#being horrible irreverent people

[kaedehara--kazuha]

I never see anyone talk about this but I rotate this scene in my mind constantly. It’s not just that Legato wants to die. He was treated as a commodity largely because of his hair, but Knives is the first person who treated it so irreverently as to cut it like this. He doesn’t see anything special about it; he doesn’t see Legato as different from any other human. I see a lot of people giving Knives shit for not making an exception for Legato but I think that’s missing the point. Legato has been “an exception” his entire life. That’s why this is the only time we see him smile a genuine smile - he’s finally not being singled out. It doesn’t matter that Knives treats him horribly, he treats him like any other human, which is all he’s ever wanted.

#Trigun #analysis

[thebibliomancer]

Earth X #8

May, stop being in space! You need your oxygens!

Earth X: it’s a Bad Future and it is a mess.

Uatu the Watcher has been blinded and he kidnapped Aaron to be his seeing eye robot. Uatu has bullied and dehumanized Aaron into deleting his own personality.

There’s been a mass empowering event which mutated all of humanity. At first it seemed like it was Reed Richard’s fault but doubt has been raised.

A psychic brat called the Skull has arrived in New New York with an army of thousands of mind controlled people.

Bruce Banner came to Sorcerer Supreme Clea for help contacting dead Mar-Vell. But Clea turns out to be in league with Loki and traps Thor and Hulk in in the Realm of Death.

Everything is apparently the Celestials’ mysterious plan for Earth or alternatively events are off the rails and happening 200 years sooner than they’re supposed to.

Earth X has so much stuff going on. So many subplots. And yet if it was a conspiracy board, all the yarn would connect to the Celestials.

I’ve commented before that Earth X takes the chaotic, kitchen sink Marvel universe and tries to tie it all into the Celestials.

A few issues back, Uatu explained that the Asgardians weren’t gods, they were shapeshifting empathic aliens who looked like Norse mythology because people expected them too.

It wasn’t an explanation I particularly liked.

Then, last issue, it was explained that the Hulk’s various personas were only a result of the Celestial seed in Bruce absorbing more and more gamma and had nothing to do with Bruce’s mental health.

This also I didn’t particularly like.

Now Earth X goes in a similarly weird direction by claiming that Peter Parker’s trademark crushing guilt and responsibility complex are also part of the Celestial plan.

Uatu doesn’t finish explaining how the hell this makes sense because he notices Aaron ask a follow-up question… which means Aaron didn’t erase his own personality!

Yay, Aaron! It would have been a bummer for him to undergo identity death for Uatu’s jerk ass.

In fact, Aaron was pretending to be an emotionless robot because he suspected that Uatu wouldn’t reveal the true secrets behind everything as long as he could still second guess them.

So now he knows (almost) everything. And he is furious.

Aaron Stack: “Who knows, maybe man’s every vice and every hunger can be traced to the Celestials. Maybe the Celestials’ manipulation of mankind’s evolution was in actuality a step down. The fall of man. You’ve damned them, Uatu. You and your Celestial Host. I guess this doesn’t surprise me. You’ve set yourself up as God. So you have the power to damn. But do you have the power to save? Could you redeem what you’ve set out to curse? You could. I know it. But you just don’t want to bother with it. You’d rather sit. And watch.”

John Jameson, moon werewolf astronaut, wanders into the Watcher’s home and right into an argument between Uatu and Aaron.

Which is good because it gives Aaron someone else to talk to when Uatu goes to sulk.

Also, somebody to narrate to. John wants to warn Earth about a scary something approaching from space but Aaron runs through the subplot list to show how everything is a mess and nobody is really available to deal with space invaders.

Captain America uses the Lockjaw teleporter (which I guess he borrowed from Reed) to warp right into Tony’s self-quarantine. Freaking Tony the hell out with fears of contamination.

Cap tries to warn Tony about the Skull’s huge army reaching New New York but Tony is sure the Iron Avengers have it handled.

(They don’t. They’ve been destroyed by the Skull’s army)

The Skull also has his forces wipe out the Hyda. Hmm, I really thought the mind control squid would be more important to the plot. I included it in every recap.

The Skull is confronted by Cop Luke Cage (who I also thought would be more important to the plot after he had that scene with Peter Parker in issue 1) and is irreverent and horrible as ever.

He’s the worst. I love him as a villain.

Meanwhile, Reed and Ben walk the streets. Ben has an emotional breakthrough all by himself while Reed is completely engrossed in his own subplot and doesn’t notice Ben is talking to him.

He altered Cerebro to find Inhumans instead of mutants so he could find the missing Inhuman Prince but everyone on the streets is pinging as Inhuman.

At the same time, in Latveria, Luna starts spontaneously undergoing terrigenesis, the Inhuman transformation process. Which should only happen in the presence of the terrigen mist.

Which finally solves the mystery of the mass empowering event. It wasn’t an explosion at the vibranium radio tower. The entire world has been exposed to terrigen mist!

Somehow. We don’t know how. And the Inhumans seem surprised to realize that this is the case.

Over in the Sanctum Sanctorum, Clea gloats to a captive blind child Bruce but is surprised by Hulk and Thor escaping the Realm of Death with the help of ghost Strange.

She asks for Loki’s help but he’s bailed on her. Obviously.

So Clea decides to explode New New York out of spite but Thor transports her and him to Asgard, knowing Loki will prevent him from coming back.

With the Sorcerer Supreme and Thor out of his way, Loki gloats Earth is his.

Still not sure how this fits into everything else going on.

I’m not sure if Cap found any help from Tony but he moves onto Russia.

Currently ruled by Colossus.

There was a bit in an earlier appendix about how due to the mass empowering event, former superheroes were asked to take leadership positions since they were used to leading those with powers.

It hasn’t come up so I forgot about it but here we are with President? King? Secretary? Colossus.

Colossus doesn’t want to get involved because Russia is the breadbasket of the world and he needs to protect it. But Cap points out that the Skull won’t stop at the ocean. He’ll make his way to Russia eventually and he’s a dumb kid who treats this like a game. He won’t think about controlling people to do agriculture.

(If that’s the case, the Celestial plan for Earth must come about really soon after the Skull. Or at least depending on whether that’s been derailed or not by the terrigen jumping the gun by two hundred years. But my thought is, if the Skull is part of the plan, you can’t have much time between him taking over the world and whatever the Celestials need Earth for. Because the kid isn’t going to bother keeping civilization going.)

Back in New New York, Peter continues to try to convince May not to do anything. She just tells him to grow up and jumps into action against the Skull’s army without a plan.

The Skull sends Iron Maiden to confront May Venom. Iron Maiden begs May to withdraw before the Skull takes control of her but May doesn’t listen.

May beats Iron Maiden with a little asphyxiation and then immediately falls under the Skull’s control.

His creepy, creepy control.

Away from the action, Peter is at a loss for what to do now. He contemplates a Peter Parker Spider-Man costume he sees in a shop window but walks away very “Spider-Man No More” ish.

I guess Peter’s identity is out.

The appendix has a bit where John Jameson asks after his father. Aaron tells him that Jonah has himself locked up in the Daily Bugle building, the paper having gone out of business when it was revealed Spider-Man had been taking Spider-Man pictures all along. Jonah also keeps Jack Russell Werewolf By Night locked up with him, under the belief he’s werewolf astronaut John, since NASA lied to John and didn’t tell Jonah his son was going to the Moon.

Phew.

And the issue ends with the Skull and his top peeps cornering President Norman Osborn in his office.

Unless this goes in a completely unexpected direction, I also thought President Osborn would be more important to the plot than he was.

Was he just a Bad Future signifier? Things are so bad, Norman Osborn is president, but also he’s not really important?

Odd.

#earth x #liveblog #machine man #uatu the watcher #John Jameson #captain america #iron man #luke cage #mr fantastic #the thing #inhumans #hulk #Thor #Clea #Loki #colossus #spider man #mayday parker #venom #norman osborn

[kyliafanfiction]

I'm always baffled by people who critize Mass Effect, of all things, as being like, super stereotyping about the various species, because...

That's the exact opposite of the experience I got? Like, with the possible exception of Mordin Solus (and even he is more nuanced), every alien crewmate you get in the Trilogy - and I'm pretty sure in Andromeda, though I never got around to finishing that and I really should one of these days - to one extent or another does not represent the stereotypes of their species. Usually the exact opposite.

Which, given the limited amount of space and time the game actually has to show us all this, is a pretty clear indication by them that 'the stereotypes are just that' - i.e. stereotypes, not categorically accurate.

Wrex and Grunt certainly have some conventionally seen Krogan traits, but neither of them are simple thuggy brutes who kill for the sake of it or anything close. They're both complicated, nuanced people who are capable of being farsighted, who run the exact opposite as Krogan are seen as by many non-Krogan.

Liara is a Doctor when most Asari her age are 'supposed' to be running around dancing and mercing and having wild sex. She's shy, and if not a virgin in ME1, damn close. She's a huge intorvert in a species that's stereotyped the exact opposite.

Likewise, Samara is a tightly controlled, zealous warrior with no real sense of diplomacy, against a species that is usually cast as loose, lax, sometimes flippant and irreverent (the Goddess is not actually that commonly worshipped by Asari anymore) and certainly more interested in subtlety and going along to get along (remember that Cop who had the issue with Samara and was like 'this isn't Asari space and she's a wrecking ball' or whatever).

Garrus explicitly says he's 'a bad Turian', and he repeatedly shows that he runs counter to those typical 'Turians are all militaristic and hiercharcical and follow orders and like rules and systems'

Tali is the first Quarian in 300 years to make friends with a Geth and she seems to be actively xenophilic (I don't mean in a sexual sense, though that too, but more in a 'she likes outside culture stuff a lot' which appears to run a bit counter to the insularity of Quarian culture).

