#he was a nobody with a team that didn't know how to negotiate

[laurelwinchester]

Olicity stans on twitter are still spreading shit about Katie Cassidy. Now they're saying Laurel was supposed to die at the end of season one to have Tommy become the Dark Archer but Katie "got her laywers involved" and had it changed and that Stephen wasn't being paid fairly during season one because she was making them pay her more. I can't with the delusion.

lol wow they sure think katie had a lot of inexplicable and completely random power over at the cw.

anyway yeah that's bullshit. like straight up fanfic level bullshit. easily refuted bullshit. delusional is exactly the right way to put it. kind of pathetic really.

i mean yes i will admit i'm laughing at the whole ''got her lawyers involved'' part because it's so stupid it's funny but let's be serious for a second here.

katie cassidy was treated like garbage for eight years straight. eight fucking years. it was constant. it was relentless. i don't know how she put up with that - and if i'm being honest i also…don't know why - but she did. if she could just wave a magic wand and ''get her lawyers involved'' and end up with whatever she wanted, wouldn't she have used that power to idk get people to stop treating her like shit?

come on now.

it's like they don't even try to sound believable.

for real though imagine being a toxic olicity stan in the year 2023. what kind of tinhat nonsense is that. i know cringe doesn't exist but.....that's pretty cringe.

[goldsbitch]

Just don't talk---

-to me.

p4 to Just don't talk

summary: Enemies to lovers on steroids. Y/N unknowingly crosses a line, making it impossible for Lando to continue their little affair.

warnings: cursing, typos

Sometimes, the world of F1 really required one to grow up fast. Y/N had noticed strange looks from few of the team members during meetings and sessions for the whole week. She tried not to give it much thought - that was until her manager called, on a late Wednesday evening and broke the news. There were serious talks of her being replaced by someone, who used to drive for her team before and wanted back. She, as an average rookie, couldn't stand a chance and couldn't possibly play the "female driver" card (which she hated anyway). The phone call with her manager was a hard one, nothing seemed to be confirmed, but her pro active guardian angel worked on having enough close friendships around the team to know the news before it got to be known around the paddock. Her heart was racing for life, hand shaking, mind running wild. This couldn't be happening. They can't just drop her out of nowhere, she tried to convince herself.

She lived in this uncertainty for three days, constantly in contact with her own team, focusing on not failing at her job, completely ignoring any texts or calls from people outside her comfort zone. Yet, she didn't hesitate to schedule a hook up with Lando. A break though came when her manager called, informing her that she currently in negotiations with another f1 team for potential transfer, she called it a "just in case" back up, but sounded a little too excited for it being a back up team. Even when Y/N begged to know what team that was, her manager did not cave in, saying it was just too early stages.

//

What a perfect waste of time. Every evening in her busy life was a calculation, a plan to keep or alone time prescribed by herself. Tonight they were suppose to meet up with Lando, in the morning they'd texted about it, he even cracked a joke and appeared to be in a generally easy going mode. But 8pm rolled in and no text, call or even a doorbell. After a half an hour of pacing around and pretending to be busy, she found herself in a completely clean kitchen, finished emails and painted nails. Lando was rarely ever late without a note beforehand. She was not going to text him. That would be too needy. Few episodes of some sitcom, which she had to rewind several times as her attention span lasted about two minutes. Minutes rolled in like a cruel indicator of how much she took as a given that they'd see each other. How much it wasn't on the table that he would ditch her. At some point, she had to come to terms with it. But nobody was there to force to admit that she felt a strange hollow feeling in her stomach. She pushed all thoughts into the back of her head and focused on her next racing plan. That's what she was suppose to be anyway. She might face being replaced out of nowhere, she had to be at her best game. Only when she lost the option of the only distraction that seemed to work in the form of Lando's smirk, she realized how much tension she held within her. It wasn't a night filled with much sleep for her. The late night loneliness crept in, loveless mornings had pilled up over time into a tower blocking the sunshine in. She sat on her bed, second guessing every choice she ever made - was the racing even worth it all? She could have been married by now? What a strange concept. Was she ever going to do so? In a man's world, was there an option to find a lover who would not challenge her and only induce her anxiety? She circled back to her first and only love and wasn't even sure if she had the privilege to call it that as the memory of the slacker guy from her hometown literally slept through their break up. Often she'd watch her colleagues hop on the first plane to spend as much time as this lifestyle allowed with a loved one. She had yet to find out what that kind of a flight felt like.

A whole week had passed since that night. They saw each other on numerous occasions and both of them avoided each other's looks, as if they would turn to stone if their eyes had met. It was good for their public image.

Y/N was excited when her manager finally met up with her in person to tell her about a potential team transfer, should the silly season kick in hard. "I'm not saying anything is set in stone. There have just been few meetings, lawyers checked up your contract again for potential breach causes, so we did some work in the meantime," she stated dramatically over a coffee date they'd set up at Y/N's hotel room. Her manager seemed unusually giddy, excitement poking through her professionalism. "There is a possibility, now, hold your horses, just a possibility, that there might be an open seat at McLaren soon." This came as a shock wave. Y/N always admired her manager, who was always three steps ahead of everyone. Her mind started to race in many conflicting directions. McLaren was an exciting team, definitely a promotion. So was this why Lando ghosted her? Because she might potentially become his teammate? That was just a little too childish of him, she thought, judging her own choices in a hook up "buddy". "So does that mean that Oscar is thinking about leaving the team?" "Well, not exactly. Technically, nobody is thinking about leaving the team. Also, it's not Oscar, but Lando." And the penny dropped.

//

Lando had been in this business for years. He knew well enough what was up. Made sure to have people at the right places, faithful souls who loved him a little too much and were willing to breach their NDA for him. Of course he knew that Y/N's managers were speaking to McLaren. And also why. It took him by surprise, that was for sure. He was a great racer with a big potential. When he learned in secrecy that the reason why McLaren is thinking of changing up their driver line up, it wasn't exactly because of the actual racing, but more of marketing and appearing as a young hip team, it made him furious. Lando had started to become an old news for the marketers. Oscar and Y/N pairing had intrigued them. Of course he wasn't going to keep on with their little love affair. She was becoming a threat, more so outside the track than on the track. He was mad when he found out. Of course he had always kept his distance from Y/N. But this felt personal. She truly was a ruthless bitch, as his gut had told him from day one. It probably wasn't even attraction what he felt towards her, just his subconsciousness telling him to keep his enemies closest physically possible. He tried to hold of thinking about their glorious sex. There were bigger things at stake. He didn't feel threatened. Just little bit betrayed. He had to take action.

//

Once her manager left, she found herself pacing around her room yet again. Thoughts jumping one over another. Excitement skipping over anxiousness, joy being overrun by a sinking fear. She was always going to put her career first. So why was there a sudden urge to run to wherever Lando was and explain that she had no idea this was being set up in her name.

It was a strangely bittersweet feeling, standing at a photoshoot for her contract renewal. There was an unspoken tension between her and the team leaders, nobody willing to talk openly about the fact that they were about to drop her and she was talking about running to different team. But there she was, faking smiles, staying with the team for another two seasons, hating this industry more than ever before. In the end, she gave her everything just to stay in an environment that made her feel just like another clog in the all too big entertainment machine. McLaren calls were getting postponed and everyone knew what that meant, so her own personal team decided to jump for the first option that offered some security. With that, she smiled and posed again. Merely a shell of the fiery girl that bit Lando's arm just weeks ago. All this stress, loneliness and self-doubt had changed the course of her energy.

//

"Oh, you're taking the same elevator?" Lando asked, shooting arrows at Y/N as he pressed the close door button. He had imagined many times that he would slam a door in her face and this was the closest her could get to that. She put her hand into the door gap, giving him a strict eye roll. Finally, faith brought them into a place where they were alone again. "Really?" she said walking in the elevator. Lando tried to be the bigger and mature person. Being around her was making it impossible. He was angry and frustrated. "So...how are you?" she tried to break the ice. "You have never asked me that before. Are you sick?" "No, I'm just...we haven't spoken-" "-ever. No reason to start now," he said, acting as if this was all passing him by. Scrolling on his phone without a care in the world. "I didn't know..." "What..?" "I didn't know that my managers were having these talks," she said softly. There was an apology on the tip of her tongue, but she couldn't bring herself to actually say it. "And are you looking for my advice on how to keep the people who you pay in check? Or what is the purpose of this conversation?" "I'm just...I never wanted to try and push you out of..you know." Lando laughed. "That's some severe delulu vibe you're giving off." "Sorry?" she reacted, genuinely confused. "The audacity you have! Thinking you can manipulate the situation better than I do. Princess, I've been in the game years more than you and survived bigger shitstorms - do you really believed I'm here only because I'm a good driver? No, these games are half of the work. So no, I absolutely do not believe that you didn't know about this. And the fact that you're trying to convince me of that is highly disrespectful." Y/N was taken back, processing several conflicting reactions at the same time. The always calm Lando got pushed over the edge. And he was not done. "Next time you're drowning, don't reach out to drag me down too. You should be grateful, you got to keep your job and certainly no thanks to the shitty managers of yours, so you're welcome. I'm genuinely surprised that you landed the job you now have in the first place."

It was a lot of information blurted at her. But she got a hold of the important part. "Lando? What did you do?" He took a deep breath. He said too much. "You will never find out. Now stop talking."

