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[vaspider]

Tonight, the night before Election Day 2024 in the US, I am thinking about my stepkid.

I am thinking about the phone call they made to us earlier this year, the one where they told us they'd gone to the hospital thinking they had appendicitis and found out, instead, that a zygote - a tiny splodge of cells - had taken up residence not in their uterus but in a fallopian tube. The one where our kid said they were waiting for their partner to arrive, hoped that said partner would get there before the docs took our kid back to terminate that pregnancy, & assured us that they'd be okay.

After all, our kid lives in a state with choice measures embedded in state law. That pea-sized blot of tissue doesn't have more right to their health than they do. Nobody is standing between them and their doctors. They made a decision, and that was that.

In this tiny tragedy, the kind that plays out dozens of times a day at minimum across the country, we only had to worry about the small risk of surgery complications. We didn't have to worry about Ken Paxton threatening to charge their doctors with felonies. We didn't have to think, "What if the hospital's legal team doesn't think an ectopic pregnancy - which is never ever viable and must be terminated before it kills our kid - is really that big of a deal?" We didn't have to worry that they live in a state where ob-gyns are fleeing, leaving few experts behind, as has happened in Idaho.

We didn't have to watch our kid vomit up black blood before dying the day after their baby shower the way Neveah's mom did. We didn't have to pray in a waiting room (while doctors took our kid apart until their heart stopped because the doctors waited too long out of fear of anti-choice laws) until a doctor came to tell us we'd have to bury them the way that Amber's mom did. We aren't having to pick up our lives after fully treatable miscarriage-related sepsis took them from us the way that Josseli's husband and daughter must.

I could go on for far, far too long.

Listen. If you are a single-issue non-voter and have already decided that "both parties are the same" or whatever other thing you've told yourself so you can sleep at night, smug and secure, then I can't reach you and I can't help you. But if you genuinely think that your votes don't matter, if you're just suffering from a bout of overwhelm or apathy, if you're too young to remember the 2000 election and can't see that Dobbs is a direct result of that election and every one that's followed, please, I am fucking begging you.

I didn't really talk about this when it happened. I mentioned something briefly, maybe. The posts I've started writing about it are still in my drafts. It was too fresh, too frightening. It's not any less frightening now, honestly - because if this week doesn't end with President Kamala Harris, we're headed for a national abortion ban, at the minimum - but it's not about how fucking frightened I was or how sad and bewildered I was to realize that my kid was going through this crisis in a nation more hostile to them than when I needed a D&C for an abortion at 21, in 1998.

It's about stopping this chapter of this fucking bullshit and at least finding some new fucking bullshit.

Vote, dammit.

Do the other work on Wednesday. Tomorrow, the work is to vote.

[mclager]

Devil's roll the dice (angel's roll their eyes) | Landoscar X reader

English is not my first language, take it easy

Warnings: Stupidity (in a cool way), drunken marriage, Landoscar having a crush on eachother and being little bitches about it, drunk sex, m/m/f, mentions of Elvis Presley covers

Face claim: girls of pinterest under the "white dress" search

🃏

Ynrkv

Liked by Lando, oscarpiastri and others

Ynrkv Only white dresses for Las Vegas, I hope I don't have to say anything else!

View all comments

User81 someone is getting married this weekend!

Lando I will say it for you

→ Ynrkv Thank you very much 🙏🏼

Oscarpiastri Why Lando get a cool picture and I got whatever this is?

→ ynrkv You look cute, shut up

→ Oscarpiastri @/Lando I hate you

→ Lando You don't

🃏

"Is Lando responsable for this?" Oscar stopped in front of me and showed me my newest post on Instagram. Specifically the first photo on the slide.

"Yeah." I said still laying on the couch in his driver's room. "Did you like it?"

Osc locked his phone and put it in his pocket.

"I did, half of the grid did too." He he said a bit too irritaded, and I chuckled.

"By half of the grid you say Lando?" Oscar rolled his eyes and closed the door behind him, starting to pack up his things.

"And it matters?" He wasn't in a good mood, the race wasn't the best, so this, what is a normal thing, became a little bit bigger than it should.

"Lando is always flirting, it's nothing new."

"I don't like it." He said closing his backpack passive - aggressively.

"He flirts with you too, should I be mad?"

"Don't be crazy, he doesn't."

"He does, I'm not crazy." I got up. "We're in Vegas, let's drink the bad fellings away."

"I want to sleep."

"You don't, you want to cry to sleep, is different. Now please, can we go have a drink?" Oscar nodded. "Thank you."

He kissed me and out we went. We debated where to go, but in the end the hotel had a great bar, so we went there, no thoughts, just a cosmopolitan and a expresso martini on hand. It was conforting, just me and Oscar talking about silly things, but a couple drinks in I saw Lando walk in, comicly trying to get away from a blonde girl that was following him like a lost puppy. I chuckled and Oscar looked too.

"This girl again? Jesus." Oscar made the same face he did when he was talking about the picture and Lando flirting with me.

"Go help your mate." Osc shook his head and took a sip of his drink.

"Last time I did that she started crying." I laughed and shook my head.

"Babe, you have dealt with worse, go help, Lando." He rolled his eyes, but I could see he was glad to go fuck that girls happiness up. Oscar walked to Lando, and without even say hi, he pulled the man away from the girl. She tried to say something, but Oscar can get a bit intimidating when he wants to, which is not often, and strangely only happens in situations when Lando and Myself are needing help with something. The girl looked around and her eyes stopped on me, so I waved to the girl, I don't think she liked it.

"Got a girl problem?" I asked Lando as he aprocched me with Oscar by his side.

"Problem is a cute word, she is worst. She is everywhere, I can't anymore. Thanks for the help." He looked at Oscar that nodded.

"To celebrate, let's do shots?" Before anyone answered I was ordering the shots.

"I like her." Lando said to Oscar.

"She is my girlfriend, Norris."

"And? I never said I didn't liked you." Lando was tipsy, and it was visible, but so were we. I turned to look at Oscar that was blushing.

"Why are you all red, love?" I tease him, he always denied when I asked if he had a crush on a man ever in his life, but everytime Lando looked at him with his flirty eyes, the man was blushing like a little girl.

"Shut up." The shots were now in front of us.

1, 2, 3, 4 at the fifth round of shots we decided to go somewhere else, since Las Vegas has too many places to just be stuck in one hotel bar. First, Lando used his famous F1 driver badge, and Oscar's too just for good mesure, to get us inside a club, and it worked. The place was crowded, but it had good music and I love to dance.

"Good pick!" I yelled trought the loud music to Lando and he nodded.

"I know." He didn't yell like me, he got way too close to say it in my ear. I looked at Oscar that just looked at Lando, not one sign of jealousy, so I let it slide.

"Let's dance." I pulled Oscar by his hand to the dance floor, when I looked at him I saw he pulling Lando like I did with him.

The lights on the dance floor were blinding me, the smell of sweat and alchool were strong, but the song is too good to not enjoy it. I started to dance, Oscar did too. I don't know what happened, but between one song and the other, I was being pressed in between the two men, Oscar's face was so closed to mine, and Lando's body even closer to mine.

This was overstimulating all my senses, but god, it was good. Oscar's hands were on my hips, and I was sure of it, so it was clear that the other pair on my hips were Lando's. I never thought that this could happen without Oscar getting mad or too jealous, but it was happening and I wasn't mad at all. His face was sundenly on my neck, this was going too far, but Oscar was just looking.

We had to let go of eachother when we saw a girl in the distance pull out her phone to film us. So we got to go to the next location. We walked for some minutes and we were at a chapel one of those that you get married by a Elvis. I was ready to walk away from it because I didn't thought anything of it, but Oscar stopped.

"Love?" He called me and I looked at him.

"Yeah?" He looked at the little chapel and back at me.

"Do you want to marry me?" I look at him confused.

"What?"

"Do you want to marry me?"

"Are you serious?"

"Yes, come on." Lando looked at us.

"Please, go get married." I nodded.

"Let's do this." We runned in, and again, Oscar and Lando did all the complicated stuff and I just needed to say yes to Elvis, as it played love me tender in the background. Lando was the best person to have with us in this moment. Then we got back to the hotel and drank more.

It was almost six a.m when we were walking into Oscar's room.

"Don't break anything, Lando." Oscar said closing the door. I took of my heels and went to drink water.

"Why me? That's crazy."

"You're the liability, not me or my wife." Lando threw himself on the bed.

"Me? Oh fuck you, I'm not a liability, I'm fine." I gave a bottle of water to Lan and other to Oscar before hugging my husband.

"Yes, you're. Thank you, love."

"Thank you, darling."

"You're both welcome." Lando opened the water bottle and spilled all over himself. Oscar looked at Lando, and Lando looked at Oscar.

"I know what you're going to say, so don't." He got up and took off his shirt trying to dry his pants.

"As I said, liability." I sat on the bed and looked at them.

"At least you didn't wet the bed."

"But everything else is fucking wet." Oscar looked at me and smirked.

"Everything? Are you sure?"

"Oscar!" I threw a pillow on him.

"I just asked if he was sure."

"Pervert." Lando said laughing. Oscar lay down on by my side and hugged my waist.

"What? You two are perverts, I'm just saying, not everything is wet. The bed is fine, the floor is fine, you're the only thing that's wet."

"Sure." Lando said throwing his shirt on the floor.

"Take it off." Oscar said to Lando.

"What?"

"You want to be all wet fine, if don't, take it off, it's fine."

"Can I?" Lando asked me and I nodded.

"Sure." As he was taking his pants off, Oscar put his face on my neck leaving little kisses and soft bites. This man knows what he is doing.

"Can you two stop?" Lando was way hotter in his boxers, I have to give him that.

"Stop what? I'm just hugging my wife, can't I?"

"Osc... You're not just hugging her." He sat by my side rolling his eyes.

"No?" He pushed his hips against mine, Oscar was really excited about what was going on in his mind.

"Love, what are your plans?"

"I don't have any plans."

"Can you control your boyfriend, darling?"

"Oh, he's past the control part. I'm sorry." Oscar sighed.

"You two are boring. Sometimes I forget that all Lando can do is bad flirting."

"I'm really good at flirting, and I can do a lot more than that."

"Prove it." I turned to look at Oscar, completely in shock.

"How? You want me to do what? Kiss your wife? Kiss you?" He joked, little did he knew that was exactly what Oscar wanted.

"Are you thinking about it, Oscar?" I asked and he nodded.

"Any cons?" I shook my head.

"Go ahead."

"Oh god, you really mean that don't you?" Lando asked.

"What? Do you think I would let you grind on my girl just because I'm nice?" Oscar sat on the bed. "Are you going to say now you don't like the idea? If you don't, it's fine too..."

Before the end of his thought, Lan pulled Oscar and kissed him. Everything is happening too fast, or my head is too slow because of the alcohol, either way everything looks like a wet dream.

"That's what I'm talking about." Oscar said against Lando's lips. The unclothed state of Lando didn't help his case, he was getting hard by the second.

"I fucking knew you had a crush on eachother." I whispered more to me then to them, but they heard it, of course they did. Oscar chuckled letting Lando go.

"Sorry for lying."

"Well, sure, yes, sorry. Can we skip to the part fun? We can discuss about your man being canonically bi later."

"You're more needy than her after a race weekend, this will be fun."

"I'm not needy." I sat up.

"Sure, show Lando how not needy you're." I rolled my eyes jokingly and kissed Lando, and it was as good as I thought it would be.

Oscar unzipped my dress pulling it down, Lando's hands went to my hips in my naked skin, Oscar's hands also came in contact with my skin, less shy than Lando's. Oscar was quick to slide his hand on to Lando's body too, who pulled him into the kiss.

My hands went to Lando's boxer and Oscar's pants, both men incredibly hard. Lando moaned into the kiss making Oscar smile as he helped me get into his pants.

"You moan like a little bitch did you know that?" Oscar examined Lando's face trying to see if he was aligned with him, and the second moan coming out of him said a big yes to that.

