#all of these are things that are true about our campaign

[ahmad1988]

Hello, my name is Ahmed Qandeel from North Gaza, I have ambitions, dreams and a love for life like any young person in the world. I support my family of 15 after my father was martyred in the cursed war that destroyed everything, but it seems that I will not be able to achieve my dream due to the brutal war on the Gaza Strip that completely destroyed our home, and despite the cruelty of the war, we did not leave North Gaza under inhumane conditions. We have suffered from illness, cold, hunger and drinking polluted water for more than 11 months, and we have suffered greatly from the loss of friends and relatives who were killed in the war for 330 days.

I appeal to you, the international community, to help. I have started a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $20,000 to enable me and my family to find safety in Egypt. Evacuation fees change from time to time; we currently expect a cost of between $4,000 and $5,000 per person. Any additional funds raised will go to support my immediate needs and those of my family. There are many obstacles that we will face on the other side, and I hope that we can make things a little easier for us. I would like to share with you the situation now that the war has intensified. We are fine and safe, but life has become very difficult around us now, people are suffering more and losing their loved ones every day. As a family, we have literally lost everything we own, our homes. Hello! I am reaching out because my family and I are in a really difficult situation, and any contribution you can make to get us evacuated from Gaza means a lot to us - every donation brings us closer to safety and a new beginning. If you can click the link below to help or share it with others who might want to support us, it will make a huge difference in our lives. Thank you for your compassion during this difficult time! We have lost the most precious thing we have, my father, but we are trying to stay optimistic thinking about the evacuation and today we heard good news that the borders might open soon and we are praying that this is true. Once we are evacuated we will try hard to rebuild a small part of what we lost in Gaza. If we can achieve our ultimate goal,

https://gofund.me/68daab3e

we will have the money to start a business to support our entire family. We want to be able to start over and not suffer anymore in Egypt. If everyone can help us with a small donation to achieve our ultimate goal, we will be able to rebuild our lives after everything was destroyed. All the positive words cannot express how generous you are in sharing my posts to inform other donors about the people of Gaza who are still suffering from the terrible conditions caused by the unjust war on Gaza. Please continue to support the just cause in the world either by donating directly or by sharing the link to other media. Do not hesitate to help people in their difficult and miserable times until the dark days are over.

[islamqazal]

Hello, my name is Mohammed Nihad Ghazal from North Gaza. I have ambitions, dreams and a love for life like any young man in the world. I am supporting my family of 15 after my father was martyred in the cursed war that destroyed everything, but it seems that I will not be able to achieve my dream because of the brutal war on the Gaza Strip, which completely destroyed our home, and despite the harsh war, we did not leave North Gaza under inhumane conditions. We have suffered from illness, cold, hunger and drinking polluted water for more than 11 months, which we have suffered greatly from the loss of friends and relatives who were killed in the war for 330 days. I am appealing to you, the global community, for help. I have started a GoFundMe campaign with the goal of raising $20,000 to enable me and my family to find safety in Egypt. Evacuation fees change from time to time; we currently expect a cost of between $4,000 and $5,000 per person. Any additional funds generated will go to support my immediate needs and those of my family. There are many obstacles that we will face on the other side, and I hope that we can make things a little easier for us. I would like to share with you the situation now that the war has intensified. We are fine and safe, but life has become very difficult now around us, and people are suffering more and losing their loved ones every day. As a family, we have literally lost everything we own, our homes, ourhttps://gofund.me/f3e7e3c2 Hey there! I’m reaching out because my family and I are in a really tough spot, and any contribution you can make towards our evacuation from Gaza would mean the world to us—each donation brings us closer to safety and a fresh start. If you could click the link below to help or share it with others who might want to support us, it would make such a difference in our lives. Thank you for being so compassionate during this challenging time!

businesses, and we lost the dearest thing to us, my father, but we are trying to stay optimistic by thinking about evacuating and we heard good news today that the borders may open soon. We pray that this is true. Once we are evacuated, we will try hard to rebuild a small part of what we lost in Gaza. If we can achieve our ultimate goal, we will have the money to start a business to support our entire family. We want to be able to start over and not suffer anymore in Egypt. If everyone can help us with a small donation to achieve our ultimate goal, we will be able to rebuild our lives after everything was destroyed. All the positive words cannot express how generous you are in sharing my posts to inform other donors about the people of Gaza who are still suffering from the terrible conditions caused by the unjust war on Gaza. Please continue to support the just cause in the world either by donating directly or by sharing the link to other media. Do not hesitate to help people in difficult and miserable times until the dark days are over.

https://gofund.me/f3e7e3c2 Hey there! I’m reaching out because my family and I are in a really tough spot, and any contribution you can make towards our evacuation from Gaza would mean the world to us—each donation brings us closer to safety and a fresh start. If you could click the link below to help or share it with others who might want to support us, it would make such a difference in our lives. Thank you for being so compassionate during this challenging time!

[fans4wga]

Is it true Tumblr is crossing the picket line by marketing One Piece?

It's unfortunate to have that show's ads blasted on all our dashboards, to be sure, but it doesn't exactly fit the definition of "crossing the picket line", which is specific strike terminology that's been muddied a bit by talk on the Internet.

Crossing a picket line generally means crossing an actual, physical picket line to work at a struck company, thereby disregarding the strikers. [Updated 1 September to clarify that crossing a picket line is specifically referring to workers crossing picket lines, not patrons.] (Recent example in the news: hotel workers on strike in California picketed hotels and called for a boycott; therefore, staying at those hotels was crossing a picket line.) It can also be used figuratively, and in that case it differs from strike to strike, depending on the specific union demands.

[Side note: there's no call for a boycott from WGA/SAG-AFTRA, so subscribing to streaming services/going to movie theaters isn't crossing a picket line at this time; however, people canceling streaming services in solidarity and leaving a note that explains they're canceling in support of the strikes is a move we wholeheartedly support! See WGA negotiating committee co-chair Chris Keyser's interview about that here.]

Tumblr is a company, not a person, so SAG-AFTRA can't discipline it for marketing a Netflix show like it would discipline an individual (a stern talk from the board, or prohibiting them from SAG-AFTRA membership, etc.) There's no legal way for any union to enforce a no-marketing rule for companies. If Tumblr had a strong solidarity ethic, they'd turn down studio marketing campaigns, but that's a lot to expect from any profit-driven company and shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

So, tl;dr: crossing the picket line? Not exactly. Still a not-great thing to do? Absolutely, and you can always send Tumblr a feedback form expressing your disapproval that they're marketing for Netflix during the strikes.

[genderkoolaid]

I feel like very few pro-trans people are talking about how the current moral panic about teens transitioning is explicitly centred on transmasc teens.

I’ve seen a lot of TERFs very explicitly cite the reason that they got involved in anti-trans campaigning was because more “girls” started transitioning in the 2010s (when before it had been more “boys.”) The initial survey on “Rapid Onset Gender Dysphoria” by Lisa Littman surveyed parents of teens over 80% of whom were “female sex at birth.” The Cass Report is explicitly about “the reasons for the increase in referrals [to the NHS for youth transition] and why this increase has disproportionately been seen in birth registered females presenting in adolescence.” Probably the single most popular anti-trans book about youth transition is Abigail Shrier’s Irreversible Damage, which is about transmasc teens.

Not to say that transfem teens aren’t targeted, especially when it comes to sports & bathroom bans, and being painted as predators from a very young age — although there’s definitely also been a lot of hysteria about transmasc teens “seducing” other teens into transitioning, as well as being aggressive, and it’s not like transmasc teens don’t also get beat up in bathrooms.

But just! I don’t see most pro-trans people acknowledging that this whole anti-trans-teen movement was fuelled in a huge way by transandrophobia (or whatever you want to call it), and that one of its primary goals is stopping transmascs from having any agency over our own bodies. At its core, it’s about transmascs not being properly submissive baby-makers who are attractive to straight men and the property of their parents.

