#because I don’t know the ins and outs of the case which is why I haven’t spoken on this before

[sebsrainbowbicycle]

Whats your opinion on the whole Christian Horner thing?

Let me preface this by saying, I have intentionally stayed away from this subject for many reasons, but given there was an outcome of the investigation today, and some of the information I’ve seen here throughout the past weeks, now is as good a time as any to respond to this ask I got weeks ago. This is not, nor will I be offering in the future, my opinion on whether Horner is guilty of the accusations or not. I just want to maybe provide context, and information from my experience and career thus far, that might help people understand, and also my opinion on the reaction from people. Caveat - I am not a lawyer, nor will I go into specifics of my current or previous job, however I worked in the legal profession where I worked on legal cases, reviewed evidence, and made submissions and recommendations that went in front of Judges.

Okay my thoughts. My thoughts are that an internal investigation that should have remained private for all parties involved, especially the alleged victim(s), was leaked and used as clickbait and gossip by the media and people on here and other social media sites. I think people decided guilt without having any genuine information, without seeing the evidence and without any credible sources. I think were the person being accused a different member of the paddock that the reaction would have been different. I think people used this to virtue signal and cry out about what good people they are. I think people that constantly say that the media and journalists shouldn’t be trusted, fed into a feeding frenzy that led to the name of the alleged victim(s) being published, which will undoubtedly impact them for the rest of their lives.

Onto specific things I have seen that I’d like to offer my take on:

Christian allegedly offering the victim a sum of money - First of all, for anyone who has a certain amount of wealth, especially those in the public eye, this is a usual occurrence. You try to avoid an investigation by any means possible, whether you’re innocent or guilty, because a) it’s easier and usually cheaper in the long run, b) pr and public image are damaged by even unfounded accusations and these things can run on for an extremely long time, and c) trial by media is a thing, and innocent people get tarnished for the rest of their lives because of something they were accused of. Now, I’m not saying any of those are why the offer was allegedly made, but those are some of the reasons. Companies do the same thing, when someone has an accident at work and hurts themselves, even if the company do not believe themselves to be at fault they will make a settlement offer, to avoid any legal back and forth. Settlements are not an admission of guilt, but a way to make something go away quickly.

Said money being why the investigation “went away” - I saw a quote that said “the grievance has been dismissed”, that means there was a finding, not that it was withdrawn. even so, this was a red bull investigation carried out by an external barrister. Once the company were made aware of the allegations, their investigation is independent of either party involved, so even if the alleged victim(s) withdrew their grievance, the company would still have a duty of care to ensure that any inappropriate behaviour or actions were identified, investigated and addressed. Most importantly, red bull want to protect themselves legally, and following the procedures and carrying out a thorough investigation, which would identify if they were potentially exposed to risk, is how they do that.

How can they ignore 100’s of pieces of evidence - We don’t know that they did. It was reported, but never confirmed that there was over 100 pieces of evidence submitted, so this is absolute hearsay. Further, I would be extremely surprised if the investigation ignored any piece of evidence, given the ramifications of an incorrect or improper investigation. Also I think it’s really important to say that evidence does not equal guilt or that one party to the proceedings is correct. Allow me to provide you with a personal example. I worked on a case where there was over 5000 pages of evidence submitted into a legal bundle. Approximately 4000 of those were from the appellant who argued that the other party had acted incorrectly. (forgive my vagueness here I’m not about to doxx myself). 4000 pages of evidence, which I reviewed and made a decision that I did not support their argument. The judge agreed with me also. Evidence can be subjective, and sometimes it can be completely irrelevant. The presence, and submission of evidence is to support one sides view of things, the other side will have their own, and both are examined and balanced and decisions made on that and sometimes also on other independent investigation.

The investigation is private and cannot be shared - This is law. GDPR in fact because this is occurring within Europe. I’m literally spending this entire week on a GDPR course, and have an exam on Friday, so I really don’t want to go on about legal basis and restrictions for sharing personal data, but let me tell you it’s for good reason, especially with investigations like this. All parties involved in this have a legal right to privacy, covered by the human rights act, and unless there is a compelling legal reason why their data should be shared, then it can’t be without their explicit consent. Simple as. And that’s disregarding that there will be confidential company information within the investigation that also cannot be shared.

Horner committed a crime - given that we do not know the specifics of what occurred we simply don’t have enough information to know this, HOWEVER, from the information I have read, and by the fact that I have not seen an indication that the police have been involved with this, nor are they carrying out their own investigation, I am working under the assumption that no law has been broken.

tl;dr - These are real people’s lives, we are not involved and we have no right to know anything. This isn’t salacious gossip, and it’s not a fun thing to band around and use as a stick to beat people with to prove how good we are. Processes and investigations like this should be private, and basing things on hearsay and unscrupulous reporters does more damage to any alleged victims than good. Having seen how fans and social media have treated this investigation, do you think that makes any other alleged victims want to come forwards? I think not. But that’s just me.

#honestly I know some people are gonna think this is me publicly takkng a side but this is impartiality #because I don’t know the ins and outs of the case which is why I haven’t spoken on this before #people who know me know what side of the line I fall on #but this amount of misunderstanding wilful or not has been driving me insane #and how this has been treated like cheap gossip is frankly disgusting to me and some of you should be ashamed #ask #anon #Dee talks #Christian Horner

[forlovvers]

( under my umbrella )

pair: soobin x gn!reader | genre: fluff, meet-cute (kinda) ! | warning(s): heavy rain? | synopsis: in which a kind stranger shares his umbrella with you.

lynne’s note🗒️: this was way longer than intended

your class had just gotten out. your acquaintances rushing out of the lecture room to make haste to their part-time jobs, or blind dates, or just to plainly fall asleep in their uncomfortable dorm bed.

stuffing your notes into your bag, you stumble outside with the crowd, but are instantly stopped behind someone else and you mutter a small “sorry,” to which you think they probably don’t hear it. you’re pushed against somebody’s back and somebody’s pushed against your back, it feels like being stuffed on the early morning train all over again.

you raise your head to see what’s all the fuss about and just outside the awning of the building, there’s pounds and pounds of rain. it’s coming down heavy and students are opening umbrellas, using their backpacks as shields or simply running at the speed of light to the next nearby shelter.

a sigh escapes your lips as you open your bag again, rummaging for an umbrella that you hopefully stuck in there just in case. you’re there searching through your bag for long enough because when you look back up there’s only a couple students lingering around.

another sigh, along with a frown that paints your face. you really wish it didn’t have to come down to this. you situate your bag onto your back and zip your hoodie up all the way, tugging the hood over head. and then, like a soldier bracing for battle, you ran out into the rain.

immediately the rain poured through your hoodie and soaked into your socks. you were more than displeased and you could feel more small puddles form in the bottom of your shoes.

it isn’t until you look up and see the thundering grey sky had been replaced with the innings of a white, cartoon bunny umbrella. the rain was loud, but it seems to have a contender because your heart pounds louder with every passing second.

you look up to see who was your savior from the treacherous downpour and the most beautiful man you could imagine, was standing right in front of you, holding his comically small umbrella just over your head. his hair is blonde and drenched by the rain, along with his uni hoodie and black-framed glasses. he seemed familiar in a way you couldn’t remember.

and without thinking you grab his arm and pull him under the umbrella with you. i mean, you couldn’t just let your savior get drenched. your body is flushed against his and you can feel your cheeks get hot. you can tell he’s surprised by the sudden proximity because he stumbles a bit before stepping back and giving you space. you notice his cheeks are pink too.

the tall stranger’s brows are drawn together with worry and his free hand raises up to scratch the nape of his neck. “y/n, are you okay?” his voice is gentle, and yet loud enough to reach to you over the rain. wait a second, how does he know your name?

he reads the confusion across your face and immediately explains himself, pointing at his chest in hopes you’d remember him. “i’m soobin— choi soobin? beomgyu’s roomate,” he says, in a defeated tone.

you squint your eyes and scrutinize his face, running through your mind palace to look for him. and then you remember. you saw just a silver of him that time you were at beomgyu’s place, and realize during that time his hair was jet-black. you had to say, the blonde did him wonders.

“right. sorry i didn’t recognize you— your hair, it’s different.” you apologize, even though there’s really nothing to apologize for. he waves you off, and you get a glimpse of the deep dimples in his cheeks.

“erm, could you hold this?” soobin lets you take the umbrella from him and you make sure to hold it high enough for it to cover his head to. you aren’t sure why he asks you to hold it, but you get your answer when he reaches his hands out and smooths out your hair, brushing your wet bangs out of your face.

he takes the umbrella back and you aren’t sure if it’s the rain or just him, because being next to soobin makes you feel lightheaded. just looking at him makes your heart hurt.

“do you need me to walk you back to your dorm?” soobin looks like he wants you to say yes, so you do. you weren’t going to pass up the man of your dreams walking you back to your dorms.

the walk back is comforting. you can smell his shampoo, a scent that is almost like marshmallows and your shoulders brush by each other too often for him to not notice but he doesn’t seem to mind. and neither do you.

“i like your umbrella.” you say to break the silence. the rain had quieted down and it was just a soft pitter-patter to accompany your words. it’s almost like the rain knew.

he looks up at his umbrella and smiles sheepishly, “yeah, kai got it for me as a gift.” his fingers drum against the umbrella handle rhythmically to the rain and you can’t help but admire at him. his hair is still wet from the rain and his cheeks are dusted a baby pink. he must feel you staring because he clears his throat and asks, “which is your dorm?”

you’re caught off guard when soobin turns to fully look at you and his eyes are filled with a certain glint you just can’t place. your cheeks are on fire at this point. “it’s this one,” you point at a door near to where your standing. “thank you for walking me.”

soobin smiles again, showcasing his dimples, “of course, i would do it again. just let me know when.” he watches to make sure you get in safely and when he finally walks away, you lock your door and slide down it like it’s straight out of a rom-com.

you’re a giggling mess when you send a text to beomgyu letting him know you’re coming over tomorrow, definitely not to get choi soobin’s number.

#kpop #fanfic #imagines #fiction #txt #tomorrow x tomorrow #tomorrow by together #choi soobin #choi soobin x reader #soobin x reader #yeonjun #choi yeonjun #beomgyu #choi beomgyu #taehyun #kang taehyun #hueningkai #kai #txt x reader #txt imagines

[prince-kallisto]

I haven’t seen a post addressing this, but maybe it’s because this event happened such a long time ago?! But ever since Spectral Soirée, I cannot stop thinking about how the time works in Sage’s Island, or specifically, Night Raven College.

Malleus had the power to stop time WITHIN the barrier at NRC. So when he stopped time during the Halloween event, the rest of the world kept on going. The school was trapped in time. We don’t know how long the boys were inside the mirror realm in the event, but I’m piecing it together. At the very start of the event, Rook claims it should be 6 am. Already, the boys are 6 hours out of sync. But the boys spend a lot of time trying to figure out what is going on, and go through lots of trials in the mirror realm. A generous amount of hours should’ve passed during that.

Crowley also confirms this, as throughout the trials, the boys have been reporting to Crowley and the other teachers. But once the ghost party started at the end, they stopped communicating. So after being in the mirror realm for hours, the boys party for several hours too.

The party seems to go on all night too, as a ghost claims that they’ll dance “til dawn.”

When the boys finally leave the mirror realm, the sky is finally turning into day, and the time has changed to November 1st on their phones.

BUT THEY’RE WRONG. ITS ACTUALLY NOVEMBER 2ND AND THEY DON’T EVEN KNOW IT

THINK ABOUT IT. The event took place over many, many hours. And if they started to go into the mirror realm at 7 am (talking and prep time), they were in there for about 17 hours. Considering the exploration, fights, and the night long party, THIS ADDS UP

And the reason why their phones didn’t change back? Their phones were also trapped into the time spell- surely this messes with their internal clock. To all the phones in NRC, it is November 1st. But for the rest of the world, it’s November 2nd.

The game specifies that Malleus could only affect the inside of the barrier- the entire world didn’t stop because of his magic. The fact the boys escaped at dawn is such a convenient coincidence.

I was about to say that Malleus created his own time zone at NRC which is 24 hours apart from the rest of the world, BUT NOW IM DOUBTFUL

If this was the case, time should’ve returned back to the rest of Twisted Wonderland’s time. It means that once the time-barrier was broken, 24 hours should’ve passed in less than a second for the boys to return back to normal time. But DID this actually happen? Surely the effects of 24 hours passing in less than a second in this little area would have astronomical effects in the TWST world!

So what I’m thinking is that ITS NOT actually November 2nd for the boys. MALLEUS ARTIFICIALLY CREATED A POCKET DIMENSION WHERE TIME IS SET BACK 24 HOURS.

What does this mean?! Are the boys living a day younger than the rest of the world?! What happens when they leave the school premises?! Does everyone who enters the school premises suddenly age BACK a day?!

BASICALLY, NRC WILL ALWAYS BE SET INE DAY BACK FROM THE REST OF THE WORLD, NOT THROUGH A TIMEZONE, BUT NOW IN ITS OWN LITTLE POCKET DIMENSION THINGY

And I can just me generous and entertain the idea that time DID go back to normal so we don’t get into this spacetime, time travel nonsense. Either way, NRC now has its own timezone and NO ONE WILL REALIZE UNLESS THEY COMPARE THE TIME ON THEIR PHONES WITH AN OUTSIDER, AND NOTICE THAT THEIR PHONES ARE ALL SET A DAY BEHIND. JUST THINKING ABT THE ABSURDITY OF IT BECAUSE IF NRC PLANS EVENTS OR FUTURE SPELLDRIVE GAMES, ALL THEIR OUTSIDER GUESTS WILL ARRIVE A DAY EARLIER THAN THE SCHOOL PLANNED TO. FOR EXAMPLE, IF NRC HAD AN EVENT ON NOVEMBER 21st, ITS NOVEMBER 22nd FOR THE REST OF THE WORLD, SO EVERYONE ARRIVES A DAY EARLY. DISASTER ERUPTS YET AGAIN BECAUSE NRC HAD NO TIME TO PREPARE BECAUSE THEYRE LIVING IN A STUPID TIMEZONE BY ACCIDENT DUE TO MALLEUS

ID LIKE TO ADD THAT THIS IS TECHNICALLY NOT THAT ABSURD OF AN IDEA. SEVERAL COUNTRIES ON EARTH HAVE A TIME ZONE DIFFERENCE OF 24 HOURS, AND THE LARGEST TIMEZONE DIFFERENCE IS 26 HOURS. WHATS ABSURD HERE IS THAT NRC AND RSA, TWO SCHOOLS ON TRHE SAME EXACT SMALL ISLAND, HAVE A TIME ZONE DIFFERENCE 24 HOURS APART

Am I just overthinking this?!? (YES ANDBDBD RAWRRRRR) Is this ever explained or elaborated on, because that is just??? BAFFLING. It’s probably just a plot hole that doesn’t matter at all, it was just a silly Halloween event, but literally all I do on my blog is overthink plot holes 🧍

#IM LOSING IT #I DONT BITE I PROMISE RARRRR #HELP HAS ANYONE ELSE EVER THIUGHT ABT THIS #twisted wonderland #twst #twst malleus draconia #twst malleus #twst halloween #twst spectral soirée #twst theory #kallistopost

[rosewaterandivy]

https://youtube.com/shorts/QuNRoe29bPA?feature=share

Something like that? PLS

Love you <3

Wow, thanks so much for the request! I tweaked it a bit to fill one of the prompts from here, hope that's okay. Love you 💜

83. “Stay there. I’m coming to get you.”

