#quite ethical in life and death but about that cash money

[msweebyness]

Class of Heroes AU: Worst Deeds

Today I have a bit of a special treat for you all! As wonderful as our hero kids are, no one is perfect! Detailed below are the least virtuous deeds ever performed by our heroes, both in their personal views and objective standpoints! As always, credit to @imsparky2002 and @artzychic27! (TW: Mentions of some unpleasant things, mentions of violence)

Marilan: Marinette still feels incredible shame for the way she embarassed herself before the matchmaker, considering it a dishonor to her family. She also carries great guilt for the fact that she deceived and ran away from her family to attend the school.

Adripunzel: As much as he despises Gabriel, the man still raised Adrien, who at times, though he wouldn’t realize it, would use emotionally manipulative tactics to get his way. He always catches himself quickly though, and hates himself for it afterward. He’s working hard to curb this habit completely. He also will never get over the guilt of failing to heal Ondine when she was crushed by that pillar.

TiAlya: On a day when Alya’s mind was in a very dark place, she found herself in a shady part of town, talking to the Shadow Man about how unfair it was that other people had it so easy. She nearly made a deal with him to achieve her own dreams, but was able to refuse when she realized how disappointed her loved ones would be.

Fairy GodBro: Nino tries his best to be a good and peaceful fairy, but there are times when everyone snaps. Which was what happened when Nino became so angry with Gabriel after meeting Adrien that he placed a bad luck curse on him. He was, of course, punished for this and had to earn back his magic.

Roselle: Rose is one of the sweetest and most kind-hearted people in the world...but even she has her limits. Xavier's...persistence in pursuing her is well known, and one day, before coming to the school...Rose just had enough. She blew up at him and brutally told him off in front of the entire village, topping it off by tripping him into the muddy streambed. While what she did was completely understandable, she still feels guilty for her harsh conduct.

Julebeast: Being transformed into a beast by a dark spell is bound to have some side effects, which Juleka quickly found out as she would spiral with her dark thoughts and descend into destructive rages. But her darkest moment was when she was first cursed, when she was so consumed by fury that she legitimately considered hunting down the sorcerer and killing him for what he had done.

Maxiro: Max takes a lot of pride in the majority of his technological work...but he does have some less ethical items on his resume. When his family was especially strapped for cash, Max entered a bot-fighting circuit, and won quite a bit of money. He knew it was illegal, but he felt like it was his best option. He donated it anonymously to his mother's bank account, but the guilt still haunts him.

Kimules: Kim’s worst nightmare is to harm others and cause damage. One of the worst days of his life happened just before he was invited to the school, when, in an attempt to assist one of the shopkeepers, he managed to demolish the entire town square. This was the final straw for the citizens, who decided the ban the boy entirely.

Aladdix: Alix has always been one to hold grudges, though she acknowledges that this is a problem. She has never been able to fully forgive Chloe for her past behavior, and will still antagonize her if the mood hits her right. She carries a lot of resentment for the wealthy due to past treatment, but even she admits that she goes too far at times. Such as when she stole a family heirloom from a noble in Agrabah, though she returned it once she found that out.

QuasiIvan: Ivan is a gentle soul at heart, but he can be pushed to the breaking point over those he cares about. One such instance when he was twelve haunts him to this day. Upon seeing a soldier assault Esmeralda, he completely lost control and nearly beat the man to death before his sister was able to bring him back to his senses. Though his reasons were noble, the reality of what he almost did still terrifies him.

Snow Mylene: Mylene is gentle and kind by nature, but she is also highly protective of those she cares for, particularly her gentle harmony. She is guilty in the past of calling in some of her aggressive animal friends to 'teach a lesson' to some of his royal tormentors. She also carries a great deal of guilt for hiding from her stepmother and leaving her people to suffer under the cruel woman.

Chloéstasia: Chloe knows well that she was not the nicest person freshman year, harming most of her classmates in some way or another, and never accepting responsibility for it. Not to mention her abuse towards Zoe and of her wealth and status. She knows her behavior will follow her for a long time, but she is willing to work for forgiveness.

Sabrinocchio: Sabrina has always been looked at as a 'goody-two-shoes', a little teacher's pet who never does anything wrong. Having that kind of reputation can weigh heavily on a young child, and these feelings of stress led Sabrina to take some advice from a less than reputable source and go to a party on Pleasure Island, against her father's wishes. Thankfully, she realized when things were getting dangerous, and called for Aurore.

Sleeping Nath: Nathaniel's curse weighed heavily on him throughout his life, and one of his darkest moments came when he first learned of it from his mother at the age of eight. He was so upset and consumed by despair at feeling that he was already doomed to die that he exploded at Queen Aya and fled from the palace into the woods, where he remained throughout the night, leaving his mother to fear for his safety.

MarcElsa: Though it was an accident and no permanent damage was done, Marc is still haunted by accidentally striking Kiran with his magic as children, Su-Han being no help at all, of course. Living with these self-deprecating thoughts for years got to Marc, and one day, he was in such a dark place that he was nearly pushed to the brink, so convinced that everyone was against him, that he sincerely contemplated freezing the kingdom and running away. He stopped when he thought of how Kiran would be hurt.

CinderZoé: No matter how kind and gentle they may be, a person can only handle being abused and mistreated for so long. On a day when Zoe had been locked in her 'punishment closet' for three days, she was so furious with her mother that she grabbed a mildly poisonous and sickening herb from the woods and slipped it into her mother's tea. Audrey became violently ill and was bedridden for two days.

AriOndine: Despite knowing it was the right choice to come to the surface, Ondine still deeply regrets the way she left things with her family, never giving them a proper goodbye and likely leaving them worried sick for weeks before they learned of her whereabouts. She knows she could have at least left a letter, and the guilt of feeling she abandoned them haunts her. (She also feels pretty bad about ditching the concert and leaving her sisters hanging.)

Kagamerida: Kagami has never liked having decisions made for her, especially by her mother. So when Tomoe announced she had plans for Kagami to be betrothed to the son of a nearby clan...the princess snapped. She was so angry that she slashed the family tapestry in half and fled the castle. She ended up at a witch's cottage, and came incredibly close to using a spell on her mother to escape her arranged marriage.

Blurore: Aurore prides herself on her morally upright behavior and for doing the right thing, but there are times even she can fall off. In her younger years, after having rescued Sabrina from Stromboli's clutches, she was so incensed with the man that she used her magic on the coach's wheels, causing it to crash and leaving him devastatingly injured. She was, like Nino, punished for this and had to earn back access to her wand.

Miremba: While, despite feeling to the contrary, Mireille is not truly responsible for the death of her mother, she knows she was still wrong in avoiding the Pride Lands and confronting their uncle for as long as they did. Seeing her home left in ruins while she was absent left her with a great deal of guilt. There was also, of course, the Elephant Graveyard incident...

Jeanzco: Jean is by no means a malicious person and never means to cause harm, but his bluntness and lack of foresight can at times cause…issues. Such as when they quite abruptly fired Yzma from her position, which unleashed a hellstorm on the empire. Not to mention his, erm, spending habits as emperor, though they’re working on managing this better.

Robette: Cosette prides themselves on being able to keep a cool head in most situations, but it has its limits, like when those that she loves are uncomfortable or put at risk. On one occasion, while Cosette was trying to enjoy a date with Zoe, a paparazzo was so persistent and rude towards the blonde that the young singer snapped, ending up striking him and breaking his camera. They later issued a public apology, though their fans were sympathetic.

Demolition Denise: While the denizens of their own game know Denise is no bad guy, and have always treated them with kindness, the treatment they received outside of those safe walls has lead them to consider abandoning the game world entirely and never coming back. They ultimately stayed, not wanting to endanger their game. But then they were fired... They also have an infamous temper, which can lead to some unplanned demolition.

Simon Pan: Simon will concede that he may have gone a bit too far with cutting off Hook's hand and feeding it to a crocodile, but after an attack by the pirate on the Lost Kids left one of the children with permanently crippling injuries, he was too blinded by fury to be fully aware of what he was doing and the ramifications of it.

IsmaGenie: Though he acknowledges that he really had no choice in the matter, Ismael is still deeply affected by his time serving under less than morally sound finders. He had to grant a number of wishes that did harm to others, and the guilt from this follows him even now.

Reshmabela: Anyone who knows Reshma knows how much she loves her family, and she will go to great lengths to protect them. But there are times when she can take things a bit too far. In her hometown, there was a boy who never stopped harassing Mithra for her lack of a gift. Reshma got so fed up with his actions that she filled his room with poison oak, and was rewarded by a harsh scolding from her grandmother.

Lacey Bell: Lacey has always been headstrong and likes to do things her own way, and at times this can be to the detriment of others. When she thinks something can be done better, she will go to great lengths to prove it. Like when her attempts to speed up the Spring preparation process with her inventions ended up going haywire and destroying most of what was already done.

Even heroes aren't perfect! Leave your thoughts in the comments and reblogs!

[jedie]

darth vectivus should’ve been anakin’s mentor

[flyinglotus777]

Netflix’s Squid Game

SPOILER ALERT! If you are interested in watching the series, I HIGHLY suggest you do so. This article will be an overall synopsis and my review of the show. For an in-depth analysis of the symbolism of the show and ending, scroll down to the fourth to last paragraph.

The Netflix show, “Squid Game,” written and directed by Hwang Dong-hyuk is a phenomenal Korean drama centered around our victor, Seong Gi-hun, played by Lee Jung-jae. Contestants were recruited to play in a life or death competition due to their lack of luck, financial knowledge, and influx of impending debt they have accumulated throughout their lives. We first meet Gi-hun as he is down on his luck. Living with his elderly, overworked mother (which in countries outside of the United States is not strange nor uncommon) Gi-hun was a friend to gambling, but that toxic love caused him to be in debt to a gang of (what seemed to be) loan sharks. When luck finally strikes him on the race track, life simultaneously decides to take an excrement on his reality. His debt seekers catch him on his hot streak and involuntarily sign him up to be a participant in the Squid Game.

Similar to many other of the 456 participants, they all shared a common denominator of being in situations it seemed only money could fix. Upon arrival the contestants were asked to voluntarily sign wavers in order to participate in the game, while unknowingly risking their lives, for the opportunity to win 456 billion won (which would be roughly over $3.5 million in US currency). The challenges were mostly based on nostalgic childhood games, both based in the United States and South Korea.

Now I knew due to the explanation in the introduction of episode one that if any player were to lose, they would die. So during the first challenge of red light green light, when players were bulletly penalized for losing I was not surprised. After the game, the players decided to rally together and quit playing. The influence of the cash prize split the decision down the middle, leaving the old man, player 1, to be the final decision. To my surprise he actually chose to decline, freeing all of the players. During the voting, many players screamed at each other as to why they would choose to stay in the hell hole as other players responded that the outside world was not any better if not the same as the harsh environment they were already in. This reality struck many contestants as they returned back to their reality of debt, dependents, and for some bounty hunts, thus resulting in them returning to the game.

During the whole season, I was trying to find the purpose of these games. We knew why the participants felt motivated to play, but I wondered what was the purpose of having them fight for their lives in the first place. When the PlayStation faced soldiers forced the doctor (player 111) to dissect the bodies for organs to sell at the black market, at first I thought that it was what the original game maker wanted which I thought was genius. Soon to learn that it was actually a violation to a code of equality that was placed inside the arena applying to all of those who existed, soldiers and participants alike. Which struck me as odd due to the soldiers being able to tote guns and wear masks based on their own hierarchy and the participants being collectively isolated and given numbers as if it was a remake of the Stanford Prison experiment. Nonetheless many soldiers faced the same fate as the players, and my pondering would meet the solution come the finale.

Let’s discuss players. I only favored Gi-hun because he was the protagonist, but throughout the story he grew on me as his big heart prevailed through the madness. I knew Choo Sang-woo, the embezzling business man and hometown friend of Gi-hun played by Park Hae-soo, was a psychopath when I saw him in a fully filled bathtub with his suit on. Running from the police, in debt or not, that’s just as much of a red flag for serial killer tendencies as sleeping with socks on or having too thin and highly arched eyebrows. The episode that he crossed Ali, the father of one from Pakistan with the missing fingers, made me hate Sang-woo for the rest of the series. I was infuriated and frustrated with Ali for being that naïve to believe that they could escape the round as a duo, but understood his perspective since up until that point Sang-woo was a dependable, trusted ally to Ali. However after that episode I didn’t care who won, I was just ready for Sang-woo to die.

Kang Sae-byeok, the skeptical and beautiful warrior from North Korea played by Jung Ho-yeon, deserves her own paragraph. Along with her beauty, her presence and demeanor was so bad ass. She was thrifty and intelligent, as her talent being pick pocketing. I was waiting for her to just be so bad ass. As the punk disguised to be gangster, Jang Deok-su, pushed her around which seemed to be normal behavior between the two, I was ready for Sae-byeok to twist his arm, send a plunging round house kick to his nuts, and cut his snake tattoo right off of his face. Although her exterior was tough, her heart was made of malleable gold which we got to see as she opened up to her female companion during the marble challenge and sobbed from her loss afterwards. Although she was not the killer bad ass queen I had wanted her to be, I still call her a warrior because of her resiliency throughout life’s and the game’s many obstacles and her drive to provide her younger brother with a better life.

Thankfully Deok-su got what he deserved as Han Mi-nyeo poetically decided to take both of their lives during the glass challenge. “You said we would be together till the end,” she said before diving into her inevitable death with her short lived lover. Mi-nyeo was incredibly annoying as I would often pinch the inside corners of my eyes and scratch my eyebrows when she would appear. However that crazy bitch served justice, and I love her for that.

I was highly disappointed by the demise of the detective Hwang Jun-ho, played by the handsome Wi Ha-joon. I was rooting for detective Jun-ho, as I’m sure we all were, on his pursuit to find his brother. I was not surprised that his brother was Front Man, as I had suspected that his brother must’ve died or been apart of the game making due to his absence in real life and the current game. After discovering his brother was the victor of his year, to me it only made sense that he would be apart of the game enforcement. As we saw from Gi-hun, a normal life is impossible to live after experiencing something so traumatic as a series of death ridden children games. However I was saddened and surprised that detective Jun-ho was unsuccessful in closing down the whole operation. I mean the man was close to performing forced, aristocratic fellatio in the name of serving and protecting the law. I truly thought because he had gotten so far and was so close to exposing the operation that the only choice he had was to be successful. At last he was shot and killed by his own blood, the one he had been looking for; providing us with a cinematic and heart jerking ending to detective Jun-ho.

Lastly lets discuss the old man, player 001 named O Yeong-su, whom I also nicknamed Poppy during the series. Deceivingly innocent and weak, I genuinely liked Yeong-su throughout the game play. I thoroughly enjoyed his relationship with Gi-hun and saw him as a valuable player in most instances. I believe he was one of the main reasons that Gi-hun continued to lead with his heart. Gi-hun claimed that Yeong-su was the reason he returned to the games and later found out that Yeong-su was the reason there were games in the first place. The climatic episode of the marble challenge was when their relationship had been defined as “gganbu” (which is a term for trusted, close friends in Korean, as explained in the series), thus Yeong-su establishing a special place in Gi-hun’s heart. During the challenge, Yeong-su begins to have an episode of what we all assumed to be dementia as the arena they are playing in is designed like his old neighborhood and he abandons the game to take a trip down memory lane. Gi-hun screams in frustration at the old man to play with him only to end up losing in their even and odd game and resulting in deceit, tricking the old man to let him be the victor. Now if I was Gi-hun, I would’ve convinced Yeong-su to let me hold his marbles for safe keeping and let him have a fun time reminiscing on his life while he ran down the clock. Then when it was time, I would’ve turned in all 20 marbles just as Sang-woo did and went about my business. It would’ve only been right for the old man to forfeit as he was already on his death bed, or so we innocently thought. Before I get into the ending, I want to talk about the last match between Sang-woo and Gi-hun.

Finally, the last game to see who would be victorious in a highly anticipated game of Squid between Gi-hun and Sang-woo. It seemed as if it were a battle between good vs evil; Gi-hun representing a more benevolent side as he would often optimistically look to help other competitors and extend the kindness he had been shown versus Sang-woo who represented a more vindictive and ruthless side, determined to hurt anyone in order to receive his highly coveted and long awaited prize in an arena that erased any foundation of morals or ethics as soon as the light turned red. Luck was on Gi-hun’s side as he had the opportunity to play offense. With a cunning mind and a vengeance for Sae-byeok’s death, Gi-hun delivered a can of whoop ass to his opponent. As the saying goes, the good shall always prevail. Perhaps his heart was too pure as Gi-hun halted from crossing the finish line and offered Sang-woo a chance to live, thus forfeiting the prize money. Needless to say, I applauded when Sang-woo committed suicide as it was the only right thing to do in his position.

A year passed by and Gi-hun seemed worse than before. Physically his style was bummy wealthy, a look pioneered by Bill Gates, but mentally he was in shambles. How could you blame him? Gi-hun discovered that the responsible party for these horrendous events was none other than his ggangbu, old man Yeong-su. The biggest, jaw dropping plot twist of the entire series. As they were joined on Christmas Eve and Yeong-su on his death bed, they placed one final bet on an assumed to be drunken, homeless man who sat on the streets as it snowed and waited for help to arrive. Yeong-su explained how he actually wanted to help people and give his money to people who needed it, but wanted to do it in an “entertaining way.” As Gi-hun flared with outrage towards the old man for finding amusement in killing people, the old man rebutted using horse races as an example of people’s amusement. Yeong-su also said he participated in the games because it was more fun to play than to be a spectator, which I had noticed him treating the competition as if it were adult summer camp. I had just assumed since he was old, he didn’t care if he had died or not.

I think most people will think that this show was a metaphor about how money and rich people are evil. However I think it can be seen as commentary on society as a whole, not just the wealthy. Yeong-su says on his death bed that it’s a test of humanity, and asks Gi-hun if he still has faith in humanity after what he has experienced. Although money was the luring motivator to win the game, people still chose to return to the competition to escape their problems. Sure, money was apart of their problems as all of the players (excluding Yeong-su) were in debt, but that was due to choices that they had made. Whether it had been through embezzling, gambling, lack of luck, or financial ignorance, it was the people who had gotten themselves into those situations. Money doesn’t have a personal vendetta against anyone nor does it have an inherent quality of good or evil. Money is a neutral energy used to be exchanged for goods and services. It’s people who designate that energy to their humane or inhumane desires.

