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hey-hamlet · 3 years

Note

The SCP AU has only been mentioned ONCE but I’m already thinking about it! AU where sometimes, children have anomalous abilities and attributes. They may be showing it of to their classmates. They may be desperately hiding. They may not be of this world. They might not even notice it. But there is a foundation that calls them SCPs, and it wants to steal them away to a place of cold cells, calculating researchers, and containment. Where they will never see the light of day again. That is, if they don’t succumb to their own powers or get killed by some other SCP. But if they are careful, and brave, and in need… a door will open.

those doors lead to UA! And UA isn’t just a high school. It’s also a research center, a college, a middle school, an elementary, AND a preschool. Anything a lost child could need while they learn who (what) they are and what they can do. SCPs get a basic curriculum for whatever dimension they plan to live in, plus the skills (if possible) needed to blend in- the courses offered are varied. Most move to a more accepting place (three Portlands is a popular destination). They can also choose to live permanently in UA, as staff. Adults… can SOMETIMES get in. If they’re lucky. And Nedzu is looking for new employees. (parents of young anomalies might get an exception)

UA is… if a place could be the definition of “reinforced”, that would be it. The main building gets, well, destroyed or blown up every now and then, but it always puts itself back together by sundown. Reality benders find the locally reality to be unusually… stiff. Unbendable. It has separate buildings for each school level, student dorms, staff apartments, Several massive underground bunkers, all the regular stuff. A few gyms open up into seemingly indefinite planes of grass, for especially dangerous SCPs to practice.

As for where UA is… nobody can tell if it’s a pocket dimension or a parallel world, but across the wall is a view of regular Japan. Getting close to the walls is impossible- you simply find yourself on the other side of the property, or right where you started. Students have attempted to cross reference the view of “regular” Japan to events happening in REAL Japan, and things don’t quite match up! Some swear they’ve seen Nedzu exit the front gates and return with a little bag of groceries, but he’s probably just messing with them. Maybe.

As for the price… Nedzu is a little fey-like when it comes to the price. A student can pay back tuition as a no-interest loan, but most are encouraged to instead become alumni- basically pledging to protect UA and its students in any time of need. Protecting can mean many things, from obtaining critical resources to infiltrating oppositional groups to straight up serving as Nedzus own private (hero!) army. (1/3)

Random character backstories:

Eraserhead has the ability to drag halt abnormal things. But if he stares for long enough, he will bring ALL things back to normalcy- a grimoire becomes a book. a teleporter is forced to walk. A god becomes a man.

Of course, living in normal society, he had no idea. But one day his friend came to school nervous and excited and pulled off his hat and his hair was made of mist!! And he could make little clouds!!! And Shouta thought it was some crazy prank, but he went along with it. Until lunch time when a bunch of strange men in black robes with guns and tattoos all over their faces broke into school! They demanded to have “the missing link”, and then they blew up a hallway and people were screaming, and then black ooze was dripping from the walls and blood was dripping out of their eyes and they killed someone. and then helicopters were landing outside and different men in white were running in and shooting back and the cafeteria ceiling collapsed and the sky was RED and someone grabbed Shirakumo and tried to drag him away but Yamada started yelling except he was SCREAMING and the ground was shaking with his voice and his mouth was too wide and the building started to collapse and this is all TOO MUCH and this is ILLOGICAL and WRONG and Shouta grabbed his friends and ran for an exit but Shirakumo turned around to throw a cloud over a kid under a falling wall and Shouta and Yamada fell forward and the door shut and there was a little white mouse in a tuxedo and Shouta.

Blacked out.

Tokoyami bought a fake grimoire on eBay and accidentally summoned a real demon to his soul

Recovery girl wasn’t hired by Nedzu, she just showed up one day on UA grounds to heal. Sometimes she mentions ancient history like it was yesterday.

Ectoplasm is a ghost. Like, a dead guy. Nedzu had his grave, dirt and all, moved to one of the apartments so he could “haunt” (teach) at UA.

Shoto is the son of a high ranking manager in the SCP foundation. Endeavor very much does not believe in sympathy for SCPs, and he made that clear when Shoto was locked up.

Hawks is a first responder to attacks on UA, due to his ability to “fly” between dimensions. He is also somewhat overworked.

Iida didn’t need rescuing- his parents are well respected alumni so he and his brother got in free. Having practically grown up there, he is among the few who NEVER get lost no matter how many times the school rearranges itself. Some kids joke that he is one of the many robots that keep UA functional.

Ashido ate an entire packet of Wondertainment® ExTrA sOuR gummy worms.

