#these being the top two for the last poll really feels like the two genders for tumblr

[coridallasmultipass]

[ Nikke spoilers for mid September 2024 update mini story / my comments on it. ]

Closeted trans dudes dressing up at the family function like:

It's such a familiar scene, for family to see you dressing up out of obligation and then being like, 'Oh, NOW you're so beautiful, you should do this more often.' And internally, your body is screaming that it feels so wrong, why did you perform your perceived gender for this event! Or like, for me personally too, the whole missing the vibe of the event and dressing up way more than anyone else, and then feeling so out of place. I've joked before about Red Hood having older brother vibes, maybe she has trans vibes for me too now, lol.

Also, strange that Liliweiss is saying 'for the future' to Red Hood. Who, y'know, is basically terminally ill (corrupted). Red Hood doesn't 'have' a future, she just has the present and past. At this point in this mini-story thing (I'm assuming it takes place around the time of the Red Ash event), is Liliweiss aware of the plans to integrate Red Hood into Rapi, and therefore 'have' a future? Or am I just reading into this way too much? Lol. Just sounded like a really weird and inconsiderate thing to say to her.

-

That aside, why the fuck did y'all vote the dress over the other two Red Hood skins?! I'm so disappointed, the other two were way cooler and not out of character:

((I mean, I guess it's technically in-character since it's canon now, and has to do with 'old music' but c'mon, man...))

Image description below cut:

First image: Red Hood from Nikke: Goddess of Victory is in a strappy and revealing dress. It's the same colour as her hair. She's embarrassed and standing next to a gramophone, while holding a champagne glass. She is also wearing fingerless half-palm leather gloves. Text: Red Hood: Oh jeez, I can't do this! I just can't!

Next two images: Text: Dialogue:

Commander: You did well in that outfit.

Red Hood: Anything was better than staying at that party, even fighting raptures. I've never been so glad to have a bunch of them show up.

Rapunzel: Your dress is all dirty, though. And the hem is all torn...

Red Hood: Who cares? It's not like I'm going to be wearing this ever again.

Liliweiss: Why not? I thought you'd be keeping it for the future.

Red Hood: No thanks. Not a chance.

Snow White: That's too bad. At least I finally got to see you all dressed up. Can I at least take a picture for posterity?

Red Hood: Absolutely not. I don't want to leave any evidence of this humiliating sight.

Last three images are the Red Hood skins/appearances that we voted on. First image is the feminine dress with the gramophone mentioned before, which won the poll. Second image is Red Hood on a motorcycle with a leather jacket, crop top, mini shorts, and thigh highs. Third image is Red Hood standing next to a wolf, and she is wearing form-fitted high-rise pants, a strappy harness bra-top and collar, and a cropped blazer.

[gamerwoo]

Seventeen: Welcome to Caratland (Part 13)

(header by the amazing @cozynochu​​​)

Characters: Seventeen x reader (gender neutral)

Genre/warnings: horror/halloween au, interactive au, this part doesn’t really have anything happen so if you’re scared of death or injury or anything ur safe (but the alternate endings include death and injury so do with that what you will)

Summary: The night before Halloween, you and your 13 friends decide to go explore the infamous abandoned amusement park: Caratland, where it’s rumored that rides start on their own, empty mascot suits are seen walking around, and people don’t return the same as when they left. Can you and your friends survive the night in Caratland?

Previous | Next | Caratland Masterlist

After weighing your options, you shrugged and said, “I think I wanna check out the funhouse. It’s probably super creepy now, right?”

“That’s the Halloween spirit,” Wonwoo deadpanned, patting your back before turning to go toward the funhouse. “I think it’s this way.”

“Everybody text if you need anything!” Seungcheol called as the groups went their separate ways.

-

After a bit of searching, the five of you finally found the funhouse. It looked smaller than you remembered, but Hansol remarked that he was pretty sure it was bigger inside than it was outside.

“I think that was part of the gimmick or whatever,” he said.

Because the power was on, the lights were dimly blinking outside the funhouse. You were pretty sure they were supposed to be brighter and steady, but the bulbs were old so you didn’t think too much of how creepy it seemed. This funhouse wasn’t necessarily supposed to be scary since Caratland was aimed toward kids.

The entrance was one of those tunnels that spun around with a swirl pattern on it. It was turning slowly, and Wonwoo led the way into the funhouse, turning his head to warn everyone not to slip on the dust.

“There’s probably a fuck ton of cobwebs in here, too,” Joshua muttered, shining his light around. “My allergies are gonna be so bad by the end of this.”

“You’re the one who wanted to come to the funhouse,” you reminded him, “so stop whining.”

He just mocked you and kept going.

You were at the end of the group, but you managed to keep up. There were a bunch of weird things inside like a bunch of punching bags and slow swinging balls you had to make your way through, a room of streamers that were now falling apart from how old they were, and a bunch of other rooms that had obstacles to go through. The five of you stopped to take pictures and videos while you goofed off in the funhouse, laughing and genuinely having fun. You were glad you went with a group that didn’t have anybody who was necessarily afraid of the abandoned park.

“Can you shine your light a little off to the side?” Minghao asked as he posed for some pictures that he forced Joshua to take for him.

“Can you pose better?” Joshua shot back as he got down on one knee and bent his body down, trying to get the angle that Minghao instructed him to get.

Hansol craned his neck to see the phone screen, “It looks pretty dope, though.”

“Can I have a turn being the model?” you asked, holding two flashlights up above your head. “My arms are tired.”

“I’ll buy you McDonald’s if you stop complaining,” Wonwoo offered.

After a lot of dicking around and picture taking, you reached the end of the funhouse: the mirror maze.

“I forgot about the mirror maze,” Wonwoo whined. “Everyone stay close, okay?”

You were at the end with Minghao in front of you. You grabbed onto his shirt to make sure you wouldn’t get lost, even when he stopped to pose for photos in the mirrors.

“Shouldn’t we keep up with the others?” you asked.

“It’s fine,” he promised. “If we run into mirrors, we just go the other way. There’s only one path, ______.”

You stepped away so you wouldn’t be in his shots, patiently waiting as you looked around. But you did a double take when you saw something bright pink in the mirrors. You turned your head back and pointed your light just right to see the reflection of Eight in the mirrors. You turned this way and that to try to see if you could find where the frog animatronic was, but you couldn’t find the source. When you turned back around to see the reflection, it was gone anyway.

‘It couldn’t have gotten out of the food court,’ you told yourself, ‘it’s probably just some dumb affect the mirrors have.’

Deciding the mirrors probably were made to show reflections of the mascots, you thought nothing else of the reflections.

“Let’s go, _____,” Minghao called.

But when you went to step forward, you ran face first into a mirror. You let out a deep sigh, trying to find your way through the maze, but Minghao was already walking ahead of you so you didn’t get any closer -- it didn’t help that you kept crashing into mirrors, anyway.

“Hao!” you called, trying to get him to slow down at wait for you.

But there was no answer.

You hit another mirror, stepping back and rubbing your forehead. As you glared at the mirror in front of you, you saw Eight looming behind you. You whipped around, shining your flashlight just to see reflections of the pink frog on every single mirror, and your stomach suddenly dropped as your blood turned to ice. You weren’t sure why, but you were getting a bad feeling. Your brain going into overdrive knowing you had to get out of the maze, you figured you had two options: find your way through the rest of the mirror maze since it was the last part of the funhouse, or go back the way you came since you were still near the beginning of the mirror maze. The first option would be good since it was the last part of the funhouse, but difficult since you were still at the beginning of the mirror maze. But the second would be good as well since you had the rest of the maze to go and you were having a difficult time, but it meant having to go backwards through the funhouse all alone. So what were you supposed to do?

»»————-　　————-««

TAKE THE POLL HERE!!!

The poll will close tomorrow (10/25) at 9pm EST!!

»»————-　　————-««

There are multiple alernate endings because each choice also had two more choices so here’s all the possible endings for the other options.

Ferris Wheel Ending 1: You would get to the ride with Seungcheol, Junhui, and Mingyu and check it out. At the end of the part, there would be another choice where you could choose to either ride the ferris wheel with Mingyu and Jun while Seungcheol controlled the ride, or you control the ride while you let your three friends ride it. If you control the ride, you’d stop their cart at the very top of the ride to freak out Seungcheol and Mingyu, but from the top of the wheel, Seungcheol would spot Serenity walking toward the ride with its animatronic eyes glowed to life. He would scream for you to get them down, and luckily, you’d manage to do so in time. Junhui would grab your arm and run just before Serenity could get ahold of you. You’d decide to all meet at the merry go round since it’s in the very center of the park.

Ferris Wheel Ending 2: If you chose to let Seungcheol control the ride while you rode it, you, Mingyu, and Junhui would be too loud while messing around on the ride and wouldn’t hear Seungcheol shouting for help when he spots Serenity coming for him. He doesn’t run because his main concern is getting the three of you off the ride safely, but he spots the animatronic too late and it’s already too close. Junhui manages to jump off the ride when the cart is low enough, but Serenity already has ahold on Seungcheol’s shirt. Serenity would crush Seungcheol’s scull between its metal hands. Junhui would yell for you and Mingyu to run, and Mingyu would help you off the ride before the three of you book it to the merry go round.

Bumper Cars Ending 1: You, Jeonghan, Chan, and Seokmin try to get the ride going. Jeonghan has been making jabs at Chan being the baby all night, and makes another comment about how Chan isn’t old enough to drive the bumper cars himself. This sets Chan off and the two begin arguing with you trying to break them, up. Seokmin is frantically trying to get your attention, and points to one of the cars where Bongbong is sitting with its eyes glowing and the lights on the car turns on. If you decided to try to get into one of the cars instead of making a run for it, you end up in a car with Seokmin with you driving, and Jeonghan and Chan manage to get in a car with Jeonghan driving. You do your best to avoid the animatronic, but you know you can only drive around in circles for so long. Chan gets the idea to jump out of the car near the ride controls so he instructs Jeonghan to drive closer to it. He leaps out and shuts down the ride. Bongbong’s car slides into a cluster of other cars while Jeonghan’s bumps into the gate that fences in the ride, and you and Seokmin slide toward Chan. The four of you manage to escape while Bongbong is trying to get out of the car, and you all decide to meet up with everyone else at the merry go round.

Bumper Cars Ending 2: If you decided to make a run for it instead of hopping in a car, you’d slip on the floor of the ride since it’s very slipper, and you’d fall on your face. Bongbong would go to hit you with the car, but Chan would jump in front of you before he could reach you. He’d get knocked backwards, smashing his head off the metal midway that divides the track, dying on impact as his skull cracks open and he bleeds out on the floor. You would scramble to your feet as Jeonghan tries to hop cars with Seokmin who’s panicking, and the three of you would make a run for it toward the merry go round.

Rollercoaster Ending 1: You, Soonyoung, Jihoon, and Seungkwan would make it to the rollercoaster and decide to walk the path on the side that workers use for maintenance and whatnot. There’s a cart still left on the track, but it’s obvious turning the rollercoaster on wouldn’t be very safe. But as your walking the side of the track, you hear what sounds like a rollercoaster going up the hill. You turn your heads toward the hill, but you’re at the bottom of it and can’t see the other side of it. You make out a rollercoaster peaking over the top of the hill before you can make out Horanghae riding in the front of the ride. As the rollercoaster flies down the hill, you press your body up against the railing of the path to get as far away as possible. But it takes Soonyoung by surprise and he falls over the railing. He’s just barely able to grab the railing, dangling well above the ground. Jihoon quickly reacts and grabs onto Soonyoung’s hand to try to help him, but the railing is clearly old and about to fall apart. Seungkwan falls to the floor in shock, unable to move. If you decide to try to grab Soonyoung’s hand that’s holding onto the railing, you and Jihoon manage to pull him back up to safety before the railing can give out. You collect Seungkwan, go down one of the emergency ladders, and decide to go to the merry go round.

Rollercoaster Ending 2: If you decided to grab onto Jihoon instead to pull on him and try to pull Soonyoung up like that, the railing would break. The three of you would fall to the ground, Soonyoung landing beneath the both of you and dying. Your weight as the height of the fall would also kill Jihoon, while you managed to survive from your friends breaking your fall. You would rush up the emergency ladder to get Seungkwan and help him down before going to the merry go round.

[sp00kworm]

The Deep Dark (Gang Orca x Gender Neutral Reader)

A/N: I love and would die for Gang Orca in his save the whales shirt thank you. Also cross-posted on AO3!

----

Kuugo sighed at the wall of the glass tank, watching the fish, they eyed his intimidating form each time they got close before scattering off back around to the reef. They seemed to forget he was there each time and quickly shoaled back around before escaping again in a flicker of silver. He was too wrapped up in his own head. He’d been invited to this aquarium to do an introduction piece for the patrons, yet all he got was wide eyed looks and terrified children bawling as he took to the stage, dressed in his suit jacket with a ‘save the whales’ t-shirt underneath. He thought the shirt was cute. The stylist even assured him it made him look much softer! Evidently the children did not agree. They agreed even less so when he creaked the wood of the stage and smiled, sharp teeth exposed and cape flapping as he opened his clawed hands in a pose.

 “Mama! He’s going to eat me!” One boy cried into his mother’s legs, hiding his head behind her thigh as Gang Orca rumbled about the growing whale populations in the oceans.

“Papa!” A girl sobbed into her dad’s shoulder, and even the father himself didn’t look far from running himself as Kuugo gestured a clawed, black hand to the ribbon. He was quick to bow and snip the ribbon open before sighing in a cascade of clicks and growls, moving inside the building and out of sight of the crying children.

“Mama I don’t want to go inside with the monster!” Another boy screeched. Gang Orca simply sighed inside the door, wetting his hands and rubbing the palms over the curve of his head, rehydrating the thick skin with a grumble, ducking inside the back rooms to get rid of his work costume.

 If he couldn’t make the kids happy, then at least he could enjoy the cool temperatures and the sights of the aquarium. Maybe he should abandon hope of ever being the sight of a hero instead of a monster? Kuugo grumbled as he looked at his charity shirt, dressed down in expensive jeans and some expensive trainers. He didn’t exactly look like the rest of the people packed in here for a day out with their children or partners, but he didn’t mind getting a few looks. Red eyes stared back at him as he fastened his watch and reached back to push at his strong dorsal fin. The killer whale male reached for his bottle of water and rubbed his wet, clawed hand over his head, grumbling softly before pushing two bottles into his back pockets. If it got a little warm, he would no doubt need them while in the crowds.

 Now he was stood staring at the shoals inside the deepest tank. Little reef sharks swam past, eyes rolling and eyelids fluttering at him as he glared with red eyes into the tank. He looked just as intimidating without the cape and white suit, and Kuugo reached to pluck at the tight t-shirt over his chest. There was no doubting his profession really. Well, maybe his scary persona would mean children thought he was a villain, but his physique gave him away in all honesty. Still, as he looked around, he realised the quivering hero fans were simply too scared to come and talk to him. Good, he thought, as he gazed at the deeper little stone reefs, the tropical fish swarming around something that had appeared within one of the coral pieces. He didn’t much feel like talking after his humiliation on stage. Kids were a poor audience for him it seemed. Maybe a room full of adults would have fared better against his intimidating disposition? He could only wonder as he gazed at a baby shark. It was small, not very old, and captured the attention of the children a little further down the corridor.

“Ah, excuse me, sir? Can I squeeze in next to you? They said the baby shark was coming past.” A soft voice broke him from his grumpy ramblings in his own head.

 You had no idea that a pro-hero was in attendance of this new aquarium opening day until Gang Orca had climbed on the stage. He was just as intimidating as the polls said, but you watched him shuffle a speech on the stand and shift from foot to foot in his charity t-shirt, grumbling excitedly about the projects underway to protect the ocean life around Japan. He seemed a lot less threatening then, in his whale shirt with a love heart, and an embarrassed blush on his face as the kids cried. It was heart breaking, but he seemed to get it together quickly and professionally. The ribbon was cut and he disappeared before you could ask him about anything, but you figured it was probably to hide from the multitude of crying children in the audience and their unnerved parents. It was a little but rude, but people would be people after all.

 The pro-hero jumped at the brush of your hand against his back, red eyes blinking before he tilted his head to peer down at you. He wasn’t hugely tall, not in the way All Might was, but standing at six foot six inches, he had plenty of height over most normal humans, quirks or no quirks, “Of course.” He replied, stepping back and to the side to let you slip in front of him as the baby shark came past, mouth open, baby fangs glinting as it watched the people press up against the glass. It was an inquisitive little monster. Gang Orca watched with a quirk in his snout, smiling with teeth that made the children walking past clutch their mothers’ hands.

“Oh, he’s so cute!” You pressed a hand to the glass, turning your head to watch the shark whizz around the next viewing window with a bright smile, “Thank you for letting me see, sir.”

Kuugo nodded his head, “Its not a problem…And the sir isn’t necessary.” He reached for his tie, only to remember it wasn’t there, and instead searched for something to do with his claws.

“I…” You took a breath and turned, notebook in hand, “I really liked your speech about the ocean projects going on, even if the kids didn’t.”

 The killer whale felt his face go hot underneath his thick skin, the blood colouring his cheeks with a blush you didn’t think was possible, “Thank you. I only wish the kids had liked it too.” He huffed, blow hole snorting air as he tucked his clawed hands into his pockets.

“I’m serious. It was really good!” You smiled at the intimidating male and pointed into the tank, “Would you like someone to walk around with, Sir?”

Kuugo eyed you with his piercing gaze, bright red eyes ringed in black, “I told you, Sir isn’t necessary...Kuugo is fine or Sakamata.” He grumbled before turning on his heels, mouth open in a small smile, “Come then, there is a display of the realistic size of the blue whale. It is impressive.”

“I had no idea! It must be a pretty big place. I might end up being here all day after all!” You laughed and the hero nodded his head, ducking past some more children as quickly as he could.

“Yes. Come then, I will show you the exhibits the charity donated towards.” Kuugo lead you through a set of double doors before ducking through himself, dorsal fin catching on the top as he moved through.

 The blue whale replica was huge. It was suspended from the ceiling, hanging immovable, great eyes peering at the tanks on the walls. You gazed upwards in awe of the model before Kuugo laughed, taking you over to a tank full of coral. Seahorses bobbed in the water calmly, wiggling between plants and kelp with careful precision.

“These were taken from a few places among the kelps near to Australia. Fishermen often scoop them out for kids aquariums. Hateful practice.” Gang Orca pushed a claw to the tank and the sea horses bobbed closer before swimming back to their food.

“I had no idea they did things like that.” You observed as he pointed to the name plates.

“They were all in a bucket on a little boat. The charity took them and rehomed them here. Many were injured with pieces of wire stuck around them.” He smiled at them, glad the little seahorses were back to full health and eating. They had been extremely ill the last time the charity workers had shown him around their working labs and rehabilitation centre. Kuugo was comforted by their recovery, as small as it may seem.

 “What about those?” You took his clawed hand in your own, unfazed, tugging the pro-hero along to the next large tank. It was full of thriving corals and little feeding fish. The balance was there to feed the fish and help the coral grow better by keeping them pest free.

“Much the same. A little fishing boat was caught stealing the fish and corals. They are here to live out their days in safety.” He answered coolly as you turned the flash off your phone to take a picture of the little feeding fish.

