#Like are we talking pre 2016 or like 2016 bc I need to know for science

[wellcomeoneileen]

Why does Randy Harrison deserve compensation? What happened to him? You can DM me if it's not okay to be public

Hey! No it’s totally okay.

⚠️disclaimer - I am a NEW fan and so I am NOT the most informed at all. Other people like @brian-kinney-apologist like really know shit. I initially found things bc watching S4 made me go oh there is bts shit going on for sure and googled, and then when I got on tumblr I saw a bunch of posts talking about it, too.

Lots of older sources are harder to find now bc they didn’t do a digital preservation or the website is expired, but here is what I’ve found, from heated Advocate articles whilst the show aired and then from more measured reflections from podcasts around 2016.

Randy was young and it was his first TV show - when he started he didn’t even have an agent, and really didn’t know what he was getting into. He had done sex scenes on stage and thought that he was pretty prepared for what was to come.

However, he has stated he ended up feeling pretty objectified, such as hearing “we need more shots of Justin’s ass” regularly or expressing a desire to not to go-go dancing type scenes (King of Babylon upset him) and then even more go-go dancing being added (S2 Sap scenes). He was also told to act less gay by casting directors for the show, and to “try to be more butch because Justin isn’t out of the closet”

The show pre-dates intimacy coordinators and there have been allusions, including from the actresses Thea and Michelle, that the sex scenes could be uncomfortable to film.

There was BTS clashing, with producer Tony Jones !!reportedly!!! Saying that Randy was a bitch to work with and “showrunners” “reportedly” saying they would never work with Randy again. There are two interview clips, one from when the show was airing, and one from 2016, when CowLip say they wanted all actors to be comfortable on set, and in BOTH clips , like 15 years apart, Randy kinda like laugh/roll his eyes and Gale looks at him very bemusedly. They had bigger reactions in the ~2003 clip.

He was openly pretty angry as the show went on. He told the Advocate that he would never be friends with or respect Justin if real. He disapproved of the Britin relationship. He said he had to fight to include the scene of Justin topping Brian, which was very important to him. Leading into season 5 he stated he hoped Justin was killed off by getting hit by a truck (obviously being glib, but like he was mad lol)

He has said that lots of scenes needed to be reshot because he struggled to do them so much, like the Cody sexy gun scene that made him so uncomfortable, and then either he or Gale said S5 sex scenes were reshot a lot because they just couldn’t stop laughing at that point anymore.

Peter and Scott recently have said the only time anyone asked for actors’ opinions was right after season 1 ended, and to ME they sounded kinda cheeky about it, all these years later, so perhaps it was a cast sticking point? Unsure, and it wasn’t even Randy who said that. Fat grain of salt.

He has more recently reflected on this time period and expressed regret he went out the way he did, and he understands things better and honors his craft more (heavy paraphrasing!) bc he was mentally checked out by the end and wishes he had finished strong instead.

Also, the cast didn’t realize when signing on how isolated they would be from The Industry. Randy has spoken about this in an unrelated podcast, as have the actors who play Ted and Emmett. NYC or LA are where you want to be for networking, and then signing on to spend the majority of the year in Toronto negatively impacted their careers, they feel. Randy has said he had to start from scratch after the show ended, and Peter and Scott have said Showtime had no idea how to market the show nor their stars, and so they had to just watch as all the initial hype fizzled and nothing was done with them. They were contracted to work too much to seriously be involved elsewhere, while simultaneously not getting good exposure, which I IMAGINE created a dire sort of mood and morale on set. < personal interpretation and fictionalizing history.

Meaning, Randy probably at the very least FELT like he had spent five years on a show that didn’t respect him and it was largely for nothing. He has since stated he appreciates the opportunity and it is the reason he was finically secure, for which he is deeply grateful.

And then finally the fans! He had stalker(s?) and tons of creepy people and was heavily typecast and people would come up to him frequently, which made him uncomfy, and would furthermore act like he was actually Justin, which made him super uncomfy. He was kinda like Chappell Roan!! He was like hey I’m not Justin I’m a person and y’all are freaks. He has publicially declined to speak on the stalking issues, which given his vocal responses to other issues, indicates to ME that it’s pretty personal and upsetting (I mean it’s stalking it’s obviously horrible but you know what I mean). During the show he had a boyfriend that fans like tormented online and even on posters (that bit comes from Tumblr or another forum, so not like verified info on my part at all) because they shipped “Gandy” so hard. I know I’ve read on tumblr about the insane Gandy people but all I remember is they were intense and insane and negatively impacted Randy’s actual real life. Again, that’s info from fans that I haven’t read in article or heard from out of his mouth. Secondary source lol.

This point is PURE speculation, but early interviews with the whole cast were super excited, and they all talked about how excited they were for something ground breaking. By the end, people were angry or giving fluff responses, or in Peter’s case; calmly stating the show was a soap opera and that’s okay. I FEEL like everyone thought they were signing up for something more real/gritty/positive impact to society and then were like oh I’m here to look hot in this show that only moms watch to get them turned on to have sex with their husband. Cool.

Now, do I agree with that - no. But, the show audience was vastly different than expected, and the artistic direction might have been too, both of which might have really disappointed people. Esp Randy and maybe Gale. Randy was a capital T theatre person, and Gale was too and had lots of experimental work and like performance art. Randy has ALSO expressed displeasure with some theater work he did because he didn’t think it was fresh and the audience was only older wealthy white people, so we do know that this sort of thing does matter to his sense of fulfillment at work.

TLDR; had to shoot scenes he didn’t want to, several times, felt objectified on set, disagreed with his character’s direction, maybe felt like he wasn’t being listened to artistically, was cut off from other work opportunities, didn’t appear to get along with leadership, had bad fans, was young and in deep over his head, and at the very least *started* with no career or social support system.

Again!! Am not the most knowledgeable person !!! I do NOT want to spread misinformation so hopefully I’ve tagged where I’m reading into things vs actual quotes but also people who have actually been around pls feel free to say 🙋um actuallllyyyyy

[mrwinterr]

The Nerve

Pairing(s): former!Steve Harrington x Female Reader; eventual!Eddie Munson x Female Reader

Summary: The nerves of some people. 

Warnings: Cliché af. Toxic behavior. When they go low, I go lower. Revenge. Not a girls’ girl here bc once you fuck around w/ another girl’s man it’s “yes, and?” from there. Implied smut. Language. We’re probably not gonna like Steve (or even the reader for a bit) here. 

Disclaimer: Typical !former and !eventual pairing. Some time hopping. None of the spooky events of the Stranger Things (2016) series take place in this piece. Everything is just where it’s at because this is made up. 

Pre A/N: This is embarrassing. I was in my villain era. I was certainly in the business of misery. I was angry (still am sometimes), so I wrote this. We all cope differently.

The nerve. 

She had the nerve to steal your boyfriend. 

It had been a few weeks since Steve broke up with you, only to start dating a girl you had harbored no ill will toward until that night. He even had the guts to reveal who she was and how long he had been losing interest in you. You weren’t going to lie, it hurt – a lot. Discovering his real need for “space” during the last two months of your relationship was painful to realize because in that time, while you were being understanding, he was finding a way to end things with you.

Looking back, you couldn’t help but dissect the memory. It was an ordinary day. School was let out for the weekend, and you were spending it with Steve, a cozy night in without interruptions since he was often left alone at home. The two of you lay on the couch, cuddled up, bodies parallel, his arms around you, the room dimly lit by the TV screen. 

“I have something I wanna talk to you about…and it’s been on my mind for a while,” Steve says, loosening his grip and pausing the movie that was mindlessly playing midway. 

“Okay,” you reply, pushing yourself up from the couch to make space for him to sit up. He shifted, swinging his legs over to plant his feet on the carpeted floor, settling into a seated position and scooting aside to allow you room to sit back down next to him.  

The atmosphere shifted noticeably, and it made you nervous. The way he ran his hands through his hair and avoided meeting your gaze – it all felt ominous, and you couldn’t prepare yourself for what he was about to say. 

“I met someone,” he revealed. 

It wasn’t the news you expected, and you could feel your heart sink into your stomach as you absorbed his words.

“Oh,” is all you manage to say, now turning your gaze to the ground too, unable to look at him. 

A whirlwind of emotions swept through you – hurt, anger, brokenness, betrayal. The signs had been there. Why hadn’t you seen them? He had been growing distant – more withdrawn, fewer “good mornings” and “good nights”, less calls, more canceled dates. You had been looking forward to tonight, thinking he was just preoccupied with work or his upcoming graduation, believing whatever he needed space for was resolved. Turns out, he needed space from you. 

You had so many questions, even though you weren’t sure why you needed the answers. In that moment, you wanted to know what you had done to make him lose interest in you. You had thought the relationship was salvageable. 

What? He was breaking up with you. 

When? He’d been feeling like this for almost two months. 

Where? At work.  

Who? The other girl he worked with, also attends Hawkins High, but she's a year above you, therefore had more classes and events with him. 

How? It just happened. 

Yeah, that last one was a classic, but not as much as him telling you that you did nothing wrong and that you both could stay friends. Bullshit. With Steve, would come her, and you couldn’t believe the nerve of her to pursue another girl’s boyfriend. You’d seen her while visiting Steve at his job, but you hadn’t felt threatened by her. The hurting phase was brutal, but now all you could feel for her was anger – after all, who didn’t know that you were dating Steve Harrington? 

She had the nerve to act all innocent.

The school hallways were not pleasant for you. A few days after the break up, rumors circulated that Steve left you for someone else, though apparently their relationship hadn’t been made public yet, sparking widespread gossip. 

How would you have known that though? His business wasn’t yours anymore. In fact, you’d made a deliberate effort to distance yourself from them because the breakup was still fresh. Fuck trying to be friends. This time you were the one that needed the space. The last thing you wanted was to think about them together. 

Steve had the audacity to point the finger at you because you were supposedly the only one aware of the relationship. Even when you tried to explain, he left you hanging. The disbelief on his face hurt to witness. He didn’t believe you. 

“How do they know about us?” Steve demanded as he approached you at your locker, hands on his hips in typical, upset Steve fashion. No hey, hi or hello. He just went right in. 

“I don’t know,” you scoffed, continuing to unload your textbooks from your backpack.

“Well, you’re the only one who knows,” he persisted, leaning in closer, determined to get an answer. “And your name is going around.” 

“Look, Steve,” you finally turned to face him, your tone sharp, catching him off guard. “Your new relationship isn’t my concern.” This is a side of you Steve isn’t used to. “Why would I go around telling everyone that you left me for her? In all the time you’ve known me, have I ever given you a reason to think I’d do something like this?” 

You could see him reconsidering his accusation. The questions seemed to stump him, as if he knew the rumors were absurd and gossip wasn’t something you partook in. 

“Why don’t you go talk to your girlfriend and figure it out?” you suggested, turning back to your locker, not in the mood to continue the conversation. 

All Steve did was stare at you before shaking his head then going into a tangent of how some of the rumors were negatively affecting her when they weren’t true and how she shouldn’t have to endure them or receive any of its backlash…as if you did. But when he started saying something along the lines of how she wouldn’t do that because she told him she didn’t, you knew this was all a wasted effort on your end because he had already made up his mind. He believed her. 

Did he truly think you cared that much about them? Did he really think you'd stoop so low as to announce his new relationship? Did he ever really know you? 

She had the nerve to lie. 

Steve apologized to you when he discovered it was actually his new girlfriend that spread the news. He recognized his rash behavior and conceded that he should’ve believed you. Why would you waste energy on them? They weren’t worth your time anymore. 

“Hey,” a voice calls from behind, and you turn to see Steve standing there, looking contrite. Unlike before, you receive a greeting.

“Hey,” you reply, briefly acknowledging him before returning to organizing your locker, now cluttered by your chaotic friend’s belongings - stashing the shit that no one would suspect the good girl to possess. It didn’t bother you much, except for the occasional stench it left behind. 

“You were right,” Steve admits, hands in his front pockets and moving to the side to look at you. Pausing your task, you wait for him to continue. “She was the one going around telling everyone that I left you…for her.” Boy, that was awkward and lowkey stung. It hadn’t even been that long and he didn’t fail to remind you how you all got here. 

“I’m sorry I doubted you,” he continues, visibly ashamed, “I should’ve known better than to believe that.” His apology didn’t really move you. The damage had already been done. You were branded as the ‘psycho ex’ and all Steve had to do was trust you from the start. 

She had the nerve to act like a girls’ girl. 

She never directly apologized, but she had the nerve to claim that she harbored “no hard feelings” toward you. Hard feelings? Why? Because you’re the ex? Was she fucking stupid? How did she expect the girl whose boyfriend she stole to feel? Everything that came out of her mouth infuriated you.  

