#they’ve even taken previously used accounts

[forzov3rwatch]

so are we gonna do anything about the fact that a lot of accounts seem to have been recently hijacked by bots that are making fake job postings or is staff too busy harassing poc and trans women

[msclaritea]

"Rachel Chandler, a professional photographer and modeling agent, was reportedly involved in the casting process for Balenciaga. Chandler is being scrutinized online for her alleged links to Jeffrey Epstein.

The speculation comes amid the scandal surrounding Balenciaga's recent controversial ad. The luxury fashion house landed in hot water for its gift collection campaign that featured children posing with plush bear purses wearing outfits based on themes of b*ndage.

The company also faced backlash over its Spring 2023 campaign ad that consisted of a photo featuring printouts of a 2008 Supreme Court ruling on child p*rnography.

Amid the ongoing controversy, British influencer Oli London has claimed that the brand deliberately designed the campaign and is "deeply involved in child abuse and exploitation." London has been quite vocal in condemning Balenciaga's campaign.London has also asked their followers to research about Balenciaga's association with Rachel Chandler. They further opened up about a theory on the latter's alleged connection to Epstein while speaking to GBN Live:

“In 2016, one of the people who recruited all of the models for Balenciaga’s runway show was a woman called Rachel Chandler who has been on Jeffrey Epstein’s island. She has even posted the picture on Instagram of CCTV footage back in 2013, bragging about being on an island.”

They further added:

“If you look at her modeling agency every single one of the models looks like a trafficking victim. You can see they’ve got very dark circles under the eye and people need to research that.”

While Chandler is the co-founder of the Midland modeling agency, which lists Balenciaga as one of its clients, there is no official account of the former's connection to Epstein.

Chandler previously went viral over an old photo with former US president Bill Clinton. Several conspiracy theorists claimed the photo was allegedly taken on Epstein's private plane while on their way to the latter's infamous island.

Sue Knows Best

@sues86453

Who remembers Rachel Chandler? Think #Epstein Island…..

Coincidence that she also recruited models for #Balenciaga?

I don’t believe in coincidence. #grooming

However, no official confirmation about the photograph's actual location has been made available to the public.

Rachel Chandler's modeling agency represents renowned clients

Rachel Chandler is a professional photographer and modeling agent from Los Angeles. She reportedly moved to New York to study History of Art at Gallatin School and eventually started interning for arts organizations and photographers, including Patrick Demarchelier.

According to her official bio, Chandler provides an "intimate portrayal of the social and creative scene in which she works, lives and operates in" through her work. She reportedly began serving as a photographer for Purple Diary after meeting editor Olivier Zahm through mutual friends.

She has also been a contributing photographer for Industrie online and Vogue. Chandler also founded the New York-based Midland Agency with Walter Pearce in September 2016.

The modeling agency focuses on casting and management and represents a large group of models. Some of their clients include brands like Gucci, Marni, Fenty, Balenciaga, Miu Miu, Louis Vuitton, Saint Laurent, Zara, Gap, Comme Des Garcons, Telfar, and Jason Wu.

Twitter shares theories about Rachel Chandler's alleged Epstein connection

Netizens are sharing conspiracy theories about Rachel Chandler's Epstein link amid the Balenciaga scandal (Image via Twitter/Savage Daughter)

Balenciaga continues to face outrage on social media over its latest controversial ad campaign featuring children. Photographer Rachel Chandler's association with the brand and alleged connection to Jeffrey Epstein has also gone viral online.

In an old interview with Vice's i-D Magazine, Chandler claimed that she helped curate the lineup for Balenciaga Creative Director Demna Gvsalia's fall/winter 2016 Balenciaga show.

“The casting director was a friend of a friend and he needed help," she said at the time. "I suggested a few people for them and they ended up taking all of my suggestions! So I thought, ‘Ok, I must be good at this.’”

Chandler was later identified in a photo where she was seen posing with Bill Clinton inside an airplane.

According to fact-checking site Snopes, the picture first surfaced online in 2006. It was originally shared with a caption that suggested Clinton was posing with a 19-year-old college student inside billionaire venture capitalist Ron Burkle's private plane.

Several years later, conspiracy theorists claimed that Clinton and Chandler's photo was from Epstein's "Lolita Express" private plane. As the theory has resurfaced online amid Balenciaga's ad campaign controversy, several social media users have taken to Twitter to share their theories about Chandler.

@OliLondonTV

You want to see how deep and dark Balenciaga’s abuse of kids goes?

She is a model agent, provides a lot of models for brand. All models in her agency look like Trafficking Victims. She was on Epstein Island she even posted CCTV pic from Island

If they think Balenciaga is bad:

Wait until they hear about Rachel Chandler, Les Wexner and the modeling industry's deep ties to Epstein Island.

"I had a feeling there would be a Rachel Chandler-Balenciaga connection and there it is!🏻The models at Balenciaga and Midland, a “modeling & casting agency” founded by Chandler, look abused and like real trafficking victims!"

Rachel Chandler and Balenciaga connected - wow!!

Great find - thanks @Shorty56167141 twitter.com/i/web/status/1…

The photography agency behind the Valenciaga shoot is run by Rachel Chandler a Jeffrey Epstein assistant. You've seen her photo taken on Epstein's Lolita Express with Bill Clinton. twitter.com/PowerOurPeople…

Balenciaga, Rachel Chandler… On the flight logs for Epstein Island. Did everyone who went to Epstein Island participate in Child Trafficking? I would assume not and certainly hope not. It is grounds for reasonable suspicion. What I can say, is the model woman, probably in on it.

While theories continue to pour in online, it is to be noted that Rachel Chandler has never been involved in any legal proceedings related to Epstein, who was convicted of child trafficking. Reports suggest that Chandler has also never been charged with any crime herself.

Although Clinton reportedly flew in Epstein's private plane in the past, his spokesperson has previously denied that his photo with Rachel Chandler was taken inside Lolita Express. The latter has also never publicly confirmed or denied rumors about the photograph."

We've talked about Rachel Chandler before, haven't we @gatorfisch

[nocomnment]

https://www.tumblr.com/nocomnment/764238752580337664/attention

esta-0 (previously sporadicpizzapeanut) is a documented scammer profiting off of the genocide. their words “fundraiser is vetted and legit” are a complete lie, and they don’t give any proof or even say who vetted them anyway.

https://www.tumblr.com/kyra45/762268864544407552/thoughts-on-esta-0hetaresta-odhiambo

the paypal account they currently link to is under the name JACKLINE JACKSON, but here is an archived previous version of their post where the paypal account is under the name Caroline Mwise: https://archive.ph/RtnYl

here is another version where the name linked is Esta Odhiambo: https://archive.ph/ZDEtZ

this Esta Odhiambo account has also been used by multiple other tumblr scammers, for example deafeningpaintercat, a-mother-of-gaza, and family-of-gaza

https://www.tumblr.com/kyra45/763880611031187456/a-mother-of-gaza-is-also-another-scam-account

https://www.tumblr.com/kyra45/763625009340153856/the-esta-odhiambo-paypal-account-has-been-used-by

would you mind deleting their scam from your blog, or clearly labeling it as a scam so it doesn't spread to others? in the future, please remember you can use the tumblr search box to search the username/paypal account name/text used by people asking for money to check if they’ve been proven to be a scammer

‼️‼️‼️‼️

i apologise for being so uneducated about this scam. i have taken down the two reblogs.

‼️‼️‼️‼️

[newwaveaccounting]

Why You Should Get a Second Opinion on Your Tax Return

Filing taxes can be a stressful and complicated process. Many taxpayers, especially those with complex financial situations, often wonder if they’ve maximized their deductions or if they’re at risk of an audit due to mistakes. One way to ease those worries is by seeking a second opinion on your tax return.

What Is a Tax Return Second Opinion?

A tax return second opinion involves having a tax professional or CPA (Certified Public Accountant) review your filed or prepared tax return. This independent review ensures that your tax return is accurate, complete, and takes full advantage of all deductions and credits available. It can be especially helpful for those who handle their own taxes or rely on basic software for filing.

Benefits of Getting a Second Opinion on Your Tax Return

1. Accuracy and Compliance

Tax laws change frequently, and it’s easy to overlook new updates or nuances that apply to your specific situation. A second opinion can identify errors or inconsistencies, reducing the risk of filing an incorrect return. Even small mistakes, such as inputting the wrong numbers or missing a required form, could trigger audits or penalties.

2. Maximizing Deductions and Credits

If you’ve ever felt unsure whether you’ve taken full advantage of tax deductions and credits, a second opinion can provide peace of mind. Tax professionals often know about deductions or exemptions that might not be obvious to the average filer. Common areas of missed deductions include charitable donations, home office expenses, or medical costs.

3. Audit Prevention

Mistakes in your tax return, even unintentional ones, could lead to an IRS audit. While most audits are relatively rare, the anxiety of potentially being selected for one is real. A second opinion helps ensure everything is in order and reduces the chances of audit triggers.

4. A Fresh Perspective

If you’ve been using the same tax professional or preparing your taxes the same way for years, you may benefit from a fresh set of eyes. Another tax professional might approach your return differently and catch something that was previously missed. This can be especially helpful if you’ve had major life changes, like starting a business, buying a home, or experiencing significant changes in income.

When Should You Get a Second Opinion?

While it’s always a good idea to be confident in your tax return, certain situations make getting a second opinion particularly useful:

Major Life Changes: Marriage, divorce, new children, retirement, or moving to a new state can all impact your tax liability.

Business Owners and Self-Employed Individuals: If you run your own business or freelance, your taxes can be more complex, making it easier to overlook deductions or report income inaccurately.

Investors and Property Owners: Taxes on investment income or real estate transactions can be intricate and subject to strict reporting guidelines.

High Net Worth Individuals: With more assets and income streams, there are more opportunities for tax-saving strategies, but also more room for error.

How to Get a Second Opinion

Find a Qualified Tax Professional Ensure that the person providing the second opinion is a licensed tax preparer, CPA, or tax attorney. Look for someone with specific expertise related to your tax situation.

Provide Complete Information Share your tax documents, including W-2s, 1099s, receipts, and any other relevant paperwork. The tax professional will need all of the same information you used to file the original return.

Ask the Right Questions When getting a second opinion, ask if any errors were found, if any additional deductions could have been claimed, and if the return might trigger any red flags with the IRS.

Decide on Refiling If the second opinion reveals significant mistakes, you might need to file an amended return. In cases where you’re owed more money, it could be worth it to refile and claim additional deductions or credits.

Common Concerns About Getting a Second Opinion

Will I Be Penalized for Amending My Return? Generally, as long as you amend your return within the appropriate timeframe and pay any additional tax owed, you won’t be penalized.

What if I Don’t Agree With the Second Opinion? It’s possible that two tax professionals might have slightly different interpretations of how to handle certain deductions. Ultimately, you have the final say on what to include or exclude, but it’s important to make decisions based on sound advice and accurate information.

[middleeastbrillmindz]

Choosing the Best Mobile App Development Company in Riyadh: Factors to Consider

Mobile apps are now an essential component of daily life in the digital age. Mobile apps have revolutionized the way we work and live, transforming everything from placing food orders to calling a cab, managing finances to keeping in touch with friends and family. There are many mobile app development companies on the market due to the rising demand for mobile apps.

To ensure a successful and easy app development process, give thorough consideration of a variety of factors while choosing the best mobile app development company in Riyadh.

Experience and Expertise:

Experience and industry knowledge are important considerations when choosing a mobile app development company. Choose a company that has a track record of producing profitable mobile applications for many platforms and sectors. To learn more about the types of apps they have previously created, look through their case studies and portfolio. A company with a broad range of clients and a staff of seasoned app developers can offer you insightful advice based on their prior experiences, which might be essential for the success of your mobile app.

Technology Stack and Platforms

The technology stack and platforms a mobile app development company uses are key factors in determining how well and how scaleable your app will perform. Make certain that the company develops mobile apps using the most recent and well-liked platforms and technologies, such as iOS, Android, React Native, Flutter, etc. Also, they should be knowledgeable in other crucial technologies, including UI/UX design, backend development, database administration, and server-side technologies. Your app will be produced using the finest practices and standards if you work with a company that stays current with the newest trends and technology in mobile app development.

Portfolio and Track Record

To learn more about the mobile app development company’s experience and skills, look into their track record and portfolio. Look at the kinds of apps they’ve created, the markets they served, and the degree of difficulty of the projects they’ve taken on. Ask if they have any relevant experience in developing apps for businesses or industries like yours. A company’s capacity to manage many project types and produce superior results is demonstrated by its wide portfolio and proven track record.

Communication and Collaboration

Any mobile app development project must have effective communication and teamwork to succeed. Choose a mobile app development company that keeps lines of communication open and transparent at all times. They should respond quickly to your questions and give you frequent information on how your app is doing. Also, a company that promotes group conversations and includes you in the decision-making process may guarantee that your app fits your expectations and needs.

Pricing and Budget

When choosing a mobile app development company, the cost is a key factor. Even though it may be tempting to choose the cheapest alternative, keep in mind that quality costs money. Avoid companies that offer pricing that is much cheaper than the industry standard since they might cut corners on the quality of the app. For your app development project, seek a provider that offers a transparent pricing structure and a fair and reasonable estimate. Instead of focusing only on the price, take into account the skills and value they provide.

Client Reviews and Testimonials

A mobile app development company’s reputation and dependability can be evaluated using client evaluations and reviews. On their website, on social media, and on other review websites, search for customer reviews. To learn more about their level of customer happiness and the quality of their services, read through the reviews left by past customers. A company’s dedication to providing outstanding results and customer satisfaction is indicated through good evaluations and testimonials.

Support and Maintenance

In order to ensure a mobile app’s flawless functioning, continuous support and maintenance are also necessary in addition to the app’s construction. Select a mobile app development company that offers support and maintenance services after development is complete. In order to keep your app current with the newest features and technologies, they should be prepared to solve any problems or issues that might surface after the app is released as well as offer frequent updates.

Importance of SEO in Mobile App Development

When choosing a mobile app development company, SEO (search engine optimization) is yet another important issue to take into account in addition to the above-mentioned aspects. The goal of SEO for mobile apps is to make the app more visible in search engine results and make it easier for users to find it naturally. A mobile app that has been SEO-optimized may appear higher in app store search results, increasing visibility and encouraging downloads.

Benefits of SEO in Mobile App Development

Throughout the process of developing a mobile app, investing in SEO can have various advantages. The app’s visibility in app store search results can be improved, which could increase organic downloads. In addition, it can increase the app’s discoverability, making it easier for consumers to find it amid the millions of other apps offered in app stores. Thirdly, SEO can aid in directing specific traffic to the app, boosting the likelihood that the proper audience will download it. Last but not least, improving the app’s SEO can help ensure its long-term success by helping to establish a solid basis for the app’s internet presence.

