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miss-kittys-magical-library · 4 years

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The Ides Of March

(A Darren Treacy x Jeanie Turner mini-series)

Prologue - Bad Romance

Word Count: 1815

Warnings: language, violence, murder, mention of sexual assault, angst

A/N: On Saint Patrick's Day, Darren and Jeanie start receiving ominous, cryptic text messages claiming to be from the future. Play the game; save Darren. Jeanie's rules are simple enough: If Dazz can catch her out in Dublin, he can have her any way and anywhere he wants. So how did a night of wild sex and whiskey lead to murder? *Spoilers for Love/Hate series 3*

Sequel to “The Sinner’s Prayer” Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

There are tiny moments that contain millions of choices we all make. It's not a choose your own adventure; there's not always time to think cohesively. Add in copious amounts of liquor and sex and a person may become impulsive. As Jeanie cocked the gun pointed in Nidge’s direction, she found herself in the middle of one of those flip-of-the-coin situations.

She followed every hint, every cryptic text from a burner phone that was meant to prevent this exact instant. But the vile leader of an IRA faction lay slowly dying from internal injuries at her feet. Siobhan, softly sobbing hid her face in Tommy’s shoulder. Darren, behind her, still held the keg by the handle. Nidge was the only one who could square up. He was pacing like a trapped animal, enraged and seething. Jeanie never faltered in her aim.

“We're done here, Delaney,” the words came out distorted. “Right now. This was a nice night. I saw a great concert. I drank loads of fucking liquor. I have had more sex in the last few hours than I have in the last few years. I literally got eaten out in a pub loo. I'm getting divorced, and if Trish was smart she'd get a divorce too.”

“Red-” Darren tried.

Jeanie spun on him, the gun pointed too close for either’s comfort. Darren’s eyes like a deer in headlights. “I'm not losing you. I'm not letting this life eat anymore of you. Siobhan already paid the price.”

“Just put the gun down please. I'm only trying t’put him out, love. Look at the bastard.”

“It's a butterfly effect, Dazz. You're already too much for them.” Tears threatened Jeanie’s eyes.

Darren put his hand on the muzzle of the gun cautiously and pointed it down to the floor. “What the fuck are ye talking about? Jeanie, you've been barking all night. Not that I don't appreciate the craic,” he smirked, “Or the shaggin’. The panic attack when we walked through the door earlier. How did ye know about Git?”

Jeanie fished in her cleavage for her mobile and tossed it to Darren. He opened it up and used his own for comparison. He studied the texts on both screens with confusion in his eyes.

“You've been getting them too, right?”

“But how?”

Only Darren and Jeanie existed right now. And the soft gurgling of Git as he drowned in his own blood. The choked crying of a young woman who had been assaulted. They were alone, but aware. So deeply aware of their situation.

“Oh please, can ye even fire a fucking gun?” Nidge’s voice broke through.

Jeanie whirled again, her arm around the side of Darren's friend. It was all fluid. Her arms moved with resistance like underwater. The gun aimed somewhere towards the back of the basement or front. No one was sure. It was just where she pointed the gun and pulled the trigger.

One by one dominos topped in a new pattern. Siobhan screamed, but the sound was deafening so her panic was muted. The gun kicked back causing Jeanie’s elbow to vibrate. Almost like someone checked her reflexes with a small hammer. A burst of concrete where the bullet hit a wall, and Darren dropped the keg with an even louder crash.

In Nidge’s terror, he went to flee from Jeanie's bullet . His entire weight landed on Git’s face. Nidge’s trainer came down with a sickening crunch like a knife in butter. Git’s face was the butter. The gurgle ceased.

The last domino fell. Jeanie dropped the weapon to her side and staggered backwards into Darren’s arms. He tried to take the gun but she jerked it away.

Instead he switched gears and mumbled nonsensical words of comfort. “I've got yous.” and “Jeanie, it'll be ok” She stared up at him as a tremble rolled through her. Darren put his hand on her face and sort of started fixing her hair. Then, with a turn of her head, Jeanie vomited absolutely everywhere.

“Lovely. Just fucking lovely,” Nidge said. “Typical Americans.”

Darren held Jeanie by the arms and bent to look her in the eye. “Alright, sweetheart? Nidge and Tommy and I have t’ take care of this. Why don't ye call Laura or Ewan, and have them come get the pair of ye. Siobhan too? Get her cleaned up and get some sleep. Crash at my gaff, ok?”

Jeanie was numb. Catatonic almost as Darren and Tommy formed a circle. Their heads literally together as they attempted a plan.

Jeanie straightened her back and made her way to Siobhan who held herself tightly. Like she was trying to fade into the background. She put her arms around the young woman who started with a jump but relaxed into Jeanie. The gun finally out of her hands and on the desk beside them.

“Here's what we're gonna do, ok? Do you want me to call Trish or Mary? You aren't gonna clean yourself or even pee. We're gonna take you to hospital. They'll clean you up and take samples. Then we can get you some tea and a warm shower and a nice bed. Dazz has a nice bed. Then I'll get Layton, and bring him to you. That sound good?”

Siobhan nodded softly in agreement, but her uncle wasn't having it. He shoved Darren and Tommy aside to bellow at the two women huddled in the corner together. His finger pointed in Jeanie’s face.

“She’s not gonna do a goddamn thing you say. You're gonna sit right here while Uncle Nidge and the boys clean up this bitch’s mess.”

There was not a single thought that went through Jeanie's head. Was this how Darren's brain was wired to live this lifestyle? Just react and pay for it later while you're trying to live until the next job.

But she was done, she knew that much. Done being left behind. Treated like she was the good little obedient housewife. Having men tell her what she can and can't do. Shut up, sit still and be a good girl. But open your legs. It was being done that caused her to hold the gun up again and point the barrel to Nidge's forehead.

“Darren doesn't work for you anymore, Nigel. Tommy, you can stay here or you can take care of your wife. No one owes him any loyalty.”

“Come on, I didn't mean bitch. We just have to fix it. Then you and Treacy can do whatever.”

Jeanie cocked the gun again until it clicked, “No. You can call Elmo or Fran. Can't call Aido can you? Seeing as you got him shot. Dazz gave you a lung, the love of his life, his sister and his fucking mind. He's not giving you or this bullshit anything else.”

“Red-”

Jeanie swung the gun on Darren without thinking. He flinched and ducked, But she kept her wits about her. She aimed the gun at Nidge once more.

“Dazz, take your shoes off,” she instructed.

“What?”

“You're standing in this cunt’s blood. Take your trainers off and leave them. Socks too, and stand behind me. Then text Ewan and tell him to meet us here with a car. We're going to your flat, then my hotel to pack our bags after we shower and set these clothes on fire. Then we are getting all of our money, our passports and our IDs. Say goodbye to Mary and the girls, and we are going away. Tibet. Phuket. Bali. I don't give a fuck, but we’re flying first class.”

Darren complied. Jeanie couldn't believe it. They shared a look. She couldn't tell if it was relief or the devil in his blazing green eyes, but she was emboldened by it as she bent to take off her own boots. Her focus on Nidge never faltered.

“Ewan said he'll be here in ten or so. Are you sure this is what you want to do?”

“I'm not above shooting this bastard in the head for you, Dazz. I'm not saying we are settling down and having babies and happily ever after or some shit. I'm saying I don't want you to die. If we have to run half way around the world to make that happen..” Jeanie's body started to quiver. The adrenaline was running out. “First I need a Bloody Mary and some French Toast.”

-------

Jeanie exhaled for the first time in nearly 24 hours. The exhaustion finally set in as she laid back in the ridiculous bed chair thing from“upper class.” She and Darren were beyond first class, they were elite now. Even if it was only for the twelve hours it took to get to Thailand.

She could see his far too short hair sticking out on the other side of the wall. She knew at one point he would sneak in to be with her if only for a little while. Jeanie made him look a bit nicer than his typical trainers and hoodies and denim. She was in a sundress herself. They both knew dressing up was not fitting in. Neither felt they fit in here.

“You good, Dazz?”

“I t’ink so. Still trying t’figure out how we went from shagging in coat rooms and back rooms and toilets to watching an IRA boss,” Darren raised his eyes, “to being on this plane. We have forty.. Enough money to live, maybe years where we're going.”

“You couldn't keep living that life, Darren. Nidge was off his fucking rocker, and everyone around him is gonna pay for it.”

“Rosie would've never done this, you know that right?” He looked plaintively over at Jeanie as she climbed up onto her knees.

“Her loss is my gain though. I know you love me, but I'm not sure about my own feelings. I do care about you alot. I'm probably a danger junkie, so we could end up bored of each other without the fear of being caught or you not having any jobs. Or you could wear colors and learn to meditate, and I'll get a pet monkey and cut all my hair off.”

“Don't ye dare!” Darren laughed. “I'll become a Buddhist, just don't cut that hair.” He twisted his fingers up in it before reaching up to kiss her sweetly. Just a hint of his tongue.

“Fine,” Jeanie rolled her eyes. “But I still want a monkey. We should get some sleep.”

They kissed one last time before she laid back down and closed her eyes. Jeanie knew Darren would be on his side when he would begin to dream. His hand tucked under his cheek and head, mouth slightly agape. She pictured it in her head as she drifted off herself.

“How DID we get here?” she thought before dreaming herself of a game that started in sex but ended in murder.

Tag list: @sean-falco @robertsheehanownsmyass @nightmonsters @super-unpredictable98 @elliethesuperfruitlover @slutforrobbiebro @frogs--are--bitches @forenschik @bisexualnathanyoung @sugdenyoung

#robert sheehan #darren treacy #love/hate #darren x jeanie #robert sheehan character fics

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alloftheimaginesblog · 4 years

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Be Both {John Murphy x Plus Size Reader}

Plot: Requested by anon: You get bullied for your weight when you’re sent down with the 100 to the ground and it’s John Murphy who steps in to defend you.

Characters: John Murphy x Plus Size Female Identifying Reader

Part of my Plus Size Reader x Character series!

Earth was everything you expected and more. It was so vibrant and freeing; so noisy and aromatic in the best way possible. You still couldn’t quite believe that you were all surviving thus far. Sure, you landed the previous day and had only been on Earth for twenty four hours but it was amazing. Falling asleep to the sounds of the wind was something you never expected before.

The camp buzzed around you, people falling into place with jobs easily. You had taken to cooking and preparing meals; it was hard considering there hadn’t been a lot of animals caught for meat but there was plenty of rice, beans and herbs to go around. Clarke Griffin had asked if you wanted to help hunt but you turned it down thinking it best if you stayed away from that sort of thing. You didn’t really know how and to be honest, you didn’t really want to learn.

You’d been gutting one of the fish that were caught when you heard someone mutter from behind you, “No wonder she wanted to cook, she’s eating all our rations.” You froze, completely stiffening up.

The other boy scoffed, “Yeah, by sending her down, the Ark is probably three tonnes lighter than it was.”

Tears burned at your eyes as you listened to them blatantly talk about you right behind your back, comparing you to animals and sea creatures, saying that you would make the Ark lighter by leaving, that you wanted to work with the food so that you could eat it all and they were just being completely horrible, disgusting and immature boys.

You hadn’t realised that you weren’t the only one who heard the two. John Murphy, who had been tipping the fish out the buckets onto your table, heard them too. He heard the vile comments they were making about you and it made his blood run hot. Now, you and Murphy were by no means close, you wouldn’t even say you were friends anymore. You had been friends long ago. Growing up next to each other and being neighbours practically forced the two of you to be friends. When you hit around fourteen, you drifted as Murphy slotted into a different crowd than you did. You’d had a massive crush on Murphy growing up until he had made friends with some idiots and made a comment about your weight when you were fourteen. Murphy had regretted it ever since. It was a comment made to impress two jerks who he learned to hate pretty soon afterwards but you never spoke to him again. You never acknowledged him.

You’d always been relatively heavy and on the plus size side of the scale. It wasn’t the end of the world that you had extra weight but to some people, it was the thing they’d use to taunt you. They’d mock you, call you names and that’s what John Murphy did that one time which ruined your friendship. People would make fun of your weight because it was easy to notice and realise ‘oh hey, she’s fat let’s bully her’. It wasn’t clever or funny and the insults they taunted you with were never very creative but it didn’t mean it didn’t hurt; especially when it’s your best childhood friend pulling the figurative trigger.

You sniffed as you silently let the tears fall. You didn’t want to give them the satisfaction of knowing that they’d upset you so you stayed with your back turned, gutting the fish through blurry eyes. Murphy glanced over at you, rage coursing through his veins as he saw that you were upset and he had had enough.

