#‘well you’re white so what do you know. anyway this Asian weapon is definitely used for sex things by my white fave’

[strangestcase]

Okay I’ve noticed that in the tumblr gothic lit fandom discussions about racism (be it in-text or fandom racism) never go too far because if it’s a white person pointing something out (usually something blatant everyone can see) they’re accused of white saviorism and speaking over the people of color who are really affected by that racism- but if those people of color do it and call the racism out, they’re ignored. the only people of color that are listened to are the ones that say “it’s not that bad”, “I’m fine with it”, “I don’t mind it” as if they’re a monolith and other POC aren’t uncomfortable with the fandom’s behavior. and, listen, I don’t know if I -as a white person- am 100% right in this assessment, but it kind of… smells of tokenism?

[destinyc1020]

I’ve seen some weird takes here on tumblr but mostly on twitter of people trying to I guess erase Z’s blackness as like a weapon to hate on her if that makes sense? Or maybe a better way to phrase it is comparing her to her white counterparts as if they’re exactly the same in order to diminish her success. I’m more than aware that Z has had an extreme amount of privilege being not only mixed but also light skin but I think it’s weird that people are trying to act like her blackness doesn’t exist and that the obstacles she’s faced because of it simply don’t exist for her either. Or even that the only reason she’s been able to get to certain places is because of her privilege. I don’t know, I’m very proud of her and all that she’s achieved so it’s annoying to see people try to play it down.

I know you might not see this since you’re doing summer school but I hope it’s going well for you!!

Wow... Yet another reason why I avoid Twitter like the plague.... 🙄

Anyway...

I always feel like a lot of mixed-race/biracial individuals are sometimes in like this really weird conundrum. Some in society don't find them "black"/"Asian"/"Latin"/ etc ENOUGH, and then others feel they're TOO black, TOO brown or whatever. 🙄 So a lot of times some of them don't feel like they really belong or "fit in" anywhere. 😔 I imagine that sometimes it must feel confusing for some.

That's why, I feel like it's VERY important for both parents (if they are in an interracial rlshp) to instill in their kids a SOLID sense of identity, and drill into them that even if society sees them as more of one race than the other, the TRUTH is, they are BIRACIAL. 🤷🏾‍♀️

Teach them about BOTH sides of their culture.

Teach them that they are loved by you as parents REGARDLESS.

Encourage them to have loving, diverse friends that they can learn from and get positivity from (ALL parents should be doing this with anyway imo).

With Zendaya, one thing I've always liked about her is that she knows how society views her, and she is definitely very well aware of her light skin and biracial privilege in the industry.

I know some may disagree, but I'm of the mindset that Zendaya is biracial. To me that's just what she is. 🤷🏾‍♀️It's not a slight to her black side at all imo. She identifies as "black" though, and most probably view her that way in society, so I'm not going to take that away from her. But she is biracial. She's not monoracial black. Her parents are of two different races. But even with her fair skin, she is still racially discriminated against (just like Meghan Markle) and I have heard of some of the experiences she's had to undergo due to her race and color in the industry. 😩

The thing about Z though is that she's not blind to the fact that she is viewed differently in the industry compared to her white counterparts, and even her fully black counterparts.

But she also uses her privilege to uplift other black artists, photographers, stylists, and other black creatives in her work life.

She walks the walk, and talks the talk. 👍🏾

[yutaya]

Iron Fist Rewatch: 1x03: Rolling Thunder Cannon Punch

That's so terrifying. You look an entitled asshole in the eyes and say "no" when he tries to pressure you into doing something morally corrupt that would actively hurt another person - one who has specifically asked you for help - and then armed home invaders break in in the middle of the night. Ward is basically the mafia boss that Colleen has just pissed off, from her POV. No wonder she hates him.

Wow, now I want the fanfic where Colleen keeps calling Ward a mafia boss to his face. "Just because I'm under your mafia family's protection NOW doesn't make that time you put out a hit on me any better, mobster." "'Mob-' I never put out any 'hit'. I'm not the mafia." "You don't need to bother with pretence here, mob guy." (Danny helpfully does not point out that Ward definitely put out a hit on him, but the entire room is still painfully aware.)

Danny: Sorry the people trying to kill me broke your lock.

Colleen doesn't for one second find it out of the question that the cops might be in on the whole "corrupt rich white man is doing shady illegal things and trying to have a 'problem' 'fixed'" thing. Danny does, ("I haven't broken any law?") because Danny spent ten years as a rich white boy and then the next 15 in a culture completely separated from the rest of the world's reality. Or: Danny, a rich white boy, trusts the police. Colleen, who tries to make her dojo a safe space for a bunch of underprivileged majority bipoc kids living in the "bad part of town", does not.

Possibly the reason they speedrun us through Ward going up to the penthouse again is to remind the viewers how obnoxious it is to get up there before we see Danny climb the building later?

I forgot about this freaky tube thing. What is that? High tech coffin? lol. There's an implied "you should be unsettled by this" vibe to Harold's whole "it's so peaceful in here, I can't help but doze off" but when I don't know what the tube is the context is kind of lost on me.

Again with Ward calmly asking for an explanation about such a seemingly insane business choice, especially one that he's going to have to explain to people, and Harold brushing him off. Infuriating. And let's just toss in a sprinkling of "Joy has always been and always will be better than you, who can't do anything."

Harold: "Doesn't it occur to you that I'm doing this all for you?" Me: "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP I HATE YOU." He doesn't even just say "I'm doing this for you." No, he has to say "Doesn't it occur to you that I'm doing this for you?" Rather than simply lying, he just has to back Ward into that corner. Ugh. UGH.

Ward: closes his eyes, long huff of breath. I should start a count of how many times he does this.

MY SKIN IS CRAWLING. Freaking Harold. Ugh ugh ugh he's the worst.

Danny you realize you're both disrespecting Colleen AND talking about pretty sensitive subject matter right in front of her student?

Joy: "We need to do the right thing." Me: "You keep telling yourself you're a person who cares about that, Joy."

Joy used to do Ward's homework for him????

Like, what?

Seriously, what?

Was this supposed to be a cute exchange? Because my Asian American upbringing says it's NOT.

Joy: "In another life, this would have been romantic." Danny: "Gross, you're my sister."

"You and Ward, you're the only link to a life that I had. It kept me going under very difficult circumstances." ;___;

Joy talking about clinging to her dreams of Harold meeting her after school and holding her hand and smiling at her in her grief after he died is making me so miserable. To Joy, Harold means comfort.

Danny: *Starts talking about ghosts* Joy: Oh right, he's crazy.

Colleen: "You dishonor yourself when you fight for money."

Jeri, who has literally been mind-controlled, almost got murdered slowly and painfully, and brought a killer to her wife,

Young intern Jeri Hogarth calling the boss's secretary a "hatchet faced bitch" and then bribing said boss's 10yrs or younger kid not to tell is. Well. It sure is a thing.

I still want Danny inviting Jeri to Defenders friend group hangouts and Foggy and Marci both blanching. Jessica and Jeri can snark at each other and Danny can be like "You're friends too! I didn't know!! :D"

Honestly, I would have watched a whole show on the intricacies of classism issues, with the Elite like Jeri and the Meachums teaching Danny how to live and maneuver in that world and Colleen and the dojo and Big Al teaching Danny about the reality of life for the lower class, and our golden-hearted Danny in the center of it, consistently determined to do what's Right,

Joy: lol, isn't this such a fun, teasing, sibling-banter thing we do, me joking about how I'm going to close this deal and you would only endanger it?

Harold: punches trainer full in the face, then casually suggests weapons next time while the guy is still groaning on the ground

Is Gao terrorizing Harold and making him kneel on glass supposed to make me feel for Harold? No one deserves this but that doesn't make Harold magically not a monster.

Danny.... just taking over lecturing the class is not respectful to Darryl or Colleen either.

Danny: "What kind of soldier training is this? They're acting like kids!" Colleen: "That's the POINT! I am not training them to be soldiers, I am creating a safe space for them to be kids when they usually can't be in the rest of their lives." Danny's warped K'un Lun upbringing really shows here. It's heartbreaking to remember that Colleen isn't just some good samaritan either - that she was raised in a cult too and has her own warped upbringing viewpoints.

A line I need to appear in a Ward/Misty/Claire pov fic: "Colleen tends to seem normal because most of the time she's next to Danny. It's easy to forget that actually, she's completely batshit."

Colleen keeps throwing Danny out for bringing trouble to her doorstep and then not really fighting it when he sticks around anyway (Which: Danny. Danny, this is problematic behavior, Danny.) - it's when he becomes a danger to her students that she gets serious about it. Even if Danny wouldn't physically harm them again, he is now a drain on their mental health: he represents a potential danger, a reason to be constantly on guard, and a removal of their safe space.

Ward clearly has no idea what the heck Joy is doing. It's all very troubling and this family is so messed up.

The way Ward ever so slightly shakes his head at Joy as she bribes Patel with his nephew's actual life.

The blanket into snow is a great transition shot

Joy feels like Ward refuses to tell her things the same way Harold refuses to tell Ward things! But Ward doesn't actually have the ability to tell Joy anything because he doesn't know anything! Ugh!!

On Joy's desk: a photo of her and Ward toasting at some party. She also has a copy on her shelf at home.

Joy poured her blood sweat and tears into Rand. She's proud of it. To Ward, it's a prison.

Wait so their plan is that there's no record that Danny Rand ever existed? Like, besides. The city's collective memory? People know about Danny Rand, guys. You need to delete the ability to connect this adult man to Danny Rand, not young Danny's entire paper trail. I mean, anything linking them would be included in literally everything about Danny but still. Seems unnecessary and suspicious?? I know nothing about crime.

Jeri casually constantly reminding Danny that the Meachums are the corrupt villains of this story must be really messing with Danny's head. Not that she's wrong. Poor boy.

"Isn't it obvious!? I'm not your sister. He's not your brother. We don't want you here." brb crying forever

I have to appreciate that this fight moderator is actually trying to run a semi-safe tight ship behind the showmanship

"Cut the Floyd Mayweather shit." Floyd Mayweather: a former professional boxer, competed from 1996-2015. Often referred to as the best defensive boxer in history, as well as the most accurate puncher. Nicknamed "Pretty Boy" by his amateur teammates because his defensive technique left him with relatively few scars.

That whole Randy biting Colleen (breaking the rules about going too far laid out at the start of the fight) and then her climbing on top of him to keep on punching after he's down was really framed like one of those troubling "the hero loses control and it's bad" type scenes.

I am very curious about Jeri and the Meachums' history. Jeri and Ward snark at each other so much in this meeting. And they definitely seem amused while doing so. Also Joy was like "Hogarth" at Ward earlier, and Jeri described their relationship as "complicated" to Danny.

Ward slumps down in his seat so he's lower than anyone else in the room, despite probably being the tallest. This is probably meant as a show of dismissiveness: Danny's case is so insignificant that he doesn't need to respect them by sitting up straight - but it IS interesting, from a power dynamics in staging perspective.

Ward, who has a constant escape plan of stealing from his employees and running away with Joy, plus was literally talking about leaving and starting over with nothing earlier in this same episode: "It could have been easy. You could have taken the money and had a great life."

The elevator level can be controlled by the lobby man???

Another picture of presumably child Joy on Harold's desk, as a toddler this time. How many does he have?? This is cruel set dressing.

Harold playing on Ward's loyalty again. "I need you to help me. I don't have anyone else."

