#aka useless. there are 70 other people in here who know about you

[thereprisesystem]

odo.

#sorry to out your existence constable but i just came into front. sir its 0730. #we have not slept yet. #im exhausted. he did some. things. which i wont name but basically #quark wrapped him into a trade which was an NDA on quarks part abt the existence of odo #aka useless. there are 70 other people in here who know about you #INCLUDING ME! HELLO! #what quark got in return #idk guess. #odo gets duped caught in 4k #after all that he made a comprehensive list of every role in this system and who holds it and also a contract. #im tired. im hungry. i ate two plain tortillas because everything else i have to cook. #im going to go get another one. god. #RS.txt #-🩺

[the-firebird69]

There are a couple things here we want to clarify firstly we are not here to hold your hand and if you bother us you're going to get hit and the screw around with him you're going to get hit

-you know why you asking questions we're not here to answer any questions if you keep asking us questions and growing and trying to drill and Jake for information we're going to extinguish you there's a list of people that need to go and we are working on it

-several people here have huge problems with us Tommy f John Riva Lord Mac Daddy Paul donuts what a huge a****** I guess damn AKA Dave huge problems with a massive just completely separate from anyone else so we don't like the attitude we come in and we pull all your people out and we are helping out and getting ready and we don't want to hear about it there's others that are nasty but you people are disasters and ridiculous he popping on some guy and stuck here with you you're nuts so are using it because we have to that brings us to what's going on now it's going to be quite a different story than what you all think and you are completely useless as he said and we do know that

-the bunkers in the eastern hemisphere mostly where emptied of pseudo warlock with the exception of Europe parts of southern Europe and half a Pakistan 40% of the Sahara desert there at 20% function and 50% of Saudi Arabia they're at 30% function there are two other deserts one is near Afghanistan that is at 30% of the bunkers 20% function and the other is near Iran and Iraq it's in the middle of them that's at 50% of the bunkers and 20% operation the rest are emptied destroyed or partially destroyed we saw about 70% of the bunkers were still intact when we last looked. And the remainder are not inhabitable which is still quite a bit that can be used

-need more lock have invaded those areas adjacent to the bunker systems including the ones that are defunct and destroyed or uninhabitable with the sole purpose of repairing and or replacing the broken ones and inhabiting those that are not after decon and they're doing it immediately. And fully including the adjacent areas in order to resupply and maintain integrity of the bunker systems

-there's a couple of the players out there have been discovered to just messing around with others and they are Donald Trump and his completely insane son Dave and they are being scrutinized by people and monitors and laughed at and ridiculed by many people who find them to be so disgusting that they can't stand them and that's what our son said and daughter yes that he is a walking disaster and loser by the way is that very bright and he's small normally

-with that said they are being very aggressive with the pseudo empire that remain near those areas and in the regions that they're in for example the southern Sahara psuedo empire the pseudo empire there is still in power and they are still doing the job and they are doing quite well no but they're fighting extremely hard and they are taking out tons and tons of these idiots huge numbers and there's simply flowing up there and they're simply being bombarded and it's a horrific scene these people are so dumb and these people here are just as dumb if not dumber it is a lot of blood and it is flowing into the lower areas and draining down below and into areas that holds large particular type of Cajun and areas like that where they're in the perimeter there are not a huge number left but there are some and they're very large and they will be rising shortly.

But those areas are going to fall and I'm hearing reports that the Sahara is at 30% and 15% function and actually all of the deserts are and it's daytime and there's still attacking and soon they will take those and they have occupied 20% of the bunkers that are Jason too the pseudo and that are adjacent to the pseudo empire has taken areas that they evacuated and they're smaller and they're not so hot and they're bunkers are small and they're not very strong but they put special there and bombs and their lethal there's about 70% conventional 30% nuclear some people think that they take their areas back and take the nukes and we think that it might be true.

-there are other things happening the Western hemisphere is now on fire and it is the pseudo empire that they're going after and in many areas but in general they are attacking and force in the upper Midwest and they are attacking enforce in the West and in the southern continent they're attacking full on soon there won't be a morlock presence in the entire Southern continent including Brazil and the Amazon which is different than the eastern hemisphere and we mean more like proper the pseudo empire will still have a presence however it will dwindle as they would be looked at as terrorists but they have ships and quite a few of them.

-there's a couple other things the northern hemisphere of the West we were talking about the south is loaded with morlock and the other horrendous massive assholes and they are going to start migrating to the West there's not that much work in the South for some reason you can't get the factories working and they're being stopped by pseudo empire and the Georgia state is embroiled with practically everybody and the pseudo empire will probably remain and New England is very similar but the bunkers up there of the pseudo empire all of New England will be at 20% and 10% shortly and might be out tonight and you go across the upper Midwest and 90% of those bunkers of the pseudo empire are defunct and the 10% should be out within 30 minutes of now. In the Midwest and there's only several complexes all of them are adjacent to big cities that are still there out of the four mega cities will call them they're really 20 cities that we had hello Johnson three cities just not much and one of them is a mega City and there's probably 50 complexes all of these are under attack the Midwest and out there they are at 50% and 40% which is not bad. Soon I'll change and they will drop to 20% tonight and tomorrow will be out in the same with you after Midwest and yeah the state's main New Hampshire Vermont they're going to be out tonight pseudo empire fall

The sudo empire is still up and will be for a Time and they will be possibly doing better we do have an update

The bunkers in the Western hemisphere are being cleared fully there's a big list of them I need to put what is still operational it'll be a short list and we'll do that.

-Bunker's still in operation would be several in the south and say the Southern States south of the wall are at 40% and 30% operational. There are another set in the West the whole West actually is about 20% and 10% the upper Midwest is about 10% and 5% and the Midwest is 10% and 10% and the Northeast is 10% and 5% and the east coast to the South is 2% and 1% literally it's just about to be knocked out and those at 10% and 5% are as well the entire continents area of the South in other words South America is defunct all the bunkers have been taken by the morlock. all the bunkers in Canada have been taken by the morlock. And the ground bases on laser bases of the pseudo empire have been taken by the morlock and they're using those to threaten the fleet to try and take them try and take the ships and it is what happens with the starkiller

Hey we're going to print it's a pretty good synopsis and in the Eastern hemisphere just as a recap the bunkers that are operational are in Europe at 40% and 30% capacity there, Pakistan and India at 30% and 20%, Saudi Arabia the desert at 20% and 10%, this is Sahara at 40% and 30% to 35%, there's the Gobi desert which is at 50% and 40%, and the desert between Iran and a wreck 60% and 50%, and there's one more desert of Afghanistan 40% and 30% and other than that the bunkers are defunct of the pseudo-empire.

Thor Freya

Olympus all the above was by Thor Freya supported by all of us and the two

Zues Hera

[espys-art-stuff]

It has occurred to me that I should probably... publish more of the random, insane things that go through my head rather than keep them locked up in my private digital notebooks forever. So with that said, please have this thing nobody asked for,

PREPARE

FOR MY GREAT EUROSLANDER POST

(disclaimer obvious satire piece is satire)

Directory of Europe (as written by an ignorant US tourist)

BRITISH ISLES, aka the only places we care about (wait they're islands?? I thou--)

England: Harry Potter Land and so London, very Posh, quite barmy out innit, god save the queen King, I want to hop into a queue and buy some fish and chips and good english tea, *waves the union jack aggressively*

(i feel so bri’ish!!1!11 did i do the accent right [is speaking cockney])

Ireland: EIRISH ((does several bad (scottish)ireland imitations)) and so beer and drienk, my grendfather was born ‘ere so I understind everythin’ aboot this playce

N. Ireland: I understand nothing about this place

Scotland: Aye Laddie, kilts and bagpipes and castles and ACCENTS (we're so scottish)

(wait you guys sound irish--)

Wales: tbh we didn't know you existed until we looked up the funny nonsense words

what do you mean there are native languages spoken in ENGland that aren’t english

THE SOUTH (Boonies)

Spain: Mexico 2.0

wtf do you mean it's more similar to california, california speaks Only English, a spanish-speaking country could never be as advanced

Italy: PIZZA (and old people) (and fascists), florida if floridians ate proper food

Greece: boring ruins and so poor, none of this was ever significant

Portugal: tbh we thought you were a territory of Brazil

Turkey: Earthquakes and Muslims (terrorists) (barbarians) (Iran begins here)

THE EAST (Mordor)

Hungary: We know nothing about it except that it's led by that one guy all our Conservatives really like for some reason, but hey he's White and European and Will Smith did a dance video in Budapest so they’re probably fine, also LOL they must be Hungry

Russia: Very Bad And Mean, We Boycott You For 1000 Years :( (but actually we still buy all your stuff and want your tourist traps and money)

Ukraine: *waves flags* (we did not care about you before but you're White and European and frankly Russia just isn't playing to our interests anymore, so we'll back your war while we look the other way on all the ones in those Non-White Countries)

Poland and like 70 other countries: Witcher 3 and commies

THE WEST (Civilised Countries)

Germany: yeah sorry like 85% of us still think you’re nazis, you're sort of just screwed on that front

France: PARIS and EIFFEL TOWER and ROMANCE (and also rude people)

Belgium+Luxembourg+Switzerland: Alps and croissants and swiss cheese and yodelling (and also rude people)

The Netherlands: 67,342 people skipped over this country because "the netherlands" sounds like the sticks

(we later figured out you were the dutch and we apologized that you have to live out in the sticks)

Austria: The Sound of Music

THE NORDICS (Socialist Paradise/Hell, speaks Weird Shit)

Denmark: we thought it was in America (the Actual America, not the rest of it) like all other good companies are tbh, but LEGOS

(you mean nothing to us otherwise)

Sweden: The ones who will take us, but too liberal and socialist high taxes and immigrant for our tastes (ALL (nonwhite) immigrants are illegal) (enlightened Conservatives STAY OUT)

Finland: The forgotten edge of the world, everyone here lives with eskimos and polar bears

Iceland: Hawaii vacation but Cold and Exotic

Norway: So rich and socialist, but they're White and European and sell oil so we can't knock it tbh

Greenland: the USA definitely claims this. we just haven't taken it back yet because there are absolutely no colonies living on this useless rock

(however once we begin shipping all the illegal immigrants out like how our lord and saviour Ron Desanctimonious has shown us, we will require it once again)

tune in next time for my post where I do all 50 states of the USA and destroy half the world as a result

#euroslander #worldslander #satire #shower thoughts #the weird shit that hangs around in my head until I have to post it

[notaninnocentone]

heyyyyy, this is my official ~pinned post~ so if you want to know what I post (honestly same), or something more about me, it's all below the cut <3

About me:

My name is Nicol, but people call me Colly or Nikki

I'm 17

I'm panromantic asexual and I use she/they pronouns

I am accepting of all people and all minorities, all pronouns, labels, and identities are valid no matter how well-known or not well-known they are. If you are a 'MAP' aka paedophile, a racist of any sort, sexist, homophobic, transphobic, or TERF, you've got nothing to do on my blog, thank you

English isn't my first language, I speak Czech and I also learn French at school but, hehehe, bonjour hon hon hon baguette it's all I've learned in four years so

I love reading and writing, and I have an AO3 account! I don't post much but I have some fics, so here it is (x)

Fandoms that consumed my soul are Sherlock BBC (Johnlock is real, fight me), Good Omens, The Magnus Archives podcast, Doctor Who, the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Grishaverse and Loki series (Loki and Mobius are married change my mind)

Songs I listen to? *forgets every song I've ever heard* no hehe, I like classic rock and 70's & 80's music, so Queen, Bon Jovi, Van Halen, ELO, Bee Gees, Billy Joel, Eurythmics, Soulsister, yeah the list goes on, but I'm not listening only to 70's and 80's music! I listen basically to everything except heavy metal and kpop. Synthetic music is my favourite genre, I love Lorde, Noah Khan and Olivia Rodrigo. My favourite bands are Arctic Monkeys, The Neighborhood, The Last Shadow Puppets, MGMT, and The Killers (they have literary the playlist to my life, I mean every single song they have describes my life and my personality so well, it's so afdjdkjkbjsbj, you feel me)

Some other random and weird facts about me, hmmm, I can write in Circular Gallifreyan, which is completely useless but kinda cool. Anyways, I can play the piano (I'm not good at it but I can play the Game of Thrones main theme which I find really cool)

Asks are always open, you can ask me to trigger tag anything, no matter how unordinary or specific it is <3.

I am just a human being and I am not perfect, but I will respect everyone's opinion as long as it doesn't disrespect someone else's existence.

#about me #pinned post #introducing myself #introduction #intro post

[someone-always-cares]

[image description: a q&a for the webcomic someone always cares. full desc under the cut because its long and wordy sorry]

post chapter 3 Q&A

first - previous - next

thanks for yalls questions!! it was fun to answer! if anyone still has questions feel free to ask whenever i am always 100% down to ramble. even if i did go slightly off topic in some answers

additional: went off topic with the hair question a bit. their bright hair is all part of the transformations. regular hair dye does exist though. best way to tell is that if the eyebrow matches the hair its probably not dyed. also, quartz’s hair is naturally ginger.

also for more on ages, check out the character bios here

also was gonna keep this in the tags but thought i might as well actually try to answer it: the question i found it hardest to answer was someone the song one. my taste in music is. a mess really. ive been listening to like the same 5 songs on repeat all day. more under the cut because i was rambling again and now its uhhh half 1am

if it helps at the time of answering that specific question i had home by cavetown on repeat, and that song reminds me of both rami and lewis. but that may be because i project onto those two a lot, and as a aro trans dude. who sucks with people skills, yeah of course i love that song.

specifically the vibes of like not knowing how to communicate (rami is fine with his friends but other people are different), the lines “ Turn off your porcelain face, I can't really think right now and this place, Has too many colors, enough to drive all of us insane” idk what the porcelain face line is supposed to mean but im picturing it as like. a mask. that you need to take off and stop hiding and rami does tend to hide when hes feeling upset, and the next two lines kinda could tie into that, like the feeling of when youre overwhelemed and just want the world to stop so you just hide somewhere. also the colours could go with chapter 3 with the chromatic abberation.

also the bit with “ my eyes went dark, I don't know where, my pupils are, But I'll figure out a way to get us out of here” just kinda sums up ramis whole hero thing with his powers and all. anyway this has turned into less what songs rami would like and why this particular song reminds me of him and lewis (lewis specifically has the hair cutting/chest hiding, [big transmasc mood], and also messy haired trainwreck who doesnt know who he is yet. also the ghosts bit)

i did end up picking upbeat songs because ramis a dude who like to try and be upbeat even if things arent. even if hes not really feeling it he will pretend to.