“This is all so amazing, Kuugo!” You cheered next to him, “What about the next thing? Eels?” The tank was dark until you peered at the bottom. There in the rocks were eels of all sizes, writhing out of their holes in the rocks and crockery in the bottom of their tank. They sat with their mouths open, staring back at you as you watched them wiggle.

Gang Orca huffed a laugh behind you at your shuddering, rubbing at his head, water shining on his great hands as he shook his head side to side.

 “Eels, yes. Other than them being rather boring, they live a long time, and enjoy doing that…gawking thing.” He leaned over, peering into the tank with a snort of his blowhole, clawed fingers pressed to the glass, “I don’t know a lot about them. Those deep-sea ones are practically immortal?” He huffed to himself, clicking at the back of his teeth as he gazed upwards at the blue whale model, “I will have to find out more information about those for next time.” He nodded to himself seriously.

You snickered at the pro-hero, “Don’t worry! I can just read the information placue.”

Kuugo blushed as he leaned over to squint at the information, “Ah, yes, I forgot about those.” He confessed quietly before leaning over your shoulder to read the information about the writhing eels as well, “Though I appear to have been far off the mark, hm?” He scratched at his dorsal fin before leaning back, giving you room to look into the tank again.

“Not too far off I’m sure, Kuugo. We all can’t know everything!”

He chuckled again and smiled with sharp teeth in his snout, “Right you are…Ah. How rude. I forgot to ask your name?”

You laughed at him, introducing yourself properly before listening to the killer whale softly say your name to himself.

“Come on then, Kuugo! You still have the whole aquarium to show me!” You cheering made him smile again, hands tucked in his pockets before you looped your arm through his own.

 At some point during the walk around, the children stopped running from his intimidating aura, instead rushing to ask him questions about his fins and the clicks he could produce.

“Children, please. I am trying to tell this kind-“

“IS THAT YOUR DATE MISTER WHALE?!” A little girl asked before gasping and rushing away to her mother.

“No that is not….”

“Mister Orca is on a date! We better go!”

“ORCA-SAN HAS A DATE?!”

They were quick to rush from his legs, little hands finding their parents’ again before they began chattering about how kind the pro-hero was. He grumbled and leaned down to let the girl off his shoulders. She too giggled, gazing between the both of you before rushing back to her father.

 “This is not a date.” He grunted, looking back at you with narrowed, red eyes.

“I know, Kuugo. But kids will be kids.” You linked your arms again and the pro-hero simply looked down before moving on, ushering you towards the exit with a huff and a wheeze.

“Excuse me for a moment.” He paused to uncap his water, dripping some into his hand before rubbing it over the thick skin of his head, slicking it with moisture before sighing through his mouth, blow hole closed tight.

“You know… Maybe the next one could be a date?” You teased as you scribbled your number on a piece of scrap paper. Kuugo felt his mouth drop open as you reached the exit, his clawed fingers taking the paper shakily.

“You would like to go out with me?” He was bewildered, “Even looking like…”

“Looking like a very handsome man?” You teased before taking his hand, “I would like to get to know you better and go out again yes!”

Kuugo’s sharp teeth snapped closed, “Then I will contact you…My schedule is busy but I will make time for this, I promise.”

“I expect nothing less from a pro-hero.” You teased, leaning up to kiss the man’s cheek, “Thank you for today. I would have been lost without my guide.”

“You are welcome.” He bowed his head, embarrassed as he watched you flounce away.

 “MAMA THE WHALE IS GOING TO EAT ME!!”

 He cringed and made a dash for his car and chauffeur. It seemed your lack of presence had turned the kids against him once again.

[somerandomg33k]

I still don’t know who to vote for?

This election is going to be a weird and frustrating one. It is the first presidential general election where I am an Anarcho-Syndicalist. And this election in the darkest timeline has a Fascist as the incumbent. But the candidate that is opposing Donald Trump is Joe Biden. Almost everyone's last pick in the primary. The only worst candidate during this primary was Michael Bloomberg, who was trying to buy his way into the election. Possible to take votes away from Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, but that is damning with faint praise that Joe Biden is better than Michael Bloomberg.

The most likely results of this election are either the continued reign of a dictatorial Fascist, causes and continuing chaos and mayhem, or just straight up Neo-Liberalism. We are going back to a normal under Obama, which was terrible as well. Just not as awful as under Fascism. And we won't fix the problems that allowed Trump to rise to power. Since those are core systematic problems that the current Democratic Establishment is not interested in correcting. And the Republican party is just worse as they are OK with Fascism. Some of them want Fascism.

And let's not forget, serval people have very good personal reasons not to vote for Joe Biden. Joe Biden helped co-wrote the 1994 crime bill. In some issues, he was to the right of Regan on drug enforcement of the Drug war. He was always the most conservative Democrat in the Senate during his time there. He voted against busing 19 times. That is why many Leftists say that Joe Biden is Republican-lite. He is just the 'correct' color for Liberals and is the candidate the Democratic party chooses. So yea, there are two Republican tickets this election. The difference is one is not Fascist. Liberals know this. They are just in denial or flat out refuse to believe it. Because boy, don't say that Joe Biden and his running mate are anything but Progressive to them. Because they really hate that. "I think it is unfair to Joe Biden to judge him by International standards. I would prefer that he is judge by American Political standards," one Liberal said. Why can't Liberals admit that America's Political standards are shit?

Liberals have to believe that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are progressives because they can only think of voting for progressives and progressive causes. They can't accept they are voting for a Conservative on the Democrat ticket, because they would have to admit that the Democratic party has moved towards the right as has American's Overton Window. Joe Biden is against Medicare 4 All. On that issue, he is to the right of Boris Johnson and other conservatives of the UK and Canada. Liberals have to believe they are voting for progressives on the Democrat ticket. Because if they didn't, they would lose faith in the whole Ameican Electoral system as well as Reform. It is almost like Capitalist Realism. People can imagine the end of the World before they can imagine the End of Capitalism. Liberals probably have an easier time visualizing the end of the World before they could imagine a different system than the current governance of Liberal Capitalist Democracy.

Let's not forget, something we already know, that Joe Biden is a bit creepy. He is a Patriarch and treats women differently than men. Whenever he meets families at the White House who have sons and daughters, he would say to the sons, "You have a critical job. You got to protect your sister from all of the boys. That is something my Dad told me." The women must be protected, and it is the men who must do the protecting. Joe Biden has a habit of creepily smelling women and girls' hair and touching their bodies on the waist and shoulders. Serval women have said that Joe made them feel uncomfortable. And this was all before Tara Reade allocations.  #IBelieveTaraReade.

As for Kamala Harris, she did put trans women in men's prison, which resulted in one of them getting killed. "Kamala Harris couldn't do a thing." Is something Liberals need to stop saying. What they really mean is, "Kamala Harris choose to uphold an unjust system by blindly following rules instead of using her power and influence to change them." She attempted to block two Trans women's requests to get gender confirmation surgeries. Which, as far as I know, she hasn't really made amendments for. She wasn't good about slowing down The New Jim Crow. She was fierce to Sex Workers too. One of my comrades said, "As a trans woman and a Sex Worker, how should I feel about voting for Kamala Harris." She increased convictions for things like merely drug procession. She also wanted to jail parents for truancy. She has been called the Democrats Top Cop. Someone who is "Tough on Crime." Just like how Bill Clinton and Joe Biden were in the 90s. And that still has devastating effects on Black and Brown communities.

So many people have many good reasons not to want to vote for Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. And Liberals want to think that they simply "have their flaws." Again, I think it is just all to make it easier for them to be excited to vote for them. All of those issues, including their voting record on increasing Military spending too, are "merely flaws." And they will also shame people into voting for Biden/Harris with, "It is the lesser of two evils." Which again, is more of an indictment of the system we have. "But we have an election, and we should all vote." So we can't talk about changing the system right now during an election. So when can we talk about change this entire system? And Just like with 2016, "A vote for a third party or a no vote is a vote for Trump."

Further shaming us into voting for Biden/Harris. "Do you want four more years of Trump?" FUCK YOU AND SHOVE THAT DISINGENUOUS QUESTION UP YOUR ASS!!

Merely bringing up all of these complaints are being associated with supporting Trump. Another by-product of the binary way of thinking with the Two-Party system and First Past the Post voting. Liberals have 'accepted' Biden/Harris is the ticket. And they honestly wish we do too. And since we are vocal with our complaints, they hate us for not 'accepting' Biden/Harris is the ticket. They hate us for not 'accepting' the way the system is as it is. "I have accepted all of this. Why haven't you?" This can explain how so many Liberals would go "URG" at the thought of Joe Biden as President back in January during the Primaries to skipping to the polls to vote for Biden for the General Election. "Well, he won the primary." "I get to vote Trump out of Office" is more what it is about and not how great Biden is. They tell themselves how great Biden and Harris will be as a recon.

And with all of the shaming us into voting for Biden/Harris, instead of voting for the Green Party or not voting, it completely ignores the fact we did vote for Hillary in 2016. She 2.8 million more votes. But it is the Electoral College that gave Donald Trump in the win. Plus, in Washington State, my state, four of the Electors didn't vote for Hillary Clinton when they were 'supposed to.' Washington State is likely to go blue again. So I don't know if it is essential for Me to vote for Biden/Harris. The fivethirtyeight poll from Sept. 22 shows Washington voting for Biden at 58% vs Trump at 36%. A 22 point difference. I think I can safely vote for Howard Hawkins and feel like I didn't help Trump win. But that won't be what Liberals think.

Now with all that said, Donald Trump is still a Fascist wannabe Dictator. He is almost the worst. His administration is just letting massive amounts of people died because of Covid-19. He is encouraging people to shoot BLM protestors. He told the Proud Boys to "stand back and stand by," at the first Presidential Debate.  He said there wouldn't be a peaceful transferal of power because there won't be a transferal, but a continuation. Donald Trump has sewn doubts about voting by mail. He will doubt any kind of election results where he doesn't win. So Liberals argue we most vote in such high numbers to show that it is the will of the people they want him out of office. To which he can easily say "Fake News." He did doubt the 2016 popular vote results claiming 3 million "illegals" cast fraudulent votes.

Another convincing argument is we most show that Trump's ideas can't win elections. Because if it continues to win elections, more people will adopt Trump's views and policies. It is sort of convincing. But since a Qanon supporter will win a seat in the House of Representatives, becoming a rising star in the GOP Party. The GOP Party has backed Trump throughout his time in office, Trump's views and policies will continue whether he wins or not. Even if Trump loses, we are not out of the woods yet. Not by a long shot. Trump base will still be here in this White Supremacist CisHetro Patriarchal Ableist country of the United Corporations of Imperialism. Who will always vote for the GOP and are not going away. Many Democrats will even speak highly of them. Nancy Pelosi prays for the Republicans. Liberals believe having an opposition is part of a functioning Democracy. Will the GOP no longer be Fascist? I doubt it.

"We have to get rid of Trump at all costs." I understand that urge. But the system gave us Trump and protected him. So how is voting and participating within the same system supposed to help? I know that Liberals think voting is very powerful because "So many people had to fight for their basic right to vote." And that is all true. The GOP only wins because of dirty tricks like gerrymandering and voter suppression. Hence, Trump is encouraging his base to watch the polling stations for "suspicious people wanting to commit voter fraud" and "rig" the election. It is straight voter intimidation and is happening already in Virginia. Part of the convincing reason to get Trump out of the White House. Biden will not encourage White Supremacist of all types to commit acts of violence against "The Radical Left terrorists" and "Antifa."  Antifa is not an organization; it is an idea. Even Biden got that right.

Knowing how terrible Trump is, brings me back to Biden and how bad he is. Not as bad. Trump and Biden aren't the same. Trump is a Fascist while Biden is a Neo-Liberal, and Neo-Liberalism isn't Fascism. Neo-Liberalism just leads to Fascism, as we have already seen with Trump. I simply see Neo-Liberalism worse than how Liberals see it. Not enough to make a false equivalent, but still. Remember, if Trump loses, he could pull a Grover Cleaveland and run again in 2024. Imagine that.

What bothers me the most about Liberals changing their opinion of Biden, by the mere fact he won the primary, is that Biden is granted votes from Democrats and Leftists. I am sure Democrats do love old Uncle Joe. There were a lot of memes from the Obama years. And many Liberals just love Obama. Even though they fully well know about his War Crimes. It is that acceptance that I don't have in me. "Well, he is the candidate. So I will support him to get rid of Trump." And what makes it worse, Biden isn't really offering anything as well. He is against the Green New Deal. He is against Medicare-4-all, even during a Pandemic. What is Biden/Harris offering? Even Biden, when asking these questions and about his record, says, "If you are questioning whether to vote for me or not, you ain't black."

So Leftists will get nothing and will receive all of the blame for of Trump winning if we don't vote for Biden. "If you are questioning whether to vote for Biden or not, you must want Trump for four more years."

Remember, I live in Washington State. A super blue State. If I live in any battleground state, even within a ten points difference, I would vote for Biden/Harris. But since Biden is ahead by 22 points in my state, and I don't see that changing anytime soon, I am considering voting for a third party. Howard Hawkins of the Green and Socialist party is closer to my position. I would prefer there is no State at all and no President at all. Especially no single person having that much power, especially being the 'leader of the "Free" world' by virtue of being the President of the United Corporations of Imperialism. If the President of the United Corporations of Imperialism is the 'leader' of the 'free world,' then how come the World doesn't get to vote in this election. The UCI, Imperialtopia bombs the hell out of the middle east so much, I think the middle east has a right to have a say in our elections.

I do have to acknowledge those platform holders, people with a Youtube channel, a Podcast, or have a large following on Social Media, feel the need to tell people to "to out and vote. Vote as if your life depends on it because for some, it actually does matter." Although for some people, much won't change materially for their lives, like the impoverished and the disabled. For some, it is life or death. For others, it is a shit show, regardless. But platform holders want Trump out of the White House. They don't know who lives in what state. They don't know if their audience's votes matter or not. Since they are speaking to a vast audience, and they must keep it simple, they have to say, "VOTE! VOTE! VOTE!"

But, I am thinking, if they acknowledge that some votes are more important in some states than others, they will have to admit the whole in the United Corporations of Imperialism is unjust. Votes are weight more heavily in some states than in others. The whole system has to change. But that can't happen in a year. However, folks can vote on Election Day. So, it is easy to encourage people to vote instead of organizing to abolish the Electoral College. It would take too long to do it. It would take a lot of effort. So even bother trying. Liberals would rather pretend that isn't the case and just badger and shame people into voting for a candidate they have 'accepted' won the primary, even though Biden was one of the worse candidates in that field. Everyone's tenth or so pick.

With all that said, vote for whoever you want to or whoever you feel comfortable voting for. I won't vote shame anyone. Except if you vote for Trump and the GOP. Then you are a Fascist because you are voting for a Fascist and the Fascist party. Pure and simple.

[edmund-pevensie-just-king]

First Kiss | All Characters x Any Gender!Reader

Peter: 

Peter would have been the one to initiate the kiss. He definitely talked about your limits with physical affection when you became a couple, and he was perfectly happy with waiting until you were ready. When you told him that you wanted to take the next step (kissing, holding hands in public, etc., whatever you think your next step would be) he was thrilled. He took your hand in his and asked if he could kiss you. When you said yes, he was so excited that when he went to kiss you, he missed and almost kissed your eye. You both started laughing but calmed down fairly quickly. Peter smiled at you before cupping your cheek, leaning in and kissing you softly. It would have been a soft, sweet kiss, no tongue and not overly passionate, but it was still filled with love and made your head spin. When you pulled away, you both were positively beaming. Peter definitely kissed you all the time after that, loving to take you by surprise. 

Edmund:

Edmund is a bit more shy when it comes to physical affection, so you would have been the one to initiate the kiss. Your relationship with Edmund didn't change much when you started dating, besides the fact that it was somewhat awkward at first and now you just held hands and talked about more things with each other. One of the things you loved to do together was study. You were sitting under a tree, leaning against Edmund as he read a book aloud to you. He was being much more affectionate than usual, having an arm around your waist and resting his head on top of yours as he read, staying as close to you as he could. Sometimes he would pause to kiss your forehead or cheek, and once he set the book down and put both arms around you, nuzzling into the crook of your neck and sighing happily. The moment was so peaceful and perfect that you kissed Edmund without really thinking about it, bending your head down when he looked up at you, pressing your lips against his. Edmund was surprised, but he happily returned the kiss, pulling you closer and wrapping both arms around your waist. 

Susan:

Your first kiss with Susan was somewhat awkward...because it had been planned. You and Susan were very careful when it came to intimacy, discussing everything before doing it. You talked before holding hands, before cuddling, before hugging, everything, as Susan was very nervous. You were more than happy to oblige, and you felt that the kiss was no different. You both wanted to kiss the other, and decided this would be a nice way to do it. The two of you met at the top of the sentry tower, looking out over the landscape. It was night time, and the moon was shining brightly. You admired Susan's beauty in the moonlight, but didn't know if she wanted you to make the first move or if she planned to. You stood next to each other in silence, neither of you speaking as the awkward tension between the two of you kept you from doing anything. Finally, Susan sighed in exasperation and grabbed you by the front of your shirt/dress, pulling you towards her and kissing you hard. You ended up fully making out at the top of the tower, and only pulled away when an unfortunate guard came up to his post and saw the two of you. You both had a great laugh about it afterwards. 

Lucy:

Lucy would always the one to initiate everything in your relationship. She was definitely the most comfortable with affection, and not just in your relationship. She was loving towards everything, including her siblings and her people, so it really didn't come as a surprise to you when she said she wanted to take the next step. She wanted to two of you to share a room instead of sleeping separately. That night, as the two of you laid in bed together, you had your arms wrapped around your beautiful Queen, your head resting on her shoulder. Lucy was asleep, head nuzzled into your chest. You admired her, brushing the hair out of her face and looking down at her. She began to stir and you went still, hoping she would fall back asleep, but she soon woke up. When she looked up at you with a sleepy smile, you couldn't help it; you leaned down and pressed your lips softly to her, then pulled away and asked her how she'd slept. She was fully awake then, looking up at you in shock. At first you were afraid you'd done something wrong, but then Lucy's shock turned to glee and she kissed you happily, throwing her arms around your neck. 

Eustace:

The first time you and Eustace kissed was not all rainbows and butterflies. The two of you had gotten into a huge fight. You'd seen Eustace with Jill Poll, a girl that he'd liked in school, and you had felt jealous. When you brought it up, it got bigger and bigger until you were fighting about something completely off topic. Hurtful words were exchanged, and the two of you parted ways, angry at each other. Several days passed. Neither of you had spoken to each other. You grew sad, wanting to call your boyfriend to make amends, but you were too afraid, worried that Eustace was still angry with you. That night, however, Eustace appeared on your doorstep with flowers and a blubbering mess. Through his crying, you could make out fervent apologies and sincere regret for everything he had said to you a few days prior. He promised nothing had gone on with Jill the day he met with her and he'd just reacted badly when you asked. Tears of your own welled up in your eyes and you flung yourself at Eustace, wrapping your arms around his neck and your legs around his waist, kissing him deeply. Eustace dropped the flowers and helped you up, returning the passionate kiss. The two of you went inside, the flowers were put in a vase, and you had a long, necessary talk.

