#“poor” as in financially but also they are victims of having to put up with ed and stede's bullshit

[ourflagmeansgayrights]

ed 🤝 stede

going on a personal journey and bothering some poor fishermen about it

[hana-no-seiiki]

Hello! I hope you are doing well, I have an idea, feel free to ignore but I hope you like it.

Yandere Male Deliquent x GN Ex Bully

Like he tried to make them explode and being their “true self”, because in the past, when they were younger, they defend him and he became a delinquent just to see them again.

Sorry if my English is bad.

Bye!

YAN! DELINQUENT OC x GN! EX BULLY! READER

Also your English great anon! Dw about it.

AAAAAAA I’ve meaning to do more Yan! Delinquent recently anon!! You read my mind. For those new to my account. I already have a Yan! Delinquent OC named Mori Ban (see tag: hns.moriban) who was the first to really blow up from my yan! ocs. I always loved this trope with yan stories hhh

tw/cw: DDNE, mention extreme bullying, assault, and harassment. (brought out my trauma for this one). i imagine reader to be amab/masc for this one but there are no explicits allusions to that.

Uttering the name [L/N] [Y/N] was enough to strike fear in the hearts of men. Literally and figuratively speaking, your voice was enough to make even the highest of authorities piss their pants. Not only were you capable of destroying a person’s physical body with your very own hands, you were able to dismantle everything from their relationships and reputation to their financial situations in life.

People predicted you to grow up and become an even more menacing, ruthless person. You had the potential, and with the way you were it was simply the natural trajectory.

But like you always did, you broke everyone’s expectations.

You were like the delinquent version Serena Van Der Woodsen. Mindlessly strutting in as if you hadn’t put several companies to bankruptcy because the owner’s kid looked at you the wrong way. Nonchalantly eating your lunch in the same vicinity of your old victims as if you hadn’t shoved their face into the toilet as a way to pass time. Cheerfully waving at the student council president as if you hadn’t constantly blackmailed and assaulted them for several years just so they’d do your homework and projects. No one was safe from you. You had no code. As long as you felt like it, any life could be destroyed.

Standing opposite to your current path was Mori.

He used to be the punching bag of your lesser goons. Known for being weak and poor, only good for his academic excellence.

He grew up to be almost as fearsome than you. Where-areas you were coldblooded, revelling in the pain you brought upon others. He was a lot more morally guided. Sure, his enemies often suffered worse fates physically, but he wasn’t like you in the way he picked his battles. He only brought hell to those that deserved it. Those that hurt other people first.

And then there was the way he treated you.

You technically belonged to the category he dealt with. You ruined dozens, maybe even hundreds or thousands of lives in a whim. You were the devil in a pretty suit of skin. Despite your lack of hostility nowadays, you never apologised or took accountability, never attempted to atone for your mistakes. The only reason why others haven’t confronted you about it was because of fear. They didn’t want to potentially anger you and set off a bomb.

But Mori? Mori could handle you.

After all, he dedicated his whole life to being your equal; serving you, aiding you.

In fact, he was just so disappointed to see you this way. All disgustingly docile and horridly disciplined. What kind of monster tamed you to be like this? Mori chuckled at the thought. No one but him can match you. You must have started behaving yourself for the sake of appearance. All of this was just a façade. If you had truly changed you would have begged for forgiveness to those you’ve wronged. If you had become a better person then you wouldn’t be discreetly glaring at him when you thought he wasn’t looking.

If someone had truly taught you to be a goody-two-shoes he would have killed them ages ago.

“Hey, [N/N]. Sweetheart. How ya doin?” Mori leaned forward. He grew to be quite a ways taller than you and had to lean over to meet you face to face. Much to your chagrin.

“Fine. It’s so nice of you to ask Ban. If you’ll excuse me.” You adeptly moved to the side. You had dealt with this man-child several times throughout the semester already and knew to just avoid him at all costs lest you lose braincells and precious energy talking to him.

However, you could only take two steps before his hands grappled unto your wrist.

“Woah woah woah there. We’re not done yet.”

You don’t look back, and firmly yet calmly stated, “Yes, we are.”

“It’s a little late but we have yet to give you a homecoming party. That wouldn’t be fair for the great [Y/N].”

You turned back. Eyes wide, not of surprise or anger, but from sheer awe of this man’s audacity.

“I know what you want, and you’re not getting it from me right now.” You scowled at his beautiful pink eyes and effortlessly yanked your arm away from him. You didn’t know it yet back then,

but you had already lit the match.

©️ hana.no.seiiki - yun | 2023

[horce-divorce]

something something about the power imbalance inherent to being an unhoused person, how similar it is to the dependency that abusers intentionally foster in their relationships to keep victims from leaving. but if you're homeless and someone is putting you up, especially if it's for free/some kind of exchange other than rent, you're basically expected to put up with whatever indignity they can imagine for you and still just be grateful. And if you set a boundary or speak up for yourself in any kind of way, that's Taking Advantage of this poor kind person who's doing SO much for you already, how could you?

sorry its 2am and I'm trying to write a better draft about this for later too but its like. being homeless is a huge, huge vulnerability. ppl people will look to exploit that, intentionally or not. and doubly so if you're homeless because you're disabled.

also something the ableism involved... about how I know so many fellow disabled people who have struggled with homelessness, and we all have similar stories about people we trusted, friends or loved ones who seemed all too happy to help and take us in, and how we repeatedly impressed upon them the nature of our health and the situation, and they swore up and down that they understood and that we were on the same page about boundaries and expectations... only to have them blow up and kick us out at the absolute first sign of conflict or miscommunication, or because we didn't get jobs fast enough, or because we didn't contribute financially even after being told that wasn't expected, and so on.

and how, I know so many housed people who have never been through this, who all have very similar stories about how they tried to help a friend in need once, and they were SO lazy and horrible and took SO long to get their shit together that they clearly were just a freeloader taking advantage who should've never been trusted, just like all homeless people, and that's why we give them socks and canned beans instead of money.