And these are just the big picture examples - we see in other ways, at smaller times, Krogan and Asari and Turians and Quarians and Volus and even Salarians (though I do think they get a bit of a short end here) that don't match up to the stereotypes we're given in the codexes.

Batarians - yeah, there's not much there. They got shafted on this front all around, I'll admit.

Far from being some horribly racist, stereotyping game, I'd argue that one of the great things about Mass Effect is that it spends just about as much time undermining the stereotypes as it does establishing them, overall - it's not perfect, not by any stretch, but still.

Some people just want to be angry about shit, I swear.

#Mass Effect #Mass Effect Trilogy #Mass Effect Aliens #Stereotyping in Fiction #Racism In Fiction #Or at least topics that abut against that

[its-your-mind]

can I. JUST SAY.

There is so much power in the ability to laugh at the things that terrify you, the things that caused you your deepest wounds and traumas and insecurities

And not in a “haha that was actually always just a foolish trivial thing” and not in a “my fear was never necessary, how silly of me,” but in a “my only perspective on this for years was from below as I cowered before it, trying desperately to protect myself, and now I am slowly learning that it is possible to see this thing from a different angle.”

Caleb imagined the moment he would see Trent again millions of times, in millions of permutations. But the thing about trauma is that it’s almost impossible to imagine confronting its source as anyone but the person you were when you were hurt. And Caleb had been a child, alone, and Trent was the only authority figure with any sway over his life.

It is possible to imagine a student striking back against a cruel and abusive teacher. It is possible to imagine a powerful mage tracking down and punishing a lone fugitive ex-apprentice.

But Caleb isn’t alone anymore, and he’s not subject to Trent’s authority in nearly the same way.

In the moment when Caleb and Trent saw each other again, Caleb was a member of a group of powerful, capable adventurers who had recently thwarted the actions of a dangerous cult of a Betrayer God. He was accompanied by an Expositor of the Cobalt Soul. He was vouched for by an Archmage member of the Council of Tal’dore. He had been part of a successful infiltration into the enemy Dynasty, and had come out with the favor of their Queen.

Caleb might not be as powerful as Trent, either politically or magically, but he’s also not a naive young student from a farming village anymore. He has allies. He has a family. He has power. He is not someone who can be easily made to disappear.

And while Caleb may not have internalized that quite yet, Trent clearly has, and more importantly, the rest of the Nein have.

They all stepped in around Caleb as a show of support and protection and strength as soon as they saw Trent coming close. “This one isn’t yours to control anymore,” they’re saying. “If you want him, you’re going to have to go through us.”

And they’re still listening, still validating Caleb’s fear and assuring him that they’re with him and that they’re going to keep him safe, but they understand how hard this must be for him, and he can just say the word and they’ll all leave Rexxentrum behind.

But they’re also adding chocolate and pastries to the list of demands they have for the Cerberus Assembly for future meetings. They’re mentioning the Happy Fun Ball, by name, to Ludinus Da’leth. Jester is offering to hold official parlay meetings in a volcano. Caduceus is telling Trent he doesn’t know what the word “caustic” means.

And all of a sudden… Caleb is able to step out of the protective and submissive position he’s held towards Trent and the Cerberus Assembly for his whole life. Not entirely, and not permanently, but… his new family just being there, being who they are even when surrounded by these powerful and terrifying people from his past…

All of a sudden, some of the shadows fade away, and yes, Trent is awful and horrible and has had too much control over Caleb’s life, and yes the Cerberus Assembly is powerful and far-reaching and has agents all over the world, but Jester can still baffle Ludinus, and Caduceus can still read Trent like a book, Beau can still be blunt and direct, Yasha can still make herself a threat, Nott can still be sly and inconspicuous, and Fjord can still sweet-talk through interactions with dangerous people.

All of a sudden, Caleb is not alone.

Things aren’t better. He’s still broken and hurting and scared. But now, as he watches his friends square up next to him against his past with the same irreverence they give to everything else, he’s able to take small steps. Call Trent out on his cowardice. Offer a greeting to Eadwulf. Ask Ludinus direct questions about the intentions of the Cerberus Assembly.

He’s not safe, none of them are safe, but they are together, and that makes them powerful. That makes them dangerous. That makes them a threat. And all of a sudden, the looming presence of Trent Ikithon starts to recede back into Caleb’s past. Not gone, not forgotten, not excised… But past. Not here. Not now. Not surrounded by these people who will stand around him and behind him and beside him as he faces down the people that haunt his past.

#critical role #the mighty nein #c2e88 #caleb widogast #trent ikithon #ludinus da'leth #the cerberus assembly #cr2 spoilers #c2 spoilers #ANYway I was think bout trauma AS YOU DO and also Caleb bc I am a broken human being whose brain is not a brain but only blorbo in microwave #idk if I explained it good?? #but basically one of the common breakthroughs in ptsd therapy is when you start to laugh at the thing #like just any part of it #bc it’s a sign that emotions that are not fear are allowed into the memory #woop

[yanahn-blog]

What's up with Death Games? (A Poll & A TTRPG)

Remember when Squid Game was the new hotness? - coming into a long tradition of entertainment media about people stabbing each other for things as a commentary on our society (or human nature or the entertainment industry etc. etc.)

It's an evergreen genre and while I've got my guess at why it's like that (*cough* the gamification and entertainment-ification of our society (where everything is a game-esque and not a lot of it is like fun) *cough*) In light of Laurie O' Connel launching his new tabletop game on the genre (with 11 days left to check it out), I wanted to see what you all think and also chat a bit about the game! Regardless of what drew you to the genre, I hope this might be of interest to you.

Death Game the tabletop game is a narrative-driven tabletop roleplaying game when characters compete in a high-stakes battle for survival - his Kickstarter page (linked in the image) explains the details But the main gist is that you all collaboratively make an arena (with a secret ballot for a horrible gimmick/twist) - someone starts off as the GM (running challenges & archetypal NPCs) and everyone else makes some Competitors to subject to challenges within this imagined vale of tears. Danger lurks at every corner (and roll) and once a Competitor perishes, their player is now the new GM - with the GM picking an NPC to elevate to Competitor to play - and the game goes on until Competitor No. = Player No. and the Final Showdown phase begins.

I will be frank and say I enjoy games with a rotating GM mechanic (especially thanks to my gaming friends, who frequently when asked will supply an even more terrible idea than GM me could have pondered for their hapless character) - and also I enjoy the irreverent and satirical energy Laurie brings to his game writing (check out the archetypes you can play in this game, they are an Interesting Bunch)

I'm also just happy to be part of a cast of great stretch goal writers - shoutout to @ratwavegamehouse (writing a hospital themed arena) and @wendiyu (whose as yet unrevealed arena I am very curious about)

#ttrpgs #indie ttrpg #zine month #death game

[testudoaubrei-blog]

Still thinking about John Gaius who is definitely my ultimate poor little meow meow. He has done and continues to do such horrible things while refusing to change and also he subverts so much of what we expect from a villain.

First off, I don't think it is coincidence that Tasmyn Muir made sure to put him on the 'right' side of contemporary politics. He hates billionaires, loves queer people, fuck is a disaster bisexual himself, and isn't some white dude from America. He is also literally chosen by the earth herself to save her, and he really does care for her, and for his friends, I think. He certainly doesn't believe the wrong things or reason incorrectly, he wants to achieve goals most of us readers agree with. He is a perfect vaguely left of center hero in terms of being on 'our side' unless you are a vegan or a cow.

He is also, and I can't emphasize this enough, incredibly likable. He is funny, self effacing and can seem very considerate. Almost alone among characters in the setting, he doesn't accept the world as it is, or rage against its injustices, he seems to actually understand that this world (the society he created) is fucking ridiculous in a way that is kind of funny. I say he is almost alone in this because there is another irreverent wiseass who doesn't take things seriously, his daughter, Gideon Nav. And he is a lot like her.

But for all this John is as much a villain as this series has one (being ambivalent about villains in a serious moral sense, if not in the scenery chewing sense).

And it's tempting to reify that and make it some property of John or something that he lacks. To make being a controlling mastermind or a tyrant devoid of empathy some essential part of his make up and not a choice he had made. And I just don't see that.

I look at John and I see failure. Failure to actually save the world despite his magical powers - to the point where he killed it himself. Failure to confront that initial failure and rebuild the world as something whole, instead creating a crippled society out of his need to avoid responsibility and seek revenge. And failure for ten thousand years to do something better, something new rather than play out this self absorbed pageant of self justification across the known universe.

I think on a lot of narratives there is something that divides their heroes and villains and that this is the moral core of the narrative. Now Tasmyn Muir seems to loathe moralizing or pay answers (hence making the tyrannical God Emperor of the universe a bisexual progressive twitch streamer) but I think we can see on the series a divide between those characters who seek to revenge themselves for old wrongs and continue this forever war, and those who want to do something new. John, and for that matter, a lot of the BoE (who let us emphasize are often shown doing -absolutely horrible things-*) are in the first camp. The Sixth and maybe some of our other heroes are in the second. (Interestingly our two heroines are in a much more ambiguous position stuck in the middle, but often more on the side of the bad guys!).

Anyway I am going to have John brainrot until Alecto comes out.

*Commander Wake might as well wear a 'there are no good guys in this war' t-shirt.

#the locked tomb #harrow the ninth spoilers #john gaius #nona the ninth #nona the ninth spoilers

[kingofsummer93]

Ex Luna Scientia

Summary:

Lucien Vanserra, seventh son of the Minister for Magic, is as loved by his peers as he is hated by his family. But behind the charm and irreverence hides a secret, as dark and menacing as the scar on his face.

