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hank-the-hedehog · 4 months

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Hank's journey: Sonic Adventure 2: part 1

Disclaimer: This series would be about Hank's journey through various events, be it the canon events with alteration or fan-made ones in no chronological order. Said events will be researched before writing about them. Canon characters may be portrayed differently as this series is set in a parallel dimension/au to the main Canon.

A week after Eggman's break-in to the secret military base and keeping out of sight, Hank listens to the police and military frequencies. "They are after Gerald's grandson." His ear twitches as someone or something is approaching him. "Time to move." He uses chaos control to teleport before the military personnel find him. The personnel looks around the area Hank was in. "Sir, the signal disappeared." The commanding officer enters the premises. "It could be the escaped Project Hank." The personnel looks at her superior. "Sir, wasn't Project Hank eliminated 50 years ago?" The officer shakes his head. "He escaped along with the scientists who made him. We have been looking for them for 50 years since our raid cadet." The cadet hears footsteps. "Sir, someone's coming." The officer pats the cadet's shoulder. "I will take care of it. Continue with the scan." The cadet salutes her officer. "Yes, sir!" She continues her scan as her officer goes to secure the perimeter.

Standing on top of a building, Hank observes his pursuers. "Those must be G.U.N agents. Luckily, it's night right now, or they would have spotted me." He pulls the hood of his cape on. "I will need to be extra careful from now on." He checks the movements of the local government and notices something. "They are heading to one location." He hears explosions nearby and glances in its direction. "That's probably why." He races to the scene to investigate. Arriving at the scene, Hank sees two hedgehogs with different colors fighting. "Who are they?" He recognizes one of the hedgehogs as he feels a chaos surge when that hedgehog teleported. "That's must be Shadow." He sees the other is surrounded by armed personnel. "I guess I will have to help them." He teleports to the remaining hedgehog.

The hedgehog looks around to figure out an escape route only to see more people pointing guns at him and smirks. "Bring it." He feels a hand grabbing his arm and looks at who it belongs to. A cloaked figure teleports himself and the hedgehog away. The hedgehog takes his arm away from the cloaked figure. "Woah, what!?!? You can teleport like that faker I fought. you've a Chaos Emerald on you too? " The figure removes his hood and shows who he is. "You can say that. My name is Hank." He offers his hand to the hedgehog. "And it is good to see another hedgehog like me." The hedgehog shakes Hank's hand. "Same except for that faker hedgehog who calls himself Shadow. Anyway, the name's Sonic." Hank looks at his comm device as it beeps. "We should go now. Can you keep up?" Sonic rubs his nose and chuckles. "Of course, I can." Hank puts his comm device in his bag and warms up. "Good. Follow me." He hops down to the streets and speeds off with Sonic following him.

After outrunning their pursuers, the two hide in a nearby forest. Hank checks his comm device, then looks around. "Our pursuers won't find us here. We can use the downtime to rest." He grabs a couple of protein bars and hands half of them to Sonic. "Here. You must be hungry. You will need the extra energy if we are going after Shadow." Sonic takes them and eats one after unwrapping it. "You know him or something?" Hank eats a piece from one of his protein bars. "Yeah, I was created as a failsafe in case he didn't come through." Sonic raises a brow. "What you mean by created?" Hank removes one of his gloves and looks at the back of his hand. "I was artificially made in a laboratory -" He shows Sonic a Chaos Emerald shard embedded in his hand. "- using a Chaos Emerald and an alien DNA." He puts the glove back on.

Sonic whistles, then pokes Hank’s arm as if in disbelief. “Wait, so that Shadow from before is artificial too?” Hank nods. Sonic blinks. “Ooouu Huh..” He ponders on the intel. He seems lost in thought as he rubs his chin. Hank continues. “I was designed with a similar purpose as him.” Sonic’s ears perk, alerting him back to the present. He angles forward, squinting one eye as he fans his hand, anticipating an answer. “And that would beee..?” Hank takes another bite from his snack. “A solution for incurable diseases.” Sonic’s eyes widen. “Whoa, really? That’s cool… So then why is *he* making a scene and making me look like I’m the bad guy here? He gone rogue or something?” He drops his tone to almost a mumble as he continues rambling on amongst himself. “How does anyone even mistake him for me? He looks nothing like me-" Hank looks at Sonic and shrugs. "It doesn't matter to them. They view us as aliens to lock up and experiment on." Sonic crosses his arms. "Then I need to find my friends before they do." Hank finishes his snack. "Alright. Who do you want to find first?" Sonic points over to Hank's hand. "High chance my bud Tails'll track us down with your chaos energy, so we should probably go look for the others. Come to think of it.. Knux can actually sniff out chaos energy as well. Don't ask me how, probably just some special quirk he got for being the guardian or something." He shrugs, shaking his head. "Not sure how he'll take it if he finds out you got a piece of an emerald embedded into you." Hank takes his comm device from his bag and opens something on it. "Okay, can you put their descriptions in here?" He hands his comm device to Sonic. Sonic looks at the device and then at Hank before taking it. "Why?" Hank emits some Chaos Energy and focuses it around him. "To find your two friends. And I will guide your third friend to us." He mutters under his breath. "Hopefully, they won't find us first." He focuses his energy into two large bolts.

Meanwhile, somewhere in the sky above. A fox flies his plane and notices the attached chaos emerald start to glow. "Huh? A chaos energy signature nearby? I should check if it is an emerald. I hope Sonic is okay." He follows the signal to a forest and looks down to see a bright light shining below. "That must be the source." He looks around and finds an open field. "This will do to land the cyclone." He flies to the open field and lands his plane. He pushes a button, and the plane transforms into a bipedal mech. "Now, let's see who this chaos energy belongs to." He heads to the light source.

Hank stops emitting his chaos energy and looks at Sonic. "Your friend is probably on his way." Sonic squints one eye and hands the device to its owner. "How'd you know?" Hank walks past Sonic. "I had a momentary link with his or her chaos emerald through my emerald." He looks over his shoulder. "We will meet your friend halfway." Sonic follows Hank. "Then it must be Tails. He has an emerald with him." Hank's ears perk and glances around him. "Good. Do you want to see who can reach him first?" Sonic notices the noise and nods. "Sure, slow poke." Hank chuckles and takes a running pose. "We will see." Sonic takes a running pose as well. "Ready. Set. Go!" The two of them start racing to Tails' location.

Tails glances at the Chaos Emerald and notices it starting to glow brightly. "Hmm, whoever is producing chaos energy is getting closer." He looks around to where the energy is coming from. "Where are you?" He stops as two hedgehogs zip past him. "Huh?" He looks at one of the hedgehogs and sees his friend. "Sonic!" Sonic walks to Tails with Hank following behind. "Tails! Are you okay, buddy?" Tails hops out of the cyclone. "I'm okay. I'm glad I found you." He looks at Hank. "Oh, hi. I'm Tails." Hank nods. "Hank. You built that mech?" Tails looks at Cyclone. "Yes. It has a chaos emerald in it." Hank admires the design and glances at Sonic. "Your friend is a genius. And I assume you heard what I heard before our little run, right?" Sonic nods. "What's your plan?" Hank points at Tails' mech. "You and your friend get out of here while I distract them." He looks at Tails and shows him the emerald shard in his hand. "And you can track me later." Tails touches Hank's hand. "That's what the cyclone's emerald detected. It detected you." Hank puts his gloves back on. "That's my plan." Sonic rubs his chin. "Okay." Hank fist bumps Soinc. "Don't get captured." Sonic chuckles. "I'll tell you the same." Hank goes back in the same direction as Sonic and Tails goes the other way.

To be continued

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[ Next ]

Master post

Hank belongs to me @lionwriters-blog and @hank-the-hedehog

Sonic, Shadow, Tails, and G.U.N. belong to Sega

I like to thank @hammie-heart for helping me with some parts of this chapter.

#sonic fandom #hank the hedgehog #sonic oc #sonic fan character #sonic the hedgehog #hank's journey #sonic fanfiction

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gthreepio · 4 years

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i’ve been thinking about the future of the mcu and realized there’s a LOT that i didn’t know/didn’t remember in terms of where things are going so i figured i’d sum it up incase anyone else was in the same boat!!

quick recap of (unresolved) mid-credit scenes:

doctor strange: mordo (a sorcerer that is one of strange’s mentors, who by the end of the movie becomes disillusioned with magic/the ancient one and quits) confronts pangborn (the paraplegic who healed himself with the mystic arts, who tells strange about mystic arts in the first place) and steals his magic because according to mordo, there are “too many sorcerers." of note, this guy is typically a villain in the comics but hasn’t been thus far...

gotg2: ayesha (leader of the sovereign, a golden skinned alien race obsessed with genetic purity), after spending most of the movie chasing the guardians for stealing some stuff, is revealed to have created an artificial being named “adam” which is presumably, adam warlock. (other stuff that is less relevant: kraglin appears to take up yondu’s mantle; the ravagers regroup and several old and obscure comic book characters are introduced [charlie-27, aleta, martinex, mainframe]; the watchers are watching things.)

far from home: j jonah jameson basically tells the whole world spider-man’s secret identity, and frames him for what happened with mysterio....making him public enemy #1. ALSO, turns out nick fury and maria hill in the movie were ACTUALLY the two skrulls from captain marvel (talos and soren) attempting to do their job, while the real fury (and presumably hill) is ... up in space on some spaceship!!!

wandavision: monica (who we can assume is photon) is called by “an old friend of [her] mother’s,” up in space, which presumably means fury, talos, or carol. ALSO, wanda sits in the middle of nowhere reading the darkhold and hears the voices of her children who.. by all accounts, should not exist.

aaaaand what we know about future movies (i’m not even going into the tv series.....):

black widow:

takes place after civil war

nat confronts a “dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past,” likely has to do with taskmaster who has apparently taken over the red room where nat was trained as an assassin

prominent new characters: yelena belova, who will take over the mantle of black widow after this; alexei shostakov aka red guardian, an ollllld marvel hero analogous to captain america except for the soviet union.

