#WHAT WAS A MEMBER OF THE ROYAL FAMILY DOING AT AN ILLEGAL CLUB? they think in fury

[cubbyhole-for-flea-bee]

so awkward to be at an already-tense party and have some serious deja vu about the enemy general

[travelerwanted]

Because I was asked to do this...

I'm going to preface this right now that I am no politician, nor am I any expert. Hell, I didn't even start college. A friend in the UK asked me to write this and gave me the questions so that I am going to attempt to the best of my knowledge answer. Again this is all @eastoniablog's fault though hey if it opens a conversation I'm all for it as long as said conversation stays respectful.

Now let's see what I have to work with.... Again I am no expert, just a normal over stressed, over worked, GenXer trying to make sense of things. Politics is WAY out of my field of expertise.

What's going on? (Had to have her clarify that this was about politics because oh man... loaded question alone here)

Oh where to start with this one... I guess I'll start with the fact that we are one fucked up country. I mean we have two main political parties, there are others, but sadly they don't get much say in anything because how our political system is set up, those with more funding usually get put on the ballot and those who can't get the funding, are usually ignored because "no one cares".

Not everyone really fits into either party and not everyone who is of legal voting age votes. but back to the question. Two parties, the Democrats and Republicans. Guess the easy way to define them would be the Democrats are the party that isn't controlled by the church.

(And I'm going to state here I'm not against Christians, I know several awesome ones, but I am against how at least with American Churches, it's convert or die (Or you go to hell, though I would rather spend an eternity there than in Heaven if it's all filled with the kind of ilk that forgets that their savior preached "Love Thy Neighbor" and traveled the known world with mostly a group of men, whores, and other outcasts). I'm Pagan, I've dabbled in church a few times, and ya know what, not a single one that I have been a member of practice what the book teaches. I may be a bit more biased because on top of being Pagan I'm an opinionated Ace woman who has known friends and family who are also Alphabet Mafia unalive themselves because of the propaganda American churches shove down our throats on a daily basis. Now with that said.. )

The other party are the Republicans, which Donald Trump is a member and has royally fucked over, because of him they proudly are showing their racism, and hatred of women (I mean really with that election and the last one ANY male that voted for him that has a daughter should be investigated in my opinion, because anyone who idolizes a man that idolizes Hitler and wants to sleep with his own daughter... Needs to have their head fucking checked!) , as well as the fact that they think people are stupid. Those who don't follow that sack of garbage, are so far into the Sunday Book Club Cult that they believe anything that a homophobe preacher tells them to believe without ya know actually reading the book themselves. This is the party that is trying to make abortion illegal because "Life begins at conception" while pretty sure the book claims that live begins when the infant takes their first breath, but again what do I know? (I've read the Bible a few times, not an expert on it, but it's not that hard to read it for yourself) This is also the party that the leader of Texas's government belongs to, and he loves life so much that when the power grid failed in his state in a winter storm, he went on vacation (In the middle of Covid lockdown mind you) and let people die from the cold.

why is this happening?

I think I covered the basics... I may have missed some points. But really everything going on now is basically because the Republicans are butt hurt that their 'god' Trump (really you listen to some of them talk and praise the ass... and some of them being women like WTF, he's stated on air that he would sleep with his daughter, and oh gods I'm not even going to go with where he wants to grab those of us who were born women.

Though to be honest, the problem didn't start with him, it probably started back in the 80's with Regan, and well the GOP (Grand old Party aka Republicans) Just kept at it once they had a taste of power. After all they're the ones that started the trickle down economics that the US is stuck with since Regan, and yeah... it doesn't work. But they refuse to give up power. And now the Republicans know if they lose control they're party is doomed (it kinda is already because of the shitstorm Trump is and was)

3) why is the cycle of voting even just continuing

They keep running the vote because the Republicans don't want to give up control, so they keep going for a recount until either the democrats give in or they get what they want.

4) I've seen comparisons to Evergiven please explain

I actually had to give this one a quick glance and I think it's because America happens to be a bigger player on the world stage, and everyone's at a standstill until we figure out what way our government is going to act.

The Ever Given was a container ship that basically froze up world trade while it was stuck in the Suez Canal for over a month. Again I'm not sure if this is why but it's the only reason I can think of. Again I am not big on the political stuff, or even really current events. The news here in the US just keeps pissing me off with all the babies getting killed by bullets because a collection of cells have more rights than a grade schooler in a school, where they're supposed to be safe. Hell the man who terrorizes those kids with a gun have more rights than those kids and their mothers right now.

5) why are all you guys glue to your seats with popcorn and laughing?

The laughter isn't joyous. It's strained laughter, the kind that you do when you have pretty much lost all hope because let's face it you know you're screwed and it's laugh or cry.

And the popcorn... It's cheap. WE spend BILLIONS on the military and they can't track all that money, and using only a fraction of that money would end homelessness and hunger in this country. Hell we have the biggest military, are the only country that happens to have bases in other countries, and we can't take care of our own citizens, which for many parts of the country, the military prey on, making it seem like that's the only way that they'll ever make a survivable income. And then the US Government treats them like shit when they are medically discharged because of trauma and injuries that were caused by doing their job in the service of their country. We have homeless Vets, Young and old, with mental trauma that they can't afford to care for, or is the cause of the crippling debt that put them on the streets...

6) what's this about beating a record?

Not so sure about this one. Again I don't pay too much attention to what's going on. I know I should but for my mental health I feel it's safer to just get little glimpses now and then, and try to keep my head down because I happen to be living in a town that is very anti me.

And lucky number 7: why is this vote so important anyway?

This one, well, the vote on who the speaker of the house is going to be will tell us how well the Senate is going to be working with the President. If the Republicans control it, they're going to make sure nothing gets done out of spite just because Biden happens to be a Democrat. And they love making it look like the president is an incompetent fool (while their own Presidents in the past have had the inability to actually speak clearly, Bush couldn't string a sentence together to sound like he was smart to save his life... and Trump is the village idiot's toenail).

I hope that answers some questions, now I'm going to go back to things that I know more about.

[aerequets]

can you give me some webtoon recommendations? name some of your favorites! :)

i am here to answer folks 😎

all of these webtoons can be found on webtoons.com! I'm not sure about the whole daily pass thing they've got going on (which sucks tbh) but like,,, you could probably find it online illegally. NOT THAT I CONDONE ILLEGAL ACTIVITY HAHAHAHA ᵖˢˢᵗ ⁱᶠ ʸᵒᵘ ˡᵒᵒᵏ ⁱᵗ'ˢ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ

I'll split these up between completed and in progress :) most are still in progress though

COMPLETED

1) Gourmet Hound (166 chapters)

this is like, my all time favorite webtoon. it follows Lucy and her quest to find all the chefs that left her favorite restaurant, Dimanche! it’s a really heartfelt story and the food illustrations make you really hungry, so make sure you have a snack before you sit down to read it. each character’s name is also food-related, so that’s pretty cool too! and the diversity in this webtoon is AMAZING. it’s the only webtoon i’ve ever read that has a hijabi character in the main cast. the development is done really well and it explores themes of loving and letting go. all in all, it has a bit of everything. i personally love food-related things, and this centers around it, so i was set LOL

(also a bonus is that this webtoon has NOT succumbed to daily pass hell, so you can binge read the whole thing. legally.)

2) Hooky (200 chapters)

if you like stories of witches, this is the one! the summary and beginning chapters are deceptively lighthearted. DO NOT BE FOOLED! the story really develops further on and explores numerous conflicts, a big one being (if i remember correctly) witch vs. nonwitch. if you like to see struggles between two sides, not a good-and-evil but just people-who-want-the-best-for-themselves-and-their-loved-ones type of thing, this is good for that. also, sibling love! the two main characters are Dani and Dorian, and while there is someee romance, i like how this story centers around the siblings first and foremost. ALSO THE ART??? I LOVE HOW THE AUTHOR DRAWS SETTINGS SO MUCH and am unabashedly jealous because i am completely incapable of doing so   just like,,,, even if the story doesn’t pull you in, you can at least stare at each panel for long stretches of time.

(unfortunately succumbed to daily pass, but you can read it on mangaowl or manganelo!)

3) Spirit Fingers (167 chapters)

aww, this one is cute. Amy is 18 and lacking in self confidence (her family definitely doesn’t help). but HEY she joins a wacky art club!! without her parents knowing!! HECK YEAH!! unfortunately it takes more than joining an art club for her to learn to love herself (it is a long journey after all!). i love this webtoon because it explores the problems of multiple people, not just amy: her high achieving brothers, her mother who had to give up her dream, the different members in the art club, Amy’s girl friends. the art is unique and has a cool watercolor-y texture! and the main couple is just adorable, too. if you’re an artist especially, i recommend this because that’s a big theme and you get to see these characters expand their art styles! which is very cool!

(you can read this one fully on 1stkissmanga)

now here’s where the majority of my recs are:

IN PROGRESS (all can be read on webtoon.com)

1) The Makeup Remover (currently 71 chapters)

i look forward to this every tuesday and friday because oh man!!!!!!!!! idk about you guys, but i am thinking about beauty standards A Large Amount of the time, especially when i consume media. and this webtoon is all about beauty standards (specifically in Korea, but still applicable like. everywhere). Main character Yeseul ends up having to partake in this beauty competition and, with her experiences through it, she begins seeing makeup and beauty standards for the huge role they play in society. i said it already but i LOVE LOVE LOVE this webtoon because it really challenges you as a reader to think about your own perspectives. why do we find the things/people beautiful that we do? what shapes our perception? how much of it is marketing, and how much of it shows in our daily lives? what assumptions do you make about people based on how they look? AGHH im sounding like an essay prompt instead of a reviewer but man. if you like webtoons that examine society through a critical lens (gosh i sound like an english teacher), this is the one. 

2) Odd Girl out (currently 261 chapters; on season 2) 

okay, first and foremost: if you’re NOT into long winded drama, this probably isn’t it for you. i will admit im not a fan of long problems that get dragged out, especially in a school setting, but i did keep reading this webtoon and i am glad that i did! the character development here is amazing and ONE CRUCIAL THING is that the whole first season (which is many, many chapters. at least over 100) focuses on the friendship between our main 4 girls. if you don’t wanna wait for a romance storyline (which comes in season 2), then you’ve gotta have the patience of a saint. i loved this though because lots of romance webtoons cast friendships aside or use them to further the romantic plot. platonic relationships are great to read about and this one does it masterfully! main character nari is resilient and emotionally strong, and it’s great to see her ruin her enemies

3) Cursed Princess Club (currently 110 chapters; on break before the final season)

this is another one about beauty and societal expectations, but in a fantasy setting! it’s really funny and the cast of characters is heartwarming. Gwen is a princess, but she doesn’t look like the typical princess. she accidentally stumbles upon the Cursed Princess Club, which is exactly what it sounds like: a club for princesses that have been cursed and are trying to find their self worth despite not being conventional princesses! now that i think about it, this is like a lighthearted mixture of Makeup Remover and Spirit Fingers. although while i do say “lighthearted”, this webtoon has its fair share of mysteries and exploration of deeper topics. but its funny throughout

4) Brass & Sass (currently 83 chapters)

ahh this one is really cute and the art is cute, too! i also like how this has a diverse cast. high schooler Camilla kinda sucks at band, but dangit if she’s not passionate. Victor is some type of musical prodigy but he’s a brass-hole (hahaha get it. no that’s not original i ripped it from the summary). now i KNOW I KNOW, the whole “perky girl and asshole guy” is so overplayed BUT DON’T FRET! this isn’t the type of story where the girl “fixes” the guy, or where the guy is an asshole to everyone except the girl. believe me, the character development and relationship development in this story is SPLENDID. there’s no real antagonist. it’s just a bunch of high schoolers trying their best to make themselves and everyone else happy, and that’s hard! the story is carried more by the characters than by the plot, but it works well in this case since the characters are strong and each one has a presence. 

5) Surviving Romance (currently 10 chapters)

this one is relatively new compared to my other recs but it’s by the author of the Makeup Remover so yaknow i had to hop on it. BUT IT IS VERY DIFFERENT! first off, it’s a horror, so keep that in mind. the best way i can describe it is a mixture of the standard “girl falls into a story” genre, Groundhog Day, and zombies. Yeah. Bascially, Chaerin is our main girl and she’s in a romance story that’s she’s read a bajillion times, so she knows the day has come for her male lead to confess his love! except he doesn’t! because he becomes a zombie instead! hahaha well that sucks! it’s only got 10 chapters but i am very into it, and it seems to be taking an emphasis on platonic relationships, so i am very closely watching 👁👁

6) The Witch and the Bull (currently 60 chapters) 

another witch story! and the art is GORGEOUS. more witch + nonwitch conflict, too! our main dude, Tan, is the royal advisor and he’s hella bigoted against witches. our main girl, Aro, happens to be a witch. and Tan needs her help to make him into a human again (because he got turned into a bull. that is worth mentioning). this is a very barebones summary and there’s a lot more that goes on, but that’s the general gist of the beginning!

ANYWAYS. this got very long, predictably, and i rambled for each title, predictably. i’ve got more that i’m reading, but i really like these 9! i also made comments on the art for a lot of them, which might not matter to some people, but i feel like my art was very impacted by each webtoon i read. if you’re an artist i recommend finding a webtoon you like and studying the art; try implementing parts you like into your own style! 

anyways, i am FINALLY done talking. bye yall 

[theunvanquishedzims]

Calming my post-election anxiety with sweet sweet logic

So Trump is a wannabe dictator with crazy screaming fans who are headed toward violent armed meltdowns. What’s to stop him from going full dictator and refusing to leave office?

I’m glad you asked!

You see, the major difference between wannabe dictators and actual dictators is ALLIES. Dictators are surrounded with tight security, aided by the military, cheered on by media that they control, and are either helped, encouraged, or just ignored by other countries with the power to stop them.

Trump has charged the Secret Service money for the privilege of protecting him and his family since day one. You remember the first year, when his wife and son refused to move to the White House so the Secret Service had to RENT FLOORS in TRUMP’S BUILDING to be close to them? And how his extended family went globetrotting and the Secret Service had to accompany them? And when Trump himself insisted on hosting people at his golf club, he made the Secret Service RENT GOLF CARTS from TRUMP’S CLUB to follow him while he went golfing?

The end result was that halfway through the first year of his presidency, the Secret Service could not pay their own wages. Because half their yearly budget had gone straight to Trump’s pockets. And that’s just financially. I think we all remember how the White House came down with Covid and Trump still insisted on Secret Service agents driving him around to wave at people. He has not been kind to the people who are sworn to protect him. These people have had a front-row seat to his circus since 2016. When the time comes from Trump to leave the White House and Biden to take over, I doubt they’ll betray the country out of loyalty to Trump. If anything, they’ll be the ones to drag him out.

As for the military, Trump insulted and fired four generals from his administration staff. He said on multiple occasions that soldiers who get captured or killed are suckers and losers. He refused to visit a cemetery to honor the dead because it was raining. He tries to pander to the military by massive increases in defense spending, but that money goes to capitalists who make weapons and war technology, not the soldiers or veterans. (He also hypocritically accused military officials of being in bed with those same companies.) In a poll of 1000 service members 50% said they disliked Trump. Overall, he doesn’t act like a leader, and the way he skirts responsibility (like taking charge during the pandemic) doesn’t appeal to a group that functions on trust in their leadership.

A proper dictator would have spent the last four years cozying up to his generals and making sure they knew the financial and social benefits of answering to him personally, not the office of the President. And while Trump did adhere to the adage “find a foreign foe” to unite people against, he badly misjudged what most US citizens consider “foreign.” He hasn’t found a villain that we would root for the military taking down, and the people he targets (Latinx, Blacks, immigrants, and people in countries our military has already devastated) are not a minority he can turn the majority of the country against, especially with how many of the former two serve in the military themselves. When the time comes for him to leave office, the military might be the first to cut ties with the wannabe Dictator-in-Chief.

Now, the media. They’ve been treating him like a joke candidate since day one, but after he was actually elected and took office they’ve started to take him more seriously. He’s gotten his catchphrase “fake news!” to catch on, but that doesn’t change the fact that under his administration news reporters have been harassed, illegally arrested, and generally poorly treated by Trump, especially if they’re women. He’s trashed talked everyone, with Fox News being the last bastion of semi-legitimate news that openly supports him (and their credibility has taken a big hit over it.)

Despite this support, in recently months Trump has been increasingly dumping on Fox, even throwing the mediator they provided for the debate under the bus, and risking alienating them in the process. If his supporters listen to him and start considering Fox part of Big Fake News, it might possibly be the death of Fox, leaving most of his supporters adrift and isolated from their source of right-wing news, and sending the more extreme fringes into the arms of conspiracy theory websites. (I’m not saying this is bad, being cut off from Fox and its toxic stream of “information” can actually help rehabilitate the right.)

Honestly, I don’t think Trump ever had a shot at controlling the media like a dictator would, mainly because of social media. He’s in love with attention, and Twitter has provided him a nonstop stream of it. No other President has threatened, insulted, promoted, or hinted at war over social media the way Trump has, and he gets so much direct feedback and interaction with the public and the world as a result. He could have leveraged that by buying the company (through a shell corporation, obviously) and setting it up as The One True Source of Information, manipulating public perception of him and his administration by keeping a tight grip on what information he let out.

But he’s just. Not. That. Clever. He blurts out everything that crosses his mind, leaving his administration to play clean-up on his messes, put out fires he keeps pouring gasoline on, and claim he’s joking when everyone knows he’s testing the limits on what he can get away with saying. He took advantage of the direct communication with legions of supporters, but seemed to forget that his detractors had equal access and would absolutely call him out on things he definitely said, it’s right there on his Twitter account, they have the Tweet pulled up on their phone right now. Instead of operating a single state-run media outlet while crushing all free press and limiting internet access like other dictators, he’s mooned the world’s cameras and acted surprised when they put his saggy butt on tv. “Fake news! That’s not my butt! THIS is my butt! [image attached]” he tweets. “Twitter is so biased, they haven’t censored any of Sleepy Joe’s photos!” he later tweets.

