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danny-chase · 3 years

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Dick Grayson Week Day 4

Prompt: Bruce hits Dick and doesn’t get away with it

Summary/Notes:

A Spyral fixit where the family finds out about Nightwing 30. Perspectives are from Tim and Jason, but Steph, Cass, and Damian make an appearance. Quotes taken from Forever Evil 7 and 8, and Nightwing 30. Tw for swearing, angst and domestic/child abuse (because canon is terrible and I can’t leave it the way it is).

Edit: I have an AO3 account now yay! Read here

“I’ll be right back.” Tim chirped as he left to pull some files out of his room. He could feel his friends’ gazes lingering on him as he left. He had to suppress an eye roll. He was fine. Your pseudo-dad/adopted-father-before-you-emancipated-yourself loses his memory and suddenly everyone thinks there’s something wrong with you. Figures. Bruce was happier this way. And maybe, one day, he’d be able to get to know him again. Maybe not as sorta-father and son. But Bruce 2.0 liked volunteering with kids, running charity events. Maybe they could be business partners, or coworkers. It wasn’t like last time. But that didn’t mean Cassie, Bart and Kon weren’t worried. No matter how many times he tried to explain, they wouldn’t listen. It was better this way. Bruce was happier without them. Without him. It stung at first sure, but he was over it. He could handle it. Even if the knot in his stomach told him otherwise.

His fingers brushed the lines on the hallway as he strode through Titan’s Tower. The halls seemed so much smaller than they used to be. Logically, he knew they were the same size. But they weren’t the same walls as when he’d first visited. And those hadn’t even been the first wall either. “We’ve had to rebuild this place like at least a million times.” Dick had told him. The knot tightened. Don’t think about it, he reprimanded himself. He’d been having a nice afternoon. It was relaxing, staying with his friends. But he couldn’t walk through the halls without feeling like a trespasser. This was Dick’s team. This was his home away from home. Who was he kidding? He was no Dick Grayson. Dick’s friends used to look to him for guidance, for advice, for help with problems, personal and business related. Tim used to look to him for guidance, advice and help. Stop thinking about him, he tried again. Forget the Crime Syndicate. Forget the funeral. Don’t stress, repress. He paused for a moment, stared aimlessly out the window, took a few deep breaths, cleared his mind and continued on his way.

Climbing the stairs, he decided it was better to use his mental faculties to go through the case he was working on. Jason had called two days ago asking about some of his old informants in Gotham, Penguin was apparently moving back onto the scene and reorganizing the structure of some of the newer gangs. Cleaning house. Informants were switching names, following their own protocols. Bruce had written some contingency in a classified file somewhere. The issue was where. The damn batcomputer had like a billion files on it. And Barbara knew the system, but was busy coordinating for the JLA and had put them on “Do not Disturb” mode for the foreseeable future. He could write a program to search for it. Stupid Bruce and his stupid files that he’d kept secret from them. “It was on a need to know basis.” He could almost here the defensiveness in Bruce’s voice if he tried hard enough. He nearly face planted as he miscalculated the number of stairs. Maybe they should just go back to their old Young Justice base. Or wait till the building inevitably explodes again and just make it better. That would be fun. Designing a Teen Titans base with slides and escalators. Bart would be thrilled. Bart could probably build it in 5 minutes. Dick wouldn’t approve, his brain felt the need to remind him. Tim nearly huffed. Well Dick is de-.

He abruptly lost his train of thought. There was noise coming from his room. Someone was sniffing, was someone crying in his room? Who was even in his room? Everyone was downstairs. Cissie and Steph were visiting in the lounge, Greta left a few days ago, the new kids were in the gym getting a feel for the equipment. The hell? His heart pounded a bit louder as he silently slunk towards his rooms. If Dick decided to haunt him from beyond the grave this was not cool. The lights flickered. Tim nearly screamed. He could feel cold sweat gathering in his palms, his heart racing, thoughts pounding in his skull. It’s just one of Bart’s pranks, no one can get in without access. He slid next to his door and pulled up the camera feed on his glove’s embedded computer. They weren’t in lockdown, but it couldn’t hurt to check. Few clicks here, few taps there and…Damian? Tim burst through the door, half relieved and fully confused.

“What are you doing here?” Tim half yelled, Damian startling on the bed as he burst into his room. Tim flicked the lights on as the gremlin crossed his arms in response. Tim shut the soundproof door, no need to bother Kon with this.

“I was given access to the tower as well.” He stated monotonously. Tim frowned; something was off. Damian didn’t just show up in his room. Come to think of it, he hadn’t seen the kid in weeks. Not since Bruce went all amnesiac on them. Where was he even staying. Damian shifted uncomfortably under his gaze. There were dark circles under his eyes, he was paler than usual, but flushed, his eyes bright. Had he been crying in here? “Quit gawking at me, Drake.” He spat, jolting Tim back into reality.

He almost opened his mouth to throw some insult back. Almost. He saw the kid’s lip tremble just so slightly, and he bit his tongue. The kid’s hands were shaking. “What’s up?” He replied cautiously. Keeping the demon brat in line wasn’t in his job description. But the kid had had a rough couple months. Dying, coming back to Dick being dead, Bruce losing his memory. He could help with whatever this was and-

“Grayson is alive.”

-send the kid back to Alfred, he knew the kid better than he did. He had his pets at the manor to keep him company, maybe he’d see if Jon would be willing to have a sleepover or something. Spring break was coming up soon, maybe he could take a trip out to Kansas-

“Drake!” Damian was waving a hand in front of his face. Tim blinked a few times. He hadn’t said…had he? That wasn’t right Dick was-

“Richard is alive, I can prove it.” There was desperation in the kid’s voice, water in his eyes. The trash can was filled with tissues, it had been empty when he left. His shirt was on inside out. Tim inhaled sharply. Fuck. Tim had been there. He’d done that. Denied reality. Gone on a wild fairy tale goose chase. Chased insane dreams. Sure, it had worked. But this was different. They had a body. We had a body then, his mind helpfully supplied. There was no real evidence. It had worked hadn’t it? Denying Bruce’s death out of reality? But Dick couldn’t be alive. Bruce had seen him die. Clark saw Bruce die, his brain again helpfully supplied. Tim studied Damian’s face carefully. He looked two steps away from a mental breakdown. Was that how I looked? He wasn’t exactly looking in any mirrors at the time. Dick had try to talk him back down, that was the wrong move. He’d doubled down. But Damian wasn’t him and Tim had no idea what to do. Damian stared at him, studying his face carefully. Tim could feel his palms sweating again, when had he started clenching his fists? His brain was ticking through options, tell Damian he believed him – high chance of heartbreak, low chance of kid running off and doing something stupid on his own. Try and talk him down – still some heartbreak, but can mitigate, medium to high chance of him running off. Call Alfred – should he really do that though? The kid came to him. Alfred’s busy dealing with amnesiac Bruce. Call someone else? Why did the kid come to him in the first place? Damian hated him, he wouldn’t come to him unless he was really sure, or really desperate. Does he think I can replicate what happened with Bruce? Time seemed to move like molasses. Tim swallowed. Now or never.

“I believe you.” He replied. Damian’s eyebrows furrowed, but his shoulders fell ever so slightly, and he rocked back on his heels, uncrossing his arms and leaning into a less defensive stance. Mixed results. He prayed he sounded convincing enough. If he was going this route, he had to go all the way. It didn’t matter that he’d seen the body. It didn’t matter that Bruce saw. He needed to be on Damian’s side with this one. Just like he’d needed somebody on his side back then. Even if it was a crazy side. Even if it was a leave everyone behind and run around on a whim side. Even if it doesn’t work out, at least the kid would have someone to catch him at the end. Why did it have to be the brat though?

“You do not. But you will.” Damian said solemnly, a bit of an edge to his voice. He pulled a laptop out of a bag on the floor and hopped up on the foot of Tim’s bed. Tim quietly settled next to him, careful to not touch him. He was careful. The kid didn’t appear to be looking for a fight, but you never know. Tim glanced at the laptop screen.

“DAMIAN NO WHAT THE-” He screamed. Damian nearly leapt of the bed. His face turned red.

“-tt- Grow up Drake, this is for research purposes only, that is not-” He started mumbling.

“You’re on DICK GRAYSON THIRST POST WEBSITES for RESEARCH!” Tim half screamed, attempting to lower his voice. Damian flushed harder.

“SHUT UP DRAKE!” He countered. Tim took deep breaths. Dear god, he needed to bleach his eyes after this. He did not need to know these threads existed. Fucking reddit. Humanity has gone too far. There were 20k followers. He peeked over again, the latest posts were from this morning. His mouth was dry. These people were lusting over his dead brother. It was sick, it was fucking disgusting it was-

“Wait what’s that picture?” Tim asked.

“-tt- If you would allow me to explain instead of losing your head, I can show you.” Damian grumbled. He clicked on the picture to enlarge it. “I’ve run the calculations, biometrically, the body shape is a 99.97% match.” Tim let out a low whistle. It wasn’t much to go on. You couldn’t see the figure’s face, he was turned away from the camera. Whoever took it was definitely aiming for a certain portion of the man’s body.

“Have you talked to the poster?” Tim inquired. Damian nodded.

“This subreddit is dedicated to…” Damian made a revolted looking face, “capturing casual images of Grayson in unsavory positions.” He nearly squirmed as he finished the sentence. “I was attempting to research the details of Grayson’s perceived passing and came across this website.” That was a different kind of trauma in Tim’s opinion. “The image caught my eye. He has fans in Ireland, that is where it was taken. These fans are apparently experts at picking him out.” Damian scrolled through some earlier posts to prove his point. “It is odd.” He added pointedly. Tim’s mind was racing. It was hardly evidence. It could have been anyone. But he was right. The perverts were good. They even had a few of Dick in disguise doing undercover work, none of his face of course. But Dick couldn’t be in Ireland. Tim went to the funeral. Bruce went to the funeral. Bruce saw Dick die. Bruce wouldn’t lie about something like that. He never told you about the Joker. His mind supplied. No. Bruce wouldn’t. Bruce couldn’t. He wouldn’t put them through that grief. Not after Damian. Not after all the lies. He promised he wouldn’t lie to them like that. The picture couldn’t be real. But Damian kept scrolling. There were more. In multiple countries. It couldn’t be possible. There was no way. People joked his brother’s butt was iconic but this was ridiculous.

“Drake?” Damian sounded so cautious. Tim was confused. The pictures all looked so real. So accurate. Could they be photoshopped? That could explain it.

“Did you get any of the original files?” He asked much too hastily to appear calm. A smile flicked on Damian’s face for a millisecond.

“You believe me.” Damian stated, half disbelievingly. Tim bit his lip. He didn’t want to. He couldn’t. If he did, then he didn’t believe Bruce. Damian cleared his throat. “I have already examined a few of the original photographs. Their phones were laughably easy to hack.” He looked smug for a mentally unhinged eleven-year-old. “They do not appear to be tampered with.” Tim could feel his heart thudding in his chest. Dick couldn’t be alive. It wasn’t possible. He saw the body. Bruce was in the cave for a week going over it. Not allowing anyone in. No… Fuck…

“What did you do?” He muttered under his breath. Damian looked at him inquisitively, a determination burning in his eyes. Tim hadn’t seen any of the proof himself. And he believed Bruce unquestioningly. That was the opposite of what the man had taught him. But there was still something off. He looked searchingly at Damian. “Dick wouldn’t do that to us.” He couldn’t. Dick would never do something like that. He would tell them. He wasn’t like Bruce, he was reliable. Dick didn’t keep secrets like that. He wouldn’t fake his own death and leave them to fend for themselves. Not after Damian died. After everything they’d lost, after everything he’d lost. Dick wouldn’t do that to him. Damian’s eyes flickered toward the ground, and he frowned.

“Maybe he can’t tell us.” Is all he had to offer. It seemed like a sore spot. Tim didn’t push it. It was probably driving the kid insane. Dick, galivanting across the world, not checking in, not coming back to tell them he was okay? The odds were astronomically low. Dick was a constant. He was their brother. He was a Robin. Robins don’t do that to each other. Steph did, his brain helpfully supplied. But that wasn’t Steph’s fault. Tim dug his nails into his palms. He needed to know. He needed proof. He needed to see the footage, go over the evidence. He didn’t doubt Dick, but his mind was itching. He wouldn’t be able to sleep unless he knew for sure. Hell, Damian probably couldn’t either.

“Look, here’s the plan.” Tim said, his mind racing. Damian stared at him intently. Wow the kid really was desperate if he was willing to listen to him. “I’ll tell Kon I’m taking you home, that you need some help on a case, then will slip out. Maybe, maybe someone close to the family is compromised.” He said, a bit unsure. That could explain the lie. If there was one. Please let there be one. Damian nodded, stuffing his laptop back into his backpack. Tim crossed the room and grabbed the door handle.

A barely audible “Thanks.” reached his ears as he flipped off the lights.

Jason groaned as he checked his messages. He really didn’t want to go through the batcomputer files. It would be faster if Tim did it, plus he had a lower chance of accidentally messing something up. Not that the file system wasn’t already a disaster. Touch the wrong button and you’re locked in the cave till Alfred realizes something’s wrong.

Tim had stopped responding to his messages two days ago, and well, he couldn’t wait any longer. And so, he found himself zipping through the tunnel systems that led into the cave. It was better to avoid the manner if possible. Happy Bruce wasn’t high on the list of people he wanted to see. That dude was fucking weird. It made him feel weird. It did feel good to cross amnesia off his yearly family bingo though. Now he just needed someone to trip during an interview and he’d break Cass’s winning streak. At the rate they were checking things off, maybe he should start a second batch and make it biannual. That or change the prompts. They were getting predictable.

He rolled to a stop inside the cave, and nearly rolled his eyes seeing the mess of skid marks on the floor. Seriously, tires are expensive, why his siblings couldn’t park like normal human beings was beyond him.

Someone was clacking away on the upper platform. Oh, thank God Tim was probably here, figuring it out before he could mess everything up. Cass poked her head over the railing, Jason cocked an eyebrow at her as he removed his helmet. She grinned and jumped over it, catching the fireman’s pole and sliding down. Someone was going to break an ankle doing that, could he add that to the bingo cards? Stupid non-work related injury was already on there, maybe upgrading it to stupid broken bone would suffice. Dick broke his nose outside Denny’s at 3am last year during a post mission party. Hands down one of the best nights of Jason’s life. Too bad his family members decided to die at least once a year.

“I’m about to win bingo.” Cass whispered as she brushed past his shoulder. That jolted Jason out of his bittersweet thoughts.

“Bullshit.” He growled back, bingo was his this year. She smugly wrapped an arm around his shoulders.

“Sorry brother.” She said sweetly, leaning her head into his shoulder. She let out a long sigh. And then Jason finally remembered that it most the squares weren’t exactly fun.

“Wait, the fuck’s going on?” Fuck, he really didn’t want to deal with this right now. Nobody could have died Dick checked that off, amnesia was gone, Gotham destroyed was gone, natural disaster was checked, Joker breaks out and does dramatic shit was gone too. But that wasn’t a good sigh, that was a ‘I’m so tired of this family sigh’, which could narrow it down a bit. Cass squeezed his shoulder.

“Family secrets.” She admitted, giving him a melancholy look. Jason groaned. This family was the fucking worst. Bruce wasn’t even really part of it right now, who the hell was keeping secrets? Damian. Had to be Damian. Little monster was just like his dad. Fuck. Dick taught the kid better than that. What kind of mess was he in?

Cass took him by the wrist and started dragging him towards the stairs. He resisted briefly as they got to the base. He needed to know. “Who’s is it?” He asked, planting his feet on the ground.

Cass bit her lip, looking extremely uncomfortable. Jason pulled back his arms and crossed them, keeping his expression as neutral as he could, but she could probably read his mood anyways.

“HA. HAHAHA HA. FUCK YOU BRUCE! TAKE THAT SHIT-COMPUTER!”

Jason nearly jumped out of his skin at Tim’s screeching from upstairs, Cass was running up the stairs, not waiting to see if he was coming. Jason sighed. It was going to be on of those days. He took a deep breath and headed up behind her.

Tim was doing a victory dance in front of the computer. Damian was crawling out from under the computer, a shit eating grin on his face. They both looked (and smelled) a mess. Definitely neither had showered in a few days, probably hadn’t slept either.

“Todd, you are just in time to witness our victory over father.” Damian greeted, formal as ever. The brat didn’t even through an insult in there. Must be in a good mood. Well that at least explained who was keeping secrets. Stupid Bruce, keeping secrets even while an amnesiac. Screw him.

“Shall we?” Tim asked, offering a hand to Damian, which shockingly the kid took. The fuck did he miss?!?

“Uh, what the fuck?” He managed to get out. There was cowl footage pulled up on the screen. Cass was pulling chairs over from the table. He tiredly took the seat she offered him.

“Waaaaiiiiiit I have popcorn!” Steph called, pounding down the stairs.

“Steph no!” Tim moaned. “This isn’t a joke!”

“What’s family drama without popcorn?” Steph sung back. Damian huffed. Cass snickered. Jason had to smirk to himself. Dark humor was the best coping mechanism in this family. “Besides you haven’t told us what this is!” She accused. Well at least Jason wasn’t the only one who didn’t know. Tim shifted guilty at the computer, his eyes darting from Damian and then back to the group. Damian responded by huffing and crossing his arms.

“Drake did not ‘want to get your hopes up’.” He began, mimicking Tim’s voice perfectly, “-tt-His concern is unfounded, my research has been impeccable, Gr-” Tim shoved a hand over Damian’s mouth. Damian looked downright murderous.

“Look we want to watch the footage beforehand it might be-” Tim squawked as Cass lunged off the table, hopped over his shoulders and hit play on the batcomputer. “Cass wait!” He got out as the video began to play. Steph grabbed Tim from behind and dragged him into a seat.

The screen showed footage from a first-person perspective, they were walking through a doorway into a large room.

“I’m tired of secrets.” Muttered Cass as she slipped in a chair next to Steph. Damian staid standing, glaring intensely at the screen, looking strangely anguished.

“Hey, kid you can…” The invitation died in his throat. The camera moved forward into the room, revealing a beaten Dick Grayson in the center, hooked to countless machines, suspended in a metal cocoon, only his face and chest peeking out.

“Oh my God.” Came a familiar voice from the screen. A growl reverberated in the cave.

“Well Batman…” Luthor materialized on the right, “…You’ve found Nightwing.” He said, stalking forward.

Something clattered on the floor. The camera was rushing forward. Voices from the cave mixed with voices on the screen.

“Why would you want to watch this!?” shrieked Steph.

“Dick? Everything’s going to be all right. I’m here.” Bruce’s gruff voice sounded oddly strained.

“Shut up Brown!” Came Damian in a high-pitched voice.

“He never showed us the evidence.” Tim’s voice squeaked. “We have to watch till the end?”

“I’m sorry I shut you out. All of you. I didn’t want you getting hurt…I’m going to get you out of this.” Came Bruce’s shaking voice. Jason could feel a lump growing in his throat. He didn’t want to see this.

“Fast-forward?” Cass suggested, her voice equally shaken. Jason could barely see the others in the cave, his eyes were glued to the screen.

“No…You need to…leave.” Came Dick’s horse whisper of a voice. “You need to go…”

Damian made an inhuman noise, which allowed Jason to tear his eyes off the screen.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Muttered Tim. “We can’t fast-forward we need to know what happened.” He forced a sense of determination into his voice. “This is why I didn’t-”

THOOM. The sound rumbled through the cave. Jason jumped out of his seat. The camera whipped around revealing the exit sealed off, with Luthor, Selina, and Bizzarro trapped inside.

“-you guys can still leave.” Tim said shakily.

BA-DEEP. Blared through the speakers. BA-DEEP.

“What is that?” Came Selina’s voice, her usual smooth and silky persona dropped. BA-DEEP.

“It’s a countdown. This isn’t just a fancy pair of handcuffs, Catwoman. It’s a bomb.” Came Lex’s gruff voice. The camera turned again showing a timer counting down from 5 minutes. Jason’s stomach painfully twisted at the reminder of another countdown in another sealed building.

“We’re staying.” He managed to get out. He might have heard noises of affirmation.

WHAM. “The door. The walls. Why can’t we break through them?” Came Luthor’s voice.

“This cell was designed to hold Doomsday, Luthor.” Came Bruce’s voice again. The camera showed him messing with the panel. BA-DEEP.

“Is the countdown monitoring his heart?” Selina asked from seemingly far away.

“Yes.” Boomed Bruce’s voice. BA-DEEP.

“Why?” Replied Selina.

“The detonator is hooked into it.” Bruce responded. Jason’s heart sunk. “He died in a death trap. There was no way out.” Bruce had told him before the funeral. BA-DEEP.

“Batman…The bomb…” Dick whispered. BA-DEEP. Jason spared another glance at Damian. There were tears beginning to form in his eyes, but he stared, glued to the screen all the same. “…It only disams…If my heart stops.” Jason could feel his chest tightening painfully. “I die…or we all die.” BA-DEEP.

“Maybe Bruce had a reason for not showing this to us.” Steph said shakily. Jason glanced over. She looked green. Her sleave and eyes were both wet. The sounds of the heart monitor echoed in the cave.

BA-DEEP. “Please…Listen to me…” Dick’s horse voice started again. Tim was muttering frantically to himself. “You still have time to get yourself out of here.” The camera was so close. Jason could see every cut on his brother’s face, could see the sweat on his brow, the blood trickling down from his nose.

BA-DEEP. “I am not leaving you, Dick. I am not abandoning you.” Bruce sounded much more confident that Jason felt. Too bad Bruce didn’t sound confident.

“You aren’t Bruce. And you never have.” Dick replied. Jason’s vision was blurring. All he wanted was some stupid computer files. He didn’t come to the cave to watch this.

BA-DEEP. “The only way we’re getting out of here is together…No…The wires…” Jason dug his fingernails into his palms. “…Every time I disconnect a relay, it fixes itself.” Jason bit his lip.

