#probably the first time i sided with law since it’s actually getting good rep and seems like. 10x more ideal than anything else

[agent-cupcake]

As a resident Claudefucker, I know am curious to know what our fave charming schemer is doing during this Mafia!AU. He'd look lovely in a suit.

~It was quite the headline when Godfrey Riegan died. The details are a little hazy, a little convenient, but people don't talk about that sort of thing. Car accidents are common. Tragic, but not unreasonable. There’s no reason to smear a man’s perfectly respectable political career for the sake of some sensational gossip.

~In the right circles, however, there was a huge uproar, questions about who was going to take over the Riegan family when the elderly boss Oswald died. The Riegan’s had been dominating Leicester for quite some time, but a lot of people began to predict that the Gloucester family was going to move in. They had powerful friends, it seemed. Friends with money, no less.

~Claude Riegan, grandson of Oswald, appeared out of nowhere just when he was needed. Stories of the lost daughter Tiana still circulated, sure, but there were still a lot of questions about Claude’s origins when nobody except Oswald were able to vouch for him. He obviously had military leadership experience—his skill with guns and ability to lead was just too excellent for any other explanation—but he dismissed the question out of hand. There’s no documentation of him, either, leading some to wonder if even his name was false. But Oswald said he was family, and that was that.

~Claude was quick to establish himself, in any case. Despite his cavalier attitude, his efficacy in overhauling the power dynamics of Leicester were profound.  

~He decided, first and foremost, that the way to win the people over was to invigorate the local culture, which had seen a sharp decline as a result of new laws that were unfavorable to business, Adrestia’s growing market monopolies, and the bad reputation of the red light district Ailell. This included some perfectly legitimate campaigning and some under the table type schemes. 

~The result was a flourishing Derdriu Street. While it lacks the prestige of Enbarr Square in Adrestia, it welcomes entertainment that would be considered too “low brow” like comedy, trendy new restaurants, and music venues. Even better, all of it is built on the recently cleaned up river. The Riegan family is involved in all of  it, of course. 

~Casino owner Claude. This exists solely to thirst but maybe it was preexisting and he took it over due to its poor management? If there’s going to be gambling anyway, it should be done right. The extra money’s not so bad, either. But, Claude lounging in a big leather chair in a dark blue blazer with gold brocade, his white shirt unbuttoned low enough to see enough his chest. Enough to make you drool. Enough that you’d definitely get caught staring and probably called out for it because he can’t help himself. Claude with his elbows on the arm rests and fingers folded in front of him as he considers you, gold rings winking because he’s just that ostentatious and appearances are important. Claude asking you how you feel about taking risks in a way that really feels like it has nothing to do with cards, staring at you with a friendly smile that doesn’t meet those calculating eyes—eyes that you know will pick up on every tell. 

~Claude also struck a deal with the Kupala Distillery. They’d been fighting to keep hold of their historic business for years, and Claude offered to help them with that. You know, not for free, but he’s good at making deals that leave everybody happy. 

~The second biggest thing he tackled was the drug trade. For the most part, no one family had ever had a complete handle on that market. The Goneril’s had a hold over the docks for years, but the Edmunds had been moving in and working with the Gloucester family to bolster their power. Distribution was scattered and hard to keep track of as it ultimately circulated wherever there was a profit to be made. Looking at it like this, Claude decided that the only way to fix things was to take control over all of it. In his line of work, shady things like the drug trade are impossible to avoid. At the very least, if he has control over it, he can ensure the product is clean and expel far more unsavory ventures.

~Through these escapades, Claude was able to make alliances with all of the major families. A lot of them had only remained loyal to the Gloucester family out of fear so as soon as they had an alternative, they bolted. This has an unfortunate side effect of revealing how his power is perceived. Every day is a balancing act for Claude. He allows each family to function as they please as long as they’re aware they do so at his mercy. It’s better to keep friends than to control enemies, but even that requires a delicate maneuvering of power.

~However, Claude likes the conflict. He enjoys the game and he especially enjoys winning the game. There’s a certain level of his excusing amorality for the sake of his family and Leicester, but there’s an equal part of him that understands his wrongdoings and deals with it separately. He wouldn’t hold to the naïve “ends justify the means” idea to excuse himself, but he would still argue that his actions have value and are even necessary. If it weren’t him, it would be somebody a lot worse than him. That’s probably something that would linger in the back of everybody’s minds whenever they shook his hand or paid their respects, whenever they began to think of how easy it would be to take him out. Fear, too. So far, Claude’s never done anything shockingly bad, only what was necessary. But with his power and intellect, it’s always a question of what he could do.

~If someone asked him that, Claude would smile that friendly smile and tell them that he would do anything to see his vision made real. Whether or not that’s true remains to be seen. 

~Luckily, Claude’s not alone! Hilda is the stereotypical crime family princess. She joined Claude because he offered her freedom from the overbearing control of her father and brother. Her skill in manipulating everybody around her combined with her reputation as a ditzy rich girl makes her fantastic at gathering information, assuming Claude can get her to do so. But, as long as he’s not being too forceful, she’s surprisingly motivated to weave her way through social circles and charm everyone. Although she would never say it, the order he brought to Leicester, not to mention the entertainment, made everything a lot better for her and her family. Plus, she likes being useful after spending her entire life watching Holst give his heart and soul to family while she did nothing. Ultimately, the information she provides is essential and her relationship with Claude is one of the few either have that’s built on trust, respect, and loyalty. That said, sometimes even Claude gets a little shiver as he watches how easily Hilda can manipulate people.  

~Lorenz was one of Claude’s most disdainful detractors, although a part of that was jealousy. Claude just swept in and did things that Lorenz had been waiting and planning to do once he became the head of the Gloucester family. Even after being on the receiving ends of such vicious attacks, once Claude undeniably had the upper hand in Leicester, he went behind the Gloucester boss’s back to Lorenz and told him that they were going to be friends or enemies, it was Lorenz’s choice. Not threatening him, just pointing out that the fall of the Gloucester family was inevitable under his father’s leadership and that Lorenz didn’t have to suffer for his father’s sins. Probably over mimosas and brunch. Lorenz is proud and has no appreciation for Claude, but he’s not stupid. After they worked out their disagreements and more or less accepted each other, Lorenz and Claude became pretty close. Claude knows that having someone to openly and aggressively disagree with him isn’t a bad thing. Not only that, but Lorenz’s a solid ally with a better grasp on some of the things Claude has difficulty with due to not being a native. Lorenz is willing to admit that Claude is a good leader.

~Marianne is well educated in the realm of the law and political action. The reason the Edmund family saw such success despite their lesser status was because of her adopted father’s genius. which he made sure to share with Marianne. She is invaluable in aiding Claude on the perfectly legitimate side of his business, and helping him hide his tracks for the shady stuff. Raphael is the muscle. Lysithea is a computer genius. Being a sickly shut in with issues that only recently saw treatment, she’s on the Mr. Robot level of hacker mode activated. Ignatz is an architect which is useful since so much of Claude’s power is in the property and infrastructure. He also designed a lot of places to have some neat-o hidey holes. Claude loves buildings that have secrets. Leonie is manages a lot of the physical and pettier side of the work. If someone’s stirring up trouble, she’s likely to pay them a visit as a warning before Claude has to get involved. She used to be a mercenary but being on Claude’s payroll is a lot better of a gig.    

~As for the suits, one thing is very important. Claude would not, under any circumstances, wear something tight on his thighs. I actually kind of like the idea of him going for a 1980′s style modernized. In his post timeskip outfit, he’s already got a hint of that going on with how oversized his outfit looks. The 80′s (rightfully) gets a bad rep for fashion, but it’s also very iconic with those wide-collared suit jackets, matchy-matchy three piece suits, sportscoats with a fun patterned shirt underneath, open blazers, pleated pants with an oversized jacket, and—in particular—the trend of summer suits in shades of tan and cream with colored shirts underneath. Then, combine that with a pair of Ray-Ban Aviators and a topless convertible and you’ve got a distinctly recognizable mob boss who doubles as a devastating heartthrob. I’m not saying he’d do a 1:1 recreation, but you’d definitely see references to the fashion of the era in his outfits. He would wear oxfords or ankle boots. Whatever it was, they’d have to be comfortable. He also doesn’t shy away from jewelry. The earring, of course, and rings when he's feeling particularly decadent. When he’s wearing his shirts unbuttoned Claude could possibly wear a gold chain. I mean, what are you gonna say, no? That gold doesn’t look gorgeous against his skin? That it’s tacky? You’re talking to the man who wore quilted pants. Claude’s not afraid to stand out because he knows he will anyway, nor is he afraid to be seen as unfashionable because he doesn’t particularly care about trends. I also enjoy the idea of him emulating the 80′s as someone who didn’t grow up in a western culture and thus mainly saw things through the lens of movies. Whatever he wears, however, he would look very handsome.

[starshine583]

New Girl on the Block (10)

(New update coming in and things are getting heated!!! I wonder how our lovely little group’s gonna handle it??)

Ch.1 / Ch.9 / Ch. 11

Chapter 10: Adrenaline Rush

Possible Schools:

Rosemary High

Skyline Academy

Angelwood Institute

Liberty High

Summerfield Academy

Clearwater Institute

A sigh passed through Adrien’s lips as he crossed out the last name on his list, matching it with the other failed attempts. He just didn’t understand. Why was it so hard to find Marinette’s school? All he needed to do was search for high schools in the area and ask the students at each school whether she attended or not. It seemed simple enough at the time, but now another week and a half has gone by, and he’s no closer to finding her than he was two weeks ago when he asked for her school name as Chat Noir. 

Adrien set his pencil down and rubbed a hand over his face. He could have sworn she said ‘Rosemary’ last time they talked, but that blonde guy insisted that there weren’t any new students there. Maybe he just hadn’t met her yet? No, that didn’t make any sense. School had already started by then. Adrien assumed the guy would notice if he suddenly had a new classmate. 

Ugh. If only he could visit her again.. Between patrol with his lady, akuma attacks, homework, and photoshoots, going out as Chat Noir to see Marinette was nearly impossible. He really needed to have a talk with Nathalie about getting more free time.

“Alya, Marinette is killing me!” 

Adrien glanced up from his paper- That’s right, he’s supposed to be working on his own school right now -just in time to see Lila wiping fake tears from her eyes as she walked into the classroom. Although they still had a good five or ten minutes before class started, she was the only who wasn’t currently seated at her desk, and judging by her greeting, Adrien was going to assume that she entered last on purpose.

“What!” Alya gasped, standing up from her desk to meet Lila halfway. “What did she do now?”

Lila sniffed and accepted the comforting hug that Alya offered. “She’s been sending me awful messages all week! Telling me she hates me and insulting me and that I should’ve just stayed in Italy where I belonged.”

Adrien shifted in his seat to hear the conversation better, a frown tugging at the corner of his lips. Another scheme to slander Marinette’s good name.. Why did Lila still feel the need to lie about her? The ravenette was gone, completely transferred to another school, too far to even breath about Lila’s fabrications. There was no reason to turn their classmates further against her. (if that was even possible at this point)

“She told you what?!” Alya blanched, pulling back to grab Lila’s shoulders. “I can’t believe her! wasn’t sabotaging the forms you needed to be class president enough? Why can’t she leave you alone!”

Adrien resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Now that lie had a reason to it. He knew first hand how thick those stacks of forms can be since he’s helped Marinette carry them a few times, and Lila was obviously too lazy or too unqualified (or both) to sift through all of that mess by herself. What Adrien didn’t understand about the lie, though, was why she had to drag Marinette into it. Again. Why not lie about feeling unwell? Or simply ask for time to adjust to the role that had practically been dumped onto her? Any of those excuses would not only have been easier to say, as they didn’t involve anyone but herself, but they probably would have been accepted just as wholly. So why? It was as though Marinette became a crutch for Lila, which he supposed made sense. Building onto a widely accepted lie would be much simpler than creating a million small lies, but it certainly came with a risk. For example, if Adrien were to, say, kick that crutch right out from under her, she would probably flounder around on the floor with no way to get back up again. 

This left Adrien with another important question: How was he going to do it? So far, his friends have been sticking to her like glue and taking in her words like they were given directly from the Bible. On top of that, Alya seems to have become Lila’s official guard dog. How was he supposed to work around that? Adrien couldn’t confront the brunette publicly, because Marinette was proof that that never ended well, and confronting Lila privately didn’t help either, because she would only blow him off again. No, he needed to focus on outing her to his classmates directly, but he also needed to be subtle about it. Which meant..

Which meant he’d have to beat her at her own game.

“That’s crazy!” Adrien piped up, plastering on a surprised and disgusted expression. “Can I see the texts?”

Lila and Alya turned to him, both equally shocked by his comment. He normally kept to himself during conversations about Marinette.

“Oh..” Lila blinked, gathering her thoughts. “I mean, of course! It’s just that.. they’re quite personal, you know.. She said some things that were close to home..”

“We completely understand.” Alya assured. 

“Completely,” Adrien agreed, “which is why I want to see how bad it is. Those texts can be considered harassment if you don’t feel safe.”

Alya frowned at him, but a spark arose in Lila’s eyes, one that was no doubt fueled by the thought of getting Marinette into trouble with the law. Adrien would never understand the hatred that Lila harbored for the ravenette, but he definitely knew how to use it to his advantage.

“Oh, I wouldn’t want her to get in trouble!” The brunette said with feigned concern. “But.. if you think it will help..”

She made a show of tentatively pulling out her phone and handing it to Adrien. He wasted no time snatching it from her hands and pulling up the texting app. If she was giving him the phone, she most likely had a series of fake texts to back up her story. (and they would be fake. Marinette was too nice to outwardly insult or bully others. Besides, she wouldn’t have the time even if she wanted to, what with her new school, homework, and fashion designs that she needed to tend to.)

Sure enough, he found messages upon messages of insults under the contact name “Marinette”. Things like “You’re only a model because of Gabriel’s pity and charity programs”, “You made our school’s reputation so pathetic that I had to leave”, and “They’ll find out soon that you’re too stupid to be a decent class rep.” were only the tip of the iceberg. Adrien noted the fact that there weren’t any comments about Lila’s looks specifically- she probably couldn’t think of any insults like that herself, since she was obviously so fashionable -but other than, the texts appeared to be authentic.

That is, except for the phone number.

Adrien slid further into his desk and pulled out his own phone to unlock it. A swift comparison between the two contacts proved not only that they had different phone numbers for Marinette, but that the phone number used for the harassing texts was actually the phone number that Adrien had for Lila. She must have texted herself, then deleted the doubles to make it look like a regular conversation between two people. Adrien had to hand it to her, it was a clever set-up. 

But not clever enough.

“Wow, this is awful.” Adrien declared, ensuring that both girls along with a few of their other classmates could hear him. “I’m going to text Marinette about this right now. Do you mind if I copy the number from your phone to text her, though? Some of my contacts got deleted a while back.”

Lila’s eyes widened, and panic briefly flickered across her features. 

“O-Oh, um- you really don’t have to do that-” She tried to say as she reached for her phone. 

Adrien pulled it back up with a smile. “Oh, but I want to! We can’t let Marinette get away with things like this.”

“Yeah, he’s right!” Alya eagerly agreed. “Let him talk to her. That should really pack a punch for Marinette.”

Although the comment was a bit odd, Adrien nodded along, because as long as Alya was on his side, this plan should work perfectly. 

“I’m typing in the number to call right now.” He announced, quickly punching in each digit. His only regret in that moment was that he couldn’t see Lila’s expression as he got closer to ‘accidentally’ outing her. However, the sheer panic in her voice was still enough to make his smile widen to a grin.

“No, you can’t!” She nearly shrieked, lunging over Adrien for her phone. If the class’ eyes weren’t on them before, they definitely were now. 

“Don’t worry, Lila.” Adrien said innocently as he pressed ‘call’ on the number. “I won’t tell her that you gave me her number.”

As expected, Lila’s phone immediately began to ring. He watched as the blood drained from her features, and she scrambled to turn off the device before it could finish the first ring. It was a decent move, in his opinion, but that didn’t stop the class from staring at her with a mix of surprise, suspicion, and curiosity.

“What was that?” Alya asked, leaning forward to help Lila get off of Adrien, “Was your phone ringing?”

“No, no! It was- uhm -” Lila let out a nervous, little laugh.  It’d been so long since she had to fight for her lies to stick that she must have forgotten how to lie on the spot. What a shame.

“That was just a small sound my phone makes when it turns off.” She blurted out. “I must have forgotten to charge it last night.”

Adrien pressed “end” on his call- because obviously he wasn’t going to get anywhere with Lila’s phone off -and glanced around the classroom to gauge their reactions. Those closest to the conversation were warily watching the scene unfold with furrowed eyebrows, doubt clear on their expressions. The farther ones, however, nodded along with what Lila was saying. They probably hadn’t heard most of the conversation beforehand and therefore had no reason to question her. 

“Oh,” Alya said, accepting the bullcrap answer as always, “that’s not good. Do you want to use my charger in case you need your phone later?”

Lila offered a sweet smile, stray bits of her confidence floating back to her due to Alya’s reassurance. “Ah, I’m fine. I wouldn’t want to trouble you or anythi-”

A soft rumbling shook the ground, causing the Italian girl to trail off. Adrien turned to the window, his breath catching in his throat as his thumb instinctively brushed over his ring. Was now really the best time?

In the distance, a cloud of dust was rising into the air. He’d seen enough- and done enough -to know that only the mass destruction of buildings could create such a cloud, and the mayor hadn’t informed them of any pre-planned constructions.

“Yes!” Alya cheered, leaping down the classroom steps. Leave it to her to be the only one excited about another akuma attack. “Finally!  It feels like we haven’t had an akuma in weeks!”

“Alya, wait!” Nino called after her. He always hated her little escapades. 

“Don’t worry,” Adrien said as he stood up, “I’ll take care of her.”