I was never allowed to complain about ableist expectations or abled people ignoring my boundaries in my parents' home. Especially not after I became a disabled adult who still needed help with housing. And that's been true of most of the couch-hopping I've done since then, too.

Currently we have a fairly nice situation... we live with a trusted and pleasant friend. It's a whole house, not an apartment. Not even in the city. We have our own entire room. We don't have to pay rent or anything. It's temporary even aside from our discomfort, it's just been a nice place to land for the cold months.

However. Friends parents are not so chill. Their dad is the most disgusting man alive and has repeatedly gotten us sick bc he's always got something, bleeds all over and never cleans it up, never washes his hands, leaves his dentures on countertops and tables with food still stuck on them, coughs all over our stuff and never masks, is actively making the mouse infestation worse with all the food he leaves out, and puts our health at risk in SO many ways.

he used to work in Healthcare btw. His wife still does. They know we're here bc we're homeless; they know we're both disabled and immunocompromised; neither of them will wear a mask. Both of them are constantly coughing everywhere and not even covering their mouths. We've tried to politely bring this to their attention multiple times and nothing changes. They just ignore us.

We could literally die from this. We could get lifelong health complications even worse than what we have now. Bel lost his sense of taste today and now we're terrified that it's gonna be long covid or something else that sucks what little joy is left from our daily lives.

You lose everything, and then you're supposed to just say nothing and accept your lot, no matter how much danger you're in, because beggars can't be choosers. If you're disabled and poor you'd better just be fine with people abusing you and putting your health and safety at risk indefinitely, because you're lucky they're even helping you at all instead of JUST abusing you.

You dont get to have a home. You dont get to collect things, or keep sentimental things, or have a whole, adequate wardrobe. You get what you can carry with you and what won't get stolen or destroyed by others, or by the nature of moving so much. You dont get to have safety and stability and roots and community. You dont get the dignity of boundaries or your own space. You get what you get and you don't throw a fit. And be happy and say "thank you" if people are merely ignoring you instead of actively silencing you. And if the people "helping" you actually give you the thing that kills you, at least you didn't die of exposure, I guess? Or something?

Its just. Every single thing you do as both a homeless & disabled person reminds you how utterly worthless you are to the """normal""" people around you. Every day. It's so demoralizing.

[faust-the-enjoyer]

You're entire blog is a walking chronically online fest, but imagine hating on an entire group of people and being discriminatory just because they have served/had served when the American military (love that people never question other militaries too as if the U.S. is the worst one and only bad one) is a predatory system that preys on people who literally don't have much choice but to enlist. Bad home lives, poverty, medical care, etc. a lot aren't privileged enough to not have to become slaves to the gov and ruin their bodies mentally and physically, and to be pissy towards people like who did what they had to do to just be able to exist and live for themselves or support their families s a massive pos move on your part, just saying.

"You're entire blog is a walking chronically online fest" literally 99% of my blog is GoFundMes besides the fics that i write every now and then so thanks for going mask off from the very beginning.

"(Love that people never question other militaries too as if the U.S. is the worst one and only bad one)" there's a reason why i wrote "American war machine" and then put a slash and wrote "western imperialism", that's because those too are not mutually inclusive, not all western militaries are american. I hate french militaries (read up on New Caledonia) among others too, and it's not just western militaries that commit imperialism/colonialism/war crimes in the global south and other places, but it's MOSTLY them, and people aren't gong around glorifying French militaries in the fandom as far as i know, unlike american militaries. Also, outside of fandoms people have lives, and a lot of people discuss anti-colonialism and criticize militaries from other countries, it's just that the context as mentioned above is about a fandom that has a lot of americans and glorifies the american military.

I'm being very genuine when i ask you to think of the victims of the american army (since me talking about american armies is what's pissing you off the most), do you think they are going to think "Oh, well, it's ok that they bombed my house and killed my loved ones, they needed to enter the military to get financial stability/go to college/etc."? No, they're going to think "They bombed my house and killed my loved ones/Why did they bomb my house and kill my loved ones? What did I/we do to deserve this?", and some will rightfully be hateful towards the militaries. The victims will not think of the reasons as to why the person who invaded them/bombed them/etc did that and understand the reasons and forgive them, this is real life anon, things don't work like that. Also, there are people who go through the very same things (poverty/poor healthcare/etc) and DON'T join militaries.

The American government SHOULD give cheaper houses, it SHOULD give cheaper education without so many loans, it SHOULD give free healthcare, and it SHOULDN'T indoctrinate children from vulnerable backgrounds into getting into the military. And all of these issues are ones that the American people have with THEIR government, so don't be mad at the people hating American militaries because of the atrocities they committed simply because some people got indoctrinated from a young age to enter and to escape poverty etc, because your issue should be with the american government, not the angry victims and survivor and witnesses of american armies/militaries/invasions.

[bracketsoffear]

Captain John Hart (Torchwood) "John channels its fears of "pure, unpredictable, unmotivated violence" by doing things like grabbing a random guy who's mugging another person by the throat, dangling him over a three+ story carpark, and then dropping him to his death. He is impulsive violence personified (pushed the love of his life off of a second roof in the same night just because the guy was snarky at him), but also exercises extreme control over the levels of his violence, like nonfatally wounding people he still needs around and strategic use of venomous lip gloss.

