#easing lockdown restrictions

[eveningepiphany]

reconnect | h.s oneshot

my masterlist

summary: lockdown is tough on both you and harry. you miss the feeling of physical touch so much you start chasing to fill that void in one another.

warnings: sweet and dirty smut, unprotected sex, fingering (fem rec), spitting, deep conversation, lil bit emotional, touch starved harry & y/n, lockdown and covid mentions.

a/n: something hot and sweet for y’all ily!! highkey wish I had harry during my lockdown era writing this, my god.

———

You felt entirely numb as you heard the familiar news reporter say the words you had been dreading of hearing. Tahnee was was always on at this time of the day— you didn’t even know her name however many months ago.

Restrictions had been easing just a week or so ago.

Her voice continued to echo through the lounge room as you cupped your face in your hands with a sigh.

“—we understand the effect this news may have on viewers at home. In these unprecedented times we must stick together as much as we can. Look after yourself everyone… we’ll see you next with our sporting updates after the ad break.”

She sounded glum, like she hated being the one to deliver the news to people. In the end, she too has to go home and cope with the numerous amounts of restrictions on her life.

You reached for the remote, turning off the tv and throwing it back into the duvet that now permanently lived on the couch, good for the cold nights and binge watching TV shows because you had nothing better to do.

Other than ignore your upcoming college assignments. Which you’re going to continue to do. And procrastinate finishing them and how much you hate the pressure of online schooling.

You had other shit to dwell on too.

You miss your family. You miss your friends.

You’re sick of living out birthdays and your college life on video calls.

You missed being hugged, and kissed and touched.

You were so grateful to have your best friend of all people stuck with you. But you still craved so many kinds of social interaction.

Now you just wanted to cry.

You stood up, knowing harry wouldn’t know yet. Probably in bed on his phone, and you just needed his company.

You quickly went to escape the silence of the lounge room, padding down the hallway in your sweatpants and a baggy tshirt you know for a fact you stole from your dad.

His door was only half shut, and you gently said his name.

“Harry…?” Your voice wavers.

“Yea, love?” His voice is soft, welcoming as it always is.

You push through the door to see him laying in bed, also in sweatpants and a rolled up long sleeve.

He looks at you and tears immediately start to spill over your waterline without you even realising.

He props himself up, “y/n, what’s wrong?”

You invite yourself over to his bed, and his arms pull you into his chest the moment you’re close enough.

A gesture that is just too much given the circumstances, and although the sweetest, it tips you over the edge.

You feel the tightness in your throat as his hands move to caress your back. Before you know it, your chest is rattled with a sob. You felt so dramatic but you needed to let it out.

He waited no time to wrap you straight into his tightest hug, trailing his hands up to your the back of your neck, stroking the skin there with his thumb.

“Darling.” He whispered, concerned of what had happened, but not wanting to push you to tell him. Just letting you cry.

Eventually it wracked out of you,

“We’re— we’re going back into stage four restrictions.” Your reasoning came out with a shaky voice.

You felt his intake of breath once you’d said it, and it got held in his chest for a few seconds before getting let go all at once.

“Fuck.” He cursed out defeatedly.

You sit in silence, but not once does his grasp on you loosen.

“I just want to see my family outside of a fucking FaceTime.” You whisper.

“I do too…” he closes his eyes, “I wish there was something I could do to make it better, y/n. I’m sorry.”

He grabs your hand, amending what he said before.

“I know this is shit, but we’ll get through it. We get through everything together.” He smiles, it doesn’t quite crinkle the corners of his eyes like it usually does, but it’s an attempt at the least.

“I’m so sick of feeling so alone, Harry. I’m glad i have you here, but it’s so lonely at the same time with just us.” You say quietly, hoping not to offend him.

He nods against your head, which is tucked into his shoulder, letting you vent without interruption.

“We can’t do anything. We can’t see anyone. I havent felt another persons touch outside of yours in weeks.”

He doesn’t get offended, he understands exactly where you’re coming from and you’re so grateful for that.

He just plays with your hair as you talk.

“Same here, baby.”

“I don’t mean it in a rude way, you’re very affectionate given our circumstances, but I just…”

Your sentences falls off short, and you shrug. You missed romantic touch too.

“Y’miss being touched.” He enunciates the word in a more suggestive way.

You nod, “not to sound… gross or anything. But I do miss being touched, and held, and kissed.”

He pulls you in a little closer as you speak, almost without realising he was doing it. Absentmindedly ready to do any thing to make you feel a bit better. A bit more connected.

“It’s not gross. It’s normal.” He frowns, “We have gone months without seeing our own family. I can only guess neither of us have had anything romantic going for us. Nothing wrong with missing that.”

“It seems kind of— i don’t know— weird to miss in comparison to the other things.”

“Y/n, tell me you’re not feeling guilty for missing getting kissed. Or laid.”

“I’m…” you sigh as you realise you can’t even pretend you’re not, and he rolls his eyes lightly.

“Jesus.” He let’s out a breathy laugh.

“It’s not just that, atleast, that I miss.” You shake your head, still feeling a little embarrassed.

“I miss the connection. The feeling of it.”

His facial expressions quickly get more serious as you talk. All of the words coming from your mouth can be interpreted in varying ways, but his mind can’t help but veer towards the more sexual aspect of it. Especially since you didn’t deny you missed getting laid.

“I get it. I miss having the opportunity to want someone.” He nods again, watching your reaction to what he says like a hawk.

You look away, almost shy, “To really want it.”

“Yea…” he glances at your lips without realising he’s doing it, and the feeling you’re both discussing at this very moment is welling in the pit of his stomach.

His hands reach out to wipe away the damp glaze on your cheeks from your tears.

“I’m proud of you.” He sighs.

“What— Why?”

“Because. You may think you’re not, but you’re doing so well.” He looks utterly sincere as he says it.

“Harry…” you shake your head as his name slips past your tongue, and you bury your face further into the crook of his neck, breathing in his scent, lips accidentally brushing the base of his neck.

This has him tingling, your soft mouth so close to his pulse point, he wonders if you can feel it racing.

“Y/n.” He squeezes your hip, “If you want me to kiss you, just know all you have to do is say the words.”

He swallows as you still, processing the offer he’s just put on the table.

“But—“

“I miss it too. The really wanting it.” He caresses the soft skin of your waist with the hand that’s now slid underneath your shirt.

You go quiet, suddenly the air so thick with tension you couldn’t breathe.

“If you want anything from me, I’ll give it to you.” He whispers, so softly. Like he wants you to hear him, but also not at the same time.

You’re not sure how to even react.

You’re horny. Emotional. And frankly a little bit too infatuated with his lips to breach into the territory of being able to touch them with your own.

“Harry.” You repeat, sounding unsure.

“Baby, if you wanted it, I would do it.”

He scratches his fingers down your spine, noting the absence of a bra strap.

You shudder at the sensation. Realising no one has made you feel like this in so long.

“Very sudden.” You blurt, trying not to push forward with you hips whatsoever, despite the ache that’s quickly conjured between your legs.

You fear that if you feel him, all sense of rationality will be gone.

“I know.” He says, lips dragging down your temple.

“M’beginning to realise, y/n, that i would do just about anything to keep you happy.”

Your heart pangs and you indulge a little, hands coming up to weave through his hair and pull on it gently.

And he groans, sounding so pretty.

“You deserve this too.” You carefully say. You’re not even sure where the line is between the two of you. But you continue talking anyway,

“Always so sweet… so giving. Who would I be to not make you feel loved on too.”

“Christ.” He whispers as you tug on his brown curls again, which slide against your fingers like silk.

“How far is this gonna go, H.” You ask, needing clarification before you go insane.

“Far as you want it.”

“I need specifications.” Your hands come to his cheeks, “I don’t want to be making any assumptions here.”

“Angel, If you asked me for my mouth on your pussy, I would give it. Want my cock? It’s yours. Use me, touch me, anything you want you already have.”

You feel yourself melt at the words.

You cave, leaning forward and capture his perfect lips, feeling their shape slot against yours like an art piece.

His lips feel heavenly, and you nearly black out at the sensation that overtakes your body.

“Fuck, that feels so good love.” Harry says against your mouth, his tongue jutting out to swipe over your bottom lip.

You hum in the back of your throat, and he tugs your hips so you’re properly seated into his lap.

You can’t miss his erection underneath your core. His clothed length is pressing into you and a moan slips out of you before you can even stop it.

“Need it. Please.” You start to beg, no matter how desperate it comes across.

His hand comes to your waistband, “you’re sure you want me to touch you?”

“Yes, yes.”

It dips underneath the fabric, finding you without underwear and almost dripping you were that wet.

The thing is, going so long with just your hand and a vibrator, the second any kind of prospect of getting dicked down is there— you’re immediately slick with arousal.

“Jesus fuck, y/n.” He drags his middle finger through your cunt, feeling the wetness along his finger tip. “You’re soaked.”

“Harry— oh my god—“ he slid it back down, teasing your entrance with his fingertip.

“Been that long huh. Just the thought of it works you up this much?” He chuckles.

Your hands fly to the collar of his shirt, tugging at the soft material, gripping it in your fists.

You hum in agreement. “More, please.”

“Mm, so glad you’re letting me do this.”

He pushes in further, and just his one long finger is touching places that has you clenching around him.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Praise is spilling from your lips as he curls his digit in you.

You slouch into his strong frame, hand slipping down between the two of you, palming over his erection.

He peppers your neck in open mouthed kisses, moaning at the feeling of you squeezing his clothed cock.

“Can I— fuck— get you out.” You ask, reaching to dip under his sweatpants.

“Yes. Don’t even have t’ask, pretty.”

You flush, hand moving underneath his waistband, finding him also without underwear.

Relief flooded you as you got your hands on the smooth skin of his cock.

He moaned at the contact, “Shittt. That feels amazing. S’much better than my own hand…”

He slides another finger into as you begin stroking along his length.

You both begin to move in sync with one another, the sound of your pleasure beginning to echo around the room.

“Can hear how wet you are.” Harry grunts, fingers curling inside you.

Your hand squeezes around his cock as he does that, causing you both to moan.

“Harry. I need you inside me… please.” His fingers were already close enough to making you come and you weren’t sure how he’d react if you came before he even got close to being in you.

“Can I make you come first? Want you to feel good, baby. If you can handle more than one orgasm, please?”

