#what is allowing another man to arrest you SYMBOLICALLY

[vegaseatsass]

Just finished Beyond Evil. I can say with conviction that this drama contained the absolute most craziest intricate rituals to touch another man's skin that I've ever seen. Like normally I'm not that into AUs but I would read a million Beyond Evil AUs just to see authors try to capture whatever the fuck was going on between LDS and HJW in new settings.

"You PROMISED you would replace our coffee grinder that burns people but gets the job done with a fancy latte maker! You betrayed the customers, you betrayed me, I thought I meant something to you, I thought we HAD SOMETHING."

A year later, after defeating the evil corporate coffee conglomerate headed up by Han Ki-Hwan "You're - you're installing a fancy latte maker? Now? When I thought we could celebrate-grieve together? But WHY? WHY DO WE NEED A LATTE MAKER?? The customers are fine with the coffee grinder that burns them!! As long as you stay here in this coffee shop with it!! As long as this thing between us doesn't have to end...."

[hobiebrownismygod]

Let's talk about Jessica Drew - Character Analyzation/Rant (People don't like powerful women)

LOOK AT HER.

This magnificent woman sports a luscious afro while wearing 80s style clothing. Afros and natural hair in general are symbols of African American pride and embracing your African heritage. Her clothing style is very similar to the clothing style and fashion that African American women wore in the 80s.

I couldn't find a better picture, but do you see my vision? Also they are serving 🤩

She oozes culture and black power. She's a pregnant, yet badass black woman who drives a motorcycle and is proud of her heritage. Yet people dislike her. Why?

Because she's an aggressive, no-nonsense, black female character

One of the reasons people dislike Jessica Drew is because we see her reprimanding Gwen for visiting Miles, and telling her that she can't see him again. However, controversially, I think Jess was right about this. Gwen disobeyed direct orders and let her heart get in front of her head. She ignored her mission and the result of that was Spot's escape and a possibility of interdimensional unraveling. Jess had all the right to reprimand Gwen for this, because in her perspective, Gwen messed up. But even though Gwen messed up, Jess was still willing to give her another chance. She agreed not to tell Miguel, because she knew Gwen would be sent home, proving that she still had Gwen's best interests at heart and didn't want Gwen to have to go back to deal with her dad and the possibility of being arrested.

The second reason people dislike her is because she allowed Gwen to be sent back to her universe. However, people are completely forgetting the fact that she wasn't the person sending Gwen back to Earth-65. Miguel was. Jess did her best to protect Gwen, and gave Gwen numerous chances, but in the end, Gwen failed her mission and disobeyed orders, causing her to be sent home. This is not Jess's fault. People are also ignoring the fact that Peter B. Parker, a man that knew Gwen way before Jess did absolutely nothing to save Gwen from Miguel's rage. What did he do instead? He stood there and made jokes. Instead of actually addressing the situation and a girl who considered him her friend, he decided to crack a joke. Not even a funny joke. But people are blaming Jess for this. Why?

Because people don't like seeing strong, aggressive female characters. Jessica oozes confidence. She's confident in her heritage, she's confident in her capabilities and she's confident in herself. Her tone is sharp, she doesn't mess around and she doesn't put up with people's bullshit. Ex. her telling Peter B to "stop talking" and her telling Hobie he's "not helping". People don't like seeing aggressive black female leads, because it makes them uncomfortable. People are quick to label a woman who's aggressive as "harsh" and "argumentative" but proceed to label Miguel, the person who sent a homeless teenager back to her dimension, as someone who's "doing what he has to". I'm not saying Miguel is a bad person. I'm saying Jessica isn't a bad person.

Jess is also most definitely going to get a character development arc considering how she was obviously doubting her loyalty to Miguel in the last 30ish minutes of the movie right after Gwen was sent-home and during Gwen's speech with Miles' parents when Jess was listening.

Jess Drew was slightly harsh on Gwen, and didn't object to her being sent back to her dimension. Was this wrong of her? Yes. But does that make her a bad person? No. People are misinterpreting her character. She is not a bad person and she does not deserve the hate people are spewing against her. She is a strong black female character and we need more people like her in the media to look up to.

BTW, I'm not black but I tried to be as accurate in my description of how Jess embraces her heritage as I could, so if you see any inaccuracies or have any comments, please correct me <3

[teecupangel]

After reading a couple of fanfics(i have lost track of what ive read XD) where Desmond uses the Eye to connect to Ezio in the library and send him back to his 17 year old self to save his family: I got the idea/prompt that when Ezio awakens back in the past he rushes to his family, ignoring a golden thread of Importance. It cant be more importsnt than his family, surely? Either way, Ezio ends up discovering he has like 1-2 day to save his family(im unsure of the timeline, but i imagine he lands before he gains his scar). So, he rushes to save them. Here i kinda get a bit lost, im not very good at planning, but i imagine he ends up killing Alberto and exposes him as a traitor to his father etc. Eventually, after a few days things finally calm down enough that Ezio can finally check out that object his Sight has tagged as Important without feeling guilty for leaving his family alone. He follows the thread to a orphanage and there he sees a 1-2 year old with a scar on his lips and brown eyes that flash a very familiar gold when the child sees Ezio. "Desmond?"

So basically, the Eye damaged Desmond too much, so when he went back in time with Ezio, he had to be recreated. You could give him the charcoal black arm with golden lines or even his tattoo(could be interesting seeing peoples reaction to a child having what is percieved as a criminal brand?). Heck, maybe even give golden fluffy wings that he can hide? Idk, i mostly just want/need fatherly!Ezio bonding with baby!Desmond and this idea has rapidly gone out of control in my head. XD

but yeah, basically Ezio decides that Desmond has given him such a gift with allowing him to save his family, that now Ezio will take care him(he also feels pretty guilty ignoring the Important glow for so long).  He just needs to figure how to get his family accept what is looking like to be his motherless bastard, hopefully withoit too many questions. I also imagine Ezio gets the iconic scar this time from a fight with Vieri when he throws insults at Desmond for being "lesser": being a bastard and an Auditore in one package.

So, whats your thoughts on this? Anything you think is missing or want to add to?

Transferring him right as he gained his scar (like the rock hitting him was the trigger) would also serve as some kind of symbolism of his connection with Desmond, not just due to the similar scars but also because that is the first memory Desmond relived as Ezio (as long as we don’t count his birth). That would also give him 3 days max since the scar incident was on December 26, the guards tried to arrest the Auditores on December 28 and the execution would be on December 29.

Also, if you want to really hammer in Ezio feeling guilty about leaving Desmond for so long, a plot point could be that Ezio assassinates Uberto Alberti and he was able to prove to Giovanni that Uberto was a Templar BUT not that he was planning anything against the Medici or the Auditore. Perhaps, a simple Templar ring was all Ezio could give to Giovanni and telling him he was planning it with another man that Ezio hints to be Rodrigo Borgia without flatout saying it’s Rodrigo Borgia since he, as his teenage self, shouldn’t even know who the Borgias are at this point in time. This becomes a scandal all by itself and not even Lorenzo could protect the Auditores, telling them to leave Firenze as quickly as they could. Stand down and keep a low profile for now.

This leads to the Auditores leaving Firenze quickly and asking for sanctuary in Monteriggioni. Ezio would stay there to make sure everyone is safe and also to be ‘trained’ as an Assassin because Giovanni believes he could no longer wait until Ezio is as old as Federico to tell him the truth because of what Ezio has done.

Ezio also has to stay to show Giovanni that he wasn’t some rabid dog that would bite anyone.

This can range from months to even 2 years (technically 1-ish year since Ezio returns to the past in December) which is the same time frame Ezio had to train with Mario and his mercenaries in the previous timeline.

Either way, Ezio finally gets a chance to check on the important gold once he’s been deemed ‘good enough’ to go to Firenze while Federico goes to Roma with Giovanni as part of his training and maybe even ‘final test’.

