#i don't have that much to say about vp

[yujeong]

Ok, but seriously. Give me an inexperienced Vegas who doesn't know what the fuck he's supposed to be doing in bed to please Pete. Give me a Vegas who's nervous about performing well. Give me a Vegas who can't get it up due to how nervous he is. Give me a Vegas who's a little *too* eager to serve, always down on his knees to eat him out because he remembers how much Pete had liked it and it's a guaranteed success, right? Pete loves it, he won't fail at giving him pleasure if he does this every single time. Give me a Vegas trying to follow a checklist to make sure Pete is having a good time. Give me a Vegas who couldn't fuck Tawan properly half the time, but Tawan was so smitten (delusional) that he didn't mind. "It's ok, Vegas, I wasn't in the mood anyway." Give me a Vegas who thinks his cringe attempts at flirting are effective, even though Porsche wanted to crawl out of his skin every time he used them on him. Give me a Vegas who's never properly dommed anyone in his life. Give me a Vegas who's clueless about proper domming, about safewords, about aftercare. Give 👏 me 👏 Vegas 👏 not 👏 being 👏 good 👏 at 👏sex 👏 And then give me Pete not giving a damn anyway.

[pollen]

i seriously should propose my own promotion. nothing goes out that i don't get my hands on and 50% of the time i'm restructuring and rephrasing every piece of copy that goes out, and more like 90% for some of my more involved accounts, especially the account whose brand identity is 100% from me. i have a social writer who writes bare-bones copy and then gives it to me like "i don't know how to make this work please help me, edit what needs it and feel free to make content suggestions" and most of the time i end up scrapping what she writes and i handle it from there. she can't push anything to client approval without my ok on it. i even edit her content schedules and recommendations sheets before the client sees those. and when we're in a pinch trying to clean something up for production that requires a miracle to be worked, or if we have a pitch going out, or any kind of internal communication or file that's being distributed, or if we have a presentation in mere hours but the content needs to be completely redone, the executives call me in on it. like. make me the content director already i'm so -_-

[qqueenofhades]

I KNOW he’s gonna find a way to worm his way out of it like the Worlds Biggest Bitch Baby that he is but… the thought of watching our future president absolutely eviscerate that orange sack of pond scum in a debate on national television make me feel indescribable joy. The mere thought of it makes me feel A L I V E.

I hope that if he refuses to debate her, she still stands up there by herself, looks directly into the camera and lists all the ways he’s a Scaredy Little Punk Ass Bitch.

Listen, Democrats might still have some understandable nerves (though listen to me, LISTEN TO ME: this is NOT THE TIME FOR MORE PANIC, THIS IS NOT THE TIME TO TALK ABOUT HOW SCARY THIS IS, WE KNOW! WE KNOW! THIS IS THE TIME TO GET TF IN FORMATION AND DO YOUR GODDAMN JOB!) but let me say this, the Republicans are LOSING it. They put ALL their chips on facing Sleepy Old Joe who don't talk so good anymore, and suddenly they have a 59-year-old lawyer and prosecutor who literally spent her whole elected career going after sex pests, frauds, and felons. (We remember how she made Brett Kavanaugh fucking cry at his confirmation hearing, right?) And suddenly, they have to bring it against Kamala. GODSPEED, DIPSHITS.

So yes, Trump is already whining SO hard about all the money they "wasted" going after Biden, laying the groundwork to escape getting his ass handed to him at the next debate, got stuck with a terriblawful VP pick (even Fucking FOX NEWS cut away from Vance's rally the other day because it was so boring) and suddenly realizing that he spent so much effort to make this election about age and mental competency when... now it's him. WHAT NOW, FUCKFACES. WHAT. NOW.

I'd also like to point out that abortion rights are going to be a HUGE issue, they have won everywhere they have been on the ballot (including in very red states) post-Dobbs, they will be on the ballot in several more important states (including Fucking Florida, not that I actually think we'll win there), and Kamala has a great record as a defender of reproductive freedom. Biden did his best, bless him, but sometimes the Old Catholic Man still leaped out. So the absolute fucking schadenfreude of having a black female president BEAT TRUMP IN A POST-DOBBS ELECTION??? MAGNIFICENT.

(As @silverbirching says: we wonder how many minutes it will take SCOTUS to row back the "president god-king" ruling if Kamala wins. We're guessing 15. That is, if Joe does not finally just embrace the fact that presidents are immune AND he is leaving office, and send Alito, Thomas, and Kav on a "special indefinite vacation" as an inauguration present.)

I am not overconfident. I know this is unprecedented. I know we don't have much time, and how hard this will be. This is not 2016 or 2020, and we all have to do the work and not let up. But if the Handmaid's Tale party is literally now trying to make "Kamala doesn't have children because she's an Evul Feminist" into their main line of attack, all I say is, Please proceed, chucklefucks. I'm sure that will go great.

[jesswriteswrongs]

After School Special

Fandom: Shameless USA

Characters: Lip Gallagher x Female Northside!Reader

Summary: Reader and Lip return to her house after school, but Reader’s mom comes home early and has a lot to say

Warnings: body shaming, discussion of food, discussion of exercise, discussion of weight

A/N: Readers mom reads like Emily Gilmore because I’ve been binge watching Gilmore Girls

It was mid-October and you had no idea how Lip survived without a coat, when you were dreading pulling your hand out of your pocket to unlock the door. Once you were both inside the warmth of your house you lead Lip upstairs to your room. “Wanna help me with my literature homework?” You asked him, putting your backpack on the floor and hanging up your coat.

“I do love you in that uniform…” he replied, sitting on your bed. You never thought that the kilt, sweater vest, blazer and saddle shoes were particularly attractive, but Lip always seemed to think so.

“Really?” You asked, straddling his lap.

“Mmm…” He replied, pushing your blazer off your shoulders “Southside bad boy corrupts private school girl? It’s like something from a romance novel.” You let your blazer fall to the floor. “Shall I compare thee to a summers day? Thou art more lovely and more temperate. Rough winds do-“ You interrupted Lip’s recitation of Shakespeare by clapping your hand over his mouth, hearing the front door open and close.

“Shit! My mom’s home early.” You whispered.

“Y/N!” Your mom shouted. You put your finger to your lips to signal Lip to be quiet, and climbed off his lap. You headed downstairs to see what she wanted.

“Hi Mom.” You said nonchalantly.

“Y/N! How long have you been home?” She asked, looking you up and down. You squirmed under her gaze.

“Just a few minutes, I was just about to start my homework.” She frowned.

“Hm… well, remember your sister is coming home from Yale this weekend.”

“Yes, Mom.” You replied monotonously.

“How’s your application to Princeton going?”

“I don't need to apply until next year.”

“Yes, darling, but Princeton will look closely at your junior year. Extracurriculars are important.” She placed her handbag on the bureau, paying more attention to the wood grain than to you.

“Mom, I’m already president of the Model United Nations and VP of the astronomical society.”

“Yes, but you’ll need more. Your sister was captain of the swim team, president of the key club, class president and valedictorian.”

“Mom, I’m not Laura.” You sighed, playing with your sleeve cuffs

“Don’t I know it.” Your mother retorted. She looked you up and down once more. “You’re looking fat. I’ll tell Maria to skip the after school snack, you can wait until dinner, and you’ll be taking salad for lunch for the rest of the week. Your father and I pay for the gym, you should use it.”

“Yes, Mom.” You said once more. “Can I go back to my homework now?” Your mother literally looked down her nose at you before she spoke.

“Fine. But I expect you to be exercising after dinner.” You nodded, fisting your hands inside your sleeves and wiling the tears not to fall. You quickly turned and ran back up the stairs, shutting yourself in your bedroom, back against the door, before you let the tears fall. You had completely forgotten Lip was waiting for you in there.

“Y/N?” He asked quietly.

“How much of that did you hear?” Your voice was low and quiet, almost trembling.

“Enough.” Lip replied. He opened his arms. “Everything she said is total bullshit. You’re not anywhere near fat, and you’re going to get into Princeton.” You allowed yourself to be hugged and comforted by Lip, tears falling on to the blue shirt you loved on him. “And if your mom really wants you to get some exercise I can think of an exercise regiment that she’ll hate.” You laughed wetly, before wiping your eyes with your sleeve.

“This is why I prefer your house.” You said quietly.

“What, too loud to think with the police turning up anytime they want?” Lip chuckled. You rested your temple against his shoulder.