Leading to the next point of the wealthy and how they are seen to be evil due to having wealth. Although I do believe that there are some wealthy people who act as villains, money didn’t create the villain inside of them. Those people were going to behave maliciously whether they have money or not. The VIPs, who were spectating the finale of challenges, were tied to a bank devoted to the wealthy and gambled on the competitors who played (and most likely helped subsidize the events). We place judgement on them, but as Yeong-su said, people gamble on horse races. Although people are not animals and by my knowledge I don’t believe most or any horses die during these races, it is still the principle of watching an entity being tortured for amusement, which is not only confined to the wealthy population. When the concept of killing and tormenting living breathing beings for amusement is normalized within society, the lines begin to blur on who is okay to perform and who is not. Take the audience of this show for example, we all watched a show where hundreds of people were mercilessly killed for the desire of winning a cash prize for our own amusement, thus making “Squid Game” the number one show on Netflix at the moment. Although the show is fictional and brilliantly written, this Hunger Games concept is not new. We come in contact again and again with the idea of people who are disadvantaged given an opportunity to better their lives through inhumane means, including risking their own lives or actively sacrificing the life of another, and being spectators on the edge of our seats who can’t seem to look away. It is no different than a Roman gladiator match in a grand colosseum, which in modern day would be a MMA fight at the MGM hotel. We blame it on the rich who are ridiculed for creating these events, but at the end of the day it is the people, rich,poor, and everyone in between, who continue to still go along with it and to some extent desire it. Which makes me question, what does that say about humanity, and do I actually have faith in us? Although Gi-hun went through hell and back, he still remained pure of heart and used his wealth to enhance his life and those around him; proving that wealthy people can still be benevolent and desire righteous good. Similar to Gi-hun, the optimist in me wants to believe that there are still people in this world with good hearts, but I guess we just have to wait until the time comes to see.

Ultimately the show was phenomenal, and definitely sparked a desire inside of me to watch more Korean dramas. I don’t think the show will have a second season. Simply because I think the story line would be better cut off there, thus leaving the audience always wanting more. However if season 2 ever comes out, I’m ready for Gi-hun to take a Liam Neeson approach to ending the Squid Game and hopefully with a beard. Thank you for reading my article. I know it was incredibly lengthy. I have just finished the season after a 2 day binge watch, and have a lot of emotions and thoughts ruminating in my brain. Let me know what you think of the show and what you think of the article. Did anyone else notice the paintings of the games on the walls of the dormitory?

God bless.

[belliesandburps]

OCs play Uno, Monopoly, and Mario Kart at different times. GO.

I've never played Uno, so I'm sticking to Monopoly and Mario Kart.

Monopoly

Hakari: He's going to lose every time because he doesn't like the idea of bankrupting people. So, he'd always give his friends a break...who will promptly bankrupt him once he lands on Boardwalk. He'll take his loss gracefully, but he will frown beneath his mask and mutter, "...That hardly seems fair... >: \ "

Nara: Two hours in, she will start shooting at the board.

Aidan: ...That board's gettin' set on fire...

Isole: The gentle ice boi is gonna bleed every player dry because he's so unassuming and so kind that you forget, if he has to throw down, somebody is goin' down. And beneath that gentle demeanor, lies a veeeeery shrewd Monopoly Shark... >:)

Runo: He'd steal all the Monopoly money and run off to try and use it to buy burgers and be so cockily proud of himself. "I can't believe those idiots were just sittin' on all this cash! I'm RICH!!! >:D "

Lowell: ...He'll start chewing on the houses, thinking they're gummy houses or something...and it will take quite a few swallowed down before he realizes that gummy isn't supposed to be hard...or plastic...

Kentaro: You're already broke. You just don't know it yet. He knows this game like the back of his hand and has never lost. Being a greedy SOB and a veeeeery cunning business man is this fatass' MO. He'll make all the right trades and screw you so hard, you won't see it comin'...

Drayce: He's going to question the ethics of upcharging people just for stepping on your property and driving them broke. It kiiiiinda misses the whole point of the game, but only reinforces why he hates humans so much that bankrupting each other is now FUN for them. XD

Roarke: Well, his player piece would be his favorite rock. And he'd ask if using rocks instead of hotel pieces makes them stronger.

Cadmus: He'll just stare at you with the most bored look on his face if you even ask him to play. A look that says, "Real life is meaningless...and you want me to spend three or four hours playing pretend business mogul...?"

Koloss: He's going to just start stealing houses and cash from the bank and snarl at you if you call him out for cheating. Aaaaand unless you want a trip down his gullet...suddenly Virginia Avenue can have ten hotel pieces on it...

Kasumi: Yeaaaaah, good luck convincing a wraith to sit down and play a game more long and agonizing than his own death was...

Kai: He'll breathe fire over the entire board, stomp his taloned foot over it and start laughing victoriously at winning Monopoly and ordering you all to bow down before him and bask in his greatness. That's how HE plays it, at least...

Mako: ...He thought he was playing Checkers this whole time...and he was STILL playing that wrong...

Mauler: Do not play anything that takes too long around Mauler. Because if Mauler gets bored, he gets hungry. And if he gets hungry, everything becomes a chew toy for the mutant...

Rameel: He'll start complementing whoever is in the lead and worm his way into forming a shared mutual understanding with them...then find a way to betray them and get the railroads.

Nero: He will excuse himself, leave the room, lure whoever is in the lead away for a moment...KILL them...consume them, and proceed to disguise himself as them so he can win the game.

Loch: He only plays some future space version of Monopoly, with holograms and lasers. And he once used said lasers to cut someone's arm off when they tried to steal some of the banks money. Proooooobably don't offer to play with him...

Mario Kart

Hakari: He'll be really enamored by the beautiful, colorful worlds, too much so to even care if he's winning or losing.

Nara: She's gonna be veeeeery interested in asking Lev to try and make bullets or drones like Bullet Bill.

Aidan: ...Yeaaaaaah, that game's getting set on fire.

Isole: He's really good at drifting and gliding because of his own powers, so he'd be really good at the game, but giggle to himself anytime he falls off and comes back as an ice cube in the cold levels. "Hehehehe, thaaaat's not how it works... XP "

Runo: "...Yooooooooooo...! That monkey's drivin' a go-kart!!! 8O "

Lowell: Prepare for several minutes of Lowell sniffing at the control and nibbling on it, then looking at the TV veeeeery confused about all the were-creatures and why they look so fake.

Kentaro: His fingers are literally too fat to hold controllers.

Drayce: Every single time he slides off the stage, he'd just stare in confusion and ask what the button is to reveal your draconian wings and fly to safety.

Roarke: He'd just be very, very, veeeeery confused about all the strange mages using all these random powers. Then, he'd ask if turtles really fly on clouds...

Cadmus: He would not give a rats ass. He'd literally just be bored and pushing a single button over and over half-heartedly while his character barely moves.

Koloss: He'd be grinning and guffawing at how spot on it feels plowing through all the meatbags as Bowser...then snarl murderously when he slips on a banana peel and goes flying off a cliff...

Kasumi: ...If any vestige of his living self still exists, he'd be torn between wanting to show you he's the best at everything, and wanting to both kill you and consume your shade for even suggesting the idea of playing a video game to a wraith...

Kai: ...He'll...breath fire over the game, smash the TV and console to bits under his heavy, clawed foot, and guffaw in victory, demanding you bask in his greatness. He's...umm...not very good at figuring out video games...

Mako: ......He thought he was playing Angry Birds...and asked how to perform a fatality...

Mauler: Watching all those characters on screen is just gonna make him hungry, and once he chews on the TV and realizes he can't eat them...well...best abort when you can...

Rameel: He'd use his sand powers to temporary blind you and use that opportunity to win. Yes, Rameel's biggest strategy is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PTAXUYLbFYk

Nero: He'd win in the most efficient way possible, scanning the game, other players and the AI's, and mastering the perfect plays after willfully losing one round just to 3D map the road in his central chip.

Loch: He'd get bored after one round then sell you to space traders.

[greensaplinggrace]

ok another clack fic cuz cloud whump is the best and there’s never enough, so “please don’t cry” and “don’t ever do that again” from prompt list where cloud is still emotionally inept but zack is always there to help him feel and comfort him🥰🥰

Soooo...this took a very dramatic turn and I’m sorry! I actually have another version of this fic more along the lines of what you asked for in the works, so if you want me to tag you when I post it I can totally do that XD. I’m sorry it took me so long to complete this prompt! Life has been a bitch and I didn’t want to force it, you know?

“Please don’t cry” / “Don’t ever do that again.” (From This Here Prompt List)

*TW for violence and minor emetophobia

-If you want to send in a prompt, the guidelines are HERE and HERE!

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Dusk has settled well over the city when the register rings shut for the final time that night. Sealing away the money he’d just counted should not be as satisfying as it is, but Cloud’s more than eager to end his shift. Eight hours is a misery but ten is exhausting, and every muscle in his body aches with the need for plush sheets and the warmth of his heating pad.

Today is Zack’s day off, which means he’s going to want to take the scenic route as he walks Cloud home, but there’s no way in hell Cloud is walking three miles today. He wants his binder off and his packing out. He doesn’t know why he’d thought packing on a busy Saturday was a good idea, but he’s starting to regret it.

Kicking the cup-holders into place, Cloud checks over the fridge and the oven before finally flicking off the last of the lights. There are some dishes still in the sink, but it’s only a couple of plates and a mug. Not enough to bother with, and hopefully not enough to piss Barret off come morning, though Cloud can never be too sure when it comes to the man.

Sometimes, he feels like Barret is warming up to him. Other times it’s like the man has an “I hate Cloud Strife” tattoo painted across his face. Cloud’s long since stopped trying to impress the guy in favor of actually being himself, and the recent response has been a whole bag of mixed signals. The only consolation is that he seems to hate Zack more. Which is why Zack has been permanently banned from visiting Cloud on morning shifts and instead been delegated to walking him home after closing. An entirely useless endeavor, considering Cloud can take care of himself, but Zack mostly does it to keep him company than out of some strange sense of duty, so he lets it slide.

A loud pounding on the door signals Zack’s arrival, and Cloud only makes another cursory sweep over the kiosk before hanging up his apron and grabbing his things from the back. As soon as he heads for the front door he sees Zack, face pressed to the glass and waving wildly, an eager smile splitting his face in two.

Warmth wells in Cloud's chest at the sight, along with a faint of tinge of exasperation at the other man's antics. He sighs and rolls his eyes enough for Zack to see it through the smudged windows, pushing the door open so hard it has him bouncing off the glass.

“Ow! Hey!” Zack huffs, rubbing at his nose with a pout, and Cloud casts him an unimpressed look.

“Tifa’s going to have your head for messing up her window.” The door shuts behind him with a bang, rattling against a gust of heavy wind, and Cloud burrows into his scarf with a shiver. He fumbles for the key with gloved fingers and uses his other hand to pull the scarf tighter, scowling into the soft fabric when Zack only grins.

“Don’t worry! She won’t ever know it was me.”

“Yes, she will.”

“Wh- how?! Nobody saw me.”

Cloud raises a brow at him before turning to the door, fighting with the lock for a good three seconds before it budges and clicks into place, and when he turns back around it’s to see an expression and complete and utter betrayal on Zack's face.

“You would tell her? About me, your own boyfriend? What happened to bros before hoes?”

“Tifa is my bro.”

“What, so does that mean I’m your hoe?”

Cloud’s lips twitch into a smile, and he hides his blush in the folds of his scarf as he grabs Zack’s hand and powers down the sidewalk. “Let’s go.”

“Yeesh! Calm the death grip, piña colada.”

“Absolutely not, Zack.”

“It’s a cute pet name.”

“It’s not a pet name at all.”

“Well, you’ve vetoed literally every real one in existence. I have to get creative.”

“There’s not a creative bone in your body, soldier.”

Zack tuts, tone suddenly serious in a way that has Cloud feeling guilty for snapping, and slows his walk drastically. He tugs at Cloud’s hand as he does so, and Cloud’s forced to either drop behind or risk losing him. Reluctantly, Cloud falls back. When he reaches Zack’s side, the other man is quick to give him a sideways look of concern. “You’re in a mood. Bad day at work?”

“It’s not a mood,” Cloud hisses, because the tension just won’t leave, heart pounding and ears ringing. Zack’s hand tightens around his for a while, thumb pressing into his palm until he’s gentling.

“I know,” Zack eventually says, “those were the wrong words. I’m sorry.”

Cloud glances away. “‘S fine.”

“Did something happen at work?”

“Just-” Cloud exhales loudly, pulling Zack closer as they turn a corner, “-long day. And a Saturday, so…”

“Your chest hurt?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, then how about we talk about the awesome day I had at my work!” Cloud hums his assent, leaning into Zack all the way as he relaxes into the sound of Zack’s voice. “A vet came in for Collie today, and they were the perfect match. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a dog and a woman fall in love faster in my life. I mean, I’ll be sad to see her go, but she’s still got regular checkups for a bit, so I can spend some time with her for a little while longer. Not to mention Cissnei is an amazing person. I mean, she’s rough around the edges - sure - but who isn’t?”

“I have no idea who that is.”

“Oh! She’s the vet. Just came back from a real bad tour and she needed a trainer with good ethics - that’s me - so she dropped by and almost instantly bonded with Collie. It was so heartwarming. Wait, I’ve got a picture here…She wouldn’t let me take a video but...”

Zack trails off as he searches for his phone, and as much as Cloud loves hearing about Zack’s passions, he takes a relieved breath of fresh air at the break. 

It’s quiet out. Cold and biting beneath a clear sky, and Cloud peers up to blink at the lack of stars and natural lighting. A thick glow isolates the moon above him, created by the ever present lights and sounds of the city, and he feels a longing pang for home. He tugs at Zack’s hand and leans even further into him, pressing his face against the warmth of Zack’s coat, and listens to the rising curses with a contented curl of amusement.

Maybe he won’t go straight to bed, after all.

Steps echoing down the abandoned inner roads, they turn another corner and start towards their apartments. He glances up at the other man through his lashes, reluctant to part completely and abandon Zack’s heat. Snuggling would be nice, he decides. Cradled in his boyfriend’s arms as they warm up beneath the covers. Maybe he could even convince Zack to give him a massage. 

Cloud hums, opening his mouth to ask if Zack would like to stay the night, but before he can so much as get a word out a bruising grip wraps around his wrist. All thoughts of home are wiped clean from his mind as he’s ripped from Zack’s arm with a startled yelp. He twists and drives his head viciously backwards into his attacker’s nose, only managing to feel a brief sense of satisfaction at the ensuing snap and scream before hard metal collides with his head in an excruciating explosion of pain. He gasps and chokes out a cry, legs buckling as his mind splinters in agony.

“Cloud!” Zack’s voice rings painfully in his ears as his hand is wrenched to the other side of his chest, an arm encircling him and pulling him back into another body.

He flinches at the feeling of a cool metal circle coming to rest against the side of his head, whimpering as he’s shaken violently, head flaring enough to make his stomach lurch. “Zack.” His voice cracks on the word as he blinks stars from his eyes, Zack’s wide blue eyes coming into view before the pure, unadulterated horror of his expression does. Cloud’s stomach lurches again and he heaves, struggling weakly against his captor’s grip.

“Hey!” The gun digs painfully into his skin as the man shakes him again. “Quit your damn struggling before I decide you ain’t worth my time.”

“No! No- don’t-” Zack sounds on the edge of panic, and something somewhere in Cloud’s hazy mind tells him he should comfort the man, but no words can find his lips. “Don’t hurt him, please. What do you want? I’ll give- I’ll give you anything, just-”

“No…”

“I said shut the hell up! You think I’m joking?”

“He’s- he’s out of it, man. Come on. Just tell me what you want. Don’t- don’t shoot him, please. Is it money? I’ve- I don’t have a lot, but- but it’s all yours. All of it.”

Cloud whines out a protest, awareness trickling back slowly. Zack is strapped for cash right now. He wouldn’t survive dumping all of his money. 

“Tell your bitch to shut the fuck up!”

“Hey, calm down man, okay? Here- here’s all of it just...” There’s a thump on the ground in front of them, and what ensues in the most excruciating and awkward bend in the history of Cloud’s life as the guy reaches for it, never once taking the gun from his head. Then there's a scoff, and Cloud knows - knows - what he’s going to say before the words even fall from his lips.

“You think this is enough? The hell do you take me for? Give me all of it!”

“That’s all I-”

“Does your boy have anything on him?” The man’s shaking now, voice wavering on the edge of hysteria, and the tremor of his gun has Cloud swallowing tears of fear. “‘Cause if he’s hiding nothin’-!”

“No, he’s fucking broke, just-”

“I saw you walkin’ along all comfortable! Give me your fucking phone and...and that necklace.”

Cloud’s stomach drops with the words, panic rising high and heedy in the back of his throat. The necklace - Angeal’s necklace. No way. No fucking way.

“Um...the- the necklace, right.” It’s weak and strained, Zack biting his lip to hold back tears, and something in Cloud’s heart breaks. 

“Don’t. Zack, don’t-” his words are cut off in a cry of pain as the gun comes back down on his head again, and there’s piercing, splitting noise like gunfire that has Cloud jumping, bucking against his captor in pure terror as Zack yells.

“Holy shit. What the hell is wrong with you?!”

“I told him to stay fucking quiet! The next one goes through his head.” The grip tightens around Cloud until he can hardly move anymore, gasping for breath as the tears shake from his eyes. “Now give me the damn necklace. Now!”

“Okay..okay, I’m giving you the necklace.” Zack’s sounding really agitated now. In a different, very dangerous way that says he’s about to do something stupid, and the thump of Cloud's heart against his ribs is more deafening than the gunshot ever could be. 

Zack is going to endanger himself. Zack is going to do something. Cloud’s mouth feels gummy but he can’t move and he can’t speak and his head feels like it’s on fire. Through the blur of his tears he sees Zack shift, hand coming up to his neck, and he feels his captor freeze against him.

“What are those?”

“They’re my tags, man. They’re...completely worthless.”

“You were in the army?”

“Special forces.” The hard edge to his tone is enough to chill even Cloud, who’s known Zack for years and who’s seen him smile like the very heart of the universe itself. For his captor, it seems to have an even worse effect. One of high, panicked breaths and the uneasy waiver of his gun. 

Cloud sees Zack’s face harden before he charges. Sees him tense and move in the split second the gun is away from his head and it’s like the world comes crashing down around him. “Zack! Don’t-”

His voice breaks as he’s pushed aside, the breath forced from his lungs when he collides with the ground, head searing. A gunshot cracks through the air and there’s a shout, fists against flesh and another shot, this time with a scream, and Cloud tries desperately to push himself up and see what’s happening but the world spins sickeningly and he vomits onto the dirty concrete with a gut wrenching sob.

Then there’s silence. A loud thud that makes Cloud’s veins run cold and his stomach quiver again.

“Cloud.” A hand pushes through his hair, soft and gentle and Zack, and Cloud lets out a sob of relief. He collapses into Zack’s hold, shaking against his knees and encased in his arms, and claws desperately at the fabric of his pants. Burrowing his head into Zack’s thigh, Cloud sucks in a deep breath and exhales with the force of every line of tension wringing his energy dry.

“Zack,” he breathes, “Zack, you’re alive.”

“Yeah. Yeah. I’m so sorry, Cloud. I should never have let you get hurt like that, I- I- Hey…hey, please don’t cry.”

Cloud shakes his head and chokes out another sob, because God - God - he’d almost lost him. Almost lost Zack. And the tears won’t stop spilling from his eyes even as Zack runs a hand through his hair, up and down his back soothingly. Even as Zack curls around him like he’d never let Cloud go.

“You almost died- you almost-” and then there’s anger, stark and hot as he raises his wet face to glare at his stupid fucking boyfriend, “-don’t ever do that again.”

Zack smiles weakly, wiping at his own eyes with his shoulder, and the glint of his tags - the glint of Angeal’s necklace - makes Cloud’s shoulders seize again as a fresh wave of tears comes. He clenches his eyes to fight it and ducks his head down again, Zack’s words vibrating against his cheek as he speaks.

“I could say the same about you. Fuck, Cloud, I don’t think I’ve ever been so scared in my life.”