And then he finds Desmond as a 2-year-old child who isn’t liked by the other kids because he was ‘creepy’ and they say he’s the devil’s child. Maybe Ezio didn’t recognize him immediately but their eyes met and Desmond’s eyes flashed gold and Ezio’s first instinct is that he does know him. He doesn’t remember when but he does know this child.

The one in charge of the orphanage finds him looking at Desmond and he tells him about how Desmond was heard crying somewhere Ezio knows all too well.

It was the same place Ezio had died on, the very same bench…

Someone gave him to the orphanage and they have nothing of him, he had been left naked in the cold that they feared he would have died had he stayed there any longer.

Then to hammer in the guilt, the reason why the children believe Desmond is the devil’s child is because of the charcoal black arm he had that no doctors could explain other than ‘he had been burned’ and Desmond had cried each time they tried to ‘examine’ it with their tools.

So Ezio takes him in, not knowing what else to do.

Then, it’s only the next day after he dreams of the only time he saw Desmond in Altaïr’s library that he puts two and two together and realized that the child was most definitely Desmond. He had to be.

And now, Ezio believes that Desmond is the reason why he had a redo and that he had failed Desmond for letting him be alone for so long.

He wouldn’t even think that people would think Desmond is his son until he hears it from one of the courtesans and he’d be like “Oh! That’s a good idea! I’ll just say he’s my son so people would stop asking questioning about who he is!”

And that was a mistake because now everyone believes he has a child out of wedlock. Perhaps Cristina would even think he had cheated on her considering Desmond’s age and now he has to suffer through his family’s questioning and lectures about having a child out of wedlock.

Then Desmond’s back starts getting itchy and later on it starts growing a pair of lumps…

That breaks his skin painfully, revealing puffs of feathers red with his blood but, after cleaning him (and trying to get him to stop crying because “Owie, papa! Owie!”)…

Ezio sees the feathers were white…

With lines of gold that he has become familiar with in his previous life.

[wisteria-lodge]

Bird vs Lion (Javert vs Valjean)

I've been wanting to annotate this scene for ages, because it's SUCH a good example of a really loud Lion primary (Valjean) and a really loud Bird primary (Javert) just being... unable to communicate. And since everyone is reading Les Mis right now, I thought this would be a good time.

So. Inspector Javert has just arrested Fantine, who has insulted Valjean (in the guise of Mayor Madeleine) on her way into custody.

***

“Sergeant!” [Javert] shouted. “Can’t you see this hussy [Fantine] is making off! Who told you not to let her go?”

“I did,” said Madeleine. (...) 

It was obvious that Javert had been ‘knocked through a loop,’ as they say, to have allowed himself to say what he did to the sergeant after the mayor’s invitation to set Fantine free (...) Had he wound up telling himself that it was not possible for any person of authority to have given such an order and that Monsieur le maire must certainly have said one thing when he meant another altogether? Or else… did he tell himself that it was necessary to resort to extreme measures… and that, in this dire extremity, law and order, morality, governance, society as a whole, were personified in himself, Javert? 

Whatever the case, when Monsieur Madeleine let out that “I did” we heard a moment ago, the inspector of the police was seen to turn towards Monsieur le maire, pale, cold, his lips blue, his eyes desperate, his whole body shaking with a barely perceptible tremor, and he was heard to say something unprecedented: “Monsieur le maire, that can’t be done.” 

Poor Javert is having two equally important parts of his system collide here. ‘Respect all authority figures’ and ‘punish all criminals.’ In this moment, he can’t find a way to do both simultaneously, and it’s sort of breaking his brain. 

“How’s that?” said Monsieur Madeleine.

Madeleine (Valjean) does not get what his problem is.

“This wretched woman insulted a gentleman.” 

She broke the Law! (Objectively true.)

“Inspector Javert,” Monsieur Madeleine replied in a calm, conciliatory tone, “listen. You are an honest man, so I don’t mind spelling things out clearly for you. It’s like this. I happened to be crossing the square as you were carting this woman away. There were still people milling around, I asked a few questions and I found out the truth: it is the gentleman that was in the wrong, and if the police were doing their job, he should have been arrested.” 

The lady only technically broke the law, for understandable reasons. 

She broke the Law!!!!!!!!!

Javert could not stop himself: “This miserable creature just insulted Monsieur le maire.” 

She insulted you, the mayor, a symbol of authority. It is a VERY important part of my system that authority figures need to be respected for society to function.

“That’s my business,” said Monsieur Madeleine. “My insult is mine, if you like. I can do what I like with it.” 

I’m not personally upset about it, I don’t see why you care. 

“I beg Monsieur le maire’s pardon. The insult is not his, it belongs to the system of justice.”

She must be made an example of. People can NOT be allowed to get away with this, especially not to a symbol of authority/structure/governance. No matter how much you PERSONALLY may not be bothered by this specific incident, she MUST be made an example of or others will follow suit and the morals of society begin to crumble. How can you, a man such as yourself, not understand this? You sir. The mayor who has done so much for this town and whom I respect for both his accomplishments and authority? Do my eyes and ears betray me? Surely they must?"

“Inspector Javert,” replied Monsieur Madeleine, “the highest form of justice is one’s own conscience. I’ve heard the woman out. I know what I’m doing.” 

EXCUSE ME? What? No. Why would you think that? That's not how any of this works.

“And I, Monsieur le maire, don’t know what I am seeing.” 

*brain is broken* 

“Then make due with obeying.” 

I don’t know what your deal is. Do you need direct orders to respond to or something? (Valjean is very Badger secondary, you can see it start to kick into gear here, he’s trying to find ANY way to communicate with Javert.) 

“I’m obeying my duty. My duty tells me that this woman should do six months behind bars.” 

I am REMINDING you of the law, which you ALSO have a responsibility to. 

Monsieur Madeleine responded gently: “Listen to me carefully. She will not do a single day.” 

… I feel that the law is wrong. 

At these decisive words, Javert risked a glare at the mayor and said to him, though in a tone of voice that was still scrupulously respectful: 

because you still must RESPECT AUTHORITY

“It causes me despair to go against Monsieur le maire, this is the first time in my life, but he will deign to permit me to observe to him that I am within the bounds of my responsibilities. I will confine myself, since Monsieur le maire wishes it, to the case of the citizen in question. 

He's changing the way he perceives Valjean in that quick, dramatic way Birds do. The Mayor is SUPPOSED to be on the side of Law, just like Javert... but has let him down. And Javert (under stress) is just going to get even more icy and even more polite. 

Valjean (under stress) gets angry.

“I was there. This girl threw herself at Monsieur Bamatabois, who is a voter and the owner of a magnificent house with a balcony on the corner of the esplanade, three stories, all in hewn stone. At the end of the day, some things count for something in this world.” 

We’re starting to get more of a sense of Javert’s system here. People have roles/symbols/functions in society, which must be respected if society is to stay intact. (Also, Victor Hugo was obsessed with architecture, and you can tell that he’s a Bird primary who… absolutely identified with Javert, which is honestly probably why he comes down so hard on Javert in the text.) 

“Anyhow, Monsieur le maire, this matter is a case for the street patrol and so it concerns me, and I am holding this woman, Fantine.” 

The structures that I believe in say that this situation is the responsibility of the Law. Stop getting in the way of my duty to enact this vital societal function. (I respect you a whole lot less than I did five minutes ago.)

At these words Monsieur Madeline folded his arms and said in a harsh voice that no one in town had ever yet heard: “The case you are talking about is a matter for the municipal police. By the terms of articles nine, fifteen, and sixty-six of the code of criminal law, I am the judge of it. I order this woman to be set free.” 

Oh screw you. If you want letter of the law I will GIVE you letter of the law. (This is one of the places where aggressive Bird secondary model Valjean shows up. He *knows* how to do his job.)

Javert struggled to make one last stand. "But Monsieur le maire -” 

Valjean just threw the book at him, and the book is holy. There’s not much Javert can do here. Valjean might as well be quoting Bible verses. 

“Let me refer you to article eighty-one of the law of December 13, 1799 on arbitrary detention.” 

