#one interview of him being asked if he smokes marijuana and he laughs then says he smokes bananas

[swirlsncurlsnmanyturns]

this is kinda silly but it's always so shocking to me when actors are like the polar opposites of their characters because they act SO well it's hard to believe this isn't what they are irl

[phfenomena]

❝in that lavender haze❞ || tom blyth x f!reader

| request- hear me out! lavender haze with tom 🤭

| A/N- done and done. im hearing you out and im listening so hard. i’ve been high probably like hundreds of times but still cannot properly word it sorry 💔

| WARNINGS- marijuana consumption (mega slay), kissing, eating, wine, tiktok, tooth rotting fluff,

(divider by @benkeibear)

the feeling of your lungs being filled with smoke made you giddy, everything with sharp edges turning soft and fuzzy. coughing lightly at the larger hit you’d taken you passed the blunt to your left, to tom.

your eyes fixed on the way his lips wrapped around it and the way he closed his eyes at the sensation. your hopeless crush on your mutual friend with rachel had been developing for months, seeing him at every gathering and meet up.

he was fairly nice and polite, the true english way. you just wished he’d converse with you, more than small talk. you’re laying on your back on the floor and studying the swirling patterns on the ceiling. out of your peripheral vision you see tom lay down next to you.

staring at the ceiling with you, you don’t ever say too much. and you don’t really read into my melancholia.

“you don’t have much to say, do you?” you question into the air hoping that tom would cling on. he hums and says “yeah, i don’t know what you like or what you don’t like so i jus’ say nothing.” you turn your head to face him- all caution thrown to the wind. you find it hard to care about your words in your state. “when i first met you i thought you hated me, you wouldn’t talk to me like how you talked to everyone else. thought i might’ve done something. sometimes i still think that.” you confess and it hangs lowly over both of you.

“i was honestly kind of scared of you. in my head you’re this cool actress who does slashers and everyone loves her. i didn’t wanna say the wrong thing.” you smile and place your hand on your chest. “you think i’m cool? i think you’re cooler, tom.”

his eyes crinkle when he laughs and you love it. you find it hard to decipher where the high ends and where how tom makes you feel starts, but they’re mixing. “i think you’re really cool. you do these cool like artistic horror movies and i’m kind of obsessed with your acting.”

i find it dizzying, they’re bringing up my history. but you aren’t even listening.

the group on the couch and chairs above you pass a bottle of wine and finish off the blunt. your friend laughs loudly and you turn to look at him. “do you remember that time last year when you dated the like entire cast of that one movie? what’s it called? i can’t remember. that was funny as shit.” you cringe and cover your face trying to forget.

tom lightly grazes your shoulder with his finger and whispers “are you hungry? i really want pizza right now.” you smile and nod. he wasn’t going to ask about your questionable past times. he pulls his phone out of his pocket and hands it to you. “i can’t function enough to order pizza, could you do it?” you happily nod and scroll your way through the menu before you both agree on toppings you both like.

i just wanna stay in that lavender haze. talk your talk and go viral, i just need this love spiral.

the pair had found themselves in a corner, talking and giggling over pizza whilst telling stories. “yeah! and she kept asking when i was going to settle down and get married. during an interview for a horror movie.” tom shakes his head and laughs. “i couldn’t get through one promo or interview without someone showing me at-least one edit of me. it was torture.” you pull your phone out and show him how edits of him had filled your timeline.

“you’re literally everywhere. i’m not complaining but sometimes i want to see something else!” he picks his phone up and shows your his own home page. “i’m sorry i ruined your tiktok, but this might make up for it.” his entire for you page was filled with edits of you and you co-stars from your latest movie.

you laugh and watch them “i had no idea people made edits of me, i feel honored. it’s like a right of passage.” he sets his phone down as well as his pizza. “they only the use the same ten clips of you covered in blood, i need more content.” you place you own pizza down and lean towards him.

“do you wanna know a secret i’m not supposed to tell anyone?” he nods and leans closer. “i’m gonna in the next scream movie and i’m one of the ghostface’s, you’re gonna see me murdering on the big screen.” he raises his eyebrows and you barley take into account how close your faces are.

“i love everything you’re in. when i first met you, i went home and watched everything you’ve done.” he confesses with a smile and red eyes. “i did the exact same thing, rachel told me i was creepy! we’re like each others biggest fans.”

get it off your chest, get it off my desk. that lavender haze, i just wanna stay.

you’re sitting in the bathtub of your bathroom passing a blunt back and forth between you and tom. “it’s so much quieter in here, i love them but they’re so loud.” you say leaning your head back on the tile. he softly chuckles and looks at you. “i can’t believe we could’ve been hanging out for months, i should’ve just talked to you.” you smile and set the blunt in the ashtray you brought with you.

“yeah but where’s the fun in that? this is probably the best night i’ve had in a while.” you turn to look at him and you study his features. you’ve never had a chance to really look at him, your glossy eyes try to memorize each slope and curve of his face.

“can i kiss you?” you whisper out before even realizing you’ve said it. he mutters a small ‘yes’ and you’re leaning in, like your body’s on autopilot. he tastes like weed and pizza, you couldn’t find a bone in your body that cared. you sluggishly manage to inch onto his lap. “you’re so pretty.” he whispers in between kisses. his hands find purchase on your waist, not letting you even dream of getting off of him.

you reluctantly pull back and his lips chase yours. “do you wanna hang out tomorrow?” you ask him with a smile. “i would be honored, maybe i’ll take you out on a real date.” his hands are rubbing small circles on your waist. “the press is gonna love that one.” you mutter out before leaning back into him.

[argumentl]

The Freedom of Expression, radio version - Ep 36, June 2016 - The status of cannabis in Japan, Tokyo Governer expenses scandal, Hillary Clinton's promise to share govt UFO info if elected President.

Kaoru starts by introducing Joe, and they comment on how fast the year has gone by. Joe wonders when the next live special is due. Kaoru says he's heard from the higher levels that it may be sometime in the Summer, but he isn't sure. He tells the listeners that if they send in lots of messages asking for another live special, it might be more likely to happen.

Kaoru's first story is another piece of 'taboo' news. This is the news that a person advocating for the legalisation of cannabis for medical use in Japan, is going to run in the next upper house elections, and this person thinks that Japan is behind the rest of the world in its restrictions and failure to recognize the medical benefits of cannabis. (*He does not mention the person's name, but its Takagi Saya*) Kaoru then jokingly refers to Joe as 大麻番長/Cannabis chief. Joe tells him to stop it, although he admits he does also get the nickname 'Ganja man' when he appears on The Dave Fromm show. He insists, however, that this is due to his love for the band Grateful Dead, and not actually due to any connection with cannabis. Kaoru says he gets the impression that Joe has tried cannabis before, but Joe insists that he hasn't. He only knows a lot about it as a writer, so he can explain about it to others, but he has no personal experience. Kaoru then mentions that cannabis has been legalised in many places around the world, including 23 states in America. Joe explains that the problem in Japan is that the Cannabis Control Law means that if medicines derived from cannabis are used, both the doctor and the patient face imprisonment. This isn't an argument for letting sick people smoke cannabis, its a call to allow cannabinoids (a compound found in cannabis) to be used in medicines in Japan. Joe goes on to explain the medical benefits of cannabinoids, and how they have been recognized in many countries. Medicines containing cannabinoids get stopped when they reach the stage of clinical or human trails in Japan. Any doctor who tries to administer them to a patient would be arrested (even if the patient had a disease that cannabinoids would be effective on). This could be seen as a violation of human rights if Japanese patients are denied these medicines, when patients overseas with the same health conditions have access to them. Joe says that Japanese society is set on the misconception that cannabis = smoking marijuana, and prefers to keep it illegal whilst being uninformed of its medical benefits. As a result, cannabis derived medicines cannot reach those who need them. Kaoru asks if such medicines actually exist in Japan, and Joe says there are Japanese companies making cannabis derived medicines, but they have to conduct the clinical trails overseas, and they can only administer them overseas. If they did it on Japanese soil they would be arrested. Kaoru asks Joe if medicines containing cannabinoids can be converted into something you can smoke, and Joe says as far as he is aware, they cannot. He brings up the fact that Japan actually has a long history of growing and using hemp, for all kinds of practical purposes (e.g to make cloth etc, not to make drugs), so he thinks this matter should be decided in a more reasonable manner than it currently is being. There is also the matter of Japanese citizens going overseas to recieve cannabis derived medicines. At the time of recording, facilities with such treatments available were due to open in Guam, and it was still a very grey issue as to whether Japanese citizens who go there to recieve them would face arrest when they return to Japan. Joe says more public discourse of this issue is needed in the mass media. Kaoru says that of course there are still people who go overseas just to smoke a load of cannabis, and then return to Japan...Joe nervously laughs, 'Yes, but thats not me!'.

Next they welcome Dobashi for the Tokyo Sports corner. Kaoru says it feels different from welcoming Hiranabe. Whenever they welcome Hiranabe they all instinctivley laugh, but not with Dobashi.

Dobashi's first news, continued from last week, is the expenses scandal surrounding Tokyo Governer Masuzoe Yōichi. A poll was revealed where 99.9% of respondents think he should quit, but Dobashi wants to know whether Kaoru and Joe feel the same, and addresses the question to Joe first, calling him Ganja Man-san. After laughing this off, Joe comments that the position of Tokyo Governer  comes with a huge amount of power compared to other cities' governers. He goes on to explain that after the war, the American GHQ forces dismantled most of the power structures that had existed in Japan before the war. This was simply to make it easier to administer. The only place they didn't touch was Tokyo. The wartime Tokyo Governer was reinstated to the same position after the war. What this means is that the position of Tokyo Governer has had huge uninterrupted power for much longer than any other power institution in Japan. The people of Tokyo have had little say in its existence. As to why the Americans didn't dismantle this position, Joe says it may be partly carelessness, but they may have thought it ok to leave it alone, because Americans believe that local government should be built up by the local people. Joe thinks that people really need to stop and rethink the purpose and the influence that Tokyo Governer has, because if they don't, incidents like the one with Masuzoe will keep occurring. 

Kaoru says he also wonders why this scandal has come out into the open now. Who is behind putting the spotlight on it? Dobashi hints that he knows who, but hesitates to say. Joe tells him to say it and let Hiranabe take responsibility. He then tells him to say it off mic first. Dobashi talks, but what he says is obviously bound to get them all into trouble if broadcast, so his voice has been scrambled while he dishes up the dirt. They then say the timing of this incident is not great in regards to the election and the current economic situation. 

Speaking of financial problems, Dobashi lets loose some gossip about Hiranabe's financial losses, including the fact that he lost ¥2 million yen during the Shanghai financial crash the previous year. They others feel sorry for him.

Dobashi's next story is that American presidential candidate (at the time) Hillary Clinton has pledged that she will make public any info the government knows about aliens or UFOs if she becomes president. Dobashi says for this reason, Tokyo Sports is supporting Hillary to win the election. He says he once interviewed PM Abe Shinzo just before his first round as PM, and asked him whether he believes in UFOs. He wanted to ask him something a bit different from the usual boring questions. Abe answered, 'Oh, Tokyo Sports have found a lot of them, right?'. Dobashi adds that Abe quit a year later. Maybe was due to all the boring questions he was getting.

Dobashi then asks Kaoru if he believes in UFOs. Kaoru says he doesn't know if they really exist, but he'd like it if they did. Dobashi asks him if he or any of the other members have ever seen a UFO. Kaoru says he hasn't, and he doesn't think the other members have really, but he has seen one of the other members spotting a light in the sky and shouting 'Its a UFO!'. He is quite interested in this genre though, he likes watching shows on tv about this kind of thing, or looking into the type of thing you'd find in the occult magazine 'Mu'. He is no expert though. Dobashi says he watched the TV show about UFOs made by Yaoi Junichi, Kaoru also saw this and remembers thinking that UFOs probably weren't real after watching it.

To finish, Kaoru reminds listeners about the new jingle campaign, plugs his Budokan DVD/Dvd screenings, tours, blog, and new single Utafumi. He says the new single will be played on air for the first time next week. To end he says he feels like doing something now that the weather is getting hot, and hopes listeners will send in lots of requests for a live special.

Songs - Dir en grey/Tousei, Deftones/Korea.

[dlwritings]

Never Have I Ever | Tom Holland

masterlist found here

pairing - Tom x reader word count - 2,193 warnings - implications of sex and mention of nudes A/N - for the two anons who requested | the Never Have I Ever bit is based on this classic One Direction interview

summary - You and Tom had been dating for a while, and a stupid iCloud hacker caused some intimate pictures to leak. When things get a little awkward at an interview, your cast mates had your back.

It’s in the moments when life is going really well that one should start to get suspicious. Especially when your life is so publicized, you should always be on your toes.

You should’ve known when things were going so well with Tom that they were bound to come crashing down eventually.

Your relationship had been going on privately for about six months. You met on the set of Spider-Man: Far From Home. You weren’t playing an important character or anything, just one of the background students going on the European trip. Something about you just caught Tom’s eye. The more time he spent with you, the more he realized he was falling for you.

However, your publicists were both very strict about your relationship needing to remain private. While nothing about the two of you being together was illegal, the world didn’t exactly need to see Hollywood heartthrob 23-year-old Tom Holland parading around with up-and-coming singer-slash-actress 18-year-old (Y/N) (Y/L/N). Everyone on your teams could already see the headlines, and they wouldn’t exactly do wonders for either of your images. Tom would be seen as a perverted cradle robber, and you would be seen as a ladder-climbing slut. It was pretty much a lose-lose situation.

So, you kept it on the downlow. Your friends, immediate family, and fellow castmates knew, but you never went public about it. This didn’t mean you couldn’t go on dates together, but PDA had to be minimal to non existent. This wasn’t a huge deal, because you weren’t one to make out with your boyfriend in public anyway. So, everything was going fine.

Again, that was when you should’ve realized everything was about to go to shit.

There were a few weeks when Tom was filming in Prague and you didn’t need to be there, so you were home in London. During those weeks, it was only natural for you and Tom to have some intimate conversations. You were both young, and going from almost daily sex to none at all wasn’t easy. You sent him a few pictures, he reciprocated, there were a few steamy phone calls and some text messages here and there, but that was it. It was all normal young adult behavior. The only thing was, neither of you were considered normal young adults.

You got the phone call in the dead of night. One phone call you might’ve missed, but the endless stream that was coming in was impossible to ignore. You saw the caller ID read Monica - manager, so you answered it, feeling panic settle in your chest immediately. Monica was a friend at this point -practically an older sister- but she would have no positive reason to call at 1:00 in the morning.

“Everything’s fine,” she said as soon as you picked up.

“Monica-”

“Someone hacked Tom’s iCloud,” she said.

“Okay,” you said slowly. “So?”

She cleared her throat awkwardly. “Apparently, the two of you have shared some, um, intimate phot-”

“OH MY GOD!” you screamed. “NO! No way! FUCK!”

“It’s okay,” she said, trying to calm you down. “It’s okay.”

“It’s very clearly not okay!” you shouted. “My naked photos are on the internet! You know who has access to the internet?”

“I mean-”

“Everyone!” you said. “And you know who is a part of everyone?”

“(Y/N)-”

“My mom!” I shouted. “My mom is going to see naked photos of me. She probably thinks I’m still a virgin! Oh my god. The whole world is going to think I’m a slut.”

“Okay, but you’re not a slut,” Monica said, her voice soothing.

“But-”

“It’s very important to me that you know that this does not make you a slut,” she said. There was that older sister vibe coming out. “Everyone shares nudes, alright? Someone else stealing and sharing those doesn’t make you a slut. Okay?”

You took a stabilizing breath. “Okay.”

“We took the picture down where it was originally posted,” she said. “I’m sure people have already saved it though, but you know what? It’s going to be fine. We’ll tackle the PR when it comes up. There’s nothing we can do about it now except handle it like adults and remind the world that you and Tom are both adults.”

Tom.

“Okay,” you said again. “Thanks for calling me.”

“Try and get some sleep,” she said. “I’ll call you in the morning.”

“Sleep,” you scoffed. “Right.”

As soon as you hung up with Monica, you called Tom. He picked up on the first ring. “(Y/N)-”

“Why’d you put it on the cloud?” you shouted, unable to stop yourself.

“Everything backs up automatically!” he said defensively. “This isn’t my fault!”

“Well it isn’t my fault!”

“I’m not saying it is!”

“Whose fault is it then?”

“The 40-something-year-old pervert who hacked into my account and leaked the photos!”

You couldn’t help but let out a short laugh. Tom did the same, and you ran a hand through your messy bedhead. “This is a disaster, Tom,” you mumbled.

“I know,” he said. “I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” you said, waving a hand dismissively even though he couldn’t see it.

“You know, it’s going to be brought up next week during press,” Tom said. In your sleepy state, you had forgotten that next week, you were starting press for the film. You sighed into the receiver.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get there,” you said.

The following week came, and neither you nor Tom had responded to any of the internet’s comments on the nudes. Your publicists both decided it would be best to address the situation only when it arose during an interview. That way, the words could come directly from your mouths without any chance of misinterpretation or poor wording from a tweet or Instagram post. It would also come across as more professional than if Tom blabbed about it during an Instagram live.

The first interview that happened was on Jimmy Kimmel Live. You had both done an interview with Jimmy before, and he was one of the nicest guys on late night TV. You hoped he would be kind about it all. Maybe, if you were lucky, he wouldn’t even bring it up. To make the night even better, you would be sharing the couch with Jake, Jacob, and Zendaya. You knew you’d be a little bit more at ease with them there.

Everything about the interview was going fine at first. Jimmy was asking you all questions about the film and what life behind the scenes was like with such a crazy cast. After the commercial break, Jimmy informed the audience that you would be playing a game. The game, of course, had already been approved by your PR team. That didn’t mean you had any idea what it was.

