#i am however saying that your following is not your army or your employees | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dailyanarchistposts · 2 months

Text

Is it necessary to repeat here the irrefutable arguments of Socialism which no bourgeois economist has yet succeeded in disproving? What is property, what is capital in their present form? For the capitalist and the property owner they mean the power and the right, guaranteed by the State, to live without working. And since neither property nor capital produces anything when not fertilized by labor — that means the power and the right to live by exploiting the work of someone else, the right to exploit the work of those who possess neither property nor capital and who thus are forced to sell their productive power to the lucky owners of both. Note that I have left out of account altogether the following question: In what way did property and capital ever fall into the hands of their present owners? This is a question which, when envisaged from the points of view of history, logic, and justice, cannot be answered in any other way but one which would serve as an indictment against the present owners. I shall therefore confine myself here to the statement that property owners and capitalists, inasmuch as they live not by their own productive labor but by getting land rent, house rent, interest upon their capital, or by speculation on land, buildings, and capital, or by the commercial and industrial exploitation of the manual labor of the proletariat, all live at the expense of the proletariat. (Speculation and exploitation no doubt also constitute a sort of labor, but altogether non-productive labor.)

I know only too well that this mode of life is highly esteemed in all civilized countries, that it is expressly and tenderly protected by all the States, and that the States, religions, and all the juridical laws, both criminal and civil, and all the political governments, monarchies and republican — with their immense judicial and police apparatuses and their standing armies — have no other mission but to consecrate and protect such practices. In the presence of these powerful and respectable authorities I cannot even permit myself to ask whether this mode of life is legitimate from the point of view of human justice, liberty, human equality, and fraternity. I simply ask myself: Under such conditions, are fraternity and equality possible between the exploiter and the exploited, are justice and freedom possible for the exploited?

Let us even suppose, as it is being maintained by the bourgeois economists and with them all the lawyers, all the worshippers and believers in the juridical right, all the priests of the civil and criminal code — let us suppose that this economic relationship between the exploiter and the exploited is altogether legitimate, that it is the inevitable consequence, the product of an eternal, indestructible social law, yet still it will always be true that exploitation precludes brotherhood and equality. It goes without saying that it precludes economic equality. Suppose I am your worker and you are my employer. If I offer my labor at the lowest price, if I consent to have you live off my labor, it is certainly not because of devotion or brotherly love for you. And no bourgeois economist would dare to say that it was, however idyllic and naive their reasoning becomes when they begin to speak about reciprocal affections and mutual relations which should exist between employers and employees. No, I do it because my family and I would starve to death if I did not work for an employer. Thus I am forced to sell you my labor at the lowest possible price, and I am forced to do it by the threat of hunger.

But — the economists tell us — the property owners, the capitalists, the employers, are likewise forced to seek out and purchase the labor of the proletariat. Yes, it is true, they are forced to do it, but not in the same measure. Had there been equality between those who offer their labor and those who purchase it, between the necessity of selling one’s labor and the necessity of buying it, the slavery and misery of the proletariat would not exist. But then there would be neither capitalists, nor property owners, nor the proletariat, nor rich, nor poor: there would only be workers. It is precisely because such equality does not exist that we have and are bound to have exploiters.

This equality does not exist because in modern society where wealth is produced by the intervention of capital paying wages to labor, the growth of the population outstrips the growth of production, which results in the supply of labor necessarily surpassing the demand and leading to a relative sinking of the level of wages. Production thus constituted, monopolized, exploited by bourgeois capital, is pushed on the one hand by the mutual competition of the capitalists to concentrate evermore in the hands of an ever diminishing number of powerful capitalists, or in the hands of joint-stock companies which, owing to the merging of their capital, are more powerful than the biggest isolated capitalists. (And the small and medium-sized capitalists, not being able to produce at the same price as the big capitalists, naturally succumb in the deadly struggle.) On the other hand, all enterprises are forced by the same competition to sell their products at the lowest possible price. It [capitalist monopoly] can attain this two-fold result only by forcing out an ever-growing number of small or medium-sized capitalists, speculators, merchants, or industrialists, from the world of exploiters into the world of the exploited proletariat, and at the same time squeezing out ever greater savings from the wages of the same proletariat.

On the other hand, the mass of the proletariat, growing as a result of the general increase of the population — which, as we know, not even poverty can stop effectively — and through the increasing proletarianization of the petty-bourgeoisie, ex-owners, capitalists, merchants, and industrialists — growing, as I have said, at a much more rapid rate than the productive capacities of an economy that is exploited by bourgeois capital — this growing mass of the proletariat is placed in a condition wherein the workers are forced into disastrous competition against one another.

For since they possess no other means of existence but their own manual labor, they are driven, by the fear of seeing themselves replaced by others, to sell it at the lowest price. This tendency of the workers, or rather the necessity to which they are condemned by their own poverty, combined with the tendency of the employers to sell the products of their workers, and consequently buy their labor, at the lowest price, constantly reproduces and consolidates the poverty of the proletariat. Since he finds himself in a state of poverty, the worker is compelled to sell his labor for almost nothing, and because he sells that product for almost nothing, he sinks into ever greater poverty.

Yes, greater misery, indeed! For in this galley-slave labor the productive force of the workers, abused, ruthlessly exploited, excessively wasted and underfed, is rapidly used up. And once used up, what can be its value on the market, of what worth is this sole commodity which he possesses and upon the daily sale of which he depends for a livelihood? Nothing! And then? Then nothing is left for the worker but to die.

What, in a given country, is the lowest possible wage? It is the price of that which is considered by the proletarians of that country as absolutely necessary to keep oneself alive. All the bourgeois economists are in agreement on this point. Turgot, who saw fit to call himself the ‘virtuous minister’ of Louis XVI, and really was an honest man, said:

“The simple worker who owns nothing more than his hands, has nothing else to sell than his labor. He sells it more or less expensively; but its price whether high or low, does not depend on him alone: it depends on an agreement with whoever will pay for his labor. The employer pays as little as possible; when given the choice between a great number of workers, the employer prefers the one who works cheap. The workers are, then, forced to lower their price in competition each against the other. In all types of labor, it necessarily follows that the salary of the worker is limited to what is necessary for survival.” (Reflexions sur la formation et la distribution des richesses)

J.B. Say, the true father of bourgeois economists in France also said: “Wages are much higher when more demand exists for labor and less if offered, and are lowered accordingly when more labor is offered and less demanded. It is the relation between supply and demand which regulates the price of this merchandise called the workers’ labor, as are regulated all other public services. When wages rise a little higher than the price necessary for the workers’ families to maintain themselves, their children multiply and a larger supply soon develops in proportion with the greater demand. When, on the contrary, the demand for workers is less than the quantity of people offering to work, their gains decline back to the price necessary for the class to maintain itself at the same number. The families more burdened with children disappear; from them forward the supply of labor declines, and with less labor being offered, the price rises... In such a way it is difficult for the wages of the laborer to rise above or fall below the price necessary to maintain the class (the workers, the proletariat) in the number required.” (Cours complet d’ economie politique)

After citing Turgot and J.B. Say, Proudhon cries: “The price, as compared to the value (in real social economy) is something essentially mobile, consequently, essentially variable, and that in its variations, it is not regulated more than by the concurrence, concurrence, let us not forget, that as Turgot and Say agree, has the necessary effect not to give to wages to the worker more than enough to barely prevent death by starvation, and maintain the class in the numbers needed.”[1]

The current price of primary necessities constitutes the prevailing constant level above which workers’ wages can never rise for a very long time, but beneath which they drop very often, which constantly results in inanition, sickness, and death, until a sufficient number of workers disappear to equalize again the supply of and demand for labor. What the economists call equalized supply and demand does not constitute real equality between those who offer their labor for sale and those who purchase it. Suppose that I, a manufacturer, need a hundred workers and that exactly a hundred workers present themselves in the market — only one hundred, for if more came, the supply would exceed demand, resulting in lowered wages. But since only one hundred appear, and since I, the manufacturer, need only that number — neither more nor less — it would seem at first that complete equality was established; that supply and demand being equal in number, they should likewise be equal in other respects. Does it follow that the workers can demand from me a wage and conditions of work assuring them of a truly free, dignified, and human existence? Not at all! If I grant them those conditions and those wages, I, the capitalist, shall not gain thereby any more than they will. But then, why should I have to plague myself and become ruined by offering them the profits of my capital? If I want to work myself as workers do, I will invest my capital somewhere else, wherever I can get the highest interest, and will offer my labor for sale to some capitalist just as my workers do.

If, profiting by the powerful initiative afforded me by my capital, I ask those hundred workers to fertilize that capital with their labor, it is not because of my sympathy for their sufferings, nor because of a spirit of justice, nor because of love for humanity. The capitalists are by no means philanthropists; they would be ruined if they practiced philanthropy. It is because I hope to draw from the labor of the workers sufficient profit to be able to live comfortably, even richly, while at the same time increasing my capital — and all that without having to work myself. Of course I shall work too, but my work will be of an altogether different kind and I will be remunerated at a much higher rate than the workers. It will not be the work of production but that of administration and exploitation.

But isn’t administrative work also productive work? No doubt it is, for lacking a good and an intelligent administration, manual labor will not produce anything or it will produce very little and very badly. But from the point of view of justice and the needs of production itself, it is not at all necessary that this work should be monopolized in my hands, nor, above all, that I should be compensated at a rate so much higher than manual labor. The co-operative associations already have proven that workers are quite capable of administering industrial enterprises, that it can be done by workers elected from their midst and who receive the same wage. Therefore if I concentrate in my hands the administrative power, it is not because the interests of production demand it, but in order to serve my own ends, the ends of exploitation. As the absolute boss of my establishment I get for my labor ten or twenty times more than my workers get for theirs, and this is true despite the fact that my labor is incomparably less painful than theirs.

But the capitalist, the business owner, runs risks, they say, while the worker risks nothing. This is not true, because when seen from his side, all the disadvantages are on the part of the worker. The business owner can conduct his affairs poorly, he can be wiped out in a bad deal, or be a victim of a commercial crisis, or by an unforeseen catastrophe; in a word he can ruin himself. This is true. But does ruin mean from the bourgeois point of view to be reduced to the same level of misery as those who die of hunger, or to be forced among the ranks of the common laborers? This so rarely happens, that we might as well say never. Afterwards it is rare that the capitalist does not retain something, despite the appearance of ruin. Nowadays all bankruptcies are more or less fraudulent. But if absolutely nothing is saved, there are always family ties, and social relations, who, with help from the business skills learned which they pass to their children, permit them to get positions for themselves and their children in the higher ranks of labor, in management; to be a state functionary, to be an executive in a commercial or industrial business, to end up, although dependent, with an income superior to what they paid their former workers.

The risks of the worker are infinitely greater. After all, if the establishment in which he is employed goes bankrupt, he must go several days and sometimes several weeks without work, and for him it is more than ruin, it is death; because he eats everyday what he earns. The savings of workers are fairy tales invented by bourgeois economists to lull their weak sentiment of justice, the remorse that is awakened by chance in the bosom of their class. This ridiculous and hateful myth will never soothe the anguish of the worker. He knows the expense of satisfying the daily needs of his large family. If he had savings, he would not send his poor children, from the age of six, to wither away, to grow weak, to be murdered physically and morally in the factories, where they are forced to work night and day, a working day of twelve and fourteen hours. If it happens sometimes that the worker makes a small savings, it is quickly consumed by the inevitable periods of unemployment which often cruelly interrupt his work, as well as by the unforeseen accidents and illnesses which befall his family. The accidents and illnesses that can overtake him constitute a risk that makes all the risks of the employer nothing in comparison: because for the worker debilitating illness can destroy his productive ability, his labor power. Over all, prolonged illness is the most terrible bankruptcy, a bankruptcy that means for him and his children, hunger and death.

I know full well that under these conditions that if I were a capitalist, who needs a hundred workers to fertilize my capital, that on employing these workers, all the advantages are for me, all the disadvantages for them. I propose nothing more nor less than to exploit them, and if you wish me to be sincere about it, and promise to guard me well, I will tell them:

“Look, my children, I have some capital which by itself cannot produce anything, because a dead thing cannot produce anything. I have nothing productive without labor. As it goes, I cannot benefit from consuming it unproductively, since having consumed it, I would be left with nothing. But thanks to the social and political institutions which rule over us and are all in my favor, in the existing economy my capital is supposed to be a producer as well: it earns me interest. From whom this interest must be taken — and it must be from someone, since in reality by itself it produces absolutely nothing — this does not concern you. It is enough for you to know that it renders interest. Alone this interest is insufficient to cover my expenses. I am not an ordinary man as you. I cannot be, nor do I want to be, content with little. I want to live, to inhabit a beautiful house, to eat and drink well, to ride in a carriage, to maintain a good appearance, in short, to have all the good things in life. I also want to give a good education to my children, to make them into gentlemen, and send them away to study, and afterwards, having become much more educated than you, they can dominate you one day as I dominate you today. And as education alone is not enough, I want to give them a grand inheritance, so that divided between them they will be left almost as rich as I.

Consequently, besides all the good things in life I want to give myself, I also want to increase my capital. How will I achieve this goal? Armed with this capital I propose to exploit you, and I propose that you permit me to exploit you. You will work and I will collect and appropriate and sell for my own behalf the product of your labor, without giving you more than a portion which is absolutely necessary to keep you from dying of hunger today, so that at the end of tomorrow you will still work for me in the same conditions; and when you have been exhausted, I will throw you out, and replace you with others. Know it well, I will pay you a salary as small, and impose on you a working day as long, working conditions as severe, as despotic, as harsh as possible; not from wickedness — not from a motive of hatred towards you, nor an intent to do you harm — but from the love of wealth and to get rich quick; because the less I pay you and the more you work, the more I will gain.”

This is what is said implicitly by every capitalist, every industrialist, every business owner, every employer who demands the labor power of the workers they hire.

But since supply and demand are equal, why do the workers accept the conditions laid down by the employer? If the capitalist stands in just as great a need of employing the workers as the one hundred workers do of being employed by him, does it not follow that both sides are in an equal position? Do not both meet at the market as two equal merchants — from the juridical point of view at least — one bringing a commodity called a daily wage, to be exchanged for the daily labor of the worker on the basis of so many hours per day; and the other bringing his own labor as his commodity to be exchanged for the wage offered by the capitalist? Since, in our supposition, the demand is for a hundred workers and the supply is likewise that of a hundred persons, it may seem that both sides are in an equal position.

Of course nothing of the kind is true. What is it that brings the capitalist to the market? It is the urge to get rich, to increase his capital, to gratify his ambitions and social vanities, to be able to indulge in all conceivable pleasures. And what brings the worker to the market? Hunger, the necessity of eating today and tomorrow. Thus, while being equal from the point of juridical fiction, the capitalist and the worker are anything but equal from the point of view of the economic situation, which is the real situation. The capitalist is not threatened with hunger when he comes to the market; he knows very well that if he does not find today the workers for whom he is looking, he will still have enough to eat for quite a long time, owing to the capital of which he is the happy possessor. If the workers whom he meets in the market present demands which seem excessive to him, because, far from enabling him to increase his wealth and improve even more his economic position, those proposals and conditions might, I do not say equalize, but bring the economic position of the workers somewhat close to his own — what does he do in that case? He turns down those proposals and waits. After all, he was not impelled by an urgent necessity, but by a desire to improve his position, which, compared to that of the workers, is already quite comfortable, and so he can wait. And he will wait, for his business experience has taught him that the resistance of workers who, possessing neither capital, nor comfort, nor any savings to speak of, are pressed by a relentless necessity, by hunger, that this resistance cannot last very long, and that finally he will be able to find the hundred workers for whom he is looking — for they will be forced to accept the conditions which he finds it profitable to impose upon them. If they refuse, others will come who will be only too happy to accept such conditions. That is how things are done daily with the knowledge and in full view of everyone. If, as a consequence of the particular circumstances that constantly influence the market, the branch of industry in which he planned at first to employ his capital does not offer all the advantages that he had hoped, then he will shift his capital elsewhere; thus the bourgeois capitalist is not tied by nature to any specific industry, but tends to invest (as it is called by the economists — exploit is what we say) indifferently in all possible industries. Let’s suppose, finally, that learning of some industrial incapacity or misfortune, he decides not to invest in any industry; well, he will buy stocks and annuities; and if the interest and dividends seem insufficient, then he will engage in some occupation, or shall we say, sell his labor for a time, but in conditions much more lucrative than he had offered to his own workers.

The capitalist then comes to the market in the capacity, if not of an absolutely free agent, at least that of an infinitely freer agent than the worker. What happens in the market is a meeting between a drive for lucre and starvation, between master and slave. Juridically they are both equal; but economically the worker is the serf of the capitalist, even before the market transaction has been concluded whereby the worker sells his person and his liberty for a given time. The worker is in the position of a serf because this terrible threat of starvation which daily hangs over his head and over his family, will force him to accept any conditions imposed by the gainful calculations of the capitalist, the industrialist, the employer.

And once the contract has been negotiated, the serfdom of the workers is doubly increased; or to put it better, before the contract has been negotiated, goaded by hunger, he is only potentially a serf; after it is negotiated he becomes a serf in fact. Because what merchandise has he sold to his employer? It is his labor, his personal services, the productive forces of his body, mind, and spirit that are found in him and are inseparable from his person — it is therefore himself. From then on, the employer will watch over him, either directly or by means of overseers; everyday during working hours and under controlled conditions, the employer will be the owner of his actions and movements. When he is told: “Do this,” the worker is obligated to do it; or he is told: “Go there,” he must go. Is this not what is called a serf?

M. Karl Marx, the illustrious leader of German Communism, justly observed in his magnificent work Das Kapital[2] that if the contract freely entered into by the vendors of money — in the form of wages — and the vendors of their own labor — that is, between the employer and the workers — were concluded not for a definite and limited term only, but for one’s whole life, it would constitute real slavery. Concluded for a term only and reserving to the worker the right to quit his employer, this contract constitutes a sort of voluntary and transitory serfdom. Yes, transitory and voluntary from the juridical point of view, but nowise from the point of view of economic possibility. The worker always has the right to leave his employer, but has he the means to do so? And if he does quit him, is it in order to lead a free existence, in which he will have no master but himself? No, he does it in order to sell himself to another employer. He is driven to it by the same hunger which forced him to sell himself to the first employer. Thus the worker’s liberty, so much exalted by the economists, jurists, and bourgeois republicans, is only a theoretical freedom, lacking any means for its possible realization, and consequently it is only a fictitious liberty, an utter falsehood. The truth is that the whole life of the worker is simply a continuous and dismaying succession of terms of serfdom — voluntary from the juridical point of view but compulsory in the economic sense — broken up by momentarily brief interludes of freedom accompanied by starvation; in other words, it is real slavery.

This slavery manifests itself daily in all kinds of ways. Apart from the vexations and oppressive conditions of the contract which turn the worker into a subordinate, a passive and obedient servant, and the employer into a nearly absolute master — apart from all that, it is well known that there is hardly an industrial enterprise wherein the owner, impelled on the one hand by the two-fold instinct of an unappeasable lust for profits and absolute power, and on the other hand, profiting by the economic dependence of the worker, does not set aside the terms stipulated in the contract and wring some additional concessions in his own favor. Now he will demand more hours of work, that is, over and above those stipulated in the contract; now he will cut down wages on some pretext; now he will impose arbitrary fines, or he will treat the workers harshly, rudely, and insolently.

But, one may say, in that case the worker can quit. Easier said than done. At times the worker receives part of his wages in advance, or his wife or children may be sick, or perhaps his work is poorly paid throughout this particular industry. Other employers may be paying even less than his own employer, and after quitting this job he may not even be able to find another one. And to remain without a job spells death for him and his family. In addition, there is an understanding among all employers, and all of them resemble one another. All are almost equally irritating, unjust, and harsh.

Is this calumny? No, it is in the nature of things, and in the logical necessity of the relationship existing between the employers and their workers.