(2/3)

A bonus Crack backstory- the SCP UA is situated right in the regular BNHA world. Nedzu grew up in a lab like normal, but he never escaped. He just… popped out of existence one day. Twenty years later he returned, older, wiser, impossibly powerful. He sniffed the air, wandered Japan like a little cryptid, and finally found a nice hill in the woods. The next day… UA sprouted like a sunflower fell from the sky unfolded from the wrong dimension materialized from nothing APPEARED, and everyone aptly freaked out. Heroes stood guard as scientists and researchers poked and prodded at the walls, but nobody could get through the barrier. The people inside are weird and wrong but don’t seem to notice them, or even the occasional nearby villain battle. Even all might tried to break through, decades later, when he spotted a little girl get decapitated (she’s fine), but UA simply isn’t of this world. The main cast goes to Ketsubutsu, I guess. And if there are rumors of doppelgängers, of heroes swearing up and down that they saw themselves (but WRONG) inside The School, well. Those are just rumors.

!! Everyone read this this is so good!!

#asks #bnha au #scp children au

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theonetheycallhannah · 4 years

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The Treatment of Captain Syverson-Chapter Four: E-Stim

Pairing: Captain “Sy” Syverson x OFC (Shane Benton)

Summary: Shane deals with the consequences of her email to her boss, both good and bad. A mortifying situation has an…unexpected outcome. Emotions run high in the fourth chapter of The Tx of Sy! Behind on the action? Catch up HERE!

Word Count: 2k

Warnings: Language, some angst and emotions. (Like I literally cried writing part of it) And like, an asshole boss…but if you stick it out with Susan, you won’t be disappointed.

Disclaimer: Unfortunately for me, Henry is not mine, le sigh, and all mention of him, his characters, any characters from his films, or his precious doggy, Kal, are strictly for transformative and recreational use. I neither ask for, nor accept payment for the work I post on Tumblr or AO3. Unbeta’d because this is for fun and escapism.

Tags:

@onlyhenrys

@cavillryarchive

@summersong69

@titty-teetee

@bloodyinspiredfuck

@agniavateira

@oddsnendsfanfics

(you didn’t ask, but i took the liberty! Hope that’s okay!)

@tumblnewby @suavechops

Shane had spent her morning getting ready for work and treating her first patient with a whopping headache…maybe a small glass of wine would have been more responsible of her. But she slept like the dead, which was the goal.

She took a moment before her second patient to check her email…there was a reply from Susan.

Shane, come to my office at your next possible availability.

No "thank you" or "please" or "fuck you very much." just an order. Last she checked, SHE wasn't in the military. Since Heather wasn't in yet, she messaged the secretary on duty, Marsha, to see if she could find a way to make an opening in her morning. She wanted to get this meeting over with.

Sure, Shane. Looks like Cory could take your next patient, if you like. He's seen him before.

Perfect. Please make that change and block me for a meeting with Susan. Thank you so much.

She saw Cory walk by, and warned him. "Cory, I'm having Marsha move Mr. Greenbaum to you next hour. I need to meet with Susan about something." she rolled her eyes.

"Oh, shit. Okay. No problem." Cory knew all too well the fuckery that a Susan meeting could entail.

"I really appreciate it. I owe you big time."

"Nah, Mr. G is cool. We just talk about huntin' and stuff."

"He'll probably like that we switched, then." she laughed. And headed for what felt like the principal's office. Bleak and miserable.

She knocked on the door, and was told in an all too cheerful manner to come in.

"Hey!"

"Morning Susan."

"Close the door and have a seat, Shane."

She typed away for a moment before fully engaging…as was her way. She thought it gave her the power. It really just annoyed the fuck out of everyone.

"So, tell me what's going on with this patient you emailed me about."

"Well, he's an ACL and MCL tear, traumatic, plus a dislocated patella. He did it during a mission in Iraq. Ummm, he's improving a lot. Potter did the surgery. He had him keep the crutches about two weeks longer than we thought he would, but--"

"No I mean…this relationship. What's the deal, here?"

"Oh, there's not much to say about it, really. He's been fairly flirty from pretty early on. I've been able to ignore it, but to be honest, I think he's a really great guy, and I think he deserves better than me ignoring his advances, especially when, to be honest Susan, the feelings he has for me are not unrequited." her heart was racing. More than if Sy had been in the room flirting with her, but so much less pleasant.

"I don't think you should see this guy until the treatment is over. What if it doesn't work out and he doesn't want to come here anymore because of you." That hurt…not that it wasn't rattling around in her head, too.

"Well, Susan, to be honest, that's one reason I haven't spoken up about this already. I have that fear. But he's been very adamant about it lately, and it's been on my mind a lot, and I think I owe it to the both of us to see it through."

"I think I should call this guy. Let me pull him up."

She gave her his details to get his information pulled up in their system. God, this was embarrassing. She should have known this nightmare was coming.