Caspian:

Your first kiss with Caspian also happened on a rather sad note. Caspian had left on a quest months before, setting out to find some sort of lost treasure of Narnia. You had waited anxiously for his return, sometimes wondering if he would ever return. As time passed, you grew more sad and anxious. You would stay up all night waiting for him to come home. One day, you received terrible news. Caspian’s ship had been found shipwrecked off the coast of an island only a short distance from Narnia. The crew had been returning home when a storm hit. Most of the crew had survived, but Caspian was nowhere to be found. You went into mourning but refused to believe your boyfriend was dead, feeling that he was out there somewhere. You were right; about a week after Caspian’s crew had been found, the young king was spotted washed up on the beach, exhausted and tired from having practically swam the whole way there. As Caspian was brought to the castle you ran out to meet him, tears of joy rolling down your face. With the last of his strength, Caspian swept you up into his arms, kissing you right there at the gates of the palace.

[anthonycrowleymoved]

HAIR SURVEY RESULTS TWO: ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

i know this was a long time coming. without further ado, i’m going to show you the final scores. then, if you so choose, you can go in and see my ~further analysis and information~ as well as other details and a comparison of lev’s earlier survey.

SO. here’s how it worked. i had a total of 561 people rank 16 of crowley’s hairstyles. i wanted people to rank the hairstyles to see if the results differed from when people were asked what their favorite overall style was. each person who gave a hairstyle a ranking of 1 contributed 16 points towards that style, 2 contributed 15 points, and so on. this means the lowest possible score a Look™ can get is 561, and the highest is 8976 (16 x 561)

OFFICIAL RANKINGS:

1. 2012 BUN - 7965

2. GOLGOTHA - 7108

3. PRESENT DAY - 7060

4. 2007 HAIR - 6988

5. MESOPOTAMIA - 6820

6. EDEN - 5547

7. 1941 (CHURCH SCENE) - 5406

8. 1967 - 4644

9. 2012 NANNY - 4146

10. BOOK!CROWLEY - 3650

11. 1970s - 3408

12. 33 AD (ROME) - 3040

13. 1601 (SHAKESPEARE) - 2770

14. 541 AD (KNIGHTS) - 2751

15. 1862 - 2708

16. 1793 (FRENCH REVOLUTION) - 2477

DISCUSSION OF OVERALL RESULTS

graphic representation of all of the results, in descending order. as you can see, bun was the runaway lead, with the next four highest scoring looks™ pretty close together. similarly, the shakespeare look, knight look, and sideburn look are all similarly hated.

fig. 2: scores sorted by in-universe order of appearance. i think it’s interesting to look at this and see that there seems to be....sort of a trend. in general people seem to like the very early looks and the very modern looks, with the lowest scoring looks all clumped together.

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

now, i’d like to discuss the individual breakdown of each look™, to determine how universally it was liked or disliked, or alternately the distribution of votes 

eden

eden had an average score of 9.89. people seemed pretty middle of the road on this look, with the occasional person either loving it or hating it. it’s a lot more divisive than a lot of his hairstyles for sure. (me, i personally thought it verged a bit into ‘bad wig’ territory, and i did see a couple people thinking the same)

mesopotamia

i was kind of surprised by this one being as low as it was! obviously it was in that grouping of popular hairstyles, but i feel like the general consensus you read on here is that this is the fan favorite. apparently not so. the average score was 12.16, however, which, not bad. people in general did tend to like this look, obviously, with a few holdouts scattered about

golgotha

fun fact! this is my personal favorite because, the headscarf. my god. iconic. and apparently y’all agree! it eeked out second place with an average score of 12.67

rome

so this is the first. not great look. people don’t seem to be crazy about this one. it had an average score of 5.41

knight look

“oh maggie why is this even here we can’t see his hair” It’s My Survey And I Get To Choose The Looks. but anyway. no one liked this. seriously. this is the first one that didn’t get a single person to give it the top spot. average score was 4.903, which also isn’t great.

1601

look, i know you’re supposed to be unbiased or whatever, but this is a tumblr survey and none of this matters. i hate this look. i hate it so much i often forget it exists out of self preservation. even now as i type this i know if i scroll up i’ll see that terrible facial hair, and i saw it like a minute ago when i uploaded the picture, but i can’t for the life of me remember what it looks like because my brain has put up a protective barrier. you all seem to agree with me, as the average score of this is just 4.94. excellent taste all around

1793

LAST PLACE. i don’t completely. GET. the hatred of this one. i found it to be. very middle of the road. fine i suppose. but the people have spoken with an average score of just 4.42. so what do i know

1862

another one no one said was their favorite. i mean. fair. this one had an average of 4.83, and many people said this was his most heterosexual look, and i agree. bad. 

1941

this one seemed to be a bit middle of the road for people, which is kind of understandable. it’s a great hat, but i get that people like the more dramatique™ looks better. had an average score of 9.64, so like. not bad

1967

now this one was ALLLLL over the place. people love it, people hate it, people are indifferent. average score was 8.28, which, again, shows how split this one was. i for one welcome john lennon and joyce byers’ demon lovechild.

1970s

i’m so mad. average score was 6.07. this is my second favorite hairstyle overall. yes, seriously. anyway you all are wrong and that’s all i have to say about that have a good night

1990s

people kept asking me why i included the illustration from the modern cover of the book, and the primary reason was because i thought it would be funny, which is why i do most things. i also was kind of wondering what people would do with it, and the answer is seemingly ‘question why it was there.’ i wish there was a way i could have included ‘your own personal headcanon for what he looked like while reading the book,’ but alas this is as close as i could get. average score was 6.51. the people who gave said this was their favorite are my heroes, and one person described him as looking like an insurance salesman, which like. thank you from the bottom of my heart

2007

yeah. okay. i nicknamed this one ‘cursed’ in my master list. i don’t get it. i’m so sorry. i am like, the singular holdout who just can’t stand this hair. but i am very much in the minority, everyone else seems to love it. average score was 12.46. good for you, 2007 crowley. i will never understand you

2012 (Nanny)

this is the last....not great look. again, a bit all over the place. average score was 7.39.

2012 (Bun)

i LOVE this hairstyle, but i was blown away by how high it was on lev’s poll and i’m blown away again with how high it is here. i just feel like we collectively never talk about how much we love the bun look, and then when we’re asked we go feral. this had an average score of 14.19. how. gender, indeed.

present

ahhh, the classic tennant hair. a solid look. no one really seems to dislike it, it’s just. not everyone’s top spot. there’s nothing offensive about it, clearly, but i don’t think it sets anyone off like some of the other top contenders. and i’m slightly surprised how little we talk about this hairstyle considering how popular it is (and i get it, he looks like every lesbian i’ve ever had a crush on who was painfully out of my league), but again, that might be because it’s Tennant Classic™. average score was 12.58.

LEV DYKEIEL’S RESULTS VERSUS MAGGIE ANTHONYCROWLEY’S RESULTS: A BRIEF ANALYSIS

the main reason i wanted to do this in the first place was to see if the results changed at all from lev’s survey when i asked people to rank their choices rather than just choose their favorite. the answer is actually like, kind of! not majorly, but a bit. the comparison as it stands without the entries that did not appear on both lists:

if you want to see the changes more easily, i’ve done some color coding here:

as you can see, there were definitely some shifts, but what i’d like to focus on is the change in rank of the golgotha hair, the two that came in last place, and the sixties and seventies looks. for the golgotha hair, i suspect that because it was so close to the mesopotamia hair, the vote may have been split a bit, whereas here you could have realistically given both a good score. lev also said that in their results, after the 2012 bun look, 2007, present, and mesopotamia were kind of always in a bit of a tie with each other, whereas this was the case with mine with the addition of the golgotha hair. taking that into consideration i think it’s interesting that that one ended up getting second place. 

i also think it’s interesting that france wasn’t in last place on lev’s poll, because there’s such a huge difference in points between the sideburn look and the french revolution look according to my numbers. however, as i said before, no one actually picked sideburns as their favorite on this survey, but there were a couple of people who like, loved the revolution hair. i think that may have ended up giving lev and i slightly different results, as the revolution hair is like ‘you either really love it for some reason (rare) or despise it’ and the 1860s hair is like ‘you either hate it or you’re lukewarm about it’. 

similarly, the shift in rank in both the sixties and seventies looks is also interesting, because they both moved kind of significantly. i think the 60s look changed because, as i said, it seemed to be a pretty divisive look. people don’t seem to be agreed on how much they like it, so there are people really Into It who voted it as their favorite on lev’s, but there are also people who HATE IT. i think something sort of similar happened with the 70s look in the opposite direction. i think not many people LOVE it, but a lot of people kind it not to be like, the worst one. as a result it went up a bit because, while few people consider it their favorite (can’t relate), a few people were like ‘okay it’s fun’ and ranked it semi-high, or at least there was more of a distribution than some of the more hated looks. also it’s almost 2 am i hope this analysis makes sense because words. the english language.

ANYWAY THOSE ARE MY RESULTS I KNOW I PROMISED TABLEAU GRAPHICS BUT I FORGOT I NO LONGER HAVE A LICENSE FOR THAT BECAUSE I GRADUATED AND ALSO IT LOOKS FINE WITH THE GOOGLE GRAPHICS AND I DON’T WANT TO MAKE MY LIFE HARDER COOL BYE!

[chicagocityfclanspromoblog]

Ellis Watts III→ Aldis Hodge → Jackal

→ Basic Information

Age: 99

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: December 25th

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Religion: Christian

→ His Personality

Ellis Watts is a workaholic. He has spent the entire duration as head of the Jackals looking for ways to better the clan and push them into more prominent positions within the city. This includes heavily encouraging the jackals in his clan to pursue a degree and better themselves intellectually. He also serves the citizens of Chicago as the City Planner. He has been making significant efforts to improve the quality of life for both supernaturals and humans. He is very dedicated to his work and responsibilities and does not falter in his duties. He is disciplined, often working nights and weekends until a project is seen through to the end.

However when Ellis relaxes, he does so in style. He loves expensive clothes and timepieces, nice cars, and excessive hobbies. Since he could get his hands on them, he’s loved anything with a motor: cars, motorcycles, and speed boats. Only recently has he begun to tackle the skies. It was a 95th birthday present to himself, and he’s almost put enough hours in to finally obtain his license to fly. He also enjoys spirits, and has begun making his own wine. This harkens back to his youth filled with mild over indulgence and a desire to escape.

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Head of Clan Jackal and City Planner

Scars: None

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: High end watches and Fast vehicles

Two Dislikes: Idle hands and People who ride their brakes

Two Fears: Failing at leading the Jackals and Heights

Two Hobbies: Boat Racing and Wine Making

Three Positive Traits: Responsible, Disciplined, Ambitious

Three Negative Traits: Work-Obsessed, Superficial, Stubborn

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Ellis Watts II (Father): Ellis did not have a very strong relationship with his father, contrary to everyone in their pack. They were not very affectionate towards one another and often got into spats. Though it appeared that Ellis Watts II was handing his son the keys out of respect, in reality he left out of spite. They didn’;t have any other contact with one another for the rest of his life.

Lucretia Watts (Mother): Lucretia was old, much older than Ellis’s father, when they mated and died while Ellis was 30. Ellis was close to his mother, and she instilled many of the mantras he repeats and follows to this day.

Sibling Names:

None

Children Names:

None.

Romantic Connections:

Mary-Alice Lewis (Ex Girlfriend): He met Mary Alice when he was away for school. Too many things were trying to work against them, and when he asked her to come back home with him, she said no. He still thinks about her often and has thought about trying to see if she was still with her clan.

Miriam Vance (Ex Girlfriend): They dated in the 1970s for a few years. He was just getting in the meat of his political career and she wanted lots of children immediately. They parted ways and last he knew she moved to San Francisco.

Platonic Connections:

Sarah Harris (Best Friend): Sarah has been one of his longest friends and is often the person to call him out. He is the Godfather to both of their daughters and spends most holidays with their family.

Zack Harris (Best Friend): Zack is his most trusted confidante. They throw ideas around, playing with possibilities, before eventually bringing it to Sarah who helps make the idea possible.

Shannon Harris (Goddaughter): He has known Shannon since she was born. She’s a mini-Sarah through and through and he has recently begun training her to begin as a liaison to the pack. With the new influx of supernaturals that may come due to the University, Ellis wants to be ready.

Zelda Harris (Goddaughter): He has known Zelda since she was born. She was always a very independent child, taking the harder and often more daring road. Despite Sarah’s surprise, he saw Zelda forming her own path long before she finally told her mother she wasn’t going to school. He has her placed in the water department.

Odell Rella (Friend): Ellis brought Odell on as 3rd about 9 years ago, after he returned home from going to college and travelling the world. It’s a perspective that Jackals don’t often have and he values his input because of that. He’s still an idiot, but he does a good job as 3rd.

Seth Allen (Curious about): Seth is somewhat of an enigma to Ellis, Zack and Sarah. He is wild and difficult, but the strangest thing is that he doesn’t really act like a jackal, or at least not like anyone in Chicago. He loves being shifted and running in his shifted form. Seth also seems somewhat uncomfortable with the family dynamics that most of the clan has. Ellis has been mulling over their new addition a lot, and has even gone on a run with him in shifted form to see if it’d shed any more light.

Vee Armstrong (Employee): Vee has shown her work ethic since she was in college and Ellis took notice. When Sirius proposed getting a Human Shifter elected with the jackal’s help; Ellis knew she’d be the best person to get them there. So far she’s impressed him, and the early polls indicate Fischer will win.

Leon King (Friendly): Ellis knows of Leon through his work with the kids. He increased general activity and helped spearhead a childhood activity project that got kids moving.

Clara Fields (Fellow Council Member): Ellis doesn’t often talk to Clara, actually avoids it when he can, but they’ve known each other for a long time and he respects her work ethic.

Isaac Baker (Friend): Ellis has liked having Isaac on the council. He’s smart and isn’t weighed down by a century of baggage like the rest of them. They occasionally go to sports games together.

Chris Bialar (Work Associate): Chris came to him a year or two ago to suggest creating a University for the supernatural community. Clan Cat was experienced with the education side of things, while Clan Jackal could encourage the permit and general bureaucratic business along. Before their business venture Ellis thought he was an arrogant asshole, now he’s an arrogant asshole with a plan to get more Jackals to the city.

Nick Hamelin (Fellow Council Member): He and Nick are on good terms. The rats don’t invade any areas they shouldn’t and in return they don’t try to keep too much from them.

Percy McCormick III (Fellow Council Member): Ellis is fairly neutral about Percy. They’ve never really hit off, unlike him and the Fields, and it’s not something he’s interested in trying to start.

Greer Finley (Work Associate): Greer is the 2nd of the Cats and is spearheading much of the project on the Cat’s end. He tends to work with her on projects to avoid putting her and Sarah in the same room.

Amaria Crais (Work Associate): Amaria is the main liaison between the Cats and Jackals for the University project. He finds her much easier to deal with than Greer.

Asa Fields (Old Friend): He hasn’t spoken to Asa since he has been back, but the two would occasionally meet at parties around the city. He’s interested in seeing how he’s changed over the years.

Sirius Cobic (Business Partner): Sirius proposed the idea of getting a supernatural to the top of the Chicago government about a year and a half ago. They need someone with real power to rule and a human shifter would be the only one who could make it. Together they developed a plan, and are currently seeing it play out.

Hostile Connections:

Russell Jordan (Concerned about): Russell quickly shut down many lines of connections that had existed between the hyenas and jackals since they’d arrived. He claimed it was to unify the clan under new leadership, but they haven’t opened back up.

Alan Thomas (Annoyance): He’s never seen anyone argue so much over building codes that have been public knowledge for years. Thomas takes any slow down as a personal offence and doesn’t care to restrain himself from throwing a fit.

Pets:

None

→ History

Ellis was born in Chicago to Ellis Watts II and Lucretia Watts. Unusually for jackals the pair married at quite old ages and Ellis III was the only child they ever had. Lucretia was showing signs of slowing down when Ellis was a young boy, so it was only a matter of time when she passed away. He was away for many of her last years, and when he returned from school she refused to shift back into her human form. Ellis spent much of his time shifted the last year of her life so they could communicate easier. When she finally died, he didn’t change for years. It was at this time of no shifting that Ellis discovered his love for fast machines; motorcycles, cars, boats, anything he could feel the exhilaration of. He also garnered some criticism at this time, specifically from his father who thought he was being frivolous and wasteful. This was the beginning of what would become decades of arguments between the two men.

They fought about him not using his degree or getting a useful job, about Elli II being inflexible and running members out of Chicago. This was all hidden from the packs eyes as their leader having the least happy family of all might cause an uproar in such a family oriented clan. The only members who were aware were Sarah and Zack Harris, his father’s seconds. Finally in 1941, after a particularly brutal argument Ellis II quit, told his son that he could burn the pack down if he wanted, but that he wouldn’t be around to watch. He packed up his things and left the clan to Ellis to rule, with the obvious assumption he’d fail. Ellis, like he did in many instances rose to the occasion. He hunkered down and learned everything: each pack family, who needed assistance, what needed to be done, where there were spots they could expand. It was Ellis who made the switch into the Government and slowly began securing good jobs with good pay for his people. He finally joined office himself once he was legally able to and has been City Manager on and off for many years.

After he switched into being a leader, he’s had a difficult time turning it off. It’s ruined any relationship he’s had, caused tension headaches and teeth grinding, and he rarely if ever takes a day off. He still maintains many of his hobbies like boat racing, wine making, and now piloting; but work and his clan is always in the back of his mind.

→ The Present

Ellis would like to find a wife and start a family. Sarah says it was his dysfunctional family life that’s scared him off. Which is partially true, but he’s worried that he’ll start slipping if he relaxes too much. He’s actually considered asking Sarah or Shannon to set him up, but he’s not sure that he is that desperate yet.

Ellis is also creating a University with the Cats. He, Sarah, and Zack have been in talks for about a year or so developing the idea, but they are going to break ground soon. He’s excited to have a new school for his Jackals to go to, as well as a new draw for the supernatural community. Another venture he’s taking on, though in a much more removed position, is the election of human shifter, Robert J. Fischer. It was an idea concocted with the human shifters to get a member of the supernatural community in the highest seat of power. Though the council previously ruled no species could be in the mayor’s office due to an unequal balance of power, Ellis knows they don’t understand the nature of modern politics.

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Aldis Hodge  [1][2][3][4]

[eldritchsurveys]

787.

When was the last time you did something for the first time? >> I bought something on credit for the first time last week. It wasn’t my credit, lmao (I have none), but still.

Which do you prefer: Valentine's Day or Easter? >> I’m not too interested in either. But both have the potential for fun plushies to buy, so there’s that.

Do you wait until the last minute to decorate, or do you decorate early? >> I don’t decorate for either of those holidays, if that’s what we’re still talking about.

What color bottoms are you wearing right now? >> Black.

Do you love life?! >> The punctuation choice gives this question an interesting flavour, lmao. I mean, I don’t necessarily love life or hate life. It’s kind of just... a default state, I don’t have any special feelings about it unless I’m depressed or something. It’s not like I know what the alternative is like, or have anything to compare life to.