It was no ordinary day – it was your birthday, and your friend had organized a night out to celebrate. You never liked to make a spectacle of your birthday, but it was also a good reason to go out, distract yourself, and avoid dwelling on unwanted thoughts. 

“You’re lying,” your friend responds, baffled by what you just told him, “she really said that?” 

“She fucking did!” you exclaim, still grappling with her impeccable timing. She wouldn’t know it was your birthday or would she care. 

“Jesus. Of all the days…” he says with a low whistle before attempting to lift your spirits, “But, hey, we’re not gonna let her ruin your birthday!”

“I know, and I won’t!” Your voice wavers as you try to convince yourself this wouldn’t affect you. You were determined to not cry today, but the truth was, it still hurts. Her little stunt reopened a wound that was almost healed.  

“He’s such a fool,” he remarks, followed by a brief silence. You were preoccupied with regaining your composure, fighting back tears, unable to respond. “He didn’t know what he already had in front of him. Lucky son of a bitch,” he added, and you’re not sure if he was speaking to himself or he meant to say that outloud, but you heard him nonetheless. 

“Stop,” you reply, turning your away from him. You’re not gonna cry. “I know what you’re trying to do, Eddie.”  

“What am I trying to do?” He asks adjusting to move to your line of vision, but you keep your focus averted.

“Hype me up, make me feel better…I don't know,” you answer, finally meeting his gaze, the tears now freely falling. 

He understood how hard you were on yourself, replaying what could’ve been avoided. Your relationship with Steve wasn’t something you anticipated. Steve pursued you, and initially, you were fine with a casual fling, but he insisted on something more serious. You had doubts about whether he was the right person, but what if he was? It’s a reminder that life isn’t planned; it’s lived.

Eddie’s support during your breakup was invaluable. He watched you cry a lot – at home, at his trailer, at school, at work. He watched you criticize yourself for the breakup. He watched the light go out and he was determined to reignite it. He simply wanted his friend back. 

“Sweetheart, I promise you,” he assures, hand over his heart, “everything I’ve said is sincere,” accompanied by that charming, stupid trademark Eddie grin. He was so endearing. 

“Well,” you begin, but he’s got you. He had a knack for flipping the script, leaving you wondering why you were arguing in the first place. 

Despite your curiosity about what attracted Steve to someone else and away from you, you had to accept that you probably wouldn’t ever know. 

If there was one thing you knew about Steve, it was that when he falls, he falls fast. With that realization, it sparked a wicked plan in your mind. If you could bag him once, you could probably do it again. 

The nerve. 

You had the nerve to lie. 

The only person you had confided in about your breakup with Steve was Eddie, and you had the right to do so. You needed a friend. You also knew he had no interest in high school gossip, so it couldn’t have been him that told the whole school. You trusted him. 

People liked to talk and they didn’t hold back. Although the lies bothered you, you had a strong support system in Eddie and his friends. If any group could shrug off that nonsense, it was the Hellfire Club.

“Are you sure you didn’t tell anyone?” Steve asked, continuing to badger you, even suggesting Eddie as the culprit. You knew Steve well enough that he couldn’t take gossip about him for this long. After all, he had a reputation to uphold, and not all of the rumors were in his favor. 

“Eddie?” You asked, confused but also guilty because you had done just that. 

“Yeah, I know how much time you’ve been spending with him lately.” 

“Why is that any of your business?” You countered, a bit snappy.  

“Because,” Steve began, grasping for an excuse, “people talk.”

“And you really think Eddie would? He doesn’t care about shit like this or you-”

“Please,” he interrupts with an eye roll, in the annoying way Steve always did. 

“You don’t know him,” you defended your friend, “so get off your high horse and go talk to your girlfriend about your problem,” leaving him questioning everything again.  

You had the nerve to act all innocent. 

The birthday incident, as you tried your best to keep thoughts of Steve at bay, she unexpectedly approached you, alone, feigning sweetness and innocence. You listened as she spun her lies – lies about overhearing people gossip about her, Steve, and you; lies about rumors allegedly started by you; lies about having “no hard feelings” toward you. It was all fabrication.  

Politely, you attempted to have her understand your side of the story, clarifying that you had not spread any rumors and had discussed the situation with Steve, as civil as that could’ve been, and ultimately, how she should address the matter directly with him. What were you now? A couples counselor? You didn’t have time for this or them.

You weren’t going to start lying to yourself now, but it angered you. All you saw was red. So, you gave it right back, feigning innocence yourself, doubling down on it, subtly planting a seed of doubt in her mind. 

“Watch out for him,” you said sincerely, your warning devoid of malice. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked genuinely curious. God she was fucking stupid. Did she think she would walk out of this situation without a scratch? She had just proven she was not a girl’s girl for actively pursuing your boyfriend while he was with you. The world is a jungle, and it was every woman for herself now. 

“Nothing,” you shrugged, maintaining composure, “...just a girl looking out for another girl,” you added, offering her an innocent, warm smile. 

“Okay,” she replied, sounding confused and a bit shaky. You could sense her discomfort, and she deserved to feel uneasy. 

Ultimately, you weren’t lying. Yes, she should watch out for Steve – what made her think he wouldn’t treat her the same way he did to you? However, if you were in her shoes, you’d watch out for yourself. 

You had the nerve to not act like a girl’s girl too. 

The sudden breakup with Steve left some unresolved feelings, but he was now with her, not you, yet that didn’t stop the urge to act on them. Steve was weak and you realized that soon enough. 

With your head turned to the side, you observed him, listening to his ragged breathing, how his lips parted, emitting small puffs of air, his chest rising and falling, the sweat that dripped from the top of his forehead, and eyes closed in post-bliss. Your gaze traces the freckles that speckled his skin as you studied his profile, wrestling with the questions swirling your mind.

“Do you want to talk about it?” you asked cautiously, breaking the silence. Why fight for him?

He didn’t respond immediately, but didn’t linger too long before replying, “Not really.” 

“We’re gonna have to,” you said and it sounded almost pathetic. Why were you trying to hold onto him? 

“I…I think we shouldn’t talk for a while,” and when he said that, you knew that actually meant this was done. He was done with you. Why did you want to change his mind?

The realization hit you like a ton of bricks. You knew it had to end eventually. There was no intention or hope of remaining friends. 

That night, you went home feeling hurt, broken, angry, and disgusted. You knew what you did was wrong, a sad attempt on your part. He probably wanted that reaction from you. You were more than willing to feed his male ego. What guy didn’t enjoy the idea of two girls vying for him? If it was easy for her and it was easy for you, it would be easy for another. What made him so special?

You had the nerve to try to steal her boyfriend.

It was a toxic situation. You found yourself doing exactly what she had done to you. What did that accomplish? Bragging rights and a fleeting sense of revenge, perhaps, but it didn’t bring you and Steve back together. It only highlighted how destructive you both could be. You sought revenge at the expense of homewrecking a relationship. You were no better, yet in a twisted way, you didn’t care. You wanted them to feel the same pain you did, even though deep down, you knew Steve was capable of sabotaging his own relationships. 

You told Eddie of the misdeed, feeling ashamed. He wasn’t upset with you. He understood that you would follow your own path no matter what. He didn’t have the right to control you. Both of you recognized that this would only lead to your own suffering. Unfortunately, you had to learn this lesson the hard way. 

“I know you’re upset and that’s okay,” he tries to console you, “...your feelings are valid.  But I don’t think you need to find the answers to everything. They’ll just lead to more and it’ll never end.”

He was right. The more you held onto what happened between you and Steve, the more questions arose. He was living rent free in your head. 

“I just-” you struggled, trying hard to make sense of the situation, “I just wanna know. What did I do wrong? How did he get bored of me? When was I not enough?” 

“Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule?” he asked, and you shook your head. “It’s basically a theory that when someone cheats, they are drawn to the 20% in another person that is missing in their current partner.”

You’re not sure how much that helped you because it begged the question…”And I know what you’re thinking, so stop that!” Eddie’s quick to read you, “you’re lacking nothing, alright?” 

“Everyone knows I’m not a big fan of Steve Harrington,” he said, scrunching up his face at the mention of his name, “...but he’ll regret this. His type always comes back…fucking roaches.” That last remark elicited a small cackle out of you. 

He then took your hand in his. It’s a stark contrast to your own hand – larger, a bit rough, warm and slightly clammy – but it provided a sense of comfort. You don’t realize how long you’ve been staring at your hands clasped together until he gives it a light squeeze and says, “He’ll realize he was much better off with the 80% he already had.” 

Damn Eddie Munson. He was too good to you. It gave you a new perspective. Why were you being so hard on yourself? Why were you trying to convince yourself that the relationship’s downfall was your fault? It was Steve who started pulling away from you. It was Steve who did pull away from you. It was Steve who was actively pulling away from you. Everything that happened wasn’t solely on you. 

These kinds of things happen to everyone every day. Feeling hurt, broken, angry, betrayed and ashamed were normal and acceptable emotions. You just have to learn to swallow your pride and accept this as part of life. You live and learn – not necessarily forgive or forget, but move on in your own way. 

You were once happy without Steve, and you could be happy again. You gave up or changed a lot for Steve, losing sight of what made you happy. Now, you were committed to reclaiming your happiness. Fuck, when did you start crying? 

“You alright, sweetheart?” Eddie’s voice laced in concern, bringing his other hand up to wipe the stray tears running down your face. 

“How do you do it?” you asked, looking down to compose yourself. 

“Do what?” he responded, amused. You didn’t answer verbally, but twist your hand in his to thread your fingers between his. The small smile on your face conveyed your question, softening his features. It’s a rare emotion from Eddie, mixed with vulnerability accompanied with a newfound awareness. 

He brings your now interlocked hands to his lips but not before saying, “...because I’m a big fan of you,” and kisses the back of your hand gently.

The nerve.

Steve had the nerve to lie. 

Several months have passed with minimal communication from Steve. Occasionally seeing them together around school and town didn’t bother you anymore – well, not entirely. You can’t deny it still stirred up certain feelings, but you didn’t give it a second thought and eventually they weren’t a blimp on your radar. The past no longer consumed you, but unexpectedly, it started consuming Steve. 

Evidently, he still knew your schedule and had been desperately trying to find a chance to talk to you – just the two of you, without Eddie, other friends, teachers, classmates, or family around. When he approached you, you were confused; unsure if he was still with her or anyone else. You intentionally tuned out gossip and never paid attention to their situation. Besides, you had a better reason to not care about Steve anymore. So, when he starts pouring out his feelings, you take it with a grain of salt, this time with a clearer mind. 

“Hey,” Steve calls out as you step out of your front door, ready to head out with your ride nearby. 

“Uh, hey, Steve,” you reply with uncertainty. 

“Can we talk?” he asks hesitantly. 

“Now might not be the best time,” you respond with unease. 

“Please, just give me five minutes,” he begs, his eyes full of hope and pleading. What could there possibly be left to talk about? Despite your instincts telling you to stand firm, you reluctantly agree to hear him out, which you soon regret. 

Steve begins with an apology and offers to explain his actions. What more was there for him to explain? You no longer desired an explanation. It was simple – he grew tired of you, became interested in another girl, and left you; perhaps grew tired of her too and now he’s back. You had moved on from your failed relationship with Steve months ago. However, he felt he “owed” you an explanation. Was this all a joke to him?

The more he spoke, the more you got lost in your thoughts trying to comprehend the reality that he was standing before you, admitting to his mistakes, and seeking a second chance. His voice started to fade into the background as you felt the weight of deciding how to respond, all while knowing your ride would arrive at any moment. When the pressure got too much, you finally managed to step up. 

“Steve,” you interrupt, “I don’t know what you want me to say to you.” 

“You don’t have to say anything right now. I just–” he’s cut off by the sound of loud, muffled music, causing both of you to turn your attention to the bulky van that just pulled up in front of your house. 

You glanced at Steve sending him a tight lip smile before taking the short few steps to the curb, not looking back, knowing you were never going to get that "owed" explanation.

Steve had the nerve to try to act all innocent.

The atmosphere in Eddie’s van is tense the moment you climb into the passenger seat. Neither of you expected to see Steve today, let alone right before a date. And it happened. The lingering feelings had unearthed between you and Eddie and you welcomed it, a testament to your decision to move on from Steve. Right when things are looking up, life throws you a curveball in the form of your ex. 

“Are you okay?” Eddie asks cautiously, stealing a quick glance at you before focusing back on the road. 

“Yeah,” you reply unconvincingly, then quickly retract, “no,” followed by a sigh, “I mean, I was…I am. I’m just annoyed at Steve right now. I swear I had no idea he was stopping by.” 

“You’re fine,” Eddie assured, dismissively waving his hand to convey that it wasn’t a big deal to him, though his mind was racing with a million questions. When he saw Steve with you, he couldn’t help but wonder: Why was Steve there? What were you two talking about? What did Steve want? Had you been in contact with him and not mentioned it? Not that Eddie could control who you talked to, girlfriend or not. 