With a yell of ‘that’s enough!’, he slammed the bucket down, fish spilling onto the grass. You jumped, turning to see Murphy with his fists clenched by his sides. Of all of the people to step in and defend you, you truly had not been expecting it to be John Murphy. He towered over the two boys who just raised their eyebrows and held up their hands, “You sticking up for her, Murphy?” One mocked, “Never knew you were a sucker for whales-”

Murphy didn’t want to listen to that whiny, arrogant little bastard anymore and instead, he punched him on the nose. The boy yelled out, falling to the floor, causing a few people to rush over, “That’s what you deserve!” Murphy hissed, “You’re disgusting saying that about one of the only people here that deserve anything good.” You watched in shock as blood gushed from the boy’s nose. He stared at Murphy with wide, terrified eyes.

“Back off, Murphy!” The other said, holding his hands up.

“Apologise.” Murphy’s voice was a growl but the intimidation it caused was wild.

“We’re sorry!”

“Not to me, to (y/n)!”

The boys looked at you, “We’re sorry! We didn’t mean it!”

“Now, scram!” Murphy sneered as the boys scuttled away. A large crowd had formed around you all and Murphy rolled his eyes, “Nothing to see folks, move along!”

All you could do was stare at Murphy as he forced the bystanders to move away and leave you all alone. He turned to you, sniffing and wiping his face, before looking at you. Neither of you spoke as you maintained eye contact for a few seconds longer than you should have. Quickly, you turned away, too flustered to say anything. Murphy began to gather the fish back into the bucket. Why had Murphy stepped in? Murphy had been saying the same stuff nearly four years ago so... why was he putting his foot down now?

Curiosity got the better of you because you knew that Murphy wouldn’t say anything now so you had to ask, “Why?” You asked him, turning to him, “Why would you stand up for me when you said all that stuff when we were fourteen?”

Murphy knew the question was coming but he was still nervous when you eventually did ask it. He didn’t reply for a minute, he could feel you eyes burning a hole into the side of his head. You pressed him again, “John?”

He scoffed out a laugh, “No one calls me John.”

“I always have.”

“You’re the only one.”

“Why did you defend me when you said all that stuff to me years ago?” You asked again.

Murphy sighed, “You know I didn’t mean that stuff. I still feel bad about it.” Your eyebrows furrowed and he continued to explain, “I didn’t mean it. I was a stupid kid, c’mon, you know how stupid I was back then-” it was true, he was a pretty stupid kid growing up for he always managed to get into trouble, “-I thought that in order to make friends, I had to be cool and edgy and be like them. Turns out I was just being a jerk.”

You appreciated his honesty and that he knew he had done you wrong, “Thank you.”

“Every day since, I’ve felt bad about it. I carry this guilt with me and I know I act tough but I do hate myself for what I did to you. You were my best friend and I ruined it. I’m sorry.”

You looked down at the table, “It hurt, you know. I was fourteen and was going through a lot of changes and weight fluctuations and you knew how insecure I was about my weight; how insecure I’ve always been and yet you bullied me because of it. I remember exactly what you said and how you said it. You weren’t John anymore that day, that’s when you became Murphy.”

Murphy was taken back by the brutality of your words. He puffed out a breath but didn’t speak. You asked once more why he stepped in to stand up for you, “You don’t deserve any of that bullshit. You’re one the kindest people I’ve met. You’re beautiful and they were talking about you like shit.”

You shook your head, “I’m not beautiful. Look at me, I’m hideous. I’m fat.”

“What’s wrong with being fat?” Murphy asked you, “Being skinny, fat, average or whatever doesn’t determine a person’s beauty or a person’s worth. You could be skinny and be the shittiest person ever; you’d be ugly then. You could have red skin and spiders for eyes and have your personality and I’d still consider you beautiful.”

You rolled your eyes, “John-”

“No, I’m being serious, (y/n),” he said, “Who care what you’re body looks like? Those two were complete dicks and I’ll make sure they pay for upsetting you. Don’t give me that bullshit of ‘I can’t be beautiful because I’m fat’. You can be fat and beautiful; you can be plus size and beautiful. You don’t have to be just one, you can be both. Stop letting their opinions matter to you. I treated you like shit before, I’m a dick for doing that and trust me, I know, but please don’t let them affect you anymore. It’s your body, not theirs.”

“Be both beautiful and fat?” You asked him, “I don’t feel beautiful. I never have.”

Murphy sighed, “You remember when we snuck out of that English exam when we were twelve?”

“And we went to find the best view of Earth,” you nodded, “I remember.” It was one of your favourite memories actually.

“You were looking at Earth saying how beautiful it was. Your smile...” Murphy smiled slightly, “That’s the first time I really realised you were beautiful.” Your face softened as he spoke, “That’s when I realised I liked you.”

“Liked me?”

Murphy breathed a laugh, “Seems like a lifetime ago... Yeah... I thought you knew I had this massive crush on you and then I went and ruined everything. Hell, I still think I like you.” Your cheeks burned as he said that, he still liked you? After all this time?

“If it makes you feel any better, I had a massive crush on you too.”

“Actually, that makes me feel worse.” You laughed slightly at his statement and he cracked a smile. You found yourself smiling at him, enjoying a moment together. It was nice. It felt like you were kids again, running around the Ark playing games and looking for meteors. You missed it; you missed him. Yeah, he had hurt you badly but you could see the regret in his eyes, you saw the honesty he had when he was telling you that you were beautiful. You knew that he was sorry and he truly didn’t mean it.

“I forgive you,” you said after a pregnant pause, “for saying that stuff.” Murphy nodded, unsure of what to say, “So please, stop carrying that about with you. You’re different now. You stood up for me and defended me, that says a lot.”

Murphy nodded again, giving you a small smile, “You can be both, remember. You don’t have to just be one. You can be a lot of things. You have to remember that your beauty and self worth isn’t just about what’s on the outside.”

You thanked him before falling into silence. It was a few minutes later when you said, “If you’re not busy, I could use help with these fish...”

Murphy smiled but quickly hid it, “Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I’ll help you.” He grabbed his knife from his pocket and began to help you. You glanced at him as you worked beside each other in silence.

“John?”

“Yeah?”

“You’re beautiful too, you know.”

#john murphy x reader #john murphy #john murphy the 100 #john murphy x plus size reader #john murphy x y/n #reader insert #the 100 #the 100 one shot #the 100 reader insert #100 #john murphy one shot #john murphy os #murphy the 100 #one shot #os #plus size series

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grivessillus · 3 years

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Peter Rabbit 2 The Runaway

I love Beatrix Potter.

This film hurt my brain and heart. I feel sad and disturbed.

It's like being bludgeoned by a fish. With dice on, made of hallucinagens.

Peter Rabbit 2 The Runaway

Why. Just why. Why does that film exist.

It's destroys every single one of Beatrix Potters characters.

It's like everyone is holding the Idiot Ball.

Peter has no moral compass, apparently. And Bea lacks artistic integrity.

Peter and everyone else in the animals, has gone from knowing he and they was being bad. Stealing bad. Garden fenced off. Mr McGregors property. It's stealing. Bad things happen to animals who steal from the garden. He still tries to. But he is also aware of the consequences and that it's not good.

To not recognizing crime several levels worse than stealing food.

Bea has gone from being high in integrity. To bending to a publishers will.

It's like several films crammed together. Badly.

It doesn't know what the fuck it is! Full cartoon action. Meta shit. Story of learning to love each other as a family. And more. Fucking pick one!

Go family and action. The meta shit can go die. Pointless useless, ugly, pretentious, very very stupid, waste of everyones time.

Why do the girl rabbits sound so low and loud?

Why is no one right?!

I don't think Barnabas is from the stories at all.

Even if some characters were villains, etc, in the books. They were never that bad.

Mr Todd is the worst one I think. And he's not bad there.

He's gone from trying to eat Jemima Puddleduck and her eggs. To using exercise to stop his instinct to kill.

Mrs Tiggywinkle has gone from a sweet hedgehog to some kind of roguish flirt.

Tom Kitten was naughty. But not creepy and wierd. And Mittens was not bad at all. There she is the leader. Holy frag grenades! That is just wrong.

Tommy Brock the Badger wasn't stupid.

Samuel Whiskers displays some signs of a actual, coherent, character. Not right. But he's had work put in.

For frags sake! Just have them talk! Stop dithering round!

They talk in the books!

Some of the things that bother me most.

That is not how you keep pets.

What the frag was with the triplets somehow skydiving onto Thomas's back without being attached.

The very few good parts.

Thomas running off screaming ow, when he rescues Tiggywinkle. I laughed a tiny bit.

Samuel Whiskers signs of a personality.

Benjamin Bunny looks cute.

Mr Todd exercising.

There's a happy life for everyone.

That's it.

The worst.

Most of it.

The worst. The utter abomination that is playing Peter Rabbit.

I loathe and despise James Corden. He is vile, obnoxious, and talentless.

He makes anything with Peter in unwatchable. If he's not talking, you still hate him. He destroys every scene when he speaks.

Why did they pick him?! He's completely wrong! There is a entire 4 countries in, and more, in the United Kingdom. There has got to be a actor somewhere better than that bastard!

Some of the CGI is a bit iffy.

Please. Stop making these films.

Just make a straightforward cartoon.

They're destroying the books. It's hideous.

#peter rabbit 2 the runaway #peter rabbit

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blog-sliverofjade · 4 years

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Hearth Fires 6: Animals

Pairing: Remi Denier x OFC

Summary: Lorel Maddox just wants to live as a human, run her bakery in peace, and forget. Unfortunately, the alpha of the local leopard pack has very different ideas.

Remi Denier doesn’t know what to make of the female Changeling who wants nothing to do with him or the RainFire pack. He does know that he has a driving need to protect her. Even if it’s from herself.

While they’re embroiled in a battle of wills, there’s a war brewing on the horizon. The outside threat could not only destroy everything they hold dear, but tear apart the fragile new bonds of the Trinity Accord, plunging the world into bloodshed to rival the Territorial Wars of centuries past.

Word count: 1691

Content warning: Racist cop

Hearth Fires Masterlist

Beta read by the matchless pandabearer

The officers eased up when they realized that Lorel was in 100% human form, which was a short and plump one, at that; someone had told her once that in her pretty dresses she looked about as dangerous as a cupcake. Appearances certainly were deceiving, after all, since she could probably do significant damage to the woman currently carrying on outside. While the thought was definitely tempting, she knew she wasn’t fast enough to get past four cops before they could take her down. That was her cat’s risk assessment, not hers. She was still frozen in shock.

Looking like they’d stepped into The Twilight Zone , they lowered their weapons. She felt the same way, her brain trying to wrap itself around the presence of Enforcement in her bakery for anything other than coffee and donuts.

One stepped forward to ask her some questions and she answered truthfully. The absurdity of the situation and their authoritative tone had her operating mostly on autopilot while she focused on keeping her ocelot under control. The cat bared its teeth at the intruders, wanting to drive them off its territory.

It quickly became obvious that the snotty woman had reported that Lorel had threatened and stalked her down the street. Naturally, she was more than happy to disabuse them of that falsehood.

“Would you like to see the camera footage?” she offered.

Three of the quartet followed her, the other went to question the other party. She only used the small office off the kitchen to meet customers with large custom designs like wedding cakes. Usually, she placed orders from her organizer while having tea or a bite to eat at one of the tables on the sidewalk out front, although that would probably change soon with the weather.

The portable device was perfectly capable of displaying the CCTV feed, but the screen in the back was larger. She slipped behind the desk and tried not to feel claustrophobic with the black-clad officers filling the rest of the tiny space between her and the door. Their scents filled the room, making it hard for her to breathe.

Lorel closed the sketches she’d been working on to bring up the video. There was no sound, but it was plain from their body language that the blonde was the aggressor. She’d been too shocked at the time to note the other woman’s belligerent stance and excessive gesticulations. As for herself, she looked like someone had smacked her across the face with a fish. She had only moved to grip the counter once the vile words had sunk in, trying to keep from leaping over the counter. Thankfully she never actually lunged for her throat.

The trio relaxed as they watched, alternately annoyed, exasperated, disgusted, and resigned. Not that much of their emotions showed on their faces; it was their scents that gave them away. A part of her brain filed that realization away to freak out over later.

Once the video caught up to when the cops entered, she hit pause. They asked more questions, most of which washed over her without fully registering in her mind. She was still reeling emotionally, and her cat was too on edge over the strange predators. A couple of lips pursed, and she thought she caught an eye roll when she got to the part that had been the last straw and she kicked the blonde out. Their obvious distaste at the false report had her cat easing down a bit, giving her room to breathe.

“Thank you, miss.”