Conclusion:

The best mobile app development company in Riyadh must be selected after carefully considering a number of aspects. You may make an informed choice by analyzing their knowledge, portfolio, communication, pricing, customer reviews, and support services. The exposure, discoverability, and long-term success of the mobile app can also be improved by including SEO methods into the development process.

Brillmindz is a top mobile app development company in Saudi known for its exceptional services and expertise in creating cutting-edge mobile applications. With a skilled team of developers, designers, and testers, Brillmindz is known for delivering high-quality and innovative mobile apps for various industries. They use the latest technologies and best practices to develop user-friendly and engaging apps that cater to the specific requirements of clients in Riyadh and beyond. Their dedication to customer satisfaction, timely delivery, and competitive pricing make Brillmindz the preferred choice for mobile app development in Riyadh.

For more queries email at info@brillmindz.com

[catflowerqueen]

Okay, so, it looks like Moon’s mental health is actually going to be even worse than I feared by the end of this, because it turns out that, as of today’s retcon, he doesn’t even have Earth to act as a buffer in the daycare—assuming he is even able/willing to open it at all until this situation gets under control. Which I’m guessing he will probably have to, unless KC assumes control for the duration, since it seems like Moon has pretty much given up.

As to why I say this is a retcon situation… well, it seems like they’ve decided to rewind things a bit and make it so that the “unknown visitor” Moon and the computer were discussing at the end of the episode where Eclipse talked to Moon was actually Solar Flare, and not Earth.

Yes, that episode ended with the computer talking about an animatronic with a more feminine form, but it also ended with Moon going to the balcony and declaring he was going to greet the “new friend.” But then in that actual episode with Earth, Moon was back at the computer and they were discussing who it could be at the door before Moon went out, jumped down, and saw Monty. Compare to today’s episode, which not only claims to be taking place two days previously, show time (and ignoring the pre-recorded gaming content), but also started with Moon walking to open the door. And it still makes perfect sense for it to be Solar Flare, rather than Earth, to show up after that conversation, since we already know Solar Flare was supposed to be in the Pizzaplex spying on Monty. And another hint of this being a retcon situation is that when Lunar and Monty were discussing why Lunar wanted to move out, Lunar cited Eclipse being in Moon’s computer as one of the reasons, and Monty didn’t make any comments about Moon having already told him that or anything—which he would have already known from the Earth episode if that was still considered canon, since he and Moon briefly discussed it.

While this would cause a few issues with the Foxy episode, all they would really need to do was claim that the parts where Moon directly mentioned that he and Monty met her, and some of her personality traits—they could just leave it as him saying that he and Sun had found out she existed in the first place, and that was another stressor for Sun’s situation. Roxanne’s episode can stay pretty much unchanged, since the “new people” Moon mentioned to her could range from Lunar (who she claims not to have known about, even though in other episodes she apparently was aware of them) to Solar Flare to the still-yet-to-arrive Earth.

As for the timing differences… Moon in this episode left things at saying he wanted to visit beta 10, while in the “breakup” episode Sun claimed to be at alpha 3. He also said that he was pretty much going down a list of bunkers and hideouts until he found Eclipse. This could, in theory—and in all likelihood—have taken multiple days, since Sun doesn’t know how to teleport. So if he got the list from beta 10, Moon could have used the buoy to go there as well and gotten his own list, and then spent the intervening time looking for Lunar (and being informed of their moving out by Monty) and then going on that outing with Foxy and talking to Roxanne before deciding to astral project to alpha 3 to talk with Sun.

Solar, in the meantime, could have been plotting and continuing his spying, and we don’t know exactly how long it would have taken Eclipse to hack back into Moon’s computers after everything went down the last time he was there, so that could have accounted for why he was “gone yesterday.” And it also makes more sense why he would have been able to track Moon/Kill Code, since while Moon wasn’t physically at alpha 3 he very well could have been physically at beta 10.

Of course, I could be completely wrong about this being a retcon situation… but if I am, then that just makes the timeline even more confusing than it already is.

As for other thoughts on the actual episode’s contents… I am just sitting here laughing that Eclipse is now 3 for 3 on his creations betraying him, and I totally saw it coming. Him actually assuming direct control of Solar Flare like that was a bit unexpected, but not all that surprising since it’s basically a stronger and more insidious version of how he took control of Lunar that one time, and implemented failed failsafes into Bloodmoon. Though I guess that does mean he is learning from his mistakes, just not in the way we would all like.

What makes me laugh even harder is remembering that Moon also created an ai in the form of his computer, and yet they get along great—Snark notwithstanding, because Moon welcomes that. It probably has a lot to do with how Moon actively treats them well and doesn’t demean them.

There’s a lot of interesting and heavy content on the Sun and Moon Show at the moment, but it’s also great for character development, too. Even though it’s sad, and has potentially dire consequences for our favorite animatronics going forward.

First off, in terms of Sun—while it is definitely a bad idea for him to go off and try to kill Eclipse the way he has, I am at least proud of him for finally admitting that the two of them do share a lot of similarities and that Eclipse’s coding and base personality did not just come from Moon. And by similarities I am once again talking more about the capacity to feel anger and commit violence—though it is definitely not good that Sun is giving in to those desires in this particular manner. It still doesn’t make him “like Eclipse,” though, because at the root of it all is a genuine concern for his family. And he did seem willing to apologize to Lunar (or possibly he was going to apologize to Moon for making Lunar move out? He was willing to apologize for something, at least), even though it probably won’t be for the things Lunar wants it to be for.

(And part of me wonders if his anger toward Lunar isn’t also some lingering resentment for what they put Moon—and Sun, indirectly—through during October. Especially since wanting to help Moon and comparing KC to Eclipse and how Sun felt when he was still sharing a body with him are apparently Sun’s biggest motivators right now)

Also, I’m also glad that Sun attempted to convince Moon to stop shouldering some of the blame by pointing out that no matter where Eclipse came from, he made his own choices.

Speaking of Moon, he has also had a lot of growth in this, mostly in terms of trying to have better communication. He even sought outside help for practice and advice! And he was trying to be more open about his own experiences, and share empathy! It really is a sort of “role reversal” for the two of them, even if Sun is taking it to extremes in a very unhealthy way. Moon was definitely showing emotional vulnerability, and I’m proud of him. …Even as I worry about the repercussions this whole thing is going to have on him, especially considering that one of KC’s ultimate goals is to “break Moon.” And I think this just drove him that much closer.

Lunar moving out especially is something I think will have far more consequences than anyone realizes. I don’t blame Lunar, or think that they were wrong to do that, because they do need to keep themselves safe… but if you recall, back when KC first came back and Lunar was still in Moon’s head, when he offered to “stay and be Moon’s ‘happy’” because it “felt wrong to leave him” and cited one of Moon’s darker thoughts as to why, the specific one he showed Monty was Moon’s thought of “I’ll be abandoned eventually.” And this whole thing kind of proves that right, doesn’t it? Or at least that’s how Moon would most likely interpret it—Especially since Sun cut contact and Moon thinks that even if Sun makes it back physically safe, he’s still going to be different in a way that wouldn’t make him “Sun” anymore.

In that sense, it’s probably good that Earth showed up when she did, because at the very least she can provide a distraction for him to mother hen over. Not to mention that she supposedly has better daycare skills than Sun, and, quite frankly, Moon could use any kind of support in that department he can get considering that he’s going to have to take over for Sun and Lunar while they’re MIA, and he’s already stressed and dislikes most aspects of the job and dealing with kids directly.

The other thing to worry about, which has kind of been put on the backburner, is that as far as we know, Solar Flare is still out on their spying mission. And that might cause some snags as far as Earth is concerned, because while she’s a known entity to KC’s team (since he obviously would know about her via Moon, because I’m pretty sure Moon is wrong about him not being able to see or hear things while Moon is in control), Solar Flare is a complete unknown to Moon and co.

(Of course, I don’t actually know how relevant Earth is going to be for any upcoming videos if they haven’t gotten a new design/VR model for her yet. There are ways they can get around not actually showing her if they still use a voice actress and just have her be, like, talking offscreen or from the ballpit while Moon is hanging out on the balcony or in another room, but that’s not the sort of thing they’re going to want to depend on if she does become more important to the plot later.)

Anyways, as for final thoughts… I think part of why this particular “fight” and circumstances hurt so much is because it is very clear that both Sun and Moon are on these particular courses specifically because of how much they love each other and want to ease each other’s burdens. They even outright acknowledged onscreen how much they care for each other. And it’s definitely something they can work through as long as they both survive… it’s just that things are going to be different between them now, no matter what.

[ofdreamsanddoodles]

making a post about the new designs made me realize that not everyone is probably aware of everything the penumbra podcast has done, so in light of the fact that they’ve officially stated they will eventually release a statement, here is a brief list of everything to keep in mind if/when they apologize:

hiring on an artist, Michaela Buckley (@/disasterscenario on tumblr) who’s designs were both racist & transmisogynist (post about it here) and then declaring these designs as canon, despite the cast being almost exclusively white vas, which is an issue with all her podcast art (like drawing damien from the bright sessions, a literal mind controlling villain, black, as well as a villain from wolf 359) here’s an example of some of the art in question

then, after being called out, said the designs were never really meant to be taken as “completely” canon (meaning any complaint of them hiring an artist who saw juno, an alcoholic with a broken home & anger issues, & making him black was just something they couldn’t control or change) and then only released an apology after said artist had left of her own choice to pursue other projects 

here is a twitter thread on disasterscenario’s apology. she’d said something previously, but it looks like she’s come back to it & apologized more thoroughly which i appreciate, though she hasn’t actually mentioned any of the racism involved. one thing she mentions is them wanting to do something “subversive” by having a black lead, despite doing none of the work for it.

despite the penumbra’s apology (which was more an apology for making the art canon than the racism) merch using those designs are still available on their store despite them saying they’ve discontinued merch. not entirely impossible for it to all be leftover, but considering it’s been several years i feel like it maybe should just be taken down entirely

not only that, but there has been a history of transmisogyny and racism in the story itself, as far back as the first penumbra episode, which described an asian family as “breeding like rabbits” (though i believe that was corrected with the newer version of it) issues that are only more prominant  in the latest season, which also included deadnaming vespa and constantly misgendering ale, the later of which was was excused with “but i’m too attracted to him for him to NOT be a woman.” even if your story is intended to show people that your characters can learn to be better despite living in a bigoted kingdom, misgendering a guy about a hundred times despite his clear frustration doesn’t really work, because all you’ve shown is that angelo doesn’t want to learn about this, since clearly ale’s distress isn’t worth him correcting himself over

despite getting feedback from fans from all of these fronts, still hired artist Ellison Estephan, who is also transmisogyistic and racist, which i’ve already talked about here, and when fans understandably were upset, harley tagaki kaner made a post about people “bullying in the name of social justice” on twitter

all of this is important to remember to make sure they honestly take responsibility for their actions. if they claim to still be learning, ask yourself why the effort and energy of all their trans fans & fans of color hasn’t been enough to teach them anything so far, and how much emotional labor these fans, as well as allies, will have to go through to continue to hold them accountable. if they claim they hadn’t realized the designs were racist, what proof do you have that they actually understood the criticism the first time? how can you promise they won’t do this again? even if they do genuinely want to do better, how many of their fans of color & trans fans will they keep hurting in the process?

[blinder-secrets]

Ring Girl - Part 2

part one

ao3 link

a/n: i can’t believe after 3 years i’m finally continuing this... i genuinely feel so good about it, i hope it was worth the wait

Bonnie woke before you, as he often did. He could’ve left you sleeping, slipped away without stirring you at all, but his softness wouldn’t let him. It never did. He’d told you once that his day couldn’t go right unless you welcomed it in and, after that, you’d stopped complaining. You let him wake you when he wanted and smiled each time that he did.

‘Dove,’ he said quietly, trailing his index finger across your collarbone. ‘It’s morning.’ He drew a line and then looped it, spinning patterns on your skin until you showed signs of waking.

You were on your back, with him on his side next to you. When you’d said goodnight, you’d been tangled together, wound up like string, but he fidgeted too much; in the mornings, you were always apart again. ‘Already?’ you sighed, talking round the edges of a yawn. ‘What time?’

‘Six.’

With your eyes still closed, you turned your head, flipping your cheek onto the pillow to face him. ‘More sleep, please,’ you murmured.

He laughed, keeping it quiet and light. Soft like he might’ve startled you. ‘I need you to wish me luck, dove.’

You pulled your eyes open then, peeling the lids apart and blinking a few times to keep them so. ‘Why?’ you asked, yawning afterwards. ‘What’s today?’

The room was dim, lit with what little sun could filter in through the curtains, but he still lay there glowing. Dark eyes melting into amber. His skin fresh and pale, and drawn across his cheeks like bone china. Precious, you thought. Gold in name and value.

His hand shifted from your chest and pushed under the covers to link with yours. ‘It’s the first day training,’ he said, lips settling into a grin. ‘They’ve got me in the best gym in Birmingham.’ He pulled the word, stretched it and curled it into his accent, cherished it like it was his for the taking.

Birmingham. The city, the bricks and the smoke. It all held a weight to him that was lost on you.

‘What do you need training for?’ There wasn’t a man in England that could beat him, you’d seen enough of them try.

‘It’s important.’ He pressed a kiss to your shoulder. ‘Rules are different.’

‘Fuck rules,’ you answered lazily. ‘You’re all instinct, Bon.’

He squeezed your hand before letting go. ‘Not anymore.’ He sat up with a groan, pausing on the edge of the bed to roll his neck out, to stretch his limbs and wipe his eyes before standing.

‘Come back,’ you whined, reaching a limp arm over the bed to him. ‘Just for a bit.’

He shook his head as he bent over the chest you both kept your clothes in. ‘I can’t be late.’

‘Who says?’ You rolled onto your elbows, chin in your hands. He began to dress himself as you watched. ‘Your dad,’ you asked, ‘or the Shelbys?’

‘Both, dove.’ He ignored the comment you’d slung beneath the words, the question you couldn’t ask outright. Who are you loyal to now Bonnie? Who’s threats scare you the most? ‘I have to go,’ he said.

‘I think I preferred when you were boxing trees.’

The soft smile you knew so well fell onto his features — the one that said, you’re difficult, but you’re mine. He came back to the bed and ran a hand over your hair. ‘Trees don’t pay, y’know. This is good for us.’

It’s good for Aberama, you thought. ‘Will you be away for long?’

‘Just the day,’ he said. ‘You’ll have me again before it’s dark.’

You smiled and turned to kiss his wrist. ‘I suppose I can keep myself busy til then.’