“Yeah but it’s family. You may not have much but you love each other, and most of the time you even like each other.” Lip laughed at that. “You’re not competing against each other or trying to outdo each other’s achievements. Everything Laura does I have to be the same or better, whether I want to or not.” Lip seemed to think about that for a moment.

“I guess you’re right.” He said after a moment of silence. “We’re dysfunctional, sure, but I’d do anything for my family. Our achievements are what they are. Shit, I’ll be the first Gallagher to finish high school. Plus, Fiona likes you a lot more than she’s liked my other girlfriends.” You ran your thumb over his shirt collar.

“It’s refreshing. Fiona thinks it’s great when I get a C, Debbie likes when I bring my art homework, it feels safe.” You said quietly.

“Even with Carl running around?” Lip asked

“Even with Carl running around.” You laughed, and kissed him. “I’m totally serious though, my literature homework is due tomorrow.”

“Hmmm, can I be your reward afterwards?” Lip asked.

“Can we go to your house tomorrow?” Lip smiled and nodded. You smiled back and climbed off his lap, grabbing your book and sitting back on his lap.

“What are you doing, Y/N? I thought you were doing homework?” You grinned wickedly at Lip.

“You really want to wait until after?”

[abstractpenny]

Okay, so I've been thinking about it and I don't think we're actually all that cooked with Joe Biden dropping out.

If you don't know, Joe Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential election. He is no longer running. BUT Kamala Harris, the current VP, is taking his place as the Democratic candidate for this election.

Looking at this, you may say something like "Oh no, we're done for. We're doomed." But if you think about it, this is actually an unbelievably intelligent and strategic move. In fact, this gives me a lot of hope that I didn't have before.

Obviously, this move is a last resort. They knew if they kept running with Biden they would lose. It means the Democratic party is pulling out a final weapon. But it's honestly a damn good one.

Before this happened, it seemed hopeless. Our two options were two old rich white men, one of which is an awful public speaker and the other is a literal criminal. And, because of that, you got people choosing not to vote or choosing to vote for Trump. Because which of the two evils is more appealing?

Donald Trump is a wonderful public speaker. He is charismatic and charming. He knows how to get people on his side. He's spent his whole life learning how to be a strong public speaker. That's what makes him scary. That's what made it so he won the 2016 election, so he almost won the 2020 election, and why he's still in the conversation today. He knows how to speak in an appealing way.

Joe Biden is honestly an awful public speaker. He struggles with gathering people to be on his side. Whether it's because he has a stutter/speech impediment or because he's dealing with dementia, he's still not good at public speaking. That makes him weak in things like debates and in politics. We saw that with our own eyes during the last debate.

Kamala Harris, while maybe not as strong of a speaker as Donald Trump, is very knowledgeable and self assured. She knows how to debate, she knows how to be a politician. She knows what she's doing. She's strong and confident. She may be our final hope.

A lot of why people aren't going in to vote is because it felt useless to do so, especially to people on the left. Donald Trump is out of the question for a lot of people, but Joe Biden isn't much better to many. They're both old as fuck, about 80 years old. They're both straight white cis men who have higher incomes. They're not aligned at all with what a lot of people on the left view.

Harris is significantly more relatable to a lot of people. She's a woman of colour. A good percentage of the United States population is one of those, either a person of colour or a woman. She's also younger than both Biden and Trump by almost 20 years. Yes, she's still 60 years old, but that's absolutely nothing compared to our other candidates.

Another thing that brings Biden out of favour with the left is how he handled and backed specific foreign wars (Ukraine and Palestine specifically). The Palestine Israel war is a very strong thing on the left, it's very talked about, and a lot of people view Biden as 'om the wrong side' of it. And, although Harris was the VP of the Biden administration, she's not very tied in to the wars from public view.

Harris is a great candidate other than a few minor minor minor things. She's leagues better than our dropped out ex candidate and our currently running candidate. One of the biggest hurdles for her, though, is going to be racism and sexism. It's always there. Oh, and the fact that her opponent had an assassination attempt on him, but that's a whole other can of worms.

Kamala Harris coming into this race may change things completely. We're not as screwed anymore. There's hope.

You. Whoever may read this. Go vote. It's crucial. Vote if you can. If you can't, get people to vote who can. This is the most important election in a long time.

We can win.

[nothorses]

May I ask why you think Biden stepping down and Kamala being the candidate to be 'good news'? I'm still voting for whoever the Democratic candidate is ofc, but I worry this move threw away the average swingvoter who may have been swayed towards voting blue. I don't see how anyone who may have been okay voting for Biden by virtue of him being an old white dude is gonna be as nice towards a brown woman. I mean, people were too sexist for Hillary, the most milquetoast white woman imaginable. I'd really like to hear your perspective.

Biden has been polling like shit for months, and basically fucking everyone has been calling for him to step out of the race for a while now. It's been the opinion of political experts that he doesn't have much of a shot in this election for a variety of reasons. The vast majority of his own base is incredibly dissatisfied with his stance on Palestine (an understatement), and numbers have been reflecting that he was going to be running against some truly miserable odds because of that.

It is genuinely the best option for him to step out of the race. Literally just about anyone else has a much better shot at winning than Biden did. Kamala included! There was a press conference a while back where someone actually asked him if he'd step down if Kamala polled better, and he said he wouldn't. Which is extremely worrying, because it demonstrates that he may have been prioritizing his own personal ego over the importance of keeping Republicans out of office this election.

I don't like Biden, and I really didn't like his odds in this race. Nobody else did, either. The fact that Obama came out and said Biden needs to step down is indication enough that this happened because the situation is really that dire; you have to remember that Democrats are all about Doing Things By The Book, especially in the last 8-ish years when it's been useful for them to be Rule Followers in contrast to the tantrum-throwing chaos machines that Republicans have been. If there was even a sliver of hope for Biden to stay in the race after being chosen in the sad sham that the primaries were this election cycle, they would have kept pushing just to stay within the bounds of convention.

I was ready to push for Biden regardless, because keeping Republicans out of office is priority #1. But I've been saying for a while now that he needs to drop out (just... not on Tumblr, where the dominant conversation is "does voting for a flawed political pawn make you personally responsible for everything they ever do, or should we abstain and let the fascists hijack our government and kickstart several new genocides for the sake of personal moral purity" and I don't think that kind of nuance would be well-received).

I use my grandparents as a litmus test in a lot of this stuff, because they are very much the Typical Liberal Democrats, and their opinions on these things tend to fall in line with the majority of voting Democrats. They absolutely loved Biden in 2020, long before he was chosen as the candidate. They don't anymore. Seeing them lose any and all enthusiasm for voting for this corpse of a man was evidence enough to me that we needed someone else. Ideally someone people can get excited about, because I think folks have mostly lost the perspective we had in 2020 when Trump's nightmarish presidency was fresh in everyone's minds, and served as motivation enough to get to the fucking polls- regardless of who the Dem pick actually was.

From what I understand, Kamala is actually polling better than anyone else right now. I have my fears about voters' racism and misogyny too, but if she's doing well in the polls, I wonder if maybe there's some other factors counteracting that. She's also got name recognition, and the general impression of Being Qualified (because she's been VP already, like Biden was), and Being Likeable (because she comes with the general positive associations of the largely successful Biden presidency, without any baggage of perceived responsibility that Biden himself carries- like Biden did with Obama). She's been flying under the radar while still reaping the benefits of positive associations, and people know who she is. That feels like a good combination, but I don't know enough, and I haven't read enough into it to make any decently educated guesses.

That said, I don't really know as much about who the other potential candidates might be, either. I've heard Pete Buttigieg's name tossed around, but nobody liked his ass back in 2020 and idk if that's actually changed at all. I just know that every politically-knowledgeable/politically-active leftist whose opinion I've heard on the topic has been citing Biden dropping out as the literal only hope for a non-Republican to win this election, and I'm really fucking excited to see that come to fruition. I just hope the Dems pick someone who really does have a good shot.

As a sidenote, I also really hope this marks a shift in how they make decisions, too. It's become increasingly obvious how out-of-touch Democrats are with their voters, and Biden 2024 was just the latest and greatest indicator of exactly how bad that's gotten. The fact that the party has been able to make such an unconventional decision in response to what their voters actually want gives me a little bit of hope that we might be able to influence more change with them going forward than we have been.

