#uh oh back on that linked article with pull quotes thing

[gettothestabbing]

The April 2023 email, which was sent by a CBP supervisor to a “master list” of about 500 Border Patrol agents, instructs CBP officials to radically reduce the number of interview questions for Chinese migrants apprehended after illegally crossing into the country from roughly 40 to just five. This scaling back of the interview process fast-tracked the releasing of Chinese illegal immigrants into the U.S. while making it more difficult for CBP agents to identify national security threats, J.J. Carrell, a retired CBP deputy patrol agent in charge, told the DCNF after reviewing the email. “This policy change has accelerated the time it takes to process Chinese illegal immigrants — this doesn’t make America safer,” Carrell said. “The final result is that dangerous Chinese illegal immigrants will still be released into the U.S.” “This is just the government covering their ass, so they can say they vetted,” said Carrell. “I believe the government recognizes the threat of Chinese soldiers and spies that are pouring into America, and they want to try and identify these individuals. However, the same government does not want to stop the flow of illegal aliens or Chinese nationals — just the ‘bad ones,’ which is impossible.”

The former law enforcement official who provided the email to the DCNF said human smuggling operations quickly adapted to these new guidelines, coaching Chinese illegal immigrants on how to answer CBP’s shorter list of questions. “It was almost immediate where [the Chinese illegal immigrants] knew what to say and what not to say,” said the former official, who requested anonymity in fear of U.S. government retribution. Carrell described smuggling operations as “highly coordinated.” He told the DCNF that illegal immigrants are “coached from the beginning of the journey.” “The stories are identical,” Carrell said. “The streets and the names they use just differ because of the nations they’re from.” The April 2023 CBP email also states that Chinese illegal immigrants who pass field agents’ five “basic questions” may be released into the U.S. interior. “If they do not alert to the above, there is no requirement to further delay current processing pathway — NTA/OR,” the email states. “NTA/OR” is an abbreviation for “Notice to Appear” / “Order of Recognizance,” according to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). In practice, this allows Chinese illegal immigrants entry into the U.S. with a court date several years down the road, the former official said. By November 2023, the backlog of U.S. immigration court cases topped three million, signifying an all-time high. Since 2022, Border Patrol has encountered approximately 35,000 Chinese illegal immigrants at the border, according to CBP data. Between 2022 and 2023, Border Patrol encounters with Chinese illegal immigrants surged over 1,000%, according to government records. (emphasis added)

[waitimcomingtoo]

In Case You Don’t Live Forever

~chapter two rewritten~

Pairing: Peter Parker x Venom!Reader

Synopsis: you are Peters greatest love and Spider-Man’s greatest enemy

Masterlist and Series Masterlist

Moving and finding an apartment can be an incredibly long and stressful process. Unless you’re you, and life likes to throw a lot of curve balls at you for the utter hell of it.

Your dad dropped dead three weeks after you told Andy you were moving to New York. Coincidentally, right in the middle of you trying to find a place to live. He drank himself to death. Figures. You doubted you’d ever had a conversation with him that he was sober enough to remember. His untimely demise was unfortunate for him, because he died or whatever, but very fortunate for you. As his only child, you got his apartment in Queens and all his smelly hoodies.

You said your goodbyes to Andy and Dani after a night out in the streets of San Francisco. You had originally moved there after high school to start your show, The L/n Report. San Francisco was known for its crimes against the homeless population and you wanted to start with a story on that. You ended up interviewing Andy at the police station while investigating a missing person, and dated him for two years. Now, you were spending your last few hours in San Francisco with the very boy you once loved and the very girl he now did.

“Are you all packed?” Dani asked you, snapping you out of your thoughts.

“Pretty much. I gotta put my toothbrush and hairbrush in my suitcase in the morning. Other than that, I’m good to go.” You answered her. She smiled fondly at you as she linked her arm through yours.

“Hey, I’m really gonna miss you. More than that guy over there.” You whispered, nodding towards Andy, who had his head buried in his phone. Dani laughed and nodded in agreement as you continued to walk.

“I’m going to miss you too. You’re my best friend here.” She sighed sadly.

“I’m glad we’re friends. Most women in our position would hate each other.” You thought out loud.

“Uh uh. You’re thinking of women in films. It’s 2021, baby. Women support women. You and I are two talented, smart, beautiful women who would never be caught fighting over some boy. Especially not one who can’t take his eyes off his phone for two seconds.” Dani said loudly and smacked Andy’s arm. You laughed at the domestic moment but couldn’t help feeling a pain in your heart knowing he used to be that way with you.

“What, sorry?” Andy looked up. You and Dani looked at him before looking at each other and laughing.

“What’s funny?” He asked, growing annoyed.

“We’re laughing at you babe. Put your phone away. It’s Y/N’s last night here.” Dani scolded playfully. Andy sighed and reluctantly put his phone in his pocket.

“Right, sorry. And it’s not her last night here. She’s coming back. You are coming back, right?” He asked you. You nodded, though you weren’t entirely sure.

“Of course I’ll be back.” You shrugged. “I just want to experience something new for a while. I’ve done a million pieces on homelessness and poverty. I want to see what fresh stories New York has to offer.”

“You’re quoting the Daily Bugle, aren’t you?” Dani teased you.

“That is verbatim what they said to me.” You admitted with a laugh. “But hey, it worked. As of tomorrow, I’m the Daily Bugle’s newest investigative reporter.”

“Who are you reporting on anyway?” Andy showed a rare interest in your work.

“Some guy named Cletus Kasady.” You answered. “He’s some hot shot serial killer down in Queens. No one knows how he’s hiding his victims bodies. Apparently none have ever been close to being found.”

“And they want you to write the story on him?” Andy raised an eyebrow, always with the condescending tone.

“Well they heard about the whole Carlton Drake situation and decided I hadn’t been through enough trauma in my career.” You replied, earning a laugh from Dani but not Andy. You and Andy had already broken up by the time Carlton Drake contracted a symbiote and tried to kill you and Venom. You stopped him before he could hurt anyone and wrote a career defining article on his lethal human experiments. You managed to leave out all information regarding symbiotes from the article, so your secret was still safe. You were a fairly well known reporter since the incident and your next job was waiting for you in New York.

In the morning, You and Venom got on a plane and made your way to New York. Being on a plane with Venom turned out to be the equivalent to traveling with a toddler. You tried to sleep, but every two seconds you had to stop Venom from getting into trouble. She kept trying to open the window, even after you explained to her that everyone on the plane would die horrible death if the window were to open.

“Stop that.” You whispered when you noticed a black tendril creeping towards the window. The lady in the seat next to you shot me a look of confusion. You gave her a fake smile and turned back to the window, doing your best to conceal the small black tendril that was coming out of your body and fidgeting with the airplane window.

“We want it open.” Venom replied telepathically.

“Do you also want us to blow out of the plane and into space?” You said through my teeth.

“We didn’t anticipate that but it’d be appreciated.” Venom answered, making you groan. The rest of the plane ride followed in similar fashion.

Seven hours later, you arrived at the apartment building. You had never been to your dads apartment, you didn’t even know he had one. You wondered what happened to your childhood home as you looked around the place. The apartment wasn’t too small but not too big either. The rent was practically nothing compared to how expensive San Francisco was, and The Daily Bugle offered to cover your expenses until the story was done. You figured after some redecorating and moving in, it would make a fine new home.

The first seven days in the apartment went by smoothly. You unpacked, with little to no help from Venom, and set up the furniture. On the eight day, you sat on the couch, aimlessly flipping through channels in the TV when you had a thought.

“Oh shit.” You said out loud.

“What?” Venom, who was curly nestled around your neck like a neck pillow, asked.

“I forgot mail exists.” You frowned. “We better go check the mailbox before it overflows.”

You and Venom grudgingly walked to the mailboxes and back again. No one was around, so she manifested herself and rested on your shoulder as I looked through the mail.

“Oops. I grabbed someone else’s mail too.” You clicked your tongue when you read a strangers name off the envelope. “I gotta find them.”

“Let’s go.” Venom said and pulled you towards the front door.

“Sorry, babe. This is a me thing, not a we thing. You know I love you but I don’t want to scare our neighbors. Not yet anyway.” You reasoned. Venom grumbled and went back inside your body.

You checked the address of the envelope and discovered that it belonged to the apartment directly across from you.

You knocked on the door and patiently waited for someone to open it as you mindlessly cracked your knuckles. Just as you were about to walk away, the door opened.

“Hi, are you May Parker?” You asked right away. You looked up from the envelope and your face instantly flushed. The person staring back at you definitely wasn’t May Parker. It was a boy around your age, maybe a little younger. He had soft brown eyes and wavy brown hair. It was gelled back loosely and you could see the outline of soft curls. To your surprise, he was just as flushed as you were. You stared at each other for a moment, no one wanting to be the first to blink.

“Yea. I’m May Parker.” The boy said finally. He shut his eyes in embarrassment and shook his head.

“I mean, no I’m not. But that’s my Aunt. May is my Aunt but I’m not May. That’s my Aunt May. I’m her nephew…obviously. Aunt May is my Aunt May. I…what?” He stumbled over his words and somehow turned even redder. His blush reached all the way down his neck, to his blue jumper that read “Midtown Tech” in yellow letters. You recognized the name of one of the most prestigious high schools in New York, already impressed with your new neighbor.

“Well hello, not May Parker. I’m also not May Parker. But I seemed to forget that when I grabbed your mail this morning. Sorry about that.” You said sheepishly as you handed his mail to him. The boy rubbed the back of his neck as he looked at it and attempted to redeem himself.

“It’s not problem. She and I always forget to check the mail so you actually helped us, um, whoever you are.” He smiled weakly. His voice was cute. He had that Queens accent that the people of San Francisco lacked, for obvious reasons.

“Oh, right.” You laughed in embarrassment. “I’m Y/N L/N. I just moved here from San Francisco. I live across the hall.”

You pointed to the door behind you as if he didn’t know what “across the hall” meant. You didn’t know what was wrong with you. You were never this awkward.

His eyes lit up a bit once you told him where you lived.

“Really? I thought that smelly guy lived there.” The boy said and you stifled a laugh.

“That smelly guy was my father. He died a little while ago so I live there now.” You told him, malign the boys eyes widen. They were so brown. Like little pools of honey. Or little pools of the Hudson River. You had seen a million pairs of brown eyes before, but none like his. They were quite distracting to be honest.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry! I had. I had no idea-“ he began to frantically apologize but you cut him off.

“Don’t worry about it. We never got along. And you’re right, that man stank.” You chuckled. It was the first thing you said that felt like your old self. You hadn’t really talked to anyone since moving to New York, with the exception of Venom and the occasional phone call from Andy or Dani. You liked talking to this boy, though you still had no idea who he was.

“Oh thank God. I thought I screwed this up before it even went anywhere.” He immediately turned red when he heard his own words. You saw the regret in his eyes and decided to throw him a bone.

“Well it certainly can’t go anywhere until you tell me your name.” You flirted. Again, he relaxed. You felt a surge of confidence knowing he wanted this to go well.

“Parker. I’m Parker Peter. I mean, Peter Parker.” He fumbled over his words again, making you smile fondly.

“We like him. He’s cute.” Venom said telepathically. You looked down at my shoes and blushed, knowing you liked him too.

“And he looks delicious.” She added, ruining the moment.

“It’s nice to meet you Peter Parker.” You gave him your best smile. “I’m glad there’s someone my age around here. Everyone I’ve met so far is either an old bitty or a creepy uncle type.” You regretted it as soon as it left your mouth. You didn’t know what his sense of humor was like and he might not find you the slightest but funny. Andy always told you you were bad at telling jokes, and you feared he might be right.

Lucky for you, Peter burst out laughing.

“Ah. I’ve seen you’ve met Henry.” Peter pointed a finger down the hall. “Yeah, I’d stay away from him. He asked me if he could have pictures of my feet once. He said he’d “pay me handsomely” for it too.”

“Damn. So he beat me to asking you.” You pretended to be upset, which made Peter laugh again. The sound of his laugh made your heart pick up speed. You weren’t used to feeling like this. Boys rarely impressed you, Andy was just lucky you liked a man in uniform.

“Yeah. You better stay away from him.” Peter advised.

