermano?”

Alejandro fidgeted with a combat knife where he sat on the tattered couch, his free arm laying on the backrest.

“Not everyone will hate the men that you do.” Rudy chided from beside him.

Your quiet laugh made Alejandro bristle.

“Oye, cuándo dije eso?”

“You’re practically fantasizing with that thing.” Rudy pointed out Alejandro’s knife.

“I..don’t trust him.”

“We know.” You commented. “But he helped Farah, why not Las Almas?”

“Urzikstan does not have a history with America the way Mexico does..” Rudy pointed out. “Graves was born in Texas, he was probably taught all kinds of shit that made him like that.”

It was true; Graves’ file revealed he had never left his hometown until he joined the military. He grew up in the kind of place where the horses and cows outnumbered the people.

“Maybe he’s just the kind of guy that can’t come home from work.”

Your words surprised you.

“What do you get defending him?” Alejandro retorted. “He’s not a good guy.”

“You don’t know that.”

“I think I do.”

As Alejandro stood from his previous position, you heard your name, turning to see Graves leaning in the doorway with one arm on the wooden frame and the other hand having a thumb hooked in his vest. He always stood like that; his hands just had to be grasping something. It made your mouth feel dry.

“One of you, come help me get our truck out of the ditch.” He called.

You heard Alejandro’s scoff and muttering as you crossed the room.

“Thanks.” Graves muttered as he turned to lead you through the snow to the ditch.

“How’d it get in the ditch, exactly?” You spoke, your breath a mist of air in front of your lips.

“Whatever dipshit that was in the driver’s seat left it in neutral.”

“That—might have been me.”

Graves glanced at you, his steps faltering.

“I’m fucking with you.” You murmur.

He just shook his head, that glowing smile flashing again.

You both came upon the trucks, the back two tires settled in the ditch while the front two stayed on the flat ground.

“Who’s pushing?”

“Where I’m from, it’s whoever asks that.” You didn’t miss his grin as he opened the driver’s side door.

“I’m sure you’re not making that up.”

“I’m not..” He laughed a bit through his words, and it made you dizzy. “It’s true..”

“You got a lot of experience doing dumb shit with trucks?”

“You could say that..” Graves’ smile hadn’t dropped. You wanted to keep going, to savor his expression, but your boots carried you behind the truck, and you waited for the wheels to turn before pushing up.

“Don’t let up!”

You heard his shout over the roar of the engine, and tried to steady yourself. But the ice was slick with mud, the soles of your boots providing little traction as you clung to the back bumper.

“Is it moving?” You call to him.

“It’s-"

His words were cut short by a sickening sputter of the engine.

“Get out! Get out of there, the battery’s dead!” His shout was more desperate than you’d ever heard him.

“I can’t-" You muttered helplessly before the weight of the heavy truck pressed you to the frozen mud, the angle of the underside up against the ditch pinning you to the cold earth. The parts that stuck out had raked down your back, cutting into the vulnerable flesh.

You heard him yell your name, your first name. You heard him curse as he dropped down beside where you were trapped.

“Please tell me you’re alive.. come on, talk to me..”

“My legs.. I can’t move my..” You rasped. From the knee down, the crushing metal pinned your legs enough to render you immobile.

“Breathe. You’re gonna be fine, come here.. come on..”

His gloved hand fit into your own securely, and you had to shake off the rush in your head.

When he tried to ease you out, you couldn’t stop the groan of pain that escaped you, devolving into quick, panicked breaths. “I can’t..”

“Easy.. easy.” He had enough room to hold your upper arm steady. “It’s gonna hurt, alright? But you gotta get out from under there..”

You nod, your breath short. “Yeah.. okay..”

“I’ve got you. You hear me?”

“I hear..”

“Alright.”

This time, one his arms worked around your middle, and the warmth blooming in your ribs nearly offset the white-hot tendrils shooting up your legs and back.

Graves pulled slowly, your legs slowly inching free as you gasped and groaned in pain.

“Breathe..” Graves murmured like he was speaking to a small animal, his breath warm on your temple. “Come on.. come on, now..”

Finally, he yanked you free, the both of you partially collapsing in the filthy ditch. You try to stand, but were quickly guided to sit down.

“Hey, don’t be a hero, sit still..” Graves knelt, inspecting your back with a low whistle.

“You didn’t break anything..” You murmured. You couldn’t help but be impressed.

“Told you.. I got you..”

You sit side by side, exhausted from the day, the adrenaline, the pain.

“Thank you.” You murmur.

Graves brought up a knee to rest his elbow on, his other hand waving you off.

“Not an issue, baby.”

When the words left his mouth, any softness in his face hardened into something else. Like he’d made himself angry.

“I-" He looked away.

“What’d you call me?” Your voice was a soft murmur.

“Nothing. I didn’t call you anything, come on..” He straightened to stand.

His expression matched yours now; flushed and confused.

“Graves.”

