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arcticdementor · 3 years ago

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For millennia the family has stood as the central institution of society—often changing, but always essential. But across the world, from China to North America, and particularly in Europe, family ties are weakening, with the potential to undermine one of the last few precious bits of privacy and intimacy.

Margaret Mead once said, “no matter how many communes anyone invents, the family always creeps back.” But today’s trajectory is not promising. Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, family formation and birth rates were declining throughout much of the world, not just in most of the West and East Asia, but also in parts of South American and the Middle East.

The ongoing pandemic appears to be driving birth rates globally down even further, and the longer it lasts, the greater possibility that familial implosion will get far worse, and perhaps intractable. Brookings predicts that COVID will result in 300,000 to 500,000 fewer U.S. births in 2021. Marriage rates have dropped significantly to 35 year lows.

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These predictions turned out to be vastly exaggerated, with a rapid decline in global hunger. The anticipated population explosion is morphing into something more like an implosion, with much of the world now facing population stagnation, and even contraction. As birth rates have dropped, the only thing holding up population figures in many places is longer lifespans, though recent data suggests these may be getting shorter again .

These trends can be felt in the United States, where the birthrate is sinking. U.S. population growth among the cohort aged between 16 and 64 has dropped from 20 percent in the 1980s to less than 5 percent in the last decade. This is particularly bad for the future of an economy dependent on new workers and consumers.

This demographic transition is even more marked in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and much of Europe, where finding younger workers is becoming a major problem for employers and could result in higher costs or increased movement of jobs to more fecund countries. As the employment base shrinks, some countries, such as Germany, have raised taxes on the existing labor force to pay for the swelling ranks of retirees.

Similar patterns can be seen in China. Expanding workforces like China’s—which grew by 380 million between 1980 and 2012—drove a world-shattering economic boom. Now, this resource is already in peril; birthrates have cratered to historic lows. China’s working-age population (those between 15 and 64 years old) peaked in 2011 and is projected to drop 23 percent by 2050. This plunge will be exacerbated by the effects of the now discarded one-child policy, which led to the aborting of an estimated 37 million Chinese girls since it came into effect in 1980. By 2050, China is projected to have 60 million fewer people under age fifteen, a loss approximately the size of Italy’s total population. The ratio of retirees to working people is expected to have more than tripled by then, which would be one of the most rapid demographic shifts in history, and by 2050 will be roughly 20 percent higher than that of the U.S.

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Today’s demographic stagnation represents a throwback to earlier times. After the relative buoyant growth in Classical times, the Middle Ages also were a period of global demographic stagnation, caused by famine, pestilence, pervasive celibacy and poverty. Population growth soared with the rise of liberal capitalism in the Early Modern period, aided by changing attitudes toward motherhood, children, and families. Simon Schama describes the Netherlands, the fount of this transition, as a “Republic of Children” built around the nuclear family. The medieval obsession with the Virgin Mother and the unrealistic cherubim typical of Renaissance painting were replaced with domestic images characterized by “uncompromising earthiness.”

We now seem to be moving away from those values, and as in the Middle Ages, becoming less centered around the family. Serfs at least had religion and a sense of community; our societies have become increasingly lonely, with single men hit hardest and children, often without two parents or any siblings, and chained to social media, increasingly isolated around the world. In the U.S. since 1960, the percentage of people in the United States living alone has grown from about 12 percent to 28 percent. Even intimacy is on its way out, particularly among the young; the once swinging age groups now are suffering a “sex recession.”

The percentage of American women who are mothers is at its lowest point in over three decades. Intact families are rarer, and single living more common. In the United States, the rate of single parenthood has grown from 10 percent in 1960 to over 40 percent today. This is very bad news for society, particularly minorities, because intact families tend to have fewer problems relating to prison, school, or poverty.

This social collapse is going global. In Britain, 8 percent of households in 1970 were headed by a single parent; now, the rate is over 25 percent. The percentage of children born outside marriage has doubled over the past three decades, to 40 percent. In the Scandinavian countries, around 40 percent of the population lives alone.

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In Japan, the harbinger of modern Asian demographics, the number of people living alone is expected to reach 40 percent of the whole population by 2040. Japan has a rising “misery index” of divorces, single motherhood, and spousal and child abuse—all of which accelerates the country’s disastrous demographic decline and deepens class division. More and more people are not only living alone but dying alone. There are estimated to be four thousand “lonely deaths” in Japan every week.

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The disinclination to form families is often described as generational choice. But American millennial attitudes about family are not significantly different from prior generations, though perhaps with a greater emphasis on gender equality. Among American childless women under age 44, barely 6 percent are “voluntarily childless.” The vast majority of millennials want to get married and have children.

High housing prices, crowded living conditions, and financial pressures certainly account for much of this gap. This phenomenon is particularly marked in the urban centers that dominate the world’s economy and culture. Today many large cities are becoming childless demographic graveyards. Between 2011 and 2019, the number of babies born annually in Manhattan dropped by nearly 15 percent, while the decrease across the city was 9 percent. The nation’s premier urban center could see its infant population shrink by half in the next thirty years. The share of nonfamily households grew three times as fast in gentrifying neighborhoods as in the city overall. In the future, writes Steve LeVine in Axios, shifting local priorities “could write kids out of urban life for good.”

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Nearly half a century ago, Daniel Bell saw a “new class” rising with values profoundly divergent from the traditional bourgeois norms of self-control, industriousness, and personal responsibility, which together form the essence of familialism. Instead, Bell envisioned a new type of individualism, unmoored from religion and family, which could dissolve the foundations of middle-class culture.

Indeed, for some, particularly in Europe and North America, declining fecundity represents an ideal result, chosen by those who “give up having children to save the planet” in order to reduce the carbon impact of each additional human. The recipe for reducing family size fits with the widely promoted notion of de-growth which has strong support from the oligarchs and financiers associated with the World Economic Forum. The goal is no GDP growth, less consumption, smaller houses, less class mobility, policies likely to reduce birthrates.

Others, particularly feminists and gender activists, celebrate the decline of the family for more ideological reasons. The late feminist icon Betty Frieden once compared housewives to people marching voluntarily into “a concentration camp.” One recent New York Times article even linked women who choose to stay at home with “white supremacy.” Black Lives Matter, true to its quasi-Marxist ideology, has made clear its antipathy to the nuclear family, an attitude widely shared in the mainstream media as well.

The more conventional Marxists in China, for their part, see these post-familial attitudes as a threat to the country’s future. China’s Communist leaders, while officially genuflecting to Maoist ideology, now promote the filial piety central to both traditional folk religion and the Confucianism but long reviled by the founders of the People’s Republic. Once terrified by overpopulation, China’s leaders are seeking ways to raise childbearing and family formation into “socialist” values.

But it’s Japan which again epitomizes the shift in Asian attitudes. There, traditional values such as hard work, sacrifice, and loyalty are largely rejected by the new generation, the shinjinrui or “new race.” These younger Japanese, writes one sociologist, are “pioneering a new sort of high quality, low energy, low growth existence.” Maybe they don’t need much energy since nearly a third of Japanese adults entering their thirties have never had sex. This is not a good predictor for family formation.

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To succeed, such initiatives have to go beyond cash payments and other incentives, as welcome as these may be. There also needs to be a concerted effort to build family-friendly housing— large apartments, townhomes, and single-family detached houses—that generally attract families with children. Rather than shoehorning forced density into already-dense metros, we can encourage the development of less expensive, family-friendly housing; the shift to the periphery accelerated by the pandemic could help reverse the rapid aging and demographic declines associated with densely packed cities. The rise of remote work—something widely embraced by parents—could boost families by allowing them to work at home or nearby.

These are not issues of right or left, but concern the future of our civilization, not just economically but spiritually. Social democracy, as first developed in places like Sweden, sought to bolster families, not hem them in. Some conservatives have placed similar emphasis on the family unit. The debate should be not the utility of supporting families, but how best to do it.

This is a choice we need to make. A woke utopia, where children and families are rare, upward mobility constrained, and society built around a collective welfare system, would create a society that rewards hedonism and personal self-absorption. There is nothing as binding in a society as the ties created by children, who give us reason to fight against an encroaching dystopia.

#joel kotkin #the american mind #low birth rates #demographics

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ourimpavidheroine · 4 years ago

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I’ve gotta say, I’m really enjoying these stories. Also, your late father sounds like an amazing man. I can really see the inspiration for LoLo come out in your mentions of him.

When my mother got pregnant with me - a planned pregnancy, they were young when they married but I was born 16 months later - my father knew from the get-go that he wanted a girl.

This was (and, I am sad to say, still is) an unusual thing for a father to wish for. Most fathers wish for a son. My Dad, however, was raised by a drunken, abusive, narcissistic man and he was afraid that if he had a son he’d just turn into his father. He thought a daughter would help him break that cycle of abuse.

When I was born he told the nurse who brought me out to him in the waiting room that I was an angel, and Angel was the nickname that he alone called me.

He and I were very, very close, something that made my mother and younger brother jealous. (I didn’t really see or understand that until after he died when I was 26.) There was nothing whatsoever or remotely sexual about it, which is what people usually assume when a father and daughter are very close. As my girlhood best friend said to me a few months ago, my father thought the sun rose and set on me, thought that I was his fairy princess. All of my odd, Autistic/ADHD weirdness was something he loved. I always knew he loved me not just despite my weirdness but because of it. (Something that my late wife did as well.)

My father was a brilliant man. He graduated high school at 15 and went into university to study architecture. Academically he handled it, but he was way too young to handle the social aspects as well as the responsibility of it and so he dropped out a year later. Things were apparently hellish with my grandfather and my Dad enlisted in the Army on his 18th birthday. This was 1965 and the US started sending soldiers to Vietnam. Not my Dad, though. He took some tests the military gave him and after boot camp spent his entire three years on a Nike missle base in the middle of Milwaukee, working on one of those huge old mainframe computers (you know, the kind with punch cards). I’m guessing they didn’t send the really smart ones off to be killed.

He taught himself how to be an architect through reading books at the library, including textbooks that he would sit and read at UC Berkeley’s library, even though he wasn’t a student there any longer. Then, after he had learned that, he read through engineering and physics textbooks. Then he read through every single book he could find that taught him how to actually build the structures he had learned to draw. He was completely self-taught, and the man not only designed and built complicated, Broadway-worthy theater sets he also designed and built houses from the ground up. He wanted to build a rock retaining wall at our house (which was located at the base of a hill and was on an incline) and so he went to the library and got a book about how Romans built walls and spent three years going to the local river to source variously-sized river rocks to build that retaining wall, which he did completely without any kind of mortar, just balancing the rocks perfectly. It’s still standing, 40 years later.

He always worked at very menial jobs - he was a line cook, a stocker in a supermarket produce department, an RV park manager, etc. He was terrible with money, didn’t understand it at all. We lived right on top of the poverty line. He had zero executive functioning and that caused a lot of problems for all of us and meant a lot of broken promises, too.

I am completely sure that like me, like both of his grandchildren, he had Autism and ADHD. Not diagnosed of course, they weren’t in those days, But he had them nevertheless.

He was a voracious reader and introduced me to sci fi and fantasy. On my eighth birthday he gave me his copies of The Lord of the Rings and had me read them. (This was 1977, trust me when I tell you those books were not a household name at that point.) He’d wake me up at 3:30 am and we’d go fishing together, him with a thermos of black coffee, me with a bottle of orange juice and a box of Entenmann’s mixed donuts and we’d sit there in happy silence together, fishing and enjoying each other’s company. He was a wonderful storyteller and only once did he get angry with me. He never laid a hand on me or my brother but the one time he got angry with me he slapped me across the face and then the both of us cried.

He taught me many useful skills, like how to jimmy locks and how to walk through people unseen and how to learn on my own how to do things and how to make the world’s best pie. He always told me that I could absolutely anything I put my mind to. When I asked him once if that meant I could be a father - I was joking - he looked me straight in the eye and asked me if I actually wanted to be a father. When I told him no he responded that he had said if I had put my mind to it, and he wasn’t vouching for anything I pulled when I didn’t care.

He also told me that I was the strongest person he’d ever met and when I scoffed at that he shook his head and said, “Angel, most people see you and they have no idea at all what’s inside of you and what you are capable of. There is nothing in this life you won’t overcome. Someday, when we’re both dead, you come find me and tell me I’m wrong.” (So far, he has not been wrong.)

He was a functioning drunk; he only drank after 8 at night, however. Just enough to make sure he’d not be hungover in the morning. He was a night person and all his life only needed about 4 hours of sleep to be completely rested.

He loved movies but he hated to go alone and usually took me. Not all of these movies were appropriate for kids my age but there it was. When I was eleven he took me with him to see The Elephant Man and I broke down completely, devastated and sobbing, horrified at how cruel people were to the lead character, just because he was different. After the movie we sat in the car and he held me until I was done crying and when I was all done he told me to never forget how the movie had made me feel and to remember that no matter how different people were from me they were all human and deserved kindness, compassion and understanding. This was a lesson I have tried very hard to live throughout my life. He took people at face value, and that included everyone. I don’t think he was particularly woke based on 2021 sentiments but he tried very hard to treat people equally and that included queer people during the AIDS crisis, too.

He was a feminist and believed women should be equal to men. He walked the walk, too: he cooked, he cleaned, he changed diapers, etc. And by that I mean he did them as par for the course, as part of his daily life. He did not rely on my mother’s emotional labor to remind him to do shit. He just did it because things needed doing and he was a grownass man, not a man-child. He did not consider caring for his children as babysitting, either.

He liked to sing. My mother and brother have opera-quality singing voices - for real, both of them are quite gifted - but his wasn’t like that, it was just a perfectly ordinary, passable baritone, just like mine is a perfectly ordinary, passable alto. He sang and he whistled when he was happy and I do the same. He used to make up funny little songs and rhymes on the spot, he had a gift for improvisation that way. I wish I had inherited that but alas! No.

Even when he was a boy all of the neighborhood kids would come to him with broken toys to be fixed. He quite genuinely liked kids and even teenagers and spent a lot of time working with the local high school drama department, building the sets, working as the stage manager and setting up and working the lights and soundboard (he taught himself to do that as well) and even directing some of the plays when the drama teacher was out on maternity leave. To this day I still get contacted by people who were in school with me or my brother who tell me what an influence my father was on them, the special things he did for them to make sure they knew he was paying attention and cared. One guy a couple of years ago contacted me on Facebook and told me that he got into some trouble after high school, even got imprisoned for a few months. My father visited him in prison and afterwards took him to AA with him, became his sponsor, helped keep on the straight and narrow. He named his oldest son after my father, in fact. I hear a lot of those stories.

He loved books and he loved music and he taught me to love those things as well. He fell in love with my mother when he was seventeen and married her five years later and came to regret it - like his father, his wife was an abusive, narcissistic person. He stayed with her, though, until my second year of university, when he abruptly walked out on her, went to AA and quit drinking. I asked him about it later; he told me that he had wanted to leave her for years but knew that if he did he’d never see me or my younger brother again. The courts in those days automatically gave kids to the mother and my mother was an accomplished liar and would have told the courts anything and they would have believed her. Once I was out of the house and secure, then he was done. (The fact that my brother was only fifteen and left to fend for himself with my mother was...not good. Not good at all. My father was not perfect and he was not a saint and that was a mistake that still has repercussions today.) He did not do enough to protect me from my mother while I was growing up, however. He regretted it, he told me later. I understand now that he was constantly walking a knife’s edge, trying to keep her satisfied enough so she wouldn’t try to take me away from him, but it took therapy long after he died for me to really understand that.

His special interest was model railroading and he built these amazing, intricate landscapes, all by hand and by scratch. The man took latex molds off the sides of rocks to build mountains with and built buildings out of tiny pieces of wood and such. I spent many hours with him as he built, listening to music and reading or just laying there, thinking my thinks, or sometimes chattering nonstop to him.

He called me, every single Friday night, right after the X-Files ended, right after the child’s voice said “I made this.” My phone would ring and we’d chat for hours, talking about the show (we both loved it) and whatever else. He lived about 5 hours away from me at the time and we did talk at other times during the week but that was our standard date. He died in the middle of Season 2 and to this very goddamn fucking day whenever I hear that “I made this” I wait for my phone to ring. And I cry every single time because he will never call me again.

I absolutely think that meeting my late wife via the X-Files was my father, watching out for me. When my twins were newborn and pretty much all I did 24x7 was breastfeed them I re-watched the entirety of X-Files on the DVDs I had and I’d talk to my father in my head, telling him about his grandchildren.