Y/N hit a pause on the elevator. Not that it would help, she figured they had only few minutes extra before someone would be over to run the machine again. "The fuck are you doing," Lando exclaimed and tried to stop her. His hand grabbed her arm and Y/N got an instant flashback to the night he tied her to her own bed frame. "Did you help me?" she asked, anger spitting out of her lips. "Let's not dive into that, shall we? Now, get the elevator running." "I don't need your help, Lando." "This was not any help, I'm trying to keep you out of McLaren, so don't read into it." While that did sound reasonable, Y/N knew there was more. With that, the fire she'd been missing for weeks entered her system again. "Stop helping me, Lando," she said in a serious tone, stepping closer to the guy still holding her arm. She quickly pushed it away. "I don't need your help." She was really pushing it, he thought and bursted. "Is that so! I saw that last week. Your weak strategy and poor results nearly got you dropped. " "No, not dropped. Replacing you." "It would take the hell to freeze over for that to happen, Princess naivité. It was a straight path back to f2 at best. Get your shit together and get a grip over those who act in your name and grow up. Nobody is going to save you next time." She wondered what exactly he did, but knew that there will be a time and place for that conversation. Lando cursed himself for saying it all at once. He was there, lecturing her on strategy, while not being able to follow his own for a second when she was around. Said things he planned on keeping for himself forever. She stood in front of him and he could read the surprise on her face. Anger left her body and suddenly she never looked so innocent. Just a scared girl standing in front of him, trying to navigate their complicated world. The only reason he helped her was because he felt sorry for her. Nothing else. Definitely. "How can I repay you?" she asked, humbled by the newly found information. He took his time to respond. Prolonging this moment just a little. Knowing that soon enough, the innocent face he stared at would soon turn to its usual pseudo-tough-cool-girl mask. It was as if he saw the real Y/N for the first time. "You could stop whining and get this elevator running," he said slowly, as if his body was rejecting these words. Without any other comment, she obeyed his wish. They both turned away from each other and continued in silence. Lando had secretely hoped that she would question him more. She let out a little thank you when exiting the elevator. He watched her leave and forgot for a moment into which floor he was supposed to originally go. She paced away from his as fast as she could. These past few days have pushed her to the limit and the conversation with Lando was the last straw, the word "Princess" screaming in Lando's voice in her head.

part 5

_________________________________________

@scopeiguess @multifandomwhore-003 

[natequarter]

Headcanons for the ghosts on taskmaster?

my best guess as to what they'd be like:

robin is good all round, in a very chaotic fashion. he's 50/50 on physical tasks, because he goes into everything headfirst without actually planning things out. however, this also allows him to bullshit his way through lateral thinking tasks. unfortunately he's probably one of those people who'd get through a task triumphantly thinking he's absolutely killed it and then they reveal that he completely forgot about one of the task's rules and gets no points. drives alex mad by completely ignoring him. greg would love him though

humphrey is great on lateral thinking tasks, and thinking outside the box is his strong suit. i reckon he'd be pretty good at the prize task, for the same reason, and any of the creative tasks. he could probably do pretty well on team tasks, too. his downfall would be when his clumsiness meets physical tasks and he nearly beheads alex. or himself. have you seen that one tim vine task designed specifically for him to make a pun? he's that. drives alex mad with constant questions about whether he can do xyz

i'm not sure how well mary would do, but i imagine she'd also be good at creative tasks. possibly not so good overall; you need confidence to pull off some tasks. she might be her own downfall for worrying over her plan and thus wasting all her time. would completely smash everyone on at least one task when nobody expects it, though

kitty would be very sweet, but, alas, not very good. she's not awful, she just never quite manages to do any better than consistently alright. great at team tasks or musical tasks, though

thomas would be an absolute idiot. just completely useless. can't do team tasks. continues to bring in, like, a plate or a shoe or something for every prize task. fails tasks in ways you didn't know were possible. you know john kearns? yeah

fanny would be incredible at any task involving maths, and not much use at everything else. owns a lot of weird stuff which works wonderfully for the prize task. possibly the type to be an otherwise deeply intelligent woman who gets onto taskmaster and subsequently proves that (academic) intelligence means nothing on taskmaster

i don't have anything to say about the captain except that alex would give him a ridiculous task that no one else has to do (he does not realise this) and he proceeds to try and fail to do it perfectly. and he will continue until he gets it right

pat would, obviously, be great at team tasks. i think he'd suck at creative tasks, but he'd probably be decently good at everything else, especially anything with practical skills

julian bullshits his way through every task. negotiates his way out of a corn maze. somehow, it works

[havendance]

Okay, I've read up to before the Night of the Owls crossover, so let's take a moment to look at my New 52 read so far:

Batman -- I think I liked the start of this arc the most, when it's laying out the mystery and feels full of potential. I'm just not a fan of the court of owls. The issue where he was in the labrinth and all the pages got flipped around was a cool concept, but an absolute pain to read digitally. Whenever I tried to rotate my tablet to read the textboxes, my device would go 'oh you're rotating! I know how to do that!' and flip the pages back -_- It probably worked better physically.

Batman and Robin -- I liked this. I liked seeing as Bruce tried to negotiate his relationship with Damian and I liked Nobody as an antagonist drawing on the history of the people who trained Batman.

Nightwing -- I started reading this and I was like 'yes, this is what a reboot should do. Bring back Haly's Circus after it was stupidly burned down previously.' and what does this comic do? Burn down Haly's Circus again!!! Can't have shit in Nightwing comics :/

Anyway, I loved seeing Nightwing try and negotiate his relationships as Nightwing as opposed to his friendships he made at the circus. I liked the push and pull between him and Babs and him and Raya. I think, in this universe where Dick was way older when he became Robin, it works really well, and while I obviously prefer Dick being like 8, I would say that this works well as it's own thing if it weren't for the elephant in the tent-- Haly's Circus being evil (boooooooooo!)

Like I said, can't have shit in Nightwing comics :|

I don't want Haly's Circus to be evil. I don't want them to be working for the court. If you really want the whole Nightwing was raised to be a living weapon thing, then idk, make it something none of them knew about, like some outsider that had been infiltrating and using the circus for their own ends. Don't have Mr Haly be the guy selling dick/that other guy out :(

Birds of Prey -- In contrast to Nightwing, this comic is just extremely mediocre. It's almost impressive how mid it is. I like Saiz' art but I'm struggling to find much else positive to say about it. It's fine. It gets the job done. It's missing that spark to do anything more interesting than girl team fights bad guys. On that same token, I'm having trouble coming up with much to criticize either. Like, obviously I think it would be better if Birds of Prey were still Oracles team, but like, other than the fact that I still think Katana's off (but I haven't read enough of her comics to articulate more), it's hard to find much to complain other than it's just mediocre and boring. Nightwing has high highs and low lows. This is like a flat line.

Batgirl -- I miss Oracle :'( But more seriously, Barbara Gordon as Batgirl has never been as intersting to me as her as Oracle. I liked the subplot of her trying to figure out how to have a new relationship with her mom--it was probably my favorite part and I liked seeing that new aspect of her. That being said, ugh, James Gordon Jr. I just do not like him as a character. He's too grim dark edgy for my tastes.

Another thing that goes into the 'I miss Oracle' category is her new dynamic with Bruce. She's over here caring about his opinion and everything and that's part of her getting aged down yet again, but also I miss when they were antagonistic and she didn't take his shit. As well as the whole question of 'why do we need to keep the killing joke in the first place?' You're rebooting the universe. Why do you need to rub taking Oracle away in our faces like this when you could've just had her never be shot. Though, I do appreciate how Simone is handling the internal conflict that Barbara is experiencing as a result of all of that.

[terrence-silver]

Could you do you a scenario where beloved wants a divorce from Terry

---

Divorce?

Man doesn't do divorce.

You can try and live apart from him and see how long it takes him to recover you, you can try to regain your freedom and fail at each and every turn and you can try to take legal action, but that's a riot, because Terry's known to break international laws constantly and with impunity. In fact, the only circumstances I can imagine Terry initiating divorce proceedings under is because he knows it'll will, in fact, never happen, and this is all a game to him, just like the whole justice system is, and he'll be there, rubbing it into beloved's face. Look. I'm getting away with it. Again, huh? Why? Because there's no earthly court that can take you from me. But you knew that all along, didn't you? So why the surprise? Did you think I was messing around? Talking the talk without walking the walk?

It's elaborate foreplay.

A flex of power.

A fetish.

A whole lot of spite. A really bizarre way of courtship and flirtation, almost.

