#but this is a guy who can and will use firearms to solve his problems along side…well…Conan the Barbarian hahaha | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thedeviltohisangel · 4 years

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Good Days, Bad Days//1//

“You have it,” she whispered after a moment of silence. There was a gentle breeze that wove itself between them as if to capture the agreement they had come to and carry it somewhere they could neve break it. Clara could see in his eyes that he was being serious. That he wanted her to understand that because they wore camo and she didn’t, didn’t mean one was more expendable than the other.

masterlist is my url/writing

accepting requests for these two

She wasn’t sure what she was expecting. Everyone had told her not to think it would be like Jack Ryan when she got there but she couldn’t help it. There was no way to characterize how you would find the desert when you landed there so no one had really tried. They told her what it wouldn’t be, not what it would be. It was quiet. It was lonely. It was twelve hour days and short showers and nothing but the gym to keep her busy. She did her job and she did it well. Using her spotty network connection to research locals and their networks. Developing target packages for the case officers that worked around her and anxiously awaiting her turn to go into the field.

“Did you hear Leo met with the source you found last night?” That perked her up as she was picking over some chicken thighs at her desk.

“Yeah? Get anything good?” Leo was due to rotate out soon. She had been gearing herself up to ask about taking over his assets once he did.

“Don’t know. Debrief in an hour. You should be there.” She didn’t need to be told twice. Forcing a couple more bites into her mouth, she ran back to her housing unit to brush her hair, teeth and reapply deodorant. And after a pep talk to her reflection, she was ready. She stood towards the back of the room and hid partially behind the shoulder of a guy in camo. Her hope was to blend in, not draw any attention to herself. Listen and learn. That was the mode she was in.

“Alright, listen up. Last night we made positive contact with a lower level associate of Asif Ilyas. Through strong execution of tradecraft we are one step closer to taking down one of the most wanted terrorists. I’ll let Leo Davis up here to talk specifics and next steps.” She listened to the mission recap with full attention and smiling when her background work was highlighted as one of the keys to mission success.

“We’ve now encountered a problem. The associate said that one of Ilyas’ wives might be open for recruitment. She will only meet with another woman, only speaks Arabic and can only meet in the tribal areas.” Clara looked around the room and noticed there was an underwhelming amount of women. She assumed even less than them had the language skills and the defense skills that a remote meeting in a hostile environment would require.

“I think Clara fits all those requirements.” She froze as her colleague from before spoke up and everyone turned to look at her. “She did the background work on this op anyways so she’s already up to speed. She got a perfect score on the Arabic language test and the guys at the shooting range said she makes it look natural.” Clara felt like shriveling up and dying. While it was true she didn’t want to be the girl behind the computer for her entire career, she didn’t want to be the center of attention either.

“Is this all true Miss…?”

“Nilsen. And, yes. Sir.”

“Perfect. Problem solved. We start now.”

----

It hurt when she was taken off her desk. Her instincts were telling her to dive into her research and start acquainting herself with the source and what her knowledge pool would be. But her superiors had told her she needed to get better with her self defense and to leave the research to the analysts.

“This is Captain William Miller. He’ll be leading your escort to the tribal regions and his team will be at the ready in case anything goes south.”

“Pleasure to meet you, Ma’am.” She took his hand, which was large and calloused, and took note of his firm grip.

“You as well.” It was hard to keep eye contact with him. His eyes were blue and his jaw was strong and he was looking at her in a way no one had in a long time.

“I want you to train with him and his men until everything else is in place. He’ll keep me updated on your progress and we won’t send you in until he thinks you’re ready. That clear?”

“Yes, sir.” He nodded once and then turned back the way they had come, leaving them to it.

“How comfortable are you around firearms?” Will asked as he started to lead her towards the range.

“Very. I completed all the operational qualifications prior to my arrival here.” He stopped.

“I didn’t ask how well you scored on the exam.”

“Are you asking me if a gun feels like an extension of myself when I fire it?” She continued to wither under his gaze as he kept silent. “The answer is no. But I’m sure you’re capable of fixing that for me.”

“I can. But I need you to know that me and my team are tired of dealing with CIA dipshits who like to run around a warzone like they own it. You all might be used to playing God but it puts our lives on the line when you do it. I need your assurance you’ll keep both your feet on the ground while we are working together.”

“Good. Then let’s get started.”

----

For the next few days, Will didn’t even let her fire a gun. He had her taking them apart and putting them back together and doing it until her hands were cramped. But she learned quickly. She got faster every time. More nimble. More focused. She ignored him when he tried to talk to her while she was doing it. Ignored his teasing whenever she had a misstep. Didn’t buckle under the pressure when others gathered around to watch. On day four, she finished putting it back together and took a step back from the table.

“I need a quick water break. Then I’ll be back at it,” she said as she waited for his permission to go and sit.

“Fire it.”

“What?”

“You heard me. Test how well you put it together. Fire it at that target,” he was pointing towards a metal circle a couple hundred meters away. Clara picked up the weapon with confidence, squared her shoulders and pulled the trigger. It pinged off the center of the target perfectly. “Again.” She did so until it clicked empty, placing the gun back on the table and looking at Will expectantly.

“Satisfied?” His face didn’t show any signs of emotion as he continued to look at her.

“Be quick with the water break. Then we go again.” He walked away from her with his usual saunter that annoyed her to no end. He was broad yet so tight and moved with a grace a man of his size should not be able to possess. Clara did not go into her line of work because she was someone who sought praise. She knew that didn’t come with this territory. But there was something about Will that made her want that. She wanted him to tell her she was progressing. Wanted him to tell her she was doing better than he had given her credit for. That, soon, she would be ready.

“Don’t worry. He’s extra stoic when he’s happy.” Gavin, one of the other guys from the team, was popping grapes into his mouth as he strolled over to her with a bottle of water.

“Thanks,” she took it and drank half, “I don’t care. Just as long as I obtain whatever skills needed for him to sign off on me and this op.”

“I’m sure you’re doing fine. And we’ll be with you the whole time. That's more so what his job is about. Can we trust you to have our back? Not drag us into an ambush.”

“Well if that’s the case, I should be allowed back at my desk to do the work. I feel useless out here when I could be back there, knowing my source and understanding their access to the target.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.” She turned to see Will had made his way back. He was standing with his hands on his hips, head tilted in disappointment. “You are the target. That’s why you are here learning how to shoot. How to protect and how to kill.”

“I’m not dense, Captain. I understand they’re the enemy and we are on their turf.” She hopes he wasn’t implying that she was losing sight of what she had come there to do. He could never understand her commitment to the cause. The time she had dedicated to be able to stand before him in that moment. To get her shot at doing something meaningful for her country.

“I don’t think you do. I think-” he abruptly shut his mouth and shook his head as if he was trying to get rid of the thoughts that resided in there. “Forget it. Let’s just get back to what we were doing.”

“No. I want to hear what you think.” She didn’t think she’d be able to carry on it if she didn’t.

“It’s best we just keep things professional from here on out.”

“Fine.” If she imagined his face on the target for the rest of the day, he didn’t need to know that either.

----

Will was looking at the words on the page but he wasn’t reading them. He was thinking about today. How he had lost his cool, if only for a split second, and how he wishes he could shove his words back into a box and shove them under his cot. He doesn’t know if he meant what he said. Doesn’t know because he didn’t want to know her. He didn’t want to get to know Clara and what drove her to do what she did. What made her wake up in the morning. What had inspired her to learn to pull a trigger with such ferocity. It only made the necessary detachment all the harder.

“You wanna talk about what almost happened today?” Will raised one eyebrow and didn’t spare the soldier a glance.

“Just like you said. Almost happened. Nothing to talk about.”

“The point is for there to be numbness between you two. Nothing. Even animosity has the potential to derail this whole thing.” He dropped his book onto his chest with a sigh. It didn’t look like he could avoid this conversation.

“I don’t want to watch her die.” That shut up his interrupter. The past agents that Will had escorted to the tribal regions hadn’t made it back. They stuck out like sore thumbs and asked hard questions up front and kept twitching their hand towards the gun tucked to their side. He didn’t think he could watch it again. Carry her body back to the airfield and know he failed one more time.

“She’s good, man. Maybe tomorrow you start actually looking at how she’s doing instead of trying to ignore her. Might put your fears at ease.” Will felt his hand hit his shoulder in a comforting slap before he was left alone again with his book and his thoughts.

The next day, he tried his best to stay relaxed and focused while Clara worked her way through the tactical course they all trained on. He watched her find the targets easily and hide from their line of sight like it was second nature. But he still couldn’t let his guard down. Complacency was the real enemy out here and he’d been working double time every day to keep it at bay.

“Good job. You were partially exposed on that last choke point but overall don’t think you would’ve gotten yourself killed.” Clara laughed at the way he formed what she thought was his version of a compliment.

“Thanks.” She doesn't know what happened overnight but she was enjoying the new leaf he had turned over. Today he was more vocal. Telling her not only what she was doing wrong but also what she was doing right. He was still a man of mystery but she thinks she had managed to crack him just a little bit. “Are you going to the volleyball game tonight?” she asked after a few moments of silence. She thinks she would have remembered seeing someone as handsome as him at one of the morale events and he didn’t seem like the type but she was going to seize on her opportunity to crack further.

“Wasn’t planning too.”

“Well, you should. It’d be good for you to smile on occasion. Watching these idiots throw themselves around might do that.” He chuckled and looked at her with a smile that melted away all of her confidence.

“You’ll be there?” She hummed affirmatively. “Then save me a seat.”

#will miller #triple frontier #charlie hunnam #will miller fanfiction #triple frontier fanfiction #charlie hunnam fanfiction

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jenniboo311 · 4 years

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GQ: Spider-Man Goes Undercover on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter

GQ: Spider-Man Goes Undercover on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitter by jenniboo311

Part 2 of the Social Butterfly Spidey series General | 4115 Words | Chapter 1/1

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The video opens with Spider-Man sitting at a table with only his torso visible, the set background a solid sky blue. He is wearing his signature mask and a simple white t-shirt, forearms bare and defined with lean muscle. He gives the camera a jaunty two fingered salute.

"Hey I'm Spider-Man," he begins in a friendly voice as he flips open the lid of the laptop in front of him decisively, "And I'm going undercover on the internet." The video cuts to a title screen as it types out "Actually Me with Spider-Man" as Spider-Man says off screen, "It's actually me!"

The screen then clears and types out a new message for its audience, "We had Spider-Man create real accounts and go undercover online."

"Let's begin!" He says as the camera cuts back to him typing into the laptop. The video shows his screen as he is typing his username and password into YouTube. Once the site logs in he selects his display picture, a cheeky shot a fan must have captured as Spider-Man swung past upside-down. "First up, let's take ourselves to YouTube."

A brief clip plays from a seven and a half minute humorous compilation of Spider-Man saves, cutting back and forth between impressive confrontations against dangerous criminals with firearms to sweetly helping older ladies with their groceries.

"From user SkepticalOfSpidey, she says," he narrates the comment as it is displayed on screen, "'Is this guy for real? How can a superhero go from dodging bullets to carrying groceries? Like how is this even on his radar? Does he actually care or is this some kind of PR stunt?'"

The video cuts to Spider-Man who replies vehemently, "I absolutely care! And I think it's hysterical people consider me "above" certain things, or they're not worthy of being on my "radar", as though I'm some hotshot. Look, the Avengers are great with the big world ending stuff, and sometimes I'm part of that too, but the little guys need help too, day to day. I'm the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, and no matter who you are, your race, your age, your sexuality, your income, whether you're a victim of a mugging or a kitten in a tree, you all deserve help when you need it. That's my personal mission, just to help people. So as long as I'm doing that I'm not ashamed."

The video cuts to show the end of his response being typed out on screen and Spider-Man hits the "Comment" button to post his answer.

Another short clip plays of footage from the scene of a crime where Spider-Man is knocking out a hulking goon in one hit, displaying his super strength. The subsequent comment is displayed on screen as Spider-Man reads it aloud, "'oh great, just what we need: another brawny idiot that uses his fists to solve problems. What we really need is intelligence. Can we get more scientists please?'"

Spider-Man reels back in his chair a little, seemingly taken aback. "Wow! Why are you so angry-" he consults the laptop again for the username, "Chelsea?" He shifts in the chair to get comfortable before responding, "First of all, another? I'm offended on behalf of my teammates. All of the people I work with are very intelligent, so I'm not sure where she's getting that you have to be an idiot if you have muscles. Secondly, I am a scientist, actually. I specialize in biochemistry, though I also dabble in engineering, physics, and programming. I have an IQ upwards of 250, which if you want to compare to the likes of Tony Stark, is around 270, who also kicks ass by the way."

He straightens his shirt indignantly, "Though hopefully I didn't give too much away with that. My point is," he points at the camera, "you can have both brawn and brains. Don't let anyone convince you otherwise, people. Defy the societal norms."

The comment section displays on screen again and scrolls down the page until it hits another comment. "'How strong is Spider-Man?'" He lounges back in his chair and taps the fingers of his right hand on the table idly, "Well, last we checked I could bench press about ten tons. Tony and I ran some tests about eight months ago to find out, so it could have changed since then but likely not by a large amount. So I'm going to say ten tons, give or take."

Another video clip plays that shows Spider-Man swinging confidently on his web before suddenly taking a wrong turn and eating billboard. The jarring collision dislodges his grip and he falls several feet to land on a garbage bin, whose lid caves in immediately under his weight. He reads aloud, "'Ouch. I wonder how that felt.'" Spider-Man laughs quietly, not afraid to laugh at himself. "To be honest with you Joshua, it did not feel good. That billboard actually broke my nose, though the garbage bin helped break some of the fall. There's definitely worse things I could have landed on. I don't get distracted often but it still happens sometimes. Web slinging is hard, okay?!

"Wikipedia!" he says off screen, as the visual on screen shows Spider-Man logging in to the Wikipedia webpage with the username, '[email protected]'.

"Let's see here," Spider-Man says before devolving into mumbles as he reads the information supplied on the website about himself. "Wait wait wait!" He exclaims after a moment and quotes the offending fact, "'His signature weapon is his webbing, which is created biologically and dispensed from a gland in his wrists at the base of his palms.'" The text in question displays on screen and zooms in on the text, "biologically", and then, "gland in his wrists".

"First of all, gross." Spider-Man rests his forehead in his hand, propped on the table with his elbow in a perfect picture of disappointment. "Second of all," he sits up straight and addresses the camera full on, "have you all actually been thinking I've been spurting real webs out of my hands at everything for the past few years?!" After a beat he processes what he has just said and facepalms while mumbling, "Spurting, oh God I regret my word choice."

The video cuts to the text being backspaced as Spider-Man narrates offscreen, "This is incorrect, let's delete it!"

The video cuts back to Spider-Man reaching below the table, leaning slightly to the left to dig something out of his right pants pocket, sighing heavily. He pulls out two simple black bracelets which he pointedly holds up for the camera before slipping them on. "Web shooters: 101," he says before deliberately knocking his wrists together so the bracelets make contact and activate. "Now obviously Tony Stark has gotten his hands on these and they are a little different than the originals, as you can tell by the nano technology," he explains, black colored metal creeping up his forearms to encase them in a type of bracer, "but the base mechanism is still the same as what I designed from the beginning." The nano technology finishes covering his forearms, the device quite noticeable with the stark black of the metal covering the majority of his pale exposed forearms. He flicks his hands back, palms facing upwards to show the camera, as the motion triggers a small device to deploy in the center of his palms. He reaches into his pocket once more and retrieves a couple small cylindrical cartridges filled with a milky fluid which he then deftly loads into the devices at his wrists.

"In a nutshell: web shooter," he holds up his left forearm to present the whole device to the audience. "The trigger," he presents the small button resting in his palm, "and web fluid," he continues, indicating the cartridge now inserted below his wrist. He points to a spot at the base of his palm, "They got the location of the dispenser right, I guess, but it's not coming out of a gland of any kind!" He aims carefully just past the camera and shoots a quick burst by depressing the button at his palm that makes the viewer feel as though he is shooting it at them. "I developed this formula myself, in a lab, with chemicals!" He emphasizes. "It's completely synthetic, not biological by any means, and nobody had to milk me for it." He pauses, staring at the camera for a moment before looking down at the table and murmuring uncomfortably while shaking his head, "That was a strange sentence I never want to repeat." He huffs a quiet laugh.