"Hello?" a gravelly bark came across the speakerphone.

"Hello, Mr. Syverson?"

"Captain Syverson, yes, Ma'am." She wasn't expecting him to pull rank…and he did it so politely.

"Sorry, Captain Syverson. My name is Susan DeForrest, I'm the manager here at Fort Wood Therapy Clinic. How are you this morning?"

"This side of the daisies ain't worth complainin. What can I do ya for, ma'am?"

"Well, I have Miss Benton, your therapist here in a meeting. You're on speaker."

"Hey Sy." Shane mewled sheepishly.

"Hey there, Shane." she could hear the smile in his voice. She didn't know if Susan could.

"She's saying that the two of you would like to see each other socially, outside of therapy."

"Oh, that's not quite the words I'd use, ma'am, but I s'pose you're technically correct."

"And she's explained to you that this facility has a policy in place regarding such fraternization?" What a load of bullshit she was shoveling. Making it sound so sinister and clandestine what she and Sy were trying to start up. Like espionage. This woman…

"I'm aware that certain policies exist like that to protect patients or customers, and more frequently the staff from situations that could present problems for both or either parties. I am not aware that a strict policy exists to police your staff in such a stringent manner. In fact, I know the opposite to be true."

"Excuse me?" Susan asked, shell shocked.

"See, them policies o' yours, they're all available online. Public knowledge. Even your personnel ones. Now, y'all have a nice and thorough handbook, I mean, I have been up all night just pouring over this like honey on toast, and I can tell you, I ain't findin' a word about y'all not being allowed to date your patients."

"Well, it's in policy number…"

"Nope, you were gonna say 47, subsection 2, part b. But that just says that you shouldn't treat anyone you're close to (i.e. friend, relative, or significant other) if you can't maintain objectivity or your own comfortability. Now, if I'd make Shane uncomfortable, or if she lost her objectivity over me, I'd be devastated. Shane, do I or do you think I could make you uncomfortable or unobjective?" he was laying it on so thick. If she hadn't been falling for him, this would have done it.

"I don't think so, Sy." She held back a smile…but not well.

"There ya have it. Miss DeForrest, I trust that Shane is free to live her life in the way she sees fit?"

"Well, I still think she should wait…" Susan started, but was cut off again by Sy.

"Because you see, I've seen a lot of young people fail to grow old. A lot of people waitin' to do things…they never ended up doin'. This life…it can be real, real short, Miss DeForrest. And I'm not keen on waitin' to be happy when I could be happy right now. Have I made myself clear enough for you? Or do I need to go to the next link in the chain of command here?" The emotion and resolve in his voice was completely shattering. He wasn't crying. But Shane and Susan both were. And then suddenly, Susan sniffed herself into composure and answered him with dignity.

"No, Captain Syverson. That will not be necessary. Shane…is free, of course, to socialize with whomever she sees fit so long as it doesn't affect anyone's treatment adversely. Thank you for your time, candor, and perspective, sir."

"I'm glad to help Shane. She's helped me more than any therapist I've ever had. We clicked immediately. I knew she was somethin' special. But getting to know her over the last few weeks has shown me what true happiness could feel like…I'd forgotten that over in Iraq. She gave that back to me. I'd like to thank her properly."

"I think she'd like that too. Thank you, sir." Susan hung up the phone without letting them say goodbye to each other, but Shane was an utter mess, and unable to form coherent words right now, anyway.

"Wow." Susan exclaimed.

"Yeah." Shane sniffed into a tissue, dabbing her eyes and then blowing her nose loudly, and unapologetically.

"Did he say he spent the whole night reading our policies?" Susan asked, not sure she heard him right.

"That's what I understood." Shane was somehow not surprised.

"Did you tell him to do that?"

"I didn't even know the policies were online, nor did I know you'd pull him in to our meeting…I didn't even know we were having one until twenty minutes ago."

"Right…fair. Sorry, I'm still…off-put by all of that." She had been beaten…and it wasn't familiar or comfortable.

"So, are we finished here?" Shane inquired, tentative about the state of mind her boss was in.

"Yes, go on and take the rest of the hour for continuing ed or whatever." She was normally much more composed…Sy had really gotten to her. She loved it.

Shane hurried back to her treatment room. She had to call him.

"Hello?" that same gravelly voice now confused as he'd just hung up with her, basically.

"May I speak to the great hero Captain Syverson, please?"

"Sunshine. How ya doin'?"

"Did you really stay up all night last night to read our entire employee manual?"

"I wanted the straight up, true life details about this policy that could mess up my future."