The judges, persecutors, advocates and the whole courtroom staff is in his pockets one way or another, and he's on first name 'I'll invite you over for dinner' basis with most if not all of them, so really, what's there to fear? These are his people and he's gotten out of far more serious jams unscathed. Terry will be there, arriving to each meeting fully energized and enthusiastic because oh, he's looking forward to this each and every time, showing up with his team of lawyers for negotiations only to taunt beloved and hit on them. Smile at them. Wink at them, gleeful nostrils flaring and all. Bring them gifts shamelessly. Peacock himself around them and show off his best suits, endeavoring to infuriate them on purpose. Invade their personal space. Spill double entandres. Intimidate them one second and them attempt to charm them the next. Try to seduce them back because they belong to him. This divorce isn't a possibility because he'll never consent to it, and in fact, he'd sooner become a widower than a divorced man, the same way he'd rather put John Kreese behind bars than accept John, might, in fact, have a weird sort of connection to someone else too, no matter how unhealthy. He views this as a battle of wills he's already won and he finds it amusing and romantic, almost, like a meanspirited bully who knows he has all the cards up his sleeve would, embracing the idea that this whole divorce process is like a whirlwind spat between lovers. A whole new way he can enjoy each and every one of beloved's expressions. Their body language. The things they say. They do. The way he can eat up their outrage. Their bafflement. Every emotion they have to offer him, making himself the star of the show. The center of attention. The way they react when he, shockingly, suggests, they can get divorced solely so they could have the pleasure of getting re-married all over again or sending them a 1001 roses through his lawyer and his lawyer's assistant. He's even got the location of the second honeymoon picked out already for a second wedding; he's deliberately toying around with beloved, all while being very serious, because nobody should doubt for a moment he wouldn't go through all of these things. Oh, he would. And oh, he'd be there on mandatory reconciliation processes presenting himself as the aggrieved party who doesn't want this at all, all while he fully relishes it. It's all so unethical and he adores it.

Gets a kick out of it.

Gets turned on by it.

And he'd barely hold back a sleazy smile when his lawyer brings up the fact that Mr. Silver loves his spouse very much. His unreasonable spouse, yes. Perhaps...even...dare I say...mentally unstable spouse? Yes. That sounds good on paper. Because only someone unreasonable and mentally unstable would insist on a divorce that is unsustainable, but all the more proof, his lawyer would say, that this marriage shouldn't be dissolved precisely because it stands on such a solid foundation of tolerance, acceptance and love; all prime virtues of matrimony and everything a court of law upholds --- making beloved out like the unhinged, villainous party, effectively gaslighting them, the public, the press, the judge and everyone involved in this, exhausting the whole court, seeing as how Terry could do this for years and not let up. He's refusing to give beloved their freedom, and yet somehow, he effectively spined the narrative in such a direction where the Kafkaesque absurdity of this case can have him seeming like the victim and beloved the bad guy, with there being no telling just how far things could go, but imagination is the limit, and with Terry Silver, I reckon very, very far, because he's willing and able to things very far.

Ultimately, thirty years could pass.

Terry could be an old man, hosting a garden party somewhere in Malibu, surrounded by a posse of people, seemingly dating someone else for show because quick diversions are needed, with his divorce, technically, still in process and still nowhere even near a conclusion even though beloved technically lives elsewhere; all these nobodies, they're drinking his liquor, eating his food, mingling on his estate, making idle, empty conversation into his and each other's ears, rubbing shoulders with him and none of them even vaguely realize that he's been married for well over four decades, practically holding beloved hostage by refusing to sign irregardless of the fact that he's flaunting himself as straight laced, mellow and rehabilitated and that he doesn't intend to cease being married any time soon, nor that he's going to let something miniscule as beloved's desire for divorce to prevent him from that.

Terry Silver always gets what he wants.

What he wants is beloved.

What he got was beloved by refusing to be beaten.

He's warned them not initiate a divorce back in the day.

That their life would never be the same if they do. He wasn't joking.

There's no denial that, behind that cocksure, devil-may-care, arrogantly sadistic and unrelenting attitude he is actually deeply crestfallen that you wanted to separate from him legally in the first place, which is precisely why his revenge and reimbursement for his broken heart will be never letting you go, oh, beloved you, and call yourself lucky, because there's men who'd kill you for taking them to the cleaners like this, but he loves you far too much for that and that's, in his opinion, a rare mercy he never gives anyone. Ultimately, you did this to yourself.

[bamboobrat]

succession s4 e5 recap: swedish elon and his logan roy tribute band

time is a flat circle and we are back to ken hyping himself listening to rap, driving to the office.

anyone feeling nostalgic yet?

he is immediately caught off guard by the fact that roman and shiv are already there.

also he seems like the worst boss ever.

i really don't like ken when he is not hitting rock bottom.

(there is a movie about a sleeping robot in a cave that takes up too much time in this episode. let's not get into all that)

the old guard checks up on the CE-bros before their trip to norway.

matchy matchy<3

turns out mattson wants them all there (why wouldn't he?) so THE GANG IS GOING TO NORWAY! lets bleed the swede!*

*as a norwegian, i approve this message

mortality has set into team krank, as they put on compression socks before the flight.

krank is not here to have fun. krank has no young mistress to impress. krank is serious.

shiv has noticed ken's leaks to the media from last week because she is boss. it's the comeback we've been waiting for.

but most importantly, she is waging a very important war against tom and his stupid new sneakers:

the sibs say they can kill tom for her. that's brotherly love.

hugo is not having a good time.

i am tho.

gerri rallies the troops by shitting on europeans.

yes mommy tell me i'm weak because i have free healthcare! sit on my face

gerri for CEO. always.

they accurately depict what it is like driving in norway:

(this is why i don't have my licence)

the gang arrives in the motherland and it's beautiful, but rainy (so authentic) and are all like WHY THESE WOOD CABINS SO SMALL?!

ironic because jeremy lives in fucking denmark.

anyway, whatever this is:

I DO NOT APPROVE!

the trip up to mount olympus is interrupted by con saying he can send a picture of their dead dad to the group chat.

nobody wants to see it.

also, marcia is putting logan in a kilt like the fucking bay city rollers and con had to cancel a room full of working class whites in cleveland. the sacrifice.

they give con carte blanche for the whole funeral thing, which is probably a terrible decision.

the funeral is going to be one big campaign rally, i'm serious.

the others have to settle for a nice lil scandi brunch spread. what a hard life.

i don't say this often, but i would be hugo in this scenario, piling onto my plate like it's nobody's business.

karolina has a cute lesbian moment.

she says something in swedish at some point, but let me tell you, i understand swedish and i didn't even pick up on it. no shade to dag, but lol.

hugo doesn't understand how ski jumping works.

i thank the writers for putting this joke in there, even if literally no one other than random scandi people will get it.

it's like the opposite of danny boyle's the beach<3 give back to the community<3

roman enters negotiations and puts his fingers in the caviar.

you think i didn't notice? after all this time, you must know i notice everything.

the CE-bros make the village elders proud, as mattson offers 187 per share as long as he gets ATN.

also, gerri does a second take looking back at roman. these are the crumbs i am destined to live on, i guess. roman doesn't want to give up ATN tho, probably because 1) his dad wanted ATN 2) his dad told him he wouldn't make it at pierce and belongs at ATN 3) he is, somehow, the most rational of the siblings right now????

speaking of rational: how are we feeling about the shiv/mattson potential here? i honestly have zero objections.

shiv is like fuck yeah, sell ATN, that shit is toxic.

agreed, but who gave mencken an open line to ATN-meetings? sounds like something logan told cyd to do during one of those late night calls.

"even dad had a line" rings true zero percent. pass.

get rid of atn. word is, they don't even have tucker carlson anymore? just keep a sweater, much less racist.

we get some important leo dicap representation:

and greg is the bringer of all that is exposition, telling us there is a kill list with 8 to 9 names, ever evolving.

now, as most readers of these recaps would know, i would like to avoid spending any time on greg whatsoever (made even more poignant by the recent rumors about nick), however, this must be one of the best exchanges of dialogue ever made:

greg: da fam shiv: da fuck

that's all.

tom tells the swedes that americans don't care about the rest of the world and it's funny because it's true.

and alex being like "you're ALL related?!"

i see you, succession writers, i see you.

mattson calls waystar a parts shop and has a good take on right wing media:

"i dont think news for angry, old men works"

instead, he opts for bloomberg grey: simple, cheap, huge, ikea'd to fuck. i do love ikea.

he calls the sibs a tribute band which is harsh. even for a scandi, it's fucking harsh.

anyway, SAUNA! SAUNA! SAUNA!

GERRI. IN. SAUNA! (chant with me)

i will never forget what the succession writers took from me.

krank out here just chilling.

i've never shipped anyone more.

we are introduced to ebba. i can tell i'd have more to say on this in any other situation, but it just feels weird (all norwegian know each other, i guess).

anyone else here for the shiv/mattson dynamic?

i'm sorry, i kind of ship it????

ken wants to tank the deal and roman immediately calls him out on his destructive bullshit:

and then immediately caves.

"i think we are good at running the ship" they say after doing it for approximately 24 hours.

i wish i had their confidence.

also, pinky can't dance, according to ken, so they keep shiv out. meanwhile, she gets cozy with lukas, who asks her about her marriage (bad) and tells her he sends liters of blood to ebba (also bad).

shiv shows us why she is paid the big bucks for political advice:

we don't see the end of their night, so i'm just going to assume they fucked. because she's worth it.

also, talking up gerri and karolina? girlies stick together<3

big bi vibes here. huge. idc if she's pregnant and drinking.

meanwhile, the CE-bros use greg to leak that the negotiations are souring. why would you trust greg with anything?

in an attempt to fuck the deal, the CE-bros show a terrible film to the swedish team, as if being scandi doesn't mean you've sat through enough terrible cinema already....

we get the strangest fight in tv history:

lol @ us for thinking this was an important moment for the two of them and then it's a fight about white sneakers and fat earlobes.

i sure hope shiv fucked lukas.

roman receives a photo of his dead dad and it doesn't really put him in the right place to negotiate with mattson:

ouch.

leave it to kieran to make an emmy-worthy speech across from alex skarsgaard peeing.

the plan was: tank the deal, but in a subtle way. what they did: try and tank the deal, but in a not very subtle way. did the deal tank: no.

i hope you understand.

the question is, if a deal collapses in the woods and no one hears it, is it a SEC violation?

mattson ends up offering 192 per share. karl jizzes his pants.

shiv gives the little spelunker tom a lil treat, telling him to fire cyd.

then she asks him out?

and ignores him again because she is taking a call from mattson?

idk my dudes, but i'm into this shiv comeback.

mattson seems happy and flirty and i sure as shit hope this goes somewhere.

as long as it doesn't involve liters of frozen blood.

i have a feeling it will be all good vibes until he learns about her pregnancy. there's always something rotten in the state of denmark (or norway, or sweden, but it's all the same).

the waystar-team receives the kill list after the offer and it's very stressful for a few people who made themselves suffer through a session in the sauna:

not on the kill list: karolina gerri tom because shiv fucking did the thing!!

oh, and karl and frank are on the kill list, but i think they are just fine.

maybe the real treasure was the compression socks we made along the way.