"Quora!" Spider-Man says as the onscreen graphic shows Spider-Man logging into the website with his fake email. "What the heck is Quora? I have no idea but let's get into it.

"'How is Spider-Man such a darling? He's so sweet and wholesome and is a big, soft, cinnamon roll'," he narrates as the question displays on screen. He shifts around awkwardly and scratches the side of his head, "Aw, I dunno! But thanks Quora, you're my new favorite website.

"'How many people has Spider-Man killed?'" He narrates as the question displays on screen. "Wow guys, that's dark!" He leans forward and clasps his hands together to convey the seriousness of his response. "The answer is none. I haven't killed anyone nor do I intend to. Spider-Man is strictly nonlethal. I only use webs to detain, I don't use blades or guns of any kind. Except these guns." He lightens the mood by flexing his right arm and kissing his bicep. He holds it together for approximately two seconds before exploding in laughter. "Oh God, how do I have friends?" He mutters to himself.

"Next!" He exclaims, searching for the next question. "'Does Spider-Man wear a mask because he's disfigured?'" The question displays for the viewer to see. "Hmm, okay well the short answer is no. That's not why I wear a mask. I don't really know how to quantify my own attractiveness, that's just awkward. I think I'm perfectly average, though I've had people tell me I'm handsome. They were all terribly biased though, so take that with a grain of salt." Spider-Man's grin can be seen in the crinkling of the fabric around his mouth. "I have two eyes, a nose, a mouth, and completely normal teeth. No extra eyes or mandibles or anything. That may sound like a strange thing to say but you'd be surprised how many times I have to clarify that," He snorts. "I cover my face because dealing with so many street-level criminals puts me on the radar of a lot of people who want revenge against me and anybody I care about. So if my identity was known I'd have to constantly watch my back, and my loved ones would be in danger. Of course there are contingencies for if that happens but in the meantime I want as normal a life as possible for me and mine."

Spider-Man clicks away on the laptop until the next question displays on screen. "'Does Spider-Man give autographs and selfies?'" He narrates. "I do, but all I ask is that if you catch me out in the wild and I look busy or distracted, to please not bother me. Most times the people I save are a bit too traumatized to be thinking about getting my autograph at the moment, but if the night is slow or I'm taking a break I'm happy to give an autograph or take a photo with you if you ask. Your best bet is probably at fundraisers and charity events, if I am in attendance, since I'm not focused on crime fighting and am just interacting with people."

The next question displays on screen, "'Is Spider-Man single?'" The video cuts to Spider-Man shifting uncomfortably. "Uh, I'm not comfortable confirming that sort of thing. Like I said, people in my orbit are in danger so I don't want to bring any kind of attention to who I surround myself with, even if their names are as yet unknown. The less information going around about that the better. So all I'll say is that at the very least I am not looking for a relationship." He awkwardly clears his throat before moving on.

"'How strong are Spider-Man's webs?' Strong enough to restrain the Hulk. Seriously," he nods at the camera, "I know this for a fact. We, and by we I mean the Avengers and I, had a code green sometime last year and out of sheer desperation I let the webs fly. By the time I was done he was basically in a cocoon but hey, it worked! Hulk looked pretty cozy actually." His eye lenses squint in amusement.

"Now let's go to Facebook," he says as the video shows him logging into Facebook and selecting a new profile picture, a closeup of Spider-Man shooting the camera finger guns.

"'Who would win in a race between Spider-Man and Captain America?'" He claps his hands together once in excitement, "Me! Because I'm obviously superior to Cap in every way!" He barks out a laugh and mumbles, "He'll let me have it for that comment! No I'm joking, Cap is awesome. I'm actually not lying though. We had a race, because science, and I clocked in at about two hundred miles per hour while Steve maxed at about seventy. Nothing to sneeze at of course, but not quite up to Spidey's par!" He gives another cheesy arm flex, this time with both arms. The video cuts to Spider-Man typing out the last of his answer and finishes it with two flex emojis before submitting it.

"'Do you think Spider-Man has any hidden talents?'" He looks seriously into the camera. "Well if I told you, they wouldn't be secret talents anymore, now would they Gerald?" He cocks his head to the side in thought. "I guess I can tell you that I can dance? I took dance and gymnastics for awhile when I was a kid, which is probably why I'm so agile and acrobatic now. My enhancement made me even more agile and acrobatic, but it was already there to some degree to begin with." He gives a careless shrug.

"'Coffee or tea?' Well I try not to drink either of them to be honest. Caffeine and spiders don't mix! Sometimes I can't avoid it though, lots of late nights being Spider-Man, so in those cases I drink coffee. Funny trivia for you, but I used to love lemonade. I must have inherited some spidery traits because lemon is a deterrent and I can't tolerate it now. I mean it won't kill me, I just find it unpleasant. Don't want criminals thinking they can spray me with lemon juice or something. I'll just be annoyed and smell funky fresh while I kick your ass." His eye lenses squint as his mask crinkles around the mouth. "My beverage of choice is actually apple juice, because I'm twelve years old." He snickers and hits the submit button to post his answer, complete with a baby emoji.

"'How are you doing? Are you getting enough sleep? Do you need a hug?'" He shifts forward to prop his chin on his hand. "I'm doing good, thank you for asking. I am absolutely not getting enough sleep, but neither is anyone else I know so I'm in good company. And I absolutely need a hug. I love giving people hugs and will one hundred percent hug you if you ask me to and I'm not busy. There's lots of Spidey to go around, I love each and every one of you."

He reads the next question silently first and barks a laugh before narrating, "'What even is your life?' Dude, I have no idea. If you had told young Spidey that one day he'd be flipping all over the city fighting crime and battling aliens with a superpowered team of highly skilled famous individuals he'd probably check you for fever and then back away slowly.

"Up next, Instagram! I know all about Instagram, I use it all the time." The video shows him once again logging into the website

"'Does anyone else desperately want a reality TV show with Spidey and the other Avengers? I would kill to watch hours of Spidey being a sarcastic little shit to bank robbers and Tony Stark just being a mess.'" Spider-Man laughs. "Wellllll," he hedges, "you might not have to wait that long. I've been toying with the idea of creating a YouTube channel and posting some shenanigans on there. Now, mind you, it won't be expertly edited or anything, I really don't have the time for that, but it would be something. Keep an eye out for that soon."

The video next displays a picture on Instagram that a fan had posted of a young Spider-Man from his early days coming out of a porta-potty with a string of toilet paper streaming off the bottom of his boot. The comment reads, "'Check out this disaster. What is going on here?'" Spider-Man looks straight at the camera, unimpressed, and deadpans, "Everybody poops, Deborah."

He navigates to the next picture, which is of a kneeling Spider-Man getting mauled by an enthusiastic, fluffy golden retriever. "'Was he a good doggo?'" He reads aloud. "He was best boy. What a good doggo!" He grins big through his mask.

"Now here we go to Twitter," he says as he logs in and selects a profile picture. "This is probably the social media I use the most. I'm thinking about deleting the app off my phone for a little while though, it's starting to consume my life. It's nice being able to connect to the public with it but I'm starting to find it difficult because people get so disappointed when I have to step away. Saying no to people is hard! And I have an extremely busy life so I can't keep this up forever. I've got cats to cuddle and lives to save! Gonna have to dial it back a bit I think."

The screen displays a tweet from user EmmaRox as Spider-Man reads it aloud, "'Do you think the abs are real or does he pad his suit?'" Spider-Man snorts and slaps his chest in mirth. "Well I would think that the fact I can lift a bus is proof enough, but here you go," he says and lifts his shirt to expose his impressively sculpted abs for just a moment before dropping his shirt and shaking his head in embarrassment. "Not padded."

The video cuts to the next question as he reads, "'What do you do in your free time?'" He looks at the camera and his left eye lens shifts as though he has furrowed his eye brow. "Free time? What's that?" He snorts, "No seriously, there's not much of that to go around. If I'm not on patrol or sleeping or training, I'm trying to keep up with my personal relationships and trying not to spend all my remaining time in the lab, with or without Tony. Like I said before, I'm a scientist, so a lot of my downtime is devoted to developing better tech, and to research to advance in these areas." He dramatically sweeps his hand across the top of his head as though he is a diva flipping long hair over his shoulder as he announces, "I'm not just a pretty face, you know." The video cuts to Spidey typing out the end of his answer, finishing it off with a queen emoji.

"'What's the best piece of advice you've ever been given?'" Displays the next question from user, David P. "That's a good question, David. Hmm," he strokes his chin thoughtfully, "I would have to say 'With great power, comes great responsibility'. It was advice given to me by one of the two most important people in my life, and I have carried that motto in my heart ever since. It was advice that ultimately lead to the creation of Spider-Man, actually. I have these fantastic powers, so I consider it my responsibility to do something good with them." He wrings his hands together at what looks to be an uncomfortable topic for him to speak about. After a beat he continues his answer, "The second best advice I've ever gotten, however, was 'It is better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring', which you'll also notice I take very seriously in that I am incredibly ridiculous. I mean if there's a person out there who spouts more bad puns in the face of danger than me, I haven't heard of them." He quietly snickers to himself.

"'If you had to choose three adjectives to describe yourself what would they be?'" He doesn't hesitate when he rattles off, "Genius, witty, humble." He stares at the camera seriously for a moment before he cracks and laughs. "No seriously, uh, probably awkward, smartass, and nerdy." He shrugs for lack of a better answer.

"Reddit!" He says as he logs into the page and selects a display picture of Spider-Man facepalming.

"'Do you have any pets?'" Spider-Man reads. "No. My apartment doesn't allow pets, sadly, but I love animals. And actually I do hang out with Tony a lot and I have to constantly make sure he's fed and watered because he forgets, so I feel like that's close enough." He covers his mouth with a hand to hold in his snort but a strangled one escapes anyway.

The next post shows a piece of fan artwork that is poor quality and is obviously from an inexperienced child. It depicts a heroically posed Spider-Man saving a young boy from a burning apartment complex window. The young artist in question posted the caption, "'I know it's not any good but spiderman saved me and my mom from a fire. I really want to say thank you so I drew him this picture. If anyone gets the chance to talk to spiderman can you please show him this and tell him I love him?'" Spider-Man looks at the picture on the laptop for a long moment and audibly takes several loud swallows. He looks at the camera and says hoarsely, "I love you too, bud. And I'm glad you're doing okay. It was my absolute pleasure to help you that day and I'm so glad I was there. I love your drawing and I think you're so very talented. I'm going to print this out and post it on my fridge so I can see it everyday and think of you. Study hard in school and be good for your mom!" He looks down at his lap and clears his throat, filling with emotion. After a moment he looks up and clasps his hands.

"That's it! We're done!" He says as he shuts the laptop with a snap and his eye lenses squint in a smile. "I hope you enjoyed watching and learning a little bit about me. See you around!"

The video fades to the GQ logo before ending.

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magicalbluecookies omg that last one killed me. Spidey got all choked up Friedfishcat I live for Spidey telling us he loves us. I stan a Spiderboi not afraid of his emotions. kitty22803 Am I the only one who took a screenshot of his abs? TeamIronDad Bahahaha subtly roasting cap and iron man. I wanna be a fly on the wall of their common room, I bet they're all hilarious to watch together lovelyjourneys Does this cinnamon roll ever rest? He needs a nap! And some milk or something! saucysquatch "Everybody poops, Deborah." Dumbledork I will die if he actually makes a youtube channel, please actually make this a thing! enchanted_nightingale Nooooooo dont delete twitter! kim_cc I once got a hug from spidey!! I was crying after he saved me from almost getting hit by a car and he asked if i needed a hug. It was the best hug of my life. Isi1dur Spidey is 12 years old confirmed, someone call the press xoxheartErin Spidey, post a video of you dancing!!! Proof or it didn't happen! Slyrocker Spiderman is asked how's he's such a soft cinnamon roll, proceeds to then prove he's a soft cinnamon roll Hi NOBODY HAD TO MILK ME FOR IT UselessDiamond19 Holy crap his web shooters are so cool! chrissyglikesbooks 250?! His IQ is 250?! Einstein was 160!!!! I feel faint. amillionmiles Spidey eating that billboard is about how my week is going honestly Mira Spidey is such a smart boi! He's going to make a great husband when I marry him.

TotallyNotDeadpool Well I guess this is all we have to live for now that you're out of the MCU

#fanfiction #spiderman fanfiction #spiderman #social butterfly Spidey #social media #jenniboo311 #GQ #Reddit #Twitter #Quora #funny #humor #ao3 fanfic #Marvel #instagram #wikipedia #facebook #interview

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aethuviel · 4 years

Text

Real life Na’vi tribe, the Blue Moon Tribe, and realistic goals of going off-grid

In late 2009, James Cameron’s “Avatar” film came, and with it, the Avatar-related forums. There were Avatar forums, Tree of Souls, and Learn Na’vi.

While the film made an impression on me in terms of its world-building and aesthetic beauty, it did not challenge my view on lifestyle or give me ideas on how to live in the future.

But for some, it did. It was in August of 2010 that I (then nineteen years old) was reading around on the aforementioned Avatar boards, where there was a very(!) lengthy (I believe 50+ pages by the time I found it?) thread regarding the idea of making your own “Na’vi-style” tribe, as a lifestyle.

I read the first few pages and thought “Ha! Fun idea, but I could NEVER-” I kept reading. It took me two whole days to read the entire thing. I went from “maybe I could do it during the summers during the seasonal idea they are discussing, but I couldn’t live forever without my books-” to “I WANT TO DO THIS”.

At nineteen, I was at a standstill in life and had no idea where to go from there. All I knew before this was that I wanted to live in the countryside, but I had no idea and no help on how to make this a reality.

This was something completely new to me, that seemed extremely appealing. I had actually watched Into the Wild just a few months prior, but had no inspiration from it (maybe because it was Alaska, then completely unappealing to me, and the poor guy did starve to death).

By the time I found them, the thread had been broken off into its completely separate, non-Avatar-related forum. They were very clear that while Avatar forums is where they met and were inspired, the project was a serious thing and had nothing to do with “larping” or trying to live literally like Na’vi. The forum was called “the Revolutionists”, better name pending.

The oldest member, who also had the server to the new forum and was one of the most active members, was 37 at the time. The youngest was only 15, and I’d say the average age was around 21. We numbered around 15-20 committed members.

The knowledge was great among some of the members, talking about permaculture, water and waste systems, et cetera. A chat room was set up, and while we had some structured meet-ups in there, there was almost always someone there.

I was extremely inspired, but knew nothing, so I mostly stayed silent, read and listened. Over the next year, I consumed everything I could find regarding “tribal living” or “going back to the wild”. Even then, in 2011, the internet was a much smaller place than today, and it was very hard to find decent resources.

Eventually, in a live chat, the name “Blue Moon Tribe” was decided on for the group. “BMT” had a lot of ideas, some of which I’ll list to give an easy overview...

Permaculture, not pure hunter-gatherer, as it is not feasible today

Hunting for meat, as raising meat animals was never considered

Animals like dogs and horses would be allowed

Funding/permission for the project by allowing researchers to study us as a “social experiment”, as surely this has not been attempted before?

Firearms vs just archery were lightly debated, but as far as I remember, never settled on

Hanggliders and other means of flying were discussed quite a bit, inspired by the Na’vi “Ikran”, but put into reality by perhaps being used to survey forest for the government (essentially as another means of being permitted “stewardship” of a piece of land rather than buying it)

Permanent life, including children and birth control were discussed at some length

We would live in a firm spot, with some sort of permanent structures

An enormous piece of land would be required, due to having to live largely off of hunting - we actually never calculated this very well (how much meat/person/year, how many animals per acre, etc.), but estimated it at 1000+ acres for a reasonable size tribe of ~20 people. This was one of the two ultimate death blows of the project.

