#all world leaders should be required to watch this scene before taking office

[starlightseraph]

the world needs this right now.

[arhvste]

IWAIZUMI HAIJIME - PROMISES

- summary - in which you reminisce on all the previous journeys and pit stops you’ve made prior to the current journey you’re on where you’re sat in the passenger seat in your husbands luxury car - fluff - x f reader

- an - for @zumisace , look after yourself for me and keep doing well in your classes i know you can pull through and make iwa proud too !! <3

-

“I’ll turn on the seat warmers, just give me a sec.”

Iwaizumi closed the door after you climbed into the passenger seat of his matte black Mercedes-Benz G-class ensuring you had managed to sit down comfortably before securing it shut. Seconds later you were joined in the vehicle by your husband as he fasted the seatbelt before starting the engine and pressing a few controls to ignite a heat from under the leather of the seats.

“So, work was good today?”

You were the leader of the PR team for MSBY, the same team your husband just so happened to be taking responsibility for regarding their athletics training. The two of you arrived at the stadium together every morning and separated upon the entrance of the spacious stadium where he’d make his way down to the gym and you’d retreat to the offices where you’d watch over the team from behind the scenes.

“Mhm, we’re gonna be going over some points for them to discuss in upcoming interviews. Right now, all eyes are on Hinata, we want to make sure he takes advantage of this and gets a good impression across straight away to hopefully garner support immediately.”

Iwaizumi hummed and gave a quick nod before tilting his head back and moving one arm to the back of your headrest as he reversed the car out of the private garage built discreetly under the stadium which was strictly reserved for staff and players of the team. You’d never get over how attractive your husband's casual gesture was, but the feeling of his soft breath against your neck and the way his musky natural scent that you found comfort in would reach your senses made your heart flutter every time he did it.

Successfully swinging the car out of it’s space, Iwaizumi brought his arm back and left it resting on your thigh, the other hand gripping the black wheel as he stepped on the acceleration and pulled the heavy car out of the garage to the small security station where the officer patrolling gave the two of you a firm nod and smile and lifted the gates for you to speed out onto the main roads.

The city lights of Tokyo drowned out the natural light of the stars above but you didn’t mind. After the two of you had lived in Miyagi for so long, the bright and fluorescent lights were a nice change of scenery after spending years under the clear night skies littered with the glittering stars above. Yourself and your husband were familiar with the rural scenery but that didn’t mean you didn’t like the busy and full environment you now lived in.

You’d both come a long way since moving to Tokyo. Previously being based in the Miyagi prefecture and studying at Aoba Johsai, that was your first pit stop as a pair on the way to bright futures.

Being third years with both academic, social and sports parts of your lives were a lot to juggle all at once but you’d both somehow managed. Sure, there was a slight set-back after your boyfriend and his team couldn’t make it to nationals for their final year but that wasn’t going to stop either of you working towards your long term goals as you both knew there were bigger opportunities than nationals that were yet to come.

The next leg of your journey was college. After graduation the two of you felt a big weight had been lifted off of your shoulders as you clung and cried to each other with nothing but pride and admiration for each other. You’d both made it to the end of the compulsory education part of your lives and were ready to write the next chapters. This chapter however, had two parts as Iwaizumi had accepted an offer a college out in California had given him and you had decided to study out in Tokyo where you’d be joined by other briefly familiar players such as Semi Eita and Konoha Akinori whom you’d had very vague introductions to in the past. Iwiazumi had debated with himself for countless nights regarding his offer and whether or not he should take it. It didn’t make things any easier for him knowing that Oikawa was leaving out to Argentina like he’d always planned to pursue his own dream; after all, that boy had the whole world waiting for him and he wasn’t one to leave people hanging.

Despite being adamant about wanting to at least weigh out the pros and cons of going and staying, you finally convinced him that he had a haul of opportunities just waiting to be taken by him in California and you’d promised him that no matter what he picked to do, the love and pride you felt for him would never falter. In return, he promised you that he’d do his absolute best and come back to you with a greater knowledge of the career path he wanted to take and a solid plan of the future he wanted with you.

You smiled softly thinking back to the streaming tears down his flushed face as he pulled and interlocked your pinky finger with his and gave it one last secure squeeze before the speakers announced his terminal gates were open and all passengers would make their way to the boarding line immediately.

It was safe to say that 5 years later and you had both kept your promises in place. The love and pride for him never did once falter despite the long distance between you both and the frustratingly short facetime calls and conversations. You strongly believed in the saying ‘distance makes the heart grow fonder’ and you decided this had been proved as the second Iwaizumi strode out of the return gates and locked eyes with you, the love you had felt for him had suddenly multiplied by a huge sum and you felt an overwhelming sense of pride just looking at him. He had grown even more handsome if that was possible, sharp features more defined, muscles filled out more, taller in height and his skin slightly more tanned as a result of being under the Californian sun over time. He looked more radiant too, the glow in his eyes and the bright smile that wiped over his face when he saw you. That was the second you knew he’d kept his promise to you too.

The two chapters of your years apart had finally closed and the next leg of your journey was one you’d take together again. Iwaizumi was set on making his career out in Tokyo where you had decided you’d be based yourself. Upon his return, he was offered several job offers and interviews at various companies and a handful of professional teams.

It was MSBY’s offer that caught his eye and his judgment only tipped furter in their favour when he remembered that MSBY was the team you were currently working for as a PR team member. Iwaizumi didn’t tell you about the offer, neither did he tell you about the interview and how well it had gone. You were too occupied with your own work and apartment hunting after you had brought up the idea of moving closer into the heart of the city with him to which he agreed immediately. It was only 2 weeks since your boyfriend’s return until you noticed an excitement stirring during the teams training session. Curiosity got the best of you and you wandered down to the large gym where the players were talking excitedly among themselves and Bokuto’s infectious laughter rang through the air.

“Bokuto, what’s Miya done now I swear if he’s-”

There stood your smirking boyfriend, arms crossed over his broad chest and MSBY coaches shirt clung to his frame.

“Glad to be working with you.”

You sputtered and didn’t bother hiding the shock on your face as your mouth gaped open and you tried to form a coherent sentence but had no luck.

“Sorry I didn’t tell you, I wanted to surprise you so… surprise?”

“Asshole!” you ran up to him and he caught you with ease as the players watched the scene unfold in front of them. Bokuto’s excitement radiating off the walls as Atsumu childishly made gagging noises despite Kiyoomi’s disapproving glare aimed towards him.

From then on, life was made easy for the pair of you. All the time lost from when you were separated between colleges, made up with now working and living together. After a week of being official colleagues, Iwaizumi had found a suitable and comfortable apartment for the two of you to move into. It was a little pricey but it was expected since it was located in the centre of the city and besides, the two of you were receiving a very generous income from the jobs you both worked as MSBY were a V-League and highly sought after team with a constant flow of income in all departments.

That was the next stop in your journey together. Moving in.

Life with Iwaizumi was already great but you treasured the first few real feelings of domesticity with him. You found yourself falling for him all over again after signing the papers to legally own the place together, pack up all your old things from your apartment where he had been staying with you until you both found a place suited to your requirements. Moving in officially with him was something you had always dreamed of but never had any clear ideas on how it would become a reality but here you were standing in the new living room of your luxury apartment with the love of your life.

You’d never forget the proud smile he gave you after you’d finally unpacked everything and had your limbs tangled together on the couch.

“I told you I’d keep my promise.”

“I never said you wouldn’t.”

“Fair point.”

That was what life with Iwaizumi felt like. Fulfilled promised.

The next promise he made was when he got down on one knee after a year of living back in Japan and a year of living with you.

“Look, you know I’m no good with this sappy kind of shit but I’ll try for you. Y/N L/N, you’ve been the light at the end of the tunnel for me for as long as I can remember and now look, you’ve helped me reach the end and I’m finally the man I wanted to be, I hope I’m the man you wanted or at least hoped for me to be too. I always held that promise I made to you years ago at the back of my mind and I have every intention of delivering it to you. I want you in my life for the rest of it and I can only pray you’d allow me in yours too so, Y/N, would you do me the honor of sharing the last name Iwaizumi with me?”

Just like that, this man had single-handedly stolen your heart again and you couldn’t stop the happy stream of tears from flooding your vision as you could only nod and choke out a yes before throwing yourself into his arms.

The next pit stop of your journey forward was none other than your own wedding. Nothing over the top since neither of you found yourselves dreaming of an extravagant wedding but your wedding was nothing less than a fairy tale. Old classmates, family and players from other teams from your highschool days attended and congratulated the two of you for finally reuniting and making things official. Oikawa made sure he was back for his best friends wedding and caused a scene as expected, tears of joy pooling in his eyes everytime he looked at the happy couple and his best man speech filled to the brim of old stories and mentions of how happy and proud he was of his best friend to have found himself and the love of his life so early on in his years.

The soft lights and background music created a dreamlike atmosphere as the two of you swayed to your own beat, your arms wrapped around his neck as his were secured around your waist. The soft glint in his eyes held nothing but the purest form of love for you as he continued to allow himself to get lost in your own eyes filled with the same admiration. An unspoken promise.

To love each other and stick together throughout the rest of your life.

Just like every other promise, that one was kept too. It had brought you to the present day and time. You and your husband driving home together after a long day of work. The soft city lights gradually became more scarce as the flashbacks of your memories together caught up to the present time.

Iwaizumi pulled into the private garage and parked the car straight into the usual parking space that was reserved for the two of you.

Stopping the engine, your husband gave your thigh a light squeeze to let you know you were home just in case you’d dozed off on the way back. You turned your head to face Iwaizumi and offered him a small smile.

“You were quiet on the way back, tired?”

Shaking your head you laced your fingers into the fingers of the hand Iwaizumi had left resting on your thigh.

“Nah just thinking.”

“About what?” He raised an eyebrow.

“You, us, how far we’ve come.”

A soft silence washed over the two of you as Iwaizumi looked away for a moment as if he was having his own flashbacks. Giving your hand a squeeze with his larger and calloused one he turned back to face you and grinned.

“You’re damn right we’ve come far I told you, you were always my light at the end of the tunnel, it’s all thanks to you we’re where we are today.”

You laughed and shook your head before resting the side of your head on the dashboard, eyes still meeting his.

“We’re a team Hajime, always have been, always will be.”

Grin never leaving his face, Iwaizumi leant down and pressed a tender kiss to your cheek, the warmth of his lips lingering on your skin after he moved back up.

He knew the two of you had relied and made promises to each other, but he meant it when he said that it was you that had brought you both to the point you were currently at. He wouldn’t have had anyone in particular to look forward to returning to and building a life with if he didn’t have you. You made him want to work hard and do his best and it was thanks to you that he felt like he could say in confidence he had worked hard for everything he had today and that included the matching rings on your wedding fingers.

“So,” He began after a few moments.

“What would you think about maybe expanding our little team then?”

A smirk played at your lips before you leaned up and gave him a knowing look.

“I think the more team players, the better.”

Laughing, Iwaizumi opened his door and walked round the front of the car to open your own door and lift you out as he always did. Taking your hand into his own, he walked beside you back up to your apartment ready to fulfill yet another promise and prepare for the next part of your journey together.

general taglist → @atsumuwoah @bloody-bella @bbymilkbread @miracleboy420 @doggonudez @atsunakaashi @peteunderoos @saturnfarie @toffees-main @zumisace @boosyboo9206 @totorosleaff @27kei

[poulpichou]

Government failures and fucked-upperies in France

Ok, so I recently wrote a bit about the situation with police brutality in France, but now I would like to tell you more about WHY the government needs the police so much. A lot of my sources will be in french (and marked (F) like this) because there are a lot of cases that didn’t make it to the international press. Many sources also come from the newspaper Mediapart and require a subscription.

I’ve had a lot of people telling me “BuT It’S nOt ChInA” and let me tell you, yes I know it’s way worse in other countries (Peru, Thailand, Nigeria and so on, a lot is happening right now in the world), but where the fuck do you draw the line? The kind of things I’m gonna tell you about is unacceptable, and so hypocritical when a country calls itself a democracy and the land of human rights, and we should be angry about that and try to make it change. Here I’m talking a lot about Macron but let’s not forget that many current problems began under Holland’s presidency, who was supposed to be from the left, and even before. Alright, here we go.

President of the wealthy

Soooo let’s begin with how Macron was elected by wealthy people: half of the 16 million euro collected for his campaign was financed(F) by 1200 people, mostly living in Paris, by banks, and also by rich french people living abroad. So of course the first thing he did when he could was to reward them for his victory and he cut their taxes in december 2018. He deleted the “taxe on fortune” that was in place for 40 years (minus 3 years under Chirac first presidency) and replaced it with another that taxes way less, in the name of trickle down economy (you know, the same way Thatcher and Reagan did) saying that rich people would invest more and thus creating more jobs. Of course that didn’t happen and rich people just got way richer without any effects on poor people.

At the same time, he cut down housing benefits for students and poor people (1/4 of people between 18 and 24 are under the poverty line) and cancelled housing helps for 50,000 people. In december 2018, he wanted to pass a law that would increase fuel prices in the name of ecology, but that would once again mainly affect working and middle classes. That’s how started the yellow vest movement, because people were becomming poorer and poorer and they felt like the government only gave to the rich and took from the poor.

In 2018, 14% of the french population was under the poverty line, and 21% suffer from food insecurity and it has only worsened since.

At the end of 2019, a student even set himself on fire at his university because he was in such financial distress he couldn’t go on anymore.

Yellow Vest movement

If you have to read one article about it, it’s this one.

In 2017, Macron said in one of his speeches about a train station that it was “a place where one encounters people who are succeeding and people who are nothing”. The yellow vest movement came from these “people who are nothing”. For the first time in decades, people who were not heard, people who didn’t have a place in the political landscape in France were on the front scene. A lot of protestors never demonstrated before, or even engaged in politics. Many of them now protested because “they had nothing else to lose” (F). People were angry from not being listened to and being used only to allow rich people to get richer, and oh boy they showed it in the street.

The first protests took the government by surprise. They were not expecting the numbers of protestors, nor their determination. The protest were also completely different from the demonstration the state was used to deal with: there were no official leaders, making it really difficult for the government to negotiate, demonstrations were often not declared beforhand in prefectures (F), and people were systematically targetting (F) banks, major brands like Apple or McDonalds and luxury shops, causing millions euro worth of damages.

On the 1st of december 2018, protestors in Paris took over the Arc de Triomphe and completely overfloaded the police.

One policeman said afterward that on this day, “the Elysée could have fallen” (F). Police forces were not prepared, the right orders were not given at the right times and some police company were surounded by furious protestors. The same policeman said that in that moment, “they forgot about their code of ethics”, that they were just shooting rubber bullet wherever they could and “trying protect their life”. The following weeks, police put on steel fences around the Elysée and members of the government and their collaborators were asked to lock down and put away all of their documents(F) before the weekly demonstrations, in case the protestors were able to take over the buildings.

It was a turning point in the protests, and from then the orders given to the police changed completely. From then they’ve been allowed to litterally do whatever it took to keep the country in order. The government understood that the last thing between them and the furious people they betrayed was the police, and that’s precisely why they are trying to give them even more power today with the law on global security (see my last post, and probably a next one I’m gonna write soon because it would be too much for this post).

Since December 2018, a journalist, David Dusfresne, documents and keeps count on the police brutality, first on twitter and then on the online newspaper Mediapart(F) (TW for really graphic pictures of wounds and blood). For now he counted 4 deaths, 30 people who lost an eye due mainly to rubber bullets, 6 who lost a hand due to detonative grenades (France is being the only european country to use them against its own population), 346 wounded to the head (fractured skull mainly, due to the rubber bullets and baton blow) and a total of 969 documented reports on police brutality (and that’s only for 3 years).

Since then, a total of 9 police officers have been judged guilty, 7 of them being only suspended temporarily and avoiding prison, with only 2 of them ending up in prison(F) and being expelled from police forces.

People began to record the police more and more to prevent any brutality or to have proofs in case it happened, and then the police began to target journalists and anyone who had a camera.

They began to lie to people, telling them it’s forbiden to record the police (for now it isn’t), they forced photographs to delete their photos in the middle of demonstrations. They covered their ID number on their uniform (F), they covered their licence plates.

The government also began to talk about legitimate protest, aka the peacefull one, and put the name of “casseur” (thug) on anyone who would be too angry. to their taste, saying that the latter were taking the former in hostage. Basically they were saying tht yes, protestors took aver the arc de Triomphe, but it was only hooligans who just wanted to burn things, nothing political behind that.

Here began the preventive arrests (F) before demonstrations (arresting people who had done nothing on the only presumption they will), the arrest of journalists, the arrest of people having masks and protection glasses on them. From now on the administration can ban someone from public demonstration without going through the justice system.

Between November 2018 and November 2019, around 3,000 person(F) from the yellow vest movement were senteced to community services, fees, suspended prison sentence, and for 1/3 of them prison sentences. Those numbers are underestimated because many cases have not been judged yet. Some protestors were sentenced for shouting slogans(F), for wearing protective masks(F) (F), other were sent to prison for damaging radars(F) on highways, or for filming riots while wearing a yellow vest(F). There has been a massive tendency(F) for the state to sue people for “participation to a gathering with the intent to commit violences against persons or goods”, allowing them to give fees, community services or even prison sentences to people based only on the intent they gave them. Many people found guilty of attacking police forces were judged with the only proof being the declaration of police officers, and even though a lot of them claimed to be innocent they were still sentenced because they couldn’t bring proof of their innocence.(F) Amnesty International talks about the criminalization of demonstrators(F) that’s happening in France and warns about the instrumentalisation of laws that goes against international law. (F)

The ban on masks (they can be considered as weapons) during demonstration allows police to take protestors(F) who have some on them or in their car to the police station for a maximum of 48h for the sole purpose of making them miss the demonstration. This law is not applied nowadays because of Covid, but it still exists.

With the yellow vest movement, the part of the population who wasn’t used to the police actually began to endure what POC have been living for decades.

Racisme

France is a fucked up racist country. It was born in colonisation and slavery, and still rely on its former colonies to prosper economically. Young men perceived as Black or Arab are 24 more times likely to be stopped in the streets. The overwhelming majority of people killed by the police are black or arabic(F). When the police kills POC, the judiciary system often refuses to do a full investigation, refuses to hear some of the witnesses, refuses to watch some of the video tapes from surveillance cameras (F). A lot of autopsies are proved to be ballant lies, founding heart diseases(F) or blood infections(F) when the victim was actually killed by suffocation due to ventral tackle, a police technique that got France sentenced by the European court of human rights (F).

BAC

Since the mid 90′s, France has special police forces for working-class neighborhoods, the Brigade Anti-Criminalité (BAC), that operate in suburbs (in France rich people live in the city center and poor people in the suburbs) where a majority of imigrants and people from black and arabic descent live. BAC agents are all volunteers, they act in unmarked cars and civilians clothes and can carry weapons(F).