[secondhand-snow]

I saw this prompt list on twitter which goes like 'reverse fake dating - everyone is convinced that you aren't actually dating' and i think this trope would go perfectly with stewy x waystar executive reader :)

no cause ur so right...

They've known each other for years and years, meeting first at her job. At the time, she'd only been an intern for Kendall, handling his meetings and proposals and whatever other bullshit he needed an extra hand with. Stewy came into the office guns blazing, immediately throwing a playful insult her way, "I didn't know Waystar was hiring college students now?" Surprisingly, she'd been able to match him without skipping a beat "Oh no, they have very high standards here. Ergo, you not having a position at the company."

The interaction begins their years of banter and faux hatred. As she moves through the ranks and begins working with shareholders more directly, Stewy doesn't hesitate to make his 'dislike' for her known. He says she's "All beauty, no brains," and "She's practically a child! Yesterday she learned her ABCs and now she's negotiating with high stakes clients. Great idea, Kendall." To the rest of the world, the pair were complete enemies. Not a day passed by when an argument didn't ensue between the two of them.

Which is why nobody believed it when Roman said he'd seen them together outside of work. The Roy swore they were at a bar that weekend, acting all buddy buddy and even holding hands. But when he couldn't provide any proof, everyone waved it off as another one of Rome's messy jokes. That is, until Kendall brought it up at a board meeting. It's an offhand comment towards her, something like "... about as real as Stewy and you dating-" trying to explain the disreputable behavior of another company. But then she responds, "What do you mean? We are."

Everything is quiet for a second after that, interrupted with Roman's "I told you so!" It takes a while to convince people, everyone believing it's some kind of practical joke you were playing together. It gets to the point where Stewy has to pull out his phone to share old photos of them, saying "Wait you didn't know? Yeah, it's been, what, five years now?" It's mind boggling for the executive team. How do two people who so publicly hate each other actually be deeply in love? She tells everyone it's just their sense of humor, says she can't believe they didn't pick up on the comedy in their teasing.

Kendall says "You- you literally called him a dick during the meeting yesterday!" But she only responds "Mhm. I called him a dick last night too."

[alpineshift]

How about prompt 12?

All the possibilities!! Maybe a post-apocalyptic, The Last of Us angsty vibes au?

12. “You can’t tell anyone. Seriously. Even them.”

Something's off about this whole job.

Jack's hiding something. Nico knows he is. He sees it in the lines of tension covering Jack's shoulders that never dissipates, and the permanent dark circles under his eyes.

He's not sure if anyone else has noticed, but Nico has, simply because he notices everything when it comes to Jack. He's pretty sure that's not part of their weirdly co-dependant friends-with-benefits situation (but secretly more than friends and not just physical benefits) for him to be nosy, but Nico can't help it.

He's so protective of Jack it's not even funny. It's very stressful in the post-apocalyptic, brain-fungal infecting reality they live in, but Jack is his one single, shining beacon of normality. Someone who's serious, protective, and capable, but also kind, sweet, and simply makes Nico smile.

So yeah. Something is way off. Jack cobbles together a pretty minimal team transporting what's apparently some secret, hyper-sensitive chemicals up to the US-Canada border, but yet he tried to leave Luke and Quinn out (red flag number one) and then only reluctantly let his brothers join after they nearly tore him a new one for trying to run off by himself (red flag number two). They're all a team, damn it. They've never done a run without each other.

Nico doesn't get the full story until one night, when he walks in on Jack washing up by himself in the shallow riverbank at midnight.

It's a full moon, which is the only reason why he sees it: the bite mark lodged in Jack's upper arm, deep and painful-looking, but, miraculously, healed over.

What the fuck.

Jack nearly shoots him when Nico goes splashing over, wild-eyed and panicked, grabbing Jack by the arm and dragging him over to inspect the bite mark. Jack's cursing him out and shivering, goosebumps all over from the icy water, and Nico just absent-mindedly wraps him up as he traces his fingers over the bumpy skin.

How was this possible? The infectious period is an aggressive one; the shortest Nico's ever seen someone turn after a bite is thirty-four seconds. Nobody's ever made it beyond fifteen hours. Jack couldn't have (shouldn't have) survived it. The thought alone makes Nico's vision grey out at the edges.

"I don't know how to explain it," Jack tells him, hushed and shaking. Nico's shaking as well, fingers so tight around the other man his knuckles have turned white. "All I know is--I blacked out after getting bitten that time my crew was ambushed in Philly two years ago. I thought I was done for. But I woke up and the bite just--healed over. Nothing happened. None of the bioscanners ever picked anything up. I sent my blood secretly up to the labs in Niagara and they said--they said I might have immunity."

And all the dots connect in Nico's head in one swift, terrible moment of realization.

"No. No. You are not giving yourself up as--as a lab rat. No, Jack, you can't do that--you don't know what they'll do to you--is there even a payload to deliver for this trip? Or is that case just an empty prop?"

Jack's silence is damning. Nico thinks he's going to lose his mind.

"You can't tell anyone," Jack rushes to say, his voice a harsh, desperate whisper. "Seriously. Even them." (And Nico knows he's talking about Luke and Quinn, which, this explains why Jack didn't want them to come at all, fuck.) "The labs held up their end of the deal and delivered half of the rations and medicine I negotiated for the Jersey compound. They'll get the other half when I show up. This might be our only fuckin' chance at peace, Nico. This might be all we ever get."

"Then I'm staying with you," Nico answers, stubborn. He doesn't care, Jack can resist all he wants, but lab staff is going to have to drag him out as a corpse if they think he's going to leave Jack at their mercy. "I'm not letting you go alone, Jack. That's final."

send me a jacknico prompt!

[marcusrobertobaq]

How "famous" are Connor and Kara during the game? What's their public image like?

Nothing major, just some few observations i don't see people talking about. I just wanted to leave this saved in here. Maybe can inspire somebody, who knows.

I won't be talking about Markus cuz his whole deal is exactly the public image in this game, so i'll be only commenting on "CyberLife's new detective prototype" and "the runway AX400".

⚠️ ALERT OF POOR ENGLISH SKILLS AND EXPLANATIONS. I also got a bit of HC here to help expressing my feelings.

-> Kara, the rogue AX400 model

A quick summary: She got a price on her head...and Alice made her life difficult. Don't worry, i gonna explain.

Although having a common face can be an advantage in some infiltrations, Kara's face can also be a target on her back, even if she changed appearance.

Everything start with her escape from Todd (determinant murder). In the night she escapes itself everything was cool tho but there was a big problem: witnesses. She walked into public spaces (like the bus), got a kid by her side, can even steal some stuff and point a gun at people - and ofc these are TRACKS. Want something worse? Her case appears on TV.

If Todd is alive he even gives an interview

Now she's wanted by the law.

People in the region is wary for any AX400 with her likeness, the police is all over the region trynna find someone with the discriptions. A girl with the AX400 likeness, without a LED and in human clothes? IT'S HER.

(she was lucky the guy from the motel didn't insist in her ID)

And u can notice her "disguise" ain't that perfect cuz the police can still recognize her - probably cuz of the fact she looks like an AX400, changed appearance and GOT A KID ON HER SIDE (likely the discription given by the bus guy).

But Kara is also lucky: these types of case are becoming constant. The number of "androids going rogue" rising. Although she's all over the news, she's still a commercial android. If she escapes it's likely people would forget about her after some time cuz there will be another case like this and other suspicious AX400s.

So my bet is "the rogue AX400 on the run" is something well known, but may be forgettable - not the case per se but "WHO" this actually is.

Nobody knows "Kara", only the "dangerous AX400 from the chase" the police struggled. But we got a LOT of AX400s and lotta of 'em gonna go deviant. It's even funny how they especulate the "young woman" and "little girl" are 2 defective machines. These unconfirmed sources are always so fucking shady.

And u see nobody recognizes her outside Detroit (for whatever reason), not even the cop, even with her case on the news. Idk if it was difficult implementing something checking if the police recognized her or not (meaning they would get an update on Kara's "new" appearance).

I guess was something local, her case is public - but her name? Nah. Again: even tho we got disadvantages when spotted in small regions, if she disappears she has just...dissapeared. Even the "Android Crime Unit" gives up her case 😂

-> Connor RK800, CyberLife's new prototype

First of all i think his face was probably in all places after this hostage situation.