And lastly. The key to a dictatorship’s success. To prevent outside intervention, the country a dictator runs must be unimportant and ignored, wealthy and well-connected, or scary and well-armed. Minor warlords are the former, Putin is the latter, Trump might have weaseled his way into being the middle. But at the end of the day, America’s whole thing is new leadership every four years. It was revolutionary to replace a lineage of kings and queens stretching generations with a non-royal elected leader who only held office for four to eight years, but we’ve stuck to that for 200 years and everyone’s used to it by now. It would take a charismatic and powerful person to move the American people towards abolishing such a basic tenant of our democracy, and despite the mob mentality that lead a small portion of his supporters to chant “sixteen more years!” in the heat of the moment, Trump is not that charismatic. He’s not that smart. He’s not that well-connected. He’s not that savvy. He’s not that good at politics. And he’s not that powerful.

(I was going to say something here about him being the laughingstock of the world’s leaders and shouldn’t expect any outsiders to help him stay in power, especially since his tax returns came out and showed he owes people a ton of money that he doesn’t have, but this post is long enough so let’s cut to the chase.)

Trump is a greedy, small-minded man that has clung to power by appealing to the worst in humanity and scraping away at the best. But he hasn’t succeeded. He’s a sad old man who will say anything to be loved, and I don’t think he even knows what love is, so he’ll settle for attention. He doesn’t have money, he doesn’t have an army, and the only allies he has are using him as a political pawn to further their own interests. They will cut him loose the minute he stops being useful.

Now, the bad part: crazy screaming fans. Fringe groups on the internet. Mobs chanting “sixteen more years!” Men with guns and bombs and kidnapping plots, men trying to get into voting centers to destroy the election, men driving trucks with black flags that say FUCK YOUR FEELINGS, TRUMP 2020 (available on Amazon for $11.99, I wish I was joking.) I have no idea how many people in this country genuinely love Trump. It is hopefully significantly less than voted for him. There are some big issues in this country that are make-or-break, and unfortunately by reason of running Republican Trump has aligned himself with some of them.

There are people who hate everything about Trump, but he put a pro-life judge on the Supreme Court so they’re voting for him. There are people who are uncomfortable with Trump, but they’ve forgiven their grandpa for saying worse at Thanksgiving dinner, so they’ll vote for him. There are people who don’t know a single thing about Donald Trump, but they see (Republican) next to his name on the ballot, so they vote for him. None of that means those people will side with him if he tries to make a move towards dictatorship.

Now there are people who love Trump. They’ve heard and seen the vile things he’s said and done, and are genuinely okay with it, because they are full of hate and rage and want to change the world to put themselves on top. I do not know how many of these people there are. I know they exist all over the country, not just in red states. I know some of them have guns and want a reason to use them, because they’ve been talking about it for decades. I don’t know if we can trust the police to side with us over them if fights start breaking out. (And I pray pray PRAY people de-escalate any fights, because monkey see monkey do, and one news report of a MAGA extremist shooting someone can inspire a hundred copycats can lead to full-on civil war like we've never seen.) I know we need to be careful the next few months, to take care of ourselves and watch out for the more vulnerable in our communities.

And above all, I know this: Trump is not going to keep this country. He got it through trickery and deceit and foreign influence and national indifference and people not taking him seriously. We’ve learned. We’ve grown. We’re taking him seriously now, and we will not let him take what we’ve already told him he can’t have. The election is over. He’s a loser. He’d better start packing his bags. Because he’s not staying in office.

[semiotexte]

As the years passed, I learned to think of dreams as an integral part of life. There are dreams that, because of their sensory intensity, their realism or precisely their lack of realism, deserve to be introduced into autobiography, just as much as events that were actually lived through. Life begins and ends in the unconscious; the actions we carry out while fully lucid are only little islands in an archipelago of dreams. No existence can be completely rendered in its happiness or its madness without taking into account oneiric experiences. It’s Calderón de la Barca’s maxim reversed: it’s not a matter of thinking that life is a dream, but rather of realizing that dreams are also a form of life. It is just as strange to think, like the Egyptians, that dreams are cosmic channels through which the souls of ancestors pass in order to communicate with us, as to claim, as some of the neurosciences do, that dreams are a “cut-and-paste” of elements experienced by the brain during waking life, elements that return in the dream’s REM phase, while our eyes move beneath our eyelids, as if they were watching. Closed and sleeping, eyes continue to see. Therefore, it is more appropriate to say that the human psyche never stops creating and dealing with reality, sometimes in dreams, sometimes in waking life.

Whereas over the course of the past few months my waking life has been, to use the euphemistic Catalan expression, “good, so long as we don’t go into details,” my oneiric life has had the power of a novel by Ursula K. Le Guin. During one of my recent dreams, I was talking with the artist Dominique González-Foerster about my problem of geographic dislocation: after years of a nomadic life, it is hard for me to decide on a place to live in the world. While we were having this conversation, we were watching the planets spin slowly in their orbits, as if we were two giant children and the solar system were a Calder mobile. I was explaining to her that, for now, in order to avoid the conflict that the decision entailed, I had rented an apartment on each planet, but that I didn’t spend more than a month on any one of them, and that this situation was economically and physically unsustainable. Probably because she is the creator of the Exotourisme project, Dominique in this dream was an expert on extraterrestrial real-estate management. “If I were you, I’d have an apartment on Mars and I’d keep a pied-à-terre on Saturn,” she was saying, showing a great deal of pragmatism, “but I’d get rid of the Uranus apartment. It’s much too far away.”

Awake, I don’t know much about astronomy; I don’t have the slightest idea of the positions or distances of the different planets in the solar system. But I consulted the Wikipedia page on Uranus: it is in fact one of the most distant planets from Earth. Only Neptune, Pluto, and the dwarf planets Haumea, Makemake, and Eris are farther away. I read that Uranus was the first planet discovered with the help of a telescope, eight years before the French Revolution. With the help of a lens he himself had made, the astronomer and musician William Herschel observed it one night in March in a clear sky, from the garden of his house at 19 New King Street, in the city of Bath. Since he didn’t yet know if it was a huge star or a tailless comet, they say that Herschel called it “Georgium Sidus,” the Georgian Star, to console King George III for the loss of the British colonies in America: England had lost a continent, but the King had gained a planet. Thanks to Uranus, Herschel was able to live on a generous royal pension of two hundred pounds a year. Because of Uranus, he abandoned both music and the city of Bath, where he was a chapel organist and director of public concerts, and settled in Windsor so that the King could be sure of his new conquest by observing it through a telescope. Because of Uranus, they say, Herschel went mad, and spent the rest of his life building the largest telescope of the eighteenth century, which the English called “the monster.” Because of Uranus, they say, Herschel never played the oboe again. He died at the age of eighty-four: the number of years it takes for Uranus to go around the sun. They say that the tube of his telescope was so wide that the family used it as a dining hall at his funeral.

Uranus is what astrophysicists call a “gas giant.” Made up of ice, methane, and ammonia, it is the coldest planet in the solar system, with winds that can exceed nine hundred kilometers per hour. In short, the living conditions are not especially suitable. So Dominique was right: I should leave the Uranus apartment.

But dream functions like a virus. From that night forward, while I’m awake, the sensation of having an apartment on Uranus increases, and I am more and more convinced that the place I should live is over there.

For the Greeks, as for me in this dream, Uranus was the solid roof of the world, the limit of the celestial vault. Uranus was regarded as the house of the gods in many Greek invocation rituals. In mythology, Uranus is the son that Gaia, the Earth, conceived alone, without insemination or coition. Greek mythology is at once a kind of retro sci-fi story anticipating in a do-it-yourself way the technologies of reproduction and bodily transformation that will appear throughout the twentieth and twenty-first centuries; and at the same time a kitschy TV series in which the characters give themselves over to an unimaginable number of relationships outside the law. Thus Gaia married her son Uranus, a Titan often represented in the middle of a cloud of stars, like a sort of Tom of Finland dancing with other muscle-bound guys in a techno club on Mount Olympus. From the incestuous and ultimately not very heterosexual relationships between heaven and earth, the first generation of Titans were born, including Oceanus (Water), Chronos (Time), and Mnemosyne (Memory) … Uranus was both the son of the Earth and the father of all the others. We don’t quite know what Uranus’s problem was, but the truth is that he was not a good father: either he forced his children to remain in Gaia’s womb, or he threw them into Tartarus as soon as they were born. So Gaia convinced one of her children to carry out a contraceptive operation. You can see in the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence the representation that Giorgio Vasari made in the sixteenth century of Chronos castrating his father Uranus with a scythe. Aphrodite, the goddess of love, emerged from Uranus’s amputated genital organs �� which could imply that love comes from the disjunction of the body’s genital organs, from the displacement and externalization of genital force.

This form of nonheterosexual conception, cited in Plato’s Symposium, was the inspiration for the German lawyer Karl Heinrich Ulrichs to come up with the word Uranian [Urning] in 1864 to designate what he called relations of the “third sex.” In order to explain men’s attraction to other men, Ulrichs, after Plato, cut subjectivity in half, separated the soul from the body, and imagined a combination of souls and bodies that authorized him to reclaim dignity for those who loved against the law. The segmentation of soul and body reproduces in the domain of experience the binary epistemology of sexual difference: there are only two options. Uranians are not, Ulrich writes, sick or criminal, but feminine souls enclosed in masculine bodies attracted to masculine souls.

This is not a bad idea to legitimize a form of love that, at the time, could get you hanged in England or in Prussia, and that, today, remains illegal in seventy-four countries and is subject to the death penalty in thirteen, including Nigeria, Pakistan, Iran, and Qatar; a form of love that constitutes a common motive for violence in family, society, and police in most Western democracies.

Ulrichs does not make this statement as a lawyer or scientist: he is speaking in the first person. He does not say “there are Uranians,” but “I am a Uranian.” He asserts this, in Latin, on August 18, 1867, after having been condemned to prison and after his books have been banned by an assembly of five hundred jurists, members of the German Parliament, and a Bavarian prince—an ideal audience for such confessions. Until then, Ulrichs had hidden behind the pseudonym “Numa Numantius.” But from that day on, he speaks in his own name, he dares to taint the name of his father. In his diary, Ulrichs confesses he was terrified, and that, just before walking onto the stage of the Grand Hall of the Odeon Theater in Munich, he had been thinking about running away, never to return. But he says he suddenly remembered the words of the Swiss writer Heinrich Hössli, who a few years before had defended sodomites (though not, however, speaking in his own name): “Two ways lie before me,” Hössli wrote, “to write this book and expose myself to persecution, or not to write it and be full of guilt until the day I am buried. Of course I have encountered the temptation to stop writing … But before my eyes appeared the images of the persecuted and the wretched prospect of such children who have not yet been born, and I thought of the unhappy mothers at their cradles, rocking their cursed yet innocent children! And then I saw our judges with their eyes blindfolded. Finally, I imagined my gravedigger slipping the cover of my coffin over my cold face. Then, before I submitted, the imperious desire to stand up and defend the oppressed truth possessed me … And so I continued to write with my eyes resolutely averted from those who have worked for my destruction. I do not have to choose between remaining silent or speaking. I say to myself: speak or be judged!”

Ulrichs writes in his journal that the judges and Parliamentarians seated in Munich’s Odeon Hall cried out, as they listened to his speech, like an angry crowd: End the meeting! End the meeting! But he also notes that one or two voices were raised to say: Let him continue! In the midst of a chaotic tumult, the President left the theater, but some Parliamentarians remained. Ulrichs’s voice trembled. They listened.

But what does it mean to speak for those who have been refused access to reason and knowledge, for us who have been regarded as mentally ill? With what voice can we speak? Can the jaguar or the cyborg lend us their voices? To speak is to invent the language of the crossing, to project one’s voice into an interstellar expedition: to translate our difference into the language of the norm; while we continue, in secret, to practice a strange lingo that the law does not understand.

So Ulrichs was the first European citizen to declare publicly that he wanted to have an apartment on Uranus. He was the first mentally ill person, the first sexual criminal to stand up and denounce the categories that labeled him as sexually and criminally diseased.

He did not say, “I am not a sodomite.” On the contrary, he defended the right to practice sodomy between men, calling for a reorganization of the systems of signs, for a change of the political rituals that defined the social recognition of a body as healthy or sick, legal or illegal. He invented a new language and a new scene of enunciation. In each of Ulrichs’s words addressed from Uranus to the Munich jurists resounds the violence generated by the dualist epistemology of the West. The entire universe cut in half and solely in half. Everything is heads or tails in this system of knowledge. We are human or animal. Man or woman. Living or dead. We are the colonizer or the colonized. Living organism or machine. We have been divided by the norm. Cut in half and forced to remain on one side or the other of the rift. What we call “subjectivity” is only the scar that, over the multiplicity of all that we could have been, covers the wound of this fracture. It is over this scar that property, family, and inheritance were founded. Over this scar, names are written and sexual identities asserted.

On May 6, 1868, Karl Maria Kertbeny, an activist and defender of the rights of sexual minorities, sent a handwritten letter to Ulrichs in which for the first time he used the word homosexual to refer to what his friend called “Uranians.” Against the antisodomy law promulgated in Prussia, Kertbeny defended the idea that sexual practices between people of the same sex were as “natural” as the practices of those he calls—also for the first time—“heterosexuals.” For Kertbeny, homosexuality and heterosexuality were just two natural ways of loving. For medical jurisprudence at the end of the nineteenth century, however, homosexuality would be reclassified as a disease, a deviation, and a crime.

I am not speaking of history here. I am speaking to you of your lives, of mine, of today. While the notion of Uranianism has gone somewhat astray in the archives of literature, Kertbeny’s concepts would become authentic biopolitical techniques of dealing with sexuality and reproduction over the course of the twentieth century, to such an extent that most of you continue to use them to refer to your own identity, as if they were descriptive categories. Homosexuality would remain listed until 1975 in Western psychiatric manuals as a sexual disease. This remains a central notion, not only in the discourse of clinical psychology, but also in the political languages of Western democracies.

When the notion of homosexuality disappeared from psychiatric manuals, the notions of intersexuality and transsexuality appear as new pathologies for which medicine, pharmacology, and law suggest remedies. Each body born in a hospital in the West is examined and subjected to the protocols of evaluation of gender normality invented in the fifties in the United States by the doctors John Money and John and Joan Hampson: if the baby’s body does not comply with the visual criteria of sexual difference, it will be submitted to a battery of operations of “sexual reassignment.” In the same way, with a few minor exceptions, neither scientific discourse nor the law in most Western democracies recognizes the possibility of inscribing a body as a member of human society unless it is assigned either masculine or feminine gender. Transsexuality and intersexuality are described as psychosomatic pathologies, and not as the symptoms of the inadequacy of the politico-visual system of sexual differentiation when faced with the complexity of life.

How can you, how can we, organize an entire system of visibility, representation, right of self-determination, and political recognition if we follow such categories? Do you really believe you are male or female, that we are homosexual or heterosexual, intersexed or transsexual? Do these distinctions worry you? Do you trust them? Does the very meaning of your human identity depend on them? If you feel your throat constricting when you hear one of these words, do not silence it. It’s the multiplicity of the cosmos that is trying to pierce through your chest, as if it were the tube of a Herschel telescope.

Let me tell you that homosexuality and heterosexuality do not exist outside of a dualistic, hierarchical epistemology that aims at preserving the domination of the paterfamilias over the reproduction of life. Homosexuality and heterosexuality, intersexuality and transsexuality do not exist outside of a colonial, capitalist epistemology, which privileges the sexual practices of reproduction as a strategy for managing the population and the reproduction of labor, but also the reproduction of the population of consumers. It is capital, not life, that is being reproduced. These categories are the map imposed by authority, not the territory of life. But if homosexuality and heterosexuality, intersexuality and transsexuality, do not exist, then who are we? How do we love? Imagine it.

Then, I remember my dream and I understand that my trans condition is a new form of Uranism. I am not a man and I am not a woman and I am not heterosexual I am not homosexual I am not bisexual. I am a dissident of the sex-gender system. I am the multiplicity of the cosmos trapped in a binary political and epistemological system, shouting in front of you. I am a Uranian confined inside the limits of techno-scientific capitalism.

Like Ulrichs, I am bringing no news from the margins; instead, I bring you a piece of horizon. I come with news of Uranus, which is neither the realm of God nor the sewer. Quite the contrary. I was assigned a female sex at birth. They said I was lesbian. I decided to self-administer regular doses of testosterone. I never thought I was a man. I never thought I was a woman. I was several. I didn’t think of myself as transsexual. I wanted to experiment with testosterone. I love its viscosity, the unpredictability of the changes it causes, the intensity of the emotions it provokes forty-eight hours after taking it. And, if the injections are regular, its ability to undo your identity, to make organic layers of the body emerge that otherwise would have remained invisible. Here as everywhere, what matters is the measure: the dosage, the rhythm of injections, the order of them, the cadence. I wanted to become unrecognizable. I wasn’t asking medical institutions for testosterone as hormone therapy to cure “gender dysphoria.” I wanted to function with testosterone, to experience the intensity of my desire through it, to multiply my faces by metamorphosing my subjectivity, creating a body that was a revolutionary machine. I undid the mask of femininity that society had plastered onto my face until my identity documents became ridiculous, obsolete. Then, with no way out, I agreed to identify myself as a transsexual, as a “mentally ill person,” so that the medico-legal system would acknowledge me as a living human body. I paid with my body for the name I bear.

By making the decision to construct my subjectivity with testosterone, the way the shaman constructs his with plants, I take on the negativity of my time, a negativity I am forced to represent and against which I can fight only from this paradoxical incarnation, which is to be a trans man in the twenty-first century, a feminist bearing the name of a man in the #MeToo movement, an atheist of the hetero-patriarchal system turned into a consumer of the pharmacopornographic industry. My existence as a trans man constitutes at once the acme of the sexual ancien régime and the beginning of its collapse, the climax of its normative progression and the signal of a proliferation still to come.