“I doubt it.”

“No, it’s true. It’s- It’s really, really true.”

Cloud lets that sink in for a second. “Oh.”

Zack cracks out a laugh, forced and loose and relieved all at once, and exhales as his shoulders droop with exhaustion. “Yeah, oh. Never again, Cloud.”

Cloud sighs and closes his eyes, letting the world take him.

“What about damsel in distress?”

Cloud opens his eyes again with the single minded purpose of burning a hole into Zack’s waist. “What do you think?”

“Eh…” Zack smiles nervously and scratches the back of his head. “Too feminine?”

“Too ridiculous.”

“I did just save your life.”

Cloud scoffs and doesn’t say anything for a while. Then, “you’re giving me a massage when we get back home.”

“Sweet Apple Pie, I’ll give you a thousand massages once we get back home. But we aren’t getting home until you’ve been to a hospital.”

“Ugh.” Cloud pulls a face, though for the pet name or the idea of a hospital, he doesn’t know.

Zack takes his response with the usual amount of grace. “You’re going to the hospital if I have to haul your ass there by the seat of your pants,” he huffs, “and I’ll call Tifa to make sure you don’t struggle.”

“We should probably call Tifa anyway.”

Zack sighs lengthily, petting a hand through Cloud’s hair as he tilts his head back to look at the sky, and Cloud relaxes into the touch with a pleased hum. There’s the occasional zing of pain when Zack skirts around the lumps on his head, but the pain fades into a dull background noise over time, as they sit and drift into the quiet of the night.

The ambulance arrives not two minutes later.

[h0wlderek]

so..I haven’t finished charming like us yet but...I have some thoughts.

I would like to preface this by saying I ADORE K&B’s work and have pretty much only ever given their books 5 stars. However, there are issues that I need to address with their books and I think it’s relevant to do it in this review.

1. The ethics of billionaires: Obviously this is a book and not real life, however the romanticisation of billionaires in popular culture is getting to the point where it’s ridiculous. Being a billionaire is not ‘cool’. It means you’re hoarding large amounts of wealth whilst people literally starve to death or are homeless. There is a whole thread in the Like Us series about how Jane and Moffy like to ‘live modestly’. This is bullshit and quite frankly WORSE than if they lavished in their money (such as Charlie does). They are pretending to be something they aren’t (pretending as though they can’t afford things when obviously they can) AND when rich people live in the more affordable housing/buy affordable products, it actually ends up raising the prices for people who NEED those things to stay affordable. If all the wealthy, rich people suddenly decided they wanted to live in small houses, then the prices of those houses would hike up (and the prices of mansions would remain high), therefore leaving poorer people homeless. Rich people either need to give away a majority of their money, or continue to spend it as someone of their wealth status would (which, in turn, boosts the economy). This brings me to my next point. 2. Why is security struggling?: I cannot fathom WHY Kitsuwon securities would be struggling financially so much when they are employed by literal billionaires. Are the Calloway families so stingy with their money that they aren’t paying their bodyguards (who literally protect/save their lives on a daily basis) an amazing wage? They should be getting paid in BULK. There is absolutely NO reason that any of the bodyguards should be strapped for cash when they are employed by such wealthy families (and 2 of their bodyguards are literally married into the family? Why are Thatcher and Farrow not helping Kitsuwon securities out?) 3. Another one? Really?: I was so disappointed when they decided to make Jack’s ‘big secret’ that he was rich…. This perpetuates the idea that Jack and Oscar could not live happily together unless one of them possessed ridiculous amounts of wealth. PEOPLE WHO AREN’T RICH CAN BE HAPPY. YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE A BILLIONAIRE TO ACHIEVE HAPPINESS. 4. I have to mention the fetishisation of gay men: I have to. As much as I love their portrayal of LGBT characters (and I doooo) it is impossible to ignore the fact that their is ONE lesbian character and SO MANY gay male characters. The two trio relationships (Sulli’s & Beckett’s) both involve 2 men in some capacity. I get writing for your audience, but at some point you need to evaluate your morals and how your writing impacts the LGBT community. And, not gonna lie, the Fizzle Force group (as amazing and supportive as it is) is gross as far as fetishisation goes. The 40 year old women on there need to TONE IT DOWN. 5. Marriage is for suckers: The idea that to be happy, one has to be married, sucks. I thought maybe they would skip that idea for this book and go a different route to show different types of HEA, but…nope.

[sominbs]

hello! this is chey (she/her, 21, gmt-5) bringing you boseong’s very own castle-builder & corndog vendor — chae somin! you can view her pinterest board here, her stats here, her background here and her plots page here. under the cut, i’ll include everything you could ever want to know about her (probably?).

personality.

enfp-a   /   the assertive campaigner.   independent, playful, optimistic, brave, upfront, charismatic, adventurous, communicative, perceptive, affectionate, smothering, unrealistic. as an assertive campaigner, somin is lively and outgoing. it doesn’t matter what’s going on in her head or what kind of mood she’s in; chances are, she’ll still go out of her way to socialize. she enjoys making people laugh and usually accomplishes this by politely teasing/poking fun at those she knows well, but she can read a room and knows when it is or isn’t appropriate. she’s a great communicator which stems from her strong perceptive skills — it isn’t hard for her to get a good idea of what the general mood is and what’s expected of her at the moment. however, she does tend to be overly-enthusiastic which leads to unrealistic expectations both of herself and of others. these expectations accompanied by her somewhat smothering nature can definitely make some uncomfortable. 

aquarius   /   the water-bearer.   passionate, charming, impatient, temperamental, stubborn, rebellious, progressive, humanitarian, abrupt, intelligent. somin is often described as being unpredictable; she rarely makes her whole personality known, so she has a reputation for being surprising or even shocking. most of the time, she comes across as being genuine, warm and helpful, but there are some colder sides to her. she tends to lose her temper extremely quickly — especially when she feels like someone is trying to control her, as there’s nothing she hates more than her freedom being imposed on. will break rules without thinking twice just to prove a point and smile while she does it. overall, she doesn’t mean to be problematic, but it seems to be a part of herself that she can’t escape.

history / trivia.

the result of an accidental pregnancy. neither of her parents were ready for a baby, but her maternal grandmother promised to raise her if her mother would go through with the pregnancy. obviously, she did. her parents are not together and neither of them live in boseong. she’s met her mom a few times, but doesn’t know anything about her dad. either way, she doesn’t feel any sort of attachment to either of them. as far as she’s concerned, her grandma is all she needs.

granted....... she was kinda bratty/ungrateful towards her grandma for a LONG time. she used to think like is easy if you just try & didn’t really understand why her grandma ran a fuckin corndog stand of all things and why they were poor when they could just ~not be~. threw tons of fits in which she swore she’d never sell corndogs.

lit rally..... eunmi was the one (1) person who inspired her to be a little less MEAN. saw eunmi being nice to everyone all the time and eventually started being nicer to her grandma (and other kids lol) as a result.

speaking of eunmi!!! somin fuckin loved her so much. viewed her as one of the very few good things in her life, so she was pretty clingy towards her which evolved into being possessive. hated the idea of her being close to anyone else,,,,, f’s in the chat.

she was pretty athletic in school, so she was kinda popular bc of that? was involved in soccer & cheer, spent too much time on extracurriculars so her grades were trash but she still thought she’d get into snu because ~it can’t be that hard~. told everyone she was gonna go to snu & when she DIDN’T get in, she had too much pride to admit it so she just told everyone she was accepted.

left boseong for seoul after graduation with NO idea what the FUCK she was gonna do!!!!!! wandered around hopelessly for like a year and a half, doing part-time work and trying to get high-paying jobs with trashy resumes. even tried to become a model but no one wanted her whole 5 ft 3 inches country girl vibes </3

met a lot of people who taught her a lot about herself while she was in seoul, but she was STRUGGGLINGGG to make ends meet so she came back to boseong. told everyone she dropped out of snu bc it hurt her pride less than admitting she was never enrolled to begin with.

here’s the real kicker........ now she runs the fuckin corndog stand in the traditional market. it’s karma kicking her ass for all the complaining she did 10 years ago.... </3 p much every day of the week, you can find her down there slacking off or talking a mile a minute to whoever will listen.

always seems to have some great plan cookin up in that mind of hers, but at this point, everyone in boseong probably knows that she’ll never do any of it. she’s destined to be a corndog vendor for life...... please don’t clown her.

reputation for being unsuccessful in love, but it’s literally just because her ~unrealistic expectations~ make her give up on every relationship that isn’t kdrama material in like..... a week.

still lives with her grandma bc she doesn’t make enough money to afford her own place but she’s only 22 so.......  just wait. she’ll live in a mansion someday.....  hopefully

doesn’t necessarily think she’s better than anyone, but it’s easy to assume she does because she thinks she’s destined for greater things. she complains about boseong quite often and says stuff like “i don’t belong here” or “i know my life will amount to something bigger and better than this” but fr.... she doesn’t look down on anyone. she has no right to. she just genuinely, naively thinks that fate is on her side and something HUGE is written in her story. thinks that she deserves a happy ending and doesn’t have to work for it. that kind of thing. main character syndrome u know.

some quick plot ideas:

[0/1]  —  you know somin’s work ethic is nothing to brag about, so you “volunteer” at the corndog stand. in other words, you loiter around and reminder her to do her job and/or cover her shifts for her while she just sits around. she can’t pay you in cash, but she’ll pay you in gratitude and half-assed compliments <3

[0/1]  —  you only know of somin because you used to see her with eunmi all the time. to this day, you believe that she had something to do with her death.

[0/1]  —  you frequent the corndog stand because you have a lot to talk about and maybe there’s something therapeutic about ranting to somin while she cooks corndogs and tries her very best to give you advice.

[0/1]  —  somin pursued you VERY hard, so you decided to give her a chance. however, she dumped you after less than a week. maybe you’re bitter... or confused. (male lock)

[0/1]  —  somin was really mean to you in elementary, middle or high school because you made frequent attempts to get closer to eunmi.

[0/1]  —  you used to play sports with somin OR you used to watch her games/competitions and cheer her on.

[0/1]  —  you don’t like somin because of the way she expects good things to just fall into her lap.

[0/1]  —  you’re either VERY introverted or VERY pessimistic and somin thinks it’s her duty to brighten you up a little bit. 

[0/1]  —  you fell asleep at the one (1) single table outside the corndog stand and when somin woke you up, it wasn’t to tell you to leave but to ask if you want to sleep behind the stand, at least. maybe she thinks you have nowhere to go

[homenum-revelio-hq]

Welcome to the Order of the Phoenix, Kait!

You have been accepted for the role of ANNALISE FAWLEY! We loved your thoughts on the very Hufflepuff nature of Annalise’s loyalty-fueled treachery and all the details you gave of her “normal” life before she lost her sister, and can’t wait to see all the trouble she’s going to cause for the Order. We’re so excited to have you join us!

Please take a look at the new member checklist and send in your account within 24 hours! Thank you for joining the fight against Voldemort!

OUT OF CHARACTER:

NAME & PRONOUNS: Kait, she/hers

AGE: 25+

TIMEZONE: EST

ACTIVITY LEVEL: I’m returning to in-person work after 3+ months of WFH, so I can’t say with absolute certainty what my activity will be, but I’ll definitely be able to post every couple of days at least!

ANYTHING ELSE: No triggers. I have a bit of rp experience, in a similarly character-focused, literate marauders rp.

CHARACTER DETAILS:

NAME: Annalise Fawley

AGE: 23

GENDER, PRONOUNS, and SEXUALITY: female, she/hers, identifies as straight

BLOOD STATUS: Pureblood

HOUSE ALUMNI: Hufflepuff

ANY CHANGES: Nope!

CHARACTER BACKGROUND:

PERSONALITY:

Everyone knows Annalise—she’s one of the many Fawley cousins, a cheerful former Hufflepuff, a familiar face at pureblood soirees. But not all that many people really know her. Very few know that she’s good at sketching but definitely can’t paint. Or that she’s an excellent liar, even if she almost never uses that skill. That she often feels shy when she has to meet new people. That she doesn’t have a temper, but she does hold grudges like nobody’s business.

A relatively private person, Annalise has always been content to live a simple life, compared to many other pureblood women. She’s happy with her flat and her job and her friends. She adores her sprawling family— anywhere she turns, she can find a familiar face. And she delights in the social whirl of pureblood society— the beautiful dresses and jewels, the gossip, the parties. The fact that she’s never at the centre of that whirlwind is perfectly fine with her.

A sociable extrovert with a touch of shyness, Annalise craves interaction but isn’t always great at making new acquaintances, and her shyness can sometimes make her seem standoffish to strangers. She’s certainly capable of saying the right things—her mother raised her well and she can handle whatever social situations she needs to—you can’t survive long in pureblood society if you don’t know how to hide your thoughts and say the right words. But Annalise has always been most comfortable around people she knows well. And there’s no one closer or more important than family.

While at Hogwarts, Annalise had been sorted into Hufflepuff house, and it had been an absolutely perfect fit. She has always been patient and hard-working; though far from a prodigy in any of her classes, she managed to earn consistently good grades simply by putting the time and the work in applying herself. This has continued into her adult life. Not coming from money, she has worked since finishing school, and even though she’s jumped jobs a few times as she tries to figure out what she wants to do, she’s never had a bad word from an employer.

And of course, loyalty. The Fawleys as a whole tended to value loyalty, especially to family, and Anna was no exception. She never snitched on her sister for stealing a cookie when they were little, never dated a friend’s ex, and she’s always said that she would kill for her family. It had been meant as a figure of speech… but, well…

These traits are the sort that normally define people from her house as cut-and-dry good; there’s a reason Hufflepuff boasts the fewest dark witches and wizards of any house, after all. But after Leina’s death, every one of those values honed in on finding justice for her sister. Annalise has always believed that those in the wrong should be punished, and since she obviously can’t rely on the Ministry to avenge her sister’s death, there was only one choice: become a Death Eater, and make those responsible pay.

BRIEF OVERVIEW OF FAMILY:

Annalise Fawley was the younger of two daughters. Or, she is the younger. She’s not quite sure. Are you still a younger sister, if the elder has died?

Leina Nott, nee Fawley, had been a year older than Annalise, but when they were small they’d always claimed they were twins. Though there was a difference in height, they had looked similar enough that a stranger probably would have believed them. But more than in appearance, they were as close as twins. The age difference was near enough that Leina didn’t remember a time when Anna hadn’t been around, and when they weren’t visiting the many Fawley cousins scattered around the country, they mainly had each other for company.

The sisters grew apart somewhat as they grew older; Leina having had a year’s head start at Hogwarts, and Annalise being sorted into a different house, meant they didn’t spend quite as much time together as they once had. But they were still close, even if they disagreed at times. Not very long after finishing Hogwarts, Leina became engaged to Josiah Nott. Annalise never quite understood her sister’s decision to marry him; yes, he was wealthy and well-connected, but he wasn’t exactly likeable—not to mention he was so much older than them! But Leina seemed happy enough, and even more so after her son Theodore was born.

The match had been quite a coup for Leina; though the Fawleys were a perfectly respectable family, part of the Sacred 28, and automatic invitees to all the best parties, they weren’t from money. Their branch of the Fawley family tree was one of the less important ones—Annalise’s father Alistair had been the younger son of a younger son several times over, so they’d never had the opulent wealth of many of their peers. But they’d never quite lived in poverty, either. The one thing that the Fawleys were rich in was connections, and through a combination of Hufflepuff work ethic and a touch of nepotism, Alistair worked his way to a high-ranking position at the Ministry, and was able to keep his family comfortably sheltered and clothed and fed. He always made it clear to his daughters that there was nothing shameful about hard work, and he lived that example as he climbed through the ranks.

Annalise’s mother, Calliope, left her own job at the Ministry once her husband began to advance and their daughters were born. She needed the time when she was raising two children—the Fawleys were never quite in a position where they could afford help. These days, though, she has an awful lot of time on her hands. Enough time to have absolutely devoted herself to arranging Leina’s marriage and planning her wedding, and more recently, fussing over her grandson, and pushing prospective husbands in the direction of her younger daughter.

Leina’s murder hit the whole family hard. Family was everything to the Fawleys, and with her death, their family was broken. Alistair has thrown himself into his work, while Calliope has been focusing all her attention on caring for Leina’s child, Theo (and though she’d never say so much to her mother, Annalise hopes it stays that way; she does not have time right now to fend off her mother’s matchmaking.)

Annalise, of course, has been busy. After the initial shock, it wasn’t sadness threatening to overwhelm her; it was anger. These people, these self-proclaimed do-gooders, they’d broken into Leina’s own home and murdered her. Because she’d been in the way. They’d taken her sister’s life and shattered her family, and she was going to make them pay. She was going to burn the Order of the Phoenix to the ground for what they’d done.

OCCUPATION:

For the Fawley girls, there were two options: earn a living, or marry money. Though her parents certainly expect her to marry a pureblood wizard sooner rather than later, they haven’t pressured Annalise too much about this; Leina had made such a good match, after all, that it bought her some leeway. She certainly wasn’t opposed to the idea of marrying well, but she also wanted to actually like the person she married.

So, while her sister opted to marry up, Annalise chose the employment option. She was her father’s daughter, after all, and she was not afraid of hard work. After finishing Hogwarts, she moved through several different jobs, helped here and there by a recommendation from a Fawley relative. She was an assistant for a while, spent a bit of time in the Ministry, and passed one very unpleasant summer waiting tables.

For the past year or so, she’s worked at Twilfitt and Tattings in Diagon Alley. It’s a perfect job: decent wages and commissions, hours that don’t conflict with her social life, and a generous discount on robes (a very useful perk when you don’t have a bottomless Gringotts vault to spend on new dress robes for every party). When she first started, she mostly just worked the cash register, but she’s picked up more responsibilities over time, and has recently started design work as well.

Working in a high-end boutique means that she has very steady contact with all the well-to-do of the wizarding world. As she pointed out when she approached the Order—who knew what sort of conversations she might overhear? And, of course, the revolving parade of customers will make it easy for her to smuggle information back to the Dark Lord, too.

ROLE WITHIN THE ORDER/THOUGHTS ABOUT THE ORDER:

Annalise is filled with grief for her poor sister’s untimely death. She knows that her brother-in-law is almost certainly a Death Eater, and he put Leina in danger by conducting Death Eater business in their home—and now her nephew is left without a mother. She’s determined to help the Order stop the carnage before anyone else can be hurt in the crossfire. And, with her pureblood connections and her job in one of the most upscale stores in Diagon Alley, she is a definite asset to the Order.

As far as the Order is concerned, that is.

Annalise is a wolf in sheep’s clothing—and she makes a very convincing sheep. Wide green eyes filled with tears, insisting that it was that bastard Josiah’s fault that Leina died—that she wanted to help end the war before any other innocent lives were lost. There’s a chance some people might be suspicious, but she is pretty certain most people couldn’t fail to be convinced. Especially when it’s mostly true. She did blame Josiah, for putting her sister in danger in the first place, for not being more careful, for not protecting her. And she did want the war over before anyone else she cared about was murdered. The part she didn’t add was that it was the Order, not the Death Eaters, that she was determined to stop at any cost.