Even if he fails, some cut stuff suggests some people remembered him as the android negotiator in Partners (when the 2 chapters didn't had a 2 months time skip).

I bet he was all over the internet too, although i think his name was unknown in that period. The only ones that knew his name was probably the SWAT team - "My name's Connor, i'm the android sent by CyberLife".

And then we got Ortiz's case. Reporters were there and everybody saw an android entering the crime scene (what they ain't supposed to do) with Lt. Anderson - a known figure in the city, quite famous in law enforcement i'd say.

Later in the game is mentioned in the news a new "detective prototype" was assigned to the DPD from several sources, the first case of an android with active role in crime scenes. Also the fact a "Android Crime Unit led by Anderson" was formed. I honestly don't know if they knew Connor's name, but his model series ain't difficult to find out or getting leaked. From there it's even easier getting both information together. For now the public don't know "Connor".

I assume after The Nest and On the Run (where Connor appears in public again and gathers LOTTA attention) everybody already know at least about the RK800 from the hostage situation now working with the Police Department. If it's positive or negative i really don't know, but he def gathered attention esp if he's succesful. The chase on the highway also gets on the news. My bet would be people inside the police department know his name, or at least "Connor, the detective prototype model".

By Public Enemy i assume overall cops know him, like that one that can be saved in The Hostage. He's recognized by his face, model and name. I like imagining after Markus speech was expected Anderson and Connor would be called, after all it's the "Android Crime Unit". Maybe it's limited tho, Perkins doesn't seem to know 'em so i think Connor ain't known in federal level law enforcement. It's at this point i think Connor is starting to make a name as "Deviant Hunter" among the deviants. We've already had The Eden Club murder case, the Ortiz murder case, the Hostage situation, Connor and the police searching for the runway (killer) AX400.

For the average people on the streets i think "RK800 Connor, the CyberLife's latest prototype, the detective model" is already recognized at least if mfs watch the news about androids, and he also got a name in law enforcement - now also known by the FBI.

So yea, i'd say he's quite known but i wouldn't call him a celebrity, esp cuz androids are in a negative pov in this universe. Also ain't cuz Connor is known that he'll also be relevant. "Androids investigating androids?" must be a common question too. In law enforcement it's likely he's "disliked" cuz means androids are now taking active roles from humans, but the public opinion probably print a "protector of human lives" kinda image depending on his succesful actions like the Hostage one (if he saved Emma) and the Stratford Tower one (if he prevented a massacre), but i'd take it with a grain of salt. It raise questions which CyberLife always remain silent and the authorities refuse sayin' something. And what happens when we ain't got official sources? Rumors are spread and opinions are overall divided.

But it's a valid questioning the average folk would have: is Connor really a detective model? Why can he use guns? Why we got androids using weapons now? How do we know he won't turn against humans? How do we know CyberLife ain't pulling 'em strings again? Will androids replace humans in every single space?

Only thing i know is Connor is "recognizable".

And if he bring the army? Damn, that shit was all over the news. People would def comment.

[thefoxtrot008]

Dialogue Prompts

Alright, you guys. Here is part 6 of the prompts! No specific category for this one, though, but it is kinda long. So, enjoy! :)

"Let me do it this time." "Absolutely not." "You got to do the illegal stuff last time, why can't I do it this time?!"

"Shit. I got shot." "Good thing my dress matches my blood. It can blend in easier."

"There's a pair of tweezers in the bag there."

"I'm going to call it now."

"What's wrong with my outfit?"

"I'm sorry, I thought the whole point of being here was to not draw attention to ourselves?!"

"I haven't told them about the transfer yet..."

"Don't be rude. We'd love to come over."

"Well, whatever you do, don't rule that option out completely."

"I didn't know you could pull off moves like that."

"Um, that's the point. Gotta blend in."

"Yea, for my sake, don't tell anyone."

"I'm pissed okay?! That was a totally bust job, we got nothing accomplished!"

"Is that what you think of me?"

"Good! We never wanted you on our team anyway! You've been slowing us down, since day freaking one!"

"Guys, can we not fight?"

"Fine, then. Give me the keys." "I still think we should talk about this more-" "Keys. NOW!"

"Great. Now you've pissed her off!"

"I'm sorry, alright. You were right. I was out of line."

"You have my permission. Sign then."

"I thought this was what you wanted?"

"Take a deep breath. On the count of three."

"The stitches came out."

"Oh, come on. Don't be like that." "Don't be like what?" "You know what I mean." "Well, clearly, I don't."

"Since when did you know how to do this?"

"Do you really want to cause a scene right now?" "Yes, I want to cause a scene right now! How about this, you are so stubborn and so annoying!"

"You are both under arrest."

"She does have a point." "Who's side are you on?"

"Let. Go. Of. Me."

"No, I don't want to hear it. We told you this would happen didn't we? And you, didn't listen!"

"Yea, can we not go to prison? That would be great."

"Tell him I said hi."

"I don't like this anymore than you do."

"We have no other choice."

"So, who's fault is that? Because I'm not cleaning this mess up."

"You said this about her? No wonder she wants to transfer."

"I don't think this is a good idea."

"They'd look so cute together.... We should set them up."

"You really think that he kept the letters after all this time?"

"Long time no see!"

"Can you watch him for a second? I'll be back."

"I'm honestly surprised that you didn't know that fact."

"Noice. Let's go." *fist bump*

"We should wear a type of disguise. So, we don't get caught."

"Turn it around... be careful."

"We're so close, I can feel it."

"So, the best option is to split up. You. You're coming with me."

"Yes, that would be a big problem if that happened."

"They've found the car."

"My drill broke!"

"Take the frame, we're going to have to take it apart in the elevator."

"You're not the only one."

"I hate him with every fiber of my being."

"This is between the three of us. Nobody needs to get hurt here."

"I don't think you understand the situation here. I'm holding all the cards and yet, you're trying to negotiate with me."

"You can have all the treasure, just let us go!"

"Mmm... I don't think I will. See, you have another clue."

"I don't... I'm out."

"Let's give it some finishing touches."

"We have to go inside."

"I don't think that we have to go somewhere else, I think it's still here."

"But where?"

"Give a little warning next time, before you do that."

"All tunnels have to end, eventually."

"I'm sorry I snapped at you."

"What's happening here? You gave them a fake clue." "We had to buy ourselves sometime."

"It's not what I thought it would be."

"Please, don't break. Please don't break!"

"Um... because you're the bad guy?"

"I've found door number three.... And I'm gonna take it."

"I'm not doing anything else for you unless you answer my questions."

"But it gives me more time to spend with you!"

"Did you guys not read my book?" "I have! I've read it! More than twice!" *whispers* "I think I'm your biggest fan, babe." "Not gonna lie, you definitely are."

"I'm going to run this red light!"

"Watch the people!" "I don't think we're supposed to be going down this way."

"He's right behind me! Where else do you want me to go?!"

"They're right on their way, right now, and I'd guarantee they'd love to meet you too."

"That was hot." "Aw, thanks, babe."

"Fine. But your henchmen stay behind. It's just you." "What makes you think that I'm gonna agree to those terms?"

"Go! I'll meet you at the car." "How do they expect to meet us there?!"

"It's going to take forever to dig these rocks out of the way."

"DON'T LET GO OF MY HAND!"

"You demolished my family name for this?"

"Alright. That's it! I'm going to deck the living shit out of you!"

"It comes in a series."

"Didn't... didn't they get married?"

"I'll stay! I'll stay behind, look! I'm staying."

"So, you won't tell me the way out, unless I give you what you want?" "The way out is through that tunnel there." "Why are you doing this?"

"I can't help you, unless you find what you're looking for." "I won't let you down, sir."

"I'm telling you exactly what it says."

"Alright, you're the only one who knows. Indulge us. What's the next clue?" "You think I'm gonna give that up so easily?"

"Yes, thank you, for clearing that up."

"The wall closed behind us and trapped us in." *touching the wall* "There has to be a way out!"

"I'm in. If you are, that is."

"No hesitation, okay?" "Right. It'll run the whole plan."

"How exactly do you expect us to pull this off?"

"There's only one way now: forward."

______________________________________________________________

And that's all folks! :)

[nochi-quinn]

campaign 3 episode 66: early edition

I didn't watch any of team issylra and then I missed last week bc I was traveling so let's see how fuckin lost I am this week

(tho I skipped most of Let's Be Pirates in c2 and a chunk of c1 when I went from watching the archives to livewatching so eh)

tbh someone in a chat I'm in said BH still feel like NPCs kinda and they're…not wrong? the plot is happening TO them vs BECAUSE of them kinda thing

okay I was late bc I was reading ella enchanted to my kid

stray gods ad in the corner! god I'm so hyped for stray gods

travis looks good tonight

kiki :(

matt. say. things. OUT. LOUD. FIRST.