Where in the world would it be? Members lived everywhere from the US and UK to Sweden, Germany, Chile, the Philippines, and more countries. Visa requirements for anyone moving would be daunting. I really tried researching this, but it never went anywhere, and it was the second death blow to the project. Never a set location. (In hindsight, it would be best to just aim on the US and be done with it. Or two locations, one American and one European.)

I went from being a very quiet student in the beginning, to becoming one of the leaders in “keeping it going”, when things seemed difficult, by keeping writing new threads, and trying to solve our most pressing problems - money (for buying land) and where to move.

I researched almost every country imaginable, made in-depth charts of my research, and felt most like some of the more well-off Latin American countries would fit us best, like Panama, Argentina or Mexico. A problem with tropical countries is that they often ban hunting. Spain could also be a good fit.

Note that while I researched most of the world (including southern Africa and all of southeast Asia), I excluded most of Europe, as after growing up in northern Sweden with winters easily going below -20C, I thought I loved the heat. :D (Oh I learned after visiting Tbilisi in July...)

My focus wasn’t all selfish, of course, and growing seasons were much better in warmer climates. Mostly, we(!) focused on the subtropics.

But the years passed, and nothing happened. Not even the real life meeting we had discussed.

There was another group, meanwhile, that had been inspired from the same Avatar source, but had remained on its forum, Learn Na’vi - we called this the “real life Na’vi tribe”, with no official name. I was active on this forum as well, mostly to help, as I saw myself joining this project in real life unlikely, but if they succeeded first, maybe I would.

Overall, this other project was far less organized, with more “casuals” coming for a week and then leaving (both projects had this problem early on, in 2010), less structure and dare I say, less maturity. Some mature voices pitched in, but they mostly had no personal interest at all, they simply wanted help people keep their feet on the ground.

In the beginning, some really outlandish ideas were suggested, and it had a far greater focus on NA’VI RE-ENACTMENT, even though this faded in favor of... reality. Obviously no one is going to spend their entire life living like fictional aliens from a movie.

Reducing the project to a simple summer camp was discussed, as well as the idea of separating it - not in locations, but having two parallel projects in the same location. One would be the “true” tribal life, and then an ecovillage nearby for a “softer” approach. I urged them to go for the ecovillage, period, but it was ditched altogether instead.

This group seemed less happy with having animals, even horses (though I joked to myself, “Hey, even the Na’vi have horses?”), but the focus was still on a huge plot of land for hunting.

After a few years of doing even more poorly than BMT, the entire forum category on the Learn Na’vi forum was locked, due to inactivity. The project had officially failed.

For BMT meanwhile, members kept falling away. Someone realized he didn’t want to leave his country and have to speak English for the rest of his life. Someone else found a career they wanted to focus on. Someone else joined the army. Life happened, we were mostly 18-24 year olds, and did not have as much foundation in our idea as we thought.

When I “left” in early 2015, there were maybe 3-4 of us left in a different chatroom, as our entire forum had been taken down by hackers, and it was never reinstated. (Oh how I grieve this, as while the project is dead, there were droves of great information on it. The original thread on Avatar forums that birthed the project is also gone, as the entire forum is down.)

I was clear that I didn’t leave the plans to have an off-grid lifestyle, only Blue Moon Tribe, as it was obviously dead, despite my best efforts to keep it going. (Not to give myself too much credit, I was never a “leader” of the project or by any means the most knowledgeable, but I did take upon myself the role of inspiration and keeping people’s spirits focused.)

I met some of the other members on Tree of Souls later, where there was a thread with people asking what happened with these projects. It all basically ran off in the sand, as we say in my language.

It’s been almost six years since I left, why talk about it now? Because I keep thinking about it. What happened, why it died, and what we could have done instead.

First off, I would not join this project today.

This project taught me that off-grid life was a thing, and not just a dream, but a feasible lifestyle. I had never heard of it before finding the then still unnamed Blue Moon Tribe.

I am still very actively working on my off-grid future, but it is a very different lifestyle from the one these groups planned.

During 2015, when I went complete lone wolf and planned it only for myself, I downsized and downsized until I (reluctantly) realized a few acres is all you need. Most hunters (and I still do plan on hunting) don’t own their own acreage. You can hunt for food without owning the hunting land.

While I was completely fine with hunting, I felt extremely squeamish with killing animals I raised myself. After watching enough YouTube videos, I got rid of this fear and decided to have chickens and rabbits as well. I was focusing on Spain, or perhaps Ireland or Croatia, as my off-grid destination.

Later that same year, I met my husband, a man who had dreamed of living in Alaska or the Russian far east since early childhood, and we made our plans for the future together. Our first few weeks meeting in real life were spent staying up late at night, talking for hours and hours, mainly about off-grid life.

During the years before it failed, in 2013 specifically, I found the then phenomenal (it has really gone downhill in recent seasons) TV series “Ben Fogle’s New Lives in the Wild”. So many different people who have found their “wild life”, in so many different locations and ways, from so many different backgrounds and outlooks. It is a gold mine, and I would have drooled over it even more if it existed back in 2011. It would have helped our project tremendously.

During 2011-2012, I also looked up ecovillages. Mostly just for research, to see what they were doing, but also, possibly, to join. (The existence of hundreds upon hundreds of ecovillages made our project members realize BMT’s idea was not that unique and that the “let researchers study us”-idea may not be so feasible...)

I found that, out of ~200 ecovillages I looked up around the Americas and southern Europe, at least half were vegetarian or vegan in their rules, and while the other half permitted meat-eating, not one hunted or raised meat. I found one project in Hawaii (only a single family, no one else yet) that had chickens for eggs and cows for milk, but that’s it. Lots of woo-ey spiritual retreats and that kind of thing, not a lot of long-term living.

Something I learned from New Lives in the Wild, is that while many do this alone or with their family, only a handful of these projects were “communes”, and they were mainly made up of hippie-like, transient young people coming and going. Same with my ecovillage research, I did not find a single true village with families creating a permanent existence.

So, on to my criticism of projects like these, and why they are doomed to fail without much better foundations and goals:

Unstructured/unrealistic goals, as it was the death blow of both projects. We had no real calculations on how much land we would need, for what, and how much money would be needed.

No set location from the get-go. Again, we should have just said “US”, picked a state (as there are tons of resources on this), and let that be that. At least half of the members were American.

Creating a community meant to last is hard. One kind piece of advice I saw on the Real-life Na’vi tribe was that “you won’t be able to make it work without a common spirituality”, and I, as the then diehard atheist, dismissed it straight away, but she was right. Without common cultural/racial/spiritual roots, or a spiritual common goal (”converts”, not as easy as people who have been raised in it, but better than nothing), communities like this will break up. It is just human nature. Without strong foundations in culture and spirituality, there is no “social glue” to keep you together through the decades.

As a side to the same point, most people simply can’t live in these artificial communities long-term. I know now I couldn’t, and I realized that in 2015. I am much too introverted and non-conformist to live in a “group”. We could be neighbors, but anything more than that would feel too “suffocating” for me, and conflicts would be inevitable. I’m also sure some of these members would today be on polar opposites of the political conflict, and so would be unlikely to even get along.

I believe the Blue Moon Tribe could have survived with better resources and better planning, but the major pitfall for its long-term survival (people living together for decades to come) would be its lack of “social glue”.

One of the unofficial “leaders” and the oldest member of the project, left because, as she said, she felt more attached to her homeland the older she got, and could not imagine leaving. She was ten years older then than I am today, and I feel the same way, now in my late twenties.

In my early twenties, I longed for “exotic” and “far away”. I wanted tropics or subtropics in a far away land. Cob houses.

In my late twenties, I long for rustic log cabins in the boreal habitat, as close to home as possible. I have seriously considered Chile, but aside from immigration problems, being so far away on the southern hemisphere with no boreal fauna bothered me as well. I think this is a natural progression through early adulthood.

Years ago, I thought rural Scandinavia was so boring.

Now, I watch videos of those who live this lifestyle in their ancestral village in Sweden, and weep with envy. I can never do that, not just because of the harsh winters, but because I can’t stay in Sweden for legal reasons. (A very important law that has no chance of change in the coming decades, and which makes it impossible for me to stay.)

I now live in Norway, and will probably stay here. My husband and I are currently gathering money - about halfway to our goal so far (we have only been able to actively save money for a year, so this will only take another year or two) - to buy a plot of land, perhaps inland, near the Swedish border - and live our lives there, in the woods, the way we want.

All our dreams won’t be realized, as some dreams are simply meant to stay that way, and the world is no longer free - but it will be as close to paradise as we can make it.

#off grid #homesteading #permaculture #going tribal #new lives in the wild #avatar #na'vi #living in the wild

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goldenkamuyhunting · 4 years

Text

Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 236 “King”

And so in this chapter we learn something important about how someone was…

…yeah, an unreliable narrator as there was more than a bit of trouble in Barato and it was caused by a tattooed skin, tattooed skin he left there. Still, kudos to @bloody-fabre for guessing Wakayama was the one to blame for the skin which ended in Barato.

There’s to say the situation is much more complicate than what it looked like when we first met Wakayama and a side of me is very happy that a arc that seemed to go nowhere (the Wakayama arc didn’t seem to have effects on the plot beyond giving Sugimoto an extra skin) is now becoming a relevant part of the plot.

But let’s dig into the chapter.

We resume where we have left, with Boutarou and Sugimoto fighting.

Despite the punch Boutarou doesn’t even let go of his gun but hurries to point it to Sugimoto. Sugimoto however put to good use his experience as a war veteran and grabs the gun in such a way not only he manages to move it slightly away from his face but also takes care to place his hand between the hammer and the bullet, so that when Boutarou pushes the trigger, the gun can’t fire.

Hand-to-hand combat is where Sugimoto excels after all, with tons of life threatening battles on the battleground, surrendered by other soldiers all willing to kill him. It’s in these moments Sugimoto’s six sense and experience, let him find a safe way out in the blink of an eye.

It’s kind of amazing as he just knows how to do.

This is not being a tactician genius though, that requires long term planning. Sugimoto doesn’t have the time to plan, he’s just a man who, when in extreme danger in a hand-to-hand fight, can find the right countermeasure in a blink thanks to his huge experience and talent in this sort of things.

Give Sugimoto two days to think of a plan and he likely will come up with only a vague idea of what to do. Give Sugimoto five second to stop a fatal blow and he’ll come up with the perfect method to stop it and, if possible, to retaliate.

So, now that he has stopped Boutarou from firing, Sugimoto tries to retrieve the gun from himself and at the same time damaging his enemy by attempting to cut away his fingers from it with his bayonet.

Who has good memory might remember Sugimoto doing the same with Nihei, cutting his fingers to stop him from holding his weapon.

(Japanese people knew very well how big of a harm it was to lose fingers, that’s why Yakuza used to cut the pinkie of a Yakuza who failed them, because afterward he would have troubles holding his sword)

Boutarou though isn’t a rookie either.

He’s quick enough to let go the now useless gun, so that all that Sugimoto’s bayonet hit is the gun itself and uses his powerful legs to kick Sugimoto hard enough not only he send him flying against the wooden railing but makes it partially crack. As someone who can jump out of the water like the merman he obviously is Boutarou clearly has strong legs and if he had kicked that way another men, the poor guy might have been sent out of commission.

Meanwhile the postman is still shooting like crazy, Boutarou’s accomplice swearing he’ll kill him but, thanks God (or should I say thanks Kamuy?), Asirpa is there to save the day.

She calls him and hurries him to come with her, telling him there’s spare ammunition there, then catches her chance to retrieve Sugimoto’s rifle and kick him off the boat at the same time, forcing him to swim away.

Asirpa is a genius and this constitute as planning as she considered her options, laid out a trap for the postman and put it to work.

Boutarou, on the other side, has recovered his anchor and is tossing it at Sugimoto, who manages to avoid it before Asirpa reaches him. Sugimoto worriedly asks her if she’s hurt.

I wonder if he realized how, while he was busy punishing Boutarou for putting her in danger, he had left her to fend for herself as Boutarou had an accomplice and that postman was completely out of it.

Boutarou’s accomplice informs him the postman has escaped leaving behind the money.

Shiraishi in a scolding tone stops Sugimoto from fighting further, reminding him there’s something they have to ask Boutarou.

This is the problem with Sugimoto losing control and getting himself into battle. In his attempt to ‘avenge Asirpa’ he had left her on her own and has risked jeopardizing his chances to get info out of Boutarou. His actions weren’t a smart move, they were just the result of his feelings overtaking him.

However, after a moment of hesitation, Sugimoto now makes a powerful and rather smart gesture, throwing Boutarou’s gun in the water.

Why is it a powerful gesture?

Because normally it’s assumed that the one with a gun is at a huge advantage toward the one who haven’t it. By tossing it away and therefore by apparently tossing away an advantage, Sugimoto gives a clear demonstration of not having aggressive intentions and only wanting to talk.

Why is it rather smart?

Because Sugimoto is rather bad with firearms and much, MUCH better with his bare hands and therefore for him the gun is more of a disadvantage than a help as it keeps one of his hands busy and, if he were to lose it by mistake, Boutarou could manage to get it back.

Boutarou accepts the truce with another of his smiles, acknowledging Sugimoto by his name. I wonder if his name also rang a bell or he’s just repeating it to make sure he would remember it/got it right.

‘Omae… Sugimoto tte iu no ka’

「お前… 杉元っていうのか」

“You… are called Sugimoto, right?”

We’ll see.

Honestly I doubt Boutarou heard of Sugimoto before but it’s possible. Everyone and their mom know Sugimoto in the 7th so that they could even open a fanclub. People talk and maybe rumours of Sugimoto had reached Boutarou as well. But still i think it’s unlikely, as Boutarou didn’t act as Sugimoto’s name rang a bell.

Meanwhile Shiraishi asks for clarifications about what Boutarou said on how there’s a rumour about how it’s no more possible to solve the code, also asking him if, due to it, he’s no more collecting tattoos.

In the panel we can see clearly Shiraishi and Sugimoto. Asirpa is present too but she’s in it only partially due to her head and due to the ballons covering her partially, hinting at how in a way she’ll be cut out from the discussion even if she saved the day.

Boutarou tells Shiraishi that a little over one year ago he met Wakayama in Sapporo… and approached him planning to murder and skin him. From the way the scene looks like, with Boutarou naked on a bed, I’ll say his way to approach him, was to try to seduce him.

Wakayama though, evidently realized something was off, had his men encircle him. Among them there’s Nakazawa (princess), while the others are all dressed in black suits with sunglasses (okay, no, they don't have sunglasses, it's just their eyes are so deeply shadowed they seem to wear sunglasses, which fits with the stereotype of Yakuza wearing them so I love Noda's visual choice).

Wakayama tells him that the code can’t be solved. He then explains he killed (and skinned) one of the tattooed men just after he escaped but then dropped by to Barato and left it as a payment for a game he lost.

As he says so we see the same image we saw in the Barato chapter, showing how the Hidoro gang got the skin, but not showing it was Wakayama giving it to them.

As Boutarou asked him why he did so, Wakayama claims the tattooed code can’t be solved because the other convicts might have ended up in the sea and be swallowed by a fish (and at this we’re shown an image of Henmi meeting this fate) or killed by a bear on the mountain (and at this we’re shown an image of Gotou).

Or that a certain weird guy (which I bet is our dear candy seller) might ruin it on purpose.

Long story short, Wakayama leaves without skinning him, which convinces Boutarou he was sure that the tattoo code couldn’t be decrypted.

At this Asirpa is reminded of how the candy peddler commented that ‘Boss Wakayama’s disappointed face was pretty great too, though’.

Shiraishi also whispers to Sugimoto that this might be connected to what Asirpa overheard the candy peddler saying, both of them sweating as, after this story, the possibility he was right, seems even more concrete.

And maybe it means nothing but in the panels, even though the group thinks exactly the same thing Asirpa is visually ‘parted’ from Sugimoto and Shiraishi.

They’re in separate panels, the panel with the candy peddler divising them.