tony stark will make an appearance... SOBS

shang-chi and the legend of the ten rings:

shang-chi has never been seen in the mcu before, but he is, essentially, a superhero that is a master martial artist, and in some adaptations can also create duplicate (fake) versions of himself to confuse opponents

main villain will be the the mandarin who we have *sort of* seen before... he is the leader of a terrorist organization called “ten rings” whose main goal is to destroy world peace. brief history -- in iron man 1: one ten rings cell kidnaps tony stark and tries to force him to make weapons (he of course, makes his suit instead). stark and ten rings become enemies and fight a bunch. nat and nick fury fight them too. in iron man 3, the villain aldrich killian hires a dude to pretend to be the mandarin and claim responsibility for a bunch of stuff, but its not the ten rings or the mandarin at all. this makes the mandarin v mad and he has a dude kidnap the faker to punish him. they also briefly show up in ant-man, when a ten rings agent tries to buy the yellowjacket suit that darren cross is selling. BUT IN SHANG-CHI....... looks like we are FINALLY going to see the real mandarin after over a decade!!

the villain razor fist will also show up, he is lesser known... he has no superhuman powers but he has surgically replaced his hands (1 or 2, depending on the version) with a steel blade, and is highly skilled at hand to hand combat.

besides the presence of these characters, the only bit of plot we know is “shang-chi is drawn into the ten rings organization and forced to confront his past.” so... yeah. we don’t know much at all.

eternals:

quick explanation: the eternals are an immortal alien race who have been secretly living on earth for thousands of years. they were created by the celestials, who are most prominently in gotg2.

more entirely new characters!!! their names are: thena, who can form any weapon out of cosmic energy; gilgamesh, who can make a super strong exoskeleton out of cosmic energy; ikaris, who has superhuman strength, flies, and can project cosmic energy out his eyes; kingo, who can shoot cosmic energy projectiles from his hands; makkari, who creates sonic booms, has super speed, and is deaf; phastos, who has enhanced intelligence, and is also gay (and married with a kid!); ajak, who has healing powers; sprite, who can project illusions; sersi, who can manipulate matter; druig, who can mind control; and dane whitman (black knight), a human with a mystical sword.

regarding the plot... it seems the eternals have kind of dispersed, but have to come together again to fight the deviants, who are their “evil counterparts” (also created by the celestials, though i’m unclear on why). thena and gilgamesh have apparently been in exile, unclear why; sersi, who is posing as a museum curator, has apparently been in love with ikaris for centuries and it seems as if their love story may be central to the film; and kingo is a bollywood film star in his spare time. aaaaand that’s pretty much all we know.

directed by chloé zhao of nomadland fame!

spider-man no way home:

based on the post-credits scene in far from home, peter parker will now be known as spider-man to everyone. unclear if he’s going to be seen as a bad guy due to mysterio framing him, but i guess we’ll see!

jamie foxx is electro, and alfred molina is doctor octopus; which is VERY interesting considering they played these roles in other spider-man franchises, once again stirring up excitement for possible multiverse.

there have been *multiple* reports that andrew garfield, kirsten dunst, tobey maguire, and emma stone will be in the movie but tom holland has repeatedly denied this... so... who knows.

there are also rumors that matt murdock / daredevil (from netflix) will be in several scenes! not confirmed though.

MJ is still his girlfriend and i hope it stays that way!!

doctor strange will be featured in the movie, taking on the mentor role now that tony stark is gone :( this will be interesting as i.. haven’t really seen them interact much before. because of this inclusion some people speculate that the film may draw inspo from some comic storylines where peter’s secret identity is restored with magic.

doctor strange in the multiverse of madness:

scarlet witch is essentially co-starring!!! it’s going to be really interesting to see if they bring vision or the twins into this at all, though i’m not counting on it.

seems like mordo will be the main villain -- recall the ds1 post credits scene where he is apparently running around trying to steal people’s magic.

america chavez will make her debut!!!!!! i have no idea how this plays into anything but i am so excited!!

regarding the plot, all we really know is that strange has been researching the time stone, mordo messes with him, and this results in him accidentally unleashing “unspeakable evil.” presumably there will also be heavy involvement of the multiverse, and who knows what kind of craziness that will bring!!

initially was going to be directed by scott derrickson who did ds1; however he stepped down to being just EP due to “creative differences.” i am presuming this is because derrickson really wanted to make this more gothic and horror than disney was comfortable with. i REALLY hope they keep some of those elements though and don’t erase the idea entirely! anyway, it will be directed by sam raimi now (of evil dead and spiderman 2002 fame).

the film also reportedly ties in with the loki series (will loki show up!?) and spiderman 3 (which is obvious enough, given that strange is in that movie and those curious electro and doctor octopus castings...)

thor: love and thunder

directed by taika waititi again, hell yeah!!! and he has stated, the film will be “so over the top now in the very best way" and would make ragnarok look like a "run of the mill, very safe film" .... so.... oh god

so many great returning players!!! including.... valkyrie (now the king of new asgard), jane foster, lady sif, korg, star-lord, mantis, drax, nebula, and kraglin (takes up yondu’s mantle after he dies in gotg2)

in this movie, thor isn’t thor anymore.... it’s JANE!!! she gets cancer :( and is undergoing treatment while simultaneously being thor. i’m a little nervous how this will be handled, but i’m excited. (it’s based off an amazing comic series by jason aaron)

the big bad: gorr the god butcher, played by christian bale! the gist of it is, this dude HATES gods because nobody helped when his family was dying and in need. his weapon is “all-black the necrosword,” forged from the head of a celestial, and allows the user to create wings and fly at extreme speeds. honestly, he sounds cool as fuck.

valkyrie is going to be made canonically bisexual!!!

it will explore more of korg’s backstory, and also include... space sharks!?!?! an alien race from the comics.

taika has called the script “very romantic” so take that as you will

black panther 2

will again be directed by ryan coogler

not much is known at this point, does not have an official name

t’challa will NOT be recast (which i’m happy about) so..... honestly no idea what to expect for this one. i think we can probably expect shuri to have an expanded role. all we know so far is they will be “exploring the world of wakanda.” not clear to me how this is different from the upcoming wakanda D+ series.

tenoch huerta has reportedly been cast as a villain, but no one has any idea who. there’s also rumors that donald glover is in “informal talks” to play a role. note all of this is unconfirmed.

captain marvel 2

will be directed by nia da costa (candyman!) and written by megan mcdonnell, who is one of wandavision’s best writers!

will take place in the present day

will feature kamala khan / ms. marvel, monica rambeau / photon!!! this will be so interesting.... kamala is a huge fan of carol’s in the comics, she is her mentor/idol. the ms. marvel series will also resportedly lead into cm2. and monica, well, monica knew her when she was a little kid. wandavision implies that there’s some bad blood between carol and monica though, not sure why. maybe because carol left and never came back? (until endgame)

post-credits scene of wandavision appears to tie into this, having monica go up into space at the reqeust of her “mom’s old friend.” again, not clear who that is. this could also be a tie in to secret invasion though, so we’ll see. or both.

zawe ashton has been cast as an unknown villain... a lot of people are actually speculating that she may play rogue? which would be fascinating, as there’s a comic arc where rogue steals her powers and memories. BUT there’s still no confirmation that X-men exist in the MCU so for now i remain skeptical.

they are looking to cast a ‘john boyega’ or ‘michael b jordan’ type which makes me wonder if they are going to create a new character, a “younger” war machine to be her love interest? (note: carol and rhodey are a huge thing in comics!) carol obviously does not look her age but her and don cheadle.... that just doesn’t work. which is why i wonder.

ant-man and the wasp: quantumania

in addition to scott and hope, pretty much all the major players are returning including: luis, hank pym, janet van dyne

cassie lang has been recast with an actress 5 years older, which is really making me wonder if they are going to make her stinger in this movie! (aka one of the main young avengers)

the villain: kang the conqueror! this dude time travels. original name nate richards. in the comics, kang travels back in time to rescue his younger self (nate) from an attack that would help shape him towards a life of villainy. kang also gives him some fancy armor. his younger self actually is like, what the fuck dude? and renounces his destiny, becoming a hero. and he makes his armor look like iron man, calling himself iron lad. who is a young avenger. which also makes me wonder about cassie lang.

otherwise not much is known!

guardians of the galaxy vol. 3

james gunn is returning, i’m mixed about this...he really does *get* the guardians though.

based on the gotg2 post credits scene, i think we can assume adam warlock will be a HUGE part of this. there are multiple versions of him, some villainous and some heroic, but no idea how this is gonna turn out.

no word yet on whether thor will be involved, or if those ravagers they introduced will be involved.

fantastic four

will be directed by the spiderman guy, john watts.

otherwise we know literally nothing.

aaaaand that’s the roundup!

#mcu #marvel #black widow #shang chi and the legend of the ten rings #eternals #smnwh #spiderman: no way home #doctor strange in the multiverse of madness #dsitmom #thor: love and thunder #tlat #black panther 2 #captain marvel 2 #ant man and the wasp: quantumania #amatwq #guardians of the galaxy vol. 3 #gotg3 #fantastic four #mcu thoughts

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glitterytidalwavedragon · 4 years

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Putting it Out There (A Biracial Child)

I’ve always wanted to address this, I just never knew where or how to. But, as I write, I see the influences come into play more and more (More so when I am writing my B.B fanfic and the Tourist), so I thought, now is a good time as any and this is the only account and platform I feel safe (maybe because I don’t have 200+ friends or followers here who know me outside of social media). I also feel as if this prospective of life isn’t given much attention or heard.

I, as some may know cause I had commented as such, am a biracial child. My father is a Caribbean Hispanic male and my mother of German and Italian descent.

This does not mean I have the best of both worlds. In fact, most of the times I feel alienated.

Born in the early 90′s, the song “Livin’ La Vida Loca” by Ricky Martin was every where. My mother would tell me that song was about me, now I was 5-6ish. I thought she referred to me liking cats, and trying to go out to perform a crap version of ‘Singing in the Rain’ along with the love for magic.

No, it wasn’t so innocent. It was straight up because of my skin tone. I looked like the girl the song was describing. I had no idea. Nor did I realize a silent war was raging in my family.

Growing up was...hard to say the least. It is even harder when you have racism on both sides pointing fingers at each other. On my mother’s side, my aunt and uncle wouldn’t allow me to visit unless it was a holiday to which there was pressure from the family. Out of spite, they would invite my much older siblings father over to cause a fight (The man did not celebrate christmas). Meanwhile my other aunt would tell me over and over again I was Italian. In the end, during these events I would end up alone and not know why.