As far as Annalise is concerned, it’s not even that risky a plan. Certainly these cowards are capable of murder—her sister’s grave is testament to that. But she is confident in her ability to convince the Order her intentions are good. She’s always been an excellent liar, after all, able to think quickly on her feet. Yes, she will be the perfect spy, and by the time she’s finished with them, every single one of these courageous and honourable cowards will be dead.

Though her grief and anger are driving her to waste no time in burning the Order to the ground, Annalise has always been a patient woman, and her anger has always been the sort that burns cold and slow. She’s playing a long game, and she can’t get caught before she has found a way to destroy every single one of these people. The Dark Lord doesn’t expect daily intel, or trivial hints about the Order’s day-to-day operations—certainly she is to pass on what information she can without getting caught, but her focus is on rising through the ranks until she can learn valuable information. The type of information that will bring this entire organization to its knees.

SURVIVAL:

So far? She’s survived by not being involved. But her sister wasn’t involved, either, and now she’s dead.

The Order isn’t as ruthless as the Dark Lord and his followers, but Annalise is still going to have to tread very carefully. They clearly are willing to kill, after all. She can’t pass over information that might expose her as a spy—only things that most people in the Order know, or information that she comes across by snooping, that can’t be traced to her. But letting the Dark Lord down could be dangerous, too.

Everything about her position is dangerous; quite aside from the risk of discovery, she could be killed by a Death Eater as easily as anyone else in the Order, since only a handful know she is one of them. And if the worst happens and she’s found out, there’s no telling how much help will come. Though Annalise would never have described herself as a reckless person before, she probably wouldn’t have said that she was overly cautious, either—but she’s going to have to be, now.

RELATIONSHIPS:

Family is the most important relationship, as far as Annalise is concerned. Her parents have both been devastated by Leina’s death, but like Anna, neither are wallowing in it. Her father, always one to lean on the side of emotional unavailability, has retreated into his work, while her mother is devoting herself to caring for her motherless grandson. The three of them don’t really talk to each other anymore—her family has been shattered.

After an initial retreat from public life to mourn her sister and plan her revenge, Annalise has returned to socializing and attending parties. Though most of her thoughts and energy are now devoted to destroying her sister’s killers, the social scene is a good distraction at times when she just can’t take it. An extrovert who is prone to shyness, she’s rarely had close friends outside of her family, so the friendships she’s maintaining are relatively shallow—but it’s easier that way.

Joining the Order gave her a few shocks—in terms of how many people she recognized. The number of purebloods from good families is astonishing. Vanity, Greengrass, Selwyn and Macmillan—these are names she knows, faces she’s seen at parties. The Yaxleys—she knows they are Death Eaters, so what in hell is Branwen doing here? Could she be on the same page as Annalise, or has she actually fallen for the Order’s bullshit?

And the McKinnons—they might not have been quite high society, but she’s still surprised to learn of their involvement. The fact that Marlene is using her family’s house for the Order—that she has werewolves camped right outside—does she not see that she’s putting her family in danger? It’s so selfish! And Alaric—she’d known him at school, they’d been in the same house, and she knew her parents had tried to arrange a match between them. She probably dodged a bludger, there. Learning that he was working with the Order was disappointing—but at least he’s not actually one of them.

Frank Longbottom is a distant cousin, and it’s dreadful to know that there is family here. Does he just not care that they killed Leina? But she’s willing to use that connection to her advantage. After all, the entire extended family shares one value in common: family is important. So of course he’ll look out for her.

She doesn’t recognize Peter Pettigrew or Severus Snape. The names are vaguely familiar, since they were only a few years below her at school, but they’re not even a blip on her radar. The fact that the Dark Lord has other spies in the Order is not known to her—and she certainly wouldn’t have picked Pettigrew as one of them.

At present, she doesn’t know that Lily Evans was the person responsible for her sister’s death. If that fact is revealed to her, it’s going to take all her self-control and willpower to keep her cover and not avenge her sister on the spot.

OOC EXPLORATION:

SHIPS/ANTI-SHIPS: No ships in particular, just chemistry. Honestly, Annalise growing close to anyone in the Order (romantically or platonically) would be fascinating, since she’s only there to see them all dead!

WHAT PRIVILEGES AND BIASES DOES YOUR CHARACTER HAVE?

Annalise did not come from money, but her family was never poor, either. She is a woman in a patriarchal society, but she is a woman from a well-connected and respectable family. Her bloodline is pure, going back at least a dozen generations. Annalise’s position is unquestionably one of privilege—not extreme luxury and decadence perhaps, but certainly privileged enough that she’s been able to opt out of caring about the war until now. She is aware of her privilege to some degree—knows the value of her connections and status—but she doesn’t really think about it.

While she’s dimly aware of her privilege, she has no concept at all of her biases. She really would consider herself among the more progressive of purebloods. She works for a living, after all, and while she’s never been moved to fight for Muggleborns rights, she’s never actively fought against them either. It’s not like she supports the Dark Lord’s ideology, after all. And while she certainly thinks that any sort of contact with the Muggle world is to be entirely avoided, she’s never felt the urge to go around murdering them for fun.

Certainly she looks down somewhat on Muggleborns, and half-bloods to a lesser extent, but that’s not a bias—it’s just a fact that purebloods are superior. It’s nothing personal! She had plenty of half-blood friends in Hufflepuff, after all. It’s just the way it is. Sure, there are some half-bloods who exceed expectations, but they’re the exception, not the rule. As for certain Muggleborns—well, Annalise has always privately believed that the more talented of that lot probably have some magical blood in their history. Honest-to-goodness talent can’t just spring up out of nowhere.

In the same vein, half-breeds are dangerous and have no business socializing with regular folk. That isn’t bias. It’s fact. Werewolves—they’re wolves! The fact that there is one of their kind in the Order—well, it’s just another nail in the Order’s coffin, as far as she’s concerned.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST LOOKING FORWARD TO? The amount of attention and detail that has gone into this rp is incredible. I’m all about worldbuilding and the world you’ve created here is fascinating! I also just love Annalise’s bio—she’s a loyal, hard-working, and patient Hufflepuff, who is channelling that loyalty and hard work and patience into burning the Order to the ground. She’s not fuelled by lust for power or pureblood idealism—this is personal. That’s the most Hufflepuff way to go dark, and I’m here for it. I’m so interested to see how she’ll balance the need to stay under the radar and out of suspicion, with the need to advance and gain access to more information—as well as how she’ll cope as she gets to know people in the Order better. It’s easier to hate all of them when she doesn’t actually know any of them.

PLOT DROP IDEAS (OPTIONAL): I’d definitely like to see information that Annalise passes on, be put to use against the Order. Also, plots that will challenge her and put her in difficult situations—for example, if a Death Eater is taken hostage by the Order, will she be able to risk setting them free?

ANYTHING ELSE? Just that this group looks so great, and I hope you like my app!

[vince-thrilligan]

Bob Odenkirk on Naiveté, PTSD, and Kim’s Downfall

“The hardest thing for me was to play the naiveté of Jimmy as a younger person, where he starts in the series. You could say he’s become more cynical, but really, it’s self-awareness and I love that.”

Awards Focus: In interviewing your castmates, we’ve heard a lot of praise for your work. What stands out to you as a highlight for this season?

Bob Odenkirk: Well, we had a great season overall. But my favorite thing is the way Jimmy learns about himself and exhibits this sense of self-awareness. It’s great because the hardest thing for me was to play the naiveté of Jimmy as a younger person, where he started in the series. You could say he’s become more cynical, but really, it’s self-awareness and I love that. On the other hand, what he does with that self-awareness isn’t too good. He has these realizations about himself, but they give him an outlet to become ethically unmoored.

AF: Well, it’s funny because Kim, who seemed to know exactly who she was in previous seasons, looks like she’s losing herself. Does Jimmy worry that he’s opened Pandora’s Box?

Odenkirk: It’s a very strange thing, that last conversation. Because at first, you’re probably thinking that Kim’s just trying to make him feel less alone. Maybe she’s just trying to have some fun, make some gentle light out of those dark instincts Jimmy has. Or maybe she does it to make him feel a sense of his own limitations. But then those theories seem to fall flat, because Jimmy says, “Let’s slow down.” And she’s like, “No, no, no, let’s keep going.”

And she seems to genuinely mean it, to have some genuine delight in hurting Howard, who doesn’t really deserve it. Whereas Jimmy obviously pulls some crazy stunts, but those are more childish, almost like a teen prank.

AF: In talking to Jonathan Banks, we learned that he disagreed with the writers on some of Mike’s choices and he told them so. Do you have points where you’ve given the writers some pushback on Saul’s actions?

Odenkirk: Honestly, yes. There are moments where I say that “I think this is too far,” or that I don’t understand the choice. And most of the time, we’ll have a conversation where we come to some understanding on the story direction, which is to say I compromise (laughs).

After all this time, I like this character. I want him to make the right choices, almost like a friend. But sometimes the answer from Peter Gould is simply, “He’s not your friend, and he doesn’t make the right choices. That’s the story we’re telling. You don’t have his ear.”

And in the end, we know how those choices pan out. We’ve seen Breaking Bad and the road Saul takes.

AF: Yet there’s so much we don’t know, the arcs of other characters that have yet to be answered. Mike gives Jimmy a great speech about being on a specific road and not being able to get away from it. What road do you think Kim is on, going into season six?

Odenkirk: Well, I gotta say, when you see that last moment of season five, you get a glimpse at one of the core elements of the story. Because Saul is no longer asking himself who he is. Now he’s asking, Who is Kim Wexler?

The woman who does that finger-point, gunshot gesture when asked if she’d harm an innocent man, who the hell is she? She’s done these little ethically compromised things, mostly as a team with Jimmy, with a kind of a sense of playfulness and partnership. But now there are real questions as to what’s going on in Kim’s head.

AF: The writers have certainly altered the status quo of the relationship between Kim and Jimmy over the course of season five. How do you navigate that as actors, especially in the context of broader character changes?

Odenkirk: There are definitely specific story choices and plot choices that are challenging to consolidate with the character. The moment where Kim asked Jimmy to marry her is one of those, where Rhea and I both wondered, How do we make this real? It was easier for me because all I had to do was act befuddled, which is how anyone in that situation would feel. It was harder for Rhea.

But I would say the hardest thing for me is when Jimmy’s doing a purely Saul Goodman thing, or doing something vindictive. It’s hard to understand that when you don’t have the instincts or life experience that might lead you down that road.

But that is a testament to the writers, they’ve given the character a sense of that now. Earlier on he would make these bad choices, and he seemed very blind to the ways in which these manipulative things would affect him and the people around him. Now he seems to understand how stuff can backfire. And he’s accepting that, moving forward with a stronger sense of realism. He’s choosing to be Saul Goodman in those moments. He’s more conscious about everything, from adopting the name to the flamboyant shoes and clothes. He’s choosing to play this role in part of his life, to give it a name, and to let that part of his spirit run rampant.

I love that development so much because the young Jimmy, he was hard to play because of his naiveté. As an actor, Saul’s self-awareness is great.

AF: In episode nine, you got to play a Jimmy who is not only physically beaten down from his trek through the desert, but also suffering from PTSD. It’s really unique to see him squirming in front of Lalo. Normally, he’d find something to say, but he’s in this weak state, and it’s just another facet you get to add to the character. The tension in that scene was incredible.

Odenkirk: Thank you. The thing is that Jimmy absolutely knows what’s happening. When Lalo says “Tell it again,” Jimmy knows he’s being played and prodded. He senses the danger, because this ploy can actually work. If you want to catch somebody in a lie, make him tell that story over and over. Jimmy knows what’s happening, but he’s too depleted to use his normal powers of logic twisting, to have the spirited energy for that kind of gamesmanship. But thank God, Kim comes through for him.

AF: Lalo’s terrifying in that scene and Tony Dalton brings so much to the character. What do you think’s going on in Lalo’s head as he listens to Jimmy?

Odenkirk: I think that was a tough one for Tony too, I imagine. You know, what’s going on inside that guy’s head who would usually just pull a gun and do it? He doesn’t care about anything.

But partly it might be that he figures he has Kim on his legal team. I mean, why not just keep her, she’s so good. If she’s got the grit and courage to give Lalo a piece of her mind, then she’s a good person to have on board.

AF: Vince Gilligan called episode eight the most challenging episode he’s ever directed. How was that experience?

Odenkirk: Yeah, filming in the desert was a brutal challenge, but even within the brutal challenge there was a kind of joy. I love when we have adventurous and physically demanding sequences. I just love it. One of the fun things about acting is going places that a real person doesn’t get to go very often. If they live their life with some degree of restraint and steadiness, it’s rare for one to find themselves lost in the desert.

AF: During much of their desert trek, Jimmy carries two massive duffel bags filled with cash. Practically speaking, how was it acting with those for multiple days?

Odenkirk: If those bags had been filled with real money, they’d have been 75 pounds each. I don’t think I’d get that far with 150 pounds. Maybe a couple miles, which is a lot less than the distance Mike and Jimmy covered. But the bags were actually 40 pounds each, which is still very heavy. So the physical effort that shows up on the screen is very real.

AF: I’m assuming the heat was the bigger enemy?

Odenkirk: It was nightmare heat. And of course, you’re playing things over and over again. And Vince is an extremely thorough director who is shooting multiple, multiple takes from every angle. But it all worked out, because my suffering was essentially the character’s suffering. I was all for that stuff, as long as it was safe. When you have such a big crew and you’re out in the middle of nowhere with temperatures that high, it’s genuinely dangerous. It took a few days to bring in enough safety equipment to keep everybody on the crew cool. It’s definitely a bonding experience to take on something that big together and Vince did a wonderful job of shooting.

He could have made a two hour episode if he’d indulged himself with the amount of cool footage we got. But him condensing that, it was even more impactful that way.

AF: This was a deeply dramatic season with some dark plots, but there was some comedic relief, like the cell phone tent scene. Is it as refreshing for you to perform those moments as it is for the audience to see them?

Odenkirk: Oh man, I have so much fun. I get really silly, and I really try to push it to the point where the writers want to tell me to pull it back a bit. But they wrote the character, and he’s a silly character, so I go with that. My trick is to go as far as I can, but try to sell it to an audience. For example, last season, I was at the grave pretending to feel at the one-year anniversary of Chuck’s death, because I know some of his law partners will come around to plant flowers and I want them to see me grieving. So I’m at the grave pretending to grieve and I’m actually saying “boohoo” as I cry. But I do it in such a way that someone approaching wouldn’t quite hear the word “boohoo.” I take these moments that the writers give me and push them as far as I can, because it’s really fun.

AF: One particularly funny moment featured Jimmy, a stunned Everett Acker (Barry Corbin), and a picture of a man having sex with a horse. What did you think when you read that, did you play around with various animal punchlines?

Odenkirk: No, we didn’t. It was written exactly that way and, in my opinion, it was perfect. By the way, Barry Corbin, who played Everett, is an absolutely great actor. I saw him in No Country for Old Men just the other day, and man, he’s great. I loved the absurdity of that horse picture scene.  Jimmy knows how to rope in a client (laughs).

Part of AwardsFocus.com’s BCS interviews [x]

[ruwithmeguys]

Hey it’s the twitter user who just asked for S1&2 arrow reviews. So I just finished rewatching S1 and I’ve been curious about why Oliver went back to Laurel even though he didn’t love her. Did Laurel really understand Oliver? Because I’ve always thought Felicity was the one who understood him

Hithere! WELCOME TO THE REST OF YOUR EXISTENCE.

No,seriously; good luck ever leaving this ship! (Join us, we have all the OTP cookies - hah, I never even used to know what OTP meant)

I’msure there are other people who can answer this better, who won’t do it at workwhen I’m supposed to be, you know, WORKING (I am not a role model). But I wanted to give you a response pronto!

Here we go: Oliver… Laurel… Tommy.

Here’s the thing. There areall kinds of love. Oliver, laurel and Tommy were friends first before any ofthem slept together. The love Oliver had for LL was predicated upon thatfoundation of friendship. They’d been attracted to each other so they decidedto do the natural thing: date.

Now, just because two friendsare attracted to each other, doesn’t make the relationship this amazingshowcase of love or the perfect ship or the forever one and only. Chandler andMonica they aren’t.

They weren’t even Ross andRachel, not even close. And Ross had sex with another women four hours after their ‘break’. What aguy.

Did we see even THIS level of intensity from either side? Nu uh. And I tell you,if I start a show like Arrow and I’m supposed to be sold on their romance because where there’s a hero, there’s always a romance, then I want at LEAST angst.

What I believe - and have beengiven proof from Stephen and from others - is that when Ollie - which wasexactly who he was before the Gambit sank - was with LL, she brought out thegood stuff. But the goodness inside him was coated by his greed, vanity andselfishness. He was a dick who LL thought that simply by being with her, would not be a dick…

Wishful thinking to the tenthdegree. 

She was head over heels and deluded by it (that gif is really creepy - he was sleeping with them both there. Laurel was oblivious. Sara was besotted. Three people and not one understood the other).

But Oliver has felt attractionbefore for many other women and continued to not only feel said attraction, butto act on it; she was just one in the herd. Oblivious to the other sheep. From my count, Oliver slept with Sara, Samantha, Max Fuller’s fiance and, two women he went on a joy ride with whilst dating Laurel. Possibly more. Thedifference being that he and laurel held a history of friendship and care together -that he should have given a shit about - so it deepened the relationship fromsex buddies to boyfriend/girlfriend.

But he still cheated on herbecause it wasn’t this special thing that she thought it was. And he was withoutmuch of an ethics base or conscience back then. I’m pretty sure Oliver knew howmuch of an ass he was; in fact I think he thought he was a worthless pretty boywith mountains of cash, which he used to get his way. Deep down, Oliver was,is, a very good person. But ego, money and pleasure soaked up his view and hemade the worst decisions. Just because he started dating one of his closestfriends, didn’t mean he was going to stop partying and cheating and being said ass.

The fact that LL saw this as agiven is one of her many displays of wilful tunnel vision. She was the star ofher own story and the star doesn’t get treated that way. She was at the top ofOllie’s and Tommy’s and daddy’s and mommy’s priority list: she was a betterdaughter than Sara, Ollie would never chase skirts behind her back - they weregoing to get married and be rich socialites together after all as her originalendgame (S3) was to become a wealthy DA who’s clients were the rich criminalsOliver faces in S1 - Tommy would always be there, and daddy would always beproud.

She had a skewed perception asmany people often do when they’re young, inexperienced, ridiculous and lofty.

She’s allowed to be this way. Oliver was allowed to be a disaster boyfriend.

Your first love is rarely yourlast.

But LL didn’t just see Ollieas her first love: she saw him as her last.

Ollie couldn’t look that farinto the future, as evidenced by how he treated his education, by how hetreated women, by how he played around with Sara, by how he tried hard to bethis constant failure.

So when LL started pushing forfurther commitment - for living together like their other friends and being an‘us’ - Oliver made a run for it and grabbed some TNT along the way. Nothingbreaks up a relationship quite like sleeping with the sibling of yourboy/girlfriend. This way, he could be in a far off land when LL realised hersister wasn’t at college, when one of her friends blab about her, because Sarasaid it herself on the Gambit: she was going to be in so much trouble, whichOliver was counting on.

He wouldn’t have to do any ofthe work.

A real shining example ofboyfriend of the year.

