#donald said anyone gonna adopt these two

[jajanvm-imbi]

Donald Duck: *sees any child unattended ever*

Donald Duck:

#okay but donald immediately adopting May and June and taking them on his trip with Daisy made me WEAK #🥺🥺 #he is the BEST DAD #i would die for him #ducktales #ducktales donald #donald duck #ducktales spoilers #ducktales season 3 #ducktales finale #ducktales s3 #ducktales s3 finale #donald said anyone gonna adopt these two? and didnt wait for an answer

[theblindgoddess]

DUCKTALES FINALE SPOILERS

Donald really said "Is anyone gonna adopt these two?" And then didn't wait for an answer.

#ducktales

[chwrpg]

What's happenin', hot stuff? -- Duk Barnes

A NOTE FROM ADMIN R: Can I just say, you knocked this completely out of the park, Kayla !!! I am so, so, so, so ready to see what you’ll be doing with Duk given the groundwork you put down in this application. Not just that, but Duk was simply missed on this dash. I love, love, love him and thank you for taking him up once more.

OOC NAME/ALIAS, PREFERRED PRONOUNS, AGE & TIMEZONE:

Your fave Kayla, she/her, 26, EST

DESIRED CHARACTER:

Donald “Duk” Barnes

HOW ACTIVE WILL YOU BE?

Okay so like I am always trying to be better for you guys, so let’s be optimistic and say 6 out of 10.

SECONDARY CHOICE:

N/A

DESCRIBE THE CHARACTER:

One of the things I’ve always loved about Duk is his kind heart. Like, underneath that very attractive exterior, there’s really a heart of gold. When I have written him before, I’ve always enjoyed how much he loves his family. It’s something I connect to and part of what draws me to him. He especially loves and is close to his sister, Sage. He never has seen her as weird, she’s just Sage. His relationship with his two younger siblings is different, of course, but I know he loves them and would do anything for them. It’s the same principle that I see in him with his friends. He’s very much ride or die, as the kids say. He’s also respectful and so funny. I love him so much and I’m forever grateful to be part of giving more depth to a character that was originally just a stereotype.

SAMPLE WRITING:

Adjusting his AirPod in his ear, Duk Barnes reached for his phone, hitting play on his coming to America playlist he had curated specifically for this moment when the pilot announced they had reached America and would reach their destination shortly. 

In a second, he heard the familiar strains of his first track begin just before: “I hopped off the plane at LAX / With a dream and my cardigan / Welcome to the land of fame excess / Whoa, am I gonna fit in?” 

It was a surprisingly apt song for having been released over ten years ago in what felt like an entirely different world. He could remember Sage playing this song over and over until he broke her CD in a moment of anger. He smiled to himself, thinking about how she’d laugh about how he was willingly listening to it now. 

It had been over two months since he’d seen her in person. Or anyone in his big, loud, crazy American family. He’d talked to them through instant messaging, Skype, FaceTime. But that was it. For he had done something crazy on his own. 

He’d gone to Singapore. To meet his biological family for the first time. 

The thing was when Duk had turned 18, his mom had sat him down and presented him with a rather thick packet tucked inside a time-worn Manila envelope. 

“This,” She had said with a shaky breath “Is everything I have about your biological family. You’re an adult now and your dad and I think that it’s time for you to have it.” 

At the time, he didn’t know what to say. He’d taken the big envelope without a word, just nodding. 

“You don’t have to do anything with the information if you don’t want to, of course.” His mom said rather quickly, having taken his surprised silence for disinterest. “But it’s yours. You used to always want to know more about your… your roots. At the time, I didn’t think it was right for me to share. But in there,” She nodded then to the packet where Duk was touching the golden brad holding the envelope shut. “In there, I think you’ll find the answers.” 

In truth, he hadn’t opened it until a year later, He’d found it stashed in a neglected high school science textbook he had forgotten to return while preparing his things to return to college. Sitting at his desk, he finally pried it open. And his mom had been right, the answers to each question he could have wanted to ask were there. 

There was also a letter. In a perfect script, on a fine soft-feeling stationery, written in English. It was from his mother’s mother. She wrote about her disappointment that Duk was given up for adoption, how she wished to raise him herself in Singapore, and gave some background about their family, how they were proudly Chinese and Malaysian and had such history that could be traced back over centuries. She wrote about how his mother had come to Chicago to study and fell in love with a white man. They’d broken up before Duk was even born and it was clear that the man didn’t want to be involved in raising the child. But his mother gave him up because she wanted to focus on her career and how the whole family had prayed that this baby would find a good home and a good family to love him as much as they all did. 

However, most importantly, it said that Duk was, no matter what, part of the family and welcome to come to Singapore and meet them. 

Using some of the names mentioned in the letter, Duk cautiously typed them into Google. The results were mostly in Mandarin, which he knew very little of, so he used the translate function to see what could be made of the articles. It looked like his maternal grandfather was something of a mogul. He had created a hotel and resort empire that spanned not only Singapore, but other countries in Asia and, apparently, a few in development in Europe. It felt unreal, and sat heavy in his chest. So much so that he had abruptly shut his laptop so hard he thought he would break it. 

But it all had stirred up something in Duk. A yearning for something he couldn’t quite name. So, he took up learning Mandarin. He wanted to be able to communicate with his newfound biological family, on the off-chance that maybe some of them wouldn’t speak English. First with Duolingo, then borrowing Rosetta Stone from the local library. He wasn’t fluent, might not ever be so, but as he kept working on it, he realized he took to it almost naturally. The words felt right in his mouth. He saved money in a Tupperware container that he hid in the back of his sock drawer. He had given the adoption agency his information in the hopes that he would hear from his family and the first person to email him was his maternal grandmother. She was who he practiced writing Mandarin to, then, slowly, spoke to on Facetime. She was an adorable lady, with a big smile that reminded Duk of his own and the same shared love of the chaos and beauty of life. She encouraged him to come to Singapore and offered to help financially, but he told her it was okay. He could do it. He’d get there, he’d just need a place to stay. 

“Well,” she said, a determined but amused look on her face. “That much I can do.”

Singapore was… beyond words. He would never be able to put words to the beauty of the country of his biological family and the feeling that settled in his chest when he stepped off the plane for the first time. It took his breath away, looking out across the tarmac, toward the trees and then the city skyline just beyond. It looked like something out of a movie about the future. If he didn’t know better, he would have been anticipating to see flying cars in the sky. It was amazing - and insanely scary - to meet the family, some of whom were eagerly awaiting him as he walked out of customs. It was kind of freaky, too, to notice how he could see himself, for the first time in real life, in other people. Grandma had given him the biggest hug and kissed both his cheeks. He wouldn’t remember all their names and how they were connected to him at first, his head felt full with information and tired from long hours whiled away in the air. He was, however, mildly surprised to discover that his family all seemed to speak English better than he could and playfully teased him with smiles on their faces about his choppy Mandarin. 

Looking at his phone now, he flipped past photos of himself with cousins and various friends of the family, past the TikToks and other videos he had made of his travels (he had been surprised when his video of himself dancing in various airports on his way to Singapore to Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself” had begun raking in the likes). It made him smile and he knew already he couldn’t wait to go back. Grandma had begun hinting, toward the end of his time there, that he could try for dual citizenship and had outright offered him a job with the family company, even though Duk wasn’t sure if his uncle - the current CEO of the business - was certain of him. He stops on a video of himself doing one of the many TikTok dances with his cousins outside of a nightclub. They’d been the ones to show him the country’s nightlife, showed him what was what and brought him up to speed on the culture. They’d even managed to get him onto Weibo, the Chinese social media site, and looped him into their WhatsApp groupchat. 

They had encouraged him, too, to meet his mother. Which was… easier said than done, it would turn out. He didn’t meet her until his last few days in Singapore. They’d texted a little before that, mostly just to set up a time and place. And when he had seen her, sitting by the window at the tea shop, it was like looking in a mirror. They had the same eyes, same mouth. And she had smiled at him like he was an old friend. Their meeting had been a little awkward, with pockets of nervous silence on both sides. But when they said goodbye, they hugged and Duk held his composure until he was back in his room, where he broke down into tears. Not sad tears, but tears of relief, of joy. It was all so much more than anything he could have expected. 

The plane makes its final descent into O’Hare and Duk closes his eyes, uncomfortable still with the way the plane downshifts toward the ground, even though he knows it’s safe. He gets his things together once the plane settles on the tarmac, steering toward the gate. Turns off his AirPods, checks his phone for messages. He smiles at the notifications already popping up on his screen; friend requests on Facebook, new followers on Instagram, new likes on TikTok. Most are family, but he doesn’t recognize several of the new likes on TikTok or followers on Instagram. There’s also a text from his sister that just came through: Why is there a video of you dancing on TikTok????? 

He shrugs it off, blowing up on social media doesn’t mean much since he’s still on cloud nine about his trip and eager to just get the hell off this plane already. He’s tired, almost running on fumes, but he still has a bounce in his step that always seems to be with him. 

Then, once he makes his way through disembarking and through hectic customs, there’s the Barneses. Crowded right up to the metal barrier. They’re there to greet him, his mom waving her hands in the air as if he can’t see her in the crowd. His father is saying something to Michael, who is hoisting a big sign up into the air. Sara is picking at Mike, as usual and Sage is just looking around as though she would almost rather be anywhere else. But their eyes meet and she smiles. And he knows she is glad to see him, too. Duk tilts his head to one side, studying the simplified Hanzi type lettering on Michael’s sign. “You do know that the sign says ‘fried rice here’ right?” He asks the group. He didn’t expect this to be his first words to his family upon his prodigal return, but then again, normal to the Barnes family is always entirely subjective. Immediately, his mom shot a look at Mike, who is covering his face to hold back a burst of roaring laughter. “Michael!” She hisses and the boy finally lets loose peals of laughter. Sarah punches his shoulder and he grimaces as Sage rolls her eyes, turning her attention to her phone instead. It was the best welcome home he could have ever received.

ANYTHING ELSE?

Nothing! I love you all!!

#accepted #submission

[protagonistheavy]

I’m just gonna randomly shoot out some things about WW84 that sucked or were weird. It might be random but it’ll be just as coherent as the movie.

I immediately sensed this movie would suck when it begins with a voice-over by Diana explaining what the first ten minutes of the movie was going to be about, and then I knew FOR SURE it was going to suck when those ten minutes go and explain the moral of the next two hours of the film. This childhood flashback has no bearing on anything happening in the present, other than to setup the message that cheating and taking shortcuts is wrong.

Which, by the way, that message is so stupid and this flashback VALIDATES how bad it is. Diana is about to win this sports thing as a kid but gets disqualified at the last moment because when she got knocked off her horse, she took a shortcut to get back into the race. You’d think craftiness like that would be REWARDED somehow, but she’s punished for it, and it sets up this frustration that lasts for the entire movie. Not a good frustration, just something that annoys you.

I hate the presentation of this obstacle course by the way. It seemed really cool for like five minutes but the race got so tedious. You think she’s going to win when she jumps for the hoop -- no, she’s diving into the water, the race is still going. She gets to land! ... No, now it’s a horse riding segment. She shoots an arrow through a hoop, and at the stadium, they release a flag with her color! ... But that’s just hoop one of several that she needs to shoot. It’s so tedious and pointless, you never get the right sense of suspense.

Okay now for the bulk of the film.

Barbara’s weird focus on heels gets so grating, I could not believe how many times they emphasized her shoes. I get that they represent something larger but they don’t do anything with it, they just keep having people comment on her fucking shoes! and then after awhile, no mention of heels, it’s just dropped, it’s so uncanny how important fucking HEELS were for like 30 minutes of a film.

Barbara feeds a homeless guy on her way home, explained that she visits this guy almost everyday. We NEVER see this guy again, except for when Barbara is first turning “evil” (GOD I gotta explain that one) where he just... RANDOMLY APPEARS! He appears just to make Barbara look more evil, and then he’s just gone. SO ANNOYING!

And they do this AGAIN with another minor character. This guy named Carl???? Okay can ANYONE explain this guy to me? For NO REASON we see that Diana has like, this assistant named Carl that she just sort of shrugs off. And then he’s never mentioned again, never seen again, until like a whole hour later -- where Diana is apparently friends enough with this guy that he takes her on a tour through some federal building? And it’s HERE that they try to give CARL a fucking character quirk, even though he’s NEVER SEEN AFTER THIS? They like try to make him seem like a buddy of Diana’s or something like we should think this scene is kinda funny or fuck at least show that Diana has relationships with people. Nope.

And I’d say that’s a big problem for me with the film, Diana has NO connections with ANYONE in this film... EXCEPT HER DEAD PARTNER THAT COMES BACK TO LIFE IN SOME RANDOM GUY’S BODY, OH MY GOD. I just have to scream about that, what the FUCK was this plot??? They couldn’t just have Steve be wished back into existence somehow, no, the plot instead makes it so a RANDOM NEARBY GUY just gets POSSESSED by Steve, and then the movie has the nerve to just REPLACE THE GUY WITH STEVE’S ACTOR! Because apparently “that’s all Diana can see.” WHAT THE FUCK!!!! She had sex with this other person’s body several times, dude!! It’s so weird, they could have done ANYTHING but they chose this WEIRD plot!

And Steve NEVER HAD TO COME BACK! Why was Steve so fucking important?! Especially when they KNEW that they’d have to kill him off again anyway! They just thrust him back into the plot because they couldn’t think of ANYTHING else that would drive Wonder Woman into a conflict other than THE MAN IN HER LIFE. Holy shit, dude. It’s literally her WHOLE motive in this dumb film, grappling with how she’s just obsessed over this dead dude for DECADES, it’s such a pathetic state for WONDER WOMAN to be in.

Okay remember when I said Barbara turned evil and the homeless guy-- yeah yeah so her “turning evil” scene? Revolves around her fighting back against a street harasser. Yeah so earlier we see her get catcalled and pushed around by this random drunk guy, you know, the classic random drunk guys we know are on the streets. And Diana saves her. Later she’s in a TOTALLY different spot and the SAME DRUNK GUY harasses her AGAIN, literally the same drunk guy in the same clothes, doing the same shit as last time, even though it got him thrown into a trash can before. Yeah they use THIS GUY to demonstrate Barbara “turning evil” because now she has super strength and throws the guy down and kicks him across the street. WE’RE SUPPOSED TO FEEL BAD FOR THIS DRUNK GUY. WE’RE SUPPOSED TO THINK “BARBARA, NO, YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” What the FUUUUCK? Why not have her do something evil that effects the homeless guy -- THAT would be a moment in which the audience says, “NO BARBARA, NO!” Instead it just seems like she’s, like, TOTALLY IN THE RIGHT! Like yeah maybe she’s going overboard but this guy TWICE has physically assaulted her and ALL she’s doing is kicking him, BECAUSE SHE’S DEFENDING HERSELF and MAKING A POINT to this fucking guy! Hoooly shit it’s just, so wrong to use THIS dynamic as the “turning point” for an evil character.

Yeah and also, Barbara’s whole plot? It’s just shy of a fetish story. The whole thing. One day this meek nerdy woman wakes up and her body is fuller and sexier, she’s more confident, getting stronger and taller -- I’ve genuinely read fetish stories less blatant than this. It’s so fucking weird to see happen, it gives me bad vibes.

Barbara’s character is just dropped so hard. It doesn’t explore her or her position well at all despite how hard it tries to make SOMETHING out of nothing. She has no motive other than being jealous of other people and wanting power, it’s actually really dumb how this normal and sweet woman gets turned into a literal monster just for having been EVIL enough to make a fucking wish on a dumb stone, and she gets NO redemption, no explanation for where she goes afterwards when the film ends. No one even seems to care that Barbara is just gone, but I guess that’s fair because by the end of the movie, fucking, a LOT happened in the world.

Yeah the climax is that the villain can grant wishes and so everyone in the world starts making wishes, and it shows how these wishes get immediately corrupted or cause widespread chaos. But humor me this: is there not a SINGLE person that would have used their wish for, like, “world peace?” Wouldn’t that ONE wish stop like half of all other wishes? And you might think “Adam that’s dumb, a wish can’t just grant world peace” FUCK YOU! THE LOGIC OF THESE WISHES IS THAT IT CAN LET THE DEAD POSSESS HUMAN BODIES, IT CAN INSTANTLY CREATE AND ALSO DISMANTLE NUCLEAR WARHEADS, IT CAN CREATE GIANT WALLS OF STONE AROUND A COUNTRY. How the FUCK was there not a SINGLE child -- JUST A NAIVE CHILD -- that was watching this broadcast and wished for world peace? It’s just, this WHOLE PLOT IS SO DUMB!

The villain has the power to grant wishes, but only if they VERY SPECIFICALLY say “I WISH.” So he has to CONSTANTLY word-trick people into wishing for exactly what he wants them to wish for, while ALSO touching them. This gets repeated MULTIPLE times. But what pisses me off the most is that it doesn’t explain well what he GETS from people making a wish. Because the first time we see him use this power, he does it to one of his investors, and gets the investor to wish for his financial success. IMMEDIATELY after the investor makes the wish, the villain steps away and just says “Okay but in return you have to give me all your money and stocks.” And then he just walks out of the building, while the investor yells at him to come back. ??? No written agreement, no contract or anything. The villain just gets this guy to say “I wish” and then decides what he himself gets out of it.