What's your favorite Starbucks drink? >> I don’t drink anything from Starbucks if I can help it.

What were you wearing in the last good selfie you took? >> ---

What's on your wish list right now? >> My wish list is pretty clear now, thankfully. I wouldn’t say no to a new computer chair, though. Or a new dresser, now that that’s the only thing in my room that doesn’t match.

What do you use to sweeten your tea? >> Honey, if anything.

Which dollar store do you like best? >> ---

Have you ever owned an expensive eyeshadow palette? >> Nope. Well, actually, Sparrow bought me one that I don’t know the price of, so maybe it was an expensive one.

What's one challenge you want to complete for youtube? >> ---

If you make youtube videos, do you have a posting schedule? >> I don’t make youtube videos.

When was the last time you stepped outside of your comfort zone? >> There’s been no way to do that lately -- my comfort zone is the solitude of my room, and we’re under physical distancing rules...

How would you rate your self-esteem? low, healthy, or high? >> My overall conception of myself is probably always going to be skewed, because I got them Issues(tm). But I am trying to be more compassionate and less persecutory towards myself.

Do you own a tripod for your camera? >> I don’t own a camera, period.

Would you rather go to London, Paris, or Tokyo? >> I don’t know. I guess any of them would be fine.

Were you a bigger fan of Lindsay Lohan or Hilary Duff? >> ---

Which Olsen twin was your favorite: Mary-Kate or Ashley, and why? >> ---

Do you make Halloween costumes out of clothes from your closet? >> I’ve never made a Halloween costume.

Do you enjoy putting outfits together? >> That’s not something I really do, all my clothes are kind of just... variations on the same theme. There’s nothing to really “put together”.

Would you rather it rain or snow? >> Rain, please.

What does your umbrella look like? >> We have several umbrellas in this apartment, but the one I use most is a big black-and-red one.

What color are your nails painted? >> They’re not.

Are your nails always painted? >> Obviously not.

What's one thing you've had a toxic reaction to? >> I don’t know what a toxic reaction is.

Do you wear headbands? >> No.

Do you own a boho bandeau? >> No.

Which do you prefer: cropped tops or tunic tops? >> Tunic tops, I guess, just by virtue of the fact that I would not wear a crop top.

What's a style or trend that you think is ridiculous? >> ---

Which youtuber do you want to be more like? >> I don’t want to be like a youtuber.

Do you wear jeggings or leggings more? >> No.

^Same questions, but jeggings or skinny jeans? >> I don’t really like any of these garments, okay.

Do you like stuffed animals? >> I sure do.

What was your favorite class in high school? >> ---

Have you ever gotten straight A's in a class? If so, which classes? >> ---

Were there any subjects that you got a perfect SAT score in? If so, what? >> ---

What's the best coffee shop in your town, in your opinion? >> I have no idea.

Are you happy today? If so, what made you happy today? >> I’m not sad or angry or anxious or irritable, but I’m also not particularly joyful, so... you know. Neutral is my baseline state.

When was the last time you woke up to a beautiful sunrise? >> I don’t remember, especially considering I can’t see the sunrise from my room.

Is your bed right by a window? >> Yeah, the foot of it is.

Do you spent more time in your bedroom or your living room? >> Bedroom. I really only spend time in the living room when I’m gaming or watching Sparrow game (or watching a video or movie or whatever with her).

Which holiday is your favorite to decorate for? >> I don’t really enjoy decorating for holidays, although I enjoy the decorations themselves. It’s just a tedious process to me.

Do you decorate for holidays? >> Nah, Sparrow does it. She seems to actually enjoy it.

What craft project do you want to do next? >> ---

Do you name stuffed animals still? >> Of course.

Do you still own your favorite Barbie? What was your favorite Barbie? >> ---

Favorite Bratz doll? >> ---

Favorite American Girl doll? >> ---

Favorite Disney princess? >> My favourite Disney princess is Moana.

Favorite cartoon character? >> ---

Are you rebellious? >> I’m a contrary sort by nature, so yeah, I guess so.

What's the most rebellious thing you've ever done? >> *shrug* Existed? Pfft.

What's your favorite thing about yourself? >> I don’t have a favourite thing about myself.

Have you ever celebrated Valentine's Day when you were single? >> I don’t celebrate Valentine’s Day regardless. I just don’t mind using V-Day events as excuses to go out and do stuff, or taking advantage of the many plushies for sale.

What's your dream date? >> ---

If you were dating a guy right now, where would you want him to take you? >> ---

Is there a guy you regret letting slip away? >> No.

Are you a guy or a girl? >> No.

Are you more boho, girly, edgy, sporty, or hipster? >> ...

Which stereotype do you fit the most? >> *grinds teeth* Stereotypes are not something I would choose to identify with.

What titles did you win in the senior class polls? >> ---

Were you popular in school? >> No.

If you won a car, what color would you like it to be? >> I don’t want a car. I can’t even drive.

Do you wear hats? >> In the winter, yes.

Do you ever put your hair up in the winter? >> ---

Do you have bangs? If not, have you ever had bangs? >> No.

How many siblings do you have? >> ---

Do you have any family members that you've never met? >> Of course.

If you're from the US, what states have you lived in? >> NJ, NY, CO, MI, NC.

Who was your best roommate? >> Honestly, I’ve never had a good flatmate.

Was your first roommate your best roommate? >> ---

What's the best family vacation you've ever been on? >> ---

Do you have a Mac or a PC? >> PCs.

Do you use iMovie? >> No.

What's your dream job? >> ---

What types of youtube videos are your favorite to watch? >> Video game lore, film/pop culture analyses, stuff like Philosophy Tube.

Which do you watch more: TV, youtube, or movies? >> Probably TV, overall.

Do you prefer books or movies? >> I like both, dude.

Have you ever wanted to be a model? >> Nope.

Are you cold right now? >> Nope.

What do the last pair of pants you bought look like? >> I ordered two pairs of sweatpants from Old Navy. Very pleased with them.

What store(s) do you do most of your shopping at? >> Meijer.

What style of wedding dress is your favorite? >> ---

What years did you attend prom? >> I attended in 2004.

What color is the last sweater you wore? >> Black.

What do you want to be for Halloween? >> I don’t know, I’ve never been anything for Halloween and I’m not sure this year will be any different.

What is your name, and what are the different spelling variations of it? >> I don’t think there’s any other ways to spell “Mordred”, but I may be wrong.

Do you like your name how it's spelled? >> Yes.

Would you change your name if given the chance? >> I already did...

Did you ever want to be famous? >> Not in any serious capacity. I’ve daydreamed about being in rock bands when I was a teenager, but that wasn’t like... serious.

Would you ever want to be famous now? >> Fuck no.

Who are the cutest babies you see on facebook? >> ---

What would your name had been if you were born the opposite gender? >> This question assumes a lot of things, like the idea that one’s parent(s) or guardian(s) had pre-chosen a name for each sex, and that they’d made you aware of the other choice after you were born.

If you had a twin of the same gender, what would his/her name be? >> This assumes even more.

What is your first and middle name? >> Mordred Shadow.

What year were you born? >> 1987.

How old does that make you? >> 32, for a few more days.

[theliberaltony]

via Politics – FiveThirtyEight

Welcome to a special edition of FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.

sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Just what is going on in Nevada? On Wednesday, we had maybe our most spirited debate of the primary cycle yet, but what isn’t clear is how it did — or didn’t — affect the race. (Remember, despite capturing many, many headlines, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg isn’t actually on the ballot there.)

To some extent, the polling picture in Nevada is actually quite clear. Of the few recent polls we do have, Sen. Bernie Sanders sits atop nearly all of them, and according to our primary forecast, he has a 75 percent chance of winning the most votes there. Our model still gives former Vice President Joe Biden a 1 in 9 chance of pulling off an upset victory, former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg a 1 in 15 shot and Sen. Elizabeth Warren a 1 in 20 shot. (Philanthropist Tom Steyer and Sen. Amy Klobuchar’s odds are a bit more underdog-ish, at 1 in 50 and 1 in 100, respectively.)

But as we know from New Hampshire, debates can matter. And Nevada is just a really hard state to poll, so what should we be keeping an eye on heading into the caucuses on Saturday?

clare.malone (Clare Malone, senior political writer): I’m reticent to say that the Nevada polls give us a clear picture of the race. I feel like it’s perhaps better to come with a more collective open mind, while acknowledging that Sanders is the front-runner numerically.

micah (Micah Cohen, managing editor): Yeah, I’d be very cautious with our Nevada forecast at the moment. It can only work with the polls it has, and there obviously haven’t been any post-debate polls yet. It’s always hard to predict these things but I’d bet that debate could swing the polls by a lot.

sarahf: Right, there are only five polls of Nevada for all of February. I hear you.

That said, Sanders has consistently done pretty well.

micah: But would anyone be surprised by a last-minute Warren surge in Nevada? Akin to Klobuchar’s in New Hampshire?

clare.malone: That’s one thing I’ve been turning over in my head, Micah. Is Warren a really good cultural fit for Nevada?

And by cultural fit I mean: She’s originally from Oklahoma and her professional work is inextricably linked with the housing crisis, which hit Nevada hard. She’s got the kind of working class background that could potentially resonate in a state whose caucuses are union-dominated. So maybe Nevada is a potential comeback state for her?

sarahf: I could definitely see a Warren comeback. One wild card, though is that this the first time Nevada has offered early voting, and so that means there were already nearly 75,000 votes cast before the debate last night.

It’s an important reminder that this is already happening in a number of Super Tuesday states, too — including California, which is the biggest delegate prize. I’m not sure it’ll matter, but I am intrigued by how it factors in.

clare.malone: Yes, I mean, I think the big roadblock for a potential Warren surge is what you say, Sarah — her poor showing in the first two states and a ream of voters who have already made up their minds.

And I will say, the fact that Nevada is union-dominated could DEFINITELY work against her in the sense that the unions seem to prefer Biden, or at least seem to prefer a more traditionally Democratic mainstream choice.

micah: Agreed. But, and Nate pointed this out on the podcast, most people who vote early are people who already have their minds made up. That is, there are still plenty of voters who haven’t voted, and those voters are more likely to be ones who Warren would presumably have a chance to win over because they’re undecided.

But going back to the “Is Warren a good fit for Nevada?” question, all the shared characteristics/experiences Clare highlights are dead on. But also … hmmm, how do I say this … I wonder how voters in Nevada will react to a forceful debate strategy by a female candidate.

That is, do voters consciously or subconsciously view Warren’s performance through a sexist/gendered lens? Most likely, right?

sarahf: Why Nevada more so than any other state?

perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): Right, that might apply to all 50 states.

micah: True. But Nevada’s population also has a smaller share of college-educated adults than the average state.

clare.malone: I think Nevada is a state that’s got a lot of Democratic primary voters who haven’t been as tuned-in to the primary process as those in Iowa or New Hampshire, which makes it a more useful barometer.

And I think Micah’s point is perhaps that some of those people might be more likely to have an unvarnished response to Warren and won’t have seen their response to her filtered through a months-long primary process lens.

The smart thing I think she did in her closing remarks at the debate was to say, I’ve been in politics for the least amount of time of anyone up here.

micah: Actually, I take some of this back: It looks like Nevada has a decent record of electing women …

clare.malone: I’m always skeptical of how people react to female presidential candidates, though … But point well taken.

micah: Totally agree — is the presidency different? (I think yes, but we don’t know that in a research sense.)

perry: I tend to think that Warren’s performance increased her chances of being one of the candidates who gets to 15 percent in several Super Tuesday states. She will get more media coverage out of this debate — I am still fairly bearish on that prospect.

sarahf: That certainly seems reasonable to me. She did have a strong debate performance, and as we saw with Klobuchar in New Hampshire, it really could impact voters who are still deciding. That said … I’m not sure I agree with this take from journalist Peter Hamby, but it did give me pause about Bloomberg’s performance and what that could mean for how Warren is perceived.

The Bloomberg commentary tonight reminds me of this from the second Trump/Hillary debate in 2016 https://t.co/0llnmwf4Bu

— Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) February 20, 2020

Which brings us to the million dollar question of Wednesday’s debate: Did Bloomberg’s performance shake things up?

micah: I think that Hamby take is wrong (and he’s super smart). The key difference: This is a primary. That was a general. A bad debate performance in a general election is typically mollified, in terms of its impact on the vote, by partisanship. In a primary, voters are much more likely to switch between candidates. See Marco Rubio, New Hampshire, 2016.

clare.malone: I think Bloomberg’s performance definitely helped Biden.

sarahf: More than say, Warren, Clare?

clare.malone: Well, I think Bloomberg and Biden are inextricably linked. Bloomberg’s entire rise is premised on Biden’s fall. When Bloomberg falls, Biden rises.

Bloomberg was meant to be seen as the more effective moderate option, given Biden’s mediocre showing … and then Bloomberg had a mediocre showing.

micah: Yeah, I agree with that. If Bloomberg falls, it both directly and indirectly helps Biden. It helps him in terms of actual voters available, it helps Biden seem more liberal, it does a lot! The question on Warren feels somewhat more separate, although she’s certainly competing with Bloomberg for press attention.

perry: If Bloomberg had been great, that would have hurt basically everyone. There are a lot of Democrats who are going to just vote for someone and aren’t that moderate or liberal or ideologically committed.

So Bloomberg’s lackluster debate performance was good for Biden but also Buttigieg, Klobuchar — really, all of them.

But there’s another debate on Tuesday and Bloomberg’s ads run everywhere all of the time. I don’t think this precludes him from doing well on Super Tuesday.

clare.malone: I agree with that. I’m not entirely sure nervous Democratic voters will be ready to count him out.

One thing I take from that series of Pete Hamby tweets is: Sometimes it’s hard to tell what voters will tolerate!

sarahf: 2016 shook my confidence in understanding what voters want.

clare.malone: Lol

LOT GOING ON THERE.

micah: It doesn’t preclude Bloomberg from doing well on Super Tuesday, but it weirdly complicates the path for Sanders before then. Sanders is sitting atop national polls, atop Nevada polls and in a close second in South Carolina polls. As long as the Biden-Bloomberg-Buttigieg-Klobuchar lane was muddled, Sanders’s position is extra safe. Basically, he can win states with 25 to 30 percent of the vote.

But if Biden can get some momentum off of a Bloomberg decline (and maybe also Buttigieg and Klobuchar as they didn’t do much to help themselves), maybe Biden can … win Nevada?!?! Or crush it in South Carolina?

sarahf: Speaking of Biden … he really needs to finish second (or first!) in Nevada, right? Granted, it’s still only the third state to vote, but it’s the first one that isn’t 90 percent white, so it’s also sort of an important litmus test for candidates who have struggled to build diverse coalitions. (Warren, Buttigieg, Klobuchar — really everyone except Biden and Sanders, right?)

What should we be looking for there on Saturday? Currently, Sanders seems to hold an edge among Latino voters, but it’s not insurmountable as Amelia Thomson-DeVeaux and Nathaniel Rakich wrote on Thursday:

Sanders is highly favored by Latino voters in Nevada

Top Democratic candidates’ support among poll respondents who identified as Hispanic or Latino (depending on the poll), in six polls conducted since Feb. 9

Pollster Sanders Biden Steyer Warren Buttigieg Klobuchar Data for Progress 66% 7% 8% 5% 4% 7% WPA Intelligence 50 13 9 11 9 0 Beacon Research* 33 16 18 14 7 3 Univision 33 22 12 6 8 1 Mason-Dixon 31 34 3 6 7 5 Point Blank Political 20 8 29 8 12 4

*Internal poll for the Steyer campaign.

Source: Polls

clare.malone: Yeah, I think that Biden needs to make up a lot of ground in Nevada and South Carolina in order to save face (and save his campaign).

micah: Totally. My hunch is that Biden could have sold the media on “Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t representative — wait for Nevada and South Carolina.” But his campaign seemed to be selling “Iowa and New Hampshire aren’t representative — wait for South Carolina. (Nevada? Oh, don’t worry about that.)” And Nevada is actually more representative of the party, as Perry has written. So that was a hard sell.

clare.malone: If he makes a weak showing in Nevada, I think that could have them worried about his gold-standard state, South Carolina.

micah: I think he needs to do “well” in Nevada.

“Well” = “whatever the media decides ‘well’ equals”

clare.malone: Win/place/show?

Or just win/place?

sarahf: No more fourth-place finishes.

micah: Maybe he needs to finish above all the other candidates in the moderate lane?

Or does he also need to finish above Warren?

perry: I think I have in my head something like this for Nevada: Sanders, Biden, Warren, Buttigieg, Steyer, Klobuchar, with the last four kind of bunched up in high single digits and low teens. That’s just my assumption from seeing the various polls. If Biden is below second, I think there will be more super-negative coverage of him. And that can make South Carolina harder to win too.

sarahf: I agree that anything other than a second-place finish for Biden in Nevada is hard to spin if part of your explanation for doing poorly in New Hampshire and Nevada is that they aren’t representative. Plus, and as Micah said, Nevada is actually more representative of the Democratic Party than South Carolina. And 13 percent of the 2016 caucus electorate was black, according to the entrance polls, so if Biden’s pitch is I can win over black voters and build a diverse coalition, a lot is on the line for him there.

micah: Yeah, and as Geoffrey Skelley has written, Biden has lost a lot of support since Iowa and New Hampshire — among people of all races but also black voters. In other words, black voters aren’t some kind of special firewall for Biden.

So if Biden claws some of that back, it would help him in Nevada as well as South Carolina.

IDK, I just feel like this is a moment in the campaign when we might see a ton of volatility.

clare.malone: And if he loses South Carolina he might have to drop out.

Just sayin’

perry: I think Super Tuesday is so close now that I don’t think any candidate should drop out.

Early voting is already happening in some of those states. I’m not predicting what Biden will do, but he should not drop out after South Carolina if Super Tuesday is three days later.

micah: Biden could finish fourth in Nevada and lose in South Carolina and drop out and that would not at all surprise me.

Biden could win Nevada (or finish in a strong second), run away with South Carolina and be leading in national polls by the time we reach Super Tuesday, and that would not surprise me.

clare.malone: But I think if Biden can’t prove viability in South Carolina, it would be pretty humiliating.

perry: So in most of these states and the Democratic primary overall, I think the plurality of voters are white voters who do not support Sanders. So I think Micah is right — that speaks to the potential volatility of the race.

Super Tuesday has a lot of states with black/Latino populations larger than Iowa and New Hampshire, but still some states where it’s not that high. That’s why I think a Buttigieg or Klobuchar can win, say, Virginia if they perform well among college-educated white voters in particular and white voters overall.

sarahf: But if, as you say, Perry, there is a plurality of white voters who are on Team Anyone But Sanders, wouldn’t it behoove someone from the moderate lane who had disappointing finishes in Nevada and South Carolina to drop out? I wouldn’t put it past at least someone dropping out after Nevada.

Is that misguided?

perry: I don’t know what you get from dropping out.

micah: This isn’t based on anything in particular, but I would expect a couple dropouts before Super Tuesday.