When you told him what you and Eddie would be up to Saturday night, Steve groaned so loud you could swear the couch vibrated.

You can’t be serious. And leaving me at the mercy of the gremlins?

“Yes,” you grin, “I’m sure the Harrington babysitting service can handle it.” And then you’re off to get ready for the party. “Knowing you, you’ll probably have some hot date booked for after you’ve dropped the gremlins off.”

It’s not that Steve worries, really he doesn’t, because you’ll be with Eddie and Robin will show up at some point, so at least you’ll be safe. But Saturdays were for movies with the party, taking full advantage of Steve and Robin’s (five-fingered) employee discount at Family Video and hanging out.

Recently, it’s been the only time when he can see you—busy with work and classes and helping Eddie with his GED. All your free time was accounted for, used up, leaving nothing left for him.

He tried (and failed) to be accommodating about it.

This resulted in frequent calls to your house, which your mother or father usually answered with thinly veiled annoyance (Sorry Steve, she just left. No, I don’t know when she’ll be back), interrupted study sessions at Forest Hills (Eddie’s exasperated, ‘Dude, what the fuck. You’re infringing on my right to an education here.’), and drop-ins while you were working at the diner.

In short, it was becoming a problem.

So when you mentioned, last minute mind you, that Eddie needed a hand dealing for a party this weekend and you’d agreed to help out, Steve took it about as well as could be expected.

Which is to say, not at all.

It’s bad enough that he’s making them watch Rocky IV, according to Dustin. But Steve pays him no mind and pops the tape into the VCR. The kids grumble and complain, but otherwise occupy themselves by half-watching the saga of Rocky and Drago.

His leg won’t stop bouncing as he reclines against the couch. It continues for the whole movie. When the film concludes with Apollo’s tragic demise, Max starts sorting through the rest of the tapes.

“What else is in here?” Throws out a few titles as she sees them, The Color Purple, 101 Dalmations, Out of Africa—

“Nope!”

Steve nearly hip checks Lucas in his haste to wrestle the tape from Max. They grapple for a bit, nearly coming to blows but Steve’s not about to hit a child and a girl at that. This sense of chivalry does not stop Max from smacking him upside the head, but he’s victorious in the end.

“And why can’t we watch that particular one?” Dustin ventures with a curious glance to Lucas before Steve settles back on the couch between them.

“I’ll, uh,” he stashes the tape behind the sofa, wedges its case against the wall. “Tell you when you’re older.”

Dustin and Lucas continue to eye each other warily.

Then El pipes up, “Friends don’t lie.” And before Steve can stop her from what will inevitably be an embarrassing calamity—

“It’s a … sad movie,” she continues, “The last time he watched it, he cried.”

Oh. Shit.

He wants nothing more than to bash his head against the wall, but can’t risk another concussion according to the doctors and literally everyone else. Maybe the earth could swallow him whole instead? Anything to end this humiliation.

“Didn’t you watch that with—” Mike begins, because he is an asshole.

“Oh yeah,” Dustin confirms, “They watched it like, a few weeks ago. I mean, her crying I get,” he turns to Steve, an incredulous look on his face, “But you—”

“Robert Redford is a good actor, okay?” He rushes to defend himself, “Very convincing.”

“Okaaayy,” Max drawls.

An uncomfortable silence ensues. The kids settle on watching Clue while Steve takes an opportunity to refill drinks and snacks. Tries to ignore the furtive whispers from the living room. Tries to focus on the popcorn in the microwave and not imagining what you may be up to at the house party with Eddie.

“Why don’t you just ask her out already?” Will says when Steve returns from the kitchen. 

The group falls silent, awaiting his response. Keep your cool, Harrington. He sets the bowl of popcorn on the table, doing his best to ignore Will’s probing question. Is almost successful until—

“Steve, you’re literally in love with her.”

He scoffs at Lucas’ blatant betrayal. Helped the kid practice everyday after school leading up to tryouts and this is how he’s repaid? 

“No,” he says with a tone to convey the end of this conversation. “We’re friends, just friends and that’s it.”

A beat of silence as everyone pretends to watch as Tim Curry greets the six strangers upon their arrival to the mansion.

Dustin coughs. “Friends don’t look at each other the way you look at her, Steve.”

“Oh my god.” Max looks like she wants to brain herself on the edge of the coffee table at the stupidity of it all. 

“Fuck off.” Steve huffs in annoyance, “Like I’m gonna take advice from a bunch of high schoolers.”

“Dude.”

“We’ve saved the world.”

“Like, multiple times.”

“And,” El annoyingly points out, “It’s good advice.”

Thankfully, Steve is saved by the bell. The phone trills its ring from somewhere beneath the couch cushions. Unable to find the cordless, he’s forced to answer it in the kitchen.

“Harrington residence.”

There’s music thumping and cross chatter down the line as he tries to make out who’s calling.

“Steve?”

“Rob, that you?”

A laugh, “Yeah, s’me. How you doin’ babe?”

Her voice has taken on that light, dreamy cadence it gets when she’s tipsy or high and, knowing her, it’s probably both.

“Uh, fine.” He turns to check on the kids in the living room, “Watching Clue. Did you need something?”

“Oh my god,” she rasps, “I love that movie!” A hiccup followed by a chuckle. “Nah, I’m good babe. I’m calling for someone else.”

He doesn’t know what to make of that.

“Rob, you know you called my house, right? The kids are here, if you wanna talk to them but—”

“Nonono Stevie,” she says in a rush, “M’callin’ about your girl.”

“My… girl.”

“Yep.”

The sounds of the phone being handed off to someone else. A few breaths and then, “Hi Steve.”

And oh.

Your voice is low and breathy through the phone, he can hear you giggling about something to Robin as you pull the speaker away from your mouth ‘I’m on the phone Buckley.’

He melts, just a bit. Because he knows that tone very well— when you fall asleep leaning against his shoulder during movie nights or take a brief nap sitting shotgun in his car, all raspy and sweet. 

“Hey honey,” he coos, voice incredibly fond. Steve turns, closing himself off from the din in the living room. “Y’doin’ okay?”

“Mmhm, tired though.”

“Is that right?’

A yawn. “Yeah,” he can hear the pout in your voice, “Rob doesn’t wanna leave yet and Eddie went upstairs with someone like, forever ago.”

Steve’s already grabbing his keys from the counter. “Stay with Robin, okay? I’m coming get you.”

“Thanks Stevie,” you sigh prettily, “You’re the best.”

_

Dustin (unhelpfully) advised him to get flowers before he left, so Steve put Max in charge, out of spite. Which unfortunately broke the levy for a barrage of romantic advice from literal children: hold the door, make eye contact, give her your jacket and be on the left side of the sidewalk.

It’d be endearing if it wasn’t so tragic.

He rolls up to the house to find not only Robin, but Eddie too, at your side seated on the sidewalk. He crosses the hood of the car as you stand with a soft smile, “Sorry Steve,” you say, less sloshed since the phone call, but still tired. “Didn’t mean to ruin your night.”

“C’mon honey,” he scoffs, “There’s no way you could ruin my night.” He ushers you to the passenger seat, arm around your waist. He can smell the beer from the keg and stale cigarettes on you, laced with the comforting scent your perfume. 

He shuts the door after reminding you to put on your seatbelt and turns back to Eddie and Robin. They look like they’re up to no good— Eddie’s smirking and got that glint in his eye that says he’ll be a problem, all the while Rob has a dopey grin on her face.

“She’s had water and we took the drinks from her a while ago,” Eddie says, waving back at you from the sidewalk. “Try to have her eat something.”

Steve rolls his eyes. Like he needs advice from a dungeon master on how to deal with a drunk.

Robin blinks owlishly, “Ooh, Hardee’s, get her that.”

Steve laughs as Eddie shepherds Robin away. Says something about not fucking it up and using protection. He can’t bring himself to care as he slides back into the car. The radio kicked on as he starts the car, David Byrne rhapsodizing about a girl as she was. 

He watched as you bop to the song in your seat, bringing an affectionate smile to his face— eyes closed, hair whipping back in the cool night breeze as you sing along. The axels squeak when Steve pulls into the drive-thru lane.

Try as he might to keep his gaze on you, to watch you a little longer, the intercom sputters to life—a young boy’s voice greeting mechanically but trying nonetheless to adhere to Hardee’s hospitality best he can.

The burger you’d gotten—medium, double meat, bacon, all toppings between—has completely fallen apart in a splat back onto the wax paper in your lap.

“Here, honey.”

He fumbles for napkins. But you wave his worries away, licking your fingers before diving in to deconstruct your food.

“Sorry—I promise I have my shit together.” Another giggle, “Not doing well here. Makin’ a mess your car and everything.”

“I, uh, I think you’re doin’ great.”

The words slip out before he can catch them and around a mouthful of fries, you thank him, and then you take a breath, and he can literally see you winding up for another enormous bite.

“Sorry,” you pause sheepishly, “M’ starving—skipped lunch on accident.” You take the enormous bite he saw coming, and then, “Also doesn’t help—mm—nervous.”

Steve chews on a fry and slurps his soda, driving with ease. “Nervous ‘bout what?”

You swallow and steal his drink, “Weren’t you on a date?”

He blinks.

You blink.

He blinks again.

“No, I was watching movies with the kids.”

His face is so hot that he thinks someone must have thrown a fire into him. Should he have just gone along with it instead? It’s old news by now that King Steve had turned in his crown for a walkie-talkie and chauffeuring a bunch of teens around.

A beat passes and he tries again, now at the end of the meal and the stain on your shirt starting to sink in and spread, heavy enough to dip toward the skin beneath. “Do you want to take your shirt off?”

You choke on soda and add another splatter down your chest, “What?”

“You can wear my jacket,” he clarifies. “Give it back later. I mean, if you…” He frowns. “Uh. Um.”

The beemer comes to a stop in front of he Harrington house. Lights still on in the living room signalling that the party is still there. 

You changed out of your shirt, ducking down in the front seat bashfully (“Look away, damn it.”), your old t-shirt in a crumple inside his pocket. His jacket hung a bit loose, but zipped up all the way and it was a good enough cover for a while.

There’s a smear of grease on your cheek from the burger and Steve knows it’s just a personality trait at this point. He laughs when you stick your tongue out, trying to find exactly where it is before giving up and asking him to wipe it off.

He shoves his hands in his pocket afterwards, thumb jammed inside his fist like a souvenir, keeping it there the rest of the walk up the drive, all the way up to the front door of his house before he wonders if he should have been trying to hold your hand.

Maybe not.

“I missed this,” he says, brushing his shoulder against yours.

You hum, knocking your hip against his. “Thanks for dinner,” you say, looking up at him.

“Yeah, of course.”

“And picking me up.” A beat passes. “And the jacket, too. It’s really nice… comfortable and, uh, smells… good. Like, cinnamon and… nice body wash and… trees.” You make a queasy face and close your eyes for a second, pinching the bridge of your nose uncomfortably as Steve looks on.

Oh, he realizes. You must be woozy.

Oh, he realizes. You’re gonna hurl.

“Steve,” Your voice is small and tight, and you look like you’re struggling to take steadying breaths. “I gotta sit down.”

“Right,” he replies. You laugh, rubbing the back of your neck before he turns and unlocks the door.

The kids are passed out on the sofa and reclining chairs in the living room. He locks the door and sneaks you upstairs, hands politely on your waist to steady you on your feet. Guides you to the left toward the guest bath and flips on the lights. 

“You alright?”

The fluorescents cast you in a hazy yellow glow, squinting at the bright light. You paw at the countertop for something, water? You turn to open a drawer and find a spare toothbrush— the blue one, yours, a freebie from a check-up and gloop some toothpaste on the bristles. With a nod in response, you begin to brush your teeth, faucet running as you fill a cup of water. 

Steve leaves you with a clean washcloth and towel, should you need them, and goes to check that his room isn’t a complete disaster. Bed sheets are clean-ish and he doesn’t have time to run them through the wash, though there’s always one of the guest rooms…

“Hey.”

He startles slightly, not hearing you walk in. You’ve toed off your shoes by the door and are looking sheepish, lip pulled between your teeth. “Can I borrow some clothes?”

“Yeah, sure.” 

Steve pulls open some drawers, rifling through for something for you to sleep in. Throws your top into his hamper while he’s at it. He turns back to you with a ‘Hawkins Athletics’ shirt that’s seen better days and a pair of flannel pajamas. Shoves them toward you awkwardly and then promptly turns around to let you have some privacy while you change.

“Thanks.”

He makes a strangled noise of confirmation and clears his throat. “No problem.”

Hearing the rustling of sheets, he turns back around and catches sight of your bare leg as you hunker down in his bed. Heat rushes to his cheeks when he spies the pajama pants neatly folded and placed on his nightstand. You turn on your side, burrowing and fluffing the pillows to your liking.

Steve makes quick work of brushing his teeth and getting ready for bed. Shoes by the door next to yours, jeans shucked into a pile by his desk, keeps his shirt on for the sake of decency, and slips in next to you. 

“I appreciate you coming to get me, y’didn’t have to do that.”

His arm drapes against your shoulder while you snuggle into him, casual affection being the norm between you two. He swallows thickly, tries to regulate his breathing when your hand rests against his chest.

“What’re friends for?”

“Hmm,” you consider for a moment. “Friends may not be the most accurate term.”

Steve bristles at that. 

“What do you mean?” He turns toward you, heart racing— did you not want to be friends anymore? Did he do something wrong?