[full description: Anonymous said to someone-always-cares: “hi ily!!! do characters like quartz who have colored hair have that naturally or did they dye it?”

“its both natural and not! while most supers can do a magical girl ish transformation, including a change in hair colour, there are some exceptions.”

theres two small full body drawings of rami, one in civilian clothes, one fully transformed.

“if a superhero were to have a biological child, the child will inherit the powers of the parent(s). however, the child will not inherit the full transfromation. they do inherit any physical transformations, but not the outfit.”

theres a drawing of a woman in blue, quartz’s mother, fully transformed, holding her mask in her hand, smiling down at a much younger quartz as a child. hes smiling back up at her with the same blue eyes, pointy ears, and blue hair, but hes still in normal clothes.

“in the case of quartz, both of hisparents had superpowers, and he inherited those powers and the physical transformations.he can also pick and mix whatphysical traits to change.“

next is a headshot of adult quartz, his face split down the middle with one side having hair and eye like his mother, the other like his father. theres a list of traits from each parents, blue hair and eyes and pointy ears from his mum, and purple hair and eyes and pointy teeth from their dad.

 “Anonymous said to someone-always-cares:  Are all the characters the same age? If not, how old are they? Are they irl friends or just superhero friends?”

theres some headshots of rami and his team lined up with ages labelled: cam is 15, rami himself is 17, lin, mateo, and dante, are all 18, and cap is 20.

“rami and xandra were somewhat friends before she got superpowers, so when, after the incident with her old team, she found rami had developed powers, xandra stuck close to him. their other teamates started off as superhero friends but soon turned into irl friends too”

theres a headshot of lewis and jade. theyre both 17

“when lewis first decided to start being a vigilante,jade quickly found him and decided to help train himand offered to be a mentor of sorts, as they both have similar powers. that quickly derailed.”

“ cinder5555 said to someone-always-cares: How long does it usually take to make a comic page? I'm curious because they're so freaking good that they must take FOREVER”

theres a drawing of myself, a fluffy hair tired bastard in a hoodie, smiling

“Thanks! Ive been doing this shit since like 2017 and i still have no idea how long it takes me. i can get a page done in a day if i have nothing else to do or if its a simple page, but if i have work then maybe 2-3 days? i spend like, most of my free time doing this.“

another drawing of me, now looking frustrated muttering “how the FUCK does time work”

“but i can never do it all on one sitting.i will inevitably get distracted and zone out daydreaming mid drawing so its very hard to get an accurate read on how long it takes. so however long a piece of string is i guess“

the only qustion not from tumblr is a discord message from RuneStone Cabin:

“Q: Can you talk about the incidence of superpowers in this world? Like many people are supers, which powers are more or less common, how long they've been a thing for, stuff like that. Also does Omen know I'd die for them “

theres a drawing of omen pointing at a date circled on a calender marked “decembuary”, theyre saying “i know. i already wrote your death in my calender.”

then a giant wall of text reading: “Supers have only existed for a relativly short time, since the early 1940s. momento mori was the second person to have ever gained powers.

Only a small number of the population are supers! the chances are higher in more populated cities, but unusally london has oneof the higher percentages of supers. while nobody in universe has any idea of the origins of superpowers, it does seem that powers are more likely to occur in people who would actually use their powers.

as for what powers are most common, after making a badly catagorized spreadsheet of every superpowered character ive made for this world (70% of which will probably never even be seen), turns out that elemental powers are the most common. although not all elemental powers manifest as the straight up 'controling this element' as seen in characters like lin or tsunami. for example, iris's powers would fall under shadow elemntal powers, but theyre a lot more weird that just controlling shadows.there are some abilities that have never been seen before,such as ressurection or full on time travel (aka anything that could bring a character back to life), but powers are certainly allowed to toe the line eg healing, powers involving undeath, immortality, pausing or manipulating time.

aside from that, anything goes. you could get plain old superstrength, but you could also get the ability to create dogs with your mind. other not quite rules, more guidelines are that supers are immune to their own powers hurting them (unless they were pushing themselves too hard), although the way the imminuties occur may be inconvinient to the super.

while some powers may be 'more powerful' than others, powers dont really get to be way underpowered or overpowered in comparision to others. sure being able to talk to animals may feel a bit useless compared to someone who can lift 4 tanks at once, but nobodys going to end up with a power like 'can turn into a goose but only once' or 'can grow toenails twice as fast' or 'if i sneeze i can change my hair colour'. at the same time, youre not going to get someone with the power to snap their fingers and level a city, or instantly blow up the moon or whatever.

“Anonymous said to someone-always-cares: I love rami PLEASE tell me his favorite song(s) and why. I will die for you”

a drawing of rami saying out loud “i dont really have any specific favourite song, really? i just listen to whatever sounds catchy and then listen to that on repeat for hours until i hate it. i guess i do like upbeat songs? ones that make you feel happy even if the lyrics are sad”

“ un1c0rnhh said to someone-always-cares: tell me,,, please,, cam,,, are they a cat person or a dog person?? ily"

theres a drawing of cam a metre away from a cat lying down. she has her arm out and is making ‘psspsspss’ noises at it. end id]

FUCK i am so glad i didnt hand write all of that, it would have been a major pain in the ass to write it all and then have to transcribe all that next. but nope i could directly copy paste the asks and word answers. cheers if anyone made it this far down. if anyone wonders why this is uploaded late, you know now.

#sac #someone always cares #sorry to my friends i rambled to about the previosly mentioned attempt at catagorizing powers #i made a fucking spreadsheet and everything #it was awful #also it probably obvious but i still have yet to download the font i use to this computer #did i ever mention what i named the font when i made it #because its called 'dicks out for the void' or something #it was funny back in mid/late 2017 ok

[gefuhl-des-zweifels]

Brian May: Enlightened Monarch

Author: Sacha Reins (Best, №118, May 1978)

It's no secret I'm a Queen fan. So I volunteered for an interview. Now, after a few weeks, when the interview took place, I admit the obvious: these young people have their own cockroaches.

[Sacha Reins, 70s]

It was a series of last-minute and appointed interviews that were cancelled under strange pretexts.

The sirs took a star. On the Sunday before the concert in Paris, their press agent told me to stay at home on the phone, and as soon as one of these gentlemen is ready for an interview, I will call, and I will immediately have to come. What was I supposed to do, send them away?

Then there's this ridiculous party. On the night of the second concert in the hall of a chic restaurant in their honor was a party where they were handed gold discs.

The group arrived ... and locked in a private office, so they wouldn't be disturbed.

Queen is constantly surrounded by a team of security guards-bodyguards-managers who systematically block the group.

As soon as you manage to overcome this dam, you come across charming guys who pretend to be surprised to see you furious at being treated like pigs. They know nothing! I don't believe that.

Queen, in fact, suffer from a complex of Rolling Stones. Like the Stones, they want to be chased by hordes of crazy fans. Alas, this is not so, they are part of a well-known group, but individually do not cause delight in the crowd. And so to create an illusion ... they surround themselves with a whole retinue and security service, as useless as grotesque.

An interview with Brian May took place one day in Zurich. In the evening I had to attend their concert and then have dinner with them. The interview ended, I took my things, called a taxi and went to the airport to go home. I'm tired of their antics. Brian May was very courteous, but his entourage certainly sucks.

Monarchy

– Are you satisfied with your Paris concerts?

Yes, very. For us, these shows were held in a very special way. We were beginning to think we were banned from France. None of our recordings were sold here until We Are The Champions. And as soon as this single was a success, we said, well, it's time to go. The first night we were very nervous. We have been told so many times that the Paris audience is one of the most difficult in the world! We were very careful the first night, almost closed, and I think the audience felt it. The second night was completely different: contact had already been established.

– I attended this concert, and several times you made me think of Led Zeppelin because of the music and the peculiar interaction between you and Mercury.

– This is not the first time when we are compared with LZ in one or another plane. In fact, I think there was a lot more common ground between Queen and LZ a few years ago when we started. But now we have moved away from this form of hard rock, we have developed our own harmonies, a style that belongs only to us. However, LZ and we follow similar routes because, forming as musicians, we were influenced by the same people.

– Is there any stage rivalry between you and Mercury?

– No, we are too close, we know each other too well, we had too many common problems. Freddie is the natural point of attraction of the group, and it's good that he realizes his charisma in this way.

The first person the viewer watches will always be the lead singer and then the guitarist. Therefore, it would be foolish to try to fight with Freddie for power on stage. Especially since he's a fantastic showman.

– No leader in the group?

– No. Whenever we make a decision, whether it's our business or music, we meet all four of us together, have a long conversation, and then decide what we're going to do.

We complement each other. Specifically, John Deacon deals with money. Roger Taylor is responsible for our communications with the outside world, I mean the outside world in relation to Queen.

– In this sense, I found that your behavior in Paris was a little strange. All of these appointed and revoked by the miserable occasions interview. This ultra-twitch security that has built a wall around you. This ridiculous party, when you took a private office with a thug at the door, which blocked access to other guests. As if journalists or promoters were going to attack you! It was all very strange.

– For our image well, that we look as excessively guarded and hard-to-reach group. So even more people will be interested in us. As for the party, I don't remember it very well.

Equipment

– Keep going. Who gave you the idea of this light installation?

– Nobody, we developed it a year ago with the help of our engineer Jerry Stickels.

– So she came before «Close encounters of the third degree»?

– Long time. So this similarity between the spaceship from the movie and our glowing crown is very strange. Americans were struck by this similarity. We receive many letters on this subject.

– You have a lot of stage equipment. This is a device that endlessly reproduces the sound of the guitar, have you been using it for a long time?

– Since 1972. It was necessary for us from the very beginning, but we had no money, we were able to buy it only in 72-m. This is a rather complex device. It took me a long time to learn how to handle it properly, and I also changed it so that it could play two different sounds indefinitely. Now I know it perfectly and can use it to play harmonies, counterpoints, chords.

[Vintage 1970's Maestro Echoplex EP-4 Solid State Tape Delay]

The trickiest thing is to perfectly tune the scene so I can hear exactly how the sound goes and comes back. If for some reason it is hard to hear what is happening, it is a disaster because I do not know how often to put a refund. But this has not happened for a long time, because now we have everything we need on stage.

We are sometimes criticized for the fortune we have invested in our equipment. This kind of criticism is quite inappropriate, because if we spend so much money on equipment, it's all for the audience to be satisfied, both visually and musically.

You see, we're interested in being able to play back what we're doing on the record. Complex harmonies and all that. But there are only four of us. We need the help of electronics, so Freddie and I are using these devices with endless echoes. We don't want to play pre-recorded tracks like some bands do. We don't think it's fair.

– But you use the entry in Bohemian Rhapsody…

– Yeah, but that's different. The BR passage you are referring to is a complete reproduction of a studio recording. We recorded this song as an Opera. Each of us sang about twenty different parts to reproduce exactly one big classical choir. It is absolutely impossible to perform on stage. We tried it a few times, but it sounded really bad compared to the album version, so we decided to play a pre-recorded Opera passage. But to avoid any doubts or misunderstandings, we give these recordings in complete darkness and do not appear until the hard rock part, which we play live. It's more honest.

– Where do you get all these classical and Baroque allusions that your music is filled with?

– I don't know, because none of us have any real classical foundations. I think that all this comes from the depths of our childhood memories, when our parents listened to waltzes on the radio, brass bands in parks on dundays. It must have come from there.

– Your latest album, News Of The World, doesn't have enough references to Baroque.

– Yeah. We went back to pure hard rock. Without excesses. We've come a long way in the Baroque style, a cross between Opera and rock, and I don't think we could have been more successful than with A Night At The Opera. That's why we came back to more unpretentious music.

– A Night At The Opera sold best, so don't you think you've disappointed a large audience who liked these musical tricks?

– We always disappoint someone, no matter what we do. When we started working with the Baroque style, we disappointed our first fans who loved us for our pure hard rock.

– They say you don't take vacations.…

– Yes, we work hard. Every year we lock ourselves in the studio for two or three months, then we go on a two-month American tour, then we spend two months in Europe, two months in Japan and Australia, and when it's over, it's time to go back to the studio for the next album. We have been living in this rhythm for five years.

– Bands like Queen and all the major British bands we've seen in recent years have been getting more and more stage equipment. Now everyone has lasers, bizarre scenes, smoke generators, etc. When will this arms race end?

– Never. Show business will always follow with interest the development of technology in all that relates to audiovisual information, and use it to create even more pompous, beautiful and impressive shows. However, there is a very clear reaction from part of the public (I'm talking about the rock audience), especially in the UK, where most young people want the bands to return to the adequate stage art as it was ten years ago.

I don't mind, but here we are faced with a mathematical impossibility. To play without assistive devices, you will have to work in small halls, even in clubs where your creative energy is in direct contact with your audience. There really is no need for a rotating stage and smoke, everyone is in direct contact with the music. But the famous band will no longer be able to play in small halls.

[News Of The World Tour]

Look at Paris, in two days we performed in front of 18,000 people. In a hall with two thousand seats we would have to play for everyone nine days in a row and eighteen days – in the club. At this rate, it will take us ten years to travel around the world, it is unthinkable. That is the only way to have time everywhere – to play in the huge halls (and believe me, Pavillon de Paris – not the biggest).