[bobbyseyesmile]

Blood Money

Ever felt fear? No, no, not  the fear of a little spider or the fear of a bad grade. The real fear who’s creeping inside your body like a cold and damp feeling... You never experienced it? Well, neither did Allison. She had everything and more and it had really big advantages to be the daughter of a big Mafia boss, but the disadvantages were much bigger... 

GENRE: Angst, slight Horror 

Warnings: Swearing, Violence and later on much Smut   

                                                       Chapter 1

After three long days without sleep, a shower or a shave, he was still sitting in that goddamn car. Seungri was tired and stroked his, meanwhile stubbly, chin. He was sitting and waiting since three days and observed a Villa, just to find one special person: A 20 year old girl with brown hair and green eyes.

The first 24 hours he spent the time cursing and sulking. He cursed his boss, who ordered him with this babyish task. Seungri didn't understand, why of all the people, he had to fly to L.A. and play babysitter.  For fucks sake, he wasn't a rookie anymore! He was in the mafia since birth, he grew up with the hardest and most brutal surroundings. He knew what he had to do! But however, he also knew his place within the organisation.

His two older brothers stood definitely over him, and when they barked commands, he had to follow them, whether he liked it or not.

As their father died, a few years ago, Jiyong took over the business and since then, he eagle-eyed everything. In usual the oldest son, took over the family business, but Seunghyun, the oldest of the brother-trio, relinquished the lead and passed it to Jiyong.

The second oldest, Jiyong, was known as a cold and merciless ruler. He had built himself an impressive reputation amongst the Asian mafia and was even feared by the Russians. The better avoided too much contact... Jiyong's speciality was the slave trade, which was also the biggest source of income for the family.

He hated it if someone beated around the bush, only facts interested him. And besides this, it was commonly known that everyone, who got ordered into his office, only left it with a hole in the head.

Seunghyun was known as a calm and mediative gentleman, who often advised Jiyong and kept a cool head. But he wasn't harmless at all. There were several rumours about him and that he was a sick psychopath who cut out the hearts of his victims, or people who dared to threaten his family, only with a spoon. Whether these rumours were true or not, nobody knew for sure, but it was commonly known that some customers of Seunghyun were never seen again.

He never wanted to be the boss of the whole organisation. He just wanted to pursue his old business: The trade with rare artworks.  

Taeyang wasn't born into the mafia, he was officially considered as dead since he was twelve, because he got, unintentionally, in touch with some affairs of the mafia.

Unofficially, he was the right hand and Jiyong's best friend, completing him perfectly. What Jiyong missed, due his cold-hearted attitude, completed Taeyang through his calm, yet emotional, style. It wasn't unusual that he managed tricky situations and saved Jiyong's ass several times.  But not only did he save his boss's life, no, even important business partners, who had sometimes looked doubtfully at Jiyong, he had saved their head and thus important sources of incomes.

Daesung had nothing left to lose in life, making him a particularly dangerous person. At the age of twelve he saw the corpses os his family, who got brutally slaughtered in a robbery. Since then, it was said, he was a unpredictable killer who was in one especially thing a natural talent: To make people disappear. Forever.

He was the sniper if the team and could swap personalities within a millisecond, making him laugh at a joke in one moment, and in another he had already killed a whole SWAT-Team.

And last but not least, there was Seungri himself. He was the youngest if the family and the five-men team, but at the same time he was Jiyong's favourite weapon.

He was known as a naive and funny little fellow, but the appearance deceived. He spoke seven languages fluently and managed at least five different martial arts.

The secret behind it was, Seungri was neither naive nor nice, and that's what he utilised. The people underestimated him, but had to learn the opposite in a painful way.

And although Seungri was fantastic in his job, Jiyong had sent him to America to kidnap a fucking girl.

He was annoyed, no, he was fucking pissed and sighed deeply. There were hundred others that Jiyong could have send, but no, it had to be Seungri... At first he thought it would be easy cheesy lemon squeezy:  He flews to L.A., takes the girl and would soon be sitting in the plane heading back home.

But now, more than 72 hours and less than five hours of sleep, he realised it was actually difficult difficult lemon difficult...

The problem with the whole thing was that this girl never left the house. Never. Guards stood everywhere, and once in an hours, the guards changed positions and where placed at the big panorama windows on the upper floor. Then they were looking with binoculars for potential intruders.

Just as Seungri tried to think of a plan, his phone rang and he answered without checking the display before.   He should regret it in the next second...

"Yes?" he murmured tiredly into the phone and heard an amused snorting, which he could have recognised everywhere. Jiyong. Damn it! What should he tell him? He couldn't report any progress!

"Seungri..." the soft voice of his brother on the other trunk. "I was not expecting you to take so long..."

"Neither did I." Seungri admitted and stroked his stubbly chin again.

"Then where's the problem?"

"This chick is guarded day and night, no one can enter the house just like that, and most of all she doesn't leave it, she doesn't even look out of the windows! Whose house is that anyway?!"

This was the question he wanted to ask Jiyong for such a long time, but he didn't dare because his brother did not like it when something he instructed was placed beyond question.

"You know the name Elias Marino?"

Seungri thought about it for a moment. Yes, he had heard the name several times before, but couldn't refer to it.

He didn't have to, because Jiyong continued in the context: "Elias Marino is busy in the drug scene in L.A. You know the De Santis, don't you?"

"De Santis? They're the biggest shark in the drug scene here in Los Angeles! They deliver us too!" Seungri raised an eyebrow in astonishment as he slowly understand everything.

"100 points." his older brother replied sarcastically. "Elias Marino is the boss of them and his daughter is Allison Marino, whom you will kidnapp."

The air was pressed from Seungri's chest as all the puzzle pieces where assembled.

He should WHAT?! He should kidnap the daughter of one of the most brutal Mafia bosses here in America? Just like that?!

"J-Jiyong... You know I always follow your orders blindly and trust you, but THIS is sick shit!"

Seungri never had to worry about anything, he grew up in the most powerful and dangerous family of Asia. The people feared the Kwons so much, no one even dared to think of a conspiracy. No one doubted the authority of Jiyong, Seunghyun nor Seungri. No one would ever dare to plan a plot against them, even the Russians knew that and feared Jiyong's sick and relentless revenge.

Jiyong hasn't responded to Seungri's argument. He knew that his little brother would do the job, no matter what. Seungri on the other hand, was about to start the car and back the fuck off very very fast. Never in his life could he kidnap this girl!

The Kwons were powerful, yes, and had very good connections to the Chinese, Japanese and partly good connections to the Russians. But the American one, well this was complicated, to say the least. And a much bigger problem was that the Marinos not only ruled half of America, no, on top of that Elias Marino himself was Italian and his family was one of the most powerful in Italy.

"Seungri, just do what I told you to do and don't think about it. You never doubt my judgement before, did you?"

"No, but now I'm wondering if you still have one at all... Are you drunk or just completely insane?!" Seungri knew that he would regret those words soon enough and would probably get a bloody nose from Jiyong when he returned, but right now he couldn't care kess. He sat on a different continent and would free his mind.

Jiyong sighed once. "Should I send Daesung to do the job?" The voice of the older one sounded dangerously low.

No, that wouldn't be good. Daesung would whip his ass in order of Jiyong and there would be a bloodbath in the Marino Villa.

"No..."

"Good, and now listen: You're a Kwon and shit your pants because of ridiculous Americans? Maybe you're still too young to take over your own branch..."

Seungri knew what Jiyong was talking about. He has asked him for his own branch. Just as Jiyong was responsible for the slave trade and Seunghyun for art, the youngest also wanted his own.  

"All right, all right... I'll be back in Seoul by tomorrow night..." Seungri sighed and then hung up.

He had absolutely no idea how to do it... how he was supposed to kidnap Allison Marino from her fortress. It was probably easier to lure the President out of the White House...

Just as he was about to curse Jiyong again, he saw a pizza deliverer passing by on a bicycle, and an idea came to his mind. Probably the most ridiculous one he ever had, but his options were limited.

Ten minutes later, the little pizza-boy was lying behind a bush and dreamt of pizzas and unicorns, while Seungri dressed himself with the work uniform. The boy would have a mild concussion but he would survive it and that alone was more than generous of Seungri, right? Daesung wouldn't have been so nice to him.

Seungri had never worked in his life before, at least not a job like that, so he had no clue what to do and decided to improvise.  

When he stood in front of the giant iron gate and rang the bell (yes, he rang, he had manners after all), it only took a few seconds before a muscle packed guy opened the gate and eyed the pizza-man.  

"What?" he barked at Seungri who was at least three heads smaller.

"Uh... Hi! I'm here for the pizza!" he stammered and was pretty proud of his acting. Meryl Streep 2.0.

"Finally! What took so long? I thought you Chinese were fast after all."

Asshole. Seungri smiled trough the anger and followed the giant into the house. Well, that was easier than expected. In the kitchen, he set the pizza off the kitchen counter, while the guy looked for his wallet and then at Seungri with an raised brow.

"How much?"

What did a pizza cost normally? He bad no idea.

"10 Dollar, Sir."

"Hmpf..." the gut grumbled and gave him exactly a 10 Dollar bill. "And now leave."

That was Seungri's keyword: He pulled his gun and shot the guy straight into his chest.

"Hmm, was probably not enough tip, asshole."

He gave the gut, who sank to his knees, a bump and he crashed to the ground while Seungri took all his weapons. Just as he wanted to leave the kitchen, he turned around: "And for the record: I'm Korean."

Surprised that no other securities had appeared, who could have heard the shot, he crept through the house and looked around. When he happened to see the clock in the living room, he knew why nobody was there: It was midday. All the people had lunch break. Good for Seungri, bad for Allison Marino.

He ran for minutes trough the huge house, until he finally found the staircase to the upper floors. Allison Marinos room had to be upstairs when the panorama windows where guarded like crazy, there was no other explanation.

Seungri was expecting several securities on the upper floors, but he only met two. Both of them stared at him with wide eyes, as they saw a pizza-boy with a gun.

"Sorry, nothing personal." he muttered and shot them between their eyes, before they could even reach for their guns.

Seungri was fortunately blessed with impressive reflexes that made him not only a fantastic shooter, but also an impossible target to hit. Even in his tiredest state, he could have simply beat Robin Hood.  

Completely unaffected he walked past the two corpses and looked around. There were at least ten doors on this floor, which, for fucks sake, led to the room of this goddamn girl? He could have checked every door, but he was too tired and fucking annoyed, so he changed to plan B and shouted her name. Either he lured more of these Schwarzenegger's, or not, it was a 50/50 chance. He heard a door open, and in fact, two more of these Hulks came out and reached for their guns when they saw Seungri.

Well, he really wanted to do this without a bloodbath, but his patience slowly ran outta stock. He just wanted to grab this girl, put her into his private jet and fly back to Korea.

The guards were perhaps about 6 ft. tall and 100 kg heavy, but they had reflexes like a snowman. It was easy to eliminate them.

Too easy... thought Seungri to himself and went straight to the room from which the muscle pigs came out.  To his surprise, there were no other snowmen, but a pretty brown-haired girl, lying on the bed and listening to music. Only when Seungri stood right next to her, she noticed him and widened her eyes.

"Hi." He gave his most handsome smile, hitting her with his gun against the head before she lost her consciousness.

