#FOR LEGAL REASONS THIS IS A JOKE. I AM NOT IN FACT SUPERIOR TO ANYONE ELSE IN RHINENATION | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

delusion-of-negation · 3 years

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top 10 (ish) ridiculous or annoying FAQs:

(click at your own discretion)

1) "kids today rely on others to do everything"

ah yes, damn those participation trophies! if it wasn't for them my hands wouldn't be fucked, and I wouldn't need people to write for me. but seriously, stop reading boomer comics, and go outside to meet some actual young people.

2) "sus that a non-american says mom"

yeah, because it's clearly the superior version, and I'm not too patriotic to concede a defeat.

3) "sweaty, the victims of abuse by catholics are real people, stop appropriating their pain just because you want to hate catholics; plus teachers abuse people just as often anyway"

so firstly, I don't hate anybody. and secondly, regarding the fact that victims really do exist, [insert "of course I know him, he's me" meme here]; although I don't often talk much about the abuse I went through or what my religious beliefs are. but, more importantly, statements like "survivors are people" can be phrased like "some people are survivors", and when you're unable to act according to the latter (like when you don't even consider that somebody might be one) then you display a failure to recognise the former - you're projecting; a survivor can't be appropriating their own pain, but you can be appropriating it to silence one. and thirdly, teachers do abuse - the problem isn't and has never been purely religion, rather that abuse is often done by somebody in a position of trust, power, and familiarity; and that the lack of a global minimum enables totally legal abuse on top of the illegal stuff. people with access and respect have more opportunity to abuse than those without, and that goes for teachers too. but, once again, you can be appropriating the pain of survivors to deflect and silence people. please remember this before you say that shit.

4) "get help/therapy"

way ahead of you - years ahead of you. but it's not magic - people who say this often act as if you'll start behaving differently overnight. not only are some things simply beyond the ability of talking therapy to completely rectify, it also takes time and has to be selective. you've got to pick your priorities, and that's definitely not whatever ship or joke you're mad at me about today. therapy is a slow, arduous process that can't guarantee results - it isn't "anti-recovery" to recognise that, it's honesty. while I've been in therapy for a long time, it is not necessarily going to change whatever you don't like about me - whether that's because it can't, because my focus now is on more important or urgent things, or because I don't want to change that.

5a) "tell your family you ship incest, see how that goes; normal people find it disgusting"

actually, some know, and they're fine with it. in fact, one prefers sibling pairings in fiction to all other dynamics because, to paraphrase, "it's a deeper level of messed up co-dependence". so unfortunately for you, my remaining family (by which I mean those not dead or cut out of my life after abuse and so forth) actually are able to distinguish between fiction and reality. plus, my reasoning for caring if they find it gross or not pertains only to recommending books and such - their opinions do not dictate my tastes.

5b) "don't sexualise/appropriate incestuous abuse" and "I bet you enjoyed being raped" and other attempts to upset me over 5a

firstly, as I've already said here, survivors can't be appropriating ourselves. in addition, you're not owed people's history or trauma - it's not okay to require people's personal information, or else you'll send anon hate and accusations of appropriation. secondly, I'm not sexualising our abuse (not just because I write horror, and so a lot of my writing is intended to be creepy, not sexy); these stories aren't about us, they're not us at all. entire dynamics/people (fictional or otherwise) aren't all going to be applicable to us or identical to us, just because they have something in common with us; they're not us and they're not accountable to us. thirdly, the fact that people send this stuff (attempting to trigger people's trauma over ships) is so much more worrying to me than somebody making our communal imaginary friends kiss. you're trying to hurt people. and finally, to the "I bet you enjoyed it" crowd (if you're at all serious): do you think you'd enjoy being in a real zombie apocalypse, alone, afraid, and really at risk of being eaten alive? a fictional scenario does not feel remotely the same as a real one. this isn't rocket science - things that look like you aren't you; fiction isn't reality; don't send anon hate. (edit: comparable "just leave me alone, I'm not hurting anyone" sentiments for yandere stuff, and anything else you decide I'm naughty for.)

6) "you'll be sent off to do manual labour once your communist revolution happens"

while I don't know why people think that I'm a communist, a dictatorial regime probably isn't going to want me to do manual labour. they're more likely to just shoot me; I'm useless and a liability. call me crazy, but something tells me that "ah yes, we shall give ze deranged cripple ze power tools" isn't the communist position.

7a) "they/them can't be singular pronouns"

yes they can, and they're used as such in both shakespeare and the bible. but you don't have to say this - I'm also okay with he/him, so you could've just used those and chilled out. also, do I look like somebody who views the rules of grammar as fully immutable and imperative?

7b) "enbies/aros/pan/etc aren't valid"

do you really think that you're going to change any hearts or minds by putting that in my ask box or under my funny maymays? chill out, it's not worth the effort - you could be planning a party (in minecraft) and having fun instead. it isn't worth my time to rant at everybody who's saying something isn't valid, updating how I'm explaining it as my opinions grow and general discourse around it evolves; I'm just who I am, somebody else is who they are - why bicker in presumptuous ways about if that's enough? it ultimately is valid, in my opinion, but that isn't an invitation to keep demanding that I debate. (edit: old posts of mine probably don't phrase things incredibly, on this or anything... I tried.)

8) "what are your politics?"

my politics are informed first and foremost by the knowledge that I'm not cut out to be some kind of leader - I don't want to be the guy who tells everyone else what to do, I just offer what seem to me like valid criticisms of how we are doing things now, and general pointers on the values and ethics that I would prefer to move towards. things like individual freedom, taking the most pacifist route where possible, trying not to give excessive power to small groups of people (governments or corporations), helping those in need even when they're not palatable, and letting me suck loads of dicks. but please refrain from decreeing me something - there's not enough information in what I said, so you'll just be filling in the blanks with assumptions. (edit: workplace democracy seems cool to me; benefits are good; fair fines and taxes; and the "sperm makes you loopy" saga: 1, 2, 3, and 4.)

9) "you're a narcissist"

no, I don't meet the diagnostic criteria. joking on the internet that you're hot doesn't make a person a narcissist. the fact that I've chosen to keep my actual self-esteem issues to myself is not proof that they don't exist - you're just not entitled to that information about me. but it's also not narcissism to really like how you look. (edit: don't throw labels around carelessly too.)

10a) "kin list?"

the fabric of the universe, a zombie, dionysus, maned wolf/arctic fox hybrid, a comedian, big gay, big rock, ambiguously partial insincerity. (edit: kin list may or may not be incomplete.)

10b) "kin isn't valid/that's just being insane"

haven't we established that I'm deranged, and that sending stuff like this on anon is simply a waste of your precious time? besides, I do not care if it's invalid or insane - it's fun, I'm happy. (edit: see 7b for my opinion on sending me yet another ask with "that's invalid" in it; I'm not in the mood to discuss the nature of validity.)

bonus: "it gets better" and "trigger list?"

as I've said before, things just don't always get better for everyone - sometimes things can't be cured or even treated, sometimes they kill you; in some cases it could get better if not for a blockade or lack of time. the world is messy. it needs to be more normalised to reassure or comfort people without relying on saying that their issue will get better or be cured. it does suck to be this ill, but it also sucks to be made out to be a lazy pessimist, just because I have the audacity to not play along. and as for the trigger list, I don't like providing people with an easily accessed list of ways to hurt my feelings or harm me - upsetting me is supposed to be challenging, and thus rewarding. if you want a cheat sheet then you're out of luck, I'm afraid.

bonus #2: "FAQ stands for frequently asked questions, it doesn't need that s at the end!"

yeah, I know, I just enjoy chaos and disarray.

bonus #3 (edit): "what are your disabilities and how exactly are they incurable and/or deadly?"

again, I don't tell the internet everything about me, especially when it poses a risk, especially not as an easily accessible list for you to refer back to whenever you feel inclined to hurt my feelings. that is understandably a sore subject. (edit: that includes physical health issues btw.)

bonus #4 (edit): "so we shouldn't be critical?"

if it wasn't clear from my answer about politics or my post in general, you can have opinions about things, and you can voice that. it's just not realistic to exist at extremes: to think that you alone should dictate what exists in fiction, or to think that people shouldn't be expressing disdain or criticism of any calibur. say how you feel about things, that's fine, but it's also fine if people find that they don't value your input. plus we're all flawed, we can all be hypocritical from time to time, we all get bitchy, and we all make mistakes, or even knowingly fuck things up. that's important to keep in mind, whether we're talking about the one being criticised or the one doing the criticising - poor choices of words, imperfect tone, or contradictory ideas are inevitably going to happen occasionally.

congrats on reaching the end! if you have, at any point, said one of these to me, you owe a hug to your nearest loved one (once it's safe).

edit: might add more links/bonus points in the future when I think of things, but it's late now. (sorry for links where prior notes in the thread have my old url, that may get a tad confusing; also, not all links are my blog or my op, since it is to illustrate points/vibes, not to self-promo.)

#don't take life too seriously #nobody gets out alive anyway #tw abuse mention #tw csa mention #tw incest mention #tw for any tws I missed #idk why I did this

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hellzyeahwebwielingessays · 4 years

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The Not-So-Amazing Mary Jane Part 22: MJ is seriously overestimating her abilities

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Over the last few instalments I’ve examined MJ’s skills, her experiences in crises and how she stacks up next to Spider-Man.

With all this context established we can now examine how well MJ can cope with the situation present in AMJ #1.

As a little refresher let me remind you that as of AMJ #1, Mary Jane found herself on a film set where a lot (the implication is most) of the crewmembers are former felons or current villains, all of who were under the employ of Mysterio.

She decided to go along with this on Mysterio’s word that he just wanted to fulfil his ambition of a biopic and give his crew a chance to do something good.

When Peter (who was totally in the dark about all this) proposed the hypothetical scenario of MJ being surrounded by villains she casually joked about the time she defeated a villain with a baseball bat. Peter dropped the subject after that.

The implication here is that Mary Jane can look after herself as evidenced by this (and other) prior experiences.

But now we’ve thoroughly gone over everything MJ is capable of and those experiences in question is she really in a position to look after her here?

If we are talking about just defending herself personally (with no assistance) then the answer would be…’probably not’.

And if we are talking about defending her self and others (which the comics never brought up at all) then the answer would be…’highly unlikely’.

In either case I can’t definitely say yes or no. And the reason for is because there are so many different variables that could come into play here. But that cuts right to the heart of the problem.

Between

Mysterio’s abilities and tech

The unknown number of enhanced people on the crew (whose powers are not specified)*

The unknown ratio of felons/villains/enhanced crew members to non-powered/non-criminal crew members

Filming at different locations, which we should presume they are doing as it’d be standard practice

However many journalists, onlookers and other civilians may or may not be observing the film crew

Whatever Beck and his crew might do in their downtime or whenever MJ isn’t around

there is any number of scenarios that can play out.

How much MJ can protect herself, others and private property (which could be someone’s livelihood) would depend heavily upon exactly what each scenario is.

This isn’t as simple as just Mysterio attacking her or the whole film crew turning on her. Even if it was there is any number of ways those scenarios could play out.

Beck could slip into her room whilst she is sleeping.

He could be talking calmly then abruptly pull a knife on her.

He could go off set somewhere then remotely attack her using his X-Men robots (those same ones who gave Spider-Man trouble in ASM Annual #1).

He could have the villains of the crew hold the non-powered members hostage.

One of them could simply go rogue and hold up a bank.

Several of them could get mad and go on a rampage whilst civilians are watching the filming.

And in each of those scenarios Mary Jane could resolve the crises with 0 damage done to life or property.

She might use and alarm system to alert her to Beck’s entry, then surprise him with a baseball bat or gun.

She could observe his body language closely then use basic self-defence skills to block the knife and disarm him.

She could stumble across Beck’s holographic tech and activate it, baffling the robots enough to escape.

She could use her psychology skills to talk the crewmembers into releasing the hostages.

She could simply knock out the crewmember holding up the bank because they happen to not posses enhanced strength or endurance

She could rally the endangered civilians with a megaphone towards a trailer then hit the gas to drive them to safety

But what if…

She didn’t have an alarm system or a baseball bat?

Beck was such a good actor he never gave away any ‘tells’ that MJ could detect so she was not ready for his attack?