Elain Archeron, middle sister in a trio of muggle-born witches, has only one wish: for someone to truly see her. Because when she sleeps at night, she can see it all.

Or- an Elucien at Hogwarts AU.

Chapter 7: The Cauldron of Fire

Ao3 Masterlist

Lucien’s last detention with Professor Amren was the night before Halloween, and he spent the entire hour tapping his foot and glancing at the clock above the door. Sometimes if he was annoying enough Amren would let him out of detention early, but it seemed like he would have no such luck today. She only glanced at him periodically, staring at him with her silver-grey eyes flashing in irritation before going back to grading the pile of homework in front of her.

But Lucien could tell that even she was keen on getting down to the Great Hall. The teacher was glancing at the clock as often as he was, and seemed to have trouble focusing on the pile of essays. He could have sworn that she wasn’t even properly reading the essays before scribbling a note on the parchment and moving on to the next one.

TheTri-Trials Tournament would officially begin that night, and the entire school was buzzing with excitement. The theories on who the impartial judge would be were as varied as they were wild. Some said it would be a ministry member, others guessed perhaps a foreign dignitary, while one person swore up and down it would be a member of the Weird Sisters.

Lucien had reservations about it being a ministry member. He was friendly with plenty of them through Eris, but there were many more he’d like to avoid.

His stomach lurched with a sudden, horrible though. What if the judge was his father? But no, surely not, surely his mum or Eris would have said so…

“Do you know who will be picking the candidates?” he blurted suddenly.

Professor Amren sighed so deeply that her dark fringe fluttered with her breath. “Yes, Mr Vanserra, I do.” She pursed her lips and pointedly stared back at the parchment in front of her.

“What are they like? What kind of candidates do you think they’ll be likely to pick?”

Amren’s lips quirked up at that, almost imperceptibly so. “If you’re thinking up ways on how to seduce the impartial judge then I’m afraid you are quite wasting your time.”

“Hmm.” So it wasn’t a woman. Probably for the better, really- the Weird Sisters were so hairy…

“Don’t you have homework you can be doing, instead of running your mouth?” Amren continued.

Lucien shrugged lazily. “Meh…”

The teacher scowled at him, and Lucien grinned broadly. Most students were intimidated by Amren but Lucien knew the cranky aunt persona was mostly an act. All the other teachers gave lines or chores during detention, but Amren let him do whatever he wanted. If it was close enough to the full moon she didn’t even scold him for napping.

Ten minutes before his hour was up Amren set her quill down and peered at him over the stack of parchment. Lucien was half asleep, indulging in a day dream about Elain, and he jumped in surprise when Amren cleared her throat loudly.

“I’ve been meaning to talk to you about…well, about the source of your little bonfire the other day.” The teacher seemed uncharacteristically uncomfortable as she said this, and Lucien knew perfectly well that she knew exactly why he had burned those newspapers.

That article had been at the front of his mind ever since he’d read it. Any time he managed to forget about it temporarily, the memory of it would only slither back, setting his heart racing, making bile rise up his throat. With anger, yes, but also with fear, and that made him even more enraged.

There was no place for people like him in this world. No safety, no hope that they could ever lead a normal life. Werewolves were forced to register with the Department for Regulation of Magical Creatures, and weren’t even considered full citizens. The only other options were to hide your true identity, or live with the secret werewolves communities, most of whom were associated with dark wizards abroad.

Hogwarts was his safe place, and as soon as he graduated there was no telling what would happen to him. Every time that thought occurred to him it felt like time sped up at lightning speed, and there was nothing he could do to slow it down.

The fact that his own father was the Minister for Magic was no consolation. If anything, it made it even worse. It was convenient for him to keep Lucien’s secret while he was at Hogwarts, but would he keep the charade going after he left school?

That little stunt at the inn had not been necessary, but it was the sort of thing Beron did to amuse himself, and to keep the fanatic side of his followers appeased. But it was also a message to Lucien. A reminder, a threat that if he didn’t toe the line, the same thing could happen to him. Gone would be his hopes of becoming an auror, of having friends, of being part of the wizarding community.

“You can’t let things like that set you off,” Amren continued, still peering at him in concern.

“There was no reason for him to do that!” Lucien exclaimed angrily. “How can he get away with this? Those are innocent people he’s sending to Azkaban!”

The thought of getting thrown into Azkaban as a werewolf was terrifying. Being stuck in those tiny cells, the scent of humans heavy in the air, clawing at his own skin, with no room to run and let out the endless rage…

“I agree with you, Lucien, but you have to realize that attracting attention to yourself regarding that subject is not wise.”

Lucien knew this. He also knew she wasn’t being condescending, but rather being mindful that everything at Hogwarts had ears.

“I’m on your side, as is Professor Spell-Cleaver, but we can only protect you as long as you’re helping yourself, too,” she continued, more gently.

Lucien wondered what she would say if she knew he had inadvertently caused three minors to become unregistered animagi, who not only joined him during the fool moon, but trespassed all over the Hogwarts and Hogsmeade grounds as they did so.

“Do you think it’s hopeless for me to even try to become an auror?” Lucien blurted. He’d never voiced that fear out loud, even to his friends. “What if…what if he tries to stop me?” He knew he didn’t have to specify who he was talking about. “What if he locks me up in Azkaban the day I graduate? What if…”

Amren’s grey eyes flashed silver again. “Your father might be popular but there are witches and wizards much more powerful than him that are on your side, Lucien. You’d do well to remember that, and to not repay that loyalty by purposefully getting yourself into sticky situations.”

Lucien immediately felt rotten. “Sorry, Professor,” he mumbled, his eyes on the desk in front of him. “I can usually control the anger pretty well, but reading that article…”

“I know.” Professor Amren’s voice had turned gruff, and Lucien didn’t dare look at her. She cleared her throat. “Now go on, get out of here. The feast is about to start.” Lucien didn’t need to be told twice. He grabbed his bookbag and bolted towards the door. He paused with his hand on the doorknob. “I really am sorry, Professor. I swear I wasn’t just being an ass…”

Professor Amren shooed him towards the door, her cranky persona back in place. “Yeah, yeah, go on, get out of here…”

Lucien bolted up four sets of stairs towards Gryffindor tower and skidded to a stop in front of the painting of the Fat Lady. Her friend Violet was sitting next to her, and they seemed to be in the middle of sharing a bottle of sherry.

“Twinkling fairies,” he said, winking at them both for good measure. Violet blushed slightly, while the Fat Lady, used to his antics, merely smiled at him indulgently. “Quite right you are,” she said primly, and swung forward to admit him inside.

The common room was already empty, and Lucien took the stairs to the dormitory two at a time, dumping his bag on his bed before bolting back downstairs. He climbed out of the portrait hole once more and set off at a jog down the corridor.

“Well sure, don’t bother saying thank you, we’ll just be swinging back and forth all night for you!” the Fat Lady called angrily after him.

There were only a few students still making their way to their seats when Lucien finally reached the Great Hall, and he hurried towards the Gryffindor table. As he walked he realized that people were staring at him, some with sympathy, others (mainly from the Slytherin table) with outright disdain. All this for walking in late? It seemed slightly disproportionate…

But then Lucien casually glanced at the teachers’ table, and he stopped dead in his tracks. All the teachers were in their seats, but they were sitting closer than usual, as three extra people were currently in attendance at the feast.

One of them was a slightly sour-looking wizard that Lucien vaguely recognized as being from the ministry. In the second chair sat his brother Eris, who in his typical fashion had shown up in muggle clothing, and was getting side eyed by the other professors as a result. Eris was staring at him so aggressively that it looked like he was trying to speak directly into Lucien’s mind. He was sitting quite stiffly, and the look in his eyes was carefully wary, even as he gave Lucien a slight nod of greeting. Lucien quickly realized why. His gaze slid to Eris’ right, and for the first time in almost three years he made eye contact with his father.

It shocked Lucien to his very core. Even more people were staring at him now, heads swiveling between him and the teacher’s table. Lucien was frozen on the spot, suddenly unaware of how to move his limbs normally. Those amber eyes, so like Eris’, were somehow cold as ice and burning him at the same time. His father didn’t so much as smile in greeting. His eyes only narrowed as his brow furrowed.

Why had nobody told him about this? Why hadn’t Eris warned him? Why hadn’t Professor Amren said something in detention, or even Professor Spell-Cleaver?

But then again, why would they? They would probably have assumed that Lucien was in contact with his own father, like a normal fucking person would be.

The moment seemed to stretch on forever, with Lucien standing frozen like a statue halfway to the Gryffindor table. In reality it couldn’t have been more than a few seconds but it felt like an eternity. It had been so long since he had seen his father that he couldn’t pinpoint the last time he had seen him. He had simply stopped being there when Lucien was home on holidays, and that had been fine by him.

Eris saved him then by jumping out of his chair and walking in between the long house tables towards him. There was a wide grin plastered on his face, though Lucien knew him well enough to see the tension in his expression. When he reached him he wrapped Lucien in a one-armed hug and clapped him on the back.

“Sorry,” his brother mumbled, low enough that nobody else could hear. “I wanted to surprise you but father decided to come at the last minute. Professor Spell-Cleaver didn’t even ask him to come. He was as shocked as you were when he saw him.”

Lucien quickly glanced at the teacher’s table and noticed for the first time that Professor Spell-Cleaver seemed unusually serious, his normally easy countenance and warm smiles nowhere to be seen. His elbows were on the table, hands clasped together with his chin resting on top of them. He seemed tense, like he was restraining himself, somehow. Something about that gave Lucien a twinge of morbid satisfaction. Clearly he wasn’t the only one unhappy about the Minister’s presence tonight.

“What are you doing here?” Lucien asked.