[nightcoremoon]

now that I've driven home and had a few minutes to cool off and collect my thoughts, I feel I should explain myself to the people who have been following me and know who i am so I don't damage my relationship or reputation more than I probably already have. there was a post that an autistic person I follow made, where he vented about bigotry against autistic people, and ended with a passive aggressive "...janice". there was another post that a nonbinary person I follow made where they vented about bigotry against gender nonconforming people, and ended with a passive aggressive "...denise". I'm not 100% sure which was which but I DEFINITELY remember the posts, as well as the profile pictures of the people who posted them. I don't remember the urls though, and even if I did remember them I wouldn't list them in case the people who are now harassing and spamming me in my inbox and activity feeds decided to also hop on their [proverbial] dicks as well as mine because they apparently culturally appropriated those post templates, of ending extended rants about various bigots and ending them with names befitting of middle aged suburban soccermoms, karen. now, when listing people of this demographic, I used to include white among those adjectives. however, there are black middle aged suburban soccermoms, hispanic middle aged suburban soccermoms, and asian middle aged suburban soccermoms, and pretty much people of every race who have the potential to be this type of person the practice strawmans. obviously not every single middle aged suburban parent of children who participate heavily in after school activities is going to be the type of person to scream at retail workers or starbucks baristas or people who cut off their minivans when they're driving 15 under the speed limit in the left lane. not every single middle aged suburban person is an undeducated bible thumping bigot with their head shoved up their ass. not every one of them is a problematic piece of shit that stands by the #alllivesmatter crew or trump or whatever the republicans are rallying around this week. not even all of the white ones, and there are some people who fit the trope who are not white. I've dealt with many of them during my days at target, but I always stood by including white. until recently. when I learned it made black people uncomfortable when white people made white jokes, I was of course initially hesitant. "that's fucking stupid!" I though. "I'm not assuaging white guilt by doing this, I'm just finding it in me to laugh at myself". and then I read a bit more about the subject and figured it isn't worth the potential heartache if I fought it because in all honesty it kind of makes sense. my mom's boyfriend's son is black (and hispanic), and I had once made a white girl joke to my sister in front of him and mom told me later that both he and her boyfriend were uncomfortable with me saying that. after seeing the post that talked about it, and my... slight breakdown where I may have dramatically overreacted... I decided to try and stop with the white people jokes because I want to unlearn all of the racist shit that my dad, stepmom, aunts, uncles, grandparents, former friends, former acquaintances, and society in general that I possibly could, because racism as a concept digs into my skin and fucks me up. it used to make me absolutely seethe with rage, and I still get a little steamed by it. in fact I once got in a LOT of trouble with my high school sociology student teacher because I got really shitty with her when she- an anthropology student no less- kept calling one kid in our class by his initial because apparently kudsai is just Too Hard™ to pronounce. one day, an off day where I forgot to take my medicine, she called him that and I yelled at her "he has a name, so use it". granted I didn't like the kid. I thought he was annoying; loud, obnoxious, constantly making sex jokes while we were studying freud (and even the fucking holocaust), in the choir and the football team... basically like any other cishet teenage boy. but being annoying is no excuse for a teacher to not take five fucking seconds of her day to learn how to say his name right just because it wasn't franklin or gregory, two of the other black kids who I went to school with. anyone following me as far back as when annie got remade with quvenzhane wallis as the titular role might have read my thoughts on the matter of pronouncing people's names right. i'm not saying this to pat myself on the back for not being racist, because WOW was I a rough mess of things back then, but I was never like my dad's side of the family about race. back when michael brown's death and ferguson were still talked about, I found myself agreeing with rush limbaugh about some of the things he said, so clearly I haven't been a perfect angel my whole life. anyway, back to white people jokes making black people feel uncomfortable. I've been trying to make myself agree with that, which as anyone who has the syndrome formerly known as aspergers can probably attest to, is hard as shit to do. possible but hard. like, I'm even now still unlearning some acephobia, transphobia, queerphobia, islamophobia, and even though I know the occasional fleeting thoughts that I think are wrong and bad, they still happen very frequently. same goes with various forms of racism and xenophobia. my dad (and former stepdad's) influences are probably so deep because of various issues with abandonment and abuse that I'm not gonna discuss here, and they're both absolutely reeking with white supremacist microaggressions. so I'm definitely trying my hardest. part of that is why I reacted so negatively when people misinterpreted what I said, put words in my mouth, and straight up told me to kill myself in all of these messages that are still flooding in. another part is because I truly do stand by the things that I meant to say, rather than the things that it appears I've said. I really do think that it's unreasonable to say that it's racist for people who aren't black to make posts where we vent about various injustices we face from people who are misinformed and ignorant and straight up smarmy condescending assholes and then end it with a passive aggressive name of some baby boomer fuckwit, peggy. because these baby boomer fuckwits come in many colors (black people are still capable of being racist [against hispanic/asian/etc people, not whites, I need to make that abundantly clear], classist, misogynist, queerphobic, ableist, otherwise bigoted prejudiced assholes), and these names that are heralded as "typically white", like henry or franklin or gregory or harold or penelope or alice or etc, are not exclusively white names. I've seen or met black people with names like this and while it's definitely not the majority (not even close), and it's definitely partially due to cultural erasure perpetuated by gentrification, it still exists. so it doesn't make sense to me why the person who wrote the post that started me on this whole sequence of posts about this topic insisted that it was a 'white people names' thing. especially when white people names are more like khaeylieghhe or miakkaylia or annedeeye or some other ridiculous bastardisation of english language in order to make your child feel special and unique and end up growing to be a cookie cutter member of the conservative party that tries to take down affirmative action because they feel like it's reverse discriminatory or some shit. if it was something like that, making fun of those names that are actually like making jokes at the expense of white people [I think I should apologize in advance because technically this counts as a white people joke even if it's just an example] would make perfect sense. however I have not only seen posts in this template of ending with baby boomer names being used as tools to express their distaste in queerphobia, ableism, classism, xenophobia, and intolerance of other sorts, but I've made them before, and it has had not a god damn bit of racial connotation to it at all unless it's been specifically a black millennial on tumblr venting specifically about a white people-ism, and to make a post that shits on everybody who uses this template to cope if they're not black, and causes those kids who use it to cope to ask why not, and then get immediately shit on by assholes who treat them just like people are treating me, who tell them that it doesn't matter if they're neurodivergent or gay or trans or whatever because they're being Big Bad Evil Racists™ by ending their rant posts with names like becky, allison. I don't care if you're black. if you treat queer or disabled kids like shit and call them racist when they're not being racist, no matter what color your skin is, you're an asshole. and to act like fucking salem massachusetts when confronted with legitimate criticism of your ill-informed unbridled assault of an angry mama bear to queer and disabled kids, is just DISGUSTING. WEAK. and PATHETIC. and only serves to strengthen my points. so you know what, go ahead. keep sending me your hate anons. keep sending me the smarmy condescension. I can take it. just stop being fucking assholes to my family. your race isn't something I have any authority over but I won't let you use it as a weapon to beat people over the head with just because you get high off of the power you get from the veil of anonymity. false accusations of being a tier 6 skinhead is more palatable than telling us to kill ourselves.

[ghelikblack]

Character Study - Men

From what I’ve seen from social media, this is probably an unpopular opinion, but I actually like men. 

Anyone that knows me, knows I don’t really listen to people, in the sense that I usually “voy a mi bola”, as the Spanish say. I follow my own path and usually don’t care much what other people think either of me or of my way. 

That’s why I usually try and keep out of these highly politically charged discourses. Whenever I participate in them it’s mostly because at that moment I’m bored and in need of a good argument/discussion. I was taught to debate at school and I’ve loved it ever since. I can counter-argue practically anything -be it my opinion or not - and I love to do it. If you say brown bread is better than white bread, I would automatically jump into the discussion and try to argue my way around until I managed to convince my “adversary” of the wonders of white bread. 

The internet and social media -at least in my experience - isn’t much in favor of discussions. I had this one really interesting discussion on Twitter once, about the culture of a fictional group of people in a series. It ended with the other person saying something along the lines “you’re literally stupid” and then probably blocking me. I mean, it was a little hard arguing in favor of a culture of warriors when I am not much in favor of soldiers, to begin with. But it keeps the mind active and forces me to step into someone else’s shoes. 

What has gotten me out of my “shell” so to say it is what follows: every once in a while I would stumble  across some terrible experience some woman (or some gay man, because talking about men nowadays goes hand in hand with sexual representation, for some reason) has experienced at the hands of men. 

It chips away at you if you know what I mean. 

Then there’s the media I consume YA novels and fanfic. (I’ll try not to enter into the realm of movies and such because then this will turn into an essay and no one wants that).

I read mostly urban fantasy/science fiction/dystopian YA novels; usually with hetero protagonists. I haven’t read many LGTB+ YA novels so I couldn’t say if the trend is present there as well. 

But in those stories that I have read, I can tell you this: the heroine is shackled by The Old Ways – usually represented by some Big Bad Man, be it an evil dictator, a controlling father, etc. She breaks free of her shackles, the Male Lead discovers how badass she is, yadda-yadda we all know the gist. 

Don’t get me wrong stories are important and I understand why they exist. What they’re trying to tell. I even understand why most of the authors writing about heroines rejecting the patriarchal society are written by women. 

But whenever I come across yet another YA novel written in the First Person POV with a female lead, and a female writer I find myself rolling my eyes at it and leaving it unread. Which probably says more about me than the work that I am ignoring. I don’t dispute that. 

Why do I leave the book on its stand and walk slowly away? Because it is repetitive and boring. It is boring reading about how evil men are. It is boring to read flat one-dimensional characters that bumble around and look in awe at Awesome Protagonists, who are actually bimbos but think themselves average, who are clumsy and have a great heart and don’t think they’ll get with Romantic Interest because they’re not pretty like the adds. Not to speak about the even flatter and even more predictable villains: old men with ridiculous backward plans that are easily foiled by Special Snowflake. 

And yes, men are also heroes of exactly the same types of stories. Have been for centuries and they are as much Special Snowflakes as the females. So why don’t they make me uncomfortable? 

Because I don’t get reminded every five seconds of the fact that Special Snowflake is a man, a man that thinks himself average, a man that has the necessity of wooing Romantic Interest, and doesn’t know if she will ever look at him. 

Male protagonists are… un-gendered to me. Because there isn’t the need to insert a Romantic Interest in every story. Because when it is inserted it doesn’t necessarily hinge on the fact that “AW he’s so dreamy and I am so normal, watch me weep while I cleanse the world of demons”. Every time more often they form a partnership, or they leave the romance completely out. That is also possible. Sure, apparently people like sex, so sex is inserted in a lot of narratives. But even then, it feels like it’s not the primary goal fo the protagonists - ok the primary is to stop Evil Patriarchal Guy, but the second is to woo the man of their dreams, so... 

Yep, not a fan of YA female leads, which is my own personal opinion. Writing is difficult and if that’s the way you want to swing your story, go for it.  

Fanfic is the second Great Source of reading material for me. (Thanks to it I won’t be finishing my Goodreads book challenge this year either, so thanks, AO3) Anyway, Fanfic has always been transformative and innovator and cool and I love them and are incredibly grateful to all writers young and old. But they too have become a place where hetero men don’t seem to be welcome. An “anti-hetero”/ “anti-male” playground where characters that are male and non-LGTB+ are villainized, probably rapists and most definitely just a tool to the submission of women. 

But much like those random posts, I’ve mentioned earlier, and like YA novels, this chips at me. Makes me feel uncomfortable for starting to think this is more a trend than an actual critique.