"only hurt him"

ahh, a nice relaxing fetch quest where certainly nothing will go wrong

once upon a forest vibes

leave orym's people aloooone

"I should be the one making the trip" keyleth istg

liam trying to find out if she also saw The Boy

she saw The Boy

forever laying in the floor about vaxleth

(someone on one of my lovm text post memes said they "just want them to be happy" and I just. bless them.)

don't out her like that orym jeeze

wait the poison ate her spell slots?? that's cheating

god I love her

"twice a year"

when we watched lovm with my roommate she asked why keyleth was wearing a pelvis on her forehead. I explained that it was antlers and it belonged to her mom and she asked why she was wearing her mom's pelvis on her head. so the diadem is ruined for me now

heading off any further fantasy religion discourse with the fact that keyleth has always been like this

tbf "the ascension and the ceiling" also works

ascended until it didn't

always good to know your insane plans worked out

"did he get raptured"

lmao the note-taking arm stretch

"you hear want you wanna hear, travis willingham"

(I wasn't looking, did they subtitle it "urine")

orym mom ORYM MOM

"what if your stuff takes a while?" found liam's mom

hobbit hole but in the side of a mountain

I love liam's face when he's having Emotions about his boys

oh my best friend from when I was a kid is named Alma, I'm prepared to do a million double-takes

orym version of the time my kid climbed under the table and onto the weird recessed buffet thing in the wall; there was no way to get around or over the table so we just had to sit there and try to negotiate with a three-year-old

flashbacks to seeing teenage photos of my partner at his grandmother's house

sam

oh no he's planted the seed

WHISPERS

did you fuck my mom, santa claus?

"whitestone is for lovers, zephrah's for fuckers"

stray gods STRAY GODS

SAM

"sorry, Q"

"rocks fall, everyone dies" pay randy millholland 5 dollars

okay I have to tap out, we've got a storm system rolling in and it's playing hell with my sinuses. I know there's about to be a bunch of combat so nobody fuckin die okay

[somethingusefulfromflorida]

Kevin McCarthy is not going to be elected Speaker today. There will be 3 or 4 ballots, and then they will adjourn, probably for the weekend, giving the "normal" republicans more time to fail to negotiate with the "far right" ones (they are both equally far right; McCarthy voted not to accept the 2020 election results, and Majory Green and Lauren Boebert are Tweedledumb and Tweedledumber). The so-called normal ones are still convinced they can corral the dissenters back into McCarthy's camp. We all know the normals would rather work with the crazies than Democrats, so anyone who says "uniparty" is fucking delusional. Normals and crazies are two sides of the same coin.

Republicans are fractured, but no matter how many times they commit what the media calls political suicide they never seem to die. They get rewarded for incompetence and embarrassment. It's all spectacle, it's meant to get asses in seats and eyes on screens, nothing more. What's gonna happen is McCarthy is gonna cave next week or the week after, and then the entire party will rally behind a freedom caucus nutjob who is functionally identical to McCarthy. There is NO scenario where Democrats come out on top here.

That's the thing, EVERY Republican is identical, it's just a matter of how much they care about presenting themselves otherwise. This speaker debacle has nothing to do with ideology, it's just personal. McCarthy has given the "fringe" everything they want, he's their greatest ally, he gives the appearnace of level-headed normalcy to their insanity, a sugar-coating to their poison pill, but they still pretend he's a liberal puppet because HE pretends (not very convincingly) that he's cloeer to the center than he actually is. This is all keyfabe. Everybody says "I just want what's best for America," but nobody means it! It's all about what's best for the party, and my sympathies lie with the Democrats on this one if for no other reason than I trust them to pass budgets and not get bogged down with theatrics (January 6 was tame compared to Benghazi, laser focused, it didn't distract from the functioning of government).

What would actually be best for the country would be a power sharing arrangement with a Democratic speaker (probably not Jeffries) answering to Republican controlled committees. The nutjobs get to waste time and money on their little shit shows, but then the Speaker can just ignore them, effectively vetoing any crazy bullshit they spew, preventing it from ever getting to the House floor. Only the stuff that matters would get voted on, and if the Republicans decided not to play fair by holding the budget hostage, it would be another game of chicken, same shit as always, home team advantage to the Democrats because they have the Senate and Presidency and would temper/remove the craziest bullshit amyway. The Republicans can threaten a shutdown or a debt deefault until the cows come home, we've danced this dance before and we will again.

It'll never happen. They will NEVER agree to share power. They will implode the government before they agree to help the Democrats, and we all know it. They'll rally behind someone less presentable than McCarthy because that's what the narrative demands. It's more entertaining for the Speaker to be openly hostile than to pretend to have decorum. Republicans are all petty and vindictive, some are better at hiding it, but whoever they pick won't even fucking try.

[iviarellereads]

System Collapse, Chapter 7

(Curious what I'm doing here? Read this post! For the link index and a primer on The Murderbot Diaries, read this one! Like what you see? Send me a Ko-Fi.)

In which, this is gonna go one of two ways.

The humans get on the go fast, and Iris has a conversation with Trinh about how they know the B-Es outside, they could talk to them any time, and they came to talk with the colonists. Murderbot and the humans all agree the timing is suspicious, catching them mid-sleep-cycle.

When the call is over, Art-drone privately prompts MB to do something. So, it tells them they absolutely cannot go. Iris says they can't refuse, this might give insight into what the B-E team plans to try to do with the colonists. Tarik agrees with MB, which almost makes MB suspicious. (It has charts to back up its feelings, new humans who agree with it too quickly are suspicious, and it's not like the round hatches thing.)(1) He says corporates will only ever meet to try to get something out of you.

MB decides that Tarik is right about the negotiation, but Iris is right that they can't all just stay and wait. So, it volunteers to go, and they can tell it what to say over the feed. Nobody likes the idea, not even MB, but it has the final say on security.

I just wished I knew what the fuck I was doing.

AC2 picks the meeting site, in a mostly-unused adjacent unused storage facility from the pre-CR development. It has life support and cameras, so hopefully if someone shoots MB, it'll make them look bad. At the entrance there's a notice to check the atmosphere readings before entering. MB isn't worried, both because it doesn't have the same requirements as humans, and because it trusts AC2.

Unfortunately for everyone, the negotiator is Supervisor Leonide, from the initial B-E exploratory crew.(2) Ratthi's the one to alert Iris and Tarik to the part where MB accompanied Arada on the meeting. They hope she won't recognize it. The hope is unfounded: she clocks it immediately.

Worse, when Leonide asks if this is a threat, MB responds with sarcasm. Some tension drains from her, because she might be afraid of a killing machine, but it's harder to be afraid of sarcasm and thinking-responses. She says this trip has been "full of surprises."

Iris assures MB it didn't fuck up, it made a connection with her, and put her at ease. She might be more likely to reveal information to a more familiar face, like this. MB figures it's worth a shot, and suggests Leonide could leave.

Leonide ignores the suggestion, and asks why Preservation is here, and if Mihira-Tideland are offering resource claims. MB says Preservation has more than enough alien contamination, thanks. (In the background, Iris tells the others to route all communication through her, so MB doesn't get distracted. MB can handle multiple human inputs,(3) but appreciates the gesture.)

Taking on a skeptical air, trying to manipulate the conversation the way journalists and solicitors do on the newsfeeds and dramas, Leonide asks what MB is doing here, why a tool is doing a person's job. MB repeats more or less what Arada told Leonide before: that the University is evaluating sustainability and mapping the system. Not its best move, since Arada had kind of bungled that negotiation.

Leonide asks why a SecUnit is involved, when they're usually only used to enforce, imprison, and attack. MB thinks that's a bit unfair, all considered, but since nobody comes up with anything better, it says that's proprietary, and asks why Leonide has two SecUnits with her. She makes a "sad smile", as if she cares about SecUnits, and says that only a SecUnit can stop another SecUnit. MB thinks about how many layers of wrong that is, not least because she didn't know there was a SecUnit here until now.

Before MB can think of something else to say, Leonide asks what the evaluation will be, from the University. MB is relieved by the change of subject, and more so when Iris feeds it a line: the evaluation will be for the colonists, when it's done. Leonide hmms, and folds her arms. MB thinks it has the air of a performance.

It also thinks, in retrospect, it should have paid more attention to its humans watching the cameras, because they were all alerting to some danger MB wasn't detecting. It thinks it needs to code a new patch for its threat assessment module.

Leonide, still pretending thoughtfulness, says B-E's evaluation is that the planet is not suitable for colonization. At best, it could be a research center for contamination. MB and co are unhappy she mentioned that. They wonder if B-E eavesdropped on them in the field, or if they just guessed what a university would want to do here.

MB asks if that's B-E's intention, and Leonide says they both know it isn't. However, it's been clear since arrival that the University plans to make the planet a laboratory. MB says no, the planet belongs to the colonists, it's in their charter (at least the charter that Art and co are forging), and there are no monetary bonuses for finding contaminated sites.

Leonide continues, talking over MB, accusing the University of wanting to turn the colonists into lab subjects. MB says that's a stupid plan, and B-E are the ones with the bad plans. Iris isn't sure where Leonide is going with this, but Leonide continues, asking why they were repairing the routers. MB says humans need routers, and leaves out the part where it was cover to make B-E less suspicious that they were trying to get the colonists to evacuate asap.

MB has been running analysis on Leonide's body language, and it finally gets a result: it's like she's talking to someone else, not in the feed, but treating MB like it's saying something other than it is.(3)

Having a bit of an emotion about the accusations, MB slips and says they don't need routers for that, but stops before that slips further. It says none of that is true, and B-E are the ones who want to indenture the population on a mining colony. Leonide offers the contract-language version of it, sanitised and sounding much prettier than reality.

Finally, MB realizes that Leonide isn't performing for MB, or even its team. She's performing for the camera, for the colonists. Art-drone disrupts the cameras, and the humans all process. Ratthi tries to say they surely couldn't believe it, but Tarik says their parents or grandparents were corporates, they don't have much experience with their tactics personally.