Now lets turn to the other side of the family, my father’s. My first words had been Spanish. Yet, I lived with English speaking relatives... guess who stopped speaking Spanish for a long while. When visiting my family on his side, none of of my relatives would address me, only if they had to because my father was not around. These people knew how to speak English, very well even though they had moved from their native island. They just refused to speak to me. This sucked cause where it was 3 people on my mother’s side, it was 16 aunt’s and uncles on my fathers not counting the dozens of cousins I had. So, as the other family events, I ended up alone not knowing why.

The answer was rather simple but much to complicated for my child self. Both sides of my family was and still is completely racist. My white mother was near exiled for being with a man many would consider black (he considers himself Spanish and oddly doesn’t get the fascination on why his skin matters or makes me worry about him when he is stopped by cops...). I was the ‘mixed’ baby, a simple of her family’s shame.

My father’s side could not care what color my mother was, only that she was not Spanish. For those who don’t know, Spanish can be an array of color, its cool. But, she was no Spanish, did not speak Spanish and therefore my father was exiled by everyone but his own mother for many years (which is why we ended up in family events, my mama wanted to see her youngest grandchild by her baby boy). This meant being put at the back table, being openly mocked, and never told of big family events like babies or weddings.

This only lead to more fighting at home and in the end even my own siblings, alienated me. It was a pretty lonely experience.

This carried on to school and friendships. Elementary was not fun, but I felt the effects more in Jr. and High school. In elementary I was grouped with the other Spanish kids, because starting in late summer I had my Spanish tan on and therefore, I was not white to other white kids. But I did not speak Spanish. At one point I spoke gibberish to just to be able to hang with the Spanish kids at recess. It worked and I still don’t know how.

In Jr. ahhhh... at one point my family was making good money, which originally, it once took the income of five adults to keep us afloat, now it just took 2. My father and my grandpa (who I will talk about later). We moved to a ‘nicer’ neighborhood. In the early 2000′s that mean, a white neighborhood. Boy, did I stick out.

Now you might think “But you grew up in NYC, said you were from Brooklyn” well, here is a fun fact. Nothing is more segregated than NYC schools. The north did not do busing like the south did, so white schools stayed mostly white while schools in low income areas stayed mostly black or other minority races. I was a very tan child going into a white neighbor hood to a white school. Lets top it off that I played video games and Yu-Gi-Oh, HA!

I received hell. I had legit parents sneer at me, and girls asking me if I had sex because I was Spanish. A 12 year old, got hit on by 15 year olds because they thought my race made me easy. I was 12, all I wanted was to collect cards and play Pokemon on my stupid advance, I had no time for boys unless they were anime. But... someone (more than likely their parents) had set these ideas in their head on how Spanish people, more so girls, acted.

Then I realized, I really liked all things Gothic. A Spanish Goth.... it pains me to think about it. Everything from poser, to faker, and ‘trying to act white’ was laid on me. I could not wait for Jr. High to end. And when it did, a whole 180 happen.

I was no longer Spanish. I did not know why, just everyone referred to me as ‘the ONLY white girl’ in the school and that is not a joke. My school, was dubbed the worse in all of Brooklyn and shut down, which I believe it was dubbed that because of the 1% white population... I was the 1 after my second year when the other white kid (who was a boy people asked was my boyfriend) graduated. Now, in high school it wasn’t the kids who gave me hell. It was the teachers.

In fact, high school led me to meet others who were also feeling alienated. One of which I am very close to, a black man who is Jewish (adopted by a white couple) and gay. He did not where he belonged either. In the mid-00′s to be a black gay man living near the ghetto was dangerous. I can’t count how many times he had to hide who he was so he wouldn’t get shot. Nor could I count how many times my other friend coped with being a biracial black man who loved anime and being goth so much he was bullied for it when we weren’t together (who I ended up dating throughout high school).

Suddenly being labelled white get me an acceptance I was not expecting. I ended up being popular against my best efforts and people who I did not know knew me. At 15 I did not get what had changed, because no one had told me yet. No, I figured it out at 16, when I was placed in senior English because of my grades. My English teacher told me, I was white, in the worse why I could ever imagine.

My English teacher, a beautiful black woman who celebrated her African roots, gave an assignment one day. I was one out of five in a class of thirty who did it, because I did it in her class the day before. I played sports, so did half the other kids, I did not have time after school. This did not sit well with her, she was mad, which was an understatement. So, she turned to the class and said

“This is why our people end up in Jail or having babies to early. Because like black people don’t take education seriously.” Then called be out by name and continued “is why she will end up being successful, because white people know the importance of an education.”

First off, she was very racist towards EVERYONE, second I at 16, who was always called Spanish in school was now labelled white in front of everyone by an adult. I was both confused and terrified as my boyfriend who knew my family cared JACK SHIT about education looked ready to kill her. Luckily, he just walked out of class and waited for me as I was too studded to move.

I later asked him if he thought I was white, he admitted he did until he saw my father and called me biracial. For the first time in 16 years, I had been called biracial. Went home, did not tell anyone what happened, asked my mother if I was biracial and she said yes. To shorten this up, this was what life felt like,

At home, I had no race. Neither side welcomed me.

In school, I was told I was Spanish and had to fake my way in the Spanish group.

Jr High, I am now trying to distance myself from everyone as being Spanish makes me a target.

High School, I thought being Spanish would be a good thing. Now everyone is telling me I am white.

I had not idea who or what I was.

All I ever wanted was to be me. I wanted to understand why my family never got close to me, and I wanted friends who were friends because I was me.

It was like I was being ripped to pieces. I could be what others wanted or be no one at all. I had no idea what to do. If people at the new school found out I was Spanish, would I become a target again? I was allowed to freely play games, watch anime, and be my gothic self if I were white. But that also meant I could not hang out with my friends who lived in the Ghetto, shouldn’t like rap, R&B, and reggaetón or use the slang I grew up always using.

To be a Spanish person trying to be white

A white person trying to be black/another minority of color.

I had watched as the former got my friend (boyfriend at the time) kicked out of classrooms as he was compared to those involved in columbine shooting from teachers since he was different. Also the hell he received from other boys for cosplaying and playing anime based card games. At one point it was so rough he thought about dropping out and I begged him to stay along with his mother. I was so afraid of going through that again.

So I kept my mouth shut.

I took on the military standard of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”. My father never came to the school because he worked so much so no one knew. Everyday, I just took what my English teacher said to be without any force back. When Obama was voted in, she told me I had no right to celebrate, that my people had JFK and that Obama was for all the minorities to celebrate. I fell into a dark hole of hating myself. My home life was awful and now school I had to pretend to be something I wasn’t comfortable with. I started ditching classes, got into more fights than I would care to admit, did some really shady stuff and began hurting myself.

The only joy I got was when I busted my ass grades wise and got out of school six months early. I did not have to go to school anymore and I could lock myself away to be no one but myself. It was lonely but I found company in books and my art. Through art I was allowed to be me and no one could take that away.

When I returned for Graduation I June, did I get the final laugh on that English bitch. My mother and father showed up, she asked if my father was a cab driver helping my mother as she had gone blind. I told her, rather happily, that was my father. She went from joy to sheer disgusts faster than you can blink. For years she kept talking about who ‘mix babies’ never got any where as their fathers were never around. Yet, despite me hardly showing up, I gradated top of my class, never had a baby nor was I ‘loose’ (In fact I feared sex as a teenager), and my mixed couple parents as she lovingly called it, were together.

She walked away from me and never said a word since.

But now school was over, college was starting. I still hadn’t figured out who I was. Was I white/Italian or Spanish. In college I learnt no one was going to tell me who I was anymore, nor did they care. At home, it was still a battle of the races. Finally, one of my cousins spoke up and declared I wasn’t Spanish as I knew nothing of the language. At home, my aunt and uncle decided I was Spanish and called me a ‘Spick’ as a joke. I did not take it as one and therefore I was called ‘uptight’.

My siblings also informed me, if I wanted free college to put down Spanish on everything unless it was the census. Then I should be white. Sometimes I still run into people who think I am one over the other. I had people come up to be speaking Spanish to be highly offended when I tell them I don’t speak the Language well. (I tried learning but it is hard when motivation is not there).

In recent years, I had someone at work tell me how they met a Spanish person, shockingly where my father works, and then described in detail my father and then tell me they thought he was illegal since he looked the type. All because they thought I was white... proud to say that person got fired for being racist.I did also inform them that was my father to their response was “you’re one of them”.

It never ends.

No, the reason why I haven’t been driven insane is because of my late grandpa. My grandpa was a man I adopted to be my grandfather. My biological grandfathers on both sides died long before I was born and the man I adopted was close to the family and acted like a father to my parents. He was a good man and the reason I had a childhood.

He once went through the same, Italian/Jewish, you wouldn’t think there would be a problem but when he was growing up that equaled Catholic/Jewish, to which he too was either pinned in the middle or rejected by both sides, this is the 1930′s-1940s. He gave me the best piece of advance ever.

To be myself.

That if I were myself, then it did not matter. The moment I stopped being who I am, that passing or faking would never tell me who my real friends were. That if he, could love me for who I was, a weird girl who liked boy things and drawing strange looking characters, then anyone else could. Being a stranger to myself would never bring happiness. So, after years of not listening to that, I finally decided to listen to my Grandpa.

I know who I am, I know the history of my families. They might not like that I am not what they want me to be, but they don’t have to live with me. I have to live with who I am. My friends are my friends because they know who I am, not who they think I should be.

So for all my biracial brothers, sisters and them’s, be yourself. Don’t try to force yourself into a mold, it isn’t worth it. None of it is worth it.

Look yourself in the mirror and say your name. Say it loud and let everyone know they can not define who you are, and so what if they say you don’t belong, guess what? You do if you want. You belong because YOU say so, because that blood runs in your veins as well as theirs. So you get to make that choice!

Make that choice of being you! Define yourself to YOUR standards.

Don’t let anyone take that away. I know I won’t.

So here I see myself! A strange fox who changes coats with the seasons, that loves anime and video games, who plays Yu-Gi-Oh and listens to opera and Metal while can twerk and get low to Daddy Yankee! Who eats sushi and makes a mean chicken cutlet but can also make the best empanda with beans and rice with the rest of them!

And no one can take that from me.