Your face is impassive, blank. Steve couldn’t even begin to guess at what you’re thinking, is afraid to even try.

Then, you smile.

Fuck. That smile.

“S-so, not friends then?”

Steve is not a religious man, but he prays that your smile means what he thinks it does. Slowly reaching toward you, he brushes a lock of hair from your face, fingers grazing your cheek. 

Mischievously, you lean in, touch him soft on the lips and every beat of his pulse seems to be seeking out the sweet plush of your mouth. “If we were just friends, I shouldn’t wanna kiss you so bad, but we both seem to be … not good… at following decorum, so…” Your eyes light up teasingly, “What d’ya say?”

Steve makes a noise like a whimper. Wow. Babysitter extraordinaire with a bat of nails under his bed and it’s your smile that does him in.

You kiss him again, longer than the last, giggling softly and tugging on his bottom lip like you could pull his entire body toward you with just that. “I’m sure we could find a few more rules to break.”

#steve harrington fanfiction #steve harrington x you #steve harrington x reader #steve harrington #stranger things fanfiction #reader insert #ways to say #steve harrington fluff

[trojanteapot]

The writing blindspots in Infinity Train with respect to race

To get this out of the way, I love Infinity Train! It’s one of my favourite shows! I started writing fanfiction because of this show, and it still inspires me every day. 

I really do think that Infinity Train as a whole is a very thought provoking children’s show and I applaud it for exploring darker themes relevant to psychology and psychological well-being, which are topics often overlooked not just in children’s media but for adult media as well. However, I do want people to acknowledge some of its shortcomings, especially because it is a show that is dealing with such heavy and complex topics, and also positions its human characters as coming from a world which is pretty much a stand-in for our own.

Now I know that the storyboard artists for Infinity Train were quite diverse, but I don’t really know if it’s the same for the writer's room. The reason why is that as a POC viewer, it really does seem obvious to me from the way that the POC characters were written pre-season 4, that their race was mostly an afterthought.

Okay and to be perfectly clear, this is NOT A BAD THING. This is just a neutral thing. Obviously we don’t need every single story with POC characters to have to be about their experience as a specific racialized person. There are experiences that are shared among everybody no matter what race they are. I am not saying that you need to do super in-depth research into every single cultural nuance of every ethnic minority before writing them. It depends on if you really want to delve into how their heritage or traditions or specific life experiences inform their character arc. Not every character arc is about that. And it shouldn’t be!

With that being said, I do think that perhaps the writers should have tried to consider asking themselves very basic surface level questions on how being non-white would inform the problems and conflicts their characters would face. They don't need to know the ins and outs of each culture for each of their characters, but they could have just asked “How would I feel/react to others if people made weird assumptions about me based on my race? How differently would my parents raise me if they were afraid of prejudice or discrimination?” I think they should have reflected on that before setting in stone the backstories for their POC characters, especially with respect to Grace.

Part 1: GRACE'S PARENTS

So I am not Black myself, but I have had many conversations about Grace with one of my friends in fandom who is Black, and we both do get the sense that Grace’s race was very much just an afterthought to her characterization. To be clear, this is NOT because she has very wealthy parents. I am well aware that there are Black Americans with generational wealth. However, knowing what we know about affluent Black people in the real world, how Grace’s parents treated her makes absolutely no sense.

For example, among extremely wealthy people of any race, networking and knowing the right people is of the utmost importance. This is why so many rich people send their kids to prestigious private schools so their kids can get a heads start on knowing the progeny of other one-percenters. If you look up famous people with famous kids, chances are you’ll see a list of all of the very exclusive private academies that they all went to (looking at you, The Strokes). This is the case for wealthy people of all backgrounds, not just white people. And honestly, I imagine that the pressure is at least double for the kids of wealthy POC parents to get to know the right people as early as possible to be able to open as many doors as possible, in order to mitigate the inherent disadvantage of being a racialized person.

But what did Grace’s parents do? According to her, they never sent her to school of any kind, only having private tutors teach her, and her ballet instructor only made her join the other kids in her class once for a recital or something? This is, for lack of a better term... buck wild.

In addition, her parents are American diplomats. Diplomacy is an extremely people-oriented position. If anything, her parents would want her to not only be in the best private school, but to be the best student in school, to know the best people, to join the school clubs that all the other diplomats’ kids are in, and train her from a young age to be a social butterfly. Yes I know that diplomats will often leave their home country and be stationed somewhere else for long durations, and yes their kids could be taken out of school then, but some diplomats just enroll them in a different institution in the visiting country, or not take them out of school at all. This is what the IB Program was invented for, actually. Her parents being diplomats does not justify never enrolling Grace in school. In fact, it makes it less justifiable. 

The fact that they did the extreme opposite of that is so illogical to me that I wonder if perhaps the writers just cobbled together a whole bunch of tropes that they think apply to rich people without actually checking if any of it makes sense, doubly so for rich people who are non-white.

I think the reason why is because they wanted Grace’s parents to stifle her growth and her natural social skills, but on the Train, she can be who she truly is. I definitely agree that Grace finding herself and being able to truly blossom into the girlboss she is on the Train is a great plot point from a characterization perspective. However, I do not think that it should be because she was being stifled by her parents. The solution is staring the writers right in their face, but they can’t see it because it’s a blindspot for them.

What they should have gone with is: Grace's inability to become a social butterfly and a queen bee in her daily life is because she is a dark-skinned Black girl!!!

Her parents have extremely high expectations for her socially. They could have pushed her to make friends with kids she didn’t like just because they wanted to be on better terms with their parents for networking or diplomacy purposes – which they could have shown with that one girl from her ballet class. Missed opportunity! But no matter how hard Grace tries, she will never be seen as the perfect girl because of other people’s assumptions about her just based on her race. 

Once she’s on the Train, Grace then uses her people skills and finds that they’re a lot more effective there, because it’s no longer Earth’s society, it’s a different world, literally! Plus this even allows her to be a little bit more mean, a little bit more honest, something she wouldn’t be able to get away with in the real world without being punished for it harder than her white peers. We already see hints of this with how she interacts with Simon, a white guy who is the same age as her. 

CAVEAT: The dialogue where Grace reveals that she never went to school was something that she told Hazel in a private conversation. So it could be that she did go to school, but lied about it to seem more relatable to Hazel, who had never been around other kids before. Lying is in character for Grace because she would pretty much do anything to get on somebody’s good side. But the way that they had her voice actress deliver those lines, and the way that her expression changes when she talks about how lonely she was indicates that she was telling the truth. To be charitable, I suppose we can land on the reading that Grace told Hazel a half-truth. She did go to school, but she was frequently taken out of class or skipped semesters because of her parents’ jobs as diplomats. So her loneliness in that instant is at the very least truthful. Your mileage is going to vary on this interpretation of course.

This points to a weakness that I can sort of see in Infinity Train in general, where they push societal problems into purely the realm of personal failings. “It’s not because of society that Grace couldn’t succeed, it was solely due to her abusive parents” being just one example. 

Never forget this monologue from a Black father to his daughter in Scandal:

Part 2: JESSE'S ARC WAS PRETTY GOOD THOUGH

The thing is they actually did write a POC character having to deal with a problem that was society-oriented quite well, at least in my view. Although, I am still pretty sure it was still coming from a race-blind method of writing the characters. Otherwise I feel like Jesse’s status as an Indigenous American would have come up more than a grand total of one time. That they could do this well for Jesse makes the fact that they didn’t do the same for Grace quite disappointing. 

Jesse’s main issue that he had to overcome was he kept caving to peer pressure and had trouble saying no to others for fear of disappointment. Now, this problem is universal, and it’s not solely something that is specific to Jesse’s race or ethnicity or cultural background. In fact, I am quite certain that they wrote Jesse as a character without even considering that this problem he faces is relatable to POC experiences. But I definitely know a lot of POC in my life who do take on more responsibilities than they can manage, or feel a higher pressure to fit in with their peers. Hell, I’m that POC in many cases! It’s kind of like background radiation to us as minorities that we just have to do more emotional labour in order to be seen as equals. That’s just the reality of the situation. You can understand and relate to Jesse’s problem without being Indigenous/Native American, but at the same time it feels like a natural problem for him to have, because he is non-white!

I will admit that a personal blind spot of mine is I don't know and haven't had the chance to speak to too many Indigenous people, so there could be aspects of Jesse's arc that don't really make sense. If you are somebody who knows more than me, please feel free to correct me! I would love to hear how you felt about Jesse's characterization and arc as an Indigenous person!

Part 3: SEASON 4, THE ASIANS 

Alright now it's time to tackle stuff that I actually could have any ounce of authority talking about? Which is how they wrote Ryan and Min-Gi in Book 4. I myself am Asian-Canadian. Specifically, I am a first generation Chinese-Canadian but I've been in Canada since I was six so I find a lot of the experiences of second generation Asian-Canadians more relatable to me. In addition, my partner is fourth generation Japanese-Canadian, so his dad would be the same generation as Ryan's dad. (I also am really really into rock music, but that's besides the point.)

What they got right:

So first off, I could tell that they really did consult Asian people in writing this season, so good on them! The difference in how Ryan’s parents raised him in contrast to Min-Gi’s parents felt very natural and realistic to me. Ryan’s family is more westernized and has assimilated more into broader Canadian culture. 

The fact that Ryan has an English name and not a Japanese name immediately shows that. Min-Gi’s parents not choosing an English name for him is a bit of a surprise; very few Asian immigrants go without an English name back in the 20th century. Even nowadays it’s extremely common for us to go by English or Western names that we, or our parents chose, instead of names in our native language. But there are good reasons to not choose an English name. Perhaps Min-Gi’s parents wanted him to have a closer tie to his Korean roots, or perhaps if they travelled back to Korea to visit family it would be easier for them. 

Also, Min-Gi’s parents not supporting his dream of becoming a musician and want him to get a stable job in… I think it was finance? Definitely true back then as it is today. I’m not entirely sure how Ryan’s parents feel about his life choices, and we’ll get into that later.

The character arcs for Ryan and Min-Gi are excellent. This dichotomy of wanting to do the good, responsible thing that your parents want for you because they want you to have the best chance at a good life, and doing what your heart tells you to do, is an extremely relevant character arc. It’s a life decision that is not just an Asian thing, but something anybody can relate to. However, in East Asian cultures that were generally influenced by Confucianism, which includes both Korean and Japanese culture, upholding your duty as a child to not disappoint your parents in any way is something that Asian cultures are prone to emphasizing to a great degree. We see this in other media centered on the Asian immigrant experience as well, such as Kim’s Convenience, Turning Red, and Everything Everywhere All At Once.

What was a bit puzzling to me:

So I'll start off with the thing that definitely raised many many eyebrows if you were an East Asian or Southeast Asian watching the show: Why were Min-Gi's parents so friendly with Ryan's parents when they're Korean and Ryan's family is Japanese?!

So like, not to bring politics into it but… World War II happened. It affected, you know, the world and stuff. And in the Pacific Theatre (god I hate that term), the Imperial Japanese Army… invaded Korea?? Among many other countries??? And did a bunch of war crimes?????

Like, Japan was invading other countries well before WWII even started… This is common knowledge… for Asian people that is.

Yeah I know what you're gonna say. “But Ryan's family is Japanese-Canadian!! They wouldn't have done those war crimes! They would have been sent to internment camps!” Yeah dude, I know! My partner is Japanese-Canadian, remember?! And even if I didn't know him, we learned about the internment camps in history class. It's pretty common knowledge among progressives in Canada and the US. George Takei did a whole musical about it. 

But that's not how racism works. I can speak from personal experience that the scars of WWII trauma in Chinese and Korean communities run deep. Even my own parents needed a bit of convincing to be okay with me dating my partner, and my parents were born two decades after WWII ended. My partner said that one time when he and his grandmother got into an elevator with an elderly Korean woman, and at first she was friendly, but once she realized they were of Japanese descent, the elevator ride became deathly silent afterwards. 

So when you have Min-Gi’s parents, who were probably born during or slightly after WWII, immigrate to Canada, and then be like… totally okay and hunky dory pals with Ryan’s parents just because their kids were born the same day in the same hospital…? I mean sure, anything can happen. But it definitely speaks to how abnormally accepting, forgiving, and welcoming Min-Gi’s parents are. 

To be clear, this isn’t something that pulled me out of the experience, personally. Yes, it is strange, but it’s not impossible for a Korean family to be super okay and friends with a Japanese family. Maybe it’s because their small town has very few Asians and so they have to stick together due to solidarity or something. Maybe Min-Gi’s parents are the type of Christians that believe in the inherent goodness of everyone and giving everyone a chance. Maybe they are just extremely progressive and see Ryan’s family as Canadian more than Japanese (highly unlikely), or they know about the internment camps and that was enough to get over their biases toward them (also unlikely). I dunno, anything can happen.

The other thing that bugged me was that they really didn’t explore Ryan’s relationship with his family to the same depth as Min-Gi’s relationship with his family. 

They already set up the contrast of like, you have an immigrant who is more connected to their cultural background, and a third generation descendent who is less connected, and more alienated from his cultural background. That kind of stuff can really weigh on you as somebody who is a minority. You feel like you simultaneously aren’t Canadian enough because you aren’t white, and that you’re not enough of your cultural background because you had to assimilate, or were forced to assimilate. 

Yes it makes sense why Ryan would throw himself into his music, and be disconnected from his family. But they didn’t take the time to really explore why he is that way. Ryan barely talks about his family except randomly mentioning that they don’t care what he does with his life. I don’t even know if that really makes sense that they don’t care what he does? Maybe Ryan thinks they don’t care, but his assumption is wrong? Either way they don’t explore this point that much. Even if his parents were more assimilated they would still care if Ryan had a non-standard job, such as being a musician. There is a gap between Ryan and his family/parents that was alluded to, but not explored. Feeling like you come from two worlds but not neatly fitting into either is so quintessential to the immigrant experience of Canadians (and also Americans) it’s a shame they only paid lip service to it. 

I mentioned in a different post that Ryan would be monolingual while Min-Gi would be bilingual, and how this could cause tension between them. I imagine Ryan definitely feels inferior to Min-Gi in that sense of loss and disconnect with his heritage, just as Min-Gi is jealous that he feels he doesn't have the freedom to pursue his musical career in the same way that Ryan can. This is all stuff that can take a psychological toll on people, and is something which the Train as a metaphor for therapy should have been primed to tackle. But unfortunately we didn't really get that.

