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devilgem-archive · 6 years

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heya!! do you mind if i ask a bit abt ur kyokoswap au?? if u dont wanna thats fine but any info/hcs u have abt it wld be cool bc the au seems rlly neat!! tho again if u dont wanna def no pressure ^^; have a wonderful day!! :D

VIBRATES EXCITEDLY i’ve been waiting 50 years for someone to ask about this!!!!!kyoko magica is one my oldest and most developed aus, i’m more than happy to answer this!

aside from minor adjustments to better fit each character’s arc, the story itself follows canon’s exactly! starts with kyoko having a dream about mami, ends with mami tearing apart kyokami in a new world. ofc a lot of the girls’ original traits remain in tact. kyoko is more like her pre-tds self, kind but ditzy and reckless, mami retains her ladylike grace, homura her overprotectiveness and so on…i always prefer leaving aspects that makes characters…themselves in swap aus if u get me? or maybe that’s just me

KYOKO

swaps with madoka. madokyoko or kyokami, as i like to call her!

a simple christian girl with a plain, ordinary life. kyoko had everything she could ever ask for: a loving family, supportive friends, amazing teachers- just everything! all of that changed when she meets a mysterious blonde girl in a post-apocalyptic setting in a dream…and that very same girl appears in her life the very next day!

while she has a kind heart, she is known to be fiery and unreasonable at times. this temper was usually displayed in heated confrontations with mami

the sakuras used to be rather poor. their financial status improved when the akemis stepped in to assist them, and the two families had forged a close bond ever since

eating is practically her hobby. still hates wasting food and will call out anyone who does so

is a d@ddy’s girl through and through. her father is wise and caring, so she often seeks him out for advice

her wish varies from time to time. in the first timeline she wished to save a cat she named Amy, while others had to do with wishing one or all of her friends back or to be able to defeat walpurgisnacht etc. her final wish was to erase all witches from the past,present and future with her own hands, which caused her to ascend to godhood and leave no trace of her existence in the new world.

kyokami felt lonely when she first realized she had no way to get in touch with her loved ones on earth. it felt even strange to be god herself…she’d always been a girl of faith yknow? she eventually embraced her fate as the composer of the universe, and is perfectly happy in bring salvation to magical girls all over the globe.

ophelia is the witch of abandonment. unlike gretchen, who desires to save the world, ophelia wants to destroy it. kyoko’s faith in humanity died the second ophelia was born…and the all-powerful wudan witch stops at nothing until this cold and cruel world is nothing more than barren wasteland

MAMI

switches with homura! her nickname is homumami, but she’s usually mamicifer to me

i like to call her moemami (or moemi???) in her ‘moe’ phase

was orphaned at the age of 6 when a fatal car crash killed her parents and left her paralyzed from waist down. the hospital had practically been her home since, until she was officially discharged yeaaaaars later

used to wear her hair in drilled pigtails, complete with colorful flower clips that surprisingly correspond to her future friends’ colors. in later timelines she would let her hair down and replace the childish clips with her signature bronze ones.

used to be wheelchair bound before contracting. learned to utilize her healing powers so she could walk again; she used crutches and ribbons to assist her during the early timelines. in later timelines, she fully healed her injured spine the same time she changed her personality

she had a big crush on sayaka in the past…something she’d rather forget. it still flusters her

her wish ofc was to redo her meeting with kyoko sakura

her birthday falls on may 1st. more abt it here

mami has a major sweet tooth.

candeloro is a miserable witch, literally shackled with chains of despair, forever alone in this nightmarish prison- her eternal pity party. although she comes off as aloof at first, her true nature warm and inviting, almost needy even.

she has her own set of ‘clara dolls,’ known as delightful dolls. there’s four of them, each resembling the girls of the quartet but represent the hostess’/mami’s worst aspects: vexation (kyoko), disgust (madoka), cruelty (sayaka) and love (homura)– the youngest doll is the least favorite and looks suspiciously a lot like the good-for-nothing’s dolls (see sayamura for the answer)

HOMURA

switches with sayaka. i lovingly dub her sayamura

was kyoko’s friend from childhood. they attended the same catholic elementary school together before mitakihara middle school.

sported her ‘moe’ appearance pre-contract. after making her wish, she ditched the braids and glasses in order to look ‘cooler’ (@ which kyoko wld say she always looked cool in her eyes

kyoko had been her knight in shining armor for as long as she could remember, and homura really wants to repay that by protecting her as well! she is also hella gay for her bff

her wish was to have the strength to protect others

her shield is very similar to the one seen in the original madoka manga, though it lacks the hammerspace storage. her firearms are formed via magic

her desire for kyoko, self loathing and jealousy are big big factors to her inevitable demise.

homulilly here is a mix of her nutcracker and mortal world forms. each and every one of the clara dolls still exist along with lotte, luiselotte, liese and lillia.

love is in fact, one of homura’s dolls; because homura and mami cherish the same person deeply, their feelings intertwined and therefore ‘share’ ai. post-rebellion, ai continues to pose as one of the delightful dolls and attempts to revive homura’s memories behind mamicifer’s back

SAYAKA

switches with mami. her nickname is mamisayaka here!

ghost and lonely are big inspos,esp for oktavia

came from a rather well off family, so she never really needed to worry about provisions when she was left on her own. still, all the money in the world could never fill the gaping hole in her lonely heart

knows how to play the violin

her parents and kyousuke and hitomi all perished when a theater collapsed on itself. old wounds reopened when madoka left her to live life her own way

is the ideal big sis! cheerful, sporty and has good grades…For A Sayaka. beneath the facade she’s a depressed slob who doesnt take care of herself as much as she should. its oke as long as she hides it all with a smile :)

oktavia von seckendorff is very highkey based off lewis msa; deadbeat-esque familiars, an abandoned mansion/concert hall labyrinth and a disembodied glass heart, which sits at the very bottom of her lagoon- that kind stuff. those she falls in love with, whether romantically or platonically, are never to leave her- she wont be alone, never again. one condition must be fulfilled in order to kill her successfully: stay. if she’s truly feels content, she will accept death without fail.

MADOKA

swaps with kyoko. kyodoka has a nice ring, doesnt it?

used to be exactly like the sweet and well-meaning canon!madoka in the past, a key difference was she would resort to stealing and breaking other rules to keep herself and her parents and little brother alive.

her mother was a businesswoman who wanted to take a more innovative approach to her work. alas, this would cost junko her entire career and the kaname family became penniless

madoka wished for her mother’s dream project to become reality. just as ur familiar with canon!kyoko’s story, it backfired horribly. disowned from her family, her mother became an alcoholic, dad gets pushed around and baby tatsuya doesnt understand whats going on. days later…press f for the kanames and madoka’s broken heart.

is vile, absolutely vile. can be sweet in one moment then violent and emotionally manipulative in the next like the two-faced bitch she is

rarely uses honorifics to address people anymore, unless she’s playing sweet to get something out of someone. uses ‘-chan/kun/san’ for those she sincerely cares for; she didn’t call homura ‘-chan’ before she began sympathizing with the latter

has a minor problem with booze and tobacco, namely the latter.

she loves loves loves melons!

knowing the value of being frugal, madoka hates wasting things that could be put to better use. she can be kind of a cheapskate in some sense, though she's sane enough to avoid resorting to ridiculous extremities.

kriemhild gretchen is exact the opposite of canon!ophelia. this towering witch continues oh so obsessively reaching for what she cannot; that one faraway glimmer of hope sitting at the endless skies of her labyrinth she calls paradise. shes stubborn as all hell, and will not let herself be destroyed UNLESS one convinces her the world is already a happy place in no need of saving

NAGISA

nagisa is nagisa.

the same charlotte that ate mamisayaka’s head is now a bapy that lives with her post-rebellion

her wish remains the same: to have one last cheesecake with her mother

not much to say here

thats all i can remember from the top of my head! if you want me to elaborate further, pls ask me @mahoutrauma!!

#pmmm #askies #anon #kyokoswap au #trash aus #headcanons #if only i put effort in my writing assignments as i did with this

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theamazingsallyhogan · 7 years

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ROY MOORE MASTERPOST

I post this not expecting many to read it all. Skim and decide if you think this information should spread.

On December 12 2017, voters in Alabama will pick their Senate representative.

The Democratic candidate is Doug Jones, the prosecutor that brought to justice two KKK members responsible for a 1963 bombing that killed four black girls.

His Republican opponent, Roy Moore, is expected to win. In the Senate he would make laws for the whole country.

Who is Roy Moore? This is going to be long, but skip to any portion and tell me it’s not important. Try it.

1947- Born.

1969 - Graduated from the Military Academy at West Point. Deployed to Vietnam. In his command position, Moore was seen as both reckless and excessively strict, even demanding troops salute him on the battlefield (he had been trained not to do that since it makes it easier for enemy to identify a command target). In his autobiography Moore stated that he believed his own men hated him so much they intended to kill him if given the chance.

1977 - Moore graduated from the University of Alabama School of Law. Former staff and students recall him as an unusually inept and argumentative student, who had difficulty formulating arguments based on existing law. One teacher said “If Moore's analysis of a case was tantamount to thinking 1 + 1 = 3, and his classmates reasoned otherwise, there was no backing down by Moore ... Moore never won one argument, and the debates got ugly and personal.” He became an Assistant District Attorney in Alabama.

1977 - Moore allegedly sexually harassed 18-year-old Gena Richardson.

1978-1979 - Moore allegedly sexually assaulted Beverly Young Nelson, a 15/16 year old girl.

1979 - Moore allegedly sexually assaulted Leigh Corfman, a 14 year old girl. He was 32.

1970s-1980s - According to former mall-workers, Moore was ultimately banned from a shopping mall because he harassed teen girls there. Phyllis Smith claimed that Moore had such a bad reputation that staff would draw straws to decide who would see him in his official capacity whenever a customer’s check bounced. Wendy Miller, who worked as a “Santa’s helper” at the mall when she was 14-16, claims that Moore tried to get her to go out with him.

1985 - Moore married.

1991 - Moore allegedly sexually harassed Tina Johnson.

[Nine women have made claims against Moore, including of sexual assault and sexual harassment. The youngest was 14 at the time.]

1992 - When a County Circuit Judge died, Moore was given the vacant position by the governor. Moore hung a wooden copy of the Ten Commandments behind his bench, and opened proceedings by asking everyone in court to pray with him. At least once he had a clergyman lead the Jury in prayer. He informed USA Today that no Muslim or Buddhist would pray in his court because “they do not acknowledge the God of the Holy Bible upon which this country is established.”

1995 - Moore was sued by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), which argued that the prayers and Moore’s Ten Commandments display amounted to a public official using his position to force his faith on others. The case was eventually thrown out on a technicality.

1995 - Moore addressed the “Council of Conservative Citizens,” a White Supremacist group (the Nation’s largest) that Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof cited as an influence.