"Now I know." I got down to take him on my mouth while I kept Oscar on my hand. "For fuck's sake." He gripped my hair pulling me against him.

"She's great." I heard Oscar saying, and if I needed to bet, I bet he was smiling.

"Yes." I looked up seeing Lando's face he wasn't able to answer more than that anyway. Oscar slapped my ass before sliding his fingers on my folds making me moan against Lando, and he gripped my hair even harder.

"Not only his clothes are wet, I see." He put on of his fingers inside me and moved a couple times before taking it off making me whine at the loss. "Lando?"

"hm?"

"Do you want to feel her?" He nodded eagerly, with his free hand he put one of his fingers in me, being followed by one of Oscar's. I took my mouth of Lando and moaned. They moved in an unison, driving me fucking crazy, just the thought of them fingering me could break me.

"Fuck, can someone fuck me already?"

"As I said, needy." I hate when he is right, but right now I hate to not have anyone inside of me. He took his fingers of me, sucking my juices off his finger, before he grabbed my face making me look at him. "Do you want to be fuck my Lando?"

"Yes, please!"

"Will you be a good girl for him?" I nodded.

"Yes, I will." Oscar smiled.

"Ok, then." He looked over to Lando. "She is yours, be good and make my girl come before you do."

"Yes, sir." Lando said without thinking, but quickly took it back. "I mean, Osc."

"No, no, I like that, keep it up." I couldn't see Lando's reaction to Oscar, but I could feel the tip of his cock brushing on my pussy. I looked at Oscar as Lando buried himself in me, like Osc likes to say: Moaning like a little bitch.

"Lando, you feel so good." I whined.

"You feel even better." He groaned. I saw Oscar getting closer to my face and I opened my mouth, he didn't think twice before starting to fuck my mouth, as hard as he could. My eyes where watering, I was drooling everywhere, but Oscar was looking at me like I was the prettiest girl he ever saw. It made me clench around Lando, who gripped onto my hips for dear life.

As harder as Lando fucked my pussy, Oscar did as well to my mouth, I never felt as full as right now. I could get used to it. Oscar pulled Lando to a kiss, they looked so good together I could put it on the Louvre and if I did, people would stop looking at the Mona Lisa. I moaned against Oscar, and tightened around Lando.

"Fuck, darling." Lando moaned.

"Do you want to come?" Oscar asked me and I nodded, he took his dick off my mouth and said on my ear. "Then do it as loud as you can."

"And as quickly as you can, because I'm almost there too. If you take longer I'll cum inside you." It wasn't a threat, or a promise, it was a concerned statement, but the thought of him cumming inside me just made me go over the edge, I screamed, both of their names, feeling every inch of me trembling almost falling against the bed. Oscar chuckled.

"I think she liked the idea." Oscar looked at my face and back at Lando. "You can if you want." He didn't have to say it twice, as soon as Oscar finished his sentence I felt Lando coming undone inside me.

"Fuck." He moaned and Oscar pulled my hair to make me look at him.

"Open up." I opened my mouth as he came partially inside of it. Lando pushed me against him to lick my chin clean of Oscar's seed, as he was still inside me. We kissed, then Oscar joined.

"Is this one of those things that doesn't leave Vegas?" Lando asked as he helped me to lay down on the bed.

"I would love if it did left Vegas." Oscar said as he got up, going to the bathroom. I hugged Lando's waist and nodded agreeing with Osc.

"You will sleep with us tonight, right?" I asked Lando, he looked at Oscar who just sat by my side and started to clean me up with a wet towel.

"You heard the queen." Oscar answered jokingly.

"If you insist."

"I do." I said closing my eyes, they started to talk about something, but I slept so quickly I couldn't understand what it was.

I woke up with the sun on my face, cursing myself for not closing the blinds properly. I opened my eyes to see Oscar sleeping like an angel, but I could feel the heaviness of someone else's arms on my waist. I turned around to see Lando drooling on the pillow. I smiled. It wasn't a dream, it was real.

I pause. I look at my hand.

All of it was real.

I was really wearing a wedding ring that matches Oscar's, and I can't really believe that our first action as a married couple was bring Lando in. It wasn't a bad idea.

"Good morning." I heard Oscar and I turned to see him.

"Good morning." He kissed me and looked passed my shoulder to see Lando. He smiled.

"Sorry for keeping it a secret from you." He whispered to not bother the sleepyhead.

"It was not very well kept, but I'll forgive you for denying it when I asked." I brushed his hair off his face. "Don't lie to me again."

"I won't." He paused. "Did you enjoy it?" I nodded.

"Very much, you?"

"Very much." We smiled.

"By the way, why you decided to get married drunk in Vegas?"

"Because I love you." He looked at Lando, as if that I love you was him too, and I didn't mind.

"I hope that nobody in PR gets even close to discover this."

"If they do I'll simply confirm that I'm the luckiest man alive."

[abbysimsfun]

Sims In Bloom: Generation 2 Pt. 96 (Making Amends For Past Mistakes)

Conrad arrived in Henford after dark and walked right inside the Nesbitt home. Henford was the kind of place where no one locked their doors, which was a large reason why he'd wanted Heather and Lavender to spend an extra night in town.

He found his daughter cuddling with River's wife in one of the bedrooms. "Oh you're here!" said Cass warmly. Lavender smiled up at him, and he was happy to stumble on the two of them first. "Heather's still over at the Finchwick Winter Fair, but she should be back soon."

He took Lavender from her arms, sitting with her on Heather's childhood bunk bed until she fell asleep. He chuckled at a goofy selfie of Heather as a child hanging on the wall nearby. She was missing her front tooth, grinning wide in front of the statue of Sophie the Snail.

He smiled at their sleeping daughter, cuddled against his chest. No matter what Heather had to say to him when she got back from the fair, their love was strong enough to create someone perfect, and he held on to that belief as fear gripped him.

River and her parents had seemingly made themselves scarce - perhaps they were enjoying the fair, or maybe they were avoiding him. Whatever the reason, he cherished the quiet with his daughter. The calm before a possible storm.

At the Finchwick Winter Fair, Heather entered some of her homegrown dragonfruit into the produce competition, winning a first-place ribbon! She posed for a photo for the town's community notice board to celebrate her win, met her sister Hazel's boss, Mayor Varner, and even ran into her old acquaintance, Lucas Munch, who she'd failed to flirt with back in her teens.

"Lucas, hi! Did you and your girlfriend, Gabi, live happily ever after?"

He smiled. "We got married after she graduated and I moved to the Bramblewood with her and her parents. I love it here, and it's a great place to raise our son, Luka."

(The game decided the son of Lucas Munch and grandson of Paolo Rocca would be named Luka and I was all for it.)

"Luka's a nice name," said Heather kindly, but she was distracted thinking about home. She thought she'd seen Conrad's cruiser pull in behind her parents' place, but she stayed until the fair wound down, going for a spin on the ice rink for old time's sake. Open despite Henford's notoriously mild winters, Brindleton Bay never put up a rink, though she often wished for such a place to take her kids in their own hometown.

When she returned to her parents' home across the emptying village green, she found Conrad in the bedroom. Without a word, he put Lavender in the crib where Heather had slept as an infant and glanced hopefully in her direction.

"Let's go for a walk," she said. He followed easily. They made their way to a bench in a small park lined with stones and short greenery, and she was the first to start talking. "Your past doesn't upset me, Conrad. That you thought you couldn't share it with me is what made me so upset."

"I'm so sorry I lied to you. I was always just trying not to hurt you."

"I never thought I'd be the girl who broke her own promise to herself after my last relationships - if he ever lies, he's just not worth it - but I can forgive you. If you promise that nothing is too dark for us. I can handle anything, but we have to keep the kids safe together."

"I promise nothing is too dark or us. I know how strong you are, and I'm sorry."

"What do I need to know about the investigation?"

He took a deep breath. "George Brindleton's involved. He pulled security from the pier to show off and then a body turned up, so we're going to have to bring in some of his guy's for questioning."

"Did he try to show off because he was angry at us?"

Conrad shrugged. "It's the least of my concerns for now... Ximena's missing. She's the prime suspect, but they're going to put a police detail outside our house and the clinic until we find her, so there's no way she'll come around you or the kids."

"What about the school?"

"No one gets out to Deadgrass Isle without a boat, and every boat gets logged at every dock."

"John Brindleton made it to the island without being noticed."

"Heather, they check everyone who walks into the school."

"I can't believe this woman is making me fear for the lives of my kids. Who the hell does she think she is?"

"Right now she's desperate. If our suspicions are right she doesn't have anyone. Her one ally in the world is missing."

"And now no one's looking for him..."

He looked anxiously at his feet. "Actually...the captain put me on the case to look for Rafa. Officially."

She frowned. "I thought you were done with the case because it was too personal."

"I gave the captain a way to do this without opening an investigation into the cartel. He doesn't want me to lead but he wants me involved in case Ximena comes out of hiding and tries to find me."

"Conrad, what could she do to you?"

"She's not going to do anything to me, I swear to the Watcher. I promise you, Heather, we're going to find her and put her away where she belongs. And I'm going to find her brother. I need to."

Heather thought a moment, swallowing her anxiety in the face of his conviction. "The minute she reaches out to you, if she does, you have to tell me."

He stood from the bench, and she reached slowly for his outstretched hand. "I promise I will tell you."

They stayed outside for a while in the mild moonlit night, and Conrad finally had an opportunity to tell Heather about his wild night at Bella Goth's.

"I finally used her seance table to travel to the Realm of the Dead. I was hoping for guidance from the mentors but I relived my first year of college, instead. I didn't go to some new school, and Bella said this only happens when they want to send a warning."

Heather peeled back in fear, but he shook his head. "I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out what the mentors wanted to show me, but after everything that's happened this weekend, I think they were trying to warn me about the body that turned up at the pier. And the way I make amends is by finding Rafa and putting Ximena behind bars."

"Conrad, I know you," said Heather. "Now that you don't have to hide anything, you'll figure it all out. You'll find Rafa and you'll be able to help him. And I'll help keep us all safe."

They returned home after everyone but Neal had gone to bed. He followed them inside with a smile, but Conrad felt a chill in his future father-in-law's demeanor. As they laid together on the pull out couch upstairs, Conrad turned to talk about it. "I think your dad and your brother might have a harder time forgiving me for this than you did."

Heather nodded. "I haven't told them anything about it, but River knows that you lied to his face, and my Dad's afraid you can't keep us safe. I tried to cover for you this morning, but they want to hear it from you."

He was up most of the night thinking about how to defeat Ximena. His mind drifted to Rafa, and who he might find to give insight into where he could be, but he couldn't come up with anything resembling a solid theory.

As dawn broke, he got up when he heard Lavender babbling in her crib. She enjoyed riding around in a carrier, staring at the world with curious delight, and he strapped her to his back. He found River in pajamas and they shared knowing glances. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you what was really going on. I couldn't tell you before I told Heather, but you made me see that I wasn't managing it and I'm glad you did."

"Even though backing out of the case made your ex leave a dead body out front of the Salty Paw?"

He froze. "Did your father eavesdrop on me and Heather last night?"

A gruff voice called from the other side of the door. "I was looking out for my daughter."

Conrad looked back to River with a helpless expression and River shrugged. "Put your ex behind bars and he'll believe you're keeping Heather and the kids safe," he said. Oblivious to the conversation, Lavender cooed happily in her seat behind Conrad's broad shoulders.

"That's the plan," Conrad assured him.

"Good. I'm not even that mad you lied to me, dude. Lies are bad, and they always cause trouble, but I just want to be sure they're not about to get caught up in something that has nothing to do with them. Heather loves you, but she didn't sign up for a life running from cartels."

"When I said I'd do anything to keep them safe, you have to know I wasn't lying about that."

"I know that," River said. "That's why I left your house knowing you were lying to me about everything else."

"You have my word. I won't rest until Ximena's behind bars and I can put her entirely in the past."