She didn’t stumble across his tech or didn’t know how to make it work or if the robots weren’t affected by it anyway?

She misread the people with the hostages or if her negotiations failed in some way?

The bank robber had invulnerability and super speed?

There were too many civilians running in too many different directions for MJ to help all of them? Or if there was no megaphone, no trailer no gas or the villains were capable of catching up with them anyway?

All of the villains turn on MJ at once whilst she is surrounded?

Beck slips her a drug as he did Daredevil in ‘Guardian Devil’

Sends one of his robots to Aunt Anna’s home to kill her

He wires his suit for super strength as he did in ‘Guardian Devil'

He uses his illusion powers to disorientate MJ and beat her up, as he did to the super strong Spider-Man in their very first battle

Tricks her into thinking someone has died to make her emotionally vulnerable and potentially exploit information from her?

Fakes his death and escapes again

Switches himself out for a robot duplicate and goes on to sexually violate more teenaged girls and con the more seniors out of their life savings

Beck has superior psychology skills to Mary Jane and successfully gaslights her, causing emotional trauma

Uses his holograms to cause a riot that results in people being injured

Beck or any of the villains under his employ slip away during or after the filming and kill someone somehow…like perhaps some kid’s uncle...

Do you see how there are a billion things that can go wrong here?

Sure, there are always things that can go wrong in any potentially dangerous scenario. You could die of any number of things just in your house.

The difference here though is the chances are exponentially higher. A large group of criminals with physically dangerous powers evading the law often surrounded by groups of other people and being given access to a lot of money?

That’s a recipe for disaster even if nothing gets cooked!

There are discussions to be had about falsely accused people, those whose punishments were out of proportion for their crimes and the existence of criminal actions that should be legalized. But putting all that aside, there is a reason when criminals are assessed for parole.

There is a reason they are still required to check in with an official body after their release.

There is a reason sex criminals like paedophiles are put on a register.

There is even a reason many job applications at least ask if someone has a criminal record.

Whilst none of them guarantee anything, they all (in theory) minimize the risk of those criminals committing further crimes against people or property.

Let’s drop the idea of criminals altogether and use some analogies.

A surgeon cannot possibly guarantee the success of any operation. Even the most minimal of procedures carry some level of risk to the health of the patient. It’s impossible to mitigate that risk, but it is possible to prepare thoroughly to minimize it.

A fire fighter can’t be 100% certain of what might happen if they enter a burning building, though they still have to assess the danger as much as possible and then evaluate whether the risks to themselves, their colleagues or civilians is worth undertaking.

A soldier in a warzone does both. In theory a soldier should be as prepared as possible for an ensuing mission, but there is no guarantee of success. Their actions before and during a mission can depend upon their assessments of the situation as it unfolds. Sadly many people (soldiers and civilians on any side) have died unnecessarily due to poor preparation or bad decisions made without enough assessments of the consequences.

Now how about Spider-Man? Isn’t it true that he can never know exactly what will happen in any given crises he gets involved in? No he doesn’t, but the skills and experiences we talked about in parts 19-21 greatly minimize the risks and give him a far greater ability to potentially influence the outcome of a crisis.

What I am saying is that in Amazing Mary Jane MJ has not properly assessed the potential risks, she literally cannot assess them because there are far too many variables in play (or that could be in play, this is Mysterio after all). This combined with the limitations of her own skills means that she can’t o much to minimize the potential risks. Her abilities to influence the potential outcomes of any of the crises that might arise are not that great.

She is the equivalent of:

A surgeon just walking into the operating theatre with very little training, having a very general idea of what problem the patient has and not having familiarized themselves with the specifics of that patient.

A fire-fighter rushing into a burning building unaware of what type of fire they are dealing with, where it is, if there is anyone still inside and where they might be

A soldier going into battle unarmed and with just the basic knowledge of whom the opposing army is. Not how many men they have, not what they are armed with, not where they are likely to be. They are just relying on the fact they’ve survived other battles and defeated other opponents to see them through on whatever might arise now.

In short Mary Jane is being unforgivably stupid and irresponsible. Which is to say she is acting extremely out of character!

The only thing she DOES know is that she doesn’t know everything going on. She can’t possibly know if there is an ulterior motive, what Beck or the crew may or may not do. She can’t possibly be sure at all that she, her loved ones, innocent people or their livelihoods would be safe. But she can be sure that if they are going to be safe it would rely upon a Hell of a lot of things playing in her favour.

Basically MJ is banking on luck. She is banking upon being aware and present for a crises as it unfolds, that there will be resources available for her to use to resolve it, that she would even be aware of those resources and how to use them and that the crises would even be within her abilities to resolve in the first place. And most of all she’s banking on a criminals with a long history of deceit and repugnant behaviour to not be lying to her.

Those are ridiculously bad odds. They’d be bad odds even if it was Spider-Man in her place. He might possibly be safe from Beck trying to kill him as he sleeps, but he can’t be everywhere at once. He can’t necessarily crowd control every villain on set. He can’t keep tabs on all of them all the time.

The only practical things Spidey could do would be calling the authorities, the Avengers or use his powers (those things MJ totally lacks) to simply physically capture Beck and every criminal around. But allowing them to continue as they were on the belief that they definitely wouldn’t step out of line?

He would never and could never do that. And MJ would be the same because, as I established in part 9, MJ’s sense of morality and justice is very similar to (and very influenced by) Peter’s.

But just to put this aspect of my analysis to bed completely, next time I will more thoroughly examine whether Mary Jane really could beat Mysterio herself or not.

*Because Beck is using his own technology on the set and doesn’t seem to be using anyone else’s super powers in a particularly creative way one would imagine that the crew’s powers amount to just looking different and/or having enhanced strength to move stuff around.

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#Leah Williams #Amazing Mary Jane #mjwatsonedit #mary jane watson #Mary Jane Watson Parker #MJ Watson #Spider-Man #Peter Parker #Mysterio #Quentin Beck

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florrickandassociates · 4 years

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TGF Thoughts: 4x05-- The Gang Goes to War

under the cut

This episode starts with Caleb and I don’t totally hate it. This means the writers are doing a good job with him so far. I’m surprised I feel that way considering I loathe the plot he’s here for.

This is the first case heavy episode in ages and I have more thoughts on the fact that somehow the space from 6x19 has become military court than I do on the case. As always, that’s not to say it’s bad (tbh, this case was the exact right blend of simple and captivating it reminded me of old school TGW). It’s just to say I have literally nothing to add.

Lucca’s off to visit Bianca. She is still extremely uncomfortable with very wealthy people.

Oh, a mention of babysitting! Kind of sad I’m surprised.

I forgot to mention that this ep is on the shorter side, almost network length. Woo!

Lucca describes her life as “I have a toddler. I’m trying to make partner.” Remember how last season either Lucca or Rosalyn (or MAIA hhahahahhahahaahahhahaahahahhahahahaahahhaahhaah) were going to be made partner and that plot just vanished?

Lucca says that of work, family, fitness, friends, and sleep, the three she’s chosen are work, family, and sleep. I believe it. Though we’ve seen Lucca exercise probably more than most TGF characters? But that was before she had a baby.

If you leave your phone on while you’re on a plane and someone places a voice call would your phone actually ring?

Marissa TOTALLY has a crush on Caleb.

Oh, a Francesca mention AND a mention of Lucca and Marissa being friends?! The continuity fairy likes me today!!!!!!!!

Caleb threatens to quit (I think he knows he wouldn’t be taken up on that offer) unless Mr. Firth lets him take a month for this case. Come on, Caleb. This is TV lawyering. This case will take two costume changes and you know it! Months are a thing for real lawyers.

Diane and Adrian aren’t in their offices, so when Firth finds a partner to assist on the military case (I do not understand why this is a thing he is doing in the first place, but alright), it’s Liz. How conveniently awkward!

(Adrian just isn’t in this episode-- he is apparently at a conference in New York-- and Diane is barely in it, and I’m fine with that. LET LIZ AND LUCCA SHINE!)

(Liz and Lucca are my faves, if that wasn’t obvious.)

Awkward awkward awkward, fucking your boss is very awkward. I hate everything about this plot in theory and yet somehow like Liz, Caleb, and maybe even the idea of Liz and Caleb, but every time I think about the boss/employee dynamic my only thought is: NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Liz’s divorce! Continuity fairy has blessed me again!

I do really like Caleb.

I somehow almost turned that last thought into a rant about Maia and I’m not gonna do that to y’all in this Maia-free season.

Rich people are getting away with more shit in Julius’s court. He’s resigned to it, until he meets his alter-ego from the play again. I get that they want to use this device to show why he’d change his mind so suddenly but omfg please don’t remind me of the last episode.

My first thought was “maybe that long ass episode was even longer and this is a cut scene” but Julius seems to be wearing a different tie in this scene than he was before. Oof.

JUDGE KUHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Judge Kuhn. I think I said this last week but it isn’t often we get truly good, considered characters who want the best and actually take fair steps to see it happen. Judge Kuhn is great.

And so is the actress playing her. Her expression as the seat shrinks-- which is some Kingsian bullshit-- makes the joke work.

This episode relies a lot on that device Jane the Virgin loved where back to back scenes will be linked by a theme or a word. In this case, Julius and Liz/Caleb are both dealing with continuances. Yay for structure, even a simple case related structure!

“A sofa would have blown up here”... I can’t, y’all. “A conference table would have blown up here”. Is this a joke about coronavirus or a real need for more graphics or both? I lean towards it being a joke, but before I say that lemme play these credits side by side with last week’s…

Okay so there are differences. Last week there was an aerial view of a wine bottle exploding while this week there’s a second one in the background. They replaced an exploding coffee set with the sofa text. There are some other differences too. But not enough to convince me they didn’t have footage they could have used. So I think it’s a joke.

Welcome back, season two Diane. I missed you, ya weirdo!

(But like actually Diane is staring out the window at a bird, not doing anything or responding to questions. Why so weird?!)

Now that Diane isn’t hunting down answers on 618, she has “nothing to do.” Oh, suddenly no one in the world is in need of pro-bono assistance? Sure!

Continuity on the SWATting, too!

AND A WILL REFERENCE.This episode may be nothing special but it sure is endearing.

Diane explains that Judge Kuhn is tough but fair and Will ended up liking her. That’s a pretty good summary.

Diane spots the woman who she dreamed was Weinstein’s lawyer in a meeting, drawing dots. Guess that’s one of the drawbacks of having windows everywhere. She chases her up the stairs to STRL and asks if they know each other because, and I quote, “I had a dream and you were in it. You were Weinstein’s lawyer.” HOW FUCKING WEIRD ARE YOU TRYING TO BE, DIANE? Are you microdosing again?! (This feels so season two.)

Props to this lady (do we know her name? Has it been said on the show) for taking that weird-ass comment in stride and joking she probably didn’t do very well. She needs a favor-- she has a case in front of Judge Cain and wants Diane to sit with her.

Diane asks about the dots. Apparently this lady draws-- and counts!-- dots. Hundreds of thousands of them. During meetings. Because it’s calming and nothing matters. See?! Season two!

Lucca does get a little bit of work to do on vacation-- Bianca wants to buy the resort.

Case stuff happens.

Someone explain to me what the fuck this bright neon lighting in the office late at night is all about. Why is it so bright?! Why do the colors change!? Am I just supposed to accept this?! I suppose it’s no weirder than a woman who draws dots instead of taking notes-- and admits to it-- but WHAT IS HAPPENING?!

I know there is supposed to be some sort of parallel between the case having an element about disobeying your superior and the Liz/Caleb dynamic, but as you will recall, I hate everything about the boss/employee plot AND find it incredibly boring so if you would like to see analysis of that parallel… I’m not your gal.

Oh look I can see the office bathroom of Willicia sexytimes in Liz’s office

My god this lighting is distracting.

It sounds to me like Caleb is in the legal field for idealistic reasons. I can’t get a sense of if wanting the country to stay the same is liberal or conservative or admirable or misguided but it’s definitely something. (I have a feeling he means “stay the same” as in “return to 2016” though.)

Since she has not been in the military, Liz worries out loud that she hasn’t lived much of a life. This leads to flirting and intimacy and another hookup. Bleh.