I have come to talk to you—to you and to the dead, or rather, to those who live as if they were already dead—but I have come especially to talk to the cursed, innocent children who are yet to be born. Uranians are the survivors of a systematic, political attempt at infanticide: we have survived the attempt to kill in us, while we were not yet adults, and while we could not defend ourselves, the radical multiplicity of life and the desire to change the names of all things. Are you dead? Will they be born tomorrow? I congratulate you, belatedly or in advance.

I bring you news of the crossing, which is the realm of neither God nor the sewer. Quite the contrary. Do not be afraid, do not be excited, I have not come to explain anything morbid. I have not come to tell you what a transsexual is, or how to change your sex, or at what precise instant a transition is good or bad. Because none of that would be true, no truer than the ray of afternoon sun falling on a certain spot on the planet and changing according to the place from which it is seen. No truer than that the slow orbit described by Uranus as it revolves above the Earth is yellow. I cannot tell you everything that goes on when you take testosterone, or what that does in your body. Take the trouble to administer the necessary doses of knowledge to yourself, as many as your taste for risk allows you.

I have not come for that. As my indigenous Chilean mother Pedro Lemebel said, I do not know why I come, but I am here. In this Uranian apartment that overlooks the gardens of Athens. And I’ll stay a while. At the crossroads. Because intersection is the only place that exists. There are no opposite shores. We are always at the crossing of paths. And it is from this crossroad that I address you, like the monster who has learned the language of humans.

I no longer need, like Ulrichs, to assert that I am a masculine soul enclosed in a woman’s body. I have no soul and no body. I have an apartment on Uranus, which certainly places me far from most earthlings, but not so far that you can’t come see me. Even if only in dream …

[hello-robin-goodfellow]

THE DIFERENT CYCLES OF NOSTALGIA FILTER

Most of the nostalgia towards the past is based on Nostalgia Filter. The good stuff is remembered and the bad stuff ignored, forgotten or not even taken in account. When it's about a time period Two Decades Behind people will be nostalgic for it because they experienced it themselves, but from the viewpoint of a child or a teenager, when they didn't have to worry about all the adult stuff that depresses them nowadays, because the grownups took care of all that: taxes, work, bills, tragic news events,... If the nostalgia is about a time period people didn't directly experience themselves the romanticism is even more rampant. People will base their rosy posy image of that time period on stuff they have seen and read in books, comic strips, cartoons, TV series, films, old photos and/or fond memories of older family members. Usually they aren't aware that many things they now take for granted didn't always exist back then or were still considered highly controversial.

The glories of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome where the cradle of philosophy and science started, everyone is able to enlist in the army (well, if you weren't a woman or a slave, of course) and see the world while doing so. You can go and enjoy watching Olympic Games, a play in the theater or watch exciting gladiator battles in the arena, philosophers like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and Virgil are respected as pillars of their societies, and people were opened to sex and LGBT as opposed to the close-minded Christians in later centuries. Not taken in account: class systems, people dying early of diseases we nowadays have proper treatment for, slavery, democracy only for rich upperclass males citizens, bloody battles, Roman military service had to be fulfilled several years! before you could retire and start a civilian life, women having no rights, not even allowed to watch sporting games, xenophobia was so prevalent that would make modern prejudices and bigotry look tame, scientific contributions were more based on superstitions and empirical and weren't always based on logic (see Plato's and Aristotle's works), pederasty was the only accepted form of homosexuality and it was punishable if a relationship did not fit in those criteria (also it was only tolerated in some city and states), Roman sexuality was still arguably patriarchal and not all sexual taboo was acceptable (ie. a wealthy man get away with his slaves while married women were expected to be faithful, oral sex was considered shameful).

The thousand years of Chinese dynasties up until Republic was the time where people dressed in beautiful colorful haifu with good etiquette and manners, scholars were appreciated, education was valued as opposed during the Cultural Revolution, the Tang Dynasty was the golden age of prosperity and where women has more rights than any other periods. Not taken in account: the Confucians were oppressive against the lower social classes, the caste system, education systems were corrupted with many scholars and students were promoted based on bribes rather than actual skills, women were still considered inferior in the Tang Dynasty, the royal court were so deadly and decadent that would make the place in wuxia media look tame, slavery, the rebellions and civil wars (ie. The Three Kingdoms, An Lushan Rebellion, Taiping Rebellion) that were very common that cost million of lives that went unheard of and resulted in many famine and diseases that led to cannibalism, footbinding was practiced since the Song Dynasty, xenophobia was prevalent including against their sister countries like Japan and Korea.

The Middle Ages are usually romanticized as a glorious past with chivalrous knights fighting for the honor of beautiful princesses, proving their worth in tournaments, stuffing themselves at royal buffets with the kind old king, and defending castles against malevolent invaders. Not taken in account: The Plague, wars, mercenaries and soldiers plundering farms and villages, filthy streets, people dying at a young age because of insufficient knowledge of diseases, the injustice of the feudal system, monarchs and the Catholic Church being oppressive towards people with other viewpoints, high illiteracy, people executed and tortured for audience's pleasure and often without anything resembling a fair trial, women considered being lesser in status than men, famine whenever harvests failed... Ironically, the part that was arguably good, the Byzantine Empire (with its extremely high literacy and such luxuries as running water) is usually overlooked or completely ignored.

The Renaissance and The Enlightenment are the time when society finally got out of the bleak, primitive and God fearing Dark Middle Ages and gained wisdom by discovering a lot of stuff. Kings and queens never looked more magnificent. Artists and sculptors painted the finest works and humanists, philosophers and Protestants learned humanity to think for themselves. You could enjoy a Shakespeare play, listen to baroque classical music or have a swashbuckling duel. Not taken in account: A lot of new thought and discoveries in the field of science were very slowly adapted into society. Mostly because a lot of royals, religious authorities and other government officials suppressed these "dangerous" new ideas. Compared to those "primitive" Middle Ages more people have been hanged or burned on the stake for their beliefs and/or on the assumption that they were witches during the 1500s, 1600s and 1700s than in the centuries before! The Reformation and Counter-Reformation divided Europe and caused many casualties. All the great books and art works created during this era were only enjoyed or experienced by the very rich. Wars still ravaged Europe, colonization exploited other continents, slavery became a real industry and absolutism made the monarchy and nobility so powerful and decadent that they didn't care about the lower classes. Duels weren't glorious at all, just a matter of killing off your opponent.

The Golden Age of Piracy is one big adventure where you could go on a boat trip with pirates and have fun attacking other ships, taking gold and bury or search for treasure on some Deserted Island. Men were real men with a Badass Beard and cool looking eye patches, hooks for hands and wooden legs. Not taken in account: scurvy, people forced to do what their captain told them, your ship being attacked by other ships and losing, keelhauling, loot just being spent instead of buried, anti-piracy laws could get you arrested and hanged, storms could destroy your ship, all the cool looking eye patches, hooks for hands and wooden legs were just practical solutions for grievous injuries suffered during fights, and the fact that most of the Caribbean economy was reliant on the slave trade. There were also plenty of brutal attacks on helpless villages, indigenous communities, plantations, civilian ships, and even colonial settlements. In addition to helping themselves to everything that wasn't tied down, pirates would also torture, murder, enslave, and/or rape men, women, and children indiscriminately just for their own sick pleasure.

America's Wild West is a fun era where you could roam the prairie on a horse, visit saloons and shoot outlaws and Indians. Not taken in account: slavery was not abolished until deep in the 19th century and still going on in many colonies or remote place in the American South, cowboys took care of cattle and didn't engage in gun fights, gun violence was just as illegal as it is nowadays and could get you arrested by local sheriffs, outlaws could actually remain on the loose for several years, Native Americans being massacred by white settlers and armies, black people having no basic human rights, The Ku Klux Klan was a respected organization...)

The mid-to-late 19th century and early 20th century were a classy time period where everybody was impeccably dressed and had good manners. You could take a coach ride or (later on) test the "horseless carriage", read some of the greatest novels in history, listen to the first records or even the great Caruso in person, admire the wonders of electricity and enjoy a world still untouched by modern industry. Life in the colonies was even more fun because you so many countries were still unexplored territory and the ideal place for adventure. Not taken in account: Victorian values were dominant, women couldn't vote, poor people couldn't vote, industrialization didn't have any health, safety or ethical rules to obey, child labor was rampant, workers had no rights, factories were very harmful to people's health and the environment, city rivers were open sewers, upper class had all the advantages upon the lower class, people could be sent to the poor house when they couldn't pay their debts, many novels were just pulp (think of it as the 19th century version of Internet) and music was strictly symphonic, the first automobiles were as dangerous as electricity, colonization was great for white Europeans but not as much for the oppressed native populations of Africa and Asia, animals were still hunted down as trophies, people who looked different were exploited in freak shows and circuses for spectators to Come to Gawk.

The Interbellum (1920s and 1930s): Between the two world wars, life was great. Everybody went to night clubs and/or revue theaters where they could enjoy great jazz music, girls and comedians. Movie theaters were a great place to be, because fantastic cinematic masterpieces were made. On the radio you could great music and serials, and newspapers published the best and most engaging comic strips ever printed. Not taken in account: From 1920 until 1933 alcohol was prohibited in the USA, so having an alcoholic drink was impossible without getting arrested or dying because of bad homemade brew. Crime was able to organize itself in a way that will probably never get untangled again. Many people got murdered in gangster violence. Jazz music was initially seen as "barbaric" just because it was made by blacks, and it had to be adapted to symphonic music to make it well-known. Hollywood in its early years was subject to more scandals than ever since, leading to a industry-wide censorship that lasted until the 1960s. The Great Depression between 1929 and 1940 caused major unemployment and poverty in many civilized countries, also forcing quite some people to start a life in crime. The "Dust Bowl" generated a desertification of the Midwest. Germany was particularly struck hard, because the country was still paying huge war debts to other countries, causing mass poverty and the ideal atmosphere for Nazism to gain voters. Many countries during this time period suffered under either Nazism, Fascism or Communism. From 1933 on Jewish, homosexual, Romani and left wing people were already persecuted in Nazi Germany, at the same time disagreeing in anything with Stalin meant a one-way ticket to Siberia. War was already brewing in Europe and the Far East, when Japan invaded China and South East Asia. Many countries were still colonies, which wasn't a great deal for the natives there. Afro-Americans were still second class citizens and the Ku Klux Klan was still quite powerful in many political circles.

The '40s and World War II, the time where the entire world was united against a common evil foe and soldiers could still fight a just cause. Everybody worked together to defeat the Nazis or Japanese, while enjoying great Hollywood films and jazz and big band records on the radio. Not taken in account: Not everyone was united against the Axis. Numerous people (even Lindbergh and Ford) didn't consider Nazism or Fascism anything bad or felt their country should stay neutral in the war. During the occupations many people on both sides were arrested, deported, and/or murdered. People couldn't trust anyone, because your neighbor might be a Nazi collaborator or a spy who would turn you in to the authorities. The Nazis banned American and English music and films in Europe, so you could get in big trouble if you tried. Also, you know, there was a big war on. Millions of young soldiers were drafted and died on the battlefield, cities were bombed and occupied by enemy armies, you could die any day, shortages were rife.

The '50s: The last truly great time period in history. Music, films, politicians were nice, clean and decent. There was a general optimistic feeling about the future, exemplified in sunny fashions, interiors and technology. The youth enjoyed some great rock 'n' roll on their transistor radios and the early TV shows show how happy and pleased everybody was. Not taken in account: the Cold War, the Red Scare, anti-communist witch hunts, the Korean War, the French Indochina War, many European countries tried violently oppressing the inevitable independence of their colonies, Afro-Americans were still second-rate citizens in the USA and had to fight for human rights, homosexuals were forced to keep their sexual identity silent in many countries, the traditional role of women as housewives was still encouraged in many Western countries, a lot of music in the hit parade was still the bland, square, formulaic and sappy crooner music popular since the 20s, adults were scared of early rock 'n' roll and actually did everything to suppress the youth from listening to it and becoming teenage delinquents, the TV shows and films of that decade were so escapist that they ignored every controversial element.

The '60s and The '70s, a great time when everybody was a beatnik or a hippie and enjoyed fantastic rock music, marijuana, LSD and free love. People chased bad guys with their own hands with cool funk and disco music playing in the background. The young demonstrated for more democratic rights and everything changed for the better. Not taken in account: the older generation looked down upon hippies, the Vietnam War cost many lives, The Cuba Missile Crisis nearly caused a nuclear war between the USA and USSR, Afro-Americans still had to fight for civil rights, just like today there were just as much idealistic but naïve demonstrators who merely wasted time smoking pot instead of actually doing something, drug casualties were just as rampant back then as they are today, people took the law on their hands because of the alarming crime rates, not helped by the extreme corruption of police forces, psychedelic rock, funk and disco are now confined to sit in the shadow of both rock-and-roll and modern pop music, to the point that for decades, these were considered as the most cheesy genres created by man, [[not all demonstrators were pacifistic in their approach and it's an open question whether everything actually changed for the better.

The '80s: Oh yes. A great decade for pop culture after the sordid '70s and before everything went to the gutter in the '90s: Everybody felt a bright future coming along, as demonstrated by good TV shows, groundbreaking technology, computers and videogames, colorful clothing, simple yet catchy pop music and finally a TV channel that showed your favorite bands 24/7. The Cold War came to an end, the Berlin Wall and Apartheid fell. Not taken in account: The early 1980s had many people fear the Cold War wasn't going to end well. The Latin American debt crisis. President Reagan wanted more nuclear missiles in Europe, envisioned the Star Wars defense system and the "Evil Empire" speech reflected the "Red Scare" at a time "the Bomb" was still making everybody nervous. The Cold War, Berlin Wall and Apartheid did fall, but only near the end of the decade. Unemployment and economic crisis were a huge problem in many Western countries in the early years of the decade and the high speculation led to a bubble which fatigued in 1987 and burst in 1989. AIDS caused many victims because governments were slow to inform the general public on this disease as most people at first dismissed as just a problem for blacks, gays and drug users. TV shows and movies were extremely escapist and PCs and video games were prohibitively expensive. MTV did bring music videos on TV, but the downside was that how a pop star looked and danced became more important than the music, which was now created by computers, becoming increasingly sappy and repetitive as samples became the norm, becoming a disadvantage for those who still wanted to use actual instruments, chords and tunes. Metal and rap were seen as crime-mongering and even "satanic" as a whole. Also drugs went artificial during this time, turning Florida into a Crapsaccharine World. The nuclear power plant explosion in Chernobyl caused another major fear among people about the dangers of nuclear power.

The '90s and The Aughts: Dude. The Cold War has ended, and though some pesky Arabs (and some nutcases in the West) will try to blow people up and some Central European countries will be at each other's throats, there is peace at last! Outsourcing has lifted the West from the heavy load of manual work for good and turn to technology, and anyways, isn't the Internet wonderful? Society and culture are now free to break all imposed boundaries: Music has become more authentic with the arrival of rap, hip-hop, grunge and pop-punk. TV and movies now address modern issues instead of being stuck in those stodgy 50s and 60s. Politicians at last agree on stuff and generally get along. Whatever. Not taken in account: While a couple of years in the late 1990s were quite peaceful, the years before were marked by the extremely chaotic rearrangement of the former Warsaw Pact nations and the decade after was dominated by the Iraq War and memories of 9/11. The "technological revolution" ultimately never became the boon it was supposed to be: Economically, the exodus of manufacturing jobs forced the middle class to live on debt, which would give way to an economic meltdown by the end of the 2000s while privacy would gradually become a major source of concern as personal data became readily accessible. During the 1990s, the Internet was very expensive and was the province of businessmen and geeks while during the following decade, online downloads and chatrooms became incendiary topics. Grunge and "gangsta rap" were better known at their peak for the demise of several of their stars than for the music while hip-hop and pop-punk would be regarded in retrospective as trashy as the bubblegum pop that dominated the late 90s. By increasingly appealing to the trendy set, TV and film became increasingly shallow. While ideological differences became a thing of the past, politics became more self-serving and conflicts became pettier. As a result, people began to feel a sense of disconnection, which eventually led to the rise of strongly ideological populist movements.

SOURCE:

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe

EXTRA: IN THE DISTANT YEAR OF 2045.

The New '10s and New '20s : Remember that meme? Do you have a Harriet doll? I need her to complet my My Little Poney: Friendship is Magic and Equestria Girls collection. Do you want to exchange her for my Fluttershy doll? Oh, do you like Lady Gaga? Her music was so deep. “Oppan Gangnam style. Gangnam style. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Gangnam style. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Eh sexy lady. Op, op, op, op oppan Gangnam style. Ehh sexy lady, oh, oh. Eh, eh, eh, eh, eh, eh”. Oh, i love your funko pop of Baby Groot!  “ Gotta get that. Gotta get that. Gotta get that. Gotta get that that that. Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom (Gotta get that). Boom boom boom. (Gotta get that) Boom boom boom. That boom boom boom. That boom boom boom. Boom boom boom”. Avengers Assemble! 

Not taken in account: The Syrian refugee crisis. The burning of the Amazon jungle. Donald Trump as the american president. Jair Bolsonaro as the brazilian president. The Covid-19 Pandemic. Navy oil in the beachs of the brazilian north east. The Brazilian Cinematheque getting closed. Height of murders of LGBTQ in Brazil. Disney monopolizing the american TV an Movie Industry.

@theroguefeminist @ardenrosegarden @witches-ofcolor @mademoiselle-princesse @butterflyslinky @anghraine @notangryenough @musicalhell @rollingthunder06 @graf-edel-weiss @princesssarisa @culturalrebel @irreplaceable-ecstasyy @im-captain-basch @iphisquandary @jonpertwee

[rivalsofnycupdates]

“If you live among the pack you have to act like a wolf”

■ ABOUT. ■

name: Jackson Kerns age: twenty-eight occupation: NYPD police officer gender: male sexuality: utp

■ HISTORY. ■

Jackson has always known he’s wanted to be a cop, ever since he was saved by a cop at the age of seven when he and a dozen other citizens of New York were trapped in a hostage situation at a bank. He doesn’t remember a lot from that day, but he does remember seeing cops through the window, just before they stormed in and took over. Since then, he’s always wanted to be a cop. Throughout his life, Jackson's decisions were often based on what was fair even if it didn’t end in his favour. When he was starting to look at the qualifications for police school, he’d sworn to himself that he would be a straight cop and he wouldn’t get twisted. It was for that reason he grew to hate one of his best friends in high school.

