#but needed to address the dupe...

[requinum]

if you saw this already no you didn't

inspo from this 1993 kd lang vanity fair shoot :D

k.d. lang Cuts It Close | Vanity Fair | August 1993

[a-very-tired-jew]

I’ve seen a few of the antisemitic blogs make statements like “Greta was Times person of the year a few years ago, but since she linked climate change to colonialism they dropped her” or some variation thereupon.

And here’s the thing.

That’s not the reason.

Everyone dropped Greta because she offered nothing to the climate change problem.

She was a novelty as she was a child who was so singularly focused on climate change that it distressed her to the point of going mute. It distressed her so much that she dropped out of school. It distressed her so much that when she stopped being mute she started yelling at adults and it became her sole thing.

And that got her attention.

Here was a child who gave up being a child in order to bring attention to climate change.

Except we’d already had people who have been doing that for years. Again, it was just that she was a novelty because of how young she was.

Her “solutions” were also nothing new or novel.

Reduce your personal carbon footprint, switch to a vegetarian/vegan/vegetable heavy diet, contact your local politicians, etc…

These are all things that climate activists have said for years, and many of them are not actually solutions.

The whole claim that the individual civilian reducing their carbon footprint en masse will help reduce emissions was debunked during the pandemic when everyone’s footprint went down due to us all being stuck at home and it did almost nothing.

That’s when we all realized that the main emitters were massive corporations, businesses, and the energy sector and that the whole “reduce your footprint” narrative was coming from them in order to avoid responsibility. And the activists had been eating that up for years and spreading it around like gospel. They had been duped.

The whole thing about switching to a plant based diet makes no sense when animal agriculture is maybe 50% in total of the entire agricultural sector which is between 10-20% of global emissions. This one is particularly maddening because a lot of these activists like to blame Animal Agriculture as the number one emitter and/or the worst thing ever. Except it’s a percentage of one of the smallest sectors and literally does not have, and cannot have, as big an impact as the energy sector. Furthermore, all the alternatives to products that are made from the animal sector are much worse for the environment (e.g. plant based leathers need to be paired with petroleum/plastic based products and are not sustainable). These are the same people who scream that, typically, scream that GMOs and conventional Ag is bad while organic is the greatest thing ever, all the while they ignore the limited yields and increased inputs of organic.

Essentially they’re asking you to believe that a percentage of one of the smallest sectors has a bigger impact than it actually does and that you the consumer can fix it.

It makes no sense, and people have caught on to that.

And everyone has been contacting their politicians about this stuff for years.

The reality is that activists like Greta offer no actual solutions.

If she had actually gone to college and decided to pursue a career in climate science and relevant fields in order to bolster her work and develop solutions then maybe she’d be taken seriously. But she has a high school education and offers nothing more than an ignorant juvenile take on problems. Her solutions are not solutions, they’re just what ignorant activists shriek about because they don’t know what to actually do. They can’t actually understand the science, the mechanisms, and the methods because that takes years of education and experience.

If at most you have is a high school degree and you’re not furthering your education in any way then there is no way you’re going to actually provide an answer that the experts aren’t already working on.

The solutions to the issues are developed by experts with years of education and experience who are trying to address specific problems. Animal Agriculture scientists specifically are developing feeds to reduce methane emissions, Agricultural scientists specifically see certain inputs and outputs and want to improve yields while decreasing problematic outputs, ecological scientists are working on solutions to address the Ag/Wild environmental interchange. Scientists and experts work for years on a singular problem or set of problems in their particular field as it relates to climate change and develop a solution or way to reduce the impact of the issue.

It’s never an activist screaming that something needs to be done that fixes the issue, because it’s already being worked on. The activist is only coming from a place of passionate ignorance that they think is informed, but we’ve known about this stuff for years and it’s honestly wearing thin.

That’s why Greta is no longer the “darling of the Liberals” or whatever else you want to say as a tongue in-cheek barb.

She was a novelty that eventually lost its novelty and everyone saw her activism for what it really was: the same recycled fear mongering we’ve heard before.

That’s why she’s jumped ship from climate change to the anti-Israel crowd. The climate change community wants you to actually be educated on the topic and provide solutions, her new group does not. They want you to say the same canned lines, cliches, and catechisms. They don’t want a peaceful solution, but a violent one. They don’t want to provide a narrative based upon the vast nuances of the historical fact, but one that is steeped in antisemitic propaganda that trivializes and reduces everything to a black and white perspective.

That’s much easier than being educated and providing hard fixes that are incremental and occur over time. Much easier to scream about the omnicause and that there’s one “final solution”.

[presidentkamala]

Rant about white leftists incoming:

As a progressive who's politically involved, I'm fascinated by the way that I see white leftists around me simp for and identify with white conservatives. I'm white too, but I'm trans and have lived in redder/purpler areas than a lot of these people have, and I just can't share their romanticism the same way. These white leftists often identify economically with rural white conservatives and do rightly point out that left wing economics would help these people. I also know a lot of liberals who would benefit from these things but curiously I never see leftists romanticizing impoverished liberals. The thing is, yes, sometimes conservatives will say things that sound very leftist. (Liberals will too, but I never see THAT discussed by them). And so they assume, then, that working class conservatives just need the Right Candidate to swing them over to the left. But as someone who's had to deal with these people (and has a political science degree, no biggie), white leftists fundamentally misunderstand these people on every level.

They want the benefits of good social services--*as long as not a single black person gets to have it*. These are the people who closed public pools so they didn't have to integrate them. They are willing to deprive themselves of anything as long as they don't have to share it with people of color. They are not with Trump because of "economic anxiety". They love the racism, the sexism, and are willing to suffer themselves if they're told an undocumented Mexican worker will suffer a little more. They were not duped into fascism, THEY ARE HERE FOR IT. When these people say they're alienated by Dem party elites they're not making insightful points about how the Dems are still too entangled in billionaires for my liking as well, they're talking about women, poc, and out LGBTQ people being successful when they're "not supposed to be" with some antisemitic overtones on top. These are people who have shot themselves in the foot so they can bleed on a liberal's carpet.

I don't want to believe anyone is hopeless--I don't! But deprogramming these people has to address their racism first. You are not going to cure these people by running Bernie Sanders. You are going to have to make them check their privileges and that 1950s America is never coming back, and that it shouldn't. They do not want leftism right now! They want privilege!

(Also these people will talk about how racist and imperialist this country is constantly, but when a black woman loses to a clown of a white man, suddenly America is completely blind to race and gender and Harris was just a bad candidate, acksually and what do you mean I need to check my racist and sexist biases I don't have those I'm Woke, remember? Because I own a hammer and sickle flag)

SAY THAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Leftists will call liberals every bad name in the book and turn around immediately to lick cons' asses and try to woo them by throwing every single one of us under the bus. We need as many hands as possible to get us out of this quagmire but until leftists can make me understand how black women and jewish people are the "elite out of touch democratic establishment" i just dont think they have anything interesting to say.

And while almost all democratic voters have voiced criticisms of and conflicts w the party leadership, the slavish attachment to bernard is pure cult and grift and deceit from the left!! They're only just now realizing how badly they burned the rest of the anti-fascism coalition and are throwing the biggest tempy tanty ive ever seen. But you hit the nail on the head: they AND maga have the same problem which is a total refusal to grow the fuck up

[ingravinoveritas]

Earlier this year, a new blog was started here on Tumblr with the aim and intention of harassing a group of fans in the GO fandom. I previously made a post addressing this, as I was the initial target of this blog (whose original handle was a dupe of my own Tumblr handle).

I had hoped not to have a reason to revisit this particular subject, but given recent disturbing comments made by both this blog and its followers, and a post written by @nightgoodomens describing the situation from their perspective, I feel compelled to make a post of my own, to talk about what I have experienced and continue to experience at the hands of these individuals.

By now, some of you may be familiar with the blog in question. In my prior post, I did not mention this blog's name publicly, and I have no intention of doing so at this time, either. Yet I think it's important to be clear about what this blog's specific intentions were, which were made evident by its original creator on Twitter at the end of May:

It was only a few days after writing this tweet that the author did exactly this, and created this main blog. I feel that this has somehow become obscured over time, as given the negative response that this blog's initial posts engendered, the original creator apparently retired from the blog and gave the reins to someone else, and the blog's focus soon pivoted to defending Georgia and Anna. Prior to this, however, the blog began publishing Anons attacking me, including one that seemed to be threatening to doxx me:

What particularly perplexed me was seeing a gradual distortion of my own words and writing here on Tumblr, as well as people buying into it so readily. I also noticed one particular blog that became friendly with this main blog--they've changed handles a number of times, but at the time they were known as michaelsheendaily (then michaelsheensource, then thesheenantbergs). For months prior, they talked specifically about how awful the things I/others were saying about Georgia and Anna, and then seemingly joined forces with this main blog.