Just like the Slaughter is heralded by music, John has a slick theme song with slinky saloon shootemup guitar riffs, which plays when he shows up which is impressive for a side character who was only in 5% of the show but stole every scene. It's also got the vibes of music to have fun slaughtering to. (John's theme linked here)"

Oh Il-Nam/Player 001 (Squid Game) "He has run 33 sets of death matches in which he makes poor people kill each other for the chance to win enough money to escape their financial burdens and for the entertainment of the wealthy elite helping sponsor it. He has a cynical and nihilistic outlook on life, and so engineers people into a situation where they will kill for financial gain (and to ensure their own survival) to prove it. No one knows they're being put into a life-or-death situation when they first sign up, and they don't realise until the guns start in Red Light Green Light-- by which point they're locked in with their choices being succeed or die. He joins the 33rd game in order to feel some excitement before he dies, and one of the first images of him that went viral was of him beaming ear-to-ear and having an absolute whale of a time during Red Light Green Light while people were terrified and screaming and being gunned down around him. He doesn't blink once about the fact that the bloodshed and corpses around him are his design. He places a game which encourages teamwork (tug of war) right before a competitive pairs game (marbles) so that people decide to team up for the latter with people they trust and then are forced to either stab each other in the back (Sang-woo and Ali) or watch a loved one die and know they bear partial blame (the husband and wife pair). He calls to stop the nighttime riot, yes, but a very common interpretation of that is that it was consciously engineered to cull the participants and create a more hostile environment between players/encourage random attacks, and that that was simply the stop signal and not him actually being afraid or displeased. He even offers to allow Gi-hun to kill him if he loses a bet, subtly luring him towards murder and the Slaughter-- and arguably he was luring people to his patron the whole series since the players could vote to end the games at any time, but chose to stay and kill each other for the chance of the prize money. Even his recruitment method is violent (although not lethal): the Salesman is happy to take permission to slap players across the face in lieu of money when he wins the ddakji bet. Yes, Oh Il-Nam has reasons for creating the game, so arguably to his OWN thinking he isn't peddling "random" or "unmotivated" violence, but generals also have their reasons and plans and that doesn't stop the Piper's presence on the battlefield itself. The fear he creates in his victims is that they will die violently and unpredictably. The initial terror in Red Light Green Light is peak Slaughter, and the non-stop dread and anxiety is it perpetuating. From the wiki: "It is the fear of not knowing where, how, or when pain will come but that it will,"-- per the rules, the players are not allowed to know what the next game is (one player gets executed for taking foreknowledge as part of a deal), so no one knows what the next death trap is… but they know there is going to be another and another until there is no one else left."

[itsliyahhbih]

Into the spider-verse: Xiomara’s intro

Sum: this is my intro to my au fanfic. Puerto Rico’s Araña-Mujer & it takes place on Earth 906. This starts in Xi’s POV‼️

A/n: The other characters come in later. The story really starts after her intro so this of this rlly as an intro/pt.1 ‼️ In this story Xiomara does end up with Miles G. Morales. HOWEVER, this is being posted as a test to see ‘how good’..this fic is. This is basically a ‘rough draft’ I’ve honestly barely edited this. I have read thru it so hopefully I didn’t miss any BIG errors. I just wanna see if others enjoy this or if maybe I get thrown suggestions. If this does good I’ll possibly continue with this fanfic on here :))

Okay let’s get this started , Hi I’m Xiomara Marina Aguillar . Puerto Rico’s one and only Spider girl. I got bitten by a radio active spider on a school field trip to Oscorp Labs for a career day. My spider bite gave me special venom powers through nails that can temporarily paralyze my victim. As well as camouflage effect that allows me to blend into any surroundings, also my body temperature drops leaving me undetectable to heat vision. I’m 15 years old and attend Visions, the center of advanced studies..It’s..It’s really just a highschool, but I like to remind myself of what my papa said to me. “Mija, you earned your place at that school! I’ll be damned to see stuck up children run you away from a proper education!!” Something my father didn’t have growing up. I tested very highly my whole life and always got good grades, school and education came so naturally to me..friends..not so much.

It was my papa’s dream for me to go to this school , so who was my mother to deny a man on his deathbed his dream for his eldest daughter right?…he..hehe. Yeahhh uh…My pa, he’s gone…He passed away when I was 13 from Cancer, but I don't like to remember him as a Cancer patient! I like to remember him for just being my papa. The one cracking jokes, cooking good food and saving lives as a firefighter…

I always wished he never got sick because then I just know..My life wouldn’t be the way it is now..

Months after my papa’s death my mother went downhill even almost lost her nursing license. She picked up drinking and smoking cigarettes heavily, also picking up extreme hours at the hospital to try to keep us afloat. She liked to claim all the hours were for keeping us afloat..a part of me believed that. That she was still the mami who used to give pep talks and smother you in kisses every morning, but really I knew it was also to feed her addiction..Apart of my mom still wanted to be a mother but sometimes couldn't bare to look at us and so I tried really hard to shelter my siblings from this part of her, but as they got older they became coherent to their surroundings . It was hard for us emotionally and financially, we were even still paying off his medical bills and that alone was a struggle to do.. Don’t get me wrong, my parents both made good money. I wouldn’t say we are DIRT poor as of right now, just struggling.. Those bills were just always a harsh reminder to us that he was gone..

We even lived in a beautiful house when he was alive but the hospital bills, caring for us, our wants and needs no matter what, bills..It swallowed them as his hours at work decreased more and more due to his cancer getting worse. Eventually putting him on disability we slowly got back afloat, but when he passed and we no longer got his disability income we lost our home and my mom lost her sanity. My parents worked so hard their whole lives to get us outta the hood for us to end up right back there . As I stated my mami kinda went..loco, She wasn’t herself any more, gave us no attention and became very cold and mean as the alcohol addiction increased so I picked up the care of my younger siblings and our apartment we moved into after the loss of the house. It was just my moms job to give me her paycheck to get it ALL done..Eventually we would argue about the money and costs of her habits so I had to pick up a job to pick up her slack..But that's enough of my life story let’s just get into it…

To be continued..?

[opinated-user]

An anon answered by Lily :

“The threats about a new YouTuber calling you a predator are hilarious. That really worked out well for Essence of Thought and Poppy. Last I checked EOT was in financial ruin from Racheal Oates suing her ass. Poppy is currently suicidal from harrasment by the very same people who went after you. These assholes always destroy themselves in the end.”