Creeper from Kurt’s office comes to visit Julius and compliments him while basically telling him to keep quiet and be corrupt. He promises Julius the chance to move up the ladder and implies Julius should rule in favor of some rich donor.

Julius, who, like all characters on this show and maybe just people in general, does NOT like being told what to do, promptly does the opposite. And he feels really, really, really good about doing the right thing.

Case stuff happens.

Lucca now gets invited to play poker with a bunch of millionaires and celebrities. Lucca is highly uncomfortable. The names of the celebs are bleeped which is… not as clever as I think it was meant to be.

Also I’d be uncomfortable in this situation too. I’m just ready for this plotline to go somewhere beyond “Lucca is uncomfortable with rich people”.

Recapping goes fast when most of the show is case stuff.

In another throwback, Diane (lit by the weird lighting) is watching what looks like a parody of SNL allowing 45 to host? Or maybe it’s just some unfunny bit that goes on too long? Odd target for a parody at this point in time.

Whatever the point, it prompts Diane to start drawing dots of her own.

Lucca’s luck at the poker game is fantastic. Bianca encourages Lucca to keep her winnings-- she wouldn’t give back a stuffed animal or goldfish won with someone else’s money at a carnival, would she?

Case stuff, now involving 45, happens. This is a missing season two episode, I swear.

Wow lol those establishing shots and stock footage do NOT convince me that Lucca lives in Chicago. Nor do they convince me that anyone involved with the show has visited Chicago.

Case stuff happens!

Another Lucca and Marissa scene! Lucca asks what to do about her poker winnings. Marissa says Lucca should keep the money because Bianca doesn’t need it-- get Bianca a gift if she feels guilty.

Diane sits next to the seemingly nameless lawyer and they compare their dots. Unfortunately for Diane, the case she’s decided to sit in on as a favor? It’s another case in front of Julius, and it also gets 618’d. How convenient for the plot! When Julius doesn’t go for it, Diane is intrigued and reenergized. She boldly goes to Julius’s chambers to suggest trading info about 618.

No matter how many times I write “618” in the context of Memo 618 I still think 618 = Loser Edit.

Case stuff happens! It’s good for Caleb and Liz!

MALCOLM GETS MENTIONED BY NAME! CONTINUITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Caleb and Liz continue the tradition of using meals as code for sex and now I have to watch them kiss. Pass.

Lucca gets Bianca a gift of a goldfish and a giant stuffed bear (a reference to their earlier convo about carnivals). Cute, but I still don’t quite get where this plot is going.

There’s a “Skye and Moon” logo on the plane. I wonder if that is the name of Bianca’s cosmetics empire.

Oh, it’s over. This episode was perfectly fine. Nothing challenging, nothing innovative, but a solid and enjoyable outing closer in length to the average TGW ep than the average TGF one. After last week’s long-ass episode, this is really all I wanted/needed.

#tgfthoughts #the good fight

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redhead1533 · 5 years

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I’ll title this “Fragile White American Male Masculinity”

So if you didn't catch it somehow, I went to canada for the weekend, specifically a wonderful town called Guelph. I stayed with my lovely friend and other great friends from the toronto area joined us and I had one of the most amazing weekends of my life.

Now let me tell you how white American male privilege made that come crashing down.

(PREFACE: I would just like to point out that I acknowledge AND used my own white privilege in response to this event. I CANNOT imagine what it would have been like if I was a woman of color)

**CAUTION/TRIGGER WARNING** This story contains fragile masculinity, a form of "slut shaming", and my attempt to use my white privilege to make a positive impact.

After I crossed that beautiful bridge that is the pathway from the US to Canada through Detroit, and the opposite, I came to a grinding halt, and it took an hour for me to get to one of the booths containing an American border patrol officer.

Slight veering of the path, my entry into canada was efficient, polite and wonderful.

ANYWAY, I hand the man my passport and proceed to answer the typical line of questioning a white female (because this is all based off of my own travel experiences) receives. Then he proceeds to ask me to pop my trunk. I was a little shocked because I wasn't expecting it based off my experience of entering INTO Canada, but I figured it was routine and I knew I had nothing to be worried about. What I didn't expect was that the officer was going to spend about 3 minutes digging through my tiny, carry on size suitcase. What I didn't think about were the intimate personal items I brought with me.

(If that thought bothers you because of the subject, please move the hell along. it's 2019 and women can and will take care of themselves.)

The only reason I thought of them was because I heard the patrol officer call ACROSS THE GIANT OPEN GATE AREA AND IN FRONT OF PROBABLY CLOSE TO 100 CARS, " Hey Wayne, What was it you found last week?" and saw through my rearview mirror what looked like him showing the other officer something.

At this point not only was I extremely embarrassed, but I also enraged and extremely violated. This man, who is a stranger to me, has now had his hands on things that are extremely private to me, and has not only pointed it out, turned it into a joke, but showed them to another complete stranger and anyone in the vicinity who happened to be paying attention, which I'm sure was a few based on the simple fact of him YELLING to get the other man's attention.

They continued to say a few things back and forth that I couldn't hear due to the pounding in my ears from my extremely elevated heartbeat. I was leaning on my elbow with my face covered by my hand to mask not only my red face but the tears of rage in my eyes. He makes his way back to his seat, see's my reaction (because of course tears in a woman's eyes can only mean she's sad/upset) and my hand out for my passport, and reassures me "I work at border patrol. I see weird things all the time. You don't need to be embarrassed."

So lets recap for a second. -forever long wait -discovery of intimate belongings -joking of discovery with associate male coworker in view of, at least, more than 20 people -use of the word "weird" -telling me how I should/shouldn't feel

If I was not a white female natural born United States citizen, I probably would not have taken the following actions.

I looked the man straight in the eyes and said something alone the lines of... "I'm not embarrassed, I'm angry. I feel like I have been completely violated, the butt of your joke, and subjected to extremely unprofessional behavior. I don't appreciate nor deserve anything that just happened. May I please have my passport so that I can go home."

He looked like he was about to be angry, because HOW DARE someone call out unprofessional behavior and white AMERICAN male privilege at the US border (a bit of an exaggeration, I know, but I stand by that statement) but i was past the point of no return, and to be honest figured if I was going to get in trouble I might as well make it worth it.

I cut him off before he could say anything.

"I have every right to request to speak to your superior officer because I am 100% POSITIVE that you sharing my private legal personal effects with another officer, in public, and not only in a mocking manner but also an offensive one, is not a part of your required official duties, but I won't because looking around I notice every officer that I can see is male, which only leads me to assume your superior is also a man and would probably treat me in the same manner. I wouldn't be saying any of this if I were a minority, but I'm hoping the use of my white privilege will save someone else the shame, indiscretion, and complete mortification I currently feel. Maybe next time, you won't be an 'pardon my french' ass, and hopefully make some person's first experience with America so awful. May I please have my passport so that I can go home."

I fully expected to be told to pull off to the side and to get out of my car. What I got was a quickly, barely audible, "I'm sorry" and my passport slowly handed back to me.

As I drove away completely sobbing, I started on the overpass and a billboard caught my eye. It was simple yet the most powerful thing I could have possibly seen at that moment. It had a white background with black text. It read, VOTE on November 5th. I plan to, and I hope you do as well.

#I have no words nor energy left for tags

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purplesurveys · 5 years

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554

x1 Have you ever trespassed? No. The empty private lots here in the Philippines have very vocal threats for trespassers, so it’s just been kind of ingrained in my head that trespassing is a very very very bad thing that can lead to ugly consequences. x2 Would you care if your friends were into alcohol or drugs? Back when I hated the idea of drinking, I did judge them but this was only because my only knowledge it was from what I saw from my family. I don’t care if they drink now. I imagine still having an issue with friends who ended up using drugs, though. x3 What if it was your parents that were drinking|drugging excessively? I’d probably go see a therapist at that point. I don’t need Round 2 of Robyn’s Family Trauma. x4 Do you tell your parents where you are going? I have to. They find out everything; it’s pointless to lie. The biggest lie I can ever give them is telling them a different mall from where I actually am, but that’s only because I live in a super small metro and malls are several kilometers away from each other. x5 What is the first site you check when you get online, generally? Twitter or Facebook.

x6 How much time have you spent online today? Less than an hour. I just woke up awhile ago. x7 How can someone else make you feel bad? Insensitive jokes that are meant to be lighthearted and funny. x8 What makes you feel good? Reassurance. x9 Can you give a good back massage? Nope. x1o Do you enjoy getting massages? I’ve never had one. I don’t think I’d enjoy it, given how ticklish I am. x11 Did you ever mix up the words "message" & "massage"? I don’t. x12 Are there any other words you get mixed up? I don’t think so, no. I get names mixed up more often. x13 Are you good at creative writing assignments? Depends on what I have to write about, but generally, I’m not good with anything dubbed ‘creative.’ x14 Or would you rather just do an informative essay? YES please. x15 What does "freedom" mean to you? Not having to feel guilty about doing or being anything you want to do or be. Of course, blatantly criminal stuff like murdering don’t apply here, but you get what I mean. x16 If you could design a government to rule society, what traits would it have? Uncorrupt, obviously. I’ve never experienced being under a government where the officials are actually honest about their money and the money they use for work. x17 Do you agree with the notion that all people were created equal? Way way way way way back in the beginning? Yes. But people like slapping labels and superiority onto themselves and thinking that other societies needed to be ‘saved’ and that’s how inequality started. x18 Do you think women should hold open doors for men, too? I think PEOPLE should open doors for PEOPLE, damn. I never saw it as a gender thing. x19 Would you want a sensitive man? Why or why not? I don’t want a man. x2o Are you more attracted to the badasses, or the goody-goody types? Goody-goody. Badasses get in trouble and I don’t really like getting in trouble lmao x21 What class has given you the most trouble this year? Basic macroeconomics, and fucking fact-checking. This semester, it’s my newspaper layout class. x22 Do you raise your hand or participate in class? Very seldom. I’m not a big reciter, and I shine brighter when I do essays, take exams, or present a Powerpoint. I wish some teachers and profs understood that. x23 What is something BIG you want to do with your life? Travel. x24 Would you ever spend the night in a treehouse? If it wasn’t going to be itchy the whole night, yes. x25 What do you think of people who own wild animals? Uh, I hope they make sure what they’re doing is legal, I guess. x26 Make up a 'quote' based on your morals and beliefs? Meh. x27 If a book was written about your life, what would be in the summary? It’d be a book about a girl who tried to end her life at 12, ended up sticking around and having a semi-good, semi-bad time for the rest of her life. No regrets, but she’s still not completely satisfied. x28 Are you good at explaining things, in general? I hope I am. I don’t actually know. x29 If your friend had a drug-problem would you abandon them? If they pushed people away and if they were starting to affect me mentally, yes. x3o Has a friendship ever ended over similar reasons? Nope. x31 If your house burned down, where would you have to go? We could go back to my grandma’s house in the next village. I lived there until I was 10 and visit often, so it still feels like home to me. x32 Do you like visiting the mall? Why or why not? I love malls...partly because it’s the only kind of public space our government is committed to supporting, which is kind of sad. It’s also already been ingrained in the Filipino psyche, honestly – you bond with your loved ones, eat out, go to the arcades, go shopping, and study at the mall. x33 Do you like window shopping? Why or why not? Yesssssss, but for furniture more than clothes. It’s fun. x34 Have you ever purposely hurt an animal? No. x35 What do you think of girls who cheat? Guys? Infuriating. x36 Would you ever see a therapist? I think it’s the most responsible thing for me to do at the moment. I just don’t want to spend all that money for it. x37 What do you think of people that do? It’s good that they’re taking care of themselves. x38 Where would you go out to dinner for a big celebration? The buffet in Circles is always a go-to for me. x39 Who would you invite to your next B-day? Gabie. I don’t like big groups on my birthday, and I find myself enjoying the most when I’m with her. x4o Do you mind lending money to your friends? Yes, if they haven’t paid me back yet. x41 Does anyone mooch off of you? Is this annoying? No. I’d catch it if they were trying to so I’ll be finding ways for them to not do so lol. x42 What, to you, is the best part of traveling? New experiences and sensations. New things to remember. x43 Do you like to try new things? Why or why not? Yes. Again, new experiences. It’s always awesome to have a new story to tell. x44 If you lost your job|home &etc, who would likely help you? I honestly have no idea. x45 Does it bother you if someone talks bad about you? It depends on what they say or who it came from, but generally yes.