Yeah. I’m not going to waste time with you. 

“Monsieur le Maire, allow -” 

“Not another word.” 

I’m pissed now. 

“But - ”

“Not another word” 

I’m PISSED now.

Javert took the blow standing, full on and bang in the chest like a Russian soldier. He bowed practically to the ground to Monsieur le maire, and left.  

And Javert ends the scene experiencing a contradiction in his System that is physically painful for a bird as rigidly dedicated as he is. Honestly a huge part of the tragedy of this guy is that a fix-it is *so plausible.* Javert is so earnest, and tries so hard, and you get the impression that if he had a few more interactions like this he might have been able to transform his system into something more elastic.

[ask-nyc-boroughs]

250th Anniversary of the Boston Tea Party!

Drew this chibi?/ simple style doodle of Alfred/ USA, Henry/ Massachusetts, & Ann/ Boston about a month ago. I like to imagine all three of them got together for some beers, probs Sam Adams, (& got horribly drunk, possibly arrested after getting into a massive bar fight) as they reminisced the Boston Tea Party. These three when together tend to rile each other up, and get into trouble like the Boston Tea Party 💀

In this lore, Alfred is raised by Henry (his older cousin), and his natural speaking voice is like an Eastern New England. Alfred has trained himself to have a more general northern US accent, but when he’s around Henry and Ann, his accent comes out (cause their accents are so prominent).

Ann probably wouldn’t have been allowed to participate due to her gender, but tbh if she’s passionate about something, you can’t stop her so she just dressed up like a man for this. Also another tidbit: some members of the Sons of Liberty did “dress up” as Mohawk warriors (an Indigenous nation in what is now NY state) to show their allegiance was more towards the Americas than to England. I did not want to draw them dressed like this as it was 1) only some of the participants 2) i just do not feel comfortable drawing that & that is within my right to not draw that, but I think these 3 would’ve stuck a feather in their hat / hair to show their shifting allegiances (to be clear- I DO NOT personally endorse this “symbolic choice”, but this is what occurred and this event occurred in the 1700s).

[titleknown]

HELLOWEEN #18: LORIAN

-LORIAN is a Master Thief of Hell with 500 successful heists and 6,000 stone of Gold warranted for her arrest. She may create candles who's light none but the summoner may see, make a man invisible, allow merging into shadows and give advice on the creation of plans and distractions for theft.

She appears as a great hand of glory with a human face in the center. Do not allow any others into the room when she is summoned, or else she will not appear. Do not allow any valuables you would prefer not to lose within the room of her summoning, as they will be gone when she is.-

...I will confess, I had to go to some lengths to get an interview with Lorian. She is infamous amongst Hell as a thief, as I heard loudly and profusely from Acabus, but nobody really knew her name, they simply called her "The Invisible Hand," along with other... epithets I would rather not print.

For all her actions, she seemed to have absolutely no social connections amongst Hell, an intriguing rarity amongst its politics. So, I decided to summon her, external to Hell, in a plane where... well, I feel I mustn't reveal too many of my methods.

The first thing she did was search the whole room for things to; I presume; steal, only to give up in frustration. Then she came to me to ask about services, payment, ect-cetera, and was not only surprised, but consternated to realize I had simply done the summoning as a request to talk.

Her insistence that she had nothing to talk about herself, that what she was "didn't matter to anybody," and that she "was only worth what she could do" melted away with shocking rapidity with my questioning, as the poor thing ended up breaking down into tears.  

From what I could surmise as I... attempted to comfort her, she seems very lonely in a way that suggests an immense desire for companionship, but cynical and selfish in ways that suggest it was unreciprocated. 

Not surprising within the cutthroat politics of Hell, but a testament to the way in which Hell is a place of alienation...

-Xavier X. Xolomon , Monsterologist and Understudy to The Librarian Of Babel

-----------------------------

The design, as one might guess, was based on the Hand from the old M.U.S.C.L.E. toyline (Which has its own bizarre backstory too long to get into) combined with the Hand of Glory, but her story... 

...well, I was thinking of ways to attach something to the design, and I thought of how hands often symbolize singular action but also alienation. The Invisible Hand of the Free Market, the Hand of Glory, another thing one often does with their right hand, ect-cetera. 

That combined with the Hand of Glory inspo basically worked to make this design an actual character. So yeah!

As per usual the whole descriptions, designs, ectcetera from this project are free to use as you see fit under a CC-BY 4.0 license so long as I; Thomas F. Johnson, am credited as their creator!

[manicpixieirl]

june 20, 2023

So, one could say she’s been my best friend for a year

and also, she tops literally everyone else. We all have that one friend. Sarah is that one friend.

We’ve become even closer since she moved away, and she’s the first person who read these, back when I considered allowing them to collect dust on my google drive.

We are wildly similar and wildly opposite.

And this week we both had really weird encounters with ants.

She told me maybe she swallowed one in her sleep. I really didn’t want to engage in a conversation about how many bugs we realistically have already swallowed, so after she told me she might have swallowed a bug, I moved on and completely forgot about my best friend’s choking hazard.

Then I went to bed and found an ant on my pillow.

I’m the type of person that lets bugs outside instead of squishing them. A bug pacifist, if you will.

The last time I saw an ant inside, I was in the middle of a cross- country move. My dad was helping me move and somehow, our fresh off the lot Honda was infested with ants.

Ants everywhere. Ant mania. Antzapalooza.

That was the first time my dad saw me have a panic attack.

He wouldn’t see me have another until I got arrested 6 months later.

Despite the inconvenience, we cleared my car of the ants and eventually I completed my journey from the actual Mason - Dixon line to New England.

My dad and I had to kill a lot of ants, and I guess that’s why I take them outside now - because I feel bad for all the ants I had to kill in May of 2017.

When I saw that ant on my pillow, I was prepared for an infestation, but there was just one.

I let him outside and I took it as a sign.

Bestie and I each saw an ant.

(You’ll come to realize I’m a woo woo bitch who thinks everything is a sign, sometimes I genuinely wonder [and fear] whether or not that will go away with antipsychotics. I deeply enjoy being able to find meaning in anything- but it’s as double edged as you would think, because not everything has meaning- some things just exist as they are. Ants on pillows.)

Hey Siri, what’s the symbolism behind an ant?

Willpower

Diligence

Patience

Truth

Cooperation and teamwork

Fidelity

Power

Individual strength and even more strength in numbers

When I was moving, it was the single-most pivotal moment of my twenties. I left a man who was throwing me into walls and calling it love. Sometimes running is okay. I ran towards myself. I demonstrated willpower and embraced my truth.

My best friend is about to move, and I hope she realizes that that ant probably wasn’t trying to choke her. I think it was trying to tell her, “Hey Sarah, running is okay. You are strong. You are powerful. Go find your truth. And I’m sorry you thought I was trying to choke you. I accidentally fell in your mouth, won't happen again.”

Honestly, I wouldn’t have looked up what it means to come across an ant unless she came across one first. Strength in numbers.

I’m in the second-most pivotal point in my twenties. It’s my fifth day on antipsychotics and I feel grounded. I feel in touch. I feel like I just saw an ant, let it outside, and moved on with my day.

Before, every day felt like I was trapped in a Honda - surrounded by a million ants.

She and I will be just fine.

I will keep letting bugs outside, my bug pacifism continues on.

Unless you’re a tick. Nope.

[adultswim2021]

12 oz. Mouse: “Prolegomenon” | December 18, 2006 – 12:45AM | S02E13

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! No post last night, and I’m sorry, but I had to give this one more thought. Really, I got high and thought I not only finished the write-up, but also scheduled it in my queue after I wrote a single paragraph and fell asleep. Whoops.