 I mean: yeah men can be awful. But so can women, so can gays and lesbians, and bi, and ace and white and black and Asian and anyone. There are 7 billion people out there. I’m sure many can be nasty, nasty people. I am of the not-so-nice opinion that people as a whole suck.

This - I’m going to call it a trend from now on - trend reminds me of the short stories I wrote as a somewhat feminazi-14-year-old. Because now that I am older and I understand the world a bit better, my 14-year-old was an angry pessimist that didn’t write all that flattering portraits of men. 

I come from what you’d call a traditional middle-class 90’s family in which the father is an older authoritative figure. As a teen, I was rebelling against it. That is not to say that men had done anything to me, particularly. My father may be the authority in the household but he’s a good father and a good man that has always looked out for us and has given everything for his family.  – Love you, dad. 

At 14 I was just an angry rebellious girl with some very black-and-white worldviews and a flair for over-dramatization. Also, I love torturing fictional characters. So there’s that. 

I didn’t have many girlfriends – as in friends that are girls – growing up. I still don’t. I’ve always been more comfortable with boys. Most of my friends are cis, white, hetero. They’re also men. 

And of course I’ve had big explosive arguments and I’ve spent time not talking to some of them. But whenever I had a problem I could rely on them. Not to sound overdramatic, but no male friend of mine has ever “betrayed” me, or hurt me. Female friends have. Which doesn’t make all women evil and males suddenly saints. I’ve said it: humans suck. 

 But I hope you can see a bit where I’m coming from. 

And maybe I am alone in this. Maybe this is just my inability to completely grasp women psyche. Jus my own shortcomings. But whenever I hear a man saying “women are complicated” or “I don’t understand women” I totally get you! Because I don’t either and I am one of them! 

As it must be evident by now, I am not the most socially attuned person in any room - not even in this one and I am alone but for a beautiful moth flying around somewhere. 

That is the reason why this is only my opinion, and I accept that you might have a huge grudge against all men. 

Then again, I have a very limited memory and don’t really understand social cues. I am sure someone has leered at me at some point in my life, I am sure I haven’t noticed many of the times it happened. Maybe I am able to brush misogynistic comments away because not every man around me is a total douchebag. I don’t know. 

What I do know is that I like men. I enjoy spending time with them and it bothers me that social media insists on portraying them all as some faulty discriminating mass. Because that is not true and by doing so… Aren’t we stepping right into the “oppressors shoes and turning the tables to make them “pay”? Do we want to become the oppressors, make them feel bad for being what they are just as some sort of revenge for the centuries of oppression women and LGTB+ people have endured? Or is this really about feminism and equality and turning the page and making women and men of all colors and orientations equal? 

If what we want is the latter… Then we’re doing it wrong. We can’t use a hate-discourse. We can’t use the same weapons they’ve used against “us” and then just turn them on “them”. We need to find another way, a way to have no one be ashamed of the way they’re born. 

That is the hardest thing because it requires education. It requires understanding. It requires forgiveness for “Universal Sins”. And it requires a willingness to listen and stepping into other people’s shoes. Which, from what I’ve seen from my limited attempts at online debates, is severely lacking. 

[battleofthebits]

Won’t You Get Me Bodied

Check, Please! and Yuri!!! on Ice crossover fic. 4.2 K, minor Jack/Bitty and Victor/Yuuri. I promise there’s YoI characters despite the opening scene being 100% Check Please. Read it on Ao3 here. 

“Oh my god. Oh my god. Oh, my god.”

Jack stopped in the doorway and went through his mental tally of Reasons Bittle Is Having A Minor Breakdown. Bitty was hunched over his laptop, staring at it with awed disbelief, but — as Jack checked every month — there were no upcoming concerts or awards shows of the kind that usually merited this sort of a response. Bitty used his phone for email, so he couldn’t have gotten an offer to collab with anyone, and nobody had molested any of his pies recently.

That left only one tactic: direct questioning. “Is something wrong, Bits?” Jack asked, fully aware that if something important was going on, he would trigger another meltdown like the fiasco back in 2013.

“Wrong? Are you crazy?” Bittle said, catapulting up from the bed and shoving his laptop in Jack’s face.

The laptop, as far as Jack could tell, was showing nothing more important than some bird-boned ice dancers. “Uh?” Jack managed.

“Jack, Four Continents is in Boston this year!” Bitty said, in the exact same tone that he used when Beyonce did… well, anything… and the Great Phelps-Bittle Jam Feud was settled in Suzanne’s favor. Jack might have no idea what Four Continents was, or why it was so important to Bittle, but by God, he was going to learn.

“Sounds like it’s pretty important to you,” Jack said. Active listening; Lardo would be proud.

“It is, yeah. Do you know anybody who could get us tickets? I don’t wanna ask for much, but it used to be my dream to compete there, and it’s so close…”

“Yeah, definitely,” Jack said. “One of Dad’s friends’ wives is pretty pally with the ISU, and she should be able to hook us up.”

“And this friend’s wife wouldn’t happen to be an international figure skating champ you’ve never told me you know, would she?”

“A figure skating champion who can get you the tickets you want, Bits,” Jack said. “Maybe even rinkside.”

@omgcheckplease

OH MY GOD

8:23 PM · Jan 14, 2016

@omgcheckplease

SWEET MOTHER MARY FOUR CONTINENTS IS RIGHT NEXT DOOR

8:24 PM · Jan 14, 2016

@omgcheckplease

AND GUESS WHOSE AMAZING BOYFRIEND HAS TIX

8:47 PM · Jan 14, 2016

@omgcheckplease

I know, I have a French exam that Monday but WHATEVER I can do my homework in the Uber

8:47 PM · Jan 14, 2016

@omgcheckplease

And congrats to @leodelhielo on making it in! Us Southern boys gotta stick together!

8:49 PM · Jan 14, 2016

Leo made a habit of keeping up with his old competitors. Some people just faded out of the sport and didn’t do anything of note, but others went to college or pursued interesting careers. He figured it was a good way to get a look at his options post-figure skating, and besides, some of those guys had been cool. It was nice to keep in touch, or at least stalk their social media. He hadn’t been expecting a nostalgia follow to @ him, though.

He remembered following this account. He’d been Googling a list of boys who’d made it to regionals, and found not only a college and major but a Twitter, attached to one Eric Bittle. Leo dimly remembered him: won Southern Junior Regionals 2010, peppy as anything. The guy had brought tiny pies to the party afterwards, pissed off at least three skaters’ nutritionists, and then vanished from the sport despite what every announcer had said was astounding potential. And had apparently ended up in Boston, attached to a hockey team.

It couldn’t hurt to acknowledge an old acquaintance, and Leo didn’t have anybody managing his social media anyway. He dashed off a quick tweet.

@leodelhielo

@omgcheckplease thanks! we should totally catch up sometime.

9:17 PM · Jan 14, 2016

@omgcheckplease

Sweet! @leodelhielo I was actually planning a party that weekend, so…

9:21 PM · Jan 14, 2016

Jack heard a piercing screech from the kitchen and ran in to check that Bitty hadn’t gotten hurt and another surprise album hadn’t dropped. “What’s going on, bud?”

“Leo de la Iglesia just @-ed me. Leo de la Iglesia is in my DMs. Leo de la Iglesia thinks it would be totally swawesome to come to the Haus after Four Continents and bring his skater friends.” Bitty looked up from his phone with reverence in his eyes. “Jack. He used the word ‘swawesome.’”

“Sounds cool,” Jack offered.

“It is so not cool, Mister Zimmermann. I have to make plans! I have to figure out who all is coming, email their nutritionists so I can set up an appropriate menu, do a deep-clean of the Haus — what if one of them gets a virus from the couch? — and let the boys know to give them their privacy. There’s so much work to do, oh my god.”

“And you’ll love every minute of it.”

Agreeing to bring Leo’s friends to a college town forty minutes from the rink right after Four Continents was far more difficult than firing off a promise to do so. Seung-Gil hated loud noises, alcohol, and fun, so he was right out. Guang-hong might be down, but would be just about impossible to sneak into a frat party when he looked twelve on a good day. Otabek… was Otabek.  Leo was planning on asking JJ, because Leo was a nice person, dammit, but that invite might make the night sound more boring than JJ would ever stand for. Phichit would be much easier to lure in with the promise of a genuine American frat party. And if Leo played his cards right, and was very, very lucky, through persuading Phichit he might get to Yuuri.

Leo had seen rather too much of Yuuri with drunks, but he’d never actually seen Yuuri get hammered, and there were all kinds of rumors. Yuuri had reportedly barely touched the champagne at the GPF banquet this year, claiming he wanted to actually remember this night, thanks, which as far as Leo was concerned might as well be an invitation to get him blackout drunk. All he had to do was handle the situation with care.

Me

hey, you doing anything after Four Continents?

Phichit

not yet

you got any ideas?

Me

yeah, this guy I know from juniors lives in a frat house and makes amazing pie

he invited us all to dinner and a frat party

You in?

Phichit

you bet ur ass I am

Me

sweet, can you bring yuuri with you?

Phichit

uhhhhh

maybe

Me

think about it

this is a chance to get him totally wasted

see if the rumors are true

*and* get photographic evidence

all for the cost of an Uber to Samwell

Phichit

well when you put it like that

I’ll see what I can do

Yuuri had no idea why he was here. Getting his first real gold of the year had felt pretty nice, but after the win all he’d wanted to do was cuddle with his fiancé. Instead, Hurricane Phichit had burst into his room, said only, “Yuuri! We’re headed out in ten minutes! Grab your best party outfit!” and dragged him into an Uber while Victor was distracted by a crowd of fans. Apparently there was some kind of party, somewhere, and Phichit’s radar for a good, Yuuri-embarrassing time was just as strong as it had been in Detroit.

“Don’t you have a leg injury?” Yuuri asked.

“A of all, this sprain has been healing for a week; second of B, I just won bronze with it; and thirdly, you don’t need your legs when you’re doing a kegstand,” Phichit grinned.

Yuuri was doomed.

The house was… well. Yuuri would have liked to say it was nice enough, but that would have been a lie against God and architecture. It looked, frankly, like a crack den. With very spiffy curtains. “You’re sure this is the place?”

“Yeah, number 151.” Phichit carefully did not hobble up to the door.

A tall guy with a bemused look on his face was sitting on a chair on the roof above the porch. “Bitty!” he yelled into the house. “There’s more short guys showing up! Did you invite a gymnastics team over?”

A blond a little taller than Phichit opened the door in oven mitts. “Hi there,” he said, “ignore Tango, he’s, uh, special. Everyone else is ready to eat, unless JJ shows up out of the blue, and I’ve been instructed not to tweet about this party until Uber rush pricing starts, so that’s not very likely.”

“Uh, thanks?” Yuuri said.

“No problem! We’ve had some problems in the past with big personalities ruining the ambience, and I wouldn’t want that to happen tonight. Now, I’ve stuck to healthier food than I normally would, so you don’t have to worry too much about portion control. After dinner, we’re going to be pre-gaming and setting up for about an hour, and then the full-on kegster starts. No judgement if either of you want to leave before then. Any questions?”

“You’re Eric, right?” Phichit asked. “The guy Leo knew from Juniors?”

“Oh, where are my manners?” said Eric. “Yeah, that’s my name, but you can call me Bitty; everyone does around here. Pleased to meet you two!”

Bitty led them inside to a veritable buffet line and half of the men’s singles competitors, along with a decent number of jocks and, inexplicably, a tiny Southeast Asian girl. He introduced Phichit and Yuuri to his teammates, but the names were indistinguishable: everyone was called something random like Birker or Dexy.