[1] Not having to hand the works mentioned, I took these quotes from la Histoire de la Revolution de 1848, by Louis Blanc. Mr. Blanc continues with these words: “We have been well alerted. Now we know, without room for doubt, that according to all the doctrines of the old political economy, wages cannot have any other basis than the regulation between supply and demand, although the result is that the remuneration of labor is reduced to what is strictly necessary to not perish by starvation. Very well, and let us do no more than repeat the words inadvertently spoken in sincerity by Adam Smith, the head of this school: It is small consolation for individuals who have no other means for existence than their labor.” (Bakunin)

[2] Das Kapital, Kritik der politischen Oekonomie, by Karl Marx; Erster Band. This work will need to be translated into French, because nothing, that I know of, contains an analysis so profound, so luminous, so scientific, so decisive, and if I can express it thus, so merciless an expose of the formation of bourgeois capital and the systematic and cruel exploitation that capital continues exercising over the work of the proletariat. The only defect of this work... positivist in direction, based on a profound study of economic works, without admitting any logic other than the logic of the facts — the only defect, say, is that it has been written, in part, but only in part, in a style excessively metaphysical and abstract... which makes it difficult to explain and nearly unapproachable for the majority of workers, and it is principally the workers who must read it nevertheless. The bourgeois will never read it or, if they read it, they will never want to comprehend it, and if they comprehend it they will never say anything about it; this work being nothing other than a sentence of death, scientifically motivated and irrevocably pronounced, not against them as individuals, but against their class. (Bakunin)

7 notes · View notes

moonctzeny · 4 years

Text

First Times

“Jae”, you whispered, gaining his attention, “We will still be best friends after this, right?”

He pulls you closer to him, making your face rest on his naked chest. He smelled like sweat and that intense body spray, like those days he came back from his basketball practice to meet you under the treehouse. He smelled like home.

pairing: childhood friend/ceo! jaehyun x fem! reader

genre: smut, angst

word count: 6.584k

warnings: loss of virginity, then not so virgin sex lol, squirting

summary: “Jaehyun had been your best friend ever since you were 7 years old, but after a certain incident he disappears, without informing you of his whereabouts. You had come to terms with the fact that you’ll never see him again until your paths cross unexpectedly, meeting as boss and employee”

a/n: I feel like ceo! jaehyun fics are overwritten so I tried to focus more on the childhood friends to lovers aspect, giving it a little twist

———————————————————————

There was no way that was him.

When you were 10 years old you couldn’t wait to have your first kiss. You were plain obsessed with the romance dramas that were playing on tv, your mom complaining about having to witness the same unrealistic tropes over and over again, but you stayed frozen in front of the screen.

Why were the characters so caught up in the thought of seeing each other? Why were they willing to risk everything they had for the other person? You were curious to find out about the love the grown ups talked about, and playing mommy and daddy with the neighbor’s son, Jaehyun, wasn’t cutting it anymore.

He was waiting for you in his treehouse, preparing his toys for your playdate. A table of pots and cutlery on one side of the room and a battlefield with ships on the other. He preferred when you two dueled for the “fate of your country”, but he knew you liked to play house so he compromised. One hour of what you like and one hour of what he liked, that’s what his mom had said.

You stomped inside, your pout not matching his excited smile.

“Finally, you’re here! Can we play my games first? My uncle got me new soldiers, look!” He ran up to you, a bunch of different green miniatures in his hands. You didn’t bother to spare him a glance, too caught up in your personal drama.

“I don’t want to play games,” you whined, “I want a boyfriend!”

Jaehyun blinked a couple times, confused. “But you have one, me. I am your friend and I am a boy”

You threw your head back in frustration, groaning so loudly that the rest of the neighborhood probably heard you. “Noo it’s not the same! We don’t kiss on the lips and stuff!”

The little boy came closer to you, scowling. He was starting to get really impatient with your whining over these dramas that you liked so much. So what if you don’t kiss and stuff? It’s no big deal anyways!

He grabbed your ears, bringing you closer to his face and he gave you a small peck. Your first kiss.

“There. Will you play with me now?”

When you turned 18 you exchanged your love for dramas with a love for art. You also exchanged your calculus workbooks for oil paints and acrylics, busy with piecing together a portfolio that would get you accepted into art school. There was one thing that stayed stable in your life, however, that followed you from childhood into adolescence.

“Hey, sorry for being late, basketball practice took longer than I expected”, Jaehyun apologized and joined you at his backyard. The treehouse had gotten too old for inhabiting but the trunk you were currently lied against served its purpose as your current hangout after school.

“Hey”, you sniffled and he finally noticed how watery your eyes were. He dropped his sportsbag immediately, and sat next to you on the slightly moist grass, your arms touching.

“I’m guessing Mark denied your offer to go to the prom with you?”

You nodded, hiding your face in his embrace before he sees you crying. Being Jaehyun’s friend wasn’t always easy. His easygoing personality and good looks on top of being president of four school clubs made him one of the most popular kids in high school. You reminded yourself that he’s still the same boy you’ve always known, that you don’t have to feel threatened by the army of girls always clinging by his sides, but it was hard. It was hard to recount your rejection from this morning when he probably has never truly felt that feeling before. Even with his college applications pending, you knew he’d be successful. Any institution would be crazy to miss up on him, and the rest of the world felt that way about him too.

“I don’t wanna talk about it”, you mumble, leaning back before you stain his t-shirt even more, “Did Mina find the dress she is gonna wear after all?”

Your genuine worry for his prom date, even after your failed promposal, broke his heart. You were always so empathetic, so selfless, so nice to him. He didn’t have it in him to let you stay in your state of misery.

“Nothing”, he blurted, rushing to explain after seeing the confused look on your face, “she bailed on me last minute”.

That was a lie, but you didn’t have to know that. Jaehyun cancelling on his date would be a dick move, he knew that, but you being happy was his priority. It always has, at least as long as he was still here. “So if you didn’t mind, I was thinking we go together? As friends of course”

“Jae! I love you!”

You tackled him with a hug, the grass tickling his neck and he just laughed at the adorable screech you let out. You both stayed there enjoying the chill evening, talking about renting cars and matching outfits.

He let you rant about the dress you’ve chosen to wear and he promised to convince his parents to leave his house empty for the after party.

The prom night was the last time you saw Jung Jaehyun. There you two were, sprawled out on his bed and tired off your asses, spending what seemed like the most fun night of your life together. Your feet were in blisters from all the dancing, head spinning from the after-party vodka. Jaehyun had turned his head towards you, tie undone and staring at a piece of glitter that had fallen on your collarbone. He looked as handsome as ever in his suit, red eyes glued on you and a satisfied smile on his face.

“Your parents are gonna be so mad when they see the mess on their carpet. I told you not to get Jungwoo drunk”

Jaehyun laughed, his deep laugh reverbrating through the room. “Not if you tell them in the morning. They can’t get mad at you. You told your mom you’re staying over, right?”

You nodded, maybe shaking your head a lot longer than needed but your tipsy self wanted to make sure you got your message across.

“You know”, you started with a snicker, “she gave me like a million condoms for tonight. Probably thought I was planning on losing my virginity like any teenager with a social life”

He kept staring at you, eyes lazily taking in the sight of your pretty smile. “Yeah, same with my dad. I think that’s the only reason why they gave me the house”

You whipped your head to face him at the speed of light, mouth gaped open and staring at him incredulously. “Jae, you’re a virgin??”

It was hard to believe. I mean sure, you hadn’t had any experience in the sex department either but you were, well, you. Shy with new people, horrible at flirting and a bit standoff-ish if you were being honest. But your best friend, as likable and good looking as he was, had never been with a girl before?

“Well, yeah, I was just kinda- I was waiting for the right person, you know? Someone to make it memorable”

You sighed, relating with his words but also...

“I just wish I could get it over with”, you confess and you saw Jaehyun gulp visibly. He was glancing at the nothingness on his ceiling, lost in his thoughts.

“Yeah”

The silence lasted for a few minutes, only the distant sound of a passing police car interrupting it. He sat on his knees, the conversation sobering him up significantly. “Remember when you wanted to have your first kiss and I just did it so you wouldn’t complain about it anymore?”

You smile fondly at the memory, waiting for him to continue. There was somewhere he was getting at.

“Well, we both want to not be virgins anymore, right? So let’s just do it”

You felt an electric tension growing between you. It was like you were holding two magnets, begging to touch each other but you still held them apart, because if you let go you just knew things would never be the same again.

Jaehyun leaned in, dunking his head at the last minute and kissing your neck instead. It was tentative, a kiss that tested the waters. He was still holding back, wanting to make sure you wanted this as much as he wanted it too. You scooted closer to him, placing your legs to frame his closed knees, putting his face gently in your hands.

His pupils were dilated, shifting to a million places but your voice managed to make him concentrate to your eyes solely. You could hear his heartbeat bumping in his chest.

“Jae, I love you. You have to trust me, ok?”

“Okay” he nodded, eyes wide open and sincere, “I love you too, so much”

You kiss him finally, and the room around you spun even more. The feeling was strangely comfortable, yet your lungs were struggling to do their job. In that moment, it felt like everything in the world was the way it was supposed to be, and you two were a part of that bigger, perfectly orchestrated picture.

He grabbed you by your waist, bringing you over his lap. His fingers danced from your thighs to the zipper of your dress, the cool midnight air spreading goosebumps on your back. You help him out by pulling your straps down, staying in your strapless bra.

“If I knew what was gonna happen tonight I would wear cuter underwear”, you mutter and Jaehyun chuckles. Why did your heart skip a beat at the sound? It’d be a lie to say you hadn’t found yourself staring at your best friend a minute too long in the past, but tonight- Tonight the effect he had on you held an intensity that you’ve never felt before.

“Underwear can only help you out so much. They can’t do wonders”

“Wow Jae, way to make me drier that the Sahara desert”

He dipped back down to your throat, sucking at the soft skin over your collarbones and earning an embarassingly high-pitched moan from you. You felt him smile against your neck as he licked over the nibbled flesh in little circles, wishing he would repeat that motion on another part of your body.

“We’ll see about that”

As if he wanted to prove his point, he grinds you over his erection, lighting your insides on fire. Your dress was short, meaning that you could feel all of him-and it seemed like a whole lot- over your panties that were damping up.

“Show me your tits and I’ll show you mine”

Jaehyun laughed at your comment; ridiculous yet successful at calming his ragged breath down. The buttons of his dress shirt opened one by one, each of them revealing another inch of his smooth chest. His skin was glowing, and his abs proved that puberty was starting to work its wonders on him.

You trace your fingers over two moles on his chest, leaving soft kisses over them. You could feel his pulse on your lips, fast and pumping blood all over his body. Despite his attempts at staying collected over the loss of his virginity, you realized that he was probably as nervous and scared as you are.

“Your turn”, he whispered, bringing you back into the moment. You reach back to unclasp your bra, freeing your boobs, and a smile cracked on your lips at Jaehyun’s reaction.

He stayed frozen and gawking at your chest, hands twitching and not knowing what to do with the sight you so generously offered him. Bringing his hands into your own, you place them over your mounds, guiding him into squeezing them. He continues on his own, pinching your nipples as he leans forward for another kiss, probably to hide his evident blush from you.

The making out continued, leaving you both with only your underpants on. He places you on your back, and starts petting your clit over your panties, the motion so soft it drove you insane. Hungry for more.

You started whining, grinding forwards against his fingers and he chuckled, pulling the fabric away to leave you uncovered. The chilly air was quickly exchanged with the feeling of his warm digits, causing a different kind of shivering.

When he inserted the first finger in you, you felt like your whole body was burning up with a high fever. You’d done this again, with your ex-boyfriend in summer camp but it definitely didn’t feel as sinful and delicious and pleasureable as this. It pulled at a knot in your stomach, begging to be untangled and Jaehyun was taking his sweet time with you. Quick circles on your swollen bud and a nibble on your neck, that’s what it took for him to enjoy you shaking through an orgasm.

“Fuck, you’re so beautiful”

You looked angelic with the sweat trickling down your chest, skin glowing in the limelight and Jaehyun would just sit and stare if it wasn’t for the tent in his boxers that was screaming for attention. Pulling at the soft fabric, you sprung him free and the boldness that came when you did started to evaporate. It hit you in that moment, that he had seen all of you and now you saw all of him- yes you had been best friends for years but this intimacy was unprecedented. And you liked the feeling.

You put him in your grasp, moving your fist in a pivoting motion with his precum as your lubricant. He throws his head back with a grunt that almost made you cum a second time and urged you to pick up the pace. Unsure of what to do next, you licked your other palm and started to massage his balls hoping he liked it. He did by the sound of his moans, but stopped you abruptly, scaring you that you accidentally did something wrong in your inexperience.

“If you continue like this I’m gonna cum. Let’s do this“

You swallow on nothing and reach to your jacket on the floor for the condoms your mum gave you.

“Want a pink one? A green maybe? Blue?”, you joke and he pets your hair lovingly, looking down at you.

“Blue. Your favourite colour”

You smiled warmly at his response, satisfied with your decision to share this moment with your best friend. With someone who knew you so well.

Unwrapping the plastic, you placed the rubber over his hardness with shaking hands, following the instructions as best as you could. Jaehyun leaned down over you, planting a dozen kisses over your face as he positioned himself over your entrance.

“Ready?”

You nodded, giving him permission to dip his tip in, the first inches stretching you out nicely. The wetness caused by your orgasm helped your situation a lot, the slickness allowing him to dive a little deeper. Then, the stinging started, making you hiss and he kissed you immediately, trying to soothe you.

“I know, baby, I know. I’m sorry. We have to go through the hard part now ok?”

The nickname playing over and over again in your head gave you the patience needed to endure him bottoming out, along with the first thrusts. It was uncomfortable, but the feeling of him inside you, of the two of you coming together as one, released some chemical in your brain that made most of the pain go away. He took his fingers from your hips to gently pat away the teardrops staining your cheeks.

“That’s it baby, you’re doing so well”

His words and the feeling of his cock dragging against your walls drew a moan out of your half open mouth, the sound carrying on the air you two shared and landing on Jaehyun’s lips. There was a tension on your belly and something told you it wasn’t just physical, more like an emotional revelation, a fire already ignited but flared up by this incident. Your feelings towards your childhood friend, a love that was more than platonic.

For you, at least.

Jaehyun was young and you felt so tight around him that he didn’t take long to finish. He pulled out last minute, taking the condom out and spilling spurts of his cum all over your stomach. It earned a scowl and an eyebrow raise from you but the way he apologized, saying you “looked too beautiful to resist”, was too cute to stay mad at.

You laid back on his bed, holding hands and trying to register what just happened. The ocassional car drove by, the lights illuminating Jaehyun’s eyes that you noted were glossy. Maybe it was just as intense for him, you thought and squeezed his hands a little tighter.

“Jae”, you whispered, gaining his attention, “We will still be best friends after this, right?”

“Forever”

Forever must have a different meaning in the Jungs’s dictionary, because after that night, Jaehyun was unreachable. You tried to text him, call him, only to be ignored and faced with stupid excuses.

You thought long and hard about why your best friend suddenly decided to ghost you. Maybe he didn’t like the sex. Understandable, since it was your first time, but it’s not like you promised him a night of mind blowing love making or anything. You decided that he probably felt too awkward to talk to you after that night and you told yourself to give him some space.

Three days passed, then another, then a week and still no sign of Jaehyun. Tired of the radio silence and irritated by his attitude, you got ready to visit him at his house, confront him one-on-one.

No, you didn’t wear your favourite perfume for him. It just so happened that you chose to put on that dress he had complimented you on before. You didn’t hope for him to call you beautiful again, or have a retake of the prom night fun. The butterflies in your stomach were probably the heavy lunch you ate. Yes, it was all coincidental.

You walked down the stairs with a pep in your step, storming through your parents in the kitchen.

“And were are you going so happy, young lady?”, your dad chirps and you smile at him.

“I’m gonna go see Jaehyun real quick!”

“Real quick? To a different country? He came back already?”

You stilled at the sound of your mother’s words, confused.

“A different country? I’m going down the street to the Jungs, mom”

“Honey, the Jungs are there but not Jaehyun. He moved abroad to study Business. Didn’t he tell you?”

The ground beneath your feet seemed to melt and pull you under the third level of hell. How could he get accepted to a university and not tell you? How could he move countries and not even say goodbye? How dare he make you fall in love with him, give you the best night of your life and then leave you hanging like that?

You ran upstairs to your room, wailing in what seemed like a mixture of rage and sadness. You felt so dumb, in your sundress and shaved pussy and cute underwear you chose out for him. It was all so, so unfair and the feeling ate you alive. The feeling that you hated Jung Jaehyun.

So now, when he stands from across the room, all suited up but with the additional rank of CEO on his shoulders you couldn’t believe that it was him.

Your portfolio did get you into an art school after all, majoring in product design. Your innovative work of rebranding the latest releases, taking on the aesthetic part of the marketing, landed you a great deal in J industries. The product was good and your skills were better, so when the sales went off the roof you weren’t surprised. What you didn’t expect however, was that the boss of your boss, who was currently staring at you from across the launch party, was your childhood best friend.

Ex-best friend.

“Damn, y/n, Mr. Jung hasn’t taken his eyes off of you all night, huh?”, said Sook, the assistant marketing director who was working by your side on the project.

“Well, he should have come over and congratulate me by now. I did help save his company”

She laughed lightly, unaware for how deeply rooted your dislike for the man really was. You continue your conversation when you suddenly see her turn visibly tense, sweeping her hands on the front of her dress. Oh, you should have watched what you wished for.

“M-Mr. Jung, how are you enjoying this party? This is y/n, she did most of the designs for the campaign-”

Eyes widening in shock, you get lost in some passerbys, meddling with the other coworkers in the gathering. Sook left a little yelp when she realized you had dissolved into thin air in seconds. You could still faintly hear her apologizing merrily.

“Oh I swear she was sitting right next to me Mr. Jung”

Chatting up with friends and even strangers, you made sure you never stayed in the same place for too long. Jaehyun’s eyes were still boring holes into your face no matter where you went, a smirk plastered on his own every time he caught you checking out for him.

In a last attemp to turn invisible, you find cover on a small couch, slightly hidden by some ballon decorations and you shoved a book to your face, faking interest. But alas, a dip in the furniture next to you and the familiar woody smell soon rang a bell of danger in your head.

“You know your book is upside down, right?”

Wincing at your fatal mistake, you turn around to be faced with a pair of brown eyes you thought you’d never see again. You noticed how they’re glowing in pride and ambition and remembered how they shined that night from tears, how you tried to read through him, just like now.

“Jung. Got bored of your little staring game?”

Jaehyun had grown an inch or two since you last saw him, you notice, standing even taller in his exemplary posture. He still stuck with his long hairstyle, locks styled back sleekly and exposing his defined cheekbones. His skin was even paler than usual, glowing in the dark room. Being a CEO probably meant staying inside a lot, making tanning for his complexion almost impossible.

“Considering you applied to my company, y/n, I figured you’d come to me now as well”

Why was he using that voice around you? You‘d made fun of him numerous times in the past for that deep tone, only coming up when he was trying to woo some girl.

“I didn’t know it was your dumb company”, you start, rolling your eyes in annoyance, “I’m surprised you even remember my name”

“How could I forget the girl I went to prom with?” And took my virginity, you wanted to add but knew he censored his words on purpose. “Also, Sook mentioned your name like, five minutes ago”

“Don’t act like you don’t know what I’m talking about”

His silence was uncomfortable, thickening the atmosphere even more. You saw regret and guilt in his features, lips struggling to find the right words and hands fumbling with his tie.

“I know you’re mad, rightfully so. But please, come over to my place for a drink. For old time’s sake”. The deep voice was persistent and that’s when you realized that Jaehyun wasn’t a teenager anymore. So many years had passed since that summer, enough to mature you both physically and emotionally, yet the wound stung still so freshly.

“You can’t just choose when to re-enter my life so easily”, you huffed and started to walk away from him, when you felt his fingers wrapping gently around your wrist.