Okay, so it’s all been leading up to this, and this write-up will eventually cover what “this” is. But before I go into it, I wanna say that this episode led me to do some googling. I learned something that I possibly knew at one point, but had lost sight of: season 2 was supposed to have 20 episodes but was shortened to 13. With that, the series was also canceled, forcing Matt Maiellaro to plan some kind of conclusion where there might not have originally been one. I guess you can draw comparisons from things like Twin Peaks; David Lynch wanted to keep the mystery of who killed Laura Palmer unsolved indefinitely, but the network forced him to come up with a conclusion midway through season 2. Arrested Development had one of its seasons shortened, and I recall episodes from before that happening seeming to set things up that never got resolved. Could that be the explanation for the ending we got on 12 Oz. Mouse? Or could it be that it meant nothing the entire time? 

Okay, so it’s not really a hard ending. Mouse plays pinball for a lot of this episode, while a floating light speaks to him. We finally find out the true nature of Shark and Square Business man, and the Eyes, and Peanut Cop and the question woman. The finale confirms what I suspected (and half-remembered), and what most viewers paying close attention to the series should have also suspected: Cardboard City is a simulation. But when we cut out to the real world we see a big green mouse and we see his rodent friend skillet, real as this show is long. They don’t have human counterparts. They are still themselves in the real world.  It’s all the others that have human counterparts (or a different outfit in question woman’s case).

So what basically seems to happen is the people running this program decided that it was time to stop it and roughly reset everything, so the intense war our gang was in the middle of fighting  just sorta turns off, basically. Then, back in Cardboard City, mouse and his friends shake off the fact that moments ago they were fighting a war, and now they are not. The sky turns blue and cloudy. The team waltzes away, for a brand new day. The simulation is over, and a vague sense that maybe another will begin. It’s like a soft reboot, sorta symbolizing what episodic TV is supposed to be. They’re going to go do a different adventure now. Perhaps a… web adventure?

Yes, there was a webisode. Will I relegate the webisode to ephemera since it didn’t air on television? Or will I give it it’s own entry? Only time will tell (I will give it it’s own entry). The webisode was announced, and I think Matt Maiellaro was hopeful that the show would be allowed to continue in a new format. Not now, my child. Not now. So, I think he’s setting up some sort of meta contextual way to explain that the show can simply be rebooted into different configurations. Kinda like if Bugs Bunny was revealed to be in the Matrix, and it somehow explained how he could fight Yosemite Sam in medieval England, ancient Egypt, and the old west, and seem like they’re meeting for the first time every time. 

The whole DVD being cut together like a movie gives you the impression that 12 Oz. Mouse is a huge epic story that wraps up nicely, with purpose. No such luck. It really was sorta nonsense, I guess. I’m guessing Aspirin would have made another appearance in some other context in some other version of the show, and not be elaborated on. Eventually Aspirin is revealed to be a god particle, or something, just as some other weird concept is introduced to fixate on instead. It can go anywhere and everywhere man. It’s like Everyone Everywhere All Over The Place, At Once! or whatever that movie was called.

So the ending is a bit of a disappointment. I forgot that it was, honest. I only saw a few random episodes of this show before getting the DVD and watching the entire thing in one day when I was recovering from a hernia surgery and on Vicodin. I was recuperating at my parent’s house and brought a stack of DVDs from home to watch. I had just gotten Human Giant season one on DVD which had dozens of additional commentary tracks that were all hysterical. Vicodin notwithstanding, it became less-than-ideal viewing material while I was on the mend because laughing physically hurt. A LOT. This isn’t a compliment, and I’m sorry, but I switched to 12 Oz. Mouse specifically because I could capably watch it without hurting myself.

The ending feels sudden and the series feels cut-short. That’s because it was. There was a webisode coming, which was meant to kick-start a new short season. It didn’t. Years later there was a special and a third season, some of which I’ve seen. But, the show is enormously specific, and that’s a good thing. It’s obtuse and feels like a show you’re supposed to be watching at 1AM. You can get really into it, especially if you’re high. I get why people love this show. I get why this might be a show people enjoy watching over and over. I feel slightly compelled to start watching it again, even if it’s just for background noise. But the idea that it fulfilled some kind of narrative promise is a stretch. I guess I’m glad I gave it a sincere shot at trying to “get” it, and I’m slightly eager to check it out again, even, in it’s movie form.

Additionally, in its defense: many network shows with much bigger fan-bases are allowed to have overlapping serialized story-lines that sometimes go nowhere and are quietly replaced by different ones. I’ve tricked myself into thinking that 12 Oz. Mouse might be a meta-textual critique of storytelling on television; the ending can be seen as symbolic of a network stepping in and rebooting the status quo of a TV show that’s in danger of going too far up its own ass. Or, maybe 12 Oz. Mouse was only ever meant to be about the vibes, which it has in spades. Who knows. But you owe it to yourself to at the very least check out the pilot episode, “Hired’. Don’t feel too bad if you don’t feel like watching more. Don’t feel bad if you like the show but don’t feel like you “get” it. Just don’t feel bad about anything ever. Mouse would want it that way.

EPHEMERA CORNER:

[sunnysanatorium]

Manipulation and Change (hats) in Killers of the Flower Moon

Killers of the Flower Moon is a classic tragedy of which Ernest Burkhart finds himself in the center of. From the very beginning, Ernest shows himself for his true flaws, which are subsequently used by various characters in the movie to have him do their bidding. Over the course of the movie, Ernest also changed in correlation and as a result of his choices, this was often shown through symbolism of his hats. These two themes work together to paint a comprehensive picture of both Ernest’s manipulation and his willing participation in the nightmare of his life.

Right from the get go in Killers of The Flower Moon, we see Ernest’s boundaries being crossed. When he first arrived at his Uncle William Hale’s house he sat down and was subjected to a series of questions from him, an interrogation. Hale right away asks Ernest to refer to him as “Uncle”, or preferably “King”. This is immediately making Ernest aware, even subconsciously, that he is inferior in this relationship. Then King coaxes Ernest’s vulnerabilities out of him. He finds out about Ernest’s gut issues, his trauma from the war. He asks Ernest personal questions about his time overseas, about his preferences in women and whether or not he got any “diseases” while in Europe. These questions make Ernest clearly uncomfortable, but instead of pushing back, he defers to King’s authority and answers them. His Uncle was acting as if these questions were normal, so they must be, right? This tells King that Ernest will be someone he will be able to use. This conversation was essentially a vetting process, and when Ernest tells King “I do love that money, sir”, King knows Ernest will be loyal, and now knows exactly what kind of “inspiration” he needs to keep him interested. This leads to his shift over the course of the movie.

In the beginning of the movie, when Ernest first steps off the train he’s wearing a military hat. This represents the life he has just left living overseas in the Second World War. Soon after he steps off the train, he is involuntarily involved in a small skirmish at the train station, in which he loses his hat, just as his identity of a soldier falls away in the face of this new life, so does his hat. 

Then, after meeting with King, Ernest dons a cap for his role as a cabbie, showing physically how he is forced to start over in this new society and is among the lower class as a poor working man. 

During this period, Ernest meets Molly, who eventually gifts him something as their relationship grows: a new hat. This hat was not only a symbol of his bond with her, but also of his full entrance into this new life. She gave him a white Stetsons Cattleman's Crease, which allowed him to take up more space, both literally and figuratively. The Cattleman gave him a larger and more imposing silhouette than his cap: modest and compact, or even his military hat: slim and forgettable. In a less literal way, it also allowed him to take up more room because wearing this hat was a direct symbol of his connection with Molly, a wealthy Osage, and thus, his status. He was now an important wealthy man who owned land and a big house, he had oil money now, he was important. He was no longer just some working man. However, as Ernest continues to make greedy choices in the story, if you watch closely you can see his hat gradually darkening from its bright white to a charcoal grey, almost as if his sins are sapping its brightness as he falls deeper and deeper into violence and chaos.

Near the end of the story, when Ernest is finally arrested for his crimes, he loses his hat, and is never to don another in the movie. This symbolized how his power had been stripped from him, leaving him exposed. He was now reduced to what he truly was, a small, guilty, miserable man who could never again be respected in society now that they had seen him for what he truly was.