He’d always buy the new Stephen King books in hardcover and read them and then give them to me to keep. He especially loved the Dark Tower series but I haven’t finished the ones that were published after he died. I bought them myself but they are still sitting on my bookshelf, unread. I just can’t.

He died in the hospital after being in a coma for a week. The ICU nurses were very kind and showed me how I could turn off the life support machine if I wanted to and told me that I could be in there with him as long as I needed. They very considerately closed all of the curtains and closed the door to the room. I was alone with him in there and I turned off the machine and I held his hand and I sang to him as he died. I didn’t want him to be alone.

He was right. I was strong enough to do that. It hurt, though. It still hurts.

He’s buried in California with a free military headstone because my comfortably upper middle class grandfather refused to shell out for a headstone and I was flat broke. Many years later I had a regular stone engraved with the words, “Go then, there are other worlds than these” and I placed it at our summer cottage here in Finland for him. I like to think that he and my late wife are keeping company. They never met here, but they would have liked each other very much, that I do know.

#impavid storytime #my father #long post #I loved him very much #in case you didn't get that from this #Anonymous

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pseudophan · 4 years ago

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can you tell us the summary of your love of your lives case? I don’t wanna watch the video I don’t have the patience to watch it

it's such a complicated case but in short(ish):

1993 in west memphis arkansas, three eight year old boys go missing and are later found murdered in the woods. the community is freaking the fuck out and because it's 1993 small town arkansas and satanic panic is sweeping the nation people go ITS SATANISM IT WAS A SATANIC RITUAL and the police keep interviewing this 18 year old named damien echols because he was into witchcraft and listened to metallica and wore all black (genuine points brought up in court like this is what the entire case is built on). im skipping some details here cause its all oh so convoluted but basically they eventually interrogate a 17 year old named jessie miskelley jr who confesses to the crime and implicates damien and damien's best friend jason baldwin (16, looks about 11). so then ofc they all get arrested

issue is: jessie is a minor with a reported iq of 72 and they interrogated him non stop for 12 hours with no parent or attorney present (his dad agreed to let them speak to him but they didnt tell him it was an interrogation) and less than an hour of it was recorded. jessie claims the cops coerced him into his confession and even on the 40 something minutes of interrogation we do have available to listen to you can hear the cops just continuously leading him on like theyll ask when this happened and he says a time and they go no the kids were in school then it was later wasnt it and he's like yeah it was [later time] and theyre like no it was around 8 wasnt it? and hes like yeah yeah it was then and it goes on like that foreverrrrr

ok im getting into too much detail here im sorry theres so much more anyway anyway TRIALS HAPPEN and its all a whole bunch of bullshit and hbo recorded it all for hit documentary paradise lost (watch it) and hhhooooooly shit!

theres way too much to talk about w the trial but besides everyone being fucking cracked and damien being a smartass and the judge looking bored out of his goddamn mind throughout the whole thing (FUCK that judge) one notable part that didnt come out until later is that during jury selection this one guy was hell bent on getting on the jury cause he wanted them convicted and not only was he let on the jury he became the jury foreman which goes against like every law cause juries are supposed to go into court with no preconceived notions of what happened. also jessie had a separate trial cause he wouldnt testify against jason and damien which means his "confession" wasnt admissible in their trial and the jury werent allowed to consider it, but the jury actively discussed the confession while making their decision (jury members have said they did + it was written on their goddamn whiteboard) which. h

ANYWAYYY so jessie and jason get life in prison without the possibility of parole and damien gets sentenced to death. damien is 19 at this point with a newborn baby. jason isnt even 18.

so then they go away and the documentary paradise lost comes out and everyone collectively loses their goddamn fucking minds cause how the fuck did this happen they didnt even have a single piece of actual evidence except a piece of hair that MAY match damien but also its the early 90s and they dont actually have a fucking clue

years go by, everythings happening so much, their appeals get shot down one by one cause its the same fucking judge and ofc hes not gonna admit any fault. the public suspect john mark byers (rest in peace he died like a month ago in a traffic accident, btw he also didnt do it but thats also a lot to go into. interesting guy, definitely inbred, violent tendencies but not a murderer) one of the kids' stepdads (technically adoptive dad cause he legally adopted the kid after he married his mum but hes generally referred to as his stepdad) of having done it cause hes fucking massive and is quite possibly the most colourful character ive seen in my life like that guy had no idea what was going on ever and he was hell bent on the teens having done it and wanted to kill them all UNTIL! until. 2007, they test the dna in the case and SHOCKINGLY turns out none of the west memphis 3's dna is anywhere to be found, the shit they had that could be damien's turns out to not even remotely match him in the slightest and suddenly theyre there like. well. now theres nothing. and yet theyre still in prison cause everyone who got them convicted is like NO THEY DID IT :) but the public outrage is so much by this point and finally they get to take it to the supreme court who take one look at it and are literally like ??? what the fuck happened here give them a new trial what the literal hell (theres a video of it their faces are literally so funny they all look like they absolutely cannot believe this required their help) so in 2011 they finally have the opportunity to retrial with a new judge but SUDDENLY the state of arkansas go um actually we are gonna offer you an alford plea which basically means they legally plead guilty to the charges while still saying they didnt do it and then they get let out but the state wont have to admit fault or reopen the case cause in their eyes these three are still guilty but theyre gonna let them out anyway cause that makes a whole lot of sense i guess. lol basically the state realised there was a real chance they could get exonerated in which case they were gonna get sued to hell and back and went FUCK give them a deal

now jason didnt want to take the deal he wanted to wait for the new trial and risk getting found guilty again cause he said this isnt justice for the kids cause the real killer or killers are still free and its not justice for us cause we have to plead guilty to save the asses of the system that failed us all BUT all three of them have to agree for it to be valid and damien's execution date, which he's already narrowly avoided on several occasions like its already been postponed multiple times, is once again coming up and if the new trial somehow goes wrong and hes sent back to death row he's gonna be killed so jason decided fuck all of that and agreed to the plea exclusively to save damien which ok ride or die king

i havent gone into who really did it cause once again there is SO much but the majority of people think it was terry hobbs (the stepdad of another one of the victims) including the kid's mother whos now his ex wife who he abused to no end. theres a Lot to this theory and while theres no concrete evidence cause they did a shittyass job with everything theres already more dna linking him to the scene than the teens. god i really wanna go into everything that points to terry being at least somehow involved but this has already gotten so out of hand

anyway follow damienechols on instagram all he does is post about witchcraft and cats. also watch the hbo paradise lost trilogy and west of memphis. and if u want even more details listen to the three true crime garage episodes on the case. also theres books. theres so much. i have so much more to say. someone stop me

#answered

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missmentelle · 5 years ago

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In high school I knew of several kids around 13-15 who were dating much older adults. Is a sexual relationship with an age gap like this always traumatic for the younger partner? What are the effects left on adults who were with much older partners as teens?

It’s an inherently abusive dynamic. Yes, I know that everyone knows someone whose grandma got married when she was 14 and he was 21 and they’re still madly in love with each other 60 years later, and maybe that worked out 60 years ago in a small rural town of two dozen people, but there is absolutely no good reason for an adult to be dating a child in this day and age, especially one as young as 13 (!!!). A relationship between a 15-year-old and an 18-year-old miiiiight be passable in some circumstances - if someone was born late/early in the year or got held back a grade, those could be two high schoolers who are just one or two grades apart - but a relationship between a young teenager and someone in their twenties or older is fucking unacceptable.

The reason these kinds of age gaps create an inherently abusive situation is because there is a huge power differential between a high school freshman and a person in their mid-20s (or older). The adult has all the cards, in terms of both resources and experience. They have probably had sex and relationships before, and they get to tell the younger person what is “normal” in a relationship. They are much more experienced and much less naive than the high schooler, which makes it incredibly easy for them to manipulate their younger partner. They are way more likely to have access to money, a car, alcohol and their own apartment with no parental supervision, and it is very easy for them to put the high schooler in adult situations that they are not ready to handle. The relationship happens entirely on the adult’s terms, and the high schooler does not even have the tools to know if what’s happening to them is wrong, much less defend themselves. That doesn’t mean that relationships between two high schoolers are inherently non-abusive - it’s very possible to be abused by someone your own age or younger - but you are on a much more level playing field when you are dating someone your own age. That’s why these age gaps become less problematic as a person grows older. The experience gap that exists between a 14-year-old and a 22-year-old is enormous, while the experience gap between a 34-year-old and 42-year-old is much narrower.

I also had several friends date adults when we were in high school, and it was an overwhelmingly negative experience for the majority of them. In particular, my best friend started dating a 24-year-old man when she was 16, and the entire experience was just a nightmare. Her boyfriend pushed and broke her sexual boundaries, and convinced her that his controlling, manipulative and jealous behaviour was part of an “adult” relationship, and that “real men” were protective of their girlfriends. He brought her to adult parties with people in their 20s and 30s, pressured her to drink, and used that to take advantage of her. He had a car, and used to drive around our neighborhood, making sure that she was leaving school on time every day and checking if her bedroom lights were on at night to make sure she was home. She texted him once to tell him that she and I were going to a walk to the local corner store for Slurpees, and when we were halfway home, we noticed the same car repeatedly driving past us - it was him, making sure that she was really out with the person she claimed she was out with. Escaping that relationship was insanely difficult for her - she couldn’t go to her parents or our teachers for help because she didn’t want him to get in legal trouble, and he had so much power over her that it was difficult for her to even know if her relationship was abusive or if she was “being immature” and “overreacting”, like he said she was.

It’s easy to see why these relationships might be appealing if you are approaching things from the high schooler’s perspective, but to really understand why this dynamic is not okay, you need to consider the adult’s perspective. It’s easy to understand why a high schooler might be drawn to dating an adult - when your same-age peers don’t have their driver’s licenses and still have burping contests at the lunch table, the idea of dating an older, more mature person might seem appealing. But why would someone in their twenties want to date a high schooler? People their own age have freedom and money and can legally get into bars. They don’t have to ask their mom for permission to go out and have an eight o’clock curfew on school nights. They have more shared interests and understand more cultural references. Don’t get me wrong, high school students can be intelligent and well-informed, but they are still in the early stages of becoming people. There is a reason we don’t let them live alone or get tattoos or join the military or consent to sex with adults - they don’t have the experience to make those kinds of choices yet. The biggest thing that a 13-15-year-old teenager has to offer an adult partner is their vulnerability and insecurity. A 14-year-old girl will put up with behaviour that a 24-year-old woman will not, and that’s a big reason for an adult with abusive tendencies to seek them out as partners, despite the restrictions and the risks of getting caught.

The long-term impacts of being in these kinds of relationships vary wildly. Some people who dated much older adults in their early teens might say that it was a totally neutral or even a positive experience for them, and that it had no real long-term impacts. Like I said before, there are couples out there who meet at these kinds of ages and end up staying together. I don’t think that’s a common outcome, but it does happen. And then there are people who are hugely traumatized by the entire experience. My mother was in an abusive romantic relationship with one of her teachers when she was in high school and she recently started therapy to deal with the experience, more than 40 years later - she feels that this experience affected her romantic relationships for the rest of her life, including her strained and rocky marriage with my father. It’s impossible to say for sure how any one person will be affected. But these kinds of situations are rife with potential for abuse, and can potentially shape the young person’s expectations and perspectives on romantic relationships for many years to come.

Hope this answers your question.

Miss Mentelle

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tired-college-student-writing · 5 years ago

Text

The Painter’s Daughter Ch 3

Summary: Marinette is the daughter of two bakers

Marinette is a happy sometimes naive girl

Marinette is loved to create and make more than they liked to destroy

or was she?

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3 (HERE)

Chapter 4

_________________________________________

Marinette grew and grew.

At age 5 her mother married the baker across the street and all of them ended up hyphenating their names to Dupain-Cheng, Tom became her Papa after her Dad reassured her it was alright on one of his visits as he brought her fabric flowers and a lovely set of paintbrushes. He was always bringing her gifts, mostly art supplies but sometimes sketches he’s made and even one of his paintings, given on Her first birthday after Helen met her. When people came over they always commented on the odd brown painting in her room, how it didn’t seem to match the rest of the decor, a sprawling landscape with a single woman resting up a tree, hair blowing in the wind Marinette just shrugged and said it was a present from her dad, one Mama hadn’t been too pleased about.

At age 7 she met her rival, Chloe Bourgeois, and ranted and raved about her to her Mama, Papa, and Dad. Her mother looked worried every time she ranted for a while before she overheard her Dad offering to turn Chloe into paint only for Mari to scrunch her nose and tell him that she didn’t want to be the reason someone died. She knew what her Dad was, knew what he did, and she still loved him but she would not allow him to work in her name.

At age 10 she had mastered sewing and began making her own clothes. It took a few times to get right, but she had a lot of practice patching things up since her Dad often had cuts and rips in his clothes and she hated to see him look anything less than his best. Whoever heard of a ragamuffin serial killer after all. Soon she was making her the majority of her own clothes from the fabrics her Dad and parents bought her, and she made them cl too. The creeps often commented on The Painter’s new outfit, an updated version of his old one and asked if they could have some too. By age 12 Marinette had endeared over two dozen creeps to her by eagerly making them more durable clothes for them to wear on hunts and willingly patching them up if they promised not to hunt in Paris outside of missions they were required to do.

At 13, Marinette was given the Ladybug Miraculous, becoming a heroine. Her Dad had laughed hysterically at this when he visited after she first transformed, feeling the ancient magic swirling through her, claiming her as much as Slender’s magic did. They had always been worried about her becoming a creep or proxy, unfeelingly ending lives like her father and here she was, with the magic to heal and bring life back. The power of creation from a being just as old as Slenderman and Zalgo.A true holder of the Ladybug earrings, born to control the magic of creation Tikki had greeted the creep with a warm smile and fierce eyes, telling him that her bug was safe, safer then she ever was before even if she was flipping over rooftops and fighting magical foes.

At 14, a new rival appears right as Chloe is starting to try harder, this one is named Lila. Helen’s blood boils as he listens to his daughter’s tales, knowing this girl would be the exact he would string up by her ankles and bleed like a pig for his next piece if only he promised years ago to leave anyone in Paris alone. He still offered though, and this time her refusals were hesitant and unsure, as the words got harsher and harsher as the lies spun became more intricate.

At 15, the class showed their true colors and the once-bustling friend group broke apart into two camps, Team Lila, with Alya, Myrlene, Sabrina, Rose, Juleka and Ivan, and Team Marinette, with Nino, Max, Nathanial, Kim, Alix, and Chloe. Adrian was strictly neutral, refusing to take either side, fearful of his father finding out about the mini-war and removing him from school. Her Dad wanted to remove him himself but Marinette told him no. The boy was sheltered beyond belief and had to be convinced that the lair’s constant unwanted touching was sexual harassment clear and simple. He meant no harm with his ill-suited advice and ideals of the high road.

Now at 16, she was faced with an even bigger issue.

Her Dad had arrived unannounced as always, never knowing when he’d freely be able to come visit without the police trailing him. They ate dinner, all four of them talking as they always did, avoiding talking about Helen’s job, instead asking about new stories of creeps’ blunders. After dinner, the married couple had shooed her and her dad upstairs so they could clean up.

“I want to kill someone,” She told her dad, slowly once the door to her room was shut, from where she sat on her chaise, sketchbook balanced on her knees as she sketched without looking at it. She couldn’t tell anyone else her thoughts, mama and papa would both panic, others would think she was insane…

"Let me do it," He offered as easily as if he was offering to drive her to her friend's house as he sat down next to her, “I’m sure they would make a lovely painting for you to hang on the wall. Just tell me who. Or if not a painting I’m sure Jeff would put them to sleep, or EJ could make a meal out of them, or-”

“You don’t get it,” She hissed, eyes hard as she stared forward with an unblinking stare, pencil dancing, “I don’t want them dead. I don’t want you or any of the others to handle the situation. I WANT to kill them, by my hand no one else’s, I can picture it.”

He stared at her for a long second, face blank, but she could see his form flickering. Her dad mentally was over 40 at this point and appeared it most of the time too, but Slenderman always kept the proxies the age they were when he created them. She rarely saw her father looking her age, the age he was frozen at forever.

It only came out when he was killing, or when he was in emotional turmoil and unable to keep hold of the magic-making him appear older.

