#to bruce. and the fact that he suspects her. like since the 40s it's been word of law by the ogs that bruce Doesn't suspect her

[roobylavender]

considering what you have spoken about regarding selina do you also get frustrated with like…i cant quite explain it but sometimes especially in more recent years shes been posed or positioned like some sort of damsel that needs a big strong man to save her and like im not saying she should be portrayed with the “hollywood level feminism” for lack of a better term im just think about how old versions of selina would have hated that. like im just thinking of anytime in the reeves movie where bruce grabs her or forces her mouth shut or even when he didnt allow her to kill falcone and im just thinking she should claw the fuck out of him for that. i just miss a version of selina who wouldnt allow anyone to walk all over her personal autonomy like that

oh absolutely! in fact this is specifically why i can't stand loeb's take on her character lol (and as we both know that was a significant point of reference for the reeves film). it's really jarring to transition from her volume one and two canon to the long halloween / dark victory / when in rome. i think a lot of people tend to latch onto these books because tim sale's art is to die for and it's obv hard not to enjoy a good murder mystery. in that aspect they're still books i can enjoy in isolation. but i find it very difficult to enjoy them as a selina fan specifically because in every single one it's like she's looking for solace and security in a man and i'm not sure why. like what was so bad about her original backstory of having a deadbeat dad (whether you ascribe to the volume one or volume two version of him) and why did she need to go looking for her "real" father in carmine falcone. why did she need to seek out temporary boytoy relief in italy. why did she dream about being saved by bruce. none of it really has a reason other than to create a "lack" in her for the sake of it being there, because she'd never needed a man like that before in her post-crisis narrative. as you mentioned it was quite to the contrary and she was fiercely independent and protective of her own peace, esp from men. when she felt empty or without a connection or lifeline to someone real, it was mostly about people like maggie or holly or arizona. her people

what i think it ultimately comes down to are two things: the first thing is the diminishment of her post-crisis origins. after all, it's convenient to ignore how distrustful selina is of people, and of men with power at their leisure to abuse specifically, when her post-crisis origins are no longer relevant to her personal characterization. although selina's status as a sex worker is more prominent now, it was more or less completely swept under the rug for the bulk of volume two. loeb also refused to engage with it in any capacity. it only really resurfaced with the conclusion to volume two because it drew direct parallels to how we initially found her in volume one, and then brubaker expanded on it once again in his take on the character, which was notably juxtaposed against a pre-existing romance with bruce and brings me to the second thing. i've already waxed about this at length so this may very well be recap but i really don't think selina's lack of control over her personal autonomy can be divorced of the modern portrayal of the romance. when selina looking for security and understanding and comfort in bruce is what drives the romance forward there's not much room to maintain her original values and guarded demeanor, if not her outright defensiveness and hostility. a lot of people look at the extensive trauma selina has experienced and argue that she deserves to be in a relationship with someone who allows her to let those walls down. this isn't incorrect in theory. but it does repeatedly ignore who she is. it's kind of like the point i was making about bruce yesterday. exploring the inherently abusive nature of robin or of bruce's right to his children in light of that fact is interesting to do, but the actual execution has rarely managed to take into account who bruce actually is

for however nice it might be for selina to let her walls down romantically and look for solace in bruce—and i say this mostly for the sake of argument, personally i would argue against its necessity—it's realistically not something she's actually going to do. at least not as willfully as she's been portrayed to. realistically she's going to make it extremely hard, which if anything is precisely the appeal. i love it when selina gives bruce a hard time. i love that it's not supposed to be easy or maybe even a possibility for him to win her over bc there's so much about his own ideological stances that's flawed and in opposition to her own. she doesn't have to be any less unrelenting in her principles and worldview for that romance between them to be compelling bc at the end of the day the entire crux of it is that against all odds bruce cares. for however wrong he thinks she might be in a given moment or in her stance against the government, he knows who she is and how hard she's fought and what she's survived and it makes him sympathetic to her because she's real. she's a wonderful character through which to explore the logical limits of bruce's self-righteousness and categorization of crime, as well as a wonderful mirror to hold up to his face as he starts to ask himself whether what he's doing is really the only means of keeping the city safe. and the novelty of it all is that you don't have to sacrifice her character for any of that to be true. writers have simply deluded themselves into believing that they have to and that's why we are where we are today

[dangerousconnoisseurdonut]

Omega Auction of the Century Preview

@jeromiah and @nostalgic90s proposed a most intriguing idea of Omegas being so rare, they are auctioned off, and Bruce would go for a frankly insane amount as he is the most eligible of Omegas around. This is just the start of an idea, but I have to get ready for work and want to know what people think of it so far!

Bruce couldn’t completely withhold his shudder of fear and revulsion as he heard the second Omega on the auction block went for a cool ten million, upped from the eight million the last one went for, simply because the first one had been a male and this one was a slightly pudgy (but not unattractive) female who came from a family of six, so she had a good chance for being a strong breeder. Oh, but how he and Brooke hated being referred to that way; as if they were cows or horses just waiting for a stud to come along. In school, they had both received a lot of flack from their peers, often being referred to as breeding stock or even whores once (Brooke had broken Grace Van Dhal’s nose when she said that). It was only their parents large donations to the school that they had taught them proper courses at all as many just enrolled Omega’s in more simple math courses, home economics, home estate management courses, and the like. When their parents had died, the school had tried to put them in those courses, thankfully their Uncles Lucius Fox and Ed Nygma, with their Alpha Dr. Leslie Thompkins, had simply pulled them from the school and taught them everything they needed to know.

  Sadly, he thought as the third Omega was taken out for the block, it was probably all going to be for naught; rich Alphas and Betas didn’t really care how smart the Omega was so long as they were fertile and not an imbecile as they worried about the child inheriting such a thing (too bad you couldn’t keep stupid Alphas from mating). And, as Bruce was a rare intersex Omega, his fertility was somewhere around 89%, meaning he would probably get pregnant right away when they took him on his birthday and went into Heat. This was one of the reasons he was being saved for last; his high fertility rate combined with his company and his higher than average intelligence made him a very appealing Omega. Combined with the fact his twin sister was also an Omega, Bruce and Brooke could very well break the record for highest auctioned Omega in the United States, possibly all of North America, which was a steep forty million last year when Lex Luthor bought his Omega, a farm boy by the name of Clark Kent. Some people thought he overpaid, until the rumours started circulating that Lex had had a crush on the boy through their high school years, but the boy had largely appeared straight. At least, he thought as the third Omega, a boy that went for only seven million due to him having a scar on his abdomen from when he had needed to have his appendix taken out as well as his sister having had a miscarriage, Lee, Lucius, and Ed would get a large ‘dowry’ for them as the family of the Omega got around 40% of the bid.

 As the fourth, and last Omega before them was hauled out, he bemoaned what they were making him and Brooke wear; all Omega’s had to wear very revealing clothes so as to entice the Alphas into spending big bucks on them. They had originally wanted Bruce and Brooke in something not even a prostitute would be caught dead in; some kind of lacy piece that frankly looked more like lingerie than any type of clothing. But, after a few well placed threats from Ed and Lee, what they was wearing was more fit for a rave or rock concert, but at least it wasn’t entirely see-through. They had put him in tight leather pants, a mesh t-shirt that left nothing to the imagination, and Lee had given him his favourite leather jacket to wear. Brooke was wearing some kind of leather halter top the covered her breasts and did nothing else, as well as a short skirt and fishnet stockings and her favourite knee high boots, all covered by her favourite leather duster. Soon though, he heard the last Omega, a beautiful young girl who came from a long line of strong Alphas and other beautiful Omegas, no Betas found in her family tree, even if her family wasn’t that well off, no doubt they would enjoy the 40% of the twenty million she was just sold for. They were soon being ushered onto the stage, and barely managed to hold in his whimpers as all the men and women in the room were looking at them like they were rib-eyes and they were all starving. Brooke had his hand clamped in a death grip as she looked out as well.

  “And here we have, Ladies and Gentlemen, saved the best for last; twin Omegas, Bruce and Brooke Wayne! The last of the Wayne’s, they actually score high in mathematics and sciences, Bruce is intersex…” Bruce drowned out the announcer as his and Brooke’s ‘accomplishments’ were listed, and took stock of just who was there, and felt more than a little sick at who he saw; crime bosses like Thorn, Falcone, and Maroni were there (God, but he hoped Maroni didn’t win them as the man had four Omega’s already, and more than one of them had been accidentally photographed with shiners). There were creeps like Hugo Strange, who was rumoured to experiment on Betas, and Kathryn Monroe, who was rumoured to be something of a cult leader. Then, there were just straight up assholes like Roland Daggett, an unscrupulous CEO that was suspected of taking several shortcuts to get what he wanted, their old classmate Brant Jones, and the one who made him the sickest of all; Theo Galavan. Bruce prayed to whatever powers were listening that Galavan didn’t get them as he would no doubt dissolve Wayne Enterprises as he despised the Wayne’s, and it had been all Thomas, and later Lee, could do to keep Galavan away from Bruce and Brooke when they were younger.

  “Shall we start the bidding at $500,000? Thank you, Mr. Daggett, that’s $500,000 to start us off.”

  “$550,000!”

 “You insult the pair, Salvatore! $750,000!” Bruce was pretty sure that was Carmine Falcone, and prayed that either they were going to be the old man’s, or his son Mario, who was said to actually be rather kind, as opposed to the daughter Sofia; word had it the woman was a straight up whack-job.

 “You both insult such fine specimens; $1,000,000!” Hugo Strange bid, and Bruce quickly hoped someone outbid the man quickly as he was losing feeling in his hand due to Brooke’s squeezing.

 “$1,500,000!” Bruce saw another acquaintance, Tommy Elliot enter the ring, and really hoped he had matured some since he punched his lights out.

 “$5,000,000!” Please, God, no was all Bruce could think as Galavan threw his own hat into the ring.

 “$6,000,000!” Bruce was both relieved someone outbid Galavan, but also a little disturbed as it was Kathryn Monroe who bid; he had nothing against older women taking younger lovers (he refused to call them cougars as he found it offensive), but it wasn’t really his thing and besides which, while he may be bisexual, he largely swung for his own team.

 “$10,000,000!” Bruce looked up at the familiar voice and saw Barbara Kean and her partner Tabitha Galavan had just thrown down a substantial gauntlet, and he wondered why as not only were Barbara and Tabitha lesbians, they had two Omegas already, and one Beta; his friends Ivy Pepper, Bridgit Pike, and Selina Kyle. He figured this way, he would carry the pups and they wouldn’t have to worry about it. They were probably his and Brooke’s best hope as they would be with their friends and while Barbara could be a little intense (and Tabitha was well known for her whip), he didn’t think either woman would be abusive to their Omegas; Selina had certainly never complained about how Bridgit and Ivy were treated.

 “$15,000,000!” Daggett came back into the ring with a strong bid, and Bruce was beginning to feel a little sick as he placed his other hand over Bryce, who whispered a sorry into his ear.

 “$23,000,000!” Bruce was rather surprised when Fish Mooney threw a bid out as the woman was usually too busy to have much to do with Omegas, but among the crime bosses littering Gotham, she was one of the better ones to be owned by.

 “$30,000,000!” Bruce gripped Brooke back as Galavan countered with a number not many would be willing to counter, even for twin Omegas.

 “$40,000,000!” Barbara and Tabitha countered, and it seemed like they were in a vacuum as there didn’t seem to be any noise whatsoever. Bruce prayed that it was too much for Galavan to go above his sister as the announcer exclaimed,

 “We have $40,000,000! Thank you Miss. Kean and Miss. Galavan! Do I have anymore bids? That’s $40,000,000 for the Wayne twins to Miss. Kean and Miss. Galavan going once! Going Twice! Going Three ti-!”

 “$50,000,000!” Bruce was almost certain he or Brooke were going to pass out as they felt the air pressure drop at an unprecedented number, even for a pair of Omegas. He looked out into the audience and saw that many had mentally withdrawn from the battle, and felt his heart sink as he knew not even Barbara and Tabitha would go against such a bid.