A moment passes where Leonide is obviously told the cameras were cut, and she simply walks out, not even excusing herself. MB hates her.

Iris apologizes in the feed, and excuses herself to contact Trinh. MB realizes this is why they wanted a negotiation: the leaders wouldn't let them talk to the whole colony, so they made their pitch this way. Even if she didn't fully convince them to take the indenture, she might convince enough of them that the University is untrustworthy.

MB spirals with guilt over failing to control this negotiation. It wants so badly to save these humans. Art-drone isn't helping, being all right about the situation when it says that the University's principles say the humans have to make their own decisions.

I wouldn’t give up, I couldn’t. We had to persuade them, I had no idea how. I wish Me 2.0 had survived for a lot of reasons, but specifically right now I wished it had survived because I suspected it would be really good at this. It had persuaded Three to disable its governor module and help it rescue a bunch of humans from the Targets. On TranRollinHyfa, I’d offered to hack a CombatUnit’s governor module and it had just tried to kill me even harder. On RaviHyral I’d hacked a ComfortUnit and turned it loose, and for all I knew it might be out rampaging around wiping out whole stations, but okay, the chances were against that. I’m just saying, this is not something where you can guarantee a result, with humans or constructs.(4)

It thinks further about what 2.0 accomplished, and… all it had access to were MB's files. It doesn't need to convince SecUnits to defect and help, this time it needs to prove the corporates aren't on the humans' side. So, it scours its memory archive, looking for clips to assemble its own anti-B-E equivalent of Dr. Bharadwaj's SecUnit documentary. It thinks Art could help, if it had access to its archives, but the blackout zone is still in effect.

MB carefully reviews everything 2.0 did to convince Three. While it does, it notices abstractly that its organic bits are going through some shit, breaking out in sweat and looking like it's headed for another breakdown… except, the specifics look more like the first time it watched Sanctuary Moon.(5)

(In the room, Iris tried to get Trinh to talk to her on the comm while Ratthi and Tarik tried to get me to respond. AdaCol2 tried to ping me. ART-drone told them all to wait.)(6)

MB reviews its conversations with Bharadwaj, and thinks about how the way you present information is so important to convincing humans with it. Media can change hearts and minds, literally rewrite neural processes.(7) All MB has to do is tell the humans a story, their story, B-E's story. Fictional, but true in the ways that matter.

Finally, it realizes it's collapsed to a huddle on the floor. It looks up, and Art-drone asks what happened. MB briefs it on its idea, not sure if it will understand, since Art doesn't feel media the way MB does.

But ART-drone said, Interesting. We need to consult the humans.

=====

(1) I mean, Murderbot's argument is that its charts for this are better, but it could very well be missing an outside factor in its skepticism here. Just gonna say that. (2) I'm not gonna sum up everything MB does here, just know that Leonide first appeared in NE 11. (3) Even knowing part of it was for the colonists, it makes perfect sense to me that Leonide is acting like MB is some sort of… communist scarecrow? Some imagined enemy spouting its own propaganda against hers. That's how the brainwashed operate, and how many who are less-brainwashed operate under stress. It was absolutely still a performance for the colonists, but I think it's completely realistic and believable that this layer is a part of that performance. After all, how do you convince someone of something if you don't believe it to be true, on some level? (4) So, even besides Amena being right about 2.0 being MB's child, in a way, I find the implications of this paragraph totally entrancing. Because, MB is forgetting the fundamental point of 2.0: that it was always MB's personality and skills at heart. While it's stuck in despair right now, it's going to break back out of that and it's going to kick this problem's ass because it can do anything 2.0 could have. (5) You're so close bb you got this! (6) Art trusts MB, perfectly and deeply. They can argue, they can disagree about specifics, but Art always knows MB and what it can do and when it's onto something. Even when it's just a tiny partition of itself in a drone. I JUST LOVE THESE TWO GOOBERS SO MUCH! (7) I love that Tumblr was talking in this way long, long before this book came out.

[melles1276]

I'd like to hear your POV

So, my fellow FF-writers out there ... I need your advice. How do you handle POVs?

Do you write per chapter? Or do you change the POV per section? Or do you split the chapter into two POVs?

Personally, I prefer to write entire chapters with just one POV. But I'm stuck at the moment because I started a chapter with a POV (Sam Wilson), but now I just have to insert a few lines from another POV (Bucky Barnes). Normally I wouldn't do that, but it would be kind of fitting. However, I'm afraid that this way (two POVs in one chapter) might be confusing.

Let me give you an example.

Here is an excerpt of my story:

POV Sam:

“Seems so,” Steve smiled briefly. "And what's next?"

“You heard Johnson - he's going to call the bank. “Probably to negotiate with the hostage takers.”

At that moment two more large police trucks pulled up. This time the letters “S.W.A.T.” could be read on the side walls.

Sam knew what that meant - if negotiations failed, the S.W.A.T. team would be called in. And they weren't exactly squeamish and didn't shy away from breaking in with armed force. A quick glance at Steve told him that his buddy was probably thinking the same thing.

“The way Bucky put it, these two are serious opponents.”

***

POV Bucky:

The mood in the bank had become a bit sour after Bucky's solo effort. Ahab and Ismael still seemed overwhelmed by the situation. Bucky had heard snippets of words from the distance several times. Apparently they were now planning to make a ransom demand. But that alone wouldn't help. The two also needed an escape vehicle and had to rely on the cooperation of the police. The discussion became more heated, but none of the suggestions about how to best get out of here sounded convincing to Bucky.

Ismael also expressed his displeasure at being hungry.

Bucky rolled his eyes, although he secretly knew that sooner or later they would have to provide people with food and water if they wanted to prevent a riot.

Then the ringing of the telephone in the headquarters broke through and immediately the tense atmosphere was back. Nobody moved. All eyes were on the device, which was ringing incessantly. The ringing sound rang countless times and seemed to get louder each time.

“Maybe someone should answer it?” Bucky asked no one in particular.

“The fuck we will do!” Ismael sucked in a breath.

***

POV Sam:

Sam thought. There weren't many options for freeing the hostages unharmed if there was no negotiation result. He didn't get any further with his thoughts because Sergeant Silva came towards them.

“Johnson wants to talk to you.”

When they entered the command car for the second time, there was still a hustle and bustle inside.

Johnson got straight to the point: “I made inquiries about Barnes. He’s a trained sniper?”

Steve didn't answer straight away, but looked briefly at Sam. “What are you trying to get at, Captain?”

"If we manage to smuggle a weapon into the bank-"

“Whoa!” Sam interrupted. “Since when have civilians been used to eliminate hostage takers?”

“Barnes is a Sergeant in the Army. He knows his way around weapons. We could use that to our advantage.”

“Buck is no longer in the military,” Steve clarified.

“Okay, then he’s a veteran. That doesn’t change the fact that he could be helpful to us.”

“Wouldn’t it be better if the whole thing was solved without force of arms? How did the conversation with the hostage takers go?” Sam wanted to know.

“No one answered,” Johnson had to admit. “Hence our consideration of including Barnes.”

“Shouldn’t you get some perspective before you think about using firearms?” Steve interjected. “What do we know about the hostage takers?”

“At the moment…nothing yet. We are in the process of evaluating the video recordings, but so far there are not many clues because the two are masked and deactivated the surveillance cameras shortly after the storm,” Johnson replied angrily.

“And what about the getaway vehicle?”

“It was found abandoned a few streets away and is currently being examined by forensics.”

"In other words," Sam said, "you're left empty-handed and someone else should fix it now."

Johnson narrowed his eyes at him. "We still have Plan B. The S.W.A.T. team is currently positioning itself on the roof and will then move further inside."

What do you think?

[gregoftom]

Re: Greg hating Shiv.

I do agree they have a very unfriendly relationship and it is 100% over the fact that Greg chooses Tom (or rather Tom chooses him lol) that veers close to hate because of who she is and how she treats everybody, especially Tom.

However, I can totally see a world where if Shiv and Tom were an actual team instead of her treating him like shit, the 3 of them could be a fucking powerhouse, covering every angle and take everything from under Logan/Ken.

Because at the very beginning of the show we see Greg choosing Shiv over Rome with the papers thing in ep 1 (which is also the thing that killed Greg in Rome's mind, he didn't do the one thing he asked so Greg was dead to him after that).

So potentially Greg was totally down to do Shiv's bidding and then he got close to Tom and became Tom's Greg and nobody paid any attention to what either of them did.

I love the scene at Caroline's wedding when the 3 of them are talking about Comfrey and making fun of Rome. The potential that trio had was totally untapped with how fucked up Tom and Shiv are, so naturally Tom and Greg gravitated toward each other, which is turn makes Shiv not give a fuck if they don't serve her purposes.

Even in s4, Greg was willing to negotiate with Shiv and all she did was threaten him (which we all know doesn't work lol) because at that point she is the one that hates Greg for having a rapport with Matsson and obviously supporting Tom all this time.