“We’ve asked Twitter to send in their best questions for never have I ever,” Jimmy said. “Now, I’ve not seen any of these questions, but they have been cleared by our team.” Jimmy handed the five of you paddles that read I HAVE on one side and NEVER on the other. “I will be playing too, because I think it’s only fair,” he said with his usual smile.

You could hear your heart beating in your ears, but you painted on your superstar smile to mask your nerves. Surely the questions wouldn’t be that bad if Jimmy’s team cleared them.

“From Paula comes, Never have I ever danced naked in the rain,” Jimmy said.

“In the rain?” Tom said.

“Naked?” Jacob clarified. Jimmy nodded with a laugh as he flipped it to the NEVER side. Everyone put NEVER except Jacob.

“Alright, Jacob?” Tom laughed.

“Listen, we’ve all had some wild nights, alright?” he said. “This is a judgement free couch.”

“Alright, next,” Jimmy said with a laugh, “comes from John: Never have I ever joined the mile high club.”

You and Tom looked at each other for a millisecond that you hoped wasn’t caught on camera. Even though it was a lie, you put NEVER. There were some things you just weren’t going to reveal about yourself, even if the whole world had already seen you naked. Jake put I HAVE, and swore he wouldn’t say who he joined with. 

“From Alex: Never have I ever-” Jimmy cut himself off with an awkward laugh. You could tell he wasn’t too thrilled with the questions either. You wondered if someone would get fired after this. “Never have I ever been naked in public.” More questions went by like that: smoked a joint, slept with someone twice or half my age. All things that could stir up PR nightmares and just made you into a liar. 

Jimmy started to read the next. “From Kayla: Never have I ever-” It was evident he was upset, and you wondered for a moment if he’d even read it aloud. “Never have I ever taken a nude photo.”

Laughter spread across the audience as you all played with the paddles in your hands. You couldn’t even get yourself to look at the camera, and Jimmy threw his paddle over his shoulder. “Whoever picked these questions,” he said with a slight laugh, “is in for a stern talking to tonight.”

“Honestly, what did they expect?” Jake asked. “You give us these paddles, and you really think we’re suddenly going to answer these questions? Like Yeah!” He waved his own paddle in the air. “I’ve done all the drugs! Cocaine, heroine! Marijuana is a pussy’s drug.” At this point, you couldn’t tell if he was being sarcastic or serious. Still, the audience laughed, and Jake threw his paddle behind him too. He looked at the camera and pointed at it. “We know what you sick perverts want,” he said, “but listen here. These kids-” He pointed at you, Tom, Zendaya, and Jacob. “-are media trained superstars, alright? You really think that Tom “Spider-Man” Holland is gonna stand up and say, This morning, I woke up, rolled a joint-” He was doing a terrible British accent while miming his actions and had everyone dying. “-and then took a dick pic before running through the streets of Los Angeles butt ass naked? You really think this guy is gonna say that? They’re not gonna say that!”

Zendaya took the paddle from Tom and took yours as well, then put them together so the I HAVE sides were touching and both sides of the paddle said NEVER. “They might as well say this, Jimmy,” she said, thrusting the paddles back into your hands. “Never, and never. Never. Never.”

“Yeah!” Jacob agreed. “You all are sick!” He folded his arms across his chest with a sarcastic huff, and everyone applauded him while laughing. You almost had tears in your eyes.

Within a few minutes, the show went to commercial break, and Jimmy apologized profusely to the five of you, mostly to you and Tom since everyone knew the questions were directed more at you. “I honestly had no idea what the questions were,” he said. “I have no idea why they were cleared.”

“It’s fine,” you said. “I think it’s safe to say though that you guys-” You looked at Jake, Zendaya, and Jacob. “-saved us.”

“We’ve always got your back,” Zendaya said, giving your arm a comforting squeeze. You smiled and laid your head on her shoulder while Jacob reached out and squeezed your hand. Jake was talking quietly to Tom, and you could see in both of their eyes that Jake was saying something meaningful. Tom was smiling appreciatively and nodding along.

By the time you and Tom got back to your hotel, the clip of you on Jimmy’s show was already trending. You showed Tom all the tweets, and the two of you shared a laugh. “Glad we can laugh about it now,” Tom said, getting under the covers of the bed beside you.

“Oh believe me, I’m still crying inside,” you said, “but the others made it a little easier.”

“And I didn’t?” Tom teased.

“You’re the one who got them leaked in the first place,” you said.

“You said-”

“I’m joking, div,” you said, hitting him with one of the pillows. Tom laughed and lightly smacked you back. You eventually curled back up to his side, and Tom put his arm around you.

“In all seriousness,” he said, “I’m really sorry this all happened.” You looked up at him to see him already looking down at you. “It’s not fair that this shit is already happening to you. I feel like, like I’m supposed to protect you, you know? And I just fucked that right up.”

“You don’t need to protect me,” you said. “That’s an extremely outdated gender role.” You placed a kiss to his neck, just below his jaw. “But I appreciate you looking out for me. We can’t control the rest of the world. Just ourselves. Just because I can’t trust the rest of the world to respect my privacy doesn’t mean I can’t trust you.”

You were both quiet for a long time, and just when you thought Tom had dozed off-

“You’ll still send me nudes when I’m away, right?”

“I hate you.”

----- ----- ----- -----

TAGLIST

@bangtan-serendipity | @planetdemon | @the-singing-clown406 | @tomshufflepuff | @bluelalal | @grandloser | @jackiehollanderr | @mindset-jupiter | @bisexual-sk8r | @feel-like-gold | @runaway-apple | @miraclesoflove | @marvelismylifffe| @wonderbyers | @coraz0ndcristal| @lizmarvel​ |  @hannihannelora

[gottaenjoythelittlethingzz]

Character Interview: Smut Edition

The interview no one asked for. This is mainly an exercise for me to get back into writing for Schuyler and get a handle on her voice. Answering 60 questions completely in Schuyler’s voice.

#28 will shock you! ;)

1. How old were you when you went on your first date?

“Define date. Technical my first hook up was at a party and I talked to the guy for like, ten minutes. I was 17. But I didn’t have a romantic relationship until I met my partners at 28. And none of us are exceptionally romantic, at least not in the classic sense. Our dates are when we decide to ride out to the desert for a picnic. Go to Vegas for a weekend. My first ‘dinner and a movie’ wasn’t until I was...30, maybe.” 

2. Who was your idol when you were growing up? Who did you first fantasize about in your life?

“John Travolta. It was Grease and then Wild Hogs. Very classy.”

3. Would you consider yourself straight, gay, bi, or other?

“Bisexual and polyamorous. And I found out at different times in my life.”

4. Do you currently have a lover? What is their name, and what is your relationship like? What are they like? Why are you attracted to them?

“I have two and it’s not for the faint of heart. I’m all for exploring sexuality, but unless you’re serious I wouldn’t recommend attempting to be in my position. 

Chibs and Tig. They are both noticeably older than I myself am, but Chibs is the oldest. They had a relationship prior to me. But there are some days that even they forget that.

I’m attracted to both of them because they are so different from each other and they are very different from me. They each check certain boxes for me that individually neither of them could. No individual on their own really could. We all kinda do that for each other and I think that’s why polyamory works for us. Our relationship is balanced in that way.

I wouldn’t say we are co-dependent, but we depend on each other for a lot. We met through work. We have the same friends and family. We’re around each other a lot. 

The sex isn’t bad either. We have a semi-open relationship. We’re free to have sexual relationships, but we’ve agreed not to open our relationship to other romantic partners. We keep each other busy as it is. We check each other’s boxes in that way too.”

5. Who was the first person you had sex with? When did it happen? What was it like? How well did it go?

“Some guy at a party when I was 17. I led him to the back of my truck. He came and I didn’t, but it was ok because we were on the clock. We were kinda racing his twin sister and my older brother, Beau, who were in another car about two car lengths down beside us. Not my best story, but it is my first.”

6. Have you ever had a same-sex experience? Who with, what was it like, and how did it go?

“Course. My first girl went a lot smoother than my first guy. I was 22 and she was 24, I think, and I was not her first. She was sweet.”

7. What is your deepest, most well-hidden sexual fantasy? Would you ever try?

“Normally I’m very dominant. With the company I keep I’ve had to learn to be socially and it translated sexually. But, I kinda like the idea of being choked. I would never try it with just some hook up. Especially not with a man. Which leads to a glaring issue since I want to be choked by a man.

My sexual relationship with my partners is interesting because we don’t always stick to our roles. I might consider, attempting, that with Chibs just because I know he’s the only man I’ve ever felt completely secure with in such an intimate way. That’s not to say I don’t trust Tig in the same way. We just have a different dynamic and I know he tends to lean towards submission and he needs us to stay that way to feel secure.

I just don’t know how to breech that conversation. And I wouldn’t want to without knowing that we could return to our normal dynamic because I can’t be submissive, at least not in that way, all the time and I know he doesn't want me to be.”

8. What was the wildest thing you’ve ever done, sexually? Who was it with and when did it happen?

“Depends on what you personally view as “wild”. I’ve been to a sex club, once. A proper one in England with performers and company brands and the like. That was crazy, but in the best way. I’ve had multiple partners at a time and had sex in multiple public locations in multiple countries. I like to think I’ve done a lot, but I know that isn’t true either. I’m just going to keep finding new experiences with new people.”

9. Is there any sexual activity that you enjoy and/or practice regularly that can be considered non-standard? (Bondage, Fantasy Play, etc.) Why do you like it?

“(Openly laughs) Back to checking those boxes. Um, pegging is fun. With the right equipment I can check just as many boxes as my partners can.”

10. Is there any sexual activity that you will not, under any circumstances, do?

I’ve been known to explore the shallows of the BDSM community. Light bondage and impact play. I’m not opposed to spankings, especially if my partner at the time needs that. But I have never and will never hit someone I have any sort of relationship with in the face. Open, closed fist, or with an object, the thought would just never occur to me. That rule extends to relationships outside of sexual and romantic ones, but that’s another discussion entirely.”

11. What is more important - sex or intimacy? Why?

“If you had asked me before I met my partners I would have said sex because that’s all I was looking for. These days I’m practicing compersion. I’m a big fan. Intimacy is so important, I think even more important in a polyamorous relationship, for maintaining healthy, open communication.”

12. Do you use endearments? (For partners or in general?)

“In general I tend to use individual endearments for different sexes and different partners. I tend to use “sweetheart” and “honey” as insults whether that comes across or not.

My favorite nickname that my partners call me is “Ma’am”.”

13. What’s the worst thing you’ve done to someone you love?

“Lie. No matter the reason. Even if it worked out in the end. That doesn’t make lying right.”

14. What’s the part of your partner’s body you like the most?

“What they want me to answer, what I’m suppose to answer, and what I want to answer are all different answers. But I do like the same features pretty equally on both. No one can say that I don’t have a type.”

15. Ever wake up next to someone you instantly regretted sleeping with?

“There’s this one girl from high school. And she hasn’t left since. Became a Croweater because of me. I honestly try to feel bad for her, but she makes it incredibly hard to.”

16. What kind of birth control do you use? Have you ever got an STD from a previous partner?

“Ever since my second abortion I’ve been dependent on the arm implant. The abortions were before my partners and I can’t risk being careless for their own sake. Per our agreement, I always use condoms when I am not with my partners. Thankfully I’ve never contracted STDs and it’s nearly impossible now with how cautious my older partner is.”

17. Which is more important to you - boobs or butts?

“Boobs, toned chests, collar bones. Really the prime hickies areas above the waist.”

18. Have you ever skinny dipped? 

“There is the interesting trend in my life where I started out bathing naked with my brothers when we were really little, then we started doing it in bathing suits in our teens, and now that we’re grown we’re back to walking around naked in front of each other.

I’ve skinny dipped with friends and its been totally platonic and I’ve skinned dipped with sex partners.”

18. What’s the most erotic thing your significant other does?

“This may be hard to explain. 

Tig wears these leather wrist cuffs (*Schuyler starts rubbing her own wrist) that very easily draw my attention to his hands no matter where they are. When he’s relaxed, he stands with a hand on the handle of his knife. When he’s attempting to appear intimidating, he stands with his hands crossed in front of his waist, one hand clutching the other’s wrist or both clutching his belt buckle. And both actions are somehow simalteously dominate and submissive in aesthetic and action. That’s the best way I could possible describe him. A delicate mixture of both.

With Chibs, he does this thing when he is thinking, and I mean really deep in thought, he gets this sort of look on his face, his eyebrows knit together, and he opens his mouth in a way that’s just a hair shy of his ‘O’ face. And its really hot.

Between the two of them, it’s these little things they do when they don’t even realize they’re being watched, that I find attractive.”

19. After being intimate are you a sleeper or ready for more?

“It’s funny because both my partners have a higher sex drive then me despite the fact that they’re older. I argue that it’s because I work more, but that isn’t necessarily true. I’m a sleeper and I am not a cuddler by any means. The good news is it makes me a giver during the actual act. They often joke that I “cum like a man” and complain about having to entertain each other when I’m done.”

20. What turns you on almost instantly?

“Smoking and watching my partners, specifically, commit acts of violence, like boxing or a bit more than that. Yeah, I know.”

21. Would you rather have sex with the lights on or off?

“On! But I want my partner to be comfortable.”

22. Would you rather give oral sex, or receive it?

“Give it! With fervor.” 

23. Would you rather be on top, or underneath?

“Top. I like directing.”

24. Have you ever used sex aids in bed? Would you use them with your current partner? Which ones?

“Besides toys and lube, I don’t believe I have. I’d be more than willing if it was for the benefit of my partner. I made the mistake of introducing my partners to sexually enhancing marijuana products. I don’t smoke weed, but both my partners do and they will try to get me to smoke it until the day I die. And they’re trying to convince me that the enhancements are not the same as smoking, so ‘its fine’. I still disagree.”

25. Have you tried anal? Would you?

“Regularly. And double penetration and double vaginal penetration. I would say it is because I ‘have to’, but that would be a lie.”

26. Have you ever tried bondage? Would you?

“I’ve been known to swipe a pair of hand cuffs off pigs’ belts when they aren’t looking. I don’t known as much about the practices as I’d like to and don’t practice BDSM half as much as I think about it. It’s been mainly tame stuff.”

27. Have you used food in sex play?

“I like ice because I’m very hot natured. I actually prefer cigarettes to food.”

28. Would you rather have sex with your other half’s best friend or with your best friend?

“Well since the answer to both are two of my older brothers (by choice and name, not blood) either would be awkward. I suppose my other half’s best friend since I’ve known that guy for less time. I’m pretty sure his wife would finally kill me though. Hell that might make it worth the trouble. Just to piss her off.”

29. Would you rather have sex with one person watching or with fifty people watching?

“I feel like if it was a playback recording situation or even live streamed in separate rooms the number doesn’t matter. I’ve been known to have sex in rooms with up to fifty people around, but they’re usually occupied and more than likely know or are under instructions to ignore me. But if I had the choice then it would be one. Then I could perform and tailor the experience to that person. At that point it would be more of a game.”

30. Would you rather be in a relationship with a totally submissive partner or a dominant partner?

“That’s the brilliance of my relationship. I more or less have both. But if I had to choose it would be a submissive partner.”

31. Would you rather kiss your boss or have your significant other kiss them?

“Knowing the bosses I have had I would much rather someone else do it for me, even my SO. I don’t really get jealous in that way and I kind of like to watch my partners with other people.”

32. Would you rather pursue a life where you could only ever have sex with one partner in the same position in the same bedroom or have sex with a completely different person every time?

“A different person every single time.”

33. Have you ever gone a whole day without wearing underwear?

“I always go commando when I go to concerts and sometimes under my scrubs just because they’re comfortable.”

34. Where’s the strangest place you’ve had sex?

“A motorcycle? Not mine, because I respect the machine, but on other people’s bikes.”

35. What’s one thing you do with your partner that you could never give up?

“Midnight drives out to the desert. Or movie nights.”

36. When was the last time your SO was in one of your dreams?

“Before we moved in together.”

37. Would you rather make out with someone else or watch your significant other make out with someone?

“Both. We can take turns.”

38. What time of day are you interested in sex: morning, afternoon, night?

“Afternoon because I’m the most awake and it gives me an excuse to shower and do chores, afterwards.”

39. Have you ever had sex in a public place?

“It’s a frequent occurrence.”

40. Would you rather sleep with someone much older than you, or simply never have sex during your life time?

“My partners are 17 and 13 years older than me, respectively. I’ve always looked at men who are older than me and women who are about my age, but I don’t mind older women for their experience. When it comes down to it I’m taking home whoever is looking good on the night. I wouldn’t give up sex based on something so superficial.”

41. Would you rather be a virgin until you are 40 and subsequently have the most amazing sexual partners of a lifetime, or would you rather have the most amazing sexual partners until you are 40 and then never have sex again?

“I don’t plan on living very long past 40, so the former.”

42. Would you rather remain a virgin until marriage and have a spectacular sexual partner or remain unmarried for the rest of your life and have a ton of great sexual partners who never love or commit to you?

“I don’t personally believe in marriage for a slew of related and unrelated reasons. And I’m all about experiences, so the later.”

43. Would you rather only ever have sex in bed or only ever have sex outside the bedroom?

“Beds are nice.”

44. Would you rather have sex in the kitchen or living room?

“Living room. Apparently I like furniture.”

45. Do you check out your SO when they walk away?

“No, but it’s mainly for posturing and protection.”

46. Do you think you’re a good kisser?

“I get by.”

47. What’s your favorite position and why?

“Cowboy. I like to do all the work, I like the view, and I make for an even better one.”

48. What is it about a person that sexually attracts you?

“Humor and intelligence. A good head of hair doesn’t hurt.”

49. What’s your darkest sexual fantasy?

“I’m kinda into knife and blood play, but I have never attempted either.”