Right after I take care of the akuma.

~~~~~~~~

The little hands of Felix’s black wrist watch ticked away well past 12:30, reminding him of his frustrating failure to set a timer for their lunch period. How could he have forgotten? The notion had to be ingrained into his muscle memory by now. Get up, go to school, burn through the first few classes, set a timer to not waste time, and go to lunch. How did it slip his mind?

“I can’t believe I didn’t ask this sooner,” Allegra remarked as they exited the café, “but what happened to your guys’ faces? I’m pretty sure they weren’t that red before.”

Felix glanced towards Claude and Marinette, the excuse to his forgetfulness finally returning. He’d been in the middle of setting the alarm when he saw their tomato-colored faces in front of the Chemistry lab. The sight must have been enough to throw away all thoughts of setting his alarm as he asked what happened. Nevertheless, Felix still had time to copy down some notes before his next class, and that would suit him just fine for today.

“Oh, man, how have I not told you yet?” Claude snorted. “It was hilarious!”

Marinette let out a light, yet playful scoff next to him. “Define ‘hilarious’.”

The group shared a small chuckle, and Claude jumped into the story of how they- well, how he spilled their chemicals in class. It surely couldn’t have been as interesting as the brunette let on, but Claude always loved to be dramatic. He made voices for Marinette’s comments- which she jokingly took offence towards due to the unrealistically high pitch -and flailed his arms about while explaining how he poured the chemicals into a bag and mixed them. Claude even made a point to throw out his arms while mimicking the sound of an explosion when he got to the part of the story where the chemicals overflowed.

One of those arms happened to smack Felix in the shoulder, which easily brought a glare out of the blonde. If Claude was this energetic now, there was no telling how bad he was going to be during Allegra’s sleepover. In fact, the whole group was probably going to go overboard. Something about sleepovers tended to bring out the most outgoing side of a person, which was why Felix loathed them. He had to sit there and listen to everyone snort and laugh and be loud the entire evening without the comfort that he might be able to leave within an hour or two. It was torture, simply put.

And yet, he decided to go. All for the ludicrous thought that he might be able to ask Marinette more questions about her relations to Agreste and her old school once- or if -the night provided them a moment of privacy. The motivation itself was outright foolish if he were honest with himself. Even if he did acquire a “decent moment” to bring up the subject, she would most likely be uncomfortable talking about it, and dragging a person through the past that they’re deliberately trying to run from isn’t pleasant for anyone involved. That’s why he’s refrained from asking about it again so far.

Felix needed to find some other way to sedate his curiosity towards her. He did.. But how else was he going to find out why an aspiring fashion designer would run from the supposed affections of a top designer’s son? Felix guessed that it might be something like sexual harassment or another, equally disgusting treachery, but then what about the chest of gifts? Where her affections for the model had been clear? What type of fallout must one have with another person to risk their entire dream career just to escape them?

Felix shook his head slightly to push the thoughts out of his mind. He wasn’t going to barrage Marinette with question after question just to stop his mind from constantly turning when it probably wouldn’t stop anyway. Marinette was Marinette. A classmate of his that was kind, clumsy yet capable, overly-generous, determined, weirdly strong for someone of her stature, and a mystery in more ways than one when it came to the life she lived. That was going to have to be enough for him.

“You should have seen it, Allegra.” Claude said with a grin, pulling Felix back to the present. He’d somewhat forgotten that the brunette was even talking.

“It was like the whole bag of Phenol Red just went-”

A large crash erupted to the left of them, followed by a strong gust of wind that pushed them all off of their feet. Felix hit the pavement with a grunt, and Marinette landed on top of him a second later, sucking the rest of the air from his lungs. Screams pierced the air, disorienting him further- why were they screaming? What made the crash? How did it create enough wind to knock them over? -but Marinette sat up immediately. She turned to the source of the crash, tense and ready, as though she already knew what they were dealing with, and Felix couldn’t be more confused. Why did she look like she was about to fight something? (And why did he feel like she would win?)

“Do not be afraid!” A voice yelled over the crowds, drawing Felix’s gaze to a woman standing a few yards away from them. She was dressed in dark and light blues, save for her white elbow-length cloak and her white skirt that appeared to be split into several different pieces of cloth. “I’ve come to help! Not just you, but the world!”

Felix’s eyes widened, an entirely new form of terror taking hold of his body. This wasn’t.. This couldn’t be an akuma, right? She looked different than the ones he’d seen on the news, more human. If it weren’t for her white and dark blue mask and the large fan in her hands that seemed to be controlling the wind, he would have thought that she was a normal civilian merely passing by. 

“Our planets have been spoiled by the bigger companies for too long!” The woman continued, even though people ran as she spoke. “It’s time we take matters into our own hands!”

His mind screamed at him to run, to hide, to move, but he couldn’t. His entire being was cemented to the spot in fear of what might happen next. What if this akuma was dangerous? What if her powers possessed people like that Pharaoh themed villain? Or completely killed them like Stoneheart or TimeTagger? Were they going to be her first victims? What if it-

A harsh tug interrupted his reeling thoughts, and suddenly, Felix was back on his feet and running. Running behind Marinette who was pulling them to safety. 

“Hurry up, we don’t have much time!” She quietly called over her shoulder. “Let’s hide behind the wooden fence while she’s distracted.”

Felix had enough sense to look ahead of them, where a small, wooden fence that held the cafe’s menu was placed. It wasn’t hard to notice under normal circumstances, but how did Marinette think of hiding there while the akuma was right behind them? How was she not paralyzed by the very idea of being caught?

“I’m going to destroy some stores around here, but only to get the heroes’ attention!” The akuma explained as the group scrambled passed the fence and pressed their backs against the wood. “Once I have the miraculous, I will restore everything to its rightful place, I promise!”

Felix tried to slow his rapid, shallow breaths as he sank further against the fence. She was going to destroy buildings? How many? Were they going to get hit with the debris? Where were the heroes that he’d heard so much about? Shouldn’t they be doing something about all of this?

“What do we do?” Claude whispered, panic clear in his tone as well. None of them had ever seen an akuma attack before. Well, none of them except Allan, but he’d been watching through a store window a safe distance away.

“Should we call the police?” Allegra nearly squeaked, tentatively reaching for her bag to pull out her phone. “They help with stuff like this too, right?”

“No need.” Marinette said. She was on the left side of Felix now, staying close to the edge of the fence and carefully peeking around it. “The police have akuma alerts on their phones to tell them when attacks happen. They're already on their way, I’m sure.”

Felix stared down at her with furrowed eyebrows, completely baffled by the lack of panic in her demeanor. This was the same girl who stumbled and stuttered to ask him for a pencil during class! Yet here she was, taking charge and giving orders and speaking perfectly. It was like she was a completely different person! How was that even possible? 

“Alright,” The ravenette spoke, turning back to them with a deathly serious gaze, “I’m going to run out and get her attention. While I’m doing that, you guys need to run as far away from here as you can and find a good basement to hide in until this is over.”

“What?” The group practically gasped in unison. She wanted to face the akuma alone?!

“Marinette, you’re not going anywhere!” Allegra insisted. “It’s not safe out there!”

“It’s less safe if we stay here.” She replied, moving to step out into the open.

Felix grabbed her wrist to yank her back. What was happening right now? 

“Are you insane?” He hissed unintentionally. “You can’t go out there! You’re going to get yourself killed!”

“Yeah, she’s not after us.” Allan agreed. “Only the buildings. Let’s just all run out of here together.”

Marinette glanced back at the group. “But there are still people in those buildings. I need to lure her to an empty street or at least stall until the heroes get here. If I don’t, people are definitely going to get hurt or worse.”

Felix’s grip on Marinette’s wrist tightened. He hadn’t thought about the crowds of people who were running inside for cover, but even so, what would she be able to do alone? The akuma was a powerful being, and they were merely civilians in the crossfire. What’s stopping it from crushing Marinette beneath its boot at the slightest whim? Who’s to say the akuma would even listen to Marinette if she did get its attention?

“We’re not letting you sacrifice yourself for an extra second of time.” He told her. “Like you said, the police are on their way, which means the heroes will be here soon too. Let them handle it.”

A strange mix of urgency and frustration flickered across her features, and she tugged against his grip. “Felix, please, we don’t have time to argue-”

“I think I’ll start with this darling café.” The akuma crooned. “That should get some attention.”

The café walls crumbling apart was Felix’s only warning before the gust of wind made it to their little hide-out. It splintered the wood within seconds, and the group went flying, once again, into the pavement. 

Felix groaned as he pushed himself to his knees. How many times were they going to get thrown around? At least Marinette didn’t land on him this time.

Marinette.

The realization that Marinette was no longer with him washed over Felix like a bucket of ice cold water, and his gaze snapped upwards. He started to yell for her, but it was too late. Marinette was already on her feet, somehow recovering faster than all of them, and running towards the akuma head on. He could only watch in abject horror as she called out to it.

“Hey, airhead!” She yelled. “Do you really think this is the smartest plan?”

The akuma rounded on Marinette in an instant, and Felix sucked in a breath. No, no, no, no, what was she doing?

“My name is ‘Whirlwind’, thank you very much,” The woman snapped, “and I think it’s a brilliant plan. Do you think you can do something better?”

“Of course.” Marinette replied, crossing her arms. “If you’re already destroying buildings, why not go and destroy the big companies that you’re after in the first place? It’d be much more productive, don’t you think?”

Felix furrowed his eyebrows. Didn’t she say that she wanted to avoid public places?

Whirlwind hummed. “Well, yes, but with all of the major hotels and tourist spots, it’s hard to tell which buildings to destroy, and I don’t have time to look.”

“I’ll show you where they are.” Marinette offered. “Think about it, destroying a big, company building is sure to attract more attention than taking down a little café, right?”

Whirlwind narrowed her eyes as she thought it over, and a part of Felix desperately hoped that she would decline Marinette’s suggestion. A bigger part of him prayed that the police or the heroes or somebody showed up to stop this before Marinette went too far.

“Alright.” Whirlwind smiled. “I’ll take you up on that. It’s nice to see someone else interested in saving the environment.”

With a flick of her fan, Whirlwind gathered a gust of wind around Marinette, causing the ravenette to rise into the air. She then gave herself a gust of wind, which caused her white skirt to start spinning around her. If Felix wasn’t going pale with dread over what might happen to his classmate, he would have found the unique fashion choice to be humorous, as it almost reminded him of a box fan. 

Allegra let out a horrified shriek, one that rattled Felix to his bones. This was really happening. Marinette was really being carried off by some maniac in a costume. What were they going to do? What could they do? Gosh, where were the heroes?

Felix grit his teeth and forced himself to his feet. He couldn’t just stand there and watch her be kidnapped or he’d never be able to look her in the eyes afterwards.

That’s right, he told himself. The heroes were going to win, and she was going to be just fine. 

Those thoughts didn’t stop him from sprinting after the akuma, though, even as the trio called after him to stop, even as the akuma rose higher into the air, out of his reach. Marinette couldn’t do this by herself, and although Felix’s presence probably wouldn’t make much of a difference either, he’d be darned if he didn’t try to help. 

“Don’t worry,” He huffed, comforting himself more than her as he darted through alleyways to keep up with them, “I’m right behind you.”

Tag list:  @artbyknigit @athena452 @nickristus-dreamer @throneoffirebreathingbitchqueen @arsaem @abrx2002 @neakco @pawsitivelymiraculous @too0bsessedformyowngood @nathleigh @lusicing @officiallydarkgeek @all-mights-asscheeks @tbehartoo @woe-is-me0 @raeuberprinzessin @lazuli-11 @miss-chaos27 @trippingovermyfeet @sadpotatoondrugs @ladybug-182 @jaggedheart11 @marinahrasauce @i-need-blog-ideas @thewheezingbubbledragon @crazylittlemunchkin @unabashedbookworm @moonystars14 @sunflowers-and-mooncakes @2confused-2doanything  @magnificentcrapposts  @moonnette @nickristus-dreamer @vixen-uchiha @casual-darkness @luxmorningstarr @jjmjjktth​ @kaithehero @itsme1598 @theymakeupfairies @xjaccyx

[phoenixyfriend]

What can I do to limit Amazon’s* negative impacts without harming vulnerable communities who rely on their services?

* or any similar company that people are forced to use to survive if they are poor, disabled, elderly, rurally isolated, or any combination of the above

My post on Amazon has been circulating pretty far these past few weeks, and a lot of people keep trying to argue about what can be done right now. 

1. Contact your representatives

If you live in the US, there are several sites you can use to figure out your senators (you have two) and your representative (you have one). Call them if there’s a phone number. Email them if there isn’t. They’re obligated to have SOME form of contact. If your rep is already on your side, they can use your email as evidence for how citizens feel about the issue when Congress is in session to argue. If your rep is NOT on your side, they will see the email as evidence that a portion of their constituency is NOT willing to reelect them if they don’t play nice, and that scares them a lot. Either way, make yourself heard. Harass them if you have to.

(For more local issues, especially things like minimum wage and labor laws, you can find your representatives for your state or city government, like your mayor or governor or county rep, and contact them as well. Make yourself heard.)

Write emails in your own words about one of the following subjects:

Supporting the USPS. It’s the backbone of the US shipping industry, and major shipping companies like UPS, FedEx, and Amazon use it for overflow.

Monopolies and antitrust acts. Reference past antitrust acts leveled against oil, railroad, and telecom monopolies.

Raising the minimum wage. Reference inflation.

Enacting a marginal tax rate on high earners (re: the 1%, but phrased in a way that they’ll take seriously). Reference the marginal tax rates of the fifties.

Increasing disability benefits. Try to work something in about how stringent the requirements to qualify are, and how benefits don’t cover enough for medical care, transportation, assistive technology, and so on.

Increasing social security benefits for retirees. People pay into this fund all their lives as part of their income tax; it’s supposed to benefit them right back! (You can circle back to marginal tax rates and how the rich usually have savings and don’t need social security, but the poor often don’t have savings and rely on it.)

Enforcing corporate taxation. Find some statistics on who paid corporate  taxes in the past few years and who didn’t. Make sure to find a few big names and what their tax rate SHOULD have been. Emphasize how much extra money the government would be making.

Nationalizing the health care industry. Reference how well it works for countries like Canada, Korea, or Sweden, and how often hard-working Americans are bankrupted by unexpected medical emergencies.

Enacting or enforcing higher standards of employee rights. Did you know that minimum wage employees in Indiana don’t have the right to a lunch break unless they’ve been working at least twelve hours?

Legal repercussions for predatory pricing practices. Walmart is the best-known for this, but Amazon does it too, and they’re a fair bit sneakier about it.

Capping rent prices. Housing costs are among the highest financial pressures Americans face right now, and the fact that housing costs have risen SO much faster than the minimum wage is why it’s impossible to rent a one-bedroom apartment on a minimum wage anywhere in the US right now.

Capping upper management incomes. A CEO should not be earning several thousand, or several million, times as much money as their employees. It’s a long stretch (so argue the more achievable things first), but imagine if we could convince the government to say “actually, you can only make up to twenty times as much per hour as your lowest-paid employee.”

Banning police as threats against unions. UNIONS ARE GOOD THINGS. SUPPORT THEM.

Anything else that comes to mind! There are lots of subjects. This list is not an exhaustive one.

2. Vote

Pretty self-explanatory, I think. Vote in every election. Sometimes you won’t be able to vote for your top choice, and that sucks, but remember that our system is fucked and you have to go for the lesser evil that’s still capable of winning. So vote Blue (because ambivalence to our desires is better than glee at our suffering), and then send as many emails and make as many calls as you can to force them to recognize that, since you helped them get into office, they have to honor the deal to actually represent you now.

3. Support small businesses

Okay, so supporting local businesses probably isn’t too easy in a pandemic. You can’t just walk to your nearest mom and pop store to see if there’s an affordable option. That said, if you can afford to do so, try to see if there are small businesses in your area that are doing delivery or curbside-pickup.

If you live in a more rural area, see about ordering from small online businesses for non-essentials. If you’re thinking “hey, I’d like a new scarf” or something, check Instagram or Etsy first. All faults aside, Etsy is only a marketplace, not a seller themselves, so they rely on the vendors using their site to remain in business. (Whereas Amazon tries to drive their vendors out of business to take over their market share.) You can also use Google Shopping, eBay, or Craigslist.

4. Don’t Use Amazon (or similar), but don’t shame people for using it either

Some people rely on loss leaders to survive. That’s a fault of the American economy being a horrifying mess, and I listed a whole litany of the causes above. Money talks, so avoid using Amazon unless there is NO other way to get your product, but if someone you know uses Amazon, and you know they’re struggling, keep your mouth shut. If they’re not struggling, mention your distaste for Amazon but don’t push the issue; they’re more likely to come around if they feel like you’re not passing a moral judgement on them for it.

5. Recognize that many fairly-priced products are more expensive than you’re used to

The example I usually use is fashion. We’re used to a shirt costing ten or twenty dollars, even at places other than Walmart or Target. This price is what we’re led to believe is reasonable, but it’s really a factor of incredibly underpaid workers, usually overseas. If you can’t afford it, feel free to blame the low minimum wage (I certainly do), but remember to take a step back and remind yourself that it’s not that the piece is expensive, it’s that you are underpaid, and the current system is trying to teach you to expect cheaper items as the norm so they can get away with paying even more people less than they deserve.

6. DONATE

Yeah! There are a whole lot of nonprofit agencies that focus on issues that relate to this topic. I prefer to donate to organizations that focus on enacting systemic change through legal or institutional channels, like the ACLU and AAPD, but there are a lot of options, some of which focus on more direct help, or on specific parts of the country. Figure out one that speaks to you, check it against a trusted charity rating system like Charity Navigator, and set up a monthly donation if you can afford to. Constant support can cause compassion fatigue, but consistent support is how you Get Shit Done.

7. March

Join an activist group and march. Sometimes there are other major events going on (hijacking one of the current marches against racism and police brutality in favor of one about monopolies would be in bad taste AT BEST), but there will come an opportunity to make your voice heard by showing up on the street and just yelling with a sign.

Now go forth and unleash hell.

[the-fandom-fuckup]

A bit more for that modern fantasy au I teased a bit ago

Character designs n stuff are slightly based off the official halloween n fantasy ending arts, plus whatever else I wanted to do, so Kiri is a dragon shifter here, Baku is a werewolf, n Ochako is a witch.

There'll probably be a hint of a/b/o dynamics here for weres n shifters, n the idea of alpha!Kiri n alpha!Baku has stuck to me like glue, so that's a thing here also

There's no real plot for this, just these three being dumb n pining, and everyone around them rolling their eyes n dealing with it lmao

I've thought about jobs n first meetings tho, n came up with this. Kiri's a firefighter (along with Tetsu, who is also a dragon shifter, bc I love him and their bro-bond), bc big fire resistent boy running into fires to help people just makes sense. Also I really like the thought of him in the uniform

Ochako works as a self defense instructor with Gunhead at a small gym in town, probably helping people with magic items n stuff on the side for extra cash or smth, I dunno. She might wanna move into a more magically dominant field one day, but she likes the environment of the gym n the regulars that come in n chat between classes. She's also very good at what she does n has put many assholes in their place after they've scoffed at "the cute little girl you have here".

Baku is a "park ranger", n I use quotations bc that's the only title he could really give himself to have any authority over the land he owns. He gives himself more leeway than what some laws may grant, tho tbh if you're coming into his territory with intent to harm those in it, you're lucky to walk away at all just sayin'

He runs an escape park of sorts for weres n shifters to run around during full moons and other times they need to shed their human skin, personally owned so he can avoid all the bullshit regulations n "safety procedures" found in bigger places that try offering the same thing, but ultimately make the shifting process shittier than it needs to be. And words gets around so it gets super popular super fast, n people of all ages come by

Tbh the thought of a teeny tiny wolf, like 10y/o at most running around Baku n trying to get him to play, nipping at his ankles n calling him the pack alpha is really what settled the debate on whether he should be an alpha or omega. And the added image of Baku rolling his eyes n putting on his toughass act but not really minding it as he gets them moving with a tap on the ass, muttering "Fuckin told ya squirt, I'm not your pack alpha. Now find someone else's ankles to bite at, I'm busy", makes me feel really nice

For some first meetings, tbh Kiribaku probably happens first, n they meet when Kiri n Tetsu accidentally trespass on Baku's territory bc they're new to the area n found a big ass lake to soak in during a flight over town, like dude!! Fuck yea that could fit both of us easy, man I haven't soaked in my big form in forever lets go!

And ofc if the giant shadows overhead hadn't tipped him off the security sensors would've so Baku's like who in the FUCK!! N storms off to confront them bc you don't just come on his land like that. That's how people get fucking hurt you dumb assholes 😤😤

N Kiri n Tetsu are mostly just minding their own business, settling down into the lake like aw yea that's the shit, almost passing out bc they'd just had a long day n the water was so cool n the fish eatting the dead skin n shit off their scales was so relaxing. They don't even realise they'd drifted into a light doze when they hear furious snarling n harsh sniffing coming their way, n barely have enough time to get up before Baku comes tearing shit through the trees

And like. Kiri n Tetsu know that they're big boys. Their full sized dragon forms are huge n there's not much out there that scares them, but nobody likes coming face to face with a snarling werewolf, standing in their territory without any warning that you maybe shouldn't be there

Despite the hostile intro, it doesn't take much for the misunderatanding to be cleared up. There's a lot of apologies from Kiri n Tetsu n a lot of irritated snorts from Baku, but they get straightened out. Baku tells them what kinda show he's running n Kiri inatantly get sparkly eyes like dude!! You do that all by yourself?! That's so manly bro you gotta let us help with that

Baku snorts like you don't have to make empty offers if you wanna use the grounds, I don't refuse people unless they pose an actual threat to the others. You guys aren't dangerous, just stupid. N Kiri goes hey rude, but also it's gotta be a lot dealing with all that on your own. We can at least watch out from above, keep an eye on shit or whatever bc face it man, you may be great but even you can't be in multiple places at once.

And the only reason Baku ends up agreeing is bc they pester him about it until he's well past irritated, n he's figured out the only way to shut them up was concede. They can't be there fulltime anyway consudering their professions, but they're sure to help when they can

Kirichako meet at the gym. Kiri's buying a membership or smth bc you gotta keep the stength up bro! Can't be slacking when you're the difference between someone living n someong dying y'know? Ochako's either in a class or dealing with some hothead, her furrowed brows n puffed cheeks distracting Kiri n reminding him of a chipmunk before bud says smth he can't hear but has Ochako seeing red. It doesn't take long for him to end up on his ass n Kiri's just stuck watching, jaw dropped n heart eyes as Ochako tells the guy he can either fix his attitude or find somewhere else to go

Kiri turns to Tetsu like dude holy shit did you see that?? N Tetsu's like yea bro everyone saw it, n Ochako comes up to them like sorry about that. We have a no harassment policy here that some people overstep, n it sucks that we get people coming in that need it enforced but unfortunately it's pretty common.

Then, bc she's still a bit sour, she looks them both dead in the eyes with a fire raging behind hers like if that's not smth you think you can handle then you might as well save us all the hassle n leave now. N they're both like no way that was great, totally understandable, just tell us where to sign

And while she came off as kinda aggressive during their initial meet, Kiri's quick to find she has just as much sweetness to match her bite. He watches her between sets sometimes n sees how kind n gentle she can be with the younger classes that come in, how she doesn't single out people who struggle n instead moves to help n provide tips without making a huge deal of it

She's also one of the first people to come running when someone gets hurt, he finds out. He'd admittedly been more focused on her sparring with Gunhead than he'd been on the super heavy equipment he was using for his reps, n managed to look over at the perfect time to get flustered n drop it directly on his foot. The resounding crack was loud enough to catch quite a bit of attention, tho he knows the equipment is more likely to be damaged than his foot

Ochako doesn't even hesitate to run over n levitate him to take the pressure off of his not broken foot, going "oh my god are you okay?? Someone clear that bench please, he needs to get off his feet now!" N Kiri does appreciate the concern, as embarassing as it may be, n tries to tell her it's really not a big deal, thanks for the help but honestly--