Now that she was no longer fighting the all-encompassing urge to attack, she noted the name on his uniform. Sugiyama. They’d introduced themselves once they realized she wasn’t even armed with so much as a spatula, but she’d been too off-balance to absorb the information at the time.

“Maddox. Lorel Maddox.” They responded automatically to the ritual of etiquette when she offered a handshake. She smiled, careful to not flash any more teeth than absolutely necessary. While they appeared genial now, she still didn’t want to give them an excuse to think that she was threatening them in the enclosed space. Her cat didn’t like being crowded in there at all and she was afraid of how it’d react if subjected to any more stress. “Would ya’ll like a copy of the video?”

“No, I don’t think that’ll be necessary,” Sugiyama, apparently the senior officer since he’d been doing most of the speaking, shook his head. “The sheriff will want to speak with you, though.”

Moving out of sheer habit, she escorted them to the front where she plied them with samples and coffee. Her hands shook as she went through the motions. She knew that not all such interactions between Changelings and Enforcement went so peacefully. Was that what she’d intended? She thought she was going to be sick.

Her cat wanted to hunt her down and rip her throat out.

Invisible bugs crawled across Remi’s skin. He flexed his foot a little harder on the pedal and the vehicle responded readily with a burst of speed that pressed him back against the seat. He could have set it to autopilot once he’d reached the highway, but the safety protocols would’ve kept him at the speed limit and he didn’t have time for that. The clock on the dash told him that he’d received Chloe’s call merely eleven minutes ago, yet it felt like hours.

They’d thus far managed to squeak by without any run-ins with Enforcement, and now he had to intervene on behalf of someone who wasn’t even a packmember yet. Local Enforcement was almost purely human, with the odd Psy here and there. Most of the Psy brass from the Council days had been cleaned out. Rainfire hadn’t had enough dominants, even if they’d been interested, to spare to the force since they were no longer barred from the ranks.

After the abuses of the Psy under Silence, the human-dominated city Enforcement distrusted anyone who wasn’t entirely human. The fall-out of this encounter could impact racial relations in the area for years to come and it all hinged on a stubborn, unpredictable ocelot.

He pulled to a stop in front of the hardware store in record time. Cop cars clogged up the parking spaces in front of the bakery and yarn shop across the street.

“Jack’s just started questioning her,” Chloe called with a grimace from the alcove of her doorway. The way she wrapped her rainbow-coloured shawl tightly around herself made it sound more nefarious than a simple interview.

He grunted and nodded in thanks. He’d met the human woman a few times at her husband’s hardware store, so she knew he wasn’t considered chatty even on his more gregarious days and wasn’t likely to take offense at his response. But he had to get verbal. Fast.

Keeping to an easy stride (running headlong was only something hot-headed dominant juveniles did, he reminded himself), he focused on the voices drifting out the open door. He couldn’t remember the last time he was so grateful for his acute hearing.

“I just want to know what the problem is.” Sheriff Shank somehow managed to sound both friendly and patronizing. The ears of Remi’s leopard went flat against its head and it curled its upper lip in a sneer.

“She used a slur so I asked her to leave.” Lorel was clearly becoming exasperated. No cat tolerated condescension for long. Unfortunately, there were cops forming a loose cordon in front to block his way and he was not in the mood to play at being non-threatening.

“And what slur was that?”

“Animal.”

Remi had to stop and make nice with the cops when all he wanted to do was burst in there and crack la crâne de cette bibette.

“Don’t you people use that word? Talk about yourselves as cats and dogs?” The derision in his voice had claws shoving at Remi’s fingertips. It took every ounce of willpower to keep them in as he made small talk with the guards, working his way around to getting their version of the story.

“Wolves, there are no dog Changelings.” The drinks and treats in their hands had his leopard snorting; she’d all but tried to throw him out on his ear when he’d dropped by and then turned on the Southern belle grace full force when Enforcement descended. He wondered if she knew that he was loathe to see her hurt or if she didn't recognize the lethal threat he posed.

“So, what’s the difference between ‘animal’ and a specific animal?”

“Context. She accused me of taking jobs from humans.” It was nice to hear that icy tone directed at someone else instead of at him.

“You specifically?”

“Well, no, she-”

“So you kicked her out for expressing an opinion? Did you know her husband lost his job to one of you? Ever since ya’ll moved in work’s been hard to come by.” That was a load of shit. Some people had their panties in a twist because the timber industry was banned from RainFire lands, while conveniently ignoring the benefits to local businesses

“That’s no reason to call Enforcement, I certainly didn’t threaten her!”

The officers- Sugiyama, Norton, and Carter- made it plain that nothing had happened and that the sheriff was “just finishing up” with Lorelei.

“Predatory Changelings like you can be pretty scary.” Shank drew “pretty” out into nearly four syllables. “You should just be glad she wasn’t carrying. This is a stand-your-ground state.” It was all he could do to keep his eyes from going cat at the subtle threat.

“You’re saying a woman can come into my shop, scream and insult me, then shoot me if I look at her funny and it’s legal?”

“Sure, if she’s scared for her life.”

“But I didn’t do anything, I only asked her to leave!” From the corner of his eye, he saw her throw her hands in the air.

“See, that’s the problem with you folks, you’re just too aggressive.”

“Oh, you think this is aggressive?”

And that was his cue to enter stage right.

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theheavymetalmama · 6 years

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And now, some Unpopular Opinions!

Because at this point, why the hell not?

Iron Man was better than The Dark Knight

I am in no way, shape, or form suggesting that The Dark Knight is a bad movie. Far from it, in fact. It’s a damn good movie with some fantastic performances, a gripping story, and some of the best written characters and dialogue in the history of movie making. So is Iron Man the better movie? For one, it’s not so stuck up its’ own ass about its’ message. The Dark Knight is a lot of things and one of them is pretentious as fuck, come off as less of a love letter to Batman and more of a method of the director Chris Nolan showing how much he has nothing but contempt for superheroes and comic books in general. Iron Man, in contrast, embraces it and has fun with the idea of a guy who builds a mech suit and fights bad guys. There’s also the question of influence, and that right there is no contest. The Dark Knight influenced Batman; Iron Man influenced the entire movie industry.

Final Fantasy XV was a massive disappointment

I kind of feel bad for dunking on this game considering they just cancelled the last of the DLC. Then again the last of the DLC was going to expand on Lady “Show Up and Blow Up” Lunafreya and Aranea “I’m here and now I’m not” Highwind’s stories and now we’re not getting them and I’m still bitter as fuck for the director’s pathetic excuse for why a girl couldn’t attend the coming of age road trip, so all bet’s are off! Okay, the ladies getting shafted aside, there is a lot to like about Final Fantasy XV, but was it worth the tedious development time? No way in hell. The game looks good but like many open world games feels mostly lifeless and empty, and of the four main characters only one of them is likable and isn’t even playable in the game’s vanilla form. The story is a broken mess that requires other forms of media to fully grasp (dick fucking move there, Squeenix) and the summons coming at random times serves as more of an annoyance than anything, especially since they always seem to show up except during times when and where they’d be useful. It also doesn’t say good things about a company’s management when a game can sell millions of copies in record time as well as do gangbusters on downloadable content and then still manage to lose over 30 million dollars.

And for the record, let it be known that Noctis is far and away the whiniest and most emo protagonist in Final Fantasy history, which is saying something considering this is a series where one such protagonist’s entire character is being so jaded and world weary to the point that his name is the sound a crying baby makes, and he doesn’t whine and complain as much as Noctis does.

Just because you’re a cop or a soldier, that doesn’t automatically make you a good person

I’m in favor of police and law enforcement and even though I believe our military budget makes Caligula himself look frugal in comparison I do support our troops. Having said that, being a cop or a trooper doesn’t mean jack shit if the person under the uniform is a complete and utter scumbag, which happens more often than many care to admit. In fact some people, many people, become cops and soldiers not to protect and serve or out of a sense of honor and duty, but simply because they like making others miserable and want to do it for a living. There’s a reason songs about fighting the law and unflattering depictions of authority figures date back as far as authority figures have been a thing. Respect is earned, not given.

‘White Nationalist’ and ‘Nazi’ are the same things

Calling a Nazi a white nationalist is like calling somebody who abuses their spouse a rough lover. Stop beating around the bush and tell it like it is. Also, don’t debate Nazis, punch them. Punch them as hard as you fucking can. If they punch you back, punch them again, and again, and again until they either run away (which most of them do) or stop moving. Trust me, nobody is going to miss them. That goes double for the alt right. Oh, and speaking of which...

Far Cry 5 chickened out

As somebody who grew up in a dead gold mining community that was mostly Catholic, when the first trailer for Far Cry 5 came out I was stoked as hell for the chance to gun down religious fanatics and skinheads in a place in rural America that didn’t look all that different. Then the game came out and it was abundantly clear to anybody that something somewhere in the game was changed at the last minute. Some have argued that it was their intention from the get go, others claimed they didn’t want to alienate their core demographic. It doesn’t say nice things about your core demographic if you’re worried about depictions of white supremacist cultists scaring them away, but okay, fine. Then make a game that takes place during the decline of the Ku Klux Klan, or in a post World War II Europe where you hunt Nazi war criminals, or failing that make something akin to Black Dynamite or a wacky 70′s Kung Fu movie where everything is purposefully over the top and exaggerated, I don’t care! All your other games have you gunning down hordes of brown people, let people like me and my husband kill some skinheads god damn it!

If you still support Donald Trump after all the vile and abhorrent things he’s done, you’re a bad person

There’s no beating around the bush on this one. I don’t blame people who were swooned by this conman thinking he’d genuinely make a good president and have since regretted their decision. I have nothing but sympathy for them. No, I’m talking about the people who STILL trip over themselves to defend this vile, homophobic, delusions, misogynist, narcissistic bigot. Like when he called Nazis “very fine people,” or is still pushing for a stupid wall along our border that will be bested by two extension ladders and a pair of tin snips. The travel ban, the rollback on regulations that kept food insecure people fed, kids dying in his fucking concentration camps, yeah, no. He’s a treasonous scumbag who deserves to be locked in an 8x8 cell until he rots, and if you still support him then you can claim the top bunk.

Climate change is real and coal can fuck off

Coal is dead. Let it lay down and rot. What, coal is your only source of income in the area you live in? Then move somewhere else! You think I would have left my hometown if there were any opportunities other than timber, fishing, and tourist traps? Sorry, but the longer we stay in the past with coal the lesser we can look forward to a future where a planet can sustain human life. If we want our planet to live then coal needs to die.

No, the left isn’t “just as bad” as the right

This is a fucking gas lighting farce that immediately falls apart when put under scrutiny. Are there extremists and crazies on the left? Of course there are, but they’re entirely different beasts as those found on the right. The left is more of a “eat enough kale and you can talk to dolphins” or “sleep with crystals under your bed and you can see the future” kinds of crazy, whereas the right is more of the “kill all the queers and let the brown babies starve” kind of crazy. Oh, and to each and every single person who said “Clinton is just as bad as Trump,” y’all can cover your reproductive organs in honey and stick them in a mason jar filled with live bullet ants and tarantula hawks, you ignorant scare mongering shitheels!

“Captain Marvel doesn’t smile!”

So what? She’s a space Navy Seal, not a boy scout like Captain America or Superman; she’s not supposed to smile.

No, the ‘alt left’ doesn’t exist and Antifa aren’t the same as Nazis

Are Antifa breaking the law? Yes. Should they be held accountable for their actions? Yes. Are people who want to kill Nazis exactly the same as people who want to exterminate the Jews and subjugate anybody who isn’t white while wiping other people’s culture off the face of the Earth under an authoritarian rule? Hell to the no and “Antifa is just as bad as the Nazis” is right up there with “Vaccinations cause autism” and “the Earth is flat” on the scale of “If you believe this, you are STUPID.” If Nazis and white supremacists went unopposed they’d go around raping and murdering Jews and non whites until there were absolutely none of them left. You know Antifa would be doing if there weren’t any Nazis around? Sitting in their crappy apartments smoking weed, sipping craft beer, eating pizza, and laughing their asses off at 20 year old Saturday Night Live skits. Ooooooh, scary! Yes, Antifa are assaulting people and destroying public property and yes they should be held accountable for their actions. But I’m not going to pretend, even hypothetically, that Nazi apologist scumbags like Tucker Carlson having his door banged on or actual Nazis like Richard Spencer getting punched in the face is on the same playing field as babies being put in cages, innocent black people being murdered by cops, or Jews being put into ovens, you fucks!