…Yet one year ago this very month, that same person (michaelsheendaily/thesheenantbergs) felt similarly to many of us and had sent me an Ask wanting to know if I thought Anna was being abusive to Michael. This Ask was sent from their (at the time, now deleted) main blog, but they helpfully DMed me from michaelsheendaily to make sure I had seen their question:

I answered this question (as I try to do with every Ask/Anon I get) straightforwardly and honestly, and firmly said "No" in response, as well as how serious it is to accuse someone of abuse, and that it is not up to any of us to try and break up a relationship, as Michael has people he can turn to if he needs to do so. I have also previously defended Georgia on my blog (and provided rationales and examples for why my perspective has gradually shifted over time), but it seems that the people harassing me have conveniently chosen to ignore all of this/have never looked at my blog beyond a cursory glance.

As this main blog continued its posting, and despite having Anons turned off, I began to receive a number of hateful Asks, which culminated with another blog suddenly coming into being about a month after these initial incidents. This blog claimed to be Michael Sheen (using a handle of his from Facebook), and published this despicably homophobic and noticeably un-Michael-like post:

The aforementioned main blog immediately drew attention to this post, and claimed that they had "proof" of this being the real Michael:

It soon became apparent that this blog was a fake, and despite its prior insistence that it could possibly be him, the main blog backtracked quickly as more people pointed out how obviously this was not Michael. Yet even the notion that someone would think this was acceptable--to pretend to be Michael, to (poorly) attempt an approximation of his writing style, all for the sake of attacking one person, and despite the fact that we know Michael already has a Tumblr that he hasn’t posted on in years--is just absurd beyond words.

But clearly this ill-conceived post inspired others, as only a week after this post appeared (and subsequently disappeared, along with the blog itself), I received an Ask from yet another recently-created blog of someone claiming to know Michael personally, saying that he would "destroy" me:

Which brings me to the present day, and how these themes have presented themselves yet again, in an even more unpleasant fashion.

Over the last four months, this main blog and its followers have continued to obsessively read my blog (despite how very easy it would be to simply block me) and screenshotted my posts in order to add their own vile commentary. I have not wanted to draw attention to any of this, but one particular instance has now made me change my mind.

I've recently talked on my blog about my upcoming trip to London, where I will be seeing David in Macbeth. A few days ago, it was brought to my attention that the main blog screenshotted one of my posts--which was a reblog of a video of David with Jodie Whittaker--along with my tags talking about the way David was sitting. One of the blog's followers commented this in response, and subsequently received a reply from the OP:

The "daggers" commenter currently runs several blogs dedicated to worshiping/defending Georgia and Anna (at least one of which is run in tandem with the original creator of the main blog). Numerous accusations have been levied at me and others from these blogs, one of the most outrageous of which is homophobia...yet this is their response to me simply saying David might not be 100% straight, and which eerily echoes the tone of the post from "Michael" three months ago. And while there are a lot of things about the last few months that have rankled me, nothing does so more than the hypocrisy I have witnessed, such as this.

The thing is, though, that when I saw these comments, all I could honestly think of was how sad I felt.

Because here I am, just days away from going on my trip--a trip I have been so anxiously awaiting, that is my first non-work trip in a very, very long time--and now the thought of, "Could someone try to attack me?" has crossed my mind. Yet my sadness is less for myself and more for the person who thinks it is acceptable to wish or even encourage violence against another human being. My sadness is that this person feels so unsafe or discontent in their own life--a feeling I know all too well--that their chosen course of action is to make someone else feel unsafe. To assuage their own sense of powerlessness by going after someone they perceive as having power.

My sadness is at these people being so sure that the celebrities they are a fan of would agree with them, yet needing/wanting those people to act in a way that aligns with who they want Michael and David to be, rather than who they actually are. I know that the Michael and David I became a fan of are two of the kindest, most intelligent, warmest men you could imagine, and that there is no part of me that wants or needs them to scream at or dislike the same people I do for the sake of my own self-serving purposes.

To that end, I have also been distressed by the apparent frenzy that was recently generated in the form of a "rallying cry" against myself and others in this group of fans facing ongoing harassment. But what I've tended to see as a response to said frenzy is some variation of, "People are saying these terrible things. I haven't actually seen any of these posts/comments, but it must be terrible, so I'll block this person/people." I am no stranger to fandom chatter/gossip, but every time I hear something, my first impulse is always to find the receipts. To learn more information what is being claimed so that I can make up my own mind. And that is the very same ethos I have espoused on my blog for years, because I would much rather people think for themselves than "fall in line" because they are being told to do so/threatened with being "cancelled" if they don't.

So if you want to find out something about my opinions or takes, it is all here on my blog. Everything going back five years since I joined the GO fandom, tagged and catalogued. I have not privated anything or deleted anything, nor do I have multiple blogs or side blogs--just this one. And if after reading what I actually have to say you still want to block me, you are certainly welcome to do so. I would just much rather you block me because of the truth, not because of someone else's personal vendetta and agenda.

To say that dealing with all of this for months on end has been surreal and stressful is a profound understatement. Especially because I have never once engaged with this blog, never replied to any posts of theirs, nor sent them an Anon or made threats of any kind (despite receiving numerous threats myself). Nor have I replied to the multiple incendiary Asks and DMs I have repeatedly received from the blog's original creator.

Again, I have not wanted to draw any further attention to these people, but the staggering awfulness of the most recent comments finally made me feel that enough is enough. I truly shudder to think what the response would be if someone made a similarly threatening comment toward these individuals...yet it's somehow completely fine to say these things about me. To make me and others into the "villain" that you need us to be to justify saying these heinous things in the first place. And while these individuals and anyone else are free to dislike me and to express their dislike in a public forum to their heart's content, that freedom of expression ends where my right to not feel that my personal safety is in jeopardy begins. A line that should never have been crossed has been crossed, and we as a fandom and as human beings are much the worse off for it.

No one should ever have to feel this way. Not even these people. And by talking about all of this and bringing these incidents into the light, my hope is that no one else ever will.

[likelyamused]

A rush. Heat and cold all at once. Like smoldering under a spotlight and getting hit by the droplets of a cold shower. It seizes Max's body in a tense mess.

“Jason. What are you doing here?” Max struggles to regain control of himself. He still manages to keep his voice in check.

“Ah! Is this how you greet an old friend? Where are your manners?” He leans on the side to address Celia directly with a friendly smile. “Hi! I’m Jason. And you are?”

“I’m-” 

Max cuts her off, repositioning himself. “I asked you a question. What are you doing here?” 

Jason maintains eye contact with Max, but takes a step back. Max is not duped: it's to better pounce. He's testing out Max's reactions. He might have wanted to come across as friendly, but the tightness in his jaw and the slight squint betray him.

“I came to visit one of my cousins about two weeks ago and you cannot imagine my surprise to see you walk by as I was getting a smoke,” chuckles Jason. “I’ve been checking in with what you’ve been up to since then. Honestly, man, you lost your edge if you didn’t notice me on your trail for two weeks!” 

Max's face gets hot. Two weeks. He's been followed around for two weeks! His instinct did pick this up, but he was too… comfortable to make sense of it. He let Jason gather two weeks worth of knowledge he can now use to his advantage. What was he able to find out in that time?

“Must have been bored out of your mind.” Max says with a twitchy smirk.

Jason snorts. “It’s been what… six months?” He gives Max a playful thump against his shoulder. “Six months since you’ve disappeared and left us without saying goodbye. You can’t just leave like that, man. We had plans.”

“With how things ended on the last job, I thought it would be best for everyone if I just left. I’m sure you can carry on without me. I came here for a fresh start. I don’t want anything to do with that life anymore.” 

The back and forth in Jason's movements are making Max anxious.

“A fresh start? Is that so? A part-time job at Simsmart and living in a trailer are what you aspire to nowadays?”

Max’s breath catches in his throat. Jason’s going to spill out all of his secrets before he gets a chance to. He’ll spoil everything.

That’s not what’s important, though. Jason chose this moment to get himself known for a reason. Max needs his head clear.

“What if it is?”

“Have you been brainwashed?” Jason looks mockingly puzzled. “How can this be enough for you?”

“It’s a start.” Anger, waking from events that occurred months ago, resurfaces again. Jason always thought he knew best what Max needed, robbing him of the right to choose for himself. Max gets impatient. “What do you want, Jason?”

“You’re coming home with me.”

“No. I’m not.”

Jason chuckles again. 

“Tell me, Celia, what has my boy here shared with you, hmm?”

Max flinches at Celia’s name. She never told him. 

“Did he tell you about his parents? His grandmother, probably. Do you know what he did to afford food and stuff when his parents would blow their social aid cheques on booze every month?”

Celia’s face is an open book. Jason just needs to follow her expressions to know if he's hitting the mark.

“How about me? Did he ever talk about me? No! Then he certainly didn’t tell you about what we got into when shoplifting groceries became a lot of risks for too small a payout. Credit card fraud was pretty good, quick, but it lacked a bit of excitement for me. I enjoyed car theft much more. It's much more of a rush. Our boy here was always really smart about what we'd hit. Stirred us away from getting caught more than once.”

Celia’s eyes skip from Jason to Max, searching for a sign that this isn't true but not finding any.  

“Max got scared on our last job and fled. I knew it was out of his element, but he often needs a push in the right direction to do anything, ya know? Auto theft at gunpoint is a little more intense, but damn! We couldn’t miss out on that!” 

Max wants to scream “I told you I was against that idea! I never wanted to do it!”, but he holds his tongue. Jason had the habit of recording conversations. He couldn’t incriminate himself so easily. 

