#the retribution should be that i sell something in some way or create something to be sold

[dewgongs]

hmmm i have really really been struggling with this part of my job

[oriandcate]

The List of Raw Quotes immortalized by the Internet:

“People who value any aspect of creation would do well not to pit gods against one another.”

“Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.” 

“I will face God and walk backwards into Hell.”

“Then perish.”

“I have been through Hell and come out singing.”

“Do I look like the kind of man who dies?”

“Do you think God stays in Heaven because He too lives in fear of what He created?”

“To become god is the loneliest achievement of all.”

“You kneel before my throne unaware that it was built on lies.”

“This is Hell’s territory and I am beholden to no gods.”

“Impudent of you to assume that I will meet a mortal end.”

“Bury me shallow, I’ll be back.”

“Take this gift, for the gods surely won’t.”

“One day, you will be face to face with whatever saw fit to let you exist in the universe, and you will have to justify the space you’ve filled.”

“Will you fight? Or will you perish like a dog?”

“Deviation from the norm will be punished unless it is exploitable.”

“You cannot kill me in a way that matters.”

“Pick a god and pray.”

“We deserve a soft epilogue, my love.”

“We are the timeline that God has abandoned.”

“Pick a Hell and rot there.”

“Every day we stray further from God’s light.”

“I survived because the fire inside me burned brighter than the fire around me.”

“I’d sell you to Satan for one corn chip.”

“The risk I took was calculated, but man am I bad at math.”

“If the world chooses to become my enemy, I will fight as I always have.”

“I am a monument to all your sins.”

“It’s not about whether you win or lose. Sometimes it’s about how many pages you add to the rulebook.”

“You’re rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic, my friend.”

“The man who sleeps with a machete is a fool every night but one.”

“I don’t believe in divine retribution, but then life throws people like you at me.”

“God wanted me dead, now you get to find out why.”

“The fruits of the earth do not exist to be worth something to us.”

“I’ve got a date with destiny, and it ain’t gonna end with a kiss.”

“Hostage or not, sometimes it’s nice being held.”

“To sit still is to submit to a god who cannot stand to see such power in potentia mere inches from realizing itself and overcoming him.”

“That sounds like a you problem.”

“…but sadly I am only a little bug and you are a garden.”

“In a society where all adventure has been destroyed, the only adventure left is to destroy that society.”

“How many times have people used a pen or paintbrush because they couldn’t pull the trigger?”

“So hope like hell your captor is an evil man. A good man will kill you with hardly a word.”

“…For they are a scoundrel and a foul beast of fields untouched by green.”

“Do you not think that Satan, too, has some affection for the inhabitants of Hell?”

“Does poetry flourishing even in the cracks and grime of the world devalue its beauty? Is the divine rendered plain when it becomes commonplace? Would you have the sublime subjected to the gatekeeping of a self-serving elite? Better it should be used and misused as us absurd commoners see fit.”

“Lock your doors and windows. God will forgive your absence.”

“I stand here, a fool of my own making.”

“Canon is but the sandbox in which I strike lightning to form glass. Trouble me no more with your quibbling and quorums, lest I grind you to dust beneath my heel and build stories from the remnants of your bones. Avast, foul fiend.”

“In the end, everyone is aware of this: nobody keeps any of what he has, and life is only a borrowing of bones.”

“’It’s not that deep.’ Maybe not originally, but the ground is soft and I’m ready to dig.”

“Ask the moon. Ask what it has witnessed.”

“Some things don’t belong on this plane of existence and the universe conspires to correct that.”

“Weird is a prerequisite to all things good and entertaining.”

“The sunrise has never caught me sleeping.”

“People are trying to be right no matter how wrong they are, I am here, accepting my primal desires.”

“Swear all you want, but the gods have shut their ears.”

“Tis the nature, curse, and cure of humanity to be forever attracted to the abyss.”

“If you hit a mole over the head for long and hard enough, eventually it learns to mind its own beeswax. Keep whacking.”

“If we built a tower of Babel, in this day and age, no one would stop us. We would build, and build, and one day inevitably breach the gates of heaven. And we would send in a probe, and then an exploratory team, clad in hazmat suits and protective gear, to enter the gates, and lo! before them would be a great, winding mass, a crumbling chitinous mountain range, a swooping winding wormous cavern, pale and sickly and turned to dust. And we will understand why no one stopped us: it will be the exoskeleton of God.”

“I must make time fear me most.”

“My third eye is open but damn it needs a monocle.”

“Some sins follow us, trotting along and planting themselves in dark corners, high shelves, gathering dust like a forgotten potted ficus, forever a part of the inner scenery of our minds. They thrive there. In the dark. Knowing we will someday stumble in. This is why ‘tis unwise to explore the inner chambers of our souls.”

“Ideals are made of gold and light, but human lives are made of blood and tears, and spill with slippery ease; choose carefully what hills to build and die upon.”

“I shall dig my very own shallow grave. Onward.”

“Confidence! A fool’s substitute for intelligence!”

“Weird hill to die on, but at least you’re dead.”

“Our paths may have crossed briefly, but you’ve still had the misfortune of knowing me.”

“What’s a little blood and bone? We all come down to it, in the end.”

“I could set the world on fire and call it rain.”

“War allows us to dress our monsters up as saviors, and many would say I’m one of those monsters.”

“You haven’t learned anything until you learn monsters have nightmares too.”

“To live is to haunt.”

“Can’t shake the devil’s hand and say you’re only kidding.”

“In the future, you will stand at the grave of God which I dug, weeping, and I will be the only creature you will be able to answer to. You will beg for death, but due to what you said today, I will deprive you of that luxury.”

“I wanted rain and I thought the best way to do that was to make God cry.”

“Love is dead and never existed. All you did was betray me as I lay sick and festering. You are the definition of dread.”

“Here’s the thing about a haunted forest: it’s not going to haunt itself.”

“Your skull is the garden where fact flowers into meaning.”

“I shall use your voice for violin string and serenade your widow.”

“If God had wanted you to live he would not have created me.”

“I’ve heard it said that we only gain wisdom through suffering, and tonight I intend to make you very wise.”

“If I cannot bend heaven, then I will raise hell.”

“Remember that if you go knocking on enough doors asking to see the Devil, eventually he may answer.”

"No one of honor is interred here. The dead are raw materials, and nothing more."

"That there is a feller what sat down on a snake in the grass one day, and it ain't crawled outta his asshole yet."

"Pay a man enough and he'll walk barefoot into Hell."

"All these moments will be lost in time; like tears, in the rain."

"To feel sorrow is to deserve peace."

"No one will know the violence it took to become this gentle."

"There is no light at the end of this tunnel; so it's a good thing we brought matches."

"The answer to despair is action."

"You'll be reduced down to a single atom when I'm done with you."

"What's at the end of a million? Zero, zero, zero; big old hole, with a wall around it. That's all a bank is, you know: a great big old hole you throw money into, and all it ever seems to do is make the walls higher."

"Always strive to eat the stars."

"Why would you want to savor the taste of poison?"

"The brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all."

"It is better to die standing than to live kneeling."

"The anger in your heart warms you now, but it will leave you cold in your grave."

"Darkness without light is an abyss; light without darkness is blinding. You cannot have a coin with one side."

"We can't have faith for everybody."

"Kill me and live with the memory. Then tell the stars you won."

"To rend one's enemies is to view them as objects: hollow of existence and meaning."

"Your soul sparks with a nonsense that makes this world bearable."

"He ain't one of the creatures God made."

“The unconscious hides in a language like a thief hides a diamond in a chandelier.”

“I just know no fruit has ever tasted as sweet as the ones I ate while bleeding under the blistering summer sun.”

“I pray nobody kills me for the crime of being small.”

“That’s the problem with gods; their pleasure and their wrath often look the same.”

 “If I am killed for simply living, let death be kinder than man.”

“Stupid should hurt.”

“do you think god is nuclear. do you think you cannot look upon deities the same way you cannot look at the center of a mushroom cloud. do you think the energy generated from fission is released from divine clutches. do you think that god exists in the space between the nucleus and the electrons and in the bonds of compounds and in the numbers on the page that got us there. do you think radiation is a warning. do you think it is an eraser. do you think it is wrath or a mistake or a byproduct of entropy. do you think god is plasma, where electrons are wherever you want them to be. do you think that we were supposed to find this out.”

“If you aren’t worthy enough to pull the sword, be strong enough to lift the stone.”

“I can’t go to hell. I’m all out of vacation days.”

“Despite everything, its still you.”

“The more you kill, the easier it becomes to distance yourself. The more you distance yourself, the less it will hurt. The more easily you can bring yourself to hurt others.”

“My mother says kissing a man without a mustache is like eating eggs without salt.”

“A character is a ghost, a story is what it haunts.”

“Pain travels through families until someone is ready to feel it.”

“The gods did not breathe the breath of life into us and give us gifts of a shape, a will, and a voice just so we could pay bills and die”

“you gotta have friends who are older than you, not because you’re a dumb kid, but because you’ll be terrified of growing up otherwise.”

“you’ve made me so hard i beg for softness”

“Scorn is more palatable than the howling hunger for things to have been different for you.”

“Being able to endure something does not equal an obligation to withstand it.”

“To live is to haunt.”

“I am a chewy rubber Polly Pocket skirt and God is a four year old girl.”

“The big picture is made up of brush strokes, fool.”

“Hearts are wild creatures, that’s why our ribs are cages.”

“these are old bones and i am merely a passing occupant”

“The board is getting dusty but the boogeyman has not yet blinked. when he does, you better make that move.”

“And when we kill the gods neither heaven nor hell will be waiting for them because they created those to imprison us.

“What makes a man a warrior is his willingness to place himself between what he holds dear and anything that threatens it. This is the way.”

“The anchor gives the ship the world to love.”

“In a society where adventure has been destroyed, the only adventure left is to destroy that society.”

“You pretended to be the hero of a story you never saved.”

“this world is a banquet of knowledge and each of us has brought a dish to the table.”

“This is the time of vengeance and no life is worth saving.”

“The ghosts that inhabit this place are more alive than you’ll ever be.”

“May the only thing that dampens the flames of hell for you be God spitting in your face.”

[littlemixnet]