There is a term among the Chinese Diaspora known as “Hollow Bamboo (竹杠)” or “Rising Bamboo (竹升)” [more info]. It's an insult tossed at kids of Chinese ethnicity from judgemental adults for being unable to read/write Chinese or who cannot speak Mandarin/Cantonese/other Chinese languages fluently because they've been “too westernized”. They say we “look Chinese, but are hollow inside, like bamboo.” I don't know if there are equivalent terms for other Asian diaspora/immigrant communities but there must be. This term is controversial, and in my own opinion very unfair, because it blames the kids for this loss of cultural identity when there are so many different factors at play that makes them lose it, all of them outside of their own control. 

Again, I think this is a blindspot from the writers just not understanding how much this loss of cultural identity is such an integral part of the experience of being an immigrant, and that it's not only felt in first or second generation Asian-Canadians, but also third or fourth generation, and beyond. It's scary to go out there and redefine what your culture means to you, and how to pass it on to the next generation.

CONCLUSION

So there you have it, a summary of the strengths and the weaknesses in Infinity Train as it pertains to writing about racialized characters. Just want to restate that a lot of what I pointed out is pretty minor in the grand scheme of things and I do overall think the writing is solid. I am not going into this to say that I expected the writers to do a good job, because generally my expectations for media and pop culture to portray POCs respectfully is quite low. At least they didn’t fall back on tired stereotypes, which is a low bar to clear, but it is where the bar still is these days.

If on the off chance Infinity Train does get uncancelled and renewed for more seasons, I hope they take these lessons and craft better narratives for their POC characters. Maybe hire some more non-white writers while you’re at it!

#infinity train #infinity train book 2 #infinity train book 3 #infinity train book 4 #infinity train book two #infinity train book three #infinity train book four #writing poc #writing black people #writing asian people #writing indigenous people #poc representation #black representation #asian representation #indigenous representation #grace monroe #jesse cosay #ryan akagi #min gi park #rymin #analysis #character analysis #media analysis #cultural identity #olivia pope #rowan pope #immigrant parents #long post #raceblind writing

[ssahotchnerr]

thinking about how aaron would do great with someone who needs mainly physical reassurance. they don’t need to talk about everything but totally need to cuddle to get over stuff. i feel like that would work great both ways, especially since he doesn’t want to expose them to his job too so coming home after a tough case and they’re waiting for him on the couch and don’t even need to ask, just move the blanket and open their arms and they both feel better, aaron having a safe haven and reader knowing they could help him just by being there. hopefully this made sense lol

i will cry

cw; mentions of mental health, it's kinda sad but sweet, pls lmk if i missed anything

it's like an unspoken understanding.

if you were having a rough time; whether it was at work, mentally, anything- aaron could instantly tell.

whenever he realized you were having a bad day, he would silently pull you into his arms without saying a word. you could be anywhere- in the kitchen, living room, bedroom, and he would find you. aaron's embrace would envelop you; you couldn't see, feel, or touch anything that wasn't him. it was grounding, comforting, and most importantly, safe. you found a safeness and stillness in him you never thought possible. while the two of you didn't need to exchange words, he would still provide soft reassurances; that everything would be alright, you're the strongest person he knows, and that he's there for you, always.

as for aaron, he never discussed work things with you. you knew what his occupation consisted of, that he would be gone quite often and it was dark, but that was pretty much it. early on into your relationship, he didn't hesitate to explain his intention of why- it wasn't to keep you out of his life nor because he didn't want to discuss his job with you, because he did, but he wanted to protect you more. he knew the heaviness his job brought, the seemingly never-ending nightmares. he would go to the ends of the earth to make sure you never experienced those feelings yourself. if his job taught him one thing, he knew he couldn't save everyone. he could try his hardest and more, but that's not how life worked; bad things happened to those who didn't deserve it. and honestly, he feared that he somehow wouldn't be able to save you, if you knew.

you could tell when a case was awful; the few and short texts during his absence, the dread in his voice as he called you each night to say goodnight, the frequent check ins to make sure you and jack were okay. so whenever you got the text from him that the jet had landed and he was heading home, you were always waiting.

as you expected, it was visible in his eyes the second he walked through the door; the eye bags from lack of sleep, the way he was moving as if the entire world was on his shoulders, as if he hasn't seen the light of day in who knows how long, and in a way, he hadn't.

and so, when the two of your eyes connected, he immediately discarded his belongings, didn't even bother to kick his shoes off, and drop into your open arms. his head would find it's way into the crook of your neck, your hand would find it's way into his hair, and the two of you would just remain there silently. likewise, you would provide him words of comfort here and there but never ask for specifics, which he appreciated. aaron just wanted comfort by definition of you.

and the two of you would stay there; for ten minutes, a few hours, it didn't matter. again, it was that level of understanding you shared.

all you needed was each other and that was enough.

#it made PERFECT sense and i hope i made sense as well LOL #aaron hotchner #criminal minds #aaron hotchner x reader #criminal minds imagine #aaron hotchner fluff #aaron hotchner imagine #aaron hotchner fanfiction #aaron hotch x reader #aaron hotchner imagines #criminal minds drabble #criminal minds x reader #hotch x reader #aaron hotchner angst

[finelinevogue]

Did u see the comment ekin-su said about how she doesn’t see the passion between Davide and Gemma?

She’d defo say that about harry and Yn considering how they don’t really kiss in public and are quite reserved with their PDA to have at least a bit of privacy 🥺

omg ekin-fucking-su🙄

Gwen and Aria’s POV:

“So what’s the deal with Harry then?”

Ekin-Su asked as she sat down on a sofa next to Paige and Gemma.

“Oh here we go. Chuffin’ Ekin-Su, ready to steal Y/Ns man.” Gwen scoffed.

“As if that would ever happen.” Aria commented back, touching on the fact Harry was indefinitely loyal to Y/N.

Ekin-Su clearly thought she could go in there and get what she wanted instantly, but there was no way that she could ever come between Y/N and Harry. They were not worth trying to get between, because they were too invested in each other to care about anyone else.

“Harry is coupled up with Y/N.” Gemma explained simply.

“And she’s the quiet one?” Ekin-Su had to throw in a little dig in order to make sure she was getting the right girl.

“Y/Ns so lovely though. No drama when it comes to them.” Paige said, moving some hair behind her ear where it had annoyingly fallen.

“So true bestie Paige.” Gwen said, nibbling on some popcorn tonight.

“So what’s their deal? Are they close yet?” Ekin-Su asked.

“Why? Do you like Harry?” Gemma chuckled a bit, covering her hand over her mouth to soften the laugh.

“Well he’s fit yeah.”

“It’s going to take more than thinking he’s fit for him to take his eyes off Y/N.” Paige said and Gemma agreed verbally.

Paige Interview:

“I don’t think Ekin-Su realises how close Harry and Y/N already are and I think it’s going to be a shock when Harry declines her. She doesn’t seem like the type of girl that’s ever been declined, so that will be fun to see I think.”

“Paige and Y/N being bestfriends is like you and me.” Gwen said to Aria.

“Except if you had a man like Harry you know that I would stay single in case you dumped him.” Aria laughed and so did Gwen, thinking back to a previous experience where something similar had happened.

“Oh really? Are they a good couple then?” Ekin-Su asked, really trying to understand the ins and outs of the relationship between Y/N and Harry.

“They’re so cute together. They really get on well.”Gemma said, feeling slightly territorial over the couple even though she herself fancies Harry. There’s something about those two that just has you wanting to protect them in a safe bubble forever, no matter how badly you want to be a part of it.

“Hmm. I think I could get him to crack. They just don’t really look like they would fit. But I would.” Ekin-Su looked over towards where Y/N and Harry were in the pool. Both of them were playing and splashing around in the pool like a duo of teenagers.

You were adorable.

“Ekin-Su is worse than Gemma.” Aria claimed.

“Which I didn’t even think was possible.”

“I actually want her to pursue Harry just to see her embarrassingly fail.”

#harry styles #harry styles x reader #harry styles fanfiction #harry styles x y/n #harry styles fanfic #ask finelinevogue #finelinevogue #harry blurb #harry styles concept #harry oneshot #loveisland!harry #love island harry styles blurbs #finelinevogueloveisland #harry styles blurbs

[pinkandpurple360]

What TF was that Anon?

The comparison of Ozzie and Blitz doesn't work on any level. Multiple reasons. The classism like you said, but also it doesn't make sense!? Like Ozzie is supposed to be on the down low but has his personal space just covered in Fizz? I'm sorry, that's a plot hole. Anyone can walk in there and put together they are a couple and I'm supposed to believe people don't know? Hell, the person who seems to want to hide it is Fizz, even though the only person affected by the truth is Ozzie. So Blitzo being more private with his feelings, while not at all compatible in circumstance seeing as Blitzo keeps his pictures private as more of a locked box motif (think about it more like keeping something to yourself makes it more personal) is actually more in line with Fizz's attitude towards relationships. Fizz isn't chomping at the bit to be open about him and Ozzie, he isn't suffering from not being out about their relationship. He's FINE.

Both Fizz and Blitzo are on the same wavelength with relationships and emotions, Ozzie is the odd one out and puts his desires over Fizz's by dictating the relationship without communicating with Fizz and never once asks what Fizz wants for their dynamic. Fizz is just dragged around constantly by Ozzie's obsessive whims and Ozzie makes his whole personality about Fizz while Fizz is like his own person trying to be more than someone's pet. Sorta like how Blitzo is also his own person trying to carve out his own place in the world.

It's almost like they are just on the same level in every way but I'm supposed to think how cute it is that these far more powerful (physically, socially, financially) men find them attractive when it just feels demeaning. Neither have a say in their relationships. Both are forced out of their comfort zones by their narrative partners without their desires being considered in any way. But it's cute because these men who could destroy them are just so gaga over them? Pretty sure that's literally objectification.

With the exception of MnM it seems like imps naturally want to keep things private and to themselves, the precious parts of their lives are something they hold dear. I still don’t like fizz and Oz together because of how they treated MnM, and they’ll never dethrone them. Asmodeus is always the one who decides whether it’s secret or not, does PDA while fizz is uncomfortable, and he uses intimidation both times that he decides to expose it all. And the phrase “I don’t care” which, he should. It doesn’t have to be an angry confession, and since we don’t know the reason it was secret, other than his own opinion of romance as embarrassing to his brand, he’s only saying he doesn’t care about his own hang ups anymore…not others. So there’s very little impact here. So while fizz is terrified of it all getting out and he stresses so much about keeping things a secret, even from Asmodeus in case (??) I don’t know? Why did he roll up that magazine which accused him of being a gold digger to Ozzie, and throw it out the window? Is he worried Ozzie would believe it?

Making his fans love the “ship” removes all tension as well and just assumes this is your own reaction as well. It almost forces you to emote a certain way. You have to hate Stella, you have to see Octavia as impulsive and blind, you have to blame blitz for everything, you love the ship fizz and Ozzie, and you laugh at moxxie. You have to see striker as wrong. Or else it’s incorrect.

Stolas and Asmodeus do not exist outside of the two clown boys, they’re nothing characters when they aren’t connected to them. Only stand ins for the pro monarchy pro supremacy and classism message. That says you need to love and sleep with the rich to make them become nicer people. While also abusing the lower classes because now that you’re elevated by their privilege, you can do that. Hellborn sharks, succubi, other imps? The royal boyfriend has now elevated you above them. That’s why I can’t get behind either, it’s very empty. Whereas B and F has a lot more energy, dynamic, independence, and compelling storytelling. Which is why fizz was originally planned to be very different id wager.

I know!! It’s like the charm is “wow these lowly imps are favoured?? How unorthodox!! How charming! What cute pets they make!” It just feels like Ozzie is Fizz’s biggest fan, while also being his therapist, and stolas is Blitzs biggest stan and therapist without a “the”

#helluva boss critical #stolitz critical #fizzarozzie crit

[ghostflowerdreams]

Writing Research: Homeless Character

I’m currently writing about a character that is homeless. A lot of this information is base on real accounts and advice from people that suddenly found themselves homeless. I’ve even included a couple of things that I’ve learned myself because at one point I thought I would be kicked out and wanted to prepared myself as much as I possibly could for it.

Shelters

Homeless shelters are a basic form of temporary accommodation where a bed is provided in a shared space overnight. Most shelters even provide homeless individuals with basic necessities like food, water, toiletries, and clothes. While others offer programs that aim to help people get off the street and get back on their feet.

However, not all shelters accept walk-ins and if they do, it’s usually first come, first serve because space is limited. Most of them also required you to fill out an application first so they can determine if you’re eligible to stay at their shelter. You may even need to have certain documents to prove your identity and residence (such as a driver’s license, green card, passport or visa, birth certificate, Social Security card, Medicaid card, eviction papers, etc.) or have a referral from a social services agency to be accepted. That’s because some shelters are specifically aimed towards different types of homeless people like a family, pregnant women, teens, a single adult, etc. Those shelter facility have special accommodation that better suits their needs.

Each shelter also has their own set of rules, restrictions and regulations, which depends on who’s running them and where they get their funding from. In general, well-funded shelters tend to have more programs and better facilities. Though these types of shelters also tend to be more overcrowded than smaller, less-funded ones. Almost all shelters have set opening and closing times. Most of the time, they open at 8:00 AM and close at 4:00 PM. For homeless people working night shifts or irregular working hours, this can be a deterrent.

Generally, shelters are free but there are some cases where they may charge you a fee. They may do so when you stay longer than you’re suppose to, which varies from shelter to shelter (such as after 7 to 14 days) or when you want to continue to keep your belongings stored in the locker while you’re at work. Though they don’t always ask for money. Some may take half of the resident’s food stamp allowance. While others require their residents to work up to 40 hours per week in the shelter in exchange for board and lodging.

Street Sense Media - What to do when you become homeless

ToughNickel - Soon to Be Homeless? 12 Ways to Prepare for Homelessness

The Prepping Guide - 12 Tips: How to Be Homeless and Survive

Real Change News - So, you’re homeless now. Here’s what you need to know

Invisible People - What Is It Like to Stay in a Homeless Shelter?

Reddit: r/askreddit - [Serious] What is it like living in a homeless shelter?

Eco Bear - What Is It like Living in a Homeless Shelter?

Medium - Living In A Shelter Sucks: My Experience Being Homeless

Reddit: r/IAmA - I used to be homeless, now I'm not. AMA

NPR - Why Some Homeless Choose The Streets Over Shelters? [audio]

Quick Haven - Why Do Homeless People Avoid Shelters

VICE - This Is Why Homeless People Don't Go to Shelters

Reddit: r/homeless - Why do homeless people consider shelters unsafe?