“I know,” said a tall Black guy with killer cheekbones, “we’ve all got weird nicknames. It’s all a long and storied hockey tradition, like weird pre-game superstitions or everyone hating the Flyers.” And then he and a loud, blond, giant white guy launched a full-on Powerpoint presentation about the history of hockey names and how to make your own.

“So my hockey name would be what, Chiter?” Phichit asked, when he thought he had the hang of it.

Some dude with a mustache stared into his soul for a second and said,“Bruh, no. Cheetah.”

“Yeah, figure skaters are speedy little fuckers, right?” Loud Guy said around a mouthful of chicken breast. “Bitty beats everyone in suicides. Now, the rest of you guys gotta make your own nicknames, Shitty’s genius won’t stick around. Do your names sound like anything cool in your own language? Animals or weapons or something?”

“Oh my god,” Phichit said. “Yuuri. Katsudon. Plisetsky was right about you all along!” Yuuri was flailing and making the usual panicky noises that indicated Phichit was onto something.

“That’s not really—” Yuuri started to say, but Phichit interrupted him.

“Katsudon and Cheetah,” he mused. “Cheetah and Katsudon.” It was only natural at that point to force Yuuri into a selfie, captioned, “Me and katsukiyuuri at an #Epikegster pregame! #cheetah #katsudon #nameamoreepicduo #illwait #hockeynicknames #makeyourown!”  

After the last bite of souffle had been eaten — “don’t worry,” Eric had said, “they’re actually pretty low in sugar and you get a ton of protein!” ― and the dishes had been heaped in the sink to ignore, the older jocks and the tiny girl went out to grab beer and… well, nobody was sure what Tiny Girl was up to, but it had something to do with pregaming.

“Okay,” Loud Guy said, after Tiny Girl returned with a projector from somewhere and the skaters had been assembled on a revoltingly filthy green couch. “In honor of Cheetah, here, who says he’s seen every figure skating movie ever made but never fucking got to Blades of Glory—”

“Like you’ve ever seen Shall We Skate?” Phichit fired back.

“Dude,” said Cheekbones, “that movie’s in Thai and Holtzy can barely manage English.”

“What, and subtitles aren’t a thing in America?”

“We are doing a very special pregame today,” Mustache said, barrelling over the incipient movie argument. “The Blades of Glory drinking game: drink every time Chazz and Jimmy get in a fight, every time Chazz mentions his sex addiction, and every time figure skating just doesn’t work like that. Two drinks for every outdated cringey gay joke, and finish your drink every time the parents’ death gets mentioned. If we notice any slow-sipping, you’ll have to finish your drink on the spot. Ready?”

“How many lines am I gonna be able to quote out of context and embarrass Yuuri?” Phichit asked.

“He’s skating with another dude in exhibitions, right? Started in Detroit?” Loud Guy said.

“Yup.”

“Oh, around half the movie.”

And Loud Guy was right. Phichit ended up elbowing Yuuri when the announcers talked about Chazz’ upbringing in Detroit’s sewer skating scene, groaning at the hideous excuses for choreography, and whispering, “Look, it’s you and Yurio! He’s even got the haircut!” every time Jimmy and Chazz laid into each other. By the time the Iron Lotus subplot came up, he was buzzed enough to genuinely consider the physics of a bullshit movie-magic pairs skating move.

“I don’t think they would actually have been able to cut her head off,” Phichit said to nobody in particular. “Cut her throat, yeah, but there’s not enough momentum to cut through the spine. What do you think, Yuuri?” he asked, and turned to his friend, who was looking a little green.

“I think I’m gonna help the jocks set up,” Yuuri said, and fled the room.

Different strokes for different folks, Phichit figured, and took another drink— Chazz and Jimmy were fighting again.

It didn’t take long after that for the kegster to start in earnest. Students filed into the house, Loud Guy and Cheekbones brought in a keg, and before Phichit knew it, D.R.A.M. was blaring at full volume. But as Phichit got his ass kicked at flip cup, he couldn’t help but wonder where Yuuri had gone off to.

It wasn’t that Yuuri was having a bad night. Everyone was incredibly friendly and it barely mattered that he couldn’t socialize when the entire point of the night was getting hammered in creative ways. He didn’t so much greet people as slide between different drinking games. But an hour or so later and five drinks in, he was beginning to question the contents of whatever “tub juice” was.

He shambled towards the kitchen — which was blocked off with CAUTION tape and a sign reading “absolutely NO puking on appliances- ERB” — and found that somebody else had had the same idea. Somebody else looked a little like a much taller and ripped JJ, and was sitting at the table contemplating a can of root beer. Yuuri took a sip of the tub juice and tried to look as if he were neither drunk off his ass nor interested in conversation.

A few moments passed in mutually-appreciated silence.

“It’s a lot sometimes, isn’t it?” Root Beer Guy said, finally. “All the people and the socializing, and the compulsory drinking.”

“It’s not like I mind all that much,” Yuuri said. “The drinking helps with the people.”

“You’re one of the figure skaters Bittle invited, right? Katsuki?”

“The captains told me I’m supposed to call myself Katsudon now, but yeah.”

“They would. Well, I heard from Bittle that one of the reasons your friends wanted you to come tonight is to get you black-out wasted. Apparently they want to take pictures, maybe put a video on Youtube. You weren’t in on this, I’m guessing?”

“Oh God no.”

Root Beer Guy sighed. “That’s what I thought. Well, Shits is always going on about how the Haus is supposed to be a safer space, and we have to be part of consent culture and everything. I guess part of that is not forcing booze down people’s throats. Anyone tries to get you to drink when you aren’t feeling it, I’ll be here with my root beer.”

“Thanks, I guess? But I’m pretty awful at interacting without getting drunk.”

“Fair. One thing, though. You might wanna lay off the tub juice, that stuff’s basically Hi-C and Everclear.”

Yuuri squinted at his cup’s contents. “Really? I’m on my third cup and it doesn’t seem like it’s doing anything.”

“If tub juice doesn’t get you drunk, nothing will,” said Root Beer Guy. “Just keep it in mind, eh? I’d be a shitty ex-captain if I let guests get forced into situations they weren’t comfortable with.”

“I guess I will,” Yuuri said, and made his way out of the room. If tub juice wasn’t working for him, maybe beer would.

Phichit was having the time of his life. The music was pounding, his friends were dancing, and two gorgeous hockey players were helping him out of a kegstand. “Alright,” said Cheekbones, “pong table’s open! You got a partner?”

“Sure,” Phichit said. “Anybody know where Yuuri is?”

“Cute Japanese kid? Just came out of the kitchen with Jack,” Tiny Girl said from the table. “You sure you want to go with him? He looks pretty sloshed.”

“Dude, Yuuri is the best pong partner. He’s, like, a Hoover for booze and he never loses his coordination. He’s a freak of nature or something.”

“Your funeral,” said Tiny Girl. “Now, Haus rules are as follows. No smacking the ball away if it bounces, blowing and fingering are forbidden, and shots before the last cup are mandatory. Got it?”

“Yeah, but are we playing singles or doubles?” Phichit asked.

“Two of you, one of me,” Tiny Girl grinned. “If I can handle Kent Parson and half the Falconers, I can take a couple figure skaters.”

Yuuri wandered over, finished his cup of tub juice, and the game began. In short order, Tiny Girl had changed her tune.

“Aight, that’s a bounce off the ceiling, you drink four cups,” she said, and then, “The fuck, Katsuki? You’re allowed to alternate those, you’ve already been drinking half of Cheetah’s.”

“I’m fine, thanks,” Yuuri said, and chugged all of them. “Phichit’s got the alcohol tolerance of one of his hamsters, we’ve been playing pong like this for years. We end up equally wasted, so it’s not like I’m cheating.”

The game went on like that for a while, Yuuri and Tiny Girl landing all their shots, to the point where Phichit ducked out in favor of filming the legend unfolding in front of him. Finally, Tiny Girl and Yuuri had one cup left each. It was Yuuri’s turn. Somehow he managed to down the shot and bounce the ball into Tiny Girl's cup at the very edge of the table, and the room exploded.

“Holy shit!” Loud Guy said, “somebody just fucking beat Lardo at pong.”

“Barely,” Yuuri said, somehow managing to be self-defeating and plastered at the same time.

"Are you kidding me?" Mustache chipped in. "I never thought I'd see the goddamn day."

“His aim gets better when he gets drunker,” Phichit said. “I tried to warn you.”

“I’m still the undisputed Haus flip-cup champ,” said Tiny Girl.

“Really? Let’s see about that,” Yuuri said. Drunk Yuuri was finally coming out of his modest megane shell, and Phichit was going to be around to film every second.

“Hey,” Guang-hong asked Phichit around 1 AM, “has anybody seen Leo around?”

“I lost track of him after they started playing “Vivir Mi Vida” and he freaked out,” Phichit said. “How come?”

“Eric’s totally wasted and we need a translator.”

Phichit thought for a second. “From English? We’re using English right now.”

“No,” Guang-hong said, “from Southerner. He’s slurring all his words and allergic to consonants and the last phrase I heard from him was ‘Y’all boutta git sum.’ Leo’s from Houston, he knows that accent.”

“She like music, she from Houuu-ston, like Auntie Yonce,” a familiar voice warbled from Phichit’s seven. He reached out and grabbed Leo from the mass of partiers around them.

“Leo,” Guang-hong said with a valiant attempt at sobriety, “we need you to translate what Bitty’s saying. He’s getting up in Yuuri’s face and I just heard him saying everyone was gonna get something.”

“We don’t need to worry about a fight, Yuuri’s not a fighty drunk,” Phichit added, “but he might cry all over the host and that would just be embarrassing for everyone.”

Leo squinted at Phichit as if his eyes weren’t quite focusing right. “Wouldn’t you want that?” he asked. “You could film it and add it to your Yuuri Blackmail Stash.”

“It’s not a blackmail stash, it’s just a thing friends— look, we don’t have time for this!”

“Aight,” Leo said, “lemme at ‘im and I’ll do my best.”

They elbowed their way over to the circle of onlookers surrounding a slurring Bittle and confused Yuuri, both drunk off their asses. “Aintcha never done no dance-offs b’fore?” Eric said.

“Have you ever been in a dance-off?” Leo translated, enunciating carefully and swaying slightly.

“‘S rumors. Like, tons of ‘em, ‘n’ all of ‘em gotcha winnin’ ‘gainst some miiiiiiighty tough competition,” Eric continued.

“Many rumors claim that you’ve won previous dance-offs against very tough opponents,” said Leo, deadpan.

“An’ I’m thinkin’, how ‘bout it, huh? You an’ me, here ‘n’ now, mano a mano,” Eric concluded.

“And I think we should have a dance-off here and now,” Leo said.

Yuuri blinked. “Thass wha’ he’s sayin’?” he asked. Drunk Yuuri was its own dialect, heavy with slurs and sobbing and the Saga-Ben he never quite scrubbed from his accent. Luckily, Phichit was fluent.

“Yep,” he confirmed. “You down?”

It was a foregone conclusion; between the tub juice and the pong and the kegstands, Yuuri was a good eight drinks in, and eight-drinks Yuuri was a walking bad decision. “Am I down?” Yuuri said, looking like he was about to laugh, or maybe fall over. “Phichit, ‘m a gold medalist, gonna kick ass at Worlds. I think I can take an American who doesn’ even know how t’ breakdance.”