If that’s not a self ask, then idk what is

self ask or not, that's a load of completely fabrications. P is receiving the consequences of being a sex pest, abuser and violating the consent of multiple people. shouldn't have been a sex pest, abuser and violator of consent if she didn't want people to say that was a bad thing. P took the testimony of Courtney to put it under a paywall because she violated the consent of Courtney and Courtney, understandably so, didn't like that. everyone who has been covering her here on tumblr, unless i had someone blocked already, have all stated to not harass P or anyone involved with her. if she's receiving any harassment at all related to the allegations (and by that understand direct hostility from someone contacting her, not just talking in their own blogs about her), it's not because of our actions. it's because of her own. LO, you thought that P had spread the nudes of Courtney and then spread her workplace email without waiting for any evidence or allegations. oh, but she greedily took down the testimony of your sibling, so now that makes her a victim worth protecting? nevermind you were the one making disgusting implications of how P could be a danger for her own child before anyone had any idea of how she could be as a parent, just because she responded to your other lies about her. EOT stopped making videos because you were too toxic and triggering of a topic to cover. she's still making videos. Rachel threatened with a cease and desist, but it's not actually sueing her right now unless i misunderstood something. so that's another lie.

i don't think that's LO, for the record. i noticed that as soon i point out that the "Courtney is a scammer" anon could be P, i haven't received another word from them. i'm not saying that she is or she is not, but if she's trying to cozy up LO to try to dismiss Courtney even further so even what she said about P doesn't have to be taken seriously... i wouldn't be surprised either. that just seems the kind of unnecesary manipulation someone like her might get into. (the overtly emotional description of P's situation is also giving me reason to believe that... can you imagine LO using those words for P? can you imagine any random fan of LO being so openly poor little P? i can't.)

[peachey-bastard]

sorry another vent post but I don't rlly want to talk to friends about this more than I have already

I'm in such a weird place of emotional hurt and honestly I don't really know how to process it properly. my mental health was already in fucking shambles even before this, I've been to the hospital twice for suicide attempts in the last couple months and while I haven't told anyone except for two friends, it kind of sucks that no one I consider close in my life could even see that I was struggling and gave a fuck. I'm also hearing such conflicting things from different people and it's fucking me up. I got told directly by someone I considered my best friend for so long that they don't actually care about me and had already planned to ghost me after we stopped living together, and have had them scream at me and be agressive to the point I was afraid of physical violence. and then hear from other people they've talked to that they 'consider me family and are sad about losing the friendship' when all I fucking wanted was to have a conversation and be apologised for to for them treating me like shit for months, and they told me to effectively fuck off and that we werent friends anymore. either they're lying to other people or they're lying to me, and I don't know what hurts more. pretending like you're the victim when you're the one who blew up a years long friendship where I would drop everything if they needed me, or if they lied to me and just went straight for the throat for no other reason than to hurt me to the core because my biggest fucking anxiety driven fear is having the people I care about the most leave me and not actually give a fuck about me. all I fucking want is to be treated like a valued person and not like an object that just gets used and thrown away. it's been violating in every fucking way, I've already been fucked over by being led on and used for sex, financially screwed over because they moved their partner in, lied about it being temporary, and all the bills have fucking doubled and now I have been having to help cover costs for someone who lies, steals, and doesn't pull their fucking weight, and severely emotionally damaged because all of my worst fucking fears about my relationships are coming true. I've been processing stuff badly and a lot of it is coming out in just sheer anger at this point. I'm angry that I'm being used, I'm angry about stupid fucking double standards where I can be screamed at and argued with for no fucking reason but me being upset is suddenly a huge problem, I'm angry that I've wasted the last three fucking years of my life putting my energy into someone who's a lying, cheating, manipulative piece of shit. and I'm still fucking upset about losing them. I'm so fucking heartbroken and I'm angry at myself for caring this much still. they literally made fun of me to my face because I started crying when them and their partner were fucking screaming at me when it's a reaction I can't control from having abusive fucking parents who'd constantly yell at me. I'm angry that they're going around acting like it's poor little them who's the fucking victim when they're the one who's blown this whole relationship up. because there was a point where it was still fixable. even wjth all the arguing and fighting I still wanted to save this stupid friendship that I was clinging onto so badly. they're the one who's crossed the point of no return with the way they fucking treat me. I still love them and would love to have the friendship back but I can't do that when I don't feel safe around them anymore. emotionally or physically. I'm emotionally exhausted and I know it's only another month and a half before I don't live with them anymore and don't have to see them again but I honestly don't know if I can make it that long at this point. everything is so fucking exhausting and I don't have anywhere left that's a safe fucking space for me. I can't even confide in friends because one is dealing with their own shut and I don't want to burden them more than I have, and the other just runs strsight to them and tells them everything I say, even if it's in confidence. I just can't

[denimbex1986]

'The film: Writer-director Andrew Haigh (Looking, Weekend) has always had his finger on the pulse of contemporary LGBTQ+ storytelling and the queer experience, but All of Us Strangers sets a new high bar. The contemplative, dreamy drama follows Adam (Andrew Scott), a gay man who shares a massive apartment complex with one other resident, Harry (Paul Mescal). When Harry and Adam strike up a connection, it spurs Adam’s memories of his late parents — played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell — as he imagines conversations they never got to have after they died in a car crash when he was only 12.

Scott earned raves for his melancholy performance and his quicksilver ability to transform himself into a child of different ages purely through his acting choices. He made the rounds at all the major awards season events and did heaps of interviews, but he still largely missed out on nominations outside of the Golden Globes and Spirit Awards. Though they received even less awards love, Bell and Foy both turn in remarkable performances as parents out of time and space fumbling through their earnest efforts to love their son. Haigh was also in the adapted screenplay mix for his take on Taichi Yamada’s novel but never quite broke through. And while he isn’t as central or as flashy as Scott, Mescal is also riveting.

Why it wasn’t nominated: To be honest, this one is a real head-scratcher. The film is perhaps a bit more poetic than strictly linear, which simply doesn’t connect with some filmgoers. Not to mention, Scott is widely beloved in the industry and put in the WORK on the awards circuit (we’d like a collage of his snazzy suits this season). But he was also snubbed for his brilliant work in Fleabag by the Television Academy, so go figure.

All of Us Strangers also could've benefitted from a release date that didn't bury it near the end of December — it had a successful festival circuit run, so why not get it in theaters sooner and maintain the momentum?