Now… let’s stop a bit and recap what we knew about Wakayama and the Barato skin PRIOR TO THIS CHAPTER.

Time unknown (It could be before Wakayama was arrested or afterward): Wakayama entered a gambling den by chance and was charmed by Nakazawa’s (Hime’s) skill in rolling the dice. After an initial refusal, Nakazawa betrayed his group, ran away to Wakayama’s place, spent a hot night together, but the yakuza pursuers were already outside… we’ve no idea how it ended as Noda interrupted the story here. [Noda Satoru’s Q&A]

FEBRUARY

- Wakayama escapes with the other prisoners… [GK according to Noda begins at the end of February, the convicts, supposedly, escaped a bit sooner than that]

MARCH

- Wakayama with a young man drops by in Sapporo World Hotel. Ienaga locks the younger man in the underground and tortures him, and the guy admits that the man he was with has the same tattoo as Ienaga and is an escaped convict from Abashiri. When Ienaga goes to check on him the morning after Wakayama has disappeared, supposedly planning to go in Hidaka to meet an American named Dun. [The guys went to Ienaga’s hotel in April, she said Wakayama was there a month before] [Chap 55-63]

APRIL

- Things escalates in Barato between the Hidoro gang and the Umakichi gang after a guy went to their gambling hall, lost a lot of money and left a tattooed skin as a collateral. Nagakura, Hijikata and Ogata went there and manage to retrieve the skin from Hidoro. [Chap 55-59]

- Wakayama buys horses from Dun [chap 69: When meeting Wakayama again, Dun said he’s the guy who bought horses from him a month before]

- Kiroranke takes part to the Tomakomai race on Wakayama’s horse in place of the jockey who has escaped. However, instead than throwing away the final race he wins it. [Chap 61-62]

May:

- While trying to deal with 3 bears Sugimoto group ends up hiding in the same place in which Wakayama and Nakazawa (Princess) had met the guys who organized the race. Wakayama explains the oddity of him not having men around with sending all of his men to Barato to help a guy in Barato who did him some favors. It’s unclear if the guy is Hidoro or Umakichi but I would say it’s Umakichi as the visual shows him.

It also turns out it was Nakazawa who exposed the heads in plain view because Wakayama cheated on him with a prostitute.

It also turns out the prostitute ended up being killed, although Nakazawa denies killing anyone (was it Jack who killed the prostitute? I wonder... after all Jack kills prostitutes in Sapporo although so far it seems he focused on females).

Wakayama complains he should have left him in Sapporo.

Due to various happening Wakayama and Nakazawa die, Wakayama’s skin ending up in Sugimoto’s hands. [Chap 65-69: Noda said chap 64 is placed in May]

And this is were I thought Noda placed the words ‘THE END’ to Wakayama’s story.

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Turned out that’s not the case.

In fact, whose info made it look like Wakayama had no interest in the skins, in fact he was back handling his betting business instead than searching for convicts, which made me think it would be weird if he had taken his time collecting a skin and then… dropped it somewhere, as if it were to be useless.

I mean, if he went through the trouble of getting that one skin, I would expect the guy who beat a bear wouldn’t let it go easily.

However this chapter and chapter 233 added some interesting info to Wakayama’s story.

The first is that yes, Wakayama in the beginning wanted to collect the tattooed things but then something, or more likely ‘someone’ (read ‘our dear candy peddler’) persuaded him that it would be impossible to do it, suddenly making the skin he had collected to look worthless.

Hence it was possible for Wakayama to have an abrupt change of heart and drop collecting skins.

I wonder if the candy peddler, to persuade him, told him about Henmi’s death, or just showed him he has completely ruined his own tattoo.

Hard to say.

However he and Wakayama likely met pretty early on, likely in March as, by then, while he was in Ienaga’s hotel he was already thinking to go meet Dun to buy horses from him, meaning he wasn’t going to devote all his strength in pursuing convicts but was going back to his horse betting business.

Note that this is just my speculation, I might be completely off and maybe he wanted to pursue both.

We don’t know what pushed him to leave abruptly Ienaga’s hotel, maybe he couldn’t find the man he was with and assumed Nakazawa killed him, or maybe Nakazawa dropped by in his room and he left with him or maybe he was actually penniless and couldn’t pay the bill of the hotel nor the man he came with and left.

Hard to say.

We aren’t even sure back then he was already with Nakazawa as we don’t know when the two met.

However, according to what he says to Boutarou, we’re to suppose he moves to Barato alone, went into a gambling hall, lost a lot of money and left the skin he had with himself as collateral, tattling out the whole tattooed skin matter that could set everyone and their moms hunting for him.

As he did so he clearly didn’t act like a Yakuza boss, Shuhei wasn’t impressed by him and even said they planned to have him work in the fishery, meaning they didn’t realize Wakayama could be a dangerous fighter or even a Yakuza himself.

Why going there alone?

We get he likes to gamble but unless it was Nakazawa who again worked against him as Wakayama complained Nakazawa kept on trying to screw him over it seems weird he would just put himself into a huge debt.

Or did this happen really early on, when Wakayama hadn’t yet managed to reach his underlings?

After all it seems his headquarters are in Sapporo, it can be that moving from Abashiri to Sapporo he just stopped to Barato, which is on the way...

...ended up losing money in the gambling hall and, not wanting to lose face, he hid his own identity.

Anyway, after he left the skin there, he meets Boutarou in Sapporo.

The cover of chap 233 showed Sugimoto and Shiraishi looking at huchen/Adonis flowers, which we know can be observed in April, so if Wakayama and Boutarou’s meeting in Sapporo happened a year before than we supposedly were in April. Boutarou says a little over a year though, so it can be it was in March.

This time Wakayama has plenty of his men around himself, among which Nakazawa.

But figuring out when this meeting exactly takes place becomes hazardous and that’s not the only problem.

When talking with Sugimoto Wakayama declared he went to meet Dun alone because he sent all his men to help someone who helped him in the past (supposedly Umakichi).

As his men were with him when he was in Sapporo we’ve to assume the fight in Barato hadn’t taken place yet (Umakichi will die during it so he can’t really ask for support afterward) so he hadn’t sent his men there yet.

Overall the thing seems to be a bit shaky.

If Umakichi was someone who helped him, why did boss went to bet at Hidoro’s place instead than at a friend’s place? Or was that the moment in which Umakichi helped him? Because Umakichi should have helped him BIG TIME if boss sent ALL HIS MEN to help him… yet he didn’t warn him pursuing that tattooed skin was useless as we know Umakichi was actually pursuing it?

And Umakichi didn’t know Wakayama was also someone who escaped from Abashiri?

Because if he had known sending all his men to help him retrieve the tattooed skin would be dangerous as then Umakichi might try to get Wakayama’s one.

Besides we don’t even see a single man, among the ones with Umakichi, dressed in black suit and tie as Wakayama’s men. Sure, maybe they changed so it’s not big deal but overall the whole thing is weird, so weird even Sugimoto found odd how Wakayama went there alone.

Did Wakayama lie to Sugimoto, whom he knew was searching for the tattooed convicts?

Is there another reason why he sent all his men to Barato but didn’t go there himself?

Or actually he was there also for some other reason than punishing the two at the race (he said he wasn’t expecting Kiro and the others to show up and it makes sense, Wakayama didn’t meet Kiro back then so I’m not even sure if he would have recognized him)?

I don’t know but I’m starting to wonder if we’ll learn more about boss and how that skin ended up in Barato, maybe through Shinpei, who left Barato with Chiyoko and might have transferred temporally to Ebetsu.

It would be interesting to meet Shinpei again as we were never told exactly how his meeting with Ogata ended, we just saw that Ogata gave him a scolding...

...then the scene was cut and we dealt with Hijikata’s group reaching the place, Hijikata and Nagakura getting in to talk with Ogata who now owns the skins, the bodies of Shinpei’s parents nowhere to be seen.

The next we see Shinpei he’s with Chiyoko, first observing the place burning down,

then ready to start a new life with her.

Besides, Shinpei was there when the skin was left to his family, he might tell us exactly how things went and if Nakazawa or the candy peddler were involved and if he knew if Wakayama had a relation with Umakichi.

LOL, overall I’m curious.

When I first read the Wakayama arc it felt like its only purpose was to hand Sugimoto a new skin as it seemed to bring no other development, so now I’m extremely intrigued at the idea there could be more behind it.

And always about Wakayama… what the candy peddler said that made him so sure the tattooed skins can’t be used anymore? Did he ruin his own tattoo? Or, since Wakayama was spot on about a convict ending eaten by a fish and another by a bear someone warned him about Gotou and Henmi’s deaths? Because okay, Gotou’s death is normal enough and one could guess it but Henmi’s death is a bit of a stretch. They were supposed to go to Otaru after all, not go to fish whales or orcas so one of them drowning wasn’t something one should consider a normal occurrence yet it’s the first thing Wakayama comes up with.

But yes, it could also be a lucky guess.

Long story short though… I don’t know anymore which of Wakayama’s words were true and which were a lie, making him an unreliable narrator. I’m only sure that he believed they couldn’t use the tattooed skins anymore to find the gold but that’s it.

I wonder if more will come up in the future.

Back to the story, Boutarou explains that since Wakayama was sure the tattooed skins couldn’t be collected he also decided stopping collecting them.

Shiraishi, clever guy, asks him if he found the place in which the Ainu gold is hidden.

Boutarou though, might act friendly but he’s clearly not a stupid.

He doesn’t directly answer, he just says it’s possible to get close to it but he’s confident Noppera-bou wouldn’t have hid it in a place that’s easy to spot once you get close by.

So Boutarou asks Shiraishi and Sugimoto to join forces with him and help searching for it. He claims he wants Shiraishi in his team because Shiraishi is fun and Sugimoto because Sugimoto is strong and both are things he likes he claims as he wraps his arms around them.

Shiraishi though, using a joking tone, points out they might end up on fighting over how to split the gold.

Boutarou claims they can become his vassals as he wants to become the king of a warm Southeast Asian small island on which he can grow and sell fruits to other countries and have so many kids he can make a country of his own family.

The way Boutarous smiles as he asks them to become vassals in his kingdom is kind of cute, like the one of a happy child.

Shiraishi laughs a bit uncomfortable at his ambitious dream while Sugimoto wonders on why everyone wants to be in charge of something as huge as a country.

He covers his eyes with his hat at this, shadowing them completely even though he smiles, making hard to read his expression. It’s usually no good when Sugimoto’s eyes can’t be seen.

I think Sugimoto believes Boutarou is moved by either ambition or greed or both, therefore by something negative, and that due to this he’s getting in his way when he instead aims at something much smaller and that should also help a person he loves.

I think Boutarou gets what Sugimoto is implying and that’s why, although he keeps his smile he looks much more serious as he makes Sugimoto a personal question.

‘Do you have any family?’

Sugimoto’s face is shadowed and his eyes fully black as he says he doesn’t, Boutarou clearly touching a sore spot.

Boutarou goes on, asking him if they’re dead. He’s still smiling but he’s not being overly cheerful.

Sugimoto, also smiling but with his eyes downcast, admits they died due to tuberculosis.

I think that’s the first time Sugimoto talked with someone about how his family died. Sugimoto, Asirpa and Shiraishi are a group but, except for Asirpa who occasionally talk about her father or about Huci, they hardly talk of any personal matter. Credits when its due both Shiraishi and Asirpa tried talking with Sugimoto about personal matters but both stumbled on the Umeko issue (Shiraishi asking him if he had someone and Asirpa asking him what he planned to do with the gold) and Sugimoto closed up to Shiraishi and wasn’t quite honest with Asirpa so talks never went that far… when instead it was probably important they did. They’re risking their life together, they should be able to share the burdens of the pasts with the others.

Anyway at Sugimoto’s reply Boutarou’s smile stay even if his expression is much more serious.

Then Boutarou goes closer to Sugimoto (WOW, Boutarou seems quite a bit taller than him), wrapping his arms around him in some sort of conforting or kinship gesture and telling him his family died too, although what killed them was smallpox, and adding ‘you know what it’s like, right?’.

He’s likely not referring to smallpox but both to the pain of losing your family but also to the sad fate of victims of contagious illness. Places in hospitals were scarce, which means they would have to stay home until one would free, infecting, if they hadn’t already, their family members.

Back then there was no cure for illness like smallpox or tuberculosis same as there is no cure for coronavirus now and they also had a lot less mean to protect themselves from infection.

The result would be that neighbors, in fear of getting infected, would ostracize the families whose members would fall prey of an illness, mock them, claim if they got sick it was because they did it was due to something they had done, as if illness was some sort of divine punishment, abandoning them to their sad fate and refusing to help.

It’s easy to feel empathy for Boutarou and Sugimoto’s conditions, especially considering how even now, in a time in which superstition shouldn’t rule us way too many people had felt entitled to mock or blame or turn their backs to those who would get coronavirus cases.

Boutarou found himself living this situation when he was a child and, as he was a child, he came up with this naïve dream.

‘If I become a king, nobody would ever shun my family.’

For a child this makes sense. He was powerless to fight what was happening so he assumed if he were to be the most important person he would have had control and would have been able to stop the world from rejecting and abandoning him and his family to their fate.

In a way it’s not a completely wrong assumption as we see that people in position of power or with a lot of money can get tested sooner than people who aren’t and they also get better health care, everyone hurrying to find a comfortable place for them in the most comfortable hospital.

Child Boutarou was aware of this as well but instead than thinking that the system was unfair and wanting to fight the system decided he would ride it.

If only who’s in power, who’s rich get help, he would be that person.

A king.

And then he wouldn’t have to suffer that fear and that pain anymore.

This thought helps him to survive.

He decided to stop being afraid of getting smallpox, to pursue his dream and look at the world in a positive manner and this allowed him to carry on to the point that adult Boutarou thinks it was his own attitude that kept smallpox away from him.

Boutarou makes it simple but it doesn’t really work like turning a switch on. You’ve to persuade yourself that you aren’t afraid, that you’ve to feel positive day after day, wearing these thoughts as if they were a mask that covers fear and negativity until the mask becomes you and you believe in all this… but sadly it’s not so easy and it doesn’t necessarily work smoothly.

Often the mask remains just a mask that stops us from facing what we’re really thinking. Only we’ve been wearing by so long we just delude ourselves the mask is us when it’s always just a mask and, since what’s behind it remains there unchallenged, it slowly poisons our life.

For Boutarou by now it’s probably hard to say if he smiles because he’s genuinely happy or if he smiles because HE MUST BE POSITIVE.

And he’s not the only one who hides behind a smile. We saw how in this chapter Sugimoto too smiled as he said his family died. His smile is a lot less cheery than Boutarou, it’s clear it’s a sad smile but Sugimoto too tries to cope with pain through a smile… although Sugimoto more often than not use it to cover his fear.

We saw him smiling when he punched the bear and it didn’t work, when he faced Tsurumi for the first time he smiled and even joked around even though he knew he was in deep troubles.

Although smiles are usually connected to happiness, they don’t necessarily mean the one showing them feels genuine happiness because they’re also more often than not used as a mask to show confidence, to hide troubles, pain and fear to the others and to yourself.

So I’m not so sure always smiling Boutarou is as happy as he looks like, and I don’t know if his obstinacy in having a positive outlook might cause him to miss facing something negative, becoming a maladaptive behavior. We’ll see but, for now, I think there’s more in Boutarou than just a happy guy, and the same goes for other Golden Kamuy smiling prone characters.

Who knows, maybe as @osomanga has suggested, maybe the funny Shiraishi too has behind himself a sad backstory and let’s not forget the friendly Kiroranke hid behind himself a partisan fighter who had remained alone after he believed Wilk, his hero, betrayed him.

Golden Kamuy is a story with characters with a complicate psychological background after all, we shouldn’t just wave them off as just black and white.

So, back to Boutarou, now we know it’s not greed or ambition what’s behind his wish, but merely a traumatic past that forced him to face on his own the powerlessness of watching your parents and relative die due to a terrible illness and the people turning their back to you.

What Boutarou GENUINELY wishes is fundamentally to never again live that experience, to erase it from the universe but, as this is not possible, he came up with this, with a dream that deludes him he won’t be abandoned, that he will be able to control his fate, that he and his family will be able to live happily.