New She Ra is better than Old She Ra and 80′s cartoons in general

If you don’t like the new She Ra and prefer the old one, fine, you do you, but don’t act like the original is “So much better” because it isn’t at all. The villains were jokes, the animation was beyond cheap, the characters all looked the same, there were stupid talking animal sidekicks, and the story went nowhere really fucking fast outside of “Bad guys are doing bad guy stuff, our heroes must stop them” because they were commercials to sell toys. Nothing more, nothing less. If the new She Ra isn’t your bag then that’s all well and good, but don’t be a stupid asshole about it, talking about how it wasn’t featured at PowerCon like it’s a big fucking deal when only sad dorks like us give a shit about conventions, or whine about how you’re being oppressed and censored because a 16 year old isn’t rocking 44DD’s, or talk about “CalArts style” like that’s a real goddamn thing. Oh yeah, and speaking of which...

“CalArts style” is not a thing

Shut the fuck up, no it isn’t. It’s a stupid, meaningless buzzword hurled at people who never fucking went to CalArts in the first place. If you’re perplexed as to why modern cartoons all look like Steven Universe, the simple fact is that cartoons are made predominantly for children and shows are made to be aesthetically pleasing to them. With shows like Adventure Time, Regular Show, Steven Universe, Star vs the Forces of Evil, and Gravity Falls being soaring success stories while shows like Young Justice, new GI Joe, and 2011 Thundercats ambitious failures, it’s obvious that formal abstractionist non angularity is in while aspirational human physical fitness is out, and a big reason the latter was even a thing in the first place is because they were toy commercials first and there were only so many variations on plastic molds to form the fucking action figures and because it was the 80′s and Arnold was the biggest star at the time.

“Star Wars: the Last Jedi” is a good movie and fanboys can eat bantha poodoo

I’ve heard all the reasons for why The Last Jedi is a bad movie and they’re all either stupid nitpicky bullshit or meaningless fanboy gripes. I could write an entire essay debunking those reasons point for point, like how the reason Holdo didn’t tell Poe a damn thing because no admiral would ever a tell a lowly grunt anything about their plan, especially after being demoted for being a hotheaded little fuckup. Or that Rey being related to Obi Wan or any previous Star Wars character didn’t happen because that would have been stupid and the definition of predictable. Or that the reason Akbar didn’t do the suicide run is because he’s a meme that the general audience doesn’t give a shit about and that there’s no way in Hell that the Mouse would allow a character named “Akbar” to do a suicide run. Or that Kylo Ren not being an intimidating villain is the whole point and that you’re supposed to hate him because he’s a petulant Darth Vader wannabe and a snake to boot. Or that the effectiveness of said suicide run, where Snoke came from, or the state of the Resistance by the end of the movie, or that any other so called ‘plot hole’ doesn’t matter because this is a movie about space wizards for children and paying obsessive attention to meaningless and pedantic details is exactly how we end up with stupid subplots in the Beauty and the Beast remake and Metropolis and Gotham City being across the river from each other! But the biggest one is Luke wasn’t portrayed as some Jedi Clint Eastwood (why fanboys want that eludes me; the EU did that a few times and they were all terrible) and that him exiling himself doesn’t make any sense.

Sorry, but no, Luke running off to a far and unreachable island makes perfect sense. For one, it’s kind of a thing that disgraced Jedi do, and for two, Star Wars is a fairy tale in space. All of the characters draw inspiration from characters and archetypes from fairy tales and fables of old, and the one Luke Skywalker resembles most (largely by design) is King Arthur. Think about it. Common boy who doesn’t know who his real parents are, meets an old wizard, gets a legendary sword, discovers he’s of noble lineage, tags along with a few colorful characters, goes on a quest that’s bigger than him and the life he knew, hits a few bumps down the road, and then eventually he saves the kingdom by overthrowing his father who once was a great man and a hero but gave in to power and corruption and became a dark reflection of his former self.

You will never unsee that.

Oh yeah, and remember how things turned out for King Arthur in the end? He started a whole new kingdom, he had a few good years, he grew arrogant, things started to fall apart, and suddenly he and everything he worked to build up were undone overnight by a younger, more vindictive relative. Disgraced, Arthur was whisked away to an unreachable island deep rooted in his own legend and mythology where he remained until Britain had fallen to darkness and needed him again. Now of course Britain as we know it has yet to see such a thing (we’ll see how Brexit turns out) but Luke did exactly that. And no, sorry fanboys, but The Last Jedi wasn’t a failure in any sense of the word. It grossed over a billion dollars, received critical praise, the DVDs and BluRays sold like hotcakes, and was adored by kids, teenagers, and young adults, the primary audience that Star Wars is for in the first place. And I don’t give a shit what the audience score on RT says, because for one aggregate sites are a blight on film criticism and we went from this;

“Batman v Superman and Suicide Squad are AMAZING, Rotten Tomatoes is biased and paid off by Disney!”

To this...

“Star Wars: the Last Jedi is TERRIBLE, Rotten Tomatoes says so!”

In just over a year. To say nothing of the fact that what you’re currently saying about The Last Jedi was also said about The Empire Strikes, and like ‘Empire’ twenty years from now people will look back on the fanboy outrage and say “Wow, what a bunch of babies.” And before the inevitable response...

“But Solo bombed because of The Last Jedi!”

Nooooo, Solo bombed because it came out right between Infinity War and Deadpool 2, was rife with development issues since day one of production, it was aimed overwhelmingly at fanboys obsessed with Star Wars deep lore answering questions that the general audience doesn’t give a shit about, nobody was even interested in the thing until the Lego Movie guys were signed on for a hot second, moviegoers aren’t currently hurting for cocky space cowboys...

...and because of the simple fact that it’s a solo movie about Han Solo...and it’s not 1995 and Harrison Ford isn’t in it. See, fanboys don’t realize that just because nerd and geek bullshit is mainstream now doesn’t mean that everyone is now a fanboy deep rooted in everything from where the characters are from to where they’re going, because when people say “I love Star Wars and Han Solo is my favorite character” what the vast majority of them mean is “Those movies with the space wizards and the laser swords are a lot of fun and Harrison Ford is a great movie star.” That’s it. That’s extent of why people like Han Solo. Sad dorks like us may care about stuff like where and when he got the Falcon, how he met Chewie, where the dice came from and all of that and more, but the general audience just wants to see Harrison Ford do cool shit in space. That’s it. To say nothing of the fact that nobody was even interested in the spinoffs in the first place. When Disney announced that they were making episodes 7,8, and 9 everyone went “Oh Hell yes, sign me up!” Then when they followed up with that they were also making spinoff movies about stuff that happened off screen or between movies the same audience was like “Oh...well that’s neat, I guess.”

And no, that stupid fanboy boycott had nothing to do with. Even the dude who started that petition to strike TLJ from canon admitted that he was in a bad place and that he was being stupid and angry, and I can promise you that all the shrieking dorks on Youtube are the buzzing of flies to Disney. If that crowd had any box office and movie making decision influence whatsoever, the next spinoff we’d see a trailer for would be “My Twi’lek Waifu: a Star Wars Story.”

PewDiePie is the worst thing to happen to video games this side of the gaming crash of 83 and he needs to fuck off

Yes, you read that right, and I don’t say that lightly. All sorts of terrible things have happened in the gaming industry since the gaming crash of 83. The console wars, the Atari Jaguar, the Philips CDi, Jack Thompson, the death of the Dreamcast, WoW, an entire console generation packed to the gills with homogenous gray and brown shooters with protagonists who all looked the fucking same, GamerGate, microtransactions, DLC abuse, the death of Maxis, an increasingly toxic fandom, “women are too hard to animate,” the degradation of E3 from a showcase of the biggest and bestest in gaming to a corporately sponsored circlejerk of self congratulatory backslapping and so much, much more.

I don’t care how much PewDiePie gives to charity, or how many fans he has, or how many people think he’s just the greatest, because he’s not. He’s an embarrassing, stupid asshole who constantly gets busted for making stupid racist jokes and by extension making his fans and everyone who has even the vaguest ties to the word ‘gamer’ look like stupid, racist assholes. He’s a corporate ass sucking apologist who gives exposure to anti Semites and racist wastes of space to his audience of mostly 10 to 15 year old boys, and he’s more terminally obnoxious than an Adderall addicted Pomeranian.

The day he posted his first video of him overreacting to a jump scare while making loud screeching noises on top of edgy rape jokes was the day the progress of “gaming as an art form” was shot between the eyes, placed in a box that was then filled with concrete, and thrown into the ocean. He’s a dumbass man child that’s making all of us look bad and he needs to take his millions worth of corporate sponsorships and fuck off forever into some dark, lonely corner of the Internet where he’ll never be seen or heard from again until an inevitable meltdown that lands him on an episode of Down the Rabbit Hole.

And that concludes this post. I’ll give my final thoughts tomorrow, and on Saturday I’m closing this account forever.

#unpopular opinion

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quakerjoe · 5 years

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Cuppa Joe: Conservatives- What they’ve become today.

The first Conservatives though evolving an opposable thumb was a dumb idea. They remained fish and are what we eat today because they were on the wrong side of history.

Conservatives thought coming down from the trees was a bad idea and fought it.

They thought mastering fire was a bad idea and they shunned it.

They thought the wheel was evil somehow and rallied against it because it took jobs away.

They thought animals were stealing their jobs.

That’s the mentality of the conservative.

In the British Colonies, they thought separating from Britain was a bad idea and fought and/or supported the British.

The same people were SO upset that slavery wasn’t going to be allowed in new states, they separated from the US (treason) and started the “Civil” War.

They were so weepy over their own party, the Democrats, not being racist and bigoted enough that they started their own shitty party- the Dixiecrats, who later defected over to the Republican party because the party was so afraid of losing votes that they began to cater to racism, bigotry, misogyny and all manner of deplorable fuckery that they used the bible to back them up on, leaving the Progressives of the formerly decent GOP to evacuate and take over the Democratic party because they ceased being the ones who were pro-slavery and anti-women. The “Party of Lincoln” LEFT the GOP and traded houses with the Democrats.

Conservatives’ greatest weapons are hypocrisy, delusion, and utterly hard-core selfishness because they have it in their closed mind that it’s what their bible tells them is right.

If you were to peel away “Democrat” and “Republican” from the history books and replace those words with “Conservative” and “Liberal/Progressive” instead, the story would be clear, concise, and overly consistent. Conservatives didn’t want a free nation, they wanted to remain part of Britain. Despite their whinging, what the Civil War was over was NOT state’s rights, it was to keep slavery LEGAL. Period. End of story. Loads of documents from the era show this; the legal documents explaining why each state left the Union to join the Confederacy all spell it out in fact that this was why.

Conservatives in the United States of Apathy are a varied bunch, but so are “Christians”. The adage “Not all Republicans are racist, but…” always comes into play. The GOP of today has a base solidly consisting of Nazis, the KKK, and all of their varied affiliations. Hate groups are not a thing of the Left (unless you go waaaaayy far to the left where it is minute compared to the AVERAGE righty).

The old guard of the GOP isn’t what it used to be. They’re today’s Democrats, yet again. Most of the Democrats in office today look quite like the GOP I grew up with. There IS nobody on the ACTUAL Left anymore. On the other hand, anyone in the GOP with any compassion, empathy, and truly “Christian”, already left the party and either joined the Democrats OR at the very least registered Independent.

Anyone still clinging to the GOP is simply vile, selfish, and outright evil. They have knowingly and willingly given a pass to Nazis. They gave a pass to the KKK. They give a pass to mass shootings. They give a pass to the civil liberties of ALL of us, specifically the Black community, Women, and the LGBTQ community. They’re giving a pass to the degradation of our health care system, education system, and our financial stability, not because they think they’re right. Even the dumbest right-wing mouth-breather knows better in most cases. No, they’re perfectly fine with watching the nation come to its knees, buckle, and in all likelihood, collapse and break apart, not because they are “patriotic”, but because they KNOW they’re wrong, the KNOW they are the poorly educated that the establishment adores and they KNOW they’re on the wrong side of history yet again. They KNOW that they’re going to lose their place in the world sooner or later because their “philosophies” are beyond outdated, fucked up and archaic.

That isn’t what drives them, however. It’s NOT and never was about Jesus, clearly. We’re talking about a batch of people who act about as opposite to the teachings of Christ as one could be. No, we’re talking about their favorite pastime: THE GAME.

This game is ALL about “owning the libtards”. They HATE, from the very depths of whatever it is that is n the place where a compassionate soul’s heart would be. We’re talking about mentally and morally deficient people who are more willing to burn the ship they’re in rather than share accommodations with anyone not like them. These ‘people’ are, of course, cist-gendered white males, their ‘women folk’ who have never had an orgasm in their lives and want to be grabbed by the pussy and forced to have a rape baby. These people also consist of what a friend of mine calls “The Token Niggers” of the GOP. They’re black people like Samuel L. Jackson’s character “Stephen” from “Django Unchained”; black men and women who try to act the part, betraying the entire black community, all so they feel better about themselves, even while doing damage to others. They get fed the illusion that the GOP likes or even cares about them so they merrily do their white master’s bidding and shit on everyone, just like they’re in “The Song of the South”. Look that up; it’ll impress you.