“I said come on!” He barked, but couldn’t get to his feet before you pulled him to sit back down.

“Sergeant..” His tone was warning. His hand covered yours where you held onto his vest. “That didn’t happen.”

“It did.”

“No.” His words were firm, but his eyes were desperate.

You slid a hand up to his shoulder. “It’s okay..”

“No! I cant-"

“But you want to.” Your eyes bore into his with an unwavering steadiness while your voice quieted to a whisper. “You want to..”

His face conveyed so many emotions, conflicting and fighting one another. He looked at your lips, and exhaled shakily.

“God dammit..”

“I know it’s hard to let go of what other people see you as. It’s okay.”

“You mean cause’ you..”

You nod.

“I—don’t know how.” He managed.

“Don’t doubt yourself like that.”

You were closer now. Close enough for the puffs of your breath to mingle with his.

“No one knows. No one..” He shakes his head, still partially in the headspace that wouldn’t let him feel anything other than bitterness.

“It’s up to you who does.” You murmur.

“Graves?”

Soap’s voice called from a few meters away, sending Graves scrambling to his feet.

“The truck pinned them, they’re hurt. Help me out.” In his fashion, he wasted no time showing his embarrassment, reverting to his wavering authority.

Soap only shook his head, but dropped down beside you. “You alright?”

“Yeah, yeah, he got me out..” You muttered as Soap hauled you to your feet, not missing the way Graves looked away at the mention of his rescuing you.

The rest of the night was tense—your back was ripped up, your legs were sore and tender, but it was ensured that nothing was broken. For the three days left before an exfil helicopter arrived, you spent most of your time with your legs propped on the couch. It felt wrong to take up one of the only spaces to rest, to not be able to follow Graves when he walked outside to scan the surrounding hills. You felt chained in place, your only glimpses of him being his fleeting glances in your direction before he walked away again.

You almost forgot he wasn’t coming back to the base with you. He’d be going back to his own site, onto the next mission, onto the next project. It was supposed to be a short interaction between the 141 and him, but you just had to volunteer to help him move that truck. You just had to press him about it.

The sound of helicopter blades woke you up on the fourth morning, and most everyone else was moving equipment outside. You heard muffled voices.

“Graves, go help him into the heli.” Price’s gruff order sounded from outside.

“You don’t need help movin’ all that?” Graves’ tone was wavering; grasping at any excuse to keep avoiding you. You were starting to get irritated.

“You got a problem with my Sergeant?” Price retorted.

A sigh. “No, sir.”

“Right, then.”

His snow-covered boots tracked in the mud from outside, and you glanced at them before you looked at his face.

“Hey.” He didn’t meet your eyes, offering a hand to help you upright. You didn’t move.

“You’re avoiding me.” You mutter. The frustration crept up your throat.

He sighed, his hand dropping back to his side.

“We don’t have time for this.. we might never see each other again, can you focus on that?” His eyes caught your frustration and reflected it right back in your face.

“You can’t brush this off, Graves.”

“Don’t tell me what I can’t do.” He snapped, walking to the door. “You act like you know me because I fucked up back there, but you don’t. This conversation-"

You hauled yourself to your feet, the pain making you wince. You straightened anyway, walking over until you were in his face again.

“What if you didn’t fuck up? You ever think about that?” You muttered.

His chest rose and fell with angry breath.

“Why’re you doin’ this to me?”

His soft tone caught you off guard, and your shoulders that had been tensed relaxed downward again.

“Because you don’t deserve to live like this. No one does.”

Your hand had found its way to his upper arm unintentionally, but he hadn’t pulled away. You weren’t wearing your gloves, the warmth of your palm radiating through his sleeve and thawing the sparse snowflakes that had caught on the fabric.

“How can you be so sure?” His brow was still furrowed with stress, his body somehow lax and tensed all at once.

“I can’t.” you admit. “But I won’t let you walk away without hearing that there is nothing wrong with you. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Who you love is not up to the rest of the world, and that’s one of the few things you still have to yourself. So keep it close.”

His eyes searched your face, your eyes, and finally your lips. His breath quickened.

Your hand drew upward to hold his jaw in your palm. He smelled like warm linen and smoke. One of his hands crept up your back while the other settled on your cheek, all in an impossibly fast motion before he pressed a kiss to your parted lips.

You felt the anxiety and shame melt from him for a moment, your lips working in tandem. Once he had a taste for you, he couldn’t stop. He deepened the kiss with a groan, your own hands hooking into his vest and pressing your bodies together. His hand was just working under your shirt and up your stomach before the door handle turned. With his hand still under your clothes, he shut the door firmly, keeping whoever it was outside. You heard a vague, confused voice, but most of your brain was clouded by his hand moving over your front, up your waist and ribs that were still wrapped in gauze.

You reluctantly pulled your lips from his, breathing heavily.

“Graves..”

“Oi! What the fuck is goin’ on, I’m breaking the door down in three!”

