#to be normal. it is a personal crime against me actually & is direct retribution for the terrible thought i had yesterday wherein i was

[crossbackpoke-check]

I was reading through your old reblogs and sage to say the tags you put on the Oilers shower post are amazing and I would love to read something like that!!

Copying and pasting the tags here (the blue text is the part I was talking about but I left the preceding tags for context if that makes sense?):

#there's another shower right next to the sitting shower 9 is it in the front corner of the picture? is that little glass alcove the entrance #to get in? like there's also horny potential for somebody in the big empty open space & somebody waiting to come in hesitating but you can #see their shadow & their silhouette in the glass the one outside the door knowing that the other is inside all alone showering but still not #coming in because they're giving them privacy etc being the last ones out & this doesn't feel like a connor/leon thing so maybe it's going #in the vague yamo pile but whoever's in the big shower room all alone jerking off & narrating & god knows sound would carry inside that #space & it could be that whoever's outside the door forgot something in there (left soap etc etc) & just happened to walk in on it (and/or #on whatever is going on in the shower stall) & can hear but can't see them but they can see them & can tell that they're watching/listening #through the frosted glass anyway ALSO what i was trying to get to with nuge/yamo (Imao i don't even think i said nuge at first) was like. #omega yamo who goes into heat/is playing through it & yamo gets ejected from the game with the narrative of nuge five for fighting for #defending him (maybe it's the end of the third maybe it's the second & nuge gets a 10 minute major & yamo gets pulled for a concussion check #because of the hit & then the doctors are like Imao stupid no you can't go back out you're in heat [yamo saw nuge fight for him 00] so the #two of them end up in there alone i like the middle of the second bc then nobody's there & wont be for a minute actually) but it's yamo in #the big open space & nuge outside the door checking to make sure he's okay & thinking that he'll be fine he can control it yamo won't smell #because he's in the showers nuge'll just bury his face in soap nuge waiting politely outside the door & yamo is being a MENACE. ohhhhh we're #gonna have to do research but what was the injury that yamo was out for be the original gifset that started this... this is the inciting event #yamo has been bullying nuge for AGES & by god he's gonna get what he wants even if it takes jerking off in the oilers home showers to bait #nuge into doing it. nuge like 'you ok?' has a conversation with yamo etc nuge: 'you gonna be ok to make it home' & yamo says yeah but not

If you were referring to the time Nuge fought Holl, it was a because Yamo took a bodycheck up high and he had to be taken back for concussion protocol just to be safe

^^^real life footage of me receiving and reading this ask 🥺🥰 i would ALSO love to read a fic like that akdhskdjak, but getting this ask made me actually start a doc for omega yamo being a nuisance so thank you (also if you wanted more vague thoughts, here’s the original gifset i reference)

i think i know exactly which fight you mean!! and i think it is saved in my drafts with unhinged thoughts waiting to be released 😇 if i’m right, this is a video that i had to save multiple times on multiple platforms because it was Important To Me

[yinses]

salvation and redemption   if you could only save one soul in this wretched world fyodor dostoevsky x reader rating: t  a/n: interrupting our normal scheduled programming for this idea i couldn’t get out of my head after going through my 5th rerun of bsd. i’ve always found fyodor to be an interesting character and he remains as an enigma i can’t shake.

“you love me right, kroshka?”

your hand paused at the crown of his head, a lapse in both your thought and judgement. it should have been a practiced answer for you, with how often he asked it. your response should have been expected as well, certainly given how his arms-his hands warmed your body. being with him was like living with a bomb inside your chest, a timer with no limit as he teased your existence by his mere proximity. 

everyone assumed you’d been numbed by experience. no one truly trusted a man like fyodor do. so of course you were simply submissive by defeat. you couldn’t escape if you wanted, so why not be pliant and just enjoy the life you were given until he deemed it time for your retribution. 

but in truth, you never feared fyodor in the way others did. 

you didn’t dread what he was, your trepidation stemmed from the person he once was. a child lost in his own ideals and thrown head first into a task bigger than himself. 

for as long as you could remember, it had always been you telling him not to worry. that it would always work itself out somehow. and in the event it didn’t? you would be there to save the day. 

in your youth, due to your ability, you likened yourself as a hero. not the super kind, with all the strength and posture. no, you were more comfortable behind the scenes, the afterthought once all the glory had dispersed. 

everyone liked to think it all happened in a simple swoop. the champion would defeat the adversary, stop the chaos and life would go on. but only for those unaffected by the utter destruction left behind. crumbling infrastructure and a debilitated economy. 

growing up in moscow was just another city under the predation of evils and conflict. it was easy for such a place to worship the one who could bring forth deliverance. yet in the overwhelming relief of the downfall of the perpetrator, they often forgot about the repentance of the souls and atmosphere that was distributed in the process. 

truly what did grieving do for anyone but bandage cracks when they needed to be filled. 

as a child you had more cracks than porcelain should have allowed, yet the integrity remained if only in name. 

“watch out!”

“wait, fyodor don’t!”

but you were too late. with a sigh, you fell to your knees uncaring of the blood that stained your already soiled socks as you cradled the dead canine. it had been made feral by nature, instead of choice. starved due to the lack of substance in his environment and forced to turn on whatever viable option was left. 

you were just children. fleshy but not overly meaty and certainly not part of its diet. he struck out of his own fears of humans, cruelty baring its vulnerability to the world. in search of your own next meal, you’d stumbled unknowingly into its territory. 

already dirty from the streets, fyodor hadn’t seconded his thoughts when he’d darted for the nearest trash can in hopes of salvaging anything to appease your stomachs. he’d been a moment too late to see the dog hidden in the corner, already thrown back by a lunge before he could dare to evade. it had been instinct for him to strike first, a thoughtless punishment executed out of fright. 

rubbing his freshly scraped palms against his ratty jacket, fyodor spared you a sour look. “yes, kroshka, im fine. thanks for asking.” his dry reply went unacknowledged as he rustled through the garbage. 

in the changing seasons of russia, even the newly dead didn’t take long to scum to the cold. despite the insulation, it’s coat already had a chill as you ran your fingers through it’s fur. 

“you’re not actually going to bring it back are you?”

uncaring of the way it stained your clothing, you drew the dog close to your chest as a dull light m encompasses your body. in that moment, time seemed to stop as if altered by a silent command before it backpedaled backwards without regard for reality. at the first shift of life, you carefully disentangle yourself and put distance between you as the animal slowly comes to terms with its restoration. 

not even a drop of blood was present as evidence of its past demise. shaking it’s coat, it stood on unstable legs, gaze filled with trepidation without cognition. a good deed should bare fruits of gratitude. 

so why were you suffering from the sharp pain of fangs tearing into the flesh of your shoulder? your cry was short lived, however, as fyodor jumped back into action, a quick touch of it palm undoing your works. 

in his haste, he’d carelessly knocked over the metal trash bin causing the crash to echo through the night. coupled with your cry of pain and the wail of repeated death, it was no surprise that your commotion attracted attention. 

“not every life deserves a second chance.” 

you don’t fight it when his fingers close around your wrist and he promptly drags you out of sight. whether the police or less honorable citizens, it wouldn’t be good for the two of you to linger too long. your hand grips the curve of your shoulder where the attack had just missed your throat. a second light show reveals a dingy shirt but one without tatter or blood. the pain from the bite gone with it but the sting of your decision lingers. 

“not every deed should be punished,” you whisper. 

you expect for him to stop you then, overcome with the need to debate but he continues to drag you along, making up for your lack of speed with his strength. 

“this world wouldn’t need either if it wasn’t so cruel. maybe then people like us could be happy for a change.”

for orphans, a strive for happiness was best waited out until you could age enough to properly take it from the world at will. eventually the two of you would be able to contribute to society and earn a decent living. 

it was easier to dream of a house. not too big or small. one that sat comfortably on a plot of land away from the dirt and grime of the city. you’d live off your own crops and grow old by your own ambitions. these for the aspirations that manifested in your heart. leaving only room for emotions like acceptance and expectation. 

but fyodor was already sowing the seeds of condemnation and reformation. tired of the mishandling of the world and the path it was on. as a child he promised you a life without faults. you couldn’t have imagined at that age, how many of his own would manifest in turn. 

yet out of obligation- or perhaps maybe it was affection. you stayed with him. slowly the hero of your story became the villain and your backstage presence was pushed further and further out of your inherent role of retribution. 

what good would punishment be if you unraveled the seams of disciple after all? 

salvation and redemption. 

that’s the name given to your ability. 

the ability to reverse the wrongs of the world, at the price of your own soul. for as black as this reality was becoming, at your rate you would have long been swallowed up had it not been for his intervention. 

gradually your hand picked back up its pace, fingers working their way under dark tresses as you scratched at the scalp. for some many years, you’d only known the body lain against you to be cold, shivering against the bricked walls of abandoned buildings. but because of his actions, his directive- now you were both warm, fed and properly housed. 

no, you didn’t need to be the hero. they only ever perished in the end. 

just his salvation. 

his excuse for redemption while he scoured the world for crime and provided the diligent punishment. 

dropping your head, you pressed your lips against the rise of his cheek.

“until the end, fyodor.” 

[jeromevalseka]

coming back from my hiatus to inflict a fic i wrote 2 years ago on all of you :) i found it while sorting through old wips and was like...huh, i may have been on to something..........

Jonathan was at Bruce's house because apparently that was something they were doing now. He didn't mind, not really, but—and he would never admit this, even on pain of death—he wasn't the best at making friends. Or keeping them. He usually just hung around with Jerome or Jervis, hiding out under the bleachers to smoke stolen Camels, perpetually trapped in a play-act of high school delinquency. Which was—whatever. He was beyond caring about things like that. 

Bruce Wayne, though—

Bruce Wayne wasn't the type of person that Jonathan would have ever imagined himself becoming friends with. Study partners. Co-dependent acquaintances. 

Jonathan was not the usual type of person to be swept into his orbit. They were not—and he could not emphasize this point enough—in similar social groups. On every level, except physical, they did not even exist in the same world. 

And that was fine.

Bruce surrounded himself with the Tommy Elliot’s and Silver St. Cloud’s of the world. Pretty, vapid things that probably considered visiting a trap house an adventure and drove to school in Tesla’s. (There was no probably about it, actually. Jonathan knew Silver St. Cloud drove a Tesla because earlier in the year she ran over his bike with her shitty, energy-efficient, crime against humanity of a car.)

Bruce got along with his teachers. He had a special handshake with Principal Essen. He was inevitably going to end up being Prom King when the time came. He was an honor-roll student with enough extracurriculars to make Jonathan's head spin and, as far as he could tell, he had enough admirers at his beck-and-call that there was no reason he had to stoop to inviting Jonathan over to his mega-mcmansion to watch a movie.

It wasn't like they hung out. They were partners on a chemistry project once, and their study session had quickly been derailed by an impromptu lesson in shotgunning—which was a completely normal and natural thing to happen. Like, sure. Maybe Jonathan had been a teensy bit curious as to whether straight-laced golden boy Bruce Wayne would actually smoke with him, and maybe he was in over his head before he’d even grabbed his zippo, but, c’mon. He was only human. 

It wasn’t like anything world-shaking had happened.

(He tried, valiantly, not to think about how cold Bruce’s hands had been or the weight of him sitting on his legs or the way he looked, breathing out smoke: eyes lidded, pupils blown. He tried, most of all, not to think about how soft his mouth was. It was a losing battle.) 