Business Insider - I Spent The Night In A Homeless Shelter—Here's What It Was Like

New York Post - ‘I feel like I’m back in jail’: Life inside NYC’s broken shelter system

NPR - A Day In The Life Of A Homeless Woman Who Sleeps At A Skid Row Shelter [audio]

VAWnet: National Resource Center on Domestic Violence - No Safe Place: Sexual Assault in the Lives of Homeless Women

Reddit: r/AskNYC - I’m (19F) recently homeless and have nowhere to go. Does anyone know of any shelters or resources available in the city right now?

Youtube: Bustle - How Do Homeless Women Cope With Their Periods? [video]

VICE - Homeless Women Talk About How They Deal With Their Period

Cosmopolitan - What It's Like to Get Your Period When You're Homeless

Youtube: Invisible People - Homeless Woman Walks Us Through a Day in the Life on the Streets of San Diego [video]

Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) - A Day in the Life of a Homeless Person

Boston 25 News - The day in the life of a homeless person in Boston

Business Insider - Here's A Trick I Learned At The Homeless Shelter For Surviving Bed Bugs

HomelessAdvice - Advice When You Need It

Primal Survivor - 10 Survival Tricks Learned from Homeless People

Invisible People - Surviving the Winter Without Shelter

NBC News - Marvin's World: Nine Lessons From Homeless Man's Winter in NYC

TIME - 'I Thought I Was Going to Die.' How Chicago's 80,000 Homeless People Are Surviving in Deadly Zero-Degree Weather

Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless (NEOCH) - Where I Lived in the Winter When I Was Homeless

Guide 2 Homelessness - Survival Guide to Homelessness

HomelessAdvice - Do Homeless Shelters Charge Money?

Food Storage Moms - How to Survive in a Homeless Shelter

Los Angeles Times - Column: When homeless people lose their possessions, they end up further from leaving the streets

Gothamist - What Life Looks Like For One Of 3,600 Homeless People Living On NYC Streets

Boise State University - A day in the life of a Boise homeless man

Youtube: Don Johns - sneak peek at homeless shelter life in America [video]

On the Pulse News - Day in the Life: Local homeless woman lives ‘day to day’

Reddit: r/IAmA - I Am A a mother of 2 who was homeless for a year after leaving my husband, AMA.

Our Father’s House Soup Kitchen - Living on the Streets: What’s It Really Like?

Londonist - "I Was Homeless On The Streets Of London. This Is What It Was Like"

DailyMail - People who have escaped being homeless reveal what life is REALLY like - from fooling 'squares' with sob stories to get money to going for two weeks without eating

London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) - How young homeless people experience London and the homeless system

The Guardian - Homeless in Britain: ‘I graduated with honours – and ended up on the streets’

Youtube: EPOCH - The day I became homeless in London [video]

BBC News - 'I’m homeless but I find great places to live'

Youtube: Invisible People - Homeless Woman Sleeping Rough in London after Domestic Violence [video]

London Homeless Info - Information for homeless in London by ex-homeless

Youtube: Real Stories - Life On The Streets: Britain's Homeless Problem (Poverty Documentary) [video]

The Associated Press - Homeless shelters begin to see value in making room for pets

National Alliance to End Homelessness - Pets Can Be a Barrier — or an Open Door — to Ending an Individual’s Homelessness

Feeding Pets of the Homeless - Addressing Pet of the Homeless

Enid News & Eagle - Day in the life of the homeless: Walking, waiting and sleeping outside

Churches

Many of the churches (and other religious or spiritual organizations) provide resources and overnight shelter for the homeless. Some of them may even include free hot meals, clothes, information on applying for financial aid or maybe a few dollars to help pay the rent or a utility bill as well as other aid.

Sometimes, when there’s no more space inside the church, it’s not uncommon to find homeless people sleeping on its steps too. They can sleep there every night without the cops bothering them. The reason why is that churches are on private property. As long as the church owner allows you to be there, you're good. And they usually do give permission.

However, it’s understandable that some homeless people may not feel comfortable going to a church for help. In fear that the church may try to use the opportunity to “convert” them or there might be discrimination based on their sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

American Magazine | The Jesuit Review of Faith - What it’s like going to church when you’re homeless

Need Help Paying Bills - Churches Help With Rent, Utility Bills, Food...

Christianity Today - Church and State for the Homeless

U.S. Catholic - Churches answer the call to shelter the homeless

Vox - The Salvation Army says it doesn’t discriminate against LGBTQ people. Critics say that’s not true.

Gothamist - Muslim Charity Spends Holy Month Feeding The Homeless Every Night

The Muslim Council of Britain - How can mosques serve the issue of homelessness?

Religion News Service (RNS) - Homeless find rest in faith-based shelters more than others

Libraries

Patrons, regardless of their housing status, have always found the library to be a welcoming place. It can provide an air-conditioned space on a hot day, warmth in the wintertime, public restrooms for all, internet access, charge your phone, and be a quiet space to read or to keep yourself busy.

For those people experiencing homelessness it’s not unusual to find them waiting early in the morning each day for the doors to open. They’ll spend their entire day there reading to escape from their everyday reality, listening to music, browsing the internet for job listings, maybe even researching ways to help themselves out of their situation or just keeping themselves entertained.

However, many libraries still require patrons to have an permanent address and photo identification to get a library card. But what most don’t realize is that some libraries allow patrons to use temporary addresses, such as the shelters or other social service organizations when applying for a library card. If you can’t get a card, it’s still possible to access the computers without it, you just need to go to the Reference Desk and ask for a new numerical code every hour. Some places may even offer you a temporary guest pass. Either way, everyone gets one-hour sessions per day on the computer.

You also don’t need a library card or a password to access their free unsecured wireless network, usually titled as “Library Guest.”

American Library Association (ALA) - Libraries Respond: Services to Poor and Homeless People

Deseret News - Homeless people need libraries, and libraries need them, too

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign: School of Information Science - Serving Homeless Patrons in the Public Library: What can libraries do?

The Guardian - Homeless people have found safety in a library – but locals want them gone

Public Library Association - Library Service to the Homeless

American Library Association (ALA) - A Home to the Homeless

WickedLocal - You have a child who wants to borrow a book, but you have no permanent address. What next?

Berkeleyside - No permanent address? No problem. Berkeley library makes it easier for those without homes to get library cards

PBS - From nurses to social workers, see how public libraries are serving the homeless

Librarian To Librarian - Attending to the Forgotten: Welcoming Homeless Children into the Fold

Vehicles

Those who live in their vehicles have to worry about the legality of their lifestyle – something that is frequently in flux as laws change.

Sleeping in your car is perfectly legal if it’s parked on property you own yourself, such as the driveway of your home. But sadly, that’s not an option when you’re homeless because you wouldn’t be living in your car in the first place. It’s also legal if you’re parked on someone else’s property with their permission, like in the driveway of a friend or of a family member.

It’s possible to pass a peaceful night in a privately-owned parking lot, say outside of a grocery store. In fact, many 24hr businesses such as Wal-Mart and Cracker Barrel have built up a reputation for allowing overnight parking. But these policies are usually intended to accommodate RVers and other people on vacation with the hope that they’ll patronize the business during their stay. Either way, the parking lots are well-lit, there’s restroom access, and some may even offer free Wi-Fi.

There’s also city-designated parking lots, where they offer people living in their cars a safe place to stay and sleep overnight. It won’t draw the ire of the residents or the prying eyes of police officers handing out tickets. They even offer much needed access to restrooms, and other services to help you get back on your feet. But just like the homeless shelters you do need to fill out a application, either by calling them, visiting in-person, or filling out the online form.

If you’re on the highway, there are many rest stops where you can parked and legally sleep at. However, this varies from state to state because in some places they don’t allow overnight parking and might even have limits on how long you can park during the day. While others allow it as long as you don’t stay there for more than 12 or 24 hours. They also have restrooms and maybe even picnic tables too. Just keep in mind that they’re not always well-lit and can be pretty secluded, because of that there’s a higher possibility of people being robbed or attacked. So consider this as a last resort.

Insider - As the number of homeless people living out of their vehicles grows across the US, one man shows what it's really like to live involuntarily out of a van for 2 years

Youtube: ALLinWithAri - Living in My Car | Homeless in California | First Vlog [video]

Invisible People - Mobile Homelessness: The Legality of Living in a Vehicle

NBC New York - Is NYC Violating Right to Shelter Law? Woman Sleeps in Car Due to ‘Inhumane' Conditions

Reddit: r/IAmA - I am homeless by choice; I live in my truck.

The Guardian - ‘My car is my home’: the California students with nowhere to live

Cauf Society - Sleeping in Your Car: How To Do It Without Getting Arrested Or Dying

HomelessAdvice - Where to Sleep in Your Car When Homeless

Youtube: Jake McCollum - How I've Been Living Out of My Car for 3 YEARS | Homeless in the United States of America [video]

Vox - Affordable housing is disappearing. So cities are designating parking lots to sleep in.

Reddit: r/homeless - Anyone Have Tips For Living In My Car?

CNN - Living in her car, she was afraid and harassed. Then she found an unexpected refuge

Reddit: r/IAmA - I have been living out of my car for the past year. AMA

Empower Us - Homeless – Living in a Vehicle Survival Guide

Deseret News - People who can’t afford rent are living in their cars, and cities aren’t sure what to do about them

The Road Trip Expert - 19 Places You Can Legally Sleep In Your Car And Park Overnight

Reddit: r/Advice - I'm homeless as of today living out of my car. Anyone have any advice to help me. I live in Canada and its so cold I cant sleep some nights. I just need like survival tips till i can save up enough to get my own place

Youtube: Invisible People - Homeless mom and her two daughters live in a van near Seattle [video]

The Survival Journal - Homeless Survival Guide: How To Survive Living In Your Car

New York Post - I work full-time at Home Depot but I’m homeless and live in my car

USA Today - 'Hidden homeless crisis': After losing jobs and homes, more people are living in cars and RVs and it's getting worse

MotorBiscuit - Where Should You Sleep if You’re Living Out of Your Car?

Reddit: r/IAmA - By request: I lived in my truck for 8 months. AMA

Windsor Star - Homeless living in vehicles battle cold, hold out hope for place of their own

Reddit: r/IAmA - IAmA College (University) student that lived in my car for over 6 months (2 semesters) so I could afford to go to school. AMA

Youtube: Tiny Home Tours - Homelessness to Vanlife: Her DIY Ford E-350 Cargo Van [video]

Invisible People - Tips on How to Stay Clean While Living in Your Vehicle

Youtube: Stories From a Van - Living In A Car To Save Money | How I Did It & Complete Guide [video]

The Survival Mom - How to Live Out of Your Car: Solid Advice from People Who Made It Work

Youtube: Bria-maine - Living in a Car~A Day in My Life~The Raw Truth~Working From Home~Nomad Life [video]

MotorBiscuit - Is Living in Your Car Dangerous?

Invisible People - How Gas Prices Adversely Affect Vehicular Homelessness

Truck Stops (Service Station/Travel Center)

Showers can be pretty expensive at truck stops like Love’s, Pilot, Flying J, T/A, etc. The cost will usually range anywhere from $12 to $17 depending on the place you go to. They all have a large parking area, a fueling station, a diner or restaurant, a convenience store and usually a coin-operated laundry services too. Some may even offer other services like a movie theater, pet wash, workout rooms, salons, etc..

These facilities are usually pretty clean and modern. But if you do use the showers, just be sure to wear flip-flops if you don’t want to get warts or athletes foot. And keep in mind that the truck stops in rural areas are typically very safe and wholesome. But, as the distance to major cities decreases the incidence of prostitution, drug peddling etc. increases dramatically. For example, the Vince Lombardi service area on the New Jersey Turnpike near New York City has the most rampant prostitution.

Also. if you join a particular chain, such as Love’s customer loyalty program you can usually get a free shower if you spend $50 or more on diesel fuel (or if you get 1,000 gallons in a month you’ll earn a free shower or a free hot meal). You may want to consider this if you have a diesel-powered vehicle or a diesel generator that you regularly use.

I have heard that there are some truck drivers that will sometimes give away their free shower credit/coupon to those in need. They don't always have the time to take a shower that day or don’t need it because they already took one and it would have gone to waste otherwise.

Guide 2 Homelessness - Survival Guide to Homelessness: Truck Stops

CTC Trucking - Everything You Need to Know About Truck Stops Showers

NATSO - How Truckstops Can Help the Homeless

King5 News - Homeless camp at Washington rest stops

Los Angeles Times - I lived in a truck for 6 1/2 years. Trust me, trying to roust homeless from their vehicles is no solution.

Prime Inc. - 10 Best Truck Stops in America

Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips - Tips on Laundromat Use and Doing Laundry by Truck Drivers

Truck Drivers Money Saving Tips - Showers for Professional Drivers: Options and Money Saving Tips

USA Today - These 10 great truck stops surprise travelers with everything from dog parks to bidets

Drivin’ & Vibin’ - 7 Things Non-Truckers Should Know About Truck Stops

Campsite

Regular campgrounds cost around $20 to $60 per night, depending on the season, location, the size of the space, and what amenities they offered. But what most don’t know is that there’s actually a type of camping that’s free and yes, it’s also legal.

Dispersed camping is the term used for camping anywhere in the National Forest OUTSIDE of a designated campground. Dispersed camping means no services; such as trash removal, and little or no facilities; such as tables and fire pits, are provided. Some of the more popular dispersed camping areas may have toilets though. If not, that means you’ll need to deal with your own poop by properly burying it or packing it out with you. Essentially ‘Leave No Trace’ and practice the concept of ‘Pack It In – Pack It Out’.

However, to access dispersed camping areas you’ll need a vehicle to get to them. So this option won’t be possible for every homeless person, only those that still have a vehicle (and/or a tent) to take shelter in. There are also limitations on how long you can stay. Most only allow for less than ten days a month, but it varies for each location. After ten days, you can just move down the road five or ten miles away from your pervious spot. This will keep you from breaking the law.

The general rule is to be a minimum of at least 100-200 feet away from any road, trail or water source. Individual forests might have their own restrictions, so it is always best to check with them before setting up camp.