“y/n, please. I’ve missed you. One drink, that’s it”

It was so annoying, you thought as you entered his condo, how his dimples were still so effective at convincing you. It was quite luxurious, definitely bigger than your apartment and by the looks of the fancy furniture, his hard work as CEO surely paid off.

“You like it?”

“Not as much as your treehouse but it’s okay”, you reply him and he grins at the reminiscence of your old shenanigans as children.

“I’ll bring the wine”

You snooped around a bit more, examining the decorations of his living room. It was quite minimalistic, an abstract painting or two, a weird sculpture, no family pictures in sight. You always hated places like that, so lifeless, so impersonal. Jaehyun had too rich of a personality for that.

He sat on his leather couch, placing two glasses of white wine in front of him and motioning you to sit down as well. You took a seat as far away from his as possible and he winced at the distance you kept, now also turning physical.

Jaehyun started a conversation by asking you about your work at the company, then moving on to your personal life. You politely answered him, even joked about how single you are. He started recounting the start of his company, how he got the idea to begin from scratch and the hardships that came with it. As it was expected from the bachelor’s vibes his place emitted, CEO position didn’t allow for enough free time for him to meet someone new, let alone something serious. Your little meet up seemed to be going well. Too well to be exact. One glass down and you finally had enough of feigning ‘happy old friends catching up’.

“Why did you bring me here Jaehyun? Really bring me here”

The man sighed at your tone, running his fingers through his hair and messing their gelled-up styling. Getting up from his position, he finishes up his second glass and sits closer to you, body facing yours.

“I guess... I owe you an apology. For back then. I should have told you I’m moving abroad”

“Yes, Jaehyun, you should have. Especially after what we did before you left”

He closed his eyes in shame, glossy after he reopened them. A serious expression darkened his features, looking as solemn as that last night you saw him before his disappearance and hanging from your lips. “Do you regret it? Going through with it?”

“No”, you answer immediately, because it was the truth. All the guys you’ve slept with in your time as an adult, though more experienced than high-school Jaehyun, were missing that one factor that none other than your best friend could offer you. Connection, vulnerability, care. True love.

He sighs, once again, clearly relieved by your answer but still speaking in a bittersweet tone.

“Good, I would really hate myself if you did. I was just, so scared you’d forget about me. I had to know you’d remember me. Then you said this whole thing about wanting to have our first time and-“. You knew it was the wine in his system that caused his rambling. Jaehyun wasn’t one to stumble on his words, definitely not sentimental like that. But alcohol seemed to bring you closer when in need and at the right time so you let it, once again, and you let him finish. “-and you looked so beautiful that I couldn’t help myself. If I knew you’d grow up to look like this I would have never-“

He stopped himself mid sentence, regretting sharing more. You, however, weren’t done with this conversation yet. There were so many years spent repenting your friendship, so many questions running through your head, and you weren’t leaving this room until they got answered.

“If you didn’t want me to forget you that much then why not tell me you got accepted to a university abroad? I was your best friend!”. Your words were emotionally charged, unwillingly making your voice turn up in volume. It was as if you turned back into the little girl crying in her bedroom, finally getting the chance to say all those things she was screaming in her pillow. “I would be so happy for you, I loved you”

“Yes you did! You literally said that every single day!”, Jaehyun yelled back, startling you, “And every single time it was as if you jabbed a knife in my chest! Did you know how much it killed me? To hear this from my best friend I’d been in love with for the past 10 years?”

“You- you were in love with me?”, you ask dumbly, voice light in disbelief, a stark difference from Jaehyun’s a second ago.

He settled his breathing, hands fixing his hair once again in abashment.

“I knew that if I told you I had to go abroad you would get all sad and start crying and I wouldn’t be able to see you like that. I knew that the moment you’d tell me you miss me I would drop everything to be with you. That night that we had sex.. I didn’t plan it but I thought it would be better for you if I made you hate me. And when I saw you again today- it felt like not one day had passed since high school. I didn’t know how to approach you, what to say. I’m sorry”

You sat there in shock, connecting the dots in your brain. All the feelings you were trying to repress around him, the lingering glances and butterflies in your stomach, were reqruited all along. You knew exactly what he meant earlier, about time seeming to freeze. The way he looked at you now, all teary eyed and red and shaking was utterly and overwhelmingly the warm Jaehyun that met you every night after school. And you wouldn’t let another day go to waste.

You lean forward, capturing his lips into a kiss long overdue. It was tentative and you started pulling back when he places both hands on the sides of your neck, keeping you from letting go. His fingertips grasp part of your hair and you lean your face sideways, melting into the kiss and his touch. A lick on his bottom lip and now your tongues were touching, groaning at how much better he got at this and wanting to put his skill to better use. Tugging on his soft locks, he moans and his baritone voice made the hairs on your arms stand on edge.

You moved your hands on his chest, palming the defined muscles and deciding you wanted to treat your eyes, ripping his shirt open in one move. Jaehyun grabs the meat of your thighs, hands gripping the edge of your dress and pulling it upwards until it falls over your head. He dipped into your neck immediately, sucking and nibbling passionately right in the middle, your moans sounding breathless with the pressure he puts on your throat. Trailing down, he left a path of open mouthed kisses, now focusing on the mounds of your breasts that your bra wasn’t covering. A flick of his wrist and the piece of underwear was gone, lips surrounding your nipple, releasing it with a loud pop.

You moan out his name and his growl’s animalistic, nails digging on the softness of your hips.

“Fuck I love that sound”

He probably made it a goal to hear it again as he started kissing on your inner thighs, the bruises he left behind teasing you to the point of begging. You lift you hips to discard the skimpy underwear you chose for tonight, Jaehyun’s breath fanning your clit. A few kitten licks and your back is already lifting from the leather, his hands intertwining with yours to keep you in place.

Practice makes perfect and Jaehyun must have had a lot of it, the interchanging of sucking, licking and spitting on your pussy making you lose your mind in the most delicious way. You were in the midst of murmuring a mix of praises when he finally finds that spot that has you trembling under his tongue. Riding out your high, you grind against his face, the pleasure not leaving any room for shame. Chest heaving and vision restored, you glance down at Jaehyun, looking as irresistible as ever wiping his wet lips and chin.

You were fully prepared and willing to return the favor so you motioned him to stand up, positioning the back of your neck over the hand rest of the couch. After opening your mouth wide he got the point, quickly ridding himself off his pants and boxer briefs, spitting profanities at how hot you looked for him right now.

You were upside down, but you could very well see Jaehyun’s hard and angry cock staring back at you. You always thought that maybe, since he was your first, you might have overestimated his size in your head. But your brain apparently hadn’t manipulated that memory in the slightest because that length and grith would definitely be a challenge for you. And hell, did you want to take it on.

He pushes through your lips, and your tongue is quick to engulf him. Licking up and down his shaft as best as you could, made Jaehyun grip the couch in an effort to keep his knees from buckling from pleasure. The position allowed him to push even deeper inside you, filling up your throat. He places his fingers over the bulge on your throat, watching it itently with every move of his hips.

Your eyes teared up and your throat started to burn but the sounds Jaehyun let out with every thrust made it all worth it. He finally pulls out, a string of saliva and precum landing on your lips and he is quick to to clean you up with his fingers. Collecting the wetness, he pushes his digits inside your mouth, and something changes in his glare, eyes darkening in the most lustful expression.

“I need you inside me”, you mumble with his fingers inside of you and he nods, asking if he should go get a condom. You search through the contains of your handbag, hands trembling with the way he is pushed up agaist you, erection digging in the softness of your ass as he’s nibling the skin on your shoulders.

You handed him the square foil and as soon as he takes it in his grasp, he pushed you down to the arm rest, back against the cushion and legs in the air. Moving your hand between your legs, you distracted him by playing with your pussy, speading the juices around and pushing your folds apart to direct him to your opening.

The first thrust felt divine, thick cock filling you nicely and making your head fall back in pleasure. Jaehyun threw your legs over his shoulders, eyes glued to yours as he kissed your calves, picking up his pace. The moans started rolling off your tongue, echoing inside the big lounge and accompanied by the skin slapping sound of your bodies.

“I missed your body so much”, he muttered as he gripped your waist, setting an incredible pace that had your feet flexing. You turned your head to the side, catching your reflection on the huge window leading to the balcony. Tits bouncing, Jaehyun’s flexed arms, his dick digging inside you. What a sight.

“See something you like?”, he chuckled darkly and you smiled up at him, grazing your nails over his biceps.

“Show me something to remember you by”

Jae halted his thrusts, turning you over to your stomach swiftly, ass in the air. He kneaded his hands over your ass, giving it a little spank and spread your cheeks apart. Placing his right knee on the arm rest, he dives inside you again, and the moan you let out barely sounded like you. His cock was so deep inside you that you had to close your eyes to relish the feeling of fullness, amplified by the light pain of the stretch. Jaehyun collected your hair in his fist, pulling your upper body against his chest as he wrapped an arm around your own.

“Open your eyes. See how nicely you take my cock. Think you’ll forget that?”, he growls in your ear, thumb digging in your cheek and palm slightly muting your sounds. The dirty talk, his cock grazing against the spot that drove you crazy and Jaehyun’s godly reflection pounding the shit out of you brought you over the edge again. He didn’t let you take any time off, hips continuing to bruise against you as feverly as before, and you thought you just might combust.

“Jaehyun, p-please, it’s too much”, you plead with as much power is left in your system, and he pulls out, only to start rubbing quick circles over your clit that had you thrashing in his arms.

You melt into his arms, a pressing feeling in your belly that you had never felt before and soon you climax for the third time, droplets of cum squirting out of your pussy and dripping onto the wooden flooring.

“This is so fucking hot”, Jaehyun mutters and starts thrusting inside you, trying to coax as much cum out of you as possible.

The waves keep coming, gushing out of you every time he pulls out, until he can’t take the sight anymore, coming with a shiver and a ragged breath.

You were sweaty and exhausted, smiling faintly as he showered you with kisses.

“Let’s get you cleaned up”

You try to stand up futilely, knees wobbling and unable to keep your balance. Jaehyun chuckles at the sight but helps you up like the gentleman he is, moving you to the floor’s bathroom.

You hop in and he joins you, letting the water run down your body and helping you soap up. It was very intimate but comfortable at the same time, his gentle caresses belonging to your skin. Everything felt right.

He was occupied with running his fingers over two hickeys he had planted on you earlier when you snap him out of his thoughts, voice barely audible over the running water.

“I’m sorry you felt like you had to lie to me to go study abroad. I think it’s pretty obvious after what we just did that I liked you too, but... I still would have let you move. Force you even.”

“You’re right. I’m sor-“

“I mean it Jaehyun. I’m so proud of you”

His eyes glimmered at your praise, wet eyelashes framing them and fluttering closed as he leaned down, pressing the sweetest kiss on your lips. It left you breathless, almost hurting when he pulled back. You could kiss him forever.

“I know you said I can’t just come back to your life like that but I want to try. I’ve seriously missed you”

“How about taking me to a date tomorrow night? To catch up some more”

He grinned brightly, eyes turning into crescent moons and dimples making your heart burst.

“Wherever you want”, he promised and took a step closer to you, hand snaking down your ass and pulling you against his wet body, “And speaking of making up for lost time... How about a round two?”

#jaehyun smut #jung jaehyun #jaehyun scenarios #jaehyun angst #nct scenarios #childhood #nct smut #jaehyun nct #nct angst #ceo jaehyun

2K notes · View notes

kimwxler · 3 years

Text

ted lasso 2.11

I don’t usually do this, but I have a lot of thoughts on tonight’s episode, so I’m gonna write (most of) them out.

I think this episode did a really great job showing some of the problems inherent in Sam and Rebecca’s relationship without a clear and decisive breaking off. We get to see Sam’s POV when he gets her text. He’s still hoping Rebecca will change her mind (the last text from him saying he misses her) and his face drops when all she says is “Have a great night”. That alone is not great for Sam but also something that can happen after any sort of break-up.

But then we get Rebecca admitting that she’s fully lost objectivity with Sam, and somehow she thinks it’s a good idea to go to his house and say she wants him to stay even though she can’t promise they’ll get back together. I hate that scene, but I think it’s a promising sign that the issues that pop up when you date your employee/boss will be addressed in the next episode. It was a selfish and irresponsible thing for Rebecca to ask, and I don’t think she was trying to manipulate him--she was genuinely trying to follow her heart/gut and seemed to realize after speaking that this was a bad idea. But it was manipulative. I hope the show makes it clear that an issue along these lines is almost inevitable with this kind of dynamic, even if she hadn’t made that exact move.

However, I really, really don’t want Sam to actually go, because I would miss him so much on the show. I’m hoping there is somehow a really good reason for him to stay while still putting a permanent end to the Sam/Rebecca relationship. I don’t know what to make of the billionaire but he’s a very fun character.

Obviously, I’m not happy about Nate’s actions. I think they were awful, but at the same time it’s a really fascinating story to me. This show gets uncomfortable, taking us through his ugly emotions and actions but still forcing you to try to understand his POV. Along with Ted, he’s my favorite character to analyze this season.

Nate and Keeley had such a cute dynamic, and the moment where he tries to kiss her shocked me, but didn’t at the same time. It makes sense that he is so insecure and awkward around women that he would crush on her, as one of the only women that he can interact semi-comfortably with who is always nice to him. He even mentioned how wonderful it would be to be loved by Keeley last season! I felt awful for both of them in that scene, but especially Keeley, because she was really opening up to him and I think happy to have a nice friend. Sometimes it feels like she does a lot of emotional support for people the way Ted does, and it kind of felt like from her POV, she could support Nate in dress shopping but was just having fun commiserating as an equal with a friend.

I also loved seeing Keeley talk about her mom and get an episode semi-focused on her as an individual as well as Roy/Keeley. I am... very worried for Roy/Keeley, and I honestly think them taking a break or still being in a rough patch is more likely than a proposal (as much as I hate to be typing that). But regardless, I know they’ll be okay in the end. The scene where they opened up to each other during the little break in the photoshoot was phenomenal.

I’m running out of steam so I’ll be briefer from now on. But I really adored the Ted and Sharon plotline and friendship. I love that he gave her an army man and left without saying goodbye as payback, and that he can be kinda rude but in a way that feels more real and uncensored. I really, really love Sharon and just like with Sam, I can’t lose her so this show better work some magic.

The ending broke my heart but it makes me laugh that reactions towards Trent Crimm the Independent range from fury to love/relief to concern that even telling Ted that much was wrong. I have no emotional attachment to that man so I’m just scared for Ted and nervous about the fallout. I can picture some of the eventual aftermath (Nate either quitting and going to Rupert or getting fired by a furious Rebecca) but not what Ted will do, exactly.

Speaking of, clearly Rupert is involved/will get involved/etc. I think there’s a great opportunity to set up conflict for Season 3 while giving Nate, Rebecca, and Ted a lot of great material for the finale and having their storylines all intertwined.

Finally, the Ted and Rebecca scene... yeah, it was in-character to me that Ted wouldn’t get upset about Sam and would just lead Rebecca to make her own decision. Part of me wonders if a romantic confession in Ted’s office in Season 3 is too obvious. But they’re giving us the romance in general, I can tell you that much. I also think "see you next year” is semi-foreshadowing that he might try to quit again next episode, or his coming back will in some way be in question.

#ted lasso spoilers #ted lasso

25 notes · View notes

stormblessed95 · 3 years

Note

Hello, I would like your perspective on somethings regarding Taekookers and their ideas of how a relationship should be (still a baby ARMY, but I have seen some shit). First off, why are they obsessed with Tae owning JK or JK owning Tae? (I find this narrative really gross, in my opinion. You cannot own someone and if you think that you can, it is really messed up.) So, why does the fandom let this narrative spread when it is obviously toxic and should come to a stop? I have yet to see Kookminers or other shippers use this narrative to prove their ship is "real." Maybe, I am just following the right people or something? Second off, what is the weird obsession with Tae being jealous of JK interacting with the members, especially JM, (no matter what happens I have seen TKKrs bring up JM, even if both of them have proved time and time again that they love JM!) and vice versa? All shippers definitely play up this jealousy thing and it, once again, bothers me a lot. Thirdly, why do they ignore all that Tae has said about him being uncomfortable or get out of your imagination? (I have seen a few posts from TKKrs who completely disregard anything that he has said because they believe him to be lying because of BH. And, honestly, I call bullshit! This man on Vlive played bits of his soundtrack even when what seemed like managers or staff told him not to. He giggled in their faces and did it three times, I think? He is his own person and in control of his own anatomy. Give him credit where credit is due. Also, I would like to add that companies do not mess in the private affairs of their employees, from what I have seen at BH and other companies in the USA! They may help protect their image and help them hide their private life, but they have no power over what they do in their free time. They do what they want during that time.) Finally, why can't they be happy with what they have? These two men have stated that they had drifted apart for a while. However, I do believe they were and still are trying to fix things between them with that talk (whoever states that talk was fake/scripted please just think about this. Would the boys lie to you about something as big as this? Would BH really break their perfect OT7 image unless it was of utmost importance to these two? And if you said that it was fake or that they lied to us, then everything they have told us is a lie then. Can't pick and chose to be honest. And it really shows how you look at the whole group as people.). It makes me so happy to see them interact and, what looks like to me, build their relationship back up. These are cute moments and should be appreciated, but no one can focus on that. It just baffles me that they are so stuck on these toxic narratives that they can't see a relationship trying to grow back, which is so beautiful, in my opinion.

Thank you and I hope you know that I love your blog! 💜

~ Mae

Hello Mae!

I went off on a bit of my own tangent about basically all of this stuff a few weeks ago after the Butter Promotion group photo and all the chaos caused by certain shippers. I covered a lot of similar things you did in this ask. I've since gained a lot of new followers, so for you and anyone else who feels like reading it, I'll link it below:

I also did a post series on Vminkook dynamics in 4 parts where I talked about how I see the relationship between vmin, taekook and jikook and then a wrap up as them as a trio. Part 1 of the series is here:

Now for the very first part of your question on how I view how TKKs seem to want to portray TKs relationship. Even if we were to buy into what they are selling and that Taekook are in a romantic relationship, it would be a very unhealthy relationship based upon jealousy and other toxic narratives, at least according to the theories they share online that I have seen. This falls prey to a lot of toxic relationship, alpha male storylines that are prevalent in our everyday media consumption with popular TV shows and books. A little while ago, TKKs were celebrating how it was a "win" for Taekook because their late show performance of Butter was done in a setting that they contributed to being similar to The Great Gatsby. Apparently this correlated to TK being real because one of their most popular TK fanfictions was based on the Great Gatsby and it went viral for a while. Now let's just completely ignore the giant stretch that is, but it does highlight how they have a hard time separating fact from fiction...

Excuse the book nerd in me coming out for a moment, but this comparison that they themselves drew highlights EXACTLY what I am talking about. So I'm going to go off on a bit of a tangent for a minute.... is there a part of me using this to get to mesh my 2 obsessions together (books and bts) in one post... yes probably. Sorry, not sorry! (I like to read, and you may or may not see book related posts pop up here every so often even though this is 98% a bts blog lol) Beware spoilers for the Great Gatsby, the novel, if you continue reading...

The Great Gatsby by Scott Fitzgerald is a very good book, I loved it. Its been YEARS since I read it, but I can clearly remember how toxic the relationships were. The book was written as an allusion to the stereotypical "American Dream" with Jay Gatsby representing everything that dream consists of basically. It was not a flattering image. His relationship with Daisy is toxic as all get out, and for the purpose of the book, it is supposed to be. The American Dream is not portrayed in a flattering light, it is shown to be toxic, unhealthy, detrimental to yourself, the people around you and never actually successful in bringing you happiness even if you achieve the ultimate "dream."

And in the end, Gatsby and Daisy have a relationship founded on lying, adultery and manipulation. Neither one of them is happy and I'm pretty sure I remember them running over the other man in Daisy's life (ie: her husband) with their car... can't remember what happened to him though. Just honestly an entire hot mess of a situation. And if we are honest... does this not sound similar to what we see in TKlies and her videos? Toxic fiction based upon toxic fiction...