Ghost’s voice caused you to gently move Graves’ hand from under your shirt, pressing one last kiss to his lips before pulling the door open and putting on your best limp. Ghost’s eyes told you he didn’t buy it for a second, but he stayed quiet as Graves trailed after you with flushed cheeks.

You were the last to board the helicopter, turned around by your shoulder before stepping up to see Graves. He seemed almost shaken; but placed his hands around one of yours before setting off back to the safe house. Looking in your hand, you saw the scrawled digits of a phone number on a scrap of a report sheet. You held it the entire flight back.

[kirasworldofwords]

I feel like it’s pretty damn easy to name something bad about any F1 driver, idk why it has to be an Olympics? Yeah they’ve all done bad things at some point, they’re out of touch rich men, that doesn’t mean people can’t be upset about racism and erasure their driver faces??? Idk if this wording makes sense but I am on your side

It does make sense, don't worry, lol. Thank you for the support! I have genuinely no idea why people are so pressed that I'm just trying to protect a ship fandom's established name, so much so they have to harass me over it.

Yep, they're all out of touch. You know why? Because they're literally the 20 richest men driving the world's fastest cars in one of the most dangerous sports that has the potential to kill you at any given time. They got the looks, they got the money, they got the girls... Why should they care what they talk about, laugh at and do?

And yes, I'm mad as all shit that Checo is just getting erased. Because this wouldn't be the first time, but it for sure was the time that was the proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. Now, I'm the whitest white to ever white, coffee creamer and Irish people are jealous of me, and I'm nowhere near being Irish. Still I find it to be important to stand up against the sheer waves of hate POC drivers get, even if one's own nationality and/or race has dogshit to do with the driver's nationality and/or race. I will not sit by idly and watch as fans from some mediocre white guy from yet another first world country (I know, I know, rich coming from me but don't lose me here) just go like: "Oh, look, this name over there fits our pookie-wookie-bear and the other person we ship him with!" - and then it's a name that has already been in use for another fandom's ship for perhaps already more than a decade (which is the case for Chewis, mind you, their journey started in 2012). It just so happens that the other person their special little corny coffee whiter snowflake is being shipped with in that fandom is no one of significance to them - in their eyes, to anyone because they're not as popular, not as "good-looking", which is subjective anyway, I mean, have you seen Checo? There's a very good reason why he has five kids, and you can't say it's all solely for the money, I'm begging you.

They're also not significant because they're not white, oftentimes. We can't deny that a subtle whiff of racism and prejudice is in this mix as well - we do, after all, still have a significant racism, sexism and queerphobia problem in our community as a whole. You cannot tell me in good faith that none of the Lewclerc shippers knew that Checo has been the actual second part to Chewis long before Charles even debuted in F1 and thus made an honest mistake, because I call fucking bullshit. It's well-known that Checo's been getting shit from all directions, especially the racist directions and especially especially towards the end of his career with Red Bull due to his lack of podiums (which I'm by the way still convinced were not his fault, the RBR mechanics have admitted it themselves that he had a worse car than Max - I shall die on this hill, and if I die alone there). So to be fairly honest, a revelation like that would not surprise me in the slightest. Not at all. It was another well-known fact that many Charles stans hated Checo's guts, too, for whatever fucking reason. Many hardcore fans of other drivers hated him, regular fans, too. I don't differentiate, because why should I? But this isn't about others, this is about Charles stans who don't know when to drop it.

So if you're a regular fan of Charles and you made it to this point, congrats, I don't mean you. Don't feel attacked.

This still doesn't justify just erasing his name and substituting it for Charles' name in the ship name Chewis, however. Have some respect for other fandoms. Rant over.

Now I hope I made sense here, because this turned out to be much more word salad than I intended it to be, lmao. Oops.

[comradekarin]

https://youtube.com/shorts/JBeJPnP16R8?si=LEg8g3aVYBpW54Gf

Everyone who says " Beyonce's album wasn't even country! " needs to watch this rn and you have been preaching the gospel since she finally got what the industry of white bigots have denied her since the album released.

Beyonce is country. In fact, if you like country, you have black people to thank for it existing ( I could rant forever about this but basics is a lot of the instruments that make country music country music were either invented by enslaved black people or were most notably used by enslaved black people, which I find it funny in a sad way that white people are still taking our shit and pretending it was all them )

Also for the Bille fans, go harass all the white people who were competing and who beat Bille now or forever be labeled racist bc that's what you are. ( not you op you're doing God's work )

Also we need to start calling people racist more often bc I have never in my life seen so much of it after one night I swear ( that's a lie but I'm sure you can guess the other nights )

CLOCK IT ANON!!! country is a historically black genre that’s been co-opted by white artists. this album is a love letter to BLACK southern culture, music and way of life in the same sense that renaissance was a love letter to the BLACK queer and trans community, to house music and ballroom culture, to her uncle johnny who inspired her as a child. in the same exact sense that lemonade was her personal experience as being a BLACK woman, of her husband’s infidelity, her journey from betrayal to heartbreak to forgiveness, of all the emotional baggage black women are expected to hold (just for people to say she wasn’t being vulnerable at all or shaming her for staying with jay). beyonce should have won album of the year from self titled all the way to cowboy carter, and it’s not even close. time and time again white people disrespect black artistry and people but be the first ones using AAVE to call you a fucking slur lmao.