You get to avoid humiliation.

sarahf: Also, potentially you avoid a messy contested convention, which I think has to factor into some of this? Or, if the storyline that many party insiders oppose his nomination is to be believed, I can imagine some members of the party pressuring candidates to drop out so there can be an alternative to Sanders.

micah: I think that’s right.

perry: If the moderate lane was coordinating to avoid Sanders winning, yes, one or two of them should drop out. Bloomberg’s campaign sent out a memo yesterday saying exactly that. It would be smart for some moderate bigwig (like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi) to encourage this.

micah: This is why I think the Nevada debate wasn’t great for Sanders. I thought Sanders had a fine debate on Wednesday night. Certainly we would expect his support to at the very least not go down. But he was leading in Nevada and rising in South Carolina and leading in a lot of Super Tuesday states.

The BLOOMBERG BOMBS storyline just introduces a ton of potential volatility — particularly in terms of how the moderate lane does or does not consolidate — and because the status quo was pretty great for Bernie. Volatility is potentially bad for him.

But maybe the party won’t actually move to fight a Sanders nomination.

perry: At this point, I just don’t see a lot of evidence that the moderate lane candidates are being realistic about their chances or are focused on boosting one member of that group, as opposed to themselves.

micah: It’s certainly hard to imagine Buttigieg and Klobuchar and Bloomberg cooperating with each other at the moment!

perry: The big question is whether that has to happen before Super Tuesday.

What the Bloomberg people were saying is that the coordination needs to happen now.

micah: Mathematically it kinda does, right?

sarahf: What is it, 38 percent of delegates are awarded by then?

perry: Like of course Klobuchar drops out after Super Tuesday, but they need her to drop out now.

sarahf: I think there is an incentive for moderate Democrats who are hand wringing over Sanders to consolidate ASAP.

micah: Yeah. This is why our forecast has such a high chance of no one winning a majority of pledged delegates:

sarahf: To bring it home … does this mean Nevada might actually be really important this year? It feels as if the media often kind of skips over Nevada in preparation for South Carolina.

perry: If Nevada results in one of these candidates packing it in, then yes, it matters.

clare.malone: It matters more because of the failures of the earlier states.

The field is just muddled in this way that feels unusual.

micah: It is unusual!

perry: Sanders winning three states in a row will be big no matter what. And another candidate winning Nevada would be huge. So I think Nevada matters hugely.

[dillydedalus]

november reading

how is it november. anyway i mainly descended into asoiaf hell again but there’s some other stuff!

hugo long list anthology vol. 3, lots of people anthology of the hugo long list for sff short stories - like most anthologies, it’s a mixed bag; i skipped a few stories, found a lot fine, liked quite a few (especially those by ursula vernon, sarah pinsker, p. djeli clark & theodora goss). this tends more towards scifi than fantasy, but i generally preferred the more fantasy-ish ones. 2.5/5

heimat: a german family album, nora krug collage-style graphic memoir about krug’s relationship to german identity after moving to the us and marrying a jewish man, focusing on her research into her family history and her grandparents’ actions during the holocaust, collecting images, documents, letters, statements from other family members, etc etc. the collage style is impressively well-done & her use of documents is especially excellent. 4/5

die untalentierte lügnerin, eva schmidt a german book prize nominee about a young woman in austria going thru a personal & familial crisis after dropping out of acting school. it’s intentionally really detached & isolating (e.g. there is absolutely no direct speech/thought in the entire book) but (unintentionally?) also quite boring. the creepy supportive-but-boundary-breaking stepfather is well done. 2/5

a game of thrones, george r. r. martin (#1 asoiaf) y’all.... i missed this series. i know i’m always lowkey obsessed, but reading the books really is a whole ‘nother thing and there are beats that get me in the heart every time (& every time there are beats that feel completely new) & every time i read agot i suddenly and painfully remember how much i love ned & how good he is & how sad. gods. also i want to take everyone who thinks asoiaf is all about being grimdark & edgy & cynical & ‘honourable = dumb’ and shake them like that’s not what they’re saying! littlefinger thinks like that, cersei, tywin and varys. we’re not meant to side with them! we’re meant to side with ned, who is honourable & chooses ‘the madness of mercy’, even if it kills him, which it does. 4.5/5

cosmicomics, italo calvino (tr. from italian by william weaver) honestly this is so hard to describe but it’s basically short stories about the genesis of the universe, the development of earth & life on earth, told from the perspective of a kind of eternal being (called qwfwq i think) who has been around with some other eternal beings with similarly weird names since before there was space, or time, or anything, but these eternal beings also behave & think pretty much like normal humans if they existed on eternal time-scale. it’s really weird & really fun, altho after the 12 stories i was kinda done. also like the gender politics in this are super eyeroll-y so be aware of that i guess. 3/5

a clash of kings, george r. r. martin (#2 asoiaf) i recently saw a poll on r/asoiaf or something about everyone’s fav book in the series & acok came in last, which i kind of understand - between agot & the absolutely epic and intense asos, it kind of looks like just a transitional book, & while both affc & adwd are kind of polarising, they both have really passionate fans BUT i think acok might actually be my personal favourite in the series. almost all the character’s arcs in this are amazing (arya in harrenhal! sansa figuring out how to cope in KL! theon’s whole mess! tyrion as hand! bran’s last chapter making me cry every single time!) and it has the amazing battle of blackwater bay. so anyway: 5/5

the narrow road to the deep north, richard flanagan (uni) UGH. this is a booker winning (for some reason) novel about australian POWs on the death rail, which is not entirely uninteresting & not something i’ve read anything about before but a) the writing is bad, b) flanagan tries really hard to be incredibly profound & it’s not working, c) half the story isn’t even about the POW camp but about our noble self-sacrificial hero dorrigo ‘manly resolve’ evans, who is a serial cheater & in his feelings about his ~true love for his uncle’s wife which like... who cares!!! in retrospect our discussion in class brought out some interesting aspects about the book & especially what we are meant to think about dorrigo evans but i still dislike it. 1.5/5

bad blood: secrets and lies in a silicon valley startup, john carreyrou the absolutely wild story of startup/total scam theranos by the investigative journalist who originally exposed their total scamminess. it’s sad that there’s so little insight into elizabeth holmes (steve jobs reborn/scammer in chief) and her motivation but oh well. my fav scene was elizabeth holmes giving every employee a copy of a coelho book & telling them she was starting a religion. 3/5

emma, jane austen another austen that is both incredibly delightful and incredibly frustrating in a lot of ways, which i think is partially intentional (although the intense classism never really gets challenged, just emma’s flawed way of enacting classism) - emma herself is often frustrating, misguided, arrogant, but her situation is so dismal and stifling, so many people around her so dull and wearying and demanding, that i couldn’t help but feel for her. sure, the romance is a bit #problematique, and the classism is a lot, but i think the heart of this is emma trying to find a way to exist in highbury, recognise that a) jane fairfax is great but b) she doesn’t have to be like jane fairfax, and that a) yes, she is responsible for her father but b) her father doesn’t have to be her whole life, and that she probably should just let poor harriet smith do what she gonna do. 4/5

the need, helen phillips i think what this book (and fever dream) really confirmed for me is that if i ever have kids, my ocd will go into infernal nightmare mode. anyway. this is a pretty good, pretty scary thriller about molly, working at an excavation site that seems to hold a lot of fossils and artefacts that are just a lil wrong, while also being stressed as hell about her two young children. the book opens with a truly terrifying sequence, switching from molly at her job to molly putting the kids to bed and hearing something that sounds a lot like an intruder (but she’s probably just paranoid right???). the rest of the book doesn’t quite live up to that, but it’s still pretty cool. 3/5

a storm of swords (asoiaf #3), grrm this book is just one thing after the other, in a really good way, in that every time something big & huge happens you read the next chapter or two and something else big & huge happens. read for handless & noseless the lannister boys, not one or two but three contenders for top post on r/weddingshaming, the infamous arya burrito, jon snow inventing cunnilingus in a cave, vengeance zombies, the most emosh snowcastle ever, and just. feelings everywhere. 5/5 thank you for my life grrm

exquisite cadavers, meena kandasamy kandasamy’s last novel (when i hit you) is a kinda autofiction-y novel, closely based on her own abusive marriage but also a novel & the fact that much of the reception has focused on her own traumatic experiences rather than as her novel as a work of literature frustrated kandasamy, as she says in the author’s note here, so she decided to write a story and include her commentary on how it relates (& doesn’t) to her own life in the margin. but rather than straightforward explanation, the margin notes, told by meena (herself? the author-persona? something else?) become their own story, often going on tangents only tenuously connected with the ‘main’ story. i love this conceit & i think in parts of this book it works really really well & it’s interesting how each part informs your reading of the other & how to read the margins as someone whose academic training & inclination tend toward death of the author (one of the characters dislikes barthes lol). sadly i don’t think there’s not enough meat to the story-part to make it more than an interesting experiment. 3.5/5

currently read a feast for crows (of course) and a brief history of seven killings which is... a bit of a slog to be honest sorry :(

[terra-writes]

Blog FAQ

Figured I would set one of these up this time around! If I make any additions or edits to this I’ll make a post letting you guys know! 

You’ve said “Terra” is just the name you go by online, so can we know your real name?

Simply put? No. My real name is incredibly unique and I would rather keep my online life and real life as separate as I can since where I live, fic writing is largely frowned upon. Also, I’m probably going to explain this bad, but I was told if I wanted to get published I’d have to delete all my fics or write under a different name so there was no crossover between the two. I choose instead to write my fic under a different name to save myself some trouble later on. To those that have learned my real name, I ask that you please don’t spread it around.

What is your general activity like on this blog?

Well last November I started a job where I work a standard 40 hour week. I’m generally away from home from 11am to about 9pm 5 days a week. I do have a pretty set schedule, so for now I’m always off Mondays and Fridays. This blog isn’t my main one, so the only times I’m online and able to check it, is when I’m at home and on my laptop. So except for the days that I’m off, I’ll likely only ever be online in the evenings. If I go to post a work, I’ll likely always schedule it to post between 12 and 1pm the following day.

What is your timezone?

I live in, and operate out of US Central Time. If you don’t quite know how much to add/subtract, the United states is divided into 4 timezones: Eastern time is one hour ahead of me, Mountain Time is one hour behind, and Pacific Time is 2 hours behind me. I don’t quite know how to calculate it for overseas timezones but if people send in the calculations for their timezone I can always edit them in here.

What is your uploading schedule like?

I can’t really say I have one. Every time I’ve tried to keep to one It hasn’t always worked out for me for some reason or another. 

How does your tagging system operate?

I always try to keep the tags as relevant and to the point as possible, since tumblr has a limited amount of tags you can add to a post. Here is a small list of what I will tag:

Characters with a significant relevance/presence to the current plot. I might not tag certain characters if they show up in a work if their plot relevance was minor/they only spoke like once in the entire thing to save space.

The fandom

The type of work (Headcanon, ask game, etc. This might be combined with he above bullet point ex: “mha headcanons”)

if the work is fluff, angst, nsfw. Side note, my nsfw tag for this blog will be the word “sin” so works would be tagged with “mha sin” or “haikyuu sin” and things like that.

If the work is part of a series, I will tag the name of it.

If the work involves any oc’s of mine, I will tag their name like I would any other character.

If I reblog a work from someone else, I will try to include all the tags they used as well as what type of work it is, such as “AU,” “reader insert,” “oc story,” etc. Reblogged works will always contain the tag “other people’s writing”

I will always try to tag trigger warnings/any potential triggering content. However, if I run out of space in the tags, all potentially triggering content will always be listed at the top of the work in bold. And all content of the work will always be below a “read more.” If there is anything you want me to tag/list at the top of my work. Please DM or send in an ask letting me know what content you want me to provide additional warnings for. I will never purposefully not tag a trigger, so if a work I’ve posted is missing a tag, please notify me as soon as you notice it so I can add it!

Writing will always be tagged with “terra writes” while almost every other kind of post will be tagged with “terra says.” This includes asks, announcements, updates, etc. I don’t recommend blacklisting the “terra says” tag, but most of the time other types of posts will be tagged with an additional secondary tag (update time, answered asks, poll time) So if you don’t want to see specific types of posts like polls, I would recommend blacklisting the “poll time” tag instead of the “terra says” tag.

You didn’t tag x trigger in your story/Can you please tag x in stories going forward?

Of course! If I forgot to tag something/tagged something wrong, please notify me! I often use the New X-Kit tag bundle extension and don’t always remember to delete a tag or include one. I’m only human and am prone to making mistakes even when trying to be as diligent as possible! I am also aware that people can have very different triggers, and I’m not always aware of what may or may not be a trigger. So if there’s something you want me to tag, send me an ask! I’ll always tag thins as “cw: <insert trigger>” 

Also please don’t ever assume I’m purposefully not tagging a trigger. Sometimes I genuinely miss putting the tag in/didn’t know the story needed it included.

Do you have a tag list?

Not currently! If you’re interested in being added please feel free to send me an ask or IM letting me know if you just wanted to be tagged in stuff involving a certain character, fandom, type of writing (drabble/headcanon), or series or any combination. I’ll keep a list in my drafts of the usernames and what you want to be tagged in. If you ever want to be removed, you’ll have to send me an ask letting me know.

What fandoms are you in?/What fandoms will you write for?

You can find a complete list of fandoms that I will write for here!

However, there are a few other fandoms I’m in that I just don’t feel like writing for. Those include: DC comics (mainly Young Justice), Pokemon, and Attack on Titan. I’m probably forgetting some, so I’ll update this list as I remember them. If you want to know if I’m in a fandom/will write for one, please send me an ask!

Do you write m/m, w/w, nonbinary, different ethnicities, etc?

Yes! If I’m writing a reader-insert story, I always try to keep the reader as gender-neutral and vague as possible unless something is specifically ask of me in the request itself. However to some degree I take liberties with the background of the reader. I will often make up a family situation, living arrangement etc. Again if there is anything specific about the reader you want me to include, please let me know. 

In the case of sin, I always default to a female gender/parts since that is what I am most familiar with. If you would like it to be non-specified/male parts/etc. you will need to tell me in the request itself.

Can I get a shout out?

You can! There’s absolutely 0 things wrong with asking for one and don’t let other people make you feel like shit for it. I know it can be hard starting a blog and getting your name out there, especially after the most recent updates which make it even harder for works to show up in the tumblr search function. This is why reblogging people’s works is even more important now than it had been in the past. I’m more than willing to give your blog a shout out if you need it! Feel free to send me an ask off anon from the blog, send an IM so I can make a post with the blog’s name, or even just ask me to reblog a story I liked from your blog. 

Do you have any Fic/Blog recs?

I’m pretty terrible about having the time to go and read as much fic as I used to be able to do, so I can’t really promote many other blogs than one’s I’ve already been following for a while/blogs of friends. Maybe one day that will change and I hope it does but as of right now I don’t think I’d be able to put together a very good list for people.

Do you write Dark Content?

I do not! However, this doesn’t mean I’m on a crusade against writers that do. As long as the people who write content like that keep everything tagged so that people who don’t want to read it, can skip over it, I literally do not care what they write about. But on a personal level, I do not want to write content like that, so I will not write or reblog dark content works on this blog.

If any dark content blog want to interact with my blog/works, they can do so. Just because I choose not to engage in dark content does not mean I am going to bar people that do from reading/interacting with my works if they enjoy it. I do ask that any dark content writers don’t reblog/reply to any nsfw posts of mine and add dark content to them.

[skammovistarplus]

Culture and Translation - S01E08

If you read all of this, congratulations. I think this is by far the longest culture and translation post I’ve done yet.

CLIP 1: Hit Me With Your Best Shot / One Way or Another

I didn’t get to this part last episode, but as some people have mentioned, Nora lives with her parents. Spanish grammar has a feature called “masculine generics.” I’ll quote Wikipedia: “Grammatical gender in Spanish refers to how Spanish nouns are categorized as either masculine (often ending in -o) or feminine (often ending in -a). As in other Romance languages—such as Portuguese, to which Spanish is very similar—a group of both males and females, or someone of unknown gender, is usually referred to by the masculine form of a nouns and or pronoun.” Because of this, we can infer that one of Nora’s parents is a man, but we don’t know whether the other parent is a man or a woman. Twitter likes the idea of making the Eskild expy her parent, and Linn his husband, but I don’t think it’s caught on in here.

Buah, ¿sabéis quién triunfó también en la fiesta? (“Hey, you know who also triumphed at the party?”): I have never seen “to triumph” being used this way in English, but that is the verb Amira uses and I really wanted to keep the idea of hooking up with people as a victory, something you win at.

Es que me parece súper fuerte, ¿no? (“I just think it’s too much, no?): “Fuerte” (literally “strong”) is Spanish slang for something that crosses a line or is “extra” in some way.

Hombre, pues no sé cómo lo veréis (“Man, I don’t know about you”): What Viri says would be literally translated as, “Man, I don’t know how you’re going to see it.”

Ya, y a ésta le van a llegar los cuernos hasta el techo del gimnasio (“Yeah, and the side girls are going to reach the gym ceiling all standing on top of each other”): Okay, so here is a line where I took liberties in order to get the most out of the line and the visual. In Spanish, when someone cheats on their significant other, we say that the person being cheated on has “cuernos” (horns) or is a “cornudo” (horned). So, Cris says that Cristian is cheating on Lara so often and so much that her horns are going to grow as high as to reach the gym ceiling. In English, the closest translation is “cuckold,” which comes from the Old French word for the cuckoo bird. Since I couldn’t work with the actual translation, I reworked the line to say that the side girls could reach the gym ceiling if they stood on top of each other. Sort of like that factoid that says if we stacked every human up on one another, we’d be 1/4th of the way to Venus.

I think Nora means that it’s better if she doesn’t flash a UV light over her room, but it’s not clear in Spanish either.

I really can’t remember whether we ever played dodgeball in high school P.E., but the whole premise just sounds like a pair of broken glasses waiting to happen.

CLIP 2: Skam España didn’t come to play

Fun fact: like Lucas, I hadn’t had anything to eat all day when this clip dropped, and a kebab sounded amazing, lol. Another fun fact! When I realized what Lucas was doing, I had to stop the clip and take like 5 minutes to regroup, I was that shook.  I was really late recapping this clip on Twitter because I couldn’t deal with the enormity of it all.

Mis padres se pelean como cada mes, mes y medio (“My parents fight every four to six weeks”): Lucas says, “every month, month and a half.” “4 to 6 weeks” was shorter and, I felt, closer to the way English speakers talk about time. But really, Skam España is basically hell to sub because they talk quicker than any other Skam, including the French. If a sentence can be made shorter, but still keep the exact same meaning, we as a team feel blessed, lol.

Just in case it wasn’t immediately obvious, they literally just bought the kebabs and Eva didn’t spend the whole morning fixing them. And, also, that Lucas comes out to Eva over kebabs is an intentional homage to the og. In fact, in Spain, we eat kebabs like sandwiches, we don’t pick at them with forks/tongs, so Lucas and Eva are eating them like Jonas and Isak did.