Little Mix on what it takes to survive being the most bullied band in pop

Still teenagers when they were catapulted to fame, superstardom came at a price for Little Mix. They open up to Francesca Babb about the soaring highs and crashing lows of the past nine years. It is the end of our YOU cover shoot, and I am facing the lesser-spotted sight of a barefaced Little Mix. Wet wipes swipe back and forth across their faces and, as the foundation departs in a deluge of coffee-coloured tissues, Jesy Nelson and Leigh-Anne Pinnock, both 29, and Jade Thirlwall and Perrie Edwards, both 27, visibly relax into their tracksuits and boyfriend jeans, shoulders dropping as they settle into themselves. I’m so used to seeing them contoured and camera ready that I assumed full glamour was their happy place. But perhaps the real Little Mix are not the war-paint-and-leotard-clad pop stars we’ve spent almost ten years watching grow up, but rather the four women they have become behind the glare of the spotlight. It’s those four women that I’m intrigued to meet. Since winning The X Factor nine years ago, there have been highs – selling over 50 million records globally, a significant percentage of which were self-penned, and creating enough accompanying make-up lines and merchandise to keep them and their families comfortable for the foreseeable future (recent reports suggest they have earned a combined £28.5 million to date). But there have also been lows – perpetual picking apart by both the public and the press, bullying and vitriol from online trolls. The most extreme cases of which led Jesy to attempt suicide during Little Mix’s early days in 2013 (she regards a tweet from the controversial Katie Hopkins – ‘Packet Mix have still got a chubber in their ranks. Less Little Mix. More Pick n Mix’ – as the ‘pinnacle point’ for her depression) and pushed Perrie into an ongoing struggle with anxiety. Fame has changed them. In some ways they are still youthful and silly – dropping phrases into conversation that wouldn’t be out of place in a playground – yet, in others, they are wise beyond their years, diving headfirst into battles on feminism, race and mental health. They’re fun enough to be light relief, smart enough to inspire a generation struggling with the pressures of youth and social media even before a pandemic was thrown at them, and ballsy enough to leave Simon Cowell’s record label because they didn’t feel he had their best interests at heart. ‘It’s never really been a cruise, has it?’ Jade ponders, a copy of social activist Bell Hooks’ 2002 feminist theory Communion: The Female Search For Love in her hand (not for show, I might add; when I ask her about it, she is well versed in its content). ‘It’s either been a really big high, or a really big low.’ Jesy, who has found herself the target of some of the cruelest contempt from the world outside Little Mix, agrees: ‘Some of the best times, some of the worst times.’ Comments on her weight, her looks, her place in the band, comments that she should take her own life, all led her into a deep depression and the aforementioned suicide attempt. Her documentary last year, Jesy Nelson: Odd One Out, revealed her journey through it all and, while harrowing, it is essential viewing on the realities of growing up in a world dominated by social media. ‘Before we got in the group, I never looked at myself and thought, “I don’t like that” – I don’t think any of us did. I never thought, “Oh god, I’m fat”, and then we got in the industry, and we all started wanting to change things about ourselves. It’s so sad. There are things [in the past] I definitely wish I hadn’t done,’ she says, referring to the suicide attempt, in which she took an overdose after a two-year battle with depression and an eating disorder. ‘But would I be the person I am today if I hadn’t gone through all of that?’ ‘There was a time when it was worse than it is now,’ adds Leigh-Anne, who has increasingly used her own Instagram channel to vocalise her experience of racism, both overt and underlying, throughout her time in the band. ‘I guess we’re taking steps forward, but I fear for my [future] daughters…’ ‘It makes me not want to have a kid,’ agrees Jesy. ‘Those insecurities that we all have now because of social media, imagine having that embedded in you as a child?’ Before you write them off as four very lucky girls ungratefully complaining about a lifestyle so many dream of, I should point out that they are fully aware of the paradox of their privilege. I suppose the point is, it’s not too much to ask to not be bullied to the point of hospitalisation as a by-product, is it? ‘Little Mix has changed our lives for the better, and our families’ lives, and we have achieved so much,’ says Perrie. ‘Don’t get me wrong,’ agrees Jesy (a warning I will hear repeatedly throughout our hour together, perhaps thanks to almost a decade of their quotes being blasted out of context for click-bait). ‘I’m not going to sit here and say we’ve got a terrible life, because we haven’t, but I do think our innocence was taken from us.’ It’s a while since the girls last did any press. Lockdown saw a halt to any activity they had planned, including the launch of their new talent show, BBC1’s Little Mix: The Search (in which they, well, search for a new band to mentor and join them on tour). But the time apart has not diminished their ability to finish each other’s sentences and jump to each other’s aid. It has, it seems, been really rather good for them and allowed them to come back fired up for the release of their sixth album, Confetti, which came out this week. ‘It was needed,’ agrees Jesy. ‘We’re never not with each other and we’re always busy. Our mornings start early, we finish really late.’ Being at home has meant more time spent with their families, with Jade even starting her own show on MTV with her mum Norma. Called Served!, the self-filmed series saw the pair interview celebrity drag queens and challenge each other to cooking competitions. ‘I love drag culture,’ she says, ‘and me mam was by herself in lockdown, so I thought it’d be something nice to keep her entertained.’ ‘Your mum could be on Loose Women,’ Leigh-Anne muses. ‘Imagine our mams on a show!’ shrieks Jade. ‘Nobody else would get a word in edgeways with my mam,’ laughs Perrie. ‘Ooh, when Debbie goes off on Twitter,’ says Jade, of Perrie’s mum’s habit of weighing in on comments from haters. ‘My mam will text me, have you seen Debbie’s been going off on someone!’ It is interesting that all four talk frequently about their mums throughout our chat, and yet there is no mention of fathers. While their mums often appear on Instagram, a sighting of Perrie’s dad on her 23rd birthday was extremely rare. Perhaps the Little Mix dads’ absence in the narrative is because the four girls were predominantly raised by their mothers (all of their parents separated when they were younger), and another reason the group’s bond is so tight. Little Mix are each other’s wall of arms, their own personal bodyguards. Jesy, they unanimously agree, is Scary Mix (although I find her a delight), which is interesting given her own inability to bat off other people’s words. ‘When it’s you on your own dealing with something personally,’ Jesy says, ‘It’s completely different. You feel so vulnerable alone, but we are a force when we’re together.’ It’s not hard to see, in today’s social-media obsessed society where there is little retribution for cruelty, why four attractive, successful young women, with attractive, successful young boyfriends (two footballers – Perrie dates Liverpool’s Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Leigh-Anne is engaged to Watford’s Andre Gray – while Jade is with Rizzle Kicks singer Jordan Stephens and Jesy is going out with Our Girl actor Sean Sagar), who seem to be living a dream life have found themselves at the heart of a whirlwind of vitriol. There was the infamous spat with Piers Morgan, in which he mocked them for posing naked but for the insults that have been hurled at them painted on their bodies. He accused them of using sex to sell records and called them ‘foul-mouthed, talentless, clothes-allergic little dimwits’, which is not how I find them to be. ‘I take Piers with a pinch of salt,’ Jesy says, rolling her eyes. ‘He does it to cause drama, so I take no notice. When we won The X Factor, we didn’t look like a generic girl band: we’re all different shapes and sizes, we didn’t dress sexy, so immediately everyone was, “What’s this?”’ ‘Usually, when you see a girl band, they’re perfection, they have six-packs – and we didn’t,’ continues Jesy. ‘People saw us as kids, so even though we’re now women, people still think of us that way, so when we come out on stage in leotards, they think, “That’s disgusting!”’ ‘One Direction didn’t get the s**t we get, because they’re men,’ states Leigh-Anne. ‘It’s like, “They’re four girls, let’s come at them”. As soon as it’s girls, they think, “Oh you slag.”’ ‘When it’s men, it’s celebrated, but the minute women sexualise themselves and feel powerful doing it, we’re told to rein it in,’ adds Jade. ‘We’re conditioned to think that women are there to be these innocent and pure beings and the minute you step out of that, it’s carnage.’ Little Mix, however, are not scared of embracing that carnage and of sparking a debate. For their show The Search, Jade describes how it was important for them to set the tone on respect when each new person auditioned. ‘Because we are small women, it’s important to show people that they need to respect us, that we know what we’re talking about and we need to be listened to,’ she says. ‘There’s no nastiness,’ continues Jesy about the show, which has been praised for modernising and freshening up the age-old TV format. ‘There’s no making anyone feel uncomfortable for entertainment.’ They also insisted a large part of their budget be dedicated to looking after the contestants’ mental health, understanding, first hand, the pitfalls of talent shows. The Search is not their first attempt at diversifying their talent. As a group, they have LMX make-up line and also a perfume, Style By Little Mix. Subsequently, they have become expert businesswomen, refusing to make the mistakes of pop groups past, so often left completely penniless at the end of their careers. ‘I remember walking into an early label meeting and saying, “This is who we want to be, this is the campaign we want, this is the imagery we want,”’ says Jade. ‘We knew our brand from the get go and we very much steered that ship.’ It’s a long way from their (as Jesy puts it) ‘working-class backgrounds’. Since joining the band, each one has bought their mum a house and, while their tale is not entirely rags to riches, the jump from Primark to Prada in recent years has certainly been significant. When it comes to business, Perrie describes herself and Leigh-Anne as the ones who will often seek a compromise in difficult situations, while they send Jesy and Jade in when deals need to be made. ‘Jesy’s the badass,’ Perrie laughs. ‘Whenever I’m scared, I’ll stand behind her. She’s the one who puts her foot down in a boardroom full of men and says, “It’s going to be this way.” But we pick our battles. We don’t just argue about every decision – it’s when we feel we have to.’ ‘Nobody could say that we are difficult, and if they do, they’re lying,’ says Leigh-Anne adamantly. Adds Jesy: ‘We know what we want, and we know what kids want.’ Little Mix have lived over a third of their lives in the spotlight. They’ve seen how things work, how things don’t, and they’ve learnt how to cope with it all. The lows may have been spectacularly low, but the highs have surpassed any of their expectations. Their story is not your classic fairytale, but it’s one they have learnt they can write their own ending for. If the Little Mix I meet today is anything to go by, I wouldn’t expect that ending to come any time soon. Little Mix’s new album Confetti is out now. Their movie LM5: The Tour Film will be in cinemas nationwide on 21 and 22 November.

[slickbackdani]

Batman Movie Villains Ranked from Worst to Best

Recently, a YouTuber I follow by the name of Mr. Rogues released a list of Batman villains ranked from worst to best. I have nothing but the utmost of respect for Mr. Rogues as a content creator, but I took issue with his list because his long-standing biases were often the deciding factor in many of his rankings. So, I decided to do a list of my own.

I’ll be going over every Batman villain to appear in the movies, briefly analyzing their portrayals and ranking them on a scale of 1 to 5. To prevent the list from being too cluttered, I’ll be separating the villains by which movie series they’re part of. Here we go!

Burton/Schumacher Tetralogy

Bane: Perhaps the only villain in this series I’d call “bad.” The calculating tactician of the comics is nowhere to be found here; instead, he’s reduced to a monosyllabic, brain-dead stooge for the other villains. Overall, he does nothing that couldn’t be done by a random henchman. 1/5

Two-Face: A deeply layered villain in the comics, Two-Face sadly gets upstaged by the other major rogue in the movie, but that’s not to say he doesn’t leave an impression. Tommy Lee Jones gives him a manic and mercurial demeanor that, combined with his colorful design, wouldn’t be out of place in the Adam West series. The size and scope of his criminal organization make him a genuine threat, and there’s something darkly fitting about Batman’s former ally being responsible for the creation of Robin. 3/5

Poison Ivy: Mr. Rogues for some reason ranked her as the worst Batman movie villain of all time, and frankly, I don’t see why. Like Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face, Uma Thurman gives this character a delightfully over-the-top demeanor that combines with a colorful, comic-booky ensemble to make for another great “what-if-this-character-appeared-in-the-Adam-West-series” take. She does a good job juggling the differing facets of Ivy’s character: she’s the put-upon cynic, the craven opportunist, the radical eco-terrorist, and the suave seductress all in one package. 3.5/5

The Penguin: Fuck the Razzies. Danny DeVito made this role his own and set the stage for the character for years to come. He’s a bit of a departure, but a welcome one: far from the refined gentleman of crime Burgess Meredith portrayed, this Penguin is an animalistic thug warped by a lifetime of anger and hatred of the society who rejected him due to his deformities. His signature wardrobe, trick umbrellas, and Penguin gimmick are all there, but DeVito sells the role by showing amazing versatility: he can go from a comical and pitiable weirdo to a terrifying sociopath at the drop of a stovepipe hat. 4/5

Mr. Freeze: I honestly can’t say much about this character that my mutual @wonderfulworldofmichaelford hasn’t already. Arnold Schwarzenegger perfectly encapsulates both popular versions of this character: the flamboyant, pun-loving criminal genius from the Adam West series and the Animated Series’ traumatized scientist desperate to cure his loving wife of her terminal illness. Sure, the puns and hammy one-liners are what this version character is known for, but Ahnold definitely knows when to apply the brakes and give a greatly emotional performance as he tries desperately to cure his wife. 4.5/5

Max Shreck: Probably the only time you’ll see a movie-exclusive character on this list, and deservedly so. Corrupt businessmen are dime-a-dozen in Batman stories, and most of them have little personality outside of being greedy scumbags who either get defeated by the hero or betrayed by the other villains. Shreck, however, is different. Not only does he have an eye-catching fashion sense on par with any of Batman’s famous rogues, but Christopher Walken brings his signature manic intensity to the role, creating a character that’s as wicked and sinister as he is cool and stylish. You totally buy that the general public sees him as the good guy. His warm relationship with his son is also a delight to watch. 4.5/5

Catwoman: Michelle Pfeiffer does a lot to really make the character her own. She gets a lot of genuinely badass moments, but underneath all of her coolness lies the undercurrent that she’s a broken, traumatized character lashing out at the people who abused her and took her for granted. Even when she takes these ideals to unreasonable extremes, you never stop feeling like the retribution she brings on her enemies is at least a little warranted. Also, she has amazing romantic chemistry with Batman and her costume is fucking metal. 5/5

The Ridder: It’s Jim Carrey. 5/5

The Joker: This role is perhaps the one that set the standard for future Jokers to follow: Jack Nicholson’s humorous yet unnerving performance signaled to audiences early on that this would not be the goofy trickster of the Silver Age, but a different beast entirely. This Joker is a film noir gangster on crack: a disfigured mob hitman who quickly takes the entire criminal underworld by storm and unleashes his special brand of chaos and destruction across Gotham. He’s an artist, a showman, a charismatic leader, and the man responsible for ruining Bruce Wayne’s life. 5/5

Christopher Nolan Trilogy

Talia al Ghul: You know that recent trend in Disney movies where a side character we thought was harmless and inconsequential turned out to have been the villain all along in a twist with no buildup or foreshadowing with the reveal happening too late in the movie for this character to really do anything cool or impressive before being unceremoniously defeated? That’s Talia. DKR is the weakest of the three Nolan films, and I feel like it would’ve been much better received without this twist villain contrivedly shoehorned in. Also, while I could kinda forgive the trilogy’s whitewashing of other villains like Ra’s al Ghul and Bane due to the talent their actors display, Marion Cotillard doesn’t get a pass because she just doesn’t have the charisma or screen presence needed to pull it off. 1/5

Victor Zsasz: While the idea of redefining Zsasz as an over enthusiastic mob hitman instead of a serial killer is very interesting, it’s ruined by the fact that he barely even appears in the movie and doesn’t really do or say much of anything despite the buildup he gets. 1.5/5

Two-Face: Aaron Eckhart portrays Harvey Dent as a character of tragedy in a slightly different way than other tragic villains in superhero movies: he’s lashing out at a society he feels wronged him, but instead of being a lifelong outcast or put-upon loser, he was a handsome, successful crusader for the common good who lost everything he once held dear all in one fell swoop. You really feel for him even as he does horrible things. If I had to nitpick, though, I am slightly bothered by the fact that he plays some comic book movie cliches straight (i.e. they never call him by his alias and he dies at the end,) but it’s a solid performance overall. 3/5

Scarecrow: I’ll be upfront and admit that I’m more than a little annoyed that certain facets of the character had been changed in the name of “realism” — once again, they never call him by his villain name and he never wears a comic-accurate costume — but other than that, I can’t complain. Cillian Murphy plays the character with a smarmy, eerie charm that really makes his scenes stand out, his willingness to ally himself with other villains suits his character well, and the fact that he appears in three consecutive films with a different evil scheme in each really helps tie the movies together. 3.5/5

Catwoman: Much like other secondary villains in this trilogy, she really doesn’t get a chance to shine compared to the main antagonist — and, once again, it pisses me off a little that they do the whole “never refer to her as Catwoman but vaguely hint at it” thing — but she’s everything a modern Catwoman should be. She’s sly, manipulative, really holds her own in a fight, has great chemistry with Bruce Wayne... it’s all there. It’s also great to see Anne Hathaway break away from her usual type casting to play a role this dynamic. 4/5

Ra’s al Ghul: He’s a character that was in desperate need of mainstream exposure, and by God that’s what he got. Making him Bruce Wayne’s mentor adds a layer of personal tragedy to the climax where our hero has to stop the man who made him who he is from destroying Gotham with his admittedly brilliant plan. Add in a strong, captivating performance from Liam Neeson before we found out he was a racist asshole, and we’ve got one hell of an overarching villain. 4.5/5

The Joker: Everybody’s already discussed this version of the character to hell and back and likely will for years to come, so I’ll keep it very brief. He’s funny, he’s badass, he’s terrifying, he has great dialogue, it sucks that Heath Ledger didn’t live to see his performance reach the audience it got, and he basically makes the entire film. 5/5

Bane: Mr. Rogues actually ranked Bane higher than Joker on his list, and keeping it 100, I actually agree with him here. Finally, after decades of being dumbed down and misrepresented outside of comics, Bane is finally portrayed as the tactical genius from the comics. Tom Hardy plays Bane to perfection, being very believable as the peak of human physical and mental achievement, the man who broke Batman physically and emotionally. His design is iconic, his every line is quotable, his voice is weirdly fitting, and the memes are funny. 5/5

DC Extended Universe

KGBeast: Another point where I agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Rogues. He is absolutely wasted in BVS, being nothing but a generic henchman for Lex Luthor. He doesn’t wear his costume from the comics, he’s never referred to by his alias, he doesn’t have his signature cybernetic enhancements, and he never does or says anything noteworthy. 1/5

The Joker: Ugh. I don’t know what’s worst: the tacky clothes, the stupid tattoos, the weird Richard Nixon impression that passes as his voice, the fact that promotional material hyped him up as a “beautiful tragedy” of a character even though he’s only in the movie for like 10 minutes and barely does anything, Jared Leto’s toxic edgelord behavior on set done with the flimsy pretense of “getting into character,” or the fact that he’s just trying to copy Heath Ledger instead of making the role his own. 1/5

Victor Zsasz: Chris Messina proves undoubtedly that Zsasz CAN work as a secondary villain in a Batman movie. He’s once again a mob assassin who enjoys his job a little too much, but unlike Batman Begins, he really gets time to shine. He’s just as sadistic and depraved as in the comics, but he also has this disarming, casual demeanor about him like he’s just indulging a hobby instead of slicing innocent people’s faces off. His close friendship with his boss Black Mask adds some depth to the character as well. 3/5

Killer Croc: Sadly, he doesn’t get much time in the spotlight, but he’s pretty cool nonetheless. The makeup and prosthetics used to create him look amazing, and Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje’s deep voice and imposing body language make him really stand out as an intimidating presence. He’s often in the background, which fits his role as an outcast by choice and a man of few words, but whenever he does get focus, he has everyone’s attention. It really would be a shame if this character’s only appearance was in a mediocre schlock action movie, but he makes the most of what he has. 3.5/5

Deadshot: Another highlight of what would otherwise be a forgettable film, Deadshot is just as cool and competent as he’s always been in other media, but this portrayal stands out for one simple reason. Will Smith was a very odd choice to play the role, but it worked out for the best here because you get the sense he truly understands the characters. He’s ruthless and pragmatic, but has just as enough charm and depth to make him likable. 4/5

Black Mask: I, like many, was skeptical when I saw early trailers depicting Roman Sionis as a foppish weirdo who doesn’t wear his signature mask, but upon seeing the final movie, I really feel like he has the high ground over other DCEU villains. Ewan McGregor is endlessly captivating in the role, portraying him as a swaggering dandy who is nevertheless dangerous due to his boundless narcissism and explosive temper. Sure, those who deal in absolutes would be put off from the differences with his comic counterpart — who is far more cold and humorless — but from a certain point of view, this flamboyant take on the character isn’t so much a departure as it is an addition to make him stand out while keeping his role the same. Black Mask has always been a middleman between the traditional mobsters of yesteryear and the colorful rogues that plague Gotham today, and this portrayal perfectly encapsulates that. He works in the shadows, but isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty; he flies off the handle and gets reckless at times, but there’s no question that the whole operation was his idea. 5/5

Harley Quinn: Margot Robbie owns this role. She’s unbelievably dazzling as a badass, funny, sexy antihero who deals greatly with tragedy and proves that there’s always been more to her than her initial role as the Joker’s sidekick. Again, not much to say, but she’s almost perfect. 5/5

[phoenixkadeu]

Revenge and Retribution. Pt.1

When Asra first twisted the keys inside of the lock, he was expecting to find an empty house. His parents worked hard and often till late hours, granted he rarely came home, but Asra knew that their routines had not changed much over the years. His mother never really had a secure job, somehow managing to earn some coin from different people, there was always use for a water elementalist like herself, so she never really had any problems in that area of her life. His dad, a human, did not have many choices, he opened his tavern at a young age, somehow managing to earn some respect in spite of his low rank and species, both facts that no doubt limited him a lot. He had created a relaxed and fun space for most clubs to come to - especially after a difficult day at work - but it wasn’t always easy.