In the end, whether these GOPers are Nazis, Klansmen, or whatever, it all comes down to one common factor with these people.

CRUELTY.

That’s the common thread. That’s their legacy. Cruelty. It’s what fuels them. Their desires and wants are steeped in the only passion they know how to feel- a sense of entitlement and a want to hurt others who aren’t like them because of skin tones or gender or religious affiliation. Hate can only satisfy a person for so long before they either forgive or develop a sense of empathy or it becomes so overwhelming that one decides to lash out and instead of taking personal responsibility for their failings, they opt to blame the libtards for their own party shitting on them and they act out to “own them”.

CRUELTY.

That is the cornerstone of today’s Republican Party. It’s been decades since the party’s polarity switch. If you remained GOP since the 60’s, you’re a racist, either openly or in support of. You’re cruel.

If you remained GOP after Obama was elected and the party had control over Congress and literally blocked everything designed to help “We the People”, they you’re a racist AND a traitor. You’re cruel.

If you remained in the party after 2016, let’s face it- you’re a Nazi, a Klansman, either openly or in support thereof. You’re a misogynist. You’re a stupid woman who believes your gender should remain barefoot and pregnant making sammiches in the kitchen unless, of course, you’re a white woman with money, then the rules don’t apply to you, you hypocritical ass-scab.

Anyone sporting the (R) nest to their name today is supporting everything wrong with the world, this nation, and of humanity itself. It supports CRUELTY, and that is why I’ll fight you to my dying breath, because while you throw hate around all over everybody, I throw my hate in only one direction- YOURS. If you haven’t woken up to the level of CRUELTY dispensed by the GOP by now, you never will, and you deserve everything bad coming your way from those who oppose you. No medical coverage? Oh, boo-hoo. Take responsibility for once and own up to it. YOU did that to yourself. Had a loved one killed in a mass shooting? You helped make that happen, you ammosexual fuckwit.

I could go on, but I’ll leave it here in the interest of keeping this short(er). Happy Sunday to you.

#FuckTheGOP #FuckTheNRA #FuckNazis #FuckTheKKK #FuckConservatives

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kitanoko · 7 years

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`Snow White Au

todomomo week day 1: Kiss (pretend that todoroki got his red hair from someone else other than endeavor pls…and this is totally not like the original snow white im sorry LOL)

LETS BEGIN THIS JOYOUS WEEEEEK~

genre: humour and fluff

-todoroki was a prince of an ancient land where his mother remarried a man so vile and cruel that todo and his siblings wanted nothing to do with him. His name was Endeavor.

-Now Endeavor wasn’t a bad looking dude but he was clearly jealous of todoroki’s good looks so he asked his magic mirror “mirror, mirror in my hand, who’s the fairest in the land” and the mirror replied “Todoroki Shouto”

-For once, the mirror answered with someone other than him?!?!?! this was blasphemous! And so, Endeavor was forced to order an assassination of his own step-son. He was NOT going to lose to some kid!

-At the young age of 18, Todo was fleeing for his life after Fuyumi had warned of him of the dangers that were to come. Fuyumi had suspected something was up when she had accidentally bumped into her stepfather’s meeting with two mysterious beings. Her suspicions were proven correct when she had heard him say ‘kill shouto’ as if it was the most normal thing in the world

-Todo thought his sis was joking at first ‘cas are you serious, a grown ass man feeling threatened because of his appearance? Though when he escaped death by a hair when the two assassins came at him at full speed during his hunting trip, he was 100% sure Fuyumi was speaking the truth. Todoroki held his own and was able to knock one of them out instead of fatally wounding him, the other, seeing Todoroki’s kindness towards his partner decides to spare is life. The assassin handed Endeavor the lungs and heart of a wild boar, claiming it to be his stepson’s organs and fools the King.

-Todoroki galloped with his bags towards the river and found an empty cottage completed with 7 small beds. He found it odd but shrugged, leaving his bag on the floor and horse outside as he fell asleep on the bed labelled ‘grumpy’.

-the 7 dwarfs came home and freaked out! Who the heck was this dude with such weird hair?! And why was there a horse?!

-”What the actual fuck?,” Grumpy yelled and Sleepy yawned while mumbling, “what a banquet of darkness.” Grumpy’s anger woke Todo up and he flinched at the sight of the 7 mini people adorned with cute ruby red triangular hats

-Btw if it isn’t obvious enough, bakugou is grumpy, and tokoyami is sleepy. Then, iida is doc, yaoyorozu is happy, haha just kidding, uraraka is happy, deku is bashful, tsuyu is sneezy, and kaminari is dopey

-”Whoa what the–” Todoroki sat upright and almost kneed Bashful in the face. Bashful noticed the prince’s beautiful eyes and turned away shyly. Grumpy snorted.

“Who the motherfuck are you?! Get off my damn bed you dirty piece of shit!” Grumpy kicked Todo on the shin. Todo almost chuckled ‘cas it felt like a tickle.

“I’m the prince, or …was…”

Everyone gasped.

Doc pushed Grumpy aside. “Your royal highness, why are you in our abode if I may ask.”

“My father tried to kill me, I just need a place to stay for now.”

The dwarfs looked at each other in concern and huddled up.

“This may be dangerous …for us.” Dopey said and Sneezy nodded after a few sneezes. Grumpy gritted his teeth and agreed silently, which was unusual for him. Perhaps he felt bad that he overreacted earlier. Doc gave a sigh.

“I think we should help him, we should be helping those in need.” Doc said and it was Happy and Bashful’s turn to agree.

“Fine,” Doc turned to say and Todoroki smiled back. Happy clicked her tongue playfully and lifted herself right next to him. She directed a bright grin at him and he appreciated it.

-After that todo slowly warmed up to the little dudes and grumpy sorta tried to return the affection. They give awkward glances to each other sometimes when they go fishing (grumpy gives todo advice on how to catch the biggest salmon and that’s the limit to their friendship)

-todo learned that happy enjoys playing catch and she told him that she wants to learn how to fly someday (todo didn’t wanna break it to her but that’s not how the human body works)

-Doc is the smartest of them all and the most reasonable; dopey enjoys daydreaming and cloud watching; bashful is…well…very cute and shy and seems to be the only one who can control grumpy somewhat; sneezy is really good at swimming and can hold her breath underwater for a very long time, so long that todo thought she drowned but she didn’t; sleepy is very poetic and extremely philosophical and todoroki would never know how to have a proper conversation with him….not that he usually could with any of them anyway…and why the heck does sleepy look like a crow and sneezy a frog…strange

-Todo built his own bed with the help of the dwarfs and Grumpy labelled the bed “Weirdo”

-Its been more than 2 weeks and todoroki felt like for once, he could live in peace. He went out to hunt by himself one day, despite the concern of the dwarfs (grumpy was like who the fuck cares if he gets himself killed we’ll all be free, but he didn’t really mean it LOL), and he went further than he had planned (he wasn’t gonna let that deer escape!)

-right before he sent an arrow flying towards the poor deer, he caught sight of… a human nearby? in the middle of these woods? He followed the swift silhouette with a stern gaze and he leapt off his horse (his horse is named Pretty Peach btw, a name given by Fuyumi, ‘cas it has a strawberry blonde mane).

-”Who’s there?” Todoroki called, hands gripped tightly on his bow. If its another assassin, he may not be as kind this time. “Is it a hobby of yours to hide behind trees? Come out or I’ll shoot.”

-The figure emerged and …hell no. It’s of course the most elegant woman he had ever laid his heterochromatic eyes on. How was he gonna kill her now?

-”I’m..I’m just a guard! My name’s Momo!” She replied, hand in front of her defensively, “I mean you no harm!” Seeing that her hands were away from the hilt of her fachion, he relaxed.

-Todoroki patiently waited for her explanation and turns out she was just intrigued by his hunting skills and wanted to learn for herself.

“Not that I could ever hurt these animals,” she confessed and the deer licked her outreached palm. It fled after.

-So anyways, after that mostly-silent encounter, todoroki met her a few more times and brought the dwarfs along with him; she came whenever she had a break from guarding whoever the nobility was from the next kingdom

-She was like those disney princesses that has a bunch of animal friends for no apparent reason but of course she was no damsel-in-distress ‘cas she could slice anything in half without a blink. Todo actually somewhat scared of her. Or he’s fallen in love. He shook his head. Nah, no way. Those goosebumps he gets when he sees her swing her falchion was ‘cas its cold. That must be it.

-Doc raised his concern over other ppl spotting Todo if he goes off too far and yes it actually happens ‘cas todo was too into his new ‘friendship’ with momo and a spy told Endeavor his discoveries.

-one day when todo and momo met up again, this time to string necklaces out of wildflowers because momo wanted to do something different for once (Grumpy knew todoroki was crushing hard on momo at this point but todo was too damn clueless to do anything about it), they get ambushed by a group of mercenaries hired by Endeavor

-momo surprised todo ‘cas she basically told him to sit still and she owns all of their asses single-handed and todo gulped. yes. okay. his heart was racing but not because they were about to get killed but ‘cas he’s fallen hard and fast for this crazy fighter girl with a big ass sword.

-”I can’t believe they RUINED my necklaces, look at these daisies?! They’re trampled! UGH!” Momo complained, fists clenched as they head back to the cottage.

Todo snorted.

“AND your FATHER sent them to kill you? How absurd!”

She went on and on and todoroki’s just chucklng at her flushed face from the battle earlier.

“The next time I see your father, he will feel my wrath!”

Todo stopped dead in his tracks and pulled her to him with one hand and awkwardly said, “You’re really cute Momo.”

And her face gets even more red and she just stopped talking on the rest of the way home.

-Okay so news get back to Endeavor that the mercenaries pretty much all in critical condition. “An insanely skilled lady” was with todo and Endeavor’s like “alright I’ll take matters into my own hands.”

-Endeavor dressed up as a witch (he gotta disguise himself ‘cas it’d be weird if people saw a King out by himself and somehow dressing as a witch felt right) and went to the forest and also brought a box of poisoned soba along ‘cas his stepson loves soba. Hopefully this mysterious lady with him also loves soba

-Endeavor found the dwarfs’ cottage and left the box at the doorstep (yes he knew todo lived there ‘cas the spy had tipped him). Endeavor hid behind a bush and saw Dopey bring the box inside the cottage and he smirked

-”Yo these noodles don’t look right.” Grumpy pushed the box away from his face and Dopey looked sad. “I ain’t eating this shit, someone try it first in case I die. I’m too cool to die.”

“Grump-chan please don’t say that,” Bashful said.

Todoroki looked at it and Momo swore his eyes lit up.

“Soba, it’s good,” Todo merely said and he took the chopstick that came in the box and took a bite.

Oh shit.

“Fuck, his face doesn’t look right. And I mean it looks even more messed up than before,” Grumpy said.

Todoroki felt the world spin before him and he just collapsed onto the floor. Momo freaked out but found his pulse and his breathing steady.

“He looks like he’s taking a nap…” Sleepy noted.

“Don’t say it…”

“…Of darkness,” Sleepy finished.

-Momo lifted Todo onto the nearest bed and Doc examined todo and doc’s like “I think he’s in a coma”

-Now a week passed but todo still didn’t wake up. Momo said she’ll find a doctor to come and see what to do. The doctor refused to go to the forest with Momo ‘cas that sounded sketch

-Momo came back defeated and Bashful randomly went, “hey…have you ever read those…children’s books?”

Momo’s like “what?” And Bashful’s like “most stories say curses are broken by a kiss from true love!”

Everyone looked at each other and Grumpy’s like “well no shit you have to be the one to kiss him, I ain’t doing it.”

“But why me?” Momo asked and Grumpy told her how he suspected that there’s something way deeper than friendship going on between them and Momo got all flustered and she felt it too but it was hard admitting it.

“Don’t kiss him on the lips though,” Doc said matter-of-factly, “what if you got poisoned too.”

Happy and Bashful covered their faces, feeling embarassed for Momo

-She leaned closer to todo, and he appeared so peaceful sleeping like that and she was starting to feel her cheeks heat up. This was her first time kissing anyone! Ever! The distance between them close in and Momo gave him a peck on the cheek. Suddenly, Todo’s eyelids fluttered open.