He didn’t know what to say to her announcement, didn’t know what would come of it, what advice he should offer.

They both knew the rules. If she killed someone, truly intentionally killed someone, she was Slender’s. She had met the being back when she was 10, greeting the horror with a smile and gifted him a new tie, faded charcoal with red skulls seeming to be ingrained within the fabric, from a distance or through Slender’s fog it simply looked red but the effort… She had apologized that she only made him a tie, but wasn’t sure if she could create a suit to match his dimensions as Helen had told her about his tendency to change his height and the tentacles that would appear from his back on occasion. To say that Slender was gone for the girl was stretching it, but he was pleased with her and her attitude towards the darkness that was her dad’s world.

It didn’t mean that anyone wanted her to become part of his domain permanently.

“Tell about them,” Helen finally settled on, “Why do you want to kill them.”

“Gabriel Agreste, and Lila Rossi,” She whispered, eyes faraway. He heard their names before, the absentee, borderline abusive father of his daughter’s crush and the liar that nearly broke his ray of sunshine. Two people ripe for the picking if only Marinette hadn’t ruled Paris off-limits to all creep hunting that wasn’t mandated by Slenderman.

But she told them that they didn’t deserve to be killed.

“What changed?”

He couldn’t quite keep the snarl out of his voice, but Marinette didn’t comment instead of continuing to stare at the wall.

“Gabriel hired Lila to keep an eye on Adrian, back when she first came back. They struck up a deal where she reports back to him about what Adrian and his friends won’t and in exchange, she can model with Adrian all she wants and gain the benefits of being a Gabriel Model, along with having open access to Adrian. This was after she broke into their house and posted a picture of her kissing Adrian’s cheek without his permission. He knew what kind of person she was and still, he struck up a deal and refused to let Adrian tell him about any problems he had with Lila. He shut Adrian down every time he tried to tell him about the sexual harassment, about isolating him from the rest of the class.”

She paused pain flickering in her blank depths, “Then last week Chat Noir showed up on my balcony in tears, shaking so bad I was surprised he didn’t fall off any of the roofs on his way over. He told me he really needed a friend he could trust, someone he could be truthful with and transformed in front of me, begging me not to turn him away, not to call my parents. Adrian basically curled up on my bed at that point and wouldn’t stop sobbing. He told me how Lila had slipped him something, how he couldn’t move as she took off his clothes and…”

She paused as the mechanical pencil shattered under her grip, plastic scattering across the room, anger flashed across her face for a second before

“He begged me not to tell anyone because he didn’t think anyone would believe him. His dad wouldn’t even let him talk about the sexual harassment to him, he didn’t want to be shut down trying to explain. He’s been running around as Chat Noir for since then, only stopping here to shower and get food. Plagg is furious and wants to kill them too, but refuses to leave Adrian for even a few minutes. He’s… he’s so very broken, Dad. His eyes are more hollow than some of the proxies. I’m surprised he hasn’t been akumatized yet.”

“You won’t let me kill them?” He asked again, hands trembling as his image flicked down to 14 and refused to rise again.

“No, because I don’t just want them dead,” She laughed hollowly, “I’ve been drawing these for the last three days.”

She flipped around the sketchbook to show the two new outfits she had drawn. On the left was a bleached white leather suit, flawlessly put together with bulky buttons just as white as the suit. On the right was a leather dress, dyed deep red with a ribbed corset. He didn’t understand what was wrong with the designs until he looked closer and saw faces on the back of each outfit, the suit had a face with its eyes and ears sewn shut with venomous green thread, while the face on the dress was split in two, one half scowling with a black eye, with a horn stabbed through the temple, the other a smiling happily as a green eye. Each material was listed as she usually did, but instead of the usual fabrics, all it said over and over again was hair, skin, bone.

“A death worthy of a proxy,” He commented slowly, not sure what else to say.

Silence overtook them. Both knowing what lay ahead, but being scared of what could come up.

A knock at the balcony door made both of them jump, Helen’s glamor instinctively rising up.

“Chat,” She called, a blond head poking through the trapdoor only for him to freeze when he saw Helen.

“Easy Kitty,” Marinette whispered, “This is my Dad, remember I told you how he stops by every once in a while when his work allows it. He’s safe, I promise.”

“Safe for you guys,” He mumbled, “the rest of this city outside of this house? Not so sure anymore.”

Chat gave him a weary look but slowly moved down the steps, “What does that mean?”

Helen looked at the boy, passed the mask and the blank expression and really looked. Marinette was right, he looked broken, broken as a new proxy, one that was still scrambling to understand they had reached their breaking point, to realize what they had done now that the bloodlust and sickness had faded. He looked like Helen had back when he first killed Tom.

Well, that wouldn’t do.

“You’re going to detransform,” He told him, “Get a shower and eat. Then we’ll talk.”

He turned on his heel and marched down the steps to the kitchen where he found Sabine and Tom relaxing.

The pair jumped at his sudden appearance especially since he had shifted back to 14 as so as he closed Marinette’s door.

“What’s wrong?” Tom asked, “Business?”

Helen frowned, then sighed, “Maybe, but… it’s complicated. Chat Noir is here though and he needs food, I don’t think he’s eaten at all today.”

Sabine’s eyebrows furrow, “Is that why Marinette’s been sneaking food? She could have said something, of course, we’d feed her partner.”

Helen snorted at that as he helped the woman go through the leftovers and make up a heaping plate, along with some leftover pastries from the bakery, “I’m fairly certain that she doesn’t know you two know about her being Paris’ saving grace, plus she promised him that she wouldn’t tell anyone he was here. Something bad happened to him, in his civilian life.”

“How bad?”

“I’ve seen proxies and creeps form from less,” He admitted, “He’s in danger of snapping.”

He disappeared upstairs with the food before they could respond.

There floating in front of Marinette was a tiny cat-like being. Power pulsed off of it making the hair on the back of Helen’s neck stand on end. Plagg, the cat of destruction.

“So,” Helen started, “You’re the counter to Tikki’s power then? Almost felt like Zalgo in here.”

The cat hissed, “Don’t compare me to that bastard. He’s an ass and deserves a solid cataclysm to the face.”

Helen smirked, “Ah so this is why Slender said you were an interesting being. Either way, I’m Helen, and we need to talk.”

“If you want to break my kit-”

Helen cut him off harshly, voice like ice, “Don’t. While some of my coworkers are assholes, I would never intentionally break anyone, but Adrian is holding on by a thread and something needs to be done if you don’t want to become part of the next creep, or worse, down a user.”

His whiskers drooped as he glanced towards the closed bathroom door, “... What do you have in mind?”

Sabine and Tom didn’t check on Marinette until the next morning and were only slightly surprised to see a note signed with a smiley face, ladybug, and cat on her made bed.

The kids need to see what happens if they snap.

_________________________________________

Tag List: @marinettepotterandplagg @sassakitty

#miraculous ladybug #creepypasta #marinette dupain cheng #Helen Otis #Adrian agreste #TW Rape #mental instability #lila rossi #Lila Rossi is the worst #gabriel agreste a+ parenting #TW murder #TW gore

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overthinkingkdrama · 5 years ago

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Hi! So, I’ve just recently gotten into K-Dramas, and... I have a small issue, and that is though I LOVE them in the beginning, by the end they always disappoint me? Like, they start lighthearted and fun, and then by the end suddenly everyone’s in mortal peril, and I don’t care? Or they start all fantasy, and then it’s all about the romance in the end? So... Could you possibly recommend me ones that are good, or tone consistent, throughout? Please?

Hi! Thanks for dropping by for recs. These are some of my favorite asks. I just love going back through my watch list and finding dramas that fit a given criteria. It gets more fun the more dramas I've seen.

The thing about Kdramas that makes them a uniquely sticky beast is that many of them are live-shot week to week, at least for part of their run, and often the scripts are not fully written before filming begins. Popular Kdramas will also occasionally receive extensions which can cause further pacing and plot issues and (sometimes) cause a story to sputter out entirely. With the increasing prevalence of entirely preproduced dramas there's been an increase in overall drama quality and consistency in past years. That being said, Kdramas are still a decidedly mixed bag in terms of overall production quality. So it pays to either drop things with extreme prejudice if you stop enjoying them and watch widely, or to have a good drama filter friend (like me!) to give you vetted recs. As a genre a lot of the more "classic" feeling dramas have a tendency to start really light hearted and then swing super dramatic in the latter half. That's something I occasionally like, but lucky for you not all dramas are like that!

Your ask doesn't really tell me what genre of Kdrama most appeals to you, so I went through my list and tried to find you wide a variety of dramas that I think of as being well-paced and tonally consistent throughout. I've also tried to limit myself to dramas that I rated highly on MDL, although my primary criteria was "good and tonally consistent" so this list of dramas is kinda all over the map. But then, so are my tastes. Also, I kinda got the impression from your ask that you're not a fan of the uber-melodramatic side of kdramas and you want something a little more restrained and less soapy, so I tried to steer away from those more makjang dramas but did not entirely succeed, lol. I gave a couple sentences of description so you can more readily narrow down what you're interested in, and if you would like a more thorough review of the dramas some of these have full reviews on my blog which I went ahead linked where they exist.

Age of Youth: A well written slice-of-life ensemble drama about a group of 5 college age women who end up boarding together. There are a couple moments of high drama/trauma toward the end of the show that might be a turn off. But other than the finale the tone is consistent. 9/10

Arang and the Magistrate: A dark fantasy fusion sageuk with a romance. I included this drama because it does a good job of developing the creepy worldbuilding and fantasy throughout. Though at points it can be a bit slow and the special effects are hella cheesy. 8/10

Argon: A tight, journalism driven suspense drama. Not always my genre but I found it very engaging, and at eight episodes it does not overstay its welcome. 8/10

Be Melodramatic: Another female-centric slice-of-life ensemble drama, though with an emphasis on fourth wall breaking comedy and clever dialogue. Very funny and heartfelt. 8.5/10

Cheese in the Trap: Maybe a controversial inclusion, but I very much enjoyed this drama. A slice-of-life college romance with psychological thriller elements. Some critics felt that the drama focused too heavily on the second male lead in the later half of the story, but YMMV. 8.5/10

Coffee Prince: Classic cross-dressing romance and still probably the best of its kind. A wonderfully nuanced and progressive handling of the subject matter, even after 13 years. Deals with serious subjects but doesn't go too melo with it. 8.5/10

Children of Nobody: My best of 2019, a dark psychological thriller about a child psychiatrist and a police detective who have to confront gray morality while attempting to track down a serial killer who only targets unrepentant child abusers. 9.5/10

Ex-Girlfriend Club: On the lighter side, a friends-to-lovers type romantic comedy about the writer of an autobiographical webtoon who has to figure out a way to get along with a group of his ex-girlfriends to make a movie based on his work. Only 12 episodes. 8.5/10

Go Back Couple: Also only 12 episodes (these shorter dramas tend to be better paced I find) a time-slip drama about a divorced couple who get the chance to relive their twenties and end up realizing they still have feelings for each other. This drama is both very funny and it had me bawling on multiple occasions. 9.5/10

Healer: A favorite of a lot of drama fans, this is an action-focused romance about an awkward soft boy with a secret identity as a highly skilled errand boy to criminals and an intrepid tabloid reporter who is his biggest fan. This drama is pretty tropey, but it's fun and the romance is great. 8.5/10

Hello Monster (aka I Remember You): A police procedural with a background love line about a criminal profiler looking for his lost brother and a detective looking for her father's murderer. One of my personal favorites. 10/10

Hit the Top (aka The Best Hit): A time-slip fish-out-of-water comedy about a 90s pop star who winds up in modern day Seoul and ends up befriending his biological son and meets old friends who his disappearance left in the lurch. 9/10

Incomplete Life (aka Misaeng): A realistic office drama that gave me real world work anxiety, focusing on a failed Go player who winds up an intern at a highly competitive shipping company and has to find a way to earn his keep even without the background and college education of his coworkers. Unbelievably well done ensemble drama. 9/10

Just Between Lovers: A romantic melodrama about two people whose lives were irrevocably changed by a tragic mall collapse that nearly killed them as children, meeting again as adults and finding comfort and healing in each other. A rough sit at times, but a wonderful love story with incredible acting. 9/10

Just Dance: High school, slice-of-life, drama about a dance club in a technical high school and a group of working class kids who reluctantly become involved in this club and befriend each other. Only 8 episodes (or 16 thirty minute episodes, depending on how you recon it.) 8.5/10

Life on Mars: Remake of the British show of the same name, this is a surreal time-slip police drama, about a forensics expert who gets shot in the head and wakes up in 1988. Or does he? He could also be dying on an operating table. It's hard to tell. Dark, suspenseful and trippy. 9/10

Matrimonial Chaos: An off-beat comedy about two dysfunctional couples who become inescapably mixed up in each others lives. One that's having a hard time getting divorced and another that's having a hard time getting married, and all the messy weird emotions that go along with that. This is another one of those, makes you laugh/makes you cry throughout dramas I have an affinity for. 9/10

Moment of Eighteen: A heartfelt high school drama about a straightforward but awkward loner who is forced to transfer to a new school, immediately earns the ire of a powerful student and experiences first love. Not my usual thing, but very well written with complex and likeable characters. 8/10

Mother: A cold and socially isolated woman becomes a temporary teacher and upon discovering one of her students is being severely abused and neglected, decides to pose as the child's mother and go on the run with her. Like Children of Nobody, this can be a bit of a rough watch because of the subject matter but it is very well done. 9.5/10

My Mister: A healing, human drama about a structural engineer in his 40s and a debt-ridden young woman in her 20s who end up crossing paths and saving each other from a miserable existence. My current all time favorite drama. Cannot say enough good things about it. Practically perfect in every way. 10/10

One Spring Night: A very restrained and naturalistic slow-burn romance about a woman who is about to get married and suddenly begins to question her relationship and a single father who had given up on love who find themselves irresistibly drawn to one another. 9/10

Prison Playbook: An ensemble slice-of-life drama centered on prisoners and correctional officers in their day to day lives. I find the actual het romances in this drama totally useless, but it's a large and talented cast playing a variety of lovable characters. 8/10

Psychopath Diary: Recent fave. A screwball black comedy about a mild mannered pushover who loses his memory and finds a diary that convinces him he's a psychopathic murderer, which gives him a huge boost of confidence from his new found identity, much to the chagrin of those around him and the actual owner of the diary himself. 8.5/10

Queen In Hyun's Man: A drama about a Joseon scholar who time travels to modern day Seoul and meets an actress who just landed a part playing the queen he served in the past. This one might be on the border line of too dramatic or tonally inconsistent, but it's got one of the most pitch perfect finales in Kdramas and the 45 min episodes keep it a snappy watch that doesn't drag or meander too much. 8/10

Reply 1988: A late 80s nostalgia drama about a group of families who all live off the same alley. Lovely family drama, comedy with a variety of romances. Long ass episodes especially later in the run, but I have rewatched the whole thing and I loved every minute of this show. 9.5/10

Save Me: A dark drama about a young woman who finds herself forced into a dangerous cult by her family, and is desperate to escape, and a group of 4 local young men who try to help her. One of the more unique and well done OCN thrillers. 9/10

School 2013: High school ensemble drama that launched a whole bunch of careers. In general I avoid school dramas (I know there have been three on this list so far, but those are like the only three, lol) but this show got me so invested in all these students and teachers. Also the two male leads are so shippable. 9.5/10

Secret Love Affair: A romantic melodrama about a piano prodigy from an underprivileged background who catches the eye of a married older woman and the two fall into a passionate affair. This drama involves cheating (obviously) but it's beautifully filmed and written and the music is to die for. 9.5/10

Signal: This is a supernatural crime thriller and a perennial favorite in the Kdrama community. An imbittered criminal profiler finds an antique police radio which allows him to speak with a police detective 15 years in the past, and uses this to crack cold cases and try to prevent brutal crimes from ever happening. 9/10

Six Flying Dragons: This one is a bit different from the others on the list, first of all because it's a more traditional historical drama, and secondly because it 50 episodes long. But it is so, so very good. And if you're looking for overall consistency in terms of storytelling and tone this drama has it in spades. 9/10

SKY Castle: A unique melodrama about a group of affluent competitive mothers who will go to any lengths to get they're children into the best medical schools, and a mysterious school coordinator with shady motives who gets brought in as a ringer to give them an edge. This show is kind of hard to sell but very entertaining and watchable. 7.5/10

Stranger (aka Secret Forest): The story of a stalwart prosecutor who, due to a childhood trauma is unable to feel the full spectrum of emotions, works with a bighearted police detective to root out corruption around a series of murders. This one’s rather cerebral and requires your full attention but the leads are amazing and there's a second season coming out this year I'm very much looking forward to! 9/10

The Nokdu Flower: Another sageuk drama about the latter years of the Joseon Dynasty surrounding three people who fall on different sides during the Donghak Peasant rebellion. Incredibly well written and involving historical drama. If you're not sure you're ready to commit to something like Six Flying Dragons, I think this would be another good entry point into the genre. The acting is amazing. 9/10

The Smile Has Left Your Eyes: A romantic melodrama and psychological thriller about a dangerous enigmatic young man on the cusp of becoming either a human being or a monster. He becomes involved in a fraught relationship with the sister of a police detective at the same time her protective older brother begins to focus on him as the prime suspect for a murder. High key moody and tragic if you're into that kind of thing (I am). 9/10

Touch Your Heart: On the complete other end of the drama spectrum, this show is pure unadulterated fluff, which managed to keep me giggling and swooning throughout the run, even though it's typically not my thing. An actress joins a law office as research for a role and falls for the ace attorney she's assisting. 8.5/10

WATCHER: Another OCN thriller about three different people with shady motivations who are connected to the same murder case and become involve in a corruption task force looking into dirty cops. One of those "trust nobody, everyone's a suspect" dramas with lovely complex characters and a fully engaging plot. 8.5/10

Sorry that got so out of hand! This is what happens when you don't give me a little more direction I guess. These are all dramas I quite enjoyed and I believe you will find something in there that will suit your fancy. This is a pretty accurate cross section of my tastes.