Their purpose is to roam the streets and to catch misdemeanor in the act, and they’ve been known (as well as regular police) to harass population by proceeding to systematic identity cheks(F) (often outside of what’s allowed by law), by insulting people(F), provoking people with racist and homophobic insults(F), by beating them(F) and charging them for “outrage” or “rebellion”(F) when they protest (charges that always give reasons to police officers when there’s no recordings of the arrest and allow them to get money for the prejudice). There have been reports of torture on adults(F), tennagers(F) and children(F), and cases where the BAC agents took victims to quiet places so they could beat them up(F). There have also been reports of agents inventing charges when their provocations didn’t push the victim to confront them(F).

They are basically above the law. There have been cases of massive corruption(F) where the agents returned to their unit(F) after the end of their suspension, and the person who leaked the info got fired.

As they are field agents, their role is also intelligence: they gather intells in the suburbs and they also infiltrate demonstration(F) and wear the attire of “casseurs”, to gather intells on violent individuals. Since the beginning of the Yellow Vest movement, they’ve participating in containing demonstrations as well even though they don’t have any training in that field.

Refugees

Police is being extremely violent against refugees, particularly in Northern France and what used to be the “Jungle” of Calais. Amnesty International reported that police had been beating refugees with baton, confiscating their clothes and tent daily during winter (it also happened in Paris(F)), urinating on their tents, spraying teargas directly in the face of sleeping men. A group of 4 associations also issued a report(F) on police harassment against volunteers who helped refugees, with as much as 646 instances of police harassment and abuse against volunteers between November 2017 and June 2018 in Calais. Human rights observers reported harrasment techniques such as body search of female volunteers by male officers, insults, pushing, threats of legal suits and threats of arrest. Volunteers who reported these behaviours were told by the police internal investigation body that the reports where defamatory and could constitute a crime.

At the beginning of the year, associations that were not approuved by the state were forbidden to distribute free meals to refugees(F).

Islamophobia

France has always been an islamophobic country but it has been more public and accepted since the 2015 terrorist attacks. Many laws promoting laicity are actually used to target Islam:

The ban of public display of religious items in public institutions (schools, libraries, government buildings) target mainly women wearing hijabs when many mayors keep on installing nativity scenes during Christmas(F). In 2016 some cities made wearing a burkini (full body covering bathing suit) on the beach illegal and we had some astonishing scenes of police officers asking a women (who wasn’t even wearing a burkini) to undress on the beach in the name of the law.

The law that says people have to uncover their face when being in a public space only target muslim women and is now completely useless as we have the obligation to wear a mask everywhere

The law that says street prayers have to be autorized in prefecture beforehand only target muslim community: when a muslim association organized a street prayer(F) in 2017 to protest their eviction from their place of cult in the city center they were charged 10,000€ (5,000€ from the association and 5,000€ from its president), whereas catholics students organized a street prayer(F) last month and didn’t face any charges. Legally, any autorization must be asked more than 3 days in advance and in both cases it was only asked on the day before.

Following the killing of Samuel Paty, a teacher who was attacked mid october for showing caricatures of the prophet Mohamed in class, four 10 years old children were arrested for “terrorism apology”(F), interrogated for 10 hours and their houses checked by police forces in full gears. The minister of interior also disolved the Collective against Islamophobia in France, saying that, since it was prottesting against anti-terrorist laws (that are super islamophobic) it was promoting radical islamism and terrorism. A minute of silence was imposed in schools and the names of people who didn’t follow the procedure were given to the minister of education, who said “none of them will be left unpunished”.(F)

To sum up: the government is being super islamophobic but muslims who voice their concerns are seen as radical islamists and are associated with terrorists.  Furthermore, it’s now easier for islamophobic people in government to ban associations or to pass shady laws thanks to the state of emergency.

State emergency

Following the 2 years of state emergency (2015-2017), France passed a law against terrorism(F) that normalized a lot of the state emergency’s characteristics: it took power away from the justice system to give it to administrations, directly under the control of the government.

The government, who previously had to be accountable in front of a judiciary judge, can now do many things under the only control of an administrative judge(F). The actions of administrative judges are controled by the council of state, and the president of the said council is the prime minister or the minister of justice, named by the president.

Here is what they can now do(F):

place people under house arrest with obligation to check in police stations every day for a maximum of a year

deny or restrict access to public events to some people, or proceed to body search

make someone wear an electronic bracelet when they didn’t commit any infractions

close places of worship for a maximum of 6 months when the ideas discuted there promote hate, discrimination, violence or terrorism

require people to give their login of any account on internet to the police

investigate on civil servants using secret services files

create a national centralized file with the names of people travelling in and out of the country by plane or boat

With the autorisation of a judge of freedom and detentions, they can also search houses and seize computers or phones to inspect the contents.

If people refuse to do any of the above when they are asked to, they risk 3 years of prison and a fee that can go up to 45,000€.

The offense “terrorism apology” was used against hundreds of people, with a large proportion of them being underaged (1/3 of them in 2015), sometimes for something as unsignificant as a non-violent facebook comment, a situation pointed out by Amnesty International(F). The NGO also highlights the fact that the fear of being considered as an extremist or the fear of facing judiciary consequences sets limit to freedom of speech.

Since 2015, the government has used the power given to them by the state of emergency to place 24 environmental activists under house arrest for the duration of the COP21(F) and to search the house of people who were protesting against the construction of an airport(F), construction potentialy linked to corruption(F), and also to close temporarly more than 30 mosques and install security cameras inside(F).

The consulting national commission on human rights pointed out a “highjack” of the state emergency, that was used to silence protestors, unions and refugees with abusive means, like unnecessary handcuffing, adults and children being aimed at with assault riffle during house searches and house being damaged during searches.

2015 was also the year of the Intelligence Act, a law that allows inteligence agencies to install scanning devices on the infrastructure of telecom operators so they can collect data on communications that are likely to reveal a terrorist threat.

Covid 19

When the epidemy started to be problematic in France in February 2020, hospital workers had been on strike for 11 months(F) and were asking for doctors and nurses jobs opening, and more beds in hospital. At the beginning of february, 600 administrative hospital workers had quit(F) so they were not “accomplices of the management of misery”. Healthcare workers had been saying for years that the deterioration of the working conditions in hospitals were gonna lead to patients death.

Since the beginning of the 2000′s, 100 000 beds have been removed(F) from hospital services and there has been a budget cut close to 12 bilions euros(F) for the health services.

Then comes Covid 19, and the government asks health workers to always do more with less, in the name of common good. We applaud them at our windows every night, and then they don’t get the bonus(F) the government promised, the healthcare system doesn’t get any budget increase and even worse, it still has to face a 800 milions cut in the middle of the pandemic(F).

The newspaper Mediapart issued a report(F) exposing the lies of the government:

They decided to get only small quantities of masks at the beginning of january against experts opinion, they said the virus wouldn’t reach France.

Government lied about the usefullness of masks to prevent people asking for them when they didn’t have some to distribute to the whole population. They said it was useless, and even dangerous because we didn’t know how to use them, they actively encouraged people not to wear them, and they lied about mask shortage. I really want to insist on that point, the instensity of communication on the subject was incredible. Every day we had many different high-ranked person in the government telling us on TV, on the radio or in newspaper that we shouldn’t wear masks. They only made wearing masks compulsory in public spaces mid July, 6 months after the first case in France(F).

Healthcare workers didn’t have enough masks and thus faced higher risks of contamination but the government still allowed non essential big companies like Airbus to use milions of the precious FFP2 masks. The government still refuses to give the number of healthcare workers who died from Covid19(F), the only count we have is made by journalists, and it’s believed to be underestimated.

To this day, healthcare workers are still on strike for better working conditions and better pay. I took this pic earlier this month from one of the firestations in my city, you can read written in white paint on the doors “understaffed, population in danger”, “18 months of strike and still NOTHING”, “Covid bonus ???” and “SOS”. Firefighters also write this on their trucks and their helmets, and hospitals have had banners deployed for more than a year now. All of these people are still working to ensure everyone’s access to health services but they refuse to transfer data to the state sickness insurance for example (and they are now facing administrative sanctions(F) and are threatened to not be given cancer drugs if they don’t end the strike(F)).

Regarding Covid, we are one of the only countries in europe to use self-filled certificates to be able to go outside. These certificates are controlled by the police, and like I said earlier, increased police controls harm a certain part of the population (young people and POC). Amnesty International issued a report(F) on the violences comited during french lockdown, pointing out repetitive and significant illegitimate actions from the police, such as beatings, use of tasers, illegal arrests, racists and homophobics insults and verbal threats. In April 2020, Mohamed Gabsi, a homeless person, was killed by the police after being arrested for being outside during the lockdown(F). The officers who killed him are still in service.

The covid crisis brought us in the worst recession we had since WW2, and the Secour Populaire (french association that helps poor people) had to help 45% more people than it helped in 2019(F). In my city, there are so many people coming for food distribution on certain days they had to install permanent fences in the street so people can queue in order.

Corruption and Other Stuff

In France (as in many other countries) it’s rare to have politicians who’ve never been prosecuted in any judiciary or administrative case.

Here I’m only gonna tell you who have been accused and who have been prosecuted for what in Macron’s government, and quite frankly it’s not exhaustive because one wikipedia page just brings me to 5 more.

The following tab is quite heavy so feel free to just check the left column with the legend.

(Now let me cry thinking about this Swedish minister who had to quit over a chocolate bar)

(All my sources are from french newspapers, I can give them if you ask me but I’m not gonna put them here because there are way too many)

People who had to quit the first government were still appointed deputy governor of the Bank of France (Sylvie Goulard), president of the national assembly (Richard Ferrand) and chief of foreign affaires commission at the national assembly (Marielle de Sarnez). They are being investigated for corruption and embezzlement and they still have a successfull political career, and more important they still heavily influence the laws of our country and of Europe. Sylvie Goulard was even chosen by Macron to seat at the European Commission but european deputies decided it was fucked up and rejected her appointment (F).

In this list I only talked about members of the government but there has been other scandals linked to people around Macron.

Benalla cases: It all began when we discovered Alexandre Benalla, chief of security and travels for the president, was participating in demonstration as a policeman (which he wasn’t) and used his position to beat up protestors and passerby. The rest of the case is filled with destruction and hiding of evidences(F), illegal sharing of public surveillance videotapes by the police, undeclared guns(F), illegal but unpunished use of data by the police(F) and the Elysée(F), breaking of the judiciary control by Benalla, illegal diplomatic passports and meeting with african’s leaders, russian contracts with an alleged mafia boss(F), office searchs for a newspaper ordered by the State, who tried to seize the proofs and the sources the newspaper had on the case(F) and so on. The case involves several members of the government and members of special forces, and some journalists who were writing on it were then auditionned for disclosure of state secret(F). The case in general highlighted the impunity members of the government and police officers have, as well as anyone who is close to the president, but also the dysfunction in the justice system and the impossibility for high ranked people to face justice. The fucker is still free, taunt people on twitter and still gives interviews to national television.

Kohler case: Alexis Kohler, general secretary of the Elysee and Macron right hand man during his campain, hid his personnal links to the sea transporters MSC and then attributed them huge state funds. He also lied in his involvement in the decision. We discovered Macron sent a letter to the national financial prosecutor's office to clear him, which they did, until an anti-corruption association relaunched legal proceedings. The guy is now being prosecuted for corruption and bribery. (F) (F)

Conclusion

Fuck the police, eat the rich, let’s forbid them from being elected, a next long post on the Law on Global Security the governement is trying to pass is gonna come soon if you’re interested.

Please tell me if you see any inconsistency in this post, I tried to source it as much as I could and to verify everything I wrote but like anyone else I have bias and sometimes I wrote things at 5am so I’m aware I might be incorrect  and I’m open to constructive criticism. Also sorry for my approximate english sometimes.

[tiramisiyu]

【未定事件簿】 Tears of Themis: Main Story 7-9 Translation

Translation Masterlist | Video

Chapter 7 – Rains of Monte Cristo: 7-1 / 7-3 / 7-5 / 7-7 / 7-9 / 7-11 / 7-13 / 7-15 / 7-17 / 7-19  ♦️ ♦️  7-20 / 7-22 / 7-24 / 7-26 / 7-28 / 7-30 / 7-32 / 7-34 / 7-35

Yan Wei’s news was truly shocking.

Zuo Ran: When was the corpse discovered?

Yan Wei: Past midnight the day before yesterday. Patrol boats fished it up.

Zuo Ran: Is the cause of death confirmed?

Yan Wei: There were assault wounds on Xu Ping’s head, and there were binding marks on his wrists. According to the forensics anatomical results…

Yan Wei: After being knocked unconscious from the back via assault to his head, he was tied to heavy items and thrown into the sea.

Zuo Ran: Aside from these, were any other indications left?

Yan Wei: The corpse was soaking in the sea for too long, and most indications have already disappeared.

Zuo Ran: Has the place where he fell into the sea been confirmed?

Yan Wei: Yes. It’s around this position.

Yan Wei turned on his phone, opening a map of the nature park.

Yan Wei: Based on the corpse’s state of decay, and the direction and speed of sea water flow…

Yan Wei: Xu Ping fell into the sea from the peak of this mountain on the north side of the nature park.

Zuo Ran: Then do you know who pushed him down?

Yan Wei: This is where the issue lies. This north area is an unopened region.

Yan Wei: People don’t go there, and there’s no surveillance.

Yan Wei: We looked at the surveillance records of the main entrance and didn’t notice anyone suspicious. People in the unit suspect…

Yan Wei: The murderer might have left from this abandoned door on the northeastern side.

Zuo Ran: Is that so…

Zuo Ran: At what time was Xu Ping murdered?

Yan Wei: Combining the corpse’s anatomical information and Xu Ping’s final trail of movement…

Yan Wei: The current inferred time is around the time where he was reported as missing, which would be between January 27th and 29th.

Zuo Ran: …

Zuo Ran: I understand the situation. I’ll go take a look at the inferred crime location.

Zuo Ran: Leader Yan, thank you for telling me this.

--

Lu Jinghe’s Art Studio

After sending off Xu Yin, since Yan Wei was temporarily away from the office, our meeting with Wang Chunchong was pushed back by two hours.

Thus, Lu Jinghe and I went to his studio to rest for a bit and make some preparations for the meeting afterwards.

As I was organizing the case files, I thought back on what Xu Yin said.

MC: Lu Jinghe, do you think Xu Yin and Wang Chunchong really know information about Qin Shan and Heirson?

Lu Jinghe: As Wang Chunchong has the voice recording as proof, with his relation with Qin Shan, it’s highly likely that it’s true.

Lu Jinghe tugged gently at his tie.

Likely because he’d arrived at his “comfort zone”, he gradually relaxed from the serious manner he had when meeting with Xu Yin earlier.

Lu Jinghe: But Xu Yin… I feel like she doesn’t know much useful information.

Lu Jinghe: When she was talking about how much she knew about Qin Shan, it probably it was to make us agree to help her.

MC: Based on this, Xu Yin probably doesn’t know about the investigation team’s matters.

Lu Jinghe: Correct.

MC: But for us, we got a lot out of this time.

MC: Aside from himself, Wang Chunchong’s case also involves Hang Jiahe.

MC: Using the case investigation as a reason to get in contact with them is an easy and indetectable method for us.

Lu Jinghe: Yeah… for this, we should thank Xu Yin.

Lu Jinghe: Alright, let’s stop talking about that. How’s reading the files going?

Lu Jinghe: Have you thought about how you’ll question Wang Chunchong in a moment?

MC: Pretty much.

MC: Based on the investigation report, the evidence that the police used to charge Wang Chunchong – aside from the ones that Xu Yin previously mentioned…

MC: There’s another crucial one, which is Wang Chunchong’s crime motive.

MC: Regarding this, the report only mentioned that Wang Chunchong got into a dispute with Hang Fei and his wife regarding Hang Jiahe’s betrothal gift.

MC: After, we need to ask in detail regarding the police and Wang Chunchong’s exact situation.

Lu Jinghe: Is that so…

MC: The police’s inferred process of Wang Chunchong’s murdering also requires heavy scrutiny.

MC: Also, proof that Hang Jiahe, who has a close relationship with Hang Fei and Qi Yu, was not at the scene needs to be verified.

MC: After all, betrothal gifts is not the matter of a single person. Hang Jiahe’s attitude regarding this matter is still unclear.

MC: If she stood on Wang Chunchong’s side, then she would also have a motive for murder.

MC: For now, I’m preparing to use these questions as the major questioning points.

Lu Jinghe: Then have you noticed anything wrong with the pieces of evidence that Xu Yin mentioned?

MC: It doesn’t seem like there are any problems with the source of the hammer and drugs, but the nature park’s surveillance video…

MC: You also saw before that the video only recorded the park’s entrance. There’s nothing regarding what happens after one enters the park.

MC: From a strict perspective, one can’t confirm Wang Chunchong’s movements in the park.

MC: This is also an issue that requires focus.

Lu Jinghe: Pretty good – finding this many issues and questioning points in such little time, as expected of the lawyer jiejie.

MC: You praise me in excess, CEO Lu. This is merely the “sensitivity” I should have as a lawyer.

MC: Plus, I feel like you’re more amazing than me.

MC: Not only were you able to infer Xu Yin’s goal and thought process…

MC: At the restaurant earlier, when you were talking to her, you intentionally raised your tone to lead her on, right?

Lu Jinghe: *sigh*…

Lu Jinghe sighed, half helplessly and half pitifully.

Lu Jinghe: Sometimes, I really wish you weren’t this smart.

Lu Jinghe: You see through everything, so how am I supposed to show my intelligent, handsome image in front of you and heighten your favour for me?

MC: ???

MC: Ahem… what are you talking about…

Lu Jinghe: What’s the matter, are you… feeling shy?

MC: …

Lu Jinghe: Alright, I won’t tease you anymore. You guessed right, I was doing that on purpose earlier.

Lu Jinghe: Xu Yin’s “battled” in the business world for many years, and her alertness is much higher than typical people.

Lu Jinghe: Typically, when such people are in unfavourable situations, they will opt to not make any movements for the moment and watch for changes.

Lu Jinghe: But as soon as we met today, Xu Yin spoke up first before you and me, seeing to be in a particular rush to display her sincerity.

Lu Jinghe: Why would she do so? There is only one possible reason.

MC: She wants to be the active one in this discussion and turn things from her disadvantages?

Lu Jinghe: Indeed. And the fact that she has the confidence to do so is due to now she believes she holds a bargaining chip that can be used to negotiate with us and wanted to battle with us.

Lu Jinghe: But before true negotiations started, she had to confirm whether her bargaining chip would be effective.

Lu Jinghe: So she specifically brought up her relation with Hang Jiahe, using this to observe our reaction.

Lu Jinghe: Since she’s worked so hard, then I’ll give her a “hint” to see what she knows.