 “We now have $50,000,000 to Mr. Theo Galavan! That is a new record! Thank you, Mr. Galavan! Do I have anymore bids? Sirs? Ladies? Well, then that is $50,000,000 to Mr. Theo Galavan, going once!” Bruce prayed anyone would outbid Galavan; he would gladly cover the difference if at least his sister was safe, but none raised their hands.

 “Going twice!” Bruce felt Brooke clutch his shoulder as her own shook with the realization that no one was going to outbid their worst nightmare.

 “Going three times!” Bruce saw Galavan smirk as his dream of destroying the Wayne legacy was about to come to fruition.

 “So-”

 “$98,316,010.99!” Everyone was stunned and swirled their heads, trying to figure out who had placed such an outlandish (and rather peculiar) bid, only to see a man decked out in a tight leather outfit and completely bald; he didn’t even have eyebrows, but all knew who this man was. Victor Zsasz, one of, if not the most, Gotham’s most deadly assassins, the Penguin’s bodyguard and enforcer; a man not to be trifled with under any circumstances.

 “S-sir?” The announcer, who before had been annoyingly enthusiastic about selling off young men and women, was now very scared as the assassin actually walked up on stage with two of his Zsaszette’s as others referred to them, both of whom smiled gently at the frightened Omegas.

 “That, is a joint bid from my boss, Oswald Cobblepot, Jervis Tetch, Victor Fries, Jim Gordon, Alfred Pennyworth, and the Valeska twins, Jerome and Jeremiah. They couldn’t decide which one they wanted, so they pooled their resources for the pair of them.” Zsasz explained before he took a good look at the twins and asked,

 “Do either of you feel comfortable wearing that?” Bruce shook his head as Brooke whispered,

 “No, Mr. Zsasz.”

 “OK, we got some clothes in the car you can change into before we leave, make you look less like a pair of hookers and more like a pair of wealthy brats. Unless, of course, someone wishes to bid against the seven most dangerous men in the city?” Zsasz looked out toward the crowd, making eye contact with Galavan in particular, who actually looked to be gearing up to try and outbid the psychopath, when the announcer said,

 “Going once, going twice, going thrice, sold! Sold to -”

 “Just call them the Legion of Horribles; it’s quite the mouthful otherwise.” Zsasz said as he and his girls checked the pair for any bruising or scars, and somewhat surprised to see a few here and there, but they weren’t abuse scars; these were battle scars.

 “Sold to the Legion of Horribles! They just have to do one final check-up and then you can pick them up at the side entrance.”

 “Most valuable darlings in the world, and you make them sound like a pair of cheap hookers, nice.” One of the Zsaszette’s complained before the pair were escorted off the stage.

Please tell me what you think of it so far, as there’s a lot more to come!

[loki-hargreeves]

Loki’s 12 Days of X-Mas - You Get Stuck in a Blizzard

Author’s Note: This is part of Loki’s 12 days of Christmas. It’s a written advent calendar I’m working on. Also, Endgame and IW NEVER HAPPENED in this story. Natasha, Tony and the others are alive and well, okay?  Warnings: vulgar language, mentions of drowning (no-one dies), a little bit of angst and fluff Word Count: 2,4K Summary: Y/N and Loki are on a mission in Siberia together. A blizzard surprises them and they find themselves in a sticky situation...

Third POV

Siberia, December 21st

“So, you don’t get cold?” Y/N asked Loki, who happened to be her partner on a mission right before Christmas. Since Loki had moved to earth – or Midgard, as he called it – he had actually helped the Avengers. They were still sceptical when it came to him, but Loki wanted to prove he wasn’t the same person he was in 2012. If he was going to stay on earth, he thought he might as well make himself useful.

That’s how he ended up in Siberia with Y/N. She was his friend. She looked past his mistakes and she never seemed to have prejudice when it came to him. They had grown fond of each other really fast, which is why the other Avengers thought it was good to send Loki – a frost giant - and Y/N, someone who trusted him on a mission together. 

Besides, it’s not like everyone in the team noticed there was something going on between them that they didn’t dare explore. Most of them hoped the alone time would finally make the two kiss or at least come clean with their feelings. 

“I do get cold; I just tolerate it far better than others. It never bothered me,” Loki answered, but his last few words sounded more like a question.

Y/N nodded as they kept walking. Natasha had dropped them off 40 kilometres away from a suspected HYDRA base. They couldn’t go any closer without the risk of being caught, so the only option was to walk through the heavy woods and over a frozen lake. As Loki and Y/N were going to the HYDRA base, Natasha and Steve investigated a small village nearby. They were only a call away if the duo needed backup.

It was cold and the wind didn’t make it any better. Y/N had wrapped her arms around her body, her scarf covered half of her face and she was wearing a lot of clothes, yet she was cold. New York winters were nothing compared to the weather up in the North. They were in the polar circle. It was cold and dark, which in a way was good for them to go by unnoticed. She just hated the fact her eyelashes nearly froze together each time she closed her eyes and every breath of cold air made her lungs shiver.

Of course, Loki was just fine.

She had to admit she was slightly jealous of him in the situation, but she didn’t dare complain. She knew how sensitive Loki was when it came to his true nature. He had opened up to her about it and she didn’t want to make him back off.

“Do you think we’ll make it to Stark’s annual Christmas party?” She wondered as they walked in the snow. The snowshoes kept them from sinking in the icy powder.

Loki hadn’t even heard of such a thing. He figured he hadn’t been invited, which really didn’t surprise him. “We’ll see. I must admit, I can’t imagine I’d be upset if I missed out on it.”

What was it with Loki and Tony? Sure, Y/N knew everything about 2012, but she also knew Loki was controlled by Thanos and the mind stone. Bruce knew it, Thor knew it, everyone knew it, but most of them still kept their distance. It bothered Y/N. She had seen just how great Loki was and she wanted the rest to see him too.

Well, if they would make it in time, Y/N would take Loki with her, if he wanted to go. Perhaps, she could make Tony see the other side of the Trickster god?

They walked in silence for a while. It didn’t take long until snow began to fall down from the sky and the tiny snowflakes got caught by the wind. The darkness around them turned white as a blizzard formed, making it impossible to see far in the distance. “Fuck!” Y/N cursed. As if it couldn’t get any worse?

Loki smirked as she heard her curse. Even when she said such profanities, he found her cute. Not that he’d ever admit he thought so, he didn’t think she would ever see him as more than an ally. Sure, they might’ve had a flirty relationship, but Loki assumed that was normal on Midgard. Even friends seemed to cuddle and share beds nowadays. “You know, I could make a magic shield, right?” Loki wondered if she had even thought of that.

She was a few steps ahead of him, so Loki was tailing her. As he finished his sentence, she stopped and tried to squint her eyes in order to see Loki. “Really? Why didn’t you- ah!” She suddenly yelped in surprise which was followed by a loud cracking sound. No one had time to know what was going on until Y/N fell down and water splashed around her, landing on the snow.

The thick ice had betrayed her. Loki knew she had stepped on a weak spot, perhaps even a stream spot, and that there was no way she’d get out of there in all the clothes she was wearing. He leapt towards the hole in the ice and felt relieved when he saw her. She had sunk her daggers on the edge of the hole to keep herself on the surface.

“L-Loki! I-it’s...c-cold!” her voice stuttered as her teeth chattered together. He grabbed her body without any hesitation and pulled her out easily. She let go of her daggers and squeezed her trembling hands around Loki’s arms as he got her out of the water. Soon enough, they were both on the ice safely. Her heavy clothes were soaked with water and he knew it would freeze in only minutes. Loki was just relieved she didn’t drown! Now that she was safe, Loki felt how hard his heart was beating. It scared him, to say at least. It all happened so quick.

But they had to get her inside as fast as possible. Y/N was a mortal, the cold could kill her. “Are you okay?”

“I’m a-awake...that’s f-for sure,” She managed to be sarcastic, even in this moment. She nearly died!

Loki remembered seeing a hut nearby not too long ago. It looked abandoned, old and like a wreck, but perhaps he could get her inside and warm her up? At least, the hut offered a shield from the blizzard. He knew she had to dry those clothes before they could continue.

“Can you walk?” Loki questioned her.

Y/N nodded and clumsily tried to get up. Her soaked clothes were dragging her down and her entire body was quivering relentlessly. “I’m fine.”

One thing was for sure, she was stubborn as hell. Loki knew she didn’t want to admit she needed help, but it wouldn’t stop him from trying. If she died on this mission, everyone would blame him for it anyway. “We’re staying in that hut we saw until you’re warm again. Don’t even try to fight it, Y/N.”

She didn’t say a word as Loki wrapped his arm around her to help her stay on her feet. To make their way a little easier, Loki created a shield around them that kept the blizzard from storming down on them. Silence surrounded them as they walked. Minutes passed, but Loki knew they were getting close. He had good orienteering skills. He wasn’t too worried, until suddenly she stopped shivering. It confused him. “Y/N?” Loki saw how tired she looked. Her eyes were drowsy, and her lips had turned ashy. Her eyelashes were white from the frost and even her hair began to freeze. It didn’t seem promising.

“I’m feeling much better, Loki,” Y/N let him know tiredly. Her words came out as a slur, almost as if she was drunk. Loki’s heart clenched in his chest. He had seen this before, long ago. It was during the time Vikings still walked the soil on Midgard. He had visited a village in Norway out of curiosity. It was wintertime. Some men had been fishing and nearly ten grown Viking men had fallen through the ice. They had been brought back to the village and everyone tried to warm them up. They had hypothermia; Loki knew the term. The fire and blankets hadn’t helped too much, but he remembered their wives cuddling them. Apparently, skin to skin contact worked magic on the frozen men.

Finally, after what felt like forever, he saw the hut. He doubted anyone was inside and even if someone was there, it wouldn’t stop Loki. “You’ll be alright very soon, I’ll make sure of that,” Loki assured her and kicked the wooden door open. It was dark and quiet inside. Once they got past the door, he shut it tightly. With some magic, he lit up he small hut and noticed it wasn’t occupied. There was a small bed in the corner with sheets that were most likely covered in dust, a small fireplace, some firewood, a tiny kitchen corner without a fridge and a door that probably led to a toilet. It wasn’t fancy, but it was good enough.

Loki lit the fireplace and used his magic to clean the dust. He hated cleaning, so he had taught himself cleaning tricks. It definitely came in handy. Now he had to get Y/N out of her clothes. He really hoped she wouldn’t hate him for saving her life. After all, they were about to get really close. It was far from formal.

“I need to get these off you, darling,” Loki explained to the woman who could barely keep her eyes open. She sat on the floor by the fireplace and her eyes were locked at the flames. She seemed awfully lost, confused. The Siberian winter was clearly as dangerous as Natasha had explained. Y/N was suffering from hypothermia after only less than half an hour. As if she hadn’t been freezing cold beforehand.

She didn’t seem to mind when Loki tore off her jacket and made it levitate so it could dry. He took off her gloves, her scarf, her beanie and then he helped her get rid off her outdoor pants. He noticed that the clothes she had worn underneath were just as cold and wet, so he undressed her until she was in her underwear. He had never thought this was how he’d undress her, which admittedly he had thought of a few times. Right now, was not the time for his mind to lure him. Y/N needed help. She didn’t mind it at all. In fact, she leapt into his arms and her body began to shiver again, which was a good sign.

Something about it made Loki’s restless heart beat a little harder. He felt so protective over her and holding her in his arms made him feel good. She trusted him, which meant to world to him. “Are you alright?” Loki wanted to make sure he wasn’t pushing any boundaries.

Y/N nodded and held onto him tighter. Loki used his magic to rid himself of his cold clothes until he too was in his underwear. Oddly enough, it didn’t bother him too much. He was just happy to hold her. He wrapped the blanket around them and then he got down on the bed, which was close to the fireplace, as said he hut was small. Y/N rested her head on his chest and the blanket secured them warmly.

Now they just lay there. Loki rubbed his arm up and down her back gently, hoping to warm up her cold skin. It didn’t really sink into his mind until now just how quickly she could’ve died. The water would’ve swallowed her in her heavy suit and even if it didn’t, if Y/N was alone, the cold would’ve done the deed eventually. It was scary just how easily she could be gone. Loki hated the thought of that. He didn’t want to imagine anything bad happening to her. She was special. Even if it wasn’t for him, he wanted her to be happy and well. Mortals only lived so long, it would be a shame if she had died this early on. Now that they were cuddling, he felt relieved. He was so glad the team decided to make them work together on this mission.