“I can’t believe he had the nerve to say he ‘respects’ my feelings!” Your emotions spill out as you unload on Eddie, “After everything he did to me, does that look like someone who ‘respects’ my feelings?” 

“It is a pretty shitty thing for him to do,” Eddie agrees, not just coming from the boyfriend perspective, but from any perspective. 

Steve thought that by acknowledging your feelings upfront, it would ease his case. However, upon reflection, you realized it was more about saving face for the hurtful way he left you, attempting to depict himself in a more favorable light.

“Right?!” The audacity Steve had to arrive at your door, unannounced, just before your date with Eddie. God, Eddie. It was a brief but uncomfortable moment. Steve knew you were friends with Eddie, he never bothered to understand the depth of your relationship because he didn’t care enough to meet your other friends. “I’m sorry, Eddie,” you say, feeling remorseful.  

“For what?” he chuckles softly because can’t believe what you're apologizing for.

“I didn’t expect to see Steve today,” you explain. 

“That’s not on you,” he assures, “remember, I told you they always come back.” 

“True,” you agree, “but that’s not what I want.” 

“What do you want, then?” he asks.

“You,” you admit, “just you, Eddie,” reaching for his free hand to hold for assurance. 

Yeah, Steve wasn’t going to fool you.  

Steve had the nerve to try to steal you from your boyfriend. 

During the initial months, Steve made attempts to regain your favor. You questioned repeatedly whether you could genuinely consider being just friends with him. That had been his original intention after breaking your heart, but he failed to uphold his end of the deal. Was it worth attempting to rebuild a friendship with him? Would it reflect poorly on your judgment if you did? Could you bear being around Steve in any capacity? If Eddie hadn’t arrived on time for your date that evening, you didn’t know how much more of Steve's admission you could take before you hit another breaking point. 

“I’ve been thinking a lot about you,” Steve begins, pausing, his mouth opening and closing as he carefully chooses his next words, “I miss you.” He observes your lack of response before continuing, “I miss us. We worked…and I really want to try and get to that again…to what we had.” 

You can see it was difficult for him to admit this. Seeing your unphased reaction, he begins to ramble and talk out of his ass, “I mean, only if you want to. I can understand if you don’t. I do respect your feelings.” 

You knew you didn’t have the mental or even emotional capacity to deal with Steve at that moment, and fortunately, the interaction didn’t progress any further. More importantly, it didn’t ruin your date with Eddie. 

Steve’s graduation, once an event you looked forward to celebrating, was now a canceled event on your calendar. While you wished you could’ve joined in celebrating, Eddie had unfortunately not passed his exams again. Hopefully, on his third attempt, he will be able to graduate and walk the stage with you next year. 

You had started working at a music store, which you enjoyed because it allowed you to be surrounded by something you loved – music. Eddie particularly appreciated the employee discount, a place to hang around during your shifts, though he seemed less excited about the store’s proximity to a certain video store.

It was inevitable that Steve would eventually walk in. Initially, your classmate and presumably Steve’s co-worker, now friend, Robin accompanied him. Over time, Steve started coming in alone, conveniently when Eddie wasn’t hanging around. 

It wasn’t that you were afraid to be alone with him, and Eddie trusted you; he simply didn’t trust Steve. Despite Steve not being the same person from high school, multiple events humbling him, his efforts to revive your past relationship persisted. Although his approach was more subdued than before and masked as friendship, there was still an underlying motive. It was no secret either that you were in a relationship with Eddie. 

Given the small-town geography of Hawkins, you accepted Steve wasn’t going to just disappear. You managed to adapt to his presence. While you couldn’t deny that this attention boosted your ego, you were resolute about not revisiting the past with him. 

“So, I’ve got a copy of Pretty In Pink hot off the press,” Steve announced, showcasing proof of the video tape during another lunch break he spent at your workplace with you on a slow day. “Interested in watching it with me tonight?” he asked, trying to sound smooth and hopeful, adding and emphasizing “as friends,” though not convincingly considering you haven’t agreed to any plans with Steve let alone as that. 

You glanced at him, then at the tape in his hands, and then back at him. “Thanks, but I’m not really into rom-coms,” you replied with a small smile. 

“What? Since when?” he asked, visibly surprised. 

“Since forever…” you answered with a light laugh that almost sounded like a scoff. It internally annoys you because as a former partner, he should’ve known that.

“Oh,” he said, setting the tape down on the counter between you. 

“Yeah,” you drawled, trying to fill the ensuing awkward silence. Fortunately, the door chimed, signaling a new customer – saved by the bell, literally.  

“Babe, you’re gonna love me! I convinced Robin to save me a copy of Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2, and she fucking delivered,” Eddie exclaimed excitedly about tonight’s movie, barely noticing Steve’s presence until he reached the register. “Oh, hey, man.” 

It’s amusing yet endearing to see Eddie straighten up and square his shoulders around Steve, as if they were in competition. You couldn’t blame Eddie for feeling that way, though he really had no reason to worry he’d lose. 

“Hey,” Steve replied, shoving the copy of the romantic comedy aside, embarrassed that he had forgotten your preference for horror movies. 

As you and Eddie enthusiastically discussed the sequel, Steve felt out of place, as if you and Eddie were in your own little world, completely forgetting he was still standing there. He couldn’t contribute to the conversation because he hadn’t seen the first movie and didn’t know anything about it to share in the excitement. Eventually, he quietly slipped away with the tape in hand, on the short trek back to Family Video concluding his lunch break. 

The notion of ‘forgive and ‘forget’ was bullshit. While you could be civil, deep down, you still harbored hurt and anger over what happened. Much of the past year was spent in an emotional decline that affected various aspects of your life – home, social interactions, physical and mental well-being. Now, however, you were focused on reclaiming your happiness. Places and things around town that once reminded you of Steve and your past relationship no longer brought sadness; you were forging new memories with someone else.  

Whether it be in a friend or significant other, Eddie was like your rock. He was there from the start, witnessing your first date with Steve and even expressing his reservations about him. Yet, he knew he had to let you navigate life, love and mistakes on your own. Despite any reckless choices you made, even those that disappointed him, Eddie remained a source of comfort and support because he genuinely cared for you. 

Growing closer to Eddie was a breath of fresh air compared to Steve. You didn’t feel the need to impress Eddie; he was always impressed by you. Reflecting on it, you realized how much you had changed to fit in Steve’s world, which now seemed almost pathetic. With Eddie, you don’t have to change anything – your clothes, your diet, your friends, or your interests. He respected you for who you were. 

It’s ironic that just as you’re back on track and happy, Steve wants to interfere. What’s even sadder is that he promised an explanation but hasn’t delivered, yet he’s actively pursuing you. So what? You tell your ex you still have feelings for them and miss what you both had. What did he expect? That he was Steve Harrington and you’d jump back into his arms? No. He had moved on, supposedly, and so did you, finally. 

Part of you cherished early memories with Steve, and you weren’t going to fail to admit that during the initial attempts, you entertained the thought of what if you got back with him. However, he’s the reason why you struggled to move on and became recluse. Who knows? Maybe he learned from his mistakes or not. What he did to you, he did to her and would likely repeat to others. He only proved that second chances sometimes didn’t matter because rarely do people change. You concluded you couldn’t be more than what you currently were to Steve. 

He was the one who chose to end the relationship. He was the one who decided you weren’t enough for him. He was the one who chose to engage with another woman. He was the one who strung you along. He's the one who decided to cut you off. And now, he’s the one seeking a way back in. It was comical because all the tactics he used the first time he convinced you to go out on a date with him didn’t work this time. It had him trying harder and he was failing miserably. You were now the one living rent-free in his head. 

The events of this whole situation have allowed you to build emotional strength and learn to love yourself and someone else again. You were happy, and happy with Eddie. You weren’t going to let something silly as an 80/20 rule or a past relationship with Steve interfere with that happiness.

Yet, it goes to show the nerves of some people. 

Post A/N: I wish I had this happier ending in real life. Please like, comment and/or reblog. It’ll motivate me to write more and you know also help my self-esteem.

[letssendacountrysomecupcakes]

So I got dumped yesterday for saying I believe that transfemmes do experience male privilege pre-transition. My ex did not give me a chance to expand on that belief *at all*, just got triggered and decided I'm unsafe.

I'm going to expand those views here because I genuinely think I'm approaching the topic pretty reasonably and at this point I need to get the processing I've been doing written down.

First off, let me say that my opinion here comes EXCLUSIVELY from transfemmes I've talked to over the years as well as my own experiences with transmasc erasure. (My ex claimed that ALL of the transfemmes I know who've said that they've experienced male privilege only think that because of "internalized transmisogyny" while simultaneously refusing to engage with any of my experiences with erasure that are *specifically* things that happen bc of the learned behaviors inspired by the external factors of male privilege and socialization.)

The actual line that I have on this is that male privilege is an *external* force, not an internal one. It is entirely based in how you're perceived and how *others* interact with you based on that perception. It is based in the *societal and systematic* benefits someone receives based on the fuckin gender marker on your ID.

I absolutely do not think that that means transfemmes *interact* with male privilege in the same way as any c*s person, especially pre-transition. I do not think the *effects* of that privilege are the same and in almost every case it's going to be extremely complex and nuanced based on the individual. I *do* believe that, because that external force is applied *constantly* from a very young age, some aspects of that force can and often do come through even after transitioning.

Part of this being so upsetting for me is that it sounds like a rehashing of the "gendered socialization doesn't exist" argument that was going around here in like 2016 and is apparently resurfacing again. As far as I remember, when that argument stopped because the people who were pushing the conversation were outed as t*rfs who'd been posing as queer teens. The intent was to confuse the community and divide the younger and older trans folx.

The argument that gendered socialization doesn't exist (which, as far as I can tell, is the same argument as "transfemmes never experience male privilege) is laughably dichotomous at best and harmful at worst.

On the dichotomous end, we have someone who talks *frequently* about missing out on "being raised as a girl". If that person also does not believe in gendered socialization, they have the belief that they were also "not raised as a boy". Unless you come from a family or culture that has a third option or treats their kids the *exact* same (unlikely), you were fuckin raised in a way that was distinctly *gendered*.

That can transition to the harmful end *very* easily simply by not processing, analyzing, and questioning your learned behaviors. My ex spent the whole conversation calling me misogynistic and denying/devaluing my friends' experiences. She also very specifically made all of her points while simultaneously telling me I wasn't allowed to respond. At the point that I said, "Hey, I can't keep getting messages tangentially related to this when I'm not allowed to respond so I'm going to respond to a couple things, please keep your boundaries in any way that makes you feel safe", she immediately reengaged herself into the conversation fully, sent 3 messages - one of which was the dismissal of my friends' experiences, and blocked me.

I want to make it very clear that I put my responses under a break, specifically so she wouldn't have to read them immediately. I cannot be the one to enforce *her* boundary that *she* was repeatedly breaking. At the point that someone tells me they want a break from a conversation, I say okay and don't fucking respond until they do. I got two additional texts from her, both of which emphasized her points while continuing to disallow me from rejoining the conversation.

If that ain't the EXACT shit I've dealt with for my entire fucking life 🙄

[chaeyunz]

happy opening, everyone! excited to introduce u to ryu chaeyun, the wolf pack skele and also professional pain in the patoots. more info will be under the cut, and i’ll be around for a while if you’d like to plot. discord is also available (and slightly preferred!)

please be warned that passive suicidal ideation is mentioned in the intro (marked w a *) & will be a general recurring theme with her character, so please proceed w caution, and do let me know if you need a sparknotes/would prefer to plot without that point!

graduated from the national university of idgafistan, with a doctorate's in idgafism and a minor’s in ijbolism. thats it, that’s all you need to know about her.

her life pre-apocalypse was pretty normal: grew up in a family of 3 with her dad and older brother. mom passed when she was young, and at mama's funeral, her grandma tells her she has shitty fate. she's literally 10 though and doesn't understand what gran's trying to say except she doesn't ever see the maternal side of her family ever again x

watched train to busan like right before the apocalypse started and decided she just wouldn't be built like gong yoo. did, and still does not have that much will to survive, but hey, she's still here!

same can't be said for her dad, who d*es in seoul qz because of a very mundane stroke. doesn't get his blood thinners on time... or at all, bc of the kdrt rationing it super strictly. her brother turns angry at the world, and somewhere in their 5 stages of grief, they make the move to the busan qz. his joining the fireflies is the natural next step for someone so full of anger towards the kdrt.

all the unprocessed grief really makes one a great member of the resistance, and he does well within the ranks of the fireflies. he goes on every mission he can, and chaeyun knows he's gone too. his body never comes back somewhere between the 10th and 20th mission. L + ratio + skill issue!

eyes turn to her, then, to carry on his legacy. problem is, she just... doesn't want to. she's happy chilling in the qz, being a silly little 21-year-old teenage girl.

a demented old lady accosts her randomly. the same shit's spouted, but this time w a twist! she's got shit astrological fate that kills the people around her. the lady's family pulls her away and apologises for her, but it lingers in the back of chaeyun's mind.