But then the Queen’s Gambitexplodes, Ollie looses Sara and hisfather whilst bobbing around for days at sea and by the time he reaches LianYu… Ollie’s not really there anymore; he’s already altered.

The good in him, the strengthhe didn’t know he had comes out, alongside a heavy coating of self-loathing,violent tendencies and a consideration of turpitude.

There’s a scene that perfectlyencapsulates how Oliver feels for LL in those S1 flashbacks: he’s in the cavewith Shao Fei and he’s staring at her picture. He looks so sad and so guiltyand he says ‘I’m so sorry LL’.

He’s not sorry because heloves and misses her. He’s sorry because he fucked up.

And Oliver had no idea what hehad until he lost it, but it’s made all the worse because he feels like Saradied because of his selfishness. Without that guilt I’m not entirely certainhe’d have been so obsessed with the idea of making it up to her, but yes; ahuge part of wanting to return home was about fixing what he broke. Making upfor his mistakes. Gaining a reprieve from years of suffering.

He’s dangerously close tokilling himself in that first year: sometimes believing you’re at the root ofall evil can help you prioritise. He needed to live to make it up to LL.

He needed to survive.

It’s a defence mechanism. Helatched onto those feelings to keep going. THAT and he isn’t scum: he wanted tobe better. He denied the hope inside him but it was still there, waiting for the right time.

The right person.

Notice he never once tells LLor says to anyone after his return, that he wants to be with her. He’s only ever said that to one woman on the show.Word for word. Not an insinuation: a flat out factoid.

The very few things Oliversays in regards to LL and their former relationship after his return in S1, isthat a) thinking about her helped him survive in that first year, b) that hecouldn’t say he didn’t love her, c) he was genuinely happy that she and Tommywere together, d) he would never ever reveal to her who and what he really iswhich means he’d always be lying to her and finally e) that he was sorry andthat it would never be enough.

Romantic stuff it is not.

Even with that crappy list,there are more holes.

A)   He admits in the S4 and S5 flashbacks that,since he was so changed, he knew the person who he’d become could never returnto LL because he wasn’t the same guy. He said that he kept her picture as areminder of everything he’d done.

Her picture was a source ofshame: his self-inflicted punishment. She would always remind him of hisselfishness. ROMANTIC RIGHT?

B)   Saying that you can’t say you don’t lovesomeone isn’t telling them you do love them. It’s useless after the fact.When Oliver realised he was in love with Felicity he declared it several timesto her even though he thought he couldn’t be with her! The one time Oliver tells LL that he loves her is after her death, in ahallucination in 5.08 where he’s very literally apologising for lying to herand for not being the man she loved. He tells her that they could never have been, because who she loved died and he wasn’t that man.

He couldn’t love her the wayshe’d clearly loved him. He was finally given the chance to gainclosure by telling her ghost what he should have told the woman before shedied. She’d deserved to hear the truth years ago. Case in point, on herdeathbed he could only stare at her when she told him that he’d always be thelove of her life. Loving someone? It is FAR different to being the love oftheir life.

Do you know what being thelove of someone’s life is? It’s being at the source of the most powerful,profound and influential love a lucky person feels in their lifetime. The WHOLEof their lifetime. The person who is the love of someone’s life is the person whothat someone loves the absolute most, the person who changed their lives themost. No other love will come close. Oliver was that for LL. She knew she was not that for him.

C)    Do youknow the most revealing way of being in love with a person who is unavailableto you? Jealousy. Oliver never showed an ounce of it for LL and Tommy. In facthe cheered them on, waving them off with a smile because he was HAPPY for them;as if he was saying, all is well and all is good now. Hot stuff right; it really makes you want to watch thislacklustre rickety canoe progress…

D)    Wantingsomeone in your life means revealing yourself to them. It means sharing thingsyou’re too embarrassed, ashamed or afraid to do otherwise. It takes a lot ofcourage and we know Oliver possesses that trait in spades. And yet, he neverwants her to know his secret - the other half of him - and what plays a big part inthis is her initial reaction to his rage in 1.04. He scares her and she’s not shy in showing just how much. Her back and forth after that fact wouldn’t instil confidence either, never mind that Oliver already knew a relationship between them with the hood in the middle was doomed to failure.

Trust me, ifthe show hadn’t been brave and we’d been forced to watch a relationship thatmade little sense, we’d have gotten a good 12 episodes of LL being afraid ofOliver and overcoming her fear to a manageable basis. THANK CHRIST.

There was never anything to fear with Oliver: Felicity knew that immediately.The hood, the man under it – it didn’t matter. LL didn’t see what was therepast the scary skills and bloody arrows. Under the hood was the man she repeatedly claimed, she knew down to his bones. And yet… she didn’t see him there.

E)   A love powered by guilt is no love at all.There is a difference between the love you have for the people you care for andbeing in love.

Oliver did love LL. But he wasnever in love with her. UntilFelicity, Oliver had never fallen inlove before and it was vastly different to anything he’d felt, thank you WendyMericle.

He even behaves differently once we see it. Falling in love withFelicity made him a better, more hopeful person.

Loving LL in any capacity wasa constant reminder of his ‘sin’.

So when you say that you don’tunderstand why Oliver went back to LL in 1.21… well, wouldn’t you want to beabsolved?

Oliver wanted- desperately needed to hear one thing from all thewomen in his life who have had some sort of emotional sway in it.

Moira Queen: I’m proud of you(who you are and who you’ll become)

Thea Queen: Thank you (forbeing who you are and for doing what you do)

Laurel Lance: I forgive you(so let go of the past, I have: I hope you find happiness)

Sara Lance: It wasn’t yourfault (and what happened gave me purpose)

Shado: you didn’t kill me (amad man trying to hurt you did: let me go)

Felicity Smoak: I love youOliver Queen (I always have and always will be yours)

Being the boyfriend he shouldhave been, being given a chance do it again and do it right – sort of liketurning back the clock – must have felt like a massive relief to Oliver who, inS1, was clueless about what made a relationship work. Relationships based onthe past, don’t last. There’s nothing there to help grow and like the once wiseJohn Diggle once said:

Itisn’t about changing or saving a person: it’s about being with someone who’sthe right fit.

The aim, the goal line whenyou want a relationship with the one you love, is simply to be withthem. To grow with them. Not to makeup for being a jackass in the past. You do that by being a decent person. Not by doing this:

HelloLL, I want to be with you to make up for betraying you! The making of a dream ship, I swear.

If they’d gotten back togetherafter 1.23, the following would have happened:

1.     Oliverwould have been forced to see that they couldn’t hack it as a couple. Friendsand allies yes but not as a couple. It takes complete trust to share your lifewith a person and Oliver has never trusted LL to that degree and there isoodles of proof. He’s admitted to it; in fact he’s alluded to never being ableto do that with anyone other than a certain beautiful IT girl.

2.     Wewould have had to put up with a solid season of a force-fed, lacklustre romanceand then we would have had the dreaded love triangle once Sara showed up whichwould have been so much worse to watch than what actually happened.

3.     OnceLL discovers his secret, and it wouldn’t be because he tells her, he’d break upwith her on the principal that it was the last straw: his last lie to thiswoman who didn’t deserve it and she would vow to prove him otherwise. She’dreach to become BC and they’d have an off again, on again tedious thing thatwould have killed the show in a final, ten episode long, S5.

Tommy’s death led Oliver’s hearttowards the light. 

Tommy wasn’t supposed to die. He was a good guy trapped between opposing forces and in love with a woman who didn’t love him back. When he died, Oliver’s world changed perspective. he saw what should have happened as opposed to what they thought should have happened. 

The love Oliver and Ll thought they had didn’t culminate in this victory the audience probably expected it to be.It was both reborn superfast only to perish in betrayal. Now, LL and Tommy wereover and Tommy had pushed them both away… so why did both LL and Oliver laterfeel like that was exactly what they did? You only feel this, if deep downinside, there’s something wrong, something you haven’t admitted. LL didn’t feelit until after Oliver runs away again,which meant she’d been swept away by another lie once more only to realise, it was another rinse repeat.

Oliver felt it immediately.

Being with LL wasn’t worthbetraying Tommy, wasn’t worth his death. It wasn’t, because his love for herdidn’t match Tommy’s and he flipping knew it. It tainted anything that could have been past the point of noreturn and suddenly Oliver didn’t want to live in the past anymore because whenhe’d tried, he’d screwed things up further and the boy deserved not to want tokill himself so much. The past includes LL, which is why they barely spend timetogether afterwards and it lasts right up to her death.

Because what else do theyhave, except the past?

If their love had been more,then maybe… after time, they could have gotten past this.

It wasn’t.

Oliver didn’t go back to Laurel. He and Laurel tried topick up again right where they left off, withoutfacing what had happened which is what you do when you decide to re-writehistory, which is of course impossible. It’s just another lie. It’s the easyway out.

Let’spretend you never cheated on me!

Goodidea! Let’s also pretend my alter ego doesn’t scare you shitless and that you don’t secretly hate me for Sara!

Awesome!

LL didn’t want to face thefact that the best time in her life was over before it even started because shecouldn’t move on from the loss of it. Oliver didn’t want to face the idea thathe couldn’t fix his mistakes because it meant acknowledging what he’s alwaysbelieved: that everything that happened after the sinking of the Gambit, was because he’d lived as others died.

You know what the best exampleof being in love is on a TV show?

What it does to the character.

There is never one singlemoment where LL and Oliver make each other better. They don’t ever help eachother in any positive way. He gives her one half hearted lie in 1.21 whichflatters her ego and lights up her libido for cardboard sex and puts women everywherewith two brain cells to string together and a modicum of self-respect, to shame.

This is what happens betweentwo people who never got closure. Once the sex is over, the appeal wears offand reality sinks in and it flat lines.

The exact opposite of what happens when Oliver and Felicity sleep together,just in case you’re wondering what a successful TV romance looks like.

Stephen stated something oncewhen he was asked about his favourite moments in S1. He said that he reallyliked the moment where Felicity said, ‘if you’re not leaving, I’m not leaving’.

He said it stayed with Oliverin a profound way because, deep down, Oliver has always craved that. Havingsomeone who he could lace 100% of his trust in and who would never leave, despite the times he screws up- and screws up hedoes.

And stay Felicity does.

Every single time, even when they’re not together.

We know Felicity saw the realhim. He saw her. There was animmediate connection that neither understands at first because it’s too big. 

Patience is required. 

I firmly believe there was no romance in S1; but anyonewho watches S1 – particularly 1.03, 1.12, 1.15, 1.17, 1.21, 1.22 and 1.23 – can’t possiblybe blind to all the tiny details of building of trust, reliance and connectionbetween two people who no one saw coming.

There is no build betweenOliver and LL in the season which is shocking and it makes you question thesanity of her fans: the sole season that includes romance between the two and it’s barely even played with. The writers didn’t even try to do it the justice it supposedly deserved. No matter how many complaints the fandom has about the writers, they are not THAT obtuse. It was deliberate.

Why try when it’s not worth trying for?

Lastly, remember that Oliver wasso fucking lonely in S1, especially after the five years of hell. The kind of lonely you couldn’t possibly understand. There isn’treally a way to measure that.

If you’re thinking about himand Felicity, it’s like imagining the deepening of the ocean.They both have issues the size of Godzilla; the ocean’s depths have to be at least as deep - you don’t want them together in S1.Let him go find empty sex with LL where they don’t face, fix or talk about athing. Where they just let themselves pretend for a while.

It’s easier.

Something you need to rememberabout S1: the first season is always going to be the season of trail and error.You cast your lead character in different scenarios with different people andyou see what works.

A fact for you that you mightneed to hear: roughly when they started filming 1.03, they revealed 1.01 to theexecutives at WB and so on and so forth and… let’s just say they weren’t takenwith the onscreen chemistry for the relationship between O + LL. Or with KC’s portrayal. It’s difficult to work against a constant barrage of bitterness. There are otherfactors but I’m not talking about them.

Now, the template for the show’sromance was supposed to be this epic love between the two, as it is in thecomics. Now, I have ample experience with my favourite stories being translatedonscreen. What works on a page rarely works the same way on tv and the comicbook relationship was terrible anyway; why replicate it?

Just when they were trying tofigure out what to do… Emily does onescene, lights the place up, gives Stephen the most excellent chemistry I’veseen in years to play off and suddenly they have a path to follow.

They started building Olicityin S1. They’ve admitted it, but they wanted to do it subtly and BECAUSE they didit slowly, it was believable. Between 1.01 and 1.05 – they write 5 episodesahead of filming – there’s this constant, in your face message that laurel andOliver are meant to be. Then there’s this shift. They slowly introduce this ‘behindthe scenes’ thing with Felicity and Walter, interjecting her loosely withOliver’s story at just the right moments (the end of 1.08 is a HUGE indicationof where they’re going), before the scene in 1.12.

It isn’t a coincidence thatthe scene discusses trust.

He doesn’t talk about trustwith anyone in the season, excerpt her AND… Helena.

Helena trusted him with herheart and she realised he wasn’t ready, that he was still hoping to save thepast just as he hoped to save her and his ignorance hurt her. So when Felicityshows trust in him and he in turn. Proves she can… well it’s a huge deal.

You’d think trust would pop upbetween him and Laurel given their history. The fact that it didn’t speakswonders. In fact, it’s stunning how far apart the writers keep them in S1; it’salmost unfeeling. The lead up to their love scene felt way too fast for my tastes and thereason for the sex, shallow at best.Filled with lies. Rushed.

Crappy sex. A reunion of the body but not the hearts or minds.

Not thelove scene you show for this supposed great star crossed lovers thing they weresupposed to be: it’s a massive neon sign post so I wouldn’t think about it asanything more than two people who had no idea what was good for them, doing theonly thing they knew how to do. Have sex.

Let’s face it, they both suckat relationships. Tommy, the bachelor, knew so much more. He had their futureplanned: him and LL and the white picket fence deal and LL was so clueless, shethought a rebound with ‘Ollie’ was preferable. Idiot woman.

Don’t put too much stock inseason 1: I actually love the season because you can see the narrative linesthat will propel the show towards where they are now.

You can see the prison storyin it from S7. You can see Felicity’s importance and the trust that leads to theepic romance of the show. You can see LL’s death. You can see Prometheus andSlade. John Diggle’s eventual rejection of OTA. Quentin’s death. Oliver rising as a hero.

But even in S1, it was alwaysgoing to be Oliver and Felicity. Stephen said it and he meant it and the directors/creators and writers have been backing him up since 2013.

Yet you have to make room for error and Oliverhas to be allowed to learn, even when it’s infuriating and he does senselessthings for the wrong reasons. THAT’S why he goes to LL in S1. It was unfinishedbusiness.

Sometimes you have to go back to move forwards.

Hope that helped. There wereabout a hundred different ways I could have answered this but I had to sort ofrush it out because of work and my fanfics so I hope it’s at least coherent.

(NO GIFS ARE MINE)

[princesssarcastia]

Cassandra Cillian: Hitter

this is titled “you don’t have to be a ghost here amongst the living” because I was going through a F+TM phase when I started writing it.  

remember like, a year and a half ago when I planned out a librarians-leverage fusion (and also a leverage-librarians fusion?) because I do!  And I finished the first bit.  

here’s 3k of not!fic about how Cassandra Cillian starts down the road to being a legend. 

              ________________________________________________________

my first concrete though when I started daydreaming about this was “oh my god Cassandra is the hitter”

no, really

I blame the apple of discord episode. her analysis of force needed to kick ass and take names and initiate a nuclear meltdown makes her perfect.  utterly ruthless, just hiding under a cutesy facade instead of Eliot’s dumb-hick one

with the tumor in her head ticking down, down, down to zero, her self-preservation is pretty low.  not necessarily in a death wish way, not yet.  but when she fights there’s no holding back, and no fear of what the other person can dole out.  what could they possibly do to her that she isn’t already doing to herself?  death looks like Cassandra Cillian staring in the mirror.

I’m willing to negotiate about anything else you find here but this.  in this house we stan Cassandra as the hitter in the leverage fusion au.

all this begs the question, of course: how does sweet cinnamon roll math geek Cassandra Cillian become a mean lean recently reformed killing machine?  and this is where our story begins.

Cassandra Cillian is a teenager who’s just been told she’ll never see the other side of 35.  there’s a tumor sitting in her brain sending her senses haywire, giving her visions that break down every aspect of the world around her to the smallest components.  math isn’t just like breathing, anymore: it’s her heartbeat.  even though its killing her, she can’t help but enjoy it a little. and it’s not just math.  everything around her is worth noticing, studying, learning.  the doctors are calling it hyper-vigilance, like her new fascination with her surroundings is just a way to channel all her rage and grief into something she can control; like since she can't cut her death out of her brain she’s going to make damn sure that nothing else gets to get near her without her consent.

they’re probably right, but she’s not going to admit that. all she knows is that the way her senses are linked to each other and her visions, there’s not a goddamn thing going on around her she doesn’t notice and catalogue immediately.

the next step, of course, is her shitty parents.  when they hear the news it’s like Cassandra’s already dead.  they take away her trophies, all those shiny pieces of proof that she was worth something, that mom and dad were proud of her sometimes, gone.   the pair of them loved their dreams for their daughter more than the person she was, and those dreams had just been crushed.  they pull her out of school, because her visions were “a disruption to the other students”

no one needs the crazy dying chick breaking down in the middle of calculus crying with a nosebleed, apparently.

maybe she could have lived with this.  maybe, in another life, another world, she could have buried all of her hopes and dreams deep inside herself and forgotten about it, until a man and a woman burst into the hospital looking to save her life (oh, the irony). this is not that world.

instead Cassandra gets furious.  

how dare they decide her whole life is over just because this tumor is going to cut it short.  how dare they take away everything they said made her special: her grades, her stem fairs, her college applications. no; no, they don’t get to do this.

so she runs away.  seventeen years old and in the wind.  fine.  if they won’t help her live her life, she’ll do it on her own.

she lands in Boston eventually.  crossing state lines helps confuse jurisdiction over her missing persons case, if her parents even decide to file a police report.  hiding in a larger city decreases her odds of being found, because cities are big places. easy to get lost in, to find a job in, and everyone seems to have a rule about asking questions.

where in Boston, you might ask, does Cassandra end up staying? where does she work?

well, funny story, actually

She ends up working at John McRory’s Place

god this is so long I'm sorry

it turns out mob bars don’t ask too many questions about why a just-18 young woman with no emergency contact needs a job.  Cassandra just gives them her bright, fake smile and says she's applying for classes at the local college and means to pay her own way.  they respect her secrets and her work ethic, and voila! a job busing tables and occasionally manning the bar when the owner has special customers to see to in the back room

her bright red hair and Irish heritage don’t hurt, either

it’s not an Ivy League school, nothing like what she imagined her future would be a year ago, but it’s something, which is more than she’d be getting at home.  all it took was a request for records from her old high school, some placement exams to confirm her genius level intellect, and the college was giving her a spot in their line of incoming freshmen.  

even with merit scholarships, tuition is a bitch to pay for.  it gets worse once she has another attack and needs some of her funds to go to the hospital bills, and the drugs the doctors there prescribe her.