“Thank you,” Y/N whispered after a few minutes. A comfortable silence had surrounded them for a while.

Loki smiled, which she couldn’t see “I couldn’t let you freeze to death, now could I?” He tried to sound like he didn’t care too much. He didn’t want his feelings to scare her off, especially now that they were huddled up in only their underwear. Loki was scared his kindness would make him look like a creep.

But she knew he wasn’t like that. She saw good in him and especially now, she adored him. Sure, Y/N had crushed on Loki, but who could blame her? He was amazing. Now she was eternally grateful for him. Loki had saved her life. Besides, she couldn’t complain. Being so close under a blanket in a small hut, just listening to his heartbeat and the rustling fire wasn’t too bad. Loki didn’t have to know she enjoyed it a little bit too much.

They were both so oblivious.

It didn’t take long until they both dozed off. Y/N fell asleep first. It was comfortable to fall into a slumber when Loki was rubbing her back. Also, her body was slowly regaining warmth. The experience had drained her energy, so no one could really blame her for being tired.

Loki was happy she could rest. His heart was full of joy when he heard her relaxed breathing. He had never thought anyone would trust him enough to fall asleep with him. People were so vulnerable in their slumber. For him, it meant a lot. Only a few moments later, Loki’s eyelids felt heavy too. He relaxed with her being safely in his arms. Luckily, they weren’t a hurry. A little nap together would harm no one. Before he dared close his eyes, he put a spell on the door to keep it shut. Then he pressed a gentle kiss on Y/N’s head, wishing dearly she was asleep. Finally, he closed his eyes too and joined her in dreamland.

Little did Loki know Y/N felt the kiss. She was half asleep when she felt his lips on her head. Whether it was a friendly gesture or not, it melted her heart. Who would’ve thought Loki was such a softie? At least, when it came to her.

Author’s Note:  I wanted to make this a smut, but it’s a Christmas fic so I didn’t. Maybe in a part 2? if I ever make one. So, a penny for your thoughts? :)

[ju-liberty]

Clint & Natasha

(Or, the deeper approach into their psyche and love)

Turns out that Endgame hit me harder than I could ever have prepared myself, and I don’t like what I have read from other perspectives about their platonic relationship very much, so I’ve decided to write my own. At this point I don’t even need to fight anyone to prove anything, what they are to one another up until now have already far exceeded any ordinary relationship in the entire cinematic history.

There are some fatal plot holes that are hardly dismissed as a writer myself but I’m going to be a good person to ignore all of them and even pretend to forgive the ridiculous five-year period that made no sense to the character development and motivation.

1. Firstly, let’s talk about Natasha’s roller-coaster emotional ride.

Natasha in the last piece of the Avenger series was, as Scarlett has said herself, ‘hardened’ by all she had lost, and simultaneously softened and vulnerable in a way we had never seen her before.

She loved so hard and so deeply that if before we didn’t dare acknowledge it, now it was pouring all over her facial expression as though she didn’t even bother to hide it anymore.

Okay, please give me a specific number of times you have seen Natasha Romanoff with a breakdown. With tears? Except for the time when she thought Nick Fury was dead. There was only one time under Wanda in AoU that she was off her game, then again we all know who was there in half a second later to look after her.

This time, though, this was different. Nobody knew how to handle her the right way, and nobody was there anymore. The perfect timing of Steve’s appearance was so precious and realistic I can’t appreciate it enough. Steve was not Clint, probably hadn’t seen Nat at her worst the way Clint did, but he was there at that precise moment to stay with her through the misery. What could be more fulfilling in a friendship? Your friend was there, burdened with his own misery and could not ease yours but he was there nonetheless. If we take a careful look at the predicament, we could see that Clint, in this case, was the very source of her distress instead of her comfort. And if you have seen the way she grieved, it’s so blindingly obvious that he was more than just a friend to her. He was family. The one that she had lost.

It wasn’t like Natasha would need Rhodey to give her the precise location of Clint Barton—we have seen the way Clint found her in the most unbelievable circumstance in their own classic way in AoU—she had always known where he was, she must have been keeping track on him, and yet she chose to stay away and pretended she didn’t see what he was doing anyway, because she believed she could not give him hope. The way she went straight to him and took his hand bravely felt like she had always known where he was in all her life and all it took was just a sparkle of hope.

And then there’s the arrow necklace, oh yes, that was fucking thrilling. We grown women do not wear jewelries to honor our siblings or close friends, and let’s not ignore the Godly timing that the necklace first made an appearance was actually right after her breakdown for Clint. Listen, if you have spotted 40+ ester eggs all over the movie, you must have known by now that there was no such thing as a coincidence in every scene, for example her ballet shoes in a corner or the sandwich that was cut diagonally. So if she wore the arrow necklace over a black t-shirt instead of a white one in a dozen of close-up shots with one of the most breaking expressions on her face, there was a reason for it. I suspect it had something to do with her breakdown and the necklace was possibly the symbol of her determination to set things right (to find her partner and to bring him back) now that they had found a way out of their failure.

That didn’t happen just once. She wore the same necklace when they went to Bruce. And what’s more terrifying? She wore it in the same room with Clint in the most comfortable atmosphere between them as though she knew that he knew and they both knew what it meant to them and were completely okay to show it. That could mean she didn’t take it off until Vormir, or not ever. Whether it really had something related to Clint or not, do interpret it in your own way, I don’t care, facts will always remain facts.

And then there’s that mind-blowing moment when Clint was back from the time-travel and she was up there in a second like their life depended on it. There was so much love radiating from her when she went all of her way out to articulate the word ‘family’ when there was not a single one of the team had dare mention before, and so much love for Clint that she didn’t bother to conceal it. Either family or friendship, her love had already gone way beyond those with a simple touch of her hand on his face and that look on her.

Just—that look.

2. And Clint Barton, the most underappreciated character in the MCU history.

One of the things Jeremy has shared about what he enjoyed the most about his character was that Clint Barton was just a normal guy. He has no super power or physical enhancement and yet he chooses to fight alongside the heroes with his partner. He is normal, and despite everything that he has been robbed from the insane story line, he as a character still has grown so much through each movie. He is human, he lost, and he grieved.

I’m not going to pretend the family didn’t exist because they did (and it was a pleasure seeing they got dusted) and their disappearance did pull a string or two on this new side of Clint and his newly introduced skill sets that I super enjoyed. There is absolutely nothing wrong with him going vigilante given his background of a master assassin and the darkness of his personality and PTSD, and the five year time skip that had been done poorly in the movie did nothing to ruin his perfect characterization. 

Since a lot of articles have been talking about Thor’s stages of depression that should not be taken lightly as humor device, remember that Thor wasn’t the only one who suffered from mental disorder and please also don’t compare the kind of loss they all had to confront alright? Each person had to go through different kind of manifestation of mental illness, and for a former agent like Clint to go into hiding and killing as coping mechanism was completely acceptable. Don’t give me the morality bullshit, we are talking about fictional characters here, thank you.

Even though the five year excuse was unfair, why should we pay too much attention about it when we could have all we should have and Natasha was still the only one who could come for Clint? You can’t possibly forget the way she held out her hand and he immediately took it without hesitation like five years of distance between them never existed. That display of vulnerability and utter trust that he only showed in the presence of Natasha was pure gold. He knew she would find him as much as he knew once she did, he would be willing to come back with her.

Did he still grieve, though? Intensely. Did he want to die? More than anything else. Did he also have to live? Yes, yes, and yes.

Ever since the beginning to the end, he never stopped grieving. Have you noticed the way he wore his eyes in almost every scene? It’s a tortured look. Clint Barton had come such a long way from the first time he was introduced as a sassy, witty archer to this broken, quiet man with a constantly tortured look. And every step of this journey, Natasha was there with him.

Did he let himself heal? Also yes. In those little moments like when they sat next to one another discussing the plan to get the stones, or when the whole team were getting ready for the mission and he sneaked a glance at Natasha at the other side of the room, or in the spaceship when he initially brought up Budapest with a laughter in contrast to the first time it was mentioned by Natasha in the first Avenger movie. He was allowing himself to heal only because Natasha was there.

Clint and Natasha didn’t act that comfortably around anyone else but each other, and only with one another, they were able to heal themselves gradually.

3. Then Vormir happened. Their journey to the end.

From now on, I am talking about their love and how it was manifested through Endgame.

The parallel cinematic wasn’t just about Natasha finding and bringing Clint home in contrast to how he had made a different call in the past, it was their entire journey with little things, like the hand holding: if Natasha first took Clint’s hand to take him home at the beginning, Clint was the one who took her hand at the end of their conversation.

It was the extended bargain that had started from the first conversation between Natasha and Loki until Red Skull: the world was still on the balance and their bargain was still (forever will be) ultimately for one another.

I see hundreds, hell, thousands of wishful thinking for the Vormir scene to be more than just a forehead touch. Like, you wanted more? Was it even possible to be more? God no. Please look up infinite intensity. Romance didn’t even fit here. It was deep-rooted emotional intimacy, I would call. Like, you want to scale them down to an ordinary couple in a romantic movie who confess their undying love for each other and then kiss and make up and walk towards the horizon holding hands? Look, Disney fairy tales are always available all over the world except here - we are not sugarcoating a single fraction of a second they had here - not that way, never, okay?

What can you ask for more really? The man was fucking married and lost his family, and yet he literally spent almost every second of his scenes putting Natasha ahead of every single other people of his life including himself in all movies (and interview but we are not even talking about that, damn), exactly the way she had done for him. They were each other’s priority without a single discussion. What more could you actually imagine them to be? They didn’t just fight alongside one another. They literally fought against each other while calling each other idiot and a pain in the ass, just to die for one another.

That, was blatantly, blindingly, obviously fucking love.

Since Clint had been grieving and this was not a fairy tale, admittedly, he wanted to die. The way he recklessly threw himself into relentless massacre, as shitty and underdeveloped as it is, the way he volunteered as an object for a possible one way trip (again, shitty choice with the farm as if it was the fucking symbol for a life of a master assassin), it was clear that he had been suicidal. Natasha could be his anchor, but at the first chance he got, he immediately relapsed into his suicidal intention. He chose to die because he wanted to, and he believed it was as best as life could get.

And then something changed. The moment he realized what they would do in this circumstance was manifested in the way they looked at each other, it was heartbreaking and beautiful.

But they knew each other without a word and fought on an equal ground. They knew they were each other’s dearest person, this they knew without a single banter or discussion. That was when the self-loathing was replaced by love - whatever the fuck kind you want to interpret - it was love and not guilt or responsibility or debt anymore. Because guilt could not earn them the soul stone. He wanted to keep her alive even more than he wanted to die. Everything that remained in that moment as the world did cease to exist, was love.

Do you remember how many times Clint had called her Natasha? Each time was different, and yet none was like this one, because he knew this was it, this was the last time, so he said it with a smile so understanding and agonizing and most of all, so damn loving.

With the mere look he gave her when he called her Natasha, let me tell you, even if they gave him 10 more families all over the world with a hundred of children, Clint Barton sure as hell would still put Natasha Romanoff before every single one of them without a second thought and love her enough to die for her as many times as it took.

This. look.

And the look Natasha gave Clint when he ran over the edge and when he held onto her hand, as much as gratitude and fear, the only thing that had been constantly staying there, was love.

4. What’s left

We grieve that she wasn’t among those in the final battle, that was such a sick joke I agree, however come to think of it, Clint wasn’t, either. That went back to the beginning when they were spies, not soldiers. They were the best with their skill sets when sent on specific missions. Taking out all other characters, if you squint, you probably could see that this really was their own journey to go back to the way they used to be in the old days with just the two of them, either fighting alongside one another, or just fighting for the other. Tragically, Natasha did not come back, then again you did not see Clint as a whole person ever again. She wasn’t in the final battle and neither was Clint (except doing his side job for a few minutes), because they were meant to fight together or not fighting at all.