Ernest Burkhart is both a victim and a victimizer in Killers of The Flower Moon. On one hand, he is taken advantage of and exploited by a man he respects and trusts, but on the other hand he always contained the capacity to do wrong and rarely resisted greedy or despicable actions when they were offered to him. His manipulation was illustrated through his dialogue with King, and its effect on his character throughout the story was illustrated through wardrobe design and symbolism.

[dertaglichedan]

Today’s blacklisted American: Innocent man sentenced one-year in prison for appearing as George Washington in the Capitol on January 6

They’re coming for you next: When Isaac Yoder put on his home-made costume of George Washington and went to the demonstrations on January 6, 2021, he was doing what he had been doing for years, making his statement about the roots of American liberty and free speech at many different protests. His goal wasn’t solely to protest the election of Joe Biden. He was there as much to remind everyone where our freedoms came from, “to honor the memory and legacy” of our Founding Fathers.

The Biden Department of Justice however didn’t like this innocent expression of free speech. It arrested Yoder, and has gotten him sentenced to a one year prison term for “Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building,” actions that the First Amendment to the Constitution expressly permits, and in fact outlaws our federal government from prohibiting.

A Missouri man walked into the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, dressed as George Washington. He caused no damage, engaged in no violence, and was even recorded peacefully speaking with police before leaving. For daring to dress as America’s pre-eminent Founding Father and symbolically rebuking our corrupt ruling class, Isaac Yoder was surveilled for seven months, eventually arrested, fined, and sentenced to a year in prison.

When Yoder arrived, the worst protests had ended, and the Capitol police had already opened the doors and were letting people quietly walk through the building. But he was part of a protest against Joe Biden, the Washington ruling class, and its control of the Federal government, and that could not be allowed, even though he was dressed as George Washington. When he was later approached by the FBI in 2021, he assumed they were just trying to obtain information and could not imagine they planned to arrest him. He thus mistakenly cooperated with them, and was subsequently found guilty of four misdemeanors and sentenced to a year in prison. The Justice Department’s main claim is that Yoder lied in his statements because it didn’t match the testimony of an FBI officer who never saw Yoder, was in a different part of the Capitol, and experienced something completely different. Yet Yoder’s statements did match those of another officer who actually spoke to him and was a witness to Yoder’s actual behavior.

In other words, Yoder was found guilty for actions done by others, by witnesses whose testimony actually proved he was not part of those actions. As he notes in an interview,

[robinsontenea]

MICROAGRESSION 

Microaggression - a statement or action made as an indirect or unintentional discrimination against members of a marginalized group such as a racial or ethnic minority.

I chose this picture because it’s a perfect example of how a black women can change their hair to whatever they’d like it to be without being asked is their hair real. There are some black people today, with long, straight or curly hair and people will still ask if its theirs just because they are black.

2. WHITE SUPREMACY 

White supremacy - the belief that white people constitute a superior race and should therefore dominate society, typically to exclude of other racial and ethnic groups.

This picture I chose happened on Jan 6, 2021, where a lot of white rioters raided the white house just on the simple fact that they couldn’t accept the election results, despite all evidence that Trump lost. Outside and inside the white house, there was a lot of symbols and banners representing white supremacy. Storming the white house alone was an act of white supremacy, officers were even there to riot with the protestors. There were barely injuries and deaths compared to the peaceful protesting during the BLM movement.

3. RACE & RACISM 

Racism - Individuals' thoughts and actions and institutional patterns and policies that create or reproduce unequal access to power, privilege, resources, and opportunities based on imagined differences among groups.

I chose this cartoon because it depicts racism in simpler terms. They placed all white rabbits in one room, then randomly started turning the rabbits blue one by one. After a rabbit turned blue, the white rabbits would make fun of them or be mean to the rabbit just because he turned blue and looked different from the usual white rabbits. After being kicked out of the group for being blue, the other blue rabbits started forming a friendship.

4. INDIVIDUAL RASCISM 

Institutional racism - distinguished from the explicit attitudes or racial bias of individuals by existence of systematic policies or laws and practices that provide differential access to goods.

I chose this scene because the white teacher is always inflicting racism or saying racist comments to the one black student in the classroom. She clearly believes every black person is in some tribe from Africa. She is teaching a lesson on Africa, then turns to Chris and asks him what Tribe he was from. In other scenes, I noticed her character is used to show microaggression towards Chris and no other student. 

5. COLONIALSIM

Colonialism - a practice or policy of having a full or partial political control over another country, occupying it with settlers and exploiting is economically.

I chose this picture because colonialism is evident in the workplace. People have been brainwashed to think that looking, talking, or acting white just automatically makes you smarter than what you really are. Today, Nigeria is still affected by the effects of colonialism in their courtroom, wearing white curly wigs when they attend. They also sell the wigs outside of the courtroom. This takes away from tackling the problems head on and look at it from their perspective as their true self and roleplaying as a white man to make decisions.

6. RACIAL IDEOLOGY 

Racial Ideology - Set of popular ideas about race that allows the discriminatory behaviors of individuals and institutions to seem normal.

I chose this scene in Family Guy because it shows us Peter and Cleveland walking under a cop simulation that supposed to put handcuffs on the suspect. Peter walks through and he breaks away free, but then Cleveland walks through and the simulation goes off saying “minority suspect” and starts beating him. This happens all the time with cops and black citizens. Being pulled over for something silly or simple can lead to being incarcerated or even killed if you are a poc. Cops will find any reason to shoot or arrest a poc more than certain for the reason being they are racist or scared. People who try to speak out against this are either arrested or fined or beaten. You rarely hear of a cop killing a white person doing an arrest or being pulled over; even if that person has a weapon on them, the cop will hesitate to pull theirs out on them 

[entreecanibales]

Hannibal and Will in Season 2 - Love, Lies and Reassurances

I have written this post to disprove the notion that Will didn't run away with Hannibal because Hannibal didn't show him he was special or try to reassure him of his feelings.

Let's start with the prison arc. Hannibal shows his regret at having had to send Will to prison. He tells Will that all the conversations that they had were to open Will's eyes to who he really is. He stresses that Will is his friend. He tells Will to allow him to help him and to trust him.

We see Will is suspicious at first, but when Hannibal tries to get Will to ascertain his innocence by blaming it on Matthew Brown, we see that he considers that Hannibal might be genuine. He asks how far Hannibal would go to help him. Hannibal tells him that he wanted to dispel Will's doubts in him once and for all and that he wants Will to believe in the best of him just as he believes in the best of Will. Hannibal tells him that he doesn't want Will in prison and further urges Will to use the defense that Matthew Brown is the real Copy Cat.

Will's dream about the Ravenstag leading him out of the cell while Hannibal tries to get him to go back in shows his confusion. The Ravenstag is the symbol of their connection, as Bryan Fuller confirmed. Will sees evidence that Hannibal does want to help him but he still has doubts about it.

Hannibal goes on the stand to Will's defense and kills the judge after he throws out his testimony so that the trial is declared a mistrial and so Will isn't found guilty. Then he goes over the top in getting Will out of prison after Will sends Matthew Brown to kill him. He puts himself under suspicion and puts himself in danger doing so - since the list of suspects for the Copy Cat and the Ripper both are very narrow, that puts Hannibal in an insecure position. What if Chilton was exonerated? Hannibal could be put under arrest, or worse.

Consider also that Hannibal gives up the title of Chesapeake Ripper to exonerate Will and gave it to Chilton, a man he barely respects. In season 1, we see how angry he was when Gideon took the credit and disrespected his identity. This is a big sacrifice he made for Will.

We see Will beginning to understand that what Hannibal was doing was all to help him. He tells Chilton that Hannibal didn't simply kill him because he wanted to be his friend. When he confronts Hannibal in the kitchen, he echoes Hannibal's words back to him. "You wanted me to embrace my nature, doctor. I'm just following these urges I've kept down for so long, cultivating them as the inspirations they are." He has a dream about Hannibal telling him he loves him and that he wants him to reach his true potential. He tells Peter that he's unable to hate Hannibal, but he still wants revenge. He concocts a plan to lure Hannibal with Jack, "You have to create a reality where only you and the fish exist". A plan where Hannibal becomes so dependent on Will's friendship that it will get him caught.