“Famous last words, buddy,” Phichit said, but he stepped back. If this disaster happened, somebody had better preserve it for posterity, and that somebody was going to be him.

“Hey, Cheetah!” Eric hollered, and hurled his phone at Phichit. “Use my phone, I gotta Youtube channel that’s gonna wanna see this.”

The phone was already set to record, so Phichit had nothing to do but stand in a clear spot, press a button, and hold on for the ride.

“Get Me Bodied” blasted through the speakers and Phichit had no adequate words to describe what came next. There was quite a bit of breakdancing on Yuuri’s part— Phichit thought he could recognize that K-kick from the banquet photos— and Eric was shaking his ass like the world was ending and twirling around like a bizarre headbanging ballerina. Between the two of them, Phichit thought they’d used a bit of every kind of dance Phichit knew, and a few he didn’t. As the music ended, Eric came out of a giant spin and… fell? On purpose? He didn’t look hurt, and it had been timed to the music, so probably it was deliberate.

“That’s a death drop, what Bittle ended with. Although I don’t know what you call the spin he did going into it,” said Otabek from behind Phichit’s shoulder, and since when had Otabek even been at this party?

“I’ve been here all night, you just haven’t noticed because I’m not a rowdy drunk like some people,” Otabek said. “I DJ on the side, and there’s always somebody asking for the latest American hits. I figured it would be field research.”

“Okay,” said Yuuri from where he was draped against the banister, “so who won?”

Phichit pressed STOP and the recording cut out. “Everybody who just witnessed that. Maaaybe Eric, by a tiny margin? But most of all, Eric’s twitter followers,” he said, and uploaded the video.

“I’m so gonna regret that tomorrow,” Eric said, accepting a bottle of water from his boyfriend.

“I’m regretting it already,” Yuuri said. As Yuuri was tragically boyfriend-less until Victor tracked them down, Phichit grabbed some water for him.

“But oh my god, Eric, that move you did at the end? You have to teach us!” Guang-hong piped up.

“Yeah,” Phichit chirped, “Yuuri can fall on purpose for once.”

“I really hate you sometimes, Phichit, “ said Yuuri.

“Hate me later, it’s time for a podium selfie!” Phichit said, throwing Eric’s phone back to him.

Eric carefully took a photo with Yuuri, and Phichit wrote the caption for him: “4CC gold medalist katsukiyuuri and the reigning Haus Dance-Off Champion! #Epikegster #danceoffroyalty #yourfavescouldnever” The party wound down after that, and around 2 AM everybody headed back to their hotels after extracting a deal: Eric would teach them how to do a death drop someday if Yuuri helped him land a quad loop.

Bitty woke up in the middle of the night with an enormous headache, aching joints, and several thousand new followers. His phone had apparently alerted him to all of them at once, and didn’t stop buzzing for the five minutes it took Bitty to scroll to the source of the problem. Sure, the dance-off video accounted for his new Twitter followers, but why on earth was his Instagram blowing up?

And then he saw the selfie, and more importantly, the top comment.

“Jack. Jack, if you love me at all, you have to see this.”

“Bits, it’s four in the morning.”

“Look at this. Look at it. Viktor. Nikiforov. Just. Liked. My. Photo. He complimented my selfie prowess, Jack!”

“...Who?”

“I’m divorcing you.”

“We’re not even engaged!”

[petitprincess1]

Good Evening Ch7 (A Little Talk)

AO3 Link Summary: Angelo meets Vox and Velvet to discuss Valentino's death. Words: 2,013 Warning: Mild gore, guns, violence, and blood ~~~ Hours earlier, Angelo was riding in an uber with some sad sack of a man, not listening at all to his life story. More like lack of life. He was currently trying to figure out what he was going to do when he meets up with Vox and Velvet. Although, he already had his story kind of set up. Plus, it really helped that Valentino had many, many enemies as did others in a business like they had. 

So, all Angelo had to say was that he and Val were going out together, just having a little walk in the forest. Val decided to bring up some shit that he overly-exaggerated just like he always did and then some of his angrier clients that he often rejected tracked them down. Angelo noticed them at the last minute and before he could speak, they smashed Val over the head. He won’t specify what exactly, as if he couldn’t tell what was going on or it happened too fast for him to notice. Then Angelo went chasing after the clients, causing him to lose track of Val’s body. It wasn’t the perfect excuse, but it hopefully would get the dumbass to shut his mouth. 

The uber driver stopped in front of a warehouse and finished up his depressing tale, “That’s when my...third girlfriend left me after my cat died. She didn’t really think there was much of a reason to stay when, uh, Sylvester died. Anyway, thanks for listening...uh, is this your stop?”

“Yep,” Angelo said as he went out from the car and looked around, immediately found a hiding place for guns. He grabbed a pistol not too far from the car and heard the driver ask, looking out of the passenger’s rolled open window, “Uh, you sure? This place looks pretty rusty and abandoned. I can take you to a new-”

Angelo pulled the trigger on the pistol and pointed it at the driver, saying, “I wouldn’t worry about it.”

Before the driver could even make the window go up, the mob child shot the guy right in the head, causing the bullet to enter out the back and make blood and brain splatter over the driver’s side. The bullet went somewhere, but the boy hardly cared. The ex-driver flopped down against the passenger’s side and was just staring lifelessly at Angelo, while blood dripped down the gaping wound on his forehead. Angie blinked at the driver and mumbled, “Eh, I guess I coulda kept him alive. Oh well, ain’t like he had anyone waitin’ for him.”

He tossed the gun back to its hiding place and then sauntered into the warehouse, while two other people exited out from the building to clean the mess. ~~~ Angelo walked deeper into the warehouse, seeing a few people walking around the fixed up place. ...By fixed up, he means that there are makeshift bars in the place, cargo is filled with drugs, a few pool tables, poker games, and a bunch of other guns in there. The warehouse still had a few leaky pipes, rusty staircases, and broken down machines, but that was the point. Can’t have people thinking twice about the productivity here. There also were office-type rooms or bedrooms, but he didn’t care for those at the moment. 

He looked around and found a dark-skinned woman with 3 different hair colors and long twin ponytails, wearing a poofy, short-sleeved dress and had pink and white striped fingerless gloves. She was taking selfies with a few other people that were just trying to work.

The mob-child took a deep breath and walked over to the woman and walked over to her with a large grin. Angelo greeted, “Hey there, Velvet! How’s it hangin’? Ya still tryin’ to slit Vox’s mysterious mistresses’ throats?”

Velvet looked at him with her pure white eyes, that were clearly contacts, and grinned, “Voxie is waiting for you upstairs! I’ll take you to him!”

She then grabbed Angie’s hand and began practically dragging him towards the metallic staircase that led to two doors. When they were up to the doors, one of them had the lights on in the room and there was a muffled soft, electro tune coming from within, while the other was dark and quiet. It made Angelo feel a little ill at seeing how desolate it was.

Velvet opened up the door to the livelier office and smiled widely in a very unnerving manner that made the mob-child tense. She then closed the door to possibly speak to Vox, leaving the boy out there with his thoughts. However, Angelo knew that some things might be harder to explain than others, but he knew it would work out. Vox hardly cared about Val to begin with, so this’ll be quick.

The door opened up and Velvet gave a polite bow, chiming, “You may come in now~”

Angelo rolled his eyes and walked inside, getting hit with the acrid smell of a cigar. He wasn’t against smoking, did it himself sometimes, but for some odd reason, he never liked the smell of a cigar. He looked up and saw a well-dressed asian man with his hair shaven and black at the sides, while the unshaven was blue. The man had a cigar in his mouth and he gave a wide grin, “Anthony! Nice to see you again! Heard the news?”

Angelo winced at him using his real name and replied, “Hey, Vox. It’s still Angelo and, yeah, I heard the news. Alth-”

“Now, now, let’s not dance around the issue or prolong this. Valentino...is dead. Let’s just settle that right now. The man...is gone and while we didn’t have the best friendship, we would both be lying if we didn’t admit that he helped us get our start. Is that right, Anthony?” Vox asked as he walked over to a table full of different alcohols and began pulling himself a glass, while Velvet placed ice into it and eyed him longingly. Angelo shifted a bit and shrugged, “Yeah, I guess so. Gave me and my siblings a few good hits and...my nighttime job. Where are ya goin’ with this?”

Vox sipped some bourbon and chuckled, “I think you know, Tony. You were seen last with him, we know you were and you went out with him. You don’t gotta create some big story. Just simply tell Voxie about who killed Valentino and we’ll get rid of them promptly, okay?”

That immediately made Angelo’s heart drop and he knew that he couldn’t put the two broads under the bus like that. It didn’t feel right, it was too easy, and Charlie’s parents could easily fuck up their business. Although, they may just go after Vaggie, but that could still ruin shit with knowing how close the two are. Angelo jumped at hearing Vox tap his finger impatiently against the glass cup. He looked at Vox in the eyes and scoffed, “No need ta be so testy, baby. It was just two random idioti that followed us and-”

“Alright, I’m gonna stop you there,” the crime boss interrupted and then sighed, walking closer to Angelo, “Look, your family probably taught you many things about being a part of a mob. I know that Valentino taught you some things too. Whether it be deception or even more ways to use a firearm as a weapon even without bullets, it was stuff that could help you in the long run. However, I know that no one would ever teach you to lie...that’s why you’re so bad at it.”

He then reached out and grabbed at Angelo’s face roughly, squeezing his jaw tightly. Vox questioned again, “Who killed Val?”

Angelo glared up at the man, glancing at Velvet behind, who was just happily watching everything unfold. He just told the crime boss, “I already told ya. It was just some two of my clients that tried to get-”

“Which one are they, Anthony? Random people or clients that you know?” The boy really hoped that the panic didn’t show on his face and he just huffed, grabbing onto Vox’s wrist, “I don’t fucking know! I can’t fucking think with ya asking me all these goddamn questions all at once! Shit’s just getting mixed up and-”

He got interrupted by a punch to his cheek, causing Angelo to stagger a bit and hold onto his cheek. Before he could recover from the shock, another punch was delivered to his gust, knocking the wind out of him and making a bit of bile come up to burn his throat. Angelo fell to his knees, now gripping onto his stomach and looked up at Vox, who was just rubbing his knuckle. The crime boss scoffed, “Sorry, not a big fan of liars, especially to those I’ve been very patient to.” The mob-child spat out a bit of blood that he felt from his cheek. He gave a small chuckle, “Ya know, if ya wanted...ta get rough...ya jus’ needed ta ask.” Vox scoffed, rolling his eyes, and watched Angelo get to his feet. “Look, this is really simple, Anthony. Just tell me the truth and then- GAH!” The crime boss yelled when he felt a sharp, unbearable pain that caused him to gently hold his crotch and bend over. He then got punched square in the jaw and the throat, causing him to choke and make a disgusting hacking sound. Angelo glared at Vox and was about to kick him straight in his gut, but a kick to his face caused him to lose his footing once more.

The boy almost fell to the floor, but a kick to his jaw was enough to help his journey onto the carpet. He rolled over onto his stomach and spat out a tooth. Before he could get up, another few rough kicks were delivered to his ribs, making it so agonizing to take a deep breath. Angelo whimpered and tried his best not to curl up as his vision got somewhat hazy. He wasn’t sure if he was passing out or if it was tears. He heard Velvet whine, “Sorry, Voxie, but I couldn’t stand him hurting you like that. Really soured my grapes!”