We don’t get explained until LATER that whenever someone makes a wish, “the wish” gets to take something precious from the wisher. So what the villain basically just gets to do is grant a wish and then just DECIDE what the person gives them. He gets an oil tycoon to make a wish, and then he just takes his security team and his oil, and the security team just goes along with it, they just plain out lose their free will whenever they’re part of a wish. What the fuck man. It’s so stupid! And like not stupid-stupid, this COULD have been a cool idea for a villain, but it’s played so comically DUMB that it can’t be taken seriously at all, it never gets explored in interesting ways. It’s just him running around, tricking people into saying “yeah I wish for that thing you said.”

And the villain is like... IN MY PERSPECTIVE, the villain FEELS like he was inspired by Donald Trump. He’s a conman, he does this “thing” with his hands when he talks, he lies to people constantly, he acts rich but he doesn’t actually have any money, he just puts on a front of being rich. And like the whole film I thought that he was white, like, a white American with just a weird accent -- no, he’s like, just... NOT white apparently! We see a flashback to him as a kid (his dramatic story is that he pissed the bed as a child and his dad hit him -- I’m not kidding) and he’s WAY DARKER SKINNED as a child. He’s just a totally different person. In fact when I first saw this scene, I thought that was HIS child! We see his kid several times and he’s darker skinned, but I just assumed, “oh okay, like, this is a white guy and his partner he had a kid with or whatever, wasn’t. Or he adopted or something.” No, apparently Max Lord the villain is not white... I don’t even know what to MAKE of that, it just seems like a clear error on the writer’s part that they didn’t realize MAYBE that’d have some importance to what the grander message in the story is.

The props suck. It all looked super fake. At one point a stone pillar gets knocked over and broken, it’s the fakest looking thing, hitting the ground like it’s made of styrofoam. So much of this movie seemed like it was produced from whatever was lying around the storage room. I seriously only think the 80s aesthetic was chosen because they had lots of 80s themed props and clothes they could use on the cheap, because the movie does NOTHING else with the time period -- NOTHING ELSE. It’s just an excuse to show off 80s fashion and trends, and how Diana never had 80s hair, SUCH A MISSED OPPORTUNITY BUT WHATEVER.

Even the acting just feels so cold. The major actors all put in a contractual amount of effort and nothing more, and all the side characters just couldn’t give a shit. Why would they? The plot is fucking bonkers and their characters are worthless. The only good acting I saw was from Barbara, and that only lasts for the first hour of the film when Barbara actually has a personality. After that she’s just delegated to being a villain that wears more and more villainous clothing, until she’s just a fucking cat beast out of no where.

Yeah we get no reason for why Barbara turns into a cat woman, other than when she was making a wish, she said she’d like to be an “apex predator.” So the wish turned her into a cat woman. The only cat-like thigns we even see ASSOCIATED with Barbara until this point, is that she’s fascinated by Diana’s leopard print heels (THE HEELS! THE HEELS!) and in her office is a model of a tiger. Im probably getting these animals mixed up but whatever. It’s so fucking dumb, she’s a GEOLOGIST! And yeah she’s also generically a few other types of doctors, but she’s in this film primarily as a GEOLOGIST -- WHY DID SHE GET CAT POWERS?

Diana hypes up this fucking armor out of NO WHERE, Steve just randomly comes across it in Diana’s room, it’s just covered up in cloth and propped against a wall. Why? Why is it like this? Diana has had that armor for awhile by this point, it’s a fucking RELIC of her culture, and everything else in her fancy home is also neatly organized and displayed. This important fucking armor though, never put away. Anyway it gets hyped up as being like indestructible, but literally in the backstory for it we’re told that it failed to keep the amazon warrior wearing it safe, it eventually failed her... and then sure enough, when Diana is wearing it for a fight against Barbara, it just doesn’t do anything! It just gets ripped apart! What the fuck was the point of making Diana wear something so TACKY when she never needed it?!? You’d THINK she would use the wings to fly... but by that point, DIANA JUST HAS FLIGHT POWERS! The suit offers NOTHING OF VALUE to hear except to get ripped up!

Diana just REMEMBERS, only ONCE, that she has fucking INVISIBILITY POWERS. Yeah they get into a jet and need to fly out undetected. So Diana just pulls out some Dragonball Z power out of no where and MAKES THE WHOLE JET INVISIBLE, including them inside of it. Even though this was NEVER mentioned EVER before that she could do this... Even though she specifically says “I’ve only tried this once on a coffee mug”... SHE GETS IT RIGHT, THE WHOLE JET TURNS INVISIBLE. Okay, now get this: HOW DOES AN INVISIBLE JET HELP HER? SHE LITERALLY JUST STATED THAT THEY HAVE RADARS, THEY CAN STILL DETECT THEM, SO WHAT DOES BECOMING INVISIBLE DO? THE RADAR WOULD STILL PICK THEM UP, WOULDN’T IT? Oh my god man. Oh my god. AND IT NEVER COMES BACK UP! THEY NEVER HAVE TO USE THE INVISIBLE JET OR THE INVISIBLE POWERS EVER AGAIN! WHAT A SHITTY, SHITTY WAY TO SHOEHORN IN A FUCKING PROP, HOLY FUCK!

Okay and okay okay okay WHY WAS DIANA JUST ALLOWED TO TAKE A JET? Did I miss something? She just walks through this security clearance area with Steve... she flashes a badge, she’s let into a hangar. She walks past a plane, then tells Steve to pick one out to fly. They get into the plane, they start to take off, and BEE-WOO-BEE-WOO everyone is suddenly like “STOP THAT PLANE, WHAT’S THAT PLANE DOING?” WHAT??? Uhhhh YOU LET HER IN? She had CLEARANCE? D-Did Diana seriously just not think this far? She has clearance to go there but she didn’t ask first “hey we’re gonna use one of these jets?” WHOSE JET IS SHE EVEN TAKING? WHERE ARE THEY? This scene made NO FUCKING SENSE! I seriously MUST have missed some explanation but like, why was she ALLOWED TO ENTER the hangar but NOT ALLOWED TO FLY? And why wouldn’t she just-- HUBROUOUFBOSF

And the pacing of the film is just terrible, if you haven’t picked up on it. The first half of the film has like NO action, we almost never see Wonder Woman do anything. For an hour the cast is mostly just being introduced as well as the plot, that’s so fair, but then it ramps up to fucking eleven when suddenly these wishes just start changing the world fucking dramatically, in ways that just don’t make sense. The final third of the movie is a confusing mess of characters literally teleporting around the country, with virtually every bad thing happening at once because of fucking wishes. Nuclear missiles are about to be launched, people are wishing for each other to die, society is just crazily collapsing over the course of like three days. And then the ending is just, it just reverses everything... The ending is that everyone, EVERYONE in the WORLD renounces their wishes ... BY LITERALLY SAYING “I RENOUNCE MY WISH” OUT LOUD, IT’S SO FUCKING FUNNY ... and then things just snap back to normal. SERIOUSLY, we see shit LITERALLY REWIND at some points as all these wishes just fucking get reversed. BUT THE NUKES JUST GET DISMANTLED IN MID-AIR, THOSE DON’T GET REVERSED, THEY JUST FALL APART IN THE SKY, WHAT COULD GO WRONG.

The particle shit makes no sense... Villain has to touch people to make wishes, right? So his scheme becomes to use this broadcast that takes over EVERY broadcast in the world, which will TECHNICALLY count as “touching” people because the sattelite is spreading... his... particles? And apparently that counts, apparently just touching particles of this guy gives you a free wish. That just, doesn’t make sense at all, how the fuck are his particles getting sent around the world??? That’s now how cameras or broadcasts or sattelites work AT ALL.

At the end when the villain renounces his own wish and shit, he goes looking for his kid... He just runs out into no where and starts yelling his kid’s name. And then sure enough a minute later the kid appears, just running out of the woods apparently. It’s just so stupid. And this kid wears the same “generic kids shirt with stripes” through the entire movie, that’s funny to me for some reason.

The fight scene choreography was terrible. All of the fights were just grunts being flipped into the air or into walls. They had no idea how to make an interesting fight for Diana, it’s just always random humans with guns that she has to whip the weapons away from or deflect their bullets. It’s every fight, the same thing. At one point Steve uses a dinner tray to fucking block bullets, it’s so stupid, he runs ACROSS the hallway to GET the dinner tray, then RUNS BACK to use it to defend himself, it’s so fucking stupid, it’s like they said on set while recording “uh we need Steve to do SOMETHING here, just make him grab something.”

This movie wants to have a feminist message but just fucks it all up by not at all trying to make an actual feminist message that would resonate with women. WW84′s idea of sexism is so cartoonish, it’s all drunk men on streets that catcall women and sober men that constantly say hi to women as they walk by. There’s no mention of like, a glass ceiling, no. And there’s no critique against MEN here, no no no, MEN aren’t the problem, MEN aren’t being criticized... it’s just SOME of these men, these drunk ones on the street lol. Not a societal problem, just random guys who are jerks and should be thrown into trash cans............ BUT DON’T KICK THEM UNTIL THEY BLEED, NO, NO BARBARA, NO! Not the MAN!

There’s so much focus on Diana and Steve too that it just makes me wonder, did ANYONE realize how un-feminist this was??? Like they made a whole movie where Wonder Woman’s motive is JUST... man. Just man. Want man, get man. Keep man. That’s it. Don’t want man dead. That’s all she’s about. And, classic for Hollywood, they can’t even have her TALK to another woman about something OTHER THAN MEN... There’s SO MUCH GAY SUBTEXT, and it’s STILL drenched in a heteronormative plot.

YEAH THE GAY SUBTEXT, FUUUUCK! Fuuuck man! They GENUINELY setup this dynamic that MAYBE Diana and Barbara could fall in love. Diana sees so much in Barbara that she wants, and same for Barbara. Barbara basically takes her out on a date! It just gets dropped, Diana just acts like a pretty weak friend towards Barbara and never really explains to her the importance of what’s happening, it’s so sad to see what could have been a full romance get turned into some... ridiculously pointless rivalry I guess. It’s like you can genuinely feel the producers’ hands creeping into the movie, changing the direction of things so that it checks off as many boxes as possible rather than be something NEW and change how we see Diana.

Even the visual effects just suck.......! The invisible jet, yeah as it turns out, NOT VERY SPECTACULAR LOOKING... They try hard to make it a cool scene by at LEAST having it fly through fireworks, but that’s shit I can look up on youtube! They seriously just got a drone to fly through fireworks and then put an INVISIBLE JET flying through it. Other effects just suck to look at too, Wonder Woman’s lasso looks ridiculous at times, especially when she does this like “circle” thing where she spins it really fast, just looked terrible. So many shots of Diana flying around or sliding under stuff, and it just looks so fake with how she’s transplanted over a moving background.

There was one point where to save a bunch of kids, they launch a missile that Diana uses to whip and propel herself off of to go save the kids. But because this movie is edited SO BADLY it first justl ooks like Steve and Diana see some kids playing in the street so they decide to LAUNCH A ROCKET AT THEM. Up until you see Diana whip the missile to use it to fly forward, that’s ALL you can possible assume!!!!

Seriously, this whole movie sucks, this is maybe only HALF of my grievances. It’s so stupid, I do not recommend watching it, I can’t believe how this followed up the original Wonder Woman when that movie was so DECENT. It was GOOD even, and then WW84 just shits on everything it started, it’s a whole fucking movie that feels like kids playing with toys and making up a plot as they go. I can’t even IMAGINE watching the first film now! Like, what the fuck will I think?! These two movies are so staggeringly different and not in ANY good ways. It’s such a fuck up, I feel SO bad for the people who worked on this, such a waste of their time. This is a first draft script that I think no one fully read to completion or gave a solid shit about before filming, a bunch of stray ideas cobbled together incoherently.

[thunderquack]

How Dew You Dewey That?

Dewey Duck’s best friend was Launchpad McQuack. Being the middle child and starved for the same attention and recognition as his elder and younger siblings, he loved hanging out with someone who had the same energy and sense of adventure as he did, even if that guy happened to be thirty-one years old. He never treated him like some ‘dumb kid’, he was his friend.

But things are different now. Launchpad found himself in a loving relationship with superfan-turned-actor-turned-superhero Drake Mallard, and he was spending less time with him. He was going on dates and doing all kinds of gross relationship stuff Dewey couldn’t wrap his head around. It freaked him out. And then along came the adopted daughter Gosalyn, and now he’s ten times more careful than he used to be. But seeing the happy family made him think about more than being replaced, and he has a few questions he wants to ask.

It took a while to get over it.

It might’ve taken less time to get over it if Gosalyn hadn’t been relentlessly teasing Dewey on Whiffle Boy Rewritten, or if there wasn’t a notable change in Launchpad’s response to his adventurous requests. ‘Oh, mom said we can go’ wasn’t cutting it anymore, Launchpad started wanting to ask her upfront, and that usually turned into the big ol’ devastating no. As if Della would allow him to go flying alone with Launchpad of all people. He’d stomp off in betrayal every single time.

Parenthood changed his best friend for sure, and falling in love changed him too, and sometimes he’d wonder why Launchpad had to go and find the love of his life. Why couldn’t they have stayed the most eligible bachelors in all the land forever? Launchpad always said Drake brings out the best in him, but all Dewey could see was someone who forgot what the meaning of fun was. Was that what love was all about? Changing for the other person? Count him out of that, he was a star in his own right already, he didn’t need anyone else to bring out the best in him. And we was way too threatened by that concept anyway.

He was bitter for weeks until Drake caught on to how he was probably feeling and told his husband it’d be best to talk to him, and the pilot pulled the kid aside for just that.

“Hey, Dewster.”

The kid had his arms crossed, back turned to the taller. He looks up at him with a furrowed brow, suspicious of what his intentions could be after blowing him off all this time. Finally, he answers. “Sorry, Launchpad. I actually can’t hang out with Gosalyn today. I’m way too busy.” His tone stings bitter, mocking of what he’s been hearing for the last month in the most childish way.

The redhead rubs the back of his neck with a large hand and sighs light, there’s a smile playing on his beak. Drake told him to expect this. “Not askin’ you to do that, buddy.”

“Oh. So then what do you want?” He shifts his position, legs crossing and chin resting in his hands.

Launchpad adjusted his cap and let his gaze fall around the room. Eye contact during tense moments was difficult, even if the person he was comforting was a ten-year old. He chose to focus on his folded hands instead. “Look, I know what you’re thinking. Big Bro LP’s too busy for me--”

“Yeah, that’s ‘cause you ALWAYS are?”

“-- And ya think he doesn’t care about you anymore.” His head lifted to look at him.

Dewey’s beak presses into a tight line, looking at the ground. He didn’t wanna admit it to himself let alone to Launchpad, but it sure felt that way. Seeing the second most active kid only to his daughter he knew silence himself was enough of an answer.

“That’s not true.”

“But you changed!” Is his quick retort. “Ever since you started dating him and adopted her, it’s like you’re a completely different Launchpad! You turned all careful and busy. And you started wanting mom to tell you if I’m allowed to do something which is totally unfair because my word is SO trustable--”

“Dewey.” He winces having to interject, but he does listen to the triplet’s words. To be honest, Launchpad hadn’t really noticed or put that much thought into how he was maturing and growing. Sometimes you make changes to yourself without realizing it, if the right people enter your life. Having learnt from Della, and becoming a parent in his own right, he was a lot safer in his flying and making sure Dewey actually had permission to do something dangerous before going on a whim. He imagined how he’d feel if he learned Gos ran off with someone and almost got herself hurt; and it was terrifying, tough as she was. Back then, he didn’t know how Donald or Della would’ve felt. But he does now. He has his own family now, and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do to protect them. Little changes entered his personality to reflect that.

Launchpad shuffles in his seat and nods once. “Families and relationships aren’t easy, Dewey. And it’s a lot more than just the fun stuff too.” He recalls in the back of his mind a few rough patches he and Drake had to get over before communication came more easily to them. “I mean just look at your mom and Louie right now. There’s a lot of effort and time that goes into this stuff, and I really have to work hard at it. y’know?” Hand falls on the smaller duck’s shoulder, and his growing smile is inviting. Eyes crinkle with the fondness of a big brother “But that doesn’t mean I lost sight of everyone who’s important to me. And especially not my best buddy.”

The blue one remains unsatisfied, although the latter words bring a more relaxed expression to his face. “I just don’t get it. What’s the point of dating and romance and all this junk if it just distracts and changes you? Do you even wanna change in the first place?” The bitterness in his tone had been replaced with a frustrated curiosity, Launchpad shrugged in response.

“If you just meet the right people, you don’t even notice it.” And his thoughts drift fondly to Drake, and how he helped him through and with so many things he used to find unthinkable. Nothing felt impossible with him by his side, and it was amazing to think that all it took was the uncanny events of a botched movie for everything to make sense. The sun shone brighter ever since the two walked out of that studio’s wreckage together. “You can learn a lot about yourself. Ya think you got it all figured out and then bam, someone comes along and it makes way more sense than you ever thought it would. And all they gotta do is try to high-kick you in their trailer.”