The author wrote it very well, but it always worries me when people (not even shippers) use the Great Gatsby or other examples of toxic relationships in media as their "relationship goals" or as something to aspire to. Fitzgerald did not write a romance novel and its scary that somewhere a long the way, a lot of people have romanticized it. This is the pattern of romanticized toxic fiction that a lot of taekookers seem to have fallen into with their conspiracy theories and ideas of ownership in relationships, etc. A lot of it probably has to do with age and emotional maturity as well.

I'll end this by again drawing your attention to the fact that Taekook are not responsible for the crazy views and/or ideas their shippers come up with. Their relationship together deserves to be celebrated and enjoyed as much as any other duo in BTS. And I am confident that there have to be taekook shippers out there that are rational and are not hateful or believe in the toxic narratives. They just simply are not as loud and obnoxious as the ones who do. Different opinions are okay, promoting toxicity and hatred is not.

Thanks for all your kind words, Mae. I hope you have a good day!

#jikook #jimin #jungkook #kookmin #shipping dynamics #toxic relationships in the media are corrupting how people view love #great gatsby rant #fanfiction vs reality

38 notes · View notes

p-artsypants · 3 years

Text

Arcadia or Bust (17)

Heartstone Hall

Previously on Arcadia or Bust:

James Lake Sr. came back to Arcadia while Jim and friends were out retrieving the new Heartstone. The deadbeat not only ran away with a girl, but he’d been dealing cocaine in LA. Now he’s come back to lay low, since he owes a lot of money to some really dangerous men. He got a kilo of cocaine to try to make his profit back, only to not pick it up from the drop zone before Jim found it. Thinking it was trash, Jim ate the brick and went into an 8 hour rage, busting up the town. The US army of Area 49-B got a whiff of the destruction and came to collect Jim from the hospital. With a campaign from the town and an old friend of Walter’s, Jim is turned loose. However, he’s not out of the woods yet, as his amulet was ripped out of his chest and now he has a crater.

—

*points in a random direction* Hey look! What’s that over there?! *Drops update* *runs*

Ao3 | FF.net

—

“It’s okay Jim, you’re going to be okay,” said Claire, as she hovered just over his face, and pressed little kisses to his cheek. “We’re going home.”

“…For the…glory…” he muttered, before wincing and falling silent.

“Are you taking us to the hospital?” Barbara asked as the van sped on, faster than any speed limit.

“Nope,” said Samuel. “I think this is a Heartstone issue.”

She nodded, knowing that would be the best. “He needs a tissue transplant, but his skin is so tough…I don’t even know what we could do for him. Get human skin and have Merlin transform it into half-troll? I hate that I don’t know what to do! I’m not a surgeon, damnit! And I’m certainly no magic expert!”

“Stop at the McDonald’s near the edge of town,” said Toby.

“Really? You want a Big Mac at a time like this?”

“No! Merlin is probably there, and I bet he could fix Jim up.”

“Wait, Merlin-Merlin? Like ‘Amulet of Merlin, Sword of Excalibur’ Merlin?” Asked Samuel.

“That’s the one!”

Once they got into town, Samuel pulled in at the McDonalds as requested, and Toby was out the door before he stopped the car.

“Merlin! Merlin help!” He cried, as he ran inside the restaurant.

The employees behind the counter all looked at him, and then pointed at Merlin, who had set up shop in the corner of the store. He was surrounded by books, and other magical artifacts.

How had management allowed this? Well actually, Merlin wouldn’t have listened to any authority, so they probably didn’t allow it.

Toby ran to the wizard. “We got Jim back! He’s in the van, and he’s hurt really bad! We need you to heal him!”

“What kind of injury?” Asked Merlin, calmly packing up his books.

“They took his amulet, and there’s a huge hole in his chest! I could see his lungs!”

Merlin screwed up his lips in thought. “Where are they taking him? To the Heartstone?”

“That’s what Samuel said!”

Merlin didn’t ask who Samuel was, so he probably didn’t care. “I will be there shortly. I must gather the appropriate supplies. Keep him reclined and relaxed. And try not to prod the wound.”

Toby nodded once and then ran back outside to the van.

One of the McDonald employees calmly came over and refilled Merlin’s coffee, as he had asked to be done every hour.

“Good lad. I’m leaving now. Here, for your trouble.” And he dropped a sizable emerald in the kid’s hand.

The kid looked at it and shrugged. “Whatever.” It beat minimum wage at least.

—

At the canal, Claire opened up the portal to Trollmarket while Walter and Samuel started to get Jim out of the van. She ran in and called out, “Blinky! ARRRGH! Jim’s back! He’s hurt!”

ARRRGH came running, while Blinky gathered all sorts of supplies and carried them down to the Heartstone.

It was a mad dash then. Jim was quickly, but carefully, brought down into Heartstone Hall, and rested on his mattress on the floor.

“…cold…” he whispered as he grasped and pulled at the blankets.

Barbara pulled the comforter up to his stomach, and draped a smaller one over his right side. “I know you're cold, but you have a wound, and we can’t cover it yet.”

“…water…”

“I’m on it!” Cried Toby, running upstairs.

Jim groaned out in pain, and the Heartstone responded with a pulse of light.

“Is that good?” Asked Claire.

“The Heartstone is picking up on Jim’s pain, and is releasing magic to aid in his healing!” Said Blinky, with a smile.

“Is that going to deplete the magic we put back into it?”

“No no! Well, maybe…it shouldn’t!”

Jim moaned out again, tensing his whole body, and craning his neck in an effort to find relief.

“Just a little bit longer, sweetie,” said Barbara. “Merlin will be here soon.” She gnawed on her lip. “I could probably get an IV for him from the hospital. I have my phone, so call me if there’s any change!”

“I’ll drive you, Dr. Lake,” said Samuel.

“That’s alright, I’ll take the tunnel to my house and grab my car. That way, you don’t need to be held up here any longer. You’ve been a great help.”

The general smiled. “It was worth it more than I thought. The Trollhunter owes me a favor now, you see. I probably won’t need to collect, but it’s always fun to have that in your back pocket. And besides, I got to see Trollmarket and the Heartstone with my own eyes.” He glanced at the orange stone. “That’s a privilege everyone in the Janus Order longed for.” Before he got too wistful, he turned to Walt. “You’ll let me know how this all turns out, right? Because I’m invested in Mr. Lake’s fate now.”

“I’ll text you updates.”

“Fantastic.” He gave Jim a pat on the shoulder. “Hang in there, Trollhunter.”

“I’ll show you out,” said Barbara as they left together.

Then it was just Blinky, ARRRGH, Claire, and Walt. Time ticked on in silence, as no one knew what to do or say. Only occasional groans from Jim broke the quiet atmosphere.

“What’s taking Merlin so long?” Said Claire, with irritation.

“He’s coming?” Asked Blinky.

“We told him about what happened before we came down here. Said he had to collect ‘appropriate materials’.”

“So he’s collecting materials,” said Walter. “It might take some time.”

“Yeah, but he’s probably doing it at a leisurely pace. The man has no concept of time anymore. We need to get him a phone. Or at least a walkie-talkie.”

Just then, a gallon bucket of ice and water bottles descended on a rope from the center column of the room.

“Heads up! It’s kinda heavy!” Toby called before it hit the ground harshly. Then he nearly tumbled down the stairs himself.

“I got a bunch because I know Jim doesn’t have running water down here yet, and I didn’t want us to run out!” He took a bottle from the bucket and put a silly straw in it so Jim could drink without having to sit up. “Sorry Jim, this is the only straw I have…it says ‘big boy’.” Toby tilted the end of the straw so it touched Jim’s lips.

In his half conscious state, Jim felt it, took it in his mouth, and sucked, emptying half the bottle in one go. He released the straw and licked his lips.

“Better, Jimbo?”

“Uh huh…” Jim managed a little nod.

“Okay. I’ll be on water duty. You just say the word, okay?”

“…For…the glory of Merlin…” Jim tried again, before wincing hard. “Hurts to breathe…”

Claire sat cross legged on the bed next to him, scratching his scalp lightly with her nails. “Just hang on for a little bit longer. Your mom is bringing some medicine from the hospital, and Merlin is going to fix you up.”

His eyes flickered open ever so slightly. “Where am I?”

“You’re in Heartstone Hall, in your bed.”

His eyes closed again. “My amulet…gone.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry about it right now. Just relax.”

“Hurts…”

“I know, babe, I know.”

Walt stood, looking at his phone. “Barbara’s back. I’ll go help her.” And he left.

Blinky snapped his fingers. “I think Vendal had a recipe for a burn salve up there. I can work on that. Come ARRRGH! It’s the least we can do!”

“Yell if Jim need help,” ARRRGH added, as he followed Blinky up the stairs.

“More water, Jimbo?”

“Huh Uh…”

After he drank, he winced, and a tear rolled from his eye. “I want my mom.”

“She’s coming, Jim. She’s bringing some medicine for you.”

“Where…am I?”

Claire then realized that Jim was barely conscious, and wasn’t listening to much anyways. She’d end up repeating herself a lot.

She pushed his bangs out of his face and kissed his forehead. “Shh, it’s okay. You’re nice and safe, babe.”

Toby and Claire sat in silence as Jim continued to struggle to breathe.

Thankfully, Barbara and Walt appeared not a minute later, with all sorts of goodies.

“Alright kiddo, let’s get you all cleaned up. Claire, would you put on these gloves? I’d like you to clean the skin around his wound with these alcohol swabs while I set up the IV.”

“On it Barb!” Claire got to work quickly, thankful to be able to do something to help.

Walt set up the IV stand while Barbara prepared the needle and inserted it in Jim’s arm.

“I hate that I have to use a thicker gauge needle, but your skin is so tough, kid.”

Jim didn’t seem to even register what she was doing.

Once the IV was in and taped in place, Barbara took out a thick gauze and started taping it in place on Jim’s chest. “The wound isn’t bleeding nearly as much as it should,” she stated, with a frown.

“Isn’t that a good thing?” Asked Claire.

“I’m thinking it’s because of the burns on him. They weren’t this bad at the hospital. He had been out in sunlight that day, but it was overcast and he had on long sleeves.” She taped down the gauze with medical masking tape. “No, this looks like...well, third degree on a human. Direct heat like flames or burning metal. I guess that would be a UV light for Jim.”

“I’m going to hammer that lady into the ground,” Toby muttered.

“There, this should be good for now. I’ll bandage him again once Merlin cleans him up.” She rested a weak hand to her head. “Lord help me, I’m depending on Merlin.”

Thankfully, news came by Claire’s phone, with an unknown number.

“Hello?”

“Claire? This is Douxie.”

“Douxie! Please tell me you’re with Merlin!”

“I am! Not that I can get his butt moving any faster. He briefed me on the situation, and I’ve been trying to rush him…but, you know how he is…”

She could hear the old man shouting somewhere in the near distance. “Three days? Well he’ll be dead by then! No need for it by that time! You don’t have anything in stock?”

Claire winced. “Where are you guys?”

“At the hardware store, ummm you’re better off not knowing why for now. We’ll be at Trollmarket soon, I promise!”

“Thank you. And thank you for calling. We were getting worried.”

“How is he?”

“Barely conscious. He’s on an IV with pain meds now…so he’ll be feeling a little better. He keeps trying to summon his amulet, but he doesn’t have the strength.”

“Uh oh, he doesn’t have the amulet with him?”

“No, the army wouldn’t give it back.”

Douxie exhaled in a huff. “We’ll figure something out. Oh, Looks like Merlin found an alternative. We’ll be on our way soon!”

“Great! See you!” And she ended the call. “Merlin should be coming soon!”

“Thank goodness!” Barbara sighed. “Though it looks like Jim finally fell asleep. His pain is mostly managed…all we can do now is wait.”

It felt like they were waiting hours. But there was not much else to do.

Jim slept fitfully, occasionally opening his eyes to look around. It was clear he was exhausted, so he’d just close them again a moment later, and they heard his slow breathing.

“This is torture,” said Claire. “But I can’t imagine what he’s been through.”

“I hope that along with her discharge, that Kubritz lady does hard time in prison,” said Toby.

“And I hope they do everything to her that she did to him,” Claire added, with venom. “If they don’t, I will.”

“I’ll back you up.”

It was hard to share small talk, but just listening to Jim’s labored breathing and waiting felt like a terrible option.

Finally, finally, Merlin’s horrible grating voice echoed through the Heartstone husk. “Hello? Is this where the injured Jim is?”

“Yes!” Claire cried out. She was never so happy to hear that man’s voice.

No really, most of the time, his appearance filled her with dread.

Merlin and Douxie descended the stairs, arms full of plastic shopping bags.

And it finally seemed like Merlin was done wasting time, as he spared no greetings and got busy examining Jim. He removed the blanket that covered his shoulder, and the temporary bandages Barbara applied.

He cringed at the sight of the crater. “Yikes. That is quite the wound.”

“Can you heal him?” Claire asked, afraid that he wasn’t up to the task.

“Sure. No problem. Douxie, prepare the plaster.”

“Plaster?” Barbara asked, with horror.

“Ugh, I know,” said the wizard. “Three days for expedited shipping for clay! Ridiculous! I thought the modern era was a time of immediate gratification! But no, the one time I need something quick, it’s a three day wait! Do they not know where the nearest clay deposits are?!”

“Okay, but the plaster? What’s the deal with the plaster?!”

“What else do you expect me to use to fill a wound in a troll?”

“You’re going to pour plaster in his open wound?!”

“Yes! And more!” He glanced over to the bucket Douxie was mixing in. “How’s it coming?”

“Do you want it more watery, or thick?”

“Thick without being too dry.” Then he turned back and leaned in close to Jim. “None of you are going to like what I’m about to do.” He pressed two fingers to Jim’s chest, and spoke, “imperium.”

Jim’s eyes flashed open, wide, pupils expanded so the iris was just a hint of blue.

“Jim Lake Jr., summon your amulet,” Merlin commanded.

Jim raised his hand up in the air slowly and spoke clearly, “for the glory of Merlin, daylight is mine to command.”

Then Merlin let go, and Jim fell back into slumber, Claire having to catch his hand before it smacked him in the face.

“What was that?” She asked.

“I thought it was fairly obvious. A mind control spell. Very weak, only works on unconscious individuals within range.”

“You know Mind Control?” Asked Toby, with some horror.

“To a degree. As I said. It’s more like the power of suggestion. Morgana has learned how to fully possess someone’s mind, but I always preferred to use my natural charisma to persuade people.”

Someone snorted.

“The plaster is ready,” said Douxie. “Did you want to start with the strips?”

“Yes,” he collected the tray Douxie had prepared. Mesh cloth strips sprayed with plaster, which created a base. Carefully, Merlin began to lay the strips in the hole in Jim’s chest, applying just enough pressure to adhere them and blend the edges. Once he had completely coated the inside, without filling the hole, he stopped.

“There, now we’ll treat his burns. You said you had electricity down here?”

“Uh, yeah. There’s an outlet on the wall next to you,” said Claire.

“Perfect.” From his various bags, he took out a palm sander with a coarse paper on it. He plugged it in. “Now how do I work this thing?”

“Why don’t you let me handle that while you use the file…” Douxie took the power tool away from him. “Claire, can you sit him up and lean against his back as a counter weight?”

“The file? I don’t want to use the file! I got this so you would use the file!”

“Merlin!” Barbara scolded.

“Fine, I’ll use the file…better for fine detailing anyways.”

It was agonizing moments as Douxie buffed away the dried, burnt skin that came off like dust, while Merlin shucked off the chunks that were too thick for the sander.

Jim, for the most part, only twitched and cried out on occasion, only when they got too close to fresh skin.

Once he was rubbed raw and bright blue, a little bloody in some places, they stopped.

“It’s like an extreme pumice stone,” Douxie tried to soothe, feeling guilty as Claire wiped her tears. “The skin affected by the sun, or UV lights or whatever, was solid stone and had to come off.”

“I know,” said Claire. “It was just…jarring.”

“Alright, we’re almost done,” said Merlin, scrounging up some compassion. “You can recline him again, Fair Claire.”

Gently, Claire laid him back down on the pillows.

Merlin took the loose plaster and slopped a bit in the wound, trying to make up for the missing space.

Then, from the stairs came a ‘plink, plunk, plink, plunk’ as the amulet rolled its way down and stopped at Merlin’s feet. “Got here faster than I anticipated. I’d love to see the damage it did on it’s way.”

“I thought if someone stole the amulet, it wouldn’t come back?” Asked Toby.

“Not unless it’s properly summoned. If it only chooses one Trollhunter, you think it would want to be anywhere else?” Merlin cleaned the amulet with a rag to a near mirror shine, before placing it back in its spot on Jim’s chest.

“Can’t you just keep it out of him? What if something like this happens again?”

“Then we’ll just have to buy more plaster,” shrugged Merlin. “Anyway, it’s better this way.” He smeared more plaster in the cracks and smoothed it with his hands, until the seam was perfectly even.

“Now what?”

“The plaster should start to dry soon, and a chemical reaction will take place, putting off heat. Then I will start the incantation.”

“Why then?”

“Must everything I do be questioned?”

“Yes.” Said everyone, unanimously.

“Because I said so. That’s why.” He touched the plaster, careful not to jostle it, and waited for the heat to set in. “Alright, I suggest everyone stand back. You too, Claire, get behind me.”

Claire scooted off the bed and stood back with Toby and Barbara, then they waited anxiously.

“It’s going to look and sound painful, but a little bit of pain, and he’ll be all better.” Merlin’s hands glowed blue, interacting with the pulsing, ticking amulet. Instead of a one word spell, like he had been doing, Merlin muttered a fast string of words that sounded like nothing and everything at the same time. Lightning bolts skittered from his fingertips, and drew patterns on Jim’s flesh.

Jim screamed and writhed as every bolt connected. They danced across the plaster, turning it to his hardened flesh as they moved. The hands on the amulet spun rapidly as the stone pulsed a violent blue. The wound from Morgana, lower on his chest, flickered orange like embers. The Heartstone glowed as well.

Claire felt her hair stand on end and goosebumps rise to her skin. The magic in the room was deafening, blinding, and amazing.

Finally, Merlin halted, and only smoke remained.

Jim breathed deep, quick breaths, like you would after a run. But it wasn’t labored or halted, like before.

“Cl-Claire?” He asked, his voice stronger than it had been.

She nearly tackled him. “Jim! Jim you’re alright!”

He winced slightly as she collided with his raw skin, but hugged her anyway. “Where am I?”

“You’re home!”

“Home?”

“It’s a long story. How do you feel?”

“Tired, hungry…a little sore. I remember being in a lot of pain…” he looked down at his chest, touching the amulet in confusion.

“Merlin just healed you,” she explained. “They hurt you pretty bad, huh?”

He rolled his neck and stretched his shoulders. “No kidding.”

“Well,” said Merlin, “my work here is done. I think I’m ready for a nap of my own.”

“Thank you, Merlin,” Barbara said sincerely. “Thank you for saving my boy.”

“Of course! You didn’t think I was going to leave my greatest warrior to die, did you? Oh, before I forget, I should probably give this back.” He handed a black wallet over to her.

“Wait, whose is this?”

“James’. I needed to pay for the sander somehow.”

Barbara laughed. “Well, he’s not going to be happy about it, but glad to know he contributed to this too.” Then she muttered, “considering it’s all his fault in the first place.”

By the end of the day, Jim was up. Not fully recovered, but enough to shuffle around. He was able to go to his mother’s house and take a shower, while Barbara changed the blood-stained, plaster dusted sheets. When he was all clean, he sat in the living room in his sweatpants, exhausted, and aching.

“Blinky made you a salve, if you want me to put it on you,” Claire offered, holding up a little jar.

“I’d love that.”

She delicately rubbed it into his skin, like Aloe on a severe sunburn. Careful not to scratch him, but also wanting to make sure he was covered.

James walked past the room and halted. “Jim! You’re—you’re back!”

Jim just glanced at the man. “And?”

