#unhinged history challenge

[deuceysims]

After a long and tiring journey, Berryeye and Bearhunter finally arrive in Henford, at which point it's time to take a bath.

[sexyleon]

I literally fucking hate Florida. Y’all joke about Florida being backwards and laugh about our insane governor, but you literally don’t know what it’s like to live here. At this point, it’s not fucking funny.

[princessbrunette]

basketball!rafe knew he needed you the moment he set eyes on you once more in that hotel bar.

personally, you thought he might’ve been a nobody on first glance. a really handsome nobody, so he couldn’t have actually been a nobody — but it was the intrigue that drew you in regardless. to set the scene, you didn’t have to go far to find him, no — this was the fanciest hotel in your hometown and you were there alone. something about getting all dressed up and then your friends cancelling last minute, it didn’t matter — it felt like so long ago that you’d forgotten all about it. all you remember was seeing the handsome nobody in a t-shirt and a cap strolling up to the bar.

it was only after doing a double take, you realised the nobody was rafe cameron.

now you’d already known rafe from the obx. distantly, of course — a couple of parties here and there, some lingering glances when you were convinced he was a fuck boy. he was apparently a little unhinged back in the day, but after his dad died he fixed his shit and went pro with basketball, making it big. like mentioned, you weren’t friends, merely acquaintances with the boy a couple of years your senior— but he’d always been someone you saw get their shit together and think, you know what? good for him i guess.

now rafe remembers his history with you differently. apparently, he used to shoot hoops with your older brother in your backyard with a few other friends back when they were younger. still a casual hobby for rafe, and playing it anywhere else but a kook’s backyard might’ve looked too poguey for him to be caught partaking in. at the end of the day, golf was meant to be his sport. it was fitting and low maintenance. basketball took the cake everytime however— helping him mentally in more ways than anyone could imagine.

anyway, he remembers you — a lot younger than you are now, flip flops slapping along the patio as you arrive on destination — mouthing off to your big brother about bouncing the ball too loudly off your wall or spending all the money your mother had left for pizza on the counter. you were this tiny mouthy weapon, even having the infamous rafe cameron snickering down at his shoes as your brother whined back at you, trying to shoo you back inside. he recalls even catching a couple of strays, your shrill youthful voice referring to the eldest cameron as a ‘lanky meathead’.

“jesus, you gotta keep your sisters mouth in check dude. gonna grow up n’get her in trouble n’shit.” he’d shake his head as you’d waddle back inside, bouncing the ball and shooting. after that it was just parties as you grew up, seeing a familiar pretty face through a coked out haze and thinking ‘who’s that again?’ in passing or overhearing you talking to your friends, still carrying that same slick mouth that you only got away with because you were so hot.

only now, he’s staring across this dimly lit hotel bar, the first time in a while that he’d been back in his hometown and there you are — staring back at him, a face he’d never forget except you’re all grown up now— practically spilling out that slinky little dress and acting as a magnet, his feet dragging him over to you before his drink had even arrived from the bartender.

not even five minutes into conversation and it’s abundantly clear that you’re still that spoiled little cheerleader he knew once upon a time, only this time you’re tilting your head to the side with your brows furrowed in confusion that bordered on disinterest when he tried to explain what happened in his most recent game. you weren’t here to talk about that and it showed, leaning over your margarita to adjust his expensive looking chain, pulling it to sit above his tshirt instead of tucked beneath, cutting him off to question “so you knew my brother, right?” he liked that directness about you. the fact you kinda seemed like a bitch. it was a challenge, the urge to tame and rough someone up still very much sat at the surface of his wants and desires.

once a spoiled brat — always a spoiled brat, only now you’re his spoiled brat six months later, clinging to his arm and digging your manicure into his bicep with a whine as a silent command for him to magically vanish any of the surrounding paparazzi outside the airport.

“get rid of them.” you eventually mewl, in a demanding way that represented the physical embodiment of you stomping your pedicured foot.

“you think i fuckin’ want them here?” he sighs, no stranger to your ridiculous requests. that’s what was so intoxicating about your relationship — yes you were a little bitch sometimes, but he learnt how was best to put you in your place. most of the time you were happy, fucked and fed with racks upon racks sat in your expensive handbag, clinging to him and tottering along at his side in heels that cost an arm and a leg— but the times you were snarking up at him, telling him to ‘shut the fuck up’ he was more than happy to grab your throat and ask “the fuck are you talking to like that, huh?” which oddly would cause a smile to emerge on your face and the attitude to melt off you for an hour or so.

that being said, you kept him in check too. now rafe wasn’t like he always was — unhinged, explosive and overall angry at the world. no, he had an access to therapy now and basketball worked for a good outlet of his frustrations, all whilst opening up a new world for him to get his fresh start away from all that family bullshit he had to put up with a while back (cut them all off, minus wheezie who he sends money to every month and facetimes to talk shit.) that being said — he would be the one to catch an attitude out of the blue sometimes, which was often remedied by a sharp eyebrow raise from you, a dramatic head swivel and a “you better fucking talk to me nice, rafe cameron. not one of your fucking fan girls.”

with a tongue in his cheek, he’ll shake his head and drop the whole thing — but not without saying “y’know you run your mouth like you’re six foot four with two pistols tucked sometimes. shit.”

life outside of your relationship with rafe became a dream all because of him. quickly, as rafe skyrockets to success in the basketball world, you’re skyrocketing to being the top pinterest muse— starring in every girls ‘future manifestation’ moodboard with snaps of you courtside in your pretty little outfits cheering on your boyfriend. you were glammed to the nines at every game, because you knew you’d end up on that big screen one way or another.

when travelling with rafe for his tournaments, you’d get the princess treatment you deserved and that was a promise. designer shoes, designer bags, steak meals that cost the same as your house back home and you were not poor by any stretch of the word. he liked to flaunt you, flaunt his success. he was the man now, like he’d always wanted to be — and effortlessly so, not the charade he was putting on back at tanny hill throwing those parties whilst suffering on the sly. no, he had everything now— and was happy to share that with you. you didn’t have to do much to gain this treatment, no. holding him down was enough, but he’d be happy to accept your payment of gratitude in having his cock wedged down your throat in the limo back to the hotel, ending the night on your back with your ankles on his shoulders and that same chain you fiddled with when you first reunited swinging in your face.

it was no secret that the two of you fucked. it made up a good 60% of your free time together, and you wouldn’t have it any other way. rafe could still get very frustrated — with his manager, with his teammates, with people from his past cropping up, even with the general public who had opinions on his playing — and with that, what better way to pound out some frustrations then by bending you over a balcony in a foreign country? rafe had a good team behind him, and luckily so — because it wouldn’t be the first time a hotel had attempted to get the two of you blacklisted for causing too much of a noise disturbance, notes pinned to your door found in the morning reading ‘Dear guests, whilst we are thrilled that you are enjoying our hotel, we please ask that you keep it down for the sake of the other guests. To remind you, other guests do not need to hear your lovemaking through the night! If this continues throughout your stay you will be asked to leave.’

your basketball player boyfriend would pluck the note off the door the next morning when you’re leaving together for the day, your sleepy self tucked under the arm of his hoodie covering his jersey as he scoffs, handing it your way carelessly. “pussies. they can’t do shit about it.”

unstoppably so, despite your hate for gossip past being in high school the notes would turn to blind items as rafe truly came into the public eye. you couldn’t scroll three videos on tiktok without hearing ‘this north carolina basketball player and hometown it girl may have come into hot water again at this famous vegas hotel after making sure their wall neighbours heard the ins and outs of their passion — april 27th, crazy days and nights.’ that, or the blogosphere getting ahold of the blurry and ambiguous paparazzi shots taken of you supposedly ‘getting it on’ on the beach.

unfortunately, this public knowledge that the two of you were real fuckers was not enough for twitter, which resulted in your first leaked video.

rafe should have known to be careful when the two of you in a lustful haze filmed an amateur tape the day before you had to fly home for a little while, the basketball player knowing he’d miss being in it and needed some material to work off whilst you were gone.

the video was 1 minute and 49 seconds of pure glory. filmed on landscape with an outstretched arm rafe captures you, whining and mewling as you roll your hips on his lap, bouncing on his cock as he watches the two of you through the screen, swollen lips parting and tongue flattening to catch your nipple as you do so. he grips your ass hungrily, aiding you on fucking down on him before delivering a firm smack to your ass that makes you jolt, only unlatching his mouth from your tit to grumble out “s’what i’m fuckin’ talking about baby. who’s your daddy, huh?” looking up at you from your needy spread out position.

you still recall the way your heart dropped into your ass seeing your name along side rafes in the trending tab, following by the words ‘leaked video’.

your legal teams were all over it instantly, working hard to get it shut down off every site it had been reuploaded and desperately attempting to track down whoever had managed to get into your boyfriends cloud to expose it— a couple weeks of watching paparazzi shots of rafe taking calls outside buildings, yelling down the phone and flipping off the cameras in moments of frustration and stress — for him to then be on the phone to you from a hotel room later that night, talking you down as you cry like a baby and complain.