Dewey blinked.

“...Buuuut hey, you’re just a kid, you don’t gotta worry about this stuff right now.” Launchpad unfolds his legs and stretches them out, standing wobbly on his feet and rolling out a kink in his back from the uncomfortable position he stuck himself in. “What you should worry about is how you’re gonna be able to eat all the ice cream we’re gonna go get today and not get sick in the limo. Again.”

The talk was over then, and Launchpad took Dewey anywhere (reasonable) that he wanted to go for the better half of the day. He appreciated the restrictions and didn’t complain, knowing how much Launchpad’s new life and attitude meant to him and his family. But besides that, who could complain with a belly-busting amount of sundaes and hot fudge? It was the most fun he’d gotten to have in weeks where all the attention was on him. A middle child’s dream day.

It’s on the limo drive back to the mountain, sun setting over the horizon and the stars starting to twinkle in the sky, that Dewey catches one in his eyes and finds himself thinking about what his own future family might be like. He’s tried before, and it all comes up fuzzy and confusing no matter what angle he tackles the scenario from. He chalked it down to his age, no person out there being cool enough to compete with him, any silly excuse under the sky that gets him out of freaking out about it.

Dewey remembers passersby, usually older women with clutch purses and thick coats of perfume, who would stop Uncle Donald in corner stores and parks to oogle over having three perfect identical boys. They’d say things like Oh, how handsome! They’re going to be such a catch with the ladies, teasing them about if they have a girlfriend and everything else you’d expect a small-minded grandmother to say. If the others were as bothered as him, they were good at hiding it, but Dewey couldn’t wrap his head around how the words made his skin crawl. 

Did he have to be with a girl?

And the answer was clearly no. Because here he sat with his best friend forever who was married to another man, adopted a kid with another man; And it still didn’t make anything or his own predicament less confusing. Girls? Guys? It hurt his head, and the pressure of having to just pick one (Girls being forced by the aforementioned elders) made his blood freeze to ice.

“Earth to Dewster?”

Launchpad’s voice breaks his stream of thought, he sinks back into his seat with a sigh.

“Ya got a brain freeze there, buddy? Or is somethin’ on your mind?”

Instead of beating around the bush, Dewey opts for dew-ing what he does best; And that’s getting down to gathering answers and solving mysteries. His voice grows stern, demanding. “How did you know Drake was the one? And you’ve dated girls before too, right? How do you just pick?”

The pilot, taken a bit aback by the sudden interrogation, laughs in surprise. He squints in thought for a moment or two, and then shrugs his shoulders. “I dunno.”

“Ha! So y-- Wait, what?”

“I don’t know.”

“Wh-- But, Launchpad? You’ve dated SO many people and so many things! How did you figure all this out?” He was standing on his seat now to try and be at eye-level with a man who was watching the road, he gestures a hand to try and sit him back down.

“I dunno, dude. I just kinda did. The heart wants what it wants.” Another shrug. It lacks malicious or mocking intent, and was simply to convey that things just sort of fell into Launchpad’s lap. He’d already talked about how Drake understood him, made him a better person. How he got there was an experience that was hard to explain, and the lack of a puzzle-solving answer almost offends the triplet.

He wants to protest, wants to put up a fight and demand an answer, but he’s ultimately defeated from the gross amount of foods the two chowed down on. He sinks back into his seat and crosses his arms, head turning towards the window. “What if the heart doesn’t know what it wants?” Comes out in the smallest of grumbles, but LP doesn’t miss it. In fact, Launchpad checks the rearview mirror to make sure the roads are clear enough for him to slow down. They’re pretty empty leading up to the manor, so he does. 

“Is that what all this is about, Dewster?”

“No. Yes. Kinda? Ugh, probably.” A frustrated sigh, he buries his face in his hands. “You seem to got it all figured out with Drake and Gos. Mom’s got her cool alien girlfriend, Uncle Donald has Daisy. You guys just know where it’s all headed and I don’t even know if I like girls or guys. I’m like, totally expected to like girls too because every old woman I meet asks if I have a girlfriend and I hate it.”

There’s a tinge of familiarity in the taller’s chest, thinking back to being Dewey’s age and struggling to figure himself out. His mother and father were supportive in every way they could be, but it wasn’t as if they really understood. Having a talk like this would’ve meant the world to him, and he decides he’s going to do his best.

He puts the limo into park in the manor’s garage, and turns to face the child.

“Dewey, you really don’t have to have it all figured out yet, you know that right?” The smile on his beak is resonating to his feelings, and he chooses to keep his voice stern and comforting. “Look at how much older all the people you just mentioned are. There’s absolutely no pressure to know who or what you like right now. And hey, if you feel one way, and the day after decide you feel another way? That’s perfectly okay. You have your whole life to figure yourself out, buddy. Don’t let anyone try to plan it for you.”

Tears had started to well in the shorter’s eyes, a shapeless weight in his chest being lifted off of his heart and it beating a little softer. The words were so simple, almost too easy, but they were everything he had been needing to hear. He unbuckles his seatbelt and moves to wrap his arms around Launchpad’s neck in a hug, and he’s barely able to connect them. The pilot pats his back and returns it with a beam.

“And hey, if you ever need someone to talk to about it, I’ll always be right here for ya. Not right here as in the limo? ‘Cause I leave the limo a lot actually, and I don’t live in the garage anymore, but--”

“Yeah no, I know what you mean, dude... Thank you.”

#heheueeehehbeh this is long but questioning dewey! questioning dewey! realizashun!!!!! #i never wrote dewey before but like litjnkfnlgsdfnkjdfnkjfd i have a lot of feelings abt this #ducktales #dt17 #mine #fic #launchpad mcquack #dewey duck #drakepad #dellumbra and donsy are mentioned for 1 (one) line too

[qqueenofhades]

the reason people prefer bernie over warren isn't that she used to be a republican, most people genuinely believe the positions she holds now. it's just that those positions A) aren't going to get her elected in a general election, because she comes across as wishywashy on medicare for all, which is much more popular among most americans than centrists think, and republican are GREAT at exploiting the wishy-washy B) isn't gonna cut it with us lefty dems either. bernie polls better against trump.

Hello there! Thank you for your contribution! *

As most people who follow me know, I am not a Political Discourse ™ blog in the usual course of things, and despise Discourse in general. Time is short, lives are precious, and usually arguing with people about politics on the internet is about the most unproductive use of such ever devised. But because you did arrive in my inbox with this opinion, which perfectly exemplifies the dangerous thinking that I was referring to in this post, which I presume is the reason for the pleasure of your company, we’re going to have a chat. I’m going to keep the snark to a minimum, because I am really not a fan of stoking Democratic tribalism or “my candidate is better than your candidate and I can’t vote for anyone else” pissing contests. That being indeed precisely what I was arguing in the above post, and the point of which, alas, you seem to have grasped but dimly. I am therefore going to go through this, because it needs to be deconstructed, and while I may make no impact on you, because I suspect your mind is made up, I am fortunate enough to have a decent following on this blog and maybe someone else will benefit from it. Who knows. The other option is Trump.

So.

Let’s take this one at a time. See for example your first claim, “Elizabeth Warren comes across as wishy-washy on Medicare for All.”

Well….

Have you tried going to her website (elizabethwarren.com) typing in “Medicare for All” and being redirected to the following document? It took me approximately eight seconds to find. It is also not just an attention-grabbing header. The full strategic plan below, when pasted into Microsoft Word, runs to an impressive goddamn 19 pages and almost 8,000 words. It outlines exactly what she will do to achieve this and concludes:

Medicare for All is the best way to guarantee health care to all Americans at the lowest cost. I have a plan to pay for it without raising taxes on middle class families, and the transition I’ve outlined here will get us there within my first term as president. Together, along with additional reforms like my plans to reduce black maternal mortality rates, ensure rural health care, protect reproductive rights, support the Indian Health Service, take care of our veterans, and secure LGBTQ+ equality, we will ensure that no family will ever go broke again from a medical diagnosis – and that every American gets the excellent health care they deserve.

Hmm. Focusing specifically on African-American maternal mortality rates, rural health care, protecting reproductive rights, support for Native Americans, vets, and LGBTQ people? I understand, however, that this can’t cut it with “us lefty Dems,” which you proclaim with the proud assurance that you and the Twitter circles of your acquaintance are in fact the only ones. I’m also… not entirely sure which candidate you’re confusing Warren with, since there are two (2) progressive candidates in this nightmare of white no-name and/or billionaire milquetoast male moderates. Their names are Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. And every single Warren fan I know is willing to vote for Sanders if he gets the nomination, including me. I made a public pledge to vote for the Democratic candidate even if it’s Goddamn Joe Biden. You can see it here. If you are going to demand miles of receipts for Warren before you consider voting for her (and when her positions are similar to or in several cases, particularly for women, MUCH BETTER than Sanders, yes I said it), then you’re really not going to like what it looks like for the other candidates in this race. Also, are you asking these questions for Sanders, your own preferred nominee?

Next, you…. you do realize the privilege that is dripping off this ask, right? The exact thing of which I also addressed in the previous discussion:

The modern American Republican party has become a vehicle for no-holds-barred power for rich white men at the expense of absolutely everything and everyone else, and if your rationale is that you can’t vote for the person opposing Donald Goddamn Trump is that you’re just not vibing with them on the language of that one policy proposal… well, I’m glad that you, White Middle Class Liberal, feel relatively safe that the consequences of that decision won’t affect you personally.

That is…. at least as presented in this ask, exactly what’s happening here. You’re saying that you (and this mythic America/Lefty Dems ™ of which you grandly extrapolate) can’t vote for Elizabeth Warren because you’re just not vibing with her on the language of a policy proposal which she enthusiastically supports and has written a detailed 20-page manifesto on how to achieve? You really, really believe, deep down in your Bernie Bro Internet Politics bones, that you cannot vote for the smart, fearless, extra-qualified Democratic woman opposing the bankrupt reality star rapist who is literally a Neo-Nazi white supremacist whose administration is wrecking the planet and putting children in cages at the border? To name just one of the Scandal-A-Days that this nightmare administration churns out? Because the Lefty Dems (and please do not lump me and the other active leftist Democrats I know into whatever you’ve got going on here) just won’t stand for that?

Do you even hear yourself?

Did we learn nothing at all from 2016???

I’m going to guess that I’m older than you. I’m not sure whether that matters, but there’s that. It means I remember 9/11, the Bush years, the financial crash of 2008, and how this already went once before. I have also just moved back to the United States after almost half a decade in the United Kingdom, which is currently experiencing its same slow-motion disintegration into hard-right economic isolationism, xenophobia, and late-stage capitalist oligarchy. I’m also a professional historian. So it means that I, for better or worse, have a certain perspective on this, the overall patterns, the way the world has stumbled into this destructive consumerist capitalist 21st century, and what it’s doing to us.

We do not have much time left to fix any of this. I don’t care if it sounds alarmist, it’s true. If you are younger than me, this is also going to become disproportionately your generation’s problem. Rigid intellectual purity tests are exactly the thing that is preventing the left from mobilizing behind one candidate to get Donald Fucking Trump and his cabal of shameless criminals out of there before they kill the lot of us. And I’m not going to back down from saying that mindsets like the one perfectly exemplified in your ask are far more helpful to the Republicans than they are to any of us.

I have said it before, I’ll say it again: I will vote for, donate money to, and raise awareness about whoever the Democratic nominee is. If it’s Sanders, I’m going to friggin’ become a Bernie or Buster. Because at that point, his opponent would be Trump!!! If I am living in a state where it would remotely make a difference in November 2020, since at the moment I’m in Bumfuck Red State Nowhere, I would consider canvassing or volunteering for the campaign, and I am a severe introvert with social anxiety who hates talking to people when I don’t have to. And if I am willing to do this, and you and Lefty Dems ™ of your hallowed intellectual proclivities are sitting on your backsides and bitching about how Warren seems wishy-washy on Medicare for All, well then. One of us is more the problem than the other one, and it isn’t me.

(Also. once again, Bernie Sanders is eighty years old and just had a heart attack. Sorry. That remains an issue for me. There’s a year to go of grueling non-stop campaigning before the general, if he wins the primary. I’m not convinced.)

In conclusion, I have recently adopted a policy of donating a few dollars to Elizabeth Warren every time someone appears in my inbox or notifications with a comment like this. So when I thanked you for your contribution at the start of this post, I was in fact thanking you for your extra-generous donation today, December 10, 2019, to Elizabeth Warren for President:

Peace.

#politics for ts #excuse me i just need to go over here for a second #anonymous #ask

[tintinwrites]

the light side | Poe Dameron x Reader | Part Two

A/N: The response to this was so lovely!! I’m imagining Leia walking into the med bay as that one gif from Community when Donald Glover’s character walks in to find everything on fire lmao

Rating: T

Warning: Discussions of whether to keep a baby. Naughty language.

Word count: 1,537, apparently!!

Summary: Poe gets it together and let’s you make the decision that’s rightfully yours to make. He’s willing to support you either way and you are touched by how caring this near stranger is.

Part One

GIF credit: buckyssteves

Tags: @empressoftheundergroundsun @taina-eny @katnisspeetaprim @imaginecrushes @alina-barnes @nerdbookish

                                                        -

General Leia Organa's determined steps faltered when she walked in to see her best pilot unconscious in a bed while one of her best soldiers sat in the one next to it.

You didn't look over when she entered the room, staring ahead at something.

"I was told that you were unconscious and Poe brought you here." Her slightly confused statement had you nodding distractedly. "Then what the hell—" She stopped at your bed and followed your line of vision to see that you were staring at a hologram of a blob, with vague extra features similar to ones she had seen before.

"The droid said it's eight weeks," you said so softly that she almost couldn't hear you.

Leia was no idiot; she knew what that blob was.

Your gaze flickered to Poe and then slowly moved to her.

She knew what that meant too.

There was a reason he was the one passed out instead of you.

"What do I do?" You trembled beneath the weight of carrying a life in the middle of a war that took and would take so many. "I don't know what I should do."

"I think that's a discussion for you and Poe." A motherly hand lifted to squeeze your shoulder.

"I don't think he's gonna know what to do either."

"Talk to him when he stops being dramatic. He's smarter than he may look. If you need me, you know you can come to me. But I'm not the one you should be making decisions with."

She brushed away a tear that had fallen from your eye, looking over as Poe woke up with a start. Smiling at you kindly, she walked out and left you alone.

Poe looked entirely bewildered, his eyes lighting up when they landed on you. "I had the craziest dream about you and—" He was bound to see the hologram that was obvious enough for even him to guess what it was.

Stepping out of bed, he walked to yours and you stared at the picture in silence as it rotated slowly, allowing you to see every angle.

He gripped the sheet at the edge of the mattress tightly. "Are you gonna keep—"

"You can't ask that of me," you interrupted him quickly, through a clenched jaw. "I don't know you. We're on our way to a full-fledged war and I'm pregnant with the baby of someone that I don't know."

"I'm sorry." His eyes softened as you began to sob and he sat on the edge of the bed, pulling you close to his chest; you didn't know each other much, but this pregnancy was between the two of you and being held by someone who understood was comforting no matter how little you'd interacted.

"Should I keep it? I don't know what to do."

"I wasn't going to tell you to keep it. This is your choice. I'm the guy who fucked up and didn't take his birth control shot. I shouldn't get a say in it."

"I didn't remember mine," you realized, having been too busy to come into the med bay in at least four months. It had been long enough for you to not be able to recall exactly when you'd gotten your last shot. "I don't know what to do."

Your gaze returned to the rotating image and the reality of the decision you had to make seemed to crash over you like a wave.

You hurriedly pulled away from Poe, moving off the bed and leaving the room as fast as you were able to.

He watched you go with a strange mix of confusion and understanding, a touch of sadness that you had to figure this out and that he had helped put you here.

The scan of the baby could be seen out of the corner of his eye. He moved to it and narrowed his gaze at the little thing, reaching up as if he could hold it.

His fingers went through it as they were bound to, making the image flicker for a moment.

He'd always imagined this would be an exciting time for him, after the war was over with someone he loved, marveling over the life they had created or even adopted from somewhere.

A baby with an acquaintance when you were in such a busy, dangerous time wasn't what he had desired or anticipated.

He wouldn't blame you if you decided not to go through with it, even if he had to admit that the thing was kinda cute to him already.

It wasn't his right to force you to keep something he thought was cute.

You were the one carrying it and while you were both living too hectic lives to care for a child, you would bear the brunt of it regardless.

He'd meant it when he said it was your decision.

If you got rid of it, he would support you.

If you kept it, he would do whatever the hell you wanted him to whether that involved leaving you alone or doing what he could to care for it.

And damn, he was already willing to fight off the entire galaxy to keep that baby safe if you wanted to have it.

There wasn't any use in imagining what he would or wouldn't do with either choice.

You needed time and all he needed to do was let you have it until you were ready to come to the decision that was yours and yours alone to make.

                                                        -

You'd locked yourself away for four days.