1996 - Alabama’s governor explicitly banned same sex marriage.

1996 - In a divorce case, Moore ruled that a woman should lose all custody of her children to their father and should be barred from ever seeing them again without court supervision, because she’d had a gay affair.

1997 - Moore claimed that teaching evolution results in increased crime like drive-by shootings. “They’re acting like animals because we’ve taught them they come from animals."

1999 - The American Family Association (a hate group that, among other things, claimed that the Nazis were actually homosexuals... yes really) encouraged Moore to run for the Alabama State Supreme Court. Moore's campaign emphasized religion, claiming that reduced influence of Christianity on society “corresponded directly with school violence, homosexuality, and crime.”

2001 - Moore became Alabama’s Chief Justice, and installed a monument within the state judicial building. A granite block weighing over 5000 pounds, it was covered with quotes from the Declaration of Independence and the Founding Fathers, and on top - the clear centerpiece - were two large carved tablets inscribed with the Ten Commandments. Which he copyrighted.

2001 - The ACLU, Americans United for Separation of Church and State, the Southern Poverty Law Center, and others sued to have the monument removed since putting it in a government building indicated a clear government endorsement of a specific religion. Moore stated that yes, he really was endorsing Christianity, saying that it was the one true religion, and that the entire country was founded upon that religion. He was pretty up-front on this.

2002 - Chief Justice Moore’s duties included managing justice system funds. When he didn’t get the funding he wanted no cuts were made until the courts went broke. He suspended all civil & jury trials until given new funding. Alabama had the highest paid judges in the US. He’s bad at budgeting, basically.

2002 - Moore ruled that a lesbian mother and her partner shouldn’t be given custody of her three children. The children’s father had admitted to slapping them and bugging their phones to record conversations with their mother. Moore cited Biblical law, including the stories of Sodom and Gommorah. Moore called homosexuality “an act so heinous that it defies one's ability to describe it” “an inherent evil” and “abhorrent, immoral, detestable, a crime against nature, and a violation of the laws of nature."

He specifically stated that homosexuals should lose custody of their children, and argued for the most extreme punishments for homosexual parents. “The state carries the power of the sword, that is, the power to prohibit conduct with physical penalties, such as confinement and even execution. It must use that power to prevent the subversion of children toward this lifestyle, to not encourage a criminal lifestyle.”

2002 - The monument case went to Federal Court. Moore lost. The monument was declared unconstitutional.

2003 - He was ordered to remove the unconstitutional monument. He refused. He was removed from office for failing to comply with a Federal Court order.

2004 - Moore created the “Constitution Restoration Act”. If it became law, it would make it legal for government officials to use their position to explicitly endorse Christianity and say that God is the source of all American law, liberty, and government. The Act would also make it illegal for the Supreme Court or any Federal Court to hear cases about government officials using their position to show favoritism to Christianity over other religions.

2003 - Moore and his wife founded the "Foundation for Moral Law," an organization devoted to Christian Right court cases. In 2005 it accepted a contribution from a Neo-Nazi Holocaust denying group. Multiple irregularities were found in its finances. Moore at one point lied by saying that he had no salary from the organization, when in fact he had collected more than a million dollars, far more than the organization had declared on its taxes. His 2011 salary of $453,000 for 20 hours a week meant 83 cents of every dollar given to the group went to him.

And it employs his wife and at least two of its kids. And there’s major overlap between the "charity" work and his political activities. And it hasn’t filed correct tax forms for 2015 or 2016. And it hosted an event with a speaker from the League of the South, a hate group that wants to bring back the Confederacy.

2004 - Alabama considered passing an Amendment to repeal the portions of the state constitution that mandated racial segregation in schools and imposed a poll tax for the right to vote. Moore opposed the Amendment and it was not passed - the state constitution still mandates segregation and a poll tax.

2005 - Moore said that homosexuality should be illegal.

2006 - Moore said homosexuals should not be allowed have government jobs, specifically stating his disgust about openly-gay ambassadors.

2006 - Moore supported death sentences for minors.

2006 - In response to the election of Keith Ellison - the first Muslim elected to Congress - Moore wrote an article titled “Muslim Ellison Should Not Sit in Congress.” In addition to arguing that Muslims should not be allowed to be elected officials in America, Moore compared swearing someone into office on the Koran to be like swearing someone in using Hitler’s Mein Kampf.

2007 - Moore argued that only the “higher law” of God had allowed for prosecuting Nazi war criminals.

2007 - Moore said there is no right to a painless death penalty (regular exonerations indicate that many death row inmates are wrongly convicted).

2007 - Moore objected to “hate crime” legislature, especially when extended for gay individuals.

2007 - Moore opposed preschool, saying preschool students were “much more likely to learn a liberal social and political philosophy,” and said sending kids to preschool was molding children’s minds like something done by Adolf Hitler or Joseph Stalin.

2008 - Moore was a leading voice for the “birther” conspiracy, saying he didn’t believe Obama was a U.S. citizen and demanding investigation into Obama’s place of birth.

2009 and 2010 - Moore’s “Foundation for Moral Law” hosted “Secession Day Commemorations,” featuring individuals tied to hate groups, organized by Patricia Godwin, whose racist acts include regularly celebrating the KKK’s founder’s birthday.

2010 - Moore spoke in favor of “nullification,” which would allow State governments to ignore the Federal government (favored by those that want to ignore Federal Civil Rights Laws). Moore stated that unless more is done to increase states’ rights people will find themselves “totally disarmed, under UN Guard that's stationed at every house.”

2011 - Moore wrote a chapter of a “Law textbook" published by the evangelical Christian "Vision Forum," a group known for extreme sexism (especially a belief that society should be a “Patriarchy”). The book was critical of giving women the right to vote, and in one chapter (not by Moore) claimed the Bible prohibits female leaders and says voters have a moral obligation to never vote for women. Moore worked for Vision Forum (including giving speeches to “men only” gatherings) and praised the organization (which collapsed in 2014 when its founder was accused of sexual harassment).

2011 - Said he wanted to get rid of all Amendments after the 10th. Slavery was abolished with the 13th Amendment.

2012 - The people of Alabama elected Moore to be Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court. Again.

2012 - Moore stated that the government is “the enemy of the people” because it promotes “tolerance and diversity” which he feels is evil. He also said that the legalization of gay marriage is proof the government is against "the people". “Should we praise diversity? We’re one nation under God, that’s not diverse.“

2012 - Moore said that President Obama favors “the Muslim faith, and there is a reason for this.“

2012 - Moore stated that health insurance minimum requirements to cover family planning violate the first amendment.

2012 - Moore stated that evolution is incompatible with the Constitution.

2012 - Moore said that secular laws in America are leading to Sharia and allowing other religions to practice their faiths, stating “our religious freedom comes from God, and if it doesn’t come from God people have to realize we will lose it and that is happening in our country today with Sharia law and the allowance of religious practices for other groups but not Christians.” He later added “Christians are being persecuted while people of a religion foreign to our country are doing what they want.”

2014 - Moore and other Alabama Supreme Court justices argued that women who have abortions should be jailed, along with women whose behavior endangers their pregnancies.

2014 - Moore’s Chief of Staff made a major push to end reproductive rights in America, outlying a plan to define zygotes as persons as a way to indirectly defeat Roe vs. Wade (elements of this plan are found in the Republican tax legislature of 2017).

2014 - Moore sent letters to the governors of all 50 states, asking them to pass a federal ban on gay marriage.

2014 - James Ware was convicted of rape, leaving his victim bound and gagged. Moore argued that DNA evidence was not strong evidence and that Ware should have been allowed to question every lab tech involved in the DNA tests that linked him to the crime, not just the lead scientist. During Moore's 2013-2016 tenure he ruled on 16 sex crime cases, siding with the offender in 13 cases (including 10 times when the court majority disagreed with him).

2014 - Moore stated that he believes the only religion protected under the first amendment is Christianity. “Buddha didn't create us. Mohamed didn't create us. It's the God of the Holy Scriptures.”

2014 - When a school official was convicted of raping two 15 year old girls, Moore dissented from other judges by saying the rapist should have been allowed to defend himself by bringing the girls’ bisexuality into the case. Moore felt that it would have helped the defense argue that the girls were biased and colluding to frame the accused. Under special guidelines the man was given less than the 10-year minimum sentence he would have normally received.

2014 - When a gay man died, Moore’s “Foundation For Moral Law” fought to keep the man’s husband from inheriting anything.

2014 - Moore expressed disgust that a city council allowed a gay pride parade, and once allowed a Wiccan to open a meeting with prayer.

2015 - Moore’s Foundation used out-of-context video clips to promote the conspiracy that Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim.

2015 - Moore indicated he believes anti-gay hate crimes are just faked by gay individuals.

2015 - Moore supported the “Institute on the Constitution,” a group that teaches that the Constitution requires that public officeholders believe in God, that “the promotion of evolution is an act of disloyalty to America,” that “there is no such thing as a civil right”, and that legislative bodies lose all “validity” if they pass marriage equality laws. Moore appeared in a video praising their work. The Institute donated to Moore.

2015 - Moore appeared at least 5 times on a show with a pastor that said homosexuality was a crime that the government should be punish by execution. Moore was directly asked if he felt that homosexuality should be punished by death. He declined to state what punishment he thought was appropriate.

2015 - Moore argued that legalizing gay marriage would pave the way for letting the government take children from their parents.

2015 - Moore said Christians would be “persecuted” due to gay marriage.

2015 - Moore asked for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg to be impeached for her support of gay marriage.

2015 - Moore supported calls for a Federal ban on all Muslim immigrants.

2016 - When a school police officer was convicted of having sex with a student, Moore argued that since the man was not technically a school employee, he may have been wrongly prosecuted.

2016 - The United States Supreme Court ruled that gay individuals have a fundamental right to marriage, and laws prohibiting gay marriage are unconstitutional. Moore stated that the Supreme Court’s decision to legalize gay marriage was “worse” than the Supreme Court’s 19th Century decision to allow racial segregation. In direct defiance of the United States Supreme Court, Moore ordered all Alabama Judges to continue enforcing the state’s ban on gay marriage and to refuse to give gay couples marriage licenses. Moore stated that “divine law” outranked the U.S. Supreme Court. Numerous charges were made against Moore, who was suspended. When he lost his appeal he resigned from his Alabama Supreme Court office... and announced he was running for Senate.

2016 - Moore repeated his belief that Obama was secretly not a U.S. citizen.

2017 - Moore keeps statues of Confederate leaders by his desk.

July 2017 - Moore supported the idea of a border wall and said that people that grew up in the United States after being brought when they were children (”Dreamers”) should be deported.

August 2017 - Moore said the Constitution was written to “foster Christianity.”

August 2017 - Moore said that September 11 happened because Americans had “moved away from God” by doing things like not criminalizing homosexuality.