50. How many orgasms have you had in one session? How many sessions have you had in one day?

“I think my record is four in a setting. And the most sessions I’ve ever attempted in a day is three. And doing both is easier with three people who are relaxed because they are on vacation and eager to please. That was basically the formula for our tenth anniversary.”

51. Are you noisy in bed?

“No because I’m so focused on making sure my partner is as loud as they are comfortable being.”

52. Do you think virginity is something to be respected, or do you think it’s a nuisance?

“I think it is artificial and you should get rid of it as soon as you (legally) can. It’s fake, but also a hassle to carry around.” 

53. What’s the longest amount of time you have been abstinent?

“6 months.”

54. Have you ever had angry sex with your SO or another person), was it good?

“Angry sex is always good. I’ve for sure hate fucked at least guy who was a client and that’s how I discovered that I couldn’t sleep with cliental anymore. I don’t think I’ve ever had angry sex with either of my partners, though they might have been angry once or twice...”

55. Are you a greedy lover? In what way?

“I like my partners to be vocal and I like knowing that it’s because of me.”

56. Do you ever pleasure your lover without satisfying yourself too?

“All the time. Usually due to a time constraint.”

57. What’ s the best part of oral sex with your SO?

“How eager they are to please me.”

58. Have you ever had drunken or drugged sex?

“Drunk sex is just another Friday night. My partners are high 9/10 times, but I’ve personally only ever purposely gotten high once and it was before I met them. Unless you count contact high, then maybe I’ve been high during sex. 

And both of my partners have been known to, partake in the use of, we’ll say ‘heavier’ drugs recreationally. I will not have sex with them when they are influenced - in that way. And they do it less now because I refuse to have sex with them while they are high.”

59. What’s the best kiss you’ve ever had?

“(Looks around for eyes on her) “This will get me into trouble. But it was after Chibs came back from his, we’ll call it a business trip, to Ireland. I was suppose to go and didn’t. And I’ve never been more relieved to see him.”

60. What’s the best sex you’ve ever had?

“That’s a safer question. And arguably more fun. It was between both my partners. It was the night Tig got out of Stockton. He was inside for 14 months and the only time he’s ever been inside without Chibs. For like a week after I didn’t think I was going to let him go, so he gave me this wicked hickie on my neck to carry around. That’s the longest any of us have ever been apart and we don’t plan to let it happen again.”

[bountyofbeads]

The Mystery of Rudy Giuliani’s Vienna Trip

President Trump’s personal lawyer told me he was planning to fly to Vienna roughly 24 hours after his business associates were arrested as they prepared to do the same.

By Elaina Plott Published Oct 10, 2019 | The Atlantic | Posted October 13, 2019 |

Last night, when Rudy Giuliani told me he couldn’t get together for an interview, his reason made sense: As with many nights of late, he was due to appear on Hannity. When I suggested this evening instead, his response was a bit more curious. We would have to aim for lunch, Giuliani told me, because he was planning to fly to Vienna, Austria, at night. He didn’t offer any details beyond that.

Giuliani called me at 6:22 p.m. last night—around the same time that two of his associates, Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, were arrested at Dulles Airport while waiting to board an international flight with one-way tickets. As The Wall Street Journal reported this afternoon, the two men were bound for Vienna. The Florida businessmen, who are reported to have assisted Giuliani in his alleged efforts to investigate Joe Biden and his family ahead of the 2020 election, were charged with campaign-finance violations, with prosecutors alleging that they had conspired to funnel money from a Russian donor into Donald Trump’s presidential campaign.

But Giuliani, when confirming today that Parnas and Fruman were heading to Vienna on matters “related to their business,” told the Journal that he himself only had plans to meet with them when they returned to Washington. By this logic, Giuliani was also planning to fly to Vienna within roughly 24 hours of his business associates, but do no business with them while all three were there.

This morning, Giuliani told me he’d have to reschedule our lunch. I’ve tried to reach him since then, to discuss Parnas’s and Fruman’s arrests, among other things, to no avail. When I called at 3 p.m. ET to ask about his Vienna trip, a woman claiming to be his communications director answered the phone. I have called him more than 100 times over the past year, and this is the first time that has ever happened. She said she’d have to get back to me. As we spoke, I could hear a voice that resembled Giuliani’s shout “asshole” in the background. “Oh, sorry,” the woman told me. “He was talking to the TV.”

Why were Parnas and Fruman bound for Vienna? Why was Giuliani—if what he told me was true—planning to be in the same city a day later?

Giuliani finally sent me a text message at 4:18 p.m. ET: “I can’t comment on it at this time.”

Read: Rudy Giuliani: ‘You should be happy for your country that I uncovered this’

Parnas and Fruman, both Soviet-born, have been instrumental in helping Giuliani develop Ukrainian contacts in his quest to prove that Biden, while vice president, tried to curtail an investigation into a Ukrainian gas company for which his son Hunter Biden served on the board. Parnas told NPR, for example, that he was the one who had arranged a Skype call between Giuliani and former Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin to discuss their corruption theory. Parnas was also present at meetings in New York and Warsaw earlier this year with Giuliani and Yuriy Lutsenko, another former prosecutor general for Ukraine.

I met Parnas and Fruman in March, when I joined Giuliani at Shelly’s Back Room, a cigar bar in D.C., to discuss Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s soon-to-be-released report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. Sipping back-to-back glasses of Macallan—double, one large ice cube—and smoking a Nicaraguan cigar, Giuliani told me he’d known Parnas for two years. Parnas laughed and said he’d grown up “idolizing” Giuliani. They bantered about how the Mueller probe would likely amount to nothing, with Parnas adding that it was Trump’s “constitutional right” to fire former FBI Director James Comey. Save for introducing himself when I arrived, Fruman was quiet. Parnas told me they were all “great friends” and all “work together.”

Along with allegedly using a shell company to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to Republican candidates and a pro-Trump super PAC, Parnas and Fruman were also accused by federal prosectors of meddling in American political activities on behalf of one or more Ukrainian officials. In the 21-page indictment, prosecutors allege that Parnas and Fruman lobbied for the removal of the U.S. ambassador in Kiev, Marie Yovanovitch—something Giuliani sought as well, arguing that she was biased against the president. In May, Trump ordered Yovanovitch’s removal.

The White House has kept mum about the arrests. Jay Sekulow, Trump’s personal lawyer alongside Giuliani, told reporters that neither Trump nor his campaign has “anything to do with the scheme these guys were involved in.”

It’s difficult to know, however, precisely what Trump may or may not know about Parnas and Fruman, given that Giuliani and Trump are in constant contact and that Giuliani, at least broadly, has frequently kept Trump updated on his maneuverings in Ukraine. Presumably these are the kinds of questions that House Democrats had in mind when they subpoenaed Giuliani last month, and Parnas and Fruman today. Giuliani has said he refuses to testify or provide documents to the House Intelligence Committee. Parnas and Fruman, for their part, are being held in a Virginia jail on a $1 million bond each.

Trump is already seeking to distance himself from the controversy. “I don’t know those gentlemen,” the president told reporters before departing for a rally in Minnesota. “Now, it’s possible I have a picture with them, because I have a picture with everybody.” (He does, in fact, have a picture with Parnas.)

“Maybe they were clients of Rudy,” Trump added. “You’d have to ask Rudy.”

The Story Keeps Getting Worse for the White House

A pair of men helping the president’s supposed anti-corruption campaign were apprehended as they tried to leave the United States.

David A. Graham | Updated at 3:48 p.m. on October 10, 2019, Published October 10, 2019 | The Atlantic | Posted October 13, 2019 |

If the president’s fundamental defense against impeachment is that there’s nothing to see here and people should move along, Thursday morning was not a good day for the president.

As The Wall Street Journal first reported, two men who assisted in Rudy Giuliani’s investigations in Ukraine on behalf of Donald Trump were arrested Wednesday night. Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, both Soviet-born, naturalized American citizens, had been asked to testify to Congress today and Friday in connection with the impeachment inquiry into Trump; they were apprehended at Dulles Airport, outside of Washington, D.C., trying to leave the country on one-way tickets. Congress has now issued subpoenas to them as well.

The details of the allegations against Parnas and Fruman are arcane, but the big picture is not: Two men who were helping the president’s supposed anti-corruption scheme in Ukraine have now been arrested and charged with federal crimes.

David A. Graham: Trump is panicking

In a letter to House Democrats last week, attorney John Dowd—last seen representing Trump in connection with Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation—wrote, “Please be advised that Messrs. Parnas and Fruman assisted Mr. Giuliani in connection with his representation of President Trump.” This was apparently intended to shield Parnas and Fruman: Dowd argued that some of what Democrats sought from them was protected by attorney-client privilege. But with the arrests today, that argument adds to Trump’s problems. Attorney-client privilege does not cover the commission of crimes, and now the connection to the president has been established.

Parnas and Fruman’s schemes are a little hard to follow. Prosecutors charged them, as well as two other men, with conspiracy, false statements to the Federal Election Commission, and falsifying records. An indictment charges that the men engaged in a straw-donor scheme to illegally donate money to a congressman—former Representative Pete Sessions, a Texas Republican—at the behest of a Ukrainian official, to get help in trying to have the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine fired. (Sessions wrote a letter calling for the diplomat’s firing, and she was eventually removed.) In another scheme, they funneled money from a Russian foreign national, again in violation of the law, into donations, using a legal recreational-marijuana enterprise as a front.

“Protecting the integrity of elections, and protecting our elections from unlawful foreign influence, are core functions of our campaign-finance laws,” Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said at a press conference on Thursday.

This is not the first time attention has turned to Parnas and Fruman. The men were already reported to have been assisting Giuliani in his quest to dig up dirt on dealings in Ukraine by former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden. (No evidence of wrongdoing has yet turned up.) BuzzFeed reported on the men’s lavish spending during that investigation. Parnas told BuzzFeed he’d met with the president “many times” but wouldn’t say what they discussed. The men seem to have been small-time businessmen with little political experience until recently, and how they got involved or what they were seeking is still not clear.

Read: Trump’s game of chicken

The fact that Trump’s corruption-seekers were, themselves, allegedly corrupt begs a comparison to Richard Nixon’s crew of Plumbers, who were convened to investigate leaks of classified information but were eventually arrested for crimes of their own. The White House has argued that the Democratic impeachment inquiry is illegitimate because Trump did nothing wrong and there’s nothing to investigate, but each new piece of information—much less federal indictments—makes that argument harder to sustain.

Even before the arrests, there was evidence that the public wasn’t buying it. A Fox News poll released Wednesday found that an eye-popping 51 percent of Americans want Trump impeached and removed from office. Another 4 percent want him impeached but not removed. The poll shows growing support in practically every group, across ideological and demographic categories. Some are especially worrisome for Trump: Suburban women favor impeachment and removal, 57 to 33. More than half of the respondents think the Trump administration is more corrupt than previous presidencies. Among those who oppose impeachment, only one in five say Trump did nothing wrong.

David A. Graham: The cover-up betrays Trump’s guilt

The Fox News poll has not escaped Trump’s agitated notice. It is a mild outlier, showing stronger support than most polls—but not by a lot. Support has grown steadily over the past two weeks; FiveThirtyEight’s tracker of impeachment polls shows an average 49.2 percent support as of this writing.

The president likes to point out that some polls underestimated his support in the 2016 election and failed to predict his victory. But these impeachment polls aren’t interesting as a predictor of electoral success. Instead, they’re a snapshot of public opinion. Trump’s firewall against removal from office is Republicans in the Senate. Many of them have never had a great deal of personal affection for Trump, but they fear the power of his supporters to punish them politically. If voters, especially Republicans, turn against Trump, GOP senators will have less reason to stick with him.

Souring public opinion is also a problem for Trump because his entire defense strategy against impeachment is currently premised on public opinion. An eight-page letter sent to House Democrats on Tuesday was signed by White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, but as I wrote, its arguments are almost entirely political rather than legal, attempting to dismiss the impeachment inquiry as illegitimate because it is politically motivated. Meanwhile, White House efforts to turn the focus back to the Bidens have struggled; even Peter Schweizer, a progenitor of the case against Hunter Biden, wrote in a New York Times column Wednesday that what Biden did was legal, though he says it should not be.

There’s a hoary legal adage, “If the facts are against you, argue the law. If the law is against you, argue the facts. If the law and the facts are against you, pound the table and yell like hell.” Neither fact nor the law is especially helpful to Trump right now, so the White House is pounding the table ferociously. At the moment, though, few people are heeding the racket.

[zmediaoutlet]

i love the idea of dean high and fuzzy while watching shitty movies and kinda jerking off but not really committed enough to call it that, just sorta there but also not

(read on AO3)

Sam grinds the heel of his hand into his eye, trying to concentrate.His essay on Marbury v. Madison isn't going to write itself, even if they alreadywent over judicial review at his last school, but he's read the relevant sectionsin his government textbook about five times and it's not really inspiring him. Hisstudy environment isn't exactly helping.

"Come on, dork," Dean says, plopping back onto hishalf of the couch. He kicks his socked feet up onto the egg-crate coffee tableand cracks open his next beer. "Aren't you done with your homework yet?You're supposed to be good at this stuff."

"I am," Samsays, sliding a leg over to kick Dean in the thigh. Dean just grins and pincheshis Achilles tendon, eyes still on the TV. Sam yanks his foot back, irritated.It's late, and he's tired, and the Seagal movie on the free channels is likeextra-stupid right now, and this essay isn't even due until Friday. There's notmuch else to do, though. Their little studio apartment doesn't have anywhere tobe alone except the bathroom, and if he spends too long in there Dean alwaysgets that stupid grin on his face and asks Sam if he's getting friction burns,and even if Sam's well-used to Dean's jerky big brother crap he still blushes,and then—

So, no privacy in the studio. Dad's been gone for a week,and isn't going to be back for at least one more—which probably means a month,but that's okay with Sam. At least he might actually get to finish out the semesterat this school. He turns back to the beginning of the chapter while a bunch ofpeople die on TV, and Dean snorts and mutters, "Yeah, real nice trigger discipline,idiot," and Sam rolls his eyes and sticks his pencil into the book as amarker.

"Why do you bother watching these movies if they're so dumb?"he says, and drops the book the floor next to the couch.

Dean actually looks at him, surprised. "Are you kidding?"he says. On screen, Seagal does some kind of goofy karate chop move and the extrahe's fighting goes down like a lead weight. "This is great!"

Sam sighs and grabs his backpack, and decamps to the queenbed shoved into the corner, where he can't see the TV. He can't believe they'restuck in Butte of all places in December. Three days of snow and it's way toocold to go outside, and the channels suck, and he's just tired of this crap. Hepulls out the battered copy of EthanFrome they're reading for English and props it open against his knees, witha sigh.

"Hey," Dean says. Sam looks up to find Dean watchinghim, frowning a little.

"What?" he says.

Dean opens his mouth, and then closes it again. Sam raiseshis eyebrows and Dean hesitates, and then just shakes his head and takes aswallow from the beer can. "Don't hog all the covers," he says,spreading out on the couch now that he's got the whole thing. "I don'twant to have to drop you into the snowdrift outside."

"Like you even could," Sam says, but under hisbreath. He finds where he left off reading and settles more firmly into theirtwo stolen pillows, trying to get comfortable. If Dean comes to bed, he's goingto have to wrestle Sam for them.

*

Sam comes awake all at once, interrupted from a weird dreamabout snow and sledding and his English teacher being his dad and Dean with a ruinedleg. He blinks into the pillow and wipes his mouth, disoriented and too-warm. There'sa bunch of noise—oh, the TV. Still on, and playing a too-loud commercial. Theblankets are pulled over him, somehow, his book tucked safely to the side, buthe's still wearing all his clothes. The little bedside alarm clock says it'sonly one in the morning, but still—

"Dean," he mumbles, and drags up onto one elbow.He knuckles some grit out of his eye, groggy. "Are you seriously stillwatching that crap?"

The lights are all off, but the TV's still bright and blue-white,flickery over the bare wall and couch and where Dean's slumped back, sprawledand shadowy. "You're supposed to be sleeping," he says, barelyaudible under the commercial chattering about dishsoap, or whatever it is.

"Well, I was,"Sam mutters, and sits up fully, pushing away the too-warm blankets. He pullsoff his socks and jeans and overshirt, so he's just in boxers and t-shirt, sweatclinging in his pits and the back of his neck. The apartment building hasreally good heating, which is—well, better than freezing, at least. His mouthis fuzzy, too-dry, and he stands up, stretching slowly, and takes a deep breathbefore he wrinkles his nose. "Dude," he says, "it reeks inhere."

He shuffles over to the tiny kitchenette on the far wall andfills a glass of water, while Dean softly laughs. A few gulps sink icy-colddown to his belly and he leans against the counter, wiping his eye again andchecking out the TV. Dean's practically horizontal, one leg up on the egg-crateand the other splayed wide on the floor, body half-hidden by the couch arm. Hedoesn't recognize the movie that's on now, although the acting's really bad.Par for the course with most movies Dean watches, really. He sniffs again."Seriously, what is that,"he says, "did you eat super bad Chinese while I was asleep orsomething?"

Dean lets out a low chuckle. "Sammy, you're not exactlya party kid, are you," he says, lazy, and then he picks up—oh. A red glow betweenhis fingers as he takes a drag and holds it, and then a slow plume of smoke ashe exhales, and Sam knows what cigarettes smell like and this isn't it.

He licks his lips. "Is that—um." He feels off-balance,suddenly, and weird. "Is that marijuana?"

Dean laughs, again, and Sam feels the blush rushing up tohis cheeks again. He's sixteen, damn it, but sometimes Dean makes him feelabout five years old. "Weed, Sammy," he says, and tips his head backagainst the couch. In the blue flicker of the TV Sam can see he's smiling, hiseyes closed, and it doesn't look like he's teasing.