“i know, i know alright i’m workin’ on it. gonna get that shit wiped from the net i can promise you that now, i got the guy who can make it happen for me. but for now, look y’know there’s — there’s nothin’ i can do alright, i can’t make people fuckin’… unsee that shit unfortunately just be glad you look so sexy in the video cause — okay, shit, the hell are you yelling for? m’just tryna help—”

after a while it does infact die down, and the video can no longer be found — yes, even on the shitty pop up porn sites that had reposted it with twelve watermarks in the worst quality. however, it didn’t stop jaded basketball fans from bringing it up any chance they got — getting in heated debates online and using it as an insult to the cameron boys playing skills. god forbid a rafe fan would speak up for him after a particularly poor game, his mentions getting filled with nothing but a screenshot of your boyfriend with your titty in his mouth.

though it had faded, the two of you learned that there was no way around it than to humour it — your boyfriend barely addressing the tape by quoting it in his instagram caption after one of his big wins, the post of him grinning on the court with his trophy tilted ‘who’s your daddy, huh?’ which of course, sent twitter into a spiral.

[greisekinderschar]

regarding book!dandelion’s much discussed misogyny one thing i find insanely amusing is how the gamer bro fanbase perceives it.

because to me, it’s like, supposed to be one of his weaknesses. it’s one of the ways in which he is unhinged that continuously gets him in trouble. yeah, there’s a joke here and there. but like. dudu thinks he can get away in dandelion’s form? nah man, the angry woman with the frying pan knocks you out, worst decision you made that day. he’s afraid he’ll get murdered if they go to toussaint. he survives the quest to end up on a scaffold because he couldn’t stop fucking around.

yet, when you see the dude bro “book stans’” reaction to the queer netflix reveal there are very personal grievances when they say “you made the womanizer gay!!!”. we know he’s not gay. he’s bi. he fucks more than twice the amount. but the fact that “the womanizer” would as much as look at a man somehow hurts these people in their masculinity, which reveals they think this part of him to be the cool, masculine part.

and it’s really funny to me, because i have this idea of sapkowski using bard characters (he does it in the hussite trilogy as well) to have some, dare i say it, subversive masculinities. because dandelion is very un-masculine in the context of the story. not only does he challenge the temerian knights and others by directly insulting their idea of masculinity and often ridicules the hierarchic structures he himself benefits from despite having fled the connected responsibilities. he’s not a fighter, he’s a poet, he’s not ‘hot’, he is pretty. he’s a coward, he is vain, he is bitchy, he is emotionally intelligent. he laments the gruesomeness of war that is nothing like the heroic masculine stories told about it. he is kind of the mum of the hansa. in short, he is very ‘feminine’, except for his womanizing and his misogynist moments (and the drinking). the parts of him that are, as i said, the most pathetic of his character. and yet, readers who are caught up in the structures of hegemonic masculinities perceive it as a way to consolidate his place in the hierarchy. in a way, his assholery is his redeeming quality in the masculine order. or at least that is what i believe, because why else would they have such an extreme reaction. if dandelion loses his one hegemonic masculine trait of putting himself above women by also sleeping with men, then he is not a man.

[i am aware the concept of masculinities has fluctuated massively in history, which is the point of hegemonic masculinities, and that medieval courtly masculinities had their own ‘feminized’ moments, with monks complaining about the knightly fashion making them look like vain women, but this is a fantasy saga that the reader perceives from contemporary standards, and the masculinities presented are very warrior-centered]

plus, i imagine it complicates his friendship with geralt. because they are bro bros, going to the BROthel together, sharing beds, kissing each other on the cheek for goodbye. if one of these bros is interested in dick, it makes emotional intimacy among men ~weird~. it makes the dude bros go “a bro cant have anything”. but bro, bro, you could have everything. you could even have a bite of dandelion.

[raven-at-the-writing-desk]

Leona, Floyd: Feud within the Family

They caught him mid-yawn in the initial art 😭 I SAID THIS TO SOME FRIENDS (not even in a thirsty way, just a casual comment) AND THEY INSTANTLY JUMPED ON ME OTL (if any of them are reading this, yes, I am calling your asses OUT for bullying/j)

I thought the Groovy was of Mufasa, Sarabi, and baby Simba but apparently it’s adult Simba, Nala, and their daughter, Kiara?? 😭 Most animated lions look the same to me, so I never would have caught that… Anyway, L*ona looks absolutely unhinged and super smug there… Bro looks like he’s talking down to someone groveling at his feet for mercy—

A Tale as Old as Time.

"Heeeeeey~"

Leona turned away from the call. Cool, nonchalant—theoretically, anyway.

"Heeey."

He pretended to be absorbed in a stone bust of the King of Beasts. The meddling source of the sound (unfortunately) followed him, much as he tried to shunt it out of his ears.

Leona sighed deeply.

Aaaah, what a pain in the ass. I’m really not in the mood for seafood.

"HEY."

A growl threaded through Floyd’s voice as he stomped over, thrusting his face into Leona’s. The lion beastman groaned. He recognized that fire in Floyd’s eyes all too well.

Determination.

“Quit runnin’ away and fight me already,” Floyd gruffly demanded.

He had been tailing Leona all day, pelting him with the same challenge over and over—alas, to no avail. Now he had the third year boxed in a dark, isolated corner. Floyd gleefully gnashed his teeth, raring to go for a scrap.

He won’t take a regular old ‘no’ for an answer. If it’s come to this then…

He’d lead his pursuer off the beaten path.

“Hmph, how rude,” Leona grunted, at last granting the eel his attention. “Can’t a man appreciate the arts without being accosted? I’d rather not be bothered while I’m in the middle of browsing.”

“You? An art aficionado?” Floyd scoffed in disbelief. “Fat chance, Sea Lion-senpai. You’ve never been into that stuff. It’s not nice to lie to your juniors like that.”

“Then you don’t know me as well as you think you do,” Leona drawled, his voice as smooth as liquid velvet. He took to telling untruths so easily, it was an innate skill. “I’m a prince with refined taste. Can’t you tell I’m over the moon and stars to be at this exhibition?”

Floyd deadpanned. “You look like you’re about to fall asleep standing up just like Jellyfish-chan.”

“Nonsense. I’m absolutely thrilled. In fact, i can hardly contain my excitement. It’s taking every ounce of my energy to not talk my classmates’ ears off about the illustrious history of Sunset Savanna.”

“Yeah? Prove it, then.”

Tch. Should’ve known it wouldn’t be that easy. Leona grimaced internally.

He was careful to maintain his relaxed poise as he gestured to the painting that was mounted along the wall. “Take a look at that.”

“Huh, what is it?”

Underneath a cornflower sky and thin, cottony clouds, was a red-maned lion and his lioness. Between them, a mandrill cradled a wide-eyed cub. The composition made it clear: it was a painting of a family.

“One of the great kings of the past,” Leona simpered, irony oozing from his every word, “and one of the great kings of the future, if that furball is anything to go by. The parents must cherish their child a great deal. Spoiled and pampered like that… surely the cub will make for a splendid ruler.”

“Ehehehe~ You sound so salty there, Sea Lion-senpai.” Floyd leaned closer, taunting him. “Reciting sappy stories like that don’t suit you.”

“So I’ve been told.” Leona folded his arms and snorted. When he beheld the painting, disgust and envy curled in the pit of his stomach. “… Reminds me of my brother. His life’s always been one big fairy tale—and now he’s got a wife and a kid of his own.”

“Heh. So Sea Lion-senpai definitely feels like the odd one out.”

Leona glared at his junior. “… You don’t have a lick of tact, do you?”

“Ahahah!” Floyd cackled, all too carefree. “What’re you so mad about? ‘S not a bad thing.”

Leona watched him with a wary eye. Floyd paced lazily, as though he were a lion himself. Stewing in the shade, waiting for his next meal to skitter into his waiting paw.

“Who wants to fit in with family? That’s boring. It’s better to just do what you want and be yourself. Don’t sweat the small stuff.

“I hate it when people say Jade and I are the same or they mix us up. Jade’s Jade and I’m me. Two different people.”

“I’m sure your dear brother would shed a tear hearing you talk like that.”

Floyd just shrugged. “I don’t get it. You wanna be like that? It’d be weird.”

“But it’s not about fitting in,” he wanted to snap. “It’s about wanting to shine, to stand out, to be seen. For that moment out of the shadows and basking in the sun.”

They look at me, but they don’t see me.

They never will.

People played in the daytime while sleeping through the lovely night. In the savanna governed by the sun, shadows were scorned and casted aside.

Leona’s throat dried. The moisture gone, as if hungrily devoured by his King’s Roar.

He forced his voice to come again, snarky and sarcastic.

“Hmph, I never said that. You slimy bunch grew up at the bottom of the sea, where the light cannot touch. I’d think you understand what it’s like clawing and kicking and fighting every day to survive.”

And just barely making it out in one piece.

His hand drifted toward the scar over his left eye.

“… Anyway, I wasn’t askin’ for your advice. You should stick to annoying that octopunk.” Leona smirked. Again, concealing. “Keep it in the ‘family’, you know.”

Floyd stared at him intently. Then he let out a burst of laughter. “You’re a riot, Sea Lion-senpai! I don’t even feel light fighting you anymore. It’s just as fun to shoot the shit with ya.”