Forest Service: U.S. Department of Agriculture - Dispersed Camping Guidelines

U.S. Bureau of Land Management - Camping on Public Land

FreeCampSite - Dispersed Camping

The Dyrt Magazine - Yes, You Can Find Free Camping in National Forests! Here’s How

The Dyrt Magazine - Boondocking: The Complete Guide to Free Camping (Almost) Anywhere

The Dyrt Magazine - Your Complete Guide to Free Camping Across the Country

The Outbound Collective - The dirt on dispersed camping

Bay Nature Magazine - Public Lands Have Become a Refuge for People Priced Out of Housing in the West. Local Tensions are Increasing. What Now?

Youtube: Mountain Springs Adventures - How to Find Free (dispersed) Campsites in National Forests & BLM Land + My Recent Boondocking Spots! [video]

VICE - Homeless Are Flocking to America's Forests, But It's Damaging the Land

Campendium - Upcoming Dispersed Camping Changes You Should Know About for 2022

Tom’s Bike Trip - How To Wild Camp Anywhere For Free And Not Get Busted

Fresh Off The Grid - How to Find Free Camping in the US & Canada

Beyond The Tent - 19 Spots You Can Go Free Camping in New York

Youtube: Invisible People - Homeless Woman Shows How She Lives in a Tent [video]

Reddit: r/IAmA - IAmA man who has lived in the woods in a tent near the place I work(ed) since last September, for various reasons. Currently transitioning out of the situation. - AMA.

Mortons on the Move - Are Homeless People Living in the National Parks?

The Colorado Sun - Inside Colorado’s attempt to police the growing number of homeless camps in national forests

Reddit: r/SanJose - I'm homeless living in a tent in San Jose, AMA!

Youtube: Invisible People - Homeless woman "timed out" from a homeless shelter and now lives in a tent with her children. [video]

Gyms

Getting a gym membership means you can shower, shave, use a clean toilet, charge your phone, and spend hours a day in the gym just riding a stationary bike while listening to music, audiobook, podcast, etc. They’ll also have Wi-Fi available to members too.

Planet Fitness is the more popular and affordable option because it has a basic membership plan for $10/month, but it’s only for one location. It gives you unlimited access to their gym (which is open 24 hours a day), their app, free fitness training and free Wi-Fi. However, they do charge an annual fee of $39 and a one-time start-up fee of $1. That said, there’s no commitment.

If you get their $25/month plan, that gives you unlimited access to all of their other locations and a few more perks too, such as you can bring in a guest anytime, use their tanning beds, HydroMassage, discounts on drinks, etc. But it does required a $39 annual fee and a $1 start-up fee, and there’s no commitment either.

If you’re still not sure, they do offer a free day pass for the club of your choice. Just fill out a form online, and a day pass will be e-mailed to you. Keep in mind that you may be required to show some ID upon check-in, and all day pass users are required to take a free tour.

Another option is to consider joining the YMCA. They have financial assistance available, which provides access to membership, programs, childcare, and camps to those in need of support. However, I’m hesitant to suggest this one because the pricing greatly depends on your age, financial state and where you’re located. If you live in a small town, the price will be lower than the membership price in a large city. They also have different rates, which vary by age and what services you want to access.

For example, the regular price for an adult membership (over 30) is $50/month. Even if you applied for financial assistance, the max discount is only 30% and $35.00/month isn’t feasible for those that are homeless or struggling to keep afloat. But of course, you do get access to every Y’s and a lot more stuff than you would at a gym, like the pool, classes, locker rental, towel service, showers, hot tub, steam room, etc.

But I have heard that some YMCA’s do offer free membership if you qualified, such as those that are a member of the military or a veteran. Some senior citizen can get a free membership through their Medicare Advantage plan. If you’re under 18 many YMCA locations offer free summer memberships for teens and tweens. They even have free classes and programs that are accessible without a membership, which is useful because at one point they had free lifeguard training.

Note: If a credit card is necessary, get a prepaid Mastercard. It’s a universally accepted method of paying for purchases without the need for a credit score or a bank account. Prepaid cards are sold at retail stores (usually for a fee of $1.50-2.50 or free if ordered online). With these type of cards, you only need to load them up with money when you get it, then use it to make purchases. [x]

The Penny Hoarder - Gym Memberships So Cheap Your Budget Won’t Break a Sweat

Sports Illustrated - Is a Planet Fitness Gym Membership Right for You?

KCRW - For many homeless Angelenos, the gym is critical to survival [audio]

Smarter Homemaker - YMCA (Membership Cost, Benefits, & Alternatives)

Expensive Why - Why Are YMCA Memberships So Expensive in 2022?

Low Income Relief - How to Get a Free YMCA Membership

HomelessAdvice - The YMCA as a Homeless Shelter (Showers, Lockers, and Beds)

YMCA England & Wales - Where to go for support if you are homeless

Hygiene

Fitness centers are perhaps the most popular choice for the homeless, but there are also a lot of government-run campgrounds with coin-op shower facilities too.

If you’re traveling along the coast, public beaches will have ample showers available for free (but they may not be warm or private, and you’ll need a bathing suit). If you’re traveling inland, look for public beaches on lakes or rivers. Public swimming pools can do in a pinch, but you’ll usually have to pay a fee to enter.

Public bathrooms are everywhere (such as at the parks, libraries, department stores, fast food places, Penn Station, Port Authority Bus Terminal, etc.). You can use a washcloth and a collapsible bucket (or a large plastic cup) to wash up with. Just fill it up with the water from the sink and use it to quickly wash your hair and/or privates, especially if it’s one of those single locked public restroom. If not, maybe take the bucket/cup into the toilet stall and wash in there.

If all else fails, using baby wipes (which you can get for a $1.00 at Dollar Tree) to stay clean is certainly better then nothing.

Roadtrippers - 6 tips for showering and staying clean while on the road

wikiHow - How to Stay Clean when Homeless

Boondocker’ s Bible - Where to Take a Shower When You Live in a Car?

Hope's Corner - Laundry Service Helps the Homeless

Medium - Staying Clean While Homeless.

Clean the World Foundation - Mobile Showers: Street Outreach For People Experiencing Homelessness

Survival Recipes - Hygiene

National Association for Continence (NAFC) - The Best Bathroom Locator Apps

Bathroom City - Top 4 Bathroom Locator Apps For Android and iOS

Public Shower Directory - Free Showers

Mail

Having an address is essential for applying to a job, for benefits or housing, receiving official communications, opening a bank account, replacing identification, registering the vehicle you live in, and so many other reasons too.

That’s why most homeless first try asking their friends or family if they can use their address for when the paperwork requires a permanent address. However, there are many who don’t have strong bonds with friends or family and so, this route isn’t often taken.

Some homeless shelters offer to collect and distribute mail for their guests. If there’s a shelter someone regularly returns to, it makes sense for them to receive their mail there if possible. But they will have their limits. They may institute a maximum number of people they can receive mail for at one time. Or, more commonly they’ll have a maximum number of days mail will be held before being discarded.

Some churches, generally larger ones, offer mail services to people without permanent addresses too. These are often the same places that offer meal services. So, it may be convenient for people to pick up their mail at a place they already go regularly to eat. Like shelters, church mail programs will often have a maximum holding period.

If it’s affordable enough, some people who are homeless do pay for a PO box, either permanently, temporarily, or intermittently when they need to receive something. If there aren’t any accessible places offering free mail services in the area, this may be the only option.

USPS - Is there Mail Service for the Homeless?

Invisible People - How Do People Who Are Homeless Get Their Mail?

HomelessAdvice - Where Do Homeless Get Their Mail?

NPR - A Post Office Lifeline for the Homeless [audio]

Coalition For The Homeless - Emergency Mail Program

UK Postbox - Vulnerable people that use our service

WIRED - The radical plan to give every homeless person an address

Water/Food

Soup kitchens have become a place of refuge for those less fortunate souls. Aside from free food, most soup kitchens also provide other necessities such as clothing and hygiene kits. Though some soup kitchens only serve soup and bread, others serve a freshly-cooked full course meal. They also provide a take-out bag with a sandwich and other goodies.

Food pantry is supplied with food, such as fresh produce, canned goods, and healthy frozen items from a food bank. These pantries feed hundreds of low-income people per week. Because every community is different, there are many different types of pantries. But before you go, you should always call the food pantry (or the soup kitchen) to find out when they are open and if they have food. Most pantries offer a three to five day supply of healthy food for low-income families. When possible, pantries provide special items for those family members on restricted diets.

Most pantries will require some form of identification such as a Social Security card, Public Assistance, or photo ID. Many also require a referral letter from a social service agency such as the Board of Social Services, a community organization, or your place of worship to show proof of your need for assistance.

Another option is going to a mom and pop store (local family owned) or pizzeria, bakery, supermarket, Dunkin’, etc. before closing time and asking them if you could maybe take out their trash or sweep up in exchange for their leftovers or day old's. As they would’ve thrown out the still perfectly edible food into the dumpster anyway. Most of the time they'll let you do a little token chore or take pity and just give you something.

As for water there are many places where you get free water and/or water refills, such as public water refill stations or drinking water fountains that you can always find at all the parks. There’s even an app that lists all of the places where you can find them.

U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service - 10 Myths and Facts About SNAP for Homeless Persons [pdf]

U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service - Are you homeless? You might be able to get food help from SNAP! [pdf]

Move For Hunger - About Hunger and Homelessness

Homeless Shelter Directory - Soup Kitchens, Food, Pantries, Food Banks

Our Father’s House Soup Kitchen - What is a Soup Kitchen?

Coalition For The Homeless - I Need Food

Coalition For The Homeless - Soup Kitchen and Food Pantry Listings

Feeding America - Find Free Food and Groceries

Reddit: r/Frugal - If you need food, go to a food pantry. Periodt.

Helping Americans Find Help - New Jersey Food Assistance

New York Post - I went dumpster diving at my local Whole Foods and found $1,000 worth of fresh baked goods, produce

New York Post - Brooklyn hipsters go Dumpster-diving for dinner

Los Angeles Times - Dumpster Diving Pays Off in Pizzas

The U.S. Sun - I’ve saved £700 in two months by bin diving – ALL my food comes from the trash and I share it with homeless people

Save the Student - 20 ways to get free food

Happy Sprout - These food waste apps will help you save money – and the planet

Android Police - 12 helpful eco-friendly Android apps to tackle food waste

MakeUseOf - 3 Food Sharing Apps to Make Your Eating More Sustainable

Fast Company - Don’t buy bottled water: This app tells you the closest place you can fill up for free

Bustle - This App Helps You Avoid Buying Plastic Water Bottles & It’s Low Key Genius

BBC News - App shows water refill stations to tackle plastic waste

California Beaches - Pier Fishing in California

Irish Mirror - Homeless people living on canal banks and forced to fish for their food in desperate struggle to survive

Survival Recipes - Food

HomelessAdvice - How to Get Free Food When Homeless

SBS - When you're homeless, how do you eat to stay somewhat healthy?

Reddit: r/mealprep - Best food for when you're homeless and can't cook?

Misc.

American Outdoor Guide - Street Survivors: Basic, Proven and Practical Survival Skills from the Homeless

M.D. Creekmore - How To Survive Being Homeless and Broke

Distractify - Formerly Homeless Share What Aid Was Most Helpful to Them

wikiHow - How to Stay Warm on Cold Winter Nights if You are Homeless

New York Post - How Siberia’s homeless survive the frigid winter

Medium - Weathered: The Struggle of the Homeless to Survive in Harsh Weather

Invisible People - Vision Impairment in the Homeless Community

Feel Good Contacts - Sight problems in the homeless

National Eye Institute - Get Free or Low-Cost Eye Care

NeedHelpPayingBills - Free prescription glasses and eye exams near you

wikiHow - How to Stay Clean when Homeless

Fast Company - This Mobile Shower And Laundry Lets The Homeless Stay Clean

Forbes - For L.A.’s Homeless, A Free Mobile Laundry Service Strives To Be ‘Part Of The Solution’

Inquirer - The Hub of Hope’s laundry services help homeless people feel 'normal’ again

The Guardian - Cleaning up: mobile laundry for the homeless goes international

Low Income Relief - Where to Charge Your Phone When Homeless: 10 Options

Frugal Reality - Where to Charge My Phone for Free? 17 Ways To Charge Without Electricity & Homeless

HomelessAdvice - Where to Charge Your Phone When Homeless

CNET - Wi-Fi is a lifeline in the pandemic. It's harder to get if you're homeless

CBS New York - LinkNYC Charging Kiosks Become Magnets For Homeless

The Daily Telegraph - Homeless rely on smartphones to survive but finding somewhere to re-charge is a challenge

Father Joe’s Villages - Homelessness and Dental Health Care

Care For the Homeless - Making Dentistry More Accessible

Family Resources - 7 Surprising Items to Help the Homeless

Metro - These formerly homeless people have shared the best things you can do to really make a difference

BetterMissions - The 7 Best Things to Give the Homeless Instead of Money

The Right To Shower - What Do People Experiencing Homelessness Need Most Besides Shelter?

#writing #writing research #writing help #writing advice #writing fanfiction #fanfiction help #writing reference #reference #writing references #homeless #characters #character #homeless character #original character #homelessness #homeless OC

[beehindblueeyes]

“Why didn’t they just walk away?” : 70s suburbia and social norms

Guess who’s back with another ramble/mini essay/analysis/ meta or whatever people are calling it now days. This time I’m tackling the widest complaint I see about the movie and using it as a great jumping point for further discussion and analysis so , buckle up.

Strangers-

There’s a reason we say “stranger danger” lock our doors and generally mistrust people. A reason we don’t get into vans, hitchhike or help look for lost dogs. The age in which the black phone is set is kinda the reason why. Sometimes the late 60s but mainly 1970- the late 90s and was the height of serial killers/spree killers in America. People who took advantage of open doors and trusting strangers and eventually changed the social tide forever.

It’s common to help out a neighborhood or stranger, it’s a small town it’s likely you know everyone or they at least know you. You smile on the streets, help the old lady find her cat, sit together at barbecues etc. “why does Robin just walk to the van?” “I know I didn’t just see Bruce walk directly into the van💀”

Well for one thing it’s the way the scene is shot, he’s just going around the corner and the vans Infront of him. For all we know he was aiming to walk straight past or The grabber offered him- likely candy , like he came to the store in the first place for. Bruce, was probably confused and wanting to help then got slapped by the door.

It’s a lot more common to trust “hey could you help me” or “hey kid you want some candy.” Or “come to my house and I’ll give you a puppy” because all the cases that made us distrust this shit was happening right then!