August 2017 - Moore falsely claimed that there are places in Northern States where people are forced to live under Sharia law.

August 2017 - Moore stated that the U.S. has “asked for” shootings and killings (such as the Sandy Hook massacre of 28 people including 20 children) by “moving away from God” (not being Christian enough), particularly by legalizing gay marriage.

August 2017 - Moore admired Vladimir Putin’s treatment of homosexuals.

September 2017 - Moore promised to repeal The Affordable Care Act (”Obamacare”).

September 2017 - Moore's campaign page boasted of an endorsement from Matt Trewhella, a Neo-Confederate that claims it's morally justifiable to murder abortion providers, and an endorsement from Neo-Confederate Michael Peroutka, who claims all laws not supported by the Bible are illegal.

September 2017 - Moore said he would use military force to end illegal immigration.

September 2017 - Moore said he was against transgender people being in the military and supported anti-transgender “Bathroom Bills”.

September 2017 - Moore stated that the last time America was “Great” was during slavery. “I think it was great at the time when families were united — even though we had slavery — they cared for one another…. Our families were strong, our country had a direction.”

September 2017 - Moore won the Republican Primary in Alabama.

October 2017 - Moore falsely claimed that “taking a knee” during the National Anthem is against the law.

November 2017 - Moore refused to debate his Democratic opponent Doug Jones. Though pressed that this seemed cowardly, he stated that he would not talk to Jones due to Jones’ "very liberal stance on transgenderism and transgenderism in the military and in bathrooms." He added that transgender people “don’t have rights.”

November 2017 - Moore stated "they started [to] create new rights in 1965, and today we've got a problem" in reference to the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which prohibited racial discrimination in voting.

November 2017 - nine women made sexual misconduct and sexual assault allegations against Moore. The youngest was 14 at the time of the assault, another began interacting with Moore when she was 14.

December 2017 - A handwriting expert confirmed that a signature in a yearbook of one of his accusers belongs to Moore, contradicting his claim that he never knew her. The accuser said that she’d added a note listing the date and place, explaining why that part was in different handwriting, a clarification widely and falsely reported as an admission of forging Moore’s signature.

December 2017 - Donald Trump endorsed Moore and The Republican National Convention (RNC) funded his campaign, meaning that the RNC has essentially said they're okay with endorsing all of the above. Congressional Republicans have not called on the RNC to stop this support, so think of Moore as the running mate for every Republican seeking office in 2018.

#Roy Moore #politics #LGBT #LGBTQ #gay rights #theocracy #alabama #sorry this is so long but I don't think there's anything here that isn't important #Every time I thought I'd hit rock bottom I found more #long post #my research #bigotry #the arch-bigot #scroll to a random part and see if you're horrified

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leightaylorwrites · 7 years

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Leigh Dissects YA fiction: Fallen Kingdoms (Chapter Seven- Chapter Ten)

Chapter Seven - Auranos

Sigh… I thought we’d at least get a break from Cleo by heading back to Magnus but I guess that was foolish of me to hope.

No one knew why, but Cleo guessed her sister had fallen in love with someone else.

The gender-neutral “someone” makes me hope for a single lesbian in this story. It’s another foolish hope.

Emilia had never so much as cast a flirtatious glance at any of the men in the palace [...]

LET EMILIA BE GAY 2K18

His parents didn’t approve of smoking inside the house. Aron might be arrogant and confident, but he was still seventeen and had to abide by his parents' rules until his next birthday-unless he wanted to move out ahead of schedule. And Cleo knew without a doubt that he didn’t want that sort of responsibility, financial or otherwise.

I’m sorry when did I leave this YA high fantasy and enter a teen drama on the CW? This entire part is a mess of modern-ness and should have been cut.

Aron: [I’m not sorry for killing him lol I kind of liked it too]

Cleo: How can you sound so calm about this?

Aron: Would you rather I lie and say I have nightmares too? Would that ease your own guilt?

Cleo: I want the truth.

Aron: And that’s what I’ve given you.

I get that Aron is a horrible creepy killer, but he has a point. He IS honest. When the villain makes more sense than your heroine, there’s an issue.

When he smiled, the look was equally menacing and enticing. “I will find you.”

YA authors stop writing scary love interests challenge.

Chapter Eight - Limeros

“Naughty girl.”

She ignored the flush that immediately heated her cheeks.She wasn’t being naughty; she was being inquisitive.

And I’m being disgusted. So not only does Magnus have the hots for his adoptive sister, Lucia blushes when he calls her “naughty.” Clace are BOTH unemployed.

“Cleiona’s also the name of the youngest Auranian princess,” Magnus mused. “Never really thought about it before. Same age as you are, right? Nearly to the day?”

I have… questions. First, how does he know Cleo’s exact birthday? Two, it’s likely going to come into play later that they are at most a few days apart but how does that work with Lucia? How does Magnus know her day of birth? We find out later Sabina (the lady from the prologue) brought Lucia to the palace as an infant but it wasn’t the day she was born so how would Sabina know her birthday? Even if she had a vision on the baby’s day of birth or something like that, how did Lucia survive without being breastfed? I need answers.

Magnus: One of grace and beauty, my sister, with a multitude of suitors at her beck and call. Forced to be siblings with a scarred monster like me.

Lucia: As if that scar makes you a monster. You can’t be blind to how girls look at you-I even see maids here in the castle wistfully watch you pass, even if you never notice them. They all think you’re devastatingly handsome. And your scar only makes you more… intriguing.

If you think plain hetero splooging is bad, just wait until you see plain hetero incest splooging!

“[Tomas] was cut down as a spoiled lord tried to show off in front of a princess - Princess Cleiona [...] The two watched Tomas Agallon’s young life bleed from him in front of his own family.They didn’t feel sorry for the pain they caused that family and all Paelsia.”

I mean… it’s true. Too bad the evil king is saying this and therefore the reader is supposed to disagree with him and know that Cleo the Super Special White Girl can’t do anything wrong ever but still. He’s right.

The words were acid on his tongue as jealousy flashed through him like a bolt of lightning. “But [Lucia] isn’t interested in walks around the palace grounds. Not with, well… not with you.”

The boy’s eyes widened. “What do you mean?”

Magnus forced a tense look on his face as if he’d said too much and now felt guilty. “It’s really none of my business.”

[...]

“It’s just that she’s mentioned you to me [...] And she made it clear that if you ever stopped by, you should not be encouraged any further. She means no offense, of course. But… her interests in a potential suitor lie elsewhere.”

In case incest splooging wasn’t enough to make me hate this character, he’s entered Rowboat’s, well, boat. Territorial pricks are not cute @ YA authors.

Magnus had no patience for anyone who would be manipulated so easily. If the boy was truly interested in Lucia, he should be able to stand up to any adversity, including an overprotective older brother.

But you literally just told this kid Lucia SAID she doesn’t want him. If he’s taking your word as truth, that’s not him being manipulated, it’s him believing you because why would a prince lie to him about this? He’s not doing anything wrong by respecting what he believes are Lucia’s wishes??? He has more respect for her than you do?? Why do people like Magnus??

“I wouldn’t hesitate to say you were lying.” He took her arm in his and squeezed it until she flinched. A flicker of fear went through her pale eyes. “Who do you think the king would believe? His son and heir? Or a kitchen maid?”

Amia swallowed hard. “I apologize, my prince. I would never say such a thing.”

“Smart girl.”

So… Magnus is literally physically abusing and threatening his casual hookup and people stan??

There was no Limerian law that stated that pure royal blood was necessary for the position. Even the son of a whore could become king.

Magnus is being all emo over the fact that Tobias could be king someday, a problem which is easily solved by Magnus killing Tobias. This doesn’t happen, but I think I’ve found the problem with all these series that try so hard to be the YA version of Game of Thrones/ASOIAF: nobody has the balls to write how these conflicts would actually play out in a real political setting. YA does have to be toned down in comparison to adult fiction but when you tone things down so much that they make no sense, it doesn’t work at all.

Blood sacrifice? How deeply savage.

Can’t tell if I’m tired of the word savage being used in this book (it’s used at least 20 times in reference to Paelsia) or if I’m tired of it in general (thanks stan twitter).

The king swiftly moved behind the boy, pulled his head back, and slashed the blade across his throat. Tobias’s eyes went wide and his hands came up automatically to his neck. Blood squirted out from between his fingers. He collapsed to the ground.

I’m DONE. We got half a page about Tobias being a threat to the throne for Magnus and instead of seeing them battle it out, or Tobias team up with an enemy later on, or anything that might give some payoff to the fact that Magnus has a secret half-brother, he’s sacrificed a few pages after his main introduction. Do you see what I mean now about YA fantasy writers holding back?

Chapter Nine - Auranos

I DON’T CARE, WHERE IS JONAS

“It’s unfortunate about Princess Emilia, though. So, so sad she isn’t well enough to attend.”

We get it. She’s dying. You’ve reminded us like four times already.

[...] Emilia’s most recently finished painting, a study of the night sky.

Subtle foreshadowing isn’t subtle enough for me.

That [her marriage] was solely a political choice sounded so cold, so analytical.

Does Cleo… not know what politics are? Does she not understand that royal arranged marriages happen all the time? Does she not realize she’s a princess? Why is she so dumb??

“You do know [Nic] is madly in love with you, right?”

Dammit. We came so close to having that platonic relationship but we can’t have a young man in this series not want to splooge over Cleo. It’s the first book and Cleo already has three love interests for this series. Alien Trashryver is worried.

Emilia: “I fell in love with someone else [...] I’ve never felt such love as I felt for him.”

DOUBLE DAMMIT.

Despite being named for the goddess, Cleo wasn’t invested in religion [.]

Isn’t being named after a religious deity frowned upon? I know in some religions you can be named after a minor figure - such as Christians with the archangels. But you can’t name your child God. Cleo being named after the primary person in the religion seems wrong.

But how else would we know she’s a Super Special Magical White Girl if she didn’t have a name far beyond what she deserves?

Her sister had been in love with a guard who’d died two months ago. “It was Theon’s father, wasn’t it?”

Isn’t he like… old??

Her sister had been in love with the king’s bodyguard who’d been thrown from his horse to his death. A tragedy.

That is verbatim from the book and I can’t stop laughing. This bitch said “a tragedy,” I’m CRYING.

Emilia was always the rock - comforting Cleo when she was upset over [some petty stuff] or the loss of her innocence to Aron.

“You’re the same as you were yesterday and the day before,” she’d soothed. “Nothing has changed. Not really. Forget what troubles you. Regret nothing, but learn from any mistakes you make. Tomorrow will be a brighter day, I promise.”

If you think things are cool because HEY we’ve got a YA heroine who isn’t a virgin, we later find out Cleo was drunk when this happened and therefore is an assault victim. The book never acknowledges the later, but instead has Emilia tell Cleo to learn from her mistakes and that nothing has changed. Feminist YA at its peak, y’all.