He nodded, and leant down to return the gesture, planting his lips onto the top of your head. ‘Be good,’ he said as he stood again. ‘Don’t be gettin’ into trouble.’

‘When do I ever get myself in trouble, Bon?’

‘Almost everyday,’ he answered.

You’d only lingered in bed a little longer after Bonnie left, then you’d washed and dressed, and walked from the camp with your hair damp and frizzing. It wasn’t hot, but it wasn’t cold enough to make you regret it either. It’d be dry by the time you got to town. You had thought about getting the train from the nearest station, but why bother when you had all day to waste anyway. The walk would do you good.

When you got to Small Heath, you followed the canals, clinging to those streaks of almost wilderness. They weren’t natural, but it felt nicer to walk them than the roads. You didn’t pass another soul until it took you through the Shelby yard. The old man that owned it gave you a look as you arrived, but said nothing. Perhaps he knew who you were. Perhaps he’d made the connection on his own, from the way you dressed, the way you carried yourself. Bonnie had said their family was Romani too, and kin recognise kin no matter how long ago they settled.

‘Can I cut through here, sir?’ you asked him.

He nodded once, wiping his hands clean on a rag that was already black with coal. ‘One of the Golds, are you?’

‘Not yet.’ You smiled as you veered from the comfort of the canal path to cross the yard. ‘Won’t be long, though,’ you added as you passed him.

He ignored your comment as you thought he would. ‘Don’t make it a habit, love, walking through here. S’a working boat yard, you know.’

You waved a hand over your shoulder in acknowledgment; you never made anything habit.

Following whim had led you to the bookies on Watery Lane. Last time you were there, Finn, you think he’s called, had let you place a bet on the Blinders’ winning horse. You didn’t follow the races yourself, you just did it because you could. Because it had never been offered to you before. He’d suggested a horse and you’d agreed to it, put the few pounds you’d had into his palm and told him to go for it. Make me a winner, Peaky boy.

He wasn’t around this time. When you walked into the betting shop, all the thick-sculled men twisted their necks to look at you. They went quiet like you were a ghost. Like they’d never seen a woman before.

‘I placed a bet,’ you said, to the room, because no one offered to help you. ‘Last week.’

‘Did ya, love,’ said the closest, laughing as he turned back to his work.

You stood straighter. ‘Yes.’ You took the slip Finn had given you, and held it out to him, shoving it under his nose so he was forced to look at it. ‘See?’

The man glanced at you sideways and then took the receipt, sitting back to scrutinise it. ‘Who the bloody hell let you do that?’ he said, accent thick and rolling and itching under your skin.

‘Finn Shelby,’ you told him, knowing it was a weapon to say so. They could be as rude as they liked, but you knew they were all hares in a trap that the Shelbys’ set. You watched the smugness flush from his expression. ‘So,’ you purred, ‘did I win?’

He shook his head, then he sighed. Then he leant forward again and held the paper back out for you to take. ‘No, love,’ he said. ‘You lost like the rest of them.’

Frowning, you took the receipt and shoved it, crumpled, back into your pocket. ‘It was fixed?’ you asked. ‘He had me bet on the wrong horse?’

‘I’m not sayin’ that.’

But he wouldn’t, even if Finn had. ‘He said it would win,’ you continued, your words bitter and souring. ‘Was blessed, he said.’

The man cleared his throat. ‘Can’t be helped.’

It could, in fact, be helped.

‘Do you have a toilet?’ you asked.

You’d sweetened your voice slightly and it had worked, because he nodded and pointed to the back of the room, past the tables and the workers, without even looking up at you. You followed the direction he’d sent you in, and locked yourself into the toilet for long enough to seem convincing.

If Finn could sell you a false bet, you saw no harm in getting back what was wrongly taken from you — with some interest, of course.

When it seemed reasonable, you left the toilet and started back through the shop, eyes scanning the tables as you passed them. It mustn’t have been long since they took their last winnings; the desks were busy with notes, and pennies, and men counting as fast as their education would let them. Seeing a suitably abandoned pile, close to the edge of the nearest, you paused and crouched. No-one was taking any notice of you. You tied your lace though it had never been undone and then, with a final check for safety, you stole the money. Your hand curled over the table-edge, pushing the top inch of notes from the pile and into your waiting pocket. It was so easy you almost laughed.

In a way, you wish you had laughed. Now, you knew it wouldn’t have made a difference, because you never got away with it. If you’d have laughed at the time, you might’ve been able to flirt your way out of the trouble.

After standing, you had started to walk away, nonchalant and pleased with your actions. And then the thin-moustached man, who was previously looking for his cigarettes, had turned back and noticed. You’d been hoping he would be clueless to it. Or at least slow enough that you’d be out the door and down the road before he realised.

‘Oi,’ he barked, ‘where’s that fucking money gone?’

There wasn’t chance to plea your case. Out of everyone in the shop, it could have only ever been you that was responsible. It didn’t take them long to work that out.

You were by the campfire when Aberama found you. He knew already what’d happened, at least, he knew what Mikey had told him, who knew what you had told Allie, which really wasn’t all that much. All you’d said to her, was that you’d robbed some money from the wrong man, and he’d smacked the sense back into you. She didn’t need to know that it involved Shelby business, because Aberama didn’t need to know. The paths that gossip took were predictable enough that you’d accounted for it.

When he got to you, the kettle you’d been waiting for finally hissed and screamed into its boiling point. You reached for it, but Aberama took it off the flames and set it onto the table before you could. No tea for you, then. Just inquisition.  

‘So, what am I meant to tell Bonnie this time?’ he asked, crossing his wrists over his front. ‘He’ll be back soon.’

‘I know.’ You felt inclined to keep your face hidden, choosing to stare down at the fire instead of looking at him. ‘It’s nothing serious,’ you told him. The first slap had been hard enough to split your lip, the second just enough to bruise the cushioning beneath your eye. Everything else was so minor it barely left an ache.

‘Everything is serious to him, girl.’

You nodded.

‘This will hurt him,’ he said.

‘I know,’ you agreed. He didn’t want to hear anything else from you after all. ‘I’ll deal with it.’

‘You will.’ He stepped closer, and dipped his head so you couldn’t help but look at him. You didn’t find him threatening, just chilling. Unreadable but familiar enough that you couldn’t be scared of him. ‘I won’t have you distracting him now,’ he warned. ‘I like you, but I won’t hesitate to make a choice on his behalf.’

You nodded. He lifted your chin with the tips of his fingers to get a proper look at you.

‘You’re too rough for all your sweetness,’ he said. Then, after a moment of consideration, he added, ‘I’ll tell Bonnie before he sees you, but make this the last time, dear.’

After that, you sat on the steps to your wagon, anxiety rotting in your gut, until the sun had began to set. Just before it fell enough to make the sky feel dark, Bonnie came home. He entered the camp whistling, his hands in his pockets, his steps free and bounding. He saw you from across the way, but Aberama intercepted him before he could get any closer.

Guilt bit at your ankles as the joy went from his shoulders and into the mulch, his high from the day’s training lost once he heard of your own stupidity. You watched his brows pull together. His hands left his pockets in fists. The worst part of it, was knowing that it could’ve been avoided. You could’ve taken your failed bet and left, could’ve gone home and read, and waited. Could’ve lay down and listened to him gush about the fights he’d had. Instead, you had to watch his buzz harden into anger, and sit under the weight of his gaze as he approached.

When he got to you, he was mute. His jaw set and unset.

‘Bon,’ you started, looking up at him, ‘before you say anything—‘

‘No, dove,’ he stopped you. He folded his arms and then unwound them again, fidgeting in the way he did when he tried to keep himself calm. When he tried to put words before actions. ‘I told you to be careful,’ he said. His voice was so taut it was almost a whisper.

You exhaled heavily. Not in a sigh, in deflation. You dropped your head but he lifted it again, his hand so light against your cheek that it may as well have not been there. It was the intention more than the grip that brought your eyes back to his. While he scanned your face, you sat vacant, waiting for the disapproval to load onto his features. His thumb moved to hover over the cut in your lip, his eyes dark and scrutinising.

‘Who was it?’ he asked pointedly, still talking through the catch of his teeth.

‘No one.’

‘Don’t do that.’

‘Bon,’ you pushed his hand away, ‘it’s like you said, they’re less forgiving in the city. I know that now.’

He wasn’t satisfied. He knew you too well, knew you were smarter than getting caught for pickpocketing. ‘I’ll ask you again, who was it?’

Rolling your eyes, you looked away from him. You couldn’t lie to his face as easily as you could with others. ‘I don’t know names,’ you said.

‘What happened then?’ he replied, standing limp before you. His gaze bore into the bruise on your cheek. ‘Where were you?’

If Bonnie was anything, he was stubborn. The only person you knew other than yourself, that would run a thought into the ground, let an idea posses him until he found whatever it was he wanted. You closed your eyes for a moment, knowing the next words to come out your mouth would only make things worse. And yet, there you were, preparing to say them anyway.

‘I took money,’ you said slowly, 'from the Shelby bookmakers.’

‘What?’ The word hissed out of him, piercing the quiet bubble that had previously kept you safe from curious stares. Now, they looked freely, heads turning in your direction as Bonnie continued. ‘Fucken’ what?’ he spat. ‘They did this?’

‘No, no, Bon…’ You rolled your head between your shoulders, searching for something, anything, to say to quell him. ‘It wasn’t like that exactly.’

‘Then how was it like?’ His hands curled up again, rigid and set for striking.

‘Finn gave me a dud bet,’ you explained quickly. ‘I went and he wasn’t there, and they all gave me a look as if I shouldn’t be, and I thought, well, fuck them, I’ll take my own winnings.’

‘I’ll kill ‘em.’

You groaned. ‘No, Bon, I was being stupid. I deserved it, really. I mean, it was broad daylight, in a shop full of—’

‘Those Blinder fucks,' he cursed, turning to pace away from you. He spat into the leaves and threw a hand up to grab the cap from his head. ‘I’m s’posed to be fucken’ one of ‘em.’

‘Bonnie.’ You stood, stepping wide enough to reach him. You grabbed him by the arm and forced him to still. ‘It was a Blinder who stopped it,’ you said.

‘Yeah?’ His eyes darkened. ‘Not soon enough.’

‘He wasn’t there,’ you stressed. ‘When he came, he told them who I was. It’s sorted, Bon, we sorted it.’

You’d apologised to Finn, and he’d done the same. You were both crooks after all. There was too much between them and the Golds to be lost, so you’d agreed with him to leave it there, no bad blood. No revenge needed from either side. It’d be forgotten about before sunrise if Bonnie let it.

‘What’re you gonna do, Bonnie?’ you asked, softening your voice. ‘You go there and all this is ruined. I won’t let you do it.’

His jaw set again. ‘They hurt you, dove.’

‘I know.’ You rubbed his bicep. ‘It’s not worth it, still. Not even for me.’

‘Don’t keep sayin’ things like that,’ he scolded. ‘Always puttin’ me before you.’

His brows folded, and when he pulled away from your touch you let him. He looked upwards, to the trees, then to his feet. He was working through it. Tucking away the anger to consider the repercussions. There wasn’t anything he could do without causing more problems, no punch he could land without throwing the fight. He needed to be in the Shelby’s good books, for Aberama, for his career. He may not have liked it, but it was the truth.

‘Alright,’ he said, after a forced breath. ‘If it’s sorted?’

‘It is,’ you answered. ‘It’s forgotten.’

He nodded tightly. Then, for the first time, his expression faltered, softness melting the lines between his eyebrows. ‘You are alright, aren’t you, dove?’

You smiled, ignoring the pinch as it tugged the scab on your lip. ‘It’s nothing.’

Tutting, he pulled you into his chest, arms wrapping around you tightly. ‘Leave the fightin’ to me, ey?’ He said by your ear, words light and sad all the same. ‘Dun’t suit you.’

The hug was warm, and tight, and he smelt like a football team straight off the pitch, but you couldn’t pull away. You wanted to sink into him, right between the bones, and stay there. Mine, you thought. Mine and yours.

‘I’m sorry,’ you said, the stress delayed and boiling in your chest. ‘I could’ve fucked it up for you.’ You’d acted selfishly. It was pure luck, and understanding, and wilful retreat that kept it from shattering everything he and Aberama had built.

‘Ah,’ he soothed, his palm running up your back, ‘you know we don’t worry ‘bout the past.’

He didn’t but you did. Always, and relentlessly.

‘Here,’ he said, pulling back to hold your face. He kissed you once, gently, careful ‘cause he knew how it’d hurt, and then smiled. ‘I’ve still got to tell you ‘bout me day.’

‘Yeah?’ You leant back into his arms. ‘How’d it go?’

His eyes lit up. They shone in the twilight. ‘They said I’m gonna be a star, dove. A fucken’ star.’

[thescentoflavender]

Guide to the [Candlelit Night] SP Event

Someone sent me an ask on this (see the bottom of this guide for the actual ask), and because my answer to it grew so long, I decided to write it as a formal guide instead. 

Event Format

I had a read through MLQC EN’s FB posts but I don’t think they’ve announced the specific format of the upcoming event. Assuming that the event style in the EN server is similar to the CN server, there are a few unique things about this event to consider:

There’s a 20% “cashback discount” of sorts. You’ll get 20% of the Galaxy Wish Coupons you spend back in the form of Limited Time Coupons. (Note: you don’t get any discount if you use Limited Time Coupons.)

There are also Limited Time Coupons you can get by logging in daily and through doing a certain number of pulls.

Note: Limited Time Coupons cannot be saved. When the event ends, each Limited Time Coupon will be converted to 1000 coins.

Above: Example of event rewards. I didn’t have screenshots for last year’s CNY event, so I’ve used my screenshot from this year’s event here. The event format is similar so it’s still a good reference. 

---

How does this affect the advice I previously gave regarding Wish Tree/SP events?

1. It is still recommended that you do pulls in multiples of 144. But there may be reason to deviate from this rule.

If your objectives are to:

maximise your chances of getting an SP;

get your SP to competent stats; and

collect SPs in the long term only

Then you might consider going all in and doing as many pulls as you can, regardless of whether you hit a multiple of 144.

Why?

The 20% discount will only be in effect the first time this event runs, and will not be available in the rerun. This will allow you to maximise your chances of getting an SP at minimal cost.

Above: Example of the Limited Time Coupons vs Galaxy Wish Coupons. These will be exhausted before your Galaxy Wish Coupons are used. 

Even if you fail to do a multiple of 144 pulls, the unused candle lights will be turned into Heart Flowers. You can use these Heart Flowers to exchange for purple shards. (The number of free Heart Flowers you get each week is the limiting factor here so the 6 purple shard/week limit isn’t a concern if you’re looking at this long term.)