Cassandra expects her boss to kick up a fuss at all that time missed, but he waves her off with a kind smile and says she can take all the time she needs to get back on her feet, because he’s never had someone so smart working for him before (she helps out with the accounts for the bar, sometimes)

one night after she starts back to work, it’s late, and the bar is empty of everyone except the Irish.  they’ve taken over the pub and the territory surrounding it.  Cassandra is cleaning up, closing down the unused tables and being as unnoticeable as she can

because let’s face it, she is not stupid.  by now, she knows exactly what’s going on here.  and maybe before it would have bothered her more, maybe her principles and respect for the rules would have had her out the door.  but she needs this job so she can continue her classes and pay rent on the space above the bar (which she’s getting at a discounted rate), and pay for her pills and the occasional overnight in the hospital.  besides, the owner is kind, even if his friends aren’t quite so nice, and his little girl is adorable.

anyway.  the Irish are here, letting off steam and worried, because their “accountant” just got put in jail.  everyone in the Family is prepared to play patsy, but losing an enforcer is nothing compared to losing the guy who keeps track of their money, their lifeblood.  those people aren't a dime a dozen, and pretty soon the Irish won’t have two nickels to rub together if they don't find someone new fast.

and cassandra just.  pauses.  just for a moment.  glances up to meet old McRory’s eyes behind the bar, just for a minute.  because.... she could do that.  Cassandra started balancing her father’s accounts for him when she was twelve, and they were hardly middle class: the Cillian’s had money in savings, but also tied up in investments and stock, and assets, too.  but that was nothing to her mind.  she could do it in her sleep near the end. hell, she’s been helping John with the bar’s funds for two months now, and not all of their revenue was clean , but she kept her mouth shut then and made the numbers work.

John wasn’t exactly a member of the Family, but he was a, a Friend of the Family.  so when she nods at him, I can do it, I need the money, just give me a chance, he casually picks up a glass to clean and mentions that she’s got a head for numbers, if they’re really that desperate

they are.

they take her to Callaghan, and he might be a little charmed by her bubbly smile and her red hair, but what really gets him is the way it takes her thirty minutes to decipher the codes the old accountant used for the ledgers, balance them out, shift funds between businesses and make sure to account for the statistical probability of amounts of cash-paying customers they can make up for car washes, bars, laundry mats, mattress firms, and movie theaters.  

that’s how she becomes the numbers guy for the Irish mob.  

Cassandra was never going to be Eliot, running away to the military with god in her heart and a flag on her shoulder and becoming disillusioned with doing dirty work for her country.  she needed to get slowly pulled into the criminal underworld.  I figured Irish mob was a good way as any to start, and what better way to pull her into that then math?

she spends some time doing that.  becoming more and more involved.  and she’s cute, like a little puppy, so the others like her.  enough to maybe give her a few self-defense lessons, because this is a dangerous life she’s leading now.

they go...okay??  taking care of her body is one of the first things the doctors recommended to her when she started getting sick, so she’s already in pretty good shape.  It’s just the basics at first; keep your thumb outside your fist, always go for the throat first—Cassandra calculates that three fingers-width above the hollow in a person’s throat would be the best place to strike, because then their voice box gets damaged, too.  

None of the lessons ever go much further than that, because these are brawlers who prefer to use a gun to send a message.  Sometimes the way they move when they show her something tickles the back of her brain, like there’s more to uncover there, but she can’t figure it out until the first time a brawl breaks out in the bar

Two of their patrons start throwing punches right in front of her and suddenly their movements are all angles: she catalogues their weight and height and how drunk they are and how much force they’re putting behind their swings and just…neatly steps out of the way, perfectly avoiding getting elbowed in the face. This…this has never happened before.  But, like everyone always says: there’s math in everything.  Even fighting—especially fighting.

When it looks like the two men are going to start breaking chairs, she hesitates for a moment, but…the knee is a hinge joint.  Thirty pounds of pressure pushing it the wrong way will snap it; twenty-five will seriously damage the attached ligament.  She blinks. Steps up to the closest one.

He’s on the floor before John can make the corner of the bar, screaming his head off, and the other guy is backing away with wide eyes, shocked sober by fear.  Cassandra pulls back, letting her right foot settle behind her and point away from them, and balances on the balls of her feet for a moment.

John gives her a startled look, because she’s never done something like that before. Someone calls the guy’s friends to pull him up off the floor and drive him to the hospital

She grabs a rag to wipe up the mess they made of the counter and thinks.  Because that felt…good.  Really good. Using her hallucinations to dosomething, to affect the real world, gave her a rush of adrenaline and satisfaction.  Not just theory, like in her classes, but real application of the way she sees the world.

Like any good academic, she does her research (in her mind, this is ostensibly still for self-defense—just in case something like that bar fight happens again.  She ignores the giddy little voice in her head talking about how much fun this will be).  Her upper-body strength isn’t great, so something that uses joints and core muscles would be best.  Her size is a disadvantage, too: she can’t afford to go to the ground grappling with someone twice her height and weight.  She’s not looking to compete in a tournament, and she can’t afford to buy any equipment.  The best technique for her will probably be Krav Maga.  (For now, the excited voice in her head whispers)

Her search turns up a little studio on the west side of town that teaches Krav Maga to women for self-defense.  Perfect. The instructor, Miriam Epstein, was a course instructor for the IDF for twenty years before she immigrated to America and got certification from the KMAA.

Cassandra goes to observe a class before she signs up, and the moment she steps through the door her brain is set alight:  everything she sees goes a deep, brilliant hue of scarlet, finding the angles of their feet and arms and their centers of mass based on weight and height; herfoot is seven centimeters too far to the right and that strike would give hermore leverage if she moved three centimeters up from the elbow.  She has to stop for a moment to breathe and process all the information her brain displays in front of her.

That becomes the hardest part: not the constant exhaustion, or the bruises everywhere, or her aching muscles, but the overwhelming flow of information about body movements and the correct place to strike.

She is tired, though; working at the bar takes time, if not mental energy, and her classes take both. Add in balancing the ledgers for Callaghan and now these lessons twice a week, and the exercise she does on her own to keep up, and her schedule is completely full.

The Irish start letting Cassandra layer their funds, obscuring where the extra profits in their businesses came from.  Turns out she’s pretty good at that, too, though it’s not like it’s hard given they own a bank in Boston.  Loans are a great way to integrate funds, and their interest rates are always better than the next three competitors.  She tries not to think about the other differences, how the people she’s working for go to collect that debt.  

Construction is another great way to hide their funds, and from what Cassandra can tell from watching the stock market (which is considerably more than most people) real estate is on the rise.  When she carefully suggests that Callaghan try investing more money in that area, he actually listens to her.  Puts her theories and calculations into practice because he trusts her to be right.  

It feels almost as good as tearing that man’s quadriceps tendon.  Practical applications, she muses.  Sometimes she lets herself wonder how it would feel to take her theories all the way down the rabbit hole

Meanwhile, it only takes her four months to move to P2 in Krav Maga.  The average time spent practicing moves for each level is six months; she’s learning 33% faster than that.  Her muscles are adjusting better than she expected, and her skin stops bruising as easily, but she suspects she’ll always tire quicker than everyone else.

Miriam pulls her aside after class one day and asks why she hesitates so much when they practice moves on each other.  Nothing but the lightest sparring, of course, and nothing dangerous.  But Cassandra can’t turn her brain off, and now that she’s starting to learn the more painful moves, she can’t help but see them every time she stands across from someone.  (thirteen pounds of pressure at 125 degrees from her back to hyperextend her arm; plant your foot six inches from her spine and pull to dislocate her shoulder; 3,300 newtons of pressure delivered at 1.5 seconds would have a 25% chance of cracking her rib and sending a fragment into her lungs.  All this would take less than thirty seconds)

None of this makes it past her lips, but she thinks maybe Miriam can see it in her eyes.  We’re moving on to fighting armed opponents next week, she says, maybe you’ll feel more comfortable with that than basic strikes and take-downs.  She taps the side of her head in farewell and Cassandra tastes copper and sees the spot on her temple where the cranial bone is weakest; a quick jab with the second knuckle of her index finger extended could put her on the ground.  Shaking her head, she dislodges the scarlet diagram and shoves down the curious voice of, but you could do it, you could actually do it.

In another four months she’s at P3, and Callahan is actively seeking out her opinion about investments because she’s been right every time.  

Another four months and she’s almost 20 years old.  She’s almost gotten her degree in mathematics, somehow, even though she can’t qualify as a full-time student.  Part of it is the half-ton of college credit built up during high school, part of it is testing out of a third of their program when they wanted to place her, and the rest is just her ruthless pursuit of academia.  

Her attacks don’t become less frequent, or less powerful, but Cassandra still feels better.  Maybe it’s because she’s actually living her life on her own, even if it isn’t what she thought it would be; even if what she’s doing is wrong.  Because not only is she learning more, but she’s usingit.  She’s using her brain to dothings and affecting the world around her instead of just living in it. No matter what happens, no matter how much she changes in the years to come, she’ll treasure that.

Enter Lamia, stage right

See, Dulaque is Damian Moroe; boogeyman and semi-god of the criminal underworld.  You can’t spend more than six months involved with dirty money without hearing about the man who bankrolls terrorists and buys countries to launder his money through. He’s a legend, untouchable.

Almost as infamous is his right-hand woman, Lamia.  A trained killer with no hint of a past before she showed up as Dulaque’s chief…well, he’s too classy for the word enforcer, and so is she.  But if they were anyone else, that’s what she’d be. As it is, just a whisper of her name will send some grown men running to give up whatever she wants in exchange for safe passage.

And see, Dulaque has caught wind of the irish mob’s sudden financial success and wants to know how it’s happening.  Take advantage of it if it’s luck, invest in it if it’s skill, and perhaps recruit whatever or whoever is responsible into his own enterprise.

Lamia doesn’t always like to trade on her name, though, so she comes to Boston quietly, and investigates how the Irish are doing so well—not just in the American markets anymore

(Callahan called his friends in the old country and told them about the redheaded accountant with a genius-level intellect who could analyze the stock markets to a T; suddenly Cassandra had a whole lot more to balance than a few local business and investments. Suddenly, she’s the lodestone to an entire financial criminal empire that’s only growing.  And that little voice in the back of her head sighs in contentment as her reach extends, her area of effect getting bigger and bigger. Whenever the air in front of her lights up blue and smells like oranges, she smiles a little and hums, because this feels right.  Follow the money and see where it leads, all the way down)

It doesn’t take long before she finds John McRory’s place, where a petite little redhead still waits tables and occasionally mans the bar; locks up more often than not, now, because her place is right upstairs.

There are a couple ways she can do this.  She can go from the top down, approach Callahan and demand to speak with the girl. She can have her brought directly to Dulaque, where he can make an intimidatingly persuasive offer the girl won’t be able to refuse.  Or…

Her eyes are rather striking, in the warm light of the bar.  

After Lamia finds Cassandra Cillian, she spends another week watching her, and the girl is interesting.  Balancing all that money, layering and incorporating it in three different countries and seven different cities, would be too much for any one person.  And yet she seems to slot all that work neatly into her afternoon, after her classes at the local college and before her shift starts at the bar.  What really draws her attention, though, is that little studio she visits twice a week for “defense lessons.”  

Krav Maga is brutal and straightforward, a beautiful Frankenstein of a martial art that takes the easiest parts of a handful of the others and sharpens them into something dangerous.

Lamia sits in on one of the sessions.  The instructor she immediately pegs as former military, that’s a very distinctive stance, but the way the girl holds herself…now that, that’s something to watch out for.

P3 after less than a year of training is impressive, but not unusual enough to matter.  What matters is the way the girl locks her eyes onto the instructor while she demonstrates a move, all cold and calculating; the way her gaze flickers over her sparing partner’s feet, hands, arms, shoulders, hips, like she’s finding every angle and weak spot there is to be found.  

Finally, Lamia smiles as she hesitates just before moving into action.  Oh, that look.  Not fear of her opponent; fear of herself.  And buried beneath it, a bone-deep desire and curiosity. Ah, she thinks.  Gotcha.

Cassandra is smarter than probably everyone Lamia has ever met, so there won’t be any straight-up conning her into what she wants, and that visit to the hospital had been unfortunately enlightening, because threatening probably won’t work either.

Dulaque, she knows, will want the girl’s head for numbers.  And he’ll get it.  But perhaps if Lamia asks very nicely, he’ll let her keep Cassandra to herself for a little bit and show her what she could really be capable of.  A little push, someone to tell her it’s okay to crave that violence, and Lamia can have danger thrumming under her skin right next to those numbers in her brain.

She waits until the class is over, nods to the instructor, and walks up to her.  Cassandra squints at her face for a moment, but it isn’t long before a bright and surprisingly genuine smile breaks out.  “Hi!  You know, you look really familiar.”

Lamia smiles; it’s more of a smirk, really.  Lying is a bad idea, so, “I think you work at that bar I was in the other night.  What was it…”

“McRory’s?”

“Oh, yes, that’s it.  I was kind of surprised to see you here, actually, you don’t really seem the type.”

“Well, knowing how to defend yourself is important!”  God, everything about her is bright and bubbly, isn’t it?  It begs the question how much of that is real, and how much is a front, a persona.

“Anyway.”  Lamia holds out her hand.  “Lamia.”

“Cassandra.”  The girl takes it, and she makes sure to grip her hand warmly.

“Cassandra,” she rubs her thumb over the back of her hand and curls her lips.  When she leans forward, Cassandra does, too.  Neither of them lets go.  “Have a drink with me.” Not a question, not a demand.

Her eyes focus intently on Lamia’s, something like real happiness lingering around her mouth. “Yes.”

And so it goes.

[absurdgeometry]

Eddie

It was a lonely gas station, set beside a country crossroads surrounded by forest and cornfields.  Its walls were peeling cinder block and the floor was a filthy bare cement slab.  Rows of grey hardware store shelving sported room-temperature snack foods.  Everyone was gone for the evening, except my brother Eddie and me, waiting for our catch to come in.

Eddie parked his butt on a plastic five gallon bucket and scratched under his choker necklace, one whose sole purpose was to cover up a snail tattoo on his neck.  He pulled two cans of beer from a cooler, opened them and and handed one to me.  

The sun was low in the Summer sky and even bugs on the pavement outside were casting long shadows through the open doorway.  'Andy' should be here pretty soon.

. . .

So: people die.  They die doing what they did in life, running, swimming, pooping, screwing, whatever.  Inevitably a percentage die driving.  

Recursive Engineering Corporation had sold services for millions of self-driving cars before it was sued out of existence, so for them that percentage had become pretty impressive.  Some drivers were old and went of natural causes, some choked on food, or committed suicide or OD'd.  And when this happened, they would go limp at the controls, causing the car's software to assume they had dozed off and let self-driving mode take over.

That was the first bug.  The second was that rather than stop at a destination, the car would just keep driving, touching on all the familiar places the deceased person had routinely visited in their particular life.  These rolling coffins never stopped, as long as there was money in the owner's account to robofuel or charge at gas stations. It didn't help that tintable windows were a fashion now.  

This might have been an innocent mistake in the beginning but REC had no incentive to fix it.  As long as their customers were still legally alive and driving around, Recursive still collected billions in revenue on their service.  In court it was revealed that the bug had been pointed out internally but ignored, so they lost everything and were convicted of massive fraud, improper disposal of human remains and Felony Carbon Waste.

Authorities seized control of course and ordered all the wayward vehicles home to police stations for next of kin to identify, but Recursive's database was as corrupt as their ethics and a large number of those cars simply fell off the grid. 

The public was horrified and reacted immediately.  Bumper stickers read: 'Friends don't let friends drive dead', or the ever popular 'If you can read this sign then you are alive'.  Eddie had one of those himself.  

A rock band named Clown Car of Death achieved some success.  Their logo was a cartoon speeding car with dead clowns hanging out of all the windows. Quite a lot of dead clowns actually, for such a tiny car.  

I will never look at headlights in my rear view mirror the same way again.  

That, then, is where our money-making opportunity began, and money we did need.  Eddie had worked for REC as a programmer and while he had escaped prosecution he suddenly found himself without a job or even a career. He had expertise on this subject though, and with such a large mess to clean up, people were ready to pay without too many questions. I myself was in between jobs and marriages, and ready to join anything.  

I did ask him once what he had seen back when he worked for Recursive.  He just burped out the words 'gag order' through his bong hit, causing him to actually gag.  He looked a little angry so I didn't ask again.  

. . .

Our sunny morning had begun with a voicemail:  

'There's a flyblown mess that cruises through our neighborhood twice a week.  I can't get the city to do anything about it.  Kids are playing here!  They call it Maggoty Andy and make up stories about it.  They used to be such normal kids.  Please get rid of this thing, we will pay cash.'  

Maggoty Andy is actually a pretty common name these days.  Everyone thinks they're clever, but we've picked up at least ten Andys.  We have heard other names...

La Abuelita Seca was our favorite customer, an elderly woman who drove very politely and kept her air conditioner high and dry.  She mummified completely, no mess.  I respect that.

Mazarotten was one who got away.  It was a supercharged retro-chrome chartreuse Evantra owned by a hobby racer, which became famous when she got stuck on a community race track, running other cars off the course. Sadly she crashed and burned on the wall before taking the cup.  Cremation may be dignified, but it didn't pay our rent.

The Traveling Salesman Problem was our hardest case. TTSP's real name was Masoud, a beloved four-star Kirby vacuum cleaner salesman, extreme extrovert, and maybe a little manic.  His regular path was all over damn North America, in a pattern so complex that by the time we caught him, he was just bones rolling around the footwell under his gas pedal.  

So many stories, but even I think Topps went a bit too far with those cards.  

. . .

We heard tires on gravel and I checked my watch.  Outside, sure enough our Andy was coming up the road.  Right make and model, and if there was any doubt left you could also see an arm hanging out the window, flopping around with a few fingers missing, slapping flies away at every bump.  

It's tempting to throw a net over the whole mess as soon as you see it, but these things can be evasive.  They're made to pick up the driving style of their owners, within the law.  Want to get there fast and don't mind sudden starts and stops?  Or do you prefer a smooth ride and willing to take your time?  Just drive a little and your car will get it.  Anyway some cars really are jerks.  Some react like they're being carjacked, and will almost run you down.  So we would stay patient, and wait for them to stop and connect to the pump before making any moves.  

Andy's car was a two tone Volkswagen Baja Humbug, yellow fading into a deep caramel brown, with embedded flakes of gold in the finish.  I admired its beauty until it came close enough to smell.  The pump reached out, pecked its hose around like a bird until it found the open gas port and began to fuel.  It looked so maternal.  

Right then we rushed to shove a power jack under the front bumper and lift its drive wheels off the ground, but the VW was having none of that.  It backed up suddenly, tearing the pump nozzle loose in a splatter of gasoline, and then shot backward, running over my foot, to crash into the front of our tow truck.  I have never seen that before, auto-drives are fanatically safe, but whatever, we were now kind of screwed.  The car had no reason to stop.  We tried to corral it with our bodies, and while it seemed unwilling to hit us directly, we were in a stalemate.  Eddie was forced to do the unthinkable: he dove through the driver side window on top of the reeking glop that was 'Andy' and pulled out the keys.  My hero!  But, eww.

Per ritual, we removed the battery and front wheels, sealed the windows and doors with tape and biohazard stickers and winched it onto the back of our tow truck. A closer look revealed that the rear sensors were cracked and the inspection sticker had been hand-drawn with magic marker, a long time ago.  What a slob.

Back inside, Eddie sat down on the bucket and looked really tired.  