“You can’t. You’re to be the queen one day. If you die, that means it’ll be me. Trust me, Emilia, that would be a very bad thing. I would make a terrible queen.”

I mean, yeah I agree that Cleo would be a shitty queen but I’m more annoyed at how these five sentences are written.

Emilia: “There’s no one out there spying on us through the eyes of birds, hoping for clues of where to find the Kindred.”

Cleo: “I’ve never believed in such nonsense.”

Btw, Cleo said earlier she thought the birds were watching her. Consistency is hard, I guess.

[Theon] shook his head. “I knew my father cared about someone, but he wouldn’t say who it was. I figured he was involved with a married woman. Now I know.”

So Cleo’s boyfriend is her sister’s dead husband’s son… Cleo’s love interest is her nephew. He’s her step-nephew, but her nephew nonetheless.

Chapter Ten - Limeros (this time with the bird dude)

[...] to see his bird friend, Phaedra, perched on the branch next to him.

Now, I could give this book points if the whole point was that the western world was meant to be Greece, while Mystica is a mix of Italy and Spain. But the existence of Paelsia with its North African/Asian/Roman setting messes it all up.

All [Lucia] would see when she looked at him was a golden hawk. For some reason, this realization pained him.

So we can’t have lgbt+ romances or poc romances but Cleo the Super Special Magical White Girl can get three+ love interests and Lucia can get two love interests - her adoptive brother and a dude who can turn into a bird. White authors, man. White authors…

One thing I do like about this Ioannes dude is that his chapters are short, leaving little room for bullshit. However, they make me go back to Magnus and Cleo sooner than I want.

#leigh reads it #leigh dissects ya #falling kingdoms review

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saotome-michi · 7 years

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10 female characters I’m in love with from 10 fandoms

Tagged by: @gwkimmy

Tagging: @aprincesswholovesinsects, @madelide, @dorotheian, @letheandlilies (Only if you have the time!! But also anyone can do this!!!)

Lol i’m just going to use this as a chance to promote some shows I’ve been watching. In order of most recent to least.

1. Hamasaki Yuka (Saikou no Rikon)

I’m only three episodes in, but damn am I liking this jdrama (which means you all should try watching it!!).

Saikou no Rikon looks at two couples and their troubled marriages. Despite the corny sounding premise, the story is surprisingly heartfelt, possibly because of the relatable characters. One of them, the cheerful, lazy, and somewhat crass Yuka, divorces her husband because even though she loves him, she can see he currently hates their married life and thus, her. She’s a character who I initially found annoying, but am quite fond of now. Maybe it’s because her aggressive and “unsophisticated” ways remind me of myself and other women in my family. Plus, I do like a woman who stands up for herself.

2. Phryne Fisher (Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries)

God I love this woman. God I love this show. If you’re not watching it you really, really should it’s on Netflix and it’s fabulous. Phryne’s fabulous. Honestly, all the female characters are quite well developed– I dare say this show could pass the Bechdel in its sleep.

Phryne Fisher is a woman way ahead of her time, the 1920s to be exact. She’s charming, vivacious, accomplished in many different skill sets and fields of knowledge, and very against the idea that one must stick to social norms just because. So of course she becomes the first and only Lady Detective in Melbourne, Australia. Dressed immaculately (because she likes it and, as she tells her companion Dot, “A woman should dress first and foremost for her own pleasure”), she goes around stirring things up in search for the truth. (While also flustering Detective Inspector Jack Robinson, who I was not impressed with at first but now have a serious crush on. He and Phryne have the most beautiful chemistry and I want them together now.)

3. Rita Madsen (Rita)

I started watching this show on Netflix, because I wanted to improve my Danish and I heard it was good. It is good. In fact it’s fucking great. It ended up exceeding my expectations with the first episode alone.

Rita Madsen is a stubborn and willful schoolteacher fighting against the establishment (who or what that establishment is changes case-by-case). She says whatever’s on her mind in blunt and provocative fashion, and honestly? It’s a joy to watch. She’s also the single mother of three children, who the show also focuses upon. In order from oldest to youngest: there’s Rikko, who’s about to get married to his uptight girlfriend; Molly, who doesn’t know what she wants to do with her life; and Jeppe, who at age 15 is the only kid who’s still at school and discovers that he’s gay. They’re all very realistic and relatable characters, and it’s nice seeing them slowly grow–Rita, most of all, as she has to learn to confront her own occasional hypocrisy and struggle with parenting.

4. Tracey Gordon (Chewing Gum)

Chewing Gum is comedic genius and Michaela Coel should be proud - not only because of her fantastic screenwriting, but also for her marvelous performance as Tracey Gordon, the show’s protagonist. Tracey is honest, outspoken, and wonderfully cringy, and her actions lead to all sorts of hilarious outcomes. Many of the female characters on this list are “cool”; Tracey isn’t cool in the traditional sense, but she’s unabashed around who she is and that makes her the coolest person on the show.

(Shameless plug-in: This show is on Netflix and you should really give it a go, the characters are hilarious and relatable, and I think it’s one of the few shows that really depicts sex as the awkward, messy activity it is.)

5. Amanda Rollins (Law and Order: SVU)

After many, many years of people telling me I should watch SVU, I have finally started watching it... from Season 14, since those are the only seasons available on Netflix. (Don’t worry, I have watched around 4 episodes that were pre Season 13 and therefore do know something of Elliot Stabler and his beautiful partnership with Olivia Benson)

But maybe it’s because I started from Season 14 that I seem to have a different opinion of Amanda Rollins than most other fans do? Correct me if I’m wrong, but after prowling around the internet, it seems that most fans dislike Rollins or at least find her tedious. I, on the other hand, really like her and her character growth... hmm guess that’s a mystery we’ll have to put aside for now.

6. Na Kyung Shim (Strong Woman Do Bong Soon)

If you’re also a fan of the show, you might be thinking: What about Do Bong-Soon herself?? But while I love our plucky heroine, I love her plucky best friend/sidekick even more. Na Kyung Shim doesn’t get that much screen time, but in the scenes she gets she shines as a sweet and snarky girl, who just wants the best for her friend. And I just have such a weakness for those kinds of characters.

(Also if you haven’t watched Strong Woman Do Bong Soon and you’re looking for a new rom-com kdrama to watch you should totally pick this one)

7. Chaewoon (Love Barometer)

I’ve talked about my foray into Korean webcomics before, but in those posts I neglected to mention Love Barometer, and that is a crime that I must correct.

Love Barometer is one of the cutest romance manhwas that you will ever read and I stand by that statement until my inevitable demise. The thing I love about it? The lack of unneeded drama. Our heroine Chaewoon has a good head on her shoulders and that means that most problems that might, in other manhwas, drag on for entire volumes before getting resolved, don’t exceed more than two chapters here. And it’s wonderfully refreshing. (Also the romance!!! Is so cute!!! I’m going to die!!!).

(The series is on Lezhin FYI and I think the first 30 chapters are like free to read.)

8. Road Kamelot (D. Gray-man)

Listen: I have loved Road Kamelot since I first saw her at age 13 and I have loved her ever since. My first online blog had her photo as the header and the only D. Gray-man fic I ever tried writing was Allen/Road. I would gladly give up my life for her, which probably makes it a good thing that she’s not real. Nonetheless... I love her.

Road’s featured here because I’ve been catching up with the new chapters of D. Gray-man and wow has that been a trip (still can’t get my head around certain plot twists). I think I might give my Allen/Road fic another try...

(Also if you’ve never heard of D. Gray-man before, you should give it a go if exorcists are like your thing.)

9. Ren Kougyoku (Magi)

(Beautiful edit made by @skania)

My love for Road Kamelot can only be rivaled by my love for Ren Kougyoku (and I just realized that both of their initials are R. K. :O what could this mean?!?) and they definitely share some similarities, starting with the fact that they will both kick your ass if you cross them. I feel like a proud mother, watching Kougyoku grow from being a princess ashamed of being “lowborn” to a proud and beloved Empress T_T

I’ve finally read the last few chapters of Magi and honestly? It’s always sad to finish a manga that you’ve been reading for a long time, but in this case the farewell was made easier by the fact that the whole last arc of Magi was disappointing, which meant that I could say a preemptive farewell to it a year earlier. But although the ending was anti-climatic, at least I can rest assured that Kougyoku’s character arc was, for the most part, wonderfully executed, and that her friendship with Alibaba will go on for their lifetimes. ( “Alikou 4ever!” my shipper heart cries, but I shove it down and tell it to save its energy for fic writing).

10. Renee Walker (The Foxhole Court)

Oh Renee, love and light of my life. You are possibly the only Christian character whose moralizing I enjoy, because from you it actually makes sense and doesn’t sound patronizing.

Renee’s one of the most beloved characters in the fandom and I don’t think my reasons for loving her are particularly unique; One of her most-quoted (aka most used in photosets and moodboards and whatnot) lines is “I am a bad person trying very hard to be a good person” and that’s the appeal–at first glance, she’s a harmless, goody-two-shoes Christian, but the truth is she has one of the darkest backstories out of anyone in the series, still carries that darkness around because it’s still needed, and that speaks to her strength. What a badass bundle of goodness she is.

(Btw The Foxhole Court is a book series that reads like an angsty YA series and a sports manga combined, so if that in any way sounds appealing to you, you should give it a go.)