Eris grinned again, and this time there was only pure mischief in his eyes. “I’m one of the judges in the tournament. Surprise, little brother. Wait for me after the feast, all right?” With that his brother hurried back to the teacher’s table.

Lucien glanced at his father one more time before sitting down at the Gryffindor table. His friends were all staring at him, identical stricken looks on their faces. They knew him well enough not to say anything here, surrounded by the entire school, but he felt their concern nonetheless. Vassa grabbed his forearm and squeezed. Something like a warning flashed in her eyes.

Lucien looked down and realized he had grabbed a steak knife and was holding it so tightly his knuckles had turned white. He dropped the knife and loosed a breath, forcing himself to relax.

“I’m fine,” he murmured. “It’s fine.”

It was obviously not, but the next moment Professor Spell-Cleaver had stood, and silence fell across the Great Hall.

“Good evening, ladies, gentlemen, ghosts, and- guests,” a glance towards the three ministry wizards. “The tournament will be officially opened after the feast, but for now I invite you to enjoy, savor, and relish!”

He sat down, and immediately the empty dishes in front of them filled and delicious aromas wafted through the air. Lucien had lost his appetite, but he went through the motions of filling his plate and lifting his fork and goblet, trying and failing to participate in the conversation around him.

Why the fuck was his father here? It made no sense. A school tournament was not nearly important enough for the Minister for Magic to show up. It made sense for Eris and the other ministry wizard to be here, but his father must have had another motive. And it surely was not to see him. That notion was simply laughable.

When the last of the puddings finally disappeared Lucien sighed in relief. The sooner the feast was over, the sooner he could escape this hall, and his father’s venomous gaze. He could feel his father’s eyes swiveling back to him every few minutes, burning him like a brand.

Professor Spell-Cleaver stood up again, and everybody in the Great Hall turned to face him expectantly. Lucien sat up a bit straighter. He had been so distracted by his father that he had almost forgotten about the opening of the tournament. All along the house tables students were sitting uncharacteristically still, eyes bright with excitement.

“The moment that you have all been waiting for has finally come!” the Headmaster said, smiling at the students in front of him. “But before we bring in the cauldron-“

“The what?” Jurian blurted.

Lucien shrugged, as baffled as his friends looked. Were they going to have to brew some kind of potion to prove they were worthy of entering? He sure hoped not- he wasn’t bad at potions but it certainly wasn’t his strong suit…

“I’d like to introduce our guests for the evening. Mr Bartemius Koshei, Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement.” The surly looking wizard lifted a hand in greeting, and a few students clapped politely. “Mr Eris Vanserra, Head of the Department of Magical Games and Sports…”

The entire Gryffindor and Slytherin tables broke into thunderous applause, joined by most Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs. Lucien grinned and stuck his fingers in his mouth to wolf-whistle as Eris stood and waved, smiling broadly. Their father’s expression was thunderous, and that only made Lucien clap harder.

“And finally, a man who needs no introduction, Minister for Magic Beron Vanserra.”

The contrast could not have been more embarrassing. Most of the Slytherin table clapped, accompanied by the same polite students who had clapped for Mr Koschei, while the Gryffindor table remained entirely silent.

Lucien’s father lifted his hand in the barest of greetings but did not so much as crack a smile. Professor Spell-Cleaver looked at him expectantly for a moment, as if expecting him to stand and speak. When it became evident that the Minister had no desire to do so he cleared his throat and turned to face the students once more.

“Mr Koschei and Mr Eris Vanserra and their respective departments have been working tirelessly these last few months to organize this tournament, ensuring that it will not only be safe, but also challenging and exciting. They will be joining myself, as well as the four Heads of House, as judges during the three trials.”

“Actually? You’re a shoe-in, mate…” Vassa elbowed Tamlin in the ribs to shush him, but Lucien grinned at his friend and winked. As long as the impartial judge picked him, then surely this would be a cakewalk.

“The three trials that our champions will face have already been organized and approved by all the judges,” Professor Spell-Cleaver continued. At the sound of the word “champions” any lingering chatter in the hall immediately died down. It was so quiet it seemed like everyone was holding their breaths. “There will be three trials, spaced throughout the school year. The trials will challenge our champions on their magical abilities, their courage and wit, and of course, their ability to cope with danger.

“As you all know, one representative from each House will be selected to participate in the tournament. They will be awarded points based on how well they perform each trial, and the champion with the highest number of points at the end of the tournament will win the Tri-Trials Cup, as well a thousand Galleon prize money. These champions will be selected by our impartial judge- the Cauldron of Fire.”

“The what now?” Jurian mumbled.

Lucien frowned. “The judge is a cauldron?”

The Great Hall had erupted in excited whispers, which all died down once more as Mr Filch appeared, dragging with him what appeared to be a very large, golden cauldron. Several older students hurried out of their seats to help him, and with a final loud thunk it was set on the ground in front of Professor Spell-Cleaver.

It was large enough that an adult man could fit comfortably inside, and looked as old as the Sorting Hat. Professor Spell-Cleaver waved his wand, and tall blue-white flames erupted from the cauldron.

“Any student wishing to submit their name for consideration must write their name and House on a piece of parchment, and drop it into the cauldron. The cauldron will be placed in the Entrance Hall until tomorrow night, when it will return the names of the champions it has chosen.”

The Great Hall erupted in excited whispers. Professor Spell-Cleaver smiled at them indulgently before continuing. “As I mentioned at the start of term, the tournament is open only to students who are seventeen years of age as of today. I want to point out that in order to discourage underage students from entering, I will personally be drawing an age line around the cauldron to ensure only those who are of age can enter.”

“An age line?” Jurian whispered. “Should be easy to fool, no?”

“Ageing potions, maybe?” Tamlin pondered.

Vassa frowned at them, but only half-heartedly.

“I wish we could all enter together,” Lucien said truthfully. “Not that it would matter, because it would pick me anyway, but…”

“Finally,” Professor Spell-Cleaver continued. “I want to emphasize that your decision to enter the tournament should not be taken lightly. Having your name chosen by the cauldron is a binding magical contract- if you are chosen as champion, you will be obliged to participate in the trials until the end of the tournament. The Ministry and myself have gone to great lengths to ensure your safety during the trials, but with that said, there remains an element of danger that should be taken seriously.”

A little shiver of excitement went through the Great Hall.

“And with that, I’d say it’s well past time for bed! Chop chop!”

Lucien glanced at the teacher’s table as he followed his friends towards the Entrance Hall. His father was deep in conversation with Mr Koschei, but Eris caught his eye and angled his head towards the door to the Great Hall. Lucien nodded back.

When they reached the Entrance Hall he waved his friends off and waited until Eris finally appeared, hurrying toward him.

“So,” Eris said with a grin. “Still going to enter?”

“Obviously,” Lucien retorted. He glanced back at the open doors to the Great Hall, dreading the thought of his father walking through them.

“Don’t worry about him. He’s having a nightcap with Koschei and Professor Spell-Cleaver. Helion didn’t seem thrilled at the prospect though, mind you…”

Lucien snorted. It was no great secret that the Headmaster was a critic of his father, at best.

“Why is he here?” Lucien mumbled. “He didn’t even say anything…”

Eris shrugged uncomfortably. “Donno. He’s not a judge, I don’t think he’s planning on being here for the trials. Look, I know you don’t want to hear this, but maybe he just wanted to see you.”

Lucien fixed his brother with a long, icy stare. They both knew this was as unlikely as a member of the Weird Sisters being appointed Minister for Magic.

“If that’s the case then why isn’t he out here talking to me like a normal father would do?” Lucien countered.

Eris sighed. “I don’t know, Lucien. Just- promise me you’re taking care of yourself, alright? Try not to let him get to you. I’ll see you at the first task.” His brother grinned widely then. “You have no idea what’s coming in these trials. If I were you I’d think twice about it.”

Lucien grinned back. “More reason to enter, in that case!”

——-

“Do it,” Lucien urged.

“You go first,” Jurian pleaded, shuffling nervously.

“Nope. It’ll be more fun to gloat if you guys have already failed.”

They were standing in the Entrance Hall, on the edge of the crowd surrounding the cauldron of fire. It had been moved to the center of the Entrance Hall overnight, surrounded by a wide circle drawn in white chalk on the ground. One by one students were crossing the line and dropping their names into the cauldron, to claps and cheers from the crowd of onlookers. Each time a new piece of parchment was dropped in, the cauldron’s flames would glow red-hot for a moment before fading to white-blue again.

“Alright,” Tamlin declared. “We’re going in.”

“You’re sure you don’t want to give it a go, Vassa?” Jurian asked.

“You know what?” she retorted, shrugging her shoulders. “Why not?”

Lucien chuckled darkly. He knew instinctively that this was not going to work, but he was desperate to see Professor Spell-Cleaver’s age line in action.

Jurian uncorked the vial of aging potion he was holding (pilfered from the potions classroom storage closet overnight) and took a careful sip. He hesitated for a few moments, but when nothing happened he shrugged and passed the vial to Vassa. Once all three of them had sipped from the potion they carefully wrote their names on scraps of parchment and eyed the age line warily.

Jurian took a deep breath, and then carefully crossed one foot over the line. People had gathered to watch, but carefully no teachers were around to see.

When nothing immediately happened Jurian stepped fully into the circle, and then he spread his arms wide and grinned. “Knew it would work!” he exclaimed.

Tamlin and Vassa hopped over the line excitedly, all three of them wide-eyed with delight.

“I can’t believe that actually-“

As soon as the words left Lucien’s mouth there was a flash of white light, and Jurian, Tamlin and Vassa were thrown violently backwards. They landed heavily on the stone floor, all three of them groaning in pain.

“Shit! What the- are you guys ok?”