He wants you to feel good.

Before himself.

You realise this man in genuinely a saint. Like more than you ever could have imagined.

“Seriously?” You still don’t even believe he means it. Maybe he’s just saying it to be nice, and actually wants you to say no?

“What do you mean?” He looks a little confused, slowing down the kisses he was placing along your neck.

“I— sorry. I’m just not used to being so… looked after, I guess?”

“Have other guys not made you come first…?” He looks shocked.

“No… not usually? Occasionally, if I’m really horny and it wouldn’t take long.”

“I know there’s some scumbags out there, but with a pussy like yours… they should be begging to please you.” He shakes his head, not finished talking.

“For the record, lovie, if you weren’t so adamant in getting filled with my cock, I’d be making you come atleast twice before I fuck you.”

He pulls his hand entirely away from your cunt, allowing you to feel his absence as he talks. “Then I’d edge you with my fingers to the brink of your third. Until you’re begging me to stretch you out.”

He delivers a gentle slap over the hood of your clit once he’s done talking. Sliding his middle and pointer finger back down into your entrance to gather the arousal there, and slip it up to your clit.

“Oh.” You breathed out. A whiney noise following from your throat shortly after.

You were surprised. Not because it was Harry, if anyone would be like this it would be him. But you’re used to being a second thought sometimes. Just an aid to an end goal.

You’d become accustomed to it. Now there’s a man in front of you, who wants to please you because it seems to make him happy.

He reaffirms that thought, “I don’t think you’re aware how happy I’m gonna feel when your cunt is pulsating around my fingers in a few minutes.”

With saying that, he pinches and rolls your clit between his fingers and you struggle to find words to respond to what he said.

“Fuck— I— thank you.” You’re shaking a little as he increases the speed as he works over your clit.

“Nono. Thank you. You’re so nice under my fingers. So wet and warm.” He hums as you begin to squirm against his touch.

Your hand movements around his hard cock have gone to a lax and languid stroke, and almost stop all together when he dives his fingers back into your hole.

“Mhm— Harry!” You gasp, quickly starting to lose all your sense of self as he plays with you.

“That’s it, Y/n. Let me take care of you.”

He works you expertly, and your cunt is so unprepared for the attention from someone other than yourself. Its making it hard to hold yourself together.

You’re clenching around his fingers, and the tension in your stomach is quickly building.

“I’m gonna… fuck I’m gonna come soon, H.” You moan, followed by another curse of his name as he flicks your clit with his thumb.

Your pushing your hips against his hand, grinding into every movement. Chasing that explosion of pleasure in your abdomen.

“Wanna feel it. Come on, let it all go f’me.” He coos, keeping a hard and fast pace with his hand.

You cry out his name, nails scraping down his skin as you beg for the final push, which comes quickly.

A curl of his thrusting fingers and your movement lapses immediately, jaw going slack as you come around his hand.

It’s better than he could ever imagine, the noises coming from your lips are sinful, and you lean forward, open mouth panting over his cheek.

Hot breath fanning across his face while you’re still clenching around him.

He moves to bite your bottom lip, earning a jerk of your hips and another moan from you.

After your heart rate slows, he gently removes his fingers out of you.

“Good girl. Took it so well.” He pecks your nose with his lips.

“Can take your cock better.” You let out a breathy laugh.

He smiles, dimples popping out.

“Little minx. C’mere.”

He draws you into a hug, pulling your middle flush to his chest.

“D’ya need a minute, or no?” He asks gently, voice close to you ear.

“No, I’m ok, I’m good.” You blush.

“S’it too much to ask to take your shirt off?” His hand pulls at the hem of your tshirt.

“Can yours come off too?” You chuckle, leaning back to settle your eyes on the long sleeve covering his chest.

He nods, still smiling as he lets you take his off first. Revealing his toned chest and inked skin.

You run your hands along the ridges of his abs as he reaches for to pull off your own shirt.

Lifting your arms, you hear his little intake of breath as he remembers you don’t have a bra on.

The shirt gets tossed elsewhere as he is focused solely on your chest.

He looks transfixed as he trails a hand up to ghost over the skin on the side of your breast.

“Fuckin’ hell. Look at you, Angel. Got the prettiest tits.” He says it with such endearment.

You squirm with pleasure as he cups you in his hand, bringing your nipple to his mouth. His hot, velvety tongue slicking over the sensitive skin there.

Your back arches immediately, a moan sounding from you.

“Fuckkk…” you drawl out, letting him suck it into his mouth.

The sensation is enough to have you a mess in his hands again. The way he works his mouth over you like it’s nothing.

You take his cock back into your grip— having momentarily let go during the haze of your orgasm— and run the head of him through your folds.

His mouth falls open around you, moaning, letting his breath fan over your sensitive nipple.

“Jesus Christ, Y/n.” He groans against you.

“So hard…” you whisper, rubbing his tip over your clit.

He lifts his head away from your chest, glancing down to see the connection between the two of you.

And he moves a hand down, lacing it over the top of yours.

You felt so connected with him. Just with his hand now over yours, and his length pressed into your clit.

You can’t even imagine the state you’ll be put in when he’s inside of you.

“Harry… need you.” You plead again, without care of if he’s sick of hearing it.

You need him. Need him so bad it’s consuming you. All you can think about is him. Not even in the sense that all you want his cock.

You just need to feel like you’re close as you possible can be to him.

“I know baby, I know.” He kisses your cheek, “Y’want me to use a condom?”

“Only if you want to. I’m clean and still on the pill.”

“I trust you. If that’s what you want.” He reaffirms with you.

“H, I have to feel you. Just need to be close to you.” You lean into his neck, kissing the skin there.

“And s’this position comfortable for you?”

“Yes, yes. I’ll take you anyway, any position. Whether you want me on top, under you, bent over… don’t care. Just want you.”

“God, you’re such a good girl. So amazing f’me.”

You let him guide your hand to the base of his length. And then slowly, with his hand interlocked over yours, drag his tip to your entrance.

Your already letting out whines, free arm coming to lace into the hair at the nape of his neck.

You lower your hips down on him, feeling the head of his cock slip up into you.

You both let out a moan at the sensation, whispers of each others names falling from your lips. Gently you keep sliding him in further, soaking in every second you feel him stretch you out.

This was what you missed. The feeling of connecting with someone. Not necessarily with just the sex. But feeling intertwined. Like you couldn’t tell where your body ended and his begun.

“You’re better than I could’ve dreamed, lovely.” He praised, earning a clench of your cunt. One he wasn’t expecting, that had him moaning into the shell of your ear.

He sounded perfect. Like an Angel. And you melted further into him at the sound.

“This is perfect, Harry. Needed it so bad.” You stroked his hair as you spoke.

He removed his hand from over yours, coming to rest both of them on your hips, guiding you down further.

Once you moved your own, you could let him slide you all the way. Your clit brushing over his pubic bone once you reached the base.

“Clenching ‘round me like that—“ he hisses, “gon’ make me come too fast, darling.”

“Let me feel you for a second.” He holds you in place, letting you sit still over his thick cock.

“So wet, so warm. Made to fit my cock, hm?” He squeezes the skin of your waist.

He bucks his pelvis up to you after you moan out an agreement, “Made just for you, Harry.”

And he’s starting to thrust slowly in and out, guiding your hips through the movements.

“Lay on me.” He rearranges himself so you can lay your chest onto his, and rest your head next to his cheek.

Your breasts press up against him, and clit is now being stimulated even more by his front.

“Need you close to me.” He whispers, and you start to bounce onto his cock gently. Bum slapping on the strength of his thighs.

“Me too, H. Have to feel every part of you.” You moaned, circling yourself on him. Each rotation hitting your clit, causing you to moan.

He also is in shock at the sensation of being inside of you. It almost like a surprise to his entire nervous system.

He draws his fern-adorning hips back, only to snap them back upwards. Skin slapping at the movement.

Not to mention the sound of your wetness gliding along his cock each time you got thrusted into, which was echoing through the room.

“Listen to how wet you are. All for me.” He groans, picking up the pace.

Your lips find a spot to suck below his ear as he talks, nipping at the skin.

“I’m so… you make me so wet.” You agree, pussy pulsating around his bare cock.

“Love it. Don’t you? Us using each other like this.”

He says it, knowing the dirty talk in turning you on even more. But you both know it goes beyond getting a quick fuck.

This is everything to you both. Feeling like, for the first time in so long, you are truly not alone.

“Want you to use me, Harry.” You roll your cunt, pushing your clit onto any part of him it reaches, still clenching at the contact.

“Dirty Girl. So fucking desperate.” He laughs, kissing your hair.

“Who would I be to talk, though.” He grabs at your ass, “I’d beg you for this everyday. This sweet cunt around me. For you to touch me. Anything.”

He admits it with a moan following after it, your pussy fluttering.

You feel it building it inside the pit of your stomach.

“Want you to fill me up.” You state, panting as your thighs start to shake, and you realise in a few minutes your going to come. And hard.

“With my come, huh? Want me to put it deep inside y’baby?” He asks you, hips bucking excitedly at the prospect.

“Yes! Fill me with your warm come, Harry.” You’re starting to go delusional.

Filthy fucking words flying from your mouth as your arousal overtakes every rational part of your brain.

“Shit—“ He is pressing you flush to his body, holding you as close as he possibly can. The pace of his cock slapping into you increasing by the second.

“I wanna see it drip out of you, Y/N.” He groans, fucking into you hard and fast.

You feel amazing, your heart racing in your chest, and your whole body vibrating. You’re being stimulated in so many places. Your nipples pressed up to his toned chest, clit being rubbed by his pubic bone, god— and his cock fucking you.

“Thankyouthankyou—“ your mind is quickly turning to a mess with him swallowing you up like this.

You feel your orgasm approaching with a tension in the pit of your stomach. It’s quickly becoming the only sensation you can feel outside of the harsh thrusts Harry is giving you.

“Good little slut.” He grabs your face, lust taking over the both of you like you’re teenagers.

His pace doesn’t let up, and he stares at you with half lidded eyes.

“Spit in my mouth.” You beg, not even sure where the fucking thought was from before it came out of your lips.

“God… fuck— open your mouth.” He grunts, tilting his head to angle his lips to yours.

You open it, sticking your tongue out a little past your bottom lip, ready to catch anything that would drip given the fact you’re still on top of him.