Lastly, the main reason why you would want to do only multiples of 144 pulls is to conserve your resources for other events. But if you’re only interested in SPs, this wouldn’t be too much of a concern. The next SP event will only be released next year so you have time to pool your resources between now and then.

N.B. The one exception is if Papergames releases a collab SP event across all servers in the later half of this year. Should this happen, you may not have enough for Galaxy Wish Coupons and/or gems saved up if you go all in now. But I will note that a collab SP event is very unlikely.

2. Draw over a period of time, not all at once.

No changes to my advice here. My preferred times are midnight and when the server refreshes at 5 a.m.. Sadly, though, I haven’t been able to do 5 a.m. pulls since leaving the UK. The time difference really did work to my advantage!

3. Enter the event knowing how many pulls you want to do. Remember to factor in the Limited Time Coupons when calculating how many Galaxy Wish Coupons you need to use.

Important if you’re aiming to do multiples of 144 pulls (which I generally advocate; see point 1).

I’ve written this as a formula here:

So, for example, if I wanted to do 288 pulls, would get 30 free Limited Time Coupons from event rewards and do 4 free pulls over the course of the event, 

I would need (288-34)/1.2 = 211 Galaxy Wish Coupons 

*If I remember correctly, they round up for the number of LTC you’ll get back, so the number of coupons you’ll need to use is 211 rather than 212.

---

Should you exchange for a new SP karma or a duplicate SP after reaching a multiple of 144 pulls?

A good question, to which my answer is the dreaded “It depends”. 

Just to be clear, we’re working with the assumption that you got at least one SP karma, but not the full set of SP karmas by doing regular pulls. So, if you’re lucky or resource-rich enough, this question might not even be one that you need worry about in the first place. 

Also remember to only exchange your karmas at the end of the event, after you’ve done all your free pulls.

There are far too many scenarios for me to list down every one, but I thought I’d go through a few.

Here are some examples:

You were unlucky (or lucky, depending on your perspective) enough to draw a repeated SP karma. In this case, I would probably exchange for a new SP karma. 

You really need the stats for an SP karma of a particular attribute, e.g. if you could get to the next tier in the Heart Trials with your Evolved SP. In this case, I would exchange for a repeated SP karma.

You're only interested in reading a single suitor’s dates and have only 1 or 2 of his SPs. In this case, I would exchange for a repeated SP karma.  

You’re a karma collector and don’t really care about the karma stats. You’re okay with your SPs being at mediocre levels, but you want as many SPs as possible. In this case, I would exchange for a new SP karma.

There are also rewards you get based on the karmas you pull and whether you can Evolve them to Lvl IV/Ascend them. This is something to consider too, if you value these rewards highly enough. 

A non-exhaustive list, because the answer really depends on your objectives in the game. I hope this will help you in deciding the strategy you want to adopt though! 

---

Afterword and some other comments on the actual ask 

If you made it to the end of this post, congratulations!

There will be a rerun for this event, which I will elaborate on as a reply to another ask. Everything I’ve said above has taken into account this rerun, so this guide still stands (clearly... I wouldn’t have written it otherwise!)

The ask:

My comments: Thanks anon! I do appreciate the fact that you read through all my posts regarding SP karmas!

[evilwickedme]

ok so to sum up my feelings for leverage: redemption, season 1(a): (long post warning, there’s a tl;dr at the end)

I knew that Hardison wouldn’t be in most of the season due to Aldis Hodge being a busy bee nowadays, but I didn’t realize that meant he’d only be around for the first two episodes. He was sorely missed, not only because of my attachment to him, but also because he’s usually the grounding factor in the group dynamic, and his role as info guy and tech guy was split evenly between two characters who had their own issues.

That said, Hardison is absolutely a highlight of the two episodes he’s in. his speech about redemption was everything I could’ve hoped for (plus, more evidence for the Jewish!Hardison pile...). I wish we’d gotten to see more of his dynamic with Breanna because what we saw was funny and sweet and we don’t generally get to see Hardison taking care of somebody who so desperately needs taking care of. I hope that Aldis Hodge is around for more episodes in 1(b), because what we’re left with feels a little hollow.

Sticking to original leverage characters for now, for the most part the leverage crew still felt true to the original series as characters, even if the show itself was a little bit confused at times. The actors understand their characters and embody them so well that I think one could give them the trashiest script ever and they’d still sell it. Sophie is a particular focus in 1(a) because of Nate’s death, and she’s particularly well written as a result.

That said, I’m super bitter that we saw little to no mastermind!Parker. Parker’s character being given the mastermind role was a big deal and it feels like they’re walking it back because they feel uncomfortable with it. It is eventually given an in-text excuse, but literally in the last episode, and it was not a particularly convincing reason, and in fact contradicted moments from previous episodes (Sophie leaving for a client meeting and ignoring Parker in ep3 comes to mind). It’s frustrating, it makes the end of the original leverage feel pointless, and letting Parker make a decision once in a while is not the same thing at all. The original series repeatedly showed us that while everyone in the team had their strengths, Parker works problems and solves them in unique, interesting ways, and other characters’ days in the limelight tended to be comedic or even failures. It’s a broken promise, and a pretty major broken promise at that.

On a more positive note, Parker’s dynamic with literally everyone was fantastic. She’s possibly the best written character this season. They’ve taken the autism out of the subtext and into the text (although obviously still undiagnosed), and given her coping mechanisms that were taken seriously in the text even when they were played for laughs, which I appreciated. Her attempts to mentor Breanna were sweet, her friendship with Sophie was electric and at times (CRIMES) hilarious, and as usual, she has a fantastic dynamic with Eliot that makes my heart burst. If you don’t think they’re romantically involved, at least acknowledge there’s a life partnership here. They’ve spent the last decade together.

(We’ll get to Harry.)

Eliot isn’t given much arc-wise, which is frustrating since he’s my favorite. He’s being presented as the goal at the end of a redemption arc, ie to keep working at it every day until your soul heals or whatever, and it doesn’t reflect the message they’re trying to convey via Hardison’s speech and our two new characters. He’s got his moments, but I think they under utilized his potential.

Breanna!!! Breanna’s my new favorite, except for Eliot. She’s hilarious, she’s insecure, she’s nerdy and excited in a way that’s similar to Hardison but still distinct in its inherent teenage-girl-ness and I LOVE IT. Unlike the previous series, where Hardison’s “age of the geek” was often a joke played on Hardison, we’re at the point where Eliot and Parker are both right there with him, and so they accept and even appreciate Breanna’s nerdiness. Also, canon gay character? In YOUR Leverage? It’s more likely than you think.

(No, I never thought they’d make ot3 canon on screen. I hoped, but I didn’t think it would actually happen.)

I think Breanna’s the character that will be the most interesting to see grow. She’s got a lot of potential and a list of crimes a mile long (or more). I adore her with all my heart. I want to see her tiktok account.

Harry. Oh, Harry.

It took me a while, but I do like Harry. It took a while, because the narrative positioned him at the same level as Nate back in episode 1 of original Leverage. But in episode 1 we didn’t know the other characters. We had Nate as the POV character, and so we cared about him because we were seeing the world through his eyes. (This is TV Studies 101. I know this, because I took TV Studies 101 in 2019.) In Leverage: Redemption, we no longer have a POV character, for several reasons:

Nate, previously the POV character, is dead.

As it is, by mid-season 3 of leverage Nate was no longer a POV character. This is, coincidentally, the point where the leverage writers realized they had four other characters in the main cast they could do something with, and in-universe, Nate accepted that he was a thief, not a special Good Man.

Sophie is sort of a POV character for the first episode of the revival, but only for the first few minutes. Afterwards, the series settles into the groove of seasons 3-5, i.e., the entire crew is our POV. We know our crew, and we love them as is.

Narratively, however, Redemption insists on positing Harry as the POV character, because it is his redemption we are pursuing most vehemently. And I think they really relied on us already knowing the actor - I’ve never seen him in anything before, so to me he was a completely fresh face and they put almost no effort into selling him to me. Beyond being competent and consistently mildly baffled by the antics of the leverage crew, I honestly don’t know who this man is by the end of EIGHT episodes with him. I have a much better handle on Breanna by the end of 1(a), and I can tell you I knew all five of the original leverage crew better by the end of the first episode of the original series than I do Harry. What’s the name of his daughter, John Rogers. Is he still married. How old is the daughter. Why is none of this worth mentioning. Give him a sense of humor that isn’t reacting to other people’s shenanigans. I’m so frustrated. It’s bad writing.

I did manage to grow to like Harry by the end, but I’m pretty sure this is down to Noah Wyle’s charismatic portrayal of an under-developed character, at least partially. And I never stopped being frustrated at not knowing who this man is at all.

The two highlights of the season are undoubtedly episodes five and six. Episode five was the first time I felt like the episode was more than a collection of good moments between the main cast and mediocre moments between the main cast and also the main plot. The issues with pacing and tone that I suffered through for most of the season were mostly non-existent in ep5 and 6, and at least in episode 5 I attribute that to the pared down cast. They had time to focus not only on our actual characters - Sophie, Parker, Breanna - but also on the case. This is the only client from 1(a) I am going to remember next week without googling it first, mark my words.

Episode six worked for the exact opposite reason - it completely disregarded the client and plot and immersed itself in the characters. Breanna gets a moment to shine, but everybody else gets their bits and I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the script that was most fun to write. The characters felt natural, real, and captured the found-family dynamic that’s been missing all season for the first time.

While episode 2 is the weakest episode, I don’t actually have much to say about it. I am disappointed in episode 8. For a mid-season finale, I really expected them to do something. Instead, it was an episode about Nate Ford that copped out of being about Nate Ford (both with fake-Nate and with the new version of him being relayed to us). I would have told the writers to give that energy back to episode 1 and write an episode that’s about anybody who isn’t Harry, oh my God. I know I said I grew to like him but so many episodes were about Harry. He’s the newbie! Why didn’t Hardison get an episode that was actually about him, considering he was only around for two episodes? Why does Eliot have to be the butt of the joke when the theme of the series should directly tie back to him in a much more meaningful way? The last episode parodies their own tagline by saying Eliot isn’t just a hitter, but it deftly avoids noticing that they’ve turned him into nothing more than very muscly comic relief, including in that very episode!

Also, I hated the Marshal. Eliot actively looked uncomfortable around her.

tl;dr

The season took a while, that’s definitely true. But it did find its footing eventually, and by the halfway mark of 1(a) it finally felt cohesive again. The characters were played fantastically even when they weren’t well-written, and if nothing else, the humor landed every time. It still has its kinks and problems to work out, but if you look at it as a brand new show rather than a continuation of one that went off the air over eight years ago, it’s actually doing rather well. I’m choosing to judge it in both lights - according to its own standards, it establishes its identity in episode five; according to Leverage standards, it establishes its connection to its roots in episode six. Either way, I thoroughly enjoyed 1(a), and continue to have high hopes for 1(b).

fic writing will commence in three, two, one...

[ladyhindsight]

There’s some weird narrative trickery here but then again, when there isn’t?

Period. Jace asking and it being dark enough to see his reflection are not connected thoughts.

If there ever was a bias present in this series... Jace looks like an avenging angel and Alec’s hair is really black. Also, are the runes scarlet or red-gold?

→ the white jacket Jace wore had red-gold runes woven into the material...

→ Alec was dressed the same way, all in white with the same runes traced...

What does it tell you about Jace’s character when he is (half-)expected to snap at people over anything that is said. It’s nice to have a friend around whom you have to walk on eggshells.

*Mom and Dad

Isabelle’s grief is pretty palpable the previous chapter taken into account. Jace is being broody over the window and gets to angst about Max later, but all that is said about Alec’s grief is that he looks very sad.

Also no comma, same subject.

[additional reading]

Hodge’s “crackpot” mirror-lake theory when their most famous depiction of Raziel is of the angel rising from the lake Lyn with the Mortal Cup and the Mortal Sword. These people can’t really put two and two together, can they.

I don’t get why didn’t Sebastian kill Isabelle. Obviously Sebastian knew he didn’t kill her since what he said to Alec implied that he had only killed one Lightwood. There wasn’t reason to leave Isabelle alive when she knew about Max.

I’d like to go back to a point made previously somewhere on this blog:

Clare knows that the glaring flaws Jace’s character could be–and are–faced with criticism, so with the dialogue she attempts to deflect that criticism against Jace by showing that it is intentional for him to be like this. As if by addressing it exempts her writing or Jace from receiving that dislike and critique. As if addressing and acknowledging it (but doing absolutely nothing to develop the character or make him a better person in those regards) deflects everything negative that could said against her work.

Here Clary narrates Simon’s character just so what Clare though as subtle changes wouldn’t be missed by the readers. 

The first part is entirely ridiculous. Clary ropes Alec into this as if Alec throws anything at Simon whereas Jace does all the time. The second part is equally ridiculous because not once has Simon been afraid of Jace or Alec. Jace sure has made Simon uneasy on one or two occasion, but to make this seem like both Jace and Alec are both responsible for it and equal amount is entirely untruthful.

Simon has barely changed as a character. He has just stopped pining after Clary. He has always quipped back at Jace and been derisive over Alec’s obvious feelings and behavior around Magnus.

It is factitious to talk about Jace and Alec like this as if they’ve ever been on the same level as to treating Simon.

“Earlier slighting of Simon” was Alec wondering why would Simon think Isabelle wanted to talk to him when she didn’t want to talk to her own family. What a fucking slight that is. Grovel, Alec, grovel at Simon’s feet.

→ “Partly because she was being unreasonable, and partly because there was a look on Jace’s face as he gazed past her at Simon [...] It was amusement mixed with gratitude and maybe even a little bit of respect.”

(less filtering because we knooow this is Clary’s point of view)

There is at least two mentions of this scar on Jace’s temple in this book, but I don’t think there has been one before or after. It’s just interesting to note because we don’t see any of the Shadowhunters applying Marks on their face.

→ “A line of metal glittered at his throat where the Morgenstern ring...”

Claaare. Are you again telling me stuff about subtle nuances of your writing so I would miss it?

It’s good that Clary tells us this because those extra quotation marks surely didn’t.

→ “Jace said, half-mocking tone in his voice.”

AND YET. Yet no one says to Jace: “Jace, it’s bad for your eyesight to have your head that far up in your own ass. Stop being a walking, talking self-fulfilling prophecy and get a grip, you twat.”

Stop unnecessarily pausing the sentence. We don’t need these commas.

I don’t think Simon has seen Isabelle that much at all to make such a statement.

This is Simon’s point of view, if you didn’t notice. Just saying.

→ “Despite her angry glare, she looked younger than usual, her eyes huge and black in her pinched white face. White scars traced her light skin, all over her bare arms, her back and collarbones, even her legs. If Clary remains a Shadowhunter, one day she’ll look like this, scarred all over, Simon thought, though it didn’t upset him as once it might have done.”