Jackson used to be best friends with a boy named Christopher Krongold. When they were kids he didn’t have a clue what reputation Chris’ family carried. After all, they were just kids. The two friends were a little rebellious but nothing to the extreme. When Jackson reached high school, he started to see Chris as more of a club member than a friend. The things Chris would do with the club truly pissed Jackson off. Jackson decided to cut ties with Chris the moment one of this prank landed Jackson in jail overnight. He was thankful, his uncle had a connection and was able to get him out without any charges. Since then, Jackson has always felt hatred towards Chris and the whole club.

After joining the police force, he did his best to keep straight. He was actually able to arrest some of the Royals members, although the charges never stuck. Jackson started to make it his one mission to try to take down the Royals. He didn’t vocalize his opinion throughout the station since he didn’t want his to come off unsuited for the job. Soon into the job, Jackson was partnered with a  long-standing police officer named Walter Lorcan. There were rumours that he works under the Royals payroll, though of course it was never proven. Within the first few weeks, Jackson was forced into uncomfortable situations and saw for his own eyes that Lorcan was dirty. Jackson wanted to report him, though he knew if he did and Lorcan went away. It wouldn’t be forever and the moment his partner would be back out on the streets he could consider his job and his life done for. 

■ WHOSE SIDE ARE YOU ON? ■

When Jackson was still in the process of earning officer Lorcan’s trust, he’d seen a couple of Royal's interactions. After every shift, he would keep a record of everything he saw and as he got more involved, Jackson was starting to understand some of the intentions behind the club's actions. He was trying his best to focus on the long-term goal; that all the Royals we’re bad people and all the bad they’ve done to the city should require a punishment. Though after six months of unintentionally working for the Royals and learning everything about the club in order to bring them down, he found that his records actually offered him a different perspective. A perspective that allows Jackson to justify almost every decision they made despite it breaking the law. Jackson hated that he lost his sense of motivation to bring them down. He knew that he’d gotten attached, to the Royals yes, though to one person specifically.

■ KEEP THIS AWAY FROM YOUR ENEMIES ■

Since working with his new partner and seeing the club in a new light, he didn’t think he’d cross the line he’d set for himself. Yet he did, while out one night off duty, he was in a convenience store and while his back was turned he heard shouting, while immediately recognizing it was a car robbery. He ducked down and was about to call for back up, until when he noticed the girl in the leather jacket. Instead of calling someone, he gently rose from behind the chip aisle and cautiously walked towards the young Royal. He caught eyes with them and grabbed the gun from her hands. The woman behind the counter was adamant about calling the cops and Jackson couldn’t let her do that. While Jackson attempted to calm her down, their conversation quickly rose to an argument. In a moment of stress and panic, he raised the gun and threatened the woman. Things only became more heated and without thinking, he shot the gun in the direction of the woman behind the counter. He was sure, he hit her in the shoulder. An injury that wouldn’t be awful. Though it had been a while since he’d actually fired a gun. He immediately regretted his actions and went by the woman’s side, though she was on her last few breaths. He immediately called Lorcan, not knowing who else to call and they covered up the truth and made it look like a robbery gone wrong. 

■ RELATIONSHIPS. ■

■ Jenna Alcott: Jackson didn’t mean for his emotions to get in the way of his own mission. Jenna had confidence and power over him he couldn’t explain. He would never admit that Jenna was a large reason he chose not to submit his evidence of both Lorcan being a dirty cop and all illegal doings the Royals committed.

■ Crystal Reeves: Crystal and her partner Jessica have become new yet familiar faces around the station. After learning their presence in New York is mainly targetting the gangs, it made Jackson nervous that his involvement with the Royals will be found out.

■ Walter Lorcan: Jackson owes his life and his career to Lorcan. Before he was put away, Lorcan was one of the dirtiest cops the city had ever seen. Now he was on top of the world running his own task force specifically targetting the New York gangs. This made him incredibly nervous, as Jackson was the Royals number one contact within the police station.  

■ CONNECTIONS. ■

■  Jensen Kelly > Work Partner

■ Rachel Hathburn  > Neighbor

■ Emmett Wade > Drinking Buddy

■ Jack Mercer > The husband of the woman he killed.

Jackson Kerns is an OPEN character and is portrayed by Michael B Jordan who’s FC IS NEGOTIABLE.

[mwolf0epsilon]

who are you dbh ocs!!! what are they like? are any of them androids? (sorry if that terminology is wrong i dont know much about dbh (im assuming you mean detroit become human but if you arent thats double embarrassing))

You got that right, it is Detroit: Become Human, no need for embarassment!And to answer the question, the majority of my DBH ocs are androids, with a few being android dogs actually.I’ll list all of them here and give a brief look into who they are and what they’re like, buckle up it’ll be a long one ^^;

Androids:

Joel the EM400 - Like most EM400s he worked for an amusement park, but he was tasked with maintaining the haunted house attraction. As a result, Joel had to deal with jumpy people who’d kick and punch him and overall behave abusively towards the actors in the haunted house. He ended up deviating purely out of fear when someone sicked their supposed “service dog” on him. Joel is an anxious mess and an aspiring novelist.

Jindosh the HR900 - He’s a custom Korean Traci that traveled to Detroit after the revolution. The Eden Club wasn’t the only facility of it’s kind, and it’s obvious the Traci models in Korea have just as many horror stories to tell, if the extensive damage to Jindosh’s face is anything to go by. He works as a body guard for hire.

Sergei the PL600 - Jessica Lamb’s PL600 who was bought under the guise of taking care of her baby. Was actually tortured for fun and came out of it psychologically damaged and prone to odd fits. Is a masochist and a drag queen and probably my favorite out of my OCs.

Noah the PL600 - A special edition PL600 who’s main design difference is that he has green eyes. He’s a soft spoken individual who belonged to a man for a few weeks before he was traded in for an AP700. He worked for several other families for a while before ending up at a pawnshop.

Dakota the CX100 - Once a CX100 named David, Dakota is an extraordinary example of how modding doesn’t necessarily have to go the same track as what Zlatko did to his androids. Being perhaps one of very few trans androids does come with hardships, but Dakota has enough friends and allies that she’s always one call away from help if someone tries anything.

Monochrome the CX100 - Chrome is another interesting CX100. He’s an android that works as a dancer for a strip club called the Steamy Piston. The one thing that sets him apart from most standard CX100s is that his hair is black and his eyes are grey, which is where he gets his name.

Apollo the AP700 - He was a faulty AP700 that was purchansed by a family at an absurdly low price with added costumization. His memory chip malfunctioned during production, which made it impossible for him to recall things or people unless he was standing right in front of them. For a while this meant that Apollo couldn’t register a name for himself until he was properly repaired. His appearence is that of a PL600, but his hair is a shade darker, his face is noticeably freckled and his eyes are a different color each. He was abandoned and lived in the Android Junkyard for a while…He’s a bit cold at times but is actually a pretty affectionate guy.

Eddie the WK218 - A british maintenence android that was stolen and modded before being sold in a flea market as a partner model. He’s an anxious clumsy mess who’s definitly not used to being indoors, but the people who rescued him have properly adopted him into the family and he couldn’t be more grateful.

Aleshenka “The Stag” the WM500 - The Stag is a living urban legend that is seen roaming unlit streets at night. They are a heavily modded WM500 who’s created a small circle of cultists followers. To maintenence and construction worker androids, the Stag is a merciful creature. To android abusers, they are a merciless prosecutor. For some reason, interfacing with them is like being consumed by white noise, and it leaves other androids reeling and unnerved.

Veronica the WR400 - A rather shy WR400 that was purchansed by the Eden Club to substitute North when she was reported missing. She made a friend out of Scott, a HR400, and the two tried to run away after Echo and Ripple were let go by Connor and Hank. Unfortunately Veronica and Scott were caught, and while they did manage to escape, Scott was shot down, leaving Veronica no choice but to salvage her friend’s memory chip and find a temporary body to house it until she could get him a new proper one.

Scott the HR400/K9300 - Originally he was a HR400 that had the appearence of a PJ500. After making friends with Veronica, the two attempted to escape the Eden Club but Scott ended up getting shot down. When he next awoke, he was in the body of a guard dog model made to look like a massive pit bull. Sarcastic and often rude, Scott doesn’t mind the fact he’s basically the real life Scooby Doo, but god does he miss having opposable thumbs.

Ragnarok the K9300 - A guard dog model that looks like a rottweiller, Roky is a very friendly pooch who, despite having been horribly beaten by his owner, is eager to make friends. He seems to think he’s a lap dog.

Chitin the K9099 - A police dog model made to look like a german shepard that was used in an illegal android fighting ring. She’s a lot smarter than she seems, which is how she managed to escape and end up at the K9 devision of the DPD. She’s not just a good girl, she is the best girl.

Regi the K9300 - Val’s personal guard dog model and her only remaining family member. He’s loyal to a fault and will protect his owner at any cost. He’s a fan of belly rubs and ear scratches.

Zulu the WMK9 - A military grade android attack dog. He’s big, fast and scary. Enough said on that matter.

Miles the RK300 - An RK series prototype and also Cyberlife’s first attempt at utilizing the RK models in their pursuit for knowledge on deviancy. He was subjected to all sorts of experimentation to try to induce deviancy in an android and then attempt to newtralize it. This including psychological torture and physical torture as a means to fix a glitch…It didn’t work whatsoever and Miles eventually escaped and hid within the walls of Cyberlife Tower. He’s terrified of everything, including his own shadow. 

Tristan the RK700 - The predecessor of the Connor model, Tristan was designed for infiltration. Cyberlife assumed that, by having an android that could blend in, they’d be able to stop deviancy at it’s root. Sadly, because they tested Tristan through military espionage missions, Cyberlife lost track of their prototype and he went rogue. Tristan is currently a mercenary for hire, chosing to work for the highest bidder, and lives what is essentially a double life. One where he has a civilian personality and appearence, and another where he can disguise himself as whomever he pleases.

Humans:

Artyum Kutznekov the Ex-Cyberlife Engineer - A 21 year old russian immigrant who came to america for a second chance. After lucking out and getting a job at Cyberlife as an engineer, Artyum soon came to realize something just wasn’t right with what the company was doing and that deviancy was more than just a glitch or virus. Unable to keep working out of disgust and guilt, Artyum quit and became a bit of a shuttin. This all changed when one rainy night he came across a severely damaged Sergei and decided to do some good with his skills as an engineer. He’s a gruff bitter young man who looks 40 due to his prematurely graying hair and unkept appearence.

Valentina Hernández the Illegal Modder - A latina 18 year old who helped her father mod androids for a living. A child prodigy, Val had a bright future ahead of her before Cyberlife began to blacklist modders due to the “danger” they posed for the company. When her father refused to stop modding, things took a turn to the worse, and now Val only has Regi to keep her company. Bitter and angry over the injustice her family suffered, Val has taken it upon herself to royally screw over Cyberlife, starting with helping deviants change their appearence. She was the one who modded Dakota, and seems to hold a lot of affection towards the CX100.

Elisa “Myu” Corvo the Android Rights Activist - A portuguese android rights activist who saved Eddie from the flea market he was being sold at. A long time advocate for AI and robotics, Elisa came to america to help in any way shape or form she could, even if it means offering temporary shelter or participating in large protests.

Jessica Lamb the Red Ice Addict - I don’t even know where to start with this one. She’s a drug addict, a drug dealer, a child murderer, and she’s a sadist. She bought an android with the sole intention of recording herself torturing it. She and her friends may have something to do with a certain WR600′s mental and physical scarring…Overall Jess is a terrible person and nothing she does is excusable or morally correct.

Chance - A small baby that Apollo found abandoned in a warehouse. Literally the only thing Apollo has to live for anymore.

AI Handlers:

Miles’s Amanda - One of the first iterations of the AMANDA handler, Miles’s Amanda, known as Amy, is a calmer and more understanding version of Amanda Stern’s AI copy. Her mindscape space is a bakery instead of a garden.

Tristan’s Amanda - The fifth iteration of the AMANDA handler, Tristan’s Amanda is closer to the final product, being stricter and more judgemental of Tristan’s overall behaviour and actions, with the one difference being that she does not have the same override protocol as Connor’s Amanda. She can only berate Tristan for his choices. Her mindscape space is a cinema theater.

Tango - An AI copy of Amanda Stern’s professor, Aaron Hoss, who was her greatest inspiration. He was Part of the RK300 tests, suffering through the same amount of torment as Miles, which in turn drove him insane. Known only as TANGO, this AI handler is a lot more ambitious and murderous than the AMANDA program.

[ninjagoruinedmylife]

Shadowhunters au: chapter two

Ooooooh my goooosh here it is finally it’s late at night so sorry for any mistakes i’ll fix them tomorrow

I hope you’ll enjoy this crap

***

It surely wasn’t their most glorious runaway. To be honest - they just qucikly exited through the door that led them out, leaving terrified blonde boy in a club.

Streets were very quiet, it was a middle of the night, after all. Only a few cars passed a group of wounded, tired teenagers. They were heading back to Institute by foot, even though it wasn’t that close. They felt safer this way: nobody could stop them and ask uncomfortable questions. Besides, they needed fresh air after this incident.

This time wasn’t very different from the other moments when they were heading back home from mission. Nya and Kai talked about the fight, Cole and Jay were arguing about something, Zane was walking first with his head in the clouds… They just all acted more quiet. They faced only one demon and still he managed to give them some wounds. They had a big preponderance after all, but because of this strange boy they absolutely lost control over this combat. Nya blamed herself for that. She had to cover up her brother and Cole, she stood between them and the monster, and if only she hadn’t been shocked so much to take a step back they wouldn’t even get touched but this creature…

Girl sighed. She failed and now felt like if she was the worst, but she had to remind herself that now this event was in the past. The next time she will do better for sure.

“Here you go.” Nya finally ended bandaging her brother’s arm. She sent him a big smile. “Don’t worry, it’s not so bad.”

“But what’s with your dress?” Kai looked at girl’s scattered cloth - she used a fragment of it for a patch. “Mum wouldn’t be happy if she saw this.”

“Who said she will see this? I have-”

“Dear Angel, Jay, I’m fine! You’ll do your work when we’ll be back home!” Cole yelled with a frustration, interupting Nya’s explanation.

Siblings looked behind them - Jay tried to draw a healing mark on Cole. He surely needed it, because demon’s claws made a deep cut at his chest. His own marks protected him from the lose of blood for now. However, Jay didn’t wanted to give up.

“If you’re fine, then I’m queen of Britain!” Jay answered with a cracking voice. “Just stay still for a moment, you stubborn…”

“I don’t need your help, blueberry!” Cole seemed really irritated, which was pretty rare for him. “You think that you are so special because you quickly learned how to use marks and now you want to show everyone your incredible skills? For now, you are just pain in the ass.”

‘Well, it was rare before Jay joined the team.’ Nya corrected her own toughts and shook her head with disapporval.

“Oh my God, yes! Maybe this is it! Maybe I just lack attention! Thank you!” Jay muttered under his breath. “Right now, I just don’t want you dead, but I’m slowly starting to change my mind about it.”

“I won’t die from it, it’s just a scratch!”

“Scratch?! You’ll have a scar through all of your chest!”

“Well, I had worse wounds, you patetic nurse.”

“And you know what I think about it? I think that it means that you just go into every battle like a moron and…”

“Can’t they get of each other’s throats for a moment?” Nya rolled her eyes. She liked both of the boys, but their fights started to get on her nerves lately.

“As some say, squabbels are the way of life, sis.” Kai answered with a smirk.

She looked around - Zane left them behind, he was one street ahead them. Even though, it was so quiet in this neighbuorhood, that they could’ve heard all of his cold words.

“We are here, so it would be nice if you two stopped arguing for a moment!” Blonde, tall boy didn’t even granted the others a look before entracing the gates of the old church.

“Yeah, Wu won’t be very happy when he’ll hear your cute yelling at 3 in the morning. What am I saying, he will be furious!” Nya started running towards the Institute with a wide smile on her face. “But if you really want to test him this much..!”

“Okay, I’d rather believe her.” She overheard Jay’s nervous giggle.

She came into the old building and finally felt like home. She walked towards a small elevator in the right corner of the main nave, right behind the altar, and then she rode to the third floor.

Wu was already there, with a cup of his famous, refreshing tea. He granted it to the young female, and then led her to the library.

“Zane just came.” Old teacher said when they were crossing the halls. “He looked… troubled, and so do you. Did something unexpected happened?”

“A little. Kai and Cole are wounded. But we traced something that might intetest you.”

After a moment they heard loud talks that could only mean one thing - boys catched up after her and also arrived at Institute.

“So I guess it will be a long night.” Their teacher sighed.

***

Lloyd tried his best to forget about this whole night.

He tried was doing parkour with Nelson, he read as many comics as he could, he learnt to the moment when he started falling asleep, he even helped his mother with house chores. All this to somehow erease a memory of this strange monster and bleeding teenagers.

He still couldn’t believe they just left him without any word. They should tell him something, explain what happened… But, instead, they ran away like cowards. Lloyd had to use all of his strength to move from the saff room and stop looking at the floor covered in a slick, black blood. After this, he found Brad and took his protesting friend out of the club. Anytime he tried to bring up a topic of ‘Pandemonium’, Lloyd ignored him or came up with another activity.

He didn’t wanted his only friends (or even worse - his mother!) to think that he became crazy.

“I’m back, mum!” Boy yelled when he entered their flat.

It was in one of scuffy tenament houses, but he really liked it. It had an atmosphere, as some would say - old sofa, armchairs and shelves bought in antique shop gave the feeling like if the time has stopped 100 years ago, books where laying everywhere around, on the walls there were hanging many undetailed drawings and messy notes.

Misako could be only a tourist guide, but history was surely her passion.