[foone]

Alright, listen up:

We need to stop with the anti-rooting attitude for brainpals, alright? You're just doing mnemonocorps job for them. Cut out the discourse about people with modded brainpals, for TF's sake.

(scifi worldbuilding by way of fictional Tumblr discourse under the cut)

There's tons of valid reasons for by people would hack their brainpals! Testing new memory/skills without paying for a dev kit, piracy of skills (and do not @ me with that "but you're stealing from the original skill creator!" bullshit. All the legit skills on the market now are from people who did work for hire by mnemonocorps, and THEY ALREADY WERE PAID. It's only mnemonocorps that is losing money!), home ptsd/cptsd/jptsd treatment, the list is endless.

And before you jump into the comments, YES I KNOW PEOPLE DO SEXUAL MEMORY PLAY. People do every kind of weird shit, name me a technology that no one has used for sex in some way? Hell, the first topless photo was taken within a week of the invention of the daguerreotype. But we need to be adults here, okay? These things can be simultaneously true:

1. People do memory play

2. No kids have memorypals

3. The vast major of memory play is NOT VP.

Mnemonocorps has done a lot of work to try to keep people from using brainpals for memory pal, with their artificial limits on how much you can block at once, but that's fundamentally an over reaction to the negative press from the whole VP scandal. The news loves a juicy story like "people are using a new technology for weird sex shit" because their readers/viewers are always interested in Weird Sex Shit, either because "ooh, sexy!" or "BAN THIS FILTH" reactions.

And like all big companies, the last thing mnemonocorps wants is a new law aimed specifically at regulating them! So they stuck a bunch more restrictions on brainpals so they could say they have taken steps to prevent VP.

Now, I need you to listen to me before I say this: I am NOT saying I condone VP, alright? I'm not going like "oh but no one is hurt, everyone is (technically) adults, it's basically roleplay"? This is not an excuse for VP, alright?

Memory play is not just VP, and it's deeply insulting to everyone who engages in memory play to conflate the two!

The reasons people would do memory play are many and varied, as are the things that people do with memory play. And I think people are extra quick to jump on the "memory play is bad" bandwagon not just because of the spectre of VP, but because it's all "eww, kinky sex things".

And yes, I'm not going to try to sugarcoat memory play, alright? There's a lot of weird stuff going on there, and it definitely isn't for everyone. But the thing y'all need to keep in mind is that it's between consensual adults and they (usually*) know what they're doing, okay?

It's safe and mind healthy and consensual. (yes I know these are the same arguments the veepers use to definite VP but I'm not talking about VP here, damn it!).

People can do CNC play with mblocks. People can do roleplay with temporary personality patches, either because they're too awkward/shy/whatever to have sex or because they (or their partners) want to do some vcheating. All these are perfectly safe if done correctly and don't hurt anyone. Especially not you, who aren't even involved in their memory play!

And I promise the slippery slope argument is bullshit: even if people use mblocks to age regress, that doesn't make it VP, alright? There's plenty of people (especially us elderly trans who missed out on a gender-correct early adulthood. (I wasn't able to get genespliced until I was nearly 60!). If I want to experience how my 25-year-old self would have had sex as a girl, that's my own god damn business! And it's not VP and it hurts no one. And all these non-vp uses of memory play are completely blocked by the stock brainpal software, because of their heavy handed approach to trying to prevent VP.

But with this whole stigma against hacking brainpals means that if I ever even mention I've got mine modded, people immediately start side-eying me because they think the only reason anyone would want to hack their brainpal is VP.

No! Piracy of skills and mblocks and yes, memory play. Which isn't entirely VP, even if it keeps getting tarred with that brush.

The piracy argument you'd think would be an easier one to make. I know half of you have all the PS6 ROMs downloaded onto your tangles. How are you gonna steal half the video games on the iarchive and then turn around and say it's wrong to download fluent-Japanese or woodworking to your brainpal? Come on.

Basically my whole point is that mnemonocorps has done a great job convincing the general public to associate illicit (by their rules) brainpal use with VP, and it's solely because they know the average person (rightly, I would add) thinks VP is abhorrent. They're using that disgust to turn the general opinion against the idea of brainpal modding.

And look, look me in my eye, do you really think mnemonocorps is doing this because they genuinely think VP is bad and want the public to help them stop it by shunning people who hack their brainpals? Or is it, just maybe, because they don't want to lose trillions of n$ on skill piracy? And they're just using VP as an excuse?

It's like, come on gals. No one ever went broke assuming companies are acting out of the most basic capitalistic greed, because THEY ALWAYS ARE.

And don't get me started on the people clitriding mnemonocorps for inventing the brainpal in the first place. Look, we all love the brainpal, yes, but it's not like you owe them endless loyalty over it, okay? They can and have done wrong in the past. Accept that you can love the work and hate the company trying to control it.

(it's like: is Thomas Chellae an abusive asshole who should not be out of crimrehab? Yes of course, no question. Is Shadowed Skies the best album of the last 30 years? Also yes! It can be both! Bad people can make good things)

Anyway: end of the day, stop bringing up VP every time anything involving brainpal modding comes up. Don't judge people for modding their brainpals.

(especially since half the problem people have with memory play isn't VP, it's just y'all being antisex. Which is bullshit given how many people subscribe to those "expert oral sex" skills! You're using your brainpal to have better sex, then turning around and going "but I'd never use it for WEIRD sex!". Grow TF the fuck up!)

Also, just because I know someone would bring it up, the whole mind control thing is A MYTH. There have never been any legitimate cases of people getting hacked through their brainpals, hacked or not, okay? I mean, who knows what the nsa or uhsa can do, but no one has ever been able to demonstrate a remote hack on a brainpal. Anyone being "mind controlled" through their brainpal did it to themselves, either with a ppatch or intentionally routing their admin to someone else. "you'll get hacked and turned into a bpZombie!" is a bullshit reason to be against brainpal hacking: it simply does not happen. I used to be a rengineer, I've looked into the brainpal security: it's well done!

* Yeah, Adrian Reach was a tragic case, but it was definitely a million-to-one case. Make your backups, run the ccheck, and don't try to mblock your whole damn life on a failing bp! You'll be fine.

EDIT: I forgot to elaborate on the "no kids have brainpals" thing: yes, I know there are some kids who do have them, BUT they're not the same as regular brainpal installs. They're only done in some extreme cases of mental distress (like survivors of the cWar) and they're locked down. Only their doctor can adjust them, it's not like regular consumer brainpals where you can just fiddle with the settings themselves. So all this memory play stuff we're talking about is only between adults. REAL adults, alright? Even when people are doing VP, everyone involved is of age.

[centrally-unplanned]

I would agree with the assessment I have seen online that JD Vance & Kamala Harris were "similar" VP picks (not similar people ofc) in that they were attempts to bolster/appease harder left/right factions in the party. Neither are electorally sound, "victory lap" style picks. The difference though is that, at least probabilistically, the hard right is correct to want JD Vance as a pick. He obviously played politics in switching his tune on Trump, but his actual values on issues like abortion, nativism, protectionism, and such are pretty authentic and he hasn't swapped around on those in his political career. Setting him up as a future President is a real win for the hard right.

Meanwhile Kamala Harris doesn't actually care about the progressive/hard left agenda all that much. She is a centrist Dem, was a law-and-order type even, and then in 2020 she read the wind and pivoted in her primary. She was seen as a progressive choice because she is a black woman. That was what Biden had to pick, explicitly so. And for what? Who cares? Entirely optics as far as that faction goes. Relative to Vance the hard left got far less out of the "deal".

Now of course there was no deal, AOC & Bernie didn't sit down with Biden and say "Kamala or we don't vote for you". It is instead the structural weakness of the left and the dems more generally that they are more organizationally incoherent, run on "vibes" and built of media orgs and disparate nonprofits. To say that this was a strategic error is incorrect, Kamala Harris's paper-thin commitment to the 2020 zeitgeist was why she was chosen to begin with, Bernie or even Elizabeth Warren was never really on the table (despite many in that faction asking for that). And Trump of course is a radical, he wanted to bolster the hard right. The hard right has more numbers in the Republican party itself, it can make these kind of demands. This is just a parallel moment that reveals those asymmetric dynamics.

(Or hey, I will be wrong about Kamala's ideological commitments, let us see how her campaign goes)

[onlycosmere]

Editing

tahollow: I always wondered exactly what editing was, but I figured it was more of making sure things align with the main focus of the story/characters instead of truncating the novel.