as for billie, i already said the album was cute, but it did NOT deserve AOTY. the fact that people think they can disrespect beyonce and CC despite admitting to not even listening to it tells me everything I need to know. cc was filled with rich cultural references, black history, discussions of the black experience and her experience with being disrespected and excluded by the cmas. the first SONG literally has giselle saying “they used to say I spoke too country and then the rejection came and said I wasn’t country enough. said I wouldn’t saddle up. if this ain’t country, tell me what is?”!!!! ???? ameriican requiem alone smashed all of her competition out of the water. competition that have been repackaging the same sounds, same concepts and production from before. that’s also why they’re trying to gag the hive by bringing up how many writers cc has as if that very organic collaboration isn’t why her albums are always so fresh and innovative and good.

billie dressing like a flava flav cosplayer while her fans calling me slurs over a fuckass grammy. she can feel sad and shit, but I remember when beyonce teared up at the 2017 grammy’s after adele’s acceptance speech and they called her bitter, jealous and narcissistic. they still do! billie liking tiktoks of her crying (with racist ass comments in those videos) pissed me off too. grow tf up. nine grammies, two oscars before 23- you will be just fine baby girl. and this is all imma say about that girl. I won’t get nasty about her, but this white outrage over their white darlings not getting their way is just as I expected.

and you’re so right. “DEI awards”, “this is what it feels like to lose to a black woman” “beyonce doesn’t have a fraction of billie’s talent” id rather them call me and her a slur. say it with your chest lol.

[cancerian-woman]

Omg one day I will write an essay on how ODD it is that NOLA is that white in that show and how I don’t think a majority Black city and BLACK witches at that would accept a white vampire family as leaders ummm. Also just the optics of the whole situation. The writers thought NOLA was the perfect location for that family lol. They should have stuck to Chicago.

I also fail to see what is so mature about the themes and politics of TO that makes it above what went on in TVD and have yet to read a good explanation.

If you make that essay I’d love to read it!

Why would a bunch of black witches, in their home town chose to listen to their family when they haven’t been there in *checks notes* centuries? They didn’t even know Marcel was alive why does their jurisdiction matter over others? Besides the Mikaelson’s running in taking things over is another racist tidbit tbh.

I forgot until my rewatch just how much the Mikaelson’s mentioned Chicago in s3 of TVD that being in NOLA makes no sense. The Martin witches had ties to NOLA but were all killed off. I could see if someone from the Martin bloodline was plotting against Klaus as revenge for their family but that wasn’t the case. Especially since they dropped Klaus’ taste in witches bc ahem….witches was black until they weren’t 🌚.

Same. I’ve seen people mention the faction drama or the focuses on family that makes the show more mature? But, I’m sorry people trying to kill an innocent girl happened to Elena too. The faction drama becomes meaningless by S3 because most of those side characters were killed off and not shown. “The witches are more ruthless than Bonnie they know what they’re doing” and none of them were main characters. Even freya is an afterthought when Claire came back as Rebekah. The show turned Klaus into a deadbeat daddy, and well, like I said didn’t care to develop Hope with anybody beyond Hayley.

I used to think Hayley’s pact could’ve been useful for Hope. But, the fact that one of the crescents had to call Hayley out for abandoning them I can’t blame them for not being in Hope’s life. I know Hayley expected Hope to unite the factions one day but did HOPE ever want that for herself? If legacies didn’t exist I don’t see TO lasting that long besides a S6.

Sorry but that show leaves so many damn questions 💜 thank you!

[insufferableprotagonistpoll]

Round 3

Propaganda why Feyre Archeron is insufferable:

"She is Miss Perfect Special Never Does Anything Wrong. Rhys with her is like Gordon Ramsay with children, EXCEPT SHE'S A GROWN ADULT. I didn't hate her tooooo much in books 1-3 (she was barely tolerable), but in the novella, she becomes this housewife First Lady type character who is fine doing paperwork after stating previously that she wants to be doing something more "important", and living in a McMansion. THEN THE FIFTH BOOK STARTS WITH HER HAVING AN "INTERVENTION" FOR HER SISTER, WHICH IS BASICALLY FEYRE TELLING NESTA THAT SHE'S GRIEVING INCORRECTLY. Bitch, who are YOU to tell someone that THEIR grief is making YOUR life uncomfortable?? "Wah wah the social implications" you're the literal queen, no one cares that your sister is embarrassing you.