“I just…um, look, I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

“I didn’t know…that you ate trash. I would have made the drop for the cocaine somewhere else. I didn’t think—that’s not something people usually have to worry about, you know?”

“Yeah. Usually.” Jim said, stone cold.

“How are you feeling?”

“Why do you care?”

“B-because you’re my son?”

Jim couldn’t stifle the eye roll. “So NOW you think I’m your son? Where was that mentality when you pointed a shotgun at me?”

“I was in a severe crack withdrawal when I did that.”

“And you’re just magically better now?”

James sat in an armchair opposite him. “I’m not going to say yes, but I’m better. I’m trying to get out of your and Babs’ lives, because I brought so much hurt in the first place. But…seeing what I’m missing out on—“

“No!” Jim snarled, standing up. “You don’t get to be sentimental now. You don’t get to change your mind. You suck! That’s all you’ve done! Mom’s moved on, I have men that are more fatherly than you could ever be if you tried! So just—finish your business and get lost!” He tried to step towards the basement, but he crumbled, still far too physically weak to walk on his own.

“I got you,” Claire whispered, wrapping an arm around his waist. “James,” she turned to look at him briefly. “I don’t know if you realized how crappy that thing you just said was. Don’t try to get Jim’s hopes up. He’s hurt, he’s upset, he’s vulnerable. So just stay away. If you truly want to be back in Jim’s life, don’t mention that you’re considering it. Back it up with action, or else you’ll just be disappointing us all when you go back. And as far as I know…your word is worthless.” She helped Jim walk slowly back to the basement, to the tunnel back to Trollmarket.

“Trouble? I heard yelling,” said Draal.

“No, no trouble. Thanks Draal,” Jim gave him a weak, affectionate punch.

—

Many many miles away, a group of men watched the news, an old broadcast that one of them had snagged.

“—The campaign worked perfectly! Now, hero to Arcadia, James Lake Jr. has been released from his wrongful imprisonment for his bizarre appearance, and returned home. Lake is hailed a local hero, as his acts of kindness and selflessness during a horrendous tornado in the area have become well known in the community as well as on social media. A parade in Lake’s honor is set for this weekend, as Lake has made a good progression in his recovery from captivity.”

“Okay, a kid was arrested because he looks weird. Not sure what the correlation is.”

The leader of the pack smiled. “Oh, it’s such a subtle thing. We don’t care about the kid, or his deeds, or even the city of Arcadia really.”

“Then…what?”

“Did you catch the boy’s name?”

“I…Lake? Like…”

“Jim Lake Jr. is what they said. Maybe a common name. But if there’s a Junior…perhaps there’s a Senior nearby.”

—

I have not seen Rise of the Titans (though I expect to watch it this weekend) but I heard it was…not good, story wise. So in this fic, I won’t be applying any of it. Probably. Unless something juicy catches my eye.

#toa #trollhunters #arcadia or bust #jim lake junior #claire nuñez #fanfiction #fanfic

16 notes · View notes

dialovers-translations · 4 years

Text

Diabolik Lovers GRAND EDITION for Switch ;; More, Blood ー Ruki Ecstasy [Prologue]

Monologue

I doubt I will ever

open my eyes again.

ーー Despite thinking that,

I am still breathing at this very moment.

However, when I opened my eyes, it wasn’t the blue sky I saw.

Instead it was a grey ceiling, and the distant voices

of crying children.

Furthermore, a stench (1) reminiscent of sewage water.

The place where I woke up at,

was one of those so-called ‘orphanages’.

A facility which would take in children living on the streets

Giving love and care to children without parents,

might sound nice and all,

but I could only assume that their true objective

was to free the city of the pesky children roaming around their streets.

In reality, the facility’s environment was a nightmare.

Hundreds of childrens cramped together in a narrow building.

Needless to say, meal time did not go smoothly either.

Malnutrition, abuse, disease.

The underlying causes were varied, but there were already many children

who met their end within the walls of the facility.

Amidst those circumstances, I stubbornly lived on.

It seems like the God of Death does not like me.

After once standing face-to-face with my own death,

it now seemed like something far ahead of me.

The more I felt indifferent towards dying,

the less likely it would come my way.

ー The scene starts with a flashback in the orphanage

Orphan B: Yo, newbie.

Ruki: ...

Orphan B: We heard the rumors. You were a lil’ rich boy, huh?

Orphan C: Why is the kid of an aristocrat here at the orphanage?

Ruki: ...

Orphan C: Keh! The cold shoulder? Are wealthy people mute or somethin’?

Orphan B: Don’t think you can keep up the rich boy act forever...!

*THUD*

Ruki: ...!

Orphan B: I don’t like that look on yer face, actin’ as if you’re different from us. Right now, you’re the exact same!

Orphan C: We’ll teach you who stands at the very top of the hierachy in this place. ーー Get him!

*THUD*

*TIMESKIP*

*THUD THUD THUD*

Orphan B: ...Che, this is hella dull. He won’t cry out in pain, nor resist.

Orphan C: I’m tired of this. Oi, let’s dip. It’s almost meal time anyway.

ー The other orphans leave

Ruki: ...Cough...!

( I’ve been punched, kicked...I’m even coughing up blood. So why won’t I die...? )

*TIMESKIP*

Orphanage employee A: Ahーahー...They got you good again, huh? Are you sure you don’t have any broken bones?

Ruki: ...

Orphanage employee A: ...You’ve still got that cheeky look on your face even when beaten and bruised like this. Guess that’s to be expected of our little aristocrat?

If you had at least gotten the charm to let out a cry or two, you probably wouldn’t have gotten this battered.

Isn’t that why your parents abandoned you as well? In the current world we live in, kids are available by the dozen after all.

Whoops, it’s meal time. Come on, you should hurry up as well or there will be nothing left for you? Well, I doubt you’ll be able to stand for a while though.

Ruki: ( ...Kill them... )

( Exactly...If I can’t die, I should just kill everyone around me, leaving not a single one of them alive. )

( I’ll burn this world which took everything away from me to the ground...! )

*Rustle*

Ruki: Guh...!

*Thud*

Ruki: ...Fuck...

( Despite my bold statement, I can’t even stand by myself anymore. )

( I won’t trust anyone no longer, I don’t want to. ...However, there’s a limit to what I can do by myself. )

( I don’t need comrades...But pawns. I’ll build an army of pawns to be at my beck and call. )

( For that sake, I need to find someone with the same goal... )

???: ...Hey...

Ruki: ...?

???: You’re...the same as well, huh? The same as me...Beaten and bruised...

Aah, lucky you...There’s so many blue bruises...Say, how did you get them to kick you that much...?

Ruki: ( What’s up with this guy...? )

???: I want to do that too...Come on, tell me...

Ruki: ( ...He’s giving me the creeps. )

*Rustle*

Ruki: Kuh...!

???: Ah, wait...

Ruki: ...Don’t follow me...!

???: Then tell me...What should I do to have them do that to me? Hey...

Ruki: Did you not hear me!? You disgust me...!

???: Ah...Wait, come on...I’ll go with you...

I feel like I’ll get punched a lot...When I stick with you...

Monologue

No matter how many insults I would throw his way,

that creepy kid kept on following me around.

Even though he was beaten and bruised himself,

he would gaze at my own injuries with eyes full of admiration,

gasping in fascination. There truly was no other way to describe him,

than as disgusting.

He was just so persistent,

when I finally was able to move my own body again,

I even pushed him away once.

I figured that would make him behave a little,

but ever since, he has become even more clingy,

trailing behind me everywhere I go.

I whole-heartedly thought of him as creepy.

However, he would make for the perfect pawn.

At one point, I gave up.

And kept him by my side.

On one hand, it was annoying to have him follow me around,

but at the same time,

you could say that I was saved by him.

Having someone rely on you is much easier than the other way around,

so I constantly felt at ease.

Even if I were to be betrayed again,

as long as I saw him as nothing but a pawn,

I would not be hurt.

For some reason, the two of us

ended up becoming siblings afterwards.

However, said relationship did not feel uncomfortable either.

ー The flashback ends as the scene shifts to Yui’s bedroom

Yui: ...There we go. My ribbon isn’t crooked, right?

( I’ll get scolded by Ruki-kun if I don’t do it properly after all. )

( However, lately he has been avoiding me, so he might not even point it out... )

( I don’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing though...I feel a little lonely. )

ー Yui steps out in the hallway

Kou: Oh! I was just about to come talk to you. You saved me the extra trouble.

Yui: Kou-kun? ...Did something happen?

Azusa: The Sakamaki’s...Found out about this manor.

Yui: Eh...?

ー The scene shifts to the living room

Ruki: ーー There you are. I assume you’ve been informed?

Yui: That Ayato-kun and the others discovered the location of this place...?

Ruki: Yes. We aren’t certain yet, but either way it was just a matter of time.

Yui: But we’ve been running into them at school, so isn’t this kind of late news...?

Yuma: That’s exactly why we can’t just sit still and do nothin’.

Kou: Seems like they’re pretty desperate after all. That ‘Ayato-kun’ guy seems like the type who’d come barging in, don’t you think?

Ruki: No. From what I’ve heard, he has currently been locked up inside an underground dungeon. Therefore I doubt trouble will arise right away...

Yui: ( Ayato-kun’s still in the dungeon... )

Ruki: ...

Kou: But if you become Adam, Ruki-kun, is there really a reason to make a run for it?

Yui: ( Again with the ‘Adam’... )

Say, what is this ‘Adam’ thing? I’d really like to know about now...

Ruki: You don’t need to know.

Yui: But from what I do know, I’m pretty much related to it as well, right? In that case...

Ruki: Just shut up.

Yui: ...

Kou: So, how are things? Have you been chosen as Adam, Ruki-kun?

Ruki: ...Not yet.

Yuma: Have ya actually been suckin’ her blood? You’ve been slackin’, haven’t ya?

Ruki: ...We won’t talk about that now.

Either way, now that our location has been found out, it is not ideal for us to remain at this manor. We’ve got some ‘troublesome goods’ on our hands after all.

Yui: ...Are you perhaps referring to me?

Azusa: There’s no other option...

Yui: ( They bring me here by force and then call me a burden... )

Ruki: That being said, we cannot turn a blind eye to that man’s orders either. We must keep an eye on Eve here.

...Yuma.

Yuma: Roger.

Yui: W-What...?

Yuma: Don’t worry. I won’t hit ya this time. Well, only if ya behave, that is.

ー Yuma picks her up

*Rustle*

Yui: Kyaah!?

( He threw me over his shoulder!? )

Ruki: Take her there.

ー The scene shifts to the underground dungeon

Yuma: We’ve reached our destination.

*THUD*

Yui: Ow...!

...Where am I...?

( A dungeon...? I had no idea they had one in the manor’s basement... )

Ruki: We’ll have you stay here until we get rid of the problem.

Yui: You’ll lock me up...!?

Azusa: You’ve got a distinct smell after all...It’d be dangerous if they were to track it down...

Ruki: By having you stay here, we can still lead them astray to a certain degree. ...We can’t let them suck your blood right now after all.

Yui: ( I’ll be...imprisoned...? Right here? All by myself...? )

( ...No...! )

ー Yui tries to make a run for it

Yuma: Ah, you bitchー! Don’t be runnin’!!

Ruki: Che...Oi! Azusa!

Azusa: Mmh...

ー Azusa stops her

*Rustle*

*Thud*

Yui: Ow...

Azusa: You shouldn’t...run away...

Yui: Let me go!

Azusa: Why do you resist...?

Yui: Because I don’t want to get locked up, obviously...!

Ruki: Oi, it’s fine. Let her go.

Azusa: Understood...

*Rustle*

Ruki: You guys can return. I’ll handle the rest.

Kou: We’re in the way, huh? Well, time to leave then~

Azusa: Bye, bye...

ー The other three brothers leave

Ruki: ...

Yui: ...

Ruki: Do you want to run?

Yui: Of course...! Being locked up in here is just unthinkable.

Ruki: Because it feels like you’re actually being kept as a pet?

Yui: ...!

Ruki: Don’t get ahead of yourself. This is where you have always belonged.

...Seems like I spoilt you a little too much. Even to this day, you still need to be taught your own position.

*Rustle*

Yui: ...! What are you...!?

Ruki: Re-educating you.

I shall not allow you to come into contact with anyone but me...Until you are no longer capable of thinking of that Sakamaki Ayato ever again.

Right here, you will have your blood sucked only by me, wait only for me...And whether awake or asleep, your head shall be filled with thoughts of only me.

Yui: That...truly is no different from being imprisoned...

Ruki: Little late to complain, no? You’ve been supervised and controlled by us this whole time, have you not?

Have you perhaps...been mistakingly believing you had freedom this whole time?

Yui: ...

Ruki: ...I can’t wait any longer.

I will become Adam. Eve...I won’t give you to anyone.

Nn...

Yui: ...No...!

Ruki: Nn...Phew...

Monologue

Inside the empty underground dungeon,

only the sound of Ruki-kun piercing my flesh resounds.

By said noise mixed in with sharp breaths,

or perhaps by the sensation of his tongue lapping up the blood,

my brain gradually becomes paralyzed.

The sound of water which purposefully echoes ever so often,

only speeds up this progress.

ーー Look only at me, Yui.

Those were the words Ruki-kun whispered to me,

right before my consciousness completely faded.

His voice sounded like a sweet temptation,

numbing my whole body.

ーー TO BE CONTINUED ーー

Translation notes

(1) 匂い and 臭い are both read as ‘nioi’ but the former is used for neutral or nice smells, while the latter (which can also be read as ‘kusai’) is exclusive to bad-smelling scents.

→ LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

<- [ Maniac Epilogue ] [ Ecstasy 01 ] ->

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #ruki mukami #more blood #diabolik lovers translation #mbrukiecstasyprolog

62 notes · View notes

aelaer · 4 years

Note

☕ I AM totally cooking you up in this ask on how much you know about the Accords and the way they relate to the US's federal law 👀👀👀

Ahhh, yeah, I was due an ask like this. It took a while to get to, so hopefully you eventually see it, md. Note that all regulations are directly from the Wiki, which drew from the canon of Agents of SHIELD, which had huge plot points around the Accords. Possibly the other old Marvel TV shows too, I’m not sure. And without this expansion, we’d know literally nothing about them, but they fit a lot of what was in the comics so I’m cool as accepting them as canon. Your Mileage May Vary.

This is super long so I put it under a cut.

Any enhanced individuals who agree to sign must register with the United Nations and provide biometric data such as fingerprints and DNA samples.

Nothing breaking current US law. You’re expected to get fingerprinted if you do certain things for the state in certain states in the US. For instance, when I took a tutoring job for underprivileged children in my early college years, I was fingerprinted. I wouldn’t be surprised if higher-security jobs also require something similar.

However, to my knowledge these are all state or nationwide databases, not international. There may be some argument to be made about which officials from which country have access to your fingerprints, as it is with the Accords.

In this fictional universe, DNA samples may be more of an issue due to how meta-humans may have altered DNA and we alllll know that of those 117 countries that signed, at least a dozen of them would try to weaponize it in some capacity. If I were a meta-human in the MCU, this would be my largest concern.

Any enhanced individuals who sign are prohibited from taking action in any country other than their own unless they are first given clearance by either that country's government or by a United Nations subcommittee.

This makes complete sense and should have been established long ago. If it wasn’t already established, then the world governments of the MCU are... well, just as slow and dumb as the real world’s.

Any enhanced individuals who do not sign will not be allowed to take part in any police, military, or espionage activities, or to otherwise participate in any national or international conflict, even in their own country.

The UN does not have the authority to dictate what an individual country does or does not allow their population to do, for better or worse. The atrocities carried out across the world by various world governments against their people is the best evidence of that.

That said, in this case, I don’t think it’s any of their business to dictate this. If France wants meta-humans in their police force regardless as to whether they’ve signed the Accords or not, that’s France’s business. If Japan wants to bolster their army with meta-humans who didn’t sign, that’s Japan’s business. The rest of the world may not be happy with that, but the UN is not an elected ruling body and just doesn’t have the authority to make regulations like that. A lot of countries will play nice with sweeping calls such as that and go along with them, but they’re under no obligation to follow them (and certainly not with US law - the UN’s rulings have zero legal ramifications here until they’re passed in state or federal legislatures).

Any enhanced individuals who use their powers to break the law (including those who take part in extralegal vigilante activities), or are otherwise deemed to be a threat to the safety of the general public, may be detained indefinitely without trial.

Hahaahahhahahahahah. No. Breaks the Fifth Amendment in the Bill of Rights, which is a part of the Constitution (which equals the backbone of American law -- things that go to the Supreme Court are there to basically see if something is constitutional or not. It’s a lot more complicated than it sounds, though).

Unfortunately this is a real situation that’s being dealt with now with specific people of the “aiding terrorists” category throughout the last 20 or so years of presidency (both the left and right with politicians signing it, and both the left and right with American activists opposing it, according to my brief study on the issue - you can look up indefinite detention if you want to read more).

Regardless, super super breaks the Fifth Amendment. While the amendments were written for specifically American citizens or folks on American soil, I personally think it’s important it’s a value that is upheld with everyone, no matter what they’ve been accused of. But that’s all I’ll say on that real world topic. This UN mandate hits very close to home - kudos to the writer who put that in for that touch of reality.

The use of technology to bestow individuals with innate superhuman capabilities is strictly regulated, as is the use and distribution of highly advanced technology (such as Asgardian and Chitauri weaponry).

Doesn’t break any known laws to my knowledge. Regulation of dangerous things is pretty common.

The Avengers will no longer be a private organization and will operate under the supervision of the United Nations.

I don’t think the UN has the legal ability to do that. The US government would need to do this as this is a private organization operating within the US on US soil. The US government has acquired private organizations in real life (like GM during the financial crisis of 2008), but they quickly find how much that sucks and sell them off as soon as they can, lol.

Again, the UN is operating under the supposition that they actually have the legal wherewithal to do this when, in reality, they don’t. There is no such thing as international law in the real world and I sincerely doubt in the MCU verse.

What would very likely happen, should Thanos not have ruined this exciting political drama, is that the US totally agrees to do this. Then a new administration or legislature comes in and reverses it 2-6 years later, assuming that all of the lawsuits from various countries didn’t cripple the Accords sooner.

Those with secret identities must reveal their legal names and true identities to the United Nations.

Hahahahaha. Under whose authority? We’ve established there’s no international law. It’d be up to every single individual country to agree to not only do this, but *share* this list with every other country. If I was the decision maker in the US or China, there’s no way in fucking hell I’d do that. Israel or Iran? Fuck no! Do I *want* all my meta humans to be assassinated by other countries?

The MCU has this little fairy tale (that sometimes the real UN carries on with) that everyone gets along just great when, in reality, that’s really, really, really unlikely.

Those with innate powers must submit to a power analysis, which will categorize their threat level and determine potential health risks.

I could make an argument that this breaks the Fourth Amendment (unreasonable searches and seizures). You cannot forcefully take DNA from someone unless they’ve been convicted of a crime (and in, I think 20 states I just read, if you’ve been arrested, but even that’s been challenged under the Fourth Amendment in those various states the past decade).

If they’re already having a legal argument about this for DNA of people who were arrested, they’re going to have a hell of an argument for this requirement just for *existing*.

Those with innate powers must also wear tracking bracelets at all times.

Oh that’s nice, the UN thinks meta-humans are animals! Likely breaks the Fourth Amendment. Found an interesting article about Amazon and their little tracking bracelets from two years ago that is semi-relevant, and those are employees. Imagine if you required everyone of some minority race or nationality to wear a tracking device because they’re statistically more dangerous due to the prevalence of crime amongst them, or something inane like that.

Yeah, it’s something like that bad. Definitely breaks the privacy protection that previous rulings regarding the Fourth Amendment have established.

Governments are forbidden from deploying enhanced individuals outside of their own national borders unless those individuals are given clearance as described above. The same rule also applies to non-government organizations that operate on a global scale (including S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers).