N she rounds on him like say that one more time n you'll be dealing with a broken nose instead, now sit your ass down n let me handle this!! Kiri can't even reply with anything other than a quiet okay😳😳 bc he's always thought her determination was super admirable, but being this close n seeing it burn in her eyes so intensely is taking it to a whole new level n he has no clue how to handle it

Kacchako meeting is kind of a hybrid mix of the other two combined lmao. Baku owns a pack house where he lives with Deku, then later with Kiri, Tetsu, Mina, Kami, n Sero, but he's so busy with the park that he's hardly ever home. N since Ochako's kinda embarassed about her tiny ass appartment, they usually hang out at the pack house to talk over magic studies or gossip over whatever's happened recently. At this point Baku n Ochako have heard of each other but never been around at the same time

Which causes a problem one day while Ochako's in the kitchen making tea when Baku comes home. He'd had a stressful day warding off poachers or smth, n his rut's just a few days away now, so when he opens the door n is greeted with a slightly unfamiliar scent it sends him into a daze, where he stalks to the kitchen before he even knows that he's moving

Ochako knows tho, can hear the low growls and deliberately quiet steps creeping behind her, setting her on edge bc ohhhh my god, someone just broke into Deku's place holy shit!! And when it gets close enough to barely feel hot breath on the back of her neck she's flinging herself into action, all muscle memory as she gets a few quick jabs into Baku's gut. It knocks the question outta his lungs, getting out a choked "who the--" before her magic kicks in and she's picking him up n slamming him down with his weight returned for maximum momentum, body slamming the following "fUCK!!" out as well before she placed her weight on him to keep him down. She gets right in his face demanding "who are you?! How did you get in here?!"

And when he can breathe again Baku snaps back like "who tf am I?!? I live here!! Who tf are you?!?!" And like, she's still in fight mode so she's looking him over like hmm, so this is Bakugou. Then she realises wtf she's doing n goes oh my god it's Bakugou!! N she's jumping off him and apologising so fast that she's barely saying words, trying to take his hands n help him back up but getting swatted away bc you've done enough touching don't you think??

And yea, Baku's kinda pissed. Being attacked in your own house does that to anyone, let alone a pre-rut alpha. But also, he's kinda impressed, bc he can count on one hand the amount of people who've gotten the drop on him like that, but he'd rather die than admit it out loud. So he just huffs at her with a final "try that shit again n I'll kill you", n stalks off to his room, having more important things to worry about right then than who's fucking around in his kitchen

((His rut decides to be completely unhelpful that time around, his alpha brain locking in on the faint perfume she'd left on his shirt while tossing him around and how perfectly it mixed with his own scent, as well as the shirt he nabbed from Kiri's laundry basket the night before. He rubs the scents of these strong potential mates all over his den, knots his rut aid with his face plastered to the shirts then uses it to scent the shirts even more, drunk off of how well their scents all mix together. He's rightfully embarassed during the end when he can start thinking properly again n throws both shirts to the back of his closet to be forgotten about--as much as his alpha fights him on it--n moves on to his business like normal.

Tho if he tries to be home more often when he knows Ochako's coming around, n spends more time in Kiri's space, nobody's mean enough to comment on it. At least, not at first.))

Man I have many feelings about this, but I'll leave it here for now bc I could go on forever

[movedtooh-westly]

Heyo, your ocs are so interesting! I already love them. Do you have a story line for the characters? What are some facts about them? Have a good day and don't forget to drink lots of water :)

Okay for starters, thanks for the ask! hope you’re well too! it makes me happy when people are interested in whatever i’m working on :D (it’s a long post, strap in)

A general plot to the story (mind you, it’s still in it’s early stages of being created):

Alinsky Cross, a dangerous combination between a kleptomaniac and a genius, is a master at orchestrating large scale tests and thefts, stealing items like priceless objects and large sums of money. However, he becomes increasingly confident and lets his guard down during a specific heist. The people he was stealing from were called the American Artefact Collection Committee (AACC). The AACC were able to pinpoint who stole their most prized artefact (which is a little acorn-looking thing with origins that are not human, dubbed ‘tenebrarius’), as Alinsky underestimated their security. However, they ruled out the possibility of Alinsky being the thief and instead, captured his father, Ernst Cross, in retaliation. Alinsky is unaware that it was the AACC who captured him or that it was even his fault to begin with. After about a year since Ernst’s abduction, Alinsky starts to explore different methods of finding him. Running out of new and successful ways, he turns to more mythological ideas. While Alinsky believes it was natural for his brain to wander into hypothetical territory, his actual influence came from a connection to the magic world he is unaware of. 

This magic 6th sense came from an encounter with a demon (which are part of the magic world) when he was barely five. He escaped it, only suffering a scratch on his left hand. wounds inflicted from Faefolk to humans leave the human with a connection to the magic world, which is why Alinsky can sort of sense magical presences. 

This leads him into capturing Esther Snowe, a member of the Faefolk council, in exchange for the secrets to fairy technology. Ernst is brought home a year after Esther is released with the tech, but the reunion isn’t a happy one. 

Facts about the characters: 

My main character lineup consists of 

Alinsky Cross

Bear (Harding Dietrich)

Esther Snowe (Elf)

Farley Coven (Harpy)

Odessa Dew (Elf)

Elisabeth Cavey (Dwarf)

Rooney Pelph (Centaur)

I’ve made a post about Alinsky already here. It has some general info and fun facts about the gremlin boy.

Bear is a martial-artist and had been training since he could walk, basically. When he graduated, he pursued an education in becoming a butler, before becoming bored and instead ending up on the wrong side of the law. He was employed by gangs and other underground companies as a tank or bodyguard. Bear also worked as a contract-killer for a while before deciding it wasn’t for him and instead used his 30s to travel the globe. He was finally employed by Ernst and Vivian Cross before Alinsky was born and the three became rather close friends. When Alinsky was born, Bear became his personal bodyguard. He’s a big softie but that’s usually only revealed after you get through the walls of blank faces and reserved nature. 

Bear facts: 

He used to be in a swing band (he played BARITONE SAX)

Bear likes to bake and can make one mean quiche

Bear is a big fan of ABBA 

Esther Snowe is the Elf Representative in the Council. She is one of 13 Reps (each corresponding with a Fairy race) and the only female to become a member in five centuries. She was apart of the FAE (Federal Army and Enforcement, hehe) and had actually made lieutenant before she quit. She had witnessed the death of some civilians and believed they were her fault and she found it easier just to run. She couldn’t properly let go, however, and often visits her old friends during breaks and stuff. Esther was a role model for aspiring members of parliament and her unexpected abduction was pretty tough on her. Esther is an optimistic and strong individual with a fighter’s spirit and one hell of a social butterfly.  

Esther facts:

Esther likes to collect knives and is quite skilled in knife combat

She’s scared of small spaces

Esther makes little pompoms just for fun

Farley Coven is the FAE’s technical person. They had upgraded the interfaces, tools and gadgets to their liking and it’s pretty much useless to try and use it without their help. Farley is a big fan of human TV shows and often watches famous sitcoms during work. They had been a bit of a nerd during their schooling years but had really come to grow on the FAE’s troops and atmosphere, especially since Dew is such a joy to tease. Farley is a cool and relatable individual with too many jokes and not enough time. 

Farley facts:

Farley is incredibly smart but likes to hide their intelligence under a laid-back facade

They have that ✨shrimp posture✨

Friends is definitely their favourite sitcom (they also probably watch buzzfeed unsolved tbh)

Odessa Dew (or just Dew, Commander, your highness, etc) is the Commander of the FAE’s 1st precinct. She’s a skilled fighter and takes a lot of pride in her job. Dew’s first job option was a teacher but found herself rather unfit for teaching (i.e she might have thrown a kid across the room). She’s well respected and is part of the family in the FAE. Dew specialises in retrieval missions and loves field action. she also may have a small crush on Esther but we repress that stuff don’t we . Dew’s a tough and enthusiastic person but has that that “i would fistfight god behind the 7eleven” energy. 

Dew facts:

Dew has a hoarding problem with plants

She likes watching sports

Her and Farley are best buds, even if she won’t admit it

Elisabeth Cavey is a competitive digger, which is a popular sport among the burrowing races of the fairies (e.g. gnomes, dwarfs). It’s mostly a hobby but she’s gained some popularity in the recent years. Elisabeth had started out wanting to become a nomad and live on the surface but had decided to become a sport star while she was in senior school. She’s pretty competitive but rather shy and spends her spare time gardening. Elisabeth is also quite sensitive and has a tendency to take things personally. 

Elisabeth facts:

She has totally thought of just bailing and living secretly on the surface

With help, she pirates human novels to read

Like Dew, Elisabeth is also a plant hoarder

Rooney Pelph is a national racer and competes in races and obstacle courses. He’s very hyper and barely sits still. He doesn’t really sleep much either. Rooney is a big fan of games (like tag and whatnot) and dreams of playing with others his age, but centaurs usually give up on games once they hit 60. Rooney is also a big fan of video games but due to his stardom, doesn’t really get to do much gaming. He’s quite a calculated individual and is a deep thinker but is pretty bad at converting his thoughts into words. 

Rooney facts:

i totally didn’t name him after the headmaster from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off

He’s a big fan of feminine clothing! he loves frills especially :J

Rooney will consume entire cans of mints in under an hour. 

if you got this far, great job. hope you enjoyed my ramblings. my inbox is always open if you have any questions about my OCs, story or anything else :]

[transthaumaturge]

Ace Attorney and the Finally Kind-Of Okay Queer Representation

Note: This post contains massive spoilers for Turnabout Academy, the third case in the 3DS game Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies. There are also spoilers for a few cases in the earlier games. Please only read on if you’re okay with that.

I love Ace Attorney, but as a series it is fraught with bad queer representation. It really says something that the first queer character that I felt pretty good about was five games in. Most of this bad rep is in the form of effeminate, gay-coded men that are written as evil and/or comic relief. A brief rundown:

1) Redd White, the power-hungry CEO of Bluecorp;

2) Jean Armstrong, the cowardly café owner who lied on the stand (and who is repeatedly misgendered by the judge for comic relief);

3) Florent L’Belle, the greedy Mayor’s Aid.

All three characters are presented as a mix of negative stereotypes and bad-faith comic relief. They’re dark spots in an otherwise really fun series, and it’s made me very uncomfortable interacting with each one as I’ve played through the cases. I’ve never felt worse about Ace Attorney than when it’s punching down on gay-coded characters, all of whom were written with no redeemable qualities. I mean, two of them were the actual murderers in their respective cases! Honestly, it just sucked.

That’s why I got so excited (and also super-nervous they would botch it again) today while playing through Turnabout Academy, at the moment when one of the characters is revealed to be explicitly trans. I’ll go over the general facts and then discuss why this was a step in the right direction, but still very flawed.

In the case, Robin Newman is a high school law student and a close friend of the defendant. In the early stages of the case, Robin presents as a very masculine individual and even wears a chest brace that is supposedly proof of her manliness. This whole time, she’s represented as a very aggressive and unhappy person. But on the first day of the case, it’s revealed that she put on a feminine costume belonging to the defendant because she really wanted to wear something girly. When further pressed, she comes out in the courtroom and reveals that she’s actually a girl—the chest brace was hiding the fact that she had breasts, and her parents raised her as a boy as some terrible step in forcing her to become a prosecutor when she grew up. Afterward, she’s a very cheerful, peppy person and says that she’s grateful she finally gets to live life as a girl and pursue her dream of becoming an artist.

As a trans woman myself, I started getting really excited as soon as it became clear that Robin put on the outfit—and even more excited when it was finally revealed that she was a girl who had been raised as a boy. The first thing that tipped me off to my gender identity was wanting to wear women’s clothing, so this gender euphoria through clothing scenario was something that I could relate to on a deep emotional level. And while I got nervous at first because the blame for the murder was briefly pinned on her, that ultimately goes nowhere. This is the first queer character in an Ace Attorney game that is represented as kind, positive, and trustworthy. Robin is wonderful. I love her so much.

But now I want to dive into where parts of her portrayal are still negative, and how Capcom made several missteps that ultimately resulted in Robin not being as fleshed-out and three-dimensional as she deserved to be.

First, Robin’s reveal is still treated like comic relief at times. I was really uncomfortable when several characters said “he was a she???” or something to that effect. Given that “he-she” was once a widely used transphobic slur for trans women, it wasn’t in good taste. Also uncomfortable was the fact that as soon as the big reveal happened, she took on a bunch of hyperfeminine behavioral and vocal tics. The worst was when she started swooning every time that anything shocking happened for the rest of the time she was on the stand. It felt like this was just a way to play up the comedy side of “hey, she’s a girl now.” She was forcibly outed in the courtroom, and then magically showed no trauma or self-doubt afterward. It almost felt like she wasn’t there to be a serious character anymore. Later, she thanks Athena for outing her. I think that sends the wrong message.

What did the game do right when portraying her? I loved how visibly relieved and happy she was after coming out, though it sucks that she didn’t get to do it on her own terms. It’s later revealed that she had confided in a professor about her gender identity and had a plan to come out to the school, so that was a nice touch. I also really liked it being mentioned that she had been raised as a boy, removing most of the ambiguity about what we were seeing—that this wasn’t a self-imposed repression of her authentic self, but something that had been forced on her. They used the right pronouns for her throughout the entire rest of the case without slipping up even once, thankfully not misgendering her for laughs like they did relentlessly with Jean Armstrong two games earlier. She was also just a really pleasant character to be around afterward, so that was nice.

What would be on my wish list if I were asked to help in rewriting Robin to be a more positive example of trans representation? First, I would fix her character’s comedic behavioral tics. Most witnesses have some silly animations, but the fact that all of her tics after being outed were hyperfeminine to the point of parody made me uncomfortable. Are there other ways to make her a bit quirky and visibly feminine without punching down on her burgeoning relationship with her gender? I’m sure that there are. It would also be nice for her reaction to being out in public for the first time to be more on par with what you might actually expect if a trans woman found herself in that situation. She probably feels relieved, but also a bit scared, embarrassed, and hesitant about how she’s supposed to act now. I would love to see some of that reflected in how she talks and in how she acts. Maybe she’s daydreaming of what she can wear now that she’s out, and that’s interspersed with nervous hair-twirling and curtsying at awkward times.

I’d also like her to say something to Athena about how she wished that she wasn’t forced to come out in front of a bunch of people like that, but she’s happy that she gets to be herself. Anything other than thanking Athena for outing her with no qualifiers. The fact that she was forcibly outed needs to be portrayed as a traumatic moment. Sure, something good came out of it and Athena didn’t immediately realize that that’s where the cross-examination was going, but it shouldn’t have happened. An apology from Athena would also be nice. She should feel at least a little bit guilty about outing someone in the middle of a courtroom, even if that someone was much happier afterwards.

Finally, I’d love for there to be less ambiguity about the events that led her to this point—and ideally, something that more explicitly shows that she’s a trans woman. The way her dialogue was written, I think the writers were trying to portray her as having been assigned female at birth, but later forced by her parents to take on a male identity for…some reason. It’s never explained why they would want to inflict that on her. She’s trans regardless of her sex at birth if she was forced to live life as a boy for her entire childhood, but I think that it could be handled better. A few possibilities that I like more:

1) She was already in the middle of gender transition, and started wearing the chest brace when her breasts began to develop since she wasn’t ready to be out in public—especially to her parents, who might have cut her financial support off if they had known. After all, she was at a prestigious private legal school. That must have been a concern.

2) She was intersex, and her parents raised her as a boy when she was growing up because that’s unfortunately what happens so often with intersex children—they’re forced into one side of the binary or the other, and sometimes they find out later on that their parents didn’t make the right choice or that they don’t identify with a binary gender identity at all. Robin had breasts because she was born with both male and female sex characteristics, and try as her parents might to force her into manhood, she still had a uterus. Not every intersex person is trans, but plenty are.

3) Or just…remove the bit where she’s revealed to have breasts altogether, and keep in the fact that she’s a girl who was raised as a boy! Why does she have to be “a biological female in disguise”? While either of the above two options would have been good ways to explain the fact that she had breasts, I’m not giving the writers enough credit to have thought of one or the other. If they had, it would have been hinted at. On some level, it felt like they were saying “it’s okay everyone, she’s not really trans. Look, she had breasts all along!” If that’s what they were trying to do, then screw it; just change the reveal but nothing else about the character, and make her an unabashedly AMAB trans woman.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on the topic. I recognize that this was super long-winded, but I needed to get my thoughts out—anyone who’s interested in this and got something from the long read, I’m glad that I was able to provide some insight. And I’m not even done with the series yet! Maybe they did do better! I don’t have my hopes up, but maybe! Anyway, please feel free to reblog this post with your thoughts or message me if this inspired any opinions of your own. As long as those thoughts aren’t “Robin isn’t really trans or queer at all.” I don’t need that kind of negativity in my life.

Have a great day, everyone! And thanks for reading!

[brittie-frog]

Haunting of Bly Manor

Right.

I love horror and after spending sometimes days watching video essays on gay history, specifically in (horror) movies and film, I now kinda understand why so with the Haunting series and its gay rep and them not being the villain of the story, I loved it.

(Quick note I have only rewatched the show twice and can only take from my own experience of media)

My phone also knows me so will suggest news stories on things I've recently watched or current murder cases. So it suggested me this story today:

I went in open minded knowing that some people were angry about the ending falling into the 'kill the gays' trope (which I will come back to).

At first it was fine, talking about the ghost story/love story comment and how it relates to the show and has good analysis that I agree with. Then it goes on to basically summarise the show.

It keeps mentioning that all the gay subtext is implied:

why Dani broke up with her fiance

why Jaimie is reluctant to be vulnerable with Dani (before the monologue)

And that there needs to be a “lot of filling in between the lines” to understand their romance despite their practically constant flirting (Jaimie's 'Poppins' for Dani is the cutest nickname) and multiple kissing scenes. However, I digress, it can be sometimes hard to understand certain attitudes to each other at the beginning.

It also states that its like they want on the pat on the back for "making them queer, without making anything about them very queer". I don't know what this means, but I took two interpretations:

That not all queer people need to stereotypically look queer to be and that is a step forward for gay rep (I prefer)

That the creator wants to be celebrated for making gay rep without truely showing their queerness (which I think is pretty false)

Then it talks about the fireside chat and Jaimie's backstory, describing the monologue as "shoehorned" into the scene and "devoid of any mention of her sexuality". This is where the first part of my 10 minute research for context comes in. This is set in 1987 in a small town in England with an American. In charge of England at the time was the famously homophobic Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that implemented Clause 28. No one in this setting and right mind - especially after being ridiculed for most of her life - would come out to any one, flirting or not, that they have known for at most a month or two. Also, this entire scene resolves around Jaimie's attitudes towards people, and why she's reluctant to get close to people, favouring taking care of her flowers over interacting with others.

Then it talks about Owen and Mrs. Grose having "more meaningful screen time and backstories that continue throughout multiple episodes".

First Hannah. We basically get Hannah's entire backstory in episode 5: how she met Owen, scenes of her working at the Manor (in non-chronological order) and how she died in the first episode. Then that continued into the final episode when she finally comes to terms with her death and her love for Owen to save everyone. We don't actually get much backstory in the way of her childhood or even how she met the family (from what I remember, correct me if I'm wrong).

Now Owen. His backstory is that he grew up in Bly, left to go to France and became a Sous Chef, only coming back because his mum got diagnosed with dementia and he needed to take care of her despite her constantly mistaking him for other people. That is also only explored through Hannah's memories of the interview and the bonfire-side chat.

Those are both sad backstories but you can't call them any more or less meaningful than Jaimie's of in depth about how her and her family were ridiculed and bullied throughout her life and even spent time in juvie. They all have points mentioned in their stories that I would love more indepth on: how Hannah met the family/met Sam, either Owen's childhood in Bly or his time in France and why Jaimie spent time in juvie. But I also realise this is a short series that has to make fleshed out characters and tell an entire story in 8 episodes.

The article then talks about how even the ghosts got an entire episode to themselves when they barely show up. If you look in the background of the majority of scenes you'll see them and personally I really enjoy getting their stories of how they died. However, that episode is about more than just finding out about the ghosts and Viola's life, it’s mainly about what led to her being the first ghost and causing other dead people to stay as ghosts and the origin of those specific words that give a ghost access to an alive person’s body, to help explain the majority of the show. If I showed my friend this show and removed that episode I would have more questions asked than when my mum finished it.

Now I don’t know what to say. I agree there is no law on art so it can be anything and I usually think that the haunting series are in a slightly different universe (it’s how sleep at night knowing that someone can’t be so stubborn they become a murdering ghost) but also yes, trans-roles should be given to trans people more often. However they are actors and their job is to play some they aren’t for entertainment so for the most part I agree with Scarlett about being able to play anything. Also yes the self-congratulatory approach after playing an LGBT+ character when you’re cishet is kinda bad unless you have the full support of the community telling you it was a good portrayal and accurate representation. It won’t be enough for minorities if our representation, that people outside the communities are calling great, are just surface level characters that are just there for tokenism but you can’t compare Bly Manor characters to those types of characters. All of them have so much development and are well done that the majority of the community that has watched the show have no problem with and love their representation.

Personally I love both Theo Crain and Jaimie and Dani because they represent different things. Theo Crain is on a basic level. as a lothario, a stereotypical butch lesbian, constantly hooking up and struggles to actually open up and love people. Dani and Jaimie are soft, domestic cottage core lesbians in a flower shop AU. This is not a bad thing and just because they have a “tepid romance” doesn’t mean it’s a step back. Also more context time:

 As said before Thatcher was in charge and heavily homophobic, creating laws to stop people from teaching children about homosexuality since gay sex had been decriminalised recently

��It was the middle of the AIDs epidemic. Dani was coming from a country that was doing nothing about the deaths of thousands and going to a country where hysteria about AIDs was rampant but they were doing more, like the ‘AIDs: don’t die of ignorance’ information leaflet despite it not being as huge with 46 deaths by 1984. (That assumes that the AIDs epidemic happened in this universe)

Dani clearly had some form of internalized homophobia before even coming to England because she spent so long with her fiance hoping to feel the way she’s supposed to (I think the ghost of him is her guilt and internalized issues personified as it constantly appears when she’s trying to move forward.)

Also in the final episode it shows that is probably at least some homophobia in America as they kiss in the shop then look outside and go to the back so no one can see. (This could be interpreted as seeing if anyone is planning on coming in so they can escape without having to stop early for customers but Jaimie had already changed the sign to closed.)

Now onto the ‘kill the gays’ trope. Yes this is a huge trope that is so damaging to the community that we’re constantly the ones killed off for views or when their tokenism is no longer important, that is fucked up! However this doesn’t mean that we should give every gay character plot armour, cause that’s also unrealistic, just to please the select few that will call it out as a damaging trope. There is huge difference between say, The 100 killing Lexa and Bly Manor killing Dani as one has plot relevance and brings the story to a close while the other enraged an entire generation so much they started a brand new convention to celebrate queer relationships/characters in media. It’s also not like she was the only one to die, it’s horror after all, Hannah, Rebecca and Peter, the parents and all those ghosts died or were already dead.