That was why Asra was surprised when he opened the door. His mother was sitting on the couch, long blonde hair in a messy updo, her face completely hidden behind the newspaper she was holding up between her fingers, her legs tucked in, a heavy blanket covered her lap. The air was warm, Asra was thankful for the small window that was opened since it balanced the heat coming from the fireplace. He closed the door, softly, not to disturb her, the duffle bag he had been carrying met the ground besides the door. Before he had the opportunity to straighten his back again, Asra felt his mother’s snake travel up his leg which made him chuckle, one hand reaching out for the pet to wrap around his arm instead, a silent invitation that was quickly accepted, as the snake made its way up to his shoulders before curling loosely around his neck. “Know you missed me” he mumbled softly to her, kicking his bag further down the floor before finally making his way to his mother. The woman barely acknowledged him, her blue eyes shooting upwards as he kissed the top of her head. “Reading the gossip column again?” Asra teased, but before he could take a look, The Deck had already been folded and hidden under the blanket. He frowned slightly at the action, but had no opportunity to speak against it as his mother cut him off. “You know I only read it of the many times they mention you, now go on, your dad is in the kitchen” 

With that he was off, not thinking any further about his mother’s strange behavior, his smile spreading on his lips as he greeted his father warmly. “You stayin’ for dinner, buddy?” he asked, looking back at his son who was already setting the table. “Can’t, have some business on Umibe Beach, a ship is coming and I want to be the first one there, gonna be back tomorrow though” Asra was too distracted to notice the nervous expression that took over his father’s face, only making it worse by asking a question “why are you both home so soon? was the business slow today?” he looked at his father for a few seconds, the answer he received was quick and funny at least to Asra, but his father was trying his best not to let his real emotions show through “Me and your mother were hoping to spend some time with you that’s all” Asra chuckled, table ready and already making his way out of the kitchen “is it my birthday or something?”

However, his good mood quickly disappeared when his mother asked him to sit down once he emerged from the kitchen, his father following him back to the living room, Medusa wrapped herself a bit tightly around his neck, her face nudging the side of his cheek and Asra frowned. This was unsettling. “Is this about The Academy? I already told you that I had nothing to do with that bombing and besides everything is already back to normal I don’t understand why they would keep bugging you with that shit” 

“Language, Asra!” his father spoke, approaching his wife’s side, sitting down beside her on the couch, Asra only smirked even though he still had a heavy feeling on his chest. “Listen to your mother, will you?” Asra gave him a small nod, sitting down on a large armchair, his legs spread in a comfortable manner, Medusa finally leaving him to curl herself around his mother’s now exposed ankles, probably sensing her nervousness. His fingers got lost in his blond hair, before coming down to scratch the back of his neck, his parents were looking at each other and Asra was beginning to grow restless, his foot tapping against the floor. He watched as his father gripped his mother’s hand softly and suddenly Asra’s eyes were wide, mouth open before he shouted.  “Holy shit, you’re pregnant aren’t you?” 

It should have been funny, the almost shout coming from Asra’s throat and the way his parents were looking at him, completely serious even after his stupid outburst, but there were no laughs filling the room. That’s when they decided to finally break the news to him, they couldn’t drag it much longer and it was best if they were the one’s to tell him, especially now that they knew that he was planning to visit Umibe Beach. “It’s about Allore, honey” his mother spoke and the tension had taken over Asra disappeared as he heard that name, he fidgeted on his seat, a small smile on his lips. He missed Allore, terribly so, he had tried his best to ignore it, because he knew that she would give him news whenever she could. “Was she here? Did she leave me a letter or something?” the excited tone on Asra’s voice only served to break his parent’s heart further. “No, she, she didn’t make it, son” his father decided to step in and deliver the news. They were both beyond nervous, afraid that this would make their son break for good, they had been through hell with him and they really didn’t want him to lose that energy and happiness that was so characteristic of him, again. However, as Asra’s smile faded, as his back straightened, the way his foot stopped tapping against the floor and how a stoic expression took over his face, they grew afraid. “Didn’t make it? Didn’t make it, how?”  he was confused, jaw clenching, it was not until the newspaper his mother had been previously holding hostage was put on his lap that his eyes read the headline. 

“Sculptor turned murderer. Kim Allore. Found dead in Umibe Nov.22��

His eyes skimmed through the words, as he bit his bottom lip. When he looked up, his parents almost flinched and that only worsened whatever Asra was feeling at the moment, so he stood up, thoughts swimming around in his head. “Alright, I need to get going” he adjusted his jacket and was heading towards the door when his mother’s voice stopped him from picking up his duffle bag. “You shouldn’t” he turned back, looking at her with an angry gaze. He always hated it, the way his mother could tell what was going on his mind without him even saying a word, how she could understand what was going on inside of him before he had the chance to discover it himself. “I have to, they have some important items coming and I don’t want it to sell out before I can get my hands on them” he explained, but he knew that was not what his mother was referring to, still he preferred to play dumb. 

“You’re not fine, dear, stay the night, here” the usual softness Asra used to love was now irritating him quickly. He had no idea how to react now, he could only feel his body getting warmer, the flames on the fireplace flickering towards him as he picked his duffle bag throwing it over his shoulder. “I’m fine, I promise”

Then, say it. Say she’s dead. His mother wanted to tell him, because deep down she knew, her son was in denial, he wasn’t going to Umibe beach for some kind of shipment anymore, he was going so he could find Allore and she knew that he would only find a dead body in the place of the woman he still loved, the woman he still hoped was alive and waiting patiently for him. “Be safe” she choose to say instead, both her and her husband had long made peace with their son’s ways, they never fought against him. They could never stop Asra from breaking, they could only be there to help him get back together, hopefully there wouldn’t be too much damage to fix this time around.

The first thing the pirates had told him is that they had thought about leaving her body to rest at the sea, let the waves take care of her. Still, they had decided to hold on to her for a little bit longer. Asra knew that all of it had to do with money, even with a 1 marking her wrist, there was something about Allore’s appearance that always gave it away, anyone could see that she didn’t come from a poor family. They had been probably expecting some kind of sad, mopping parents to show up, pay them for their concerns and as a way to thank them for their kind gesture, before finally taking their dead daughter’s body so that they could have a proper goodbye.

But, instead, they got Asra. Inside of their ship, he stood there looking at her. One hand around her cold wrist, his other hand brushing back her bangs, the red “M” Asra had never seen sent a shiver down his spine. He regretted everything he had ever done. He desperately hid that mark behind her hair once again, he felt angry tears stinging his eyes.

He hated how they had treated her, not only now but how they had treated her for the majority of her short life. He hated himself for allowing this to happen. He should have been smarter, should have not helped her with poisoning her parents, or at least should have asked more questions - he knew that she must have felt guilty, how that mark was probably too much for her to handle, probably even why she had changed her hair, not to only hide it from others but to hide it from herself.

He shouldn’t have pushed her to run away, he shouldn’t have been so selfish with her. He should have just risen in the ranks enough for their parents to consider him a suitor, he should have been the one marrying her, even though it was wrong.

He should have done so many things that he know couldn’t. They had ran out of time and guilt was eating him alive.

This was all their fault, his mind found a way to calm him, projecting that guilt. It wasn’t fair for him to feel like this, he always had the purest intentions in mind, they were the ones who took her away from him. Her family, the diamond’s, they had all made this happen. They robbed him of their happiness. 

“Ya sure she’s the one ya lookin’ for?” he heard one of the pirates speak, awakening him from his thoughts, he snapped his head back at the man, not even missing a beat as he asked. “How much do you want for her?” they probably thought he was some creepy guy, but the offer of money was enough to make them not care about any moral issues.

That’s how Asra found himself now, with a cold heart, pockets empty and with a dead body occupying the inside of his carriage, making his way back to Kadeu with only two concepts in mind. Revenge and Retribution. 

[shirtlesssammy]

6x17: My Heart Will Go On

Then:

You never really die on Supernatural

Now:

Chester, Pennsylvania

In a Rube Goldberg-esque bit of murder mastery, a man fumbles his way around his garage, nearly dying several times, only to finally get taken out by his falling garage door. What a ride. 

Meanwhile, in Bobby’s neater than normal home, Sam and Dean watch him open another bottle of booze. They silently egg each other on to talk and finally decide on Rock-Paper-Scissors. Oop, it looks like you’re going to have to do the talking, Dean. 

Only, wait, Dean won! They think he should take some time and sleep, and process losing Rufus. Bobby’s DOING FINE. He just needs some Irish coffee. Sam suggests taking him on a hunt. Seems like different family members are dying in Chester, Pennsylvania. Bobby kicks them out of the house, so they decide to head out alone. 

They get in their trusty Mustang, and hit the road. 

...

Bobby keeps drinking until Ellen (!) shows up. 

…

She consoles him about Rufus and tells him to get ready for dinner. 

And she’s his wife. 

…

At the garage of horror, Sam finds a thread of gold. 

They split up. Dean interviews next of kin. He first meets with a Saul Goodman wannabe Shawn Russo. The guy isn’t too upset by his family members dying --he wasn’t too close with them. He also doesn’t have a lot of time for Dean’s genealogy questions. 

Dean tries sussing out any past family curse --poorly.  Shawn wants Dean to go, so Dean just comes out and tells him, “Your life is in danger.” Shawn thinks Dean’s threatening him. 

He connects with Sam who can’t find a single thing wrong with the family. 

At a travel agency, we watch Anne Witting chat on the phone, and time suddenly stops. Another woman, looking like Sam’s kind of librarian, takes Anne’s keys from her purse and throws them on the floor next to the copier. She leaves and time starts again. 

The woman gets off the phone and notices her keys are on the floor. Grabbing for them knocks a vase of flowers onto the copiers, which creates an electrical nightmare, which causes her to start slapping at it and finally reaching behind it to turn it off, which then causes her scarf to get stuck in the autofeeder, which the copier then tries to make a copy of, which strangles her. (Note to self: BE NICER TO THE COPY MACHINE.) 

The blonde woman comes back and marks a name off in a book, and drops a gold thread. 

The brothers check out the travel agency that night. It turns out that Anne isn’t part of the Russo family --so they’re not dealing with a family curse. Dean wonders what then. He then finds another gold thread. 

He calls Ellen, who reports there’s been about 75 deaths associated with this across the nation. The only thing Ellen has that connects the people is that their ancestors all immigrated to the US in the same year, on the same boat: The Titanic. Neither Dean nor Ellen had ever heard of it. 

…

Sam either. (And that’s when I call bull --unless this Sam isn’t a history nerd-- because the Titanic was a BIG deal before it became a BIGGER deal. It was the largest ship of its time. But as I typed this out, I feel like I should eat my words because there was another sister boat built with the Titanic, and I can’t for the life of me remember its name, so, yeah, chances are good it would have been lost to history for most people.) 

During their research, Sam notes that the ship almost hit an iceberg, but the First Mate, I.P. Freely saw it in time. 

Balthazar!

They summon Balthazar for answers about the boat. “It was meant to sink, and I saved it.” He hated the movie. (Boris is still one of the few and proud that’s never seen it --I cheered SO hard for Balthazar here.) He hated the Celine Dion song. Sam doesn’t even know who that is (HIS FAVORITE SINGER!) Sam points out that he thought that history can’t be changed. Balthazar points out that there’s no more rules. Anyway, only minor details have been changed --like no Impala. 

More importantly, Ellen and Jo are alive. They are supposed to be dead.

Dean and Sam focus on the here and now and point out that something is killing the descendants of the Titanic travelers. They need to find out who. Balthazar drops a truth bomb out of nowhere --pointing out that Cas is in love with Dean. Sigh. Also, he doesn’t care, and flaps away. 

They talk with Bobby on the phone and he thinks they’re dealing with Fate. How do they stop fate? Bobby suggests that they get Balthazar to re-sink the boat, but Dean nixes that idea instantly. Bobby wants to know what set him off --Dean tells him that if the boat sinks, Ellen and Jo die. Yeah, no way is that boat sinking.

The boys lurk in their iconic, uh, Mustang to follow Russo. 

They follow Russo in an attempt to keep him safe from Fate’s machinations. They manage to save him from one deadly accident, only for the guy to die under the wheels of a bus seconds later. Sam notices a woman watching over the accident. She looked kind of like a librarian. “Your kind of librarian or my kind of librarian?” Dean asks. Oh, Dean, why does it have to be a binary choice? Eyebrow waggle. Dean decides to head over and confront Fate in a shadowy building. 

Fate, meanwhile, is up to nefarious deeds. She turns burner knobs, releasing gas into the building as time stops around the Winchesters. When time starts up again, Dean’s flashlight flickers out in the dark. Sam suggests using a lighter and....

Just as the room starts to ignite, the Winchesters get yanked out of there! Cas saved them! He’s pulled them to Belarus. I will never not be able to watch this scene without thinking of the gag reel and Misha stag leaping around the woods. 

“[Fate] harbors a certain degree of rage towards you,” Castiel explains. Since the Winchesters foiled their apocalyptic fate, they’ve made it into Fate’s bad books. Cas suggests the best solution is for the Winchesters to kill fate. And they can use themselves as bait!

For CAAAAAAAS! Science:

Ellen tries to talk through the case with Bobby after Jo reports more and more dead on the West coast. Ellen suggests that the best solution would be to re-sink the Titanic, a suggestion towards which Bobby reacts...poorly. Bobby’s horrified at her casual suggestion. Ellen senses something is off with Bobby. Over drinks, Bobby spills everything to Ellen. He tells her that he needs her. 

After that solemn, emotional scene, we cut to Dean and Sam experiencing wacky near-misses. A skateboarder almost takes them out. Then a jumping BMX rider. Now a pair of aggressive dogs on leashes. (Extreme close of up Dean for extra sad jokes.)