“That so? You flatter me. Surely there are better conversationalists in Octavinelle, with all those silver tongues.” Leona made a shooting motion with his hands. “You should run back to your school of fish to compare.”

Another fit of sporadic giggles. When they, at last, died down to an eerie quiet, Floyd’s whisper was as loud as a shout in a cavern.

“At the end of the day… we’re both beings that lurk in the dark~”

Leona grunted. “… Who needs the light anyway?”

Deep down, he knew the truth.

It was him who needed that light the most.

[mightyflamethrower]

“Name me a single objective we’ve ever set out to accomplish that we’ve failed on. Name me one, in all of our history. Not one!”

-President Joe Biden, August 16, 2023 

Joe Biden in one of his now accustomed angry “get off my grass” moods dared the press to find just one of his policies/objectives that has not worked. Silence followed.

Perhaps it was polite to say nothing, given even the media knows almost every enacted Biden policy has failed.

Here is a summation of what he should instead apologize for.

Biden in late summer 2021 sought a 20th anniversary celebration of 9/11 and the 2001 subsequent invasion of Afghanistan. He wished to be the landmark president that yanked everyone out of Afghanistan after 20 years in country. But the result was the greatest military humiliation of the United States since the flight from Vietnam in 1975.

Consider the ripples of Biden’s disaster. U.S. deterrence was crippled worldwide. China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea almost immediately began to bluster or return to their chronic harassment of U.S. and allied ships and planes. We left thousands of allied Afghans to face Taliban retribution, along with some Western contractors.

Biden abandoned a $1 billion embassy, and a $300 million remodeled Bagram airbase strategically located not far from China and Russia, and easily defensible. Perhaps $50 billion in U.S. weaponry and supplies were abandoned and now find their way into the international terrorist mart.

All our pride flags, our multimillion gender studies programs at Kabul University, and our George Floyd murals did not just come to naught, but were replaced by the Taliban’s anti-homosexual campaigns, burkas, and detestation of any trace of American popular culture.

Vladimir Putin sized up the skedaddle. He collated it with Biden’s unhinged quip that he would not get too excited if Putin just staged a “minor” invasion of Ukraine. He remembered Biden’s earlier request to Putin to modulate Russian hacking to exempt a few humanitarian American institutions. Then Russia concluded of our shaky Commander-in-Chief that he either did not care or could do nothing about another Russian invasion.

The result so far is more than 500,000 dead and wounded in the war, a Verdun-stand-off along with fortified lines, the steady depletion of our munitions and weapon stocks, and a new China/Russia/Iran/North Korean axis, with wink and nod assistance from NATO Turkey.

Biden blew up the Abraham accords, nudged Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States over to the dark side of Iran, China, and Russia. He humiliated the U.S. on the eve of the midterms by callously begging the likes of Iran, Venezuela, Russia, and Saudi Arabia to pump more oil that he had damned as unclean at home and cut back its production. In Bidenomics, instead of producing oil, the president begs autocracies to export it to us at high prices while he drains the nation’s strategic petroleum reserve for short-term political advantage.

Biden deliberately alienated Israel by openly interfering in its domestic politics. He pursued the crackpot Iran Deal while his special Iranian envoy was removed for disclosing classified information.

No one can explain why Biden ignored the Chinese balloon espionage caper, kept mum about the engineered Covid virus that escaped the Wuhan lab, said not a word about a Chinese biolab discovered in rural California, and had his envoys either bow before Chinese leaders or take their insults in silence—other than he is either cognitively challenged or leveraged by his decade-long grifting partnership with his son Hunter.

Yet another Biden’s legacy will be erasing the southern border and with it, U.S. immigration law. Over seven million aliens simply crossed into the U.S. illegally with Biden’s tacit sanction—without audits, background checks, vaccinations, and COVID testing, much less English fluency, skills, or high-school diplomas.

Biden’s only immigration accomplishment was to render the entire illegal sanctuary city movement a cruel joke. Given the flood, mostly rich urban and vacation home dwellers made it very clear that while they fully support millions swarming into poor Latino communities of southern Texas and Arizona, they do not want any illegal aliens fouling their carefully cultivated nests.

Biden is mum about the 100,000 fentanyl deaths from cartel-imported and Chinese-supplied drugs across his open border. He seems to like the idea that Mexican President Obrador periodically mouths off, ordering his vast expatriate community to vote Democratic and against Trump.

Despite all the pseudo-blue collar dissimulation about Old Joe Biden from Scranton, he has little empathy for the working classes. Indeed, he derides them as chumps and dregs, urges miners to learn coding as the world covets their coal, and studiously avoids getting anywhere near the toxic mess in East Palestine, Ohio, or so far the moonscape on Maui.

Bidenomics is a synonym for printing up to $6 billion dollars at precisely the time post-Covid consumer demand was soaring, while previously dormant supply chains were months behind rebooting production and transportation. Biden is on track to increase the national debt more than any one-term president.

In Biden’s weird logic, if he raised the price of energy, gasoline, and key food staples 20-30 percent since his inauguration without a commensurate rise in wages, and then saw the worst inflation in 40 years occasionally decline from record highs one month to the next, then he “beat inflation.”

But the reason why more than 60 percent of the nation has no confidence in Bidenomics is because it destroyed their household budgets. Gas is nearly twice what it was in January 2021. Interest rates have about tripled. Key staple foods are often twice as costly—meat, vegetables, and fruits especially.

Biden has ended through his weaponized Attorney General Merrick Garland the age-old American commitment to equal justice under the law. The FBI, DOJ, CIA, and IRS are hopelessly politically compromised. Many of their bureaucrats serve as retrieval agents for lost Biden family incriminating laptops, diaries, and guns. In sum, Biden criminalized opposing political views.

Biden has unleashed the administrative state for the first time in history to destroy the Republican primary front runner and his likely opponent. His legacy will be the corruption of U.S. jurisprudence and the obliteration of the American reputation for transparent permanent government that should be always above politics, bribery, and corruption.

If in the future, an on-the-make conservative prosecutor in West Virginia, Utah, or Mississippi wishes to make a national name, then he has ample precedent to indict a Democrat President for receiving bad legal advice, questioning the integrity of an election, or using social media to express doubt that the new non-Election-Day balloting was on the up-and-up, or supposedly overvaluing his real estate.

The Biden family’s decade-long family grifting will likely expose Joe Biden as the first president in U.S. history who fitted precisely the Constitution’s definition of impeachment and removal—given his “high crimes and misdemeanors” appear “bribery”-related. If further evidence shows he altered U.S. foreign policy in accordance with the wishes from his benefactors in Ukraine, China, or Romania, then he committed constitutionally-defined “treason” as well.

Defunding the police, and pandemics of exempted looting, shoplifting, smashing, and grabbing, and carjacking merit no administrative attention. Nor does the ongoing systematic destruction of our blue bicoastal cities, Los Angeles, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Seattle, and Washington, D.C. All that, along with the disasters in East Palestine or Maui are out of sight, out of mind from a day at the beach at Biden’s mysteriously purchased nearly 6,000 square-foot beachfront mansion.

Biden ran on Barack Obama-like 2004 rhetoric (“Well, I say to them tonight, there is not a liberal America and a conservative America — there is the United States of America).”

And like Obama, he used that ecumenical sophistry to gain office only to divide further the U.S. No sooner than he was elected, we began hearing from the great unifier eerie screaming harangues about “semi-fascists” and “ultra-MAGA” dangerous zealots, replete with red-and black Phantom of the Opera backdrops.

What followed the unifying rhetoric was often amnesties and exemptions for violent offenders during the 120 days of rioting, looting, killing, and attacks on police officers in summer 2020.  In contrast, his administration lied when it alleged that numerous officers had died at the hands of the January 6 rioters. In addition, the Biden administration mandated long-term incarceration of many who committed no illegal act other than acting like buffoons and “illegally parading.”

The message was exemptions for torching a federal courthouse, a police precinct, or historic church or attempting to break into the White House grounds to get a president and his family—but long prison terms for wearing cow horns, a fur vest, and trespassing peacefully like a lost fool in the Capitol.

Finally, Biden’s most glaring failure was simply being unpresidential. He snaps at reporters, and shouts at importune times. He can no longer read off a big-print teleprompter. Even before a global audience, he cannot kick his lifelong creepy habit of turkey-gobbling on children necks, blowing into their ears and hair of young girls, and squeezing women far too long and far too hard.

His frailty redefined American presidential campaigning as basement seclusion and outsourcing propaganda to the media. And his disabilities only intensified during his presidency. Biden begins his day late and quits early. He has recalibrated the presidency as a 5-hour, 3-day a week job.

If Trump was the great exaggerator, Biden is our foremost liar. Little in his biography can be fully believed. He lies about everything from his train rides to the death of his son to his relationship with Biden-family foreign collaborators, to vaccinations to the economy. Anytime Biden mentions places visited, miles flown, or rails ridden, he is likely lying.

Biden continues with impunity because the media feels that a mentally challenged fabulist is preferable to Donald Trump and so contextualizes or ignores his falsehoods. Never has a U.S. president fallen and stumbled or gotten lost on stage so frequently—or been a single small trip away from incapacity.

So, yes, Biden’s initiatives have succeeded only in the sense of becoming successfully enacted—and therefore nearly destroying the country.