His friends untangled themselves from the heap they’d landed in, standing and wincing gingerly.

As they did so there was a loud pop! and all three of them immediately sprouted identical long white beards.

Lucien almost fell to the floor with laughter as his friends pointed and laughed at each other, only to gasp in horror when they realized that they were also sporting a snowy white beard.

“The headmaster did warn you,” Professor Amren scolded as she walked down the marble staircase. “Off to the infirmary you go. Madam Madja will certainly have her hands full today…”

Lucien was still chucking by the time he stepped over the line and walked to the cauldron.

There was something eerie about the cauldron. The flames seemed to rise higher as he got closer, almost as if they were alive and sensed his presence. Lucien shivered despite himself. With a deep breath he dropped his name into the flames, and watched as they flashed red and sparked for an instant before changing back to blue.

“Way to go, Lucien!” someone called out.

Lucien grinned and fist-bumped a grinning Cassian as he crossed over the line to enter his own name. Someone snorted behind him, and Lucien looked over his shoulder to find Azriel sneering at him.

“What are you staring at, Ass-riel?” Lucien taunted.

Azriel went scarlet and opened his mouth to retort when someone else cut him off.

“Don’t call him that!” It was Elain, fists clenched and brown eyes flashing in irritation.

Lucien grinned. “Or what, you’re going to slap me again?”

Azriel snorted again before throwing Lucien another venomous look and disappearing through the crowd.

“Why is it,” Elain continued, “that every time I start to think that maybe you’re a nice guy after all, you go and prove me wrong?”

Fuck she was so hot when she was mad at him. She wasn’t wearing her glasses, and Lucien couldn’t help but wonder if that was because of him.

“Maybe I’m not a nice guy at all,” he retorted, taking a tiny step towards her. He’d all but forgotten that they were standing in the middle of the crowded Entrance Hall. “What does that say about you?”

Elain’s lips parted, as if she wanted to taunt him back but didn’t know what to say. Was it his imagination, or was her chest heaving quite rapidly?

“Go out with me, Archie,” he whispered, low enough so that only she could hear. “And maybe you’ll find out if I’m actually a nice guy or not.”

The noise around him seemed to dim as she stared him down, cheeks flushed, her eyes as fiery as the cauldron behind him. But then she dipped her chin and averted her gaze, huffing out a little laugh.

“You flatter yourself, as always,” she said. With that she whirled on the spot and disappeared out of the Entrance Hall.

“Wait!” Lucien called.

But she was already gone, leaving him standing there with the sight of her blazing eyes burned into his memory forever.

#elucien #elucien fanfic #elucien fanfiction #elain archeron #lucien vanserra #acotar fanfic

[inamindfarfaraway]

I just watched the first episode of Dead End: Paranormal Park! Really loving the horror and eerie, supernatural tone, similar to Gravity Falls and The Owl House but with this classic horror movie/ghost story/haunted amusement park aesthetic.

I relate to Norma so freaking much. Where has this autistic representation been all my life? “I’m bad with names! [is informed that she sees Barney basically every day] I’m bad with - faces!” was hysterical. I like that she’s consistently clever, with big moments like figuring out the solution and small moments like taking the shorter staff path to get ahead (in practical disregard of artificial social custom), but is tripped up by getting fixated and not processing or acknowledging deviation from her framework of how things work or should work, like not noticing that they’re being used as prospective hosts of demon possession in an arcane ritual by actual demons. I’ll admit I’m worried about the combination of how clearly shady this Pauline Phoenix is - she looked like some kinda ghost at the end of that welcome video and Barney saw a glimpse of that same sickly green glow in the haunted mansion, and there were all those missing posters of her lookalikes - and her being Norma’s special interest that she’s apparently had for fifteen years (basically her whole remembered life) and that with is a huge source of joy, confidence, wonder and contentment in an anxiety-inducing world. Like, special interests are inherently Big Deals but with how stressful, confusing and downright traumatic neurotypical society can be for autistic people, they can become Massive Deals. Pauline and her career alone have kept Norma going for a decade and a half, as she doesn’t appear to have much if any experience with friendship. I don’t want a horrible experience with the supernatural stuff at the park to ruin that for her. To shatter the escapism of that special interest. And hurt way more than it never being real in the first place.

Anyway! Courtney is a chaos gremlin and I love her. I am very intrigued about her backstory; she says she wants to go “back” home so she was originally in Hell, but has somehow been banished presumably forever unless she can get a powerful demon to revoke it. How does a creature literally born of evil get banished from Hell? Maybe by… exposing that she has goodness or at least the capacity for it deep down? Or was it just an act of spiteful cruelty on the banishing authority’s part, as would be characteristic of demons, with her herself doing little to nothing to ‘earn’ it? Her horns stick out to me. They are not naturally in that shape, they were cut. Who cut her horns and why? Is it a symbol of her banishment? Aren’t the cuffs enough for that? Is it purely superficial damage to mark her as an outcast or hurt her emotionally or does removing some of her horns inhibit her demon power?

Barney is just a sweetheart. He’s great. His patience, kindness, levelheadedness, sincerity, openness and caution balance the intense, awkward Norma and mysterious, irreverent Courtney’s quirks out well and he’s a solid everyman ‘as new to the world as the audience’ protagonist. The others are gonna need his good social skills, I can tell. The casual trans rep is cool too… though the undercurrent of tension around his family, especially regarding his grandmother, that hints at more serious explorations of it to come. I mean, he just doesn’t go home at the end. He’d rather sleep in a prop coffin in a theme park replica of a movie set replica of a dungeon than in his own house. There are definitely issues there. He’s going to have to face the music about that later.

In conclusion, can’t wait to continue this show.

#dead end paranormal park #dead end: paranormal park #dead end #dead end netflix #de:pp #barney guttman #norma khan #pugsley #de:pp courtney #de:pp incorrect quotes

[sophie-frm-mars]

Coffee Cola and British Bombs

The Coffee Cola Song by Francis Bebey is just delightful. Bebey uses this one note bamboo flute which the player harmonises with to create a playful and bouncy sound that sounds musically like a constant joyful refrain. It's highkey impossible not to dance to.

The lyrics are about "the people who drink coffee cola" - the capitalists, the capitalist world, the cynical commodification of everything good in life - and the lightness of the music makes it all very small, even despite the arguably horrible subject matter.

They keep dreaming of war, Hate and crime everywhere. I heard it is how they get the money They use to buy coffee cola

The song presupposes an indigenous anticapitalist/postcapitalist or probably more accurately acapitalist perspective. The way that "the people in town" who love money are described, while reductive isn't overly simplistic, or inaccurate, it's just cartoonishly happy and refuses to let the cynicism of capital in.

If you could go and see how they live A shame, a shame, a shame You would see just how savage they are So much wilder than we

I've been reading about desire a lot recently and there's something in this song which perfectly brings out an infectious desire to live freely and joyously.

British Bombs by Declan McKenna also fucking goes, and it shares an irrevent mockery of our global politics as the subject matter, but it goes in a completely different way, even besides genre. It uses the very way that middle class british culture is constructed entirely out of free-associative quips, wordplay and sarcasm to build up a picture very quickly of the deep misery of both being British and living in a world blighted by the consequences of Blighty

Great snakes are we moving already Good gravy did you say it cost a penny or two For you Well talking bout the bad starts My baby brother has already got a gas mask It's a good old fashioned landslide Killing with your hands tied In the homemade rope Set sail babe we read it in the mail - no hope now

You could compare the playfulness of Bebey's acapitalist joy with the playfulness with which McKenna derides the same twee and quirky camp bullshit that British "people" call culture. McKenna is having fun, but from a sardonic and perhaps absurdist perspective, Bebey is having fun being alive, and the people who like coffee cola want to make life utter shit. McKenna, unfortunately, lives in the heart of the shit world the coffee cola people have made, and all he can do is give a sarcastic thumbs up to the casual atrocities of british politics.

Great way to fool me again hun Great acting it's good what you tell them Great Britain won't stand for felons Great British bombs in the Yemen

Which is more or less exactly what it feels like to live inside the mind prison of electoral politics in the imperial core and care even an ounce about human life. The solution, of course, isn't to pursue the joy outside of capitalism that Bebey advertises, but to create it. The irreverence of looking at all the people who love money most and belong to high society (this is a cute bit if you listen to the song) can be afforded us if we can create ways of living that put being human first and put being subjects of capital entirely out of mind. idk I'm gonna keep saying it we need more hippies

[hellcab]

{{ In short, Velma was born out from cynical, corporate idiocy. The same irreverent drive to "adapt" old properties, ultimately desecrating whatever made them unique. It's created from the position that animation overall is worthless. That adult animation cannot be used for anything else but poop jokes and sex-obsessed comedy. }}

{{ Mindy Kaling is a washed up, narcissistic actor, who never even cared about Scooby Doo. She just wanted something, anything, to shove her self-insert into. She's just chasing after whatever relevancy she can latch onto. }}

{{ She's a horrible human being who joked about sexually assaulting her co-star. That's not even the tip of the ice berg. }}

{{ The show sucks. The people behind the show suck. The best thing to do is not hate the show. Not even the people behind the show. Be indifferent, because the opposite of love is not hatred, it's indifference. }}

#OOC. #{{ Thank you listening to my TED talk. }}

[cyarsk52-20]

'Beef' Stars Respond to David Choe Rape Controversy: 'We've Seen Him Put in the Work'

Denver Sean

After much controversy, the stars of Netflix’s hit show ‘Beef’ have responded to resurfaced criticism against cast member David Choe.