[Pavillon de Paris (aka Les Abattoirs de la Villette – "Slaughterhouse in La Villette"); as a concert hall for about 10,000 spectators, the building was used from 1975 to 1980.]

Now, about the question you asked me. I don't know how or when it will end, but I know what the next step is: holography. A hologram is a three - dimensional photo projection in space. It will be possible to create incredible scenery, in a second to project the Grand Canyon of Colorado or skyscrapers of New York in 3D, creating the illusion of full presence. The basic principles are developed, but everything else is still in the process of testing for wide application.

Fantasia

– What about Sex Pistols?

– It's a band that we really like ("we" means Queen) and I'm really sorry that they broke up. But it was almost inevitable.

– Why?

– They were under too much pressure. The British music press (the worst in the world) has made the lives of these guys unbearable, making them both heroes and scapegoats. The British press, to keep circulation, so needs in stars, that fabricates new names for couple of months. And an ordinary boy is not easy to survive the rapid transformation from a young nerd to a star. Most young talents don't know how to handle it. If by a Fluke they stay on the horse and become really popular stars, then the same press that inflated the whole story, smears them on the wall, because it feels that they are out of control and will be able to do without her support.

The British press is destructive, and Sex Pistols is not the first victim. We had a chance to succeed without the press. When we started, we were not written about, and when it did happen, the whole thing was limited to three contemptuous lines. As a result, we were able to gradually and without their help to gain the trust of the public.

– How long will you stay together?

– Hard to say. At the moment, everything is fine, we get along well, we are famous all over the world. Why run away?

– Do you see yourself on the rock scene in forty years?

– Perhaps by that time our music will develop in another direction. Maybe we'll have other ambitions. Personally, I am always guided by some achievable goal, to conquer France, for example. Or something like that. Make a full house in Madison Square Garden or Earl's Court.

If one day we reach the point where all desires are fulfilled, because we have already achieved everything, it will become a serious problem. That's what happens to Elton John.

Everything he could wish for, he had already received. He was not destined to become more famous or rich. He can only go down, because already at the top. He is unhappy because life cannot give him anything new. I don't want to be in this position.

– You wanted to conquer the French public, and you did it. Got a new target?

To lose the French public, so that there is a goal to return it. No, I'm kidding, to compose music so beautiful that animators could create on its basis at least the same beautiful cartoon as Fantasia. And finally take a vacation. Long vacation.

Source: http://queenfrance.online.fr/htm/presse/article3.htm

Translated from French: @gefuhl-des-zweifels

#queen #brian may #70s #interview #freddie mercury #roger taylor #john deacon #news of the world #bohemian rhapsody #led zeppelin #sex pistols #hard rock #rockband #rock music

[secondyearvalerie]

D.I.WHY? - Now where did i put my Scissors and Glue...?

By Val M.

Teal Triggs 2006 punk-scene/fanzine analysis (cite this ) is a thrilling journey and a half. Reading this text feels like being dragged backstage of a mad concert and seeing the ANARCHY in action ( prove that - insert quote or copy paste some text or go into detail of what gave you the idea if a mad concert when reading it and Cite it again). Despite only having access to page 69-83 of the Scissors and Glue text, ( cite this : Triggs, 2006) the meticulous level of research done serves the story of the Punks justice.

Whilst the essay is jam-packed with terms and references i could only dream to understand, (such as.... the , you guessed it, cite it) the analysis is served lukewarm and with slices of crucial contextual information throughout, making it a digestible read of an undigestible reality. Triggs underlines that the zine punk realm exists to promote:

- Self sufficiency

- DIY

- Effing Chaos

- Bleedin’ anarchy

- to Be rough, be weird, be edgy, or not at all! Just make sure YOU decide! (Yes, YOU)

Teal Triggs refers Duncombe, American writer and academic author of punk novels such as WHITE RIOT and NOTES FROM UNDERGROUND, who describes fanzines as “rantings of high weirdness“ (page 69) which is hard to argue against:

1. People are undoubtably weird

2. The world is irrevocably weird

3. So... Be weird!

But it isn’t just about a noisy rebellion, its a survival mentality. A reflex people should acquire when confronting the conniving commercial. A flame must be set within you to boil out whatever brain juices you have so they evaporate into the world, AKA, your flare. To make something useful out of the useless, chop and crop imagery until its no longer recognisable, create independently what you wish to see; “make your own culture and stop consuming that which is made for you” (Duncombe, page 69).

Despite Scissors and Glue being written over a decade ago, way before the digital revolution and online regurgitation of cultures, it is a relevant text contemporarily. In the digital age being a punk is not as simple as it once may have been. This text is a sacred time capsule of writing about the 1970s in 2006 being analysed here and now in 2021. In the grand scheme of humanity, those 40 years are a mere chronological blink but in the tech age, those 40 years are literally everything. The punk era is not an outdated one, for rebellion has no expiration date. Through the online, the Punk message has been able to spread vastly and to form new subcultures, as well as inevitably morphing into marketing strategies.

>Mini manifesto: The digital PUNK. Mentally chop up that article you next read, crop that instagram advert until its dumber than it was to start with and lost its commercial value, take that t shirt and scribble obscenities on it and give it away to someone with no warning.<

Peering deeper, the ideas expressed in Triggs’ text can seem convoluted; to both reject mainstream mags AND acquire them to rip them apart. So it could appear that one must both reject all existing mainstream crap and simultaneously participate in it to mock it. But if the punk method is applied here, there is actually no contradiction as the underlying innateness of punkism is CHAOS, so as long as you are doing what you want, chaotically, you fit the brief.

Julie Davies’ 1977 ‘PUNK’ book claims punk expression must be “seen and heard live” (Davies, 1977, p.70) promoting going out, meeting others, communicating ideas and all opinions, letting others know that you too believe in organised chaos in an unorganised world - a concept eerily relevant to ‘virus locked-down’ people in 2021.

Well, What do i think about it?

I personally own scissors and glue and do indeed diy things with those tools. It calls out to me to encourage others to DIY too and repel fast fashion, single use sacrilege, dangerous deep digital dungeons, plastic confetti - its all shite we need to realise we don’t even want!

No occasion calls for conformity at the cost of humanity. “Resistance” (pg 70) of enforced ideas, it is not about being a rowdy trouble maker, it is shoving back what’s being shoved into you.

Charlie Chainsaw, producer of the punk fanzine ‘Chainsaw’, changed his own already original zine aesthetic right after the first publication due to duplicates, an excellent example of avoiding the market monster and practising what you preach. Rather than honing on his brand image at the peak of his success, he insisted on differentiating from his own copycats. The true punk mentally: CHAOS. ANARCHY. DIY. (In no particular order)

All good things must come to an end. The production of the ‘Sniffin’ Glue’ punk fanzines by Mark P, a legend in the art, music, punk era of the 70s stopped in 1977, as his aesthetic was on its speedy way to the main river stream of capitalism. Resold, repacked, relabelled, regurgitated, to the moon and back again - the Sniffin’ Glue zine had done its job of blinding minds. (Mark Perry shorted to Mark P to avoid altercations with authority).

‘Scissors and Glue’ isn’t just about rebelling and showing your flare through craft DIY, it’s a mindset of letting go of the materialistic ideas planted in front of our eyes via screens and about chopping up and disassembling concepts, ideologies, putting every system we know and follow into question, and if its no good, cut it up, literally or metaphorically, and remake it into something better for you, the autonomous individual and maybe even for others, if you’re lucky. As long as people behave as people, punk will be alive.

Even if zines, paper or even trees become a thing of the past.

Referencing:

Triggs, T (2006) ‘Scissors and Glue: Punk Fanzines and the Creation of a DIY Aesthetic’ Journal of Design History, Vol. 19, (No. 1, Do It Yourself: Democracy and Design) pp. 69-83. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3838674

Wrench (unknown) Chainsaw Fanzine - A Brief History 1977-1984. Available at: http://www.wrench.org/chainsaw.htm (accessed at 20 November 2021)

[jeremystrele]

Artist Maggie May & Musician Josh Kelly Are Parenting And Running A Business Through COVID And Cancer

Artist Maggie May & Musician Josh Kelly Are Parenting And Running A Business Through COVID And Cancer

Family

Ashe Davenport

Maggie May and Josh Kelly run Think Thornbury, a gift store and creative space on High Street in Thornbury. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Josh with baby Remy at Think Thornbury. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Maggie putting her special touch on the Think Thornbury space. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Little Remy with Maggie. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Maggie and Josh have been running Think Thornbury together, juggling Maggie’s art practice and Josh’s music career. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Maggie, Remy and Josh outside Think Thornbury. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Josh at home, just after Maggie cut his hair. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Maggie cutting Josh’s hair at home, before starting chemotherapy. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Maggie using the special shaver she and Josh bought for this specific purpose. Photo – Bobby Clark.

Josh, who looks REMARKABLY handsome with a shaved head! Photo – Bobby Clark.

Maggie and Josh are surprisingly upbeat. We’re chatting over Zoom, as is customary for most Melbourne interviews in the year 2020. They’re lying on their bed sharing a green juice. Behind them is a bedhead covered in soft, daisy printed fabric, like a garden from a daydream. Maggie, aka renowned macramé artist Middle Aisle, is effortlessly chic in a pale yellow jumper and slightly oversized glasses. Josh, saxophonist for bands 30/70 and JK Group, looks like he’s always had a shaved head. He doesn’t look like a sick person. 

Josh was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease five weeks ago. He’s just completed his first week of chemotherapy. His doctor has predicted another six months of treatment, followed by radiation, if necessary. During that time, he and Maggie will continue to parent their one-and-a-half-year-old son Remy, and try to keep the business going. 

Maggie and Josh began Think Thornbury as a space for local creatives, to sell their wares and hone their crafts. It has since grown into a passionate and dedicated community. When Maggie shared Josh’s diagnosis on Instagram, they were overwhelmed with support. A GoFundMe set up on Josh’s behalf raised $27,000 in just 24 hours (and now sits at over $50,000).

This isn’t the first time they’ve been challenged as a couple. In fact, they’ve been through the wringer. Maggie is only just recovering from severe postnatal depression, which she chats about with bracing honesty. They share their wonderful experiences, the harrowing ones and everything in between as a way to strengthen their ties with the world around them. Cancer, it seems, is no exception. 

Below is an edited and condensed version of our chat. 

Trigger warning : This interview contains talk of suicidal thoughts and postnatal depression.

How are you guys sharing the parenting load at the moment?

Josh Kelly: Cancer’s really flipped it.

Maggie May: Yeah. It’s put a lot of…

JK: … pressure back onto you.

MM: Yeah.

JK: We had some really frank discussions in the early days of parenthood. I thought I was being a good co-parent, but came to realise I had a fairly patriarchal gaze. There were so many things I didn’t notice Maggie was doing. She helped me see that, and we were able to figure it out. And my diagnosis has flipped it again. The doctors are like, you can’t change nappies, you can’t hold Remy when he comes back from daycare. I’m that immunocompromised. It’s put all the parenting straight back onto Maggie. I’m in bed a lot. And she’s like, making me smoothies. It’s a pretty big mental shift to be taken care of in this way.

MM: Historically, you’re the one who takes care of me. I’m the one that falls into a puddle. Not that I’m completely useless, but pregnancy was particularly hard. I had Hyperemesis.

Is that when you throw up all the time?

MM: Yeah. I had no close friends who had been pregnant, so I had no gauge for what morning sickness was. I was throwing up 20 times a day. And Josh was on tour in the UK. He got home and was like, Nah, you’re fucked mate. I’m taking you to the hospital. It was another eight months of it from there. I was still working. I still taught five star reviewed macramé workshops!

JK: You were spewing five seconds before people came upstairs.

MM: (laughing) I’d say, I’m just going to pop downstairs for a moment! Then I’d go down to the bathroom, be horrifically ill, and come back up like nothing had happened.

That sounds intense. And Maggie, you didn’t have the easiest road when Remy arrived either, right?

MM: Yeah. Particularly at the start of the year. I didn’t want to be here anymore. Postnatal depression was the pits. I had a massive breakdown.

JK: It was big.

I’m so sorry you went through that. This is the year from hell. Are you guys okay?

JK: We were talking about this last night. So, it’s Jewish New Year at the moment, right? We were saying how we’ve come through some pretty serious challenges: Maggie’s depression being as bad as it’s ever been, having a baby, having significant financial pressure, having COVID happen to our business and now me having cancer, and I feel like we’re almost starting to steer the ship around, in a weird way. There are a few things we’ve done differently in the past few months that have made a big difference. 

MM: Putting Remy in childcare helped a lot. I think I tied a lot of my parenting self-worth to how much time I spent with him. I wanted more time with my parents growing up. I still do. But that’s just not who they are as people. I used to think that if I could always be there for Remy, that would mean I was doing a really good job. But since he’s been in childcare, I’ve felt lighter. It’s taken a lot of pressure off.

How much did you know about your diagnosis, Josh? Were you starting from zero?

JK: Pretty much zero. I knew what most people in Australia would know about cancer. I’ve known a few people who have been affected, but not the nuts and bolts of it. The day-to-day grind of it. Then when you factor in that there are thousands of different kinds of cancer and sub-types of cancers, and they all have slightly different treatments and slightly different chemotherapies. And every patient reacts differently. There’s a lot of unknown. But nothing beats reality. No amount of information is going to tell me everything I need to know. I need to experience things. That’s how I learn. This first week of chemo has been a big learning curve.

What does it feel like?  

JK: It’s like the worst hangover ever. Times a million. You can take all this stuff to moderate the nausea, but you just feel completely fatigued. You do feel like you’re dying inside. It’s probably not a good word to use. I had three days of chemo in a row this week. Monday was the biggest day, which is when I took the most drugs, and that fucked me up until Wednesday night.