"I think you broke my boss's brain. She was still stewing when I left. She thought I told you where to find all that and what not. I didn't even know you could find it online. Plus, I didn't know we'd be meeting or that she'd drag you into a personnel matter. She's the worst. And you're literally my hero for beating her down like you did."

"Hey, ya know, she started it. I just finished it."

"You sure did. And how!"

"So…since we're all legal now…"

"Is the magic gone since it's not forbidden?" she laughed.

"Oh, I was gonna say, yeah, I think this may be a mistake. Sorry."

They both giggled.

"I'm free after work on Friday." she suggested.

"Not anymore, you're not. Bring some nice clothes and change when you're done. I'll pick you up after. Just text me when you're about ready?"

"You haven't given me your number, Sy."

"It's in my chart, dork."

"You have to officially give it to me."

"Oh I'll give it to ya, baby." He'd dug deep into the bass part of his register for that one.

"Syyyyy." she groaned.

"Oh, you already know I like it when you say my name."

"I'm being serious right now, what's your damn number or the date is off." She bluffed.

"Not because I believe that idle threat, but because I wanna…give it to ya." he rattled off the number.

"Okay, I'll be texting you with mine. Now, I have work today, so if you text me and don't get an immediate response, you know that's why."

"I'm not your only patient? I'm hurt, Shane."

"I know, that's why you've been coming to therapy for weeks."

"Har-Har, good thing I'm not into you for your sense of humor."

"Good thing I'm not into you for your looks, since 80% of your face is obscured by hair."

"We could go all day like this."

"The stamina." she teased.

"Well, look who joined the game!" he sounded almost proud.

"Don't think I haven't been participating silently for…a while."

"How long?" he inquired

"Isn't that my line?" she laughed at the penis joke she'd just made.

"You'll find out soon enough, and you won't be laughing. How long?"

"Well, you remember your evaluation."

"I do."

"Yeah…then." she bleated, too shy to say so with pride.

"No way! You mean you've liked me all this time too! And haven't said shit!?"

"I had to be professional, Sy! I didn't want to! Damn! You've gotta know how much I didn't want to be professional."

"I'll forgive ya, I guess, lil' lady."

"Merciful of you, sir!" she chuckled. "I'll need to go here soon. Won't be long now until my next one gets here."

"Tease me with a 'sir' then cut me off. Cruel."

"You like 'sir,' huh?" she whispered.

"I do. Yes…I…do."

"Noted. Well, until tomorrow."

"Don't forget to text me. I want you to give it to me too." he chuckled.

"Oh, you're bad."

"But, I'm real, real good sunshine." The deep rich promise in his voice did not go unnoticed.

"Bye Sy."

"Later Shane."

She hung up and texted him immediately. A selfie. He replied in kind. He seemed to be home on his couch, Aika by his side…he was not wearing a shirt…well…this day would be eternal.

Up Next: Chapter Five- Sensory Integration 1

#netflix sand castle #sand castle #henry cavill #henry cavill fanfic #henry cavill x ofc #captain syverson #captain syverson fanfic #captain syverson x ofc

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mittens-220 · 4 years

Text

Hataraku Maou-sama! Volume 21 Detailed Chinese Summary Part 6

Detailed preview summary: Read here

Detailed summary part 1: Read here

Detailed summary part 2: Read here

Detailed summary part 3: Read here

Detailed summary part 4: Read here

Detailed summary part 5: Read here

Demon King and Hero Defeat God

Scene returns to Heaven. Everyone saw that Ignora forcefully put almost all the angels who were still alive to sleep, Ignora said this was done was because Nuxe needed it, and a long time was needed before everything could be settled, so just let them sleep first. Everyone could not accept it, at this time, Maou and Kamael were fighting and crashed into the room again, the scene was chaotic. Emi said to Ignora, let’s forget about those big matters first, I only know that with how Nuxe and Lucifer are, if we listen to you completely and cause this type of children to increase, the world will get destroyed! Then it was likely Lucifer who said all of you suddenly barged in and caused trouble, then lecture others about family relationships. Emi asked, could it be that he was missing home now? Lucifer said how is that possible, but your states are too consistent compared to normal, right? And the enemy boss is this calm for some reason, she is clearly at a disadvantage. Emi asked Ignora, your goal has been achieved? You really do not wish to resist anymore? Ignora said, all of do not wish to kill people unnecessarily, isn’t that right, Emilia-chan? (By the way, she calls herself Obaa-san when talking to Emi) Look, that Daath looks like my son, he chose Lucifer, as a mother, there is nothing which will make me any happier than this.