I thought this would be as good a place as any to link to the Wikipedia article on LGBT rights in Spain. I’ll quote from the article: “Spain has been recognised as one of the most culturally liberal and LGBT-friendly countries in the world and LGBT culture has had a significant role in Spanish literature, music, cinema and other forms of entertainment as well as social issues and politics. Public opinion on homosexuality is noted by pollsters as being overwhelmingly positive, with a recent study conducted by Pew Research Center in 2013 indicating that more than 88 percent of Spanish citizens accept homosexuality, making it the most LGBT-friendly of the 39 countries Pew polled. LGBT visibility has also increased in several layers of society such as the Guardia Civil, army, judicial, and clergy. However, in other areas such as sports, the LGBT community remains marginalised. Spanish film directors such as Pedro Almodóvar have increased awareness regarding LGBT tolerance in Spain among international audiences. In 2007, Madrid hosted the annual Europride celebration and hosted World Pride in 2017. The cities of Madrid and Barcelona also have a reputation as two of the most LGBT-friendly cities in the world. Gran Canaria is also known worldwide as an LGBT tourist destination.” 

CLIP 3: Making his way downtown

Tampoco es para tanto (“it’s not that serious”): Another translation would be, “it’s not as bad as all that.” I think the line I went with was clearer and more specific.

Yo creo que ha mejorado (“I think it looks better”): Eva says, “I think it’s gotten better,” but I reworked it. Lol sometimes I wonder if people read these and wonder why I just do whatever the fuck I like, but I promise I try to stick to what sounds more natural to me in English.

Te está durando mucho (“It’s taking too long to heal”): Cris actually says that the cold sore is lasting too long (presumably lasting too long on Viri’s face, lol).

Okay, so my experience with Spanish guys is that they initiate cunnilingus on their own and without prodding (i.e. will eat girls out), in the hopes that the woman will return the favor. I have surveyed my friends and they have reported similar experiences. Girls have said that guys have never not gone down on them, and guys have reported having no issues doing it. Og Skam actually backs me up, as Chris says that a guy did it to her, once, in Gran Canaria. So, while the girls are pleased for Viri that Alejandro went down on her, they’re not about to give him the King of the School slo-mo treatment Jonas received for doing the same. (I do have to note that the girls were impressed that Jonas not only went down on an older girl, but that he actually got her to come with oral only.) Given what we later learn about Viri and Alejandro’s encounter, I’d bet money on Alejandro hoping Viri would take the hint and suck him off in return, but since she doesn’t mention doing so, I think she just didn’t.

I think Viri did allow Alejandro to go down on her when his cold sore was already visible, and I’m legit appalled, tbh.

I learned of the Callao youth center through Skam España, because I’ve never needed to go. That said, it is a real youth center and they were pleased and touched about being featured on the show. Honestly, if even one teenager in need learned of their services through the show, I’ll consider Skam España a resounding success.

I love that Amira has seemingly gone with Cris to that youth center sometime before the show. Tangent, but I love the way the Amira/Cris friendship (and relationship, if you wanted to read into them that way) has been developed through the season. I remember having discussions early in the season about why Cris would join the losers, when Viri referred to her as “that pretty girl over there” and Cris was surrounded by a group of people when she was first introduced. In my opinion, Amira and Cris are best friends, and before the girl squad, everyone else was just along for the ride. But I’m looking forward to what we could learn about Amira and Cris’ friendship (and relationship) in further seasons.

CLIP 4: 8 Simple Rules for Dating my Spanish Daughter

Dating in Spain! The concept of “a date” exists in Spain, it’s called “una cita.” But we rarely, if ever, use this word. In fact, I don’t think it’s been used at all through the season. What we do is “quedar,” i.e. arrange to meet at a specific place and time. But it’s important to note that you can “quedar” with your friends, a hookup or a boyfriend/girlfriend. Since this arrangement isn’t exclusive to romantic relationships, I’ve translated it as “hanging out.” Again, the word “cita” (date) exists in Spanish, so if it’s ever used, I want to make sure it has the proper impact for the audience. Other dating vocab:

“Salir juntos” (to go out together): If two people “salen juntos,” they’re a couple.

“Salir conmigo” (to go out with me): If you ask someone to “sal conmigo,” you’re asking them to hang out as a couple.

“¿Quieres ser mi novio/novia?” (Do you want to be my boyfriend/girlfriend?): This is how you’d make a relationship official, beyond just arranging to hook up.

Pillado (“hung up on her”): Lit. “caught.”

Cris says “bye!” in English. Jorge then says, “Really?”

Y parecía tonto (“And he seemed dumb”): This is a truncated, common Spanish idiom. The full idiom is, “y parecía tonto cuando lo compramos” (and he seemed dumb when we bought him). It is used when a person who is frequently timid or a wallflower does something assertive or takes charge.

Pero que andar quedando es de novios (“but that to have standing dates is a couple thing”): As I mentioned earlier, we don’t use the word “cita” all that often, and, as Hugo tells it, Cris didn’t use it to turn him down. Here’s what Cris meant: Cris thinks she and Hugo had a good time at Nora’s party, but she doesn’t want to make a thing out of it. She doesn’t want to hang out one-on-one. That includes hanging out together at each other’s houses, like Eva and Jorge sometimes do, or go do something together, like going to the movies or to get something to eat.

A veces Cris se pasa un poco de directa (“sometimes Cris is a bit savage”): I reworked this because “directa” means “straight-forward,” but “se pasa” is slangy. “Se pasa” would mean “to go too far,” so a literal translation would be, “sometimes Cris goes a little too far with the straight-forwardness.”

A mí me parece guay que haya ido con la verdad por delante (“I think it’s cool she was straight up”): Okay, so the literal translation is, “I think it’s cool she was honest upfront.” But…  It’s Jorge. He’s the Jonas expy. And I just could not and didn’t want not to use “straight up,” i.e. Jonas’ catchphrase.

El sábado ¡a las nueve, tío! (“Saturday… at 9pm, dude!”): This is another underrated moment. I don’t know if people remember, but Jorge’s excuse for not attending Nora’s party was that he was playing football at 9pm on a Saturday. Here he actually gets a text to play a game at 9pm on a Saturday, and he’s like, “who the fuck are these people?”

As I explained on Twitter at the time, Jorge mimics calling the cops over Eva being hungry. The joke is that Jorge would consider it an emergency that necessitates police involvement. This is a really common (and corny, natch) joke in Spain. We’re very dramatic, so obviously any situation, no matter how mundane, is on the verge of needing police intervention.

We all know that when Jorge asked Eva what she wanted to eat, her answer was pizza. Right? Just checking we’re all on the same page.

CLIP 5:  Vaginas and languages

Note about the message in Arabic: I was the one who originated the translation, after I asked a Middle Eastern friend if she could translate it for me. She translated the note as saying, “Equality between women and men – Rashid Alfadhili.” I thought it might be a direct quote from a writer or an activist, but if you search for the name online, all the references are to my Twitter. So, who is the mysterious Rashid Alfadhili?

The obgyn is singing Havana D’Primera’s Me dicen Cuba. The actor is indeed Cuban, and the character speaks in a noticeable Cuban accent.

If you have further questions about The Herpes Thing, I reblogged a post by @niteskycs and added my own commentary, including quotes from this scene.

There’s one more thing I want to mention wrt candidiasis/thrush/yeast infection. Candidiasis is an opportunistic infection and so, it’s an infection that takes advantage of an opportunity not normally available, such as a host with a weakened immune system. Because of this, and before antiretroviral drugs, people with AIDS often suffered from candidiasis and could die from it. Thus, it is notable that the obgyn thinks Viri may have candidiasis (which, again, gets ruled out). It makes it really obvious that he suspects Viri’s actual problem might be that she has a weakened immune system.

If you have further questions or commentary about this scene, feel free to hit up my inbox, reblog, reply, etc.

The positions of the girls behind Viri are a reference to og Skam.

CLIP 6: It always comes back to dicks

Cris is playing a game which consists of pulling the tab on a can back and forth as she recites the alphabet, until the tab breaks apart. The letter that she was saying out loud when the tab broke apart is the initial of her crush/loved one/person she’s fated to be with. Which in this case is H!

Alguien que haga que, sabes, te entre aquí una cosilla en el estómago (“someone who makes it so… you know, that makes you feel butterflies in your stomach”): The literal translation is, “someone who, you know, makes you feel a little thing in your stomach,” but Eva is referring to the “butterflies in your stomach” metaphor. The metaphor exists in Spanish as well (that’s what Bely Basarte’s Mariposas is about), but I think it’s been adopted after the English idiom became well-known in Spanish.

Un gilipollas integral (“an unadulterated asshole”): Viri says “integral,” which is a word we’d normally use to refer, like, to whole-grain bread or rice. While I think Viri calling Alejandro a “whole-grain asshole” would’ve been hilarious, I thought “unadulterated” would also be just as funny. As in, Alejandro’s assholishness has not been contaminated with any niceness. He’s 100% pure asshole.

Unos colegas y yo hemos alquilado un local (“Some buddies and I have rented a place”): This is a very Spanish way of putting things, I think. “Un local” is basically any business premises or shop unit (such as, for instance, at a mall). It can be as sparse as four walls and a water outlet, or a fully furnished club, or even factory premises on the outskirts of a city. Alejandro wasn’t very forthcoming with details, so I wasn’t sure what to expect from the “local” when this clip dropped. But, we’ve since come to learn that, in the universe of Skam España, there’s a Kose Club, which can be rented for private parties. And this is the place Alejandro and his buddies rented.

Capullo (“Prick”): “Capullo” is yet another word for penis. Its non-penis meaning is “flower bud” and, when talking about dicks, makes reference to the head of the penis. “Capullo,” in the dick sense, is pejorative.

CLIP 7: Doing recon

I’m assuming that, for this specific party, Alejandro and his buddies hired people who would serve alcohol to minors. Or just had some friends play the part of bartenders unofficially. Because this is some illegal ass shit.

De puta madre / De fruta madre (“That’s fucking great” / “That’s ducking great”): It looks as if Amira has renounced swearing, as well. I seem to recall that Sana Bakkoush would swear, but I can’t think of any example off the top of my head. Anyway, Amira accidentally swears when she compliments Cris’ pumpkin accessory. The girls call her on it, and she says a clean version. I’ve seen it subbed as “fruiting great,” which is the literal translation (“fruta” is fruit), but I looked into the ways Americans censor their speech, and went with “ducking,” myself.

Either way, I was really proud of myself when this clip dropped. There were several instances where I could’ve gone for a swear word while subbing Amira, but I had the feeling the character was intentionally keeping it clean. It felt great to have that feeling confirmed within the show.

Edward Scissorhands is really iconic, but Sweeney Todd came out in 2007. And, you know, it’s Tim Burton, not Benh Zeitlin. Hardly an obscure director. I guess Johnny Depp as Ichabod Crane wasn’t specific enough?

Is one of the second years dressed as Inu Yasha, or is it just me?

Que son súper chungas (“those girls are bad news”): I’d say “chunga” is most closely translated as being “ghetto.” These girls are bad news, girls you don’t want to fuck with, because they will fuck back with you ten times as hard. You know how in 90s sitcoms there are always older girls hanging in the school bathrooms teaching the underclasswomen to smoke? A girl who is “chunga” is that older girl.

Putivuelta (“slut round”): I’m pretty sure the concept doesn’t exist in English and, if it does, I haven’t come across it yet. When you arrive at a club, you and your friends check out the whole place, scoping out hot singles. As far as I’m aware, “putivueltas” are only ever performed by women and queer men, and the targets can be of any gender. I’m sure straight dudes have a name for what is essentially scoping out the place for chicks to hit on, but straight Spanish men, at least, do not call it “putivueltas.”

Uh, what is that awkward Hugo and Amira’s conversation about? Amira lets Hugo know that Cris is scoping out the place for singles, so she’s both letting him know Cris will be back and that Cris has moved on from Hugo onto newer pursuits. And then there’s a medium close up on Amira’s expression, and she looks Over It. Is Amira jealous of Cris because she wants Hugo? Or jealous of Hugo because she wants to be able to pine for Cris openly??????? (By the way, I assume saying “slut round” doesn’t count as swearing, Amira?)

The song in this clip is Brisa Fenoy’s Free. Brisa Fenoy also wrote Lo Malo, which the characters make references to and eventually shows up later in the season. Here’s Free, in English:

Baby, I am free I am free

Baby, I am free I’m ready for me I go out in what I want to go out I’m better without you I like everything

Without additives Without artificial flavoring, without lies Without regrets Without giving everything and lose it afterwards Without baggage to travel lighter

Without terms that put a brake in my progress Without modifying us with so much augmentation Let’s be flesh and bone people With a lot of virtues and few flaws

Let’s get together already Through transformation we have to demolish What we were will last me the day before The future is today, what are you going to be?

Baby, I am free I’m ready for me I go out in what I want to go out I’m better without you I like everything

Without tricks like those that hurt us Without losing those pounds that fool us My body is mine, and if I want I eat what I like, I’m the one in charge

We’re what we do to change what we are No more sexism, together with each other We’re not sex symbols, there’s a bit of everything here Let’s be so authentic that they can’t prevail over us

Respect and freedom We have to demand it Let’s be a unit They won’t be able to create us Respect and freedom We have to demand it Let’s be a unit They won’t be able to shut us up

Baby, I am free I’m ready for me I go out in what I want to go out I’m better without you I like everything about me

Respect and freedom We have to demand it They won’t be able to shut us up

Here and now let’s all shout Baby I am free

CLIP 8: Moments before tragedy strikes

Si nos hubieran cobrado la entrada, se hubieran sacado un pastizal (“if they charged for admission, they’d have made out like bandits”):  The literal translation would be, “If they’d charged us for admission, they’d have made a pasture.” Much like in English, you can say “dough” to refer to money, in Spain you can say “pasta” to do the same. A “pastizal” is a word with its own meaning (“pasture”), but it sounds like it could be large amounts of “pasta.”

Satanasa (“Lady Satan”): What Amira says can be literally translated as “Lady Satan.” I’ve never it before, but I think she’s going for a Halloween version of “Cheese!” 😂

Se le ha ido la pinza a Lara (“Lara lost her mind”): This idiom, which Jorge used all the way back in episode 1 to say something slipped off his mind, can also mean that Lara just lost her shit entirely!

It’s worth noting that the song playing when Lara slaps Eva, is actually playing in Eva’s mind. As you can see if you check the social media for the episode, Post Malone’s Better Now is still playing when Lara is pulled back from Eva. Here are the lyrics for the song playing in Eva’s mind (Jorge Marazu’s Simulacro), in English:

If this was a drill I bought it to the end It’s not going to be cheap to climb back up I have lost the measure And even though I had a taste I forget it’s a two-way street

The star lights went out Their circuit breaker tripped It hasn’t stopped snowing all day And even though they’re hurt My hopes and dreams I forget it’s a two-way street

The whims that get in the way Of instinct and reason, don’t know a goodbye without pain

Let’s not wait until tomorrow I wish you the best Now we’re getting to the end…

Social media: 

This episode had a lot of references to og Skam. I’ve noted the references in the clips where they happened. There were also references to og Skam on social media though. Most notably, the club where Alejandro hosts the Halloween party is called Kose Club, after Kosegruppe. Die Antwoord’s Baby on Fire, which is the song that plays when Iben’s squad fights the girl squad, is playing on the background of a couple ig stories.

It took me a while to notice that the kitty in the background of Cris’ pics switches from being Viri, to the second year girl Cris hooks up with.

Other:

Halloween has only become a thing in Spain in recent times, and mostly as an excuse for young people to host parties or clubs to host Halloween-themed nights. Kids don’t go trick and treating, although their parents may buy them Halloween-themed candy in grocery stores. As such, I’m not too bothered about Alejandro hosting a Halloween party in Saturday.

That said, if he wanted to host the party on Halloween proper, he could’ve done so. The 1st of November is a national holiday, All Saints’ Day. Traditionally, religious people visit family graves on this day, and leave flowers or candles. Since the 1st of November fell on a Thursday, schools were also out on Friday.  

[kindabraveandlittlestupid]

So the midterm elections are almost over save a few races where things are still to close to call. The emotions this morning are a mixed bag, to say the least, and now we get to read the tea leaves to figure out what this means and what will likely happen next. I will try and break this post up into a couple different subjects so it's easier to digest with your eye holes.

Rise of the Matriarchy 

The first and major take away is the fact that woman just took a big bite out of male power structure in this country. And while I advocated in the past of electing the most qualified/best responsible options for office regardless of gender and orientation, most of the competitions this year were superior female candidates to their lesser male candidates and they (women) crushed it. This is good. This is progress. And the sooner we can balance out Congress and the Senate with 49% Men and 51% Women or something close to that, the less likely you will have Conservative Men dictating/controlling women’s issues/rights behind closed doors.

I hope this trend continues into 2020 with another wave of pink and woman stepping up to fill the role of governing and taking away from those men who have been taking advantage of their position for so long. Keep up the good work ladies, I will vote for your best female candidates here in California when they make it onto the ballet.

UPDATE: Woman took over 110 political positions of power across the US.

Reverse Trump Effect

Historically the Republicans dominate the Midterms mostly because of the fact Democrats don’t show up as much as we should. Yesterday, however, the very presence of Trump has energized the Democratic voters in a big way and we showed up in record numbers. Was it a blue tsunami like we hoped? Not really but Democrats are usually on the defense in Midterm elections in regards to Senate Seats and while we lost some there, the big turn out changed Congress which opens some options to slowing the role of the Bigot in Chief. 

Give Trump some credit he got us liberals to the polls and we took the power back from. Thanks, Dumbass! 

Red State Blues

A few strong Progressive Candidates ran in the south such as Beto O'Rourke (Senate), Andrew Gillum (Governor), and Stacey Abrams (Governor). The results weren’t unexpected simply because in 2010 the GOP made a huge effort to gerrymander the hell out of various states and have been working on a long-term strategy of suppressing votes for years. 

In the case of Beto O’Rourke, he was operating in a deeply red state and most Texans would vote for the fire burning down their house because the color of it was red, they proved that by once again voting for the insanely unpopular Ted Cruz. Beto losing wasn't desired but I was kind of expecting it.

Andrew Gillum happened to be running in a state where felons couldn't vote and the courts in the state favor charging Black Men for crimes far more than White Men for the same crimes which despite Andrew Gillum’s loss is a policy that will no longer be there in 4 years. In 2022, Andrew Gillum could/should run again and capitalize on the vote liberated by this racially motivated voter suppression and you know what... he would win.

Stacey Abrams is the last woman standing but she operates from a position of weakness as the tally is against her AND the person assigned to oversee the election is the man she is running against (how fucking insane is that). Just to make it even more insane, there were 70,000 registrations held up by the state which 70% are African American! Want to know by how much Brian Kemp leads? 63,000 votes! Let's say this again the man holding up 70,000 registrations which are mostly black against his black opponent gives him a lead of 63,000 votes to help him get elected into office. Why there isn't rioting in Georgia I don’t know but this is pretty much textbook suppression. I am happy Stacey Abrams is refusing to concede until a Runoff is completed.

Open Investigations

On the bright side with Congress now being in the hands of Democrats new investigations into Trump can begin. In the coming weeks, we will see them looking his taxes and his dealings to line his pocket with money. Can anyone say Mar-a-Lago? This provides Progressives some much-needed wiggle room to dig into the Trumps accounts and FINALLY pull his skeletons from the closet. Don’t hold your breath for impeachment but this will provide lots of ammunition to fucking destroy this 2020 election bid and that's a win for me.