* she entertains the idea a little more than she should, and thinks everyone around her in the qz might die. has nothing more to lose (besides a delusionship over someone who barely looks her way) and if she does something useful in div4, then maybe she deserves to live.

sorry 2 everyone on the mission, 'cause she's in her terrible twos and so goddamn annoying. like, pretending to convulse and zombify annoying. pull a gun on her and she'll be like omg wow rude..... what did i ever do to u! if u can look past the chronic unseriousness then she's alright. just ur typical gen z-er.

her one strength is bouncing back from just about anything. like, she's been through. a lot. but everyday she wakes up and decides its a new day to choose violence &lt;3

her dog is a malinois named potato (chip). better trained than her, and she loves that stupid dog so bad. classic case of tiny girl & big dog. potato sideeyes people a lot but also. is very excited and gets the zoomies 24/7 when he's not on duty. rolls over for belly rubs way 2 easy.

misc. chaeyun tingz: always has chocopies on hand. don't ask how or where she's getting them. u think she's finished the one box she's brought.. but she just keeps pulling them out. is her bag doraemon's? / very prone to nosebleeds. no reason why / keeps talking about fast food. misses mcdonald's ice cream so much. / hums under her breath. either chopin or 2016 kpop girl groups. what can she say, she's got range /

a couple plots i would like to have wld b found family.. of course. show & teach her that fate can be changed. we will all have these bitches become found family. / someone who knew her in seoul qz. can tell she's different now somehow... but can't quite put their finger on how (it's death babes x), though i'd love to brainstorm & fill any of ur wcs!

[viktoriakomova]

i know ive whined about this before but since people are talking about vault start values for GB and brazil and italy and how important they are for the team score now that TF is wide open, its on my mind again:

its fucking ridiculous that vault is scored the way it is, both in terms of d score and the e score

D score issues:

the original open-ended code in 2006 had 10 skills counting for the other 3 events' difficulty scores, and when they brought it down to 8 for 2009-12 the vault SV were never adjusted

they were reduced by 0.4-0.5 after they god rid of the dismount CR on the other events after 2016

but the original ratings relative to expected/average difficulty of entire routines on the other 3 events was never addressed

its an INJUSTICE ! knock them all down by 2 or 3 tenths AGAIN.

E score issues:

it is plainly ridiculous that the same general execution faults on the other 3 events apply at the same value to vault

why is falling on a beam dismount, after an entire 80-90 second routine of 7+ skills, the same deduction as falling on your ass on a vault? or even a low chest or big step on landing, for that matter?

vault is more than just landings, yes i agree, but the landing is literally half of it at least lmao. im too lazy to do the exact breakdown of maximum possible pre-flight and block deductions vs max possible post flight and landing deductions, but i can guarantee that the latter carries much much more weight. especially getting into how pre-flight deductions are very rarely taken at the level they deserve to be for people doing very difficult vaults. (thats not even necessarily the fault of the code i think its mostly just human psychology tbh and the fact that judges arent allowed slo-mo replay video in real time while theyre judging. because if you see a shitty paseka starfish entry in real time and then the post flight is even worse then ur brain is going to hone in on all the faults of the latter and not hammer the former) (especially bad considering that the pre-flight being egregiously bad and the post-flight being super clean, or vice versa, is crazy unlikely)

and my last point, related to the one above, i have to consult the CoP for this [i wont bc this is just a tumblr post im making off the cuff lol] but isnt there a maximum E score deduction you can take on vaults with no major pre-flight deductions (such as a 1 hand block à la skinner) ? if there is then that needs to go away because for all the reasons above that is mathematically fucking stupid

i rest my off-the-cuff case but my bottom line is:

WHYYYY, in a TF that is shaping up to be SO closely contested (in a battle of mediocrity), is this a battle of vault start values? this isnt NCAA where a FTY is a 9.950 and its a question of quarter tenths. and this isnt the former 10.0 elite code where every event was capped at 10 for some semblance of parity.

why, at the end of the day, is vault difficulty STILLLL the difference maker? why has it been literally 16 years since we switched to the open ended system, and 13 years since it went from 10 skills to 8, and we haven't fixed this yet?

and we dont even have stupidly high bars scores to match it like there were in 2007 and 2008 lmao

[fizzingwizard]

my cousin who I havent talked to in years randomly messaged me to ask if I play/know people in Japan who play Pokemon Go

I assume it's something to do with exclusive regional pokemon? I think I remember that was a thing way back in 2016

I played Pokemon Go when it first came out, but I had an old iPhone 5C because it's all I could afford, and they stopped supporting older iPhones. Because of how expensive they are I never bothered getting a new one. I have Android now. It's an old Android too now because I've had it for six years x'D but both it and the iPhone 5C still work decently (although the latter has charging issues which I'm not sure if it's due to the cable or the phone itself, I haven't bothered to look into it bc android and all). like why do I have to shell out the pennies I earn teaching pre-K for the newest and expensivest just because it's the bestest (for one year until the next newest expensivest and bestest comes out)?

*ahem* anywaaay... I stopped playing Pokemon Go because it wasn't supported on my phone. By the time I got the Android phone, I had completely forgotten about the game, and never even checked to see if it's supported on Android. It looks like it is, so now that my cousin's reminded me it exists, I'm kinda tempted to get it...

But I have a 2 gb plan because I'm cheap as hell and I don't want to pay more x'D my data is always used up by the end of the month anyway and I don't even know what is eating up all of my storage. So to get Pokemon Go I'd definitely need a better plan or a new provider (which I kind of do want, a coworker told me of a provider recently which sounds like it has better plans than mine. it's just that canceling phone contracts is such a bitch and I don't want to pay cancellation fee)

Normally I wouldn't pay more just to play a game on my phone which I recall only mildly liking anyway (it was so tough to find Pokemon that weren't Rattata. The only interesting catches I made happened when I went to the airport). But lately every single company is (in my opinion) wasting its money and time making its own tailored app and demanding we all download it to our phones. Bank and gas and stuff I don't mind, but restaurants - stores - etc etc. It is honestly so annoying. Even work tried to make me download an app to do my taxes, even though the tax program was already installed on the computers and we only need it once a year...

I really hate the app craze but it seems impossible to avoid. Sooo. Maybe time for a new plan with more data and storage. Ahh if only salaries ever went up like the prices of everything else. Guess I shoud apply for a job at Uniqlo buhahaha.

[theyneverblindmedarling]

Okay I know I’m very behind but do we know around when Him was written plz and ty

[foolhearts]

☕ Seb and Lewis before Baku 2017?

WOW what an incredibly loaded ask!! you're right we don't talk about pre baku seb/lewis enough even though they have 10+ years of history before baku even happened... i wish i had a detailed timeline. we could dedicate an entire museum to their relationship.

i previously answered an ask about baku being the turning point on their relationship so i won't focus on that except to say the fact that seb says "we were not best friends" makes me crazy. ofc maybe he really means in that immediate post crash moment and it is very evident they're even closer now, but i would like to know how he defines their pre baku relationship bc let's consider the evidence shall we?

so they've been racing against each other since they were teenagers. which is not unusual in f1! but does everyone look at their rival like this? look at their smiles!! the way they look in each other's eyes like nobody else matters! they've been looking at each other this way for years. they have their way of walking together :)

should we talk about how lewis always says he has a terrible memory yet can remember all his battles his podiums his memories with seb no matter how long ago it was? like when they were babies in f3 at zandvoort in 2005?

in formula 1, their first shared podium was suzuka 2009. since then, they've shared a podium SO MANY TIMES and they always look so happy as they flirt and spray champagne. it's all about the delight on their faces at these dumb intricate rituals. and some of their celebrations... obscene. how much champagne have they poured on each other? how many times have their hands touched? can we even count the amount of times they've congratulated each other, celebrated with each other, shared in each other's important moments? thinking about it makes me insane. they should just kiss already.

speaking of podiums, i laugh everytime i think about the time they excluded nico from their photo. it kinda looks like lewis is the one who makes seb take the photo!!! and way nico walks off dejectedly... it's so good. i love all the b*tchy lewis and seb moments. like them mocking the hat throwing incident right in front of nico!!

and then there's the flirting... this exchange about seb's hands when they're doing the hand imprints for the 2014 japanese gp. excuse me seb??? "you know what they say about men with small hands"??? seems like seb is offering to show lewis the answer...

they have such a long history of making everyone feel like a third wheel during press conferences!!! like when they teased valtteri about the finnish word for excited but it was really just an excuse to flirt!! also how many selfies does lewis have? i'd die to see his seb album.

ok i need to wrap it up with a few key moments:

remember malaysia 2015? i honestly could cry thinking about it. them just sitting on the podium together, touching shoulders and feet. seb is overwhelmed with tears of joy after getting his first win with ferrari. and lewis stays there by his side. this whole gifset is so much but the bottom right kills me. lewis's content smile as he watches seb... sharing this huge moment TOGETHER!

then canada 2016... there is SO MUCH in this race. it's the flirting in the cooldown room and saying "i enjoyed chasing you down" and seb asking if lewis noticed his start. i cannot. they both have it SO BAD. and seb's praise kink is showing. and as noted this is the seagulls incident!! seb just leaves his own interview to come and tease lewis about not braking for seagulls. with a lot of touching.

inspector seb apparently touching lewis's car and then they joke about it!! again the flirting and the touching... truly deranged behavior

lastly let us not forget lewis defending seb's honor against jack whitehall. you tell him lewis!!! seb IS very funny!!!

ok i hope you enjoyed my thesis about seb and lewis pre baku 2017. in conclusion, they have SO MUCH HISTORY and evidence points to them being in love way before the baku incident even happened.

[stormblessed95]

I think it's possible every member has convinced JK to stay to some degree but all i'm asking is source of them. "JK stayed bc of X member" narrative exist in every Jungkook ship but how many of them actually true? I watch every content BTS releases so I know the one where JM said he convinced JK to be a BTS vocalist but frankly idk where do others come from. There's that one where JK supposedly said 1+

"I was considering just going back but Jin Hyung treated me like i'm his real donsaeng so i stayed." But NKrs also say JK has stayed thanks to NJ (we know he joined BH thanks to NJ but idk about staying.) Hkers and Tkers have a narrative of him staying because of Hobi/Tae as well but frankly I haven't been paying attention to what they're saying. Do you know how many of them are true? Is there any source to any of those? Or this is just another instance of the fandom spreading false information?

Hello anon! I can give you what information I do have and if I am missing any hopefully someone else can fill in any blanks.

JK told us about how he chose BigHit because he saw RM perform and thought he was really cool and wanted to work with him. I haven't seen anything about him talking about leaving and decided to stay because of Namjoon though, just the initial decision to join the company.

With JinKook, yes! He did actually say this. It was in a Japanese magazine interview (I cannot remember which one off the top of my head sorry) but this one is real. This was during pre-debut days, JK was feeling super homesick and missed his family and felt like maybe it wasn't all worth it and wanted to just go home. He said that Jin took him in and treated him just like a real little brother. Driving him to and from school every day, buying him meals, taking him home to see his own family since they lived closer to Seoul than JKs family did and it was easier to get to them. He wasn't just a band mate and hyung to Jungkook, he really helped him feel safe in a new city. And JK looked up him like he would his actual big brother I think.

With Jikook, we know that Jungkook came back from training in America and was considering not debuting and instead pursing dance full time. They told us about how he went to straight to Jimin when he got home to talk about it and get advice. They told us that Jimin convinced him to do both and to still debut where he could dance AND share his amazing voice with the world too, saying the only reason he went through with debuting was because of that advice Jimin gave him. They told us this in their 2016 pre-concert vlive

With Taekook, I don't know anything about how he made him stay. The only thing I know of for true with them is when Jungkook said that Tae was really helpful in making him feel welcome and comfortable in the group when they were training and all living together at first. And that Tae helped him overcome his shyness and come out of his shell during the early years. I don't think any rumors of him playing a part in JK deciding to debut are true, but I could be wrong...

With HopeKook its the opposite. When Hobi was planning to leave the group, JK is one of the reasons he stayed. This was talked about in one of their documentaries (I think Burn the Stage, but its super possible that I'm wrong, they have so many). Hobi was planning on leaving and when JK heard, he held him in a hug and they cried together for a very long time with JK telling him not to go. RM I think also played a part in him staying by telling both Hobi and the company that J-hope was essential to the team and they couldn't do it without him.

You didn't mention Yoongi, but I also don't know of any rumors about YG helping him decide to stay and debut, but who knows. I felt like I need a YoonKook Gif in here too since all the others got one lol

Have a good day/evening/night!