Not being abandoned, having a measure of control over our fate and live a happy life with our beloved ones are really normal things, things we all wish and that we normally pursue through more normal means but as Boutarou lived in desperate times he decided to use desperate measures.

And, in a way, Boutarou’s dream is overall pretty similar to Tsurumi’s goal and to his men’s dream. They want a country in which they will be safe, happy and in control.

And yes, although what they fundamentally wish is something really normal and human… their wish is sadly a very selfish one as, to fulfill it they would sacrifice other humans. Their world is not a perfect one where everyone is safe, happy and in control but one in which they are.

However, as they perceive they were sacrificed first, they have a hard time realizing sacrificing others is wrong, that they should just accept they were wronged but that it’s not okay to retaliate, to return just retribution for the pain they were made to suffer.

It’s sad. It’s wrong. And it’s also something that happens way too often in life.

As Boutarou explains his dream, Sugimoto’s eyes are still downcast...

...and he remembers himself as he watched over his sick father, Sugimoto’s eyes back then, completely void of light.

This transition reminds me a bit of the transition Noda used to shift from when Asirpa asked Ogata which was his favourite food to when we saw him with Hanazawa.

We know that Sugimoto’s father was the last to die, before him Sugimoto lost three other family members.

One of them was likely his mother, the other two are either his grandparents or two younger siblings (Sugimoto’s name implies he’s the firstborn as it contain the kanji for “1”).

His father is probably the last surviving member of Sugimoto’s family and he’s there, sitting at his bedside, watching him slowly die due to illness.

There are many stress lines under Sugimoto’s eyes and his expression is grim. He likely knows there’s no hope, that there’s nothing he can do, that he can only stay there and watch.

Sugimoto’s father tells him not to hope he’ll manage to get a bed in the sanatorium. For who’s not familiar with the term, in a time in which they had no antibiotics against tuberculosis, they assumed you could cure the illness just by giving the ill person a regimen of rest, fresh air and good nutrition. But beds in sanatorium were scarce, that’s way Sugimoto’s father is warning him he won’t get a bed in one… and since sanatorium were assumed to be the only place in which one could heal and he finds unlikely he’ll get a bed in one, basically Sugimoto’s dad is telling Sugi to prepare to the idea of his death.

His father then tells Sugimoto he’s kind and this causes him to end up stuck with the worst roles… same as it used to happen to his father, a personality trait which didn’t seem to want to change.

Sugimoto’s father looks like Sugimoto, only older, thinner and sick. He’s in a bed whose covers are dirty with the blood he should have coughed. The poor guy choughs occasionally but he’s smiling and, contrary to Sugimoto, there’s a light in his eyes.

Sugimoto’s father probably sees the shortcomings of being kind but, at the same time I think he also sees the good sides of it.

It’s not a personality trait that doesn’t want to change, it’s him who didn’t want to change it.

And this makes me think at how it should have been terrible for Sugimoto to accept to kill in order to survive. Because killing is all but kind and he should have made a lot of mental gimmicks to accept to do it and receive a lot of mental scarring.

So of course his reasoning to cope with it is that enemies are soulless bad guys, which Asirpa waved off as an excuse one would give to a child.

Probably a side of him, to protect himself, reverted to a kid and came up with such a silly excuse, same as Boutarou who can’t let go of his childish dream, and then he clung to it and he keeps clinging to it even now, a maladaptive copying mechanism that helped Sugimoto survive the war but that’s now plaguing him, a mask he uses to try to cover the fact he views himself as no more kind as his father said he was.

Sugimoto is a complicate psychological mess and I’m sorry for him because deep down he should be suffering a lot inside and hiding it deep inside himself, covering it with a smile and a kind attitude and not really facing it, which only result in more psychological harm for him.

Again, it’s sad.

The scene changes, Sugimoto is outside of the house and a black cat comes to him.

Contrary to what us westerns say Japanese people back then believed black cats to bring good luck and ward off against illness.

As the cat comes to him to be patted Sugimoto, who has shown through all ‘Golden Kamuy’ to be superstitious enough he even absorbed Ainu superstitions, complains with the cat that the cat was supposed to cure tuberculosis and asks him if this is happening because the cat hardly comes there, therefore making the cat useless. The cat leaves at that, leaving Sugimoto alone to watch him walk away, bringing away with itself even the silly hope the cat could fix everything.

It’s another bit of life experience that forms Sugimoto’s mind, a bit that explains why he’s not very good at cooperating, because back then he could do nothing but entrust his hopes to a black cat and yet he was left alone to deal with it.

Sugimoto stands there as he watched the cat leaving, clearly trying hard not to cry. He’s alone stripped even of the delusion the black cat would magically save his father. No one will help him.

He can’t do anything and no one will help him.

At this point I think he remembers what his father told him, he told him to leave the house and not let himself trapped by tuberculosis. He told him he could live for his own sake, that it wouldn’t be such a bad thing.

The words, the memory of them after the cat’s abandonment, push Sugimoto to run.

He wants to do it, to escape from that house, but more exactly to escape from that pain. However, as he’s about to get out of the fence he stops, unable to go further.

He looks at the world that extend itself outside the fence, he looks at the freedom, at a place in which he isn’t plagued by the specter of getting infected with tuberculosis each day. He squeezes his eyes shut. In his home his father is still lying in his bed, coughing.

And, I think, at this point Sugimoto knows he can’t leave him to die alone.

In fact in the past flashback we learnt that his father managed to find a spot in a sanatorium… but then he died there and only when the note he was dead reached Sugimoto he managed to leave his home.

So, even though Sugimoto wants to escape, even though he can’t bear it any longer, he can’t leave either. For his torn mind not to crack under the pressure of this two contrasting things, wanting to leave and wanting to stay, his psyche build up a narrative meant to help him to cope.

Sugimoto is a good judoka, isn’t he?

Well, this is a fight, a fight to death against him and tuberculosis, a fight Sugimoto isn’t going to lose. He states he’s going to live and then challenges it to try and kill him, like he will challenge the Russians much later on war, stating he’s immortal.

The image depicts him as if his aura was a fire, a fire burning around him but his expression is contracted, ugly. Not as bad as Usami when he murdered Tomoharu but still… ugly.

You can see in it determination… but it’s a forced determination.

Sugimoto is forcing himself to think all those things to overcome his fear.

Telling himself he’s immortal is the copying behavior he has chosen, a behavior that fits with how he’s a fighter at heart but it’s also just a big lie. He’s not immortal and he’s not really facing the realty of the situation, that he’s a mortal taking upon himself a risk.

He’s young, the situation is so traumatic and terrible he simply CAN’T face the truth, but that copying behavior will follow him traumatic situation after traumatic situation, covering his fear behind a wall of fake confidence into something that’s simply not real.

It’s true that a strong will can overcome a weak body, but will can’t do miracles. Sugimoto is a normal person and therefore he can die like any other person. Just because he has more endurance and luck (and a solid plot armor) than others it doesn’t mean all of sudden he’s immortal and this wrong belief might end up doing him more harm than good.

The flashback ends and we go back to present time and to Boutarou, asking Sugimoto what he plans to do once he finds the gold to reach HIS OWN HAPPINESS and if he doesn’t have any dream.

It’s clear Sugimoto started this adventure hoping he could get gold enough for himself to cure Umeko but also to be capable to present himself in front of her as a man who’s better than the one who left her, if not in actions (Sugimoto is plagued by the fact he’s a killer now), at least in finances.

Although Toraji clearly wasn’t rich I always had the feeling he was a little better off than Sugimoto and Sugimoto was afraid this influenced Umeko’s choice... so, since he can’t clean away the blood he has shed I think he hopes he can ‘hide it’ by presenting himself as someone who’s better off economically and can provide Umeko with the means to cure her eyes.

I think he’s afraid to present himself to her but wanted to believe by going back rich and capable to cure her he could find the guts to show himself to her again and get what he truly wanted, her love back.

However many things had happened and more than a full year went by from when he started hunting skins, not mentioning the time that had gone by from when he returned from war.

This goal had moved always further from him while his hunt for the gold became a sidequest that didn’t help him to go back to Umeko but that actually kept him away from her.

So Sugimoto likely knows what he used to dream for when all this started, what he believed would give him happiness… but instead than getting closer with any skin he gained, it only got far. The shading on him isn’t uniform, it’s swirling, I think it hints Boutarou’s words forced him to realize, if not this, at least ‘something’.

Meantime the boat has almost reached Ebetsu.

Boutarou, the gentleman pirate, apologizes to the passengers, telling them he didn’t mean to cause them troubles and commotion so he won’t steal things from them, he’ll just settle for taking the money that was sent as registered mail. As he says so though, he spot Sugimoto opened back with, inside it, Heita’s skin and the tobacco case he always carried with himself.

It doesn’t take a genius to guess this means troubles for his alliance with Sugimoto, Shiraishi and Asirpa… which, to be honest, never got involved in the alliance. Boutarou just wanted Shiraishi and Sugimoto and they didn’t mention having a third member in their group even if it was kind of obvious Asirpa was connected to them.

I’m a little annoyed at this, it’s not the first time Asirpa is handled as a minor part to the group even though today she’s the one who saved the day by handling the problem of the crazy postman (along with Shiraishi who got information from Boutarou and set the basis for an allegiance)… but well, I guess it can’t be helped. We’ll see if things will change in the future.

#Golden Kamuy #Sugimoto Saichi #Asirpa #Shiraishi Yoshitake #Oosawa Fusatarou #Matsuda Heita #Wakayama Kiichirou #Nakazawa Tatsuya #Henmi Kazuo #Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories #Hidoro Shinpei #Hidoro Tamotsu #Gotou Takechiyo #Ueji Keiji

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theantitote · 4 years

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A Call to Action + A Few Resources for These Times of Unrest in the US

On the Recent Unrest and Our Worst Fears (Is a civil war brewing?)

These times are uncertain, dire even. A mismanaged pandemic has and will continue to claim many lives and ravage our economy, yet several Republican governors still stand poised to reopen schools in the fall, and economic woes potentially put millions at risk of falling victim to mass evictions. Police and government brutality has long plagued our nation with near impunity and in the wake of George Floyd’s death and the violent crackdowns on protests, we seem to be reaching a breaking point. Police have been seen on numerous occasions assaulting the media, and federal agents sent to Portland, Oregon have been responsible for among other things, shooting Donavan La Bella in the head with “less lethal” impact munitions, cracking his skull and nearly killing him, arresting protesters into unmarked rental vans, and striking a Navy vet with a baton after he attempted to confront them on their oath to the constitution, breaking his hand. Now as anger swells in the streets and fears rise of an apparently fledgling secret police force due to the actions of federal agents, recently threatened to be deployed to more cities as part of Trump’s Operation Legend, a question thought unthinkable just a few months ago seems to be becoming uncomfortably plausible - are we heading for a civil war?

Anyone with even the slightest bit of morality and an inkling as to what such an event would entail should be struck with terror at the mere thought of the possibility. So it is imperative in these times that we do our due diligence as citizens of this nation to learn from history and do everything in our power to deescalate such a situation before our worst fears are realized, all without loosing sight of the problems and what must be done to solve them. To this end I have compiled a fairly brief list of videos, podcasts, articles, and webpages that I recommend all Americans observe and heed the messages and warnings found therein.

Top Recommendations

Note: All podcasts link to Spotify pages however you should be able to find them elsewhere if needed, including most popular podcasting apps from my experience.

1) The Youtube channel Beau of the Fifth Column, and his recent covering of the events in Portland.

I link his playlist of videos covering Portland and how the federal response runs counter to the guidelines of their manuals because it’s most relevant however I can’t recommend his entire channel enough. For further reading, here are a few links related to what he discusses in those videos:

FM 3-24 - Insurgencies and Countering Insurgencies - FAS PDF link

Federation of American Scientists - their website hosts a sizable amount of information some of which is relevant, including the aforementioned pdf

The Rand Corporation’s website, which has more public documentation and who also plays a large role in the making of classified documents for policy makers on the subject.

The nonprofit archive.org free online library

2) It Could Happen Here - A podcast from 2019 by Robert Evans, who has a background in investigative journalism on the conflicts in Iraq and Syria and Ukraine among others, exploring the possibility of a Second American Civil War, what might cause it and how it could be prevented. Though he is rather open about his own leftist bias he does not shy away from addressing the valid grievances rural America might have with the government as well as areas where the true left of America and rural conservatives might share some surprising common ground.

3) Behind the Police - Another podcast and a recent spinoff of “Behind the Bastards” that covers the history of American policing and how it has led to the often corrupt institutions we have today. Also hosted by Robert Evans and joined by the hip-hop artist Jason Petty aka Propaganda.

A few reminders of recent state violence

Tweeted video of the moment Donavan La Bella was shot in the head by a US Marshal

Tweeted video of the immediate aftermath (CW: profuse bleeding)

An update on Donavan La Bella’s condition (CW: distressing images) - “His mother, Desiree La Bella, previously said her son’s face and skull were fractured and that he underwent facial reconstructive surgery in the hours after the encounter. She said he had a tube in his skull to drain blood and had vision problems in one eye.” - the good news is the article says he’s recovering better than doctors expected.

Tweeted video of Navy veteran Chris David being struck with a baton by federal officers, breaking his hand, dubbed by some as “Captain Portland” after the viral video showed him taking the blows unflinching

A Newsweek article with an interview with Chris David - "I want to use my 15 minutes to put out a message to my fellow vets. I also want to use my 15 minutes to try to refocus this whole discussion back to Black Lives Matter as opposed to an old white guy who got beat up because I don't think I'm worth the attention, to be perfectly frank" - He states in the interview that he sought to confront the federal agents on their oath to the constitution when the beating happened, after hearing of the seemingly random arrests using unmarked rental vans.

NowThis News compilation of police violence against journalists from June 1st

Another NowThis News compilation of more police violence against journalists from June 3rd

Vice coverage of the protests in the wake of George Floyds death, posted on June 2nd. This includes a rather emotionally intense moment when the crew is assaulted by police with pepper spray and tear gas along with a small family who were attempting to protect their local business.

What Now? A Few Words of Advice

The times ahead are uncertain and fraught of dangers to say the least, but if we wish to avoid the worst we have to act. So, what do we do? Don’t just hope but organize, strategize, plan, and fight for the best, while preparing for the worst. At the very least and most simple take the advice from Beau’s videos and make your voice heard. Demand the government start following their own manuals and stop escalating tensions even further.

Yet distressingly enough, it seems unlikely that the onslaught of violent federal crackdowns will slow down anytime soon regardless of what we do. Preparedness seems more important now than ever, so here are a few basics. Try to get at least a month's worth of food if you haven’t already and still can. There are several sites for such things, such as Mountain House as one example, however much of this might be sold out or unaffordable so you might have to consider buying canned goods little by little as you can. Prepare a bug out bag, especially if you live in the city. There are countless tutorials and advice on this topic but try to stay focused on what you might need - things like a first aid kit, water, a filtered straw and other purification methods, a way to light a fire and cook, and so on. If you’re sane and responsible and wish to acquire a firearm for self defense if you haven’t already, and want to train but don’t want to have to involve yourself with the toxic conservative dominated gun culture, look into the SRA (Socialist Rifle Association) as they might be offering range days and training in your area.

But most importantly, start networking and organizing. No matter what comes to pass it will be imperative that we develop close ties with those within our communities which we can call upon not only to help try to prevent the worst, but also for protection should our worst fears become a reality. You might consider joining your local IWW if you’re an advocate for democratic unionization and workplace democracy like myself, or you might look into and maybe get into touch with folks like Mutual Aid Disaster Relief, and see if there’s any local to your area or what you might be able to learn from them. Regardless, try to find some group you at least somewhat fit in with and organize with them together.