[crazyintheeast]

Ok but consider this for a writing prompt. A lonely unhinged and horny girl with nothing more to lose decides she really really wants to get bitte by a vampire and goes on a quest to make her dream come true. She goes to the most dangerous region full of vampire attacks, dresses in her sexiest dress she can find and then just walks around at night. But instead of getting bitten ......vampires avoid her like the plague because they all believe that she is a vampire hunter trying to lure them into a trap.

And after spending a few nights frutilessly trying to get bitten she realises that the vampires have fled from the region. So she goes to the next one and he same thing happens again. Instead of finally making her dream come true and biting her all the vampires simply flee. She gets a reputation as a deadly vampire hunter and she kind of goes along with it because why not? She gets paid handsoemly, she gets free lodings and honestly she could work with the fantasy of being a vampire hunter who gets ravaged by a vampire

So she gets some cheap armor and weapons and calls herself Vampire Hunter now. The weak vampires flee again but Masters Vampires come up to take the challenge. But every time a Master Vampire challenges her she proceeds to drop her weapons take off all her clothes and tell them to get her which absolutely freaks them out. They had heard legends of berseker warriors who fought naked and they didn't want this kind of crazy

Her legend began to spread,some began to say that she was an a demi goddess who had come to Earth to slay vampires, some said that she was a legendary warrior from Ancient Times some even said that she was the long lost Vampire Queen. This last rumor piqued the interst of the Vampire King. The Vampire King was a warrior who had dedicate his entire immortal existence to become the most powerful fighter in the world, the only one who could ever match him had been his Queen. He had killed her over three thousand years ago in a fierce battle that lasted two months on the North Pole with neither of them sleeping or eating. It had been a glorious culmnination of their love so to hear that someone was mentioned alongisde his Queen made him take action

Unlike the other vampires he had not been intimidated when our heroine stripped naked. On the contrary he had fought several bersekers over the millenia and while none had ever matched him they had been an amusing fights. The King had mastered ever martial arts in history of mankind to the point where he needed to only look at an oponnent to know how the fight would unfold. The slightest twitch of their muscles, the way they held themselves even the way they would breath would tell the King everything he needed to know. It had been five hundred years since he had needed more then a single move to defeat an oponent

But when he saw our heroine he froze. Nothing about her made sense. He expected her to have an opening or two. All true masters would leave openings to lure their oponent into a false sense of security. But here? They were countless openings, if he didn't know better he could swear that this woman didnt know how to fight at all. But no this was impossible, he couldn't smell even a hint of fear from her and he could feel how her blood was boiling in antication. There was only one expalnation. He was facing an oponnent so vastly superior that he was to her what a mere ant was to him. It was pointless to fight when he couldn't see through even a single one of her actions "At last my dream has come true. I have seen the perfect warrior. My apologies but my pride won't allow anyone else to take my life" he says and then he just kill himself releasing a wave of darkness all over the land . Every vampire in a hundred mile radius feels the death of their king and they flee in terror

The King's Hand was miserable the way she had been for the last fifty years. She had been a master blacksmith forging the best weapons in the world before the Vampire King kidnapped her and turned her into a vampire. Ever since then she had been his personal servant forced to create and maintain his weapons and to deal with his entire castle. The King only cared about being a warrior so it was just the two of them in the castle and she had to clean, she had accept tributes from all other vampires and to give them the commands of the King and a thousand other things...it was exhausting.

She had been almost happy to go on a trip to find this famous vampire hunter because frankly anything was better then maintaining a huge castle by herself and having to listen to a whiny Vampire King going on about past battles. She had not expected what they found. The girl was clearly a horny idiot without an ounce of self preservation. She expected the King to be furious and to go on a rampage but instead....he had killed himself. She just stared at the sheer idiocy of what happened only to witnes the girl start sneezing from the ashes of her master so hard that she slipped and knocked herself out. That couldn't have just happened right? The world was not this stupid right? After taking a few moments to collect herself she saw two possibilities in front of her. She could kill the idiot girl herself and try to make a name among the vampire community but she had never actually killed anybody and the thought of fighting all her life was exhausting. The other possibility was too crazy and stupid to even consider but.....what if she turned the idiot girl and presented her as the long lost Vampire Queen? Could this work?

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

Inspired by the visual language of old Ray Bradbury and Stephen King paperbacks, Justin Metz created this illustration, which may be the first cover without a headline or typography in The Atlantic’s 167-year history. :: The Atlantic

* * * *

Trump suffers emotional break; media pretends it didn’t happen

September 9, 2024

Robert B. Hubbell

Something remarkable happened in American politics over the last two weeks. A major party candidate for president suffered what can only be described as an emotional break or medical emergency that resulted in a sudden acceleration in the deterioration of his already deteriorating cognitive abilities and further loss of control over his delusional impulses. But you wouldn’t know it from reading the stories in the major media outlets—that are obsessing over horse-race polls and debate prognostication.

No, this isn’t just another rant about media coverage. We are at an inflection point: Either the media will meet the moment, or it will abandon the very democracy that creates the conditions that allow it to flourish. Whether the media meets that challenge is no longer our problem. It is a waste of emotional energy and precious time to worry about it. We have real work to do: That of convincing other Americans of the profound unfitness of Donald Trump and his unique threat to democracy.

Against all logic, decency, and common sense, the presidential race remains effectively tied (although Kamala Harris has the momentum, which is a good sign with less than 60 days until election day). Sadly, many Americans will vote for Trump because he is unhinged and out of control. He is an avatar for their anger. It is not a productive use of our time to focus on those voters.

But a substantial portion of the electorate remains undecided. Many say they don’t know enough about our current vice president to vote for her—although they are open to persuasion. Our target is the persuadable undecided voters and those who can’t bring themselves to vote for Trump but aren’t sure they can vote for Kamala Harris.

The media would be sounding the alarm with unremitting urgency in a world with a functioning press. But the media has concluded that it can generate more revenue by keeping the presidential race close. The believe that declaring one candidate to be an unfit megalomaniac at every opportunity would grow tiresome.

So, it is up to us. We must be warriors for the truth. And that means understanding what we have just witnessed over the last two weeks. Yes, it is unpleasant and enervating. We want to look away. That is what Trump wants. He wants us to be weary to the point of numbness and surrender. We cannot let that happen.

As soon as Kamala Harris became the presumptive nominee, Trump began racist and misogynistic attacks unparalleled in the sordid history of American political campaigns. He questioned Kamala Harris’s racial identify and accused her of engaging in sexual acts to succeed as a politician. And then it got worse.

Heather Cox Richardson’s column on Saturday describes the increasing velocity of Trump's descent into madness over the last week, especially his speeches over the weekend. See September 7, 2024 - by Heather Cox Richardson. HCR’s column moved many readers to post Comments in the Sunday edition of this newsletter. HCR writes, in part,

But today’s speech struck me as different from his past performances, distinguished for what sounded like desperation. Trump has always invented his stories from whole cloth, but there used to be some way to tie them to reality. Today that seemed to be gone. He was in a fantasy world, and his rhetoric was apocalyptic. It was also bloody in ways that raise huge red flags for scholars of fascism. [¶¶] [Trump said,] “I better win or you're gonna have problems like we've never had. We may have no country left. This may be our last election. You want to know the truth? People have said that. This may be our last election…. It’ll all be over, and you gotta remember…. Trump is always right. I hate to be right. I’m always right.” [¶¶] Whatever has caused it, Trump seems utterly off his pins, embracing wild conspiracy theories and, as his hopes of winning the election appear to be crumbling, threatening vengeance with a dogged fury that he used to be able to hide.

I urge you to read HCR’s entire column for an exposition of Trump's weekend speeches.

But it gets worse.

After his Saturday speeches, Trump posted the worst fascistic, ugly, megalomaniacal threat ever made by an American politician. He threatened to prosecute his opponents if he wins the 2024 election:

CEASE & DESIST: I, together with many Attorneys and Legal Scholars, am watching the Sanctity of the 2024 Presidential Election very closely because I know, better than most, the rampant Cheating and Skullduggery that has taken place by the Democrats in the 2020 Presidential Election. It was a Disgrace to our Nation! Therefore, the 2024 Election, where Votes have just started being cast, will be under the closest professional scrutiny and, WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON'T! Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country.

To be clear, Trump is threatening—in advance—to impose “long-term prison sentences .. . . never before seen in this country” on lawyers, election officials, donors, voters, and politicians whom Trump views as opponents.

We must pause on the madness of Trump's threats. They are delusional. The election hasn’t occurred, and he is planning to jail people over fictional cheating. He is using fascistic threats to dissuade eligible voters and election officials from engaging in the election process by suggesting that they will be “sought out, caught, and prosecuted”—as if the legal system is his personal instrument of revenge.

The combined effect of Trump's speech and post on Saturday should have been a watershed moment for journalists covering politics in America. For most of Sunday, no major media outlet commented on the deranged nature of Trump's speech or his post. Mid-afternoon on Sunday, both the Times and WaPo had posted stories about the threats—in the politics section of their coverage. Apparently, neither outlet believes that overt threats of retribution over non-existent election fraud rise to the level of “general news.”