Natasha deserved to live. Of course she did. Do you know who understood it the most and fought for her life harder than anyone else? Clint Barton.

But living isn’t that simple as black and white, and if you turned the ending upside down in which Natasha lived and Clint didn’t, imagine the life she was going to live without her partner, best friend, soulmate. It wasn’t because she had no family that she deserved less to live, no, it was exactly because death was the easier way out than enduring the trauma, which by now Clint was shouldering for her.

Think of it this way: It wasn’t the family reunion we were seeing, it was Clint looking at those loved ones he was supposed to save and only seeing his other half spilling blood and losing life for them to live. Like the way it was supposed to be him. Like the way he kicked off the gauntlet after the reversing snap and treated the stones like ‘a goddamn thing’ instead of feeling thankful for them for bringing his family back. Clint was never going to get over it, to be honest he was never going to truly live anymore.

A life where you constantly grieve and loathe yourself, do you think Natasha would have deserved it? What Clint was shouldering in her place wasn’t a second chance at life nor another debt on his ledger, it was a downright bloody punishment.

So again, hello to Disney fans. If this was one of the fairy tales, if AoU did not happen and the only one they had was each other, there is no doubt that they both would die together. Screw the world, end of story. However, what made their love so intense and so much more painful than that ideal scenario was when Clint realized as much as he wanted to jump after her (oh trust me he longed for it), he wasn’t allowed to let Natasha’s sacrifice go wasted. See, this is the difference between a romance and a bond so deep it overruns everything else - he had to make it worth first, and then he would punish himself later - which already happened immediately, all of his emotional catastrophe and enormous anger. Clint was punishing himself badly and he would not stop. Ever. If losing his family already hit him that much, imagine how quickly he was going to abandon his life without Natasha. Remember how easily he let go of the gauntlet and the stones - the family and the world might be let go in the same way without remorse.

While we are saying a proper funeral was a better display of gratitude that Natasha should have deserved, can we take a look again at how most of Clint and Natasha’s battles were like? Against their inner demons. Behind the scenes. That was how they operated through the years. That was just what they were. And remember, Clint chose to share his lasting grief with Wanda who had lost her other half, not with his family.

As lacking as the ending was, simultaneous it was a given that the two of them were manifested in the right way. Clint and Natasha were spies not soldiers. It was not fair, it was terrible, but when we learn to live with what we got and twist it around to make it work, life becomes acceptable.

5. Last but not least

Clint and Natasha. What these two had for each other was the love so intense and profound it went beyond boundaries of common relationship and left them devastated for the rest of their lives. And that, I tell you, is fucking magnificent.

To wrap it up, do I hate Endgame? Not at all. Simultaneously do I want to rewrite it? No, not in 14,000 possible ways except one in which the farm family somehow would get erased infinitely, accidentally, magically, whatever, and Natasha would live.

Wishful thinking, but why not?

[batman-is-me]

Here it is everyone. My take and evidence of the Batman and No Killing/No Guns. Detective comics 27-46 (December ‘40) and Batman 1-4 (December ‘40).

Batman 4 is the stopping point because it is that issue where the rule is stated.

Detective Comics 27. Read it but everyone knows the deaths. So skip. We all know that none of the chemical syndicate makes it, but for the record 2 people. The guy he throws off a roof and the one he punches into acid. However, there was no guns used by Batman.

Detective Comics 28. Kicks a guy out a window. He was charging him right when he entered. So the simple throw is easily survivable but the fact the window was open and they where in the penthouse didn't help.

Detective Comics 29.Doctor Death in Detective Comics does not die at the hands of Batman. His death comes at his own hands. Jabah, Doctor Deaths assistant, isn't said to be dead. Suspected to be dead tho, due to Doctor Death not Batman. Except Batman cause him to be unconscious. So deaths being the caused by Batman. More like from Doctor Death.

Detective Comics 30, Batman, on panel 62, ends up killing Mikhail and implies that Jabah is dead. Killing him by kicking him way to hard.

Detective Comics 31. No deaths no guns.

Detective Comics 32. Batman ends up killing the Mad Monk. A vampire with two silver bullets. Up to this point Batman is not shown to have a gun since Detective Comics 28. This is the first time since Detective comics 28 Batman intended to kill a person.

Detective Comics 33. Batman is shown welding a Gun. Doesn't fire it. But is the source of the cause of death of the villain. He throws a chocking gas pellet into the cockpit of the plane the villain is flying. I mean he could have survived with a little thought. Hold your breath and continue to fly the gas would have disipatted fast cause of speed and open air.

Detective Comics 34. Batman is the indirect cause of death. Batman tussles with the villain in the car, saves the girl and gets out of the car and grabs the rope of the batplane with her before the car drives over a cliff.

Detective Comics 35. Batman is shown with no Gun. Again. One of the death in this issue is not at the hands of Batman it's in the hand of the other Sin Fang henchmen. Yes Batman did kick him back but the intention would not have been to kill. Just written so that he fell into his partners sword who could have easily avoided it. The other is at the hands of Batman when he hurls the idol of kali at Lenox (aka sin fang) and he falls out the window. Kind of weird. To be honest.

Detective Comics 36. So Batman has a gun. It seems like at this point the gun isn't an actual fixed point to his character. It's more or less there if needed. And he uses it signal the police. There is no deaths in this issue by Batman.

Detective Comics 37. No Gun. Three deaths. 2 cause by other henchmen to other henchmen. The 3rd was not the intentions of Batman. He punch Count Grutt into a door, that The Count stabbed into the door himself so he is the cause of his own death. Cause in the next panel Batman states that it is better that he died. It shows his intentions where not to kill.

Detective Comics 38. Famous for the first appearance of Dick Grayson. Now another issue of No Gun. Now Batman does not kill anyone in this issue. Robin does tho. Kills 2 of Zuccos henchmen and Zucco kills one of his own.

Detective Comics 39. Batman does a pretty big bad one here. Pushes a giant statue on some people. And yeah. Kills people. The other death in this issue is when Batman and the henchman both fell out of a window. Also no gun.

Detective Comics 40. Hey look it. No deaths in this issue. Also no Gun. First appearance of Basil Karlo. Very interesting issue with Clay face. Trying to not to give a way plot points in this one.

Detective Comics 41. No guns and deaths caused by Batman or Robin in this issue. Sort of follows the pattern of bad guy does something. Encounters Batman, escapes encounters Batman again, gets captured/killed.

Detective Comics 42-46. All of these issue have 2 things in common no deaths cause by Batman and no guns used by Batman. There are two apparent deaths in this span that one would say caused by Batman. Both characters actually are not dead. As evident by later issues. One being the Joker in Detective 45 and Hugo Strange in Detective Comics 46.

Detective Comics 46 Is the last in the span of comics (in Detective Comics) in the timeline till Batman 4 (released same month and year)where the no Killing rule is Stated clearly. Last seen being the cause of Death in Detective 39.

Batman 1. This one is interesting cause you get two Batman stories. One clearly made for Batman 1 since it's the first story in the book. No deaths, no Gun. The second Batman story is basically a different Batman. The writing, the art, and the overall fell is just different. He uses a gun on his Batplane to shoot one of the monster men and hooks/hangs the other monster man. The third Batman story in this issue is more like the first. Especially in feel, art, and tone. Plus a proto-Catwoman. The fourth and final Batman story in this issue is also true to form of story 1 and 3 in tone, art and feel. No death, no guns. Basically your basic hero captures bad guy.

Batman 2. I'm doing this one different than Batman 1, as in I'm just gonna say talk about all 4 Batman stories in general way with the overall purpose of this read through in mind on point out what is necessary with the specific story listed. So.... All stories in Batman 2 followed the model of Batman 1 (stories 1,3, and 4). All in tone, art style, and overall feel.

Batman 3. The four story share the same tone as the previous issue. All light hatred. No guns, no murders. It's basically the tone of the silver age but a little darker. Hell in the 3rd story of this issue Batman says he has a problem that points guns at him. Which is obvious since you know it's a gun and he is human and he probably gets it a lot so it's gotta get annoying.

Batman 4. Also like the previous stories in the first 3 Batman comics minis the 1 story in Batman, they all have that same light hearted feel. In the 4th story in this issue you see Batman wielding a gun but it's not his, and only used it to shoot gun put of another criminal. No death. Well not directly caused by him. The death comes from gangster on gangster violence Batman tried to stop. Now the most important panel comes in story 2. The “No killing with weapons of any kind."

Outside of That 1 story in Batman 1. The killing and use of gun are not seen since Detective Comics 39. And even with that it isn't all that common for Bruce to really kill anyone in that DC 27-39. It was more sporadic, just like the use of the gun. Hell even in DC 37 you can tell that he didn't intend on killing the bad guy. Now the time Batman 1 released was June of 1940 and Detective Comics 39 was May of 1940. So basically a month or two due to how dating of the books where not really exact in that time period. For example, a Spring issue (Batman 1) could be either May or April. So I find, like my opinion suggests, that using these comics as a legitimate argument for the character to kill are absolutely idiotic. Approximately 8 issues from this time period of pre-statement of "The Rule" (including Batman 4 in the timeline) had him kill/use a gun. Thus the DECADES of the rule being one of the Character's defining characteristics. It's what makes him better than the villain. It gives him a moral center. It shows that you can reform and be better if given the opportunity. This rule, as high top production (the video I shared) has said, it makes the death of his parents mean something in more ways than one. Hell even Frank Miller, had Batman say that guns are the weapons of the enemy as he snaps a shotgun in half. And the fact he is a writer that I absolutely dislike and is given more than necessary knew that. And people who think these rules are outdated and should be removed have no idea what Batman is all about. I don't care if they have been reading Batman for 40 years they completely missed the point and where not paying attention. They need to go back and reread them.

[mlleedom]

White Frights - The Villains and the Fall Guys

White Frights - The Villains and the Fall Guys

February 2002

I don't know what it is, but every time I see a white guy walking towards me, I tense up. My heart starts racing, and I immediately begin to look for an escape route and a means to defend myself. I kick myself for even being in this part of town after dark. Didn't I notice the suspicious gangs of white people lurking on every street corner, drinking Starbucks and wearing their gang colors of Gap turquoise or J Crew mauve? What an idiot! Now the white person is coming closer, closer - and then - whew! He walks by without harming me, and I breathe a sigh of relief.

White people scare the crap out of me. This may be hard for you to understand - considering that I am white - but then again, my colour gives me a certain insight. For instance, I find myself pretty scary a lot of the time, so I know what I'm talking about. You can take my word for it: if you find yourself suddenly surrounded by white people, you better watch out. Anything can happen. As white people, we've been lulled into thinking it's safe to be around other white people. We've been taught since birth that it's the people of that other colour we need to fear. They're the ones who'll slit your throat!

Yet as I look back on my life, a strange but unmistakable pattern seems to emerge. Every person who has ever harmed me in my lifetime - the boss who fired me, the teacher who flunked me, the principal who punished me, the kid who hit me in the eye with a rock, the executive who didn't renew TV Nation, the guy who was stalking me for three years, the accountant who double-paid my taxes, the drunk who smashed into me, the burglar who stole my stereo, the contractor who overcharged me, the girlfriend who left me, the next girlfriend who left even sooner, the person in the office who stole cheques from my chequebook and wrote them out to himself for a total of $16,000 - every one of these individuals has been a white person. Coincidence? I think not.

I have never been attacked by a black person, never been evicted by a black person, never had my security deposit ripped off by a black landlord, never had a black landlord, never had a meeting at a Hollywood studio with a black executive in charge, never had a black person deny my child the college of her choice, never been puked on by a black teenager at a Mötley Crüe concert, never been pulled over by a black cop, never been sold a lemon by a black car salesman, never seen a black car salesman, never had a black person deny me a bank loan, and I've never heard a black person say, "We're going to eliminate 10,000 jobs here - have a nice day!"

I don't think that I'm the only white guy who can make these claims. Every mean word, every cruel act, every bit of pain and suffering in my life has had a Caucasian face attached to it.

So, um, why is it exactly that I should be afraid of black people?