It’s not just about transphobia, it’s about transandrophobia specifically and the fact that people can’t even name that makes me doubt what I’ve seen with my own eyes.

(Follow up to my last ask about the trans teen moral panic) I don't think it would bother me so much except that I've so often seen people try to silence transmasc voices on this topic, or say that transmascs are just collateral damage, as if we're not one of the primary reasons it exists and one of its primary targets. I feel like "nothing about us without us" should apply here, you know?

All of this, absolutely.

I've seen people claim that actually, ROGD and its associated panic attacks are actually secretly about transfems at their core, because transfems are the (only) one's blamed for young girls transitioning! Which is fucking wild!!! Like not only is it not true (parents tend to blame social media, specifically transmasc creators who talk about transitioning) but like why do you have this impulse where even things that are blatantly targeting transmascs can't actually be about transmascs. Why are we always the insignificant side characters in our own experiences.

This is how erasure functions: if you can't deny that anti-transmasc violence is happening, deny that its happening to transmascs. Obscure the victims and how the violence is motivated by their transmasculinity.

& then there's also the way that people act like infantilizing misogyny is 1) the only thing any transmasc ever experiences 2) is Oppression Lite and is more annoying than anything. Like sure let's just forget all of feminism and the well documented ways in which being infantilized kills and ruins lives. Because when it's a transmasc it doesn't really count.

Ik somewhere out there there's a video of ContraPoints where she actually corrects another person on their erasure of radfem anti-transmasc rhetoric. Let's see more of that please.

[anim-ttrpgs]

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy by A.N.I.M.

Allow us to introduce ourselves, we are The Agency of Narrative Intrigue and Mystery, or “A.N.I.M.”, a very small TTRPG studio based out of the southern U.S. but ultimately made up of people from many different walks of life.

Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy, our debut TTRPG, is a neo-noir investigation-focused RPG with (as you can probably guess from the title) a supernatural twist, that is currently in production after an extremely successful crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter.

How far would you go to learn the truth?

Play amateur detectives caught up in things they barely understand, and explore how the lives of your characters unravel as they push themselves to dig deeper into the unknown!

Eureka innovates on and revolutionizes investigative gameplay, TTRPG combat, and what it means to play as a monster as a character in a TTRPG, filling several voids we have noticed in the TTRPG space. Eureka supports investigation to a degree never before seen, ensuring that searching for clues is a granular and player-driven process, but also ensuring that the whole story doesn’t grind to a halt after one single failed investigation check.

Character-driven gameplay!

Stats and abilities are based on who your character is as a person. Freeform character creation allows you to build a totally unique little guy, and have a totally unique gameplay experience with him! This is supported by the backbone of the Composure mechanic. Stress, fear, fatigue, and hunger will wear your investigators down as they trudge deeper into the unknown. Food, sleep, and connections with their fellow investigators are the only way to keep them going!

Secrets inside and out! 

Any investigator could be a monster, helping their friends while trying not to reveal their true natures. The party will learn to trust and rely on each other, or explode into a tangled net of drama!

Though most PCs will be mundane humans—or perhaps because most PCs will be mundane humans—Eureka also supports playing monstrous PCs, such as a vampire, in a way never seen before. This isn’t just a watered-down stat bonus, it’s like playing an almost entirely different game, with all the monster’s strengths and weaknesses to account for while solving the mystery, plus the added incentive to keep it a secret from the other PCs as well as their players.

(You can also play as something like The Thing from John Carpenter's The Thing!)

If you like or are interested in Call of Cthulhu, Monster of the Week, Dresden Files, X-Files, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Apocalypse Keys, World of Darkness, or Gumshoe, you’ll probably find something in Eureka to really enjoy.

Intense, tactical combat! 

Hits are devastating, and misses are unpredictable–firing a gun will always change the situation somehow, for better or for worse!

Now in Technicolor!

Evocative artwork from talented femme-fatales @chaospyromancy and @qsycomplainsalot and the mysterious @theblackwarden paint a gorgeously-realized portrait of a world with shadows lurking in every corner.

Elegantly designed and thoroughly playtested, Eureka represents the culmination of three years of near-daily work from our team, as well as a lot of our own money. If you’re just now reading this and learning about Eureka for the first time, you missed the crowdfunding window unfortunately, but you can still check out the public beta on itch.io to learn more about what Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy actually is, as that is where we have all the fancy art assets, the animated trailer, links to video reviews by podcasts and youtubers, etc.!

You can also follow updates on our Kickstarter page where we post regular updates on the status of our progress finishing the game and getting it ready for final release.

Beta Copies through the Patreon

If you want more, you can download regularly updated playable beta versions of Eureka: Investigative Urban Fantasy earlier, plus extra content such as adventure modules by subscribing to our Patreon at the $5 tier or higher. Subscribing to our patreon also grants you access to our patreon discord server where you can talk to us directly and offer valuable feedback on our progress and projects.

The A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club

If you would like to meet the A.N.I.M. team and even have a chance to play Eureka with us, you can join the A.N.I.M. TTRPG Book Club discord server. It’s also just a great place to talk and discuss TTRPGs, so there is no schedule obligation, but the main purpose of it is to nominate, vote on, then read, discuss, and play different indie TTRPGs. We put playgroups together based on scheduling compatibility, so it’s all extremely flexible. This is a free discord server, separate from our patreon exclusive one. https://discord.gg/7jdP8FBPes

Other Stuff

We also have a ko-fi and merchandise if you just wanna give us more money for any reason.

We hope to see you there, and that you will help our dreams come true and launch our careers as indie TTRPG developers with a bang by getting us to our base goal and blowing those stretch goals out of the water, and fight back against WotC's monopoly on the entire hobby. Wish us luck.

[pumpkinpaix]

You have questions! We might have answers.

What is this collection?

As Maria puts it: this collection is a critical look at some of the things that we, the editors, think have made CQL such a hit around the world. Of course, part of that success comes from the webnovel MDZS and the show CQL themselves—we love the characters, the mystery, and the drama, who doesn’t?! However, the authors in our book also look at topics like translating danmei (both officially and unofficially), adapting danmei for new audiences, and interacting with fandoms and fanworks. The larger argument of the book is that all of these things played a huge role in CQL’s visibility and success, and we wanted to start making those moving pieces visible, especially for audiences who mainly watched CQL in translation.

You keep using the word “academic”—what does that mean, exactly? 

Maria: Ok, not to get pedantic here, but this actually touches on some things that I’m really excited about for the book. Traditionally, academic work is written by people who have a deep expertise in the subject (signified by having a PhD and doing specific kinds of research), and then the work itself is peer-reviewed (i.e., sent to other experts in the field for them to evaluate whether it’s sound, original, and interesting enough to publish, without knowing who wrote it). And both of these things are true about our book—our authors have deep knowledge and the book was peer reviewed—but also. We specifically asked for chapters from younger scholars and from fans who also have deep knowledge about topics that academia doesn’t always know or value enough, and we include an interview from the fan-translator K. who did the Exiled Rebels translation. So the hope is that: this book is academic, and also—more!

Who are you? 

Yue studies adaptation, fantasy, and popular culture texts using a feminist lens. She wrote an early, influential article about danmei adaptations and also has a book about feminist adaptations of Chinese fantasy.

Maria studies fanworks, contemporary fantasy, and genre literature. She’s scrambling to finish her dissertation right now.

How were the chapter spotlights chosen?

Voluntarily! The concept of a small social media promo was kicked around by some of the contributors and those interested in the idea filled out a short interview with what they wanted to share. We'll be posting about 2 introductions and 2 spotlights a day for the next week or so!

Who's running this social media campaign anyway?

Not the publishers! A few enthusiastic collection contributors got together and, with the assistance of the editors, have put this promotion together. We do not in any way represent Peter Lang in an official capacity! We just worked hard and wanted to share. :)

Are you making any money off of royalties from this book? 