→ “She was turning something over and over between her fingers. It was a small something...”

As is evident as Isabelle just keeps talking anyway. And no comma.

Don’t tell when you show right after anyway. The first clause should be left out.

Max had already told everyone what he had seen! What more could it do when Max had already spoken about it. Max didn’t know it was Sebastian, otherwise he would’ve asked why was Sebastian climbing the towers. He just saw someone and Sebastian immediately went and incriminated himself further, basically blowing his cover. No one would’ve known it was Sebastian if he did nothing. There would be no proof, and the cut in Sebastian’s hand is no proof at all when none of these characters even know how to connect the dots.

Isabelle can’t seize and yank at the same time. 

→ “Their faces were inches apart. The skin below her eyes shone with the marks of recent tears.”

I don’t want to tell people how to grieve. But I also can’t imagine being horny in any way after such incapacitating loss.

Same subject, no comma.

Well, yeah. Neither of them has really tried to hide anything. For once I agree with Jace.

I detest love at first sight. Because this is the very basis of Jace’s love for Clary and their relationship, it has no basis at all. There is nothing romantic about a complete stranger fantasizing about you and how they should be your romantic partner and be with you. And isn’t Clary just special, the only girl Jace has ever wanted. I could vomit all over this because it makes me sick.

Even though Clary is going to the same exact emotions about Jace, the writing fails to bring such “pain” and focus for her like it tries to do here with Jace. And of course, welcome to the pity party for Jace because everything in the world is against him, he thinks he is so undeserving, boohoo.

Of course Clary thinks that. She said it, asked Jace about it, but Jace refused to answer her and instead glowered at her and got angry because Clary no longer wanted to make out with him.

Jace is also so intelligent that he still isn’t putting things together. Demon doesn’t do these things that I do but I still must be monster for loving and caring and feeling things that demons are incapable of feeling.

Clary and Jace both saw the same vision of Lilith saying how the blood will burn away the child’s humanity. Have either of them considered that? No. For the sake of the plot, neither Clary nor Jace discuss the fact that does anything in this make sense, because if they did, even they would realize how little water this whole plot holds. It’s easier to have them believe incorrectly than make them question what they regard as the truth.

Though Clary really hand’t.

Because they’ve done such bang-up job so far.

The amount of times Clary has realized in surprise or with surprise is probably enough to fill a book on its own.

→ “He really hadn’t expected me to say yes, Clary thought. A moment later he had caught her...”

That “Clary...” just digs somewhere deep and fills me with repulsion and cringe.

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 277: Go Go Child Soldiers

Previously on BnHA: Horikoshi was all “hey guys I’m going to kill off Aizawa” and we were like “no you’re not” and he was like “watch me, I’m really gonna do it!!” and we were all “DO NOT” and he was all “okay okay geez.” I don’t know if he thinks he’s being cute or what, but we will probably have to have a little talk after this. Anyway, so other stuff that happened included the obligatory news copter showing up to record the carnage so that All Might and Eri can watch; Tomura activating some Approximately High End Noumus to serve as cannon fodder to distract all the hero extras; and Gran dropping off Kacchan and Deku a little ways away from the battle and being all “stay here”, which was IMMEDIATELY and PROFOUNDLY ignored as they just FLEW RIGHT BACK OVER TO THE BATTLE anyway to save Aizawa. Yep. Kacchan really wants to lose that quirk.

Today on BnHA: Tomura, Deku, Kacchan, and Endeavor all take turns flinging each other into the ground and launching fire and explosions and stuff, all of which is impressively violent and doesn’t really get anything accomplished. The grown-ups all collectively decide to shrug off Deku and Kacchan joining in on the fight as though they’re teenagers sneaking into an R-rated film as opposed to CHILDREN on a BATTLEFIELD, and I can’t help but feel like this very nonchalant decision will have some serious consequences! Tomura has a moment of self-awareness in which he’s all “is AFO possessing me lol” before deciding “NAH THAT CAN’T POSSIBLY BE TRUE” which, haha, okay. The chapter then ends with Mt. Lady unsettlingly taking on Gigantomachia ALL BY HERSELF??! which seems like a REALLY TERRIBLE IDEA?? and had better not result in anything bad happening to her though or I SWEAR TO GOD.

ooooooooh!

preview of the final battle, anyone? and I feel like this panel is deliberately drawn to resemble All Might and AFO’s iconic battle at Kamino as well, which ramps up the intensity all the more. very nice

and shout out to Aizawa for making this moment possible with his quirk! I have to assume this isn’t something we’re gonna get the chance to see too often moving forward, unless he decides to chaperone all future battles from here on out, which would be good for the kids but also very stressful for me

anyways, so... lol

it really is almost as though Gran asked them this question and then Deku was like “OOH! I KNOW!” and then just leaped into action to demonstrate. “this!! him getting ahold of me, right?? this would be so much worse.” good job Deku

although

he’s not wrong, though. dammit. I mean, I’ve already tacitly endorsed their involvement by approving of them saving Aizawa’s life. you know, for that brief span of time after Aizawa showed up and before we knew how powerful Tomura would still be even without his quirks, I really thought that Aizawa losing his own quirk was all but an inevitability. now, though, it kinda feels like they absolutely wouldn’t stand a chance without him?? hahaha

honestly it’s a little uncomfortable to think about the fact that the Child Soldiers That We All Agree Should Under No Circumstances Be A Part Of This War have so far a) saved Hawks’s life and b) now saved Aizawa’s, and by extension c) saved the entire world. I mean but don’t get me wrong, you still won’t see me writing the HPSC any thank you cards any time soon

anyway now that I’ve said all that, watch Aizawa just immediately lose his fucking quirk right afterwards though. WE’LL SEE

...sigh

why is every last one of the pros so utterly goddamn useless. sorry, was that a bit harsh. I’ll try to phrase it more gently. what I meant to say was, why is every single non-Mirko adult person on this mission about as useful as a RoseArt crayon. why do they all SUCK so HARD. why are they BAD. bad!! they’re just bad!!!

anyways but back to Deku

I’m torn between SOBBING FREELY at this and banging my head against a wall lmao. help please my green son is so loving and brave and so tremendously stupid, just

this is true! and by the way though Deku, just remind me again, I spaced it out just now, what was the reason Tomura was out here to get ambushed by Aizawa and the others in the first place? he was after... something? one for... the road? one for the money? one flew over the cuckoo’s nest?? damn what was it

damn it Aizawa stop dumping your feels in the middle of my sarcastic rants

bro. I know, right?? listen I’m proud of him too don’t get me wrong! the unfortunate thing is though that right now he’s not just your student; he’s also -- and it’s not your fault you don’t know this yet though -- The Thing That Tomura Wants Right Now, On A Silver Platter. so yeah. hence why I am concerned

oop no time to talk though cuz my boys are doing a ~*~COMBO THING~*~ ooooooooh yeahhhhhhh

look at that. “okay Deku you just hold him there and try not to get shot.” truly dazzling teamwork there

LISTEN, YOU!!

THE DISRESPECT?? ooh man and look at his face. this is the happy reunion I’ve been waiting oh my god oh my god

LOL

YEAH HE CAN DO THAT NOW HAHA. while you were off getting all transcendent he was mastering his BLOOP now what huh take that

...sob he’s just yanking Deku along behind him as if he weighs nothing. it’s like that one fancomic of the entire Bakusquad trying to stop an angry Kirishima --

-- HOLY SHIT I SAID “WHOA” ALOUD

MEEP THAT’S CLOSE. whew. okay. breathe. breathe

OH IT’S YOU AGAIN

you guys, is it just me or has this entire battle so far just been one long loop of -> Deku tries to fight Tomura -> Kacchan goes with -> Kacchan almost dies -> an adult intervenes at the last possible second -> Endeavor tries to fight Tomura -> Endeavor almost dies -> Deku tries to fight Tomura -> repeat ad infinitum

anyway so Tomura’s actually going flying into the ground now. that probably came within a hair’s breath of actually nearly almost mildly hurting him! way to go guys keep it up!

and Endeavor’s now echoing a question which many fans have been asking these last few weeks, “where’s Shouto?” where indeed. off somewhere not being a dumbass like these two, one hopes. maybe sticking his arm down some Not Quite High Ends’ throats and making them hibernate

lord help us Tomura’s actually stopped fighting for two seconds to monologue. is this good or bad??

is this a deliberate tactic? are you trying to buy time?? I don’t like this lol. why did they stop fighting you now that they’ve finally almost sort of got an edge on you

wow we’re really just... letting the kids fight, huh

just letting them be right there in formation with Endeavor. no one stops to think “are there any actual adult people we could try and swap out in place of these two high school freshmen?” because they already know the answer is “no there are not” SIGH

EVEN AIZAWA OMG

AND WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THAT?? “la la la we’re not gonna think about it.” goddammit I liked it when you guys were at least trying to pretend like the sixteen-year-olds shouldn’t be here fdslkfjlk

anyway. for what it’s worth, at least we’ve got the only three people in the world who ever tried to surpass All Might standing up here ready to take on the guy whose strength and toughness is approximately the same as his. that’s something. I guess this really is our best shot

YES WE GET IT

“I GUESS IT CAN’T BE HELPED” should be the goddamn chapter title. either that or “SHRUG, CHILD SOLDIERS, I GUESS!!!”

anyway so he’s telling Deku and Kacchan not to ask for direction in one breath, and then giving them orders right away with the next

djsalfkj. welp. you heard him Kacchan. guard Deku no matter what. this will definitely end well

KLDSKFLKSHG MEANWHILE!!!

DON’T MIND HIM HE’S JUST POSSESSED BY A LITTLE BIT OF AFO-SOUL. NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT

oh man he actually looks freaked out??!

like he has no idea what happened just now. I’m sorry, up until this point were you thinking that having echo-y “wooooo... One for All... go get it~~” voices inside your head was perfectly normal?? lol boy he’s been playing you this whole time and he’s still playing you. THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU IGNORE YOUR DEAD FAMILY’S EERIE DREAM WARNINGS. YOU GET POSSESSED

meanwhile!! both Deku and Tomura reacting at the same time! DO YOU BELIEVE ME THAT THEY SHARE A MENTAL LINK YET. hmm hmm hmm anyway

so now Tomura is straight up in denial!

sadly I’m growing more and more convinced that he’s wrong on all three accounts there. you may think it’s your power and your body...

and wait though, because this is the first time that the idea of him not being in control of his body has actually been brought up, isn’t it? so that’s a nice big red flag there! up until now the argument could be made that even if AFO’s will is manipulating Tomura from behind the scenes and influencing his decisions, there was nothing to indicate that AFO could potentially take over his entire body. but now that Tomura has brought it up as a possibility -- even if he’s in denial about it -- I’d say it’s not only possible, but extremely likely! so that’s a nice big thing looming on the horizon there

and it also in turn gives us a potential solution to the question of “how can this battle possibly end without all of the heroes dying and/or Tomura losing?” because one has to assume that Aizawa’s quirk is going to be taken out of the picture at some point, whether it’s because of him blinking at the wrong time or being shot with a bullet or what. at which point Tomura would basically become unstoppable again and be free to just destroy everything like he wants. but now this introduces the possibility of him potentially taking himself out of the picture for the time being. like if he realizes that he’s in danger of being outright possessed, I could see him leaving them for now and running off to go wage mental war with himself for a while, giving the heroes some time to regroup and lick their wounds. so that’s interesting to think about

holy shit!!

okay so just a couple of things I want to take note of here before we read on

“I don’t want to become like you” -- I think we can take this as confirmation that Tomura will fight against AFO if and when he realizes he’s being manipulated. his loyalty to him isn’t completely blind. so that could have some potentially huge implications moving forward

this image of Tomura being on the inside of AFO’s body, in what looks to be the same mental landscape from chapter 270, though. ...yeah. just who is really in charge, here

anyway so his next thought on page 11 is “I want to be even greater than you”, echoing Deku (and Kacchan’s) desire to be even greater than All Might, which is yet another nice parallel between them

and he’s basically telling the AFO voice inside him to shut up now, as if it will actually listen

yep. you want to go after One for All for your own deeply personal reasons. not following your master’s whims at all, nope. you are your own man

so now finally Gran is getting in on the action!

no idea why he want after the arm though. as if a broken arm ever stopped anyone in this fucking manga

OOOH NANA NAME DROP

???? um??? your dead grandma??? remember???!! don’t tell me you don’t at least recognize your own fucking last name there?? that is significant and don’t try to tell me otherwise! and in a chapter about you being rebellious and trying to defy AFO’s will, besides!!

holy shit

1. THE GRAN/TOSHINORI FATHER/SON FEELS I WASN’T READY!!, and 2. HOLY SHIT THIS OLD MAN IS RIPPED, THOUGH

AND HERE COMES ENDEAVOR NOW TO RUIN EVERYTHING SOMEHOW, PROBABLY

I DON’T KNOW WHAT THAT FACE MEANS BUT IT SURE AS HELL ISN’T A GOOD FACE I CAN TELL YOU THAT

OH NO SOMEHOW DEKU GOT INVOLVED AGAIN LOL

DIDN’T I TELL YOU IT WAS A NEVERENDING LOOP OF A FIGHT. SO NEXT UP IS KACCHAN JOINING IN AND THEN ALMOST DYING AGAIN

OH MY GOD

NEVER. ENDING. LOOP oh god oh god. next time don’t loudly shout “HE’S JUST THE BAIT” before launching your surprise attack you dingus!!

HOLY MOLY

OKAY BUT

I don’t know about you but I am hella impressed that he managed a blast like that without blowing his own fucking arm off

with the exception of that one time he got all excited and tried to vaporize Todoroki during the sports festival, we have almost never seen Katsuki go all out against anyone, and the possibility that we might be about to see it now is THRILLING. I AM THRILLED

NOW WE’RE CUTTING TO ENDEAVOR AND HE’S FLASHING BACK TO THE SHORT SPEECH ALL MIGHT GAVE HIM WAY BACK WHEN ABOUT THEM BEING DIFFERENT AND ABOUT HOW ENDEAVOR SHOULD FIND HIS OWN PATH RATHER THAN TRYING TO BE THE SAME KIND OF SYMBOL AS ALL MIGHT. AND I DON’T KNOW WHAT THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THIS IS OR WHY IT’S BEING BROUGHT UP NOW BUT OH GOLLY!

(ETA: I guess it might be because Endeavor -- unlike All Might -- isn’t facing Tomura alone but is working together with the kids to do this combo? like it’s a teamwork thing? I don’t really know lol I’ll think on it some more.)

LOL WHAT

WHAT IS HAPPENING. lol everything is either being exploded or on fire

KFFLSLLK “MEANWHILE”?????