I look around at the world I live in - and, I hate to tell tales out of school, but it's not the African-Americans who have made this planet such a pitiful, scary place. Recently, a headline on the front of the Science section of the New York Times asked Who Built The H-Bomb? The article went on to discuss a dispute between the men who claim credit for making the first bomb. Frankly, I could have cared less - because I already know the only pertinent answer: "It was a white guy!" No black guy ever built or used a bomb designed to wipe out hordes of innocent people, whether in Oklahoma City, Columbine or Hiroshima. No, friends, it's always the white guy. Let's go to the tote board:

· Who gave us the black plague? A white guy.

· Who invented PBC, PVC, PBB, and a host of chemicals that are killing us? White guys.

· Who has started every war America has been in? White men.

· Who invented the punchcard ballot? A white man.

· Whose idea was it to pollute the world with the internal combustion engine? Whitey, that's who.

· The Holocaust? That guy really gave white people a bad name.

· The genocide of Native Americans? White man.

· Slavery? Whitey!

· US companies laid off more than 700,000 people in 2001. Who ordered the lay-offs? White CEOs.

You name the problem, the disease, the human suffering, or the abject misery visited upon millions, and I'll bet you 10 bucks I can put a white face on it faster than you can name the members of 'NSync.

And yet, when I turn on the news each night, what do I see again and again? Black men alleged to be killing, raping, mugging, stabbing, gang banging, looting, rioting, selling drugs, pimping, ho-ing, having too many babies, fatherless, motherless, Godless, penniless. "The suspect is described as a black male... the suspect is described as a black male... THE SUSPECT IS DESCRIBED AS A BLACK MALE..." No matter what city I'm in, the news is always the same, the suspect always the same unidentified black male. I'm in Atlanta tonight, and I swear the police sketch of the black male suspect on TV looks just like the black male suspect I saw on the news last night in Denver and the night before in LA. In every sketch he's frowning, he's menacing - and he's wearing the same knit cap! Is it possible that it's the same black guy committing every crime in America?

I believe we've become so used to this image of the black man as predator that we are forever ruined by this brainwashing. In my first film, Roger & Me, a white woman on social security clubs a rabbit to death so that she can sell him as "meat" instead of as a pet. I wish I had a nickel for every time in the past 10 years that someone has come up to me and told me how "horrified" they were when they saw that "poor little cute bunny" bonked on the head. The scene, they say, made them physically sick. The Motion Picture Association of America gave Roger & Me an R [18] rating in response to that rabbit killing. Teachers write to me and say they have to edit that part out of the film, if they want to show it to their students.

But less than two minutes after the bunny lady does her deed, I included footage of a scene in which police in Flint, Michigan, shot a black man who was wearing a Superman cape and holding a plastic toy gun. Not once - not ever - has anyone said to me, "I can't believe you showed a black man being shot in your movie! How horrible! How disgusting! I couldn't sleep for weeks." After all, he was just a black man, not a cute, cuddly bunny. The ratings board saw absolutely nothing wrong with that scene. Why? Because it's normal, natural. We've become so accustomed to seeing black men killed - in the movies and on the evening news - that we now accept it as standard operating procedure. No big deal! That's what blacks do - kill and die. Ho-hum. Pass the butter.

It's odd that, despite the fact that most crimes are committed by whites, black faces are usually attached to what we think of as "crime". Ask any white person who they fear might break into their home or harm them on the street and, if they're honest, they'll admit that the person they have in mind doesn't look much like them. The imaginary criminal in their heads looks like Mookie or Hakim or Kareem, not little freckle-faced Jimmy.

No matter how many times their fellow whites make it clear that the white man is the one to fear, it simply fails to register. Every time you turn on the TV to news of another school shooting, it's always a white kid who's conducting the massacre. Every time they catch a serial killer, it's a crazy white guy. Every time a terrorist blows up a federal building, or a madman gets 400 people to drink Kool-Aid, or a Beach Boys songwriter casts a spell causing half a dozen nymphets to murder "all the piggies" in the Hollywood Hills, you know it's a member of the white race up to his old tricks.

So why don't we run like hell when we see whitey coming toward us? Why don't we ever greet the Caucasian job applicant with, "Gee, uh, I'm sorry, there aren't any positions available right now"? Why aren't we worried sick about our daughters marrying white guys? And why isn't Congress trying to ban the scary and offensive lyrics of Johnny Cash ("I shot a man in Reno/just to watch him die"), the Dixie Chicks ("Earl had to die"), or Bruce Springsteen ("I killed everything in my path/I can't say that I'm sorry for the things that we done").

Why the focus on rap lyrics? Why doesn't the media print lyrics such as the following, and tell the truth? "I sold bottles of sorrow, then chose poems and novels" (Wu-Tang Clan); "People use yo' brain to gain" (Ice Cube); "A poor single mother on welfare... tell me how ya did it" (Tupac Shakur); "I'm trying to change my life, see I don't wanna die a sinner" (Master P).

African-Americans have been on the lowest rung of the economic ladder since the day they were dragged here in chains. Every other immigrant group has been able to advance from the bottom to the higher levels of our society. Even Native Americans, who are among the poorest of the poor, have fewer children living in poverty than African-Americans.

You probably thought things had got better for blacks in this country. After all, considering the advances we've made eliminating racism in our society, one would think our black citizens might have seen their standard of living rise. A survey published in the Washington Post in July 2001 showed that 40%-60% of white people thought the average black person had it as good or better than the average white person.

Think again. According to a study conducted by the economists Richard Vedder, Lowell Gallaway and David C Clingaman, the average income for a black American is 61% less per year than the average white income. That is the same percentage difference as it was in 1880. Not a damned thing has changed in more than 120 years.

Want more proof? Consider the following:

· Black heart attack patients are far less likely than whites to undergo cardiac catheterisation, regardless of the race of their doctors.

· Whites are five times more likely than blacks to receive emergency clot-busting treatment after suffering a stroke.

· Black women are four times more likely than white women to die while giving birth.

· Black levels of unemployment have been roughly twice those of whites since 1954.

So how have we white people been able to get away with this? Caucasian ingenuity! You see, we used to be real dumb. Like idiots, we wore our racism on our sleeve. We did really obvious things, like putting up signs on rest-room doors that said WHITES ONLY. We made black people sit at the back of the bus. We prevented them from attending our schools or living in our neighbourhoods. They got the crappiest jobs (those advertised for NEGROES ONLY), and we made it clear that, if you weren't white, you were going to be paid a lower wage.

Well, this overt, over-the-top segregation got us into a heap of trouble. A bunch of uppity lawyers went to court. They pointed out that the 14th Amendment doesn't allow for anyone to be treated differently because of their race. Eventually, after a long procession of court losses, demonstrations and riots, we got the message: if you're going to be a successful racist, better find a way to do it with a smile on your face.

We even got magnanimous enough to say, "Sure, you can live here in our neighborhood; your kids can go to our kids' school. Why the hell not? We were just leaving, anyway." We smiled, gave black America a pat on the back - and then ran like the devil to the suburbs.

At work, we whites still get the plum jobs, double the pay, and a seat in the front of the bus to happiness and success. We've rigged the system from birth, guaranteeing that black people will go to the worst schools, thus preventing them from admission to the best colleges, and paving their way to a fulfilling life making our caffe lattes, servicing our BMWs, and picking up our trash. Oh, sure, a few slip by - but they pay an extra tariff for the privilege: the black doctor driving his BMW gets pulled over continually by the cops; the black Broadway actress can't get a cab after the standing ovation; the black broker is the first to be laid off because of "seniority".

We whites really deserve some kind of genius award for this. We talk the talk of inclusion, we celebrate the birthday of Dr King, we frown upon racist jokes. We never fail to drop a mention of "my friend - he's black..." We make sure we put our lone black employee up at the front reception desk so we can say, "See - we don't discriminate. We hire black people."

Yes, we are a very crafty, cagey race - and damn if we haven't got away with it!

I wonder how long we will have to live with the legacy of slavery. That's right. I brought it up. SLAVERY. You can almost hear the groans of white America whenever you bring up the fact that we still suffer from the impact of the slave system. Well, I'm sorry, but the roots of most of our social ills can be traced straight back to this sick chapter of our history. African-Americans never got a chance to have the same fair start that the rest of us got. Their families were willfully destroyed, their language and culture and religion stripped from them. Their poverty was institutionalized so that our cotton could get picked, our wars could be fought, our convenience stores could remain open all night. The America we've come to know would never have come to pass if not for the millions of slaves who built it and created its booming economy - and for the millions of their descendants who do the same dirty work for whites today.

It's not as if we're talking ancient Rome here. My grandfather was born just three years after the Civil War. That's right, my grandfather. My great-uncle was born before the Civil War. And I'm only in my 40s. Sure, people in my family seem to marry late, but the truth remains: I'm just two generations from slave times. That, my friends, is not a "long time ago". In the vast breadth of human history, it was only yesterday. Until we realize that, and accept that we do have a responsibility to correct an immoral act that still has repercussions today, we will never remove the single greatest stain on the soul of our country

© Michael Moore, 2002.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2002/mar/30/features.weekend

I read this excerpt from Moore’s book at an open mic night at a coffee shop shortly after the book release in 2002. Moore has been labeled contentious and divisive. He was at the cutting edge in helping those impacted by the water crisis in Flint, MI. I can relate to this piece as I have never been harmed by a black person and what I have seen in the media throughout my 4+ decades has been a complete disconnect. 

[ntrending]

The science of serial killers is changing, thanks to Sasha Reid

New Post has been published on https://nexcraft.co/the-science-of-serial-killers-is-changing-thanks-to-sasha-reid/

The science of serial killers is changing, thanks to Sasha Reid

The wall of Sasha Reid’s office is covered with serial killers. The collection of black-and-white photographs of Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, and notable others is not, however, just an unusual choice of decoration.

“It’s very intentional,” says Reid. As a doctoral candidate in developmental psychology at the University of Toronto, she is trying to demystify the circumstances that lead people to commit multiple murders. That means poring over their own words from journals and media interviews. The viewpoints they express often share uncanny similarities, to the point where diary entries penned by different people begin to bleed together. On one occasion, Reid was brought up short by the words of Edmund Kemper (popularly known as the “Co-ed Killer”). Kemper spoke often of domineering female relatives, and in one interview referred to “my grandmother who thought she had more balls than any man and was constantly emasculating me and my grandfather to prove it.” Lines like this reminded Reid powerfully of Gary Ridgway, (the “Green River Killer”), who had issues with his mother.

“I thought, ‘I literally just read this!’” she says. “Then I flipped over the page and I saw that actually this is somebody entirely different—but isn’t that interesting that they’re thinking the exact same thing.”

It was at that point that Reid decided to pin up the photographs. “Their individuality needed to be retained,” she says. Though the serial killers she studies think along very similar lines, Reid sees them as distinct people—people who are very poorly understood. Reid, who is due to finish her dissertation in May, has so far analyzed about 70 serial killers with her colleagues. Her hope is to reveal when their warped perspectives take root and how this kind of damage can be reversed when it shows up in children. “How can we help their development to unfold in a way that’s healthy as opposed to in a way that is completely catastrophic and harmful to society?” Reid says.

Little is actually known about how serial killers think and why they develop the way they do. Reid is among a small number of researchers who believe the time has come to probe their minds in exhaustive depth.

An unexpected case

The thought of six-dozen serial killers is an unsettling one. But for Reid, this sample is just the tip of the homicidal iceberg. She is creating a massive database filled with information on 6,000 serial killers from around the world. This involves searching for documentation about 600 different key details—such as being bullied or having a father with a history of criminal behavior—that may have influenced a person’s path to serial murder. She is also compiling a separate database of people who have gone missing in Canada. Her hope is to create a picture of who these people are and to understand who might have harmed them. On one memorable occasion, Reid unexpectedly found herself comparing her insights with the reality of an active serial killer.

It started when, one day in the summer of 2017, she noticed something bizarre. Three men with ties to the Church and Wellesley neighborhood of Toronto, also known as the city’s Gay Village, had disappeared several years previously. It’s not uncommon for clusters of people to disappear around the same time, often for reasons such as accidents, gang violence, overdoses, or becoming lost. But these men had gone missing under strikingly similar circumstances. All had vanished from a very small area, were men of color of similar ages, and had close ties to friends, family, or work that made an intentional vanishing act seem implausible. “It didn’t make sense, and that was the thing that united them the most,” Reid says. “My immediate thought was, ‘it’s probably a serial killer.’”