MM: It was like going to a really bad festival.

JK: Yeah. I started feeling okay, then really sick again on Thursday. I have to take a cocktail of pills, too, which wipes me out. I’ve felt a little bit better each day since. I’m still pretty out of it, but I’m feeling okay.

MM: Yeah, you’re doing way better today.

(They exchange a brief reassuring look. Suddenly they’re upsettingly young. I want to tell them how brave they are. And how proud of them I am. I remind myself to cool it).

Have you found any resources particularly helpful? Any books or movies that you’re relating to right now?

MM: Cancer movies are so sad. There are none that come to mind. Actually, there’s one movie I keep thinking about. In the Wizard of Oz when they go through the forest and Scarecrow says, “I think it’ll get darker before it gets lighter.” I just keep coming back to that and feeling it in my body and soul. It all comes back to The Wizard of Oz.

What else even is there? Ugh. You guys have a great attitude.

MM: Thanks. It doesn’t mean we don’t have moments when we really struggle. There are definitely times when I’m like: NO! What for? Why us? 

JK: Friends were messaging me the night before my first round of chemo, asking me how I was feeling, and whether I was scared or nervous. I was both those things, but I was also excited. I could dwell on how awful the side effects were going to be, or how lucky I was to be able to access treatment. And the fact that it was going to help me. 

MM: The morning of his first treatment I cuddled him in bed and he said, ‘Today’s the day we get better.’

Family Favourites

Date night in?

Cook an extravagant meal (the kind where you buy specialty ingredients from Casa Iberica), delicious bottle of wine, altogether too much cheese, pick different records for each other, try and have a conversation not about Think Thornbury or Remy.

Rainy day activity?

Find some puddles to jump in the Darebin parklands together. Build train tracks around the living room whilst listening to music and drinking hot chocolate. Later on we watch a movie.

Favourite cafe?

Oh Gosh, we’re spoilt for choice in Thornbury… Josh says Everyday Coffee in Collingwood (scandal!) and Maggie is indecisive which is just so typical, but agrees Everyday Coffee is excellent.

Honestly though, all the local cafes here in Thornbury & Northcote are excellent and they have been so supportive of us. We love them all equally and can’t wait till they’re all open again.

Go-to album?

This is hard for us. We have literally 300 records. You should come see us DJ when COVID lets us do it again. 

A Love Supreme by John Coltrane/ Mama’s Gun by Erykah Badu

Weekend getaway (remember those)?

We like to try and get away to some kind of secluded cabin surrounded by trees, where there is quiet and the chance for us to be a little introspective and plan our next insane venture together. Preferably with a fireplace and a very comfortable place to sit. We also go for walks and point out all the animals and trees for Remy. 

Follow Maggie May, Josh, and Think Thornbury to keep up with this remarkable young family’s journey. And you can support them during this difficult time, via their GoFundMe campaign here.

[lairofsentinel]

Rules: answer these 85 questions and tag 20 people

tagged by @bluegrumps​

(I’m not tagging people)

— what was your last…

1. drink: mate (counts? it’s a south American beverage. I'm an alcohol-free peson)

2. phone call: My doctor, to make an appointment

3. text message: One of my friends (he is like a brother to me)

4. song you listened to: Dubstep _ Instrumental Core - The Angels Among Demons

5. time you cried: a year and a half more or less. When my father died.

__ have you ever…

6. dated someone twice: No.

7. kissed someone and regretted it: I regretted the relationship, because she used me, but no. I liked kissing my partner in all my relationships. (Or you mean outside a relationship? Never did that)

8. been cheated on: Oh... god. Twice. My first relationship, and my second and most meaningful one. The feeling of not being enough is horrible when this keeps happening like a habit. I have this certainty that my relationships will end in that way, always. 

9. lost someone special: Who didn't?.

10. been depressed: Since teenage. Ups and downs.

11. gotten drunk and thrown up: Never

— fave colours

12. Black

13. Dark red

14. Brown

— in the last year have you…

15. made new friends: I guess I did. I think.

16. fallen out of love: No.

17. laughed until you cried: A couple of months ago. One of my friends is hilarious... he makes me laugh and cry at the same time.

18. found out someone was talking about you: No.

19. met someone who changed you: No. I changed because I had to pass an exam, and I acquired really good habits that I keep them.

20. found out who your friends are: No. I know long time ago.

21. kissed someone on your facebook friends list: What? no. How specific this one is

— general

22. how many of your facebook friends do you know irl: 70%. The rest are online friends. I hope I can meet them personally. Eventually.

23. do you have any pets: My dog. She is called Maia.

24. do you want to change your name: Please, yes. I wish so much to change it... but Law is so binary, that never considered that option for us.

25. what did you do for your last birthday: Nothing. I try to make everyone forget my birthday.

26. what time did you wake up today: 3.45 am. Ughhh.

27. what were you doing at midnight last night: Trying to sleep.

28. what is something you can’t wait for: Shadowhunters new episodes. And More Magnus Bane.

30. what are you listening to right now: The sound of the Void. Aka, silence.

31. have you ever talked to a person named tom: Never.

32. something that’s getting on your nerves: People full stopping in middle of the street just to watch their phones, while I'm walking super fast behind them, and bump them, and then they are upset. Like, Fucker!. You are the one in middle of the street watching if your useless social life means something to someone while you are burning my almost non existent free time that I have to waste in commuting! And YOU are the upset one!? FUCKER! (yeah, I get really an ass for that... because I'm all the fucking time bumping people doing this, and I spend more than 5 hours per day commuting and walking fast, trying not to waste MORE time than necessary. So, yeah, I become pretty a Golden asshole ever. But these assholes never use their brains to walk aside, stand in a corner, close to the wall, and THEN watch their phones.... Noooo, that's too much to ask)

33. most visited website: tumblr, facebook, email accounts.

34. hair colour: Dark brown. I want half of my kind-of-mohawk in red or blue... but never got the time to do ALL that work.... nou.

35. long or short hair: kind-of-Mohawk. More like Banehawk :D

36. do you have a crush on someone: No. I think. I never know if I have crushes anyway.

37. what do you like about yourself: My self-discipline. Hell, that's the only thing that kicks me all the time when I'm getting down and down with my depression. I love it. It’s like a military voice in my head, repeating:  “Are you fuckign depressed? No, not on my sight, get up, go ahead, fucking hell, DO your things, there is not time for softie bullshit, you are not going to stay alive if you don’t move your ass, asshole”. 

38. want any piercings: Maybe?. I don't know if I want one in my lip. Really I don't know. They look awesome in others... in me, I don't know.

39. blood type: 0

40. nicknames: Maco, Mako.

41. relationship status: Single and nostalgic for things that I know I will never have again (I know, it sounds dramatic, but it's true)

42. sign: Taurus

43. pronouns: They, them. Or mixing the binaries.

44. fave tv show: Currently, Shadowhunters.

45. tattoos: None. I want one that follows the arms muscles, but I never found a nice design. Something like Zevran has in his face, but over the arms, playing with the form of muscles.

46. right or left handed: right

47: ever had surgery: No. Soon I will have my surgery for my wisdom tooth :(. Fucking tooth.

48. piercings: Both ears. Fucking society.

49. sport: Martial Arts.

50. vacation: it means days without commuting.

51. trainers: ??? Jeff Cavaliere?. I mean, I watch his videos on youtube, not that he is my trainer..... what the fuck?. Or you mean the shoes?. I like trainers/snickers. I also like these kind of military boots.

— more general

52. eating: A lot. And everything too healthy. Among the non-healthy ones, ice-cream.

53. drinking: Water

54. i’m about to watch: Shadowhunters, tomorrow. Lot of Warlock Lore! :D

55. waiting for: Shadowhunters. In long term, to find a place where to belong (probably it will  never happen). In long-long term: to realise I'm immortal, so I can destroy the capitalism with just my immortality and my evil plan. (hey, dreaming is free)

56. want: to stop my disphoria. This year has been, and keeps being a monster set free in my mind.

57. get married: No. Never. What for? For being cheated on?. No, thank you. haha.

58. career: Physicist. I also would like to be a writer.

— which is better

59. hugs or kisses: uh.... Both.

60. lips or eyes: Eyes

61. shorter or taller: eh?.

62. older or younger: EH? I like to wear old clothings.

63. nice arms or stomach:  …. this is getting gore.

64. hookup or relationships: Relationships.

65. troublemaker or hesitant: Eh?. I'm not getting this part.... what?. Can anyone explain how I should understand this?. Is this about sex? Because... I don't have a clue what a troublemaker sex would be...... and thinking on it makes me develop the weirdest ideas ever....

— have you ever

66. kissed a stranger: No.

67. drank hard liquor: No.

68.turned someone down: Yes. 

69. sex on first date: No.

70: broken someone’s heart: How would I know?. But probably no. I mean, my ex told me I broke her heart, but, hey.... you cheated on me, so, I think that doesn't count.

71. had your heart broken: Deeply. Beyond healing.

72. been arrested: No. But police always looks at me as if they want me to arrest.

73. cried when someone died: Of course.

74. fallen for a friend: Yes.

— do you believe in

75. yourself: Yes.

76. miracles: No.

77. love at first sight: No.

78. santa claus: Pft. No!.

79. angels: hahahha. No. Well, I believein Shadowhunter’s angels (hahaha, I’m totally rotten in this fandom by now....)

— misc

80. eye colour: Brown.

81. best friends name: Not writing them. But I can write 3 names.

82. favourite movie: No, it's not Shadowhunters’. That was a disgrace. I have many favourite movies... but if I reduce the list to my fave film in the last year.... I would say Die Welle: The Wave. German film related to fascist behaviour and ideology. Loved it.

83. favourite actor: I'm going to be super obvious here, and considering I have no idea about actors and actress in general, I will keep myself in my current well-known area: Harry Shum Jr.

84. favourite cartoon: Natsume, Or Hosou, Or so many films of Hayao Miyazaki, or Mushishi.... no, man. I can't choose. Anime has so many wonderful gems.

85. favourite teacher’s name: Carmen

Tagging: Any person who follows me, and read this whole thing is invited to do it, and tagging me back so I can read too. :D

#askmeme #memes #thank you bluegrumps! :D it was fun to do it

[dtran1130]

Everything

Broad title post, I know. It’s Friday after all. I haven’t been on social media for the last two weeks. I need a break. A break from reading all the things that has been happening with the world outside of my own. Selfish I know. I’ve been told that. I told Pat how I really feel about my life. I’ve been more focused on the things I want to control - my job, my family, my friends and my apartment. It’s hard to think about the other things you can’t control. 

I’ve been having trouble sleeping the last week. Everyday has been nightmares of what happened in my life. Things that happened to me. Things I shouldn’t think about anymore. It’s the past right? I wear scars that carry me to this day. Like the scar on my right leg from the scratch that she did in January 2016. It bled for a while but then after that, it became a scar. I remember when her dad asked me what happened and we all said I fell. I didn’t want to say that it was their daughter who did such a thing. Not the first time. Hence, I don’t wear shorts even when it’s above 70. True story. #metoo

On another note, I’ve been attempting to grow the hair out again. It’s been about 2-3 months. I remember the month since it was the week before my last date with Kate. It was her birthday on Sunday aka Mother’s Day. Pat said that I shouldn’t remember these things as they are useless energy. He’s right though. So yeah, back to the hair, going for a neck length and see how it goes. Hence, why I always got a hat on with some serum treatment to detangle my messy Asian hair. This is what I look like now -

I think about my future all the time. Do I still want to move to SF eventually? I still do honestly. I know that it’s a big commitment. It’s not like i have anyone over there nor moving for anyone, but myself. People say I look like a West Coast kid, but I’ve been in NY all my life. I’d be leaving my parents, my sister, my best friends, but for what? I don’t know yet. I wish for a sign that I’ll find someone just as everyone has. J found someone. I’m sure Kate found someone. Karen found Jay and so forth. The list goes on. And yes, I stopped calling Karen, the “one night stand girl.” She has a name after all. We all deserve someone. Maybe Antonio is right. About dating during this pandemic. That eventually I’ll find someone. Fuck. He is. The first part but the second part, I don’t know. Dating and finding someone during a pandemic is hard enough. Being on several dating apps is hard enough. And yes, Tinder is one of them. Coffee Meets Bagel. Bumble. Hinge. Tinder. Match. They all add up. People are fucking picky as hell. Maybe I’m just not good enough to even try talking to or not worth having a response too. I know I should care less about what people say. 

It’s been about 3 months since I moved out. Don’t get me wrong, I have my moments here and there. I miss my parents and sister, but I have to be on my own. Sometimes the lone wolf mentality. I miss having them around and talking to them. I know that i’m in a much better place now. Even though I’m paying $2800 per month, not counting utilities, for rent per month. It’s crazy but somehow I’ve managed that on my own. I haven’t asked my sister for help even though she’s gotten me for the stuff around COVID such as masks, gloves and little amenities. I had moved a week before I was put in a PIP and luckily, I’m still here. I’m still fighting for myself each and everyday. It’s a struggle dealing with toxic people but there’s nothing really we can do about it. I try my best though. You do what you gotta do. Live life simply. 

Above all, I just hope things work out for the best. I wonder about Kate at times. If it was ever something for us to be on 4 dates, but then again, it’s been 3 months. I even wished her well and I know she’s doing okay. She’s 34. A grown woman. So life right? 

TBD...