OH NO OH GOD

SIGHING OUT LOUD AGAIN!! not because I’m disappointed to cut away from the Kacchan Loses His Quirk Battle (in due time!!), but because this means that yet again I’m going to have to spend a chapter worrying about Horikoshi killing off one of the TWELVE remaining living female pro hero characters he has, of which one is a healer, another is retired and working as a secretary, yet another only seems to do TV commercials, yet another another currently has... I want to say two limbs?? but I’m not even sure anymore, and lastly two more yet anothers are currently WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN and MAY ALREADY BE DEAD. so if you’re counting, that’s a full HALF of what was already maybe only a fifth of the total pro hero population in general

all of which is to say that IF YOU SO MUCH AS LAY A FINGER ON MT. LADY I WILL FUCKING END YOU HORIKOSHI. we are NOT HAVING THAT. you hear me?? YOU CAN’T SPEND ALL OF YOUR FREE TIME DRAWING MIRKO ALL OVER THE PLACE AND BEING ALL “I FUCKING LOVE GIRL POWER” ONLY TO GO AND BE ALL “OH BUT I KILLED MT. LADY THOUGH WHOOPS”!! DO YOU HEAR ME?? THIS AIN’T IT

sigh. and yet why do I have a very bad feeling about this. hopefully I’m just overreacting. please don’t sully this amazing arc!! MANGA GODS, I OFFER YOU THIS PRAYER

[magnoliasinbloom]

Lie To Me - 9

AO3 :: Previously

Claire blinks, visibly baffled. For a moment, she doesn’t even know what to say, processing what Jamie’s revelation means for their own relationship. She shakes her head to clear it. “You say that having children is one way for your uncles to take the land. How do you manage to not… you know?” Claire blushes.

“Och, Sassenach, I’ve told them that the burns may have made me… unable to sire children. Nerve damage and such.” Jamie matches her reddening cheeks. They both know he is perfectly capable of performing.

“The other way they win is if you—you die. Does this mean that they’ve tried that?”

“Not yet. I agreed to marry as well because Jenny has bairns of her own, including boys. They can inherit too, but I dinna wish my uncles to harm them in their pursuit of wealth and power.” Jamie’s voice is hard. “There was the fire, but that was merely a happy accident that didna turn out as well as they would have hoped.”

“The fire? Your scars?” Claire asks, and Jamie and Murtagh exchange glances.

“Start at the beginning, a bhalaich. Dinna confuse the puir lassie.” Murtagh pours them another tumblerful. Claire is still nursing the first drink, her mind reeling with the information regarding Jamie’s marriage.

“A few years ago, I was working late at night at the Leoch office building. I was still inexperienced, tryin’ to prove meself at the job. I had a colleague; his name was Alexander McGregor.” Jamie’s eyes are full of shame, but his voice is steady. “He had stayed that night too. When I was finally leaving, I noticed he was in a private conference room, with the blinds drawn. That was smart, for Alex knew there were cameras in there. I thought it might be something serious, for their talk grew so heated I could hear the argument coming from the room. I thought I’d knock and defuse the situation.” Jamie paused to take a deep draught. Claire is tempted to reach for his hand and comfort him, but senses this is a story he has to tell for himself.

“Before I could turn the doorknob, I heard a muffled gunshot and I broke into the room. I could only see Alex for a second, slumped in a chair, blood pouring from a hole in his stomach. The man struck me in the heid wi’ the gun, and I dropped like a stone.” Claire gasps softly.

Jamie plows ahead resolutely. “I woke up a few minutes later when I smelled the smoke, the gun in my own hand, and it was already too late. Alex was dead, and the room was up in flames. The man had rigged the wiring on the overhead lights when he left and caused the fire, disabling the sprinklers too. Wi’ the closed door, it was an inferno. My back was seared and blistered, the skin peeling off as I tried to get Alex’s body out. Or so the doctors told me.  ‘Twas a miracle I survived at all.”

Murtagh clears his throat. “He was in the hospital for a month. Jenny and I were terribly worried, thinking he might not pull through.”

“But why?” Claire bursts out, bewildered. “Why kill Alex?”

“Alex discovered internal documents that implicated men in power, links to bank accounts of several police officers, judges, and politicians on Leoch Holdings’ payroll. My uncles were—are—trading money for favors, overturning convictions, and legislating in the company’s interests.”

“During the investigations, we found no trace of any document in the room, most everything had burned up,” Murtagh says. “There was also no CCTV footage available. Someone had tampered with the video.” With this, the old man stood up, and unlocked a metal filing cabinet next to his desk. Claire watched in fascination as he manipulated a false bottom and extracted a fat manila envelope. “But then we got these.”

“Murtagh took care of my dingy flat while I was in hospital. Alex had messengered over copies of the documents in secret—wise of him, to leave no digital trace. There was a letter explaining what it all meant, and who the man was—Stephen Bonnet, he’s a commander in the force. Murtagh saw it, and could verify that my name was not on the records. Therefore, I was unlikely to be involved in my uncles’ dirty business.”

“Why did he not tell you from the start?” Dread was settling into Claire’s very bones, as she grasped the magnitude of the situation.

“He didna trust me, I imagine. Upon his discovery, he assumed I was in cahoots with my uncles, bein’ family and all. But I made certain comments to him that probably convinced him I was unaware of their dealings.”

“What did you tell him?”

“At the time, when I started at Leoch, my uncles were pressuring me to date and marry Laoghaire. I told Alex this, and said that it was wrong and I plain didna want to, and if they fired me for it, they could go fuck themselves and I’d work bagging groceries at Tesco before I’d let them bully me like that.” Claire almost smiles at this vehement outburst. “I lost on that account.”

“And Bonnet?”

“He was listed under an assumed name on the documents. That’s why Alex, poor lad, didna think he might be involved either. Bonnet fixed it so Alex’s body was not autopsied, so no one could ken of the gunshot wound that killed him. The McGregors were told there were no real remains, and they had only ashes to mourn. My uncles—”

“Threatened your life if you exposed them and forced you to marry,” Claire finishes for him. “But there is no proof of you doing any wrong!”

Murtagh sighed. “We thought so as weel. But Colum and Dougal’s reach is much longer than ye ken.”

“They had tech experts alter images and deep fake a video that pin Alexander’s death on me,” Jamie says. Claire shakes her head.

“But surely anyone—”

“’Tis my word against theirs. With their endless resources and contacts in law enforcement and the courts, who would believe me?” Jamie’s tone is final and resigned.

Silence weighs heavy in the air; Murtagh collects their empty glasses and sets them on his desk. “I’ve used my position in the force to continue to gather evidence, more papers, whatever I can use to help bring Colum and Dougal MacKenzie to justice, and absolve Jamie from any blame. I’ve involved Chief John Grey from the SCD, Specialist Crime Division, who works with organized crime, and it’s taken us years to be able to discern who to trust and who is in Leoch’s pockets.”

Claire is stunned at this turn of events. She had expected a godfather who at best, might cajole her into believing that Jamie’s marriage was a lie, an economic convenience of sorts, and that had been true after a fashion. But she had not predicted that this was an issue involving crime, illegal activities, and the death of an innocent man. Jamie appears to read her thoughts.

“That is the truth, Sassenach, and I trust ye enough that I ken well ye willna expose the ongoing investigation, or speak to anyone about what happens at Leoch. I’ve endangered yer very life by making ye privy to my story, and for that I am truly sorry.”

“Jamie, I—” Claire’s voice breaks. She casts about for what she wants to say. “Thank you for trusting me. I won’t say anything, not even to Geillis,”—at this she remembers G is still waiting in the lobby— “and… and I want you to understand, we are what we make ourselves, we use what we have, and we decide what we are. You, James Fraser, are an honorable man.”

X-x-X

Jamie remains behind to spend time going over new evidence with Murtagh. Claire assures him Geillis and she will head straight to their flat, and he asks if she would call him tomorrow. He doesn’t want to assume, he doesn’t want to lie anymore; he will give her time to think, to decide if this is something she also wants, if she feels as he does, their short acquaintance be damned. Can Claire risk her heart?

There is an unbearable weight of sorrow pressing upon Claire’s spirit; as she rides the elevator, descending numbers flashing in the display, she racks her brain trying to figure out if there is anything, anything at all she can do to ease his burden.

When she spots Geillis waiting for her, she realizes how lucky she is to have a friend like her—unconditional, constant, a forever kind of friend. G had been there for her in her darkest times, even when…

Suddenly it hits Claire. Without a word, Geillis follows her out into the rainy Glasgow night.

“What’s happened? Are ye convinced? Was he telling the truth?”

“Oh, G. I can’t even tell you. He’s for real, and he’s just been so unlucky in life… I have to help him.”

“What do you mean? Help him how?”

“I’m going to call Frank.”

[ace-oreos]

Alpha-17 back on Kamino, taking Anakins suggestion and helping the clones come up with names and describing what working with jedi will be like. Also i like the idea of the clones asking why he SO scarred and hes like now thats a good story and watch out for general kenobi he gets into stuff and only after they meet him and anakin are they like "Oh now i get it."

Anon! I got SO. EXCITED. when I got this! Alpha is such a great character and I really enjoy working with him. Thanks for the prompt! I hope it hits everything you asked for. :) 

Kamino is… even worse than he remembers, quite honestly. If not for the verd’ike, Alpha would be more than tempted to burn the place to the ground and be done with it. 

(It’s not the first time the thought has ever crossed his mind, and it’s certainly not the last.)

But at least he doesn’t have to deal with Kenobi or Skywalker anymore. 

Which is a plus, all things considered. Rattatak had been rough, to put it lightly - much more so than he’d let on, partly to ward off potential concern from Kenobi and partly because he refuses to admit it to himself.  

Of course, he’s traded the Jedi for a batch of cadets who are entirely too boisterous for their own good. Kenobi is still stuck with Skywalker as far as he knows, and sometimes he can’t help wondering who got the better deal.

(Then again, knowing Kenobi, he’d be all too happy to spread some osik about serenity and inner balance or something equally revolting.)

Alpha suspects it’s a product of Jango’s teaching that he’d initially headed into this assignment with high expectations for the command batch. In retrospect, he can’t for the life of him fathom where he’d acquired that notion - every single cadet under his command is the embodiment of chaos with a healthy disrespect for authority. 

He’s not one to talk, but as an officer - and a recently promoted officer at that - he feels that it’s his duty to try to uphold the command structure of the GAR. 

Still, he can’t help feeling a sense of grim satisfaction whenever one of the di’kute fires back a retort at the Kaminiise or one of the nat-born instructors. Normally any deviant behavior would be smothered for fear of reconditioning, but the Kaminiise know better than to cross him. He’s one of Jango’s, after all. 

Fett may have been a rotten father, but Alpha has a grudging respect for the man’s ability to keep them all in line for twelve years. Wrangling these cadets is exhausting; he can only be grateful that they’ll be rotated out in a few months. 

(Truthfully, he hasn’t been able to shake a sense of bone-deep fatigue since Rattatak, but that’s no one’s business but his own.) 

No one could ever accuse him of going easy on his cadets, but even he knows that every soldier needs a break sometimes. Taking a second to breathe does wonders for morale. 

Unfortunately, it also invites the possibility of conversation with the verd’ike. He’s never been as inclined to idle conversation like many of his brothers, but he’s pleasantly surprised when the rambunctious boys he’s slowly becoming accustomed to prove to be much more insightful than he’d previously imagined.

He indulges their curiosity some days. More often than not their interest lies with the Jedi they’ll be serving with soon enough, so he does his best to share an adequate depiction. They’re not omnipotent tactical masterminds like the clones had been raised to believe, Alpha warns, but they’re decent officers for the most part. 

“You served with General Kenobi, didn’t you, sir?” one of the cadets asks. 

Alpha barely suppresses the first sarcastic remark that comes to mind and instead settles for a nod and a noncommittal shrug. 

“And?” one of the other boys pipes up. 

“And what?” 

“What did you think of him?”

Well, for one thing, he’s a kriffing Jedi playing at being a politician while having at least one affair that’s strictly forbidden by his creed… 

“He’s a good officer,” Alpha says at last. “Gets a bit high-minded, and we rarely ever saw eye to eye, but he listens to his men.”

He’s been sure to drill that into them over and over, because if there’s one thing he wants them to retain it’s that soldiers will follow a commander into hell if he makes an effort to connect with them. 

“What really happened on Rattatak?” 

The question catches him off guard. For a second he has half a mind to deflect it - it’s a long story, for one thing, and an unpleasant one at that - but these cadets will be shipping out soon. He’ll have little say in things once they deploy, but he can certainly do his best to prepare them now. 

Besides, Alpha can’t fault them for wanting to explore the galaxy beyond Kamino through any outlet available. Being slated for a command slot can be isolating, and they’ve heard enough about the galaxy from older troopers to be ravingly curious about what awaits them once they step foot outside Tipoca. 

“It’s really not that interesting,” he sighs in a last-ditch effort to deter them. 

Sadly, they seem content to wait him out. 

Shabla cadets and their shabla games. 

Grumbling - they look far too smug for having secured such a minor victory - Alpha opts to give them a vague overview rather than a meticulous account of everything that had taken place after Ventress had seen fit to interfere on Jabiim. 

“The campaign on Jabiim was tipping in Separatist favor…” 

_____________________

Skywalker may be a pain in the shebs, but Alpha is coming to realize that the kid had a point about naming the cadets. It hadn’t been much of a priority among the Alpha batch, but it seems to be something extraordinary for the later generations. 

Most times, the kids don’t tell Alpha directly that they’ve chosen a name for themselves; rather, he learns to listen to the quiet discussions between squad mates, and makes a point of using those names rather than the designations they’d been assigned at birth.

Sometimes a cadet’s delight gets the better of him and he blurts it out during an exercise. Alpha rarely reacts in the moment, but he makes sure to give an acknowledgement when they’re off-duty. 

After a while, their names spring to mind before their numbers. Cody, Bacara, Gree… he still can’t determine what exactly the change signals, but he can see it in their eyes. It’s a source of pride, and who is he to deny them? 

Besides, he thinks wryly, it’s better than an unruly Padawan deciding to bestow a nickname upon them in the middle of a war zone.

______________________

The cadets seem to be under the impression that stories from the battlefield will become a regular fixture in their routine. Alpha doesn’t let that notion stand very long, but he occasionally allows their questions after a successful exercise or a particularly impressive sparring match. 

They’ve gotten even bolder since he first took command; apparently, no question is off limits. 

“You’ve got an awful lot of scars, sir,” one of the boys observes. From the tone, Alpha guesses it’s Bly. 

“Very astute, cadet,” Alpha huffs. “I’m glad my training isn’t wasted on you.” 

“Are they all from Rattatak?” 