Reid consulted her database and used the patterns she observed in serial killers who targeted gay men to draw up a brief profile of the kind of person who might be responsible. She then called to share her findings with the police. As Reid expected, they did not end up using the information. However, in January 2018 the police arrested a 66-year-old landscaper named Bruce McArthur, who has since pleaded guilty to murdering eight men—including the three Reid had noticed.

The profile Reid created had erred on some details, such as the suspect’s age; given that most serial killers are under 40 years old, she had expected a man in his thirties. Other predictions were on the mark. Serial killers often bury their victims in sites over which they have control or easy access. And sure enough, the remains of multiple people were found in planters at a home where McArthur stored tools. Seeing the similarities between pieces of her analysis and the actual features of the crimes gave Reid reason to hope that her databases might have practical use in the future.

She is quick to point out that the widespread notion that police rely on profiles to solve cases is a romanticized one. “Police officers work on the foundation of forensic evidence, not Excel files,” Reid says. “But [the database] is something valuable to have on hand—especially as we start to develop it more and take the art out of it and make it more scientific.”

Embracing the art

Understanding serial killers, however, is as much an art as a science. “Experience is one thing, but the way in which those experiences are perceived across the lifetime is much more telling,” Reid says. “I’m kind of in both worlds, remove the art but embrace the art at the same time.”

Her particular focus is male serial killers whose crimes have a sexual element. While analyzing one of these people, Reid and a team of several other researchers each spend a week to a month digging through a trove of information. Among these sources are diary entries, home videos, interviews with the killer and people who knew him, police files, and medical or psychiatric records released into the public domain. The team looks for recurring themes and discusses the interpretations they each arrive at. Reid then tries to extrapolate a sense of how her subject sees the world and his place in it. “This can then give us a better indication of who they are victimizing, how, and why,” she says.

Reid and her team have honed in on a few core ways in which this group differs from most other people. Notably, serial killers feel they are constantly being pushed around, mistreated, and emasculated. “These people really go through their lives looking at everything that happens to them through the lens of a victim; they’re ultimate victims,” Reid says.

This is not to say that certain behaviors or cultural shifts are to blame for mass murder. Some serial killers did, in fact, survive horrific abuse as children. Others weathered much milder situations, but still believe their entire world is filled with abuse. For Gary Ridgway, one such intolerable experience was his mother’s command that he do his homework (Ridgway went on to murder at least 49 women in the state of Washington).

In fact, these people often yearn for connection with others. But in some cases love is not forthcoming, while in others they may be unable to understand or accept it as such. Often, these people misinterpret relatively gentle social cues as threats, and blame others for their problems.

“They fundamentally isolate themselves because they feel that they’re not accepted,” Reid says. “So they create these little worlds wherein they have ultimate power and control and authority.” But for people who believe the entire world is set against them, these fantasies can end up reinforcing unhealthy ways of engaging with others.

These tendencies are already well documented in serial killers. Reid, however, wants to reveal how such beliefs evolve over time. From what she’s observed so far, these elements seem to germinate during particular critical time periods, and may emerge in children as young as seven years old. By the age of 11 to 13, their violent fantasies begin to take on a life of their own, Reid says, becoming powerful and potent.

Each serial killer’s trajectory is unique; genetic predisposition may play a larger role for some, while life circumstances may be more important for others. However, none of these characteristics or experiences amount to destiny; development is a process that unfolds across the lifetime. Attributes such as resiliency and the ability to adapt to one’s circumstances are important as well.

Reid believes that knowing how and when this development occurs will allow us to better reach children who show signs of maladjusted thinking and ultimately put them on another path. This doesn’t mean all or even most of the kids who display these patterns would have grown up to become serial killers, which are extraordinarily rare. It might be more common for them to become depressed, struggle to form relationships with other people, or engage in domestic violence.

“The thing with development is that you just can never say anything for certain,” Reid says. But she feels there is much to learn from the people for whom these disturbing thoughts blossomed into their most extreme form.

“We can reverse some of the ways in which unhealthy thought patterns impact people’s lives. We can teach people to think healthy as opposed to unhealthy,” Reid says. “It’s not just generalizable to serial killers, it’s very much generalizable to all of human pathology.”

The neo-alienist

In some respects, Reid’s work represents a new take on an approach with old roots.

Lee Mellor, a Toronto-based criminologist and chair of the American Investigative Society of Cold Cases academic committee, feels that Reid’s style harkens back to the early psychiatrists and psychologists, or “alienists,” of the 19th Century. But while alienists created detailed life histories to understand mental illness, these efforts were stymied by the fact that scholars at the time didn’t have access to nearly as many records as those today do. This means that researchers like Reid can dive much deeper into a serial killer’s background and come to more meaningful conclusions, Mellor believes. “Sasha is almost like a neo-alienist, and we need more of that,” he says.

Reid’s work also echoes that of the first pioneers who tried to decipher serial killers, the FBI agents whose work has recently been chronicled on the Netflix show “Mindhunter.” Though an important first step, their original work is considered flawed by academics today, in part because it focused on a small group of only 36 criminals who were not all serial killers, says Robert Schug, an associate professor of criminology and criminal justice at California State University, Long Beach and forensic psychologist.

“I don’t know that anyone has collected as much data on serial killers [as Sasha has], ever,” says Schug, who also studies how serial killers develop. “The potential for kind of unraveling the mysteries of the serial killer, if you will, I think is very high.”

Mellor, who like Schug plans to collaborate with Reid on future projects, feels similarly. “Rather than rejecting the work that these initial trailblazers had done, we’re kind of returning to it and we’re seeing the value in it,” says Mellor, whose own work has focused on necrophilia and murderers who communicate with the police or media before or during their crimes.

That said, this approach does have its limitations. One challenge for Reid’s venture is that there are only so many serial killers whose lives are extensively documented, or for whom these records are easily accessible, Mellor points out. Another hurdle, Reid feels, is the fact that she has not yet spoken with serial killers in person. As a student, she could not muster the funds to fly back and forth and conduct interviews. The project also presented certain liabilities. “I think it [would be] very irresponsible for a university to say, ‘okay, we’re going to send you into the prison and let you interview all of these people who have killed women who looked just like you,’” she reflects.

Once she finishes her dissertation, however, Reid plans to visit prisons and finally begin to conduct her own interviews. “I haven’t spoken to the people that I’m trying to give voice to, and I think that’s awful,” she says. For now, she tries to capture their voices as best she can in her research, and plans for the day when she will be able to ask them questions about her interpretation.

Beyond the zoo

As a child growing up in Dryden, Ontario in the 1990s, Reid wrote “murder stories” and roamed the woods hunting for werewolves, vampires, and other murderous creatures. The decision to study serial killers felt like an inevitable next step on that path. “I don’t think there was anything else ever that I was supposed to do; it’s always been this,” she says. She doubts that any other job could hold her attention.

“I learn something about people every single day,” she says. “It’s like I’m living at the zoo… and I’m looking at a predator and every day I learn something different about their walk, their stride.”

Serial killers hold an enduring fascination for those of us who don’t study them as well.

“I think people are actually craving new information about this topic; that’s why we see the proliferation of these televisions shows and movies and whatnot,” Schug says. “It’s beyond just a morbid curiosity… I think people want to know why.”

Often, we imagine these people are criminal masterminds, Reid noted last year in Contexts, a journal published by the American Sociological Association. They have a certain mystique; although their victims are often forgotten, serial killers are granted fame and flashy nicknames such as the “Night Stalker”, the “West Mesa Bone Collector,” and “Jack the Ripper.” In reality, serial killers are more often opportunists, wrote Reid and coauthor Jooyoung Lee, also of the University of Toronto. Many target vulnerable groups such as sex workers, “who become ‘easy prey’ because of their precarious legal status.”

But there may be change on the horizon. Efforts by sex workers and groups such as the Canadian Alliance for Sex Work Law Reform to advocate for legal protections and awareness are becoming more visible. And organizations like Street Safe New Mexico take immediate steps such as handing out “bad guy lists” to alert sex workers to dangerous men in the area.

Meanwhile, Reid and other researchers are journeying ever deeper into the minds of the people who have harmed these communities and so many others. “They are people whose behavior is at the far end of the continuum of abnormality, but they are human,” Reid says. “And because they are human they can be understood.”

And whether or not these people would want to be understood, this knowledge may prove valuable to the rest of society.

Written By Kate Baggaley

[thechasefiles]

The Chase Files Daily Newscap 1/22/2019

Good MORNING #realdreamchasers! Here is The Chase Files Daily News Cap for Tuesday 22nd January 2019. Remember you can read full articles for FREE via Barbados Today (BT) or Barbados Government Information Services (BGIS) OR by purchasing by purchasing a Daily Nation Newspaper (DN).

UPP NOT DAUNTED BY DEFECTORS – The United Progressive Party (UPP) may now be left licking its wounds after three of its former candidates left to join the Opposition. However, the relatively young political party said it was not daunted and would continue to “build strong” and represent the interest of Barbadians. In a Facebook post the UPP, which failed to capture a seat in the last election, in which the Barbados Labour Party (BLP) took all 30 seats, said it expected that Opposition Leader Bishop Joseph Atherley would form a new political party. It was on Saturday that Atherley announced a team he said would speak on behalf of the Opposition on national issues. He stressed that the announcement was not the launch of a political party, but said that would come in due course. Maria Phillips, Bruce Hennis and Paul Forte, who ran under a UPP ticket in the last election, were part of the 13 members named among the Opposition team. The UPP described the move as an interesting one, stating that its members had the freedom of choice. “As expected, Joseph Atherley is forming a new Party. As you know Atherley contested the election under the BLP and in a surprise move crossed the floor to sit in the Opposition seat. Three of the individuals who appear in the media photograph contested the last election under the UPP banner. To the best of our knowledge and belief they have left the UPP. “The development is an interesting one for those who study politics as Barbados seeks to build a multi-party democracy. The UPP in a statement immediately after the last election gave its candidates the freedom to choose,” it said. The party, which is led by attorney-at-law Lynette Eastmond, said it would continue to build strong and continue to represent the interests of all Barbadians. “It is clear that there is a certain amount of discontent among Barbadians as they are not seeing the transparency and access which they were promised during the last election. “The UPP has made it its business to keep its channels of communication open with all parties and will continue to do so in the interest of Barbados,” the UPP added. Atherley, who was elected to the House of Assembly on a BLP ticket, formed a one-man Opposition mere days after the May 24 general election. He had named two Opposition Senators – Crystal Drakes and Caswell Franklyn, who were also named as spokespersons for the Opposition on issues of national importance. He said three more people would be added to that group of senators at a later date. His Opposition group also consists of former Solutions Barbados candidates Scott Weatherhead, Alan Springer, Irvin Belgrave, Rev John Carter and Paul Gibson. There are also Sylvan Greenidge from the Barbados Integrity Movement and lecturer Dr. Philip Corbin and Akil Daley. “This is, for me as Leader of the Opposition, a proud moment. I believe it is for our country a historic moment,” Atherley said on Saturday. (BT)

GUNS SEIZED – Less than 24 hours after Attorney General Dale Marshall announced measures to fight rising gun crime, police seized three guns and an undisclosed amount of ammunition from an illegal fete in Montrose, Christ Church. The NATION was reliably informed the operation took place in the very early hours of Sunday morning. In addition to the three revolvers and ammunition, knives and scissors were also seized and several men were detained for questioning in connection with the discovery of illegal drugs. When a NATION news team visited the area yesterday, residents said they were unaware of the incident. Stepped-up police patrols have become very visible since the upsurge in gun-related activity.  (DN)

BODY FOUND AT VAUXHALL SENIOR CITIZENS VILLAGE – Police are on the scene of another unnatural death. Initial reports indicate a woman was killed tonight at the Vauxhall Senior Citizens Village, Vauxhall, Christ Church. (DN)