“Oh, hi. I returned five minutes ago, I swear.” His mother was already standing in little kitchen, against an open fridge. He walked to her and gave her a quick kiss on a cheek, and then sat at the table to do his homework. “Those guests today were so interested…”

“It’s okay, mum. You don’t have to make excuses for me.” Lloyd sent her a big smile.

“I know, I know. I’m just bad at myself that I haven’t tought about our dinner…” She took a milk and eggs from the fridge. “Pancakes?”

“Pancakes sound awesome.”

They spent nearly three hours talking and doing Lloyd’s math exercises. When they were going to turn on the TV and watch some dumb cartoons together, Misako’s phone started ringing. Woman took it and silently listened to the person on the other side, nodded and hung up. She looked at her son; he noticed how worried she seemed.

“I’m sorry Lloyd, but Ronin really needs my help in his shop. We’ll watch something when I’ll be back home, okay?” She hugged him tightly and then nearly ran through the door. “I love you!”

“Uh… yeah. Love you too, mum.” Lloyd sighed sadly and slowly walked towards his little room. It appeared to be just another evening in his life - he spent some time with his mother, she had to do something important the moment when he gained enough courage to tell her about this monster he saw, and for the rest of his free time he was going to read comics. Truly amazing.

He lied on his bed and started staring blankly at the other wall, but then he saw that someone sent him a message. He grabbed his phone and frowned. On the screen, there was a photo of Brad and Nelson, laughing and holding three tickets. The text under it said: 'Leave your house finally you nerd, we’re waiting for you downstairs and you won’t believe what we’ve got! >:3"

He felt a little bad, disobeying the main rule in his family: don’t leave home without any word. Still, he wrote his mother a note and left it on a table, so she would know where he went. In the end, they had telephones, right? Ignoring strange feeling in his stomach, boy went to see what his friends planned for him this time. It surely wasn’t going to be something ordinary. As always.

When he finally got all things that would be useful (like phone, a bottle of water or a first aid kit) he came down and Brad waved three scraps of paper right in front of his face.

“Three tickets for The Royal Blacksmiths concert?! How-” Lloyd gave his friends a concerned look. “Tell me you two didn’t steal it.”

“I’m clean! It was Brad!” Nelson yelled at the top of his lungs. His arm was broken again.

“I didn’t stole it, idiots,” Brad grinned. “I’m just using my family connections.”

“Okay, so this time nothing illegal.” Lloyd felt very relieved after this words.

“So, what are we waiting for?!” Nelson seemed so excited that both boys couldn’t help but smile. Even though this guy had a bad luck, he still managed to somehow stay happy and full of energy. “Let’s go!”

This evening was sure going to be fun.

***

Not everyone was thinking about this concert the same way as Lloyd, Brad and Nelson. To be absolutely honest, Cole was quite furious that he decided to go and see The Royal Blacksmiths.

He mostly didn’t took any decision on an impulse, but this time… When he saw that his father and his band are coming back after a long tour, he knew he had to meet him. Cole ran away from his house nearly five years ago - and since then, he never seen Lou again. The only member of boy’s family was traveling around the world, singing and dancing, but in reality he was just trying to forget what happened to his wife. Cole didn’t wanted to admit it, but he still held some grudge inside him. Why his father couldn’t be normal and stay with him? Why couldn’t he help him in this tough time?

In reality, it wasn’t Cole who left. It was Lou.

Anyways, he told everyone that he needs to go somewhere. Of course, they had to follow him - they were all very curious what made Cole, calm and rational guy, to suddenly come out of Institute to do something that wasn’t connected with haunting demons.

After a while of being just irritated with their company, he started feeling thankful that they were with him now. Their appereance made it look like if it was just another mission.

And Jay was, as always, rambling as fast as lightning.

“Your father is a leader of The Royal Blacksmiths? Wow, Cole, you sure are one hell of a mistery-”

“Slow down, motor mouth, slow down.” Cole shook his head. “This way I won’t understand a thing.”

Actually, he heard him perfectly - messing with Jay was just his way to cover up a stress. For now it worked.

“Like, this is so crazy, man! Why haven’t you told me? And,” Jay gasped dramatically when he realised something. “Why I never heard you sing?”

Cole didn’t answer, he only started walking faster.

“Jay, this topic isn’t really easy for Cole.” He could’ve heard Zane’s quiet words. “I guess it would be better it you would stop for a moment.”

“Oh- Yeah, yeah. I mean, this is just exciting, so-”

“Shut up!” Kai yelled. “It is such a peaceful evening, don’t ruin it for everyone in this town.”

“Kai, we are living in New York, he can’t destroy everyone’s evening, there are way too many people.” Nya interrupted her brother with a sleazy smile.

“That’s not the point!” Kai threw his hands into the air. “Just…”

“Everything’s okay?” Zane finally catched up to Cole.

“Yes, I guess so.” Cole mumbled under his breath.

“I know it must be hard, but remember that you have us.” His parabatai patted him on his back. “Maybe we are not a big help right now, but… We are with you.”

“Thanks.” Cole smiled blankly. After this little talk he really started feeling better.

He had to clear up the atmosphere between him and his father. To this moment, he was afraid that Lou would be mad at him or that he wouldn’t want to talk at all, but now Cole realised that he didn’t needed his father so much. He gained a new family. It was a strange slice of different people - an old teacher, siblings with fiery personalities, cold and calculative guy out of nowhere, enthusiastic boy from a junkyard, and him. Still, they all somehow fit togheter.

What could have gone wrong as long as they had each other?

***

Lloyd really enjoyed this concert, even tough it wasn’t his favourite kind of music. He liked spending time with his friends in any form - for a long time he had no one, so he felt that he shouldn’t be really picky when it came to this subject.

Everything started getting complicated when he spotted a group of familiar teenagers in a crowd.

“I’m… I’m going to toilet! I’ll be right back!” He yelled towards jumping Nelson and Brad and suddenly felt guilty. He wasn’t a good liar at all.

“What?!” Brad probably didn’t heard him.

“Okay, okay, go!” Nelson answered for both of them, trying to scream over the loud music and excited fans.

Lloyd walked towards the monster hunters (that’s how he called them in his head) and followed them when they came beside a stage, between the trees of a nearby park.

“I can’t do it, I can’t! What in the name of Angel was I thinking about?! They won’t even let me close to him, so it’s absolutely pointless!” He overheard a deep, nervous voice rambling.

“I think that it’s still worth a try.” A female voice answered.

“Yeah, there might be no more chances-” Somebody else said in a tone that was kinda similiar to the one before.

“You’re probably not helping!” One of the boys yelled in a high pitched voice. “Is he helping? I think he is not.”

“He is not.”

“See?!”

Lloyd was slowly getting closer to them. He tried to make no sound and remain unseen. His heart was beating like crazy.

“Hey, if you don’t want to do this, we can go back to Institute.” A new one joined - this time it was calm, mature voice lacking emotions.

Lloyd frowned. What kind if 'institute’ were they talking about?

“I think…” The first voice started. “That we are not alone here.”

And they all looked directly at Lloyd.

Girl got out her knives, but then the guy with a messy hair standing next to her stopped her.

“Wait! I think we know him.”

“Is it the one from 'Pandemonium’?” Boy all dressed in blue gave him a pretentious look.

“Indeed.” The one who stood the closest to Lloyd (he recognised him as the nerd) nodded his head.

“Ha! I knew it!”

“What do you want?” Guy who started the previous conversation, dark-skinned and dark-haired, asked in a strangely calm voice.

“I-” Lloyd’s voice cracked. “I have some questions. I mean, many questions. About… what happened in this club.”

All of them remained silent.

“Who are you?” Lloyd tried again. “My name is Lloyd, by the way.”

Teenagers looked all at one another, then nodded in a wordless agreement.

“Nya.” Girl started staring at her shoes.

“Kai.” Guy with messy hair tried to make it up.

“Zane.” Nerd smiled at him lightly.

“Cole.” Tall one rolled his eyes.

“And Jay!” Blue boy waved at him.

Okay, so they had this point behind them.

“What was this… creature that you… destroyed?” For some reason, word 'killed’ couldn’t escape his mouth.

“You- you saw it? In its demon form?” Kai seemed very impressed.

“Does it mean-” Cole frowned.

“Yes, it does.” Zane agreed.

“A new Shadowhunter?” Jay smiled wide.

“A new what?” Lloyd asked with an unmasked suprise.

“Uh, we are probably not the best people out there to have this talk with you.” Nya walked towards him. “But, if you want, of course, we can take you to someone who will explain this.”

“You really saw it?” Kai still couldn’t gather himself. “Tail, fangs, claws? Black blood and all?”

“Uh, yeah?” Lloyd scratched his nose. “What is so strange about that? I bet everyone would see it.”

“That’s not correct.” Zane shook his head. “Actually, Downworlders are not able to see demons. Only us, Shadowhunters, and other magical species perceive them.”

“Look, I don’t know what any of this means…”

In this moment, his phone started ringing. Lloyd sighed in frustration and took it out of his backpack. He gave screen a short look: 23 calls from his mother, and she was also the one who called him now.

Shit.

“H-hi mum, I can explain-”

“Lloyd? Thanks God, you answered!” Misako’s breath was fast and he could’ve heard that she was running. “No matter what- Ah!”

“Mum?!” Lloyd froze when his mother screamed and probably fell. “Are you there? What is happening?!”

“Lloyd, listen to me. No matter what, don’t come back home!” Signal started cutting, was it a sound of breaking glass? “Go to Ronin, he will know what to do.”

“Mum, I don’t understand-”

“I love you, son.” On the other side something crashed and the call ended.

Lloyd looked blankly at his phone.

“Hey, is something wrong?” Nya asked him in a soft tone.

“No- yes, I… I think someone- something… attacked my mother.”

[classyfoxdestiny]

Government accused of standing by while lifeboat volunteers face abuse for saving refugees

Government accused of standing by while lifeboat volunteers face abuse for saving refugees

The foreign secretary has been accused of a “disingenuous and grossly inadequate” response to the abuse of lifeboat volunteers while the government works to push asylum seekers back to France.

Charities poured scorn on a claim by foreign secretary Dominic Raab that a government’s crackdown to make it harder for people to flee across the channel was “not inconsistent” with the RNLI’s lifesaving work.

Amnesty International told The Independent the government was more interested in making the UK’s asylum system “even more oppressive and unwelcoming” than defending the RNLI.

And leading migration charity the JCWI (Joint Committee for the Welfare of Immigrants) blasted the foreign secretary’s response as “disingenuous and grossly inadequate considering the level of vitriol from the far-right”.

It comes as the RNLI recorded record daily donations, up 2000 per cent, after volunteers revealed abuse from anti-immigrant mobs and activists.

Mr Raab said on Thursday that the government’s “robust approach” to small boats trying to reach the UK was not at odds with the “heart and soul” of the RNLI.

“The RNLI do an incredible job, they have got this great heart and soul to them and they do an amazing job,” he told LBC radio.

“I think they operate within the legal rules and that is part of this country. We are a big-hearted country. At the same time, if we are talking about the wider small boats issue, that is something where, absolutely at the same time, we need to come down as hard as is humanly possible, working with our French partners.”

Mr Raab said the government wanted to “have the strongest criminal action including prosecution sentences against those criminal elements that feed like parasites off the human misery of those people making that journey”, adding: “I don’t think that is inconsistent, that robust approach.”

His comments came after RNLI crews spoke out about the abuse they received from anti-immigration activists for bringing people ashore. The government has been accused of siding with xenophobia by bringing forward a bill to treat people crossing the Channel in small boats more harshly and even put them in prison.

“It’s a sorry state of affairs that in 2021, one of the UK’s oldest and most beloved charities – the RNLI – must defend its life-saving work from Government hostility and far-right attacks on its volunteers,” Bella Sankey, director of Detention Action told The Independent.

“Priti Patel’s bill would criminalise people at risk of drowning in the Channel as well as those that help them and she instead pursues aggressive push backs against desperate refugees.

The Government’s word and deed contradicts everything that the RNLI, a proud humanitarian institution, stands for.”

Steve Valdez-Symonds, refugee and migrant rights director at Amnesty International UK, said: “Government rhetoric and policy are plainly inconsistent with the wonderful work of the RNLI in saving lives at sea.

“No doubt that is why some senior members of Government have been so slow to simply back the RNLI against threats and abuse for its life-saving work. The shameful truth is that the latest immigration legislation proposes to make a crime of basic humanity if that assists people fleeing war and persecution to reach safety on UK shores.

“And while ministers set about making the UK’s asylum system even more oppressive and unwelcoming, they are both enabling the people smugglers they claim to abhor while encouraging the hateful response that the RNLI has received.”

Clare Moseley, founder of charity Care4Calais, said government proposals targeted “innocent people who have done nothing more wrong than be born in a war zone” and would not trouble people smugglers.

She added: “Making it illegal to cross the Channel in a small boat will only put innocent refugees in our prison system at great public cost; it is well known that smugglers themselves are never in these boats.

“If the government wants to stop people smugglers it would create a way for people to legally claim asylum without having to risk their lives. That would put people smugglers out of business once and for all.”

And Minnie Rahman, campaigns director at the JCWI told The Independent: “Dominic Raab’s comments are disingenuous and grossly inadequate considering the level of vitriol from the far-right.

“The Government’s approach is absolutely incompatible with saving lives at sea, as it will make journeys across the channel more dangerous and put more lives at risk.

“The measures in the Borders Bill could also see humanitarian organisations criminalised for supporting people who cross channel.

“If the Government wanted to be consistent in its approach, they would scrap the Borders Bill and instead ensure there are safe ways for asylum seekers to enter the UK, and welcome them into our communities once they are here.”

Labour’s shadow Home Secretary Nick Thomas-Symonds said the RNLI provided “an inspirational service”, adding that it was “shameful that people have sought to criticise them for the incredible, brave work they do saving lives at sea”.

The Home Secretary’s new borders bill would allow use of “reasonable force” by border officials to get the small boats to turn round and leave UK waters. It would also see migrants crossing the sea without permission sent to prison for up to four years, broadening the definition of an older offence. Those found guilty of helping or “smuggling” people across the Channel could also face life in prison.

RNLI crews have in recent days spoken out about how refugees rescued from the sea are sometimes met by an “angry mob” who shout “go back to France”. Others have spoken out about how a “drunken yob” threw a beer can at a group of women and children who had been rescued. The latest barrage of abuse against the RNLI came after the Daily Mail newspaper published an article claiming “migration madness” and Brexiteer Nigel Farage accused the charity of running a “taxi service” for migrants.

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The charity said on Thursday a “small number” of people had cancelled direct debits but that it had more significantly received over £200,000 in donations in a single day after the criticism, a 2,000 per cent increase.

A Downing Street spokesperson said: “The prime minister would say the RNLI do vital work to protect people’s lives at sea. We are working to tackle this issue. We recently announced the extended deal with the French to increase patrols and stop more boats from making what is an incredibly perilous journey.”

Asked whether Boris Johnson would agree with Mr Raab’s comments on the Border Force doing work consistent with the RNLI’s activities, the spokesperson said: “The RNLI are tasked with saving lives at sea and that’s what they do. I can only point you back to what the home secretary and prime minister have said about tackling this issue and fixing the immigration system.”

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[thelouisianauproar]

Louisiana Uproar - Chapter 18

Summary: In the Season 3 opener, Dottie is unhappy with the mob’s disrespect of legitimate business; A misstep in a smuggling deal leads to a run in with the law. 

New Bordeaux, Louisiana  March of 1971.

I wake up in my penthouse in the Downtown District. I’m not alone so I try to sneak out of the bed, to not wake my girlfriend, Nicki Burke.

The penthouse, above the Royal Hotel, belongs to me now. Below my penthouse, is my office.  I have a small team now. A legitimate team reports to me. New Bordeaux is a different city since we came into power.

I can smell the aroma of coffee, when I come out of the shower.

“I was trying to let you sleep in.” I comment, taking a seat at the kitchen.

“I was trying to sleep in.” She comments, taking a seat at the kitchen.

“That’s alright.” Nicki says. “I should see how things went without me, before Mr. Balsamo wants my attention.” We just got back from vacation in Washington D.C. We told my dad and step mother that she is my roommate.

Alma once joked that we are “New Bordeaux’s worst kept secret”. One of the smartest women on the team, and she’s my girlfriend.

“What’s on your agenda for today?” “Just some catch up.” I sign and take a drink.

“I miss D.C.” She admits. I don’t, but she really seems to enjoy being places where nobody knows her. To me, it’s just a new opportunity to have a stranger call me a nigger.

“We’ll go back soon, babe.” I finish my meal and kiss her cheek. “Start thinking about where next.” I feel her arms hug me. She kisses the nape of my neck.

“Can’t you be a little late?”

I really enjoy Nicki Burke. She’s my sense of normalcy, or my crack of sunlight.

“I want to be.” I start, “but, I have some things that need my attention.” I rub her sides.

“I’ll see you tonight.” We share a kiss before she lets me go.

My commute to the office is not long. In fact, it’s right down the hall to my bedroom. It looks like Camille left some documents on my desk. There are several notes for me.

“Camille, I’m here.” I say, after pressing the intercom.

“Welcome back.” After a few moments, Camilly pokes her head in.

“Hey, how’s it going?” She takes a seat at my desk. “Just another Thursday.” “You sound like your father.” “That scares me.” She’s got a notepad in her hand. “You’ve got a call with Ron Gleason to discuss the restaurant at noon. Travis Cole at 1 pm call. Betty, whenever you want her.” “Cole?” “I left the report he sent.” I take a look at the big file. It looks like a few drawn up pictures of a building.

“Mr. Saggio asked me to let him know when you get in, so expect a call from him.” She pauses.

“It sounds like I have a day ahead of me. Thank you.” My phone rings. “Dottie Jetson’s office.” Camille answers. “Mr. Saggio.” She whispers. I gesture for her to give me the phone. “Morning, Ray.” “Welcome back. Did you and Nicki have a good time?” “Yes, yes actually we did. Thank you.” “Great.” I start a cigarette and wait for the rest of it. “Let me tell you. While you were gone, we had a snafu with the Feds---Lieutenant Sterling.”