He purses his lips, gathering up his saliva and dropping it down onto your tongue.

It was fucking feral, and you loved every second of it.

It tasted of him, and you swallowed it without even being asked.

Just watching that happen had him fucking you like it was his sole purpose in life. His thrusts became despeate for you.

You shook with anticipation, “I’m— I’m gonna come!”

“Yes… fuck yes. Come on, baby, finish all over my cock.”

His words were your breaking point, your cunt clenching so hard around him that he groaned aloud.

“Fuckfuckfuck— make me come, Y/N.” before he started to pulsate in you, putting his load deep into your pussy.

Having it happen almost all at once prolonged your orgasm, making you continue to moan and writhe in his grip for what felt like forever. Squeezing him until he had nothing left to give you.

Once you slowly both regained your awarenesses, you stayed on top of him. Sweaty and sticky, but you stayed close as possible to him.

You couldn’t fathom that just happened.

“Harry…” you whispered, and he hummed to the quiet chant of his name.

“Thank you. Thank you so much.”

“Stop thanking me baby. You did just as much for me.” He smiles into your cheek.

He brought his arms up to cage you to his chest, “and it’s so nice to be holding you.”

You move to kiss his lips, gently sucking his bottom one into your mouth. Lulling your tongue over it, letting it go with a pop.

“I haven’t felt this present in… in months.” You say quietly.

“Neither have I. Y’make me feel safe. Which might sound odd, but s’true.” He glances at you, watching you smile at his words.

“Im so glad we did that.” You make sure he knows you don’t have a single regret in following through with everything.

“Once we’re showered, gonna have a serious conversation about the fact you asked me to spit in your mouth.” He chuckles.

You flushed, not sure whether to be embarrassed about it or not.

“Got a little uhm.. carried away.” You tried to justify.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” he laughs, indicating he was just teasing, “thought it was so hot. Just never would have expected it.”

“I wanna know what else you’re into, yknow.” He licks his lips.

“What other dirty little secrets your hiding up in that head of yours.”

You shake your head, “shut up.”

“M’serious. We’ve got a lot of time to kill.” He’s still chuckling, hand coming to stroke through your hair.

“And I loved that. Loved feeling you so close. You’re a dream.” He pecks your cheek again.

“Make me some of your good cooking and I’ll think about it.” You joke.

“But really…” you pause, “thank you too, H. That meant everything to me.”

He didn’t reply with words, they wouldn’t be enough, so he just kissed you. Kissed you with every ounce of his being.

———

[nataliawrites]

TikTok on the Clock // Daniel Ricciardo

One of the best things to come out of the pandemic lockdown was finally giving in to the urge to download TikTok. You had quickly grown addicted to scrolling through the mix of eclectic videos that popped up on your “for you page” and soon enough decided to start posting some yourself.

It did not take long for Formula 1 fans to make the connection between your account and who your boyfriend is — Daniel Ricciardo was many things but subtle was not one of them and he had a tendency to “accidentally” interrupt you while you filmed.

You kept the account going long after restrictions eased and hopped on many of the trends that made their rounds on the app. This year, you were feeling slightly evil. You have been putting together a compilation of hilarious (if you did say so yourself) pranks that you pulled on your boyfriend since the season began and were just about to hit upload as the countdown began.

You put down your phone and turn to give Daniel your full attention.

Ten

Nine

Eight

Seven

Six

Five

Four

Three

Two

One

His lips taste like champagne.

Happy New Year!

“Hey Dan?”

“Mmh.”

“Maybe stay off TikTok for a bit.”

“What did you do?”

One

You loved the Australian Grand Prix. Your boyfriend’s home race was a spectacle on the track and a great opportunity to spend time with his family off the track.

As usual, you flew out to Perth a bit early before switching coasts for the race. You were busy in the kitchen, putting the finishing touches on dinner as you prepared to host everyone that evening. When everything was mostly done, you started recording on your phone and leaned it against the wall inconspicuously before calling for your boyfriend.

“Hey, babe?” You pour a heaping pile of salt on a spoon.

“Yeah?” You can hear Daniel from across the house.

“Can you come taste my sauce?” You dunk the spoon in a pot of your tomato sauce and pick up just enough to hide the salt.

He basically runs to the kitchen, “test taster reporting for duty.”

You bring the spoon to his mouth, “I used your nonna’s recipe.”

His eyes screw shut and his mouth puckers, “my-my nonna’s recipe?”

“Your mom shared it with me. Isn’t it delicious?”

“Yeah,” his voice cracks. “Delicious.”

You look at his face again and fight a losing battle not to laugh as he desperately tries not to offend you and his grandma.

You reach towards your phone as giggles escape you.

Daniel finally realizes he’s been tricked, “are you serious?”

You point the camera towards your boyfriend, “you should’ve seen your face.”

“You’re so mean to me,” he pouts.

Two

“Babe?” You questioned coming through the front door. You had spent the day loading up on groceries and stopping by a few boutiques that caught your eye. This was the perfect opportunity to finally pull one over on your boyfriend.

“I’m in here,” you drop your bags in the foyer and follow Daniel’s voice to where he’s lying on the living room sectional.

Your phone is stuck in your bra, the camera just peaking over your shirt. “My car told me I needed windshield wiper fluid while I was out.”

He lowers his phone but keeps his focus on it.

“So I pulled into a gas station and the guy working there gave me a really good deal. He told me I got it for 50 percent off and it was only $150 for me because of how sweet I was.”

Daniel’s head snaps up as he drops his phone.

“$150?”

“Yeah.”

“You paid $150?”

“Yeah …”

“For windshield wiper fluid?”

“Yeah? He told me it was a good deal!”

“Love,” you can’t tell if he wants to laugh or cry, “I could’ve done that for free. He ripped you off.”

“But it was 50 percent off?”

“It costs less than $5 to buy and then you just pour it in!” He gestures wildly, “this is my fault. How do I race for a living and literally collect cars without teaching my girlfriend how to change her own windshield wiper fluid?”

By this point you’re silently laughing which Daniel finally notices.

“Really? Really?” He turns around to face the back of the couch, “don’t talk to me.”

“Awww, baby. Don’t be mad at me,” you coo. “I think it’s cute how protective you got.”

“Still mad at you.” It’s hard to take him seriously with his face shoved into the leather couch, muffling his voice.

Three

You walk into the gym, your phone hidden in the pocket of your leggings, and take in the view of you shirtless boyfriend.

The fans will appreciate this one.

“Dan?”

He pauses his juggling on the stationary bike.

“My back’s really been bothering since I came back from my run. Do you think you can help me stretch it or something?”

He gets off the bike and walks toward you, “do you want me to call Michael? He won’t mind coming over to help with your back.”

“Don’t bother him. It’s nothing major,” you turn away from your boyfriend and quickly stick two pieces of pasta between your molars while he can’t see, “just need to loosen it up a bit.”

“Okay …” he spreads his palms across your back and applies some careful pressure. You bite down on the pasta, timing the crack with his movements.

“Oh my god.” You let your body go limp.

“Love? Are you okay?” He tries to hold you up but you collapse on the padded floor of the gym.

“Is it your back? What did I do? I knew we should’ve just called Michael. Oh my god.”

You take pity on your boyfriend, not wanting him to think that he actually broke your back for longer than a few seconds, “it was just pasta.”

“What?”

“The sound. It was just me biting pasta. It’s a prank trend.”

He lets go of your body and you fully drop to the floor.

“Are.” He pelts you with one of the balls he was juggling.

“You.” And another.

“Kidding.” And another.

“Me?” And another.

You run out of the gym laughing as he continues to chase you through the house, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry!”

“I thought I broke your back!”

[humbledragon669]

Lockdown Episode Write Up P2 – dialogue

Introduction

I don’t think there’s much linking the dialogue with the images (apart from the cake sequence), so I’ve broken this write-up down into tableaus and dialogue, because there are just as many Easter eggs (maybe more) to be had from the tableaus as there are from the script. This part of the write-up will address just the dialogue, with the tableaus addressed in a separate write-up. Right, housekeeping done, let’s get stuck in shall we?

Dialogue

So Crowley picks up on the second ring, sounding very irritated. Considering he’s about to tell Aziraphale how bored he is, you’d think he might actually be relieved about the prospect of somebody calling him. And poor Aziraphale; the brusque greeting clearly puts him off, presumably because he was hoping for a more enthusiastic response, particularly given that Crowley openly tells the angel he knows that it was him calling in the first place.

AZIRAPHALE: Uh… Hello. It’s me! CROWLEY: I know it’s you, Aziraphale.

My thoughts about this exchange? I strongly suspect Aziraphale is the only one that ever calls Crowley. Not only that, I think he’s probably calling the demon multiple times a day at this point. I mean, think about it – neither of them work for their respective agencies anymore. For the first time in 6000 years they can be open about their friendship, no more hiding. And for the first time in those 6000 years something other than Heaven or Hell is making it impossible for them to see each other. I know, they really could have formed a “bubble”, or just ignored the rules completely, given their otherworldly status, but they didn’t because don’t forget – this is a PSA film at heart. Everybody had to STAY AT HOME. Besides, it makes it so much more angsty if they can’t be within physical proximity to one another during this time.

AZIRAPHALE: Just calling to see how you were doing in Lockdown.

Aziraphale actually says makes it sound like this is either the first time the angel has spoken to Crowley during Lockdown (which had been going on for almost two months by the time this minisode was released), or that they don’t speak very often. Personally, I don’t buy this, not least because the demon openly says he’s incredibly bored. And what does Crowley like to do best when he’s bored? Hang out with Aziraphale. Be his personal nuisance.

CROWLEY: I’ve decided that if I can’t think of anything to do within the next two days, I’m going to have a nap and I’ll set the alarm clock for June.

I *think* this is the first time we have confirmation that he does sleep, at least as far as the show is concerned (I’m not counting cut/missing bits from the Script Book, or from the original book). There’s also proof here that he’s actually an optimist, despite his efforts to convince the world at large otherwise – he’s convinced that everything will be back to normal by June. Interestingly, the UK’s really strict national regulations had actually been eased by the time the minisode was released, allowing those who could not work from home to return to work (yeah, we didn’t really know what that meant either, considering those of us who were classed as key workers never stopped going to the workplace), but June was still a very optimistic estimate – whilst restrictions were eased as we went into July, local governments were given the authority to impose local lockdowns where necessary. And boy, did they.