From a strictly financial perspective, one could argue that Searchlight didn’t invest in All of Us Strangers’ campaign as much as they did for Poor Things, which secured 11 Oscar nominations. Often, smaller studios (or indie branches of bigger studios) don’t have the biggest budgets for FYC campaigns and they have to put their money behind what seems to be connecting most with voters (in this case, it was Poor Things, not All of Us Strangers). Poor Things is arguably a more provocative and wildly stranger film, but it does center on the coming-of-age of a conventionally attractive young woman.

Which brings us to the possibility of a grimmer truth: Despite massive strides in the industry when it comes to LGBTQ+ representation on screen, sometimes the Academy can still seem, well, homophobic. At best, they seem to only get excited about films related to the AIDS crisis (bonus points for straight actors playing AIDS victims. See: Tom Hanks in Philadelphia, Matthew McConaughey in Dallas Buyers Club). Famously, Brokeback Mountain lost out on Best Picture to Crash, still widely considered one of the biggest, most frustrating Oscar upsets of all time. At the time, pundits blamed older voters who didn’t want to vote for a gay love story. Nearly 20 years later, we would hope the Academy would be past that. But maybe the power of queer love still just isn't enough.

Why history will remember it better than the Academy did: Like so much of Haigh’s work, All of Us Strangers is an essential entry in queer cinema. Not only because of the sensual, heartbreaking love story at its center, but also because of the ways it distills the challenges of a particular generation to straddle the line of Gen Z’s openness and acceptance with the more closeted, repressive upbringings they endured. Scott’s Adam is actively trying to find his place, caught between the more unapologetic model of Harry’s sexuality and his loving, if lacking childhood.

Through the lens of sexuality, All of Us Strangers unpacks the primal need to be better understood by our parents, while also acknowledging that sometimes love is the best they have to offer. Grief is a thorny subject for filmmakers, in part because it’s such a unique and personal experience for each of us. No one mourns in exactly the same way (and that’s not even accounting for what society deems the “proper” way to do so). All of Us Strangers is deeply affecting in its melancholy, its intricate study of the furrows and sense memories of grief. The bruise it leaves on viewers’ hearts should linger long after this year’s Oscars.'

[josefavomjaaga]

Soult’s plunderings (part 2 of ?)

The next installment of this ongoing series (part 1 being here). This time we’ll have a direct witness - and victime of Soult’s schemes to make money: His aide-de-camp Auguste Petiet.

Several of Soult’s aides complained about being poor, and all of them were eagerly trying to receive promotions or donations – something that their marshal, once the euphory of Austerlitz was over, only rarely could achieve for them.

Petiet mentions the strained financial situation of his family several times. His father was, however, an important politician with a long career: Claude-Louis Petiet. A moderate, he managed to be both a friend of Moreau and to support Napoleon’s coup d’état, and he seems to have been able to keep an unblemished reputation of probity even during the Directory. Napoleon made him the intendant-general during the 1805 campaign against Austria, a senator and a Grand Officier de la Légion d’honneur. But when Petiet died in 1806, Napoleon refused to grant his widow a pension, arguing that a man with so many opportunities to enrich himself ought to have done so. (Or at least, that’s what his son writes in his memoirs.)

It was after the campaign of 1805, when Soult was briefly gouvernor of Vienna, that Petiet Senior had a little run-in with his son’s marshal, that had severe consequences for poor Auguste Petiet and shows a rather dark side of Soult. As Auguste Petiet writes in his memoirs:

Shall I speak here of the weakness of a great captain? [...] Also, I wish it were in my power to hide a fact damaging to the reputation of a famous warrior. I would even keep absolute silence on an anecdote that my sons must know so that they are convinced that military genius must be free of this stain and that the most intact probity is the first duty of a soldier.

The Emperor, who was well aware that Marshal Soult had been responsible for the victory in the battle of Austerlitz, had promised him that all the graces he requested for the 4th corps would be granted. Franceschi had just been appointed brigadier general and three proposals for the rank of captain for the three lieutenants aides-de-camp who had actively taken part on the battlefield were to be sent to Napoleon at Schönbrunn Castle.

In the meantime, the chief of staff gathered the various heads of the army administration departments in Vienna. General S […]

That of course would be Saligny again. See part 1.

[…] told them that he had come on behalf of the general-in-chief of 4th Corps to ask for a huge discount on the products they were dealing with. The astonished administrators reply that they can only act after referring the matter to the Intendant General.

And that would be Petiet Senior.

My father told them that a bonus of this nature could only be taken to the detriment of the soldier and he ordered them to refuse. Until then, the few people who knew about this procedure believed that S…, who had been seen during the campaign to remove even the paintings from the rooms where he was staying, [...]

Paintings, huh? Mhm...

was acting on his own behalf and compromising the Marshal. But Soult's coldness [from now on] towards my father was obvious. Lameth and Saint-Chamans were appointed captains and, although I was a more senior lieutenant than the latter, the request in my favour was cancelled.

Which is a blatant injustice that not even Nicole Gotteri can deny. She wonders if Soult may have been trying to gain money in order to put up his spy network in Vienna (a network that would indeed gather valuable information during the following year when 4th corps was stationed in Passau), as Napoleon sort of expected his marshals to pay for this sort of thing with the means they had. But even if there had been some justification for Soult’s and Saligny’s action and if they considered Petiet Senior’s refusal incorrect, taking it out on the son is plain mean. Period.

It’s all the more astonishing that Auguste Petiet would remain attached to Soult’s staff, and that, when he for a while ended up in Naples under the orders of Joseph Bonaparte (whom he very much liked, unlike his marshal 😁), he desperately tried to get back to him despite this injustice. I also feel like Petiet meticulously lists all instances when Soult treats him kindly or worries about him (like Soult embracing him on his return from Naples or showing concern over his wound at the battle of the Gebora). So apparently, despite this flagrant injustice, he still felt quite attached to him?

It would, however, not be the last injustice of this kind. Another would follow in Spain, but I’ll give that it’s own post.