Happy watching!

Jona

#asks #answered #kdrama recs #this got stupid long #i got half way through writing my two sentence plugs and was like #omg why did i put so many dramas on this list #lemme just casually throw together a list of 30+ titles that’s what you want right #like wtf #oh well #hope you find something you like anon #i have no idea why i’m this way either

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diamondsnpolaroids · 5 years ago

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I know I havent posted in awhile, and I will catch you all up on my weekly polaroid progression shots but I've really been struggling this week and I need to get it out somewhere.

Yes. I am still pregnant. In 3 days I'll finally be 40 weeks. A milestone I never thought I'd get to because this entire pregnancy has been a rollercoaster of emotions, pain and endless struggles. I didnt want to be pregnant this long. At all. This is going to be long and there will be a lot of personal details, but I need to get it out. I'm tired of having all these thoughts with no outlet.

Since I was 16 years old I was convinced I would never be able to have a child. It was always a devastating thought until I got to the age of 22 when i finally kind of accepted the fact and was okay not becoming a mother. The one thing i wanted between those years, the one thing that broke my heart was I'd never be able to experience the feeling of being pregnant. That may seem silly because that's such a short period of time when it comes to being a mother. 9 months of growing a human compared to the years and years of seeing that person grow is so minuscule. But for some reason that was always what broke me most.

I was dating the same man that entire time. I was 16 when we first starting dating, and I'll be convinced till the day I die that he was my soulmate. He was my best friend over absolutely anything. I could be my totally authentic self with him. He knew how weird I was and stayed. He watched me drown myself in my depression and stayed. He saw me act like a child, like an adult, my worst and best moments. Experienced my grief and my biggest accomplishments and was always right there for me. Growing up with an alcoholic drug addict father I knew I needed a man that would never abandon his family for those things. He was the man I knew I never needed to worry about.

I never really noticed the abusive behavior. The mental torture, isolation, the control he held over me, how hard his harsh words would hit.. it never really crossed my mind because when the good times were good, they were great. When they were bad, I was convinced it was all on me. My depression was the controlling one. My insane mind was the problem. Never him. Then the alcohol started to take over. He consumed himself in it whenever he had the chance. His childhood was ruined by this substance just like mine was and he was slowly turning to it instead of working out his trauma that it caused. Hed increase the intake slowly but surely and when it got too much for me to handle I'd cry and beg that he stopped. Seeing how upset it made me the first few times hed stop or slow down. But it was never for long. Hed go a week and then once again it would slowly increase and the cycle would continue. After awhile, I was "crazy" and he was "just doing what everyone our age was doing". No one our age was drinking 6+ a night on week days and spending $200 at least per night on the weekends. By the time we hit 7 years it got to an all time low. April of 2019 I realized all of this wasnt okay any more. An old friend had walked into my life and for the first time in years I was treated like a human being with feelings. Real feelings that were valid. I was told and shown that I was no where near the same happy girl I once was. It was all over my face and in my body language that I was a totally different person and not in a good way. It was clear just by looking in my eyes that I was severely depressed. I was reassured that my decision to split to work on ourselves was indeed the best step forward I could have ever taken.

My boyfriend reluctantly agreed to end the relationship for the sake of bettering ourselves or else we'd never last as a long term couple. He stopped drinking. Wed still hangout but was met with an extreme depression on his end, begging for me to stay and help him through it as if I hadn't tried for years and years. I knew nothing I could do would make him change, it needed to be a decision he made for himself. He had ruined every part of my being and I needed to explore who I was as an individual. My old friend made me feel ways I hadn't in years and eventually I caved to my emotions and desperate need to feel wanted without the attachment and abusive behavior always on my shoulders. I wasnt with my ex, and I kept it from him. After a month I started to notice his changes but it wasnt enough. He still tried to keep me wrapped around his finger while questioning my every move. He was working on it though, and I was noticing the change, but I couldnt stop what I was doing.

After another month he found out. He was upset, naturally, but was still around. He still wanted to work on it. Then 3 days later I took my first pregnancy test. It was positive. I kept it to myself praying it was a fluke. I took 2 more the next day. It wasnt. I took one last one, called my doctor, then called him over. I told him, and it wasnt an ideal reaction. He was forcing an abortion on me. For someone who never thought they could get pregnant, to find out after years that it was indeed possible, I just couldnt. This was a miracle in my eyes. Once I told him I couldnt, giving him the option to sign off all his rights and to stay away if that's what he wanted, he accepted he was going to be a father. But he also disappeared. Just up and left, and I was met with the worst mental abuse he could ever dish out for weeks. I had never felt so low in my entire life. Being told our child is a mistake, how terrible of a person I was and how him not being around is totally and completely my fault. What i failed to mention is for the last 3 years of our relationship he would use snapchat to talk to girls behind my back. I'd check his phone after every fight and hed go out drinking, just to see up to 7 different girls names with a "sent" notification beside them. I'd delete them off his contacts, confront him, ect ect, but he never stopped. I was always ashamed I stayed with someone who could do this but my love for him was so blind and so strong.. I couldnt let go.

Whenever I would mention all the hurt he caused me, it never compared to me sleeping with someone else while we weren't even together. It was ALL. MY. FAULT. And he couldnt take even an ounce of responsibility for how he treated me and pushed me out of his arms. After 2 weeks of us knowing I'm pregnant, he started seeing someone else. He was drinking beyond what he ever was with me, and now he was with someone else. Some girl who was also fresh out of a long term relationship, totally okay with the fact he was to but also expecting a baby with. I shouldnt have been mad or upset, we weren't together, but it hurt. I wanted the man I thought I'd never have to worry about being a good dad to actually be here with me on this journey. But he wasnt. For the months to come he gave me promises that their relationship wasnt an offical thing and reassured me he doesnt think she'll be around long. I shouldnt give up hope on us. My hormonal, emotional self prayed that was true.. until they became official in September.

Once that happened, it was like a ghost town. I only saw him for the 3 ultrasounds we had to pay for. He never came to any doctors appointments, he didnt feel the baby move, nothing. The entire time blaming me for him not being around. I sat at home every day after long shifts at work knowing I'm all alone in this world, growing a baby, doing everything by myself while he lived his life with no responsibility, laying next to her every night. Every day my heart broke. Some days were better than others, but not a single day I didnt wish and pray that hed atleast be there for his child. I knew my feelings weren't relevant anymore, I just wanted my son to have a father. He needed to have a father. I wasnt going to let my kid go through life always wondering why he wasnt enough for him like I did. I still hurt for myself, but no where near as much as I hurt for my son. I was given empty promises from my ex, he said hed call every day so atleast if he didnt watch our baby grow inside of me, hed atleast know his voice when he finally arrives. But hed go days without calling, and it would somehow turn into my fault because I hurt him too much to call his son.

I've spent this entire pregnancy working on myself, on my mental health, researching how to be a mother, what I need to do and stay away from, how to cope with every type of situation that may arise. I've done nothing but work on growing myself to be the best person I could be for my son. He just stayed drinking away his problems, distracting himself in every type of way he could. Avoiding all responsibilities of becoming a father soon.

Fast forward to about a week ago, when a phone call got a little spicy heated between us and ended in me sending him some snapchats of myself by his request. I know I shouldnt have, he was with someone else, but I missed him and wanted one last feeling of being wanted by the man I always thought I'd marry. I did exactly what broke me the last 3 years of our relationship and I really didnt feel bad about it. For 2 days this continued until it just stopped and he got cold with me. Once again, I'm left broken hearted but this time, I know it's my own fault.

During the time before this, for months I highly considered giving my son my last name. It made sense. He wasnt reliable enough to even spend 30 seconds every day to call his son, how could I ever believe hed be there every day for him once he was born? It was logical. Everyone who knew our situation told me I should even before I brought up that being an option I was weighing in my mind.

A few days after our snapchatting stopped, I had to finally tell him. I couldnt bring myself to blindside him with something so serious. I should have, really, but I still hold his feelings deep in my heart, and I couldnt hurt the man I spent over 7 years with like this. So I told him. He broke. But not in any way I ever thought he would. He confessed how he still loved me, how everyone around him knows he still loves me, ending with how much this would break his heart, giving us no chance of ever being together again. We'd never be able to do things as a family, hed never look at me or our son again. It was, to say the least, extremely intense. But it also left me wondering if this was one of the many manipulative ways he knows to get what he wants. He always brought "us" up to get his way on things. It felt genuine, but I'm also extremely hormonal and yes I still love and miss him like crazy.

It's been a few days since then and theres been no word of any feelings since. Hes been cold and more distant and my heart is once again broken into a million pieces. Hes called a couple times but he still misses days. I was given the go ahead to try and self induce labour by my midwives so I have been. When he calls and asks what I did with my day, I'd tell him. Last night apparently I shouldnt have. I was met with anger because I should "leave him be, he'll come when hes ready" as if he knows any kind of physical pain I've been through these last few months.

These past 2 weeks alone I have felt nothing but pain. Between feeling my hips separating, my pelvic bones shifting and my son's head descending lower, constant back pain, not being able to walk properly, my kid sitting on nerves leaving my legs feeling paralyzed or sending shocks into my vagina. Not being able to sleep more than 2 hours at a time max, peeing every hour on the hour, his feet kicking my ribs so hard I curl over, getting his feet stuck under them as well. The pains are unimaginable as you can see, now mixed with all the emotional distress I've been under... you could imagine how I'm ready for this child to enter the world. But no.. I'm being selfish. He isnt ready. I'm fine to keep going. Because apparently my ex knows everything my body is enduring just to bring our child into this world. It broke my fucking heart last night when he yelled at me for it. Absolutely shattered it.

Which brings us to this picture. I couldnt sleep once again, and every time I woke up I was met with mind numbing depression and long crying spells. I feel more alone than ever. My 16-22 years of age is crying for me knowing this was all I ever wanted out of life and it has been constantly ruined and brought down by a man I never knew would act the way he has been. This pregnancy was so easy in almost every aspect compared to most women, I've been so so blessed to have such an easy time physically and yet I constantly feel as if he has ruined this experience for me. Sometimes the mental abuse from a man is worse than the physical. And he knew exactly how to ruin this all for his own selfish needs. I've spent all day today feeling ruined, beaten down, and just straight up depressed. I'm not ready to be a mother, infact I am absolutely scared shitless to be one. But I'm willing to go through being scared over all this physical pain I've been through that seems never ending. I'm ready to meet and love my little man. But once again I feel like I cant even be happy about it because of my ex.

I'm tired. I'm so so so tired of being so inlove with a man who has shown me time and time again he wont be the father I always knew he could be. My heart hurts so bad for my son every single day. And I'm just.... tired. Which is why I'm posting this picture along with my story. I know some women have it worse with their pregnancies and the fathers leaving. I know some men can be all of this plus physically abusive towards women. I know I dont have it the worst, but I'm trying. I need to for my son. I doubt this post will get very far, and I know a lot of judgment will come my way for it, but if my pregnancy journey can help even one woman not feel so alone, then I'm happy with sharing it.

#pregnancy mention #pregnant #preggers #pregnancy #single mother #single mom #polaroids #polaroid #instax #instant photography #inspiration #instaphoto #baby bump #baby #babyboy #my baby

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blackkudos · 5 years ago

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Tammi Terrell

Tammi Terrell (born Thomasina Winifred Montgomery; April 29, 1945 – March 16, 1970) was an American recording artist, widely known as a star singer for Motown Records during the 1960s, notably for a series of duets with singer Marvin Gaye.

Terrell's career began as a teenager, first recording for Scepter/Wand Records, before spending nearly two years as a member of James Brown's Revue, recording for Brown's Try Me label. After a period attending college, Terrell recorded briefly for Checker Records, before signing with Motown in 1965. With Gaye, Terrell scored seven Top 40 singles on the Billboard Hot 100, including "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999, "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing" and "You're All I Need to Get By". Terrell's career was interrupted when she collapsed into Gaye's arms as the two performed at a concert at Hampden–Sydney College on October 14, 1967, with Terrell later being diagnosed with a brain tumor. She had eight unsuccessful surgeries before succumbing to the illness on March 16, 1970 at the age of 24.

Early life

Terrell was born as Thomasina Winifred Montgomery in Philadelphia, to Jennie (née Graham) and Thomas Montgomery. Jennie was an actress and Thomas was a barbershop owner and local politician. According to her sister, their mother was "mentally ill."

Terrell was the oldest of two siblings. According to the Unsung documentary, her sister Ludie said her parents thought Terrell would be a boy and therefore she would be named after her father. However, when she was born, the parents settled on the name Thomasina, nicknaming her "Tommie." She later changed it to "Tammy" after seeing the film, Tammy and the Bachelor, and hearing its theme song, "Tammy", at the age of 12.

According to Ludie's book, My Sister Tommie - The Real Tammi Terrell, Terrell was raped by three boys at the age of 11. Around this time, she started to have migraine headaches. While it was not thought to be of significance at the time, family members would later state that these headaches might have been related to her later diagnosis of brain cancer.

Terrell attended Germantown High School in Philadelphia.

Career

Early recordings

In 1960, Terrell signed under the Wand subsidiary of Scepter Records after being discovered by Luther Dixon, recording the ballad, "If You See Bill", under the name Tammy Montgomery and doing demos for The Shirelles. After another single, Terrell left the label and, after being introduced to James Brown, signed a contract with him and began singing backup for his Revue concert tours. In 1963, she recorded the song "I Cried". Released on Brown's Try Me Records, it became her first charting single, reaching No. 99 on the Billboard Hot 100.

After this tenure ended, Terrell signed with Checker Records and released the Bert Berns-produced "If I Would Marry You", a duet with Jimmy Radcliffe, which Terrell co-composed. Following this relative failure, Terrell announced a semi-retirement from the music business and enrolled in the University of Pennsylvania where she majored in pre-med, staying at the school for two years. In the middle of this, Terrell was asked by Jerry Butler to sing with him in a series of shows in nightclubs. After an arrangement was made by Butler to assure Terrell that she could continue her schooling, she began touring with Butler. In April 1965, during a performance at the Twenty Grand Club in Detroit, she was spotted by Motown CEO Berry Gordy, who promised to sign her to Motown. Terrell agreed and signed with the label on April 29, her 20th birthday. Before releasing her first single with Motown's Tamla subsidiary, "I Can't Believe You Love Me," Gordy suggested a name change.

Figuring "Tammy Montgomery" was too long of a name to put on a single, Gordy changed it to "Tammi Terrell". He felt this name screamed "sex appeal". "I Can't Believe You Love Me" became Terrell's first R&B top forty single, followed almost immediately by "Come On and See Me". In 1966, Terrell recorded two future classics, Stevie Wonder's "All I Do (Is Think About You)" and The Isley Brothers' "This Old Heart of Mine (Is Weak for You)". After the release of her first single on Motown, Terrell joined the Motortown Revue opening for The Temptations.