I don't even like Shiv but that scene at the wedding has such a grip on me for some reason!

i think that's the point though - shiv and tom and greg are supposed to all be at odds. i do not think there would be quite so much of an issue with ts relationship if greg were not around. like obviously they would have their fights, tom would be miserable, shiv would be bored and unable to be vulnerable with him etc. the events would still happen, but i think greg is a huge wrench in the works as well. america decides helps show this too, when tom moves into a room and greg makes to follow, shiv tries to physically block him from getting to him lmao. the show makes pretty pointed parallels and cinematography to indicate that tg are having at the very least an emotional affair and i don't think shiv would ever tolerate something like that, and she wouldn't tolerate someone else being chosen/preferred over her and like. that's not exactly a nice feeling anyway lmao, so...

i mean i don't think he Hates shiv or anything he doesn't want her dead lmao but you know. he doesn't like her. he dislikes her and that's fine bc she dislikes him too. wrt the beginning of the show he ended up choosing her because she appeared much more personable than roman and like he probably thought she could potentially be nice to him, and perhaps he gravitated more towards females because he's used to having his mother and like, she's not the nicest in the world to him but she's pretty decent so it makes sense.

and i mean even if greg hated somebody he would try to negotiate with them first of all, because it's easier and it's efficient and it gets him with good backup, that's just how he is naturally. no matter who the person was he would try to do the same thing i think. but yeah no there were multiple reasons imo that she ended up doing what she did instead and threatened him, but that wasn't the particular reason greg did what he did. he did it for tom, shiv was just the only person who could have saved herself. like, if she had offered something instead of threaten him she could've saved herself. but alas lmao.

i really like that scene too but i think for different reasons askJADLKJ like. i feel like shiv is being pretty cunty to greg and tom is Kinda joining in BUT he's giving greg these looks like. these kind of affair looks lmao. little smiles and bursting with happiness almost as though he knows what is going to happen later on.

[leagueofleaguesff]

League of Leagues🏈 Fantasy Football🏉 Superbowl Recaps 🙏

Lots happened since the last recap as you all know. The anticipated last MNF affair between the Bills and the Bengals was playing as scheduled. At 8:55pm the unthinkable happened. Bills player Damar Hamlin went down with a perceived injury common in these games. The injury was all but common or normal...it was horrible. Damar had to be resuscitated on the field. Rushed to the hospital. Intubation.

Everyone who witnessed will remember where they were when this occurred. It was that scary of a scene.

At that moment, the country was in a concerned for Damar as opposed to football and seeding and trivial matters as a life was in the balance ON THE FIELD.

Everything else seemed so minor. Our hearts, thoughts, prayers were with Hamlin. For a brief moment in time, the nation came together for a man no one knew.

Hate that it takes tragedy for this "togetherness" to take place.

From here, the social media support, the outpouring of donations to his toy drive charity, the sports new coverage, his health updates, all have highlighted the positives out of a dire situation for him.

Last update as continue this recap is he is communicating verbally with family. This is great news.

Life does move on but never forget this day. Not sure about the ramifications or influence on the league going forward due to an unforseen tragedy, but one thing is for certain...there is still good in this world.

👏 for the paramedics and medical staff on scene doing what they did quickly 8n order to save his life

👏 for the Bengals fans in attendance for showing class with thier support for not just an opponent...a human being

👏 for the coverage from staff at the time on ESPN. Uncharted waters.

👏 for the Bills community coming together and starting a rally on the toy drive donations and obviously thier support of the man Damar Hamlin.

👏 for the NFL finally postponing and outright cancelation of the game (at this point)

👏 for the positive messages, the #3 profiles in support for Damar online, his family and docs for giving us updates (they didn't have to)

👏 for the understanding of the other NFL clubs as this is unprecedented (canceled game)

👏 for the understanding of those playing in the superbowl or trying to place (for 3rd) with the results as they may

👏 for the medical staff taking care of Damar

👏 for the teammates paying for meals for the family, visiting him, etc

👏 for the fact he is alive and is trending back towards clear health

👏 to all of you reading this, participating in the fantasy season

👏 to the winners of their respective superbowl and runner ups as well

Looking forward to 100% recovery for Damar and the playoffs coming up.

Lots of final week drama for teams vying for a playoff spot in some games. This upcoming Monday, head coaches may be let go (typical). Trade rumors, draft classes, trades, releases, ownership changes (Washington), contract negotiations (Lamar, Clowney etc), the playoffs, the superbowl....its an exciting time still as good news settles are nerves selfishly.

Last redzone of the year coming (shout out Demetri) and we nearly had one each month. Thank you 🙏 to all those hosting draft night and redzones.

With the end result not what anyone was expecting, lets congratulate those who won and placed in each league.

CBS Challenge League

Nobody won. At least from a L.O.L member take. Jermaine DID make the playoffs 👏 though. Whoever wants to except this challenge next year, join is to see if we can actually win this damn league 😆

Fleaflicker Bragging Rights League

The league for Bragging Rights has no one to brag....sort of.

Big Rich was able to make the superbowl but with the fantasy implications, we will never know how things would have stood. Nonetheless 👏 for our resident substitute L.O.L member for making it that far.

Johnny & Carla were top seeds and played each other for 3rd in which Johnny was able to place in that matchup.

We will see who can win this league next year over a random player hopefully 🙏

Fantrax Experimental League

While Laura and Johnny got bounced out the 1st round, Taurean was the only L.O.L member to make it to the superbowl. It was an 8 team playoff starting later so Taurean can potentially win this league this week 🤞

Good luck to our homie T this week 🏈

Next year, the experiment calls for an all flex league. No defense. No kicker. One QB or OP slot. Anybody interested in playing on this difficult AF app let me know next year.

NFL SMACKDOWN🤼‍♂️ SLEEPER LEAGUE 🤼

While last years champion Taurean beat out Delmar so he could place (3rd), Matt and Carla met in the Superbowl.

It would turn out Carla as the new Sleeper League Champion 💪 👏

She gets her 💳 $50 gift card of choice. Kudos to her as she participated in not one...but 2 Fantasy Football Superbowls.

Gotta feel good 👍 not only to win but to beat out Matt who we must also congratulate for playing in two Superbowls as well 👀

🥇Carla

🥈Matt

🥉Taurean

Congratulations to all and round of applause for those playing 👏

Side Note:

After much thought, the Commissioner Laura has brought up something new for next year.

1st, a three level IDP on the roster. Meaning, next year instead of one IDP there will be IDP for all 3 levels of defense.

Linemen, linebackers, and DBs (corners & safeties).

Points will be slightly adjusted to make points more level (lineman/sacks, linebackers/tackles, defensive backs/interceptions)

2nd, the winner will get a $25 gift card of choice and....

A championship belt that will be passed year to year for the winner of the league. Seems appropriate as this is the NFL SMACKDOWN LEAGUE.

It won't be personalized (leave that for ILL FL) but nonetheless you hold the championship belt as long as you are the winner just like in wrestling.

Be ready for next year as whoever wins, will be the inaugural championship belt holder of the SLEEPER LEAGUE🤼‍♂️🤼‍♀️🤼

ILL-FL 🏈NFL Fantasy League🏆

Remember how I said Carla was in two superbowls? Well, you can also call her the 2x Champion!

Two tiiiiimes *2chainz voice*

This time, it was the Carlamaine Bowl. The gold was returning to a Williams household regardless.

As the other Williams couple were defeated, Laura and Johnny battled to place (3rd). Lady Laura who was the top seed of the league eneded up winning that contest.

Carla had to defeat her hubby Jermaine to get her name etched in the coveted 🏆 Trophy. Her name will now be documented in history as this year's league winner!

Congratulations to Carla, Jermaine, and Laura for placing.

As the commish is out overseas serving our country, I as co commish will make sure the Carla is etched in gold and presented at draft next year at Ricky & Julia place :)

🥇Carla

🥈Jermaine

🥉Laura

Congratulations 👏 to all. Make this off-season and ILL one ✊

ESPN N.erdy F.ootball L.eague 💍 💍 💍 💍

For Carla, she placed 3rd against Laura in this league...also placing in yet another league! She really killed it this year 👏

The superbowl was a much anticipated one between arguably the best two teams year in and out Peter and Matt.

Matt would come out victor in this matchup earning yet another ring. Peter who sees this as a threat to his throne has vowed to be back next year with a mission. To become the ring bearer.

Thankful for these two competitors for thier understanding and class as they both play hard each year.

Shout out to the entire league for that matter 👏 🙌

🥇Matt

🥈Peter

🥉Carla

Matt will be bestowed his new 💍 at the draft (or mailed but we want that pic of the bling!)

YAHOO CASH (STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED) LEAGUE 💸 🤑 💲 💵 💰

Last but not least, Yahoo League.

PapaKess, whoever he is, beat out Omar for the 3rd place Cash prize.

Delmar & Johnny faces off in the Cash Bowl. In this final game, yours truly came away with a win.

Happy for the 1st 2nd and 3rd prizes as its the only league to have such.

Let me shout out Delmar who made a few playoffs and at least came away with a 2nd place cash prize. Not shabby 😉 👌

Johnny will take the top cash prize (took me 7 league playoffs to win at least one). Thankful 🙏 for the win given all the circumstances of the last game.

$375 Johnny

$150 Delmar

$75 PapaKess

Love how all the winners get profit even 3rd place ❤

As the league name says STRANGER THINGS HAVE HAPPENED. This indeed was a strange year from beginning to end. We now look forward to the actual NFL postseason with this final week games having some teams seasons on the line.

Thank you all for playing and reading. Root for Taurean in Fantrax, have fun at the last redzone get together for this NFL season at Demetri, and enjoy the postseason! Until next year!