BA-DEEP. At some point those in the caves had gone silent. “Then there’s only one way to disarm this bomb, Batman.” Came Luthor’s voice. The video jolted violently and Bruce’s cry reverberated through the cave. Chaos erupted on the screen. A cacophony associated with their customary brand of violence echoed through the speakers, obscuring some of the voices.

BA-DEEP. “I’m saving our lives.” Jason made out. The screen was black. Jason glanced around the room. Everyone was tense. Damian was crying. Tim looked horrified. Cass was perfectly still, her expression blank. Steph looked one step away from throwing up in the empty popcorn bowl that lie on the ground at her feet.

BA-DEEP. The camera was moving again. “LUTHOR.” Boomed Bruce’s voice again. Jason caught a glimpse of the man pressing a hand over Dick’s face. “LUTHOR, YOU HURT HIM AND I WILL KILL YOU.” Cass let out the faintest gasp. Bruce wasn’t lying. How the hell was Luthor still alive? The heart monitor was stuttering. BA-DEEEEEP

“Nonononononononononono.” Came Tim’s voice. “It wasn’t supposed to-”

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“DICK.” Screamed Bruce. The camera rushed forward.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“NO!” Yelled Bruce and Tim at the same time. Damian had sunk to the floor.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

A fist kept pounding Luthor in the face relentlessly. “Batman, wait-” Luthor pleaded. This was not how Jason had wanted Bruce to break his code.

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

“YOU MURDERER!” Screeched Bruce, righteous fury echoing in his voice. The heart monitor cut off. A hand reached down to cut off Luthor’s windpipe.

“I have this…” Came Luthor’s strangled voice. He looked terrified. “Under control…Grayson…” The hand squeezed harder. “-kk-!” The man chocked. Bruce lessened up slightly. “It’s not too late, you idiot.” Spat Luthor. Bruce was apparently passed the point of listening.

“YOU MURDERED NIGHTWING.” He growled, tightening his grip once more. Luthor was going bug eyed. The man was going to actually die if Bruce pushed it much harded.

“Batman-” Came Selina’s voice.

“Luthor killed Dick, Selina.” Bruce said, his voice strangled.

“You said this lightning rod was from the future! Maybe we can use it to save him or something? I don’t know-!” She cried desperately.

A flash of light and crackle of electricity resounded through the cave. The screen went black for a moment.

Jason could hear metal clinking on the floor.

“Why are we still watching this?” Jason asked hoarsely. Tim looked at him palely.

“I need to know what happened next.” He whispered.

“If I hadn’t stopped Grayson’s heart, this ‘Murder Machine’ would have detonated and we all would have died. I had to make a choice, Batman. I made him flatline…after I forced him to swallow a cardioplegia pill.” The camera slowly tilted back up to focus on Luthor.

“A what?” Asked Steph and Selina at the same time.

“A drug that paralyzes the cardiac muscles surrounding the heart.” Replied Tim and Bruce in sync.

“Then…” Trailed off Damian. The boy looked up hopefully at the screen.

“And if this boy’s heart doesn’t get a shot of adrenaline right this very second he’s going to stay dead.” Luthor finished.

*kaff*

That small cough was the best sound Jason had heard in his entire life.

“YES!” Shouted Tim.

Damian swallowed. “As I expected.” He said shakily. No one called him out on it.

“Dick?” Came Bruce’s voice from the screen.

“Batman?” Dick’s wobbly voice whispered.

Cass tackled Steph into a bear hug, and Steph laughed widely as they clattered to the floor. Jason just sighed deeply and let his head drop into his hands in relief.

“Drake-” gasped Damian, “-get off.”

“You were right! Damian was right! Dick’s alive. HAHA Dick’s ALIVE!” Jason glanced up to see Tim squeezing the crap out of Damian who was going slightly blue in the face. There were words coming from the speakers still but they fell to the wayside in the celebration. Jason walked over and turned the volume down.

“I’m going to kill them.” Jason muttered under his breath. But he’d save that for later, for now, he just paced back to his chair and sunk into it. The cave was quiet for a few minutes, Dick and Bruce continued on whatever the fuck adventure they were on was. The rest of the video was a blur. By the end, Jason’s racing heart had settled, and the kids had stopped clinging to each other.

“But wait.” Said Steph as the video ended. “If Dick’s alive, where is he? How did you even know to look?”

Jason turned to see Tim babbling. “Well I have a few theories, we recovered more footage as well, you know? Like Damian found pictures of him all across the world so like, we don’t know for certain where he is, but like I don’t know for sure what happened, but maybe someone was compromised so like, he had to stay hidden or like…” Tim continued babbling as the next video began to play. It was once again footage from the cowl. “Bruce shut off all the camera’s in the cave for the next week, I thought he was sulking but like we were able to find some cowl footage that he deleted, and like hopefully from that we can figure out what happened and how to track him down-”

“Turn up the volume.” Demanded Cass from her seat. She was looking at the screen with an odd expression. Damian moved without hesitation. Jason’s eyes followed up to the screen. Dick was glaring into the camera his fists raised and wrapped.

“So, one more time Dick. But now there’s only one rule…You have to win.” Came Bruce’s gruff voice. The pair was in the cave. Dick lunged towards the camera. “You let the crime syndicate capture you. Let them torture you. You let them give your secrets to the world.” Bruce accused.

“Bruce man, what the fuck!” Steph yelled, masking Dick’s response.

Bruce continued “You let them turn you into a bomb. You let them kill you. Before Luthor rescued you, you let everyone WATCH YOU DIE.” He boomed.

“YOU GOTTA BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!” Jason bellowed, knocking over his chair as he stood. He walked away from the screen. Only fucking Bruce. Only fucking Bruce would blame someone for their death. Jason knew that all too well. He walked away from the screen, giving himself distance to clear his head.”

“I trained you to LIVE, and I watched you DIE!” CRACK. Jason flipped around to see Bruce elbow Dick in the face, drawing blood. Bruce’s words cut like a knife. It wasn’t Jason’s fault he died. It wasn’t Dick’s fault either. Neither Steph’s or Damian’s. Damian had unconsciously taken cover behind Tim, who was standing between Damian and the screen with an arm hovering over the kid’s shoulder.

“WHAT THE FUCK BRUCE!” Screamed Steph at the screen, she was also on her feet at this point. Only Cass’s hand prevented her from trying to fight the digital apparition. “WE DON’T JUST GO AROUND DYING WILLY NILLY, IT’S NOT MY-, IT’S NOT HIS FAULT!” Her voice shrilly echoed around the cave, drowning out the audio temporarily.

Dick was on his knees, wiping his bloody nose, looking up confused. WHACK. A powerful kick sent him flying off the platform, crashing into a costume display case. “I have a mission for you, Dick. I need you to do something that will hurt your friends. Your family.” Bruce commanded. He could hear Damian inhale sharply. Tim stopped hovering and pulled Damian tightly into his chest, rushing forward to pause the video, with the boy in tow. His hand was over the button before Cass sprung forward and grabbed his wrist. Jason had never seen Cass look this angry without the mask.

“I deserve to know.” She said with conviction, anger deep in her voice. “I deserve to know what kind of father he is.” She spat. Jason wasn’t going to touch that with a ten foot pole.

“But he shouldn’t, I mean I don’t know if, I mean I don’t know what, I mean-” Tim sputtered glancing from the screen to Damian and back again.

“I want to know the truth.” Came Damian’s tiny reply. He looked so young, he pushed away from Tim’s chest, but leaned into his side.

Cass pulled Tim’s hand back. “I fought him once.” She admitted. “I need to know.” She repeated.

Tim looked at her pleadingly. Bruce and Dick raged at each other on screen. Blood flowed from the cuts on Dick’s back. “I…I…” Tim stammered.

“We all deserve to know.” Steph piped up, leaning against the side of the computer.

“Fight like you’re alive!” Bruce yelled on the screen. CRACK. An oversized die broke on impact with the back of Dick’s head. Dick retaliated, throwing a question mark back.

The words were blurring in Jason’s head, his rage clouding his thoughts, and overtaking his senses. The rest of the world was disappearing, leaving only the screen behind. His vision tunneled. He crossed his arms as tightly as he could, willing himself to stay in place. Stay calm. His hearing cut out. But he could still read his name on his brother’s lips just before Bruce delivered an uppercut powerful enough to knock Dick off the dinosaur.

The next thing Jason knew Cass was sitting on him. People were yelling at him.

“-on’t break the screen-”

“-up I need to see-”

“-op fighting-”

Cass smiled apologetically before tapping a pressure point. Jason allowed himself to fade into the darkness.

He came to in a medical bay of the cave, with an intense desire to get out. This place was cursed. He needed out, he needed to think, he needed to process, but he needed to get out. He pushed himself up and swung his legs off the bed.

“Wait.” Came a voice from behind him. He spun off the bed to see Tim, awkwardly standing on the other side of the cot. Jason edged towards the door. “We know where he is.” Tim offered. Jason glanced at Tim, and back to the door.

“Can we talk somewhere else?” He asked quietly. He didn’t want to be in the cave for this. Tim awkwardly bobbed side to side.

“Uh about that. We’re moving out.” He said quickly. Jason opened the door.

“OMGIT’SREDHOODHIMR.REDHOODSIRPLEASEDON’TKILLTIM-”

Jason slammed the door in the kid’s face. He stared at Tim, who was banging his head into the wall with a hand covering his eyes.

“Do I even want to know?” Jason asked. Tim groaned.

“I called my team to help us move out, we’re going to use the bunker for Gotham operations from now on.” Tim explained. A loud crash came from outside. The door whipped open.

“Heythegiantpennyisn’t-” The kid started. Jason growled at him. “-nevermindbyebye.” The speedster zipped away and slammed the door.

“You decided this without me?” Jason asked, raising an eyebrow at Tim. Tim looked back at him sheepishly.

“You’re already out voted. Besides you really want to stay here?” He replied evenly. Jason shrugged, that was fair. He’d already tried to leave. “I know you said you don’t want to talk here, but I don’t know when I’ll get you alone again.” Jason sighed. That’s valid, he was planning on avoiding the family for a bit. “Please don’t pull a disappearing act.” Jason looked up at him.

“Why not?” He challenged.

“We don’t need Bruce to be a family.” Tim replied. It sounded rehearsed. That was also fair. “And we need each other too. We found some communications from Dick, Bruce left him stranded when he got amnesia, he’s coming back in a few days.” Jason couldn’t look Tim in the eye anymore.

“I don’t know what to do.” He said honestly, looking at Tim’s shoes. What do you say after something like this? After watching something like that. After knowing the truth.

“Neither do we, but we’ll figure it out together.” Tim offered. He looked sad, tired, his face fell before he spoke again. “He…he misses us.” He spoke softly. “On the recordings. I, I don’t think Bruce even told him about Damian.” Jason swore softly under his breath. Bruce was one fucking piece of work.

“Is there anything else I should know?” Jason said after a moment, catching Tim’s eye once more.

Tim shook his head. “The rest of the tape was mostly the same.” He said quietly. “He won.” He added as an afterthought. Jason snorted. Tim gave a warry smile. None of them ever won. Not in the ways they wanted to. Only when the prizes were more pain, more guilt, more heartbreak.

Jason leaned back against the wall. How was this the way things ended up? Was Bruce always this cruel? The man was unrecognizable to Jason. It was inexcusable. After Willis? After Cain? After Brown? Hell, even Tim’s father was emotionally abusive before he died. Why couldn’t any of them have a normal father? A stable parental relationship. It wasn’t fair. And it hurt more because he didn’t even know where it started. Bruce had been a good father to him. Had that been a lie? He’d never looked to closely at why Dick had left home, could it be that…that…? Had Jason missed something like this? Would he ever even know what he’d missed? They didn’t have as many cameras back then.

Tim had crossed the room and put a hand on his shoulder. “He’ll be okay.” He said confidently. “As long as we have each other, we’ll all be okay.” Tim squeezed his shoulder gently before disappearing through the door into the chaos that used to be his childhood fantasy. When had it all gone so wrong, he had to ask himself. He hated that he knew the answer. His death was this fucking family’s original sin. But you know what, that wasn’t his fault. Even if it felt like it. Even if Bruce still blamed him. Dick didn’t look at him like a ghost, he didn’t look at him like a kid in over his head, like a regret, like a mistake. It was time for Bruce to grow the hell up and move on. Bad experiences don’t justify beating your kids. Maybe from here, they could move on. Maybe from here on, they could heal. Maybe they could start over. Maybe they could make their own new family. Bruce had abused them, lied to them, manipulated them enough. It was time to rise from the ashes like a phoenix and fly again. He wouldn’t know unless he tried. He didn’t have to give up on Gotham. But maybe it was time to give up on Bruce.

Jason swung open the door, descending into a future unknown, diverging from the circle of heartache and abuse. He had broken the cycle once before, on his own, with a new family made of friends, one of his choosing. And now he chose to break it once more, and this time he resolved not to leave his siblings behind.

#dickgraysonweek2021 #dickgraysonweek #dick grasyon #nightwing #batfamily #my writing #tw domestic abuse #tw child abuse #tw swearing

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bondsmagii · 3 years

Note

I’m rereading Vicious and after knowing everything about Vengeful everything that Eli did on vicious makes so much sense.

The first time I read Vicuous I always wondered what exactly went through Eli’s head, what was he thinking? When he looked for Victor when Victor was about to replicate his experiment? Was Eli concerned about Victor or was Eli was acting for selfish reasons? What was he thinking and feeling after he got his powers? What was he thinking when Victor attacked him and why was he so quick to think Victor was a devil in disguise? What was his last thought when he was about to become an Eo and how does it relate to healing? What was his thought process when he was trying to give up his life to god and when he decided that killing EOS was the “right” thing to do?

And after reading Vengeful everything becomes so much clearer, his last thought was probably about how he wanted to be “healed and saved” he internalized so some much religious trauma that it affected the way he acted and his thogught porcess, he witnessed his mother suicide on a bathtub and that’s probably why he chose that method both times before and after becoming an EO, his father used to beat him as a kid because he supposedly “had the devil in him” and he does feels like one through his life, doing his best to act as “normal” as possible.

His mother death also explains why he was so worried about Victor and even in the first book Eli talks very fondly of him even referring to him as his best friend and he explains to Serena he thinks Victor died and something sinister replaced him after becoming an EO and this conclusion although rash, it make sense he would try to rationalize and in a way justify the awful things that Victor did after turning into an EO.

And even in vengeful he started imagining Victor to kept him company when he was going through hell, he admits to himself that Victor was the only person who ever truly “saw” him and understood him, pretty much confirming that the “rivalry” Victor and Eli had was mostly one-sided and Eli really did loved him and consider him his best friend.

This also explains his weird behavior towards Victor when Vic himself was trying to turn himself into an EO, Eli witnessed his mother death and probably didn’t wanted the same to happen to Victor after Eli himself almost died trying to recreate it.

The first book also explains that he tried to take his life a second time after Victor got arrested begging for God to take away his power if it had been a mistake, he seemed to externalize all of this negative experience and feelings through his purpose of exterminating the EOS because he sincerely believed that was the right thing to do, his faith although horribly used and mishandled seemed to be genuine based on how we was him literally begging to god to take his life back if everything had been a mistake.

Everyone one of his actions seem to be driven by his childhood and religious trauma and it’s incredible sad to me, he wan’t a sociopath or a psychopath he was just very broken and delusional individual.

And his experience with Serena who forced herself into him also didn’t helped the whole “EOS are devils in disguise” perspective , even since I read the first book (when I didn’t knew anything about Eli yet) I was very repulsed by what Serena was doing to him, to the point that even though I greatly disliked Eli at first I kind of hated Serena more for what she was doing to him. I am also a little disappointed in how the fandom barely acknowledges that what Serena did to Eli was incredibly wrong and messed up.

I have already said this, but the fandom seems to treat Eli very unkindly, they brush over all of his story and just label him as a “sociopath” or “psychopath” barely understanding and completely missing the point of why he behaved the way that he did.

I don’t mind if people hate his character, I did so at first, but the way everyone brush over all of his trauma and the way people completely misinterpreted his character and actions don’t set up right with me.

It’s a little surprising how people can praise Serena, Victor and Marcella despite their awful actions while they hate on Eli for the same reason, overall Eli seems to have been the one to receive the shorter end of the stick by the fandom.

honestly I've read this so many times because you're so right and it's such a relief to know that somebody else out there is capable of critical thinking skills lmao. I think the problem with people's response to Eli is that they think his backstory is an excuse, when in actual fact it's an explanation. go figure, kids who grow up in abusive households will turn into adults with a boatload of issues, and some of those issues are more likely than not going to cause harm of their own. it's totally possible to be both a victim and someone who causes harm; yes, Eli thinks he's in the right, but his actions are still wrong. it's possible to understand both of these things and it's possible to still like his character and sympathise with him, while still understanding that damn, he maybe needs to chill on the serial killing.

it wouldn't bother me as much if people didn't think that Victor was absolutely innocent. people seem to revere him, and it's because in the narrative he's set up as Eli's opposite. the whole point of the story is that there's no good men in the game, but because Victor wants to stop Eli, people see him as the good guy and overlook how cruel he was to Eli throughout their entire friendship, and also how cruel he is to the others. (Mitch is probably the only one there of his own free will. Sydney was an injured 12-year-old child when Victor picked her up, and he did so only because she had information that he wanted -- his first thought was to torture it out of her, but when she gave it willingly and kind of hero-worshipped him in the way a neglected child would hero-worship their saviour, he decided she could stay. Dominic is there by force, because he's a disabled man in constant chronic agony that Victor fixes with his EO abilities, and if he does something to displease Victor or leaves him, Victor has threatened to bring the pain back even worse.) people rewrite both Eli and Victor's personalities to fit this, with Eli being cast as this unfeeling psychopath and Victor the person standing up to his evil, and in actual fact Eli is absolutely not a psychopath -- he's a traumatised adult recovering from a highly abusive childhood -- and Victor is not standing up to evil; he's settling a score. a score he kind of started in the first place, by being a jealous asshole towards Eli's thesis, trying to dominate it because his own sucked, seeking glory off the back of Eli's hard work, and then when he succeeded in his goals and became an EO, immediately murdering Eli's girlfriend and torturing Eli because he was jealous Eli's idea was correct. like, Victor Vale is a little bitch, on god. the reason it ended like this was because he was a god-awful friend to Eli, who was literally Victor's only true friend because he was the only person who would put up with him. go figure that the only person who could deal with Victor's behaviour was a grown abused child. nobody who hadn't been indoctrinated into believing that behaviour was acceptable would ever voluntarily deal with Victor.

literally every decision and action Eli takes can be traced back to his trauma, but go figure that nobody on this website can treat trauma with the nuance it deserves. people on this site seem to think that if you're traumatised you're always innocent and vulnerable; if anyone acts outside of this idea, they're written off. I take Eli's treatment very personally because I've seen people quite literally do this to real life people, myself included. because I wasn't a quiet, easy-to-deal-with traumatised person, I got all kinds of shit. it's the exact same with Eli. because he acts badly, because he does bad things, people seek to dehumanise him and set him aside because he apparently makes abuse survivors look bad or whatever -- when in actual fact acting badly is a very common response among abuse survivors, because we were brought up in an environment where that was normal and we don't know otherwise. not to mention the fact that the kind of mental illness Eli shows -- PTSD, mainly -- has many symptoms that make for unpleasant actions. it's not a crime to show the impact these things have, but people take it so personally. I've even seen people say it's ableist to portray characters like Eli because it gives people with trauma or mental illness a bad name, but no. that's literally not how it works. people with trauma and people with mental illness act badly, they fuck up, they can abuse people, sometimes they do harm or even kill people. ignoring this isn't going to get us anywhere, and if anything's ableist, it's looking at a clearly traumatised, mentally ill person and saying that he's a psychopath and evil and irredeemable. like, come on.

Eli didn't catch a single break for his whole life. everyone he's ever met has abused him horribly. you don't have to like him, but the people who can look at this and see nothing sympathetic about him? genuinely I don't trust them.

#long post #vicious #vengeful #anon #asks

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kareofbears · 4 years

Text

asymmetric styling

“I like the way you dress.”

Akechi looks up from his crossword (one word left, ten letters horizontally) to see Ann waiting for a response.

“What?”

—

read on ao3 or below the cut :)

“I like the way you dress.”

Akechi looks up from his crossword (one word left, ten letters horizontally) to see Ann waiting for a response.

“What?”

“Your outfits are nice,” she clarifies, nodding at his winter attire. “I like how you present yourself, and the colors you pick. You have a knack for clothes, I think.”

“Okay,” he says for lack of a better response. “Why are you telling me that?”

“Because I want to?”

He sets down his crossword. “Why would you want to?”

Ann stares at him. “Because you have good outfits?”

“Yes, we’ve been over that, but you hate me, so why would you want to compliment me?” If this useless back and forth goes on any further, Akechi’s going to pop a vein.

“I can still hate people and compliment them,” she replies, rolling her eyes. “That’s called high school.”

“This,” he gesticulates at the empty interior of Leblanc. “Is us waiting for the rest of the halfwits and Sumire to show up, and that I’ve apparently been granted the unfortunate lottery ticket of spending alone time with you.”

“I think it’s called a blessing, actually,” she grins. “I’m something of a hoot. A rockstar. A Hollywood badass.”

“A nuisance?” he offers, smiling thinly in return.

“Are you always like this or is it because I’m just too pretty?”

“I feel like this is a trick question from how stupid it sounds, but it’s most definitely not the second one, I promise.” Akechi shrugs off his jacket, and moves to grab his crossword puzzle again. “How about you go back to your phone, and we can go back to the delightful silence we had before?”

Her hand slams down on the newspaper. “I knew it.”

Raising an eyebrow, “Are you about to tell me the final answer to this crossword? Because not only do I legally have to say that you seem like you’ve never attempted a mental aptitude test in your life, but because I’m generally against spoilers.”

“You do like fashion!”