Ignora said perhaps it was especially easy for her to miss her child at an older age, we were exiled by our home planet, but we were recognised as the true humans of this world, the proof is mine and that person’s cute child. I know you “Ente Isla people” are very angry at us and the Tree of Life, but we do not wish to eradicate all of you, we want to use our power to monitor the whole of Ente Isla and manage the Tree of Life, creating a planet and humans which will definitely not be destroyed. Therefore, we need to show that we are the highest ranked existence in this planet. I want to protect this planet and humans, and have been fighting for this the whole time. Even though Sataniel denied me, but look, in the end, the Tree of Life judged that we were correct, and because of this, manifested using Lucifer’s appearance.

Emi asked Utsushihara, is this the case? Utsushihara said that is also that kind of situation, that’s why Amane was very anxious that I actually did not choose the native people, but the aliens instead. With this, there might be a conflict between Sephirah, what Ignora said is basically true. When they were chatting, Maou and Kamael were still fighting.

Utsushihara said, but to be more accurate, we chose Lucifer, the son of Ignora and Sataniel, but we did not choose the “angels”. Then he produced a small piece of metal in his hand, and said it was easy since Yesod and Malkuth are in your brain, then passed the ring to Emi, saying that with this, you are the strongest in the universe. Emi understood everything after putting on the ring, and Utsushihara became another consciousness in her head. The holy sword appeared in her hand, it was made up of light. Utsushihara said that I was only a Yesod which was coincidentally born from a Yesod fragment, for me, who is Daath and Yesod, I am the judge of the Tree of Life’s future, I yearn for a peaceful life for the hosts of the planet more than anyone else, and the correct Tree of Life and the Sephirah children have to…… he controlled Emi’s movements and rushed towards Kamael, and with one cut, split the armour after the merger between Kamael and Malkuth, then a white explosion of holy magic was produced from Kamael’s whole body and dissipated, he turned back into a burly man with purple hair and fainted.

Once Kamael collapsed, Eros also had a huge reduction in battle ability. Maou remembered this was similar to the arrow which Chiho shot at Raguel when she was controlled by Lailah in volume 5, which was known as “falling”, the effect from Yesod, Sariel likely had a Yesod fragment in his eye. Seeing Emi was already used to the new method of fighting, Utsushihara hugged Nuxe and separated, that’s right, we chose them, which means that we only acknowledged that they want to protect humans. Therefore, the “Ente Isla humans” who we acknowledge will lose all the power of miracles one day. Ignora was stunned. Emi asked if they would lose their immortality, Utsushihara said he was not sure, because their immortality was researched via science and not via a miracle power like spells and magic, so they could only see and wait.

Ignora was still in shock, not expecting such a result from being selected. She called out for Lucifer helplessly and Lucifer had already came up behind her during an unknown time and hugged her from behind. Lucifer said that he actually really liked his own life, but once he thought about the past, he realised that he had never been loved. His mother was obsessed with research, his father was very ambitious, these two people treated him as a tool to prove that they were correct and always locked him in a chamber, no matter what kind of grand reason that had, this was just abuse. Lucifer said, I agreed to help Olba to return to Heaven in the past, thinking about it now, I only wanted to resolve my confusion from when I was young. Then he hugged Ignora tightly, telling Alas=Ramus, this is your enemy, you deal with her.

Emi pointed the tip of her sword towards Ignora, Ignora did not struggle at all, but she could not do it at all, this stalemate went on for a while, Maou and Ashiya who finally arrived pull them apart. Ashiya said that if even they did not kill her, allowing her to lose her power now is not a good move, they can still make use of her in many ways. Maou said, you don’t want to kill her, right? Your killing aura when you seriously want to kill someone, I know it the best. Emi reverted to her original self, but Alas=Ramus jumped out on her own, putting Ignora’s hand on her head, Ignora’s hair also turned back to purple. Lucifer let go of his mother and said I thought you would definitely kill her, I didn’t expect you to become soft-hearted. Emi said do not use me for your own grudge. For the hatred in your life, use your own power to fulfil it. What is left is just the clean up after the battle.

Scene changed to three years later, Emerada brought over a bunch of Ente Isla currently to exchange to Japanese yen from the landlady, and even went to enjoy MgRonalds’ air conditioning with Alberto. Libicocco in formal wear was very handsome. He was participating in the full time employee training and would be able to take up a post next year if he passes. The Sephirah came to Earth because in the summit meeting, the holy sword was taken out to threaten others and frightened the humans, so they chased the Sephirah over to “recuperate/rehabilitate”. Lucifer is in charge of managing them. Everyone knows that Ignora was Maou’s neighbour. During summer this year, the Landlady barged in forcefully to install air conditioning, but from the compressor outside, it seemed like the air conditioning was rarely used. The others were all very worried, but Lucifer nonchalantly said that she was the type of person who was very stubborn about staying alive, and her heart would not die that easily. Maou, you should watch her closely, do not allow her to interfere with my current job. Maou said, that is your mother, why aren’t you taking responsibility. Lucifer said that he did not raise me, why do I have to provide for her, she should be thanking me for the fact that I am taking care of these Sephirah. Then it was mentioned that three years ago, they captured Ignora and locked her in Suzuno’s room in the Theocracy, she knocked on the wall for a long time, but she stopped doing that in the end.