MC: (No wonder – when Xu Yin was talking to me, she looked towards Lu Jinghe instead.)

Lu Jinghe: But in the end, I merely lifted my tone by a bit, and Xu Yin just told me everything.

MC: To be able to figure out such a precise method to handle Xu Yin – Lu Jinghe, you really are worthy of your name!

Lu Jinghe: There are lots of people like this in the business word. Xu Yin’s not that big of a deal; I’ve encountered people who are even harder to handle than her.

MC: People who are harder to handle… then you…

Lu Jinghe: Don’t worry – who am I, after all? I’m Lu Jinghe. Who can pull anything off against me?

MC: Pfft…

Lu Jinghe: What’re you laughing at?

MC: Nothing, I just felt like it’s been a long while since I saw your “overbearing CEO” side. It feels a little reminiscent.

Lu Jinghe: Oh? Looks like you quite like my “overbearing CEO” side.

Lu Jinghe: Ugh… if I knew you liked those earlier, I wouldn’t have played an understanding, good little brother.

MC: (That’s too much… Master Lu… that’s too much…)

Lu Jinghe: Haha, I was just joking to liven up the atmosphere.

Lu Jinghe: Looks like it’s almost about time. I’m going to change clothes, and after, we can head to the police station.

Lu Jinghe: Having to wear a suit when I’m not even at work – it really isn’t comfortable at all.

Lu Jinghe got up and walked towards the inner room.

--

Five minutes later, Lu Jinghe walked out again, wearing that suit still.

MC: Weren’t you going to change? Why are you still in the suit?

Lu Jinghe: Uh… could you help me?

MC: What’s the matter?

Lu Jinghe: There’s a button on my shirt that I haven’t been able to unfasten, for whatever reason. Could you help me see what’s the matter?

MC: Button?

Only then did I realize that Lu Jinghe was holding onto his shirt, looking extremely distressed.

MC: Let me see. Did it get entangled in thread?

I got near Lu Jinghe.

Lu Jinghe: How is it, can you see the issue?

MC: It is indeed tangled in the thread. I’m guessing that you accidentally looped it on somewhere.

MC: Don’t move just yet, I’ll untangle the thread for you.

Lu Jinghe: Ah… okay.

Lu Jinghe went silent.

I delicately untangled the thread in front of me, but I didn’t know why…

Through the thin shirt, I could feel that Lu Jinghe’s body felt somewhat stiff.

MC: Lu Jinghe, what’s the matter? Are you tired?

Lu Jinghe: N-no…

MC: Then why’s your body this stiff?

Lu Jinghe: *sigh*…

Lu Jinghe: Asking me why I’m stiff – jiejie, you sure aren’t great at reading the mood.

MC: ???

Lu Jinghe: Look up at me.

Following his instructions, I lifted my head.

Lu Jinghe’s smile was suddenly magnified in front of me. He gazed at me, a smile floating in his dark irises.

A breeze blew past, and a familiar, cool scent hit my face.

MC: …

My hands stopped moving unconsciously, and I did nothing more than look back at Lu Jinghe.

Lu Jinghe: …

As if he didn’t expect my reaction, Lu Jinghe froze, then smiled.

Lu Jinghe: Don’t you feel like our actions and atmosphere right now feel a little fantastical?

MC: What?

Lu Jinghe: Look, with our position right now, I am the only one in your eyes, and you are the only one in mine.

Lu Jinghe: There’s sunlight and birdsong outside the window, and around you and me…

Lu Jinghe: There’s no strife and no trouble. The only tiny “issue” was one you’ve already easily solved…

Lu Jinghe: This feeling of calm, happy times feels like we have lived together for very long already…

MC: !!!

I suddenly retracted my hand.

MC: L-Lu Jinghe, what are you talking about?!

Lu Jinghe: I was just expressing my view, why so agitated?

Lu Jinghe: Could you have been thinking the same as me? And what I said was exactly what you were thinking?

MC: W-who’s thinking the same as you? Don’t speak nonsense…

Lu Jinghe: Really? Then why were you looking at me the whole time?

MC: I… I…

MC: R-right, weren’t you going to change? The button’s already been untangled, so hurry off.

Unable to explain my strange actions just now, I could only muddle through with a random excuse.

Lu Jinghe: *laugh*…

Lu Jinghe: Okay, I’ll go now.

Lu Jinghe: Just be good and wait here for me.

[dammit-stark]

any stevetony regency fic: *chefs kiss*

okay this drabble was inspired by that scene in pride and prejudice where elizabeth walked three miles through the mud to get to her sick sister at netherfield and when she gets there they all just stare at her and make fun of her manners you know the one if you know you know - anyway this turned out way longer than I anticipated pls enjoy I absolutely adored writing this

DROP YOUR FAVORITE AU IN MY ASKBOX, OR ANY IDEA YOU LIKE :) ...

“I- I don’t have the money to repay you for this,” Steve pants, “But I promise, I’ll get it to you.”

The doctor keeps walking at his fervent, clipped pace through the long-haired English countryside. He shakes his head, but otherwise doesn’t say anything.

Steve had burst in on his breakfast at the Stark manor, man servants racing to get ahead of him as he threw open the doors of the breakfast parkour with his own two outstretched hands, out of breath. Everyone in attendance stood at the sight of him, priceless chair legs scraping against beautiful wood floors.

“Please,” Steve had begged, not an ounce of pridefulness, just hope and desperation, “It’s my mother. Can you help?”

Doctor Banner was moving instantly, nodding, “Let me get my bag.”

So Steve waited there as Doctor Banner hurried out of the room, brushing past the harried servants and muttering incessantly about his gear. Mr Stark and Miss Potts were still standing as if waiting for Steve’s manners to suddenly grow out of his ass. But Steve wasn’t very concerned about manners, couldn’t think if he was supposed to bow or if smiling was ill-mannered when his mom was sick again. She’d woken up coughing, moaning about a whole body ache, and Steve had immediately run down to the Stark manner to find Doctor Banner, knowing he dined late with the elusive bachelor most morning. Steve wrings his hands together anxiously and avoids Stark’s itchy, watchful gaze.

When Doctor Banner returns, he’s lugging a heavy-looking leather bag and his eyes are wide, “Take me to her,” He says, and Steve sweeps out of the room without another word.

Steve doesn’t see it, having already rushed out of the room with the thought of his mother at the front of his mind, but Pepper gives Tony a meaningfully smug look before they sit back down again, the hem of her midnight blue skirts pooling daintily against the rug as they return to their midmorning meal.

Steve says the same thing again later as he’s profusely thanking Doctor Banner, wringing out the other man’s big hands with his gratitude, “I promise I’ll gather the funds somehow, doctor. I’ll repay you, but… I might have to repay you gradually, if that’s alright.”

Doctor Banner shakes his head, just as he had before, “No, no. You should know, Mr Stark offered to cover any fees required of you.”

Steve’s so shocked that he drops Doctor Banner’s hands from his, “No, I can’t let him do that.”

The doctor cuts him off with a kind hand, “Please, Mr Rogers. Let him.”

And Steve, well- he looks over at his mother, laying sickly in her bed, and- they need the money, they really do. The crops have been declining steadily with every passing year, and Steve’s sure that if his mother were to have another episode, he wouldn’t be able to afford the medical fees. Slowly, he nods. “Okay,” He agrees, voice quiet, “That’s very generous of him.” Steve doesn’t miss the shy, maybe even sly, smile that appears on Doctor Banner’s lips, “Yes,” He agrees, tone serious as he holds onto the strap of his bag with two hands, “It was very generous of him.”

Doctor Banner presses a bottle of pills into Steve’s hand and nods one last time, “Make sure she takes one of these twice a day with meals. Have a good day, Mr Rogers.”

And Steve is left in his family home, wondering what he ever did to deserve this sort of generosity, and already mentally planning how to pay Mr Stark back for such magnanimity.

Steve returns to Stark Manor the next day, armed with the freshest eggs his estate had to offer. When he knocks on the door, he reacts to the servant gentlemen with a much kinder smiler and much slower attitude than he had the day before. The leader among them looks down at Steve at the bottom of the stoop from the top of his long nose.

“Your business?” The dutiful servant, choked off at the neck by his strict cravate.

Steve indicates his basket, “I’ve come to thank Mr Stark for his generosity.”

The servant appears dubious of Steve’s attentions, watching him for a moment longer than he would ever dare if Steve was closer to Mr Stark’s sect, or even if he had the education of Doctor Banner, but after a moment he nods and steps aside, “Very well. I shall bring you to him.”

Steve is as courteous as possible- to the doormen, the lined-up butlers, the milk maids scurrying in the background. He tries to effuse his gratitude in every way possible.

“JARVIS? I thought I told you not to-“

“Sir, you have a visitor. Mr Rogers.”

“Oh.”

Steve hears a quill being set down, a faint fluttering of parchment, some sort of frantic movement, then- “Very well. Send him in.”

When JARVIS steps back into the hallway, his expression has changed into something more fond and knowing, and he nods at Steve and opens the opulent door the rest of the way so Steve can enter Mr Stark’s office.

“Mr Rogers,” Mr Stark says. He’s leaning against the edge of his desk, “Welcome. What can I do for you?”

Steve carefully sets down the basket, “I wanted to thank you. Doctor Banner told me you offered to cover the charges for my mother’s medical bills. With her ill health- your generous aid helped tremendously. Thank you, sir.”

Mr Stark’s smile appears strained, like he’s holding something back or in or barring unwanton thoughts from entry. He taps idly at the wooden desktop with the tip of his quill.

Steve himself is struck within the silence by the opulence of the room, but also by Mr Stark’s expression, the careful lilt of his eyes, the soft, pink curves of his lips. Tony Stark exudes wealth and grace, and Steve can’t seem to look away. He knows Mr Stark sees it when he gulps.

“There’s not much I can offer in return,” Steve admits sheepishly, “But if there’s anything I can ever do to thank you, Mr Stark, I’ll be happy to do it.”

Steve can physically feel Stark’s appraising gaze, the wellbred man leaning back wolfishly in his chair, a knowing grin meeting his lips. He passed the feathered quill from one hand to the other.

“Dine with me,” He says eventually, his voice flooded with the command of a man used to getting his way, “That’s all I want in return.”

Steve’s shock is no doubt evident on his face, especially if the laugh that sprouts from Mr Stark’s lips is any indication.

“Is that really all you ask for?”

Mr Stark looks like he wants to ask for a million things more, a man accustomed to opulence and luxury. He has the whole wide world at his fingertips, and all he wants is for Steve to dine with him one evening. He nods affirmatively.

“Just one evening, that’s all I ask.”

Slowly, Steve nods, “Very well. I am at your discretion. Whenever you ask in the future, I’ll dine with you, sir.”

Mr Stark smiles, and Steve is struck by how elegant it is, the manner of it different from any other smile he’s ever seen. Steve finds himself eager to dine with this man.

“I look forward to it, Mr Rogers,” Stark returns, placing a pair of bifocals over the bridge of his nose, “Now if you’ll excuse me, I have work to do.”

If an evening dining with Mr Stark is all Steve is owed, he is happy to pay it. He’d be happy to dine with Mr Stark every night for a year, two years, if that was what was asked of him. But one night? Steve eagerly awaits it and hopes it stretches on forever.

[themosleyreview]

The Mosley Review: Star Wars: The Mandalorian (Season 1)

For the longest time, the beloved Star Wars franchise was left in an uncertain spot of where it would go after the current and divisive Sequel trilogy. This new era of the franchise began in a strong and familiar place, went down a bumpy and different path, then ended on such a sour note that it seemed that there was no hope of recovery. The franchise was stained with too many mistakes with the wrong people in charge of the creative storytelling. Even the most hardcore of fans would agree that this was a new dark age for the franchise. That age of darkness came swiftly to an end once the gate keepers gave the keys to a team that studied what George Lucas had created and learned from it. This team knew that to make Star Wars great again, it would mean not doing something familiar, but rather something that is unexpected, new and expanding of the things that inspired the original creator. Jon Favreau got together with Lucas’ apprentice, Dave Filoni, and they got to work in creating the greatness that this series has become. Their love for this universe and the knowledge they've obtained over the years has culminated into this amazing achievement in storytelling. The spaghetti western, sci-fi fantasy and scaled down tones were expertly portrayed throughout the season and you feel the love and respect for what has come before it in every frame. From the first badass bar fight scene to the last shot of the season, this show is the shining example of what happens when you let the right hands take over the reins.

The cast across the entire season was top notch and fantastic all around. Pedro Pascal stars as The Mandalorian and he is every bit the Clint Eastwood "Man With No Name" type of hero I love. I love his determination, cold and almost humorless take on such a dangerous part of the galaxy. Even though his face is covered, he still emotes in the subtle art of body language and vocal tones. Every head tilt or change in speed or tone in his voice made you pay attention to every choice he was about to make. Carl Weathers was cool and commanding as the leader of the Bounty Hunter's Guild Greef Karga. Carl's charm and wit is on full display and he was a welcomed jovial spirit. The scenes between him and the Mandalorian carry so much weight and lighten the mood for a time. Nick Nolte voices the character Kuiil and he brings such wisdom and warmth to the screen. I liked that we delve into his history of indentured service to the Galactic Empire and how he got his freedom. Gina Carano was awesome and stunning as the former Rebel Shocktrooper Cara Dune. She has greatly improved as an actress and she is truly in her element. She natural plays Cara with such confidence and doesn't come off as arrogant as other would be female heroines. I loved seeing her fight and there is so much more to explore with her. Taika Waititi is always been a talented and hilarious actor and storyteller. As IG-11, he brings to life one of the most dangerous and terrifying hunter droids in Star Wars lore with such gusto. His dry and sometimes lifeless vocal performance gives such off an ominous tone, but by the end he penetrates your heart. I had more of an emotional attachment to this droid in one episode, then any of the other droids that have been introduced in the Sequel trilogy.

The villains and scoundrels of the series were on par with heroes as far talent goes. Werner Herzog was truly outstanding and chilling as an ex-imperial officer that goes by the name The Client. The amount of gravitas Werner brings to a scene is beyond understated and his scenes with the Mandalorian are the most tense and tonally satisfying. You feel the looming power of the Empire and the history of oppression behind his every word. Bill Burr joins the franchise as fellow bounty hunter and rogue as Migs Mayfeld. I loved his wise cracks, sarcastic and smart ass attitude. He was a perfect addition to the show and I want more of him. Natalia Tena was cool as an evil Twi'lek and I liked that there was a history between her and the Mandalorian. There's always a brute in every team and Clancy Brown was just that as the Devaronian Burg. It’s always good to see Clancy on screen and he was so much fun. Ming-Na Wen plays the assassin Fennec Shand and she was as deadly as she is beautiful. There is a mystery behind her eyes and I really wanted to explore her more. The main antagonist of the season was proof that this series is dealing with the remnants of the Empire that are still spread across the galaxy. Giancarlo Esposito was brilliant and intimidating as Moff Gideon. There is a level regalness and intelligence once he steps on screen. He is the face of the Empire and I can't wait to see more of his cunning plans come to life.

John Williams will always be the blueprint of how Star Wars music should sound. I was delighted to see that one of my new favorite composers, Ludwig Goransson, was behind the music. This series required a new and original sound that didn't sound like anything of the past. Ludwig brought his magic to the score and every bit of it is now iconic and beloved. I liked that it was somewhat tribal and electronic while still keeping the classical elements intact. Ludwig's score throughout the series is now up there with Williams as the best music Star Wars has ever had. Visually this show is stunning in every way. From the molten landscape of Nevarro to the lushes greens of Sorgan, every location has something to marvel at. The use of more practical effects and makeup are always appreciated and it makes each character and world all the more tangible. Jon Favearu and Dave Filoni have come together and crafted such a great story that is filled to the brim with exploration, adaptation and surprises that will blow the doors off to what is possible in this franchise. They are the hand that reached out and saved Star Wars from the Sarlacc pit it was being swallowed into. If you are a hardcore, moderate or even casual fan of Star Wars and you feel that the franchise is dead, fear not! There is still life to be had. This is the best Star Wars story to date and a must watch for all! Season 1 is currently streaming on Disney+ and if you liked the show or my review, let me know in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

[sallowhillshq]

EVENT 002: my bloody valentine CLUE DROP 003: suspect information

official suspect list:  abby anderson, adrian tepes,  armitage hux, baz grimm-pitch, link faron, michael langdon, sam giddings, victor zsasz

trigger warning for this clue drop: various criminal activities mentioned, such as murder. 

This wasn’t the worst this day could go. There could be multiple bodies across multiple streets, or all of Market Street could be blown to bits of cobblestone and wiring. They had been lucky, incredibly lucky, to only end up with one tiny, fairly contained disaster. Yet Armes was doubting how long they could continue to contain this disaster, with the clamoring of upset townsfolk directly outside her office window. 

Soon, this would no longer be her problem. Soon, this would entirely become  Ms. Kane and Ms. Brown’s problem. Armes would let them do the job they were created for as she dealt with the more clandestine issues of the town that required her direct supervision. 

Speaking of Ms. Kane and Ms. Brown,  the two sat in her office now.   They were professional,  clearly.   If they thought they could hide their training,  they were clearly mistaken.  Which is why they would be perfect for taking over the disaster.

“I’ve created a starting point of sorts, for our suspects,” Armes passed two identical lists to her newly crowned investigators. “Those I didn’t see at the dance who have violent proclivities in their pasts.”

“Arthur didn’t do it. He wouldn’t- get off me, Kate-” The blonde one, Ms. Brown, shrugged off Ms. Kane’s hand that had been placed lightly on her shoulder. “I get he had to do some bad shit in his past. Trust me, I get it. But he was a king in a time people were killing each other left and right for fun. He’s not like that anymore.”

“He was what?”  Ms. Kane interrupted her younger companion.

“A king, Kate. I thought I told you?”

“This is the first time I’m hearing about this,  but we can talk about it later.”

It seems, Ms. Brown is in trouble with her elder. 

“And anyways,” Ms. Brown’s face turned smug in a way Armes had only seen cats look before. “Arthur was passed out on our couch this morning with Merlin on top of him. I bet they haven’t moved, if you want to go check.”

“Ah, no. I’ll take your word for it. Arthur Pendragon is no longer a suspect,” Armes slashed through his name with red ink. “Abby Anderson, then?”

“I ran into her in the park recently.  If she did this,  it wasn’t her intent but rather her instinct protecting her.  I say we check,  but if it was her - we proceed gently,” Ms. Kane said.   An intelligent response.   They’ll be good for the investigation.  

“Seconded! And same with Sam Giddings. She’s kinda rough around the edges but I know her friend and it wouldn’t be because of any maliciousness,” Ms. Brown practically shrieked. 

Armes was starting to wish this list was far smaller, just so Ms. Brown could leave her office sooner. She was too old to be dealing with overgrown teenagers like this. 