“It might be hard.” You clicked your tongue. “Our mailboxes are pretty close. I’ll make a mental note to never check my mail while wearing flip flops, though.”

Peter smiled at your joke. He had the kind of smile that you would make the person laugh just to see it again. It was brilliant.

“Well my mailbox should be directly above yours. So don’t worry, I’ll protect you.” He grinned, and you grinned back.

“My hero.” You gushed as you put your hands over your heart. The tips of his ears went pink, like he was shocked that you said that.

“I’m no hero.” He sounded almost panicked, like you touched a nerve or something.

“We’re hungry. We need to eat.” Venom interrupted abruptly, causing you to jump. Since Peter couldn’t hear her, he looked at you strangely, not knowing the cause of your sudden jolt.

“Sorry, I uh, I thought I saw a spider.” You lied.

“If there was a spider, we’d eat it. We need food. Now.” Venom demanded.

Peter looked up at his doorframe for the imaginary spider.

“Yeah, New York is full of them.” Peter said skeptically. “Not that full, though. And some spiders are nice. One might even call them friendly.”

“Right.” You laughed at his strange wording, unaware that you were both keeping a secret.

“Would…” Peter began but trailed off, seemingly mulling something over in his head. “Would you like to eat dinner with my Aunt and I? I remember when we first moved in, it took us a while to get into the swing of things and make dinner every night. If you like, you could join us. And, you know, we could get to know each other.” He offered. It all came out in one breath. You could tell he was nervous and that only drew you in more.

“I’d love to Peter.” You said, and he smiled in relief.

“Great.” He gave an awkward thumbs up. “We usually eat around six so maybe come around then? She’ll be so happy to meet you. She loves cooking and she always tries to get me to learn but I once burnt cereal and I still don’t know how.” Peter began to ramble. He cut himself off and shook his head again. “Sorry. I’m rambling.”

Then, you did something stupid. You put your hand on his arm like the dumb bitch you were. You barely knew this guy. Who the hell were you to touch him? He must’ve been thinking the same thing, since he instantly froze under your touch and stared at your hand on his arm.

“Don’t apologize. I can’t cook either. Unless you count making tater tots as cooking. Then I’m Gordon Ramsey.” You assured him, feeling him relax under your touch.

“You’re just gonna mention tater tots without warning us first? Our mouth is watering. Can we eat Peter?” Venom asked, making your eyes widen.

If it was socially acceptable to scream at your symbiote in public, you would’ve yelled “NO, WE CANNOT EAT PETER” from the top of your lungs. But since you didn’t want to scare Peter and the rest of the neighbors away, you merely smiled and made another mental note to smack the shit out of Venom later.

“I love that man. “Where is the lamb sauce?” Peter mimicked in a bad British accent. He had no right being as charming as he was.

“No no no.” You shook your head. “His best line is “I’ll get you more pumpkin and I’ll ram it right up your ass. Would you like it whole or diced?”. He’s said some pretty wild things but that one makes me cry.”

Peters laugh rang through the halls. To be the cause of that laugh was a feeling like no other. You stood there for a while, just looking at each other. His eyes grazed down your body, but not in a crude way. You berated yourself for not dressing better when going to meet the neighbors, clad in nothing but a grey hoodie and some leggings. Peter looked cute, but you had a feeling he always did. His jumper was pretty baggy and you could see a collared shirt poking out the top. He was dressed almost professionally and you found it incredibly endearing.

You wanted to know more about him. You wanted to know his secrets and his hobbies and what makes him itch. You wanted to see if he dresses this way on weekends too or what his summer clothes looked like. Your gawking was interrupted by Peters phone ringing. He broke out of his trance and answered it quickly.

“Hi, Mr. S. No I’m not busy. I mean, I’m super busy but I can totally make time for you. Yea, Happy talked to me. Okay. Okay. Where? Okay. See you in a bit.” Peter hung up and looked at you apologetically.

“That was my job. I have to run but I’ll be back in time for our dinner. I live at…you know where I live. I’ll see you then. Don’t be late.” Peter called as he ran down the hallway, towards the elevator.

“I won’t. See you later.” You called back.

You went back to your apartment and like a kid, broke out into a happy dance.

“Venom!! Did you see how cute he was?” You gushed. “And how funny he is? I have to get ready for tonight.”

Venom manifested and swirled around my arm.

“Someone has a crush.” Venom smirked. Well, as much of a smirk as she could muster with that huge mouth of hers.

“I don’t have a crush. I just think he’s cute okay?” You replied coyly. “Cute. And funny and sweet and charming and amazing. But that’s it.”

“We can feel your heart beat.” Venom reminded you. “It was going ten miles an hour. What would Andy say?”

You had been rummaging through your closet and stopped in your tracks. With Peters new inhabitance in your mind, you had forgotten all about Andy. You moved to New York to avoid his wedding and his moving on, and you might’ve succeeded.

“I don’t care what he’d say.” You decided. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

“But we want him to be.” Venom insisted. “We want him back, remember?”

“I don’t know what I want.” You answered honestly. “I just want to get ready for tonight.”

“Why are you getting ready now? You have 5 hours until you have to be there and it’s right across the hall.” Venom teased.

“Only 5 hours?” You sighed. “We better get moving.”

[write-a-bad-romance]

Theocona Hurt/Comfort Request

Thank you for the request @delicateikemenmemes​! And thank you for notifying me about the link. It’s working now!

Disclaimer: This fic deals with Covid-19 and health workers fighting against the pandemic. I mean no harm towards real-life health workers, their families, and everybody whose lives are directly affected by Covid-19. I pray that all of us stay safe and healthy, wherever we are.

"Why not look this way, darling? I know you've been dying to see me for a week~"

"Hell no," Theo directed his eyes to the steaming mug of coffee by the desk lamp. The truth was, he'd rather die than being caught blushing at the sight of his not-boyfriend after what seemed like forever. "As if I'd been looking forward to your perverted face."

"Wah, so mean." Arthur pouted, his movements looking sluggish due to poor connection. Behind him stood rows of drab navy blue lockers and what seemed like a long-unused water dispenser. "And after all the trouble I went through to get to you."

Theo understood what he meant. He imagined the hospital staff, young and old, taking turns to use the dim, cramped room to video call home. He was lucky Arthur still managed to call him from his apartment once in a while.

 Their calls often leave no room for....friskier activities. Arthur moaned about not being able to show how much he'd been missing "Little Theo" and other obscenities the Dutchman pretended not to hear.

 Because, really, this was enough.

"So I was saying," Arthur continued, completely ignoring Theo's perpetual frown. "This bloke came in with a snakebite from a cobra. So, naturally, the boy ran around trying to administer antivenom to this poor sap."

"Listen to yourself, sounding like the epitome of an empath," Theo commented dryly.

 "Oh, the story didn't end there." Arthur waved, his hand a static blur on screen. "The lass who nursed him told me the guy had apparently gotten drunk and tried macking on his pet cobra."

 Theo involuntarily snorted a laugh despite himself. It felt good, he had to admit.

 "Aw, look, you're laughing!" The criminally handsome doctor smiled. "You look positively lush when you're laughing."

 "Shut up." Theo snapped immediately. “That’s not funny.”

Arthur's laughter rang free, a welcome sound in the desolate locker room.

"Remember the old gentleman who came to the ER saying he desperately needed a sick leave letter because he wanted to go on a holiday in Santorini?”

 "Yeah, the sod who dumped his entire life story on you, what about it?" Theo could not help but notice the distinctive dip in Arthur's tone.

"Well, he suddenly messaged me saying he quit smoking after considering my advice," Arthur flashed a reassuring grin. "That's great! His mum is high-risk after-all."

 "Uh-huh." Theo nodded, taking a swig of his coffee, hoping to calm his nerves.

"Today, you see..." Arthur trailed off, his voice trembling. "Today, there was this sweet old lady."

Don't go there, Theo warned inside his head. They would always come to this point in each of their conversations lately, without fail.

But he'd rather be there and piece Arthur together again after he collapsed.

"I think I've told you that we'd let the patient record messages before they get strapped to a ventilator, yeah? And she, um." The usually vibrant young man stuttered to find the words. "We had to retake it several times because she kept forgetting what she wanted to say. I mean, we couldn't blame her and— and then she finally said she wanted to talk to her granddaughter one last time."

Stop. Theo wanted to scream before Arthur could finish his story. Don't—

Arthur took a long, deep breath before resuming. "My mate sent it to her daughter since they're living across the country. We dinna' replay it."

No matter how Arthur changed the way he described his ordeal at the hospital every time, everything sounded the same to Theo. 

It's hard. We know it's supposed to be hard. And it still pains me every single time.

"Dr. Newcomb... Old Simon, you remember. For once, he didn't yell at us when he saw us slumping down in the hallway gutted and all." Arthur babbled, trying to erase the apparent dejection in his voice. "But hey, there's no better way to teach us 'rookies' to 'toughen up' for the job. We signed for this. We've made our bed, and now we gotta lie in it."

Theo could hardly take it any longer.

"Sometimes, Theo, I...."

"Enough," Theo shut him down. "To hell with that old fart and everybody else who keeps telling you how to do your job." he snarled.

"Woah, I didn't mean—"

"Listen up here, Arthur." He knew that wasn't the point, but Theo couldn't care less. "I can't bullshit my way and tell you everything is fine. I can't fathom one bit how all of you manage out there. You hanging on despite all that hell outside, that's just—"

"Theo," Arthur tried to soothe the Dutchman.

"No, Arthur." Theo was, in fact, at a loss for words. He knew he was rambling at the top of his boiling head. What he wouldn't do to save Arthur from the brink, and this was what he resorted to. "I know I can't tell you to suck it up and go on like a robot, but for fuck's sake."

For your sake,

"But for fuck's sake, be a little more caring to yourself." Theo managed to scale his tone down a notch. "The last thing I want is seeing you broken."

"Theo—"

"When you pull through," It's an if, not a when. "We will meet again when you win."

"Theo?" Arthur called, his glasses reflecting the light of his screen. Theo was glad he didn't have to see the tears he knew were budding in the corner of the man's eyes.

"When this is all over," he sighed. "I promise I'll come see you."

This time, it did the trick. Arthur seemed to calm down, easing back into his chair. Theo wanted to believe Arthur’s mouth was crooking into a smile.

"That's awfully sweet of you." He finally spoke. "Thank you, Theo."

Theo couldn't help but smile back, even if only for a bit. "Graag gedaan."

But the moment was cut short when Arthur suddenly looked towards the direction of the door. "Ah, bollocks. My shift is starting. See you again, old boy?"

Theo put on his signature deadpan face. His fit had drained more energy than he thought. "Sure."

"Don't you dare mess with some other bird while I'm away!" Arthur waved. "Ciao!"

"I should be the one telling you that, klootzak," He bit back weakly. "Welterusten."

Theo took off his headphones and threw them on top of his Macbook. In the privacy of his room, the man planted his face onto his dry palms.

He wanted to curse at his own clumsiness. Out of desperation, he yelled at the man who deserved his harsh words the least. At least, not this moment.

His old self back then had been too engrossed in denial and childish comebacks to let the frivolous doctor into his heart. Theo regretted it. Regretted it all now that there was a genuine possibility of not seeing him again. 

And possibly for good.

Theo wasn't a religious man, but he prayed for his brother often, prayed for others but himself. Never himself. But as he pictured Arthur walking out in full gear made him think if he wasn't a little too selfish this time.

So, he prayed. He prayed despite the selfish masses out there who refused to listen. He prayed in the face of a wall too high to climb, amidst the rising numbers, against what seemed to be an inevitable downfall. 

He prayed for a tomorrow where he'd still find him there.

Stay safe because I want to be alive at the same time as you.

Notes:

*1 The cobra incident is a real-life story from Asha’s (ashavazesa) friend who’s a co-assistant doctor. I wrote it into my fic with permission.

*2 The part with the recording is also taken from real life. I referenced it from this article from The Harvard Gazette website, which I highly recommend reading. It’s very eye-opening and heartwrenching.

*3 The final line is taken from lovelysuggestions with very slight changes . Big thanks to Emma & Maria for the quote.