A quick final note on my blog

I started this blog spontaneously on July 3rd hoping to ease my way into amateur blogging first and hopefully a career in journalism later, however current events have left me anxious of the future and uncertain of what new tragedies might lurk around the corner of tomorrow. I am however, highly privileged. I live at home in a rural town in the South Eastern US far away from the unrest with a supportive family who have at least for the time being a fairly secure income, and am currently unemployed, meaning that while I have no income of my own at the moment I do have a lot of free time, which I plan to spend much of on my amateur blogging pursuits. So if you want to see more blog posts like this in the future, give me a follow and consider turning on notifications and you’ll certainly be seeing more posts like this from me in the days ahead.

#portland #pdx #operation legend #trump #fascism #antifascism #antifa #police brutality #police state #blm #black lives matter #blacklivesmatter #civil unrest #protests

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spnreactionblogging · 4 years

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DESPAIR

SPOILERS BELOW / tw suicide sort of

ah the title really does sum this up. I am filled with such dread going in. I know cas gets sent to super hell, I know the destiel shippers are declaring it canon (but then, when haven't they), and I've heard from a reliable source that the show officially as of just now is queerbaiting for real by making it vague and easy to ignore it instead of actually confirming anything. plus nobody seems to give a fuck about jack, as usual, and sam didn't get to say goodbye? god how can this get better???? I hope buckleming got to fucking murder castiel! that would really improve this for me!!! the cherry on the shit sundae for real so okay here goes. ugh. I have this angel's envy bourbon at 1PM, oops. I feel like I will need it for this one more than the others I also am ensconced in my castiel trenchcoat + "be super good" shirt, and cas, crowley, and sam the q-pals are joining me. dean is banished to remain in the tote bag they live in. god I want to scream. this fucking synopsis "With the plan in full motion, Sam, Dean, Castiel and Jack fight for the good for the common goal." oh the plan to use Jack as a suicide bomb???? great idea. lol I hate this. whose "common good"????????? ah but yes dean runs a dictatorship right. no wonder chuck butts heads with him dean looks so fucking smug in the amazon prime video app, hovering over the episode where cas will die horribly. fuck. there is nothing that can emotionally prepare me for this episode the show is going to end with sam and dean because it started with sam and dean and chuck/the IRL writers are bitter about it I guess??? delete fucking everything god, very fucking cute of dean to be like WE GOTTA DO SOMETHING!!! you fucking piece of shit you forcememed this to go as quickly as possible because you want Jack fucking dead, don't pretend you care god. fuck. jack apologizing for dying, to the empty. I hate everything so much ah, so that's why the opening title screen has been that. gross. horrible. a jack singularity is that it? really? jack's dead? just like that. okay. awful. oh he's MAYBE dead. reassuring. I see that briana buckmaster and jim beaver will be joining us my cat is sitting in front of the TV trying to prevent me from watching this, trying to save me from myself oh and felicia day oh this one's written by robert berens, I mostly trust him I think sam should've photocopied the book first oh hey RSJ directed this one I'm glad to have rachel miner back in any capacity that's... alpha/omega on the side there? makes sense I hope it's a fake book god I love sam sitting on the like. what is that, weird equipment panels? more confirmation sam is queer, you heard it here what leverage does dean even think he has cool jack's just getting tortured now "the boy is still useful" at least billie isn't pretending to care about him. oh she left the book thank fuck cas goes to him right away, please hug this child alcohol is not gonna help you guys sleep oh here's dean's half-assed apology. "sorry not sorry that I just couldn't stop, I couldn't help it, I just wanted to get what I wanted, and now that I didn't get what I wanted, sowwy uwu I guess" "you've snapped me out of worse" yeah don't minimize this, sam oh yeah michael exists. I notice dean refers to him as michael and not including adam. way to go I notice that sam does not drink right away "to somehow" those eggs look great "no guns at the table" is a solid rule not only for how miserable that is, but because everything surrounding firearms is a carcinogen and doesn't need to be near food please love yourself charlie please eat good eggs am I supposed to know stevie, was she part of the alternate universe, I still like never watched most of 10-13 oh we're gonna kill MULTIPLE queer characters in this episode, awesome. we gonna kill charlie AGAIN??????? we brought her back just to kill her off, AGAIN? LIKE KEVIN? and bobby I guess?? can I just say how much I hate the concept of a "final boss fight" like why is it always ending in a fight, why is violence always the answer, and why do we feel like one final violent action will solve all the problems huh charlie's shirt looks like a tycho album cover okay so I didn't forget stevie, she was brand new? maybe? I love cas and jack :( feels strange because this all sucks there's no such thing as destiny, jack don't fucking die for sam and dean and 'the world' damn right, cas, he doesn't need "absolution" well that's true for you, cas, you care because he's him. dean just wants to use him cas and jack are good. charlie this was so not your fault. as usual this is the winchesters' fault. tell 'em charlie!!! get 'em!!! you're not sorry, dean. "What now?" is a huge fucking mood, dean oh, greg! our old friend! greg was a real one (but not anymore) yeah eileen's screwed. this includes sam too. and dean i guess. sam is a good person who cares about people despite dean's best efforts to stop him I can't see who he's texting. are cas and jack in the back? poor eileen :( god poor sam having to basically get eileen in front of eyewitnesses who can attest that she disappeared cas and jack are in the backseat yeah I wish he'd tell her she's never gonna reply now yeah she's gone. interesting use of technology that they couldn't've done earlier in the series, to show she was typing but then stopped god that's awful. fuck. "If I let myself go then I'll lose my mind. I can't, right now." that's a huge fucking mood sam let's just postpone all that grief for later. gotta shove it down. huge fucking mood. god I'm so sorry somewhere central... the... bunker? don't split everyone up dean, fuck yes revenge is definitely the answer. killing things is the answer. "not having a choice" is obviously the answer. you fucker we get a sam and dean hug but where's the one for cas. you can like... see it in sam and jack's eyes that they are worried they're never gonna see them again. I'm horrified that cas isn't getting to say goodbye to jack nor sam. I can't handle this. I guess this scene is where they took that last group photo that misha posted back in march? RIP :( oh hey donna jack, that feeling is TheDepression oh gas-n-sip sam's sweet to try to give jack some autonomy here instead of having him just... being shuffled around like baggage. is that eileen's car then this music is intense don't burn the fucking library also wow dean with the reaper blade again is oof. wow. yikes. dean is become death, destroyer of worlds for real. jesus that is fucking horrifying to see. aren't you, dean? aren't you a bringer of death. remember when you hated doing that back in season... 4? 5? later? dean has learned nothing. sam's been trapped in a silo before hasn't he. or that panic room or something. donna is sweet. jack is good. jack deserves better. sam :( donna is very kind I like hearing jody and garth mentioned even if they're not in this episode (?) oh hey charlie sam at least knows how you feel, charlie I like this set god I've missed jim beaver is jack going around with spraypaint? I'm like oh god there's no ventilation. I guess it's a paint bucket but still the fumes are bad. better than being evaporated though I guess big man on campus. RIP stanford sam at least there's a bucket. praeses magna. "president large"? thinking about how it would be impossible to have extras for episodes 19 and 20 I like watching jack paint RIP that plant. apparently he has his powers dean walks around way too comfortably with the reaper scythe. oh but the plan has changed. did billie leave that book and nobody read it?????? dean you don't have friends, bud. yeah how did you tink you would even stand a chance, dean. this is the worst plan ever I'm so tired of seeing cas get tortured. I don't want to see billie get hurt either. is "billie" actually the empty or something "Has virtutes conliga. Eas integra. Eas firma. Nos omnes serva." = "These virtues bind. Those infected. These are strong. We keep them all." idk google translate, I feel like that may not be "infected" but more like integrity I like the effects they did on the wardings there yeah pretty much you can't stop god oh I'm real sad about that couple who vanished together :( bye charlie bye bobby. :( bye donna??? oh that like gold paint gossamer looking shit going on with billie's arm is cool god I'm glad billie smacked him in the face, dean deserves it. I just rewound it to see dean get clocked again, it's so worth it so they went back to the bunker... for what? billie can just go there. sam and jack are gonna have such a rough fucking day. all those double cheeseburgers are back for revenge on dean billie's right actually. dean always thinks the rules don't apply to him because he thinks he should be making the rules. castiel should be with jack, not with dean. fuck. can't cas still heal people the scythe on the wall is a good visual. I really like lisa berry, she does an amazing job is this the same room with the ma'lak box always happy to bleed for the winchesters. christ. fuck. even with dean's pocketknife. cas I'm so sorry. sweetheart you don't deserve this. 7B? so Jack was trapped in 5B, this is a different room but probably the same actual setpiece just rearranged do you just... have to wait her out yeah yeah dean you suck. correct, you never should've left sam and jack. wow I feel zero sympathy for dean at all. you do it to yourselllllf you do, that's what really hurts. oh baby don't summon the empty please :( I'm so glad to know that cas never told them about how he saved jack, it's none of their business yeah it would be with jack, cas. you should be with him man this is shitty. this is like a bad fanfic for real. wow these shots are like, when it cuts between them it's so obvious these were not the same camera lmao fuck. how many takes was this god i hate dean. he has not done this for love. dean is a spiteful person. "you're the most caring man on earth" literally kill me. I want to die. jesus fuck. i want to be dead this is awful this sucks this actually really hurts. this sucks so much. dean you squandered this angel's life. now jack has no father. i hate you dean winchester. i hate you. you don't deserve cas loving you jack knows, jack can feel it. I hate hate hate hate hate hate that jack is left alone with the winchesters. i hate this. jesus fuck i hate this so much i hate this jack sweetheart I'm so sorry dean you fucking ass please pick up the fucking phone. please answer sam. i hate you god dean i hate you fuck dean you are the worst. fuck my life. fuck all this. fuck this show. i'm so angry castiel deserves so much better than this. fuck i'm so mad. why wasn't his moment of happiness knowing that JACK WASN'T GOING TO DIE. i hate this. I'm so upset. fucking shit-ass writing. and it's still not fucking canon you morons at least uh they don't have to have extras for the last two episodes? did they add that footage after? is that what got changed up? everyone's gone huh. god just. dump the show right into the trash. bye. also for fuck's sake nobody gives a fuck about jack like I didn't even know he survived. nobody cares. "sam didn't get to say goodbye" FUCKING JACK DIDN'T GET TO SAY GOODBYE fuck this so much. fuck, is dean just chuck's OC? made in his image and furious that his mini-me isn't acting the way he wants? is that why he gets exonerated at every turn? "all the evil shit you did is fine dean you're the MOST LOVING AND THE BESTEST EVER!!!" fuuuuuck

#s15e18

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dragonrajafanfiction · 4 years

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Dragon Dancer Chapter 22: Target Practice

Cassell College worked hard to return to normalcy after the outbreak of violence that occurred right there on campus. The students were noticeably shaken up. Despite having studied here at Cassell, many had never seen a live dragon. After experiencing an overwhelming show of deadly force at the hands of a dragon that was no larger than a pick up truck, fear spread among the student body when they contemplated an actual war against these creatures.

They paid a lot more attention to classes and drills now. The training center had never been so crowded. Some, mourning friends who had died or were maimed in the attack, were demanding more access to the facilities than their rank deserved. But EVA was an AI and, while kind, she didn’t decide to override her programming to fit with the new demand. There was a long waiting list.

Master List

Because I was S-rank and still holding Star of Cassell privileges, I could stay at the shooting range well after dark. Susie had given me the basics and now I was just working on accuracy. With ear muffs on and earbuds under those, I lifted the pistol and fired three quick rounds at the paper target.

My scores were passable, but I needed to get better than that. Turned out that despite my dragon gift, most combat skills were still based on standard issue firearms and for some, like Johann, relics like swords and martial arts.

The dragon blood allowed us to be faster, stronger, and more agile than the average human being. Lancelot helped me see that with training in parkour and acrobatics. Because I’d never been asked to rapidly scale a building I’d never realized I could do something like that. I’d never been tested on how high I could jump or run. In addition to my dragon gift, being able to move and leap like a gazelle was overkill to me.

I was a scorpion that had just been given a pair of wings.

I pulled the earmuff off my ears.

“Not bad for a beginner.”

I shuddered with fear and whirled on the speaker. “Caesar! Don’t sneak up on me!”

“You had your ear muffs on, I didn’t have a choice!” He grinned, arms crossed “Mind if I give you a few pointers?”

“Sure… what are you even doing out here so late?”

He came up beside me. “I could ask the same of you.”

“Plain old insomnia. I figured I’d make use of my time.”

“You’ve been here all evening.” He said, with a little laugh.

“You’re going to give me pointers right?” I asked, uninterested in talking about my persistent issue with night terrors. If I told him why I couldn’t sleep, he’d start trying to solve my problem. I didn't want to tell him anything that might give him a clue about what my father was or a clue of what had happened to me.

Caesar obliged, helping me with straightening my shoulders, raising my arms and how to hold the weapon steadier. He was a good teacher. He knew exactly what to say to help me understand what I needed to do.

The next three shots had a higher score. Caesar nodded with satisfaction. “Awesome. Think you can remember all that?"

“Eh…” I laughed. “Might need you to tell me a few more times.”

His blue eyes looked down at me. “You know, I could more easily train you in shooting as part of the Student Union.”

“Oh, here we go.” I playfully rolled my eyes.

He raised his eyebrows. “What do you mean by that?”

“Nono told me that the whole reason you offered the Star of Cassell was to force me to join your club!”

He huffed, offended. “What do you mean force? I don’t force anyone to do anything!”

“Well, that’s what she said! I believed her.” I put the gun down and started to dismantle it.

He glanced away. “She’s being dramatic. It only would have been three months!”

I looked up at him in shock. “So you were seriously going to do that!”

“As a trial basis. If after three months you didn’t like it you would be free to go! How is that forcing?” He chuckled. “Besides, you lost that high ground when you immediately turned around and made Johann Chu your boyfriend, didn’t you?”

I glanced up at him, frowning. “I had my reasons. Besides, it's not like we’ve been on any dates or I’m forcing him to kiss me or anything.”

“Lame excuses. You could have said bodyguard. Why boyfriend?”

“Because Fingel told me that there were two things people wanted to know about me most. One, which club I was joining and two, how to date me.” I sighed. “I just… I just didn’t want to deal with that.”

“Heh… well, I would ask if you considered Johann’s feelings and then I just remembered he doesn’t have any…” Caesar shrugged.

My frown deepened and I paused in my work.

“It’s almost poetic justice in a way. He makes the girls here gamble with their hearts. Never rejecting them, out of politeness. But what he’s really doing is keeping them coming back to the table, time and again.”

“Oh really?” I said, continuing to work.

“Oh yes,” He exuded great confidence in this. “They’re hoping that maybe this time they’ll hit the jackpot and he’ll understand their feelings. Despite the low odds that he ever will.”

He began to chuckle. “And now look, he’s stuck in a loveless relationship… While he may deserve that… I think you deserve a lot better.”

“Thanks… I think.” I open the hard case for the gun parts and start slotting them in.

“Well, enough about him.” He waved dismissively, “Have you considered being part of the Student Union Dancing Society?”

“Oh… yeah!” I perked up a bit, suddenly recalling. “Johann told me about it earlier. When we first met.”

Caesar cocked his head in surprise. “He did? Why didn’t you come to me about it afterwards?”

I looked up at him, stunned with wide eyes. “Uh… because I found out I was dying?” My words came out louder than I expected and I winced.

Taken aback, Caesar averted his eyes. “That’s right. Sorry.”

“No…” I sighed, swallowing against the sudden knot in my throat. “I forgot that it's … been six months for you guys. Longer at this point. But only a few weeks for me.”

“I didn’t mean to upset you. I just think you’d fit right in.” When I didn’t respond, he tried again. “I have something to confess.”

I looked up at him, trying to get a handle on my sudden painful memories. “What?”

“I personally lead the Dancing Society. Including their battle training.” He grinned down at me, not sorry at all.

I began to laugh, incredulous. “Oh wow! Really? Is that so?”

“The chance to dance with you… an S-ranked student. Would be an absolute honor.” He leaned closer to me, winking.

I leaned away, closing the case. “I’m suuuuure… but I’ve never seen you dance so… I don’t know how honorable it would be.” I twined my finger in my hair and then pointed at him. “Besides, don’t you have Nono to dance with?”