Like many of the comments on the article - If all you got from this show was it falls into kill the gays, you have completely missed the entire point of the show.

[cardassiangf]

okay actually let me just do the top three placements for the ds9 crew, okay? okay here we go! these are just for fun & also my interpretation. also i realize some arent human and therefore would have different placements entirely, but you know what? idc. (and no ezri since i havent seen enough of her to make a good guess sfdgfhjh sorry!) 

julian i already said was a cancer sun virgo moon. workaholics who are kinda anxious but also full of love and affection, plus they also love to talk. for rising im kind of caught between aries and sagittarius, because they both in nicely with the top two. i am leaning more towards aries rising though for him. moves very fast to keep interest in things & is career minded. it’s kind of a combination that swings back and forth between this unflappable confidence (usually in the workplace) and a deep emotional vulnerability. also, they’re caregivers by nature. his childhood teddy bear was his ‘first patient,’ and that has to mean something. he also repeatedly shows himself to be drawn to people that might be in need of ‘fixing,’ and might not necessarily pull back until something shakes him out of it. julian is someone who buzzes with energy and feels so much at once it can be hard to reign in, but once he actually manages to do that, it’s almost unstoppable. 

for sisko im feeling gemini sun and scorpio moon. okay yes two signs with a bad rep for some reason but hear me out: this person is extremely charming, confident & elegant except when they're Not, there's intense confidence and resolve that comes through. and on that intensity, we’ve all seen sisko when he gets serious about something--it’s a Lot. it’s a combo that can also be thrown off kilter and that’s not a great thing, but sisko has an excellent support system to ground him so you don’t see the negativity. he’s also a pisces rising. the same intensity comes out in love and emotional intelligence with him here, he’s definitely someone in touch with that side of himself and that’s very Water Sign of him. so basically loving, protective, the type of person people get drawn too for one reason or another but also there’s a chaotic side to him too, and he’s got a flair for the dramatic (his escapades in the mirrorverse come to mind when i think about this.) 

jadzia... okay see my initial reaction is to just. fill her chart with fire. she’s a big personality on the surface, and extremely magnetic. but actually? leo sun pisces moon. okay yeah, a fire sign out from the gate but hear me out. there’s a lot of duality in jadzia, and while she outwardly shows a ton of confidence, she’s also pretty self reflective and i get the sense she much prefers to deal with her problems internally. like, people don’t really see much past her dazzling outside either, and as another leo sun, people do tend to write us off as a bit one dimensional at times. the known emotional sensitivity of the pisces mized with leo’s capacity to love is good for her i think. rising is a bit tricky, since jadzia also has dax to blend her personality with, but i think that virgo rising suits her well. for all of the fun she brings to the table, she also has a brilliant streak of practicality. 

kira is another instinctively ‘oh, fire sign!’ person but actually? i think she has a ton of water in her chart. she’s emotional and passionate and so devoted to the things and people she believes in, and maybe she isn’t used to paying attention to her emotions because the occupation didn’t let her, but she feels so deeply. for this reason, pisces sun sagittarius moon scorpio rising. the thing about kira is that she might hold a lot of anger, but most of it stems from love and protectiveness. she’s incredibly blunt and adaptable, and definitely one of those pisces who doesn’t actually want to admit they have anything in common with the other water signs lmao. she’s at her best when she’s around people who can ground her and kind of make her pause to evaluate things before jumping into action and seriously values the bonds she makes with people. she also doesn’t really care for staying still or playing political mind games and would much prefer to just jump into the Doing phase of things. 

quark is just. it took me a minute for him actually? idk he’s a bit of a weird one. for quark, he’s kind of dramatic and emotional but also has this wonderfully deviant side and, when it comes down to it, isn’t terrible at business negotiations at all. yes he has majorly fucked up some big opportunities, but also somehow has kept his bar running for what, 15? 20 years? through everything that’s happened on ds9.  quark is a capricorn sun, but it’s balanced out (or in conflict with) his aquarius moon and leo rising. quark is weird, and kind of a dick sometimes, but when he’s not trying to be a menace, he actually has a pretty good heart. he’s a pretty creative thinker and constantly finds new ways to use practical knowledge to his advantage. but he also likes to ‘outshine’ others and keep the spotlight on himself, and he’ll lie and trample over people to do so. the fact that this combo makes him attentive can be a bit of a double-edged sword; sure, he can listen to people when he feels like it, but what’s going to happen with that knowledge? who knows. not quark until he finds an opportunity for it at least. 

odo! does not technically have a birthday but who cares i love him so he’s here. yes, we will start obviously: virgo sun. what else would i go with. he’s a reserved person with a personality that errs on the side of uptight; very virgo stereotypical. but you know what else? aries moon. oh yes. odo walks into a room and as long as he wants you to know he’s there, you Will know. he’s bold in his own way, and extremely on top of details with intense attentiveness. of course there’s some fire in his chart, and probably a lot of it in other placements too.  his gemini rising helps this out immensely, which is kinda surprising. but also when gemini is ascendant with virgo in sun, it makes them meticulous, fast learners. maybe a bit nitpicky at times, but nothing that can’t be helped with practice. i think the aries placement would also probably explain the underlying sensitivity, because like, it’s generally one of the louder signs of the zodiac but here’s a secret from anther fire sign: we are So sensitive oh my fucking god. we have a ton of ego and pride (and you can’t tell me odo doesn’t have moments of that) so typically unless we’re in a place we feel we can let go, you won’t see it, but jesus Fucking christ fire signs have a lot of emotion under the surface. 

miles, who i just wanna lowkey take the piss out of and slap him with virgo/virgo/virgo but i will refrain lmao. no, for him, libra sun leo moon virgo rising. he’s extremely reliable, devoted to his work & friends & family even if he’s not the greatest at showing it? a bit emotionally constipated but he does try very hard and that’s why we love him. is it the placements or the fact that he’s an irish dad? who knows, but he’s very prone to just telling people things outright with nothing to cushion it. this can be good or bad, and seems to depend more on how well the other person knows him. his leo side makes him pretty warm when he’s comfortable, and i think his relationship with keiko actually paints him as a lowkey traditional romantic too. also, these placements make for really good parents, and we don’t see it as much as we see the jake/sisko father/son dynamic, but miles really does do his best for his kids. 

worf my boy, who i have loved dearly since i first saw tng. hard to make a guess for him im 100% happy with though. im decently satisfied with taurus sun leo moon scorpio rising. worf is just like. he doesn’t have a really big personality but you also are very aware of him? i wouldn’t say he’s stoic by any means, he’s just very. focused. he’s honest and tries his best to look at situations from a more lawful standpoint, or at least, one that makes the most sense with his own honour code. he seems drawn to stability, but also finds himself drawn to people who challenge him too? he’s out here looking for something to balance him out and put things in perspective for him. whether or not he takes that into consideration is another thing entirely. and i say scorpio because, you know what they say, still water runs deep. you might know what he’s thinking because he told you, but you might not know how he Feels about it. actually, you probably will not. the leo doesn’t really make him want to be in the spotlight or anything, in his case i think it acts more like his driving force. 

and listen. i know garak isn't crew. but i love him so he’s here and we’re all gonna like it.  this chaotic little bastard spy is an aquarius sun pisces moon capricorn rising.  garak is unique, and even if he doesn’t want to say it, he’s pretty ruled by his emotions too. he’s creative, and a grade-A manipulator who can charm his way just about anywhere (provided of course, the person in question isn’t someone who’s been warned about him, but even then, he has a good chance). he’s good a good, if not a bit Off, sense of humour and he comes off as someone who has a personal interest in the behaviour of people. not just a spy thing, but he’s invested--he does crave a certain intimacy and closeness which gets denied uh. most of his life actually. the capricorn read comes from how he’s been able to compartmentalize and commit acts of cruelty. an interrogation that was four hours of staring and not speaking is certainly creative. it’s also an insanely calculated and sadistic mind game for him. and it’s interesting to note that as much as he manipulates, he’s also very easily manipulated himself (see: Everything about tain jesus fuck i hate that man so much). he also runs into quite a bit of trouble when he’s not able to compartmentalize things any longer, whether it’s because the emotional toll is too high or he simply doesn’t see the point in the actions any longer. 

[jimlingss]

Jungle Park [16]

Chapter 15 - Chapter 16 - Chapter 17

➜ Words: 5.4k

➜ Genres: Fluff, Light Humour (?), Slice of Life, Workplace Romance!AU

➜ Summary: The equation is simple. Hoseok needs to hire someone. You need a job. Except like any actual equation, it’s not fucking simple at all! Not when you have to add the fact that he was forced to hire someone he doesn’t want in his office, he has little respect for your job in general, and oh yeah...once upon a time you might have—*CENSORED*.

The invitation came by email.   Your first thought was to refuse and you had even begun typing up an apology. But before you could write the second line, someone else had sent you a message. It was like she had a sixth sense and maybe she did because she asked if you were going to come. Then she guilt tripped you that it’s been so long, tried to convince you that it would be fun, do everything in her power to persuade you otherwise, as if she was part of a pyramid scheme and was trying to get you to join.   Hani has always been fearfully persuasive and that’s how you find yourself dragging your feet towards Hoseok’s office.   You knock three times and there’s a muffled— “What.”   “It’s me.” The door cracks open and at the sound of your voice, Hoseok puts down his pen and looks up at you.   The corner of his lips pull into a smile, scowl disappearing. “Oh, Y/N.”   “Are you busy? I can come back…”   “No, it’s fine.” His smile widens while you step into his office. “What do you need?”   “No, um, it’s just, I know we’re supposed to come in this weekend.”   “Oh, that doesn’t really apply to you.” Hoseok’s hands are clasped and you begin to break a sweat by how he gives you his full attention and his stare is more intense than usual. “You don’t need to come in.”   “Oh...okay…”   “Why? What was the matter?”   “No...” It’s excruciating how much you’re beating around the bush, but you don’t really want to spill what’s going on. Still, you decide to say it rather than making it sound more suspicious. “There’s this stupid reunion thing I was invited to. It’s on the weekend and I was thinking of going.”   “A reunion?”   “Yeah, to celebrate eleven years.” Your head lolls to your shoulder and you ramble on, not making a big deal out of it. “Apparently, they were supposed to have one for ten years, but it got delayed. It’s kind of dumb but…”   “I don’t think I received an invitation,” Hoseok suddenly comments, quirking his head to one side as well. His brows knit together and he inhales a sharp breath. “We went to the same university for our undergraduate, right?”   “Yeah, uh, everyone sort of lost contact with you after you left for law school. No one knows how to contact you even if they wanted to…” Like you, many of the others had no clue that he opened up his own firm.    “Huh.” He nods and then resumes his work, typing on his computer and casting you a mere glance when you’re still standing there. “Well, have fun and make sure you’re back on Monday.”   “Sounds good.” Your feet linger for a moment, body not listening to your brain. But eventually, you get a grip on yourself and step out of his office.   A school reunion trip would be expensive — luckily, your efforts of driving the taxi for twenty nights in a month was paying off….literally. You had quite a bit of savings, enough to pack your bags for a weekend trip. In all honesty, as nervous as you were to be seeing old faces again, you were also excited. It’s been a long time since you’ve seen Taeyeon, Hani, and the others. They would argue it’s been too long.   Everyone has gone their separate ways, abroad for work or busy in their families and with their children. You were especially distant from them after you moved all those years ago. But it would be nice to see them again, to mend back old friendships and remind yourself that you aren’t alone.   And it turns out that it only takes two buses and one train ride, a total of six hours and twenty minutes, to reconnect with old friends. It’s not as difficult as you thought it would be. You’re out of the city in the blink of an eye, at the one next door, waiting at the station for your ride.   As you check your phone for the fifth time, you’re startled when there’s a loud honk. Someone’s pulling in with their maroon car and you immediately recognize the girl in the driver seat. She rolls down the window and tugs her sunglasses to the bridge of her nose, peering above the frames at you.   “Hey, loser! Get in! We’re going shopping!”   You grin at her reference, dragging your luggage over and throwing it in the backseat. “Some things never change, do they?”   “Get over here.” Before you can even fully situate yourself in the passenger seat, she’s already leaning over the console to hug you, making laughter bubble from your chest. She really hasn’t changed one bit, from being extroverted and charming. Her long black hair is unchanging, features that seem sharper than they did years ago, cat-like eyes that are intimidating and cute when she smiles. She’s in shorts and a simple tee-shirt, summer-like attire in the chilly weather. “Ugh, I missed your ass so much.”   You squeeze her back, savouring the hug that reminds you too much of another embrace that felt like eons ago. “Missed you too.”   “Taeyeon’s staying with us in the hotel.” Hani shifts the gear and pulls away from the curb. “She’s there, still freaking out about leaving the kids with her husband.”   You smile at the thought and look at her. “How are you?”   “Good. Same old, pretty much. Work is tiring, but I really like it. I’ve been working on a project for the later half of this year and it’s almost finished, so I got that going for me. How are you?”   “Things are good for me too.”   “Where have you been working?”   “Oh, I’m an HR rep for a law firm,” you explain in a boring tone, not wanting to discuss it too much. “I like it a lot.”   “Oh my god! That’s so great, Y/N!” There’s a red light and Hani glances at you with a beaming smile, remembering you telling her that you were having trouble finding a job a few months ago. “I’m so glad you found a good place.”   “Thanks.”   “Have you been seeing anyone?”   “No, not really. Just...haven’t found the time.” You move on, changing the subject. “How’s Daehwi?”   A long sigh leaves from her pink lips. “An idiot as usual, but what’s new?”   Your cheeks ache from your grin. “Has he popped the question yet?”   “He said he was going to do it before my birthday, so I guess we’ll see what happens.”   “That’s amazing.” And you really mean it. Rather than feeling envious, you feel happy and proud for your friends. Most of them have their lives together and it’s nice to see them progress, even when you feel like you’ve been stagnant, stuck at a standstill for so long. “You guys are great together.”   “Yeah...I really do love that idiot.” A soft smile appears on her visage as she admits it. “If we get married, we’ll probably have kids soon after. We already talked about it and my eggs are dying, you know? And my nieces are just too cute. They always give me baby fever. But Daehwi wants it more than I do.” She laughs and you notice how her skin is practically glowing in bliss. “He wants five kids and a set of twins or something and I told him there was no way I was going to give birth to an entire football team for him.”   Another laugh streams from your chest. “Sounds like Daehwi.”   Hani hums and nods. “But things have been okay for you?”   “Yeah. I’m pretty happy these days and I really enjoy my work.”   Hani takes a glance at you. “I’m glad, Y/N.”   Once you arrive at the hotel room, you can already hear Taeyeon face-timing her husband. She gives you the biggest bear hug imaginable and you say hello to her toddler and five-year old, making you a bit sad when they don’t remember you at all. But it’s good to be back and even better to meet up with friends that make you feel as if time created no distance at all.   “Do you know who else is coming?”   “I think most people are.” Hani momentary pauses scrolling through her phone and shrugs. “I checked the facebook page and a lot of them said yes. Probably because the university’s paying for a lot of the expenses.”   Daehwi, who’s cuddling your best friend, smiles. “Our alumni is so nice.”   Taeyeon scoffs. “More like we’re their backdrop so they can take a thousand photos and post them to their website and promote their institution. They’ve been pushing to reel in younger, naive kids and rob them of their money before giving them a piece of paper that says good job.”   You grin as another thought flickers in your mind. “Is Changsub coming?”   “He’s coming tomorrow morning.” The strawberry blonde female falls down onto the soft sofa, lounging on it. “He booked it last minute. I think he’s still on the plane right now.”   “I can’t remember the last time we all met up,” Daehwi notes, looking out the glass window towards the city and feeling sentimental about the moment. “We’re only missing one person now.” Hani shoulder checks him and the male lets out a painful, “Ow! What! Can I not talk about Hoseok?”   “It’s fine, you guys,” you placate both Hani and Taeyeon when they look at you in concern. “It’s not a big deal...I actually….talked to him recently.”   Hani blinks with her wide eyes. “You did?!”   “You did?!” Taeyeon repeats after her like a parrot, both of friends stunned.   “Yeah...it’s...uh..complicated, but we’re good.” There’s a long silence, all three people staring at you, and you divert your eyes out the window. “So, what time is the official reunion tomorrow?”   //   The rest of the day is spent eating and catching up. Taeyeon talks about her kids, what giving birth is like and simultaneously putting the fear into Hani and Daehwi as they listen and you laugh at their expressions. The pair of them also talk about their traveling adventures, what countries they’ve visited recently and are planning to visit in the future. There’s not much that’s changed for you, so you only discuss your job and what you kind of do day to day.   All four of you play uno like back then, gossiping about acquaintances while having a few drinks in the hotel room but nothing to get wasted on, only slightly tipsy. You can’t remember the last time you had such a good time. By morning, everybody wakes up a bit later in the day, grabbing brunch before getting ready to go. You pick out a dark blue modest dress to wear, sharing the bathroom alongside Hani who worries about her makeup and Taeyeon who does her hair. It reminds you of years ago when you used to dress up to go clubbing or out to the bar. It’s nostalgic and you feel young again, even when you’re sure age has made its mark on you.   “You know, it would’ve made a lot more sense to have our reunion on campus and not at a hotel conference hall,” Hani points out while sipping on a glass of champagne, looking around at the place lit by chandeliers.   You smile. “Now that I think about it, you’re right.”   Taeyeon shakes her head, staring at the intricate patterns of the velvet carpet. “I don’t know about you, but I’d rather be at a fancy hotel than a shitty gymnasium on our shitty campus.”   “Okay, touché.”   “They have an after-party there,” Daehwi pipes up. “It’s pretty close. We should go.”   “I don’t understand why there’s an after-party for the reunion.”   “Different backgrounds create different pictures to put on their website,” Taeyeon tells Hani while she rolls her eyes in disapproval.   You quip to the both of them while lingering at the back of the hall, “That’s a crazy conspiracy.”   “Oh my god. Jiyong! Jiyong!” Daehwi puts down his drink, running off towards another man who yells out his name as well without looking back. They fist bump each other before going on a talking barrage to catch up and Hani appears even more exhausted than before, letting out a huge sigh.   “Dear lord, if I have to talk to all of his frat members, I’m going to need another five hundred drinks.”   The blonde beside her laughs. “Well, you should get ready because I think I see Seungri.”   “Taeyeon.” Another female has stopped in front of you three. She’s staring straight at your friend, ogling at her from head to toe. “Is that you?!”   “Oh my gosh. Minzy?” Taeyeon hands her glass of champagne to you, walking off. “It’s been forever!”   “I know!” she shrieks in excitement.   In the giant hall, you recognize many and once in a while, they stop to make small talk with you. It’s easy to get whiplash at all the familiar faces. You’re brought back to a decade ago, and an odd feeling begins to plague you. It’s as if all the regrets you had in the past fix themselves into place again, that the people you had forgotten about and that were so far away, are now in your reach.   Eventually, you become overwhelmed and fade into the background. You hang around in the back, taking in all the decorations, the old photos, the surrounding people. Hani tells you that she’s going to the washroom and you nod, keeping an eye on her drink while sipping on yours. It awakens your memories of house parties where you were more of a wallflower than the life of the party, where you spent your time observing behaviour and actions, where it was much quieter.   “Man...how do I not recognize anyone?”   You nearly spit out your drink, but you end up choking instead. You’re hacking your lungs out unattractively, coughing and beating your chest like a wild gorilla. Maybe you’re so delusional that you’re beginning to hear and see things because you swear to god…..Jung Hoseok is standing right beside you.   His head is tipped to one side, black hair left natural and unstyled, full bangs covering his forehead. He’s wearing sneakers, black jeans and a grey hoodie, too casual for an event like this. More importantly, he’s staring at you in amusement. It’s probably your imagination. You just miss him and your mind is coping….   But then he opens his mouth and talks.   “Y/N?”   “What are you doing here?!” Your mouth falls open comically, words spilling out in the harshest manner and you’re suddenly very, very worried. There are a million things that can go wrong in your life, but this situation was definitely in your current top ten. The corner of his mouth pulls and the lawyer rolls his shoulders. “Well, turns out you don’t need to be directly invited by someone. I checked the website and sure enough, I just had to sign up with my old student identification number to come.”   “Wh-wh...but why?”   Hoseok’s smile stays on his lips, but his brows furrow in confusion. “What do you mean why? I can’t come to my own school reunion?”   “Th-th-that’s not what I mean.” Your head shakes and your eyes do a quick sweep of your surroundings before settling on him again.   “You told me I lost contact with everyone when I went to law school, so I figured this would be a good time to reconnect with people. I didn’t expect to run into you so soon, though.” Jung Hoseok flashes the brightest of beaming grins, looking like the epitome of sunshine or someone from pleasantville. You begin envisioning throwing yourself against the wall hard enough where you could pass out and perhaps the ambulance would be called and you could escape this insanity.   You might be a little over-dramatic at the moment…..but the logical part of your brain disagrees.   This is perfectly rational.   “I—”   “Oh my god.” The interruption comes from your former best friend, Hani. Alongside her is Taeyeon who almost spills her new drink when she abruptly halts and her eyes grow wide at the sight beside you.   Your worst nightmare is beginning to unfold right in front of your eyes.   “Jung Hoseok?!”   The lawyer frowns, staring at both women and he takes a long second before recognition begins to settle in. “Uh...Heeyeon and...Kim Taeyeon...right?” He glances at you for approval, and you don’t say anything nor do you even cast a single glance of approval.   Taeyeon marches over and in five strides, she’s giving him a humongous hug. “Where have you been, bastard? I never thought I’d see you again.” In the meanwhile, Hani is boring her eyes into you as if asking if you’re okay, and you give a slight nod.   “I’ve been busy.” Hoseok’s memory starts to jog again. He only has a handful of memories, all of them vague and blurry like they’re from an old tape he’s watching back, but he feels at ease for at least remembering them….even if he doesn’t have a single memory of you.   “You didn’t even think to call, bitch?”   His lips tug into a slight heart shape, eyes crinkling. “...Sorry?”   Hani offers a more reserved and meek smile. She stands at a distance away, beside you. Her arms are crossed defensively, and she doesn’t spare any embraces or even a handshake. “It’s good to see you again, Jung.”   “Thanks, Heeyeon.”   Hani’s brow raises, wondering why he’s calling her by her legal name and not the nickname she goes by, but she brushes it off. “I see you’ve become acquainted with Y/N here. Maybe a bit too comfortable?”   “Well, I’m sure this is fine.” His smile becomes lopsided as he peeks at you. “It’s not during working hours.”   The female doesn’t quite understand, but she never once backs down. “Working hours or not, I think you should back off a bit. Have some human decency, Jung.”   “Hani!” You’re cringing to death, ready to be lowered into your grave with your toes curling. Your mind races, though you’re rendered too speechless to know what to say or know how to address the situation. If you wished you were invisible enough, maybe it’ll actually work.   “Is there a problem?” Hoseok is genuinely bewildered and baffled by her bizarre attitude, deciding to challenge the rude woman. “Or are you her boss too?”   Taeyeon repeats him, equally confused. “Too?”   “You didn’t tell them?” Hoseok shifts to you, trying to be caught up to speed. His head is already swirling with old memories slowly coming back to life. He wonders if you didn’t say you worked for him because it was somehow embarrassing to be working for someone you went to school with. But he knows you’re not the type to be shameful about such a trivial thing, especially when you loved your job so much.   “Tell us what?” Taeyeon asks, spinning around to soak in your exchange of expressions. Then, her eyes almost fall out from their sockets and her jaw drops to the carpet. “Wait. Don’t tell me. Holy shit. Oh my god. You’re back together?!”   “NO!” You shout, startling other folks and people turn around to shoot dirty looks. But you pay no mind, too preoccupied with nipping the crazy thought in the bud. “I work for Hoseok! At his firm!”   “You…” Hani gives you a skeptical look. “...you’re working for him?”   “Holy shit! Are my eyes seeing what they’re really seeing, right now? Or am I high?” From the noise, Daehwi had pulled away from the crowd of frat guys to see what the commotion was. Of course, now he was running towards you again, eyes pinned on Hoseok. “Dude! How’s it going?!”   