Akechi represses a sigh. “What are you on about?”

“Your jacket,” she points at his brown peacoat. “That was on page thirteen of Vague, the July edition predicting sales on which winter apparel for men will take off later that year. That peacoat was rated number one in Japan and ended up being something like a self-fulfilling prophecy by using their earlier predictions and turned it into sales.”

He scoffs. “Okay, sure. Let’s say that I’m an avid follower of fashion.” Akechi leans forward, and his head tilts in mock-concern. “But doesn’t that mean that you rebuked your own statement? Since this was…what was that? ‘Rated number one in Japan?’ Won’t that mean that everyone would be trying to sell this coat? And it could be a complete coincidence that I have this jacket because it can be replicated in every fast-fashion store in downtown Shibuya?” He gasps. “Oh no, looks like you’re wrong about the very field you think you know the most in! How humiliating.”

Ann leans forward, her smile is wide but her eyes are sharp. “Silly me. I guess I forgot to mention a fact about this specific brand, color, and fabric on the very first day of release: it’s near impossible for manufacturers to try and replicate it.” She tilts her head to mimic him. “Humiliation’s a bitch, isn’t it?”

“Maybe, if I had ever experienced it the way you just did,” he replies pleasantly. “‘Near impossible,’ means statistically difficult, but not quite impossible.”

“Very true, but since that brand is on such high demand, they actually have a foolproof method to fight against fake brands. Perhaps they thought it was a good idea to have a small symbol that can be easily overlooked. Let’s say—” she reaches forward and grabs his coat, grin stretching even further when she points at one of the big brown buttons. “Something like a rabbit engraved on top of the first button?”

Akechi raps his fingers on the table. “Perhaps, but if you had done your research, this brand has two foolproof methods: the rabbit, as you annoyingly mentioned, and the code that you can enter in the website to prove its legitimacy. However, as you may have noticed—” he pinches the label near the collar of the peacoat. “No code. Sorry.”

Ann groans, throwing her hands over her face. “Dammit!”

Letting himself cheer internally, he makes sure the condescension is layered thick in his voice. “Not your fault. You tried your best.”

“Yeah…I’m sure you did.” Blue eyes peek from between her fingers. “Too bad you forgot the cute little fact that four years ago they actually put the code inside of the label.”

His shoulders tense.

“Do you mind flipping it for me, Akechi? Actually, no need,” propping her chin on her palm, he probably could have felt her smugness from three blocks away. “Even if there isn’t, I know that you live and breathe fashion as much as I do.” Her expression turns cheery. “Well, almost as much.”

“Congratulations, you beat me in a game you know you’re more knowledgeable in than I am,” he deadpans. “An outstanding feat. Can you let me finish my puzzle now?”

“I should’ve guessed you were a sore loser,” Ann says, ignoring him. “I still remember when Akira beat you in a round of Tycoon. Your face was stuck like—” she scrunches her eyebrows together and morphs her features into a menacing scowl. “For like four hours afterwards, it was great.”

“He only won because his cards were better than mine.”

“Actually, if I’m not mistaken, the cards you drew were basically as good as his, and you still lost.”

“Oh, I see, you’re trying to be funny. Hilarious. I can hardly breathe, please call an ambulance.” He rubs his temples. “I yield. I’m going to ask you this one last time: What do you want? And no games, I beg of you, you’re going to make my head burst.”

“Killjoy,” she sighs, before straightening up. “You know that we hate you.”

“I think I’m aware, yes.”

“And you hate us—”

“But Sumire doesn’t count,” they both say in unison.

“But you not only hate us, but I’m pretty sure you hate, like, everyone else,” she continues, gesticulating with her hands. “Japan, Asia, the world. I’m sure you have some random vendetta with some guy across the Pacific Ocean. He probably breathed too hard and made one of your hairs move two weeks later.”

“Is there a point to your prattling, or…?”

“I’m getting there,” she gives him an accusing look. “So with all that in mind, why does a guy like you, who would get in a boxing ring with just about anyone on the planet, know so much about something like the fashion industry?” Smoothing down his jacket, “Why do you put so much effort in how you dress when it’s so clear that you don’t care what other people think about you?”

“Is that what you think?”

Ann pauses at his tone. “Am I wrong?”

“No. Not necessarily.” She continues to stare at him, unblinking. “Do you ever learn to back down?”

That makes her grin. “Not in this line of work. If you think I’m bad, you should go a few rounds with Ryuji.”

“Sounds like a nightmare.” If information is the price for temporary silence, then he’s willing to pay the price. Even at the cost of prolonging his crossword. “I didn’t care what other people think about me, but I wanted them to see me in a certain light.”

She squints. “What?”

He finds himself fiddling with the edge of his newspaper. “The very first thing people notice about a person is how they present themself. In their hair, their expression, their posture. But above all that, is the clothes that they wear. The shoes on their feet, the jacket on their back, how expensive their watch is. All that information is melded together in an instant. That split second—” he snaps his fingers. “Is all they need to form an opinion of you. To define you, before you can even open your mouth.”

“I don’t care about fashion,” Akechi admits. “But I cared about what it could do for me. I got to have a say in who I am.” His eyes flicker to her. “Done?”

The look Ann gives him is unreadable. “You’re a liar.”

Akechi leans away, taken aback. “Well, yes, of course. I thought we all knew that by now.”

“You do care about what other people think about you, Akechi,” she accuses, realization dawning on her. “‘Want to see you in a certain light,’ my ass—all you’re doing is shuffling around what your words mean to justify your actions through your thick, annoyingly soft-haired skull. You’re right, you don’t care about fashion, because at the end of the day…” Ann shrugs helplessly, and her words are spoken with something like awe and dismay. “All you care about is how people see you.”

A beat passes. “Wanted.”

“Huh?”

“It’s ‘wanted,’” he corrects, unfazed. “Past tense.”

Ann gives him a hard look. “Correcting me on my grammar, now? Real mature.”

“Only because it changes the meaning of everything you just said.” Akechi reaches over to his jacket’s collar, and flips the label to reveal the code. “Thanks to your reminder, you helped me recall something.” He taps at the seemingly randomized set of numbers in front of him. “This lets you know when you bought the coat. What number is this?”

Reluctantly, she peers at what he’s pointing at. “‘10?’” she says quietly. “October?”

“I bought this about a week before my well-deserved beatdown in Shido’s ship,” he clarifies. “So about four months ago from today.”

“Okay? And?” she urges, still confused.

“And this coat is the newest thing I own.”

“Meaning…?”

“Meaning…” how strange it was, saying this out loud to another person. “That something between Shido’s ship and now, I stopped caring. About up-to-date fashion, about appearances, and especially stopped giving a damn about other people’s perception of me.”

Ann is silent for a moment. “Was it because of what happened in Shido’s ship?” she asks. There’s no trace of superiority or teasing in her tone—only curiosity.

“Could be,” he answers honestly. “Perhaps I realized that there was no need to uphold a specific personality anymore. Perhaps I was just tired after playing that song and dance for as long as I can remember. Bottom line is: I don’t give a single shit about fashion anymore.”

Her lips quirk up, “Even though you got into a fashion pissing contest not five minutes ago?”

“That’s different. I love to win.”

“I can tell,” she breathes out a laugh. After a moment, a thoughtful expression clouds her features. “Can I say something?”

“If I actually had a say in that, we wouldn’t have had this conversation at all.”

“How would you, Akechi Goro, feel about trying to get back into fashion?”

For once, Akechi looks surprised. “Did you not listen to anything I just said?”

Her hands drum on the table eagerly. “Just hear me out. You don’t care about fashion because it sort of, kind of, maybe represents how much you tried to be someone you’re not, which hey, I get that, super relatable, and it’s great that you don’t care about that anymore. But—and give me a chance here—” Ann grins. “Wouldn’t it be more interesting if you wore clothes that you wanted to wear?”

She shifts in her seat, excitement radiating off of her. It’s difficult to watch. “I’ve been studying fashion ever since I could understand the color wheel, and if there’s one thing I learned is that fashion is power. If you make it your own, then,” Ann shrugs. “All the more power to you, right?”

Akechi is struck with silence, and is saved from having to reply when the door to Leblanc swings wide open. An entourage of loud teenagers steamroll into the cafe, all brushing off various amounts of snow from themselves.

“Took you long enough!” Ann yells over her shoulder.

“Sorry for the delay,” Haru answers. She raises her hand to reveal a full plastic bag. “But we got snacks!”

“Takoyaki?”

“Pork kebab.”

She makes a face. “Stop indulging Ryuji!”

“Mm, literally impossible,” Akira replies, combing the snow out of Futaba’s hair.

Akechi sinks back into the booth, waiting for Sumire to walk in and prance by his side, when Ann turns back to him. “By the way, I think it’s ‘asymmetrical.’”

“What is?”

“The last word on your puzzle,” she nods down at his crossword. “‘With two halves, sides, or parts that are not exactly the same in shape or size.’ I read it while I was grabbing your coat.”

“Oh.” He reluctantly scribbles down the answer, lacking the usual enjoyment he gets from finishing a crossword. “…Thanks.”

Somehow, she’s still not done talking. “I heard Akira went shopping with Sumire last week. She came back with the cutest dress I’ve ever seen in my life.”

“I’m aware.” He’s pretty sure he’s compiled enough for a slideshow of it by now, given how many pictures of it Sumire’s sent to him.

She hesitates, before seeming to steel herself. “Wanna go shopping tomorrow?”

Akechi blinks. Twice. He’s about to open his mouth to say no as rudely as possible, when he lets his eyes wander the cramped coffee shop. All of them are in clothes that scream their personality, even if it clashes or has horrible style (he can barely look at Ryuji’s winter outfit without cringing).

But, as terrible as some of them may look, all of them seem content to be in the clothes that they chose.

“Maybe.”

Ann’s smile is bright and genuine. “I can work with a maybe.”

#platonic anngoro #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #ann takamaki #goro akechi #fic #mine #fic tag #p5 #this is such a niche fic #i feel like the more fic i write for persona 5 #the more niche it is #i think i wrote this fic out of spite but thats usually how i write my fics anyway hehe #asymmetric styling #ann goro

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puckngrind · 4 years

Text

What’s In A Name: 9 - J. Toews

Chapter 9.

Where we left off: Jon poured his heart out to Bekah and she answered okay.

Warnings: smut, language, mentions of Humboldt crash

Word Count: 3,594

Series Masterlist ) Puck ‘n Grind’s masterlist

Okay.

Jon left Columbus to finish the season with just an okay from Bekah. He didn’t push her answer and she didn’t elaborate. It was a lot to process for both of them. Jon felt tense leaving since he laid his entire heart at her feet knowing she could easily stomp on it when she finally came around to processing her feelings and answering him. He didn’t care. He loved her more than anyone or anything in his life. Bekah cared about Jon but the fear was masking so many things for her.

It was hard for Bekah to watch the end of the season for a multitude of reasons but she did. The Blackhawks weren’t making the playoffs for the first time since Jon’s rookie year and with every loss she could hear Jon’s voice ringing in her ears that it was hard to focus on leading his team. She felt a huge ping of guilt knowing she was at fault for his lack of focus. Bekah and Jon talked but she could tell he was giving her space and avoiding topics.

“Whatcha doing?” Brynn headed in to Bekah’s office for lunch and see Bekah clicking away feverishly.

“I was looking over Jon’s new foundation and this collaboration for the gardens.” Bekah answers but doesn’t look up at her best friend.

“Ah! Did you watch the game last night? They won, yes?” Brynn’s face contorts but she recovers.

“Yes. 6-2. You know what he wants to do with this foundation is incredible but could use some tweaking, right?” Bekah finally looks at Brynn.

“Like a mastermind marketing badass could fix if she were to leave say her best friend and move to Chicago with the hot ass hockey man who has professed his love and she just answered okay even though she loves him too and is way too chicken shit to jump fully in?” Brynn raises her eyebrows and shoves a bite into her mouth.

“Wow! You really just...” Bekah leans back in her chair.

“Went there? Yes. Yes. Yes I did. Have you told him you love him?”

“No.” Bekah barely whispers.

“Because?” Brynn rolls her hand to get Bekah to continue.

“Rin, that’s not something you do over the phone, okay?”

“But you love him?” Brynn shoves another bite in her mouth and stares at Bekah.

“I mean...”

“Don’t do this what’s in a name it’s not a relationship bull shit again Bekah! That man poured his heart out to you. Told you he tries to replicate your scent when you leave. Can you imagine him in the kitchen with a spice rack and a splash of vanilla? It’s romantic as fuck and your answer was just okay. And he was fine with that! You told Captain Jonathan Bryan Toews, OM okay... do you know how many women wish they were you?” Brynn sucked in a breath and stared at be her best friend.

“OM?” Bekah questions.

“That’s what you are focusing on? Okay.” Brynn rolls her eyes and chuckles. “You really don’t google him do ya?” Brynn smirks as Bekah shakes her head no. “OM. Order of Manitoba. It’s the highest award the territory can give to outstanding citizens. Jon received it maybe the first summer you two were not defining things.” Bekah’s mouth opens and closes. “Google him friend. I did it recently. There are some super cute pictures of the two of you. The WAG pages think you two are adorable which I will say, they aren’t always nice to the woman so bravo.” Brynn gets up to leave.

“Wait, I’m in his google search?” Bekah croaks out.

“Yes friend. You are considered his girlfriend by everyone but yourself.” Brynn dropped the bomb, waves and walks down the hall.

Bekah types Jon’s name out. Sure enough their pictures from the Gala were in the first line and then from winning the cup and a few more from games including her in the jacket. Bekah could not believe that Brynn was right. The WAG blogs mentioned that Bekah loosened up Captain Serious. Also, one mentioned they were cute together and you could see how much he loved her. That statement was paired with a picture from his 2015 cup win and Bekah felt the lump in her throat. She stared off into space processing everything.

Bekah was working and barely watching the game against the Blues. She didn’t even notice the game was over until Jon’s was calling.

“Hey!” Bekah is greeted by the sounds of almost sobs. “Jon, are you crying? Babe!” Bekah’s voice calm but her brain racing.

“Beks, there was a crash. A junior hockey team from Canada.” Was all he could mustard up before the emotion caught up with him.

“Oh Jon!” Bekah clicked open a new window and searched. Her eyes misty. “Those families.” She whispers.

“Yeah, I’m going to head there next week before you come, okay?” Jon sniffles trying to regain his composure.

“Do you want me to come?” Bekah asked and while Jon wanted her to he knew her time off was limited.

“No but thanks. I’ll see you in two weeks, okay? Lo... Later Beks.” Jon cleared his throat and they hung up.

She clicked off the website and into her email. She typed out an email to her boss. A tear streaming down her cheek and she swiped it away. She hadn’t been in the hockey community long but she knew this loss was one that would stay with them forever, she could feel it.

Two weeks later, Bekah was on a plane to Chicago as planned. Jon waiting for her, this time with a small bouquet of flowers in hand. “Beks!” He pulls her up and kisses her sweetly.

“How are you?” She surveyed his face after an emotional two weeks he looked good but with a glimmer missing from his eye.

“I’m okay. Glad you are here. Let’s go get your bag.” He slides his hand in her’s and she feels a jolt as they touch. He lifts the bag off the conveyor belt with ease. “We can grab lunch then head to my place.”

“Wait!” Bekah spotted her other bag a few feet back and snags it.

“Beks, why so many bags?” Jon’s eyebrow raises.

“I... I... well... Tae.” She looks deep into his eyes.

“Spit it out, Baby.” Jon’s hand lets go of the luggage and the back of his hand swipes her cheek.

“I love you, Tae!” She almost shouts. Jon’s face lights up.

“Say that again?” He leans towards her face unsure if he heard the woman he loves correctly.

“Je t’aime Jonathan!” She giggles.

Jon lifts her up and spins her around. His kiss a little too strong for an airport but he doesn’t care. “Je t’aime Beks!” He places her back down on the ground. “But the fact that you love me doesn’t explain the extra suitcase.” His eyebrow rises again.

“Well, I took a sabbatical from work for the next 3 months.” Bekah’s feels the pink in her cheeks.

“You what?!?” Jon voice echoes off the walls.

“I took a sabbatical to figure out all of this without losing my job. Now I need to find a place to live here.” Bekah bats her eyelashes at Jon with a smirk.

“Oh, if you think for one damn second I’m letting you live anywhere beyond next to me in bed, you must be out of your ever lovin’ mind!” Jon kisses her again. “Let’s go home and celebrate you coming to your senses, m’kay?” He chuckles.

“But you said lunch?” Bekah whined. As Jon envelopes her hand in his. The bouquet tucked in his fingers.

“We will eat. Promise.” He winks and Bekah feels a jolt through her body again.

Jon presses Bekah to the side of his car when they finally reach it. “I’m so glad you love me back.” He kisses her hard and Bekah moans in his mouth.

“You really didn’t think I loved you, Tae?” Bekah captures his cheek in her hands and runs her thumb over his lips.

“Honestly, I thought you were coming here to break up with me. Well you cannot break up with someone you haven’t officially called your boyfriend but yeah. I thought you were coming to tell me you just cannot do this anymore.” Jon’s eyes well up with the thoughts that have been plaguing his mind since February.

“Tae. I... I’m a... damnit. I’m an idiot.” Jon shakes his head.

“You aren’t an idiot Beks. We decided not to call this anything. We are both idiots if anything.” Bekah laughs.

“Well, we might not have used the terms but the internet sure has given us a label.” Bekah smiles big up as Jon stares into her eyes.

“What?” Jon questions.

“Rin convinced me to google you. The internet has called me your girlfriend for some time now.” Bekah pulls him into her further.

“And what do you think about that label?”

“I don’t hate it.” Jon’s lips graze hers. “I’ve learned other things too.”

“Oh yeah?” Jon pulls away realizing they were in public. “Wanna tell me what you learned on the way home?”

“Sure, J Bone.” Bekah snickers.

“Merde. I think I liked it when you refused to look.” Jon looks down at his hand. “Oh, these are for you.” Jon hands her the almost forgotten bouquet of wildflowers and she breathes them in.

“Tae, no man has ever given me flowers for no reason.” Bekah slides into his car after he opens the door.

“Well get use to it Beks. You deserve it.” Jon jogs around and Bekah feels the heat in her cheeks. Jon buckles and looks over.

“Why are you flush?” Jon runs his thumb over her cheek.

“Jon, you are too good to me. I can count on one hand how many times my ex gave me flowers and that’s including Valentines Day and my birthday. We aren’t even whatever and you’ve given me flowers a few times already.” Bekah’s nose wrinkles up thinking about her ex and how polar opposite Jon was.

“Well, as I said when we met. His loss, my gain.” Jon’s jaw tightens as he backs out of the parking spot. “Speaking of birthdays, we didn’t celebrate yours.” Jon places his hand on her thigh while driving home.

“And your 30th is in what a week and a half?” Bekah's fingers dance in his hair.

“Do we need to talk about my over the hill status?”

“I’m 30, Tae. Am I old?” Bekah flicks at his ear.

“There is no right answer, so I pled the 5th.” Jon smirks.

“Can Canadians do that?” The both laugh. “You aren’t old Jon.” He squeezes her thigh and looks over.

“In hockey terms 30 is kinda old. When your career starts before you are 20 by the time 30 hits you start to feel old Beks.” He flinches.

“Well we need to celebrate and I’m not taking no for an answer Tazer.” Bekah bites the inside of her cheek waiting for his response to another nickname she learned.

“I really liked when you didn’t know all the dirt Google has on me.” Jon grabs her hand and brings it to his lips.

“And crowd surfing Tae? Now that was a video.”

“Oh. My. God. Please stop.” Jon’s face starts to turn pink.

“The French interviews.... oof. Is it hot in here?” Bekah fans herself.

“Beks.” His face gets hotter.

“I’ve never seen you so... so... embarrassed. It’s kinda sexy.” Bekah squeezes his hand and he smiles.

“Not sure that is the case but thanks.” They pulled in to his home. “Welcome home-ish.” Jon looks over not sure what she will say and sees Bekah smile. “That smile is what I’m talking about. I was afraid I was gonna get kick back for that.”

“How long are we staying in Chicago for?” Bekah opens the door and Jon already has jumped out and is retrieving her bags.

“We can talk calendar later and I think a few trips are in order since we can actually vacation together.” Jon dips down and places his lips on hers.

“So Tae, which room is mine then? The one guest bed is super comfy.” Bekah twirls as she enters and starts to head upstairs. She looks back at a dumbfounded Jon.

“All of them Beks. All the rooms are yours!” He some how bounds up the steps with both her suitcases in hand making it look easy.

“Well fuck that was hot.” Bekah turns back and keeps going.

“No kiss for that Beks? Come on!” Jon shouts as he follows her up.

“I was thinking of something better since I guess you are officially have boyfriend status.” Bekah reached his master bedroom door frame and slinks out of her tank dress to reveal the navy blue lingerie set that was maybe the most uncomfortable thing to travel in but Jon’s face was fully worth it.

“Holy fuck Beks. You’ve had that on the whole time?” He drops the bags in the middle of the hall almost runs to her, pulling Bekah up into his arms. Bringing her core right to his waist. She wraps her legs around him.

“I was hoping my declaration of love would be well received.” She breathes out. “And that TSA wouldn’t want to do a strip search.” Jon chuckles.

“I would have driven faster if I knew this was hiding under that cute dress.” Jon brings one hand up and behind him without letting her go. His hand pulls his shirt off his body then lets it fall to the floor with the slight switch of his hands on her ass. Bekah’s lips ghosting his pulse points and Adam’s apple then sucks along the base of his neck while Jon pulls her up his abs to remove his jeans.

“How are you undressing without putting me down?” Bekah leans back and takes in Jon’s lack of clothing. Without answering Jon presses Bekah into the wall and she feels how rock hard he is. “Tae.” She breathes in the heat that has ignited between them.

“Yes Beks?” Jon slides his lips from her ear to the top of the lace. Nibbling at her exposed breasts.