#hataraku maou-sama!#hataraku maou-sama #the devil is a part timer

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angelsfwrites · 4 years

Text

TEETH | CHAPTER TWO

Masterlist ! | Chapter One ! | Chapter Three !

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CHAPTER TWO:

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

WARNINGS: Body image discussions, food, language, and triggering thoughts ! Please, read with caution !

YOUR eyes fluttered open as you awoke to loud knocking on the door of your quarters. You grumbled and pulled yourself up in bed. Your legs hung over the side as you found your tablet. You quickly pressed the on button and your eyes automatically squeezed shut, “Jesus, that’s so fucking bright!” You exclaimed as you squinted your eyes at the light. 0502, is what the time on the tablet read.

You carefully set it back down on the table and pulled yourself onto your feet. Your body shivered as your feet meet the cold, marbled floor of your bedroom. “Why does it need to be so cold in here, like really?” You muttered to yourself as you went out to the front door.

You quickly ran your hands over your face before pressing your palm to the console near the door so that it could open. You were met with a woman dressed in complete black attire, pulled back, smooth hair, and a small grey tray in her hands.

“All medical personnel gets breakfast served to them at exactly 0500 every morning and dinner at 1800 every night,” She sharply stated with her mouth pulled into a frown.

You smiled sheepishly at her and apologized, “I didn’t know anyone would be here so early; no one informed me of that yesterday.”

Her scowl grew tenfold, “Now, you’re aware, do not be late next time.” She stretched the tray out and you quickly grabbed it.

“Thanks,” you frowned as she quickly walked away from your door. You closed the door swiftly in her absence.

“Is everyone on this ship an absolute dick to be around?” You grumbled and moved your way back to the table in your small dining room. Setting down the tray on the table, you pulled a chair out and roughly sat down. You needed to eat quickly so that you’d have time to get ready to meet that officer at 0600.

Your hands lifted the top of the tray off to find a very standard breakfast. It was nothing close to meals you shared with your family on Naboo, but at least it was something. You lifted the fork to your mouth as you took a bite. The flavor wasn’t really anything spectacular, but complaining about the food here was literally the last thing you’d be caught doing.

You thought about your mother, father, and sister while you ate. Your mother practically had a stroke, your father looked like he was ready to burst, and your sister looked like she might cry when you told them where the academy had stationed you. It took a lot of convincing for them to even let you board the transport ship, but somehow you’d managed to ease their minds. You’d reassured them that you were just going to do a job and that you wouldn’t go looking for trouble the moment you stepped foot on the Finalizer.

You finished your food as you looked around your dreary room; you really missed your family. Your mother had a way of lighting up a room wherever she went; her grace and beauty were something you always longed to have. You could barely walk two feet without tripping over nothing. Your father always made everyone laugh, it was almost addicting how melodic it sounded. Your sister was pure beauty bottled into a lithe form; you were definitely dull standing next to her. Her golden hair and bright, blue eyes had the capability of making anyone fall under her spell.

Boys had never really been your thing on Naboo, you’d left them to your sister. Education was much more important to you because it’s something you had worked towards your whole life. Besides, any boy that showed interest in you immediately stopped once they met your sister.

You sighed as you pulled yourself up and away from the table. Your feet carried you into the bedroom so you could check the time on your tablet; 0530 it read. You laid it back down and made your way to the fresher to brush your teeth. As you were brushing, toothpaste splattered onto your clothes and you cursed. You quickly swiped the minty substance up and let it wash away in the sink. You quickly flossed and rinsed your mouth out with water after you set your toothbrush back in its holder.

Your feet dragged against the hard floor as you made your way to the small closet to grab your standard work clothes. Thankfully, they were just plain white scrubs and a basic white lab coat to pull over top. You dressed with little grace, even tripping on your pants when you jumped to pull them up over your hips. You righted yourself soon after and finished getting dressed at a much more manageable pace.

You walked back into the bathroom, after you dressed completely, to brush your hair back into a sleek ponytail. After you were finished, you studied your figure in the mirror. Your eyes had dark bags underneath, your face had a few spots scattered around on your chin and cheeks, your freckles looked as though they were becoming lighter, and your nose seemed to take up too much space on your face. Your body was in no way thin; your hips stuck out a bit, your thighs touched each other, your tummy was looser than it was taut, and you had no angles to be found anywhere on your face. You’d never been really insecure with your body, but working around fit employees was sure to change that. Everyone here was carved very carefully and deliberately, whereas your body looked like it was an afterthought. Where the First Order employees were hard, you were completely soft.