#survey #surveys

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tifs-against-terfs · 5 years

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I watched the 42 minute Projared video so you don’t have to (kinda)

Trigger warning for like. A lot of stuff. Very very long post so more under the cut

Alright. So basically, I’m not exactly well versed in the situation here. What I do know, is that famous gaming youtuber Projared allegedly cheated on his Wife Heidi with the ex-wife of Ross O’Donovan, Holly Conrad, as well as that he has been accused of being a pedophile, or at the very least, a person who took advantage of his power and fame and used to it get illicit pictures from people who were not his wife.

While I am not at ALL 100% versed in every little detail and nuance that this situation contains, I do know trademark manipulative behavior when I see it. So this is a post that will high light all that I could catch in my time watching his video.

This was gonna be a bulleted list but I feel it works better in a sort of essay format. Keep in mind, the majority of the times I quoted him were paraphrased or shortened to keep this already lengthy ass post shorter than it could be. Also, keep in mind that this is in no way an unbiased review. I didn’t like Jared before and I certainly don’t like him now, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you came to the wrong place. This took me over 4 hours. Enjoy.

Throughout the entirety of the video, Jared, like most manipulators, presents himself as both a victim and as the good guy of the story. Taking a sort of “misunderstood hero” approach to all of his arguments. This can be seen repeatedly. At one instance, near the beginning of the video he refers to the influx of call out posts and memes that were made about him as “harassment,” which is already an Olympic level stretch. He also refers to himself as “demonized and dehumanized.” This is a classic example of the self victimizing behavior and wording that Jared places oh so strategically throughout his video. There is a prime example of him painting himself as a hero when he mentions the statement that normal boots issued about his release. Jared claims that he was not fired, and that he in fact quit. He goes on to say that he did this because he saw his former coworkers losing followers and didn’t want them to be dragged down with him. I shouldn’t have to explain why this is a classic example of manipulating others in order to seem superior to your opposition. He ends the video with a short rant in which he, again, refers to people making memes, call out posts, and tweeting out clown emojis (I wish I was joking) as harassment.

Let’s move on to the way Jared presents his evidence. Jared consistently used ways of getting his point across that were either only vaguely related to the point he was attempting to make, or just simply sketchy, to say the least. Near the very beginning of the video, Jared attempts to claim that two different people tweeting out accusations, and later deleting them serves as legitimate evidence. While it is sketchy, and does make the two accusers look a bit unreliable (more on that in a moment) there are a multitude of other reasons they could’ve deleted the tweets, aside from them simply being liars, so this point is irrelevant. Not long after, Jared makes the claim, that “if both of us have a claim but no evidence, then it’s a simple case of my word against theirs.” And while that is correct, it doesn’t actually make his argument any better. He only did it to make himself look more reliable than the opposition, which was also the purpose of showing the deleted tweets. The reason these two things wouldn’t have mattered, is because he goes on to disprove both accusers claims anyway, so he had no point to mention the deleted tweets nor his “two unsupported claims against each other” argument besides to turn the audiences opinions of the situation in his favor. Touching more on the accusers, there were actually three of them. Only three that Jared mentions, at least, and shockingly, all three people can pretty easily be disproved with about an hour of research. Why would Jared choose these three people? Easy. He included their accusations and their accusations only because he wanted to paint the entire opposition as unreliable, untrustworthy, and frankly, as liars.

The way in which Jared paints his opposition as opposed to himself is his other main way of getting the viewer to sway to his side. One of the main things Jared does throughout the entire video, especially in the beginning, is he only refers to the opposition in ways that makes them seem untrustworthy. For example, only referring to things that people said about him as “accusations,” even after they are essentially proven as fact. Including still, after three months, claiming that he never actually cheated on Heidi, despite being disproved again and again and again. He also frequently brings up facts that are only vaguely relevant. About halfway through the video he states that one of his accuser’s evidence is invalid because she did not provide every single little screenshot of all the conversations that happened between them, which frankly, makes no sense. A person who is attempting to make a legitimate accusation against someone would not include every single little detail if they didn’t have to. Jared then quickly proves that this person left out evidence that Jared was unaware that this person was a minor. Again, this is a case of Jared including unnecessary details in order to make the opposition seem worse than he. Another example of this is when Jared mentions that The Game Grumps deleted every video that included him in it, and states that this is an example of the mob mentality of the opposition, which also only vaguely makes sense. There are, again, a multitude of other reasons why The Game Grumps could’ve deleted the videos, for example, to avoid any unnecessary attention that would come from being associated with a man who potentially cheated on his wife. Game grumps is a very large company and who knows how many people would have their careers ruined or heavily damaged if people found them guilty by association. Perhaps the biggest case of Jared misrepresenting his opposition is at the very end of the video, he mentions that, “of the countless drama channels that made videos about me, not one of them came to ask me about the situation or hear my side of the story.” While this may or may not be true, it’s not hard to see that Jared clearly presents everyone other than him as either unreliable, a harasser, or an attention seeking part of the “mob” which Jared frequently refers to it as. And while yes, technically, it WAS a mob of sorts, Jared was not treated any differently from any other celebrity or public figure that has had a scandal surrounding them revealed, and I don’t think Jared realizes that.

Aside from blatant lies, half-truths, and manipulation that is rampant throughout this video, there are countless other things that aren’t exactly morally correct, per se. I’m using near direct quotes in order to more accurately present the sheer moral, almost corruptness of Jared. The first two quotes in regards to him receiving sexually explicit pictures (despite having a wife) that caught my eye were as follows: “It doesn’t matter how neutral the intent was, being in this situation causes a power imbalance.” Shortly followed by “I feel like what I was doing was unhealthy, not predatory.” It doesn’t take much to see that these quotes show that A) he knows that what he was doing caused a very clear power imbalance between the two parties, and B) he doesn’t believe he’s necessarily a bad person for doing it. Whether Jared actually slept with Holly while still with his wife is up for debate, however, it is a fact that while married, he received sexually explicit pictures from women likely far younger than him and that he doesn’t believe that this is in any way predatory. As he mentions, being a public figure essentially gives you power over anyone you interact with online, especially in a sexual setting. Jared being a known influencer with lots of young fans who interacts with certain fans in a sexual manor and setting is morally gray enough. But to do that while in a legal committed relationship with someone else is beyond immoral. Another incredibly sketchy thing that Jared says is that in response to the argument “why don’t you ask for the women’s ID to see if they’re actually 18?” Jared replies, “It would be difficult and ineffective to do that. IDs can be easily faked and edited. It would also essentially doxx any woman that wants to send pictures.” Which yes. He is 100% correct in saying this. However, any moral person would, if unable to confirm if the pictures they’re receiving are from a minor or not, would simply not accept pictures. But we know that Jared isn’t a moral person. Any man that is remotely ok with even the possibility of the pictures he receives being from minors is not a morally conscious man.

In conclusion, Jared made his opposition out to be bullies, told lies and half truths to all his fans through this entire ordeal, manipulated his audience, was and CONTINUED to be at very best morally gray, and then STILL had the nerve to act like a victim when people tweeted clown emojis at him. I will never believe Jared in anything he says, and you shouldn’t either.

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pastaraa-blog · 6 years

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Even With The Enemy (Ch.2/?)

SUMMARY: A series of dead bodies turn up in Seoul and Inspector Min Yoongi is assigned to the case. The police are quick to assume that it’s a serial killer running loose but Yoongi has other ideas. There’s more to this case than meets the eye.

PAIRING: Kim Taehyung | V / Min Yoongi | Suga

!!WARNING for graphic depictions of violence!!

Also on AO3

CHAPTER 2 - JIMIN AND HANSUNG

Lee Jung In. 35 years old. His body was found in a back alley at 2 a.m. on Sunday. He had five stab wounds – one on each leg, one on each hand, and one on the chest, which directly pierced his heart and ultimately killed him.

Kim Byung Ho. 36 years old. His body was found floating on a river at 11 a.m. on Tuesday. He had multiple lacerations on his torso and back and exactly eight stab wounds, three of which hit major arteries and caused severe bleeding. He died from blood loss.

Kim Hyun Woo. 38 years old. His body was found in a ditch at 10 p.m. on Friday. His body had the most physical trauma among the three victims and showed clear signs of torture. All of his fingers had been broken and all of his nails had been removed. He had broken ribs, multiple lacerations and stab wounds, and a head injury likely caused by a blunt object. The cause of his death was a collapsed lung resulting from a stab wound on the chest.

All three bodies had traces of two chemical substances, one was designed to render the victims unconscious while the other one was a slow-acting poison that caused paralysis.

All three victims were members of the Baeksaja, a gang notorious for dealing in drug trafficking and the sex trade behind their ‘legal’ business of owning clubs in the red light district.

Yoongi closed the folder and leaned back in his chair. He looked at the clock on his wall and saw that it was half past midnight. He was probably the only one left at the station. He had been so absorbed in reading the file, he had lost track of time.

It had been a while since Yoongi came across a case as troublesome as this. All three victims were known gang members and undoubtedly had their share of enemies so narrowing it down was going to be difficult. The use of similar chemicals suggested that the crimes had been committed either by the same person or a group of people who had contact with each other. If it was a group, it could be the work of a rival gang like Yoongi guessed earlier, however, based on the reports, Yoongi was more inclined to think that the murders were committed by the same person.

According to the autopsy, several of the victims’ stab wounds were of near-identical sizes, indicating that at least one similar knife had been used on all three of them. Unless gangs were now giving out standard-issue knives to all their members, these near-identical stab wounds could mean that the knife used on all three victims may have been owned by one person.

A knock on the door interrupted Yoongi’s thoughts. He muttered a quick ‘come in’ and the door opened, revealing Namjoon.

“Hey, I’m planning to head out soon,” Namjoon said, “Are you going to stay here?”

Yoongi stretched his hands above his head and yawned. “Nah, I’m heading out with you.” He got up from his chair and gathered his things. “I’m done for tonight. This case you’ve given me has tired me out.”

“So I guess you’ve finished reading all of it?” Namjoon had the audacity to look apologetic after piling such a taxing case on Yoongi’s lap. “What do you think?”

“You couldn’t wait until tomorrow? I thought you said you were heading out.”

“Nothing comprehensive. Just your initial thoughts. I’d like to hear them while it’s fresh on your mind.”

Yoongi decided to give in. Denying Namjoon was difficult enough when he wasn’t bone weary. “I think our perp is just one person,” he said, “and this is more of a hunch right now but, judging by how the method of killing became bloodier and more gruesome with each victim, I think this was the work of someone with a personal vendetta. Either that or our perp is simply a sadistic bastard.”

“Hmm…” Namjoon nodded, “I thought the same thing, actually. Though you’re correct, it’s just a hunch right now, which is why I wanted you to take a look at the case. Hearing you say the same thing validates my initial assumptions.”

“As flattered as I am to hear that you value my opinion that much, my brain cells are pretty much dead right now. Can we save this conversation for later?” It was just as well that Namjoon and Yoongi had a friendly relationship. If this were anyone else, Yoongi would be receiving a stern reprimand for daring to talk to his superior officer in such a manner.

“Ah, sorry. I almost got carried away there. We should both get some rest. I have a feeling we’re going to have a long day tomorrow,” Namjoon stopped to look at his watch, “Or should I say, later today.”

“I couldn’t agree more.”

Dried leaves cracked under Jimin’s shoes as he trudged along the busy streets of Seoul. He tugged at his scarf and pulled his jacket tighter. It was nearing the end of October and the temperature had already dropped too much for his liking. Winter was going to be such a pain this year.

“Yo, Park Jimin!” A man on the street bellowed, catching the attention of bystanders. Jimin recognized the deep voice – would recognize it anywhere.

Jimin turned around to face the man. “Yo, Park Hansung! Don’t go shouting in the streets!”

The man, Hansung, gave Jimin a cheeky grin. “But you did too!”

“Yeah, but you started it!” Jimin replied, knowing full well that it made him sound like a child keeping up a stupid argument. He stopped walking and waited for Hansung to catch up to him. “What are you doing out this early? Doesn’t the shop open until later?” He asked once they were walking side by side, voice now down to an acceptable volume.