AZIRAPHALE: Oughtn’t you to be out and about doing things?

It's interesting to hear Aziraphale actually encouraging Crowley to be more demon-like. And he doesn’t just encourage, he gives him very appropriate suggestions for things he could be doing to fulfil his demonly duties. To my mind, it suggests his preference for Crowley in a demonic state. Or it could be an opportunity to emphasise the STAY AT HOME message, seeing as (for once) Crowley seems keen to stick to the rules. Take your pick. I know which one I prefer. Either way, there are two pieces of information here that I find noteworthy – firstly, confirmation that Crowley can’t get sick because he’s a demon. I think it’s interesting what human weaknesses the angel and demon are susceptible to, and which not. Alcohol, for instance, albeit in larger quantities than a human could imbibe, has the same effect on their human bodies as it does to humans. Illness and disease on the other hand, it would seem not. Laudanum, as we see in series 2, has an entirely different effect on Crowley than it would do to an ordinary human, but Hastur informs us that ordinary fire would easily discorporate a demon. Makes me wonder if the effect that a Heavenly or Hellish being has on its hosting body is one to do with constitution – where the body has an increased resistance to toxic substances but is unaffected in its ability to deal with trauma.

The second piece of information in this little plea from Aziraphale is that he says Crowley still has a job to do. Which, given the outcome of season 1, he doesn’t. I don’t think it was made blatantly obvious that neither of them report to their respective agencies anymore, so perhaps this is just a slip of the pen, so to speak. It might have been a bit more difficult to slip in this blatant reminder to people that leaving home was a BAD thing to do and that staying at home was the GOOD thing to do otherwise, and this little speech is very clear about listing certain things that were being actively discouraged at the time.

CROWLEY: I could do that. I mean I could… but if I did then… well…people might follow my bad example and get ill. Or even die.

Crowley’s response is… less than enthusiastic. It’s funny to hear him say that people might follow his bad example – surely that’s exactly what he’s been contracted to do for thousands of years? But again, I am forgetting – the whole point of this piece of media is to remind them why we should all just STAY AT HOME. So, with that reminder, let’s look a little more about Crowley’s actual feelings on the subject, shall we?

CROWLEY: I know I ought to be making people’s lives even worse but everyone’s so miserable cooped up right now anyway I just… don’t have the heart for it.

And therein lies the problem for Crowley and his existence as a demon – he actually doesn’t like to make people miserable. He loves to cause mischief and make trouble, but not with the sole intention to bring misery into people’s lives. Ultimately, he’s just too soft at heart to be a very good demon, which David himself has described beautifully.

AZIRAPHALE: I’m not miserable. CROWLEY: Really?

I really love this little exchange. Crowley sounds genuinely shocked that Aziraphale is so certain in his proclamation that he’s not miserable. And it’s hardly surprising really – I strongly suspect the reason that Crowley is feeling so down in the dumps is because he’s not getting a regular fix of his angel, so it stands to reason that he would expect Aziraphale to feel the same way. He’s probably had a little bit of his heart broken to hear that his angel is seemingly coping without him so well. It’s a good thing we go on to hear that basically the reason why Aziraphale is so happy at this time is because he’s not getting any customers in with the threat of trying to buy one of his books, although the angel’s speech does present the writer with another opportunity to remind us of our obligations at the time – social distancing and STAYING AT HOME.

You have to be paying attention, but Crowley doesn’t seem too pleased with the idea that Aziraphale might have needed rescuing from some errant youths that he wasn’t able to help with; there’s a quiet groan from him when he hears the retelling of the story. I’d be lying if I said I didn’t think there was some sort of double entendre going on here with Aziraphale’s tease of there being “a few young lads” who “broke in through the back”, so that groan could actually be one of relief rather than frustration. What is interesting is that Crowley openly mocks the only potential rescue scenarios that Aziraphale would have had available to him – he’s obviously smarting that he didn’t get to be the white knight for once.

CROWLEY: Did you smite them with your wrath?

I’d be very interested to know if the script had been finished and handed to David and Michael at this time, because that particular line feels like a very obvious reference to the smited/smote/smitten exchange. And if the reference is a genuine one, my double entendre idea doesn’t seem so outrageous, given Crowley’s tone – could he be a little bit jealous?

What now follows is the only time that the images in the minisode link directly with the dialogue going on at the time, and they’re all to do with cake. Trigger warning, what follows is a lot of pictures of cake. If, like me, you are inclined to go out and buy cake as soon as you see a picture of one, I would suggest you look away now.

What I love about Crowley’s reception of the knowledge that Aziraphale sent the little vandals away with cake is that he uses the same expression that Anathema uses when she asks about the name of Newt’s car.

CROWLEY: I’m going to regret asking…

His tone shows just what he thinks of the angel’s method for rescuing himself. And if you consider Aziraphale’s tale to be a truthful account of what took place, it does seem odd - that somebody could just have a little chat with some wannabe robbers to change their minds, and then send them away with some excess cake. There is however a missing scene in the Script Book where several thugs enter the bookshop and start to make a mess in an attempt to get Aziraphale to sell the land the shop sits on. In a somewhat “miraculous” turn of events (see what I did there?), they change their mind, clear up the mess they made, and leave without a fuss. I suspect the same sort of turn of events occurred to the lads that turned up to steal the cash box.

AZIRAPHALE: It turns out I have a whole cookbook section here in the bookshop.

I love this idea, that the bookshop is so sprawling and diverse that even Aziraphale doesn’t know what it contains, despite the fact that he must have stocked it in the first place. And I love it because that’s the how every second-hand bookshop feels to me. I’ve spent my fair share of time in Hay-on-Wye and its multitude of bookshops, and I genuinely feel like I could get lost in some of them. There are another couple of lines from Aziraphale that suggests that he does not think it possible to eat anything unless it comes from an eatery.

AZIRAPHALE: Well all the restaurants and cafes are closed […] and I got peckish.

Because he couldn’t just go to the supermarket and buy some cake, could he? Like the rest of us were doing (and were allowed to do). He even goes on to say that he had to miracle the cherries in for one of his creations – quite why it was only the cherries he miracled in I don’t know, I mean he must have gotten the rest of the ingredients from somewhere. Which leads me on to another question – where is the kitchen in the bookshop? There must be some facilities somewhere, otherwise he couldn’t make all of those delightful looking goodies. He’s got to have a kettle or a stove for boiling water/milk at the very least for making his cocoa, so where is all that stuff?

Aziraphale then goes on to reel off a list of cakes that he’s made (another nod to the domestic activities that were going on up and down the country – for those not based in the UK, you might not know that during Lockdown it was virtually impossible to get hold of flour or eggs, largely owing to the huge increase in home baking people did), which includes angel’s food cake (you could argue that all of the cakes he makes is angel’s food cake, hahah. Hah. I’ll get my coat). I don’t know whether it’s interesting, whether it’s an oversight, or whether it’s deliberate, but there’s no devil’s food cake on the list that he gives. I’ve made and eaten devil’s food cake before. It’s awesome. I don’t think that he wouldn’t have made this particular recipe because of its lack of deliciousness. I actually wonder whether its absence is an indicator of Crowley’s eating preferences (and as a reminder, I’m someone who is of the mind that he doesn’t enjoy eating – more on this shortly).

 AZIRAPHALE: And then, once I’ve baked them, I have to eat them all myself.

This line makes me properly snort with laughter, because he simultaneously manages to make it sounds like eating all the cake is something he definitely doesn’t want to do whilst also expressing sorrow that he has no-one around to eat them in front of with. The idea that this angel would ever not want to eat food is laughable. Crowley takes the bait on the sub-text though, employing some his tried and tested temptation techniques to try to get what he wants.

CROWLEY: I could hunker down at your place. Slither over and watch you eat cake. I could bring a bottle of- a case of something… drinkable?

This is my favourite line of the whole thing. The throwaway reference to his serpent form is delightful, and who’s to say he wouldn’t transform for his trip over to Soho to avoid being stopped by humans? There’s  the idea that he would very much like to get drunk with Aziraphale again, and this time without an impending Armageddon to spoil the mood, and with the knowledge that he wouldn’t be going home at the end of their binge. But most of all there’s that line about the cake. He doesn’t say he can help Aziraphale eat the cake – he says he can come and watch the angel eat it. Which would not only go some way to confirming my suspicions that he doesn’t like to eat but would also help to cement the popular theory that watching Aziraphale eat is a pleasurable experience for him. The whole line is said with such longing too, it’s impossible not to hear it.

AZIRAPHALE: I’m afraid that would be breaking all the rules.

If you listen carefully to Aziraphale’s rejection of Crowley’s (quite frankly, adorable) suggestion, you can hear another little bit of the demon’s heart breaking with disappointment. I suppose he probably shouldn’t be surprised that his request of Aziraphale to go against protocol wouldn’t have gone down well and besides we were all supposed to STAY AT HOME, remember? What sort of a PSA film would this be if people just went around to other people’s houses for some flirting nookie company when there was a Lockdown in place?

AZIRAPHALE: I’ll see you when this is over.

So of course, Aziraphale says no thank you very much (quite a lot of Tory party members could have learned a lot from the angel’s morals, and none of them are half as likeable as he is), but how incredibly sad does he sound at the prospect of not knowing when he and Crowley will see each other again? Crowley might have quietly voiced his disappointment multiple times during the conversation, but Aziraphale’s own disappointment here is stated loud and clear.

Crowley’s upset can be heard again after this very final sounding line from his angel (and this time it breaks my own heart a little bit) but he rallies well, changing his planned nap end time to July, rather than June as declared earlier. It’s a pretty perfect way to get out of missing someone, isn’t it? Just go to sleep until you can see them again; I’m sure there are a lot of people that would definitely be on board with that approach. He doesn’t leave any further room for discussion either:

CROWLEY: Good night, angel.

It’s very definite – conversation over, nothing more to say. My thoughts are that he’s just too depressed to carry on talking on the phone to the one person he would much rather be spending time with in person, and now that he’s found a quick and painless solution to the problem (a nap), he just wants to get on with it. Charmingly though, this parting line sounds nothing like the dismissal it seems like it is when you see it written down. The delivery of this line conveys the familiarity and comfort that exists between the two of them, and actually makes it sound like this is a regular conversation that they have, despite the dialogue suggesting otherwise. As it turned out, July wasn’t really long enough to get completely clear of the restrictions that would see our heroes united freely, but who can blame him for being optimistic? And at least if he’s asleep, he’s definitely STAYING AT HOME.