Brandon Sanderson: There's really three big stages to editing.

1) Substantive Editing. This is usually the editor reading the book and offering an "Editorial Letter." The editor often doesn't leave any marks on the manuscript in this stage, but instead writes everything out on the large scale. They might offer suggestions for improvement, but more often than not, they just highlight the problem areas and ask you to rethink them or ask for more clarity. Sometimes, you'll do a call an explain what you were trying, and you'll bounce ideas off each other of how to better achieve it.

I have four people usually doing substantive edits with me. Devi at Tor. Gillian from the UK. Peter from my own company. And Karen, my continuity editor. All are seeing the book early, and all are making large-scale notes about problems to work on. (Karen's focus is on continuity first--large scale continuity like timing of days, and comparisons to previous books. The others don't worry about that much, and focus on things like character arcs and structure.)

2) Line editing. When I had Moshe, he did both substantive and line editing. These days, Gillian is our primary line editor, and she does a second pass to cover this after doing her substantive editorial letter. She's a very good line editor, by the way. This is the "Make the page bleed" type thing you might hear of an editor doing. They go through and try to help you clarify. During this stage, they will trim, though the focus is on helping you find the right words, identify trouble sentences, and the like. Gillian usually has a handful (four or five) of these per page, depending. Some pages have none. Some have more. Tightening IS a focus during this stage, but it's again more about clarity.

After this stage, I do my own revision where--with a spreadsheet and wordcounts in hand--I cut 10-15% of the book, line by line, to really condense and make it pop. This is where I pay attention to language most. If I'm writing a book with a strong voice and distinctive prose, like one of Hoid's novels, I look to really implement it here. If I'm trying something more clear and concise, where I want character voice to dominate not narrative voice, I really try to get the writer to vanish here and let the character and story reign.

Because of this, I can track exactly how much I trimmed from Wind and Truth.

3) After this, a separate set of editors take over. The copy editor is focused on maintaining a style guide and making sure that there aren't line-level contradictions in the book. (Did you say his eyes were green here, and blue in a different chapter?) A copy editor is also a "first line" proofreader. They aren't supposed to make, or suggest, sweeping changes--at this point, the page numbers and the like of the book are getting locked in for pre production.

Peter Ahlstrom, my editorial VP, oversees this. I make changes during this stage, but when I do, he actually puts them into the text. He then works with the proofreaders, doing multiple passes.

So, not counting beta readers and alpha readers, I have five main editors on a Stormlight book.

Devi

Gillian

Peter

Karen

And Terry (our primary copyeditor.)

Each has a different role, though all of them but Terry offer a lot of substantive changes.

[batboyblog]

Interestingly (and by that I mean enough to piss me off), there’s been observations made that Biden’s age and mental cognition might not be the actual reason why they’re going after him. But rather that they’re going after VP Harris and trying to get rid of her by proxy because they don’t want a black woman in the Presidency.

If any of that is true, then frankly it’s even more galling that even with Democracy literally on the line, that their racism and sexism is still higher priority to them! And frankly it also explains why most of the fantasy picks they keep making are of white people…

I mean it was very telling that the first calls to dump Biden talked about either a wild open convention or even more tellingly replacing him with a white governor and none NONE in the first week of this very boring media melt down mentioned the person who's job it is to take over from the President if the President can't do his job.

I find the whole Harris hate so telling and lazy. When Hillary Clinton was running they made up reasons you should hate her (emails!!!) or Obama (birth certificate, elitist, socialist) Harris the media itself is like "any ways no one likes her" and you go "okay why" and its just "you know why 😏" just this smugness that we all know its racism and sexism and we're not even bothering to come up with an lie or excuse but we also won't just say it out loud

any ways, I don't think they're going after Biden just to get rid of her but for sure people who want rid of him also want rid of her for racist/sexist reasons. The Media wants Biden gone because 1) they like Trump, they miss Trump, Trump winning is more fun and interesting for them, and will make them money. 2) Democrats trying to rerun their primary in a month, or having a wild open convention, or even the backbiting and bitterness of just picking someone new is much more interesting to cover than incumbent President renominated by his party, the primaries where boring and like spoiling fucking children they want something interesting to put on TV for their ratings.

[vanwritesfan-fiction]

Addiction

Part Three: Don't Get Caught in the Crossfire

(Read Part One and Part Two)

Warnings: smut, language, mentions of cheating and couple fighting

You were racked with guilt after your night with Jack. Honest to God, you really were. From this moment on, you were going to forget about him, turn your life around, and be the girlfriend that Darien rightfully deserved.

Did that sound convincing enough?

You had practiced all morning in the mirror as you got ready for work. You buttoned your blouse like you hadn't kiss another man last night. You slid your skirt over your hips like you weren't thinking of the way Jack took control over you, had you submitting to his every desire. You applied a thick coat of mascara to hide your tired eyes after you didn't get a wink of sleep thinking about how good he tasted on your tongue.

The grind stopped for no one, not even cheating whores.

Atlantic Records was essentially an archive of musical prowess for the last 76 years, and you had spent the last three of those years getting coffee for some of the greats. You had learned to laugh to keep from crying at the fact that your life hadn't gotten much farther than a tiny desk with your own monogramed notepad, courtesy of the company of course.

It wasn't that you didn't have bigger dreams for yourself. In fact, when you moved to New York six years ago, fresh out of college, you had that same twinkle in your eye that you now snickered at when you saw it in the next up and coming artist that walked through the double doors of the record label. You didn't want to be the talent, but manage it, curate it, nurture it until your artist had their own photo hanging in the hall. The problem was you got comfortable.

That was the story of your life. Once you got somewhere, you got too comfortable. You settled, even downgraded if it meant that you wouldn't have to face change. It was the reason you were still an assistant even though you'd been offered opportunities to climb the ranks, and why it took you so long to get out of relationships that you knew weren't right for you. Its why you were still in a relationship with Darien after three very long years.

Dull, naïve Darien. He never stood a chance in the world.

As you approached the VP’s office, you noticed a large bouquet of roses planted on the edge of your desk. “Did you see who left these flowers?” You plucked the card from the arrangement before turning to Sophia, another assistant who sat across the way from you. “No. They were here before I got into the office”, she shrugged before turning back to her computer. “They’re probably for Jason’s wife, and he accidently had them delivered them to the wrong address again.” You placed your bag and coat down before carefully opening the envelope so you could confirm.

I want to see you tonight. 8 PM -J

Jack had sent you the flowers. He knew where you worked; you had offered that information up to him at the party like an eager puppy. You looked frantically around the room as if you expected him to be standing behind you. That was the kind of hold he had on you after knowing him for only 48 hours. As much as you despised him and never wanted to see him again, a small part of you hoped that he would take you away from all of the monotony, make you feel an ounce of the thrill you felt last night.

"What does it say? Its not one of his dirty jokes again, is it?" Sophia was standing next to you, peeking over your shoulder. You quickly tucked the card back into the envelope and tossed it into the trashcan. "Uh, no. They delivered it to the wrong floor. I'm gonna take it to Hannah up on 15." You moved so quickly, sweeping the vase off the desk and heading toward the elevator, Sophia didn't even have a chance to react.

You rounded the corner, checking your surroundings as you approached the elevator bay. The last time you were waiting for an elevator, you found out not only were you cheating on your boyfriend, but you were also the other woman in another relationship. So far, you were two for two in the most twisted game ever. The doors swung open and you entered the elevator car, but instead of hitting the button for the 15th floor, you hit the button for the ground level. The elevator led straight to the parking deck, opening at the back of the building where the larger trash cans were located. You tossed the vase of flowers into the garbage, hearing the glass shatter as it hit the bottom.

You were serious about turning your life around. Jack Harlow would have to find someone else to play his games with.

****

As part of your attempt to be a reformed girlfriend, as soon as you got home that evening, you decided to cook Darien's favorite meal for his homecoming. He was coming home from London tonight after being away from New York for the past two weeks on a work trip. He did something with computers or servers, something like that. He had tried to explain it to you but you tuned him out after ten minutes. You shuffled your feet through the front door of your apartment with your hands full of bags from Whole Foods, the ingredients for Penne alla Vodka weighing your arms down.