International law doesn’t exist. This is done via treaties and agreements, but again, the UN has no legal leg to stand on (and countries -- US included -- often just ignore them). If China wants to take over Nepal with meta humans, who the fuck is really gonna stop them? I mean, really? If the US wanted to take over Baja California from Mexico, same question. The UN just doesn’t have the authority (or frankly put, the manpower). Countries often play nice, but there’s plenty of times where they don’t, either.

(But you know who would try to prevent the US/China from taking over Baja/Nepal? Meta humans. That likely aren’t allowed to fight under Accords mandates but do so anyway, all the while flipping the bird towards their nearest UN building :D)

As a corollary, they will not be allowed to participate in any active missions undertaken by private or governmental law enforcement/military/intelligence organizations (such as S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers).

See “international law doesn’t exist and it’s up to each individual country to determine this for themselves” as explained in previous sections.

If an enhanced individual violates the Accords, or obstructs the actions of those enforcing the Accords, they may likewise be arrested and detained indefinitely without trial.

As established, breaks the Fifth Amendment of the US. And fuck, we saw this in action in Civil War-- or so it seemed. Ross definitely looked like he was leaning that way. I wouldn’t put it past Ross. He’s been bad news ever since he was hunting the Hulk.

The creation of self-aware artificial intelligence is completely prohibited.

Heh, not really applicable to the current world, but not necessarily something I’d like to see in the real world either. I’m afraid we’re gonna get a Skynet or HAL rather than a JARVIS or WALL-E.

This was fun, in a weird way.

#mdcbd #ask #answered #sokovia accords #fictional law #mcu #real world law too #meta #long post

20 notes · View notes

scourgewins · 4 years

Text

Halloween Invasion (Part 9 and Epilogue)

(Warnings for entire work: fighting, lots of action, panic and fear, someone gets knocked unconscious, people get captured, killing mention (it’s meant to be comedic so all of this is pretty mild))

(Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8)

The door to Joey’s office was wide open. Henry couldn’t see Bendy or Wally, but based on the screams, he could assume they were inside.

“HELP!” Bendy screeched, “WE’RE BEING PULLED IN!”

“I KNEW IT WOULD END THIS WAY!”

“You did?!”

Henry leaped the last bit of distance to rush into the room. The ritual circle was alight with an evil red. The ink creatures were just on the edge of it, yanking persistently at a pair of legs. Henry followed the path of the legs, which led him to look directly down to where Wally was clutching the door frame, Bendy atop his shoulders.

“HENRYYYYYY!” Bendy whined. One of his feet was held firmly by an ink thing, and it was only his desperate grip on Wally’s shoulders that prevented him from getting thrown into the red.

“I’ve got you!” Henry seized hold of Bendy’s arm just as the ink monster gave a final tug. Bendy yelped and clasped both hands around Henry’s.

The demon’s eyes were wide as he implored Henry, “Don’t let go!”

Henry planted his feet, “I won’t!”

“Hey, uh,” Wally grunted from the floor, “What about meEEEEE-?!”

The ink creatures wrenched hard and Wally shot backward. Without thinking, Henry dove forward and just barely managed to grab hold of Wally’s wrist. Unfortunately, he was no match for several ink monsters who, by this point, had grown extremely annoyed.

As all three were dragged inexorably toward the circle, it took all of Henry’s strength to stay upright on his knees and maintain his hold. He tried to catch a glimpse behind him.

“Joey!” he shouted, “Help us!”

“I am!” Henry whipped his head back around to see that Joey had somehow made it to his desk and was now leafing through his ritual book, “Just give me a minute!”

“We don’t have a minute!” Already, Henry could feel Wally slipping from his grip. The janitor’s hold tightened even more and Henry grimaced with pain but refused to let go.

Wally looked up at him with the one eye not covered by a bandage, “Henry, if I don’t make it, I need you to do something for me!”

Henry shook his head, “You’re going to make it, Wally!”

“Well, I sure hope so!” Wally huffed, “But if I don’t, I want you to tell Boris that...that…”

“What?”

Wally’s lower lip quivered, “That he was always my favorite!!!”

“I was?”

Everyone jerked their head up to face the doorway and Henry craned his neck around to see. There was Boris, his hands clasped and his eyes wide with awe.

Wally beamed, “Boris, you came back!”

The wolf shuffled his large feet sheepishly, “Sorry...for running away.”

“It’s okay!” Wally reassured him, “I’d have ran, too, if I hadn’t been taken already!”

“Boris,” Bendy broke in suddenly, “Help us!”

Henry cried out as the ink creatures yanked mightily and he was brought down from his knees to his stomach. Desperately, he tried to dig his toes into the floor, to little avail. The red glow of the circle grew ever closer. Wally and Bendy both glanced back and screamed as it began to envelop them.

“No!” Henry and Joey cried simultaneously.

Henry started to slide forward after Bendy and Wally. He closed his eyes, bracing for the inevitable, when a pair of gloved hands wrapped around his waist. Slowly, the animator was lifted back up, dragging with him Wally and Bendy, both of whom were shaken but otherwise okay.

As Henry glanced up at their savior, an involuntary laugh escaped him, “You’re doing it, buddy!”

Boris didn’t reply, only continued moving backward. As soon as his feet were back under him, Henry aided the wolf. The ink creatures redoubled their efforts in response. Bendy and Wally just held on tight as their friends and the ink monsters played tug of war with their bodies.

“I’ve got it!” Joey set to lighting the candles as he skimmed a page of his book. Henry watched as he hurried to stand at the edge of the circle, careful to avoid the reach of the ink beings.

As he began to chant, everyone seemed to pause and listen. It was all in Latin so Henry had no idea what was being said, but he deeply hoped it was accurate; they might not have the chance to try again.

About midway through the ritual, the ink thing holding Bendy started to wobble and soon collapsed into a puddle of non-sentient ink. Bendy gave a triumphant cry as Henry hastily shoved him out of harm’s way.

Outraged, the demon-possessed ink creatures rounded on Joey. Joey didn’t look up, only read a little faster. Soon enough, they too were mere stains on the floorboards.

Only one monster remained, and as its hold of Wally suddenly slackened, Henry and Boris heaved mightily until the janitor crashed straight into them. As all three collapsed to the ground, the circle flickered and died.

All was silent for a short while, then Joey closed his ritual book with an audible clap and grinned, “Nothing to it!”

Everyone sank back with a collective groan.

Epilogue

The aftermath of the “invasion,” as the event had been dubbed, was a total mess. Literally. As soon as Wally had recovered from almost getting dragged into the underworld, he’d morosely taken up his mop and gotten straight to work. All the other employees were far behind schedule, so there would be no one to lend a hand.

As he cleaned, Wally reflected on the day’s events and decided that it was the craziest experience he’d ever had in the studio, which was saying quite a lot. He assumed the other employees would agree, considering the reports he’d heard about the battle in the music department, Norman getting knocked out (he was awake now and back to work, though not before sharing a few choice words with Joey that involved a bump in his salary), Henry and Lacie’s rescue of their coworkers, and Thomas’s one-man army.

Still, however terrified he’d been, Wally was just glad the whole ordeal was over. The only thing upsetting him now was the state of his Halloween costume, which was ripped and stained with ink, with some pieces now floating somewhere in the underworld.

Sighing, he tried to focus on his work, setting to mopping up a particularly large puddle of ink.

“Need any help?”

Wally looked up to see Boris blinking at him questioningly. The janitor was taken a bit by surprise; Boris wasn’t usually one to volunteer his services, choosing instead to do his own thing, which consisted entirely of eating and sleeping.

Wally wasn’t about to pass up the help, though, “Uh, sure. Let me find you a mop.”

He rummaged about in a nearby supply closet as Boris stepped closer.

“Your costume’s ruined,” the wolf commented.

Wally glanced down at himself and nodded sadly, “Yeah, and I was really happy with it too. Ah well, there’s always next year.”

Shoving aside some brooms, Wally at last found another mop. He grabbed it and its accompanying bucket and turned around to see Boris holding his witch hat out.

The wolf gestured for him to take it, “You can be a witch instead.”

Wally blinked, looking from the hat to Boris and back again, then shook his head, “No, that’s your costume! I can’t take it.”

“I don’t think I like Halloween,” Boris replied simply, “You can have it, if you want.”

Wally remained still for a few moments more, then he slowly reached out and took the hat. As he placed it on his head, he felt a slight lump form in his throat.

“Thanks, Boris,” he sniffed, “You’re a real pal.”

Boris nodded, “You, too,” and took up the mop.

#Bendy and the Ink Machine #BATIM #Henry Stein #Wally Franks #Joey Drew #Bendy the Dancing Demon #Boris the Wolf #Writing Entity #*Sigh* I did it! I finished!#I think the original version that got deleted was better but whatever!#I hope this still amuses you all!#Happy Halloween!

18 notes · View notes

darakshafatimasstuff · 3 years

Text

Hazrat Horr (as) the most lucky martyr of Karbala 💔A story that does not let us despair of God's mercy 💯💯

Horr was the name of one of the high-ranking commanders of the army of Omar-e-Sad who faced the grandson of the Prophet of Islam.

Hussain-ebn-Ali, with orders from Yazeed-ebn-Muawiah to either get Hussain's allegiance for his corrupt Khalifat, or kill Hussain and all his friends. It was Horr and his army who first faced Imam Hussein, and then kept them under siege, preventing them from getting water.

On the day of Ashoura, Horr made a huge decision.

Right before the battle started, he left his position and the army he was commanding, and joined Imam Hussein, and was the first to be killed in the way of Allah, by the army he used to be a commander of just a few hours earlier. The name Horr means free, freeborn, noble, freeman.

The fate, sometimes, plays a game. The factory of creation, constantly producing uncountable things, stones, trees, rivers, animals, insects,human beings, sometimes shows a scene of humor, creates an innovation or an exception: it writes a poem, paints a work of art, does something unique...

In one word, it can be said that these items have a character. From among the houses, Kabeh, from all the walls, the China Wall, from the planets orbiting the sun, earth, and....from all the martyrs: Horr.

The artistic hands of destination have composed this scene with utmost precision, and as if to emphasize the importance of the story, have selected all the characters of the play from the absolutes, to make the story most effective.

The story is about a choice, the most important manifestation of the meaning of human being. But what kind of choice? We are all faced with several choices in our everyday life: career, friend, wife, house,major..

But in this story, the choice is much more difficult: the good and the evil. And even so, not from a philosophical, scientific, or theological perspective.

Instead, the choice here is between the truthful and the deceiving religion, between the just and unjust politics, with life being the price to pay.

To further emphasize the sensitivity of the situation, the author has not put the hero of this story in the middle, equally between the right and the evil. Instead, the hero is the head of the army of the evil. On the other hand, the director of this play has to find symbols for his story to make them most effective.

Should he have Promete on one side and some demons on the other side? But this makes the story too mythical...Spartacos and Crasios? no...this makes the story nationalistic and gives it a class dependent nature.

How about Ebrahim and Namrood? Moses and Feroh? Jesus and Judas? no... again, for most of the people these are metaphysical and heavenly characters different from common ordinary people.

Having them as heros reduces the effect of the story, and causes people to admire them, but never think about following their examples in their everyday life. However, the main purpose of this story is to teach, to show the ability of the man to change, to show how it is possible for a common and even sinful man to reject all his social, family, and class ties and show a god-like change.

The history of Islam is full of contradicting features. The two lines starting from Habil and Ghabil, existing throughout the history side by side though in different faces, have also continued in Islam. Now, both these streams are dressed in Islam, but in opposite directions. Ironically, our hero is faced to choose between the most extreme end sin each of these parties:

Yazid, and Hossein.

Indeed, had this story been created by an author, he should have been recognized for his genuine and art...

What is the name of this hero? For a historic figure, what is important is the role he plays, and not his name, since his name is something chosen for him by his family, according to his parent's taste..On the other hand, if the story is created by an ingenious writer,he would choose a name which is relevant to the role of his hero.

In this story however, our hero has been named by his mother, Horr,as if she has been able to foresee the sensitive role his son is going to play. And thus, when the Imam of freedom attends his bloody body, just before his death, tells him: O Horr! God bless you! You are free both in this world and in the world to come, just like what your mother called you!

Although Horr has played a unique role in the history, the essence of his role is not just confined to himself. The meaning of his action, in fact, includes all human-beings, and indeed defines humanity.

It is what distinguishes the human-beings from other creatures, underlining the responsibility of man with respect to God, people, and himself. And Horr has not played this with words and concepts, but with love and blood. If one grasps the depth of this saying from Imam Sadegh(AS) that All days are Ashoura, and all places are Karbala, and all months are Moharam one readily feels the extension: and all human-beings are Horr!

Our history, starting from Habil and Ghabil, is the manifestation of the eternal conflict between the two poles of God and Satan, though in each period of time these two poles have disguised differently. Therefore, in each period of time, every human-being finds himself just in the same position as Horr did: alone, in the middle, hesitating, between the same two armies.

On the one side, the commander of the army of evil shouts on his soldiers: O Army of God! attack! and on the other side, an Imam, with a voice echoing throughout the history asks -and not commands- Is there anybody who wishes to assist me? and you, the man, should choose.

It is by this choice that you become human. Before this choice you are nothing, you are just an existence without essence, you are standing in the middle.

Thus, the man who has found existence through birth, finds essence through choice. It is by this choice,that the creation of man completes, and this is exactly when the man feels this heavy burden on his shoulders and finds himself alone,as God and the nature have left him on his own on this dangerous decision.

Now we can evaluate our hero, we can feel what a long journey he has gone through in what a short time, to change him from a Yazidian Horr, to a Husseinian Horr. If he stays with the army of Yazid, his world is guaranteed, and if he joins the small army of Hussain, his death is eminent.

It is the morning of the day of Ashoura, and although the battle has not yet started in the fields, Horr realizes that the opportunity would not last. Time goes by fast, and the moments count. The storm has already started within him.

From the beginning, Horr was hoping that the events would not lead to war, but now war seems to be unavoidable. Human-beings have limited capability in tolerating shame and scorn, except for those who are genius in this respect and can tolerate disgrace unlimitedly.

Horr never had thought that being an employee of the government of Yazid would mean collaborating in Yazid's criminal acts. For him his job was just a source of income without having anything to do with politics or his religion.

Horr now realizes that adding his position with his religion is impossible. Thus, hopelessly and as a last resort he talks with the commander of the Army (Omar-ebn-Sa'd) who like himself is reluctant to get in a war and has accepted the mission to become the governor of the province of Ray and Gorgan. What would then be better than coming up with some sort of a solution without getting involved in the blood of the grandson of the Prophet and his family.

Horr and Omar-ebn-Sa'd both have come all the way from the palace of Yazid to Karbala together and they share the same status and social class. Horr asks Omar:

Can't you find a peaceful solution for this situation?

You know that if it had been up to me I would have done as what you propose, but your master Obeid-Allah-Ziyad did notaccept a peaceful resolution!

So are you going to fight with this man (Hussein)?

Yes, by God, I will fight a battle the least consequence of which will be separated heads and broken arms!

Now, it is evident that no longer can he play games with his religion. Now, the two separate their paths.

For Horr, Yazid's army of tens of thousand is now nothing more than a bunch of faces, without meaning. A crowd of men without selves, a group of people without hearts, those who shout but don't know why, fight but don't know for whom.

Now the Jesus of love and conscience cures a blind and resurrects a dead, creating a martyr from a murderer. In a journey it is not enough to ask for the destination, but one should also ask from the origin.

Thus, the length of Horr's journey becomes evident when one realizes from where he started, and to where he ended, all in half-a day's time. In his emigration from Satan to Allah , Horr did not study philosophy or theology, nor did he attend any lectures or schools.

He just changed his direction, and it is in fact this direction which gives meaning to everything: art, science, literature, religion, prayers, hajj, Mohammad, Ali...

Having started his journey, and riding his horse, he slowly leaves his Army toward Hussain. Muhajer-ebn-Ous, who sees him agitated and worried asks:

What's wrong with you Horr? I am puzzled by your case, by God if I were asked about the bravest man in our army I wouldn't hesitate to mention your name, and now you are so disturbed and worried?

I find myself between the Hell and the Heaven, and I have to select between them, and by God I will not choose but Heaven, even if I were cut to pieces or burnt to ashes!

The creation of Horr was completed and the fire of doubt has led him to the verity of certitude. He slowly approaches the camp of Hussain, and as he gets closer he hangs his boots from his neck, and keeps his armor down (as a sign of remorse)

I am the one who closed your path O Hussein. He didn't accept Hussein's invitation to rest for a while..

Is there a repentance for me? He can't wait any longer, he returns to the front and attacks the army of Omar with the most severe and bitter words, letting his ex-army and ex-commander know that he is no longer a slave, he is free, he is Horr.

Omar-ebn-Sa'd, his ex-commander, responds by throwing an arrow and yelling

Be witness and let Amir-ol-momenin know that I was the one to throw the first arrow at the army of Hussain!

And this was how the battle of Karbala started.........

انا للہ وانا الیہ علیہ رَاجعُون 💔

Reference:

Maqtal vol. 02 page 301

1 note · View note

allthebooksandcrannies · 4 years

Text

When I Was a Young Boy (A Bruce Wayne Fic)

Read on AO3

Read on Fanfiction.net

Chapter 1: “ In My Heart (I Can’t Contain It)”

If you were to ask the average Gothamite what Bruce Wayne was like as a baby, they would tell you that Gotham’s “white knight” was probably a very happy, very sociable kid. After all, someone who was that friendly and philanthropic while living in Gotham of all places, must come by it naturally.

If you asked any member of the Justice League who was trusted enough to know the Batman’s identity (and, therefore, was likely among the man’s closest friends) what Bruce Wayne was like as a baby, they would insist that he had to have been one of those quiet, calm children that always strike an embarrassing amount of envy in the parents of especially colicky newborns.

Alfred Pennyworth, if pressed for a response, would reluctantly tell you that both parties were completely correct on all accounts.

-0

[ApApAp]

-0

“What do you think, Alfred? Thomas insists he looks just like him, but that is a Kane nose right there if I’ve ever seen one” Martha asked as she helped adjust said babe in Alfred’s arms so that his head was better supported.

Alfred considered the newborn. He had never actually held an infant before, and it felt incredibly wrong for hands that had caused so much damage back in his army days to be cradling such a fragile being.

Alfred had long known that parenthood was not in the cards for him, but he was suddenly so, so grateful that it was for his friends. If there were any two people on this planet who would make truly good parents, it was these two, of that Alfred was sure. These people who had taken one look at the damaged soldier called to them at the request of a dying man and decided that they would be the family this man so obviously needed, no matter how much he protested along the way.

Surely if anyone would be a good father it was this man, this man who sat up till three am in front of the fire with an employee he hadn’t even known a month, just rambling about the latest medical journal article he had read to let his companion ignore just how much he really did not want to sleep.

Surely if anyone would make a good mother it was this woman, this woman who insisted that Alfred sit down to tea with her in the garden every morning, asking his advice on her plans for each of her charity project because she wanted him to know that he and his opinion were valuable to her at a time when he wondered whether his life meant anything at all.

Yes, Thomas and Martha were capable of loving a child far better than someone of Alfred’s background. But, Alfred thought as baby Bruce’s face scrunched into startled confusion after he gagged himself on his own tiny fist, this is Gotham, and it never hurts to have extra protection in Gotham. If Alfred’s army years were going to be good for anything, it would be for protecting those around him. Yes, in that moment, staring into a pair of blue eyes that seemed to peer into Alfred’s very soul, Alfred promised himself that he would protect this child with his life. Whatever it took.

But he had been asked a question, hadn’t he.

“If I had to wager a guess, madam, I would say he looks more like the entry hall portrait of Master Thomas’s great-great-uncle than anything.”

He could see the moment Martha recalled the portrait he was referencing, a portrait that had been painted when its subject was about ninety years old. Her eyes narrowed to a dangerous squint.

“Alfred, are you saying my baby looks like an old man” she asked in a dangerous tone.

Alfred looked up at her and was just beginning to wonder if he had somehow crossed a line he didn’t know existed when a mischievous smile broke through Martha’s attempt at maintaining a faux-stern expression. Alfred couldn’t help but match it with one of his own.