When Will learns of Randall, his immediate reaction is jealousy. "How many have there been? Like Randall Tier? Like me?"

But Hannibal goes on to make it clear to Will he's not just another Randall. Firstly, he sent Randall to Will after Will said him he longed for the feeling of power from killing someone and that Hannibal stopping him killing Ingram was a mistake. Then he makes clear to Will that Randall was more important for what purpose he served to Will, for the purpose of his rebirth into a killer - and bandages Will's hands gently after Will returns the body. We see Will in good humour, so he doesn't hold it against Hannibal, and he says that now they're even. He recognises it as a correspondence between equals.

In Naka-Choko, Will becomes territorial when Alana inquires into their relationship and smiles smugly at her while telling her that he and Hannibal know where they stand with each other. Hannibal does not attempt to support Alana, and stops having dinners with her together with Will after that. Hannibal has a good gauge on Will's feelings and doesn't want to necessarily make Will ill at ease.

After Will brings Hannibal the fake Freddie meat, we see Hannibal giving Will the knife while revealing his wrist scars to him. This is an expression of trust. They cook together and eat Randall together, and Hannibal asks Will if this meal is an act of god at the end. This is the first inklings of Hannibal seeing Will as his god.

In Ko No Mono, Hannibal tells Will that blood and breath are only elements undergoing change to fuel his radiance. Will smiles at this before his face drops because he knows he has to trap Hannibal. They talk about Mischa after that, Hannibal is baring himself to Will, revealing to him what he hasn't to anyone else. Hannibal is upset by Will's tears when they talk about Abigail and tells him that a teacup might still come together, hinting that Abigail is alive. This is also the episode where Hannibal digs up the fake Freddie to make an effigy for Will, and Will is touched by Hannibal's gift.

In Tome Wan, Will is angry after Margot's mutilation and sets up Hannibal. He tells Hannibal that he took everyone away from Will so that Will can't have anyone but Hannibal. Will then tells Hannibal that they're alone, that they're both alone without each other. It's important to remember Will is also manipulating Hannibal here. He tells Hannibal that they're alone without each other, strengthening Hannibal's dependency on him so Hannibal can't have anyone else, as he started out to do with the luring plot. These words - "We're alone without each other" is also proof that Will knows he fulfills a unique position for Hannibal, that Hannibal wants to be seen by him and only him.

We see Will unable to kill Hannibal when Mason has him captured, and Hannibal places himself in a vulnerable position again by tilting his head up to allow Will to slit his throat. Will frees him instead, and Hannibal takes Mason to Will's house where Hannibal snaps his neck.

At the end of the episode, Hannibal and Will have a talk where Hannibal compares their bond to Achilles and Patroclus. "Achilles wished all Greeks could die so he and Patroclus could conquer Troy alone". This is a reassurance to Will. "I took everyone else away from you so that we can conquer the world together. Because I want you by my side while the whole world can burn." Will takes advantage of this by trying to get him to kill Jack so that he can catch Hannibal in the act, proving he understood what Hannibal was getting at.

Hannibal was also drawing the famous artwork "Achilles lamenting the death of Patroclus". Achilles went almost mad with grief after Patroclus died. Considering that Hannibal places himself in the role of Achilles and Will in the role of Patroclus, this is further reassurance to Will that Hannibal values his life and doesn't simply see him as a plaything.

I've seen people say that Will thought he's not special because Hannibal killed Abigail who he claimed to love - what if he did the same to Will? But Will thinks Hannibal killed Abigail because she was a liability. Considering Hannibal didn't kill Will even though Will is an immense danger to him, that places Will in a unique and privileged position. Will also thinks Hannibal killed Abigail so he could have Will to himself. This just enforces Will's specialness to Hannibal.

Hannibal couldn't have told Will about Abigail because Will could go with him just to protect Abigail. This could spiral out of control if they formed a team against him. Hannibal wants Will to choose the life of murder because he wants it, not for any other reason.

Finally let us consider that Hannibal was willing to forgo his life in Baltimore for Will. He burnt down about 20 years of his life all for Will.

So we have Hannibal showing Will, throughout the whole season, that Will is special to him, both through words and deeds. And Will understanding that and taking advantage of it to have his revenge on Hannibal. Will might still have had doubts, but not because Hannibal didn't make an effort to reassure Will of his feelings.

[peachesandmilktea]

Squid Game AU - Masked Guy!Shinso x Player!Reader

Squid Game AU Masterlist

Tw: Noncon, Oral (m. receiving), Gun Play, Blackmail.

“Please, I’ll-“

“What?” He scoffed, mean, cruel. “You’ll never cheat again? We don’t do second chances here, sweetheart. You’ll either leave this room dead or as my fucktoy, and only if I decide you’re good enough for me to keep.”

The click of his riffle echoed around the room.

“Make your choice, kitten.”

They came for you during dinner, in front of everyone.

Two of them caught your arms in a deadly grip, another two making sure that your arrest didn’t provoke protests among the other players. Circle Masks adorned their hidden faces, and they didn’t say a word when they took you away from everyone else, their leader in tow.

You were thrown into the playroom, the one you’d been in for the biscuit game, and the blood of your friends still dirtied the pastel blue walls, drying in dark, disgusting stains wherever your gaze landed.

Maybe that was why they’d taken you there - what was another stain when there were so many of them already?

Assuming they were going to kill you, of course.

But what else could it be?

“Player 022. You’ve been caught cheating,” the man with a square mask said as his underlings made you kneel by his feet, the tip of a riffle gently stroking your hair away from your face.

Ice ran through your veins and you froze when his gloved fingers slowly brushed against your cheek, following the shape of your jaw to caress your lower lip.

“You’ve broken the balance of the game, 022.”

He tilted his head, cruel in the way he pretended to wonder over your fate, evil in the way he didn’t simply shoot a bullet through your head and get it over with. This was all so much worse; were those your last minutes of life? Or could you still have hope that he’d let you survive this?

He was the only one who held the answer, the one who held your future in his oh so gentle and yet so deadly hands.

“Leave,” he told everyone else, and soon enough, the two of you were the only ones left in the playroom.

You, defenseless little player kneeling at his feet, and him, squared mask adorning his face, a weapon firmly cradled in his murderous fingers.

“Now, what am I going to do with you…”

You’d been stupid, taking the lighter from that other player to burn through that stupid biscuit. Of course, they wouldn’t let that slide.

Of course, they’d put a bullet through your skull before allowing any of you players to make such a deadly game just a little bit easier.

“Please, please don’t kill me,” you whispered, voice breaking on the last words. Despair wrapped its sharp clutches around your heart, making it hard to breathe, and tears were rolling down your cheeks already.

The Masked Leader collected them on his thumb, gentle as he licked them off the leather of his gloves.

“Don’t cry, little player. I’m sure you and I can find some kind of arrangement.”

And you knew what he meant even before hearing the sound of his red outfit’s zipper opening. The scarlet hood fell down between his shoulders, revealing messy purple strands underneath.

But he kept his mask on, still.

The zipper went down, lower, lower and lower, until you were faced with clean black underwear, the fabric tight over his huge, hard cock.

“Come on, I’m sure you know what to do, kitten.”

His gloved hand fisted your hair, the other bringing the barrel of his riffle right against your temple, threatening you with what could be if you decided to go against his wishes.

“Please, I’ll-“

“What?” He scoffed, mean, cruel. “You’ll never do it again? We don’t do second chances here, sweetheart. You’ll either leave this room dead or as my fucktoy, and only if I decide you’re good enough for me to keep.”

The click of his riffle echoed around the room.

“Make your choice, kitten.”

Your fingers were trembling when you raised them, ever so slowly, to pull down his boxers. His cock sprung free, hard, long and pretty, even, as it towered over you, symbolic sentence for your crime.

“Good girl. Now suck.”