What did rise to the level of “general news”? New polling by the NYTimes, which claimed the race is effectively tied. Although the Times’s results put Trump slightly ahead in the margin of error, its results were an outlier. How did the Times respond to the fact that its results were inconsistent with the trend of polling? It declared that its poll was “high quality,” while other polls taken since the convention in the race were of inferior quality. “There simply haven’t been many high-quality surveys fielded since the convention, when Ms. Harris was riding high.”

So, on a day when Trump's preemptive threat to jail election officials for non-existent fraud should have been the lead story with 48 POINT FONT, the Times placed itself at the center of the universe by highlighting its poll and declaring that its outlier results were correct, and all other polls were inferior.

The Guardian, as usual, distinguished itself by calling out Trump's deranged behavior as its lead story. See The Guardian, Trump threatens to jail adversaries for ‘unscrupulous behavior’ if he wins.

Perhaps Monday will bring a wave of condemnation and attention that was beyond the capabilities of major media over the weekend. That would be a welcome development. But regardless of whether that happens, it does not excuse us from the task of raising the alarm about Trump's threat to democracy. While we cannot limit our message to the threat to democracy, neither can we normalize or dismiss it or look away.

If we do not convince Americans that Trump is the greatest danger to democracy our nation has ever faced, then every policy proposal designed to improve the lives of all Americans will be meaningless.

It is a tough task to focus on the threat of Trump and the promise of Kamala Harris. But here we are. We must do both. And we aren’t going to get the help we deserve from the media. We must be bold; we must be willing to step outside of our comfort zone; we must speak the truth in words of one syllable (or shorter, if possible).

It seems improbable that the media can continue to ignore Trump's descent into madness and megalomania. But it seems improbable that they have done so to this point. But let’s not invest emotional energy worrying whether they will. It’s up to us. It always has been. But the stakes are higher than they have ever been.

[Robert B. Hubbell Newsletter]

[slavic-roots-western-mind]

My top Russian Tv-Shows

Despite this being mainly a mandarinblr, I still try to practise my other languages so here are some of the most interesting tv-shows in russian for my fellow russian-learners and speakers and anyone interested.

Kitchen - Кухня This show has several spin-offs including Hotel Eleon and Grand which I will not mention as by the end of the last spin-off there are literally no characters from the original cast and the plot slightly goes of the rails. The actual show is set a french restaurant in Moscow where Max Lavrov, who just finished his military service decided to work at. The show follows the various challenges that Max faces at his new workplace, including the foul-tempered but very talented Chef Viktor Barinov who has a drinking problem and other interesting characters. It's quite funny and heart-warming, and it's a must-watch imo.

Youth - Молодёжка A pretty standard sports series tv plot. The hockey-team "Bears" are a meh team at best, but that all changes when a former National Hockey League player turned coach shows up to make a proper team out of them. I only watched the first season because after that the plot got a tad boring for me, but as far as sports series go, pretty good.

Law of the Lawless (Not the 1964 film!) - Бригада A cult-classic staple of only 15 episodes. The plot is a bit over the place at the beginning, as opening episodes sequence is a flashback to the start of the final episode but after that it's chronological, with the first episode w english subtitles here. 4 best friends start out as youths from early 1990s to 2000s, with one returning home after finishing his army service with plans for uni and the others just starting their lives. However, the Perestroika had significantly changed their lives, so eventually the gang turns from racketeering and petty crime to slowly becoming the mafia. The opening theme is worth watching alone, but then again I'm biased.

How I became Russian - Как я стал русским This comedy show is quite dear to me, as it follows an American journalist with russian and slavic roots navigating life and work in Russia as he works on a story about life in Russia for a major newspaper back home. He's back in his homeland but as a foreigner who finds his heritage utterly confusing. This series resonates with me, as despite having a good grasp of my cultures languages and customs, I still feel disconnected from my heritage at times, and this show has been a reassuring reminder that not being 100% attuned with your heritage is okay, and that there are many different ways of re-connecting with your culture.

Closed school - Закрытая Школа I was slightly tramuatized by this show when I first watched it 4ish years ago, in part due to how unhinged and off the rails the plot slowly but surely becomes. A descent into madness. Andrei and his sister are sent to study at the Logos boarding school, but are then informed that their parents have perished. Andrei doesn't believe this, so he sets off to investigate with his new friends and investigate he does. There are also some other background shenanigans going on, but the unraveling of the schools mystery remains the main interest, including its odd passageways and deeply disturbing history. As a thriller series, it honestly deserves that title.

Here are some shows that came out more recently that I think deserve a mention.

The Boy's Word: Blood on the Asphalt- Слова пацана кровь на осфальте I've only seen a few episodes out of the 8, but it's very Brigada-esque so far. During the mid-late 1980s when Perestroika is going on and the USSR is soon to be no more, 14 year old Andrei is trying to survive as he's constantly bullied at school and by gang-members. He makes friends with one of said gang members Marat, as he slowly descends into the world of street life. I'll finish watching this series sometime probably.

The new guy - Новенький 16-year old Max moves from his glamorous life in Moscow to a small-town Yurovsk due to his parents constant arguing, where he immediately doesn't get along with his clasmmates who think him stuck-up and start bullying him. One day Max goes missing and his classmates are the obvious suspects, as slowly but surely secrets start to emerge revealing everyone's lies. A pretty good suspense/thriller show, which covers the topics of bullying, coming of age and what it means to be an adult pretty well, despite the 4th and final season being kind of lackluster.

Central Russia's Vampires - Вампиры средней полосы Where to even begin with this show. I don't know whether I should introduce the trailer or the opening theme song mv. Basically the life of a small and unconventional vampire family living in Smolensk, presumably in central Russia, who get disturbed when bodies with distinct bite marks are found nearby. This results in the Guardians (aka the guys keeping vampires a secret and ensuring that no one acts out) taking over and investigating with the vampire leader Svyatoslav Vernidubovich given a week to find and punish the culprit. My odd plot description aside, the cast is why I adore this show. The recently turned Gen-Z wannabe blogger Zhenyok, the thousand year old grandpa Svyatoslav, the constantly annoyed Dr. Zhan Ivanovich (who is actually french and decided to hang around after Napoleon was defeated) and his ex-wife The Countess who honestly should have a spin-off show and many more characters.

Doomsday - Конец Света Satan decides to come back to Earth and start the apocalypse, for which he needs his son Dimyan who should become the Antichrist but to his dismay, Dimyan doesn't really care about world domination and money, he just wants to get married to his fiancee Galya and live happily ever after. Chaos ensues as satan tries to persuade Dimyan to join him, whilst Angel vs Demon shenanigans occur in the background. I honestly had no idea that this type of show could even be produced due to the censors and yet it was. It's kind of slightly similar to Good Omens with all the apocalypse stuff and the Angels and Demons eventually teaming up? Good Omens adjacent. Except more gritty with much darker humour. The actor who plays satan is Yuri Kolokolnikov who actually starred in game of thrones so if you're a fan of his acting, do try this show.

Alisa can't wait - Алиса не может ждать Alisa is a 15-16 (don't remember her exact age) year old girl who is going blind and she decides to do something really drastic to ensure that her life will be comfortable after she loses all sight. There's a noticeable build-up to what she's actually planning during the episodes, as her homelife is less than ideal, with her older sister stuck in an unhappy marriage and a turbulent relationship with her parents. This is one of the few shows that really left a deep impression on me but it deals with some very sensitive and potentially upsetting topics so be aware if you're giving it a go.

This list may be updated in the future, so if there are any other shows that I may have missed do share them!

[kismetconstellations]

I loved your post on Shiro and there's so much I agree on with it. Now I'm interested in seeing your take on Keith for the character game plz!!! ❤❤❤

Aww, bless your heart. Thank you! I'm glad you found something to enjoy in all of my heavily biased, opinionated, and probably unhinged rambling. ^///^'

I'll give it a go, but, just a small warning/disclaimer in advance:

I have not watched Seasons Three through Six in their entirety. I am vaguely aware of certain developments from these seasons, thanks to my interaction with fanworks incorporating them, but I cannot offer any sort of detailed analyses based on events exclusive to them. For example, I can't comment on Keith's relationships with the Blades in any meaningful way, as I'm only familiar with his interactions with them in Seasons Two, Seven, and Eight.

My answers for Keith are not going to be anywhere near as in-depth as they were for Shiro, since I watched this show for Shiro. But, I will respond to every question to the best of my ability.

1. Why do you like or dislike this character?

I like Keith because of the hidden depths to his character. Superficially, he's the hot-headed loner stereotype. He's a "discipline case". He stole the car of a renowned ace pilot sent to recruit students for the local military academy. He spent a number of years in the foster care system after being orphaned at a relatively young age, carries a knife on his person at all times, and doesn't take well to being challenged or having his abilities called into question. He's prone to rash decision-making and acting on impulse, and will lash out and say callous, hurtful things that he doesn't truly mean in the heat of the moment. ("Are we even friends?")

But, he craves love and acceptance from the people around him, even when his instinct is to push them away for self-preservation's sake. He scarfs down his food like he's never going to get another chance to eat, again. He can be a bit slow to pick up on the meanings of certain concepts or ideas, and some aspects of socialization are completely lost on him (not comprehending Lance's "Voltron" cheer). He likes cute things in a reserved, understated sort of way. He likes hugs.