Success with Marvin Gaye

In early 1967, Motown hired Terrell to sing duets with Marvin Gaye, who had achieved duet success with Mary Wells and Kim Weston as well as having recorded duets with Oma Heard. During recording sessions, Gaye would recall later that he did not know how gifted Terrell was until they began singing together. At first the duets were recorded separately. For sessions of their first recording, the Ashford & Simpson composition, "Ain't No Mountain High Enough", both Gaye and Terrell recorded separate versions. Motown remixed the vocals and edited out the background vocals, giving just Gaye and Terrell vocal dominance. The song became a crossover pop hit in the spring of 1967, reaching No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 3 on the R&B charts and making Terrell a star. Their follow-up, "Your Precious Love", became an even bigger hit, reaching No. 5 on the pop chart and No. 2 on the R&B chart. At the end of the year, the duo scored another top ten single with "If I Could Build My Whole World Around You", which peaked at No. 10 on the pop chart and No. 2 on the R&B chart. The song's B-side, the Marvin Gaye composition "If This World Were Mine", became a modest hit on both charts (No. 68 pop, No. 27 R&B). Gaye would later cite the song as "one of Tammi's favorites". All four songs were included on Gaye and Terrell's first duet album, United, released in the late summer of 1967. Throughout that year, Gaye and Terrell began performing together and Terrell became a vocal and performance inspiration for the shy and laid-back Gaye, who hated live performing. The duo also performed together on television shows to their hits. They were voted the No. 1 R&B duo in Cash Box magazine's Annual Year-End Survey in 1970.

Cancer diagnosis

While Terrell was finally being established as a star, the migraines and headaches she had suffered from childhood were becoming more constant. While she complained of pains, she insisted to people close to her that she was well enough to perform. However, on October 14, 1967, while performing "Your Precious Love" with Gaye at Hampden–Sydney College, just outside the town of Farmville, Virginia, Terrell collapsed into Gaye's arms onstage. Shortly after returning from Virginia, doctors diagnosed a malignant tumor on the right side of her brain. She underwent brain surgery at Graduate Hospital in Philadelphia on January 13, 1968.

After recovering from her first surgery, Terrell returned to Hitsville studios in Detroit and recorded "You're All I Need to Get By". Both that song and "Ain't Nothing Like the Real Thing", reached No. 1 on the R&B charts. Despite Terrell's optimism, her tumor worsened, requiring more surgeries. By 1969, Terrell had retired from live performances as she had been ordered by doctors not to perform due to her tumors. Motown issued Terrell's first and only solo album, Irresistible, in early 1969. Terrell was too ill to promote the recordings. There was no new repertoire on the album: all tracks had been recorded earlier and subsequently shelved for some time.

Both Marvin Gaye and Valerie Simpson gave different stories on how the production of Terrell's and Gaye's third album together, Easy, went about. According to reports, Terrell had gotten so ill from her operations that she could not record, and Motown opted to have Valerie Simpson sub in for Terrell, a report that was repeated in the book Marvin Gaye: What's Going On and the Last Days of the Motown Sound. Gaye would later say the move was "another moneymaking scheme on BG's [Berry Gordy's] part". Valerie Simpson, on the other hand, stated that the ailing Terrell was brought into the studio when she was strong enough to record over Simpson's guide vocals, insisting Terrell had sung on the album. Easy produced the singles "Good Lovin' Ain't Easy to Come By", "What You Gave Me", "California Soul" and the UK top ten hit, "The Onion Song". Late in 1969, Terrell made her final public appearance at the Apollo Theater where Marvin Gaye was performing. As soon as Gaye spotted Terrell, he rushed to her side and the duo began singing "You're All I Need to Get By" together. They were given a standing ovation by the public.

Personal life

In 1962, 17-year-old Terrell became involved in an abusive relationship with James Brown, who was 12 years her senior. One night on the road in 1963, Terrell left Brown after he assaulted her for not watching his entire performance. Bobby Bennett, former member of the Famous Flames, witnessed the incident. "He beat Tammi Terrell terrible. She was bleeding, shedding blood. Tammi left him because she didn't want her butt whipped," said Bennett.

During the Motortown Revue in 1966, Terrell embarked on a torrid romance with The Temptations lead singer David Ruffin. That year, Terrell accepted Ruffin's surprise marriage proposal. After Terrell announced their engagement onstage during an appearance together, she discovered that he was already married. Ruffin had a wife, three children, and another girlfriend in Detroit. This revelation and Ruffin's drug addiction led to violent arguments. Terrell told Ebony magazine in 1969 that she believed her emotional state during this relationship was a contributing factor to her headaches, which would come after quarrels. In 1967, Terrell ended their relationship after Ruffin hit her in the head with his motorcycle helmet. It was rumored that Ruffin also hit Terrell in the head with a hammer, which further complicated her unknown condition. However, this rumor was dispelled in Terrell's Unsung episode.

At the time of Terrell's death, she was engaged to Dr. Ernest "Ernie" Garrett. He was a doctor at the hospital where she had been treated.

Death

Because of ongoing complications of brain cancer, by early 1970, Terrell was confined to a wheelchair, suffered from blindness, hair loss, and weighed only 93 pounds (42 kg). Following her eighth and final operation on January 21, 1970, Terrell went into a coma. She died on March 16, a month shy of her 25th birthday. Terrell's funeral was held at the Janes Methodist Church in Philadelphia. At the funeral, Gaye delivered a final eulogy while "You're All I Need to Get By" was playing. According to Terrell's fiancé Dr. Ernest "Ernie" Garrett, who knew Gaye, her mother angrily barred everyone at Motown from her funeral, except for Gaye, whom she felt was Terrell's closest friend.

Gaye never fully got over Terrell's death, according to several biographers who have stated that Terrell's death led Gaye to depression and drug abuse. In addition, Gaye's classic album What's Going On, an introspective, low-key work which dealt with mature themes released in 1971, was in part a reaction to Terrell's death.

Legacy

In May 2015, Deadline reported that actress Kat Graham was cast to portray Montgomery in a biopic based on her life. The untitled project was written by Maryam Myika Day and to be produced by Robert Teitel, Rose Ganguzza, and Hilary Shor.

Awards and nominations

Terrell and Marvin Gaye were nominated for Best Rhythm & Blues Group Performance, Vocal or Instrumental for their song "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" at the 10th Annual Grammy Awards in 1968. The song was later inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

#04/29 #03/16

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slutforalistairtheirin · 5 years ago

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Sanders Sides High School AU

Roman Prince:

-16, Sophomore

-Drama geek, almost always gets leads in the school musicals/plays

-Best friends with Virgil

-Very very very gay. Out to the school but definitely not his parents.

-His parents (or at leas his father) are very homophobic

-Lives only a few blocks away from the school

-Has a major crush on Logan

-His mom is Cuban

-Father is very white

-He speaks Spanish but avoids doing it around his father

-Loves Virgil’s dad

-has very bad anxiety

-Loves make-up/dressing up

-He’s usually a huge charmer until someone calls his bluff *cough* Logan *cough*

-Always has impeccable outfits

-Mama’s boy

-good cook

-His friends mean the world to him

-Dreams of going to Broadway

-unfortunately he lives in the middle-of-nowhere Indiana

-On the swim team

-His dad wanted him to be an athlete and said he could only stay in theatre if he joined a sport

-Actually adores being at school

Virgil Windsor:

-16, Sophomore

-Roman’s best friend

-Demisexual

-Stylish emo

-purple hair obviously

-Out to everyone

-Adopted

-Adores his father

-Also drama geek, usually stage-managing

-Lives a ten minute walk away from Roman’s house

-Enjoys teasing Roman about his crush

-Often has sleepovers at his house with Roman, Grace, and occasionally his little sister will join

-Would literally die for his sister

-History whiz

-Eats lots of gummy worms

-really digs dragons?

-Can’t cook worth shit but he can bake for days

-Sometimes has nightmares about his birth parents dying

-Calls Roman Princey

-has throwing knives

-has really good aim

-Lowkey has a crush on Remy but would never admit it (not to be confused with Remus)

Logan Addison:

-17, Junior

-Debate team, yearbook photographer, runs school instagram, Mathlete

-Super gay. Not officially out to anyone but his mom but it’s not like he’s hiding anything. Everyone knows.

-Dresses kind of like a hipster

-Had dark blue hair a in middle school so now he has a few blue streaks leftover. Barely noticeable unless you’re looking for them

-Lives kind of far from the school so he drives there

-Drives a blue Ford Fusion

-He has doctor who stickers all over it

-He’s a sucker for Neil Gaiman

-His only sibling is in college

-His older sibling is Joan btw

-knows all the science

-mostly just psychology actually

-he aspires to be a psychiatrist

-eats a pretty healthy diet, but he really enjoys brownies

-Pretty infatuated with Roman

-Terrible at expressing emotions

-His debate hoodie has “Data” on the back

-Enjoys the paranormal

Patton Windsor:

-35, works at the local library

-Asexual/aromantic

-loves books, animals, and hot cocoa

-he also likes dying his hair different colors

-his favorite so far has been pink

-Dresses exactly like Jim Hopper in ST3 but like everyday and times 100

-Drives a minivan even though he only has two kids

-He has hippie/rainbow bumper stickers

-loves his kids with his entire heart

-Loves easy to enjoy books, such as Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, the like

-Loves carbs. Always makes some kind of pasta or comfort food for dinner.

-Adopted Virgil when he was 5

-Virgil’s favorite that Patton cooks is Potato Soup

-Patton also adopted a baby girl when Virgil was 10

-The baby girl is named Isabel

-Adores his kids

-Very openly emotional

-Has lots of #1 Dad paraphenalia

-Loves Roman, too

-Absolutely 100% willing to adopt him

-The sweetest man you will ever meet

-Wears large, round glasses

-has freckles literally everywhere

Remus Prince:

-15, Freshman

-Roman’s half-brother

-The result of Mr. Prince having an affair

-aromantic homosexual

-Lives with his mom

-Doesn’t meet his father/brother until he’s about 7

-Doesn’t have many friends, he’s a little bit odd.

-While he doesn’t often hang out with Roman, his brother is there for him when he needs it

-Dyes his hair green

-Dresses very dramatically

-He’s really good at chemistry

Dee Harper:

-17, Junior

-On the debate team with Logan

-Asexual, homoromantic

-When they were sophomores, he had a crush on Logan, but he was never interested

-Dee is very good at math

-likes the color yellow

-dresses very well

-Logan and Dee are good friends

-No one ever actually catches Dee’s eye, but he’s okay with being single

-He lives in the rich part of town with his wealthy grandparents

-Loves old classic books. Like Charles Dickens, Jane Austen, The Anne of Green Gables books, Oscar Wilde, all of them

-He also loves The Lord of the Rings

-He has a pet snake named Legolas

-and a rat named Gimli

-he plays the sims a lot

-volunteers at the zoo

-Dee is a very good singer

Remy (Remington) Gray:

-16, junior

-hella gay, out and proud

-extremely intelligent

-and intuitive

-most people think he’s a psychic

-honestly he never denies it

-he plays along

-thinks school activities are dumb

-but he does work at the local art museum

-he has a great appreciation for art

-he’s also a really good artist but no one knows that

-he likes to draw people

-including his friends. He’s very close with Logan and Dee, and eventually will be with Virgil and Roman

-Virgil is his favorite to draw ;)

-its rumored that he’s from another planet

-really he’s just eccentric and mysterious

-likes birds

Mr. Sanders, Thomas:

-30, drama teacher

-really, really gay

-connects really well with his students

-he’s very empathetic and just a sweet man

-He always dresses super eccentrically and nobody questions it because that’s just Mr. Sanders

-Sometimes he bets with the other teachers about which students will end up together

-he usually wins those bets

-perks of being the favorite teacher

Characters that aren’t sides:

Grace:

-16, sophomore

-Roman’s other best friend

-raging lesbian

-she’s very sweet, but she can also be very scary

-do not piss her off

-she enjoys hiking, travel, and theatre

-she aspires to be an anthropologist

Mr. Prince, Fred:

-40, lawyer

-Roman’s father

-he’s extremely homophobic

-he had an affair with a 30 year old woman

-also kind of racist but he married a cuban woman??

-he doesn’t let her speak spanish

-he’s also borderline abusive to Roman and his wife

-He doesn’t like Virgil. or any of Roman’s friends for that matter

-Honestly he’s an all around shitty person

-he’s not going to have an arc okay

Mrs. Prince, Estrella:

-35, works at the library with Patton

-Roman’s mother

-Not homophobic, but if Roman ever came out to her it would take her a bit to get used to it. She wouldn’t hate him at all though. She would still love him equally

-She wants to leave Fred, but she hasn’t been able to make enough money to get her and Roman out of there.

-sweetest mother

-always worried that Roman isn't eating enough

-she even thought Virgil had an eating disorder, but he’s just skinny

-delightful woman

Isabel Windsor:

-6, 1st grade

-she only cares about Voltron, Mickey Mouse, and rainbow crayons.

-her brother is her best friend

-she adores Roman

-all of Virgil’s friends are also her friends

-Sometimes Virgil and Roman pick her up from school and they go get ice cream.

-She loves cats

-she thinks unicorns are real but not santa

-she’s a very bright kid, too

-she loves coloring books

All done! Man that was longer than I expected. This is based off of my Logince fic. Feel free to send asks about this!

#high school au #sanders sides #logince #platonic prinxiety #virgil sanders #Logan sanders #patton sanders #deceit sanders #roman sanders

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nickelkeep · 5 years ago

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What I’m Thankful For

Pairings: Meg/Gabe (pre-relationship) Dean/Cas (established, background) Rating: Teen and Up Word Count: 3600 Warnings: Mentioned Past Domestic Violence On Ao3 Written for @supernaturaltropecelebration‘s Thanksgiving Challenge

Despite it being difficult to get out of bed, Meg showed up early per Castiel’s request. She couldn’t let her best friend down, especially when it was his soup kitchen that got her back on her feet after escaping her ex. She marched into the small locker area where the volunteer staff kept their coats, putting her purse and jacket in the locker she shared with Cas. It was a little fuller than usual, a third coat was in there, besides Cas’ trench and Dean’s leather jacket.

Meg shrugged and closed the locker, making sure to close the lock with it as well. She pulled her long brown hair back into a bun that sat comfortably on the top of her head before heading out into the kitchen.

“Cassie, this isn’t my first rodeo. I know how to bake a damn pie.” Meg stood back and crossed her arms over her chest. Cas hated the nickname ‘Cassie,’ and only their friend Balthazar was allowed to get away with it. This man - short, brown-haired, and the kind of smile lines that indicate a constant shit-eating grin - was quite the opposite of Bal. “You can give me some room to breathe.”

“I know, Gabriel. But we have different rules to follow as a non-profit.” Cas looked up, and his blue eyes found Meg. “Oh, thank God. Someone who will actually listen to me.”

Meg smirked. “Not a chance, Clarence.” She opened her arms as Cas came in for a hug and accepted it warmly. “Now, I will offer my services in an area that you determine.”

Cas quickly mouthed I’m Sorry before speaking out loud. “Think you can help out on the pie tins?” He pointed over his shoulder.

“You want me to babysit a newbie?” Meg glanced over at the man - Gabriel, Cas had said - who offered her a little wave. “Where’s Dean-O? The pies are his thing?”

“He’s fixing a couple of broken tables. That’s why I begged you to not sleep in and come in early.” Cas frowned. “We’re not sure what happened, but Sam’s here too, helping him fix it.”

Gabriel popped over and offered his hand to Meg. “Since Cassie here isn’t introducing me, I’m Gabe, his older brother.”

“What?” Meg looked at Cas while taking Gabe’s hand. “Brother? Clarence, I’ve known you for how many years? This is the first I’ve heard of a brother.”

“You never asked.” Cas shrugged. “Can you please make sure he follows protocol for how we have to make pies? Please. I can go get the other foods going, and when Dean is done, he can take over the pies, and you can help me out.”

Meg eyed Gabriel up and down before nodding. “Yeah. I’ve tamed worse beasts.”

“Excuse me?” Gabriel’s eyebrow raised up in defiance, a trait clearly shared by the two brothers. “No one can tame this.” He struck a traditional strongman’s pose, earning a scoff from both Meg and Cas. “Fine, don’t acknowledge a good thing when you see it.”