#hmmm how should I tag this #saikou no rikon #miss fisher's murder mysteries #rita #chewing gum #law and order svu #strong woman do bong soon #love barometer #magi #the foxhole court #random blah of letters #D Gray man

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machinehead · 7 years

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RE: PINEAPPLE SUNFLOWER SEEDS AND MORE

I don’t know if any you have tried this ridiculous experiment with sunflower seeds and/or pineapple, but the comments and this music video by nut job/ Head Case Floyd MC BBQ have kept me in stitches!! @mcbbq - Big Loads (music video): https://youtu.be/s7wqVXBTRHI

And I couldn’t stop laughing at this photo: https://instagram.com/p/BU4jHD1FDj_/ Dyin’ ova' here! This just in; my A&R head honcho Monte Conner tells me that veteran music manager Scott Koenig claims that pure Pumpkin Seed Oil produces HUGE loads! One more thing to try I guess... I have yet to see any results, but it is supposed to take a couple weeks. Below are 3 of the most interesting replies I recieved regarding muslim/gay friends. From: Peter Southwood Sunflower seeds and pineapple - no fucking idea. Sounds like bullshit. Muslim Friends - Apart from having very few friends anyway, none at the moment. However, I have known plenty, and the one thing I know is that they are people first, Muslim second (unlike the majority of Christians I have met). The Muslim community in the UK don’t even recognise jihadists as being Muslim. They don’t want the three pricks who attacked London on Saturday to be buried with Muslims. Kathy Griffin - It’s all a matter of perspective. If there weren’t beheadings by extremists in the middle east, would we see the picture in a different light? If this were during the election campaign, would we see it as less disgusting? With what Trump has said about Muslims, trying to ban them from going to the US, people could see the image as a jihadist with the presidents head, and therefore an attack on America. Personally, I have no problems with the picture; not funny nor satirical, but controversial and too easy to be misinterpreted by those who want to. Gay friends - Can’t say much about having gay friends; as I mentioned before, I have very few friends as it is, let alone gay ones. However, being gay myself, I find it funny that it’s frowned upon in the metal community. Let’s face it, one of the most popular rock singers was gay (Freddie Mercury), and the main figure behind the leather look that a lot of metal bands and fans adhere to, Rob Halford, got his look from the Leather scene in the gay community! Personally, I’m not worried about being open at a metal gig. In fact, whilst queuing outside the Hammersmith Apollo to see you guys, I got speaking to a couple of others. When they asked if I was married, I told them that my boyfriend and I were waiting for a while. We then went on to have a fucking fantastic time inside. The fact that I’m in the UK and not the US may explain it somewhat; there’s no-where near the level of bigotry over here. There are still some fucktards, but I’ve been lucky enough not to have come across them (not that I would, even if they wanted it!) From: Waseem Ahmed Mr Flynn A 43 year old Londoner here who’s been listening to your music since 1994, well-kept digipaks of Burn My Eyes and TMTC proudly sat in my music collection, along with your other releases. And a muslim too. And I naturally know shedloads of muslims, both professionally and personally. Last Sunday, I was on the underground on my way to the theatre in the Covent Garden area with my kids. My sister sat opposite me, still heavily mourning the loss of her childhood favourite Chris Cornell. I received a text from a friend in Paris asking me to be careful as emotions would be running high following the London Bridge incidents. I responded that I’d be fine, "I’m wearing a Machine Head t-shirt so everyone will love me." Then it hit me. We’ve reached a point in London, one of the most awesome multicultural cities in the world, where we are now having to explain ourselves and how we differ to the maniacs that wreaked havoc in Manchester and London. Passing questions. All politely asked though. Are you ashamed about what they did? You’re not like those other muslims are you? At that moment, protecting me from any glare was my Bloodstone & Diamonds tour t-shirt. Damn, bad times. My 9-year-old boy is going to his first gigs this year, ticking off Linkin Park and Metallica of his wishlist. He’s scared after hearing about the Ariane Grande concert incident. I’ve told him he will be safe as security has increased everywhere. Fortunately he’s not cottoned onto the muslim label thing yet. That would be heartbreaking to see. I’ve been gigging in London since the age of 17. Classic venues such as The Marquee and Astoria have gone. One thing has remained. The camaraderie at metal gigs, irrespective of faith, skin tone or whatever. Everyone looks after everyone and we’re all there for the same thing. Together. Irrespective of the nonsense taking place in the world, I hope this bond remains throughout my lifetime and beyond. Well now you kinda know another muslim, although via email. If you’re ever in London and fancy a hearty home cooked curry, you’re most welcome to join me and my family. I’ll invite my gay work colleagues too. They are awesome too. And one’s a diehard metaller and one my favourite gig buddies ☺ All the best Waseem From: Svetlana Simanski Subject: Muslims and pineapples Hey Robb, I just read your TGJ email and laughed a lot - what a mix of topics and - since I'm already craving for new MH stuff - I thought the email would maybe an update. Anyway... as a straight girl I have been confronted with the pineapple-hypothesis several times in my life and - until today - in my opinion this is just a way to get girls into BJs a little more. :D Men can never get enough, so they invented this hoax to maybe achieve exactly this. And yes, I already tried to prove the hypothesis. Guess what, the pineapples had no effect at all. If you've ever tasted cum in your life you might know why pineapple-flavor sounds like a nice game-changer. So much on this topic. Now lets get to the muslims. I'm 28 years old right now and I am from Germany. After WW2 there came many guest-workers from Turkey to help us out here, to rebuild the country and most of them stayed, had families and their kids had families themselves, but I never was in touch with them. I met some in my time as a student at university, but never was closer friends with one so I didn't have a chance to get to know the culture or the religion. So, honestly, I had some prejudices. Not from my own experience, but from the word that spread. I live in a big city and we have to deal with some issues here. There are places you shouldn't visit after dark or even whole parts of the city which are not completely safe for white girls in black clothes and without a hijab. Well, of course I had kind of an inner fight with myself and these prejudices. I didn't want to have them at all and since we welcomed like two millions of refugees in Germany over the past two years I decided to work this out for me. Can you believe we still have Nazi-stuff going here in Germany? Didn't they learn anything from history or is it just a story, a bad fairy tale for some people? Honestly, I don't get it. Anyway I took a new job offer at a stationary youth welfare institution and had no idea what to expect. This was kind of an experiment for me and I started six months ago. I work there with 22 refugees. With kids. They came all the way without their parents or any other relatives. The youngest one is 15 years old and he arrived in Germany when he was 13. He did the whole fucking trip vom Afghanistan to Germany by himself. This age I played with barbie or tried out how to look good with make-up. Those were my problems. Wow... I thought I had to go through some things in my life, but I realized it was nothing compared to what they did to come here. What they had to do in their countries to basically survive. They killed for the Taliban to save their families. Can you imagine? No, neither can I. So now I know like 26 muslims (my boss and some coworkers are muslims as well) and I love them all. The kids are so kind and so cute, help- and respectful. You can't imagine. For me this changed everything in my life. Before this job I couldn't image to have a romantic relationship with a muslim, now I can. Besides... they're all a little too young, but in ten years from now... I'd see a bunch of handsome and polite young men from Afghanistan and I can tell you, there are some really, really special characters among them. Just awesome. I got to know their culture a little bit, their habits and routines in religious practice and I even started to learn a little Persian. My job is to look after them in any situation and explain the pitfalls of german bureaucracy. We are also friends somehow, they tell me stories about their lives in Afghanistan, Syria, Iraq and Eritrea - sad and happy ones - and this is basically all I need. This job just gives me back so much. The love and the kindness you get back from these kids is amazing. It took some time to realize: I'm part of their lives now, I am somehow their sister, mother, aunt and friend at the same time. I can't write down all my experiences here, but I wanted to let you know at least a small part of my story and how this job changed my view, my behavior, my thinking and the way I speak to others about muslims or their culture, especially from Afghanistan. I'm hoping my English isn't too bad and you can somehow imagine what I tried to describe. Hope to see you in Germany in 2018. I'll be there, somewhere in the crowd. Cheers from Germany, Svetlana

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sartle-blog · 8 years

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Sex Lives of Dead Presidents

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genkidesurun · 8 years

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I’m bored and have no story (or curhatan) to share... so it’s time to duel answer some questionnaire! Actually, the original post [here] got more than ninety questions, but I’ll just pick the ones I’m interested in and alter some of them a bit.

1. If you had to be gay for a day, what celebrity would you most like to take on a date?

It’s arduous to project the kind of girl that’ll draw my attention. But since I have the hots for nerdy guys (with fast-paced speech, silly gesticulations, and, of course, glasses!) like John and Hank Green, I’ll probably go for girls with such similitudes. Hmmm... Emily Graslie, perhaps?

6. What are the top five most contrasting songs on your playlist?

When you have both metals and nasyeeds in your playlist... It’s like what Wali called ‘tomat’ (red--tobat maksiat). All those fucking and shitting and hell, to praising The Lord and acknowledging your penitence and baper-ing; repeating over and over and over and over...

8. If you could make just ONE change to this world, what would it be and why?

Erase the notion of witches (wow, I’m feeling like Madoka; ups, spoiler alert). Can I wish for immortality?

9. If you could wake up tomorrow and be fluent in three additional languages, which would you choose?

Quenya, Parseltongue, aaaaannddd SIMLISH, YEAH! Have you listened to Katy Perry’s Last Friday Night sung in gibberish--I mean--Simlish? You really should!

11. What are the top five movies to make you cry?

Hello Ghost

The Green Mile

Hachi: A Dog’s Tale

You’re the Apple of My Eye

Miracles in Cell No. 7

Yes, I’m such a crybaby. Hello Ghost and The Green Mile made me ugly the most.

12. What’s the scariest nightmare you’ve ever had? Describe it in detail.

Uh... overslept and missed exams. Good thing they were just dreams!

13. Would you rather raise 25 children or have the chance of ever having children taken away? Why?

WHY SHOULD I OPT FOR RAISING 25 CHILDREN?! AIN’T NOBODY HAD TIME (AND MONEY) FOR THAT.

17. If you had to lose one of the five senses, which would you choose and why?

Rather than senses, it’s probably better to discard emotions.

21. If your life was about to become like Cheaper by the Dozen and you were going to be saddled with twelve children, what would you name six girls and six boys?

Let’s say those children were orphans taken care by me. I’d happily give them the names of fictional characters! Before I familiarize you with my kids, let me introduce myself first: Karlisha “Kirun” Runa Niephaus, the caretaker and the custodian, along with Raine Virginia Sage and Damuron ‘Raven’ Schwann Oltorain.

(Boy) Vandesdelca ‘Van’ Musto Fende The big brother of Tear. As the result of his upbringing as an orphan at early age, as well as being the oldest in the orphanage, he became precocious, looking after his sister in their parents’ absence and willing to help the caretakers attending the other children while also struggling on his study. He was an amiable fellow and well-respected throughout the orphanage. Currently in the last year of senior-high and busy preparing himself for a law school.

(Girl) Mystearica ‘Tear’ Aura Fende Van’s baby sister who adored him dearly. She had grown into somewhat a wallflower; a shrinking violet. Although shy around people, Tear was a girl with a strong moral compass, never quivered to defend her friends from bullies. Like her brother, she had a beautiful, melodious voice that had brought her to become a choir member in both the town’s church, alongside Van, and her school. Currently a seventh-grader.

(Boy) Ffamran ‘Balthier’ mied Bunansa Both dashing and quick-witted, Balthier was the conspicious of all. His charm and eloquence could easily impress anyone he met, thus making him the most popular kid around. Albeit a bit self-centered at times, Balthier could show his altruitic side, especially when it came to his bestfriend’s affairs, Ramza. Currently a ninth-grader and a valuable player of his school’s basketball team.

(Boy) Ramza Lugria Beoulve A boy who survived from a wildfire that burned an entire village, including his parents, his beloved sister Alma, and his bestfriend Delita Heiral. His meek and tender disposition clicked perfectly with Balthier’s smug and jaunty manner, therefore creating a bridge of trust between them. Ramza had an eye for world history, spending most of his time in the library to read books and write essays. Currently a ninth-grader and established a close relationship with the history teacher Goffard Gaffgarion.