"Dad's gonna kill you," Sam says, after a minute,and then when Dean just laughs again: "Where did you even get it?"

"Miranda, from work," Dean says, over-enunciating sothe k comes out all hard.

Sam rolls his eyes. He's had to hear a lot about the wonderful and hot Miranda, the checkout girl at thehardware store where Dean's picking up some hours. He comes closer, says,"You better not burn the apartment down, jerk," and Dean's grin justgets wider and then Sam blinks, standing right next to the couch, because—becauseDean's jeans are open, and he's got his hand tucked into them, and he's—he's touching himself, with Sam right here.

The blood floods into Sam's face and the awkward twist in hisbelly nearly doubles him over. They don't—do this. "Dude," Sam says,faintly, horribly aware of his own skin, goosebumps rippling weirdly under hisboxers and thin t-shirt, and Dean just hums, takes another drag off of thejoint held careful between two fingers and drops it onto the plate next to himon the couch, a makeshift ashtray. His right hand moves, a slow rub, and Sam'slips part, dry.

"Oh, this part's hilarious," Dean says, liftinghis head up with some effort, and apparently the movie's still playing, something'shappening on the screen. The colors flicker to yellow and green and Dean's litup, smiling, his eyes heavy, his hand still rubbing down below. Like Sam's noteven standing there, like they're in some strange alternate dimension where thesethings don't matter. The smell's so strong, skunky and thick in the back ofSam's throat, and he swallows.

When he sits down on the other side of the couch, Dean tipshis head to one side and smiles at him. "Not gonna narc on me, right?"he says.

His eyes are half-lidded, dark and unreadable, but he looks—purelyrelaxed. The thing Sam hates most about their life is the edge of it. Neverknowing if Dad's going to come home, if there's going to be some bloody finalaccident. Dean puts on a good show, most of the time, but Sam was eight when helearned better and every year it's just gotten more clear. The way Dean keepsan eye on the phone, on the door. The way he looks after the guns almostobsessively, the way he rides Sam on PT even when Dad's not around. Right now, he'sjust… loose. Open and easy and fine,no tension in his body even with a shotgun hidden under the couch. "No,"Sam says, finally. "No, I won't say anything."

Dean's eyes crinkle when his grin gets that wide."That's my boy," he says, not half-mocking like he usually is, and spreadshis knees wider, his one foot dropping down from the egg-crate so he's spreadout, open, thighs wide so Sam can see everything.

Sam takes a deep breath. He's almost used to the smell, now.The TV switches to commercial, again, and it's one of those gross Girls GoneWild ads, drunk chicks who probably aren’t even as old as Dean, flashing theirboobs at the camera. His lip curls, reflexively, but Dean groans next to him,and his eyes snap to his left to see Dean shift his hips, lifting up againsthis hand briefly with a flex of his ass and thighs, his forearm working. Oh,god. "God," Dean says, with a sigh, and licks his lips so they shine."There's a dream-job."

His left hand slides down, too, slipping down into hisboxers, and Sam realizes he's just breathing open-mouthed and staring, like aweirdo. He swallows, and says, "You think they've got a big ghost problemin Miami?" Dean frowns, looks at him. "You could do both—big herohunter and boob-wrangler."

That gets a bark of real laughter, Dean flat-out gigglingall high and breathy. "Boob-wrangler!" he repeats, voice juddering,and Sam can't help but grin. "Oh, man." His eyes lock back onto theTV—this is one of those long commercials, little fake interviews and squealinganswers, goofy censor bars so no nipples show. There's plenty of bounce, though.

Dean groans, again, and his hand slides in a slow twist, andthat's a real jerk-off motion, that's actually happening, right next to Sam onthe couch. He bites his lip and watches Dean do it again, hips languorouslyshifting, and finally he drops his hand down to his own crotch where his dick'swell past half-mast, rising up against the thin fabric of his boxers. Heflattens his palm and presses himself down against his own thigh, trying tohide it, but even high Dean catches the motion out of the corner of his eye. Helaughs, again, soft, and Sam closes his eyes in mortification. "Thoughtyou were too much of a prude for this stuff," Dean says, and Sam shakeshis head, can't say anything.

More squealing, from the TV, and it really, truly doesn't doanything for Sam. Maybe if it were muted. There's a rustle, the couch's deepsprings popping as Dean shifts, and then a long sigh and Dean says, "Oh,better," and Sam forces his eyes open to see—oh, fuck. Dean's shoved his jeansand boxers down to his knees, and it's just the stretch of bare white thighs,muscled and smooth since he's barely got any hair, and now Sam can see—god, everything,his dick standing up and his balls cupped in his left hand while he reaches forthe joint, still smoldering on the plate between them. "Want to try?"Dean says, waving it vaguely, and Sam shakes his head, mutely. Dean grins athim, nothing but fond. "Good," he says, and takes a last long drag,holding it and huffing little sips of choked air before the smoke purls outfrom his nose like a cartoon dragon. "Just say no, Sammy."

Sam huffs. "Idiot," he mumbles, and Dean drops theburned up end down to the plate and flips him off, cheerful and lazy. He lickshis hand and drops it back to his dick, massaging himself at the base. There'sa bit of shine at the head, gleaming in the TV-light, and Sam's mouth floodswith spit. God. His own dick throbs, warm and stiff through the cotton underhis palm, and he swallows and licks the corner of his mouth and slips his handunder the too-big leg of his shorts, takes himself in his sweaty grip. Fuck—he hitchesa noise, deep in his chest, but Dean doesn't seem to notice. The commercial'sover, finally, and they're back to the movie. Some big blond guy and a dark-hairedwoman arguing about something, and Dean sighs, licking his lips again anddragging his thumb up the back of his dick, rubbing. Sam can't believe this ishappening. He has fucking school in—god,like six hours, but he's not stopping, can't stop. Dean's dick is… big. Samdoesn't know if it's bigger than his, but he thinks so, maybe. His ballsdefinitely are, from what he can see while Dean rolls them idly, eyes on thetelevision. Sam bites his lips between his teeth and drags his left leg up,blocking himself a little in case Dean looks over, and then pulls himself outthrough the slit in his boxers, bolsters his dick up in his palm so it'ssitting high, just like Dean's is. He's not even looking out of the corner ofhis eye, now, just staring, while Dean squeezes himself at the base again andthen drags up, slow, not even trying to get himself off—and Sam copies it,hot-eyed, breathing too fast. Dean shifts his legs, spreads them a little more,and presses—lower, makes a low pleased hum deep in his chest, and Sam copiesthat, too, slipping his fingers down below his balls and pushing two against themuscle there, a deep thrum of pleasure surging right up to the head of hisdick.

"Oh, god," he breathes, squeezing himself too-tightaround the base, and Dean tips his head over again and blinks at him. Samstares back, mouth open, his stomach churning. "Oh, god."

"Hey," Dean says, smiling, and shifts a little,pulls his hand away from his dick to lean his elbow on the back of the couch.It twists his body a little, his dick falling to land heavy on the muscle ofhis thigh, his t-shirt pulling up so Sam can see flat golden belly. "Nobig deal, huh? It's hot, right?"

Hot—Dean nods at the TV, and oh, the muscle dude and thestarlet are making out, now, transitioning to one of those awkward soft-coresex scenes, saxophone and soft drums, and Sam nods, wordless, eyes jumping backto Dean's face and then to his crotch, where he hasn't softened, not at all.Sam wants—fuck, he wants to lean over there and touch it. He wants that… badly,to get his hand around Dean and feel how he's different, or maybe how he's thesame, to cup his balls and test the weight, to feel the heat of his skin, tastehim. Dean's attention is caught as the actress sighs out a little moan, and hishand drifts back to his dick, and instantly Sam imagines it on him—big andcapable, a little rough like Dean can be sometimes when he claps Sam on theshoulder or smacks the back of his head, heavy and warm like he is when theyspar, and Sam's jerking himself for real, now, tension coiling up in the baseof his belly, watching Dean sigh and squeeze himself and melt into the couch, andSam scrunches his eyes closed and imagines, imagines crawling over there and gettingbetween Dean's sprawled-apart legs and shoving their dicks up together, and maybeDean would grin at him again, would say something like want to try something, Sammy? with his voice all slow and lazy, andmaybe, maybe Sam would say shut upand maybe then he'd lean in, and Dean would smile, and Sam would kiss him—

Oh, fuck, that's—Sam jerks, hips surging up in tight littlemotions, coming and spilling all over his boxers, his thighs. He cups his lefthand over so he doesn't mess the couch and his chest heaves with it, his lips bittentight between his teeth with the long habit of keeping absolutely silent. God.His balls pulse and he drops his head back on his shoulders, letting theripples shudder through him. He hasn't come that hard in… ever. He licks hislips, runs his tongue over the teeth-dents, and when he opens his eyes Dean is…

His hand's still cupped loose around his dick, his head slumpedand tipped against the couch back, his eyes closed. His mouth, a little shinystill, parted and loose, his chest rising slow and steady under the blackt-shirt, the amulet he never takes off. Asleep. Sam wipes his hands off on hisboxers, as best he can so his hands aren't totally disgusting, and moves theashtray-plate over to the eggcrate next to the empty beer cans. Finds the remoteand turns the volume way, way down, but leaves the TV on for the light. Somedaylight scene, now, so white spills out into the room, leaves a pool of brightand shadow that highlights Dean's cheekbone, his mouth, the dark of his eyelashes.The fine golden hair on his arm, sparse on his thigh. The pink rounded head ofhis dick. Sam swallows, and reaches out—and closes his hand on empty air, andpulls his fist back to his chest. Puts his hand over his eyes.

There's two blankets on the bed and the heater's workingovertime. He pulls the top one off, the nice one without any stains, and drapesit carefully over Dean's body, covering where he's bare. There's a soft noise, barelya sound at all, and Dean rubs his face gently against the back of the couch,snuggling in. He's going to have corduroy-stripes on his cheek, when he wakes up.Sam stands there and stares at him, for a second, and for no reason at all hiseyes heat up and the room goes blurry. He turns away. Strips off his gross wetboxers and stuffs them deep in the laundry bag, pulls on a fresh-ish pair.Folds himself into the empty bed. He wonders if Dean will remember this—but hesqueezes his eyes shut tight and pushes his face into the pillow and breathesdeep. It doesn't matter. The alarm's set to go off in like five hours, and he'sgot school to get to, in the morning.

[dyketectivecomics]

Hello love. If you're not too swamped with prompts, could you do one with the berserkers? Specifically the troublemakers (rose, klarion, duela) trying to pull off a prank of some sort? ((On who is up to you))

Listen, Rem. I was watching a LOT of The Office recently, so I hope you enjoy some Fresh Takes & reasons behind some Classic Jim Pranks… And a little mix of members playing the Unfortunate Victims…

…

“That’s… bullshit,” Cass accused. “Precognition, super-strength ‘n speed. But you don’t have… telekinesis.”

“Who says Batman keeps perfect files anyways, Bratgirl?” Rose sneered, kicking her feet up on the table before leaning back in her seat. The epitome of nonchalance. “Besides, I never said it was as impressive or obvious as Raven’s. Just that it’s… there. Always has been.”

“If it’s not like Raven’s, then what IS it like then?” Eddie asked, leaning in interest.

“Like I said, little stuff,” Rose shrugged, “Marbles off the coffee table, pushing toys off my bed, rolling pencils on the desk.”

“Bull-shit,” Cass said again with a glare that sent a shiver up the Ravager’s spine, before pointing at the other end of the room. “Move the lamp.”

And here Rose smiled. Something she’d been carefully planning for ages, finally coming to fruition. Ultimately, it was meant to be a test to see if her metahuman predisposition allowed her to work past Cass’ abilities as a human lie detector. And it seemed like it was about to work.

She lifted one hand to her temple, her good eye’s side, while the other was poised to point at the lamp itself.

After less than a half a minute of concentration, the lamp began to sway back and forth, earning gasps from Eddie and Kon, and an extra hard glare from Cass.

After she finally acquiesced on their co-leaders undeniable telekinetic ability, the lamp stopped shaking, and Klarion walked in.

“What’d I miss?” he asked with a sly wink to Rose.

…

Duela smiled innocently up at Cassandra, remembering all too well the series of events that led to this little investigation of hers. The Berserker’s parties were notoriously wild, but had never before included the use of illicit substances.

Underage drinking? More than likely. But no one had dared to bring weed into the base. Or at least, no one had dared to bring it out into the open, and leave it in plain sight.

Rose and Raven could care less over what kind of shenanigans their team members got into, so long as they were sober in time for a mission. Which made the investigation all the more funny to Duela. Because Cass was conducting it on principle, rather than with any actual aim for dispensing justice.

She wanted to put in some detective practice. And Duela was having the time of her life fucking with the Bat.

She’d been just about to tip the scales, by asking her some simple facts about the drug in question, and counter-accusing her of being in possession.

“Marijuana is a memory loss drug,” Duela reasoned, “So how would you remember, if it was yours?”

“That’s… not how it works,” Cass insisted, shaking her head.

“How would you know how it works? Have you tried it?” the clown pressed. She could tell Cass’ patience was wearing thin.

“This is ridiculous. Answer my question-” Impatience. Anger. She had her right where she wanted her.

“No!” Duela yelled, slamming her hand into the table, “You said when I walked in that I’d be conducting the interview! So how much weed did you smoke!?”

The Bat’s jaw dropped as she attempted to stutter out an explanation, a counter-argument. And it took everything Duela had not to burst into a smile right then and there.

…

“What are you writing?” Raven asked as she sipped her morning tea. It wasn’t too unusual for Duela to be up this early in the morning, but it usually meant trouble.

Being so obviously in plain sight of the empath, however, also meant that she wouldn’t mind letting her in on that trouble, and may have been trying to ask for help, in her own crazy, roundabout way.

The clown finished a sentence before glancing up at the empath sipping her tea.

“I’ve gotten really great at mimicking everyone’s handwriting,” she began before setting the pen down, “And every so often, I send Kon messages… from his future self. You wanna know today’s message?”

“I’ll only regret not asking, so sure.”

Duela cleared her throat dramatically before reading her letter in her best impression of Superboy. “Kon, tonight at the party, someone will poison Rose’s drink. Do NOT let her drink anything tonight. ESPECIALLY the lemonade. Sincerely, Future-Kon.”

Raven nodded thoughtfully for a moment before standing from her seat. “I still owe Rose for screwing with my date last week. I’ll drop some hints to Conner that I sense something terrible happening tonight.”

The clown smiled extra wide as she folded up the letter. “Mind slipping this under his door, too? He almost caught me last time.”

…

Two birds, one stone. Such a deliciously simple way to cause chaos and disorder amongst his team members without resorting to outright mayhem. Klarion could only give himself a pat on the back. He’d really outdone himself this time. He leaned back in his seat, a perfect view of the hallway before him.

He grinned in delight as he heard frustrated groans coming from Bunker’s room. Low cursing, paper and books thudding against walls as they were thrown every way imaginable. And finally a voice echoing down the hall.

“WHOEVER THE HELL TOOK MY PENS AND PENCILS AND LEFT CRAYONS. THIS ISN’T FUNNY. I’VE GOT HOMEWORK TO SEND TO MY PROF TOMORROW DAMMIT!”

The door slammed shut and Klarion was left snickering to himself as he used one of Miguel’s pens to stir his tea.

And finally, there came another door slamming open from the hall. Klarion watched with glee as Cassandra bounced silently to Bunker’s room, practically ripping the door open.

Miguel yelled indignantly for only a moment as Cass ran into his room, and ran out just as quickly.

“Wait! Cass, I was using those! Please! I don’t have anything else!”

But it was too late, the girl had locked herself back in her room with the crayons, and Klarion began outright laughing.

He hadn’t expected Cass to be so attached to her art supplies.

Evidently, he’d been wrong.

…

Rose’s eye twitched a moment as Raven cleared the holo-screens to begin her presentation for Plan C.

They’d never get to Plan C, though, if Klarion and Duela wouldn’t stop that incessant clicking of their pens.

It’d been a bunch of simple messages back and forth so far, but now they’d been stuck on switching between different obscenities for the better part of the hour.

“ENOUGH! I’ve heard everything you two have said about us for the past hour, so knock it off!”

“Knock what off?” Duela asked innocently. And Ravenger grew more incensed.

“The morse code! I know you know I know it!”

“Yes Rose, me and Duela spend our limited free time and money learning an outdated mode of communication just so we can have secret chats right in front of you,” Klarion said, rolling his eyes.

Each of the Berserkers glanced at one another, no one saying a word.

There’d be no way to confirm such an accusation, because none of the rest of them knew the language. Sure, Raven was inclined to believe her sister. And Cass could tell from Duela’s demeanor that she was hiding the truth, and from how consistent their clicking was, that it fell perfectly in line with a pattern. The rest of the Berserkers however, had waited till well after the meeting to ask them in their own time.

Always something to the variation of, “So… do you?”

And always answered with a resounding, “Yep, that’s exactly what we did.”

And on that day, the team truly learned to never underestimate the duo, and to fear how quickly they had turned on their once great prank partner.

Or maybe, it’d been a hint at a greater conspiracy shared between the three of the Berserker’s resident pranksters.