“For our local vampires, every single one is a suspect. We haven’t had the best of luck with them, I’m sure you both remember how Halloween turned out,” Armes fixed them both with a look that had sent her best researchers running for the hills. Best to strike the fear of the gods into them, especially the young one. 

“It’s hard to forget,” Ms. Kane muttered under her breath.

“Baz Grimm-Pitch and Adrian Tepes are the two vampires we should look out for, they both have people in town willing to lie for them,” Armes continued. 

Ms. Brown, as always, decided to chime in at an inopportune moment. “Isn’t Adrian Tepes the weird guy who lives in a creepy log cabin out in the woods?” 

“No, Mr. Tepes lives in a castle out in the woods,” Armes said. “Link Faron is the one in the log cabin, who is also on our list. He has a violent history, starting at as young as ten years of age. Slaughter, trauma-”

“I don’t think we need his entire resume, Ms. Sallow,”  Ms. Kane interjected.   I suppose I’ll forgive it this once.

Ms. Brown made a small “oh” sound, suddenly very interested in the sheet of paper in her hands. Good. Perhaps now the blonde would allow them all to carry on with the investigation uninterrupted.”

“Armitage Hux.  Sounds like a rogue name, but who is he?”  Ms. Kane,  good with moving the conversation along clearly.

“A trouble-maker,” Armes had no patience for those of Mr. Hux’s background. She’d seen the effect his kind had on the world and was not keen to see one of them wreck havoc on her town. 

“He works for the Research Center, correct?” Ms. Kane asked,  though it seemed like she already knew the answer to that and was satisfied with it.

“Yes. One of the few there I could never get a handle on.” 

Armes let her eyes trail down the list again. If it were up to her, none of them would even be in Sallow Hills. They were all trouble-makers, even the two in front of her. Pulled from their different worlds to be a direct cause of Armes’ migraines. She had her own issues to deal with, with the original townspeople. Until her researchers discovered the secret to the barrier, Armes was slated to deal with all of the newcomers and all the disasters they brought with them. 

“And Damien Thorn? Why is he clumped together with Michael Langdon and Lucifer Morningstar?” Ms. Brown asked, voice finally at a reasonable volume. 

“Lucifer, while an annoyance, I doubt would pull something like this.  He’s smarter than leaving a dead body where anyone could see,” Ms. Kane said.

“While Mr. Morningstar is a hindrance at his worst, we can’t deny the… demonic parentage of the former two. And how that parentage may be Mr. Morningstar,” Armes coughed. She never did like talking about their kind either. 

“You’re kidding right? The actual Antichrist exists and there might just be two of them walking around?! Was anyone going to say anything about that?” And there it was, Ms. Brown back to her usual, screeching volume. “And you think Damien Thorn, the same Damien Thorn who was cleaning up broken beer bottles in the Community Center, is one of them? I don’t think he would even kill a fly with his own life on the line.”

“We can take Mr. Thorn off if it upsets you so dearly. Mr. Morningstar too, however I fear he may take that as an insult.” Pick your battles, Armes. 

“Well I agree with the Langdon kid.  He looks like the cult type.”  The way it was bit out by Ms. Kane,  Armes suspected there was some … resentment between the vigilante and cults.  Ms. Brown nodded along,  clearly also having some experience with cult things.

“If he didn’t want us to think he was a cult leader, he wouldn’t look so much like a cult leader.” Such a bitter statement, for one as young as Ms. Brown. “And with how specific some of the vic’s wounds are, it could be an initiation killing.” 

Oh joy, a cult. This would have never happened had all the newcomers not been here.  Cults! In her town!

“Speaking of cults,” Ms. Brown piped up again. “The Winchester guy, doesn’t he feel a little ex-culty to you? Very secretive, ‘we protect our own’, and the sheer amount of supposedly hidden weapons I’ve seen them carry. I don’t know, they seem like cult members.”

“I’ve seen him, Sam?, at the library.  He seems focused on that - and on the head librarian Will.   Troubled past, maybe, but not the ‘murder right now’ type,” Ms. Kane added in.  “But didn’t he hang around at Zsasz’s shop?”

“He did, which doesn’t help him in the slightest. Victor Zsasz was actually one of the first I put on that list, along with Michael Myers. Along with Oswald Cobblepot, all of them are-”

“It’s not Oswald!” And now Ms. Brown was standing, hands slammed down on Armes’ desk. There was a hostility to her, one that Armes found she did not like one bit. “He doesn’t even remember Gotham, there’s no way he could still remember how to be a professional killer. I can’t believe you would try and bring up a past he doesn’t even know about against him!”

Was this depth coming from Ms. Brown? The blonde was holding back tears, face contorted into something twisted and tense. It was clear she had a history with Mr. Cobblepot, a familial bond even. Armes had struck a nerve that ran deep. She was about to speak, but decided that a thinly veiled, scathing remark was not the proper response. 

“We’re taking the Bird off the list.  Michael - he’s done nothing more than creep some people out around town.  And you have here that the fingerprints were cut off.  Do you think he knew how to do that?”  Ms. Kane stopped the younger one from going off again,  which was a blessing really.

“Take Oswald off. Or Kate and I leave. Have fun figuring out how to deal with a potential serial killer on your own,” Ms. Brown said through gritted teeth. 

Armes gave a sigh that spoke of her long, long years of life. Hand reaching to scratch out two more names in brilliant red ink, she couldn’t believe she was bending before someone who was only a few years out of childhood. 

“Mr. Cobblepot and Mr. Myers are off. Are we done here, or is there going to be another tantrum over a criminal?” 

Ms. Kane stood at that,  tucking her list into a case she had brought with her.  “I think we’re done, Ms. Sallow.  And I’d prefer if you not insult either of us if you want us to help you.  Steph, ready?”

Armes watched as Ms. Brown gathered up the crime scene photographs and suspect lists into a folder, eyes hard. Daring Armes to pick a fight. What a child. Armes waved the two off, watching as the younger closed her office door with a slam that rattled the hinges. If those two were ever in her office again, it would be too soon. 

Her hands reorganized the mess littering her desk, reaching out for the latest report on the barrier. Finally, she could focus on the issues plaguing the real townspeople.

[concealeddarkness13]

Another Bring Me That Horizon Powerpoint!

Since I have made so many more characters for this story, I decided to make a Powerpoint for these characters! Here is the first Powerpoint, and here, here, and here are other posts about this story. Tagging: @ratracechronicler, @merigreenleaf, and @maple-writes! Also tagging: @incandescent-creativity​, since this is a Powerpoint!

[Image Description: A title page titled: Bring Me That Horizon Extra Characters!

AKA: I love making characters too much. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Tess

One of the pirates

She’s married to Raian

She’s the same age as Triel and Nesri, but they still act like she’s old because she’s married

Smokes and drinks and has amazing advice

She’s the reason why Shine has the sign on the engine room door that tells no one to come in unless it’s an emergency

One time, one of the engines wasn’t working, and Shine wasn’t there, so she went into the engine room and pounded on random machines with a wrench

Needless to say, that didn’t work

Raian and Tess have one brain cell between them, and Raian hogs it. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Raian

One of the pirates

Married to Tess

One of the calmest people in the world; nothing surprises him

One of the most reliable pirates, fighting for the most reliable with Shine

He’s the one who normally stays behind with the ship when everyone else is out on a mission. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Captain Reeves

She’s the pirate captain who raised Triel

Her full name is Theria Reeves

She looks like she could snap someone in half, and she prefers to shoot first, ask questions later

But she’s actually got a very strategic mind, so she knows when a situation requires someone else with different talents

She chooses her crew based on their different skill sets

Gruff, normally isn’t ver touchy feely

But she lets Triel hug her whenever she wants

Captain Reeves has a parrot she has called (unironically) Mini Reeves

That parrot sasses whoever talks to Captain Reeves who is not part of the pirate crew

She taught Triel to fight. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Graem

He’s the first mate in Captain Reeves’s pirate crew

He also looks like he could snap someone in half, but his specialties lie in manipulation and lying

It’s hard for his crew to even tell when he’s lying

Triel learned everything she knows from him

He’s pretty laid back and jovial. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Kiryth

He works for the navy for the government

After the pirates capture Lynne, the rulers tell the navy to be on high alert for the pirates to rescue Lynne

He’s on the ship of the group that pursues Triel’s crew the most

And it doesn’t help that he is Nesri’s ex boyfriend

They still love each other, but they both agreed it wouldn’t work

He’s horrible at lying, and he’s a little naive

He has a crooked smile that makes Nesri melt

He probably has the most sympathetic feelings for the pirates on his navy ship. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Captain Ladras

She is the captain of the navy ship that Kiryth is on

Her full name is Nevir Ladras, but everyone on her ship just calls her Captain Ladras

Few people call her by her first name

She is strict and follows orders complete

She doesn’t really get sarcasm, she’s no-nonsense

Everyone on her crew respects her, she’s not afraid to do what would be considered “lowly” jobs (such as cleaning the deck, kitchen duty, etc.)

Her parents wanted her to be a guard for the royal family, not a naval officer, mostly because they wanted her to catch the eyes of Prince Alastair and elevate her family’s prestige

In her one rebellious act, she refused, and she even got a tattoo rebelliously too (not a small tattoo, this one spans her shoulders and upper back and is a tattoo of the sunset on the water)

She’s badass and has never failed a mission. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Gideon

The information specialist on Lira’s thief team

He actually won’t be on Lira’s team most of the story because Lynne’s adoptive parents hired him to personally find Lynne and bring her back

He grins all the time, he loves the thrill of the hunt

He knows everything about everyone: at one point he’s going to have an information-off against Triel

He’s very friendly, and he compliments his opponents

He actually knows Shine’s sign language, so he interacts with them (rivals to friends to possibly lovers perhaps?)

Just a lot of fun; he isn’t a jerk. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Espen

The weapons specialist in Lira’s team

She buys weapons, makes them better, and resells them for an expensive price

She will talk about weapons for hours to anyone who will listen

I don’t know tons about her, but she’s a dork

She’s small, but if there was a scene where the thief team has to surrender all their weapons, she would be there the whole time, giving up increasingly ridiculous weapons. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Vaia

She’s the leader of Lira’s thief team

She has to keep this ragtag team together somehow

Too tired for this

But she’ll never miss the chance to pickpocket someone

She’s the one who decides to take the request to steal a person with the glowy magic, and she accepted because it hadn’t been done before

Ambitious. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Kallias

He was born with a father who has the glowy magic and a mother who does not

So, he has diluted glowy magic

His mom put him up for adoption anonymously so that she could protect him and his father

He started showing his diluted magic around five years old, and his adoptive parents (who think that the Shades are wonderful) contacted the Shades, and they took him up to the top layer

They were furious that he had diluted glowy magic without their say, so they tormented him

Since he’s not easily controlled, they decided to wear him out instead: they pushed more magic into him and forced him to crystallize the blood and other fluids in his arms, and then they cut off his arms, so that he can only use his arms when he activates his magic (which drains his strength); the crystals are embedded in his muscles on his shoulders, so it would be too painful to take away the crystals completely

The Shades called him monster or boy until one of the shades (Meras) decided to call him Kallias (which means beauty)

Tired 24/7

Will fight you 24/7

Survivor

Thrives on sarcasm

Would probably fight you if you hugged him, but he needs one. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Lev

She is a scientist who is employed by the royal family to research the glowy magic and figure out how it works so that they can lessen their dependence on the Shades

She’s a little too excited about the prospect of studying the magic, and she doesn’t care about ethics

Since the Shades are watching everything, she has to be careful about how she studies the magic, so she hasn’t gotten very far

She only contracts out one person with the glowy magic for a few days to perform experiments

But she has the brilliant idea to use her son (Vani, his father is another scientist: he is not married to Lev, but they do love each other; unfortunately, Lev’s love for Vani only stems from how useful he could be in her experiments)

She somehow convinces the Shades to take Vani, give him the magic, and when he comes back, she contracts him out for a lot longer, under the excuse that he is her beloved son

Instead, she’s just going to use all her tests on him

Very devoted to her work, forgets to eat if she’s too engrossed. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Vani

He’s Lev’s son, but she didn’t raise him with love, so he doesn’t really care about her

She used him to test the glowy magic, but a week into the tests after she contracted him out, he escapes from her

He’s pissed off, and he wants to fight the Shades and his mom

While he’s wandering, trying to come up with some kind of plan, he stumbles upon a small group of mosquagons (mosquito sized dragons), and he protects them (they have been hunted by the Shades for years, so they’re almost extinct; they can give people with the glowy magic elemental magic as well, and they eat the crystals the people with the glowy magic make)

He gets lightning magic from a mosquagon

He will protect his mosquagon with his life

He pretends like he doesn’t care about anyone, but he actually does; it’s just hard to find

The protagonists will randomly run into him during their journey. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Churi

One of the Shades: he is an important Shade

Cocky and thinks he’s better than everyone else and is always one step ahead of everyone (at least he thinks so, and he is usually right about that)

Smirks at everyone because he’s better than them

He especially tormented Nesri, and he will also given Lynne special attention

Thinks of the people with the glowy magic as the Shades’ property (actually they all do). End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Meras

Another one of the Shades

She especially tormented Kallias

She doesn’t really care about anyone unless she finds them pretty

And then she thinks she should be with them all the time

She won’t be as involved in the story as Churi, at least until Kallias escapes and becomes a pirate. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Lily

So, there will only be seven pirates on Triel’s crew

And Lily is one of them

She is always chilling in the crow’s nest; she loves being up high

She has a prosthetic arm and leg that Shine made for her; she stores knives and guns in them

Even so, she’s not really a fighter

Very quiet, but once she knows you, she’ll talk a lot more. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Tauren

He’s part of Triel’s crew

He’s a shoot first, ask questions later kind of dude

He hates the Shades because his twin brother was taken by them

His parents condemned him, saying that he should have tried to trade for his twin brother because Tauren’s the “useless one”

He ran away and joined Triel’s crew, but he does want to try and help his brother, if he can

Quiet, broody, Nesri forces him to spar with her as often as possible

And he beats her about 75% of the time. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Iri

He is the person who raised Lynne on the streets

He named Lynne Microburst, and she ran with the weather-related names and named him Strongwinds (when she was four)

He is an information gatherer, but he’s not as good as his mom

He raised dozens of kids on the streets, so he has connections

One of those kids works for the navy (on the same ship as Kiryth), and he was able to let Iri on with the excuse that Iri knows Lynne best

And Iri went with the navy because he was worried about Lynne

He’s pretty serious. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Cahira

Iri’s mom

She is 70 years old and still kicking ass

She’s mostly an information gatherer, but she will fight anyone and win if she needs to

She’s mostly going to be working with Lira, her team, and Aster once the story gets going as they try to change the government enough to so they wouldn’t rely on the Shades anymore

The most emotionally stable character; you can rely on her for anything. End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Finn

He is Lira’s childhood friend who was taken by the Shades

After dealing with the Shades for so long, he’s learned to be nonchalant and just deal with whatever happens; he doesn’t try to fight back anymore and he’s forced himself to not care about anyone

That resolve does fade when he sees Lira while she’s trying to pretend to be the person her team stole

He’s normally contracted out to go on dates with people because he’s handsome

During their time together during Lira’s mission, they will both learn how to heal from what happened to them to make them so closed off to others. End Description]

[Image Description: A page titled: Billie

She is one of the people who has the living crystal magic that evolved from the regular glowy magic

She’s pretty average with the magic, but she specializes in poisons

She’s kind of a mom friend: if she sees someone who has low self esteem, she’ll bug them until they feel better about themselves

She wants to go fight the Shades and just ignore the prophecy (there’s a prophecy among the people with living crystal magic that says that a specific person will go defeat the Shades, but no one has completely fit the description yet). End Description]

[Image Description: A picture titled: Aylin

He is also one of the people with the living crystal magic

He fit the description of the prophecy for a while, and everyone thought he was the chosen one, but something happened, and now he doesn’t fit the description anymore

He feels awful about that, like he failed his people

He’s really good at the living crystal magic; he can even make a living crystal that can drain other living crystals of their lives

But he has super low self esteem (he already had low self esteem before he failed the prophecy)

That’s one of the reasons why Billie is his friend

Deep down, he still wants to go fight the Shades. End Description]

[atamascolily]

Still in Before the Storm. The Yevetha are really into isolationism, which I noticed because that was a big thing with my OP (original planet) Sawarra. Mostly the political stuff is boring and Leia keeps having her own personal crisis that mirrors Luke that just seems... out of place given where we are in the timeline. He retreats, she just keeps digging down. She’s being really naive about trusting the Yevetha and it’s so off. The plot requires she pick up the Idiot Ball, I guess.

Meanwhile, back in Luke-land...

Luke didn’t object in principle to FCZ regulations. They helped ensure that less experienced pilots in less capable ships made slow approaches to populated worlds and busy spacelanes. But he had never been subjected to a four-day realspace crawl just to leave Coruscant. He was accustomed to reaching for the hyperdrive moments after his ship cleared the atmosphere. Mud Sloth insisted on waiting until it had cleared the star system.

Which means he’s stuck in quarantine with Akanah, lol.

She did not force conversation on him, either idle or earnest. Nor did she make him feel as though he was being watched, that she was waiting for him to do something. Without his ever asking, she granted him the only kind of privacy available under the circumstances—the privacy of the mind and heart. She did not intrude there without his invitation, hiding her own needs and curiosity so perfectly that they seemed more like comfortable old friends than strangers.

This whole scene just reads differently in 2021, that’s all I’m saying.

Akanah practiced her Fallanassi craft in silence behind the drawn curtain of the sleeper, and stripped to a body-hugging monoskin to exercise only when it was Luke’s turn in the zippered bunkbag. She even politely ignored him when he made both discoveries, making it unnecessary for him to apologize, or for her to explain.

LOL.

“Tagge—I remember now,” said Luke. “He was on the first Death Star when Leia was a prisoner.” He paused, then added, “He was probably still on board when my proton torpedo blew it to bits.”

I’m skeptical why Luke would know this off the top of his head a decade later, but okay. Like me, Akanah is not impressed:

Luke didn’t know what possessed him to make that claim before Akanah, and her response made him feel even more foolish for having done so. She stiffened as he spoke, and he could feel her withdrawing from him, though she barely moved.

“Do you seek honor from me for this? In time you will understand that the Fallanassi honor no heroes for killing, not even killing one who has been our tormentor,” said Akanah.

“I’m sorry,” Luke said, and wondered at his own words. Everything suddenly seemed upside down. It was strange and unsettling that the deed for which he had been so lionized now became touched with regret—regret over the killing of an enemy who had been his own sister’s tormentor. That moment had decided both his future and the galaxy’s, and he had never, in all the years since, questioned the rightness of what he had done.

Really? Never in a moment questioned it? I’m so skeptical. Seems like this would have come up when Kyp destroyed Carida, if nothing else, given the DIRECT PARALLELS. Sigh.

Akanah’s story is really complicated and I’m not sure it’s necessary?