“What happened?” “Southdowns got caught by an officer who thought he’d made the big leagues.” He says. “They silenced the guy but now he thinks we’re testing him.” “Do you need to tell them how to do their jobs?” “I’ll handle them. You handle the outside world.” He says, “I told him that you’ll have dinner with him tonight, at 7.”

“That’s just great.” I sigh slightly. “Why didn’t you let Camille know that? You spoke with her.”

“And share that?” “Ray, what about you?” “Things are fine over here.” He says, “I’d suggest you get caught up. Faster than you are.” He hangs up.

That’s my job. I handle the outside world for the Don. I’m his gatekeeper, his hired muscle, and his ear---along with Raymond, and Morty. He and Mortimer handle his underground life. I mind his legit business.

While appreciable, Don Danna’s investments never make as much as his underground. It’s not like the politicians, the police chief, the CEO’s care. I just have to keep them comfortable, and launder Danna’s money. I’ve bought and started “The Jetson Organization”. Currently, I have the Scaletta’s Ristorante, in two locations: River Row and the Del ray Hollow. I bought out an independent shop, and funded their renovation.

Between my business with “Cavar Construction” and “Frazier & Associates”, we’re going to make New Bordeaux livable again.

“Camille. If you’ve spoken with Janice on Danna’s schedule. I’d love to hear it.” “I will by the end of your meeting.” “Let’s make that first thing you ladies do, now.”

“Yes.” I move back to looking at the documents that Mortimer sent over.

“Ms. Jetson.” Ron comes through. He nods to me. Mr. Gleason started his previous restaurant with his family. They had great turn out, but when they refuse to kick up to Marcano; he was sure to bully them out of business.

I kept him as director of both restaurants. I had to. He was the only one who could speak to me. Past experiences with Marcano made them fear me.

“Ron.” I stand. “Great to see ya.” “You too. I hear you and your roommate just got back from D.C.”

“We did.” “Nice destination?” “No. I’m from D.C.” I gesture for him to take a seat. “It was nice to visit family. What can I do for you?”

“First, everything besides this is fine. But you and I have had some conversations about how we see the restaurant’s image.” We have.

“I’m having some trouble in River Row.” “What kind of trouble?” “The union members keep starting trouble there.” He starts. I sigh. This keeps happening. They come in for the happy hour deals and get rowdy. I remember them doing it, a few times, when I worked there. It didn’t happen as often, they respected Vito Scaletta.

“Got any names?” “It’s not a particular person. They get drunk, get offensive.” He says, “It’s getting to the point that we only serve Union Members.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” I look out of my window at the view of the street. “I told you, I had security for you, what’s going on there?” “They’re friends.” He forces out. I believe him, but I don’t want to. “Mr. Gleason, you’re telling me that security detail is giving special treatment to the union workers?” “Yes, they tell us that they will handle it, but then we see the same person two or three more times.” There’s no room for that. “Let’s stay in touch on this. Thank you for telling me.” I walk back to the desk. “I’ll get moving on this.”

“Thank you, Ms. Jetson.”

“Hey.” I say at the telephone, outside of the restaurant.

“Hey babe.” Nicki says,

“I don’t have long.” I start, “I’m having dinner with Lieutenant Sterling in a bit. How are you?” I’m trying to skip the subject.

“Again?” She hates that guy.

“Nick. This is only the second time.” I sigh. I don’t want to fight about this. “If other people would do their jobs, he’d have nothing to complain about.” “Who is it? I wanna bitch them out for getting caught.” This makes me laugh. “At least it isn’t your boys.” I’d better take my place. “I’ll see you tonight.” We hang up and I take a seat at our VIP booth. I order my drink and start a cigarette.

“Are you my reward for letting Danna’s boys go?” Sterling starts. “I’m your apology.” I gesture for him to take a seat. “It is my honor to take you out some time.” “You’re too kind to me.” “How are you day?”

For the most part, it feels like my job is to be a therapist, a celebrity interviewer, or a negotiations specialist to our partners. For Sterling, I’m a celebrity interviewer. I ask him about his career and his life, this appeases him. Everyone once in a while, he gives good information pertaining to business.

“I really should apologize to you, Lieutenant.” I say, once he’s had a few drinks in him. “You really have been so kind to us.” “Then why do I feel like Ray is testing me?”

‘He’s not.” I say, “In fact, we’re talking about stricter routines after that.” That’s a lie, but not worth looking into.

“That’s good to hear.” He drinks. “I know Dannas making money over there. We all want that, visitors, businesses-”

“We’re still so new after Marcano.” “Now, HE was covert.” “He was also selling people.” I shrug. There’s a silence between us. Sterling breaks out with an evil laugh. He came up in the Marcano days. He thinks it gives him a leg up with Danna.

“It’s kill or be killed world.” He respects the old ways. “You know that, if you’re people were half as...industrious as you are. We wouldn’t be in this mess.” How does this make any sense? This is the reason Nicki hates him.

“Welcome home.” Nicki greets me. “How was dinner?” “Uneventful.” I start to undo my blouse. Nicki is already in bed and reading the “Jet” magazine “How was the first day back?” I plop on my side of the bed. “It was fine.” She starts. “Everything was right where I left it. Ray is talking about looking at some new territory.” “He loves shiny things.”

“Should he slow down?” “I don’t know.” I look at her. My girlfriend helps me undress. “They love money, but aren’t great with sustaining.”

“Red River is fine. Speaking of, I’m going out there after the meeting.” My shoes drop to the floor.

“I’ll see what Mort thinks about it.”

“Thanks.” She pauses. “Dottie, is it still an idea to license the moonshine?” “It’s an idea. Last time, I got shot down.” She knows that. Mort decided we could make more money running it illegally. If we go legit with it, we have to follow government regulations. “I know your stuff is good. I serve it.” Can we please stop talking about work?”

“Thank you.” She pushes out. “Your stepmother called to make sure we got in okay.” “Did she want us to send more moonshine?” I joke. “Lord knows how much she enjoyed it.” We both chuckle thinking of the image of Martha getting drunk after dinner.

---

The first thing in the morning, I’m off the Frisco to meet with everyone. First, it’s the meeting before the meeting.

“Hey.” I take a seat next to Morty. We are at the Retrousse Yacht club.

“Welcome back.” Morty smiles. “Get those documents I sent ya?” “I did. New district, huh?” “Yeah.” He makes a dance. “Danna’s not gonna be happy until he owns all of Louisiana.” This is biting at me. “Just say it, Dot.”

“Is it just me or is he paying attention to you all?” I start. “When I’m trying to get a signature---he’s nowhere to be found.” “Dot, that’s why you have executive permissions.” He says, “Danna didn’t imagine being Don. Handling politicians, romancing people.” Morty pauses. “You need to recognize that. Fix your face.” “Morty.” We are always honest with each other. He and Ray have both seen my difficulties with getting respect from Danna. A part of my wonders if they care, either, as long as I’m keeping the feds off their business.

“Hey, kids.” Ray greets and takes a seat at our table. “Morning.”

“See any of you political friends in Washington D.C?” “I didn’t want to see anyone.” “Fair enough.” He says, “if you’re ready to begin, so am I.”

The meeting is a basic overview of what was going on for the under bosses. From there Ray, Morty, and I would provide a higher level overview.

“As I mentioned, previously. We have a running account opened at the shooting range in the Bayou.” Morty says, “Up until the end of March. We urge you and your men to take advantage of that.” “It’s very important to me that we are one of the biggest and strongest armies.” The Don speaks. “For those who choose not to take advantage, you have my full support to impose consequences.”

“There you have it.” Ray nods. “With that, I give the floor back to Ray.” Morty gestures to him. “With no further words from the Don.” Ray pauses and Danna says nothing. “Alright. Have a good day, everyone, and let’s go make some fucking money.” His catch phrase. Every one starts to disperse. I make eye contacts with the Don. I watch Alma. I need to talk to her.

“Alma. May I have a word, please?” “Dottie. Long time, no see.” “It’s amazing how time flies” “Yeah.” She offers a cigarette. She’s right. We all see each other at meetings like these. My job is so detached from them. With the exception of Nicki, I don’t speak with them unless we need to.

“I’ll make this quick. I got rather disturbing about the Ristorante.” I say, “In river Row. I’m having issues with union workers getting drunk and causing issues, again.” “Oh, I did not know that was a problem again.” “That’s why I am bringing this to your attention.” “No, I was not aware that it was a problem for them to get drunk at a bar.” “A restaurant, Alma. It is when it scares other working patrons and staff. Yes, it is a problem.”

“It’s River Row, what else is there?” “Alma.” I take a step forward. “I hired your muscle to keep things safe. You don’t want me to pull out my support.” “I will look into it.” She concedes. “Thank you.”

“Look who is home in time for dinner.” Nicki comments. “I thought I was cooking for one.” “Surprise!” I say, sarcastically. “So are you heading to your office or should I set about place at the table?” “Another place, please?” “Great.” She walks up to me and kisses my lips. “How was your day?”

“It was alright. Had no idea the training was a mandate.” She turns back to dinner. “Enzo had me go through the logs.” She pauses. “He really think-” “He wants us to take over Louisiana.” I say, “That means we have to be strong enough to fight for it.” I take a seat at our dinner table.

“I am all for expanding.” She says, “I feel like half of our job is preparing for battle. Preparing for...something.” There is a silence between us as I think of her point. “What about you?”

“Oh you know, I spent the day talking to a brick wall.” “That good?” She chuckles. “I’m sorry, Dot. He doesn’t pay attention to you, he limits you.”

“Nicki. I need a work related favor.” “And what can I do for you?” She brings two places to the table. “I need two of your men to hang outside of the Ristorante in River Row. Tell what they see. With the union members, or Alma’s guys.” “You want us to spy?” “If I choose the haitians, they would know.” She’s silent. “It’s bad for business and I’m really trying to expand, here.”

“What’s going on?” “Union members getting drunk, scaring patrons, and security giving them a pass. I just need to know.”

“Fine.”

“Thank you. My day is already so much better.” “Great. Can we eat now?”

[sharknadoslutt]

This is my new Star Wars OC and I’m currently obsessed with her so I’ll be putting her here so I can reference her later, and also to show my friends because I’m vain. 

Stint’l Casterfo

(Pronounced Stehnt-uhl Cas-ter-foe)

Species: Half human (Roisan to be exact), half Pantoran

Born: 19 ABY

Appearance: Stint’l is very light skinned for a Pantoran (Compared to the normal royal blue tone) but still has bright golden eyes and light lavender hair.

Personality: Stint’l is very much so a bright minded tech-minded individual who is a wiz at fixing and creating things in a tight spot. She’s a hot headed tom-boy who isn’t afraid to start a fight despite being relatively physically weak. 

Family Members:  Tarish Casterfo (Her mother from Roisa, a high class escort),  Telkum Casterfo (Maternal Grandfather and formal Resistance pilot from Roisa), Yakesh Bausenji (A Priest from Pantoran), Ransolm Casterfo (Her second cousin on her mothers side; her grandfather’s brother’s child)

Fun things I want to mention for no reason: She likes to make bombs. Always carries a small tool kit with her. She is either always barefoot or wearing boots way too big for her. Loves sweet foods because she never gets to have them. Has a serious attitude problem. Has never owned a dress and never wants too. 

18-22 ABY

Stint’l is a child out of wedlock born from a Roisan escort ( Tarish Casterfo ) and a highly respected Pantoran Priest ( Yakesh Bausenji ). Upon learning she was pregnant her mother fled to Coruscant to avoid a scandal. She worked as a stripper in a shady club and often left young Stint’l at home with a droid given to her by her father, Telkum.

Telkum would often come visit his daughter and granddaughter on his journey. He was a Meteorite Farmer (He went around and extracted minerals and jewels from different meteors and sold them for credits) He was an active man for his age and always made time for his girls.

23 ABY

In the beginning of the year Tarish was in the wrong place at the wrong time and was attacked. Her face was terribly deformed and she couldnt find work couldn’t find work after that. Coruscant was fairly accepting compared to some backwater planets but no one had a lot of sympathy for a prostitute with an bastard inter-species child. Desperate and with no way to support her family she tried to contact Stint’l’s father in hope that he would provided financial support.

Instead of getting the positive reaction Tarish was lead with no response. or so she thought.

About a fortnight after her first attempt at contact a bomb was set off in her apartment complex. This killed about 16 people, including Tarish. Fortunately at the time Stint’l was out with her grandfather at the local market as he tried to sell some jewels he had uncovered on his last heist. 

Once Telkum caught wind of the bombing form a pedestrian at the market he knew exactly what had happened. He had advised his daughter against contacting Priest Yakesh Bausenji knowing that no good would come from it, surely he wouldn’t want a scandal like an illegitimate child getting out.

He scooped his now 5 year old granddaughter out of the city and took her on his ship. Stint’l had been assumed to have died in the bombing with her mother and Telkum wanted to keep it that way.

24-28 ABY

Telkum always blamed himself for how his daughter turned out and was determined to rectify that by raising Stint’l right. Well, by raising her to the best of his ability anyways.

He’s an old man who drinks, drops a curse word every other word, and is not good with emotions. 5-year old Stint’l looses the manners that she had learned from her childhood in Coruscant and turns into a crazy cursing little child who likes to yell, make bombs, and starts fights with other kids.

For the next several years Stint’l is raised by her grandfather as he travels across the galaxy. He continues making a living as a Meteorite Farmer and shows young Stint’l the ropes. He teaches her the basics of flying and ship repair. Often times in ports Stint’l dressed as a little boy instead of a girl, especially on the back water planets, as it’s safer for travel.

Along with teaching her technology Telkum also makes sure he educates her in reading and writing.  Knowing that he’s older and wont be around forever he wants to make sure she is prepared for when he’s gone.

29 ABY

Telkum catches word of the Napkin bombing scandal in the senate and travels to Hosnian Prime to seek an audience with his nephew, Ransolm Casterfo (Telkum’s brother is Ransolm's late Father). Now 10 year old Stint’l had never even heard of this politician, but little did she knew that her grandfather followed the senate very closely. Being a former Rebellion leader himself he was very paranoid about the world and what could potential happen. He’s slowly loosing his mind tbh but 9 year old Stint’l has no idea

He was successfully able to meet with Ransolm where he introduced him to Stint’l, explaining that she was his daughter’s illegitimate child he was now raising. The two men caught up while Stint’l played - Not really having an interest in their conversation.

A few weeks passed and the scandal broke out about how Ransolm orchestrated a financial laundering scheme to help fund a para-military group. Per galactic law he would be sent back to his home planet of Rosia to be tried and if found guilty (And considering how he was framed by very wealthy political figures, he would definitely be found guilty) be executed.

Still having some social standing (And also by using almost every penny in his name)  Telkum is able to bribe some guards and smuggle Ransolm off of the planet. As to not cause an outroar a suicide is staged and as far as the galaxy is confirmed Ransolm is now dead.

Now having 2 fugitives on his ship and no money Telkum becomes much more cautious with his Meteorite Farming business and starts resorting to illegal markets.

29-32 ABY

The family change their name in attempt to hide from unwanted attention (Changing from Casterfo to Senn) and continue to travel the galaxy farming. However since they have are now under new identities all of Telkum‘s credentials are now invalid. So they do business on a very careful level.

Ransolm, a very distinguished man himself, tries his best to teach Stint’l “how to be a lady” to which she does not react well too. He bought her a dress one time, because she didnt own anything other than boots and overalls, and she ejected it out the airlock. He does however get her to stop burping loudly and teaches her the term, “excuse me”

Over the next few years Telkum starts having breakdowns and episodes of fits, reliving his days from the rebellion. Like waking up in the middle of the night thinking the Empire found them and they are about to die, he just starts screaming. One time he tried to shoot Ransolm in the chest and Stint’l crying hysterically was what snapped him out of it. 

Ransolm and Stint’l learned how to calm him down and grow worried for his mentality as he was growing older and less stable by the day.

33 ABY

After a few days of mining in the outer rim the Castafo family gets abducted by a large ship resembling an Imperial Star Destroyer.  Telkum has a break down and freaks out as they are about to be boarded by “Darth Vader”.

Ransolm, who immediately understood the severity of the situation once he saw soldiers in white armor, immediately began divising an escape plan. He knew there was no way he’d be able to save his Great Uncle Telkum with his screaming and erratic behavior but he was determined to save himself and 14 year old Stint’l. 

With a weary heart Ransolm uses Telkum’s episode as a distraction to escape with Stint’l on an escape pod. 

In disbelief on what he himself had just seen Ransolm becomes obsessed with finding the Resistance (Who he hears is allegedly lead by his good friend Leia Organa) to lend a helping hand.

Within the next few months Ransolm and Stint’l buy a junker light freighter and travel the galaxy until they finally come to find the resistance.

After gaining an audience with General Organa the two old friends reunite and Stint’l (Being too young to actually be on the front lines of the fighting) becomes Leia’s assistant. She basically follows the General around, gets her caff, takes notes when instructed. 

It was also a favor on behalf of Ransolm because Stint’l is wild and super wild and he think’s Leia could help teach her some manners and turn her into a lady. This does not work.

Stint’l didn’t really care for this either considering how she’s very energetic and hands on, she wanted to be where the action was. But Leia wouldn’t have it and took the 15 year old girl under her wings, trying to make a tame civilized lady of her.

My amazing pal @floral-and-fine drew her and !!!!

[racke7]

Me vs visual novels

Okay. Way back in the day, I played a lot of these, and I still remember a lot of them fondly. Though I will readily admit that after FSN screwed me over with a Bad End that I basically had to replay the entire game to fix, I abandoned any shame I felt towards using walkthroughs.

I haven’t played a proper visual novel to completion in like half-a-decade at least. But here are the ones that I remember.

A Midsummer Day's Resonance

Girl breaks her phone REALLY badly, and it ends up showing hologram-video of other girl who also broke her phone in an equally bad way. They talk, they become friends, the girl in the phone introduces her to her best friend whom she immediately falls in love with.

(Short fluffy story, with the biggest sour feeling of an ending that I’ve ever read with my own two eyes. Fuck you.)