Though he'd never admit it.

He's rash and quick-tempered, but it comes from a place of passion; from a strong sense of justice, and desire to protect the ones he cares about at any cost.

2. Favorite canon thing about this character?

That he's very much a semi-feral cat in human form. Shiro is his Person, the one who earned his trust and unwavering devotion, and he's slowly learned to open himself up to trusting others, but he'll still bite someone's finger off if they're not Shiro and have the misfortune of making him angry.

3. Least favorite canon thing about this character?

He seems to have lost some of his internal fire in an effort on the part of the writers to turn him into Discount Shiro.

Shiro is "retired" from his position as Black Paladin and head of Voltron, and sidelined completely through no choice of his own because Keith has taken over his role on the team.

Keith gets to kill Shiro's personal tormentor after Shiro couldn't so much as best Sendak in combat.

Season Eight has Keith retreading ground that Shiro already tread, laying into Zarkon about his being unworthy of piloting the Black Lion and Paladinship. Even though that exact confrontation between current and former Black Paladin had already been handled in a much more impactful manner back in Season Two, when it was Shiro engaging Zarkon in a hand-to-hand fight inside of the Black Lion's inner quintessence while the Black Lion, herself, spectated and had the final say in who was the victor.

Not only did Shiro and Zarkon's conflict have higher stakes, both narratively and for the characters, as Zarkon was actually still alive and an active threat to the universe, rather than existing inside of Haggar/Honerva's head, Shiro and Zarkon had history. Shiro was imprisoned and held captive, forced to fight in the gladiatorial arena, on Zarkon's ship. Zarkon was able to wrest control of the Black Lion out from under Shiro mid-battle on multiple occasions, and used his persisting connection to the Black Lion to track Voltron down across multiple galaxies.

These two finally getting to face one another on the battlefield was a longtime coming. It had proper build-up, felt completely earned, and provided all parties involved (Shiro, Zarkon, the Black Lion, and the viewer) ample reason to be invested in the outcome.

It was also a visual treat, with dynamic, impressively animated choreography and physics highly reminiscent of Saiyan battles in Dragonball Z, against a gorgeous backdrop.

Contrast that with Keith yelling at a Mega Zarkon inside of Haggar/Honerva's head, because the showrunners had to artificially up the ante somehow, while standing stock still against a backdrop that isn't nearly as stunning.

And, the Black Lion immediately coming to his aid when Mega Zarkon decides to strike,

instead of watching as her Paladin is slowly strangled until he says the right thing that convinces her that he is worthy.

Keith had Shiro's essence teach him how to "see through the Lion's eyes" in order to unlock the Black Lion's wings,

something Shiro, himself, had to fight to figure out with no one other than the Black Lion guiding him.

Despite Shiro's bond with the Black Lion being the strongest bond between human Paladin and Lion, indisputably and unquestionably, Post-Resurrection Shiro has no connection to her at all. He's a silent passenger in her cockpit, or the cockpit of whichever other Paladin-Lion pair chose to carry him. He might as well not be present at all for all of the acknowledgement and deference he's given by both his found family, and the show, itself.

None of this is Keith's fault. But, it's difficult not to feel some measure of anger, watching him usurp Shiro's role entirely, while Shiro is sequestered off on his own ship to be nerfed and disrespected for a full thirteen episode season. Especially when Keith is younger and able-bodied and easily achieves or has handed to him things that Shiro fought with all of his might only to either fall short of (defeating Sendak), or barely scrape by on the skin of his teeth (cementing his bond with the Black Lion to unlock her ultimate power). Keith's success at Shiro's expense only serves to further fuel the noxious ageism and disgusting ableism perpetuated by this show and its fanbase.

And, Keith's own personality seemed to suffer for it. Perhaps it's meant to be character growth, but he seems so flat, void of the traits that made him distinctly Keith, throughout Seasons Seven and Eight, following Season Seven's opener. I'm positive there are passionate fans who could and have elaborated on this with the detail and insight necessary to fully illustrate the dearth of Keithness. But, I think it says something that even someone like me, who watched this show for Shiro and skipped over nearly four entire seasons due to the absence of him, picked up on the less-than-satisfactory change.

4. If you could put this character in any other media, be it a book, a movie, anything, what would you put them in?

A shonen anime series, either Sci-Fi or Isekai, where he can be the hero who reluctantly heeds the call of Destiny and pull off risky, reckless maneuvers on a futuristic vehicle, and/or masterfully take down foes with a great big sword, to his hearts' content.

5. What’s the first song that comes to mind when you think about them?

"Hold On", by Chord Overstreet; only because of this Keith/Shiro video.

6. What’s something you have in common with this character?

I, too, love dogs and would die for Takashi Shirogane.

7. What’s something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like?

Treating him like the competent adult he actually is. The one who lived on his own in a shack in the middle of the desert for a year, and set off bombs to distract Garrison security personnel while he snuck inside of the quarantine zone to figure out what they were up to. Before even realizing they had a miraculously alive Shiro sedated and strapped to a table.

8. What’s something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?

Feminizing and infantilizing him, always in service of a ship. Keith has moments of emotional vulnerability, because he's meant to be a multi-faceted human/alien hybrid. That does not make him a weepy blushing "uwu" uke who sobs, wails, and cries while being choked and split open on Lance or Shiro's intimate parts and calling them "daddy".

He's a semi-feral cat in human form. He'd more than likely use his teeth, inflicting serious damage on those very sensitive parts, should someone try to make him choke on them, and I can't see him ever wanting to be sexually dominated by anyone. Putting aside that Shiro is a bottom and would never, Keith would sock Lance or any other man square on the jaw, or drive his knee or foot into an even more vulnerable area, for so much as trying to pin him down and make him "take it".

And, I know this is a popular headcanon and the show, itself, tried to lend credence to it by having Krolia thank "Kuron" for looking after Keith for her, but Shiro did not "raise" Keith. Shiro was an ambitious ace pilot in his very early twenties, contemplating the prospect of engagement and marriage to his long-term partner while their relationship began to unravel, battling a terminal degenerative illness, and planning to pilot a voyage into deep space. When was he meant to have found the time amidst all of this to have adopted or parented a preteen/early adolescent?

He and Keith were close, as a mentor/protege and friends typically would be, but Keith certainly didn't look to Shiro to be a stand-in or surrogate for his father. Nor did Shiro view Keith as his son. Keith confronting Shiro over Shiro's attempt to conceal his illness from him plays out exactly the way a confrontation between two peers who view each other as equals would.

Keith marches up to Shiro without so much as a greeting, very abrupt, direct, and upfront, unafraid of castigation or reprisal. The opposite of what one would expect from a cadet approaching his senior officer, or any kid confronting an adult authority figure about a perceived deception.

Likewise, Shiro steps down to put himself on the same level as Keith.

While maintaining a respectful physical distance, Keith leans forward into Shiro's space, resolutely standing his ground and refusing to let Shiro hide or deflect.

And, Shiro ultimately gives in and chooses to be honest with him, rather than pulling rank and brushing Keith off, telling him that everything's fine, or it's none of Keith's business, and treating him like a child.

Their relationship can't be so simply and neatly classified. Though Keith does refer to Shiro as his "brother", there's enough ambiguity there to be threatening (see Keith tenderly touching Shiro's face

and pausing over Shiro as if he intended to kiss him

), and I think that's why very specific shippers dilute Shiro into Keith's parental figure, even going as far as interpreting Shiro and Keith as, or outright making them biologically related. It's a transparent attempt to rule out any possibility of a romance between them while pretending to pay perfunctory tribute to their bond.

As if these shippers actually care about it or Shiro in any way, shape, or form.

And, it's sincerely grating to have to scroll past.

9. Could you be roommates with this character?

I see no reason why I couldn't be. Though, I don't think my cat would get along with Kosmo very well.

10. Could you be best friends with this character?

Once again, I would be too nervous to approach him.

11. Would you date this character?

No. He's way too young for me.

12. What’s a headcanon you have for this character?

I have to go with the fairly popular(?) fanon reading that Keith falls somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Canon seems to back this by some degree, with the aforementioned "I say 'Vol', you say--" "Vol-tron?", and showing Keith covering his ears and closing his eyes on the carnival ride he and Hunk get stuck on, as if suffering from overstimulation.

13. What’s an emoji, an emoticon and/or any symbol that reminds you of this character or you think the character would use a lot?

▬▬ι═══════ﺤ

14. Assign a fashion aesthetic to this character.

Probably cliche and expected, but... Biker Aesthetic. Leather jacket in black or red, fingerless gloves on his hands, of course, tight jeans, perhaps with a tear or two in the legs, and heeled boots.

He'd also definitely wear hoodies and hooded jackets with drawstrings, so he can pull the hood over his head and secure it tightly when he's feeling overstimulated and wants to shut out the world.

15. What’s your favorite ship for this character? (Doesn’t matter if it’s canon or not.)

Keith/Shiro. Their love for each other is legitimately, canonically death-defying.

"Keith, I was dreaming. Keith... you saved me." "We saved each other."

I get emotional every time.

16. What’s your least favorite ship for this character?

The portmanteau starts with a 'K', and rhymes with pants.