"I believe you, man. But...why are you still in your work clothes?"

"I honestly haven't really slept much. I need a shower before I put on something clean."

(I told you, I like him in this outfit! Shameless.)

Having made amends with Heather and River, Conrad was determined to win back Neal's respect, and his own peace of mind, by ensuring Ximena got what she deserved. ->

<- Previous Chapter | Gen 2 Start | Gen 1 Summary | Gen 1 Start

NOTE: Heather really did go to the fair, met the latest mayor, chatted with Lucas, and won first place for her fruit, but I was bad at taking photos and jumping between too many sims. When it was time to restage for better shots in the photo save they were too far away from another fair so I used TOOL to place a stand but couldn't feasibly restage everything and couldn't get the dragon fruit to place on the stand with TOOL and gave up.

TOWNIE TREE NOTE: Lucas Munch married Gabi Rocca-Chopra, daughter of Lavina Chopra and Paolo Rocca. She's a half-sister of Rahul, who's still living happily with Bella's onetime bartender boyfriend, Diego, after his wife Rashidah died of heatstroke and left him a widower. Rahul's daughter, Thomasine, married Heather's former, mediocre vet tech Marcus Flex, and they live somewhere.

Rahul and Gabi have another brother (also Lavina and Paolo's) named Rocco. Rocco married Rikissa, the third daughter of Bjorn and Clara Bjergsen (also born in game), and thus far they're the only sims to have triplets in this save. Glad I'm not playing them tbh. 😂

Lucas' brother Wolfgang is married to Everett Pancakes' younger brother Kash and they live together in Brindleton Bay with Wolfgang's elderly mother, Mila. Lucas and Wolfgang's eldest brother, Gunther, married Catarina Lynx and they have three redheaded daughters - Felina, Yasmine, and Lindsey.

WCIF Poses Used? @helgatisha's Model Poses 21 posepack (pose 15) next to the stand where the dragon fruit is supposed to be. It's fine that the dragonfruit defeated me, Heather looks ️‍🔥 in the shot, anyway. For the conversation on the bench I used @simmerianne93's Conversation posepack 5, and I think it looks fantastic! Really suits the mood of their conversation, for me. Thank you creators, for sharing your creations, as always! 🙏

[the-haven-keepers-collective]

How our plurality has become spiritual

Lately, the way we view our plurality has changed. We never did view our plurality as purely psychological- it just didn't feel right. We have a headmate of spiritual origin, a past (parallel? Time is weird) life of ours, who apparently just pops into our headspace to say something every once in a while. He mainly shows up to correct misinformation about himself amongst our collective, which we think is funny as hell. We don't view ourselves through the typical medical lens either. Our stance, in regards to origins, is the same stance we take on "how did earth come to be?"

Dude, fuck if I know, why do I care? All I care is that right now, we need to learn how live in it!

So our origin wasn't a priority. Still isn't! We just... stumbled upon a way to articulate how we feel our collective works. We'd only ever heard of spiritual plurality in relation to systems who are more than one soul, inhabiting the same body. This makes sense to us! That... never felt true for our collective, save for our one walk-in headmate. We believe in the multiverse theory; that a lot of fiction is just reality somewhere else. But some of our fictives from a shared source- myself included- don't really feel that way about our source. At one point we thought about it, and simply decided... it doesn't matter. It's real to us. That's what matters. Whether our exomemories are truly another reality, or our brain explaining our existence, or whatever the fuck... It's real to us and that's all that we care about. But it still leaves us in a rather confusing place:

If we aren't separate souls, but feel very strongly that our plurality is somehow spiritual in origin... where does that leave us? Plus, at one point we felt really icky because if we aren't separate souls, it felt like we were invalidating ourselves as separate individuals. Ultimately, the conclusion we came to was that we do have one soul. We are still more than one individual.

We believe in reincarnation, for context. We believe it works... like whirlpools (individual incarnations) in a river (someone's soul), in a way. Each incarnation is its own thing, and describing it as a shard of a soul implies a sort of "shattering" or "breaking" imagery that we don't like, but every incarnation is still part of that soul. We view our plurality as... sort of a small-scale version of that. Like a fractal, when you zoom in- it all looks the same eventually. Our soul just decided "what if I do that, but as much as I can in one life? That'd be interesting!" and now here we are with a bunch of fictional characters in our head going "dude, what the fuck?"

So, there's a long-winded explanation of how we view our plurality, for fun. Also, since we're going to be reblogging this one on our witchy/spirituality blog, I'll be signing off with the name I use there instead. At this point our practice as witches goes beyond what people typically associate with witchcraft, we just still call it witchy because... well, that's what our witchcraft looks like. Eh.

-Rayne

[estellardreams]

I JUST HAD A HUGE THEORY!

So, y'know how Deltarune shares a lot of similarities to Undertale? With the monsters on the surface and having the main human able to be controlled by the player?

Well, I kept considering the theory that Deltarune is an alternate timeline of Undertale. But I kept trying to figure out how this could work.

According to Deltatraveler (I know it's not canon just stay with me here) there is a younger Noelle and Susie, and Frisk was commented by Dess to be a "Younger Kris".

However, I immediately ran into a road-block over Kris and Frisk. The idea of Frisk being Kris from the past came to mind but then I remembered that Frisk is their true name and not whatever you entered in. The name you entered in is the first child's name.

(Fwi: It's NOT Chara. Yes, Chara is called "The true name" but Chara is just short for Character so it doesn't count. Regardless, whatever you name the human doesn't matter in this situation. The human we play as is named Frisk, end of question)

And now we're left with either two options: Kris and Frisk are seperate entities or Frisk died/changed name and Kris took their place in the Dreemurr family.

Now, let's go with the former thought: Frisk and Kris are seperate. That means we need to at least confirm that the pacifist ending where we split off and go our seperate ways is canon. Frisk becomes the monster ambassador and Toriel later adopts Kris.

Okay, now what? Seems seamless, right- WRONG! We're missing someone...

Asriel. He's in college in deltarune, but a flower in Undertale. Yes, he's back to normal in the pacifist ending but does revert back into a flower later on so this doesn't make any sense.

So either A. Asriel never died at all in this timeline which I doubt (until later) OR B. Flowey got a soul and became Asriel again. Also no, I doubt this.

But as I got to thinking, I came to a realization... Don't Toriel and Asgore look older than their counterparts in Undertale? Boss monsters don't age unless they have children who are alive.

AND THEN I HIT AN EPIPHANY! The only way Deltarune and Undertale could differentiate in the timeline is when Asriel was BORN.

That explains why he's still alive and in college! But then we might be asking about Frisk, and I have an explanation for that!

Frisk... Still exists. It's just that they chose not to stay with the monsters and became the main ambassador for them on the surface.

The story goes that Asgore and Toriel used to live together. Then the first human fell and they took them in. Unfortunately they died due to buttercup poisoning and with Asgore realizing he could use their soul to break the barrier and placing this plan in motion, Toriel divorced him.

Then the next five humans came down until we finally encountered Frisk, who, through sheer determination, used their soul to help shatter the barrier. Monsters reached the surface and they agreed to become their ambassador before splitting off.

After monsters integrated back into society, they took up normal human jobs and roles. But Toriel slowly began to miss having a child around. Asgore eventually made amends with her and the two finally decided to have a child together; Asriel. Things kept going smoothly until Toriel, while visiting a human town, came across Kris in an orphanage and decided to adopt them.

The two Dreemurrs seemingly got into a feud over money due to having another child and got divorced yet again, this time for real. With Asgore scraping by and Toriel with a stable job, she continued to raise both kids with Asgore not having much custody besides visitation rights.

Soon enough Asriel went off to college and Kris got into school. And the rest is soon-to-be history.

Magic did slowly fade out since rarely anyone ever used it, seeing as being in the underground was now millenia ago. It's such a distant memory that no one acknowledges this dark part of their past.

And that's it! Thank you for hearing me out.

[msfbgraves]

Within three episodes of the final season of Squid Game, I felt I simply didn't care. I liked how the first half set up a jaded/naive dynamic, but two hours into S3, I found very little of that and then what's the point?

When you watch your first ever Death Game show, you're startled, shocked, intrigued - but now, why am I watching this? It doesn't shock if you know for certain you are going to be shown intense violence and sickening moral dilemmas. And then again. And again. That's not shocking, that is numbing - and so I was disappointed when there was so little else, even if they did hint at it. Why some people get seduced by the decadent cruelty, and if simple decency can still have some meaning despite it all? What kind of good does a story do if the answer to that is: "It doesn't matter?"

That wasn't the story of the first Squid Game. That final fight was the most ruthless one deciding that the other contestant should win, if there was to be any point to this, any hope, any spark. Some meaning, if not in the game, then in the people we manage to keep out of it. Gihun had a legacy to carry, and I would have taken it if the follow up would have punished him for not getting on that plane. For letting his lust for revenge win from his responsibility to Sangwoo and Sae-byeok. The Squid Game is fed by economic desperation and a desire to care for loved ones, and it is silly to be thinking that by taking one of the machines down, you can stop these forces everywhere in the world. But Gihun could have, indeed should have, used his winnings to keep that desperation at bay for as many other people as he could - keeping them out of the Game in the first place. Because that question the series doesn't ask, instead opting to make it about innocence versus taintedness. Why should it be more noble to give one innocent life a shot, especially when the series argues that this innocence will be corrupted by the world whatever you do, than to keep the desperation away for many? Also, at some point all the players were close to winning a million plus dollars if they quit collectively. The tragedy of capitalism is that people's lives can be ruined over far less than that. How many more of them needed yet more money? Surely not all, or even most...?

But the series seemed to stop caring about that aspect in order to give us yet more games. And it's not about the Games. It's why people would choose to be in them. Gihun's choosing to go back is not that much less irresponsible than the Front Man's choosing to stay in there as well. They both could have taken their winnings and made it that much harder for the Game Makers to recruit! Also, if it was Gihun's mission to save as many lives as possible in-game, he could have continued to try that after his rebellion failed. Instead he got depressed because his revenge fantasy failed and they could have called that out but they didn't? How different are Gihun and Inho really if they're both in it because they'd rather go back to the Games instead of facing a normal life with trauma? Instead the series goes back to making the point that desperate people do desperate things - but S1 argued that there was a way out of that, with Sangwoo's sacrifice. And if we're gonna argue that the Games mess up the players too much to be able to take that step, maybe Inho could have inspired his less traumatised brother to stop his goose chase and go to the root of the problem while his soul was still intact. We may be too fucked up for that but you're not - if you want to stop the Games, stop people from becoming desperate enough to call the number.

Drop a line about how hard it is to recruit for the game in Finland or something. Damn safety nets. Or how surprisingly hard it can be to recruit in areas with strong communal ties.

Instead we got: people are messed up but maybe the next generation will fix it. Which is bullshit if the system doesn't change, because Squid Game S2 and S3 are always going on about the fact that decency can be eroded by brutality. In that case, why should the next generation stand a better chance than the current one?