They walk past a pair of jugglers tossing HATCHETS and KNIVES who proceed to LIGHT THEM ON FIRE - and I do love it when this show gets ridiculous. After several near-misses, a falling air conditioner finally plummets towards them. This looks like the end for our heroes!

For Looney Tunes Quality Science:

Time freezes the Winchesters under the air conditioner, and Castiel approaches. He greets Atropos, the Fate who’s after the Winchesters. She complains about the fallout of the recently averted apocalypse. 

Cas tries to argue for freedom. It’s a bold new world! But Atropos isn’t buying what he’s selling. The last straw for her was the unsinking of the Titanic. Cas tries to shift the blame to Balthazar, but Atropos calls him on that too. That wasn’t Balthazar following a whim. Cas needed more souls for his war machine, and sent Balthazar back to unsink the ship. She’ll make Cas a bargain: if the boat stays unsunk, then she’ll kill his “two favorite pets.” She may not be strong enough to escape Cas’s retribution, but her sisters will take the Winchesters down after she dies. Cas contemplates Sam and Dean.

Balthazar shows up, ready to kill Atropos, when Cas stops him. Cas is ready to take the deal. Balthazar gets Cas’s new order: it’s time to save Sam and Dean! I mean, it’s time to sink the Titanic. 

Sam and Dean wake up to Sam’s favorite singer belting “My heart will go on” on the radio. They talk about their weird, shared dream. Cas flaps in to greet them. He tells them that he had Balthazar re-sink the ship to ensure Sam and Dean’s safety. 

Sam and Dean try to process the balancing equation Cas dealt with, where their lives were more important than 50,000 people (who were never born, Cas hastily points out). Dean asks about Ellen and Jo, and the answer is NOT GOOD. What could have been! 

Dean asks if that whole alternate timeline was erased when the boat sank again. “More or less,” Cas says. EYEBALLS EMOJI. Cas wants the Winchesters to remember the alternate timeline. “You can make your own destiny. You don’t have to be ruled by fate. I still believe that’s something worth fighting for,” Cas tells them. Can I get a HELL YEAH? 

While it seems for a short while like Cas is edging towards telling them the truth of his war, he ultimately plays off the Titanic as only stemming from Balthazar’s hatred of the movie. “Titanic didn’t suck THAT bad,” Dean says. There’s my soft boy. Cas flaps out, and the Winchesters head inside to check on Bobby. His house is back to cluttered, gloomy chaos. Bobby’s asleep on the couch. Sam and Dean vow never to tell Bobby what he could have had.

It is Your Quotedany:

Accidents don't just happen accidentally

"What's an Impala?" Trust me, it's not important

You have me confused with the other angel. You know, the one in the dirty trenchcoat who's in love with you

Can’t avoid fate

Who do we gotta kill to get killed around here?

Want to read more? Check out our Recap Archive! 

[orihara-infobroker]

Awright, gimme 21 with teenage akashiki from S&L :D

“I said create a distraction, not this!”

“This is a terrible plan.” The reserved young man gazed at his companion with resignation. “I honestly don’t know what I’m expected to learn from you when all you do is rush into things without any thought.”

“Listen, sometimes you just gotta go with the flow. No other way to find out what they’re really up to.” Akabayashi responded with a grin, wrapping an arm around Shiki’s shoulders. “All you gotta do is go in and play the rebellious youth. You’re here to waste your father’s money on a good time. They’ll be more than happy to take your money and once we’re inside, we can see what this gambling operation is really about.”

“Or they see right through this whole charade and we learn nothing.” Shiki countered.

“Guess you’ll just have to make sure they believe you, then,” Akabayashi responded as he walked Shiki toward the tea house that the Asuki had been using as a gambling front. It hadn’t been the gambling on its own but the very large sums of money that had been transferring hands that had been concerning. Shiki’s father hadn’t thought anything of it, of course, but when Shiki had raised concerns to Akabayashi, the redhead’s solution was to ride straight there to investigate, dragging his reluctant student along.

“I should ask Mother to send you back to Echigo,” Shiki muttered sullenly as they approached, earning a chuckle from Akabayashi.

“You’d regret it if I wasn’t around.” The redhead replied, earning an eye roll from Shiki. “Ladies! My lord and I are here to have a good time!”

The pretty young girls working in the teahouse turned to look at the pair, giving them charming smiles and giggles. An older woman stepped forward to greet them.

“Of course, my lords. What is your preference?”

“Pretty girls and sake!” Akabayashi announced with a grin. “My lord has also heard that there are games of chance to be played here and a desire to waste his father’s money.”

The matron gazed from Akabayashi to Shiki, giving the young lordling a scrutinizing look. “You’re a young one, aren’t you? First time visiting this kind of establishment I bet.” She gave Shiki a knowing smile then escorted them through the teahouse to the back rooms where girls were entertaining men twice their age as they sat around tables drinking and gambling. As they settled at a table, two pretty young girls descended upon them with sake bottles and a deck of hanafuda cards.

Card games were something Akabayashi was very familiar with, Shiki learned as he watched the redhead play. He was able to hold his own, of course, and even when he knew he was likely to lose a hand, he made sure to bet lavishly to give the impression that he didn’t care about the money he was losing. After some time he beckoned the matron over and, adopting a look of boredom, questioned her.

“I had heard there was more high stakes gambling going on here.” He let his words slur, resting his head on his arm. “If I wanted to play card games I could have done that anywhere.”

“I see the rumours have travelled far.” She replied with a smirk. “I do hate to disappoint, my lord, but the rumours are exaggerated. What we offer is not gambling but an investment opportunity.”

“Investment?” Shiki asked, arching a brow. “In what?”

“Pets, my lord. Unique and special pets.” She replied. “Would my lord like to see?”

“You have my curiosity piqued, Madam.” Shiki replied as he rose to his feet, giving Akabayashi a kick. “Maybe you can find a new hunting dog.”

Akabayashi snorted as he followed Shiki and the matron.

“Oh, not those kinds of pets, my lord.” The woman clarified as she led them up to the second floor of the tea house. The rooms here were exactly the sort one would expect from this type of establishment, the sounds that escaped only confirming it. Shiki side-eyed Akabayashi but the redhead just gave him a grin. The matron led them into a room, sliding the door shut behind them.

A girl sat in the middle of the room, no older than Shiki though it was hard to tell. She had been painted up much like the girls downstairs, though there were tear streaks on her cheeks and a redness around the eyes that couldn’t be hidden with makeup. The most notable feature though were the slender red horns that curved up from her forehead.

“Oni,” Shiki commented flatly. “You’re selling oni girls.”

“Only the most beautiful ones, of course. Lord Asuki goes to a great deal of effort to find these girls and bring them in.” The matron walked over to the girl, tilting her head up. “For all the rumours, they tend to be remarkably docile. The perfect playthings for a lord, don’t you think?”

“Oh yes, she looks like just the thing for my lord, wouldn’t you agree?” Akabayashi’s arm dropped over Shiki’s shoulder as he gave the woman a grin. “Is she the only one? I wouldn’t mind getting a taste of a pretty oni girl myself.”

“At the moment, my lord, she is the only one available. Of course, if you don’t mind sharing, perhaps a discount can be arranged.” The matron replied.

“Whatever price is fine,” Shiki replied, giving the matron a smile that was not friendly at all but she didn’t seem to notice, distracted by the open-ended offer from the young lord.

“Of course my lord. If you need anything, just call.” She withdrew from the room, leaving the two samurai with the girl. Shiki shoved Akabayashi’s arm off his shoulder, lips twisting into a sneer.

“Kidnapping girls and selling them to the highest bidder. Asuki has sunk pretty low.”

“I don’t think he had very far to sink,” Akabayashi replied with a shrug. “Your father won’t give a shit about this.”

“I know,” Shiki replied coldly. “So I will. Go create a distraction then meet me at the horses.”

“Distraction you say?” Akabayashi grinned. “Yes, sir.” He slipped out of the room and Shiki turned his attention to the girl who was looking at him with a mix of confusion and fear.

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to do anything to you.” Shiki walked over to her and offered his hand. She shook her head then carefully raised the hem of her kimono to reveal that her legs had been hobbled together. He pulled out his tanto and quickly cut the ropes then pulled her to her feet. “Can you run?” She nodded. “Good.” He slid open the door and led her toward the stairs as shrieks filled the air. Shiki let out a sigh as the smell of smoke floated up the stairway. At the screams, other doors slid open, confused and half-dressed men looking out into the hall. Shiki led the girl back past the gawkers, looking into rooms as they passed, hoping to find one with an outside wall. Near the end of the hallway, he found one with a window, striding past the surprised couple to throw it open. He beckoned the oni over and lifted her up. She pulled herself onto the ledge, looking down with fear and shaking her head. Another exasperated sigh escaped his lips as he climbed up beside her and jumped. He landed in a tuck and roll, quickly regaining his feet and moving beneath the window to beckon her to follow. “Jump, girl, or you’ll burn with the building.” That was enough motivation for her to fling herself out of the window.

Shiki had never tried to catch someone before. Certainly not someone falling from a window. She wasn’t as light as she looked, either. She bowled him over and he landed on his back, the wind knocked out of him. He stared up at the smoke that was steadily rising from the building, contemplating how it had come to this. The girl sat up, staring down at him with concern as she patted his cheek as if to revive him. His gaze shifted to her and she quickly retreated, giving him room to stand. “Follow me.” He told her as he moved quickly toward the horses.

Akabayashi was already there and mounted, of course, holding the reins of Shiki’s horse. “Hurry up. They’re too distracted to notice if we leave now but I heard them calling for a water brigade.”

Shiki mounted, pulling the girl up behind him. “I said create a distraction, not this!” He criticized the redhead.

Akabayashi merely grinned and shrugged. “It is a distraction, Shiki!” He laughed.

“At this rate, the entire town could burn. Did you knock over every lantern in the building?”

“Oh, no, I visited the kitchen.” The redhead replied as he spurred his horse to a gallop. “Besides, they won’t be selling anyone if the town burns, will they? Sounds like perfect retribution for the crime.”

Shiki couldn’t deny that he took satisfaction in watching the fire consume the teahouse, spreading swiftly to the buildings beside it as they rode away. “Do you even understand the concept of subtle?” He insisted with a scowl.

“Not really my style.” Akabayashi laughed as he leaned in and clapped Shiki on the back. “Besides, people miss the point when you’re subtle. Can’t miss this point, now can they?”

Shiki just sighed in defeat. “We weren’t here to make a point.”

“We weren’t here to rescue oni-girls either.”

“I never should have listened to you.”

“Admit it, this was fun.”

“Fun? Clearly, your idea of fun is twisted.”

[tobrodachi]

Nice! My otome game scenario is writing itself up, as expected!

Synopsis: Saito Sakura, a woman working as an author for the famous VN company “N*tr*pl*s” is currently the main writer for an otome game scenario coming up. One night, during The Crunch, she collapses and wakes up in her game world! However, she wakes up as Adelina Fugo, the main villainess/pain-in-the-butt for the commoner protagonist Petra Saenz. Worse than that, since the storyboard was never completed, she’s only got a general idea of where the story’s headed in each of the four main routes, and they all lead up to exile or death of her character!

“Well, worse comes to worse, this all serves as inspiration for when I wake up!”

Tags: Female protagonist, dense protagonist, otome isekai, her hands are rated E for Everyone, we going ham with this bois.

Chapter 01/??:

The Crunch, or how I learned to stop worrying and love coffee.

My name is Saito Sakura, a 28 year old Visual Novel writer for N*tr*pl*s who’s currently struggling to make ends meet. Got myself a nice little apartment over at the Narita prefecture, got enough money for my daily expenses, and I love my job. But if my life is so rose-tinted, then why am I struggling?

Because, and let me be clear here, having all of those nice things means absolutely jackshit when you’re pulling a month-long work into a single week. Especially if it’s the third day of said week, with the blinds closed unless I want to invoke the Mother Of All Headaches, and haven’t slept for the past 72 hours and counting; all while subsisting on a diet based of vending machine potato chips, extra-salty tuna onigiri courtesy of my juniors, and an ungodly amount of that sweet, sweet nectar known to mankind as coffee.

Thank you, God of Coffee, for allowing us mere mortals to harvest your beans for our gain. For giving us the inspiration to think of new and innovative ways to prepare your juices, so that we can pair it up with other produce. Milk for the stomach, sugar for the heart, and cinnamon for the soul.

Mmmmm, spicy~! Just the way mama likes it.

“Excuse me, miss Saito.” a voice I couldn’t identify called out to me in the middle of my coffee break, accompanied by a hand clasping my shoulder at the same time.

Rude.

I blinked to get the fog out of my eyes, and fixed my stare at.... who was him again? All I can recall right now are names of characters and places that don’t exist (yet!), and this self-important NPC comes to talk to--

“Please, go back home and take a rest, we’ll cover for you.”

!!!!!!

I take back everything I said about you, my most favorite intern! May you be blessed by the God of Coffee for anything you may need, without suffering from stress-induced gastritis until you’re late in your 40′s~

“Thank you, but I still need to finish at least some sort of idea for the Childhood Friend route, and I’m still struggling to find ideas for that.” My mouth replied still in auto mode, while brain-me was still off in lala land----

Saito Sakura, you utter and absolute fool! How dare you let your heart dictate what your mouth says!? Apologize to me, dammit!

“As expected of our senior! Please, keep doing your best!” My most hated intern cheerfuly replied as he waved and went back to his work station.

Noooooooo~! Please come back and give me back my well-earned freedooooom~!

As I took another sip of coffee in disappointment, my mind went back to think about the southern regions of the Patagonia, while my fingers started moving on their own to an invsible script.

After what felt like hours, I look at the clock hands, and they’re still at 10. Is it morning? Night? I lost count of the pass of time after my 20th cup (and trust me, I kept count), with my own sleepiness never quite leaving the edges of my mind. And now, even the center.

Can’t.

Think.

The only thing keeping me awake is that burning sensation in at the lower part of my chest that seems to be coming from my stomach, and the sheer sensation of my heart wanting to grow legs and jump out of me. What’s worse is that the burning sensation isn’t even calming down, but rather going up; but I’ll take this over not finishing near the deadline.

My sight blurs once again, and I try to focus back to the screen.

The screen stays blurry.

It’s alright, I can still type, even if I can’t see the keystrokes, it’ll just be that intern’s job to figure out what I wanted to write~

Except, well, my hands stopped moving. Huh, fancy that. I can’t feel my hands anymore drumming their beat against the keyboard, so at least I’m assuming so.

I look back at the still blurry monitor, and I can see it’s coming closer to my face, aaaaaand it just went up and above my head, and ow, now besides having this really annoying burning feeling in my chest, I now also have a killer headache.

But on the flip side, now I’m also feeling really, really, warm and fluffy and wonderful.

Maybe I’ll stay like this for a few more minutes....

______________

“-o sorry, I didn’t mean to do that!” A mop of brown curled hair doing its best impression of a person apologizing actually said to me while bowing down.

Wait, that’s actually a human person. Nevermind, carry on.

I scoffed and resisted the urge to yawn. Who does this girl think she is? Queen Anne? Puh-lease! Not with those clothes!