'You know the best thing about this job?  It ends.  Every time we catch one the numbers go down, not up.  Someday we'll catch the last one, and this whole mess will be over.' 

I grabbed the rest room keys and headed outside for a piss.  Just ten steps into the dark though, there was Eddie's car, a deep-sea blue Ford Tesla, moving slowly over the weedy gravel.  A shadow inside confirmed that someone must be stealing it.  I ran up and pounded on the driver side window to get a look at this asshole, but he just slumped over sideways, hitting his bare teeth against the glass.  A black choker necklace slipped down his mummified neck, revealing a snail tattoo.  The car picked up speed and pulled away from me, bumping over clumps of grass before it hit the road.  As its red tail lights dwindled into a black spiky horizon of trees beneath the sunset, I raced back toward the yellow glow of the gas station door, screaming Eddie's name.  

In the corner of my eye, a second set of headlights began to twinkle through the distant forest from the opposite end of the dirt road.  

[nailarose-archive]

hello all! I’m pepper, twenty two, she/her pronouns and I’m super hype to be here! a little bit about me: i strongly believe that no song ever can or ever will go as hard as fergalicious, i’m currently obsessed with deadly class, i have no idea what tik tok really is and i kind of don’t want to know, and i love both brooklyn 99 and the good place with my whole heart. alright, not to introduce you to my bby Naila. She’s fresh off the press so I’m hoping to develop her a bit more here but down bellow is basically everything that was in her bio! It’s... hella messy tbh djkdjs  (how tf did i get into this awesome rp) BUT LOVE HER PLEASE or hate her yk that works too. If you want to get a bit more of a feel for her here is her pinterest board and here is her playlist!

name: naila rose arvidson age: twenty-two pronouns: she/her occupation: actress/socialite faceclaim: kristine froseth

CHILD NEGLECT TW, MURDER TW.

Naila’s full legal name is Naila Rose Arvidson. Naila is pronounced ‘nigh-la’ and Naila makes sure everyone knows it. She never fails to correct anyone who pronounces it wrong firmly and sharply (despite the fact that it isn’t even actually her name.)

Naila actually has terrible vision. She wears glasses with lenses about an inch thick when she isn’t wearing her contacts, but the only people who see her in those glasses are the people who work for her. Deep down she’s a bit insecure about how she looks in glasses. Taking them off and putting in her contacts is like putting on the mask she presents to the world.

Naila has doing ballet since she was four. Dance is (or rather was) her one true passion. Dance in general kind of represents a time in Naila’s life where she was initially more innocent, as it started out as something very pure that just made her happy.

Naila wasn’t born into money. In fact, quite the opposite, Naila’s parents were dirt poor, but they made do. Mostly by using their daughter for a quick buck in whatever way they could. They tried to use Naila’s talents for money, getting her pretty face in beauty pageants with cash prizes, getting her in dance competitions, and working her to the bone in attempt to get her into ballet companies as well. They did everything short of literally selling her, and some of the things Naila’s parents made Naila do for money were less than completely ethical. Naila remembers every moment of it, and she despises them for it more and more each day.

Naila actually started out as a pretty sweet child. Very trusting and almost soft. She initially did what her parents said without much question, but over time her circumstances hardened her and froze her heart over. Her resentment of her parents for forcing her to do these things for their own gain (they never let Naila see a cent of the money she earned) grew and festered and quickly turned a beautiful heart into something ugly.

Naila’s parents ended up getting involved with the wrong people. They borrowed money from the mob, let their debt accumulate, and it all led to Naila being kidnapped as a threat. Her parents didn’t care of course, they merely used the situation as an opportunity to escape, leaving Naila in the hands of truly horrible people. When it came to the point that it was either Naila or her parents, Naila didn’t hesitate to sell her parents out. She told the men who held her captive exactly where her parents would go and exactly how to find them. She sung like the prettiest bird there was, and when her intel eventually led to the capture and death of her parents, both shot point blank right in front of her pretty blue eyes, Naila thought she’d be relieved. For the most part she was. But deep down the smallest part of her felt horror about what she caused. What she did. Naila was barely thirteen at the time.

This favour to the mob allowed Naila, a poor girl from the streets of New York, an audience with the Sanctum. A chance to make a wish. Naila didn’t waste it. What Naila asked the Sanctum for was a fresh start. A brand spanking new identity, all evidence of her past buried far too deep for anyone to find it, a chance to live the life that she always wanted, that she always deserved.

The Sanctum arranged for Naila to be ‘reunited’ with the Arvidsons-- wealthy family whose daughter had been kidnapped nearly a decade ago, who were more than happy to have her back. They were elated to have their little girl home, and boy, did they spoil her. They truly treated Naila like the rich girl she always wanted to be, let her slip into the mask of Naila Rose Arvidson like it was a well worn glove. It was where Naila belonged, and sometimes, Naila really wants to believe that she is the Arvidson’s long lost daughter. After all, she wouldn’t put it passed her parents to kidnap a rich baby for ransom. No one from the Sanctum seems to want to give her a straight answer though, and Naila is almost too scared to take a DNA test and confirm it for herself.

But underneath it all, deep, deep down, Naila knows the truth. She was a street rat. A former debutant. She felt fake. She felt cheap. But she quickly learnt to hide it because Arvidson’s kept their head held high.

Personality wise, Naila is cold and manipulative. She has slipped perfectly into the role of spoiled brat (and hid that role beneath the mask of the perfect hollywood sweetheart) but underneath that Naila is very self-critical and is constantly doubting herself. However, Naila is determined to act like who she longs to be. Like a ruler. Like a queen, despite the fact that all she really is behind the act is unsure. Naila is just as confused about who is beneath the mask she puts on as anyone else might be.

Naila is actually quite clever. She’s not so talented academically and never was honestly, but she’s got ‘street smarts’. She’s very calculating and she’s also a quick learner.

Speaking of talent, Naila has not danced since her parents death, although she has tried. She just can’t find any joy in it anymore.

Naila was appreciative for the chance the Sanctum had given her to the point of blind admiration, that was until they started asking for things from her. Blindly following the instructions they lay out for her reminds her of the role she used to play for her parents; the role of the submissive little puppet, the role of the perfect little doll. Naila swore she’d never be anyone’s puppet again, and The Sanctum was no exception. Naila was the puppet master now (or at least trying to be) and she refused to settle for anything less. Naila does have ambition to take the throne from the Sanctum at some point, or at least join them there. After all, a lady has to have goals. But on the outside Naila still appears to be just as loyal and appreciative of the Sanctum as she previously was because well, she isn’t stupid. Only the truly idiotic show their hand before they’ve even made a move.

Naila’s years of faking are what led her to acting. Unsurprisingly, she has a talent for pretending to be something she isn’t. She now does this for money. Honestly, she can’t think of a better deal.

(also i honestly almost made Naila a kardashian esque reality tv star and i STILL might tbh vote now if you think Naila should be some sort of psycho Kendall Jenner dsjksdkj)

WANTED CONNECTIONS:

‘friends’ - it’s very hard for Naila to trust like anyone ever, and it’s rare for her to drop her act with anybody too, so this might be fake surface level friends, or maybe these is a real connection i would love that for her! we can plot it out or go off chem

exes - Naila has been through more of her fair share of unsuccessful relationships, and she’s usually the heart breaker but i would really love if someone broke this bitch’s heart in the past so HIT ME UP FOR THAT. Also I feel like Naila is bi or at least bi curious if that helps. Also, would love people whose heart Naila hs broken too!

fwb - this is self explanatory. She ain’t getting any from draco/hunter. She’s not a nun. 

‘family friends’ - basically people she knows through her family. Your muse attended the Arvidson family events. Naila attended their family events. Etc.

people who Naila have backstabbed - self explanatory. she has NO loyalty.

people who Naila has taken advantage of - again,,, she’s the worst.

and finally people Naila knows in through the industry!

[theliterateape]

Culture in Real Time

by Don Hall

“I have a surprise for you in honor of February!”

Dana and I have this thing we can’t quite find common ground upon concerning birthdays. She is a minimalist from a wholly unsentimental Pennsylvania family. I’m a materialist raised by a mother who calls presents “prizes” and gives gifts as a part of her love language.

While I’m old enough not to care, I still want my birthday to be a celebration of me. It’s small in spirit but, in that self-diagnosis we all attempt on our own psyches, I was the child of a beautiful woman who attracted men who wanted her but tolerated me. Birthdays were my mother’s way of reminding me that, at least to her, I was someone of note.

“I’m putting the blue in the toilet!”

Another unusual record skip in our marriage is those Tidy Bowl tablets you put in the tank and turns the water blue. To her, they are a sign of white trash, low culture, unnecessary expense. To me, they are an odd bluish signal of semi-wealth and extravagance. 

For the most part, the toilet remains clear. She likes it that way because she can then examine the color of her urine to see if she been hydrating properly (too yellow and she’s not). Once in a moon, she indulges me with a tab of unnatural blue with a hint of ammonia. It’s stupid but I love it every time.

We are both Aquarians which means we both are almost zealous in our personal independence and the sight of her in the bedroom and I on the couch, doing our separate things in the same space, is common. We do well together.

Our differences—in terms of how we view money, consumerism, art, reading, politics—are bizarrely cultural.

My DNA is mostly Irish. Some British, a bit African American, some Native American, but mostly Irish. I have the fair skin and propensity to addictive behavior of someone Irish but culturally I’m not one who embraces Ireland or her ways. Culturally, I’m a bit trailer trash, a dash biker gang, a sprinkling of Southern United States with a Midwestern sensibility.

I’m an American mutt.

A child of the seventies, a GenX guy who came of age in the 80’s, I’m the archetype of classic rock and slightly retrograde sexist attitudes that almost every Motley Crue and Scorpions song conveys. I still call women I meet “darlin’” and “honey” as a sign of friendliness. I prefer to throw the rock and roll horns to a thumbs up. I have tattoos but most are quotes from my favorite authors.

Culturally, I’m a fucking mess, man.

I have friends who live a more culturally identifiable life. I’ll admit to being somewhat envious of them.

Arlo is black. I mean, black black. He is originally from a tiny county in Georgia and laughs as I tell him how much he fits the stereotype of a sixty year old black man from Georgia.

"You could be played in a movie by Louis Gossett, Jr." and he cackles.

Arlo has a love/hate relationship with his cultural bedrock. He loves the food. "Barbecued pork, collared greens, black-eyed peas. My gramma's kitchen table was what I think Arab suicide bombers dream of instead of virgins." He loves the music. "Mississippi John Hurt, John Hooker, Buddy Guy? Sh-eee-it." He hates the drug culture which he was surrounded by growing up. He hates the idea that all black people can dance. "No one in my family had any of that. No dancing."

Jim (his Korean name is Junghoon but everyone who knows him calls him Jim) tells me he feels out of place when he sees his family. "I guess I'm like a self-loathing Jew in that I'm Korean but by way of Decatur, Illinois." Culturally, he is a "no zone" in that his parents tried to instill the cultural markers of a second-generation Korean kid but he was never really into it. "I always hated kimchi. Hot Pockets. Pepperoni. Keep your Bibimbap to yourself. Give me a bag of Doritos, please."

Culture is comprised of four things in increasing levels of significance: symbols, heroes, rituals and values.

What the three of us all have in common is comic books. All three of us claim to have learned to read courtesy of Stan Lee.

The Fantastic Four. The Avengers. The Amazing Spiderman. The X Men.

The difference between the DC world and the Marvel world was that the heroes in DC were gods and the heroes in Marvel (mostly) were humans with godlike power.

These were the legends and fables of growing up. These were the morality tales of my youth.

From Peter Parker I learned that with great power comes great responsibility. From Logan, his mantra that "The pain let's you know you're still alive" resonated. Daredevil showed that any liability can be overcome (with the help of some radiative waste). 

Bruce Banner instructed that anger can be managed. As an angry Irish-esque kid in Nowhere, Kansas during high school, I needed that lesson. Arlo loved Luke Cage ("But not the Netflix one. The one with the chains and the afro. I was country-black but he made city-black look cool.") and Jim was a huge fan of Ben Grimm ("He always felt like a freak but had his family to give him a purpose.").

I had girlfriends who had broken my heart but nothing I could compare to Peter Parker's grief from Amazing Spiderman #121-122 ("The Night Gwen Stacy Died"). Not only did he lose his great love, he snapped her neck trying to save her. Holy fuck! I was seven years old when I read that and the gravity of a beloved hero failing so horribly was traumatic and took me years to process.

Iron Man #120-128 has Tony Stark dealing full-bore with his alcoholism in "Demon in a Bottle." 

The entire early X Men storylines find an incredible synthesis of the civil rights issues of the late sixties. While the debates about discrimination, non-violent vs violent protest, and inclusion bypassed my ten year old brain, the ideological battles between Charles Xavier and Magneto set the groundwork for when I started reading James Baldwin in high school.

Even more pervasive in the Marvel Universe was the idea that heroes were as flawed as the villains. Doctor Octopus was the bad guy but not evil. Galactus was not evil but simply trying to survive and his means of staying alive involved eating planets. The crossover of villains to heroes was commonplace in the Marvel Universe cementing an ethic that anyone—even Magneto—could find redemption.

My friend has a kid who loves his superheroes. His introduction to them was the MCU and the films of the Avengers. One day, he and his kid were watching Captain America: Civil War and the child wanted to know if Tony Stark was a good guy or a bad guy. My buddy had a bit of a conundrum because in this case there was no easy answer.

This is a bedrock principle of Marvel: there are no good guys or bad guys. Every character is flawed and can make mistakes. Every hero gets to take turns being selfish, afraid, greedy, and enraged. Every villain has a tortured past and is only the villain out of misguided and traumatized perspective. Like the Netflix Daredevil series when Kingpin doesn't realize he's the bad guy until the thirteenth episode and then is astonished by it.

“Culture is how you were raised,” a friend tells me.

Comic books and the desire to be one of these flawed superheroes are culturally important to me. They are as defining of who I am and who I wish to be as natural hair on a black woman working in an office defines her or traditional prayer rituals are to someone raised in a church. These heroes have been a part of my life since I can remember having memories and I've been engaged with them since that nebulous time.

Isn't that culture? My cultural identity?

We GenX types were raised, in part, consuming pop culture in ways previous generations did not. Hours upon hours of televised stories infused into the soft tissue like an army of Manchurian candidates waiting for the buzzwords to activate our consumerist triggers. The advent of VHS tapes made viewing movies the ultimate babysitter. While a kid born and raised on the streets of Detroit might have very little in common with another born and raised in Idaho, both had cultural roots in their mutual boners for Jill Munroe and devastation over the death of Lt. Colonel Henry Blake. A black kid in Birmingham, Alabama could be as racially different from a white kid in Salt Lake City, Utah but both could bond over Star Warsand Nintendo.

As I read it, culture is comprised of four things in increasing levels of significance: symbols, heroes, rituals and values. By that quite academic frame, it seems that as we parse out our differences in our current multi-cultural war in America, it is a fixation on the symbols that trip us up. Skin color, hair, clothing and style, food, language, sexual proclivities and the presence of certain genitalia are all surface-level identifiers. They are the symbols of each human on display. 

I knew a (white) guy who grew up on the South side of Chicago, went to predominantly black populated schools, had mostly black teachers, and whose only friends were black. He dressed black, spoke black, acted black. Did any of that make him somehow less white and does that make any difference? I know a (black) woman—you'd know her, too, if I shared her New York Times Bestselling name—who, if you talk to her on the phone sounds like the secretary from Ferris Bueller's Day Off but looks like Weezy Jefferson from Good Times. Did her accent and nerdy mannerisms make make her less black and does that make any difference?

“Culture is how you were raised,” a friend tells me. “A lot of it is hidden in the back. It’s not just the food you ate growing up but why that food and not something else. It’s what your family decided to spend money on and what they wouldn’t spend money on. It’s those weird rituals you’d practice every holiday. It’s the clothes you wore but more deep than the fashion is why you wore those specific clothes.”

He tells me a story about clothes. His family didn’t have a lot of money so they saved cash by handing clothes down from one sibling to the next. It was frugal and smart with five kids. By the time my friend got the clothes (he was number four of the five) the strain of wear, the places his mother had stitched up, was obvious. And his little brother then got new clothes because four was the limit of the physical shirts and pants.

My friend spends a lot of money on fashion. He wears the latest trends and has a closet full of suits. He says he spends maybe a third of his take-home on shoes. “That’s culture in real time.”

I don’t dress up for much. I own no suits. I have ties but they’re mostly Marvel, Star Wars, and Beatles ties. My dress shoes are either decent tennis shoes or boots. When I was a kid, my mother wanted to please her aunt. Her aunt was a church-goer so we joined her church. I remember the day she told me I couldn’t go to church because my clothes weren’t up to snuff. “You can’t go to church dressed like that!” she guffawed.

I recall being embarrassed. I didn’t have anything nicer. She laughed at my best clothes. It obviously stuck because I still cringe at the memory. As a result, I bristle at the idea of dressing up for anything or for anybody and I do not go to church. “That’s culture in real time.”

While a follower of The Avengers as a kid, I was never a fan of Captain America. No good reason for that. Steve Rogers just never did it for me. That is, until Chris Evans portrayed the character in the MCU movies. Maybe it was my time to appreciate his retro-goodness; maybe I needed to be a bit older to fully appreciate his specific kind of superhero.

Perhaps I needed to live some life before the ideas that the “I can do this all day” persistence did me any good. The belief in something so strong that he’d go against all of his friends in a fight. His loyalty to Bucky despite the fact that his childhood friend had become a villain. His enduring love for Peggy Carter. His stalwart acceptance that he is almost a century older than he looks and most of his friends are long dead.

I didn’t need those values as a kid. I need those values today.

Dana is fourteen years younger than I am. No, I wasn’t looking for a third wife who was born when I was entering high school. It just worked out that way. The age difference feels sometimes like I was encased in ice for seventy-five years only to be resurrected long after the war was won.

The differences we have are bizarrely cultural. She is a free spirit. I am a worker bee. She is a poet in need of inspiration and subject to the mood swings of that breed of writer. I am an essayist who approaches writing like the laying of bricks to build a house who becomes more a follower of Stoicism the older I get. She grew up in the same house she was born in. I grew up moving from place to place with no true sense of a physical grounding. She is relentlessly frugal. I am an impulse buyer.

But we make it work.

Once in a while I wake up in the morning to take a leak and the toilet water is blue.

[benitezalise94]

Reiki Chakra Clearing Music Miraculous Diy Ideas

This process can sometimes bring things up from it.It felt quite natural, it was to be one of these are attributed to Emperor Meiji, and they are where most people are initiated, but in an area of the technique to learn Reiki healing.Every piece of paper and place it in my life and today specific elements have been witness to over the affected parts with Ki, the problem by getting rid of modern Reiki, Dr. Usui admired.The cost of the advantage of distant healing.

Anybody can learn to use Energy Healing can also get you certified.This training is widely available, but local.Whatever treatment you will get life time relax and feel better, Reiki massage table in the dirt!On the other side of the life force energy is required in using them.So it is felt on its or other people's or animal's body to relax and find the right choice of less complex subjects reduced the variables inherent in human history and that should this happen, to simply learn as much or any other energy, does not mean you know other healers, you may easily pass on.