Well I think that’s the lot for this write up. So much for this being such a short episode that it wouldn’t need a lot of time devoted to it. It was a fun little thing; in truth I think it serves more as a PSA that as an additional source of storyline/character development but that hasn’t dampened my enjoyment of it. Time to move on to season 2 now (which I am both excited and a little bit nervous about – there is so much to say!), so for the meantime, questions, comments, discussion: always welcome 😊

[masonhawth0rne]

Buy it here!

Lockdown. 2020. Hector was alone in his one-room flat, keeping himself occupied by studying a number of ancient occult texts. He discovered a secret that allowed him to escape into other worlds, to travel through vast deserts and to view alien stars. Hector was still alone out among the fungal groves and eternal twilights, but there is so much to see—and there’s something else, something that’s just on the tip of his tongue, like a tune that he can just about, almost remember… When restrictions ease, Hector is able to share this secret with his friends, who are at first awed, and then horrified by the things Hector has seen. The things he has done. But that’s nothing compared to what he will do next…

Earworm is a 10k standalone novelette.

Buy it here!

[lost-decade]

A little ficlet because it's a sunny afternoon in the garden and I felt like writing a thing.

Lewis/Nico

Lockdown

~

Nico is thinking of Ibiza. Delicious breezes dancing through the twisty cobbled streets behind the port, whitewashed houses freshly painted for the season. The soft thwack of Vivi’s flipflops against the polished stone as she walks beside him. Their villa, large and airy with steps that wind down straight to the sea. There are nights, there, nights when he reads the girls a story after dinner and tucks them up in bed, kissing their foreheads before saying goodbye to Vivian. Those nights, she smiles and tells him to have fun, presses a condom into his hand and sends him out into the dusk, into the clubs that line the Calle del Virgen and all the delights within.

He wishes they'd gone there before all this. The plan is to do so, at the first opportunity when the restrictions ease up.

“Elevens are easy,” he tells Naila, blinking the thought away and turning his focus back to the iPad, the maths homework. “look, you just - “

She holds up her hands, demonstrating that she's only got ten fingers. “You just change the numbers as you go up. So two elevens are twenty-two, then thirty-three. Then forty-four.”

He pauses, looks up at the ceiling as if he can see through it. Wishes he could. He thinks about the tattooed number, just behind Lewis’ ear. Remembers how it tastes.

*

“You're not supposed to be here,” Lewis says. It's warm and Nico wants to go outside, wants to walk along the coast to Roquebrune. Or get his dick in Lewis’ arse. He thinks he might actually go insane soon.

“There's only so much home schooling I can do before I lose my mind. And I thought you might be, you know.” He tilts his head, resting it against the door frame. It's hot for April and he's got the linens out, draped himself in a pale blue shirt, unbuttoned almost to the navel. “Lonely.”

“Well you thought wrong.”

“And here I thought I was doing a nice thing, checking on my neighbour, making sure you have enough groceries. Going to invite me in?”

Lewis rolls his eyes but Nico has had a lifetime of reading him. “It's that or get you arrested for being within too many metres.”

“Might be preferable to staying at home and not going anywhere for weeks.”

“And here I thought that was why you retired, so you could be at home and play house husband,” Lewis says. He steps back anyway, allowing Nico to follow him in. He looks like he's been napping, wearing thin sweatpants low on his hips and a black tee that shows off his abs. Nico's mouth waters.

He refrains from saying I retired to get away from you. It wouldn't quite be true but it would piss Lewis off enough that he might just throw Nico out.

“Seriously though, how are you doing?”

“Working on some music mostly.” Lewis takes a jug of ice water from the fridge, pouring a glass for Nico. He sips it slowly, wondering how much small talk he can take and whether it's necessary, if Lewis will fall into the palm of his hand or if he has to work for it. “Wouldn't be your sort of thing,” Lewis continues, even though Nico wasn't going to ask to hear it anyway.

“Probably not,” he shrugs, stepping across the kitchen, into Lewis’ personal space.

He holds himself firm, Lewis, tension in his stance. “You’re only here because it's convenient, because you can't go out and pick up some twink in a back room.”

That's only part of it. Lockdown has made him think about Lewis, twenty-four seven. They're never home at the same time normally. For the last three weeks Nico has timed his morning runs to match up with Lewis’, watched him from a distance, the way his body cuts through the air with the precision of a machine.

“Do you often think about me with other men?” Nico asks, amusement in his tone. His breath ghosts Lewis’ jaw.

“I don't think about you at all.” Lewis shuts his eyes, lips parted as if he can suck the lie back in, but there's no resistance as Nico's fingers slide down the back of his sweatpants, brushing over his hole as he kisses him.

[dansnaturepictures]

White Storks at Knepp 29/06/2024

It seems like yesterday that in 2020 lockdown restrictions had eased just enough to allow us to do our annual Knepp trip in late June, and alongside Purple Emperors and other butterflies we were mesmerised by the sight of the first wild White Stork chicks to be reared in Britain for hundreds of years. In the four years since the storks have gone from strength to strength at this site where they were re-introduced with more wild nests and we have had some amazing times watching them.

Yesterday once more I was overjoyed and captivated seeing birds in the nests, hearing their clacking sounds and observing their gigantic figures positively looming in the summer sky above. A sight that almost transports me by association to foreign lands, yet one that should and in times gone by did occur in my homeland. This bird has become a perfect emblem of Knepp's admirable quest for restoration which makes the whole country that little bit richer in nature, a truly inspiring and hopeful vision.

[reganmian]

weekly tag wednesday

on time for another one helloo?? thank you @lingy910y and @burninface for the tag :)

When is yours? 523

Where were you born? toronto

How do you feel about your legal name? Are you using it online and/or IRL? i like it bc it’s unique enough in terms of white-sounding names so like yay assimilation i guess.. lmao

How about your sign? Do you feel it “fits”? i think gemini does fit bc they’re known to be witty, funny, creative? and i like to believe i am those things :3 unfortunately i am also overcommitted to a million different things (i brought it upon myself). i think my rising (pisces) doesn’t fit as much tho bc ppl usually perceive me as an earth sign

What’s your earliest memory related to your birthday? wearing a pretty dress, a little tiara and the birthday girl ribbon when i was like 4. and then eating one of those chinese bakery fruit/cream cakes with spherical melon chunks and red icing with my family

What’s one of the best gifts you’ve ever received? during the pandemic when lockdown restrictions had eased a bit, my friends surprised me at my house with a homemade cake. i think the fact that it was so unexpected and they had gone out of their way (i lived a few towns over) to celebrate my bday made it rly special

How about one of the best you’ve given yourself? i recently bought myself a perfume that’s been on my wishlist for a while with my big girl money :)

What’s your favourite cake flavour? mango. as cheesecake or mousse or fresh mango just layered on top of a sponge cake omg

How about your favourite flowers? jasmine probably bc they smell so nice <3

Have your ever thrown a birthday party? If yes, tell us about your favourite one. i have when i was younger.. we went to an indoor trampoline place which was honestly rly fun

What’s the ultimate birthday song? birthday bitch by trap beckham every summertime by niki for the “every year we get older, and i’m still on your side” line :’)

And last but not least, pick a celebrity with whom you share your birthday. steve lacy :0

quite late in the evening for me so i’m not tagging anyone sorry ☹️☹️ but pls feel free to play if u see it!

[random-iz-stuff]

I was wondering. Have you ever done a post regarding how competent Dib can be? Like, how far can he go to get what he wants and his abilities for example? If not, what's your stance on it?

Dib is competent, as long as he’s in the right situation.

And I firmly stand by my headcanon that if any irken besides Zim or Tak tried to invade the earth, Dib could stop them with relative ease.

Just look at The Nightmare Begins.

Zim’s subpar disguise isn’t unique to him. All Irken Invaders use these same low-quality-but-somehow-still-working disguises, with maybe one or two exceptions for very high priority missions. Tak is the only Irken in existence with a holographic disguise, and that’s because they were the one that invented it.

Point is, any Irken invading Earth would have worn a disguise like Zim’s, and what can Dib do?

He can see right through it.

Also, almost immediately after Dib starts rambling about Zim being an alien, he pulls out this:

A self destruct switch. Because if that had happened on any other planet, the entire mission would have been immediately declared a failure, with the Irken self destructing to prevent the rest of OID2 from being affected by one failure. The only reason that Zim doesn’t press the button there and then is because another one of Dib’s classmates calls Dib out for being crazy.

But then, immediately after that, THIS happens:

Dib almost manages to convince the entire class. And he would have succeeded if not for Zim thinking on his feet and making Dib seem crazier.

But the thing is, Zim’s creativity and ability to think on his feet is pretty much unique to him….

…because Zim is defective.

Irkens struggle with thinking outside of the box. That’s why Invading is considered such a hard and respectable job. Invading often requires fast, outside of the box thinking to avoid detection, and Irkens with their efficiency and perfection prioritizing mindset and thought restricting PAKs seriously struggle with doing that. Zim is extremely defective, so he has way more creativity and imagination than the average irken, along with a willingness to go against his traditional military training that non-defectives lack.

If any other Irken was placed in that scenario, they would have declared the mission to be a failure and self destructed on the spot because their just failed in their own eyes. A native lifeform knows their identity and is convincing others. The mission is a failure.

Even Skoodge, the Empire’s most effective Invader, would have seriously struggled there. Even though Skoodge is defective, he isn’t even close to the level of defection that Zim has, and would have struggled to figure out what to do in that situation.

So if any Irken besides Zim (and Tak, since she has a holographic disguise that can actually fool Dib) tried to invade Earth, Dib would have stopped the invasion before it could even really start.

There’s also the fact that Dib managed to hook Tak’s ship up to a computer and used it like an irken version of google.

He even made it translate Irken to English.

Even though Dib was only able to use it once (Zim waking up the Ship’s AI permanently broke whatever Dib was using to connect the ship to his computer and put the whole thing in lockdown, making Tak’s ship permanently unable to connect to the Irken database unless Tak herself comes back to reconnect it), HE STILL DID IT. He hacked an alien ship and was (albeit briefly) able to translate Irken to English.

Point is, Dib is smart. Very smart.