UPDATE: POLICE INVESTIGATE HOMICIDE AT SENIOR CITIZENS HOME – Police have taken a man into custody for questioning as they commence investigations into the death of an elderly woman at a senior citizens home in Vauxhall, Christ Church. Police were called to the Vauxhall Senior Citizens Home just after 6 p.m. on Monday January 21 for reports that one of the residents there had been injured. Acting Senior Superintendent of Police at the Southern Division Bruce Rowe said on arrival, officers found the body of an elderly woman who had died of suspected stab wounds. “There is a person in custody assisting us with the investigation but we will not disclose any names at this time because of the fact that we have to notify family members,” Rowe said. The superintendent confirmed that the man in custody was also a resident at the home. (BT)

 BODY FOUND AT RIVER BAY – Around 5:40 p.m this evening police responded to River Bay St Lucy, where they discovered the body of an adult female. Investigations are continuing.  (DN)

POLICE CONSTABLE PASSES AWAY – On Sunday, 20 January about 8:40pm, police at Crab Hill, viewed the body of police constable Donette Cadogan, 41 years of Apartment #1, Josey Hill, St. Lucy. She reportedly complained to a sibling of feeling unwell and subsequently collapsed and died.  (DN)

TEEN MISSING AT ‘HOT POT’ – What began as a boys’ night out for three friends, turned into a night of tragedy. Teenager Lindy London, of Cottage Crescent, St George, is now missing after a trip to the popular “Hot Pot” area of the Brighton Beach in St Michael. The 18-year-old met up with his two buddies for a planned lime after his church’s evening service. The three friends, including St Auburn Blunt, of Hothersal Turning, St Michael, were enjoying the beach outing when London encountered difficulty with strong currents. He was reported missing around 8:30 p.m. on Sunday and members of the Coast Guard and Marine Unit have been searching for him since then. On Sunday as the search was underway, Blunt returned to the beach around 9 a.m. hoping for an outcome that would bring him closure before he left after 5 p.m.  (DN)

PETERS SUCCUMBS TO INJURIES – Barbados recorded its first road fatality. 24-year-old Mario Peters succumbed to his injuries around 11 p.m. last night.  Peters, was on his way home and was involved in an accident with a ZM van in front Harbour Lights on Bay Street on January 4. He leaves to mourn his three-year-old daughter, his parents and his four siblings.  (DN)

FAMILY MOURNS FOR MARIO PETERS – Gail Peters is trying to be strong for her family. But being strong is difficult after losing your 24-year-old son. In Bayville, St Michael, at the family home of the late Mario Peters, scores of family members and close friends gathered to lend support to his grieving parents, Junior and Gail Peters, who were forced to watch as their son’s life changed in a matter of seconds. “It is not an easy thing for the family,” said the deceased man’s mother, who told Barbados TODAY, “This is the first incident like this that has ever occurred in the family and we are really trying to support one another . . .” Mario’s head was severely injured when his motorcycle collided with a taxi on January 3 just outside the Harbour Lights Night Club while he and a friend were riding along Bay Street. He was knocked unconscious but remained alive and unresponsive for the next 16 days, until he quietly passed away just after 11a.m. on Sunday following days of treatment in the surgical Intensive Care Unit of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH). “We are all trying to cope with this very tragic news. It’s not a situation like he was ill and passed away. It was sudden death,” said his mother, who throughout the interview remained very composed. The grieving woman however admitted that the days following the accident had been very “traumatic” for the family, “even watching him in the condition that he was in from then,” she said. The “loving” man, a former student of Arthur Smith Primary and St Leonard’s Boys would battle for his life for more than two weeks as family and friends hoped and prayed that he would emerge from his comatose state. Although he did not, his mother told Barbados TODAY that while her son’s death was unexpected, it happened while doing what he loved. “His love was a motorcycle. At the time [of the accident] he was riding what they described as a Honda 80, a small motorcycle. But he always had a love for motorcycles,” she said. In fact, she revealed that Mario, “who could ride a bicycle, from before he could walk properly,” had proven himself a very adventurous person from a young age. “From as young as I can remember, Mario was always a person who was into activities. He always had a bicycle and by age five or six he was a member of DC Wheelers [a biker group based in the Pine, St Michael,” she said. Mario, who worked at his father’s electrical business, was said to have been very good with his hands and “could pick down and put up things very easily.” The 24-year-old father was described as having “a very strong but a loving personality,” especially for his family and his daughter, three-year-old Kamaria Peters. “He loved his daughter and I know his greatest wish would be for us to take total care of his daughter until she reaches adulthood and we are going to make sure of that,” his mother promised. Mario also leaves to mourn his three brothers – Dale, Denny, and Theo Peters along with his sister, Christiana Peters. (BT)

INFRARED THE COOL WINNER – The Caribbean’s most celebrated female trainer Liz Deane dominated the Coolmore Home Of Champions Raceday yesterday at the Garrison Savannah by delivering three winners. In the process, Deane etched her name in the history books as Sir David Seale’s Brigadier Wood gave herwin No. 600 in a stellar career. However, that feat would play second fiddle to the results of the 20th running of the Coolmore Home Of Champions Stakes And Trophy won by Infrared. The Raizman brothers’ horse, six-year-old Infrared, under jockey Jalon Samuel, brought much-needed joy to the hearts of his supporters as he easily cantered home. Ceroc and Voldemort went to the lead leaving the 1 800 metres starting point as Infrared gradually got into gear. He easily gained control midway down the homestretch first time around and opened a gap on Ceroc and Voldermort.  (DN)

PACKED OVAL – There will be bumper crowds at Kensington Oval for this week’s opening Test between West Indies and England. That’s because few tickets are left for the first three days. Barbados Cricket Association president Conde Riley said tomorrow’s opening day had already been sold out. “The demand for tickets is huge. I spoke to Cricket West Indies commercial manager Dominic Warne, who confirmed that the first day has been sold out. I can tell you that the second and third days are 90 per cent sold. I am really happy with the enthusiasm surrounding this Test match. “As you know the last Test between the two teams at Kensington, we won in three days so I am cautiously optimistic we can do well,” he said. Riley says there are thousands of British visitors here for what will be the 54th Test match at the world famous ground. (DN)

‘WI CAN DO IT’ – Defeating the third-ranked cricketing nation would be a feather in West Indies’ cap. That was the view of both Shai Hope and Kemar Roach during a media briefing ahead of tomorrow’s opening Test against Englandat Kensington Oval. Speaking at the Oval yesterday, Hope said he was aware they were viewed as having little chance of winning but were capable of doing so as long as they made the effort. “We know that we are so-called underdogs but if we play our cricket we are going to beat these guys. It’s about using my experience and trying to put my best foot forward. “I think coming off of that loss weeks before and knowing the series was at stake and what they were saying about us, we just motivated ourselves and used that as a big motivator to put up a big performance,” he said. Hope, who made his debut in Barbados back in 2015, was eager to play in front of his home crowd, including family and friends with a personal goal to make as many runs as possible to ensure the team is in a good position. (DN)

TRAIN ATTRACTION LAUNCHED – Barbados’ first train pulled out of the St Nicholas Abbey station after the last train blew its whistle 81 years ago. Approximately 100 tourists and visitors filled the three covered open air cabs earlier this morning on board the Badger, a diesel operated locomotive. Following the hour-long trip, many of the patrons said they were thrilled with the attraction and hoped to return when the steam engine will be added to the train next month. (DN)

CENTENARIAN: DROP THE GUNS - Barbados’ newest centenarian, Tabitha Maynard, is pleading with the youth to put down the guns. While celebrating her milestone yesterday at the Ebenezer Pentecostal Church in Airy Cot, St Thomas, the birthday girl made an impassioned plea for an end to the recent rise in gun violence. “I beg them to stop the shooting, put down the guns and stop the stabbing up [of] each other and turn to the Lord. It’s not worth it. Learn to live in love,” she implored. Maynard, who offered up much praise and thanks to the Lord for allowing her to reach 100 years, said Jesus was the secret to her long life. (DN)

For daily or breaking news reports follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter & Facebook. That’s all for today folks. There are 343 days left in the year. Shalom! #thechasefilesdailynewscap #thechasefiles# dailynewscapsbythechasefiles

[teachanarchy]

1. The world’s oldest porn, which dates back over 3,000 years, features both male/male, female/female and male/female couples

2. The oldest ever known chat up line was apparently said between two men. A mythological story from the 20th dynasty of Ancient Egypt is between Horus and Seth, who quarrelled for 80 years on who should rule. Seth attempted to persuade Horus to sleep with him, saying: ‘How lovely are your buttocks! And how muscular your thighs!’ They then have sex.

3. In Egypt, two male royal manicurists named Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep were found buried together in a shared tomb similar to the way married couples were often buried. Their epigraph reads: ‘Joined in life and joined in death’. Having lived in 2400 BC, they are believed to be history’s oldest recorded gay couple.

4. Some historical gay and bi figures have turned their lovers into gods. Alexander the Great wanted to make his boyhood lover Hephaestion a god when he died, but was only allowed to declare him a Divine Hero. The Roman Emperor Hadrian, of wall-building fame, was successful in making his lover, Antinous, a god after he drowned in the Nile.

5. The church sanctified gay marriages in the so-called Dark Ages, with one being the Byzantine Emperor Basil 1 (867-886) and his partner John.

6. In a creation myth by Aristophanes, there were three sexes: those with two male heads (which were descended from the sun), those with two female heads (from the earth) and those with a male and a female head (descended from the moon). Displeased with them, Zeus crippled them by chopping them in half. Since that day, according to the story, we are looking for the other half to create our whole. This is known as the Origin of Love.

7. Mercury represents male and female principles in harmony. In mythology, Mercury fathered Hermaphroditus, who had both male and female sex organs.

8. Ancient Greeks didn’t believe in heterosexual and homosexual. However they did believe in passive and active. The most common form of same-sex relationships were when an older male, the erastes, acted as a mentor and lover to a younger boy, the eromenos. They believed sperm was the source of knowledge and it was able to be ‘passed on’.

9. There was a band of 150 gay couples from Thebes who defeated a Spartan army, and went undefeated for 30 years.

10. In ancient China, homosexuality was referred to as ‘the cut sleeve’ and ‘pleasures of the bitten peach’.

11. Until the late 1400s the word ‘girl’ just meant a child of either sex. If you had to differentiate between them, male children were referred to as ‘knave girls’ and females were ‘gay girls‘.

12. The word drag is apparently an acronym, a stage direction coined by Shakespeare and his contemporaries meaning ‘Dressed Resembling A Girl’.

13. The Virginia Court in 1629 recorded the first gender ambiguity among the American colonists. A servant named Thomas(ine) Hall was officially declared by the governor to be both ‘a man and a woman’. To stop everyone else from being confused, Hall was ordered to wear articles of each sex’s clothing every day.

14. In early 17th century London, there was a gay brothel on the site where Buckingham Palace is today.

15. Nicholas Biddle, an early explorer of America, found in 1806 that among Minitarees (Native American tribe), ‘if a boy shows any symptom of effeminacy or girlish inclinations, he is put among the girls, dressed in their way, brought up with them and sometimes married to men’.

16. Uganda had a gay king. King Mwanga II, who reigned from 1884 to 1888, is widely reported to have had affairs with his male servants.

17. In the 19th century the word gay referred to a woman who was a prostitute and a gay man was a man who slept with a lot of women.

18. Homosexual men in 1900s London made up an entire slang language so they could communicate in public without fear of being arrested – Polari. Some words survived into today’s slang, such as ‘naff’ – meaning lacking style, TBH, standing for ‘to be honest’ or ‘to be had’, and tjuz, meaning to primp or improve.

19. Carmilla, a story of a lesbian vampire that preyed on young women, was written 25 years before Dracula.

20. The US has apparently already had a gay president, James Buchanan. He shacked up for 10 years with a future VP, William Rufus King, and was referred to by President Andrew Jackson as ‘Miss Nancy’ and ‘Aunt Fancy’.

21. The modern use of gay comes from gaycat, a slang term among hobos meaning a boy who accomapnies an older, more experienced tramp, with the implication of sexual favors being exchanged for protection.