He didn’t really leave you a choice as he pulled you towards his crotch until his cock swiftly slipped between your parted lips and settled on your tongue. He let out a satisfied hum then, the sound deepening when you started licking, teasing his tip in the hopes that he’ll deem you worthy of keeping.

Softly, gently, you played with his balls, anything so that he’d let the barrel of his riffle stray away from your temple. And yet it stayed there, menacing sword of Damocles hanging over your neck and threatening to tear the chance at life away from you in nothing but a soft move of his murderous fingers.

Those same fingers pulled you closer, closer and closer until you started choking on his monster of a cock, until it was the only thing you could feel, taste and think about, until it tore through your throat as he fucked your mouth with no regard for your pain or humiliation.

You gave a tap against his thigh, doing your best to push him away as his ministrations kept you from taking a single breath, but he simply nudged you with his weapon to make you stop hindering with his pleasure. There was no escape from his deadly grip, both as he used you to get off and as he threatened you with your impending execution.

There was no hope to be had, nothing else for you but his filthy satisfaction of your body.

He came with a groan when you let out yet another yelp of pain around his cock, and the taste of his cum coated your tongue, salty and heavy, sticky as it filled your mouth whole.

“Swallow,” he ordered, firm and strict like the murderous leader that he was.

And you did, you did, you did, if only because he held your fate in his hands and you so desperately wanted to live.

“Did I- Did I do good?” You asked, voice wavering as the words fell through your lips, one of the potential answers far too terrifying for you to even think about.

You couldn’t see his face, but you knew he smirked when his still gloved fingers stroked the skin of your throat, soft, gentle, as if he dreamed of strapping a collar around it.

“I guess I can keep you as my new pet.”

———

I probably won’t write it unless someone requests it but IMAGINE him fucking you while the two of you are watching your friends die through the game’s cameras djdbkdnd just the *angst* and *filth* of it all hehe

Tell me if you liked it ❤️

Join the taglist?

[odinsblog]

After at least three of the recent shootings, conservative pundits have railed about how the police should have acted on red flags. Immediately after Parkland, a young man was arrested for planning a shooting. Those same pundits, in this case, keep talking about how "it's not a crime to talk about shooting people, it's not a crime to own a gun and plan to use it on people." So how are cops supposed to act on red flags, then?

I was listening to a cop talking about this very thing (the Buffalo shooting) on NPR, and he literally literally literally said, “Well, we did check him out after he was caught planning to shoot up his school, but he was cleared and deemed to be okay. How could we have known he was going to go and shoot up a church?” And by this point, I’m fucking yelling at my speaker,… like my dude, my fucking guy, YOU JUST CAUGH HIM ABOUT TO SHOOT UP HIS SCHOOL. WHY TF WOULD YOU EVER GIVE HIM ACCESS TO GUNS AGAIN? Why? Why??

In this case, the red flag law actually worked. It did what it was supposed to do—it alerted all the right authorities that someone who should not have a gun, in fact, did have a gun. And not just any old gun, but an AR-15. So the system actually did what it was supposed to do. But for some reason, white men in this country have it stuck in their gun nut loving “brains” that it’s cruel and unusual punishment to keep a white male and his gun separated from each other. So they either gave him the weapons back after a way too brief waiting period, or they allowed him to retrieve his weapons, or they didn’t block his ability to purchase/access a weapon. Sorry, but if you ever get caught planning to shoot up a school or any other place, then guess what? You should forever forfeit your “right” to gun ownership.

Gun ownership is not some sacrosanct right. Most people in America are not gun owners, and people live long happy lives without ever owning a gun, or needing to overcompensate for their shortcomings by hoarding a bunch of stupid ass phallic symbols.

SN: For anyone not from the U.S., whenever you hear the news saying that there are more guns than people in America, it’s true—but that doesn’t mean everyone in America actually owns a gun. If my neighbor owns 6 guns, and I own none, the “average” “gun ownership” between us is still 3 guns. It’s a simple mathematical average, but it’s misleading. Rural folks are, on average, more likely to be gun owners than city dwellers; urban areas outnumber rural areas population wise; and most rural areas skew heavily Republican; the less populated rural areas have more voting power than the more densely populated urban areas; you can see where this is going.

Anyway, I said earlier that the red flag system worked this time, but it is very far from perfect. The weak links are the police, judges and others who get to determine whether or not someone is “mentally fit” afterwards. And those people will statistically likely either be white and/or male gun nuts themselves, or they’re afraid that not giving a white boy his gun back will put them on some rightwing shit list. So that’s one glaring problem that has unfortunately been proven with the lives of innocent Black people who were simply trying to get some groceries.

Another problem is, more things should trigger red flags. For example, whenever someone buys a shitload of bullets, a fucking alarm bell should go off. Is the purchaser a male? The alarm should get louder. Is it a white male? Louder. Did this person recently have an “altercation” with a woman?? LOUDER. Is it a male of a certain age group??? Fucking everyone in the same zip code should be able to hear these alarm bells going off by now. We already know the common characteristics of mass shooters. It’s not like it’s a big mystery or anything.

And where are these 18yr old dudes getting that kind of money from? Guns and bullets ain’t cheap. Someone is helping them obtain those things, and they need to be held accountable too. Look, I have a (very small) bar in my house. I also have friends who will always be, for want of a better phrase, recovering alcoholics. I know this. They know this. I’m not a psyche major or anything, but I understand as a rational adult, there are certain people who I cannot just leave alone with my bar when they visit, or whenever they stay at my place when I’m out of town. If they go get liquor on their own, that’s on them. But it’s on me if I leave them alone with something I know can destroy their lives. I bear some responsibility for their wellbeing. And no, I’m not talking about “in a court of law” kind of responsibility, I’m talking about what me, Odin, fucking knows to be wrong.

Anyway, similarly, I’m talking about responsibility. Culpability. The people who fund these 18yr old shooters are culpable af. And the cop, or the judge or the psychiatrist who says, “Okay, enough time has passed. NOW they can have their people-killing-machine back,” are responsible too. Not to mention the people who sell the guns and ammo to anyone with enough money.

TLDR; We have a very broken sociopolitical system here in America. This doesn’t happen in any other country. Other countries have violent video games and people with mental health issues. And here in the U.S. we don’t even wanna fund mental healthcare or any healthcare—not that the mentally ill are prone to violence; they are actually more likely to be the victims of violence (including victims of police brutality). Too many people honestly believe that wearing a face mask for 10 minutes in a grocery store is tyranny, but routinely predictable mass shootings is just an acceptable cost of “freedom.” ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

And on a tangentially related note: the U.S. Supreme Court just declared that “innocence is not enough” to overturn a death penalty case?? We live in a fucking clown ass joke of a country. Don’t ever let anyone convince you that America is civilized.

[stankycowboy]

Something even darker crosses over the woman's face when he suggests a visit to her supposed progeny. There is something there that seems delightfully tortuous to her, but he has not the time to explore; nor the patience for psychological torment-- leave that for more practiced fellows. Her last scream is a familiar sentiment, many before have said similar, almost as if they shared the same cues amongst themselves, the denial does not stop his forward motion. What does arrest him is the name on her device. Severen draws up short, the strangely cold feeling of his breath-- irregular, anticipatory pants-- brush against the nape of her neck; a stalled predator interrupted from making the kill. "Lira?" He asks, bewildered, lifting his head to better take in the four letters on screen. How many people had her name, and if it was her, how did she know this stranger? Although he had a poor understanding of Lira's world directly outside of his own influence, Severen thought she might at least have warned him of persons to whom she may be acquainted that were off limits for hunting. There was no reason he should not make a meal of this one, even in spite of the possible conflict; pervasive hunger causing him to hover his teeth over the soft flesh displaying the pulsing throb of her desperate heart. The unmistakable timbre of his lover's voice came through the speaker. "Lynn?" Shit.