Imo, Feyre is also the result of a lot of internalized misogyny on the part of the author, bc she has two men in love with her and gets along very well with every other male character that's not "evil", but many of the female characters are antagonistic or unhelpful towards Feyre, seemingly apropos of nothing. It's giving "I'm not like OTHER girls". She also very clearly doesn't want children but then miraculously changes her mind bc apparently female characters can't be fulfilled without children. 🙄

Oh and btw Feyre also manages to get the powers of EVERY fairy court ruler at the end of the first book. I DO NOT use the term "mary sue" lightly, as that label has been used against feminist characters a lot, but Feyre exemplifies the Mary Sue trope."

"SHES SO ANNOYING AND SO SO STUPID AND BY THE END SHE JUST BECOMES A COMPLETE DOORMAT AND LETS RHYS WALK ALL OVER HER tbh im more mad at the author for butchering her but she's still annoying as all hell"

"Thinks she’s the victim of everything. Destroys an entire Court. Forces an intervention on her sister who is grieving differently than Feyre is."

"She's the WORST. She's an asshole to her family but thinks she deserves to be worshipped by them because she hunts or whatever, feels entitled all the time, is ableist to her dad, is fantasy racist and turns from being racist to not being racist in a BLINK, is ridiculously overpowered and treated as oh-so-special by every single other character ... I hate her and I wish she would die. "

Propaganda why Marinette Dupain-Cheng is insufferable:

"shes annoyinng anf shes a stalker"

"I love fanon miraculous but by god she has got to stop obsessively stalking her crush and generally making a ton of other terrible decisions. I’d submit Adrien too but he’s more of a deuteragonist"

"I started the show, watched one episode, and never tried again. I simply do not vibe with her."

"I get she has social anxiety but the way she goes about stalking Adrien is kind of the worst like she even has creep shots of him hanging in her room? That’s weird. I think Adrien’s going through enough without having to deal with the main character being his stalker lol. I know they’re (spoilers) at this point but in the beginning it was so sus"

"In the newest season, Marinette hides the fact that Hawkmoth was Adrien’s dad. This leads to the bastard getting a statue and honored as a hero after his death. Adrien now never gets to know the fact that his abusive and neglectful father was the one trying to kill him and is instead proud of him."

"Her crush on Adrien is like a black hole for her character. Things she’s done because of it:

1) stolen property

2) ruined dates

3) humiliated other characters

4) has a chart of Adrien’s daily schedule for the next year in her room (this is stalking)

5) broke into his room and sniffed his pillow (also a crime)

6) sniffed, took the hair from, and tried to kiss what she thought was a wax statue of Adrien

7) convinced her parents to let her go to China. Why? Not because she wants to connect with her mother’s heritage, not even because she’s a budding fashion designer and Shanghai is considered a fashion hotspot. It’s because Adrien was there."

"She easily gets away with bad, stalkerish behavior, it always feels like she can ‘do no wrong’ unless the show wants us to pity her, and the show writers want us to think she is a quirky and socially awkward girl when throughout the series we see her be friends with basically everyone in Paris with many connections to high up places."

"Listen, if Adrien's here, she needs to be too. I like her, but from the odd stalker-ish behaviour, to straight up lying to adrien and telling him that his abusive father was actually a 'very good person, a hero even and not the main villain of the series I promise', there's no way she doesn't deserve to be in the polls."

[electric-friend]

listen i know the whole “ed did nothing wrong”/“killing and maiming his his coping mechanism uwu” thing is a super silly joke lol and even i found it funny but it’s kinda just pissing me off.

i just hate that they never really properly resolved ed resorting to violence when he’s upset and that he never really takes accountability for his actions onscreen. and when the side of the fandom that takes no issue at all with the way seeason two was presented makes jokes that show they’re like aware of the vibes they just don’t care bc they hold characters they don’t like and characters they do like to entirely different standards. it’s just annoying lol.

like listen. yeah. ed’s my special little babygirl princess haha i love him. but like. i feel like it’s also ignoring the fact that the violence is actually bad for ed’s mental health and we know this and it’s canonically established.

the same people who make “ed did nothing wrong” jokes literally call people who do the same to izzy bad people. not all of them but like the people aligned with that Side of the fandom.

like first of all we know that canonically though ed’s capable of violence it’s not good for him. that’s a huge part of his character, that he doesn’t want to be Blackbeard. so the jokes ur making leave your favourite character unhappy anyway? and if you’re going to talk like that about ed then why is it a CRIME to do the same about izzy?

i think i’m just kinda annoyed bc people act like if you’re critical of the way the writing failed to give ed a great redemption arc it’s because you’re a racist idiot blind with love for izzy, but in fact, you can remove izzy from the equation entirely and it still sucks because it sucks for ed’s character that his arc was so confusing and we left him in such an uncertain place as a character.

listen, i don’t exactly advertise this bc i feel like people won’t understand, but i’ve been through a lot of trauma, and at times in my life when that’s been a lot fresher for me, i’ve had really serious issues with anger and aggression and lashing out. i think that’s why i connected with izzy and i think it’s why i connected with ed so strongly but also found it so hard to watch the first couple episodes of the second season.