So, they'd been partners once. Months ago. And then, again, in Leob's English class when they had to write a paper together a few weeks after the chemistry project. And, okay, maybe Bruce had started smiling at him in the hallways as if that was something he was allowed to do. And, maybe, Bruce had started spending a few days out of each week hanging around in Jonathan's threadbare bedroom pretending like he was charmed; pretending like he couldn’t buy everything to Jonathan’s name three-times over with just his lunch money. 

They were friendly. That was all. 

(Only that didn't really feel right to him. Something about the idea of it—of them—being nothing but a series of stomach-twisting accidents make his mouth go dry and ashy. He wasn't superstitious. He’d long given up the urge to want things; long resigned himself to the kind of disappointment that blooms ugly and rotten, and sinks like a stone in a stomach; disappointment that clings and chafes and oozes open like a burst blister with each little hurt—but every moment he spent with Bruce—every eye roll and bumped knee and shared song—made his chest well up with—with wanting. Bruce Wayne made Jonathan want. He made him burn-up. He made him dream. It was terrible—pinpricks beneath his nails—it ate away at him. He hated it. He hated it, and—)

He broke out of his thoughts, then. Bruce had a way of catching his attention.

Case in point:

A throw pillow worth more than his college savings slammed into his cheek.

It lacked Bruce’s usual subtlety. When he turned, instinctively, towards the direction of the throw, he found Bruce already wrapped tightly in a garish orange-and-blue quilt, lounging on his sofa with the air of a world-weary prince. He was too much—Bruce was—in ever conceivable way, by every possible count. Looking at him set his teeth on edge. His fingers twitched, hidden by ratty sleeves. Little prince, little prince...

Jonathan moved to sit beside him. He swung the throw pillow at his head in retribution. He felt like he was having a sugar rush. 

Jonathan was never a fan of sweet things. He elbowed Bruce in the side: sharp, straight to the ribs. Jonathan was never a sweet thing, himself. 

Neither was Bruce. He reached out and yanked down on a clump of Jonathan’s hair. “Don’t be an asshole.”

“Don’t pull my hair,” Jonathan said, twisting away, aiming for Bruce’s ribs once again. Bruce let go, only to pinch at his cheek instead, pressing the skin hard between his thumb and forefinger. He hissed, “What are you? Five?”

“You’re such a baby,” Bruce said, letting go of his cheek, smoothing his thumb over the space he’d pinched. “An asshole baby.”

"Can't help what I am," Jonathan said, barely resisting the urge pass his thumb over the spot Bruce had just touched. "What’s the problem? You want me to change? Be nicer? That’s a slippery slope, you know. First, it’s don’t be an asshole, Jonny, then it’s cut your hair, Jonny; donate to the orphans, Jonny. Where does it end?”

Bruce kicked at his shin. “I’d hate to speak for every orphan, but I think most of us could care less about your charity.”

“You say that now—”

“And I’d never ask you to cut your hair. It suits you.”

They suddenly felt too close, sitting on the couch as they were. “Spend a lot of time thinking about what suits me, baby?”

"Ha,” Bruce said, his expression odd. ”I spend more time thinking about what doesn't, hotshot.” 

That wasn’t a denial. That was, probably, as close to the opposite of a denial as Bruce would give. Something rabbited nervously in his chest. "Well you can’t leave me hanging, now. You gotta tell me what else you like about me or I’ll think your just making shit up." 

"I like,” Bruce stressed the word, “to think back to when you were too nervous to be this annoying.” There wasn’t any real bite to it, but whatever strange, tenuous thing hung between them fizzled away. Jonathan couldn’t tell if he was disappointed or not. "Tommy's half-convinced that you're secretly mute, you know? You just—loom around without saying anything. And Ivy thinks that you’re the brains behind all the shit that Jerome stirs."

Jonathan hadn't known that Bruce and Ivy Pepper were close enough to warrant them gossiping about him. Though, to be fair, he also hadn’t known that Bruce was talking to people about him, at all. Which. Huh. Bruce was talking to people about him. His sugar rush came back, full force. He felt dizzy with it. 

"As if I could convince Jerome to do anything.” His mouth felt very dry. "Remember when he filled all of Strange's desk drawers with fish?"

Bruce made a face, but laughed anyways. "The lab room smelled like something died in it for weeks. You're telling me that wasn't your idea?"

"Disappointed?"

"Mm," he hummed, eyes crinkled up at the sides, looking cozy and warm and a world away. "Any chance you’ll give me Jerome’s number? Want to put a good word in for me?"

And there it was. So it went. Give and take. Push and pull. Push until the air fissured, pull until Bruce drew his line in the proverbial sand. Every time. 

Speech seemed to have suddenly fled him. He elbowed Bruce instead, hard enough for Bruce to roll his eyes and nudge his thigh with his foot, a lazy smile settling on his face.

"I'm kidding." He said, and his voice was warm. He shifted a bit in his cocoon of blankets so that his legs were suddenly in Jonathan’s lap and their shoulder’s were pressed against each other; Bruce a solid, warm line against him. His hair brushed over Jonathan’s cheek while he settled down, and if Jonathan moved his arm just so he could feel his heartbeat. This was the reason Jonathan kept wanting. This was the reason Bruce was too much—as a concept, as a person, as the sliver of whatever that he cast off to jab into Jonathan— 

 He felt as if he’d touched a live-wire, though he imagined that might have hurt less. Bruce was still talking, “I already have his number, anyways.”

“You want to date Jerome?” Jonathan asked, stomach turning inexplicably. 

Bruce choked, coughed, and then, in a hoarse, panicked voice, asked, “What? Date Jerome? No. What the—No. Just—no.” 

His teeth still hurt. His hands were shaking, hidden in his sleeves. He wished he was back home, wrapped in his own ratty comforter. He wished...Well. It didn’t matter what he wished, in the end. “Sorry for asking.”

He could feel Bruce staring at him, something doe-soft about the look his eyes, but he couldn’t face him—could only bear to keep him in his peripherals. “I don’t want to date Jerome,” he said, after a long moment, steady and firm. “I want...” He could see him wet his lips, take a breath, and continue, “I want to watch this movie. With you.”

"Good thing I'm here then," Jonathan said, something ugly welling up in his chest. He held it. He let it go. 

"Yeah," Bruce said, grabbing the remote with a frown. "Good thing." 

[erintoknow]

evidence

fallen hero: rebirth fanfic, set right after Heartbreak ~1.8k words, staring everyone’s favorite Sergeant Steel. retribution alpha minor spoiler

content warning for a That Guy

------

Not quite civilian business, not quite Ranger business. Chen wasn’t really sure how to dress, wasn’t comfortable with this blending of lives. But if he didn’t get to the bottom of this, who would? Ortega was in no state of mind to pursue this. The odds of a dead end was too high. He couldn’t do that to his friend. Things were bad enough right now. Breath in, breath out. Straighten his collar. Ring the doorbell, knock on the door. Wait.

It had taken Chen more than a few beers and hours of reminiscing with Ortega. Surreptitiously going over what they remembered of old stories, writing down the details and cross-referencing everything against each other with a map of the city. Cross out options and narrow down the list. Maybe the fourth time would be the charm. Hopefully it would be worth it.

Someone shouted from the other side of the door, the sound of shuffling furniture. There was the sound of several locks being undone and then finally, the door cracked up, a single suspicious eye peering out. “Who is it?”

Chen clasped his hands behind his back. “Sergeant Steel, we talked on the phone briefly yesterday?”

The eye stares, boring in to him.

Chen stares back.

The eye blinks first. “Yes, yes, I remember now.” The door shuts, there’s a rattling of a chain, then opens again wider. “Com’on then, take a seat.” Defying expectations the owner of the eye is not a crone of an old woman but a man, maybe in his forties? Greying hair, wrinkles coming into their own on his face. If he dressed a little nicer, Chen might even class him as handsome. Untrimmed beard and beer-stained tank-top, however? Not so much.

“Thank you,” Chen says as he steps inside, closing the door behind him.

“Please, take a seat,” his host repeats, gesturing towards the wooden chairs arranged around a dining room table. His host pulls a chair away from the table edge before sliding into his own, a pile of books in poor condition scattered in front of him.

Chen raises a hand. “I’m fine, thank you.”

“Alright then, suit yourself.” He shrugs, “I’m John Carpenter, nice to meet you in person, Mr…?” Chen eyes the man. Definitely a fake name.

“Sergeant Steel is fine.”

John frowns at that.

“You said the person I’m looking for might have been a tenant of yours?”

He nods, reaches to grab one of the books in front of him. This one looks like it’s seen some heavy water damage. “Yep, the name Becker sounded familiar, and you certainly don’t see too many German names in this part of town these days, mostly–” He stops himself, and looks at Chen uncomfortably. Chen allows him the courtesy of pretending not to notice.

“Anyway,” John flips through the book, stopping on one page to circle a name with a red pen. “Here we go.” The way John just rips the page out of the book and slides it over is enough to make Chen wince. “Moved in back in 2007, stayed about… oh, two years?”

Chen scans the page. Towards the bottom, the circled name ‘Chelsea D. Becker | April 13th, 2007 | Deposit and Rent: Paid’

Chelsea? A fake name? Even for Sidestep that seemed a little lazy. With some care, the fine motor control in his hand wasn’t the best, Chen pulls a photograph out of his unbuttoned front pocket, putting it down on the table. “Does this person look familiar?”

John leans over, squinting down at the small, crinkled picture. The only group picture Ortega had been able to corral Sidestep into taking without her suit on, dressed in a vest over a long-sleeved blouse and skirt with tights. It was supposed to stay on the fridge. Hopefully he’d find something out of this that would get Ortega to forgive him.

John purses his lips, pushes his tongue in his mouth from side to side and makes a clicking noise. “The one on the far right there,” Chen keeps a blank expression as John points a finger right on Sidestep’s face. “Reminds me of the kid Chelsea always had around, maybe a sister?”

That throws Chen for a loop. “Parent-Child?”

John shakes his head. “Don’t think so. This kid just showed up a not long after Chelsea did. Maybe right out of high school?” John clicks his tongue and shrugs. “Normally I’d charge extra for stuffing two people in studio apartment like that, but I think the kid had been homeless so I pretended I didn’t see nothing.”

Alright then. What was the connection between this ‘Chelsea Becker’ and Ariadne Becker?

“Can you tell me anything else about them?”

“‘friad not, I respect my tenants’ privacy.” John says with possibly the most lying-through-my-teeth look Chen has ever seen on a man’s face.

Chen waits him out.

Finally; “Okay, well. I think the woman might have been a drug dealer or something. Always weird hours. Always paid on full, never late–”

“That’s cause for suspicion?”

“Around here it is, yeah.” John waves a hand, dismissing the question. “Now that I think about it, you know how women are,” He shoots Chen a knowing look. “Maybe she was just keeping the boy around as a fu-“

“Excuse me,” Chen cuts him off, “Boy?”

“Yeah, boy. Kid was a boy.”

Chen frowns. Another dead end then after all.

John clicks his tongue. “Probably a fairy though,” He makes a face, completely oblivious to the fact that only years of self-discipline is saving him from having his nose broken. “Kept running around in girl clothes and shit. Hell, maybe that’s not a sister in your picture. Could just be him.”

Maybe not a dead end then? But that would mean… It would mean Chen has even more questions now than when he started this whole process.

“…when was the last time you saw the kid?” Chen asks, keeping his face blank.

“So, when Chelsea moved out, I offered to keep renting to him, but he couldn’t afford it. Felt bad though, so generous man that I am, I let him stay, off-the-books, until I got a new tenant to rent the room like, a month later? Never saw him again after that.”