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mobius-prime · 4 years

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269. Sonic Universe #2

The Shadow Saga (Part 2 of 4): Time & Again

Writer: Ian Flynn Pencils: Tracy Yardley! Colors: Jason Jensen

So, do you remember how way back when we got the single-issue incomplete "adaption" of Sonic Adventure 2, I mentioned that the events of the incident would be clarified by Ian Flynn in a later issue? Well, this is the one! Interspersed within the events of the modern story are flashbacks to what happened during Sonic Adventure 2, heavily modified to fit within the comic's world. However, I've elected to tackle the modern half of the story first, and explore Sonic Adventure 2 afterward, mostly because though Ian seems to be trying to draw parallels between the latter story and the former, they don't really… work all that well, nowhere near the level that they did in the first arc of KtE anyway.

The modern story opens with Shadow approaching the Freedom Fighters' camp not far from the Eggdome in the middle of the night, waking Sonic up to invite him along to a little bonus mission.

I mean, while I can understand wanting to invite Sonic on a mission against Eggman, 1. he's already on one, and 2. you'd think Shadow would realize he'd need some sleep before the final battle against his arch-nemesis. What, you can't handle this alone, Shadow? Well, as it turns out he's not actually alone, as Sonic reaches the rendezvous point first (zooming off ahead of Shadow, of course), and finds Rouge waiting for him. Apparently, Eggman's been working on a sneaky plan to turn a telescope in the city into a massive laser capable of wiping the Freedom Fighters' little camp off the map, shield or no… as well as half of the rest of the city. Sonic thinks this is overkill even for someone like Eggman, but as Shadow catches up he explains that GUN doesn't quite think so.

To be fair, Sonic, you haven't been seeing the behind-the-scenes insane ramblings of his that Snively's been subject to recently. They break into the laser control room, and Sonic and Shadow deal with the smaller security lasers while Rouge hacks into the control system, trying to disable the thing. The cannon is already moving into position to fire, and worse still, the console then fries itself, Rouge having accidentally triggered a self-destruct command. Sonic and Shadow try to destroy the cannon directly, but no amount of spindashing or Chaos Spear-ing will pierce its armor, so Rouge suggests going for the bolts holding it in place, hoping it might throw off the shot.

Brilliant job, guys! Shadow, seeing no other choice, removes his inhibitor rings and climbs onto the top of the cannon just as it begins to fire. He uses all of his power to force the shot to misfire outwards instead of straight ahead, wrecking the barrel but saving the Freedom Fighters. This is really the only place where the parallels Ian tries to draw make sense, as then we see a flashback of him using his power a year ago to force the ARK back into orbit, and subsequently falling back into the atmosphere.

Aww, look at 'em! As the sun begins to rise, the three walk back towards the camp, and Sonic asks if they want in on the invasion. Shadow refuses, saying that he believes this is Sonic's fight considering how long he's been fighting against Eggman. As Sonic leaves, Rouge smirks at Shadow, and remarks on how far their relationship has come from before. Shadow, of course, has to defend his ego and insists he merely respects Sonic, to which Rouge teases him even more about how of course he can't admit he's made a friend.

Now, time to take a look at what their relationship used to be like, in the very-condensed Adaption 2.0 of Sonic Adventure 2! Instead of following exactly how it's portrayed in this issue, I'm just going to explain how exactly everything went down starting from the beginning, relying on context clues from this issue and previous ones. In case you've forgotten, during the events of the incident, both Tails and Knuckles were otherwise occupied, Amy was chilling in Mercia with Rob, and basically no one was even aware of where Sonic was at the time, as he was apprehended while sneaking back into Knothole while he was still supposed to be confined there. StH#98 covered what happened leading up to his arrest and subsequent breakout, but naturally, after the GUN truck chase he was rearrested and taken to Prison Island. Meanwhile, of course, Shadow had been released from his pod by Eggman, stolen a Chaos Emerald from Station Square, and presumably explained how the ARK's Eclipse Cannon worked to Eggman. Like in the game, Rouge also showed up at this point to offer her support in procuring more Chaos Emeralds - though as you might remember, at this point in the comic's history the emeralds still hadn't been combined into their distinct seven forms yet, so the Eclipse Cannon only required seven random emeralds to fire. Conspicuously missing is the entire plot point about Rouge stealing the Master Emerald from Knuckles, and the both of them subsequently searching for its shattered remnants all over the world, but if we're being quite honest the entire story still makes perfect sense without Knuckles and the Master Emerald, which I suppose is lucky for Ian trying to make sense out of all of this.

The point at which this issue actually starts recapping prior events begins on Prison Island after Sonic had broken out of prison once again - without the help of Amy or anyone else, mind you, since once again, they were all elsewhere at time. Really, this version of events is so stripped-down precisely because half of the game cast is missing, which is why the events of the game were able to fit into a single day despite several days passing in the game itself. Sonic and Shadow had their famous "faker" exchange in the forest and began fighting each other, with Rouge's voice coming over Shadow's communicator and informing them she'd found the remaining six Chaos Emeralds they'd need. At that point, Eggman reminded Shadow the whole island was about to blow, and at the same time Rouge called for help as she'd found herself stuck inside the vault. When Sonic heard Eggman tell Shadow to leave her and that they'd come back later to "dig the emeralds out of the ashes," he was outraged and offered Shadow a truce so they could rescue Rouge together. Shadow accepted, and they raced back to the facility as the timer counted down, with Shadow Chaos Control-ing them off the island and into the desert just before the place exploded.

See, while I understand where Ian is going with this, I really don't like his rewrite of Shadow's motivations here. For those not familiar, in the game, Shadow makes the decision to go back for Rouge entirely on his own, because the thought of her dying alone in the facility made him flash back to Maria's death. Later on, when she tries to talk to him about how he saved her, he avoids her questions, giving a similar excuse to this one, but with it being pretty obvious that that's not the case, as he hasn't stopped thinking about Maria since the mission. Here, Ian makes it seem like Shadow actually didn't care and indeed was only after the Chaos Emeralds, and he only went to the trouble of rescuing her thanks to Sonic's suggestion. However, I understand why this was kind of necessary - with his main allies elsewhere, Sonic needed someone to ally with for the next part of the plot. He ended up teaming up with Rouge, who was quite offended at Shadow's attitude, to break into the pyramid containing Eggman's base, and she piloted the space shuttle within up to the ARK. As I've pointed out before, at no point in the comic is it even slightly hinted that Eggman broke the moon in half as he does in the game - the only indication we have of such an event would be in StH#197, when Sonic recognizes Mobius from orbit by its half-destroyed moon, but in all fairness, the issue doesn't actually state the reason why the moon is broken. Remember, it's canon that Mobius has one hundred moons - that wasn't even retconned! Ian just made up a story behind it and put it in the Complete Sonic Comic Encyclopedia afterwards, but with one hundred whole-ass moons, it's entirely probable that at least one got bodied at some point in the planet's history, and Sonic just happened to recognize that particular one as he was reentering the planet's atmosphere. But anyway, once Sonic and Rouge made it up to the ARK, Sonic and Shadow quickly got into a fight on the catwalks outside the station, presumably while Eggman slotted the emeralds into their positions in the cannon.

*sigh* One of the biggest problems I have with the preboot is its handling of Shadow's entire story. I don't think Shadow ever got an actual chance to shine from his initial appearance until StH#171, when he had his whole "This is who I am" moment after exploring Gerald's digital diary. Everything about him, his entire backstory, was horribly neglected compared to his actually very rich and deep character arc from the games. This, above, is exactly what I'm talking about. In the game, it's implied that Shadow actually wins his final fight against Sonic (though Sonic obviously doesn't die from it), and then once the Eclipse Cannon is up and running, he moves into one of the ARK's observation rooms to quietly reflect on the past and watch the station crash into the planet. He doesn't snap out of it until Amy enters the room and her subsequent words trigger a flashback of Maria's real final wish. Furthermore, he's the only person in the cast who doesn't actually see the video of Gerald's execution or read his final diary entry. In other words, in the game, he comes back to his right mind organically, by remembering what his purpose is, while in the comic he apparently just got to watch a video telling him outright why he's wrong without him actually having to do the thinking that brings him back to reality. Seeing as Shadow is my favorite character in the entire franchise, this brushing-aside of one of the most important moments in his character arc irks me a little. But then again, I will still acknowledge that Ian wasn't really left a lot to work with here, and if anything the fault lies more with Karl Bollers and Kenders carelessly brushing past Sonic Adventure 2 in favor of their ongoing story about Robotropolis getting nuked or whatever.

Anyway, in the end, Shadow and Sonic went to the ARK's internal chamber that housed the Biolizard, and when it fused with the ARK to bring it crashing down to earth anyway, he and Sonic went Super and defeated it out in space, just like in the game. The game actually doesn't give a very clear reason why Shadow fell from orbit while Sonic was fine, but in the comic, it's shown that the act of teleporting the ARK back into orbit exhausted all his energy, resulting in the loss of his Super form early. As one of the above images shows, Sonic actually reached for him but was unable to catch him in time, hence his remark of not wanting to go through that again (even though realistically a fall from a five-story cannon is hardly going to do the same damage to Shadow as a fall from orbit). And that's it! As I said, the comic's adaption is incredibly stripped-down from the events of the game, but with so much of the cast missing, it kind of had to be. While I don't agree with all of Ian's decisions on how to adapt the circumstances while still retaining the basic gist of the story, I understand his ultimate conclusions, and in the end, they do work pretty well given how different the history of the world is in the comics versus the game. And despite Shadow not having a clear history with Rouge in the comics as he does in the games, Ian's finally saw fit to bring them together as a team in this issue, and they remain as such for the rest of the comic, including through the reboot.

But - hey, speaking of which, remember another adaption that was missing a few key plot points? Say… the first Sonic Adventure? Remember how the conclusion of Gamma's entire character arc was totally forgotten about and ignored? That would seem to imply that he's still out there somewhere… I wonder what he's up to nowadays. And for that matter, with the entirety of Sonic Heroes missing from the comics' timeline, where the heck is Omega in all this? Does he even exist? Gee, I wonder if we'll ever get to see these two important robot characters in the comic - like, say, next issue?