[futuregws]

I love how tom is "so happy in the relationship" that he is having reoccurring dreams of getting a girl pregnant (i.e s*x dreams (we all know how getting pregnant requires) - censoring so you don't get your account in trouble by tumblr, not sure about the guideline but don't want some tomdaya to try to report the account🤣) and being happy to have a baby daughter with her even though its with a random girl! This proves it's PR! Because it shows how desperate he is to be in a stable long term relationship and how much he wants his own kids!

The only thing that is making me still a tom fan is know how he acted before the PR relationship that it is really him and also the astrologer and clairvoyant future wife reading (on faiths blog)! She sounds great, creative, happy, adventurous and down to earth, and i can't wait for that era for tom! I can't wait to see him be with someone who loves him fully and unconditionally! He is so sweet he deserves it! And I can't wait for everyone to support them and for their power couple moments! I just want to see him truly happy, and not the happy he is trying to be on Instagram and infront of paparazzi he called, like really genuinely happy! and not posting things on social media about their relationship and drawing attention to himself to make him trend on insta or twitter, or purposely kiss/hug/hold hands/laugh infront of a camera to draw attention! Just genuinely happy!

I can't imagine him leaving Hollywood for ever, i think he will just take a break and try to find balance within himself and they get back to making movies (hopefully with harry and maybe his future wife one day (astrologer and clairvoyant mentioned that)!!!!) So we can't blame tom because I would just listen to whats in the contract, because as the other anon said sony can either make or break you career and by tom following though it shows that he is going to keep making movies and acting - I think he is just warning us about him taking a break (which is 100% understandable) Also no hate to Zendaya her movies/performance haven't been doing the best and we also don't know what was threated against her in the PR contract! And we will never know! But all we can do is wait for it to finish and then more on!

I'm just not going to follow him during the press tour and take a break! I don't want to see him not acting like himself and having this persona to fit into their PR stunt! So I'm just going to let it go, and when the PR is over I'll support him again! I just don't want to deal with the toxicity anymore! The sad thing is, that him followers is going up due to this but you can see in the videos how much he is trying to act like his normal self - happy-go-lucky, positive, vibrant, chill, funny and energetic self; but he just looks sad, anxious, tired, uncomfortable and depressed (you can really tell the difference between the 2016-pre-PR videos, pics and content compared to the content were getting of him during the PR! I in a way want him to take a break and just focus on himself (not getting in a relationship, work or anything else thats stressing him out), just his mental health! Because when he sorts out his internal issues and challenges his external ones will positively change due to his positively changed mindset! So if he takes months off and goes to a mindfulness retreat where no one can access the internet or goes backpacking across Europe or lives in a small house in the middle of no where - it makes him improve and develop into a better version of himself then h can go as long as he needs🤣

"Because it shows how desperate he is to be in a stable long term relationship and how much he wants his own kids!" Anon you actually have a point specially with that phrase and the whole dream thing I know other people had talked about it but idk if it's the way you worded it or bc I don't have a headache now but it makes even more sense than before like 10x more 🤣

[xannerz]

ramble alert! 💿🤪💬🚨 

so my blaw$chool finally had both its ‘20/’21 graduation cermonies today and i just sort of feel very like, numb??? about it?? and then i yo-yo to feeling despondent, then i feel selfish or unfair because i should be like vocally happier for my friends?

i mean, i am. of course im happy! they’re passionate about it and they worked hard and i’m glad they made it to the finish line. i joke now, i can tell people that ill have my legal team on them if they give me any problems, and we laugh about it, but y’know... there’s still that feeling of being Unaccomplished or on the Outside. we hang out and there’s always that minimum 45 min window where they all talk about l@wyer things and im sitting there like “ : ) haha yeah! “

 though i know i don’t want to pursue that career path anymore, but like, y’know, it’s just this vague feeling of being the Not in the Group even though no one thinks of me as the Other/Dropout (i think??) lmfao

idk, like. 💿 4 years of college on a pre-law track and then a gap year to prep for the l$at and then 2 years of living on autopilot bc i thought this is what i had/wanted to do, it still sucks, and maybe i should be over it by now since i dropped out in spring 2019, but i never really had time to process everything??

2019 was rife with issues and my mom almost died then the global panorama happened as that was settling and i’m grateful i got a job at the start of it but y’know like (🧿) ... i think i’m just really starting to chew through the weird like grief/bitterness that i didnt - couldnt - process, even w having th3rapy peppered in throughout the last couple years.

idk. lost time! it’s a whole thing!

and the whole like “you cant wait for xyz good thing to happen you have to take it” platitude doesnt sit right with me because it’s like (hello!) that’s literally what i did. i worked ✨so✨ hard at my own expense and just seeing people sort of settle in to where they need to be now while i’m like silently flailing, oof. im happy for them because them getting to where they want to be should be the natural conclusion of their endeavors. i want that for my friends. but a childish voice in me is just like why couldnt that be me, too?

i was so confident that like, everything would have worked out by now. because i was working so hard. now i’m Tired and Frustrated and i feel like im like standing at the precipice of some breakthrough but it feels so fake?? lol?? 

idk like ive accepted where i am and know i have 0 interest in going back to any program Because of Reasons, but i dont like where i am, yk?? : | i wish i was brave enough to go into PR or art or something way before so i didnt have to deal w this overplayed angst now. 

(i wonder how much better my art would have been if i didnt have that weird spotty dry spell from 2016 thru 2019, too??) 

but, no lmfaoo i just like shoehorned myself into that career path and the only thing that made any of that worth it are the friends i made through that program.

ಥ_ಥ they’re just... so, so good and loving, and i appreciate them so much🧀

another friend msged me a couple days ago in a crisis bc he’s sure he failed the b a r for the 3rd time and he’s like “you’re the only other creative person who went to that school,” and saying how he didnt want to hear from our other friends how struggling has no bearing on XYZ and i’m like, i get it. i 10000% get it. and we had a long back and forth and i’m just... relieved>>>?? i helped him feel better at all??? it felt weird being the one to say it to someone, tho - saying that our friends love you, not l@wyer you. it feels childish jotting this down but idk! i just! have a lot of thoughts on this & i’m still processing it all 🗣🗣🗣

(& re: the grad -  duh, yeah , i’ve been avoiding $ocial m3dia but yknow, like, i still peeked once or twice and seeing like some of my closest friends or classmates huddled together... saw a pic w one of my favorite professors and that was bittersweet, too. uhh, i shouldnt have peeked lmao. i’ve been in a sore spot mentally anyway so that just... wasn’t wise LMFAO 🔬🧠)

but - im fine! i’m functional. i just dont know when or how i’ll get to bein like, good again. ive been thinking abt looking into becoming a st0ryboarder. idk! idk. i just feel so behind and understimulated but overwhelmed and i miss the energy i had before i grad’d college? just absolutely ambitious and wide-eyed and ready to throw myself into anything to just to get to where i needed to be and now i’m like “no. maybe... maybe tomorrow.”

ok this is a mess im gonna go wash my face now 🏃‍♀️💨💨💨

[aftgficrec]

I know this is kind of unorthodox, but are there any tumblr posts or even fics that archive and like compile the book timeline? Or like even pre book events like when Neil would have left Baltimore at x age, and what age andrew was when he went to juive and then got out and such?

Ok, I’ve scooped up some fandom tumblr posts that are a bit jumbled but still helpful. Some have discussions with differing opinions in the comments, so check for that. Also including a link to the fandom wiki which has a lot of good meta. I did not find a calendar for pre-fandom events, but you may be able to glean stuff from Nora’s extra content on tumblr and her Courting Madness blog. - A

Fandom Wiki

foxhole-court.fandom.com

NB: Contents include - About the Series; Characters: Teams/Foxes/Criminals; and Community: Recent Blog Posts/Forum/Most Visited Articles/Newly Changed Articles

- For example, Neil’s character summary includes full name, aliases, birthday(s), zodiac sign, status (alive), occupation, list of known residences, team(s), jersey number(s), family and romantic relationships, gender, and physical description including height.

Fan-Created Timelines

Rough-draft-ish timeline for book 1! - REBLOG (includes The Raven King - Rough Timeline/ First Draft) by @sexysmeagolshitposting /@flowerparrish [Tumblr, 2016]

BTW if you are visual like me, the closest we get to a calendar year for All For the Game is 2006/2007. It’s not 100% accurate, because not all of the dates match up perfectly throughout the whole series, but this is the closest one, with only a few dates off. It diverges in June, so I kept to the book for the rest of June because dates were easy to track; it meets back up with the calendar year in August and so far as I’ve checked sticks pretty close to it for the rest of the series?? The games do at least??

TKM Timeline by @coldsaturn​ [Tumblr, 2016]

ok so, @flowerparrish gained legend status by giving us the timelines for TFC and TRK (you can find them HERE), but we were still missing TKM, and for the meta I’m preparing I needed all three laid out, so I wrote the one that was left.

timeline in TKM by @spanglebangle [Tumblr, 2017]

Okay so I was hunting around to figure out the timeline in TKM as precisely as possible for the next few chapters of Trust Fall and I have the following PRECISE timeline nailed down with bonus rambly meta thoughts and comments, under the cut bc this is over 4k of rambles ENJOY it took me nearly seven hours

Dates

What year are the books set in? by @briennetarhs​, @coldsaturn​, others [Tumblr, 2016]

i feel like i’m missing something because i’ve just seen 3 people talk about how tfc is set in the early 2000s… like… am i MISSING SMTH HERE! there are no years specified anywhere so i’ve just been going off the years they were published? where do ya’ll get your info??

Characters Canon Ages/College Class at End of Series

DURING THE BOOKS/AT THE END OF TKM summary by @bienmoreau​ [Tumblr, 2016]

- Here’s a thing that might be helpful:🌦🌦

NB: Updated post with new info for Jean: i’ve been peddling lies and i’m sorry  by @bienmoreau​ - Soooo I just made this ~ post ~ about which years the AFTG characters are in because I always get really confused..

Fashion

The 90′s Foxhole Court. by @hookersplease​ [Tumblr, 2017]

So, TFC took place in the late 90′s/ early 2000′s, right? (Although, I love the modern Foxhole Court too!) (And I’ve posted some musing on 90′s TFC before, but this is gonna be a full out...something.)

Just Imagine- full on everything 90′s TFC.

Like, the 90′s explains the jorts. All of the Jorts. And The Jooooooorts.

Jeremy/Jean

Alternate JereJean Timeline™ by @thx-quxxn​ [Tumblr, 2016]

Okay so I know the exyspacegays have a solid jerejean timeline,* but I give you an Alternate JereJean Timeline™ starting from a few years after Jean graduates from USC (which got super fic-y a little ways through so it’s mainly just how they get together)

*NB: I could not find this

Jeremy & Jean canon descriptions by @bienmoreau​ [Tumblr, 2016]

Anonymous asked: Hi there! Sorry for the question but I'm hoping you could help me. In the AFTG series, do we actually have a physical description of either Jeremy Knox or Jean Moreau? I can't seem to remember that (and people seem to have their own headcanons so...)

do you have a idea for Jeremy knoxs height? how about jeans? by @exyspacegays​ [Tumblr, 2016]

HULLO HULLO!

do you know what grade Riko, Kevin, Jean, or Jeremy? by @exyspacegays [Tumblr, 2016]

I DO! 

WE DO!! 

are jean's or jeremy's ages mentioned in tkm? by @exyspacegays [Tumblr, 2016]

i'm making a fic and i guess i'm lost on what ages they are when jean gets signed onto the trojans? alsooo, i understand that you guys where the one to basically make up jer's whole family and i can't find the original post so do you guys have a link somewhere?

Hey has nora ever said anything about jerejean? by @exyspacegays [Tumblr, 2016]

She has,,,, to an extent. To be exact she has said this:

-“that pairing had never even occurred to me before tumblr took off running with them, ahaha..”

- and essentially that since it was never considered there’s no ‘canon reason’ for it not to happen..

[bciwasinlove]

Ok so it's been almost 2 days for me I have been reading what others have said on twitter and tumblr stans, I've had the time to process my thoughts and now here is my thoughts I get...

So some people hold their favs on a pedestal which is why those people are the ones SUPER hurt by what happened. We shouldn't have our favs on a pedestal or we will be let down everytime they make a mistake. They are humans just like us and aren't above others we have all made mistakes heck I've made more mistakes then I can count. We love our favs and need to hold them accountable when they do something they shouldn't but like I said their humans and they aren't perfect. A lot of celebs haven't really been following guidelines bc their so out of touch with reality and have quite a lot of privilege [especially if their white] and that is a problem that should definitely be talked about.

It is very sad and disappointing what happened the last few days both of the breaking covid restrictions with everything happening here in California and how this will negatively [ actually already has negatively] effected both Olivia and Harry. A lot are just so confused and hard and just over all tired of all this. Everything we have had to deal with as of late and now this it's just idk gut wrenching knowing all the things families [including my own] have gone through bc of the pandemic and they do THIS.