Their handshake morphs into a fist bump. “Why are you talking like you’re a nineteen year old dumbass again?” Hani rolls her eyes, but doesn’t dwell when she’s more upset at the current situation. She informs her partner of the news, “Y/N’s working for Hoseok at his firm.”   “Wait. Really?”   “Why is that so surprising?” Hoseok inquires, still perplexed at all their reactions. “There’s nothing wrong with Y/N working for me. That doesn’t make her job any less important. She actually runs her own department as HR manager. And she’s exceptionally good at her job.”   “No, that’s not the issue. I’m just surprised, because—”   “Hoseok doesn’t remember!”   The shout echoes, straining your vocal cords, shocking your old friends. Everyone turns, necks craning over slowly like their bones are made from old mechanical rods. “What?”   The situation is getting out of control. You’re losing your grasp on what you want Hoseok to know. The mess is beginning to unravel and you’re doing everything in your power to spool it back together, keep it hidden, in the dark, where only you know, where you can feign ignorance and live your little happy life without having to confront the past.   Daehwi frowns. “What do you mean?”   Your heart cracks for the hundredth time.   And it’s because of Hoseok. Again.   “He just….doesn't remember.”   “Is there something going on here?” He asks right when Taeyeon was about to speak the same question, wholly puzzled at the circumstances. Their gazes are too intense for you to hold up by yourself. You’re barely holding it together and you’re too afraid you’ll begin to crack from the outside as well, let them see what you really feel, how damaged you are on the inside.   “Hoseok has memory problems,” you calmly say, spilling secrets even when it’s not your place to, “he was in a car accident.”   All three shift, waiting for his confirmation. He gives a single nod.   “Oh shit.” Daehwi’s eyebrows shoot up to his hairline. “That’s horrible.”   The blonde female steps closer to him. “What happened?”   “Hit a lamppost. Like seven years ago. But I don’t have any ‘memory issues’.” Hoseok quotes you before laying his eyes on your visage. He cocks an eyebrow before looking at everyone else. “Just have some spots where I can’t quite remember. Am I missing something here?”   “Nope.” You force a smile, talking past the lump in your throat. The urge to distance yourself from this is too overwhelming and you’re suddenly reminded of why you avoided reuniting yourself with old friends. It’s too painful, too messy to remember. Once again, you wish you were in Hoseok’s position where you didn’t know a thing. “The past is the past. Best to leave it behind. Anyways, you should probably get a drink. I can get you one.”   “I can get it myself.”   “No.” Your hands fly out, wanting him to stay where he is, wanting to get yourself away. At any moment now, you were going to break. “I insist, I insist.”   “Let me come with you,” Hani asserts and you decide having a good friend beside you would be the least of your troubles, so you let out an ‘alright’.   The two of you march through the crowd. The dark-haired female stares at your profile, her mouth opening, ready to fire out her many questions. But when you give a glance, she sighs and decides not to press on or pry. Hani doesn’t say anything, granting you mercy for the time being.   In the meanwhile, Daehwi and Hoseok catch up with one another. As time goes by and more small talk is made, the latter’s memory jogs, though it seems as if your existence has been deleted from his recollection completely. But he doesn’t dwell when his focus is on socializing.   “So, you’re a hot shot lawyer now?” The brunette grins. “Your sister always said that.”   “I don’t think I’m a hot shot or anything, far from it, but yeah, I run my own firm. It’s kind of small and it’s nothing much yet. Still a work in progress.”   “Damn, still, you’re probably filthy rich, dude. I’m jealous. Do you have a yacht?”   “No.” Hoseok laughs. “I don’t have a yacht.”   Taeyeon has an indignant expression. “Hoseok’s afraid of the ocean, remember?”   “Rightttt.”   The lawyer in question sulks slightly, not enjoying how his fears are being broadcasted aloud. “I’m only afraid when I can’t see the bottom.”   “So he’s afraid of the entire ocean then,” Taeyeon reiterates with a laugh.   “Guess so.” Daehwi teases the man and smiles with his teeth. He pats his friend on the shoulder. “It’s good to have you back, Hope. Now we’re just waiting for one more person before we have the whole gang back together.”   “Speaking of the devil…” Taeyeon motions with her chin and both males whirl around.   “Yeon! Dae!” Changsub is walking towards them, dragging his feet over as he exhales in exhaustion. “God, my plane got delayed and I literally just got here and threw my luggage upstairs. I’m so tired! My sleeping schedule is going to be so fucked. It’s supposed to be midnight right now. I swear—….”   “Hey.”   Hoseok gives a polite wave, smiling, and the guy has his eyes plastered all over him, starstruck, like he’s looking at a celebrity. Changsub blinks hard, appearing comical as he does so. “Jung fucking Hoseok?!”   Daehwi chuckles. “Trust me, I didn’t believe it either.”   “Dude!” Changsub gives him the most gripping hug, arms cradling his entire frame. “What the fucking hell are you actually doing here?! What the fuck.”   “I’m here for the reunion,” he quips. “You?”   “Same. God.” His hand runs into his hair, shock firing into his body. Changsub quickly looks around. “Does Y/N know you’re here?”   Once more, Hoseok’s confusion returns. “Yes…?”   At the reminder, Taeyeon glances around the premise, standing on the tips of her toes. She inhales a sharp breath, humming a note. “Let me go get Hani and Y/N. They’ve been gone for a while. We should get a picture together before things get more hectic around here.” The female dismisses herself, going into the crowd of people to grab you both, disappearing from sight.   Changsub shakes his head, still staring at Hoseok and unable to trust his eyes even when he blinks hard. “Dude, man, it’s been so goddamn long.”   “I know.”   “How have you been? What have you been up to?”   “I’m good. Just working as a lawyer these days at a divorce firm. You?”   “Awesome. God, wow. Yeah, I’ve been travelling for work.” Changsub is at a loss for words. “You look great.”   “Thanks.” Hoseok grins at him. “You too.”   The male shakes his head, mouth drawing open. “And Y/N knows you’re here and shit?”   “Yeah.” He wonders why he’s being mentioned with you so much, why people are so confused that he’s made a reappearance. It can’t be that weird. “Why?”   Daehwi pipes up, interrupting the conversation, “They actually work together.”   “No shit! Really?” Changsub is noisy, nosy, and a tad obnoxious. He’s slow to pick on things and a bit hyperactive, gathering attention from the surrounding people, but he’s still good natured and warm hearted enough not to cause real trouble. Yet. “So, you came with Y/N today?”   “....uh...kind of? Not really.”   “Are you guys back together?”   “No.”   Daehwi’s smile at once becomes stiff. He looks around as if searching for help, but when no one comes to the rescue, he pokes him and mumbles, “uh...Changsub...you might want to cool it.”   He doesn’t hear him. “Yeah, I didn't think so. When it’s that bad of a split, it’s usually not good to get back together. I know I tried to get back with Sooyoung and it turned out even worse. She took the kids and all and that fucking sucked ass.”   “Oh.” Hoseok quirks his head to the side, frowning. The lawyer is both perceptive and smart enough to catch on. Everyone knew something — what it was Hoseok was unsure of. But while they decided not to divulge any information and continue to speak in code, Changsub was his opportunity, the person to spill whatever was going on. “Was it a bad split? I mean, we only had two dates…..?”   “What are you talking about? Two dates?!” A bark of laughter comes from the pits of his stomach, streaming out from his mouth in disbelief.   Daehwi’s teeth grit. “Chang...shut up..”   “You guys dated for like four years.”   There’s silence. Hoseok stares at him. His smile immediately falls.   “....Excuse me…..what?”   Daehwi sighs his entire lungs out. He shuts his eyes tight and pinches the bridge of his nose. At this rate, his head was going to be shaved bald by his precious girlfriend, just because this dumbass was straight out ignoring him. Despite not being aware of what your relationship is with Hoseok, Daehwi’s sure he won’t be able to look at you in the eye after this. Guilt would eat him alive since you were obviously keeping Hoseok in the dark for a reason. “Chang...dude…”   “You guys even got engaged.”   Hoseok is lost. “....What?”   Without you even knowing, your entire world collapses.   It’s ironic that your feigned ignorance of history turned to real ignorance of the present situation. You can’t even mourn for your loss when you don’t even know that it occurred.   “Changsub!” Daehwi steps on his foot and the male cries out in pain.   “Ow! What the hell, dude?! I’m trying to talk to Hope!”   “Yeah, well you need to fucking stop. Shut up. Seriously.”   The man rolls his eyes. “I get that no one wants to talk about bad breakups, but it was like, what, eight years ago? It’s not that big of a deal. The past is the past. We can’t just keep beating around the bush or skirting around the issue and pretend it never happened.”   Daehwi groans like it physically pains him to interact with his old friend. “You...are the biggest dumbass I have ever met.”   “Hani! Y/N!” When the pair of you come into sight, Changsub grins and walks over like nothing had just happened. In a way, nothing really did happen. He was just talking about old memories, things that have no meaning anymore...or at least that’s what he thought.   “Hey, Chang. Oh, I got your drink.” You pass it to Hoseok and he takes it lifelessly. His expression is strangely blank, glossed over, neither bright and energetic or serious and stern.   Jung Hoseok is unreadable.   “Did something happen?” Taeyeon asks with pouty lips, glancing at the three male individuals.   “No…” Daehwi sighs and glances at Hoseok. “Not really.”   Changsub shrugs. “My flight got delayed and I rushed over here from the airport, threw my luggage in the room upstairs and ran here. Barely made it too. Also, I’m super tired and my whole body is delayed like twelve hours. So, I might be a bit slower. Anyways, I’m glad you’re finally here, Y/N.”   “Happy to be here,” you answer with a smile.   “Took you long enough,” he playfully quips back and it’s true. You were avoiding them since they brought back memories you didn’t want to remember. But now that you were standing here with all your friends again, it wasn’t so bad…..   “Yeah.” You give another smile.   “We need a picture of this.” Hani digs into the small purse slung across her body. “I don’t know the next time we’re going to be all together again.”   The small crowd gathers to take the photo. Hani has her arm around you, Taeyeon right in front with Daehwi and Changsub huddling on Hoseok’s side. You and Hoseok stand beside each other in the center, posing with cracking smiles as the camera snaps the shot, capturing the moment in time forever.   There’s more meaningless small talk, more catching up. When the music plays, the official reunion begins and everyone finds their seats as the speaker takes the center stage and the slideshow at the back begins.   You steal a glimpse of Hoseok when you feel the pressure of his eyes on you. “Hey...are you okay?”   His gaze softens, eyes full of confusion. You don’t know what’s going on. And your fixation on denial blinds you silly, never once giving you an inkling at the potential possibilities.   His turmoil is a tsunami, crashing down inside his chest, rushing into his stomach and drowning the butterflies that have migrated there, making him uncomfortable and sick. He is conflicted. Confused. Angry. Petrified. Sad. He doesn’t know why you would hide it from him. He doesn’t know what happened. He doesn’t know why he doesn’t know. He doesn’t know who you are.   Hoseok gives you the most honest answer he can muster—   “I don’t know.”

[confessionsfromachristian]

As a millennial myself, I’m not particularly surprised by this.

Organized religion increasingly feels hollow and insincere in a world where religious leaders play politics both within and without the church, literally everything important turns into another power struggle, and no one seems interested in discussing the important questions.

Pretty much every public religious figure treats their religious text of choice as if they, and they alone, definitely have it all figured out. And if their interpretation (which is definitely, 100% correct, mind you) happens to benefit their interests at the expense of other people, then that’s fine, because it’s religion and therefore it’s good. Televangelists are what most people see of organized religion, and frankly most televangelists seem to be interested first and foremost in what you and God can do for them.

Which isn’t what religion is supposed to be, or what it has to be, but it’s often what it looks like in the here and now.

On a personal level, organized religion is designed astonishingly well to break faithful hearts. If I didn’t have someone to pull me back into church (someone whom I care about deeply, and want to support), I probably wouldn’t ever attend church, between the heartache religion has inflicted on me on a personal level and the disgust I get watching it on an organizational level.

(Story under the cut, because it’s rambling and still fueled by a lot of pain. TW: parent death)

I grew up Catholic, and I left the Catholic church in college because, increasingly, Catholic doctrine started having more holes than substance (at least, to me and my reading of the Bible) and none of the priests I reached out to were willing to give me anything more substantial than “the Bible says so,” even when I couldn’t find where the Bible actually said anything about the matter at hand.

Add on the longstanding problems in the Catholic church (where priests’ jobs have been repeatedly placed ahead of innocent children’s physical and psychological wellbeing, and the few authority figures who try to take local action keep getting told to wait for a comprehensive plan), and, well… I realized that I was getting more stress than fulfillment, and I felt like an outsider every time I went to Mass, so I stopped going.

So I turned to Methodism, because I was raised to be a Good Christian Girl™ and not going to church just wasn’t really an option. I ended up really involved in the Methodist Church in the mid-2010’s, and particularly in the children’s program at my own small church. And that was great for a while.

My conversion to Protestantism was always a sticking point between me and my mother, and I will always regret that a difference of religion meant that many of the times I saw her in the last months of her life were filled with bitter, frustrated arguments.

The day I finished the long process of writing and defending my undergraduate thesis, I drove 3 hours to my hometown with my roommate (a friend from my pre-college years), and didn’t go home because I was too proud of my pro-same-sex-marriage thesis (this was pre-Obergefell) and too tired to put up with another argument about my Protestantism, my liberal views, and my different interpretation of the Bible from the priest at my former church. I called her, told her I was done, that I’d done well, and that I’d see her the next evening, but I was going to crash with my roommate at her parents’ house.

My mother died the next afternoon, before I could call her again. I missed my last chance to see her because I feared another fight about religion. I would give anything to take that decision back.

My father was not thrilled at my conversion, but he’s come around since my mom passed away; he supports me finding a place where I feel spiritually filled, I think more or less because he’s lonely and he’s afraid to lose me (but I won’t ever let a difference of religion come between us). He volunteers at the church I went to as a child, and, up until the events that led to me leaving my small church, he always supported our kids’ programs to.

Although my church always had problems that left me frustrated, I got a lot of fulfillment out of teaching the kids in the church. But then, in 2016, I ended up as an Annual Conference delegate, and I think that’s where things started to spiral, happy as I was to go at the time.

AC was great, and I’m a law-brained sorta person, so all that legislation was wonderful. But I also had the opportunity to see the gritty reality of a world where religion is designed to make money, not just to fill spirits. Churches that don’t make money - even if they don’t lose any - can be closed, regardless of the negative effects, if someone in power thinks that a different kind of church can be more profitable. And if people at AC express dismay over the results? They’re probably good Christians, or they wouldn’t be at AC. Call for a prayer so they’ll shut up and you can move on.

But, you know, power corrupts. So I went back to my small church to try and fix everything I could on a local level, because I while I couldn’t fix the United Methodist Church, I could fix MY church. And, as an AC delegate, I had a spot on the Church Council to help with that goal. But, as it turns out, sometimes even people on a local level really just want the church to make more money. My dream (shared with a couple other church members, admittedly, but by no means all) was to use our children’s program to reach unchurched and underserved kids and bring them to Jesus. That, unfortunately, is not a financially profitable dream. Kids cost money, and unchurched kids are usually not rich ones. And their families often don’t come for more than the children’s events - and they only come for the children’s events because it’s free babysitting.

So every step was like clawing my way out of quicksand. Getting volunteers was like pulling teeth. Getting supplies was usually a matter of “do what you can with the church budget, and donate the rest.” Without volunteers, setup became “work until you’re about to pass out, go home, sleep two hours, then come back and finish before the kids get here.” Meanwhile, programs meant to draw in rich retirees from our community (so that they could give donations while they were in the building, of course) had more volunteers than they needed, and no one questioned whether practically every single man in the church was going to stay after on Sunday to help set up.

And the pastor at the time really was great. But they were a peacekeeper; any problems that arose always had two sides, and always ended in whatever decision kept the status quo because the status quo was safe, and easy.

But then the next AC came, and my pastor retired. The pastor that replaced them had wanted to retire, but had been encouraged by the district superintendent to take on our church instead, as a “part-time full-time assignment.” And I hoped and prayed that they’d bring with them change, but I should’ve been more careful with what I wished for.

They cannot tell the truth to save their life. They would approach me about an issue that was “very important” to them. We’d talk, and come up with a solution. At Church Council, without fail, the pastor would come in and insist that, in fact, we had decided on some entirely different plan. The pastor rarely showed up at children’s ministry events, so getting volunteers got even harder (why care about VBS if the pastor doesn’t?). Slowly, but surely, the church eroded every program I had helped put in place, watering it down or trying to monetize it. So, the Book of Discipline actually mandates a YA representative have a spot on the Church Council. For a while, I and one other millennial (also an AC delegate) fulfilled that role. But the pastor felt it was more important to send the church treasurer, so he could learn to make more money for the church. And that was fine; I and the other millennial approached the pastor at the end of the year about having a YA rep on the council either way (I’d always gone as an at-large delegate; our church was small enough that we only needed 1 lay delegate), and he more or less told us that the Book of Discipline didn’t apply when it was inconvenient for the church.

That’s where I realized that the bridge I was standing on would, inevitably, crumble. But I told myself it was worth trying to fix what was wrong. So I tried. And for a short time, I thought my biggest problem was going to be ensuring that the 2019 General Conference decision didn’t change the way my church embraced its LGBT members.

This new year had brought someone I’d always viewed as a friend into a position of authority in the church. I was excited for her, and I really hoped and prayed that she could do good for the church, and that we could work together to build an inclusive church with a healthy outreach to the underserved and unchurched, things I had always thought she agreed with me about (because she’d told me to my face that she did).

But no sooner did she take the reins than she implemented the volunteer dress code. Which was a far worse thing than it sounds.

We live in Texas. The dress code? No tank tops, no shorts. Ever. Apparently, some anonymous complainer had, at some point, seen an underwear slip or a bra strap. And rather than talk to the volunteers, they wrote a policy. Side note, apparently skirts of any length were fine for women.

Goodbye VBS. I can’t in good conscience ask anyone to monitor children outside, in June, in Texas, in full-length jeans and a t-shirt.

Also, no going barefoot in the sanctuary, ever, for any reason. I was one of two people who regularly shed my shoes during kids’ events where we used the sanctuary. But rather than talk to me about it, it was better to make a policy about it that literally everyone I spoke to knew was a rebuke.

Then, in one of the brand-new children’s oversight committee meetings, they decided to dismantle the children’s program bit by bit. Children’s church? Cancelled. Apparently, we were running a renegade program without pastoral approval anyway.

VBS? “If we can’t charge for it, let’s just cancel it. Add on a few lies about how poorly it was run (by me, in part) to make it seem like a logistical problem.” The children’s director objects to a sexist-worded dress code and refuses to impose it on those under her? “Fire her, no need to look at whether there’s a problem. Make the volunteers (including me) sign the policy before you’ll let them teach the kids on Sunday. Remind them explicitly that this is a prerequisite to working with the kids, so that they don’t feel they have any choice if they want to say goodbye, because they already know that it’s over and they don’t want to blindside the kids.”

I posted about it on Facebook in my frustration and pain at watching them tear apart everything I’ve tried to do for kids that I love like they were my family. I received a termination letter in my e-mail the next day. They proceeded to send a newsletter to the entire church (except me and my family) informing the church that I had been removed as a volunteer for lying on Facebook. No goodbye for the kids. No warning. They couldn’t handle public dissent.

I hadn’t told a single lie. I dared the person who drafted the newsletter to tell me where I lied. No answer.

Of course I left. And it still hurts to walk into a church building. It still hurts to see the kids on my FB feed. I’m still friends with a few of the moms, because I still love their kids. And it will keep hurting me, because I trusted my church. And even though I still go to church now and then, I know damn well not to trust anyone inside.

[fandomshatelgbtqpeople]

On JK Rowling, Dumbledore, lycanthropy, and cultural context

I want to address an idea I’ve been seeing pop up a lot recently, which is that JK Rowling added Dumbledore being gay and lycanthropy being a metaphor for AIDS years later in order to seem progressive, and I’ve put a lot of time into thinking about why these claims bother me (since I’m definitely not mad on Jo’s behalf because she’s been dead to me since 2016), and I think it really comes down to this. These claims are based entirely off of how things are today and show a fundamental disregard for the cultural context at the time that’s concerning and feels dismissive to the people who lived through it. Basically, it goes hand in hand with the lack of knowledge and sometimes intentional rewriting of our community’s history that’s so prominent on this site.

Note that I am not arguing that Dumbledore is good rep or that the lycanthropy-HIV metaphor was well executed (or even a good idea in the first place). I just wish people would stop treating these things like JK Rowling said them yesterday as opposed to 12 years ago.

1. Dumbledore being gay 

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows came out in July 2007 and Jo first publicly said Dumbledore was gay and in love with Grindelwald in October 2007, so the idea that she added it years later is just factually untrue. It came out three months after the release of the final book. 

Let’s take a look at public attitude towards queer people in 2007. I’ll preface this by saying that I’m American, so I’ve done my best to find data on the UK, but most of my info is from the US.

In 2007, in the US, Gallup reported that only 59% of adults surveyed believed consensual sex between two people of the same gender should be legal, that 46% of adults believed that same-sex marriage should be legal and come with all the same rights are marriage between a man and a woman, and that 50% of adults favored a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. Despite all that, only 22% of surveyed adults answered that they thought gays and lesbians (the language in the poll) should be more accepted in the US and 27% of adults thought gays and lesbians should be less accepted. Jumping back to 2005, 43% of respondents didn’t think gay people should be hired as elementary school teachers and 36% didn’t think we should be hired as high school teachers. I mention these numbers specifically because they’re relevant to Dumbledore. 

On the legal side of things, there were enforceable sodomy laws on the books in 13 states until 2003, four years before Deathly Hallows came out and Jo announced that Dumbledore was gay. In 2004, the fact that Kerry was in favor of same-sex marriage was considered a significant liability in his presidential campaign because even a lot of democrats still didn’t support it. In October, 2007 when Jo did that interview, same-sex marriage was legal only in Massachusetts, civil unions were legal in four states, and domestic partnerships were legal in three states. Meanwhile, twenty-five states had constitutional bans on same-sex marriage and twelve of those states also had constitutional bans on other rights, such as civil unions and domestic partnerships or extensions of employment benefits to same-sex partners.  

In the UK in 2007, just under 40% of adults believed that same-sex relationships were morally okay, 17% strongly agreed that same-sex marriage should be legal, and just under 45% believed that a same-sex couple could raise a child as well as a man and a woman. A 2005 Gallup poll found that, 38% of Brits believed homosexuality should be more widely accepted, 15% thought it should be less widely accepted, and 44% thought the currently level of acceptance was about right. 

On a more personal note, my high school hired its first openly gay teacher in 2008, and the fact that he was gay was considered pretty scandalous among the student body. We had a gay band instructor, but he only ever referred to his partner as his roommate. When we did debates in social studies classes, same-sex marriage was always one of the issues we had to debate over. Of the eleven people I went to high school with whom I now know are queer, only three of them were out in high school. That’s how uncommon it was at the time to come out before you were relatively independent. 

So this idea that announcing that a prominent character who was a headmaster at a school and had a close relationship to the teenage boy main character in a wildly popular children’s book series was gay would have been a popular move in 2007 is pretty laughable to anyone old enough to remember what 2007 was actually like. No one was using support for queer people just to bolster their public image unless their product was specifically marketed towards queer people, because the general wisdom at the time was that it would hurt them too badly with straight audiences. In fact, if memory serves, the queer fandom’s reaction to Dumbledore was initially pretty positive because it was more than we ever thought we were going to get. I didn’t start seeing people talk about how it wasn’t enough or about how the entire plot line was homophobic until maybe 2012.

You can’t use today’s context to interpret why someone made a decision in 2007 because it’s difficult to overstate how different things are now. The only reason to want to look pro-gay in 2007 was if you genuinely thought it was the right thing to do.

2. Lycanthropy and HIV