Personal Comments:

Theocona, eh??? Well this was quite the challenge since I expected writing mainly from Theo’s perspective because I thought I wouldn’t be able tonail Arthur’s character properly. Thankfully, I got some help from @ashavazesa​ so everything went smoother than I expected.

But to be honest, this fic was... very hard to write. Yeah, I wrote the entire thing out of my own free will but even then I needed to take breaks every now and then to ground myself.

A little bit of background: I have a dear friend who currently has to work mobile from town to town. She’s not a health worker, but the fact that she’s out there meeting so many different people makes me anxious. There’s not a day I don’t think about her. In fact, most people here have no choice but to work outside.

I can ramble all day long about the depressing state my country is in right now, but I think I’d rather spend my energy on something else.

Sorry for the sudden rant. Thank you so much for reading until the end. 

[mxliv-oftheendless]

The Mysterious Disappearance of Heather McMann: Q+A

Oh, what’s this? Why, it’s only the sequel to Heather’s Buzzfeed Unsolved episode! So if you’ll recall, last time we checked in on the Ghoul Boys Heather got her own Buzzfeed Unsolved episode (that’s the link to it right there). So one thing Ryan and Shane do after every episode is a Q+A session called the Postmortem, where they answer any questions and respond to any theories viewers may have. So naturally, I wanted to do a follow-up where questions about Heather were answered! Special thanks to @cosmicrealmofkissteria @ashestoashesvvi and @retronova for sending in questions and theories! Oh yeah, and you’ll want to stick around for the ending... ;)

Also: IT’S @ashestoashesvvi‘s BIRTHDAY!!! So in celebration, I officially dedicate this story to Ash as a birthday gift. Hope you enjoy!!! 

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The camera opens on Ryan and Shane who are sitting at their postmortem desk. Shane is on the left while Ryan is on our right.

“Hello and welcome to another addition of Buzzfeed Unsolved: Postmortem, a show where we answer your most pressing questions about the most recent episode of Buzzfeed Unsolved, which was Heather McMann.” As Ryan says her name, the camera cuts away to stock footage of a foot lying on a mortuary table, with the tag tied to its toe reading: POSTMORTEM: HEATHER MCMANN. Ryan continues as the camera cuts back to the two.

“All the questions we’re answering today came from you guys via our Buzzfeed Unsolved Facebook page and our Buzzfeed Unsolved Instagram page, as well as the video itself…”

“On BUN!” Shane joins in on saying this, while below them is the link: youtube.com/BuzzFeedUnsolvedNetwork. 

“Now this was a very interesting episode,” Ryan says as they pull out their phones. “I’m really interested to hear what people have to say. Especially because, as my research revealed, the KISS Army is very opinionated about some things.”

“Like what?” Shane asks interestedly.

“Uh… there’s this whole thing about how the current lead guitarist doesn’t deserve to wear the Spaceman makeup because he’s not the original Spaceman. Also apparently Paul Stanley is lip syncing because his voice is so horrible nowadays… their words, not mine.”

“Huh. Weird. I mean, in any fanbase, you’re bound to have opinionated people. It doesn’t mean they’re right, just…”

“Yeah. I have looked up footage of their most recent concerts, and Paul Stanley sounds fine. Like, for the record, I don’t think he’s lip syncing. Maybe his voice is just not what it used to be because of age.”

“Yeah,” Shane chuckles, “there is such a thing as the passage of time,”

Ryan snickers. “Exactly. Okay, let’s open up with this question from Gramtown…”

“Good ol’ Gramtown!” 

“This is from Ashes7Moria: #postmortem Heather McMann vanished and has been hanging out with Vinnie Vincent for the past 20 years. I’d love to know what exactly both of them have been up to. 👀👀👀” Ryan looks up at the camera. “Good theory… Actually this could very well be true because I don’t exactly know what Vinnie Vincent is up to, or even where he is now.” 

“How can you not know that?”

“Because he disappeared out of the public eye in the nineties. I think it was after a KISS Expo…”

“KISS has expos?”

“KISS has a lot of things, actually. But yeah, it was after a KISS Expo, and he just dropped off the Earth never to be seen again.”

“So yeah, this could be true.”

“Yeah, it could. It could also be not true. But who knows.”

Shane shrugs. “Who knows?”

“Also, good use of the emoji side eyes.”

Shane snickers. “I don’t think they’re having sex, though.” Ryan and Shane laugh.

“Oh my god, Shane,” Ryan snickers. “Good question, Ashes7Moria. Onto our next one. Shane?”

Shane looks down at his phone. “This one comes from YouTube, from r0cketr1de, with a zero and a one, who says: For the post mortem: Could KISS be covering up something terrible that she did? Her stage name WAS Black Dahlia. Maybe she started taking it too literally. #shaniac #loveyoutooryan” He looks up smiling at Ryan. “I swear I didn’t put that in there.”

“No, but you did totally pick that question just to poke fun at me.” Ryan sighs. “Anyway, that question…”

“That’s… wow. That’s pretty interesting.”

“It is a pretty interesting theory. We did make the connection of Black Dahlia in the video, if you’ll recall…”

The camera cuts away to the video footage:

did she have an onstage persona?

yeah, she did. hers was the Black Dahlia.

nice. reminds me of the murder.

it probably reminded a lot of people of the murder

Shane says, “It could be possible she had a little, ah, slip in her mental stability and just started killin’ a bunch of people.”

“I—” Ryan bursts out laughing. “Jesus Christ, man…”

“Hey, it’s possible!”

“I don’t think it’s possible. From what I could gather, Heather McMann doesn’t fit the profile of a would-be psychopath. And even if she was, she’s not someone like George Hodel.”

“Who knows, Ryan,” Shane smirks at him. “Maybe she was the one who really killed Elizabeth Short, and took on the name Black Dahlia as a little fun trademark.”

“That would only be possible if she was born in the early twentieth century, which she wasn’t. She’s not immortal.”

“Well some people on the Internet seem to think she is,” Shane laughs.

Ryan sighs and shakes his head, then turns back to the camera. “But anyway, yeah, I don’t think that’s possible. That’s a fun theory though…”

“Like something from a Holly Horsely novel.”

“Oh yeah, we haven’t heard from her in a while!” Ryan exclaims. “I’ve actually missed her short stories!”

Shane points at the camera. “Holly, if you’re doing all right, let us know. We’d love to hear from you again.”

“Okay, next question. This one comes from Instagram, from phantomofthepark, who says: I still think she was only around with the band cause she slept her way in and they tossed her out when she was all used up.”

The background music stops. Ryan and Shane look at each other, then at the camera.

“Well that’s bullshit,” Shane says.

“Yeah, that’s pretty bullshit. She was a very good player. There’s concert footage of her playing with the band.”

“This just sounds like he’s trying to find a reason that makes sense to him as to why a woman would be playing rock music.”

“It really does.”

“Rolling Stone guy who said this was the end of KISS? Is that you?”

Ryan laughs. “Oh my god, what if it is?”

“If it is… who’s laughing now?” Shane shrugs, grinning at the camera. “They’ve been around for almost fifty years. Get rekt, sir.”

“Also, you’re wrong. Women can play rock music. Have you ever heard of Joan Jett?”

“Oh, I love me some Joan Jett!”

“Yeah, you’re also disregarding all the stuff I said about Paul Stanley wanting her to stay. He wanted her to stay in the band—all of them did, actually—so it doesn’t make sense for them to, as you say, toss her out when she was all used up.”

“Yeah. This is a dumb theory. I’m ruling this out.”

“Yeah, this theory is ruled out. Next question.”

Shane looks down at his phone. “Let’s get a question from Facebook, from Shandi Strutter, who says: For the postmortem: Have you ever wondered if Heather might be dead? There’s no evidence to prove that she isn’t, especially if no one has heard from her since she disappeared and she hasn’t been found. #postmortem #boogara #ghostsarerealfyoushane.”

“Okay,” Shane laughs. “We’re even now. Are you proud of yourself?”

Ryan grins at him. “Yes, very proud.” He looks back at the camera. “To answer your question, Shandi…”

“Which by the way is a great name. I’d name my future kid Shandi.”

“It’s from a KISS song, actually.”

“Oh, sweet!”

“Anyway, that is a very good question. It did cross my mind that maybe Heather was murdered. Actually, it was going to be one of the theories that ended up in the video. But when I tried to find evidence of this theory being legitimate, because I try to make most of my theories legitimate, all I could find were a few tabloid magazines with miniscule articles about it. By the time the articles were written, Heather was already out of the public eye for some time.”

“I mean, have they ever talked about Heather in the past tense?”

“Who, KISS?”

“Yeah, KISS. Like Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons, have they ever talked about her in the past tense?”

“I mean, they have…” Ryan looks up at the camera. “This case is a really weird one because it’s the early 80s, everyone’s looking at KISS to see what quote-unquote “mistake” they’ll make next, so there’s going to be a lot of gossip magazines circulating rumors. You have to take a lot of the information surrounding this case with a grain of salt. Also because no body was found, we can’t safely say that she was murdered.”

“We also can’t safely say she wasn’t.” Shane points out.

“That too. Good question.”

“Alright, onto our last question of the day before we get to the Hot Daga!”

Ryan visibly rolls his eyes and audibly sighs, then looks down at his phone. “This is from Gramtown, from…” he reads the name and wheezes in laughter. “… from thayerfucker69.”

Shane starts to laugh. “thayerfucker69… I love that.”

“thayerfucker69 says: #postmortem Let’s say KISS actually are intergalactic beings with superpowers. I’ve heard Paul can predict the future, like something with his eye. What if the song Detroit Rock City was prediction? What if she was killed there and the band somehow knew something was going to happen, even before she joined?”

Shane grins in amusement as Ryan reads. “I mean…” he says when Ryan finishes, “that is a pretty interesting idea.”

“I mean you are taking into consideration an Internet theory perpetuated, probably by the same people who religiously watch Ancient Aliens.”

“Surprised you’re not a member of that crowd, Ryan,”

“I don’t watch Ancient Aliens!”

“I don’t believe that.”

“I—hey, fuck you, man.”

Shane laughs.

“Anyway…” Ryan turns back to the camera. “It would be cool if that theory was true, that KISS really are intergalactic superpowered beings… but I just don’t think it is. If they really were intergalactic superpowered beings, it just seems really outta left field for them to start a rock band on Earth.”

“I do think it would be kinda fun to see the future, though. But just for like, innocent things, like to see if my mom’s going to survive a life-threatening illness or what I’m going to get for lunch tomorrow.”

Ryan looks at him with an odd look. “… Those two are both very different from each other.”

Shane shrugs. “I dunno…” He starts laughing. “Anyway… fun theory. Would be a nice fanfic.”

“Yeah, I can see that existing in fanfic, but not in real life.”

“Like aliens building the Great Pyramids.”

“Fuck you, Shane.” Shane laughs. Ryan shakes his head at him and turns back to the camera. “Well, that does it for this episode of BuzzFeed Unsolved: Postmortem. Be sure to watch the next episode this Friday and send in your questions to the Buzzfeed Unsolved Facebook page, the Instagram page, and comment on the video directly and maybe you’ll be featured on the next postmortem.”

Ryan sighs as the music fades away to more dramatic music. “And with that…” he says, turning to Shane, who has his phone out.

Shane begins to read. “Our weekly Q+A concluded, I now welcome you to the part of the show we call the Hot Daga, the Hot Dog Saga commissioned by—”

“Wait,”

The voice comes from off camera. The music cuts off and Shane stops reading as he and Ryan look up. “What?” Shane asks.

“There’s one more question for you to read.”

Ryan frowns. “But I thought that was all the questions we were gonna do.”

“No, there’s one more. It’s a surprise question.”

“Oohh, a surprise question?” Shane looks intrigued as a woman comes up to them and goes to stand beside Ryan.

“Open your phone,” she instructs, “and go to Instagram. It’s a private post.”

“Okay…” Ryan does as instructed and looks down at his phone as the woman leaves the shot. His eyes widen. “Oh my God…”

“What?”

“It’s from… Okay, I’ll just read it out loud.”