17. What’s a ship for this character you don’t hate but it’s not your favorite that you’re fine with?

I think Keith/Acxa is interesting and has potential, and I kind of wish the show would have done more with Keith/Allura than the brief ship tease we got in The Ark of Taujeer.

18. How about a relationship they have in canon with another character that you admire?

I think Keith and Hunk's friendship is very sweet, Keith and Kosmo are adorable, and in a purely platonic sense, Keith and Lance do have their moments (that I don't reflexively tune out because the fandom has caused me to dread any interaction between them.)

19. How about a relationship they have in canon that you don’t like?

Nothing comes to mind.

20. Which other character is the ideal best friend for this character, the amount of screentime they share doesn’t matter?

I think Keith has some pretty solid friendships as is.

21. If you’re a fic writer and have written for this character, what’s your favorite thing to do when you’re writing for this character? What’s something you don’t like?

I like how concise, direct, and to the point Keith is. He doesn't meander, or waffle, or embellish, or put on airs. He says exactly what he means to say the first time, and doesn't put up a facade for anyone.

I've yet to find something I dislike about writing for him.

22. If you’re a fic reader, what’s something you like in fics when it comes to this character? Something you don’t like?

I like when he's actually written faithfully to his canon characterization, scrappy and slightly rough around the edges, but fiercely loving and possessing a strong- if sometimes somewhat misguided- sense of justice.

I hate when he's infantilized and portrayed as a soft, weepy, fragile child in fics that are meant to take place during the show's main timeline. It comes across as borderline fetishistic, and kind of creeps me out. Especially when he's being paired with Shiro and the author continues to emphasize how "delicate" and "small" he is in contrast to Shiro's strength and size.

23. Favorite picture of this character?

24. What other character from another fandom of yours that reminds you of them?

Just as Shiro reminds me very much of the 2003 iteration of Leonardo, Keith invokes 2003 TMNT's Raphael. Short-tempered, always ready and raring to deliver a well-deserved beatdown, prone to acting rashly, strong sense of justice, intense, unbreakable bond with his team leader.

The major difference is, aside from Keith and Shiro not butting heads like Raph and Leo frequently do (and obviously not being siblings), Raphael never lost his internal fire over the course of the series, no matter what trauma he endured.

The same cannot be said for Keith.

25. What was your first impression of this character? How about now?

I can't recall my first impression of him, truth be told. Now... Admittedly, I'm not quite as taken with his character as I sort of hoped I would be, given how he's portrayed in well-written fanfiction. I like him just fine, but...

Maybe it's the product of me being overexposed to him by a fandom that is utterly obsessed with shoving the milquetoast pairing of him and his "rival" down everyone's throats. Or the fact that he's made to usurp Shiro's role, to the point that some of his fans openly wish that Shiro would have remained dead in service of Keith's character arc.

Regardless of the reason, Keith kind of doesn't do much for me. Strange for someone who happily ships him with their favorite to say, but that's the reality of it.

----

Thank you so much for the submission! I hope my answers were somewhat satisfactory, and not completely incendiary. (I'm not really equipped to handle torches and pitchforks.)

[deuceysims]

Somehow I only just noticed the cave paintings here. I'll pretend they're hers.

[belle-keys]

My Hogwarts House book recs

Okay, ever since some of my favorite booktubers made posts like these many a year ago, I always wanted to make a book rec list like this because I still genuinely do like the Hogwarts Houses. Enjoy!

Gryffindor

Graceling by Kristen Cashore - she walked so these new fantasy girlies could run, fantasy kingdom with assassin main character, the original ya high fantasy killer girlboss imo

A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin - all of the sympathetic leads are classic heroes (dany, jon, arya), adventure and politics and battle and dragons, nuanced outlooks on honor

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah - ww2 novel, deals with the french resistance during the occupation, hit every spot in my cold black heart, emphasis on sisterhood and endurance

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - what is bravery if not a broke woman telling a rich man to get a grip, og strong female lead overcoming many challenges, criticisms of polite society

Hufflepuff

Crave by Tracy Wolff - big on found family, paranormal romance shenanigans in a boarding school, somewhat satire, unserious and just very wholesome, steeped in nostalgia uwu

All My Rage by Sabaa Tahir - unapologetically written to heal and explore trauma, cathartic, wholesome and pure relationships, emphasis on self-growth and overcoming abuse and pain

The Stationery Shop by Marjan Kamali - historical, about the value of relationships in war and hardship, themes of growth and acceptance and promises, beautiful story

The Foxhole Court by Nora Sakavic - what happens when you let a bunch of mentally ill kids play a made up sport, angsty but feels like a big hug, contemporary fiction, just genius ok

Ravenclaw

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake - very slytherclaw, philosophy and physics as the basis, dark academia urban fantasy, character-driven, multiple POVs, morally grey academics

Babel by RF Kuang - this book has been likened to a history textbook, by a nerd girlie for the nerd girlies, linguistics and languages, super well-researched, condemns colonization

Disorientation by Elain Hsieh Chou - witty and sharp narration and dialogue, set in academia and deals with east asian literature, satire and black comedy, explores racial fetishization

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov - only a ravenclaw could appreciation its complexity, so many literary references, stylistically immaculate, lots of room to debate its message and themes

Slytherin

Vicious by VE Schwab - perfect moral quandaries demonstrated here, everyone is morally dark grey, supervillains, very angsty and also profound at times, dark academia

The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde - my man makes a deal with the devil for eternal youth and beauty, everyone here is morally dubious, murder and orgies and philosophy

Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn - exhausted woman does what she needs to do, female rage book, does some interesting things with pov, justified evil, amy dunne is insane and it's great

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao - tired chinese woman does what she needs to do and kills men, very unhinged queen behavior, ambition and god complexes, pacific rim but in china

[lol-jackles]

I'm rewatching spn and Jared 's portrayal of Sam when possessed by demon Meg in season 2 I think is sooo good! He really appears unhinged when he comes out as the demon, and even the scenes where Sam (possessed by Meg) is acting like Sam, are so wicked. I think this is the first episode where Jared sort of portrays a character who is not Sam (in mind, body and spirit) and he really does a wonderful job.

With Dean's character I've noticed that whenever he is in mortal danger, like making the year long deal to save sam's life, or the mark of cain arc, or being possessed by Michael arc, and many many more arcs in the later season, Dean just completely gives up on himself and on life. I HATE this attitude with every cell of my being! MORE than Dean being codependent on Sam and not letting him live his life without Dean. I hate this defeatist attitude so much. And then everyone else around him has to worry for him and take care of him and find resolutions for his issues. While with Sam, he doesn't give up till his last fighting breath. I love that!

 Meg!Sam was probably the first time when casual watchers sat up and go, "whoa, the kid can act!". When Meg and Castiel became a canon couple, I thought it was a huge missed opportunity that Meg didn't possess Sam again and gift us scenes of Castiel swooning after a flirty Meg!Sam.

Yeah, Dean's defeatist attitude was a plot device that can get tiresome, starting in season 5. Still, it was a plot device that usually works as part of Sam's hero journy arc.

From Sam’s point of view, Dean’s endless self-inflicted apathy is part of the long list of crappy-things-to-do-to-Sam.  Like in episode 13x05, Dean temporarily killing himself so he can go into the dead zone to find the bodies and free the souls, while a good idea (I guess???), was still a very crappy thing to do to Sam as there was no discussion, just “here’s a needle give me five minutes being dead okay see you later.”  It’s been ongoing since season 2, so I don’t blame Sam in season 14 for thinking the Mal'ex magic box business is just the latest in a long string of events of Dean causing himself harm and then giving up at the first inconvenience.  Sam’s angry speech in episode 14x11 “Damaged Goods” was not only about Dean cutting Sam out of his plan with no discussion but also for giving up by using blind faith in fate as an excuse (“since when do we believe in fate?”).  Sam’s speech in episode 14x12 “Prophet and Loss” recounts their long history of defying fate and surviving literal and figurative hell because they had faith in themselves. Dean is forgiven for forgetting this lesson every season because the plot device kicks in just in time to give us some of Jared's finest acting of Sam’s decade-long frustrations with Dean’s obstinance, causing him to breakdown and ask, “why don’t you believe in us?”, like a child asking why adults do stupid things when the adults should know better. 

Dean's defeatist attitude is part of the determinism (Dean) vs free will (Sam) philosophy that ran through the series by Sam confronting and challenging the authority figures in his life: John Winchester, Dean Winchester, Lucifer, and then God. They all wanted Sam to be something he didn’t want to be - John’s solider, Dean’s companion, Lucifer’s vessel, and Chuck's story.  Eventually, Sam acquiesced to their demands but on his own terms, he became a hunter to leave a legacy, became Dean’s partner to save him, became Lucifer’s vessel to save the world, became Chuck's story to defeat him and bring free will into the world through Jack, a nephilim he essentially raised and influenced.

Dean: "Finally free"

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Eric Bradner, Alayna Treene, and Kristen Holmes at CNN:

A 17-day stretch with few parallels in American history has upended what looked to Donald Trump’s campaign like a clear path to victory when the former president stepped on the Republican convention stage in Milwaukee. In that moment, a unified Republican Party had rallied around Trump after he survived an assassination attempt. His opponent, President Joe Biden, faced sagging poll numbers, sluggish fundraising and intraparty concerns over his own viability that were reaching a fever pitch.