“Make love to me.” She smiles remembering Sedona and the way he looked at her then. Now she wonders in that instant how long she had been fighting this love they shared.

“Happily. Je vais prendre soin de vous, mon amour.” Jon whispers before capturing her lips in his.

“Translation please.” Bekah moans when he moves to peppering her jawline then back to her neck.

“I’ll take care of you, My Love.” Jon whispers and carries Bekah to his bed.

“Damnit I need to learn French.” Bekah sucks in as Jon lays on top of her.

“I’ll teach you Baby.” His concentration was on worshiping her body and less on their conversation. Each swipe of his lips and tongue caused a different sound to escape Bekah’s lips. “Do you want me to take this off...” his hand grazes the bottom of her breast and down the corset. “Or would you prefer to keep it on?” He moves lower running his finger between the delicate lace and her hip.

“Up to you Tae.” She breathes out. “It’s all for you.” His eyebrows furrowed for a moment then he lowers the panties and tosses them to the side.

“Definitely don’t need those.” His fingers slide down for a moment. “Now this...” his fingers run up the wire of the corset. Bekah’s muscles reacting to his touch. “this let me think about.” He smirks then kisses her hip moving across to her other hip then her core. All Bekah could think about on the plane ride was his reaction so her body was already all worked up. “Beks, you are so wet!” He licks through her folds and she melts under this touch. His hand glides back up to cup her breast. She captures it in hers and he looks up.

“I’ve been thinking about having you inside of me since the moment I put this on this morning. My clit has been throbbing since you held me in the airport.” Bekah breathes out and without responding, Jon pushes his boxers off his body and slides up to kiss her lips.

“As you wish.” Jon bites at her lip and thrusts in. Bekah moans as the familiar stretch sends a shock wave throughout her body. His hand pulls at her leg so he can deepen himself but doesn’t let his lips off her body for more than a second. Every thrust of his hips causes the room to be filled moans and grunts. Bekah grabs his back as she feels her orgasm build. “Let it go baby. I got you.” Jon’s hand snakes around Bekah’s back and holds her in place as she hits her high only slowing his motion for a moment before snapping his hips back into her with a force that moves both of them up the bed.

“Jon...”. Bekah moans loudly. Jon captures her lips on his again.

“I know Baby. I’m there, Love. Come with me.” Jon whispers and sends both of them reaching their highs. He rides them through it and crashes onto Bekah’s chest. Both gasping for air. Jon rolls over and pulls Bekah to his chest.

“Wow. If I knew telling you that I loved you would cause that...” Bekah finally breaks the blissed out silence. Jon laughs in her ear.

“And we can do this whenever we want since we don’t have to worry when one of us is leaving.” Jon kisses her temple. “Which sounds so damn amazing.” Bekah hums in agreement and her stomach growls. “Fuck, lunch. I’ll make lunch. Give me like 10 minutes.” He kisses her and slips out of bed. Bekah whistles as he bends over to pull on his briefs.

She slides out and grabs a t-shirt of Jon’s out of his drawer. She finds her way to his game room. Her fingers run along each jersey. Wondering what Jon was like playing in each one. “Whatcha doin’ there Beks?” Jon leans against the door frame with a sandwich for her.

“Did I know you for any of these?” She points to his wall of jerseys. He nods and points. “And you have rings and medals and such somewhere, right?” Jon places the plate on his ping pong table and wraps his arms around Bekah.

“Yeah. I’m guessing you want to see?” Jon kisses the top of her head and leads her to a safe off in the corner. Punching in the code he opens it up to reveal his rings and medals and other priceless items.

“Wow Tae.” She laughs picking up the gold medal from Sochi with a nod of approval from him and places it around her neck. Jon tightens his grip around her.

“That medal has never looks so good.” He picks her up kissing her hard.

“You’ve got some serious hardware, Captain.” Bekah bites her lip and Jon’s eyes narrow.

“Want me to show you some hardware Baby?” He groans while pressing her again the wall. He pulls down his briefs and slides into her the gold from his medal cold on his abdomen.

“Oh. Tae.” Bekah kisses him hard and feels him deep inside her. She leans her head back against the wall as he rocks into her. She feels the weight of the medal and her orgasm as he presses her harder into the wall his head buried in her neck. He releases deep inside her and pumps slowly as she comes down from her high. Bekah grabs the medal as he kisses her softly and lowers her back down. Flicking his briefs back on Jon smirks down at her.

“Let me get that.” Jon slowly pulls the medal off her neck and places it back where it goes. Slowly he turns to look at her with a glimmer in his eye.

“What’s that look for?” Bekah walks towards her sandwich feeling her stomach about to start growling again.

“Nothin’” Jon follows her and wraps her up in his arms.

“That face doesn’t say nothing.” Bekah takes a bite and looks back at Jon.

“Well the boys were chirping me about you not really liking hockey or caring about all this.” He points to the things on the wall. “Kaner asked if you’ve even seen my gold medals yet?” Jon laughs a little. “Now that will be forever in my head when I talk about my Olympic wins.”

“Oh great.” Bekah huffed out and Jon laughs hard. “I’m sorry. Can we go back to the boys chirping you about me?” Bekah shifts her body to face Jon.

“Oh you caught that, eh?” Jon smiles.

“Ope...for sure I did.” Bekah’s eyes narrow.

“Beks, the team knows who you are because they’ve seen you and regardless of what we called this until now I haven’t shut up about you. They were all worried the spotlight was keeping you at a distance and you were going to break my heart.” Jon kisses her forehead.

“I... I... I don’t really know how to process that Tae.” Bekah looks up at him and places her chin on his chest.

“You don’t have to process it now. You will officially meet the guys and their wives and such slowly so don’t worry. Summer is here and we all spread out. Speaking of, let’s talk vacation.” Jon and Bekah’s eyes both light up at the thought of traveling.

#Jonathan Toews fic #jonathan toews #What's in a name fic #WIAN #happens in the 2017 2018 season #j toews

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yegarts · 3 years

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Meet Your Makers: Michael Hingston

Presented by TIX on the Square

If you’re a collector of beautiful books and ephemera, you’ve likely heard of Michael Hingston. If not, you’re in for a treat. He’s half the team at Hingston & Olsen Publishing, an independent press known and loved for its Edmontonia Trading Cards, Short Story Advent Calendar, and deluxe boxsets. Finding stories and giving them a permanent home is Michael’s passion. As you’re about to discover, so is writing, reading, collecting, and being a big stubborn believer in paper books. Meet this week’s maker, Michael Hingston.

TIX: We’re taught to believe it’s what’s inside that counts, but it’s impossible to ignore the beauty of your books and boxsets. Tell us about your decision to not only publish books but also celebrate them as art.

M.H.: Well, thank you! When Natalie (my co-publisher) and I decided to form Hingston & Olsen, in 2015, one of the first things we agreed on was that our books would be beautiful objects in their own right. At the time it seemed like everyone was panicking about the future of publishing in the age of e-books. We decided to double down on the qualities that you can only get from physical books: the tactile feel of paper, pops of colour, and an interactive presentation that you just can’t replicate on a tablet. It’s a better reading experience, not to mention a better deal for our readers in the long term. Ten years from now you probably won’t have access to an e-book you bought today, but every book on your bookshelves will still open up like it always did.

TIX: Which of your strengths (or experiences) as a writer have helped you succeed as a publisher?

M.H.: I’d say it comes down to empathy. Publishing is an act of faith between writer and publisher, and understanding the creative process—with all its up and downs—gives me an extra level of appreciation for the work that our writers entrust us with. That’s not something we take lightly. All of our editorial and design choices are made with the goal of presenting the text in the best light possible. I want writers to love working with us, and to feel that their work is in good hands.

TIX: What’s the first thing you wrote that inspired your career path?

M.H.: That’s a great question. The truth is I didn’t start reading or writing seriously until I was in university and fell in with the student newspaper there. I remember my first few production nights—which routinely kept us in the office until past midnight—where I would frantically write something on deadline, then look at it in print the following week and think, “Huh, that’s actually not bad.” Then we had to do it all over again for the next issue, which was a big part of the charm.

TIX: Tell us about your Edmontonia Trading Cards and what inspired the idea.

M.H.: The Edmontonia Trading Cards are a set of all-ages collectible trading cards that showcase this odd, charming, mostly frozen city of ours. Each card features original artwork

from one of 12 different local artists on the front, and an entertaining and informative write-up about that subject—from landmarks to urban wildlife to the four phases of West Edmonton Mall—on the back. They come in randomized packs of 8, and there are 60 total cards to collect. You can get them at independent shops around the city, or from our website (edmontonia.ca).

The idea for the cards was two-fold: (1) Thinking how cool it would be to make a set of non-sports-related trading cards, and (2) Figuring out what to do with all these odd little stories I was gathering about my adopted home. When I first moved to Edmonton, back in 2008, I kept having all these questions about what I was seeing. Like, why do all these buildings look like pyramids? What’s the deal with magpies? Sure, it’s cold, but what’s the coldest it’s ever been? As soon as those two ideas merged, I got to work, and I’m really proud of how it all turned out.

TIX: Your projects all seem to celebrate reading as an experience—combining the physical act of opening a beautiful “gift” with the pleasures of reading. What was the inspiration for that equation?

M.H.: The age of paper being the default vehicle for communication is gone. Digital technology is way more convenient, and also generates less clutter in people’s lives. But that doesn’t mean paper has no function. As mentioned above, I’m a big, stubborn believer in paper books—and I think one of the things they do exceptionally well is ground the reader in a particular time and place, having a particular experience. Throwing in extra layers, like the element of surprise in the Short Story Advent Calendar or opening a pack of random Edmontonia cards, just makes that experience a little more fun.

TIX: Far too often, the conversations around print publishing are centered around worry for it and what’s being lost. What excites you about the future of print publishing and your role in shaping it?

M.H.: As more of our lives go digital, the funny thing is that people actually become hungrier for offline entertainment. (Have you seen the internet joke about spending all day at work looking at the bad screen, then coming home to look at the good screen? I hate how much I relate to it.) We all want to unplug, or at least to stop doomscrolling for a while. This is a big opportunity for print! It’s one of the few modes of entertainment we have that doesn’t require electricity. That’s one reason H&O doesn’t do e-books. We want to give people a different experience, because we believe there’s value in it.

TIX: Your books and advent calendars have become a favourite gift to receive. What’s a favourite book you’ve been given (and who gave it to you)?

M.H.: I love books about books, and two of the chunkiest and most beloved ones on my shelves were gifts: John Sutherland’s Lives of the Novelists, given to me by my friend Jeremy before he moved away (he’s actually since moved back; hopefully he doesn’t want the book returned, too), and Michael Schmidt’s The Novel: A Biography, which was a Christmas present from my brother.

TIX: You’ve said that the retirement of your Advent Series has freed you up to work on some exciting new ideas. Can you tell us a little about them?

M.H.: We try to keep a pretty tight lid on things at H&O, but I can tell you we’re planning to release more titles in 2021 than we ever have in a given year before. That’ll include something new for the holidays, as well as our first-ever standalone novel.

Want more? Visit hingstonandolsen.com, edmontonia.ca and tixonthesquare.ca for the latest from Michael and other great artists.

Artist Bio

Michael Hingston is a writer and book publisher. He is the author of three books, including Let’s Go Exploring, a history of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. His journalism has appeared in Wired, The Guardian, The Atlantic, and the Washington Post. Hingston is also the co-founder of Hingston & Olsen Publishing, an independent press specializing in deluxe boxsets like the Short Story Advent Calendar and the Ghost Box. He lives in Edmonton with his family.

#yeg #yegarts #yegmakers #meetyourmakers #edmonton #tixonthesquare

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snekdood · 4 years

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i used to be really scared of taking medication, when i was into new age spirituality shit id read about how antidepressants blunts your emotions, and then i read on some spiritual forum website someone say once that antidepressants make it like hard to spiritually connect, basically sort of saying that you wouldnt be able to connect to your "spiritual side" and that your "pineal gland would get calcified", and then my own paranoid thoughts turned that into "if i ever take any kind of medication ever it will make all the effects of psychedelics go away, ill unrealize all the spiritual stuff i learned, and since my 'pineal gland' will be calcified ill hafta start over with 'uncalcifying' it" that ill basically go back to square one as far as my spirituality goes, and i've since stopped believing a lot of the new age shit, but the paranoia still lingered even if i didnt believe my 'pineal gland' could be 'calcified' anymore, but things had gotten to a point where if i didnt take medication i felt like id just spiral and go insane, and now im actually on anti depressants and mood stabilizers and... none of that stuff has gone away. i can still see geometric patterns in nature, i can still connect with the things i find spiritual- i was just convinced of this narrative by people using the fact others can easily get paranoid against them.

im really glad that i discovered vaush, and he revealed all the dog whistles and all the bullshit, ive realized a lot of this new age shit can be co opted and used as a pathway in the alt right pipeline. anything that makes you distrust science to such a degree, that makes you think history is flexible, that makes you abandon any kind of reason for the sake of a divine source to worship, that can convince you that academic sources arent "the only sources" will EASILY be co opted by right wingers and used to steer you down their pipeline. its why i went from new age stuff to conspiracy theories so easily. i was luckily never actually right wing so anything that would have tried to convince me that its okay to see anyone as lesser than id look suspiscious of, but i think this stuff really gos to show that its really, really easy for the alt right to prey on mentally ill people.

this is really important to recognize when trying to get people out of the alt right- theres two kinds of people who are in the alt right; the kind of person who genuinely believes this stuff, who is just fucking evil and thinks everyone but white cishets should suffer, and then theres the kind of person whos had ther mental illness preyed on, who "believes" in this stuff more or less to have a community, and they seek this community out usually because a lot of people on the left can be really fucking cutthroat about how perfect you should be all the time, so a lax community where they expect virtually nothing of you but that support their "cause"- this is why i complain all the time about people who only care about being on the left to be the perfect pristine lefty, because your attitude actively pushes people who could otherwise be on our side away. im not going to act like thats everyone who joins the alt right, some people genuinely hate minorities, but there are plenty of people in those spaces who would have otherwise been on our side if we didnt make being on the left like walking on eggshells. we have to replicate what the alt right has done but make it left leaning; demand nothing but that you support the cause of being progressive.

#spirituality #alt right pipeline #medication #mood #conspiracy theories

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chekovs-fuckup · 4 years

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100 Homestuck Headcanons Of Mine

Both Meulin and Nepeta say “hewwo” unironically. They can also replicate the OwO and UwU faces near perfectly.

Roxy loves Five Nights At Freddie’s, Undertale, and Minecraft.

The Striders and Lalondes have a group Minecraft server.

One time Roxy convinced Rose to play Halo with her, Dirk, and Dave. That was when they found out Rose was surprisingly good at it, and Fortnite.

The trolls all love Animal Crossing

Actually, everyone loves Animal Crossing.

The Mayor is the only one who had Raymond. That is because Dave gave him Raymond.

Everyone else wants Raymond.

Vriska stabbed someone for Raymond. She didn’t get Raymond.

The Harley-English-Egbert-Crocker family have a group Minecraft server, and that’s it.

They tend to spend their free time seeing what whacky things they can alchemize.

At one point they managed to alchemize Captain America’s shield. No one is sure how, but it works.

Roxy and Dirk can both eat whole ghost peppers. Rose and Dave both hate spicy food.

Jane doesn’t mind spicy things but prefers sweet stuff instead. John and Jake are fine with a little spice but not as much as Roxy and Dirk. Jade can’t have anything spicy or she will get extremely sick.

Spicy peppers, and peppers in general, are lethal to trolls, due to the capsicum in them. The first time Karkat and Kanaya saw Dirk and Roxy eating peppers they freaked out.

Dirk and Roxy have occasional competitions to see who can eat the most peppers in a minute. It’s hilarious.

Karkat learned the Alternia equivalent of an Earth ukulele before the game. He remembers one song from it and occasionally borrows Jake’s ukulele to play it when he’s sad.

Jake, Jade, Jane, and John have every musical instrument you could name, and some you couldn’t.

Jake can play the ukulele and bagpipes. Jane can play piano and keytar. Alongside bass, Jade can play the trumpet and otamatone. John can play guitar and saxophone.

Dirk can play the otamatone. That’s it.

Roxy keeps requesting that Jade alchemize cats. She has about 30 by now.

Roxy gave Dave a cat. He named him Skittles, and claims it’s completely ironic.

Dirk also has a cat, named Twilight Sparkle

Rose has a cat named Cthulhu.

Jake has a parrot named Indiana Jones

Jade now has a corgi named Thor.

John managed to get Jade to help him alchemize a dragon. It’s name is Fluffernutter.

Jane is a master at anything kitchen-y. Jake and John both burn water. Jade can cook stuff but prefers take out.

Roxy knows how to make grilled cheese and soup really well, and Dirk is good with a grill but that’s it.

Rose makes the best hot chocolate, tea, and coffee. Any drink you want, she can make. She can’t cook anything though.

Alternatively, Kanaya is an excellent cook but thinks that mixing Dr. Pepper, Sprite, and Faygo together is good.

Kanaya has mixed every soda the kids could find together before. Dirk paid John $30 to drink it. John did.

“If you open a banana from the bottom you are a disgrace to the world and we all know you’re a top who can’t find a bottom.”- Rose, Kanaya, Jade, Vriska

“Opening a banana from the bottom lets you have the most banana without eating the weird thing at the end of it”- Dirk, John, Jane, Karkat

“Why bother peeling bananas when you can just eat them whole?”- Jake, Dave, Terezi

One time John used the Mayor’s cuteness to get Jane to bake him a cake. Dave found out and was pissed.

Dave convinced Rose to knit the mayor a sweater.

The mayor loves Doritos. He always gets the last one in the bag.

Kanaya loves mixing different types of one kind of food or drink. She has mixed all the candy in the house, much to the delight of most everyone, has mixed all the soda (it now lives in the back of the fridge for when they play truth or dare) and has mixed all the cereal in the house, much to the irritation of Roxy and Rose.

Dave ate a handful of Kanaya’s cereal mix because Dirk said he wouldn’t.

Has read Twilight: Rose, Roxy

Hasn’t read Twilight: Jade, Jane, John

Doesn’t know what Twilight is: Mayor, Calliope, Karkat, Jake

Hates Twilight: Dave

Vocally anti-twilight but secretly wrote and published a 100k fanfic: Dirk

Can swim: Rose, Roxy, Dirk, Jake, Jade

Can’t swim: John, Calliope, Jane

Hates bodies of water: Dave

Trolls don’t have grey skin, they have grey fur.

Said fur poofs up when the trolls are scared as a defense mechanism, like a cat. But instead of being fluffy, it’s spiky and sharp. Trying to punch a fluffed up troll ends badly.

If you mix Faygo and sopor slime you get the troll equivalent of weed.

Calliope found archery and axe-throwing, and is wonderful at both.

Dave convinced Rose to knit a sweater for the Mayor.

Cereal before milk: Rose, Roxy, Jane

Milk before cereal: Jake, John, Jade

“Just eat the cereal dry, cowards”: Dave, Dirk

Dave had a popular Vine account

Karkat does not understand the term Yeet.

Instead of saying “Yeet” Rose says “defenestrate”

Roxy has a Tumblr account filled with things their group has said.

Kanaya has designed outfits based around pride flags for everyone.

Dave likes Mindless Self Indulgence and My Chemical Romance

Calliope likes Fall Out Boy

John listens to twenty one pilots a lot

Dave also likes cavetown

Kanaya loves girl in red

The beta trolls ancestors can change their size.

The Grand Highblood and the Condesce shifted to a larger size permanently to intimidate other trolls.

Some don’t use it as much, or at all, like the Dolorosa, the Signless, or Neophyte Redglare.

Dualscar uses it to ease travel or to win fights, and will grow to extreme sizes so he can get through the water faster. It’s also ten times easier to sink ships.

The Psiionic couldn’t use the power once he became the Helmsman.

Darkleer uses it to grow smaller, so he can work on the small, delicate parts of his inventions.

Carapacians grow weed as a crop. For them, it’s their main source of food. For humans, it’s weed. It’s poisonous to trolls.

Sea dwellers’ lusii die more frequently (possibly due to the eldritch being at the bottom of the ocean), so they started letting older sea dwellers adopt sea dwellers that aren’t really old enough to survive without a lusus.

How many sweeps a troll is can be equated to human years, but when compared to other blood castes it becomes very skewed. A sweep equals roughly two human years, but different blood castes view this differently. Rust bloods, bronze bloods, and gold bloods all live fairly short lives, so 7 sweeps is roughly half their life span. Lime bloods and jade bloods all view 7 sweeps as being a bit like their early twenties. Teal and cerulean bloods would consider 7 sweeps to be roughly 13 or 14. Cobalt and purple bloods would see 7 sweeps as maybe being 6 or 7. Violet and fuschia bloods live for thousands of years, so legally and when comparing life experience to other fuschia/violet bloods, 7 sweeps is basically a very young toddler. This is just how each caste views age internally, given that they have different lifespans. 7 sweeps is roughly 13 or 14 in human years. This is explained badly but it’s also an alien concept put into English.

Teal and cerulean bloods have the closest lifespan to humans.

Dealing with eldritch beings shortens your lifespan because of the toll it takes on your body. This means that if Rose never reached godtier she would have died earlier than she was supposed to. This also means that if Eridan wasn’t chainsawed in half he probably would have had the lifespan of a purple blood or blueblood.

An ahab crosshairs or whatever can be really deadly in certain situations, but outside of that it’s basically useless.

The one time Dave met Kankri, he decided to put all of Mindless Self Indulgence’s songs on shuffle and play whatever came on first to Kankri. It was ‘Stupid MF’. Kankri flipped his shit and Dave is no longer allowed near him.

Meenah turned it into a game to see who could get the loudest reaction from Kankri by playing an MSI song. So far the winners have been 1. Vriska with ‘Faggot’, 2. Cronus with ‘Bitches’, and 3. Meenah with “Fuck Machine’. Honorable mentions include ‘Get It Up’, ‘Big Poppa’, and ‘Dickface’.