[myidealhousehaschickenfeet]

Okay we're watching this skeleton crew show

here are thoughts and impressions:

First episode: very bad, did not like. The whole "quaint suburbia to make you feel grounded so we can tear it away later" thing got old about ten minutes in. I was then toggling between "why am i watching a bad malcolm in the middle episode" and "why am i watching the start of an even worse YA dystopia episode."

like if we're gonna do an *entire* first episode about 10 yr old standardized testing drama then it needs to be actually interesting standardized testing drama rather than cookie cutter stuff straight from the tin. Some stuff:

The Great Plan and The Assessment and The Barrier are all that really dumb YA-dystopia thing of capitalizing a random Thing to make it sound all-powerful and ominous. it doesn't. no one talks like that and it makes it sound dumb

The whole Assessment plotline is dumb and contrived.

a) tomorrow is Assessment where we decide what role you have in our society, 10 year olds!! this feels like. fuking. divergent or something. that level of dumb.

b) this is a world where apparently all 10 year olds dream of being data analysts. extremely contrived to make Wil seem weird and unpopular for (checks notes) being the most normal 10 year old to ever exist.

c) speaking of dumb. this is a world of standardized testing. something which i and any other american who was a schoolchild in the last 20 years is intimately familiar with. and you expect us to believe they've got no protocol for make-up tests??? this kid's dad has to negotiate special and he gets a FIFTY POINT PENALTY (apparently enough that only a PERFECT SCORE will PASS) in order to retake the damn test. You expect me to believe that no child has ever gotten sick ever????

d) this is all made worse by the fact that aside from setting up Wil's charcterization, I'm 1000% that no element of this dumb Assessment will ever come up ever again in the rest of the show. Because the home setting will never come up ever again in the rest of the show. because we're GONNA BE IN SPACE Y'ALL

this is my biggest problem with the episode. What is all this dumb as shit worldbuilding achieving? all it's giving us is "this is a restrictive but orderly/sheltered society that our main kid doesn't do well in."

that's it

that's literally IT

maybe i'm wrong. maybe. disney, i dare you to come back and make The Assessment (actually i'm wrong it's even dumber it's just Assessment, no 'the' capitalized or otherwise. literally it's "how did Assessment go?" which is the dumbest thing) be super important and plot relevant in the climax of the show. or even for one other episode besides this one. i DARE you.

but like. literally nothing is gained here that couldn't have been done way less heavy handedly by just having wil miss A Normal Test. like. a normal one.

no need for dumb worldbuilding.

and then have some Adult like the principle tell wil "You know tests are how we prepare you for being an Orderly member of our Orderly society where you will become An Accountant."

would accomplish LITERALLY the same thing

without artificial stakes

because these are CHILDREN. All stakes are high to them. you don't need to make it Divergent or whatever to make them high just have the characters be invested.

have Wil have a shot of being actually upset and disappointed that he can't seem to meet the standards of his dad etc no matter how hard he tries. have it come after Dad tells him how "mom knew he would succeed, and that means doing well on tests."

give it actual personal stakes, make us care about this dad other than just Generic Dad. make us care about Wil not fitting in other than just Generic Bullying and Generic Assessment bullshit.

as i said. this episode could have been 15 minutes of intro and it would've been BETTER for it

bc the writers would've been forced to write actual characterization done well and quickly and FOCUS on it. rather than wasting all this focus on a contrived dumb plot.

you want the scenes they should've kept? i'll tell you:

opening sequence with action figures, dad, cereal. excellent excellent frame setting, very very grounding, tells you lots about wil and his life very effective and efficient.

scene meeting Neel. excellent. fake lightsaber fight tells us lots about these two and their friendship, all the other kids stare. Great. that give us all we need to know.

seing Fern and KB on the motorbike. motorbike sequence. Fern's mom scene. All very brief, very effective.

Wil is late to school! oh no! esp with their maths test today! (this was not brought up prior bc it DOES NOT NEED TO BE) he takes the bike, maybe tries to mimic some moves he saw fern doing, crashes, finds the ship entrance thing.

scene outside principle's office. meeting Fern who makes up big lies (great character building moment for her)

principle is disappointed in will for missing test "again". dad sits him down to say he needs to try harder apply himself. his mom knew he'd be do great and succeed but that means he has to do well on tests. bonus points for "you've got a great mind in there, you just need to show them that" type thing.

if you want appropriate amounts of cliche you can add "i'm trying but it just feels like whatever i do is never right/enough/i'm never who you want me to be." and then wil is sad and looks at jedi minifigure when he thinks about "living up to his potential"

(this is both way more realistic, way less jarring, and WAY more relatable to an audience. if you're going for groundedness, GO FOR GROUNDEDNESS. either do the "suburbs and blue milk on cereal" thing or the "evil space test decides your fate" thing. trying both just destroys immersion.)

anyways then we see wil feeling bad, maybe his dad feeling bad/guilty too. wil looks between his study books and his jedi shit. and then cut to him sneaking to neel's house.

they get back to the ship, rest of the episode is unchanged. whole intro sequence took 15 minutes, it shows characterization motivation relation to the setting etc. and it isn't dumb and boring and such, and we get to the stuff we're actually here for!!! which is kids in space!!!!

Anyways with that rewrite of episode 1 done, here's another few things that I don't love

we got a whole episode that left all the kids feeling REALLY like stock characters from 20 years ago. stop me if you've heard this before:

Relatable TM little boy who's supposed to be taking tests but just wants advernture and to play with action figures

Sidekick whose traits are Cute and Cares About Main Boy. but don't worry he's not fat he's just an elephant! we aren't making fat jokes BUT he'll still fill the absolute same narrative role as the fat best friend with no internal characterization.

(seriously. Neel looks cute for the first like five minutes and then you realize how severly limited his facial expressions are? like i wish this shit was animated because he is SO unexpressive like this. or a good animatronic or practical effects or shit. He looks like one of those plush toys whose eyes are too big but HE DOESN"T HAVE ANY OTHER EXPRESSIONS. GODS. PLEASE. LET HIS DAMN FACE MOVE INSTEAD OF BEING ALL SMOOTH WITH BIG eYES ALL THE TIME)

Rebellious TM rich girl with high expectations from her parents. she's really smart but she just wants to be a Rebel. she's also got way more skills, good dialogue, interesting characterization etc than anyone else and she really should be the main character in all honesty. but uhhh sorry main character has to be Relatable TM adhd boy!! bc (checks notes) everyman and insecure male audiences probably

Asian kid who's good at tech stuff and hangs around Main Girl. yup that's her whole character all episode. Diversity Win! This Asian tech wizard is a girl!!

Like this doesn't need to be nearly as glaring an issue if you have ACTUAL STUFF happening in the first episode!!! i'd be so happy to watch a bunch of tin-can kid characters do space hijinks. I'm so excited to watch a tv show of that!! and maybe even actual character dynamics and character development if we're lucky!! (i'll still be annoyed about Asian Tech Girl and Totally Not The Fat Best Friend and Deserves To Be Main Character But Girl. but it will be very minor.)

but because you gave us NOTHING ELSE all first episode except the premise of Dumb Entirely Unrelated YA Dystopia Coming Of Age Sitcom

uhhhhh

NO

does not work

and i end up spending all my time making posts like this and analyzing the public transit available in space!suburbs and trying to figure out how this dumb society works and what damn monster invented *lawns* in space bc i fucking hate lawns SO much.

anyways i AM in fact excited for episode two. because this whole episode one was fully unncessary to what sounds like an actually great premise (unprepared kids in space)

[ulnaart]

Double Agent AU - Alexa's POV 

Journal Notes #1

×

1st September 4023

Waved everyone off at the airport this morning. I gave Callie some special sweets to help with her fear of heights. Hopefully they work? If not, then at least it's a distraction, right? ^_^’

Marie was as nonchalant as usual about everything, which is good! I think. It's still hard to tell what she's really thinking sometimes. I hope she'll be okay being in a new place. I gave her some sweets too. If she doesn't like them, she can always share ‘em.

Three was. Well. Three. I thought Marie was hard to read, but they keep giving me mixed signals. Have I annoyed them? Did they have a tummy ache or were they nervous about the flight? I swear, Captain and Three spend so much time together that they're starting to act the same. (They both got sweeties too.)

They trust me to keep everything safe in Octo Canyon and Octo Valley, and I'm not gonna let them down!

13th November 4025

Crumbs, been a while since I wrote in this. 

Has my handwriting gotten worse? Eh, it's whatever. As long as I can read it, it doesn't really matter.

Hi diary, how have you been?

What's that? …You've been abandoned under the seat at Cuttlefish Cabin for two years?

Yikes. Sorry about that. I'm pretty sure I accidentally lost you down behind one of the sliding panels immediately after sobbing my eyes out after being told everyone wasn't coming back. Ever.

Would've been nice to know that before everyone leapt onto a plane, but it's whatever I guess.

But hey, look at the positives! We're reunited at last!

We're gonna be best buddies, just like old times.

4th March 4026

You're not gonna believe this… You're gonna be angry with me, but then you'll laugh.

I uh. I'm sorry for misplacing you. Again.

I promise I'm going to put you somewhere super obvious and in my line of sight at all times this time around.

So… You're probably wondering what's happened since the last entry.

I'll keep it short:

Me and Eight no longer live together 

All communication between me and the gang has stopped

I let Octavio go

I've been roughing it out in the Cabin since the place I used to rent was handed over to family by the landlord. Which y'know, sucks butttt it's super nice out here ~ ^_^

If you can ignore the lack of electricity and overall isolation of it all.

The sunsets are pretty, though.

20th March 4027

So I finallyyyy graduated from college with my engineering degree! Yayyy thank you, thank you, you're too kind.

Since my fight with Octavio- oh wait I let him out of the snow globe since then.

Since letting Octavio go, and after lots of long chats- which I'm pretty sure he wasn't really listening to half the time- I've decided that I want to help the Octarians.

That's a half lie actually, I just wanted a degree so I could mess around with the Great Octo Weapons in my spare time. But I do want to help. That part isn't a lie. Obviously they're not going to be like, “Oh my Cod, we're so happy to have you onboard! <3”

So I'll just have to work quietly on the outside. I kinda like it down there. It's isolating but I also feel. Closer? To something? Or someone?

Eh I don't know. Sometimes knowing I'm looking at the same sky as the others gets to me. Probably the only thing we have between us anymore.

<3

I don't have the energy for Agent work anymore. I just. What's the point?

There's no one here anymore to pat me on the back for a job well done. Not even Eight. Not that I like, need a pat on the back to get things done. It just made it feel worth doing in the end.

Actually, why would Eight pat me on the back for oppressing their people?

Cod I'm stupid.

26th March 4027

If one of the GOW's splats me for good, they can just write it off in my file as an unfortunate, but nevertheless ‘noble’ sacrifice for the good of the cause.

Pssh.

Whatta load of shit.

Three chewed it all up without question, or at least gave the impression that they do.

“It's necessary.”

Is it though? Why are we doing any of this? Because some old fart told us to?

Because we were told we could be heroes?

That we would finally matter?

3rd June 4027

Got splatted multiple times going against Sami (I gave ‘em a nickname since Octo Samurai doesn't really roll off of the tongue).

The journey back to the respawn tank is always. I don't know. I like the weightlessness of it. I exist and I don't exist at the same time.

Everything could end, and I wouldn't really mind. So long as I had fun.

I think I might be developing something concerning.

But hey, at least the new augmentations I added to Sami's bike are super effective ^_^

24th August 4027

Well, they haven't caught me yet.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say that they've lost interest in whatever's happening up here. Or am I that scary that they don't want to engage me? Pfft.

Right. Because a woman pushing thirty with a wrench is terrifying `~`

Fine by me. Just means I get to indulge in my pastime without worrying about having to watch my back.

4th November 4027

Yeah no they're definitely onto me.

Patrols have picked up within the silver kettles since I ‘borrowed’ some of their stuff to fix ol’ Square Face.

24th November 4027

Do you think I'd look good in one of their uniforms?

No…? You're no fun.

Probably wouldn't fit me, anyway.

27th December 4027

Giving the GOW's presents may seem weird, but honestly I don't care at this point.

They've been tolerating me and letting me fix them for a while now, and I wanted to say ‘thank you’ for keeping me company ^_^

Yeah nah that's weird, isn't it?

Eh whatever. Girl's gotta have hobbies.

30th December 4027

I've been thinking… Yeah I know, dangerous! Ha. But… I don't really want to go back tonight. You kinda get used to the ambiance down here after a while.

Going back to the Cabin always makes me think about Marie and Callie.

It's been years, but I still think they're gonna be there waiting for me. Smiling and laughing.

I did that. I made that possible. I made everything better and now… It's all gone.

Did I go wrong somewhere? Did I make a mistake?

I don't want to go back tonight. I can just stay here. I can fix things. I can make things better down here.

<3

Do you think they still remember me by now?

Do you think Eight misses me at all?