“Go, Cas. I’ll see if we can’t knock these out before Dean even finishes fixing things.” Meg gently pushed Cas toward the other side of the kitchen, before turning to wash her hands and put on a pair of gloves.

“You know, I told Cassie that I know how to bake. I don’t need you babysitting me.”

Meg rolled her eyes. “Let me guess. You work in a bakery, you get up every morning at 4 am to start the dough, and then you get the pies started so that they’re ready when the bakery opens at 6 am?”

“Yes! You get it!” Gabriel gestured excitedly.

“No, you don’t get it.” Meg crossed back to the dessert table and stood in Gabriel’s bubble. He may have had a couple of inches on her, but she easily made him back up from her presence alone. “Running a bakery and running a soup kitchen are two different things.

“We don’t have the resources to make a million different loaves of bread and a million different desserts. We don’t have the luxury of having a dessert case where you can have gluten-free next to nut-free next to kosher. We get one, maybe two types of pies if we’re lucky, and we have to label every single thing that’s in it.” Meg poked Gabriel’s chest, causing him to step back further. “You trying to get the health department to storm down on your brother’s hard work?”

Gabriel, surprisingly, kept his mouth shut and shook his head no.

“I didn’t think so.” Meg backed up and turned back to the table. “Did you make this dough, or is it Dean’s?”

“That batch was here when I got here, so I assume Dean’s.” Gabriel stepped next to Meg and held out his hand. “I was about to start rolling it out when Cassie started having a conniption fit.”

Meg looked at the prep table and nodded. “Yeah, ‘cause you were about to use a different type of flour than was used in the pie.” She grabbed the bag of flour and held it up. “Yes, pastry flour is what’s preferred, but Dean actually uses all-purpose flour cut with tapioca flour in his dough. We get free all-purpose flour donated constantly, and tapioca flour is cheap in bulk.”

“Then why even have the pastry flour?” Gabe rolled his eyes.

“Used for sheet cakes when we make them.” Meg walked the pastry flour back to the cupboard where the flours were stored and grabbed out a mixture stored in an airtight container. “We have huge trays to make the sheet cakes, and the pastry flour makes the batter lighter, so we need less of it to fill the tray and still get a big cake.” Meg shrugged at Gabe’s surprised look. “What? I listen.”

“I’m just impressed that you know so much.” Gabe took the flour mix from Meg. “You’re very protective of this…” Gabe spun his finger around to indicate the kitchen. “...this whole ordeal, aren’t you?”

“Yup.”

“Why? I don’t see an ankle monitor on you, and you don’t seem like the type of girl who would be caught dead helping out people.” Gabe spread some flour on the prep table before rubbing some onto the rolling pin.

Meg crossed her arms over her chest. “Well, I can see how you’re not like Clarence. Assume much?”

“What can I say? I like making an ass out of you and me.” Gabe winked and started rolling out the dough. “Okay, you really didn’t like that. Let’s just say, I’ve seen the people who have come into this soup kitchen, and except for Dean, who’s here because he’s Cassie’s hubby, most of them look like…”

“If you want to keep breathing, finish that sentence.” Meg grabbed a can opener and pointed it threateningly at Gabe.

“Tough subject?” Gabe eyed the tool before looking at Meg. “Sorry if I hit a nerve there, short stack.”

“Who are you calling short? I’m at least close to the right height for a female.” Meg started opening cans of pumpkin puree. “Clearly, your parents gave all the miracle grow to Clarence.”

“Half-siblings.”

Meg looked up from her task. “What?”

“Cassie is my younger brother through our father. But we don’t share the same mom. It’s why he’s taller. Got it from his mom’s side.” Gabe checked the dough thickness before rolling it out some more. “I didn’t even know he existed until he was 16.”

“Makes sense, I hear your dad is a douche.”

“He wasn’t always. He used to be a good father. Even after he left my mom, he tried to be active in my and Michael’s life. Then one day, he disappeared completely. Wasn’t until Cassie and Anna showed up on our doorstep asking if Chuck Shurley was our father. Then introduced themselves as our siblings did we actually hear anything about him.”

“Clarence’s last name is Novak,” Meg stated, her voice hinting at an unspoken question.

“His mother was smart and never married my father. So that’s why he and Anna are Novaks, and Michael and me are Shurleys.” Gabe laughed, a short, cruel bark. “Michael uses that as the excuse as to why he doesn’t want anything to do with Cas and Anna. I think he’s just mad that the old man had another family.”

Silence fell over the kitchen as Gabe finished rolling out the dough and started to line the pie tins. Meg watched him out of the corner of her eye as she mixed the pie filling together. Gabe had become sullen and withdrawn as he worked, and Meg started to feel a hint of regret at her treatment. When the silence became too much for her to bear, she spoke up.

“I used to come here when I was hungry.” Gabe stopped and looked at Meg, who focused on the pie filling. “About six years ago, I left an abusive relationship. My ex, he uh, he pushed it too far. I managed to escape, and I ran with only the clothes on my back, my purse, and my car.”

Gabe looked back at the pie tins in front of him and slid them over to Meg. She took that as a sign to continue. “I was able to check into a hotel for the night, I guess he assumed that I would come back home. When I didn’t, he canceled the credit card, and I had to leave.” Meg grabbed the tins and placed them in an oven to parbake the crust. “I only had about fifty dollars cash on me. The closest woman’s shelter wouldn’t take me ‘cause I had a car when some women didn’t even have that. Didn’t matter that it was 40 fucking degrees out, and they had four open beds.”

“So, you slept in your car?” Gabe inquired, as he started to roll out the excess dough.

“Yeah, and I don’t know why I’m still going.”

“Why you’re still going with the story?” Gabe paused as he chewed on his words. “Or why you’re still going on in life?”

“Life got better, clearly. Why I’m still going with the story” Meg took a taste of the pie filling and wrinkled her nose. “I swear, Dean is magic or something. This shit is disgusting until he’s done with it.”

“It tastes better baked. The heat makes the spices bloom, and permeate through the pureed pumpkin.” Gabe lined two more pie tins and let them sit on the table. “Please don’t tell me you’re one of those girls that get all into pumpkin spice season and says that you love pumpkin.”

Meg looked down at herself then glared at Gabe. “You’re fucking kidding, right?”

“You never know. Cassie is a sucker for–”

“Caramel macchiatos with an extra shot of espresso and extra whipped cream. Yeah. I know.” Meg rolled her eyes and crossed to the oven to pull out the first batch of pie crusts. “But no, I’m a coffee hot and black type of gal.”

“Sounds like your life, to be honest.” Gabe walked over and popped in another two pie tins to parbake. “So, you never did say how Cassie came into your life.”

“I did.”

Gabe closed the oven and looked at Meg. “I must have missed that.”

“Told you, I came here when I was hungry.” Meg shrugged. “There was no judgment, no turning me away cause I had a cell phone and a leather jacket.”

“Places did that?”

Meg nodded and looked over to the door that led to the serving line and dining room. “Castiel never questioned. Never asked for anything.” Meg blushed. “He said he saw through all my thorny pain and that I was beautiful.”

“Can definitely agree with the beautiful part.”

“What?” Meg sputtered, her head whipping to look back at Gabe. “Excuse me?”

“I agree that you’re a gorgeous gal. Don’t have to be blind to see that.” Gabe counted the pie tins, as though he were trying to change the subject. “Is eight pies enough?”

“Nope.” Meg carefully popped the p. “Dean’ll make more pie dough when he comes back.” Meg took a deep breath, debating on if she should even keep going on the original subject. “I wasn’t beautiful when we first met. I was still scarred and bruised.”

Gabe leaned back against a table that wasn’t being used. “Have you moved on? Are you stronger for your pain?”

“What kind of question is that?” The timer went off, and Meg crossed to the oven to pull out two more crusts. Gabe came in behind her and placed two more in the oven.

“A serious one. Color me curious.”

Meg bit her bottom lip and thought for a second. “I’m grateful for my second chance. For my new friends, and the possibility of being considered family by them.” She set the pies on the table. “I’m scared that something will go wrong, that I’ll just become a punching bag again.” Meg held up a finger as Gabe started to speak. “I know Clarence and Dean aren’t like that. Sam’s a good guy, and Eileen is a sweetheart. Charlie is a doll, and I think she’s found happiness with Kara.”

“Well, that’s interesting.” Gabe raised an eyebrow at Meg.

“What is?”

“You mentioned three couples. I know, for a fact, they all have single friends.” Gabe leaned forward on the table, resting his chin on his fists. “You want what they have, but are letting your ex haunt you.”

Meg glared at Gabe. “You a shrink now, too?”

“Nope. But been to enough of them to figure out how to psychoanalyze someone.” Gabe started scooping some of the pie filling into a cooled crust. “Am I wrong?”

Before Meg could answer, the door swung open, and Cas and Dean entered the kitchen. “Cas, when did you sneak out?”

“When you started going on about the types of flour. I didn’t want to be a witness if you murdered Gabriel.” Cas winked. “I got all the hot trays going, water is in, and the pans are in. How are the pies?”

…

The rest of the prep went easier with Cas and Dean in the kitchen. Not only because it freed Meg from baking duty with Gabe, but because talking about the awkward subject of her feelings stopped. As Meg carried out a tray of green bean casserole to the hot plate, she stopped to ask Cas a question.

“Cas, we’re friends, right?”

“I would hope so after almost six years.” He smiled at her and tilted his head. “If this is about asking you to partner with Gabe, I’m sorry. I just needed someone I could trust to make sure he didn’t get us in trouble.”

“It’s not that, well, not completely.” Meg rubbed the back of her neck. “Are you two close?”

Cas nodded slowly. “Why?”

“He explained to me about how you two met, and I didn’t know if that was okay…”

“Huh.” Cas looked up and smiled at the door to the kitchen before looking back at Meg. “He doesn’t tell anyone that. You must have made an impression on him.”

“You’re not upset?”

“Should I be? I mean, it’s no secret, and we’ve been on good terms for the past… 18 years or so?”

Meg nodded slightly and started walking back towards the kitchen door. She stood on tiptoe and looked through the window. “You just never mentioned him.”

“He doesn’t live around here, and it’s the first time since Dean and I got married that he’s been in the area.” Cas walked up and joined her. “I think he wants to move to the area, now that his mom has passed.”

“You mean his and Michael’s mom?” Meg toed the line slightly, seeing how far she could push. “He didn’t mention that.”

“Yeah, he and Michael are on the outs, and he wanted to be with family for thanksgiving. You know, Naomi knew about us. She didn’t want to meet Anna or me and was pissed when we showed up on her doorstep. I thought Michael was going to kill us. Gabriel is the only one who showed us any kindness.” He looked down at Meg and smiled. “We never wanted to disrupt their lives, we just wanted to meet our brothers. Our dad had said how kind Michael and Gabe were. I don’t know what we expected.” He pushed the door open. “After you.”

Dean smirked at their entrance. “You two done spying?”

“Only if you finished the pies.” Cas walked up and kissed Dean’s cheek, causing his husband to blush.

“Almost, Angel.”

Gabe shook his head. “You guys need help carrying anything out?”

“Just the last few trays, and then we can start cooking the other ones and open the doors,” Cas commented. “Gabe, grab the mashed potatoes, Meg, if you could get the gravies.”

The pair did as requested and found themselves alone again out on the serving line. As Meg showed him where to set the tray, she found herself looking Gabe over with an appraising eye.

“You’re not going to set up and run, are you?”

Gabe set the tray in and turned to look at her, smiling. “You know, this morning you couldn’t wait to get rid of me, now you’re asking if I’m going to stay?”

“I mean…” Meg felt the heat rising up in her cheeks. “Clarence mentioned that you haven’t been in the area for a while. The last time was when he married Dean, so what’s that? Like eight years?”

“Something like that.” Gabe nodded. “I never lost touch with him, or Anna, if that’s what you’re asking. Skype and Facebook and texting, I didn’t want to lose my siblings.”

“Well, I know you’re not going to Anna’s, at least not yet. She’ll be here in about a half-hour.” Meg took a deep breath. “So stay?”

The door swung open, and Dean brought out pie slices on plates. “You two just sitting around? Need to get the last tray and the turkey and the ham out. Once the carving station is up, Sam’s going to open the doors.” Dean rushed back into the kitchen.

“I swear, those two have a knack for entering in the middle of a conversation.” Gabe looked over at Meg. “I’ll stay on one condition.”

“What’s that?” Meg’s face twisted into confusion.

“What are your plans after this?”

Meg laughed hysterically. “Going home and sleeping.” She paused and offered a sad smile when Gabe frowned. “I’m not turning you down, Gabe. But once they open those doors, you’ll understand why Anna and Cas are going to order takeout and just watch movies tonight.”

“Join us?”

“That’s not up to you,” Meg smirked as she turned Gabe around and pushed him back into the kitchen.

…

Five turkeys, three hams, many pounds of mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, corn, several dozen dinner rolls, and 16 pies later, the group watched as the last few people left the dining room. Sam wished them all a good night and locked the door behind them.

“We did it!” Cas cheered as he hugged Dean. “Another year down, another successful Thanksgiving.” Dean planted a kiss on top of Cas’ head. He continued, “Thank you, everyone, to our return staff,” he nodded towards Meg, Anna, Sam, and Eileen, “and to our newest members.” He gently bowed his head toward Gabe and a few others that Meg never bothered to learn their names. She knew that unless they came back on a non-holiday, they’d never be back again.

“We appreciate everything you guys did to make sure the crowd was well fed, kept warm, and entertained.” Cas smiled. “There are leftover plates being made by Donna and Jody in the back if you want to take one with you. Otherwise, you all free to go.”

Meg smiled and leaned back against the cold case that housed the drinks. She closed her eyes for a moment when she sensed someone walking up to her. Gabe. “What do you want, Trouble?” Meg asked without opening her eyes.

“How’d you know it was me?”

“Besides you just confirming?” Meg cracked an eye and peeked at Gabe. His previously styled coif was laying flat from the combination of hairnet and sweat, and his eyes, despite showing signs of exhaustion, were sparkling with mischief. “I had a feeling.”

“I didn’t realize we had grown close enough for you to be able to sense me.”

“Call it intuition then.” She closed her eyes again. “What did you want?”

Gabe moved closer and leaned in to whisper in her ear. “Will you join me this evening?”

“Told you, that’s not my call.” Meg opened her eyes. “I’m not intruding on Cas and Dean’s thanksgiving tradition.

“Yes, you are, Meg,” Dean called over. “Gabe already asked if he could bring someone.”

Cas nodded in confirmation. “You are always welcome, Meg. You’re family.” He looked at Gabe. “I’m sorry it took Gabe pointing out that we’ve never asked you what you do for Thanksgiving.”

“I never wanted to impose.” Meg shrugged and looked at Gabe. “I still don’t want to impose.”

“You’re coming as family per Cas, and even if that weren’t the case, he said I could bring a guest.” Gabe held out his hand. “Come on, Short Stack.”

Meg hesitantly took Gabe’s hand and allowed herself to be pulled to a standing position. She raised an eyebrow in question. “What’s the catch?”

“None. Unless by the end of the evening, you don’t want to go on a date with me.” Gabe winked. “In full admission that I’m going to sound completely cheesy, I am thankful for meeting you today.”

#supernatural trope celebration: thanksgiving #spncreatorsdaily #spnpetra #spn #spn fic #rating: t #tw: mentioned domestic violence (past)#megriel #pre relationship #meg x gabriel #nickel writes

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me-mindfulexistence · 5 years ago

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100 Ridiculous “Get To Know Me Questions”....And What My Husband Guessed I Said.

Need something to do? Share some “get to know me questions” with your friends and family”.

I answered 100 “Get to know me questions” alone...and then later I asked my husband what he thought my answer would be. How many did we match?

1.Who is your hero? (me) No one in particular. Anyone who stands up for the underdog, (Fights for the weaker person, feels compassion and empathy for humans and animals....but actually does something about it besides running their mouth) Ron: No one CORRECT

2.If you could live anywhere, where would it be? Somewhere very very warm, with very few people and all of my children (Ron) Somewhere warm and sunny CORRECT

3.What is your biggest fear? Losing my husband or children. (Ron) something happening to my kids/family CORRECT

4.What was your favorite family vacation? N. Carolina, time on the beach with my family. (Ron) N. Carolina CORRECT

5.What would you change about yourself if you could? Rid myself of self-doubt and anxiety. I’d be unstoppable! (Ron) To be more extroverted and outgoing. CORRECT

6.What really makes you angry? Oodles of things. People acting like the boys we took into our family, aren’t “real” family, racial discrimination, animal abuse, bullying, gender stereotypes, and religion (Ron) “Oh jez! Incompetent people” WRONG

7.What motivates you to work hard? My family and their success. (Ron) To Help others WRONG.