“Our vegetable delivery guy is out sick today so I’m supposed to pick up our supply from the market,” Hansung said through a yawn. He was cheerful like he usually was but now that Jimin was looking closely, it was apparent that he was tired.

“Didn’t get much sleep last night?” Jimin knew that Hansung worked multiple jobs to make ends meet but this was the first time he was seeing him this tired in the morning.

“You could say that. I haven’t had much time to sleep the past week.”

“You didn’t get another part-time job, did you?” Jimin asked, concern lacing his tone. “You can’t keep on pushing your body like that, Hansung-ah.”

“This coming from Park Jimin? The Park Jimin who stayed behind every day after training and pulled weekly all-nighters back when he was at the police academy? That Park Jimin?”

“That was a situation where only I could do something to improve my performance so I did it. This is different. If you’re short on money then you can always come to me. You don’t need to get another job. You work too much already.”

“I always say this but you’re too kind, Jimin.” Hansung gave Jimin a fond smile. “Thank you for offering but I can’t take your money.”

“Hansung, you don’t–”

“I’m doing fine on the money front, don’t worry. In fact, I didn’t get another job.” Hansung added a wink for good measure. “I was just caught up in things last week but I’m all good. I know how to pace myself.”

Jimin was still a bit skeptical – Hansung had a habit of making light of his problems so as not to worry others – but let the topic slide for the moment. “As long as you’re taking care of yourself…”

“I am, I promise. Buuut, enough about me! How about you? How was your first day at the station?”

Jimin swallowed the sigh that was his impulsive response to that question. That would only make Hansung worry. “It went well, actually. The Senior Inspector in charge of our station seems like a really nice guy and I met a Senior Officer who was very friendly and introduced me to everyone.” It wasn’t a lie. All of those things did happen on his first day and if Jimin chose to omit the part where his direct superior seemed to find him annoying and had been more than happy to foist him off onto other people as soon as possible, Hansung was none the wiser.

“That’s great! I’m happy that your first day went well. I remember you were worrying so much about your colleagues bullying you or something,” Hansung said with a teasing smirk, “I told you those stories were just made up to scare newbies and you didn’t believe me.”

“Hey, don’t make fun of me! Those things do happen! I’m just lucky I got assigned to a station with decent senior officers.” Senior Inspector Min seemed like he didn’t want to have anything to do with Jimin but he hadn’t been cruel. Gruff and aloof, maybe, but not cruel. Jimin should probably be thankful for that.

“Hmm, if you say so…” Hansung looked reasonably impressed, of what Jimin wasn’t quite sure. “But if anyone bullies you, just tell me and I’d go over there to give them a talking to!”

To anyone else, Hansung’s words probably sounded like a joke but Jimin knew that he was serious. “Hansung, I don’t think making a scene inside a police station is a good idea, but thanks for always having my back,” Jimin said. Hansung often had silly ideas but Jimin knew he always meant well.

Sharing a morning walk with his best friend was a balm for Jimin’s soul and he had arrived at the station in considerably high spirits. Unfortunately, not even the pleasant start to his morning was enough to shield him from the ominous air that greeted him when he stepped into Senior Inspector Min’s office.

In Senior Inspector Min’s hurry to get rid of him the day before, Jimin had forgotten to give the man a copy of his assignment papers. Jimin had thought it would be okay for him to drop by the Senior Inspector’s office early in the morning to hand the papers over but he hadn’t expected to walk into what appeared to be a very important meeting between Senior Inspector Min and Senior Inspector Kim. Judging by the clouded look on the two men’s faces, Jimin guessed that whatever it was they were talking about, it was a terrible situation that was way, way above Jimin’s pay grade.

“Were you eavesdropping?” That was Senior Inspector Min and he looked pissed. Granted, the man seemed to have a resting annoyed face but this time, Jimin could tell that he was really quite angry.

“N-no, sir.” Came Jimin’s quick denial. The last thing he wanted was for his superior officers to think that he was up to no good on his second day at work.

“Uh huh?” Senior Inspector Min didn’t look convinced. “So what, they don’t teach you how to knock at the academy?”

“Uhm, I – I was… ” Jimin felt like his heart was lodged in his throat. He contemplated the merits of telling Senior Inspector Min that he did knock before entering but the two senior inspectors seemed to have been too engrossed in their discussion to notice or to respond so Jimin decided to push the door just a little to see if there was anyone inside. It was just Jimin’s luck that Senior Inspector Kim opened the door at the same time so he had been dragged into the room without warning, effectively barging into the senior officers’ tense meeting. Jimin found the whole experience mortifying, really.

“Yoongi, please don’t scare him,” Senior Inspector Kim said and Jimin felt like he could kiss the man in gratitude. “Relax, Officer Park. I don’t believe that you were eavesdropping and I’m pretty sure forgetting to knock once in a while isn’t a punishable offense. I know I’m guilty of the same thing sometimes.”

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that Senior Inspector Kim was one of the nicest, most respectable guys Jimin had ever met in his entire life. Jimin was blessed to have been assigned to this man’s station.

“Thank you, sir!” Jimin bowed ninety degrees. “And I’m sorry for barging into your meeting, sir!”

“It’s fine. We were done here anyway. I’m leaving you two.” Senior Inspector Kim clapped Jimin’s shoulder on his way out. “Yoongi, don’t be too harsh on him.”

Jimin only rose from his bow when he heard the door click shut behind him. Senior Inspector Kim was very kind about the whole thing but now, Jimin was alone with Senior Inspector Min and without a buffer, he might very well be put through the wringer by his direct superior.

Senior Inspector Min sighed. To Jimin’s relief, the words from Senior Inspector Kim seemed to have mollified him. “I suppose I should have told you this yesterday but, Rule Number One – knock if you want to enter my office. If you don’t hear an answer, don’t come in. Are we clear?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Rule Number Two, don’t ever eavesdrop on any conversation happening inside this office. Or any office for that matter. Clearances exist for a reason and there are things you don’t need to know.”

“Yes, sir.” Jimin felt that particular scolding was underserved as he hadn’t been eavesdropping but he wasn’t about to talk back to his superior officer like that.

“And Rule Number Three.” Senior Inspector Min rose from his seat and walked towards Jimin. “Don’t be so fucking meek all the damn time. I don’t appreciate insubordination but I hate mindless obedience even more. There’s a fine line between the two, learn to thread it, otherwise, you’ll never survive this job. Do you understand?” It was probably only Jimin’s imagination but there seemed to be a hint of concern in Senior Inspector Min’s tone.

“Yes, sir. I understand.”

to be continued…

#fanfic #taegi #bts #taegi au #bts au #bts fanfic #ewte

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wow-very-emo-such-bands · 6 years

Text

Reason why i do not like K-Pop

I know already, as i am currently writing this, that no matter what, a lot of K-Pop fans, Saesengs and lovers of Kpop in general will critizes and hate me for this, and i will definitly lose a bunch of followers, whether they actually read this post or not.

But for those of you who decide to stay and hear me out, thanks alot.

Now first of all it‘s mostly cuz the music genre is simply not for me. By that I don‘t referr to the fact that the songs are in korean, so everyone who is about to call me a racist for not liking K-Pop songs, can sit down again. Cuz really i couldn‘t care less about in what language the songs are in. My problem isn‘t the language in which the lyrics are written, but their meaning once you translate them. Most of the lyrics are meaningless, bland and repetative. Most of the K-pop songs i’ve kinda enjoyed due to a catchy melody, every time i went to look up a translation on the internet it turned out that the song was always just about vanity, needing to be the best or it was a love song even cheesier than early Beatles songs, and the Beatles used the word love 613 times. So that’s saying quiet alot in my opinion. Basically K-pop is in that case identical to western pop songs: Whenyou‘ve heard one, you‘ve basically heard them all.

But in the end everyone is entitled to love the kind of music and lyrical nonsense they want to.

But anyway up to the second reason why I will most likely never get into K-Pop is the toxicity of the fandom. I know this has been discussed and talked about a million times by now that i am basically just beating a dead horse, and altho the major toxic part of the fandom is mearly a vocal minority, it‘s unfortunatly avocal minority equipped with megaphones.

From Shipping Wars and the infamous Fandom wars between EXO and BTS to straight up trying to murder an idol, the K-Pop fandom really had seen it all.

Because there is so much to material and incidents i could cover about this point, i will try to keep it only 6 examples in order to show you what I‘m saying.

The major reason’s and incidents about the EXO vs BTS Fandom War: •The Exo-L‘s (the EXO fanbase) tried to accuse BTS falsely of plagerism, crushing their success just because they were afraid that BTS would gain more popularity than EXO after the release of BTS‘s latest album and the EXO-L‘s even going as far as making the A.R.M.Y (the BTS fandom) look bad by creating fake A.R.M.Y accounts and behaving utterly obnoxious, to make the oublic believe every BTS fan behaves like a moron to say the very least. •Actual A.R.M.Y members sending hate, immature insults and even death treaths to people who like EXO or other K-Pop or even western Bands more than BTS, regardless of wether they said bad stuff against BTS or simply didn‘t enjoy the music cuz it wasn‘t their cup of tea.

the A.R.M.Y attacking the group Stray Kids (a K-Pop band that didn‘t even had it‘s debut at the time) and accusing of plagerism and trying to sabotage them for minor similarities in the trailer to one of their songs to BTS.

Saesang fans, harassing, stalking their idols to their home, one even stealing some of their urine from the toilet and trying to sell it on ebay, another one writing a letter to one of their idols with their menstruation blood and all around behaving like their idols/bias/oppa belongs to them. I experienced the latter one actually first hand with a Koreaboo friend of mine nearly beating another girl up for dearing to like "their bias“ and talking about how "she was totally going to marry him one day“. And i‘m unfortunatly not talking about the ones who say those things as a joke. Now i know that certain Stans of western bands harass their idols too, for example Brendon Urie from Panic! At the disco didn‘t feel safe anymore in his old house after dozen of fans stalked him in his own home, yet no bandom that i know about, has fans as obsessive as the K-Pop Saseng and Koreaboo fans

Anti-fans, now this is like the polar opposite of the Saesang and Koreboo fans. While the ones are so obsessed with an idol that they won‘t stop at anything to be near them, Anti-Fans hate a certain idol so much that they won‘t stop at anything to get rid of said idol. For example did those anti fans scream racisl slurrs at some K-Pop idols for example if they had chinese or japanese ancestors or if one of their parents wasn’t korean or asian. There was also an incident where a dozen of people signed a petition to force an idol into suicide, others even tried to straight up murder some Idols by putting dangerous poison in their food or planning on bringing shotguns and other weapons to their concerts in order to kill them with them, posting their plans on social media like twitter and getting cheered on and supported by other antis. Some of these so called Anti fans even cheered and had basically an online party after Kim Jong-Hyun, a member of SHINee, comitted suicide last year and made fun of both the idols himself and his fans

Cultural apropiation is unfortunatly quiet the problem in, mostly the wester part of the K-Pop fandom. People posting videos, pictures and text posts showing how they eat traditional Korean dishes like Kimshi or just simply eat noodles out of a bowl (sometimes still while using a fork) and than say how korean they are or how they brag about being able to speak fluent korean when they can mostly say 3 words. Most of those people are caucasian teenage girls who think from speaking a few words and knowing one or two things about korea, imidiatly makes them Asian and Korean when they still have the legal nationality of a western country and are caucasian. Your ethnicity is not something you can change like a hairstyle. It‘s part of your DNA and is unfortunatly a part of you that you are stuck with forever. Just like the Weaboos in the Anime comunity, Koreaboos are simply people who need to feel special and superior to others by behaving like they know more about korea than anyone else when in reality all their knowledge about Korea is based on cheesy K-Pop songs that a lot of times weren‘t even written by korean people, but more about that later

6. This one is more of a personal experience which is basically the reason why i don‘t ever want explore or even becom part of the K-Pop fandom. Basically i have this BTS fangirl in my Arts and Crafts Classes and one day while we were working on our projects, she started ralking to me and asked me random questions about K-Pop bands, both BTS and Bands that I have never even heard off. She asked stuff like : "Who is your bias? Don‘t you agree that Rapmonster looks so hot! Korean boys are way hotter than white boys! Why are you dating a white boy? Like I would never date a white guy. What do you think of this ship and that ship? Don‘t tell me you ship that other one???“ and i explained to her calmly that i‘m not a K-Pop fan and simply do not care for it, cuz it‘s not my cup of tea. Than she started going absolutly crazy, calling me a racist even tho i explained to her that my problem with K-Pop is the meaning of the lyrics and most of the melodies and rythms, not the fact that it‘s from Asia, but she refused to listen and started telling everyone in our class i was a homophobic (note: I am actually bisexual) racist and that i triggered her. And besides the obvious fact that triggering someone doesn‘t mean that you disagree with somebody else, i guess i don‘t have to do further explaination.