“Lady Anna!” Akanah said when they enjoyed the privacy of the road, jolting along in one of the big-wheeled, two-seated utility vehicles common on Lucazec. “I like that. And what shall I call you? The Duke of Skye?”

“I’d prefer not to give any name at all,” said Luke. “I’d rather anyone we meet not quite be able to recall my face, or remember my name, as though they were too distracted by you to pay attention.”

“The Duke of Skye,” LOLOLOL.

this whole book is about wild goose chases - Luke and Lando and Han are all off in different directions, looking for different things, most of which don’t actually exist. 

Luke slices an attacker’s arm off. Somehow he manages to disable the comlink on the dude’s belt with the tip of his lightsaber without doing any further damage. I am skeptical about the mechanics of this. Akanah is pissed, and Luke’s just like, “what?” without acknowledging the gravity of what he’s done.

“Let go of the Force,” she said. “It can’t help you in this. You’ve trained yourself to see the shadows. Let yourself see the light.”

I don’t understand how the White Current is different, exactly from the Force. Maybe it’ll be more clear later on in the book?

“Let me help,” she said, taking his hand. “Do you perceive the wall?”

“Yes—”

“Take it away. Stop perceiving the substance. Make it disappear from your thoughts, and look inside it. Stay open—let me guide your eyes.”

Then he saw it—not written on the wall, but written within it, the pale white shapes of symbols drawn not with matter, but with some elemental essence swirling within it.

“Is that it?” he asked, as though she could not only guide his eyes but see through them.

Also, this:

Not long after, back in the ruins of the village of Ialtra, the bodies of two dead Imperial agents merged with the shadows that had enveloped them, and vanished as though they had never been.

they were illusions the whole time, so I guess we don’t have to feel bad that they “died” at Luke’s hands, and maybe talk about ethical issues?

Anyway, that’s it for Luke in this book. The rest is just political shenanigans as the Yevetha start slaughtering people. Ackbar, Drayson and the NR military officers seem to be the only ones not holding the Idiot Ball here. And there’s that obsession with duality, with only two choices again:

“Who do you answer to?”

“The same as you do, Princess—the same as anyone at our level does,” Drayson said. “I answer to my conscience and my sense of duty. And yes, if either ever fails us, we can do a great deal of harm—and probably hide most of it, too. But that’s all there is, isn’t it? Conscience or obedience. Leader or follower. Whose orders do you obey?”

Also, Nil Spaar weaponizes Leia’s heritage against her, which seems like... maybe something that should have been addressed before now? Otherwise, why should anyone take it seriously?

ughhhh, what a mess. There’s nothing that makes the Yevetha particularly interesting or compelling villains and it’s hard to care about my faves when they keep acting so OOC.

[tallmadgeandtea]

O Zion Arise

Hi everyone! So, this scene is a bit different because it’s actually from Benjamin’s POV instead of Elizabeth’s. This is one of the only scenes I wrote from his perspective that I am actually proud of. Like the last one, this scene takes place after the events of May 1778 and features what I love most about Benjamin and Elizabeth’s relationship: the softness they have for one another. The title is taken from my favorite Shaker song/hymn. I hope you enjoy! 

SS&SP Spoilers under the cut!

It was morning.

He could tell from the light coming in through the windows in front of him, the curtains slightly drawn open, only letting in a partial amount. The light was becoming brighter as the month came closer to ending, as June slowly approached. It was getting lighter earlier, the light was lasting longer. 

He desperately needed it, held onto it, let it guide him. Light was what he used to tell time, now. Light reminded him where he was, light let him see whether it was morning or nighttime and everything in between. There was no clock in the room where he was staying, the room where he was being kept. And he didn’t have a watch to wear in the first place. 

The sun was always the weakest, the most restrained, in the morning. It was slowly waking, rising, letting itself be seen. It had been used to being hidden, to sleeping. It would take time for it to regain consciousness, energy. It would take time for it to appear the way it always did, the way it was meant to.

The same could go for you, he thought.

He was always weakest in the morning.

He was always weakest in the morning, when his body tore him from the comfort of sleep- as if a comfortable sleep existed, as if he ever had it. He wasn’t looking for comfort, even if he needed it, even if he craved it. He was looking for rest. Rest was what he needed the most, rest was what was required and what was never given to him- until now, when it seemed to be endless, the only thing he was given, the only thing he was allowed. 

Everything else had been taken away. 

Nothing had been given back to him.

He was always weakest in the morning, and in the evening.

After the morning came the slow hours, the hours when all he could do was lay in wait, like a hound waiting for the next hunt. That was what he did, all day- he waited. He waited for Elizabeth to wake up, to bring him a meager breakfast of broth or tea- they hadn’t said when he was allowed solid food. 

He waited for McHenry to come and exam him for the first time that day, to help him sit up straight so he could change the bandages, so he could inspect the damage done, as if he hadn’t seen it countless times before. He sat in silence as the doctor concentrated, his fingers moving over each inch of the wound with a trained, acquired precision. He tried carefully, but the sting and soreness never went away, triggered like a canon whenever the wound was touched. Even the slightest movement made him close his eyes, bite his lip to suppress a groan or a moan or worse, a scream. His voice was slowly returning, but he wouldn’t let himself.

You have screamed enough. This house does not need more chaos. This house does not need more pain.

And what about me? He asked.

His mind never answered. 

“I’m sorry, Benjamin,” McHenry would say, his voice steady and calm. He had become used to saying the words. “I assure you the pain and the soreness will not last as long as you think they will. It never does.”

He just wanted it to be over.

He just wanted to be healed.

After McHenry came the visitors, the well wishers. He hated every one of them, muttered a swear under his breath each time the door was opened. He couldn’t send them away, couldn’t hide in shame. 

Why did they want to see him like this? 

His fellow aides, each one, it seemed, at a different hour of the day, peeking through the door. No one of them had entered the room, they only gripped onto the doorway for a brief few moments. They only made small talk- talk of what was happening downstairs, things Elizabeth couldn’t tell him. Talk of the general orders for the day, of the letters being sent out, of the latest developments in camp. Only Hamilton talked the longest, the most in depth. He had been given the burden of managing the ring while Benjamin recovered. He couldn’t tell if Hamilton loved it, or hated it. 

His Dragoons came, too, all of them in one large group, a single unit taking up too much space in the hallway. They all talked at once, quickly, as if they couldn’t wait to get back into camp and leave him behind. “We are so glad to see you recovering, sir. It will only be a matter of time before we- and you, as well, god willing- return to the field, sir.” They looked at him as if they didn’t know him, as if he wasn’t their commander, their leader. 

You do not look like a leader, you look like a body in a bed. You look small and weak and fragile, feeble.

You look as if you are dying.

You were.

Caleb was the only welcome one. He stepped into the room whenever he pleased, without a knock or someone introducing him- that was another thing Benjamin hated about these visits. People being introduced by one of the aides or life guards or Elizabeth. “Benjamin, someone is here to see you.” As if he could reject it. 

General Washington must have felt that way constantly.  

But not Caleb. Although he didn’t kick the door open and strut in the way Benjamin expected, he came in the room regardless, without asking. He entered slowly, always asked the same question, “Are you sleeping, Benny boy? I don’t want to interrupt you dreaming of dear Lizzie.” 

And then he walked over to the chair directly by Benjamin’s bedside, reclining and rocking as if they were sitting in Benjamin’s tent. It felt normal, almost. Caleb’s presence was welcoming and comforting. Besides McHenry, Caleb had helped him where Elizabeth couldn’t. He had shaved him, for God’s sake.

He stayed for as long as he could, talking away, about what was happening in camp, but more importantly, what was happening with the ring. 

“Do Abe and Anna know?” He had asked. “Do they know what happened?”

He couldn’t say the last part.

Do they know what happened to me?

“I haven’t seen the chance to see either of them,” Caleb responded. “The last time I saw Abe was when I was trying to get him out of prison. If he doesn’t know, neither does Anna.”

Elizabeth had written a letter to his father, explaining what happened. After he made it, after he was out of the woods.

His reply had yet to arrive.

And when Caleb wasn’t there, it was the people Benjamin wanted to see the least. 

It was the officers, the superiors, who came to see General Washington and decided to stop by before they left. General Greene, General Knox, all of them.  They all knew what happened- they had been in the house, during the worst of it. Greene must’ve seen and heard it, the entire ordeal, from his quarters. 

Even General Arnold had stopped by, for an uncomfortable moment; Colonel Sheldon saw him as soon as he rode into camp. 

Officers, who should he should have been able to stand for, who he should’ve saluted. 

Instead, all he could give them was a nod. 

His aching body wouldn’t let him do anything else.

And then, the evening came, and started to take away his strength. The strength he had left. The strength he spent waiting and seeing and hearing and trying to heal. Healing took the most of it. Healing was greedy. 

And with the evening came General Washington. 

He ate his dinners in Benjamin’s room.

At Benjamin’s bedside, the same way he did the first night, the night after he woke, the night he came back to life.

They barely talked- Washington ate and watched him. Washington hovered. He asked if Benjamin needed anything, if there was anything he could do for him, if there was any way he could help. If he needed to see someone, if Washington needed to summon McHenry or Cochran immediately. If he wanted medicine, if he wanted his pain erased by laudanum. “Just say the words, and I will see it done, Benjamin.”

“You have given me enough, sir.”

He didn’t want anything else.

And if he did want something, Washington couldn’t give it to him. 

No matter how badly he wanted to.

He left when it was clear Benjamin was declining, when it was clear he was fading. He tried to hide it, keep up a facade, but it was impossible. His body fought him and won. 

Washington left, and Elizabeth took his place.

Elizabeth.

The person Benjamin wanted to see most of all. 

She had started to leave him, to spend her time outside of the room. She would go home, or she would be downstairs. He didn’t know whether she was trying to give him space, or if she was trying to pull herself away from him. Trying to ween herself off of him.

As soon as he got better, he would leave her.

He would leave, and they both knew it. 

But he loved the time of day when she appeared, closing the door. She closed the door, and shielded him from the world. She let him be alone, she let him decompress, collapse into the mattress and let his weary muscles relax, his weary muscles rest. When she was there, he didn’t have to worry about anyone seeing him. No aides, no officers, no generals, no Washington. He didn’t have to worry about anyone pitying him. 

She closed the door, and she closed the curtains, lit the candles. Then, she got undressed, put her clothes in a pile on the cot underneath the windows, the makeshift bed she had been using. And, when the room was quiet, when the only sounds were her footsteps and his heavy breathing, she walked over to the bed, and gently lay beside him.

They were finally allowed to sleep in the same bed.

With no worry, no secrecy, no guilt. 

She lay beside him, as gently as she could, more gently than he ever thought possible. It was the only requirement. “Be gentle with him,” McHenry had told her, as if Benjamin wasn’t there, as if he wasn’t listening. This was on the first night, after, apparently, McHenry had went to change the bandages and discovered Elizabeth sleeping beside him. 

And gentle she was.

He hadn’t realized how much he missed her, how much he missed feeling her body against his, feeling her soft, warm touch. Her touch was the only thing that could take the pain away. The stinging and the soreness, the soul crushing weight. It was a fire on a cold night, the sea on a summer day. A relieving gift, a thing you could never take for granted. A thing you remembered, a thing you cherished.

She was the only one who could take the pain away.

She was the only one who could heal him.

Elizabeth.

It was morning, and she wasn’t there.

It was morning, and she wasn’t beside him.

It was morning, and he was in pain.

He was always in pain. 

He just wanted to heal.

He just wanted her.

Benjamin opened his eyes, waited for the world to become clear.

And then, he found her.

She was sitting at the vanity, sitting in front of him, between the two windows, between the sunlight, in the still, partial darkness of dawn. He could barely see himself in the candlelight, laying behind her in the mirror. He could barely see her- see her face. All he saw was the outline of her body, her shape as she moved in place. 

All he could do was watch her.

He was content with that.

It was morning, and he was watching Elizabeth.

The silence was swiftly- but softly- broken.

Elizabeth was singing.

She was singing to herself, under her breath, barely above a whisper, and he almost didn’t hear it. It was like a light breeze, overpowered by the sound of the birds chirping outside, the river running. The camp hadn’t come to life yet. The valley was still sleeping. 

She thought she was alone, that he was still sleeping, too. He was caught between sleep and restless, life and slumber. Before what had happened, before their lives were changed, he was the first one to rise in the morning. When he lied with her, he was awoken by Mary, every morning, every dawn. “You need to get back to camp, Major.” 

Before anyone could see him.

Before anyone could know.

He got ready in silence, in solitude, Mary waiting for him outside the door, handing him the reins of his horse and watching him ride down the long road back to life, back to the valley. 

He used to be the one waking alone.

He wished it was still him.

Elizabeth never stirred. 

Elizabeth was singing to herself.

She was singing a hymn.

A hymn, a psalm. He remembered it well. It was his father’s favorite. He tried to include it whenever he could in his sermons, in the Sunday worship. If he closed his eyes he knew he would see himself back in Setauket, sitting in the front pew on the right, watching his father proudly standing at the pulpit, preaching and praying.

Elizabeth sounded more beautiful than any chorus could. 

Her voice, as quiet as it was, was more beautiful than the lyrics of any hymn could ever be.

He believed in her more than a hymn, more than a prayer.

He loved her, as much as he loved God himself.

Elizabeth was singing a hymn. 

“Elizabeth,” he spoke for the first time that morning, and he couldn’t help it when her name came out in the form of a whisper, of a groan. 

The pain was always at its peak in the morning.

She turned, she looked over her shoulder. He saw the hairbrush, the blonde curls framing her face like a halo. She had been getting ready.

She had been getting ready to leave.

And then, he saw her smile. 

“Benjamin,” she said.

He heard her voice.

He heard her voice, and the pain was gone. 

“Come here,” he said. “Come here, and be near me.”

Please, he wanted to say. 

Elizabeth rose out of her chair, and in the darkness she looked as if she was in a dream, as if she had suddenly appeared, a vision of calmness and serenity in her shift, a vision of beauty, pure white. She looked like an angel. 

She stood over the bed, her fingers grabbing his outstretched hand. “Good morning,” she whispered. 

He leaned into her touch, pulling her closer. He wanted her closer- he needed her closer. 

He needed the pain to be taken away.

“Are you getting ready to leave me?” He heard himself, and realized how small his voice was. How helpless he sounded.

You are helpless.

And she was the only one who could save him. 

Elizabeth nodded. Her smile had changed. “Yes, but only if you want me to.”

“I don’t.”

Not when the pain was still clinging to him, not when he was at his lowest point, not while the sun was rising and he was falling. 

Not when he couldn’t heal by himself.

“Stay, Elizabeth. Please.”

He finally let himself say what he was always thinking.

And she always knew before he even had the chance to say it.

He felt the bed shift as another body joined him, the sheets tangling underneath him, the blankets being moved above him. 

“I’m here, Benjamin.”

He knew, because he could feel her touch.

The only touch that didn’t hurt.

The only touch that took away the pain instead of giving into it.

“Thank you, Elizabeth.”

She kissed his shoulder, found his hand, wrapped her fingers around it. “Get some rest, please.”

“Anything for you, my dear.”

He wanted to heal.

He wanted to heal for her.

“Anything for you, Elizabeth.”

[flowerfan2]

Group Texts Are Ridiculous (Or, Five-0 Starts a Group Text)

Somehow I managed to post Chapter 2 on A03 a few days ago without posting on tumblr... I’m not sure how many people actually depend on tumblr for fic these days, but in case you do, here you go!

McDanno, T, A03

Summary:  After 10x22 when Steve leaves Oahu to go find himself, Five-0 starts a group text to keep in touch while Steve’s away.  Picks up after the end of Season 10. 

Chapter 2

May 20, 2020

SM:  Hey, where’s Danny?

LG:  With Tani, I think, heading to a crime scene on the north shore.  Sure glad to have him back.  Otherwise it would have been me getting up at the ass crack of dawn when Duke called.

SM:  Does Danny seem ready?

LG:  Ready to come back to work?  Sure.  Shirts are crisp, slacks nicely pressed, hair sprayed firmly in place.  Your boy looks great.

SM:  Ribs not hurting him anymore?

LG:  Maybe a little, but it’s not slowing him down much.

SM:  He hasn’t been answering my texts.

LG:  Did you do something to piss him off?

SM:  Probably.  I usually do. Not sure what this time, though.

TR:  Don’t stress, boss. Danny’s right here, looking sharp as always.  we’re in the car.

SM:  Tani, what have I said about no driving and texting?

TR:  I’m not - Danny’s driving.

SM:  Can I talk to him?  Put it on speaker.

TR:  That would require you to actually call him.  Maybe give it a few minutes though?  We’re a little busy right now.

SM:  What, he can’t drive and talk on the phone at the same time?

TR:  It’s the dodging of bullets that might make that challenging.  Not that Danny isn’t a great multi-tasker, but it seems like an unnecessary risk.

 SM:  Tani, what the hell is going on?

 LG:  Damn.  On my way.

 SM:  Tani, report, now.

 JR:  What just happened?

 SM:  Junior, why aren’t you with Danny?  And where’s Quinn?

 JR:  Day off, sorry sir.

 SM:  Someone call HPD, why don’t you have any back up?

 TR:  No worries, the perp’s not chasing us anymore.  His car flipped over and sort of slid down the dunes. Probably not good for the birds. But he definitely stopped shooting, so it’s all good.

 <i>DW has changed the name of the group text to</i> <b>My Camaro has another bullet hole and it’s Steve’s fault</b>

  <b>May 21, 2020 </b>

 SM:  We have to talk about yesterday.

 DW:  Everything’s fine, Steve.  

 SM:  It didn’t sound like it.  

 DW:  We had it under control.

 SM:  Why was Tani texting when people were shooting at you?  She should have been covering you, or calling for back up. She should have seen it coming. You should never have been in that position in the first place.

 DW:  One, Tani did nothing wrong, and two, mind your own beeswax.

 SM:  Mind my own – what’s that supposed to mean?

 DW:  Think about it for a minute, you’ll figure it out.

 SM:  Are you even recovered enough for active duty?

 DW:  Oh, now you’re interested in my health?

 SM:  Danny, Five-0 is still my team, my responsibility.

 DW:  Is it, now?  Funny, because I’m pretty sure the governor told me I’m in charge.

 SM:  Temporarily.

 DW:  Indefinitely.  Or have you booked a flight home that you haven’t told us about?

 SM:  Danny, we’ve been over this.

 DW:  Don’t I know it.

 SM:  I’m just concerned about all of you.  

 DW:  Great.  Come home and take your job back.  Otherwise keep your mouth shut.

 SM:  I’m not criticizing, it’s just that it doesn’t seem like yesterday went exactly according to plan.

 DW:  According to plan?  Since when have you ever done anything according to plan?  You are the head of not having a plan, the Czar of plan-less-ness, the President of who needs a fucking plan.

 LG:  You guys do remember this is a group text, right?