LOL not even remotely

What about this promotion?

also no. alas

Where can I find this book? 

You can find our listing on Peter Lang’s website here. As for other retailers, a quick search should turn us up!  

How can I access this book if I cannot buy it from Peter Lang / [book retailer of choice]?

As collection editors and contributors who signed a legal agreement with Peter Lang, we have granted Peter Lang exclusive right and license to edit, adapt, publish, reproduce, distribute, display, and store our contributions, and we must cooperate fully with the Publisher if the Publisher believes a third party is infringing or is likely to infringe copyright in the contribution. 

That being said, these are academic papers, which means that contributors may make copies of the contribution for classroom teaching use! (These copies may not be included in course pack material for onward sale by libraries and institutions). Of course, any linking, collection or aggregation of chapters from the same volume is strictly prohibited.

(FAQ may be updated periodically!) (all posts on Catching Chen Qing Ling)

[mahmoudgaza98]

Hello, my name is Mahmoud Rashad from North Gaza. I have ambitions, dreams and a love for life like any young person in the world.

I joined Al-Quds Open University to fulfill my dream of studying like any young person in the world, but it seems that I will not be able to achieve my dream because of the brutal war on the Gaza Strip, which destroyed our entire house, and I lost everything I owned and relied on to achieve my dream, including my laptop, university books and library.

We are a family of 12, displaced from our home in North Gaza to the southern areas under inhumane conditions.

We have been suffering from illness, cold, hunger and drinking polluted water for more than

We have suffered a lot from losing friends and relatives who were killed in the war

for 330 days.

I am appealing to you, the global community, for help. I have started a GoFundMe campaign with the aim of raising

50,000 Euros to enable me and my family to find safety in Egypt. The evacuation fees change from time to time; we currently expect a cost of between $4,000-5,000 per person. Any additional funds generated will go towards supporting my immediate needs and those of my family. There are various obstacles that we will face on the other side, and I hope that we can make some things easier for us.

I would like to update you on the situation now that the war has intensified. We are fine and safe, but life has become very difficult now all around us, people are suffering more and losing loved ones every day. As a family, we have literally lost everything we own, our homes and businesses, but we are trying to remain optimistic by thinking about evacuating and we heard good news today that the borders may open soon. We pray that this is true.

Once we are evacuated, we will try hard to rebuild a small part of what we lost in Gaza. If we can achieve our ultimate goal, we will have the funds to start a business to support our entire family. We want to be able to start over and not suffer anymore in Egypt. If everyone can help us with a small donation to achieve our ultimate goal, we will be able to rebuild our lives after everything was destroyed.

All the positive words cannot express how generous you are especially in sharing my posts to inform other donors about the people of Gaza who are still suffering from the terrible conditions caused by the unjust war on Gaza. Please continue to support the most just cause in the world either by donating directly or by sharing the link to other media. Do not hesitate to help people in difficult and miserable times until the dark days are over.

[delta-piscium]

Steddie | 1.7k words it is (swedish) midsummer so I wrote this based on my favorite old tradition because I can and will make anything steddie, so like glad midsommar (happy midsummer)

“What are you doing?” Steve asks as he follows Eddie to the hallway where he’s frantically putting on his shoes. 

“I almost forgot,” he mutters under his breath not acknowledging Steve at all.

“Forgot what?” 

“I can’t believe I almost forgot.” 

“Eddie,” Steve says a little louder, more adamant.

He does look up at Steve then and almost looks surprised to see him. As if he’d forgotten he was there, as if they haven’t been hanging out for hours. 

“Oh,” he says. “Uhm,” he squints at Steve who waits for him to continue, to explain. He doesn’t.

“Yes?” Steve implores because he would really like an explanation. Eddie had just abruptly stood up halfway through telling Steve about some folklore he’s using in his new campaign, just cut himself off mid-sentence and walked off. Steve doesn’t think it’s especially weird or demanding of him to have questions. 

“Did you have other plans that you just now remembered?” Steve frowns, starting to feel unsure when Eddie still isn’t saying anything. It’s just past eleven at night and Steve doesn’t know what plans those would be but he had showed up unannounced earlier in the evening so it’s not impossible that Eddie had plans that Steve interrupted. 

“No, no, no,” Eddie assures him finally breaking his silence, “it’s- okay it’s a little silly but I read this thing researching and I want to try it.” 

And well, okay then.

Steve raises his eyebrows and waves his hand gesturing for Eddie to go on. 

Eddie’s cheeks turn a light pink and he resolutely looks somewhere above Steve’s shoulder instead of at him. 

“Midsummer, which is today, is supposed to be this magical night and there are all these traditions and old myths about it.” 

Eddie glances at Steve and he smiles. Tries to show he’s listening and wants to know whatever thing Eddie read about. 

“And well, okay so there’s this one tradition where you pick seven different kinds of flowers before you go to bed and then put them under your pillow and you’re supposed to dream about who you’re gonna spend your life with.” 

Steve blinks, wasn’t expecting that and doesn’t know what to say about it, so, he blinks again. 

“Maybe it’s dumb, but with all we’ve seen magic and folklore don’t seem so far-fetched and,” he shrugs, “I wanna try. And like, it’s close to midnight and I don’t know if that’s a rule but I don’t wanna risk messing it up.”

“It- huh,” Steve frowns slightly and looks at his shoes then back at Eddie. “Yeah alright, let’s do it. Can’t hurt right?” 

His voice is light, like it’s not a big deal and just a fun thing Eddie read about because that’s what it is, isn’t it? But something about it settles deep in Steve’s gut. Makes it feel important in a way he’s not sure he could explain if he tried. Maybe it’s just the fact that Eddie is getting so worked up about the possibility of dreaming about the person he’s gonna spend his life with when Steve maybe a little bit wishes it would be him, but like, only a little. 

Eddie looks at him with wide eyes like he didn’t expect Steve to want to join, like maybe he expected Steve to make fun of him for wanting to do it. But then something seems to switch in him and a slow smile spreads over his face and he gives Steve an exaggerated once over. 

“Looking to find your true love huh, Harrington?” 

“I thought you said it was the person you spend your life with, not the same as true love necessarily.” Steve quips back because technicalities are easier to argue over than answering that question, especially when Eddie is the one asking.

Eddie shrugs. “Different sources say different things, sometimes it’s true love sometimes it’s who you marry.” 

“Well, then I guess we’re both looking to find our true loves?” Steve hedges, drags Eddie down with him if they’re gonna go there. 

A soft look passes Eddie’s face before a responds, voice quieter. “Guess we are, yeah.” 

They pick their flowers in silence, something about the magic being broken if you speak. Walking around the edge of the woods behind Eddie’s trailer a couple of feet apart, every once in a while coming together or crossing paths. 

After, Steve stands in between Eddie’s trailer and his own car. Holding on to his bouquet of seven flowers unsure what to do. He could go home, he should go home, but he doesn’t want to. He did have some beers hours ago and if he was allowed to speak he’d use that as an excuse to not drive and ask Eddie to crash on his couch. Right now he can’t though so he sighs inwardly and turns to his car. 

He makes it about two steps before a hand reaches out and grips him around his free wrist stopping him. When he turns around Eddie is giving him a look that very clearly says ‘stop being stupid’ and jerks his head towards the trailer silently telling Steve to go with him. He doesn’t let go though and uses his grip on Steve to drag him along like he can’t be sure Steve will actually listen and follow. As if Steve would ever not follow Eddie. 

They quickly get ready for bed. And again when Steve walks toward the couch Eddie grabs him and shakes his head. He waves his arms around a bit like that’s supposed to explain anything but Steve isn’t too bothered about an explanation anyways and easily follows Eddie to his bedroom. 