“No idea where they might have went?”

John shakes his head. “Him? Nah, he just straight up vanished the day I gave him the heads up, didn’t even take anything with him.”

Chen sighs, frustration mounting. Why was trying to dig into anything about Sidestep like digging in sand?  “What about the… the woman, Chelsea, any idea where she went?”

John shrugs, “Left the city, I think?” An idea occurs to him and and he leans in for a conspiratorial whisper. “You think she was on the run from the law? You Rangers tracking down a cold-case?”

“Something like that.” Chen pinches his nose. “I can’t discuss the details of an investigation in progress.” That was… technically true.

John clicks his tongue, grins. “Say no more Sarge,” he winks. “Say, you know what? Maybe you want to take a look at the stuff he left behind, maybe something’ll help out the case?”

Chen raises an eyebrow. “I find it hard to believe you held on to a tenant’s property for half a decade.”

John waves him off and gets up the table, trundling into a back room. “I am a collector Sarge.” He says the word with an uncomfortable level of relish.

A few minutes of rummaging later and John is back with a small plastic bin. He drops it on the table in front of Chen. “Few pictures, a journal. Think there were some tapes and records too, but I kept those for me.” He looks at Chen, “Always figured I could sell it back to the kid if he came around again. Never did though.”

Chen has to will his hand to keep steady as he picks through the few items in the bin. Pull out one photo, a young blonde-haired woman standing next to an even younger looking androgynous teenager with short reddish-brown hair, and green eyes. Chen lays the the picture down next to the earlier photo he had brought with him. It feels like he’s looking at something he shouldn’t be – there’s an itching in the back of his skull. But the similarities are too close to be ignored, right down to the way the uncomfortable smile breaks across the face.

“I’ll need to hold on to these for evidence.”

John opens his arms wide, “Be my guest, always happy to be of service to the law.” John winks again, “Provided of course, the law remembers me favorably in return.”

Chen frowns, “I’ll make a note of it.” He says, with no such intention to do so. He reaches back into the bin, pulls out the journal. No indication on the cover who owned it. Just a plain black moleskin bound book, held shut with a cloth strap. Slip it open with a careful slide of the thumb, start with the first page.

chelsea thinks keeping a journal will help that I can write out the nightmares as if that’ll like get them outside of me?

she doesn’t understand why I can’t do that I can’t explain it to her either I mean

last night wasn’t even that bad, since i started saving people things feel better

like

i’m in control again it’s fun actually? just hang around with a police scanner and be ready to run across town tucking sucks like super shit though

i don’t trust the rangers charge seems real full of herself thinks she’s so hot with her perfect smile and the way she stands with her hips cocked and

wow that’s embarrassing

you know what forget this this is dumb sorry chelsea

Chen flips through the rest of the book, all the other pages are blank. Another dead end. Nothing to suggest what might have happened to Sidestep now. Nothing to hint at what was up with the ambulance Chen knows carted Sidestep away in direct contradiction to the official report. Where had Ariadne lived between this and now? Where did she go when she wasn’t at a crime scene or following Ortega like a lost cat? Who did she associate with outside of the Rangers?

Maybe they could put the journal in the ceremonial casket, it’d be better than nothing. But how to explain finding it to Ortega without giving away the investigation? And there was the matter of... Maybe it was best to keep the journal to himself after all. This was one secret that didn’t need to be exposed.

Chen puts the journal back in the bin and adds both the pictures and the torn record book page. Might as well hold on to it. Hopefully his government contact would get back to him soon with something, anything, about the where he’d seen that ambulance go. This had been his best shot at nailing down a residence and it ends up being years old. The only other lead left was this ‘Chelsea’ woman, and given his luck so far, it was hard to be optimistic about the odds.

Ariadne Becker, woman of mystery and thorn in his side, couldn’t even have the courtesy to have a non-mysterious death. This one was going to eat at him.

[seitjun]

taste the sunshine on my lips

3200+ words // freewood // fahc au

Description: In the midst of a Los Santos heatwave with broken air conditioning, there’s really no other plan that matches up going to the beach. And who knows what else may come of it.

Extra notes: This is the third part of the ’Romance for Dummies’ series, and that link will direct you to previous installments of the series. This is a smaller part, but it’s a small snack for the next possible part c;!

AO3 link is also available here! Fic is under a read more.

Summer in Los Santos is a dry, heated thing that crashes over the whole city. Ryan hears Gavin whining as he drapes himself over the sill of the open window of his apartment — there’s still no wind passing by to ease the heat.

“This is absolute rubbish, Ryan! Of all the days for it to be sucky...” Gavin turns to face Ryan with a groaned sigh as his hand acts as the world’s worst fan. More sweat garners the longer he fakes the fanning, so he gives in after a moment and takes to tugging at his shirt instead. He grimaces, “I’m all yucky and gross.”

Ryan tosses a glance back, feeling his own shirt cling to the sweat-soaked skin of his back. It is disgusting and unfortunate. He matches Gavin’s expression as he stares at the broken thermostat that mocks them with its lie of 70 degrees fahrenheit; it’s not supposed to make them sweat this badly, is it? Either way, Ryan’s sure he can’t commit a crime as bad as the air conditioning breaking during a heat wave.

He gnaws at his lower lip, trying to ignore the rising temperature of the room or the daze his mind is falling into. The background noise of soft, Gavin whining isn’t helping either. He’s scrambling for a solution, a quick one to get them both of this godforsaken heat and not spend their day together unhappy.

So without thinking, he blurts out the first, sensible idea he can voice: “Let’s go to the beach.”

“Huh?”

Ryan’s face turns pink at Gavin’s confusion, all fanning motions paused, and Ryan shrugs lamely; he can already feel himself wanting to melt into the floor at the stupid suggestion of his. Even more than the temperature already is. “It’s hot inside with a broken air conditioner, so we shouldn’t stay here. We could go into a different building, but they might yell at us for loitering.” He tries to explain.

“Christ, let’s not risk that then. Managers here are terrifying,” Gavin agrees with a wince. Old, suppressed memories bubble up and instill a familiar fear in him for a moment. Ryan sympathizes.

“So, no indoors stuff unless we actually stay there for a reason. But because it’s a weekday anyway, since we aren’t exactly… people with normal working hours, let’s go to the beach. We can enjoy how empty it is for once.” A pause. “Plus beaches are fun, if you can swim.”

Ryan aims a quirked brow towards Gavin, but he says nothing more. And it takes a second for Gavin to recognize the unsaid question, yet Ryan can see the moment it all clicks into place. From a confused tilt of his head to the wide-eyed realization to a glare accompanied by a pouting intention.

“What was that tone supposed to be, Ry? You know you didn’t have to say it like that!”

“I mean, just to be safe here, but… Hey, hold on, why are you fronting on me? Gav? Gavin, no–!”

A burst of noise escapes Ryan as he blocks against the tickling assault from Gavin, a broad hand easily gripping two, thin wrists. He grunts when Gavin twists around in his grip, but he keeps it locked around as he brings his free arm to wrap around Gavin and barely budges when Gavin keeps squirming in his grip. And for as much as Ryan hates using his size difference against Gavin, he can’t deny the satisfaction at keeping Gavin on lockdown so easily.

“Y’know,” Ryan starts, no sign of exhaustion present, “I don’t think the issue is how I said it since I didn’t really say anything, if we’re being technical here.”

Ryan feels more than hear the puff of exasperation from Gavin, and he tightens his hold on the smaller man. More squirming and writhing until Ryan finally feels Gavin get tired from the unexpected tussle.

Despite the earlier rumble, Ryan watches how Gavin eventually snuggles closer into the tight hold and burrows into the crook of Ryan’s neck; strands of messy, blonde hair tickle his collarbone, and soft lips graze his skin to leave butterfly trails. Ryan huffs out a laugh at the sensation before Gavin pinches him lightly in retribution. It hurts not at all compared to the litany of scars his body boasts, but it twists his stomach in a familiar, aching way.

“Glad you know I’m right then.” Ryan grins as he finally lets go of Gavin’s wrist, hand sliding down to settle on Gavin’s waist with the other. He tries to ignore how his heart flutters at how Gavin’s arms wrap around his neck without hesitation. Hides it by kissing the top of a blonde head gently. “You didn’t respond though, about going to the beach. Yay or nay, bud?”

“You sound like a middle-aged dad saying that,” Gavin grumbles. A single eye peeks out from his hiding place, green and bright. “But a day at the beach...doesn’t sound too bad. This could be one of our dates, yeah?”

Ryan rolls his eyes, pretending that his heartbeat isn’t skyrocketing out of his chest. How Gavin goes with it easily, even makes it better by calling it a date without hesitation. Even months of being boyfriends, of going on dates that never get boring, Ryan still feels the same, nervous fluttering of excitement from the first time.

He doesn’t think he’ll ever get over the feeling – he hopes he never does.

“Yeah,” Ryan replies finally. His voice is dry, a little scratchy, and he shakes his head at Gavin’s concerned expression. “Don’t worry, just my voice being shitty. But yeah. Let’s head to the beach.”

//

“I feel like this is forbidden, being at the beach when there’s no one here,” Gavin comments with a shudder. “Something is off here without all the people hoarding every piece of sand.”

Ryan glances over the span of the beach he can see behind his sunglasses, seeing an entire expanse of sand for once. The closest group of people he can see is far away, and he’s sure there’s less than 10 people there. Plus there’s no ugly towels or obnoxious umbrellas littering the floor, no people to have to constantly apologize to while stepping over them. No worries about trash being left behind by assholes.

So, as weird as it is and as much as Ryan agrees at the feeling Gavin points out, he doesn’t hate it. This is way better than a normal day at the beach, usually overly crowded with annoying pests of people.

“Eh, could be worse. C’mon, let’s go grab a spot before some nasty family snatches it from us,” Ryan jokes, nudging Gavin’s shoulder. It earns him a disgruntled look, but he pays it no mind – he cheerfully ambles toward a spot close enough to the waves without getting soaked by them. “See? Look at that, we have one of the best seats in the house!”

His smile is blinding even as Gavin slinks up to him slowly with an fond sigh at his joke. With a hum, he drops the two towels he had been lugging around to roll it out before gesturing towards his boyfriend. He watches Gavin drop a small cooler they had scrounge up at Ryan’s home, along with a small bag filled with Gavin’s personal stuff and some of Ryan’s that he managed to cram in there.

“This isn’t too bad, yeah?” Ryan turns to level a hopeful look towards Gavin as if an invisible tail is wagging behind him. A small smile is still playing on his lip, waiting for praise at what a brilliant outing this is already turning out to be.

Gavin quirks a brow, but he can’t stifle the smile that threatens to creep up on his own face. He rises on his tip toes, hands cupping Ryan’s cheeks, to pepper kisses across Ryan’s nose and cheeks. Gavin swears if he looks a little harder, he can see said tail thumping even more excitedly as Ryan’s face explodes with joy.

“It’s great, lovely Ryan,” Gavin compliments, placing one last kiss on the tip of Ryan’s nose. “Now, hurry up. We went to the beach to cool off, not stand around and get sweaty!”

Ryan huffs as Gavin pulls away, hands lamely reaching out for the other. He watches how Gavin darts away from his space with a cheeky smirk, hands already tugging off his shirt and the loosest pair of jeans he could find earlier. Ryan wants so badly to take Gavin’s hands for himself and hold it for however long he can, original plan be damned. Sweat is a small price to pay for hand holding.