The honorable mentions change constantly

The game is ridiculously easy to win, given that most MSI songs are A) about sex, B) have slurs in them, C) are just really offensive in general, or D) all of the above.

To win the game you record Kankri’s reaction to the song and upload it to a forum on pesterchum.

Kankri is unaware there is a game.

Cronus repeatedly hits on everyone he meets. There are two people who he’s stopped flirting with, though.

The first one is Vriska. The first time he flirted with her she kicked him in the balls. The next time she stabbed him. He stopped trying after that.

The other one is John. He kept comparing Cronus to people from late 20th century movies with greasers in them.

Roxy loves riot grrrl bands.

Roxy, Sollux, John, and Karkat started a coding club. Roxy and Sollux help Karkat and John get better at coding, and also challenge each other to break into more and more ridiculous places.

At one point, using the codes that let Roxy and Dirk talk to Jake and Jane, Roxy and Sollux were able to hack into different government websites in different universes.

This includes the Pentagon, the FBI, and the CIA. They figured out how to get news live from the other universes, so occasionally they invite their friends over and watch a different world panic.

They end up doing internet troll stuff once in the websites. They’ll leave things equating to “aliens from another universe were here” and shit. They’ll make it so every time the website is open the screen turns pink or red and blue.

One time they left a picture of a message in Alternian. When the feds decoded the message, it just said “2ollux and Roxy were here. 2ucker2.”

One time they replaced all the photos of people with badly photoshopped versions of the photos where all the faces had been replaced by either Nic Cage’s face or Danny Devito’s face.

When they aren’t breaking into government websites, Roxy and Sollux will set up firewalls for the other to try and get past.

Aradia and Federico bleached Eridan’s hair while he slept, and cut it short. They also put pink bows on his horns. Just because.

Because Sollux can hear voices of the imminently deceased/is basically half dead, and Aradia has a strong connection to death, they were able to manipulate this so they could communicate telepathically. It takes focus, but they can do it.

Dirk knows Japanese, and can understand Damara. He is the only one who can.

They have inside jokes about everyone they know

Vriska found 5 or 6 doomed versions of herself and brought them back to life. They live in a shared hive and use the fact that they are all various Vriskas to prank people to an extreme. The only one who know whats happening outside of them is Terezi, because A) seer, and B) the one who gave John the list of things to do was brought back as well and told her.

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camillemontespan · 5 years

Text

the history of us [drake x camille] [part eight: 10th august - i can’t lose you]

Part Seven here if you want to catch up.

Warnings: NSFW. Alcohol abuse. Angst. Feelings.

@jovialyouthmusic @fromthedeskofpaisleybleakmore @pug-bitch @sirbeepsalot @moonlightgem7 @dcbbw @emceesynonymroll @notoriouscs @of-course-i-went-to-hartfeld @stopforamoment @sawyer0akleyscowboyhat @ccolz88-blog @symonde @nomadics-stuff @burnsoslow @i-bloody-love-drake-walker @drakesensworld @gardeningourmet @iplaydrake

*************************************************************************************

10th August 2023

Olivia, Hana, Kiara and Penelope are coming over this evening for an unofficial meeting, by which I mean we’re drinking wine and talking about our new campaign, while putting the world to rights.

Kiara’s been trying so hard the past couple of years to get into a diplomatic career; she has the skills, the knowledge and the intelligence but Cordonia is so archaic with their attitude that ‘women should be at home while men work,’ it’s meant that Kiara has stayed at the bottom of the ladder. The one thing that holds her back from landing her dream job is the fact she has a vagina.

Now, the Duchesses are rallying together to campaign for women’s equality in the workplace, and that doesn’t apply to just duchesses - it applies to all women in Cordonia. We want to make a difference. I want to see change so that when Lily is older, she doesn’t have any obstacles to overcome; she can achieve anything she sets her mind to.

Liam is on board with the campaign. We’ve met him a few times to discuss and he’s given us free reign to do what we want. He’s a modern king and is open to pushing boundaries.

Drake has been really supportive about the whole thing. He’s read my PowerPoints, given me notes on my speeches and just been there for reassurance when I start doubting that this campaign will work.

He’s had another therapy session since we first met Tessa. I sat with him again and he talked to me, pretending she wasn’t there.

I feel like a terrible wife. I didn’t realise he was going through all of this shit. I know he puts so much pressure on himself, he always thinks he’s going to slip up and do something wrong which will make Cordonia turn on him. He is so protective about our family too, he hates that we are photographed all the time, but you can’t exactly call up a media blackout.

He told me that he feels like he isn’t worthy of his title or status. When the newspapers write about everything he does wrong, he feels like an imposter.

He hasn’t touched whiskey since the therapy session. I know it’s very early days and I don’t want to put pressure on him by hoping we’ve averted disaster, but he’s seemed a lot better. He’s been more attentive than usual, more playful with Lily if that’s even possible. He just seems carefree.

*****************************************************************************

‘Aaaah Daddy!’ Lily shrieked. Drake had lifted her up and twisted her so her head was suspended above the floor and he was holding her by her ankles, swinging her from side to side. She burst out laughing as he swung her more. They were in the garden with the sun shining down on them and Camille was lying on the sunlounger in a bikini top and denim shorts, sunbathing.

Drake had been focused on Lily and Camille since the first therapy session. He had decided that the amount of sex he and Camille had enjoyed in Texas should be replicated in Valtoria; as a result, he had woken her up every morning with his head between her thighs, pushing her over the edge and pulling her from her slumber.

He hadn’t touched whiskey. When he felt anxious, he would distract himself by going out into the garden and just taking a moment.

Tonight, the Duchesses were coming over for an unofficial meeting. Drake planned to lock himself in his study dealing with work emails and watch YouTube videos while the ladies drank wine and talked.

He was feeling good. Free.

***********************************************************************

Camille sprayed her perfume on her wrists and neck when she finished getting ready. It was a casual night with the girls, so she was only wearing jeans, a black off the shoulder sweater and black ankle boots. Her hair was tousled and fell down her shoulders and her eyes were lined with kohl.

Drake came into the bedroom and smiled as he watched her ruffle her hair with her fingers.

‘You look gorgeous,’ he told her. Camille rolled her eyes. ‘I look pretty casual to be honest, Drake.’

‘Nah, you always look good.’

He reached around and wrapped his arms around her body, kissing her neck. Camille closed her eyes and focused on the attention.

He didn’t smell of whiskey, which was good. She found that she was now unconsciously trying to work out if he had had a drink or not; she didn’t want to treat him like fine china but she still worried.

‘Do we have time...?’ Drake whispered in her ear, causing the hairs on her neck to stand up.

Camille smiled softly and turned around to face him. ‘I’ve always got time for you,’ she told him. Drake grinned, a look of genuine joy on his face. He pulled her towards him and he fell back onto the bed with her landing on top of him. She burst out laughing.

‘You laugh like a two year old,’ Drake said, chuckling. Camille swatted his chest with her hand.

Their lips met and for a few moments, they kissed slow and long. Deep, languorous kisses. Drake ran his hands down her back to settle on her ass, squeezing gently. Camille groaned against his mouth and their kisses became more urgent.

He unbuttoned her jeans and pulled them off. Camille returned the favour and pulled down his boxers, releasing him. She took him in her mouth instantly without hesitation.

Drake threw his head back as he focused on her tongue and lips teasing him. ‘Fuck, Camille..’

He wanted her now. He was impatient.

Drake lifted her up and pulled her down on top of him. He slid into her so easily. Camille let out a cry and began to rock her hips, increasing the pace the more Drake groaned her name.

He reached out and played with her clit, circling her nub. Camille’s eyes rolled back as she focused on the pleasure. ‘Drake, that feels good,’ she murmured.

‘I want to make you feel good.’

‘You always make me feel good.’

His hands grabbed her hips and his fingernails dug into her skin, forcing her to drive harder. She gripped onto his hands as she rode him. She loved feeling close to him. This was how it should always be.

They didn’t say what they were thinking. They were too caught up in each other.

I can’t lose you, Drake.

You won’t lose me.

But what if I do?

That’s not going to happen.

I can’t lose you.

*****************************************************************************************

‘So, Leo’s introduced this new thing in the bedroom..’ Olivia said, her eyebrow raised. The Duchesses all leaned forward with their wine glasses in their hand, eyes wide.

‘Well? Tell us!’ Kiara said.

‘It involves handcuffs, bubble wrap and Vaseline.’

Hana wrinkled her nose. ‘Ugh I really don’t want to know.’

Olivia shrugged. ‘Your loss, Lee.’

‘I’ve joined a new dating app,’ Kiara volunteered. ‘For kinks.’

‘Kiara!’ they all shouted, laughing.

‘What?! It’s really good!’

They all helped themselves to more wine. Lily was in her room reading, but she occasionally came down to say hello. Before the meeting had developed into sex talk, Lily had sat on Camille’s lap as they discussed their plan of action. She soon got bored though and left, which was when Olivia had changed the conversation.

‘What’s Drake like in bed?’ Olivia asked. Camille stared at her. ‘I’m not telling you!’

‘I bet he’s a brute..’ Kiara whispered. ‘Like, he doesn’t hold back.’

‘Nah, he’s a marshmallow really, so I bet he’s all romantic!’ Hana said.

‘I don’t want to think about Drake having sex,’ Penelope said, looking like she might be sick.

Camille giggled and took another sip of wine. ‘Let’s say he knows exactly what he’s doing.’

‘Ugh, you’re so boring, Camille!’ Olivia scolded. ‘Come on, give us something. Is he big?’

Camille sighed. She then extended her arm so it thumped on the table. ‘Oh yeah.’

The duchesses screamed with laughter. It echoed through the manor, reaching Drake’s study.

****************************************************************************************

He hadn’t meant to. He had just been on the Cordonian Herald website to see what was happening in the country today and he hadn’t meant to open it.

Drake had come across an article. An article written by Madeleine.

And it was in the Cordonian Herald, the most respected newspaper in Cordonia.

Drake opened the article, despite knowing he shouldn’t feed his demons. But this was his former publicist and he needed to know what she was talking about now.

Everyone thinks they know the Duke and Duchess of Valtoria. Commoners who have been gifted one of the highest ranking titles in the country, they are a true rags to riches story. Some may view them as endearing as they navigate the trials of noble life, watching them learn as they go.

They are not endearing. While working for them as their publicist, I can tell you with authority that they are not what they seem.

Camille is a New Yorker born and bred and she is hell bent on making things modern and fresh. She wants change. She wants to challenge our values - values that have held up Cordonia for centuries. Do we really want this American to change Cordonia? She has only been in the role for four years; surely, someone more experienced than her is better equipped to facilitate change? But why change Cordonia anyway? She simply thinks we are too traditional and set in our ways, which means she is not loyal. She doesn’t understand that we are a country seeped in history and royal bloodlines; we are a nation of grace and prosperity.

But at least she is doing her job, I suppose.

The same can’t be said for the Duke. He stays at home most of the time to look after their daughter. He is a house husband mascqerading as a Duke. Cordonia believes in the idea that men should go out to work while women stay home, but this is not evident in the Walker household. They have twisted their roles so it’s Camille who is the breadwinner. Cordonian family values are not evident.

Meanwhile, he lets Lily run riot. She broke her arm last month while in his care; what does that say about him? Let’s not even go into detail about how he loves a drink....

Drake had to stop reading Madeline’s poison. It wasn’t even a well written article. It was a hate piece, totally one sided, and not typical of the Cordonian Herald. Which made Drake wonder why the newspaper were suddenly printing this trash. He expected better.

The thing was, he and Camille hadn’t done anything to deserve this.

Once again, he felt powerless. How could he control the media? He couldn’t. He couldn’t stop Madeleine from spouting her shit in a national newspaper. Drake wished they could just pack up and leave. Leave Valtoria and just go to Texas. Why not? Why couldn’t they just hand their duchy over to someone else? Was that even possible?

Drake ran a hand through his hair. He got up and left his study and made his way to the bedroom. He passed the Duchesses, who looked at him as he neared the living room door.

‘Hiiiii Draaaaaake!’ Olivia, Hana, Kiara and Penelope chorused, while Camille turned red. Clearly, they hadn’t been talking about their campaign.

Drake thought of Madeleine’s opinions about their campaign; if she threw a spanner in the works, thereby halting the progress of Camille’s campaign, Drake would go mad. She had worked so hard.

He reached their bedroom and opened the wardrobe door. He stopped, trying to breathe. Just breathe. It’s all good.

He thought of Camille downstairs talking to the Duchesses as they planned world domination. She was making good changes; she was doing her job. Maybe Madeleine was right. Maybe Drake was just pretending to be a Duke when really, he was a house husband. He didn’t do anything aside from check work emails. He wasn’t making a difference.

Stop it.

He looked after Lily and made sure she was loved. Surely that was important.

Yeah but to Cordonia, it’s duty first. Duke first, family second is their attitude. Which means I’ll never fit in here.

Drake reached into the wardrobe and searched. Eventually, he found it. The bottle of whiskey he had hidden in here so it wasn’t in his study. He had wanted to resist temptation.

He should have poured the bottle down the sink and he was going to.

But he had held back. For some illogical reason, Drake had kept this bottle of whiskey. Maybe it was his back up. A safety net if things really went to shit and he wanted to sink into oblivion. It called out to him now. Just one sip.

Drake took a deep gulp from the bottle. He felt the liquid burn his throat as it slid down into his stomach. He drank another.

Enough now.

Drake put the bottle back into the wardrobe, hiding it behind a box. He felt calmer now. He hated to admit it but he did. He also felt a heavy guilt that shot like a bullet through his chest but he pushed it down.

******************************************************************************************

The Duchesses left a few hours later, giggling and hiccuping. Camille smiled as she cleared up the living room.

She went up to Lily’s bedroom and found her daughter playing with her doll house. ‘Hey, honey.’

Lily looked over and gave her mother a wide smile. ‘Hi mommy.’

Camille sat down beside her. ‘Having fun?’

‘Yeah. I’m playing Families.’

‘Oh? What’s happening?’

Lily held up a doll that was meant to be the dad. ‘He’s going to play with his child all day,’ she said, then she held up the mother doll, ‘and the mommy is going out to save the world.’

Camille smiled. ‘Saving the world?’

‘Yeah! Just like you, mommy.’

‘And daddy stays home and plays with his daughter?’

Lily nodded fiercely. ‘He’s the best daddy. All daddies should stay home and play. Mine does.’

‘Does that mean your daddy is the best daddy?’ Camille asked, stroking Lily’s hair. Lily nodded.

‘Daddy is the best daddy in the whole world,’ she said solemnly.

Camille placed a kiss on Lily’s head and got up from the floor. ‘I’ll be back up in ten to get you ready for bed, okay?’

She left Lily to play and went downstairs to Drake’s study where he had been holded up for hours. He was sat at his computer, watching a YouTube video.

‘Hey, baby.’

Drake stood up and wrapped his arms around her. ‘How was the meeting? You achieved world domination yet?’

‘Baby steps!’ Camille replied. ‘Olivia and Leo are trying out something new in the bedroom..’

‘Do I want to know? Will it scar me for life?’

Camille giggled. ‘It involves Vaseline and bubblewrap.’

‘Eww..’

Camille laughed and kissed Drake softly. She then pulled back. ‘Drake. Have you been drinking whiskey?’

Drake blinked. ‘No.’

‘Yes you have,’ Camille said, her voice trembling. ‘I can smell it on your breath. You’ve drank whiskey.’

Drake reached out to take her hands but she pushed him away. ‘No, no. Don’t. Are you bottling up feelings again? You’re self medicating again? Fucking hell, Drake! I thought the therapy was working. I know it’s early days but still, you’ve been so positive recently and happy. What’s happened?’

Drake bit his lip. ‘I read the latest hate piece by Madeleine.’

Camille stared at him. ‘Why are you reading any of that shit? Haven’t you learned? Reading this stuff doesn’t help!’

‘I didn’t mean to!’

‘You still clicked on the fucking article!’

Drake held up his hands in frustration. ‘Because it was about us! I needed to see what the bitch was saying. She was awful, Camille! She said that you aren’t loyal to Cordonia because you want to change it and she said I’m just a house husband who pretends to be a Duke. And she’s right, I don’t do anything!’

Camille pointed at him, her eyes steady on his. ‘Don’t you dare let her into your head.’

‘But she is! Everyone is!’ he burst out. ‘I can’t do anything without feeling like I’m being judged! I just wish for one fucking day that we could catch a break. I wish we could leave! I want us to just fuck off out of this fucking country and go back to Texas-’

‘We can’t, Drake!’ Camille shouted. ‘We are the Duke and Duchess of Valtoria-’

‘I’m a Duke by name only!’ he interrupted. ‘I am not the Duke of Valtoria! I am Drake Walker, that’s who I am. I can’t stand being the Duke. I hate this responsibility we have, I hate the constant media attention, I hate having to plaster a fake smile on my face at royal events, I hate this life!’

Camille stepped back. Her eyes had filled with tears. ‘You hate this life?’ she repeated, her voice shaking. ‘Really, Drake? You hate this life? This life with me and Lily?’

Drake pressed his fingers on either side of his nose. ‘No, Camille. You’re twisting my words-’

‘This life that you hate has me and your daughter in it!’

‘I meant this noble life! I just wish we were normal!’

‘Drake, I wish we were too but we aren’t. We met at a fucking suitor competition for the King. Everything about our life isn’t normal but hell, we try our best to make it so. We’re trying to make Lily’s life as normal as possible; you taught her about stars last week! That’s normal! Just because we have these titles doesn’t mean we should be defined by them.’

‘But we do have these titles and we have so much pressure on our shoulders,’ Drake explained. ‘I’m sick of it.’

‘Drinking isn’t the solution,’ Camille told him. ‘It never is.’

‘It numbs me.’

Camille stared at him with her fists clenched. ‘I don’t want you numb.’

‘If you were inside my head, you would understand,’ he said, his voice cracking.

‘I do understand-’

‘No, you don’t.’

There was a long silence. Camille closed her eyes then opened them, her eyes penetrating his. ‘I’m putting Lily to bed.’

‘Camille-’

‘No, Drake,’ she whispered. ‘I’m tired. I’m so fucking tired.’

She left him in the study. Drake slumped down on the chair, listening to her footsteps fade away.

****************************************************************

I thought he was trying. For a moment, he was. But when I smelled the whiskey on his breath, I just knew we were back to square one. I didn’t mean to close up from him; but I’m tired. I’m tired of worrying. I’m tired of trying to get through to him. I’m tired of trying to get him to understand that I’m here for him.

Maybe I’ll feel better tomorrow. I will go back to being the Camille who tries to help. But right now, I feel bone tired and hollow, as if my insides have been raked out. Sleep will help.

Drake remembered that night. When she smelled the whiskey, the look on her face was one of complete betrayal. She had tried so hard to be there for him and he kept throwing it back in her face. Why had he done that?

He sighed and turned the page.

#drake walker #drake walker x mc #trr fanfic #the royal romance

49 notes · View notes

forestwater87 · 5 years

Text

Cutting Myself on all this Edge

This post has no reason to exist, except that I keep bothering my friends with literally dozens of messages making fun of this and I need a place to keep it all.

What is “this”? Oh, just some people having some Fucking Strong Opinions about how Harry Potter is the Pied Piper (they use that comparison multiple times. It gets old fast) leading our children into the End Times with its pro-illuminati Satan-worshiping witchcraft lessons. You know, the usual.

And no, this isn’t a battle of Forest vs. the Crazy Christians; I’m like 94% sure I’m not working through any sort of religious trauma, partly because I never went deep into this kind of mentality but mostly because I’m just delighted by The Cutting Edge, a website for a very specific type of Christian (no, not you, Catholics. You’re specifically not invited to the Cutting Edge club because you worship demons) interested in the New World Order, the evils of public schools, and Satan’s favorite color.

No, really.

Satan’s favorite color is green. They don’t . . . really explain why.

This site still exists and is the best thing I’ve ever seen. Hours of fun for the whole family. I mean, look at their logo:

And look at their illustration that goes along with their particular Harry Potter series:

Are you not entertained?!

I cannot stop reading these amazing essays -- which delve surprisingly deep into Potter lore, considering they say that there is no sufficient reason for a Christian to ever read a single page of these books -- and I can’t keep harassing my friends with thousands of notifications, so here we are.

Starting small, let’s read the book review for Harry Potter and the Sorceror’s/Philosopher’s Stone. Or, as they prefer to call it:

This book chronicles Harry's first year at the Hogwart's School of Wizardry and Witchcraft. Prepare to be shocked for the bold, blatant, and bodacious raw Satanism that underlines this story! Since "proper"Drug Use is essential in opening the centres of vision and achieving higher consciousness, we should not be surprised that First-Year students learn Drug Use, Drug creation, in a way that makes Drug use seem glorious! You will be shocked to see '666 ' in the story line, and symbols of Antichrist receiving a "fatal wound"!

That’s the entire subtitle. That’s just how they roll on

THE CUTTING EDGE

Part 1: The . . . Plot? I Guess?

This story introduces us to Harry Potter, an orphaned boy sent to live with his "horrible" Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and their fat, obnoxious son, Dudley.

I feel very comfortable with the fact that Cutting Edge has chosen to put scare quotes around the word “horrible,” like that’s up for debate. Combined with the very normal and sane opinions expressed elsewhere on the site, this really bodes well for their ideas about parenting and childcare in general.

all through this book, any non-witch folk -- like Vernon and Petunia -- are depicting in disgusting language.

Typo is theirs, as is the apparent offense they take to the fictional depiction of people who are very much not real. While there hasn’t been any exciting formatting going on yet in this essay, I will replicate it as much as possible, and any changes made will be clearly indicated through square brackets and ellipses.

Non-witch people are known as Muggles , and they are depicting as being "dumber than a box of rocks", of being physically obscene, and of living the most boring, unimaginative lives possible.