and coming from that place, with that perspective, when i talk about ed being abusive towards izzy and the narrative not being resolved, i am NOT hating on ed and cancelling ed and saying ed is an evil person. what i’m saying is that ofmd s2 took on a really, really complex and serious and intense subject matter, and then the writing failed to carry the weight of that. i love ed, and i feel like his character was let down by us not seeing him clearly express that he’s holding himself accountable for his actions on-screen, or even seeing him healing in relation to his violent impulses that come from his trauma. his killing spree in the finale was really odd in terms of his overall arc and is honestly what threw it all off the most for me. like it’s obvious that scenes regarding ed’s apologies and forgiveness from the crew are supposed to have happened and we maybe just didn’t see all of it, because the season was rushed due to the screen time. but a lot of it is also just poor decisions in the writing and the way ed’s storyline is laid out in the final cut.

to me, saying that ed’s arc was beautiful and perfect and it’s wrong to criticise it or to acknowledge the severity of his mistakes and actions isn’t a form of loving ed. it’s a way of saying you’d rather ed actually not take steps towards healing, just because you want to pretend he didn’t do anything wrong in the first place so you can feel like the better person in the conversation. to me, the people who say ed did no wrong are expressing that they actually don’t love ed.

i mean it’s not that deep, it’s all fictional, but i wish people would look beyond their predisposition to condemning criticism of something they like, and see that there’s a lot of heart, and a lot of really personal experience and real-world context behind the arguments people are making, and that other opinions about the writing in s2 are worth listening to even if they make you uncomfortable at first.

[bigmack2go]

Hi i had a very random angst/whump idea which i’m too lazy to write (aka i literally do not have time lol)

It’s modern Spralbert + kids and Medda.

I do wanna say that this isn’t purely my idea! I worked on it with my friend talita who loves my au but doesn’t like newsies (she’s weird like that)

Only thing i ask is to be credited! And as many people as want can use tgis! @ya-what--ya-erster @erstersandcigars @ivys-head-is-spinning @orangesand-lemons-234 @lemonlord14 @chaosfairy18

If you do write this please be mindful cause those are a bunch of sensitive topics that should be treated as such.

PSA: any minority that is dealing with oppression in this specific situation is either a minority I belong to, Talita belongs to, or we have consulted a friend that belongs to it, to assure this stays respectful and accurate<3

One evening, just after the twins have gone to bed, the door rings. Albert opens and it’s the police. Obviously he’s immediately high allert.

It turns out some parents from Brooklyns school are concerned that Albert, Race and Spot are engaging in child trafficking. (Albert knows damn well that those allegations were made because they’re three men raising kids together.)

Brooklyn (9) and Conny (8) wanna know what’s going on but Spot holds them back. Unfortunately that convinces the cops even more that something is up.

And the fact that they see three men, and no woman there, makes them even more alert. The officers ask to look around the house, claiming that they also find their behaviour suspicious. Albert doesn’t wanna let them in without a warrant, which makes them EVEN MORE suspicious. And the worst part is the DO have a warrant

Race whispers to Albert asking if he thinks they’ll find anything. Albert is already so on edge, his brain doesn’t process what thats supposed to mean and he just looks at him in shock like “what?!” Because as far as he knows there’s nothing TO find. Race says “you know what i mean” (he means if they find anything they could rip out of context to make them look bad)

The whispering makes the cops exchange glances.

They also find Races pills, which’s perception is one day expired.

The cops search the kids rooms. The twins (Roxy and Rocket (4)) rooms too, even though they’re asleep. Race tries to stop that, but the officer won’t have it and throws on him the floor and straight out handcuffs him without even a warning or a chance as if they just waited for them to even say one wrong word, right in front of Brooklyn and Conny (who scream “Pa!”) for apparently resisting authorities.

It becomes shockingly clear how much minorities are still oppressed just for the sake of establishing authority. And showing them their place as “less worthy” people.

Brooklyn is smart enough to secretly film the whole ordeal with the camera she got for christmas.

The officers speak to them as if they’re animals that didn’t behave.

Especially Spot is treated like some drugdealer or something because he’s latino/hispanic. They search the entire house, clearly just to humiliate them. (Possibly but not necessarily reminding Albert of his childhood??)

They wake up the twins and don’t let any of the kids go to their dads when they need comfort.

They treat Brooklyn and Roxy a lot harsher than Rocket and Conny. Because Brooklyn is black and Roxy is brown. The officers are clearly racist too even though they pretend they have a reason for all this.

Brooklyn films in secret. She’s smart and disguises her camera as some random toy so the officers don’t realize it.

Finally, despite finding nothing, the officer arrest all three of them for apparently behaving suspicious. (Albert says it’s because they breathed too loud)

They get violently handcuffed and humiliatingly forced to their knees even though they didn’t even resist-

it starts with Spot, who moves too fast bringing his hands up in disbelief but the cops immediately take a few steps back, as if he’s threatening and bring out their guns, pointing them at him as if he just brought out a knive, telling him to put his hands behind his head and get on his knees and he knows exactly they see him as a threat and treat him like a criminal cause he isn’t white. They act as if he’s some sort of drug dealer or something.