But then Gavin’s left in just his swim trunks, hidden under his pants, rest of his body out for the world to see, and just – oh. Ryan can’t help admire Gavin; the tanned skin that looks bright at home under the sun, the trail of heavy patches of hair that run down his chest to his trunks, and the small stature that Ryan knows holds more intensity than some of his old contacts.

Distantly, he processes the prideful look that streaks itself across Gavin’s face, but he can’t be assed to mention it right now. He’s busy short circuiting at the sight of Gavin, his hands twitching with the need to hold his boyfriend close. He wants to touch, to hold– to just do anything that Gavin would let him do.

It’s too crude to say he’s drooling, but well. He is.

“Rybread, you’re starin’,” Gavin giggles, crowding into Ryan’s space again. Ryan feels the gentle weight that rests on his chest as Gavin’s hands settles there, eyes gleaming with fondness, and his heart races into overtime at the other’s affection. He’s overwhelmed with it all as Gavin pushes and pushes up against him, trying to take it all in stride. “Didn’t your folks ever teach you that starin’ is bad?”

“I, uh, huh? Wh…” Ryan barely manages to say, voice tight and just short of squeaky. He blinks down at Gavin, looking lost almost. “Sorry, Gav, I just got...distracted? Uh…”

An awful excuse. One that Ryan can tell doesn’t make it past Gavin, considering the quirked brow and the smug grin playing on pink lips. He opens his mouth to come up with a new explanation, only to be cut off by Gavin.

“Y’know, ‘s mean of you to not pay attention to your own boyfriend, Ry.” Gavin pouts as he leans his head against Ryan’s chest, looking up with big, doe eyes. It’s naive-looking, those overly innocent eyes.

It’s enough for Ryan to snap out of his haze, stare narrowing; Gavin only pulls out that look when it’s two very specific situations. One is when he’s trying to get away with something, and he thinks he can win Ryan’s forgiveness early. The other is when Gavin is up to something that Ryan may or may not forgive, and shit–

It’s too late when Ryan realizes he could suddenly feel a cold wetness slosh at his feet. His eyes widen, body jerking at the water and arms flailing; he opens his mouth to scold Gavin only for his breath to be cut short, a pair of hands shoving him away with more force than expected–

“Gavin!”

Ryan shudders as he hits the water, chilling to the bone and weighing him down with all his soaked clothes. He glares at the blurry sight of Gavin squeaking in laughter over the water, and he launches himself out of the ocean to sit up with a frown. He’s fucking drenched in freezing saltwater. Loudly, Gavin’s amusement rings in his ears – or maybe that was the water rushing in?

Either way, he isn’t standing for this. Not at all.

With a scowl, Ryan’s hands darts outs to reach Gavin’s hips. He ignores the bloodcurdling scream that follows as he yanks his boyfriend down, screeching all the way down with a loud, full-bodied splash that soaks Ryan even more.

“W-What the– Ryan! You absolute prick, Ryan!”

Gavin splutters through the ocean water dripping all over him, spitting at the salty taste. He shoves at Ryan’s chest – no heat or force like before – with a quiet whine, lips framed into a perfect textbook pout that usually had Ryan giving in. Would’ve been far more effective if Gavin didn’t look like a drowned cat sentenced to another bath.

“You deserved that, and you know it. Don’t try to pout your way out of this one, bastard!”

“Ryan!”

Ryan pays no mind to Gavin’s yelp as he dunks Gavin under the water with him again, bringing them up for a split second only to press his cold nose to Gavin’s collarbone. Hides a small grin and tightens his grip as smaller hands scrabble to move away from him, to no avail. “You take the consequence, Gavvy, or else!”

The need for revenge is fast replaced with a joyful childishness as Gavin manages to pull away, free hands instantly dipping in the water to splash Ryan. He’s pouting the entire time, but he’s content to bat water and block against Ryan’s retaliations, sitting on Ryan’s lap still.

Ryan’s smile doesn’t drop the whole time. Even when he’s had enough saltwater getting into his eyes, he just reaches for Gavin’s wrists to hold onto them gently; he leaves a trail of kisses on Gavin’s palms, before he twines their hands together. Fingers interlock over fingers, the hold reassuring and warm amidst the chill.

Blue eyes meet green ones, and Ryan swears that it knocks his breath away. Bright and sparkling, under the sun, it turns into priceless, peridot beauties; no jewelry store in Los Santos could Ryan ever rob to find anything to match Gavin’s eyes. Not when said gems radiate so much affection for Ryan, a fondness that’s only rivalled by Ryan’s own for his boyfriend.

Ryan is sure he’s getting lost in Gavin’s eyes, a cheesy joke about needing a map lingering on his tongue; who cares if it feels like one of those cliche movies that he’s used to make fun of before meeting Gavin. His heart is faster than the speed of light, and he wonders if Gavin can hear how loud it’s beating just for him.

With the little distance between them, slowly waning as they stay in their positions, Ryan’s eyes roam everywhere it can on Gavin’s features — the messy hair, defined nose, and faint tufts of a slowly-growing beard. Even the the little nicks from the most recent shaving session are met with a sense of endearment. His heart aches at how much he adores every detail of Gavin’s.

Then his gaze trails over to Gavin’s lips, soft-looking and pink and eye catching as sunshine hits the lingering water drops just perfectly. Ryan can’t resist the urge to bring a hand up and settle his thumb gently against Gavin’s lower lip, a strong chanting of want want want echoing in his head. His stomach is a twisted flurry of butterflies waiting for an escape, for Ryan to make a move he’s been aching for a while but could never place.

Until now.

“Gavin…” Ryan whispers. Low and quiet, his chest rumbling with the words as affection swells up in his chest. His hand drifts to cup Gavin’s cheek, and his brows furrow as he darts up to make eye contact with Gavin again, watches how his lover’s head tilts just the slightest bit in pure curiosity. No judgement, no teasing lilt, no nothing.

This is Ryan’s moment.

“Gavin,” Ryan repeats. “Can...can I kiss you? Please?”

To his own ears, he sounds meek and small. In a way, it’s not wrong – not when this relationship with Gavin, albeit being the best damn thing in his life so far, is still wholly new to him. Months of courtship, of dating, of just learning to be comfortable doesn’t erase his inexperience with this whole thing he’s got going on, doesn’t erase how there’s so much he doesn’t know.

Being a criminal makes him a wanted man to the police but not to anybody else. And he would’ve lived that life until his untimely death without regrets, even if his loneliness caught up with him eventually, because crime is a love of its own.

Not until that fateful bank heist, the momentary locking gazes, and impulsive actions on both their sides. An eventual spiral into what they have now.

“Lovely Ryan,” Gavin crows so sweetly, the best sort of distraction from Ryan’s rambling thoughts. “‘Course you can kiss me.”

And on God, Ryan does.

The first sensation Ryan registers is the briney taste of the ocean, sharp and strong on his tongue. The second is how warm Gavin’s lips are, how Ryan can feel a fire being stoked from their meeting lips and running through his body. How Ryan is properly vindicated when he realizes Gavin’s lips feel as soft as they look, Ryan’s hands feeling at home on Gavin’s skin.

The kiss is pliant and slow and chaste, Gavin so willing to let Ryan take the lead. Ryan thinks this might be the closest thing he’ll ever get to being in heaven, but he wonders if the actual heaven could ever be as good as this.

Ryan’s eyes are half-lidded when he finally pulls away from Gavin, foreheads leaning against each other’s and their nosetips grazing just barely. Ryan can’t help feeling overwhelmed as Gavin lets out little bursts of giggles that accompany innocent eskimo kisses.

“I think it’s cute seeing you like this, Ry,” Gavin smiles. He’s breathless and in awe, and Ryan is weak for it. “I like that you’re more comfortable with me, but seeing you still get flustered at times...it reminds me when we just started to go on dates. I never stood a chance against not liking you, lovely Ryan.” Gavin’s eyes never strays away from Ryan’s as he cuddles up, lips pulled up into a soft curve of a smile.

“This was a good idea. One of the best dates we’ve had so far, with us kissing and beating the heat too,” Gavin teases. Still soft, still admiring. “Wouldn’t you agree?”

Ryan can’t answer, throat lodged with his heart and his chest overflowing with emotions he’s never felt. He doesn’t know how to voice anything that Gavin is expecting of him, that he’s expecting of himself either.

So, he settles for the only thing that he knows he can say. That’s been running through his mind since their moment just minutes ago.

“Gavin, please. I want to kiss you, can I kiss you? Again?” Ryan pleads wantingly. His cheeks are still pebbled with pinks and reds as they share the same space, and Ryan swears he can feel Gavin’s warm breath hit his skin in puffs. His hands clench and unclench, a trembling need existing in them. “Please.”

Gavin’s lips are curled up into a giddy grin, lopsided and crooked and so heartwarmingly genuine. His grip tightens around Ryan’s water-soaked shoulders. “If you think you can get away with only giving me one kiss, Ry, then you’re an absolute lunatic. Of course you can kiss me again, just keep kissin’ me!”

And Ryan – well, what else can he do besides dive in for another kiss he so badly wanted?

[janiedean]

(part 1) ur gonna roast me for this but im legit curious why mafia AUs are so bad? im asking in a non confrontational way, i get it romanticizing mafia is wrong, but i also believe that 1)most mafia AUs are a really toned down type of mafia;2)they do make for some interesting kinds of dynamics with fanart and with fics; 3)in a fic specifically u can create your own world and call something mafia and still make it so they don't kill innocent people but only idk members of other gangs or sth

(part 2) plus theyre a way to put ur charas in a completely diff context and see what theyll do. i mean i dont believe that writing ships in a certain context (like mafia) equals romanticizing that context. mafia AUs arent even my fav things to read (in fact i almost never do), im sure many ppl romanticize it and i obvs dont agree with that but im just trying to udnerstand bc i believe fandoms are a way to explore things that we normally wouldnt.

I’m not gonna roast you don’t worry xD okay wait let me check if I replied to this already if yes I’m gonna c/p because it’s half past midnight otherwise I’ll just go at it again wait *checks tags* fff obviously I don’t have a general post but anyway pls read this after you’ve done with my post and then this which is also choke-full of links. plus for a (not nice) laugh: here. AH WAIT I FOUND THE POST.

okay, so, let’s have it out of the way: I have nothing against mob aus or crime aus. I have a problem against calling them mafia AUs because in the US mafia = organized crime at large, in Italy mafia = ACTUAL EXISTING ORGANIZATIONS THAT ARE ACTIVELY HARMFUL. now that I introduced the topic I’ll c/p you the reply I gave to another anon who while discussing the issue pointed out that most writers don’t even know Italian mafia is a thing, which is pretty much on the same discourse so...

*The thing is - in the US it might not be enough of a deal anymore and I honestly do get why people make the mafia = regular mobsters, since the mafia was the first foreign organized crime being exported to the US via italian immigrants (sorry if this sounds horrible in English but I just woke up and I still didn’t have coffee) so I understand that mafia became the umbrella term.But the thing is that - as you said, these people don’t even know that there’s a mafia in Italy anymore or where the word comes from.

 I’m going to link to italiansreclaimingitaly’s tag about the mafia and its perception outside Italy because they posted about this extensively and it’s an excellent resource, but meanwhile I’m gonna do a very short bullet point list and about the topic:

Mafia might not be a big deal in the US, but it still is here. We have the beauty of four different mafias (Cosa Nostra - the Sicilian one, camorra which is the one in Campania but has tendrils spread everywhere, the 'ndrangheta which is in Calabria and the Sacra Corona Unita in Puglia) which are all active [especially camorra and 'ndrangheta] and whose actions have direct impact (negative) on our economy and on our society. Actually mafias are one of the main reasons we’re currently economically fucked up, and if I start talking about how mafia culture keeps some areas literally backwards I could talk about it for three months.