  <b>June 2, 2020</b>

 JR:  Do any of you know what was in the package Danny got today?

 TR:  You could just ask him.

 JR:  I would, but he opened it up and then locked himself in his office and he’s been on the phone for half an hour.

 QL:  Might be a sign that he wants some privacy.

 TR:  You think?

 JR:  So I shouldn’t ask him?

 TR:  No, you should definitely ask him.  But maybe bring him some malasadas when you barge into his office, it might soften the blow.

 LG:  Or distract him enough that he doesn’t hit your head when he throws something at you.

 DW:  It’s kind of late for malasadas, but I’d love a sandwich from Machete’s.  Turkey and salami, Italian dressing instead of mayo.

 JR:  Yes sir.

 LG:  You’re enjoying this boss thing, aren’t you, Danny?

 DW:  It’s good to be king.  At least where lunch is concerned.

 TR:  So are you going to tell us what was in the package?

 DW:  Will you do my paperwork for the week?

 TR:  Yesterday you said I was worse at paperwork than Steve.

 DW:  Good point.  Will you get Junior to do my paperwork?

 JR:  Hey, wait a minute, I’m getting the sandwiches.

 TR:  Deal.  Don’t worry Junes, I’ll make it worth your while.

 LG:  TMI, children.

 …

 LG:  Tani, spill.  What was in the package?

 DW:  A stuffed squirrel.  A stuffed animal.  Not, like, a once was alive squirrel, like a toy.  

 QL:  Who sent it to him?

 TR:  Apparently that piece of information wasn’t part of the deal.  

 JR:  It’s from Steve.

 TR:  Danny told you?

 JR:  No, I looked at the return address.  He put the package in the recycle bin in the break room.

 DW:  At least someone here has some detective skills.

 LG:  Okay, I’ll bite.  Danny, why did Steve send you a squirrel?  Is it for Charlie?

 DW:  Nope, it’s mine.  And anyone who touches it is dead.

 JR:  So… who’s gonna grab it?

 LG:  Junior, I’d think twice.  Danny’s got the power to assign you to walking the beat for the rest of the summer.  I think that squirrel looks great right there where it is on Danny’s desk.

 TR:  He can be our honorary Five-0 mascot.

 DW:  Exactly.  The very first Hawaiian squirrel.

 DW:  But let me reiterate, you may not touch him.  If I see a tiny aloha shirt or a lei on my squirrel, heads will roll.

 TR:  I like this side of you, Danny.  Very authoritative.

 DW:  The children do not respect me, Lou.

 LG:  Didn’t the governor say he needed extra security at that concert Saturday night?

 DW:  The heavy metal battle of the bands?  The one that lasts for five hours, and features not just professional bands, but appearances from some of the most popular amateur head-banging groups around?  Hm, I think he did.  I was going to check with HPD to make sure it was covered.  Do you think they need personal attention from Five-0?

 TR:  Danny, you might notice that a note has just been slipped under your door. It’s from me and Junior, attesting to our sincere understanding that the squirrel is off limits.  Just in case you were wondering.

 DW:  And all is right with the world again.

 LG:  Amen, brother.

 TR:  But just out of curiosity, what are you going to name your apology squirrel?  Pineapple?

 DW:  Thin ice, my friend, thin ice.

 <i>TR has changed the name of the group text to</i> <b>First Hawaiian Squirrel Fan Club</b>

  <b>June 20, 2020</b>

  JR:  Anyone want to come over and watch Jurassic Park with me and Charlie?  We went a little overboard with the snacks.

 LG:  What kind of snacks?

 JR:  Primarily pretzels.  For some reason I had never really looked that closely at the pretzel aisle at Foodland before.  We got chocolate covered pretzels, pretzels stuffed with peanut butter, honey garlic pretzels, and probably some others too.

 TR:  What brought on this pretzel craving?

 JR:  Actually Charlie wanted pineapple pretzels.

 LG:  There is no such thing.

 JR:  That’s what I thought too, but it turns out I was totally wrong. The ABC store on my block has them.

 LG:  You are shitting me.

 JR:  They’re called Pretz.  Pineapple flavor.  They’re actually pretty good.

 LG:  Okay, I’m coming over just to taste those.  Renee’s out tonight anyway.

 TR:  You’ll have to save me some.  I’m hanging with Koa tonight.

 LG:  And what does our fearless leader think about pineapple pretzels?

 JR:  He probably won’t like them, but he’s not home.  

 TR:  Babysitting, Junes?

 JR:  Charlie’s my pal, he’s not a baby.  But yeah.

 TR:  Where’s Danny?

 JR:  On a date.

 TR:  That seems unlikely.

 JR:  That’s kind of harsh, isn’t it?  Danny’s a good looking guy.

 TR:  Of course he is, that’s not what I meant.

 DW:  Thanks.

 TR:  Fuck I keep forgetting we’re all on this text.

 JR:  Danny, how’s your date going?

 DW:  It would probably be going better if I wasn’t texting you guys.  

 SM:  Learned that lesson finally, did you?

 DW:  Steve, isn’t it a little late where you are?

 SM:  Never too late to help out a friend.  Are you wearing the French blue button-down?

 DW:  No, it got ruined.  I’m just wearing a black polo.

 SM:  Too bad, that’s a great shirt.

 DW:  I’m going to the mall tomorrow, there’s a sale at Lord & Taylor, I need new shirts.  For some reason mine keep getting blood stains on them.

 SM:  Wish I could go with you, you do better with a wingman.

 DW:  It’s true, you talked me into buying two of those slim fit dark blue ones, and those are some of my favorites.

 SM:  Don’t be afraid to try darker shades, Danny.  You resist it but in the end you look great.

 DW:  I did like the dark gray one you made me try on.  But not the purple one.  It made me look like a gigolo.  Anyway blue’s still my favorite.

 SM:  It’s true, nothing makes your eyes sparkle like a blue shirt.

 DW:  And good company, of course.

 LG:  I feel like this thread has been hijacked by aliens.  

 TR:  Aliens who like menswear.  Danny, isn’t your date annoyed that you’re spending all this time texting?

 DW:  Oh, she left.  I’ll be home soon, I’m just picking up some ice cream for the Jurassic Park marathon.

 JR:  I’m so confused.

 SM:  Don’t overthink it.  But make sure Danny tries the pineapple pretzels.

[azwriting]

30 and 42 with Kylo :)

Tension (Kylo Ren x Fem!Reader) 

Summary: Reader is a Knight of Ren who has feelings for the Supreme Leader, something the other Knights enjoy teasing her about.

Prompt: “Hold me back!” + “Can I hold your hand?” 

Warnings: Language, angst, fluff, 

Word Count: 1873

Muddy boots slapped against the floor of the new Star Destroyer, heavy breathing coming from behind each thick black mask. The Knights of Ren moved with such power each lieutenant and Stormtrooper messily hurried to clear the way for them, eyes always lingering on the imposing figures and trail of sludge they left in their wake. The sanitation division would not be thrilled…

Commander (Y/L/N) led the group of five behind her, in the absence of their Supreme Leader who had not been able to accompany them on their recent mission. Although Supreme Leader Ren had no quarry about leaving his second in command, a fellow Knight in charge of the rest. She was a well trained fighter and leader, someone he would always want by his side and in return she wanted to be by his. 

Underneath her mask, (Y/N) let a small smile work its way onto her face, fond thoughts of Kylo Ren plaguing her mind. He was tall, powerful, and beautiful underneath that mask. A massive part of her that she tried to bury deep down, wondered what it would feel like to be pinned underneath him as his plump lips pressed hot kisses against her skin. 

Clearing her throat, (Y/N) returned to the hallway, trying to shake away the heat blossoming inside her at the thought. There was an unspoken thing between them, a tension so thick that it could not be cut with a knife, but she only ever believed it was because of her own hidden feelings. It was unprofessional to have such lustful thoughts, but it was more unprofessional to make crude jokes about the unresolved feelings.

“Do you think (Y/N)’s mask will shatter from all the tension building between her and Ren? Vicrul asked, laughing to himself. (Y/N) stiffened at his words, but stayed silent moving through the seemingly endless halls of the ship. 

“It’s possible, Ren already broke his!” Ap’Lek joined in, both unaware of the second in command tightly clenching her staffs at their blatant disrespect. (Y/N) had to quietly remind herself it was not up to her to discipline them, surely when Kylo caught wind of their teasing he would handle it himself. She just had to hope they would not say anything to set her off. 

“Should we send them off on their own mission so they can be forced to face the truth?” Cardo asked trying to be quiet, but failing. 

“Perhaps both of them wouldn’t be so uptight if they just fucked!”

(Y/N) spun on her heel before she had time to digest the words flowing out from Vicrul’s mask. “That is enough!” She barked, switching on each of her staffs, blue crackling electricity emitting from each end. The other knights stepped to the sides, not wanting to get in the middle of the eventual fight. 

(Y/N) could practically feel the smugness radiating off of Vicrul. He was pleased to have gotten underneath her skin. He unsheathed his blade and held it forward as she twirled her two staffs, the electric currents humming out in the tense air. He nodded once, irking her even more, before her staffs came down harshly against his blade. 

The sound echoed through the halls, but they paid no attention, the two Knights too busy attacking each other. (Y/N) ducked as Vicrul’s blade came swooping down on her, only to end up lodged into the side paneling for the ship. He yanked on it, but to no avail it stayed cemented into the wall. She smirked slightly, standing back up to her full height, and swung at him. He too ducked down quick, but (Y/N) shoved a muddy boot into his abdomen, sending him stumbling backwards now with no sword. The other Knights watched in amusement until (Y/N) stalked forward ready to deliver the final blow to an unarmed Vicrul. 

Kuruk quickly butted in, wrapping his arms around her while Trudgen ripped her staffs from her hands. She struggled against Kuruk, “That’s right, hold me back!” 

Vicrul laughed and steam about poured from her ears, “You’re only proving my point!” With nothing in her grasp to inflict pain, she did the next best thing, she hurled her helmet at him. He dodged it with ease, only laughing louder. 

“Just wait until I get my hands on you, you bantha fodder!” She shouted, voice no longer modified, unaware of the incoming heavy boots.

“Is there a problem here?” (Y/N) stopped struggling in Kuruk’s grasp, looking back to see the towering build of the Supreme Leader, his eyes observing the scene before him undoubtedly. She cleared her throat, pushing Kuruk’s loosening arms off of her. 

“No, we were just having some fun Supreme Leader.” His mask drifted down to look at her distressed state, an undeniable tension between them. 

“I’m sure you two would like to have some fun.” Vicrul mumbled from behind her. (Y/N)’s eyes narrowed, moving faster than anyone could process. She ripped one of her black staffs from Trudgen’s hands and pressed the sizzling blue electricity into Vicrul’s chest. He flew backwards onto the ground, groaning and clutching his torso in agony. A smirk fell on (Y/N)’s lips, pleased with her work, but still she stepped forward ready to further imprint the message into his mind: Do not talk about her or the Supreme Leader. 

Before she could even take another step, she was hoisted up into the air, her abdomen hitting a hard shoulder as she was carried away someone. But not just anybody, no she knew just who carried her away by the size of the hand splayed across the back of her legs and the warmth seeping up through the layers of black beneath her.

 Kylo Ren.

Kylo carted her through the Destroyer, officer heads swiveling to take quick odd looks before their eyes would duck away afraid to be caught watching the odd sight. (Y/N) did not fight against him, it would only prove to be futile, instead she just rested her head in her hands and used the time to calm her anger. She knew she could not give anything away, if she had not already, when it came time to him questioning her outburst. He could not know the feelings she harbored. Kylo came to a stop and entered the access code to a door before entering with her in tow.

 Her eyes flickered around, gulping lowly at the realization that she was in his quarters. His massive hands slid up her black robes and placed her down onto the edge of his bed. Her eyes lifted to find his mask already looking down at her. She could feel the intensity of his gaze as he leaned back against the opposite wall, arms crossing as if he had all the time in the world.

“What happened back there?” His voice came out rougher than usual and she mildly feared the possible repercussions. He had never gotten angry with her before, well the only time being when she had gotten injured on a mission, but she had him were always on the same wavelength. Another reason they worked together so well.

“Nothing Supreme Leader-” 

He cut her off, “Kylo.”

 Her eyebrows furrowed unsure as to why he always insisted she called him Kylo, instead of Supreme Leader which everyone else was required to call him. 

“Nothing Kylo, I allowed Vicrul to get under my skin. It will not happen again.” She sighed, eyes falling down as she tugged off her gloves. 

“What did he say?” His voice was softer, a hint of concern woven into it. Her cheeks flushed as she recalled the Knights words and what they had been insinuating about the two of them. They were right on her end, which was most likely why she reacted so aggressively. 

“He mocked my fighting abilities.” She lied straight through her teeth, giving him a curt nod to sell it.

 “And that’s why you went feral out in the hallway and destroyed stuff?” 

(Y/N) winced, “I’m sorry.” 

Kylo let out a loud sigh, arms uncrossing, “Don’t be sorry, just tell me the truth.” (Y/N) dropped her head, fiddling with her fingers. She could not lie to him it seemed, her knew her better than that. She only feared that her words would either anger him or repulse him to no end. 

“Vicrul was insinuating that there was something going on between you and I. Which there isn’t, but it was still infuriating nonetheless.: She quickly added at the end, her eyes refusing to meet his hidden ones.

Kylo was quiet, too quiet, for far too long, but she did not dare to move or speak. “There isn’t?” 

(Y/N)’s head flew up immediately in shock over his question. Her lips parted unsure what to say, only knowing that she wished to see his face instead of the cold mask that concealed his expressive face. 

“Is there?” She questioned grasping her bottom lip in between her teeth. 

“I don’t know.” His hands released the gears of his mask and pulled it off in one swift move. As their eyes met no longer interrupted by the mask, she could not help but offer him a small smile, knowing he had heard her thoughts. His lips twitched slightly, almost unnoticeably as he took slow hesitant steps forward. 

As he drew closer, (Y/N)’s chest tightened, nervous about the thick tension hanging around them. Kylo kneeled down before her, eyes holding onto hers with uncertainty. Carefully he plucked each of his fingers out of his gloves, discarding them to the side without a second thought. His large calloused hands ran over the fabric covering her knees, drifting closer.

 “Can I hold your hand?” He asked, a light blush turning his face a sweet pink. (Y/N) had to blink a few times to process the lovely sight. She even wanted to laugh at the notion of the fearless Supreme Leader of the First Order asking to hold her hand, but during their time by each other side she grew to know the uncertainty that resided in him. So instead she slipped her hand into his waiting one. A soft sigh fell from both of their mouths at the contact, a spark igniting a wild fire inside them. 

(Y/N) lifted her free hand and rested it on Kylo’s warm cheek, a groan tumbling out from his plump lips. Oh how his unfiltered noises were music to her ears. He pressed his face deeper into her hand, basking in the long awaited contact. She smiled at the sight, content that her pinning had been mutual, that he wanted her just as much as she wanted him. There was an unspoken thing between them and it was beautiful. 

Biting her lip (Y/N) leaned forward, “You can do more than hold my hand.” Her lips gently grazed across his and a loud moan sounded from deep in his throat, before he eagerly closed the gap.

Much to her dismay, Vicrul was right and was about to be paid a lot of credits from the other Knights and even General Hux.

Taglist: 

@sporkedlooser

[singofsolace]

Miranda Otto’s Filmography as seen through a specific lens

otherwise known as: I watched some of these things so you don’t have to. But more specifically, I want to share basic information about which of her films and tv series require trigger warnings. Honestly, I’ve never recovered from some of them (thinking about In Her Skin... but also Homeland... because what the actual fuck, Saul?)

This isn’t a complete list. It’s only 21 of over 60 credits Miranda has to her name, but I think these are probably some of her most famous roles. Please let me know what you think of these brief descriptions, and whether anything should be added or removed.

It should go without saying that there are spoilers below. Read at your own risk.

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina:  Zelda Spellman

A powerful role, but be aware Zelda is abused, raped (implied), and violently murdered (twice)

Downhill: Charlotte

I love this woman with all my heart, okay? Miranda Otto is supposed to be playing the most heterosexual woman ever, and instead manages to make every single scene gay as fuck.

The Silence: Kelly Andrews

Gets her leg mutilated (also it’s implied that she and Kiernan’s character would be made sex slaves by this random cult that shows up... which is super tasteful and not at all disgusting)

Annabelle: Creation: Esther Mullins

Face mutilated, eventually murdered (I think? It’s been a long time since I’ve seen this one)

24: Legacy: Rebecca Ingram

Powerful woman kidnapped, tortured, and violently murdered

Homeland: Allison Carr

Powerful woman violently attacked by her former lover in full view of her coworkers. Riddled with bullets while she is curled in a trunk.

The Daughter: Charlotte

I’ve made a whole post about how I think Charlotte was raped by her employer, and that it therefore shouldn’t be framed as a sexy affair… but here we are.

I, Frankenstein: Leonore

Powerful woman kidnapped and used as a bargaining chip. I’ve also made a post about this one, and how Miranda Otto claims this part could have been played by a man, but the blatant sexism around the kidnap and ransom—making a woman who is the leader of warriors powerless to fight back against her attackers, and having her rescued in a way that frames her as a damsel in distress (complete with bridal carry)—makes me believe that Miss Otto doesn’t notice just how much sexism was written into the role.

Reaching for the Moon: Elizabeth Bishop

While as a whole, this movie is beautiful and wonderful and one of my all-time favorites, we need to still acknowledge that Lota and Elizabeth were in an incredibly toxic relationship—which I actually think is great representation, because abuse doesn’t just happen between a husband and a wife, or a boyfriend and a girlfriend, it can happen to anyone with any partner.

Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries: Lydia Andrews

I unapologetically adore Miranda in this one. She is so convincing as the grieving widow that the plot twist caught me completely by surprise. This is perhaps the only role that I’ve seen Miranda play where a bad woman was brought to justice, but in a way that had absolutely nothing to do with her gender. Justice was neutral and exacted without prejudice, in this case.

In Her Skin: Mrs. Barber

This is one of the most upsetting and disturbing films I’ve ever seen. Miranda Otto is brilliant in it, but playing the role of a mother whose daughter went missing (and then was brutally murdered) definitely took its toll. I will never understand why the movie released an interview during which Miranda was clearly distraught. She breaks down into tears multiple times just trying to talk about this movie (which was a real-life murder case).

Cashmere Mafia (TV Series): Juliet Draper

Okay, I LOVE LOVE LOVE Juliet Draper. I would cherish her and dote on her for the rest of her life if she were my wife. But in the actual show, her husband is a serial cheater. When her friends find out about it, they don’t judge her broken marriage, but they do give her the courage she needs to leave him. They tell her she deserves more—and she does!! But in the final episode there is a pretty disturbing plot about a multi-millionaire who wants to buy not only her Hotel company but also her… which is exactly as bad as it sounds.