The impatient part of Poe wanted to knock on your door until you told him what you had decided, but the part of him that knew he needed to respect you busied itself with ship repairs and small missions instead of doing that.

He was almost forgetting about it as he started to doze off in the middle of the night when someone knocked on his door.

Blinking tiredly, he got out of bed and opened the door to see you standing there.

"I'm keeping the baby," you said so quickly that he didn't have a chance to even think of saying something. "I know it's stupid, but that's what my heart is telling me to do. I wanted you to know that and to know that I don't expect anything from you. We hardly know each other and we didn't mean to have a baby...you're under no obligation to help me take care of it. This is my decision and I'm not going to ask you for anything when you're busy with the war."

You started to walk away and Poe's sleepy brain realized what you had been rambling about.

He was more than awake now, reaching out and grabbing onto your arms, pulling you into his room.

"I wouldn't do that to you. That's my kid. I wanna be there for my kid. You may have to do a lot for that baby since you're carrying it, but I'm not going to let you do it alone and I'm not letting you bear the brunt of it." His grip on your arms turned to slow, gentle stroking. "You're busy with the war too. You don't have to give all that up when I helped create this baby."

"You barely know me."

"I slept with you. We created this thing together and I'm not abandoning it."

"That's...nice." You weren't sure if it was your hormones or Poe's dedication to a child he didn't intend to have that made your eyes fill with tears.

"I'm gonna be there for you as much as you want me to be."

"Did you know you're a really good guy?" Your rhetorical question earned a small smile and before you knew it, you were pressing yourself to his chest and wrapping your arms around him tightly. "I'm scared."

He squeezed you back, though cautiously. "You don't have to do this."

You closed your eyes against tears. "I know."

The two of you stayed like that for a couple moments, feeling closer to each other than you'd felt to anyone even though you had been practical strangers.

It was when you found yourself dozing off in his arms from your exhaustion, stress, and hormones that you made yourself pull away, giving him an appreciative look that encompassed how thankful you were for the way he was so easily willing to support you and the baby.

"I'm here. Whatever you need, whenever it's needed. It doesn't have to know me if you don't want it to, but I'd really like to be there as much as I can. It's up to you."

"I think I would be doing the baby a disservice by keeping you out of its life." You could see the relief in his eyes from your answer. "We have time to discuss how this is all going to work, don't we?"

You agreed to talk about it more as time went on, then Poe told you that you should get some sleep.

Both of you were sure that with each other things would be okay, even though you were two strangers having a baby and both damn terrified of every single detail of it.

#poe dameron imagine #poe dameron x reader #star wars imagine #poe dameron fic

[thefinalkey16]

KH3 Re:Mind spoilers/Reactions

So Xemnas gave the order?? To find the box?? But why??

So did Xigbar actually lose the box? YOU HAD ONE JOB

Oh we’re starting HERE HUH

I forgot how pretty the graphics are

Why is Riku so pretty???

Nomura really went “this DLC is about SOKAI and I’m gonna make sure you KNOW IT.”

Nomura really cares about his ship and I appreciate it so much

LETS GO SAVE OUR GIRL!

Heck yeah REMIND TIME

I love the music in this game so much

YES WE GET MORE MOM

Why does MOM adopt smol children lol

It bothers me that MOM has no actual face behind the hood. It’s like Ansem’s original form

So Xehanort is where Xemnas’s confusion of the heart comes from lol

OH THIS IS PREMASTER XEHANORT

I’m sorry, Xehanort is more powerful than darkness?

I’m sorry MOM is too scared to take off the coat???

MOM is a psychology teacher who gets exasperated by his dumb students

OH THATS JUST RUDE NOMURA

LEMME KNOW HIS NAME

A lost..Master?

Well we know where Xehanort got the hands behind the back walk from

OOO A NEW THEME

OH I LOVE IT

I’m 100% sure that MOM told him his name was “Noneya,” and it took a few decades before he realized what he actually said

DID THEY TELEPORT TO LOOK COOL ON THE ROCKS

I’m sorry they have holograms??

Did they actually call him Riku Replica lol

Wait they were actually nobodies

XEMNAS AND XEHANORT WERE REPLICAS?

“Why we have assembled here,” because Xemnas and Sora destroyed your sick castle

Poor Terra got possessed TWICE?

Demyx! You get Demyx!

I’m sorry 20??

No. I

Oh so they don’t actually remember Xion

Does.. does Xigbar remember Xion?

Wow they got Vexen just to get his daughter in their gang. How rude

Xehanort fell asleep while they chatted I’m cackling

Crazy old man

Now when do I get to save Kairi? :3c

YAY ITS TIME

YAY ITS CHIRITHY TIME

ITS MY SMOL KITTY

“Back so soon?”=you died again?? You’re lame

Chirithy is a mood

Sora you watched your GF get shattered

Oh so that’s why Sora dies

IS SORA SAILOR PLUTO

Oh my god he’s Sailor Pluto

Lose powers? He’s done that so many times 😂

Getting banned from one world? He had a phone and friends with gummi ships lol

ARE WE GONNA SEE EVERONES HEART STATION??

NOOO VEN That still hurts to watch

AWW SORA TRIED TO CATCH HIM

Wow he’s a ghosty ghost

Oh I love Ven’s heart station so much

Wow Vanitas really said that Ven is Baby

YAS GIMME VANITAS

Also wow Vanitas is protecting Ven’s heart and I love that

OH NO NOT THIS GUY

I beat him by using Meow Wow. meow wow is best boy

Oh no oh no it’s this pet

Gotta love Big Bro Lea

I forgot they call him Axel

ITS THE HUG

It’s Donald’s Safrifice ;-;

Donald Really channeled his inner Molly Weasley and said “Not my son you WITCH.”

WASTED

Also aw Sora got to see what Donald did for the first time

AQUA’S STATION IS SO PRETTY

Poor Aqua ;-; this is the moment where everyone hates her for

Also aww she trusts Kairi to protect them

We love Big Sis Aqua

YES WE GET ANTI AQUA FIGHT AGAIN

NAMINEEEEE

I’m literally screaming and I scared my grandma

Oh my god She lost Kairi and she immediately went to Sora cause she knew she’d be safe there ;-;

Namine’s Really here bringing everyone together

Agsisgsjdg I forgot Terra can do the keyblade whip thing lol

AND the cannon

Wow they’re really fighting in the sky

Anyone else getting Star Wars vibes

AWW HE JUST WANTS TO PROTECT HIS FAMILY

I still hate Terra’s pants

Imagine your heart crushing your body. Like really

NO LINGERING WILL

HECK YEAH SORA YOU KICK THEIR BUTT

Wow Sora you’re so cocky

LINGERING WILL NO

OH MY GOD

I forgot that Marluxia is an Ouran Host Club character

Wait, that Mickey finisher was new, wasn’t it?

Okay but I still have no idea what Xemnas did to Luxord

Cards: *Appear*

Sora: PTSD from watching his friends get destroyed from the cards in the manga

Mickey: *is captured*

Sora: PTSD intensifies

I’m really happy that we get to replay all of the Organization battles, they’re so much fun!

I’m so soft for Replinami ;-;

He loves her so much, and all he wants is for her to be safe and happy ;-;

Ven: we aren’t the same. You’re Edgy. I’m Baby

Aqua when Sora appears: TWO Baby’s :0

“If I’m a traitor, then Kairi’s the trump card.” LEA DRINKS RESPECT KAIRI JUICE

Aww Kairi’s so confused. She doesn’t see how she could be a trump card ;-;

HE STRAIGHT UP FLEXED

AWW XION REMEMBERS

Ohhh Isa’s jealous.

YES THW CHAKRAMS

LETS GO

Jealousy mode has been activated in Isa

WHAT WAS THAT RUN

OH MY GOD THAT SCREAM

YES KAIRI GO

PROTEXT YOUR BRO

“Yup” Kairi really just wants this over with so she can go home 😂

The way Kairi’s face lights up at seeing Sora gives me life.

Wow Xemnas was really hurt by Axel’s betrayal. Frankly? I’m shocked.

XION’S HAND IS SMOKING

HER HAND IS BURNING BECAUSE SHES GRABBING THE BLADE

Xemnas does NOT drink Respect Xion juice

ROXAS KEPT XION’S MEMORIES SAFE INSIDE HIM

AND SHE HAS HER FACE BECAUSE HE GAVE THEM BACK TO HER

Lea cares about the small girls he adopted as his little sisters

AWW THE THREE OF THEIR HEARTS ARE CONNECTED

NO XION ISNT ON HIS HEART ANYMORE

YES KAIRI’S HERE TO KICK BUTT

Wow Nomura really got tired of people dissing Kairi so he amped her up with cool stuff

“Oh? Tired of Kairi not doing anything?” Heres her literally overpowering Xemnas and him having to restrain her with a stop spell and magic to stop her

KAIRI IS THE SCARLET WITCH AND XEMNAS IS THANOS

Oh and in case you think she’s weak? Here’s the same thing for Sora too.

God I love Nomura

Oh my god she’s in so much pain because of the darkness

OH MY GOD SHES IN SO MUCH PAIN BECAUSE OF THE DARKENSS

SORA LITERALLY FAINTED AFTER 2 SECONDS BUT KAIRI’S HOLDING ON OH MY GOD THE STRENGTH

OOOOOOOO ROXAS TIME

The MUSIC

THEIR ATTACK IS CALLED “THINKING OF YOU” BECAUSE THEY REMEMBERED XION I CANT

I can not believe i was forced to relive watching Kairi die

SHE WAS CRYSTALLIZED?? SHES NOT DEAD??

I love Donald and Goofy so much ;-;

They aren’t gonna leave their son alone

Also wow Xehanort was just staring there forever

I FORGOT WE GET TO EXPLORE SCALA :D

KAIRI?!?!

Getting KH1 vibes with this

“The heartless that is radiating light” how is that possible??

Okay but this is such a good parallel to the first game, with him saving Kairi ;-;

Except for the fact that HEARTLESS SORA DIDNT GET BEAT UP

Okay so her heart is a thassala shell. Will we have to collect the pieces to make her wayfinder?

Oh my god I see the thing at the top of the screen. We totally are making her wayfinder ;-;

THAT MEANS SHE LITERALLY GAVE HIM HER HEART SO HE COULS RETURN IT TO HER OH MY GOOOOD

Okay so I love the puzzles they have here

XEHANORT?!

I’m sorry you hid her heart? What are you, five?

What do you MEAN almost out of time?!

OH NO KINGDOM HEARTS

Oh no not these guys again

So many keyholes

IM SORRY IS THIS WIZARD OF OZ

Oh my god Lea is so overwhelmed lol

SGAKSSGE ROXAS CAUGHT XION

Okay so for the team ups, I love how all of them were mix and matched from the trio’s

I loved Terra and Riku, the Master and apprentice

I loved Ven, Roxas, and I can’t remember who else was in it. “Thanks Roxas.” “Youre welcome. You’re not too bad yourself.” THAT WAS ADORABLE

Xion, Aqua and Mickey being mages and protecting everyone

Aqua and Lea, him trying to talk and Aqua telling him to shut up and focus

MICKEY’S STRUGGLE TO SAVE HIS FRIENDS BROKE MY HEART

We now present: Kingdom Hearts 3: connect he dots

Connect. Connect the dots. Get it?

KAIRI’S HEART MADE A FLOWER

THE KH2 THING

“SORA :D”

THEIR HUG

HE JUST HOLDS HER CLOSE

TIME FOR PLAYABLE KAIRI BABBYYYYYYY

“I can do this.” YES YOU CAN

I’m sorry you think I want to play as Sora? After waiting my whole life to play Kairi? HA

KAIRI IS THE MOST POWERFUL

Seven wishes saved me in that fight

ONE HEART

THEY HAVE ANGEL WINGS

OKAY YALL HAD YOUR SORIKU ATTACK NOW WE GOT SOKAI :D

Now we just need Rikai and Sorikai and it’ll be complete ^^

AGSKSGSKDGSJS CHIRITHY

“I was trying to give you some privacy” awwww

CHIRITHY IS CRYING

THEYRE GOING ON DATES

Chirithy has my soul and I love it

Every scene with Chirithy adds 7 years to my life

Afsjsgsajg Sora DONT PUSH THE CAT

NAMINE

THEY WERE THERE TO FREE HER HEART

Aaand he’s gone and I’m crying again

LIMITCUT EPISODE TIME BABBYYYY

GAJSGSJDG RIKU AND TERRA ARE TOGETHER

Oh my god Riku and Terra being bro’s are my favorite thing

Wait what are they gonna do

ARE THEY SEALING THE WORLD

OH MY GOD THE ARMOR

HOW DARE THEY NOT SHOW US THE FRONT PARTS

OH they’re going to search for Sora!

IS RIKU IN CHARGE OF THE LAND OF DEPARTURE

ONE YEAR???

Agajsgsjdg MERLINS HOUSE

CLOUD

PRETTY BOY

YUFFFIIEEE

AERIITH

CID

OH MY GOD THE GANGS ALL TOGETHER

THEY WENT TO THE REALM OF DARKNESS WHAT

“The Twilight Town gang” ITS OFFICIAL

OH NO WHAT HAPPENED TO KAIRI

WHY DOES HE LOOK SAD

NO WHATS GOING ON WITH KAIRI

They’re searching her heart?

SHES BEEN ASLEEP FOR A YEAR?!

Riku’s been all ALONE

DATA SORA??

Battalion oh my god lol

I’m mad about Kairi being asleep for a year though

AGSJSGS WE GET TO EXPLORE

Wow. A video game inside of a video game

I spent the rest of the day failing the Data battles and making funny Data Greeting pictures. Hopefully I’ll be better st the battles tomorrow!

#KH3RemindSpoilers #kh3spoilers #KH Re:Mind #kh commentary

[adamarinayu]

Goodbye, Part 3; Regrets

Part 1 here

Part 2 here

Ten years passed before anyone knew it.

Gladstone watched as Scrooge hugged his nephews and adopted niece, and Della, laughing, scolded him about spoiling them. The homemade cake- made by Scrooge and not Mrs. Beakley, the cake Donald had spent years perfecting the ingredients to- was always a hit with the ducklings, and a special treat. They always got excited for it, since it was reserved only for the most special of occasions... and that day was a special occasion.

It was Della and Donald’s birthday.

The first few years were hard- for three years they all refused to even acknowledge it, Della moreso than anyone else. The fourth year, however, they finally gathered their courage and visited Donald’s grave, cleaning it up a little (though Scrooge had hired people to take care of the grave once a week all year long) and leaving Donald’s favourite flowers (Gladstone had learned they were his favourite from One). It wasn’t until the boys were six and asking why their mom never had a party that they started celebrating again, grinning and bearing it.

“All okay, Gladstone?” One’s voice echoed through his earpiece. “Your heartrate’s picked up.”

“Just thinking it all,” he answered quietly, so as not to gain his family’s attention. He gazed at the banner on the wall, smiling sadly.

That was the first year the banner was put up.

The banner that had been made by Grandma Duck for the twins’ very first birthday, and used every year until Donald disappeared.

The banner that proudly proclaimed, HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DONALD & DELLA.

He swallowed. It had been ten long years that that banner had been stored, oh so carefully, in the attic. It looked a little older, but well preserved.

It was like a family treasure, just like everything else that was Donald’s.

He wiped his eyes.

One was silent.

“It’s hard, losing someone you love,” Gladstone whispered, watching as his grandmother brought out the homemade ice cream. She set it down, and then so carefully set not one, but two pairs of numbers on the cake, both reading 34.

“I know,” One agreed without hesitance, and Gladstone knew he did. Probably the only people who missed Donald more than One did were Grandma, Della and Scrooge.

After coming to know the AI as well as he did, Gladstone knew he didn’t miss Donald nearly as much as One did. It kind of hurt to realize he hadn’t treasured Donald- his own cousin- nearly as much as One did... and One had only known him for six years.

Gladstone didn’t like thinking about it, so he didn’t.

Della blew the first set of candles out, and there was a moment of silence before she said, “For you, Donnie.” She blew the second set out, and Gladstone just barely saw through her hair as the tears started to fall.

Scrooge and Grandma wiped their own eyes.

“Mom,” Dewey started, tugging on her sleeve in concern, “why are you crying?”

Della picked her son up while Mrs. Beakley swooped in to serve the cake and ice cream.

“Well, you see, Dewey,” she said, stepping out of Mrs. Beakley’s way. “Today isn’t just my birthday. It’s your Uncle Donald’s birthday, too.”

The children’s eyes widened. Gladstone laughed, though it hurt. Della, Scrooge, Gladstone and Grandma hadn’t mentioned Donald a lot in the beginning, it just hurt too much, but as the boys got older and more adventurous they began telling them more about their uncle.

Now it was so normal to talk about Donald, none of them cried anymore... well, that wasn’t always true.

“You see, we were twins. Together from the start, just like you three.”

“I miss him,” One admitted in Gladstone’s ear. Gladstone nodded. 

“I know.”

“So today, instead of mourning the life he lost, we’re gonna celebrate the life he lived. Okay?”

“Okay,” the children all chorused, nodding in understanding.