Thirdly ,and I know I will definitly get hate for this, K-Pop artists in my opinion got their fame basically like a present, they didn‘t work for it like other bands and artists have to. Most Western bands, like Twenty one Pilots, All Time Low and even the Beatles started off as nobodies. They started off as small garage bands, often with an audience of only a few people before getting discovered bypure chance and signed by a record label and even then they mostly had to work for their fame themselves. Twenty one pilots was signed to a record label in 2012, they had already produced 2 albums (Self titled and Regional at best) in Tyler‘s basement before that even happened and even after Fueled by Ramen signed them because they recognized their talent but didn‘t really push them much. It took until 2015 (the band exists since 2009) that they hit mainstream popularity with their Album Blurryface. Tyler Joseph, the front man of Twenty one pilots, wrote all the lyrics and melodies by himself for that album. The Beatles started off as the little unkown band, playing in the cave bar (a pub in liverpool) and had already written some of their most well known songs like she loves you and Roll over Beethoven at the time. They were about to give up on their dreams of ever becoming famous before Brian Eppstein discovered them after years of already having played in that Pub and signed them to their label. And even then it wasn’t the record itself ehich made the Beatles famous, but their talents and those world famous lyrics written by them once again on their owny K-Pop Idols do not have to work themselves up to the top through hard work and dedication with little to know knowledge about wether or not their dream will ever come trough. They simply go to an Agency which after 2 years of training, makes them famous. Though i can‘t say that most K-Pop idols are talentless when it comes to their voices and dance moves, it still doesn‘t change the fact that they get fame as a gift from their record labels while Idols from other countries (i‘m not just talking about western bands) have to climb the steps to the top themselves. K-Pop idols get put in an elevator by their record label which transports them to the top. And most of all K-Pop idols don‘t write any of the lyrics of their songs by themselves themselves, which in defence of the K-Pop Idols, isn‘t really their fault, yet still pretty unfair towards foreign bands in my opinion.

And my last and most of all biggest reason why i do not like and support K-Pop is because of the K-Pop industry.

I know the western music industry isn‘t made out of honey, rainbows and butterflies either but compared to what the K-Pop Industry does to its idols should be illegal since they basically take away all of the idols‘s human rights, treating them more as products which can be sold like Coca Cola, rather than actual human beings; Which is also why some people refer to the contract between an idol and its label to a "slavery contract“ because once that contract is signed, the label literally owns the idol. Let’s start with the minor examples to the bigger issues to begin with:

Most if not all K-Pop labels forbid their idols to fall in love with someone, so that the fans fantasies of being together with their Idols won‘t be crushed. There was even a case in which a female K-Pop idol had to shave off all of her hair and give a public apology for spending the night with her boyfriend.

Unlike idols in western countries, who, after becoming rather famous, earn like a million dollars and can live in a big luxerious mansion, K-pop idols usually only get a very little to basically no money from their record label, even members of some of the most successful K-Pop bands are as broke as a bunch of college students, their money often just being enough so the whole band can share one meal and the idols are also often forced by their record label to live together in small cramped appartments, as near to their record label as possible so that record label can control them even better. So just imagine for a moment having to live with up to 6 to 12 people in a small 1-3 room appartent after having spent all day working and training with said people. I guess i don‘t have to say that this could lead to severe stress, mental health problems and even tensions between the bandmembers.

The record label takes away all of the Idols individuality and creativity and the right to express themselves. Like mentioned before, the majority of K-Pop idols don‘t write their songs by themselves. And most of the time it‘s not even because of them having no ideas or being uninspired but instead it‘s once again the K-Pop industrie, forbidding it to them. So instead of letting the idols creat their own original music, most of their songs are being written by Martin Sandberg, mostly known as Max Martin, a swedish song writer who writes most of the modern Pop songs, both in korea and western countries, that we know today. He is the composer of Hit me baby one more time and i kissed a girl and so many more. And him also being one of the major writers for K-Pop songs just shows how and why just like for western pop music, the rule "once you‘ve heard one, you‘ve heard them all“ also applies to K-pop unfortunatly.

Anorexia and beauty surgery. The K-Pop industrie wants everything and really everything to be perfect about their products- i mean idols. So in most cases they highly recommand if not even force the idols to get a plastic surgery, often around the nose, and even undergoing the so called V-Line operation in order to obtain a face like an anime doll, by first breaking the jaw completly and then reassembling it and given the fact that the V-Line operation is a very risky procedure and usually is done in case that teethlines are misarebged and need to be corrected and not in order to become more beautiful. K-Pop idols are also forced to be as thin as possible, to the point where it‘s almost anorexic. Most of them eat only one meal a day or only eat raw food like fruits and vegetables in order to stay thin. Others like the boygroup TVXQ who the week before their debut, only consumed water and nothing else. So if anyone wants to tell me that the diets that the industry is forcing on their idols is healthy, than i have to tell them that they are just utterly dilusional and nothing else.

Some companies and labels even forbid their idols in their contract to see their friends and families for years, isolating and keeping them trapped almost enterily so the only people they can talk to are the people working for their label and the other members of their group.

Prostitution. Yes you’ve heard me right. The record labels literally force their idols to straight up prostitution. Luckily just like in Hollywood with the #Metoo movement, korean people start to do something against this problem in the K-Pop industrie, but it‘s unfortunatly still heavily present.

I mentioned before that before K-Pop stars even start their debut as a band they have to train for about 2 years, and even after their debut and even after becoming famous their record label forces them to train and practice every day. Now first this sound that wierd right? Cuz foreign idols have to do that too. But oh boy does the K-Pop industrie take this to a whole new level. Because of them K-Pop idols often have to train to the point where they literally faint from exhaustion. An average work day for K-Pop stars lasts +/- 20 hours each day. Many of them needed to be taken to the hospital from over exhaustion to the point where it‘s almost seen as normal. A K-Pop idol by the name of Crystall even is forced to work so hard and faints so often even on stage from exhaustion that it‘s becoe their trademark in a sick way.

Beside the long working hours, K-Pop idols are forced to perfection like machines. Thus once again back to my point that the industrie sees them as mere products that can be produced in mass, rather than treating them as humans. There are many cases of abuse from the trainers to the K-Pop idols they‘re teaching. If they get one note or one dance move wrong thdy are imidiatly hit and slapped, causing some of them to even break down crying.

So to wrap it all up i guess you could say that my biggest problem with K-pop is how the industrie and even the fans treat their idols (and other people too obviously) instead of the music itself. Because even though i do not care for K-Pop music i would have never done this post if it were for the songs alone because music tastes are different from person to person. But i simply will not support K-Pop until at the very least the K-Pop industrie starts to treat their idols like actual human beings, giving them the right to express themselves and do their own thing, because i am sure if it weren‘t for the fact that most K-Pop songs are written by the exact same dude and the idols could write them themselves, we would get awesome songs with beautiful lyrics and melodies.

Bibliographie:

https://youtu.be/ClVqqJ3Peuc

https://www.sbs.com.au/popasia/blog/2017/12/14/dark-side-k-pop-according-former-k-pop-idol

https://www.google.lu/amp/s/aminoapps.com/c/k-pop/amp/blog/the-real-dark-side-of-kpop/3VIB_ugQqkW484YnV1Y2gbrJDabz3o

https://youtu.be/URZ1-Pmi9JY

https://youtu.be/g_3a-w0JqIg

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/regional/2017/12/21/star-suicide-highlights-dark-side-of-the-kpop-dream/

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fantroll-purgatory · 6 years

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Capraa ??????

@persephoneanmystery

(I know we discussed this troll over IM but I am still filled with misery thinking about him. Get ready for some sadtroll times.)

I was prepared for him, I have already read him, and yet reading him again has filled me with new DESPAIR….

Universe: Beforus!

Name: Capraa ??????

“Capraa” is just “Capra” with an A tacked on. The goat, Capra aegagrus, was one of the first domesticated animals, linking to the Bronze affinity with animals and also his… unfortunate association with them. [Also a very… very minor reference to Dark Soul’s Capra Demon, of which I based a little visual inspiration off of] When asked for a surname he gives “Castan”, but that’s because he can no longer remember his own.

Age: Roughly 7 Sweeps

Theme/Story: Capraa is a troll who’s in so over his head that he’s drowned and floated back to the surface. Originally a bright, intelligent troll, and a master of animal behavior and study, his talents were taken advantage of by his superior, whom he blindly followed. She took all of his connections and spun them into something that played by her rules. She took his name, his memory, and any way of contacting the outside world. Now, he’s some kind of lusus-troll hybrid, and he can’t seem to tear himself away.

Strife Specibus: Clawkind, Hoofkind

Capraa was never much of a fighter in the first place, but after his transformations, he can’t really wield conventional weapons anyways, so he uses his new natural weapons to defend himself from training drones and angry mobs alike.

Don’t forget hornkind. That’s one of the main tools of the goat, after all.

Fetch Modus: Lycanthropy

Capraa originally had some other kind of Modus, but he doesn’t remember what it was. In fact, he has a hard time remember ANYTHING about what he had before having this one. His superior designed it and gave it to him as a gift. Each item has a lunar phase it starts in, and he can only pull them out when they’ve turned on the Full Moon. Too early or too late and, nothing.

Blood color: Bronze

Capraa is the definition of a Bronzeblood who craves stability. He craves it to the point where he’ll settle for a ground filled with glass as long as it doesn’t move. Back before everything fell atop of him, he was very much a classic Bronzeblood- he keeps little trinkets of his previous life all around him, but he cannot remember anymore what they mean, only that he must protect them with his life.

God… him surrounded by all these literal connections to the past that he quite literally is being Forced to deny because he can’t remember them… what a page of blood.

Symbol and meaning: Absolutely Ironic,

TAURCER, THE CHERISHED

Trolltag: [TT] tacitTherianthrope

“Tacit” is a word meaning “implied or unspoken” but is most often used in the phrase “tacit approval”, an ironic adjective for someone who’s been experimented on past the point of humanity. Perhaps obviously, “Therianthrope” is “someone who turns into an animal”, a catchall for all animal based shapeshifters. The connection is obvious. Crypha knew what she was doing.

Quirk: hrrrrrrrrrrrr…. It’s hard for Capra to communicate without vocalizing some kind of grrrr…. Growls or howls into his speech. When he gets ANGRY, he’ll BARK certain WORDS almost at random GRRRRRRR

This is so good… and I want to help him.

Special Abilities (if any): As the premier (and only surviving) experiment of Crypha’s into the nature of Lusus/Troll bonding, Capraa’s entire limbs have been replaced with those of his lusus. He possesses the claws and hooves of his former mammalian custodian. In addition, she took the horns from his lusus and grafted them onto his head, giving him two pairs of horns that weight down his head.

Capraa used to have a Bronze-related power to soothe even the most savage beasts, which he could channel through his voice. Now, even being in the same room as an animal or lusus causes them to go absolutely berserk, threatening to tear him to shreds if he draws closer. He hasn’t tried to weaponize this, mostly because it terrifies him,

In dubious terms of “ability”, Capraa’s been fitted with more of Crypha’s control spores than anyone else. Who even knows what they’re programmed to do, but will most likely kill him shortly after activating them.

Goddd I want to help him!! I want to make him happy.

Lusus: A odd wolf-goat hybrid that Capraa lovingly called “his favorite shepherd”, his lusus was murdered and experimented on, before being welded into and onto him in various horrific ways. Sometimes he thinks he can hear its voice in his pulse, warning him to run, run, run! The wolves have all fled this blasted land!

Listen to your lusus, Capraa. I love the idea that he gets a kind of Dream Jadequerelsprite protectiveness… Lesser, obviously, since the lusus is just a tiny little voice, but still… precedent!