War of the Worlds: Mary Ann

Miranda Otto is heavily pregnant and glowing in a grand total of five minutes of this movie, but oh, what wonderful five minutes!!

The Lord of the Rings: Eowyn

This is the role for which Miranda is most famous. I have nothing bad to say about Eowyn, except that she ought to have been given more screen time, and that there shouldn’t have been that creepy plot about the King’s advisor or whoever wanting to have sex with her. It was incredibly unnecessary and frames Eowyn as a potential victim in the beginning, which was completely unnecessary in terms of character/plot development. 

Danny Deckchair: Glenda Lake

Glenda Lake is a precious cinnamon roll, too good for this world, too pure. Please for the love of Otto watch this film for baby Miranda in a sweet romantic comedy.

Julie Walking Home: Julie Makowsky

I don’t understand this film at all. It has one of the most absurd plots I’ve ever seen. Miranda’s husband/partner cheats on her and gets caught, and then he gets violent (in front of her children and multiple adult witnesses!!), and then their son gets cancer, and then she goes to Poland, and then a Healer tries to cure her son, and it works for a while, and eventually Julie (Miranda) has sex with the Healer, in order to teach him how to have sex? and then she gets pregnant by this man, and then her son’s cancer comes back, and then the Healer runs for the hills, and then her former partner takes her back so that they can all be a family again....?!?!?!?!

Human Nature: Gabrielle

This film made Miranda popular with a lot of creepy old men (okay maybe just Bruno Barreto based on this interview… (seriously I am so uncomfortable with the way he’s like… oh yes, I knew her from that film... and then later *places his hand on her bare knee/thigh* Lowell doesn’t give a shit about (Elizabeth/Miranda) being awkward! 

(the implication being that Lowell is only interested in getting Elizabeth into his bed...)

anyway… she plays a sexy French scientist, who isn’t actually French. There’s lots of lingerie, dancing, and kissing.

The Jack Bull (TV Movie) Cora Redding

Miranda Otto dies an incredibly violent death in period costume for no apparent reason besides generating male pain.

Dead Letter Office: Alice Walsh

Young!Miranda is so cute in this, but there’s a sort of ambiguously creepy older man-younger woman relationship… because Alice (Miranda) is looking for a father figure… and anyway I don’t remember this film well enough to comment more specifically, but I remember it being lovely except for the age difference between Alice and the guy in charge of the missing letters.

Doing Time for Patsy Cline: Patsy

I watched this purely for Miranda, and I do think it’s good, but only her part in it. Miranda plays the “busty bimbo with a heart” incredibly well. I remember being scared for her character, because her husband was a mean drunk/drug addict, but I don’t think any actual violence gets portrayed… but someone who has watched this more recently can correct me if I’m wrong.

Sex is a Four Letter Word

I only made it through half of this film before I turned it off. I wouldn’t watch it unless you’ve ingested/inhaled some substances and don’t mind people monologuing about their terrible sex experiences. 

...

Let me know if you’d like to know more about any of these films!

[colorfullfalls]

Appreciated

Summary: An American assistant catches Kylo Ren's eye at a United Nations conference.

Kylo Ren did not appreciate Earth. The people were unaware of his power, of the First Order's power. He was undoubtedly taking over Earth whether it was liked or not. He didn't care. He was free to do what he pleased without anyone to stop him. The UN gathered to discuss the issue of what to do, if war was even an option. Kylo Ren was amused by Earth's citizens for thinking they had a choice. Even if there was a war, the First Order would dominate within hours. His light saber would kill any of these fool within seconds. The conference was held in the United States, tense anxiety looming over each member like a cloud. Kylo smirked at the intimidation of his starkiller hovering in the sky. One wrong move and he would wreak havoc.

His knights surrounded him as he walked through the streets earlier that day taking in the new scenes of the world that would soon be theirs. Women moved their babies away from the crew, men hesitated to keep walking, and kids pointed and whispered in awe. Attention that was not completely negative was foreign to him. Other world's would scream in fear and hatred as soon as their ships landed. But at the same time, Earth was so very unaware how things go when it came to him.

Washington D.C was busy as people filed into the House Chambers for the primal meeting. Kylo pushed past a few representatives of Spain as he walked in, his build larger than anyone else's. He rolled his eyes. This was all unnecessary to him, but he let them have their fun. Tomorrow he would take what was his. What was owed to him for his shitty upcoming with Luke.

He leaned against the back wall as the meeting began. Everyone in the room was dressed in suits or pant suits or even dresses. Clothes here were much different than he was customed to. Listening was no priority of his because this damn gathering was equal to a child's birthday celebration in his eyes. Meaning that nothing was going to be accomplished.

You slipped in beside him holding five coffees on a tray. You glanced at the beast beside her but kept going. You could not afford to deliver cold coffees during such a crisis. Your job depended on it. American representatives took the coffees wand practically shooed you away without a single thank you. Shoulders sagging, you went to walk back out to grab their sandwiches.

Kylo watched the encounter with confusion. They took the coffees without even looking at you, and you were somehow okay with it? His people served him but that's because he was in charge. He didn't say thank you, didn't need to. But these low lives? What possible status could they have? One among hundreds at a meeting. Earth was odd because it was divided, different leaders ruling different areas. In his eyes it made Earth weak.

You were breathtakingly beautiful. Short hair framed your face, cascading to rest right about the shoulders. You looked unbelievably kind with your soft smile even though you just got treated like scum. You looked like a woman who should be Queen of a prosperous planet, not an unappreciated assistant of sorts.

"Come here." Kylo's voice caught not only your attention, but also the people's around you. Your eyes adverted to him, ghostly pointing a finger at yourself in confusion.

"M-me?"

"Yes, you, come."

You sheepishly trudged over, terrified that the Supreme Leader would kill you. His hair fell over some of his face as he looked expectantly down at you. You went to kneel in front of him but his gloved hand grabbed your bicep.

"State your position."

"Assistant, sir."

He clicked his tongue in amusement at you calling him sir. Such a beauty in a shitty place. Your voice was soft and unsure. It made his hard exterior slightly melt away. His mother once told him when he was a young boy that you only truly fall in love once. That your soul only binds completely with another one single time. Woman usually were not that desirable to him. He would have sex with them but he never cared about them. He was already interested in you.

"Seems beneath you. Follow me."

You swallowed heavily at the order, but before you could protest his knights were crowding behind you. A silent demand that you comply to their leader's wish. You sighed. Today was simply not your day. A black ship was parked outside in the yard, white armored Storm Troopers surrounding it. They stared at you earlier when you had walked past to deliver coffee. Not friendly folks, you presumed. Kylo waved his two fingers and his guard dogs shifted, allowing a clear path to the entrance ramp.

Kylo walked in first and turned around, leaning against the wall. Apparently that was his usual. Yet again his fingers moved to signal his knights away. They nodded their heads and in synch left down the ramp to guard themselves. His dark hair flowed slightly against the light breeze.

"Earth is a pitiful thing." He declared, "Technology is far behind other planets, no alien species habitat the area, and the people here? They are senseless. My troops could destroy this place."

You sighed, "I am not a leader. I cannot discuss terms with you. Leaders are in the room you just took me out of."

He rolled his eyes at your lack of understanding. He wanted you to understand that he was tolerating Earth for the day, but he wanted to more than tolerate you.

"I do not wish to discuss terms with you." Your eyes snapped to his. You had been in many situations where you had zero power. You were to listen and do what was told because the people you work for are above you. In charge. While you work your ass off and still are struggling to announce yourself as a successful woman. Again, Kylo Ren was way way way above you on terms of authority. Being an assistant woman on Earth is no comparison to the handsome and aggressive man before you.

"Why then...?"

"Why what? Say it." His voice was demanding and goosebumps traveled down your arms and surely to your legs too.

"Why did you bring me here? Oh no.. am I going to die to set an example? Of course this is the karma for not picking up that Hitchhiker the other day. Paranoia is what gets me killed... Mom would be proud." You rambled to yourself, hands running down your face in frustration.

Kylo shook his head no, not liking that you assumed the worst of him, "I am not killing you. Tell me your name."

"Y/N."

He hummed in appreciation of your name, never hearing it before. It somehow suited you perfectly. He nodded, "I'm Kylo."

You nervously barked out a laugh, "Yes. Kylo Ren. I am aware of that, infact the whole world is. Did I do something to disrespect you earlier?"

"You were disrespected."

This took you by surprise. The lethal Kylo Ren, Supreme Leader of the First Order, Han and Leia's only heir was pressed at how you were treated by your asshole bosses. Being a moderately pretty woman gained you attention from time to time, but catching his eye was beyond you. Unknown to you Kylo was reading your mind. It was easy to slip into.

Kylo was stunned that you referred to yourself as moderately pretty. In his eyes you were the most beautiful being his brown eyes landed on. Maybe it was his Mother's tale about soulmates that was getting to him. He considered this very carefully. He did know you or your soul, but could the force be giving him a hint that you would be his one life partner? Either way he was not letting you rot here.

"Not really. It comes with the job because that's how things work around here." You retorted, glancing outside to see people looking in at you. An elderly man stood on the skirts of the lawn, worrying that you were in harm's way. You offered a wave followed by a thumbs up and it was enough because he continued on.

"Do you think you deserve to be treated as such?"

"I'm a hard worker but so are millions of people who get the short end of the stick."

Kylo rolled his eyes and pointed outside, "Blowing this place up may be considered a favor. This is the supposed greatest country's capital and there are homeless here."

"Anyone can be poor anywhere. Earth has it's flaws, sir, but I can assure you that there is good here." You crossed your arms in a defying manner. This was your home.

"Good and bad are not definite, both coexist in a complicated manner. Whoever disagrees is an imbecile." He snarled, hand hitting the wall in anger. Both at you defending Earth and for not listening to him.

How could you defend a planet that was full of selfish pricks who were living lavishly with billions of dollars while more poor swarmed the streets than flies. Kylo took care of his people once they were under his rule. The First Order elegantly supported struggling citizens according to need. Earth seemed like a waste of his time. It only infuriated him at how poorly it was doing.

"What do you want from me?" You quietly asked. Escaping was impossible. Troops surrounded the ship and Kylo Ren was said to be stubborn.

"Power comes with loneliness, Y/N. Consulting with my officers leaves me in a position to be weak. Being weak revolts me. As beautiful as you may be, you are weak."

You scoffed in disbelief, "Excuse me?"

His body moved to surrounded yours like a lion going after a gazelle. His body pinned you, hands rested close to your head against the solid black wall, "You are weak. You take shit from worthless money makers with no true value. Earth raised you this way. But I am here to change that. You will be more."

"More?"

"Yes. We can help one another. For you, I will give you power. No longer will those beneath you take you for granite." His voice was stern like he had all the answers in a tiny book that only he had access to.

"Yeah? What about you, Supreme Leader?"

"Glad you asked. I need someone to confide in without the risk of being overthrown. The force within me senses trust and loyalty. Simply words are what I require from you."

Compromises rarely proved helpful in your case. Set backs always trailed along with them like a loose string on an old sweater. Untangled until nothing but scraps were left. Kylo Ren was a snake. A successful murderer who worked for his cause alone. But what did you have to lose at this point? Your family shut you out after you moved away, you were really too busy for friends, and certainly busy enough to not have a significant other. Leaving Earth behind did not sound that bad. Not when what was offered was appreciation in turn for treating a someone like a decent human being.

"Okay. On one condition."

Kylo's head leaned down so that he was looking into your eyes, "Go on."

"Protect Earth instead of destroying it. I'm not dumb, this place has shitty people but there are simple pleasures that I want maintained. Old tribes, trains, caramel candy, the cultures, high school baseball games, fireworks, cows in pastures, and dogs. Dogs are so very sweet and we don't deserve them. Just please..."

Kylo leaned away from you, crossing his strong arms over his chest. Your eyes tried to look as pleading as possible. He didn't want to give in. Earth was pretty annoying and it being wiped out of the sky would please him to an outrageous extent. But the way you were asking so nicely with every ounce of his heart, he contemplated it. Not to mention that it meant he would finally have someone to talk real conversations with.

"Deal."

[jeritaylorswade]

DSA: Direct Selling and the Virtual Push because of COVID

“ Like most people, direct selling executives are crossing out travel and large in-person gatherings from their calendars. For an industry known for its relational appeal, eliminating the face-to-face factor should be crushing. But instead, many executives are reporting that they feel more connected to their teams than ever before and are experiencing record engagement.”

“I’ve been involved in more field events in the last two months than I have been since I started the company in 2014,” says MONAT President Stuart MacMillan. Connecting virtually has become part of the daily workflow for MacMillan and many direct selling executives like him, as their teams and distributors take part in trainings while experiencing the benefits of connecting from home for both small- and large-scale events. “I still don’t believe there’s any replacement for face-to-face, and our people are itching to get back together—both employees and the field,” MacMillan says. “But I think what we’ve learned is that between those opportunities to get together, there are better ways to do this.”

Increasing Engagement with Function and Fun

This shift to virtual has opened the event doors wider, allowing people who would normally be limited by family obligations or financial flexibility to participate. For SeneGence Founder and CEO Joni Rogers-Kante, virtual events have drastically impacted the company’s attendance numbers. “Only a percentage of distributors go to our events, and ours was never a huge percentage,” Rogers-Kante says. “But we have five times more distributors than we have ever had at a single seminar because it was online, and they just got to sit down and login.”

The SeneGence virtual event sought to emulate a lot of the function—as well as fun—of a live event by passing out virtual awards that instantly appeared across social media channels as names were announced, conducting drawings and shipping prizes to distributors’ houses. While their next company-wide in-person event has been postponed, the SeneGence team is already implementing plans for a conference that will take place in Tulsa. “We think it will be the largest event we’ve ever had because people are so excited to get back together, and we have so many new distributors who can’t wait to actually physically show up at a SeneGence event. We just know it’s going to blow everything we’ve done out of the water.”

“We have five times more distributors than we have ever had at a single seminar because it was online, and they just got to sit down and login.”—Joni Rogers-Kante, SeneGence Founder & CEO

10 Cents on the Dollar, 10 Times the Reach

Twenty-four hours after a recent Mannatech virtual live event, the entire 12-hour event was available for replay. The 6,500 unique visitors, representing a ballpark of 8,000 to 12,000 viewers who watched the virtual event live, quickly multiplied as people shared the content and participated after the event had ended. A traditional Mannatech event hosts 1,200 to 1,500 people.

“For one-tenth of the expense, we were able to connect with six to ten times the number of people we would have connected with,” says Mannatech CEO and President Al Bala. And although event product sales were one-third of the normal amount, Bala says it was offset by the savings in product transport to the event and the convenience of shipping it directly to consumers’ homes. “It was more efficient and definitely more profitable sales than we would have had normally.”

“Even though we aren’t all together, we see you!”

“Going virtual” has a simple ring to it, but executives in the driver’s seat know the challenging behind-the-scenes experience of sifting through broadcasting options and platforms. Arbonne, who planned to launch 13 new products at their live convention this year, suddenly had only a fraction of their usual preparation time to devise communication strategies that would build excitement while playing well through the screen. Social media, which has always assumed a role at Arbonne events, was now critical, and the company leaned hard into these social integrations. To allow the executive team space to focus on engaging with attendees through the chat function, much of the content was prerecorded.

“Virtual GTC 2020 was created in about four weeks, and because of the incredibly pressing deadline, we absolutely learned as we went,” says Arbonne Senior Director of Communications Kristen Gruber. Gruber’s social media team developed teasers, quizzes and other interactive content that posted throughout the event. “This provided a level of engagement to our audience to really say, ‘Even though we aren’t all together, we see you!’”

Despite the fog of uncertainty during the first few weeks of the stay at home orders, LegalShield dove headfirst into creating virtual experiences and may have been the first direct sales company in North America to pivot to an entirely live-streamed international convention on April 4. When it became clear that their planned live event would not take place, the company transformed the auditorium in their Oklahoma headquarters into a full studio with only three weeks’ lead time. From there, they offered 16 hours of training content and recognition from over 40 field leaders and live hosts to more than 10,000 viewers. In addition, more than 5,000 associates joined their two-day Zoom Breakout Trainings before the larger event.

“For one-tenth of the expense, we were able to connect with six to ten times the number of people we would have connected with.”— Mannatech CEO & President Al Bala.

“Our field leaders are extremely creative in using Zoom as a recruiting and training platform,” says LegalShield Network Division President Don Thompson. “They use breakout rooms to host associates and their guests after a presentation for a Q&A session and for associate interaction.”

To not only survive, but thrive in this unprecedented environment, LegalShield’s CEO Jeff Bell has cast a vision for the company as a “digital disruptor” who uses technology to fulfill their company’s mission. The focus for the company is not on their limitations, but rather on how they can innovate and improve and use the tools available to spread their message and keep the field engaged and excited. “We are not at the level of Netflix or CBS,” Bell says, “but we are getting smarter and more successful in producing engaging content.”

As companies expand their live-streams to their international markets, the existing cultural and language barriers will have to be considered. Elepreneurs Chief Impact Officer Garrett McGrath, who also serves as President of the Association of Network Marketing Professionals, is watching as these virtual events begin to take shape on a global, multi-lingual scale. Although these broader events are more complex, McGrath is encouraged by the existing platforms that can do the heavy lifting for the direct sales industry.

Vimeo, a tool the ANMP relies on for its broadcasts, is paired with remote translators who use the Interactio app—which McGrath describes as a flawless application—to tap into the livestream and recreate the content in their listeners’ language.

“All you have to have is a good originating broadcast quality, and that becomes the place from where everybody views the actual convention, even though we’re bringing people in from all over the world,” McGrath says.

Caution: Challenges Ahead

Everyone is more than eager to get back to normal and industry leaders are at the front of the line, hurriedly trying to recreate their office environment from thousands of satellite home offices scattered across the globe where their leaders live and now work. But as the world has quickly discovered, working separately but together has come with its own set of unique challenges, and large virtual events are not immune to these foibles.

Security has been a hot topic for Zoom users (LegalShield reported instances of “Zoom Bombers” during their first few training sessions before password protections halted any further disruptions), but for other, more complex broadcasting platforms, hacking isn’t as much of a concern. The security concern, according to Katapult Events President Erik Johnson, should be privacy. “I wouldn’t put anything out on a stream that you wouldn’t want the world to see,” Johnson says. “Someone at home is likely recording it whether you want them to or not, and it’ll be on YouTube by the end of the day.” For companies who live and die by FTC compliance, it’s a stern warning for leaders. Even if a distributor thinks they’re in a private virtual room with only top-tier leaders, there is great potential that their words will become public.

“Our field leaders are extremely creative in using Zoom as a recruiting and training platform. They use breakout rooms to host associates and their guests after a presentation for a Q&A session and for associate interaction.”— LegalShield Network Division President Don Thompson.