There are still people who are killed for standing up against them. These days the most prominent personality is Roberto Saviano who is a writer who dared to put together a book documenting minutely the way camorra works and he’s been living under protection for years by this point. Like, they want him dead because he wrote a book. And I’m sorta sure that he was talking about leaving Italy and going to the US after years of sticking with it here because he can’t take it anymore but I don’t know if it was a taken decision or if it’s still debating it.

It wasn’t even thirty years ago that we had the stragi di mafia - in english it’d be something like the mafia slaughters, basically around the beginning of the nineties there were a number of bombs planted by the mafia targeting people who were trying to oppose it including judges Falcone and Borsellino, actually the anniversary of Falcone’s death is like... tomorrow. And they’ve killed people for way longer than that. Here is a list of only Cosa Nostra victims including the ones from the eighties/nineties. And people are still dying because of it. The slaughters I’m referring to are just the ones in the nineties which are enough of a number.

They also perpetuate a culture where if you testify against your mafia-employed relatives you’ll be shunned forever. There are women who testified against their families and couldn’t see their children anymore never mind that they weren’t automatically considered a relative anymore the moment they sided against the mafia. Some people have committed suicide after becoming witnesses also because our police force/justice system can be terribly non-supportive in this kind of situation so they got left on their own. Never mind that back in the day - it was the beginning of the nineties? - I recall at least a particular story of - I think, correct me if I remember wrong but I can’t remember the names for the life of me - where this guy testified against the local mafia when he either used to work for them or was forced to pay them the pizzo and in retaliation his six-year old (or five? Anyway he had a son younger than ten for sure) got kidnapped, killed and thrown into acid to dispose of the body. That happened in what, 1993? 1994? It’s pretty much yesterday. And now the camorra is doing the same - there’s a list here of camorra victims among which accidental passerbys that got killed because they were in the way which I can tell just by glancing is not complete. And I’m not even going into the 'ndrangheta. That is to say, here mafia still kills people and cripples our country.

Now, I get that it’s a word, but the point was: let’s say that instead of the Italians the Japanese came to the US first and the umbrella word for organized crime was yakuza rather than mafia and let’s say yakuza was still what it was originally in Japan while in the US it stopped being a big deal and people write yakuza!AU instead of mafia AU. Let’s say someone Japanese gets angry at that and goes like 'listen the yakuza is a real deal it does this this this and that and it’s a plague in our country so can you please at least look it up before writing your fanfic’, which is what had happened way back then when this whole mafia and fanfic thing blew up. A bunch of people told us to get over it because it’s just a word and if it’s a problem in Italy it’s not in the US so why should they care? Now, if we had been Japanese (or Chinese or Russian or Mexican) would they have said the same thing? Considering the general tumblr attitude I’m pretty sure they would have received either an apology or 'this is an important deal let’s keep that in mind’ with signal boost reblogs and stuff. 

It’s the fact that we should get over people not knowing that it’s still a real problem for us and that they can’t take five seconds to google it that is the problem imo. Especially when instead of mafia au you can just say mobsters au or tag it as organized crime and everyone is a lot happier, mostly because as the tag above explains romanticising the mafia is a good thing for them because it means they can act outside Italy with less stigma because everyone thinks that the mafia is dead or not relevant anymore, if I’m explaining myself. (And it’s active outside Italy - like, there was a mafia kill in Germany in 2007 where six people died (sorry the link is in Italian but there isn’t an English wiki page, if you look the city up you’ll find something probably) and it was because of the 'ndrangheta.

I’d really like to not get worked over it because it meant it was a thing of the past y'know, but the problem is that it isn’t and I’d rather spread some awareness in hope some of these writers look it up (because it’s a good thing that people know what mafia is since as stated they have tendrils everywhere - if you read Saviano’s book the entire first chapter is about how camorra regularly deals with Chinese import/export in Italy for one) than shrug and figure that since they’ll think everything is good for fanfic then it’s not even worth my time.*

Now, ^^^ that was the c/p-ed reply that should answer most of your doubts. What I didn’t address was:

im sure many ppl romanticize it and i obvs dont agree with that but im just trying to udnerstand bc i believe fandoms are a way to explore things that we normally wouldnt.

aaaand as we say here in Italy, this is where the donkey falls (sorry we have weird sayings), because in theory there’s nothing wrong with that... except that in 99% of the mafia aus I’ve seen around the thing is that they’re supposed to be cute.

like, I see a lot of shit with TINY MAFIA BOSS STEVE ROGERS with RUSSIAN ENFORCER BUCKY (????? bucky isn’t even russian???) and the yoi thing I saw before had the japanese character being the leader of a russian mafia gang which is... like... guys it doesn’t happen it really doesn’t, and a lot of them re-use wrongly terminology taken from the godfather without context or knowing what the hell it means, and it’s always from the criminals’ pov and they’re somehow seen as criminals doing justice where the police can’t (???) and like... no. mafia bosses/enforcers/employees are bad people period, and at least here if you try to leave or repent they kill your family in retribution. like, not even ten years ago there’s been a woman who used to belong to a mafia family (or one colluded with the mafia) who testified and her entire town/family shunned her and she couldn’t take it anymore and... killed herself drinking acid if I don’t recall wrong. it’s not even special cases. this shit is not funny, it’s not cute, it’s not adorable and it’s not good fodder for your imagine your otp scenario (srsly I saw one like.. let me find it,

LIKE. just look at this shit. in a regular context, the enforcer goes to the show owner to force them to pay a monthly sum to their boss lest they destroy their shop and their lives and their family’s life never mind that mafia culture is deeply homophobic so the mafia enforcer flirting with the shopkeeper is like completely fucking out of the question. I mean, people here like to shit on the sopranos but that show was actually excellent representation of Horrid Criminals Who Were Never Supposed To Be Good People and the small arc that happened when one of tony’s friends turned out to be gay (closeted) was REALLY well done. btw, it ended that when they found out he was gay most of the crowd rejected him and thought badly of him until I think they killed him also for other reasons, but that spiraled from finding out he liked dick. and that’s american mafia that they actually based on well-done research of the culture in Italy it came from, I assure you that here it doesn’t work that differently. like. the shit above is so inaccurate and frankly offensive, it’s like... I get people romanticizing problematic stuff but the thing is that when you tell them that it’s actually offensive you get brushed off as ‘ah well you’re being too sensitive it’s just a word u__u’. now, I’m all for exploring shit we wouldn’t be into, but not like THAT, because that’s like mafia romantic comedy and that’s not how it works. now, you wanna do a fic where the mafia characters are deeply flawed and bad people and the police tries to catch them? fine, great, go ahead. you wanna do a fic where the enforcer above deals with dunno an entire life of internalized homophobia when he finds the shopkeeper attractive and feels conflicted over having to con money out of him and doing horrible shit for a living and maybe understanding that crime isn’t worth it and then he actually collaborates with the police and gets shit from about everyone he knows and loves for that? okay, awesome, go ahead. nothing bad in that.

but the shit above is not exploring things we wouldn’t/writing darkfic, it’s THINKING THAT A CRIMINAL ORGANIZATION WHICH IS STILL A THING IN OUR PART OF THE WORLD IS CUTE AND ADORABLE. and that only plays in their favor because it takes the bad aura out of the word and we really should not let that happen. like. that is what is bad about mafia aus and mafia discourse, that people don’t realize the mafia is alive and well and thriving and not a thing that doesn’t exist or a generic word for organized crime.

you wanna write the shit above? okay, CALL IT CRIME AU or mob au, not mafia au.

btw, add-on: idk if I mentioned it in the above post or not, but in case I didn’t, I said that people would balk at the idea of a mexican cartel au. sadly since then I’ve found out a fandom where not only there is one but it’s also extra cutesy and people apparently love it and it has a bunch of kudos/comments and idek I’m not even touching that with a ten foot pole but like... I’ve avoided it and everything that author wrote because to me it’s just... nope. like, nope. if you do mafia aus don’t make them fucking cute. (also: in the same fandom I had to mute a v. famous fanartist whose art I actually liked but did cutesy mafia aus and.. like... haahahhaahahahahaha nah sorry. can’t go there. nope.)

[bountyofbeads]

Republicans ready to look past Trump’s brash intervention in Roger Stone case

By Mike DeBonis | Published February 12 at 6:23 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

Congressional Republicans showed little sign Wednesday that they would move to check President Trump’s brash public intervention in the federal prosecution of a former campaign confidant, leaving Democrats largely alone to fume about the evaporation of another norm of American governance.

Trump this week publicly decried a Justice Department sentencing recommendation for political operative Roger Stone, then congratulated Attorney General William P. Barr in an early-morning tweet Wednesday for “taking charge” and overruling it — creating at least the appearance that the long-standing taboo against overt political influence on prosecutorial matters had been obliterated.

But what ensued on Capitol Hill on Wednesday appeared to be less of a break-the-glass moment of crisis and more of a recurring episode in a three-year-old soap opera: While Democrats were aghast, members of the president’s party either expressed mild dismay or excused Trump’s tampering entirely.

“It doesn’t bother me at all, as long as the judge has the final decision,” said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), a former Senate Judiciary Committee chairman who sharply criticized the administration of President Barack Obama for alleged politicization of the Justice Department.

He added about the president’s tweet: “I think a president’s got freedom of speech just like everybody else has.”

Democrats cast the lack of pushback as further evidence that Trump feels emboldened, unchecked and unleashed after his Senate acquittal on two impeachment charges — abuse of power and obstruction of Congress — at his trial, which ended last week.

Besides the president’s public statements on the Stone case, Democrats pointed to his dismissal of subordinates who testified in the House impeachment probe and his decision to withdraw one executive nomination this week — that of a former U.S. attorney who had overseen the Stone case at an earlier stage — and the possible abandonment of a Defense Department nominee who had questioned a White House hold on military aid to Ukraine.

Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) seized on the demise of the nomination of Jessie K. Liu to serve as undersecretary of the Treasury Department for terrorism and financial crimes as proof that Trump is “on a retribution tour.”

“I mean, it’s just one thing after another,” said Brown, the top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee, where Liu was set to testify Thursday at her confirmation hearing. “The president clearly feels he’s unleashed. And [Republicans] all said he learned his lesson — the lesson he learned is he can get away with whatever he wants.”

Asked what lessons he learned from impeachment, Trump said Wednesday, “That the Democrats are crooked. They got a lot of crooked things going. That they’re vicious.”

Tempering the Democratic outrage has been the reality of their tenuous political position: In the Senate minority, they have no direct power to call hearings or force action by the Republican majority. The Democratic House majority, meanwhile, has been chastened by the failed impeachment effort and a desire among party leaders to turn a page from Trump investigations and toward an economic policy message as Election Day draws closer.

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) said Wednesday that Barr would make his first appearance as Trump’s attorney general before the panel on March 31. Nadler told Barr in a letter that the recent tumult has raised “grave questions about your leadership of the Department of Justice.”

Nadler indicated that the panel would inquire about the handling of the Stone case and other prosecutions related to Trump, as well as Barr’s decision to evaluate material that Rudolph W. Giuliani, President Trump’s personal attorney, had gathered from Ukrainian sources claiming to have damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family.

The seven-week delay in getting answers vexed many Democrats, who cast Trump’s intervention in Stone’s sentencing as a matter of grave constitutional concern.