Interests: Veterinary Science and Medicine, Animal Psychology, The Coevolution of Lusii and Trolls, Not Being A Disappointment, Really Rare Meat, New and Exciting Forms of Compartmentalization

Appearance: Capraa’s seen better days. His eyes are starting to turn into… something else. He doesn’t have a mirror to check, but he can feel them start to be uncomfortable in his skull. His hair has been shaved, giving his dead, faraway eyes some context. The four horns on his head affect his posture, causing him to lower his head at all times. He hides the limbs that are now his own but should not be beneath a giant, white hospital gown that is his uniform. The Sign of the Cherished -a symbol he cannot remember- hangs painted on a piece of wood hung loosely around his neck, as much a punishment as it is a identity.

Since he’s got some lusus in him and the capra demon has a white head, I might put some patches of white starting to form on him as well… We’ll see. He’s going to be great fun to sprite.

Personality: Capraa’s never been the type to deal with other people well. He makes awkward jokes, he doesn’t remember birthdays, he’s a hellspawn created by mad science. Even before all the trauma, Capraa had always preferred animals to people. He desperately wants friends, but animals always seemed to respond better to him. Less fiddly bits to get in the way of his raw friendliness. He’s always been a bit of a space-case, able to put disparate thoughts together in ways that didn’t make sense at first but suddenly jump out as obvious once he voices them. A genuine prodigy in his field, he’s always found it hard to communicate what he understands in ways that other people find reasonable or manageable. He’s always worked on what feels right as opposed to what is good protocol or what is legal and safe, so while he was good at what he did, nobody ever wanted to rely on him for it. Now, nobody can rely on him now.

He has a bad habit of being timid to a fault, and he doesn’t like loud noises or people getting angry, so he’s always apologizing for something. He tends to gravitate towards people with stronger personalities than him, subconsciously seeking a kind of confidence he doesn’t have. All this ever gets him is another set of insecurities.

My boy you were so set up for pain and you got the Worst imaginable dose of it.

Title: Page of Blood

Active Classes That Remain: Maid, Witch, Thief,

Passive Classes That Remain: Sylph, Page

Capraa’s a long suffering Blood player who’s had all the energy he had to make bonds absolutely obliterated. He clings to the rules presented to him under the delusion that this will make the people above him happy, and therefore will make them like him, and be his friend and equal. This will not happen. Capraa’s the kind of person to overburden himself in order to take the burden off of others- even if that burden he believes he is taking is imaginary, a kind of Breath inversion.

As a Page, Capraa just kind of… sucks at all of this. He’s unreliable, he doesn’t understand social cues very well, and he ends up having people with related Aspects go on and exploit his right out from under him! Pages end up often being the playthings of people they think are their friends, and Capraa is no exception. [In fact, he’s quite like another Bronze Page with a Cerulean troll above him….]

Perhaps some time in the future he could grow a backbone, learn some social skills, and actually use that animal magnetism for something productive for once. That, of course, would involve him being able to not scare anyone and anything just by existing, but… details.

I’m sure once he gets grounded in his session he can get himself better established and create a better web of connections… I like the idea of him advancing and developing as a page and when he finally god tiers just. Fucking Crypha up. I know we’ve discussed it, but… him exploiting his bond with Crypha in order to fool her. She’s so used to him being submissive that he just has to act the part and then take a stab at her. But also him forging new friendships with others and then passively using those bonds to give himself confidence to stand up for himself and take back control of his life…

Land: The Land of Rose Quartz and Mazes

Capraa’s hooves click as they land on a land of bleached stone. At the surface, there is nothing but the baking sun. Before him lies a crack in the rock that leads further down into darkness. He looks around, but there is nobody to tell him to move on. The sun beating down on him eventually becomes unbearable and he reluctantly moves, hoof in front of the other, down into the cool darkness of the earth.

Capraa’s land is one gigantic, planet sized maze. Dead ends hold cities filled with disparate factions, all looking to discover the secrets held at the maze’s center:The Denizen and its horde. It’s not going to be easy, and it’s going to take every ounce of diplomacy he can squeeze out of his personality to make it there, but he thinks -just maybe- he could do it.

The eyes of a beast were made for the dark, after all.

Your planets are always so gooood.

Dream Planet: Prospit

Capraa is a quintessential Prospit dreamer- he was energetic, emotional, and perceptive, and knew how to conform and adapt to conflicting rulesets without missing a beat. It was these traits that led him to being taken advantage of, but they are also the traits that have kept him alive. He is the perfect Igor, the perfect Henchman. If Master wills it to be so, Capraa can contort himself into whatever they demand.

Design:

Oh man, I had to play some troll anatomy jenga here. I lowered the head to emphasize the arch of the back just enough to make things look uncomfortable and slouched while also extending the body to make up for the lost length… Hope it worked, haha.

Horns: Obviously I based them on his sign and then on the wild goat’s horns.

Eyes: I tilted them and made them sharp like wolf eyes, but gave the eyes goat-like pupils. I also had the white areas I mentioned extend upwards to the head, trying to just vaguely reference the headshape of the capra demon.

Mouth: I gave him both some underbite teeth and some overbite teeth, because I wanted both wolf and goat elements in there.

Outfit: I just wanted his outfit to be relatively plain and simple, so I kept the design elements to a minimum, but I Did put some vague wood hints on the sign.

Legs: I’ve gotta admit, I referenced Aurthour here.

GOD I love this poor, unfortunate man…

-CD

#persephoneanmystery #capraa #brownblood #review #redesign #cd review #submission

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tara-l-blackmore · 6 years

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Drugs

You know, I try not to take things too personally. It's one of my biggest flaws: I believe everything bad said and done to me is my fault.

This is no different for my chronic pain and depression. I deeply feel that it's my fault, that I somehow fucked up enough to ruin my own life.

So I struggle a lot with it.

I also struggle more with the fact that I have to take strong, controversial medicines in order to stay alive, be it physically or mentally.

Nothing about my medications is a joke to me. They were chosen by doctors, myriads of doctors, in order to keep me as comfortable as possible while I live the rest of my short, miserably pointless life.

None have been perfect. Even if I'm morphined up to my eyeballs, I'm never without pain. Ever.

So, in desperation, I went to my last resort: marijuana.

I grew up being told what all kids are told: pot is bad. Pot is very bad. It coats your brain, kills your braincells, affects your mental facilities, and often renders you immobile. I was told it's a dangerous gateway drug to harder stuff, and that to use it would only make things worse, and my life hell.

Honestly? I still agree with much of that propaganda. Pot does all of those things, and even more I can't think of (you can still get lung cancer from smoking pot, dudes). It can be a very dangerous drug.

But I was and am fucking desperate. When I struggled with making that decision, I spent a whole day just angry, ashamed, and crying. I hated myself, hated that I had to resort to such a drug for help, and hated that I was running out of options.

I was - am - ashamed to be on it, and that I have to use it, daily, to cope.

It was not a decision I came upon lightly.

Many people, when I tell them, are judgemental. I'm always asked, "Did you not try real drugs, first?" As if my first choice was pot, or that I'm breaking the law to get hazed up, and that it has nothing to do with pain or depression. (Pot will be legal here in July, FYI.)

They never say things like this when they see me smoke a cigarette, either.

People assume I am a junkie.

As fucking usual.

Again, this came up yesterday. I explained what pot helps me with: pain, suicidal ideation, panic and fear, insomnia... I explained how, yes, I hated it a great deal for many reasons, but at least it worked.

And I was told I was carelessly self-medicating, as well as sarcastically told that "You could've tried actual medication" (I'm paraphrasing).

I lost it, okay?

This was merely a day after spending 24 hours writhing and sobbing in agony because nothing was working, which ended up putting me in the ER for a few hours and discharged with no answers.

I was already hurt and upset. I was already ashamed of what had happened. I was still raw, still suicidal, still depressed.

So I lost my temper. I flipped out. I sarcastically said something like, "Wow, I never even thought of that" before absolutely losing my shit. I explained that this wasn't a fucking joke, that yes, High Tara is fucking funny, but only because seeing it that way makes me feel less like a shameful loser. I explained further that I've spent eight fucking years trying every single dogsdamned medication I could be given, and that pot has given me relief that only stupidly high doses of morphine can give me. And then I bitch-quit and sobbed for another hour, ashamed and hurt.

You don't fucking know a person's story. And yet, even when you do, you still have the fucking nerve to belittle and shame a person for doing something you personally do not agree with.

And in turn you made a grown-ass woman feel as small as an ant, one you then crushed under your heel.

Does that make you feel good, knowing you have done that? To all of you who judge me for my pot use, enough to hurt me for it, does it make you happy? Does it get you off? Do you feel proud of yourself for sticking to your own decisions and viewpoints and in turn making the one you're judging want to fucking die? When I specifically was putting myself in that situation to try and have fun, to forget for a few hours that I'm a garbage human?

What purpose does it serve you, any of you, who judge this way, and not just me, but others like me? You clearly are not interested in listening to them or helping them. You clearly just want to make it clear that you feel that I am a junkie, and that you are not - and thus superior and proud about it.

Why? Why the fuck are you like that? What do you think gives you that fucking right?

Nothing does. Nothing at all.

I'm not taking pot to fool around, to get high. I do get high from it, but that's not why I'm on it. I take it so that I feel more alive, because when I'm in pain, I feel dead.

It cheers me up and dulls my pain. It helps me sleep and keeps my daily nightmare count low. I can go out, socialise, see my fucking family, without sobbing halfway through and needing to ditch halfway into it, lest I end up in the ER.

But no.

It's pot! Fuck me for being on it! Shame on me for feeling happy and better while on it! Fuck me if I want to die, right? It's better to just let it happen, get it over with, instead of resorting to marijuana, right? I at least won't be in pain anymore, right?

Right?

Guess what.

Wrong.

You know what? If you have a fucking problem with me taking pot medicinally, unfollow me right fucking now. Then tell me you are, so I can fucking block your ass. I refuse to let anyone make me feel this way. I do it enough for myself, already. Nothing you say changes that. I don't need to hear it from people I thought were my friends, either.

I deserve a lot of bad things, but I know I don't deserve this.

So, yeah. If this is you, if you can't see past the drug despite what it does for me, fucking leave. Just leave. And then get ready to be blocked.

I don't need that in my short life. At all or ever.

Also?

Fuck you.

#omoni gets personal #adventures with pot #fuck you #health

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philippmichelreichold · 5 years

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On the Marching Morons by Cyril M. Kornbluth #scifi #review