There never was a way to tell…

[duallygirl178]

Dearest O'Malley Chapter 1

Chapter 1

My name is O'Malley C. Malibu and I was born in August 28, 1967. I live with one old woman and her abusive husband in New Mexico. I am a Chevrolet Chevelle Malibu and I’m pretty rare of my kind too. My favorite music is rock n' roll and the oldies from 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80, and 90s and when I had a plug in boom box, I’d listen to KOOL 104.5 FM or whenever I could. I'd like to tell you a little about my childhood back-story. After living in Texas and already moved in to Farmington New Mexico, I met two friends; a mid 1960s (a 1963 or 1964) Lincoln Continental 2 door and the other was a 1963 Chevrolet impala. Their names were Gonzo and Impa. We had all the same things in common; music, games, TV shows, sports, activities, hobbies, movies, and books. Our female interests were a bit different, but we were the three best friends that anyone ever saw. If we felt like hanging out, the three if us get together at the diner first. Then we'd go moon shining...not the alcohol moon shining, but the game where you turn off your headlights while being chased by police at night and just rip it up in the woods. We never got caught and that was the fun of it. The three of us grew up, lived close by, and hung out together. We couldn't be separated as we aged. We were a little younger when we met such as Impa was 4 years younger than I was. He liked to get into trouble a lot, break out and be noisy when he got just a little too much. He was an adult, but he dated different females every day of the week. He pretty much was big playboy. Gonzo was 3 years younger than me and he loved to listen to big jazz bands and rock n' roll songs. He was kind of a dork. He was a bit of a smart axle towards women. If he saw a female he wanted, he'd get her to do whatever he said or do that he can use. If a car was in a spot he wanted, he'd brush him or her aside with his rear and say "Scoot over little buster" or he'd say "Move it little buddy" and he'd steal their spot in which they were parked in. He was a rare smoker and only smoked cigars or cigarettes every other occasion like when the moon shined or one of our birthdays were coming up. Sometimes, we’d encounter a supernatural thing every once in a while; like a poltergeist here or shadow people there or even extraterrestrial somewhere. we'd run away laughing when an alien would chase us as if we were some kind of UFO hunter group and that's when Gonzo would smoke his cigars.. There were times when went thought we were UFO hunters and even acted like it even though we were messing around and goofing off. We'd moonshine every 3 years because it was beginning to be a habit but we sure made memories that were never let go.

Then in the year 1969, we were mature enough to date females in the summer until September. That was the season for love and settling down. Gonzo picked up two females; one of them was from a gas station and the other from a grocery store. I met a female Impala that found me at a diner, just staring at me. She had started a conversation and soon it grew into a relationship. It didn't take me long to realize I was an Impala guy and learning that her name was Matilda was very interesting. We began dating and spending some quality time in the romance with her. Impa went out and had met some Thunderbird that seemed nice, but had a mean streak in her gears and if she was taken, advantage of or angered, she could get to being as mean as Judge Judith Shienman. She had good judgment and she kept Impa in line. We still hung out the next day of doing this or that last night and we did whatever Impa and Gonzo wanted to do. When we weren’t doing any activities in romance, we’d smuggle reefer, take it to the woods and smoke it to celebrate our friendship as three best friends for kicks. We were laughing back and forth to one another and roasting each other verbally in a caring way, when we heard some twigs snapping behind us. Someone or something was watching us. We turned on our lights and looked, but we didn’t see anything or notice anything because we were high and freaking out. We started murmuring to each other on what or who it would have been. Impa looked like an infant who just wet his diaper because he was the one freaking out the most. We looked behind bushes and trees and still nothing there. Whatever it was, it was gone for the moment.

As soon as we calmed down, we smoked another joint to relax with. Just as we started to have a continued conversation, something appeared from the bushes. We got a good look at it. It was 3 meters tall, two almond shaped eyes and had four fingers on both sides of its hands. We couldn’t see the feet but it wore this rubber one-piece suit that was black. We all ran as it chased us. I was terrified stiff. We ran in separate ways and when we reached the road, we knew it was a highway. I almost bumped into Gonzo when I sighted him. We both were scared until the oil-drained cold. We asked each other on what that thing was. Our minds focused on that entity chasing us. Then, we realized in our argument, Impa was missing. We went back to the woods to look for him. We called Impa’s name, looked and looked and called again, but he didn’t respond. We began to get panicky! We tried retracing our steps on where we went, which way we had gone, and where we’ve been. We called again for the final time. The alien was gone. Impa was gone. Gonzo was usually really, really calm, but this time, he lost it. He screamed out to see if Impa would hear. He was freaking out. I told him to get a hold of himself and suggested we’d go get the sheriff, state police, woodlands ranger and see what they could do. So when we got all the help we could contact, after we had explained that our friend was missing and we were scared. They searched everywhere, by helicopter to tread. They looked deep and well for Impa b7t they had no luck. We both got interviewed by the news about the situation and tried to stay calm. We didn’t mention anything about the marijuana or else Gonzo and I would be in trouble or worse. We stayed out there in the woods for days and weeks, but Impa was never found. They allowed us to go home and let us know if they found him. Gonzo stayed over that night at my garage. We couldn’t get the frightening image out of our memories. I tried to make us feel better in any way I knew, but we couldn’t settle down. This month, would surly mess us up. Gonzo fussed that it was his fault when he didn’t know Impa was going to go missing. I told him he didn’t know or couldn’t predict that. It wasn’t anyone’s fault because it wasn’t planned. I advised that we better turn on the radio while we passed the time…something to relax by to keep the fear away on what we saw. Gonzo thought it was a good idea to go to a dance and pick up a few ladies to dance with. There was a dance going on at the Elk’s Lodge restaurant. Little Richard was performing tonight and who knew, maybe this would be my last activity before any of us moved away. That way we could forget about the incident. Therefore, that was exactly what we did. We went to the Elk’s lodge for the dance. There was a lot of people tonight and we got to have a backstage pass to get inside while the music poured out of the walls and windows.

We grooved until midnight and now that everything was slowing down, we left early since it was the last song of the dance. I was getting tired myself and barely had enough energy to get a late night car wash. When I came home, I settled right down along with Gonzo. We talked about how much fun we had at the jive and we bragged that we got to dance with a charming female until we fell asleep. It was very late and I hadn’t heard any clues of the disappearance of Impa. Then right around 8 A.M the next day, police arrived with some news about what they found. They hadn’t found Impa, but they only gave me a simple “Chevrolet” Decal keychain that they picked up that was from Impa. They had given up the search. I sighed sadly and told them they could be on their way. I got a last question that was I ever gong to be okay? Of course, as I assured them that I would be alright, just to avoid deeper conversation, I wondered where Impa went to. I hoed the alien didn’t get him. I went out, got together with Gonzo, tried to act like everything was the same, but something was missing. It was Impa… He’d know just how to kick off a conversation. Without him, who must I know to add to our group to make three of the best friends? We tried introducing ourselves to others. We tried VW busses, VW bugs, wagons, and VW Golf’s but they turned out to be hippies and crack heads. We tried everything but there was one last chance to try and we had to take it for the hope to better ourselves. I asked in offer to this huge 1965 Pontiac Bonneville fellow who was by his lonesome. He turned towards us and smiled with a short reply of “I’d be honored, been all by myself since the mistress died.” and as that, the conversation was up and running again only tales of his history. He first introduced himself as “Dean Longsknight“” He was a nice fellow, but also big. He had a deep wise southern voice that was just as soft as honey. If it was all we had to work with, then we worked with it.

A month later, my sister and three of my brothers came by to see me on how I was holding up with my owner’s husband kicking me and beating bruises into me. I told them it wasn’t the lady’s husband I was worried about. When I explained when Impa disappeared, they were shocked. I had asked for help but it was no use. Impa was gone forever. It appeared my cousins were with my siblings. They were too shocked by the tale I had told. I heard of people disappearing and I know what I do when I got nervous. Thinking wherever Impa went to or what happened to him must have been terrible. I just hoped nothing bad happened to him and I said the exact thing to my cousins with meaning. I wanted Impa back but hoping wasn’t going to bring him back. All I had left of him was his keychain as a reminder of the crumbs the police had found that one day. The day the police gave up the search for Impa. My friend, Impa was never heard from again.

[fullspectrum-cbd-oil]

Trump’s Campaign Mocks 2020 Dems as the Contenders ‘Pit Democrats Against Each Other’ During Debate

There was no shortage of clashes during Wednesday night’s second Democratic presidential debate — and apparently, President Donald Trump and his re-election campaign were enjoying it.

During Wednesday’s debate, Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) suggested, “The person that’s enjoying this debate the most right now is Donald Trump, as we pit Democrats against each other,” adding, “while he is working right now to take away Americans’ health care.”

Trump’s 2020 re-election campaign Director of Communications Tim Murtaugh responded that Booker’s statement about the president “enjoying” the debate “the most” was “true.”

“Fact Check: TRUE,” Murtaugh tweeted in response.

See Booker’s comment below:

  When it came to immigration, health care, or their past stance on different issues, several 2020 Democrats went after one another during Wednesday’s debate.

Harris vs. Biden

To start things off, former Vice President Joe Biden (D) asked Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) to “go easy on me, kid,” during the debate introductions.

This led to Harris referring to Biden as “senator” during the debate — Biden was a senator before his role as vice president. She brushed off being labeled “kid” in an interview with CNN’s Anderson Cooper after the debate.

“I didn’t really think much about it to be honest with you,” Harris said. “We’re both on that stage running for president … so nobody’s going to define me on that stage.”

The two Democratic presidential candidates were at it multiple times during the debate, including when Biden took a swing at Harris’ health care plan, claiming it wouldn’t increase taxes on the middle-class or eliminate private health insurance. “You can’t beat President Trump with double-talk on this plan,” said Biden.

She then knocked him for being “simply inaccurate.”

Watch the exchange below:

We're one question in and Harris and Biden are right back at it. #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/V2xxWZki7K

— IJR (@TheIJR) August 1, 2019

Harris vs. Gabbard

Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) clashed with Harris during the debate when the Hawaii representative took aim at Harris’ criminal justice record.

Harris had flipped on marijuana prosecution — which Gabbard pointed to a radio show interview where Harris said that she smoked marijuana in college and now wants to legalize marijuana at the federal level.

“Senator Harris says she’s proud of her record as a prosecutor and that she’ll be a prosecutor president, but I’m deeply concerned about this record,” Gabbard said. “There are too many examples to cite, but she put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana.”

Harris pushed back: “I did the work of significantly reforming the criminal justice system of a state of 40 million people, which became a national model for the work that needs to be done. And I am proud of that work.”

However, Harris didn’t seem too worried about Gabbard’s barb, as she told CNN after the debate that she’s a “top tier candidate” and Gabbard is “at zero, 1%, whatever she might be at.”

“I can only take what she says and her opinion so seriously,” she said. “I’m prepared to move on.”

Watch the video below:

Gabbard slams Harris's record as a prosecutor: "She put over 1,500 people in jail for marijuana violations and then laughed about it when she was asked if she ever smoked marijuana." #DemDebate pic.twitter.com/L9mPxylRXp

— IJR (@TheIJR) August 1, 2019

Gillibrand vs. Biden

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D) brought up an op-ed titled “Congress Is Subsidizing Deterioration of Family,” written by Biden in 1981, during the debate, as Gillibrand’s 2020 Communications Director posted a photo of it on Twitter.

Asked about equal pay and mothers joining the workforce during the debate, Gillibrand said:

“I want to address Vice President Biden directly. When the Senate was debating middle class affordability for child care, he wrote an op-ed. He voted against it, the only vote. He wrote an op-ed that he believed that women working outside the home would ‘create the deterioration of family.’ He also said that women who were working outside the home were ‘avoiding responsibility.'”

See the op-ed post below:

.@JoeBiden op-ed in 1981: Expanding the childcare tax credit and allowing more women to work would subsidize "the deterioration of the family."

Those are his words. He should explain to America: How does a mom working lead to the deterioration of the family? pic.twitter.com/RADnzTbofx

— Meredith Kelly (@meredithk27) August 1, 2019

Biden also received hits from Booker and New York City mayor Bill de Blasio during the debate, in which the two teamed up to blast the former vice president’s migrant deportation record.

“I guarantee you if you’re debating Donald Trump he’s not going to let you off the hook,” de Blasio said. Booker later said, “You can’t have it both ways. You invoke President Obama more than anybody in this campaign. You can’t do it when it’s convenient and dodge it when it’s not.”

from IJR https://ift.tt/2YDTSja via IFTTT

[gigglesndimples]

Joy Inside My Tears: The Greening of Kamala Harris

Senate Judiciary Committee member Kamala Harris

During a February 11  appearance on New York City morning radio show, The Breakfast Club, Senator Kamala Harris admitted smoking marijuana in college and said that she supports its legalization.

Even these days, when a serving member of the U.S. Senate says something like that, it’s news. But Senator Harris’s announcement on January 21 that she’s running for the Democratic presidential nomination in the 2020 general election makes her statements all the more significant.

At the 34th minute of the interview (watch below), DJ Envy commented: “They say you opposed legalizing weed.”

“That’s not true,” Harris replied stiffly, then lightened up. “Half my family’s from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”

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Harris’ father Donald is from Jamaican. He came to the U.S. in 1961 to attend the University of California at Berkeley. Her mother, Shyamala, was from India.

Then she launched into a long caveat about pot: “I have had concerns. I believe we need to legalize marijuana and we need to move it on a schedule so we can research the impact weed has on a developing brain. That part of the brain that develops judgment actually begins its growth at ages 18 to 24.”

“The frontal cortex,” Envy offered.

“That’s exactly right,” Harris replied and continued: “We’ve got to take that seriously. I believe we need to research that because I don’t think we really know the consequences.

“The other issue that we’ve got to address is how are we going to measure impairment when somebody has been smoking weed, in terms of driving. You know, these are details that some people may not want to hear me talk about, but look, I started my work when Mothers Against Drunk Driving were active because so many young people were being killed because of people who were driving under the influence. So, it’s a real issue.”

Harris: “Half my family’s from Jamaica. Are you kidding me?”

Harris was a career prosecutor before she won the race for Barbara Boxer’s open Senate seat in California in 2016. Her resume includes stints as the attorney general of California (2011-2016) and District Attorney of San Francisco (2004-2010).

“This is my background and this is how I think about things and that’s just the fact,” she went on. “When somebody is driving a car, it can be a lethal weapon in the hands of somebody who’s impaired. So that needs to be addressed also. But I’m absolutely in favor of legalizing marijuana. We have incarcerated so many, particularly young men of color in a way that we have not put the same level of use by other young men.

“We’ve got to deal with that in addition to dealing with the fact that not all drugs are the same. I have forever been an advocate for medicinal marijuana. I have personally known people who only benefitted from it. So, there are a lot of reason why we need to legalize it.”

DJ Envy Pops the Big Question

Not to be deterred, Envy moved in for the kill: “Have you ever smoked?”

“I have,” she admitted without hesitation. “And I inhaled. I did inhale. It was a long time ago. I just broke news.” Harris laughed and cackled wildly throughout the answer.

“I like stuff like that,” Envy said. “It’s a real honest answer.”

“Blunt or joint?” Envy’s partner Charlemagne the God jumped in.

“It was a joint,” she casually answered

“Do you remember the high?” Envy probed deeper.

“I do,” Harris sad dreamily. “Listen, I think it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy in the world.”

Here’s where the interview became confusing.

“What does Kamala Harris listen to?” Charlemagne the God asked. Without waiting for her answer, Envy chimed in: “What was you listening to when you were high?”

Harris’ answer caused a bigger controversy than her cannabis confession. “Oh, my goodness,” she said excitedly. “Definitely Snoop and Tupac. For sure, for sure.”

“What’s your favorite hip-hop artist now?” Charlemagne the God followed

“I love Cardi B.,” Harris extolled. “I think she’s so fantastic.”

Right after the interview went viral and hit the headlines and news channels, many questioned Harris’s music and weed timeline. She attended Howard University in Washington, DC from 1982-1986 and UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco from 1987-1989. Clearly, Snoop Dogg and Tupac were not professionally rapping yet while Harris went to college or grad school. Snoop’s debut album Doggystyle came out in 1993, two years after Tupac’s 2Pacalyse Now. Was she confused by the back-to-back questions? Perhaps, but Envy never got the answer he was looking for.

Maybe the music she was listening to back in her undergraduate days was go-go – DC funk groups like Trouble Funk and Chuck Brown and the Soul Searchers – and not rap. Or more likely, Harris was into reggae.

Harris Begins Her Career a Prosecutor

Kamala Harris with Willie Brown in April 1995 when she was a deputy district attorney (AP photo by Ben Margot).

After graduating from UC Hastings, Harris became deputy district attorney for Alameda County, a job she held from 1990-1998. For people unfamiliar with California geography, Oakland is the Alameda County seat. Harris was born in Oakland and raised in Montreal after her parents divorced.

During her years in Alameda, the county consistently ranked in the Top 10 for drug arrests in the state. Nearly 150,000 drug arrests were made in the country over that 10-year span.

During her climb up the political ladder, former Speaker of the California State Assembly (1980-1995) and former mayor of San Francisco (1996-2003) Willie Brown was a political and professional mentor to Harris. In fact, they dated from 1995-1996, despite him being twice her age and still married to, but estranged from his wife Blanche. (They never divorced.)

Harris: “I have forever been an advocate for medicinal marijuana. I have personally known people who only benefitted from it.” 

Brown did numerous favors for Harris, such as appoint her to the California Medical Assistance Commission and the Unemployment Insurance Appeals Board. According to the Los Angeles Times, the part-time positions “supplemented her prosecutor’s salary with nearly $100,000 in extra annual pay.”

Brown admitted as much in a mea culpa article in the San Francisco Chronicle on January 26 titled, “Sure, I dated Kamala Harris, So what?”

“It was more than 20 years ago,” he wrote. “Yes, I may have influenced her career by appointing her to two state commissions when I was Assembly speaker. And I certainly helped with her first race for district attorney in San Francisco.”

That race was against Terence Hallinan, the liberal San Francisco DA from 1996-2003 who’d hired Harris in 1998 to run the office’s career criminal unit. After two years there, she moved over to the City Attorney’s office. In 2003, Harris defeated her former boss, Hallinan, to become San Francisco’s first black female district attorney. She was seen as supportive of the medical cannabis community during her two terms in City Hall.