I was going to argue that this isn’t true, but I suppose we don’t really meet any cool Muggles in the first book. I guess I have to give them this, but I don’t feel good about it.

Witches, on the other hand, are depicted as being very smart, very "with it", of being physically normal, and of living wonderfully exciting lives

It bears repeating:

a flashback scene to the time 10 years earlier when Harry's Mom and Dad were psychically murdered by evil Lord Voldemort

Okay. Now I’m no Potterologist, and so I’m hoping any true believers will correct me if I misinterpret the holy texts,* but I don’t think Harry’s parents were psychically murdered by anyone. I’m pretty sure they were quite literally, physically made dead. Just because it’s a beam of magic doesn’t mean it’s not physical anymore, does it? Voldy didn’t Professor-X Harry’s parents and they died of three D10 psychic damage or anything; he just fucking killed them with a wizard gun. Am I wrong here?

*By which I obviously mean Harry Potter. It teaches children how to become Satanists; we’re clearly dealing with a book of immense spiritual relevance.

Skipping a little bit of plot summary, which is a combination of, well, summary of the plot, although Cutting Edge is determined to get Hogwarts’ name wrong, and a little bit of baffling End-Times(?) nonsense thrown in for funsies --

Of course, a Christian would be immediately alerted to this turn of events [in which Harry defeats Voldemort and is scarred] because soon a supernaturally powerful global leader will demand everyone on earth take some sort of a mark in exactly this place on the body.

What?

-- and there’s some weird formatting things going on that I think are supposed to imply something sinister but really just come off as goofy:

They have Harry on a boat headed for nowhere and they had every intention of keeping Harry from ever attending Hogwarts School. However, Harry receives supernatural assistance.

(It’s not letting me do colors on desktop, which is stupid, but that “supernatural” is supposed to be both bold and red)

There’s a long description about the difference between the Real and Fantasy worlds, which apparently Satanists try to live in both of (and so does Harry, making him also a Satanist. This is actually one of the less-stupid arguments Cutting Edge has for Harry’s Satanism, so just go with it) that’s honestly more boring than funny so I’m skipping it. Then we get to a much more fun section: why Rowling’s descriptions of Muggles are . . . teaching children to hate Jesus?

Part 2: Rowling Hates Muggles

Rowling consistently depicts people who do not practice Witchcraft in most obnoxious terms. They are depicted as being really, really dumb, boring, and living a life not worth living . We share these examples, below, with you so you can appreciate the truth of this statement. Uncle Vernon was also the only Muggle quoted in the book as being really opposed to Witchcraft; therefore, when readers see how stupid, ugly, and boring Vernon is, they get the idea that all people who are opposed to Witchcraft must be as stupid, ugly, and boring as Vernon is.

... Are all people opposed to Witchcraft cowardly bullies?

I mean, you are the one going after a children’s book for daring to entertain children, so if the shoe fits . . .

"Harry was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang ... Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader." [p. 31] How do you know your own child does not think of you in these terms? After all, you are a non-magical Muggle.

I actually can’t complain, because this is just accurate. I 100% hate my parents and think they’re stupid because they’re not literally witches/wizards. Our relationship has never fully recovered.

"Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on." [p. 47] Remember Adolf Hitler, the most famous Black Magick wizard in modern history? He depicted Jews as Rats in his Propaganda Machinery, convincing the Germans they should extermination the "vermin".

GODWIN’S LAW HAS LANDED!

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN AND EVERYTHING OUTSIDE OR IN-BETWEEN, WE HAVE OFFICIALLY COMPARED HARRY POTTER TO HITLER!

We find it highly interesting that, later in the book, when the Evil Lord Voldemort is supposedly killing the unicorn in the Forbidden Forest, the color of the blood of the unicorn is silver!

Okay, but like . . . why? I mean, it immediately follows a description of the Bloody Baron, who is depicted with silvery blood because he’s, like, a ghost, but I’m not sure what that has to do with unicorns or with Satan. Are unicorns associated with Satan? Is silver associated with Satan?

Is everything Satan? Am I Satan?

There’s a lot of rage at a gentleman named Chuck Colson throughout this section, who apparently made the grave error of telling parents it was okay for their children to read Harry Potter because it doesn’t involve contact with the supernatural. And I’ll admit, that seems like a pretty bad defense of the books, because if you define “supernatural” as ghosts, poltergeists, or whatever the hell Voldemort is, then there is absolutely a metric buttload of supernatural stuff in here.

Arguably, a better defense of why it’s okay for children to read these children’s books is that they are books made for children, but YMMV on that one. Probably depends on whether or not you think children are sitting in the giant metaphorical (or literal? Not sure Cutting Edge gets metaphors) lap of the Antichrist every time they pick up the books.

(A visual reminder.)

Part 3: Basically Part 2, But This Time There Are Colors

The next section is on colors, which are very important to Cutting Edge. As linked back in the very beginning of this post, there is an entire essay devoted to the demonic colors used in the Harry Potter books, but we get just a taste of it here:

Rowling makes use of vivid colors in her story line. Some of these colors are consistent with the colors preferred by Satan and his followers in the Occult. Rowling's use of such vivid colors also enables her to paint the Fantasy Reality of Witchcraft as THE most exciting place to live. Wizard of Oz uses the same technique: when Dorothy is in her real world in Kansas, the color is black and white, but when she steps into her Fantasy Reality, the scene explodes in the most wonderful color.

Interesting interpretation. An alternative view is that Rowling needs to use more descriptors for things within the Wizarding World, because her readers won’t have the same frame of reference to draw from that they do with real-life objects and events in the Muggle World, and one can assume that these lovely descriptions are part of her being a, y’know, good and evocative writer, and the colors are just related to how she pictured the world she was creating.

But I mean, yours is good, too.

Actually, the citations provided by Cutting Edge don’t depict anything especially vivid; it’s not like she’s throwing massive amounts of purple prose at the descriptions of the Satanic green of Harry’s eyes. In fact, the only enhancer used is “emerald” at one point. For the most part, this essayist is just . . . noticing when the word “green” appears in the text and calling it a siren song to entice good Christian children out of the colorless world of reality and goodness and into the technicolor dreamland of magic and mayhem.

Also, please remember that Satan has a favorite color, and it’s green. For all birthdays and Christmases (or wait, whatever the Satanic version of Christmas is! Halloween?), please make sure all gifts are green or green-adjacent.

Even though Harry is nearly as powerful as a Black Magick practitioner, and could easily have decided to go over to that side, he declines to go over to the Dark Arts. Dumbledore assures Harry that he is not evil as Lord Voldemort. However, as a symbol of the Black Arts he could perform, Rowling makes Harry's eyes green.

This observation -- and I use the term loosely -- implies that every single Slytherin and villain of the Harry Potter series would have green eyes, to demonstrate their capacity for evil. The fact that this is obviously not the case must just be a red herring.

Part . . . 4, I think?: Drugs, Magic, and Magic Drugs

Harry and his friends learn how to makedrugs, and the glory of taking them.

The fact that they don’t actually take any in this book is entirely irrelevant. (”Drugs” should also be red as well as bolded. It’s very serious business.)

The plant, wormwood, contains thujone, an hypnotic drug, banned by the FDA since 1915 [Christian News, "Latest Potter Book Meets Cautionary Response From Christians, July 17, 2000] ; further, wormwood is used to make Absinthe, a hallucinogenic liquor. Therefore, the drug to which Rowling makes reference is very real, and is so dangerous the FDA has banned it -- to this day, it is banned!

While thujone was illegal at the time of this essay in the United States, it was actually never banned in the UK . . . you know, where these books take place and were written? I don’t think Rowling gives a solitary fuck about our FDA standards. Also, I don’t know if you could just straight-up buy wormwood on whatever the equivalent of Amazon was in 1998 (was it just Amazon?), but you sure can now. Can’t be all that scary.

You can hardly get a better description of drug use, and drug glorification than this!

I wonder why they keep using red to emphasize all these evil things . . . you’d think they’d go with Satan’s favorite color/the sign that Harry is the Antichrist to really jazz up all of the evil.

"The drug message in this book is clear. To reach your goals in life like Harry Potter, you need to know how to make drugs and take drugs in just the right way or else you are a 'dunderhead' and will never succeed." [http://www.fflibraries.org/Book_Reports/HarryPotter ; written by a physician and father who asked to remain anonymous].

The fact that this URL doesn’t lead me to that review is one of the saddest things I’ve faced all month.

The sections on spellcasting are far less interesting, reiterating a pretty simple refrain: all magic is bad, because the books say some magic is good then the books are bad, it’s all teaching children about Satanism. Rinse and repeat.

During final exams, teachers passed out special quills with which to write; these quills had been "bewitched with an Anti-Cheating spell". The reason none of the teachers felt they could trust the honor of the students to not cheat is obvious enough; in Witchcraft, no Absolute Good and Evil exists. All objective, eternal standards of conduct and morality have been rejected. Therefore, teachers knew full well that all the students would cheat on their final exams if they thought they could get away with it. It is a sad commentary that teachers had to place an Anti-Cheating spell on the quills to prevent exams cheating. Christian parent, is this the "morality" you want your students to learn?

Now, it might just be my obvious Satanist addiction to witchcraft talking, but doesn’t it seem more likely that there’s an anti-cheating spell because sometimes . . . children cheat? And no amount of Good Wholesome Christian Teaching is going to completely eradicate the desire to cheat on a test, because of course it isn’t.

It’s not because the school has taught the students that cheating is okay and cool and sexy or whatever -- in fact, if you want evidence that there is an absolute moral standard against cheating, it would be that the teachers are actively taking steps to prevent it! If witchcraft really was all about how there’s no such thing as good and evil . . . well, for one thing they wouldn’t teach Defense against the motherfucking Dark Arts, but they also wouldn’t care if their students cheated enough to provide anti-cheating quills, because they wouldn’t consider cheating a bad thing, because they wouldn’t consider anything a bad thing!

Also, I’m not sure what listing all of the spells in the book and what they do really says about Satanism, except that . . . spells exist, and are used? Which I feel like you should really expect from the book about magic and wizards; if that’s an alarming surprise, then you’ve made a wrong turn somewhere way earlier down the road.

Part whatever: Seriously, Rowling is just ALL ABOUT Satan

This entire section is basically about how JKR must be a Satanist, because she apparently depicts the world of magic and the occult with perfect accuracy, and how could she do that except through being an active practicing witch herself?

Mirrors are believed to be a portal to another dimension, including Time. Occultists believe they can go forward or backward in Time with a mirror being one of the Dimensional Portals. Harry encounters a mirror, "magnificent ... as high as the ceiling, with an ornate gold frame, standing on two clawed feet ... Harry stepped in front of it. He had to clasp his hand to his mouth to stop himself from screaming ... for he had seen, not only himself in the mirror but a whole crowd of people standing right behind him ... 'Mom?', he whispered. 'Dad?' They just looked at him, smiling ... Harry was looking at his family, for the first time in his life." [p. 208-9]

Intriguing theory, except of course for the fact that the mirror isn’t a portal to jack shit; unless you count the weird trick where he can get the stone (and only the stone) through wishes or whatever the fuck these idiots do, and all it does is show someone what they want. It’s not actually reaching into the past to find Harry’s parents or whatever, just like it’s not actually reaching into a parallel dimension future where Ron is the king of everything. It’s just . . . idk, reading their subconscious and throwing up a neat visual or something. With magic. It’s complex, but it’s definitely not what Cutting Edge says it is.

Not pictured: a portal to another physical, metaphysical or temporal dimension. It’s literally . . . just a mirror, but a mirror that reflects your insides instead of your outsides. It’s clever or something.

Do you realize Rowling has just made the creator of the Sorcerer's Stone 666 years old? Do you realize what this means? Since the number, '666', is a symbol of Antichrist and his Mark of the Beast [Revelation 13:18] and since Rowling ties this number to the Elixir of Life, Harry Potter is teaching children that the way to achieve eternal life [Elixir of Life] is to obey the Antichrist and take his Mark of the Beast!

Fucking. Yes. I don’t even have witty commentary for this, I’m just delighted by every word in that section. I’m smiling so much.

This is a gift and we’re reading it for free!

Wonderful! We have the forbidden practice of drinking blood in this Potter book, forbidden in Scripture [Genesis 9:4-5] but practiced regularly in Satanism. I wonder if Chuck Colson, Focus On The Family, and Christianity Today ever told their Christian followers about this? Have they even read this book, before they issued their acceptance of Potter?

Don’t you dare try to employ sarcasm. People who believe in the Illuminati and New World Order are not allowed to be sarcastic -- even if the thought of this faceless stranger typing that little clever “Wonderful!” and smirking to themselves about how witty they are is a very, very good mental image.

Also, what the fuck did unicorns do to deserve being associated with the Antichrist? I mean, I get the color green; it’s the color of nature and the outdoors, and that shit fucking sucks. (Fuck you, trees!) But unicorns?

Unicorns have never done anything to anyone, ever. Unicorns couldn’t be Satanists if they tried.

This means evil Lord Voldemort -- whose killing curse upon Harry, his Mom, and his Dad had rebounded against him when Harry did not die -- is near death, and is seeking to drink the Unicorn's blood to stay alive long enough to finally achieve eternal life through drinking the '666' Elixir of Life.

Yes, that is -- sort of -- the plot of this book.

This is the specific New Age doctrine being taught here: people will have to draw their temporary spiritual life from The Christ until the time comes when their individual consciousness will have been raised so much they will achieve their personal godhood, and live forever!

This concept is genuine New Age, is consistent with prophecy, and Rowling depicts it very well!

Christian parents, do you want your child to be taught this New Age doctrine? Can you see Harry Potter playing the Pied Piper and leading your children straight to the Mark of the Beast?

Pied Piper count: 1 (that’s not a lot so far, but it’s used in like every essay. It’ll come back)

I don’t know how to tackle this, because I’m not sure Cutting Edge really understands that Voldemort is the bad guy in these books. Children aren’t going to read this book and then go, “Cool! I’m gonna go stab a unicorn and drink its essence because my favorite role model You-Know-Who told me to!”

The unicorn blood thing is unilaterally portrayed as a pretty bad move. Voldemort’s goals in general are pretty obviously not great ideas. I know Cutting Edge doesn’t have the benefit of hindsight here, but Voldemort’s quest for immortality and how bad and wrong and fucked-up that is, is kind of one of the major through-lines of the entire story. It could be argued that it’s not Voldy’s desire to live forever that’s wrong so much as his whole, like, genocide thing, which is legit . . . except that all the methods to attain immortality involve killing someone, or stealing something, or otherwise being Not a Good Dude.

Voldemort is Not a Good Dude, and I don’t know how to communicate that any clearer than the books written for third graders already did.

Part 6: I don’t really know, I just wanted a chance to break this endless essay up and this seemed like a good place to do it. So let’s talk about spells some more

Many spells require both the taking of drugs and demonic possession, so it is a matter of gravest importance that Harry is actually going to learn to cast spells. When Chuck Colson dismisses the casting of spells as innocent and of no real importance, did he know this fact?

I seem to have missed the part where Harry goes off his ass on LSD and gets possessed by B’aal. Was that in the Silmarillion?

whenever a witch changes the physical characteristics of something, he or she is practicing very high-level witchcraft, has a high level of demonic possession, and has had to carry out human sacrifice themselves or have someone else do it for them.

“It’s fiction” is often a bullshit excuse to justify bad framing, but I feel like it applies here, because maybe in the “real” world spellcasting requires you to trip balls and summon demons, but it’s extremely obvious that it doesn’t work like that in Harry Potter! You can’t just say that’s what the books are teaching when the books aren’t actually teaching anything even close to that!

(I’m starting to feel like my emphasis italics are having a similar effect to Cutting Edge’s red bolded letters. Fuck if I’m gonna stop using them, though.)

If Harry and his pals were wearing goat heads and putting virgins into a giant blender or something I think you might have an argument here, but when the people reading your essay have eyes and can see that the things you’re describing aren’t anywhere in the books, you’re just lying. And it’s very obvious, and I still love you, Cutting Edge, but you’re being disingenuous and it’s starting to kill my joy-boner to constantly have to point out the ways you’re misunderstanding a children’s book, especially when I think you’re kinda doing it on purpose. So how about you chill just a little bit and we’ll all read some Harry Potter together.

Magical Drafts and Potions , by Arsenius Jigger. Some of the potions are very real, very deadly.

Wait, did Rowling publish this one, too? How do you know what’s in the book? Does the book list some real potions and how to make them, or is this another thing that’s only available in the Cutting Edge’s copy of the books?

Students were told they could also "bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad." [p. 67] These three creatures are important to an occultists. Satanists have always revered the cat because of its reputed "nine lives", which is a symbol of reincarnation. Cats are also symbols of a witch's familiar spirit.

They have revered the frog because his prominent bulging eyes represent the All-seeing nature of Lucifer. Frogs are also consistently used in many of the potions witches concoct. They revere owls as a symbol of occult wisdom and omniscience -- again because of their eyes.

So fuck cats, I guess. They’re being pretty unfair to owls and frogs too -- especially insulting their poor eyes. They can’t help it! -- but I’m a crazy cat lady and I’m not feeling this slander.

Actually . . . my cat looks pretty high right now. Maybe she is channeling Satan.

Okay, never mind. Fuck all these animals. They’re all evil. This article is entirely right, and I renounce all of my previous statements.

McGonagall has obviously mastered her Craft because she was the tabby cat seen by Uncle Vernon reading a map, back in chapter one. Remember that any time a witch or wizard practices transfiguration, they need expert spell-casting, and demonic possession. I bet no one ever told you that little fact, did they?

No, they didn’t, because it’s not even remotely relevant to the fictional book written for children.

Like, I’m trying very hard to not question anyone’s religious beliefs, so if you believe in the occult and magic and all that then more power to you, and maybe it’s totally valid to think that real-life magic spells requires demonic possession. That doesn’t make it true in the books, though! Stop making shit up!

Potions Class -- taught in one of the dungeons [p. 136] How disgusting must the atmosphere for this class, and others, taught in a dungeon, which was built to torture people to death?

If only the classroom, teacher, and overall environment for the Potions classes was meant to be as viscerally unpleasant as possible. Then putting them in the dungeons would be a really good idea, to reflect the Slytherins’ backwards beliefs and the misery of their intolerance.

Like, JKR isn’t this subtle. When you name one of your antagonists “Bad Dragon,” you’re not aiming for this subconscious-symbolism bullshit.

Part 7: Did you think this book had a good moral? Fuck you!

The fundamental occult/Communist philosophy

Well, I guess we’re talking about Communism now! Because if there’s anything Harry Potter is interested in above all else, it’s Communism.

My favorite things about these essays is how they will pull in other social ills -- abortion, public schools, communism -- and slap them into their argument regardless of if it makes any semblance of sense.

Anyway, Cutting Edge actually has a legitimate argument here, although they take it about 50 steps too far:

the "Ends Justify The Means" permeates this entire book. To achieve a goal deemed good, Harry and his friends consistently break rules, steal, and use Witchcraft against others.

It is true that Harry and his friends break the rules, lie, and otherwise do “bad” things in the service of an ultimate good, and that they suffer relatively few consequences for it. This is a legitimate point, and actual people who know things agree.

I’ve been struck speechless by this article before, but this is the first time it’s because I think they might have an actual point.

Hermione was very mildly punished [for her lie to the professors about why they were fighting the troll], but her lie cemented a friendship with Ron and Harry, leading a child to conclude that her lie served an excellent purpose, and could not be considered 'wrong'.

I mean . . . yeah? I don’t think it’s entirely reasonable to assume that children will take that lesson away, but I read it as a child and I certainly didn’t think Hermione was wrong to lie -- nor do I now, which I suppose proves just how powerful the Satanic conditioning was.

Professor Quirrell told Harry, "There is no good or evil, there is only power, and those too weak to seek it ." [p. 291] This is standard Witchcraft, and standard Illuminist doctrine. This doctrine is the guiding light to those Illuminists who are driving the world into the Kingdom of Antichrist. This doctrine is very seductive to those immature children trying to grow up in our current culture; since a child's inherent nature is evil, he will find such philosophy more appealing than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Christian parents, beware!

Oh thank God Satan, we’re back to the bullshit. I was getting seriously weirded out by the idea that they had good points buried in here somewhere, but now we’re just faced with the argument that the bad guy says . . . bad things . . . and is defeated because his bad ideas are obviously bad and wrong . . . and this proves that the book is teaching children to believe the bad things?

No one reads these books and wants to be the bad guys, Cutting Edge. Kids aren’t buying Harry Potter wands and robes to pretend that they’re Quirrell, trying to keep people from finding out they have a Dark Lord on the back of their head. (Though now that I’ve mentioned it, that sounds like a very fun game.)

Depicting bad things in a way that makes it clear -- to children, I must reiterate -- that they’re bad isn’t the same thing as romanticizing or promoting those bad things. This is basic stuff, CE.

Revenge Motive : "Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying, and Much, Much More , by Vindictus Viridian." [p. 80] Throughout these books, seeking revenge and attacking your enemies is high on the priority list of Harry, his friends, and other students. Do you want your children to adopt this most Satanic attitude? Notice the first name of the author of this revenge book, above, is named "Vindictus, i.e., Vindictive".

Students are taught to depend upon Witchcraft for every part of their lives . All food is conjured up rather than prepared, all the dishes are conjured clean, and even the hospital depends upon Witchcraft to get students well [p. 156]. Neville Longbottom, one of the more clumsy students, received a crystal ball from his grandmother called a Remembrall . The ball glows scarlet if you have forgotten something you should have done. [p. 145]

That’s . . . fuck, that’s actually kind of another good point. Stop kinda making sense, goddamn it!

A lot of the criticism is just that the things wizards do are cool, which will make kids want to become witches/wizards in order to do those cool things, too. And to be fair, the stuff Harry et. al. does are cool, and I did want to be a witch when I grew up. Fortunately, I was in third grade, and so my options for witchcraft were relatively limited; by the time I was old enough to pursue the endeavor properly, I was also old enough to know that it was actually nothing like Harry Potter. If magic actually was anything like those books make it seem, we’d have a lot more witches running around, zapping shit.