22. While the monocle might have gone out of use, it had a huge following in the ‘stylish lesbian circles of the earlier 20th century’.

23. The first celebrity to come out as openly gay was Billy Haines, who came out in 1933.

24. The oldest surviving LGBT organization in the world is Netherlands’ Center for Culture and Leisure (COC), which was founded in 1946, and used a ‘cover name’ to mask its taboo purpose.

25. Gay male victims of the Holocaust, who wore the downward-facing pink triangle, were still considered to be criminals when they were freed from concentration camps. They were often sent back to prison to serve out their terms.

26. Mensa, launched in 1946, claims its name was always chosen to mean ‘table’ in Latin to demonstrate the coming together of equals. Really, it was intended to be called ‘Mens’, meaning ‘mind’. They changed it in order to avoid confusion with a men-only magazine. Not so smart.

27. The 1950s saw gay people try to change ‘homosexual’ to ‘homophile’. They hoped an emphasis on same-sex love, instead of sex, would help.

28. Playboy has been loved by straight men for decades, but it was a gay short story that built its reputation. Hugh Hefner was the only one to accept a science fiction story about heterosexuals being the minority against homosexuals in 1955. When letters poured in, he said: ‘If it was wrong to persecute heterosexuals in a homosexual society, then the reverse was wrong too.’

29. The Royal Navy commissioned a class of fast patrol boats during the 1950s which were prefixed with the word ‘gay’. Names included the Gay Bruiser and the Gay Charger.

30. While many know the handkerchief code, it was popular for gay women to wear blue stars on their wrists in the 1950s and the 1970s to identify themselves in clubs.

31. Jimi Hendrix pretended to be gay to get out of the army in 1962.

32. A 1969 sci-fi novel accurately predicted the mainstream acceptance of LGBTI people. It also predicted rise of China as a global economy, the EU, TiVO, satellite TV, laser printers and the popularity of marijuana.

33. In the 1960s, the term AC/DC became a popular slang for bisexual. It came from the abbreviations for two types of electrical currents.

34. Barbara Jordan was the first African American to be elected in Texas in 1973. She was also a woman, a Democrat, and gay. She later became the first black woman to give the keynote address at the Democratic National Convention.

35. A serial killer, the Doodler, targeted gay men in 1970s San Francisco. He would sketch his victims nude before murdering them. While three victims survived, and a suspect was identified, no one was willing to out themselves in order to convict the suspect.

36. Bruce Banner’s name was changed to David Banner in 1970s show The Incredible Hulk, as ‘Bruce’ was considered a stereotypically gay name.

37. The first openly gay doll, Gay Bob, was launched in 1977. He had a pierced ear and his box was shaped like a closet.

38. Leonard Matlovich was the first gay US service member to come out. When he died, he was buried without a name and known only as Gay Vietnam Veteran. His epitaph reads: ‘When I was in the military, they gave me a medal for killing two men and a discharge for loving one.’

39. In the early 1980s, a book claims the Naval Investigative Service was investigating homosexuality in Chicago. Having heard gay men refer to themselves as ‘friends of Dorothy’, they went on a futile search for the elusive woman clearly at the center of a homosexual ring.

40. The 1985 film Back To The Future had a deleted scene where Marty tells Doc that he’s worried hitting on his mother could make him gay.

41. Ben Affleck’s 1993 directorial debut was titled: ‘I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney’.

42. The US government considered making a ‘gay bomb’. Scientists figured in 1994 that discharging female sex pheromones over enemy forces would make them sexually attracted to each other.

43. Doctor Who actor John Barrowman nearly got the role of Will in Will and Grace in 1998. But he lost the part when producers thought he was ‘too straight’. Barrowman is gay and Eric McCormack, who got the part, is straight.

44. Peter Tatchell, an Australian gay rights activist living in Britain, attempted a citizen’s arrest on Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in 1999. He walked up to Mugabe, grabbed the dictator by the arm, and said: ‘President Mugabe, you are under arrest for torture’.

45. Founded in 2004, LGBTI activists in Australia created a micronation called the Gay and Lesbian Kingdom of the Coral Sea Islands. The national flag is the LGBT color flag, the official currency is the Euro, and it still exists today.

46. A group from the Greek island of Lesbos requested a legal injunction to ban gay groups from using the word ‘lesbian’ in their names in 2008, claiming it was ‘insulting’ them around the world. It failed.

47. Chinese news agency Xinhua dubiously reported on the apparent existence of a Swedish town in 2009, a town of 25,000 lesbians forbidden to speak to men. Several Swedish tourism sites crashed due to the number of Chinese visitors.

48. In 2010, Microsoft banned a user from Xbox Live for putting Fort Gay as his address. When he tried to tell them that Fort Gay actually exists in West Virginia, it took an appeal from the town’s mayor for it to be corrected.

49. A Hong Kong billionaire offered $65 million to the man that was able to woo and marry his lesbian daughter. It didn’t work.

50. The first gay kiss to be screened in Saudi Arabia was seen in 2012. It was from UK soap Brookside, the first ever televised lesbian kiss in the UK, which originally aired in 1993. It was only thanks to the London 2012 Olympics opening ceremony.

[cosmicpopcorn]

Death Wish (2018)

Warning: Spoilers may be here. Read at your own risk, nigga.

I can’t remember the last time I saw Bruce Willis in a movie. Seriously. I’m sure he’s been doing work, but I can’t remember the last heavily promoted, anticipated Bruce Willis movie. The only reason I knew about Death Wish was because Daquan and I saw the trailer on one of our movie outings. Also, apparently Bruce Willis is 62-years-old. SIXTY-FUCKING-TWO. 

In Hollywood, actresses start to struggle to get roles when they hit their 40s (maybe even a little before then) because Hollywood prefers younger women. But for some reason men can be old and crusty as fuck (not saying Bruce Willis is, because while he is old, he is not crusty) and still playing the same type of roles with no problem, all while having a 30-year-old costar/love interest by their side (at least actress Elisabeth Shue, who plays Bruce’s wife in the movie, is in her 50s). There’s also a trend in Hollywood of people telling women in the same age group as these men that they are too old to play as their costar/love interest. While I’ve heard it’s been getting better recently, Hollywood still has a lot of sexism and ageism. And I’m reminded of it every time I see these old ass male actors playing roles that a lot of time they appear to have outgrown or can no longer play as well as they did before.

This is no shade to Bruce specifically. Just generally speaking. Anyway, this isn’t the first time the world had a Death Wish - this is actually a remake of the original Death Wish which came out in 1974 starring Charles Bronson. They liked the original Death Wish so much they made five of them motherfuckers. Guess they couldn’t get enough of a white man killing people.

The 2018 Death Wish is directed by Eli Roth, who is know for directing movies like Inglorious Basterds, Cabin Fever, Grindhouse, and Hostel. I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen any of these movies, but I definitely have heard of them and if I remember what I heard...they’re pretty fucking gory. When you see the fighting/action scenes, you can tell that this is Mr. Roth’s thing, the shit that gets him all hot and bothered - that man had blood everywhere, necks breaking, guts, brains splattered. It was so vivid I had to close my eyes tight and look away. It probably wasn’t that bad, but it was a bit much for me. 

The plot of Death Wish is simple: Paul Kersey is an accomplished man (in the 2018 remake he’s a trauma surgeon, while in the 1974 original, he’s an architect with past military experience) with a beautiful family made up of his wife and daughter. One night, the wife and daughter are attacked during a home invasion/robbery. Mr. Kersey, after seeing how his beautiful wife and daughter have been brutalized, and how his beautiful family ceases to exist while the assholes who did it ride off into the sunset only to do more fucked up shit, he goes on a vigilante crusade that involves killing the bad guys that the cops seem to be unable to stop. He becomes known around all of Chicago as “The Grim Reaper.”

Here are the pros and cons:

Pros:

The movie does a really great job of showing the type of life Paul Kersey has before becoming “The Grim Reaper.” I genuinely liked his family. The life they have is one to envy and you feel the love they have for each other. Elisabeth Shue does an excellent job playing Lucy Kersey and Daquan said he really liked her character. You feel the devastation and understand exactly what Paul has lost when his family is attacked.

Overall, the movie is cast well - Bruce Willis, Elisabeth Shue, Dean Norris, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Kimberly Elise all play major roles in the movie and do reasonably well. There’s a bunch of nobodies in the movie too (at least nobodies to me), but even they give a decent performance.

I like the debate the movie presented - if vigilantes are helping or hurting society and if it is okay for people to get their own justice, to take the law into their own hands when the system fails them. I personally am somewhere in-between, leaning slightly towards us handling this shit on our own since the system is fucked up anyway. Don’t be surprised, I’m the same woman who agrees with Killmonger. 

The movie keeps your attention and you are entertained for the entirety of the movie. There aren’t any “Why the fuck am I watching this?” or “I want my money back” moments. It’s a decent, typical “I’m a man and someone hurt my family so I’mma find those bitch ass niggas and put a cap in they ass” type of action movie. It does what it’s supposed to do - nothing more, nothing less.

Cons:

Bruce Willis’ performance as Paul Kersey was too stoic. Either that, or he just wasn’t able to convince me that Paul Kersey was so hurt, so angry about what was done to his family that he was willing to risk his freedom and kill ALL THE BAD GUYS and go on a revenge mission. In the beginning of the movie, Paul does seem to be a smartass, but a harmless smartass - he makes slick comments but ain’t about to put his hands on anybody. He used to fight back in the day, but lost every fight he got into...which is probably why he ain’t putting his hands on anybody. When he finds out about his family, he appears upset, but calm. His brother (played by Vincent D’Onofrio) is angrier than he is, and in fact, the detectives (Dean Norris and Kimberly Elise) suspect the brother first. Paul doesn’t even know how to hold a gun, which results in him getting a very obvious You-Must-Be-The-Grim-Reaper wound that could tip the police off. Bruce Willis didn’t convince me that this man was moved to become a gun-wielding vigilante or that he would be motivated enough to try to learn how to be one. 

The 2018 movie’s plot is way too neat. By the end of the movie, everything is right in the world for Paul Kersey and his family. Well, as right as they could be. Everything is wrapped up with a big, nice, red bow and I just feel like the ending should have been messier, more open-ended (like the original Death Wish in which Paul never finds the men who attacked his family). The movie should have been messier. Paul Kersey doesn’t really struggle to become The Grim Reaper and he gets revenge with ease. The attackers literally just fall into his lap. He doesn’t have to work for anything.

The movie has corny one-liners. ‘Nuff said, lol.

The movie brings up questions that never are answered - like why was Dean Norris’ character willing to let Paul go free instead of arresting him when he realized he was The Grim Reaper? (when nothing in the movie indicates that he would do this) or why was Paul told at the gun shop that it would take this super long time to get a gun legally (which is why he obtained a gun illegally from the hospital instead of getting one from the gun shop) but towards the end of the movie he was able to get a gun legally in a day? 

The movie attempts to introduce the conversation about vigilante justice in a very awkward scene involving Paul and his father-in-law, who goes on a rant about how a real man doesn’t wait on the police and gets justice on his own as he shoots at poachers. It’s just odd as fuck and at first I didn’t know what was happening.

One thing I couldn’t let go of was the fact that Paul Kersey, a white man, is walking around (often in broad daylight) with nothing but a hoodie and a gun...killing people. First, hoodies make me think of Trayvon Martin and all he was armed with was an Arizona drink and skittles, and now this young black man is dead for basically existing while black at the same time as a violent racist aka George Zimmerman. 

But in this movie, Paul is seen as a hero by most. He gets away with killing people in broad daylight. No one seems afraid of the white man in a hoodie until he pulls out a gun. Paul is comfortable doing this in broad daylight and doesn’t think twice about it. Daquan and I were in shock at how bold this white man was. But I guess that’s white privilege for you. If Paul was black, this would be a different kind of movie. Even with the original Death Wish, the boldness of a white man killing people in broad daylight (and getting away with it and being celebrated) is a reminder to me of how powerful white male privilege is in this society. 

The movie wasn’t terrible. But, save your money and just watch this on bootleg, TV, Netflix or whatever. No use in paying expensive ass movie ticket prices for this one.

Rating: 2.5 Butter Popcorn Pieces