“Seven weeks would not be an inordinate delay in normal times,” said Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Md.), a Judiciary Committee member. “This is Trump time we’re dealing with, and so that is multiple felonies and high crimes and misdemeanors from now.”

Nadler declined to comment about the timing of the hearing.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Wednesday chose stronger words, calling the overt intervention in the Stone case “one of the most horrible things President Trump has done” and “Third World behavior, not American behavior.”

The decision to overrule the initial sentencing recommendation prompted four career prosecutors to withdraw from the case Tuesday.

Schumer’s call for emergency oversight hearings putting Barr and other Justice Department officials under oath was quickly dismissed by Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), who said Wednesday that after a conversation with Barr, he was “very confident” that the department has acted properly. Graham also gently rapped Trump for speaking publicly about the case.

“These people were way out of bounds in my view,” he said of the front-line prosecutors, who recommended a sentence as long as nine years for Stone after his conviction for lying to Congress and tampering with a witness. “You’re not gonna go to seven to nine years on a 70-year-old guy when the alleged victim said they didn’t feel threatened. That’s just revenge. That’s sour grapes. But having said that, the president shouldn’t have said anything.”

The GOP reaction this week was markedly different from when, in 2016, then-Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch met privately with former president Bill Clinton on a plane at the Phoenix airport while federal investigators moved to close the case on Hillary Clinton as she moved toward the Democratic presidential nomination.

Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) at the time called for a special prosecutor to take over the Clinton case. On Wednesday, he fully defended the decision to overrule the front-line prosecutors’ sentencing decision.

“I think the world is sort of turned on its head where subordinates somehow dictate policy,” he said. “In this case, the judge is going to make the decision, not anybody else.”

Asked about Trump’s tweets and the Clinton-Lynch uproar, he said, “The president has First Amendment rights, too.”

Top Republican leaders offered little pushback. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) declined to comment on the Stone case at his weekly media availability Tuesday, while Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) offered only faint criticism Wednesday: “I’m not a lawyer, but strikes me at least that you want to let the legal process move forward the way it’s intended to.”

Other members of the Senate Judiciary Committee were similarly reluctant to comment Wednesday on a matter squarely inside the panel’s oversight portfolio.

“I want to get the information on it before I give you a comment,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

“I don’t know the facts of the case; I haven’t been following it,” said Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.).

“I think the tweet was problematic and gave the appearance that the president was more involved than he actually was,” said Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.).

Meanwhile, the Republican senators who have been more willing to criticize Trump did not go much further.

“I don’t think the president should be determining what the sentences are,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), while Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) said Trump “should not have gotten involved,” and Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said, “Politics should not play a part in law enforcement,” without directly criticizing the president.

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Karoun Demirjian contributed to this report.

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TRUMP TAKES ON JUDGE AMY BERMAN JACKSON AHEAD OF ROGER STONE’S SENTENCING

By Ann E. Marimow | Published Feb 12 at 6:22 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted February 12, 2020 |

First he went after the prosecutors who recommended a multiyear sentence for his friend Roger Stone. Then President Trump turned his Twitter ire to the “witch hunt disgrace” of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation, which led to Stone’s indictment. But perhaps most surprising was Trump’s decision to target U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson — who will determine Stone’s fate when he appears in her courtroom next Thursday.

It was not the first time Trump had gone after a federal judge or questioned the judiciary, but Tuesday’s attack was nevertheless vexing to current and former judges as Jackson prepares to decide whether to send the president’s friend to prison — and for how long.

“The timing is outrageous, and the notion that you’re attempting to influence a judge,” retired federal judge Nancy Gertner said.

“He’s trying to delegitimize anyone appointed by someone other than him and say that the only people who can be trusted are Trump judges,” she said.

The targeting of Jackson, who has presided over a set of cases involving Trump associates in the past year, is the latest in a drumbeat of disparagement from the president when he disagrees with rulings. After Trump criticized a district court judge who ruled against the administration in 2018, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. took the rare step of responding and countering the president’s characterization of the judge as an “Obama judge.” Roberts, a nominee of President George W. Bush’s, has himself been the target of the president’s ire. Trump labeled him an “absolute disaster” for his vote in 2012 to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

Other presidents have expressed dismay at court decisions, as President Obama did during his 2010 State of the Union address after the Supreme Court’s decision in Citizens United v. FEC opened the door for corporations and unions to spend freely in elections. But Trump’s criticism comes as Stone’s sentencing is pending and the president is being lobbied to pardon his friend. Michael Caputo, a former campaign adviser to Trump, on Wednesday announced a committee to raise money for Stone’s appeal alongside a petition drive for him to be pardoned.

“Roger Stone stood up for Donald Trump. Now America should stand up for Roger Stone. Please take just a few seconds to help by signing the petition to pardon Roger Stone!” says the committee’s website.

When asked Wednesday by reporters whether he was considering a pardon for Stone, Trump said, “I don’t want to say that yet.”

The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

[Who is Judge Amy Berman Jackson? ]

Stone’s sentencing by Jackson is scheduled for Feb. 20. A jury convicted Stone in November on charges of witness tampering and lying to Congress about his efforts to gather damaging information about Trump’s 2016 presidential election opponent Hillary Clinton. Stone’s defense has asked for a sentence of probation, citing his age, 67, and lack of criminal history.

On Tuesday, Trump criticized as unduly harsh the initial sentencing recommendation of seven to nine years made by front-line prosecutors. Shortly thereafter, the Justice Department signaled that it would seek a more lenient sentence for Stone, a move that prompted all four career prosecutors to withdraw from the case — and one to resign from the government.

Hours later, Trump targeted Jackson for her treatment of another ally of his, Paul Manafort, his former campaign chairman, and suggested that the judge had been soft on Hillary Clinton.

“Is this the judge that put Paul Manfort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!” the president wrote, sharing a tweet that named Jackson as the judge who sentenced Manafort.

Just one day before Trump voiced his displeasure with Jackson, the judge issued a ruling favorable to the administration. She threw out a lawsuit filed by historians and watchdog groups seeking to compel the White House to preserve records of the president’s calls and meetings with foreign leaders.

Jackson, 65, has played a central role in cases involving Trump associates and Mueller’s Russia investigation. She sentenced Trump’s former deputy campaign chairman, Rick Gates, in December. She presided over the trial of Gregory B. Craig, a Democratic former White House counsel who was charged in a spinoff from the Mueller probe and was acquitted in September.

Before adding 3½ years to the almost four years Manafort received after his trial in Alexandria, Jackson said, “This defendant is not public enemy number one, but he’s also not a victim either. There’s no question this defendant knew better, and he knew exactly what he was doing.”

She did not as a judge, however, have any authority over the conditions of Manafort’s confinement, as the president suggested in his tweet.

Jackson, a 2011 nominee of Obama’s, was born in Baltimore, the daughter of a U.S. Army-trained physician. A graduate of Harvard University and its law school, Jackson spent time both as a federal prosecutor in Washington and as a white-collar defense lawyer. With lawyer Robert P. Trout, she represented former Louisiana congressman William J. Jefferson on corruption charges after a search turned up $90,000 in cash stashed in the Democrat’s freezer.

Jackson, through a court spokeswoman, declined to comment.

Her current and former colleagues say she is unquestionably independent and will not be pressured by Trump’s tactics, even if she would prefer not to be the subject of his attacks.

“I have no doubt that she will not be deterred, pressured or intimidated by the unwarranted and inappropriate remarks of the president or anyone else for that matter,” said a colleague, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

U.S. District Judge Paul Friedman, another colleague of Jackson’s on the court in Washington, recently warned of the consequences of similar attacks from the president. Trump, Friedman said in a speech, “seems to view the courts and the justice system as obstacles to be attacked and undermined, not as a coequal branch to be respected even when he disagrees with its decisions.”

Jackson has already tangled with Stone. Last February, a photo of the judge on Stone’s Instagram account seemed to violate a gag order she had imposed on him because of concerns about pretrial publicity. The image appeared to show a gun sight’s crosshairs next to a photo of Jackson’s face. Stone said he wasn’t sure who posted the image, but he said he viewed it as a Celtic cross. He apologized for it.

Paul G. Cassell, a former federal judge in Utah, called the personal nature of the president’s attacks “highly unusual and an extraordinary departure from the way things are ordinarily handled.”

But, he said, the nation’s system of government insulates judges from political pressure because they are appointed for life. While most judges would prefer not to be the target of attacks on social media, including from the president, he said, the independence of the judiciary provides protection from repercussions.

“Judge Jackson will simply move forward and decide the case,” said Cassell, now a law professor at the University of Utah, “and ignore the surrounding atmospherics from the president and the others who are responding to him.”

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Spencer S. Hsu and Allyson Chiu contributed to this report

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Barr faces fresh scrutiny over Stone sentencing controversy

By Matt Zapotosky and Devlin Barrett | Published February 12 at 6:43 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted Feb 12, 2020

President Trump on Wednesday put Attorney General William P. Barr squarely in the middle of the brewing controversy over the Justice Department’s sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend Roger Stone, praising Barr for seizing command of the case from career prosecutors.

The president’s Twitter message came just a day after the Justice Department was again thrust into a political firestorm, when the four prosecutors on the Stone case withdrew from the proceedings amid a dispute over what penalty they should propose for the president’s close associate.

Legal analysts and others said the episode represented a low moment for the agency, suggesting that its Trump-appointed leaders were bending to the president’s political whims and trying to undermine the last prosecution brought by former special counsel Robert S. Mueller III as part of his investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump, though, made clear he was pleased with the department’s moves — and with Barr, in particular.

“Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought,” Trump wrote. “Evidence now clearly shows that the Mueller Scam was improperly brought & tainted.”

A Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on the president’s statements.

Some current and former Justice Department officials have long feared that Barr is willing to risk the institution’s historic independence to serve an irascible president. The top Democrat in the Senate called for the Justice Department inspector general to investigate the Stone episode, and the House Judiciary Committee announced Wednesday it would have Barr testify March 31 to address that case and other recent incidents that it said “raise grave questions” about Barr’s leadership.

Among those is Barr’s recent acknowledgment that he had created what he called an “intake process” for Trump’s personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to give the Justice Department what Giuliani has claimed is damaging information about former vice president Joe Biden and his family.

Two people familiar with the matter said Barr has instructed the U.S. attorney’s office in Pittsburgh to handle such information. Giuliani’s claims are particularly problematic for the Justice Department because he is the president’s lawyer, and under investigation by federal prosecutors in New York for his business ties to two men accused of breaking campaign finance laws.

Barr also has faced criticism for his handling of the Mueller probe — particularly those cases, including the prosecution of Stone, that have continued after the closure of the special counsel’s office last year.

Stone was convicted by a jury in November of obstructing Congress and witness intimidation. Career prosecutors on the case — working out of the U.S. attorney’s office in the District — on Monday filed their recommendation on what penalty Stone should face when he is sentenced Feb. 20.

That recommendation, though, proved to be thornier than most, as the career prosecutors sparred with their supervisors over what was appropriate. The prosecutors argued the sentencing guidelines called for seven to nine years in prison. Political leadership at the Justice Department, though, pushed for something less, arguing Stone’s conduct did not merit a lengthy addition to his sentence for threatening violence.

On Monday, it seemed the career prosecutors had won out. All four signed on to a recommendation, also endorsed by interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia Timothy Shea, that recommended a sentence based on a guidelines calculation. The move enraged Trump, who tweeted early the next morning: “This is a horrible and very unfair situation. The real crimes were on the other side, as nothing happens to them. Cannot allow this miscarriage of justice!”