“Excuses, as expected of someone who doesn’t even know their place.” I replied, while picking myself off the ground-?

Wait, what was I doing on the ground in the first place? I find it unlikely I was taking a nap, I was just finishing admiring the great mountainous view of this campus---

Wait, that’s not it, I was in my office and then everything became blurry before---

I looked back at the talking mop herself, and she seemed even more apologetic than before. It seems she said something else before, but I didn’t pay attention to it. I gazed at my -gloved?- hands -whenever did I put gloves on?- and saw the silk fabric sullied by the gravel from the road. Seriously, a lady shouldn’t pick up herself like this!

“So, who are you supposed to be?” My voice sounds different- I ask to little miss mop over there, what a sorry view. But at least that question made her look up into my eyes.

Good, she’s got at least a semblance of backbone.

“M-my name--” She stuttered, aaaaaand what little respect she earned went down the drain. Doesn’t she have any self-respect? “-is Petra, Petra Saenz. I’m so sorry about---”

“Keep your mouth shut, and zip up your apologies.” I said -isn’t it rude, though?- haughtily because, again, how dare this imitation for a human try to go through life without affirming her presence?

I heard giggles around me, and turned my head to find my followers -wow, even a girl posse, nice- trying to hold their laughter at the situation. A quick glare fixed it, and they stopped the noises, clearly afraid of what may come. Good, it wouldn’t do to have anything else.

Turning back to the mop, she seemed even more cowed than before, as if expecting divine retribution, which may as well be what’s happening here.

“You’re talking to-” Saito Sakura, Saito’s the family name “-Adelina Fugo. Tennis Ace, Treasurer of the Student Council, and New York’s future Best Selling Author!” Wait, where did that come from?

Oh, wait, those were my goals when I was a kid!

But while those girls were nodding and clapping at my declaration, the mop looked more lost than ever, and this time I couldn’t even fault her.

“Uhm.... what’s New York?”

I’m asking myself the same here.

The other girls stopped clapping and looked at me expectantly.

I -want to rub my eyes and drink some coffee- pick up a flower-patterned fan I had hanging on my hip, before hiding my mouth with it.

“OOOOOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!” -damn, that felt good to do, even if it WAS hammy- I laugh before fanning myself.

“If you don’t know about it, then you’re not even fit to be in this school!” Can’t let them see me hesitate after such a blunder. My father won’t let me hear the end of it if he hears I backed down after such a ridiculous claim - wait, why would he have to hear it, I live alone - No, I don’t, I’m not even of age!

This is.....

so confusing......

A/N: Well, after reading one too many otome isekai web novels, I decided to try my hand at writing my own! If the synopsis catches your attention. I don’t know when I’ll update it, but I’m aiming for a once-a-month update schedule, both depending on response and my own workload.

This is still in its rough sketches, so the setting is bound to change eventually.

My first intention is to write a “transported to another world” where the protagonist lands herself in the middle of a visual novel she’s creating targeted towards women, where you can court any of 4 romantic interests, in this case boys. That, however, doesn’t mean that those won’t be her only options (if she ends up actually courting anyone).

Since I’m still worldbuilding, I wanted to get this introductory chapter out of the way before commiting to anything in the world.

I should definitely make a blog for this down the line

[rwdestuffs]

Done dirty: Weiss.

Because according to at least someone, Weiss getting hurt is all the repercussion jaune is supposed to have.

Ah, Weiss. The Atlasian girl with white hair. The only character to use a rapier, and has an interesting semblance, fighting style, and motive.

What the hell happened?

Okay, so I’m going to be honest here: Weiss isn’t exactly my favorite character. She’s not my least favorite of the titular team, but she’s not my favorite. But even as someone who really isn’t that interested in Weiss, I can tell that she’s been done dirty. Especially by the narrative.

Let’s start in volume 1. I’m going to be honest here again: Weiss not respecting Ruby as a team leader is actually an interesting idea to explore. It creates conflict, and sets up for some interesting character interactions down the line. But the way it’s handled isn’t that great. One talk with Ozpin causes Weiss to change her mind. It shouldn’t be that easy. The way that this should have gone down is Ozpin’s talk making Weiss give Ruby a chance to be the team leader, and act like it. She gets robbed of character interaction because of that.

But let’s get into the nitty gritty here. Weiss’ racism was poorly handled. For a start, she has every right to hate the White Fang. That’s a natural thing for her to feel, especially since she describes what she’s seen.

So her hating the WF is reasonable. But her lumping in all faunus is irrational. And that’s also an interesting thing. Racism doesn’t follow rationality, so it makes sense for her to be this paranoid. This doesn’t make it okay by any means, but it would create an interesting development if Weiss were to learn a lesson on racism, and ultimately become a better person from it.

The bigger problem is that it was her father who got mad about everything. So while her blaming the actions of her father on the WF is irrational, it makes for an interesting character insight. It’s possible to have a racist character overcome their racism, and start to make amends, but the problem is that… in this scenario… Weiss has every reason to not trust Sun. The guy stowed away on a ship, and stole from a fruit vendor. In a way, Weiss is right about Sun being a criminal. This is more of a problem with Sun’s character introduction than it is with Weiss’ racism, so let’s move on. 

The search goes on for twelve hours, and apparently, that’s all that’s needed for someone to not be racist anymore.

She still doesn’t trust Sun, but again, that’s sort of justified considering Sun’s introduction…

So yeah.

Volume 2 rolls around, and this is the big problem here. We never got to see Weiss making up for her racism. Just because she sits with Blake doesn’t automatically make up for it. What would help is her asking about what she can do, what ideas to try when she takes over the company, etc. She could even defend Velvet when she gets bullied, and offer to have her over at the table she and her team are sitting at until the rest of Velvet’s team shows up. But no. We don’t get that sort of development. Weiss hasn’t apologized for her racist behavior. This got resolved off-screen.

Off-screen resolutions isn’t just bad writing, it’s lazy writing. There is no reason to have a conflict on-screen if you’re going to resolve it off-screen. It’s an insult to the audience to do so. Not only that, but this doesn’t automatically fix Weiss’ racism. She didn’t apologize (at least not on-screen), so what reason do we have to go off of to assume that she did?- The fact that she’s sitting with Blake? Look, that’s not how it works. What is needed is an on-screen apology.

Then jaune starts constantly asking her to the dance. Now, had it been clear that this was a form of karma for her being a racist, that would be understandable. But the narrative seems to have forgotten that whole debacle of a character arc, so we have to move on. Like to jaune not being able to take ‘no’ for an answer. I haven’t been on either side of this dilemma before, but jaune’s persistence got really old, really fast.

And for some reason… The narrative seems to think that jaune is sympathetic in this scenario. Which I can get. Being rejected is tough. But you gotta accept it. Whomever you’re asking out is their own person, and has every right to. But the scenario also says that Weiss was in the wrong here. Which is something I don’t get. Weiss has every reason to not like jaune. She doesn’t think he’s all that impressive, he’s pretty dorky, he’s annoying, and there’s so much more about this scenario that it’s not even funny.

jaune lies to try to get in close, and puts Weiss in a public position. You know how those public proposals are really dickish because you put them in a public position and them saying ‘no’ could make them out to be heartless?- Yeah. That’s basically what jaune does. And the infuriating part is that it somehow works on Weiss’ team!

No, they call Weiss ‘ice queen’ because she was rude to Ruby.

And I guess jaune is the one to come to Weiss’ defense and defend her honor when just a few episodes ago, he wasn’t respecting her boundaries at all, and didn’t back off when she said no.

And for some reason, even some audience members seem to think that Weiss owes jaune an apology for how she acted. Even her VA thinks so too! Now, apologizing for being harsh and cold to jaune, I can somewhat understand. But for her to make up for it by becoming his girlfriend is too far. There’s a difference between apologizing because you acted cold to someone, and pitying them to the point that you become their romantic partner. She had every right to reject him, and she has every right to tell him no. She doesn’t owe him an explanation, she’s her own person. Not some prize to be won. She doesn’t need to ‘give him a chance’- that’s a bunch of bullshit that media has constantly been feeding to people so that males feel entitled to women.

And volume 2 continues to rob Weiss of what little development she got off-screen by making it so that she acknowledges that what her company did was wrong, and already knew it.

So, she went to Beacon… To fix her company’s racism problem… And then acted like a racist towards Sun and Blake in volume 1…

Yeah, it’s pretty clear that the writers had no fucking idea what they wanted to do with Weiss.

Volume 3 just craps on Weiss by just making Winter act indifferent. But gives Weiss a random summon that she only trained once for.

Here’s an idea of how to improve that: She tries to summon in the middle of the doubles round, and that brings her down due to her not being quick enough or being too vulnerable. Not only would it serve as a means to showcase an obvious weakness that is present, and make it so that the summons should be a last-resort move, but it would also provide a combative reason as to why Weiss went down.

And if this had happened, then her sword summon later in the volume wouldn’t come off as if it were your regular anime protagonist attaining a power at a super convenient time.

But alas, this isn’t what happened. And before anyone asks, yes. There are people who think Weiss saving Velvet makes up for her past racism.

Look, saving Velvet is something that literally anyone would have done in that situation. In fact, literally EVERYONE was trying to save her. Weiss doesn’t get brownie points for doing something everyone else was doing.

Again, this is a problem with the fact that the creators likely retconned Weiss’ racism because they didn’t feel that racism would make good waifu material, and that the products featuring Weiss wouldn’t sell as well because of it. That’s how it feels, anyways.

Volume 4 actually… is kind to Weiss in terms of character development. Hell, she practically carries that volume. But she gets handed things. Like her full summon after one practice session and the fact that she doesn’t get caught when she’s being MAXIMUM STEALTH WEISS!

But I guess her back gave out after carrying volume 4, because she doesn’t seem to be capable of holding the umbrella while volume 5 craps all over her.

First she gets captured. What?- Her escaping her abusive family meant that she has to trade one prison for another?- This makes very little narrative sense. I get that the world isn’t fair, but this just seems unnecessary. Weiss gets reduced to a damsel in distress. At least it isn’t jaune who comes in and saves her.

But that doesn’t last long. Because jaune apparently is the only person who’s allowed to be concerned over Weiss after… this…

Seriously. Only jaune reacts, and then he gets to save her.

At least Weiss acknowledges that this isn’t a position that she would enjoy being in.

But this means that jaune got to feel useful and got rewarded, after he inadvertently got Weiss impaled. And for some reason, nobody else reacts to this?- How about Yang goes rage mode, charges Cinder, and they crash into the vault?

Or how about that’s what triggers Ruby’s silver eyes?- Because apparently, seeing Weiss mortally wounded isn’t enough for her to activate those damn things, but seeing jaune charge Cinder is? - I mean, how about she goes rage mode and starts trying to tear Cinder apart in retribution for what she did to Weiss?- Yang reacted violently when Adam stabbed Blake, so why is Ruby’s reaction to her partner less volatile?- She’s a young girl who just saw her partner impaled, and she… hardly reacts?- She doesn’t even scream Weiss’ name!

That just undermines the relationship that Weiss has with Ruby!- They couldn’t develop it on-screen, but now they’re saying that it didn’t develop off-screen either?- What about Yang?- the girl she was bonding with up until that point?- No reaction?

This just undermines a lot of the relationships that Weiss has with the other characters, and that hurts more than it helps (obviously). This means that Weiss hasn’t even developed relationships on or off-screen. How are we supposed to care about her if we don’t see how she interacts with others, and that paying off?

Not to mention her fight with Vernal is horrible. She goes straight for the summon. There’s no sight of her trying different things like using her rapier to impale her, or using the other Glyphs to deal some damage, Weiss just goes straight for the summon. If she had used her other techniques and they had been ineffective, then it would be understandable as to why she would be so desperate to summon- it would be her only option left. Her stalling for time to even get a chance to summon again would be seen as more of a desperation move, and it would convince the audience that Vernal isn’t someone to be messed with.

But we don’t get that.

What happened to the Weiss that used her Glyphs to strike at the WF lieutenant on the train? Or the Weiss that used her Glyphs to run circles around the mech in volume 3?

Those versions of Weiss seem to have vanished… Just like any development she could have gotten.

[orbemnews]