On the Marching Morons by Cyril M. Kornbluth

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The Marching Morons is a story about the way the unthinkable can become the imminently practical. An Amazon reviewer called this story Swiftian Satire, and according to Cyril Kornbluth’s Postwar Dystopias By Benjamin Ivry, "The literary agent Virginia Kidd called Kornbluth a 'strict Jewish moralist'” The story may be regarded as a descent into Fascist despotism by way of desperate situations requiring desperate solutions. It is predicated on the notion that the mentally inadequate propagate more rapidly than the mentally superior, with the result that humanity grows stupider with each passing generation. In the story, the vast majority of humanity are morons.(Kornbluth cleverly refers to them as genus "Homo" while leaving of the "sapiens" Over the centuries since our time, the bulk of humanity have grown steadily stupider. They are supported by a tiny group of "super normals" who somehow feel obligated to see to their care and maintenance. A basis for the notion is that most human civilizations protect and shelter the weaker members, (Sparta being an exception that leaps spear-point first to mind.) which is unlike most animals in which survival of the fittest comes into play. (As good a point as any to mention "The Summer Sweet, the Winter Mild, by Micahel G. Coney.) Accept that premise for what it's worth while bearing in mind that one of the hallmarks of satire is a preposterous position taken as a given. The tiny group of supernormal caretakers despise and resent the need to care for their charges. The elite are in a quandary-- the numbers of morons increase and increase, with no easy way to curb population growth. Birth control via hormones was unknown at the time of the story's writing, and the Blaine Institute's solution to the Motie Population Problem (The Gripping Hand) as yet unwritten. The caretakers are presented with three equally unattractive options. Like the doo-dah man, they can keep on truckin'. They can apply the principle of benign neglect, and let natural selection come into play while they tend their own gardens and labs in Antarctica. The final solution would be The Final Solution, the Hoof and Mouth Disease Cure-- genocide on a planetary scale. They are too squeamish for options two and three and to weary of option one. Though they are no closer to committing to a course of action than any previous generation, they despise the people of our time for leaving this mess to them. Enter a salesman of our time, Honest John Barlow. He has traveled time, not in a great magnetic field, but in a chemically-electrically induced state of suspended animation. This man would have been viewed as an unprincipled opportunist in our time, and is lacking any sort of conscience at all. In so many ways he is far worse and yet the same as his hosts. Pragmatism and self-aggrandizement are the watch-words of his soul. He gives them their final solution for a price-- he is to be world dictator, no reward they can think of too grand or ostentatious. (Again, despicable characters are a hallmark of satire.) They give him his throne, oh yes! But what is a dictator without subjects? So the terminal phase of the population problem solution is-- you guessed it-- to send him where they sent his subjects, where he'll be no trouble at all. Indeed, they quail at genocide themselves, let another to do their deed, and dispose of him fittingly. They, for all their superior intellect, are incapable of coming up with his eloquent solution, and they have no compunction at all against providing him with a reward he (and they?) richly deserves. Let the reader make of it what he will. Setting aside the satire, the story can be seen as presaging the current world of decreasing academic achievement, decreasing attention spans and overall increase in terminal stupidity. Part of this is blamed on the Internet and computers. (Amateur bloggers and journalists are part of this overall decline in our civilization.) Technology destroying civilization is an idea that goes back to the Phaedrus. James Patrick Kelly compares the Phaedrus comment about writing making society dumber to the current effect on the Internet. We look more erudite than we are, but are really hollow shells and tedious company. An example of this would be the Cooks Source scandal. The editors and writers of Cooks Source Magazine may not have been as bright and shining as one would have thought reading the magazine/FaceBook page. In fact, in her second "statement" on the magazine's web page, editor Judith Griggs says, "Instead of picking up one of the multitude of books sent to me and typing it, I got lazy and went to the www and "found" something. Bleary-eyed I didnt (sic) notice it was copy written and reordered some of it." The obvious question is, "how frequent a process was this for her/is this for others." (She also didn't notice the need for an apostrophe. Inside joke for anyone following the saga on Face Book.)I suppose the Cook Source scandal is also a story about the way the unthinkable can become the imminently practical. A closer to home example-- I nearly misspelt "intelligent," but my spell checker stopped me. Kelly goes on to say that computer use remodels our brains. Am I dumber 'cause I now have a spellchecker? How could I tell? Kelly concludes with, "This is your brain. This is your brain on Facebook. Any questions?"

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hindsight222 · 5 years

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Worship begins in respect.

I feel that the definition of worship has a become lost on the masses. Worship is not blindly following and agreeing with someone or something, humiliating yourself or others, or harming yourself or others. Worship does not require you to go broke. Worship, at its very root, is respect. When ancient man saw the moon and the sun, they worshiped them as gods for they gave both light in darkness and sunshine to grow food. Ancient man regarded all things that added to their existence with some sort of great respect. (When I say “ancient man,” I mean all ancient cultures that predate modern religion around the world). There was respect of love, fertility, lightning, rain, crops and even war. Nowadays I think that our curiosity as an ever-evolving species, has strayed us away from respect. Why worship the moon? Why not study it? Question it? Understand it? Land on it. Claim it as our own. Colonize it. Our healthy curiosity causes us to smudge the line of respect. We don’t need to worship rain anymore, of course, however, in shifting our worship to curiosity of all things, we have caused harm to so many things that we once respected a lot more. Our earth should be the MOST respected — we live on it! Our oxygen should be highly regarded as important — we breathe it! Unfortunately, us humans have done a considerable amount of damage to our world, our oceans, our air quality. The damage does not just affect us, but every other living creature that has to live on this planet with us. Even if you take the spirituality out of worship, look at how much respect and reverence still remains. I’m having restraint and compassion for whatever we set our curiosity on, we can still have respect for life. Respecting & Worshiping Others. When a man opens the door for a woman, he is not worshiping her, he is respecting her femininity. Her returned gratefulness is her respecting his masculinity, and also knowing that he didn’t have to do that. I don’t know how others were raised, but I grew up knowing that no one uses foul language around my grandmothers and grand-aunties, no matter how “grown” you were. That was simply not done. You respected them as elders of the family, as Mothers, as queens that love you with all of the positivity in their heart, so you left that foolishness outside. When a pastor walks up to the pulpit and you stand up in church, you’re not worshiping the pastor, you are respecting the fact that this is the person that is going to attempt to deliver some love and positivity to the whole room, to try to relieve someone’s anxiety and pain the best way they know how. That is honorable. That is something to be respected. When the judge walks in the courtroom and you stand up, you’re not worshiping this judge, you’re not bowing to “massa;” you’re respecting the person that has put in enough years of interpretation of the legal system, that s/he is now able to deliver sentences, fines and essentially effect your freedoms. You and your freedom absolutely should respected in return at all times. We know our legal system does not always do a good job at this.. which trickles down to general distaste and disrespect for the “justice system” from those that it oppresses, but I digress. When a bride stands at the back of the church and everyone stands up, that is respecting the union that is about to happen. The reason you came was to watch these two become one family, you stand in respect of that. Traditions and manners have often been regarded as unnecessary. It doesn’t take much to turn on the news and see someone horribly disrespecting or, worse, harming someone else. The lack of the respect and civility will eventually reside in disrespect and an uncivilized society. Now the big one. God. I am a proud Christian so this will be according to my perspective. I also love studying other religions, so I will also do my best to be respectful to all readers. Where do I start? Okay, we have disrespected, chastised and executed followers of Christ, followers of Islam, followers of Judaism, and SO many of those that dare to have their own religion and gods. Who is anyone to tell another what can comfort their heart? Disrespectful and just wrong. On television shows, internet jokes, YouTube parodies, I see so many people make jokes at Christians’ expense. There are bands with names, plenty of lyrics that disrespect Christianity, or make light of it. Costumes that I won’t even go into. How messed up is it to be enjoying a TV program or listening to some music and then hear your faith disrespected? I believe God created the universe, planets, everything, my family and even me — I can’t just sing along to that! I can’t just act like I didn’t hear it. If you heard someone wildly disrespect your Mother specifically, you’d have an issue. Christians, like other religions, get a bad wrap because of extremists, but should still have their faith respected. All faiths can respect one another without accepting the same truths. I feel for the Muslim community very much. My father taught me the Muslim faith when he was married to a Muslim woman when I was younger. I got to spend a summer with them and learned so much. I got to wake up early and eat with them for Ramadan, I got to wear the headpiece and learn the prayers and movements. My Christian Baptist Mother allowed me to do this because she knew that I had always been curious about other people in general. I was also a pretty spiritual kid; me and Jesus were tight. She allowed me to explore my spirituality and I’m so grateful. I think Islamic culture is so beautiful! Have you ever seen a Mosque?! Come on now. Just beauty and details everywhere. Anyways, I just want to say that with all the stigma and stereotypes surrounded by your faith and tensions being so awful in America, I really do feel for followers of the Muslim life. I hope it’s not disrespectful to say I pray for the families, especially those that have experienced the extreme violence lately. When I was younger, I was told that all streams, no matter how shallow, have water. I may be quoting that wrong, but what I always took from it was that everyone has something in them that is true, that you can learn from. A lot of religions, both old and new, have very similar stories, and ask people to do the same things: be respectful to yourself and your surroundings, feel good inside and do good outside, be mindful, be grateful and be fruitful. There is no reason to disrespect anyone else for following those rules out of a different book, so to speak. Worship is different to different people. Think of someone or something that you respect the most. (God? Loyalty?) to worship is to just continue to build on respect. Egyptians built great pyramids to exhibit their respect and worship of their gods and royalty. Native Americans considered certain grounds sacred, built fixtures and sculptures. Some African cultures look at their elder and storytellers as royalty as they their lips hold the history of their people. Muslims do not pray without clean limbs. We Christians write songs, poems, do praise dances to worship God. If you’re Baptist, like me, you might even get a little loud with your praise, as if to shout your worship right up to heaven. It’s not necessary if it’s not your thing though. Your relationship to your Creator is your own. What’s Not Worship.

Celebrity and pop culture are ruining the line between fame and blasphemy. To respect the talent and beauty or whatever of a famous person is fine, to admire it is even good too. To support, be a fan of and be inspired by celebrities is all okay. What is not okay is to worship these people as gods. Celebrities are just famous PEOPLE. Just like you and I. You even put too much pressure on the famous people by overly loving them and wanting them to be a role model for your children, agree with what you believe in politically, and literally scrutinize every move they make! These famous people exhaust themselves to death to try to live up to an impossible standard because the masses don’t know how to RESPECT boundaries, within self or others. You shouldn’t love celebrities too much and wanna know everything about their lives simply because you like their songs or movies. You’re disrespecting their right to be a flawed human like you are. You’re disrespecting yourself by obsessing over the life of someone else. And you’re disrespecting GOD by giving that much energy over to someone who He made just like you! God loves you and made you special and you turn around give your self-love and self-worth over to someone else who is human just like you. God wants you to love Him and yourself. You gotta respect yourself too. Respect yourself. Respect yourself. You don’t need to worship yourself either. Comparing yourself to others to show how superior you are is... well it’s just silly, first of all. Second, it’s disrespectful. If you were born with fair skin or pretty feet or great hair, you can’t help that; you had NOTHING to do with it. If someone else was born with a learning disability, big ears, or something like psoriasis, THEY had nothing to do with that. If you’re the fastest person on your track team, that’s good for you, but that doesn’t mean everyone else on the team is just crappy. It means you’re the best, today. People that overly exalt themselves and brag on their talents, cause others to wish for their downfall. People that are humble about their many accomplishments, make others wanna exalt them for him/her and can’t wait to share in more of their victories. Don’t gas yourself up from your own headlines. Respect yourself.

Take care of yourself. Remember yourself. Pay attention to yourself. Who else is gonna be thinking about you, if you are never thinking about you? You can’t get mad at people for not considering you, if you don’t speak up for yourself when you should, if you don’t take care of yourself when you need care. It won’t even be intentional that you get disrespected or counted out, sometimes. You can’t forget about you and expect everyone around you to pick up the slack in your own self-love. Many of us are having a hard time with our own as well. Love. I think worship and love get confused, too. So many are obsessed with and even worship their partners, but they do not love them. If you’re obsessed with your lover, you need to take a step back. Being their biggest supporter, admirer, and genuinely just loving them so much, that is great. But can you imagine if someone just straight up told you “I’m obsessed with you.” That is terrifying! Men that are obsessed with their woman so much that they have to know where she is and what she is doing at all times, even hitting her when she steps out of line, do not love their woman. Women that are so controlling over a man that they don’t want him to have friends or do anything without her, don’t love him. That’s a human being. Human beings need friendship, love, community, alone time, freedom. If you wouldn’t want another human being trying to control those things in your life, think about if you’re obsessing over those things in someone else’s life that is not your young child. Then there are some women that lose themselves in a man so much that they end up disrespecting themselves in order to worship him. This is a sin against God, and, sis, it’s a sin against yourself. Willpower. Boundaries. As a “free spirit,” BOY do I struggle with those two words. I don’t like saying “no” to myself. Jackie Kennedy said that. I don’t remember the exact quote, guys, but she said it. I really don’t like stopping my joy. I struggle with depression and anxiety so much so that when I’m doing something that I like, that distracts me, I don’t want to stop. That doesn’t make it right, and it’s also single-minded. I’ve found that there is joy and great reward in having willpower. It goes without saying that you absolutely need boundaries in life, but typically that’s with others.

In order to respect oneself, I feel that you have to set boundaries on everything. That sounds mechanical which is not my intent. I mean that you should pay attention to yourself in order to continue to enjoy your whole life the way you want to. If you love cheese, but know it can gum up your arteries, then you have to set boundaries on how often you indulge so that you can continue to indulge for as long as possible. I like alcohol, but if I want my liver to like me for the rest of my life, I have to set boundaries. Paying attention to the things you like, the things you need, and effects of those things all make it possible for you to set more reasonable boundaries for yourself. Love for yourself is rooted in respect, just like worship is rooted in the ultimate amount of respect that you can induce.

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