Sometimes Gladstone wanted to tell them all the truth. About the part of Donald they never knew. About just how brave he was, how often he saved them all- how he put his all into protecting them. How selfless he was the entire time.

The rest of the time, he selfishly coveted the knowledge. One often did the same with memories- some he was willing to show Gladstone but others he wished to keep to himself. Gladstone wondered if it made them terrible people- but Scrooge and Della knew a part of Donald Gladstone never knew. It was only fair that he and One kept Paperinik to themselves, wasn’t it?

The cake was delicious- Scrooge had spent the last few years trying to perfect it, though it wasn’t quite like Donald’s- and the kids loved it. They sang happy birthday to their mom and Uncle Donald. Gladstone cried with Della, and Scrooge stood in the back trying to pretend he wasn’t crying, too. Grandma spoke with Beakley- she was so much better at handling grief than the rest of them, having lost all of her children at a relatively young age. She’d done her crying, and though she still had her days she was a strong woman.

Gladstone loved his family, and now that Donald was gone he cherished it so much more than he used to.

He wished they could have Donald back. Maybe Paperinik and Cloverleaf would make a good team.

“Boys,” Della announced after the party was over, “I think it’s time for you to meet your Uncle Donald.”

Gladstone blinked, confused. “What do you mean, mom?” Huey asked, clearly not sure how to take this. “Isn’t he... y’know, gone?”

“The video,” One reminded Gladstone. “The one he made for them. They weren’t hatched at the time. A shame... he’d have loved them. Webby, too.”

Della stood up and led her sons to the living room. The others followed but hung in the back, watching as Della pulled the disc out of her pack and slipped it into the DVD player, just like all those years ago.

“Your uncle left something for you,” she told them, smiling at her boys. “You weren’t hatched at the time, but he loved you so much already.”

Donald’s face appeared on the screen. Gladstone now recognized, with ease, the 151st floor of Ducklair Tower (One had stubbornly kept it the same, with only a few small changes over the decade Donald was gone).

“Hello, boys,” Donald greeted with a smile. It was a soft smile. So full of love. “If Della doesn’t change her mind after I record this, your names are Huebert, Deuteronomy and Louis, right?”

Della let out a guilty giggle- Dewey’s name was actually Dewford now, though Deuteronomy was still his middle name.

“I’m not sure, my sister’s notorious for changing her mind at the last second,” Donald laughed. “You’ve found that out firsthand, I’m sure.

“I don’t know if I was there when you hatched,” Donald admitted. “If I wasn’t I’m sorry. If I was, I have no doubt it was the most magical moment of my life.”

“It was,” Della whispered, hugging her boys who were looking, enraptured, at their Uncle. They didn’t even seem confused or off-put by his voice, though clearly this was the first time any of them had seen a recording of him. The recording was so good, so high definition, it was almost like he was right there, merely an arm length away.

An arm length none of them could close. Not even One.

“I want you boys to know that you’re part of the best family in the world,” Donald went on, looking out intently at his audience. “No one loves stronger or works harder than a Duck or McDuck. The Ganders, eh, but even ol’ Gladdy has a heart, y’know?”

Gladstone let out a raspy laugh. His throat was closing up again- seeing Donald there, talking to the nephews who would never meet him...

One was silent. He’d seen this before.

“Be good to your mom and Uncle Scrooge. Grandma, Fethry and Gladstone, too. They’ll have your backs, no matter what kind of trouble you get yourselves into. I could always count on them. Well, for the most part- don’t expect Uncle Scrooge to give you any money.”

They all chuckled at that one, glancing at the somewhat-sheepish Scotsman.

Donald smiled again. “This world is a big place, and I’m sure you’ll see most of it before too long. I’ve seen it. It’s amazing, and it’s worth every moment away from home, I promise. But home is still where your life is- it’s where your family and your friends are. Don’t forget that.

“I’ve often said I have no regrets. I’ve seen things others can only wish to see- things that make a short life worth it. But I guess, really, I do have one regret; that I won’t be there while you grow up.” Donald glanced aside. “Della wanted me to teach you three how to sail, and how to swim, and how to cook if Grandma didn’t get to you first. I’m sorry I never got to teach you those things, but I have no doubt you boys are doing just fine. You have full, happy lives- I know you do. I know our family.” He smiled again, seemingly focusing on the triplets. “Just remember to live in the moment- get off the phone, turn off the cameras, and just live it. You’ll find you make so many more memories that way.

“And know that no matter what has happened, no matter who you three have become- and if you have any brothers or sisters after I’m gone... I want you to know that I love you, and I always will.

“Oh, and lastly,” Donald added, raising a finger-

Gladstone easily realized he was stopping One from cutting off the recording, though no one else knew that.

“Keep this in mind. Maybe Della or Scrooge or even Gladstone have taught you this, but; family helps family. If there’s no one else you can turn to, you can bet you can turn to them. And, one day when you’re older, I hope they can turn to you. Have each others’ backs.

“And Uncle Scrooge, if you’re watching this too, before you call me a hypocrite just remember this is the way things had to be.

“I love you all. Goodbye.”

Donald waved on the screen before the video ended. Louie quickly turned to Della.

“That was Uncle Donald?”

“Sure was,” Della confirmed, smiling at her sons. “I think you would have loved him. He was the bravest duck in the world... and he loved so much.”

“Much more than you know,” One said, sounding sad.

“He’s so cool,” Webby said, gazing in awe at the blank TV screen.

Much more than you know, Gladstone thought to himself, closing his eyes. If only we could save him- show him how much we all loved him...

He wished for a miracle.

#DuckTales 2017 #AU #Gladstone Gander #Uno #Della Duck #Huey Duck #Dewey Duck #Louie Duck #Scrooge McDuck #Grandma Duck

[kiss-my-freckle]

Rederina Rewatch: The Freelancer

“Tastes like spring, doesn’t it?”

Soundtrack -

Pleased to meet you Hope you guess my name But what's puzzling you Is the nature of my game

Well, it’s not Raymond Reddington. Only other name that would be big enough to make Lizzy famous, is Katarina Rostova.

Safety first, happiness second. Speaking as Red would - what good is happiness if you’re not alive to be happy. 

Hatch: Have you ever been convicted of a crime? Red: Convicted? Not yet.

Red was framed, not yet convicted. I believe the same can be said of Katarina, except that whole following Red and Masha to be a family business ...  lol

I would love to know what question Red answered “yes” to, but they don’t show it. Perhaps the same question Fowler spoke of about Liz’s adoptive father having a criminal record. 

They mention at least two crimes here, not including those leaked documents Ressler spoke of in the pilot. 

Woman: The man sold secrets to the Hofstad Network, to the Syrians.

Cooper: Remember, he’s been off the grid for over 20 years.

“Off the grid.”

Red gets the lie detector test. He fails at one question. 

Hatch: Before Monday of last week, did you have, or have you ever had personal contact with Elizabeth Keen? Red: No. Ressler: He’s lying.

“Personal contact” I wouldn’t consider attending her wedding and graduations as personal contact, but I would consider raising her daughter for four years as personal contact ... lol. 

Red: Anyone asks, you’re my girlfriend from Ann Arbor. Liz: Absolutely not. Red: Fine. You can be my daughter.

Technically Katarina is no longer Katarina, Katarina is Raymond Reddington. So she can either play his girlfriend or his daughter. 

I’m going to skip Liz’s dialogue in this scene and stick to Red’s. 

“It’s from the ’20s. Tastes like spring, doesn’t it?”

Spring. Rebirth. A woman walking into the ocean and returning a man. 

“How close to the truth do you think you can really get?”

I think she got that truth in season two and had it wiped from her memory. Though I don’t think it was wiped by Red. 

"You’ve heard the debriefs. You’ve read Ressler’s book reports. I so want to know how you see things."

Red wants Liz to tell him his profile. He wants to know how she “sees” things. 

Her point of view will speak to who she is just as much as who she thinks he is.

I find it interesting that he asks for the profile of his imposter self, then questions what she knows of her imposter husband. This gives the impression Red wants her to view things differently. Because he wants her to see her husband for what he is, and he wants her to see himself for what he really is. 

“Tell me about your husband. Does he know you as well as you know him? Does he know about you as a child? Does he know about the fire?”

This line if dialogue is the very reason I believe Red turned himself in. He was there that night, he has a connection to her that’s obviously biological. We get into how he spoke of “elements from Katarina’s past” and it all but leads me to believe that the mark on Tom’s passport box is what brought him to kneel on the seal. 

I believe Red actually answers her question here.

“Why am I so important to you? Did you know my parents? I asked you a question.”       “What if I were to tell you that all the things you’ve come to believe about yourself are a lie?”

For Liz to be asking this question in episode 2, he’s already sending her that familial vibe. Knowing she’s so important to him, she thinks it’s in knowing her parents. 

Red: Watch yourself with her, Donald. She hates men, and cops most of all.

There isn’t much to speak of in this episode other than the dinner convo. But I found it interesting, how quick Red took off when he saw others in the restaurant. Perhaps trying to avoid their facial recognition software. Like the retinal scan post I put up earlier. 

He’s got his back to this camera. 

Only a side view. 

And he rushes out. 

Side view of his face. 

Red: She preyed on the weak and the innocent while dressed in the wings of a savior. I detested everything about her. Liz: I had no idea. I mean, I just - I should have known. Red: We never really know anyone, do we?

Imposter all around. 

But he’s speaking more to Tom than himself ... lol. He wants her investigating Tom. 

 Red: What are you gonna do, Lizzy? About this situation with Tom?

Rederina fits The Freelancer episode.

#1x2 #The Blacklist #Rewatch

[blyanten]

THE DUCK AVENGER PK2: #15 THE TRUE ENEMY

AKA “Kids, I'm going to tell you an incredible story: The story of how I met your mother”

Right now, the Avenger is wearing a hole in Lyo’s carpet. As per status quo, he’s still confused as to what Everett is up to. They used to be friends, now they’re enemies, except when they’re allies… sometimes Everett seems to be what he presents himself as, an entrepreneur who created an economic empire thanks to his inventions or a criminal with some kind of planet-wide scheme.

Lyo finishes the sentence, pointing out that the Avenger has been repeating this over and over again for weeks. Lyo also thinks the Avenger is starting to sound like Agnus. Rude.

The Avenger takes a moment to ask for Lyo’s opinion, but he can’t add much. He has collected everything they have on Everett in the computer, so they have it easily accessible. So we get a quick summary of Everett’s greatest hits, microchips in the brain, weird antennas, the North Pole thing… nothing that seems friendly, and yet nowhere near the kind of devastation Everett could manage if he wanted to.

And then there’s Korrina and Juniper. The Avenger notes despite Korrina’s hostility, he owes her his life. Then there’s the seemingly sweet Juniper, who more and more seems to give no fucks about anyone but herself. The body-switch incident was an eye-opener on that.

The Avenger decides it’s enough. They need to start somewhere if they’re going to figure this out, and they’re going to start with the device from the North Pole. But first they have to find it.

Over at Ducklair Enterprises, Everett is telling his two underlings that they better make sure said device gets where it’s supposed to go, Ducklair Enterprises. Birgit Q is responsible for transport. Anymore Boring will be the one to receive it, and make sure there’s a lab ready.

The minions leave that meeting needling each other, while Everett throws a pity party.

Even excluding genuine accidents, at least 60% of that is still your own fault.

Everett notes that “family” is an inappropriate term for him and Juniper, before starting a rant about how he’s super-rich, and can basically ruin entire countries if he wanted to. But what he really wants is a family of mutual love and support.

Instead he was forced to abandon everything, home planet, his wife, to save his daughters, with the result that Juniper barely speaks to him and who knows where Korinna is?

We do, of course. Korinna is busy training the kids she’s responsible for to be perfect little robots. She warns them she can see them no matter where they are, and sends them in to be with their parents and a family friend.

Said family friend has a dog, who just can’t wait to play with the two kids again, but the kids inform their parents and friend that they can’t waste time on useless animals. They should only focus on important things.

The adults react accordingly.

At Duckmall, the competition to be boss is heating up. Donald claims he hasn’t thought of it, but Fitzroy calls him a liar. Rupert also has his mind on other things, like his date with Stella. He leaves them to it. As does Donald, who really has more important things to worry about.

Lyo has located the device. It’s just been delivered at the pier, where a small army and Birgit is waiting for it. The Avenger tries to come up with a plan, but he’s spotted by some security robots. No that he’s busted, he decides to just punch his way through.

Birgit tries to shoot him, and she’s not really open for talking about this either. She’s not letting him get in the way, and uses a secret weapon to trap the Avenger in a “blob-ball”, and then dropkick him into the sea.

I just love the confused seagulls. It’s the kind of detail that just makes a page.

At Ducklair Manor, Everett has straight up trashed his office, and freaked out Juniper more than a little from the looks of it.

And so the lord said to ye... you’re really not helping your case here.

He then decides it’s time for some real talk with Juniper. Juniper says it’s not the time, but Everett insists. While it might be difficult for him to talk about this, especially with Juniper unwilling to listen… Juniper interrupts, declaring it her fault and asking if that makes him happy.

Not really.

Everett took them from their home, their mother, and them brought them to Earth where he forced them to grow up in a machine. He stole entire years from them.

Everett objects, saying that while that’s what it looks like, he was forced to. He grabs Juniper, who tells him to let her go. He does, and Juniper goes back to her chair. Everett takes another one, finally getting to the point. He’d like for Korinna to be there too, but since that’s not possible, he at least wants to explain the situation to Juniper.

Now, what does she remember about Corona?

Juniper says it was beautiful, and Everett agrees. Corona had managed to balance technology and nature, leading to a high quality of life and welfare. This was the result of centuries of hard work, lead by a rigidly structured government.

There was the Queen, who had final word on every law, and was elected by a parliament, composed of representatives from every city state on Corona. One more, important detail, every member of the government had to be a woman.

I just love this throne room.

Because, while all Coronans have mental powers, the women were much stronger, capable of controlling their emotions in order to make decisions for the common good, ignoring the suffering of individuals, even if it was family, or themselves.

This, of course, required a lot of traning.

FINALLY.

Everett was hunting insects with a freeze gun, as you do, and a fascinating one just landed on their mom’s shoulder. She seems unimpressed by his explanation, so he introduces himself, Everett Ducklair, aeronautical scientist, and she has to be a new member of parliament, following the course of emotional self-control.

Since she wasn’t startled when he shot at her, he challenges her to a “see who laughs first” contest.

Dork.

So, at a guess, women are supposed to be in control of themselves at all times and they’re in charge of all politics... wonder if that has a side effect of expecting guys to be less mature? I mean, if the deal is that they literally can’t reach the level of self-control women can, then you might get a society that basically takes “girls mature faster than boys” even further than RL earth does.

*points at Weight of Memories* I mean, Everett was pretty much adopted.

She laughs, then argues that making faces isn’t fair. True, but if making faces is all it takes to make you crack, you might wanna work a little harder on that self-control thing. He offers to buy her a djufango shake as an apology. She agrees and introduces herself as “Serifa”.

Actually, you introduced yourself as Everett, but whatever.

Everett tells Juniper that he fell hard for Serifa, sure that underneath the cold exterior there was a living heart, full of feelings. My, aren’t we poetic. They started seeing each other, and soon became lovers.

Two moons.

Over time, both moved up in the world, but managed to keep a happy life together.

Until it turned out that queen Artana V had secretly created a family. The queen was not supposed to have a husband or children, she was supposed to be entirely focused on the responsibility of command. Artana didn’t have complete control of her feelings, and that was a real scandal. The queen had to resign and the parliament had to chose a new queen.

All the parliament members wanted to be elected, Serifa included.

You’re both so selfish. The complete lack of regard for what the other one might be feeling... which she points out, to be fair, but looking at this entire issue, I’m not gonna be surprised if the attitude is common on this planet.

You know, if you want to be chosen for a job that demands no emotion, no family ties whatsoever… maybe dump your boyfriend. Or at least not have him pick you up. Having a Plan B is nice and all, but not when Plan B straight up disqualifies you from said job. Find a new one later, if you fail.

And it seems kinda mean to not break up when what you really want is… well, definitely not a family. Though, I think world building wise, it could make sense that people try to live as normally as possible, even with the strict emotional control, but if they get a shot at being queen, it’s accepted that they drop all emotional ties to be the queen.

But even if that’s true, if the choice is between woman A, who has a boyfriend, and Woman B,  who doesn’t, I figure woman B just earned herself a crown.

Serifa is unhappy at not being chosen, while Everett is thrilled. He had other plans, which would have been sadly interrupted if Serifa had been chosen as queen. 

That same night he proposes.

I get the impression these two are not on the same level when it comes to this relationship.

Serifa gets over her disappointment real quick though, and is seemingly happy to accept the proposal. So they get married, buy a house and have kids, because that’s what you do, I guess. The happiness lasts for a few years more, and then the problems started.

Everett and the girls were outside and they found an animal. Korinna and Juniper takes it with them home, asking Serifa if they can keep it. She says no, telling them to go study. She and Everett then has a fight.

Everett doesn’t see anything wrong with letting the kids get used to caring for animals, while Serifa does. How can the kids learn to be as unemotional as their culture demands if Everett goes around teaching them to care?