-0

[TwTwTw]

-0

If someone had come to Thomas on the day of his wedding and told him that that was not the happiest day of his life, he would have argued with them. That changed the day his son was born.

He had devolved into downright panic when Martha’s water broke and had been subjected to both Alfred’s sarcastic quips and Martha’s cheerful giggles the whole way to the hospital. He supposed it was ironic that the trauma surgeon who regularly faced the worst Gothamites could inflict on one another was left hysterical by something as natural as childbirth, but it was different. The operating room was his domain. He had control of what happened there for better or ill, but there was no personal stake their outside of its reflection on him professionally.

Here, however, he had no control. He was no obstetrician, and he was well aware of how many things could go wrong in childbirth. Thomas struggled to relinquish control at the best of times (something that made Leslie despair every time she was unfortunate enough to find him as a patient) and with two lives he valued even more than his own hanging in the balance… well, let’s just say that he was grateful for the easy familiarity of Martha and Alfred’s teasing keeping him grounded to the moment.

Now, six months later, the memory of that day feels more like a dream. It feels strange to think there was ever a time when his world didn’t revolve around this wonderful child who was an amalgamation of Thomas and Martha and something that was entirely Bruce. Now, he could think of nothing better to do on a Saturday morning than to spend time with his infant son.

“Where to now, chum?” he asked as Bruce looked up from the leaf he had been examining. The infant lifted his hand to point insistently at another tree a little further down the walking trail through the manor’s grounds. Thomas followed the chubby little finger until Bruce stopped pointing in favor of touching this new tree’s leaves and bark, exactly as he had been for the last hour and a half. But that was fine. Thomas would take his son to every single tree in Gotham if he wanted him to, especially if it meant he got to keep watching the sheer wonder all over his little face. Thomas knew babies grew too fast, so he intended to enjoy every second of it.

-0

[MwMwMw]

-0

Martha smiled down at Bruce from her seat on the sitting room loveseat as he pulled himself into a standing position and grabbed onto his mother’s legs.

“C’mere, little one” she crooned, pulling him up into her lap. “Can you say ‘mama’ for me? ‘Mah-mah.’”

Their efforts to get Bruce to say anything had picked up a new urgency after his first birthday had come and gone several months ago with Bruce still not having said his first words.

Bruce did not say ‘mama,’ but he did match Martha’s smile and throw his head into her chest as though asking for a hug, so she considered that enough of a win.

“Does someone want a hug from his Mama?” Bruce squealed in response. “Oh, is that how it is, mister?” Martha grinned. Words weren’t the only way to make sure her baby knew he was loved. “Well, if you don’t want a hug from Mama, then I guess you’ll get a visit from the tickle monster!” And with that she started a furious tickling campaign that left her baby boy laughing louder and longer than she’d ever heard before, and Martha was laughing right along with him.

As the moment faded away, Martha tightened her grip almost imperceptibly, and Bruce snuggled deeper into her neck in response.

“Well, aren’t the two of you a pair,” Alfred said from behind her.

“Alfie!” Martha exclaimed. “How long have you been standing there?”

Alfred pushed the tea cart he had brought over to the side table beside the couch and started pouring Martha a cup of green tea. “Long enough, ma’am. Shall I take the young master while you have your tea?”

“That would be lovely, my friend,” she said, reaching to pass her child over. “As long,” she continued, “as you don’t take him too far.” Martha picked up her cup and saucer as Alfred settled down in the armchair across from her, Bruce cradled in his lap and quickly falling into a contented sleep.

And they just sat there, in silence, watching as Bruce’s little breaths gradually deepened and evened out. Eventually, Martha rested the empty cup and its saucer on her lap. Loathe to break the true serenity of the quiet moment, she spoke just above a whisper. “We’ve got a good one here, Alfie. I can tell we’re going to be so proud of the man he becomes.”

Alfred didn’t respond right away, pausing to brush a tuft of fine black hair out of the child’s face. “I would accuse you of being a bit biased, but something tells me you’re completely correct in this case. I have complete faith that this child will do great things, no matter how clichéd that sounds.”

27 notes · View notes

autumnslance · 4 years

Photo

Working at the Manderville Gold Saucer, Make it Rain 2020

Transcripts below the cut:

Chief Attendant: These crowds show no sign of thinning... Might you be willing to brave another round of interaction with our guests? Chief Attendant: Splendid! Then I shall send you once more unto the breach! As of present, our most congested areas appear to be Event Square, Round Square, and Wonder Square. Chief Attendant: Report to the Saucer's guides in any of these three squares, and see to it that our visitors are catered to!

Gold Saucer Guide: Thank you for coming! Are you ready to begin your shift? Gold Saucer Guide: Excellent! Our guests await your assistance!

???: Hah hah hah! Is that you, Aeryn? Hamon: ...Working as a guide, you say? Well, I could use some suggestions. Hamon: You see, I'm having a terrible time choosing which game to play. In my younger days, I would impress the ladies with my vigorous pugilism, but I wonder if excelling at one of these amusements might have a similar effect...? Hamon: Oho, why didn't I think of that! Stand aside─the Holyfist needs to go and rack up a holy high score! ???: Aeryn! What brings you to the Gold Saucer? Mylla: ...I see. Perhaps you might help me then. Mylla: I needed some time away from the Coliseum, but even in play I hope to find ways to improve my bladework. Would any of these diversions serve such a role? Mylla: Ah, so you must anticipate and avoid the sword strikes, yes? That sounds perfect! ???: Fancy meeting you here. Taking a break from breaking rock, eh? Adalberta: ...Ah, more work than play, then. Either way, I could do with some advice... Adalberta: What kind of amusing things do they have for a miner like me? I've spent endless hours clambering about mountains and such, so I can handle some jumping and climbing. Adalberta: Oh, that does sound like a challenge! I'd say my time in craggy places puts me at an advantage, but I suppose we'll see!

???: Bloody hells! Give a man a break! Did ye follow me here or summat!? Gerolt: ...Just pitchin' in then, are ye? Well, ain't ye the perfect saint... Although come to think of it, might be as ye could do me a favor! Gerolt: Ye see, I'm lookin' for a game to stack them points up swift-like, but I don't fancy prancin' about or learnin' a bunch o' rules. I can swing a mean hammer, if that helps. Gerolt: Now that sounds custom-made for a master smith like me! Stand aside─it's time to loosen up the ol' swingin' arm! ???: Ah! How pleasant to find a familiar face! Are you also come to enjoy a respite from the world's demands? Thubyrgeim: ...The opposite, then. I was, in fact, in search of guidance...if you might indulge me. Thubyrgeim: Which of these many attractions would you recommend for an arcanist? A game which challenges the mind would be most preferable. Thubyrgeim: Yes, the need for a solid strategy appeals to me. And as a customs officer, I've become curious to learn more of Far Eastern traditions. An excellent idea! ???: Hm hm hm... Have you been lured by this abyss of amusement as well, Aeryn? Cocobuki: Ah, a guide to souls lost in the madness. Commendable. I, myself, would welcome a nudge in the right direction... Cocobuki: I seek the diversion in which a voidsent creature─one summoned by the thaumaturgical arts of my own guild, no less─is featured most prominently. Know you of such an attraction? Cocobuki: So Typhon is here. I must inspect the measures employed in his containment, and ensure there is no danger to the populace. If you will excuse me...

???: Well, well, if it ain't the infamous Aeryn! Ye here for play, or is it other mischief ye've got in mind? Jacke: Honest work, is it!? Yer an odd cove, lass, but that don't mean I won't take yer advice. Jacke: Tell me, which o' these games is most like to get a bloke's blood racin', then? Preferably somethin' what rewards nimble dew beaters an' a disregard for danger. Jacke: Oho, dodgin' bombs, eh? Now that does sound like a lark! Thanks for the idea! ???: Aeryn, how lovely to see you! Serendipity: ...Working as a guide, you say? What a happy coincidence! I was actually feeling a bit lost... Serendipity: Could you point me in the direction of one of the less-intimidating attractions? Perhaps due to my occupation, I have a weakness for all things small and well made─and squealingly adorable, if I'm being honest. Serendipity: Armies of clockwork dolls!? All squeezed together in one tiny arena? Eeeeee! ???: My dear adventurer! I would have thought you far too busy─and stiflingly straitlaced─to frequent a den of frivolity such as this! Gegeruju: ...Ah, well that explains it. Seeing as you've taken a position to serve, I see no reason not to call upon your services... Gegeruju: I am, shall we say, an “admirer” of beauty of the kitten-ish kind. Is there some simple amusement which might also indulge my discerning gaze? And let me be clear: I am a creature of comfort, entirely unsuited to exertion or exhaustion. Gegeruju: Just a few button presses, you say!? And some lovely young bunnies lounging nearby into the bargain! While I'm more of a “cat-lover,” variety is, after all, the spice of life!

Gold Saucer Guide: Thank you, Mistress Striker─I'll not ask you to sacrifice your entire afternoon. Do allow me, however, a quick word to summarize your performance... Gold Saucer Guide: ...Perfect! Simply perfect! Why, our guests might mistake you as one of our full-time employees! Gold Saucer Guide: Evaluations aside, we stand by our promise to reward those who work to maintain the Saucer's reputation for hospitality. The chief attendant will pay your wages back at Entrance Square!

Chief Attendant: Thank you for your continued efforts! Here is your payment, as promised. Chief Attendant: Any further assistance you might provide during the campaign would be greatly appreciated!

#Final Fantasy XIV #Make it Rain 2020 #Manderville Gold Saucer

13 notes · View notes

record-on-the-shelf · 4 years

Text

Being a Starbucks Barista During COVID-19

So…I’m a Starbucks barista that decided to go back to work. For those of you who don’t know, Starbucks gave their employees the option of whether they wanted to go back to work or not. We get paid our average hours through May 3 regardless of what we decide. I’ve been with the company for over 2 years now and have never taken a vacation. So of course I took advantage of taking a week off and getting paid to do that. Being who I am, I lasted only 1 week before I got stir crazy and wanted to go back to work. There were also some good incentives to go back to work such as our usual free drink/food and coffee bean mark-outs, but we also get an extra $3/hr, 50% discount and tips. The tips definitely make it worth it (I went from getting $20 to $120 every week!!). Anyways, I got some insight for you on what it is like to work during COVID-19 as a Starbucks barista.

Company-wide: Cafe stores are closed, hours have changed, drive thru and grab-and-go only. Most stores in each district are closed. The amount of stores that are open are dependent on the amount of employees willing to work. We, the employees, are not to blame for stores not being open close to hospitals. The stores are determined based on if they have drive thrus and if they have enough space to accommodate grab-and-go pickup.

My store: We are only open 7-2 because our district thought it was best to have 2 stores open instead of 1 to alleviate the line a bit. Our line begins forming 30 mins to open and continues being busy until we cut off the line 30 mins to close. Sometimes, the line gets out of hand and wraps onto the main road in front of our building. We have had the cops come and redirect the traffic because it gets bad at times. Typically our line is 30+ cars long and it takes us anywhere from 30-50 mins to get through the line depending on how large the orders are and who is actually making the drinks. People make the decision to get in line despite knowing it will take awhile.

At my store in particular, we get quite a few bad, rude and/or entitled customers.

“Since I can’t come inside to enjoy my drink, can I get 2 free coffees that Starbucks is offering?” Umm..what now? We are in a pandemic and we are not giving you free coffees because of the mild inconvenience. On top of that, the offer is for front-line health care workers to get a free tall hot/iced coffee. The coffee isn’t for bored soccer moms with nothing else to do...

“This line is ridiculous!! You need to get employees that can actually do their jobs.” Sorry you feel that way. We have been trying our best. Taking it out on the employees is not going to solve the problem. On top of that, we don’t have enough employees. If you want the store to remain open, you have to deal with the line. Plus we didn’t hold you at gunpoint to get in line. The only way to make the line shorter is for customers to obey the stay at home order.

“You need to open more stores.” Sorry, we don’t have enough employees. (I had to repeat this at least 3 times per person because they weren’t grasping the concept of work being voluntary.)

My manager and I went out to cut off the line because we were about to close and a woman tried cutting in front of 10 cars to make sure she could still get a drink. I told her that the line goes back behind her, that she was cutting the line, and that we were not taking any more customers. She ignored me, sped to the back of the line where my manger was and lied to her saying that I told her that she could get in line. My manger, not wanting to deal with it, told her that I 100% didn’t say that but let her in anyways to avoid any more lies and yelling.

Customers have attempted to bribe the barista stopping the line to let them in.

Several customers have ran over our sign with our hours that blocks the drive thru when we close. They think that by getting into the drive thru lane automatically means we have to serve them. Sorry, that is not the case.

One customer yanked and banged on the front door after we closed. Keep in mind, we have 4 signs on our door and I wrote our hours largely on the windows too. He proceeded to look confused, walked around to the side of our building to the drive thru window and started banging there too. If he didn’t leave, we were going to call the cops. Thank goodness it didn’t have to come to that. Our store has made too many calls to the police this past year.

“You guys always run out of food.” We order as much food as we can that makes sense. We have donated so much food to Salvation Army at the end of each day. Trust me, we only run out of popular food and that happens maybe an hour to close. If you come late, there’s a good chance that the food item you want will be gone.

Customers will crowd around the front door and attempt to drink on the patio. We have to continuously go outside to tell customers to stay 6ft apart and that they have to enjoy their drinks in their car and not by the door.

A lot of young teens come through the drive thru and then park in the lot to spend time with each other. 9 times out of 10, they don’t practice social distancing. Since they are on our property, we can get in trouble too so we try to shut it down as much as we can.

I also spend a lot of time online when I am not at work. I’ve looked on reddit, tumblr, twitter, facebook and the news to see what customer concerns were.

One customer was mad that they could no longer access the free internet we provide. Saying that we “needlessly closed the cafes.” Sir, we are not purposely attacking you. We have to think about our safety as well as yours. If you need internet, several grocery stores have free internet. You can sit in the parking lot and still access it in most cases.

“Starbucks is not an essential business and shouldn’t be open.” I generally agree with you. However, the amount of healthcare workers that come through and show us immense amount of gratitude makes it worth it. We are meant to be open to serve them. Sadly, we get more people that are meant to stay home, coming in. They make the line too long where some essential workers don’t have time to sit and wait.

Customers have been complaining on reddit that we have been rude. I can’t speak for other stores, but mine has tried to remain positive and friendly. Keep in mind that we are scared and worried just like you. We can only hold back our fear from turning negative for so long. We deal with customers not following social distancing and the stay at home order coming in. They can be mean and downright disrespectful at times. We wish that we could refuse service but we need to keep in mind our policies. Overall, we are stressed to the very limit while working. All stores are. Lines are too long, some cars have families who order 6 custom drinks that take extra time. Then mobile/delivery orders come through with up to 20 drink orders at a time.

However, there are some pretty great times too.

Customers bring in their dogs to get pup cups. I take pictures of course! They brighten up our day so much.

Customers are generous with tips. We may have tipped the scale a bit by putting two tip jars out with a yes or no questions attached to them. We have done simple questions too like “do you like cats or dogs?” or our best question was “Did Carol Baskin kill her husband?” We have fun with it and so do our customers.

We get customers that are extremely funny or pleasant to talk to while we make their drinks.

We get to meet employees from all around and make new friends.

We have the honor of serving our front-line workers.

If you decide to come to Starbucks:

Make sure you have time to wait in line.

If you don’t have 30+ mins, mobile order and come to the front door. Please give us at least 5-10 mins if you can.

Pay with card or phone to prevent cash handling. Every time we handle cash, that person has to go to the back room and wash their hands. Save everyone’s time by doing that.

Wear a mask. The CDC recommends it and it gives us more peace of mind.

Don’t touch our hands when we hand you your items. Again, we have to wash our hands, which wastes precious time.

Only front-line workers get to take advantage of the free drink promotion.

Have backup food/drink items in mind! Due to the increased volume of orders, we run out quickly. We don’t want you to waste time in line if we don’t have the specific item you want. It sucks waiting so long and to not get anything at all.

Don’t try to be funny and fake cough. It makes us freak out.Don’t be that person.

Don’t smoke cigarettes in our drive thru. Some of us have allergic reactions to the secondhand smoke. We have told people before. Most don’t listen. We have, in the past, shut the window and refused to serve them until they put it out. We hate doing that but we are not putting our employees in harms way just so you can have a quick high. Wait until you leave our drive thru please and thank you.

Be aware of our hours. Don’t get mad when we stop letting new cars come through.

Please refrain from ordering at the window. It messes up the groove of the people making drinks. It makes the line stop longer than it needs to.

Let us know if the food item you want needs to be warmed. Some items come warmed automatically while others don’t. If you come to the window, take your items and then tell us you wanted it warmed up, we have to throw the item away and get you a new one. Don’t waste food.

Same goes for drinks. Let us know if you wanted it hot or iced, what size and if there needs to be sweetener. The drinks all have their own presets. If you don’t tell us, don’t get mad when we make it to the preset. It is up to you to order correctly. Side note: if you think you are going to pull off the TikTok hack where you purposely order a grande and get to the window and say otherwise, you are mistaken. You WILL NOT get the extra drink for free nor will you get away with not paying for the size up-charge. It has happened way too many times and we are over it.

Tip your barista? We don’t have to be here, but we are. Most of us rely on tips to pay our bills. Some of us got laid off from our second jobs. Some of us have partners that got laid off and need as much extra income as possible.

In general, be nice. It makes everyone’s day better if you do. We get nasty customers and having great ones help make the day not suck. Trust me when I say that being called a c**t, a b***h, a w***e, etc. for just doing my job to the best of my ability sucks. It makes you not want to come to work anymore. Plus I believe in karma.

That’s all for now folks! Message me back stories if you are also a barista, I would love to hear how your store is doing. I will block and report trolls so don’t do it. I may update this post or make a part 2 if I have more stories. Let me know if you want to see the dog photos? Umm I think that’s it?

63 notes · View notes

punishedalexandar · 4 years

Text

so the organized Belarusian opposition has recently published a list of demands and i thought they’d be worth going over in addition to everyone who is covering the protests themselves.

the manifesto can be found here in russian (archive.org link as i’ve started getting a 508 error in between compiling this and writing it as a tumblr post). i will not go over every word there but i encourage you to read it yourself if you feel my summary is incomplete.

the second paragraph of the introductory section starts out saying “To create a modern labor market with low unemployment, opportunities for young people, economic potential for investors and entrepreneurs, it is necessary to establish a new balance of interests.” here it bears emphasis that according to the world bank belarus’ unemployment rate (source, world bank) is 4.5%, putting it on par with Austria. remember that low unemployment is the first thing listed by opposition economists, as this will be relevant later. when they tell us they are looking to reduce unemployment and create opportunities for investors in a country with regionally normal unemployment rates, what they mean is they want to create opportunities for investors only.

we now move on the the first bullet-point in the section “Problems to be Solved by Our Reforms”

“The labor market is over-regulated. Difficulties in hiring and firing employees“ this is for sure an odd criticism to make considering we were just told unemployment is apparently the main problem. i don’t know about you guys but i sure wish the labor market here was over-regulated and it would be more difficult to fire people. im not one to use reaction gifs but this would be a great place for a confused sassy black woman.

the bullet-point list is concluded by a repeated statement of grievance against the state for overstepping its bounds in determining the terms of an employment contract “reducing the incentive to work.” if your employer was lobbying for their right to increase the “incentives to work” in their contract with you, what do you think that’d look like ? what does that term mean in a practical sense, would your employer have to lobby the government to offer you lucrative overtime pay or would they rather lobby to reduce your base wage and then add a performance-adjusted “bonus” ? the second point simply states that “The government's job creation and retention policy focuses on maintaining large state-owned enterprises through cash infusions, though the resources of the state in the economic crisis are declining.” again as if a job retention scheme is inherently a bad thing.

on to the next list, “Goals and Objectives of the Reform”

“Development of a promising system of full and productive employment based on the priority of generally recognized principles of international law.“ it would be nice to know what is meant here by “recognized principles of international law” unless of course that means selling off of the before mentioned state jobs to international businesses at below-market value as was done in virtually every country in eastern europe in the last 25 years, in that case i would not like to know what they mean by that expression.