And then the 2024 presidential race was turned on its head. Trump went off-script and into attack mode in his Thursday night speech to close the GOP convention, delivering sharply partisan remarks that undercut the calls for unity that had preceded him. Three days later, Biden exited the race. By that Monday evening, Democrats had so quickly coalesced around Vice President Kamala Harris that she had effectively cemented the nomination – and was well on her way to shattering fundraising records. Amid the newfound enthusiasm among Democrats, Trump’s campaign found itself grappling with unwelcome scrutiny over past comments his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, had made disparaging “childless cat ladies.” At the same time, Trump’s campaign was struggling to find a consistent line of attack against Harris – a challenge that culminated with Trump’s appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ convention in Chicago on Wednesday.

The former president seemed to abandon any pretense of a disciplined message and ignited controversy by spouting falsehoods about Harris’ racial heritage, claiming that the vice president – the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica – now “wants to be known as Black” after years of “only promoting Indian heritage.” His campaign then dug in and repeated those false attacks. Now, the 2024 race is in flux. Harris has erased Trump’s polling and fundraising advantage over Biden. The former president’s hopes of narrowing the Democratic advantage among Black and Latino voters are in question. And how voters will react to the Trump attacks reminiscent of 2016 is uncertain. [...] The campaign whirlwind of the past two weeks has left Democrats who had been dejected suddenly feeling a fresh sense of optimism, while Republicans wonder whether the unity from weeks ago will return in the closing chapter of the race – and hope that Trump and his allies can refocus on what’s now a much different challenge.

Going into the RNC in the immediate aftermath of the assassination attempt against Donald Trump, Trump’s campaign was riding high and appearing nigh unstoppable, as the Democrats had a dilemma of whether to keep or replace Joe Biden as the nominee.

But in that week, and ever since, Trump pissed away all the momentum and advantage he had by picking J.D. Vance as his ticketmate, made an unhinged stinker of an RNC speech after starting off on a unifying note, and his campaign flailing to respond to the replacement of Biden as the Democratic nominee in favor of Kamala Harris that has fired up Democrats.

[cloverskentwells]

random snippet of a 73rd Games Victor Cato AU that probably wont see the light of day. For context: Cato is the D2M Tribute in Catching Fire instead of Brutus, and Katniss has vivid memories of his Games.

---

The Recap then transitions to District 2. Onstage stands the typical Victors I would expect from a Career District. To the right is Enobaria Salinas: obsidian hair cascading down her back in perfectly styled waves, baring her sharpened teeth to the world, dark eyes glowing embers of an emotion I would describe as excitement. A Two Victor being thrilled to reenter the Arena - no surprises there.

Next to her is a younger yet much larger man, eyebrows raised at the crowd as if arrogantly challenging them, jaw clenched tight, cold blue eyes looking directly at the camera with the obvious desire to intimidate. I know him because he's a recent Victor - Cato Hadley, from the Games before mine and Peeta's.

He was infamous for his terrifying brutality and unhinged nature, for how the necks of his fellow Tributes were little more than twigs in his unforgiving grip. What set him apart from his peers, however, was his unorthodox reaction to his District partner's death - Careers are no stranger to violence, and the Packs typically fight amongst themselves for the right to the crown once everyone else is gone.

Although I try to forget the Games after the mandatory watching as soon as they are over, for some reason his stayed with me, probably because it was so unusual. Watching him kneel beside his fallen partner and gently brush her bloodstained hair away from her face, hands shaky, begging her to stay with him, almost made him appear normal, like the rest of us.

Of course, he quickly returned to violence afterwards, and thankfully any misplaced feelings of sympathy I had faded. The Tribute who had killed Cato's partner was subjected to a more intense aggression than any of the others, but otherwise Cato might as well have been just like any other Two Victor. Even now, separated by a TV screen, I feel the fearful effects of his gaze locked on me, promising a sadistic end.

"He's one to watch out for," Haymitch seems to agree, but something in his voice softens.

"What was that girl's name? The one he went in with, who died?" Peeta's curiosity spreads to me, and I wait for an answer. The train speeds across the rails in a soothing glide motion, designed to prevent motion sickness, but acrid bile rises in my throat nonetheless.

"Clove," I whisper as I recall the name. He screamed it back to her when she called for his help, desperation making his voice crack. Also, I remember he did an interview with Caesar last year to promote his own Tributes, and the conversation somehow derailed to the swirl of dark ink across his chest that was made visible by the V neckline of his shirt. His face went completely white when Caesar commented on how his tattoo, evidently of her name, was "such a sweet way to pay homage to a dead partner."

Needless to say, he wasn't interviewed again. Why exactly I noticed any of this, I'm not sure.

"He and Clove had a history," is all the information Haymitch gives us. "And now he's going back in. Young, fresh from his previous Victory, and still as strong and Trained. A little crazier too. Stay as far away from him as you can, probably for your safety."

"I was planning on it," I mutter. Nothing good ever came from extended contact with a Career. Still, now I can't shake the image of him and that girl dying in his arms from my mind.

[bunchofstraydogs]

@nihilo-sensei Sorry for the late response, i gave up on writing lmao.

I see where you’re coming from, but to be honest, I don’t see BEAST!Atsushi and Kyōka joining canon verse ADA. B!Atsushi is, at best, unhinged. Far more than canon Atsushi ever was. Some things in our lives get so deeply engraved into our souls, that it becomes our nature. Beast Atsushi isn’t good, nor inherently evil, he’s just wild. Feral, actually, would be the perfect word to describe him. You can’t have someone as bloodthirsty, terrified, and unstable in ADA. They’re a detective agency that first and foremost have a duty to protect the public, not a sanctuary for the mistreated. While they comprise of such people, Beast Atsushi would be more of a liability, despite him being a far better and more competent fighter than canon Atsushi.

And where Atsushi goes, so does Kyoka, and that hasn’t changed.

For canon and beast SSKK meeting, i will remove everyone else from the equation and focus on these chuckleheads.

Beast SSKK doesn’t have the same dynamic and connection canon SSKK does. This fact mainly affects how Chuuyas would perceive the other two. And among the four of them, only B!Dazai would have a clear understanding of the situation.

Let’s start with Dazai. Beast Dazai is vastly different than canon Dazai. In canon, Dazai was set off on a better path by Odasaku. He’s also grown to care about people and doing relatively right by them. He also lives because he doesn’t want his death to hurt others. He has a goal, he has done good (he’s far from being good, though), and people depend on him.

Beast Dazai, on the other hand, while knowing the other side of things, is entirely whacked in the head and selfish. Obsessed, even. He also never had Oda in his life, only knew him from memories that weren’t even his. He is far colder than canon Dazai (not that the canon one is a ray of sunshine). While he did steer the mafia to protect people from the shadows, his only goal was to make certain that Oda lives and becomes the author he wanted. That, and to be friends with Odasaku, something that seems to be impossible for him. He never truly cared much about the rest.

Dazais wouldn’t take well to each other. I am certain Beast Dazai would actually hate canon Dazai on some level for getting to experience friendship with Oda and for “letting” Oda die. Canon Dazai, on the other hand, would at first look at his parallel self notice the sheer difference, the emptiness and darkness, and would see him as the biggest threat, actually. Because it’s true, his greatest enemy is, and always will be, himself. In this situation for a different reason other than his inner demons. Because who else can pose the intellectual challenge to Dazai better than Dazai. And this one in particular has the upper hand, knowing what he does.

Neither of them would concern much with Chuuya of either world, as they pose larger threat to each other.

Chuuyas, on the other hand, well. Unfortunately, we haven’t seen much of Beast Chuuya, so I don’t know how different he is not having the history with Dazai he does in canon. Nor do we know how he joined. But he appears to be the same spicy, loyal Chuuya as he is in canon. His disdain for Dazai is larger than in canon, but his loyalty is holding him in place and is aware that Dazai is above him. Canon SSKK are a duo, partners, equals, whatever have you. So the power dynamic is different.

That said, the difference in the Dazais is obvious at first glance, and both notice it.

I think that, the more those two talk and provoke each other, the more they realize how unlike the state of things are between them. That gets them even more confused and weary.

But to cut it short, Chuuyas would be able to coexist with each other.

Beast Chuuya would be annoyed with canon Dazai at most, but loyal to his Dazai and serve him in the end.

Canon Chuuya would fall into a familiar tandem with his Dazai to resolve the very big problem that Beast Dazai poses.

Beast Dazai wouldn’t care much about the situation. He’s not looking to cause a ruckus in the canon world or any tangible trouble for the other two (besides just mind fucking with them for his own amusement), as Oda is already dead in their world so any effort on his part is wasted.

And canon Dazai would hyper focus on Beast Dazai, of course not leaving Beast Chuuya out of the equation. But given the chance, he may try to play things off and annoy Beast Chuuya by “ordering” him around as he is his “boss” and tell canon Chuuya to be more like Beast one.

———

I cannot guarantee the accuracy of this text. It’s been years since I read BEAST and I definitely forgot things. It’s also been a hot moment since i last immersed myself in the franchise, so ya. Don’t take it to heart. Hope you liked it.