In recent days, a 2014 podcast interview resurfaced where he had joked about being the “successful rapist” of a Black woman during a massage.

via Variety:

On Friday, “Beef” creator Lee Sung Jin and executive producers and stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong released a statement to Variety, calling Choe’s story “undeniably hurtful and extremely disturbing” but that he’s “put in the work to get the mental health support he needed.”

“The story David Choe fabricated nine years ago is undeniably hurtful and extremely disturbing. We do not condone this story in any way, and we understand why this has been so upsetting and triggering. We’re aware David has apologized in the past for making up this horrific story, and we’ve seen him put in the work to get the mental health support he needed over the last decade to better himself and learn from his mistakes,” they said.

In resurfaced clips of the 2014 “DVDASA” podcast episode, Choe told co-host Asa Akira a sexually explicit story about a massage he received from a massage therapist he calls Rose. “I’m getting turned on just telling this story,” he said in the footage. “I just take her hand and I put it on my dick. She just holds it there.”

Choe detailed numerous sexual acts and ended the story by saying, “The thrill of possibly going to jail, that’s what achieved the erection quest.” Akira replied, “Ew, you’re basically telling us that you’re a rapist now, and that the only way to get your dick really hard is rape.” Choe responded, “Yeah,” then answered other guests’ questions about Rose’s appearance. “What the fuck is wrong with you guys?” Akira asked. “Who cares what she looks like? Dave is telling us he’s a rapist.” He joked in response, “A successful rapist.”

Choe originally responded to the backlash in 2014, denying he was a rapist in a statement and saying that the podcast was “a complete extension of his art” as a storyteller.

“I never thought I’d wake up one late afternoon and hear myself called a rapist. It sucks. Especially because I am not one. I am not a rapist. I hate rapists, I think rapists should be raped and murdered,” he said at the time. “I am an artist and a storyteller and I view my show ‘DVDASA’ as a complete extension of my art. If I am guilty of anything, it’s bad storytelling in the style of douche. Just like many of my paintings are often misinterpreted, the same goes with my show. The main objective of all of my podcasts is to challenge and provoke my friends and the co-stars on the show. We fuck with each other, entertain ourselves and laugh at each other. It’s a dark, tasteless, completely irreverent show where we fuck with everyone listening, but mostly ourselves. We create stories and tell tales. It’s not a news show. It’s not a representation of my reality. It’s not the place to come for reliable information about me or my life. It’s my version of reality, it’s art that sometimes offends people. I’m sorry if anyone believed that the stories were fact. They were not! In a world full of horrible people, thank god for us.”

He doubled down on the apology and posted a statement in 2017, writing “I have zero history of sexual assault. I am deeply sorry for any hurt I’ve brought to anyone through my past words.” He also revealed he had went through three years of recovery and rehabilitation.

Clips of the “DVDASA” podcast resurfaced on Twitter last week, but some of them were removed with Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) notices that were filed seemingly by Choe himself under the David Young Choe Foundation. The DMCA notices called the Twitter videos “copyright infringing media” and asked for their “immediate” removal.

“Beef” released on Netflix on April 6, after which it rose to No. 2 on Netflix’s Top 10 list of English-language shows. In its second week of release, it received over 70 million hours viewed. Opposite Yeun and Wong, Choe plays Isaac, the older, frequently-incarcerated cousin of Yeun’s character Danny. Choe, who is a painter and artist, supplied the artwork for nine episodes’ title cards.

This statement smell like PR cover — and we’re not buying it.

Sent from my iPhone

Not-Black POC perpetuate and benefit from anti-Blackness,

Are NOT the natural allies of Black people and CANNOT be trusted to do the right thing regarding Black people without prompting FROM Black people.

Only rapists think it's OK to "joke" about violating the bodily autonomy of someone else, and David Choe went so far as to describe this Black woman's looks IN DETAIL,

So Ali Wong and Steven Yeun are sticking beside David Choe, covering for a rapist,

Cause ANYTHING for Asian media representation.

They coulda kept this li'l statement, cause it just added insult to injury.

As for the show, I’m not watching.

Asians you must do better and condemn the antiblackness in your community

#newsonesocial #beefnetflix #davidchoe #sexualassault #Instagram #Oh then fuck this show now! #I wanted to watch it #because of representation and popularity #But now no #Because of this #since when did raping a woman let alone a black woman #became something that you talk about #without thinking about how FQUCKED up this is #Even if it’s a fictional #You don’t joke or make stories like that like it’s another conversation #Periodt #you should be cancelled #They better not renew the series after this #cause wtf #This is why I id as black #Call me a poc and I will put a foot in your azzzzzz #The poc solidarity is a lie #The world is gross and I want it to blow it up #Who will join me? #black women deserve better #Don’t fuck with black women #And if you can’t love them then at least don’t intentionally harm them

[thebibliomancer]

Earth X #5

Thor seems different than usual.

It’s probably the braids.

Earth X: what you get when you ask Alex Ross to write a Kingdom Come tier story for Marvel. It is Bad Future! Uatu the Watcher has been blinded and he’s forced Aaron to be his seeing eye robot.

If you’re wondering what their dynamic is, it’s this:

The world is a mess with mind-control squids and body-control forever teens. Everyone has been mutated and Reed Richards blames himself. Many of the heroes we know are dead, retired, or in the clutches of the squid or the kid. And the world may be destroyed by vibranium or humanity may super-evolve into space gods.

As we go on and learn more about this setting, there are more and more plot threads.

Captain America in a flag yoga and Wyatt Wingfoot went to California to investigate the Skull, a horrible teen with the power to control people. The Skull took Wyatt for his growing army but left Steve alone because it was funnier that way.

While Steve sits and despairs about the hopelessness of the situation, circus Daredevil shows up and offers to become Steve’s new sidekick.

I am alarmed that this guy is relevant to the plot.

Also… I’m kind of wondering if he’s supposed to be Deadpool. Not actually Wade Wilson Deadpool himself but he has a lot of Deadpool energy and almost nothing to do with Matt Murdock. Alex Ross usually doesn’t like anything introduced after the death of Barry Allen but I wonder if he liked Deadpool enough to want to include someone like him.

This circus Daredevil is given an actual origin in a prequel from a few years back but the idea is sticking in my mind.

He’s red and black, he wants to work with Cap, he’s got an irreverent sense of humor, and he’s got a healing factor so strong he can’t die and has little self-preservation instinct anymore.

Anyway.

The Inhumans continue their journey to find their missing prince. Last issue, Reed Doom promised he’d help by getting a Cerebro and reprogramming it to find Inhumans. He takes off - using a teleportation device made out of Lockjaw… Aww, best doggo is dead? This really is Bad Future.

Reed leaving causes the Doombots of Castle Doom to suddenly register the Inhumans as intruders.

Their fight against the bots leads Medusa and Luna to discovering Dr Doom’s time platform… and Reed’s notes on it, reflecting he really wants to use it to save Sue from exploding but he doesn’t know when he’d stop altering history if he started.

Elsewhere, Cyclops is contacted by Corsair, Havok, and Polaris. FROM SPACE!

They know something bad is going to happen to Earth and want to bring Scott away to space safety.

He refuses to leave without Jean, even though she chose Wolverine over him in the love triangle.

Also, when Alex Ross doesn’t like a character, you know it. And he seems to hate Wolverine.

The appendix reveals that all the psychics are dead (Professor X, MODOK) or depowered (Jean).

Not sure yet why but it means there’s nobody to counter the kid or the squid.

Over in New York, Kid Bruce and Gorilla Hulk visit Sorcerer Supreme Clea.

Clea and Wong explain to Bruce that Strange’s astral form was destroyed while it was out of his body. His body still lives but he’s essentially dead. And that’s why Clea is sorcererly supreme.

So Bruce explains what he’s there for. He’s been having the oddest recurring dream.

Of Captain Marvel on his Death of Captain Marvel deathbed. In the dream, he rises out of bed and shows the assembled crowd of friends, allies, and respected enemies that he has the universe inside him. And then dies.

A universe inside a person sounds to Clea like Eternity. But Eternity is dead. Despite being the universe. Not sure how that happens.

Bruce really wants Mar-Vell to explain the dream to him so he asks Clea to dunk him into the Realm of Death.

I feel like there’s intermediate steps you could try but what do I know.

And geez, Bruce’s dream of the universe inside a dude and visiting death to interpret it on top of the world possibly ending and superpowered menaces running amok with nobody to stop them… This universe is a mess.

(By the way, the appendix notes that Carol Danvers is the current Captain Marvel and that she’s in space helping the Kree on their destroyed capital. So Earth X gets two more tallies for things the 616 would copy later.)

Now then. Let’s talk cover Thor.

Earth X wants to paint the entire history of Marvel with one brushstroke. Superpowers and even super genius is the result of Celestial meddling.

The gods were mentioned in issue 0 as being in conflict with the Celestials but I guess Ross didn’t feel like actual gods fit the picture he was painting.

On Earth X, the Asgardians aren’t gods. They’re super advanced shapeshifting emphatic aliens with no personality of their own who take their identity from those who observe them.

They came to Earth and were viewed as the Norse gods so the Norse gods they became.

Their powers became what people expected them to be. Their personalities became what people expected them to be.

I have no idea how this alien race of blank slates managed to invent space travel.

I don’t particularly like this worldbuilding idea for Thor’s slice of Marvel. His mythos feels diminished if it’s just aliens play-acting old stories.

Anyway, girl bod Thor is fighting some storm giants that made their way to Midgard* alongside the Iron Avengers, who Thor treats as friends.

*Earth

Tony Stark in his isolation somewhere tells the Iron Avengers to respond to another crisis because Thor’s got this one handled.

Vision in a cool hood wants to argue, feeling Tony is being manipulated by President Norman Osborn but ultimately does what Tony asks.