8.What is your favorite thing about your career? Wanting my patients to feel better about themselves and giving them an improved quality of life. (Ron) Helping people CORRECT

9.Coke or Pepsi? Coke (Ron) coke CORRECT

10.What is your proudest accomplishment? Besides my having family, getting my BJJ black belt. (Ron) being a mother CORRECT

11.When did you meet for the first time? Was it a connection? Friends introduced us at his work, Moyer and Son. Nope, no connection!. (Ron) Moyer and son, I don’t think you spoke to me. no connection CORRECT

12.Favorite TV cartoon growing up as a kid? Scooby Doo. (Ron) I have no idea, I didn’t watch cartoons as a kid, Tom and Jerry? WRONG

13.Who makes you laugh the most? My husband. (Ron) me CORRECT

14.What would you be willing to do for a million dollars? Almost anything as long as my husband was okay with it and it didn��t hurt anything else. (Ron) eat red meat WRONG

15.What did you want to be when you were small? A teacher. (Ron) heavier WRONG

16.Do you want to be buried, Cremated, have your body donated to science or do some kind of eco-friendly burial when you die? The funeral market is a scam and it’s polluting the planet! Eco-friendly method on a green burial site. NO Coffin! (Ron) eco-friendly burial, or some shit like that. CORRECT

17.If you could choose to do anything for a day, what would it be? African Safari. (Ron) nothing WRONG

18.What is your favorite game or sport to watch and play? Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. (Ron) BJJ CORRECT

19.What household chore do you like the least? Cleaning the bathroom. (Ron) cleaning in general WRONG

20.What would you sing at Karaoke night? LOVE LOVE LOVE SINGING! Sinead O’Connor, Nothing Compares To You (and about 100 more songs). (Ron) Beastie Boys, fight for you right to party WRONG

21.What two radio stations do you listen to in the car the most? SiriusXM 100, 101. (Ron) The two Howard Stations CORRECT

22.Which would you rather do: wash dishes, mow the lawn, clean the bathroom, or vacuum the house? Mow the lawn (if it’s hot outside), otherwise vacuum. (Ron) mow CORRECT

23.Favorite color? Yellow. (Ron) black WRONG

24.If you could only eat one meal for the rest of your life, what would it be? salad with lots of stuff in it. (Ron) lobster WRONG

25.How do you feel about adoption? Bring em’ on. Babies of any age! The more the merrier. (Ron) strongly CORRECT

26. Have you ever had a nickname? What is it? Sher (pronounced “Share”). (Ron) Dukers WRONG

27. Do you like or dislike surprises? Why or why not? Hate surprises. I wanna know. (Ron) no, don’t like being center of attention CORRECT

28. In the evening, would you rather play a game, visit a relative, watch a movie, or read? Ummm. Do nothing, so watch a movie I guess. (Ron) movie CORRECT

29. Would you rather vacation in Hawaii or Alaska, and why? Hawaii b/c it’s hot. (Ron) Hawaii b/c it’s warm and has beaches CORRECT

30. Would you rather win the lottery or work at the perfect job? And why? Lottery b/c then I could still work at the “perfect job” as much or little as I wanted. (Ron) work at perfect job, b/c you’d be happy and help people WRONG

31. Who would you want to be stranded with on a deserted island? My husband. (Ron) me CORRECT

32. If money was no object, what would you do all day? Create my utopia, an animal rescue. (Ron) Some kind of crap with animals CORRECT

33. If you could go back in time, what year would you travel to? 1995 (after college). (Ron) 1978 WRONG

34. How would your friends describe you? I’m not sure. Stubborn, strong willed? Sensitive. (Ron) passionate WRONG

35. What are your hobbies? Momming. Jiu-jitsu. Animal stuff. (Ron) teaching bjj and pets CORRECT

36. What is the best gift you have been given? My family. (and my jukebox that breaks all the time). (Ron) children CORRECT

37. What is the worst gift you have received? Anything that has to do with cleaning. (Ron) dryer vent CORRECT

38. Aside from necessities, what one thing could you not go a day without? My animals….esp my dog Mable! (Ron) exercise WRONG

39. List two pet peeves: My husband yelling about my animals, my kids not doing their chores. (Ron) me groping you, bad drivers WRONG

40. Where do you see yourself in five years? Wanting more kids (Ron) here WRONG

41. How many pairs of shoes do you own? idk10?, the same shoes I had 5 years ago (although I’ll replace my sneakers once or twice a year). (Ron) 10 CORRECT

42. If you were a super-hero, what powers would you have? I could be invisible. (Ron) strength WRONG

43. What would you do if you won the lottery? Quit my job and Open an animal sanctuary. (Ron) pay off all debt WRONG

44. Finish things as soon as possible or wait until the last minute? Wait until the last minute. (Ron) wait until the last minute CORRECT

45. What unconscious mannerism do you display if you are upset or uncomfortable in a situation? I become very quiet... (Ron) chew face WRONG

46. If you could go back in time to change one thing, what would it be? How I acted as a teenager. I could be pretty rotten. (Ron) not throwing poop out a window WRONG

47. If you could share a meal with any 4 individuals, living or dead, who would they be? Jim Morrison, Jimmy Hendrix, mommom, and God. (Ron) all your grandparents but especially your mommom Knipe WRONG

48. How do you feel about group vacations with other couples? That sounds awful. (Ron) not happening CORRECT

49. What's the longest you've gone without sleep (and why)? An entire day when I was young, partying all night. (Ron) 24hrs partying CORRECT

50. How Do you handle anger? I bottle it up for a while and get quiet. (Ron) not well, you get quiet CORRECT

51. Would you rather trade intelligence for looks or looks for intelligence? Interesting question! I’m already getting close to hitting the wall with looks….but I also can’t afford to lose any intelligence either. I’d have to trade looks for more intelligence. (Ron) intelligence for looks WRONG

52. How often do you buy clothes? Almost never. (Ron) not often CORRECT

53. Have you ever had a secret admirer? Probably (who hasn’t). It would be secret. (Ron) probably CORRECT

54. What's your favorite holiday? CHRISTMAS! (Ron) Christmas CORRECT

55. What do you drink when you go out for social occasions? Coke (not diet either). (Ron) water or coke CORRECT

56. What was the last thing you recorded on TV? True blood. (Ron) SNL WRONG

57. Do you prefer the live version or studio version of an album? Studio. (Ron) Studio CORRECT

58. What's your favorite type of foreign food? Mexican. (Ron) mexican CORRECT

59. Are you a clean or messy person? Pretty Messy. (Ron) messy CORRECT

60. Who would you want to play you in a movie of your life? Uma Thurman. (Ron) Uma Thurman CORRECT

61. How long does it take you to get ready in the morning? 30mins (Ron) 1hr WRONG

62. What kitchen appliance do you use every day? Dishwasher. (Ron) microwave WRONG

63. What's your favorite fast food chain? Taco Bell. (Ron) taco bell CORRECT

64. What's your favorite family recipe or dish? mommoms apple pie. (Ron) Mommoms apple pie CORRECT

65. Do you love or hate rollercoasters? Love. (Ron) Love CORRECT

66. What's your favorite family tradition? Christmas Morning Breakfast at my moms. (Ron) Christmas Eve CORRECT

67. What is your favorite childhood memory? Having baby bunnies with my dad. (Ron) I have no idea WRONG

68. What's your favorite movie? Natural Born Killers (Ron) Pulp fiction WRONG

69. How old were you when you learned Santa wasn't real? How did you find out? Devastating. I wanted to believe forever. I was forced to “not believe” at about 12. My aunt said on Christmas day “You know Santas not real, right?”. Ugh. (Ron) 8, I think your friend Dorene probably told you. WRONG

70. Is your glass half full or half empty? Half empty….just waiting for the other shoe to drop. (Ron) Half empty CORRECT

71. What's the craziest thing you’ve done in the name of love? Dating my husband was risky. (Ron) got married WRONG

72. What is your favorite chip flavor? Salt and vinegar. (Ron) salt and vinegar CORRECT

73. What was your favorite subject in school? Science. (Ron) none WRONG

74. What's the most unusual thing you've ever eaten? I’m not very daring. Seaweed. (Ron) I have no idea, you really don’t care for food WRONG

75. Do you collect anything? Unwanted animals. (Ron) records WRONG

76. Is there anything you wished would come back into fashion? Bell bottoms. (Ron) The 70s WRONG

77. Are you an introvert or an extrovert? Introvert. (Ron) Introvert CORRECT

78. Which of the five senses would you say is your strongest? touch. (Ron) You have a nose like a dog WRONG

79. Have you ever had a surprise party? (that was an actual surprise) Nope…and I don’t want one. (Ron) No CORRECT

80. Best quality and worst quality? Best-compassionate/empathetic, Worst-Too compassionate/empathetic to a fault. (Ron) best-caring, worst-caring too much CORRECT

81. What do you do to keep fit? Brazilian Jiu-jitsu but I also just exercise to not be a big lump of (Ron) BJJ and exercise CORRECT

82. Does your family have a “motto” – spoken or unspoken? I say “wrong is wrong, damn it”. (Ron) Never a wrong time to do the right thing never a right time to do the wrong thing WRONG

83. If you were ruler of your own country what would be the first law you would introduce? ALL KINDS OF RULES about limiting the use of animals for consumption. NO FACTORY FARMS! (Ron) NO killing of animals CORRECT

84. Are you a leader or follower? Leader (Ron) leader CORRECT

85. What three things do you think of the most each day? Work, family, how tired I am. (Ron) something happening to my kids, something happening to ron, or me WRONG

86. If you had a warning label, what would yours say? Proceed with caution. (Ron) warning fragile WRONG

87. What song would you say best sums you up? Comfortably Numb by Pink Floyd. (Ron) someone left the cake out in the rain, AKA MacArthur Park by Donna Summer WRONG

88. What is your favorite drink? Vanilla Chai Latte. (Ron) water WRONG 89. Who was your first crush? Bo Duke (on Dukes of Hazzard). (Ron) Shaun Cassidy WRONG

90. What's the most interesting thing you can see out of your kitchen window? My chickens. (Ron) chickens CORRECT

91. On a scale of 1-10 how funny would you say you are? 6. (Ron) 8 WRONG

92. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? Working like a dog and getting no where. (Ron) here WRONG

93. What was your first job? Working at an awful pizza shop. (Ron) pizza shop CORRECT

94. If you could join any past or current music group which would you want to join? The Doors. (Ron) The dead WRONG

95. Do you believe in an after life? Yes. (Ron) yes CORRECT

96. You’ll never understand people who do what.....? Fart in front of anyone intentionally. (Ron) hunt WRONG

97. Who would i hate to see naked? Any parental figures. (Ron) parents CORRECT

98. If you had to describe yourself as an animal, which one would it be? Probably a cat. I can be affectionate one minute but turn and walk away b/c you are boring me the next. I don’t like to be told what to do…and I’m not easy to control. “Obedient” isn’t my strong point. (Ron) cat, b/c you can be a loner and snobby (or some might perceive you to be that way). CORRECT

99. What is something that turns you off about another person? If they don’t like animals. (Ron) people who are loud WRONG

100. Who knows you the best? My husband. (Ron) Me CORRECT

The end

#bjj #graciepa #sherihockman #randompersonalfacts #femalebjj #rdbjjinstructor #BrazilianJiuJitsu #thirdgenerationbjj

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theinsanecrayonbox · 6 years ago

Text

Current Packverse setting and players ramblings and art under a cut to avoid dash spam

now fair warning, this has Omegaverse connotations BUT only with those who have the feral genes. other humans, nope; other mutants, nope. only ferals. and ferals come in male presenting Alpha and Omegas; female ferals are actually a mutation within the feral mutation itself, brought about by intermixing with non-ferals. this is also why most female ferals are much more animal presenting too. Alphas are like the standard human male; Omegas are more hyena-like with a pseudo penis, but they don’t give birth via that, they have female genitalia, but a masculine urinary tract; that helps with territory marking after all. gender presents in pups when they’re about a week old, as swelling around the gentalia goes down enough to either reveal testicles or the lack there of. Omegas have a period cycle that’s 30-40 days long, but they go into heat every 3-4 months (so either every other, or every third period). heats can be suppressed (as in the pheromones dampened) with herbal/medicinal supplements, but aside from that is a regular cycle. Alphas do go into rut upon catching the heat pheromones, and anyone familiar with Omegaverse themes knows what that means.

so, still with me after that info dump? want the art and characters now?

Romulus and Remus

yup these guys are in here, some of the oldest ferals still around. Romulus is an Alpha, while Remus is an Omega; as gender transitioning became more a thing, she made herself far more female presenting, but that leads to in like ancient Rome how she was thought of as male, thus the myths about the “brothers”. but since Rom knows how ferals should work, when he discovers that Victor is an Omega, he’s quite interested since those are rare these days (again, that trait is recessive unless the other parent is also a feral), thus also explaining why he made so many clones, to try to increase his potential breeding stock.

Zebadiah and Victoria Creed

Victor’s parents. We’ll get more into the family life after the the next image, but to note is that Victoria here is actually a generation or two away from a native “white wolf” feral Omega. so as Victor was growing up, she’s the one that recognized what he was. whereas with Zeb, he was a bit of a drunk, and would go on religious fueled zealot rants (which makes you winder why he’d marry a woman with “savage roots” huh?)

Luther, Victor, Saul, and Clara Creed

this comes in 2 parts, despite me showing all 4 siblings together, because actually there’s about a 14 year difference between Victor and Saul

Luther is the eldest child, and is male (and most likely an Alpha), while Victor is the second born and an Omega. as i said above, Victoria recognized what he was, and tried to make sure he could pass for male (as in warning him about period and heats, supplying him with the correct herbs to take to suppress the heats), but when that happened...yeah...Luther being an Alpha was kinda shown, since he was affected by the heat pheromones and that was actually the trigger to Victor killing his brother (pie metaphor...yeah...).

when that was discovered, Zeb locked him in the basement and tortured him right; that included him calling him a demon, a monster, in the skin of a man but deceiving with forbidden fruit sorta deal...he also went “you took my son from me so you will replace it yourself” because in his mind, Victor was not his son at all, so there was nothing wrong with this and so...Saul was born. Saul is Victor’s son, raised by his mother as his brother, because his father made her.

Clara is at most a year younger than Saul; Victoria tried to distract Zeb from doing things to Victor with herself as bait, so yeah she fell pregnant too.

Victor broke out by the time he was 16 and he ran away, but a couple years later he went back home and killed his father. he then steppe din to take care of his family, but he couldn’t really deal with Saul’s presence due to what he meant to him; the only reasons he didn’t kill him was because his mother begged him not to. thus the years of abuse he inflicted upon him, yet not on Clara.

Victor/Sabretooth, Saul, Clara Creed

after Victor forced Saul to disfigure Clara, she convinced him to run away. Victoria kinda lost it, so Victor set her up somewhere safe, and he went off to try to track down his siblings. Meanwhile, they went to the circus and had the adventure with Logan, which ended with Logan killing Saul. so when Victor finally found his sister and learned what happened, he started his hunt of Logan, because even though he hated what Saul was, he was still his pup.

Clara learned the truth between Victor and Saul from Victoria on her death bed (maybe even unintentionally, she might’ve had dementia at this point), many years after the death of her brother. She’s still around, and though she understands a bit now, she still won’t forgive him for what he did.

Victor went about his life normally, maintaining a regiment to keep his heats in control for the most part, and using birth control and also typically not taking male sexual partners. When he joined Weapon X with Logan though, they discovered his Omega status, and thought that breeding tehir own feral fighters was a great idea (probably Rom’s idea honestly). so they attempted to force a breeding between the two, but Victor escaped and gave birth to a still born son. this is why they all thought that Laura and Kyle were related to him, because they were both created by Weapon X. this would also explain why, to create Weapon H, they went and took samples from OML and Victor, despite the two being so similar, because Victor’s feral mutation is actually slightly better due to him being an Omega.

Graydon, Clarice (Ferguson)/Blink, Kyle (Gibney)/Wild Child, Hudson Creed

Victor’s kids!