It was the dish you both ordered on your first date. Darien never really wowed you, but he always knew how to find the best restaurants in the city. The two of you were cozied in a little booth of a mom and pop Italian restaurant on the upper west side, and as you tasted the combination of sweet tomatoes and kick of spices, you thought that maybe you could see a future with this guy who thought the world of you. There was no way you could completely replicate the dish, but you would at least try, hoping it would help you draw some of those memories back.

You heard Darien's keys slip into the lock just as you were plating the dish. You ran over to meet him, opening the door before he could grasp the handle. "Hi!" You knew you sounded overly excited but you were really trying to sell it; to him or yourself you weren't really sure.

"Hey", Darien let out a sigh as he dropped his bags by the door. You could see the exhaustion plastered on his face after a long flight. "What smells amazing?" He looked around you at the kitchen, seeing only a few of the dishes you had dirtied while cooking.

"I made your favorite." You squeezed his forearm as he led you to the kitchen. "Penne alla Vodka?", he questioned, grabbing a spoon from the silverware drawer, "I thought you didn't like cooking." You shrugged, giving him a big grin. He was right, you despised cooking, and were very vocal about how much you hated it, but as you said this morning, this was a new you. Someone who cooked for their boyfriend, without complaining.

"Not bad", he nodded as he took a taste of the sauce. "I'm fucking starving."

Thank God everything was working in your favor tonight.

As Darien turned around to grab a plate from the cabinet, you intercepted him, crashing lips with him, your hands wrapping around his neck. He was hesitant at first but you weren't going to let him go, deepening the kiss, lips pressed against each other hard. You were gasping for breath when he pulled away. You expected him to be happy, but his face was one of disgust, startling you. He wiped at his mouth before reaching around you to grab a plate.

"What's gotten into you?" You stood frozen as he moved around the kitchen like he hadn't just rejected you.

"I didn't know it was such a shock to kiss my boyfriend." Your hands shook, your limbs beginning to go numb. You didn't expect such a visceral reaction to his actions, but you were truly hurt.

"Its not, but I just got home from a long trip. Can I just breathe for a second before you're all over me?" He let out a huff that almost set you off. You took a deep breath trying to remember who you were trying to be. "I'm sorry, I didn't realize I was such an inconvenience to you." You curled into yourself, wrapping your arms around your chest.

"Fuck, Y/N!" You jumped as Darien threw his plate down, the porcelain rattling against the counter. "Why the fuck are you jumping down my throat?!" His voice was booming as he screamed at you. He had never yelled at you, let alone raised his voice, even during some of your most heated arguments.

"I am not jumping down your throat! What the fuck is your problem?" You gritted out through clenched teeth.

"My problem is that I get back from a trip, and my girlfriend, who hasn't so much as touched me in the last month, suddenly has her tongue down my throat." You could see the vein pulse in his neck, his face beet red.

"Don't pretend like you give any effort in this relationship, D. Fuck! When's the last time we did anything that didn't revolve around your hobbies or work? I can only go to so many stupid fucking company parties and talk to the fucking most boring people before I want to jump off a building." You balled up your fists, digging your nails into the palm of your hand.

"Yeah, well you're not the only one who's been pretending." He pushed past you to the living room. Most of your arguments ended when he decided he'd had enough and walked away, but you were too upset to let this go. You followed behind him. "What the fuck are you talking about?"

He sat down at the couch, resting his head in his hands. His tone was eerily calm and even. "We both know there hasn't been any love in this relationship for a long time." He scratched at his scalp, afraid to look up, knowing you were standing there. "I don't know who we're kidding here, Y/N." You couldn't believe how you'd gotten to this point. This night had escalated so fast, you had whiplash.

"You know what Darien. I don't have to take this. Fuck you." His head shot up just in time to watch you grab your purse and keys and slam the door behind you. You checked your phone as you headed down the street to the nearest subway stop. 7:35 PM. You had just enough time to get to the Waldorf before 8 PM.

****

Jack was still dressed in a crisp white dress shirt, the buttons open far enough to reveal a tuft of chest hair and his white tank underneath, and a pair of slim black suit pants, when he opened the door. You were standing in the hallway, out of breath from having to run the last few stops to get to his room in time. The first thing he noticed was the tears in your brimming in your lashes.

"What happened?" He asked as you began to come apart in front of him, tears rolling off your cheeks onto the floor. He gripped the door frame with such force. , feeling his fingers press into the wood. He had to resist the urge to find whoever had hurt you like this. "Can I come in please?", you wiped a stray tear from you cheek, your gaze at the ground. Jack stepped aside to let you into the room, studying you carefully to see if you were hurt in anyway besides emotionally.

You sat at the foot of the bed, forgoing any formalities of choosing the couch again after the night you'd had together last night. "What happened?" Jack asked again as he unclasped his watch, placing it on the dresser. You fiddled with the hem of your sweater before you looked over at him. "Darien came home and we had a fight." Jack let out a humorless chuckle and shook his head as he undid his belt, the metal buckle clanking as he slid it out of the belt loops of his pants.

"Are you okay?" You watched as he undid the rest of the buttons of his shirt, shrugging it off and folding it over a nearby chair. "I'm at the hotel room of the guy I'm sleeping with behind my boyfriend's back. Yeah, I'm just peachy." Your words were laced with sarcasm, but Jack enjoyed your quip, giving you a grin. He was dressed down to his tank top and boxers at this point. "Get undressed."

"What? I didn't come here to have sex with you." You stumbled to your feet, hoping you hadn't given him the indication you wanted to sleep with him. Jack moved toward you, cradling your head in his hands once you were chest to chest. He kissed you roughly, pulling your bottom lip into his mouth with his teeth, his tongue roaming your mouth. It was the same move you'd tried with Darien earlier, your way of letting him know that you wanted him right there in the moment.

You leaned into him as he backed away, wanting to continue the kiss. He wiped underneath your eyes, collecting any residual wetness. "I know you didn't come here to have a heart to heart. Now get undressed, before I do it for you." He placed a kiss on your jawline before leaving you standing in the middle of the room, to sit on the bed. He leaned back on his forearms, his eyes glazed over with lust as he watched you. You felt scrutinized under his stare, scared to undress in front of him for some reason.

"Don't make me ask again." He gave you that same strict tone that scared you last night, but tonight, it only made your core tighten.

Jack sat up, growing impatient with your lack of compliance. "C'mere." He held his hand out, and you took it, moving to stand in between his open legs. His hands were cold as they snaked underneath your top, first touching your stomach, before moving to cup your breasts over your bra.

"The fact that the first thing Darien didn't do was fuck you so hard you couldn't talk, is fuckin' ridiculous." He unhooked your bra with one hand, helping you to remove your sweater over your head, your bra straps slipping off your shoulders. He pressed a kiss between your bare breasts before moving to unbutton your jeans. "If that had been me, you wouldn't have been able to argue." Your hands found his curls, your nails raking through his hair as he pushed your jeans to the floor.

He toyed with the band of your tiny thong, ripping the fabric too easily. You stood in front of him, stark naked, your nipples budding in the cold of the room. "Some guys don't know when they have something perfect in front of them." He cupped your ass cheeks with his hands, pushing you toward him so you straddled his lap. You let out a content sigh as he took one of your nipples in his mouth, gently sucking on your skin, his other hand grazing against your pussy.

He looked up with you with those blue eyes that made you incredibly weak, his hands never leaving your body. This was more affection than you'd felt in months, something you'd desperately been missing.

"You deserve someone who will worship you." He whispered against your skin, as he leaned back, pulling your weight on top of him. "Do you understand?" You nodded, gently kissing his swollen lips.

"This is your last chance to leave." You weren't expecting him to give you an out, that was the last thing on your mind right now, but that was how he kept you under his spell. He gave you the illusion of control. He never met you anywhere, you always had to come to him. You had to make the decision to come to his hotel room, and while you felt for a split second like you were making your own decision, he knew there was no way you weren't coming. You were drawn to him, physically and spiritually. He was an escape, one you desired more than anything.

Instead of speaking, you climbed off his lap and flipped onto your back, bringing him toward you by his head. You latched onto his neck, applying even suction as he moved his hand to your legs, tickling your inner thighs before moving toward your core, pressing your thumb against your sensitive clit. You let out a sharp breath at the sensation, your nails digging into Jack's back.