Back of the book appendix info: when the mass empowering event started, Tony sealed himself in isolation, afraid of being changed. He didn’t know but Scott Lang Ant-Man snuck himself and his daughter Cassie into Tony’s isolated environment to try to protect her. But she wound up changing anyway. And now they’re stuck because they can’t leave without compromising Tony’s sealed environment.

The people outside that were mutated came to resent Tony for not being mutated so kept trying to attack his bunker or whatever. So he created the Iron Avengers and gave them his dead friends’ personalities.

Honestly, I can’t wait for the issue that focuses on Tony. There seems to be a lot to unpack.

Also in appendix news, Osborn went on a secret killing spree of supervillains before he took power. He wiped out a lot of Tony’s rogues gallery, for example. And he was never elected as president. He just had himself declared as such and a jaded mutated populace went okay whatever.

Earth X is a mess.

After fighting off the storm giants, Thor calls Loki out as responsible for the attack.

Interesting new design Loki. Could do with you being less interpersonally gross though.

Unsurprisingly, Loki is behind Thor’s new look, having somehow tricked Odin into turning his brother into a woman as his latest trial of humility.

And if Thor goes back to Asgard to tell Odin that Loki is up to his shit again, Loki will lock Thor away from Earth so he can’t stop his evil scheming.

This is a weird plot point.

I’ve heard that it inspired Jane Foster Thor but I’m pretty sure both this and Jane Foster Thor were inspired by the What If where Jane Foster became Thor.

Thor seems only mildly irritated by this whole thing but sheesh, with everything else going on why throw this in?

Earth X is a mess. Captain America is demoralized and wearing the flag as a toga. Cyclops is depressed and lost the love of his life, again. Spider-Man is depressed and has a Venom daughter. Reed is depressed and blames himself for the state of the world.

And Thor has been rule 63’d. But at least he’s not depressed?

#earth x #liveblog #Thor #cyclops #Wolverine #jean grey #captain america #loki #captain marvel #hulk #Clea #mr fantastic #uatu the watcher #machine man

[searchingforserendipity25]

miriel for the character ask game!

Character Ask Game 💚🤍🖤

Give me a character and I will give you my thoughts on

Melian

Thank you @thalion71, I do love a good Míriel brainstorming <3

one aspect about them i love

Self-willing. A true visionary! Invented a whole technological revolution. I can't overstate how amazing that is.

one aspect i wish more people understood about them

Loved Indis interdependently of her relationship with Finwë.

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have about this character

Invented the concept of the needle while trapped by Ungoliant in Beleriand. Used a small, sharp spear-head she'd kept hidden to cut her way out of the cocoon of spider-silk, but the effort caused the spear to break in the middle.

Míriel used the discarded spider-stuff and threaded it through to weave herself a bridge and a way out. Ungoliant has been incredibly obsessed with her since.

as well as

one character i love seeing them interact with

Vaire. What we know about this connection is so interesting. What in the world does that working environment imply? No idea, but I would watch that version of The Office.

one character i wish they would interact with/interact with more

Indis! Let there be spousal and metamour visiting right just one time (preferably really just the once, to make it jucier). This politically relevant throuple has caused enough extremely relevant political unrest justify it, please.

Royalty privilege should work for something, and I suspect there would be enough random people invested in the drama for the fallout not to be horrible. Although I would be very invested in the repercussions of other factions like the Teleri being outraged at that exemption, even well before the Kinslayers (should they happen as in canon).

one (or more) headcanon(s) i have that involve them and one other character

Does Fëanor count? I want them to meet. I want them to meet and be so alike, and resonate so much creatively, and annoy each other so much.

Fully fall very rapidly from Idealized Mom and Grown Son to The Only Worthy Collaborator, friendship-ish adjacent. Mutual fascination, effusive affection, quick to isolate from all other relationships to focus on the flow, and the rare, unique joy of finding someone who works and thinks with similar quickness and along similar irreverent, ambitious, precise lines.

Lots of lightning-fast dialogue - they make each other laugh! It is quite a surprise to everyone else. Regardless of whether this happens in an End-of-Times effort to figure out how to break the Silmarils or an indulgent Fix-it, the dynamic is roughly the same, independent of anything happening nearby.

Is this healthier? Not really, but the creation of the automatic loom is too engrossing; their gigantic issues and underlying tensions and resentments can explode later, first there's Brain Time to work on and ancient trade treaties to overturn.

#asks and answers #miriel

[semper-legens]

43. Shadows of Self, by Brandon Sanderson

Owned: No, library Page count: 376 My summary: Wax is doing okay. His relationship to his bride-to-be is amicable, he’s keeping up his lawman duties while still being a Lord, and he gets to see his friends Wayne and Marasi regularly. But when a nobleman is murdered at a secret auction, Wax is dragged back into a world he doesn’t want to be a part of. There are some horrible truths coming for him...but will he bear them, or crumble under the pressure? My rating: 4/5 My commentary:

Back into Mistborn! I don't know what it is about this second series that isn't grabbing me quite as much as the previous series did. I'm still enjoying it, don't get me wrong, but there's just some little niggle there that I don't love it quite as much as the previous trilogy. Nonetheless, this was still a really good read. Sanderson is inventive as ever, bringing new trials to his characters - and some old ones. The kandra are still around! And still messing with people!

But first, the recurring characters. We get to see a bit more of Wax, and specifically his flaws and failings. Poor guy gets traumatised in this one, with the revelation that the kandra Paalm was his lost love Lessie - and he has to kill her once again. (Well, it's a little more complicated, but that's the gist.) I'm sort of in two minds about this. On the one hand, it's an interesting new twist to the plot, especially as Paalm was sent by Harmony to protect Wax; again, we have the humanisation of gods and giving these almighty figures human flaws and scruples. On the other hand, however, I've already mentioned how Lessie is pretty much the archetypical fridged girlfriend, and in this book she gets double-fridged so Wax can be sad about it. It's mitigated by the fact that Marasi and Steris are legitimately interesting women. Steris and Wax's relationship is fascinating; an arranged marriage that neither party is particularly enthused about, but they're making it work. Steris' ambiguous autism is interesting to read, as is Marasi's career progression.

The nods back to the original Mistborn series are a lot stronger here. For one, we get two recurring characters - the kandra MeLaan, who played a bit role in TenSoon's part of the original Mistborn, and Sazed, aka Harmony, who reveals himself to Wax while Wax is praying. There's some dramatic irony here - we the readers already know Sazed and that he's capable of doing this, whereas to Wax this is literally God talking to him so naturally he's shocked. MeLaan gets fleshed out here into a snarky, irreverent person perfectly willing to mess with humans who believe she's a deity; instead of being reviled, kandra are seen as Harmony's servants now. Poor Sazed. Even when he's God, he's still making mistakes and being forced to compromise.

Meanwhile, what of the actual plot? There's someone messing with the governor, and Wax is charged with finding out what's going on. He suspects his uncle is somehow involved. He's also seeing flashes of people from his past, which turns out to be Paalm using their bones. It's a compelling, action-filled mystery with a lot of twists and turns - including who Paalm is impersonating, something I didn't see coming, I gotta admit. I'm interested to see where this is gonna go in the next one.

Next up, into prison with a rogueish gentleman.

#Shadows of Self #Brandon Sanderson #bookblr #book blog #book blogger #4

[teddyoverthinks]

On Abortion

(this post is pro-choice)

The truth bubbles up like a balloon being inflated in the vicinity of Harry's sternum. He can't not say it. He can't breathe until he says it.

Draco looks over his shoulder to look at Harry reclined on the bed, and Harry shakes his head. "It's not Ginny. It's—Ginny had an abortion. A couple months ago."

As Draco blinks, clearly not having expected that, Harry's chest relaxes.

"Shit," Draco says.

"Yeah."

Draco flops onto his back next to Harry, but he doesn't say anything.

"She didn't talk to me about it."

There's a silence for a moment before Draco says, "You realise there's nothing we can say about this without getting yelled at by feminists."

Harry sighs. "Yes, I know. She didn't do anything wrong. Obviously I'm glad she had the choice. It's just—I thought we had a different kind of relationship, where we'd talk to each other."

"Did you talk to her about stuff?"

Harry turns his head to look at Draco. "I don't know." He knows he didn't.

Music echoes in from the other room, no longer a horrible trigger, just NSYNC.

"You can't really have wanted a baby?" Draco asks carefully, still staring at the ceiling.

"No, of course not, but also—it was a baby. Half me, you know?"

"Well, Potter, you have like, infinite sperm, so that alone doesn't seem like a huge problem to me."

Harry snorts a laugh.

"Seriously though," Draco says, "is it really about the baby? Or about losing Weasley, or what?"

"My parents—" Harry looks pointedly at the ceiling, refusing to look anywhere near Draco. "—they got pregnant with me at nineteen. They could've...got rid of me."

"But they—"

"I grew up with my aunt and uncle. They locked me under the stairs. They told me every day how much they wished I wasn't there. They literally said to me, every day, that they wished I didn't exist. I just—it's a big deal, to make the decision not to want another human."

Harry hears and feels the bed squeak as Draco rolls onto his side towards Harry. "That's exactly why it's important that people only have babies they want, yeah? Because then they won't lock them under the stairs? Because then they'll all be wanted." Draco rests his hand on Harry's stomach.

"I don't want to be like them."

"Like whom?"

"My aunt and uncle. I don't want to make other people feel unwanted."

"Harry," Draco says, and his voice has lost all its usual irreverence. "Trust me when I say, and I would know, you do not make people feel unwanted. You give everyone a chance. You give people chances who don't even begin to deserve them."

Harry, looking away, tries to hide how affected he is. Maybe he needs to stop blaming himself for all this shit and concentrate on the things he has control over, rather than worrying about how all the things other people do are his fault: the Dursleys, his parents, all the bullshit of a very traumatic lifetime. Maybe he needs to focus on the fact that he can't change other people, but he can focus on himself and love the people he loves.