I was genuinely surprised when this caused a stir when JK Rowling tweeted (?) about it in 2016 because I was pretty sure she’d talked about lycanthropy being a metaphor for HIV years ago. It turns out I was right. She discussed it during the copyright trial she was involved in in 2008 (you can find it here, on pages 72-73). So it didn’t come out until nine years after Prisoner of Azkaban and three years after Half-Blood Prince (when Fenrir Greyback was introduced), but it’s not something she first mentioned on twitter in between tweets about how she meant for Nagini to be a Korean woman in 1989. It was before she was shooting off her mouth about ridiculous stuff every other day.

Regardless, I can understand why that would feel like her pulling something out of left field today because HIV doesn’t get talked about as much, but you have to remember that these books were written in the 90s at the height of the AIDS crisis. It’s difficult to imagine how much that permeated our culture if you didn’t experience it, even for someone like me who was in elementary school in a white suburban area and, as far as I’m aware, didn’t know anyone who was HIV+. My school had a how-not-to-get-AIDS assembly every year.  They probably showed us every movie in existence about kids with HIV. After-school TV shows did special episodes about how you shouldn’t be “blood brothers” with your friends because of AIDS. 

So when my friends and I were reading Prisoner of Azkaban as middle schoolers in the early 2000s, those memories were still fresh in our heads. We didn’t need to be told lycanthropy was supposed to be a metaphor for HIV because it had just been a huge issue five years ago and we knew enough about HIV and how the people who had it were treated to see the parallels. I imagine it was even clearer to the people who read PoA right when it first came out in 1999. It didn’t even occur to me that the metaphor is less obvious to people who are younger until I started seeing claims about this was just something she made up years after the fact and was like, "What do you mean this wasn’t clear to you when you read the book?” It fits perfectly with the general public’s preoccupation with and faulty understanding of AIDS in the late 90s. You just have to acknowledge that things have changed in the past twenty years.

I know that this comparison calls on a lot of stereotypes that are homophobic and otherwise bigoted against people who are HIV+, but those aren’t arguments against the metaphor existing and being intentional, they’re arguments about why that’s not a good thing. Fenrir Greyback is straight out of a 90s detective show. The “person with AIDS who wants to infect other people because they’re bitter about it” was such a common trope that almost every crime drama in the 90s and early 2000s did an episode about it. The “adult man gives a young boy HIV” thing grew out of the “gay men are pedophiles” and “queer people want to recruit your kids” stereotypes. These were prejudices Jo had that misinformed her writing.

I don’t have a whole lot to say on this one other than that given when it was written and how close it fits, including how much it draws on negative 90s-era stereotypes about people who are HIV+, I would honestly have a harder time believing it wasn’t intentional than believing it was.

Anyway, really my point is that it wasn’t always 2019 and if you’re using only today’s culture to inform your opinions about why someone made a certain decision a decade or two ago, not only is your understanding of the situation going to be incomplete, but the fact that it’s incomplete is going to be obvious to anyone who remembers what things were like during the time period you’re trying to talk about.

[chaoticdisater]

school day reunions// a Hogwarts mystery

“you could come with,” Tonks flicks her pinky red hair back as she works on some light makeup, 

she was going to see her school friends for the first time in forever they where actually in England, they had scattered across the globe but now they where all getting together and she was so excited her new husband, on the other hand, was a little wary of tonks going out alone to meet a group of people she hadn't seen in years, 

“I doubt your friends want me there,” Remus looked up from the newish book that he had gotten just yesterday

“they're bringing their partners,” Tonks shrugged putting lipgloss on then grabbing her leather jacket from the closet  

“there bringing the person they've been dating for a little bit, not the person they're married to,” Remus pushed himself up from the bed where he was laying 

“well, all except for one of them things that marriage is a dumb money wasting contract,” Tonks gave a small grin then countered, “but I do have friends who are in a common law marriage,” she shrugged, 

“have fun I guess,” Remus shrugged when Tonks started to pull on her boots 

“really just come, you don't have to sit with us if you don't want to but come anyway, they'll get really mad if I say I'm married and I have no one to show for it,” tonks took Remus hand giving a little pout as she looked into his eyes,

“fine, but only because I don't want you to get murdered,” Remus defended, 

they walked to a small muggle bar just to streets away from where Remus and Tonks were staying, and in the back corner sat a group of eight people sat around a table each already had their drinks, 

“Hello,” Tonks  grinned as everyone turned to see her, 

“hey, tonkies poo,” a man from the other side of the table called 

“ugh Andre don't call me that,” Tonks huffed, “anyways, guys this is my husband Remus Lupin,” she grinned 

“excuse me you got married miss what even is love, got married” the girl sitting in front of her flicked her long brown hair back from her face, 

“yes?” tonks shrugged as she took Remus hand, 

“wow, must be some guy,” the girl next to her nodded looking over Remus face just the glare of her violet eyes made Remus squirm, she was twenty-five yet she was one of the most terrifying people she had ever seen. 

“Remus, this is raven midnight, and her annoying girlfriend Merula snyde,” Tonks back hugged Raven as she stuck her tongue out at Merula 

“it's nice to meet you, Remus,” Raven smiled up at Tonks and Remus, 

“beside Merula is Penny Haywood, we where Hufflepuff buddies together,” Tonks gave Penny a grin as she moved over to hug her, 

“yeah but we all know I was professor sprouts favourite,” Penny ran her hand through her shorter blond hair, she had these bright blue eyes that sparkled when she laughed 

“you where also snape’s favourite, news flash he still hates me, not that anyone is surprised,”  Tonks laughed “next to penny is, Ben Copper, hes my favourite little scardy cat,” ben just rolled his eyes but gave her a shy smile, “Next to benny-boo is Rowan Khanna, she is the smartest person that I've ever met,” 

“that's very sweet tonks, but I doubt I’m the smartest person you've ever met, I mean have you measured the intelligence of everyone that you have worked or meet,” 

“you say things like that I'm convinced you're the smartest person I know,” Tonks grinned at her antics, “next to Rowan is Ardre and Barnaby  who is dressed much better then I remember him ever dressing,” 

“Andre picks out my outfits now he doesn't trust me to dress properly as he says,” Barnaby shrugged as Andre shook his head 

“Oh baby what will my clients think if my boyfriend is poorly dressed, I can't have that” Andre turned and placed a small kiss on Barnaby's cheek 

“I do think you've met or at least heard of Charlie, hes bills younger brother,” Tonks pointed to the redhead in the corner of the table who gave a small grin,

“we meet at Bills wedding, if you can remember, you should have to meet raven to but,” Charlie looked at raven dead in the eyes 

“there's a war Char, and I had wanted to come but England is a right mess,” raven shook her head, 

“We missed seeing you, wasn't rowan invited to,” 

“I was on assignment in China I didn't get the invite until I got back and then it was too late” Rowan explained,

“what do you do?” Remus asked as tonks sat them between ben and penny, 

“Currently I work for the US wizarding government in charge of peace treaties but I work on contracts, mostly in interrogations and occliamacey but there isn't much work in that right now,” Rowan gave a small look down into her glass. 

“it gets harder every day,” Raven chimed in,  

“you're all highly educated,” tonks shrugs she didn't expect to be the most successful. 

“well when you've got a bad rep, most people won't hire you its gonna get worse if we live through this war,” Merula leaned into raven who softly kissed her messy hair. 

“we’ll get by,” Raven mumbled, 

Remus learned a lot that night

Raven and Merula had been dating since school both Charlie and Tonks took the responsibility for that, Merula said they started dating in spite of the two, Ben and Rowan lived together but they didn't date, claiming that they just worked as friends, penny was the best at potions and sometimes put snape to shame with her handy work, Penny worked as a potion master for a privet company she made the big bucks, but she lived out in Australia. marulas parents had been convicted death-eaters she was never a death eater but she got turned away from jobs just from her name, Raven was a bounty hunter of sorts, very good at it too, but she also worked with dragons, Andre was a stylist one of the best apparently and Barnaby worked in a book shop, Charlie was probably the best dragonologist on the planet, Andre and Barnaby had been dating for five years now, they lived out in the states. 

around midnight they headed back home. 

“your friends are nice,” Remus said as they walked down the night street, 

“there some of the best people ever, I wish I could spend more time with them,” Tonks sighed 

“Maybe when the war is over,” Remus suggested reaching for tonks hand 

“yeah, maybe” Tonks smiled back at him. 

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

//this was so much better when it was an idea in my head this didn't really end well or the middle wasn't great either,// 

[impracticaldemon]

A Famiglia Affair ~ Fairy Tail Fanfiction (Prompt: Mafia)

by impracticaldemon for @gsut (j’espère que tu l’aimeras!) FFnet | AO3  Words: ~ 2200

~ imp edits ~

Note: This is a gift fic for a woman who is intelligent, sassy, kind to others, and above all not afraid to carpe that diem. I once promised to try my hand at writing a story for her favourite Fairy Tail pair, and this is what happened. I hope you enjoy it!

~ Impracticaldemon

A Famiglia Affair Prompt: Mafia AU [Vera’s Prompt Challenge, March 8]

It's dangerous to be the new guy in town, especially when the town's at least partly run by the mob and you haven't yet established any local cred. Hell, he still didn't know which cops were on the take and which were clean. Gajeel smiled at the thought. You'd think he'd be pissed about having to start over—again—but actually, it was good. If he didn't know them, maybe they didn't know him.

He'd run a long way this time, right across the continent. New country, new fake ID, no rep. Well, probably no rep—he hadn't had his face fixed like Lily had suggested, so it was always possible that some hero would recognize his face from studying whatever international copy the law favoured around here for keeping new bad guys off their turf. But chances were good that he wouldn't be made. Gajeel was planning to stay, and this time he wouldn't be letting down his guard for a silly little girl who dreamed of making the world—and him—a whole lot better than it was right now.

"Nope, not goin' there," he muttered aloud. "She's gone, an' so's the bastard who shot her just because she told him the truth an' he didn't like it." Too bad it was her dad; too bad she'd cared enough about him to want him to stop being an asshole.

Gajeel honestly didn't balk at much, and rarely bothered to judge the man paying him, but he had some odd notions about how people should treat each other if they were partners, or married, or family. It was one thing for a hired thug like him to beat up a woman to make a point to her husband—that was just business—but nobody should lay hands on their wife or child. The girl had told him that a person shouldn't hurt or kill other people no matter who they were, but that had never really made sense to Gajeel. To stay alive, and free to get a little fun out of life, it was best to neither trust, nor care about other people too much. And yet, for some reason, his own personal code was that if you didmake the mistake of caring about another person, or got stuck being responsible for them… well, then you did your best by them. He often wondered where that kink in his system had come from, but he wasn't a punk kid anymore, so he'd decided to just accept it and move on.

He'd more or less grown up in the mob, with only a vague memory of the metal-working father who'd loved putting turn-of-the-century cars together too much for the health of his business. When the loan sharks and their bully boys had moved in, his dad had simply moved out—without leaving a forwarding address for his kid. Such was life. The mob wasn't that bad, once he'd established that he was smart, and getting stronger every day.

Then again, his last boss—his second—had beaten his own girl to death because she was too smart, and too determined, to fill the role he'd planned for her. She'd been slipping away from him, and trying to take Gajeel with her. Since she was his kid, and Gajeel his top enforcer, there'd been no compromising. In the end, Gajeel had felt the same way about the no-compromise thing. The boss was a tough guy, but no match for Gajeel's uncanny strength and reflexes. The man's bodyguards hadn't even tried to stop him when he'd handed in his resignation by crushing his boss' throat. Gajeel had taken two bullets in the shoulder, and hadn't even noticed. He'd then cleaned out the safe and lit out, leaving Rome to burn behind him—he suspected that the carrion were still fighting over the carcass of the operation even now.

Gajeel was brought back to the present by the clatter of high heels striking the pavement behind him. He didn't react, but he did turn a little, bringing up an unlit cigarette and a lighter for camouflage. His care was in vain, though. Years spent perfecting both detachment and cynicism among some truly scary people failed to prevent his eyes from widening, or his jaw from dropping—just a fraction—and he found himself straightening abruptly to his full height.

The woman coming toward him had a body to make Michelangelo weep, and a presence like an oncoming hurricane. Her face was an alabaster mask set with ruby lips and glittering dark eyes, and crowned with two elaborate knots of silken black hair. Gajeel was a man who knew and appreciated the niceties of power and intimidation, and he felt utterly outclassed. For a moment.

With stubborn pride, he allowed his stance to relax into a slouch, and lit the cigarette. He adjusted his expression from slight shock to faintly dismissive cynicism—a mask easily donned—and saw the woman's almond eyes narrow, whether in interest or irritation he couldn't say.

She slowed as she neared, and he took note of the bodyguards a little distance behind her—just muscle, as far as he could tell, but probably packing and not to be underestimated when he didn't have back-up. His own favourite piece was in a shoulder holster under his jacket, but most of the time he didn't need to use it.

The clacking stopped; the elegantly shod feet were now level with his on the suddenly empty sidewalk. It had been moderately busy before. He approved of her perfume—soft and musky and unlike the overpowering floral stuff with which most women drenched themselves. With deliberate care, he let his eyes travel up from her classy heels to her beautiful, arrogant face, taking in her silk-stockinged legs and clinging , Schiaparelli dress on the way. Over the years, he'd learned to feign respectful admiration, and offensive lust, and all the combinations in between—this time he kept his expression neutral and his posture just the right side of insolent. He lowered the cigarette from his lips, letting the faint smoke curl around his fingers, and tipped his hat.

"Somethin' I can help you with, ma'am?"

Her eyes were somewhere between rich olive green and very dark grey, he decided. The colour probably varied along with her immaculate eye-makeup. He figured she could handle the scrutiny, since she was taking her time studying him—no doubt wondering about the tailored suit, expensive hat, and good shoes, which he knew didn't tally with his craggy face and unruly, coal black hair. He wore his hair unfashionably long, too, since he didn't like the way it bristled outward like a hedgehog when it was short.

"Maybe you can…" She'd finished her initial appraisal, and a faint smile caressed her lips. "I'd heard you're a competent man, Mr. Redfox, but the photos we had wired to us don't do you justice. Apparently you had the brains to have some savings to travel on."

Gajeel fought to keep surprise off his face at her use of his name. He reminded himself that news traveled a lot faster within the mob than it did through law enforcement channels. Plus, he'd killed his boss, which was a sure-fire way to get famous quick, though it didn't always lead to a long life—La Famiglia expected loyalty from subordinates, even if the guy you offed was the competition. Well, it was time to make an educated guess of his own, and get some good out of the dough he'd spent on information about his new home.

"Thank you for the compliments, Miss Orlando, but don't strain yourself. I came here to work, not to spend time with the ladies—especially a princess like yourself."

To a woman like this, those were fighting words. Gajeel had thought her reputation was exaggerated, but he'd changed his mind the instant he'd realized her probable identity. In his experience, Mafia princesses—the daughters of the capos—were spoiled rich girls who'd learned from a young age that as long as they were pretty, frivolous, and loyal, they could do as they pleased. The only exception had been the girl who'd died, which pretty much said it all. Until now. Miss Minerva Orlando was far beyond pretty, and she was reputed to be fanatically loyal, but she wasn't frivolous.

Her gloved hand flashed out, aimed at his cheek. He'd been expecting something and was still caught partly off-guard. There'd been no speeches, no whining, no telegraphed movements—just the slap. He would've been even more impressed by a punch to the throat, or solar plexus, but you couldn't have it all. He seized her wrist just before she connected, his own movements lethally fast and intended to impress.

"Not with me, Miss Orlando, though I concede that you're the fastest dame I've ever met."

"You're playing games with the wrong person, Mr. Redfox."

Her left hand caught him under the rib cage, and he learned an important bit of information—Minerva Orlando was strong, as well as fast. He felt the air leave his lungs, and if he'd been just a little weaker, or less experienced, he would've released her right wrist. Fortunately, he'd already seen the glint of silver against the black palm of her glove, and guessed at a hidden needle. She'd slapped him because she'd wanted to strike bare skin. Knowing that, he focussed everything on keeping a tight grip on the wrist and not doubling over.

The click of guns behind him made the situation a little dicier than he usually liked it. On the other hand, it had been a while since he'd been in a good brawl. Without warning, he yanked the brunette into his chest, and pulled in enough oxygen to speak.

"They gonna shoot through you ta get ta me, princess?" He'd meant the term derisively the first time, but suddenly realized that some part of him meant it. Though she was really more of a queen.

"They might," she responded, dismissively. "Those are Daddy's boys, not mine, and things are a bit complicated around here right now. They'll hesitate, though—isn't that nice? Anyway, I could still take you out if I wanted, but I've seen enough. I want to hire you, Mr. Redfox."

"That's goin' a little fast for me, ma'am. You were tryin' ta poison me a minute ago—still are, as far as I know." He ignored her assertion that she could still take him out.

"You weren't going to be much good to me if you'd let me connect with that little slap, and I like to clean up after myself."

Gajeel felt unexpectedly amused, though he didn't smile and didn't let go. "That's a hell of job interview, Miss Orlando—pass or die."

She shrugged. "I have no use for the weak in the first place, Mr. Redfox, and the job I have in mind for you requires strength and skill at least somewhat comparable to my own. I suggest that you accept my offer. You came here to work, so why not work for me?"

"Time ta move, your highness." Gajeel quickly moved sideways, pulling his dangerous captive with him. Behind him, he heard the muscle shout for him to stop.

"Does this mean you'll work for me?" Her voice was still perfectly composed. She wasn't struggling, he noticed.

"Maybe. Tell me where to meet you and we'll talk."

"Fine. Six o'clock tonight at The Zinc. It won't be open, but nobody will be surprised to see me—I often drop by to check on things."

"Be serious." Gajeel was still alive at thirty—that made him an old man in the hired thugs game. He wasn't going to walk into some trap a baby could see a mile away.

"Fine. You name it, I'll be there."

"Same time, sandwich place two blocks down this street. I'll buy you a coffee."

"Shall I wear Chanel or Vonnet?" she demanded ironically.

"Surprise me. And leave the boys outside—you don't need 'em."

The 'boys' in question turned into the alley at that moment, clearly ready to shoot. Gajeel decided to take off, but Minerva had other ideas. She leaned into Gajeel and pulled his head down by one ear. It was disturbing how easily she managed it. He was going to have to think about that.

"You're annoying me, Mr. Redfox," she murmured, her breath warm against his skin. "But you're the only one who survived the interview." Then she pressed a soft kiss against his lips and stepped back, glancing pointedly at her captive wrist. Over her shoulder she called, "Put those things away, children—you aren't scaring anyone here but yourselves."

Very wary—all the more so for being unexpectedly turned on—Gajeel opened his hand, and Minerva turned and walked away, back straight and head high. She paused when she reached her so-called bodyguards and gave Gajeel one last, slow, measuring look. Then she was gone, and the muscle hurried after her.

Gajeel shook his head. This was going to be interesting. He hoped he survived.

[END]

A/N: There is a sequel to this story in my head. I mean, I know what Minerva wants Gajeel to do, and roughly how that will work out and how things will work out between them. Power dynamics, a lot of steamy heat, and moments of real tenderness. Please let me know what you think of this story, which for now is a one-shot.

Tags:  @sassyhazelowl @sanguine-fairy  @miss-zei  @shell-senji  @nalufever  @canadiangaap  @eliz1369  @hakuyamazakisensei  @cherryb0mb79  @hidetheremote  @sabinasanfanfic  @strawberrysweetlove35  @ftfanfics

[patriotsnet]

How Many Presidents Have The Republicans Tried To Impeach

New Post has been published on https://www.patriotsnet.com/how-many-presidents-have-the-republicans-tried-to-impeach/

How Many Presidents Have The Republicans Tried To Impeach

The Trump Administrations Treatment Of Immigration Exclusively As A Criminal And National Security Matter Is Inhumane Impractical And Must End The Bernie Sanders Campaign Wrote As President Bernie Sanders Would Make Undocumented Immigration A Civil Matter And Fundamentally Reform The Government Agencies Tasked With Enforcing Immigration Law In A Way That Views Immigration As A Historically Valued Process Thats Woven Into Our Countrys Fabric

 Hey Bernie — those who are here by less than legal means are breaking the law. That is a criminal matter, not a civil one.

And, for the record, many of the terrorists responsible for the 9/11 attacks on our country had overstayed their visas and were in violation of our immigration laws, thus additionally making it a matter of national security.

But you probably already knew that. You just don’t care.

  Sanders has released an immigration plan that would impose a moratorium on deportations, “break up” existing immigration enforcement agencies, grant full welfare access to non-legal immigrants and welcome a minimum of 50,000 “climate migrants” in the first year of a Sanders administration.

According to Fox News, the plan effectively establishes Sanders at the far left of the immigration debate, as he aims to energize a base that helped drive his 2016 primary campaign amid competition from other liberal candidates in the field this time around.

Bernies Dangerous Open Borders Agenda Would Incentivize Illegal Immigration And Continue The Flow Of Illegal Drugs And Criminals Into Our Country Spokesperson Michael Joyce Said Meanwhile President Trumps Steadfast Leadership On This Issue Has Resulted In A 63 Percent Decline In Illegal Immigrant Apprehensions Since May

Trump has previously indicated that he believes liberal immigration policies from his opponents will help him win in 2020.

When a number of Democrats raised their hands in June to a debate question about whether those not in the country legally should get health care, Trump declared it “the end of that race!”

While most of the Democratic nominees are pushing similar agendas on immigration, Joe Biden has not yet committed to the same level of reform.

Immigration Is Not A Threat To National Security His Plan Says It Is Long Past Time We Break Up The Department Of Homeland Security And Refocus Its Mission On Keeping Our Country Safe And Responding Effectively To Emergencies

Part of his plan disbands both Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Customs and Border Protection . Matters to do with deportation and enforcement would return to the Department of Justice, while customs matters would be sent to the Treasury and naturalization and citizenship to the State Department.

Instead, border enforcement would focus on “stemming the flow of firearms and drugs at ports of entry that have contributed to the opioid epidemic and stopping human trafficking.”

  He would abolish measures such as DNA testing and facial recognition technology for immigration and border enforcement.

For those immigrants, legal or not, who are in the country, Sanders accelerates the call to include ALL in welfare programs and other government services such as health care. Under Sanders, everything is on the table for everyone in the country regardless of immigration status.

The things that Sanders wants to offer independent of immigration status: Medicare-for-all, College-for-all and free universal school meals .

Sanders is also pushing for Congress to pass Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Embrace Act, which opens all welfare programs to all immigrants, legal or not.

  Sanders also wants to streamline legal immigration channels, reduce fees, and provide funding to unite immigrants who are stuck in backlogs.

The Republican National Committee on Thursday called the plan “dangerous.”

Devin Nunes Says Gop Majority In The House After 2022 Midterms Could Spell Trouble For New President As Fringe Conservatives Seek Retribution

Find your bookmarks in your Independent Premium section, under my profile

Close

Related video: Sean Hannity attacks Trump’s ‘lacklustre, meandering’ impeachment defence

Republicans could face significant pressure to impeach Joe Biden should they win back a majority in the House of Representatives in the 2022 midterm elections, California congressman Devin Nunes has warned.

Speaking to Fox News anchor Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, the Donald Trump loyalist suggested the GOP’s right-wing fringe could use any newfound power in Congress to push for a revenge impeachment against President Biden after his predecessor became the first commander-in-chief in American history to be impeached twice by the House.

“Republicans have a good chance of taking the House in 2022,” Mr Nunes said. “Now, if that happens, and let’s – for example, we don’t know what’s gonna happen to Hunter Biden’s laptop. We don’t know what’s gonna happen with the Durham investigation . But I could see the pressure would become great for us to actually have to impeach Biden.”

“Now look, I don’t want to do that, but you’re going to have people that are going to be saying that,” he added.

His allusion to the computer owned by the president’s son refers to a pre-election story popular among Trump supporters concerning the device being handed over by the owner of a Delaware repair shop to prominent Republican lawyer Rudy Giuliani. 

Interesting Fact Did You Know Democrats Have Tried To Impeach Every Republican President Since Eisenhower

The site had made the proclamation that the information delivered from the meme shared online was “Mostly False”, but when reading the rationale behind why they made such a claim revealed aspects that erred toward being more truthful. The Snopes article read:

What’s True