Harris bolted for the statehouse in Sacramento and the opportunity to become California’s first black female attorney general in 2010. With the backing of Rep. Nancy Pelosi and Senators Dianne Feinstein and Boxer, Harris knocked off Los Angeles County DA Steve Cooley.

When Harris Said No to Legalization

It was also the year Prop 19, the Regulate, Control & Tax Cannabis Act, was on the ballot. Here’s where Harris gets into trouble when she says she never opposed marijuana legalization.

Refusing to support Prop 19, she called the ballot initiative “flawed public policy.” Her campaign manager Brian Brokaw further explained Harris’ position on pot: “Spending two decades in court rooms, [she] believes that drug selling harms communities. [She] supports the legal use of medicinal marijuana, but does not support anything beyond that.”

Harris received the following critique from Drug Policy Forum of California in its 2014 general election guide when she was running for a second term as AG:

“In the last election, incumbent Democrat Kamala Harris barely edged out Los Angeles DA Steve Cooley in no small part due to strong support from the medical cannabis community, which Harris had supported as DA of San Francisco. Since moving to Sacramento, however, Harris has been notably unhelpful on cannabis issues. doing nothing to challenge federal scheduling or the DOJ crackdown on California’s dispensaries. At one point Harris’ office quietly proposed a badly conceived update to the Attorney General’s guidelines on cannabis collectives, which was thankfully dropped.”

Refusing to support Prop 19, she called the ballot initiative “flawed public policy.”

She won re-election against Ronald Gold by 15 points that November.

In 2015, Harris set her sights on the Nation’s Capital and a job in Congress. Boxer’s Senate seat was going to be open and she decided to go for it.

The Drug Policy Forum of California weighed in again on Harris’ record as AG in its 2016 primary election guide:

“As A.G., [Harris] did disappointingly little on behalf of medical marijuana, rebuffing requests to join other states in filing a rescheduling petition with the federal government. More seriously, Harris failed to speak up against the federal crackdown on dispensaries in California, despite the fact that as former District Attorney of San Francisco she should have known that the city’s dispensaries were working well and the federal charges against them were bogus.

“Running for re-election, Harris waved off a question about legalization with a laugh, but later said she is ‘not opposed’ to it and even sees it as ‘inevitable.’ Speaking recently at the Democratic convention, Harris called the War on Drugs ‘a failure” and called for ending the federal ban on medical marijuana.’”

Also on the 2016 ballot was Prop 64, the Adult Use of Marijuana Act. Harris didn’t endorse the initiative, but also didn’t oppose it. “There is a whole concern about how we would detect to determine impairment for the purposes of legal or illegal driving,” she said at the time, which she repeated for “The Breakfast Club” interview. “Those are real details and I take seriously when weighing in on a subject such as (this) that we have thought through the details.”

Senator Harris Goes to Washington

Sen. Harris with Sen. Corey Booker looking on at the Capitol.

She won the primary and then the general election November by a 40-point landslide over her Republican opponent, Rep. Loretta Sanchez. Prop 64 also passed with 57% of the vote with no help from Harris.

But now that she’s a senator, Harris has changed her tune. She was one of only six co-sponsors of Senator Cory Booker’s Marijuana Justice Act, the best and most far-reaching of the federal legislation that’s been introduced. Her co-sponsorship signals she is actually committed to adult-use legalization.

Harris serves on four powerful Senate committees: Judiciary, Homeland Security and Governmental Affair, the Budget and the Select Committee on Intelligence. As a member of the Judiciary Committee, she ratted Brett Kavanaugh with tough questioning and voted against his nomination as an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court.

She also voted against President Trump’s first nominee for Attorney General, Jefferson Beauregard Sessions III, who noted that Harris’ inquiries were making him “nervous,” and Sessions’ replacement, William Pelham Barr. According to Politifact, “California Sen. Kamala Harris challenged President Trump’s choice to be Attorney General on whether building a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border would really stop or reduce drug trafficking.”

Senator Harris on weed: “I think it gives a lot of people joy and we need more joy in the world.”

Harris was one of only three members of Judiciary Committee who opposed the nomination of the utterly unqualified James Carroll as the new administrator of the Office of National Drug Control Policy. The others were Senators Cory Booker and Maizie Hirono.

“We’re happy California’s Senator Harris has evolved on the marijuana legalization issue and hope to dialog with her and her staff as her campaign moves forward,” says California NORML deputy director Ellen Komp. “But calling for more research is a bit of a dodge. There have been tens of thousands of studies on marijuana’s effects, going back to the 1970s and even earlier.”

Here are some questions “The Breakfast Club” crew didn’t ask: Does Harris support the right to grow at home? Does she believe that people should not be subject to termination of employment just because they test positive for marijuana use? Should marijuana-related convictions be automatically expunged post-legalization, rather than forcing people to go through an application process?

Those questions aren’t just for Kamala Harris. They’re for every candidate – local, state, and national. Legalization is no longer an “if,” it’s a when, so people need to ask candidates about what concerns them. Candidate Harris appears to be up to the task.

Related Articles

The Importance of Corey Booker

An Apology from Joe Biden About His Drug War Sins Would Be Nice

William Barr: Bush League Choice for Attorney General

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[getlo]

So uhm...I wrote a thing...

“Loren, I decided I’m not coming to Chicago anymore HAHAHAHAHAHAH. Do you think I’m joking?! I’M JOKING!!!” He laughed and laughed, teasing me as he was boarding the plane. I told him it was obvious that he was joking because he couldn’t stop himself from laughing.

Have a safe flight, I told him.

I’ll see you soon.

Love you.

It was my birthday present. I had recently moved back to the States after living in South Korea for two years, and we had discussed seeing each other for my birthday. He wanted it to be the best birthday I had ever had, and I was excited to introduce him to everyone important to me. His plane had landed and minutes ticked by as people filed out from customs and immigration. Minutes turned into hours, and less and less people were waiting for loved ones. I started asking airport security about how to know if my person was still going through immigration.

Four hours later, he still hadn’t come through.

Four hours later, and finally another person on his flight told me that he was pulled aside for secondary screening. They had torn apart his stuff, were asking him very difficult questions, “but he’s back there,” they reassured me.

We had met how most people meet their best friends - on Tinder. Well...we didn’t really intend to become best friends, it just ended up that way. He probably won’t admit to this, but he was more of the pursuer than I was. I have to admit though, his persistence paid off and I eventually gave him the time of day.

Next thing I knew, I was flying to Japan to meet him. Since I lived in Seoul at the time, this wasn’t that big of a deal. We had a great time together, and I found myself sadder than I expected to go home, especially since we didn’t know when we would see each other again.

A few months passed and he came to stay with me in Korea for a little bit. We had a bit of a tough time of it, and looking back, I can fully admit that we had done some things backwards. Word of the wise - it’s probably not a good idea to have someone live with you when you’re still getting to know them. After a tumultuous month together, Yuhey left to go travel the world. Something that he had saved up for and something that attracted me to him. I loved the fact that he had been places I could only imagine of going to. He was frugal to a fault with his money, which allowed him to see the world.

First he went to Canada, then Hawaii, back to Canada, New York, and then finally Mexico. I remember him calling me when he first woke up in Canada. “What am I doing here, Loren?” he asked me. “I shouldn’t have left Korea.” I thought back to his last night in Korea and about how I told him that he didn’t have to leave if he didn’t want to. “Don’t tempt me” was his response.

During that time, we had a bit of a falling out. We didn’t speak for almost 2 months, and I resigned myself to not having him in my life anymore. I knew at that time he was seeing someone else and he didn’t really want to tell me about it. At first it didn’t bother me much, he would still call and text whenever something big was happening, when he needed emotional support. It eventually became too difficult for him to juggle, and I accepted that, and attempted to move on with my life. I stopped sleeping with his hoodie, I made new friends, started going out more. Then one day, he called me. It was Valentine’s Day.

To this day, he still denies saying this, brushing it off with a “must’ve been emotionally distressed,” but while we chatted and joked and caught up on that Valentine’s Day phone call, he ended our conversation with “I just couldn’t imagine going to sleep without saying Happy Valentine’s Day to the person I love most in this world.” I know what you’re thinking, and trust me, I am not a romantic either. From then on, we started our friendship back up, and it wasn’t always easy. Old wounds, old trauma dies very very hard, and as someone with anxiety, it is especially difficult to let go of those ruminating thoughts.

He had eventually broken up with the person he was seeing, and it was a bit of a difficult process. They had had a huge falling out, and she was very bitter. He would call me and ask about things, try to talk about them without giving all of the information, even though I already knew it. He called her a friend, referred to her as a man, so as to spare my feelings. Finally, when he knew that he wasn’t getting the full emotional support he needed, his brother talked some sense into him.

“Is Loren your friend, or is she your girlfriend? If she is just a friend, then you can tell her everything, and it wouldn’t matter,” his brother told him.

“Yes, but I’m afraid of losing her,” replied Yuhey.

“If she was just a friend, there wouldn’t be this chance of losing her. What is she to you?”

From that conversation, we had our own very difficult, relationship changing conversation. We were still friends at the end of it, but all of the crap was pulled out into the light. We decided that day that we should see each other for my birthday, I was coming back to the states anyway and he was still in Mexico. We wanted to spend all important days together from then on out, and that’s exactly what we intended to do, what could go wrong?

My mom’s best friend’s youngest daughter, who is more like a sister to me, and I sat in the airport waiting for over 4 hours. After repeatedly being told that they didn’t have any information about Yuhey by the officers in Customs and Immigration (even though I was his emergency contact), I accepted that nothing could be done at 4 in the morning, and took my friend home. She needed to sleep and it wasn’t her responsibility to wait with me. I returned roughly an hour and a half later.

The airport was busier than when I had left it, but still no one would answer my questions, no one would answer the phone. I finally stopped an immigration officer and asked him for some help. I was as polite as possible, especially since I was going on being awake for over 24 hours, explained the situation, and asked what I could do.

His response:

“Are you even sure your boyfriend got on that plane?”

It was like a slap in the face. Calling Yuhey my boyfriend was easy, our relationship was full of blurred lines and it confuses even my family, but to question his determination to get to me? Now that was uncalled for. I reassured the officer that he had in fact gotten on the plane, he had called me when he was boarding. The officer told me that there was nothing he could do to help me, nothing he could even tell me. The look in his eyes felt full of judgement, and I was more confused and frustrated than ever.

I called one of my cousins, one who had been like a best friend my whole life. I explained to her everything that was going on, frustrated and exhausted with the lack of information I was being given. She got off the phone with me, promised to call right back, and called immigration services. Where I was presented with endless voice recordings, she started pressing buttons until finally someone answered. While she posed as me, the person working at immigration told her that Yuhey had been denied entry and was being sent “back to where he came from.” No additional information. No why, no where. Sent back? To Mexico or Japan? Denied? He had never even had a single run-in with law enforcement.

Devastated, I left the airport, exhausted and confused. My cousin stayed on the phone with me until I got to my friend’s house. Yuhey was constantly on my mind. I needed to see him, talk to him, make sure he was okay. I knew what they were doing to him, I knew he was alone, and afraid. Yuhey had been a troublemaker growing up, dumb kid stuff, and he could be a difficult person at times, but his heart is often in the right place. He is the type of person who wouldn’t think twice about helping someone carry heavy luggage up a flight of stairs after countless people had already passed them by, who strikes up conversations with people even if he doesn’t speak their language very well. It broke my heart to know that he was alone during this time, unsure of what would happen to him.

Roughly 8 hours later, my phone started ringing. “Yuhey?! Are you okay?! Where are you?! What happened?!” I asked in panicked tones.

“Loren, I’m sorry, I’m so so sorry,” he replied. He felt as if he had ruined my birthday, I felt as if it was my fault this had all happened.

As the story began to unfold, I was to learn that he was denied entry because of old text messages they found in his cell phone. I couldn’t even believe that they would go through his cell phone. In the texts, he had discussed smoking marijuana with his ex-girlfriend. The texts were from months ago. He admitted to having smoked marijuana, his thinking was that if he was honest and told the officer what he wanted to hear, he would be let go, he would see me and everything would be alright.

But everything was not alright. They denied him entry and revoked his ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) waiver. He was confused, the interview took place in English, and while Yuhey surprises most people with his English skills, it is still not his native language. Yuhey had never been in trouble before, he didn’t know what they were going to do, he didn’t understand why they kept asking him the same question in different ways in an attempt to trip him up. The only problem was that there was nothing to trip him up on - he was being completely honest and compliant.

I read through the transcripts of the interview that he sent me. The officer left no stone unturned, asked about me, my family, where I lived, what I did for a living. They asked Yuhey about his finances, people he had spent time with, his purpose behind traveling.

“How have you been supporting yourself for 1 year on $7000?”

“I have been trying to save my money by not wasting it.”

“So you expect me to believe that you supported yourself for almost a whole year on $7000 traveling to several different countries. Is this correct?”

“Yes.”

All I could think was dear lord, if they spent 5 minutes with the man trying to find a decent restaurant, they would never question how he saves money. I can’t count the number of times Yuhey has pulled me from a restaurant after seeing the prices on the menu. It’s just a part of who he is, we always say that we balance each other out - he’s more cautious with his money and I am more generous.

Question 3 of the Eligibility section of the ESTA application states “Have you ever violated any law related to possessing, using, or distributing illegal drugs?” This is what they used against him to deny him entry based off of his old text messages. While yes, he did admit to it, the last time I checked America doesn’t prosecute people on past petty misdemeanors that wouldn’t even land them jail time. Not to mention the fact that at the time of filling out his ESTA application, he had not yet violated any crime. Yes, marijuana is a schedule 1 controlled substance which is federally illegal, but one wonders what would have happened if he had flown into a state where personal marijuana consumption is legal?  

“They treated me like a criminal Loren. I was so scared.”

My heart broke every time he said those words to me. I felt embarrassed to live in and be from a country where they do this to people just trying to visit. I flew down to Mexico City to figure out what had to be done next. We filed paperwork, applied for a DS-160 B2 Visitor’s Visa, called the Embassy a million times only to find people who were unwilling to help us. His application for a DS-160 Visa was denied at the interview based off of his ESTA revocation. I called lawyers, asked for legal advice, and all I could get was “apply again, bring a certified drug screening.”

So here we sit, and we wait for his next upcoming appointment. I think about all the songs I know that reference drug usage, see the pictures that people post online about how high they are. I truly wonder, can someone really be treated like this because of a few text messages discussing something that is getting legalized more and more with each passing day?

[junker-town]

So you think you know Randy Moss

According to coaches, opponents, and former teammates, the first-ballot Hall of Famer deserves only one label: The NFL’s best receiver.

Randy Moss stood behind a podium at the Minnesota Vikings’ Winter Park practice facility on June 14, 2017, after being elected to the team’s Ring of Honor, and did something he was reluctant to do during his career: He helped shape the narrative around him.

After making a statement, Moss opened up questions to reporters, including Sid Hartman, a longtime Minneapolis Star-Tribune columnist who had published the quote that hounded Moss — branding him a “diva” and a “distraction” — since it was put into the universe in 2001:

“I play when I want to play. Do I play up to my top performance, my ability every time? Maybe not. I just keep doing what I do and that is playing football. When I make my mind up, I am going out there to tear somebody’s head off. When I go out there and play football, man, it’s not anybody telling me to play or how I should play. I play when I want to play.”

Hartman, of course, asked Moss to revisit that moment.

“As you mature, you grow, and I think I should have spoke about what I really meant,” Moss replied. “To some it might have been arrogance. To me, I was just focused. Tunnel vision, man.”

Moss, 40, was in a different place at this point in his life. He was a member of the media — an ESPN contributor — with college-aged children, and it had been more than four years since he wrapped up a career as one of the best wide receivers in NFL history. Perhaps time and distance gave him perspective. But a clarification 16 years later is notable.

Over the course of his football life, even all the way back to high school, Moss was reluctant to speak to media, often leaving his actions open to someone else’s interpretation. Given the smallest opportunity, media and fans would seize on those moments to put him in a box: arrogant, selfish, trouble.

And Moss gave them plenty of opportunities. As a prep senior and Notre Dame commit in 1995, Moss was arrested for his involvement in a fight at DuPont High School (West Virginia). Moss said he stomped on the neck of a white student who wrote “All niggers must die” on a desk where a black student sat. The white student was hospitalized with injuries to his spleen, liver, and kidney, and suffered a concussion. Moss pleaded guilty on Aug. 1, 1995, to misdemeanor battery. Notre Dame chose to deny his admission, so he went to Florida State, then Marshall after violating his probation by smoking marijuana.

“To some it might have been arrogance. To me, I was just focused. Tunnel vision, man. I always wanted to play the game of football.” - Randy Moss

As a professional, Moss bumped a traffic control officer with his car, pretended to moon fans in Green Bay, left a game with two seconds left on the clock in Washington, admitted to using marijuana once “every blue moon” during his NFL career, and faced domestic abuse allegations that were later recanted.

But Moss’ admission that he should have tried to clarify “I play when I want to play” confirmed something that his former Minnesota teammate Matt Birk long suspected: “[Moss] just kind of felt like a lot of people already made up their mind about him.”

“Everything is not said, and the truth is not always told,” Moss said to press during his Super Bowl with the 49ers. “I grew up just respecting myself, I do respect other people, but when it comes to the pen and pad that you guys are writing on right now, man, it’s just — I mean you got a job to do, and you got papers to sell.”

From his perspective, the only message worth delivering was about the game. “I always wanted to play the game of football,” Moss replied to Hartman from the podium. “Something I grew up loving to do as a kid. Some people like to play with their cars, some girls like to play with their doll babies. Ever since I was 6 years old, I loved the game of football, man.”