"Someday, if you have a kid," Draco continues, "that kid will be the luckiest in the world. They'll be surrounded by so much love and wanting that they'll have to rebel against it. They'll tell their friends, 'Ugh, my dad loves me so much, how am I supposed to even relate to other people when they all have so much trauma and I have this beautiful loving family who showers me with love and affection and being wanted and never expects me to be anything other than who I am?'"

A tear rolls down Harry's cheek. Draco has the courtesy to look away.

–

"I keep thinking about the baby," Harry says. "I don't know why I can't force myself to stop."

"To be clear," Draco says, "we're discussing the embryo Ginny aborted before it became a baby, and not the actual human baby Teddy, who is your godson?"

"Fuck you!" Harry burns with anger. "Yes! I'm allowed to have feelings."

Draco leans forward. "Listen, the baby is not you. You are not the baby. You're being ridiculous. I don't care about the baby."

Harry makes a sound of offended disbelief.

"No, listen, Potter. I don't care about the baby. That baby was never a person, was never going to be a person. I care about you. You, Potter. You have a second chance at life. So fucking live."

–

"Can I tell you something?"

"Do you really have to ask?"

"Well, I need to ask you not to tell Ron. So, yeah, I have to ask."

She leans up on an elbow behind him. "Alright. What is it?"

Harry rolls onto his back towards her. "The thing that Ginny and I fought about—she got pregnant."

Hermione's eyes widen. "Oh."

"I don't know how it happened; we used charms."

Hermione shrugs. "Nothing's foolproof."

Harry sighs. "She went to St Mungo's and got an abortion while I was testifying at the Wizengamot. We didn't even talk about it. She just went and did it."

"As is her right." Hermione's voice is gentle, but insistent.

"Yes, clearly, and I don't resent that," Harry sighs, scrubbing a hand over his face. "I just—it's brought up a lot of feelings about—being wanted."

Hermione brushes his hair off his forehead. "About being wanted, or about being unwanted?"

Harry gives her a small smile.

"Oh, Harry."

"We—I don't know. I'm not upset we broke up. Maybe I should be, but I think it was mostly just...over. I'm not even upset that she had an abortion; Merlin knows I'm too young to be a parent."

Hermione snorts.

"I just—it made me feel like I've never been wanted, not for the right reasons, you know? And how am I supposed to figure out what to do now, when I don't belong anywhere?"

"I don't know," she says. "I have no idea what any of us are supposed to do now. But you belong here, with me."

Harry gives her a yeah-okay sort of smile, and she nudges him. "I'm serious. I don't sit in a tent half-starving and half-freezing for months on end with just anyone. I love you, Harry."

His eyes widen; it's not something he's used to hearing.

"Don't think you have to say it back, but you need to hear it, my friend."

–

"I just wanted to say I'm sorry."

She looks up, surprised yet unimpressed.

"I realise that my reaction made it seem like I was judging you. I never wanted you to feel that way. I'm sorry."

She tucks her shorter hair behind her ear. "Erm, okay."

"I was making it about me," Harry says. "Which, I'm not sure if you've noticed—I tend to do that sometimes."

She huffs a small laugh, and Harry feels the ice between them thaw a bit.

"It—it brought up a lot of feelings for me. I was worried about the baby not being wanted and what that meant about me not being wanted, and when you didn't talk to me that made it feel like you didn't want me, either. But that wasn't your problem. It was mine, and I handled it poorly. I'm sorry."

"Right. Imagine this," she says, spinning towards him and putting one hand on her hip. "You're seventeen. You keep bouncing between complete numbness and uncontrollable crying over your dead brother. You haven't slept a full night in over a year. You find out you're pregnant."

"Ugh, I know, Gin, I—"

Her index finger flies up. "No, Harry. No. You need to listen to this. So you find out you're pregnant. You can't tell anyone, obviously. You feel physically ill because, pregnant. You tell your partner, who incidentally has debilitative war trauma, and he is supremely unhelpful. You manage to get your shit together and go meet your brother, whom you find on the floor in a pile of vomit and who doesn't remember how he got there. So you clean him up, because you can't tell your parents about that because they're already barely keeping it together, and you aren't sure which other brother you should get to help because they're all dealing with shit, but you end up going to Bill and explaining what's going on, getting him to help George. And incidentally—have you ever tried Apparating pregnant? Do not recommend. So then you're like, okay. I totally have time for this whole baby thing...Not! So you go to St Mungo's even though you're already tired and feel like complete arse, you have a bunch of Healers acting like condescending tossers and asking you like five million times Are you sure? and whether they can call your parents, even though you're of age. And then they finally perform the spell that causes the pregnancy to fail, at which point you have immediate cramping and they give you some pamphlets and tell you to get some sleep."

Every word she says makes Harry feel like a bigger piece of arse lint. He'd been so caught up in his own shit that day—he'd never really stopped to think about that day from Ginny's perspective. What is wrong with him?

And Ginny's not done.

"So you go home and have to sit at dinner with your parents, who can never know, and your siblings, and your partner, and you can't eat because you're having the worst cramps ever. So you make it through dinner and you go upstairs, finally done with this absolute shitpile of a day, and you tell your supposed partner about it and he goes." She stops, leaning forward, her eyes blazing. "He goes, 'You didn't ask me first'."

Harry wants to cry. He could, easily. It would require letting down the approximately one mental barrier he's keeping up. But he can't. He can't make it about him again. Instead, he sits down on a bench they'd once snogged on. "Gin. I am so, so sorry."

She flops down next to him. For a long time, neither of them say anything.

"Are you feeling okay now?"

"Yep." She pulls the cardigan tighter around herself. "No lasting harm, just a few days of cramps." She looks up at him, and her eyes glisten with tears in the moonlight. "It would've been a fantastic baby, Harry. But we can't...we don't…"

Harry leans forward, wrapping her in a hug, and they're both crying. "In another life," he says, "it would've been a fantastic person. We would've been an incredible family."

"We don't live in that life," she says, face crumpled against Harry's jumper. "We're broken. We're broken, and it broke our relationship."

"That wasn't the baby," Harry whispers. "For me, it wasn't the baby. We never really clicked again, after the war. For me, anyway."

She nods. "I was worried when you showed up tonight that you were going to try to get back together. I'm not sure I know enough curse words to have handled that." She laughs, sniffling. "No, it wasn't the baby. But we're broken."

Harry clings to her, thinking of the cracks in the ceiling of her bedroom. "We're not broken, Gin. We're under construction."

—Aibidil, (Un)wanted

#I love aibidil #and I really needed this reread today #so i thought i'd share #drarry #fanfiction #fanfiction quotes #abortion #Harry Potter #read on ao3 #found on ao3 #quotes #quote #archive of our own #pro choice #fanfiction excerpt #fanfiction recc

[theliterateape]

The Best of Literate Ape 2022

by Don Hall

2022 sucked for me. I mean SUUUUCCCKKKED. I can't believe I survived it without putting a pistol in my mouth. I acknowledge Himmel's belief that if the world ends, I'm one of the few scrappy assholes out there you want to hang with because, hey, I'll find the way out of the scorched earth despite my genetic inability to follow directions. I likewise note that in the number of good and bad years in my life, this one was right there at the top of the shit list.

In terms of the Ape, there are two potential Best Of options: the most read and my personal favorites of 2022.

The 'most read' version of this end of the year list is gonna look like the chapter headings for my book Problematic Movies of the 80s but will also include a piece David wrote back in 2018, my awful recounting of the circumstances of my third divorce, and an article I wrote in 2017 about the monkey's paw.

Like the Blockbuster's of old or any hip bookstore, I think I'll go the route of the Staff Recommendations this year and serve up a list for you to read that reflects my personal favorites for 2022.

My Authoritarian Rabbi Ruined Judaism for Me by David Himmel

I love the fact that HIMMEL eschewed an entire culture out of pique. "They could have their Judaism. I realized I’d be better off not engaging with toxic authority and the kind of people who promoted it." It's also one of my favorite portraits of someone refusing indoctrination from a teacher.

I Give You Nothing by Gabriel Cassidy

Gabriel was a new addition to our digital pages this year and, despite moving from Vegas to Detroit, his writing is filled with wry observation and a dark undercurrent of pathos. This is my favorite of his this year.

The Final Stage of Grief by Don Hall

Sure, it's self-serving to choose my writing but this is the sum-up of my horrible year with a little ribbon of optimism at the end.

The David Himmel Method for Getting Over Breakups by David Himmel

He's right for all the wrong reasons.

The Real Thing by Joe Mallon

Another of our new voices, Mallon has a twisted Mickey Spillane thing going of which I can't get enough.

The End of the Wild Wild West by Don Hall

OK. Two of my pieces? What a narcissist! That being said, this is a farewell to the seediest casino in Vegas as it was bulldozed over this year to make room for a parking lot.

Pictures of Universe Believed to Be Side of God’s Stoner Van by Joe Janes

Joe's The Minutes of Our Last Meeting series is consistently irreverent and cracks me up weekly. Among the 2022 entries, this one is my favorite.

The Wooden Door (3 parts) by Wayne Lerner

Lerner is yet another new Ape and this three-part story is a page-turner (if there were actual pages on the internet).

Jingle Bell by Paul Teodo and Tom Myers

Teodo and Myers are nothing if not prolific. This is a taste. I recommend all of their stuff but highly recommend you go buy their latest compilation, South of Cermak: Chicago Stories.

That's this year's list. I hope you read some of it and subscribe to our semi-monthly newsletter.

From David and I, here's to a much better year upcoming than the year past.