On one hand, there’s no way every woman can be a member of the government, so the same level emotional control might not be necessary for all of them, even if it’s probably something most want to achieve on some level, or at least it is expected of them even if they don’t go into government.

And a world like this, with a single queen as the final arbiter of law, where people are expected to supress emotion and where the greater good is explicitly more important than individual people has to be fairly authoritarian. Standing out in a way that’s not generally approved of might be really bad for you, so you might end up with a question of not just a career in government vs. emotional health, but your life in general vs. emotional health.

That’s enough speculaion, I think.

The main reason Everett is causing problems is that after the scandal with Artana V, the Parliament has decided that future members of the government must be educated more severely than before. And whatever that means for the general population, it does mean that anyone who really wants their kids to have a chance at being queen is going to have to step up their game.

So Serifa does. Korinna and Juniper will be isolated from their peers and home schooled, under her supervision. So she throws out all their toys and brings in a robot to teach them.

Everett apparently have no say in this. A general thing on Corona, or just this family?

As soon as Everett has the chance, he allows the kids to play video games and programs the robot-teacher so that when Serifa checks, it will look like the kids did the work they were supposed to.

That seems like a bad idea, both education wise, even is mom is going nuts, you still need one, and because all Serifa has to do is ask the kids a question about their schoolwork.

Or because eventually, mommy’s going to come home early.

But who could have predicted this?

Everett takes the blame, to Serifa’s complete lack of surprise. Everett again starts objecting to their daughters’ education depending on a robot, which is currently sweeping the floor. Serifa says this nonsense is over, and they should all follow her.

She brings them to her home office and shows them what the Parliament has planned. They’ve chosen 20 girls, one of which will become queen in the future. To make sure they won’t get up to what Artana V did, the girls will be put to sleep inside an experimental machine that will teach them all the facts they need to rule, and no emotion whatsoever.

Oh, the irony.

Serifa has made sure both Korinna and Juniper are among the 20 girls.

So what happens if they don’t get chosen? Actually, since there’s only one queen anyway, what happens to the 19 that don’t get chosen? Is it a heir and spare deal, except it’s a queen and her 19 spares? Or “hey, at least one of them has to come out right”?

Everett did not agree to this, but the new queen has already made it a law.

Well, I think that answers my previous question about parental rights.

The very next day, a special squad will come to pick up the girls and take them to a secret place to begin the treatment. So that’s a no on this being something you can volunteer your kids for. Serifa insists that one of the girls will be able to have what she didn’t.

So, either this obsession was brought on by the opportunity, or she’s been playing a real long game. Either way, it’s time to get the hell out of there. That night, Everett makes sure Serifa won’t notice by putting some kind of force field around their bed, as he takes the kids and runs.

He takes the kids to the research center he’s in charge of, where he was working on a prototype for an intergalactic spaceship that had yet to be tested. So experimental machine vs. untested spaceship! 

Everett chose the planet most like Corona, in the closest galaxy, and, well, we know how that went.

That seems like the obious place to look as soon as anyone notices the missing spaceship, but time was definitely an issue here.

In the present, Everett finishes his story, hoping Juniper will understand. She asks him to leave, seeming confused by the new information. Everett does, also hoping he’ll get to tell Korinna what happened as well.

Korinna is putting her charges to bed, taking away their toys and turning off the light against the kids’ wishes, telling them they’ll be punished if they disobey her.

The kids’s father, having noticed the strange behavior earlier, seems to have been keeping an eye on them, and goes in to the kids, turning the light back on. He says he’ll talk to “Judith” tomorrow.

This seems like a reflection of Serifa and Everett. Korinna, not knowing what happened back then, is acting like the parent she thinks she can still trust, and that’s Serifa. Which is tragic when the exact thing they’re furious at ther father for is something their mother would have done on purpose. 

Meanwhile, the kids’s father is clearly the one we’re supposed to side with, and he’s basically acting like Everett would. Which feels... okay yeah, he’s the better parent, compared to the low bar Serifa set here, buuut... 

The story Everett is telling here is info Juniper should have been given the moment she was lucid enough to understand it. It’s understandable that it’s a difficult conversation to have. You know what is probably more difficult? Waking up on a different planet, having gone from a small child to an adult over night, and then realizing your father took you away from everything you knew for... reasons! And also, your sister, who was with you when you father kidnapped you, is missing. 

Of course, it would have been a way less dramatic reveal if this came earlier, considering that it answers several of the driving questions of this arc.  

 ¯\_(ツ)_ /¯

And character wise, Everett making a mess of personal relationships is not something I’m gonna argue with. 

Still, the reflection of Korinna and what’s-his-name to Serifa and Everett as bad parent, good parent, feels kind of hollow, but taking it as an echo of the simpler times of the past, it still works.

Back at the docks, the Avenger has managed to get out of the blob and back on land. He takes off after Birgit and the alien device, and now he’s the one who’s done messing around.

At least there’s no one else on the road.

He blasts them. They shoot back, and when he tries talking, Birgit runs him over. He’s fine, hiding behind a shield, but not the shooting war in on. The Avenger manages to slow down the truck Birgit’s in, but they crash, straight into Duckmall.

Fitzroy is rather confused.

Birgit and driver gets the car back out of the mall, but end up crashing into the trailer they’re escorting. The Avenger, seeing that the two are fine, takes the opportunity to look inside the trailer, hoping to grab the device.

It’s empty.

Birgit shows up again, aiming a gun at him, but is as surprised as he is when he asks if she often spends this much effort defending empty trailers.

She had no idea what’s going on, and finally admits that despite working for and with Everett for a long time now, she doesn’t know him at all. And now he’s even made a fool out of her by not trusting her with what he was really doing. This seems to be the final straw of… something, as sits down on her knees, tells the Avenger she doesn’t know anything anymore and to please leave.

Everett’s people skills in action.

The next day at Duckmall, Fitzroy uses the situation last night to pretend he was a hero. Donald is annoyed, but still has other things on his mind.

Korinna is having a bad start to her day, as she’s being fired. She’s not allowed to say goodbye to the kids, but when she notices the two staring at her from a window, she gives them a wave, before walking away crying.

And she really liked that job too.

At Ducklair Manor, Juniper is also crying. Because she’s still processing what Everett told her or because Korinna is?

And at Century, the Avenger is asking the same questions as he was at the beginning.

#pkna #duck avenger #comic #review #sort of #for fun #pk2

[lostinfic]

Nubivagant 2/3

(adj.) wandering through or amongst the clouds; moving through air; from the Latin nubes (“cloud”) and vagant (“wandering”), c. 1656.

Summary: Based on the movie “A walk in the clouds” but on a sheep farm in the north of England, at Christmas. During the war, Betty ran away from her grandfather’s farm with a man. Now that he’s left her and she might be pregnant, Betty must go back and face the family she abandoned. When Colonel Mercier finds her crying at the train station, he offers to pose as her husband. Tags: Hurt/comfort! fake married! sharing a bed! huddling for warmth! and many more! Pairing: Jean-François Mercier x Betty Vates  Word count: 5400 Rating: Mature Warning: pregnancy scare

A/N: For @timepetalsprompts adoption drive

Part 1  |   Ao3

December 23rd 1945

As soon as Betty woke up, she checked the floor beside her: no makeshift bed, no khaki duffle bag, no Frenchman.

She supposed she ought to be happy he’d stuck to the plan. Of course, he would. A man of his word.

Betty rose slowly, expecting a bout of morning sickness. She waited but nothing happened. Still, she remained sat on the bed, staring in the middle distance with bleary eyes.

Even if she didn’t know him from Adam, Jean-François was on her side, unquestionably, and that had given her strength. Now she was alone again. “Well, not quite.” She rubbed her stomach tenderly. She should visit the village’s midwife, but it scared her to know for sure. Right now, she could entertain either possibility depending on her mood.

As she bit her nails, something glinted on her finger: Jean-François’ signet ring. “Oh bugger, I forgot to give it back to him. I don’t even have his address.” Maybe someone in London, from their office, had it. She would send the ring, and he would reply with a thank you note, ask how she’d been, and maybe— No.

Wrapping a blanket around her shoulders, she walked to the window. Plumes of frost framed the landscape. A patchwork of lands, in greens and yellows, with dry stone walls and shrubs in lieu of stitches.

The morning was grey, in the distance the Howgill Fells slept, mellow curves, covered in moorland pastures as smooth as velvet, and dusted with snow. At their feet, in the gorge, fog slithered above the river and the trees.

Movement on the right caught her eye. Grandpa Marshall walking out of the shed with Jean-François behind him, carrying tools. Her heart skipped a beat. “What the heck?”

She found some clothes in a trunk, and hastily pulled wool socks up to her knees and slipped a wool jumper over an old floral dress, then rushed down the stairs.

Her mother, Sarah, was in the kitchen, washing the dishes at the big enamel sink. She didn’t look at Betty when she said, “Is it your French gentleman giving your airs and graces, or have you forgotten what time we wake up on this farm?”

Betty stopped dead in her tracks. “I’m sorry, I overslept. In London—”

“There’s a basket by the door, gather the eggs.”

War and the death of her husband had affected Sarah, she looked so much older than when Betty had last seen her, her shoulders hunched, grey streaked her hair and wrinkles etched worry lines on her forehead and mouth. Despite her mother’s coldness, a protective sort of affection rose in Betty’s chest. “Mam… I— I never meant to hurt you by leaving.”

Sarah finally looked at her, her silence was unbearable. At last, almost reluctantly, she opened her arms.

After two years of fear and guilt in London, after her heartache, if felt good to be held by her mother. Sarah rubbed her back in broad, soothing circles. “I missed you too. I was so worried about you. You’re lucky it worked out well. I thought he’d leave you at the first chance.”

“Why?”

“Well, you know…” And that was the thing with her mother— the thing Betty hadn’t missed— she couldn’t tell if this “you know” referred to men’s flighty nature or her daughter’s unlikeable character.

When they stepped away from each other, her mother was misty eyed. She patted Betty’s cheek and returned to her dishes.

Betty put on wellies and a scarf and exited the house. Being up north like this and cloudy, the temperature was cooler than London, the absence of wind kept it comfortable.

Jean-François was hard at work, sawing planks. Wood chips dusted his chic tweed trousers and olive jumper. A curly fringe fell on his forehead as he bent to hold the plank, working the saw harder. He was stronger than he looked, she realized.

“Hello wife.”

“Is that the best pet name you can come up with?” she teased.

“Darling? Sweetheart?”

“How about ‘light of my life’ or ‘my queen’?” she joked.

He pretended to consider it, then looked her up and down. “Ma belle?”

She buried her nose in her scarf to hide a blush. “Oh, em, yeah that— that will do. Why are you still here?”

“I’m sorry, but when I tried to slip out this morning, your grandfather was already in the kitchen. He asked me to help him fix the fence.”

“Oh, no. You’re stuck here another day.”

“It’s okay. I can leave tomorrow.”

“You sure?” she asked.

“Yes. It gives me more time to smooth things over.”

“Is he any nicer to you, at least?”

“Is he ever nice to anyone?”

She smiled sadly. “He was to me. Before. I was his favourite of the grandchildren.”

Grandpa Marshall had high hopes for her. All his daughters had married men who’d sought work in the factories, and they’d moved to the city. He worried no one would take over the farm, but then Betty had showed such a keen interest, a natural understanding of plants and animals. He had it all figured out that she would marry Donald (the son of his best friend who also owned a farm in Tebay) and he’d bequeath them his land. It was always implied that she had to marry— if not Donald, at least another farmer— to inherit the farm as if she couldn’t be more than a farmer’s wife.

Betty had gone on a few dates with Donald before he received his called-up papers. He was a nice enough boy, if a bit boring, and it might have worked out hadn’t she met Craze. She wondered if she still had a chance with him, boring might not be so bad after all.

Her grandfather pushed a wheelbarrow up the path, carrying more wood for Jean-François to saw.

“Did Homer break the fence again?” Betty asked, referring to a ram with a bad character.

“Homer’s dead. We ate him last winter,” he replied curtly. “Stop dawdling, John, we’ve more work to do.”

Betty and Jean-François exchanged a resigned look. “John?” she mouthed. He shrugged.

A flutter of feathers and cackles welcomed her inside the coop. Some eggs had frozen overnight, the shell cracked from the yolk expanding, the others were still warm. She hadn’t eaten such fresh eggs in too long, she hoped her family would let her eat breakfast today. Her mouth watered at the thought of Marnie’s pancakes and sausages. Before leaving, she added fresh straw to keep the hens warm and cozy.

She brought the eggs back inside the house, her sister was in the kitchen now. She wore a scarf to hide her dark hair roots. “Did you check their feed?” she asked.

“Er, no.”

“Well get back there, fill the water buckets whilst you’re a it, give ‘em a good scrub before. And Marnie needs help with the laundry.”

“I’m on it.”

“I hope your husband’s not snoring, he took advantage enough of this farm last time.”

“He’s real sorry, Margie. Really.” She wondered if she could have said as much about Craze. “S’like he explained last night, he didn’t have a choice. He’s working with Gramps now. Working hard. He’s a good man, he is.” Her voice rose with passion. If only she could explain all Jean-François was putting up with just to help some girl he barely knew.

“What kind of good man takes a daughter away from her family?” Grandpa Marshall said, walking in at that moment.

“But he brought me back.”

He grumbled something busied himself filling his pipe, Margaret averted her gaze. Betty went back outside, the least she could do right now was prove she was helpful on the farm.

She hauled bags of food over her shoulder, fed the chickens and the rabbits, scrubbed grass stains off clothes and hung them to dry. The wind chafed her cheeks, and her fingers went numb with cold as she scrubbed the animal’s tin water buckets. Her stomach growled with hunger, but she ignored it, vigorously swiping hay with a pitchfork. Hercules, the dog, followed her around, watching with his head cocked. “Don’t look at me like that. I’m fine,” she told the dog.

“Sure, ‘cause talking to a dog is a sign of sanity,” Margaret said, walking into the barn. “That’s enough, soon you’ll be digging through the ground.”

Betty rested her arms on the tip of the pitchfork, panting.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Margaret said. “You’re my sister and I love you…”

“But?”

“You don’t know what it was like after you left. Gramps went to the post office twice a day, in case you’d sent a letter or a telegram. Grandma made the sign of the cross every time we heard of bombing victims. You broke their hearts. And Mam, well, she’s not doing any better and you left me alone to take care of her.”

“I know. I keep thinkin how different things would be if my letter had reached you.”

“It wouldn’t’ve changed the fact that you ran away. Why did you do that?”

“It’s complicated.”

“You keep saying that. I’m worried there’s something you’re not telling us. That he made you do something.”

Betty bit her tongue, fighting, again, the urge to defend Jean-François. “I was so in love with him...” She held her sister’s gaze, willing her to understand. Margaret was no stranger to the effects of attraction.

“Well, if you still do love him, he could use a cuppa. He’s not gonna catch a break any time soon with Gramps.” They walked out of the barn together, and Margaret added, “He’s not me type exactly, but I can see why you fell for him. Bit too posh, but nice bum.” The sisters giggled, and, for a moment, it felt like they had never been apart.

Their laughter attracted Jean-François’ attention. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and waved at them. Warmth bloomed on Betty’s cheeks.

Oh goodness, get a hold of yourself.

She followed her sister’s advice, and prepared tea. She liked to put a dash of milk at the bottom of the mugs, and let them warm up on the stove, until the kettle boiled.

She joined Jean-François outside. “You look like you could a thé as you French say.”

“Tout à fait.” He put down the sledgehammer, and they sat on bales of hay.

“You don’t have to work so hard,” Betty said. “You don’t have to do anything really.”

“I’m repaying Craze’s debt.” He took a sip of tea and sighed in contentment, a little cloud on his breath. “I’m enjoying myself actually.”

“You are?”

“I spent the last four years in London thinking, analysing, planning… always in my head.” Before today, she had only ever seen him in uniform or suits, usually walking briskly down a hall or shouting at someone, always tensed, but now he looked relaxed. “It feels good to work with my body, surrounded by nature,” he concluded.

They looked at the horizon, at the land sloping gently towards the mountains. A hare hopped across the field. In London, one can never see that far ahead without a building or black smoke blocking the view. All this space. She felt like she could draw in more oxygen. And here, no coal dust polluted the air. Every breath was cleansing.

With each rise and fall of her ribcage, her bones and muscles ached from exertion. A rewarding sort of ache, not the sore feet and neck pain of office work, but a reminder of a job well done. She would sleep well tonight.

Beside the bleating of sheep, all was silent, and flurries drifted lazily from the sky to melt on the ground. The softest sky she had ever seen. A cashmere sky, all pale gradients of blue and pink. No sun in sight. A feeling of peace swept over her.

She leaned sideways, towards Jean-François, her body unconsciously pulled to him. She caught herself before her head touched his shoulder, and straightened her back.

“Is it a river over there?” he asked.

“Yeah, river Lune in the Lune valley.”

“Lune?”

“It’s a Roman word, supposed to mean clean and pure.”

“Lune means moon in French. Valley of the moon.”

“That’s nice. With the fog sometimes, it looks like the sky is on the ground.”

“Heaven on earth,” he commented.