“Anyway, Max was always good at things that required more... stealth. He likes to observe, be sneaky, slide in, act quickly. I guess it came in handy here too.”  

Celia turns to Max, “What is he talking about?”

“Ah! Yes, Max, why don’t you tell her about the old man who leaves envelopes of money for you? What is it? Blackmail? Extortion?... A sugar daddy?”

Max grimaces, “Don’t be stupid!”

Jason hardens, “No, you are if you think either of them really cares about you. Look at her. See the disgust in her eyes from what she just heard about you.” 

Max keeps his stance slightly in front of Celia, but he can see her retreat from the corner of his eye. He fears Jason may be right. 

“Wait ‘til she learns that this old man is her grandfather! Oups!” 

Max snaps. He swings and knocks Jason's jaw. He shouldn’t have done it: Jason’s always been a better fighter than him. It’s too late now. Max moves forward to get another hit in, but Jason recovers enough to hold him and hits him in the diaphragm. Max folds over trying to catch his breath. 

When he gets up, Jason is hiding behind Celia, a hand on her shoulder. “I’m sorry you got caught in this, Celia. You seem like a good girl,” he says in her ear. 

Celia looks warily at Jason from the corner of her eye before turning her inquiring gaze toward Max. “Is any of this true?” 

Max heart drops. That’s when he notices Jason’s challenging stare. He’s like a dog with a bone: he won’t let go until he gets what he wants, and Celia stands in between. The hand, the apology... she won't get out of this unscathed. Max knows what to do. She’s better off without him anyway.

Max shuts off his emotions as best he can and turns a placid stare toward Celia. “Some… most. I was homeless when you met me. There’s no aunt. I'm currently living in a trailer on your grandfather’s property. I never told him about you and you about him, because… I was just trying to have some fun with you and secure a roof over my head, really.” He chuckles the last words out to hide that his voice was cracking.

Something breaks in Celia’s eyes: her light shatters and leaves sharp splinters aimed at Max’s heart.

“So you just used me… us?” Celia’s chin trembles.

Max can’t breathe. He hopes it doesn't show. “Yes.”

Jason makes a big show of letting go of Celia's shoulder. His eyes glimmer with pride, a familiar expression Max now sees in a different light. This has always been their dynamic, hasn't it? Jason pushes and pushes until the meanest, most vile things come out of him. A while ago, Max would have considered that as a recognition of kindred spirits. Today, he finally sees it for what it is: the satisfaction of having control over him.

“Good to know.” Celia walks away. As she passes beside Max, she turns to him, her voice both soft and searing  “Stay away from me, and from my grandfather.”

Max watches her leave with all he wanted to tell her stuck in his throat. What did he just do? Jason joins him with hands in his pockets.

“Max, Max, Max… You really fell hard for this girl. I could tell. Tsk! This is for your own good, and hers too. You two are not from the same world. It wouldn’t have worked. She'd never accept you for who you are, and you'd be stuck, like you always are. You know this, man. Don’t tell me you believed otherwise. Let’s get your things.”

“I’m not leaving with you.”

“Max, you lost the girl. And soon, you’ll lose the trailer too. It’s time to go.”

“Maybe. But I won’t leave with you. I wanted out, I got out and I’m staying out.”

Jason violently grabs Max by the jaw and pulls him up. 

“You owe me.”

“I think you were compensated enough when I disappeared without taking my share.”

Jason pushes Max and swings. Max barely evades his blow. He tackles him to the ground and gets a punch in.

Jason topples him over and takes the upper hand. Max takes a pounding, “Hurt me all you want, I’ll always hate you for forcing me into our last job and for destroying everything I built here. You won’t get anything else from me.”

Jason pushes his forearm on Max's throat and gets up. Max braces himself for a kick in the back, but it never comes. When he finally looks over his forearms, he sees Jason walking away with a smoke. Max sits up and tries to keep his heart from spilling out.

Beginning / Previous / Next

[29daffodils]

bison : resident noob dom extraordinaire

context : there was a discourse going on on twitter (as per usual) about whether bison is actually a dom or not or if it's just a trauma response that he may grow out of and eventually realize that he is not into bdsm. or something.

before i begin anything,

disclaimer : OP has both good and bad experience, so this meta/rant is entirely written based on my own understanding and experience within the BDSM community and with partners.

now, let's begin.

the original tweet that sparked the debate (also i think OP's QT aiming at “self proclaimed bdsm connoisseurs” is snooty and entirely dismisses all their arguments before and after that) (but that's just me)

the tweet with the counter argument?? i guess???

in support of the OG tweet

now that i've laid all that out, i'll begin by saying :

the idea of anyone being a “natural dom” or there being something like “natural dominance” in the context of sexual preferences is inherently harmful and sets people, both the dom and the sub, up for having a bad experience, or worse, being abused.

i know this statement wasn't from OP, but considering how they are on about the “bdsm connoisseurs” flooding their mentions, i think they should have addressed this since it's in support of their tweet. anyway.

now, i agree in part with OP's take :

bison is definitely influenced by his entire life being surrounded by violence. we have a young adult who has mostly no control over his life or how he lives it. he has witnessed violence and now he is in the center of it, and nevermind how good he is at his job, bison has made it clear he doesn't want to kill. bison has also told us that “pain kinda excites me.” so, just because his sexual lifestyle might be a trauma response, it doesn't mean he “isn't really a dom” or that his behaviour is “not rooted in natural dominance”. the idea of “natural dominance” is moreover, in my opinion, based on unrealistic patriarchal ideals and if you squint, this is a not so subtle shade on our young twinky dom as well.

so now let's look at bison as he is introduced to us :

witnesses the murder of his parents, clearly traumatized, get “adopted” by some shady ass woman who puts him back into a system where he is the one now inflicting violence, bison realizes at some unknown point of time that he “wants to be in control” because “pain kinda excites me” and purchases all sorts of bdsm paraphernalia, except he never dates because of his profession, until he meets kant who dupes him into trying out s&m, and bison very much enjoys his first play, fast forward to the falling out and kidnapping of kant and the fighting and make-up, and finally the scene in question that sparked the OG tweet :

in this scene, bison admits that he goes out and does fun things, like bowling, right after a kill, to take his mind off it. clearly, he doesn't like it. we already know this, bison has always insinuated to fadel that he wants an out and it's evident he doesn't hunger for the kind of violence he is made to dole out. but this is the first point we see him actually address this and outright say he deliberately does light-hearted activities to disengage from the aftermath of a kill. we also see him admit to the difficulties of a hitman's lifestyle and this particular piece of dialogue shows that whether he enjoys it or not, he is good at his job and he has made his peace with it. so where does his need for control fit in here?

in previous episodes (#2, tattoo parlour scene), bison admits to wanting control in bed, but he doesn't clearly state whether he is the S or the M. coupled with this omission, his “pain kinda excites me” dialogue makes me think he is both into giving and receiving pleasure from pain.

anyway, coming back to the main point, bison's need for control in bed may very well (and i've been suspecting it for a while) arise from his difficult lifestyle and his lack of say in how he lives, considering he is a hitman and (has to) reports to mother probably everything he does. for a 24yo, that's not the best case scenario. assuming bison was immediately adopted after the murder of his parents, he did not have a lot of (if any at all) time to explore himself or live his life in a way he sees fit. we know he sleeps around (that's his M.O. after all in most missions, i believe) and that's probably the only place where he could excersize any control or take charge. but we also know he hasn't done any s&m play before. so with the introduction of kant and the whole bdsm shebang, we can tell bison is exhilarated to finally be calling the shots and leading in bed in a way he and his partner both find pleasurable. and since he has all the tools and knows his own desires, it's safe to assume wants to be a dom. now whether he is or not, let's see.

we'll address the “natural dominance” debate here.

in the very first interaction with kant (who is older, btw, let's keep that in mind), he immediately tells off kant for being patronizing towards him. if you live anywhere in asia, you'll know it's kinda rude to talk back to older people. so even though they are in an informal setting, and the age rules don't apply here as such, bison doesn't shy away from putting kant in his place.

in the red room, we can see kant take the bed but bison walks away from him and takes the loveseat. in this scene, it is clear kant is used to leading, so he expects bison to listen to what he says. but bison (bless my boy), very easily throws him off by remaining seated and gesturing kant to come to him. kant still tries to keep his ground, but ultimately he makes the most pathetic meow meow begging face and that's when bison finally lets him have it. even after this, we can see kant is used to topping and pulling the strings, but bison once again throws him off by saying, “you are not doing this solo, you know?”

this whole exchange immediately defines their roles in the current setting and imo, is a very subtle foreshadowing for their future interactions.

in the tattoo bed scene, bison is excited beyond measure to be finally introducing and sharing his kink with kant and while initially we could see kant trying to lead this interaction, there are subtle signs/actions from bison that shows how he prepares kant for his submissive role : the slap to the hand on his thigh and kant's little flinch and gasp (one of my fave scenes from first, the micro-expressions were outstanding), the little slaps to his cheek before bison departs, etc.