And his football story is well known. He had the most receiving touchdowns in a rookie season (17) and the most receiving touchdowns in any season (23). He was a six-time Pro Bowler, a four-time first team All-Pro, and is fourth all-time in career receiving yards with 15,292. A 2018 first-ballot Hall of Fame inductee. But if that’s all we can say about Moss for certain, that leaves a lot of unanswered questions about one of NFL history’s most enigmatic players. Who, really, was Randy Moss?

Moss did not respond to requests to talk to SB Nation for this story, but many of his former teammates, coaches, and opponents did. According to those who knew him almost as well as anyone can, the truth about Moss is that he was so much more than his headlines.

”I’ve seen him at his best, and I’ve seen him at his worst — that’s kind of how we all are, isn’t it?” Birk says. “We don’t want to be judged by the worst five minutes of our life, and we probably don’t deserve to be judged by the best five minutes either.”

The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images

Randy Moss alone on the sideline during his rookie season.

TO LOOK AT the 1998 NFL Draft is to see how reputation directly influenced Randy Moss’ early career.

Even though Moss avoided trouble at Marshall, his high school arrest and positive marijuana test at Florida State spooked teams enough to potentially pass on him. But the morning of the draft, with the Vikings holding the No. 21 overall pick, head coach Dennis Green approached his then-offensive coordinator Brian Billick and said, “I think we’re going to get Randy Moss.”

Bililck thought Green was out of his mind. “I had done my homework on Moss. I’ll say it wasn’t as detailed because I figured there’s no way this guy’s going to fall to us, and we weren’t a team to necessarily trade up.”

But Moss fell, and the hype in Minnesota ramped up immediately. Moss’ former Vikings teammate Cris Carter used to run an offseason workout camp in Ft. Lauderdale, where Moss trained after being selected.

“I remember Cris calling me and saying, ‘Brian, you have no idea how good this kid is,’” Billick says. “I go, ‘Yeah, Cris, I know. I looked at his film, we’re going to use this, we can do that, it’s going to be great.’ He goes, ‘No, Brian, listen to me. You have no idea how good this kid is.’”

It’s rare that a player’s rookie season is arguably the most discussed thing about their career, but that only speaks to just how good Moss’ was. He exploded as a star on the game’s biggest regular-season stage, a Monday Night Football game at Lambeau Field in Week 5.

Then-Packers practice squad quarterback Matt Hasselbeck recalls head coach Mike Holmgren giving a pregame pep talk. “He said to the DBs — he named them by name — and he was like, ‘Hey, I want you to show this rookie Randy Moss what the NFL is all about.’

“That night in Lambeau on Monday night, Randy Moss showed the world what he was all about.”

Billick remembers the Packers doing all they could to stop Moss. “In that game, you know he gets a touchdown going deep on somebody. So they double him, and he goes past them. Finally there’s three of them — that last touchdown he goes against three guys and comes down with the ball.”

“I remember the Green Bay DBs looking to their sideline, like, What do you want us to do?” —Brian Billick, former Vikings offensive coordinator

Former Packers head coach Mike Sherman, who was coaching tight ends for the team at the time, says it was “just one of those deals that, they throw it to him, and it didn’t matter how many people you put on him. He was going to go up and get the ball, and make the play. It didn’t matter what you did.”

It was Moss’ unofficial coming out party: five catches for 190 yards and two touchdowns. “I remember the Green Bay DBs looking to their sideline, like, What do you want us to do?” Billick says. Moss never had a hope of being just a regular football player.

Lambeau Field was the site of another of Moss’ most notorious moments. In 2004, he scored a touchdown to give the Vikings a 30-14 lead, then trotted over to the goal post and pretended to show his ass to the Packers faithful. Joe Buck was apoplectic on the FOX broadcast, saying, “That is a disgusting act by Randy Moss, and it’s unfortunate that we had that on our air live.”

Just about anybody you ask would say that Buck’s call was an overreaction. “That’s probably in poor taste,” Birk says of the celebration. “But that’s just kind of Vikings-Green Bay. That’s at Lambeau Field.” Moss’ celebration was mimicking Packers fans’ tradition of mooning the visiting team’s bus in the parking lot. Birk adds with a laugh, “I don’t think it was the most horrific thing that’s ever been done on a football field by any stretch.”

Sherman calls it “quite a day.” He laughs, “Obviously to everybody in Lambeau, it was not appropriate to do that at that time. But I think after the fact, most people laugh about it today.

“That’s probably something we’ll never see again, thank God.”

The fake mooning, or Moss himself?

“Probably both.”

And the fake mooning was only the first of two legacy-defining moments to come from that game. The $10,000 fine that Moss received produced yet another memorable quote.

Outside of the Vikings’ practice facility, reporters stormed Moss.

Reporter: “Write the check yet, Randy?”

Moss: “When you’re rich you don’t write checks.”

Reporter: “If you don’t write checks, how do you pay these guys?”

Moss: “Straight cash, homey.”

Along with his irreverence toward interviews, using marijuana has also been commonly cited as one of Moss’ “character issues.” In 2005, after he signed with the Raiders but before he played a down for them, Moss admitted to smoking marijuana since entering the NFL.

”I have used, you know, marijuana ... since I’ve been in the league,” Moss said in an interview on HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel. “But as far as abusing it and, you know, letting it take control over me, I don’t do that, no.

”But, you know, I don’t want any kids, you know, watching this taking a lesson from me as far as, ‘Well, Randy Moss used it so I’m going to use it.’ I don’t want that to get across. Like I say ... I have used [marijuana] in the past. And every blue moon or every once in a while I might.”

We know that marijuana didn’t stop Moss from having a first-ballot Hall of Fame career. But Moss’ comments on Real Sports did rankle fans and media at the time, and they did lead Raiders head coach Norv Turner to say he would talk to Moss. Whatever the two talked about didn’t do much for either of them.

In Moss’ two seasons in Oakland he had two of the worst years of his career. The Raiders were a mess internally. Turner was fired after the 2005 season, and Al Davis was thinking of replacing him with Art Shell.

”I said, ‘I just don’t think that would be a good idea,’” says former Raiders scout Jon Kingdon. “I went off for about 10 minutes and listed all the things that I thought were going to be a problem. And Al says to me, ‘Well, you bring up a lot of good points, but I may have to hire him anyway.’”

Under Shell, the Raiders had their worst season since the NFL-AFL merger with a 2-14 record. It was the worst year of Moss’ career — just 43 receptions, 553 yards, and three touchdowns. In November of that season, Moss reasoned his struggles by saying it was “maybe because I’m unhappy and I’m not too much excited about what’s going on.” He added, “All I can say is if you put me in a good situation and make me happy, man, you get good results.”

After firing Shell and hiring Lane Kiffin, the Raiders were set on trading Moss, which Davis did with Kingdon and four other scouts in a room with Bill Belichick on the phone. Mark Jackson, who came to Oakland with Kiffin from college, was in charge of orchestrating the trade for the Raiders.

“I think he had a little bit of a philosophy ... if he wasn’t a factor in the play, whether a decoy or otherwise, it was time for him to rest a little bit.” —Mike Sherman, former Packers head coach

Kingdon recalls the moment: “Mark had said, ‘Well, we can get a sixth [round pick] for Randy Moss.’ Al says, ‘What, are you kidding me? We got a sixth for this guy? What the hell are you doing?’ So he called Belichick. He said, ‘Bill, what are you doing? You’re only giving us a sixth for this guy?’ And Bill said, ‘Well that’s what he asked for.’ And Al says, ‘That’s ridiculous.’”

The Raiders eventually bartered the Patriots into giving up a fourth-round pick. After the trade, former Raiders offensive coordinator Tom Walsh said that Moss’ time had passed.

”Randy Moss is a player whose skills are diminishing, and he’s in denial of those eroding skills,” Walsh said. “Randy was a great receiver, but he lacked the work ethic and the desire to cultivate any skills that would compensate for what he was losing physically later in his career.”

Walsh suggested that Oakland played no part in Moss’ poor season.

Moss responded the best way he knew how: through football. Less than a year later, in 2007, Moss would set the NFL single-season receiving touchdown record for the 16-0 Patriots.

And Moss predicted he would break the record, too. Former Patriots teammate Kevin Faulk confirms: “He said he was going to break it [before the season]. I think the feel that he got in training camp, shoot I think the feel everybody got in training camp that year, was like, yeah, it can be done.”

Walsh’s criticism of Moss’s work ethic echoed what many had said about him after he uttered the “I play when I want to play” statement. And even though Moss says that quote was misinterpreted, people around Moss would even tell you that there’s some truth to it, but that it didn’t apply only to Moss. NFL players often take plays off.

Hasselbeck tells a story about attending Harvard’s football camp with Jerheme Urban, a former NFL wide receiver and current head coach of Trinity College in Texas. Hasselbeck describes Urban as “a guy who did everything right.”

When the two were in Seattle, Urban used to wear No. 84 in practice to pretend to be Randy Moss. Urban was tall, and fast. “This guy was like a golden retriever, you’d throw the ball, he gets it, comes back, it’s like, ‘Go again.’ He would never get tired.

“I remember maybe our third year together in Seattle, Jerheme Urban comes up to me and he’s like, ‘You know how people dog Randy Moss for taking plays off? I get it. I totally get it. Every route he runs is a go ball. It’s a deep post, it’s a go, it’s a deep corner,’ He’s like, ‘I can’t do this.’

“For me, when Jerheme Urban — the kid who did everything right — would say, ‘I totally get it, I’m going to have to take some plays off, too,’ that was an eye opener for me.”

As somebody who coached against Moss, Sherman says, “I think he had a little bit of a philosophy that he abided by, and that was if he wasn’t a factor in the play, whether a decoy or otherwise, it was time for him to rest a little bit before when he was more of a factor in the concept.” It certainly worked against Green Bay for years.

In New England, Faulk says that Moss knew that when he was double and triple covered, “his job was already done. The defenders that he took with him, he already did his job.”

The questions that led to “I play when I want to play” matter, too. Reporters were trying to get to the bottom of what motivated him to play. But because he didn’t attempt to clear up his response, people used it to argue that Moss didn’t work hard. But two things can be true: That Moss took plays off, and that the way the quote is widely interpreted is incorrect.

Hindsight and context would probably help people paint a more fair picture of Moss. But then again, those people would have to want to try to understand him.

Photo by Robert B. Stanton/NFLPhotoLibrary

Randy Moss celebrating an interception by defensive tackle Terdell Sands against the Cardinals in 2006.

ONE THING THAT no reasonable person can question is that Randy Moss loved — and still loves — the game of football. That love showed in his success.

Moss hurt his ankle playing basketball in the first minicamp he had as a Viking, so he didn’t practice. Birk recalls, “I’m just holding on for my professional life every single day, and I’m like, This guy’s not even practicing, he seems so calm and confident. Not cocky, but he was just sort of ... he kind of had this superstar aurora around him. I was like, How’s he going to be able to play in the NFL? This is such a huge jump. And first game he goes out there and destroys Tampa’s defense.”

Birk specifically remembers a Moss catch from that first game against the Buccaneers in 1998 in which he tipped a ball to himself, away from a falling Floyd Young, and out of the reach of John Lynch. “I remember the guys came over — the O-line was so veteran, it was Todd Steussie, Korey Stringer, Jeff Christie — and they were just laughing. They couldn’t believe it either, how good this kid was from Day 1.”

Moss had moments like that throughout his career. The moments were never self-contained, either; they had a ripple effect on the people around him.

Moss became famous for throwing up his hand while running a route. It was a signal that he had you beat. Former Falcons cornerback DeAngelo Hall is cemented in history for having been on the wrong end of the most memorable Moss hand-raise, during a 2004 preseason game.

“I’m lined up against Moss,” Hall told NFL Network. “I got Moss right where I want him. He threw the hand up — I heard rumors about the hand — he threw the hand up. So I’m like you know, we about to jump ball, we about to jump for it.

“Man, I promise you, that dude … is the real deal. All y’all T.O. fans — Moss is the real deal. … I finally got a hand on him in the end zone about 70 yards later.” That was, of course, after Moss had already embarrassed him.

One of the most recognizable plays of Moss’ career came against one of the best cornerbacks of his generation: Darrelle Revis. The play may have popped into your head already. In 2010, the Patriots took on the Jets in East Rutherford, and with one hand, Moss reeled in the ball in the end zone, in stride, with ease.

“I hated his ass.” —Rex Ryan, former Jets head coach

Later that season, Revis said that Moss gave up in the second half of the game, that “you could tell he was putting his foot on the brake.

”I mean, everybody knows that’s Randy. Sometimes he plays 100 percent, sometimes he doesn’t.”

Former Patriots defensive tackle Vince Wilfork says that there was a good reason for Moss’ lack of effort: Moss had practiced with a hamstring injury all week, and was 75 percent healthy at best.

“When he scored that touchdown, I remember looking at some of my teammates on my bench,” Wilfork says. “We’re like, ‘Did he really just do that on a 75 percent hamstring?’ And he pulled away, and I’m like, ‘Holy shit, this dude is legit.’”

Moss was a perpetual threat to score. While Sherman got to see the Vikings version of Moss, Rex Ryan was less fortunate, getting the Patriots version with Tom Brady throwing the ball.

“I hated his ass,” Ryan says. “He was, I mean, one of the biggest pains in the ass to coach against.”

Ryan had the same strategy every time he and the Jets were pitted against Moss. “I wasn’t going to die a quick death,” he says. “That meant that I had a guy underneath him and on top of him. One hundred percent of the time.”

According to Ryan, Moss was one of the select few who — without a doubt — deserved that level of attention.

“[Calvin Johnson] was a big ol’ sucker like that, that you had to defend that way,” Ryan says. “But there’s not many that come to mind. You know, T.O., whatever, fuck, you don’t have shit. I mean he was OK, but he wasn’t — I never feared him the way I would fear Randy Moss. [Chad Johnson] was a good player from Cincinnati, but I never had the same kind of like, ‘Oh, shit. This guy’s really something.’ So I would say maybe one or two guys, tops, that you could put in comparison with Moss. And that’s tops.

“I remember when the Hall of Fame called me about him, and I’m like, ‘Dude, if he’s not a first-ballot Hall of Famer, I don’t know who the hell is.’”

Moss’ impact was much greater than his big plays, though. During the Patriots’ near-perfect 2007 season, the team was in pads during Week 10 or 11 and feeling weary.

“You could tell the mood of the team was kind of like, ‘Man, here we go again with this shit,’ Wilfork says. “Walking to practice, and everybody really not talking, and it was just — we was just numb and we was just dull. We was grinding so much, that we was like, ‘Damn, we need a break.’

“So we get in warm up lines, and everybody’s quiet and everything. Next thing you know, Randy gets up, and he start talking cash shit to everybody — in a fun way. It was just one of those things where it’s like, man, who lit the fire up under his ass?”

Wilfork says it was one of the best practices the team had all season. “That just showed the leadership quality that he had,” he says. “It didn’t take much, all he had to do was get people to laugh and smile, and get back to doing what we normally do. We had one of the best practices that we did, and it was all because of Randy.”

And yet for all the good Moss brought to New England, those closest to him felt that there was a small, but noticeable void in his time there. “I’m still pissed off we didn’t win one for him,” Wilfork says.

Sporting News via Getty Images

Randy Moss waiting for a kickoff against the New York Giants in Super Bowl XLII.

RANDY MOSS GREW up in Rand, West Virginia, a town with a population a pinch more than 1,600. So when he arrived at the Heisman ceremony in New York in 1998, he wore sunglasses.

Moss wasn’t trying be cool. He was scared.

“I didn’t really understand the magnitude of what they were going to think about my glasses,” he said in Rand University. “But all I know was, that the glasses gave me a comfort to be able to sit up there beside Charles Woodson, Peyton Manning, Ryan Leaf.”

One of the biggest moments of Moss’ life was meeting Wendy’s founder Dave Thomas at the ceremony. Having seen Thomas on so many Wendy’s commercials meant a lot to Moss, because being on TV wasn’t something that he, nor anybody else from Rand, was accustomed to.

By that point, Moss might have already been tired of the national spotlight, having been making headlines since he was 17 years old.

In fact, the attention that came with his superstardom seemed like the only really hard part about the game of football to Moss. Birk says, “I think Randy would just prefer if he came in the league and nobody knew anything about him. He could just go out there and do his thing, and probably prefer not to be the superstar.”

Moss showed that through his actions, too. Birk recalls hanging out in the back of the Vikings’ equipment room with the rest of the offensive line. “Randy would be back there with us playing dominos, and we made more fun of him than anybody else, and he loved it.

“Randy, he just, he considered himself one of the guys. And that’s what he wanted to be.”

And football was really the only setting that Moss was comfortable in. Faulk says that outside of the game, Moss really didn’t hang out with anybody. If he made an exception and went to a social gathering, it was going to be for a teammate. “He’d possibly go to it,” Faulk says. “But it was like, ‘How many people are going to be there? Is it going to be that big?’ Because he didn’t like going to a lot of public outings. He just wasn’t accustomed to — he was shy.”

But Moss did like the impact he could have on others. “One year he bought like 100 bikes or something for a bunch of underprivileged kids,” Birk says. “Didn’t tell the media. One Saturday after Saturday walkthrough, he had all the kids out there, he gave them all bikes, and he made sure nobody in the media knew about it. He just wanted to do that.

“When we’re out in public and you see kids come up to him, he was totally engaging, and gracious, and he liked the fact that he could make people feel like they were 10 feet tall.”

But, Birk adds, “time after time after time, people coming up to him, and kind of bothering him, you could see that wear him out.”

Moss just wanted to be himself, and being himself was playing football. “Football spoke for us, that’s what we thought,” Faulk says. “That was our way of speaking, and in his mind, that was his way of speaking.”

Moss’ play on the field did say a lot — it spoke to how much work he put into the game, how naturally gifted he was, and how much he loved playing. But it was hard for some to hear his game while other things were being said about him. Hasselbeck, who arrived in Tennessee in 2011 — one year after Moss came and left — was surprised at what he heard about the wideout.