Ryan sits forward and starts to read. “For the postmortem: Hi guys! This is Heather McMann. Excuse the username, trappinguy, I’m borrowing my nephew’s Instagram account for this. You did a great job! Very thorough research, Ryan! Yes, there was a lot of tabloid crap surrounding my argument with Paul, but Paul is right in saying it had nothing to do with What Happened. I will say that I couldn’t have been dating Paul at this time, as the papers insisted—he was in another relationship and I would never do anything to wreck that. Also I was disappointed that you didn’t include the story of how when the band was in Paris on the Unmasked tour Ace made out with Eric after another guy tried to hit on Eric. But I suppose it doesn’t have anything to do with why I disappeared, so I understand. Great video, looking forward to more BuzzFeed Unsolved! #postmortem #boogaraalltheway Cheers, Heather.”

There is silence as Ryan finishes reading. He stares at the phone for a second, then looks up at Shane. “… It’s Heather McMann.”

Shane stares at the phone. “… No way. This isn’t real.”

“I dunno… She did mention the thing about Paris. And the relationship thing. I didn’t even know Paul was in a relationship during this time.”

“… Damn. Now I actually don’t want to do the Hot Daga.” Ryan bursts out laughing, while Shane looks incredibly serious. “How am I gonna follow this?”

Ryan looks at the camera, laughing. “Well, Heather McMann, if this is really you, congratulations. You have single-handedly made Shane Madej unwilling to give us another episode of the Hot Daga. Nice job.”

“Yeah, great job! You are easily the most mysterious woman I’ve ever encountered in my life!”

“Will we get another episode of the Hot Daga next week?”

“Yes.” Ryan visibly sighs in disappointment. Shane points at the camera. “Will we see more adventures with Maizy and her friends? Tune in next week to find out on BUN!”

[cheeseeatingtrashmonster]

Be My Lois Lane (Marichat May) Chapter 5: Baking

I swear I’m still writing this. Chapter 6 is almost done, so hopefully that will be up soon!

Ao3

-

Marinette Dupain-Cheng woke up with a plan.

And a cat trying to sleep over her mouth and nose.

But she had a plan.

"I have a plan," she told Nadja the moment she found her in the break room that morning.

"That's good. Go do it."

"You don't want to hear what the plan is?"

"Trust your instincts. Go follow that lead."

Marinette thanked her and returned to her desk, the buzz of determination and a lead settling into her bones.

Or maybe she'd made the coffee too strong that morning.

Marinette dove down the rabbit hole, searching every social media site she could think to search. She had forty names on her list, eleven with date, time, and location written next to them when Alya interrupted her.

"You ready?"

Marinette blinked up at her. It took a minute for her to surface from the deep research. "Ready for what?"

"...Lunch? We were gonna go to your place and dote on Shadow and come up with a plan about your little identity problem?"

"Lunch? But it's only-"

Alya held out her phone, the clock displaying in harsh black and white. "It's only lunchtime?"

"Oh." Marinette looked down at her work scattered across her desktop. "Can you give me five minutes? I just need to wrap a bit of this up."

Alya laughed. "Sure." She grabbed a chair from an empty desk and settled next to Marinette to read on her phone until she was done. "I didn't expect to have to do this yet."

"Do what?” Marinette asked, typing quick goodbyes to all her open conversations.

“Have to drag you away from work to eat after you lose track of time.”

Marinette bit her lip and let what Alya said roll around her mind while she finished closing out conversations and locking her computer.

“I guess… a project is a project? And I’ll always get lost in a project?” Marinette said. She locked her computer and stood.

Alya linked arms with her. "Mmm, I dunno. I think that maybe, just maybe... you're starting to like being in my department."

"But fashion!" Marinette whined.

"You get more than enough fashion spending every spare second creating for your online boutique."

"I have to have fresh stuff!"

Marinette and Alya had the same debate about the boutique every few days. Alya insisted Marinette didn't need to hide her identity up to the last second, that she didn't have to fear big names like Gabriel now that she had a line of her own. Marinette felt it would be safer to wait until she had a physical store from which to sell. They both had good points, but Alya was pretty sure Marinette's were backed by a little too much fear and self-doubt.

"What are you doing?" Alya asked when Marinette started pulling things out of her pantry, ignoring the lunch she had placed on the table a moment before.

"I need to bake."

"You need to eat. Why would you need to bake?"

"For the people."

Alya stood and took a mixing bowl out of Marinette's hands, holding her wrists (gently) so she couldn't dive back into baking preparations. "What people, M?"

"The people with stories."

"Marinette?"

Her eyes were on the container of sugar, squinting at how much she had left. "Mmm?"

"Wanna come back to earth for a minute and tell me what's going on?"

A second later, Marinette's eyes lost their hyper-focused look and she stopped straining to get out of Alya's hold and reach for the container of eggs. "I'm going to interview as many people who have seen, talked to, fought, or been saved by Chat Noir as possible."

Alya followed the logical trail from there. "And you want to bake something for these people?"

Marinette nodded.

Alya sighed. "Let's get one batch started so it can bake while we eat, then we'll do a few more before we go back."

-

"I should save some cookies for Marc and Nath, right?" Marinette asked as they cleaned up while the last batch was in the oven. "I'll be having as many interviews at the park across the street from them as I can, and they like to refuse to let me pay for refills."

"Absolutely. And maybe if you have any left over, you have a best friend going on another plane ride soon?"

"Where are you going?"

"There's rumors of a new superhero in Sydney. We're collecting a little more info before shipping me off, but this one sounds promising."

"As soon as you know your departure time, I'll have a few things ready to go with you." Marinette leaned over and gave her a kiss on the cheek. "Gotta make sure you're well-fed when you're away from me."

"You're the sweetest. That's probably why your baking is so good."

"Or, you know, growing up in a bakery."

-

Marinette took her basket of cookies to Marc and Nath's cafe, The Talon. They agreed to let her leave the majority of the cookies behind the counter, taking a neatly packaged few out to each interview. She sat down, prepared her phone's voice recording app, and opened her new birthday present notebook.

"Are you the reporter who wanted to know about Chat Noir?"

Marinette smiled and stood, extending her hand to the woman. She looked to be in her mid-thirties and had brought two young children with her. "Yes, I'm Marinette. You must be Anna."

While her children played in the park, Anna told Marinette the story of how Chat Noir had saved her. It was a very similar story to her own. Grabbed by a supervillain, held hostage on a rooftop, and Chat Noir tried to talk the villain down.

"Chat Noir was still just a rumor at the time," she said. "I couldn't really see him, so I thought it was just some guy trying to help. Then the guy who took me held up his laser-blasting thing and I ducked. Chat Noir yelled some strange word. I heard some kind of... magical sound."

"Do you remember what the word was?" Marinette asked. She added to her notebook, Chat Noir might have magic beyond his baton.

"No, sorry. I might recognize it if I heard it again, though."

Marinette nodded. "What happened after that? What did you see next?"

"When I looked up, the gun was gone, the villain was face down on the roof, and Chat Noir was using zip ties to secure him to a pipe." She looked over at where her children were playing. "He saved me, and my children still have a mother because he was there."

Marinette smiled. "I'm so glad."

"He stayed with me until I was calm. He went and found my purse when I said I had dropped it. He walked with me to the police- well, he walked with me until we could see the building, then waited nearby until I was inside. He showed up on my walk home from work the next night. He didn't come over or say anything, but he made sure I saw he was nearby. He showed up most nights for a week or two. I felt safe again because he went out of his way."

Marinette looked down at her list of questions. That was quite a different picture than the flirty cat from the phone call last night or the goof who offered a supervillain a scarf in exchange for his hostage.

"Do you have anything else you'd like to say about him?" she asked, surfacing from her own thoughts.

"I don't know why he's here, or what his ultimate goal is, but I'm so glad he's here. Whatever this city will face in the future, we'll be okay because we have him on our side."

-

The rest of the interviews took a couple of weeks. Nath started complaining that he was going to get fat if Marinette kept giving them cookies. Marinette replied that she was going to vibrate out of her skin if he kept stopping to visit her with refills of her favorite coffee order between interviews.

"That was the last one!" she said, flopping dramatically against the counter in front of Nath.

He nudged her out of the way and started cleaning the counter, shooting her an annoyed glance. "You really think that was the last person in the city to have encountered Chat Noir?"

"No, not by a long shot," she said. She stepped behind the counter to grab one of the leftover packages of cookies for herself. "But forty-seven people is more than enough. I've put out a couple articles of the more dramatic stories of being saved already, ones with a couple witnesses to corroborate. Now I'll write something about the patterns in the stories, what's known about him, how he acts, stuff like that."

"Uh-huh. And after that?"

She slumped and opened the package of cookies. "After that, maybe he'll like my writing so much he'll let me interview him?"

Nath patted her on the shoulder and stole a cookie. "Good luck with that."

-

Marinette was walking home at sunset (with one hand on the can of pepper spray in her pocket), a little too full of cookies to be seriously considering a real dinner, when she saw something move in the shadows ahead of her.

She stared at the darkness for a minute but nothing could be seen. "There's no one there," she muttered to herself.

She had just started walking again when the shadows slid again and formed into a person.

"Okay, back off, you-"

"Hey! Hey! You can put that away. I was just going to offer an escort home. You look a little nervous."

The fact that Chat Noir was standing in front of her finally registered. She blushed and shoved the pepper spray back into her pocket. "Sorry about that."

Chat shrugged and held out his arm. "I'm glad you're doing something to feel safer. So, how about that escort?"

She linked her arm through his. "Sounds nice."

Marinette watched Chat Noir out of the corner of her eye as they walked. "You do this a lot, huh? Walk home anyone who looks nervous or like they're in danger?"

He smiled. "I'd heard you were asking around about me."

"I'll figure you out, Kitty."

It was Chat's turn to blush, just enough that she could see the pink under his mask in the dying light.

“I have to ask that you not refer to me as ‘Kitty’ in your articles.”

“Will you give me a quote in exchange for that?” she asked. She hoped the teasing smirk she shot him let him know she would respect his wishes whether he did or not.

“Sure. Here’s a quote. ‘If the world were flat, I would knock all the bad guys off the edge.’”

She stopped walking, a look of confusion taking over.

“You… what? Why? What does that even mean?”

“I… you know… like- like cats? They knock stuff off of tables? And I’m trying to help the city, so bad guys…”

He trailed off, a blush rising on his cheeks again.

“That was awful.” Marinette laughed. “I’ll skip the quote, but I’ll leave out any nicknames, too.”

They had reached the front of her apartment building and stood just outside the light shining through the glass front doors.

“And I’m still thinking of a new nickname for you, Princess.”

She laughed again. “I’m sure you’ll come up with something.”

He took her hand from his arm and kissed it with a bow. “Stay safe, Marinette.”

He started backing away, pulling out his baton and looking at the surrounding buildings for a good place to climb.

“Oh, wait!” Marinette said. Chat stopped. “I wanted to show you.” She pulled the notebook he had given her out of her bag. “I hope you don’t mind, but I decorated it a little.”

She held out the notebook. It was covered in ladybug stickers.

Chat reached out one claw to trace the biggest ladybug in the center.

He didn’t say anything, but the smile he wore was brilliant.

So brilliant that she didn’t see the confusion in his eyes.

[kassilovesr5]

You’re My Music- (Chapter 43) SCANDAL

“Excuse me… Ma’am…Um hello.”

“I’m sorry what?”

“Sorry sir the bathrooms are around the corner and to your right.” Jackson piped in behind me.

“Thanks.” A middle aged bald man wearing a green suit shirt gave me a condescending nod and followed the way Jackson’s hand pointed him.

“Whoa! Earth to Rian, anyone home?” Jackson dramatically waved his hands in front of my face.

“Sorry I just have a lot on my mind.” I said shrugging in angst. I couldn’t keep my mind on work for one second. The coffee shop was extremely slow for a Tuesday morning and I was drifting.

“Anything you want to talk about? Some tea you want to spill? How is that boy you dumped?” Jackson was the only person I really enjoyed working with.

“I didn’t dump him, it was comp-”

“I know it was complicated—aren’t relationships always!”

“And what do you know I haven’t heard about any boys on your end.”  

The coffee shop door swept open and Rocky walked in.

“Ugh yes, your hot friend is here.” Jackson said under his breath. I laughed and shoved Jackson to the side of the counter.