Vox definitely spoke, bit Angelo was barely able to hear it. The mob child let out a yelp at his hair being yanked up as the crime boss whispered in his ear, “Now...let’s try that again…” ~~~ Angelo drove back home using only one arm, which matched him using only one eye to drive. He was using the deceased uber driver’s car to get back home, feeling only the tiniest bit thankful that they were decent enough to clean the brain splatter. He looked down and saw all the bruises forming on his body, making a disgusting purplish color. Plus, his other arm was uselessly at his side. 

He was sure it wasn’t broken, just fractured from being twisted, but...it was pretty hard to tell amongst the other bit of pain.

The boy also had a cigarette hanging out from his mouth, while blood dripped down his chin. The windows were rolled up, hoping he would choke on the stench before making it back. Unfortunately, he made it to Pen’s house and saw the lights still on. Angelo groaned as he tried to take out his phone, but the sharp pain in his rib refused him to twist his body. He was about to just let himself pass out, but saw some girl passing by. 

Angie grunted in pain as he used his other arm to roll down the window and called out hoarsely, “H-H...H-Hey...c-come…’ere…” The girl turned her head and placed a hand over her mouth at seeing Angelo’s beaten, bruised, and torn up body. He gave a dashing, bloody smile to her and asked, “...A b...beauty...a-ain’t I…? ...Can...ya...kn-nock...on...tha...door? Need…band aids...after a-a...talk….”

The last thing Angelo saw was the girl running to the house and his cigarette slip out of his mouth before passing out.

[politicalfilth-blog]

Joe Rogan Versus Alex Jones! Who Will Win?

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Transcript

This is a glass key and Jason bermas of we are changed in Oregon as you all know there’s a huge mega PR media War happening right now between Alex Jones and Joe Rogan and that’s why in this video show me and Jason want to tell you about the latest developments and our own personal kind of made-up assessments on who is figuratively winning the bigger PR War here and Jason why not let’s also maybe even discuss what would happen in the cage match between Joe Rogan and Alex Jones but personally before we get into all that I Blame You Jason for absolutely all of it.

Oh boy for those that don’t know.

Back in the day when Infowars was actually producing my material and I was living in Austin Texas I was big then as I am now and Rogan and Jones had a relationship since the late 90s for those who don’t know Joe actually called in on the 911 show trying to argue with Alex He’s already calling it a government Inside Job talking about bombs in the building the whole 9.

And Rogan was upset now on top of that Jones is in one of his comedy DVDs Belly of the Beast where they both dress up like a bush and son and go around and cloaks in that intros the DVD stay a long history that’s like you know why.

Even after you’re falling out because of some Fear Factor stuff.

The horse drink will call it that the horse drink that’s a nice way of saying it there Jason.

And then you know people being like needle through their bodies and dehumanizing stuff that really caused a rift.

End up getting back together and obviously Rogan is now like the biggest thing and podcasting out their Jones’s Empire has only grown and unfortunately especially recently Loop they have been butting heads.

Well you know people have to understand here there’s a big history here on this Feud actually was going back even before Joe Rogan had Jack Dorsey on even a couple days before that Alex Jones had yon Arvin supposedly the person that introduced Joe Rogan to DMT in Ayahuasca to on kind of bashing him for an hour and Joe and Alex is kind of going off on a lot of kind of hyperbolic made up things talking about how the CIA is pushing DMT in Ayahuasca get a lot of those things haven’t been confirmed a lot of assumptions being made but I do believe essentially that there are still some legitimate criticisms of Joe Rogan that do need to be taken very seriously cuz he is supported by the cash app some people even make the estimates that he receives require a lot of money from that sponsorship which is directly tied into Jack Dorsey which of course is controversy all erupted because people are accusing him of being very soft handed on him and some people are estimated that the Joe Rogan gets $300,000 per month from. The cash app and an estimated 3.5 million per year from that larger kind of sponsorship and that’s why a lot of people were kind of very disappointed with Joe Rogan when especially the question turned it to Alex Jones where Joe Rogan specifically asked Jack Dorsey why was Alex Jones banned in people notice Lee noticeably saw a major body shift in the CEO of Jack Dorsey we saw him kind of recoil we saw him stutter we saw him lose eye contact and safe leave that because rightfully so they shouldn’t this is a billion Aaron and if he is either completely gone for major decisions from this.

Huge institution of power Twitter there’s no other explanation for this and Joe kind of kind of let it by kind of let it swing and gone to change the topic right away when he personally know those individuals who were censored were bad not just Alex Jones but other individuals in the bias is very clear here there’s a reason Saudi Arabia and high Saudi Royal officials are investing so much in Twitter and have such a majority ownership of Twitter this is because Twitter is a main political weapon and it is being used in many different ways we saw many anti-war figures like Carey wedler be completely bad without explanation without reason Racine people targeted within the Venezuelan government within the Syrian government obviously serving bigger geopolitical US Coast clearly do see a bigger kind of political bias when it comes to him Joe Rogan and Jack Dorsey excuse me let me just focus on Jack Dorsey here with Jack Dorsey Banning people for saying that. The people who are getting fired right now should learn to code code like we saw tweeted by a Daily Caller editor who now had his account suspended because he just tweeted learn-to-code to the mainstream media that is obviously losing their jobs right now people who also bring up facts that fatherless homes lead to more crimes are also being bad while of course there’s literally a New York Times Asian lady just putting out a full-on war on slab against white people and she gets verified we’re seeing the Covenant kids being called to be docked being called for harm to be done to them by Major celebrities major media figures no banning at all huge discrepancies huge political war happening here and Joe Rogan who says he believes in the rights of people to communicate with each other to give everyone a platform everyone thought he was going to make a strong stance on that and he didn’t and this is why there’s been a lot of questions out of course. Logan answered back answer back of course against Alex Jones as well and answered back even mentioning how Media Matters said that Alex Jones was like and when you talk about Media Matters than Alex Jones you pretty much have some of the most erroneous institutions of media out there because Media Matters is supported by George Soros Alex Jones that’s a lot of hyperbolic stuff with Jason you’re going to get into as well because Alex Jones is kind of going all off literally calling to God himself God to rage this war against Joe Rogan and it’s only getting crazier from here right Jason it absolutely is only getting crazier you’re my friend so.

Let’s talk about that the Thunder that erupted because of the Dorsey thing because that.

You have some value.

On both side so when you look at the Dorsey interview.

Rogan said that he disclosed that he was a sponsor through the cash app I’m not sure if he did that I didn’t watch the entire interview I’ll maybe he did so in another interview but he absolutely was taking that money if I could if I can interrupt he should have been more transparent with that his main, twas I think I mentioned it if you’re taking money from Jack dorsey’s company and you’re interviewing him I think you have to talk about it I think you do have to mention it out when it’s on such a large scale of influence and power and money and not much money that that is a legitimate.

Criticism there’s a legitimate criticism when he didn’t follow up on things like using facial recognition again another legitimate criticism.

And and the criticism I think is more value when you look at Joe Rogan’s other interviews when he’s interviewing people like Steven Crowder and Candace Owens in and he’s going at them hard he’s questioning them he’s not letting them get by with any easy lazy answer he’s being very digilent a Vigilant and we’ve haven’t seen that with a lot of other figures on the completely other put beside this is another argument that people are making of course against Joe Road.

Yes absolutely and and let’s continue just a little bit further and Rogan really is not been honest about George Soros and what Jones has said about him and we have to acknowledge that for instance when we talk about Media Matters that is a George Soros David Brock.

And it is there is.

Free documentation not only with interviews from Soros himself but that he was taken in by a Nazi collaborator his name was kissed sander and yes he to also work with now she’s making him a Nazi collaborator in taking people’s property that is absolutely 100% factual that doesn’t need me and you know he was by the side of Hitler Zig hailing but in those interviews he certainly not remorseful or regretful about it so let’s be clear about that so that gives all cretans to Jones let’s swing it around now for a sec.

Things that Jones has said about Rodan first of all before the Dorsey interview.

Being a CIA puppet essentially you watch those those that interview and that’s where he starts to go off.

The rails that you bring up a good point here Jason because Alex Jones is definitely really great at kind of bringing up extremely crazy points and then walking them back and be like I never said that.

Which of course Joe Rogan also accuses him of doing when he talked about Sandy Hook on his podcast saying essentially with Alex Jones was saying was not true.

Exactly so let’s go back to the main thing with Sandy Hook.

And anyway Jones wants to spend it there was a point in time where he called the thing a completely synthetic event with actor.

So you know side from Sandy Hook you know what is Alex Jones talking about that’s not true number one.

The way he’s attacked Rogan and he’s got a snake and he’s called him snake Joe and he’s twisting his his neck and call him a tough Jiu-Jitsu guy I guess we’ll get into the fight later but that is,.

That at one point he literally says and I quote and we’re going to play this for.

Exactly the fire dude Jesus who you hate so much said Jesus.

Show me to destroy Joe Rogan.

I pulled a fire dude Jesus who you hate so much said Jesus told me destroys all right.

Next I don’t think Joe Rogan has ever said he hates Jesus he’s never been a religious guy but he certainly acknowledge the good points of religion he actually talks about being agnostic and believing something Beyond a you know especially after those DMT trips that Alex Jones is condemning so much that there may be an afterlife or something more to this so he’s being very dishonest there let’s be out let’s all be honest when we play this clip you look at Jones’s face even Jose knows he didn’t talk to Jesus and Jesus didn’t tell him to destroy anybody level on Joe Rogan.

Alex is going off he’s talking about Italian Guys in Vegas he’s making so many just generalized off the wall like topics that he’s not being specific about and showing absolutely no evidence about so that definitely needs to be called out as well because I got Alex Jones says the most craziest stuff and then comes back like I never said that fast talk tasting thing where he essentially always just creates his own kind of reality in some of the stuff he says is not only hyperbolic but just straight-out wrong about Joe Rogan and if they’re true show us some evidence which he’s not and he’s going from literal Walnut sauce pineal gland Luke on top of that while he’s going off on his little road going to rant here he starts talking about viral videos and he starts talking about I produce loose change their food.

187 million hits before they erased on Google video now that part is again that’s him spitting the truth so just so everybody understand Alex Jones produced Loose Change Final Cut Loose Change 2nd edition had nothing to do with him is that Joe Rogan actually bought the film before Alex Jones even carried it so let’s get that little factoid out there Jerome was the first guy to buy off our website he bought the 10-pack okay and Jones still had not even contacted us at that.

Keep reduce Loose Change Final Cut now to file tax credit probably online you know maybe over 10 let’s let’s give it 20 million views not 187 million views had nothing to do with that but I’m not jealous and he actually calls Rogan jealous he also says that he was bigger on YouTube than Rogan now again overall.

Infowars been around forever maybe more views but if you looked at not only Joe Rogan’s podcast.

King Joe Rogan and the other dozen bootleg things out there with Rogan there is no doubt in the past few years that Rogan has been much larger.

And then he says he’s going to take him down while I hate to tell you but Rogan’s not going anywhere.

To a large audience that doesn’t mean I agree with everything that he says but I enjoy his long format of a two to three-hour interview with something someone you use the Alex Jones used to do our two-hour-long interviews with people yeah you would interrupt a lot but those long-form interviews are long..

Yeah yeah yeah I was on some of those you were on some of those as well but I think it’s let’s talk to you about this kind of longer PR War that’s happening here because from what I see happening here obviously a lot of people are being extremely divided on on major sides here but as far as PR wise I think Alex Jones is winning at what he wants which is attention and he’s doing anything and saying anything for it and we’re talking about him because of that so far as attention wise and people paying attention and clicking an end and looking at him I think Alex Jones wins..