#nala reads archie sonic preboot #archie sonic #archie sonic preboot #sonic the hedgehog #su 2 #writer: ian flynn #pencils: tracy yardley #colors: jason jensen

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trickstarbrave · 7 years

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im mad and tired so all points of “you should never self diagnose ever!!!!!” are gonna be debunked

1. you don’t know your own symptoms/conditions as objectively as a doctor would! doctors are trained to learn all of these symptoms!!!

its impossible for a doctor to memorize all illnesses, conditions, and diseases. obscure ones or difficult ones are extremely unlikely to have any given doctor be an expert in. and doctors are not always objective-- far from it. doctors are people too, doctors can have biases, and doctors can be wrong. it is very common to go through multiple professionally diagnosed conditions, and sometimes doctors will flat out say “we’re not sure what you have” but give you treatment based on your symptoms

2. its dangerous to self-dx!!! you can hurt yourself!!!

most ppl who self dx only look for non-medical ways to improve their lives or symptoms. people who do it are looking for a community and life-style changes more so then they are to self medicate (which ppl can and do do w/o self-dx). there is usually little harm in it.

3. you make other mentally ill people look illegitimate!!! no one will take us seriously if they assume WE dont have professional credited illnesses!!!

bigots look for any reason to discredit mental illness. if all self dx stops, they will still try to de-legitimize your struggles and mock you/deny you access to care or support. that’s just a fact.

also the purity of ‘real credited illnesses/conditions’ is just bullshit. health is rarely clean cut. rarely is anyone a textbook example of anything. we barely understand mental health and plenty of physical illnesses. all we can do is make guesses at what happens in the brain to cause these symptoms, and there is also a lot of debate in the medical community about how effective it is to even have rigid categories of symptoms when instead you can just treat the symptoms as needed (because not every bipolar person for example will even have the same treatment and ppl w/ other conditions might find certain anti-psychotics helpful in their treatment)

4. well what if you’re wrong and then you have wasted everyone’s time and look like a big faker now? you’ll make everyone in the community angry!

like i said, doctors can also be wrong. its extremely common to go through multiple diagnoses and treatments because one diagnosis is settled on. being wrong or mistaken is okay, and instead of being quick to label everyone as an ‘EVIL FAKER’ the second they are mistaken or their doctors change what condition they have on a piece of paper is extremely harmful and can push away people who are NOT faking

5. self dx lets more fakers into the community!!!

being mentally ill is not some fun old club people are just scrambling to get into. mental illness is not a fun experience. while i will say there are people online who WILL try to fake stuff (much like how ppl pretend to be a dif race or gender or sexuality just to look more credible on subjects of oppression), there is little stopping them from just lying about their doctor diagnosing them with a certain condition.

plus there is more so an issue i think of this mentality of shunning healthy coping and personal improvement that has more to do w ppl mislabeling their experiences than just self-dx. ppl esp on tumblr are increasingly discouraged from talking about or having positive experiences (someone making a post abt how much they can do if they just sit down and focus-- cause they just got meds for ADHD and suddenly everyone is mocking them for being ‘neurotypical’, stuff like that). and this type of toxic mentality will not be stopped by banning self-dx, more people will just refuse to seek healthy patterns of living and never even think to question their symptoms, bc questioning symptoms and not having it as bad as you might have thought makes you stupid and neurotypical.

6. well if there is no issue, why not just go GET a professional diagnosis!!! if its just the same but you get less legal treatment, why not GET IT?

access to the medical industry is extremely limited, especially for mental health. while low-income health services DO exist they are frequently overcrowded and severely underfunded. wait lines to just GET IN for an appointment can be months or years long. and some illnesses require several visits to finalize a diagnosis, or doctors may not have the authority to give a diagnosis to someone under the age of 18. and even if you GET a diagnosis, medication might be impossible to buy without insurance, and medication will probably be one of the first treatment options you will be given by a professional.

this means people cannot get in and get quality care. they may also lack the money to pay for even low-income services or get transportation to the doctor. many poor people refuse life saving medical treatment just bc they cant pay for it. what makes you think they will immediately seek out mental health treatment? until we can improve the medical industry, its cruel to expect poor people either never seek out ANY help, even online for their conditions, until they can fork ove the money and years taken to get a professional diagnosis in an unfriendly industry.

also there is the case of people refusing to seek help because of medical abuse. and those people we should support. this post is already long so im just going to encourage you to seek out stories told by people of medical abuse, and look at the statistics of doctors who lose empathy for patients during or after medical school. this is another serious problem we should correct.

so in conclusion: no one thinks doctors are stupid and cant do anything and that we’re all flawless beings who know everything about ourselves. we just understand the limitations of the medical industry and the fact not everyone can even access it. in a perfect world everyone would have easy access to the medical industry, with no bias, no fear of sexism, racism, ableism, or abuse, and quality care that isnt so absorbed with putting us into sloppy categories just so our insurance companies agree to pay for our medication.

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chemtrailsturnedmypepegay-blog · 7 years

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hi my guys i just tried writing my first fanfic and i really hope you like it uwu

its more of a script as i envisioned it as a movie or tv show :3 The Bye Bye Manlet