Rocky walked up and put his elbows down and his chin in them. I mimicked him and got face to face with him my elbows parallel to his.

“What’s up?” I tilted my head and cracked a smile. He cracked a similar half smile.

“I was bored so I thought I would come visit my favorite barista.” We both stood up.

“You come all this way just to see me?” Jackson gushed. Jackson set an iced americano on the counter.  

“You remember my drink and everything thanks man!” Rocky put his hand up for a high five, but a disappointed Jackson just cringed and walked to the back room.

“So, what do I owe you?” Rocky asked fumbling with his wallet.

“On the house.”

“Uhh…” He sighed. “What did I do to deserve you!”

“I’m just in my everlasting quest to feed your coffee addiction.” I said half chuckling. Rocky put his hand on top of mine on the counter and gave it a squeeze.

“Ri, I love you! I’m going to use the bathroom quick.” Rocky set down his coffee and walked around the corner to the restrooms.

“That man just keeps getting more gorgeous.” Jackson said.

“Well I hate to shatter your dreams, but that man is straight and too old for you.”

“Oh, trust me I know he’s straight, he is extremely into you.”

If I had been drinking something I would most likely would have expelled it from my mouth

“Excuse me what? You think Rocky is into me?”

“Yea I always see the ways he interacts with you, it’s right under your nose. He practically professed his love for you.”

“He professed his love for coffee. You are seriously out of it, we’re just friends.”

“You’re too close to the situation to realize it, but your best friend is in love with you trust me. Maybe you have some feelings for him too and that’s what’s really upsetting you.”

“Trust me I am not in love with…ROCKY!”

I jumped as Rocky came back around the corner.

“Dudeeeeee you have to look at this!” Thankfully Rocky was distracted with something more pressing. Rocky showed me his phone lit up with a tweet from the celebrity gossip account: “LA Tonight!” The tweet read “RIKER LYNCH’S EX-GIRLFRIEND PREGNANT!! CLICK THE LINK TO GET ALL THE DETAILS ON THIS PREGNANCY DRAMA!”

My breath got caught in my throat and my jaw dropped. This was the first leak of the news and the first we had heard from Estella in weeks.

“What is the video?” I asked frantically.

“I don’t know I haven’t looked.” Rocky tapped on the link and opened a YouTube video.

“Jackson, I think I’m going to take my break now.” I said already undoing my apron and hanging it on the hook.

“Do you girl.” Jackson shrugged and went back to cleaning the espresso machine. I ran around the corner to Rocky and pulled him towards a small table. We sat down and clicked play on the video.

I anxiously listened to a blonde girl flip out about Estella being pregnant and spew a bunch of twisted details about her life. What really grabbed me was the first mention of Riker’s name.

     “Estella has confirmed her ex Riker Lynch is the father. She told LA Tonight:Her tone switched when she started using the quotes from Estella.

     ”I am quite nervous for the future and for single motherhood. Riker has not been supportive and has rejected that he is the father.

At that point I quit listening. My mind wondered from his screen to processing all of what had been said and what was happening. My mind was a cluster of nothing until Rocky started using a number of expletives. My vision was clouded until I focused on the screen. There was a number of gossip news companies that were tweeting about the incident all claiming to have a different inside scoop. Another in particular caught my attention.

MUSICIAN RIKER LYNCH CHEATING SCANDAL flashed across the screen.

“What the hell!” I reached across and tapped the link on his phone and he didn’t have a say otherwise

           “You all may remember the lovely relationship that fans coined RiStella well it turns out that RiStella may not have been the dream love we all remember.”

           Pictures of Riker and Estella when they were dating showed up on the screen and a big broken heart was stamped over the picture as the gossiper talked about the demise of their relationship.

            “Estella told Celeb Weekly ‘The relationship Riker and I had was sweet at the beginning I started to think he was the one until I found he was cheating on me.’”

            The quotes appeared in large black letters over a blue background on the screen.

           “‘The girl he was cheating on me with tracked me down physically assaulted me. Riker then dumped me for her and until he found out I was pregnant and has been trying to cover everything up. He’s completely shut me out and refuses that he is the father.’” The celeb gossiper read.

           “How do you guys feel? Were you a RiStella fan and are you shocked with the news of Estella being pregnant? Let us know in the comments below!”

I buried my hands in my face and knocked my head against the desk. A few seconds later the clatter of a mug sat made noise in front of my face. Jackson set down a mug with steaming liquid in front of me.

“B, it sounds like you’re going to need this.” He said cringing and stepped away slowly.

I took a sip of the steaming chai latte and took a breath. I couldn’t deal with this. I didn’t have the emotional stability I was already at a downwards slope.

“Um Jackson?” I voiced.

“Yea?” he called from behind the counter.

“Is there anyone in here?” I stood up and checked for myself as well.

“Nope still dead.”

“AHHHHHHHHHHGGG.” I screamed.

“Feel better?” Rocky chuckled a little placing a hand on my side.

“This. Isn’t. FUNNY!” I emphasized funny like I was about to snap. I sat back down and buried my head in my hands. “I’m sorry.” I apologized.

“Look Rian it’s been dead all day and you only have two hours of your shift left. I can cover you!” Jackson called.

“Thanks.” I smiled lightly at him. I brought my cup up to the counter and ruffled his curly brown hair. “You’re sure?”

“Of course! Get out of here.”

**

I opened the door and met a gathering of pillows and blankets.

“Whoa what’s all this?” I asked the body behind the pillows. A blanket slipped from his hands. I reached down and grabbed it before he did.

“I thought you were at work?” he responded moving past me to get to get outside. I followed him with the blanket he dropped.

“I got off early, I was a little stressed and it was super slow.”

“You saw all the gossip articles I’m guessing.” He mindlessly responded stuffing some of the blankets and pillows into his car never making contact with me. He seamlessly grabbed the blanket from my hands and stuffed it in as well.

“I did. Are you okay?” Riker slammed the car door and stood up walking towards the house.

“I didn’t realize it mattered how I feel.”

“You’re kidding me, right?” Riker swiveled around and glared at me. His hair was a scrunched mess his eyes were red and droopy with bags under them. I wondered how much he’d slept the night before. “I get that you’re stressed. Maybe you should just cool it for a bit thing will die down.”

“Yea uh…avoiding problems is your thing. I need to handle this.” He turned around and stumbled back into the house.

“What are you even doing?” I followed after him. He was growing aggressively annoyed.

“I don’t think I should stay here. I thought I’d might go slum it at the folks’ place for a bit.”

“You know you don’t have to do that.”

“I don’t know how it’s going to look if people find out I’m still living with my ex-girlfriend.”

“Why does it matter what people think? Just let this all blow over it’ll be okay.”

“I can’t just sit here and let Estella ruin my career. I have an interview with celeb weekly tomorrow.” He sounded exhausted and agitated. I don’t think he was making the soundest decisions.

“Riker you shouldn’t just fight fire with fire!”

“YOU DON’T GET TO TELL ME WHAT TO DO. I THOUGHT WE ALREADY HAD THIS CONVERSATION.” He yelled in the middle of the living room. I saw him regain his cool and shake away the urge to explode. “I’m going to my parent’s place to get some space,” he started. “Please do not follow me.” He said in a low almost whisper. He grabbed his keys from the shelf leaning against the stairs and walked assertively out the door. 

Reade more of You’re My Music: Here

[thenickelportrust]

Sorry, it's Finley anon from earlier here. I know I requested a Finley kiss short earlier but like, I'm curious about V now? Sorry to be a nuisance! I'm just so.. I love every love interest in this game so much.

And, anon, this one has also been sitting in my inbox since the beginning of time and I apologize for that as well but, y’know, today may just be your lucky day because I am answering both of these right now!!! (Now that I can get back to actually writing shorts! :D)

And please know- you are not a nuisance at all!! I love all of the asks and request I get because it’s honestly so astounding and amazing to know that someone else also loves these characters like I do and wants to know more about them!! Even beyond that I simply never mind stuff like this- at all! So please know- you are not a nuisance at all and it makes me super super super happy to know that you love these characters, too!! 

Other rambling aside- here’s some V! (Since you didn’t request a specific V I just went ahead and went with Vega- since the last V short was Vincent so I flipped a coin between Vera and Vega- so I hope that’s alright!)

(Also, same deal, an example of a first kiss, but not the first kiss because of spoilery reasons.)

“I just want it on the record that I do not, nor will I ever, condone this idea at all.” The wind brushes over your skin- it’s cool, near freezing, in fact, but you don’t feel the chill wrapped in your jacket. Still, you pull it tighter around yourself, almost habitually, and glance to the side at your wolfishly grinning companion.

“And yet here you are.” They seem to have no apparent problem with your reluctant whining, simply slinging an arm around your shoulder heavily, leaning into your side as they twirl a pair of bright silvery keys around their index finger with lazy accuracy.

“Not entirely by choice.”

“Oh, come now, darling.” You can feel Vega’s bouncing laugh against you. “Let’s not play ourselves. If that were true then you simply would have refused to come along. And yet, I repeat, here you are.” They catch the keys in their gloved palm, letting their wrist drop as they present them to you freely. “So tell me, if you aren’t here for this- then why else would you have followed me so readily?”

“Morbid curiosity.” You deadpan, and for a moment your mind brushes away the ridiculousness of this situation, and focuses instead on something so mundane that it almost seems odd in and of itself. The wind picks up again- and you wonder if Vega is cold- after all, while you brought a warm coat they seem perfectly content to freeze in a green t-shirt and not-very-warm-looking leather jacket- and then you wonder why it is that’s the thing your brain decides to focus on when you’re about to carjack one of Nickelport’s more infamous villains. “But I’m starting to remember what happens to cats when they’re curious.”

“Then it’s a good thing you’re not a cat, dear.”

“I sure as hell am starting to feel like one, though.”

“More of a fox, if you ask me.”

“Not the time.”

Vega rolls their eyes dramatically, snatching the keys back up in their hand- how the hell did they even get those, anyway? Vega’s hand slips from your shoulders, and they saunter confidently towards the door of the bright red luxury car- a color about as obnoxious as its owner, and the person about to steal it from said owner. “You’re far too cautious, sweetheart, would I really let anything bad happen?”

“No, you’d instigate it.”

Vega laughs again, far too loudly, in fact. Wincing, your eyes skitter about the empty streets with hurried, fearful glances. “Vega, please, can’t we just-…” But they’ve already got the door open, waving one hand forward to the seat with a flourish and that same sly grin. “I’m not driving that thing.”

“Perhaps not,” Vega chuckles again, “But then would you rather I take the wheel?”

“I’d rather we get out of here before anything bad shows up- or anyone.” You turn around, suddenly feeling as if that cold wind were a warm breath on the back of your neck. 

“Then we have quite the suitable getaway car right here, darling.”

“Not funny.”

“I did not mean it to be.” Vega sighs and lets the door fall closed with a thud that feels like a punch to the gut, you take a step back habitually. 

The jacket is already about as tight around you as it possibly could be, yet you still try to pull it even tighter. You eye the shadows that creep along the corners of tall buildings, trailing their sharp edges to the roofs where unseeable things seem to flit in and out of your sight, hiding behind quickly folded curtains, obscuring piercing eyes that send shudders down your spine. “Can we please just leave?”

You nearly jump when you feel warm hands on the side of your face- your head is tilted down from the rooftops to stare at Vega- and you can read the disappointment on their face, but it seems buried under a careful consideration with which they scrutinize you. Finally, Vega releases a breathy laugh, they pat the side of your cheek, “You really needn’t be so dreadfully fearful, dear. I can promise that nothing is to happen to you. Not while I’m around.”

And despite it being Vega, of all people, there’s an assured honesty to their voice that almost makes you believe them. A solemn promise that seems to shave off the sharp edge of fear. But then again, it is Vega.

Another wistful sigh, and after a moment’s hesitation, their hands slip from your face. “But so be it, this was not meant to cause you distress, rather- to alleviate that which you were already feeling, and so I suppose I’ll simply have to come up with some other scheme, now won’t I?” And while you may not have fully believed their previous promise, something about that sly, roguish grin, the cunning shine to their eyes, and the fact that it is, once again, Vega that’s telling you this- you wholeheartedly believe this one.