There will also be a fluency issue for older distributors who aren’t used to virtual interactions and for whom these new changes will require a steep learning curve. “I feel sorry for companies that are older and already have their culture set in stone because they’re going to have to switch at some point to this,” RevitalU CEO Andrew McWilliams says.

Even though virtual events are notoriously less expensive than their in-person counterparts, going too cheap can be very obvious. “A lot of people think they can just hop on Zoom and be fine,” says Johnson, who now produces SeneGence’s virtual events. The result of a frugal presentation, however, is fuzzy resolution, glitchy streaming and a visible mouse pointer on shared screens—not the high-quality presentation multimillion- and multibillion-dollar brands should attach their names to.

For the April SeneGence virtual event, Johnson utilized Vimeo for live streaming at the Enterprise level and set up studios at the Oklahoma and California SeneGence offices. With his crew and all of their gear at both locations, they connected the two offices live on camera for a high def broadcast that looked like prime time tv.

As physical events reemerge in the months to come, Johnson warns that virtual events should never be just a recorded version of the live event. Instead, he encourages leaders to plan for physical and virtual hybrids. For example, his crew is building a side stage that is reminiscent of the ESPN Sports Desk for the host of the virtual watch party at one of his client’s upcoming in-person events. Even though one large event will be happening, two different audiences with different attention spans will be watching. By having a dedicated host, he’ll be able to accommodate both.

Facebook Live Fright

As leaders who are used to delivering speeches from stages in loud rooms begin broadcasting from their kitchen table or home office to an audience they can’t see, they’re discovering that stage fright and Facebook Live fright are two different fears and require two different skill sets.

McGrath described his feelings about hosting an eight-hour live event as somewhere between nerve-wracking and exciting. He and wife Sylvia, Elepreneurs Chief Experience Officer, introduced live speakers and announced prerecorded segments and then watched comments and emojis unfold in real-time over an eight-hour stretch.

The stamina required to create these engaging content segments back-to-back for that length of time is similar to expecting sprints in the middle of a marathon. “The biggest concern you always have is: can you keep people’s attention for 12 and a half hours?” Bala says.

But it’s not just the audience’s attention that leaders are concerned about. “I don’t think you can underestimate what it does to the speaker’s energy to talk to a crowd,” Bala says. “When you’re a speaker, it engages you at a different level. You can’t replicate that virtually.”

An Attention Shift

Change can be a dirty word in an industry rooted in tradition, and that’s why McWilliams is choosing to embrace this time of disruption. As people readily accept digital platforms out of necessity, McWilliams says this temporary shift to virtual will now be permanent for his young organization. “I’m never going back,” he says. “It has been the most cost-effective thing we’ve ever done.” In April, RevitalU experienced double-digit percentage growth over March. After their first major virtual event on May 2, the company was up almost 55 percent over April by May 7. “It does not feel like a blip on a radar screen,” he says. “What it feels like is a shift of attention.”

These live virtual events with openly visible comment boxes bring with them a lack of control, but the effect, McGrath says, is unparalleled. “We were very aware that people don’t want a presentation; they want a conversation,” he says. “There’s a risk with a conversation because you don’t know what the other person is going to say, but that’s why people show up: because it hasn’t gone through the corporate whitewash and hasn’t been overly sanitized. It’s spontaneous and real.”

“We were very aware that people don’t want a presentation; they want a conversation.”– Garrett McGrath, Elepreneurs Chief Experience Officer

In the short term, physical events aren’t possible, but even when the restrictions from the global pandemic are lifted, some executives are expecting a slow return as people remain gun-shy about close social interaction and even handshakes. McGrath says the question of when things will go back to normal is the wrong question. “The real question is, between now and then, can we document a plan that people can rely on as proven to work today?”

Is Virtual Really a Success?

There is no industry-wide metric for success when it comes to this new switch to virtual. Still, as many leaders face pent up demand and anxiety swirling around the new normal that has been thrust upon them, the measurement for success will depend upon each company’s specific goals and missions.

For affiliate-focused companies, comment engagement on a Facebook Live event could provide a gauge for distributor reach. Many executives are now reporting a sharp increase in sales during and after virtual events—when distributors would usually be socializing or traveling home—and are using that as their new benchmark for success.

Virtual can’t mimic the adrenaline rush of a packed arena, but industry leaders are approaching this new playing field with cautious optimism. For now, there is convincing emerging data that pivoting to virtual is doing little to harm the health of direct selling companies, and might actually be making a once-in-a-lifetime paradigm shift that offers a glimpse into where the future of the industry might be headed.

“This is here to stay,” Bala says. “It’s just going to become another tool in our toolbox to create that engagement with our associates and for associates to create engagement among themselves.” DSN

VirBELA: The New Virtual Headquarters

Virtual events may be booming, but it will be finding ways to digitally recreate the ordinary daily interactions that will be key for direct selling to weather this storm of isolation and uncertainty. RevitalU has found its solution through VirBELA, a technology platform that allows companies to create a virtual headquarters. With VirBELA, people can come together formally for events, like a conference room where they’ll hear keynote speakers, as well as informally, like in virtual hallways between sessions where they can start up casual conversations.

Through avatars and multi-dimensional rooms, users can interact digitally in a personal way that doesn’t create the Zoom fatigue that comes with endless video chats. “It gives you autonomy to interact with whom you want to interact with and go where you want to go,” says VirBELA Founder and President Alex Howland, Ph.D. “When you read a book, you’re not paying attention to the black and white words or pages; you’re getting immersed into the book. The same thing happens with VirBELA. Your brain starts to feel like you’re physically in the room with colleagues.

Glenn Sanford, eXp Realty Founder and CEO, has been using VirBELA as his company’s virtual campus since 2016. During that time, he grew his number of agents from 900 to 29,000 from the virtual headquarters that he mans from the casita over his garage. In April of this year, his success with the virtual platform led him to join the VirBELA team as the company’s Chief Strategy Officer so that he could extend his knowledge and experience with simulated campuses to other business leaders navigating these unprecedented waters.

Sanford offered advice to McWilliams, one of the newest CEOs to become an adopter of the VirBELA technology, by explaining that the simulated campus will only work if McWilliams insists that people meet him in his virtual Planet RevitalU office, rather than picking up the phone. “We have an office, and I don’t care if it opens back up,” McWilliams says. “We’re going to make the physical office voluntary. For our business practices and working together, it’s going to be done online.”

Virtual Event Tips

Take your virtual event to the next level with these tips from production expert and consultant to the direct selling industry, Erik Johnson of Katapult Events.

“How good your first event is will determine if they buy your next.” — Erik Johnson, Katapult Events President

Forget Zoom. Use Vimeo to live stream.

Prerecording some content eliminates the potential for user error, streamlines transitions and trims the boring out of stories.

Use permissions to put events and event extras behind paywalls or passwords. Erik uses Phinkific.com to preserve special VIP treatments, like a Q&A with the keynote speaker, for specific distributor ranks and above.

Hire a professional. Picture-in-picture, title animation and HD screen shares matter.

Show others what they’re missing. Even if you’re charging for a virtual event, share a short segment onto Facebook Live for things like new product announcements. At the end of the segment, offer viewers the opportunity to buy access to the rest of the event. It’s a double bang for your production buck and a quick upsell.

Everything has to be faster. What might have taken you four minutes to say on a live stage, should take you 90 seconds when speaking to a virtual audience.

Shoot with two cameras. A simple wide shot and a close up will give your broadcast movement and will be more likely to hold attention.

A high-quality mic is just as important as good video. If they can’t hear you well, they will leave.

Don’t be afraid to hire an outside emcee. Professional talent can take your event from stagnant to funny, drive the energy of the show, and be in charge of throwing it to different hosts—chief executives, distributors—to keep the show moving.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Get rid of the extra stuttering and “um” sounds and give your team the chance to feel the flow of the event.

Double-dip your filming days. When broadcasting virtual events, you’ll likely have the members of your executive teams and an elaborate, staffed studio all in one place. Use this opportunity to film upcoming product launches, expand your expert interviews and update your opportunity presentation.

Five Ways to Simplify Your Pivot to Virtual

Don’t confuse virtual with automated. Even though there are no smoke machines and spotlights, this is not a set-it-and-forget-it type of environment. Building an interactive experience is key to getting virtual events right.

Prepare your team. Expect worst-case scenarios and plan how they’ll be addressed on the spot to protect your brand.

Choose your comment comfort level. Instantly visible, unfiltered feedback may complement the tone of a keynote address, or it might exacerbate the awkwardness of lackluster attendance. Pick an audience participation level that matches the event vibe.

Tap into existing partner platforms. Seamlessly charge registration for large events and automatically capture potential customer contact information. (Eventbrite, PayPal, Pardot and HubSpot are good leads for these functions)

Deliver an in-person experience. Pick two or three elements of your usual in-person events that can be creatively replicated while apart. If distributors have come to expect a lavish lunch break at events, send restaurant or food delivery gift cards to registrants ahead of time. These small gestures will build community while making a memorable impact.

[praphit]

Another Year, Another Recap - “Have a Coke and a smile... :)”

So, we're getting to the end, people. We're about to finish off another year. Personally, this year has been immensely better than the last.

I didn't even want to stay up and do any celebrating at the end of 2018. I just wanted to go to bed and be done with that bleepin year. This year has been a hell of a lot better. I hope that all of you can say something similar, but if not, there's always going to bed early, and putting your hope in the next year.

This past Christmas (and all Christmas', really) I spent time doing a lot of hating on Christmas music; it's a valued tradition of mine. I am, however, always surprised to find a few songs each year that don't bother me all that much. This year, one of them was John Legend's "Baby, It's cold outside" ft Kelly Clarkson  

- a rewritten, sans rapey vibe rendition to boot its 1940's something predecessor.

In this version (at least how I interpret it), both people wanted some action that night. John says all of the right stuff ("I'll call you a car", "maybe you SHOULD go"), creating a safe environment, and most importantly, not coming off as sleazy and rapey. He's also protecting himself with this recording:) But, let's be clear... he wants some, and he wants it bad! While Kelly, also wants some, but doesn't want to come off as being a hoe. Nobody wants to be labeled a hoe.  So, she says all of the right things as well ("My dad and brother are waiting for me", "I've gotta visit my sick grandma", "Gotta get home to the KIDS") But, at the end of the night, they both make a decision to sing to one another "Baby, It's cold outside, so let's stay in and BLEEP." That's how you do it! No guilt! No #METOO! No wife and kids around. All is well:) Divorces are still rising, and more older people (as well as old as bleep people) are on dating apps than ever before. Consider this song a Christmas gift from John & Kelly to you.

Sexiest man alive in 2019 btw

Congrats. Classic coming-up-out-of-the-water sexy.

There has been some good music in 2019. Good stuff happening. Also some sad and weird stuff happening in music - all things balance out, I suppose.

GOOD:

Lizzo

I am here for all things Lizzo.

SAD & WEIRD:

Maroon 5's Super Bowl performance. It wasn't even really M5's fault; they simply did what they always do. It was more a poor choice by the NFL. A boring and awkward performance. There was a time when all anybody wanted was a shirtless Adam Levine- both women AND men. Even times when he wasn't performing, he would show up places, some random person would announce to everyone "Don't worry, Adam WILL be taking off his shirt tonight." Talk about ME TOO. It was so bad that the old, white, slaveowners of the NFL hired Jay-Z (one of the blackest icons we have) to come and save them. We'll see how that turns out.

GOOD & WEIRD:

Tyler, The Creator - "IGOR"

One of my fav projects of the year. Tyler, the Creator is an odd dude - I mean this as a compliment. I love how Hip-Hop has evolved. There's a lot more room nowadays to be yourself, no matter how outsiders might deem your behavior as weird (sometimes, others NOT saying this as a compliment). I love his creativity, and hope he continues to inspire other artists (especially in hip-hop) to be creative. Heeeee also says stuff like this "I like girls, but I have sex with their brothers." But, also uses the word "gay" as an insult. Who knows?? There's a lot to unpack there.

SAD:

In other news, Camila Cabello might be a racist. Y'all can look it up if you'd like, but some posts of hers resurfaced. I'm a fan of hers, and checked out the posts for myself, thinking "People are prob just overreacting" - they're not, it's bad. She has apologized, saying the whole "I'm older and wiser now" thing. The prob with that is she's only 22.

GOOD & BAD, I GUESS:

ADELE

It's always good to see Adele out and about. These holiday pics show that's she's still alive (I get concerned, cuz she tends to disappear for a while) and apparently a lot thinner. This of course stirs men to say men type things, women to go on the attack, and all genuine compliments towards her to get lost. The good news is, Adele seems to be getting pretty chummy with Santa, and everyone knows that St. Nick is a heartbreaker. Adele should be spurned and back in the studio writing amazing tunes soon enough.

WEIRD:

Kanye

These pics say it all. 

... that being said, I love his new music (which is how I stamp all of my conversations about Ye).

GOOD:

Billie Eilish! 

Now (like many), one of my fav artists. 

BAD:

She just turned 18, so of course, us men being ourselves again say things like "She's 18 now. You know what that means." Honestly, I'm still trying to figure out what that means. Nothing says crossing-over into womanhood quite like being objectified.

Speaking of 2019 pervs - R.KELLY!

We can throw MJ and... what the hell, I'll just throw Spacey in there as well (his documentary is coming soon enough, I'm sure).

We were all enthralled by these two docuseries. It's interesting how different races respond to MJ. Both see him as... you know, but most black people are still listening to his music. White people on the other hand are ready to riot every time someone plays one of his songs... except around Halloween - gotta have "Thriller".

We love depressing television.

There was "Chernobyl" as well as "When they see us"

Movies too -

"Joker"

I love this movie, but it's about a homicidal clown, struggling with mental illness.

"Us"

I love this movie, but it's about classism and marginalization.

"Endgame"

It's largely about grief.

It's the best movie of the year, as far as I'm concerned!

It should win all awards!

ALL OF THEM!

Best Horror

Best Comedy

Best Romance

Remember when he sent the message to his wife? Cute, right?

Personally, I think he and Nebula were banging in each other.

... I think that story is going to come out some day. C’mon... they were up in space, alone... they both thought they were going to die. She was like “OMG, I’ve always wanted to bang Robert Downey Jr. 

He was like “I don’t blame you.”

But, afterwards, he was like 

 - you know? He felt all bad, because he’d never get to do that again (that was the last of his energy). Annnnd also because he cheated. Which led to that cute recording for his wife. SEE, it’s all connected!

Best actor in Josh Brolin (Thanos) - the range of emotions (satisfaction, terror, humility, revenge, arrogance, beatin ass, defeat) Leo and Brad Pitt ain't have to do all of that!

Best Actress... hmm.. idk about this one. Many say J.Lo deserves an Oscar for her performance in "Hustlers" - a movie made for strippers, by strippers.

Exotic dancers are making a comeback! Maybe one day, stripping will be going in the same direction marijuana is - just something people do. No more shame! You can actually make a decent living at it - ain't that right, Stormy?

And who can forget this J.Lo quote "This city, this whole country, is a strip club. You've got people tossing the money. and people doing the dance."

There have also been plenty of things in 2019 that I have not understood:

1) Hatin on Greta

Greta - trying hard to do what she believes will make this world a better place for us all.

Certain people - "Shut that bitch up! She's crazy!"

2) Hatin on Megan Rapinoe

MP - leading a soccer team to a World Cup victory, being outspoken for women's rights and gay rights, having awesome purple hair, and trying to be the best leader and athlete she can be.

Certain people - "Shut that bitch up! She's Crazy! Equal pay my ass!"

3) Popeyes Chicken Sandwich

 - the gov't test for a new crack epidemic. Sadly, I never got to partake.

4) Allison Mack

- This whole story began being unveiled in 2018, but continued through this year. I still don’t understand how this story has not gotten more attention. Some of y’all don’t even know what I’m talking about.... google it, and be horrified.

5) BTS (and K-pop in general)

-I love them, but... our country's K-Pop fetish has gotten kinda out of hand. All kinds of artists are trying to share the spotlight with them. Next, we're going to see them team up with Kendrick Lamar.

6) TikTok - I just don't get it. What’s the difference? 

7) Cancel Culture

To me all cancel culture is silenced by Trump being our president. Where was all of this righteous indignation when we voted him into office? You might say "I didn't vote for him." Yeah, but, WE did - Idk what that says about us, but it's prob not good.

It doesn't even really work - Louis CK is currently selling out venues for an unapologetic tour. I'm not even saying that it SHOULD work (in SOME cases). I'm simply saying that it doesn't work (in most cases). But, perhaps the fear of it working is enough. Or perhaps we should think through how we spend our anger.

BUT, enough of that! It's time to pass out this year's PRAPHIE AWARD!

Here are the noms:

Jordan Peele

Pedro the turtle

(no need for context, just know he’s awesome)

Baby Yoda

 (btw - studies show that if you have access to "The Mandalorian" and you AREN'T watching it, you're an asshole. This is not ME talking, this is science)

Megan Rapinoe (who I’ve already mentioned)

Flying Elbow Guy (Again, this requires no context. It’s Flying Elbow Guy! There is a baseball player who’s name I can’t remember. He took on a whole team, and... you know what - that’s too much exposition. It’s Flying Elbow Guy!

  Keanu Reeves

Annnnnnnd! It’s...

...

KEANU!

This year:

Of course JW, Toy Story 4, Cyberpunk 2077, “Always be my Maybe”, plus we found out that he’s down for The Matrix 4, John Wick 4, and Bill & Ted. CRAZY!

Also my BAMF of the year (see previous post)!

We love Keanu Reeves so much, that he's allowed to murder as many people as he wants (as John Wick).

We'll get mad if an actor who's not handicapped is playing someone who is, we'll get mad about whitewashing (as we should), we'll get mad if things are too sexualized, we GOT MAD at "Joker" for predicted violence. But, Keanu can murder all he wants:)

(See the scene above? - that was a McDonald’s before he showed up)

He found love as well. Women are loving that he chose someone closer to his age. Honestly, Idk why it matters. I'd still love this man, even if he were dating 22 year old, racist ass Camila Cabello.

But, he's viewed by some as the perfect man. I disagree. I don’t think that he’s merely the perfect man, but the perfect human.

His career and popularity paths are unique. No one would call him a... GOOD actor, but look at him! And he seems like a genuinely, awesomely, good person. And whatever "good person" means to you, he's at the top! We should all (men and women) be a lil more like Keanu in 2020.

Let's all be as lovable as we can, so we may all get away with as much as we can:)

With each new year, I challenge myself with a slogan to live by. In 2020, it's going to be this - 

From Eddie Murphy’s “Raw”- Richard Pryor’s advice to Eddie, concerning Bill Cosby 

Telling certain people in my way "To have a Coke and a smile, and shut the bleep up." Sometimes, I might need to be the one to do this, rather than say it - we'll see.

Here was the runner-up slogan (his response)

Magical.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Enjoy yourselves. Be less of an asshole. And be safe... enough to at least make it TO 2020.

Much love!