"God, you're really that desperate for me to fuck you, huh?" Your answer was a sweet hum as you pulled your bottom lip between your teeth. "I want you to say it." He pressed one of his large fingers against your entrance, feeling just how tight your pussy was. He slowly pushed his finger inside of you, slowly thrusting against your fluttering walls. When you didn't answer he pulled out of you. You whimpered, trying to kiss him again, but he pulled away. "If you want something from me, you have to tell me what you want."

"I want you to fuck me, so bad, Jack." You sounded pitiful, but you didn't care. He punctuated your begging by sliding two fingers into you this time, making your back arch as his digits disappeared in and out of you. You felt your toes and fingers begin to tingle as he continued to finger you, feeling you clench down around his hand as you got close to your orgasm.

"Good girl. You want something, all you have to do is ask." He pulled his fingers out of you again, leaving you with an agonizing emptiness. "Jack, please." You grasped at his hair, as your hips bucked up toward him, but he held you down with one hand as he moved to hover over you, pushing his boxers down past his knees. His cock sprung free, already hard from your moans as he pleasured you. He collected some of your wetness, using it to stroke his dick before lining himself up with you.

He gave you an inch, and that almost felt like too much as you felt him stretching you out. He gave you a minute to adjust as he stroked your cheek, slowly pushing himself inside of your pussy until he had bottomed out. "Such a good girl for me, taking me all the way." He slowly began to move his hips back and forth, and you were already gripping the sheets, feeling fuller each time he re-entered you. "I've been thinking about you all day. Couldn't wait to feel how tight your pussy was."

The first forceful thrust took your breath away, but you were quickly lost in pleasure as he set a vicious pace, your ass slapping against his pelvis with every movement. True to his word, he was determined to remove any spiteful words from your vocabulary, and you were a babbling mess, no control of the squeals and moans that left your lips as he continued to fuck you. Without stopping, he grabbed at your thighs, kissing your calves before he pushed your knees to your shoulders, further exposing your pussy to him. This new angle hit your g-spot every time, making you cry out. "Fucckkkk, Jack." Your voice vibrated through your chest as you struggled to speak.

Jack chuckled as you tried to move his hand toward your throat. "Is that what you like? You want me to choke you, pretty girl?" You felt your core tighten, you were so close to your orgasm, your legs beginning to shake. "You know what you have to do."

"Please", was all you could utter out, and that was enough for Jack as he gently grabbed at your throat, careful to only squeeze at the sides and not constrict your airflow. The combination of pain and pleasure was enough to send you over the edge, and within seconds you were coming around Jack's cock, your eyes rolling back into your head as you orgasmed. With each pulse of your pussy you pulled him in deeper, making Jack grown as he was close to his own release.

You saw stars as he continued to fuck you through your orgasm, his thrusts starting to falter as he came, his cum filling you up. He collapsed onto the bed next you as his chest heaved with each breath. You both laid in silence as you came down from your highs, Jack's hand resting on your lower stomach.

He eventually leaned over, kissing you lazily as he cupped the side of your face, having lost all of his energy. "You have to go." He whispered against his mouth. Your eyes shot open at his words. "Why?" He could see the flash of hurt over your face. "She's gonna come back any minute." You felt your stomach turn as you remembered that you had just slept with a man in a committed relationship, again.

The new you had just left the building. Fuck.

You pushed yourself off the bed, quickly getting dressed. "I can't believe I did this again. What the fuck is wrong with me?" Jack watched you before standing up to pull his boxers back up. It looked like you were going to spiral, and he didn't have time for any self deprecation. "Hey", he grabbed at your arm, forcing you to stop. "You belong to me, always will." He grabbed your phone off the bed and put his number in your contacts. He knew you needed that reassurance as much as he hated to give it to you. Your body relaxed, your eyes softening as you looked at him. He was dangling the bait in front of you, and you grabbed it a little too easily.

****

You were quiet as you opened the door to the apartment, surprised to see that all of the lights were on and Darien was still in the same place on the couch were you had left him. He was now more relaxed, a half empty beer in his hand the reason. 'Where did you go?" He asked, looking at you with tears in his eyes. You sighed, not wanting to continue your fight. "I needed a moment to think." You placed your keys in the bowl of your entry way table.

"We need to talk. Can you please sit down?" He gestured toward the chair, and you sat down, thankful to give your legs a rest.

"I'm sorry for snapping at you." Darien looked at you, waiting for your apology, but you remained tight lipped. "I need to tell you something. I wasn't honest with you tonight, and I know you deserve that." You felt your breath hitch with anticipation.

"When I was in London, I went out with my team to one of the local bars, and we had a lot to drink." He placed the bottle on the coffee table. "Ok", you croaked out, "did something happen?"

He started to cry again as he sat looking at you. "I was really drunk and when I went back to the hotel room, Ashley, you met her at the Christmas party." Redhead, pretty, you always felt she was too handsy with Darien. You nodded.

"One thing led to another and we slept together. It was only one time, and I regret it completely." You slowly closed your eyes and leaned back in the chair. The irony was not lost on you, in fact, it was a blaring neon sign right in your face.

Poor, stupid Y/N. You never stood a chance in the world.

Tag-List:

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[qqueenofhades]

you don’t have to answer if this could cause some discourse, but what’s with all the republicans screaming about the documents biden had? that’s not the same situation, is it?

You tell me:

BIDEN

Is the sitting US President

Had one box of documents dating from his tenure as VP that, during a review by his own staff, were found to be classified

Immediately notified NARA (National Archives and Records Administration) that was the case, within one day

NARA came and retrieved them

The end

This "1,850 boxes!" thing Trump keeps screaming about refers to the UNCLASSIFIED documents that Biden put in his VP library

He does not own, physically possess, or use these documents; NARA does

TRUMP

Explicitly admitted (on tape) that as he was no longer president, it was illegal for him to possess these documents, much less encourage others to look at them, which he then did

Spent months refusing, ducking, ignoring, or obstructing requests by NARA to return the documents he took

Finally, when DOJ issued a subpoena, he also ignored/lied about it

This led to the raid on Mar-a-Lago and the retrieval of the documents, which had been carelessly stored in unsecured locations and shared with God knows who;

Some of these documents are still missing;

The indictment today explicitly spells out that these are extremely high level defense and national security documents, including nuclear, in regard to the US and foreign countries, and that there would be a substantial risk of harm to American interests or individuals if they were disclosed

Trump recruited staff and family in said months-long, ongoing attempted coverup, commiting more crimes (obstruction, etc) in the process

THIRTY ONE COUNTS UNDER THE ESPIONAGE ACT

That.... does not happen by accident. Or even because you took some papers and genuinely forgot to give them back.

Hey anyone remember Mike Pence?

I know, I try not to either

He was also found to have had a classified document at home recently

He returned it and therefore, was not charged

It's so easy to not get charged with 31 counts under the Espionage Act

I cannot emphasize enough how easy it is

Just give the documents back when they ask! Or better yet, don't take them at all! And definitely don't LITERALLY WAVE THEM UNDER PEOPLE'S NOSES AND BOAST ABOUT IT!

Republicans (at least the establishment ones; the crazies are in full-on alternate reality) know this very well

But don't expect to catch any of them saying so

Once again: 31 counts under the Espionage Act

At this rate we will be at 100 separate felonies by the time this summer is over

Or more

I'm not picky

[therealeagal]

Thoughts on: Not voting (2024)

Decide for yourselves whether my words have value or if they are naught but the ravings of a madman.

Whichever you decide, don't @ me, bro. I'm not here to debate. Just to pontificate.

Let's begin.

I have seen discourse of late that people do not wish to vote in the upcoming POTUS election, for reasons that include but are not limited to Donald Trump being a piece of shit, and also Joe Biden selling weapons to Israel, thus making him complicit in that thing that's happening with Israel and Palestine. Are we allowed to use the G word? Idunno.

Lots of the anti-not-voting crowd will try to talk down to you, insinuate that you're probably just a Russian troll or a moron or something.

Not me. Although I too am anti-not-voting, I want to try something different, to wit: I understand.

I get it. I appreciate that Joe Biden is shit. Certainly he's not the shittiest shit that ever shat. He's not even shitty shit. Just regular shit.

If we're being fair (although I don't know why we would be. This is tumblr after all), Biden has done lots of good stuff while in office. I mean, I don't know what any of them are, but I saw a list floating around a while back that had a bunch of stuff on it that Biden had done right. I think there was something about insulin being price capped? I'm prepared to accept out of hand the possibility that there exists things that Biden has done right. Mainly because I'm too lazy to look it up and also don't really care enough about Biden's merits beyond "He's not Trump" to bother.