Crescendo

Senpai is graduating? It's a bunch of classmates who are members of one club, most of them female. The setting is fairly bland, what little I remember from the story wasn't all that thrilling, the characters are realistically dull, and the music is actually very good.

(I literally can only remember this one in the vaguest of senses, it left that much of an impression. Think that it did have something-something attempted-rape-scene? Also pretty sure that sister was hot for brother? I cannot for the life of me remember the details of this thing.)

Cross Channel

Bunch of former friends returning from their failed attempt at a nostalgic club-trip, only to find an empty city instead. Lots of dealing with their various stages of psychopathy, a big mystery to unravel, and a very philosophical outlook on things even as they reach their many different kinds of breaking points.

(Yes the main-character is very much included in the psychopathy-comment, but I’m very fond of him. Seriously though, trigger warnings should probably be included.)

Family Project

Young man who wants nothing to do with people gets stuck taking in an illegal immigrant who's in trouble with the mafia. Suddenly homeless, the two of them gather a bunch of other homeless crazies and form the “family project” of pretending they're all related, so that nobody complains about them living together. A lot of heart-warming scenes, some action, a lot of drama, and a lot of comedy.

(Still pisses me off that EVERY route has these moments of just-... so many feels. Like, replaying it after experiencing every route is really frustrating because different routes did different parts of the story massively better than others and I just want to gorge myself on them all at once. Must mention trigger-warnings of rape-scenes however.)

Fate Stay Night

Young man gets accidentally drafted into wizard Battle Royale with legendary heroes. A lot of weird shit happens, a whole buttload of action, some drama, some grand musings on the nature of idealism, a bit of comedy, and an overarching romance tying it all together.

(... It’s a pretty good game? Some really messed up shit is both mentioned and experienced though. So beware.)

Kagetsu Tohya

The protagonist of Tsukihime gets stuck in a time-loop. Everybody is insane, and it gets played for maximum comedy. Except for the times when everyone gets murdered.

(Loli is a cat-succubus with her own sex-scene. But it’s-... the producers aren’t fantastic with writing sex-scenes, so really it’s in your best interest to fast-forward through those parts anyway.)

Princess Waltz

Boy stumbles into a grand tournament, and helps the prince, who's also the grand price, to beat everyone else into the dirt. A lot of romance and drama, a bit of comedy, honest friendships, some gender-issues, some really bizarre plot-twists, a very solid main romance and a lot of really shitty minor romances.

(The shitty minor romances? With that I mean they literally amount to a few dialogue-differences and like... I think it’s two sex-scenes per girl? And I couldn’t figure out how to fast-forward through all the scenes I’d already sat through previously. Yeah no, the only romance worth mentioning is the first one. Damn that completionist streak of mine straight to hell.)

Snow Sakura

Boy moves in with cousin and uncle in inn because school. Makes quick friends with cousin's friends. High focus on romance, with a level of comedy and drama that's very appropriate of high school students.

(Yes your cousin is a girl, yes she has some very touching romance-scenes. Mainly though it’s... high school drama. I’ll seriously never be able to replay this fucking game, because I just end up groaning at it and closing it down.)

Tsukihime

Boy with scary eye-powers moves back in with his little sister. Bunch of vampires show up in town. Lots of action, lots of psychological horror, basically a different rape-scene for every route, and an all-in-all very interesting kind of story.

(It has a lot of interesting elements and characters, with some good plot-twists and a heck of a lot of the main character slowly going insane. But yeah... YMMV.)

X-Change Alternative

Boy turns into a girl. Has sex. Depending on route, decides to stay as girl, or happily returns to being male. There's-... I think there was ONE route that wasn't just a different flavor of person to have sex with and had some actual emotion in it. Mostly comedy.

(It’s funny? Like... the sex-scenes aren’t all that good, but they’re vaguely entertaining to read? I can’t figure out why I sat through this entire game. What the hell past-me?)

Yume Miru Kusuri

Boy falls in love. Three different girls with very different issues. One cannot “expect to wake up in the morning” so considers sleep to be equal with death, and has a lot of issues as a result. One is using hallucinogenics to escape from her dull life and strict parents, running wild all over town. One is bullied into turning suicidal and has a lot of issues as a result. Lots of drama, lots of comedy too, focus on romance and the characters.

(It’s good, but holy crap it’s HEAVY, even if it’s big on happy endings.)

[ruffoverthinksthings]

Let Ben Rest: Disney’s Opportunity to Explore Auradon, Encourage Youth Involvement in Politics, and Encourage Healthy Leadership Habits

Many thanks to @screaminginternallyalleternity for pointing this out, and making wonderful writing besides about all the ways Auradon is incredibly messed up.

Auradon’s power is far too concentrated at the very top. We see that Beast, despite being one man and ruling over such a diverse and massive union of states, has the power to:

Completely, utterly ban Magic, one of the most powerful tools (and means of living) for its citizens,  what brought a lot of the Royals into power in the first place and let them keep it, and united these states together in the first place,

Exile a gigantic portion of their population into an island prison, whilst bringing some of them back from the dead specifically for this, with inhumane conditions, no government supervision or aid, and literally dumping all their trash on them, and

Oppressing pretty much all non-human minorities so efficiently that most people aren’t even aware of it happening, and they had to wait for a change in administration to have their grievances aired and actually redressed, rather than getting yelled at and threatened until you shut up and sit back down.

I headcanon a lot that the decisions such as the Magic Ban, the Isle of the Lost, and the numerous oppressive laws weren’t entirely his fault—there had to have been civilian support, along with allies with the other royals—but as Kanye West sang, “No one man should have all that power.”

I can understand why the power structure came to be: in majority of the States’ time periods, royalty was seen as divine, infallible, and absolutely deserving to do whatever they pleased, because they couldn’t be sitting on the throne if they weren’t the true, right ruler for the kingdom. Even with London bringing with it the ideas of democracies, liberalism, and secularism, religious beliefs and long-held truths like that don’t die easily, nor do they fade away within the span of 20 years.

They may have compromised with the elective monarchy they have right now, but the point still stands: we have one man who has far too much power, and as Alex wrote about, far too much responsibility than any one person should ever have.

I understand that Ben is basically the Kim Possible of the Descendants Universe sans fighting evil villains on a regular basis,* that he is perfect in every way, with superhuman time management skills, intelligence, and energy stores to be a star athlete, captain and president of pretty much every club under the sun, and straight A grades plus numerous colleges and professionals courting and asking him for his opinion.

But like Kim Possible the show frequently used as a dramatic plot point, even if you can do anything, that doesn’t mean you should, because you are still human and you have limits.

It’d be a massive opportunity for Disney on all fronts to show Ben being overwhelmed by all his responsibilities and duties, and doing what responsible and successful leaders do:

Delegate responsibility to others.

It’d be a great way to point out the flaws of Auradon’s political system of entrusting so much power into a very small elite (or just two-three individuals) surrounded by advisers (who may or may not be corrupt, like Jafar), and are both oftentimes blind and deaf to the needs, the desires, and the realities of the people they serve.

It’d serve as an excellent critique of our current world, with how so many people put far too much trust in their politicians and leaders, believing them to be the actors of change rather than just the people coordinating the effort; having more sway over matters than they really have (such as with the economy, or massive, complicated crises like poverty); and more often than not, giving them too little supervision and accountability, content to disregard their duty as citizens to watch over the people watching over them, and just let them take the wheel.

Whether that leads to them to greener pastures, or off a cliff, too many people think their civic duty ends once you cast your ballot.

It’d be effective in teaching kids this most valuable lesson of adulthood: you can’t do everything by yourself. You need the help of other people. Even if you can take the weight of the world on your shoulders, you shouldn’t, because you’ll get tired, you’ll get sick, and you’ll eventually get crushed by your load, if you don’t have someone who can help take some of the weight off, or tag out for you while you recuperate.

It’d be a wonderful, convenient, and lore-friendly way to put attention into the various aspects of Auradon outside of the Isle, Auradon Prep, and parts of Auradon City, and develop individual characters—have Ben make new committees, initiatives, and departments, and delegate a student representative for each of them.

Hell, just make them the official Secretary, as apparently this society is perfectly fine with handing over absolute executive power to 16 year olds still in high school, why not his alter-egos in his cabinet?

Have Jane and Mal team-up as the Secretaries for the Magic, Sorcery, and Mystical Matters Committee, trying to find out some way to slowly, safely, sanely undo the magic ban without causing widespread chaos and discontent, have us see how exactly the Fae population have been affected by having the very essence of their existence made illegal, and how Auradon’s regular population had adapted with science and the consequences of getting rid of magic.

It wouldn’t be strange of them to go visiting the cells and settlements of expatriated Fae and magic users like the Stars (a headcanon of mine), interview the other Faeries of the realm and how they’ve been adapting or more often than not, suffering, and explore magic and the effects of the Ban deeper because that’s their job.

Have Jay be in charge of the “At-Risk Children Athletics Program” and explore the concept of Auradon Villain Kids (AVKs): the children of pardoned criminals or “not THAT evil” individuals that have avoided the Isle, but have a massive stigma anyway. Have him find out how the Romani (“gypsies” from The Hunchback of Notre Dame) have been doing, hang out with his fellow street urchins in Agrabah, London, China, and so on, introduce to these kids who think they have no future and nothing to live for that there is hope for them in sports, and getting into education.

Have Carlos and Evie be part of the Department of Science and Technology, exploring how education is still faulty in Auradon with parents perceptions that their kids are not going to benefit from it, the horribly mistaken belief that girls belong at home and not in college, along with the flaws and issues that technology and science have wrought with Auradon.

How many blacksmiths were put out of business when mass-produced products from automated factories came about? Why does Auradon such a huge throw-away culture where they can’t seem to use anything more than once or to the last drop, and is this because they live in such a time of abundance, they have stopped caring about the environmental and societal costs because “there’ll always be more?” How was technology adapted by these mostly medieval fantasy universes, and what the hell is going on with London right now?

You can also rope in the other AKs and give them the spotlight, like making Lonnie, Audrey, and Doug into the trio in charge of the Rural Development Initiative, exploring the people that have likely been left behind by Auradon’s move into a very automated, information-based economy: farmers, small, out of the way villages, and people who thought they’d be working the same well-paying, low barrier-to-entry, low-skill jobs all their lives, until they suddenly disappeared.

Expose us to the plight of the minorities through Doug’s experiences as the son of the Dwarves, how he thought there was no future for him but the mines, and how Snow White and his family fought damn hard to get him the education he deserved.

Have Lonnie explore how the middle class is better off, but not that much, and how certain societal problems have remained like arranged marriages because singles are so overwhelmed by how much choice they have, along with how Feminism still has a long way to go in that you’re still very much expected to quit your career at some point and become a full-time mother in Auradon.

Get Audrey’s hands dirty, have her interact with her people outside of parties and formally arranged meetings where everything is staged, shiny, and clean, and let her see the reality of the people that she’s going to govern, how things REALLY are outside of her gold-and-jewel-studded bubble as a 1% Royal,  and that her luxury always comes at the cost of someone else’s prosperity, as there’s only so many resources to go around.

For far too long, Disney has been perpetuating the myth of “Divine Right” with their royals and the people who marry into the monarchy: that they deserve their positions because of them being inherently better, smarter, and more ethical people, that they deserve to rule because they are obviously good rulers and the bad ones are deposed in short order, or that it’s only the kings and queens who can actually enact any sort of change in the world, the commoner’s job is to make that happen like they were horses pulling a cart.

Having Ben delegate his tasks, admit that he needs help, and spread the responsibility around not only makes him a more realistic and sympathetic character and less of a Marty Stu, it empowers the other members of the cast and gives them importance in the world, AND it shows real life kids that you don’t need to have been born into royalty or have a crown put in your head to take charge, and lead the way for change for the world around you.

Plus, it can be a great opportunity to show the kids a HEALTHY, sane, safe way to have a high power, high responsibility executive job, that even if you are at the top, you’re still relying on the people below you holding you up just as they are on you, that you will inevitably need several hands of help, and that you need vacation days, breaks from your work, and time to yourself, away from the crush of paperwork, demands, and people demanding hearings.

That you need to and can make a system where the colour of this year’s ball is handled by your Royal Event Planner, you have a clear chart and system of if you really need to take this call or hear out this plea or can have someone else do it for you, and that your primary job as a leader isn’t to do all the work, it’s to figure out how to get everyone to do what they’re best at or can do, so you can all achieve more than if you were all working by yourselves.

I’d also LOVE to see a scene where Ben is kicking back in his room, slowly working through a giant pile of books, interspersed with the VKs and AKs running around, trying to keep this dystopian disaster we call Auradon from imploding.

* I actually have an AU about this. More on it Later.(TM)

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[theveryworstthing]

today we learn about the mainlander castes, their ruling families, and their God Royalty. this is part one since i’m going to put the Royals on their own post.

pictured here we have:

Lord Cahphie (i call his family Fight Club in my head. you’ll see why.)

Lady Mirriow (a mirage brought on by the cacophonous sound of a million hyenas laughing.)

Lady Twaine (child made of coffee and architectural planning.)

and Lady Emelyerat (the pastel priestess who runs this god forsaken show.)

read below the cut to know the things. there are...a lot of things.

Caste system:

Royals: the King and Queen. God ruler bloodlines.

Lords and Ladies: The non-Royal royals. The four officially ruling families and some super rich families. They run around in a system called the courts, which is basically where rich people go to make deals and sneer at other rich people while looking fancy.

The People: Exactly what is says on the tin. The general range of middle class schmucks.

The Grey People: The lower class. Life is hard man, they’re just trying to get by.

Ink Servants: Pretty much slaves. Slavery was outlawed long ago but there is a contract system in place that makes it so people that can afford it can basically go into any prison and buy a person to have them serve out their sentence as their servant. The buyer provides room and board, the Ink Servant works, and since nobody really checks in on most of these arrangements, they just assume that everyone involved is treated with dignity and respect until this rehabilitation period is over. I won’t elaborate further. Its not all criminals though. Sometimes people in dire straits like poor single mothers or the disabled willingly sign themselves onto the contracts to secure housing and safety for their loved ones. Most buyers treat these people more like normal servants but there are some who see no difference between them and the prisoners. In fact, most of society sees them that way.

Courts:

Cahphie (keepers of the natural order): The Cahphie court and their subjects are known as the People Of Peace. This is ironic considering the astonishing amount of civil wars they’ve been in and how the Cahphie family seems to be entirely composed of ultra-petty ticking time bombs. They are a relentless people who hold serious grudges and thrive on pure brute force and cussedness. They treat the caste system as an absolute food chain that is never to be disturbed and are some of the few mainlanders who have no problem with feral animals and beastly behavior, since they feel those traits can be used to great advantage. Despite all this, when viewed from a distance (while holding completely still and radiating fear and respect like your life depends on it because it probably does), they seem pretty chill. The Cahphie are a reactive force at heart, you have to piss them off first. They find no honor in going after people without a reason. But oh man, are they good at finding reasons. The rest of Mainlander society has gotten really good at not doing that though and there hasn’t been a war for ages.

This would be good news for the current Lord Cahphie, who through a fluke in genetics isn’t filled with gallons of barely contained Liquid Fight, but that just means that his court gets bored. Past events say that boredom is more dangerous for his people than actually going to war so his great great grandfather, sick of not having enough excuses to stab people in peacetime, cultivated a strong dueling culture. People in the Cahphie courts duel over just about anything; land, love, the last slice of cake, and Lord Cahphie duels the most. Every day in fact. Every day by law. You see, only the strongest deserve to be at the top and winning duels is the best way to prove you’re still capable of running the Cahphie family. So every day there is a call for challengers and (almost) every day he destroys them. If he loses then one of his siblings or worse, his parents, get a chance to fight him and if he loses to them he loses his position. He’s come close to failure a few times but he’s still ruling ten years in with no sign of flagging. Good news for the court duelists, as he’s much better at non-lethal wins than his kin (much better meaning he tries at all not to murder them as hard as possible).  Better news for the People Of Peace in general since his rule has really thinned out the heads on pikes. Neutral news for his family members, who totally aren’t using the dueling tradition to find honorable and legit ways to assassinate him before he has a child and take his place. The lack of a good war is really starting to make them itch.

Relationships With Non Mainlanders: They find Rabbits hardy and admire both their chemical warfare and their survival tactics. They mostly see them as possible cannon fodder/playthings though. They have the same kind of respect that a dude in a wolf shirt has for huskies. Noble creatures who are good enough, but at their core they’re dumb animals compared to Real Foodchain Kings. They respect the Hare’s ability to live their nomadic lifestyles and thrive in the wilderness but mostly hate the fact that they stray into their (at least they claim) lands without permission sometimes. They don’t really deal with Vultures. Vultures have seen too many battle aftermaths to play into the spiel about their honor.

 The Mirriows (the blood that rejoices): The Mirriow family and their court are known as The Good Neighbors. This name is apt as the other courts basically go there to party and eat, while occasionally asking to borrow things that they have no intention of returning. Their cities are lively, boasting year round festivals, exciting new fashions, and news from the ships and caravans that stop there. Their food is legendary on the mainland, taking inspirations from the different cultures passing through (yes, even Vultures) and turning out dishes good enough to have local cooks routinely enlisted to cook for The Royals. Their theater and dance scenes have similar acclaim, and simply wandering the night can take you to anything from dramatic historical shows to small jazzy underground burlesque joints. Truly the Mirriow courts are places of happiness and distraction. Forget your sorrows, don’t mind what you saw out of the corner of your eye, and don’t bother reading the fine print sugar. Its probably fine.