Possible reference to homosexuality . When I was first researching Harry Potter, I examined several pro-Potter websites. The author of one of the articles said that one of the probable developments she felt would occur in the latter books was the advent of homosexuality in the story theme. She said such activity was only hinted at in the first books.

Oh dear god, Cutting Edge found the shippers. I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy.

(I wonder if this means they’ve also read the Draco Trilogy.)

I do have to take issue with one last point in this bit about morals, where they talk about how scarring it might be to a child to see Voldemort possessing the back of Quirrell’s head:

Rowling could not have created a better description of demonic possession by a dark and powerful demon! Christian parent, is this the type of thing you want your child to bring into their minds?

Thing is, I’ve been in a lot of Christian circles for most of my life, and this sounds exactly like the kind of dark, traumatizing thing many religious parents would be happy to put into their children’s minds.

Part Almost Done: Definitely Intentional Satanic Symbols, Really

Hey, did you know the number 11 was occultist? I didn’t, and when I Googled it, 4 of the front-page results were Christian or conspiracy groups making this claim, 2 were unclear, and 3 actually seemed to indicate some level of belief in the power of the number 11. Though I might’ve stacked the deck with the word “occult”; when I changed my search term to “magic,” I found almost exclusively positive articles about the symbolic power of the number 11, so . . . Cutting Edge isn’t necessarily wrong.

But boy, did you know how many times the number 11 shows up in Sorcerer's Stone? Not very much, but if we stretch our credibility a little bit, we might see something spooky!

Harry was eleven (11) when he was admitted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The number eleven is considered sacred to the occultist, as it is the first primary number. Occultists will also add up numbers to get an occult number that is sacred; thus, I was highly interested when the bank vault maintained for Harry by his Mom and Dad before their death was numbered '713' [p. 73]. When you add '7 + 1 + 3 = 11'. Then, we learn that, in the money of the Fantasy Reality, "twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle". When you add 2 + 9 = 11.

When Harry found the wand that was meant for him, it turned out to be 11 inches long! [p. 84]

The Hogwarts Express Train left at 11 o'clock from Platform Nine and Three-Quarters. [p. 91]

Oh man, that’s some convincing evidence. Evidence of what, I have no idea, but it uses math and I’m sure it’s very alarming!

" Sorcerer's Stone " is also called the "Philosopher's Stone", and is very, very Satanic! Rosicrucianism teaches that an Initiate will pass through five stages to become the highest Adept possible, to be most proficient in exercising the power of Satanism. They call this process the "Five Stages In The Transmutation of the Soul". The final stage is depicted by the Phoenix Bird; the Adept is then said to have achieved the "Sorcerer's Stone". Thus, the fact that the term, "Sorcerer's Stone" is in the title of this book suggests that the ultimate goal of all students at Hogwarts is to achieve the Sorcerer's Stone.

Wow, that sure is an interesting interpretation of the rock that shows up in the book for like 6 pages and then is immediately destroyed! Alternate theory, if you’re open to it: It’s a rock, named the Philosopher’s Stone because the Philosopher’s Stone is historically the name of a rock, called the philosopher's stone, and it's literally just a rock and doesn't mean anything Satanist because it's a fucking ROCK.

(Pictured: A rock)

There’s a really odd part right after the long discussion about how alchemy and unicorns and whatnot are Satanic Illuminati symbols, where CE just takes a moment to explain the game of Quidditch. No commentary beyond a sassy little “[Even the Quidditch balls are 'enchanted'].” Just . . . sort of letting you know how the game is played.

To be fair, this is quite a valuable service, since I don’t think anyone actually understands how Quidditch works, but I’m not sure what it’s doing sandwiched between two declarations of Harry Potter’s obvious evil.

PART THE LAST THANK GOD: WHO THE FUCK NEEDS A SUBTITLE IT’S ALMOST OVER

The first few paragraphs are standard boilerplate conclusion stuff, reiterating the rest of the story, continued misunderstanding that bad things are done by the bad guys, no there really are drugs and Illuminati propaganda in here I promise, yadda yadda. Nothing noteworthy except for the fact that I found this sentence absolutely hilarious:

But, most horribly, we see depictions of Satanism that are truly End of the Age. We see the symbol of Antichrist, the Unicorn.

And so I leave you with this one final thought, because it’s all I can fit into the saggy mush that was once my brain:

From Genesis through Revelation, God demands His people separate themselves from the evil around them! SEPARATE! SEPARATE! SEPARATE!

S E P A R A T E

#harry potter #hp #rowling #jkr #this doesn't really count as fandom history does it?#i did discover this amazing site through f_w #tagging this as Christianity would be mean i think #but i'm ignoring the wank mostly and sticking to the FACTS #'facts' like 'harry potter's eyes are the color of satan'#WAKE UP SHEEPLE #this is the world's longest post and i'm not sure it's interesting to anyone except me #i got very tired at the end of this can you tell #i refuse to even consider editing this #you will take my thoughts as i have them #if the 'read more' doesn't show up IT IS NOT MY FAULT I FUCKING PUT IT THERE I SWEAR IT #quotes aren't showing up on mobile #can't do red text or fun fonts on desktop #this post is a goddamn disaster and it's what both i and this essay deserve

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anzu-kaiba · 4 years

Text

An Update

TL;DR Newly posted fics, sorry I forgot to say anything here. I have reasons.

Mayonaka no Rendezvous, new Azureshipping fic (potential to become multi-chapter) - FFnet & AO3

Anzu's been having nightmares for weeks now; what if things had gone differently in the duel between Jounouchi and Yuugi, and she *had* been crushed? What if Kaiba hadn't saved her? Berating herself for thanking Mokuba and not Seto, one night at midnight, Anzu gets up and walks... finding herself at Seto Kaiba's mansion. (Originally written for Azure Week 2018/First Person POV)

The Speed of You, new(ly posted to FFnet) Initial D x Yu-Gi-Oh! eventual Azureshipping fic - FFnet & AO3

If you want to catch something that always seems out of reach, you need to be faster. The problem is, the more Anzu tries to escape the weirdness that is Domino, the more it seems to catch up with her.

Being on so many social media networks is a pain, especially when some of them *cough cough* TUMBLR *cough* DO STUPID SHIT and everyone abandons them for a while. But not long enough to put them out of business or anything. And hey, maybe they promised to change or some such. I don’t honestly know if that’s happened with Tumblr, but occasionally I do get notifications about stuff here.

SO, if you want to know if I’ve updated/added a new fic, please check fanfiction.net or archiveofourown.org first. Those are the primary places I post. I have a Wattpad account, but I have never used it. Someone else grabbed the name “Azurite” there and I’m salty about it.

I do not bother posting fic on DeviantART anymore, frankly because it was never a platform for the written word and I don’t think it’s trying to be. I will leave the fics I have posted there, because why the heck shouldn’t I (unless I massively revise them and/or there are no comments)?

If I remember to announce a new chapter, I will post about it here, but... yeah, as you can tell, I’m more of a reblogger here than an original content poster. So don’t count on Tumblr notifs for my stuff. Sorry.

I do have a website exclusively for What Doesn’t Kill You, where I intend on posting everything related to the fic, from chapters to fanart to the music that inspires me.

As far as my other fics, my goal is to regularly update my Fanfiction Status page on my site so that it shows where the most recent updates have been posted. As I recently discovered, I had posted some fics to one archive, but not to another, and while there often is crossover between audiences, I know that’s not always the case.

If I do prioritize an archive, it’ll be Archive of Our Own.

I did formerly run an eFiction-powered Azureshipping archive, Dragonfayth, but the software powering it became abandonware, and the people who supposedly took over for it haven’t posted updates in many months, and don’t seem interested in having a Patreon to financially support their efforts. I’ve heard rumor of WordPress-powered archives using a plugin, but I have yet to see said plugin in action or regularly updated for public consumption. If someone knows about WP Fanfic Sites or Plugins, LET ME KNOW.

WikiFic is dead, long live WikiFic. I hate MediaWiki with the fire of a thousand suns, and so WikiFic is officially dead. I attempted to upgrade the software numerous times and always ran into walls. I may have succeeded with the most recent update, but last I checked, the site infinitely redirects when you try to go to it. I really don’t know how to solve it, and frankly it would be easier for me to migrate the content that ISN’T replicated elsewhere (e.g., a TCG card database) to Darkness Rising, my Yu-Gi-Oh fansite.

#azureshipping #fanfiction #archives #fanfictionnet #archive of our own #ao3 #wikific #websites #what doesn't kill you #wdky #wordpress #fanfics #updates #deviantart #tumblr #dragonfayth #wattpad #azurite

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darks-ink · 5 years

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Disinterred CH.8

Chapter 8: Fool The Whole World

And with all these new possibilities, people had started paying more attention to their surroundings. People acting out, things that didn’t quite make sense. Which, of course, led to people noticing Danny Fenton.

(Tumblr is a functional website which doesn’t allow posts with links (both internal and outgoing) to show up in /search and /tagged so here’s the next-day edit with the link to the author notes + AO3/FFnet mirrors + the other chapters)

“So how’re you feeling, dude?”

Danny shrugged at Tucker as he closed his locker, not even bothering to look at either of his friends. “I dunno. Kinda nervous, but not really? If that makes sense?”

Sam hummed from his other side. “Everything should be okay. Principal Ishiyama promised, and so did Lancer, right?”

“Yup,” he confirmed, straightening his backpack. “But still. I guess I am a little worried that people will, y’know, figure it out.”

“Dude, don’t.” Tucker clapped him on the shoulder, grinning widely. “They haven’t figured it out before, and they won’t do it now either.”

Sam nodded. “Right. If anything, life will be easier for you, now that your parents know and the teachers kinda know.”

“Yeah,” Danny sighed. “I guess so. Let’s just get to English before Lancer gets worried or something.”

Right at that moment the bell rung, and the three of them quickly made their way to the English classroom. Mr. Lancer was already inside, sharing a knowing glance with Danny when he entered. Danny nodded, once, before making his way to his seat in the back of the room.

Within minutes the rest of the classroom filled up as well, the rest of the class chattering loudly. Too many people were talking at once for Danny to tell what the conversations were about, but he could guess. The holidays, Easter, gossip.

And, oh yeah. The police investigation regarding his corpse. Still a common topic among the rumors of Casper High.

Mr. Lancer closed the door, coming to a halt in front of his desk. The expression on his face made it clear that he was hoping that the class would quiet down on its own. Yeah, like that would ever happen.

Instead the man cleared his throat, momentarily catching the attention of the class. He glared around, ensuring that the silence would last a little longer. “Please, kids. I know you want to talk with your friends and catch up after the holidays, but you can wait until lunch to do so.”

The students remained silent for a few moments longer, as if processing what their teacher told them.

And then they completely ignored the man in favor of continuing their previous conversations.

Ah, the beauty of high school. Danny was glad that, despite everything that had changed during the last week or so, some things remained the same as always.

Unfortunately, it seemed like Mr. Lancer didn’t feel the same way. His expression had darkened, a frown on his face and his arms crossed in front of him. He was casting his eyes around the classroom, clearly taking in the chaos of the students ignoring him. Danny waved when the teacher looked his way, and Sam and Tucker next to him also remained silent and focused on the teacher. They appeared to be the only ones, however.

Finally Mr. Lancer gave up, slamming his hand against the desk he was standing next to.

“Heart of Darkness people, will you just keep quiet!” The sudden shout had done an excellent job of quieting down the class, as everyone sat frozen in their seats, looking at the teacher. He looked around the class, straightening out his tie with a somewhat sheepish expression his face.

“Ah, yes. Thank you.” He looked around the class once more. “I see that you are all still a little out of it after the break, so perhaps we should ease into our schoolwork, yes? Why don’t we start with a discussion about recent news? Anything particular we could use?”

“Uhm,” Mikey spoke up from the front of the classroom. “Maybe we could talk about the body the police found in the woods?”

“Yeah! Didn’t the police release an official statement about that this morning?” Nathan agreed, nodding energetically.

Mr. Lancer frowned, apparently hesitant about taking up the topic. Maybe he was trying to avoid it for Danny? If that was the case, Danny definitely appreciated the attempt.

Sadly, Lancer couldn’t come up with a reason to deny Mikey’s suggestion. The man sighed before nodding at the student. “Yes, I suppose that would work. Let’s start by summarizing the known facts.” He turned towards Dash, gesturing at the boy. “Mr. Baxter?”

The boy in question jerked to attention, eyes flicking towards Mr. Lancer. Danny had to repress his chuckles at seeing that Dash hadn’t heard anything. “I, uh…”

Lancer rolled his eyes and sighed. “Ms. Sanchez, could you summarize the facts for us, please?”

“Of course,” Paulina chirped, putting down the nail file she was holding. “Not that we have many facts confirmed for us. We’ve known for a while that a body was found in the woods. And earlier this morning, the police officially announced that they have solved the case, but they refuse to give out details.” She clicked her tongue, disapprovingly. “Something about respecting the victim and the family, or whatever.”

Lancer heaved another sigh, but nodded at her. “Yes, thank you. Now that we know the facts-” Lancer continued speaking, but Danny tuned him out thanks to years of practice.

This was going to be a long day.

Danny had been wrong. It wasn’t just a long day, more like a long week. The never-ending rumors about the body found in the woods hadn’t let up, and the new statement given by the police had just rekindled the fires.

And, of course, this made the students of Casper High surprisingly sharp. Only his years of experience at keeping his secret had prevented the school from figuring him out. He made sure to double (and triple) check his environment every time he used his powers, and only transformed into Phantom in closets and empty bathrooms.

Unfortunately, while Danny had become quite skilled at keeping his secrets, well, secret, the same thing couldn’t be said of his teachers. Because, as much as he appreciated them going easy on him, it was also quite obvious.

Well, obvious to the sharp eyes of Casper High’s re-awakened rumor mill, at least.

Naturally, the other students had no problem taking the changed behavior and running with it. Before Danny knew it, rumors about him being a ghost had started circulating, spreading like wildfire.

And he was powerless to stop it.

Really, the only thing he could do was ignore it. Pretend that nothing had changed, in the hopes that it would blow over.

It was dangerous, he knew. Sure, right now they were just high school rumors. But if they kept up, if he in any way suggested that there was a truth to the rumors… Well, eventually the wrong people would find out. And if anyone with any actual power tested him…

Well, he was sure that they would be able to figure out that he was only half ghost. And from there… labs, experimentation, finding out what makes him tick… and how to replicate it. His accident.

Making more human-ghost hybrids.

No, that wasn’t something he could risk. But there was nothing he could do, not now. If he did anything, reacted in any way to the rumors, he would only feed them.

So he could only listen to the rumors as they spread, and try not to do anything to suggest them to be true.

The body that had been found in the woods had been an interesting subject for gossip for a while now, inspiring curiosity among the entire population of Amity Park. And, as the queen of gossip, Paulina had to know every theory, every possibility, and, as proven earlier, every fact.

After the press statement on Monday morning, people had started suggesting that the victim had become a ghost, and that they were still present in the city.

It would make sense, Paulina decided, to withhold information about the case if the victim was still around. And, based on that information, the victim was likely still pretending to be alive. Blending in with the living, at least.

The people in charge would’ve been told. If the victim was a child, or a teenager, like people thought, teachers would’ve been told for sure.

And with all these new possibilities, people had started paying more attention to their surroundings. People acting out, things that didn’t quite make sense.

Which, of course, led to people noticing Danny Fenton.

Sure, the boy had always been different. An outcast, spending most of his high school career outside the classroom, either running late or simply running off. His grades were poor as well, although Paulina had to admit hers weren’t much better either.

But now, after the break, something about Fenton had changed. Not him, nothing about his appearance.

No, what had changed was how the teachers behaved around him.

Fenton was always late, always running off, never finished his homework. And the teachers hated him for it. They scolded him, gave him detention, they tried everything to stop the boy from misbehaving.

But now, suddenly, they were nice to him again.

Sure, most of them were clearly peeved when Fenton ran off or was late. But they weren’t nearly as hard on him as before the break.

And when they thought no one was looking (or sometimes even if there were), the teachers looked… sad, for lack of a better word. Like something about Fenton upset the teachers, but in a different way than before.

Combined with the new rumors that there was a ghost living among the people… Well, it was easy to connect the dots for the gossipers of Casper High.

Paulina wasn’t sure who started the rumors, but quite honestly, she doesn’t care. She doesn’t care about the fact that she might be spreading hurtful gossip either.

No, all that mattered to her was that this was a delightful story, and Paulina was more than happy to do her job spreading it.

After all, little Danny Fenton, a ghost? His parents were ghost hunters! What a beautiful contradiction, a fantastic irony.

Paulina didn’t hold very high opinions of the adult Fentons. Nor of the children, but that was something else entirely.

No, the two ghost hunting Fentons were clearly not in their right minds. Even if they were right about ghosts, they always targeted Phantom! Her ghost-boy, who wouldn’t hurt a single human!

And as for the matter of Danny’s death… Well, she wouldn’t consider it impossible if the parents had been responsible, somehow. Maybe not on purpose, but…

Well, maybe on purpose. Perhaps catching a ghost turned out to be so difficult that they just made one.

Maybe… Maybe Danny had been the first ghost in Amity. Maybe that was why Phantom always seemed to follow him. Her ghost-boy was just looking out for his fellow ghost.

It could even be tradition, for ghosts! To look out for younger ghosts, like a parent over a child.

She thought that that would be perfectly in-character for her beautiful Phantom. To protect a ghost from his own ghost-hunting parents.

Yes, that seemed right. That is what she would spread. Her influence on these rumors, her own twist.

At first, Dash thought that the new rumors were kinda funny. Like, “haha, the freaky ghost hunters’ kid is a ghost” funny.

But then he listened to some of the other kids debate and argue, and, well. They raised some excellent points.

He had thought that it was a joke. But maybe, maybe, there was a truth to the rumors.

And that unnerved him in a way he couldn’t explain. Not just because of his poor grades, because he didn’t have the words for it. No, he couldn’t explain it because it was something visceral. A feeling beyond description, beyond words.

Because if Fenton was a ghost, what did that mean for Dash? If Fenton was a ghost, something must’ve killed him, right? And Dash… Dash bullied the kid a lot. Almost constantly, really. And for the stupidest reasons.

Fenton had never seemed suicidal to Dash, sure. But Dash had also never considered the possibility that Fenton had, at some point, died. And now, watching the boy react to Dash’s threats… He could imagine missing it. The reactions weren’t quite genuine, like Fenton had seen worse.

And Dash had never noticed until now. So, sure, he could’ve missed Fenton going suicidal as well. Hell, he could have easily missed the entire arc, from the kid feeling suicidal to ending it and then coming back, without ever picking up on it.

But Dash refused to believe it to be the truth. No matter how convincing the arguments of some of the smarter kids were, how much sense it would make. Because Fenton couldn’t be dead. Not really.

Dash couldn’t- Dash refused to consider it. Because if Fenton was dead, he could’ve been the reason for it. And that surely wasn’t the case. He was a bully, sure. But it was just harmless fun. A few bruises at worst.

Not this. Not death.

So, sure. He played along, laughed with the others. But he refused to believe it to the truth. Even if Fenton was always pretty cold to the touch.

Even if Fenton sometimes got out of his locker way faster than humanly possible. As if the boy could just phase out of it.

Even if Fenton could somehow stuff Dash’s locker with toilet paper without ever opening the locker.

Or being seen.

No. Dash refused to believe it. Fenton wasn’t a ghost, and he wasn’t dead.

Dash was sure of it.

Danny was freaking out.

Well, Sam thought to herself, bitterly. When is he not freaking out, these days? But she couldn’t blame him. Life had been beyond stressful for Danny ever since he became half-ghost. And the whole business with the police finding his body and assuming that he was a full ghost… Well, it was a whole mess.

And now, when things were finally starting to look up, life had kicked him down again. Finally things had been fixed, the police weren’t on his ass anymore, his parents knew and accepted him, and even the teachers would be going easy on him.

But unfortunately, Casper High’s rumor mill had done a scarily accurate job of targeting Danny. Because they thought that he was a ghost, that it was his body that had been found in the woods.

And god, they were right. They didn’t know it yet, didn’t have any actual proof. But they didn’t have to to freak out Danny. And the more stressed out he became, the more his inner turmoil was fed… The easier it was for him to slip up, to miss something obvious.

To give their fellow students the one final clue they needed.

Sam dreaded it too, of course. She needed her best friend to stay safe, to stay out of trouble. But there was nothing she could do to prevent this situation.

Except…

Except maybe it wasn’t all bad. Sure, she wouldn’t promote the idea of Danny being a ghost… But maybe it would have some upsides.

Yes. This could work. This was something she could do, a way for her to support Danny.

But, just to be sure, she should talk to Tucker about it. And Jazz, if the girl wasn’t too busy with college at the moment.

Sam smiled to herself. Finally, finally, she had a way to help Danny through this mess.

And help him she would.

#danny phantom #phanfic #phanfiction #dp fanfic #dp fanfiction #danny fenton #dash baxter #paulina sanchez #sam manson #dark writes #disinterred #next up: But Now I Tell A Single Truth

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treehouseart · 6 years

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Why Reblogging Is So Important to Artists | Why Being Nice Online is Important | Storytime

First of all, I wasn’t going to talk about this. Because I thought it wasn’t needed, because I thought there was enough information out there asking people NOT TO REPOST ART and if we do, at least give PROPER CREDIT.

But there isn’t. That’s alright. Let’s talk about it.

Two days ago I was approached by the lovely @vaugleysassygrunt who told me someone was reposting my art. They said this person had been changing their url all day (and they’re still doing it) and sent me a hyperlink to the art they had posted. It was one of the comics from my on-going Sanders Sons series, a sequential comic I have been working on for almost a year. It was pretty dear to my heart (and the context was pretty important as well).