“Well, except for the smell of manure.”

He laughed and tugged her into a one-arm hug that made her heart stutter. “Your family’s watching, ma belle,” he whispered against her hair. Of course, that’s why he’d hugged her. Marnie, Margaret and Sarah were at the kitchen window, observing them without a hint of subtlety.

She allowed herself five more seconds of hug before asking him to help her feed the sheep.

As they neared the pen, she told him about the history of the farm, her great-grandparent and how much bigger the herd used to be before the war, she went on to talk about shearing in the spring and auctions in the square. “They love oat mixed with molasses, and— sorry, I’m babbling. Dunno why I’m telling you all that.”

“No, I think it’s interesting.”

“You don’t have to say that.”

“I know. Do they have names?”

“Yeah… Me favourite’s Violet. That’s the one over there. She’s a bit shy.” She called its name, and the ewe approached slowly. “I used to feed her apart from the others ’cause her brothers and sisters ate everything. She couldn’t make room for herself.” Through the fence, Betty scratched Violet behind the ears. “Ain’t that right, Vivi? You’re a good girl. Oh yes, you are.” Jean-François squatted down to pet its head too, and their fingers brushed together.

Betty and Jean-François grabbed pouches of feed and slipped inside the pen. She’d forgotten the strength of a herd. The females were all pregnant and in full wool, weighing over 200 pounds. The rams were even bigger. Huge balls of wet wool shoving and pushing as Betty wedged herself between them to reach the manger. Like an undertow, the animals carried Betty and Jean-François. Both were in stitches, holding each other’s hand for stability as the sheep pushed them every which way, hungry and impatient. Betty dropped the bag of grain and grasped Jean-François’ sweater. Excited by the food, a ram knocked Betty in the shins and she toppled over. Jean-François shouted her name, threw away his bag and hauled her up by the underarms. He carried her over his shoulder away from the herd.

“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”

“I’m fine. I’ll have bruises, that’s all.”

“Are you sure?” He placed a hand on her belly, and she instantly pushed it away. “I’ll help you to the house,” he insisted.

“I’m fine,” she said coldly. “I’ve fallen before, I can take care of meself.”

“I can’t leave you like this.”

“Yes you can. That’s what you’re here for.” She ran away from him.

*

After the incident with the sheep, Betty was nowhere to be found. Mercier suspected Marnie knew something, but she kept her mouth shut. And although he knew more than one way to make someone talk, he’d rather not use them on this lovely elderly lady.

To be honest, it upset him that Betty had dragged him all the way to Tebay, but rebuffed him when he tried to help. He thought they were getting along well, but it could be she was only being polite and didn’t like that he’d stayed one more day.

Mr. Mashall declared the work completed, and they headed back inside. Before supper, Mercier showered, shaved and dressed up, and was unsettled to find that no one else had bothered to do as much. He felt the judgement in their gazes, then a “fancy-schmancy” was mumbled. Still, he kept his jacket and tie on, it’s how he’d been brought up, proper guest etiquette.

Betty came back just as Mrs. Vates pulled a pot out of the oven, but he couldn’t ask where she’d been in front of the whole family.

He stood up to pull out a chair for her, she glanced at it and pretended to have to wash her hands. He followed her to the bathroom. “Can’t I pee alone?” She slammed the door in his face. When she came back, she sat away from him. He talked to her, but she barely said one word back.

For a reason Mercier had yet to understand, Eric chose politics as a discussion topic. Mr. Marshall quickly joined in, and they expressed unfounded opinions on anyone and everyone from the American president to the Japanese soldiers, not sparing French or Poles along the way.

Betty’s agreement with some of their statements surprised him. She should know better after working closely with the Polish resistance organisation during the war. But he noticed her hands tucked under her legs, her pinched lips and tight nods. Mercier, however, had less patience with ignorance and prejudices, and, after suffering Mr. Marshall’s bad mood all day, he didn’t hold his tongue for long. He launched into a impassioned monologue about the French people’s resilience, and the courage of the Résistance. Betty stared daggers at him, but he didn’t stop arguing with the other men.

“Enough politics or there’ll be no dessert,” Marnie declared. Silence fell on the room, only the sound on cutlery on plates disturbed it.

“Guess who’s pregnant,” Margaret said. Betty gasped, and Mercier groaned inwardly. “Lil’ Suzy MacEwan.”

“Suzy? She’s married?” Marnie said.

Margaret snorted loudly. “No, she ain’t! Won’t say who the father is. Thank goodness that didn’t happen to you, Betty, eh?”

“We thought it might have,” Eric said.

“But I says to him, she’s smarter than that our Betty. Didn’t I, Eric?”

“Yeah, Margie, but you also said—”

“Shu’ up.”

Betty stood up swiftly, knocking her chair over, and stomped away. The door banged behind her, and she disappeared into the darkness. Mercier rolled his eyes at her immature reaction. How did she expect to get back in her family’s good graces? He kept eating. He’d worked all day and he was hungry.

“So,” said Marnie, “are you gonna go after your wife or not?”

Mercier put on his coat and scarf, and lighted a storm lamp. He had no idea where she could be. He roamed the property, but his heart wasn’t into it. If she wanted to sulk and act like a child, so be it. She wouldn’t want to talk to him anyway. He searched for her in every outbuilding on the large estate, calling her name.

The wind picked up, and worry crept up his spine. What if there was something wrong with her pregnancy? Or worse. He’d heard of what some women do in desperate situations. His throat constricted, his mouth went dry, with every minute that passed without finding her, he imagined worse and worse scenarios. He quickened his steps, called her name louder. She wasn’t on the farm.

Then he remembered she’d found Craze in an abandoned shed. He ran to the edge of the forest. Shouted her name. No sign of her on the west side. He crossed to the east, heart hammering in his chest. Branches whipped his face, but he didn’t care. Between two oaks, he spotted a small stone building with holes in the thatch roof and half a door. Inside, Betty paced the small space, biting her fingertips. He let out a woosh of relief. “What are you doing here?”

“Leave me alone,” she said.

“I couldn’t well leave my wife—”

“I’m not your wife.”

“No, you’ve made that abundantly clear.”

She continued pacing. The wind howled and whistled through every crack of the shed. She crossed her arms, rubbing herself for warmth. She’d left without a jacket.

He didn’t ask her to go back inside or offer his coat, for fear she might push him away. As long as he stood there, in silence, she tolerated his presence. Mercier leaned against the door and fought with several matches against gusts of air to lit a cigarette. When the fourth one went out, he cursed under his breath and gave up, knocking his head back with an impatient sigh.

“This is where I found him,” Betty said at last. “The first time I saw him, he was curled in on himself in a corner. He hadn’t shaved in weeks. He looked like a bear hibernating…” That fond little smile annoyed him more than he cared to admit. Thankfully, it didn’t last long. She levelled his gaze, eyes full of defiance. “I don’t regret it, you know. Sure, he was a tosser in the end, and maybe he didn’t love me as much as he said he did, but he wanted me. Me. And he showed me— other things. And I went to London and I got a job, and I did it well, I did it all on me own!” Her voice broke and she looked down at her feet. Her teeth clattered from the cold. “Oh, gimme your bleedin’ coat, I know you want to do it.” He draped the trench coat over her shoulders. She tucked it under her bum and sat on the ground, arms around her knees.

She looked so vulnerable like that, his annoyance melted away. He racked his brain for something to say. “I’m certain you will be able to take care of this child, with or without your family’s support.”

She didn’t say anything, but absentmindedly twisted his ring around her finger. Through holes in the roof, snowflakes fell and twinkled in shafts of moonlight. He pulled up his collar, and his sleeves over his hands. After some hesitation, he sat down beside her, knees up too, and placed the storm lamp at their feet for warmth.

“I’m not pregnant. I went to see the midwife this afternoon. Something to do with weight loss and nerves. Says it’s been happening to a lot of women.”

“That’s a good news. You must be relieved.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

She sighed and scooted closer to him. An inch of snow had accumulated in front of the door. Cold seeped through the stitches of his jumper. She didn’t seem ready to leave, so he stayed.

“You don’t look relieved.”

“I never asked, did you have children with your wife?”

“No. We wanted to, but Annemarie’s health was too fragile.”

A gust of wind chilled his spine, and it was his turn to move closer. His bum was growing numb.

As she picked at her pilling jumper, Betty said, “I guess, since I started thinking I might be in the family way, despite everything, it made me a bit happy. I’d imagine taking care of a little bairn… Gave me some hope.”

It pained him to hear that. “Don’t you have hope anymore?”

“Maybe hope’s not the right word. I just meant it was something to be, in the future. I’d be a mother. Now I don’t know what I’ll be.”

“You could get another job?”

She scoffed. “D’you really think they’ll let women keep working now men are coming back?… I’d love that, though. Now I’ll just be the girl who ran off. The girl her husband left on Christmas Eve.”

“It does seem unnecessarily cruel.”

“Makes me more pitiful. I couldn’t keep you from Christmas with your family, anyway.”

He didn’t argue, instead scanned the forest outside. Strong gusts of wind made the trees creak ominously. His jaw ached from suppressing teeth clattering. “We should go before it gets worse.”

“It’ll pass soon,” she said. In an attempt to share the coat with him, she ended up with her arms around his waist. He slipped an arm under the coat, around her shoulders, and they held each other with some awkwardness.

“Is this okay?” he asked. “Are you warmer?”

“Yeah, warmer. Ta.” She kept glancing up at him. “I’ve told you all my problems. You can tell me what’s on your mind.”

“I told you my estate was destroyed… it wasn’t just the buildings. I don’t think I have any family left in France. Maybe some distant cousins. My sister and her husband are still in the United States. Everyone else in Boutillon is—” His throat closed around the words. He knew, from agent’s reports and newspapers, the state France was in, but seeing it with his own eyes that would be something else entirely. If he was being honest, his offer to come here with her was not entirely selfless, but an attempt to delay the inevitable. “It would not be a happy Christmas,” he summed up.

Betty shivered, so he held her closer, resting his cheek atop her head. Her hair smelled like grass and cold. Her breath warmed his chest. They should really leave this place, head back to the house, but he couldn’t bring himself to move.

“You could stay one more day,” Betty said.

“Are you sure?”

“If you want to. You wouldn’t be alone on Christmas Eve. It wouldn’t change anything to our plan. ”

“It might even make it better,” he said, although he couldn’t explain how.

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“I will need gifts for your family.”

“I have some, you can add your name.”

“I’m not sure your grandfather deserves one.” She burrowed further into his arms, and he caressed her hair.

“He’ll come around,” she whispered.

Betty slipped her frozen fingers under his sweater. The cold reached the marrow of his bones, but it seemed worse outside. When they both yawned, Betty reacted. “Oh no, we really have to move. Come.”

Through the blizzard, the house’s lights shined dimly. Holding hands, they ran, wrestled against the gale. Margaret and Eric came out of the house with big blankets to help them cross the last feet.

They were ushered in front of the fireplace, buried under more blankets and offered mugs of steaming tea spiked with whiskey. Eric threw another log in the fire. They removed their shoes and socks to soak their feet in hot water, his skin tingled and itched as it heated up.

“Betty, you’ve got to stop running away,” Marnie chided her gently.

“Where’s Gramps?”

Marnie pressed her thin lips in a sad smile. “You have to understand, he lost his precious little girl.”

“But I’m back now. I was only gone two years.”

“But you’re not a little girl anymore.” Marnie glanced at Jean-François, and, for the first time, he sensed blame from her. His honour rebelled against it— it was Craze, not me, I’d never— but he clenched his fists and kept his mouth shut.

“Your place is here,” Marnie added.

“Is it?” Betty asked. “Do you really want me here? The way I am, not the way they want me to be.”

“Yes, sweetheart, but I think we need to get to know the woman you’ve become. Listen, tomorrow’s Christmas Eve, we’ll make my special mince pies. Together, okay? I love you.” Marnie kissed Betty’s forehead and left the living room.

“There’s hope,” Mercier said, and she smiled at him.

He wished he could huddle with Betty again, but they were two separate bundles of blankets. She looked at him over her mug, something shy in her eyes, nose and cheeks still pink, and he wondered if she wished the same thing.

With Margaret, Eric and Mrs. Vates, they listened to Paul Temple, a popular private detective show on the radio. But Mercier didn’t pay attention to the plot, he thought of the first time he’d seen Betty, at the Poles’ HQ in Dorset Square, those chestnut curls and plump lips, her eagerness to help the officers. When his Polish counterparts had invited him to the pub at the end of that day, he’d accepted hoping she’d be there.

One by one, the family members went to bed, and Mercier stayed behind, watching the last glowing embers in the hearth.

“You’re still here, John,” said Mr. Marshall, and Mercier worried he was onto their subterfuge. It would explain his hostility.

“Yes. I am.” Mercier stood up, hands on his hips.

Mr. Marshall’s eyes flashed with contempt as he lit his pipe. “Don’t do that, using your height, that’s a cheap trick. Might work on me granddaughter—”

“Why can’t you be nice to her? Hate me all you want, but don’t hate her. She’s kind and strong, and I didn’t take any of that away from her.”

“But you did take something away from her.”

Was this whole quarrel about her virginity?

“Dunno what she did in London,” Mr. Marshall continued, “but she ain’t the same. She’s lying to me, I can tell. And she’s sad. You took away her joy.”

The accusation hit Mercier right in the stomach. Not me, he wanted to claim again. “Well, you’re making her even sadder,” Mercier replied.

Mr. Marshall huffed, but there was a flicker of pain in his eyes. “If it wasn’t for me wife, I’d’ve chased your stinky arse all the way back to France with me rifle, I would.” He turned on his heels and left the room with a puff of pipe smoke.

To be hated by her family was all part of their strategy. He doubted staying one more day would do any good. He had better put an end to this, once he left, they would rally around Betty and bound over their hatred of the husband who left her.

When Mercier entered the bedroom, Betty was standing in front of a tiny mirror, rubbing homemade lotion on her face to soothe the effects of the cold. If she’d heard him arguing with her grandfather, she made no mention of it.

Mercier undressed and piled blankets and pillows on the floor. The sheepskins looked like clouds against the chipped blue paint of the floorboards. Valley of the moon. Heaven on earth.

“What if your grandfather comes up here again?”

“Oh, right, yeah, maybe… maybe you should lie down with me. Just for a wee bit.”

“Yes, just a little while. Just in case.”

They turned down the blankets together and lay down as far apart as the mattress allowed. Mercier’s limbs were stiff, and he was uncomfortably aware of his breathing. Aware, too, of his desire. Her turned on his side, one arm under his head. She emulated him. Although he couldn’t she her face in the dark, only the vague shape of her silhouetted by the starlit window, he liked to think she was smiling at him.

“If I ever meet Craze,” he said, “may I punch him on behalf of your family?”

She giggled but a yawn stifled her laugh. “You’d make your ancestors proud,” she mumbled sleepily.

“What?”

“Knights. You’re my knight.” And that made up for all the undue blame he’d received today.

Betty fell asleep quickly. In her slumber, she shifted around, closing the gap between their bodies. Her cold toes sought the warmth of his legs.

After some inner debating, he put an arm around her. Lightly. Resisting the urge to pull her closer. Under his hand, through the cotton nightgown, he could feel her ribs, and it made him want to feed her all the foie gras, chocolate truffles, wine and croissants she could ever want.

It was unlikely Mr. Marshall would come up the stairs tonight, and Mercier had said he would only stay in her bed for a little while. That little while was well over now. He called upon the strength of the knighthood in his blood and carefully disentangled himself from Betty to return to his place on the floor.

More than ever, he knew he had to leave the next morning. There would be no train on the 25th, and the more time he spent with her, the harder it became to walk away.

Mercier didn’t sleep, he stared at the ceiling, debating the pros and cons of leaving right now. He felt responsible for her, but it wasn’t his place to be. Every time he looked at Betty, at the soft rise and fall of her chest under the sheet, his resolve crumbled, which further proved his point that he should go before the line between pretence and reality became too muddled.

Around 4am, he stood up, as silently as possible, and put on his clothes with a heavy heart.

“You said one more day.” With her mussy hair, and her nightgown sliding off one shoulder, and those big brown eyes staring at him, Mercier knew, then, he would never refuse Elizabeth Vates anything.

Part 3

#*bed sharing intensifies* #Mercier x Betty #teninch fic #timepetalsprompts #lostinfic writes stuff #nubivagant fic

[comeliashawnae]

Stop being hypocritical

So to vote for Trump because he’s “against abortion” is not a good reason. Let’s be real, he’d probably have a shitload more kids and grandkids. I’m sure there’s women out there who could tear down this whole “anti-abortion” thing.

I’ll admit I don’t support abortion for women who do them for selfish reasons. I said what I said. Especially if the man wants to be a father to that child. I said what I said. But I understand those women who are in abusive relationships, those men’s opinions are irrelevant. And I definitely understand rape victims.

But then to say those women can always give those babies up for adoption would solve everything.

Oh strongly agree, yet “good Christians” seem to have an idea on what an “ideal couple” should be. If a 26-year-old woman finds out she’s pregnant and the father couldn’t care less about her or the baby and a friend tells her she knows a couple looking to adopt and would gladly take care of the baby, problem solved, right? Wrong!