He bitterly lets them arrest him, knowing exactly why he’s being picked out.

He could easily take the cops (he has his reputation for a reason), but he doesn’t want to in front of the kids. Besides, they have guns. So he does what they say, but not without his fair share of bitter, sarcastic remarks.

The officers are way too satisfied with themselves. They look down on him. Literally and authoritatively.

Then they tell them that they’re all being arrested and Albert is like “Wait, what?” And the officers apparently receive that as ‘resisting arrest’ and kick his kneecaps which makes him gasp in pain, making him get on his knees as well.

Race is already handcuffed still from earlier so they start taking them outside.

They take the kids too. Brooklyn and Roxy are still being treated way harsher than Conny and Rocket.

But Race, Albert and Spot get protective when they see the officers grabbing the children. They scream at them not to touch them and get shoved to the ground several times and hurt and even beat (which makes them yell even more). They scream their lungs out, trying to protect the kids, their voices sore, and throaty and raw. They don’t care about getting hurt. They just keep trying.

The kids yell “mom” because that’s what Albert, Race and Spot taught them to yell “mom” when a stranger tries to take them. But they realize pretty fast that it isn’t working so they just scream “Pop”, “dad”, and “Pa”

Since they’re already outside, the screaming and yelling attracts attention from the neighbours who not-so-secretly watch it all. Most of it is caught on camera by Brooklyn AND the neighbours

On the way there, Albert, Race and Spot huddle together in the back of the police car, all with tears in their eyes.

The same thing, where they get forced down after getting protective of the kids, happens again at the police department

They all get questioned separately and the kids are separated and questioned as well. They try to do something but they can’t and get repeatedly forced down.

Apparently they have to make sure that they don’t talk to each other so they can’t align their ‘stories’ to match up. They call Race’s mom, Medda first.

When she’s there, Brooklyn shows her what she recorded and Medda gives her a phone to record better and more secretive.

Albert, Race and Spot get treated terribly (especially Spot, because racism) while the officers put on overly sweet faces with the kids, but it’s so fake, it seems threatening. Medda is furious.

It’s really crazy how little they care about getting arrested in comparison to the kids being taken.

One of the many things that they ask them is, why the kids yelled “mom” when the officers tried to take them. All three of them answer the same thing: because they taught them to yell for ‘mom’ if they ever get grabbed by strangers, because we live in a society where mothers are more likely to react immediately if they hear the word mom being yelled by any child, than than most dads.

The kids get questioned too.

Rocket even asks if he has to go to prison. They all get questioned alone, and aren’t allowed to talk to each other.

Medda demands that they let them go, revealing the videos that Brooklyn filmed -which leave absolutely no doubt about what had happened-, and threatening them with the footage.

Despite all of them answering the same things to all questions, AND Meddas threats, AND the kids telling them multiple times that their dads would never hurt them, they get kept at the police station

The police keeps saying they’re just following protocol. But according to protocol they have to be released after 48 hours if there’s no evidence against them. But they aren’t. And that’s when Medda makes her threats real. She tells them that the footage will be on every news channel, the second they’re held longer than 48 hours. And that’s exactly what happens when the clock strikes the 48th hour. Yet it takes another two days for them to get released. And only because of the footage being on the news

There are videos of them stepping out of the police station and the first thing they do is check for the kids and hug them and tell them that everything's okay.

Albert hugs Brooklyn hand in her hair, Spot hugs Conny, checking her over and Race hugs the twins, both at the same time.

They hug them as if they thought they were never gonna see them again.

It’s clear that they care for the kids- even more than for themselves.

But the authorities apparently don’t agree

Make some fluffy hurt/hurt comfort as they get home.

But even now that they’re not being held anymore, they’re still getting investigated and have to go to court and all that.

Since Medda made the entire thing a political discussion, the court meeting is being televised.

At first Albert, Race and Spot don’t like that but they soon realize that they can use it to their advantage. The only way to hold those officers accountable, is for their voices to be heard by enough people to make a difference. At first people discussing the whole thing say that it’s understandable, and that you shouldn’t give people accused of child trafficking the benefit of the doubt. Even Albert, Race and Spot agree with that.

They aren’t angry at the officers for looking after those allegations (even despite the fact that they have been through a several year long process of the adoption to prove that they care for the kids in the first place), but for treating them the way they did, even after it was absolutely clear that they didn’t do anything wrong. And they’re angry at whoever made those allegations against, knowing damn well that they’re loving parents.

But what everyone soon comes to see, is that it’s clear that that wasn’t the reason the officers acted the way they did. The reason was purely because they saw a non-traditional family- nothing else. The problem isn’t that the police followed that request, but how they treated them, even after it was clear that they didn’t do anything wrong.