“support for the unemployed and workers at risk of job loss” just seems further contradicting all the previous grievances of how hard it is to let people go, so is your plan to jeopardize their position and then give them training and assistance to make up for the loss of job security you caused or ???

(TOP - “5. Modernization of infrastructure (roads, electricity, thermal energy, telecommunications, water supply, waste collection and environmental protection”

BOTTOM - “to attract investors”)

the rest of the list is really just more repeats or meaningless terms like “fighting corruption”

now we’re getting to the meat of the reforms: how they are proposing to realize them. in order to generate employees, they are proposing to: support the liberalization of hiring practices (most likely meaning introducing zero hour contracts), threefold reducing the individual tax rate, adoption of the patent (as a practice), threefold reduction in rental rates for objects owned by the state, reducing administrative burden by half.

as a result of these changes, 300k jobs will be created in the next two years. the plan says verbatim “These places will be occupied by both young people and workers dismissed from state-owned enterprises.” now i must confess i did not go to business school but i feel like if you fire 300k people, and then re-hire (most of) them with worse contracts, while paying less to rent the factories or land they worked on before anyway, you really cannot say you “created” 300k jobs. idk tho just how i see it.

other highlights include “we should be allowed to sell you shittier quality products so you have to buy more of them”

gotta have a section on Small Businesses. everyone loves mom and pop stores and cool startups, best not think about how its precisely their smallness that makes it so easy for large (foreign and domestic) companies to buy them because they don’t have the overhead to withstand larger companies operating at a temporary loss to compete. precarious small businesses trying to not be pressured into bankruptcy are going to be an excellent sponge to soak up all those employees we dismiss from state-owned enterprises and force to move cross country to get jobs (it literally says labor migrants from other regions and cities in belarus will fulfill this demand for workers. why do they have to migrate ? i dont know)

ok now that we’ve fried the small fish here comes the big boys. “3. Take all possible measures to attract foreign investors, including transnational corporations (TNCs).” finally a chance for the proud and appropriately-valued youth of belarus to work in call centers and machine tool manufacturies owned by T-Mobile and Volkswagen.

here’s what they simply have to do to get those charitable transnational corporations to toss these cold slavs a penny: large-scale privatization, land market (ie. privatizing forests or areas with natural gas or mineral deposits), creation of legal guarantees for property rights, acceptance of EU-given standards for goods an services (shout out to the real ones who know the EU literally has regulation allowing the use of cheaper and more dangerous pesticides and perservatives on goods meant for export to the eastern part of the EU “in order to be able to sell at competitive prices in countries with lower relative value of the same currency we forced you to use”)

im gonna start skipping around more because there’s a lot of repetition, a lot of “once we fire all these people we can re-hire them, and that means we’ll create another 100k jobs” but this phrase specifically stands out and demands having attention called to it. detoxification of assets is business talk for when you steal something and then just say it wasnt stolen and everyone agrees that was very cool actually.

and here we have the experts who developed this proposal.

Lev Margolin - a Belarusian economist who regularly prostrates himself in public begging the IMF to impose privatization, even calling for public unrest in 2016 in order to force the international community to intervene and force those measures.

Yaroslav Romančuk - a libertarian politician, president of the Mises Center for Scientific Research thinktank. in an interview with Radio Free Europe - Georgia published Aug 15th, openly stated that there were interests in ukraine associated with the pro-EU euromaidan movement interested and willing to oversee transition to a free society. he also named Mikheil Saakashvili as someone who he would like to be a mediator between the opposition and president lukašenka. Saakashvili is the former president of Georgia, having come to power during the 2003 Rose Revolution (hi mr Soros), whose tenure is highlighted by a strong push towards NATO membership, increasing the military budget by a multiple of 30, and starting joint drills with the US Army. he also privatized georgia’s healthcare system, leaving a great deal of the population without healthcare as they were stranded between being able to afford private, but not being poor enough to qualify for the public option. a short five years after becoming president, allegations of corruption, money laundering, extortion, and abuse of power were made against him, in response to which he had early elections which he won amid widespread accusations of voter fraud. hmm. later he would be so popular he had to flee to ukraine in 2014 after euromaidan where he was appointed governor of odessa and given ukranian citizenship (yes, in that order). crazy how ukraine doesnt allow its citizens to be extradited or something. anyway yeah thats the guy the opposition wants to be the mediator between them and lukašenka

Stanislav Bogdankevič - former chairman of the Belarusian National Bank ousted on suspected embezzlement and money laundering charges and also an IMF beggar. hobbyist advisor to ukrainian politicians and belarusian politicians acting in ukraine.

Mikhail Čigir - former prime minister of belarus, seems to be household name soft opposition, has interviews with RFE Belarus but doesn’t seem openly linked to the IMF or calling for widespread privatization like the rest on this list.

if you’ve made it to the end or this is the last thing you see before scrolling by, i want to emphasize that i am in no way contesting the accusations of voter fraud. there is not a chance lukašenka got 80% of the vote as he claims, nor am i defending treatment of the protesters. the people in the streets are overwhelmingly participating an organic social movement against the government. however it is rarely the people in the street who get to make the decisions following this sort of toppling of a system of power, rather well funded and well organized groups with ties to foreign interests who have something to offer to the international community (political and financial) in exchange for approving and orchestrating regime change. it is worth talking about what their plans are, and how similar plans have affected people in neighboring countries that were in similar situations. what i wish for the people of belarus is the ability to pursue fulfilling personal lives that are not marred by choices like “can i afford to start a family ?”

#belarus #alyaksandr lukashenka #yaroslav romanchuk #sviatlana tsikhanouskaya #will prob edit and add tomorrow luckily im being paid big lukašenka rubles so i can say whatever as long as it ends with IMF kill yourself

12 notes · View notes

dehlivionline · 3 years

Text

Same age husband/wife vs elder husband/younger wife

The more fame I get the more repressed I get in my speech freedom. Feminist lobby is always ready to circulate my photo in SSP group.

Whatever I say with logic or emotion, will never satisfy a larger population because we now dealing with 6 classes of population on this subject.

1. Men

2. Women

3. Liberal

4. Conservative

5. Religious

6. Non religious

So no matter what I say, will never satisfy these 6 classes here. Now do a mix of these 6, you will now have more opinions. Men have different view, women have different. Religious women vs Liberal women also have different opinion here. Feminist women and Non feminist will have difference too. So it is impossible to expect 90% to agree on my opinion here due to so much broad mixing of 2 genders with multiple social and religious settings.

First thing we all need to agree to is "Every entity be it a house, council, business, city, state, army or country runs on leadership" If you say 2 CEOs can run business or 2 Presidents can run 1 country or 2 Governors can run one state or 2 leaders can run 1 house then this would be wrong. There is always 1 leader for equilibrium. The moment there are 2, we expect chaos. It does not mean, leader has liberty to abuse others. There must be check and balance in place to avoid abuse.

Next thing we need to decide. Who is a better leader? Men or Women? After this we need to understand why elder age person can easily lead and younger age person can always easily acknowledge the leadership of the elder person.

However we have a problem here. If I give reference of Islam here, feminists or modern women will get upset. They don't believe in this stuff. For them it is a narrow mind approach if you give any Islamic reference or say that why in Islam we never had a women Prophet? or why women is not Imam or if you talk about 2 women witness equal to 1 man witness or property distribution according to Islam would be 1 part man and 2 part women. They will get upset and will allege me being too religious or too Islamic and why not talk about modern world solutions. So if I talk about modern day psychology or logic that men is a proven leader and women is not a proven leader with proven examples such as there are currently 7% Women CEOs in United states of feminist America despite of full power house of feminist lobbies running that country and yet women cannot be a leader in business world or talk about very rare examples of women running a country such as Germany, NZ, Pakistan or Bangladesh but not common enough then again they get upset. They will quickly call you masculine or male chauvinist.

The thing is men can never win in argument with women. How can you even win? You talk logic, they don't want logic. They want emotions only such as "Baji, buss, sirf aapkay liye, discount, aur kisi kay liye nahi". Go ahead, talk logic and see result and then talk emotions and see result.

The debate is all about "Who is the leader". As long as you clarify this part then only you talk about men's age vs women's age for a good married life. But let's conclude this first. Who is the leader? or Who should be the leader?

1. Religious women will say, men should be the leader.

2. Modern women say, we are both equal and can lead.

3. Feminist women will say, we are better than men and we can lead.

How on earth you can even come to conclusion when 3 different types of women have 3 different opinion here? We have not even listened to men yet and these 3 classes of women are already arguing about it. So who am I to even give my opinion here? The logic is not going to work. Forget about logic, they don't want logic, they never want to talk or understand logic. So how on earth are you going to even conclude about men and women age for suitable marriage when one gender completely don't understand rationale or logic?

If you want logic? Well here is the logic.

1. Women ages much faster than men. If you don't believe it, google and see Saif Ali Khan and his elder ex-wife pictures on google yourself and see his new wife who called her uncle when she was little girl.

2. Men is polygamous by nature and women is not. It's not me saying. Google it and read some scientific journals and research on this subject. Men tend to fall for extra marital affairs more than women.

3. When the same age women age faster than men, they start looking around. If you want to avoid it then a younger wife will help

4. Husband or Wife. One should be a leader of a house. If wife is a leader then you have to live off her decisions. Women's decisions are primarily based on emotions more than rational. For example how to live in a separate house away from in-laws, how to stay away from your brother and family. She is the leader, she decide, you follow. And if you already going through it then please don't comment "No Sunny bhai, there is nothing wrong being Joru ka ghulam, I enjoy it". Please enjoy it, I am happy for you. When women is a leader, she leads, you follow then your life will shape up based on her decisions. Women's decisions are out of emotions more than rationale. Totally your choice.

5. If you are a modern women who believes we both must be equal and husband should do dish washing and wash cloths and I respect his decisions, he respect my decisions. By all means, please do it. Nothing wrong in it. It's just that he will be a good employee and won't be able to build a business or empire in this particular setting. Successful entrepreneurs usually tend to be less involved in house chores as they have seen my ghanta theory and they keep trying to figure out, how to optimize their hours for max output. But if you are happy for your husband to be an employee then yes, please ask him to wash dishes and ask him to bring Aaloo, tamatar, pyaaz and dahi. I absolutely support you and your equal working partner. Good luck and enjoy the life.

6. Now if you are a religious woman and you believe that man is the leader of house then you are relying on his decisions and lead now. However usually to accept someone's leadership age is a factor. Imagine you are 3 years elder than your husband? It would be awkward for you to believe in his leadership. So younger women tends to accept husband's leadership more conveniently than elder or same age women. However if the same man turn out to be an a****e, drug addict, womeniser, a useless moron, na kaam ka na kaaj ka, dushman anaaj ka, then you are screwed for sure. You are in bad luck. This man don't deserve to be a leader and in fact he deserve to be a joru ka ghulam and you should beat him almost every day or lead the family on your own or even kick him out of your life and marry someone else because you as a woman never deserve to get a hopeless/useless husband or accept his lead.

There is no conclusion on this subject. And I don't want to conclude. I want to leave it open ended because I don't want any lobby coming after me and I don't see my freedom of speech too and even facebook does not allow me to have this freedom anymore.

Now start watching comments and here is my prediction.

Men will mostly tend to agree with my response since logic work for them except some men who already have an elder wife and happily going through "Joru ka ghulam" thing. Religious women will agree since Islamic reasoning work for them. Modern women may/may not agree since they still trying to figure out why men is leader and why we can't be and they will struggle to agree with Islamic reference and scientific rationale and will also struggle to understand overall men's proven leadership skills. Feminist women surely will get upset and will not agree to whatever Islamic or scientific logic you give them. They just don't like the idea of men talking about women or telling women what to do. They just hate the idea of male dominance in society, business, politics or home. They want to lead instead.

2 notes · View notes

go-redgirl · 3 years

Text

FNC’s Carlson: What Was It About Joe Biden’s Shaky Monotone That Inspired CNN’s Talking Heads?

Friday, FNC’s Tucker Carlson reacted to President Joe Biden’s address to the nation a night earlier, which according to Carlson left much to be desired.

After comparing Biden’s address to former Soviet Union dictator Leonid Brezhnev, the Fox News host questioned the fawning approval from CNN hosts and talking heads.

Transcript as follows:

CARLSON: Tons going on, as always. So, there are a lot of stories we could have opened with tonight and we talked about it. But in the end, we couldn’t get our minds off of Joe Biden’s COVID speech.

Did you see that last night? The one where he seems so sad about the lockdowns that have crushed businesses and kept kids out of school, an entire generation, he said, had driven so many to suicide, yet never once mentioned or even hinted that he and his party were the very forces behind those lockdowns.

I’m really sorry about your black eye, he says, as he punches you in the face.

It was bizarre. The whole speech was like that. It had a hallucinogenic quality like it wasn’t quite real.

But then Joe Biden himself isn’t quite real. Maybe that’s the reason he talks that way. Biden has been living in utter seclusion for more than a year. He hasn’t spoken to anyone but his own lackeys.

He hasn’t driven a car or sat on the grass and looked up at the sky or been anywhere or done anything except in the most controlled possible environment. What an incredibly weird life that is.

Joe Biden must imagine that everyone in America is as terrified of corona as he is and is living in the same kind of bunker. Joe Biden is totally cut off.

Alex Berenson described last night speech as late Soviet. The more we thought about it, the more perfect that seemed.

Here’s a clip of Russia’s own Joe Biden, the late Leonid Brezhnev. Like Biden, Brezhnev was very clearly fading in his later years after a series of health problems. Also, like Biden despite his frailty and confusion, Brezhnev never lost his enthusiasm for pointless wars.

He is the one who ordered the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. In late December of that year, Brezhnev addressed the Soviet youth in a televised speech. As you watch this, see if you can spot the similarities to what you saw last night, and keep in mind when this was shot, Brezhnev was a full five years younger than Joe Biden is today.

[VIDEO CLIP PLAYS]

CARLSON: Now, they are trying to tell him how the teleprompter works. He harrumphs a bit and looks vacant, he doesn’t quite get it.

Brezhnev didn’t actually lead Russia by this point, and you can see why. He remained the country’s figurehead, but it was the ideologues behind the scenes who ran the show.

Brezhnev had his own Susan Rice and Barack Obama to make the real decisions. The similarities, as we said, are pretty amazing.

Over at CNN, however, they didn’t see it, or maybe they did see it and they didn’t care. CNN always did love Brezhnev.

In any case, the usual chorus of toadies strained for a high note last night. Watch them tell you how wonderful the speech was, as if you didn’t have a TV and didn’t see it for yourself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: How refreshing. How human. How compassionate. How American.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Biden tried to lift our spirits with a medicinal message about recovering our sense of collective cause. Certainly, it was healing.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He didn’t say, you need me. He said, I need you. I need you. I mean, my God that is — isn’t that it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: People always talk about the feeling of the relief hey have hearing Biden, but what he’s doing now soars above that.

LEMON: What the President is saying his help is on the way. We’re all in this together. I need your help. We’re all Americans. Whoo. Hallelujah.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Hallelujah, says Don Lemon. Can I get an amen? Clear the aisles. It’s time for an altar call. Brother Biden is preaching the word. Preach, Brother Biden, preach. Speak. What are these people talking about?

What was it about Joe Biden’s shaky monotone last night that inspired them exactly? Most people found it depressing. Maybe we’re being too literal here.

It probably doesn’t matter what Joe Biden actually said. He could have called for the bombing of Toronto and CNN’s panel of trained seals would still enthusiastically applaud it. It’s their job to enthusiastically applaud what Joe Biden says.

Our job is to try and figure out what Biden’s speech meant for the country. So let’s look at it for a minute.

The lockdowns have been tough, Biden conceded at the outset, God knows how we got them, but we did. Those restrictions will be lifted as soon as we can lift them, and we will return to some version of the country now only dimly remember, we’d really love to do that. We mean it, we’d love it.

But in order to go forward and take the boot off your neck, we’re going to need every American to listen very carefully and to obey our orders. Do what we tell you to do.

Now, that won’t be easy. But if you do it, there is a payoff for good behavior. If you’re obedient, there’s a chance not a guarantee, of course, but a distinct possibility, God-willing, that you may be able to see some of the people you love around July 4th, that could actually happen, ladies and gentlemen. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: If we do our part, if we do this together, by July the Fourth, there’s a good chance you, your families and friends will be able to get together in your backyard or in your neighborhood and have a cookout and a barbecue and celebrate Independence Day.

That doesn’t mean large events with lots of people together, but it does mean small groups will be able to get together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Did you hear that America, there is a good chance, again, not a sure thing. But what is a sure thing these days? But a good chance that you might be allowed to have a modest cookout four months from now. That is as long as you obey regulations weather permitting, and assuming that current Federal projections unfold according to plan. That’s your prize.

This offer by the way does not apply to full-time employees, the radio station or their families.

But with luck, this could be your reward after a year and a half of lockdowns, a Fourth of July cookout in your very own backyard assuming you have one.

Don’t ever tell us that Joe Biden isn’t a compassionate generous man. Here he is offering you with some medically necessary caveats outlined by Dr. Anthony Fauci, the right to cook your own hotdogs. With the provision, obviously, that you do it in a small masked group seated far apart at a prescribed distance from one another.

Don’t get crazy and hug or celebrate or talk too loud or anything like that. Moderation is the key here. But still a socially distanced barbecue. What other wonders does President Biden have in store for us?

Well, you’re going to have to get vaccinated to find out. Sorry, that’s the other requirement. I should have mentioned it. Everybody needs the shot. Period. That’s what Biden said. And that’s a lot of shots.

The good news: now that we’re on what Joe Biden describes as a, quote, “war footing” with this virus, vaccinating people against it is a counterterrorism operation.

What we did to ISIS, we’re going to do to COVID. Biden didn’t mention drones, but we will need soldiers and that’s why Joe Biden is building a Vaccination Corps that will include active-duty members of the military, an army of vaccinators. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: Two months ago, the country — this country didn’t have nearly enough vaccine supply to vaccinate all or ever near all of the American public. But soon we will.

Now because of all the work we’ve done, we’ll have enough vaccine supply for all adults in America by the end of May. That’s months ahead of schedule. And we’re mobilizing thousands of vaccinators to put the vaccine in one’s arm.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Thousands of vaccinators to vaccinate everyone. That sounds amazing, but it does raise at least one vexing question: what if you don’t want to get vaccinated? Not everyone does. Some people have religious objections, other have concerns about this specific medicines. Others simply don’t want it.

Do you need a reason to turn down the vaccine? And what happens if you do turn it down? Will we be allowed to fly on airplanes? Or go to work? Or enter the front doors of Madison Square Garden?

Joe Biden didn’t specify, but it’s pretty hard to believe he would support any kind of vaccine coercion as he has told you so often over so many years, if it’s your body, it’s your choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: I support a woman’s right to choose under that constitutional guarantee provision. And quite frankly, I always will.

Folks, you know, and I am going to fight to protect a woman’s right to make her own personal decisions when it gets to your healthcare.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: Quite frankly, you’ve got the absolute right to make your own personal decisions about your own personal healthcare. Period. That’s in the Constitution. Joe Biden would never violate that, right. He’s been defending that right since before you were born.

It’s your body. It’s your choice. Period.

Of course, as with everything, there are caveats. If you don’t take the shot that Joe Biden wants you to take, if you persist in making your own personal healthcare, then Joe Biden is going to have to shut the country down again, no socially distanced barbecues for you, buddy. You’re going to have to eat your hotdogs alone inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: If we don’t stay vigilant, and the conditions change, and we may have to reinstate restrictions to get back on track.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARLSON: To which CNN might say, “Hallelujah,” but we’re not CNN. Instead, we’re left wondering, could there be any civil liberties implications to any of this? We don’t know the answer.