Conservative Courts

Where we might suffer in all this is the Senate remaining in the GOP’s small hands. This will allow them to continue to stack the courts with hyper-conservative judges. It’s a disappointing revelation as a partisan branch/party is basically assigning partisan judges to a branch that is supposed to be NON-PARTISAN. There is no easy or quick way to pluck these Heritage Foundation ticks from the courts and effects of their Judicial Nominees can last for literally decades.

A Scapegoat Named Sessions

The kind of empty win of Jeff Sessions being forced to resign. On one hand, the racist elf with extremist Christian values is out but Trump NEVER disappoints to find an even more conservative candidate to fill the last guy's shoes.

Call this a prediction but I suspect the coming weeks Trump will say the reason why Democrats took Congress is because of the Mueller Investigation was hanging over his head. Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III is to fall on his sword (whether he wants too or not) and take the blame for the Conservatives losing ground and LASTLY, I would expect Trump to try and cut Mueller out considering his investigation is technically under the executive branch. Honestly, I think he will try and do it because his voters have already signaled to him (Trump) they will stick with him after mass shootings, parent/child separation, and telling our various allies to fuck off. Him shutting down an investigation into his collusion would not motivate them to abandon their dear dictator and Trump knows that.

The Wrap Up

We should feel good to some degree. Yeah, we have 1/6th of the power of the three branches of Government but progress is a pendulum and anyone who knows their history understands this. People need to be reminded why Republicans suck so much and this four year period hopefully will remind the voters (oh yeah that's why we don't vote for these people because they’re horrible human beings). We are today better off then we were in two days ago and we now have some oversite. To top it all off, women took some power from those shitty male candidates. We need to keep up the momentum and close this chapter on Donald Trump as another moment of history were America made a mistake and we need to move beyond it. Keep your heads up and keep your passion burning... this fight is not over and dare I say, so long as Trumpublicans exist it may last for a while.

Regards, Michael California

[statetalks]

Is The Media Biased Against Republicans

Opiniontrump And His Voters Are Drawn Together By A Shared Sense Of Defiance

Are Google, Facebook, Twitter Biased against Conservatives?

Americans in general have begun to catch on: 66 percent of Americans believe that the media has a hard time separating fact from opinion and, according to a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of the country believes that the press is biased one way or the other in their reporting.

So when CNN, NBC News, Fox News, or another outlet break a hard news story, there is a good chance that a large swathe of the public wont view it as legitimate news.

And politicians, right and left, are taking advantage of this.

The entire ordeal is part of an ever-growing list of examples in which the media seemed to be biased, whether consciously or not, against Republicans.

Before Donald Trump, there was New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who in 2014 accused the media of dividing us because they asked him about some protesters who had chanted “NYPD is the KKK” and . He also accused the media of McCarthyism when they dug into the personal life of an aide of his, who reportedly had a relationship with a convicted murderer. The mayor also publicly and privately accused Bloomberg News of being biased against him, since it is owned by his predecessor. However, de Blasio is not terribly popular within his own party, so Democrats in New York did not buy what he was selling.

What To Watch For

The NYU report makes a series of recommendations for social media companies and the Biden administration to address the suspicions of anti-right bias, including giving more explanation for content moderation actions, letting users choose between different algorithms and creating a new Digital Regulatory Agency dedicated to social media oversight. The researchers also predict conservatives are unlikely to actually leave major sites like Twitter and Facebook because of their perceived biases. Conservatives like the wide platform those sites offer, researchers said, and appear to relish wielding the bias-claim cudgel, even though its based on distortions and falsehoods.

The Technology 202: New Report Calls Conservative Claims Of Social Media Censorship ‘a Form Of Disinformation’

with Aaron Schaffer

A new report concludes that social networks aren’t systematically biased against conservatives, directly contradicting Republican claims that social media companies are censoring them.;

Recent moves by Twitter and Facebook to suspend former president Donald Trump’s accounts in the wake of the violence at the Capitol are inflaming conservatives’ attacks on Silicon Valley. But New York University researchers today released a report stating claims of anti-conservative bias are a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it.;

The report found there is no trustworthy large-scale data to support these claims, and even anecdotal examples that tech companies are biased against conservatives crumble under close examination. The report’s authors said, for instance, the companies’ suspensions of Trump were reasonable given his repeated violation of their terms of service and if anything, the companies took a hands-off approach for a long time given Trump’s position.

The report also noted several data sets underscore the prominent place conservative influencers enjoy on social media. For instance, CrowdTangle data shows that right-leaning pages dominate the list of sources providing the most engaged-with posts containing links on Facebook. Conservative commentator Dan Bongino, for instance, far out-performed most major news organizations in the run-up to the 2020 election.;

Also Check: Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats

Republicans Are Far More Likely Than Democrats To Say Major Tech Companies Favor The Views Of Liberals Over Conservatives At The Same Time Partisans Differ On Whether Social Media Companies Should Flag Inaccurate Information On Their Platforms

Pew Research Center has been studying the role of technology and technology companies in Americans lives for many years. This study was conducted to understand Americans views about the role of major technology companies in the political landscape. For this analysis, we surveyed 4,708 U.S. adults from June 16 to 22, 2020. Everyone who took part is a member of the Centers American Trends Panel , an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.

Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

Americans have complicated feelings about their relationship with big technology companies. While they have appreciated the impact of technology over recent decades and rely on these companies products to communicate, shop and get news, many have also grown critical of the industry and have expressed concerns about the executives who run them.

Debates about censorship grew earlier this summer following Twitters from President Donald Trump as misleading. This prompted some of the presidents supporters to charge that these platforms are censoring conservative voices.

Top House Republican Opposes Bipartisan Commission To Investigate Capitol Riot

But McCarthy replied by opposing Katkos product, and more than 80% of the other House Republicans did too. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., initially said he was keeping an open mind but then announced that he too was opposed. This makes it highly unlikely that 10 of McConnells GOP colleagues will be willing to add their votes to the Democrats and defeat a filibuster of the bill.

Republicans have argued that two Senate committees are already looking at the events of Jan. 6, as House panels have done as well. The Justice Department is pursuing cases against hundreds of individuals who were involved. Former President Donald Trump and others have said any commission ought to also be tasked to look at street protests and violence that took place in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.

But with all that on the table, several Republicans have alluded to their concern about a new commission dragging on into 2022, the year of the next midterm elections. A lot of our members want to be moving forward, said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 2 Senate Republican toMcConnell. Anything that gets us rehashing to 2020 elections is, I think, a day lost.

Resistance even after 9/11

The Taliban were toppled but bin Laden escaped, and U.S. forces have been engaged there ever since. The troop numbers have declined in recent years, and President Biden has indicated that all combat troops will be out by this years anniversary of the 2001 attacks.

Recommended Reading: What Do Republicans Believe About Taxes

The Actual Reason Why Republicans And Their Media Are Discouraging People From Getting Vaccinated

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Jake Tapper on CNN last Sunday, I dont have a really good reason why this is happening.

But even if he cant think of a reason why Republicans would trash talk vaccination and people would believe them, its definitely there.

Which is why its important to ask a couple of simple questions that all point to the actual reason why Republicans and their media are discouraging people from getting vaccinated:

1. Why did Trump get vaccinated in secret after Joe Biden won the election and his January 6th coup attempt failed?

2. Why are Fox Newspersonalities discouraging people from getting vaccinated while refusing to say if they and the people they work with have been protected by vaccination?

3. Why was one of the biggest applause lines at CPAC: They were hoping the government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated and it isnt happening!

Death is their electoral strategy.

Is there any other possible explanation?

So, whats left?

Censorship Of Conservative Content

Tech companies and social media sites have been accused of censorship by some conservative groups, although there is little or no evidence to support these claims.

At least one conservative theme, that of climate change denialism, is over-represented in the media, and some scientists have argued that media outlets have not done enough to combat false information. In November 2013, Nathan Allen, a PhD chemist and moderator on Reddit‘s science forum published an op-ed that argued that newspaper editors should refrain from publishing articles from people who deny the scientific consensus on climate change.

Shadow banning

Claims of shadow banning of conservative social media accounts were brought to the fore in 2016 when conservative news sites lashed out after a report from an unnamed Facebook employee on May 7 alleged that contractors for the social media giant were told to minimize links to their sites in its “trending news” column. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard investigated and found no evidence of shadow-banning of conservatives.

Don’t Miss: Why Do Republicans Still Back Trump

Despite Cries Of Censorship Conservatives Dominate Social Media

GOP-friendly voices far outweigh liberals in driving conversations on hot topics leading up to the election, a POLITICO analysis shows.

The Twitter app on a mobile phone | Matt Rourke/AP Photo

10/27/2020 01:38 PM EDT

Link Copied

Republicans have turned alleged liberal bias in Silicon Valley into a major closing theme of the election cycle, hauling tech CEOs in for virtual grillings on Capitol Hill while President Donald Trump threatens legal punishment for companies that censor his supporters.

But a POLITICO analysis of millions of social media posts shows that conservatives still rule online.

Right-wing social media influencers, conservative media outlets and other GOP supporters dominate online discussions around two of the elections hottest issues, the Black Lives Matter movement and voter fraud, according to the review of Facebook posts, Instagram feeds, Twitter messages and conversations on two popular message boards. And their lead isnt close.

As racial protests engulfed the nation after George Floyds death, users shared the most-viral right-wing social media content more than 10 times as often as the most popular liberal posts, frequently associating the Black Lives Matter movement with violence and accusing Democrats like Joe Biden of supporting riots.

Trump Continues To Push Election Falsehoods Heres Why That Matters

Trump: Social media discriminates against Republicans

Republican opposition to the commission

Rice was featured in one of the very few congressional commissions ever to receive this level of attention. Most are created and live out their mission with little notice. Indeed, Congress has created nearly 150 commissions of various kinds in just the last 30 years, roughly five a year.

Some have a highly specific purpose, such as a commemoration. Others are more administrative, such as the five-member commission overseeing the disbursement of business loans during the early months of pandemic lockdown in 2020. Others have been wide-ranging and controversial, such as the one created to investigate synthetic opioid trafficking.

In the initial weeks after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, the idea of an independent commission to probe the origins of the attack and the failures that let it happen seemed a no-brainer. It had broad support both in Congress and in public opinion polls. It still enjoys the latter, as about two-thirds of Americans indicate that they think an independent commission is needed. The idea has fared well particularly when described as being 9/11 Commission style.

Also Check: Who Is The Speaker Of The House For Republicans

Its Time To End This Forever War Biden Says Forces To Leave Afghanistan By 9/11

The enormous national anger generated by those attacks was also channeled by the administration toward the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which was conceived to prevent any recurrence of attacks on such a massive scale. Arguments over that legislation consumed Congress through much of 2002 and became the fodder for campaign ads in that years midterms.

The same anger was also directed toward a resolution to use force, if needed, in dealing with security threats from the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. That authorization passed Congress with bipartisan majorities in the fall of 2002, driven by administration claims that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. It became law weeks before the midterm elections.

Once those elections were over, the Republicans in control of both chambers finally agreed to create an independent commission to seek answers about 9/11. Bush signed the legislation on Nov. 27, 2002.

The beginning was hobbled when the first chairman, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and vice chairman, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine, decided not to continue. But a new chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, and vice chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, filled the breach and performed to generally laudatory reviews.

Long memories

The American Mainstream News Media May Be More Biased Than We Think

Barely a day goes by without President Trump firing off an angry tweet referring to the fake news media. But what do we know about actual political bias in the media? Eric Merkley studied 400,000 news stories published over three decades and has found that the tone of economic news is more favorable during Democratic presidencies compared to Republican administrations.

Since even before his election over two years ago, President Donald Trump and his Republican surrogates have made a habit of responding to critical news coverage with allegations that mainstream press reports are fake news. This allegation, regardless of how often it is repeated, has been shown to be fundamentally without merit.

However, there has also been a long history of complaints from conservative elites that journalists are biased against conservatives and the Republican Party in their reporting for mainstream news outlets. There is evidence that most journalists identify with the Democratic Party and as ideologicalliberals. Consequently, these allegations cannot be so easily dismissed.

In new research, I find evidence of considerable bias against Republican presidential administrations in mainstream economic news content.;

Also Check: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Elections To Watch In 2021

In its study of the media landscape in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election cycle, the Pew Research Center found that of the 30 news sources it asked about, only Fox News was trusted by a majority of Republicans. This finding stands in stark contrast with the views of Democrats, who said they trusted a variety of news sources, and it marks a further decline in Republicans trust of other news sources since Pew last conducted a similar survey in 2014.

This is in part because animosity toward the other party is at an all-time high and Republicans increasingly associate the news media with the Democratic Party. That means they are more likely to dismiss a source that isnt Fox News as politically biased. For example, in a among people who said they voted for then-President Trump in 2020, a staggering 92 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that the mainstream media today is just a part of the Democratic Party.

related:Why Attacking Cancel Culture And Woke People Is Becoming The GOPs New Political Strategy Read more. »

Views About Whether Social Media Companies Should Label Posts On Their Platforms As Inaccurate Are Sharply Divided Along Political Lines

Americans are divided over whether social media companies should label posts on their sites as inaccurate or misleading, with most being skeptical that these sites can accurately determine what content should be flagged.

Some 51% of Americans say they strongly or somewhat approve of social media companies labeling posts from elected officials on their platforms as inaccurate or misleading, while a similar share say they at least somewhat disapprove of this.

Democrats and Republicans hold contrasting views about the appropriateness of social media companies flagging inaccurate information on their platforms. Fully 73% of Democrats say they strongly or somewhat approve of social media companies labeling posts on their platforms from elected officials as inaccurate or misleading, versus 25% who disapprove.

These sentiments are nearly reversed for Republicans: 71% say they disapprove of social media companies engaging in this type of labeling, including about four-in-ten who say they strongly disapprove. Just 27% say they approve of this labeling.

Liberal Democrats stand out as being the most supportive of this practice: 85% of this group say they approve of social media companies labeling elected officials posts as inaccurate or misleading, compared with 64% of conservative or moderate Democrats and even smaller shares of moderate or liberal Republicans and conservative Republicans .

Recommended Reading: How Many Registered Republicans In Illinois

The Capitol Siege: The Arrested And Their Stories

It would only be logical for that memory to inform the imagination of any Republican contemplating a similar independent commission to probe what happened on Jan. 6. The commission would likely look at various right-wing groups that were involved, including the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, some members of which have already been charged. The commission might also delve into the social media presence and influence of various white supremacists.

Moreover, just as the 9/11 Commission was expected to interview the current and preceding presidents, so might a new commission pursue testimony from Trump and some of his advisers, both official and otherwise, regarding their roles in the protest that wound up chasing members of Congress from both chambers into safe holding rooms underground.

House Minority Leader McCarthy was asked last week whether he would testify if a commission were created and called on him to discuss his conversations with Trump on Jan. 6.

Sure, McCarthy replied. Next question.

All this may soon be moot. If Senate Democrats are unable to secure 60 votes to overcome an expected filibuster of the House-passed bill, the measure will die and the questions to be asked will fall to existing congressional committees, federal prosecutors and the media. To some degree, all can at least claim to have the same goals and intentions as an independent commission might have.

The difference is the level of acceptance their findings are likely to have with the public.

source https://www.patriotsnet.com/is-the-media-biased-against-republicans/

[patriotsnet]

Is The Media Biased Against Republicans

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/is-the-media-biased-against-republicans/

Is The Media Biased Against Republicans

Opiniontrump And His Voters Are Drawn Together By A Shared Sense Of Defiance

Are Google, Facebook, Twitter Biased against Conservatives?

Americans in general have begun to catch on: 66 percent of Americans believe that the media has a hard time separating fact from opinion and, according to a recent Gallup poll, 62 percent of the country believes that the press is biased one way or the other in their reporting.

So when CNN, NBC News, Fox News, or another outlet break a hard news story, there is a good chance that a large swathe of the public wont view it as legitimate news.

And politicians, right and left, are taking advantage of this.

The entire ordeal is part of an ever-growing list of examples in which the media seemed to be biased, whether consciously or not, against Republicans.

Before Donald Trump, there was New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who in 2014 accused the media of dividing us because they asked him about some protesters who had chanted “NYPD is the KKK” and . He also accused the media of McCarthyism when they dug into the personal life of an aide of his, who reportedly had a relationship with a convicted murderer. The mayor also publicly and privately accused Bloomberg News of being biased against him, since it is owned by his predecessor. However, de Blasio is not terribly popular within his own party, so Democrats in New York did not buy what he was selling.

What To Watch For

The NYU report makes a series of recommendations for social media companies and the Biden administration to address the suspicions of anti-right bias, including giving more explanation for content moderation actions, letting users choose between different algorithms and creating a new Digital Regulatory Agency dedicated to social media oversight. The researchers also predict conservatives are unlikely to actually leave major sites like Twitter and Facebook because of their perceived biases. Conservatives like the wide platform those sites offer, researchers said, and appear to relish wielding the bias-claim cudgel, even though its based on distortions and falsehoods.

The Technology 202: New Report Calls Conservative Claims Of Social Media Censorship ‘a Form Of Disinformation’

with Aaron Schaffer

A new report concludes that social networks aren’t systematically biased against conservatives, directly contradicting Republican claims that social media companies are censoring them.;

Recent moves by Twitter and Facebook to suspend former president Donald Trump’s accounts in the wake of the violence at the Capitol are inflaming conservatives’ attacks on Silicon Valley. But New York University researchers today released a report stating claims of anti-conservative bias are a form of disinformation: a falsehood with no reliable evidence to support it.;

The report found there is no trustworthy large-scale data to support these claims, and even anecdotal examples that tech companies are biased against conservatives crumble under close examination. The report’s authors said, for instance, the companies’ suspensions of Trump were reasonable given his repeated violation of their terms of service and if anything, the companies took a hands-off approach for a long time given Trump’s position.

The report also noted several data sets underscore the prominent place conservative influencers enjoy on social media. For instance, CrowdTangle data shows that right-leaning pages dominate the list of sources providing the most engaged-with posts containing links on Facebook. Conservative commentator Dan Bongino, for instance, far out-performed most major news organizations in the run-up to the 2020 election.;

Also Check: Who Controls The Senate Republicans Or Democrats

Republicans Are Far More Likely Than Democrats To Say Major Tech Companies Favor The Views Of Liberals Over Conservatives At The Same Time Partisans Differ On Whether Social Media Companies Should Flag Inaccurate Information On Their Platforms

Pew Research Center has been studying the role of technology and technology companies in Americans lives for many years. This study was conducted to understand Americans views about the role of major technology companies in the political landscape. For this analysis, we surveyed 4,708 U.S. adults from June 16 to 22, 2020. Everyone who took part is a member of the Centers American Trends Panel , an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATPs methodology.

Here are the questions used for this report, along with responses, and its methodology.

Americans have complicated feelings about their relationship with big technology companies. While they have appreciated the impact of technology over recent decades and rely on these companies products to communicate, shop and get news, many have also grown critical of the industry and have expressed concerns about the executives who run them.

Debates about censorship grew earlier this summer following Twitters from President Donald Trump as misleading. This prompted some of the presidents supporters to charge that these platforms are censoring conservative voices.

Top House Republican Opposes Bipartisan Commission To Investigate Capitol Riot

But McCarthy replied by opposing Katkos product, and more than 80% of the other House Republicans did too. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., initially said he was keeping an open mind but then announced that he too was opposed. This makes it highly unlikely that 10 of McConnells GOP colleagues will be willing to add their votes to the Democrats and defeat a filibuster of the bill.