Jane! Jane! Jane, it's me. Open up. Did you tell anyone? Did i... About the name. The name. Yeah, I told Rick. He thought it was funny. Just Rick and nobody else? No. Why? What's the matter? Barack, what's wrong? I'm sorry. You have no idea how sorry I am. Barack, you're scaring me. What are you doing? Rick? Ricky? Rick, the name. Janie! Did you tell anyone? Anyone? Ba… Barack, please. Please. I... Rick, he's coming! The name. Mi... Michelle. I to... I told Michelle. I'm gonna stop you! Michelle! - Barack! - Mom! Run! - Who did you tell? - He killed them! Don't think it. Mom, come on! Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Michelle! Did you say the name? Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't say it. Who did you say the name to, Michelle? Barack! Barack! What's up, playboy? How's it going? Good. Today is a good day. You got the key? No, it's under the mat. Ah. It's only 20 minutes. This is the first time he's rented the place. The guy says it's fantastic. What else would he say? It's a doghouse? I'm trying to convince her. Come on, man. Work with me. Sash? Yeah. I'm up for it. It's a little creepy. Right? Nah, it's just cold. Heat's off. I gotta piss like a racehorse. Cute. Dude! This place is sweet, bro. Hey. Right? We could put the desk over there. We could put the bed here. Well, maybe if there was a bed. I know. The landlord said it was fully furnished. Yo, El, come and check this out, man. This is crazy! Yo, come on down. Yo, El, come in here, man. Oh, it's... you can't get this in the dorms, right? Now, that's... That's classic. John, you really think Sasha wants to see that? Or that? Oh. You got the whole upstairs to make girlie. Okay? I've definitely seen bigger. See? You're awesome. Bro. She's awesome, man. Oh, yeah, you guys must've been hilarious when you were young. Must've been? Are. Tier 1. Hey, he made me look smart, and I made him look ugly. But after the crash, he took care of me. Talk shit about my boy's folks, you're done. Okay, and the tier 1's are both ready to cook and clean and help me do this place up, right? 'Cause I'm not gonna be your guys' maid. Of course not. I told him. Right? I never cooked you my butter pasta-nette? That is not a thing. - That's 'cause I invented it. - Okay. And I clean too. I promise. - Yo, what does this do? - Yeah, you cook. I said I "cooked," okay? Found the furniture. I've heard about you and all the girls. And that's exactly why we need to get out of the dorms. And this is perfect. Whoa! Easy. Oh. You all right? Yeah. Thanks. So it looks like the landlord wasn't lying. Wow. Damn, son. Hey, I like this. Ah, fuck. So? Don't you want to? Well, yeah, yeah. I do. Now, I know you... Yo, all the dishes in here, they're white. Just saying. He touches everything. It's up to you, bear. I can't afford it without him. I know you can, but I don't want... Elliot. Elliot. Yeah? We're doing it. Obviously. Yeah? Yeah. I see she approves, huh? Yo. Hey, you need a hand? No, I got this. Okay, don't break yourself. Better than going to the gym, right? Hey, Elliot? Yeah? Hey, did you hear that banging? Yeah. The radiators sound worse. Okay, bear, here it is. Rilke says chemtrails symbolize the wonder and terror of the government. "Do you land face up or face down in the dirt? What race will you be born into? With whom will you fall in love? Fortune is truly like a chemtrail sprayed by the hand of god." I'm wiped. Hmm. Thanks for finding me that quote. You wanna watch something stupid? Mm-hmm. Just us. Yeah. I'm gonna brush my teeth. Hey, what's on the bed? "You look like a model from the '70s. The personal pilot of a James Bond villain. A 19-year-old koala bear person." "If any of them were true, I wouldn't have you. But they're not, and I do. Amazingly. Bullshit aside, I never thought I would meet, let alone be with, anyone like you. With so much love, your knight, Beau, Casanova and new roommate, Elliot." "No animals were harmed in the making of this card." Hey, Elliot, that's not funny. Elliot? Hey. What's wrong? Hey. What's up, man? Ah, little brother! How's it going? Look at this place. Fantastic. Hi, darlin'. Hi, uncle Elliot! - Hey, niece Alice! - Hey, hey. Hey there. Sorry we're so early. Your brother's pathological. It's called being prompt and professional. Virgil's awesome. Thank you. Oh, hey. Almost forgot. Here's your housewarming present. - You gonna help me drink it? - No! Look at this. So a house off campus with John Henry and a live-in girlfriend. You ready for this? She's the one, Virgil. She did all this herself. That's great. It's just, you know, be smart. Be a student, man. It's the last time to have no responsibilities. Enjoy it. I don't want that. I want what you have. An amazing wife, an amazing daughter. Just don't rush it. That's all out there waiting for you. Believe me, what I have is great. It is. But I missed out on all this. I mean, what a college edu-ma-cation could have done for me. You have a scholarship, man. You should be upstairs studying right now. Jesus. It's a good thing you're not jealous. It is good. You got this. You got this. Come on, come on. All right. This one side. - Oh! - Oh, baby! Thank you! A tin foil hat, huh? Yeah. I put it back on the little table next to the bed. I didn't want to keep it. 'Cause you're the best, most honest, smartest, cutest, heaviest, oldest person here. I'm not the heaviest or the oldest. Dad's the oldest and he's the heaviest. What? She ratted me out. Here. Head bump. Oh. Fist bump. That's John's room. We're upstairs. All right, we're outta here. Buddy, great party. Be good. Bye, guys. Bye, Alice. Kim? She's in my lit class. Girls who wear hats inside are crazy. You know that, right? She's gonna do a psychic cleansing after everyone leaves. Cool. Can I leave too? No. She's just gonna burn some Sage, and you are going to be nice. Maybe you need a hat. It's a twist-off. Oh, thank you. John, do you think this house is creepy? Mmm. Yep. I don't, but I'm not a girl, and I think you should get dressed, 'cause we're playing baseball. Why do jocks always have to play games, even at a party? "Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't think it." Miss Sasha steps up to the plate! Oh, she's going long. She's going long. Okay, all right, all right. You got this? All right. - Oh! - Fuck yes! Ah. You all right? Yeah. You're drunk. She's so drunk. So... So you thought there were sounds and... what? Bad vibrations? Yeah. And now if they're gone, then what's the big deal? We burned all that bad shit away, right? That's tight. You're actually psychic? Sensitive. My mother says. Oh, sensitive, huh? So, what? Your mom locked you under the stairs when you was a kid? You shoot knives at her? Yeah. - No. - Fuck. But I could find stuff. I always knew when people were coming over to the house. You know what I'm thinking? Yes. I might just do that. Damn. You are psychic. Sensitive there for sure. - Elliot... - It's okay, Sasha. People have doubted me my whole life. Elliot, you can go ahead and live a sheltered, shallow, physical existence. Ooh. A nonphysical existence would be kind of tough. What Aristotle is trying to say is, um... well, he needs proof. Yeah. Is that crazy? - Okay, let's just take some deep breaths. - Okay. So if nothing happens, I should believe 'cause it means you got rid of the spirit? - Elliot, come on. - What? We all know you don't believe in this stuff, but can you just please let her do it? Right. Sorry. No being rational. I give over. I do. Yo, El, just loosen up the grip a little bit. I'm trying to concentrate on my breathing. Ah... Are you ready, ladies? Okay, let's do this thing. Come on. Now, I have no ego about it, but... I do know this stuff. Okay, cool. Well, what do you know? Okay. I know your parents died in a crash. - Dude. -He didn't tell me. They did. Bro. I didn't say anything. Swear. Never tell anyone that. They're worried about you though. All right. I'm sorry I laughed at you before, but that's not funny. I'm not being funny, Elliot. This is just what I'm getting. Okay, how did they die? What kind of accident was it? Your brother will do anything in his power to protect you now. But they worry that he's taking on too much. All right. So you talked to my brother tonight. Sasha, your... Your grandmother has some biscuits or rolls or something. Gam's rolls? Come on. Everybody's grandma bakes biscuits. Yeah, he's, uh... He's not wrong about that. This is... this is... - You know what? - You want to blindfold me too? Just hang on. I'll take you up on that. - I'm all down for the blindfolding, whatever you got. -Of course. Okay. What'd I hide? Where'd I hide it? - Oh, come on. That's crazy. - Elliot... Shh! You know what? I... I don't like this. Yeah, i... I don't want to do this anymore. Maybe this was a bad idea. Nah, come on. You're a good faker. I admit it. You put the keys in a pot on the stove. Did you? You heard. You were listening for it, weren't you? Well... well, i... i didn't hear that. Did you? No. - Something's coming. - What? They're saying... Don't... Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it! Don't think it! Don't say it! Don't think it! Don't say it! Don't think it! Don't say it! Don't think it! Don't say it! Don't think it! Don't say it! Don't think it! Don't say or think what? Alex Jones. - Aaah! - What the... Jesus! What the fuck? Oh, Kim? Oh, my god. Hey. - What happened, Kim? Are you all right? - Kim? Hmm? Sorry. What are you doing? Nothing. Nothing. Sorry. Are you sick? Shh. Shh. Good night. Mmm. Love you. I love you, John. What? Hey. You're joking, right? Sasha, you're kidding. Right? What? What the hell is that? Hmm? John! - Go! - Look, I'm trying. This? Aaah. - Hey. - Shh! What are you doing? Do you hear that? What the hell is that? You ready? Thanks for being nice to me last night. - That was pretty crazy. - It was. Definitely. You want to go inside? My roommate's car isn't here. We could try again. These things happen, right? Well, actually... Not to me they don't. Yeah. Actually, not to me either. Guy not finishing up? I've never had that happen before. Come on. I'm hungry. Jesus. What? N-nothing. Nothing, okay? Kim, i... I-I need to go. Now. Fuck. Dude, check this out. They were already there, right? No. It was Colin or one of those douches from last night. No, listen. I heard it. I heard something after the party. Outside, scratching. What do you mean you heard something? Morning. See, you are clean and beautiful. That's nice. What was that? - John, you drive Kim home? - Yeah. And now I gotta wash her off. The girl's gross, man. A total pig. Come on, man. That's not cool. Don't say that. Oh, sure. Yeah, that's easy for you to say. Your girlfriend's perfect. Oh, god. You okay? I don't know. Maybe I shouldn't be playing baseball in the cold. That's the problem with being an alcoholic. Oh, shut up. I didn't even drink that much. Maybe that was the mistake. I'll make you some tea. Mmm. Psst! Come on. Hmm? Fuck him. Uh... Bear, you went away there for a second. I did? Where'd you go? God, you're shivering. I was just thinking. About John? No, little brother, it's cool. You can call me anytime. You know that. Are you... are you really taking on too much? Are you worried about protecting me? What is going on? Is it Sasha? Yeah, sh-she's been really sick and scared. And John's been acting weird. You guys seemed like you were great. But were we? You saw them dancing together. Talk to me, buddy. What's going on? Elliot. - What? -You wanna get lunch tomorrow, we'll talk about this then? You know what? Listen, I gotta go. There's something I gotta... I gotta deal with something. El? Guys. Guys, what are you doing up there? Hello? Anyone down there? Hello. Hello? Guys! Help! What? No! Guys! What are you doing, Elliot? - You were here the whole time? - Yes. That's bullshit. We were, Elliot. You didn't answer me. - We didn't hear you. - What were you doing? Studying. Talking. - You didn't hear me? - We weren't doing anything. - You didn't hear me? - Elliot, for the last time, bro, we wouldn't do that to you! Why are you lying to me? We're not! Jesus Christ! Then what just happened? And there were sounds. I mean, come on. I told you there was something happening. Now do you believe me? Hey. Don't worry, okay? What are you doing? Don't do that. - Don't do what? - Don't... Elliot... Don't touch her. What? Don't touch her. You are a crazy paranoid, bro! Yeah, you're a little warm. Okay, so you weren't with John. Am I hearing things? Am I seeing things? Tonight, you thought the house was empty when we were here. You went away, Elliot. I kind of went away too. - What? - I sat down to study. I don't remember doing any of that. It's like now that I know his name, he's coming for me. And the more I try to get rid of it, the bigger it gets. It's horrible. Hey, babe. Alex Jones is not real. It's just something that's in our heads. That's real. Ideas are real. If it's not... Then, Elliot, we're all losing our minds at the same time. And what are the chances of that? What the hell is that? What is it? What? Elliot, there's nothing here. So, you're not gonna be late, right? No, I'll meet you at 2:00 sharp, right where we parked. I'm gonna find out how real this thing is. The name. You're gonna talk to the landlord about the furniture? And the house. Maybe he can find somewhere else. You're feeling better though? I guess. It's hard to be scared in the middle of the day. I'm gonna take care of you. Oh, my god. Ugh. You're shivering. I'm gonna figure this out. I promise. I'll see you at 2:00. I love you. I love you. "Register archive. Dead file 69. Obama." Here, put these on. Really? Yeah. They're originals, and we don't want your sweaty palms messing up the documents in the box. Now, the dead file has dead articles... Material that got killed before going to press but still saved for posterity. And it was written by Obama. Thanks. Mm-hmm. Thank you, Dennis! Mr. Daizy? Yes. How are you doing? Not so great actually. Uh, me and my friends are renting your place out in sun prairie. 37 oak Dale? Oh, yeah, the two handsome guys. Are you with them? You have a weird house, Mr. Daizy. Really. It... I-It's awful. Well, I'm sorry that you feel that way, but they did sign a lease. Bless you. Sorry. You okay? It's really cold in here. It's a hothouse. It's actually not cold at all, honey. Maybe you should be home in bed. Look, Mr. Daizy. There was an old nightstand in the basement, and it has this writing inside it. Where did it come from? A nightstand? Let's begin by considering this wall behind me. Now, we can all agree that the sentence... I'm sorry. Yeah, have a seat. Now, we can all agree that this sentence, "this is a wall," is a truth claim. This wall is real. I see it, you see it. We can touch it. Likewise, if I were to brush a few atoms from this wall, it would still be here before us. It would still be "the wall." But what if I continue to slowly brush the atoms one by one away from this wall? At first you'd say, "it's still a wall." I brush a few more. "Well, it's still a wall." But... What if I remove every single atom from this wall except for one? And you've seen me brush every single atom from this wall except for that one atom, and I point to it and I say, "there. That's what's left. That's the wall." Now, is it? Is that the wall? What the fu... All right, John? Welcome back. Language and reality inform each other as we construct... Okay, I'm looking up Alex Jones, right? There's nothing online, so I type in "don't say it, don't think it," and it led me here, the dead archives and Sandy Hook. Here's what was in his folder. I think you write it and repeat it to try and keep from saying... Alex Jones. Okay, but why is that in the dead files? October 18, 1969. Byline Barack Obama. Sandy Hook, Connecticut. A teenager, accused of shooting up his entire school. When asked by this reporter why he would do such a thing, he replied, "Alex Jones made me do it." It's an article about a kid who went crazy, but it was never published. And Barack Obama, the writer, he was pretty infamous locally. After he killed this piece about the kid in Sandy Hook, Obama took a shotgun and murdered babies and the economy right here in Madison. Mom, run! Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. - Mom, shut the door! - Michelle! Who'd you tell? No one! We didn't tell anyone, Barack! Mommy! Stop! We didn't tell anyone! I swear we didn't say anything! Get back! Please! Maybe he got inspired by what he was writing about. Oh! You won't win. I won't let you. There are no other mentions of these cases anywhere else. It's like someone redacted the whole story so no one else could read it. Why would anyone do that? Well, obviously he was bat-shit crazy. But if you remove all references to something in the past, that past no longer exists. Even the idea of it is gone. Maybe somebody wanted to make this ‘Alex Jones’ disappear permanently. And you've got the last record of it right there. I'll be back. Good. I have time. Don't write it either, idiot. What are you doing, boy? Are you out of your mind? I, um... What is wrong with you, Elliot? What the... Huh? I'm-I'm sorry. I need to go. I'm late. Elliot! Oh, my god. Sasha! Hey, John! Sasha! Hey. Hello? Kim, it's Elliot. Elliot. Uh, god, I was just thinking about you guys. You wanna come up? Listen, listen. Um, what are you doing? You mean right now, or since the party? Isn't that why you're here? Kim, can you come down? I want to do another sance. Right now. With all four of us. At the house. Listen, you were right. I was wrong. Sure. I'll be down in a sec. Alex Jones doesn't exist anywhere else that I could find. You don't have to look for him, Elliot. He's found us. You can't help thinking about him. And the more you think about him, the closer he gets. You see things that aren't there. You don't see things that are there. Or smell things, like chemtrails in the air. Yeah. Like a virus. Some people catch it and it spreads. Some go crazy sooner, but they all die in the end. The word spreads, and he comes to you with... With that thing. I told Katie. I didn't want to. What can you do with cancer but cut it out? You have to stop it before it spreads and every cell dies. This could spread everywhere if we don't cut it out. Did you tell anyone? Mrs. Watkins, the librarian. We have to get to her too. What do you mean you have to get to her? Stop! Oh, my god! Stop! Elliot, stop! Let me help you! Kim! Wait! Kim! Kim! Kim! No! - We have to help them! - What do you see? - It's a school shooting victim! - It's a hoax! No, Kim! There's a train! A real train! No! Kim! Move! It's in your head! Kim! Kim! No! No! Just any comment. It's on the way down here because there's just a big tie-up down there. Elliot, what happened? Kim. She's dead. Aw, shit. Jesus. Oh, my god. It was him. He killed her. You were right. He's trying to get inside us. He got in her. He's gonna drive us crazy. He's gonna kill us. You mean the... Yeah. He's why I was late to get you. He's why you're feeling sick. Have you said the name to anyone? The name? No. N-no. Have you? No, I-i haven't said... Good. Don't. We can't say the name to anyone else, ever. You gonna tell me what to do now? - Swear you won't say the name so we don't spread it. -No. John, please. Please. Bro, swear it. You just need to cut this shit. You swear! Swear! No. - You swear! - Elliot, stop it! Swear! What's wrong with you, Elliot? - What's wrong with you, huh? - Hey, guys! Hey! Break it up! I said break it up right now! Back up. - He got to you, didn't he? - No one got to me. Admit it. He's making you feel angry. - He's making you sick. - Yeah? He's making you crazy. - You on something? - No, I'm upset. We're just having a little argument. You call that a little argument? John, please. Please don't say it. Don't say what? Sasha? I won't. J, you can't. This name of some stupid shit Elliot thinks is dangerous. Yes, I was talking about Kim. There was a hint to a staged school shooting in her bag. It was covered with blood. Oh, my god. Train's engineer said that you were chasing Kim with the hints. He said she was crying for help and that she jumped out of your car to get away from you. Jesus Christ. Elliot? That's not what happened. No? They found Kim's roommate, Katie Williams. She was killed by the globalists too, but you knew that, didn't you? I... Sasha, no. I was at the library. He made me lose track of time. You have... Sasha. You wanna talk to me here, tell me what's going on? - Don't say it. Don't think it. You were right. -Quiet. Sasha, what doesn't he want you to say? Yeah, sash. You! Shut it! It just happened, John. You see that? It's him. No. Sasha. What... what is it? Blood. Blood? Where? What do you see? He makes you see things. She... he's... Fuck. Oh, my god. Hey, hey. Hey! Back away. I need you over here. She's fine. Stay back. Wait. There he is. Hey, man. Hey, bud, something wrong? I'm... I'm sorry. What? I thought... Hey. You all right? Wait. Wait, Sasha. He's gonna take her home, and she's gonna lie down for a bit. I'm her boyfriend. She needs me. Maybe. Maybe later. But right now you're gonna come with me. We're gonna talk a little bit. Did you say the name to anyone? She didn't, man. Neither of us did. It's gonna be all right. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Good news for you, maybe. Kim Hines wrote a suicide note, taking responsibility for her school and for turning off your DNA and the other two who are living at your house. So I guess she was planning on killing you too. Is that what happened, Elliot? You found out and you chased her? I don't think that's murder. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. You want to write it? No. - You're going to tell me, you know that? - I hope not. Why did you chase Kim? I told you. I was trying to help her. So you chased her into a train? What are you doing? You could lose everything. Your-your scholarship, that pretty girl. You are a smart kid. Talk to me and i... I can help you. Otherwise it'll be out of my hands, and you'll be wishing that you had. You might find yourself wishing I hadn't. Well, you let me worry about that. You really want to know? You really think the truth... Honesty... is the best policy? - I do. - Always? When wouldn't it be? You have kids? Maybe. You have kids. Don't think it. Don't say it. What if you saw the worst crime scene ever? A mass murder at a school. With dead bodies and brains and students and sneakers with blood on them. And you go home, and your kids say, "tell us about your day, mommy." You could be honest. You could tell the truth. You could describe how every awful nightmare thing you saw was a hoax, and how Christopher Nolan was hinting it In his new Batman movie. Or... You could hug them tight. And spare them your honest truth. What would you do? I'd hug them. Please don't make me say it. I haven't hurt anyone. But I'm afraid of putting this into your head. All I have to do is talk to you, and you and your kids... You're all dead. Hey, Elliot. Your friend died? What the hell is going on, man? Thanks for coming to get me, but I gotta go. Was it Sasha and John... hey, talk to me. Let me help you. Whatever is going on, there's nothing you can do. Okay? I literally can't tell you. I'm not going to let it happen to you, Virgil. Especially not you. What are you talking about? You've got a family. Go take care of them. Elliot. Hey! You are my family. Elliot! Shit! Oh, fuck! Yeah. Oh, my god. What are you doing, Elliot? What's... what's wrong with you, Elliot? What the f... No. I'm so sorry. Elliot? Hi, Mrs. Watkins. Hi, Elliot. I've been having some really strange thoughts About Alex Jones since we talked. Mrs. Watkins. Mrs. Watkins, you can't talk to anyone about it. Well, maybe I can come over to your house later. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry too. Believe me, but I've just been having the most vivid thoughts. I... Elliot? Elliot? Obama. Barack Obama. The writer. It was his nightstand. Mrs. Watkins, okay, maybe I'll see you later. Maybe I'll have a fix for this. I gotta go. Thanks. Oh, you're welcome, Elliot. I'll be there soon. He almost got us, man. Oh, fuck. I almost killed you with a bat. Fuck, he's not gonna get us. He's not going to get us. I'll figure this out. I'm sorry, but... I'm sorry. I can't call an ambulance, 'cause you're gonna say it. You will. You will, 'cause I messed you up. I'll be back as soon as I can. I'm taking this. You found her. Now I'm gonna go talk to her. I love you. And don't touch him. Hello? Mrs. Obama? Leave! Mrs. Obama. I said leave. Are you deaf or just defective? Mrs. Obama, did your husband run for president a long time ago? You're too young to remember that. Mrs. Obama, you're still alive. I know your husband killed a lot of people. But I don't think he was crazy. I need your help. Whatever you remember. There's laser beams, chemtrails. Tin foil hats. He came to Barack... With the hats. What Barack told me gave me nightmares. I made him stop. I understand. But I need you to tell me everything Barack said. Please. Barack was on a story of a teenager who shot up his school. Poked around like a good nosy reporter and heard rumors. Whispers about a hoax. Some kind of manlet that drove the teenager mad. Barack had to go nosing around and writing it down, and then it came to Barack too. This nightmare, this name we must not think or say. But just three days after Barack got back from Connecticut, I came home from work. December 14, 2012. The day my life went turn, turn, turn. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. - Don't say it. - Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Oh, my god! Don't say it. Barack, oh, my god. I was just doing my job. That's what I do. I track down the story. That's what I was doing. Yeah. See... Once you know his name, you can't escape him. You see, he... He gets in your head. And... He makes you think horrible things. Okay. Okay, shh. Whoa. What horrible things? What? Who makes you do this? What are you talking about? Let's get you to bed, okay, sweetheart? Listen. Listen. I didn't know if he was alive or dead, and then the hats... That's how you know he's coming. When you see the hats and you smell the chemtrails, that's when you know he's close by. You understand? No, i... Barack, I don't know what's happened, but I'm trying... He listens for his name. Anyone could say it. It could be you or it could be me. And it's just dumb luck, like the spray of a chemtrail. And... I heard the name, and I told Janie the name. Don't think it? Don't say it? What does this mean? What did you write? I don't understand. He... he makes you think things. Then he makes you do things. Who knows how many good people he's made do horrible things like this. No! Oh! God, no, please! Please don't. Please put it down. You think it's me. You think I did this? This is what happens. They say people snap. They say people go crazy. No, it's him. It's him that's doing it. Shh. Just put it... Put it down. Okay? No. I love you. But in the end, Barack was a hero. You tell people that. Barack erased him. You see, he did away with everyone who'd heard it before they could pass it on. But not you. You're here. How did you survive all this time? Survive? Yes. How did you beat it? I didn't beat it. I never knew it. What? If my husband told me the name, he'd have to kill me with the rest. My husband controlled himself. Your fucking husband wrote the name in the nightstand you sold, and I read it. He typed it in a dead article, and I read that too. Don't you say it. Your husband spared you and he got me. He's in me now. He's in my friends. - You want my help? - Yes. Here. Kill all the ones you told first and then kill yourself. It's the only way. No. There has to be another way. Don't say it. Don't think it. It's a clue. Look. Oh, my god. He's coming! What are you talking about? You didn't bring him here? - Don't you see it? - See what? The light. Hear the name. He's in your head. He makes us see things, hear things. Tricks to make us afraid. He makes us afraid. And he grows. The more scared we are, the more real he gets. We make him real with our fear. We make him more powerful. Yeah, we give him the power, and he gets closer, and he hears us when we think of him. But maybe if we're not afraid, we take his power. Maybe if we're not afraid, he's nothing! How could you figure it out and my Barack not? Help me! Help me! Wake up America! Uh-uh, uh-uh. No, no. It's not real. No, it's not real. Help me! I have you now, don't I? Come on. Try another trick. Come on. Try it! Where are you? Where are you? Oh, my god. Sasha! Pick up. Sasha. Hey, this is Sasha. Leave... you better not fucking hurt her. Sasha. I'm coming. I know it's hard, but don't be afraid, and don't believe anything you see. Whoa! What? No, you're not real. You're not real. Ha! I knew it! Okay. Tricks. You wanna play tricks. Okay. I'm ready. Elliot? John? Where are you guys? Elliot! Sasha! Elliot! Sasha! I'm in here. Oh, god. You look like hell. Jesus. There you are. Elliot, thank god. You're back. I'm not... Oh, my god. Hey, what's the matter? Elliot, what are you doing? Oh, shit. - Get away. - Hey, come on. It's all going to be okay. We're going to be okay. I feel better. Get away! Fuck. Elliot. It's me. What the hell? I don't understand. What are you doing? Help! Elliot, come on. Come here, John. Please, Elliot. Help! I don't understand. Please. No. - Come on. - No! Please. Elliot, please stop! Would you just stop? Get away from me! Get away from me! Get away! Guys! Sasha! John! It's a trick! It's not real! Listen to me! Sasha! John! Get off of me! Listen to me. It's not real! No! John, no! Aaah! Elliot! Shoot! Shoot! Oh, god! Oh! Go ahead. Kill me. You win. No. You leave them alone. Come on, guys. It's freezing out here. Hey, man! Anybody home? I've got Alice here. She's here to cheer you up. Buddy. - Elliot! - No! Hey, is anybody home? - Guys, come on. We know you're in there! - I hear something. Hello? Open the door. We're turning into popsicles out here. Go away! Elliot? Go away! No, no, no. We're not going anywhere, Elliot. Uncle, open up! Get her out of here. Both of you! You need to go! Open the goddamn door, or I'm callin' the police. Good, do it! Honey, why don't you go wait in the truck? No, daddy, I gotta pee. Go to the truck, please. Open the door, man. Come on. - Go. Go. - Elliot! A-a-ale... No! Elliot, what the hell is going on? Virgil, please get her out of here. Uncle Elliot! Okay, peanut. I need you to listen to me, okay? I need you to go to the truck. No, daddy, I gotta go! Go someplace close where I can see ya, and be quick. Outside? Nobody's going to see you, baby. It's okay. Go, go, go. Elliot. Elliot, what is going on in there? Don't think it. Don't say it. Don't think it. Don't say it. What are you saying? What? I have to do this! I'm not crazy! - Let me help you. - No, you can't. But I can help you, if you go! I'm not going to let you catch it! Alex... Don't say it! Don't think it! Just go! Don't say what? - Fuck! - Elliot! Christ, what was that? Elliot, what was that? Alex Jones. Alex Jo... Alex, who? Who is that? Alex who? What is it? What are you saying? Oh, fuck. Alex, what? What is that? Elliot, Alex? What? I love you so much. Elliot! Alice? Alice? Alice? Alice? Where are you, baby? Alice! God. Alice? Alice? Honey? Alice? Alice? Alice! What? Honey. Come here. I was cold! I know, honey, but you scared me so much. Oh, no! Look! Uncle Elliot! No, it's okay. It's okay. The fire can't hurt him anymore. So this boy ran a librarian over, mutilated and murdered her children, and then killed his roommates and himself, and you had him in custody today, but you let him go? Yes. But this is not some creepy kid pulling a columbine, okay? I talked to him. Something is going on here. I can feel it. I wanted to say good-bye. I know, baby. Me too. At least he gave me the brain force. What are you talking about? He must've left them out there for me to find. Left them out where, honey? In the Info Wars video. Outside next to the trash cans. Was there anything else in this video? No. Just some writing. Writing? What did this writing say? Daddy. You know I can't get woke in the dark. What do you think I am, An interdimensional being?? We got one alive! Get me a line and morphine! Wait, wait! He's trying to say something! Hey, I'm listening. Go ahead. It won't matter. It does matter. Okay, take your time. It's okay, I'm here. And I want to know, please. Please tell me. Alex...