Does Sheldon look at his weapons and goes, “Alexa helped me with that”?

Did anything I do really matter in the end?

1st January 4028

I like it rough, but not that rough.

Why did they have to go and knock me for six for? Although saying that, it was the best 2 hours sleep I've had in ages, so maybe it wasn't such a bad experience after all.

Right, so recap summary, brace yourself; I'm minding my own business, soldering some fixtures for Sami's bike together, when WHAM! my clock is punched. 

Next thing I know, I'm in a holding cell 40 ft underground with some Inspector Calls or whatever their name is throwing questions at me left and right. Wouldn't be my first time, but I was also hoping it would be my last time in an interrogation room.

“What were your intentions with the Great Octo Weapons?”

“Were you the one responsible for the shortage of materials in the storage units?”

“Are you working alone?”

Have been for the past four years ^_^

I got bored of answering questions and made an offer; my place on the engineering team in exchange for New Squidbeak Splatoon documents. Ooh I know! Marie would have my neck.

The Inspector shot me a look that would have probably killed me had I the social competence to care, before begrudgingly accepting, but only on the terms that this would serve as my indefinite sentence.

I'm here for a good time, not a long time.

Sign me up!

24th January 4028

Do you ever reread what you've written and realise how irritating you come across?

Yeah, me neither.

Anyways, it's been a few weeks now since they moved me down here. They're isolating me to make sure I'm not infectious or anything like that. 

They also gave me some shots for something called “Damp Ink Disease” which. Sounds unpleasant. So far the only side effects have been itchy skin and flaking tentacles, but they said that was normal.

Ughhh it looks like Octavio's snow globe in here T_T

At least I get to tinker with stuff without supervision for now, although I wouldn't put it past them to have some sort of surveillance in here.

I don't think I'm pulling in the ratings, but I'll see what I can pull off.

15th February 4028

Oh my Cooood finallyyyy.

I'm cell free! Although it's more like I've gone from one form of confinement to another.

Having Inspector Calls breathing down my neck would be flattering if it wasn't so annoying.

“What might you be doing, miss?”

“Staying out of trouble, I presume?”

If I wanted to cause trouble, I'd be doing more than clanking pipes together, trust me `~`’

I'll just have to charm them with ‘Engineering 101 for Dummies' and hope they get bored of me.

<3

They're a better listener than I expected! Or maybe they're just reallyyyy good at tuning me out. That seems to be a skill most people have.

Either way, they didn't leave me alone for the whole shift, and kept asking me questions about the NSS. Like, come on… I gave you everything you need to know in hardback format.

I'll give it to them, though, they're really doing their best to put up with me <3

I love someone with commitment!

17th February 4028

I'm slowlyyy learning about life down here!

Obviously no one is going to open up to a topsider like me, but I'm able to catch snippets from convos around me every so often.

So there's this ‘ooze’ that gets brought up a lot. My Octarian isn't stellar, but ‘ooze' and ‘lost / loss’ occur within the same sentence a lot, if not most of the time the topic comes up.

Given that we're underground, plus the proximity…

My best guess? It's the stuff Eight destroyed when they fought TARTAR. But why is it still…alive? Without TARTAR pulling the strings, it should've just. Stopped.

You don't think that…?

Could it have found a new host?

Shell, how does it even work?

20th February 4028

The questions have changed, and I can tell that the Inspector is monitoring every inch of me to spot a weakness or topic that makes me squirm.

Pretty sure they found what they were looking for when they asked about Marie and Callie. Of course the asshat would ask when I'm drinking something. Damn near choked, but I'm guessing that was the whole point.

Managed to splutter out a laugh and play it off, but I think they have a better understanding on how to press my buttons to get what they want out of me.

Could've swore I saw their lips twitch into a smirk…

Conniving little bastard, aren't you?

22nd February 4028

I made a mistake.

One of the engineers who has been making comments about me for a while made a move today.

I tried.

I tried, but…

She wouldn't let go.

23rd February 4028

Disposed of the crowbar.

Work is going well.

27th February 4028

The other engineers are starting to ask questions about Tish.

Should I tell the Inspector about what happened…? Is it worth bringing up orrrr?

Anywaysss, my work has been going really well! ^_^

I've managed to isolate the frequency at which sanitised ink resonates! Which meanssss… We have a way to fight back now! Yayyy!

We'll have to run a few more tests before we can really celebrate, but good news is better than bad news! Right? ^_^

At least that's what I'm counting on.

They're gonna find out sooner or later, whether through Tish or me.

8th March 4028

It works!

We used several different samples, and the infrasound wave either evaporated or melted them! Yippee!

I think I need to tweak the system so that it evaporates any future samples, just to give me the reassurance that there's no residue, y'know?

I'll put it past the others and see what they think.

Oh right.

Tish came back into the workshop today.

So far, nothing's been said but. I have a bad feeling.

10th March 4028

Don't go near the electronics area.

14th March 4028

My tools keep going missing.

Real mature, guys.

16th March 4028

The Inspector hung around longer than usual today. Didn't ask any questions about the NSS this time thankfully, although…

They did ask about Eight. Which is worse.

I could feel myself getting upset so I made an excuse and hid in the toilets for a good twenty minutes. Ended up scuffing my hand. Again.

I can tell Eight is going to come up a lot in conversation from here on out until they get a satisfactory answer out of me.

18th March 4028

Looks like I have to do a demonstration of the infrasound speakers. Or at least that's what Cole has told me.

Why does this feel like being asked to do a presentation at the front of the class?

Also like, why me specifically? Wouldn't they want an Octarian to front this?

Ughhhh.

Be a big girl! Show how hard everyone has worked!

21st March 4028

The workshop has been in overdrive since the Inspector dropped the news. 

All hands on deck!

Folks from the Science Division have been nice enough to give us some more samples to help with the final tests.

The Inspector has been present the whole time. Kinda like a shadow plastered to the wall.

I've noticed something though… They keep gripping their right arm every so often. Idk maybe I'm looking into it too much. I'm so used to being looked at for clues that I've started looking at them for clues.

Hello. Yes, one order of petty behaviour, please and thank you. 

1st April 4028

It's my fault. 

All of this is my fault.

Why can't I make things better like I used to?

I just... 

I don't fix things, I make things worse. 

I think everyone else saw it before I did. That's why they left me behind in the first place.

I have to fix this. I have to fix the system and stop it from affecting Cole somehow.

But how…?

As long as they have sanitised ink in their system, it's always going to target them.

Shit. Shit!

There has to be another way!

Think harder!

Think!!!

13th April 4028

This is hopeless. Every revision I do ends up with the same problem.

I can't go up to Cole and ask,

“Hey, what's your vibration frequency so I can avoid turning you into a stain on the floor? <3”

No. I'll have to get a sample another way.

…Spit?

20th April 4028

I suppose it was between swapping spit with them and rimming their tea cup for residue.

I've got what I need now. I can finally start to find a solution to this annoying ass problem…

26th April 4028

I threw my spit in a bottle just to make the whole thing look less sus when I handed the samples over to be tested.

The folks down at the labs in the Science Division are probably the only people down here that are ever happy to see me, although that might be more to do with the fact that I'm effectively an ‘alien’ they can get samples from rather than, y'know, being happy to see me.

Whatever. Anyways.

Turns out I have an unusually low frequency. 

Always thought I was a high energy kind of person. Guess not.

Cole's, on the other hand, is a medium. 

Is it possible that the effects of sanitisation lowered their frequency to some degree?

Whatever. I'll figure it out eventually.

28th April 4028

I just need to try harder. The solution is there, I'm just not seeing it.

The Inspector showed up for a routine checkup, or rather, making sure I hadn't found a way out of my quarters. Pssh. Right. Leave, and go where?

Home?

They're acting differently; they think I haven't noticed, but I see it in the way they look at me.

Those eyes…

It wasn't necessary. None of this needs to be necessary.

I'm trying.

I'm sorry.

I promise, I'll fix this. 

All of this.

2nd May 4028

The magic workbench.

One night there's paper ‘n mess everywhere, the next, it's all disappeared and a cold cup of coffee is waiting for me.

Did I do all that and just forget?

Wouldn't put it past myself at this point. I can barely remember what I ate in a day. Or if I ate.

I can't think about that right now. I have to finish these revisions.

Now that I have Cole's frequency signature, I can program the waves to bypass them entirely! Or at least, that's what I was hoping for.

But it never is that simple, is it?

In order to achieve that, I'd have to alter the existing infrasound wave frequency to something much lower to avoid Cole's levels of resonance, which then puts me at risk of evaporation. Push it any higher, and I evaporate the whole dome population.

Whatever choice I make, somebody's going to get hurt. Just a matter of whose life is worth more in the long run. 

Mine, or someone else's?

[deadweight-at7am]

Are we in the French Revolution Season of America? Well, we should have been decades ago.

I have a migraine and can't sleep so let me yap about insurance for a bit.

Everyone's heard the UHC CEO was shot dead in NYC. And I'm sure most people are like "yeah, and?" Indeed. I have a unique perspective on this because I work in healthcare, specifically healthcare admin and my actual specialty is fighting claim denials on behalf of my company. I am unusually qualified to have opinions on this. I know quite a bit more about it than the average joe.

United Health Group is a notorious ghoul in the healthcare world, specifically behavioral health (mental health). It surprises me how many people don't understand what I mean when I say "behavioral health". We're talking psych. UHC's vendor for behavioral health is called Optum. Not many people know this but you can have Blue Cross and Blue Shield insurance, but your behavioral health benefits can be taken care of by Optum. This is called a "carve out". Insurance companies do this for... God knows why (cost? savings? something to do with saving a buck I'm sure) but it surprises patients time and time again. It doesn't happen super often but it does happen. And what that means is that you have to find providers that take Optum/UHC even though your main insurance is BCBS/Cigna/Aetna/Whatever. Behavioral Health is it's own little special world in the insurance marketplace and it's... sometimes very poorly run and very mismanaged. I work in psych and this isn't my first job working in psychology - so I have a LOT of experience here. When I tell you that Optum is one of the WORST and most predatory behavioral health payors I've ever encountered, I kid you not. The only other tragic fucking mess I've seen that rivals UHC is Cigna's BH group called Evernorth. Oh my god, don't ever try to get any answers at Evernorth - no one there knows how a fucking thing works.

So anyway, what UHC likes to do with patients that get therapy is they will see that a patient is costing them a lot of money - you know, actually using the benefits they pay premiums for. They'll then decide that this can't continue and they'll stop paying for services until the provider that is doing them undergoes a "Medical Records Review". What that means politely is that they think you're over-using their benefit and they don't want to pay for this service, so you now have to prove that you need it. This is usually a taske the provider must do. Our providers must write an appeal and submit the patient's records for review to UHC. You might think "so what? submit the paperwork". Not so fast. The process is not cut and dry. You have to write the review, which is time the provider isn't being paid for. They must then give it to someone (me) or fax the paperwork themselves, while also compiling their medical records which usually means months worth of notes. This means in our practice that we must have a medical records person submit the documents to our boss, who then signs off on them after proofing them - this is so the records meet requirements medically. Then we have to compile, sort and fax the paperwork and then we get to track it. Meanwhile, the payments for the service stop. UHC does not continue to pay for services while a review is in process. You just have to assume it will work out. Our success rate with these reviews is low, something like 40%... so our providers often just opt not to do them. When I tell you it doesn't matter what the provider writes in the review or who does it, I mean it. We have a Harvard trained Psychologist who sees patients for talk therapy and knows all the specifics. She wrote one of these for a patient, gave it to me, I sent it, tracked it, etc. It was magically approved (one of the only successes I've personally seen) and then 6 months later they did it AGAIN and this time our Psych was like "I'm not doing this anymore, we've proven she needs the therapy, her situation hasn't magically changed in 6 months!" The patient had complex issues that definitely required therapy and pharmacological intervention. I also get calls from Optum, about 1-2 a month wherein a doctor will call us and say they're from Optum and they're stopping services because X, Y, Z. They'll say that the diagnosis doesn't require the amount of visits that the patient has had and I can't argue with them - I just note it and relay the message. Every single Psychologist in our practice hates UHC. Whenever the email I write contains the word "Optum" or "Denial" the providers tell me they don't even want to read them LOL I do not get the same kind of denials from any other insurer, JUST Optum. That tells you something. There is no insurance company I like, to be frank, but if you asked me who I hated the most it's Optum. And the funny thing is that our healthcare through my job is UHC (but I can't afford it). The benefits are outrageously expensive and have high deductibles. Count me out.