Once you had enough of nitpicking yourself, you made your way to your bedroom to pull on some socks and shoes. You put on socks that had tiny bogwings printed on them because you needed to add some fun into your outfit somewhere. Basic, white shoes were pulled up to cover the socks and quickly tied. You grabbed your badge off the table and neatly clipped it onto the front pocket of your coat.

Your hands found the tablet again and you sighed as you clicked it on; 0550, it read. You cursed as you dropped it sharply onto the table; you really needed to hurry if you were going to be there on time. You scurried out the front door as you desperately tried to remember how to get there.

A few seconds later you were met with the door to the medical wing and you sighed in relief. Your fingers quickly typed 55784 into the keypad and you sighed in relief when the door slid up for you. You stepped in and the same smell from yesterday hit your nose as you watched the doctors and nurses bustle all around you. It seemed a tad bit more hectic in here than it did yesterday, but you chalked that up to the fact that you had arrived late last night.

A short, quick breath was drawn into your nose as you made your way to the back where your office was stationed. You couldn’t find a clock on any of the walls you passed and you prayed that you weren’t late. The strict lady that had shown up at your door this morning and chewed you out for being only two minutes late, scared you away from ever being late again.

Your hands shook by your side as a shaky breath was drawn into your lungs. You had no idea what was waiting for you on the other side of this door. You had absolutely no idea if you were late or on time, but you prayed for the latter. You tried to steady your hands as you typed the code for the door into the keypad. The door opened and the air slapped your face with malice as your office was revealed to you.

A voice from inside said your name, “It seems you are right on time.”

Your eyes trailed up from the floor to find a lean structured man with bright, ginger hair standing in the middle of your office. Your jaw clenched with simmering fear, but somehow his cold words soothed you, “Oh thank you, God, I’m not late!” You exclaimed in your head.

Your glee was short-lived as the pale man spoke again, “I am General Hux. I’ve been appointed to go over the First Order rules with you this morning.”

Your head nodded in turn with his words, “Nice to meet you, General Hux.” You hoped your voice didn’t quiver like you thought it did.

Hux’s mouth pulled into a slight sneer at your words and he scuffed, “You’ll find me to be a man that’s not fond of pleasantries, so keep them to yourself.”

Your mouth pulled down into a frown as you thought, “This man definitely has at least four sticks shoved up his ass.”

He regarded you with a cold look as the sneer seemed to stick to his face, “Come in and take a seat, quickly.”

Your body acted on command and you found your feet scurrying across the hard floor. Your ass quickly sat in the examine chair, your eyes staying glued to the floor. This man was far too intimidating to actually look in the eyes. Some small part of you was scared that one long look from him could steal the blood from your veins and bleed you dry.

His voice fueled your fear as he spoke, “Good, you know how to listen to superior officers. You’d do well to remember the given orders are to be followed.”

Your eyes almost dared to sneak a look at his face again, but you kept a tight leash on that part of yourself, “Of course, General.”

Hux’s aura seemed to shift at your words; your fear only fueled him, “Rules are expected to be followed to the utmost degree. There will be severe punishments for breaking them and they are not pleasant.”

You swallowed the bile that rose up your throat, “What the fuck did I get myself into? Seriously, what was I thinking?”

He continued to speak, his voice laced with power, “The rules are as follows: respect is expected here; superior officers will not put up with nor tolerate disrespect. You are to work your hours and leave when they end; tardiness will not be tolerated. You are not to speak of any patients you get in here, especially about their physical appearance,” he sucked in a quiet breath and continued, “If you are to receive someone of high stature, their medical documents are to be delivered to me or another high ranking officer. Personal relationships are highly discouraged here; remember you and your coworkers are especially expendable.”

Spit pooled in your mouth as you tried to work it down your throat; everything seemed like it was slowly closing. His words cut deep into your mind as you registered the threat hidden behind every vowel. The last sentence he spoke seemed to burrow itself deeper into your psyche, the promise behind those words would haunt your nightmares.

He cleared his throat and your eyes were forced up to his face. His eyes reflected exactly what you’d expect from a man surrounded by death and drunk on power; your own personal Hell. His mouth was still pulled into a sneer, except it seemed like it had grown in the time he’d been in here with you. You’d thought the people you had met upon arrival had been cut from bloodshed and ice, but the man standing in front of you made them look like harmless bugs. You could tell he craved power and fed his status with every drip of fear leaking from your body.

His cold voice carried to you again as your eyes were trapped in his cold glare, “Relationships between superior and commanding officers are strictly prohibited and will result in your immediate departure from the First Order.”