[megan0013]

🌟 🌟 🌟

since i still haven't written more than half of the prologue for the hotel arcadia au and am just hoping to get something out before next halloween (the odds aren't great at this point), have some detailed background info on the hotel and its ghostly inhabitants (under the cut for descriptions of death/murder):

the hotel is built in the mid/late 1920's by the famed architectural team of merlin and morgana - both of whom are rumored to be members of an ancient cult that worshipped the arcane order and were maybe trying to bring them back

1930's: douxie and zoe are the 'bonnie and clyde' of southern california, both are killed in a shootout with police after a bank heist gone wrong. douxie dies on the front steps leading into the hotel, while zoe was able to drag herself into the lobby before succumbing to her injuries

1940's: strickler works with morgana in some roundabout financial way, but when he starts getting a little too cocky she invites him and another business partner, otto, to the hotel for an investor meeting. there's a disagreement between the two and otto, in a fit of rage, pushes strickler off the balcony in his room

1950's: blinky is the hotel manager who is in the wrong place at the wrong time and winds up getting killed during a robbery

1960's: toby is staying at the hotel with his nana, who reminds him to stay on the shallow end of the luxurious indoor swimming pool because he can't swim. unfortunately, he somehow winds up in the deep end

1970's: draal works as a bartender at the hotel, and is stabbed while trying to break up a fight. nomura, his girlfriend, returns to the hotel five years after his death, gets trashed, and forgets to put out her lit cigarette before falling asleep (she is also the granddaughter of strickler's best friend/business associate, so there's a connection there)

1980's: barbara and jim arrive at the hotel with james lake sr, an investment banker who's been stealing from clients and using the funds to support a gambling addiction that's all but bankrupted him. jim's throat is slit in his sleep, while barbara is attacked leaving the bathroom

1990's: claire trips on the hem of her dress as she's descending the ballroom stairs during one of her mother's campaign galas

(the hotel is shut down after that, but the building still need to feed)

2000's: steve and eli are way into the supernatural and decide to check out the creepy stories they've heard about the famed hotel. steve dies after peeing into the fountain outside, slipping on the concrete, and smashing his temple against the tip of a mischievous-looking cherub's bow and arrow. eli is electrocuted in the basement when he tries to turn on an old breaker

2016: detective scott has been obsessed with the hotel arcadia ever since his daughter's best friend (claire) died there, and decides to investigate for himself when an anonymous tip is sent detailed new evidence that may prove the mysterious deaths plaguing the hotel are more than what they seem

he checks in, but does he check out?

(seriously? does he? or does he become another casualty? i'm honestly not sure where that's heading yet)

also - bellroc is the little hellion that incites fury and rage (ie otto and jsl), skrael enjoys playing tricks on people (poor toby did not wander into that side of the pool willingly), and nari just tries to make their victims' transition into the afterlife as easy as possible

[gamebird]

About a month ago, I read 'Rich Dad, Poor Dad' based on a recommendation from a friend. It had some good points and bad ones.

Good points:

It is super important for me to have discussions with my kids about how to handle money, what their options are with the money I've given them, and what that means for standard of living, activities, etc.

It is very important in people's lives to have someone advising them about money, instead of just leaving them to fend for themselves and figure it out on their own.

If you already have money (like tens or hundreds of thousands of unencumbered cash), then there are a lot of relatively low risk, low labor means to put that money to work for you and generate income. It's a lot less tedious than, say, working for a living. But you have to have the money FIRST.

The various principles laid out in the book caused me to move my money around. Now instead of retiring in 4 years and leaving nothing to my kids in inheritance unless I died early, because I'd need everything to fund my retirement, I'm going to retire end of next year and leave millions, assuming I live that long. And if I don't, then there will still be a nest egg. Same standard of living for me either way.

Bad points:

Gotdamn does this guy undersell how hard it is to get your hands on enough money to start with to do this. It takes generations and he doesn't acknowledge that.

He also undersells the value and rarity of someone giving you good advice at every turn, feeding you opportunities, and picking you up when you fall ... and never victimizing or abusing you in the process.

He makes almost no mention of the severe adversities many people find in their lives, like chronic health problems, useless or abusive partners, addiction, expensive hobbies, terrible families, bad luck, accidents, legal problems, and the like. Some of these you have a little control over; a lot of them you don't; and even with barely controllable things like partners and family you don't know its bad until its already bad and its not exactly too late at that point, but it really sucks.

So anyway, I tried to get my kids to listen to the audiobook. No dice. I found it on YouTube for free. No doing. I bought the guy's Cashflow board game. Huzzah! They played it a couple times. This let us talk about things. (I mean, I'd already tried talking to them, but trying to discuss the relative merits of savings account vs t-bills vs etfs was not making much progress.)

We talked about:

What's a mortgage and why can't I just be homeless and not pay that

Why are my expenses so high

Why are children expensive

Why do I have to pay for a loan (I was surprised and shocked they only barely understood interest rates. My inability to communicate effectively about investments made sense now. I have failed as a parent. But I'm trying to fix it.) also: why is a credit score important

What the fuck why does this boat cost so damn much?!? (the boat is the most expensive piece of shit doodad you can get saddled with in the game; I talked to them about the dangers of expensive hobbies)

OH MY FUCKING GOD I ONLY MISSED ONE PAYCHECK AND I AM RUINED (because ... yeah. that's real)

What does 'yield' mean

What's a trading range

And a bunch of other things. I also talked to them about the things the game does not include, those things I mentioned earlier like accidents, addictions, lawsuits, and health problems, or the same happening to anyone you financially support or feel beholden to, like a partner or child or possibly parent. I talked to them about the mentality of 'my savings always gets wasted on emergencies so why bother having any', which is valid and real, as well as a rational reaction to a maddingly irrational situation.