That was a lot of words to say that their processes are in place to make things hard on providers and on patients. They want it to be difficult, confusing and nearly impossible to navigate. They bank on you not knowing anything - so the best thing to do is know AS MUCH as you possibly can. What I described here is the main reason why I can not work for an insurance company or become a broker, I do not like or want to sell anyone any of it. I hate insurance and I think it's all a huge scam.

An insurance company's first priority is to keep profit margins high. It is not to help provide excellent care. It's not patient satisfaction. You give them money and they aim to keep it. That's it. So, a CEO is most definitely in charge of helping to keep that company profitable. Insurance companies make BILLIONS - yes, BILLIONS of dollars - a year. They're not "just scraping by".

My number one concern has ALWAYS been single payer healthcare in the US and I have never quite figured out why people are so against the idea. I know why greedy companies don't want it to happen and all I can assume is that the lobbying against it and spreading of misinformation and fear mongering is the reason it's gotten in to so many people's heads that it's "bad". Look around you, does it seem like anything is working well the way it is?

[lyramundana]

Hii how are u??? Hope you're okay

I just wanna know something, HOW DO YOU MANAGE TO WRITE SO PERFECTLY, WHEN I READ YOUR REPLY TO MY LAST ASK I ALMOST FAINTED RIGHT THERE OMG IT'S SO PERFECT💯💯💯💯💯

Anyways I came back with another ask so that's it :

Yan! Minsung x fem! childhood bestie! Reader where she have a crush on someone else and they're like "you're ours sweetie don't you know ? No one can take you from us"and of course you do your magic 😎😎

Thank you🌹🌹🌹❤❤

----🦋 anon----

I'm doing pretty well, honey, thank you!

ajsndkndeckndkvn stop it 😭😭, now you're just trying to flatter me. I'm not that good really, I just write whatever shit comes to my mind. My english vocabulary falls short often and I end up repeating words because I literally don't know more. But putting my language barriers aside, I'm very happy and proud my last work was up to your expectations hehe🤧🥰 I enjoyed the trope and I'll love to hear more of your thoughts about this since it's yours, so pls feel free to message me privately anytime to talk about it!

Anyway, let's get to it:

YANDERE! POLY MINSUNG AS CHILDHOOD BEST FRIENDS

Jisung and Minho have been pillars in her life since she can remember.

She met Jisung in kindergarten, and when they realised that their lunch boxes were identical, they decided they were best friends. Minho appeared on their first day of primary school, being new to the neighbourhood. The other kids found him scary and he never tried to interact with anyone, until one day, Reader noticed him sitting alone during break and eating his lunch in a hidden corner with a sad frown and dragged him towards Jisung. After spending a good while making him talk and sharing food, they found out little Minho was just incredibly shy and having moved to another place where he didn't know anybody made him terribly anxious, so he preferred to not speak much to not embarrass himself.

When school ended that day, the three of them were already inseparable for the remaining time. Jisung and Minho clicked instantly and Reader was the extrovert that pushed them out of their comfort zones.

This dynamic remained more or less the same as they grew. Since they lived in the same area, they hung out every day and created beautiful memories. Minho managed to get out of his lonely bubble and worked on his social skills, while Jisung learnt to take things calmly and rule himself. They witnessed each other's worst and best moments.

Reader had other people around her, but she only ever paid attention to her best friends. Minho and Jisung never interacted much with anyone besides her either. They always said "We only need each other. We're a team. The rest doesn't matter". She was so focused on them she neglected socializing with other people..which the boys didn't mind at all.

As time passed and the three of them remained as close as ever, they realized they needed her, on a visceral level. She was the sun they were constantly rotating around to to keep living. She was their personal ray of sunshine and they couldn't stand the mere notion of being depraved from that light...or having someone else enjoy it. As these thoughts started to get weight in their heads, it changed their behaviour too.

They sneakily isolated her from other people except her own family. They whispered lies in her ear, slowly manipulating her into believing that no one would value her as they did, that most people were out of to hurt her. Everytime she was about to make friends with someone, they cut that off quickly from the sides and dragged her back to them, all with the same kind smiles she grew up with so she never suspected a thing. She genuinely thought she was simply bad at socialising and her besties were her comfort zone, her eternal protectors. Yeah, they brainwashed her.

When high school started, both boys made sure to be inscribed on the same one as her, and with such luck they were placed in the same class. She never sat by herself, always with one of them at her side or both surrounding her, like human shields. For group projects they always paired together, and when the teacher separated them, it was hell for the other people involved.

They've been so smooth and cunning with their antics over the years that she has never felt anything wrong with them. She believes in them blindly. They're her precious best friends, her soulmates, her brothers. Sure, they might be a bit overprotective at times, but because they want her happiness.

At first they truly saw her only as a friend, their friends who belonged to them first. She could hang out with others, but at the end of the day, they should be her priority. They'll be the typical toxic besties that are like "you know her for five months, but we've known her for years" or "Do you seriously prefer to spend time with them over us? We're your best friends, you should think of us first!", or they'll make her cancel plans to go out with them instead. It's what they expect her to do. She must always prioritise them.

However, when their feelings for her started to become romantic, their attitude became worse. She wasn't allowed to go out with others anymore, especially boys. They made sure she was with them at all times, scaring off or threatening anyone that tried to approach her. What if someone stole her away from them, from her rightful place? They can't live without her. What are they supposed to do?

When they start their senior year in highschool (I got no idea how the education system works outside Spain) Han and Minho are in the same class, much to their delight...until they notice she's not there. Their protests are ignored, the graduation is this year and teachers have a lot in their minds to care for some "petty teenagers with separation anxiety." And so they're forced to endure the classes without her, unable to keep an eye on their girl. They're worried sick. What if something happens to her and they're not there? What if someone gets close to her and takes her? No, they can't stand it. No matter how much she promises them she's fine and can handle herself, they know she needs them. She's never been without them for long.

So they find a solution: Track her. They install a spying app on her phone to know where she is and record her conversations. They keep an eye on anyone that speaks to her longer than they like and intervene behind her back to cut off any potential admirers. This was supposed to remain only in school, but they use it even outside.

Years pass and they're already college students. Since they no longer can be in the same class, the boys find a solution: Move to an apartment and live all together. That has been their dream all along, create a routine for life together, as a team, as family. At this point, they're confident their schemes to "protect" Reader and tie her to them have all worked, so they relax a bit. They're sure she feels the same way for them, after all they did for her and all they went through together, she surely loves them just as much. She must have realised she's made for them. They even let her attend college despite hating the idea of not seeing her at all hours, because they trust her. They even slept together a few times already, so that means it's all established, right?

So imagine their surprise when she arrives one day and announces she'll be going on a date with a cute guy from her class. If that revelation wasn't enough to fuck them up, she adds that she's so happy because she's been crushing on him for a while now and wasn't sure he was interested.

All these words sound so wrong in their heads. Blurry, confusing, like she was speaking another language.

When they finally process it, they're furious. More than furious. The three of them have their first big argument since middle school and she leaves. Turns out that in the little time she spent away from them and interacting with other people helped realise that maybe some stuff just doesn't feel right with Han and Minho. She still found ways to excuse them in her head, believing it was all protectiveness but a bit extreme. So she stepped out of he comfort zone a bit and found out how refreshing it felt to have other people to talk to. Specially the guy that sat beside her in class, who always made her heart beat faster and showed her a different, softer kind of affection. One that doesn't suffocate you, doesn't hold you back.

They're mad at her initially but they eventually blame the guy. They blame everyone in the damn uni, for filling her head with lies and corrupting her. Minho claims he knew they shouldn't have supported her going to college without them, but Han says it was all his fault for stopping with their schemes to keep watching over her.

Then, they come up with a plan. One to ensure you have nowhere to go but their side and traps you forever. First, they get rid of the guy (either by intimidation...or something darker), then they comfort her broken heart by telling her that they warned her, that no one would ever love her like they do. Minho suggests having some dinner and drink to get their minds off it.

They get drunk, and they keep refilling her glass to distract her from the pain. They hug her and kiss her face, whispering sweet words in her ears. She's so sad and desperate for some affection there she lets herself go in their arms.

The morning after, she wakes up with hangover and realises they had sex, several times. It's not the first time, so she doesn't think too much about it, except for the slight uncomfortably feeling of not remembering everything. She stands up to shower herself...and doesn't check the trash cans, where there are no signs of condoms.

When she gets told that she's pregnant, it's way too late for her.

[thebibliomancer]

Essential Avengers: Avengers #313: THIEVES HONOR

January, 1990

The ULTIMATE Super-Villain Team-Up! Plus -> Beginning -- the FATE of the SCARLET WITCH!

Plus, it's the 90s! Dark times ahead! Allegedly! Things still feel pretty 80s around here, to be honest but we've only just got here.

Also, hi, Black Widow! Guess you're here to capitalize on the more fluid roster of the Byrne run. Should we call you the Gray Widow now? Because of that costume?

(I've been a little rude to the Wizard during Acts of Vengeance but c'mon, the ultimate team-up is the Wizard and Silver Samurai oh that's the Mandarin. Still not very ultimate. Now if Thanos and Doom worked together, that'd be scary.)

Last times in Acts of Vengeance: Some Doom robots sank Avengers Island while the Avengers were busy elsewhere. The U-Foes tried to burn down the Avengers West Coast Mansion. Freedom Force attacked Avengers Park, for some reason unrelated to Acts of Vengeance. Mole Man attacked Los Angeles with giant monsters, convinced that the Avengers attacked him first.

Slowly, the Avengers have realized that someone is targeting them, using the general chaos of villains picking unusual fights as cover. But they don't know yet that the someone is a big conspiracy among top villains and the Wizard.

Also, not just in Acts of Vengeance but in general, Scarlet Witch's life has been horrible! Her husband was dismantled, rebuilt without emotions, and decided to professionally separate from her. Not just that but she was crammed full of racism goo and then her babies turned out to be Actually Satan. Then Agatha Harkness erased her memory of ever having children. So because of some or all of that, Wanda keeps lapsing into catatonia.

She's having a difficult time.

Speaking of difficult times, on top of all the villain attacks and HQ destruction, the public has turned against superheroes and Congress is debating a superpower registration act.

Times are tough.

Jarvis, watching the unruly crowd on the security monitors, asks Captain America if there's nothing the Avengers can do to calm the crowd.

Captain America: "Unfortunately not, Jarvis. We're just great when it comes to dealing with super-villains and cosmic menaces... but public opinion is something we cant' possibly control."

That's pretty big talk from a dude wearing a flag. Who gives such great speeches that he has on multiple occasions turned a mob around!

Weirdly, Captain America is sometimes portrayed as just bad and disinterested in PR.

During Kurt Busiek's later run, Cap found himself unable to deal with a concerted PR campaign against the Avengers and turned leadership over to the Wasp.

Which. Okay. That makes sense. I can see her as the Avenger leader great at PR.

(Still though. Captain America talks down mobs so much. You don't even want to try, Cap??)

In this specific instance, the Avengers have other stuff to attend to.

Captain America, Vision, and Wonder Man are going to be diving to where Avengers Island sank to see if they can salvage anything.

I don't know why Wonder Man is here. He was just in California. I'm glad that the Avengers are being more fluid between the East and West but I can't fathom why people are coming and going.

In the meantime, Hawkeye and Mockingbird are holding down the fort in the Midwest with the Great Lakes Avengers.