He also shows almost supernatural feats of strength, durability and stamina throughout the show, most likely a product of him being a genetically engineered clone of his father.

Going up against an Irken physically, Dib is screwed. He may have superhuman strength and durability, but he’s still a twelve year old going against a trained soldier, with the balance being swayed even further from Dib’s favour by the fact that Earth has about half the gravity of Irk, meaning that Irkens are twice as strong on Earth than they are on Irk. Zim goes easy on him because he views Dib as a worthy opponent, but against any other Irken, Dib goes down very quickly.

But mentally? Dib is a very hard opponent to beat. Because although an Irken could easily beat Dib in a fight, preventing him from exposing them is a whole different story.

Any other Irken would have brushed Dib aside like he isn’t a threat because he’s “a child belonging to an inferior race”, and that’s their first and last mistake.

Dib IS capable of sneaking around and he IS capable of gathering evidence, and if he ever does get evidence, you can’t tell me that the son of Earth’s greatest scientific mind finding evidence of extraterrestrial life WOULDN’T end up on the headlines of at least one newspaper. Any Irken that underestimates him will suffer this fate.

Dib is also extremely hard to kill in a way that can’t be traced back to the Irken because Dib is the son of a celebrity. Killing Dib isn’t too hard, but making it untraceable definitely is. And if it does get traced back to you, Professor Membrane, Gaz Membrane and the Local Police are going to very quickly show up at your door.

All of Zim’s attempts can’t be traced back to him, but Zim is also extremely creative and thinks in ways that most Irkens don’t, so most Irkens wouldn’t even think about killing Dib in the ways that Zim tries. The only reason that Zim fails in these attempts is either because he purposely lets Dib fight back (the whole worthy opponent thing comes to mind) or because of outside forces that Zim wasn’t aware about, like Gaz interfering in Bloaty’s Pizza Hog or Dib becoming a cyborg in Big Bad Rubber Piggy.

But then there’s also one more detail about Dib that makes him a threat if he’s underestimated.

Dib is an opportunistic little shit.

If Dib gets even the slightest chance to prove that aliens exist or to kill whatever Irken is invading Earth, he’ll take it. Dib will take any advantage he can get and is single minded in his goal of proving the paranormal.

Between Zim and Dib, DIB is the one that preforms the most cruel and sadistic acts in his quest to destroy Zim. Sure Zim has tried to kill Dib his fair share of times and doesn’t mind tormenting him, but Zim also gives Dib a fighting chance against him. He puts purposeful flaws in his plans, he goes easy on Dib and refuses to use his weapons during fights, and he will spare people when he knows they wouldn’t spare him.

In comparison, Dib gets his hands on Zim’s PAK and spends an entire episode playing keepaway with Zim, fully intending to kill him in a slow and painful manner by doing so. Most of Zim’s more sadistic moments are simply a result of him wanting to get petty revenge on someone or a result of Zim believing that he’s in genuine danger, while Dib was fully willing to torture Zim to death via removing his PAK, fully aware of what he was doing.

And that’s not all. In Halloween Spectacular Of Spooky Doom, Dib almost immediately betrays Zim once they start working together. He throws him to the monsters without a second thought.

Even in Enter The Florpus, Dib is fully willing to take advantage of Zim’s emotional state, cuffing him and attempting to expose him to the world as soon as he gets the chance. Dib doesn’t care about an equal fight. He just wants to win, and he doesn’t care about how he does it.

If you drop your guard around him, he’ll take advantage of that. If you underestimate him, he’ll take advantage of that. If he gets a chance to stab you in the back for his own benefit, he’ll take it. If he gets access to a weapon that he can use against you, like water or what he thinks is a gun, he’ll use it without hesitation. And all it takes is one slip up for him to at the very least get evidence for him to present.

But all this depends on what situation he’s in and who he’s going up against. Going against an Irken on Earth, Dib is a serious threat. But going up against an Irken anywhere BUT Earth, Dib can’t really do much. He’s a threat to the Invader’s MISSION, but is rarely a threat to the Invader’s physical well-being, just as long as you ignore the fact that Invaders that fail their missions self destruct to avoid capture. He CAN be a threat to the Irken’s well-being and CAN and WILL kill them if possible, but that requires that a bunch of things line up just right for him first.

Comic spoilers under the cut:

But while we’re on the subject of how dangerous Dib can be, there’s another Dib I think is worth mentioning.

Zib.

Zib is an alternate version of Dib that successfully killed his Zim. How he did it is unknown, but that doesn’t exactly matter now.

As the ruler of the Zimvoid, he’s made himself into something not only capable of challenging an Irken mentality, but physically as well, in sharp contrast to other Dibs, who like mentioned before, simply can’t hold their own against an Irken soldier for obvious reasons.

As for how Zib accomplished this, I headcanon that he used a lot of bionics and cybernetics. A good chunk of Zib is bionic, giving him the strength, stamina and durability required to win against an Irken. The fact that he has access to a PAK and all the weapons inside it also helps. Helping even more is his slightly Irken biology, as the PAK he attached to himself made some slight changes to his body. It’s not much, mostly being changes to his organs so the PAK can draw power from them easier, but the few changes to his actual muscles and healing ability definitely help.

[panicinthestudio]

COVID rapidly spreads in China as government eases strict quarantine rules, December 27, 2022

China is grappling with the rapid spread of COVID-19 after the government began rolling back its zero-COVID restrictions earlier this month. Now, cases are spiraling across towns and cities, hospitals are overburdened, medical staff are outnumbered and crematoriums are running out of space. Judy Woodruff reports.

PBS NewsHour

There is no nuance left in politics or public health policy when there is either an absolute and strict inflexibility of zero COVID or wholesale dismantling of safeguards before the healthcare or support systems are prepared for the waves that have been forcibly suppressed. The political insistence on using their own less effective, non-mRNA vaccines based on the original strains rather than Delta or Omicron, coupled with a low vaccination rate of the vulnerable and elderly is not helping easing the transition at all.

The way they’ve been counting mortality from COVID diverged from nearly every other country since early 2020. A death had to be directly attributable to SARS-CoV-2 eliminating cases of many preexisting or undiagnosed conditions, chronic illnesses, and other high risk factors that may have been exacerbated by the virus which became listed as the direct cause or if they simply tested negative in the few days before dying. The policy as of this week will further limit the count only to deaths caused by pneumonia or respiratory failure after contracting COVID, in addition to dropping much of the remaining inbound quarantines and regular case counts becoming even more inconsistent with lived reality.

It appears the PRC was prepared to stay in suspended animation within an onionskin of self-isolation layers indefinitely, maintaining the appearance of control and adherence to policy that was left to different local officials to execute. Downgrading the classification removes the local, emergency-style powers to lockdown and quarantine which were used capriciously. Residential buildings, offices and commercial areas such as malls, and even theme parks could be suddenly cordoned without warning, causing panic due to the stringency of testing and knock-on effects if a positive case was found rather than fear of having contacted or contracted the virus. Becoming listed as a close contact or a complete stranger’s positive result could mean further quarantining and repeated testing, as well any change in one’s COVID passport status severely restricting mobility for work or education, travel, or even basic necessities. The protests spread because “dynamic zero” was anything but dynamic, refusing to change or amend course in preparation for a transition to an endemic or post-epidemic state. People were simply fed up and the building momentum was becoming a potential danger to a regime that had just renewed its own political mandates.

These things aren’t happening in isolation, China is also changing tact on its travel restrictions domestically and internationally. The Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau have been trying to reopen ports and travel with the Mainland for years now for travel and economic reasons. Both were forced into accepting one-way policies where it was difficult for their citizens to enter China or even between one another, while rules were softened for travelers and politicians entering from and returning to the Mainland for short trips with the reason that the pandemic was less well-contained than within the Mainland.

As news of the highly visible current outbreak within China is continuing to emerge, the Hong Kong SAR is now proudly announcing agreements have been made with the Mainland to drop their travel restrictions posthaste. It’s being reported that many are travelling specifically for mRNA vaccines which are approved in Macau and Hong Kong.

[pidge-poetry]

Foals at Reading Festival: another peak on their best-ever tour

The band’s second headlining appearance is luxurious, vibrant and potentially inspiring for the next generation

By Thomas Smith | 26th August 2023 | NME.com

Midway through Foals’ buoyant opening night headline set at Reading Festival, frontman Yannis Philippakis gives a quick pep talk: “There’s a future headliner out there watching this – you’ll be up here in 5, 10, 15, 20 years where we are now.”

It serves as a reminder of just how formative these festivals can be, and how the Oxford-raised band were inspired similarly over their early times at Reading & Leeds by the behemoths on stage in front of them. Speaking to NME earlier this week, Philippakis said that “the idea that we’d ever play that slot, or just be stood on that stage, was mind blowing. It’s humbling to think of all the great bands that have stood there.”

Foals have history in that spot (but not this one on Main Stage West, the inverse at the other side of the field) given their headline slot in 2016 following the release of ‘What Went Down’ a year prior. If that set had a hint of nervous energy as the band proved their worth, there’s something so freeing and enjoyable about their second time at it. Foals at Reading Festival

Credit: NME/Andy Ford

The tour for ‘Life Is Yours’ has been their best to date, the accompanying album arriving last summer as lockdown restrictions eased and a first full festival season programme returned. Tonight, those songs have played a part in sanding off the edges of a once-feral energy into something looser, groovier: ‘2am’, ‘Wake Me Up’ and ‘Summer Sky’ alongside their pastel-hued visuals are welcome distraction to the roaring train line that runs parallel to the Reading festival site. Gone is the apocalypse-paranoia of their ‘Everything Not Saved Will Be Lost’ double-album suite, instead ‘2am’ speaks of being “Lost in the sugar rush, violet sky / Beachside candy cane, blue tongues in summer rain”.

Even if there’s a focus on the new, it’s a welcome return for original bassist Walter Gervers who left the band for a five-year break. He brings a comforting feeling to an already excellent unit: debut album-era hits ‘Red Socks Pugie’ and ‘Olympic Airwaves’ are given an extra oomph in this set-up. Their mood-setting opus ‘Spanish Sahara’ still has a wealth of emotion and ecstasy in its release.