Fact, or Corporate Fiction? Facts and foolishness Announcing phony news on April Fools’ Day is one of corporate America’s favorite occasions for shameless publicity stunts. But when stonks, Dogecoin and $69 million JPG files are real things that warrant serious business coverage, the risk of jokes being taken seriously could hardly be higher. Some say that’s a good reason to skip them, not to mention the gravity that a pandemic has cast over things. With that in mind, can you spot the prank among these recent announcements? (Scroll to the bottom for the answer.) A: To celebrate National Burrito Day today, Chipotle is giving away $100,000 worth of Bitcoin. B: Volkwagen’s U.S. operation is changing its name to “Voltswagen” to emphasize the company’s push into electric vehicles. C: Robinhood is nixing a confetti animation when app users make a stock trade to reduce “distraction.” D: Krispy Kreme is giving anyone who shows proof of Covid-19 vaccination one free doughnut per day for the rest of the year. E: Managers at Goldman Sachs are giving junior bankers gift baskets with fruit and snacks in response to complaints about burnout. HERE’S WHAT’S HAPPENING Business groups challenge President Biden’s proposed corporate tax increases. The Business Roundtable and U.S. Chamber of Commerce were among those that praised Mr. Biden’s plan to spend trillions on infrastructure. But they rejected his idea to pay for it by raising taxes, saying that doing so would endanger the economic recovery. The latest setbacks in quelling the pandemic. Johnson & Johnson said it would delay future shipments of its vaccine after a mix-up at a manufacturing plant. A top E.U. official said the bloc would allow “zero” shipments of AstraZeneca’s vaccine to Britain until the drugmaker fulfilled its commitments to Brussels. And France announced a third nationwide lockdown as its cases mount and inoculation efforts lag. A tough day for initial public offerings. As Deliveroo had “the worst I.P.O. in London’s history,” other offerings also struggled. In the U.S., the SoftBank-backed real estate brokerage Compass priced at the bottom of a reduced range, while the low-cost airline Frontier sold at the low end of expectations. And in Canada, the space tech company MDA priced below its range. Microsoft wins a huge contract to make augmented-reality headsets for the U.S. Army. The tech giant will receive up to $22 billion for equipping soldiers with sensors based on its HoloLens technology. It’s another big defense contract for Microsoft, which beat out Amazon to provide a $10 billion cloud computing system for the Pentagon. Executives get a ‘sense of urgency’ in Georgia A day after 72 Black executives signed a letter calling on companies to fight restrictive voting bills more forcefully, executives have begun speaking out more directly about laws that limit ballot access. But their statements came too late to affect a sweeping law passed last week in Georgia that added new requirements for absentee voting, limits on drop boxes and other restrictions that have an outsize impact on Black voters. Today in Business Updated  April 2, 2021, 3:58 p.m. ET Delta and Coca-Cola reversed course. Ed Bastian, Delta’s C.E.O., told employees, “I need to make it crystal clear that the final bill is unacceptable and does not match Delta’s values.” James Quincey, Coca-Cola’s C.E.O., said he wanted to be “crystal clear” that “the Coca-Cola Company does not support this legislation, as it makes it harder for people to vote, not easier.” The statements by the Atlanta-based companies angered local politicians, including Gov. Brian Kemp. In the past, corporate stands on controversial issues have led to political retribution: In 2018, Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle stripped a tax break proposal from a bill that would benefit Delta after the airline ended a promotional discount for N.R.A. members. The State House passed a similar measure yesterday, but the Senate didn’t take it up before the chambers adjourned for the year. Retaliation also goes the other way: In an interview with ESPN, President Biden said he would “strongly support” moving Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game from Atlanta, scheduled for July. “It is regrettable that the sense of urgency came after the legislation was passed and signed into law,” said Darren Walker, the Ford Foundation president, who is a board member at Pepsi, Ralph Lauren and Square. Others companies based in Georgia remained circumspect. A UPS spokesperson said the company stood “ready to continue to help in ensuring every Georgia voter has the ability to vote.” A spokesperson for Home Depot reiterated the company’s stance that it believes “all elections should be accessible, fair and secure.” A spokesperson for Inspire Brands, the owner of Dunkin’ Donuts and Arby’s, said that it “values inclusivity” and believes that “every American should have equal access to their right to vote.” “The argument is they are recruited, they’re used up and then they’re cast aside without even a college degree. So they say, how can this be defended in the name of amateurism?” — Justice Samuel Alito, assessing the “stark picture” painted by college athletes in an antitrust case against the N.C.A.A. that the Supreme Court heard yesterday. The Red Sox sold a stake to private equity. Now what? RedBird Capital Partners confirmed its deal to buy a stake in Red Sox parent Fenway Sports Group, a transaction that values the company at $7.35 billion. DealBook spoke with RedBird’s founder, Gerry Cardinale, and Fenway’s chair, Tom Werner, about what happens next. Buy and build. RedBird plans to acquire more teams: Mr. Cardinale noted that his company doesn’t own teams in the N.B.A., N.H.L. or M.L.S. For its part, Fenway plans to tap new opportunities in ticketing, sponsorship and media. (As part of the RedBird deal, the N.B.A. star LeBron James bought a stake in Fenway.) In media, Fenway controls NESN, and RedBird owns a stake in the YES network. “You should expect that we’re going to continue to look for ways to innovate in that area,” said Mr. Cardinale, who helped create the YES network. Deepening ties with online gambling is also on the table. “We do have an excellent relationship with DraftKings,” Mr. Werner said, “and we’ve already had some conversations with them about partnerships.” The deal was a better fit for the private market instead of a SPAC, the executives said, after talks to take Fenway public via a blank-check firm fell through. “In the middle of Covid, with the mandate to re-underwrite the next wave of growth for Fenway Sports Group, we probably would be better off doing that privately and then give ourselves the option down the road,” Mr. Cardinale said of going public. He also called the current SPAC market “very frothy.” What worked at WeWork WeWork was founded in 2008, rose spectacularly, reached a $47 billion valuation and famously crashed before a planned I.P.O. in 2019. (It announced a deal last week to go public by merging with a blank-check firm that valued it at roughly $8 billion.) A new documentary, “WeWork: Or the Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn,” tries to find lessons among the ups and downs. It streams on Hulu, starting tomorrow. Jed Rothstein, the director, told DealBook that he believes what’s most compelling about WeWork isn’t what went wrong, but how it initially succeeded by turning strangers into a kind of tribe. “We still need that,” he said. “The core idea of WeWork met a real need for community,” Mr. Rothstein said. “The voids people were trying to fill have only become more real.” After a year of social distancing, he likes the notion of curated communal spaces, which is what WeWork offered. Talking to early WeWorkers who bought the vision and later felt betrayed, he was surprised to find how much the company gave its devotees, notably a feeling that they were part of something bigger. That is worth acknowledging in a world where people will increasingly work remotely and for many different companies in their careers, Mr. Rothstein said. WeWork’s co-founders, Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey, both had communal childhood experiences. Mr. Rothstein said he thought they sincerely wanted to replicate the good in group life and inspired people who hadn’t seen that before. But Mr. Neumann also focused on what he didn’t like — sharing equally — and emphasized an “eat what you kill” mentality. Ultimately, his hunger turned the community dream into a nightmare for many. After the director talked to people who followed the initial vision, his perspective changed. “People in the film experienced real growth and fulfillment mixed with their anger,” he said. “I realized the story is much more nuanced.” THE SPEED READ Deals The media conglomerate Endeavor filed to go public for a second time, while raising $1.8 billion to buy full control of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It also added Elon Musk to its board. (WSJ, CNBC) Vice Media is reportedly in talks to go public by merging with a SPAC. And the S.E.C. issued two notices for companies looking to go public via SPAC. (The Information, S.E.C.) Junior bankers aren’t the only ones feeling burned out. Young lawyers are, too. (Business Insider) Politics and policy New York became the 15th state to legalize recreational marijuana. (NYT) Efforts by aides to Gov. Andrew Cuomo to hide New York State’s Covid-19 death toll coincided with his efforts to win a multimillion-dollar book deal. (NYT) An accidental disclosure by the I.R.S. revealed a $1 billion tax dispute with Bristol Myers Squibb. (NYT) Tech Best of the rest The ad agency Deutsch is doubling referral bonuses for Black job candidates. (Insider) Amazon wants its employees mostly back in its offices, while the Carlyle Group and IBM favor hybrid working models. (Insider, Bloomberg) Paul Simon is the latest musician to sell his entire back catalog: Sony Music Publishing will buy the collection, including classics like “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” for an undisclosed amount. (NYT) Feeling burned-out? As more workers consider a return to the office, our colleague Sarah Lyall is writing about late-pandemic anxiety and exhaustion. Tell her about how you’re coping. April Fools’ Day quiz answer: B. If you were fooled by Volkswagen’s prank, you’re in good company. Volkswagen reportedly told journalists that a draft of the announcement was not a stunt. It later called the stunt just “a bit of fun.” Source link Orbem News #corporate #fact #Fiction

[anxiety-trademark]

The week in review:

Raw 09/07 NXT 09/08 Smackdown 09/11

Raw:

Peyton’s CAW theme sounds like menu music from a ps2 game. Terrible. I do like Billie Kay’s music, though.

That shade of lipstick is a no with that gear and hair, I’m sorry.

The blandest most basic stalemate sequence in women’s wrestling.

Great back and forth with the dialogue and slapping. Comedy is where they shine.

Been years yet still I’m surprised every time Billie Kay looks awful in the ring.

That dramatically loud piped in “oh” was a choice.

The way Billie Kay carries Peyton to the turnbuckle just to gently set her down is insanely disappointing.

I like the modified suplex.

The awful way Billie Kay waited around for that awful kick was awful.

The fact that Peyton’s finisher was referred to as merely a “neckbreaker” by the commentators, and their inability to sell its mortality, is all you need to know.

Great we get to hear Peyton’s CAW music again. Anyway.

Shayna is improving at talking, me thinks.

This pairing is good for her. Gives her a personality.

Appreciate Nattie and Lana’s color schemes matching. Points.

Again, Lana has her niche. She’s the singles version of the iiconics: awful af in the ring, but hilarious and can hold her own on the mic.

That Thesz Press was something.

I would prefer to see random Nattie vs Asuka matches tbh.

Asuka had to save Mickie from a near pinfall off of a facebuster. Whew okay.

Mickie slurringly screaming at an empty arena: “I’M GOING UP”. When is SD?

Camera missed the actual ending to the match. Lol okay. Bye.

Shayna and Ruby have negative 30 chemistry.

Nia gets points for mocking Shayna on the outside. “Boooo I’ve seen better,” kekekek

“What do you want me to do? A Samoan Drop?” Shayna mockingly asks Nia. “If you think you can,” Nia responds in doubt. I’m entertained.

pppffffttttt lost to a rollup. “I didn’t do anything. That wasn’t me dude. I don’t know what happened.”

I like the point of all of this. Elevates and strengthens the RS and their bond, while shining a light on how useless Nia and Shayna are as singles competitors. Points for all these shenanigans.

And negative points for pretending the match never happened just cuz Retribution cut the power. Anyway.

Highlight: Nia mocking Shayna

---

NXT:

Why does the entirety of the Mercedes/Rhea feud consist of backstage promos and random attacks?

pppfffffttttt Aliyah pushed Shotzi into Io. Ma’am I’d advise running and never looking back.

Aliyah reminds me of original Carmella before she lost her accent.

I love how dramatic Robert Stone is lmao.

Shotzi and Io could be a fun tag team. Might make me like Shotzi.

*Tegan arrives at The Garganos’ for dinner* No.

*Candice explains “The Gargano Way” to Tegan* No.

Right I get why Mercedes wants to destroy Rhea, but I am gonna be really fucking disappointed if she succeeds. I don’t mind Rhea losing feuds or matches if there’s a point to it. Such as Charlotte (yeah I said it) it was vital to Rhea’s gargantuan push for her to endure a setback, and she was better off for losing at wm.

*Candice LeRae & Tegan Nox’s dinner goes awry* No.

Right off the bat I don’t like how many weapons are being thrown into the steel cage. The beauty in gimmick matches is to use what’s within the confines of the match to create magic, not make every single match a TLC match. Like y’all are in a cage. Utilize the cage. None of the build requires this stuff.

This is gonna sound silly, but Mercedes needs to learn to audibly groan or something to sell offense. She’s like a mime.

I liked the German suplex off the top rope.

Rhea threw a fucking chair up at Mercedes’ face. Nice.

Beautiful dropkick and suplex. 

Awkward yet painful looking top rope neckbreaker.

Love the image of Robert Stone just dangling off the top in the background.

Riptide through the table. Great finish.

It wasn’t insanely compelling, and I’m not too much of a fan of Mercedes, but there were some really cool spots. Fine match. Spotty, but at least the spots were good.

Highlight: Riptide through the table

---

Smackdown:

Love that Bayley carries around the chair, but I wish the chair had played more of a part in the attack against Sasha.

I like the sitting in the ring aspect. Don’t see that with women a lot. Love that she didn’t say a word before replaying the video footage as well.

Again wishing this had a crowd to gauge their reactions.

Great callback to Battleground 2016.

Not a fan of her insinuating Sasha has been manipulating her for 5 years, that’s awkward.

“You pretended to be my best friend, but all along you were using me, and do you know how I know that? Because I was using you.” Weak.

“I never cared about you, and I damn sure never cared about our friendship.” Weak and unbuyable.

So I’m not gonna make fun of her stutter/fuck up, but I am going to stress how much it affected my level of care. Sounds dramatic but it’s true. This is the second most important promo of Bayley’s career so far, and it seriously failed to live up to: Becky’s promo after turning on Charlotte, Sasha’s promo after turning on Nattie, and Bayley’s promo after turning on Becky. This is supposed to set the tone for the rest of the feud, and I ended up rating it disappointing as a whole. Shame. Anyway.

Love how Nikki interrupted Bayley’s exit. Points. The whole lockerroom oughta despise Bayley by now. Great work having Bayley hit her with a chair too lmao.

Alexa’s hairrrr kekekek

Tamina “these bitches are crazy” Snuka, everyone.

That was nice; Alexa goes for a ddt, Tamina avoids by holding the ropes, goes to stomp on Alexa, Alexa dodges and rolls away, stands up and is met with the boot.

Nikki ran the lower 2 ropes. Points cuz more women should do that, incidental or not.

So Cole mentions Fiend’s name and it sends Alexa into a trance - something we’ve seen before. She mindlessly grabs Nikki, bends her down, kisses her head, and while staring at Cole, does a Sister Abigail then leaves. Intriguing. Imagine insisting that Alexa isn’t a good actress, goodbye.

Great interruption by Nikki.

Ugly looking clothesline on Lacey, but I mean that as a compliment. Great landing.

Ugly looking tornado ddt on Tamina, and I don’t mean that as a compliment. Bad landing.

Tamina “I need a nap” Snuka, everyone.

Lmao so Lacey avoids a near pinfall entirely by just rolling away (obviously not planned) and then Tamina jumps in like she’s saving a damn title, breaking up essentially nothing. When Nikki Cross is the best worker a multiwoman match can offer, we have a problem.

Win via rollup. I’m so tired. Why are we getting Bayley vs Nikki anyway? I said time was a flat circle the 4th time they faced each other, and they’ve fought what, 3 times since then??!?

Highlight: Alexa slowly losing her mind

---

*Smackdown shined the brightest, but not by much. I have to give props to Alexa for nailing her role.

[quranreadalong]

#39, Surah 6

THE QURAN READ-ALONG: DAY 39

WARNING: We are now going back in time. The sixth surah is titled “Al-An’am”, or the cattle (not to be confused with our magic-steak-giving cow in the second surah. These are polytheistic cattle, not Jewish ones). Unlike surah 2, 3, 4, or 5, this is from the days when Mohammed was still bothering people in Mecca with his idiocy. It’s a mystery why they didn’t want to hear how they were all going to hell.

This surah is a middle Meccan surah, from around 620 AD or a bit before that. But don’t be too sad--it’s so similar to the Medinan suwar that you’ll hardly be able to tell the difference!!

Well, let’s begin.

As is customary, 6:1 reminds us that Allah is god (and that polytheists are disbelievers). How can anyone doubt Allah when he created them from clay? (Yes, it was dust in surah 3 and it will be water, blood, or nothing at all in later suwar. Don’t worry about it. Lo! Allah worketh in mysterious ways.) “Allah is god!!!”, Mohammed yells. “Why are you ignoring me?!?!? You’ll see that I’m right one day [when you’re in hell LOL]”.

So one of the main differences between a Meccan surah and a Medina one, as you can see, is that Mohammed does a lot more yelling at the disbelievers (mostly polytheists; he doesn’t like Jews/Christians but the frothing rage developed later, when he actually interacted with them in the Medina days and realized they weren’t buying what he was selling) rather than about them. It comes across as pretty... what’s the word, petulant? Annoying? Something like that, as I will demonstrate. All of the above is fairly neutral, though, so let’s move on.

6:6 is our first bad one, where Allah brags about all the people he’s killed for their disbelief:

See they not how many a generation We destroyed before them, whom We had established in the earth more firmly than We have established you, and We shed on them abundant showers from the sky, and made the rivers flow beneath them. Yet we destroyed them for their sins, and created after them another generation.

Get used to this, because we’re gonna see it constantly. In the 7th century there were various ruins of old cities throughout Arabia, and Mohammed enjoyed talking about how their former inhabitants were punished by Allah for being disbelievers, as we’ve already seen. (They were probably pre-Islamic stories, he just gave them a religious gloss, as it were.) Later on, in 6:11, Mohammed references them again: “Travel in the land, and see the nature of the consequence for the rejecters!”, ie Allah destroyed them.

This section also contains Mohammed’s response to the Meccans saying “if you’re really a prophet, why doesn’t Allah let you perform miracles or show some sign that you’re not just a lunatic?”

They ask him why Allah didn’t just send the Quran from the sky like the Ten Commandments. “W-well, you’d just say it was magic!!”, explains Mohammed. “Okay then, why didn’t Allah let us see the angel you’ve been talking to?”, they ask. “If you’d talked to the angel, you wouldn’t have any chance of avoiding hell! This way, Allah is being merciful upon you!”, he explains, poorly. “But why didn’t Allah just send an angel directly to us without the middleman or the dooming to hell?”, they ask, persistent in their disbelief. “H...how do you know he didn’t? Allah would’ve made the angel appear as a regular guy, so you wouldn’t even know!”.