[kxlebcross]

[ even numbers for the weird asks, pleaseeee ]

me: has to google what are even numbers lol

2. chocolate bars or lollipops? lollipops, cuz after that i can munch on the lil lollipop stick too which keeps me busy lol

4. how did your elementary school teachers describe you? i know it totally doesn’t look like that but i used to be the class’ smart kid who participated in all kind of competitons and shit like that, was in the school choir, went to music school... so yeah, i was pretty much your average nerd, but then i grew up stewpid haha

6. pastel, boho, tomboy, preppy, goth, grunge, formal or sportswear? a weird mix of tomboy and grunge, depending on the day and actual mood, weather and whatever the hell i got clean lol

8. movies or tv shows? movies - i usually lose interest in every series after like... 2-3 episodes? i only finished like 3-4 deries in my whole life so i guess the number speaks for itself

10. game you were best at in p.e.? i used to be pretty good at volleyball back then, though i was always considered too short to be on the school team haha 

12. name of your favorite playlist? am 4:44 with a little moon emoji, made by yours truly (aka me)

14. favorite non-chocolate candy? i don’t really eat sweets... but when i do i go for sour jellies but idk if that counts as candy haha

16. most comfortable position to sit in? have you ever saw one of those “bisexuals can’t sit normally” memes? pretty much all of those, i always sit in random poses until my back gives in, i don’t have a favorite position tho

18. ideal weather? the summer night’s warm weather with a little breeze, maybe with some clouds... but i usually enjoy rains and thunderstorms too unless i have to go out because then i’m like bruh

20. preferred place to write (i.e., in a note book, on your laptop, sketchpad, post-it notes, etc.)? depends on what i have to write - for school notes i usually use a notebook and/or my laptop; for stories - my laptop or my phone’s notes if the inspiration gets me outside; everything else i’ll just write on random scraps of paper or in random notebooks just to never find them again haha

22. role model? i don’t really.... have one? i rather have a motto to live by but i don’t really look up to anyone tbh

24. favorite crystal? don’t have one, i dunno shit about crystals lol

26. favorite activity to do in warm weather? go out for a nice walk or some drink with my friends, walk my cat outside or just chill on my balcony with a boo while terrorizing my neighbors with a randomly chosen edm playlist

28. five songs to describe you? human by sevdaliza badmind by kuzi scar by foxes throat full of glass by combichrist 5:3666 by machine gun kelly

30. places that you find sacred? uhhh..... i can’t really think of any that would fit here? but i never really step in weird plant formations in forests and shit like that, cuz better be safe than sorry

32. top five favorite vines? i literally only have one favorite vine and it’s the two guys chillin in a hot tub, thats it

34. advertisements you have stuck in your head? every seasonal whiskas one because of the baby cats.... but other than that i haven’t seen an ad in ages, i don’t have tv and use adblock on pc haha

36. what is the first meme you remember ever seeing? i...c an’t remember, it was probably one of the rage comics or trollface comics? can’t really recall tbh it was ages ago

38. lemonade or tea? lemonade, with lots of ice cubes and mint, give it to me pls

40. weirdest thing to ever happen at your school? well in elementary some guy from the older classes took a sh*t then went to one of the classrooms to wipe his ass with the curtains there lol also some other time someone pissed out of the window on the first floor  in high school someone gassed the whole school with pepper spray, but like an insane amount, and everyone went immediately panic mode, police and firemen were called, the whole school evacuated..... and the one responsible for that had to pay like an insane amount of money for the police/fire dept. action haha

42. jacket pockets or pants pockets? pants pockets, i don’t trust jacket pockets cuz they usually dont have a lil zipper to close them up and i’d totally lose my phone if i put it there, im stewpid like that

44. favorite scent for soap? orange-vanilla or some other citrus-y scent

46. most comfortable outfit to sleep in? anything oversized will do with some pants/underwear

48. if you were a fruit, what kind would you be? probably a grapefruit, fucking bitter about everything lmao

50. what made you laugh the hardest you ever have? once i laughed at a plastic bag being dragged around by the wind for like 10 minutes while being fucked up drunk... does that count?

52. favorite font? hands down times new roman

54. what did you learn from your first job? that the customer isn’t always right and that apparently i had a knack for putting down tiles

56. favorite tradition? does halloween count? i love halloween

58. four talents you’re proud of having? i’m a really good driver.... and i think that’s it? i really can’t come up with anything else... does being loud and obnoxious sometimes count? and i think i’m good enough with people too... and i think i’m a good listener? idk, i’m pretty useless tbh

60. if you were a character in an anime, what kind of anime would you want it to be? give me the good old horror and make me the obnoxious side character who rarely ever speaks cuz no one ever asks them anything, that would pretty much resemble my actual life

62. seven characters you relate to? bojack horseman, sal paradise, loki from mcu, wednesday addams, oba yozo from no longer human, richie tozier, holden caulfield

64. favorite website from your childhood? club penguin! i wasted sooooo much time on there, sheesh....

66. favorite flower(s)? i really like succulents and ferns! and cactuses... or anything that’s low maintenance tbh

68. worst flavor of any food or drink you’ve ever tried? licorice... and also cucumber lemonade, gross

70. left or right handed? right

72. worst subject? i’m really bad with history and physics, i’m just way too dumb for those

74. at what pain level out of ten (1 through 10) do you have to be at before you take an advil or ibuprofen? around 9-10, i’m pretty much used to all my chronic pains and tbh i don’t like taking pain meds cuz i always have to take double because once i was misdiagnosed and spent almost a year on painkillers so barely anything works for me now... thanks public healthcare

76. what’s your favorite potato food (i.e. tater tots, baked potatoes, fries, chips, etc.)? fries... i’d love some now, i’m actually hungry 

78. coffee from a gas station or sushi from a grocery store? coffee from gas station, now pretty much all of them have decent coffee machines and the prices are okay too and i definitely trust them more than any boxed sushi ever

80. earth tones or jewel tones? jewel

82. pc or console? i grew up as a pc kid and tbh never had the money for a console so i just got stuck with it haha

84. podcasts or talk radio? if i necessarily have to choose then podcasts

86. cookies or cupcakes? both as long as its witch choccie

88. your greatest wish? let’s be realistic - i’d like to have my own place and little car and cats and i’d be all good

90. luckiest mistake? drunk kissing this one guy from my esports team after telling him i was a lesbian and he told me he had a girlfriend, it was stewpid tho, lets not get back to it

92. lamps, overhead lights, sunlight or fairy lights? sunlight and fairy lights, the latter necessarily in blue, it’s just neat and doesn’t bring in all the mosquitos at summer when i leave the window open

94. favorite season? spring

96. desktop background? some assassin’s creed logo fanart i’ve found on alphacoders

98. favorite historical era? i.... really...... hate....... history...... blame it on my middle school teacher who made me hate it lol

#answered #kush speaks #thanksies <3 #kuwentista #i really cant do math huh......

[lilparcheesie]

I got ze tagged

Last: 1. Drink: water

2. Phone call: Jacob (my coworker) needed to find his phone

3. Text message: “Your face matches Natalie’s backpack” - @reallifeshitpost​ 4. Song you listened to: Lustration//Circa Survive before this or Buried a Lie//Senses Fail during this 5. Time you cried: A yesterday!! I saw sting rays (which are super cute) and was already having a really bad day, so I just cried because Nick putting them up on the board made me so happy I cried.

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: Yes sadly

7. Kissed someone and regretted it: y e s lol its the worst 8. Been cheated on: :’)   9. Lost someone special: Too many and I’m scared of losing more.. 10. Been depressed: I don’t know… honestly, I workout so often that even if I was I would have no idea because I have so much dopamine in me that I’m always w i r e d. But if I was depressed, or had any mental illness, it would most likely be PTSD or anxiety. Probably from childhood abuse. 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: Never, actually.

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14. Teal, Coral, Light Gray… I have so many though

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: Yes! So many!! I’m so lucky!!!

16. Fallen out of love: Honestly? No. I think I never really fall out of love. I just grow negative feelings that consume those lovelier ones. Ya know?

17. Laughed until you cried: Yes! So many times! For hours!

18. Found out someone was talking about you: Yeah, but I try to remember the times where people talk behind my back about loving me much. That’s all I care about

19. Met someone who changed you: Yes, she’s keeping me alive in my struggles. He’s making it possible for me to live comfortably. I’m lucky.

20. Found out who your friends are: I love friendship. A lot of people have negative connotations around friendships, and how fast they’ll leave or betray them. If I feel like I’m just waiting to get stabbed, abandoned, or offended, I’ll never really enjoy them. And even if I get hurt, it’s a learning process. I just like to keep people around who are enjoyable company. 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: I kiss people, yeah. I love kisses. It’s one of my favorite parts of being with someone. They make me feel good. But, I don’t kiss anyone unless I am sure they have feelings for me and vice versa.

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: Like.. all of them? I didn’t add any onliners, heck?

23. Do you have any pets: Yeahh! Two dogs, a boxer named Sammy and a English Silky Terrior named Binky.

24. Do you want to change your name: Legally? sometimes. Sometimes I don’t. It’s confusing sometimes.

25. What did you do for your last Birthday: It was on Thanksgiving so it was forgotten by everyone I was with, but that’s okay. Thanksgiving is important here.

26. What time did you wake up: 6:42.

27. What were you doing at midnight last night: I think I was woken up to get somebody into their room.

28. Name something you can’t wait for: The sweet release of death Transferring schools 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: In person? Almost 7 weeks ago. In photo? My friend Mick was with her yesterday.

30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: That I had financial stability… Less of a crazy upbringing… Met some people earlier in my life. 31. Listening right now: Escape the Fate radio on Spotify. My students talking about robots (aka my class). 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: Yeah! Thomas works with me. I’ve met others, but that is the most recent Thomas.

33. Something that is getting on your nerves: The fact that I am not getting better as much as I’d like and my body when it’s in pain and failing i honestly hate failing

34. Most visited website: uuuuh… www.tumblr.com??? uh… www.thepunchlineismachismo.com ???

35. Mole/s: I have none. I think it’s fine.

36. Mark/s: I have some stretch marks and scarring all over my body

37. Childhood dream: Theatre star, athlete, engineer, tinkerer… I had all the dreams

38. Hair color: Brunette/Auburn

39. Long or short hair: It’s medium length now! Used to be down past my butt but all that changed when the fire nation attacked and I cut my hair super short for rowing

40. Do you have a crush on someone: I do… it’s pretty bad. I’d like to give them my heart as an offering but they like.. basically have all rights to me and I want to do everthing in my power to make them happy

41. What do you like about yourself: My open mindedness or empathetic approach towards others. Lack of subtlety. My heart (my crush says I have resilience and I think that’s good)

42. Piercings: My ears

43. Blood type: Not really sure?

44. Nickname: Jughead, Toe, Tori, Sumner

45. Relationship status: I’m not sure but I’m only emotionally and physically invested in one person

46. Zodiac: Sagittarius, watch out bitches

47. Pronouns: She/Her  

48. Favorite TV Show: Supernatural? Avatar TLAB? Too many.

49. Tattoos: Possibly sometimes

50. Right or left hand: left

51. Surgery: A bunch

52. Hair dyed in different color: Yeah

53. Sport: I played literally every sport growing up because my mom wanted me to lose weight and not be so useless

55. Dream Vacation: Somewhere with stingrays

56. Pair of trainers: Nikes atm. But I love converse

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: pussy & dick  Vegetables are nice

58. Drinking: water but if I’m spoiling myself, tea or vanilla coke

59. I’m about to: Go to lunch and refresh

61. Waiting for: the day i feel satisfied with my efforts

62. Want: All my grades to be A+, financial stability, someone to take care of me, more music, fresh fruit and veggies, a nice bath using herbal soaps and lots of bubbles. For someone to love me for who I actually am, not just some concept they made up that left out all the bad things..

63. Get married: Probably. I mean. That’s the goal.

64. Career: I wanted to be an engineer but I’m thinking about focusing more on robotics or design careers… so… robotic things seem neat.. idk…

WHICH IS BETTER 65. Hugs or kisses: Kiss me all over, please

66. Lips or eyes: Eyes… or lips… i don’t know theyre all cute

67. Shorter or taller: Taller

68. Older or younger: Not too far from my age, older though(?)

70. Nice arms or nice stomach: Arms? I dunno I actually super appreciate cute arms.. but.. if a tummy is soft enough it might win me over.

71. Sensitive or loud: Definitely sensitive.. I don’t like loud things unless it’s music

72. Hook up or relationship: Relationships are always better because wow they’re so much fun

73. Troublemaker or hesitant: It’s hard to say?? Uh.. I mean I like the caution that comes with being hesitant but the daringness that comes with being a troublemaker? I’d probably stay on the safe side and be hesitant.

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: No

75. Drank hard liquor: No

76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: One time I had a contact rip in four while it was in my eye… I was so sad.

77. Turned someone down: Yes

78. Sex on the first date: Nah 79. Broken someone’s heart: Not intentionally…

80. Had your heart broken: Yeah…

81. Been arrested: Nope!

82. Cried when someone died: Not really. I get sad when I find out people die, but I internalize it a lot. It’s just a natural thing. Like.. all their love.. gone… and i feel it takes love away from me.

83. Fallen for a friend: A few. One recently.

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: Yes

85. Miracles: Somewhat

86. Love at first sight: Kinda

87. Santa Claus: Not anymore 88. Kiss on the first date: Sure if it goes well but I’m not going to rush things if it isn’t meant to be you know

OTHER: 90. Current best friend(s) name: Cait, Yoll, Nick, Joe (the PA), Natalie

91. Eye color: Hazel? Blue-Green? I don’t know.

92. Favorite movie: Big Fish (Tim Burton)

Tagging: anyone who wants to do this kinda thing really

#i hope everyone is doing well

[rouge-fox-expanded]

SEVERUS SNAPE IS AN ASSHOLE, AND HERE IS WHY I LIKE HIM

SPOILER ALERT

I WARNED YOU

Now this may seem a bit out of the blue but as I have become more immersed in Tumblr and the people I follow I have noticed a lot of people don't like Severus Snape from the Harry potter series. Now that's fair enough, I can totally understand and the opening line was not clickbait I am well aware by and large the man was a dick. Now why do I like him as a character? I imagine most of you think because I think the whole secretly on the side of angels things make everything okay...it doesn't. I've got news for every snape fanboy reading this, Severus Snape was a horrible teacher, prejudice and quite frankly a bitter and resentful asshole. Now why do I like him? Well...I guess I can understand him, now before I go any further I want to make it clear understanding does not mean condoning...I understand why Mr Freeze wanted to save Nora Fries but I do not condone the people he killed (I know using a comic book character juxtapositioning a novel character is tricky because of fluid continuity vs set continuity but bear with me).