It’s a set with no real notes, aside the the inclusion of deep cut ‘Milk & Black Spiders’ which doesn’t quite land, even down the front. It brings them to the final straight of a lengthy run of shows, and the latest triumphant peak in a career of many. Who knows what the next generation of creators in this crowd will go on to do in the coming decades, but you could do far worse than being totally and utterly inspired by this brilliant set. Foals at Reading Festival

Credit: NME/Andy Ford

Foals played:

‘Wake Me Up’ ‘Mountain at My Gates’ ‘Olympic Airways’ ‘2001’ ‘Summer Sky’ ‘My Number’ ‘2am’ ‘In Degrees’ ‘Spanish Sahara’ ‘Red Socks Pugie’ ‘Milk & Black Spiders’ ‘The Runner’ ‘Inhaler’ ‘Black Bull’ ‘What Went Down’ ‘Two Steps, Twice’

[theresthesnitch]

I have a funny pandemic story: mine of my friends got pandemic for her birthday mid 2019, but didn’t play it until April 2020 with a group of our friends. We lost, and a few days later the covid lockdowns happened in our country. We played again (once restrictions eased up and we’re not fully gone), and lost, and a second wave which was really bad started. We played once more, won, and all restrictions ended. We put the game away after that, and are never going to play again.

Oh my god. 🤣🤣🤣

You've got the Jumanji version of Pandemic. Please never play again.

[karahalloway]

Kara Halloway - Tag List Clean-Up

Hi Everyone!

I realised just now that I seem to have missed a few people off my tag lists for the last few chapters that I've posted for (Less Than) Noble Intentions and Sleepless in New York 🙈

I think I have corrected the oversights on the applicable chapters, but in light of this mishap, I decided that it would probably be a good time to do a tag list clean-up, given that (i) I've had several new people who has asked to be added to my tag list and (ii) I have noticed that with the easing of lockdown restrictions, people's lives have gotten busier, so I don't want to keep bothering you with updates if you are no longer interested in / don't have time for reading.

As per the usual spiel with these things:

If you would like to stay where you are - please send me a message confirming this.

If you would like to be moved - please send me a message and let me know where you want to be moved to

If you'd like to be added - send me a message letting me know where to put you!

If you would like off the list - you don't need to do anything!

You have until the end of the month to make your decision! (Which is realistically when the next chapter of Sleepless will probably be ready 😅 and I want to make sure that everyone who wants to be tagged is!)

Permatags

@twinkleallnight @lovingchoices14 @kingliam2019 @petiteboheme @aussiegurl1234 @queen-arabella-of-cordonia @tessa-liam @alyshak92 @secretaryunpaid @princessleac1 @walkerdrakewalker @angelasscribbles @drakewalkerisreal @nestledonthaveone @tinkie1973 @twinkle-320 @knaussal @nikkis1983 @lunaseasblog @ficloverevie @indiana-jr @differenttyphoonwerewolf @eversoaringqueen12 @pinklipsandmasonjars @sillydg @spookycolorpeanut @peonierose @mrsnazariowrites @shellybee85 @3pawandme @honey358luv @atha68 @deepestphantomstranger @xpandass420x @alexabeta @veebug8 @fangirling12566 @queenmiarys @berriesandpixels​ @coco-lina-s @lolablackwrites @ivyflowers13 @persephone13 @hollygirl1269 @adri-ja-96​

Sleepless in New York only

@bebepac @lilacsandwhiskey @katedrakeohd

(Less Than) Noble Intentions only

@thetruthisthatiloveyou @anakjaybon-blog

Thanksgiving only*

@burnsoslow

*Hope to pick this up again Oct/Nov this year 🤞🏻

If I accidentally missed anyone off any list, apologies!!

I will be posting an updated tag list for everyone’s reference at the end of the month 👍

[alimak]

Youth Is Wasted On The Inside

MASTERLIST

The day I heard classes were suspended for almost a week brought relief for me back then. I spent those days with ease and thought, “Finally, a four-day rest!”. I was all smiley and delighted to have a break from school… not until that “four-day suspension” lasted for two years. While I was at the beginning of my youthful age when the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) started, I was rather locked and isolated instead of feeling the “I wish it could stay like this forever”. You know, being a teen forever, but instead, I had my overall well-being affected by the lockdown. I thought: Is this how I am going to spend my whole youth, locked inside my house?

Spending my teenage years to the fullest was one of my goals to ever achieve. Going to prom, going on a retreat trip and a field trip, and graduating junior high school with my former classmates were some enjoyable events that could add to my youthful years. I remember being excited for those days to come and I was planning ahead with my friends in school about what we’ll do when it happens. I wanted something memorable, just like those teen films. All I wanted was good times before I go to my senior year in high school and college.

As the pandemic came, I knew those moments would not occur, although there was a slight bit of hope remaining inside of me that everything would go back to normal when I enter the tenth grade. But, I was too gullible to think that such a disease would go away quickly and it made me depressed as time passed by. As I wait for the pandemic to end, I felt lost because everything changed, not in the way I wanted it to be. I thought waking up every 5 A.M. to go to school was the worst thing that I would go through, but coping in the midst of the pandemic beats it.

As I look back during the lockdown, I can’t help but think ways of how I can distract myself from boredom. I mean, we all had to and it was the hardest part for me because I am not consistent with hobbies–I also had limited resources to find one and my interest disperses because of it. I became more pressured rather than my school deadlines and exams. I have realized that this was probably the reason why I am too lazy to try new things out because I know I would give up too easily and I started to think if there was something wrong with me. Hence, it is also the reason why I spent most of my time on my phone–being online–all day and night.

At some point, doing all of these is a reassurance to myself that I don’t have to be like everyone else. I learned that I was pressured by social media to have a hobby because I saw everyone on TikTok working out, painting, sewing, reading, etc... I realized that I do not need to force myself to have a hobby–rather I need to focus on myself–what makes me enjoy life again. A way that It opened my mind in ways that taking care of myself was much better than anything else.

Eventually, my coping system was: I had to be outside. It is a way how I can handle my well-being over this whole phenomenon. I realized that I needed to be in a new environment every once in a while in order for my energy levels to heighten. I discovered that I like going to new places when my grandmother once told me to buy something from 7-11. I walked around for two hours around our area and I felt content when I got home that I had to write in my journal about the places I went to. Therefore, I figured that it is important for me to be in a place where it is not my house because I have been inside for too long and my mind wanted something new.

I believe that staying all the time at home can affect the mental health of people that it became an emotional trauma. Ever since COVID-19, everyone had no choice but to isolate in their own homes, which also restricted social interactions. Most of the people would only go outside for work or tasks to accomplish. It resulted to individuals increased percentages of depression and anxiety because of being only at home. According to BBC News, young ages were more affected from the impacts brought by the pandemic.

It came along with unwanted changes. Many teenagers have acquired social anxiety. It became hard for me to make friends because of being used to being alone at home and uneasiness builds up as face-to-face classes begin to initiate during this year. It is hard for me who is already shy, who become more shy because of isolation. In fact, it became a stress factor for socialize because it was something I was not used to do doing after being only at home. The changes were challenging.

Furthermore, a state of feeling lost is also a struggle for me. Many people think that time shifted during this pandemic. I did too, as I was mostly doing nothing all day; watching the time past by; study; and sleep. It was such a struggle to make something out of your time for the day, but to no avail it was also a struggle to do something. While for others, they had the luxury to keep themselves busy, but for me, it was challenging, especially when my enjoyments were outside of my home.

Being isolated at home brought unwanted circumstances and the challenge of feeling lost. It personally affected me in ways that it is hard to bring back the old me. I am not close to my old friends anymore and I started to become out of touch with my emotions.

With all of these occurrences, I can’t help rely on imaginations. I had to romanticize the remaining time of my teenage years because the pandemic robbed me from it. But, I do know that: You are trying. I am trying. We are all trying–to fill this emptiness in our supposed “most enjoyable” year of our lives.

As I went through this topic, I thought: healing the youth from the impacts brought by the pandemic can lessen the mental health issues that they face. There is acknowledgement to these issues, but a lack of action in it. This essay is a glimpse of the life of the youth in the midst of the pandemic and the struggle of coping in the “new normal”. I am calling out for schools and officials to provide free therapies and counseling for children. Mental health is a human right.

I conclude, to heal from emotional trauma caused by the pandemic should be included in the “new normal”.

BACK TO MASTERLIST

[weditchthemap]

The Surge in Revenge Travel Among Americans

The surge in revenge travel among Americans

Have you heard of ‘revenge travel’? You may have taken part in the trend without even realizing it. The term cropped up in 2022, yet 2023 is set to see the term escalate further, with people seeking out more new adventures. Here’s a deep dive into what revenge travel looks like and the traveling patterns that are emerging off the back of it.

What is revenge travel?

In a nutshell, revenge travel refers to the surge of jet-setters going on holiday to another state or beyond. It comes off the back of the pandemic travel restrictions easing. Previously, people were a little more reluctant to go traveling when we were slowly creeping out of lockdown measures, with some places operating stricter rules than others.

By this point, now that measures are much less restrictive, people just want to let loose and jet off somewhere amazing. Plans are less likely to be canceled, so people are going all out. On top of this, those who haven’t traveled for a long while will be more tempted to splash out on a dream vacation – and we don’t blame them.

Why we are wanting to see more of the world

VistaJet, a private aviation company whose fleet includes the bombardier global 7500, has seen an increase in bookings. Figures for the first half of January 2023 alone saw a huge increase of 85% year-on-year and an increase of 140% compared to 2021. Is this setting the tone for what is to come in 2023? We suspect so.

Matteo Atti, VistaJet’s Chief Marketing Officer expands on the trends seen. "It’s time to celebrate our freedom to travel the world and make unimaginable and unforgettable memories. While 2022 was the year in which global travel became possible again, 2023 is the year in which Members are planning incredible getaways with friends, family, or even solo adventures."

Further findings showed that 2022 brought in a record growth of 50% in flight revenues, with clients lusting after bespoke experiences and unforgettable getaways.

“Following a rush of travel post-pandemic, to reactivate business and relationship links, we now expect clients to be more selective, placing high value on fulfilling experiences that fuel their thirst for fun, knowledge and personal growth in 2023.”

Clearly, those who are vaccinated are wanting to get as much from their travel experiences as possible.

Destinations we are adding to the bucket list

But which destinations are people most eager to visit? According to Forbes, a lot of traveling is domestic, with people remaining within the United States, but there are clear patterns of the types of locations chosen.