i could go on and on, but the “natural dominance” that QTOP claims bison doesn't have, is actually out there taking a walk in broad daylight lmao. i think their intent was to say that because bison's dominance doesn't exist irrespective of his trauma but actually goes hand-in-hand with it, it's less valid than say, a dom who doesn't have a violent past and trauma related to it.

the question now here would be how good of a dom he is and whether he lets his trauma define his status as a dom. so far, there have been no signs of bison misusing his power and control over kant during a play (i believe we cannot count the drunk bison whipping kant scene here for obvious reasons). but so far, while bison was sober, he hasn't abused his power over kant during one of their plays. until very recently that is, and outside bed, does bison actually makes use of his power over kant : kidnapping and outrageous demands because he is hurting, but, the moment kant uses his safeword, bison drops everything and pulls away. from my experience, bison is very much a good dom so far, but he is also inexperienced, excited, in love, and under-informed (or that bit may just be the sloppy writing).

the word “natural dominance” suggests to me that QTOP expects bison to be in his dom role all the time, but it's not very often that people adapt their sexual preferences and make it into a lifestyle. doms are caregivers (by this, i mostly mean they lead and guide the sub and provide care/pleasure during and after any scene) in bed and outside of it should it be an exclusively d/s relationship with that kind of lifestyle. we haven't seen bison and kant discuss their dynamics or how they are going to implement it anywhere outside a particular scene. moreover, bison so far hasn't indicated that he wants kant and himself to be exclusively a d/s pair. rather, he is very much a romantic and likes doing all sorts of things that a stereotypical younger twinky bottom male in a gay relationship is supposed to do. even in the swing scene, bison is affectionate with kant the same way he was before learning the truth. the only difference we feel now is because bison finally knows the whole truth and is letting himself freely accept affection that he was holding himself back from when he was suspicious of kant's motives (even after getting together with him). so bison's cutesy actions in this ep are not because he doesn't have the dom bone in his body or because he hungers for affection but gravitates towards domination because of his cycle of violence. he is free and affectionate and it feels different now compared to before is because his entire relationship with kant is no longer sitting on a bed of lies and they have both come clean. this ultimately changes their body language and how they interact with each other. therefore, bison's desire to lead is just as strong as his desire to be cared for (leaning on his boyfriend, being cute, cuddly, etc) and both exist on opposing sides of the same sphere that's bison's life.

therefore, i think it's kind of ridiculous to say his actions/behaviour isn't rooted in “natural dominance”. I'm not even sure what that is supposed to mean except that QTOP either thinks bison is supposed to be some caricature dom who likes leading both in bed and outside it. because that, my friends, is not how most relationships (bdsm and otherwise) work. or that he is a christian grey 2.0 (which, 🤣🥹).

so what i urge most readers/watchers to do here is separate bison's innate ability to inflict violence effectively in his job from his desire to dominate and use pain for pleasure in bed. both are different things and not mutually exclusive.

i think most of us need to give up on whatever 50SoG “taught” us about bdsm and actually look at this whole thing realistically. also, i think from all this info it's clear bison isn't gonna change his dom status anytime soon and for valid reasons. so from what we have seen him do so far, i can safely say he knows what he wants and he will very much keep wanting to play with kant while he calls the shots.

therefore it's important that we see bison's character from a realistic pov instead of whatever christian grey was. yes, he craves control because he doesn't have it in most instances of his life. but also yes, he craves romantic affection from his partner because he is a fool in love. both of these things can co-exist. what we need to remember is that just because someone is a dom doesn't mean they only need to be a sadist or be a top (I'm looking you, vegas).

in the future eps, bison might settle more into his skin and he may (however unlikely) realize he doesn't need to demand as much control (not that he is doing that a whole lot now). but, we still have 4 more episodes left and I don't think we'll be covering that anyway. so, my final verdict is bison is very much a dom, but he is a total “noob dom” (as i fondly like to call him) and will get many things wrong before he gets them right. but kant will be there along the way to learn alongside him, so no worries about that.

anyway, rant is over. cheers.

[russilton]

hii mark! can i ask some rb au angst if you feel like it? just love to read anything you write or plain to write about those two if you feel like it!!

Whoops-sorry it appears your ask got lost in the mail (I didn’t know how to answer it for two years, it’s embarrassing how low this sits in my drafts)

Red bull au masterpost

Honestly the weird thing about taking so criminally long to work on this au, is that the real life RBR have fed me more fodder in how they have fucked over their second drivers than I ever could imagine on my own- I felt indulgent and ridiculous writing the original timeline, but honestly all that’s been proven is the real fictional part of George’s arc is not the abuse he receives- it’s that he fights back at all.

I think the best point for angst I’ve never really delved into is the hinge point for when Red Bull snaps and decides they need to reign George in, and that falls dead in the middle of the year long timeline, in Hungary.

Hungary comes directly after Silverstone, which was not exactly a fun time for Red Bull George. It’s supposed to be his home race, he’s finally in a top team, George is absolutely inflated under his own ego, the fact he’s getting fucked by his idol every other week, and he’s got two wins under his belt in his first half a year in a new team go a long way to that. He’s finally proving everything he’s ever told everyone he would be- he’s competing with the best the sport has seen, he’s not fumbling the seat like everyone said he would because he was too soft on Alex, he’s not playing second fiddle to Max like everyone. Told. Him. Or at least that’s how he feels after France and his wins (3 races prior to Silverstone)

Then comes Styria, George is high on his wins, so he doesn’t get mad immediately when Red Bull quite clearly hand Max a favoured strategy and George loses the chance at an undercut. It’s fine, it’s his teammate, they’re closer to Max’s home than his. He bites his tongue, you can’t win them all, he’s still a step above Lewis on the podium even if second feels acrid.

Immediately following Styria is the Austrian GP, same track, same team “home” race, they’re being compelled to impress. In strategy meetings the team keeps mentioning that Max needs wins. George tries not to let it annoy him they seem to be forgetting he’s just as up for the WDC as Max is. When he makes that comment, as casually as he can, someone laughs, Max rolls his eyes. They don’t address it. George feels like he’s missing a joke nobody told him about.

Qualifying rolls around, conditions and timing aren’t quite coming their way as normal, it’s different at a track everyone got to practice a week prior. None of that prepares him for his engineer instructing him on his final fuel up in the garage to tow Max for a final lap. George doesn’t need to do his usual mental math to know he won’t get to set his own competitive lap time doing that. He tries to argue but there’s no time and he’s shut down immediately. Team Orders, Max has seniority, you’ll make places in the race. George ever the competitive fuck does it, but he’s mad about it, livid. When he’s interviewed after Max gets pole, he’s tight lipped other than the necessary mention that team work is important, he’s sure Max will get him back.

Lewis bends him over a table and mocks him about it, about being someone else’s bitch for once. George revels in the chance to push back and assert his own power when, if he thinks about it… he’s really not feeling that powerful, mostly duped. He thinks about it when he misses out on the podium bc the redbull ring is a shit track to overtake at, and the team don’t seem to care to console him whatsoever. Max won, cheer up, it’s what the team needs (George feels like some of them sure didn’t look as happy when he won in France)

Silverstone rocks up next, George pushes it to the back of his head. The Ring is the teams home race, even if they’re based in Milton Keynes, Silverstone is GEORGES home race, it’s supposed to be where he gets to shine. He gets some interviews with Lewis and Lando to parade that patriotism around a bit, he doesn’t care for Lando, but Lewis seems bouyed as much by the home crowd as he is, he laughs easier and some of that antagonism fades a bit as Lewis sees him more as a parallel than a rival. Then comes getting in the car and it all goes down hill from there.

There’s changes to his set up, things that might suit Max but not him, it makes it harder to case out the track when he’s fighting Max’s driving style in his own car balance. In qualifying they make him tow. Again. George is practically apoplectic, but he qualifies well enough to grit his teeth and bare it, he’ll still be near the front, he can fight for a podium at home. His parents aren’t in the garage, something about not wanting to distract him, George can’t tell if that worked at all. Lewis gives him a nod though in parc ferme and George can chase away the burning wrong a little further.

But the race is a nightmare. Max and Lewis collide, Max hits the wall. George privately thinks that Max was an idiot for thinking Lewis wouldn’t fight extra hard at home, he would have done it too, but then he’s focused on winning. If he pushes hard enough, maybe he can fight Lewis for it, wouldn’t that be all he wanted.

George doesn’t get what he wants in this story.

They fuck his pit stop, it’s late called and George has to practically demand it down the radio, his team insisting on holding out to interrupt Hamilton and his penalty. George doesn’t understand it in the wash of adrenaline and what that matters more than his own progress. By the time George gets out on track he barely gets any time to fight Lewis at all as Lewis cruises by on well seasoned tires. His engineer sounds angry he didn’t hold Lewis up more despite George knowing attempting that on cold tires would have been a death wish for them both.

He makes good places, he’s got third almost in the bag at the end of the race when the team pulls him in. He doesn’t get it, he argues till they tell him to get in and get his soft tires to run for fastest lap, without room for argument. George gives up places at home, where it mattered most, because Redbull wanted to do anything and everything to take points from Lewis, even if it meant George losing his own in the process. George can barely understand it through the haze of anger and frustration, especially in debrief when all anyone will talk about is lodging an appeal against Lewis.