Hours later, a senior Justice Department official claimed department leadership was “shocked” at the recommendation and would move to undo it. All four career prosecutors moved to withdraw from the case, with one quitting the government entirely. The Justice Department then filed a new recommendation — signed by Shea and a different career prosecutor — that said the previous guidance “could be considered excessive and unwarranted under the circumstances.” It did not advocate for a specific penalty but suggested three to four years in prison would be reasonable.

Kerri Kupec, a Justice Department spokeswoman, said that the department had decided before Trump’s Tuesday tweet to revise the recommendation and that there were no discussions between the White House and Justice Department about the Stone case in the days leading up to the prosecutors’ guidance.

A Justice Department official said senior leaders at the agency had expected the first Stone filing to say what the second filing did.

Officials have not provided a clear timeline of the interactions between career prosecutors and department leadership, or fully explained how leadership could have been taken aback by the initial sentencing recommendation. Shea was a counselor in Barr’s office before he was named as interim U.S. attorney last month. Also involved in the discussions was David Metcalf, who had been a counselor in Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey A. Rosen’s office and now works for Shea.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment or address questions about Shea and Metcalf’s handling of the matter.

The Stone episode comes just weeks after the U.S. attorney’s office for the District also seemed to soften its stance on another case originally brought by Mueller against former Trump national security adviser Michael Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s former ambassador to the United States.

In early January, prosecutors recommended that Flynn be sentenced “within the Guidelines range” of zero to six months in prison. But in another filing just weeks later, they made clear they agreed with Flynn that a sentence of probation is “reasonable.”

Prosecutors did not explain in the later filing why they emphasized probation as a reasonable sentence for Flynn. Both documents were signed by career prosecutors — Brandon L. Van Grack and Jocelyn Ballantine. Flynn is now seeking to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging a variety of government misconduct.

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Spencer S. Hsu and Ann E. Marimow contributed to this report.

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THE DEGRADATION OF WILLIAM BARR’S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT IS NEARLY COMPLETE

By Editorial Board | Published February 12 at 4:02 PM EST |Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

MARK THIS as ANOTHER BIG STEP in the EROSION of STANDARDS at Attorney General William P. Barr’s Justice Department.

The department on Tuesday suggested a light sentence for President Trump’s old friend Roger Stone, by overturning a previously filed and tougher proposal. It did so over the strong objections of four career line prosecutors, all of whom resigned from the case; one left the department entirely. This extraordinary intervention played out publicly after Mr. Trump tweeted his displeasure over the initial recommendation that Mr. Stone spend seven to nine years in prison for obstructing Congress and witness tampering, which was in line with the department’s sentencing guidelines.

The Justice Department insists that the decision to reverse course came before the president’s tweet. But senior officials did not need a tweet to conclude that the president would react angrily to a tough sentence for his longtime crony, and to act in anticipation — or fear — of the president’s predictable reaction.

Meanwhile, the line prosecutors’ resignations provide strong evidence that the department’s reversal was unusual and unwarranted. Indeed, given the crimes of which Mr. Stone was convicted — and the fact that he was caught allegedly threatening a witness — it would have been unreasonable for prosecutors to seek the substantially lighter punishment that Justice now appears to favor.

Now the department has lost at least one career civil servant and yet more credibility. Mr. Barr had already, last year, manipulated the release of the Russia investigation’s findings, using his power over how it would be presented to the public to paint Mr. Trump in a positive light that the actual conclusions did not warrant. Now his department has intervened publicly to skew the punishment that one of the bad actors uncovered in that probe, Mr. Stone, will receive.

The most important role of the attorney general is to protect the department from improper political influence, including from the president. Mr. Barr should have ensured that Mr. Stone’s case was handled with strict professionalism, as the career prosecutors sought to do, and shielded them from White House pressure, direct or indirect. To all appearances, he did the opposite. Mr. Trump evidently thinks so: “Congratulations to Attorney General Bill Barr for taking charge of a case that was totally out of control and perhaps should not have even been brought,” he tweeted.

Senior Democrats are calling for a congressional inquiry. That is certainly warranted. What was the attorney general’s understanding of what the Stone sentencing recommendation was going to be? At what point did he form this understanding? With whom? To what extent was that understanding a reflection of Mr. Stone’s relationship with the president — or set in anticipation of the president’s likely reaction to a tough sentence? Why, after line prosecutors went a different route, was the decision deemed so egregious that it must be overturned, prompting obvious questions about the politicization of the Justice Department?

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said there would be no special hearing on the matter. Given his newfound role as presidential enabler, that’s no surprise. But it’s not right, either.

Meanwhile, Mr. Barr should reflect on how, under his watch, the department he has served for so long has become so tarnished.

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THIS IS A REVOLTING ASSAULT ON THE FRAGILE RULE OF LAW

By Chuck Rosenberg | Published Feb 12 at 2:30 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

***Chuck Rosenberg is a former U.S. attorney, senior FBI official and acting head of the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Something extraordinary and deeply troubling happened at — and to — the Justice Department this week. Four federal prosecutors properly, and as a matter of conscience, withdrew from the Roger Stone case. They had shepherded that case through the criminal-justice system but in an alarming development were ordered to disavow a sentencing recommendation they filed with the federal judge overseeing the matter.

Their original recommendation — asking the judge to sentence Stone within the range set by the U.S. Federal Sentencing Guidelines for the offenses for which Stone was convicted at trial — was a perfectly ordinary filing. It is the type of pleading filed in federal courts by federal prosecutors every day. Certainly, when a defendant is convicted at trial, it is routine for prosecutors to suggest to the judge that he be sentenced within a prescribed range — the result of a cumbersome sentencing guidelines calculation that is often debated between the parties and adjudicated by the court.

Of course, the filing was just a recommendation to the judge, who has ample authority to sentence Stone within that range — or above it or below it — as she determines. Prosecutors do not sentence defendants; judges do. So how did something so ordinary become so extraordinary?

First, some background. The Justice Department that I know and love — and in which I worked for two decades in many roles — must always be two things to the public it serves: fair and perceived as fair. These are related but distinct concepts. Our work must be fair — that is, we must have fair outcomes as a matter of practice and principle. Anything less is unacceptable, which is one reason, for instance, we turned over exculpatory evidence (a constitutional obligation) and why we publicly fronted our mistakes when we made them.

But our work must also be perceived as fair. Fair outcomes are not worth much if the public does not perceive those outcomes as fair. One way, among many, we ensure that is to assiduously avoid politics in our work. When I was a career federal prosecutor in Virginia, my colleagues and I simply did not talk about politics. I did not know then, and I largely do not know now, how my colleagues (including the federal agents with whom we worked) voted or even if they voted. It simply did not matter to our work. Folks did not talk about it. It was irrelevant to our work. We knew that unwritten rule. Whatever our view, we kept it to ourselves, because it had no place in our world and because letting it seep in would corrode our work. We worked free of political interference or influence. Always.

Until now, apparently. What happened? Following the routine filing by the career prosecutors — in line with the sentencing guidelines applicable to the Stone case — the president inexplicably tweeted that the sentence Stone faced was a “miscarriage” of justice, calling it a “horrible and very unfair situation.”

And then — and this is the part that is so disturbing — the prosecutors were ordered, either because of the president’s tweet or irrespective of it (and both scenarios are awful), to rescind their original recommendation and to ask the judge that Stone receive more lenient treatment at his sentencing. What the prosecutors were ordered to do was dangerous and unsettling and undermined everything they — and we — stood for as Justice Department professionals. They properly refused.

We all understand that the leadership at the top of the department is politically appointed, and we make peace with that (in addition to my work as a career federal prosecutor, I served in political positions under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama in the Justice Department and worked for thoughtful appointed leaders of both parties), but being asked by that leadership to allow politics to corrode our work is not remotely normal or permissible. And it is treacherous.

The rule of law is a construct. It was made by people — and is nurtured and preserved by people. It can also be destroyed by people. And unlike the law of gravity, which works everywhere and all the time (at least on this planet), the rule of law is precious and fragile. As citizens and prosecutors, we either safeguard it or we surrender it. That’s the choice. What political leadership did here — mandating a favor for a friend of the president in line with the president’s publicly expressed desire in the case — significantly damages the rule of law and the perception of Justice Department fairness.

Principled resignations by career federal prosecutors highlighted this dangerous stunt. I am proud of them for that.

But I find it revolting that they were pushed into that corner (one resigned his job; three others resigned from the case) and saddened by their sacrifice. This is not normal and it is not right,and it is dangerous territory for the rule of law.

SAFEGUARD or SURRENDER. YOU CHOOSE.

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Venezuela’s opposition says Guaidó’s uncle was detained, holds Maduro responsible

By Mariana Zuñiga & Anthony Fabiola| Published February 12 at 7:21 PM EST | Washington Post | Posted Feb 12, 2020

CARACAS, Venezuela — Opposition officials on Wednesday condemned the disappearance and apparent detention of Juan Guaidó's uncle after the opposition leader returned home this week from a global tour to build support for his effort to oust President Nicolás Maduro.

Guaidó’s uncle, Juan José Márquez, traveled with him on a flight from Lisbon that landed at Simón Bolívar International Airport in Maiquetía shortly after 4:30 p.m. Tuesday. Senior opposition officials said Guaidó last saw Márquez just before he crossed into an arrivals hall, where Guaidó’s supporters clashed with Maduro’s backers, who hurled insults at the opposition leader and appeared to manhandle him as he tried to make his way to a waiting car.

Márquez does not hold an official position in the opposition leadership.

“I hold you responsible, usurper Nicolás Maduro, and each one of your minions in Maiquetía for what happens to Juan José Márquez, an honest and brave man who knows the value of this fight and whose only responsibility is to worry about his family,” Guaidó tweeted Wednesday.

Venezuela’s communications ministry did not respond to a request for comment.

Guaidó, the National Assembly president who is recognized as Venezuela’s rightful leader by the United States and more than 50 other nations, defied a travel ban to spend 3½ weeks in Europe and the United States lobbying for more international pressure to isolate Maduro and force him from office. The United Nations last year issued a report documenting the torture, arbitrary arrest and killing of government opponents and citizens under Maduro.

Before Guaidó’s return Tuesday, the Trump administration warned Maduro not to harm or detain the leader. The opposition’s U.S. backers quickly decried his uncle’s disappearance.

“Kidnapping interim president @JGuaido’s relatives only demonstrates that the dictatorship is weak and desperate,” tweeted Michael G. Kozak, the acting assistant secretary of state for western hemisphere affairs. “We demand the immediate release of Juan José Márquez unharmed. #Democracy cannot be intimidated, this must stop!”

Romina Botaro, Márquez’s wife, said her husband called her while being held at customs. She said he was wearing a protective vest that he was told he needed to declare.

That was the last she heard from him, she told reporters at a news conference Wednesday. When Márquez’s lawyers went to the airport late Tuesday, she said, they were told he had disappeared from the building.

Later, Botaro, speaking to reporters in Caracas, said that she had spoken to her husband again at 5 p.m. Wednesday and that he confirmed he was being detained at the headquarters of Military Counter-Intelligence in northern Caracas. He additionally told her that he was due to be arraigned in court, she said.

On Wednesday, opposition lawmaker Delsa Solórzano tweeted, “They inform us that they are transferring Juan Márquez, uncle of the President @jguaido, to court.” Opposition officials said they could not immediately confirm that Márquez had turned up in custody. But they denounced what they said was an attempt by “the Maduro dictatorship” to give him a public defender.