They’ve shared a bed before but always when they’ve been drunk or high so this feels different. Steve is a little glad they can’t speak or he’s sure he’d blurt out something way too revealing about it all. 

He avoids looking at Eddie as he tucks his flowers in under his pillow, knows Eddie is doing the same next to him. Is aware of it only being an old myth from a region halfway across the world but there’s a weight to it. Something real and tangible. 

He expects it to take a while for him to fall asleep like it always does. For him to twist and turn and lay awake until the early morning. For once though, that doesn’t happen. With the weight of Eddie next to him and to the sounds of his soft breathing and small movements, Steve falls asleep.

And he dreams. He dreams of big brown eyes and bright laughter. Of wild hair and warm arms embracing him. He dreams of growing old next to someone and how every wrinkle on their face tells a story of their shared love. 

He wants to stay in the dream forever, desperately tries to hold onto it even as he floats into consciousness. He turns and groans, gets a mess of someone’s hair in his mouth and nose and that’s enough to startle him into full wakefulness. 

Eddie grumbles next to him, clearly also just waking up. Steve looks at him, with his wild hair and his big brown eyes that are slowly blinking open and of course. Of course, it was Eddie he dreamed about.

Their eyes meet and Eddie freezes. Eyes widening as he looks back at Steve. 

“Oh,” he says. 

And yeah, oh.

“Eddie?” Steve asks, unsure of how to bring it up, to ask about it. If he even should? 

He puts on a teasing smile, even though he feels like goo inside, but making it lighthearted is all he can think of because what if he’s taking this whole thing way too seriously? Jumping to conclusions? 

“Dream of anyone?” 

Eddie nods and looks away, “I did.” He says it simply, voice careful. 

And maybe it isn’t just Steve.

“Who?” He asks, dropping the teasing tone. 

Eddie swallows and looks back at Steve. “The person I wanted to dream of,” he says and it’s not really an answer but he’s looking at Steve so intently he thinks it still might be. 

He thinks about Eddie’s quiet but delighted surprise at Steve wanting to join him yesterday. About Eddie dragging him first into his trailer and then into his bed. How they’re so close on Steve’s side of the bed and Eddie must have drifted towards him in his sleep.

He bites his lip to stop his smile from spreading too wide, there’s still a chance he’s misinterpreting things, “yeah?” 

“Yeah.” 

“And who would that be?” Steve asks, leaning in even closer until he feels Eddie’s small puffs of breath across his face. 

“You,” Eddie whispers but Steve hears it clearly. 

He takes a moment to bask in it, to let it wash over him before he responds.

“That’s good,” Steve tells him eventually and Eddie’s eyes are so wide and open, and so pretty, “because I dreamt of you.” 

He knows it’s cheesy so he doesn’t give Eddie time to respond, just leans in and closes the remaining gap between them. Slots their lips together. Eddie gasps into the kiss, grabs Steve by the hair, and pulls him in. Makes all these cute noises that make Steve want and want and want. 

He shifts, goes to put his leg in between Eddie’s to move on top of him and get a better angle. But he only gets halfway before Eddie grabs his hips and twists them around. Pushes Steve flat on his back and straddles him. 

He grins down at Steve. 

“You think the Scandinavian magic worked or was it just dream psychology and wishful thinking?” 

“Does it matter?” Steve asks, way too earnestly. But like, they’ve just spent this whole time doing some true love magic so he thinks it’s fine, “got what I wanted.” 

“It’s forever though,” Eddie points out, bending down to bite at Steve’s jaw, “if we believe the old Norse people.” 

Steve hears the question there, thinks this might be Eddie’s way of asking what this means to Steve. His way of telling Steve this isn’t just a hookup for him.

“God yeah,” Steve exhales, “I fucking hope so.” 

He feels Eddie smile into his neck and grabs his hair, uses it to pull him back and steer him into another kiss. 

[qqueenofhades]

AAAAHHHHHHHH It's TIM! 1000% strong MN girl here and boy it's been real fun to watch Tim (and Peggy! Our amazing lieutenant governor) take a small small Democratic majority and do incredible things. My kid ate two meals at school every day for free. DELIGHTED that he's the VP pick. LET'S GOOOOOOOO!!!!

Listen, I am just ECSTATIC. Ever since I seriously became tuned into the veepstakes, he was my number one pick (I mean, I was not immune to the brief flirtation everyone had with Beshear/Buttigieg/etc), but yes. Walz was my top pick and I was trying desperately not to get my heart too set on him in case it fell through, but he was the obvious best choice of the contenders by a country mile. He has an almost absurdly Midwestern pro-America background (military veteran, public school teacher, football coach from a small rural town, etc) AND he has managed to enact a long list of progressive policies in Minnesota with a very narrow majority in the state legislature. Also, you're going to be seeing a lot of this video, for good reason:

Also.... let's be real, Shapiro would have been an incredible distraction/drag on the ticket, unfortunately. We don't need to deal with his retrograde views on Gaza and his other baggage, and while he is a very popular governor in Pennsylvania, it's less certain that his appeal would translate to other states. We can argue (or you know, let's not and move on) about whether or not that was fair, but this is just not the year to try to win the most critical high-stakes election ever by pissing off young voters. Shapiro has done plenty of good things and has time to develop his career further, but he would have been a BAD pick for 2024 and I was alarmed at how many Respected Pundits (tm) were pulling for him. Reuters even claimed that picking him would "defang Republican attempts to make Israel-Gaza a wedge issue for Democrats," which is such a mind-bogglingly stupid statement that it makes you wonder how anyone writing it actually got paid for their political insight, but it also explains a lot about mainstream media these days. Picking Shapiro would have been an absolute gift to the Republicans and bad-faith actors and others (plus like, I don't want to have to spend time winning back the young voters who are actually once more engaged in the process!) and would have led to the media eagerly jumping into the feeding frenzy (because they're desperate to have a reason not to cover Trump's increasingly crazy-ass shit) and other Democratic-on-Democratic infighting. And it goes without saying that WE CANNOT AFFORD THAT.

As well, picking Shapiro just because you need to win PA this election cycle is yet another example of why the Electoral College sucks, and the polling averages in PA have been moving solidly blue anyway. You can just park Shapiro there and have him campaign in the state as the sitting popular governor, rather than expose him to the liability of a nationwide campaign where, as noted, all the other stuff would be a drag. If it's true that the establishment was pushing Harris to pick Shapiro and she picked Walz instead, a) GOOD! and b) if anything, this election cycle needs to fucking teach us that we have got to stop going with the Conventional Wisdom Tee Em. Walz was already out there, he was already popular with the public/energizing the grassroots, AND he was the guy who coined the "Weird" attack line that is actually effective and organically popular against the Republicans and drives them batshit. So for Kamala to lean into that and take him as her running mate is... zomgz... smart, and I am not used to the Democrats playing smart and aggressive and not just passive-defensive. I don't understand. Wow.

Anyway, now watch the New York Times (and the others, lbr, but especially the NYT) desperately try to dig up scandalous stories about that time Walz didn't stop at the 4H booth at the county fair, or walked past someone without saying "Ope just gonna sneak by ya first" or some other terrible Midwestern sin, but fuck those guys. I am EXCITED I am ENERGIZED I am THRILLED. This is a GREAT new ticket that came together at incredibly short notice and completely changed the dynamics everywhere, Walz is gonna make JD Vance cry (unsure whether I want to see Harris demolish Trumpster or Midwestern Dad to turn the cranks on Weird Couchfucking Fascist Skidmark more, but both, both, both is good). LET'S GO GET THOSE WEIRD MOTHERFUCKERS, Y'ALL!!

HARRIS/WALZ 2024!

[steddiealltheway]

The final steddie (and ronance) brain rot of the day (maybe)

For some reason, Eddie and Robin are convinced that Steve and Nancy are still in love with each other.