Specific portion but as far as just explaining himself I think Joe Rogan is definitely done a better job at that and it does have to be pointed out that Joe Rogan is coming off very kind of naive now either he’s pretending to be naive or he’s really naive because he’s quoting Media Matters and saying well Jack Dorsey this billionaire Saudi Arabia funded huge technocrat motor size and made Twitter big political weapon he’s telling me that it’s not true so it’s not true even a lot of the body of evidence kind of shows that it’s not so I think that is all going to be figured out with Jack Dorsey coming back on the show and if Jack Dorsey does not come back on the show on The Joe Rogan experiment to be kind of question on these very big important issues this is going to be over all a bigger loss for Joe Rogan who at the time right now you know his reaction.

Does deserve some scrutiny but makes sense in the long-term that’s kind of my assessment what’s yours will see where that goes again I’m not that hopeful because you have one end where you don’t think Joe Rogan can be that naive especially being around somebody like Eddie Bravo you know Eddie Bravo super conspiratorial so at some point he hears them all what he believes what he what he knows to be true who knows but for instance attacking a Jones for some of the pedogate stuff you know the Jimmy Savile raping corpses Jones Is Right that that is absolutely been proven that something that’s been put out there by law enforcement it’s extremely disturbing you know the adrenochrome stuff whether they were taking that from pituitary glands I’ve seen that in other reports I don’t know that I’ve seen it in the civil case so again that maybe one of those things that’s being. Construed and Rogan may have a point. So what I tell the audience is this there’s no way you can keep your eyes off of this.

Jones like you said kind of does need this attention after all these bendy platform he’s lost a lot of Revenue he’s probably feeling it no matter what he says out there yes in the very beginning that sent a lot.

But nobody left YouTube you know what I’m saying nobody left YouTube Luke and out Rogan’s got that voice got that platform and many other so in that respect I am sympathetic to Joan’s but how long it lasts I don’t know am I a hoe.

The both of them do get together on one of their larger platforms and kind of hash this out.

I want to see cagematch I think would be interesting to see a WWE stop this is where we have Alex the answer to 1984 is 1999 plus shipping and handling and one side of the Ring another side of the Ring we have Joe the toe snake close the cage let them have at it I mean I just see a whole what do you think would happen in a cage match I mean they’re both about the same height they’re both about kind of the same way I mean it would be a crazy fight it would be very simple and if here’s the deal you could have let let’s do it for Alex would rip his shirt up starts pounding his chest charging error what happens next he would say that he was anointed by God to defeat Joe Rogan even though I don’t know of anybody that’s actually physically talk to Jesus or God for that matter any of their deed. That’s beyond the point first of all you have 2 Outlaw striking just on Rogan’s end right and allow No Holds Barred cage match what happened again to try to make it fair for Alex you have to Bar all strikes and Rogan Rogan did Karate for decades now doesn’t matter what happened just give me the run by run play-by-play here Rogan Sidekicks him and and that’s the end of the fight is going to pull some crazy stuff you know he’s going to try to bite your offer. Do something crazy Luke the horse kick makes it over immediately he’s going to kick him across the thing he will collapse in pain and say he ate a big bowl of chili before the batch that was it now let’s say for instance Rogan cannot strike this is how the match go.

Alex again charges at Joe Rogan.

Joe Rogan then side steps and takes his back and chokes him until he Taps because I guarantee you as as as country boy and toughest Alex thinks he is he’s not going to sleep he will tag number and Cialis pulling a metal chair out of of nowhere all the time sneak attack wouldn’t surprise me in this matter but overall the reason we’re laughing is because we’ll be crying situation have been completely honest with you and that’s what you got to do you just got to kind of make the light of it I got these are just our opinions if you think we’re wrong or if you have any predictions of what would happen in the steel cage between Joe Rogan and Alex Jones let us know in the comments section below I’m right now off to Paris to do some on-the-ground reporting we’re going to be back also Saturday for 4 p.m. Eastern live stream Saturday not Sunday from Sunday 7 p.m. Eastern we’re changing that right now to Saturday so TuneIn Saturday 7 p.m. 4 p.m. Eastern for the live show.

The post Joe Rogan Versus Alex Jones! Who Will Win? appeared first on We Are Change.

from We Are Change https://wearechange.org/joe-rogan-versus-alex-jones-who-will-win/

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Your Complete Guide to Binge Watching 'Marvel's Iron Fist'

The Defenders roster is officially complete. With the premiere of Marvel's Iron Fist -- all 13 episodes are streamable on Netflix at midnight -- the final spot in this assemblage of small screen Avengers has been filled by Danny Rand. Before you binge, here is a comprehensive guide of everything you need to know about Danny and his glowing fist of kung fu glory.

"The show is very gritty and very dark in certain aspects," Finn Jones explains to ET. "We tackle serious issues, like the heroin problem in New York and corporate cataclysm and corruption behind the scenes. There's definitely dark elements, but I think how Danny is different from the other superheroes is Danny has this naivety to him, which actually gets him in a lot of trouble."

EXCLUSIVE: How Finn Jones and Jessica Henwick 'Faked' Their Way to 'Marvel's Iron Fist'

Who is Danny Rand? He's a comic book character who has been kicking around -- literally -- since the '70s, first appearing in Roy Thomas and Gil Kane's Marvel Premiere #15. Perhaps the least well known of The Defenders, Danny is essentially Batman -- a tragically orphaned child of a billionaire-turned-masked vigilante -- meets Bruce Lee. Game of Thrones star Finn Jones plays him here, part man-child, part Buddha-spouting hippie, with a sprinkle of trust fund bro-iness for good measure.

Who is Iron Fist? Or maybe it's, what is Iron Fist? Both work. Iron Fist is ostensibly both a title and ability. As Danny himself explains on the show, Iron Fist is a "living weapon" and "sworn enemy of The Hand." It's also a power manifested by focusing your chi into your fist so you can punch things real hard. In comic lore, Danny must defeat Shou-Lao the Undying -- who, FYI, is a dragon -- to attain the power of the Iron Fist.

Why is this one so damn controversial? Isn't it just a superhero show? See, Danny may be white in the comics, but many have argued that is the byproduct of the bygone era when his story was created, when people weren't as woke about cultural appropriation. Ahead of Jones' casting, there were petitions for Marvel to cast an Asian-American actor in the part -- it's hard to make another "white savior" narrative if you don't cast a white savior!

For his part, Jones has done a...not great job of making his case against the backlash, and Iron Fist the series doesn't lean either way on the subject, neither creating a truly fantastical K'un-Lun (the mythical and Asiatic realm where Danny was raised) that shakes some of its Orientalist clichés nor acknowledging, hey, yeah, Danny's a white boy and a lot of the time it sounds like he's reading a fortune cookie.

EXCLUSIVE: Marvel's Head of TV Reveals How 'The Defenders' Will Be Different From 'The Avengers'

So, what's the basic story here? Fifteen years after being presumed dead in a plane crash, Danny returns to NYC the rightful heir to Rand Enterprises, the monolithic family business. There, he reunites with childhood friend Joy Meachum (Jessica Stroup) and his frenemy-or-maybe-straight up enemy, Ward Meachum (Tom Pelphrey), as well as the Meachum's dead-but not dead father, Harold (David Wenham). It's no spoiler to say Danny does not receive a warm welcome.

"It's a bit of a surprise for all of these characters, considering the fact that they thought this guy was dead 15 years ago," Wenham explains. "It obviously rocks there world, because he could be a potential threat, he could be potentially useful for them, considering here's a kid who is probably a rightful heir to half this billion-dollar corporation."

Do I need to remember anyone from the other shows? Of course you need to remember characters from the other shows. Remember, ~it's all connected.~

1. Claire Temple (Rosario Dawson), who was last seen in the Luke Cage finale checking out a flyer for self-defense classes. As eagle-eyed Easter egg-loving fans noted at the time, that dojo is owned by Colleen Wing (Jessica Henwick), effectively providing an entry point into Iron Fist for Claire, the sort of Nick Fury of the NetflixMCU.

2. Jerri "J-Money" Hogarth, whose gender-bent comic book counterpart actually started as an Iron Fist supporting player. She's back--now with a fun nickname!--having been a Rand intern long before the events of Jessica Jones.

3. Madame Gao (Wai Ching Ho), the mysterious heroin dealer from Daredevil season one, and The Hand, that mysterious pack of ninjas from Daredevil season two, also play crucial roles. Brush up on them, especially since Finn teased that the latter, at least, will continue on into The Defenders.

"Danny kind of understands the bigger threat, because he's been dealing it all throughout his life and all throughout season one of Iron Fist," Jones teases of the upcoming series. "So, when he meets The Defenders, he is the one who really drives the group to understand the bigger picture."

I thought Iron Fist had something to do with Luke Cage? Why isn't he on this show? You're not wrong. While Danny and Luke have both had their own solo comic book runs, arguably their most popular was when they joined forces in Power Man and Iron Fist and opened Heroes for Hire. I, for one, am not opposed to Netflix forgoing the typical season two and instead doing 13 episodes of Luke Cage & Iron Fist: Heroes for Hire. Back to your question: Mike Colter, who plays Luke, already performed his crossover duties in Jessica Jones. He can't appear in all the shows! That's what we have Rosario Dawson for.

EXCLUSIVE: How 'Game of Thrones' Star Finn Jones' Last Day on Set Led Him to 'Iron Fist'

OK, be honest, is it as bad as everyone is saying? It's hard to watch anything objectively amid an onslaught of takedowns and hot takes and think pieces, but is Iron Fist the worst thing that's ever been broadcast on television* (*a streaming service) and an indefensible stain on Marvel's good name? Nah. The first and second episodes are a bit of a chore to get through, I'll admit, but considering the six episodes made available, the show begins to hit its stride--or a stride--around episode four, and five really starts to get into the Iron Fist of it all. Which isn't discounting some of the criticism--it's valid!--but after six episodes, I was willing to tune into the seventh. All in, it's just a bit of a disappointment, when you think of what it could have been. I mean, give us K'un-Lun! Give us spandex supersuits! Give us that mother effing dragon!

More importantly, how's the kung fu? That might be the most disappointing part of it all, actually. You get plenty of fight sequences -- within the first few minutes of the show, even -- but they are generally...underwhelming, something not often said about KUNG FU. The fight scenes are made to appear effortless -- Danny's the best martial artist evahhh -- but which has the inadvertent side effect of making them appear lackadaisical.

A perfect example of how Iron Fist wastes its own potential is a fight sequence at the end of episode two, which -- without giving away too much -- finds Danny in a straightjacket. It's the set-up for something unique and perhaps unlike any fight scene on any show before. (Or, at least, no Marvel-Netflix show.) Instead, it's more of the same, highly choreographed, punchy-punchy mush. And it could be so cool! Pulpy and stylized and exciting! That kung fu movie aesthetic might not gel with the grounded, gritty, street level superhero world established thus far, but it'd certainly be more interesting to watch. Ultimately, Iron Fist tries too hard to be the Kung Fu Daredevil, instead of the best Iron Fist it could be.

Anyway, what's the spinoff I'm going to want after watching this? While Heroes for Hire is certainly enticing, I'd trade that and the Punisher spinoff for Daughters of the Dragon, the team comprised of Colleen Wing, badass sensei and sometimes sidekick to Danny, and Luke Cage's Detective Misty Knight (Simone Missick). They're set to cross paths in The Defenders, maybe just go from there?