An interesting thing about the game - there's no rule for or against giving money to each other. And it makes a huge difference in propelling someone from the rat race stage of the game where you're working for a living and into the cashflow part of the game where your money is working for you instead. In the two games we played, I ended up ahead early each time (half of this I credit to good decisions while my kids were making dumb ones, even after I told them they were dumb choices; half was probably luck). But each time once I had my position secured, I started giving wads of cash to them and it was remarkable how much that improved their situation.

Kind of like real life.

I also read Bullshit Jobs a couple weeks ago and it ends with a lovely piece about the social value of universal basic income. Which, yeah. We need to do that.

[trivalentlinks]

some leverage redemption negativity under cut (well not really negativity, just something about the way they based episodes on specific real-life people on the news that didn't work for me personally)

(also major spoilers for Season 6 Episode 13 of Elementary below cut)

So one thing that I didn't like about Leverage Redemption (which I've only partially watched) was that several times I felt like the antagonists were too similar to specific real life people, like Martin Shkreli in the Card Game Job or Elon Musk in Great Train Job)

I mean, Leverage antagonists were always based on real life villains, but they usually changed it up a little bit, or mish-mashed a few so you couldn't immediately figure out which real life person something was based on

(like the Jailhouse Job where in real life it was juvie,

or the CIA experiment (Experimental Job) where in real life it was the OSS (which later merged with the CIA) and the victims were poor college students on financial aid instead of homeless vets,

or the Double Blind Job, which was a mish-mash of different pharmaceutical scandals)

I can't really put a finger on why this overt similarity to real life situations bothers me so much.

At first, I thought it was because I like some escapism in my shows (unless I'm watching John Oliver or something like that) and don't like being reminded of specific real life current events,

But recently I've been watching Elementary (CBS) and there's an episode, Breathe (S6 E13) which is also clearly based on Martin Shkreli and that didn't bother me about Breathe at all. In fact, I quite liked that episode.

So to recap the Elementary episode:

The episode starts with Holmes and Watson investigating the death of a lawyer, Frisk. They quickly deduce that Frisk is actually a prolific and extremely competent hit man who was killed by one of his clients, over blackmail material he kept on his clients. (One file was stolen.)

After consulting with Frisk's assistant, they realize that the missing file is of the character based on Shkreli (whom I'll call Shkreli henceforth), where Shkreli had hired Frisk to kill someone who was about to create a better, cheaper treatment for cystic fibrosis (which Shkreli was price-gouging)

However, they later figure out that Shkreli never hired Frisk, nor did he kill him.

Instead Frisk realized that Shkreli had hired a different hitman to kill the researcher (using his hitman skills to see that the death wasn't an accident), tried to prove it and/or find the hitman Shkreli hired, failed, and committed suicide framing Shkreli (for both his murder and the hit); It turned out Frisk's son (with the aforementioned assistant) had cystic fibrosis and Frisk needed Shkreli to go down so that cystic fibrosis drugs would stop being price-gouged.

(Frisk's assistant (and baby mama) was in on the whole thing; Frisk was for unrelated reasons on the verge of getting caught as a hitman anyway, so he told her about his other job and they hatched the plan together.)

After deducing all this (and thus foiling Frisk's plan to take down Shkreli) Holmes and Watson manage to con the hitman Shkreli actually hired into turning on Shkreli, so Shkreli does go down for that hit, anyway.

(But Holmes and Watson's plan really used the fact that they have the police on their side, so it's not implied that it was better than Frisk's plan, they just had resources that Frisk didn't have.

Given the resources he had, Frisk and his partner's plan was brilliant, and the partner did an excellent job carrying her part, lying to the police and steering them towards Shkreli while pretending not to be Frisk's partner or know anything about his being a hitman etc.

And I loved that Frisk figured out that Shkreli had hired someone to kill the researcher when the pathologist or whoever examined the body didn't. I loved them coming up with this ambitious plan and going all in on it, I loved the son's mom playing the innocent assistant who couldn't believe her boss was secretly a hitman.

And I loved that Holmes was initially upset when he realized that he and Watson had foiled Frisk's plan to take down Shkreli, but then they come up with a way to make sure Shkreli goes down anyway.)

-

Anyway, comparing this to the Lev Red episode, I think what I really don't like about the Lev Red episode is that the actual victims of Shkreli's price-gouging had no part in taking Shkreli down

I mean, even in original Leverage, the clients almost never take part in the con (with a few exceptions like Boiler Room Job and Long Way Down Job),

but I guess when it's this close to a real life situation, it really bugs me when the actual victims are cast as helpless damsels

Anyway, I hadn't realized how much this specific aspect bothered me until I watched Breathe and realized that as long as the actual victims are portrayed as awesome and active in taking down the bad guys, I don't mind the similarity to real life as much as I thought I did

[bracketsoffear]

Solomon Reed/The Instrumentalist (Hello From the Hallowoods) "The music imagery is all there — the sound of his instruments in the distance brought fear to anyone who heard it. Although his violence was motivated — by his God and against ‘sin’ and all that — he saw most of the Hallowoods’ residents as his enemies, and often attacked unprovoked with little more warning than the music he conducted, and little care for who he was fighting (aside from his particular dislike of the Scoutpost) as long as he could turn them into an instrument. His had the ability to twist the ghosts of his victims to his will by tying them to an instrument, and forced them to enact his his senseless violence."