“Uh, okay,” the disbelievers say, “but just so you know, you’ve given us absolutely no reason to believe you.”

“NO ONE BELIEVED THE OTHER PROPHETS EITHER! THAT PROVES I’M RIGHT!”, yells Mohammed.

These are all genuinely shitty excuses that don’t even make sense but I’ll put them as neutral by Mohammed’s very piss-poor standards. He’s at least not threatening anyone with hellfire... explicitly.

Anyway, that rant was 6:7-10. After that, Mohammed tells the disbelievers that those who disbelieve have “ruined their souls”, which will have consequences on the Day of Judgement. Bad, but I’ll hold off on the kuffar hell counter for now, as again, it’s not explicit doom.

6:13 is Allah is god etc. Allah commands Mohammed to not be a polytheist, as such people will face Allah’s retribution. Those who aren’t punished on the Day of Judgement will be in Allah’s mercy. That... is a bit convoluted, really. Let’s put 6:15 down as bad (and our first entry on the kuffar hell counter (1)) the rest as neutral, and move on.

If Allah inflicts adversity upon you, only Allah can remove that adversity. Allah is a dick, as established. Bad. 6:18 is Allah is god etc. 6:19-20 is a repeat of 6:12, again saying that polytheism is bad and "those who ruin their own souls will not believe".

To finish this section up, let’s look at the bad 6:21-27. Reminder: Mohammed was spouting this bullshit in the faces of polytheists.

Mohammed begins by saying that those who don’t believe his “revelations” are the ultimate wrongdoers.

Who doth greater wrong than he who inventeth a lie against Allah or denieth His revelations?

Then he tells the polytheists that, on the Day of Judgement, Allah will taunt them and ask where the other gods they pray to are, prior to throwing them into hell. Then they’ll regret not believing Mohammed.

And on the day We gather them together We shall say unto those who ascribed partners (unto Allah): Where are (now) those partners of your make-believe?

If thou couldst see when they are set before the Fire and say: Oh, would that we might return! Then would we not deny the revelations of our Lord but we would be of the believers!

Kuffar hell counter: 2. Mohammed says that they will lie to Allah to try to save themselves from the fire, but it won’t work.

Allah tells Mohammed that it’s pointless to try to save them since he has made them disbelievers, as he tends to do:

We have placed upon their hearts veils, lest they should understand, and in their ears a deafness. If they saw every token they would not believe therein

So Allah has just left them to ruin themselves, and later he’ll throw them into hell.

Welcome to surah six. Enjoy the ride.

NEXT TIME: How long can we go without a single good ayah? The answer may surprise you!

The Quran Read-Along: Day 39

Ayat: 27

Good: 0

Neutral: 14 (6:1-5, 6:7-6:10, 6:13-14, 6:16, 6:16, 6:18-19)

Bad: 13 (6:6, 6:11-12, 6:15, 6:17, 6:20-27)

Kuffar hell counter: 2 (6:15, 6:22-23)

⇚ previous day | next day ⇛

[progressiveparty]

The Democratic Office Boy Machine

A new Progressive party that can command decency on the part of their candidates will be coming, whether it is going to be a revamped Democratic party or something else remains to be seen. Of course the DNC will do it again. The fact that anyone considers that they will play fair is hopelessly out of touch with their history. They will try to thwart the will of their voters through continued reliance on second vote superdelegates and the use of slanted support that will be extended to corporate-friendly candidates. They did it the last time around, and less known…they did it back in 1944 (more about this later). The only way this will stop is through a fear of becoming completely irrelevant and going the way of the Whigs. A new Progressive party that can command decency on the part of their candidates will be coming, whether it is going to be a revamped Democratic party or something else remains to be seen. My guess is the Democrats will try to steal the primary again for their corporate candidate who will lose, and the DNC will become bankrupt (fiscally after the moral) and a new party will have to rise. If the fascism continues on the right from a blown opportunity by the Democrats, these predictions become more weighted with terrifying possibilities. A new Progressive party that can command decency on the part of their candidates will be coming, whether it is going to be a revamped Democratic party or something else remains to be seen. Henry Wallace (no relation that I know of) was a bit of an anomaly. He was a left- leaning Iowa boy who hated imperialism. He absolutely loathed the British Empire and its abuses. He was able to understand the needs of and advance the rights of workers. He even went against the United Fruit mode of intervention in Latin America and was able to find common ground with the people there, all without the use of right-wing juntas. This may be a bit of a simplification, but overall, Henry Wallace was a friend to the working men and women across the globe. He served as FDR’s vice president until a fateful convention in 1944. He had the backing of the voters—they appreciated that he had done more in that vice president’s office than others before him and they felt he had a kinship with them—that he would work in their favor. He was not popular with Southern conservative politicians or the corporate factions and they wanted nothing of him and his common man appeal. FDR made overtures and indicated that he was still behind Wallace being his vice president. Eleanor was a staunch supporter as well…but whether FDR was simply too ill by that time to exert his will or just plain feckless regarding Wallace, the Pendergast political machine of out Kansas City was able to insert their “office boy” as the vice president.

Henry Wallace Truman was a haberdasher from Kansas City (failed haberdasher, actually) and he came across the corrupt Pendergast group through that connection. Suits for brutes, I guess. Truman was encouraged to go into politics by the Pendergast political influencers and that he did, owing his start to this machine. It sounds like Truman struggled with the alliance having physical symptoms of stress from a bit of cognitive dissonance, but he never did anything that truly rocked their boat or made him a less of a favored candidate in their eyes. Truman was a natural to be handed the vice president slot in 1944 as he looked to be the office boy of choice for the disparate factions that were not representing the progressive appeal of voters. These things have consequences. We are now in an “anything but Trump” era. Older Democrats would probably vote for an Amazon delivery drone if it had the mark of the DNC on it in the general election because it feels right to vote against the melon-hued Mussolini. Trump is, of course, that calamitous of a human, but this “lesser evil” thing ends up with an effect. We need to not get to that point where your choice is not simply death by a malignant cancer like Trump versus a slow descent through dysentery, offered up by a centrist Democrat. But back to Wallace. By August of 1945, it was clear that Japan had lost the war. The common refrain is that atomic bombs were dropped on two civilian cities because the US “was going to have to send our boys to invade”. But is this true? A land that had already lost needed to be invaded and/or nuclear bombed right away? What happened to a little patience and isolation? Internal Japanese factions would get sick of the isolation and most likely force a surrender, wanting to join the world again. They weren’t a threat to the US by that time. But even discussing this around the “greatest generation” members is dangerous. I know by experience. I had a friend in high school who wrote an opinion paper stating the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were war crimes. My parents didn’t even want her to come over to visit after they heard that! Strong feelings aside, there is even stronger indication that the real purpose of dropping the bombs was to scare Uncle Joe Stalin shitless with the death that could be meted out by the US. What would have been the harm to wait a bit for a full surrender? At least try for that? America solves everything with violence, or in this case violent science. The choice is framed as this: atomic bombs or every young man in America will be killed by Japanese grannies on their shore with weapons. This jingoistic framing should be a red flag to anyone that the truth is probably going to be a bit more nuanced.  Illogical horror descriptions that are built to scare should be analyzed for veracity. (Babies being thrown out of incubators etc.). Not that the world doesn’t have ample evil for certain, but don’t get played is what I’m saying. They are masters at this and always have been. Manufactured consent and all. Another consideration: anyone who can think of the atomic bombing in sterile ways should be forced to read the accounts from survivors. But ”they” attacked Pearl Harbor…I didn’t sodomize anyone at Abu Ghraib, but that line of thought brings you to retribution in ways you might not want to consider when you begin to view all civilians as being directly responsible for the actions of their “leaders” or their military. This is why old school anarchy considerations feel like common sense truth to me. How can you be responsible for what a psychopathic “leader” did? I wasn’t asked for my feedback. Not to mention a war that was for all purposes over—well, that’s the time these bombs were dropped! My circuitous thought is this: Truman was the office boy to do it. If Wallace had been vice president, then he would have been our subsequent president when FDR died.  I don’t know what the end result would have been, but I have a hunch he wouldn’t have dropped bombs to scare someone. Patience and good judgment might have ruled the day. So the results would have been very different for the citizens of the US, multiple Japanese civilians, as well as perhaps not staining the US as the only nation to own that quote : “Now I am become death, the destroyer of worlds” as  Oppenheimer famously repeated from the Bhagavad Gita . You can’t see yourself as the paragon of goodness when you knee-jerk use nuclear fission to solve your problems. So we are pretty far down the destroyer of worlds path. Regime change are US. A drastic realignment is necessary. Characters like Biden and Cop Harris won’t cut it, and those types are the DNC’s favored candidates. When Warren becomes favored, you know her sell-out with the Sith lords is complete. These things sound like petty squabbles over a group of similars until you think about Strummer’s pregnant mention of an unwritten future. What consequences will come from the continued use of corporate office boys/girls for the job? Can we write a future that is better, that is decent? There are a lot of individuals like me who find Bernie Sanders to be a compromise, not far enough to the left. But even his middle-of-the-road-in-Europe notions scare the crap out of the machinery. I was furious last time that he didn’t simply run as a third-party candidate. We won’t survive much more of this nonsense. The threats of being a spoiler…well I say spoil it all. It’s rancid. That milk you put back in the fridge that smells isn’t going to rehabilitate itself. Trump won anyway–even with Bernie hitting the road for Clinton last time. And don’t get me started about her. Are they even trying to win? She was needlessly caustic, much like Biden. He has a huge problem with younger voters, so he goes on the road and when he is asked about environmental concerns by a young voter, he says “Look at my record, CHILD!” to an adult woman! Is he even trying at all? Is he just campaigning so he can smell new shampoos around the country? I don’t have high hopes that Bernie will fight back this time when they screw him over again. I hope I’m wrong or at least I hope his campaign leaves the threat of it there to create a known moral hazard for the DNC if this is the path they take. The younger voters are showing that they are basically a bit more decent than the “pragmatic” Boomers and X’ers. There is evidence that they have…empathy. I am so relieved by this and feel this is an indication that a progressive party can win because they have some massive numbers they could draw from. And there are X’ers like me as well as Boomers who aren’t totally evil. We kind of want the world to survive.  We will be there for this change. The tepid centrist Democrats will not help with this imperative. Considering all this though, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to believe that to many corporate/centrist Dems, a loss to Trump is preferable to ceding to the progressive arm of the party. This is a moment like the situation with Wallace in 1944. If the party can’t get rid of things like superdelegates (the Republicans have even done that!) and they continue to use media connections to ignore the true state of support that candidates have (oh, oh, the excitement for Biden is palpable per CNN)…well, the party will vanish and sadly our descent into Republican-style fascism will probably accelerate without a needed safety valve. A true change in the Democratic party would be required, a change to reflect the views of all the adults out there who came of age after things quit being better than their parents had it. A tree does get stronger in the wind (if it survives) and perhaps things were just too easy to breed strength for some of those with comfortable health care and a guaranteed retirement. It will take some strength of character for those older Americans to care about those coming after them and call for change accordingly even if they personally feel they are safe. But ultimately their support will not be required, time will march forward with or without them.  The decent thing to do is be part of the change. The younger generations are especially suffering at the hands of unfettered capitalism. Our globe is even suffering. The middling better than Trump Obama types will not cut it. They will simply slow the descent and make it more comfortable for the well-heeled older centrists on the way down. They might be less overtly embarrassing than Trump, but that’s not enough, My elderly malignant narcissist mother who endorses aggressive nudity is less embarrassing than Trump. That’s a low bar. What we have now, well–this is not just, and this is not good. To only care about your 401 K but not care about someone else’s DKA is a sign of being a shitty person (explainer: DKA is Diabetic Ketoacidosis. It’s what you get when you can’t afford your fucking insulin and it is killing young Type 1 diabetics as we speak). But Sanders can’t just bow down to Biden or Warren if that is who the machinery wants for the office position when the time comes. A new party and movement needs to be built at that moment with no hesitation because you can’t fight fascism and climate destruction with polite adherence to rules set up to keep you down. This Piece Originally Appeared in LA Progressive Read the full article

[topicprinter]