“Why not both?”

“Why not both? She’s your fiance! Shouldn’t you want to dance with her more than anyone else?” I asked.

He shrugged, frowning a bit. “She’s not as into it as me.” He turned to me again, smiling. “You on the other hand… have trained for years.”

Gratified, I shrugged my shoulders and grinned. “Could probably teach you a thing or two. But … I don’t have to join your club to dance with you.”

“Again with the refusal.” He seemed genuinely perplexed. “I don’t understand.”

My eyes shifted. “I like Johann. And… no matter how you feel about what we’re doing… the way you talked about him just now was not good. I’m not interested in being his rival.”

Caesar shrugged. “Then don’t… Just join and you don’t have to participate in the rivalry.”

“I don’t think he sees it that way…”

“Then that’s his problem.” He said flatly, glaring.

I take a breath and let it out. I glanced away. “I don’t want to argue. Okay?”

“We’re not arguing.”

“Well, for last minute, you’ve done nothing but dismiss everything I’ve said!” I glanced up at him again, daring him to dismiss this too.

He met my eyes, read my intentions and replied. “That doesn’t make this an argument.”

He couldn't hide his satisfied smile when I started laughing again. "You're funny!"

I took the gun case off the platform and walked away from the shooting range to the storage area. He followed me. "And you're fascinating!"

"Why?" I shot back at him.

"S-ranks are so rare as it is. But women are rare even in A-ranks!"

"Seriously, Caesar?" My voice was like a sad trombone but he didn’t even flinch.

"It's just a fact!"

I walked in silent disagreement. Johann did not seem to have the same viewpoint.

He forged ahead. "Lately I’ve learned quite a lot about you through observation and various other means."

My jaw dropped slightly and I paused in my step before continuing. “Uh huh?”

“All signs suggest that you might even exceed what we know about S-ranks. You did beat Lu on the first challenge for the Star of Cassell, remember?”

He watched me put the case away. My eyes were distant. I'd stopped answering. I used my card to check the equipment back in. “You owe it to yourself to put your talent to good use. And there’s no better way to do it than joining me…” He paused and reconsidered a moment “... us.”

He’d stopped his pitch and so I asked him. "Is that all?" A voice in my head was telling me he was trying to be complimentary. That he was just saying to me what he said to other people. But it was being drowned out by my pain.

"What do you mean is that all?" He said, quietly. "Carli…" He blocked my attempt to step around him. "Before Lu, the last S-ranked student to walk through Cassell was forty years ago… Forty years! Do you not understand how valuable that makes you?"

"Oh…" I looked away for a moment, then I turned to face him. I was smiling, even laughing, but the pain and rage made my voice tremble. "I know exactly how valuable that makes me!” My smile turned down to a mask of anger. “Down to the penny!"

Caesar's eyes went wide, stunned. His eyes narrow slightly. “What…?”

"Probably more than you know!" He reached out to me and I slapped his hand away. "Don't touch me! People like you are the reason I need Johann!"

A woman’s voice from the ceiling broke things up. "Since your equipment is turned in, I can't hold the shooting gallery open for you. Please exit and I will shut down the lights and set the security alarm."

EVA materialized behind me and I strode through her hologram in my haste to escape.

"Carli, wait!”

I left the building. I was going to cry. I had to stop it.

“What do you mean ‘to the penny!’” He’s already caught up to me, trying to meet my eyes, looking for an answer.

And just like that, I’d said too much. I’d done exactly what I was trying not to do. “Don’t talk to me! Don’t talk to me again! Not until the three months are over!”

“What… what happened to you…” He whispered. “Does Johann know about this?”

I broke out into a run, not looking back. I didn’t get any sleep. The next morning I spotted a text on my phone from Caesar. “Are you alright?”

I blocked his number.

Being calm was impossible. I was so exhausted, breathing was painful. I used makeup to cover my darkened eyes.

Johann met me at my usual time, but I was late. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine. Just a study session today anyway.”

That was a change in schedule. Caesar had probably talked to him.

After we neared the cafe where we tended to study, he said, “Can I ask you something?”

“Mmhm.”

“Do you like theme parks?”

#caesar gattuso #Johann Chu #Nono #mingfei lu #Dragon Raja #Fanfiction #Writing

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watching-pictures-move · 5 years

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Movie Review | Band of the Hand (Glaser, 1986)

If you ever watched an afterschool special and thought it needed more firepower, then Band of the Hand is just the movie for you. It follows five juvenile delinquents who, as part of their parole, get taken under the wing of a Vietnam vet, played by Stephen Lang, who takes them to the bayou and later a rough Miami neighbourhood and teaches them important things like self esteem, survival skills and handling automatic weapons. It’s all part of a pilot program where he hopes to rehabilitate juvenile offenders through unconventional, firearms-related means, and it works in the case of our heroes. When we first meet them, they do not like each other, and they express their dislike by lobbing racial slurs at each other, with the exception of the punk who barely talks and the ex-drug-dealer who’s too busy trying to carry his Cuban accent for more than a handful of words at a time to bother being racist. (Fun fact: the actor who plays him is Anthony Quinn’s son.) But thanks to Lang’s unconventional teaching methods, they learn to bond over their love of painting houses and firing machine guns. Of course, Lang realizes that no amount of self esteem can solve the problem posed by the presence of drugs and organized crime, and it’s only a matter of time before they fight back against the local drug lord.

Band of the Hand is not a Cannon Films production but has a similar mix of caricature and grit, combining harder edged elements like racial tensions and an unsentimental view of the inner cities with the sound and fury of an action climax where a bunch of teenagers who only recently learned to use guns aren’t immediately killed when taking on a drug lord’s army. If the movie works, it’s largely because of Stephen Lang, who has a strong enough presence playing essentially a Rambo-like guidance counselor to create real emotional investment in how he manages to inspire the kids. It also doesn’t hurt that the villain is played by James Remar. Remar can be magnetic in his volatility, like in 48 Hrs. and The Warriors, but here he spends most of his time looking slick in suits and plays his big scene with his feet on the couch watching nine TVs at the same time. (The TVs are all showing the same thing, which leads me to wonder why he needs nine of them in the first place. He’d a better off with one big one, or putting the nine in different parts of his house. He’s also coked up in this scene, so I should cut him some slack. Such is the excess of the drug business.) It’s not a great Remar performance, but still supremely effective in making the viewer think, “Fuck that guy.” Because, fuck that guy.

#film #movie review #band of the hand #paul michael glaser

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aridara · 5 years

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Strict Gun Control: common “objections”.

“Strict gun control is useless.”

False. Strict gun control reduces mass shootings, shootings in general, suicides, and deadly accidents. Unrestricted guns don’t make you safer.

“Mass shootings are statistically insignificant. Therefore, it’s not a problem.”

We’re talking about ALL the issues caused by the lack of strict gun control. This means: mass shootings, shootings in general, deadly accidents, suicides, etc.

If the number of deaths caused by trucks is NOT “statistically insignificant” (trucks are heavily regulated, after all), then the number of deaths caused by guns is NOT “statistically insignificant”, given that the two are pretty similar.

“But this other country has strict gun control, and more violent crime/suicides than the USA! Therefore, strict gun control doesn’t work.”

Hold on for a second. Wide-spread poverty and political instability both increase violent crime. Wide-spread poverty and high social pressures (see: Japan) both increase suicide rates. This is well known; don’t even try to deny it.

When you say stuff like what you just said, you’re implying that the only factor that caused those high violent crime/suicide rates is gun control; you completely omit the role poverty, political instability, social pressures etc. played.

And that’s bullshit. So I’m just gonna ignore it. You don’t like it? Then compare countries with similar economic situations, but different levels of gun control.

"But those countries have a population that's much smaller than the USA!"

...And? That's a problem how, exactly?

“But Chicago...”

Chicago is right next to two states with VERY weak gun control laws.

You can’t say “Well, we applied strict gun control, and it didn’t work”, when you didn’t apply it to begin with.

“Most mass shootings happen in gun-free zones.”

False. Only 10% of mass shootings happen in gun-free zones.

However, that study only works if the definition of “gun-free zone” we’re using is something around the lines of “an area where civilians aren’t allowed to carry firearms”. If you use a much wider definition, you could say “90%-ish of mass shootings happen in gun-free zones” - but that would be cheating, wouldn’t it?

“Guns don’t kill people. People kill people.”

And people with easy access to guns have a much easier time killing others, compared to people without easy access to guns.

“The only thing that can stop a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.”

You aren’t John Wayne and you don’t have lighting-fast reflexes and magic bullets that steer in mid-air. The “good guy with a gun” myth is just that: a myth.

“Guns don’t make people kill themselves.”

That’s true. But they make it much easier for a suicidal person to actually succeed in killing themselves.

Meanwhile, a suicidal person who doesn’t have easy access to guns will:

Try a different method (like pill overdose) that is less immediately lethal. Therefore, they will have a higher chance of survival.

Try searching for another method. Which means they’ll take longer. Which means that there’s a higher chance they will be stopped.

Give up. Yes, sometimes finding an obstacle makes suicidal people stop their suicide attempt.

“But your solution won’t stop mass shootings from happening!”

It will significantly reduce them.

Also, laws against drunk driving haven’t stopped drunk driving from happening; they significantly reduced it. Are you saying that we should repeal the laws against drunk driving? What about laws on literally every crime ever?

“You want to ban guns!”

No. Next question.

“But implementing strict gun control means that the police can just barge in your house without a warrant and confiscate everything you own!”

No, it doesn’t. Not even Australia did that - and they still managed to get rid of a bajillion illegal guns.

“You don’t trust cops because of police brutality, and yet you trust them to take away our guns?”

Fun fact: I can fight against police brutality and against motherfuckers getting easy access to assault weapons, at the same time.

“If we have strict gun control, only criminals will have guns!”

That argument is based on the same “strict gun control = taking guns away from citizens” assumption.

Saying "If we have gun control only outlaws will have guns" is like saying "If you outlaw drunk driving, only outlaws will drive drunk."

“Even if we have strict gun control, criminals will just get guns illegally. All you’d get is honest citizens not having any gun, and criminals having guns.”

That makes no sense. So, strict gun control makes it pretty much impossible to get a firearm... but people can still get a firearm easily, even with strict gun control?

“If we have strict gun control, criminals will just use equally effective tools. Like knives, or bombs - which are as accessible and deadly as guns.”

False - but let’s assume for a second that what you’re saying is true. Let’s also say that the government wants to forbid citizens from owning firearms, at all. What are you worried about, then? Just get some bombs and knives. Problem solved.

“You want to prevent civilians from owning semi-automatic weapons? But most commonly used firearms are semi-automatic!”

And that’s a problem. There’s pretty much no reason why the average civilian should have semi-automatic weapons. Last time I’ve checked, the average citizen doesn’t have to worry about 30-50 feral hogs suddenly materializing in his backyard.

"Most crimes are committed with illegally owned weapons. Therefore, strict gun control doesn’t work, because it didn’t remove those illegally owned weapons.”

Except that you don’t have strict gun control. Of-fucking-course it’s easy to get an illegal firearm, when you don’t do shit to stop it.

“But, if we approve strict gun control, it will be used to discriminate against black people! They will be left defenseless against white racists!”

As Odinsblog put it: “ANY law, from marijuana possession to jaywalking to speeding to littering—any of these laws will always be enforced harsher on those of us with darker skin. Same thing goes for gun control. Like, wtf are you even suggesting? Once unarmed by the gubmint, black folks won’t be able to fight …. who? ….. the police? ….. the National Guard? ….. white supremacists? LOL. We ~already~ cannot threaten white people with guns, not even toy guns or imaginary guns that THEY imagined, or we get what Tamir Rice and John Crawford got: shot dead instantly, because of white people’s racist imaginations. Armed or unarmed, black people will never get the same benefit of the doubt that white people get.”

[The same applies for pretty much any other marginalized group.]

“You know, the first thing the Nazi’s did was take guns away from the Jews.”

Are you trying to say that people who want to implement strict gun control (not “take guns away from citizens” are Nazis? You can’t call people “Nazis” just because they disagree with you.

“The Second Amendment gives me the divine right to own firearms, tanks, naval artillery, and nuclear weapons, without any limitation.”

You sound like a religious fanatic.

As the Good Men Project suggests, you should study the following topics:

The historical debate about what the strangely-worded 2nd Amendment even means.

The phrase “well-regulated” contained within said 2nd Amendment.

The restrictions present on every other limited-right in the Constitution (including speech, assembly, religion, redress of grievances.)

The contradiction of how most gun advocates support restricting firearms to some class of citizens, such as convicted felons who just happen to live in prison.

The generally acceptable restriction on civilian ownership of surface-to-air missiles.

How having absolute faith in the Second Amendment means that you pretty much don’t believe in the rest of the Constitution.

“If you try to take away my guns, I’ll kill you, the police, and everyone who tries to stop me.”

And you sound like the kind of person who shouldn’t have access to firearms.

“Now it’s not the time to talk about gun control.”

WHEN it’s the time to talk about gun control? I bet that your answer is “never”.

#gun control

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pearlsartblog2019 · 5 years

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Monster Verse AU: Part six

SPG Monster Verse AU : Part Seven

Notes: Notes: Don’t own SPG… all of those lovelies belong to the bennetts and co. I just do strange things in stories with the characters for fun.

Don’t own Sprocket Or Dex they be long to the very awesome: https://spg-fanbot-cousins.tumblr.com/

Pearl is my own character and is used in this and several other stories. Time period note : This is the start of the part of the story which is set in modern times.. The year is about 2018-early 2019. Hope you like! Enjoy the show.

She was in the process of hanging off the edge of her bed looking for something. It wasn't messy under there, far from it. However she couldn't seem to locate just what she was looking for.

"Has anyone seen my gold ribbon?" Pearl asked.

She continued to hang there for a second still looking when she heard someone come in the room.

"Pearl?" Her father asked, "What on earth are you doing?"

Her sister Sprocket stuck her head out of the closet, "looking for ribbon.. ya know " She motioned to the gifts sitting in the corner, "Birthday party tomorrow."

Spine smiled, "Ahh.. right. You two do realize hes ten and he's probably not even going to notice right?"

"So?" Came the muffled reply from the bed where now only her feet were visible, "Doesn't mean i can still make it nice."

"Fair enough," He said and went to sit on the bed placing the items he had on the nightstand, "Still," He bent down and lifted the bed skirt, "It IS time for you to come out and take your "Vitamins" "

That got her attention.

A few seconds later Pearl wiggled out from under the bed and lay on the floor glaring up at him for a second. "Seriously?"

Sprocket snickered as she slid outta the closet and flopped onto the bed, "You got a better definition of them?"

Pearl snorted and sat up, The rose and flopped next to her Naga sister on the bed, "No. " She sighed and rolled on her stomach, "Better than vomiting i suppose."

Her father looked sad for a second, "It is. I had no idea it was going to be that bad, because you were able to tolerate it for so long."

Pearl looked at the stuff on the nightstand, A one liter bottle of disani and a bottle of pills, "Who knew. I mean People like me are so stupidly rare there's not really much anyone knows about them. I'm the first Dhampir in what? 100?200? Years?"

"Longer," Spine told her, "So you are right in the no information department. That and most did not live long after coming of age. Thankfully the modern world is a bit better at solving some of these problems."

The problem had been that the human part of pearl wanted solid food, and the vampire part of her still NEEDED blood. But physcologically, as her human side came out more and more, drinking blood became repellant to her subconscious. After two weeks and 18 bottles of hersey's chocolate syrup, someone had FINALLY thought of a permanent solution.

Stupidly simple solution used in humans to treat the blood diseases, porphyria and melia toxicity.

Gelatin shells containing dehydrated, human imuno-gamuloglobulin.( in english..dehydrated blood)

If it worked for humans it would work for Pearl. So that meant swallowing the things at the intervals she would have eaten at night and then making sure to get some human food in her at least once a night as well.

Pearl sat up and made a face, it was basically swallowing non flavored gelatin, and held her hand out.