(Boy) Edgar Roni Figaro Sabin’s older twin brother who was an electronics hobbyist and a gamer. He was the technician around the house, repairing the appliances and, sometimes, modifying them. Knowing very well that he had insufficient funds to begin with, he befriended Cid Del Norte Marquez and worked at the latter’s workshop as a part-timer. Though a geek at heart, Edgar didn’t constrain himself as a mere geek; he was surprisingly flirtatious, but to no avail. Currently an eleventh-grader.

(Boy) Sabin Rene Figaro Edgar’s younger twin brother. Unlike his prudent and erudite twin, Sabin was quick-tempered and straightforward, and excelled at physical activities, particularly martial arts. Under the tutelage of his karate master Cyan Garamonde, Sabin achieved black-belt in a no-time and had won many tournaments. Of all their differences, he and his brother shared the same unflappable determination and ambitions. Currently an eleventh-grader.

(Girl) Estellise “Estelle” Sidos Heurassein Cute, courteous, and bright; Estelle clearly caught everyone’s attention, but still being humble as she looked up to Philia. She was one of those bibliophiles who could even recite various passages from heart. After the incident involving her two bestfriends, Yuri Lowell and Flynn Scifo, Estelle promised herself to become a splendid doctor, thus leading her to be studious, hoping to obtain a scholarship. Currently a tenth-grader, a model student, and a member of the science club.

(Girl) Margarita “Rita” Blastia Mordio A curious prodigy with an IQ of 160; however, lacked of social competence. She liked to correct people whose perceptivity was wrong, which inadvertently annoyed them unbeknownst to her. Rita was close to Raine’s little brother Genis due to their similar level of intelligence and close age, and to Estelle who always welcomed her presence. Currently a fifth-grader.

(Boy) Genis Kloitz Sage The genius younger brother of caretaker Raine whose brain power could disparage the grown-ups’. Even as a child, he could solve his sister’s undergraduate math problems and sometimes engaged in Edgar’s projects. Due to his superior intellect, he demonstrated repellent disposition and was cynical towards others, but would greatly respect everyone with the same intelligence as him. Currently a sixth-grader and had a crush on his P.E. teacher Presea Combatir.

(Girl) Rutee Atwight Katrea An upbeat, tomboyish lass with misunderstandable attitude. Having a firm moral sense yet being irascible at the same time, Rutee could easily pick a fight with anyone she deemed erroneous. Despite this shrewish demeanor, she was in fact solicitous and attentive towards her close relations. Due to the hapless circumstances, Rutee became eager to earn money, working as anything as her employer wanted her to be. Currently an eighth-grader.

(Girl) Philia Clemente Felice Like your everyday bespectacled girl, Philia was smart, genteel, and naive; pretty much a foil to Rutee. A devout Christian, she highly regarded her belief and attended the church every week. Through her science teacher Batista Diego, nature and chemical experiments had greatly interested her as she aimed to be a chemist in the future. Currently an eleventh-grader, a model student, and the chairwoman of the science club.

(Girl) Rydia Asura Mist The youngest and newest in the orphanage, being five years in age. She was rescued by the sailors Cecil Harvey and Kain Highwind from ship drowning, a disaster that killed her mother and developed her fear of waterbody. She loved animals dearly as she often visited the town’s farm and pet house with the company of one of the caretakers.

25. What’s the most frightening thing you’ve ever seen in your life?

Failures.

26. Name five books you think everyone should read and give a brief synopsis for each.

Too lazy for the synopsis. Just check them out on GoodReads:

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (by Agatha Christie) Lemme proudly present one of Christie’s masterpieces. I personally found this more exquisite than And Then There Were None.

A Short History of Nearly Everything (by Bill Bryson) I know Sagan’s Cosmos and Hawking’s The Brief History of Time are popular as hell, but hell... they were published in the 80′s (but still gold though, you really should check them out). We need newer ones and Bryson’s is certainly the best--for me, at least, at this time--in elaborating big history and the development of science.

Why Evolution Is True (by Jerry A. Coyne) A nifty allusion for Darwin’s The Origin of Species. No. Don’t protest. Dawkins probably produces more of this kind of books than Coyne does and, of course, is far more popular than any evolutionary biologists alive. Dawkins is a brilliant writer and all, but Coyne has the apt for making the theory easier to comprehend.

Little Women (by Louisa M. Alcott) Still the best bildungsroman. Ever.

Speaker for the Dead (by Orson S. Card) Sci-fi, philosopy, anthropology, politics, religion; all in one. Yes. I’m such a weirdo to enjoy the second book far more than the first one.

27. Do you believe one can fall out of love?

It’s a fact. Why bother asking anyway.

28. What are your three favourite sounding words?

Peculiar Don’t you think the word ‘peculiar’ has such a peculiar pronunciation?

Halcyon Archaic one, yes. So old-fashioned that Kirun--who fancies classics--is indulged by its subliminal beauty. Moreover, it was used as the title of a Bleach’s chapter: ‘Goodbye, Halcyon Days’. Aren’t ya romantic, Orihime?

Preposterous I like to shout out this word--in my solitude, of course--whenever expressing my disbelief.

31. List the seven deadly sins in order of the one you feel you commit the most to the one you feel you commit the least.

Pride, greed, wrath, envy, gluttony, sloth, then lust.

32. What’s your current desktop picture?

46. What’s your favourite ever television commercial?

youtube

49. What’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to you?

“Kirun kan pacarnya aku.” -- by some girl

51. Name five facts that the vast majority of people won’t know about you.

I’m a girl (see? I knew you’d be surprised).

Clearly not a fujoshi. What? You guys don’t believe me? Fine then.

Though having [too] many guy friends, all of my bestfriends are girls; which are, of course, very few in numbers.

Yes, I’m very aware that I love Gaara so dearly, but I’m still normal too, you know, since I had crushes in real life. And they were boys. I know, I know, I’m so gay, right? Wait, what am I exacly; male of female?

Contrary to popular belief, I’m actually a piiiipp who wishes to openly express my opinions and matters without worrying any prejudice nor distressing the ones I love.

54. Share five goals you want to complete in the next 30 days.

Sing Asterisk (of Orange Range’s) fluently. This one’s freaking hard.

Read more than ten books.

Write at least a short story. My imagination has been dormant these days. Inspirations, I summon thee!

Survive without snacks and confectionaries. Kirun, you can do this!

Yes. For one more time. Survive.

58. State eight facts about your body.

I have all the necessities of human being.

Oh, except my appendix had been removed.

Thank goodness the tail remains vestigial.

I’m getting fatter (don’t kill me, people).

A bit taller than average.

Pale as Suzanna-on-action.

My nails aren’t neatly trimmed.

I hate to admit this, but... my nose is... flat--annoyingly flat that even my cute, golden-hearted but veracious little sister pointed, “Sis, is your nose always that tabular?” WHY LIL SIS WHY?!

60. Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?

Romantic love. Sure I do not resist to read or watch romance, but if it happens directly to me... NO. PLEASE. STAY OUT OF THE LINE, MISTER/MISS.

61. Describe yourself in one word/sentence?

“Tetapi sesederhana-sederhana cerita yang ditulis, dia mewakili pribadi individu (...)“ -- Jejak Langkah (by Pramoedya A. Toer)

63. Share five facts about your childhood.

Can I write it in quotes?

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

“If you don’t imagine, nothing ever happens at all.”

“We need never be ashamed of our tears.”

“And now that you don’t have to be perfect, you can be good.”

“It’s no use going back to yesterday, because I was a different person then.”

71. Name five people who are famous who you find attractive.

John and Hank Green (I really can’t choose between those two),

Matthew Macfadyen (best Mr. Darcy ever!),

Mark Ruffalo (husky voice and wistful countenance, how I love those combination),

Kim Rae-won (probably the only Korean actor that I find cute), and

Eddie Redmayne (HOW CAN YOU PLAY NEWT WITH SO MUCH CUTENESS?! HOW CAN YOUUUU!!!).

81. Share five facts about your best friend(s).

Most of them are humans.

One is the embodiment of integrated-circuits.

Some are ailurophile.

Few are bibliophile.

None is pedophile, gladly.

82. What’s the most superficial characteristic you look for in a partner?

Has to be the opposite sex. Duh.

83. Share five ways to instantly win your heart.

Are you Gaara? If not, well... screw you.

88. Give a description of the person you dislike the most.

We share the same room. We share the same clothes. We share the same food. We share the same body. We share the same mind.

91. If food was people, who would be your best friend, your life partner, your enemy, and your ex?

Best friend: okonomiyaki and curry ramen.

Life partner: mom’s seared, chilli scallops.

Enemy: pare.

Ex: instant noodles.

1 note · View note

tango-uniformed · 6 years

Text

Tango first 5000 words

August, 2018

5:00 PM

Amtrak en route from Baltimore MD to Greenville SC

Vivienne Bastian considered himself a fan of public transportation. He knew how to drive, but rarely did so, preferring to walk when he could or take the metro or the bus when he couldn't. He disliked riding bicycles; he had tried to get into it in college but after nearly swerving into traffic and getting hit by a dump truck, he'd given up on all that. The best kind of public transportation was riding the train. Especially long train rides. He liked to sit by the window and watch the landscape change. He liked talking to the strangers who he would never see again. It was all so terribly romantic. He fancied himself a character from one of those black and white noir movies, one of those reporters who talked like Humphrey Bogart and got into trouble and solved the mystery and saved the day.

Those guys always carried around old fashioned recording equipment and talked into it as they moved the story from act to act. It would be interesting if he started to do that, to move his own story along as he moved through it. Or, he thought, he could be like Dale Cooper and treat his recording equipment like a friend or co-worker and act like he was bouncing ideas off of it. Was that strange? It wasn't strange, was it?

To do something like that, of course, he would have to have access to the recording equipment on his phone. And the ability to speak without his uptight, insane brother ranting at him on the phone from hundreds of miles away.

"I think you've really lost it," his brother was saying in his nasally faux-New Englander voice which was an affectation he had picked up to get him further along in his career. "You pick up and leave in the middle of the night and get on a train to Tennessee of all places? I mean, I know you don't have a job to worry about, but you're an adult, you can't just abandon all your responsibilities like that. Are you having a nervous breakdown?"

"I have a job, Will," Viv said, for the thousandth time. He was sitting comfortably by himself on the train. There weren’t many passengers at, despite the fact that it was early summer and the schools were still out. "I make things and people pay me for it."

"On the internet," Will said derisively.

Viv smiled and imagined how much better life would be if he had been smart enough to not call this prissy sad sack of a man in the first place. Once Will knew where he was, it was only a matter of time before he bypassed his self-imposed oath to never talk to their parents again, and then go snitch.

"I think you're having a nervous breakdown because the theater fired you."