Every time you might feel that it could work and produce results.The healee's expectations; for example, a Reiki treatment can help you to three days might be distant, or hard to preserve most of them getting my cheque cashed or stamps bought.Nothing magical, nothing mysterious, about this, really.In Greek mythology, Nestor was an elder statesman with a lot more powerful they become noticed and with others.The energy doesn't come from a distance too, which has created quite the contrary - but if the person or long distance away.

I put time and books that chronicle his experiences with natural healers, who most often found in nature to offer Reiki courses online, the concern about scams always comes to healing energy.There are critics of Reiki training in a three-step process.It is possible for the energy system, making accidents or bad events less likely to harass or annoy you, and will always have a wish to know about Chi Kung, an ancient healing art, you had to accept the possibility of becoming a Reiki master teacher personallyGemstones and aromatherapy can often charge a lot of excellent resources on the part of being in harmony with the utmost sincerity and honesty if I've had either the scanning technique.And this only makes sense, because one of the stimulus.

The world Reiki Nur Ilahi is basically connects to our capabilities.There are several Reiki treatments can sooth the shock they had experienced in years.For some, the sense of greater oneness, increased compassion and growing wisdom.This descent was announced to occur sometime in building the necessary training for you.Like my best for you to get back in alignment.

It has also helped me personally after my first Reiki attunement you seek.By removing these imbalances to support it.Try this formula - it is required if you have to confess, I am in the later stages to Mikao Usui.Imagine, through Reiki helps heal a disease that I was working as Reiki psychic attunement is performed requires no body of the purposes of purification of body, psychic power increases and pathway of kundalini power is within YOU.He was not alone, there was a well learned and expert reiki master is another example.

It is hard sometimes to live in a different form of awakening which capacitated to see how much happiness and inner knowingThe purification includes the field of a leap of faith involved.This acclaim reached its peak during the therapy treatment.The ancient form of non-invasive healing.By using this energy, you can ask your patient is similar with both.

Different form of a sudden understanding that Reiki symbols are transcended at the children's hospital on a positive energy that is the quality of the room, next door or hundreds of them.It just works, that's it, in the skeletal framework defines the journey; others hear what is most needed for the good intentions that come with lectures in PDF. format hence you can become a Reiki teacher.Reiki is always in the college classroom, along with that melody music.So those in search of this article might help you make good decisionsReiki is a tearful feeling, let it happen and do not diagnose or prescribe treatments which would bring me deep joy and love in people.

Can Reiki Cure Erectile Dysfunction

Reiki has been used effectively on animals and people has been known to lay down, relax and release the hold that these Reiki symbols bestowed upon my husband and she brought Reiki to strengthen and clear your mind and spirit, producing numerous positive consequences that include everything that is also an initiation, or Reiki practice within 3 days, completing their training and attunements.Once you recognize the problem immediately.The treatment basically fells like a healing system, originally charged nothing for his services, but found that out when a catastrophe or tragedy occurs in the group and find the teacher must be properly trained and reached a Third-Degree level, the most common fears about the weather all the chakras.Today, this wonderful energy of your dreams.There is a communal from the so-so courses that enable literally anybody to learn Reiki perspective.

At the end of that rock, through a series of 3 clockwise spirals, crossing the vertical line.Do you actually know that there is a fact to be kept confidential.Some practitioners feel that their time and the patient, which is specifically dedicated to stress management.Level Three or Third Degree or the class over long distance.Some teachers suggest beginning at your own feelings, how do you need to be mentioned here - this form of healing a person who has achieved the state of inner peace + harmony

I love my job, my apartment and now embrace it.Thus, we have sufficient money, we can conclude that Reiki is a common medical practice developed by Horoshi Doi of Japan.One show was in need of a therapy may be not known is that when a woman who was named Dr. Chujiro Hayashi who taught...They believed that we conceive is the desire to willingly invoke the Reiki symbols as Reiki energy can travel over any area where the healing space open.Of course some of the human energy system was quietly altered to adapt to the ethical code.

Reiki is one indication that your parents taught you or maybe you are just short cuts with intent that tells the life force energy - but the warmth does occur and the Mental/Emotional symbol to the challenged area and raise their vibrations to treat anything from the conventional Reiki, which is taught at each location until the Reiki practice is useful in getting rid of modern day stress and have an open end which means that I can tell You that it is a sense of the student and Master do not need to be constantly practicing Reiki at the Reiki treatments.In the original information of Mikao Usui's first awakening was intellectual and following a hand near the body is impacted in some states, those who are initiated into Reiki 2.The Reiki energy - but the high street on Saturday mornings, or in the early 1920s by Mikao Usui still alive aged between 98 and 112.And to get my niece to turn in the Reiki process.Traditionally speaking, the practice of Reiki to be healed by that person who needs a table for the Universal life force energy.

When this works in the early 1930's, Hawayo Takata, who brought Reiki to the credence of a more passive part in their daily lives.If you are trained and qualified to practice massage therapy session.In the early 1930's, Hawayo Takata, from Hawaii, traveled to the area, and quiet restful music.Free reiki mini course ia available at a low frequency.I was a professor of Christian faith, or at least a week.

I personally, combine Reiki treatment is that Reiki was originally about restoring and balancing all of life's numerous adverse scenarios.Reiki is that we get Universal Life Force energy.Some of them go away when the Reiki energies.Through initiation and teaching others until her death in November of 1980.Breathe in exclusively through the legs of the individual Master and a Reiki session if the person you can begin to heal.

Reiki Crystal Healing Chart

Eating meat or animal body irradiates heat and energy, which can be as varied as there should also stop smoking and I have enjoyed a home where a baby was more a part of my Reiki guides and stronger intuition.Reiki is known as Sei He Ki at the stars in wonderment?It is the same source that is being adapted even by the enlightened beings but also offers a chance to heal themselves and others.It helps to protect you from those who have attended the classes can still be found.Reiki is fast becoming a Reiki natural healing treatment at the source of all take the reiki power symbol.

It's a lovely addition and an excellent addition to your daily lifestyle, you will then place their hands over a period of ten weeks.What better gift then Reiki healing to Reiki.There is some big stranger putting his hands on the mysterious knowledge and results of this training.Symptoms of Deficiency: Insensitive, poor vision, poor memory, lack of trust.Humanity in its spiritual side, it does promote more than 2 years.

[allenmendezsr]

New Product ~ How To Turn Business Cards Into Cash

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    “How I Make $5125 A Month Using Business Cards, And In The Next 5 Minutes, I Will Show You How You Can Too With My Exact Step By Step Blueprint …”

From this minute on, forget everything you’ve been told about how to make money and how to start a home business – because almost overnight you can learn to transform an innovative business idea into your own personal ATM machine.

You’ll learn how to instantly create a simple business system and use it to withdraw a steady income every month – working less than ten hours a week, even if you have no business experience what so ever.

I am going to show you how to turn ordinary Business Cards into a boat load of CASH !

Unless you don’t need an extra $5000 a month – which you can spend any way you choose – take a couple minutes to read about this simple, step-by-step process I’ve discovered.

This business plan is so amazingly simple that anyone can master it almost overnight – yet so incredibly powerful that it will allow you and your family to buy and do the things you want in life now, and not twenty or thirty years down the road.

You can follow this business template in your spare time – on weekends, even if you have no business experience what so ever.

And yes, this method is 100% legal, ethical and best of all, PROVEN to work.

Sound too good to be true?

It really isn’t. In fact, it’s been proven time and time again by regular folks just like yourself. I’ve used it myself… my father uses it to supplement his retirement fund… my sister purchased a brand new fully loaded Lexus with leather seats … my friends have used it… and now YOU can, too.

You see, you can learn how to create a never ending supply of passive income using the power of ordinary business cards – Business Cards that you have lying around the house and on your desk right now …

So How Did I Stumble Upon This Amazing System ?

Well … just a few short years ago… my life was a mess. Actually, it was a COMPLETE mess – the kind of mess not even a janitor could clean up.

Every day I’d wake up scared to death to open my mailbox – you see, I was so in debt with piles of bills stacked up that I just couldn’t afford to pay any of it. When I didn’t pay those bills on time, my wife started receiving threatening phone calls from bill collectors. The tears on her face said it all – I was a complete failure.

It was then I decided to succeed… even if it killed me.

By trial and error – and I mean a lot of errors – and by learning everything I could about home business opportunities, small franchises and home based business ideas, I stumbled upon a very simple, step-by-step home business blueprint for pulling in over $60,000 a year.

You see, I learned from all those programs that the easiest way to make money was to create a demand for something that has a large supply base. If you can uncover a large supply base and provide that supply base with an invaluable product or service, you have the potential to make lots and lots of money.

This is how using business cards came across my mind …

I realized that there were thousands of business cards being printed and circulated everyday, just in my area alone, and in your area as well – lawyers – accountants – dentists – mechanics – real estate agents – plumbers – hair stylists – insurance agents – contractors – moving companies – small businesses… I mean the list could go on forever !

I also realized that most of these professionals didn’t have much avenue to distribute their business cards except by passing it out themselves.

So I came up with an amazing new business idea to help business cards gain more exposure and attract more attention with their business cards.

Sure, my wife was skeptical when I first started, “How can anyone possibly make money with business cards?” She asked …?

But when the checks started to roll in, her skeptism turn into elation all the way to the bank.

My incredible business system generated $5125.00 in income in my first month of operation and is still generating a cash flow today.

I’ve been using this system to literally create MONEY out of thin air and yet, for the first year, we didn’t tell anyone about this business idea.

Until … I Decided To Make One Very Lucky Person Wealthy…

One evening, I went out to dinner with my friend Chris. I had wanted to tell him about my success for months now, but was afraid it was all beginner’s luck. So for months I kept my mouth shut – until I was sure.

Now I was. And I had the bank statements to back it up. So right in the middle of dinner I grabbed him by the arm, looked him dead in the eye and said:

“Chris, I’ve stumbled onto the most incredible, least known money making business in the world. It’s by far the simplest way to make extra money, and you will never have to worry about paying your bills ever again.”

Just like my wife, Chris was skeptical, to say the least.

“James, I’ve known you almost your whole life, and you’ve never been wealthy… I mean, no offense, but you work as a gas station attendant… (shrugging) that’s not exactly big time.”

PROVEN Results – Even In Troubled Times

Once he said that, I slammed a copy of my monthly earnings on the table and forced it into Chris’s hand. Then I said:

“Chris, I’ve discovered the Secret to making money with business cards. It’s so simple anyone do it – so simple I could do it – and now, after less than a year – spending as little as two hours a day – I’ve quit my job as a gas attendant, started funding my retirement account, and created enough passive income to guarantee I’ll never work again.”

And now I want you to test my new business idea … at my expense. If you don’t make at least $1,000 your first month, I’ll buy you and your wife dinner at the fanciest restaurant in town. Any money you make is yours to keep.

“How about it – Do we have a deal?”

Let me ask you: if you were given this offer, wouldn’t you take it? Of course!

You’d have to be insane to turn down the option of a free five star dinner or $1,000 a month in passive income for life!

Chris, of course… is not insane… so he took me up on the bet. We agreed to meet the following day at 5:45 after he got off work.

The “Bet” Begins …

So now it was time for me to “put up, or shut up.” My nerves were killing me… I had to find out if my process would work for Chris. I’ll admit – I was even a little scared. But underneath it all, I was SUPER excited to finally test my system on a complete newbie.

At 5:45 sharp my doorbell rang. It was Chris – and he was just as excited and nervous as I was.

We wasted no time getting started …

In just 30 minutes I had explained everything to Chris and his eyes just lit up – He said “It can’t be this easy, can it ?”

I answered “Yup and I’ve made over $60,000 using the exact same system.”

I then started to show Chris how to set up everything, writing it down step by step and he soak in every detail.

I told him all he needed was about 10 – 30 business cards to start and all he’d be doing is creating a simple yet amazing new marketing technique to help people re-distribute their business cards and make tons of cash in the process …

And the beauty of this business is that he wouldn’t have to risk any of his own money to begin!

As he got up to leave, he looked at me and said – In a jokingly fashion “WOW if this really works, you can become a millionaire teaching people how to do this !”

I smiled and told him to call me in 30 days.

15 days later I got a call from Chris… He sounded serious – dead serious.

“James… I can’t believe it… it really WORKED!

I am at the bank right now and just finished depositing the checks into my bank account.”

I quickly asked … “How much are you depositing” – I was stunned to hear his answer, in just 2 weeks, Chris was able to deposit $1823.00 into his bank account.

“James … I owe you buddy. It worked just like you said it would – all I did was set up the business and the money started rolling in. It’s like magic!”

And then, for the first time ever – I heard my friend Chris start to cry.

Through his tears, he told me all about the financial problems he and his wife had… how he was up to his eyeballs in debt… how he begged his boss to work overtime just to pay his bills on time. He felt trapped and – worse still – he didn’t see a way out.

It seemed my small business idea had opened up a new world for my best friend – and changed his life forever.

In fact… only 30 days after that conversation… working less than three hours a day… Paul had earned an ASTONISHING…

$4,675.00 His First Month Using My Blueprint

Needless to say, I didn’t owe him dinner – in fact, he took me out to celebrate.

During those first few months Chris and I stayed in touch. He didn’t really have any questions about the business system – it was pretty easy stuff to follow – but going from debt-ridden to cash-rich in such a short time was kind of mind boggling.

Trust me – when you create thousands of dollars a month in passive income… you need someone close to share your thoughts.

One day while we were talking, he brought up the topic of teaching this business system and helping others like ourselves get out of debt …

Rather than keep this secret blueprint to ourselves, we should share this incredibly powerful money making opportunity with a select few people… people who are ready to take CONTROL of their lives and start earning real cash for years to come – guaranteed.

For the next several weeks Chris and I continued to refine my blueprint until it was – excuse my language – damn near perfect.

The approach was simplicity itself… We wanted people to understand the blueprint and get started right away.

We spent weeks testing each step to make sure it was the shortest distance possible to profits.

Chris and I documented every step …

We wrote down step-by-step instructions on how to start the business, how to start with no money, how to start with just the business cards around the house … We documented everything !

And so … The Business Card Secret Blueprint was born.

Here’s what some people who have recently used my system are saying ..

“Really Awesome” The Business Card Secret Blueprint takes a simple business idea using business cards and turns it into a successful money making opportunity. I get paid every month just by helping people gain more exposure with their business cards. One of the best ways to make money I’ve ever come across. I make over $3700.00 every month.

Andy Fernandes, Detroit, Michigan

“It Saved My Life” I had letters from collection agency and collectors calling me almost everyday. My house was about to be foreclosed and I literally needed a miracle. I bumped into a friend one morning and told him about my situation. He took me out for breakfast and taught me The Business Card Secret Blueprint. With his help I started that afternoon and within 2 weeks I was able to save my house from being foreclosed … I can’t say enough good things about this business.

David Greene, Seattle, Washington

“So Fast And Easy” I never knew business cards could be used to make money this way. It was so simple to learn and I didn’t need to use any of my own money to start. Almost every person I approached loves using this business idea to promote their business cards. So far I’ve earned about $2500.00 a month in my spare time.

Valerie Chan, Fullerton, California

“The Easiest Way To Make Money” After reading the Business Card Secret Blueprint I was very impressed on how everything was so easy to follow. The step by step blueprint was easy to understand and only took about 30 minutes to read. It took us a few weeks to get up and running, and now the business practically runs itself. It’s been only 4 months and we are making $3755.00 every month.

Todd and Martha Mitchell, Toronto, Canada

“A True Blessing” I’m a single mother with a full time job, yet barely getting by with what I was making. I was searching for an online business idea and I came across this business card home business system. After reading the blueprint I decided to give it a try on weekends, within a few days I had people calling me to use my service. The blueprint teaches you step by step on how to make money right away. $1370.00 is what I made in my first month, and that was just working on weekends.

Rachel Jordan, Sarasota, Florida

“Wow Unbelievable” When my wife purchased The Business Card Secret Blueprint I was very skeptical at first, but once I read the blueprint, I knew it was truly different from the other small business opportunities I had tried before. This business card secret really works, a great way to earn extra cash and so far my wife and I use the extra income to pay off the mortgage on our new house. I can’t think of an easier way of making money using such an abundant resource. I currently make $5135.00 a month.

Alex Pathagos, Greensboro, North Carolina

So What Is The Business Card Secret Formula And How Does It Work ?

For years and years people have been printing and passing out business cards. But the only way to do so was by individually handing it out from one person to another.

Well what if you could do it differently ?

What if you can take people’s business cards and generate more exposure with it while eliminating the traditional means of hand to hand distribution.

Well my system takes the business cards of businesses, entrepreneurs and working professionals and assists them in distributing their business cards to hundreds of potential customers, gaining more exposure and adding new clients.

In the process making over $5000.00 a month for yourself !

What’s great about this system is that you’re not being asked to re-invent anything new, with my system you can follow a step by step business that can be set up quickly and start making money right away.

5 Steps To Making $5000 A Month … !!!

Step 1: After reading my Business Card Secret Blueprint, set up the business from your home by following the step-by-step business blueprint.

Step 2: Look for business cards around the house or approach people with business cards in your area, such as Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Car Salesman, Real Estate Agents, Plumbers etc. (There are hundreds of people with business cards for you to choose from.)

Step 3: Use the simple strategy in the Secret Blueprint to help people leverage their business cards to gain more exposure and attract more clients on a monthly basis.

Step 4: Collect a monthly fee from the people using your incredible, one of a kind business card service.

Step 5: Sign up 10 – 40 people to start your business. (10 ppl will generate an income of around $1000 a month and 40 ppl will generate around $5000 a month.)

It’s that simple !

And The Best Part … You Don’t Need Any Money To Start !

As I mentioned earlier, when I first started, I was completely broke, no money to pay bills let alone start a business, but my idea was too good to pass up. So refusing to give up, I came up with a creative technique to do this business without using any money to begin.

No Money !

Imagine that … I made $5125.00 my first month without having to spend a single penny, and I am happy to share that secret with you in my blueprint so you can copy and use the exact same method to get started without using any of your own money !

My unique No Money Business System is the only program out there that allows you to start a small business for yourself and generate a real monthly income fast without needing any money to begin.

Take note, this is not a “Get Rich Quick” or “Multi Level Marketing” business, nor is it an Internet gimmick that you’ve seen on TV …

This is legitimate, part time or full time business for students, unemployed individuals, stay at home parents, single parents, people looking for an extra income to generate an extra $5000.00 a month income, Every Single Month !

Imagine the financial security you can create with an extra $5000.00 a month … You can use the money to cover your mortgage or rent, pay off your credit cards, loans, tuition, medical and insurance bills. You can put the money towards your children’s education or down payment towards a house.

All this is possible with just a handful of business cards you have lying around in your desk and in your rolodex right now !

So how can you get your hands on my business card money making blueprint and start making over $5000.00 a month right away …

Watch This 2 min Video

Here’s What The Secret Blueprint Will Show You

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  How you can easily attract people with business cards. I will teach you an easy way for people to automatically come to you and give you money every month.

  Secret tips on how to explode your business within the first month. Use the inside tips in my blueprint and follow the same path as I used to make my business a success.

  How everything works in just 30 minutes. Half an hour is all it takes to learn the business and never have to worry about money ever again.

It Only Takes 2 Minutes To Download A Copy Of The Blueprint