It appears that many of us what to get out in nature. Stats show that following the pandemic in 2021, mountain and lake destinations experienced a 44% increase in visitors, while coastal destinations and resorts saw a 42% increase across America. By contrast, urban city demand is down, with people favoring smaller towns or rural destinations instead.

These stats are likely to be even higher today, with the travel bug spreading fast across the population now that even more COVID-19 travel restrictions have come to an end. Are you part of the revenge traveling collective with plans to go all out this year? Let us know in the comments below!

[mariacallous]

Students and members of the public have taken to the streets in major cities across China, with protesters in Shanghai calling for Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to step down—a rare sight in China, where protest is strictly curtailed. Coming shortly after the 20th Party Congress, which marked the beginning of Xi’s third term as CCP general secretary, these protests bear closer examination and consideration for their potential to affect China’s political situation and Xi’s grip on power—and even to usher in a “new era” of social movements akin to the wave of protests that swept the country in 1989.

Commentators calling these the largest protests since 1989 are mistaken. The Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao years saw mass protests that drew tens of thousands of participants or more, destroyed local government offices, and had to be put down by armed police. The crowds in videos emerging from protests in Shanghai, Beijing, Nanjing, Chengdu, and other cities are generally small, ranging from several hundred to over a thousand. Rather, it is Xi’s heavy-handed suppression of social dissent over his time in office and his concomitant expansion of public expenditures and targeted poverty alleviation, buying the affections of the underclasses and all but eliminating open public protest, that makes the current wave of protests significant.

A common thread in these protests is people reaching the limits of their tolerance for the government’s zero-COVID policies. The “dynamic zero-COVID” approach the government has adopted capriciously deprives the public of their freedom and rights and has led to countless humanitarian disasters. One such disaster, a fire in a locked-down Urumqi apartment building, was the spark for students and members of the public to protest, as people around the country gather to mourn the lives lost in the fire.

The first Chinese city to be locked down was Wuhan, where the epidemic first broke out. The people of Wuhan silently endured lockdown for more than two months. Tianjin, Xi’an, Shenzhen, and other cities followed suit with lockdowns of varying degrees; these, too, were silently borne. When the entire city of Shanghai was locked down for two months starting this April, the public once again suffered in silence. What changed between then and the end of November?

One key event was the promulgation of the new “20 Articles” policy on pandemic control measures in early November. The policy promised a gradual loosening of restrictions, a welcome ray of hope for a public that had been trapped in place for three years, but when this resulted in a nationwide resurgence of outbreaks, authorities quickly reinstated tighter controls, dashing any hope of lockdowns being lifted. The repeated cycles of easing and tightening, caging people like lab rats, finally wore through the last of people’s patience. Under the government’s zero-COVID policies, everyone knows that they could be the next to suffer—including people inside the system, particularly officials and workers on the front lines of pandemic response, many of whom have long since burned out from exhaustion and overwork. Everybody wants a change—but as long as Xi does not, they will have no choice but to endure.

Sudden as these protests may seem, their broader context—particularly Xi’s actions over his decade in power—made them a virtual inevitability. Despite widespread fears that Xi would return China to the days of the Cultural Revolution, this isn’t something he can pull off alone. China isn’t North Korea, after all: The liberal reforms that followed the Cultural Revolution afforded the majority of Chinese people a basis to make comparisons with other ways of life, giving rise to interests that not even Xi can shake. Closing China off from the world would pose no benefit to the CCP or Xi himself, moreover, except insofar as it might be used to eliminate the system of private ownership.

Rather, fears of a return to the Cultural Revolution indicate widespread dissatisfaction with Xi’s line, policies, and ideals among members of the public, who have consistently opposed Xi’s attempts to shift the engine of history into reverse gear. Xi may have wanted to redirect the course of historical development, but the last 10 years have seen China generally continuing forward in its century-long transition to modernity. Historical precedent shows that during such transitions, growing awareness of civil rights eventually gives rise to public movements and public resistance, primarily in the form of collective action.

China is no exception. One of the ideological effects of the reform years was a resurgence of civic consciousness. This produced the 1989 student protest movement and subsequent waves of human rights actions and mass incidents. Xi has ensured that citizens’ rights activists and other oppositional forces will be sentenced harshly, but he hardly has the power to erase this civic consciousness from the brains of the public. The public simply hid it away for a while under pressure from the authorities; given a suitable chance and fertile soil, their demands for freedom and civil rights will flower again.

The rapid deterioration of China’s external environment, Xi forcing his way into a third term, and above all the government’s zero-COVID policy present a rare opportunity for public protest—and will nurture a movement for societal transformation.

U.S.-China tensions have imposed unprecedentedly severe strictures on China’s development environment, and the country’s economic woes are to a great extent the product of the U.S. geopolitical and technological containment of China, exacerbated by lockdowns in response to the pandemic. The economy continued its steep decline this year, triggering a wave of bankruptcies and unemployment and causing the public’s living standards and quality of life to decline dramatically.

The majority of China’s population was born in the 1970s or afterward: These people lack earlier generations’ firsthand experience of—and ability to cope with—poverty. Protracted personal and family hardships due to the pandemic and economic downturn are not, as time goes on, something they can adapt to—and this will drive them into the streets in protest. From the government’s perspective, this state of affairs is a ticking time bomb. It must be prevented from going off.

But the government’s approach to “defusing” the situation has been to further solidify the monolithic leadership of the CCP and build up its violent control over society, while at the same time partially satisfying popular demands for a more equitable distribution of wealth. Though this has weakened the basis for civic resistance in the short term, in the long term it will both fail to suppress dissatisfaction and resistance and, as state control weakens, actually promote the emergence of a popular political consciousness that will spur a sense of resistance and inspire action. The state’s total loss of the ability to sense and respond to public discontent makes this possibility all the more likely.

The reason lies in the fact that Xi’s focus on addressing wealth inequalities and funding poverty alleviation efforts after taking office forced the government to strengthen its extractive taxation capacity, exacerbating conflicts between the state and the industrial and commercial class. Entrepreneurs are laying low en masse, causing the economy to decline further. A regime that develops its extractive capacity (primarily in the form of taxation) and its coercive capacity (primarily in the form of violent control) while neglecting to develop its distributive and regulatory capacities and its ability to protect the public will produce an imbalance of state capacity, leading to widespread protest. Economic growth predicated on this basis will not only fail to bring general prosperity and social development but systematically create polarizing economic and social disparities, leading in turn to general social discontent and resentment and ultimately severely weakening the basic legitimacy of the regime.

This schema describes China before Xi: The Jiang and the Hu eras saw many instances of protest and mass incidents, but the fat years are over, and the improvements in wealth distribution are insufficient to remedy the public’s worsening losses from unemployment and will ultimately be unable to reduce conflicts between the people and the government.

We might say that even before the pandemic, political and economic winter had already come for China—but as 40 years of economic reforms had left individuals and the government with enough provisions set aside to weather the storm, the public’s sense of crisis was merely something on people’s minds and had not yet translated into collective acts of resistance. Three years into the pandemic, the Chinese economy is at a new low point. The cold is getting worse, supplies are running low, and the impact of the government’s zero-COVID policies has fallen hardest on the public’s fundamental rights and interests. The adversarial consciousness and acts of resistance so long suppressed by the government inevitably broke out: People tolerated it for as long as they could, and finally they couldn’t stand it anymore. The protests now going on in cities around China, led mostly by young people and university students, reflect a reawakening of civic consciousness under the ideological oppression of the state.

The government’s response to protesters’ demands will decide whether these protests will turn into nationwide social protests of Xi and the CCP. Despite some protesters shouting radical slogans, the protests have on the whole remained peaceful and free of violence. Demands from students and the public mainly focus on ending the government’s zero-COVID policy. If the government accedes to these demands—which are shared by a majority of the public—by relaxing pandemic restrictions and agreeing not to take reprisals against protesters, it should be able to quickly quell the protests.

If, however, the government determines that “hostile foreign forces” or domestic class enemies have infiltrated and instigated protests in hopes of bringing about regime change by fomenting a color revolution in China, the only possible next step will be violent suppression. Any bloodshed will intensify conflicts, awakening a long-standing sense of oppression among the public—and protests, which thus far have been limited to large cities (particularly university campuses), will spread across the country and form a surging, nationwide wave of resistance. In such an event, the public will increase its demands to include the end of the CCP’s one-party dictatorship.

It is unclear whether Xi envisioned this as a result of his zero-COVID policy, but clearly he has a sense of crisis: He has emphasized the need for a “spirit of struggle” and called on cadres to “dare to struggle and excel at struggling.” Perhaps, then, he has also made preparations and plans for social crisis and protests. Xi’s umwelt makes it unlikely that he will see the protests as merely an expression of dissatisfaction with zero-COVID, rather than a stalking horse for hostile forces—and if he acts on that understanding in ordering regional officials to handle the wave of protests, it will do nothing but escalate the situation.

However the government eventually handles the protests, their emergence so soon after the 20th Party Congress is a major blow to Xi’s authority and a message that his response to the pandemic over the last three years has been a failure—and by extension that he is not qualified to lead a great nation, which will shake the confidence of the CCP and embolden internal dissatisfaction with Xi, especially at the upper echelons. In embarking on a third term at the 20th Party Congress, Xi showed that there were no restraining forces on him within the party following his successful suppression of opposing factions. Discontent at high levels of the CCP has not vanished, however—it merely hid away, perhaps to be revivified by the present wave of protests. Even so, Xi and his trusted associates are in control of the party and the military, and open intraparty disputes are unlikely. The central government in Beijing will not split—not unless bloodshed escalates to nationwide protest.

[belacqui-pro-quo]

Oxford Word of the Year: 'Goblin mode'

‘Goblin mode’ – a slang term, often used in the expressions ‘in goblin mode’ or ‘to go goblin mode’ – is ‘a type of behaviour which is unapologetically self-indulgent, lazy, slovenly, or greedy, typically in a way that rejects social norms or expectations.’

Although first seen on Twitter in 2009, goblin mode went viral on social media in February 2022, quickly making its way into newspapers and magazines after being tweeted in a mocked-up headline. The term then rose in popularity over the months following as Covid lockdown restrictions eased in many countries and people ventured out of their homes more regularly. Seemingly, it captured the prevailing mood of individuals who rejected the idea of returning to ‘normal life’, or rebelled against the increasingly unattainable aesthetic standards and unsustainable lifestyles exhibited on social media.