How they treated and humiliated them for being queer, for not fitting into their world view how racist they were toward Spot for being latino, even after it became more than clear that they care about the kids and the kids care about them, all just to establish their own power.

And how they were much more careful with Conny and Rocket and much harsher with Brooklyn and Roxy, because Brooklyn is black and Roxy is brown.

[kwop-kilawtley]

yeah no, ever noticed how Bella act's so defensive and offended whenever Jacob calls the Cullens "leeches" and "bloodsuckers" or is generally mean about them but doesnt say sht when the Cullens (except Carlisle and Esme but they dont say shit either) call Jacob "dog" "mutt" or (fuck you Edward) "mongrel". I get Bella being pissed enough to call him that in Eclipse bc she was forced into a kiss, but in Breaking Dawn after she became a vampire and flipped out over Jacob imprinting (which yea sucks but he cant control it and she knows that) she starts calling him slurs too. (and I reiterate, the Cullens dont do shit to stop or restrain her, and Seth ended up injured because of it!!)

I've seen twilight reddit cope about how it's ""fair"" and ""justified"" bc they do it to each other but it's not the same imo? "leech"/"bloodsucker"/"parasite" DONT have a history of racial discrimination. words like "dog"/"mutt"/"mongrel" DO. The vampire vs werewolf trope isnt the issue here - in Twilight where ALL the "werewolves" are poc and the main vampires are all white, and the werewolves' exist BECAUSE of the vampires, the hate looks very one-sided imho. It's clear who's being discriminated here, and it's not the rich white vampires lmao

Oh twilight reddit, how I hate you so. Haven’t been on there in a while because the last time I posted photos of my twilight merch shrine/shelf, I got smeyer simps shaming me for having Jacob merch. Some attempted to debate with me on this post. Like really, team Jacobs aren’t welcome in any twilight space tbh. They will attack you for simply owning Jacob merch or they’ll at least question it. My post literally got downvoted lol.

So yeah, fuck Reddit. I have had this literal debate you mention on reddit. Theres one idiot in particular on reddit who really says that the wolves are the ones being racist cause they “started” with the slurs. Fucking idiots <3

It’s not at all the same thing when the wolves call the cullens parasites and bloodsuckers. Because I mean it’s literally true, that is what they are. I’d say those are just synonyms for vampire. But aside from that, the wolves existence is BECAUSE of vampires. The DANGER and predatorial nature FORCED them to phase in the first place. And the cullens who could literally live anywhere, were the ones who did it. The cullens actually have no right to call them “dog” “mongrel” “mutt.” These words are not synonymous with “wolf” or “shapeshifter.” Like if the pack wants to call themselves giant dogs humorously, then they’re allowed to. But these fucks use it as a slur.

In general, there is a lot of coping from the team edwino smeyer simp side. They’re deeply insecure and need to protect their feeble white billionaire indestructible immortals at all costs who “won” in the end in canon. Like they need it. They will not even stand for Jacob defending though, forget it. And let’s be real, they don’t give a fuck about the pack lol. Some admit to entirely skipping over their chapters. Which, fine but then don’t try and debate and say shit when you literally don’t even know the text.

To me the vamp vs werewolf is a metaphor for racial disparity but yes, the fact that the pack are indigenous makes this so much worse. I mean, they cannot live on their reservation in peace without colonizer billionaire bloodsuckers moving in and upending their lives even more. They certainly are not well off either and for some reason have to cut their fucking hair. Hate it here!!!!!

I mean I was 10 years old when I first read twilight and I saw these themes LOUD in my face. It’s very much there and obvious. If I was able to see it then how can’t grown adults see it now? Sure you can enjoy your little teen romance book and love the cullens, most of the fandom fits this category, but please do not try to engage in debate with us who aren’t completely under vampire thrall like Bella LMAO. Like seriously it’s straight up ignorance and then their cope is “it’s just fiction about vamps and wolves wahhhh.” Okay again, ignore the racism and blaringly obvious disparity here but don’t engage in meaningful discourse about the topic. Keep it surface level.

Smeyer can use all the flowery prose she wants, she can make the cullens seem like angels, she can attempt to make Carlisle and esme who are cardboard cut out characters seem like the best uwu parents. She can try to make them all seem caring and loving uwuuu. She can make the wolves and cullens work together and make it seem like all is well. But the wolves don’t wanna deal with this shit. It is bullshit that they have to in the first place.

Also, Edward even before the cullens was a rich private school kid. He literally doesn’t get it nor will he ever. He gives Bella the damn diamond chunk on her little wolf bracelet I mean GODDDDDDD I hate it here!!

None of this is a reach nor is it like buried beneath the text. It is all very much right there. It’s even clearer in Jacobs pov but most of the story is in Bella’s POV so maybe it’s not super apparent to some, but it definitely was to me at age 10 and has been forever.

As for that scene in BD, thank god I forgot it cause that shit is simply not real to me. <33333