I 100% agree with people [mostly mean this next part with the twitter stans] calling Harry out for what happened it should be talked about but my issue is with some OT5s not treating each member who didn't follow covid guidelines the same. Some OT5s say they have a lane but there is a difference between having a lane and having said lane on a pedestal while having another member half out the door on supporting them. Example of what I mean their was an OT5 I saw who has a Niall lane and when we got pics of him at a large dinner party with no one wearing masks they defended him to the tooth and nail but with the Harry thing they were so upset and wanted to leave. Another example was an OT5 with a Liam lane fought tooth and nail when we got pics of Liam and Maya surrounded by a ton of people during one of the protests with neither wearing a mask but with the Harry thing they were very upset with him.

You must hold ALL who haven't fullly followed guidelines accountable bc if your giving "your lane" a slap on the wrist and then seeing flames with another member does something then it doesn't seem like you actually care about the problem at hand and you CLEARLY love and support one over another in a negative way. TBH Zayn is the only member who has FULLY followed covid guidelines throughout this entire pandemic and for that I respect him a lot more.

If your a newer stan this PR pap walk is a nightmare to you it's ok it will be ok bc if you talk to an older stan then they will tell you this is sadly not the worst we've been through. 2015 we had to deal with louis close to tears announcing he was going to be a dad when he wasn't and then had the nightmare of 2016 BG stunting every week and Dani pap tuesdays all to hide the fact that Louis is gay. So this is not the worst and to me it's welp another stunt I hope will pass soon.

Thanks to this shitty stunt they pulled Harry has yet another label on to the list of horrible labels GP or media have on him bc of Harry's management. He was already seen as a queerbaiting womanizer and an arrogant ahole who doesn't care much for his fans but now he looks like a homewrecker who sleeps with people to get movie roles. Neither Olivia or Harry will be taken seriously after this when it comes to movies. So I don't know whose idea it was thinking this would help with movie promo bc this helps no one and makes everyone involved look like a piece of shit.

I know the biggest thing that rubed people the wrong way [besides the wedding happening at all] was Harry looking happy and officiating the wedding so now some think Harry is possibly friends and actually likes jeff. But look at it this way we have pics of Harry with the CEO of Sony who EVERYONE knows is basically the devil in disguise who you don't want to mess with. Jeff's dad has ALOT of power in the western music business and when winning an award they said he was like the devil but we all love him WHAT?! MJ and Prince made it clear how BAD the music business is and many dont speak up like they do bc those who speak out it doesn't go well.

Harry has been in and dealing with the music business for almost a decade joining when he was only 16 he must have learned by now how things work and how he has to act and play apart where it seems like he likes these people bc Hollywood is all about pretending, with fake smiles and fake lives. To think it's not possible he was acting when he has 10 years of expereince of faking being happy in the business is not a stretch. When he was only 16/17 you saw him cry and be insecure now he has learned how to fake being happy and except what is going on.

A lot think it is a stretch that the wedding was all a pre planned thing to help push a narrative but look at BG. At the beginning of BG it seemed crazy to think they faked a story and changed louis whole image to make it seem like he got some girl pregnant and had him fake having a kid to hide his sexuality but it became clear that's what happened. I get called crazy and delusional on other apps daily for thinking that kid is not louis saying they wouldn't do that to him louis wouldn't allow this to happen BUT IT DID bc he isn't free and has NO say it what happens So this wedding being fake just to push a PR stunt relationship and the H is good friends with Jeff narrative is not a stretch.

There are articles that prove Jeff was already married to his wife since at least February 2020, we have more pics and articles about Harry and Olivia then of the married couple, why were there paps or drowns at a small intimate wedding of someone who isn't well known when big wedding of big celebs have no pap pics and if it was a guest list of only around 20 then why was Harry allowed a plus one date and heck why was Harry himself who is just a coworker allowed at this small wedding? If you were the couple you would JUST have immediate family and maybe your closes friend not a coworker and their 3 week gf. I think this was all an massive stunt to push a couple narratives.

One think I never get is the fans who when anything happenes stunt wise with louis they say this is all a stunt, it's fake, he has no control over anything and he's no where near free but when this happened with harry they go he's fully free, start thinking maybe Jeff and him are friends, and saying they wouldn't go to this extreme to push a narrative. NEITHER Louis or Harry are anywhere near free! I'd say the Azoffs have as much if not more power then Cowbell ever did.

My thoughts [more directed towards twitter stans here] hypothetically speaking if this was some kind of wedding ceremony for Cowbell and Louis was there everyone on twitter would say the ceremony is a stunt to make them look like their still friends after Syco parting. Just bc Harry gets promo or more response from GP, and people knowing his name then Louis doesn't mean he is anymore free then Louis. Realistically no one in the industry under Sony is free every aspect of their life is monitored and controlled.

All of what I have seen and read shows this stunt worked well even better then BG did bc I do see some fans who now think H might actually be friends with Jeff, the GP thinks he sleeps with people to get roles, the media are making jokes about this "new relationship", some henries are making jokes about him being a homewrecker. In ZERO WAY was this a good idea at all and helps NO ONE! The people running what happens to harry need to be careful bc if they keep going as they do soon EVERYONE [except henries who think he's hot] will hate him and not want to hear about him ever again. That is if this mess didn't do that already bc this stunt rubbed so many people the wrong way I wouldn't be surprised if people said I'm done I'm leaving I can't with this anymore.

I will say for myself I have been around almost 10 years supporting them hoping one day we will see them be free and happy. They are trying hard, harder then ever to get rid of us. They WANT us gone but I won't leave, I can't go anywhere not when I've been apart of this for so long already. I'm here, I'm staying, I WILL stay until they are out and free even if that takes another 5 to 10 years.

[ceremonyanddevotion]

Hi I’m sorry if you’ve received a bunch of confused asks abt this already, but I need a bit of a clarification cuz imma big dummy lol. So this band/artist priest has ex-members of ghost? And they did that weird unmasking only to reveal another mask that has this terminator fucking eye. I understand that concept and entirely that it’s a rip off of ghost. But what I’m not clear on is the issues with the priest members and the (pre-existing?) drama with ghost

Don’t be sorry! 

So yes, Priest is a band made up of ex members of ghost, Simon (Alpha) and Mauro (Air) and Mauro’s son Lintion who also played bass in Ghost. Linton now sings in Priest, they had a falling out with the previous vocalist Tom Asburg (no relation to Ghost, just seems like a kooky guy caught up in drama).

So, to make it so simple (bc it’s a fucking mess) is that in 2016, the former ghouls (including Simon and Mauro, not Martin Persner/Omega, he had left the band already due to his anxiety and ocd) began to try to blackmail Tobias into getting more pay from him, now note, they didn’t write any of the songs or music, only Tobias, Martin and up to 2 outside writers did, all they did was learn the songs and tour, Martin is on the record to say to regard him and the others as ‘hired guns’ to make finances easier.

They kept doing this, even threatening to walk off the Meliora tour (we were meant to get a concert dvd, but they couldn’t risk them walking off on a night they would film), he even had to deal with this during his wedding. So he and his lawyer wrote up a simple contract (I’ve read it) stating they will get a payrise BUT will be released from the band at a later date, they signed it without reading it, thinking they won.

here’s the contact if you would like to view it

you can also go on reddit.com/r/ghost_lawsuit, the mod did a great job translating everything, even if they seemed to be pro-ex ghouls.

They didn’t realize they got fired until management when they called to get extra tickets for family/friends.

So they sued, they wanted access to the books to prove they were owed money, that they deserved more money.

They lost, then appealed, then lost, then claimed bias in the court by outing Tobias as a freemason because the judge was also a freemason (though there are stories, with no source, that Tobias showed up for orientation and never returned, and with all the masonic themes in Square Hammer, many say he did it for research purposes.)

They lost again, they kept appealing because even though Tobias won, he wanted the ex ghouls to pay his bills, and also appealed to make it happen. They recently settled out of court, no one knows the details, they haven’t been made public, but we all guess Tobias said he’ll pay his bills. 

This was a lesson in ‘for the love of god, make proper contracts when you start a band and read them when you sign them’ since a lot of stuff at the beginning of ghost didn’t have actual contracts and stuff.

The thing with Priest, like you said, is that it’s a sad attempt to annoy Tobias, Simon has admitted to it on interviews, they think Tobias cares enough to actively look into Priest and be annoyed/angry (man has been on tour and getting high on the bus with the new ghouls he doesn’t care lmao).

Linton is notorious for openly talking shit about Ghost, like this gem about Prequelle

and recently he, as Mercury made some IGTV videos and during one talking about vinyl, he held up a Meliora record and went ‘YWEUCK, how did that get there!”

They had to delete the instagram video post because everyone reminded them they’d be nothing without ghost and that it’s sad they’re still doing this. (last time i checked the IGTV video is still up, but I also recorded this moment just in case, ya know).

His father isn’t much better, Maruo makes music under ‘Airghoul’ and still claims to be the only and original Air Ghoul, it’s sad tbh.

TL;DR, ex ghost members make priest, sue ghost, lose and had to settle out and now act as tobias’s ex girlfriend who swear they’re over him but will always bring him up when no one asked. 

And I want Tom Asburg to make a Priest rip off bc I miss his vocals (yeah I still listen to Priest every so often, I rip that shit from youtube tho).

I hope this was helpful lmao.

[bravadoseries]

I'm a little confused about what the movies/tv shows timeline would look like for the series, could you clarify?

So, pre-Avengers I think Audrey makes a variety of cameo roles.  She’s in the Iron Man films briefly, she’s featured in an epilogue of Captain America: The First Avenger, I know this technically isn’t first but she plays a minor role in Captain Marvel.  Generally, she’s just kind of present in a lot of the movies before she becomes a lead.  

The way I structured this list is so that each movie that’s canon is just listed with its corresponding fic, but all the ones I’m making up have a little summary too lol.  Spoilers below so beware of that.  I hope this helps!

2012

The Avengers (May 2012) – covered by Monachopsis

Cross-Country (July 2012) – this one would look like the oneshots/shorts that Marvel used to make about its side characters, but it covers Steve’s birthday and the road trip that Steve and Audrey take cross-country

Lady Liberty: Legacy (September 2012) – this covers the arc of Nodus Tollens that I just finished, which is about Audrey’s mission in Europe, DIVUS, Delphine, etc.

The Tower – Season 1 (October-December 2012) – This show focuses on the found family aspect of the Avengers and is like a dramedy.  In my head, I picture it as being filmed as a mockumentary with little talking heads because I like those and I think it suits the format well.  Content wise, I feel like it airs on ABC.  Takes place from October 2012-December 2012, runs for 8 episodes.  

2013

Black Widow: Opus (January 2013) – Covers the Siege of Chicago, another arc I write about in Nodus Tollens.  Explores Natasha’s backstory with ballet and kind of has Black Swan meets Atomic Blonde vibes.  Set in January 2013

The Tower – Season 2 (June-August 2013) – Picks up where its predecessor left off and runs for another 8 episodes.  It also corresponds to Nodus Tollens and builds/develops Audrey’s relationship with Bruce as well as Steve’s relationship with Darcy

Thor: The Dark World (2013) – Set November 2013, also corresponds to Nodus Tollens lol (this book is long)

2014

Agent 13 (February 2014) – Marvel oneshot about Sharon Carter, Audrey, and the transfer to DC, as well as Peggy’s legacy with SHIELD

Captain America: The Winter Soldier(April 2014) – corresponds to 

Hawkeye(s) – (May-August 2014) – Kate Bishop and Clint Barton work cases in Los Angeles, where they meet America Chavez and other members of the Young Avengers.  I’m not totally sure if I’m gonna write this or not, but basically it corresponds to Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye comics. This one is an action-comedy, like if Community met Veronica Mars

The Falcon – Season 1 (October-December 2014) – Okay I’m just a little Sam Wilson stannie but I feel like they should have done more with him, so this series focuses on him primarily, but features Steve, Audrey, and Natasha as side characters. They’re looking for Bucky, but it’s also about him living in the tower and falling in love with Olivia Perales. This corresponds to a spinoff oneshot (probably 10-15k words long) called Fear of Flying.  It airs on Netflix and receives rave reviews for its bingeability.  The tone is comparable to Scandal or other Shonda Rhimes dramas.  