And the thing is, he and Nancy have talked about it and agreed that they got over their feelings for each other long ago. Sure, they still love each other and always probably will, but it’s completely platonic. But for some reason, Eddie and Robin will not hear them out.

So much so, that they’ve got them cornered while they all are hanging out in Eddie’s trailer. It’s like they purposely picked somewhere they could literally corner them with no room to escape.

“Now, Nancy, you’re going to watch as I interact with Steve and see how jealous it makes you,” Robin says as she approaches Steve.

Steve cringes as Robin gets in his face and twirls her short hair obnoxiously. “Hi, Steve-”

“Nope!” Steve says and backs as far away as he can. Once upon a time, he would’ve loved if Robin had approached him like that, but now they are strictly platonic soulmates and Steve’s feelings for her are long gone.

“Agreed,” Robin says while also cringing. “But Nancy, didn’t you feel a bit jealous?”

Steve turns to Nancy who he thinks is going to say no and move on. But she has a confused look on her face as she stares at Robin. “Uhh… yes actually,” Nancy admits.

Steve feels a bit of nausea, but then he notices the way she’s looking at Robin. And he knows that look. No way…

Eddie points at Nancy and announces, “Exactly! Now, Steve, you’re going to watch as Nancy and I interact. If… Nancy is fine with that.”

Nancy just nods her head slowly as if she’s still in shock. But then Eddie quickly approaches her and brushes a strand of hair out of her face, “Hi, beautiful.”

Nancy laughs loudly and pushes at Eddie’s chest as he laughs back at the ridiculousness of the situation. And then Steve feels it. In the pit of his stomach, the way his heart tightens, and in the stinging behind his eyes… there’s the jealousy.

Nancy glances over to him, but Steve can’t help but stare at Eddie. It’s as if… holy shit.

Steve turns to Nancy who makes eye contact with him. And they’ve been close for long enough to both know that the other knows exactly what’s happening. “Yes, I feel jealous,” Steve admits.

Nancy walks over to Steve and stands next to him as they look at Eddie and Robin. Who look conflicted with pride and a bit of hurt.

“That’s great guys,” Eddie says with a tight smile that screams this is not great.

“Yeah,” Robin says as her voice cracks a bit and she avoids eye contact with them.

“Hear me out,” Steve says, “Nance and I are going to run our own experiment. Starting with her and Robin interacting, and I’ll see how I feel.”

Nance shoots him a look of half panic and half gratitude. Robin nervously looks at Steve as Nancy approaches her. “Hi, Robin. You know, I’ve always kind of had this thing for you, but I don’t think I was ever jealous. I think I just… had feelings for you that I didn’t understand.”

Robin breath hitches, and Steve smiles widely. He’s over the moon at the moment. “Yep, I feel no jealousy. Strange, right?”

“Now, Eddie and Steve are going to interact, and I’m going to see how jealous I get,” Nancy says with a big smile.

Steve slowly approaches Eddie who is already starting to get a flush of pink over his cheeks. He reaches up to pull hair in front of his face, but Steve pushed the hair behind his ears to stare at him. “Have I ever told you that you have the most beautiful eyes?” Steve flirts easily, realizing what he’s saying is absolutely true and he has no idea how he didn’t know it before. “Eddie, I really want to ask you out and listen to your latest campaign ideas as always but over pizza or something maybe in your bed…”

“Oh, gross, Steve,” Robin says.

“Not jealous!” Nancy says with a huge smile.

Steve goes back to Nancy side and looks at Robin and Eddie who stare at them in slight shock. “It’s as if…” Steve trails off.

“Steve and I are more jealous of each other if you think about it,” Nancy finishes off.

Robin and Eddie look at them in confusion before they both seem to get it at the same time. The pair looks at each other with responses varying between “holy shit” and “oh my god.”

Eddie goes as far as picking Robin up and twirling her around. “We just accidentally set ourselves up!” Robin cheers as she spins in Eddie’s arms.

When he sets her down Robin continues, “If that’s good with you guys…”

Steve and Nancy look at each other and smile. “Absolutely,” they both say.

One double date later, Steve and Nancy truly solidify that there are absolutely no feelings for each other except for happiness.

[torpedopickle]

I want to talk about how Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves is an excellent use of meta humor applied seamlessly to a story without ever breaking immersion.

Mild spoilers. I'll keep it vague so nothing will be spoiled if you choose to read on

This movie integrates many things that someone familiar with D&D would recognize from the narrative structure of a campaign.

There are some things in particular that demonstrate this particularly well

At one point, the party is joined temporarily by the character Xenk. But he really feels like he'd be an NPC party member controlled by the GM rather than a player. So when the other characters banter and quip, this character doesn't really join in or get their jokes cuz he simply wouldn't have the agency to. More examples of this would be how he's much more capable than the others, but he doesn't overshadow them. He provides aid if it's desperately needed, and will sometimes bail rhe party out of situations they can't manage on their own, just like how a GM should utilize an NPC companion. He even has a quote that perfectly reflects this. "I've given you the tools. Now you have to be the ones to use them". There's even a more direct joke about his NPC behavior. When he leaves the story, he walks off in a random direction, going straight forward, even stepping over obstacles and terrain unnecessarily. This all amounts to him feeling like a very clear GM controlled NPC, however he is presented in a way that still makes him feel entirely faithfull to his own world and does not break immersion

Other ways the movie plays around with the GM campaign structure would be the approach to backstory. The only time a character outright explains what their backstory is, in full, directly to us, is at the very start, to give context for the story going forward, as the character even puts it himself. Backstory later in the movie is told to us whenever it's relevant. Characters will toss in another fact or two about themselves in situations where mentioning a past experience would fit in. Much like how players usually prefer to build their characters.

And one of my favorite instances of being meta about D&D campaign structures comes in the second act.

the characters are faced with a complex and dangerous obstacle. The GM's stand in, xenk, explains the method of progressing through this obstacle correctly. But in true D&D fashion, the party immediately does it wrong and now the campaign has been derailed and the GM's setup squandered. So now they straight up don't have a way forward in the narrative. Logically, it should end there. But that'd be a shit campaign, so the GM would naturally bend the rules to get things back on track. So after the party fails the obstacle, one of them goes; "Hang on, that stick we've had with us the entire time isn't a stick after all! It's actually a magic staff that solves our EXACT predicament at this EXACT time". That is such a clear cut meta joke about GM's having to get things back on track cuz players are all chaotic evil. Is it a plot contrivance? Absolutely. One of the biggest ever. But it's what D&D is built on

[willowsnook]

Right Place, Right Time pt. 4 (LN)

pt. 1, pt. 2, pt. 3, pt. 4

@seasonswinter @drdbnkl2008 @jaematthews15

angst at the end i apologize 🥵

Y/N: so what's the dress code for tonight?

Lily: I would say cocktail attire but not super fancy, they usually pick somewhere nice?

Y/n: how many people are going to be there? i'm stressed

Lily: honestly a lot lol, it's like everyone with McLaren plus friends. but on the plus side it means we fly under the radar.

Y/n: yeah but we will be with the most important people

Lily: true

You sighed throwing your phone across your bed. You still had a couple of hours before Lando was coming to pick you up but you felt a strong urge to start getting ready now.

You headed into your bathroom to take an everything shower singing along to your karaoke playlist. You threw your hair up into a towel and started the painful process of picking something out to wear.

Y/n: what are you wearing? Lando: nothing, want to see?

y/n: 🙄 my eyes would bleed

Lando: you wound me. but i'm just wearing a button down and slacks. nothing crazy

After looking through a couple of options, you settled for a fitted green knitted dress you hadn't yet worn.

Twirling in the mirror, you liked the way it hit your curves. You spent the next hour curling your hair and applying a sort of natural glam look. The next thing you knew Lando was texting you that he was here. You grabbed your purse and touched up your hair one last time before heading down to your apartment lobby.