My immediate thought was “Oooh boy, my first art thief, that’s so exciting”. All the big ones get those. Along I went to this person’s tumblr and was about to send them a message when I saw they had already addressed the issue by saying they found reblogging annoying and that’s why they preferred reposting. That they never claimed the art was theirs.

Of course my first thought was “if you don’t like reblogging what are you doing on tumblr?”. But we shouldn’t give in to our first thoughts. They’re often rash.

So I get into a conversation with said art thief and try another way. Because THERE IS another way. We can’t nunchuk our way to awareness. This is what I wrote:

Hi, friendo! I'm sorry people are giving you a hard time, but crediting art is very important for us artists :( It's how we make our carreers. I understand you don't enjoy reblogging, but it can help people find our art and find more of our work if they need to. I also am really embarrassed to have to ask, but could you please credit sandersssons-comic or sanderssons in the quadruplets AU? It's a series I spent a lot of time on and I would hate it if people only read a part of it. Thanks and have a good day :D

They repond right away. Telling me they accept my apology (?)

Also that they found the image on google images.

Also asking how much artists get.

FIRST LESSON TO TAKE FROM THIS: Google Images, such as Google itself, it’s an image SEARCHER. It COMPILES images from the whole internet. An image being on Google Images DOES NOT MEAN IT’S UP FOR GRABS. Google Images provides the proper source of the picture.

BESIDES, Google Images can be a great tool for finding the author of an artpiece. Just go to Google Reverse Image Search. You can do it from your phone and from your desktop. Just put the image on and Google finds the original source for you!

So I proceed to explain to this person that artists don’t make much. Most of us get money from comissions that depend on the complexity. Some get Ko-Fis and Patreons and online shops with stickers and key chains and some other goodies.

ALTHOUGH, FOR YOU I ALSO SAY: PEOPLE ARE ENTITLED TO THEIR ART EVEN IF THEY DON’T GET MONEY FOR IT. BECAUSE IT’S THEIR OWN AND THEY MADE IT. DON’T BE A DICK.

They say:

I don’t mean to be rude but you could just get more money by being an art teacher or something that pays good minimum wage.

And you can imagine this big red flag raising in my head. Disengage. Disengage. Disengage. But this was a HUMAN BEING. And a misinformed one. I had already made contact. Might as well. I explained that we DO NOT WANT other jobs. This is our jobs. This is our choice of carreer. And it’s not hard to respect.

Reminder, that should go without saying: YOU DO NOT HAVE A SAY ON PEOPLE’S LIFE CHOICES

Our friend says they don’t understand cause they’re in high school and they don’t draw a lot (as if art knowledge just comes by osmosis when you draw a lot)

I said it was totally cool not to understand. Because it is

SECOND LESSON: SOMETIMES PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THINGS. I came back to tumblr for the Thomas Sanders fandom. A fandom that thrives on kindness and caring and validation of different people

They thanked me for being cool and explaining things and asked if we could be friends. I said that absolutely

(After our little talk, they started giving credit to the pictures they could find. Read as: the ones that had signatures on the image)

We talked yesterday a whole part of the day. We get acquainted. They’re finding themselves as non-binary, they’re in high school. Things like that. I tell them I’m 20 and in college for journalism

In this proccess I explained how comissions worked and, again, why reblogging and not reposting was important

So yesterday night I’m already in bed when they message me “Hi”

I responded I was tired and going to sleep. They said they were going to bed too. And that they hated when they were accused of something they didn’t do. Which was stealing art

And I said that, indeed, they weren’t STEALING art per say. But reposting was a dick move. They got PISSED. So I tried to find an analogy they would understand.

Ok, think of it like this

You've painted a tradicional piece in oil and put it in your gallery with other paintings

Someone can't come and take the painting off the wall and put it on their gallery

Even if they say it's yours... It doesn't bring more people to your gallery. It exposes your work... But that's mostly it.

To which they replied:

The Mona Lisa got stolen once and people have made counterfeit paintings in the past

Which, goes without saying DOESN’T MAKE IT OKAY. Just because someone already murdered another, it doesn’t mean we can go around on a killing spree.

Besides, tumblr has original content and tools to get replicated inside the website. And so I told them.

And then again:

Why are the majority of people here artists who clearly don’t realize they can get a part time job?

And I told them, AGAIN, they do not want part time jobs. They want these jobs.

They said I lied then, when I said art didn’t pay well. And proceeded to say they didn’t understand why people want to be starving artists.

Also that tumblr didn’t have the kind of images they wanted. EVEN THOUGH THIS WHOLE THING WAS HAPPENING BECAUSE ARTISTS FROM TUMBLR WERE FINDING THEIR ARTWORKS REPOSTED ON THEIR ACCOUNT.

I was also making them upset.

I tried to explain further, but they blocked me.

Fortunately, I was able to send one last message and I think it’s the biggest message I want to pass here.

I'm sorry I'm upsetting you but I've been nothing but respectful

Be respectful. Even when you’re mad. Even when people are rude. Kill them with kindness. If they’re too immature to listen to you, that’s on them. Practice what our dear youtubers preach (Thomas Sanders, Jack, Mark).

This person is still reposting, yes. They’re giving credit, but still reposting. It’s a start, I believe. It’s more than I would have gotten sending a hate ask.

So now, princes, princesses and non-binary royalty, I give you the

TL;DR

Artists are ENTITLED TO THEIR ART. You. Are. Not. It doesn’t matter if it’s on tumblr, on google images or on the street. If there’s a signature or not. Getting money for it or not (also, since I’m here, don’t forget that art is not only visual arts, but also videos, music, podcasts and a bagillion other things. If it’s not yours, don’t post it)

You DO NOT get a say on how people should get their wage (just like you don’t get a say on how they dress, on where they go, or who they love)

When you REBLOG, you help the artist to get known. It costs nothing. When you REPOST, you’re a dick. You’re not helping anyone and you’re giving yourself more trouble than just clicking a simple button

It’s okay not to know everything, but listen when people talk respectfully

Don’t be hard on people when you can be nice. Aggravating people will only make enemies of people who can be friends

Be mature enough to accept sometimes you’re wrong

BONUS ROUND: I believed we were done, but I saw this post short after. I didn’t think it was relevant to include, but I feel like I must say something.

I’ve had it with everyone being nothing but mean and antagonizing me. I’m not the bad guy and I really want to kill myself or leave tumblr. I’m never accepted by anyone or anywhere. Hell its hard to tell my friends I’m into men and women or that I like certain things. I get rejected constantly so goodbye forever

And later proceeded to post normally.

Please notice that your life BEING HARD does not make up for BEING A DICK and REFUSING TO BE EDUCATED. I will not refrain from telling you the truth R E S P E C T F U L L Y to protect your feelings just because you’re LGBTQ+ (specially because the you being B part was totally new information for me in this post/and I’m in the community too).

So since I’m giving moral lessons, do this for your friends. We should not stand for something we do not agree. Real friends will respect your side and reconsider. If a person hostilizes you for having a different opinion - or, in this case, being right - they’re not someone you want to have around.

PS.: I will not disclose this person’s identity because it’s irrelevant. I’m only posting this in hopes it can help someone else

PPS.: I ended up did reporting this person for giving my comic specifically the wrong credit

#art #reposting art #storytime #please don't repost art

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pushbuttontraffic · 3 years

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How to Sell on Amazon FBA for Beginners! EASY Step-by-Step Tutorial

I'm just gonna, be honest with you guys. I'Ve taken a $ 4,000 Amazon FBA course out my own pocket. I spent the money they didn't pay me or anything like that. I took that course, but in this I think it's been less than hour. I feel like I've gotten like as much value like ( upbeat song, ), ODI Productions, ( upbeat song, ) ( engine start ), Hey what is up guys. I am back with Kevin David You guys asked for him. We did a three part: video series on drop shipping before Kevin's the guy to go for for E-commerce. He is the one expert in this space on YouTube that I trust for a thing: E-commerce, You guys know me as the affiliate marketing guy, but when it comes to anything about selling products online, this is the guy to talk to. So I got a lot of questions, a lot of comments, mostly positive from our first series, But a lot of people want to learn about Amazon FBA, which is a different beast. Then drop shipping Absolutely It's another form of E-commerce right, but it is completely different in terms of how much it costs to get started in terms of the profit margin and just selling on Amazon versus selling on your own Shopify store Right. So we brought Kevin David back to explain everything in this Beginner's Guide for Amazon, FBA So first I'm gonna have Kevin, introduce himself and just tell a little bit about his background with E-commerce and then we'll jump into the tutorial. Sure Yeah, So thanks for having me back on the last Thursday, it was incredible Like I literally got so many awesome students from your channel. You have such an amazing passionate following of people that, like really do what's necessary to become successful, So we go For everyone who doesn't know me. My name is Kevin David. I started working as an accountant after college. I was working 80 hours a week. I hated it I decided I had to do something And so like. Basically after I got home after my like two hour commute home, I would work from like 11 pm or so after I got back from the gym until 2 am trying to find ways to make money online. So that I could quit my job And so I would work from like 11 to 2 am and then wake up at 6 am and drive for two more hours to get back to my commute, And that was very draining and I, like I couldn't sustain that, And so I tried a lot of Things I did I created a mobile app. You know, I've created blogs, travel all these different things. That kind of didn't have much success. I tried affiliate marketing and failed so ( laughing ). You guys know that ODI definitely beat me there, But what I finally had some success with first was Amazon FBA, Amazon FBA, like literally out the gate right when I first started selling my first week ever selling on Amazon, I was making $ 1,000 a day And, Like that, all of my other stuff, Nothing even came close to that, So I was like okay, this works. For me. I buy everything on Amazon. I buy toothpaste on Amazon, I buy toilet paper on Amazon right. I think a lot of people our age do just because we're like lazy and everyone is - Is just so much easier. Getting things delivered to your door then like having to like going to a shopping, you know actually go into a grocery store. I'M too lazy for that right. And so I knew that I buy everything on Amazon, so a lot of other people probably do too, and so I went all in basically Yeah, so Amazon FBA, for you guys who don't know Fulfillment by Amazon, basically is like private labeling Right For the most part. Yeah yeah So basically, Amazon FBA for people who don't know right What it means is fulfilled by Amazon. The beautiful thing about Amazon FBA is Amazon, does all of the hard work for you. I don't have to go to UPS and ship out like a product that I sell on the internet right. I don't have to do any of the work. I don't have to collect the payments. I don't have to make a website. Amazon, Obviously amazon.com already exists. So all I have to do is find a product right, A product, that's going to sell well on Amazon and there's a lot of ways to be able to figure that out with a ton of precision right, Find a good product to sell on Amazon. Once I've found that then literally, all I have to do is create a listing, create some basic marketing campaigns on Amazon's marketing platform, and then that is it And the best part about Amazon is Amazon. Has millions of people is browsing the web site every single day Yep? So I don't have to bring traffic from external sources. Amazon already has the traffic. All I have to do is get my product to rank on. To page one for the search terms that I'm trying to rank for and there's some very, very strategic ways that we figured out to do exactly that. I love it because Amazon ..., So you don't. You just basically need to find this product right, But Amazon not only do they have the traffic, but they had the customers. Absolutely And they had the customers, billing info and credit cards already in their system. It'S literally one click ... Yeah for most people Exactly Yeah Like it's literally one click. The friction in the process is almost zero. Like the problem with Shopify. Is people come to your site? They don't necessarily trust you. You don't have the brand recognition right. The shipping times are 12 to 20 days or even longer, Yeah With Amazon, obviously as you and I both know it's two days, Sometimes it's the same day if you live in large cities, And so that's just like a much easier, frictionless process that makes the buying you know the overall buying process extremely easy. And when the buying process is easy, people buy more things right And so like it. All you have to do, is kind of get your products live and in most cases, Amazon literally handles the rest, and you just start magically getting sales without having to drive traffic. Because one of the other parts about Shopify that I don't like as much is every person who buys from you more or less you have to pay for that person. You have to pay in the form of Facebook ads Yeah. You have to pay with ad spend But with Amazon you get organic sales, free sales And so that's a very difficult thing to replicate, like otherwise on the internet, which is why Amazon FBA has had so much like attention and success of my thousands and thousands of students you know, many of which now Are making six and even seven plus figures Mm hmm Yeah? I would like to say that you know for all these people seeing success. A lot of it stems from the business model and just kind of piggybacking off of Amazon, Because Amazon is such a beast in terms of like a company being one of the biggest companies in the world. Right, The biggest E-commerce store online Yeah By far not even close Yeah. It'S literally shutting down massive businesses. Like JC Penney, Sears Toys, R Us, like these companies, aren't going out of business by chance. Yeah, Like Amazon, is destroying them obviously, And like it's not like a thing about whether or not they hate them They're, just they created a better model. Yes, Its the same thing, how would you like, when was last time you took a taxi Yeah like ... I haven't taken a taxi .. Yeah, I haven't taken a taxi and over a year or more, Because why would I do something? That'S less efficient! It'S it's harder for me to do. It'S more expensive Taxis always want to like try to rob you, especially in other countries. ( laughs, ) And Uber is just so much easier. It'S all handled via your phone. They come right to you right, It's just a better business model And Amazon has a better business model than the predecessors before it, And that's just you know when, and I love what you said, because it's so true . A lot of success on the internet is predicated right. It'S because of the business model you choose Yeah Right And Amazon is such a beautiful business model. If you know how to choose the right product and how to get your product in front of people's eyes right, Get it to page one run marketing successfully, and you know those things aren't the easiest things in the world, but once you learn them, it's just it's incredible what you can do with Amazon Awesome i love it. I love all of it. Okay, so we've just going we've discussed what Amazon FBA is, but I want to jump into the actual steps. Let'S say someone is watching this video and they liked the idea of this Yeah They like the idea of Amazon FBA and they think it's the right business model for them Right. So if they want to get started, could you list out just some simple steps that they can do in order to get in the game? Yeah? Absolutely And that's a great question: So, let's actually go through this like a little bit. ... will get really granular with this, and you know some people like really granular some people like high level So high level Amazon, basically, is you find products from China or from cheaper markets right You you get them made, you get them shipped to an Amazon, fulfillment center Amazon fulfills them all for you, You get paid right, That's the high level you buy it for $ 1 from China. You sell it on Amazon. For 20. Amazon takes their fee, obviously for fulfilling it for handling all of the hard work for you. You get paid to the profit, which is the difference between what you pay and what you sell it on Amazon for that's high level right Yeah, So um granularly there's a few steps right And let's go through them one by one, so that we can get you so that you guys can all have like a really clear idea of exactly how this works Step. One is product research right, Product research is the most important step of the entire process right, It's what I go into the most depth when I teach on my YouTube when I teach my private students right, Because the thing is guys and what I've learned over the past 16 months having thousands And thousands of thousands of people join. My Amazon program is, if you pick the right product right, You can do pretty much everything else wrong and still make a ton of money, and I actually mean that I've seen it happen a ton of times. But If you, if you pick the wrong product right, Then you're going to have a harder time, And obviously you can still be successful, but with the beautiful part about Amazon is, if you pick the right product, it's very difficult to not make money, And so how this works. Guys is. There'S software right There, software and the software I use is called Viral launch product discovery and viral launch market intelligence. It'S a it's a web app and it's a Chrome extension right. And what these apps do, what these soft piece of software do? Is they allow you to identify kind of diamond in the rough right Products that have a lot of sales, but don't have many reviews right Products that don't have many sellers? So what you do is you come in and you identify those kind of disparities, those differences. You find that the sweet spots where a lot of people are searching for a product, but not many sellers, are offering that product right. Or the sellers who are offering it are offering low quality or there's there's room for improvement by bundling products together or by doing any different number of things to add quality. Because when you add quality - and you add value to people's lives, right, You make money, That's all businesses is, is adding value to other people in some in some way or medium. So that's how it works right! You find products that are in the sweet spot, they have a lot of monthly searches, They have a lot of people looking for them, but they don't have good product offerings currently being sold on Amazon. You create that you know that higher quality, that more value that added value and then you reap the benefits. It'S simply. It'S literally that easy. Okay, so first step you use a software Viral launch to do your product research to look into basically Amazon system. How much of each product is selling how much revenue they're making You get to look at dimensions of the product? How much it weighs, etc, etc. So, basically you're just trying to find a gap in the market and then that's somewhere where you can come in and basically fulfill that gap Exactly And like most people who teach Amazon right Like a lot of people that have taken my course have actually gone on, to become like teachers of Amazon, obviously, which is funny ( laughing ). But you know people who teach it and gurus and everybody who was around before me and now they all kind of have like some criteria, that they say right. You want it to be small, So because it's not going to cost as much shipping, You want it to be non breakable, so it doesn't break during shipping. You want it to be not particularly complex or you know, because people don't like complexity. A lot of times your returns will be higher if people can't figure out how to use the product. But you know the funny thing is sometimes going against. The grain makes you the most money right: Yeah Because everyone's saying do this this and this Exactly And everyone's doing that, So, if you kind of figure out ways ... How I teach my students is different than what most people teach And so we've identified kind of ways to go against the grain. So to speak, where you can really find the true ways to make the most money with Amazon. So don't always listen to what everyone's saying Sometimes you got to go a little bit different Use, your creativity use your own experiences and you can really find the truly best offers out there. I love it All right step two. What next So step two guys once you found your product, you have to actually find someone to make it right. So where do you actually do that The main way is called Alibaba? So Alibaba it for those of you who don't know is a massive massive company in China right Founded by jack, Ma who's. I think the richest person in China multi multi billionaire What they do. Basically, what Alibaba is is a directory of manufacturers right So, like you, if you wan na, have a basketball made or Bluetooth headphones or a tripod or glasses or whatever it is it doesn't matter. You literally go on alibaba Com and you search for what you want to have made Hundreds of manufacturers are going to come up right. They make this stuff, because everything that you could possibly imagine is made in China, And so you know there's criteria that you're looking for You want to. You want to find manufacturers that have years of history that have years of history, That have ... Years of history. They have a badge right Right. They have a badge So it's called gold supplier, So gold supplies you can actually buy that badge from Alibaba. So Oh wow, (, laughs, ). You know and not a lot of people talk about that. So I don't rely on the gold supplier badge because you can buy it. And when you can buy something Yeah Its not particularly credible, in my opinion, So what I look for is years of history right. They actually have an online presence Like they have a website. They have a phone number. I call the phone number make sure it's a real person answering it. It'S not like a scam or anything like that. I like to look for transaction history right, So lots of transactions Alibaba lists those transactions. I like to make sure that you know they have a lot of reviews. Generally, you're vetting them, as you would any other online business. You want to make sure that they're legitimate that it's a real real company, real people work there. They have a real website Just that they're kind of legitimate and then once you're able to do that right. What you want to do is I like to reach out to the top three manufacturers based on those criteria based on reviews based on longevity based on you know, the factors that we just discussed And I want a quote for it: I wan na say ,'': how much would you charge to make me 500 units of x'', Okay Right of you know essential oils or whatever it is right, And so then, what the reason that I asked all three is because you never just want to ask one Quote right Because then you don't know if it's a good deal, So I asked three independent manufacturers. How much would you charge me to make 500 essential oils or 5000 And the reason that I asked 500 to 5000 is sometimes they'll say `` for 5000 will give it to you for $ 1 apiece for 500 will give it to you for $ 5, a piece .''. Okay, And so then, what I try to say is: okay, `` well I'll make the deal right now, if you give me 500 for $ 1 each right. So, like you kind of used.. Ahh, The the cheaper price for the larger amounts, and then you apply it to the smaller amounts, Because you know manufacturers have what they call MOQ's, which is Minimum Order Quantities And we're not going to get too in depth on that. Obviously, that's for another time. But how I teach it is you want to order as little products as possible so that you're going to stay in stock for three months right, Which is generally the amount of time the longest amount of time that it takes to restock. So you want to always: you want to have as few units as possible to never go out of stock, That's kind of how it works for step. Two Wow Yeah So it's kind of a lot . ., That's a great value. I think you gave us some like ninja tips right there, that really like are worth real money. Yeah. No, definitely - And you know, inventory forecasting and figuring out what that number is is a little bit more involved. Obviously you know all of my students. I teach exactly how to choose the perfect number of products to order for you. But that's a little bit more complicated than like this particular setting. But obviously nothing is left to chance my students, step by step by step So .. You give them templates too right. Yes For contacting Yes, so we give them a manufacturer's template And what that is. Is it basically gives you credibility, because manufacturers get hundreds or thousands of inquiries a day, Yep Right, So you want to make sure that they're actually paying attention to you Yeah. So you have to kind of give yourself edify yourself, give yourself a little bit of credibility so that they treat you better. They give you the the best. You know the senior level sales staff who have the ability to give you the best prices, and you have that kind of additional leverage. And if you just like, come in as like some random person, they're just not going to treat you as well. They'Re not going to give you the same level of care, and so we give you a manufacturer's template that guarantees that you get the cheapest price Wow and that directly correlates with your profit margin. Absolutely yeah. I mean a lot of people. Don'T realize like what you should be buying a product for Like if you bought, if you're selling a product on Amazon for $ 20 like one of our most profitable products on Amazon, for example. We sell for between 1495 and during Christmas time - and this sounds crazy. But during Christmas time you can literally sell stuff are basically whatever you want. ( laughs ) Like so we've sold a 1495 product 11 months a year we sell for 1495. During Christmas we sell it for nearly 7999 ( gasps ). I'M not kidding we're selling hundreds of at that price. That'S crazy, Yeah, but anyway, so 1495, most of the year we buy that product are landed, cost is 96 cents per unit. Wow Yeah, so we buy it and that's including shipping. That'S including cost of goods sold all the like fees and the Chinese customs, everything 96 cents per unit. We sell it for 1499. That'S crazy, Yeah! Wow And so that's kind of like the the margin that that's going to give you like a 50 to 60 % profit margin per per unit sold. I generally teach my students that you want to look for between 45 and 50 % margins. Okay, So those are great margin, especially compared to like drop shipping. Read the full article

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