Who we haven't seen in a bit? Did Byrne backburner whatever he was doing with them?

Meanwhile, the Mandarin lands in Avengers Park and is immediately met with racism.

He is a villain but geez, NYPD officer. Don't be a dick.

Also, I really did mistake the Mandarin for Silver Samurai on first glance. I guess he's upped his game with power armor to better match Iron Man.

A police officer, maybe even the same one that was racist, runs up to the Mandarin and tells him he doesn't know who he is but maybe he better take a hike before he gets arrested for something.

The Mandarin: "Amazing... Do I face a bold warrior, or a blustering buffoon? It matters not."

And then he burns the guy to death with one of his special rings.

The police open fire on the Mandarin but he blocks the bullets with a force field and then starts killing cops.

Although, really, he's here to fight the Avengers.

Back at "Prime Movers" HQ, Doctor Doom is outraged at how dumb the Mandarin is.

VICTOR VON DOOM: "Dolt! Moron! How has this fool survived so long as a foe of Iron Man... when his every word and action shows him to have the fighting sense of a novice in a nunnery!!"

Doom says that if Doom were in the Mandarin's place, Doom would have reduced the Avengers' backup HQ to a crater instead of wasting time terrorizing cops.

Red Skull comes in just in time to zing Doom by pointing out how often Doom gets ousted from his own kingdom.

Doom doesn't like being talked to like that but Red Skull persists, saying... uh... I'm pretty sure he's saying that in his time (World War II) he would have had someone like Doom (guess) tortured and killed just for funsies.

It's really cathartic when Doom backhands Red Skull and tells him off for "angering your betters!"

But Red Skull turns being slapped across the room into a flip and pulls a science gun on Doom.

Apparently, Red Skull has been placed into a new peak-human body? I don't really know what's been going on with him but I suspect there's always something like that happening with the Skull so he can keep up with Captain America.

Red Skull's science gun must be really potent because he shoots Doctor Doom and the guy goes flying to smash into one of those big computer monitors.

Kingpin comes in at the noise and is not impressed with his fellow top villains.

Kingpin: "Well, well, well... The childre are at play again, I see."

Red Skull threatens to shoot him too but crime man has more dunking to do.

Kingpin: "Spare me your preachings, Nazi. If I have learned nothing else in my brief association with you and Doctor Doom... I have learned that neither of you understands the true meaning, the true source of the power you claim to possess. You are infants in the modern world... playing your little games of world conquest... feint and counter feint... While all the while the true power slips ever through your fingers." Red Skull: "You... dare... ?!!" Kingpin: "Yes, Skull. I dare. The Kingpin of crime dares all."

I think he talks a big game but he is consistently slapped down when he tries to reach past really powerful at normal crime. But then again, he usually isn't interested in anything beyond that. There's no profit in the end of the world, etc etc.

Meanwhile, Captain America and Wonder Man (who doesn't need a diving helmet but is wearing one anyway to be like the cool kids) dive down to the sunken Avengers Island.

Alas, fair island headquarters. We barely knew ye.

The good news is that since Avengers Island was a floating artificial island, a lot of the equipment was water-proofed Just In Case.

Water-proofed enough to be salvageable after sitting at the bottom of the ocean for a day or so?

They won't know until they haul stuff out. Which isn't today. Today is just poking around and moving some smaller stuff.

They're interrupted by Jarvis calling on the emergency channel.

Jarvis who is wearing his eyepatch again.

The book really goes back and forth on whether he needs it or is just wearing it to look cool.

It looks very cool. You do you, Jarvis.

Anyway, he reports that some dude is trying to blast through the ground of Avengers Park to get to the sub-basement.

Captain America ID's the guy as the Mandarin and the three Avengers haul ass towards New York.

Captain America: "Jarvis is a good man, but we've left him holding the fort too many times in the past." Vision: "I concur, Captain America. And against a foe like the Mandarin I fear even one so resourceful as Jarvis may be at a loss."

I like that it sounds like Vision is saying, with his computer logic, that if it was someone less than the Mandarin, Jarvis would kick their ass.

If it was Stilt-Man, Jarvis would have him flat on his ass in no time.

In the most recent Avengers comic as of this typing, (Avengers vol 9 #11) Jarvis and Jarvis' assistant beat the shit out of the Mad Thinker. Jarvis can throw hands.

Anyway.

The Wizard is also flying towards the Mandarin.

He noticed the guy leave the very secret headquarters and went to go call him an idiot for messing up the Wizard's very well-planned Acts of Vengeance. Yup, this is Wizard's plan and the Mandarin is screwing it up by attacking the Avengers too soon!

Then the Wizard gets tackled by Wonder Man because he wasn't watching his own ass.

The Wizard breaks free, blasting Wonder Man into the ground, while mocking that he wasted time with bluster like all heroes do.

Vision tries to tangle with Wizard next but he also made the mistake of loudly announcing his presence.

You'd think his computer brain would have told him not to do that.

Wizard easily dodges away from Vision's grasp and then Russian reversals by fisting Vision instead of vice versa.

Alas, Vision. Turns out losing your emotions has not made you a more efficient fighter. You get punked basically the same as always.

Meanwhile, thousands of miles away in California, the Avengers West Coast Compound and specifically Wanda's house.

After getting back from the Quinjet crash, I guess Hank and Wasp just propped Wanda up in a chair and left her to Agatha Harkness to watch.

Because that's where she is.

Propped up catatonic in a chair and being watched by Agatha Harkness.

Agatha Harkness: "*Sigh* It is still no use, Ebony. My former pupil is utterly unresponsive. She has suffered too many traumas in the past few weeks even for her to bear. Her robot husband, kidnapped, dismantled, reprogrammed... Her beloved children revealed as nothing more than figments of her mutant imagination. And, most recently, having her mind stolen from her by the Deviant known as Ghaur, part of his plan to turn her into one of the Brides of..."

I notice you conveniently left out where you magically wiped her memories of ever having children.

And I feel that very well could be related to whatever is going on with her brain.

Agatha.

Anyway, Agatha gets distracted. She feels like someone is coming up to the house but none of the proximity alarms are alarming.

She goes outside and sees no one, not even with her Special Eyes.

(Special magic eyes)

Then the house launches into space, without her.

Surprise, it's Magneto.

(Also surprisingly funny, it's implied that launching a house into orbit was his anti-magic contingency for getting one over on Agatha)

Magneto: "Now it is time for a long delayed reunion. Good afternoon, daughter. What a pity you cannot express your joy on seeing me again."

I don't know that she would if she could.

Although, I guess in the Vision and Scarlet Witch Vol 2, she did sorta reconcile with Magneto.

But in these circumstances, I don't think she'd be thrilled to see him.

Especially considering how he continues that thought.

Magneto: "But soon enough will come a time when you will know joy beyond your wildest dreams! The joy only absolute power can bring!"

Go home, old man.

Anyway, back over in the A-plot, Captain America arrives at Avengers Park in a Quinjet. Hellcat and Black Widow also arrive, but by leaping and swinging over rooftops.

Cap promptly gets shot down by the Mandarin.

Right when he was telling the two to hang back since they don't have superpowers.

Mandarin: "You worry so much about others, Captain... When it is you who are most at hazard!"

Ya burnt.

(Also, c'mon, Cap. Black Widow doesn't have powers, maybe, but Hellcat is wearing a suit that jacks her up to superhuman levels. C'mon with that. C'mon.)

Also, also, god damn, another Quinjet going down? Not to mention all the ones that fell into the ocean when Avengers Island sank? That's a lot of damaged and destroyed Quinjets lately.

This has to be hurting Tony in the bank account.

Mandarin tries to chop Captain America. An honorable death for an honorable foe. I mean sure, he's passed out after a plane crash but definitely an honorable death.

Black Widow and Hellcat jump Mandarin to save Cap. They punk him a bit but he manages to toss them away and blast them.

But this gives Cap enough time to recover and he bonks the Mandarin in the head with his shield.

It makes a WHONG! sound against Mandarin's helmet.

Love a good sound effect.

Captain America: "You must be really tired of being corrected by now, Mandarin... So I won't bother telling you how wrong you are. You're quite bright enough to figure it out for yourself!"

Burned.

The Mandarin uses his rings to freeze Cap's feet in a giant block of ice. And then Wizard swoops in to blast Cap.

Captain America flips out of the way, even with the ice weighing him down.

And Wonder Man recovers enough from his earlier attack on the Wizard to fly in and pop the guy in the noggin.

Even looks like he dented his helmet. Nice.

Mandarin complains that the Wizard's interference ruined his plan, which was clearly going so well before.

Then he gets hit by Mjolnir and his day gets worse.

Vision melts the ice block off of Cap's legs so now the full team of Thor, Black Widow, Wonder Man, Vision, Captain America, and Hellcat confront the Mandarin and the Wizard.

The Mandarin decides 'fuck this, actually', uses his black light ring to befuddle the heroes, and then ditches.

Ditches the Wizard to be caught by the Avengers.

Hah!

They think he's just one small fish in the conspiracy but Wizard loudly insists that he's the mastermind.

Captain America: "And you're going to tell us everything you know. We've deduced this current madness is part of some overall scheme to destroy the Avengers. We also know, courtesy of Cloak and Dagger, that Doctor Doom is somehow behind it all..." Wizard: "Then you know nothing, Captain. Do you really think a blustering charlatan such as Doom could craft a plan so ingenious in its multifarious texturings? This plan is mine, and mine alone! The others who I have recruited to my needs may well believe each move they make is of their own devising... But it is the wondrous Wizard who conceived the scheme... and it is I who shall enjoy the final victory!"

Definitely Loki is scrying this interrogation and laughs at how Wizard thinks he's the mastermind when, actually, Definitely Loki is the one pulling the strings.

But Definitely Loki gets interrupted from his favorite hobby in this event, watching things and being smug about it, by the noise of his pawns (the Prime Movers) bickering again.

Red Skull is yelling at the returned Mandarin for ditching the Wizard. Also, he throws in some racism. Because, Red Skull.

Mandarin shoots back that it was Wizard's own fault he got captured, for being stupid.

Definitely Loki points out that maybe they should spring Wizard before he spills too many beans, out of spite.

The Mandarin takes issue with Definitely Loki's presumption and Kingpin implies that he's the mastermind, confusing Red Skull who thinks he's the mastermind.

But then Doom explodes.

Revealing that the Doom that Red Skull easily punked was a Doombot.

(A very Byrne move)

Doom was never directly involved in this plot. He sent a Doombot because he didn't feel like the scheme was worth his attention.

So when this inevitably falls apart, it doesn't reflect on Doom at all!

Kind of a weak point to end an issue on but I love the drama of Doom blowing up from the earlier tussle, revealing it was just a robot.

Next time, Avengers West Coast #55, Acts of Vengeance concludes.

It has felt very bearable, covering only the Avengers parts.

Follow @essential-avengers. Like and reblog these posts, maybe.

[aita-blorbos]

WIBTA if I decided to leave my siblings?

I'd ask you to read the full post before deciding, but the crux of the matter really lies in the title.

I (17m) have a lot of siblings, but right now I'm specifically talking about the three I was raised with. (in age order: A is 17m, K is 15m, and D is 13m. Relevant also are G, 18F, and her/our mom, E, 50s?F. E has more of our siblings but they're not relevant here.)

A, K, D, and I were all raised by our dad (762M). He wasn't even supposed to /be/ our dad -- we were given to him by our biological (kind of, we're all test tube babies) father as repayment for something he'd stolen. He was /supposed/ to give back the thing or some money or something but, nope, toddlers. Our dad kept us as his anyway and he really did do his best. He was a famously dangerous type but he spent who knows how much money on dealing with A's scandals without ever saying anything about it, he stopped wearing leather because D wanted to sit by him but the sound bothered him, he taught all of us the skills of the trade, he fully funded all of our hobbies, whatever. Hell, when I finally told him I'd been going farther from home than I was supposed to and met some of our other siblings, he was upset, sure, but he gave me permission to leave the city and invited them to come by pretty much whenever they wanted. The associates who knew him before we showed up claim that we made him soft, and I believe it.