Articles of impeachment were introduced against five of the six Republican presidents who have served since President Dwight D. Eisenhower. 

What’s False

Articles of impeachment were not introduced against President Gerald Ford; a handful of Democratic politicians filed articles of impeachment against President George H. W. Bush Sr. and President RonaldReagan but their efforts did not receive the backing of the entire Democratic party; and the impeachment efforts against President Richard Nixon received bipartisan support.

So, the infamous debunking website had claimed that this was a mostly false statement since that only five of the six Republican presidents had articles of impeachment brought towards them while in office.

Yet, the real kicker is that they failed to mention that Gerald Ford wasn’t even an elected president and had only stayed in office for slightly over two years.

The circumstances of Ford’s appointment were stemming from the Nixon’s fall from grace and his original vice president resigning over the disgrace of the Watergate scandal. With all the country had been through at that point, impeachment on the appointed president Ford would have been insufferable.

My Father Came To America As A Refugee Without A Nickel In His Pocket To Escape Widespread Anti

Sanders’ plan was written in conjunction with several immigrants who were shielded from deportation by former President Barack Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program.

  In the plan, he promises to extend legal status to those eligible under the DACA program, as well as to grant relief for their parents. He also promises to use executive authority to allow immigrants who have violated our laws by living in the U.S. for five or more years to stay “free from threat of deportation.”

Sanders wants to provide a “pathway to citizenship” via Congress for all undocumented immigrants living in America — which he says is currently around 11 million — and would ensure that “old or low-level contacts with the criminal justice system” do not prevent illegal immigrants from walking along that path.

As president, Sanders says he would also decriminalize illegal border crossings, instead making it a civil violation. He would also end detention for those without a violent crime conviction.

Upon being sworn in, a President Sanders would halt all deportations until there was a full audit of “current and past practices and policies.”

He would also end the Trump ‘Muslim travel ban,’ as well as other Trump policies such as the Migrant Protection Protocols and defunding of sanctuary cities.

They are called public defenders. 

  You mean, like the corruption, repression and poverty in Venezuela, caused by the very socialism he wants to bring to America?

Did You Know That Democrats Have Tried To Impeach Every Elected Republican President Since 1960

Threat title:Did You Know That Democrats Have Tried to Impeach EVERY Elected Republican President since 1960?Of course there was no Republican POTUS elected in 1960, because Kennedy was elected. Nor was there one in 1964 when LBJ was elected. 1968 did see a Republican POTUS when Nixon squeaked in, but no impeachment was introduced against him until after the 1972 re-election. And when it was, it was supported from every side. So here already the OP has padded his specious claim by twelve years. And counting. 1976, no Republican, Jimmy Carter elected. Finally in 1980 and 1984, Reagan the Republican elected and re-elected and Henry Gonzalez filed impeachment articles that went nowhere. OP has padded his dates by 27 years. In 1988 HW Bush was elected, Gonzalez again files article, again goes nowhere. 1992 and 1996 was Clinton, who did face impeachment but ruh-roh, he’s not a Republican. So apparently, somebody filed articles against Dubya.The Cliff’s Notes to cut the bullshit.SFX: sound of emptying balloon

“The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible”– Albert Einstein

Gop Sen Collins: Trump Incited An Insurrection To Prevent Peaceful Transfer Of Authority

From CNN’s Clare Foran

GOP Sen. Susan Collins, who was among the Republicans who voted to convict former President Trump, spoke on the Senate floor explaining her vote, saying Trump “incited an insurrection with the purpose of preventing that transfer of power from occurring.”

“Instead of preventing a dangerous situation, President Trump created one. Rather than defend the Constitutional transfer of power, he incited an insurrection with the purpose of preventing that transfer of power from occurring,” she said.

Collins said that Trump’s “actions to interfere with the peaceful transition of power – the hallmark of our Constitution and our American democracy – were an abuse of power and constitute grounds for conviction.”

“The record is clear that the President, President Trump abused his power, violated his oath to uphold the Constitution and tried almost every means in his power to prevent the peaceful transfer of authority to the newly elected President,” she said.

“My vote in this trial stems from my own oath and duty to defend the Constitution of the United States. The abuse of power and betrayal of his oath by President Trump meet the Constitutional standard of high crimes and misdemeanors and for those reasons, I voted to convict,” she said.

Most Senate Republicans Back Measure Saying Trump Impeachment Trial Is Unconstitutional

Dareh Gregorian

Senate Republicans voted Tuesday for a measure that would have declared the impeachment proceedings against former President Donald Trump unconstitutional because he is no longer in office.

The motion, by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was defeated by a vote of 55-45, showing that Democrats have an uphill climb to secure the 67 votes needed for a conviction. Among those who voted for the motion was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., who has said he is undecided whether to convict Trump and who worked on the trial calendar with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

McConnell, when he was majority leader, rebuffed Democrats’ efforts to hold the trial while Trump was in office.

Senators were sworn for Trump’s second impeachment trial earlier Tuesday, a day after House impeachment managers delivered to the Senate the article of impeachment accusing Trump of incitement of insurrection in the Capitol riot this month.

The senators were given the oath by Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., the president pro tempore of the Democratic-controlled Senate.

“Do you solemnly swear that in all things appertaining to the trial of Donald John Trump, former president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the Constitution and the laws, so help you God?” Leahy asked the assembled senators.

Leahy is presiding over the trial instead of Chief Justice John Roberts because Trump is a former president.

Stacey Plaskett Addresses Emotional Toll Of Seeing Black Women Used In Trump Defense

“Those 43 who voted to acquit the president did so because they were afraid of him, because they were more interested in party and in power than they were in our country and in duty to their Senate oath,” she added.

Plaskett said Trump “will be forever tarnished” by the impeachment.

“I think it leaves him for all history — our children and my grandchildren will see in history that this was the most despicable despot attempting to become a fascist ruler over a country that was founded in democracy,” she said.

President Biden said the attack on the Capitol “has reminded us that democracy is fragile.” Above, Biden speaks during a visit Thursday to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. Evan Vucci/APhide caption

toggle caption

President Biden said the attack on the Capitol “has reminded us that democracy is fragile.” Above, Biden speaks during a visit Thursday to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md.

President Biden responded to the Senate’s acquittal of Donald Trump on Saturday by reminding Americans that truth must be defended, saying the impeachment of the former president was a stark illustration of the danger posed to democracy by lies, misinformation and extremism.

And Biden said that although Trump was acquitted, his actions in the lead-up to the Jan. 6 insurrection were not “in dispute.”

New Report Suggests Most Scholars Are On The Other Side; Trial Could Start This Week

WASHINGTON—The political fate of President Trump, and any ambitions he might have for reclaiming the White House in 2024, could be settled by who wins a debate over whether a president can be convicted through the impeachment process after leaving office—a matter on which the U.S. Constitution is silent.

The House impeached Mr. Trump last Wednesday for “high crimes and misdemeanors” for conduct culminating with a speech exhorting thousands of his followers to march down Pennsylvania Avenue to the Capitol and “fight like hell” against congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory.

“Thus incited by President Trump, members of the crowd he had addressed…unlawfully breached and vandalized the Capitol, injured and killed law enforcement personnel, menaced Members of Congress, the Vice President, and Congressional personnel, and engaged in other violent, deadly, destructive, and seditious acts,” the impeachment resolution, which won support from 10 Republicans, alleges.

The Senate could take the next steps—trying Mr. Trump and voting on his guilt—as soon as this week. Conviction requires a two-thirds vote by senators present; assuming perfect attendance, 17 Republicans would need to join all 50 Democrats to find Mr. Trump guilty.

Trump Lawyer: His Call To Georgia Officials To ‘find’ Votes Was Taken Out Of Context

Trump’s lawyers largely sidestepped Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked during the question-and-answer session: “Are the prosecutors right when they claim that Trump was telling a big lie, or in your judgment did Trump actually win the election?”

Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen shot back, “My judgment? Who asked that?”

“I did,” Sanders replied.

“My judgment is irrelevant,” van der Veen said.

“You represent the president of the United States!” Sanders yelled back before Sen. Patrick Leahy, the presiding officer, gaveled the chamber back to order.

Trump’s rhetoric about widespread fraud and a stolen election was false, dismissed by many courts stemming from dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and allies across several key states.

After Speaking Out On Impeachment Herrera Beutler Heads Toward Clash With Her Party

“The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president,” he said, “and having that belief was a foreseeable consequence of the growing crescendo of false statements, conspiracy theories and reckless hyperbole which the defeated president kept shouting into the largest megaphone on planet Earth.”

McConnell rebuked Trump for his actions after the insurrection as well.

“He did not do his job. He didn’t take steps so federal law could be faithfully executed and order restored,” he continued.

“No. Instead, according to public reports, he watched television happily — happily — as the chaos unfolded,” he said. “Even after it was clear to any reasonable observer that Vice President Pence was in serious danger.”

But McConnell said that the process of impeachment and conviction is a “limited tool” and that he believes Trump is not “constitutionally eligible for conviction.”

“The Constitution gives us a particular role. This body is not invited to act as the nation’s overarching moral tribunal,” he said.

He said that the text of the question of constitutionality is “legitimately ambiguous” and that he “respects” his colleagues for reaching either the conclusion to acquit or convict.

Seven Republicans broke ranks with their party in voting for a conviction.

toggle caption

Michael van der Veen, defense lawyer for former President Donald Trump, gives closing arguments during Trump’s second impeachment trial on February 13, 2021.

Trump’s Defense Closes Its Case By Saying Impeachment Trial Is A ‘complete Charade’

Manager Rep. Joe Neguse of Colorado rebutted the defense’s argument that Trump has been denied due process.

“We had a full presentation of evidence, adversarial presentations, motions. The president was invited to testify. He declined. The president was invited to provide exculpatory evidence. He declined. You can’t claim there’s no due process when you won’t participate in the process,” he said.

He noted that impeachment is separate and distinct from the criminal justice system.

“Why would the constitution include the impeachment power at all, if the criminal justice system serves as a suitable alternative once a President leaves office?” he asked. “It wouldn’t.”

Neguse also sought to address an allegation raised by defense attorneys, that the impeachment trial was rooted in hate. He turned to a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.: “I have decided to stick with love. Hate is too great a burden to bear.”

“This trial is not born from hatred,” said Neguse. “Far from it. It’s born from love of country. Our country. Our desire to maintain it. Our desire to see America at its best.”

toggle caption

On Saturday morning, senators voted to hear from Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler as a witness in the impeachment trial. Later, an agreement allowed a statement by her into the record without calling her.

The Senate impeachment trial of former President Donald Trump won’t be hearing from witnesses after all.

toggle caption

If Convicted Removal From Office Possible Disqualification From Government Service

If a president is acquitted by the Senate, the impeachment trial is over. But if he or she is found guilty, the Senate trial moves to the sentencing or “punishment” phase. The Constitution allows for two types of punishments for a president found guilty of an impeachable offense: “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States.”

The first punishment, removal from office, is automatically enforced following a two-thirds guilty vote. But the second punishment, disqualification from holding any future government position, requires a separate Senate vote. In this case, only a simple majority is required to ban the impeached president from any future government office for life. That second vote has never been held since no president has been found guilty in the Senate trial.

Trump Lawyer: His Call To Georgia Officials To Find Votes Was Taken Out Of Context

Trump’s lawyers largely sidestepped Trump’s false claims of election fraud. Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., asked during the question-and-answer session: “Are the prosecutors right when they claim that Trump was telling a big lie, or in your judgment did Trump actually win the election?”

Trump lawyer Michael van der Veen shot back, “My judgment? Who asked that?”

“I did,” Sanders replied.

“My judgment is irrelevant,” van der Veen said.

“You represent the president of the United States!” Sanders yelled back before Sen. Patrick Leahy, the presiding officer, gaveled the chamber back to order.

Trump’s rhetoric about widespread fraud and a stolen election was false, dismissed by many courts stemming from dozens of lawsuits filed by the Trump campaign and allies across several key states.

Mcconnell: Trump Is Practically And Morally Responsible For Provoking Capitol Riot

From CNN’s Adrienne Vogt

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called the Jan. 6 Capitol attack a “disgrace.” 

“They did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth. Because he was angry. He had lost an election. Former President Trump’s actions preceded the riot were a disgraceful, disgraceful dereliction of duty,” McConnell said.

“There’s no question — none — that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it. The people who stormed this building believed they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their President,” he added.

McConnell said there were “wild myths” about election fraud, but he said he defended Trump’s right to bring any complaints to the legal system.

“As I stood up and said clearly at that time, the election was settled. It was over. But that just really opened a new chapter of even wilder, wilder and more unfounded claims,” he said. “The leader of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country and then feign surprise when people believe him and do reckless things.”

Trump “did not do his job” to end the Jan. 6 violence, McConnell said.

McConnell called the Trump defense team invoking Trump’s voters during the impeachment trial “as a human shield against criticism.”

Watch:

Democrats Use Video Of Capitol Attack To Remind Senators Of Purpose Of Impeachment

Senators were brought back to the day of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol when Tuesday’s Senate trial opened with a 13-minute video containing clips from that day, from the president’s exhortation at a rally near the White House that his followers should go to the Capitol to the ensuing attack.

The video included footage of rioters breaking windows and chanting “stop the steal” as they disrupted the process to certify the 2020 presidential election results, falsely believing Trump’s claims that President Joe Biden won due to widespread fraud.

Members of Congress were shown in the video being escorted out. One clip showed the moment a Capitol Police officer shot Ashli Babbitt, the 35-year-old woman who had joined the rioters trying to get into the House chamber.

The clips were followed by Trump’s words on social media, directing the rioters to “go home with love and in peace.”

“Senators, the president was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives on Jan. 13 for doing that. You ask what a high crime and misdemeanor is under our Constitution? That is a high crime and misdemeanor. If that’s not an impeachable offense, then there is no such thing,” said House impeachment prosecutor Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md.

“They don’t need to show you movies to show you that the riot happened here. We will stipulate that it happened, and you know all about it,” he said.

Stacey Plaskett: Trump Trial Needed ‘more Senators With Spines Not More Witnesses’

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and West Virginia GOP Sen. Shelley Moore Capito both cited constitutional concerns in their decision to vote to acquit Trump.

Virgin Islands House Del. Stacey Plaskett, another impeachment manager, told NPR’s Weekend Edition that they didn’t “reverse course” on witnesses but instead succeeded in adding Herrera Beutler’s statement describing a conversation between House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Trump as the attack was ongoing.

“I know that people have a lot of angst and they can’t believe that the Senate did what they did . But what we needed were senators, more senators with spines, not more witnesses,” Plaskett said.

Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., a close ally of President Biden, reportedly urged House managers to relent on witnesses. He told ABC’s This Week on Sunday that spending “months fighting over witnesses” wouldn’t have been worth it.

“What the House managers needed wasn’t more witnesses or more evidence, what we all needed was more Republican courage,” he said. “This was the most bipartisan verdict in American history, a strong rebuke to President Trump, but frankly at the end of the day, the trial had reached its natural conclusion.”

Seven Republican senators voted to convict Trump, after 10 GOP House members voted to impeach Trump for inciting the mob that breached the U.S. Capitol.

Republican Who Wanted To Destroy Bill Clinton During 1998 Impeachment Has Regrets

A former Republican congressman who led the charge to impeach Bill Clinton in 1998 said he paid a visit to the former Democratic president a few years ago to ask forgiveness for his role in the affair.

“I hated Bill Clinton, wanted to destroy him, asked to be on Judiciary Committee so that I could impeach him,” said Bob Inglis, R-S.C., in an interview on “The Long Game,” a Yahoo News podcast.

Inglis visited Clinton a few years ago at the former president’s office in Harlem, he said, in what he described as a “very interesting” meeting. Inglis informed Clinton that he joined the Judiciary Committee as soon as he was elected to Congress in 1992, the same year Clinton was elected president, with the intent of impeaching him.

“I hated you so much that I wanted to impeach you,” Inglis told Clinton.

Clinton “sort of flinched,” Inglis said. “I said, ‘Yeah, I know you hadn’t done anything yet, but so much did I hate you.”

“I told him that it wasn’t good for my soul, it wasn’t good for the country, for me to have that level of animosity toward him,” Inglis said. “He didn’t say the words that you would hope to hear, which is, ‘You’re forgiven.’ But in every way he has expressed that to me. He’s been very kind to accept the apology for sure.”

Inglis left his seat in Congress in 1998, the same year the Republican-controlled House impeached Clinton, to run for the U.S. Senate. He narrowly lost to Democratic incumbent Sen. Fritz Hollings, who had held the seat since 1966.

_____

[johnboothus]

Next Round: Inside the Rapid Growth of Tattersall Distilling

On this episode of “Next Round,” host Adam Teeter chats with Jon Kreidler, co-founder of Tattersall Distilling, to discuss the rapid growth of his spirits brand. Currently, the brand offers over 30 products and produces a whopping 40,000 cases each year — not a small feat for a brand that has only existed for six years.

Kreidler discusses the brand’s new line of RTDs and canned cocktails — specifically focusing on Tattersall’s Cosmo Bianco in light of the cocktail’s renaissance — and how he uses data to decide which products to release next. Finally, Kreidler shares his vision for the future of Tattersall Distilling.

Tune in and visit https://www.tattersalldistilling.com/ to learn more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out the Conversation Here

Adam Teeter: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Adam Teeter, and this is a “Next Round” conversation. Today, we are talking with Jon Kreidler of Tattersall Distilling. Jon, thanks so much for joining me.

Jon Kreidler: Thanks for the time, I really appreciate it.

A: Yeah, totally. Before we jump into everything, what is Tattersall Distilling?

J: We’re a craft distillery located in Minneapolis. We are also in the process of building a second facility in Wisconsin right now, but we are just focused on very authentic products. We have a massive portfolio and a really amazing cocktail room, and we’ve been up and running for about six years now.

A: Yeah, I want to talk about that. In only six years, I think you have what, 30 products?

J: We have a lot.

A: Why? Are you crazy?

J: We’re slightly crazy, but it’s really driven by the laws in Minnesota. The way it works here, if you have a cocktail room, is that you can only serve what you produce.

A: Interesting.

J: When we originally built the business, we wanted to have a cocktail room or a bar that could compete with any bar in the city, state, and country. As we wanted different drinks, it led us to create different products. As we rolled those out internally, our distributor and other people would ask for us to start distributing them. We have a hard time saying no, so we have a massive portfolio.

A: You’re in Minneapolis, obviously. Basically, you guys would make a vodka to make vodka drinks or a gin to make gin drinks. Do you have one distiller who works for you guys? How does that work? Or do they have to learn how to make every different spirit?

J: Before we launched, Dan — who is my partner in this business and we’ve been friends since second grade — and I spent nine months working on the gin before we even opened up. The same with a lot of the other liqueurs especially, and we spent many, many months perfecting them. Once we got the big equipment, we started ramping them up to a larger scale. From there, it was just adding stuff constantly.

A: Where are you guys trained in distilling? How did you learn how to make spirits?

J: I went to the Michigan State Distilling School, and Dan went to another school. Then, we bought equipment and we may or may not have been doing it out of our basement for a while.

A: Illegal, but it’s fine.

J: We won’t admit to it, but yeah.

A: Cool, so what was the first spirit you guys made?

J: Gin.

A: OK, so were you aware that you were going to need to make every single thing that you wanted to serve in your cocktail room when you were starting the business? I’m curious how that business plan was created. Did you guys want to create a distillery and a cocktail room at the same time? Or did you create a distillery and then the cocktail room came because you can’t have a distillery without a cocktail room? What went through your decision-making process and conceptualization process when you were creating the business six years ago?

J: At the time, a cocktail room wasn’t legal in Minnesota, but we could see that it was going to be passed and going to happen. For our business plan, I think we were one of the first in the country that really put so much emphasis on the cocktail room. My business partner, Dan, is one of the more well-known bartenders in the Midwest and previously had a bitters company and a soft drink company. He is really fantastic with flavors, so we really wanted that to be the focal point for how we reach out to our customers to start. That was a big deal, but we probably had 12 different spirits that we were working on before we opened. As we opened and tried different things, we kept innovating, expanding, and experimenting.

A: When you created the business, who did you think the market would be? Was it going to be the Minneapolis area? Had you always considered that this would expand to 30 states now that you’re distributed in? What was your plan?

J: Yeah, that was the plan. Look, there were other people doing vodkas and gins.

A: Yeah.

J: There are thousands of them now, and there were people making whiskeys, but there wasn’t really anybody that was so focused on more esoteric stuff like the amari, the liqueurs, and some of the weird stuff that really can set your brand apart.

A: So that was the thing you thought, “OK, this how we’ll get known is really for the liqueurs more than the spirits?”

J: Well, we thought the gin would blow up and we’d be world famous. No, the liqueurs just differentiated it. You go into a bar, and you have those in your pocket. I mean, everybody has gin. We think our gin is the best in the world, but so does everybody.

A: Right.

J: Bartenders have tasted hundreds of gins, so they don’t really care to taste yours, for the most part.

A: Does the gin do well in your region because it is a regional product? In New York, I see tons of Brooklyn gins just because we’re in New York.

J: It does extremely well, and it does well in other markets, too. In those other markets, it’s not quite special just because you’re competing against every market that has their own local channels.

A: Is there one thing, though, out of all these 30, that you want to become known for? Is it the goal to become known as a whole as this distillery that makes tons of different products all really well? Or would you like to ultimately be known for your whiskey or for your liqueurs?

J: Yeah, the whiskey has been the thing we’ve been working on for six years now. It hasn’t been until the last couple of years where it’s gotten to a point where it’s matured, and that we are comfortable with releasing it.

A: OK.

J: This last fall we released our first bourbon. They are bottled-in-bond bourbon, four-plus years. We’re super proud of our straight rye whiskey which is our biggest seller on the aged spirits side. That’s done amazingly well, too. Those just take a little more time, and a little more capital to really build that business up.

A: In terms of the amount, can you give an idea of how many bottles you’re actually producing a year with all this liquid?

J: If it wasn’t for the pandemic, it could have slowed us down a little bit, but we’re looking at about 40,000 cases.

A: Wow, that’s a lot. You’re saying that you are in 30 states. Besides the Midwest, are there any other regions that are really big for you guys?

J: Georgia does really well for us. So does Tennessee, and Illinois does, too.

A: Why do you think that is?

J: Part of it, from a business standpoint, is we have sales reps in those states. We’ve put them there. We got good traction to start. We have really good partners in those states, and having representation on the ground makes a big difference.

A: Interesting. One of the things I want to talk to you about, because I was impressed by it when it was sent to me, is your pre-batched cocktails.

J: Yes.

A: So right now you guys have five of them, correct?

J: Yeah.

A: At least on the site, you have five.

J: Yeah, I think we have another one that we’ll be launching pretty soon.