“Thank you.” But that’s a thing to worry about later, as of right now- you just want to leave. You feel Vega slip their arm through yours, grinning just as proudly as they did while leading you here when they guide you away from the death-trap-waiting-to-happen. “Wait- what about the car?”

“I suppose that’s no longer our problem, is it?” Vega shrugs loosely. “At the very least I must give them some trouble finding it, mustn’t I?”

As long as the chances of you dying are minimal, you suppose you’ll let it be. “Say, Vega… Why did you do all this, anyway? I didn’t exactly ask you to…”

“Hm?” They seem surprised by the very question, “Well, they hurt you- didn’t they? I simply aided where I could- and since you did say you wanted to get back at them, I thought perhaps you might want to partake in a little well-meaning revenge, too!” Well-meaning revenge…? Does such a thing… exist…?

“Yeah, sure, but… I dunno, I thought it was gonna be with my article- not, y’know, hijacking their car.”

“Oh? Is that so? Well, I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Uh oh. You don’t like that new smile of theirs.

“Uh,” You try to change the subject, or at least think of something to interrupt whatever it is they’re now scheming, “Ok, but… why do you want to help, anyway?”

This is, apparently, such a shocking question that it requires Vega to stop so suddenly that they nearly yank you back in the process- despite their hands still slipping from where they were linked around your arm and instead placing both hands over their heart as if you’d wounded them there. “Oh dear! You truly can’t tell?”

“I- uh- I mean-” You scratch the back of your neck, did you say something wrong? “No…?”

Vega, just as quickly, turns from an expression of pure shock to barking laughter, at that point your face is cupped once more between their hands- the black felt of their fingerless gloves is soft against your cheeks, while their fingers are warm. “You’re a reporter, darling, you read people for a living- surely you know what it is I feel for you?”

“You’re… you’re really not the easiest to read, Vega.”

Another breathy laugh, this one lower, rumbling and amused- like a cat’s purr. “Well, then, perhaps I should give you a direct quote for the papers.” Vega tilts your head down until, temple-to-temple, they can whisper in your ear, “You see, dear, I am entirely infatuated with you.” 

“You’re-” You’re cut off when Vega slips away from your ear, and in a moment you feel Vega’s lips-

Pressed against the bridge of your nose.

They pull back with that same wolfish grin, while you’re left feeling enough heat pooling in your cheeks to make you forget just about entirely about that cold wind. “Uh… You… Um…”

There’s that purring laughter again, “Yes, darling?”

And just like before, you mind decides to detach itself from reality. Though unlike before- instead of thinking some crazy, or noticing something irrelevant, you find yourself doing something so insane that you’re fairly sure you’ve been spending far too much time around Vega.

You grab the sides of their jacket- and you kiss them.

[backstorywithdanalewis]

Assault on Democracy Back Story with Dana Lewis podcast link: https://www.buzzsprout.com/1016881/7253866