“For one thing, I honestly don’t remember how I got every single scar, and for another, I’m not here to tell you stories,” Alpha says firmly like he hasn’t spent the past twenty minutes addressing their various questions about his experience with Jedi command. 

“It’s General Kenobi, isn’t it,” Cody pipes up sagely, and in that moment Alpha realizes he’s taught them a little too well. 

“He had something to do with most of them, yes,” Alpha admits. 

“Some officer,” Neyo mutters with his usual cynicism. 

Alpha cuffs him. “Put a lid on it, cadet. I didn’t say they were his fault - it’s just that he was usually involved in one way or another. Kenobi likes to poke his nose in where it isn’t necessarily wanted.”

Most of them look disbelieving. Alpha just shrugs. They’ll figure it out one way or another.

_____________________

Alpha jerks awake sometime around 0300 to the incessant beeping of his comlink. Grumbling to himself, he activates it and rumbles a greeting.

“Hope I didn’t wake you up, sir.” 

“You’re lucky I’m not in theater, or I would smoke your shebs for this one, Cody,” Alpha growls, because even though it’s been a while since the first batch rotated out he vividly remembers every cadet’s distinct inflection and tone. 

“We’ve heard that one before,” Cody says teasingly.

Alpha ignores the jibe. “Spit it out, di’kut.”

Cody hesitates, then bursts out, “How did you do it?”

“Do what?” Alpha asks, awake enough to be puzzled.

“Deal with Kenobi,” Cody whispers. Alpha can’t help being amused by the desperation in his voice. “He’s a disaster on legs, sir.”

“That’s nothing I didn’t know already, al’verde,” Alpha informs him.

“But sir…” 

“You’re the commander. He’s your problem now,” Alpha adds, thoroughly enjoying himself.

“Alpha…”

“Give the general my regards, Commander.” 

“Wait - ”

 “Sorry, al’verde. Duty calls.”

If Alpha is smirking when he sets aside his comlink and shuts his eyes in the hopes of getting a few more hours of sleep, no one is the wiser.

[thefanficmonster]

Things Left Unsaid

Daniel x Taylor (The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope)

Warnings: Swearing (of course, because Taylor)

Genre: FLUFF

Summary: When Daniel wakes up to find one of his closes girl friends in his bed, snuggled up to him on top of all, in his shirt, on top of that too, he can’t help but admit a thing or two to himself. Too bad he can’t admit it all out loud when the girl’s eyes flutter open.

Requested by my platonic spouse, amazing friend and chaotic fellow cult leader @hopeveon You already know how grateful I am for the request and how sorry I am for not completing it sooner. And you already know how much I love you so ON WITH THE DAYLOR CONTENT! Love, Vy ❤

How did this happen? - Is the first though that passes through a still half-asleep Daniel when he wakes up and finds he’s not tangled in his blankets like he usually is. In fact, the blankets are barely touching him. What little warmth he feels has nothing to do with them, but instead with the other body he appears to be sharing the bed with. The body that just so happens to be snuggled up into his side, head resting on his chest.

The body that has hogged all the blankets.

The second thought, a little less foggy than the previous, comes when said body shifts, causing the blanket to slip and reveal the material of the sleeping attire it’s clad in. That sleeping attire just so happens to be a particularly familiar shirt - his shirt:

Ok, now I gotta now how this happened.

It doesn’t take him a lot of thinking or analyzing to put two and two together and find the identity of the person cuddled up next to him. For starters, he’d never allow anyone else in this position and for seconds - that hair is hard to misidentify.

Taylor

The girl he developed a crush on at the very first glance. The girl he soon sparked a close friendship with - a friendship that he saw as a reason to try an terminate the crush he had on her because he felt it would ruin the amazing connection they had. He was prepared to sacrifice his feelings to keep things between them platonic in fear of losing her completely if he tried to move their relationship up the scale. Problem is, as much as Daniel would like to believe that feelings can so easily be erased, the truth is that the more hits they take the stronger they became. And Taylor hadn’t been helping him much either. Her caring glances, bright smiles, the subtle, probably subconscious touches on his arm. None of that seemed to be as meaningful to her as it was to him, or so he thought.  Daniel would have laughed at himself if he didn’t feel so pathetic - he was the one encouraging his friend Chris to ‘shoot his shot’ and mocked him the countless times he refused and then Taylor entered his life, causing the tables to flip on him.

As time went on though, the tables flipped again and it just so happened to be at a college frat party at the beginning of the year. After two years of friendship, suppressing feelings and desperately trying to beat them out of himself, he was still not the first one to confess anything. A good blow to his ego was that too.

Sitting on the edge of the fountain that was a safe distance away from the fraternity and its chaos, Daniel and Taylor ended up sharing a moment under the starry sky, both way too sober in terms of alcohol, but too drunk on the uncontrollable emotions that were flaring up and spreading throughout them like a wildfire. 

“I feel so childish sometimes.“ She admitted, looking down at her sneakers as she dug the heels of them in the dirt by the fountain, “Always thought I’d grow out of crushes eventually.“

Daniel wasn’t caught off-guard by this, after all, they had been discussing some class gossip to fill in the silence or perhaps to avoid saying something they shouldn’t. The gossip was generally surrounding their classmate Angela and their creative writing professor John, but in all honesty neither of them were interested in it nor did they know a lot about it which is why their conversation ended up straying into personal territory.

“Crushes are not something you grow out of.“ Daniel said in response to that, “They just get easier to deal with. Maybe even easier to confess.“

Taylor shook her head at that, her eyes wide almost as if the statement triggered something in her, “No, no way. They are in no way easier for confessing.”

Despite fully agreeing with this statement, Daniel chooses to play dumb an press the subject further in a teasing manner to cover up just how risky of a topic this is for him, especially when she’s around. “Sounds like you’ve had a personal experience with this struggle. Not one of the brave and the bold, huh?”

“Definitely not! If I were, I would’ve already admitted to you how much I like you.“ She didn’t bother to look at him when she said that, her eyes remained focused on the starry sky above, a small lazy smile playing at her lips.

While she was staring at the stars, the boy sitting next to her was star-struck, head spinning from the sudden confession on her part. He wanted to say something, anything for goodness’ sake! But, alas, he couldn’t. He couldn’t find words in general, let alone the right words to express how he was feeling. Thankfully, humans are more than capable of displaying their emotions through body language as well. 

It’s safe to say Daniel expressed all he felt and more when his lips landed on hers, leading them to share their first kiss in under the moonlight and the shimmering stars while havoc was wreaking less than a block away from them.

After that turning point in their relationship, they have been left in a sort of grey area. You know, the one that’s between platonic and officially romantic. This period that is still the present for the two of them is giving Daniel massive anxieties, doubts, speculations and fears that have kept him sleepless for more nights than he cares to count. He’s never brought it up to Taylor though. Speaking of her, she’s seems rather content, maybe even pleased with their current status of undecided, unlabeled fun. It’s reasonable enough, she was the one to initiate it after all. She said she didn’t like relationships or the label of being someone’s girlfriend, at least not this early on and definitely not in the near future and Daniel respected her view, allowing for their relationship to remain marked with question marks. However, the longer this lasted, the more his intrusive thoughts started to get to him. He’s become apprehensive, overly mindful, doubtful, suspicious and skeptical of every exchange they have. Hell, he hates himself for it but he can’t deny that he’s questioned Taylor’s intentions on more than a few occasions. He knew it was his own fears getting in the way of his rational thinking but he’s only human, he couldn’t help himself.

Taylor didn’t exactly specify why she didn’t want this relationship to be official. She didn’t want to be asked about it either. The two times he had asked she had dodged giving a concrete answer and instead changed the topic, using a vague response as a front to what was going on in her head. Daniel didn’t try and pursue the truth, he knew it had the potential of escalating into an argument, considering Taylor knew how to be rather short-fused.

Little did he know how good of a reason she had.

Every previous relationship she had entered was a train-wreck after a train-wreck. A disaster wrapped in another disaster, often times ending with her and her partner on horrible terms and talking smack behind each other’s backs following the break-up. Since junior year in high school, she hadn’t been in a relationship with a single person she liked liked. It was always a settlement for a person who’d show interest in her first, hoping her feelings would develop as the relationship progressed. Unfortunately, they never did and neither did the relationship - leading to the aforementioned disaster. The few times her and her partner remained friends were considered the successful relationships in her book.

All that taken into account, one would find her reluctance on labeling her relationship with Daniel as official pretty reasonable. She didn’t want to admit her reasoning out loud, thinking it was childish and downright nonsensical, keeping Daniel in the dark about what was going on in her head. This was the first time for her to initiate the start of something of this sort - that in and of itself made this connection between them special. Besides that, this was the first time there was a connection. The first time she liked someone. Liked liked someone. She wasn’t looking forward to starting it just for it to fall apart which is why it took her so long to set it all in motion to begin with. And that’s why now she’s taking things slow. Agonizingly slow. But from her standpoint - perfectly reasonable.

In the middle of his reminiscing, about halfway through his trip down memory lane, he shifts to provide himself a more comfortable position. He was quick to regret that decision though, very very quick, especially when he saw the arm that was previously draped over his chest reach up and run a hand through the short red hair that’s glimmering with the morning rays coming in through the window.

“Shit, sorry for waking you up, T.“ Daniel whispers, his eyes squeezing shut as he cringes at the stutter to his words and the fact he even woke her up, “Go back to sleep, it’s barely 6 AM.“

Taylor shakes his head, surprising him when she ends up snuggling closer to him as though this is a perfectly normal occurrence. “Nah, it’s ok...“ she twists her neck to look up at him, rolling over to have a better view of his face, “You seem like you haven’t been asleep for a while.“

He indeed hasn’t been. He has instead been looking back on all the times they’ve spent together, reading into them and trying to dig out every detail, but he’s of course not gonna say that. She’d probably poke fun at him for being so sentimental and sappy, “No, um, I was just thinking, that’s all.” 

All that thinking did bring something useful to him - the events of last night. How she dropped by to study together and maybe watch a movie on the small crappy TV in his dorm while Andrew is gone for the weekend. How they had started a friendly bicker session regarding their cinematic taste. How they had gotten so close to kissing....when the power went out. Daniel still regrets how much he silently cursed that power shortage - that very shortage happened to be what has led them to this: cuddling together in his bed. Taylor didn’t want to go back to her dorm in the pitch black, not that Daniel was gonna let her do so anyway, so she agreed to stay the night, scolding him for being ridiculous when he offered to sleep on the floor. Oh yeah, she also needed something to sleep in, that’s how she ended up in his shirt. With all the pieces put together, this position of theirs is even more precious in his eyes.

“Thinking bout what? If you keep talking I might end up falling asleep again...“ Taylor presses onward, prying words out of his mouth despite his obvious reluctance.

He can never say no to her, to the point where it’s an actual inconvenience at times, which is why he lets out a long sigh before speaking up again, “Have I ever told you about the first time I caught feelings for you?”

“Nope.“ She mutters, “I’m all ears.“

Daniel inhales deeply, filling his lungs to their upmost capacity as he teleports his mind to that moment two years ago. The moment he first saw her. “It was my third day of classes and I was still in no way an expert at navigating this massive campus so I got lost on my way to the bathrooms in the second building. In my defense, it was my first time there so I couldn’t have found the way even if I was a navigation prodigy.“ He attempts to lighten up the tone with which he’s speaking but to no avail, there’s too much emotion in his voice. The moment he’s describing is too meaningful. “As I was aimlessly roaming the halls in search for any bathroom signs, I heard laughter around the corner. This was a big deal, mind you, cause I hadn’t seen a single soul for a good fifteen minutes. Following the sound, it led me to a group of three people standing by a classroom. You happened to be the only person facing away from me, how ironic.“ He lets out a breathy, humorless chuckle, “Even more ironically, just as I was about to approach your friend group to ask for directions, my roommate popped up out of thin air, calling out my name like the loud doofus he is.“

“Oh yeah I remember. Conrad is a handful. I remember my friends commented on how sorry they felt for you for having to share a dorm with him. You’re lucky he graduated. And by the way, fun fact, since we didn’t know your name we just took to calling you ‘guy in red shirt’. Makes me laugh every time I think back to it“ Taylor snickers, interrupting his story-telling.

“’Guy in red shirt’, huh? I like it. It’s better than Dan, anyway.“ This gets a laugh from her as well, “And that’s when you turned around and that’s when...“

“Wait, that’s it? I turned around and you caught feelings?“ She raises an eyebrow at him, unamused as ever.

“Yes.” No. “That’s when I caught feelings for you.” That’s when I fell in love with you.

Taylor rolls her eyes, resting her head back down on his chest, “Boring! I’m going back to sleep.”

If he could smack himself across the face without looking like an absolute weirdo he would do exactly that. “Sure, probably for the better...” I don’t wanna appear an even bigger idiot than I already have.

And so so many things remain unsaid yet again. But perhaps there will come a day when he’ll admit them to her and not only to himself.

One can only hope.

@artlovingbre  @megandaisy9  @sparrow-gg

[uncloseted]

my mom believes in homeopathy and i don't know what to do. our town homeopath died not so long ago so she won't be recommending him to people anymore, but she still believes in the system. apparently he cured my brother's hyperthyroidism and my nephew's alopecia. she says that he went to tons of real doctors and the only thing that worked was homeopathy. that left me speechless. im still skeptical but how do you explain that? and if it's a placebo but it works, then why shouldn't we use it?