Now let us first look at why Snape is an asshole, keep in mind it's been a while since I've read the books so I won't be making any direct quotes and if I make mistakes I welcome people to correct me but let's start with his childhood. It may not have been stated but was heavily implied...he did have a functional family unit, mum and dad were...well I remember he said his father didn't like anything so I'm unsure if I can say abusive but I think I can use the term loveless. Now growing up little Sev was always an oddball, among the muggles he was what Petunia would dub a 'freak'. He's an outsider, and his only friend and so far positive role model...is Lily Evans. Now keep this in mind, up until now the only good person in Sev's life and when I say good I mean morally as well as objectively is Lily. Now Lily doesn't truly understand Sev but she's his friend regardless, that's nice...now let's look at the asshole collective aka the Marauders.

We all know Peter Petigrew is a bastard, but he had little to do to Sev during the school years. Remus Lupin whilst part of the team was the token good guy and morality chain (despite his furry problem). James Potter and Sirus Black...Can you say self-entitled Asshole and Pseudo-Sociopath...in that order. James Potter does not understand Severus, nor does he want to. He's a rich bastard who buys into the whole us and them system that is inherently believed to be the wizard status quo, pureblood, half-blood, mud-blood ect. So when he's placed in Gryffindor with his sociopathic friend Sirus and little Sev is in Slytherin, the line is drawn. Sev is in with bad guys (not wholly inaccurate) and he, his friends, future wife and future turncoat (yes peter we mean you) are the good guys.

Ron: there's not a witch or wizard who went bad who weren't from slytherin Me: (if I were there and knew at the time) what about Merlin?

Now here's where the problem start, Sev as I have said is an outsider. He's had very little positive reinforcement and he's not around Lily enough to truly benefit from her kind nature. His family unit is toxic and now he's sorted into a house filled with more toxic people, the difference, these toxic people actually treat him okay. He's in with the winners, hooray right? No...he's in with pre-harry, rising-riddle slytherins...this is not a nurturing environment but he's a bright lad and he's excelling academically and he still seems to get on with Lily despite being in with the wrong crowd. Guess who doesn't like this, self-entitled asshole and by extension Pseudo-Sociopath whom proceed to perpetually subject little Sev to a litany of magical bullying of which he always (correct me if I am wrong) comes out the butt monkey. Now at this point you may be asking why I am calling Sirus Black a Pseudo-Sociopath, well keep this in mind. Sirus Black whilst more morally inclined comes from a long family line of psychos. Oh but he's one of the good guys you may cry, yes he is...I mean he may have tried to instigate a manslaughter when he was a teenager but-WHAT?!?!?! Oh sorry, did we all forget he tried to trick Snape into facing Lupin during his time of the month? As in, tricked snape into almost facing off against a FUCKING werewolf?!

Let's...let's take a moment to consider this. Yes James saves Snape from this fate, so why wasn't Snape grateful? One good deed vs the bullying, Sirus getting him into the situation in the first place and neither Black nor Potter suffering any ramifications for the situation (I could be wrong) and essentially getting away with attempted murder. I dunno about you but I'd be fucking pissed! AND THE MARAUDERS ARE THE GOOD GUYS?! Let's take a moment to consider what would have happened if James didn't do the right thing? Lupin not having his right frame of mind would have killed a young teenager, there is no way in hell they could cover that up. All three kids would be expelled and possibly face jail time and Snape would be dead and go virtually unmourned (assuming this werewolf incident happened before Mudblood gate Lily would be very upset). What's more, Sirus to my knowledge (correct me if wrong) never apologizes for this. Not even during the order of the phoenix meetings does he go 'Yo Snivellus (bad starter), you know when I almost got you killed when we were kids...I am sorry about that'.

So recap, Snape is largely friendless, frequent bully victim, the people who like him are one kind girl and many magical nazis in the making. The reason he's interested in being a death eater to my knowledge is because like all outsiders, he wants to belong to something...be a part of a group, and also he believes (inaccurately) this would impress Lily. Why does he think this way? Because what else has he got to go on? No family support, frequent bully victim and the one girl he feels a positive and budding romantic bond with is a little one-sided...and then we get to Mud-Blood gate. Now obviously I do not condone Racism, Snape was in the wrong to say what he said...but I can understand why he said it in the moment. He was humiliated, hurting and in a moment of vulnerability he was being helped by a girl. Now I am not sexist, but this was pre-harry, rising-riddle, 70s-80s and he's been with the 'winners' and their toxic influence so he tries to save some face...he buggers up, his apology falls on deaf ears...and he's got no good friend anymore. Sev is all in with the 'winners' now, onto the death eater years and we all know how well that goes.

Now I am gonna say at this point, Sev has become the villain. He's in with the magical nazis and takes to the spy role (something he's very good at, I imagine learning to be invisible was handy considering his environment). He has made an active choice, his history leading up to that choice does not change that he made it. And through his spy duties he unwittingly tells Wizard Hitler 2.0 (because Johnny Depp is playing Wizard Hitler mark 1, see Fantastic Beasts) that the little boy who can end him is being born of James and Lily. Now despite their falling out Sev still likes Lily and doesn't want her to die, so he approaches Dumbledore, whom is quick to point out his morality is flawed as he only wants Lily spared and not James and possibly by extension little Harry (something that disgusts Albus, and I think he's familiar with the feeling). But Sev and Albus reach an agreement, Snape does defect and pulls off a double agent role and is still in with the 'winners' whom are none the wiser. Shock horror, plan doesn't go smoothly because of a rat, yes peter you, and James and Lily die leaving Harry all alone. Sev is bummed but still goes along with Albus' overarching plan so long as no one lets on he's actually on the side of angels.

Now that is actually tactical, he'd be a pretty piss poor spy if everyone knew how rooted in with the good guys he was but it also makes sense with his personality. Snape does not like pity, it reminds him of weakness and as we've seen thus far...weakness is not something he's good with. Now enter the teaching years, and boy does his assholery shine. As Edmund Blackadder told Baldrick, the abused always kick downwards, only now Sev is no longer the Baldrick but the Blackadder and he takes out his frustration and resentment on the kids...like a dick. Can I condone this? Fuck no, can I understand it, yes. Why do I like Snape still? Because despite being a monumental asshole whom is ridden with bitterness, depression and probably self-loathing which he projects onto his students he is still fighting Albus' war. He's playing the triple agent for most of the series, Wizard Hitler 2.0 on return thinks Snape was actually doing his bidding by planting himself as a sleeper agent and he bloody loves that whilst all the other death eaters hates his guts (jealousy). On the other side everyone barring Dumbledore...also hates his guts (former death-eater), really when you think about it everyone is poised to believe the worst in Snape. Book 1 we're all ready to believe he's the villain, allowing Quirrel to go almost unsuspected. Book 2 he does get a cathartic moment by showing up the useless prat that is lockhart, Book 3...Oh let's go into that.

Hello Snape, meet the man whom until you know about the Rat was instrumental in killing Lily and tried to have you fed to a werewolf, play nice. Now on the subject of werewolves, Snape and Lupin seem to have some semblance of a professional relationship given the potion master is making him his wolfsbane potion (the thing that stops him being a frenzied killer) so he bears him no bitterness for the whole near murder but just for being with the assholes. Yet he still makes the potion for him anyway, like a professional. Now lets get to Snapes moment on cornering the assholes, and look at it from Snape's POV 1-I have captured Sirus Black, the man whom was instrumental in killing Lily and his accomplice Lupin 2-I am going to take them up, let the dementors sick Sirus and justice will be done 3-I am in the right here ...on paper, that actually seems kind of legit doesn't it? I mean Severus doesn't know about the rat until either the end of book 3 or the beginning of book 4 because erm...HE WAS UNCONSCIOUS DURING THE TIME OF THE REVEAL! Yeah harry knocked him out didn't he? So while Peter was revealed as the dirty rat Snape was down for the count and probably very pissed off when he woke up. So when he lets slip about Lupin being a werewolf from his perspective we have this: 1-Lily's traitor has gotten away scot free! 2-Potter was instrumental in it and is always getting away scot free 3-I am not letting this shit happen again! Also on paper, this seems kind of legit. In practise, it's the action of a small bitter man. Lupin resigns, we get the mad eye facsimile, the whole hot mess of the triwizard tournament and then Wizard Hitler 2.0 the reboot for which he has to play triple agent once more and we have order of the Phoenix (Oh I am gonna enjoy this).

Sirus and Snape working together, Oh what fun. Sirus hates the man's guts and makes no attempt to extend an olive branch...Snape also hates Sirus' guts and treats him with utter contempt. Come on guy's your grown ups, can't you act civilly and oh wait Sirus almost got you killed, played a co-operative hand in bullying you relentlessly and is still an asshole by and large to you. Yeah I can see why you're not inclined to get on with him, but hey you're still doing your job...and you're trying to teach Potter Occlumency (pragmatically, as this for the cause). Now I will agree Snape teaching Harry Occlumency does show Sev's assholery more so...he's unsympathetic to Potter's turmoil and takes pleasure in mocking him where he can but here comes my favourite part...Harry gets a glimpse of Snape's childhood...and sees his dad in full self-entitled asshole mode...and what happens? Harry is ashamed and to his horror, he can identify with Snape (literally what is written at the end of that chapter). The hardest lesson growing up is realising your parents are not superhuman and adults aren't perfect, it's even harder when you're parents are gone and all you have to go on are other people's perspective. So until now Harry thought his parents were inherently good people whom went down fighting an evil monster...well you were half right Harry. Sirus tries to brush this off a little as 'we were just kids back then' which doesn't appease Harry in the least (nor should it). Of course any understanding and sympathy he has for the potions master dies with Sirus...he feels the man was responsible for egging him on and making Sirus act recklessly. Sev did antagonize him true, Sirus however was reckless and impulsive by nature and they were fighting in a battlefield for all intents and purposes...people die. That can be pretty much sum up things from book 4 onwards, people die...because this is war. Now we get to my favourite part, Albus and the Snape.

Yes see Albus Dumbledore is a bit of an asshole too, he has lived almost 200 years and he's seen a lot, done a lot and was active in the war against Wizard Hitler mark one (whom incidentally was his former boyfriend -implied I think- ) and saw the Riddle-rising from it's inception. To put it bluntly, Albus knows how to win this war and know what has to be done. Snape plays a direct part in this, he's Albus' man on the inside. Now I hope you've all made a list of why Sev is an asshole at this point because here comes the other list-Why Snape is still a hero. Wizard Hitler 2.0 is not an idiot, he's a master legilimens and if he got any trace of Snape's true loyalty Snape would be history...and Sev knows this, and does his job anyway (and does it well). He's instrumental in informing Dumbledore about some of the horcruxes, like the ring, letting him know about Draco's forced initiation into the wizard nazi club and is trying to keep his boss alive to help them win the war. Here's the problem, Dumbledore is gonna die and has to die, because turns out Albus has the deathstick ie the wand which can trump all wands and if Wizard Hitler 2.0 gets his hands on that we're all screwed. So Snape is asked to commit a mercy kill, which will fully vilify himself among the angels and get him in with the devils as he helps guide their destruction which incidentally means Harry's got to die too. Oh yeah, turns out Harry's a horcrux and Wizard Hitler 2.0 has to gun him down in order to become mortal again...something Sev is not happy about, admittedly because of his love for Lily and not for any real compassion for the boy. Albus is actually shocked to awe that despite everything Snape's feelings towards his old friend has still endured. Despite all his bitterness, the memory of her has not been tainted.

Now for everyone who's read the books we all know what happens. War goes on, Snape is killed, we see his life flash before our eyes and Harry pulls a lazarus and saves the day and a lot of people die, that is war and I think Snape was one of the heroes instrumental to bringing it to an end. Don't get me wrong...He is still an asshole, I mean when you look at the entirety of his life he had a lot of time to try and move on. I mean he was working for the cause but he could have sought therapeutic help, stopping taking his problems out on his students and basically stop being the worst teacher imaginable then maybe everyone wouldn't hate his guts...but then would they have been so quick to believe he was on the bad side when he committed the mercy kill? When Snape killed Dumbledore no one on the faculty defended him, tried to make sense of why he did it...any goodwill he had with any of them went out the window and fell with the headmaster. When Snape became the new headmaster everyone but the death eaters hated his guts, but let me ask you this? In a wizarding world where Tom Riddle is the de facto king of everything...who would you rather have minding your kids? Severus Snape all things considered or Bellatrix Lestrange...because at least Sev reined the Carrows in!

Also a lot of people on tumblr question whether Sev was brave...yes, yes he was. Being a spy takes a lot, as said by Steve Trevor from the recent cinematic outing for Wonder Woman. Steve was duplicitous, adaptive and a consummate liar...but he's also a lovely chap so we haven't anything bad to say about him which is fair enough. On paper Sev is fulfilling the same function in this war, only he has no friends, no family and nothing going for him after the war. Everyone thinks he's an asshole, but he still does his job and spies on Wizard Hitler 2.0. He's not a coward, and I think the reason that annoys him so much is because cowards are weak...he's been weak before and hated that feeling but more so from his perspective I think what he's getting when people call him a coward is this 'everything you have done in your life leading up to the present is pathetic and you should have done better and you're weak for not having done so'. Guess what? That's something people with self-loathing say about themselves on a regular basis, possibly something Sev has thought about himself in his private moments. All things considered he is not a coward, he is a soldier fighting for Albus' cause and has done stuff from which there is no coming back from. He has no bridges he can cross, he's stuck on the shrinking landmass until he falls because nobody is gonna want him.