A: Wow, so what goes into creating those? I think that there’s so many of them that aren’t done well and at least the ones of yours that I’ve had I think are really great. Obviously, you have a business partner who’s a world-class bartender making sure that they’re the best they can be. How have you gone about creating these cocktails? And how are you trying to stand out in this space that is all of a sudden getting pretty crowded, but you seemed to have been there earlier than others have been?

J: Yeah, it really started with the Bootlegger. It is a RTD, but it’s a two-step drink. It was aimed at higher-volume bars and restaurants. Essentially, it’s a vodka Mojito. It’s the one cocktail that Minnesota claims as their own: lemon, lime, mint, and vodka. It was meant to pour that with soda water. It is a super-quick drink that you can push out to the masses.

A: Interesting.

J: What we found was that it really took off in retail and for off-sale. The consumers were the ones who were driving the volumes on that one. In the fall, as we launched our Old Fashioned, we wanted one that’s completely ready-to-go. That was modeled off of our most popular drink in the cocktail room. It’s probably the most popular cocktail in the country.

A: Besides the Margarita, for sure.

J: Yeah, and we built it off of that build. The amazing thing is how it’s not as sweet. People call it sweet, and it’s significantly sweeter than what we pour in the cocktail room. I don’t think people like to admit they like sweet drinks, but they do. That’s the simple syrup, and that’s what it is. We have our own special blends and the years of building all these different spirits and creating them, we’ve really figured out how these botanicals and spices work together.

A: Very cool. Was the Manhattan next?

J: We did a Salty Dog, which is similar to the Bootlegger. Then, the following fall, we did the Manhattan.

A: The Manhattan’s great. That’s the one that I’ve had that I thought was really delicious. Now, you just put out a Cosmo, correct?

J: Yeah, correct. The Manhattan is my favorite. It’s a little bit drier, and it’s wonderful.

A: We have a theory at VinePair that the Cosmo is making a comeback. We think it’s going to come back in a pretty big way. Why did you choose to do a Cosmo? When we talked to some larger vodka brands they said, “Do you really think so?” We’re seeing them pop up at craft cocktail bars all over the country. I’m curious what caused that decision on your end, in terms of why you would do a Cosmo?

J: We had one in the cocktail room here. I think when we first discussed it, there were a few people in the room who poo-pooed it and said it’s never going to work. Dan knew right then that we were going to have a Cosmo, and it’ll be the best Cosmo anybody’s ever had. It was incredibly popular, and it’s a very easy drink. It’s a simple drink for people to consume, and it’s a recognizable drink.

A: Do you think the reputation it had coming out of the “Sex and the City” moments faded, and people are coming back to it?

J: Yeah, I think so. We have a clear Cosmo. It’s a Cosmo Bianco, so it doesn’t have that pink color to it, which is part of what makes a Cosmo iconic. But also, I think what we found is that it scares a certain part of the population away.

A: Yeah, that’s interesting. I was just about to ask you why bianco, but that makes a lot of sense. Obviously, you guys have grown a lot in six years, and now you’ve opened a new distillery in Wisconsin, correct?

J: We’re in the process. It’s under construction right now.

A: What was the decision to do that? Was it in terms of being able to hit larger volumes? Did you see a huge market in Wisconsin? Why a second distillery and why there?

J: It was because of the existing laws in the state of Minnesota. To be considered a microdistillery and have a cocktail room, there’s a production cap. We worked on it for about three or four years, lobbying and trying to get that raised and it just wasn’t happening. We weren’t gaining any traction. The legislators in the state right now have a lot of bigger issues to deal with, and we just didn’t think it was going to happen. If we wanted to keep growing, we had to look to expand it in another state. Dan and I both have ties to Wisconsin. The new facility is 35 minutes away, and it’s in a pretty amazing little town, so we’re very excited.

A: Oh, so you’re basically crossing the border?

J: Yeah, exactly.

A: That’s really interesting. Stupidly, I didn’t look at a map before I asked you the question. I probably should have.

J: That’s all right.

A: Is this also just so you can grow and expand across the country?

J: Yeah, exactly.

A: I’m curious about why you went with a branded house instead of a house of brands. You’re doing so many different liquids and so many different cocktails. Is there a reason you put them all under the Tattersall name? Had you guys talked about that when you started, saying, “We’re going to do all these different spirits?”

J: We did. That was absolutely intentional. We thought that would allow us to grow the brand quicker, instead of having 20 different brands that we were each trying to grow. I think our brand is pretty recognizable. You see it behind a bar, and you might not know what spirit it is, but you know that’s going to be a good-quality spirit because you recognize us. It was a way to expand our reach.

A: Interesting. So what do you see as the future for the company? It’s only six years in, so is it something you want to build into a massive, national brand? Would you ever entertain offers from larger spirits companies who might be interested? What are your and Dan’s goals?

J: Growth is what gets us excited. Growth and innovation. With the new facility, it’s going to allow us to do a lot more things. The brown spirits, especially as we continue to build those out, it has been a lot of fun. But we’ve been exploring canned cocktails for a couple of years. We actually had them ready to roll right before the pandemic but we pulled back and now it’s just the difficulties in getting aluminum. That continues to be on hold for us, but we’ve always looked at that possibility. There aren’t that many brands in the country that get to a certain size without getting acquired. That’s the natural progression of this industry. For us, we’ve talked about it. We’ve been approached a few times now, and it hasn’t been the right fit or it hasn’t quite felt right. I think there’s a lot of value in being able to leverage somebody else’s existing logistics and distribution and their knowledge. It’s a different game. It’s a certain game growing from a startup to an established company and a breakthrough to that national level. It’s just a different game.

A: For people who are thinking that six years feels really short for them to already be producing 40,000 cases, what do you think is the reason for your quick success? How did you go from six years ago having the business just starting, to then being recognizable in 30 states? What do you attribute to that success?

J: We work really hard. I think we’ve done a really good job of listening to the consumer and figuring out what the consumer wants and staying ahead or at least with trends. Also, taking what the consumer is asking for instead of trying to jam something down their throat. I think that’s the biggest deal. We’ve hired great people to help us out, build it, and help spread the word.

A: When you’re coming up with the types of cocktails you want to make for the cocktail program, how much are you looking at data and things like that in order to inform what you do?

J: Yeah, we absolutely look at data. That was part of the Cosmo. If you look back six months ago at the top RTDs in the country, it was basically White Claw. Then, it was also the On the Rocks Cosmo. It just validated what we were thinking. We thought, “Huh, this is going really well.” We invest a lot of money in data, getting that information, and getting professional help to help us make decisions. If it’s there, I think you’re foolish not to at least take it into your analysis.

A: Right, so before you started the business, what was your background?

J: Finance guy. I worked for banks and hedge funds and needed a change. And that I got.

A: I have to tell you, the products you guys are making are very high-quality, really delicious. I’ve been very impressed with the stuff that you sent, as is the rest of the VinePair staff, so thank you. Keep doing it. And the growth in six years is really impressive. There’s very few brands that have gone to 40,000 cases in only six years. You guys should be really proud of that. If someone was thinking about starting a spirits brand now in 2021, what would one piece of advice be that you would give to them?

J: Just make sure you are unique. Do your research. Make sure that it’s something unique that the market actually wants or is craving or is lacking. Then, go after it. You really have to believe in yourself because you’re going to have a lot of people tell you it’s a terrible idea or tell you the thousand reasons why you shouldn’t do it. As long as you believe in what you’re doing and you’re enjoying it, go after it.

A: Awesome. Jon. One last question: If people want to find Tattersall — obviously in 30 states, they can — but can they also get on your website?

J: You can get it on the website. We have a finder and that’ll show you where you can find it locally. Then, there’s also some links to where you can buy it. There are certain states we can ship into and some we can’t. It’s not direct from us, but it’s through our partners. However, our website is the best spot.

A: Awesome. Well, Jon, thank you so much for taking the time. Congrats on all the success, and we hope to check in with you sometime down the road to hear what else is new.

J: Awesome. Really appreciate it, Adam. Appreciate the work you do on the podcast. It’s great.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, then please give us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits, VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and in Seattle, Wash., by myself and Zach Geballe, who does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who are instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Next Round: Inside the Rapid Growth of Tattersall Distilling appeared first on VinePair.

Via https://vinepair.com/articles/next-round-jon-kreidler-tattersall-distilling/

source https://vinology1.weebly.com/blog/next-round-inside-the-rapid-growth-of-tattersall-distilling

[wineanddinosaur]

Next Round: Inside the Rapid Growth of Tattersall Distilling

On this episode of “Next Round,” host Adam Teeter chats with Jon Kreidler, co-founder of Tattersall Distilling, to discuss the rapid growth of his spirits brand. Currently, the brand offers over 30 products and produces a whopping 40,000 cases each year — not a small feat for a brand that has only existed for six years.

Kreidler discusses the brand’s new line of RTDs and canned cocktails — specifically focusing on Tattersall’s Cosmo Bianco in light of the cocktail’s renaissance — and how he uses data to decide which products to release next. Finally, Kreidler shares his vision for the future of Tattersall Distilling.

Tune in and visit https://www.tattersalldistilling.com/ to learn more.

Listen Online

Listen on Apple Podcasts

Listen on Spotify

Or Check Out the Conversation Here

Adam Teeter: From VinePair’s New York City headquarters, I’m Adam Teeter, and this is a “Next Round” conversation. Today, we are talking with Jon Kreidler of Tattersall Distilling. Jon, thanks so much for joining me.

Jon Kreidler: Thanks for the time, I really appreciate it.

A: Yeah, totally. Before we jump into everything, what is Tattersall Distilling?

J: We’re a craft distillery located in Minneapolis. We are also in the process of building a second facility in Wisconsin right now, but we are just focused on very authentic products. We have a massive portfolio and a really amazing cocktail room, and we’ve been up and running for about six years now.

A: Yeah, I want to talk about that. In only six years, I think you have what, 30 products?

J: We have a lot.

A: Why? Are you crazy?

J: We’re slightly crazy, but it’s really driven by the laws in Minnesota. The way it works here, if you have a cocktail room, is that you can only serve what you produce.

A: Interesting.

J: When we originally built the business, we wanted to have a cocktail room or a bar that could compete with any bar in the city, state, and country. As we wanted different drinks, it led us to create different products. As we rolled those out internally, our distributor and other people would ask for us to start distributing them. We have a hard time saying no, so we have a massive portfolio.

A: You’re in Minneapolis, obviously. Basically, you guys would make a vodka to make vodka drinks or a gin to make gin drinks. Do you have one distiller who works for you guys? How does that work? Or do they have to learn how to make every different spirit?

J: Before we launched, Dan — who is my partner in this business and we’ve been friends since second grade — and I spent nine months working on the gin before we even opened up. The same with a lot of the other liqueurs especially, and we spent many, many months perfecting them. Once we got the big equipment, we started ramping them up to a larger scale. From there, it was just adding stuff constantly.

A: Where are you guys trained in distilling? How did you learn how to make spirits?

J: I went to the Michigan State Distilling School, and Dan went to another school. Then, we bought equipment and we may or may not have been doing it out of our basement for a while.

A: Illegal, but it’s fine.

J: We won’t admit to it, but yeah.

A: Cool, so what was the first spirit you guys made?

J: Gin.

A: OK, so were you aware that you were going to need to make every single thing that you wanted to serve in your cocktail room when you were starting the business? I’m curious how that business plan was created. Did you guys want to create a distillery and a cocktail room at the same time? Or did you create a distillery and then the cocktail room came because you can’t have a distillery without a cocktail room? What went through your decision-making process and conceptualization process when you were creating the business six years ago?

J: At the time, a cocktail room wasn’t legal in Minnesota, but we could see that it was going to be passed and going to happen. For our business plan, I think we were one of the first in the country that really put so much emphasis on the cocktail room. My business partner, Dan, is one of the more well-known bartenders in the Midwest and previously had a bitters company and a soft drink company. He is really fantastic with flavors, so we really wanted that to be the focal point for how we reach out to our customers to start. That was a big deal, but we probably had 12 different spirits that we were working on before we opened. As we opened and tried different things, we kept innovating, expanding, and experimenting.

A: When you created the business, who did you think the market would be? Was it going to be the Minneapolis area? Had you always considered that this would expand to 30 states now that you’re distributed in? What was your plan?

J: Yeah, that was the plan. Look, there were other people doing vodkas and gins.

A: Yeah.

J: There are thousands of them now, and there were people making whiskeys, but there wasn’t really anybody that was so focused on more esoteric stuff like the amari, the liqueurs, and some of the weird stuff that really can set your brand apart.

A: So that was the thing you thought, “OK, this how we’ll get known is really for the liqueurs more than the spirits?”

J: Well, we thought the gin would blow up and we’d be world famous. No, the liqueurs just differentiated it. You go into a bar, and you have those in your pocket. I mean, everybody has gin. We think our gin is the best in the world, but so does everybody.

A: Right.

J: Bartenders have tasted hundreds of gins, so they don’t really care to taste yours, for the most part.

A: Does the gin do well in your region because it is a regional product? In New York, I see tons of Brooklyn gins just because we’re in New York.

J: It does extremely well, and it does well in other markets, too. In those other markets, it’s not quite special just because you’re competing against every market that has their own local channels.

A: Is there one thing, though, out of all these 30, that you want to become known for? Is it the goal to become known as a whole as this distillery that makes tons of different products all really well? Or would you like to ultimately be known for your whiskey or for your liqueurs?

J: Yeah, the whiskey has been the thing we’ve been working on for six years now. It hasn’t been until the last couple of years where it’s gotten to a point where it’s matured, and that we are comfortable with releasing it.

A: OK.

J: This last fall we released our first bourbon. They are bottled-in-bond bourbon, four-plus years. We’re super proud of our straight rye whiskey which is our biggest seller on the aged spirits side. That’s done amazingly well, too. Those just take a little more time, and a little more capital to really build that business up.

A: In terms of the amount, can you give an idea of how many bottles you’re actually producing a year with all this liquid?

J: If it wasn’t for the pandemic, it could have slowed us down a little bit, but we’re looking at about 40,000 cases.

A: Wow, that’s a lot. You’re saying that you are in 30 states. Besides the Midwest, are there any other regions that are really big for you guys?

J: Georgia does really well for us. So does Tennessee, and Illinois does, too.

A: Why do you think that is?

J: Part of it, from a business standpoint, is we have sales reps in those states. We’ve put them there. We got good traction to start. We have really good partners in those states, and having representation on the ground makes a big difference.

A: Interesting. One of the things I want to talk to you about, because I was impressed by it when it was sent to me, is your pre-batched cocktails.

J: Yes.

A: So right now you guys have five of them, correct?

J: Yeah.

A: At least on the site, you have five.

J: Yeah, I think we have another one that we’ll be launching pretty soon.

A: Wow, so what goes into creating those? I think that there’s so many of them that aren’t done well and at least the ones of yours that I’ve had I think are really great. Obviously, you have a business partner who’s a world-class bartender making sure that they’re the best they can be. How have you gone about creating these cocktails? And how are you trying to stand out in this space that is all of a sudden getting pretty crowded, but you seemed to have been there earlier than others have been?

J: Yeah, it really started with the Bootlegger. It is a RTD, but it’s a two-step drink. It was aimed at higher-volume bars and restaurants. Essentially, it’s a vodka Mojito. It’s the one cocktail that Minnesota claims as their own: lemon, lime, mint, and vodka. It was meant to pour that with soda water. It is a super-quick drink that you can push out to the masses.

A: Interesting.

J: What we found was that it really took off in retail and for off-sale. The consumers were the ones who were driving the volumes on that one. In the fall, as we launched our Old Fashioned, we wanted one that’s completely ready-to-go. That was modeled off of our most popular drink in the cocktail room. It’s probably the most popular cocktail in the country.

A: Besides the Margarita, for sure.

J: Yeah, and we built it off of that build. The amazing thing is how it’s not as sweet. People call it sweet, and it’s significantly sweeter than what we pour in the cocktail room. I don’t think people like to admit they like sweet drinks, but they do. That’s the simple syrup, and that’s what it is. We have our own special blends and the years of building all these different spirits and creating them, we’ve really figured out how these botanicals and spices work together.

A: Very cool. Was the Manhattan next?

J: We did a Salty Dog, which is similar to the Bootlegger. Then, the following fall, we did the Manhattan.

A: The Manhattan’s great. That’s the one that I’ve had that I thought was really delicious. Now, you just put out a Cosmo, correct?

J: Yeah, correct. The Manhattan is my favorite. It’s a little bit drier, and it’s wonderful.

A: We have a theory at VinePair that the Cosmo is making a comeback. We think it’s going to come back in a pretty big way. Why did you choose to do a Cosmo? When we talked to some larger vodka brands they said, “Do you really think so?” We’re seeing them pop up at craft cocktail bars all over the country. I’m curious what caused that decision on your end, in terms of why you would do a Cosmo?

J: We had one in the cocktail room here. I think when we first discussed it, there were a few people in the room who poo-pooed it and said it’s never going to work. Dan knew right then that we were going to have a Cosmo, and it’ll be the best Cosmo anybody’s ever had. It was incredibly popular, and it’s a very easy drink. It’s a simple drink for people to consume, and it’s a recognizable drink.

A: Do you think the reputation it had coming out of the “Sex and the City” moments faded, and people are coming back to it?

J: Yeah, I think so. We have a clear Cosmo. It’s a Cosmo Bianco, so it doesn’t have that pink color to it, which is part of what makes a Cosmo iconic. But also, I think what we found is that it scares a certain part of the population away.

A: Yeah, that’s interesting. I was just about to ask you why bianco, but that makes a lot of sense. Obviously, you guys have grown a lot in six years, and now you’ve opened a new distillery in Wisconsin, correct?

J: We’re in the process. It’s under construction right now.

A: What was the decision to do that? Was it in terms of being able to hit larger volumes? Did you see a huge market in Wisconsin? Why a second distillery and why there?

J: It was because of the existing laws in the state of Minnesota. To be considered a microdistillery and have a cocktail room, there’s a production cap. We worked on it for about three or four years, lobbying and trying to get that raised and it just wasn’t happening. We weren’t gaining any traction. The legislators in the state right now have a lot of bigger issues to deal with, and we just didn’t think it was going to happen. If we wanted to keep growing, we had to look to expand it in another state. Dan and I both have ties to Wisconsin. The new facility is 35 minutes away, and it’s in a pretty amazing little town, so we’re very excited.

A: Oh, so you’re basically crossing the border?

J: Yeah, exactly.

A: That’s really interesting. Stupidly, I didn’t look at a map before I asked you the question. I probably should have.

J: That’s all right.

A: Is this also just so you can grow and expand across the country?

J: Yeah, exactly.

A: I’m curious about why you went with a branded house instead of a house of brands. You’re doing so many different liquids and so many different cocktails. Is there a reason you put them all under the Tattersall name? Had you guys talked about that when you started, saying, “We’re going to do all these different spirits?”

J: We did. That was absolutely intentional. We thought that would allow us to grow the brand quicker, instead of having 20 different brands that we were each trying to grow. I think our brand is pretty recognizable. You see it behind a bar, and you might not know what spirit it is, but you know that’s going to be a good-quality spirit because you recognize us. It was a way to expand our reach.

A: Interesting. So what do you see as the future for the company? It’s only six years in, so is it something you want to build into a massive, national brand? Would you ever entertain offers from larger spirits companies who might be interested? What are your and Dan’s goals?

J: Growth is what gets us excited. Growth and innovation. With the new facility, it’s going to allow us to do a lot more things. The brown spirits, especially as we continue to build those out, it has been a lot of fun. But we’ve been exploring canned cocktails for a couple of years. We actually had them ready to roll right before the pandemic but we pulled back and now it’s just the difficulties in getting aluminum. That continues to be on hold for us, but we’ve always looked at that possibility. There aren’t that many brands in the country that get to a certain size without getting acquired. That’s the natural progression of this industry. For us, we’ve talked about it. We’ve been approached a few times now, and it hasn’t been the right fit or it hasn’t quite felt right. I think there’s a lot of value in being able to leverage somebody else’s existing logistics and distribution and their knowledge. It’s a different game. It’s a certain game growing from a startup to an established company and a breakthrough to that national level. It’s just a different game.

A: For people who are thinking that six years feels really short for them to already be producing 40,000 cases, what do you think is the reason for your quick success? How did you go from six years ago having the business just starting, to then being recognizable in 30 states? What do you attribute to that success?

J: We work really hard. I think we’ve done a really good job of listening to the consumer and figuring out what the consumer wants and staying ahead or at least with trends. Also, taking what the consumer is asking for instead of trying to jam something down their throat. I think that’s the biggest deal. We’ve hired great people to help us out, build it, and help spread the word.

A: When you’re coming up with the types of cocktails you want to make for the cocktail program, how much are you looking at data and things like that in order to inform what you do?

J: Yeah, we absolutely look at data. That was part of the Cosmo. If you look back six months ago at the top RTDs in the country, it was basically White Claw. Then, it was also the On the Rocks Cosmo. It just validated what we were thinking. We thought, “Huh, this is going really well.” We invest a lot of money in data, getting that information, and getting professional help to help us make decisions. If it’s there, I think you’re foolish not to at least take it into your analysis.

A: Right, so before you started the business, what was your background?

J: Finance guy. I worked for banks and hedge funds and needed a change. And that I got.

A: I have to tell you, the products you guys are making are very high-quality, really delicious. I’ve been very impressed with the stuff that you sent, as is the rest of the VinePair staff, so thank you. Keep doing it. And the growth in six years is really impressive. There’s very few brands that have gone to 40,000 cases in only six years. You guys should be really proud of that. If someone was thinking about starting a spirits brand now in 2021, what would one piece of advice be that you would give to them?

J: Just make sure you are unique. Do your research. Make sure that it’s something unique that the market actually wants or is craving or is lacking. Then, go after it. You really have to believe in yourself because you’re going to have a lot of people tell you it’s a terrible idea or tell you the thousand reasons why you shouldn’t do it. As long as you believe in what you’re doing and you’re enjoying it, go after it.

A: Awesome. Jon. One last question: If people want to find Tattersall — obviously in 30 states, they can — but can they also get on your website?

J: You can get it on the website. We have a finder and that’ll show you where you can find it locally. Then, there’s also some links to where you can buy it. There are certain states we can ship into and some we can’t. It’s not direct from us, but it’s through our partners. However, our website is the best spot.

A: Awesome. Well, Jon, thank you so much for taking the time. Congrats on all the success, and we hope to check in with you sometime down the road to hear what else is new.

J: Awesome. Really appreciate it, Adam. Appreciate the work you do on the podcast. It’s great.

Thanks so much for listening to the “VinePair Podcast.” If you love this show as much as we love making it, then please give us a rating or review on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, or wherever it is you get your podcasts. It really helps everyone else discover the show.

Now for the credits, VinePair is produced and recorded in New York City and in Seattle, Wash., by myself and Zach Geballe, who does all the editing and loves to get the credit. Also, I would love to give a special shout-out to my VinePair co-founder, Josh Malin, for helping make all this possible and also to Keith Beavers, VinePair’s tastings director who is additionally a producer on the show. I also want to, of course, thank every other member of the VinePair team who are instrumental in all of the ideas that go into making the show every week. Thanks so much for listening, and we’ll see you again.

Ed. note: This episode has been edited for length and clarity.

The article Next Round: Inside the Rapid Growth of Tattersall Distilling appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/next-round-jon-kreidler-tattersall-distilling/