Republicans have argued that two Senate committees are already looking at the events of Jan. 6, as House panels have done as well. The Justice Department is pursuing cases against hundreds of individuals who were involved. Former President Donald Trump and others have said any commission ought to also be tasked to look at street protests and violence that took place in the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd.

But with all that on the table, several Republicans have alluded to their concern about a new commission dragging on into 2022, the year of the next midterm elections. A lot of our members want to be moving forward, said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 2 Senate Republican toMcConnell. Anything that gets us rehashing to 2020 elections is, I think, a day lost.

Resistance even after 9/11

The Taliban were toppled but bin Laden escaped, and U.S. forces have been engaged there ever since. The troop numbers have declined in recent years, and President Biden has indicated that all combat troops will be out by this years anniversary of the 2001 attacks.

Recommended Reading: What Do Republicans Believe About Taxes

The Actual Reason Why Republicans And Their Media Are Discouraging People From Getting Vaccinated

Dr. Anthony Fauci told Jake Tapper on CNN last Sunday, I dont have a really good reason why this is happening.

But even if he cant think of a reason why Republicans would trash talk vaccination and people would believe them, its definitely there.

Which is why its important to ask a couple of simple questions that all point to the actual reason why Republicans and their media are discouraging people from getting vaccinated:

1. Why did Trump get vaccinated in secret after Joe Biden won the election and his January 6th coup attempt failed?

2. Why are Fox Newspersonalities discouraging people from getting vaccinated while refusing to say if they and the people they work with have been protected by vaccination?

3. Why was one of the biggest applause lines at CPAC: They were hoping the government was hoping that they could sort of sucker 90% of the population into getting vaccinated and it isnt happening!

Death is their electoral strategy.

Is there any other possible explanation?

So, whats left?

Censorship Of Conservative Content

Tech companies and social media sites have been accused of censorship by some conservative groups, although there is little or no evidence to support these claims.

At least one conservative theme, that of climate change denialism, is over-represented in the media, and some scientists have argued that media outlets have not done enough to combat false information. In November 2013, Nathan Allen, a PhD chemist and moderator on Reddit‘s science forum published an op-ed that argued that newspaper editors should refrain from publishing articles from people who deny the scientific consensus on climate change.

Shadow banning

Claims of shadow banning of conservative social media accounts were brought to the fore in 2016 when conservative news sites lashed out after a report from an unnamed Facebook employee on May 7 alleged that contractors for the social media giant were told to minimize links to their sites in its “trending news” column. The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard investigated and found no evidence of shadow-banning of conservatives.

Don’t Miss: Why Do Republicans Still Back Trump

Despite Cries Of Censorship Conservatives Dominate Social Media

GOP-friendly voices far outweigh liberals in driving conversations on hot topics leading up to the election, a POLITICO analysis shows.

The Twitter app on a mobile phone | Matt Rourke/AP Photo

10/27/2020 01:38 PM EDT

Link Copied

Republicans have turned alleged liberal bias in Silicon Valley into a major closing theme of the election cycle, hauling tech CEOs in for virtual grillings on Capitol Hill while President Donald Trump threatens legal punishment for companies that censor his supporters.

But a POLITICO analysis of millions of social media posts shows that conservatives still rule online.

Right-wing social media influencers, conservative media outlets and other GOP supporters dominate online discussions around two of the elections hottest issues, the Black Lives Matter movement and voter fraud, according to the review of Facebook posts, Instagram feeds, Twitter messages and conversations on two popular message boards. And their lead isnt close.

As racial protests engulfed the nation after George Floyds death, users shared the most-viral right-wing social media content more than 10 times as often as the most popular liberal posts, frequently associating the Black Lives Matter movement with violence and accusing Democrats like Joe Biden of supporting riots.

Trump Continues To Push Election Falsehoods Heres Why That Matters

Trump: Social media discriminates against Republicans

Republican opposition to the commission

Rice was featured in one of the very few congressional commissions ever to receive this level of attention. Most are created and live out their mission with little notice. Indeed, Congress has created nearly 150 commissions of various kinds in just the last 30 years, roughly five a year.

Some have a highly specific purpose, such as a commemoration. Others are more administrative, such as the five-member commission overseeing the disbursement of business loans during the early months of pandemic lockdown in 2020. Others have been wide-ranging and controversial, such as the one created to investigate synthetic opioid trafficking.

In the initial weeks after the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol, the idea of an independent commission to probe the origins of the attack and the failures that let it happen seemed a no-brainer. It had broad support both in Congress and in public opinion polls. It still enjoys the latter, as about two-thirds of Americans indicate that they think an independent commission is needed. The idea has fared well particularly when described as being 9/11 Commission style.

Also Check: Who Is The Speaker Of The House For Republicans

Its Time To End This Forever War Biden Says Forces To Leave Afghanistan By 9/11

The enormous national anger generated by those attacks was also channeled by the administration toward the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, which was conceived to prevent any recurrence of attacks on such a massive scale. Arguments over that legislation consumed Congress through much of 2002 and became the fodder for campaign ads in that years midterms.

The same anger was also directed toward a resolution to use force, if needed, in dealing with security threats from the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq. That authorization passed Congress with bipartisan majorities in the fall of 2002, driven by administration claims that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. It became law weeks before the midterm elections.

Once those elections were over, the Republicans in control of both chambers finally agreed to create an independent commission to seek answers about 9/11. Bush signed the legislation on Nov. 27, 2002.

The beginning was hobbled when the first chairman, former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, and vice chairman, former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell of Maine, decided not to continue. But a new chairman, former New Jersey Gov. Thomas Kean, and vice chairman, former Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana, filled the breach and performed to generally laudatory reviews.

Long memories

The American Mainstream News Media May Be More Biased Than We Think

Barely a day goes by without President Trump firing off an angry tweet referring to the fake news media. But what do we know about actual political bias in the media? Eric Merkley studied 400,000 news stories published over three decades and has found that the tone of economic news is more favorable during Democratic presidencies compared to Republican administrations.

Since even before his election over two years ago, President Donald Trump and his Republican surrogates have made a habit of responding to critical news coverage with allegations that mainstream press reports are fake news. This allegation, regardless of how often it is repeated, has been shown to be fundamentally without merit.

However, there has also been a long history of complaints from conservative elites that journalists are biased against conservatives and the Republican Party in their reporting for mainstream news outlets. There is evidence that most journalists identify with the Democratic Party and as ideologicalliberals. Consequently, these allegations cannot be so easily dismissed.

In new research, I find evidence of considerable bias against Republican presidential administrations in mainstream economic news content.;

Also Check: How Many States Are Controlled By Republicans

Elections To Watch In 2021

In its study of the media landscape in the lead-up to the 2020 presidential election cycle, the Pew Research Center found that of the 30 news sources it asked about, only Fox News was trusted by a majority of Republicans. This finding stands in stark contrast with the views of Democrats, who said they trusted a variety of news sources, and it marks a further decline in Republicans trust of other news sources since Pew last conducted a similar survey in 2014.

This is in part because animosity toward the other party is at an all-time high and Republicans increasingly associate the news media with the Democratic Party. That means they are more likely to dismiss a source that isnt Fox News as politically biased. For example, in a among people who said they voted for then-President Trump in 2020, a staggering 92 percent strongly or somewhat agreed that the mainstream media today is just a part of the Democratic Party.

related:Why Attacking Cancel Culture And Woke People Is Becoming The GOPs New Political Strategy Read more. »

Views About Whether Social Media Companies Should Label Posts On Their Platforms As Inaccurate Are Sharply Divided Along Political Lines

Americans are divided over whether social media companies should label posts on their sites as inaccurate or misleading, with most being skeptical that these sites can accurately determine what content should be flagged.

Some 51% of Americans say they strongly or somewhat approve of social media companies labeling posts from elected officials on their platforms as inaccurate or misleading, while a similar share say they at least somewhat disapprove of this.

Democrats and Republicans hold contrasting views about the appropriateness of social media companies flagging inaccurate information on their platforms. Fully 73% of Democrats say they strongly or somewhat approve of social media companies labeling posts on their platforms from elected officials as inaccurate or misleading, versus 25% who disapprove.

These sentiments are nearly reversed for Republicans: 71% say they disapprove of social media companies engaging in this type of labeling, including about four-in-ten who say they strongly disapprove. Just 27% say they approve of this labeling.

Liberal Democrats stand out as being the most supportive of this practice: 85% of this group say they approve of social media companies labeling elected officials posts as inaccurate or misleading, compared with 64% of conservative or moderate Democrats and even smaller shares of moderate or liberal Republicans and conservative Republicans .

Recommended Reading: How Many Registered Republicans In Illinois

The Capitol Siege: The Arrested And Their Stories

It would only be logical for that memory to inform the imagination of any Republican contemplating a similar independent commission to probe what happened on Jan. 6. The commission would likely look at various right-wing groups that were involved, including the Oath Keepers and the Proud Boys, some members of which have already been charged. The commission might also delve into the social media presence and influence of various white supremacists.

Moreover, just as the 9/11 Commission was expected to interview the current and preceding presidents, so might a new commission pursue testimony from Trump and some of his advisers, both official and otherwise, regarding their roles in the protest that wound up chasing members of Congress from both chambers into safe holding rooms underground.

House Minority Leader McCarthy was asked last week whether he would testify if a commission were created and called on him to discuss his conversations with Trump on Jan. 6.

Sure, McCarthy replied. Next question.

All this may soon be moot. If Senate Democrats are unable to secure 60 votes to overcome an expected filibuster of the House-passed bill, the measure will die and the questions to be asked will fall to existing congressional committees, federal prosecutors and the media. To some degree, all can at least claim to have the same goals and intentions as an independent commission might have.

The difference is the level of acceptance their findings are likely to have with the public.

[chicagocityfclanspromoblog]

Ellis Watts III→ Aldis Hodge → Jackal

→ Basic Information

Age: 99

Gender: Male

Sexuality: Straight

Born or Made: Born

Birthday: December 25th

Zodiac Sign: Capricorn

Religion: Christian

→ His Personality

Ellis Watts is a workaholic. He has spent the entire duration as head of the Jackals looking for ways to better the clan and push them into more prominent positions within the city. This includes heavily encouraging the jackals in his clan to pursue a degree and better themselves intellectually. He also serves the citizens of Chicago as the City Planner. He has been making significant efforts to improve the quality of life for both supernaturals and humans. He is very dedicated to his work and responsibilities and does not falter in his duties. He is disciplined, often working nights and weekends until a project is seen through to the end.

However when Ellis relaxes, he does so in style. He loves expensive clothes and timepieces, nice cars, and excessive hobbies. Since he could get his hands on them, he’s loved anything with a motor: cars, motorcycles, and speed boats. Only recently has he begun to tackle the skies. It was a 95th birthday present to himself, and he’s almost put enough hours in to finally obtain his license to fly. He also enjoys spirits, and has begun making his own wine. This harkens back to his youth filled with mild over indulgence and a desire to escape.

→ His Personal Facts

Occupation: Head of Clan Jackal and City Planner

Scars: None

Tattoos: None

Two Likes: High end watches and Fast vehicles

Two Dislikes: Idle hands and People who ride their brakes

Two Fears: Failing at leading the Jackals and Heights

Two Hobbies: Boat Racing and Wine Making

Three Positive Traits: Responsible, Disciplined, Ambitious

Three Negative Traits: Work-Obsessed, Superficial, Stubborn

→ His Connections

Parent Names:

Ellis Watts II (Father): Ellis did not have a very strong relationship with his father, contrary to everyone in their pack. They were not very affectionate towards one another and often got into spats. Though it appeared that Ellis Watts II was handing his son the keys out of respect, in reality he left out of spite. They didn’;t have any other contact with one another for the rest of his life.

Lucretia Watts (Mother): Lucretia was old, much older than Ellis’s father, when they mated and died while Ellis was 30. Ellis was close to his mother, and she instilled many of the mantras he repeats and follows to this day.

Sibling Names:

None

Children Names:

None.

Romantic Connections:

Mary-Alice Lewis (Ex Girlfriend): He met Mary Alice when he was away for school. Too many things were trying to work against them, and when he asked her to come back home with him, she said no. He still thinks about her often and has thought about trying to see if she was still with her clan.

Miriam Vance (Ex Girlfriend): They dated in the 1970s for a few years. He was just getting in the meat of his political career and she wanted lots of children immediately. They parted ways and last he knew she moved to San Francisco.

Platonic Connections:

Sarah Harris (Best Friend): Sarah has been one of his longest friends and is often the person to call him out. He is the Godfather to both of their daughters and spends most holidays with their family.

Zack Harris (Best Friend): Zack is his most trusted confidante. They throw ideas around, playing with possibilities, before eventually bringing it to Sarah who helps make the idea possible.

Shannon Harris (Goddaughter): He has known Shannon since she was born. She’s a mini-Sarah through and through and he has recently begun training her to begin as a liaison to the pack. With the new influx of supernaturals that may come due to the University, Ellis wants to be ready.

Zelda Harris (Goddaughter): He has known Zelda since she was born. She was always a very independent child, taking the harder and often more daring road. Despite Sarah’s surprise, he saw Zelda forming her own path long before she finally told her mother she wasn’t going to school. He has her placed in the water department.

Odell Rella (Friend): Ellis brought Odell on as 3rd about 9 years ago, after he returned home from going to college and travelling the world. It’s a perspective that Jackals don’t often have and he values his input because of that. He’s still an idiot, but he does a good job as 3rd.

Seth Allen (Curious about): Seth is somewhat of an enigma to Ellis, Zack and Sarah. He is wild and difficult, but the strangest thing is that he doesn’t really act like a jackal, or at least not like anyone in Chicago. He loves being shifted and running in his shifted form. Seth also seems somewhat uncomfortable with the family dynamics that most of the clan has. Ellis has been mulling over their new addition a lot, and has even gone on a run with him in shifted form to see if it’d shed any more light.

Vee Armstrong (Employee): Vee has shown her work ethic since she was in college and Ellis took notice. When Sirius proposed getting a Human Shifter elected with the jackal’s help; Ellis knew she’d be the best person to get them there. So far she’s impressed him, and the early polls indicate Fischer will win.

Leon King (Friendly): Ellis knows of Leon through his work with the kids. He increased general activity and helped spearhead a childhood activity project that got kids moving.

Clara Fields (Fellow Council Member): Ellis doesn’t often talk to Clara, actually avoids it when he can, but they’ve known each other for a long time and he respects her work ethic.

Isaac Baker (Friend): Ellis has liked having Isaac on the council. He’s smart and isn’t weighed down by a century of baggage like the rest of them. They occasionally go to sports games together.

Chris Bialar (Work Associate): Chris came to him a year or two ago to suggest creating a University for the supernatural community. Clan Cat was experienced with the education side of things, while Clan Jackal could encourage the permit and general bureaucratic business along. Before their business venture Ellis thought he was an arrogant asshole, now he’s an arrogant asshole with a plan to get more Jackals to the city.

Nick Hamelin (Fellow Council Member): He and Nick are on good terms. The rats don’t invade any areas they shouldn’t and in return they don’t try to keep too much from them.

Percy McCormick III (Fellow Council Member): Ellis is fairly neutral about Percy. They’ve never really hit off, unlike him and the Fields, and it’s not something he’s interested in trying to start.

Greer Finley (Work Associate): Greer is the 2nd of the Cats and is spearheading much of the project on the Cat’s end. He tends to work with her on projects to avoid putting her and Sarah in the same room.

Amaria Crais (Work Associate): Amaria is the main liaison between the Cats and Jackals for the University project. He finds her much easier to deal with than Greer.

Asa Fields (Old Friend): He hasn’t spoken to Asa since he has been back, but the two would occasionally meet at parties around the city. He’s interested in seeing how he’s changed over the years.

Sirius Cobic (Business Partner): Sirius proposed the idea of getting a supernatural to the top of the Chicago government about a year and a half ago. They need someone with real power to rule and a human shifter would be the only one who could make it. Together they developed a plan, and are currently seeing it play out.

Hostile Connections:

Russell Jordan (Concerned about): Russell quickly shut down many lines of connections that had existed between the hyenas and jackals since they’d arrived. He claimed it was to unify the clan under new leadership, but they haven’t opened back up.

Alan Thomas (Annoyance): He’s never seen anyone argue so much over building codes that have been public knowledge for years. Thomas takes any slow down as a personal offence and doesn’t care to restrain himself from throwing a fit.

Pets:

None

→ History

Ellis was born in Chicago to Ellis Watts II and Lucretia Watts. Unusually for jackals the pair married at quite old ages and Ellis III was the only child they ever had. Lucretia was showing signs of slowing down when Ellis was a young boy, so it was only a matter of time when she passed away. He was away for many of her last years, and when he returned from school she refused to shift back into her human form. Ellis spent much of his time shifted the last year of her life so they could communicate easier. When she finally died, he didn’t change for years. It was at this time of no shifting that Ellis discovered his love for fast machines; motorcycles, cars, boats, anything he could feel the exhilaration of. He also garnered some criticism at this time, specifically from his father who thought he was being frivolous and wasteful. This was the beginning of what would become decades of arguments between the two men.

They fought about him not using his degree or getting a useful job, about Elli II being inflexible and running members out of Chicago. This was all hidden from the packs eyes as their leader having the least happy family of all might cause an uproar in such a family oriented clan. The only members who were aware were Sarah and Zack Harris, his father’s seconds. Finally in 1941, after a particularly brutal argument Ellis II quit, told his son that he could burn the pack down if he wanted, but that he wouldn’t be around to watch. He packed up his things and left the clan to Ellis to rule, with the obvious assumption he’d fail. Ellis, like he did in many instances rose to the occasion. He hunkered down and learned everything: each pack family, who needed assistance, what needed to be done, where there were spots they could expand. It was Ellis who made the switch into the Government and slowly began securing good jobs with good pay for his people. He finally joined office himself once he was legally able to and has been City Manager on and off for many years.

After he switched into being a leader, he’s had a difficult time turning it off. It’s ruined any relationship he’s had, caused tension headaches and teeth grinding, and he rarely if ever takes a day off. He still maintains many of his hobbies like boat racing, wine making, and now piloting; but work and his clan is always in the back of his mind.

→ The Present

Ellis would like to find a wife and start a family. Sarah says it was his dysfunctional family life that’s scared him off. Which is partially true, but he’s worried that he’ll start slipping if he relaxes too much. He’s actually considered asking Sarah or Shannon to set him up, but he’s not sure that he is that desperate yet.

Ellis is also creating a University with the Cats. He, Sarah, and Zack have been in talks for about a year or so developing the idea, but they are going to break ground soon. He’s excited to have a new school for his Jackals to go to, as well as a new draw for the supernatural community. Another venture he’s taking on, though in a much more removed position, is the election of human shifter, Robert J. Fischer. It was an idea concocted with the human shifters to get a member of the supernatural community in the highest seat of power. Though the council previously ruled no species could be in the mayor’s office due to an unequal balance of power, Ellis knows they don’t understand the nature of modern politics.

→ Available Gif Hunts (we do not own these)

Aldis Hodge  [1][2][3][4]