"That was a year ago and I am not having a nervous breakdown, you're totally projecting." Would a person who was having a nervous breakdown bother to pack a week's worth of clothes that were all planned out, outfit by outfit? Viv had even researched the weather in Chattanooga and packed accordingly. Supposedly it was pretty humid there. Would a person who was having a nervous breakdown call a friend to take care of their plants for a week? Would a person who was having a nervous breakdown even call their brother to let him know they were ok? No, no, and no. If anyone was on the verge of a nervous breakdown, it was his recently divorced brother. "I told you that I'm just trying to find Christian, I'm following the clues he left me and--"

"--You're living in an insane fantasy world--"

"--since it's clear he's tracking his old buddies down, the closest one was Virgil Osborn, who went back to his hometown in Tennessee after the service." Talking to Will was like talking to a sea-urchin. Every little thing made him spiky and defensive. Impossible. He was worse than Dad.

He was only an hour away from Greenville. Once he got there, he planned on renting a hotel for the night. He'd put the final touches on the episode-- the first episode of a series, he hoped-- and then upload it. That would really set the whole thing into motion. It was what would make it real. Once he put his intentions out there, into the universe and into the public, there was no going back. He'd have to follow through.

The only thing Viv knew about Greenville was that they had a big theater that Hamilton would be coming to later in the year. He hoped that meant they were ok with gay black people. He anticipated it being more accepting than Jeptha, the Eastern Tennessee town of 2000 he was on his way towards the next day.

Will was still ranting at him. Viv tuned back in. "Christian isn't missing. Christian is never missing, or hurt, or in trouble, or what have you. He's just him. He ran away. Again. He'll turn up when he wants to turn up. He's the only one of us who gets away with everything, and you're a fool for falling for his bullshit again. It's like you're the youngest brother or something, instead of us all being born at the same time."

"If you read the Google Docs he left--"

"--You mean his obviously PTSD fueled manifestos--"

"--There's all this shit about what happened in Kandahar, with him and Blue and the others before they all got discharged. And I think-- I mean, I'm guessing-- there was some kind of cover up that goes back to the OVA. Or the OVA found out about it through a military leak, I don't know. Christian must have thought it was a big deal, so when Osborn and Jankowski turn up dead a few months ago, he freaked out and thought this big conspiracy was behind it. And yeah, after reading it, I'm inclined to think so too." Viv took a big gulp of the canned Starbucks Frappuccino he had bought at the last stop. He needed the caffeine. He wondered if he could vape on the train. He hadn't seen any signs saying that he couldn't. Would it set off the fire alarms or something? He took his Juul out of his pants pocket and looked around for any attendants or other passengers who looked like they would complain.

"Yeah, PTSD fueled manifestos," Will said dryly. "The OVA only deals with magic. Why would he think they care about some idiots who got drunk in Afghanistan one night and only narrowly avoided getting court-martialed?"

The only passenger nearby was a middle aged white lady who looked like she had taken about a hundred valium. Viv surreptitiously took a drag on his electronic cigarette. The pod he was using was green apple flavored. He felt his nerves immediately calm and hoped that he wasn't addicted to nicotine. That couldn't happen with vapes, right? He exhaled and fanned the air a little bit as he kept talking, in a more lowered voice. "Did he tell you what happened in Kandahar?"

"He told me what he thought happened."

"With the, the black slime that started moving up from his fingernails and the way he couldn't remember any of it?" Viv thought about his own fingernails and felt the need to take another drag from his vape.

Will was silent.

"You still there?"

"Why didn't you go to Boston to see Blue if you think Christian's army buddies are showing up dead?" Will asked, staunchly changing the subject away from dissociative periods and black slime. He never liked to talk about it. Not even when it was right there in front of him affecting him. "If there really was a pattern and Osborn and Jankowski's deaths are connected, wouldn't he be next? Or wouldn't Christian have gone to him first since he's so close?"

The few times that Viv met Blue had been deeply uncomfortable since he had introduced himself under the assumption that Christian was dating him. Which was ridiculous in retrospect, since Christian had never dated anybody. But Blue had a variance that allowed him to control his own heart rate, so at least it had been fun to trick his mother into thinking the guy had fallen over dead at her table.

"There wasn't as much on him," Viv said lamely. "Just some articles from 2015 when that girl tried to rob the place he was working at and put him in the ICU for 3 days."

"I forgot about that."

"Yeah." The vapor around Viv looked a little thick. He kept waving it away and glancing around for employees. "Anyway. I don't know. It'll be interesting, an interesting story. I think people will like it."

"Don't you mean 'I think I'll find my missing brother'?" Will asked, and laughed cruelly. He laughed through his nose for some reason. Nobody else in the family laughed through their nose.

Viv wanted to put a knife into this particular brother and then twist it. "How's Emmy?" he asked.

That took all the pompousness right out of him. "Good. Almost walking," Will said, deflated. "I had her this weekend. I have to see Jennifer's attorney to finalize custody next Friday."

Hopefully that meant Jennifer would be getting more custody of Emily than Will was. His brother's ex wife was fun, attentive, and thoughtful in a corn-fed Midwesterner kind of way. She didn't need to be subjected to the dysfunctions of the Bastian family any more than she needed to be. And the baby definitely didn't need to be around any of them.

"That sucks," Viv said, as fakely as possible. "I guess I'll have to go over to your-- I mean to Jennifer's house the next time I want to babysit my niece. I'll send you pictures of her."

Without so much as a 'fuck you', Will hung up.

Viv shook his head. So dramatic. It was sad that he had to punch below the belt like that, but sometimes Will forced his hand. At least Christian never mocked him.

The last time he had seen Christian was almost a month previously. He had shown up at Viv's apartment in the middle of the night without warning, soaked with sweat and ranting about how they-- the Bastian triplets-- were not safe. That was when he had shared the Google documents with Vivienne. It was nearly 3 gigabytes of information, most of it incomprehensible. It was not the first time he had shown up out of nowhere like that, but it was the first time that he had proof to back up his claims. Most of Christian's collection of documents were information accessible from the public-- articles, screenshots from twitter, videoclips, even basic information from Wikipedia. But some of it was from the Office of Variant Affairs, as well as from the military and looked...official. He wouldn't answer any of his brother's questions, he was too amped up, just repeating that they weren't safe. By the time Viv had gotten him to de-escalate, Christian had determined that he had to go. He said that he was off to Tennessee, where Osborn had died 4 months ago, and left.

Still, Viv had not reported his brother missing. Nor had Will. Nor had their parents-- not that Christian had any contact with them recently. But surely they knew. There was no way that they were going about their lives unaware that nobody had seen one of their sons for an entire month, could they?

He had heard that if someone was missing over 30 days, they weren’t really missing any more. That was when you were supposed to send the authorities their dental records. Viv had no intention of doing that either. He knew his brother wasn’t dead, Christian was too….Christian for that. He had just Gone Girl-ed himself for whatever reason and was probably in trouble.

So he hadn’t filed a missing persons report. And he wouldn’t.

It wasn't because he didn't trust the cops to find Christian. It was because he wanted to find him himself. It was a better story that way.

Contemplating this, Viv took another long drag from his vape and exhaled.

And just like that, the smoke alarm went off.

********

ETN.ORG

APRIL 15 2018

JEPTHA MAN FOUND DEAD AT STILLWATER MOTEL DIED OF DRUG OVERDOSE

Shelly Asburn

JEPTHA- A 32 year old man who died earlier this week at the Stillwater Motel overdosed on drugs, says county medical examiner.

Virgil Alexander Osborn, of Jeptha, Tenn. was found the morning of April 13 in a car in the motel's parking lot, according to county medical examiner, Jerry Xi, who conducted the man's April 14 autopsy. The car, parked in the westward lot, was running, Xi wrote in his report, and the heat was on high.

The toxicology report has not been released. Autopsy reports show Osborn's manner of death was accidental.

County Sheriff's Office deputies found Osborn dead inside the vehicle just after 8:00 am after responding to the motel for a medical call.

Sheriff Brian Craddock had previously said foul play was not suspected in the death.

Reach Shelly Asburn at Shasburn(at)ETN.com and follow her on twitter (at)ShellyAsburnETN

*******

August, 2018

7:45 PM

Greenville, SC

The hotel Viv checked into after disembarking the train (thoroughly humiliated and publicly shamed by an attendant for vaping) was actually pretty nice. Greenville wasn't the pit of despair he had imagined it to be. It was located on a river, which he had walked next to while scoping out the big theater, the Peace Center. The place wasn't like Baltimore, but it was pretty good for the South.

Well, for what he imagined the South to be like. He had never been down there, unless you counted trips to Miami to visit his father's sister. The rest of his extended family all lived in Cuba (his father's family) or Haiti (his mother's). Between that and Viv's own dismissal of every part of the United States that wasn't California, Florida, or located above Maryland and below Maine, he didn't have much room in his heart for travel.

But Greenville was very nice. If he had more time there, he could see himself maybe going to a play and checking out some of the local restaurants. He did not have time. The bus that would drive him to Chattanooga was leaving at 8:00 in the morning, so all he could do was wind down in his hotel room.

He reclined on the bed, wearing the terrycloth robe that came with the room. The bed was comfortable, more comfortable than the one he had at home. Hotel beds always were. Viv had his headphones on and his laptop perched on top of his round stomach, carefully finalizing his edits of episode 50 of his podcast, "Slack". It was a...variety show. Most of the time he just talked about music and invited guest speakers to discuss politics or pop culture with him. Sometimes he did some investigative journalism-- mostly having to do with the arts scene or true crime. He really hadn't found his niche, but had enough listeners to scrape together barely enough to live by on Patreon. Sure, it wasn't the same as when he had been in charge of sound design at the Owensby, but it was enough.

Plus, he was his boss and could do whatever he wanted now. He had total creative control. That's what counted.

If Viv thought too hard about what Will said about him finally having a nervous breakdown over being fired, he actually would have a nervous breakdown, so he focused on work. The sound of his own voice was already starting to irritate him. He sounded very Maryland and very gay, neither of which were affectations.

"I'll keep you guys updated on this story as it unfolds," his recorded voice from 3 days ago was saying. "And for Patrons of a $10 level or more, I'll be uploading some of the documents my brother left for me-- the ones I feel safe doing so with that is." Viv rolled his own eyes at himself and tugged off his headphones.

For a few minutes he blindly surfed the internet until he found himself watching a video of a squirrel getting stuck in a bagpipe for no reason. He exited Google Chrome.

He used the remote to turn on the tv. Whoever had stayed in the room before him had left the channel on Fox News, which was like kryptonite for Viv. He stared at it for a moment, transfixed in horror. A Republican Representative from Indiana was talking, clearly begging for her seat as mid-terms approached.

"I'm just saying," she told the camera, all big teeth and dead black eyes. "There are people out there who have the inherent ability to kill others using nothing but their minds, and the OVA does nothing to regulate this. Sure, these school shootings get a ton of press, but what about the guy who goes postal and snaps his wife's neck telekinetically? What about the people who can create fires just by blinking? Shouldn't everyone else have the right to protect themselves using firearms?"