-”Why is everyone –OMPHF”

Momo wrapped herself around him before he could finish the question

-Momo was really angry now, whoever this person was, she’s guessing todo’s douchebag father, gotta pay for what he did. She devised a plan. Todo told her the plan was too dangerous but she reassured him that she had thought of plan B to Z if plan A didn’t work out.

-Momo went to the castle dressed as a man the day after, and acted as if she had an important tip to tell the King in regards to the prince

-Okay Fuyumi’s like wtf right now btw ‘cas her brother just escaped death three times?

-Momo told Endeavor to follow her to the forest because she saw the prince still alive. Endeavor’s knights said they’d go with him but he had had enough of failed plans. Even the soba didn’t work goddammit

-Endeavor was weary but Momo was so good at acting; she led him towards a trap built by the dwarfs and Endeavor’s horse gets caught in a bear trap. The King fell to his knees as his horse crashed onto the ground. And with a broken ankle, he tried to stand back up but Momo held a sword against his neck

Endeavor was named one of the most powerful men for a reason. He knocked her back and sent Momo flying. Todo and the dwarfs saw this from behind the trees and they run to help her.

-”What…Shouto…you became friends with these midgets?!” Endeavor roared.

The dwarfs took offence to that and they kept throwing rocks at him and Grumpy headbutts him and stomped on his broken ankle. The King winced in pain and with the help of Todo, the dwarfs somehow cornered him to the cliffs. With one false step, the King slipped and fell to the depths below

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO.”

Todoroki heard his father’s screams echo.

-Though that was a horrid end to his filthy father, Todoroki was happy as now his family was free from his evil reign. Todo returned to the castle but still visited the dwarfs every week.

Momo was invited to the castle from time to time and Todo finally proposed to her with flower necklaces that she taught him to make before; the dwarfs helped them set up a wedding ceremony in the meadows and all of Momo’s animal friends came as well.

The end

#todomomo #todomomoweek #todoroki x yaoyorozu #bnha #my headcanons #snow white au #lol this was so fun to write #day one: kiss

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theantthatwrites · 6 years

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Demoniac: The Parasitic King (Part 3)

The next morning greeted the castle with a chilled embrace. Gray clouds loomed low and heavy in the sky. A thin layer of frost coated every surface.

I was awoken by the pounding of footsteps outside of my chamber. The door flew open without a knock.

“Snow!” Tilly stood in the doorway holding what looked like a fruit. “Klaus and I took a walk along the path towards one of the nearby villages. Turns out there were a few lapis-apple trees along the way. Here, Klaus said you should try one of these.”

I struggled to sit up in bed. My body felt unbearably weak. Tilly was about to toss the fruit to me but stopped.

“Gods, what happened to you?!” The four armed demon ran over to the bed. She got uncomfortably close as she inspected me. “You look like absolute shit.”

I ignored what she said. I couldn’t focus. My stomach felt like it was being torn apart from hunger. At the same time, a delicious smell permeated the room, teasing the senses. I need to eat, my mind screamed.

I quickly snatched the fruit Tilly called a lapis-apple from her hand. It was a vibrant blue that would have undoubtedly shined in the light. I dug into the fruit like an animal, tearing the sapphire skin from the juicy bulk. I chewed loudly and unapologetically, leaving my lips sticky and wet. As my tongue danced underneath the butchered mush, it was greeted with a taste that could only be described as vile. I forced myself to swallow, desperate to overcome my hunger. As I did, my eyes went wide.

I shoved Tilly aside and vomited on the floor. My throat burned and tears stung my eyes. As mucusy saliva dripped from my mouth after the last of the bile escaped my body, I caught a look at my reflection in the nearby mirror. Tilly’s reaction upon seeing me made perfect sense. My eyes, which originally only had a hint of crimson around the black pupils, were now a deep, dark red. My flesh was wrinkled and damp with sweat. On my hands, my long and pointed fingernails were cracked and brittle. The world began to spin so I lied back down.

“I’ll...go get Klaus,” Tilly said with uncertainty in her voice. When she was gone, that savory aroma went with her.

The rest of the day passed in a murky haze. Klaus said he had never heard of a demon getting sick before and suggested just resting for a while. Him and the rest of his bandits spent the day looting the rest of the castle. From the sound of things, they took just about everything not nailed to the floor and were hoping to trade whatever they didn’t wish to keep for themselves. They spent the night much the same way they did previously with drinks and merry-making while I suffered in bed.

Eventually, their talks came to more serious matters, such as their plans to begin the raids on the nearby villages the next day. They also spoke of me, probably assuming I couldn’t hear.

“Did Snow come out at all?” asked Klaus.

“Not that I know of,” Tilly answered.

“Poor sod,” Michael said with a mouth full of something.

“I told you we should have killed him,” Jack growled in his familiar, hateful way. “Let’s do it now before he becomes too much of a liability.”

“I’m with Jack.” David this time. “He’s not our problem, boss. The man just walked in here. If we don’t want to kill im’ then we should at least send im’ on his way. We protect our own and ta hell with all the others.”

Klaus let out a loud sigh. “I hear ya. Believe me, I do. It just don’t feel right. Call me soft, but I feel as if we should help him out, at least until he’s on his feet. The fucker’s just arrived in Demoniac. It’d be like sending a lamb to the wolves. But look, I understand that this affects us all. Tilly. Michael. Thoughts?”

Michael answered first. “I say we keep him around. The fellow seems well enough, personality wise. If Snow was a prick then sure, buuut...”

“I don’t really care either way,” Tilly added. “I will say that I already manage to put up with you lot, so what’s one more bastard gonna hurt? As long as he stays out of my way, then we’re fine.”

“Alright then. We keep him around, at least for a bit. Hopefully whatever is fucking with him clears up, and who knows? Maybe we’ll have another member of this merry little group. And if something goes wrong, I take full responsibility and will deal with it myself. Understood?”

The bandits went to sleep soon after they were finished speaking of what to do with me. I lied in the darkness, losing track of everything. Time, reality, identity, it was all devoured by my all-consuming hunger. The delicious scent that taunted me during the day and the night before was now stronger than ever. I tried to resist it, convinced that it was simply my mind playing tricks on me. I couldn’t last, however. I got out of my bed as quick as I could and went out into the hall.

I was so dizzy, I could barely stand. The hall looked as if it stretched on forever. I took it one step at a time, certain that I would die here. I shut off all other senses and focused solely on the smell. The wobbly path disappeared and the cold air was sucked away. All that remained was that glorious aroma.

I found myself once again in the room David claimed as his own. He was snoring noisily in the darkness, unaware of anything. I let the scent wash over me, trying to pinpoint where it was coming from. I knelt beside the fishy demon.

Eat, said a voice from within me. Was it my own? I wasn’t sure of anything any more. What did it want me to eat? There was nothing here. Just David.

Eat.

The sweet smell caressed my nostrils, tantalizing me with every sniff. A shudder ran through my body.

Eat.

A sudden desire gripped my heart, an answer to my question. I tried to fight it but I couldn’t resist. I was so hungry.

Eat.

I licked my lips as I closed in on David. I sank my fangs deep into his exposed neck, sending a wave of delicious blood into my mouth, and sealing my fate in the process. He awoke immediately, of course, but he didn’t struggle. My bite had somehow paralyzed him. His face was frozen in an expression of unfathomable fear, unable to fight off the creature feeding on him in the night.

The thick red liquid gushed like a torrent down my throat. I gulped it all down in a state of complete bliss. The hunger pains dissipated after a while, but that wasn’t enough. I wanted more. I gorged myself on the fish’s blood, not stopping until I was completely full.

The next morning I awoke in my bed, unsure of when I fell asleep. The previous night was a blur. None of it mattered to me, though. The only thing important to me at the moment was that, to my surprise, my hunger had disappeared. I leapt from my bed with a smile on my face. That happiness was short lived, however.

A shout filled with horror tore through the air from outside my chamber door. “David’s dead!” the voice cried.

At that moment, all the joy I felt drained completely from my body. My previous night had returned to my memory. I rushed to David’s chamber.

#Demoniac #The Parasitic King #short story #writing #creative writing #fiction #demons

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kamchatkasalmon · 5 years

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GMO-Fed Farmed Salmon For Dinner

October 4, 2019 (Tokyo, Japan) - The Japanese per population eat more raw farmed salmon than any there country in the world. The Japanese government has expressed its concerns about importing GMO food over the past years. It is bad enough the oceans are being pillaged daily of millions and millions of fish and that farmed salmon will continue to be a growth industry. But the growth industry for salmon will require different types of scientifically-derived GMO-laden food to feed these salmon. What are scientists creating with their concoctions for feeding farmed salmon? Research probably hasn’t even started on the consequences of millions and millions of farmed salmon shitting into the ocean tons of GMO-filled feces every year. The sludge at the bottoms of these submerged industrial feed lots is horrendous. The net-pens are submerged so no one really sees inside these net-pens and what’s accumulating at the bottom. The problems are only being compounded here one scientific fix after another with farmed salmon.

________

Source: Beyond GM

GM-fed salmon are being trialled in GM-free Scotland

August 2, 2018 | by Pat Thomas

An experiment in feeding farmed salmon GM feed is underway in the highlands of Scotland – and you should be worried.

The BBC news, naturally, was the first to trumpet the benefits of the GMO experiment, claiming that the aim of the trial was to increase the nutritional value of the fish and that a positive outcome would help us feed a starving world. The BBC’s extreme bias in favour of GMOs is a national disgrace and is something we have exposed previously.

The fish are being fed genetically modified camelina, or false flax – an open air trial for which Beyond GM and other UK groups have been very vocal about opposing. The camelina has been engineered to produce the type of omega-3 found in marine fish, and is underway at Rothamsted Research’s farms in Hertfordshire and Suffolk. Researchers have always said that the plant was intended as food for farmed salmon, so we cannot pretend that news of this experiment has come completely out of the blue. At the same time, important questions about its safety and necessity remain.

While details are scant it’s worth asking whether this an open water trial and what failsafes have been put in place to ensure that none of the GM feed escapes to be eaten by wild animals. In addition, while industry can be less than transparent about what it actually already feeds salmon, it is likely that some farmed salmon are already receiving GM feed. Given that farmers of land animals are already observing health deficits in animals fed GMOs, what effect if any would a near wholly GMO diet have on the health of the fish – and are the researchers even looking at that?

Correct – but untrue

The story was broken by a BBC science correspondent and while many of the statements made in it are superficially correct they lack the context of the reality of farmed salmon which, when taken into account, reveals the deep falsehoods and faulty thinking that underpin them. For example:

“Tests have shown that levels of an oil called omega-3 have decreased by half in farmed salmon in the past 10 years.”

It is correct that levels of omega-3 oils in farmed salmon have been dropping. But the broader context is that farmed salmon have a completely different nutritional profile than wild fish anyway because they are farmed. As we written recently farmed salmon are some of the most abused livestock in the world, second only perhaps to chickens.

Keeping these large fish, that are used to swimming vast distances in open water, in small cages, and feeding them manufactured pellets is a cause of extreme stress, and makes them vulnerable to multiple diseases including infestation with sea lice. To fight these diseases the fish are treated with antibiotics and pesticides. Salmon farmed in open waters can pass infestation on to other fish and the high concentration of fish on one area leads to pollution from their faeces and other waste products as well as from toxic chemicals.

All of this creates an abused fish that is inferior to its wild relatives. For those who are sceptical about the harm inflicted on Scottish farmed salmon we suggest you take a look at the selection of photographs, released by the Scottish Government in response to a Freedom of Information request, which document examples of disease and injury in farmed salmon over the last two years. You will need a strong stomach.

Even if the trial is a ‘success’ and raises the level of omega-3 in the salmon a bit, it will fail to address the real issues around farmed salmon – namely that, like all intensive livestock operations, it is a vile and unsustainable industry and we should not be seeking to expand it.

“The salmon get their omega-3 from eating other oily fish, such as anchovies, that have been ground up and added to pellets that are sprayed into their pens. But there’s a limited supply of anchovies…”

Please go to Beyond GM to read the entire article.

#GMO GMOsalmon Scotland Norwegiansalmon

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urban-eagle · 7 years

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Look who actually got themselves to write some things.

It’s just Voltron OC flash fiction. All four of them are under the Read More. Three of them are on Audrey’s experiences as a prisoner.

Every breath she took spread burning acid through her lungs. As she opened her eyes to the blinding lights of the arena, as she forced herself to walk out from the entrance with stabbing pain in her muscles, and as she heard the thunderous anticipation of the audience, Audrey returned for her next round. On Earth, she had taken part in sports tournaments and performance events. The sea of people she usually observed before her was nothing compared to the mass of viewers that came from all corners of the universe, the one thing that brought them all together being bloodlust. Bloodlust that they wouldn’t dare fulfill themselves, but would rather have other beings do it for them.