“Juan José Márquez . . . has a private [attorney],” Guaidó’s press team tweeted. The Washington Post could not immediately reach attorney Joel García.

Botaro said Márquez, an airline pilot, had nothing to do with politics.

“Like any protective uncle, he only wanted to escort his nephew and protect his safety,” she said.

Guaidó said Maduro had targeted his family.

“Threats have not stopped us or will stop us,” he said.

The opposition denounced the arrest of the organizers of Guaidó’s homecoming rally Tuesday evening. Several hundred supporters gathered in eastern Caracas to hear the opposition leader speak. Opposition officials said the drivers of three buses that carried lawmakers to the airport to greet Guaidó were stopped and detained.

Deyalitza Aray, an opposition lawmaker, was held but later released.

“It was an illegal detention, without any sense,” she told reporters Tuesday in Caracas. “This is a dramatic situation because it demonstrates how the regime acts against citizens and the congress.”

The country’s national press union said at least six journalists covering Guaidó’s return were attacked and robbed. Some of them were bitten and punched, the union said.

Maduro’s government has sought to penalize Guaidó’s supporters in recent months. Government forces closed down the hotel and seized the cars he used during at least one campaign stop. Pollster and political analyst Luis Vicente Leon said it was clear Maduro was sending “a message.”

“Politicians, deputies, assistants, many people have been arrested and intimidated,” he said. “And not only people, but places have also been closed down. This is a very clear strategy that tries to encircle anything that supports Guaidó.”

Maduro’s message, he said, is that Guaidó’s “fight is expensive, and his uncle is a perfect way to send this message.”

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION BELOW:

Trump withdraws Treasury nomination of former U.S. attorney for D.C. Jessie K. Liu after criticism of her oversight of Mueller prosecutions

By Spencer S. Hsu, Josh Dawsey and Devlin Barrett | Published February 11 at 11:41 PM EST | Washington Post |

Posted February 12, 2020 |

President Trump on Tuesday withdrew the nomination of former U.S. attorney Jessie K. Liu of the District of Columbia to a high-ranking Treasury Department post after being lobbied by critics of her office’s handling of cases, including ones inherited from special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, two people familiar with the decision said.

Liu, 47, served more than two years in the politically sensitive post of top federal prosecutor in the nation’s capital and was Trump’s firstnominee to the position, serving from September 2017 until Jan. 31.

In the job, Liu oversaw late-stage courtproceedings for top Trump aides and Mueller defendants, including Trump’s 2016 deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn, as well as the November trial and conviction of longtime Trump political adviser Roger Stone.

However, over the past two weeks, coinciding with Liu’s departure, the U.S. attorney’s office has changed its sentencing stances in both Flynn and Stone’s cases, with prosecutors moving from stiffer sentencing recommendations to more lenient ones.

Emerging accounts of the circumstances surrounding Liu’s departure from the administration cast those decisions in a new light.

The White House’s move to drop Liu was disclosed Tuesday after all four career U.S. prosecutors handling the case against Stone withdrew from the legal proceedings when the Justice Department undercut their sentencing recommendation for Trump’s longtime friend and confidant. Prosecutors on Monday said Stone should serve 7 to 9 years in prison.

Trump has been lobbied extensively against Liu by people who do not like her handling of the D.C. office — particularly as it relates to the Mueller probe, an administration official said. The decision to withdraw the nomination was made Tuesday afternoon, the official said.

A second administration official confirmed Liu was notified at that time.

A third person familiar with the situation — who like the others spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly— said Liu’s nomination was opposed vocally by Barbara Ledeen, a conservative operative and Republican Senate staffer unhappy about Flynn’s prosecution for lying to the FBI.

Ledeen’s husband co-wrote a book with Flynn and she was named in the Mueller report as a person Flynn contacted during Trump’s 2016 campaign to obtain Democratic rival Hillary Clinton’s private emails.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the situation, the person said Ledeen had made little headway before the recent storm over Stone’s sentencing, calling it a turning point. Treasury officials believe Trump himself made the call to withdraw Liu because her confirmation hearing before the Senate Banking Committee was set for Thursday, and Trump was concerned she would be asked about the case, the person said.

Liu had no role in Stone’s sentencing recommendation, having left office before it was sent to supervisors for approval, several people said.

Ledeen, a Senate Judiciary Committee staffer since 2000, said in an interview: “I’m a Senate staffer. I can’t lobby either the Senate or the White House. I’m kind of amazed my name came up in this.” She added, “Somebody likes to throw around my name.”

Liu did not respond to requests for comment.

Trump’s reversal was striking because Liu, who had served on his presidential transition team and was a Treasury appointee early in his term, was personally vetted by then-White House counsel Donald McGahn, and met with Trump in the White House before he first named her U.S. attorney.

Late last year, the White House announced plans to promote her, saying on Dec. 10 that Trump intended to nominate her to undersecretary of the Treasury Department for terrorism and financial crimes, to lead the administration’s use of economic sanctions as a national security and foreign policy tool.

Liu’s nomination was sent to the Senate on Jan. 6, and she told the U.S. attorney’s office of plans to leave at the end of the month, people in the office said. Liu’s departure at that time was seen as somewhat unusual because she had not yet received Senate confirmation for her new job before being replaced on an interim basis by Timothy Shea, a former counselor to Attorney General William P. Barr.

That same period saw a shift by Flynn’s prosecutors. On Jan. 6, prosecutors recommended that Flynn, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his contacts with Russia’s ambassador to the U.S., be sentenced to zero to six months in prison, emphasizing that defendants in similar cases served time behind bars. But in a follow-up filing Jan. 29, they made clear they agreed with Flynn “that a sentence of probation is a reasonable sentence” for him, citing cases where defendants were spared incarceration.

The filing came as Flynn continues his effort to withdraw his guilty plea, alleging government misconduct. Prosecutors did not explain in their filing the reason for the shift.

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Keith L. Alexander contributed to this report.

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Attorney General William P. Barr names Timothy Shea, one of his counselors, as the District’s interim U.S. Attorney

By Keith L. Alexander, Spencer S. Hsu and Matt Zapotosky | Published Jan. 30, 2020 at 3:13 p.m. EST |Washington Post | Posted February 12, 2020 |

Attorney General William P. Barr on Thursday named former federal prosecutor Timothy Shea as the District’s interim U.S. attorney.

Shea, 59, currently serves as a counselor to Barr at the Justice Department. He will oversee the nation’s largest U.S. attorney’s office with 300 prosecutors.

The announcement comes just a day before Jessie K. Liu, the city’s current U.S. attorney, leaves office on Friday.

Liu, 47, has served in the post for a little over two years. President Trump on Jan. 6 nominated her to become the Treasury Department’s undersecretary for terrorism and financial crimes, and her nomination is pending before the Senate Banking Committee.

The U.S. attorney’s office in the District is unique in that it handles both local and federal cases, from violent crimes in the city to high-level national security and public corruption prosecutions.

Prosecutors there have taken to trial former Trump confidant Roger Stone and former Obama White House counsel Gregory Craig, and have taken over cases involving former Trump deputy campaign manager Rick Gates and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. They are managing a grand jury investigation into former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, who is accused of misleading federal investigators about a media disclosure, and are handling a leak case in which they have focused at least some of their questioning on former FBI director James B. Comey. Comey and McCabe have been outspoken critics of Trump, and the D.C. U.S. attorney’s office has faced criticism that it is unfairly targeting the president’s political rivals.

In a statement, Barr described Shea’s reputation as “a fair prosecutor, skillful litigator, and excellent manager is second-to-none, and his commitment to fighting violent crime and the drug epidemic will greatly benefit the city of Washington.”

Shea has served in a variety of roles in federal and state government, including as a prosecutor in federal court in Virginia. Trump ultimately must nominate, and the Senate must confirm, a candidate to fill the U.S. attorney job.

Liu, who worked as a line prosecutor in the office decades before returning as its chief in 2017, declined to comment on her tenure or her plans. She also will require Senate confirmation for the Treasury role.

Her departure has been a source of concern from some who say the city needs a long-term top prosecutor to put in place strategies to curb crime and ensure convictions amid a rising number of homicides.

“It’s very disturbing to me there is turnover this quickly,” D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson (D) said. “It’s not good for public safety not to have that stability.”

Mendelson praised Liu for working with city leaders and residents but added he was concerned that her successor may not share the same ideas of what is of importance for the District.

While overseeing federal cases, Liu also turned her attention to crime issues in the city. In early 2019, her office began taking more gun cases to federal court as part of a crackdown on repeat violent offenders and felons found illegally possessing firearms. District leaders had pushed to take these cases away from D.C. Superior Court believing sentences were often inconsistent or too lenient.

D.C. Police Chief Peter ­Newsham described Liu as a “really good partner” to the department, but echoed Mendelson about his concerns of a new U.S. attorney taking over as law enforcement work to identifying new approaches to reduce violence. “There is something to be said for consistency,” Newsham said. “Unfortunately, we’re going to have to start all over again with a new leader.”

On Thursday evening, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) said Shea had contacted city officials, and they plan to meet in the coming days. Bowser said she hopes Shea will keep some of the initiatives that Liu put in place, including pursuing gun cases in federal court. “He is already on board,” Bowser said. “We want to make sure he recognizes the context of how the U.S. attorney’s offices and annexes work together for a stronger D.C.”

Liu oversaw myriad high-profile cases. It was her call last year to dismiss charges against 188 defendants who were charged with rioting during Trump’s 2017 inauguration. Nearly two dozen defendants pleaded guilty; prosecutors were unable to secure convictions at trial in other cases.

Liu’s office last year also petitioned a federal court judge to seek the early prison release for 1980s D.C. drug kingpin Rayful Edmond III after he spent decades cooperating with authorities.

Liu became most visible in the community when she clashed with some city council members over a proposed amendment to a D.C. law that would grant additional inmates convicted of serious crimes a chance at early release.

That law, the Incarceration Reduction Amendment Act, allows people who committed crimes as juveniles a chance to petition for release after serving 15 years in prison. The proposed amendment, sponsored by D.C. Council member Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), would expand the group of eligible inmates to include those who were as old as 24 when they offended, as opposed to age 17.

The amendment was originally planned for a council vote last fall. Allen spokesman Erik Salmi said the measure was “not dead,” but no date for a vote has been determined.

Liu came under criticism for the handling of hate-crime prosecutions, with community leaders saying her office failed to aggressively prosecute such cases and pursue enhanced penalties when authorities said they believed the victim was targeted because of race, sexual orientation or religion.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D. C.) said she repeatedly tried to convince Liu to address a rise in hate-crime arrests in the city, but prosecutions were stagnant.

Norton, who has represented the nation’s capital since 1991, described Liu being “at the bottom of the list” in terms of quality among the U.S. attorneys with whom she has worked.

“As she moves on, it seems clear she never wanted this position in the first place and appeared to be using this job to move onto to where she is moving to now within the administration.”

Liu previously was nominated by Trump for the No. 3 position in the Justice Department, but she withdrew from consideration in March after Republican senators raised concerns about her past membership in a lawyers group that supported abortion rights.

Karl A. Racine, the District’s first elected attorney general, said he disagreed with some of Liu’s decisions such as moving more firearm crimes to federal court. But they had common ground on other issues.

When he expressed concern over an increase in fraud cases involving elderly victims, Racine said, Liu allowed one of his local prosecutors to team with her office on such investigations.

“I had an enthusiastic partner in Jessie,” Racine said.

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Peter Hermann and Eddy Palanzo contributed to this report.

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