Hypothetically if Sev did survive the battle of hogwarts and everyone knew what had happened I guarantee he would have still lost his job, either got sacked or would leave. His redemption only works with his death because his life is worth nothing, he has no friends, no family and nobody likes him because he's an asshole. He's not gonna get better, he'd probably go home and live in solitude until death finally takes him ideally in his sleep. Yet the Malfoys seem to get by okay thanks to their last minute defection don't they?! Oh yeah no one mentions the shit they got involved with do they? Sorry that is not relevant. Okay, let's return to my main point: why Snape is an asshole and why I like him. Snape was a horrible person to the children he taught, he was mean, verbally abusive and hindering to their growth and particularly cruel to harry and his friends (probably saw them as a Marauders 2.0) whilst having no ill will towards slytherins (the people whom accepted him, ie the 'winners'). However I think I like him not just because I understand him, but I get him. Hell if I went through his shit I'd probably be a bitter, resentful asshole too and would kick downwards with every breathe I took and you can be damn sure I wouldn't be helpful to Albus' cause because Wizard Hitler 2.0 would see through my self loathing shit and feed me to the snake long before book 7, also why should I?! Why should I help the son of the self-entitled asshole whom stole the only lady whom was every really nice to me growing up? Why should I help the werewolf that could have killed me when I was a teen? Why should I help the pseudo-sociopath whom tried to feed me to aforementioned werewolf and until I am told different was instrumental in Lily's death?! Why should I be a good guy?!

But guess what? Snape does help, he's very verbal into his contempt for everyone he does help and lets no one get close but I understand why he does that. Doesn't condone what he's doing to the kids, you're perpetuating a cycle Sev! Mercy kill or not that was still murder and I don't tolerate racism. But on that note he does learn, he never uses the M word again and doesn't like it mentioned in his presence as shown in book 7 when talking to the portrait. And he does guide Harry to the horcrux destroying sword via patronus, he goes out of his way to keep Harry alive via counter curses (book 1), throws himself in front of the kids when a werewolf attacks (book 3, or may have just been the movie I am not sure), and generally he does a lot of intelligence gathering, the Occulmency classes and serves as Albus' right hand mand in making sure things go as they should have. What does he get? Death and posthumous recognition, because as much as an asshole as he was you don't speak ill of the dead (politeness I suppose).

So yeah, Snape was an asshole...but so were a lot of other people too. His parents, James and Sirus, the slytherin house of his school years, Albus Dumbledore was a very pragmatic hero whom was used making people behave the way he needed them too. The only person on the hogwarts faculty whom was consistently just and without those kind of flaws was McGonagall. But for the war to end we needed Dumbledore's machinations and Snape's duplicity, that's what JK Rowling would have us believe. I guess I like Snape because I get him, I know depression, I know self-loathing and I know bullying...but I admire his bravery, I admire his duty and even though everyone hated his guts he stuck to his guns and helped the good guys win the war. Yes he's an asshole, but I guess he's my problematic fav. And I just wanted to put this out on Tumblr in the vain hope that those who don't like Snape can read it and understand why I do...why some of us do like him. I'm not trying to change anyone's mind, you can all hate on Snape as much as you like if that's what makes you happy and I will respect your opinion. I hope you can respect mine, Snape is an asshole but I still like him.

#This took me forever #I am sad but also kind of happy #Wanted to get this off my chest

[zaxal]

ok so to sum up the red city dipshits so far:

we’re all broke af and show up looking for a job bc of some money

big ol man named wolf introduces us to tevye, a sweet gentleboy who is gonna give us money but we have to work together

giulia (meaghan) rolls seduction, fails. he’s either oblivious or mildly uncomfortable. this is our diplomat, a minor southern noblewoman whose funds are not what they used to be.

we have two mediums, ziyad (chris) and arina (anna) who are on opposite ends of the ghostfucking spectrum. ziyad is very pro ghostfuck. arina fuckin hates all these dead things and wants them to Die Again But Like More Permanently

we have an assassin, zhatka (petra), who is the oldest among us and now babysitting all these fucking children (giulia’s in her 30s and the rest of us in our 20s except arina who is a Baby)

and we have USELESS FUCKING MAGICIAN SUAH RHA (me)

we are sent to find an old map of the catacombs beneath the city being held by haeckle hock (or, as he’s more commonly known, jarl hropken)

hock worked for tevye then absconded with the map for reasons unknown to players. this is our initiation job to make sure that we won’t die and also that we will actually come back once we do what we’re told

we track him down to the daisy district which is now full of dead people and we start harassing them. we are looking for a fence named butter with whom hock is known to work

everyone has varying amounts of success. zhatka stabs a dead lady for not knowing who or where butter is. giulia can’t get a dead person to snitch bc dat luck roll. suah finds a nice man and they talk and she thanks him for his time.

then suah has A PLAN

giulia has something valuable (pocket watch), so suah is gonna pretend to have stolen it, roll up with half the crew (leaving arina and giulia outside), ascertain butter’s identity, then find out where the FUCK hock is.

suah then rolls the worst performance check i’ve ever seen in my life.

butter is Not Impressed, he’s not gonna move these stolen goods, fuck you

zhatka shows off her badge from the assassin’s guild and this dude wants NO TROUBLE FROM THEM so he lets us wait for hock to come pick up his illicit SIX BARRELS OF FUCKENING GUNPOWDER

zhatka takes a nap and most of the rest of the crew plays cards as a Team Building Exercise(tm)

giulia cheats

no one catches her

giulia wins

the door busts open and there’s a handsome man with long flowing golden hair and a fucking gun pointed at us

his name is haeckle hock, and he’s gonna blow us all to kingdom come if we don’t tell him why we’re here, what we want with him, and how we’re going to get out of his way.

we have a reasonable conversation with him that goes fairly nowhere because he has a gun and seems fairly certain that he’s going to use it.

giulia tries to seduce him, gods of the wheels bless her, but he’s not that interested

a few of us make perception checks to see if this guy is really the type of guy who would kill himself JUST to kill us

i believe it was giulia’s roll that discovered that no, no he is not.

we didn’t actually rp this out but i’m imagining giulia had a Look of doubt that she either shared with the group or something

so suah, who keeps some of her magician shit at hand at all times, lights some ghost powder on fire discreetly and blinds him with Dazzle

so he’s blinded temporarily

he fires his gun off by mistake

he fucking hits arina

WE DISCOVER THAT ARINA HAS 80 MILLION HIT POINTS HOLY SHIT

also we have no healer. none. none healer. and arina is the only person (at the time) with points in Mend aka our heal skill. arina tries to patch herself up.

giulia takes his gun. suah frisks him and finds the map that tevye sent them to look for. ziyad takes a nice leather wristband that increases his dex stat.

we mock him for being a fucking idiot for a good 10-20 minutes and zhatka finally wakes up from her nap

we have a nice old-fashioned argument about the BOMBS hock has set up in the catacombs to “kill the ghosts” ????

ok the actual plan is to explode the corpses in the catacombs/crypts so that the ghosts don’t have anywhere to go and will presumably fuck off

several problems with this: the ghosts have been known to kill people for their bodies, the city is literally built on the catacombs so it might fucking collapse and kill all of us if this plan succeeds, the ghosts are just gonna go somewhere else even if they leave vanyiv

zhatka ties him up, and we go outside

butter isn’t around anymore

but there are three other people, with a cart with which to carry the barrels, strapped to a mule.

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE

we get into a rowdy tussle that involves some swords, giulia missing with hock’s pistol, SUAH NOT BEING ABLE TO FUCKING HIT ANYTHING WITH A SWORD and the guy who attacks her not being able to hurt her so they’re just fucking locked in this prison of incompetence.

arina gets out her walking stick and successfully! hits a man!

for -1 damage

SHE HEALED HIM. HE GOT BETTER BC SHE HIT HIM.

(how this happened: weapon was 1d4+strength mod. arina’s strength mod is -3. she rolled a 2-3 for -1.)

ziyad confuses one of the guys to try and make him hit his teammates, but he stays out of the rough and tumble

then giulia

with a fucking 22 (i think. it may have been higher.)

rips off her shirt to show off her perfect titties

everyone we’re fighting, and arina, drop their weapons

zhatka kills the woman she’s been tussling with

suah, in a fit of rage from not being able to hurt the man who came at her first, continues to roll to stab him.

i rolled literally 6 times in a row but one finally landed.

we’re back in combat.

ziyad confuses the other boy and lounges back bc everyone else has this already

arina tends her bullet wound

zhatka and suah clean up and kill the last two guys

haeckle hock has, in this time, slipped his ropes and fucking RUN OFF.

we don’t FUCKING think so

arina is on autopilot now bc SOMEONE is at anime boston

ziyad channels his sight through the bracelet he took from him; he’s down in the catacombs

we take off, suah leading the pack because zhatka is carrying ziyad while he channels, and there’s a bit of a pileup at the door as zhatka and giulia fall.

suah runs into guards downstairs

she fucking sprints past them

2 of the 3 guards follow her

with her best performance check to date, she uses Spotlight to convince them that there’s something running down the other fork in the road from the one she’s going; and then it’s dark and she has to slow considerably to feel her way around the walls

giulia, ziyad, and zhatka get into a fight with the last guard only for ziyad to cast Calm on him and they catch up to suah

ziyad has the lamp so we can actually see

the building hock went into has trip wires set up, so zhatka disables those

there are the sounds of an argument inside, and suah sneaks in

there’s a 70 y/o man (otto), a middle-aged woman (marion), and a 12 y/o boy (BLADE)

marion and blade are arguing about hock

suah makes another performance check to take marion’s side of the argument as if she’s been there the entire time

OTTO IS THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICES THAT SHE’S NEW AND HE DOESN’T SAY SHIT

i LOVE otto

suah says her name is giulia

they can’t put a curse on you if they don’t know your real name

giulia is standing in the fucking doorway to this room just Staring at suah

here’s where a problem comes in

suah’s supposed to be charismatic

I AM SOCIAL ANXIETY MAN 1989

so every question otto asks, i have to like. think really hard about before i answer which slows us down considerably and feels really awkward and it was a bad time

i made An Mistake that there’s no coming back from bc i love my horrible daughter

eventually otto gets suah to tell the truth (some of it) about the bombs, their intentions, what they want with haeckle, who she is, what her friends are doing here

FRIENDS?!?!?!?!

blade runs over and threatens giulia with a knife

she politely asks him to stop doing that and he does

haeckle’s not here. we advise the hobos to move out in case we’re unsuccessful and leave with more information than when we came in

we follow ziyad as he channels him again, find a bomb, don’t know what the FUCK to do with this, and eventually cross paths with hock again.

suah, giulia, and hock tie in the run fight

suah and hock tie in the luck fight to see who wins the run fight

giulia OBLITERATES THEM BOTH and comes screaming out of the fucking darkness, tackles him to the ground, and sits on him until zhatka can knock him out

BLADE COMES OUT OF NOWHERE SCREAMING WITH HIS KNIFE

ziyad casts Calm on him

we tell him to go back to his friends and that we’re gonna make sure haeckle doesn’t hurt anyone : ) but we’re gonna take care of the ghosts too, you’ll see!

we take hock back to tevye who was worried SICK about us, get ye money, lie about our involvement in the deaths over in the other district, determine that tevye’s not living anymore and is a ghost puppeting the dead body of a reclusive noble but his manservant is very much alive and very protective

wolf throws haeckle into the vault, and we establish a trust bond with tevye (or, well, giulia and suah do)

we tell him about the bombs and hock’s plan and tevye is like YOU GOTTA GO AND FIX THAT IMMEDIATELY PLEASE I’M BEGGING YOU

however some damage was done and we got #paid so we went to the market first to buy better shit before we go back down into the catacombs

i feel like i’m not doing anyone’s character but mine justice bc i promise you suah is not the star of the story, i’m just thinking about her a lot and why she is the way she is, and i know that’s not fair so PLEASE if someone wants to talk about their children, do it, i’m begging you. i love them all but it’s 3:30 am and i’m forgetful even when it’s not.

i’m just trying to get all of this down while it’s fresh in my head bc, again, someone is at anime boston.

#red city dipshits

[evilelitest2]

Why has political shit gotten so damn extreme like I know Obama wasn't even great but the economy did improve somewhat with him in why the hell did everyone just go absolutely insane this year politically like what is the source of this madness like literally why

That is a very good question, in fact I am doing a whole series right now called 100 Days of Trump where I try explain WTF happened via media, but yes, America has kinda gone insane and at the risk of massive simplification I am boiling it down to 7 core reasons, think 7 sins  

1) Ronald Fucking Reagan, aka Trump 1.0.  Basically Reagan’s entire presidency was either  “Horrible policies that won’t come back to bite us until decades later” or “refusing to reform the system”.  Like, in terms of how the US works administratively, we haven’t reformed since the 80s, we are the most powerful nation in the world with an administrative system from the bloody 70s. LIke I can’t reiterate this enough, America hasn’t had a proper reform for almost 40 years, which btw was also tore of France and Russia right before the revolutions.  Like the Us goverment as an institution hasn’t been patched for ages, it is outdated, underfunded, administratively backwards and mismanaged and that all boils down to Reagan’s policy of massively cutting taxes.  Without money, goverment cannot function and so all of the things goverment is suppose to do aren’t working right.  People without welfare or a social safety net are far more likely to become radical.  When a country has A giant wealth gap, very little welfare, no healthcare, a shitty education system, a shrinking middle classes, and stagnant wages, the country is unstable, that is just how it goes.  All of those things Republicans like to cut aren’t just good because it is nice to not have children die, it also make the country more stable.  If somebody has a decent job, fine education, good standard of living, and a safety net, then they are far less likely to be attracted to radical politics.  But thanks to Reagan we have been spending 36 years cutting the very things that keep the country stable.  Also under Reagan we saw massive money in politics and the start of corporate media.