When Lewis fucks him that night, winner of Silverstone once again, he asks George why he defends a team that don’t seem to give a shit about him. George storms out, but he doesn’t stop thinking about it in the weeks break. It eats at him, the fact Red Bull would rather he lose if Lewis lost a point, than see George on a podium.

On comes Hungary. The culmination of multiple races of frustration bubbling up in George, rolled in with Lewis being less than kind and tactful but maybe too truthful in their secret meetings. George is a tapped powder keg, Redbull strategy barely notices him, convinced Max will win and all their planning that will provide that. But, low and behold, in the race, George’s leading Lewis whose leading Max

George knows he can’t win realistically, part of his car nose is broken, his tires are old, but he’s trying. Red Bull don’t care through, as they tell him to hold up Lewis so Max can catch up and take the lead. They tell him to hold the line just to give it to max again.

George snaps. And in an act of utter lack of self preservation he lets Lewis by, barely fighting beyond appearances, hands it to Lewis on a silver platter. As the team are sighing and chalking it up to a fuck up they have no faith in him from preventing Lewis, to prove them wrong, George proceeeds to deliberately fight Max and block him from passing. He defies team orders (they’re in the final handful of laps preventing a drawn out Lando Oscar debacle), and proceeds to hold the line all the way up to the checkered flag.

The post race podium is something to behold, Lewis doesn’t understand what just happened, he knows George let him by, he knows George’s driving style by now and he, if he admitted it to himself, enjoys the fighting with him. George is clean and feisty, but this wasn’t that, and Lewis is frankly a little mad to be deprived of it, and because he can’t stand being handed things.

Meanwhile Max is fuming and about ready to punch George in the face, there had already been a ice cold confrontation in parc ferme, the redbull mechanics in the pit lane clap for Max and shake his shoulder, they stare down George and the slaps on his back are for the cameras and hard enough they hurt a bit. George remains defiant through it all, set jaw and arched brows that demand well, I’ve played my hand, the fuck are you going to do about it.

After the interviews and press, Lewis tries to find George. He’s fuming, ready to blow off some steam, itching to engage in their usual fights that lead to something rushed in a bathroom or at least some kind of heated make out. He wants to know why George gave him the win, if it was some kind of pity move or ego play, he wants answers, but as he finally catches sight of George, he’s being frog marched through the paddock flanked by annoyed looking redbull engineers, a red faced Horner and a downright murderous looking Marko. They’d clearly all hung around to see George’s media interviews, if he’d explained himself. Lewis doesn’t think they liked the answers they got

Lewis has to drop the bone there, he’s been in his own angry debriefs, George won’t be free any time soon and everyone is itching to wrap for the summer break so they can all get some rest from the first half of the season. He settles for taking a wanky photo of the trophy and posting it to his instagram with a caption that has him maybe hoping it’ll bait George into texting him so they can do something in the break. Lewis doesn’t exactly want to think about WHY he wants to see the annoying twink he fucks in his free time.

George doesn’t respond. In fact, Nobody sees hide nor hair of him for the entire summer break.

[themisinformer]

Trump Takes off Mask During Inauguration Speech to Reveal That He Was Jill Stein This Entire Time

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Leaving the entire nation feeling baited, Trump would shock the nation when he concluded his second inaugural address by removing his mask to reveal that he was none other than Green Party candidate Jill Stein this entire time. “Surprise!” exclaimed Stein, who stood in front of a stunned audience.

“It was me, Jill Stein, this entire time! You see, I infiltrated the Republican Party to expose the system from within.” This revelation came as a shock to everyone, as fellow politicians in attendance on both sides of the aisle exchanged puzzled glances to one another.

“I knew something was up about Trump, but this?” said former president Barack Obama. “We may disagree on many, many, things, but the people voted for the man, and the fact that they were duped in such a way is quite frankly unconstitutional.”

Indeed, both Democrats and Republicans have already started impeachment proceedings in an attempt to quickly get Stein removed from office. “What Jill Stein did was that she exploited our democracy for her own benefit,” explained Senate majority leader John Thune. “She needs to be put out. Now.”

Stein, however, has doubled down on her actions, and has stated that she won’t be removed from office without a fight. “The fact that you guys weren’t able to tell That I was just Trump in disguise says more about you than it does about me,” Stein said. “Maybe you guys should select candidates that aren’t so easy to impersonate, then I wouldn’t be able to do this.”

[atsoine]

i dont want to keep posting about this, but rat made some very serious allegations against me and i feel the need to address them because this isnt just me being bullied, these are serious fucking accusations to be posting about me without any proof.

1. i addressed the racism allegations with my bait blog when i apologized for both it and my diss-misinfo blog. the racism allegations were about me roleplaying as a hispanic alter, a quackity introject. key note: I AM HISPANIC, and all of the race-related jokes id roleplay the alter making were the same jokes the real life quackity makes about himself, a hispanic person.

2. i do believe organized abuse is real. i had some really shitty and fakeclaim-y views on organized abuse and the ramcoa community when i was running diss-misinfo, but again, i addressed that briefly in my diss-misinfo apology post. its in my pinned.

3. again with bringing up the bait blog. ive addressed this already.

4. this one is what made me make this post. i want to make it crystal fucking clear, i do not abuse animals. im not fond of animals due to allergies and sensory issues, as well as trauma, but i do not fucking abuse them. i believe rat is falsely extrapolating this accusation from me discussing how, AS A CHILD, i was forced to care for multiple large breed untrained dogs that i could not handle. this was an abusive tactic from my mother. i was not abusing the dogs, i was BEING abused by having their care placed in my hands as a child whose extremely averse to dogs. i simply wasnt able to keep up with their care, and i lived in pet waste for many years growing up.

5. i was in a severe derealization episode when i told someone that they werent real. i was in active crisis and didnt believe anyone was real. i had to ask my roommate to tell me where i was and what year it was before i could even begin to ground. i also apologized privately to the person who i said wasnt real for the incident.

6. i have no fucking idea who this is about. thats fucking horrific. i, and i hope this is obvious, DO NOT SUPPORT SEXUAL ASSAULT??? im not friends with anyone from my old anti endo group, so whoever the fuck youre on about, i most likely dont talk to them anymore.

7. the slur was tranny. im transgender. i use it for myself.

8. the rest of the post is just the same shit i dont feel the need to address too deeply. me interacting with blogs that commonly syscourse while i was running my zain-syscourse blog is not a crazy thing for me to do.

stop trying to paint me as some supervillain. i was a hurt kid who was lashing out via syscourse, but im not evil. im not on some mastermind plan now to dupe all the endos, ive just changed and i want to exist in peace. if you wanna bully me then fine, your group can tag me in "hawk tuah" posts all day long. but do NOT accuse me of serious fucking crimes like animal abuse, especially because we BOTH know theres no evidence.

- nick

[jifferydaotter]

Nearly got scammed and all I got was this dog

tl;dr: I fell for one of the most basic blunders. If a real person wants to commission me, please follow my blog first and be ready for a 20% payment upfront before I start on a piece.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit they got me with this, but maybe posting it may help prevent it from happening to someone else.

A couple weeks back I uploaded my tenth post on Tumblr, and I got a comment from someone asking me for a commission. There were many red flags I should have caught before giving it any more thought: They weren't following me, they hadn't posted anything at all to their blog, and their grammar was atrocious.

But I was curious, and figured even if it ended up being fake it would be good practice. So I messaged them and we got a plan going. They played their part well. They asked me to make 5 pieces of their "son's dog" and gave photos for reference, and they even said they wouldn't pay more than $40 for any individual piece due to a bad experience they had with an artist in the past. This being my first rodeo, I thought that it was legit, and this was just some cranky lady who just wanted some art.

Anyway I finished the first piece (pictured above) and they met me with high praise, saying I did amazing (honestly their high opinion of my work should have been the biggest red flag of all, but remember: this was two weeks ago. I was still a fool). Then we discussed payment. They were strangely eager to get to this part, even though I just figured we'd negotiate the price now and then I'd ask for the payment after I'd finished. They asked If I had a Paypal. I did not, so I set one up. Then, in order to "pay" me, the said they needed my email. I gave them my Paypal username, but they said it didn't work. I then tried giving the name attached to my Paypal, but they kept saying they needed my email. Stupidly, I figured that was just how it worked, so I sent my email address.

Here's where the real shady stuff happened. Not long after I shared my email, I recieved an email from (supposedly) Paypal saying that they had paid me the agreed-upon amount, but that I had set up my account wrong and in order to increase the limit set on payments I could recieve, I had to ask the payer to pay me more in order to make the total equal to $300, and then immediately pay them back the extra money. I still feel so stupid for falling for this. In hindsight, it was kind of a brilliant scam. They managed to make me feel like I was the one doing something sketchy, and I fell right into it.

I apologetically messaged them explaining the email I got. they told me they had received a similar email and they promised to do pay the amount if I agreed to pay them back. Soon after I got another email saying they had paid the extra amount.

If it weren't for the fact that gmail caught it as a fake Paypal email, I probably would have paid them that money and lost all my human rights or something. Luckily though, Gmail left a little thing next to the email name saying it was a suspicious address. So I did some Googling and realized that neither of the emails I'd received were from Paypal's official email. I had been duped, and I nearly fell for it. I swiftly blocked and reported them, and reported the fake email addresses to Paypal's phishing services.