To think that she enjoyed watching fights on her phone. Now she was the one doing the dirty work for everyone’s pleasure.

Audrey had almost forgotten her tired limbs, and stumbled forward. Her face met the dirt faster than she could catch herself, and a stream of mumbled curses left her mouth. She just wanted to sleep. Just leave her to sleep; it didn’t matter if she was supposed to fight.

“Get up, prisoner.” A metallic boot kicked her side, sending a painful shock to her system.

Audrey groaned and despite the increasing protests of her body and mind, she picked herself up. She glowered at the robotic sentry and held out a hand.

The sentry took no notice of her hand and tossed the blade at her feet.

She shook her head. “Hilarious.” The next set of motions felt almost automatic. She let herself kneel down and grab the hilt of the blade. She gave herself a fleeting moment of hesitation, feeling the weapon’s cold kiss as she traced a finger along the edge. She didn’t feel any slice or cut but when she lifted her finger away, a striking red bubbled up at the base.

She was tired. So, so tired. Why was she even doing this?

“Get up, prisoner.”

Audrey stood, feeling the blood rush through her body and leaving her dizzy and grabbing for balance. The blinding lights; the roaring crowds; the constant exhaustion… if only this could stop for a few minutes.

Audrey finally stared at the alien a few feet away. If she were to describe it with Earth’s animals, it would be a cross between a giraffe and a biped rhino that was standing before her. That long neck was such an easy target, too. This match would be over in no time, and hopefully they would give her at least some peace.

All she has to do is cut that thing’s neck. Easier said than done.

II.

The food was delicious. She had no idea what it was, but it was a hundred times better than what she cooked at home. She’s had to clamp her mouth shut from drooling every time they were led into the mess hall.

“The drooler is back,” a four-foot ant-looking thing muttered to its neighbor. “Do you think that’s a habit or what?”

Audrey ducked her head a bit as she brought her bowl to the food server. The lumpy goop plopped down with a sticky squelch, and she muttered a quick thanks to the server before she went on her way to find an empty table--

Something tugged on her hair hard, stopping her in her tracks. “What’s this? Your hair’s in my food!”

“Sorry,” she found herself blurting out.

“Disgusting.” She couldn’t even turn around in time as a large hand shoved her away, knocking her to the floor. Her bowl rolled away, leaving behind a trail of much needed nourishment. “Are you sick or something? Stop shedding your hair!”

Audrey drew in a deep breath. Nothing would happen if she cried right here. She let out a shuddering sigh as she got up and reached over for her bowl. She sat herself in the most isolated corner of the room and fingered the little amount that had stuck onto the bowl. Sure enough, some of her hair was in it too. What was going on?

She pulled at her hair. Several strands followed suite. “Jesus Christ,” she muttered.

III.

They were all dead in a matter of minutes. They were the same kinds who had slaughtered her human companions after an eternity trapped in that ugly facility. Those sick and disgusting things that crawled like rats around in her mind and whispered to her in her sleep, mocking her every night as she watched the same people get their lives ripped away without a struggle. Those disgusting, shit-eating rats that tried to wrap whips around her throat and tried to drag her all around the arena, hooting and hollering.

They would have done just that if Audrey hadn’t beared down on them with all the fury and hatred that one person can contain, tearing her first victim to shreds and immediately pouncing on the next, ripping their weapons away from them as she reduced them to nothing but bloody pulps.

Once the tumultuous wave had passed, Audrey felt light-headed. She leaned her weight on the spear and squeezed her eyes shut, absorbing all the screams and shouts and cheers echoing in her ears.

A cold and hard hand touched her. Audrey awoke and stepped back, knocking the sentry’s head well off from its shoulders with a frantic swing of the spear.

The audience quieted down.

“Oh, so now you decide to shut up for once,” she heard herself spat. All those people, weakened and terrified, running around like fish in a barrel as they were strewn up and shredded apart. “What are we to you, huh? Reality TV, is that it?”

“What is reality tv?” a boisterous voice asked nearby, followed by a small ripple of laughter.

Audrey pointed at the direction of that voice and advanced several steps forward. “This! This is reality!” She gripped the spear tighter and she turned around, returning to the beheaded sentry and smashing the thing to pieces.

The audience was becoming more quiet with each passing second. Amazing. “This!” She declared as she pointed to the destruction she created, “this is your reality! Every single one of you, so fucking messed up and cold and robotic and you pretend that everything is alright! You come here every day of your lives to watch other people tear their own lives apart! That’s Reality TV for you!”

She looked around. All eyes were on her. All mouths were sealed shut. All her anger and pain released from her lungs.

“Well, isn’t this what you wanted?” She threw the spear to the ground. “Look, they’re all dead! Every single one of them-- are you satisfied now?!”

It was so quiet that she almost thought she’d broken them. All their voices were gone. It was sweet relief.

“Subdue her.”

Audrey turned around, raising her hands too late for the blow to her head.

IV.

“So you never heard of Shiro?” Lance repeated.

Audrey sighed again. “Never. I never knew there were other arenas either.”

The shortest that’s standing beside her chair was furiously typing away. “That means you never heard of my dad and brother either.”

“Probably.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose, expelling the heavy veil that rested over her head. “Pidge… would you believe me that the Galra had taken other humans besides the ones on the… the Kerberos mission?”

Pidge stopped typing. She could hear the paladin leaning forward, breath hitching just a notch. “Well, you’re living proof.”

Of course. Living. “There were more of us. We were experimented on. When they were done with us, they threw us into the arena. I was the only one who survived.”

Hunk made a small noise of terror. “R-really? You’re th-the only one?”

It would be impossible to forget. Her mind loves to replay that scene over and over and over--

A sour bile bubbled up in her throat. Audrey gagged. She sat up in her seat, forcing the vile thing back down her throat. Her head swam and chills ran down her spine. She squeezed her eyes shut, watching blood, skin, and tears scatter in the air.

She took a deep breath, and opened her eyes.

All four kids were crowded in front of her, faces drawn in concern and pity. Shiro was a little ways off, and she couldn’t see the look on his face.

Audrey sighed. “I’m fine,” she rasped, shooing them all back with a wave of a hand. “Go back to whatever you were doing.”

“Are you sure you’re fine?” Keith asked, quietly. “You looked like you were going to--”

“I’m fine.”

That seemed to shut him up. He took a step back in response and glowered at her. Not like that look was going to stop her from doing anything. She hated this place; it was too quiet for her liking. It was as if anything can come crawling in and even in this immense silence it would still sneak up on them and have them all in its ghostly clutches.

She almost misses the arena.

#tw blood #tw violence #voltron oc #vld oc #urb fics #unfortunately this is completely raw and unedited

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russellthornton · 6 years

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25 Unmanly & Manliest Things a Man Can Do: A Woman’s Perspective

The term manly is not what it once was. It does not mean macho. From a woman’s perspective, these are the manliest things a man can do.

What do you think of when you think of the manliest things a man can do? Lifting weights? Saving a damsel in distress? Perhaps even pretending your tears are allergies or refusing to talk about your feelings?

Those things are not manly. In fact, those are signs of toxic masculinity. And not all masculinity is toxic. Being respectful, understanding, gentle, and calm are masculine traits that are not toxic. They let a man be a man without feeling less than for not conforming.

When a man is at his manliest, he is being himself regardless of what society says manly is. [Read: The gender stereotypes about males we need to let go of for good]

What does being manly mean?

Sure, being manly may mean something a little bit different to everyone. Ten or twenty years ago manly would be used to describe someone like John Wayne or Chuck Norris. But now it is used to describe someone like Will Smith or Chris Evans.

These are men that are not just attractive and protective but also take a stance. They share their voices to fight for what is right without pure violence, but with understanding and patience.

Being manly is not a characteristic to describe attributes only aligned with one gender, but being manly is a collection of qualities that make a man who he is. [Read: Sensitive sides: Should men embrace male femininity]

The unmanliest things a man can do

Along with plenty of manly things a man can do, there are plenty of things a man can do that he may think are manly, but are in fact quite the opposite. Things that may have once been described as manly are not so attractive in today’s day and age.

Women do not want a man that is just physically strong and that knows how to beat someone up *not that they ever did*. In fact, many of these traits are unmanly and can turn off most women. So be aware.

#1 Insult a woman. This is something no man or woman should ever do. It was a well-known pickup method that a man would compliment a woman backhandedly to make her feel bad and then want to be affirmed by the same guy that insulted her.

Women have been empowered beyond this tactic. All that insulting a woman will do for you is make you look like a jackass. [Read: Here’s how you can be masculine without being a jerk]

#2 Mansplain. Even today a lot of men do not realize they are doing this. Not at work, not at the bar, and not on a date. Sure, if a woman asks you to explain what you do for a living, go for it. But if she is talking about women’s healthcare, politely listen.

If you mention fishing and she says I love fishing, do not explain to her how to fish. She knows. Do not underestimate a woman. [Read: Mansplaining: Come on, don’t be a dick]

#3 Say he is not a feminist. Because the word feminist seems pro-women, many men seem to think that means it is anti-men. That is not true. All the word means is pro-equality. And any man that isn’t for that is not much of a man, let alone a person.

Saying you’re not a feminist just makes you sound uneducated and misogynistic.

#4 Be close-minded. We all have our beliefs and stances. But being closed off to even hearing others out is such an unattractive quality. A manly man may stand his ground but will hear others out.

#5 Be jealous. Sure, everyone wants to know a guy is attracted to them. But you don’t own a woman and women do not owe you anything. Being jealous and having to show your power over another guy only shows that you are insecure.

#6 Be overprotective. It is sweet when a man looks out for a woman. Help her carry her groceries or bring her a jacket when it is chilly. But not wanting her to go out with her girlfriends because you are worried about other guys doesn’t say you have the power. It says you are afraid. [Read: 17 big signs of an overprotective and jealous boyfriend girls hate]

#7 Fight. Maybe if you are a boxer for a living, fighting is manly because you are dedicated to your job. But getting into bar fights and beating up someone for spilling their drink on your date is juvenile, not manly.

#8 Smoking. Filling your lungs with toxins, polluting the environment, and putting others at risk with second-hand smoke is not cool and sly or mysterious. It is gross, unhealthy, and stupid.

#9 Speeding. Boys and their fast cars. Yes, I know, Fast and Furious is a big thing. But there is a reason that is a movie and is fiction. No woman wants a man who is taking such a dangerous risk with his own or anyone else’s life.

#10 Being cocky. Being confident is one thing, being cocky is another. Being sure of yourself is sexy and manly. Being a douchebag because you make a lot of money, drive a loud car, or for any other reasons makes it seem like you are overcompensating and are super disrespectful. [Read: The subtle differences between a cocky and arrogant man]

The manliest things a man can do

Feeling confident in your masculinity is the best way to not have to over compensate by portraying traditionally masculine traits.

#1 Be a gentleman. Even though women want equality, being courteous is not a bad thing. Holding the door, getting our coat, or offering to pay the bill is sweet. It shows that you are thinking about others.

And this is not just a trait you should have on dates. A true manly man shows his gentlemanly qualities to strangers, children, and the elderly as well. [Read: 20 qualities in a guy that make him a really good man]

#2 Be respectful. If a woman declines your request for a date, move on. If a woman has a drink with you but won’t go home with you, go home and eat some ice cream, do not call her a tease or pressure her.

Women do not owe you anything. You catch more flies with honey, so be appreciative, kind, and understanding. The response to that will be so much better. [Read: 8 ways men don’t realize they’re subtly shaming women]

#3 Be patient. Whether patience is required for when it is appropriate to go to bed together or when someone slow is crossing the street, just slow down. Being in a rush makes it seem like you aren’t living in the moment or appreciate what you are doing or who you are with.

#4 Remain calm. Although men have long been considered aggressive and strong, you do not need to yell and scream or punch walls to seem manly. Remaining calm, handling tense or stressful situations with poise and grace is what women see as manly.

#5 Cry. One thing I personally hate seeing is when a man tries to hide his tears. Boys are often told not to cry because boys don’t cry. But that is so toxic to a boy’s emotional growth. Instead, seeing a man cry and own the fact that he is feeling emotions is so manly to me.

#6 Listen. Nodding along while a woman speaks is not listening. But actually hearing what she says, interacting, asking questions, and bringing it up later is what women want. This is manly. A man that can actually focus on someone else and what they are saying and retain that information is one of the manliest things a man can do in my book. [Read: 10 little changes that’ll make you a better listener]

#7 Be capable. There seems to be this man-boy complex that is happening. Adult men are behaving like teenage boys and it is supposed to be attractive. Women want a man that can take care of himself. He can clean for himself, cook at least the basics, and handle life.