It’s like seeing a card on the door of your car or someone dropping something Infront of you. Now days we are, almost overly, cautious and usually automatically distrust it. Back then, there was a bit more faith in the common man I suppose.

Latchkey kids

Largely starting as a trend during WW2 it soon became a sure thing with Gen X (I mentioned before my parents were kids/around the same age as these kids. So I do have a bit of a talking reference source). Essentially it’s - your kid always has a house key and lets themselves in/takes care of themselves. Usually from there parents being working class and unable to afford a care service or for one of them to stay at home.

If you ever heard your parents (or maybe it’s true to you, idk y’all’s ages) talk about “we used to come home/have to be home once the streetlights turned on” that’s another part of it. Basically kids kicked out to go play all day and just- trusted to come home. Very laissez-faire style of parenting.

It’s a entirely different culture. Kids were allowed and ENCOURAGED to go off on their own and do whatever they wanted without supervision or stay at home etc. this isn’t to say parents never taught their kids stuff such as “don’t open the door for random people. Don’t trust someone creepy” etc just it was a less spoken/cemented in lesson. Now days doing this would probably be classified as bad parenting as we live in a Society which prioritizes helicopter parenting/constant communication (which it’s not a bad thing to know where your kid is but constant constant check ins during play time or their own shit Is - idk)

I think Finney and Gwen are great examples of latchkey kids. When they’re dads at work, they have a key. When he’s home, Finney is looking after him and himself do to his fathers alcoholism. Also that they walk themselves to and from school- it’s not to far but it’s still a WALK.

I suspect Vance and Robin may be as well. However Billy and Bruce both, read as more middle class in that, they’re mothers or a parent may be home at times even if they work etc. Griffin? Idk.

Another blurb that doesn’t really fit anywhere is that hitchhiking was also culturally fit in this time. Like to the point it’s all over media. You get in a strangers car and just trust they’ll take you where you want to go or drop you off somewhere on the way. I feel like this dropped off in the 90s or 2000s because I don’t remember it being much of a thing in the early 2000s

#the black phone #black phone #the black phone 2022 #70s #80s #gen X #context #writing reference #writing ref #detail #cultural differences #time period #finney blake #gwen blake #griffin stagg #billy showalter #paperboy the black phone #vance hopper #bruce yamada #robin arellano #the grabber

[mayy-bby]

Idk if it’s just me, but I find that 911 has a hard time following through with their character arcs and this leads to redundant storytelling (in some cases). We’ve seen buck go through this journey of never feeling enough/wanted/loved time and time again and somehow we always end up right at the start of it? After buck begins is seemed like they’d keep us in the loop of buck’s therapy and do check ins to see where he’s at in terms of his belonging but they sidelined that and brought it back up now in season 6. Which some people see as them not forgetting the important details, but is that what it is? Instead showing his progress from last time, we get a whole episode on buck coming to the same realization he always comes to (that he is loved and wanted and enough/family is not always blood you you build it). And this isn’t to say I didn’t like the episode but we’ve seen this exact thing before, just with a different set up. And the thing is we always see this part but we hardly see what comes after that. The part he follows through with his realizations. The part where the progress is shown. I know some people are gonna “growth is not linear”. Well yeah, but first, it’s not completely stagnant either and two, this is a tv show and you have to move the story forward at a quicker pace and show progress for storytelling. This doesn’t mean the person can’t have the same issues arise again, but let’s not take the person right back to square one to where the lessons from last time become non existent. Now we have Eddie going on another date which most people are saying is going to be some sort of failed attempt at getting back into things and what will lead eddie to the final buddie realization. Ummmmm, what was Ana’s purpose then? That breakup was so pivotal but there was zero follow through/follow up. And I can already feel some people wanting to say, “well maybe the follow up will happen now after his date with marisol.” But no. We shouldn’t have to wait like this insane amount of time to see the the after math of something major. I can’t even recall if Eddie had a proper conversation about the breakup with anyone? Or even a decent passing mention? It’s like it never happened. Maybe if he continued to talk about it after it happened here and there, then him going on this date would make more sense. Like just knowing a little more about Eddie’s mindset when breaking up with Ana/coming to the realization (beyond the whole instant family thing which was sort of vague ngl) that she isn’t the one and why - it would be soo telling. I mean, they could have at least had Eddie mention something along the lines of “I don’t know exactly why, but I knew for sure Ana wasn’t the one for me. I think maybe because Shannon and I got together and then pregnant so young, I didn’t have that much experience with love and dating. I feel like I’m still figuring that part of myself out and dating Ana helped me find my footing even though she isn’t the one.” Blah blah, etc etc. By getting some insight into his mindset after the breakup, him going on a casual date like this one would make so much more sense. It still would be annoying but at least we’d have some insight into why he’s even trying this when things with Ana ended the way they did. But they just left us with a very ambiguous and coded breakup that said a lot but also very little. But anyway. I actually don’t know if this date will be a one time thing, but either they’re going to be redundant with his love life once again or they’re going to settle with her as the final love interest. Kinda annoying either way

#911 fox #eddie diaz

[dialovers-translations]

DIABOLIK LOVERS DARK FATE Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD ”Demonic!? What’s a real ‘bad guy’ like!?”

Original title: 魔界的!? 『ワル』ってどんなヤツ!?

Source: Diabolik Lovers DARK FATE Stellaworth Tokuten Drama CD

Audio: Here

Seiyuu: Toriumi Kousuke, Hirakawa Daisuke & Morikubo Shoutaro

Translator’s note: This CD features a pretty unique combination of characters which actually work pretty well together. Shin is definitely the star of the show with how passionate he gets over teaching the other two the ins and outs of being a true ‘bad guy’ lol. He really can’t hide his admiration for his ‘Nii-san’. Other than that, I don’t have a whole lot to say since this track is only 14 minutes long so it isn’t super eventful, but if you’re a Shin stan, I definitely recommend checking this one out!

→  LIKE MY TRANSLATIONS? SUPPORT ME ON KO-FI!

Laito: …Knock, knock, knock. Anyone home? 

Laito enters the room. 

*Creaaak*

*Thud* 

Shin: Hm…? Laito. What brings you to the special classroom? 

Laito: Nfufu~ Well, while passing by the entrance earlier, I saw that a package for the special classroom had been delivered, so I was so kind as to come and bring it to you. …Here you go. 

*Thud* 

Shin: Haah? What’s this? ‘The Demon World Marketplace ー Home to a range of magic goods.’

Laito: Since it doesn’t seem to ring a bell to you, I assume Carla is the one who placed the order? Nfu~ In other words, your older brother probably bought something from a popular webshop? Ah-ah~ This special classroom is fully equipped with everything after all. Must be nice, getting to enjoy online shopping in between classes. I’m jealous, really. …So, what did he purchase? Don’t worry, I promise to keep it a secret from everyone else. Come on, tell me. 

Shin: …!? How am I supposed to know!? Nii-san isn’t even around right now!

Laito: Hmm~ He’s absent, huh? In that case…Let’s open it up! 

*Rustle* 

Shin: Haah…!? Don’t just go and decide that for yourself! I just told you Nii-san is away right now!

*Rustle* 

Laito: …Oh. So why not? Don’t worry, it’ll be fine~ I’ll just check what’s inside, that’s all! I’ll make sure to secure the package with tape again afterwards. 

They start fighting over the package. 

Shin: That’s not the issue! Why do you want to see what’s inside so badly anyway!? 

Laito: Because I’m curious, obviously! But well…Judging from the weight of the package as well as this sticker which says ‘fragile goods’ on it, I do have a pretty good idea of what could be inside, nuf~ 

Shin: Haah…!? So what is inside then!? Tell me. 

Laito: Eeh~? Are you sure? Okay, I’ll tell you…My hunch is telling me that there’s some kind of disc inside…a large amount of them, actually. 

Shin: Discs…!? And would there be a problem with Nii-san ordering that?

Laito: Ahaha~ Of course not! I’m just curious to find out what his personal preferences are, that’s all!

*Thud* 

Laito: You know, you’ve got a wide variety of genres, right? 

Shin: …Ugh. This is pissing me off. Stop beating around the bush and just tell me what it is!

Laito: Oh geez, you leave me no other choice. The only kind of disc you’d sneakily buy off the internet would be the dirty kind, right?

Shin: Wha…!? 

Laito: Uwah! Don’t let go all of a sudden…!

Laito stumbles backwards and hits the wall. 

*Thud* 

Shuu: …Ah. Found it. God. How did it get here? 

*Rustle* 

Laito: Owowow…Ah! Hey! What are you doing…!? …Wait, Shuu…? Is that package…yours? 

Shuu: Hm? …Well yeah.

Laito: !!

Shin: I knew it! Honestly, I always found the idea of Nii-san buying something online to be strange. 

*Rustle* 

Laito: Hmm~ So it was Shuu. That’s kind of unexpected, actually. …Hey, lend those to me afterwards, okay? 

Shuu: I don’t really mind but…Since when are you interested in classical music? 

Laito: Eh? Classical music? Then…Could it be that inside of that box there’s…?

Shuu: Huh? Classical music CDs, of course? 

Laito: Eeeh~? What? How dull!

Shin: Che! You guys always have to make things more suspicious than they actually are. Anyway, why was your package delivered to the special classroom in the first place? 

Shuu: Ah…Well, I couldn’t be bothered to go to the store to get them directly, so I told that woman to purchase them online for me.  Soーー

Laito: Ah, I get it! I guess Bitch-chan ordered them on the computer of this classroom. Geez, I got my hopes up for nothing. 

Shin: Hmph! …Ah-ah, I honestly can’t deal with you brothers. 

Laito: Eeh~? But you’ve already done so plenty of times. 

Shuu: Haah…I’m not sure how I feel about being grouped together with Mr. Pervert over here. 

Shin: …Anyway, you guys are originally from the Demon World as well, aren’t you? Then don’t you think you’re becoming a little too much influenced by human culture with your CDs and online shopping?

Laito: Eh? Why not? What’s the issue? Actually, it’s kind of a family rule of ours to adapt to human society~

Shuu: Exactly. If I go against the Old Man’s will, he might just send me to the North Pole agaiー …No, nevermind. 

Shin: Haah…? You’re expected to learn about human customs? I can’t even imagine that! Don’t you have any pride as Demons? Ahー This is exactly why you Vampire lot are considered inferior species. Unlike us First Bloods who are proud of their heritage. 

Laito: …Hm. Pride, you say? That concept doesn’t exactly fit within my style of living. 

Shuu: Pride? Props to you for having the energy to deal with that annoying crap. 

Shin: E-Eh!? H-Hold up…! Isn’t this the point where you’re supposed to try and refute my statement? Try and actually act like our enemy for once by talking back! Why are you so unmotivated!? You should be grateful that a First Blood such as myself is gracing you with my provocations! 

Laito: Eh? Enemy? Is that what we are? My bad, I’m actually a philanthropist by nature, you see. Nfu~ 

Shuu: I don’t know what you’re expecting from me, but I don’t see why I’d have to live up to those expectations. Pwaah…I’m sleepy…

Shin: Haah!? Are you two making fun of me!? You Vampires are the enemy of us Founders! E-ne-my. Ever heard of that word!? So you better start taking more mind of your own position and acting accordingly!

Laito: Eeeh? Our position? 

Shin: Exactly! Enemies should behave as such and be more…You know, ‘evil’? 

Shuu: Oi, Laito…Come here for a sec. 

Laito: Eh? What? 

Shuu drags Laito aside for a bit. 

Shuu: Hey, this guy is more of a pain in the ass than I thought.

Laito: Mmh. My thoughts exactly. But you know…Shin-kun is the youngest child, remember? So, you know? 

Shuu: Ahー Right. Makes sense. 

Shin: What do you two think you’re doing!? You think you’re being all sneaky in your little corner but I heard every word of what you said! Damnit! 

*THUD*

Laito: Ah-ahー Would you look at that. Now he’s just taking out his anger on his surroundings. I’m pretty sure the situation will only escalate if we don’t take care of it appropriately. 

Shuu: Haah…Reminds me of another youngest child I know. …Oi Laito. Go and do something about him. 

Laito: Eh? Me? I don’t want to have to ‘babysit’ that pain in the neck!

Shuu: I mean, all of this only happened because you brought my package here, right?

Laito: …!! I-I was just…

Shin: Hah! Do whatever you please! You can call all of your Vampires buddies, you’d still be no match for me! Hah!

*Thud*

*SHATTER*

Shin: Watch this!

*Thud*

*SHATTER*

Shuu: Look. The whole classroom’s being turned upside down. Don’t come crying to me when you get into even more trouble later. 

Laito: Haahー Fine. Guess I have no other choice. …I’ll go and 

Laito walks over to Shin and pats him on the back. 

Laito: Hey, listen, Shin-kun~

Shin: …!! Just so you know, it’s too late to apologize now!

Laito: Hmm~ That’s not quite it. You’re a ‘mighty and proud Founder’, was it? In that case, I’d love to ask you something. May I? 

Shin: Hm? What is it? 

Laito: You said earlier that we should act like proper enemies and be more ‘evil’...But what exactly do you mean by that? …I mean, as you even pointed out yourself, we’re just so used to living by human world standards by now, so we’d love to have you - a real Demon World expert - teach us the true ways of being a ‘bad guy’~

Shin: Huh? …Hmph! Guess you give me no other choice. I suppose I wouldn’t mind giving you two a couple of pointers. 

Shuu: Thank god he’s a gullible idiot. 

Shin: Oi, Shuu. Did you say something just now? 

Shuu: Not really. 

Shin: Ahem. Anyway. We should start by that weak tone you speak in. It doesn’t convey even a shred of evilness. You have to talk with a deep and intimidating voice. Listen and learn…’You fiend. I shall end you.’ (1) …Hehe. Just like that!

Shuu: Oi, Laito…Did he just…?

Laito: Shhー! We finally lifted his mood, so don’t go ruining it again!

Shin: Haah…But the biggest issue is those outfits of yours. Hats and sweaters are way too frivolous and totally out of the question. If you want to radiate that evil energy at first glance…Let me think…Ah, right, it’s basic knowledge to cover as much skin as possible. You know, by wearing gloves and boots. Also…While covering part of one’s face is commonly seen as the most effective strategy, I believe that overwhelming the other with a fierce, piercing gaze is ideal. Hm. Hehehe~

Shuu: How should I put this…I don’t even know what to comment on first. 

Laito: He’s just giving us a run-down of that guy, isn’t he? 