2015

Agent Carter – Season 1 (January-March 2015)– this is what it is and it corresponds to Midsummer, which is just a series of oneshots about Audrey growing upu

Avengers: Age of Ultron (May 2015) – Corresponds to Aurora

Quicksilver & the Scarlet Witch (released June 2015) – set throughout 2015; about Pietro and Wanda’s adjustments to their new lives as Avengers.  They’re both like 19? 20? This is written like a sitcom, kind of like what they’re doing with WandaVisionbut without Paul Bettany bc I hate that little man….anyway this technically takes place at the same time as Elysian but tonally they’re very different because Elysian is about Audrey going crazy and grieving Bruce’s “death” but the show is about the twins and their relationships with each other and an assortment of other employees from the base, who aren’t superheroes but are like medics, etc.  I think the tone is like Scrubs 

2016

Agent Carter – Season 2 (January-March 2016) – same as the above; about Peggy’s life in LA kicking ass and her romance with Sousa

Captain America: Civil War (April 2016) – this corresponds to Allegiance, while also unpacking unfinished business from Lady Liberty: Legacy and Captain America: The Winter Soldier

The Falcon – Season 2 (September 2016) – this is about Sam, Bucky, Steve, Nat, Pietro, and Wanda’s life on the run, but it especially focuses on Sam and his own missions/the villains targeting him.  Tonally, still Shonda Rhimes.  

2017

Lady Liberty and the Angels of Mercy (February 2016) – Marvel’s second R-rated film, but the MCU’s first.   Think about it like Birds of Prey in terms of general vibes.  Set immediately after Civil War and features an epilogue that connects Audrey to Thor: Ragnarok.  The story is set in Los Vegas.  Corresponds to Eternity, which is even longer than Nodus Tollens 

Defenders – Season 1 – features overlap with some of the characters from Angels of Mercy as well as Annie Esposito, a mob princess of New York.  Corresponds to Pernox

Thor: Ragnarok (November 2017) – Happens as it does, except for the part where Audrey has a short-lived romance with Loki and the part where Audrey and Thor realize that they are connected in their powers.  Considering including Lindsey Dubois in this just so I can have a romance play out between her and Valkyrie (Janelle and Tessa 4ever…) but also, I might not. Corresponds to Eternity

2018

Avengers: Infinity War (April 2018) – So yeah they fight Thanos, etc.  I’m changing the way Thanos is portrayed though bc I could not get over how he looks like a thumb long enough to actually feel afraid of him so this time he’s played by John Hamm and he’s a lot more well-connected than we all thought he was.  Also, the children of Thanos are actually all children because um I think that ups the creep factor some more.  Corresponds to Eternity as well

The Real Hawkeye (October 2018) – Kate Bishop and America Chavez fighting crime.  After the snap, there’s a spike in crime against vulnerable people who have lost their caretakers.  Might be set in a cult that actually worships Thanos?  And promises that it’s all a very good thing, what’s happened?  Very much a noir, might even be in black and white a la The Lighthouse.  

2019

Lady Liberty: Resurrection (January 2019) – Audrey wakes up on the other side of the universe after being kidnapped and decides to make her way home.  Featuring Carol Danvers, Loki, Nebula, and Valkyrie. Corresponds to Eternity and kind of feels like Star Wars/GotG 

Avengers: Endgame (April 2019) – Does not happen as it was written, because it was written like trash, but the same stuff needs to happen.  They fight, they win, etc.  Corresponds to Eternity.  

2020

Black Widow: The Long Thread (whenever covid ends 2020) - just the existing Black Widow movie lol

2021

Avengers Academy – Set 20 years in the future, Avengers Academy is a TV show that follows the next generation of heroes.  Kind of soapy, kind of witty.  Like if Riverdale was good.  Driven by an ensemble cast: Margo Banner (Bruce & Audrey’s daughter), Anastasia Barton-Romanoff (Natasha and Clint’s daughter), Morgan and Leo (Tony and Pepper’s kids), and some others I have not invented yet.  

[justsomeantifas]

its 11:59 its still technically tonight so

this is gonna be my reference point to questions abt venezuela, at least regarding things pre- May 19 2019. Its a bit scattered and it may get edited down along the road, but yeah.

short version that draws some similar conclusions: https://www.salon.com/2019/05/17/the-plot-to-kill-venezuela_partner/

one difference in scales that’s important to keep in mind: the lifespan of people is 2-7 decades. the lifespan of colonialism lasts centuries. the lifespan of media memory is a couple years, tops.

Most western narratives of venezuela start meaningfully at chavez, which is a mistake. The focus point in history around which the country flowed was the Caracazo. You probably already know about this, but a massive uprising took place in the heart of Caracas, against decades of dictatorship both formal and informal, after severe instability in the global oil market. The people were hungry, the riots were fiery, and the bullets bled. knows the death toll even now, but its estimated well into the thousands.  This happened pre-chavez, and started a cascade of events which brought him into limelight that you can read about here. not gonna go into more venezuelan history, but i talk a bit more here

chavez was democratically elected, multiple times.

   in 2002, after his first democratic election, he was kidnapped by US-backed troops and replaced by someone who threw out the 1999 constitution, which was as legitimate as any other made in venezuela’s colonial and violently capitalist history, seeing as it was the first (aka only, so far) of 26 constitutions actually approved by popular referendum. He was reinstated largely due to massive protests in support of him. Maduro however doesn’t really have as much of the charisma and support of chavez, which is creating problems - as well as exacerbating problems created by the economic crises ramping up just around chavez’s death. In 2015, there were elections to the National Assembly, which ended up with the Opposition winning a majority of the seats (which does show that there’s some degree of fairness in the elections, at least verifiably up til that point, yet that isnt rly accounted for when western media describes it as “undemocratic” - many of whom don’t apply the same scrutiny to their own country: such as this UN Human Rights councilor who also happens to be the crown prince of british-iraq, currently residing in the noted democracy of the Kingdom of Jordan, which has no vested interest or control over any particular export of Venezuela.).        

This turnout showed most of all that maduro had alienated as many as 2 million of his supporters, who didnt end up voting (though many also voted against him - trying to act on their feeling that whatever they want, its “not this”). This decreasing support also accelerates whats known as “Everyday Sabotage” - people not trusting in the government, and look out for their own interests contra everyone else. This is a danger inherent to tying “Socialism” to a primarily state project.       

However 1999 Constitution was never meant as an eternal document & it created mechanisms to call for new popular constitutional referendums to be held. That’s what the “Constituent Assembly” is about, which is what a lot of the western world is describing as him singlehandedly rewriting it (while also being “vague about its contents”), or “created by him”. Elections to the constituent assembly were boycotted by opposition, so that it would be government controlled & look like a sham in the eyes of the broader world. That being said, the assembly was called both as a reaction to losing election but also in response to intensifying crises - it was put forth (i don’t see any reason to believe in bad faith) as a way to come together and figure out how to address the needs that were driving people to protest - to address the desire for “not this”, but bc of the uncertainty, it was easily twistable by reactionaries by putting all emphasis on the former. Also timing corresponds with increasing fears of maduro straying from the path of chavez, the image of scrapping one of his strongest plays for smth unknown is risky - tho if there are other meaningful options given the situation im not sure. And the body’s got at least as much constitutional legitimacy as Guaido  (Chapter III)  

The 1999 constitution also enabled a recall election to be called against maduro in 2016, bc it was written with particular attention to holding public officials accountable - similar noble commitments helped to end the presidency of Rousseff & bring in Bolsonaro (who was also one of the people spurring on the investigations and whipping up a social base).

     (speaking of guaido & bolsonaro)

on Guaido:

part of student group in 2007 protesting against non-renewal of coup-assisting network, who the CFR (one of the major think tanks of the cold war still playing a big role in foreign policy today) considered “most important network”   

close friend of Leopoldo Lopez, the aforementioned coup plotter.

politician since 2010, won a couple small elections

Unknown to majority of general population until 2019, most venezuelans surveyed didnt know him   

Plan Pais       

plans to privatize state owned industry & allow investment from foreign oil companies       

center-right neoliberal draped in platitudes of “stability”, “revitalization”, “security”, and “rescue” - a message seemingly deliberately targeted to become more and more resonant with increased sanctions.

/on Guaido

governing is about the expression of power. I wanna live in a world where that power isn’t expressed, but as long as the exploitation of the global working class continues unabated, id prefer some of that power be put towards helping the poor.     

there is no such thing as a static state of affairs, there’s no “goldilocks zone” out in the political universe where we tweak things finely until we find whats best for everyone, only different rates of change in different dimensions. what we need to do is figure out how we can push that state of affairs in a direction so that everyday people have the power to take control of their lives. re

re: “constitutionality” - if the supreme court calls it constitutional then its constitutional. period. There’s no such thing as a supreme court as an “independent branch” of government, but there are different degrees of integration into the rest of it.       

The Supreme Tribunal of Venezuela has 32 members, (a bit more than a dozen put in by the national assembly, while the PSUV held it), and the opposition holds abt 3 away from a supermajority. Each member of the court holds their spot for 12 years. If that’s “The Most Corrupt In The World” according to Transparency International, i wonder what world the 9-person lifetime-appointed US Supreme Court (2 of which appointed by trump, and save for pulling a Weekend At Ginsbergs, likely 3) is on. In fact, one of the tactics that the more radical circles of democrat voters are putting forward is to pack the Supreme Court. Because thats how shit actually gets done, or at the least how shit is prevented from being committed w the stamp of legality. FDR learned that lesson too, in trying to pass what is today known as “The New Deal”

My comparisons to trump are for specific end: these actions are exerted on levers of liberal democracy, and every single liberal democracy is susceptible to them in some ways.

whats a “dictator”? if hes unelected, the millions of people who participated in the elections dont seem to think so. if maduro is a dictator, then what is donald trump? the majority of ppl didnt vote for him yet hes still governing. macron’s popularity has at several points been less than 1/3, and the yellow vest protestors have been violently attacked - why is he not “a violent dictator with only the support of the military”? These terms are not neutral.

“their elections are highly flawed” So What? show me a country whose elections arent.   

“opposition jailed” - ok but coup plotters don’t get off easy in any liberal democracy. If someone - say Bernie Sanders - said “enough is enough” and succeeded in overthrowing the current government with the help of a foreign government…. you think they’d let him go free? what if ten years later he was getting his supporters all riled up to do it again? how long you think he’d be in jail for (assuming he can survive well into his 100’s)? You think more than 13 years? Think he’d get house arrest? Some US states lock you up for posessing weed up to 10. If you stay long enough around this blog, youll find plenty of other examples of much more cruel and unusual punishments. Look at Chelsea Manning, look at Oscar Riviera…   look at the US protestors saying Guaido is illegitimate

 what we have to keep in mind most of all, is to show that the contradictions being exploited are inherent to Liberalism. Contradictions are just expressed most freely at the margins - the interstices

poor economic decisions happen everywhere - 2008/2009 still affecting the entire world there’s violence thats “natural”, and violence thats “intolerable”. The dividing line is whether we have anything to gain by changing things.

sanctions:    started under obama, originally targeted specific individuals, used as precedent for more generalized. They’re indirect - they have a “squeezing effect”, takes already-existing problems & just makes them markedly worse. also doesn’t necessarily correlate with emigration, bc it takes a lot of money to start a new life somewhere else, and sanctions disproportionately affect the poor.   

war wouldnt likely look like (many) US boots on the ground - we’ve got plenty of other places to be. It’d look like guns being smuggled to counter-protestors. It’d look like sending resources to neighboring countries like Colombia or Brazil who would then use their troops. Colombias ruling party is right wing populists - much of current president’s campaign was run on fearmongering abt venezuelan socialism - they’re raring to go. It’d look like drones https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caracas_drone_attack. Also means there likely won’t be a sudden trigger, its a gradually escalating stressful gradually-more-warlike situation.  

If war does break out - where would the refugees go?  In reality the majority would go to Colombia, but if anything significant breaks out there will be a stream of those looking to find shelter in the US, which has advertised itself as a beacon of hope - what would happen to them? some may get taken in as a gesture of showmanship, but nowhere close to the majority.   

speaking of the US - imagine if trump and bolton manage to actually plot a winning coup. Do you think that that wont be his main bullwark against ppl like Bernie? you think the media and rest of the democratic party wont jump on that narrative and “begrudgingly” support a fascist because the alternative might mean supporting single payer and not-having-good-for-ratings-climate-apocalypse?

another term thrown around without regard is “once vibrant” - for whom?

most articles ive seen just take this as an axiom, and dont find any cognitive dissonance when also saying chavez reduced poverty hugely.

 The answer to that rhetorical question: Citgo is venezuelan, before chavez none of the wealth went back to venezuela - thats what “vibrancy” means.  

     many similarities with BP (the-artist-formerly-known-as-the-anglo-iranian-oil-company)

in age of climate change & vocal ppl about phasing out oil, the more one’s livelihood is connected to oil, the more unstable ones country will be - either that, or the more instability ones country will cause.

“Oil exports fell by $2,200 per capita from 2012 to 2016, of which $1,500 was due to the decline in oil prices.”  