I am not sure why it is considered manly to some when a man can’t complete normal adult tasks, but it really isn’t.

#8 Smell good. Sure, some women are attracted to a man’s natural musk. That makes sense. After he has been working out or something, but not bathing regularly is not manly. In fact, it is pretty gross. You do not have to bathe in Old Spice but some soap and deodorant go a long way when it comes to the mastering manliest things a man can do.

#9 Be reliable. This may seem boring, but even the most adventure seeking women find it manly when a guy is reliable. This does not mean you need a routine or to be working a 9-5 job. It means you are there when you say you will be. You keep promises.

You don’t cancel plans last minute or wait for something better to come along. Being true to your world is certainly one of the manliest things a man can do. [Read: How to successfully pass a shit test from a woman]

#10 Be funny. Laugh like no one is watching. When a guy can overlook how others see him and just laugh, laugh cry, tell jokes, and let go, it is so sexy. A man who can’t laugh at himself comes off as uptight and like he his hiding something.

A man who can just laugh uncontrollably and make others laugh too is comfortable in his skin.

#11 Be good with animals. This may be a personal one for me, but anyone that isn’t allergic to animals would probably agree. A guy whose face lights up around a cute puppy, kitten, or even a human baby is not afraid to show a comforting and nurturing side to himself.

#12 Be honest. Lying is such a dick move. It is not manly to get away with tricking someone, cheating, or anything like that. What is manly is being upfront and honest, especially when that is the hard thing to do. It is easy to lie. It is a coward’s way out.

One of the manliest things a man can do is own up to his mistakes, tell the truth when it’s hard, and say he is sorry and mean it.

#13 Be self-aware. It is so manly when a man knows he is not perfect. He is happy and comfortable with who he is but is always trying to better himself. When a man blames others for his faults or woes, he only shows his lack of self-awareness and lack of effort to overcome.

#14 Be supportive. Being insecure about a woman’s power job, position, or even height is so vile and misogynist. Being supportive of a woman in any role she chooses is manly. Rooting a woman on or even a fellow man rather than dragging them down to ensure your own success is slimy, not manly. [Read: What a woman is really saying when she pulls away from you]

#15 Be you. You might say, well, I am not a feminist, I am a fighter, and I love being aggressive. Well, I am sorry to say that these qualities are just not manly ones. But the good news is that when you dig deep inside and are actually being yourself a lot of that faux-macho stuff disappears.

When you are comfortable in your own skin, you don’t need to hide behind aggression or denial. You are manly when you are being yourself.

[Read: How to be a gentleman and win her over with your charm]

These are the manliest things a man can do from a woman’s perspective. Perhaps you disagree, and that is okay. Just don’t come crying to me when your unmanly qualities backfire on you.

The post 25 Unmanly & Manliest Things a Man Can Do: A Woman’s Perspective is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.

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tombaragwanath · 7 years

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138 Haiku for Ahm-Ree-Kah

Said Whitman one time: “America: that great poem.” The greatest, even.

In this tradition, let me present most humbly a Whitman’s sampler.

Only with fewer Cashew Clusters™ and slightly more facetiousness.

Los Angeles

Who has ever seen such strong light hitting green hills? And highways, highways.

A smiling man in a green and white food truck hands me three tacos.

Golden, delicious, they go well with the soda people keep on hand.

Big Sur

Mountains roll sharply into angry green-white surf. Bridges span chasms.

Where did Kerouac sleep, as a local? Was it in this log cabin?

Likely not. This spot is muddy, expensive, and less than fully Zen.

Cannery Row

Rattlesnakes, dusty- eyed and serene, fill my thoughts of this dream-like place.

In reality, Mac & co have moved on. The hotel looks nice, though.

Steinbeck and Ricketts: dudes sharing their many loves. Got to commend that.

I think I buy this book for people because it is short and punchy.

In that it punches the reader in the heart with warm contemplations.

Look, just go buy a copy for yourself. Hell, send me your damn address.

San Francisco

Orange steel stretches impossibly across churn and wash of green salt.

How could you not love the city of Al Ginsberg? Rain falls in warm streets.

I run up to the big red radio tower. A glorious view.

This one other dude was running close behind me. I felt I knew him.

Amtrak: San Francisco to Chicago

The furnishings may be dated, but the burgers? Salty. Prepared weekly.

Who cares? This train goes through snowy mountains, deserts, and seven (eight?) states.

The viewing car is full of folks taking it in with icy cold drinks.

Everyone wants to talk at lunch. Wrestling, birds, democracy, Trump.

Good thing every one of these passengers is well over sixty.

Plenty of time to gather esoteric facts for polite strangers.

There’s a kindness, a lulling passivity of wheels over tracks.

We share a “roomette”. Lordy, to be paid to come up with product names.

Seventy hours on the train. I could have stayed on no problem at all.

Chicago

Where can we find Jeff Tweedy? I guess I thought he would just be around.

Those cake stand towers are right outside our hotel. Black against blue sky.

The freezing wind lifts from Lake Michigan like a swift kick in the teeth.

The lines in the grey city stay sharp as night falls over the water.

In the donut shop a young kid clutches pastry tight in his fingers.

If we lived here I’d likely revert back to him. They were that damn good.

“Fire Cakes”. Hell of a name for sugar, pastry, cream. Better than DD.

Detroit

I keep a lookout for ambiguous danger, but I need not fret.

Once shrines to commerce, now dusty car garages. I guess it happens.

Some dude is buying up city blocks and hiring his own police force.

How do locals feel? Is the cash grab members-only? Who is invited?

Our Uber driver has a kind face. He tutors math on Monday nights.

He drives us to Grosse Pointe. “Old-school rich Detroiters.” He knows a few souls.

A bored waiter feeds us some gourmet duck fried rice. We talk past closing.

New York City (Vol. 1)

Hello again, dear friend. I see your street vendors are still hustling dosas.

We walk in Central Park under light snow. Who keeps knitting dog sweaters?

Bowling, falafel, Animal Collective, beers. Sleepy subway home.

Montreal

We walk a mastiff cross named Mischa. The sidewalk salt hurts her paw pads.

The temperature? Negative butthole degrees. Still kids play hockey.

Poutine, coffee, sleep. When wearing two coats just isn’t enough.

Boston

A guy selling ham sandwiches knows about home. “Mate! Bro!”, he exclaims.

We walk the brick lane of Paul Revere’s freedom trail to get cannoli.

Can one highway off- ramp cleave itself into four? In Boston, it might.

Brattleboro, Vt.

Sweet land of Bernie! Syrup, pie, cider, pecans. Anarchist bookstores.

We find a brewery serving solely sour brews with faux-Catholic names.

“The Angry Bishop.” “Cardinal’s Peach Party Ale.” You get the idea.

Who knew a maple latte could actually be good? Fuck Starbucks™.

Our dear friends have a small human baby! We read Hairy MacLary.

Boston (again)

So much brotherhood present tonight at the men’s candlestick bowling.

They let Dianny rent shoes, but keep an eye out for any girl stuff.

Philadelphia

City of the Roots! Of Federal Fried Chicken! Of Kurt Vile’s soft drawl!

Isaiah Zagar. His name is colour, movement; a poem in itself.

We visit all the historical stuff. Highlight? Hot cheese steaks. No shame.

Washington D.C.

We stand hemmed in with a million other people. And yet, no ruckus.

Except the ruckus of a giant yarn uterus. That’s dedication.

On the bus homeward passengers doze against each other, smiling, spent.

Baltimore

Four-storey spiral shark tank. Kindly swim clockwise, or you’ll be gnawed at.

Aquarium, then Shake Shack™. Penguins, tortoises, wee sloth family.

They have these fishes that aim spit at bugs, knocking them into the stream.

Our Uber driver is a chicken connoisseur. He suggests Popeye’s.

Our burgers make him peckish. We offer to share. He laughs. He’s all good.

We spend the morning with Bloody Marys and some crab cake Benedict.

And the afternoon sharing cheesecake, fudge blocks, and enjoying Face / Off.

Blue Ridge Parkway

It is my birthday. And our anniversary. Waffle House™ it is.

Two lovely old chaps man the lonely tourism centre. It’s winter.

We’re likely the sole visitors for the day. They seem just fine with that.

The long drive rewards us with thick stands of fir trees dripping with winter.

A recreated length of train tracks shows us where commerce once began.

Are the bears sleeping? Unclear. Better keep any Snyder’s™ in the car.

We come upon an abandoned farm house. Trees grow clear through the iron roof.

Grizzled red cattle stand in the shade of an old leaning wooden barn.

Dianny takes a bunch of photos. I prepare myself for locals.

The parkway sometimes seems to run itself purely into the blue sky.

The precise hue of the blue hills evades capture in these meagre words.

Suffice to tell you: the breath quickens, the heart swells, and everything stops.

Asheville

We wind up stopping in Asheville. They have a sweet pinball museum.

Murakami would thoroughly lose his shit with the range of machines.

We eat salty fried green tomatoes, cheese grits, and Madras chilli fries.

Nashville

Yo La Tengo are fans of Prince’s Hot Chicken. Take their word for it.

Did you ever eat chicken so hot you had to avoid touching…parts?

Trust me, dearest friends. Do not mess about with these rocks of pure hellspice.

The old Drake Hotel. “Stay where the stars stay!” In the seventies, perhaps.

We meet a couple from Carolina outside the Bluebird Café.

They have one ticket between them. She goes in. He peers through the glass door.

We continue to eat the kind of barbeque one might brag about.

Charleston

A sign outside a bar proclaims the presence of Bill Murray. Cheap trick.

Doesn’t stop us from pulling off the road in a cloud of gravel dust.

What a pair of chumps. We practice our lines in case he needs two more friends.

An anti-climax, but we still enjoy foaming ale (and more pinball).

Our BNB host has framed pictures of Xena, Warrior Princess.

She is thrilled to hear where we’re from. Less thrilled to hear we don’t know Lucy.

Savannah

Tickets for Moonlight. Two other people in the cinema. Both leave.

More great barbeque. Cornbread, sticky ribs, collards. One meal for the day.

St. Augustine

A diamond-shaped stone fortress keeps the harbour safe from the English hordes.

Portly volunteers fire the neutered guns hourly just to scare tourists.

Orlando

Okay, we did it. We went to Universal™. We have few regrets.

Di got to pretend to be a wizard for a time. Wand included.

Turns out Butter Beer is a kind of ginger fizz with marshmallow foam.

My younger stomach was far better at dealing with roller coasters.

Still, I ride them all. Because I am a tightwad. And also, reals tough.

Two days of this stuff is enough for me to crave a quiet darkened room.

Miami

Will Smith was correct. Miami certainly does bring the heat, for real.

We sneak in to some hotel lounge chairs and disguise ourselves as ballers.

No one is convinced, but the waiters humour us. I get lobster burnt.

I get to practice my toddler-grade español with real life toddlers.

Donde es Tomas? El es aqui! El es muy fuerte, y tonto!

Es peligroso para tocar los…raccoons... (I don’t know “raccoons”).

New Orleans

There is a riot of big band horns lifting through the hot fragrant air.

Carry your open drink anywhere you like, friend. Just be nice, or leave.

We rent bicycles and spend long warm afternoons avoiding pot holes.

A boisterous young dude yells to us through a broken window as we pass.

Stay off Bourbon Street. It’s like Courtenay Place, but somehow even worse.

We stumble upon an impossibly raucous Mardi Gras parade.

One float shows paper mache Putin gleefully rogering Donald.

Another Donald is roped above a sharp-toothed sarlacc vagina.

Elsewhere, Donalds endure a colourful range of brutal torture.

All of the craft stores must have sold out of his shade of neon orange.

The vile bloat of his maniac features seems a popular float choice.

Just not popular enough for the popular vote. Can’t help myself.

Our cab driver is most delighted to hear us use the term “had beef”.

He tells us he has always wanted to travel to Australia.

New York City (Vol. 2)

NYC round two! It’s so nice to be back in your cathedral streets.

We create habits: Morning run, bagel, coffee, then museums.

A couple of films, a trip to Katz’s deli for pastrami on rye.

An afternoon in Bushwick, fossicking about in the vintage aisles.

Time is running out in a nice way. Three months is likely sufficient.

Last day. JFK. John Mayer sings with great breath in duty-free aisles.

A table of young Russians pick hot pineapple from pizza slices.

Soon I will not speak the language. I think I was alright at charades.

Thank you, Ahm-Ree-Kah. Your people have been a trip. All the best with Trump.

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