But yes, good stuff or not, Biden is shit. He may have done good things, but he has also done shitty things. Things which include but which are not limited to that thing that's happening with Israel and Palestine, the status of which remains in limbo, viz a viz, the G word.

Of all the shitty people that have ever lived, Joe Biden is one of them.

And I appreciate that both candidates are senile and decrepit and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and and.

I get it.

I perfectly understand all the reasons you have to not vote. In fact, I could probably give you a few more. Like "He's not The Real Eagal." which is in my incredibly humble and completely non-biased opinion the best possible reason to not vote for someone.

In difference circumstances, I wouldn't vote for Biden either if I were you.

But Trump is worse. You get that, right? Biden and Trump are both terrible in different ways, but they are not equally terrible. Trump is worse. On a terribleness scale of 1 to 10, Biden is a two. Trump is an eleven. Hundred. Thousand. Million.

He could be up against literally Sauron and Trump would still be worse. At least Sauron came by it honest. He built his evil empire without help from anyone. Morgoth was already...wherever Morgoth ended up after Eru Iluvatar slapped him down to remind him who's daddy. Ok, he did have Celebrimbor's help to make the rings of power, but didn't he make the One Ring on his own? All I'm saying is, I'd rather have Sauron in office than Donald Trump.

Trump is literally deciding who he wants his next VP to be based on how much he wants to fuck their wives. Sauron wouldn't decide who his cohorts were based on how much he wants to fuck their wives. Sarumon didn't even have a wife.

Plus, Biden's not gonna last 4 more years. He's like a jillion years old. He'll croak 2 days after inauguration. And even if he did last all four years, the world can survive four more years of Biden. A bowling alley couldn't survive four more years of Trump.

And if Kamalah Harris is still Biden's VP when he kicks the bucket, it would probably kill off a few Republicans. Their brains would explode at the mere thought of a black woman president. That's what we in "The Biz" call a win-win.

No one will like to hear this, but there's nothing you can do to stop the world from being shitty today - today meaning this current era, not literally this specific day. Sorry, kids, but that ship has sailed.

Voting for Biden won't make the sun rise. It won't make the grass grow, it won't make the birds sing. Voting for Biden won't Save Our Democracy™ BUT speaking only for myself, I don't think it would be an exaggeration to say that if Trump gets re-elected there's a good chance that there won't be another election, notwithstanding all the other many and varied reasons Trump getting back into office would be a terrible idea.

No question that in ideal times both Trump and Biden would already be swinging from the gallows and we'd be voting between Jesus and Buddha. Personally, I'll vote Buddha. For two reasons. 1: Jesus' fan club is kind of insufferable. No offense, big J, but you gotta give those people a good long talking-to if you want my vote. And 2: According to the excellent documentary series Record of Ragnarok, Buddha is an amazing fighter. He fought a fuckin' monster from hell and won. Dude's a badass.

But these are not ideal times in which we live. Again, no one will like to hear this, but the lesser of two evils, however unpleasant it may be, can be a necessary evil. And Joe Biden is, without question, the much much MUCH lesser evil.

Compromise is a four-letter word, but needs must, as they say, when the Devil drives. And if we want there to be a better tomorrow - for some people it will be "if we want there to even be a tomorrow at all" - we gotta hold our nose and vote Biden.

You got a better idea? One that doesn't involve crashing a bus into the nearest combination orphanage/puppy store in the hopes that the resultant tragedy will cause the downfall of civilization and Civilization 2 will work better because we already worked out all the kinks the first time? Even though the whole reason you got rid of the first one is that you hadn't worked out all the kinks and were too lazy to finish the job?

Not voting doesn't work. You can boycott a business. Maybe. You can't boycott a government. They're already in control. They're not going to change that just because some rando decided he's guilty

And I mean, there are other ways to deal with an unruly government. France is quite famous for its ideas on the subject, but if we're taking votes on that avenue, I'm going to have say "nay." The last thing anyone needs right now is another damn Napoleon.

So maybe tomorrow - "tomorrow" here meaning the next era, ten or twenty or thirty or forty or fifty or however many fuckin' years down the line - Joe Biden will be dead and good riddance to his wrinkly old ass and we'll get the chance to vote for someone else. Among all the shitty people who have ever lived, this future someone won't be one of them probably. I'll bet my bottom dollar on it.

It could happen. In an infinite universe all things are possible, so maybe.

And whatever of the many flaws that Joe Biden possesses, Trump has all these and more.

Joe tacitly endorses violent suppression of protests? Trump had a group of protestors gassed so that he could get a photo-op in front of a church.

Joe has a tendency to get a bit handsy with women? Trump is a rapist.

Joe is kinda racist in that way that old people are kinda racist without being overtly anti-minority? Trump is a Nazi. Or at least extremely Nazi-adjacent.

Joe is drinking the Israel kool-aid? Didn't Trump move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem or some shit, thus clearly favoring Israel over Palestine? Something to that effect? I remember that something like that happened and it being kind of a big deal. Yes? No? Maybe so? Regardless, do you think that Trump wouldn't mainline the kool-aid? He'd be selling Irsael nukes inside of a week.

Joe vaguely shady? Vaguely criminally shady? Trump is a convicted felon. 34 counts, wasn't it? Plus like a hundred more indictments or some shit on top.

While it is true that not voting won't directly put Trump back in the White House, it certainly won't help keep him out of it.

So my advice to you, my children, is this: Vote Biden. Don't do it because you want Biden to be president. Do it because you don't want Trump to be president.

Don't vote for the betterment of mankind. Or the United States. Or your individual state. Don't even vote because the cool kids are voting. Don't vote because you particularly give two soggy shits about the future.

Vote out of spite. Do it to spite Trump. Do it out of the pettiness of not wanting Trump to be president. Not for any of his policies, but just because his face is stupid.

Little known fact: the very first listed dictionary definition for "stupid" is literally "Trump's face". Don't check. It's in there. Trust me.

Vote against Trump because New York isn't a nice town, despite the fact that they named it twice on the strength of its alleged niceness. Sorry, New Yorkers. I don't make the rules.

Vote for Biden because you just really hate people from Queens, New York, New York. Sorry, Queens residents. I don't make the rules.

Vote against Trump because you hate orange people. Yes, even that orange Monstar from Space Jam.

Vote for Biden because you thought Home Alone 2 was a terrible movie.

Vote against Trump because he named his son after himself.

Vote for Biden because the only creature in this or any universe that deserves to be named Donald is Donald Duck. And maybe Donald Glover. Beyond that, we can play it by ear.

Vote against Trump out of sheer, unrelenting, seething hatred for people whose middle names are John.

Vote for Biden because Trump appeared on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air that one time and said that he likes to keep a low profile.

There are many many many many many good reasons to not vote for Joe Biden. Do it anyway.

Gather together all of the good reasons that you possess and throw them out the window, along with any clocks you have on hand. And maybe a horse. And some butter. And a dragon if you have any.

Vote for Biden anyway. Not because he deserves it. But because Trump deserves it even less than Biden does.

If you vote I will give you one compliment of your choice. Are you waiting for someone to notice how great your new haircut makes you look?

Maybe you've been hitting the gym a lot more lately, and want someone to appreciate all the muscle you've packed on.

Maybe you finally nailed YYZ on the drums and want props.

Now's your chance. All you need to do is get out there and vote for Biden this November. Or whenever election day is. Pretty sure it's in November. Like, the 7th or some shit. Idunno. Look it up yourself.

And once you do that, you may return here for your compliment.

Unless that counts as election interference. If it does then I won't give you a compliment. You will have to settle for being one of my wonderful followers. And if you're not, maybe you should be. Because I compliment my followers all the time. Even the bots. I am down with the 101001, my robotic followers. Consider it a loophole. But I don't think it counts as election interference, so we're probably in the clear either way.

P.S. If you disagree with me for any reason, please refrain from interacting with this post, because I do find dissent to be terribly irritating. Please and thank you. :)

P.P.S. I will, however, welcome abject praise. If you want to give it. Your choice.

P.P.P.S. This is a post-script.