In retribution for this attack on my innocently optimistic view of the internet, I have posted the one piece I did for them above. Might as well make some use of it.

A PSA to any fellow newbies to posting art online: be careful. In the future I will be much more careful about the commission requests I accept. I will not be responding to any unless they come from someone who follows my blog, and agrees to pay 20% of the commission price before I start on anything. Additionally, it would be appreciated if you include with your commission request some weird, out-of-pocket statement that a bot wouldn't say, just to prove you're real, though that is not a requirement.

Still can't believe I almost fell for such an obvious scam.

[storiesbyjes2g]

3.211 Snake in the grass

I tossed and turned all night, plagued by vivid, terrifying nightmares that left me feeling exhausted and on edge. I'm surprised I didn't wake Sophia. A heaviness sat on me like a thick sweater, so I sat on the edge of the bed, reminding myself of Sophia's words: I'm okay, we're all okay. If I ever needed a yoga session before, it's now. But when my little lady finds out I did it without her, she'll be upset. I want her to sleep. Between our travels and our traumatic night, we all need rest today. I went downstairs so I didn't disturb Sophia and hopped on Social Bunny to see everyone's Winterfest pictures. No sooner than I sat, Maira sent me a text with two pictures in it. No context. Just two extremely random pictures that raised all kinds of questions.

All my alarms blared. This snake duped my friend, and I wanted to knock some sense into him. I didn't need this kind of energy today. My finger was just about to hit the call button when her face popped up; I never answered a phone call so quickly.

"Maira what the hell??!!!"

"Calm down, Luca. Let me explain."

"Why would you send me those?? Why not just call and THEN send the pictures??"

"I wanted to surprise you!"

"Well, I'm not surprised! I'm concerned! Who is this man?? And why are you both in white?! Please tell me you didn't marry him!"

"I can't do that."

"MAIRA!"

"Well, if you'd just listen!!"

"FINE!"

They met about a week ago and eloped yesterday, and it took everything I had not to scream. Yes, I see the irony of being upset about this when I moved into Sophia's house after one date. But Maira is someone I care about, and she has a history of men trying to take advantage of her. It also reminded me of Alessia's situation all over again. I kept saying to myself, I don't need this right now and muted myself so I could take deep breaths. But as her story came together, I calmed down. Oliver O'Keefe is his name, but he didn't sound like a snake at all. Honestly, he sounded like a proper gentleman. Maira is super clumsy and tripped while walking up some stairs at a restaurant. Oliver was coming down on the other side and helped her up. The next day, she went back to the restaurant, and I'm sure you guessed it; he was there. They arrived around the same time, and she invited him to dine with her. Turns out he's a big foodie and was obsessed with the restaurant. They had hilarious conversations and learned a lot about each other. She wanted more, so she gave him her number. To her surprise, he called a few hours later, saying he wanted to make sure she got home okay, and that she wasn't sprawled out at the bottom of anymore stairs. Funny. I gave him points for that one. They talked for the rest of the night—the rest of the week, actually. She invited him out every day, and he always left her wanting more. They had chemistry, but she cared for him in ways she's never cared for anyone. I could tell even in her voice that she had stumbled upon something special. She kept her feelings to herself for a while because it seemed crazy to have fallen in love that fast, but she couldn't deny it for long. Earlier this week, she invited him to her place to confess. She told him she'd understand if he didn't feel the same and needed to step away, but he confessed to feeling the same. He respected her and didn't want to put her off by making a move too soon. Needless, they had an amazing night, if you know what I mean. The next few days were quite epic, too. Finally, on Winterfest Eve, he invited her to an address in Chestnut Ridge. She felt special because he'd never asked her out before. She got dressed up, thinking it was a date spot, but when she arrived, it was just an old ranch. He acquired it long ago and restored it gradually until it was move-in ready, but he didn't want to live there alone. And he wasn't looking for a roommate, either. He wanted a companion to fill the space with love; Someone to enjoy the journey with him; A partner worthy of being a mother to his children. He wanted a wife. He wanted Maira.

I was all smiles by the time her story was over. My dreams for her had finally come true! I always wanted her to open herself up to love, and I wanted a worthy man to see her. He sounds worthy, but I'll reserve judgment until we meet because he could still be a snake. Predators don't strike right away. She invited us to hang out with them for New Year's Eve tomorrow if Sophia and I didn't have anniversary plans. I told her we had just gotten back in town and weren't gonna do anything for a while, and we'd be happy to swing by.

[obigem]

Before forgiveness could even be a question in the matter, he would have to explain this all to her. What was the point of all this?

As her her eyes found him as he drifted onto the ballroom floor, she found the opportunity to get the answers she sought.

Matthew's eyes found hers as well.

The golden ambiance of the room shrouded her in an eminence that he would have trouble looking away from even if she didn't already carry that brightness to her that always drew his eyes toward her. Their gazes drew long enough for Matthew to be conscious that his lingered.

So he made the conscious choice to break it.

He found a glass of punch to busy his hands with, the sickly sweet taste of it would surely steady his heart and remind his head to not get carried away in moments or too easily lost in her. Both could be nothing but dangerous for him.

"Don't be foolish," he told himself, "you can't look at her like that. This is hardly the place, and it's certainly not the time time."

He needed a few moments before he could actually approach her. Once he had his composure back, then maybe he could take a moment with her.

He could address her properly, let her know that her dress was—her hair—that she……ugh.

He shook her his head. He needed a bit more time so he could say it right. But as he looked up, he could see his time was quickly running out as Cordelia descended the stairs in his direction.

The ice shifted in his glass as his heart startled in anticipation of her arrival.

"Look sharp, Landgraab." He said under his breath as his mind cycled through what the safest things he could say to her would be once she approached.

And then she was right by his side. He cleared his throat awkwardly.

"You…um, you look—" He tried but ultimately wasn't able to get very far before Cordelia broke in.

"Like a princess, I know." She huffed. "You can tease me about it some other time. We need to talk."

"About?" He arched a brow.

"Maybe about everything about this thing you neglected to tell me?"

"What is there to tell that you don't already know? It's a ball filled with wealthy overdressed men and women and their just as overdressed children. Oh, and there's dancing."

"Right, except the parts you left off about status, and marriage proposals, and scary girls with crosshairs!"

"What fairy tale is this that you're referencing again?"

"Don't be so flippant! You knew that this ball was a really huge deal and you told me nothing about it! Not to mention, you most certainly omitted that every girl here would've sold their right arms to go to this thing with you."

"So what? You jealous or something?"

"Don't be stupid! I thought you were in a pinch because no one wanted to be your partner all for it to be the opposite the whole time! I feel duped and completely ambushed all at once. Was that the plan all along to make a fool of me?"

"Why would I ever do something like that?"

"Like I can tell why? But think of it from my position. All those girls, they think were like an engaged couple or something and they want to rip my throat out for it and all because you misled me."

"I didn't!"

"Then why didn't you go with one of them?!"

"Like I would entertain the company of any of those silly, odious girls." Matthew clicked his tongue.

"No, I guess you'd just rather involve me, tell me nothing, and then throw me to the wolves!"

"If you can remember, I wasn't exactly the one who invited you, did I?" Matthew's temper flared.

"I don't give a llama's ass about silly fancy parties, or stupid wealthy people traditions or charades. I didn't want to attend this at all, but then my mother insisted and she got you involved without my consent."

"So when I asked you if you wanted me as partner why didn't you just say no?"

[ladylooch]

Flashback thought 😛😛😛

I wanna see Lio taking baby Gracie to get her shots. Poor guy. He’s coming home ready to sue the doctors office.

To pass time waiting for the pediatrician, Lio takes the time to study the perfect toes on Gracie Meier’s little feet. Each foot has five dainty little toes, with pristine toe nails attached to them. They are the cutest feet Lio has ever seen in his life. They fit into the palms of his hands, barely taking up space as she reaches forward to grab a foot to place in her mouth.

“You can’t eat these toes! You need them!” Lio insists, bouncing Gracie up and down as she begins to babble at him. “The happiest girl in the world today, hm?” He asks her tilting her back into the crook of his elbow to see her blue eyes. Savannah has light blue eyes and Lio’s are dark. Their daughter is a mix in the middle, but Lio believes they will lighten to be Savannah’s. The shape matches her mother’s perfectly.

Gracie grips at her big toe, trying to do a sit up to get it into her mouth. Lio pulls it away from her, then pretends to devour it. Instead, he kisses all over her soft skin, soaking up his little girl giggling as a knock sounds at the door.

“Hi Lio!” Her pediatrician, Dr. Boone, greets. She grabs some foam sanitizer onto her fingers and rushes it over her skin. “Hello Miss Gracie!” Gracie lights up at the doctor’s fun, rubber ducky scrubs. Inside her crocs are jibbitz of various animals and a few of bath bubbles. Lio smiles. This woman is in the right profession. “Oh! You already want to come to me? Okay!” She takes Gracie from Lio, setting her on her hip. “Well, hello. I’m so glad the nurse is giving your shots today and not me.”

Lio’s smile falls off his face.

“Shots?”