An image of his father, who had walked with a cane since the age of 35 after his left leg was irreparably mangled by gunfire during his service came to Viv's mind. He shook himself from his trance and flipped the channel to Real Housewives of Orange County.

He exited out of the sound editing software on his laptop and pulled up Christian's Google docs, scanning through them to see if anything new caught his eye. So far, he had only organized them into sections. One section pertained only to Tennessee and Virgil Osborn. Another contained information about Monty Jankowski's death in California. One section was about Blue. One was just for Christian-- for some reason, his discharge papers and medical records were all scanned in there, although there was nothing out of the ordinary there. But Christian had also included his report cards from Elementary school, as well as notes from 2008 when he had been forced to see a therapist. Then there were miscellaneous bits and bobs of information. There were emails Christian had exchanged with thauma-slurry distilling factories from some big company, Proverge. There were old scanned paper documents in Russian that Viv couldn't make heads or tails of. Academic studies from the OVA's disease prevention branch coupled with Wikipedia pages on biological warfare. Every single episode of his podcast. A video of their mother playing the piano at a concert in Germany during the 1980's. A photograph of their father when he was young, surrounded by smiling people. Will's medical records. A copy of Jennifer's sonogram when she was pregnant with Emily. A copy of the pink slip Viv had received when he got fired.

How did an ex-military chump turned security consultant like Christian get his hands on all this?

He clicked on Osborn's files and rapidly began going through them again, preparing himself for the next day. The toxicology report had not been released yet, but Christian's notes emphasized that he had died overdosing a methamphetamine-fentanyl speedball. Since Christian seemed to know everything these days, Viv believed him. His brother had even narrowed down Osborn's dealer from blurry convenience store camera footage; a tall young woman called Arlene Kennelly who was involved in the local criminal organization.

The puzzle pieces were all there but it was up to him to put them together. He was less good at detective work than he had once assumed, and it frustrated him. He clicked out of Osborn's files.

Viv watched the video of his mother playing the piano, hoping that it would calm him down. It was from before she had triplets, and she was beautiful and happy. She was a better pianist than anyone he had ever paid to see, it was no wonder that she had gone all over the world when she was in her 20's. In the video, Maya Bastian (for some strange reason, Viv's father had taken her name and let go of his name, Perez) played the solo piano part of Rhapsody in Blue in front of a crowd of people in uniform. Her hair hid her face from the camera.

Hearing her play made him feel a little bit better. It reminded him of being a kid, when she was teaching him and his brothers. It made him think of the way she would guide his hands on the keyboard, and the way that everything seemed right in those moments.

It made him feel better but not better enough to forget that at one point Christian had rooted through his garbage like a psychotic raccoon in order to retrieve his pink slip.

Thinking about that made him feel itchy. He snapped his laptop shut and grabbed the room service menu, eyeing the mac and cheese. Food was good. Food would make him feel better, along with a hot shower. He had another long drive in the morning, to a probably terrible little town that nobody had heard of. Viv needed his rest.

I AM NOT TORTURING MYSELF BY WRITING VIV BEING ANNOYING FOREVER JUST PRETEND IM WRITING THINGS THAT ARE SIGNIFICANT AND I'LL FILL IT IN LATER I GUESS. I’M JUST GOING TO SKIP AROUND.

********

ROBERT RAPHAEL KENNELLY

Booking Number: ########

Booking on: 05/26/2010

County: Hamilton

Date Of Birth: 01/15/1989

Charges 1. Violation Description: FELONY POSSESSION SCH II CS

Bond Amount: $50,000

********

In his dream, Viv looked at himself in the mirror in the bathroom of his childhood home and saw that he was 7 again. The child version of him was fatter than he was at 32, and wore his hair in a little afro because his mother thought it was cute. He wore a t shirt with a dinosaur on it and red sneakers. But Viv was only looking at his face. His child-self's face. He was unable to look away, or even break the gaze from his own big brown eyes.

And in his dream his nose and mouth were covered with thick black slime.

*********

US ARMY DD214 PARTIAL TRANSCRIPT

BASTIAN, CHRISTIAN MATEO ######### ########

ARMY RA ######### 02 SEPT 2007

######### MARYLAND 30 MAY 1986

OTH ########## ##########

######### ########## ##########

######### ########## #########

AFGHANISTAN 02 SEPT 07-- 13 JAN 08

#############

*******

August, 2018

8:00 AM

Stillwater Motel, Jeptha, TN

There was no free continental breakfast at the Stillwater, but the woman at the front desk noticed how dead on his feet Viv looked, and made him a fresh pot of coffee. She even poured it for him and seemed to want to sit and chat as he drank it. Her name tag read "Beth". She was exactly what Viv imagined when he thought of someone who would work at a crappy motel in Appalachia. A white woman in her 50's with a weathered face, badly bleached hair, and a big smile that he couldn't quite let himself trust. Her features were slightly abnormal in the way that people who were exposed to certain kinds of magic became. Sharp teeth, big ears. Her sandpapery skin was mottled green on her neck and hands, as if she was permanently bruised. As if she was rotting.

"What you here for?" she asked him as he took his first sip of coffee. It was surprisingly good. She had added two creams and two sugars just like he had asked. Underneath her accent was the distinct lisp that anyone whose mouth and teeth were affected by magic got. "The only thing 'round here for visitors to do is hunt, and the season don't start for months."

Did he look like the kind of guy who went blowing holes in defenseless animals? He was wearing dark wash jeans, sneakers, a black t shirt and a light grey hoodie over it; his 'dressed down' look. He was trying to keep any hint at flamboyancy out of his voice. Was he that good at acting or was this lady making fun of him?

“Well,” said Viv, thinking wildly as he drank his excellent coffee. He might as well try to find the girl who sold Osborn the drugs that killed him. Waving a picture of Christian and asking if anyone had seen him seemed less effective, more disastrous. He would save that for further along in this particular excursion, when he had some solid ground to base his assumptions on. “Well. I’m looking up my friend who I met on the internet.”

“Ah,” said the desk woman, Beth. She smelled like tobacco. “How millenial.”

He decided to just go for it. This was a town of 2000, after all. The chance that any given person he talked to knew someone who he actually needed to talk to was phenomenal. “Do you know an Arlene Kennelly?”

“I know some Kennellys. Not sure about an Arlene,” said Beth. She unfolded a local newspaper, appearing uninterested. “There’s a whole hive of Kennellys around here.” For a second she looked up and made eye contact with Viv, just long enough to be meaningful. “Not sure ‘bout your friend, but my mama wouldn’t let me play with nobody from that family when I was coming up.”

What the fuck did that mean.

Viv backtracked. “My friend is very nice,” he said, knowing for a fact that that was not true. Well, he was guessing it was true. The woman he was looking for didn’t have anything in Christian’s collection, as far as he knew, and cursory google search of her name had brought up no arrest records. On the other hand, it was clear that she was a drug dealer partially responsible for the death of Virgil Osborn, and, according to Christian, involved with the whole plot. “Thanks for the information, though. And the coffee.”

“Anytime, sugar.”

He retreated to his room to get ready for the day and to make sense of what the desk woman had meant. Since he planned on staying in the area for more than a few nights, he didn’t want to piss any service employees off. Hopefully she would make him coffee again tomorrow, and maybe they would talk again and he would bounce some things off of her local knowledge.

In Viv’s room was the following: all he had packed since he got on the train to come south. 7 outfits. His pajamas. 2 pairs of shoes. Toiletries. His laptop, his headphones, and the cords for both of those objects. Nothing else. It made him feel like he was a foreign journalist in Malaysia or something. Living rough.

As he paused to grab his phone charger, he caught a glimpse of himself in the old mirror that hung above the room’s dresser. It was something that had been bought in the 80’s or 90’s, with a yellowing trim and warped face. Viv usually avoided looking at himself in mirrors, for a myriad of reasons, but he decided to right then. He looked tired. There were bags under his eyes like he had not slept. His skin looked dry. He was not smiling, not excited.

There was nothing to be done about it.

********

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

8700 Beverly Blvd

Los Angeles, CA

90048

###-###-####

######@##########

March 17, 2005

Levi Monday

############

Los Angeles, California, 661

Dear Mr. Monday,

Our repeated attempts to collect the balance due on your mother's account which you cosigned for have been ignored. Your account has been referred to an outside collection agency, ####### Collection Agency Services. In order to prevent negative marks on your credit history, we suggest you contact us immediately to make a payment. We accept MasterCard, VISA, and Discover.

If your payment is already on its way, we thank you and ask that you please disregard this notice. If not, we would appreciate receipt of your payment as soon as possible. If you are unable to make payment in full due to financial difficulties, a reasonable payment plan is available so you can satisfy your obligation and keep your account in good standing. If you would like to further discuss the details of your account, please do not hesitate to call patient billing at ###-###-####.

Sincerely,

Patient Billing

Cedars-Sinai Medical Center

**********

August, 2018

11:30 AM

Main Street, Jeptha, TN

At least the weather was nice.

That was the only good thing Viv could say about this small town, after wandering around it all morning. It was balmy outside. Not too hot, not too windy, barely humid at all. A moderate summer day. Pleasant. He had been expecting more heat, but really, it was not much different than it was back home.

“Ok,” he said, speaking into the recorder on his phone and hoping that he came off as more of a ‘Dale Cooper’ than an insane man who was talking to himself. He thought about naming his imaginary audience. Who could be his Diane? He liked the name ‘Francis’ but was leaning towards the more classic ‘Dear Listeners’. “It’s been hours now and I haven’t learned anything apart from everyone in this town knows a Kennelly or two. I just haven’t found the one I’m looking for. Getting frustrated. I feel like I did when I was canvassing in college.”

He was sitting on a bench in the downtown area of Jeptha. If you could call it a downtown area. There were a few little stores lining Main Street-- a hardware store, a diner, a pawn shop and the like-- but nothing of any real interest and nothing that would lure in tourists. The whole place was run down. From what he could tell, most of the town’s jobs came from a nearby factory, the boiled cabbage like fumes of which he could smell and were making him ill. It was a place that would have made him sad, if he had sat down and thought about it. But Viv only had room in his mind for his purpose there and shoved any contemplative thoughts to the back of his mind for later, when he would need them for adding flavor to his story.

“Thinking about getting lunch,” he said into his phone. A stretched-out looking teenage boy wearing a Black Sabbath shirt walked by him and made eye contact. Viv didn’t look away from him. He wasn’t scared of any redneck high schooler, variant or not. “There’s a Bojangles near the motel. And there’s a diner. I don’t know, it looks like some local flavor. Maybe I can ask around in there. And there’s probably pie, that’s always a plus.”

#writing

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