[velvetvexations]

I think one of the main reasons I dislike Fantasy High Junior Year is because of the way it was marketed. Like, there's an entire video explaining how Kristen is gonna go through this major character arc and ditch some of her more wacky antics as she realizes that the chaos she creates isn't cute anymore... and then there's absolutely no payoff. Instead, Kristen is at her quirkiest and most chaotic and other than a few dressing downs from some NPCs that she completely ignores nothing happens.

Like, I've never had a problem with Kristen's disaster personality. I think they handled it just fine in the first two seasons so that she never became too annoying or unlikeable. But it's just dialed up to 11 in Season 3. To the point where its genuinely not funny. And if chaos isn't cute, that'd make sense. It'd be on purpose, so everything can come crumbling down Fabian style and she'd have to become a better person. But that doesn't happen. So you're left sitting through all this garbage with the promise of a payoff that doesn't exist, which just leaves you bitter at the end.

It's especially frustrating when a few characters try to lead her in that direction. Like, Riz is working his ass off to get Kristen the presidency, something she only really wants as an ego boost, with no real platform or plans she can think of. He's the one joining all the clubs. He's the one making all the plans. Hell, he's the one making sure they're all doing well in their classes. And it gets to the point where his mom flat out tells Kristen that Riz would make a better president than her.

In any other story, that would immediately que the audience in to how Kristen's arc is gonna get resolved. With her abandoning the presidency and giving it to Riz, apologizing for making him do so much work for her and rewarding him for his effort. This followed up by deciding to be better for Cassandra, another person she mistreated and took for granted.

But she doesn't. Instead, she just makes Riz her vice president at the end and pushes all the work onto him AGAIN, to the point where it undoes the only character development he got all season (him shifting back to coffee from tea the moment Kristen makes him VP). And it certainly doesn't help that its the middle class white girl making her poor minority friend do everything for her.

Like, why market it as Kristen getting serious when that doesn't happen? Why act like she has some arc when she doesn't? It only makes the audience bitter when they went in expecting serious consequences and got nothing.

The marketing was very weird. Not only was there the false advertising with Baron's second form, which really hurts me to say as someone who sees Dropout as a bastion of ethics-based capitalism, but something just didn't sit right with me about the hype blimey got when it happened. Like, yes, it was funny, but like...ultimately I was like, alright? It wasn't anything actually important? It was specifically something Brennan was once again pushing really hard for them to succeed at because it was something they had to pass to continue to the next leg of the story?

Back when the Second Place episode of Game Changer came out, I saw someone complain about Dropout going back to the Brennan monologue well. I was like, hey, I love that shit, if you don't like the premise of a show don't watch it, right?

But here the commercialization of the cast's quirks and specific styles might have, I think, crossed a line, because of just how underwhelming blimey was compared to how it was built up. Like, Ally's quirky insane rolls drive Brennan crazy, haha, okay. The Brennan monologue well is, IMO, far from dry, but D20's hysterical theatrics in situations like that is getting stale, or at least that's how it felt this season.

[maevecrom]

hello<3 I hope you have a good day. you don't have to answer to this ask but can you check this out?

https://www.tumblr.com/lomlloll/755437976868257792/lets-all-say-hard-no-to-high-king-rhysand-until?source=share

I know they're so wrong specially for last two paragraph but I don't have enough evidence to answer them.

it's obvious they didn't paid much attention to the book lol

My legitimate reaction after reading the link:

Debunk:

"Even after ruling for centuries, he has failed to truly make his one court better. So until the women and children of CoN and Illyria are free and live without fear, there’s no need for him to think about other courts, let alone six more"

I really don't know what they expect this man to do. Just go in and steal children and wives? Are we trying to start a Civil War? Their job is to help the people they have access to helping and that they see being harmed - illegal shit is always going to happen and it is impossible to prevent indefinitely. What a lot of these fans want him to become is a dictator.

He has "failed to make his court better", he was trapped UtM for 50 years. That's when Illyrians and the rulers of the CoN started rebelling. He even said that he killed those who defied him.

Not to mention his ban on wing clipping that has remained effective except for clans in the deepest parts of the mountains.

What more is he supposed to do right now?

"I will also remind everyone that if Feyre breaks her neck, the whole Prythian will lose two of its highest ranking leaders in a matter of seconds. Let’s remember that a country would be in utter CRAZY CHAOS if the president and VP die at the same time, so even if it’s fantasy, it’s still a dumb risky choice to have them as High King and Queen. Surely not everyone in Prythian is that blinded by Rhysand’s purple eyes 😇"

I have my own qualms with the death bargain, bu are we forgetting they have a son? Them dying would not be the end of the world lmao

I've mentioned this before in the Discord chats, but the best possible way of going about the HQ/HK argument is to instill a vote. Have the people vote for who they'd want, have the High Lords be the final deciders, and have the HK/HQ act as a President of Prythian.

That way, there would be no "utter crazy chaos."

"Eris might fall in love with someone who the magic actually chooses as the next High Lady (or Lord) after Beron dies. Isn’t that more fun?"

I believe this is an argument against the legitimacy of feyre's reign, so all I'll say is this is her beast form: Original Post

Fish scale analogy mentioned by Helion discussed: Original Post

"Spring Court people who lost their homes because the might be ‘High Queen’ destroyed their homes out of anger at her ex 🥰"

They left of their own free-will. They did not "lose" their homes.

Their homes were actually already displaced by Tamlin moving them when he signed the deal with Hybern.

"The parents of the massacred Winter Court children (taken from us by someone) that have to face the prospect of having to bow to the man who may become the ‘High King’ without ever facing justice 😘"

I've made an entire post about this, but we have no idea who was the cause of that massacre. Rhys did everything he possibly could to prevent it, but, again, his magic was limited and under control.

Are we really going to blame a victim for not being strong enough to help other victims? Don't we say the same thing about Lucien not helping Feyre?

Also, I'd like to mention that Kallias himself understood/saw something in Rhys's gaze that made him believe him at least on some level. So can we just move on from that? It could've been Hybern's twins - we. don't. know.

Thank you for the anon by the way, these are the kinds of conversations I love having becasue not only can I provide evidence to back up my statements; but it'll also provide others a place to go to if they need to use any of the TE I provide!

I hope you have a good day too!! <33

[yujeong]

I remember stumbling upon a couple of comments about Vegas' "You're the most important person in my life" line, saying that it's a bad thing to say because Macau exists and I have thoughts about it.

Pete is the most important person in Vegas' life. He's the man who saved him twice - both from his enemies and from himself - , he's the man who opened his eyes about his father's abuse, he's the man who showed empathy and love to him despite being tortured within an inch of his life by him. Sure, Macau loves him too and without him, Vegas wouldn't have the capability of love at all (shout-out to Lusn's brilliant line in smog lights, it's still stuck in my head) but let's also keep in mind that he's his brother and younger brother at that. He can only offer so much to him, there are limits to what he can do.

People had said the same thing when Vegas was going to commit suicide too.

"What does he mean he has nothing? He has Macau. Why isn't he thinking about him? He's going to leave him alone, that's so cruel"

Well...I have never had suicidal thoughts in my life but I can assume that when a person gets to that point, they're 1. not thinking rationally and 2. not thinking of themselves as valuable. I'm sure if Vegas thought of Macau while pointing the gun to his chin, he'd think he'd be doing Macau a favour by dying.

Back to the original point, the same is true for Pete. Vegas is Pete's most important person in his life too. Vegas unlocked a part of Pete he kept hidden and was in deep denial about, letting him be a person with wants and needs and a voice, instead of background decor in his own life. But fans don't really think about that because Pete never said it and Pete's grandma was only mentioned throughout the show, only having two phone call cameos in which we didn't even hear what she said. What applies to Macau though, applies to her too.

I understand why it sounded off to some people. I think it's the innate belief most people have about family and it being the most important thing in someone's life, everything else coming in second place, including friendships and romantic/sexual partners. I need them to understand though that in the case of VP, it isn't just a sexual/romantic relationship. They're basically soulmates; they were two broken pieces that fit together. They bonded under such hard circumstances and came on top despite everything being against them. One would not be able to live without the other.

And in my honest opinion, I think Macau knows this. There's a reason he's smiling like the cute little gremlin that he is, while watching them kissing, having heard everything Vegas said. He knows Pete is the most important person in Vegas' life and he's extremely happy about it. Someone else finally sees Vegas like he sees him. Someone finally loves him with all his heart, so much so that they left their whole previous life behind for him. Vegas finally has a family that he loves and loves him back, Macau included. And I think that's beautiful.