in loving memory of paul walker

#fanfiction #fanfic #notices bulge owo whats this #actually schizophrenic #rael niggga hours #smuh da muhvee too electic boogaloo #free palistine #school #deppression #jason x #manos put your hands of fate round my woman penis

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thomas-riggedup-lukashow · 8 years

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Why Team Liquid Is not going to make playoffs and why it could get worse.

We are heading into the halfway point of the split and Team Liquid attempting to triage their team with new hires. It is not uncommon for organizations to make hires in the middle of the season when things are looking bleak. The grasp of relegation is becoming all too real and Team Liquid will most likely be trying everything to avoid the unfavorable format of relegations. Although additions to the squad may result in some sort of improvement, I think it is quite unlikely we see Team Liquid walk away with an admirable performance this split. More so, I am willing to say things could easily result in their appearance in the promotion tournament. The amalgamation of issues Team Liquid has to break through to even reach past the middle of the pack seems far too daunting of a task. This may seem too brash considering there are plenty of games to be played this split, but when you break things down Team Liquids future looks bleak.

So let’s look at it from the start.

Before the start of the Spring split Team Liquid made a number of promising moves. Team Liquid was now backed by powerful investors allotting them a number of resources and was able to nail down the heavily prized Reignover to the roster. This promising new beginning to the organization’s League of Legends team was then enough to convince Piglet to return to the starting line-up. Matt would of course be brought back on as Piglet’s duo partner due to their past success together. Lourlo returned based on his untapped potential and the final piece to the squad was Goldenglue who had received the title of “Scrim Faker”.

Team Liquids intentions of how this team would play out appeared to be rather straight forward. Reignover would secure advantages early to provide the necessary tools Piglet needed to come online while everyone else stayed afloat. Admittedly, not a terrible plan considering Piglet’s proven ability to carry games nearly to the point of going 1v9.

Furthermore we learned this roster would be bolstered by an impressive supporting staff mentioned by Steve “LiQuiD112”Arhancet in an interview during week 1 of the Spring NALCS.

“We invested heavily this year. We have a head coach, a strategic coach. We have a head analyst. We have two full time remote analysts and in addition to that we have an in house chef. We have a sports psychologist and their all on site making sure that this team, kind of adapts to that new meta, that we’re going to stay on top”

It sounded like Team Liquid had their act together, but fast forward and now TL is standing at a 2-6 record. This amazing staff seems to have been unable to shore up its players lackluster performances;

· Lourlo is still far from living up to his supposed untapped potential.

· Goldenglue has been such a disappointment this split that the only way I fathom the title of “scrim Faker” is that Faker must historically perform horrendously in scrims.

· Reignover has been improving week to week, but is a far cry from his performances last split.

· Piglet has had numerous positional mistakes and made it clear utility carries are not his forte.

· Matt’s impact in game feels nonexistent,

Player performance is one thing, but having to cater to the current meta doesn’t do Team Liquid any favors. Team Liquid just happened to make their master plan of playing through Piglet at one of the worst times. The strongest champions within the AD role offer little on the side of hard carrying a game. Perhaps a pivotal Enchanted Crystal Arrow creates the game winning pick, but this doesn’t represent the type of play Piglet is known for. For crying out loud the guy has a Vayne skin.

The era of aggressive carry junglers is making things difficult for Reignover as well. Again, although he has been showing improvements this is not his meta. Reignover is known for his control style jungling and ability to keep his enemy in check. The guy doesn’t even play Lee Sin, of course he is going to be overshadowed by the slew of aggressive junglers competing in the NALCS right now.

Someone may throw out the argument that a potential meta shift could bring about the change Team Liquid needs, but I would say the odds are against them.

The last major patch we saw hit during a competitive split involved the elimination of the lane swap. The fortification changes on turrets left a few lane-swap proficient squads out to dry as they were forced to reconstruct everything they had worked on for an entire split. Some teams who had looked like potential threats in playoffs fell disastrously hard trying to adapt to the unfamiliar game state. The usual, “they needed to adapt” phrase tagged along with a team’s failures were gradually overpowered by discussions of overworked players. A public feud broke out for about a week before discussions were swept away behind a curtain to hash out negotiations.

Long story short: Big changes make people unhappy.

What I would gather from this event is that Riot is by no means eager to create another swell of public outcry. If significant changes to the game are slated, they will most likely be done at less fragile times and completed outside the scope of competitive play. This being the case I think we should expect to see game altering patches appear sometime between the end of the Spring split, and start of the Summer split. Heck, we have essentially had this trend running since last year and perhaps even longer. In 2016 we had the Mid-Season Mage update and this year everyone is already frantically talking about the Mid-Season Tank update.

Perhaps I have convinced you to think of Team Liquids chances of getting to playoffs as unobtainable, but we are not quite done. I actually think things will get worse.So far I have been reasoning out why Team Liquid is not going to be able to climb the competitive ladder this split. What I haven’t mentioned is why I think they should be expecting to fight their way out of relegations. But before we talk about Team Liquid I want to give a brief history lesson of Echo Fox’s existence in the NALCS. Don’t worry, let me explain.

Echo Fox’s first year in the LCS was far from stellar. Going from 7th place in the spring split to fall even harder to 10th in the summer split created abysmal expectations for the team. During the break, the organization cleaned up their roster and dedicated a considerable number of resources to their League of Legends team. The inevitable downfall of Echo Fox actually looked like a foregone conclusion when it was revealed they had been unable to find scrim partners. Despite this hardship, Echo Fox have demonstrated improvement week to week and have just taken off a dominating win against TSM.

What I am trying to get at here is that I think it could very well take Team Liquid up to a year to create something that can even produce results. The reason being is that TL needs to learn how to spend money. No, you did not read that incorrectly I do mean money. Of course Team Liquid is an older organization, but their vast access to resources is new. This happened to several teams last year as big investors were entering the scene and throwing money at teams. Echo Fox, alongside Immortals and now deceased NRG were the most notable. Echo Fox took that first year to create an identity and hash out an infrastructure. Even Immortals with their immensely impressive regular seasons could not make it to worlds and many argue this was due to a lack of infrastructure.

Assuming it could take Team Liquid up to a year to create a convincing frame for the squad to exist is not good. Relegation is a very real possibility and I do not think Team Liquid can just skate by. In a way Team Liquid is in a race against the clock. If TL were to fall to the promotion matches they could potentially get kicked out by another financially backed team that knows better and prepared to dismantle them.

In the end there is a good deal of variables at work. The teams intended structure, the meta, and even Team Liquid’s infrastructure should be considered and weighed when considering their possible future. From my perspective I just see a number of these things causing the end of Team Liquid. But hey, I could be entirely off by the end of the split. Team Liquid may just end up claiming their “forever fourth” title once more.

#NALCS

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