They did know one another, that was a bad sign. Irritation began to build at the possibility of going hungry. With an annoyed growl Severen lifted his face away and pulled Lynn's hand toward himself so he could hit the speaker symbol. "Lira, issat you?" Lira was not too happy hearing Severen's voice in proximity of her friend, an even worse circumstance for him. "Look, I 'idn't know who she was, still don't..." he trailed off, glaring at the woman he still held in hand, his defense falling on deaf ears as Lira berated him with a cold, even calmness. "Just tryin'a eat before I came over, hows'at---" Lira asked to speak to Lynn privately. He released the woman with a petulance more similar to a pouting child than a man-eater. Severen stomped a foot or two away to allow for a suggestion of privacy, although he could easily hear what Lynn was saying-- not the half of the conversation he was interested in eavesdropping upon. He pulls out a crumpled pack of cigarettes and shakes one free. He sticks the cigarette in the corner of his mouth while he fishes out a matchbook, ignites the tip with his nail, hovers the flame over the tip, taking a deep and dramatic inhale. There is a shift from heinous murderer to stressed boyfriend. While the women talk he paces in wide loops smoking feverishly, the nicotine doing nothing for his nerves--or the still present starvation. An eternity passes before Lynn holds the phone out so Lira can give Severen a final conclusion. He listens to her voice, carefully, not so much the words, but her tone, trying to analyze if this mishap has torpedoed his chances for an evening spent in pleasurable company, or if he would be relegated to another warehouse corner. There is a delicate balance of seriousness with the faintest hint of humor at the situation they had found themselves in, however, had things gone any further he was more than certain there would have been more egregious repercussions. "Don't eat my friends". "How'm I s'pposed to know who they are, put up some posters 'r sumethin'". There is a pause on her end. "Get over here". Severen takes his own beat, an apprehensive expression on his face that is more human than any other seen this night. "You're still hungry, right?" "Yes ma'm". Severen smiles bright, takes a last drag and flicks the bare remains of his cigarette into the asphalt, grinding it with the toe of his boot.

"Be right there". He immediately turns and begins to jog back into the night. As if remembering how this whole scenario began, he stops, spins on heel looking over his shoulder. "Good meetin'ya, Lynn, right? See ya round". He smiles again, this one somewhere between the creature that had minutes earlier been ready to feast upon her and the cowed love interest of the immortal woman. To the dark streets he returns, perchance to find a different human to slake himself upon, perhaps straight into the arms of his missed sweetheart. For once Severen was glad for modern technology, it had kept him from the doghouse on this night; although now he would be plagued with the near-miss wondering as to what Lynn might have tasted like, would the retribution be worth just a taste? Probably not, but he was a man of impulse, not forethought. For now he would remain curious, who knew what happenstance the future could hold for their next meeting. And of that he was certain--there would surely be another.

Dread engulfs her, becoming something stronger, something squeezing tight around her throat and hollowing her out. Those teeth. They do not belong to a man. They are meant for horrors in the dark, creatures under a child's bed, the shadows lingering at the edge of your vision in the dead of night. He's not human.

He's not human and she's going to die.

Her desperate, stupid attempt for empathy is met with a cruel grin and even crueler words. There is no daughter he can haunt, no child shared between her and her late husband. Maybe she'd find him after all, out there in the dark. The thought is overtaken by adrenaline, her blood pumping fast and hard. I don't want to die here, she'd told her husband in Temple Gate. I don't want to die here, she repeats now, the thought bouncing like a reverberating pulse off the walls of her mind.

She's not ready to join Blake. Not yet.

"No!" She shouts, the sound ripping out of her throat, low and guttural. Twisting and turning like an animal caught in a trap, she attempts to free herself only to find a hand clamped around her throat. Her cries are cut off. Those teeth shine under the moonlight. Her free is about to claw against his when she realizes her phone is stick clamped between iron fingers. Choking, shaking, she manages to locate her most recent calls and taps the screen repeatedly, trying to hit one of the numbers. Her phone starts ringing and Lira's name fills the screen.

[bbraefairy]

GRAVITY

a fiction for bruce wayne and selina kyle.

notices: angst, fluff, smut, safe sane consensual, aftercare.

chapter 1!

"You are so beautiful. Genuinely." Fell a broken, husky whisper from his lips. He wondered if that statement was enough.

He couldn't believe it.

He's seen this woman in mugshots; her beguiling character was always frozen in perfect snapshots, he's chased her across quiet rooftops in the cascades of Gotham's night rain, he's shared a couple of glasses of Marchesi Antinori, when she was keeping it classy, and cunning, but now....

Here he was. With her. In a sea of carefully woven silk. The moonlight was as warm as it promised to be. The night chill sent pirouettes of goosebumps across their exposed skin.

He was at her mercy.

The World's Greatest Detective, yet there was so many mysteries in this woman he had yet to unfold. The Caped Crusader, a symbol of courage and valor, yet he was so stupefied and starstruck in her presence. The Dark Knight, that combative and seemingly invincible hero, yet he was crumbling at the core to this very thing called flesh and blood.

All of the emotions he was feeling, they were so much bigger than him.

It was her eyes that told him, it was safe to allow his feelings to take up space.

"Selina..." There he was once more, a man of concise prose and defined character, uttering another unconscious statement.

She takes her soft, brown russet hand, rubs his cheek as gently as she could manage. The tips of her fingers bury in a patch of his ink-black hair.

Selina was just as speechless as Bruce was. She had a hard time wrapping around her head that no matter how many times the law has created a rift between her and Bruce, that somehow, something, some feeling, kept bringing them closer every time.

It was ridiculous. A woman who didn't commit to character alignments, and a man who was all righteous.

She didn't feel worthy of him, in all honesty.

This man has seen her slip up time and time again, and nonetheless, he treated her with such grace and delicacy.

Bruce was puzzling, just like she needed him to be.

"I'm here," was what she managed before letting the air between them breathe.

"I find it so funny that..." she locked her dark caramel eyes with his tender blue ones.

It was like the woodsmoke and earth of autumn contrasting with the bitter frost and blizzards of winter.

"We played this interesting, detailed, almost infinite game of cat and mouse— or should I say, cat and bat," and the last part, she said with her golden smirk.

It made Bruce chuckle.

He presses a loose kiss on an expanse of her fragile, sepia skin.

"There's so much friction between us. Black and white areas. A lot of unmarked territory. But, there's something about you, no matter how much you catch me red-handed, no matter how much you've arrested me with that disappointed look on your face, no matter how many times we've fought and disagreed..."

His eyes were damn near the best place where she could be lost and found.

"You always reel me back in. I've got nine lives, and you're in every single one,"

Bruce lost eye contact with her.

She tenderly moves his face back to hers.

"Look at me, please. don't look away,"

And she realized why he did, he had tears in eyes.

"Tell me, what is that thing that keeps bringing us here? Why we keep meeting like this?" she wiped a long tear from his cheek.

What the world knew of Bruce was a strong, unstoppable, nearly supernatural man.

On the other hand, Selina was able to see Gotham's Defender in his real state, absolutely vulnerable and flawed. It was something she had to adjust to and cherish simultaneously.

"I..." Bruce was at war with himself, fighting every urge and thought.

"I think...." he runs his calloused hand up the back of her smooth thigh.

He kisses the slant of her jaw, the crook of her neck. A soft cry threatens to leave his throat, but he holds it down.

The words he wanted to say were stuck to his brain like glossed pages of a magazine stuck together. What he needed to say was too difficult to articulate. He felt like a stuttering engine. Perhaps, a child learning to speak for the first time.

Only Selina could make him feel this way.

"I could show you better than I could tell you," he claims in a subdued manner.

"Actions mean more than words, they say." Selina smiled softly, running a finger along a track of cicatrixes on his arm.

There was compassion lingering in her touch.

He chuckles again, kissing her on the lips.

The same lips that peppered him after those nights of Hide and Seek throughout the drab maze of Gotham.

Bruce shakes off his last tear.

"You know you don't have to hide anything from me." Selina reassures, tapping his nose.

"That was an instinct, sorry. I forgot I'm not Batman right now."

Goddamn, this woman's got me falling apart at the seams, he thinks, before asking:

"I want to please you. May I?"