Graydon was actually carried by Victor; when he was starting to get serious with Leni Zauber/Mystique, before they actually had sex he told her the truth about him being an Omega. Mystique, realizing she hadn’t yet proven her own gender identity as Leni, decided to say she was a transwoman. so Mystique impregnated Victor, and the pregnancy went unrealized until the last leg of it so at the birth, when Mystique claimed the child was stillborn, Victor didn’t question it; in reality she stole Graydon away, but when he didn’t display any powers, abandoned him as usual. so the years later when Victor meets Graydon he’s honestly shocked to know he was alive, and actually didn’t believe his claims of being his kid, since you know, he can’t sire children, but Mystique confirmed it, so yeah.

not pictured, but to note; while Victor was working with Frank Payne/Constrictor the two of them slipped up a few times while drunk and did sleep together. Victor did fall pregnant, but he miscarries, and never told Frank.

Clarice is his adopted daughter, rescued from Sinister’s clutches when he was with Birdy; her family gave her to Sinister to “cure her mutations” when she was young, and he refused to give her back to her family. this also led to the three living at the X-Mansion for a coupe years while Victor raised his kids and Birdy’s death is what made him leave.

Kyle was part of the Weapon X shenanigans (more of that below with Laura). it turns out that while with Weapon X, they harvested eggs from Victor, and Kyle seems to be one of the children born from that. it was assumed that Logan was his father, but there’s been questions of that now. Kyle is an Alpha.

Kyle and Clarice end up working for X-Factor when their both adults as a couple.

Hudson is Victor’s youngest (and he’s still unborn/a baby, not the adult shown here whoops lol) and his biological father is Old Man Logan. Victor went into heat while with Weapon X-force (over usage of healing factor neutralized his suppressants and birth control) and OML, either not remembering that Victor was an Omega OR his Victor wasn’t one, went after him, and succumbed to the heat pheromones. OML wanted Victor not to have Hudson, so Victor left the team for a time and started training Belle instead, before eventually going back and bringing her with him. pretty sure Hudson’s an Alpha, but i’m not settled on that yet since as i said, he’s still either unborn or a baby right now.

Laura Kinney/Wolverine, Bellona (Kinney) Creed/Talon, Gabby Kinney/Honey Badger, Kylie Kinney/Sabretooth

as stated above, when Laura and Kyle first showed up, it was thought that they were both created using Victor and Logan’s DNA from their “breeding project”. it was kinda disproved though that Laura was...at least in a large enough sense. HOWEVER, Alchemax seemed to actually do that; with each new clone iteration they created of Laura, they changed the genes ever so slightly, hoping to encourage a healing factor (since this was post T-mist). so while Laura has maybe 5% Victor in her, Belle and gabby both have more from a combination of them using Victor’s eggs as a base, as well as modifying for the healing factor. this led to Belle’s eventual mutation being the Creed claws, rather than the Howlett ones.

After SHIELD takes custody of Belle, and her mutation triggers and she “sheds” her old skin, Victor is offered the opportunity to take custody of her to help acclimate her to her powers and what not, which he does. she then goes back to Weapon X-Force with him and is part of the team.

Kylie is from an alternate reality where Victor and Logan’s roles were reversed (good/evil at the least) so she’s in essence the Sabretooth version of X-23.

all 4 of them are female. in Laura’s case, the didn’t use the Omega genes from Victor so she doesn’t have any of those. Gabby and Belle might have some of those, but not enough for them to affect them. also, Belle might be sterile due to her albinism.

Logan Howlett/Wolverine, Old Man Logan, Daken, Jimmy Hudson

yeah, the Wolverines are included because they are important.

Logan did not raise Laura here, Victor did; he refused to because he thought she was part Victor, and since Victor was kind of living with the Xmen for the time, he just ran away from his responsibilities like usual. after a couple years he did get over himself and try to reconnect with Laura before his death, but he never reached out to Kyle in the same way.

OML’s from the dystopian future, but whether it’s this settings’ future or another is now debated, since in his past he raised Laura, while here he didn’t; could it be age mixing up his memories or just reality shenanigans? in any case, as stated above, he’s Hudson’s biological father, but wants nothing to do with him. he’s...trying to push victor to be better sure, but having a kid...he is afraid that because Hudson is Victor’s child, that means he will go bad. he also was not fully in favor for Victor training belle, since you know, he kinda has a thing against Gabby.

oh and both Logans are Alphas duh

Daken’s pretty much unchanged. he’s an Alpha, and thanks to Rom’s upbringing, knows about Omegas and all that stuff. he’s accepted Laura and Gabby as his sisters, debated whether he’ll do the same for Belle (since she identifies as a Creed), and he does not claim Kyle as his brother but he doesn’t hate him or anything.

Jimmy’s from the Ultimateverse where they didn’t have the Alpha/Omega dynamics, so i’m still in debate if that just automatically makes him an Alpha, or if he’ll have a transition period as he fully adjusts to this reality and might present as an Omega. he doesn’t really interact with the others much...i just like Jimmy

Arkady Rossovitch/Omega Red, Lazar Engel

included despite not being a feral, because Arkady is Hudson’s adoptive father, and Belle’s adoptive father/best friend

Omega Red is pretty much the same save for this specific point; he’s always been gay. when they did the super solider treatment (which they were more willing to do to him, because his orientation meant he was more expendable) they made him a eunic because 1) gay people are bad in their minds and 2) it’d mean less distractions for their weapon (you know, no emotions = perfect weapon). also with the radiation in his body, it was just less body parts to worry about i guess. when he was resurrected, he was brought back intact (yay new body) but when SICKLE got him, his brother Vassily probably made sure to repeat the process...because he hates his brother...but then again, with better medical stuff now, maybe he was just given a vasectomy instead of a full genitalia removal.

Arkady and Victor start a relationship when he joins Weapon X-Force, and oddly kinda falls in love with the idea of being Hudson’s father, since he never thought of having kids (because evil weapon, and also was unable to). he also connects with Belle, and the two become bffs real quick too, which leads to him and Vic hooking up even more i think.

Lazar is one of Red’s clones...or a clone of one of his clones. Belle finds him when trying to hunt down Red after Victor’s death, so the two of them wind up teaming up and bonding over the whole “clone of a clone” thing. when the whole family finally gets back together, Arkady and Lazar are a bit apprehensive around one another, and the debate of “are you my son or brother” comes up, but Lazar follows Belle’s lead and just calls Arkady his father.

#my art #digital art #My writing #Packverse #omegaverse themes #mpreg themes #belle creed on weapon x

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thebeatles-world · 6 years ago

Text

Patrick Swayze's Unknown Son

The alleged son is Jason Whittle, who was born in 1973 and now is 44 years old. The following two pictures show, first, Whittle and, second, Swayze.

Whittle grew up not knowing he was Swayze's son. His mother, Bonnie Kay Whittle, was 15 years old when she allegedly had a one-night stand with 20-year-old Swayze in 1972. Bonnie Kay died of cancer in 2012, and the article seems to indicate that she informed Jason only a short time before she died.

Swayze died in 2009, so it seems likely that he never knew about Jason Whittle. If Swayze had known, then his estate lawyer surely would have advised him to give Jason Whittle at least a token $1 in the will to prevent him from challenging the will. Swayze left his entire estate to his wife Lisa and left nothing to his other Swayze relatives. Now Whittle is claiming a big part -- perhaps half -- of Swayze's estate, which is estimated to be $40 million.

The other Swayze relatives claim that Lisa used abusive methods to coerce Patrick to change his will seven weeks before his death to give everything to her.

Globe

reports that some of those stiffed relatives now feel gratified that Whittle might take much of the estate from Lisa.

======

I have a copy of Swayze's autobiography

The Time of My Life

, and I intend to write an article about it for this blog. The book says that in 1972 he was in a touring ice-skating show called Disney on Parade. That's how in 1972 he would have visited Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri, where Bonnie Kay lived. Jason Whittle probably can prove that Disney on Parade was in that location exactly nine months before he was born.

The book includes the following passages about Swayze's experiences in 1972 (pages 30-32).

The dancers made $125 a week, which felt like a lot of money, especially since we all doubled, tripled, and quadrupled up in our living arrangements on the road. Most of the dancers were women, and of the few who were men, even fewer were straight men. So the opportunities for me in terms of finding women to date were just about endless. Unfortunately, I still didn't know how to communicate with women, or anybody else. I just sounded like an egotistical ass whenever I talked, as I couldn't stop going on and on about myself. For one thing, my knee [injured in a high-school football game] kept blowing up after each performance, the joint swelling painfully due to the rigors of the show. .... It got so bad that I had to go to the hospital in every city to get the fluid drained from my knee. And the more knee trouble I had, the more I had to talk about it. But after I had initially alienated just about everyone with my incessant blathering, people started realizing that I wasn't really egotistical, just insecure.

Apparently, Swayze was extraordinarily promiscuous during this 1972 tour. He hit on many girls who crossed his path and managed to seduce many of them.

Although Swayze was an extraordinarily handsome and talented young man, I think that he didn't study much in high school and felt intellectually inadequate. He was too busy with dance and athletics to read and study. I think that he often felt stupid in conversations with women in conversations about general knowledge -- history, current events and so forth.

In this regard, Swayze was quite similar to the character Johnny Castle in

Dirty Dancing

in his relationship with intellectual Baby Houseman. His personal experience and feelings of intellectual inferiority enabled him to play the role so well.

I think that Swayze's insecurity was a major reason why in 1972 he involved himself with much younger girls, such as 15-year-old Bonnie Kay. He was intellectually inhibited by older, more sophisticated and sarcastic women.

I began dating one woman who was in the show, a good-looking blonde who had a party-queen reputation. She was a wild one, the kind of girl who liked trouble, and at first I was drawn to her dangerous air. Part of me just wanted to see if I could win her, but once I did, I realized she wasn't at all the kind of woman I was looking for. It sounds corny, but I really did believe in Snow White and Prince Charming -- I wanted to find a woman whom I could ride off into the sunset and share my life with.

While Swayze was touring in 1972, he maintained also a long-distance platonic relationship with Lisa Haapaniemi, a 16-year-old girl, a dance student in his mother's dance school in Houston, Texas.

I'm not sure I as even aware of it at the time, but subconsciously I was comparing all the women I met to Lisa.

Beyond sharing Patrick's love of dance, Lisa did not threaten him intellectually, because she was so young and was likewise a poor student.

Lisa was back in Houston having problems of her own. She'd been having a lot of trouble sleeping, and her insomnia eventually got so bad she had to drop out of high school. She'd always had trouble fitting in, and now, with the onset of a creeping depression, she felt even more alienated. This was the beginning of what she later called her "blue period".

Lisa argued with her parents and so came to live for two weeks with Patrick's mother, who was Lisa's dance teacher. During those two weeks, Patrick happened to come home from his tour for several days. Lisa and Patrick already knew each other from their participation in his mother's dance school.

During those two weeks, Patrick dated other girls but also became sexually involved with Lisa in his home.

My mom didn't know it, but the attraction between Lisa and me had been growing for some time. She had seemed indifferent to me all those months [of Disney on Parade], but it turned out she was interested in me, too -- she was just shy, and acting like she didn't care was her way of covering it up. But during those two weeks when Lisa stayed with us, and and I took every opportunity to steal time together. When Mom was in the kitchen, we'd be behind the swinging door in the dining room, making out. After everyone n the house had gone to sleep, we'd sneak out to the living room and fool around on the couch. We still weren't technically "dating", but, man, we couldn't get enough of each other. In fact, I had been seeing other girls -- and the very day Lisa came to stay at our house I had a date with a girl named Mimi, which led to an uncomfortable moment. ... I'd asked Mimi out for that Saturday night, to go to the Houston Rodeo. When Lisa moved into our house that afternoon, Mom expected me to give her a ride to the rodeo too. .... To my embarrassment, Mimi kept tickling my ear and kissing me all the way to the rodeo, as Lisa sat silently. ...

Soon, however, Patrick settled down with Lisa. As far as the public knows, he ended this promiscuous period of his life. Patrick married Lisa in 1975 and they remained married until his death in 2009.

========

When 15-year-old Bonnie Kay happened to cross paths with 20-year-old Patrick Swayze in Missouri, their encounter might have had nothing to do with Disney on Parade. Perhaps she was a

Candy Stripe

volunteer at a hospital where he had fluid drained from his knee. Since he hit on girls everywhere and was becoming a pickup artist through frequent practice, he might have seduced Bonnie Kay in one day -- and she never even saw the Disney on Parade show. (This is just my idle speculation.)

Her [Bonnie Kay's] mom, Lebetta Whittle, tells Globe, ... "She [Bonnie Kay] told me he [Patrick] wanted her to run away with him," Lebetta recalls. "But she was way too young and told him he could get in trouble for doing that. It was a short relationship, and she said she stayed there all night."

The fact that Bonnie Kay's mother has the last name Whittle indicates that Bonnie Kay never married.

When 15-year-old Bonnie Kay became pregnant in 1972, abortion still was illegal in Missouri. On January 22, 1973, the US Supreme Court ruled that abortion would henceforth be legal during at least the first three months of pregnancy. The

Globe

article does not specify Whittle's birthday, but it's likely that Bonnie Kay was a little more than three months pregnant on January 22, 1973. If so, then abortion remained illegal for her.

Although Bonnie Kay's fling with Swayze lasted only about one day, she did learn his identify. Her brother Ron told the

Globe

that she had Swayze's name and phone number written her arm when she came home from her night with him. At that time, though, Swayze was a nobody -- not worth the trouble of tracking him down to try to prove his paternity and collect child-support payments. Bonnie Kay kept Patrick's identify secret through the years, but sometimes was heard to remark that her seducer Patrick "was doing acting".

It's quite possible that she deliberately passed on any abortion possibilities anyway, because she considered an abortion to be a murder of a baby. That was an opinion to which many young women adhered even when they become unhappily pregnant -- and that still is true.

Many such young women who got pregnant dropped out of high school, gave birth, kept the child, and eventually married another man who adopted the child. The child was taught to respect that other man as the family's father. Such women considered such a difficult solution to their problem to be the moral solution.

The fact that Bonnie Kay kept the identity of Jason's biological father until perhaps her deathbed -- even though she knew that he was famous and rich Patrick Swayze -- suggests to me that she adhered stubbornly to some very strong moral convictions. It seems that she blamed herself for her foolish teenage fling and did not want to cause trouble for her own relationships or for the Swayzes' marriage.

======

The story of Jason Whittle is an ironic counter-point to the movie

Dirty Dancing,

which portrayed sexual flings and subsequent abortions positively -- and which made Patrick Swayze an international star. If Baby Houseman had become pregnant from her fling with Johnny Castle, she certainly would have obtained an abortion and continued on with her planned life, graduating from college and becoming a career woman.

In contrast, Bonnie Kay probably dropped out of high school and lived a lower-middle-class life as an unmarried mother -- or as a common-law wife to another high-school dropout. Even after she realized, many years later, that her son's biological father was the actor Patrick Swayze, she kept that secret to herself out of respect for her family.

Swayze did not became even moderately famous until 1985, when he starred in the televised historical drama

North and South

. By that time, Jason was already about 12 years old. When Swayze became a superstar from

Dirty Dancing

in 1987, Jason was already about 14 years old.

After Jason became an adult, he probably began to hear comments that he looked like the now famous actor Patrick Swayze. However, Jason might have suspected that his biological father was another man in the vicinity who had similar looks.

Jason would not have imagined any possibility that his mother ever crossed paths with Swayze -- much less ever had sex with him -- when she was a 15-year-old girl living with her parents in a Missouri town.

Decades would pass before the adult Jason would be able to sit down at a computer and google "Patrick Swayze" and instantly receive a wealth of information about Swayze's life. Before Google, Jason would not have been able to discover that Swayze was touring with Disney on Parade throughout the USA in 1972, when Jason was conceived.

======

Because Swayze died not knowing about this biological son, Swayze left his entire $40 million estate to his wife Lisa and did not even mention this unknown son in his will. Swayze did not explicitly exclude Jason from his estate.

Because Bonnie Kay did not inform Jason until after Swayze had died, Jason eventually might able to acquire as much as half of Swayze's $40 million estate.

article here: http://dirty-dancing-analysis.blogspot.com/2017/07/patrick-swayzes-unknown-son.html

let me know if you guys think it’s true or not, I decided to share this since this seemed interesting to read...

#the outsiders fandom #patrick swayze #Ponyboy Curtis #darry curtis #sodapop curtis #dally winston #johnny cade #steve randle #two-bit mathews

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