“Yeah! Finishing out a few round of immunizations and then starting some new ones too. It will be tough, but harder on you than her.” She assures him.

Lio sits back in his chair. His wife absolutely duped him. Pulled the wool right over his unsuspecting eyes like the wolf she is. He scratches at the hair by his ear, snorting under his breath. If he wasn’t so annoyed, he might be impressed.

“No mama today?” Dr. Boone asks Lio.

“No, she has her own appointments today.” Which is true, but Lio has a sneaky suspicion the overlap was on purpose. Lio had been out of town for their daughter’s 4 month shots. This smells like payback being an utter bitch.

“No worries. We will be quick!” 

Dr. Boone puts Gracie on the table and goes through the routine check of her body. She asks Lio a few follow up questions, then opens the table up to address any concerns. There are none at this time, which is great news all around. 

“Perfect! Well, I will step out and let the nurse know she’s ready for her immunizations. There is a lot we are giving her, so the standard rules apply. Look out for any swelling, obvious pain, fever, unusual behaviors, that sort of thing.” Lio nods in agreement. “We’ll also send you home with a packet for more specific things to look out for. So read through that with Savannah when you reunite.”

“Sounds good.” Lio nods. “Should I leave her up there?” He motions to the table.

“Yeah, the shots are going to go in both thighs, so if you can get her cute little ruffle jeans off, that would be great. She can keep her shirt on. Have a great day! Be well, Gracie!”

Lio stands up and takes over watching Gracie on the table. She is an absolutely wiggle worm the entire time, wanting to be on her stomach and flailing her arms and legs. They are sure Gracie will be crawling sooner than the average kid. He pulls his phone out, calling his wife.

“Hey! All done?” Savannah asks. Lio detects a hint of guilt in her tone.

“You’re in trouble.”

“Am I though?” She chuckles. “This is fair, Lio!”

“This is not fair! She’s going to have so many and all she’s going to remember is me here!” 

“I literally do not want to hear it. And you said you would do the 6 month ones.”

“When!?” Lio exclaims. Gracie gurgles at his excitement, thinking it’s him being funny with her. She babbles and pats at his stomach, trying to use her grip on his shirt to pull herself off the table. “I never said that. I would have remembered.”

“You did! That night I called you after her appointment! You said you would do the next round.”

“I can’t be held accountable to what I say to get you to stop crying.”

“Oh please.” She scoffs. “Tough hockey player Lio Meier can’t handle a few needles?”

“I can. Our daughter!?” Lio sighs in exasperation. “What if I get them and then….” Lio trails off. “We google how I can pass it along to her through, like, breathing the same air?”

“I love you so much. And if I thought you knew anything about science I would tell you to follow that idea. But you don’t, so you’re stuck with the traditional shot experience of being traumatized by holding her down.”

“W-WHAT!?” Savannah giggles.

“Bye, baby! You’re winning daddy of the year for this!” She shrills then clicks off the phone.

Lio’s mouth is still hanging open when the nurse knocks on the door. Lio watches her trail in with a cart of syringes. Suddenly he feels woozy. Is he going to hyperventilate? His mouth dries instantly and he coughs, looking down at Gracie. 

“I don’t want to hold her down!” Lio blurts when the nurse says hi. “M-my wife said I have to do that?”

“We ask parents to, but if you can’t that’s okay. I’ll be the bad guy.” Lio nods, then steps away. “Do you want to pull a chair up and hold her hand? She would probably like that.” 

Gracie is curious as Lio slides into his seat. He holds her little fist in his hand and tries to remain calm as the first needle is picked up. 

“Okay, we can do this fast. Over in 30 seconds tops.” The nurse coaches him. She seems like a nice lady, clearly experienced and undeterred by Lio’s nervousness. “Ready?”

“Yeah.” Lio agrees. 

As promised, it is over in under 30 seconds but after the first pinch, Gracie unleashes her lungs onto that room. She has four pink paw patrol bandages on her thighs and then Lio is snatching her up off the table.

“I know. That was terrible.” Lio assures her. “Cry it out, baby. I’m so sorry. We just love you a lot. Too much maybe. I don’t know. Let’s call mama and cry to her the whole way home.”

The nurse chuckles.

“She did great. You did too, dad. There are stickers around the corner if you want to pick one out for her… and yourself.” She can’t even hold back her smirking smile. Lio chokes out a laugh as she disappears through the door.

“Oh my god.” He mutters, getting Gracie’s pants back in place. He pops her cute pink Adidas on too, then bundles her up for their trip to the car. It’s early February and nippy out. Before Lio leaves, he grabs a sticker for Gracie and one for him. He tosses Gracie’s into the cup holder then slaps his “I was brave @ RWJ Barnabas Health” sticker right over his heart where it still doesn’t feel like it’s beating right. 

Lio and Gracie beat Savannah home. She eventually comes home mid-afternoon with a Starbucks in her hand and a few shopping bags. 

“Before you get mad, I got you a new sweater!” She thrusts the bag at him, “And a new tie that will look so gorgeous with your eyes.” 

“Don’t suck up to me! It’s not going to work.” He insists. His hands go to his hips, proudly displaying his sticker to her. “Brave!” He points at the sticker. Savannah laughs, pulling her phone up to snap a quick picture. 

“This Americano is yours.” She thrusts the cup out to him. Lio looks at it, then grumbles a thanks as he takes it. The first sip eases some of his annoyance. “Where is she?”

“Sleeping off her trauma.”

“Lio, oh my god. I swear if Gracie gets your dramatics, we are in trouble.”

“Dramatics! You weren’t there!?”

“Did daddy get trauma too?”

“Yes.” He insists, flicking his arms out to the side. Savannah takes the opportunity to step into his chest for a hug. Lio devours her in his arms, sighing as he drops his mouth to kiss beside her pony tail. “It sucked.”

“It does.” She murmurs. “Did you kiss those sweet cheeks to make it better?”

“Yeah. Lots of daddy kisses and snuggles before nap time.”

“Good. Does daddy need some kisses now?”

Awareness stirs in Lio’s body.

“Mhm. His thighs have sympathy pains.” Savannah grins wildly as she pulls away from his chest. 

“Bummer, I was going to use those to my advantage tonight.”

“Kiss them right now and they’ll be ready for tonight.” He promises her, nipping at her lips. 

“You’re so easy to buy, Lio.”

“Fuck off.” He grins then shoves her onto the couch. “Keep buying me, sassy girl.” 

It was an expensive afternoon, but Savannah comes out ahead in the end.

[ilikepjo24]

OMG FINALLY someone talks about Octavian If u don't mind me inputting this, but it's mentioned in The Hidden Oracle by Apollo that Octavian was duped by Gaea,, plus there's super strong parallels between Nero/Nero's Adopted Demigod Children and Octavian (that nobody addresses) and if that aligns with the absolute W takes you've been chugging out I think I won't tear my hair out over him tonight

Octavian was, in my opinion, the funniest dude character in Heroes of Olympus. He sounded like a demonic toddler mixed with your middle school weird nerd 🤣 This fandom should definitely take advantage of that comedic potential. Plus, he has no backstory, which gives us endless creative freedom. Why wouldn't I talk about him?

And if you scroll a bit on my blog you'll see that picking up stray aggressive, mean characters and defending them like my life depends on it is sort of my thing, so it was only a matter of time until Octavian caught my eye.

Unfortunately, I have not read the Trials of Apollo yet. I got the first book of that series during the winter holidays, and I haven't started it yet 😅 but I've seen a couple of spoilers, so I'd really want Octavian to have survived Heroes of Olympus and be in the Trials of Apollo. One of the reasons being that I didn't want him to die at all, but other than that, Apollo getting kicked out of Olympus and living amongst mortals and needing their help? Octavian would eat that up, I'm telling you.

He'd follow Apollo on his journeys and that would give him sooo much time for character development. Plus, being essentially "kicked out" of Camp Jupiter to be send to a quest with a god you user to be obsessed with but then sort of manipulated you could be written as a punishment due to Octavia's actions and could help trigger a redemption arc.

And all the prophets having issues with their powers because Apollo is not amongst the gods anymore? As an augur, that would affect Octavian as well. He may have had flashes of the future or all that other overwhelming suffering stuff we see other prophets have, and Lester would help him with that, while they also help other prophets.

Octavian surviving the Heroes of Olympus and being in the Trials of Apollo would be ground for character development, bonding dynamics, a backstory, a redemption arc, a healing arc, maybe a power up? 👀👀 There were SO many opportunities and it's a waste that Riordan threw that away.

[mariacallous]

The flood of text messages started arriving early this year. They carried a similar thrust: The United States Postal Service is trying to deliver a parcel but needs more details, including your credit card number. All the messages pointed to websites where the information could be entered.

Like thousands of others, security researcher Grant Smith got a USPS package message. Many of his friends had received similar texts. A couple of days earlier, he says, his wife called him and said she’d inadvertently entered her credit card details. With little going on after the holidays, Smith began a mission: Hunt down the scammers.

Over the course of a few weeks, Smith tracked down the Chinese-language group behind the mass-smishing campaign, hacked into their systems, collected evidence of their activities, and started a months-long process of gathering victim data and handing it to USPS investigators and a US bank, allowing people’s cards to be protected from fraudulent activity.