This answer is going to be a long one, so I apologize in advance. Apologies also for how long this has taken for me to write and publish. As always, I want to make sure that I answer every part of this question with thought, care, and sources. To make it easier to navigate, I'm going to add headers for each section. What are Homeopathic "Remedies"? The first thing I want to do is clarify what homeopathic "remedies" actually are and what the theory behind homeopathy is. Often, I think we imagine that homeopathy is just herbalism- using "natural" plants as "medicine". By itself, doing that is kind of a dubious approach to treating illness, but it can be at least somewhat effective. It's important to understand that that's not what homeopathy is. Homeopathy is an alternative "medicine" practice created in 1796 by Samuel Hahnemann as a reaction to the mainstream medicine of the late 18th century. Hahnemann's homeopathy is based on the doctrine that "like cures like"- that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms to that disease in healthy people. In order to prevent those symptoms from occurring as a result of the "remedy", homeopathy also subscribes to something called the “law of minimum dose”—the notion that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness. This is inconsistent with what science knows about dose-response relationships, where the effect of a dose is reliant on the concentration of the active ingredient. Many homeopathic products are so diluted that no molecules of the original active ingredient remain. Modern advocates of homeopathy have suggested that water "remembers" the substances mixed in it, and transmits the effect of those substances when it's consumed. This isn't consistent with our scientific understanding of matter. Homeopathy also traditionally includes the concept of "miasms" as the "infectious principle" behind illnesses (including illnesses like epilepsy, cancer, deafness, and cataracts). Miasms are a negative force (imagined to be kind of like a cloud or fog) that serve no purpose other than to make humans miserable and ultimately kill them. Traditionally, homeopaths believe that individual symptoms should not be alleviated, since it will only drive the miasm deeper and the miasm will "manifest itself as diseases of the internal organs". They believe that in order to cure illness, the miasm must be removed from the "vital force". The concept of miasms have become less popular in modern times, but there are still homeopaths who base their practice around it. It's important to know that none of these ideas are backed by the scientific method, nor have they been shown to be effective when subjected to the scientific method. That said, you can kind of see concepts in homeopathy that are 18th century explanations for phenomena that are real. For example, "like cures like" and "law of minimum dose" is actually kind of how vaccines work: you give a very small bit ("a minimum dose") of a disease-causing microorganism or an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism ("like cures like"), which trains the body's immune system to recognize that agent as a threat. Another example is airborne infectious diseases. It is possible to get certain illnesses (such as COVID-19, measles, chickenpox, the flu, and norovirus) if you encounter a "miasm" (what we now call droplets of an airborne infectious disease). The problem with homeopathy is that it's not the 18th century anymore. Science has moved on from using "like cures like" and "miasms" as explanations for illness. We know that "like cures like" is not an effective treatment for every illness, and we know that not all illnesses are "miasms" (airborne). We have a better grasp of things like genetics, viruses, infections, and environmental factors that allow us to more effectively understand what causes illnesses and how to provide effective, reliable treatments for those illnesses. What's the Harm? Problems with Homeopathic "Remedies" Moving on, I want to start with

your last question first. If homeopathic "remedies" are a placebo and they work, why shouldn't we use them? What's the harm? There are three main problems with using homeopathic "remedies" that I want to discuss. The first and most important answer is just that they don't work. I'll do a deeper dive on the evidence against homeopathic "remedies" and why homeopathic "remedies" don't work in a second, but for now, just know that the first problem is that homeopathy can't fix the health problems people are looking to solve. The placebo effect is pretty limited in its scope; it generally works for subjective, patient-reported outcomes such as pain and nausea, but it doesn't usually affect the actual disease. For example, when the placebo effect is used to treat insomnia, patients perceive that they've slept better, but it doesn't actually improve the amount of time it takes a person to fall asleep. The second problem is that homeopathic "remedies" aren't always harmless. While they're generally "unlikely to provoke severe adverse reactions", there have been cases of those "remedies" being taken off of the market because they've caused serious symptoms such as seizures. In the US, homeopathic "remedies" aren't overseen by the FDA in the same what that medications are. As a result, there's no assurance that the substance you think you're getting is what you're actually getting. Frequently, "remedies" are a waste of money because they don't have enough of the active ingredient to work at all. This is especially true if the product you're getting is a "dilution", which intentionally gets rid of the molecules of the original material as a result of the "law of minimum dose", but it can even be true of things like nutritional supplements that you can buy at CVS or Walmart. In the US, there's no group tasked with objectively testing the claims made by companies that sell "remedies", and there's no group making sure that "remedies" don't have ingredients in them that are unsafe. Belladonna, arsenic, and poison ivy have been found at detectable levels in homeopathic "remedies", and cases of arsenic poisoning in particular have occurred. But because homeopathic products are marketed as if they're "drugs", many people assume they wouldn't be allowed to be sold if they weren't good, if they didn't work, or if they were advertising falsely, and so they keep buying them. If you see an individual homeopath, this problem is compounded. "Homeopath" is not a protected term in the US, meaning that anyone can claim to be one. In turn, this means that there's no licensing board that oversees their work, no professional association or government agency that keeps them accountable for their mistakes, and no educational credentials that they need to begin practicing. Your local homeopath may have no background in biology, medicine, chemistry, pharmacology, or even homeopathic or alternative medicine practices. They can literally just be a person, one who you're trusting to cure your ailments and to not accidentally poison you in the process. The last issue I want to bring up is that homeopathy is often (although not always) viewed as being an acceptable replacement for evidence-backed medicine. This means that often, people who see a homeopath aren't seeing a medical doctor, and their symptoms aren't being treated by evidence-based medicine. By not taking an evidence-based approach to intervening in illness, outcomes are significantly worsened, especially for serious, life-threatening conditions such as cancer. Patients have died as a result of opting to take a homeopathic approach to illness instead of receiving proper treatment for diseases that could have been easily managed by evidence-backed medicine. This becomes an even bigger problem when it comes to public health issues. People who view homeopathy as being equal to or better than evidence-backed medicine are more likely to be anti-vaxxers and to not vaccinate their children. Reductions in vaccination rates have led to resurgences of diseases that had previously

been close to elimination. The US has seen a resurgence of whooping cough, measles, and tetanus as a result of anti-vax sentiment. Those resurgences directly endanger people who cannot be vaccinated due to chronic health issues, people with allergies to ingredients in vaccines, and people who cannot choose to be vaccinated, such as children. How Effective Are Homeopathic "Remedies"? Next, let's talk about studies that look into the efficacy of homeopathic "remedies". Government level reviews of homeopathic "remedies" have been conducted by the UK, Australia, and the European Academies' Science Advisory Council. The UK's study found that there was "no compelling evidence of effect". Australia conducted a meta-analysis of 1800 papers, and found that "there were no health conditions for which there was reliable evidence that homeopathy was effective." EASAC found that there was a lack of evidence that homeopathic products are effective, and raised concerns about quality control. Additionally, there have been systemic reviews and meta-analyses of the efficacy of homeopathic "remedies" from doctors, universities, and medical researchers. In 2005, The Lancet (one of the world's oldest, best-known, and respected medical journals) published a meta-analysis looking at the efficacy of homeopathy. Basically, that means that they looked at data from 110 homeopathy trials. These trials were included in the study because they had a completely randomized set of patients who don't know whether they were getting a "homeopathic treatment" or a placebo pill. This type of "blinded" study allows researchers to see how effective the intervention (in this case, a homeopathic "treatment") actually is. Their findings were, "compatible with the notion that the clinical effects of homeopathy are placebo effects". Meta-analyses have also been conducted on the application of homeopathy for individual diseases, including cancer, ADHD, asthma, insomnia, fibromyalgia, dementia, IBS, osteoarthritis, migraines, ecchymosis and edema, and dermatological conditions, and all have found the same result. The UK's NHS, the American Medical Association, the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology, the National Health Service and Medical Research Council of Australia, the World Health Organization, the American College of Medical Toxicology, the American Academy of Clinical Toxicology, the Russian Academy of Sciences, and even the acting deputy director of the National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine have all come out against the use of homeopathy, saying that there's "no good quality evidence that homeopathy is effective as treatment for any health condition", recommending that no one use homeopathic "treatments" for disease or as a preventative health measure, and noting that there is evidence that using these treatments can produce harm and indirect health risks. But it Seems Like it Works! What Else Could Have Happened? In terms of what happened with your brother's hyperthyroidism and your nephew's alopecia, I'm perfectly happy to admit that I have no idea. I don't know what the homeopath gave them or what else they were taking or what else they were doing during that period of time that might have changed their health status. I can offer you some hypotheses (and I will in a second), but I don't know, and that's okay. What I do know about is the current state of research on homeopathic "remedies" overall, and how it holds up when subjected to the scientific method. There are a few common culprits for why homeopathy may seem to work. I'm going to go over those now, and then I'll dig into some theories for what may have happened with your brother and nephew. These culprits include:

Placebo effect- we talked about this one earlier, but essentially, if people believe that a "treatment" will work, they're also more likely to believe the "treatment" worked after taking it. As a result, they will report feeling better on subjective measures such as pain.

Natural healing- with time, the body can sometimes heal itself without medical assistance. This is most common for things like viruses.

Therapeutic effect of consultation- care, concern, and reassurance from a compassionate caregiver can have a positive impact on the patient's assessment of their well-being, even if objective assessments of their well-being stay the same.

Regression towards the mean- many conditions and diseases are cyclical. The patient may notice a decrease in symptoms that they attribute to homeopathic "remedies", but are actually just a result of moving to a different stage of the disease cycle.

Cessation of unpleasant treatment- a homeopath may suggest that patients stop receiving medical treatment. Medical treatments can sometimes have unpleasant side effects, and so halting those treatments can make the patient feel better in the short term. The patient attributes the decrease in symptoms to the homeopathic "remedy" but it's actually that they stopped taking a medication that has side effects. In the short term, this feels good, but in the long term it is destructive because the disease isn't being treated.

Non-homeopathic treatment- the patient is also receiving medical care, and the medical care is responsible for the decrease in symptoms, not the homeopathic "remedy".

Unrecognized treatments- an unrelated food, exercise, environmental agent, treatment for a different ailment, etc. is also treating the patient's medical condition and is responsible for the decrease in symptoms.

For alopecia areata (hair loss in patches on the scalp), spontaneous remission is actually more common than you might expect. In most cases that begin with a small number of patches of hair loss, hair grows back after a few months to a year. It's possible that your nephew's hair just... grew back, especially if time had passed. It's also possible your nephew's parents were treating his alopecia other ways (minoxidil, contact immunotherapy, corticosteroids, a gluten free diet if the alopecia was associated with celiac disease) and just didn't tell you or your mum. Hyperthyroidism is a bit more difficult to guess at. It could be that your brother's medical doctors switched him to a different medication that did work or changed his dosage. If you're sure that's not it, it could be that he switched his diet to one that's low iodine and low in caffeine. Research suggests that, although a low iodine diet cannot cure hyperthyroidism, it can reduce or alleviate the symptoms in some people. If your brother went vegetarian, vegan, or stopped eating fish, that could be the culprit. If he stopped taking a multivitamin that contains iodine, that could be it. If he started eating a ton of foods high in goitrogens (soy, cassava, cabbage, cauliflower), that could also contribute to what happened, since goitrogens interfere with the uptake of iodine in the thyroid. It's also possible he was misdiagnosed, but if it's true that he went to "tons of real doctors", that seems fairly unlikely. Again, all of these are just guesses for the purpose of illustrating what confounding factors may have been present. I think the bottom line with stories like these are that you're hearing them secondhand. You don't know how many doctors your nephew or brother saw, or the quality of those doctors, or what they diagnosed, or what they prescribed, or how many different lifestyle changes they tried. You don't know what the homeopath prescribed them, or if they took it. You're hearing a story of miracles through the mouth of a believer, and that can make it difficult to know what is and isn't true (in a medically accurate kind of way). It's possible that your mum's homeopath has stumbled upon a treatment for alopecia and one for hyperthyroidism that work better than traditional medicine. I hope that's true. We can always use better treatments, especially for difficult-to-cure conditions like alopecia. But I think it's more likely that there's just some piece of information you weren't given. What do I do? Getting to your original question, there's not a ton of evidence-backed research (that I could find, at least) for how to change people's minds about homeopathy, but there is data on changing people's minds with regard to vaccines, and I think using those tactics may work in both cases. What to do about your mum's beliefs in homeopathy depend on where those beliefs come from, how entrenched they are, and how it's impacting her life. If she's just someone who tries lifestyle changes and supplements from CVS first before going to a doctor and if she believes in vaccination, homeopathy is a waste of time and money, but it's probably not too big of a problem. In that case, it may not be worth pushing her about it, especially if she hasn't found a new homeopath after her old one passed away. If she's anti-vax and/or refuses to see medical doctors, that's a bigger problem, and it's worth having a conversation about. Changing her views is likely to take time, so be prepared to have at least a few conversations about these topics. And be prepared to step away from the conversation and resume it at a later time if it becomes too contentious. Start by asking her about her fears with regard to evidence-backed medicine. Do your best to be curious rather than judgmental in those conversations and to be a good listener. Respect is the most important tool in changing a person's mind, so try not to interrupt, be dismissive, or combat her beliefs off the bat. Affirm her right to have questions (but not the validity of the actual concern), and

try to say positive things about her in the conversation (for example, "I can see you really want to do everything you can to keep yourself healthy and safe"). Focus on her feelings, not facts. By trying to understand where she's coming from, you can begin to understand where her hesitations are and how those fears might be remedied. For example, a lot of people who believe in homeopathy do so in part because they feel like homeopathic practitioners listen to them, respect them, and care about them more than medical doctors do. They've usually had a bad experience with medical doctors. Knowing where her fears lie gives you a better idea of what she needs in a medical context, and can help you figure out how to dispel misconceptions she has about medicine or find alternatives that actually work. In the case of feeling like medical doctors don't respect her, you may be able to help your mum find a medical doctor who will spend longer with her and really listen to what she has to say. You can try asking her follow-up questions that allow her to investigate her own beliefs. For example, you might try asking about Hahnemann's ideas of "like cures like", "the law of minimum dose" or "water memory" and see how she reacts. Many people, even those who use homeopathic "remedies", don't know the principles that it's based on, and will eventually express skepticism when asked to explain them. It's tempting to try and combat pseudoscience with facts, but studies suggest that presenting facts makes people more likely to cling to their original beliefs. It's better to let people investigate their beliefs on their own through asking the right questions. You might also try this technique. Ask her how likely she would be to see a medical doctor/get a vaccine, on a scale of 0-10. If she says 1 or 0, this strategy isn't going to work. But if she says 2 or 3, then you can ask her why she's not a 0. Why is she not fully saying she won't see a medical doctor or get a vaccine? This forces her to explain what she thinks the positives of medical doctors/vaccinations are. Now you're on the same side; you both think there are some positives to the medical profession. Reinforce those ideas when you talk to her. From there, you can ask what would make her more likely to see a medical doctor/get a vaccine, and when she answers, you can point to the places where those things exist in the medical field. If nothing else works, you could try finding ways to make evidence-based medicine and vaccination compatible with her beliefs. Perhaps you could try using the language of homeopathy to explain medical issues and their treatments. For example, with COVID, it might work to tell her that COVID is a miasm, and that researchers used "like cures like" and the “law of minimum dose” to create a vaccine to remove the miasm from the "vital force". All of that is technically true, at least in a sense. It's just not the language scientists would use to describe what happens. To Sum It Up The medical establishment definitely has issues it needs to work on. The lack of compassionate, respectful care in many medical settings is a real problem, and it has real consequences. There are some situations in which a placebo is a potentially valid approach to treatment. But the answer is not to encourage homeopathy. It's to do more research, develop better drugs, and change the ways that doctors interact with their patients. Homeopathy doesn't work, and it does potentially have harmful side effects, both on a personal and societal level. The way we can combat homeopathy is to be curious and respectful, to help people identify and work through their concerns, and to offer them solutions to their medical problems that take those concerns into account.