Everyone’s not so easily swayed by the Mirriow though. The mix of cultures makes their courts far more accepting of the bending of societal rules, making it known by some as the Unseemly Court. This accusation is usually flung after meeting Lady Mirriow, the personification of the sound that a contract signed in blood makes when it snaps its fingers to a groovy beat. She sashays through life with the aesthetic of a Disney villain, wielding a laugh like a mildly singed saucy velvet painting of a hyena and an amazing Nervous Making Smile. Despite her whole deal, she’s good ruler and her people love her. She takes care of them, carrying on her family’s legacy of generosity, always ready to make deals with others for favors and goods. The amazing gifts and services she gives in exchange for what can usually be seen as trifles to the untrained eye through these friendly contracts keep her in the good graces of the other families and out of most drama. They are totally not ways to subtly manipulate people and find on the books reasons to punish anyone who tries to cross her with near impossible riddle-like fine print clauses that depend on quick clever thinking to make sure she doesn’t own you for life. They are certainly not that. Unrelated, her family is known for their disorienting conversational skills, distractive backhanded flattery, always following through on deals, and the ability to somehow never lie even when you feel like they are lying to your face. They also own a secret trove of very old, very illegal literature that would definitely have gotten their whole bloodline struck down in a bloody rage by the Royals if it was ever found. It’s a good thing its never been found. It’s a good thing everyone is too distracted to look.

Relationships With Non Mainlanders: Rabbits, while still certainly second class citizens as a whole, are treated a little more equally here. This is the only place that they and Hares are really free to act and dress more according to their own cultural ideals. Mostly the ideals mainlanders see as cool but still. Vultures are fans of the area, flying in with all the juicy gossip and relishing in cuisine that actually bothers to include their tastes.

 The Twaine( the keys that shape the door ): the Twaine family and their court are known as The Fair Folk. The Twaine are strange, bordering on both the most beloved and most despised by the Royals. The dismissal comes from the fact that Twaine society is focused on forward motion. They’re the inventors and artists who develop housing, transportation, machinery, medicine, and manufacture a good chunk of mainlander goods. They’re driven to build and fix and work. They tend to be smaller and less bombastic than other mainlanders, typically going for simpler aesthetics. The Twaine family even crop their luxurious ears and tails when they come of age, signifying function over form. Despite all of this desire to make new discoveries and help society progress, The Fair Folk rarely do anything new with all this knowledge. This is because at the end of the day they are very loyal to the Royals (perhaps even more loyal than the Emelyerat in some ways), and the Royals have a certain way they want the world to be. So, before anything is made for public use it must be submitted to the Emelyerat for approval. Failure to make your thing official and use it anyway can get you labeled as a degenerate treasonous Witch, a term that doesn’t carry the sweet old aunt fondness of Rabbit society. Mostly because it usually carries a death sentence. Of course sometimes submitting your idea gets the same result so most Fair Folk just keep their ideas to themselves, occasionally writing them down or discussing them with those they really trust, burning the notes afterwards with a swell of love for the Royals, civic pride, and a little fear. Not a lot of fear (they will be quick to tell you) but like. Enough.

On the flip side of all the witch executing, the Royals love the Twaine for their amazing musical ability (more than a few have been summoned to the Royals for lifelong employment) and the sheer level of housekeeping they do for the mainland. They’re quiet and subservient and have no problem being ordered wherever to fix whatever. They’re a boon during natural disasters, getting places looking good as new in no time, and their restoration of older buildings and objects preserve much of the mainland history that is left from the Before Wall times. They also handle the building of the Castles, the twin structures that are destroyed and rebuilt in different locations every hundred years. The Twaine family are the head architects for the Castles and hold their position with pride. The Castles are labors of love (and slight madness), a release of all the creative energy that can’t be put elsewhere. Rooms of amazing art and beauty hidden in blank walls, stairs that descend into a darkness that lasts too long and is full of the sound of far off orchestras and footsteps that aren’t yours, secret gardens that can only be reached by singing at the gates of prismed glass, wash rooms that resemble pools in forest groves where its always twilight and clockwork lightning bugs perform synchronized dances through the trees, ballrooms of scented mist and crystal floors that make dancing feel like gliding over a troubled ocean. All this is done with no input from the Royals. They’re not even supposed to tell them what they’re doing. Sure there are guidelines but each Castle is meant for the next in the Royal bloodline and since no one knows what the child will like they just wing it. Pure freedom.

The current Lady Twaine just became the head of this project and is trying her best not to burn out on the creative power. Her father’s death was unexpected, so with her older brothers dead just years before in a witchcraft scandal and her mother trapped in a cycle of grief she took on the crown. She’s barely 19 and her people describe her as resilient, industrious, mature, and delicate. Mostly she’s just young. Young and tired and possessing an inability to read or exhibit social cues reliably that make her seem more aloof than anxious. She has thirteen years to get caught up on and finish the newest Castles before the next heir is born which is not much time to make something that should entertain your godlike king and queen.

But that’s okay because it isn’t like she ever sleeps.

Relationships With Non Mainlanders: They find Rabbits to be fine workers but they don’t really ‘get’ them. The abstractions in their art, their community based living arrangements, their social structures, and their family allegiances. None of it really makes sense to The Fair Folk. They work closely with Rabbits and share a love of discovery but to some this makes it look like they’re on the same level and they’re not okay with that. They will go through amazing lengths to show a rabbit with the exact same credentials and skill level that they are beneath them. Not in cartoonishly evil ways just��� they’re cold. Cold and dismissive.  As for the others, they straight up don’t trust Hares (liars and thieves, practically homeless vagabonds) or Vultures (disgusting cannibalistic flying germ factories) but they rely on them to transport materials and goods so they tolerate them and pay them well so they don’t return the saltiness and leave them up shit creek. There will be a paddle though. That paddle just happens to be held by a person on the shore who is snapping it over their knee while staring you straight in the eyes under a banner depicting rude illustrations of you getting sensual with a toilet brush. Of course if anyone drops out of their jobs its just claimed that clearly the mainlanders were right about them all along and how dare they shun their generous offers. The Fair Folk are not popular.

 The Emelyerat( the holy uplifted): the Emelyerat family and their court are known as The Gentry and they are the only Lords and Ladies that have the privilege of getting direct holy orders from the Royals. Serving as the clergy for all variations of mainlander religion, the Emelyerat are…enlightened? They’re certainly devout. Taking the Royal’s words as law and shaping the culture and aesthetics to deliver whatever they need from all mainlander kind. They are the ones who write and approve mainlander history. They declare who won what wars and what they were fought for. Not so much editing as strong bias and a tendency to simply eradicate periods of time if the Royals deem it so. They serve them always and think of nothing but their happiness. And how could they not? The King and Queen are just…just…they love them. Their presence is a blessing. Their beauty inspires them and their power gives every mainlander safety in their fold.

The Gentry acquire the best entertainment, the most interesting baubles, and the strongest magics to grant their every wish. So what if the enlistment of certain people into the Royal courts isn’t done with their explicit consent or conscious understanding that they have been spirited away? That good mothers disappear on shopping trips and come back a week later wearing elegant flowing robes with golden beads braided into their new patches of silver fur and breasts completely dry of milk for hungry babs. So what if violent criminals and heretics are granted reprieve from the gallows only for sobbing monstrous beasts warped by magic and in need of hunting to appear in the Royal’s  game forests days later? So what  if beautiful young mainlanders follow flirty charming people that they’ve strangely never seen around here before into the woods on festival nights and don’t wander back home until its fifty years past? That they appear still twenty odd years old with bright glassy eyes and pregnant bellies and a glow about them that makes their remaining kin not question this gift. This reunion. That they talk about their time away as if it were a dream. The extravagance, the unbridled joy, their lover tall and regal and looking so upset when they reveal their homesickness. No. they were always radiant and loving and they cried the day you asked them where the door outside was. They begged. Begged you to come back to the gardens, to dance and eat more of the strange food. The warmth of their arms around you as you danced the night away. The tantrum. Things breaking. Beautiful crystal shards at your feet. Laughter ringing through the court like spring rain. That first lick of fear. You hadn’t felt it in so long. Your heart was full, you’ll never be happier. You finally notice that they don’t move quite right. Their voice is like honey. A tearful kiss goodbye as the court looks on. You can feel their warm eyes on your belly. You can feel the jealousy.

And now its only been a few days since you left but the baby feels like its almost due now. You can feel it moving and something inside you is screaming a warning but something stronger makes you feel the same glittering euphoria you felt dancing with your Royal lover. Everyone else just looks on, helpful and accepting and you don’t worry about them being in the birthing room with you. Its fine for this. Because someone will need to take care of the baby and you know, through the haze of peace and joy, that it won’t be you. So you let them watch while you expel the opalescent egg and smile at the tiny creature that turns to you when the shell cracks open. Your vision dims as you disappear inside of its hungry mouth but you don’t feel anything. No pain, no fear to accompany the sound of snapping bones. The onlookers coo as you all sense the first glimmer of awareness in its eyes. You feel your consciousness not so much fading as changing, sliding away. You close your eyes. Your baby has grown so much. Surely they’re five or six by now. They look it. Surely the will be happy.

But anyway.

So what? That’s such a small price to pay to bask in their majesty. Not even a price. A gift. A gift that these people find the less divine worthy of company. The current Lady Emelyerat knows all about this gift. As Head Priestess she has been invited to the Royal’s courts many times. Ever since she took the crown at twenty-four she’s been in their confidence. Now, at thirty-eight, she’s a powerful mage who runs the mainland like a well-oiled machine. Forty-nine years of excellent service to the Royals. Traveling from Castle to Castle, solving what problems she can for the people so they don’t have to, putting aside family life to serve. Or rather. Wait. That last one isn’t even an issue as she had no one left after her mother…no no she has a husband. Where was he? They were wed after her coronation. And the boy! I mean son. Sons? Oh what kind of mother was she? How embarrassing. But then again it was so easy to forget these things. Some of them happened at least ninety-three years ago! Speaking of which, her oldest turns three in a few months. She has to remember to do something for him.

She has to remember to.

Her husband will help. He’s so wonderful and.

And he’ll.

He’s.

She probably won’t have time for frivolous activities this week. She’s so busy and the Royals have new projects for her. Having tea with her court or whatever she was thinking about will have to wait. No activity has a greater need than service to her majesties after all! This makes her life a little lonely sometimes but the work is worth it and she’ll have plenty of time to herself when she hands the crown to her future children. No need to fret. She’s only twenty-five after all.

Relationships With Non Mainlanders: All peoples not of mainlander blood are welcome if they wish to swear themselves to the Royals. Sure these people might be lesser in some ways, but that just means they should be uplifted! Through the Royal’s wills all things are possible and all people with open hearts and minds will serve and be loved by Them. And those that don’t? Well.

They all come around sooner or later.

[justsimplylovely]

US president to use state visit to promote House of Trump as he doubles down on Brexit bet Trump with the Queen in Windsor last summer. Next week, the monarch will greet Trump ceremonially in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. Photograph: Pablo Martínez Monsiváis/AP Donald Trump’s state visit this week to the UK is being promoted as a celebration of a close alliance tempered through war. It could be more accurately described as a personal lap of victory for the US president, performed largely at the expense of his hosts. Trump arrives in London having survived Robert Mueller’s last blow, a verbal recap of the special counsel’s finding that the president could neither be charged with crimes nor exonerated. The president is now on the counter-attack and may well use his visit to repeat his claim – called “utterly ridiculous” by GCHQ – that UK intelligence helped spy on his election campaign. The rich pageantry that the British monarchy supplies will not only distract from the lingering clouds of suspicion, but send a bright red, white and blue message of reassurance to the Trump faithful that, while his domestic enemies might yap at his heels, he is still treated like royalty in foreign capitals. “What he wants is the adulation,” said Thomas Wright, the director of the centre on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution. “He wants the protocol and the grandeur and to be at the centre of it all. It is how he sees global diplomacy. It’s going from palace to chancellery, meeting leaders and looking the part.” For that purpose, the UK visit could not be more perfect. On Monday, the Queen will greet Trump ceremonially in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. He will inspect a guard of honour and there will be royal gun salutes fired from Green Park and the Tower of London. There will be afternoon tea and banquets and then, in Portsmouth, the martial grandeur of the Royal Navy. Trump is bringing his extended family, including the heirs to his fortune and political power, Donald Jr, Eric and Ivanka. The most powerful of them, Ivanka, will attend a “business leaders” breakfast on Tuesday with her father in the company of Theresa May and the Duke of York. Travelling Trumps When Donald Trump and his wife, Melania, arrive for a state visit to the UK on 3 June, they will reportedly be joined by the president’s four adult children and their spouses. Here's who is in the family entourage: Ivanka Trump Ivanka is Trump’s oldest daughter and works in the White House (unpaid) as an adviser to the president. Trump has relied on her often for overseas diplomacy, including sitting in for him briefly at a G20 summit, and he said he had considered naming her to head the World Bank. She has visited Ethiopia and the Ivory Coast on behalf of the administration to promote women’s rights. Before her father’s presidency, Trump ran her own fashion line. Jared Kushner Trump’s son-in-law is a White House senior adviser and the administration’s envoy to the Middle East (also unpaid). With his wife Ivanka he has also been the subject of a host of controversies – with a whistleblower alleging they were granted sensitive security clearances over the objections of career security experts. He has also been accused of conflicts of interest over his family’s sprawling real-estate empire. Kushner wears many hats in Washington. He is supposed to come up with a Middle East peace plan, as well as US immigration policy. Donald Trump Jr Trump’s eldest son and his brother, Eric, run their father’s business empire while he is in the White House. Officially, Trump Jr is executive vice-president of the Trump Organization. It was Trump Jr who met a Russian lawyer in an infamous Trump Tower meeting in New York in 2016, after the Russian offered him election ‘dirt’ on the Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Kushner also attended. Although accepting campaign help from foreign nationals is illegal, the special counsel Robert Mueller said after investigating that there was not enough evidence to prove meeting participants knew they were breaking the law. Trump Jr may be accompanied by his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, a former Fox News host. Eric Trump Eric Trump is the co-leader of the Trump Organization during his father’s presidency. He has defended his father from accusations of racism, and called the president’s critics “not even people”. He is parodied on the weekly US satirical comedy TV show Saturday Night Live and elsewhere as the not-so-sharp Trump brother, though supporters call this portrayal inaccurate. Most recently, a watchdog group has been pressing to find out how much it cost taxpayers when Eric and members of one of the family’s golf clubs travelled to Scotland to play the links. Lara Trump Lara Trump is a campaign adviser to Donald Trump’s re-election campaign and wife to Eric. A vocal defender of her father-in-law, she recently made headlines by saying the decision to let in large numbers of migrants fleeing war- and poverty-torn countries for Europe was “one of the worst things that ever happened to Germany”. Tiffany Trump Tiffany is the lowest profile of Trump’s adult children and his only child with second wife Marla Maples. She headed to London ahead of the rest of her family. The 25-year-old is a graduate student at Georgetown Law in Washington DC. She travelled to the Cannes film festival earlier this month with her wealthy boyfriend, in a trip that has drawn scrutiny over its cost to taxpayers in terms of security for the presidential daughter. The scenes will eventually be marketed by his business empire and his re-election machine in the same way: the House of Trump and the House of Windsor, the top luxury brands of their respective nations, sitting down to make deals in the most sumptuous settings. In effect, the British royals will be serving as co-stars and extras in stock footage for Trump’s 2020 re-election ads. The only royal with experience of acting for a living, Meghan, the American-born Duchess of Sussex, is thought to be staying away. She is on maternity leave after having baby Archie, but she has called Trump “divisive” and “misogynistic” in the past. In return, he declared her “nasty” in a pre-departure Sun interview. Trump’s progress will be triumphal in other ways. May – who told him off for sharing far-right videos in 2017, and whom he has taunted mercilessly ever since for failing to deliver Brexit – will be in her last days as prime minister. The former Conservative foreign secretary Boris Johnson, whom Trump has consistently backed over May, and who he has said would do “an excellent job”, is tipped as most likely to succeed her. The Brexit party leader, Nigel Farage, another Trump favourite, emerged victorious from the European elections, while the hardest of all Brexits remains a likelihood. The US president is winning all his bets in the UK, and it would be out of character if he did not remind the hapless outgoing prime minister of that fact. Johnson and Farage were expected to attend a banquet thrown at the US ambassador’s London residence, Winfield House, on Tuesday night, though Farage claims he has been banned from meeting the president by the May government. Trump was coy on whether he would meet them but gave them a resounding shout-out last Thursday as “two very good guys, very interesting people”. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Trump called on Britain to leave the European Union without a deal if Brussels refuses to meet its demands, and urged the government to send Farage into the negotiations. The state visit is an opportunity for Trump to double down on his bet on Brexit, with the ultimate aim of striking his own bilateral trade deal with an amputated and weakened Britain. After arriving in the UK on Air Force One on Monday 3 June, US president Donald Trump will be formally welcomed in a ceremony in the gardens of Buckingham Palace. It will be attended by the Queen and Prince Charles. The president will then attend a private lunch at the palace, which is expected to be attended by Prince Harry, but not his wife, who Trump recently described as 'nasty'. Following a wreath-laying ceremony in Westminster Abbey, Donald Trump will join Prince Charles for an afternoon tea at Clarence House. The Queen, Prince Charles and Prince Harry will then host a state banquet in the evening, which will be attended by prominent US citizens who live in the UK, as well as political and civic leaders. On Tuesday 4 June the visit includes a breakfast meeting with Prince Andrew, and then talks and a press conference with prime minister Theresa May at Downing Street. On the Tuesday evening Trump hosts a dinner at the residence of the US ambassador. On Wednesday 5 June Trump will take part in commemoration services in Portsmouth to mark the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings. The day ends with the Queen formally bidding farewell to the US president.  Trump’s entourage will also include two identical seven-seat black armoured limousines nicknamed ‘The Beast’, and a number of presidential helicopters. The president has at his side at all times one of five rotating military aides who carry the nuclear ‘football’ which can trigger a missile strike - equipped with communication tools and a book with prepared war plans.   “This is not about seeing where the UK is vulnerable in a post-EU environment and buttressing it; I think this is using US trade leverage to get as many gains as possible,” said Heather Conley, director of the Europe programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. That leverage will be used to peel the UK away from EU regulations to fall in line with US standards on food, healthcare and banking. The US president will be coming to press home his advantage. “Trump is pursuing a predatory approach to Brexit,” Wright said. “It’s an opportunist strategy to take advantage of Britain’s vulnerability.”

from Yahoo News - Latest News & Headlines https://yhoo.it/2wumRKM