"Still wondering what strings Six and Five had to pull to get these," She said fighting with the cap.

Spine grinned, "None really. Once the doctors got a look at your blood cultures they were happy to hand them over. And i do quote "The worst fucking case of perphoria any of us have seen in 100 years."

She snorted, dumped two out into her hand and downed them, Then proceeded to chug half of the bottle of water.

Sprocket watched her sister as over the last few days of doing this, almost all of her color had returned and the icy cold she felt every time she touched the other girl was gone. Sprocket was more than happy it had worked and was glad her baby sis was able to go back to a normal life.

"It's good you got those things in time to feel better for the party, " She grinned, "Specter woulda been heart broken if you couldn't have come."

"Yah," Pearl smiled, "I hope he likes the painting and the plushies and coloring book I made for him."

Spine nodded, "I'm sure he will most ten year olds love stuffed animals," He paused and looked around, "Some people never get tired of them."

Pearl smirked back at her narwhal army, finished her water and hopped off the bed.

"Now if you don't mind moving your feet daddy," She was about to poke her head back under the bed, "I STILL need to find that ribbon."

A soft whine came from the doorway and all of them looked up to see Dex in his wolf form with the ribbon in his mouth. His mom Rabbit smiling from the doorway.

"s-s-sorry Runt," She told pearl, "We-we wanted to use that color too."

Pearl hopped up and headed over, "No problem. Thanks for bringing it back!"

She got over there and got a hug from her auntie, "Glad your feeling better Runt."

Pearl smiled and headed back to Sprocket to finish wrapping the gifts, "Thanks guys."

Rabbit smiled again and then got serious for a second, "Spine? Can I talk to you f-f-for a bit? I Heard something serious."

At the change in her tone The Silver Lord knew that something important was up and nodded, "Of course, Dex would you stay with the girls?"

The wolf moved in to the room to sit with his cousins and the Adults joined some of the others that were already gathered out there.

"... If they are in town then we are just going to have to watch out, " Six was telling everyone, "These jerks are getting more aggressive. We might have to do something to chase them out of town this time."

"What about the kids?" Hatchworth asked, " IF they are screwing around they might try to hurt them."

Spine thought for a second, "If they come here we are going to have to fight them. All we can do is attempt to be ready. I don't want violence with these people if Its not needed. This war is pointless now anyhow. It's been pointless for the last fifty years. "

salgexicon leaned on the wall and looked thoughtful, "You have a very valid point Spine. Maybe if they know her, see that peace is possible... the fighting will stop."

Six looked at the other wizard, "OR that could put the kid in danger. These finatics might see that as an escalation on our part, not a move towards peace. "

"What are they doing now?" Spine asked.

Rabbit replied, so serious her vocal tic was no place to be found, "For now, just moving around the city. People are keeping watch but so far they haven't done anything but walk around and look."

Spine crossed his arms and thought for a second, "Alright then. IF they haven;t been aggressive there's no need for any of us to be aggressive. We do however need to make sure everyone is safe. No hunting in town until the jerks leave. If they get aggressive and start hurting people or come here. Then we will deal with it. "

Everyone else nodded in agreement and went back to what they were doing, worries about the hunters still nagging at the back of their minds.

A day passed however and nothing happened. No signs of aggression or moves to hurt people, indeed it seemed most of them had found what they were looking for and were moving out of town.

It was this situation that the birthday party for Specter was set to take place in the garden out the back of the manor. It was this situation that disaster would strike in.

A few seconds post candle blowing out and song singing and the Little blond boy was about to rip into his gifts when the night mare struck.

"NOW!!" Someone screamed from the darkness around the garden and all hell broke loose.

"WE'RE HERE FOR SILVER LORD And THE WRAITH get out of our way and no one else has to be involved. "

The garden and the party erupted into utter chaos, everyone either ran away from or towards the people that were attacking. The sounds of weapons fire was heard all through the once peaceful house. Magic and other attacks nearly lit the air itself on fire.

The second that things changed everyone knew. With a scream like someone was ripping both of their hearts out, both Spine and Delilah fell as the attackers accomplished what they came for.

One stood there about to fire a second round into Spine and ensure his death. When something small with golden curls got in front of him and begged, "PLEASE!! Please DON'T HURT MY UN'CA SPINE!!"

The man lashed out at the child with his boot and then in a fit of anger pumped one of the rounds in the firearm into the child's body. Leaving the poor thing there scared, cold and dying.

"STOP!!" one of the leaders ordered, " The objective is complete! FALL BACK!!"

The hunters vanished into the darkness and silence took over the garden. Time seemed to slow down as two young daughters, A life long companion and broken hearted father, screamed and ran to the sides of the people they cared for, not knowing what had been done or if they would even be able to survive.

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darthkieduss · 6 years

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Reasons I hate Fat Donnie Trump (will update frequently)

#Republican, duh. #Narcissistic Personality Order #He lost the Popular vote. #No previous political experience #Has unrealistic ideas about how to solve America's problems, such as getting Mexico to pay for a wall to keep illegal immigrants out. #Vice President is a crazy fundamentalist Christian homophobic wackjob who thinks electroshock therapy cures homosexuality and can't be alone with a woman without his wife present. #Believes in unscientific ideas such as the idea that vaccines cause autism (I am autistic so this is a bit personal) #Has made comments alluding to sexual harassment. #Can't let any slight go. Even comments made about his sign. Jeez, Obama simply shrugged off the trolls and haters. #Won't stop bitch-tweeting. #Enacted the separation of children from their parents. #Tried to ban trans folks from the military. As long as they serve our country, who cares? #Suspended CNN's press pass after some tough questioning. #Is imposing insanely high tariffs on imported goods, mostly from China. #Supports unconstitutional profiling of Muslims. #Supports killing civilians in war. “We gotta take our their families” WHO THINKS LIKE THIS? #Posted troops on the border just for political advantage in the 2018 mid-terms. #Is a shameless self-promoter. #Can't admit his own faults. #Believes he's qualified for president because he's rich (said this in 2013) #Has passed insane tax cuts for the rich, which only increase America's budget deficit and national debt. TRICKLE-DOWN NEVER WORKS. #Had to be discouraged from invading Venezuela, who hasn't done anything to us and poses no threat to us. #Gets advice from Fox News. #Pulled out the Iran deal which was working. #Thinks that the way to show strength is by being a dick. #Cheated on every one of his wives and lied about it. We impeached Bill Clinton for it. #Has increased the military budget way too much. We spend $664 BILLION on the military. It doesn't need anymore. #Claimed Obama spied on him by wiretapping the Trump towers. Provided no evidence. #When he is criticized for something, he claims “Obama started it...” *facepalm* #LIES ON A CONSTANT BASIS. I think he lies just to see what his fans will believe... #He won't admit he lost the popular vote. He says "If you deduct the illegal voters." Oh please... #Is undoing everything Obama did just because it was Obama that did it. If he could bring back Osama bin Laden, he would. #WORLD LEADERS ARE LAUGHING AT HIM AND US #He has his cabinet kiss his ass on a constant basis. #He committed campaign finance violations during the election. #He fired FBI Director Jimmy the Giant Comey just because he wouldn't swear loyalty to him and was investigating him. That’s Obstruction of Justice. #Attacked former Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not closing the Mueller investigation. #He said he wanted to lower the minimum wage back in 2015. #The infamous "Mexicans are rapists" Comment. #Attacked the late John McCain for being a Prisoner-of-War. #Gave out a Senator's cellphone number out of spite. #Blamed Megyn Kelly's tough questioning on her period. #He said "Bring back torture EVEN IF IT DOESN'T WORK". (2015) ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! #Tried to have his political opponents locked up. #"Jokes" about being president-for-life. If Obama had "joked" about this, the right would've lost their shit. #Threatened martial law in Chicago. #Praised Protestant bigot Norman Peale, who only opposed JFK simply because he was Catholic. #He violated the Presidential Records Act. #One of his tax cuts gave the poor $40, the ultra-rich $940,000 #He appeals to insecure men. #He and Jeff Sessions said it is ok to discriminate against gay people. #Complains about people not respecting the flag, says the guy who molests it. #Wants North Korean-style Military Parades. #Started that Obama birth certificate bullshit... He only said Obama was born in America in 2016...when it was politically-convenient. (*cough* back-pedaling) #He believes women are beneath him. #Doesn't believe in Global Warming. #Wouldn't stop saying interrupting Clinton in the debates. #Has more in common with the criminal Richard Nixon than anyone else. (Edit: He called for an end to investigations like Tricky Dick did in ‘74) #3.2 MILLION Americans lost their health insurance in Trump's first year. #"A terror attack would help me politically bigly." or we could NOT have a terrorist attack, thank you. #Claimed he would've run into a school shooting to confront the shooter without a weapon. BULLSHIT. #His lawyers say "I can't let him testify because he can't stop lying." #His budget obliterated funding for Science, Education, EPA & labor. #He encourages Republicans to break the law. #Tweeted FAKE photos to convince his fans that the border wall is being built. #Has committed obstruction of justice. (Edit: Confirmed by Mueller) #Said he's in favor of bombing civilians. #He had the USAF bomb an antivenom medical facility in Syria. #He said he only received $1 Million from his father. HE GOT $400 Million. ANOTHER LIE. #He makes everything about himself. Even 9/11. Who makes 9/11 about himself? #Claims he's completely immune to lawsuits over constitutional violations. Nixon said that, but it didn't work for him. #He's driving us to another Great Depression. #He threatened to punish the media if they weren't nice to him. #He calls the press "The enemy of the people" when they don't kiss his ass. #He calls Sean Hannity every night. Sean Hannity is a partisan hack who wouldn't turn on a Republican president even if he found out he was using JFK's Eternal Flame to light farts. He’s so far up Trump’s ass he can taste his lunch. #He still uses his private NON-SECURE cell phone, creating HUGE National Security problems. #He admitted his attacks on the media are just to discredit negative stories. #He claims he has the power to pardon himself. NO THE HELL HE DOESN'T. #Giuliani said Trump can't testify because his memory keeps changing. #THE MOST THIN-SKINNED PRESIDENT. #He is against the protections for pre-existing conditions. HE is a pre-existing condition. #When told Kim Jong-Un is a murderer, he responded "He's a tough guy." #He says Americans should obey him like North Koreans are forced at gunpoint to obey Kim Jong-un. #He trusts brutal dictators, but not our closest allies. #He is jealous of Kim Jong-Un's absolute grip on power. #He lied about the German crime rate to justify his immigration policies. #He suggested destroying the Constitution so he can deport immigrants faster. #Authorized USING LETHAL FORCE ON UNARMED MIGRANTS!!! #Lied to the United Nations, saying poverty in America doesn't actually exist. I PERSONALLY know people who are living in poverty. #He issued a gag order to stop government employees from talking to reporters. #He said, on tape, that if Senator Elizabeth Warren proved she was Native American, he would donate $1 million to a charity of her choice. When she did, and someone pointed it out, he said "I didn't say that." Whether or not he’s obligated to pay, he said he would but now he’s saying he didn’t say it. #Says people who criticize him are a threat to America. #His trade wars have cost 100,000+ American jobs. #People who work for him tend to be convicted of crimes... #Makes slanderous lies about us Democrats. #Told German Chancellor she owes him $1 Trillion even though she doesn't him shit. #76% of the claims Trump makes during his rallies are LIES. #He has committed at least NINE impeachable offenses. #He said he believes Russian president Vladimir Putin over OUR OWN intelligence agencies. #He once said in December 2016, "Fuck the law! I don't give a fuck about the law! I want my fucking money!" #Claimed we've won the war on poverty, so let's cut food stamp programs. No we haven't. #He threatened to nuke the economy to spite China. #He said he'd drain the swamp, yet he was 86 lobbyists on his staff. #He thinks everyone else is as stupid as he is. #Corporations are PRAYING that Trump tweets us into a war. #He told a crowd "reality isn't real" so they should ignore it. #Wages have tanked after Trump's wealthy tax cut. #Nixon was guilty as hell and Trump sounds just like him. #He actually claimed you need a Picture ID to buy cereal....CEREAL...WHO IS THIS STUPID?!?! #He claimed people will die if we don't make cars less fuel efficient. #By August 2018 his lie count topped 4,200+. By May 2019, it’s now 10,000+. #His administration is now allowing more toxic asbestos into our daily lives. #His wife plagiarized Michelle Obama in a speech during the election. #He watches tapes of his rallies to marvel at his own "brilliance", if that's what you call it. More like jerking off to himself. #He said military might is more important that jobs. #He said violating ethics rules to meet with Fox news is in "the public's interest" #Discreetly called for Hillary Clinton's assassination by firearm (”Second Amendment people”) if she had won. #Claimed he would ONLY accept the results of the 2016 election IF HE WON. #Said "Let's fucking kill him" of Bashar al-Assad. Yes, Assad is a bad man, but WE DON'T ASSASSINATE PEOPLE. #He said he wants to separate migrants kids from parents INDEFINITELY. #He acted like a total ass on the 2018 9/11 anniversary. #He denies that 3,000+ Puerto Ricans died in Hurricane Maria. #Pentagon officials had to stop Trump from tweeting us into a war. #American taxpayers spent $77 MILLION on Trump's Golf trips. #Criticized Obama for golf trips...has taken more golf trips in 3 years than Obama did in 8. #Said the FBI is a "Cancer to the country". #His administration cut cancer research funding to pay for child prisons. #Puerto Rico won't get statehood simply because they were mean to him. *His administration said Planet is burning down, so let's just ruin it now. *Says he loves North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. “We fell in love”. *Talked about his dick at the debates. *He is being investigated for tax evasion and fraud. *Hates immigrants, married two Eastern European immigrant, son of a Scottish immigrant and grandson of a German immigrant. *Claimed Iraq War was wrong, yet he has increased troop numbers there. *Compared sexual assault victims to arsonists. #He denied Saudi Arabia financial interests...AFTER bragging about them. #He hasn't condemned Saudi Arabia for their murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. #He mocked decorated Navy SEAL, saying they should've gotten Osama bin Laden sooner. WHAT? #He banned 2 Million Federal workers from discussing his impeachment at work. #He demanded that he leave the G20 during the climate change discussion. #He told about skyrocketing national debt: "I won't be here." when it explodes. #Called a US Senator "The Dick". #*His hush money payments were done ILLEGALLY, with campaign cash. #His cult sent bombs to everyone he criticized. Not saying he's directly responsible but that's how cultist his fans are. #He threatened to bring Saturday Night Live to court simply for making fun of him. Awww poor baby, is someone making fun of you? Good. #Never has a president been under so much investigations except Richard Nixon. #He pulled us out of the Paris agreements. #His 2018 government shutdown lasted 35 days and was over a stupid wall. #He only works 40% of the day. He's the laziest POTUS ever. #He pulled us out of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. HE STARTED A NEW COLD WAR. #He won’t release his taxes. If he’s got nothing to hide, why HIDE EM? #He threatened us Democrats, saying he has the support of the police, the military and “Bikers for Trump.” Bikers for Trump=BrownShirts. #Claims that windmill causes cancer and kill birds...Are you fucking kidding me? #His son Donny Douchebag got a crowd to chant “AOC sucks” like the douchebag he is. #Claimed his father was born in Germany. Fred Trump was born in NYC, how stupid can you be to not know where your parents were born... #Claims he should get 2 more years added to his term because those 2 years were “stolen” by the Mueller report. *facepalm-cringe* #He told 4 Progressive non-white Congresswomen to “Go back to where you came from”. 3 of 4 were BORN HERE, YOU FUCKING RACIST #One-uped the “go back to your country” but viciously attacking Elijah Cummings and Baltimore in a racist Twitter tirade. #Extorted the Ukrainian President to investigate Joe Biden (finally being impeached) #He's always blaming everybody else, complaining, never taking responsibility. #"I inherited a mess." You inherited millions of dollars, you whiny...little...BITCH!

#Trump #Donald Trump #Fat Donnie #I hate Trump #Why I hate Trump #Bernie 2020 #Why I'm not a Republican #Impeach the MF #Impeach the MFer #Impeach the Motherfucker #I love Bernie

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