You reached the lobby and saw Lando standing by the front doors, hands in his pockets looking around. His attention fell on you as you walked closer and you smirked as he shamelessly checked you out. You did the same to him, appreciating the way his light blue botton down was tight on his biceps and across his chest.

"Hi," you said stopping in front of him. "Hi," he replied softly. He moved closer to you, kissing your cheek lightly while resting his hands on your waist. "You look gorgeous."

You smiled, pulling back but intertwining your fingers through his.

"Ready?" You asked and he nodded, pulling you out the door and towards his car. He opened the door for you before sliding in the drivers seat. The car ride was silent and half way through you felt Lando's hand rest gently on your thigh, his thumb caressing your skin gently. The ride was short and you soon were pulling up to the restaurant, Lando tossing the keys to the valet. He rested his hand on your lower back as he guided you out to the patio that was rented for the team.

You spotted Lily and Oscar as you came in and made your way over to them, ditching Lando to talk with some other people who had stopped him. Lily scooted over on the bench and you sunk down next to her.

"You look great," she said and you smiled.

"You do too," you replied. You flagged down the waiter to order a glass of wine and watched as Lando mingled.

"You're staring," Lily teased and you blushed.

"just observing," you hummed.

"So y/n, what is it that you do for Monster again?" Oscar asked.

"I sit on the marketing team but specifically I work with partners," you said.

"So you work with McLaren?" He asked and you shook your head.

"We all have different territories that we are in charge of," you explained. I have the west coast so all I work with anyone partnered with Monster there. It's a lot of planning partner events and campaigns."

He asked you a little more about your job and you were happy to indulge him. You loved what you did, getting to work for a cool brand had been something you had always wanted to do. Someone had overheard you talking to Oscar and introduced themselves as one of the PR managers so you soon found yourself mingling with the McLaren marketing team.

"You know, we've been trying to get someone from Monster at more races," one of the marketing managers told you.

"Yeah, it's hard because our team is based here and travel is expensive," you said. "I know the girls who have most of Europe as their territory but they don't get to travel much."

"You guys need to just have someone living overseas," she replied and you nodded.

"Probably," you agreed. "Just need the budget."

A little later you were back next to Lily, the two of you hiding in the corner done talking with people.

"Can we sneak out of here," you begged and Lily sighed.

"Oscar will kill me," she said and you gave her a look. "Okay let's go."

You briefly scanned the patio, seeing Oscar and Lando caught up in a conversation and made your way back through the front and onto the street.

"Where should we go?" Lily asked and you started pulling her along the sidewalk.

"There's actually a great rooftop bar on the hotel you guys are staying at," you said knowing the hotel was only a couple of blocks away. Lily used her key to get you in and you made your way up to the bar. It wasn't too crowded and you saw some familiar faces.

"What's up McLaren ladies?" Daniel yelled causing the people with him to turn and look at you. You greeted him and Max before ordering a drink from the bar.

"I don't think we've met yet, Lando is hiding you," a strong Spanish accent said from next to you. "I'm Carlos."

"Y/n," you introduced. You could see why Lando wouldn't introduce the two of you. This man was very easy on the eyes. "Want to make Lando mad?" His eyes lit up mischievously.

"Always," he said and you held up your phone to take a selfie. He wrapped his arm around you and you were pleased with how intimate the picture turned out and put it on your Instagram story.

You chatted with Carlos for about ten minutes before you heard Daniel loudly greeting someone else. You turned to see that Lando and Oscar had just gotten here. Oscar looked amused while Lando did not look happy. His eyes met yours and you smirked turning back to Carlos.

Within 30 seconds you felt two arms encircle your waist and were pulled back against a hard chest.

"I see you've met Carlos," Lando said tightly which made Carlos laugh out loud.

"Yeah I was just telling y/n how pretty she is and that we should run off into the sunset together," Carlos deadpanned. You felt Lando's arms tighten around you and you sighed shifting to turn to him, bringing your arms around his neck.

"You are being so dramatic," you said and he pouted.

"You left me," he whined and you shrugged.

"We were bored, plus I knew you'd find us," you told him. "Can we sit?"

You found a couch by a firepit and sat down, leaning down to take your shoes off. Lando sat next to you, resting his arm on the back of the couch behind you. You were soon joined by Lily, Oscar, and Max.

You all talked for a while and by the end of the night you had your head rested on Lando's shoulder and legs thrown over his.

"Are you tired?" He mumbled in your ear and you nodded sleepily. "Why don't you just stay with me tonight?"

"Lando..." you said and he moved your chin to look up at him.

"Just to sleep, nothing else," he said.

"No funny business," you said and he smiled triumphantly. You bid goodnight to everyone before following him out of the bar.

"Are you coming to the track tomorrow for quali?" He asked while you were waiting in the elevator and you shook your head.

"No, I have a ton of things to do and errands to run," you replied and his face fell. "I'll be there Sunday though, I promise."

He nodded and the rest of the ride was silent. He grabbed your hand to pull you off on his floor and you made your way to his room.

"Need something to wear?" He asked and you nodded. He pulled out one of his long sleeve McLaren shirts for you and you headed into the bathroom to change.

You stared at yourself in the mirror for a while wondering what the fuck you were doing. You had told yourself to not get swept up in this fake reality but here you were. When you stepped back in the room you saw Lando laying on the bed, head propped up watching tv. He patted the spot next to him and you slid into the bed, resting your head on his chest. His arm tightened around you and it was a while before you spoke.

"I shouldn't be here," you said and he looked down at you.

"Why's that?" He asked and you looked away.

"You're going to leave after Sunday," you said and he sighed.

"That's two days away," he said ending the conversation. You sighed into his chest and started to feel your eyes droop. The last thing you remember was him kissing your head and mumbling "sweet dreams baby."

-------------------------

Two days later you were still reeling from waking up next to Lando on Saturday morning. The two of you didn't really say much and he drove you back to your apartment, squeezing your thigh as a goodbye before you got out of the car.

Today you were headed back to the track for the race wearing a casual short black dress paired with a McLaren hat. You were happy to see Lily standing in the garage waiting for you.

"Hi friend," you greeted pulling her into a hug which she returned.

'Hi, ready for the race?" She asked and you nodded. You had arrived a little later so didn't get to see Lando before the race which was what you were hoping for. The two of you walked over to sit down.

"I'm so sad you're leaving tomorrow," you told Lily and she squeezed your hand.

"Me too, but we must facetime weekly and you're coming to Vegas, no excuses," she said.

The race went by quickly with Lando ending in second and you celebrated with the team while he was on podium. He had texted you to wait up so you lingered in the garage chatting with some of the marketing girlies. You said goodbye to them as you saw Lando coming out of his driver's room and jogged over throwing your arms over him.

"You did great," you whispered in his ear and his arms tightened around you.

"Well I had my good luck charm with me," he said and you laughed. "Can we get dinner before heading out tonight?"

"I didn't know I was going out tonight," you said and he gave you a look. "Yeah, I just need to change first, is that what you're wearing?" He had changed into a plain white tshirt and black jeans.

"Yeah," he said giving you a twirl. "Is it up to your standards?"

You laughed and grabbed his hand, pulling him out towards where you parked. You drove back to your apartment, letting Lando hang on the couch while you got ready. Lando had said you guys were going to a more casual bar after so you decided on one of your signature going out outfits.

"Where do you want to eat?" You asked and Lando looked up from his phone.

"I'm up for anything," he said and you laughed.

"Anything besides x, y, and z," you joked and he rolled his eyes getting off the couch and coming towards you.

"As long as you're on the menu i'm down," he said cheekily and you gagged.

"I just threw up in my mouth," you complained. "Let's go Romeo."

He laughed following you out of the apartment and back downstairs. You called an Uber and the two of you ended up at a little diner you knew of that wasn't too busy. You ordered a burger and fries, Lando opting for chicken tenders.