Cuz again “good Christians” have a major problem with it being a gay couple. “Good Christians” would have a major problem with one or both parents being transgendered. You can’t claim not hate LGBT people when you wanna deny them basic human rights, because you don’t think it’s right for two men to be parents.Why? Because they’re going to influence said child to be gay or trans? Yet, gay and trans people come from heterosexual parents. What are we really trying to say? Because what I’m getting is that a baby would be better off growing up in the overcrowded foster care system, because the “abomination” of having two moms would be more harmful. What I’m getting is having a mom who’s transgender would be more confusing to said child. But that’s just me.

There are so many tragic stories about foster care because some people were 1 of 10 foster kids living in a 3 bedroom house and others were, sadly, abused. Now I’ve seen random post online about people talking about those who were abused in foster care. Not their own personal experience, and they use those stories to defend abortion rights. No, I’m not gonna agree that anyone should’ve been aborted because that’s just fucking mean to say. Especially the people who were severely abused and went through bouts of depression. But I’m sure they look back and say if a gay or trans couple wanted to adopt them they definitely would have taken that over the traumatic childhood they did have. Those kids just want to be loved and to be cared for. Truthfully, the government should not stand behind these bullshit views if they’re gonna deny gay and trans couples the rights to adopt cuz they believe those kids are better off waiting for that “perfect couple” to come. Donald Trump claims to be religious but I’ve yet to actually see that. People love preaching bible versus when it comes to homosexuality and transgenders, but completely ignore the sins they commit everyday. If a transgender woman is married to a biological man then no one has a right to say she can’t be a mother. To call a 16-year-old a murderer for wanting an abortion, despite the fact she was raped by a perverted uncle so she shouldn’t take her anger out on the product of it. But it’s ok for her to go thru more pain from childbirth? It’s not. The subject of the rights to abortion isn’t anyone else’s business and it’s never an easy decision for the women who have had one. Two men can’t be parents because kids need a mother. But those mothers didn’t want those kids. Those kids will gladly take two fathers. They’ll gladly take stability. They’ll gladly take love. Trans women are real women. Trans women are real mothers.

Please be smart this election. If you think abortion is wrong, that is your right. But if you to say that gay or trans couples should not adopt those unwanted babies because that’s not right either. Then what the hell do you want?

#gaymarriage #trans women are women #loveknowsnoboundaries #loveisallyouneed #save the children #dumptrump #voteforchange #votehimout

[dollhandinfection]

questions 1-65 (;

OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR SENDING ME ALL THE ASKS AHH ^-^

1. Do you ever doubt the existence of others than you?: I mean more than likely we’re all just in a simulation so… reality is tho I definitely doubt my own existence before I doubt anyone else’s 

2. On a scale of 1-5, how afraid of the dark are you?: I’m not afraid of the dark, I am afraid of what lies in the dark. 5

3. The person you would never want to meet?: Donald Trump

4. What is your favorite word?: serendipity 

5. If you were a type of tree, what would you be?: Willow tree for sure 

6. When you looked in the mirror this morning what was the first thing you thought?: holy fuck I did not sleep 

7. What shirt are you wearing?: it’s a crop top that says “I

8. What do you label yourself as?: a human being I guess?

9. Bright room or dark room?: dark room 

10. What were you doing at midnight last night?: umm I think I was being emo and making tik tok videos lol 

11. Favorite age you’ve been so far?: 21 

12. Who told you they loved you last?: my mom 

13. Your worst enemy?: myself, I tend to ruin everything 

14. What is your current desktop picture?: it’s a professional Halloween picture of my ratties Piglet and Igor 

15. Do you like someone?: ha yea 

16. The last song you listened to?: right now I’m listening to Skyscrapers by Lil Peep

17. You can press a button that will make any one person explode. Who would you blow up?: I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if I was the cause of someone’s death, no matter who they are

18. Who would you really like to just punch in the face?: Erin if she were a boy 

19. If anyone could be your slave for a day, who would it be and what would they have to do?: Davey Havok and I would make him explain in length every intentional meaning of every song he has ever written 

20. What is your best physical attribute? (showing said attribute is optional): uh I have weirdly almost identical thumbs, besides that my tattoos are pretty tight 

21. If you were the opposite sex for one day, what would you look like and what would you do?: been there done that ain’t goin back homie 

22. Do you have a secret talent? If yes, what is it?: I can say the alphabet backwards really fast 

23. What is one unique thing you’re afraid of?: stairs. well like I guess I’m not afraid of them, I just have to walk really really slow up and down them and I have to stare at my feet the entire time or else I will fall

24. You can only have one kind of sandwich. Every sandwich ingredient known to humankind is at your disposal: oh fuck, portobello mushroom burgers are pretty fuckin tight 

25. You just found $100! How are you going to spend it?: I’m spending it on weed bro 

26. You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere in the world, but you have to leave immediately. Where are you going to go?: New Zealand, tho it would be scary as shit to go to another country by myself lol 

27. An angel appears out of Heaven and offers you a lifetime supply of the alcoholic beverage of your choice. “Be brand-specific” it says. Man! What are you gonna say about that? Even if you don’t drink booze there’s something you can figure out… so what’s it gonna be?: uhhhhh svedka vodka isn’t bad I guess? like I usually don’t throw up when I drink that lol. but honestly I love pineapple flavored alcohol, it tastes like candy 

28. You discover a beautiful island upon which you may build your own society. You make the rules. What is the first rule you put into place?: no heteros 

29. What is your favorite expletive?: bitch 

30. Your house is on fire, holy shit! You have just enough time to run in there and grab ONE inanimate object. Don’t worry, your loved ones and pets have already made it out safely. So what’s the one thing you’re going to save from that blazing inferno?: Uni my stuffed unicorn that I’ve had since I was 6 

31. You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?: oh god just one? if I could take back ever meeting Valencia that’d be nice I guess 

32. You got kicked out of the country for being a time-traveling heathen who sleeps with celebrities and has super-powers. But check out this cool shit… you can move to anywhere else in the world!: New Zealand or Ireland yo 

33. The Celestial Gates Of Beyond have opened, much to your surprise because you didn’t think such a thing existed. Death appears. As it turns out, Death is actually a pretty cool entity, and happens to be in a fantastic mood. Death offers to return the friend/family-member/person/etc. of your choice to the living world. Who will you bring back?: Jessica of course, she deserved the chance to grow up 

34. What was your last dream about?: I was on a bus with my cousin and a big white dog. oh also @dirt-goth was there 

35. Are you a good….[insert anything you’d like here]?: I’m a good listener 

36. Have you ever been admitted to the hospital?: yea I had to go to the hospital a couple months ago because of an accidental overdose, and then I had to go right back because I got pneumonia 

37. Have you ever built a snowman?: I have no memory of doing so, but I have been in a snowball fight before 

38. What is the color of your socks?: I ain’t got no socks on, free the toes 

39. What type of music do you like?: I like a variety of music, if it slaps it slaps 

40. Do you prefer sunrises or sunsets?: sunrises. there’s just something about how quiet everything starts out, how still everything is, and then it’s alive again

41. What is your favorite milkshake flavor?: strawberry for sure 

42. What football team do you support? (I will answer in terms of American football as well as soccer): I only know of the Chiefs lmao 

43. Do you have any scars?: yeeeep 

44. What do you want to be when you graduate?: I didn’t graduate, but I think it would be cool to be a photographer or a professional piercer 

45. If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?: I want a dick yo 

46. Are you reliable?: I would say so yes 

47. If you could ask your future self one question, what would it be?: will anyone ever actually fall in love with me?

48. Do you hold grudges?: I try not to, I mean I definitely am bitter about some things. But I’ve really been trying hard to better myself this year, and I think a big part of that is letting shit go yaknow 

49. If you could breed two animals together to defy the laws of nature, what new animal would you create?: I ain’t fuckin with nature bro 

50. What is the most unusual conversation you’ve ever had?: I have had, so many. I guess the last weird convo I had was with my friend Katie when I told her that if she ever needed someone to take high quality feet pics of her so she could sell them that I got her lmao 

51. Are you a good liar?: I’m a good actor, but liar I think not. At least not anymore, through the years of lying every single day, I just gave up. Because even if people know how much pain you are in, they still really don’t care so what’s the point in lying

52. How long could you go without talking?: a long ass fuckin time. I haven’t said anything out loud today or messaged anyone yet

53. What has been you worst haircut/style?: the fucking Beatles bob jesus christ

54. Have you ever baked your own cake?: hell no I burnt fuckin pizza rolls once

55. Can you do any accents other than your own?: not for long really, I do a weird Russian accent when I’m trying to be funny?

56. What do you like on your toast?: I love peanut butter

57. What is the last thing you drew a picture of?: uh, me gettin fucked by this one dude in a car lmaoo

58. What would be you dream car?: hippie van or cool ass school bus 

59. Do you sing in the shower? Or do anything unusual in the shower? Explain: I don’t sing in the shower, I used to when I was a kid but not anymore. I just have my speaker playing music. Sometimes I will turn the shower on and sit down like I’m sitting in the rain

60. Do you believe in aliens?: it would be incredibly ignorant not to tbh 

61. Do you often read your horoscope?: sometimes, it tends to be relevant when I do 

62. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet?: D

64. What do you think about babies?: I love all my siblings, and like other people’s babies are cute and stuff. When they get past that weird old man potato lookin phase of course. But there ain’t no way in fuck I’m ever having a baby. I’m adopting a kid, I don’t ever want to walk in on my baby one day covered in shit smearing the walls ya feel (babies do this more often than you would think)

65. Freebie! Ask anything interesting you can think of: hmmm, how long have you been sober for? I’ve been sober from coke since Halloween of 2018 and from Xanax since December 2nd of 2018

#sorry it took me a fat minute to answer #i had to go on my laptop to type everything or else it would have taken years on my ipod lmao #Anonymous

[itssquidwarsjournal]

It took Fox News no more than an hour after Joe Biden selected Sen. Kamala Harris as his running mate to start dabbling in wild speculation and conspiracy theories about the hidden, nefarious reasons behind the pick. In the day after the ex-veep and presumptive Democratic nominee announced his running mate, Fox News hosts pushed a number of unsupported theories largely centered around two themes: Harris forced her way onto the ticket and intends to usurp or overtake Biden; and/or Biden is not mentally capable of selecting his own running mate, and so Harris was installed by a shadowy, unseen puppeteer.The New York Times, Associated Press, and several other major news outlets reported that Biden was highly involved in the VP selection process, inviting candidates to his Delaware home for lengthy discussions or personally interviewing them on the phone.  But almost immediately after Harris was announced, The Five co-host Greg Gutfeld repeatedly declared—without the remotest bit of evidence—not only that Biden wasn’t involved in picking the senator, but that she was specifically selected by mysterious party figures to supplant Biden as the nominee (despite the fact that the nominating convention begins in less than a week).“We can pretty much agree that Joe wasn’t involved in this decision. I don’t believe he was in the room. He might have been in a room, but not the room. Maybe a room with a shawl and hot chocolate,” Gutfeld quipped, though the joke seemed to fall flat as no one on the panel laughed. “I’ll say this again: I don’t think the ticket is done yet.”> Fox's Greg Gutfeld suggests Joe Biden won't be the nominee in the end: > > "We can pretty much agree that Joe wasn’t involved in this decision. I don’t believe he was in the room... I think somebody else made this choice and I will say again, I don’t think the ticket is done yet." pic.twitter.com/HkthUHnxD8> > — Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 11, 2020His co-host Jesse Watters agreed. “This is kinda like when you go out to a restaurant with your grandfather and you have to order for him,” he said, mimicking showing an elderly person a menu and picking a meal for them. “Joe didn’t make this pick. This pick was made for Joe," Watters blared before pivoting to suggest Harris is a Lady Macbeth-like figure secretly aiming to overtake Biden. “I wouldn’t trust Kamala Harris,” the Fox host declared. “I think she’s very ambitious and we all know Joe’s only running for one term. So you’re basically ushering in someone that’s gonna, I don’t think, have the best intentions.”Later on Tuesday, pro-Trump host Jeanine Pirro told Sean Hannity that she is “not sure” Biden selected Harris himself. “Who really picked this woman to be the vice presidential candidate?” she wondered. “I believe Joe Biden isn’t even going to be on the ticket in the end because i can’t believe he would pick this woman.”Pirro doubled down on the assertion following Harris’ speech on Wednesday, saying she believes “something is going to happen” and Biden “isn’t going to be on the ticket,” forcing Fox News host Bret Baier to point out that Biden was set to be officially nominated next week.> "Something is going to happen before the election and he's not even going to be on the ticket" -- Jeanine Pirro predicts something horrible will happen to Joe Biden in the next 2+ months pic.twitter.com/dVQ3ImHfb3> > — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 12, 2020The Fox host also boosted on Twitter the right-wing claim that because a photograph of Biden’s call with Harris to tap her as his veep pick showed a script on the desk under his laptop, Biden was not involved in picking the senator and may not have been mentally aware enough to know why he was calling the senator.“Is anyone surprised Bunker Biden is using a script?” Pirro wrote. “Why do you think they won’t let him out? He can’t complete a thought.”The following morning, on Fox & Friends, conservative columnist Miranda Devine asserted that “ruthlessly ambitious” Harris will be “quick to push Joe Biden out of the way as soon as she gets a chance.” Similarly, on Tuesday evening, primetime star Laura Ingraham claimed that Biden is ultimately a Trojan Horse for Harris and other unnamed figures to run the party. Citing Biden’s announcement email, which included the line “Kamala Harris is the best person to help me take this fight to Donald Trump and Mike Pence and then to lead this nation,” Ingraham misinterpreted the final four words in a seemingly deliberate manner to suggest: “Wait, wait, ‘to lead this nation’? Wasn’t that you supposed to be on the top of the ticket doing all that leading for us, Joe? You know, that whole presidency then? Come on, man. Even Joe is witted enough to understand that he’s not really going to be running the show if he wins in November.”Because of the need to fill hours of airtime, cable news as a medium is often rampant with baseless speculation about political matters. Indeed, Fox News is not alone in doing so. For instance, Tuesday afternoon on CNN, Democratic Rep. James Clyburn suggested that President Trump could drop Vice President Mike Pence from his own ticket, a suggestion that CNN host Don Lemon did not linger on.But the zeal with which Fox News hosts immediately adopted official Trump campaign messaging and the sheer intensity of their factually unsupported theories about Harris suggest the network will be willing to go to great lengths to avoid even remotely even-keeled coverage of the California senator.Beyond wildly speculating and theorizing about the hidden hands behind Harris’ selection, Fox News stars quickly leaped to label Harris as “phony” or “nasty” or “power-hungry,” directly lifting phrases from the Trump playbook.Several Fox stars also promptly repeated the Trump campaign line that Harris once called Biden a “racist” (she did not, but the claim was repeated even after Fox’s own Neil Cavuto debunked it on-air).Fox News Host Neil Cavuto Corrects Trump Campaign: Kamala Harris Never Called Biden ‘Racist’The network’s coverage of Harris has also mirrored Trumpworld in its wild careening between bashing her as a ruthless cop (a concern-troll seizing upon the actual and long-documented concerns of leftists and civil libertarians who object to the senator’s spotty and often-contradictory record on criminal-justice reform, mass incarceration, and policing the police) while also somehow labeling her, in the words of Hannity, “radical and extreme” (in fact, she ran largely as a “pragmatic” moderate, in stark contrast to the more broadly progressive policies of Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren).And in some cases, since she was announced as the Democratic veep pick, Fox News has even trotted out age-old smears about Harris’ racial identity and personal life.A common theme on the network since Tuesday afternoon has been that Harris—who is of both Caribbean and Indian descent and graduated from Howard University, a historically Black school—is not Black enough to be considered the first Black woman on a presidential ticket.Because Harris’ father—who hailed from Jamaica—once claimed to have descended from a plantation owner, far-right commentator Dinesh D’Souza told Laura Ingraham on Tuesday evening the senator is not actually Black. Instead, D’Souza said, she “seems to be descended less from the legacy of, let's say, Frederick Douglass, than she is from the legacy of the plantation itself.”That line of attack continued Wednesday morning when Stacy Washington, co-chair of Black Voices for Trump, told Fox & Friends that “Joe Biden chose Kamala Harris because she’s a Black woman, but to most Black Americans she’s not” because “she is not descended from slaves, she is descended from slave owners.”The “not actually Black” theory was once touted by Trumpworld. Last summer, Donald Trump Jr. briefly boosted to his millions of followers a tweet that claimed “Kamala Harris is *not* an American Black. She is half Indian and half Jamaican.”Elsewhere, on Tuesday evening, Tucker Carlson suggested that Harris owes her career to her past sexual relationship with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. When Fox Nation star Tomi Lahren suggested the same last summer—tweeting “Kamala did you fight for ideals or did you sleep your way to the top with Willie Brown?”—many of her co-workers publicly criticized her and she was forced to apologize. So far, no word from those same colleagues on Carlson’s remarks.Tucker Carlson Peddles Sexist Smear Against Kamala HarrisRead more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.

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