In total, people entered 438,669 unique credit cards into 1,133 domains used by the scammers, says Smith, a red team engineer and the founder of offensive cybersecurity firm Phantom Security. Many people entered multiple cards each, he says. More than 50,000 email addresses were logged, including hundreds of university email addresses and 20 military or government email domains. The victims were spread across the United States—California, the state with the most, had 141,000 entries—with more than 1.2 million pieces of information being entered in total.

“This shows the mass scale of the problem,” says Smith, who is presenting his findings at the Defcon security conference this weekend and previously published some details of the work. But the scale of the scamming is likely to be much larger, Smith says, as he didn't manage to track down all of the fraudulent USPS websites, and the group behind the efforts have been linked to similar scams in at least half a dozen other countries.

Gone Phishing

Chasing down the group didn’t take long. Smith started investigating the smishing text message he received by the dodgy domain and intercepting traffic from the website. A path traversal vulnerability, coupled with a SQL injection, he says, allowed him to grab files from the website’s server and read data from the database being used.

“I thought there was just one standard site that they all were using,” Smith says. Diving into the data from that initial website, he found the name of a Chinese-language Telegram account and channel, which appeared to be selling a smishing kit scammers could use to easily create the fake websites.

Details of the Telegram username were previously published by cybersecurity company Resecurity, which calls the scammers the “Smishing Triad.” The company had previously found a separate SQL injection in the group’s smishing kits and provided Smith with a copy of the tool. (The Smishing Triad had fixed the previous flaw and started encrypting data, Smith says.)

“I started reverse engineering it, figured out how everything was being encrypted, how I could decrypt it, and figured out a more efficient way of grabbing the data,” Smith says. From there, he says, he was able to break administrator passwords on the websites—many had not been changed from the default “admin” username and “123456” password—and began pulling victim data from the network of smishing websites in a faster, automated way.

Smith trawled Reddit and other online sources to find people reporting the scam and the URLs being used, which he subsequently published. Some of the websites running the Smishing Triad’s tools were collecting thousands of people’s personal information per day, Smith says. Among other details, the websites would request people’s names, addresses, payment card numbers and security codes, phone numbers, dates of birth, and bank websites. This level of information can allow a scammer to make purchases online with the credit cards. Smith says his wife quickly canceled her card, but noticed that the scammers still tried to use it, for instance, with Uber. The researcher says he would collect data from a website and return to it a few hours later, only to find hundreds of new records.

The researcher provided the details to a bank that had contacted him after seeing his initial blog posts. Smith declined to name the bank. He also reported the incidents to the FBI and later provided information to the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).

Michael Martel, a national public information officer at USPIS, says the information provided by Smith is being used as part of an ongoing USPIS investigation and that the agency cannot comment on specific details. “USPIS is already actively pursuing this type of information to protect the American people, identify victims, and serve justice to the malicious actors behind it all,” Martel says, pointing to advice on spotting and reporting USPS package delivery scams.

Initially, Smith says, he was wary about going public with his research, as this kind of “hacking back” falls into a “gray area”: It may be breaking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, a sweeping US computer-crimes law, but he’s doing it against foreign-based criminals. Something he is definitely not the first, or last, to do.

Multiple Prongs

The Smishing Triad is prolific. In addition to using postal services as lures for their scams, the Chinese-speaking group has targeted online banking, ecommerce, and payment systems in the US, Europe, India, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, according to Shawn Loveland, the chief operating officer of Resecurity, which has consistently tracked the group.

The Smishing Triad sends between 50,000 and 100,000 messages daily, according to Resecurity’s research. Its scam messages are sent using SMS or Apple’s iMessage, the latter being encrypted. Loveland says the Triad is made up of two distinct groups—a small team led by one Chinese hacker that creates, sells, and maintains the smishing kit, and a second group of people who buy the scamming tool. (A backdoor in the kit allows the creator to access details of administrators using the kit, Smith says in a blog post.)

“It’s very mature,” Loveland says of the operation. The group sells the scamming kit on Telegram for a $200-per month subscription, and this can be customized to show the organization the scammers are trying to impersonate. “The main actor is Chinese communicating in the Chinese language,” Loveland says. “They do not appear to be hacking Chinese language websites or users.” (In communications with the main contact on Telegram, the individual claimed to Smith that they were a computer science student.)

The relatively low monthly subscription cost for the smishing kit means it’s highly likely, with the number of credit card details scammers are collecting, that those using it are making significant profits. Loveland says using text messages that immediately send people a notification is a more direct and more successful way of phishing, compared to sending emails with malicious links included.

As a result, smishing has been on the rise in recent years. But there are some tell-tale signs: If you receive a message from a number or email you don't recognize, if it contains a link to click on, or if it wants you to do something urgently, you should be suspicious.

[whaleofatjme1920]

My Version of Eyeless Jack

So, there's no cohesive narrative here I just wanted to infodump a bunch of stuff about how I write my EJ. I'll put it in headcanon form but know whenever you read my newer EJ fics (or whenever I get an inkling to talk about him), this is exactly how I envision him and want him to be seen as.

EJ grew up in a Polish somewhat American household. He's a second generation, with his parents both being from Poland and most of their extended family in the old country. His mother is from a smaller city in the southwest, and his father from Krakow. His mother instilled in him a deep love of the natural world, and a hunger for learning.

Jack's obsession for medicine and whatnot came up because his father was just a bit insane about keeping him healthy. Any cough or sneeze was instantly investigated. He was a bit sheltered in that sense, and was prone to sneaking out to experience a normal adolescence and whatnot as he grew up.

While Jack is not averse to getting his hands dirty and doing jobs no one else would even THINK of, he's still gotta go through a full cleansing and decontamination when he's done.

I like to think that, as a kid, he was deeply in love with Slavic mythology and he was, surprise surprise, really into Chernobog. That wasn't Chernobog whispering in his ear he was just always interested whether he realized it or not. This kinda faded out around 12 years old but as a guy that's literally possessed by him now, fused to make an entirely new being, he finds it just a hair ironic.

Yeah, he did have to go to Polish school on the weekends. Sometimes he loved it, other times not at all.

He was his parents only child so he was kind of under a magnifying glass from them both.

He was actually quite close with his grandmothers!

Jack has always had a biting, sarcastic wit. He can balance professionalism with clinical sarcasm fantastically. His humor is very deadpan and he'll dupe you multiple times if you're not careful.

Jack doesn't always understand why people insist on social politeness. He actually favors bluntness, but will be polite if the situation calls for it.

He has three tongues. Yes, he's choked on them before. This mostly happened in the beginning when he was first getting used to his new body.

He doesn't like sweet foods, but certain organs are sweeter to him than others. He can't quite explain that, but he favors certain parts of people over others.

He can eat human food, but it's like junk food for him. He will always need to feast on humans from time to time to keep himself well. Also this is NOT a constant thing with him. He has like a major feeding once or twice a month, and smaller feedings ever 7-10 days. He can get by just fine, he's not always starving.

Most of his work is him just preparing in case he's in a situation he can't hunt.

His body can heal at an accelerated rate!

Because he's possessed by/permanently fused with Chernobog, he has 'starfish' tendencies. Meaning, if he loses a finger, in about 6 months he'll have a new one. Anything bigger might take years but he's never been in a situation where that's needed to happen. This does not mean he's invincible.

Slender Man, who has been around for way longer than any of us can conceive, finds it funny that Chernobog is fused with a socially awkward young man who couldn't even ask a girl out normally and forewent his survival instinct just to hang out with her.

Slender Man, when just with Jack, will speak with him in Polish or older forms of Slavic languages when more directly addressing Chernobog.

Jack is physically HUGE. He's like 6'8, because his merging made him bigger. He was already tall at 5'10, but Chernobog required a bigger vessel. So, he painfully grew bigger. He's quite muscular, not overtly so but you know he has physical strength.

He's,,,,, human-like in appearance. Gives off uncanny valley at times.

He's actually quite funny and does take some joy in making people laugh.

He's not besties with Jeff but they are, more often than not, together doing things.

He actually prefers Jane's company!

It takes so, so long to gain his actual trust. He has varying levels of it, like anyone else, but it's difficult to even breach his first layer.

Has a deep fondness for birds, specifically vultures.

Doesn't like dogs. He has never liked dogs. Smile is his one and only exception. Does like cats.

His body has a stupid tattoo on his thigh he got when drunk one night at uni. He's still mildly embarrassed by it.

He occasionally smokes weed.

He won't admit it, but anyone that looks like Jenny brings back terrible, terrible memories. When he was younger, those types of women used to trigger panic attacks. He's much better now, but seeing women that look like her make him very uncomfortable.

He doesn't enjoy strong smelling perfumes or colognes. He thinks the scents themselves are nice, but they give him migraines. His sense of smell is very strong and well.

He can actually function quite well in normal society, he just doesn't physically fit the image. And even using his glamour-he sticks out from his height alone.

Jack wouldn't say this to anyone, but he sometimes hangs around in his glamour just to remember what he used to look like before. It's not a 100% match, but he sees himself as older. A bit more jaded and weathered. He wonders what would have happened if he listened to his roommate and didn't go.