"So which race will you be at next?" He asked casually.

"Probably Vegas," you replied, taking a sip of your coke. He frowned.

"Not Mexico?" He asked and you shook your head.

"I have a job ya know," you said and he looked at you not saying anything. "What?"

"I just figured that we've been spending enough time together that you'd maybe want to start coming to more," he said and you looked at him with wide eyes.

"I mean yes, I love spending time with you but I have a life here," you said. "We've only known each other for a couple of months and been together a handful of times."

Lando didn't say anything, looking down and picking at his food and you sighed.

"It would be a lot different if you lived here or I lived over there, but that's not the reality of the situation," you said sadly.

The rest of the meal was quiet, the tension between the two of you high. Lando paid for your food and you headed towards the bar, texting Lily that you needed to talk asap.

It looked like F1 had taken over the bar as you got there and Lando peeled off from you immediately. You found Lily ordering a drink and you joined her.

"What's up?" She said taking in your dejected appearance.

"We talked," you sighed. "And it didn't go well." She frowned.

"What did he say?" She asked and you turned back to the bar fiddling with your drink.

"It was more the vibe I got, like he was under this assumption that I was going to follow him around the world just because we've had one good week together," you said annoyed.

"I told him not to do this," Lily sighed and rubbed your arm sympathetically. "I'm sorry."

"It's not your fault," you reassured her. "I shouldn't have let it get this far, I just wanted to be happy."

"Let's get drunk then and pretend your dinner never happened," she suggested and you grinned.

"I'll drink to that," you said lifting your cup to hers.

You ended up a little drunk later on but not trashed, which is exactly the sweet spot you wanted to be in. Lando was also a little drunk, you could tell because he had decided to stop ignoring you.

Currently the two of you were engaged in deep conversation, him listening to you ramble on about how your favorite football team was doing.

"It's just like what is the offense doing ya know?" You went on. "No blocking, a five star qb that doesn't have his shit together, and horrible play calling."

You started to go on again but felt someone bump into you, pushing you into Lando whose arms shot out to catch you. You face was inches apart from his and your breath hitched as you watched him flick his eyes down to your lips. You start to warn him but he cuts you off, bringing his lips to yours. You kiss him back hungrily before you realized what's happening and push him off and bolt out of the bar.

"Y/n," he calls out following you outside and you can already feel tears forming in your eyes. "Y/n wait."

He grabs your arm pulling you around to face him.

"I can't fucking do this Lando," you yelled and he pursed his lips. "You know I can't do this."

Now you were pissed and you could tell he was starting to get angry.

"I just don't understand," he said. "I know you feel this between us."

"Of course I fucking do," you exclaimed. "But my life is here! I live here! My job is here! My friends are here! I'm not one of your influencer flings who can just jet off and follow you around the world while you live your dream. That's not mine."

He stalked towards you, getting closer before you reached your hand out to stop him.

"You think this is just a fling for me," he bit out. "I want you next to me for more than a couple of races." You scoffed throwing your hands up.

"You don't even know me," you yelled, tears starting to leak from your eyes and hurt flashed across his face before his expression hardened.

"You're right, I guess I don't." He said. "I can get any girl in the world to follow me around so I don't need someone like you."

You felt like your heart had been stabbed and before you could stop yourself your hand flew across his face making contact with his cheek. You felt two arms pull you back and you turned sobbing into Max's chest.

"Hey hey, it's okay, let's go," he whispered rubbing your back. They must have ventured outside seeing you guys argue because when you turned to look back you saw Lily screaming at Lando and Oscar trying to hold her back. This made you cry worse and you were hiccuping as Max lead you towards his car. He settled you into the passenger seat and you rested your head against the window trying to calm down.

"I know you won't believe it now, but he didn't mean it," Max said and you didn't reply. "He's just scared of what he's feeling and doesn't want to lose you.

"Well it might be too late for that," you whispered and Max gave you a sad smile. He walked you up to your apartment, hugging you goodbye and making you promise that you'd still come to Vegas.

You texted Lily that you loved her and were sorry you didn't get to say goodbye but were taking a break from social media and your phone for a little bit so to not worry. She replied that she loved you too and to text if you needed anything.

At least one good thing had come out of that first race.

[soon-palestine]

Tim Walz is a regular speaker at the Minnesota Israel lobby where he said anyone who refuses to recognize the genocidal Israeli rape-torture entity is an "anti-Semite", just recently said he fully stands behind Israel's rape and genocide of Palestinians, and wants the Zionist lobby to write the curriculum on Israel and Palestine to erase Palestinians from existence. He literally wants to indoctrinate and brainwash children in school into Zionism and anti-Palestinian genocidal racism. He said that explicitly. He wants to teach kids to hate Palestinians and support their genocide. That is fucking insane. This guy is a fucking deranged freak. And they're memeing him into an epic based radical.

Tim Walz is a fanatical deranged fully owned Israel lobby plaything, exactly like Kamala Harris, and Shapiro, and all the other Democrats. There is no difference in policy that is going happen with these fucking freaks in charge. They're identical to Genocide Joe. Anyone who says otherwise with bullshit coconut memes is lying to you.

They are liars, intentionally lying to you, and pretending like there will be any difference. There will be no difference. Both will keep supporting the genocide of Palestinians because they're owned by the Israel lobby like John Mearsheimer just recently reiterated. As he says, without the US, Israel is nothing. It is beset with crises and on the verge of collapse, but the US keeps bailing it out with endless weapons, funding, and their own military moving in to protect this rape-torture death-cult masquerading as a society.

They will allow Israel to do whatever it wants, because it is Israel Uber Alles for these genocidal Zionist scum.

The only thing that has a possibility of changing it is when Palestinians, Arab and Muslim Americans and all those who oppose the genocide in states like Michigan say explicitly that they will not vote for Genocidal Zionist Queen Kamala Harris and Tim Walz unless they right now, at this very moment, make a policy change. Not bullshit abstract rhetoric and promises, right now. Now.

Don't buy the bullshit about "well she's just VP now, she has no power but she and Walz get in they will suddenly become epic and based and stop the genocide, just vote for them!" She is the head of the Democratic Party as the nominee she can force Genocide Joe to take a position if she wants to rescue her Presidential campaign and announce her own explicit policy of stopping funding, arms and diplomatic and military protection to the Israeli rape-cult. If she chooses not to, it means she is fine with losing and sticking with the Israel lobby.

I want you to reflect on just how unbelievably deranged the Tim Walz position of "we need to change the curriculum to brainwash our children into supporting Zionist genocide of evil Palestinian sub-human barbarians" is. His main selling point is "I was a high school teacher!", and he's endorsing pushing genocidal propaganda onto children to get them to support genocide. Holy shit. This by itself is disqualifying. Just change the context. Imagine he said: "All these people who oppose the Russian war on Ukraine, they're all brainwashed by TikTok and Twitter. We need to change the curriculum and you, the Russia lobby in the US, will have to change it for us, so we can brainwash our kids into supporting the war on Ukraine." Or even more absurd because it's difficult to even imagine it: Say he said it about Israel. Reverse the order: "All these people supporting the genocide of Palestinians are doing it based on propaganda from the Israel lobby and Zionists. We need to change the curriculum in schools to ensure that our children will learn the true history of the Nakba and the genocide and rape and massacre of Palestinians by Zionists and oppose it." He would not only not be VP, he would not be a dog-catcher in Minnesota, even though this is actually true. This curriculum would actually be based in actual history and not deranged Zionist propaganda. But he said it about Palestinians. He said he wants the genocidal Zionist Israel lobby in his state and every other state and country on earth to determine the curriculum of what children are forced to learn. Because his policy is not state-limited, he's expressing a universal view there about what he believes is best to teach all children everywhere. Tim Walz wants every US state and country on earth to let genocidal Zionists write their high school curriculum such that the rape and genocide of Palestinians is made justifiable by Israeli propaganda about how pristine Saintly white European Zionist Jews came to an empty desert land and made it bloom and then those fake Arabs made up their Palestinian identity to kill them because they're by their nature evil sub-human monsters. That's the Israeli Zionist narrative that Tim Walz wants every child on earth to be brainwashed into so that TikTok and Twitter posts of Israel beheading, maiming, massacring and raping Palestinian babies, children, boys, girls, women and men will be acceptable to them. They'll see it and go: "They deserve it, my high school teacher taught me they're evil barbarian terrorists." Tim Walz wants to dehumanize Palestinians through mass universal brainwashing of children so that their rape and genocide is made justifiable to them. This is utter madness. This guy is a fucking deranged and depraved monstrous freak. Holy shit.