The drop in price that affected the venezuelan economy so much in 2014 was largely by US shale fracking

in 1970’s Chile, copper was the main product of Chile - allende nationalized the mines, and in return wall street dropped the

(also worth noting that venezuela’s got non-insignificant untapped shale basins)      

At least venezuela used the oil money to fund social programs instead of like, pad the pockets of Raytheon.

also oil price wars in africa highly correlated w oil (whose annual production doesn’t even combined total venezuelas)

a couple ppl have raised concerns abt my strong stance on equivocal dismissal - if there’s a difference, if there’s some way of reading your statement that says “X country that the State Dept wants to invade is an anomoly in the otherwise free world”, then that’s acting to push the discourse towards normalization & invasion. It’s not “whataboutism”, just basic consistency.   

now more than ever, narratives are affected by people. They may not be ones we had a hand in forging, but the way that we propagate them actually does have measurable effects on the larger-scale political outcomes. Always look for the base assumptions, as well as the direction   

sure denounce Chavez. sure denounce Maduro. denounce Kim, Xi, Castro, anyone. But if there’s no equally or proportionally loud denunciations of the horrors perpetrated by allies - the “assumed”, “natural” violence, then you’re acting to reinforce the narrative of exceptionalism.   

Just make sure after you take a breath, you denounce Saudi Arabia & Yemen, Israel for Palestine, the conditions which brought Argentinian/Brazillian, Brazilian coup, the US for Puerto Rico, the conditions which have murdered dozens of journalists in Mexico per year…  

what people want most of all is stability. “A debate over whether it is mismanagement and corruption by the Maduro government or the sanctions that are the author of the crisis is largely irrelevant. The point is that a combination of the reliance on oil revenues and the sanctions policy has crushed the policy space for any stability in the country.”

government’s errors and tensions   

fixed exchange rate -> black market      

took 5 years to address changing relation between dollar & BsF, all the room between those two curves left a huge room for intensifying crises, though since it also corresponds with the death of chavez, it sorta makes sense.   

antidemocratic actions and remarks by maduro  

scattered responses filled w half-solutions   

diversification needed, but how do you diversify an economy filled with rampant poverty, malnutrition, illiteracy… 

(nominally begrudging) support for mineral extraction 12.4% of territory opened to extraction - “Special Economic Zone” as a method of managing decay       

this is also what much of the reality of “economic diversification” looks like

not enough socialism. (even fox agrees!) Venezuela shows the limits of Social Democracy in countries living outside of the Imperial Core - esp the dangers if you’re in the crosshairs already bc of oil         

started out as populism, gradually grew as confronted more.            shows shaping influence on political organs from actions of foreign actors - if you’ve survived a coup before, you’re gonna become paranoid about any more of them - especially when the coup plotters say “hey lets do more coups”       

also shows the weakness of only having a small number of charasmatic faces representing the movement - if one dies and theres no clear and popular replacement, then you’ll lose ppl who were largely brought in by the charisma, weakening your political project, and creating cracks for reactionary forces to take advantage of - especially in times of transition.       

bourgeoisie still control a majority of the economy.            Capitalist businesses are internally unaccountable, and in this age of intensified global trade, one can punish countries for straying from the pack by moving business & focus away. If you’re looking for dictatorships, look at the thousands of private companies run as dictatorships daily       

capital flight is a real effect, precisely because socialism is fundamentally and irreconcilably against the self-interest of the bourgeoisie. not necessarily against the interest of the humans-who-are-also-bourgeois, but of the impersonal self-sustaining force of capital.           

Have you ever pulled something out of an electrical socket, and seen a quick spark? The reason that occurs is bc of what’s called an induction current, which is a fancy physics word for flowing electricity not liking to suddenly change its flow. If you accidentally touch that spark, you might feel it, but youll live to tell the tale. But if you only take the plug out halfway & touch it, that’s a different story.  Capital flows similarly.

   my country (lithuania) has been facing sky-high emigration since the collapse of the USSR (with an added boost after 08-09), we have also consistently had one of the highest suicide rates in the world (#7), a minimum wage of about 3 Euros an hour (after a recent increase), as well as one of the highest prison populations in Europe (discounting Russia & Belarus… which like….)   

when are we gonna be invaded? when will the US media talk about our pain?  

oh wait, they did. We cried all pretty for the TV cameras, then they got a bozo nobody really knew of to denounce the government, who they called dictatorial (though it was far from ideal, massive bureaucracies dont tend to mix well with single-person-decision-making). And to be fair, the fact that the government was unpopular wasnt entirely undeserved. But what was promised to us was the idea of “Freedom”, “Free Enterprise”; to “Get Rid of Corruption” and institute “Real” Democracy". They said we’d be integrated into the glorious capitalist west, and we understood that to mean that we’d be in the position of a Germany, or at least an Austria or smth. But they never meant to integrate us into the imperial Core, we have always been seen as part of the Periphery - the “assumed” violence that “naturally” happens.    

Then we got to where we our today. Some of the stuffs more available, but expensive. Most of the bureaucracy’s still around, it just helps fewer people. We stand as an example of what to expect, in one of the best case scenarios, you would join our emigrees now making up a significant percentage of underpaid house-servants aka maids across the EU.  

if we want the people of Venezuela to be healthy, safe, and fulfilled, then:

speak out and pointing to the effects of US sanctions is incredibly important. They’ve already killed 40,000 people in the last year, and 300,000 more are in extreme danger (and millions more in long-term risk).

what does it mean when you simultaneously sanction trade with a place but also demand they let you give them humanitarian aid?

if there is to be action taken by the international community, then the US has forfeited its right to speak. They threw it away once in 2002, and obama rhetorically picked it up and dusted it off so that trump could throw it in a bigger dumpster, thats also on fire. However we also still live in a world deeply shaped by US Hegemony, so the opinions of its close trade partners & closest-knit media buds should be seen as influenced as such. Doesn’t mean that theyre wrong on everything too, but they still feel the magnetic pull of the US economy and ecosystem (as well as their own potentially imperial interests) and the effect of that force cannot be discounted.

transitioning our economies away from oil & away from globalized neoliberalism which only values peripheral states by their exports - dissolves tensions of how to produce in unproductive terrain   

socialize medicine in the US, so that drug companies run by dictatorships can’t control their lives & ours. healthcare is especially reliant on imports, sanctions affect especially strongly.  

normalize the ideas of Socialism, without taking the easy way out of “oh no dont think of Venezuela, think of sweden or denmark”. None of them are Socialist, but to avoid the complexities of Venezuela is to imagine that US attempts at socialism wouldn’t involve significant capital flight. If we don’t consider that, if we don’t have solid actionable plans to deal with that, while also facing the inherent complexity of changing material conditions, then we’re gonna waste whatever shot we get.   

redirect conversation normally centered around government towards support of the tens of thousands of small business co-operatives, where people live their daily lives in a democratic manner.

on The Communes:

    “delegating responsibility throughout all members, and bringing important decisions to the whole to work through and find the best possible solution… They create “collective criteria” together; agreements stipulating whether individuals have power over certain decisions or whether it is up to the whole group. However, he assures that these “are not rigid, they can change at any moment.” The cooperative I lived with in Venezuela had regular organizational meetings where they informally came to agreement and were even able to come back to re-evaluate decisions that didn´t seem to be satisfactory for the whole group in this same way. Decisions and decision making, in this way, are viewed as a process not contained by meetings and discussions in board rooms, but are always being analyzed and made better by the process of putting them into action, and not only by thinking them out and writing them down.”

- the “Self Government of the Producers” - aka what it looks like for cooks to govern.   

they have communal councils as well - neighborhood councils in the same vein that so many (rightfully) find inspiring in Kurdistan . They preexisted chavez, but they were able to proliferate and be given legal recognition through him. I understand that legal recognition can act to ‘name’ a body & pin it to smth that doesn’t match its requisite variety - how dynamic it is, but imo as its currently legislated it recognizes a good amount of the autonomy that they had already been excersizing. - liable to change                                government recognition of co-ops has drawbacks too, and correlates negatively with that coop’s success           

           "A good example of this intention is the de-emphasis that cooperatives in Venezuela put on advertising or “marketing” products, and instead push to find more people to become part of the cooperative, and choose the services or products they provide based on community decisions about what is needed. A cooperative I worked in […] was originally a family owned and operated theater group that traveled around the country performing theater pieces that highlighted social and environmental issues. When they joined the […] cooperative, the larger co-op did an analysis and decided they wanted a natural fruit juice concentrate producer and gave the group a loan to acquire capital and start producing. They have been doing this for only a couple of years now but have already paid back the loan to the larger cooperative and are bringing extra money in to support themselves, better their services, and supply extra funds to the larger cooperative for community projects such as the recently [2012] built community health center…                  

The cooperative services I experienced and learned about in Venezuela were health, dental, food, and a separate example of trash services. A dental cooperative […] provides quality dental services (I know because I used them) almost every day for affordable prices. You don´t have to be a member of the cooperative, and you don´t have to make an appointment. It takes only a couple of hours, and emergency situations are treated with urgency. The health center, built with funds provided by all the associated cooperatives[…], works the same way. Anyone can go there, the services are subsidized by the cooperative so they are affordable, the clinic and workspaces are clean and well taken care of, and the quality of the service is great. Worker-members of the cooperative receive health care at the facility without charge except for the massage and acupuncture services that they also provide at a really low price.

           […] food services are priced to provide more access to food for the community in which it exists. The original and persistent intention is to make the best situation for people on all ends of the process. The producers are part of the cooperative and are part of the group that decides the prices that growers get, as well as the prices that the food is sold for. This means that both farmers and workers at the market decide what to charge a person, which ultimately affects how much money the growers receive, as well as if the food is affordable for the people who need to eat who live in the city. In a normal capitalist market system these parties are separated and put up against each other, raising prices for consumers and lowering them for small producers, excluding those people from getting enough money to afford all the necessities that are typically only provided at a high price.

           One communal council, a parallel governing organization of community members linked to investment funds from the national government, in the city of Merida, Venezuela organized themselves to get funds to buy a trash collection truck. The truck at the time was used for a specific waste removal project that removed waste from their community regularly but was not a traditional collection service. However, they did have plans to expand the project to start their own collection service, and this would be provided by the commal council, an anti-capitalist organization which does not require people to pay for the service. Although this is not a “co-operative” as some hardliner co-operative enthusiasts might point out, it is a horizontal anti-capitalist organization widening access of necessary services to the larger community run by community members; following cooperative values of equity, inclusion, and solidarity I believe this to be an example of cooperative economics and action. It appears to me that economic inclusion is much more likely to widen only when those who are being excluded are included in the process of organizing the services and are in control of the economy.“

until the communes, workers cooperatives, and the like are strong enough to rule themselves, having Maduro in power is the only option given to us which doesn’t trigger the control of reactionaries. People make their own history, but not in situations of their choosing - the exact outcome isn’t predetermined, but there’s only a limited number of poles - gravitational attractors - towards which that trajectory is heading at any particular time.   

if maduro acts to squash the power of the communes, then thats a different situation. but until that point, we outside of the country must work to center any discussion on these bodies - they are the heart of the country and of whatever social revolution has occurred/is further possible. They are filled with lessons for us to learn from, and show how rich and dynamic the organized populace can be if they are allowed to control their communities. (ex of dealing with gang violence from @ 22:50)       

This is all said with recognition that many chavistas have acted against communes, the bureaucratic machine acts to co-opt much of their energy, its linguistically obscured the concept of "ownership” with that of “control”, and that the state has changed its messages over time. But the heart of the communes is what’s a priority, and they have acted against the government overstepping its bounds & mis-identifying them. But whats important is that there’s a feedback process in the gvt to actually allow them to assert their autonomy. Liberals will do their utmost to close those channels.

   If Guaido and the Popular Will take control of power, be assured that whatever gains made in organizing the everyday people of Venezuela will be at the top of the chopping block. How effective that suppression turns out to be is undetermined - it might turn out to strengthen the communes, but that outcome would be damage control, not something to try and bullseye.

Effective Propaganda knows that its more effective to control what’s left out than control what’s put in. Keep that in mind, and study trajectories and forces.

other links:

https://next.podbay.fm/podcast/1363342644/e/1551711604

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Voc08vh9cJY

https://www.counterpunch.org/2013/06/21/a-cowboy-in-caracas/

https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2017/08/03/the-tragedy-of-venezuela/

https://www.multpl.com/venezuela-gdp

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2014/04/fivethirtyeights-venezuela-problem

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-venezeulas-middle-class-is-taking-to-the-streets/

https://news.vice.com/en_us/article/bjkmq8/fiery-protest-leader-leopoldo-lopez-faces-13-year-sentence-in-venezuela

https://potent.media/minimum-sentencing-for-marijuana-possession

https://www.thoughtco.com/core-and-periphery-1435410

https://popularresistance.org/building-the-commune-radical-democracy-in-venezuela/

http://www.antiwar.com/regions/regions.php?c=Venezuela