Doesn't mean he was a perfect dad, we got in a huge fight about some of my issues with him the last time we talked, but none of it was ever /that/ serious. I would take the fight back if I could.

So with that context, he died recently. None of us were expecting it, it was very sudden and violent, but my siblings (the ones I met last year) and I accidentally got involved in this whole mess of stuff regarding our bio dad's world domination plans or whatever and dad just.... died. For us, which makes it extra rough.

According to K, I apparently just shut down so bad G had to pick me up and carry me out and I then I cried so hard I threw up. I really don't remember, so he could be lying, but E immediately put on the whole stern mom voice about how it wasn't kind to make fun of me for that, so. K and A are also trying really hard to insist that he's still alive, but they didn't see him die, /I/ did, and G agreed there's no chance he's still alive but they won't believe me on it.

We've been living at E's place ever since.

And I don't know, I just don't feel like I can do anything else here. D got freaked out by something and nearly took out G's eye and she handled it so well that he's been following her around like a puppy since. (Not exaggerating. E and I still haven't been able to get the blood out of the carpet). Meanwhile A made ONE comment about me not having loved our father enough or something and I got so nasty with him that we're not on speaking terms right now.

I don't know what exactly it would help if I left, but it's not as if they would be ALONE. A has hit it off really well with one of our siblings and they've declared themselves bonded brothers and spend all of their time together. D is pretty much ignoring everyone else in favour of G and she's endlessly patient with him, so he'll do fine. K found out E still knows all our genetic codes by memory (from helping to create us) and has been pestering her about it, plus he's started some kind of friendly engineering competition with another one of our siblings. It's just me that's not settling in, and having more of us makes us more difficult to hide. E kept her kids entirely away from our creator until last year and he still doesn't know how to find them when he wants to, but she has a lot less resources than our dad had.

[mementomike]

Day 65: Deciding if It’s Too Late (simple flow chart)

Timing is everything in life. It's very common for someone to think about if it's 'too late' to do something.

I've had so many times in my life that I didn't do something and then later on I looked back and wished I had. It's all intertwined with regret and introspection.

The task then is to decide if it's too late or not. If it is then it's easy albeit maybe a tough pill to swallow. You just have nothing to do. You can keep introspecting but there's nothing left to be done.

And introspection is completely separate from making the actual decision about addressing the past. It's simply the vehicle by which you can examine your memories and arrive at an epiphany.

And regret is completely different too. It's just the natural reaction to realizing you acted imperfectly in the past. And a lot of times there's a negative aura around it. But that's a totally different side of things for a different talk.

Today's thought is about decision theory. The natural inclination to consider addressing the past. Why we want to, and if we should.

Some people don't or won't have that instinct, because either it never crosses their mind or they just don't care at all or enough.

The thought only arises when we are aware of the importance of timing. If timing didn't matter, things wouldn't ever be too late, because it didn't matter what time you did the thing.

But of course it matters. And so very often we're left stuck in the present wondering if now is too 'late' to finally do something that we now realize and have decided we should've done in the past.

And though it feels vague and subjective, I think the decision tree is actually very, very simple once you sit down and think about it. You just do have to sit down and really think about it.

There are two criteria that I think easily tell you that is is in fact too late. And one pure criterion that indicates with certainty that it's not too late. I believe you can wholly trust it and use it to determine.

It can be too late by logistics, objective and firm benchmarks like a day and time or an event or any sort of restriction. You can't go back and do better on school exams. Or redo your Halloween costume.

You could go back to school, or do your next costume better though. So it's still worth looking at this first criterion. Pure details.

Number two, it's too late if the situation is irreparable. Obviously. Like you can't un-burn down a house or take back words you said.

So those are the main two things I would look out for if I'm wondering if it's too late to do something, and wonder if I should now. That keeps it simple and I think they are full and proper considerations.

There is one and only one criterion that I think you should focus on when you are wondering if it's not too late or never too late. It's really the only one I would turn to immediately.

And it is simply if it is and/or was the 'right thing to do.'

If it was and is, then it's never too late. If you believe it was and is the actual right thing to have done, then it's never too late to do it.

Even if it doesn't affect anything anymore. Because it might! But even if it doesn't, it's still right to do. If it really was right before.

Even if there are now downsides that weren't applicable before!

If something was the right thing to do, you can safely and confidently do it now or whenever, and know it's not too late to do it. Or fix it or address it. Whatever way you want to look at it and think about it.

Of course this is all debatable. Like for example you might say you shouldn't confess feelings to someone if they went and got married to someone else. But maybe that's actually irreparable and wasn't the right thing to do anyways once factoring the info leading to now.

So it's a bit tricky. But I think you'll know when it was the right thing to do and you didn't do it or say it. I think it will be glaringly apparent most of the time. In my opinion, it's therefore never too late.

So often we are stuck in the present and think back on something we didn't do at all or didn't say or didn't do well in the past.

And this is the way I am going to approach this inherently tough realization. It's simple, I believe it's right, and it will embolden me to maybe find more 'right' things I can finally do, even if it's overdue.

[apontejohell1]

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[bohogirlsurveys]

2: With A Little Help From My Friends

Is there anyone at your work that you want to just deck in the face? Nope. We're all friends

Last thing you drank? >> Water

Last thing that pissed you off? Selfish people at a store I was at who decided to cut me in line

Last thing that made you feel better? >> Talking to my bestie

Something you did differently today that wasn't so bad? >> Got a ticket to go see Andrew Garfield do a talk next week

Last plans that were ruined because of things you can't control? can't remember

How old are you? >> 40.

Someone's YouTube that annoys the crap out of you? >> I don't really watch anything on YouTube except videos I want to watch

You are lucky because? >> I have loving friends and family

What kind of jeans are you favorite? >>None

Mini skirts, slutty or stylish? >> stylish

Do you like a partner who is clean cut or rugged? Doesn't matter to me

Pale or tan, which would you rather be? >> I'm extremely pale anyway

What if you were drastically what you'd rather be overnight? I'm fine being the way I am

What about kids on leashes? What do you think about that? > Whatever

What lip balm do you use to keep your lips moist? >> What we sell at Mary Kay

How many piercings have you had, BESIDES ears? Which are those? >> I only have my ears pierced

New tats in your near future? How about piercings or re-piercings? >> I don't like tattoos. But I want more piercings on my ears

Next new thing you are wanting to try? >> Don't know

Would you wear short shorts, long socks and converse? >> Nope

Do converse look/feel uncomfortable to you? >> No

Thing that bothers you? >> Stupid questions on survyes LOL

Do you believe that you can feel energy from others from their thoughts? >> Yeah

Would you ever visit a psychic medium? If you would, what would you wanna know? >> No

Are some days a waste of makeup? Nope cause I only wear make up when I want to

Would you buy a Coach bag? >> Possibly

[strange-anni]

The lights are flickering. The alarm is on.

Why?

MIKE: A shadow grows on the wall behind you, swallowing you in darkness. It is almost here. WILL: What is it? DUSTIN: What if it's the Demogorgon? Oh, Jesus, we're so screwed if it's the Demogorgon.

There is a threat looming on the horizon. The Demogorgeon (Deep Father) could enter Mikes basement. If this happens they're screwed as Dustin informs us.

MIKE: An army of troglodytes charge into the chamber! DUSTIN: Troglodytes? LUCAS: Told ya.

Luckily for our party, it's not the Demogorgeon. So we can all take a breath now, can we?

A relieved smile. No imminent danger

Or is there?

It's the Demogorgeon!

DUSTIN: We're in deep shit. MIKE: Will, your action! WILL: I don't know! LUCAS: Fireball him! WILL: I'd have to roll a 13 or higher! DUSTIN: Too risky. Cast a protection spell. LUCAS: Don't be a pussy. Fireball him! DUSTIN: Cast Protection.

Oh no, it's the Demogorgeon after all. This should've never happened. What is Will supposed to do? Should he protect himself or attack?

WILL: Fireball!

Will has made a decision. He's going to attack! Yet he's losing his dice. Chaos ensures. Will he be successful in fighting of the Demogorgeon? Will he roll a 13 or higher?

WILL: Oh, I got it! Does the seven count? LUCAS: It was a seven? Did Mike see it? (Will shakes his head.) Then it doesn't count.

It doesn't work. The attack didn't work. It's only 7. BUT as long as Mike doesn't know, it doesn't count that he couldn't fight off the Demogorgeon. There is still a chance left. Will could lie. He could tell Mike that he rolled a 13 and landed the attack and defeated the Demogorgeon and everything would be fine!

Yet ...

WILL: It was a seven. MIKE: Huh? WILL: The roll, it was a seven. The Demogorgon, it got me. See you tomorrow.

Will decides against it. He's made a decision to tell Mike. He's made a decision to tell Mike that he couldn't fight off the Demogorgeon! Now Mike knows and that's BAD. Will has exposed the secret. It's the secret of the a*use he suffered by his father.

It does not matter that Mike doesn't get it. Now everything is different. Things can never go back to the way they were before

The lights are flickering on the Wheelers garage. What was once contained inside is now affecting the outside. The alarm is full on.

... and Will needs to be thought a lessen. He can never act that way ever again!

So

The Demogorgeon attacks to remind Will of what the (deep) father is capable of doing. To remind him of the a*use he suffered.

Now look above at what happens next.

But there is still one more thing I want to shed some light on. It's a scene which happens a bit later shortly before Hopper investigates the cabin. It's got to do with Chester and his behavior.

Look at this dog

Chester is flicking his ears meaning he's listening to his surroundings as well as wagging his tail. That's a happy gesture. It means that whatever is in the woods in not dangerous. This dog is not afraid at all.

Why?

Because there is nothing dangerous in the woods. No Demogorgeon. Nothing. Just Will hiding and Chester knows/ senses this.

It's so anticlimactic and yet I believe all of this exactly what happened. Will did not get abducted on the November the 6th 1983. Lonnie did not come back to get him (although he's still responsible in the end). What happened was that Will disclosed the secret of the a*use he faced when he shouldn't have done that. (not my opinion) So he had to be scared into submission. This can happen through many means and one of them is visions. What Will saw that night was a vision of the Demogorgen (deep father) h(a)unting him as has happened in the past and can happen again.

The only way to prevent it is to behave aka to shut his mouth and never tell anyone of what had happened. A rule Will did not follow and so he had to be reminded.

What really happened to Will when he vanished...

I don't have all the details here but... a lot of this is starting to connect.

Will enters the U.S. Department of Energy.

He falls off his bike. Wheel stops turning (indicating time coming to a halt).

He rushes through a spooky forest (creepy trees... I'll touch on that topic later) into his home. Mom and Jonathan aren't there. He tries to call the police but the Demogorgon scares him into doing so.

He rushes toward the shed.

(The association between a shed and a bomb for context).

This "Little Boy" loads a gun.

Little Boy was a gun-type atomic bomb that was the first nuclear weapon used in warfare.

He comes face to face with a light (the truth). It begins shining brighter and brighter...

Likely an explosion occurred right at that moment.

As Will is compared to "Little Boy" here... there's a nuclear fission reaction. This means splitting in two.

Kind of like...

A boy being split into two. Two what you say? Two... personalities?

Perhaps this little girl appeared to take over. To help protect Little Boy from his trauma. She came into the light while he vanished into the darkness. She's the gatekeeper alter (an actual DID alter term...). The one who controls the gate and access to memories...

Thus, he remains in the dark with only "vague" memories.

This bomb going off caused time to stop at exactly 8:15, just like "Little Boy" the atomic bomb did. That atomic bomb caused time pieces to be stuck at 8:15 essentially leaving the city of Hiroshima frozen in time.

It's no wonder Brenner and co wear hazmat suits when investigating the shed. Nuclear fission leaves behind toxic nuclear waste, after all.

More on this topic...