Also Reagan plus CLinton (who was the democratic Reagan good job) started NAFTA and the Free Trade movement which is great for corporations but terribel for the American worker.  Free trade only works if you combine it with good welfare and public education and the US had neither, cause we wouldn’t want to tax the rich.  Also infrastructure has stagnated, really all over America shit is falling apart because our leaders haven’t been doing their bloody jobs for 4 decades.  

2) The war on Terror.  Like I know it doesn’t feel this way, but we have been at war for 16 years now, a long bloody costly war which….hasn’t really come to anything.  We killed Bin Laden and it didn’t seem to do anything, we invaded Iraq over a false pretense, we have spent Trillions of dollars and nothing ever seems to get better only worse and there doesn’t seem to be a way out.  When people get frustrated and feel like they have been lied too by those in power, they turn to extreme solutions, particularly if said solution is simple, because they want to believe these things can be ended simply rather than address a complicated reality (cause again we cut education for 40 years)

For that matter, also the War on Drugs when it comes to dumb expensive harmful wars that don’t ever effect anything other than increasingly militarizing the police department.  

3) The Crash.  You are right, the economy did improve after Obama and the country is so much stronger than it was after 2008, but most of that economic growth came in the urban areas not the rural and while better it is still really shit for about 50% of Americans who live paycheck to paycheck.   The fact that the Crash was caused by Reagan/Bush/Clinton/Bush’ own incompetent policies and NOBODY was punished for it is still galling, that Wall Street and the banks fucked over the economy for their own personal gain and basically got off scot free for it is really infuriating, and the things that got us into this mess….haven’t really been changed.  Cause money in politics 

4) Money in politics, our political class is an absolute joke.  The fact is that the rich and the corporate wield absurd amounts of influence in American politics and there doesn’t really seem to be anything the people of the US can do about it, its just a nightmare.  There are thousands of easy obvious solutions to problems in the US which could be solved and….they aren’t, because some rich asshole makes more problem by that problem existing or doesn’t want to pay taxes 

5) An outdated political structure, the actual political system of the US is a mess, it doesn’t work as intended and is designed so that the useless shits who are currently in power stay in power while doing as little as possible.  Look at things like the Two Party System, the Primary System, the Electoral College, the structure of the Senate, First Past the Post Voting, Gerrymandering, the Filibuster, the makeup of the Supreme Court, or the military industrial complex and tell me that any of that shit makes sense, its a nightmare, it needs reform and nobody is going to do it because anybody who actually wins using these broken terrible rules they are incentives  to not fix them, because after all…they won that way.  People feel quite rightly that they have very little say over what their goverment does and the last 16 years in particular have just been that on open display to everyone . LIke everybody knows that the War on Terror and the War on Drugs don’t work, but nobody stops it because the political system disincentives politicians from actually solving problems.  

6) Racism……racism, like…..racism.  The US is a deeply racist country, the Civil Rights movement wasn’t very long ago and there is a segment of this population who really wish that  the Civil Rights movement never happened.  To them, the fact that a black man was in office for 8 years, a black man named Barrack Hussein Obama, scared and enraged them, almost as much as the knowledge that thanks to Latino immigration the US is becoming less and less white.  To people who have thoroughly internalized the racial caste system, the knowledge that they might not have the automatic power and privilege that comes with being white in the US scares them, and Obama’s existence is living proof to how much the country is changing.  Combine that with a growing self confident and  assertive new civil rights movement in Black Lives matter and a lot of racists fear that the power that comes with being white in this country might be stripped from them . There was an interesting study where white people believed the number of Blacks and Latinos were at 20% and 25% respectively, when in reality it is 14% and 17%, there is a racist backlash to the thought of a changing nation.  This happens all the time btw, much of  most violent  racism always comes not when a group is so small it is almost unnoticeable, or when the group is large enough to defend itself, but when that group is large enough to establish themselves but not large enough to defend themselves.  

7) Finally it must be said, a polarized nation makes a lot of money for a lot of people, and by a lot of people I of course mean Rupert Murdoch.  A lot of core Trump supporters would actually like the Democratic party based on certain principles, wellfare most notably, but they can’t see it that way, they are constantly being riled up by the Right Wing media machine, and this is true to a lesser extent on the left and center.  Outrage and fear makes money, and ever since the US News Media have been corporately owned (thanks Reagan…thanks a lot) there is a whole industry based on peddling to humanity lowest urges and encouraging their worse behavior.  Cause here is the thing, Fox News makes money when it depicts Obama as a secret terrorist Socialist Communist hoping to kill all the whites.  If the US went to war with Iran, Fox New’s investors would cheer because that makes more money it is simply more profitably to have a divided nation than a united one.  I mean think about how the Gun industry’s main selling point i “Fuck those liberals” you buy a gun as much to piss off the imagined liberal boogie men as you do for other reasons, and this is true to a lesser degree to the left.  

TLDR: America has been adopting a “Kick the can down the road” approach and in 2016 the road has been blocked by a giant mountain of cans and we crashed the car.  

#Ask EvilElitest2

[aion-rsa]

Marvel’s Loki Episode 2: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide

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This article contains major spoilers for Marvel’s Loki episode 2, potentially future episodes, and the wider MCU.

Marvel’s Loki episode 2, “The Variant,” wastes absolutely no time. And like some of the best Marvel TV efforts, the Easter eggs and references are numerous, but not all of them are obvious. In fact, a lot of them don’t even necessarily pertain to the MCU! Loki is having fun with genre, TV formulas, and the very notions of time travel itself, so looking to the pages of Marvel Comics isn’t quite enough.

Here’s everything we’ve found so far, and if you spot anything we missed, be sure to let us know!

The Renaissance Fair

The Renaissance Fair takes place on April 12, 1985…in Oshkosh, WI. Why Oshkosh? It could very well be because that’s the place where legendary Marvel writer/editor Mark Gruenwald, the man who is the basis for Agent Mobius, was born! 

Now, anyone have any ideas why that date might be significant…other than it being the opening date of Return of the Living Dead?

The Renaissance Fair setting of the opening feels like a nod to early Thor and Loki comics, where Stan Lee’s overblown faux-Shakespearean dialogue felt like the kind of fun put-on you would find at a RenFaire.

The poor Ren Faire actress who is sad to see the TVA in their futuristic garb is played by Kate Berlant. Like fellow Loki actor Eugene Cordero, she comes from a comedy background and you may have seen (or heard) her in Search Party, The Good Place, and BoJack Horseman.

Holding Out for a Hero

Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding Out for a Hero” plays during the pre-credits Renaissance Fair sequence. This song is EVERYWHERE at the moment, but its connection to the MCU is at least twofold. There’s this incredible Thor: Ragnarok fan edit that went viral back in 2018, and then there’s the fact that the ’80s banger was originally recorded for the Footloose soundtrack …aka Star-Lord’s favorite film.

Meanwhile…at TVA HQ…

The TVA’s commitment to outmoded technology is on full display on Mobius’ desk next to that old computer terminal, with an actual hourglass instead of a clock.

The jacket that says VARIANT is like the PRISONER prominently displayed on the back of orange jumpsuits.

In the TVA Nexus Event Report we learn that TVA Agents are called Minutemen. Because of course they are.

There’s a hilariously dystopian poster in the TVA commissary that says “the timeline won’t wait for seconds,” exhorting people not to linger on their lunch breaks.

Since we found out last week that Casey doesn’t know what a fish is, we can reasonably conclude that Agent Mobius isn’t eating a Caesar salad, the dressing of which is made with anchovies. 

Running off the Josta gag that started in episode 1 (and continues here), where the TVA consumes discontinued food items as well, we have a Boku juice box. Boku was on shelves from about 1990-2003, and was like a juice box for grownups.

Miss Minutes

Even the computer terminals at the TVA display readouts in Miss Minutes’ accent. On Loki’s screen you can see “let’s see what ya know!”

Jet Skis, the Universe, and Everything

Loki appears to be reading something called Wake magazine, volume 26, #4. Like many things in the TVA, this appears to be a vintage magazine rather than one being published currently. Probably at the height of the jet ski craze of the early ’90s. We’re reasonably sure this is a fake magazine, but haven’t been able to verify it. Yet.

LOKI VARIANTS 

For the sake of keeping all of these straight, we’re just cataloging the Loki variant numbers for you. Here they are…

“Our” Loki  = L6792

“Athlete” Loki = L1247 (you know he cheats…and this image seems to be from a familiar photo)

“Horny” Loki (sorry) = L6795

“Party” Loki = L8914

“Warrior” Loki = L7803

The Lady Loki/Sylvie variant appears to be L1130. More on her down below!

If you’ve got any ideas about the significance of these numbers, please let us know!

Loki explaining the differences between particular magical abilities feels very much like anyone who has ever played D&D with someone who REALLY knows their stuff and/or is a bit of a “rules lawyer.”

Loki tells the TVA hunters that “where there are wolf’s ears, wolf’s teeth are near.” At first glance, this is just a charming Loki-ism in which he celebrates how cool and dangerous his Variant is. It also, however, is an homage to the “real” Loki of Norse mythology. That Loki has some latent lupine characteristics to the point that he fathered the giant wolf, Fenrir.

The FDR High School pen is…probably nothing. The school was established in Brooklyn in 1965, so there’s obviously no chance Steve Rogers went there. We’re trying to figure out if a Loki or Marvel-related creator went to high school there, but so far…no luck.

Also, is it us, or does the Timekeeper’s armor in Ravonna’s office look a LOT like a Dr. Doom mask?

The Destruction of Asgard

Just a few notes from the “destruction of Asgard” paperwork…

File IPB-ASG-001

Note the “Revengers” codename mentioned from Thor: Ragnarok

Asgard’s population was 9,719…not really an Easter egg, just kind of a cool and useless fact.

Destruction of Asgard was a “class  7 apocalypse” yet the hurricane later in the episode was a “class 10.” More on this in a minute…

Pompeii and Other Apocalypses

The destruction of Pompeii not only is a horrific historical moment, it’s also the basis for one of the greatest concert films of all time, the moody and bizarre Pink Floyd: Live at Pompeii.

Almost all of the apocalypses Loki and Mobius find between 2047-2051 are climate related. The climate disaster of 2048, extinction of the swallow in 2050, the tsunami of 2051…and of course the fact that the hurricane hitting Alabama in 2050 is a “Category 8.” At the moment, in our real/modern world, hurricane classifications only go up to “5” and 5s are becoming more common. Oh no.

Roxxcart

Originally created by Steve Engleheart and Sal Buscema in a 1974 issue of Captain America, Roxxon (loosely based on Exxon – weird how some folks knew they were evil in the ‘70s) eventually moved beyond its petrochemical roots and became a stand in for all evil corporations in general, which is why they map so neatly onto Amazon here. Roxxon has regularly come into conflict with Thor, most recently when they were headed by actual minotaur Daario Agger in the Thor: God of Thunder–War of the Realms run by Jason Aaron and several incredible artists.

Hunter B-15 notes that the events in Roxxcart represent a “Class 10 apocalypse.” It’s interesting that the TVA recognizes multiple severities of apocalypses as the apocalypse is supposed to be a singular event: the end of the world. If the Roxxcart hurricane is a “Class 10” then the TVA’s classification system must recognize Class 1 as the most severe, since this is relatively mild as apocalypses go. It’s also worth noting that similar classification systems for tornadoes and hurricanes both go up to only “Category 5”.

Haven Hills, AL appears to be fictional, but there is a Haven Hills Farms near Mobile, AL, and Mobile certainly would be vulnerable to the kind of storm surge damage that we seem to be seeing in this episode.

Lady Loki…or Sylvie?

A Lady Loki isn’t new or all that surprising, as there is precedent for Loki taking on a woman’s form for at least the last 15 years of comics. But it also…might not be Lady Loki after all.

Sylvie Lushton was a regular human living in Broxton, Oklahoma, until one day shortly after Asgard reappeared over her hometown (following Ragnarok). Long story short, Loki gave her powers just to mess with her.

It’s complicated, so we have much more on who our mysterious variant is here.

The Branching Timeline

These are the places mentioned as the timeline starts to branch. Something tells us we’re going to be visiting most of these places.

Vormir:  the location of the Soul Stone. We saw this teased in the early trailers, as well.

Asgard: This shouldn’t need any further explanation why this show might bring us there.

Jotunheim: the realm of the Frost Giants. Might we get an It’s A Wonderful Life style look at a life for Loki that might have been?

Hala: The Kree homeworld, a place that certainly won’t be getting any LESS significant to the MCU any time soon going forward!

Xandar: the homeworld/headquarters of the Nova Corps (of Guardians of the Galaxy fame). We’re probably due to eventually get more Nova stuff in the MCU down the line, so perhaps we’ll get a glimpse of that here.

Ego: Kurt Russell, cosmic deadbeat dad extraordinaire, from Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2.

Titan: The homeworld of the dreaded Thanos. uh-oh…

Miscellanous Time Fragments

Mobius refers to Loki as an “ice runt” during his “scared little boy, shivering in the cold” speech. It feels pretty rare that we get direct references to Loki’s frost giant roots in the MCU these days. Based on the Jotunheim reference above, there’s probably more coming, though…

The woman that Loki has to deal with in charge of the file room desk feels like a live-action Roz from Monsters Inc., which is a super fun touch.

The beginning of Loki and Sylvie’s face-off reminds us of the Kermit the Frog vs. Hooded Kermit the Frog meme, and that’s just a treat. 

Before they deploy to Alabama, Mobius hands Loki his trusty twin daggers…which are promptly confiscated again.

The locker room number where Mobius’ locker is #26. 2/6 as in Number 2 and Number 6 from The Prisoner?

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Spot anything we missed? Let us know in the comments!

The post Marvel’s Loki Episode 2: MCU Easter Eggs and Reference Guide appeared first on Den of Geek.

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