“You see kids come up to him, he was totally engaging, and gracious, and he liked the fact that he could make people feel like they were 10 feet tall.” —Matt Birk, former Vikings center

“I’d say, ‘What was Randy Moss like? How’d you guys like Randy?’” Hasselbeck says. “And every single coach, player, staff, athletic trainer, whoever, they all said the same thing: ‘You know what? We really liked him, and he’s a really smart football player.’ And it was like, Huh, those weren’t really the two things I thought you were going to say based on his reputation that I see from the internet or from SportsCenter.”

Former Patriots teammate Wilfork echoes that sentiment: “A lot of people wouldn’t understand that unless you played with him.”

After the Patriots went 18-1, Tom Brady tore his ACL in the first game of the 2008 season, making Matt Cassel the starter. Instead of giving up on the season, Moss tutored Cassel, and the Patriots thrived. “He would take the receiving corps and the tight ends and Matt, and they would do things extra after practice,” Wilfork says. “He would tell Matt, ‘OK, on this route, this is where I’m going to be. You know, Tom do it like this here, but we gotta figure out what you comfortable with.’

“He knew, as a player, that he needed to be a mentor, and he needed to step up his leadership, along with the coaches. So it was like Matt had a coach on the field, they would talk all the time. As the season went on, you could kinda see Matt started getting better, and better, and towards the end of the season, they were rockin’ and rollin’.”

The Patriots went 11-5 that season and were unlucky to miss the playoffs. They were the first team to miss the postseason with 11 wins since the expansion to a 12-team playoff in 1990. It was a good season, one that earned Cassel a franchise tag and then a six-year deal worth $63 million with the Chiefs in the 2009 offseason. Upon arriving in Kansas City, Cassel only played one season that remotely resembled his success in New England.

But Cassel wasn’t the only player who benefitted from Moss’ coaching. Moss used to go to Faulk’s house on Wednesdays to watch extra film of their opponent that week. “I learned a lot about coverages and a lot about disguises through him, and watching him work and him talking,” Faulk says. “It really helped me out a whole lot because it helped me figure out a whole lot of what Tom was thinking.”

And Moss’ coaching wasn’t limited to the offense either, according to Wilfork. “He would break down coverages, he would break down players defensively,” he says. “There was a lot of times that he would talk trash to me about playing a three technique. He always knew everything going on out on the football field.”

AFP/Getty Images

Randy Moss trying to run past Packers defenders after catching a pass from Daunte Culpepper in 2001.

HOW ONE VIEWS Randy Moss might depend on where or when in his career they encountered him.

“I think there were times obviously Randy didn’t always make the best decisions or say the right thing,” Birk says.

In 2010, for example, Moss lashed out during a Vikings’ post-practice meal. The team had catered food from Tinucci’s — a St. Paul staple and favorite of Birk’s — and Moss evidently didn’t like the food.

Moss reportedly yelled, “What the [expletive]? Who ordered this crap? I wouldn’t feed this to my dog.” A few days later, the Vikings waived him. Birk says, “Obviously everybody’s entitled to their own opinion. Would most of us agree that that’s the way to handle it? Eh, probably not.

“People from St. Paul took that personally and went to the aid of the Tinucci’s. Not that they needed it, but it’s just kind of funny. It all worked out for everybody, maybe except Randy.”

In regards to some of Moss’ off-the-field incidents, Birk explains, “I don’t think it makes him a bad guy. He was going to be who he was. I just think some of the times maybe he didn’t realize the ripple effect of that on his teammates. Because then the media would come to us and ask us questions about something Randy said, or something Randy did.” But despite the occasional hassle, Birk says that Moss was a good teammate.

Judging Moss’ impact on the field is only slightly easier than judging his character. Before his Super Bowl appearance with the 49ers, Moss proclaimed at media day, “Now that I’m older … I really do think I’m the greatest receiver to ever play this game.”

That debate is something that nobody will ever agree on. But those who experienced Moss firsthand make a strong case that he’s the best talent to ever play. Even Jerry Rice, who many consider to be the greatest wide receiver of all time, said he believed Moss was more talented than he was.

That’s as far as Billick is willing to go when talking about Moss’ legacy. “I don’t think we’ve had since, or will again see, a receiver with the sheer, total, physical talent of a Randy Moss.”

Billick adds, “When you look at the litany of quarterbacks that Randy had to go through, I think that is noteworthy as well.” It’s something that Wilfork wonders about, too. “I will always say, and I always say this, if Tom [Brady] would have had him from the get go, how much better would he have been?”

Moss may have never won a Super Bowl, but that he was singularly great is indisputable. If who Moss is has been misconstrued, it’s in part because he was so good that people cared enough to try to define him. I ask Wilfork how he thinks Moss would want to be remembered.

“I think Randy wants to be remembered for being one of the biggest competitors that you ever faced, and ever played with,” Wilfork says. “Everybody goes through things in life, we all brought up different ways, we go through different challenges in life. Knowing what he came from and his background, for him to be able to sit back and look at his career and his life — he’s gotta be damn proud.”

Moss was many things to many people. He was a headache at times, and on at least one occasion he was downright mean. But he was a mentor and football savant, too, to those who played with him, and he did things that nobody thought possible. Everybody has a Moss memory.

Whoever Randy Moss is, he gave us much more than we gave him.

[helloworlddemo1122-yahoopar-blog]

Aaron Carter Addresses Prescription Drug Use: 'I Stopped All of It' (Exclusive)

Aaron Carter is ready to LØVË.

The 30-year-old singer sat down with ET's Katie Krause ahead of his upcoming tour and first album in 15 years, LØVË, and he candidly discussed his sobriety, as well as his mental and emotional state.

"I'm very healthy, emotionally stable, and a lot more in tune with myself and my feelings," he shared. "I'm blessed with my health. I'm a healthy man." 

With regard to sobriety, one thing Carter says he's cut out completely is prescription drugs. "Stopped all of it," he said. "Even when I got out of treatment, they had me on certain things, and I stopped all of it. I didn't want to be on anything."

When asked about the prescription for PTSD he told us he was taking in December, Carter said, "Yeah, but I dealt with a lot of things, and I have a different mentality when it comes to certain things. I believe willpower is a very important thing and with treatment sometimes, they don't believe in that."

As for alcohol, Carter maintained that he never touches the stuff... most of the time.

"None. I was never a drinker," he said. However, when asked about his past admissions that he'll have a glass of wine now and again, he clarified, "Sometimes. I was never somebody who drank themselves to getting blackout drunk."

But one thing Carter does not see himself giving up is marijuana. While saying that he doesn't necessarily smoke daily, he did admit, "I still smoke weed ... Not every day. But it's pretty much a ritual."

"When I went through the treatment process, I told everybody there, 'I'm gonna be smoking weed still,'" he explained. "I like smoking weed. I find it a very zen thing." As far as any concerns that smoking weed could lead him down a bad path, Carter is adamant that it won't. "I'm just not gonna let that happen."

At that point, Carter was asked to estimate just how much a year his weed ritual costs him. While he was pretty unsure, he did throw out a ballpark figure. "Ten grand. Probably," he said, laughing. "It's for a good cause."

With all that in mind, Carter's new outlook on life, built on a foundation of his struggles last year, is what LØVË is all about.

"Going to rehab, getting arrested. It's all a testament to my character and building my character as a man," he explained. "Every single thing in my life I take as a lesson."

Carter's LØVË album is out Friday. His 2018 tour kicks off on Feb. 22 in Teaneck, New Jersey.

It's been a long road to this album for Carter. Last September, the singer checked into a wellness facility, where he was able to healthily gain 45 pounds and confront past trauma.

"Well, I struggled from an eating disorder, so I had seven ulcers," Carter told ET in December. "I was, like, 115 pounds, super malnourished."

"It was tough, you know, it was tough a bit on myself, but the Alo House, where I went, was incredible," he added, praising the facility in Malibu, California. "They helped figure it out for me what was going on with me, and there are other things going on, like, I suffer from PTSD. I have a lot of trauma from my past and a lot of loss, so that's something I have to deal with on a daily basis."

In July, Carter was arrested in Georgia for DUI refusal and possession of marijuana. In an interview with ET that month, Carter denied being under the influence at the time, and said he appeared to be driving erratically because of a rental car's alignment issue.

"Somebody said I was driving recklessly on the road -- that's what the police report said -- but the alignment was off on my car, so I went to AutoZone to see if I could do anything about it," Carter explained. "A motorcyclist reported that I was swerving all over the road, but the alignment was off a little bit on the new tire."

"I do not drink alcohol at all," he added, saying he has a medical condition that prevents him from doing so. However, he did admit he will occasionally sip beer.

"I'll occasionally have a sip of a beer or something like that, but I can't even drink IPAs," he clarified. "I can't drink anything like that. I have to drink the lightest beer possible that's not hoppy. I don't drink any hard liquor."

Later, in December, Carter expanded on his idea of sobriety to ET.

"What does sobriety mean to me? I will have to say staying off of certain things, like, staying in what I am doing right now," he explained.

"Of course, I am an addict, I don't have to feel like it, I am," he shared, noting that he was honest about smoking marijuana with those at his wellness facility. "I told everybody where I was at. I was like, 'You know, when I finish here, I probably will be smoking weed,' and that is just something that is a part of my ... it is my ritual, kind of."

Watch below for a look back at Carter through the years.

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[neuropathicgypsy]

FBI: So he got used to it because of Corey but she never got used to it so it tortured her.

Me: well he had his mom, too

FBI: well Corey was before us and yours was after we continually fucked up and we actually gave up, it's just a miracle that...

(earlier I was in the bathroom so the conversation wasn't as developed as it was this second time... Earlier they were gonna pay me 1M for the bullshit)

Me: dude I want a billion dollars for that shit. You just gave up and left me to die?!?!

FBI: no not like that! Just on you being to be able to remember straight to the point instead of having to ... Like your bridges you love. So instead of a solid car type bridge, we gave up you would get that. So instead you were bouncing/running/jumping from Stone/Boulder/rock to cross a creek or roaring River and even lakes.

Me: okay I'll take a million and a half then

[I laugh]

Mike Andrews: marc Shure does take a lot of time off to.travel. what if he really is a cop? I mean one of her cops? I just figure they don't have the money in the budget to.let him travel like that and the money is his own or what he got from.jesse/JP that's why I'm always asking where he got his money and besides how are they gonna give her one billion much less two?!?

FBI: we make.our own money!!!

Me: they own stores. There's a brand new restaurant by my house that I love, except y'all really gotta work on not burning my biscuits and I mean that in only two translations. They own it. The medical marijuana store in my favorite once was a house they own both. A dance studio they owned. A smoke shop that's close.to my house. If they can't own it. They work at it. Walmart. All the grocery stores and gas stations. Pharmacies. They all have at least one. Because FBI live here to.protect this beautiful creature I call myself they also.need to be protected. And so places they go are where I go and so we're gonna see people that work where I go.

And so that way they fucking make money off my ass like.crazy. they get like double.what like say Walmart pays them but they still get the paycheck which gets turned over to.the FBI then they make money off the stores. So they make.lots of.money. this will always be my first home I bought and I'll always have it and so they will always protect it. But I've been here 17 years. I have friends. They need protection. I have brothers and my dad I want protected and they have friends that need protection. And so even if I leave here they will still own their stores and restaurants and still make money. Except if my friends don't go there then they don't have to.work there. So the FBI has better jobs.

Mike Andrews: yeah I see that. So.why would Marc get to work with me?

Me: because Marc loves me. I said yesterday that there's people that put me before their jobs. He will do anything to protect me.

Mike Andrews: yeah he took my gun when we went to the interview so I would not shoot you while we sat at the table.

Me: and he unloaded it before you got to my house

Mike Andrews: shi--- I thought that was me because I pulled the trigger on you to kill you. I couldn't aim properly because I didn't want to.get arrested but I thought at least to shoot at your feet to scare you into a heart attack.

Me: I would have killed you. With your own gun. I would have beat you to death with it

Mike Andrews: in a skirt?!?

Me: it was a dress and yes I would have. Shooting really isn't that fun when you can use your own body to kill someone.

Mike Andrews: I should try it!!!

Me: you should, it's way better.

Marc whispers: and guess who locked the keys in the van?

Mike: darn it

Marc: that's why she knows we will go easy on you in criminal court because i Mastermind trickery. Which was why she was willing to deal with you in civil court instead

Me: except for the attempted murder --- it was only because the lies to break into my house, steal my shit and put my life in danger. Not for trying to kill me. So.fuck you.

Mike Andrews: so how easy are they going to go on me?

Marc: it's only if you leave her alone.

[blockheadbrands]

Cheech Marin Chats Cannabis, Chicano Art, and Which Actor Is ‘The Oddest F*cking Guy’

Chloe Harper Gold of High Times Reports:

One of the first comedians to be open about his marijuana use, Cheech Marin has been on the front lines of comedy and cannabis since he first rose to prominence as one half of the iconic stoner duo Cheech & Chong. He’s a staple of Americana who bridged the divide between mainstream entertainment and the cannabis realm throughout his successful career.

Leafly got a chance to chat with the legend himself about his new line of cannabis products, the most interesting person he’s smoked with, his favorite on-set movie experience, and more.

“I smoke not only for the high, but for the taste.”

Cheech Marin

Leafly: Did you have any idea that cannabis would be so instrumental in your career when you first started your journey?

Cheech Marin: When I first started my journey? I was trying to figure out how to get back to my apartment [laughs]. It’s been a lifelong, enlightening journey. I had no idea there was a career [in cannabis], but if there was a career open at that time, I’d have joined that program because everybody was doing it. It was all we talked about.

What’s your preferred method of consumption these days? 

I have a pipe company, so I like pipes. I like the taste of bud. I smoke not only for the high, but for the taste.

What strains will be included in your new cannabis product line?

What kind of strains? God, I have them written down, but it will change over the course of time. We are curators, but no matter what it is, it’s always gonna be good.

So it will always be the best?

It’s not always gonna be the best, but it will always be good. Because who’s to say who’s the best? But our strains will always be good. And that’s all a stoner can ask for, right?

[His manager, Lisa Marcus, interjects.] “The idea is that Cheech would personally curate the strains at that moment. So a strain that might be great for November could change in January.”

Marin: Yes, it is under my curatorial province. But it will always be good!

You have your own line of mezcal. Do you like your mezcal smoky, funky, or both?

Tres Papalote! “Three Kites,” because there’s three different alcoholic expressions in our line. It’s really good! All mezcals are smoky to one degree or another. [They vary in] just what kind of [smokiness] and what kind of concentration you’ve got, and from what agave plant [the mezcal] comes from.

Holding a glass of Tres Papalote mezcal. (Courtesy of Cheech Marin)

Do you have any strains that go with your mezcal?

Not yet, but I’m working on it. I’m going to do extensive field research!

Tommy Chong also has a line of cannabis products. Did you two compare notes or share perspectives on what it’s like to create and launch your respective products? 

Not really. We both have our own interpretation of it and we’ll see what happens. Hopefully, everybody does well.

You recently released a memoir about your life. What inspired you to sit down and write your life story?

Well, I was getting old and close to the end there, and I could see the dimming of the light at the end of the tunnel. No, they offered me a deal. I wanted to have a task and sit down and develop a kind of style, and this is the style I developed–this biography kind of telling.

What was your writing process like?

I get up in the morning and write. Have a cup of coffee, go read the newspaper. Just write. Maybe until about 12:00 or 1:00, three or four hours, and then I’m done. I have a certain energy band when I’m on a project because every day you don’t do it, you get out of shape and lose the intensity of your train of thought.

You’re quite the collector of Chicano art. What drew you to this art movement?

“We used to get high together and drink and every once in awhile, we’d go out and take some acid. He was my good friend. I really miss him.”

Cheech Marin, reflecting back on Timothy Leary, his favorite smoke buddy.

Oh, some guy owed me money [laughs]. No, I’ve always been interested in art from an early age. I’d go to the library and take out all the art books, and I taught myself about art. I started getting more interested in contemporary art, going to galleries in LA, and that’s when I discovered the Chicano painters there. They’d already been out there for a while, you know, but it was fresh for me and I recognized right away that these are some good painters, because I’d seen good painting all my life and so I started collecting them. It changes your perspective, and sometimes you need your perspective changed. It’s all about being in a state of being.

Showing off “Tirando Rollo,” artwork by Gaspar Enriquez. (Courtesy of Cheech Marin)

Can you tell us about any upcoming film projects you’re working on?

Oh yeah, I’ve got new movie I just finished [The War With Grandpa]. I hope it turns out good. It’s got Robert De Niro, Christopher Walken, myself, and Uma Thurman.

Wow, that’s a great cast.

I know, right?! Are you kidding, I get to work with Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken. Christopher Walken is just the oddest fucking guy. He’s a funny guy.

What’s been your favorite film project throughout your storied career?

My favorite film project? Oh man, maybe Tin Cup. I had a great time on that movie. I mean, not that I didn’t have a good time on all the movies. Especially the old ones, like Born in East L.A. But yeah, Tin Cup. We sat on golf courses and at strip bars. How can you go wrong?

Who would you say is the most interesting person you’ve ever smoked with?

Oh man, that’s a really interesting question. ‘Cause I used to get high with Einstein all the time*. No, but probably Timothy Leary.

He was a really good friend of mine. We used to get high together and drink and every once in awhile, we’d go out and take some acid. Yeah, he was my good friend. I really miss him.

Do you have any advice for someone who’s new to cannabis?

New to cannabis? Don’t pay retail.

[His manager jumps in.] “Cheech! You’ll put us out of business!”

Marin, laughing: No, buy as much as you can. Because you never know. You never know. And it’ll always be good.

*Writer’s note: He did not actually smoke with Albert Einstein. Einstein died in 1955. (But he really got me with that one.)

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