Dana Lewis - Host: (00:00) A general thought that these people are fringe and, you know, crazy and live up in a forest somewhere. I mean, it's obviously much more serious than that and much more serious cost. Dana Lewis - Host: (00:13) We are seeing the cost of underestimating these groups now that are being called to the street by Trump. Kellie Carter Jackson: (00:19) Yeah. These, I think these groups have never really been Fringe That is what to me is most terrifying is that this group is made up of people who are educated, who have jobs, who have careers, who have families and thought that what they were doing was acceptable. If not necessary. Dana Lewis - Host: (00:42) Hi everyone. And welcome to backstory based in London. I'm Dana Lewis. What madness is unfolding in America? An American president has launched an all out assault on while pretty much everything. Trump came to power in 2016, calling mainstream media, fake news, and this done everything to undermine the public's confidence in journalism. That is not pro-Trump. He has called out the FBI and the courts for being part of the dark state and against every political opponent that is not on his side is later berated in tweets and rents that they are stupid or disloyal or losers. Same with anyone who was worked for him and later left and then came the election in a country admired for its democracy and rule of law. Trump started saying the election was false from the beginning. And if he didn't win the result, wouldn't be fair. He lost and then called it a massive fraud up to 70 court cases. Many by judges, he appointed said there was no evidence of cheating, but Trump won't concede and won't participate in a peaceful transition of power. And then he called a rally on the day, the us Congress was set to ratify the voting and he led his dogs off. The leash calling demonstrators to March to Capitol Hill were a riot occurred. Trump: (02:08) Never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede with step. Our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. And that's what this is all about. And to use a favorite term that all of you people really came up with. We will stop the steel Dana Lewis - Host: (02:38) It's incitement to insurrection. Here's some of the violent imagery Mr. Trump used in his speech. Quote, Republicans are constantly fighting like a boxer with his hands tied behind his back. It's like a boxer and we want to be so nice. We want to be respectful of everybody, including bad people. And we're going to have to fight much harder. We fight like hell. And if you don't fight like hell, you're not going to have a country anymore. We will never give up. We will never concede. It doesn't happen. You don't concede when there's theft involved, our country has had enough. We will not take it anymore. And that's what this is all about. We are going to try give our Republicans the weak ones. Cause the strong ones don't need any of our help. Trying to give them a kind of pride and boldness that they need to take back. Our country, unquote, it was an attempt to overthrow the government protestors called for actually their terrorists called for the lynching of the vice-president and finding and holding accountable. The speaker of the house, Nancy Pelosi. They looked for her throughout the building and then occupied her office. Sadly, Nancy Pelosi: (03:53) The person who's running the executive branch is a deranged unhinged, dangerous president of the United States. And up only a number of days until we can be protected from him. Uh, but he has done something so serious that there should be prosecution against him. Dana Lewis - Host: (04:15) Trump is in the white house plotting what next he has been silenced by Twitter and Facebook. He's announced that he won't attend the inauguration and his supporters convinced the election wasn't free and fair vow to carry out more marches. And God knows what else on this backstory, why when social media was full of threats to the Capitol were DC. Police caught flat-footed American democracy today is badly bruised and maybe broken. All right, joining me now is Kelly Carter Jackson, uh, an assistant professor of Africana studies at Wellesley college in Massachusetts and the author of force and freedom black abolitionists and the politics of violence. Hi Kelly. Hi. How are you very well. I mean, you wrote a great article in the Atlantic and that's what led me to ask you to do the interview with us. So the, the headline is the inaction of Capitol police was by design. Are you suggesting some conspiracy here? Kellie Carter Jackson: (05:22) I, I'm not suggesting so much as a conspiracy, as I am suggesting the double standard that happens in American policing when it comes to black protesters, as when we're dealing with white protestors, we see a clearer, um, response that happens with marginalized groups of people and white people that is completely, um, different from what we saw earlier this summer. Dana Lewis - Host: (05:50) I mean, you're not the only, the only one, a lot of people that said did police very harsh in places like Portland and in Washington all over the country Dana Lewis - Host: (05:58) When it came to the BLM, uh, black lives matter protests and here you had white terrorists. Some of them, not all of them outside the Capitol and then push and then the terrorists pushing their way inside that building and policemen. I mean, the videos are perplexing. I have to tell you, I've, I've a correspondent. Kellie Carter Jackson: (06:22) We see police officers opening up the Gates, you know, which makes no sense. We see police officers taking selfies. I find that a port, you know, we see police officers who were grossly unprepared, grossly outnumbered. Um, and that, to me, I think the optics of the entire insurrection was the hardest to, to grapple with how is it that the Capitol police, the DC Metro police, you know, the FBI, everyone who could have been involved in was involved, did not, um, meet the resistance with equal fervor. Dana Lewis - Host: (06:59) I mean, out of respect for some of the police officers and their families, I mean, you see some officers fight valiantly to stop people from entering that building. Uh, one of them is, is beaten and dragged down the steps, uh, beaten with an American flag. And then you also see this black policeman Kellie Carter Jackson: (07:20) That was the most terrifying, heroic, Dana Lewis - Host: (07:22) Where the crowd is coming at him. Obviously he's not going to be very friendly to him and he kind of leads them, you know, he glances towards the door to the Senate floor and then in the end, leads them the other way to buy time for people inside Kellie Carter Jackson: (07:38) [inaudible]. But it just, I mean, that's one of the images as well, that has just stuck with me the most the, because I had fear for him when, when you see him sort of coming down the steps in that the mob turns the corner and sees him and he's like I'm outnumbered. And all he has is like, uh, like a Baton. Um, and it was also clear that like his badge, his uniform would not protect him from the mob, that there was no, um, civility or level of deference that was owed to him as his position as a police officer. And in that moment, I think he realized I'm not just a cop, I'm a black cop and that this is going to be a problem. Dana Lewis - Host: (08:24) So there's a lot of speculation. I mean, we're still coming to terms with what happened remarkably after spending my career covering big events like this, where there are repeated news conferences afterwards by the FBI, by the white house silence national guard was delayed and installed at one point Capitol police. As you mentioned, standing back in some of the videos, well coordinated with pipe bombs, being placed at the DNC and the RNC headquarters to maybe to distract police, uh, protesters armed with handcuffs and maps of the building who was pulling the strings. Kellie Carter Jackson: (09:03) I mean, we won't completely know that until we have a full investigation of what took place. But what I think is remarkable is that these fringe groups have been telling the public for months, what they intended to do, what their plans were. They, I saw, you know, a news footage of them showing like showing off their arsenal and showing, you know, when he gives the signal, we're speaking of Trump and he gives the call, we're ready. We're going to be ready. And you know, I think people didn't really believe them. I think people thought, Oh, who's got time. They're not serious. But people had orchestrated buses to come to DC. And this was not just, you know, for a protest. Dana Lewis - Host: (09:46) I think it was orchestrated by Donald Trump's white house. Kellie Carter Jackson: (09:49) Oh, absolutely. I mean, I think, I think that you cannot separate Donald Trump's leadership or lack thereof. Um, and these aport actions, uh, their circuit Lee certainly working in tandem Dana Lewis - Host: (10:05) New York times or putting the cops, cops policemen from Texas, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, uh, as well as other States are now under scrutiny after scrutiny, after social media posts placed the mirror and in the riots that took place at the nation's Capitol in some policemen reporting that they were fighting off a policemen who were not in uniform, but people who were flashing badges saying, we're doing this for you as they punched him in the face. Kellie Carter Jackson: (10:34) Yeah. That's, that's the irony of this is that when you look at that crowd, you know, a lot of, one of the things that I wanted to say, but you only have a limited amount of space in the op ed, is that people think that these people are, are some French crazy radical group. Um, but this is us, that group of people was made up of off duty officers, veterans, soccer, moms, college students, elected officials. So when we think of who's present, I think we really have to have also another honest conversation about, um, who is, who is a part of the police force. And, and have we allowed the police force to somehow become co-opted, but also these, these radical groups as well. I've also read reports about white supremacists and Klan members, you know, um, actively gaining, um, you know, police Academy training and joining police Academy forces so that they can have more influence. That's scary to me, Dana Lewis - Host: (11:35) Reports from the, um, you know, that have been prepared by all sorts of people, but, uh, Michael German, a former FBI special agent has written extensively in the ways us law enforcement have failed to respond to far-right domestic terror groups concludes the us law enforcement officials have been tied to racist militant activists in more than a dozen States since 2000. And that hundreds of police officers have been caught posing a racist that posting racist and bigoted social media content use his words. What's your reaction to that? Kellie Carter Jackson: (12:11) I mean, this goes back to also what I said in the op-ed that the inception, the Genesis, the creation of the police force, uh, was developed out of slavery, was established during the institution of slavery to prevent runaway slaves from escaping the plantation. And that police force has evolved over time, but the white supremacists or anti-black sentiments have been, you know, sort of inculcated into the institution since its inception. So it's not surprising to me to see these things, given the history of policing in the United States of America. But what I do think is intolerable, that is how we have allowed for this to continue and that we have never really seen substantial police reform that would allow for, you know, these particular groups of people to be, um, ostracized from, uh, um, a police Academy. Dana Lewis - Host: (13:02) I mean, you said earlier, there's kind of a, a general thought that these people are fringe and crazy and live up in a forest somewhere. I mean, it's obviously a much more serious than that. And what is the cost? I mean, we are seeing the cost of underestimating these groups now that are being called to the street by Trump. Kellie Carter Jackson: (13:24) Yeah. These, I think these groups have never really been friends. You know, Kenneth, Kenneth Jackson is amazing historian at Columbia university and he wrote earlier about the history of the Klan. And he talked about it as an urban phenomenon. He says it was, you know, filled with police officers and judges and elected officials and businessmen and ministers. And that there's this superficial myth that, you know, the person who's in this group is like, you know, Bubba for Mississippi, or like some, you know, we think of some ignorant person, some uneducated person, but that is not the case. And that is what to me is most terrifying is that this group is made up of people who are educated, who have jobs who have careers, who have families and thought that what they were doing was acceptable, if not necessary. Dana Lewis - Host: (14:13) Do we know have to go in, in all the lessons learned from this and by the way, it's ongoing, right? Because there are marches that are called for on the, on the 17th. There were marches that are called for on the 20th day of inauguration. Um, do you think we have to go and look at the screening again and the recruitment again, in all these police departments, minimal minimally, and try to get these, you know, P Q unknowns and Nazis, uh, and clearly, you know, people who are racist out of those departments somehow Kellie Carter Jackson: (14:47) We do. And I, and I think that requires more reform. I think we have to completely redo the system. You know, I, I studied the abolitionists and the abolitionists were not trying to reform slavery. They were trying to abolish slavery. And I think that when we look at the institution like the police and we see all of its systemic, structural corruption and racism, you can't reform that away. You actually have to create something new in its place. And I think drastic change is needed if we're ever going to move forward from where we are right now, Dana Lewis - Host: (15:24) Kelly, what are Afra African-American saying right now after, you know, seeing what happened at the Capitol, what what's, what's the chatter? Kellie Carter Jackson: (15:34) I mean, it is a range. I have friends who have called me in tears, people who are so disturbed, they're, they're considering pulling their children out of school during the day of the inauguration, or not sure what's going to happen. I have friends who have made this somewhat comical and that it's not funny, but pointing out the double standard and finding ways that these white people look at this craziness, look at what we have allowed, who can help black people wouldn't ever be able to do this, you know, pointing out the double standard. I think there's a range, but for what most people feel is grief and anger and, um, a profound sense of disappointment at what this country is and what it's headed toward. Dana Lewis - Host: (16:28) Can I ask you what you are feeling on ongoing after ongoing, after president Trump, um, is, you know, th the two school of thoughts seem to be emerging. One is let's not further inflame how divided the country is. Let's start towards reconciliation, let them leave on the 20th, he's off Twitter. Now, you know, let's just push through this and forget about it. Well, you know, to some extent, you know, um, and there are others that say, no, no, no, this was a crime against the nation. Uh, and we have to bring these people to justice, including the president himself. Kellie Carter Jackson: (17:07) Absolutely. You know, I feel the letter, I feel you cannot simply cause harm and, and then apologize and keep it moving. You have to go about repairing the harm that you caused, and you have to be honest about your actions and then you have to face consequences. Um, I mean, these are lessons. We teach our children how we behave and how you apologize, and then how after that we should see changed behavior. Um, and I think one of the things that we've never really seen is repentance. We've never really seen a meta Copa, um, on both sides of the, and I don't think that we have yet to see real accountability. And so that's what I want more than anything. You know, I think that if we allow president Trump to just sort of fade away into the darkness and not have to answer to the damage and the harm that he has caused, then all we will be doing is preparing another person to come in and do it even worse at an even more astronomical level. Dana Lewis - Host: (18:14) And he's probably not going to, he's probably not going to fade away in the dark anyway, but Alabama Congressman Barry Moore has only been in office for a week. He's already had the delete, his own Twitter account, his official account, the Republican called Capitol riots, a disgrace. Um, but then in his personal account, he says, we have more arrest for stealing a podium, which was, you know, pictured in all of those, those very high profile photographs on January the sixth. And we do for stealing an election on November the third. So there's no repentance there, certainly. And then he says, I understand it was a black police officer that shot the white female veteran. You know, that doesn't fit the narrative. What's he saying there, Kellie Carter Jackson: (18:55) Oh my gosh. I mean, there's, there's so much there in terms of the duality of what he is presenting. And so much of what he said has also been not substantiated. There is no, um, fraud. Yes, it's, it's absolutely racist. And what he's also trying to do is in using the race card to flip these arguments around as to make this idea as though reverse racism is a thing it's not, it does not exist. Um, the racism is about power and black people don't have power. So, um, he can't make those arguments. And I think we have seen sort of like the verbal and intellectual gymnastics of how people have tried to maneuver themselves and to making an argument that they feel like there's merit that has no ground to stand on. And it's really disturbing to hear him say that. Dana Lewis - Host: (19:48) I just want to come back to where we started. The inaction of Capitol police was by design. If that had been a black lives matter protest with, you know, days in advance of threats on the internet about violence. Um, and as they approached to breach the doors of the Capitol, what would have happened? Kellie Carter Jackson: (20:09) Well, it wouldn't have happened. I think, I think we're clean. We should be clear on that. I don't think this would have ever happened if this were a black lives matter protest. Um, I think on par black lives matter protests have been peaceful. Um, and I think that deserves to be stated again and again, but I also think that had it gone crazy, you would have seen much more bloodshed. You would have seen more than five people killed. And I don't say that to dismiss the deaths of the five people, but I think we would have seen those numbers in the double digits, if not triple digits, we would have seen tear gas. We would have seen tanks. I mean, think about Ferguson. It wasn't that long ago with Mike Brown and we saw an army meet protestors and armies, what, um, and that was, you know, because they had burned down a, a quick trip. So a gas station, I can't imagine how much more before she would see with the nation's cat, Dana Lewis - Host: (21:07) The chief of police in the Capitol has resigned. And he's kind of shifting the debate to what happened with the calling in of the national guard. And, um, do you think that that's just smoke and mirrors that in fact, you know, they, they had a very good idea that this was going to happen and they just maybe decided not to be ready. Kellie Carter Jackson: (21:27) I think everybody a good idea of what was going to happen. I think again, I said this before, we've been warned for months since the election, not even since the election, before the election, Trump had primed people that this was going to go bad and if it goes bad, be ready. So I think there was no excuse to say that you were not expecting, you know, a crowd of this size that you would not be expecting resistance. Um, that makes no sense to me. And again, it goes back to this idea that we have to be honest with ourselves about, um, what we were up against there. I think part of the problem is that no group both the left or the right has, um, has really a monopoly on truth right now. And, and I feel like we have two narratives that are circulating and, um, and we can't seem to find common ground on the truth. Dana Lewis - Host: (22:16) Last question to you in the New York times today, I'm sorry for quoting the New York times so much, but Timothy Snyder writes that Trump's focused on alleged irregularities and contested States comes down to cities where black people live and vote at bottom. The fantasy of fraud is that of a crime committed by black people against white people. Kellie Carter Jackson: (22:38) Facts, short answer. I cannot there. I mean, you CA this is not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that this happens the day that Georgia gets the first black Senator first Jewish American Senator. That's not a coincidence. It's not a coincidence that in places like Detroit and Philadelphia and Atlanta, you know, where large populations of black people live, that these votes are contested. I mean, and it's also historically consistent with the fact that black people's voting efforts and their votes have constantly faced suppression and opposition to not count into not matter. Um, and so in that sense, I think it is, it is absolutely racist and we need to be able to call a space. Dana Lewis - Host: (23:26) And the voter suppression was, uh, hard to watch people waiting and hours and hours making it so difficult, but, Kellie Carter Jackson: (23:32) Oh my gosh, it makes no sense. Dana Lewis - Host: (23:35) Kelly Carter Jackson assistant professor of studies at Wellesley college, and she's the author of force and freedom, black abolitionists and the politics of violence. Kelly wrote a great article in the Atlantic . I suggest you read it. Thank you so much, Kelly. Thank you for having me. All right. Joining me now is Dr. Darren Porcher. He was formally a Lieutenant with the N Y P D in New York, obviously. And he handled a lot of crowd control situations. There is that right, Darren. That is correct. Was the response by Capitol police designed to fail? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (24:08) I wouldn't say it was designed to fail. I don't think that they, uh, they pre-planned appropriately. When I say pre-planned appropriately, whenever you have a large scale demonstration of the magnitude of what we saw on the, um, the capital you need the focus on certain factions. The first thing is who is the group that's intending the protest. Number two, what is this group's ideology? And number three, how many people are going to come? You want to triangulate those three components. And that's how you'll assess which a personnel couple with technological innovations that'll partner in Dana Lewis - Host: (24:45) Those three things. And I think you would be hard pressed not to say that it was an, it was an Epic fail. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (24:53) It was a colossal failure to say, Hey, we clearly saw it mainstream American television up. And you know, the problem with that was mayor Bowzer. Um, Washington DC mayor was offered the resources of the national guard and she rejected it. And then she in turn focused on having national guard members that were not in uniform and they would not arm and placing them on the periphery, meaning behind the demonstrations, not behind the demonstrators, not upfront. And I just think that omnipresence is necessary when you have a demonstration of that magnitude, because it was clear that the intelligence reflected that this was going to be a hostile crowd and they were coming to invoke a level of violence, which we clearly saw manifest as a result. Dana Lewis - Host: (25:43) Would you agree with me now, as we know, more and more about this, that, I mean, given the digital traffic, I mean, who these people are and the calls to violence and the calls to arms and the calls to overthrow the government, the calls to take lawmakers and lynched them, um, that all the Intel was there. I mean, the, the Capitol police, absolutely. Should've known what was coming at them like a freight train, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (26:12) You know? Absolutely. I think what happened was there was a sense of, I don't think I know what happened was there was a sense of complacency on the part of the Capitol police. Oftentimes you have these demonstrations and a lot of law enforcement practitioners will take that road of look, probably nothing is not going to happen. Therefore we want to reserve the budget and we don't want to overreach and can take in connection with the expenditures that we apply to this particular demonstration. And it turned around in a bit them in the rear end. And when you speak to the traffic, um, on social media, it was clearly apparent that you had people that were coming with a specific agenda and that was the reap havoc. And that's what we saw. However, the Capitol police did not a plant did not plan accordingly. And as a result, this is what occurred. Dana Lewis - Host: (27:00) Can I ask you how you feel personally, when you look at some of these videos, you know, and especially that one where they, they grab a policeman by the helmet and they drag him down the steps and beat him with an American flag pole. Um, just tell me how you feel as an American and how you feel as an ex policeman. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (27:22) Well, as an Alexa, as an ex police officer, I felt that Harvard, I thought this was, I was horrified in the, um, the visions that were, um, revealed to me in connection with cops being beat up and just this overall overarching act of anarchy that plague that Capitol complex. It really begged the question of why didn't we have the necessary fortifications in play. I mean, this is troubling, especially when we look to what the agenda of this group was and Wu they were, and I blame the president for a lot of this because he was the person that ginned up the base on false claims of election fraud and had these people assemble at the Capitol. And this was specifically from a selfish perspective. When I say selfish perspective, meaning it was all about him. There was no election fraud, but he still felt as if his, his, his time in the white house was permanent, not temporary. And this is what happened as a result. So I think he bears a tremendous brunt of responsibility. Dana Lewis - Host: (28:25) No, you are very careful what you say and you appear on places like Fox news. If you've been saying what you just told me now, in places like that now, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (28:33) Yes, I will. Um, the day after. So I'm going to say on Thursday, when I came on Fox, I spoke to the specifically and how the president showed that a lot of the blame for this. And th the term that I used on Fox news was this was Charlottesville book too, for president Trump. Because when we look at the statements that he made, um, the inflammatory statements, that connection with what happened in Charlottesville, Virginia, coupled with there being good people on both sides, it was clearly his inability to make a proper assessment of what the situation was and put forth the NES necessary protocols. So I, you know, I spoke to this the same way I was speaking to you about this Dana Lewis - Host: (29:12) Police departments across the country have open investigations into policemen, uh, among their ranks to find out how they were involved, not whether they were there. We know that they were there involved in the siege on the U S Capitol on Washington. On January, the sixties are off duty officers who have gone to the demonstration. Let me read you a quote from, uh, one of the policemen that was interviewed by media there. And he says, they're extraordinary scenes with protesters holding blue lives matter flags launched at police officers, quote, we're telling them to get back up and get away and stop. And they're telling us, they're on our side, they're doing this for us. These are policemen who are showing a police ID showing badges. Uh, off-duty in the protests. They're, they're saying this as I'm getting punched in the face by one of them that happened to a lot of us were getting pepper sprayed in the face by these protesters. I'm not going to call them protesters, even their domestic caters. I mean, what's your reaction to that? There was so many, and I can't put a number on it, but there were a number of policemen that went to that protest and were involved in entering the Capitol building. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (30:27) Give me an example here with the NYP has one officer under investigation for actually going into that Capitol complex. When they, uh, when, when they breached the doors, we had members of the FDN, Y you know, the fire department of New York that also traveled to DC and, and were a part of this demonstration. We had a West Virginia legislator that did the same thing. He also, um, committed to when those doors were fracturing, entering their Capitol. Dana Lewis - Host: (30:59) Yeah, I mean, the FBI, uh, former FBI agent Michael German says, um, that the far right domestic terror threats have infiltrated many police departments across the country. There are, we know that there are police officers who have carried these Q Anon, uh, badges. And, uh, and then now they're participating in, you know, what an act of terrorism against the nation. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (31:26) This is actually an act of domestic terrorism. The Southern poverty law center has spoken to these far right groups for a period of time. And we haven't taken them serious. Now is the time that we need to read the tea leaves and address with this is a group that we need to have an active presence in law enforcement. Um, looking towards this is a problem, and it has to get done and needs to be proactive, not reactive on the part of law enforcement. This was an atrocity. This was an act of Arne Archy, and it shouldn't happen in the country like the United States, Dana Lewis - Host: (32:03) Weed, those people out of a police department, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (32:07) You have an applicant process in, um, division that investigates, uh, police candidates prior to coming into the department. Now, one of the things that they'll often do is they'll look to, uh, an individual social media and they'll knock on doors in that area. And that's where you can gain somewhat of a background assessment as to who this person is from a social perspective. But that being said, um, we need to, we need to look at this for what it is, and this is an act of domestic terrorism, and it needs to be, and it needs to happen now, not yesterday, not the day it happened. It needs to happen now, not a week from today, not a month from now. We need to ramp up resources and focus on this threat that is putting our country in jeopardy. As a result, Dana Lewis - Host: (32:55) It's interviewed a professor who wrote for the Atlantic magazine, Kelly, Carter, Jackson, um, and she really makes the case in the Atlantic that, um, and she, she teaches on, uh, force and freedom, black abolitionists and politics of violence at Wesley college in Massachusetts. She really makes the case that this is a racist response that had this been a black lives matter protest with all the Intel about what was coming, how many were coming, what they might be ready to do that police would have the police numbers and the police actions would have been very, very different. You're African-American, you're also an ex police policemen. What, what do you say about the racist element? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (33:40) Well, I challenged that narrative on several fronts because when we look at, uh, what happened with these black lives matter protest, what the course of the summer, they denigrated a lot of the large cities in the country. So it was clear that you didn't have a sufficient police presence. I give you an example. I live in New York city and a lot of the protests that subsequently placed the city under siege fell, what they bifurcated into, whether it was black lives matter, whether it was Antifa, or you even had common citizens that were protesting. We clearly didn't put forth the necessary resources in a place like New York city, as it related to these protests. And we subsequently paid the price for it because we saw the denigration of infrastructure we saw officer's assaulted, et cetera. So I've heard that narrative in that it would have been different if it was a black lives matter protest, but that didn't appear to be the case. When we look at the demonstrations that plague places like New York, Chicago, Portland, and Seattle, we clearly saw that the police didn't put in enough fortifications to ensure that population was safe. When we look at what happened in Seattle, for example, they even erected a no police zone, which they referred to as the Chaz zone. Whereas they literally took over a police precinct and it became an autonomous zone where citizens were basically there. So that being said, when you do the contrast and comparison, the quantitative statistics don't add up, Dana Lewis - Host: (35:09) Can I ask you just your personal view on taking Trump off his Twitter account and more importantly, and more broadly that they have suspended some of these new internet sites that, um, where there's a really, a lot of hate messaging back and forth. And, you know, on one hand you have the debate about freedom of speech and is that the right thing to do? But on the other hand, you have growing calls for people to go to the streets and carry out violence. What do you do? Where do you line up on it? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (35:41) It's a slippery slope. This is one of the things that the ACO was actually addressing in connection with president Trump being removed from Twitter. And it begs the question of free speech. I bill I'm affirmed, not, not just in my affirm proponent, but one thing that I do know is freedom of speech is not guaranteed. When you have an inflammatory content such as let's see if you go into a movie theater in New York fire, because you want a better, see, this is something which requires cause you to be held accountable. That being said, Twitter, ejected, president Trump, because he used Twitter as a platform to gin up the base and direct them towards the Capitol. And he specifically stated that I'm going to be there with you. That being said, Twitter was the vehicle of access that promoted this right now. I don't want to completely blame Donald Trump for all it is, but he does level a shoulder level of responsibility. So when you mentioned, um, social media platforms, such as parlor, which is a conservative, a social media platform that has since come under fire, one can argue that the regulatory process within the framework of parlor is not sound because they're allowing threats or inappropriate material. The B w Dana Lewis - Host: (37:01) I'm going to expect, we criticize those social media companies, the tech giants, if they can't police things like child porn, or if they can't police, uh, hatred and racism. And so we're demanding, they do that suddenly. Now they have taken down the one that you just mentioned, and, uh, there's a lot of criticisms. So I'm not, it's, it's a, it's a foggy situation. But I think, I think on the, you know, giving my own opinion, which I'm not, I generally don't do as a journalist, but I think when you're right there between the assault on the capital and inauguration, and there are more calls for violence on the 17th and on the 20th. And there is the, the, the media companies are not policing that they simply can't in some ways, in other ways, they just turned a blind eye to it. But in order for, to have law and order and not to really have the street on fire, I guess you, you have to trade some of that off in the short term. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (38:04) Yeah. I agree with you. And it goes back to what my, what I mentioned earlier, freedom of speech is not absolute. And therefore, I think that it's necessary that you have an entity, the marshal in to ensure that the content is sound such as child pornography threats, to one's life things, to that effect, those things need to be marshaled in. And it was questionable in connection with what was occurring on the platform of parlor. It may be, it may be a situation where Parla may be now forced to put forth in integrity cause, or, or, you know, some level of oversight Dana Lewis - Host: (38:41) Chip. But Dr. Darrin Porcher: (38:43) Yeah, but I, well, you know, that, that may be true, but I'm just saying that we're using that as an example, because that's what's happening right now. Future sites will develop and come to fruition. This is not the end of this. And so that being said, I think there needs to be a clear lane of oversight within that social media platform to ensure that hate speech or things that are illegal and not transferred on that, um, that platform as a result, Dana Lewis - Host: (39:11) Do you think this was pretty well organized? My last question to you, uh, the assault on the capital, when you take a look at the fact that pipe bombs were placed outside the democratic headquarters and the Republican headquarters, probably to distract police, um, people in there with the zip lock rings that I've seen a lot in Iraq and Afghanistan, military uses them to handcuff people. They knew where the offices were. I've seen maps that were put on the internet prior to the March where they said where Pelosi's office was, where vice-president Pence could be. Um, I mean, th this goes beyond a little demonstration that got out of control. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (39:49) I, I think quite the opposite. I don't think that this was organized. I think that what you had was you had, you know, thousands of people that converge on that capital, um, compound, and within that group, you had people that had their D their own internal agendas that they went in. They, they drift towards such, such as people that had zip ties. And, you know, why would you bring a zip tie to a protest other than looking to take people into custody Dana Lewis - Host: (40:18) Lynch Lynch? The vice-president Dr. Darrin Porcher: (40:20) Clearly believed that there was nefarious behavior, uh, you know, um, at the foundation of a lot of this. But I also think that whenever you have these protests, I think the, the organizers of the protest, I think it should be incumbent upon those individuals, the pre, the people that are bestowed upon the permit for a particular, um, demonstration, they should be held accountable for marshaling in the people that are coming in to, um, to protest, uh, demonstrate. And I don't, I don't believe they had a member. I don't think I know they did not have a permit for this. They just converged on the, uh, on the property and they committed to Dana Lewis - Host: (41:01) It is the words of the president they're in, right? I mean, he's telling them to go down there and he's telling them, Rudy Giuliani, all this stuff, Dr. Darrin Porcher: (41:15) Right. One can argue that the president gave people a fast pass to go out there and do that. But it goes back to where you asked the initial question that I think this was organized. No, I think this was more like, um, abstract. And you had different components of people, uh, Rose on that capital complex. And they looked for, or a set forth to advance their agendas. I don't think it was uniformly everyone that was there, but one person is too much. Dana Lewis - Host: (41:45) I lie to you sometimes. I tell you, it's the last question, and then I give you another one. Right? All right. So I'm pleading guilty and I'm just going to have one more question. You worried about the 17th and the 20th, and are we going to be prepared this time or they're going to get it right? Dr. Darrin Porcher: (41:59) They'll get it right. There's going to be overkill, to be honest with you, you know, you probably got to have F 16 fighter jets, Harrier jump jets. I've got to fly over the Capitol to make sure that there's going to be an air presence. There's going to be a ground presence to ensure that there is no repeat to what happened on Wednesday. Dana Lewis - Host: (42:20) Some of the calls are for legislatures across the country as well. Right? So people who don't necessarily go to Washington may show up, you know, in Virginia or in anywhere. And so the threat is still huge. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (42:33) Well, I think a lot of the, uh, the legislators such as be it, Josh Holly, or Ted Cruz that align themselves with the selection fraud. In many instances, people would say, Hey, look, you championed that cause. And so I don't want to say that there'll be held accountable from, uh, from a law enforcement perspective, but I think that the voter ship will hold them accountable. Moving forward. You know, one thing I give you an example, Lindy Lindsay Graham, who was a diehard supporter of Donald Trump, he put the brakes on this and said, look enough is enough. We need to cut the crap. We need to have a civil change of power. This was just too much. Dana Lewis - Host: (43:13) He said, he said enough. And, uh, he looks scared to me. He looked like he looked like he suddenly understood what the rest of us could see coming for a long time, that if you de-legitimized election and tell people that they'd been cheated and that the system doesn't work for them anymore, they are going to go to the screen. They're going to be angry. Dr. Darrin Porcher: (43:34) Yeah, absolutely. Right. You know, uh, words matter, especially when they're echo from the president of the United States or the leader of any country for that matter. Um, we had 75 million people that voted for Donald Trump. So the followship was wide and deep. Therefore you need to stay abreast of the fact of what you say matters, and you can put forth an agenda that can possibly create a toxic environment that can cause someone to either lose their life or become injured. And that's what we saw here. I, you know, right now, you know what the million dollar question is. I wonder what's going through Donald Trump's mind right now, looking at what happened, you know, and saying to himself, you know, cause this is what his legacy is going to be based on that for years, because I'll be the first to tell you, I fought. There was some phenomenal things that happen under the Trump umbrella, more so specific to the, the us dollar and the stock market, but do a lot of things that didn't go good. But more importantly, when you look at how he went out of the presidency, that's how he's going to be judged for eternity. And there's nothing that he can do to change that, Dana Lewis - Host: (44:46) To, to use your words, you know, toxic, it's a hell of a legacy Dr. Darren portrait there. And I really appreciate talking to you. Thanks so much Dr. Darrin Porcher: (44:54) As always Dana. I appreciate it. Dana Lewis - Host: (44:56) And that's our backstory on this a week when Democrats seek a second impeachment of Trump, the first president in history to be impeached twice, Joe Biden received 80 million votes, but Trump got 74 million. That's an awful lot of people were told the election was stolen. It's a lie, but they were told that by a president, many beliefs. And where does that leave the country now? And how does Biden govern in this climate of division Trump won't slink away easily. We'll be there to disrupt and divide and light a match to whatever bonfire he can set dangerous days ahead in the U S please subscribe to this podcast and share our link. That's this backstory, I'm Dana Lewis. And I'll talk to you again soon.