[fairuzfan]

I agree with the concept of a 'terrorist' not existing bcuz the amount of ppl called terrorists by the US government only to be remembered as heroes after is insane to me

Yeah very true. There's also the case of the Holy Land 5 that I always think about. They were just some guys trying to do some and their lives got ruined because of these terrorism charges.

This case also was one of the signals for the Palestinian American community to be careful about donating and raising funds in general because we had this threat of being accused of terrorism for literally anything. A lot of NonPalestinians do not realize just how careful we are about these things because we know we usually are one of the first communities to get in trouble with the state. And almost always using terrorism as the excuse.

That's why the Oct. 7th survivors suing NSJP is so disgustingly obvious that they just want to send a message to us dirty palis to shut the fuck up about our families being killed. When I talk about how we are in danger from Israeli society all over the world, I mean it.

[rorschachisgay]

i wish there was some nuance between "everyone has to love the word queer" and "if you don't like it you are a terf automatically". because the reality is i don't identify with the word queer and i never have. as a kid i was aware of it as a slur and as a teenager i started to understand it in an academic concept first (as in Queer Theory) but i didn't identify with it because in my mind it was like, a clinical, academic word. and then later as i got older it became an increasingly prevalent point of conflict around me.

im not arguing that terfs dont dislike queer as a group term, though speaking from a british perspective the majority of them here are very focused on removing the T from LGBT over arguing about queer as a term at all, so it doesnt really feel like a particularly important form of conflict over what is a very targeted erasure of trans identity Specifically.

and thats kind of partially why i struggle to identify with the term Queer. it is not specific. it does not describe or capture my identity. lately i have found much more identity in words like fag, faggot, transexual, which do relate directly to my specific identities and have a very long history in the community. and additionally, won't get fuckin sold back to me by coke.

like that's really all Queer feels like to me now, something that has now been packaged up as an easily marketable buzzword to be printed on t-shirts at Primark or used meaninglessly by Disney to pretend they care. it does not refer to the aspects of my identity that matter to me, it's not something that i ever claimed for myself, and now i am continually getting told that if i don't identify with it im bigoted against myself and my siblings.

"queer was reclaimed by everyone, it was reclaimed in the 80s". i actually don't feel like someone else gets to decide this for me? im not going to lie and pretend it was never used as part of the campaign for equality for decades and decades, it obviously has a crucial place in history, but now in popular culture it has become like. ubiquitous.

like ive said before i think words like fag and dyke can be used in a way that reflects our communal family and is a sign of camaraderie and that's also true of queer, but with those words it's extremely understandable when someone isn't comfortable with them and when someone doesn't want to identify with queer it's treated as a sign they're in the wrong.

idk this is so far from being a crucial issue it's barely worth talking about but i just really struggle with being told that i am in the wrong because i have my own complicated feelings about a word with a complicated history. in the grand scheme of things it's NOT that important but it does grate on my nerves to be told that theres zero room for any kind of debate or alternate opinion in this. like i just wish we didn't have to be so black and white as if the issue has no grey area or room for personal expression at all.

[eddiesghxst]

perv loser eddie is something that can actually be so personal. it’s in the way he’s such a loser borderline obsessed little stalker.

i’m not quite sure how to put this into words but he is whipped, the true definition. yes he loves you, blah blah blah. let’s go deeper into that love. it’s psycho, when he sees you for the first time his heart bursts, he follows you around in the halls when you’re in school even tho you don’t know him and he doesn’t even know you. you think it’s a weird coincidence that he’s always there. And when you confront him, his knees literally almost drop to the ground in your presence. when you go see him during a hellfire club session, he stops all d&d when he sees you wait outside the closed door. he ignores all protests from the guys that this is a huge campaign, one HE’S been planning. it doesn’t even matter, he would end all d&d sessions 15 minutes early if you asked him to, he’d cancel a session if you slipped him a note before saying you’d be home with no panties on, he’d forget to tell dustin that he had to blow him off because you needed him to take you out to a new chick flick movie.

like i said previously about the inspiration from an ex thing, i love the way cigarette smoke smells. my ex was a smoker and he knew this and it was “our thing”

i think eddie would be majorly turned on if he found this out. i’m not talking about something odd like this ex of mine would blow smoke in my face or whatever but i’m just saying it was a comforting smell. i’m currently out of the country in europe where everyone smokes and i can smell it drifting up to my apartment window. i can just imagine calling eddie who’s back in indiana and telling him how horny you are, how the smell reminds you of him. he’s such a fucking loser tho. he’s been desperate since you’ve been away, having withdrawals, he’s an addict. he fucks himself to sleep with his hand every night and fucks himself awake every morning trying to get some release, his flesh light and hand won’t ever compare. he smokes and plays guitar and thinks of you, each exhale of smoke and he gets anxious thinking about you.

but when you’re back, he doesn’t let you out of the trailer for a good 24 hrs. his only plan is to smoke with you and fuck your brains out. i mean fucking like a madman. he’s fucking his anger and stress out on you, stress about you being away from his side, anger that you’ve been touching yourself away from him. i’m not talking 2 orgasms and you’re done. we’re talking about several upon several chain orgasms he’s bringing you. he wants you sobbing, he never wants you to leave his side.

he’s a loser.

- 🫶 anon (i went overboard)

no bc ur so right stink. everything abt this is so fucking correct, i’m sick to my stomach i want him

————

i’ve said it before and i’ll say it again, eddie has no spine when it comes to his girl. meaning, he will drop everything he’s doing to please you or do whatever you ask for, no matter the request (if he’s in a mood, he might bitch about it a little, but he will bitch and get the job done okay).

so when you ask eddie if he can pick you up from the airport on the day he’s planned to have dnd, obviously eddie pushes his campaign back because hello, his girl needs a ride.

he’s waiting for you at your terminal with a single rose and a cute little teddy bear and you giggle when you see him because he looks so out of place wearing his usual black leather clothing and heavy chains whilst holding the soft items.

you tell him all about your trip on your way to his trailer, telling him about your time sightseeing and trying new foods and meeting new people.

you’re still rambling about your trip when you walk into his trailer, but it doesn’t last long before eddie’s got you bent over the edge of his bed, clinging to the soft teddy bear and moaning his name. “fuck, i missed this pussy. did she miss me? she miss how good i fuck her, hm?” he pants against your ear. you quiver beneath him, crying out for him as you push back against his hips.

“feels so good, eddie. gonna cum, please can i cum?”

and eddie’s shaking his head and clicking his tongue, “no i don’t think so, sweetheart. i gave you one rule—- told you no touching and you broke that rule.“ he says, low with a patronizing tone and you sob into his sheets as a chorus of sorry’s leave your mouth.

“so you don’t get to cum until i say you can, okay? and i plan on really taking my time with this precious cunt of yours since she seemed to miss me so much.” his hand cracks down on your ass cheek and you cry out as he lets out a satisfied hum.

and eddie kept true to his word, he didn’t let up until he was thoroughly satisfied and you were nothing but a cock drunk mess. you both wouldn’t have it any other way <3

————

more loser perv!eddie ♡