Oh Il-Nam/Player 001 (Squid Game) "He has run 33 sets of death matches in which he makes poor people kill each other for the chance to win enough money to escape their financial burdens and for the entertainment of the wealthy elite helping sponsor it. He has a cynical and nihilistic outlook on life, and so engineers people into a situation where they will kill for financial gain (and to ensure their own survival) to prove it. No one knows they're being put into a life-or-death situation when they first sign up, and they don't realise until the guns start in Red Light Green Light-- by which point they're locked in with their choices being succeed or die. He joins the 33rd game in order to feel some excitement before he dies, and one of the first images of him that went viral was of him beaming ear-to-ear and having an absolute whale of a time during Red Light Green Light while people were terrified and screaming and being gunned down around him. He doesn't blink once about the fact that the bloodshed and corpses around him are his design. He places a game which encourages teamwork (tug of war) right before a competitive pairs game (marbles) so that people decide to team up for the latter with people they trust and then are forced to either stab each other in the back (Sang-woo and Ali) or watch a loved one die and know they bear partial blame (the husband and wife pair). He calls to stop the nighttime riot, yes, but a very common interpretation of that is that it was consciously engineered to cull the participants and create a more hostile environment between players/encourage random attacks, and that that was simply the stop signal and not him actually being afraid or displeased. He even offers to allow Gi-hun to kill him if he loses a bet, subtly luring him towards murder and the Slaughter-- and arguably he was luring people to his patron the whole series since the players could vote to end the games at any time, but chose to stay and kill each other for the chance of the prize money. Even his recruitment method is violent (although not lethal): the Salesman is happy to take permission to slap players across the face in lieu of money when he wins the ddakji bet. Yes, Oh Il-Nam has reasons for creating the game, so arguably to his OWN thinking he isn't peddling "random" or "unmotivated" violence, but generals also have their reasons and plans and that doesn't stop the Piper's presence on the battlefield itself. The fear he creates in his victims is that they will die violently and unpredictably. The initial terror in Red Light Green Light is peak Slaughter, and the non-stop dread and anxiety is it perpetuating. From the wiki: "It is the fear of not knowing where, how, or when pain will come but that it will,"-- per the rules, the players are not allowed to know what the next game is (one player gets executed for taking foreknowledge as part of a deal), so no one knows what the next death trap is… but they know there is going to be another and another until there is no one else left."

[kamreadsandrecs]

Title: The Murder of Mr. Wickham (Mr. Darcy & Miss Tilney #1) Author: Claudia Gray Genre/s: historical, mystery Content/Trigger Warning/s: murder, sexual harassment (off-page) Summary (from author's website): The happily married Mr. Knightley and Emma are throwing a house party, bringing together distant relatives and new acquaintances—characters beloved by Jane Austen fans. Definitely not invited is Mr. Wickham, whose latest financial scheme has netted him an even broader array of enemies. As tempers flare and secrets are revealed, it’s clear that everyone would be happier if Mr. Wickham got his comeuppance. Yet they’re all shocked when Wickham turns up murdered—except, of course, for the killer hidden in their midst.

Nearly everyone at the house party is a suspect, so it falls to the party’s two youngest guests to solve the mystery: Juliet Tilney, the smart and resourceful daughter of Catherine and Henry, eager for adventure beyond Northanger Abbey; and Jonathan Darcy, the Darcys’ eldest son, whose adherence to propriety makes his father seem almost relaxed. In a tantalizing fusion of Austen and Christie, the unlikely pair must put aside their own poor first impressions and uncover the guilty party—before an innocent person is sentenced to hang.

Buy Here: https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-murder-of-mr-wickham-claudia-gray/17502444 Spoiler-Free Review: This was a recommendation from my good friend Hope, and BOY is it a DELIGHT. I had to do some quick Wiki catch-up on a lot of the characters because there were plenty of holes in my memory for what happened to all these characters, but once that was done it was easy to dive right in.

Now, it might seem strange to put these familiar characters in a murder mystery, but I think that's part of what makes this book so compelling. It's sort of the same logic behind some of the darkest, most tragic series getting a crapton of coffeeshop AU fanfics: you want to see these characters in a different setting completely, in many cases one that's tonally different from the original, while still trying to maintain much of who they are. In the case of this book, taking Austen's mostly-genteel characters and settings, and then making them the stage for a murder, has a similar appeal. Even more intriguing, one of those aforementioned beloved characters is probably the murderer, which just adds to the appeal in my opinion.

(I also gotta say that I am unsurprised that Wickham is the murder victim here. Honestly, couldn't have happened to a better person. /s)

While I think the mystery itself was pretty well-plotted, what I most enjoyed was how this novel continued the lives of Austen's characters beyond their respective happily-ever-afters, and did so in a way that shows that, while a wedding might signify the end of a story, it does not signify the end of lives being lived. Marriage isn’t an ending; it’s a beginning: a beginning of a new way of living, with new ways of thinking and being and living with another person - especially true for characters of the Regency period when a couple wouldn’t have really had a very good chance to settle in with each other until after the wedding. I liked how this book showed that just because the wedding’s over and everyone’s ridden off into the sunset, it doesn’t mean that their lives are perfect.

This is most clearly shown in the character dynamics presented in the story. While a lot of their interactions feel familiar (and therefore "authentic" to the characters Austen wrote), there's also a lot that does not, because these are people who have changed over the time they've been married to each other. Austen's characters have layers, but Gray has added more layers, made them more complex and nuanced, by showing how the couples play off each other now that they're married. I think it's that combination of the familiar and the new that really makes the character dynamics shine and makes this book a joy to read.

While reading about Austen's characters is definitely entertaining and one of the major charms of this book, there's also the two original characters: Jonathan Darcy (son of Fitzwilliam and Elizabeth) and Juliet Tilney (daughter of Henry and Catherine). They were truly the stars of this book, and that's saying something given the powerhouse cast. Juliet is sharp in a way that reminds me of Elizabeth, almost, but the way she melds that sharpness with compassion and competency are truly her own, and make her a true standout.

And then there's Jonathan. It becomes immediately clear to the reader that he is neurodivergent: possibly autistic, but I can't say for sure as I'm not an expert. It was interesting to read how that fit into Regency society's understanding of such things, and how Jonathan and his family, and eventually Juliet, adjusted to it and helped Jonathan with it. I don't think the Regency period could even describe or had a word for Jonathan's neurodivergency, but it was still good to see the author handle the topic well.

Overall, this is a Jane Austen pastiche that does more than just parrot Austen’s works by expanding on the boundaries set in place by the original books, breathing new life into the characters by using the murder mystery as a way to imagine new angles to their dynamics. The original characters fit in well, and indeed managed to hold their own against the more familiar cast. There were many ways this could have been handled poorly, but I'm glad that this is an instance of a concept being handled very, very well. Rating: five bloody handkerchiefs

[vcpphones2]

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