Shin: Hah? Who are you talking about? I don’t think we know anyone who fits that image.

Shuu: You basically just described your older brother, no?

Shin: Huh? Nii-san!? 

Laito: Hmー I mean, if we put together everything you listed just now, it would mean that Carla is the ‘biggest, baddest guy’ of the Demon World, right? Hm…Well, I guess he is evil in more than one way.

Shuu: Guess so…Although, I feel like that’s still an understatement, haha. 

Shin: …!! Don’t you dare talk badly of Nii-san! Ugh!

*Thud* 

Laito: Ah, hold up, wait! We’re not making fun of him! …Geez, you lose your temper over the slightest thing. You must truly love your ‘onii-chan’, don’t you? 

Shin: Ughー! What makes you think that!? 

Laito: I mean, you’ve been standing up for him this whole time, haven’t you? That would never happen in our family. 

Shuu: Exactly. …If anything, I think your relationship is more ‘human-like’ than any of the stuff we do. 

Shin: …!? …H-Human-like, you say? Us proud and almighty Founders? Human-like!? 

Laito: Ahーah…I’m kind of sick of having to baby this guy. I want to just go home already and indulge in Bitch-chan’s blood. I can’t keep up with this. 

Shuu: It would have probably been less trouble to just go to the CD shop myself yesterday instead of having to deal with this bullshit now. …Whatever. I guess I’ll go put the audio of the CDs I got on my MP3-player. 

Shuu and Laito leave. 

Shin: Ah, wait, you two! I’m not done yeーー …Ugh, those guys…This is exactly why I hate Vampires! They should just perish right here, right now! Fuck!

*SHATTER*

Shin: Haah, haah…Anyway…Are we really more human-like than they are? Haha…There’s just no way. …? …!! This is bad! Nii-saaaaaaaaan…!!!!!

Shin runs off. 

ーー THE END ーー

Translation notes

(1) Shin uses the word ‘kisama’ here, quite obviously imitating Carla’s manner of speech.

#diabolik lovers #dialovers #shuu sakamaki #laito sakamaki #shin tsukinami #diabolik lovers translation #diabolik lovers drama cd #drama cd

[celticcrossanon]

Hi Celta! So glad you’re back. If I believed the rumor going around that M was a plant to take down the monarchy, what I don’t understand is why H&M wouldn’t have more money?! LOL,do you understand what I’m saying?! That if these backers want the BRF to be taken down, wouldn’t they be financing M in some way? Yet it’s clear H&M are strapped for cash. What do you make of that?

Hi LovingHoagieArtisanEggs,

Yes, I have been back, gone away, and now I am back again. :)

The backers theory is one that makes my head hurt when I try to figure it out. It makes sense in some respects and not in others. In fact, the whole financial situation of the Harkles makes my head hurt, because nothing makes sense. I am pretty certain that they are desperate for money and living beyond their means, but as for the rest of it - who knows? With the recent release of a ?financial statement? for Archewell, it looks like they may have been, possibly, diverting funds into their own pockets, but once again, who knows? I am not up on the ins and outs of charity financing so I can't give a clear analysis of the situation. I only know that I would not be surprised at anything that comes out about the two of them and their finances, including money laundering or other dodgy stuff (just as an example).

I was going to go through the bits of evidence for the backers story here but I tied myself in knots again trying to figure it out. All I can do is wait and see what is exposed in the future, and continue to ask the universe/pray that all the truth comes out, and not just the palatable bits. If that means the BRF has to take a hit, so be it. I am sick to my guts of the cover ups and the misdirection's and the lies, and the only remedy for that is the plain, unvarnished truth, which is what I want, no matter how painful it might be.

I am in a 'fed up with the falsehoods' mood, in case no one noticed. :)

[solarwynd]

Could you please enlighten me on PJM lore? Clearly PJMs are the most organised solos, not just in BT5verse, in probably all of kpop. I have been a pop fan for over a decade to see and know a group when they sorted and good at supporting an artist. PJMs are very much similar to Ami, which isn’t surprising (most of them came from there) and remind me almost swifties or barbs. How did they get so organised?

Ps. I am a solo Stan myself. I have only ever liked JM, and Hobi. The rest is bleh to me.

I’m still fresh-ish over here so I couldn’t really go into detail on pjm lore. But jimin being ostracized by armys and the company are always gonna be the main reasons because we knew we’d have to pick up the slack. His journey is very similar to how bts’ was initially just on a soloist scale. (And probably even to a worse extent imo.) It also definitely helps that a lot of us used to be armys and were for years beforehand so we know the ins and outs.

I think out of all the major solo fandoms I’ve come into knowing, they all suffer because 1. either the fandom is too small to make a dent, even with organization or 2. the music doesn’t hit (which is the case for 80% of these idols) and because the music doesn’t, they have to rely on other means to get whoever they stan to a better position. The fandom might be big too as well, but no one’s interested in streaming the music. Which is why they always have turn to something else to fill that disinterest. Fashion, acting socmed engament etc.

The comparison to barbs and swifties is interesting though. The organization on the barbs end i get, but for swifties I don’t think they’ve ever needed to be tbh. They have the luxury of being able to sit back and not have to be on their toes. Her core fanbase could stop streaming all together and she’d probably still pull similar numbers cause she’s the most GP artist out there right now.

[pastafossa]

hey pasta! I don’t know if someone has asked this already but is TRT gonna go into Born Again or end at season 3?

So that's where I'm not sure! The current outline is as such:

All Major Arcs (including Cyrus James/Project Beagle fallout arc and psychic abilities arcs): scheduled to wrap up a bit after the end of S3 so that Matt and Jane's arcs/development neatly dovetail together. This will mark the official end of TRT's main fic.

Special Additional Arcs (chaptered fics not attached to main fic but still TRT canon, taking place after end of main fic) in no particular order: Endgame/The Snap arc, Spider-Man: NWH arc, Spoiler Removed arc, tentative She Hulk Shenanigans arc.

Oneshot Arcs: various domestic fluff arcs, interactions with major MCU events, a 'What Their Life Is Like When Old Cause GD It They're Going To Live To Old Age And Will Have Rocking Chairs' arc, a SINGLE take it or leave it 'What If?' fic of something funny with a possible daughter cause damn I had this idea for a hilarious scene and it won't leave me alone

Now, those are what are planned in the outline, and the main event with Project Beagle tie-ins and plotlines and all of that is something I'm still planning to end just after S3 because I really do want to have a finish line for that, and I feel like dragging that all out for Born Again wouldn't work for the... events that are going to happen, without saying too much. Once that's wrapped up, that's when you're going to see TRT finally marked as 'complete' on AO3, though there'll be more fics set in that universe (see special additional arcs and oneshot arcs) that I'll mark as in the Devil and Hound series along with drabbles on tumblr.

Once we're past that official endpoint and those special arcs, though, things get fluid and murky since when I was outlining all the major plotlines, there was no Daredevil: Born Again, nor was Matt even in the MCU officially (which is why Spider-Man pops in way sooner in TRT than he meets Matt in the MCU) and I specifically set up Jane's plotline to bookend with Matt's so their growth twined together and they both finally found peace around the same time. Outside that, I'd planned some shorter chaptered stories in the series post-mainline TRT like the Snap arc that I may now adjust (since it sure is looking like Matt was left behind for the snap) but nothing on the level of TRT's main plotline which is absolutely massive and took me years to fully outline and construct before coming back from hiatus in 2021 and pumping out chapters (Happy six year anniversary to TRT on Sept 15!).

ALL THAT BEING SAID.

I do have plans to write stuff for TRT's take on Born Again because I'm 100% married to writing for Matt at this point and there's no possible way I won't want to do something once I'm being fed Charlie!Matt scenes again. I'm not sure what those plans are just yet - I kinda wanna wait and see what happens in Born Again in case it sparks something. But I also want to make sure that no matter what I do, there's some sort of strong original plotline so that, much like mainline TRT, we'll be able to weave in and out of canonical events (especially since things like the Snap or a wedding or Jane and Matt's friendship with Peter will alter canon). I don't think I'm going to do something quite as huge as TRT's main plotline again, mostly because it takes a TON of time and work, and I'm planning to take the original TRT elements and morph them into an original series fit for publishing (different enough that I can leave TRT up for everyone to read, cause at this point the fic's part of DD fandom culture and I have no plans to take that away) which will also take a ton of time. But I'm definitely rattling my brain around, looking at different plotlines I could do knowing what I know about the ending, hunting for loose ends or canonical threads that I can weave in with TRT's world and create something new!

Then again, I never would have said I'd make something as massive as TRT before I started, either, so who knows.

So in short: YES, there will be TRT events for Born Again even if it's not as elaborate as TRT! I just have no idea what those will be yet. Fortunately, TRT mainline's only a little over halfway done so I've got time to plan!

#the red thread #daredevil: born again #if authors and characters are sometimes like marriages then me and matt and jane have rings #all of the mainline stuff i had was basically planned to wrap up just after season 3 and that's still going to happen #with additional but much shorter chaptered fics planned to explore MCU events through a TRT lens #as well as some domestic fluff stuff and exploring what their relationship looks like as the MCU moves forward #so I was always planning to do *something* in a way #but honestly i didn't expect for there to be a born again #and certainly not as much stuff with matt as is happening #so i didn't really have anything SUPER huge planned unless a movie did something big that sparked an idea (think the snap) #and now i'm like OH MY GOD THE SHOWS THERE WILL BE SO MUCH #and i have a feeling i'll have a lot to work with that might stir some creativity! #it just probably won't be as elaborate as TRT cause gd i love it but it's a ton of work #and i want to get a variation of it published which will also be work since i need to change a mountain of details #but yes i do plan to write stuff for born again set in the TRT universe! just need to see what gets sparked unless i bump into something #that inspires a plotline #a bit like i did with the idea of red threads

[destinygoldenstar]

In defense of Noah.

So I got noted quite a bit in my Owen post (which blew up A LOT more than I initiated. Wow.) that I did not mention that Noah was... not the nicest person in the world to Owen in RR, and yet I claimed they were friends. 

I wanted to say my thoughts on that.

Will this be bias because I love Noah? Yeah. Probably.

I’m not gonna act like Noah was traditionally nice to Owen. Not ever, actually. He did laugh at Owen’s milk snot in World Tour, and a couple times I’m too lazy to recall right now, but not much else that can be deemed as ‘friendly.’

Really, has Noah EVER been traditionally a friendly person? To ANYONE?

He deals with his interactions with a smirk and a rude demeanor. With the exception of Emma, who I will get to later, he talks in the sarcastic tone we love about him. 

I understand where that criticism comes from. Despite becoming good friends with Owen and staying with him on multiple reality shows, he doesn’t really show that much kindness towards him. Heck, he doesn’t really show that to anyone and constantly forces people to do the hard work for him. Dodgebrawl? The Tyler stretching incident? That’s not OOC. 

But... I honestly liked it. And here’s why.

It was just really wholesome to see this stone faced lazy guy get slapped in the face with sincerity and make a much healthier life for himself. Better than working for Chris anyway.

Noah’s someone very introverted and, lets face it, spoiled. The game might actually be the first time he was rejected ever. After Island, he became Chris’s little assistant, and that says all, and in World Tour, he actually does try to dodge hard challenges first (remember the pinball challenge?) And who forces him into a position to always be on guard? Owen. Mostly because Owen is probably gonna (accidentally) kill Noah. And Alejandro, who is sus.

I See London is the first episode where Noah legit takes charge in something. He’s not nice about it, I don’t expect him to be, but they had to win the challenge. It’s not the rules were gonna change on them at the last minute- oh wait.

(I mean, it’s Total Drama. Hosted by Chris McLean. So... I’m not as mad about that as you think I would be.)

But let me ask this: If Noah had no care for Owen whatsoever, WHY would he even stay with Owen for so many reality shows? 

I’ll wait.

Of course Noah isn’t gonna outright say he cares about him, or even be good at encouraging his partner. “You’re about as picky as a raccoon”, is essentially his poor way of encouraging that he can do it. Unlike Emma, who only saw Kitty as an asset to winning the money at first, Noah knows who Owen is, and tries to help them both. Could he be nicer about it? Yes. But that’s not the point. The point is ‘how would this be an in character way for them to deal the situation?’

“Hold on, but he developed all these feelings for Emma and constantly tried to impress her” -The reblog section

Here’s the big case.

That whole thing is only proof that Owen’s good nature DOES rub off on Noah. Better yet, being forced into situations where he has to actually TRY to make it and survive. 

And a crush? Yeah, that’ll let that all out at once. It’s basically, Noah recognizes that he legit WANTS something that’s hard to get. Of course he’s bad at dealing with emotion and struggling with something that seems so... sappy. This is a whole new experience for him. 

And as much as you may want to deny it, Noah is NOT just an emotionless sarcastic machine. If that were the case, he wouldn’t laugh at Owen’s milk shake at all, which that too, could’ve easily come across as unconventional for him. 

(I don’t want to talk about the ‘But there were hints that Noah was gay, and yet he becomes straight’ stuff. I don’t hate it, and that’s coming from someone graysexual. Total Drama is bad at representation. The fandom just wants to ignore the facts because they love the show and the characters anyway. If I wrote Total Drama, would I have made Noah gay? Coin toss. But what’s canon is canon, write a fanfic instead of whining to the writers. Over.)

For me at least, I just found it really wholesome to see this brainiac become way more understanding and better at relationships as the show went on. 

With Emma, it’s understanding her boundaries in order to properly be with her. 

With Owen, he does actually get better at showing his care for Owen as RR goes on. It’s Owen who helps him in the air guitar challenge, and from there, the bossiness towards the big guy becomes way less frequent. 

Total Drama doesn’t have it’s characters blatantly say, “I’m sorry I treated you badly” or “I’ll try to be better” or “I care about you and I want you around”. Some shows do that, in my writing I do that, but that’s never been this show’s style. So of course Noah isn’t gonna blatantly apologize or say “I need you.”

Would I have liked for Noah to have said this sort of stuff out loud? Yeah.

Would I have liked for Noah to have more screen time to flesh out what I’m talking about? YES.

But for what we have, I still love Noah as a character. He’s not the best written character in the show, but sometimes you don’t care.

Who knows? Maybe I’ll make a Noah centric fic that takes place in an alternate timeline of the show. where he DOES get the screen time to flesh out what I’m trying to say. No promises though. 

#Total Drama #Td Noah #Td Owen #Td Emma #Nemma #total drama ridonculous race #in defense #defending a character #i'm biased