There are many good reasons for me to try to keep the backstory short and sweet, so at least for now I will try to spare the juicy gory details. I will make a compromise: if you are interested in more anonymized backstory, feel free to PM me if you're curious. Edit: I've utterly failed to keep it short. Hopefully, it's a little entertaining though?I am the former software engineer of a tech company which brought software and hardware solutions to market. I developed software systems while my cofounder provided customized hardware configurations. I'm being conspicuously vague here, sorry about that. I am also using male pronouns for all parties involved to protect their identities.Everything started off on the wrong foot with my cofounders. There were two of us first at around 5 years prior to series A; we self-funded our own experiments and projects, and eventually the business person came in 3.5 or so years prior to achieving series A. They helped us get more traction within the industry.What held the company together and kept us working initially was a common understanding that we were onto something big.In hindsight, the rest of the often intangible stuff that is essential to a healthy startup were quite missing. My relationship with my original cofounder had begun to sour by the time it was 2 years prior to series A.This took place for many different reasons. One of them was because at that time I had begun to dedicate somewhat less of my time to the project while returned to being gainfully employed in a full time job. Side note, until the series A event I was not paid. Indeed the third cofounder was able to raise small amounts of funding prior to the series A, but I never got a cent of it. That's not a sticking point for me anyway, but worth noting.It's also worth noting that this by itself should not necessarily directly contribute to the conflict that I had with my first cofounder. What he took issue with was that the project was his baby and I was not producing as much work for him as he had come to expect. I have not become a parent yet, but I'd imagine that the emotion is similar to that of quarreling parents in this case.A common back-and-forth talking point between myself and the first cofounder that took place was the argument from him that "I work 18 hour days to make this happen, why are you always being dismissive". I'm really not trying to misrepresent things, and I'm leaving out many instances where hostilities would flame over and vulgarities exchanged. Nobody wins in these exchanges. But this is how things were.Moving onward to around the timeline of the impending series A now, the tensions and frictions remain, they have not been addressed to any effective degree, and negotiations with the prospective investor have taken place without my involvement (although I was aware of it because my cofounders had no reason to shield me from their excitement).This timing was pretty interesting for me. This point in time was about one month after the other company that i had been working for (that I mentioned above) had failed rather spectacularly. Being a core developer there, I was already attuned to what successful startup companies really need to have in order to survive long-term: the team that I was on had all the trust and the cameraderie to make the workplace exciting, engaging, and vital, and it had the best talent we could hope for. But the market did not respond as we had hoped and the company folded. So it goes.What I had on my hands then, at the time of series A, with this vividly in my rearview mirror, was a nightmare by comparison that involved no trust, nothing to hold us together other than perhaps a healthy dose of avarice. This venture was cursed. I may not have understood it as much as I needed to at the time, but I suppose that I understand it now better than most anybody would.My choices were pretty clear and my cofounders more or less spelled it out for me. The deal was contingent on my staying on board. If I walk, the deal would fall through. I could bid for more equity or more cash. I knew, given the nature of the relationship with the first cofounder, it did not matter that my part time work was the very reason for the deal in the first place, it did not matter that I stuck with it for more than five years through countless iterations of prototypes and products to bring us to that point, nor was there any possible means to demonstrate to him (beyond what was plain to see in abundant supply) that my material contribution to the company eclipsed his to an embarrassing proportion... my choices were to take a competitive salary and get a pitiful share of equity, or take a slightly less pitiful share of equity and a living wage. I went with the former.I know that I've written far too much already. But I've come this far with it, so I need to finish it. I've provided enough painful backstory to get the point across for the genesis of all the discord. I knew in the back of my mind that the next year or two I signed up for would be painful, awkward, and that I would learn from them. So that is how I justified agreeing to it instead of walking away like I wanted to. The series A deal was a mid-single digit million amount.The next year went predictably, at least in hindsight. I was sidelined in business decisions, but I enabled the transition of the core software business to a third party development shop, who predictably were friendly and professional, and whom I thoroughly enjoyed working with. The money we raised was spent to enable removing me from the company rather than to allow me to set any direction for new innovations, and after the one year vesting cliff I was happy to remove myself from the company, and what I earned was a small fraction (1e-2 magnitude) of this company (actual shares, not options).Ever since the series A event, my fellow cofounders had been at each other's throats. They both have the lion's share of stock, at least the stock that controls the board seats, which appoint the CEO. I'll spare the specifics of the drama that has continued to take place. Musical chairs wouldn't be a poor comparison to make.For my part, I just try to do the right thing, and I think that the biggest struggle of mine is in reconciling how my well-intentioned and apparently negligent actions or lack thereof has been able to produce so much suffering.The first cofounder (now months after his ouster as a short lived member of the board) wants to buy my shares and has solicited me with an offer for cash. It is absolutely the case that with my shares he can and intends to take over the company, as he has been vying to do for the past year.My stock agreement contains a right of first refusal clause, which I understand to mean that the company can always intercept the deal to take my shares instead. It should follow, then, at least in theory, that the company (second cofounder is CEO) should not be at risk of a takeover. However it is not clear what the order of events would be, which I seem to require in order to do a bit of chess playing. If indeed the ROFR prevents my ability to directly sell my shares to facilitate first cofounder's hostile takeover, as far as I can tell, I could join forces with him to use the voting rights as shareholders to reorganize the board of directors to achieve the same. Ostensibly this gives me a disproportionate amount of control over the company, a situation that I find rather ironic.I'm motivated by a desire to leave this company behind me so that I can continue to create value for myself and my family, and in the short term, my current employer. I have done a lot of soul-searching and I have no reason to back one of these bitterly opposed parties over the other. What I did eventually realize, however, is that both of these groups share a consistent history of whatever the politically-correct phrase is for screwing me over and having their way with me.I'm not driven foremost by retribution, although I must admit that I want to teach a few lessons if I still can. Although backing cofounder #1 would be the wrong choice (given his overall ineptitude when it comes to leadership) it would allow for some (perhaps disproportionate) justice served to cofounder #2.That interesting thought experiment aside, my actual question is, how does the strategy work here? I'm sure that it comes down to lawyers interpreting our contracts, but I am hoping someone could shed some light on what the practical implications of the ROFR are.Rather than explicitly back one group over the other I'd prefer to auction my shares in order to selfishly make the best out of this situation for myself.The other valid option is to ignore the offer and hold onto my shares to sell later presumably alongside series B, as I'm currently mildly optimistic about cofounder #2's ability to execute on it now that he has managed to begin improving the relationship with the A-round investor.I also do not know if it is prudent at this time for me to retain a lawyer. It's a big bill for me if no deal comes out of it.​Thank you for reading.

[anthonybialy]

Bye Buy

Boycotters sure are eager to slow the economy. Recession enthusiasts have their currency ready to not go. The new Freedom Riders refuse to shop at Christian outposts. Money from trust funds and BuzzFeed severance packages will stay in the pockets of slim hipster jeans. The conspicuous effort to decline purchases is the greatest weapon available for those who define their lives by stuff. People who create nothing are sure eager to drag down anyone with something worth selling.

It's uncanny how the shrill left's reflex is always to slow commerce. Whatever they dislike becomes the target of vicious non-spending. And they hate everything. Feel smug by indulging what's totally not a fascistic impulse to harm a company that has shown insufficient commitment to the politically correct cause of the second.

A vengeful gang intimidating anyone who dares think modern liberalism is as illiberal as it gets. America is well past noting the ironies of the ostensibly openminded. At least they're consistent about misunderstanding interaction. What they think of as the market is nothing more than spite and refusal to exchange. It's no wonder those who think unity is coerced hold such a negative view of commerce.

A little exposure would help a lot. Some sort of store internship as a youngster might help confused foes of purchases grasp their value. Call it a job. Never adding anything to the world means they can sadly only demonstrate disapproval. Well, what else are they supposed to do: learn useful skills?

For now, no seller deserves the wrath of abstention like someone daring to run for president. Supreme barista Howard Schultz is being treated as kindly as anyone who disagrees with the left. The jitters seller has some nerve actually believing he could help the nation. After all, he thought people would spend a good chunk of their living expenses on shot glasses of burnt coffee, and that somehow worked.

You're free to disagree. Just kidding: enjoy your Hateappuccino, Nazi mermaid fan. Somehow, the wait at that little counter doesn't seem to have shortened despite patronizing Twitter threats to not patronize. At least the flaccid goons' nasty threats are limp. There is an awful lot of cold calculation about who may affect what percentage of the vote from people who never learn math.

True boycotts stem from lack of value. I personally refuse to buy Starbucks because an icy six-dollar milkshake doesn't seem like a bargain. My rather soft refusal to acquire caffeine doses from the nautically-themed ubiquitous chain stems from their pomposity. They've lectured Americans on just how racist we are, turned bathrooms into opium dens, and preempted fair trade parodies. The difference is I don't link my morality to going to Tim Hortons instead. As it stands, a snotty coffee place which embodies liberalism is now being avoided by liberals. Well, they're not going to start making sense now.

For consistent inconsistency, maintainers of ironic hate lists try to stop Chick-fil-A from offering delicious food that might have been handled by Jesus fans. The plan to devastate the meth of chicken sandwich peddlers is working really well aside from how normal humans love the franchise more than most family members. Protesters can try to claim to have reduced the enterprise to only being open six days per week. But it might not hold up. Executives privately endorsing a definition of marriage shared by every major religion may not constitute the moral crisis that's claimed. The soft boycott has helped in one sense: those craving Earth's best sandwich have no fear of ironically hateful protesters in line next to them.

If you don't preen, does the embargo work? I have to let everyone know I care while not spending. Drawing attention is tricky, so good luck trying to keep your superiority to yourself. Still, more modest shoppers are likely to just not buy from enterprises with self-righteous policies instead of good products.

Take Nike hiking their prices so a guy who doesn't play sports can harangue us on why insulting the anthem is the only way to avoid racism. I'm not burning my swoosh stuff in response; in truth, I don't have much of their overpriced junk, although I do respect how it reflects their company perfectly. But I may twitch upon seeing the logo in stores from now on and decide to buy something else. The nice part of free markets is having options. There are ways to shave without Gillette products, which is good considering they loathe the men who you'd think would be their target customers.

Putting dollars elsewhere doesn't take sanctimonious faux heroism. Too many resistance bros and dudettes think their enemies feature segregated lunch counters. In reality, they bully single-employee bakers who subscribe to the apparently outrageous view that marriage is for the benefit of any resulting children. Why is arson illegal in virtuous circumstances? My noble Molotov cocktail is the enemy of intolerance. Smell that sugar burn!

Those being hassled should put patience on display. Any company fearing online retribution for having triggered the mob on that particular day should know how quickly news fades in this snappy world of ours. Let the shrieking subside while noticing the thin ranks of any army threatening their lines. Those whose grand idea revolves around not obtaining more things may struggle to stay organized.

[pipbabi]

Best WoW Addons

It even has a in-built threat meter like Omen. Shamelessly ripped from my own posts on several boards (as I love these addons a lot I'd like to more individuals getting the benefits, and as they may profit even more if others would use them too). With the advent of Garrisons, discovering methods to quickly optimize your missions and get the outcomes reported back to you was a precedence for just about each player, regardless of what different content they enjoy. You must get into our superstar eyebrow salon before anyone sees those monsters. It is a ‘ brainer actually ought to get kodi addon of anybody In addition to think ladies are and the place mod may very well be the very best. BalancePowerTracker is an addon designed to provide a extremely configurable bar to track Lunar/Photo voltaic power, Eclipse path and Peak buff. You possibly can filter bars primarily based on their durations and period of time left (this is how the usual bar teams separate short buffs from lengthy buffs). The perfect part about new expansions is that items from older expansions go up in value as more people are occupied in the present growth and the quantity of objects being farmed in older expansions practically diminishes.

When new buffs, debuffs and cooldowns are detected that match the factors, bars for them are robotically displayed. This is required because each class could make quite totally different use of timer bars (e.g., some rely upon tracking cooldowns while others look ahead to debuffs to expire on the goal). I hate pulling aggro and dying while trying to Iceblock because I was in the midst of casting a spell, this macro will end the forged instantly and solid Iceblock, supplied the worldwide cooldown is up. OmniCC should be compatible with anything that uses customary cooldown functions. This addon is nice for customizing your bars and person interface. It is great for figuring out which mobs drop probably the most Frostweave cloth! Some pig reminiscence sources, gradual the actual Pc to a get and make you would like for to pull your scalp out. To really get the full potential that MM has, minimization of movement is completely essential, and not everybody can do it successfully. You'll be able to choose alternate coloring schemes. No person Needs addons to play WoW however they'll positively make your person interface more snug. Implements a number of consumer assist with a correct login (username and password) with hash/file possession; and permission-based safety for particular eMule webserver options.

Side Note: Though these posts will include a variety of subjectivity, I've included specific "Writer's Thought's" sections in purple text case you need my opinion. I've recently starting selling Avon. Attempt to have the Stormstrike debuff on the goal before pulling this one out. Strive using "TellMeWhen". While this is also somewhat of a CPU person, it makes use of about half that of "Weak Auras". Make an enemy of them and you'll kiss the chance goodbye. You may conveniently discover out the keybinding positioning and assist you in the shift of your new association without putting in extreme initiative. There are a couple of addons that assist me out. Frontends for displaying character profiles are additionally included.. Situations are configured in Raven below the Situations tab. If you are interested with florist this is an efficient screensaver to your pc. If you have ever wished to completely redesign WoW's UI, this is an effective place to begin.

A special because of Goony, and Vocaloids for aiding me start this mission. Just keep in mind that for these suites of mods, you'll simply need to choose one of them to put in as they often run into conflicts with each other. This complete overhaul of the auction house interface can scan the market to trace bids, buyout prices, and quantity of gadgets bought. By the best way, you may add Locomotion to the checklist. The tradeoff, in fact, is that you’re also getting rid of the fantasy themed UI altogether. How To put in World of Warcraft Addons. Top 10 world of warcraft addons! This Dynasty Wow Addons and Guides is protected by Click on bank’s return policy, so which means you have nothing to fear and its rick free. Request a free quote at present! It’s simple to use and install, and comes with https://www.gamingdeals.org/best-wow-addons/ free upgrades For life. LightHead And a realistically newer kodi addon, this in turn thing fantastic for. Whether or not this entire factor is bad or not depends in your perspective.

I've compiled a number of of my favourite add-ons that I believe will be perfect for somebody new. Everyone appears to have an affinity for Arcane Shot. SpeakinSpell randomly speaks (in your behalf) something clever/funny once you carry out actions (which actions set off and what they set off is configurable) for example in 5-man dungeons. I love this for the micro and bag bars. I am very fond of it as a result of it was the first mod I managed to remove the chat buttons (up down) with. It was a bit difficult in the first hour. Dugi is able to robotically detect the quests you’ve already accomplished. Carbonite - Download - A pretty nice addon for doing quests. Has got an addon evaluation. If you're in search of a WoW Raid Information that can step you through the process, look no additional than Spugnort’s Raid Information. This app is for all WOW followers! Summit Media (Summit Publishing Co., Inc.) is the main magazine publisher within the Philippines with more than 20 titles underneath its umbrella.Use black record and white list filtering capabilities in these bar teams to customize them (e.g., you can also make a Beacon of Light tracker by creating a Sizzling timer bar group with only that spell in its white record). It features a Mirror Bar that handles Respiration, Feign Loss of life, and Exhaustion, as well as a brand new Target Bar, exhibiting what your goal is casting. It also includes buttons for filling stacks of objects in your baggage or reagent financial institution! I wrap issues up with some tips and methods for each wow profession, together with a few items you must keep in your bags always. I would have to glue my eyes to the motion bars, glancing at my buffs occasionally and then to the bosses debuffs so as to maintain my rotation going. Keep track of upcoming DLC so as to prepare your self for the brand new content material.

You can even set waypoints to other areas which can be in different zones and even different continents. Disclaimer: Two of our guest authors on Calonge-Loria Investments are from Lamudi. I have had the assistance of two hunters throughout my work on this release. What it is advisable to work on is guiding the dialog in order that it Never reaches that time. Obtain - It let's you easily discover a location (quest/mob/assembly point) with coordinates. Therefore not just that you’re going to realize money on your leveling, it's going to be easier to level up the commerce abilities as a result of you can find the uncooked materials you’re after within the leveling spots. This may show to be a real time saver. These are those ranking for “Philippine Real Property Websites”. Wow I really must say you truly are an inspiration. Written by a WoW vetaran who spent years making an attempt out gold making methods. Over the last few years I've spent time creating a system utilizing crafting professions that allows you to earn hundreds a day by only spending 20 minutes or less in recreation.

One of the best professions for an Endgame Geared MM Hunter are Jewelcrafting, and Engineering. Are you in search of the perfect horde quest information ever created? Gathering is top-of-the-line and easiest ways to make plenty of gold however most individuals don't know how you can do it effectively. Because of this I'm going to jot down this information about Retribution as it's the only option of spec for solo leveling (my safety one will probably be ready soon). Ever surprise how they are doing it and they just will not let you know? Listed below are some that I have enjoyed. You will get it is full potential by making some small modifications right here and there relying on your particular person scenario (gear, harm, survivability, and so on.). That means I’ll should provide you with my addons right here! Because quests give gold, and doing them in a group makes them quicker and simpler. Valkor additionally has instructions of nice addons that may also help make the money earning business so much easier. However, before beginning to download any addons, make sure you realize exactly what space of the game you want to customise. Comment under and let us know what your favorite addon is. This addon displays all the pieces it's essential to know a few boss combat.

This addon is nice for customizing your bars and consumer interface. No one Needs addons to play WoW however they'll definitely make your user interface more comfortable. For extra informations examine our website for recipes for dessert and chocolate cakes recipes. If you're leveling a brand new character, it is a unbelievable addon that'll make your time in Azeroth really feel more immersive and intimate. If you are going to make use of CTMOd, you would possibly as effectively just download the superior zip file as it options a lot more mods. Every addon have something unique features equivalent to some addon have better UI enhancements, one other have floating health bars and different. Unfortunately, most people do not have sufficient or run out of it in a short time. That is to be used after you could have above 400 ArP. What exactly do WOW Leveling Add-ons do then? A meter add-on is one other a kind of universally used add-ons. It permits you to caste buffs by utilizing just one key.