The words “immediate departure” sunk into your veins as cold fear gripped your beating heart. The threats before had been laid out like blankets beneath the words he spoke, but this threat gripped them in a chokehold. If it wasn’t obvious before, it certainly was now.

He clasped his hands behind his back as he turned towards the door. He was in the doorway when he stopped, angled his head towards you, and said your name, “Remember we are always watching our employees.”

With that sentence, he swiftly departed, but his paralyzing aura lingered in the room with you. No immediate relief was gifted as you heard his boots carry him away from you. The room still felt too small and your throat still felt like it was closing. The sweat that had gathered on your neck and brow dripped down your skin as a cold feeling gripped your body. All your hairs were still standing on end and you gripped the edge of the chair to try to alleviate your anxiety.

A small shaky breath was drawn into your lungs, and then another one, and another one. You kept breathing in small breaths and, after a few, your heart rate seemed to slowly return back to normal. The fear was still there, but it was softer now, almost like an afterthought at the back of your mind.

You shook your head as you stood on two unsteady legs. You began to gather equipment to get ready for the day, but one thought seemed to linger and hum in the air surrounding you; it was completely inescapable.

“You were going to die here.”

────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────

AUTHOR’S NOTE:

Another chapter of teeth is here ! I know Kylo isn’t in it yet, but I promise he’s coming soon. This fic will probably be a slow burn and right now I’m really trying to write in suspense and tension.

Feedback is always appreciated and loved. I really enjoy hearing what people thought of the chapter and what they think might happen.

Have a good day and stay safe and healthy, everyone !

- K :) !

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cherryfloyd-blog · 5 years

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Jimmy Page - Behind Closed Doors

There are so many cookie crumbs to this story and I truly put as much research into this as my brain could handle. What started as a fun idea, soon turned into a late night adventure of notes sprawled across my bed, snacks to keep the energy going, glasses on; with a pen sticking of my mouth as I thumbed through as many pages of literature that I could get my hands on. There are several parts of this but for the sake of remaining unbiased I will keep it as straightforward and simple as I can. There has been a rumour floating around for fifty odd years, that Led Zeppelin; more specifically Jimmy Page, had made a deal with the devil. In this article, I will break down the events that have lead people to believe such things. In the end, it will remain impartial and will be open to interpretation which we can discuss further.

To begin, let’s talk about Jimmy’s growing idolisation and obsession with Aleister Crowley, famous for being an occult leader and magician. For more back story, Crowley was a British occultist who became known for pioneering the practice of black magic (or magick as he would call it). Aleister called himself Beast 666 and wrote literature on black magic and the occult, making him a major cult figure. He joined a few popular organizations to begin with, but ventured off into his own self created philosophy. Crowley believed himself to be the prophet entrusted with guiding humanity into the Eon of Horus, thus founding the Religion of Thelema.

(Below is the logo of Thelema)

Pictures of Crowley have since been discreetly used in pop culture, as if a small tribute. For example; The Beatles featured Crowley on their album cover art for Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club, he can be seen in the back row, if I’m correct. Building off of Page’s affinity for Crowley, which began to noticeably build by the mid to late 60’s, Page financed to own a bookstore in Britain which specialized in selling publishings of the occult and black magik. Needless to say, Jimmy was in deep at this point but still only scratching the surface of infatuation. The bookstore was named “The Equinox” which was also the name of a book that Crowley himself had written on the occult and magic. To this day, Jimmy Page has the second largest collection of Crowley memorabilia and literature, which is no small expense. His bookstore is now closed, but back in the day had been in stock of some very pricey and hard to come by black magik publications.

Another thing I found interesting, was Page being heavily influenced by very iconic blues artists, such as Robert Leroy Johnson (okay, maybe not that interesting, everyone in rock cites him as being the backbone of rock n roll today) nonetheless, Johnson died at the age of 27 from unsolved and suspicious causes. He never became famous while he was alive, but rumour has it that Johnson had also sold his soul to the devil in return for fame, at a crossroads, which Robert mentions in a few songs. A very small, unrelated tidbit of information, but it makes you wonder if our rock star idols gave up more than a normal life, to become internationally loved and recognized.

Around the year 1970, Jimmy had supposedly asked the band to perform a ritual with him, one that would bring them power and something along the lines of everlasting life? I know right, no biggie, just dabbling with some dark forces. Anyone that knows black magik, can tell you that spells like this are not something to be taken lightly or messed with. John Paul Jones was allegedly the only one to not take part in this pact, which you’ll later realize why that makes all of this so much more strange than it already is. If you think about it, had they made such a pact it would make sense. Robert Plant has made it to the list of top 100 best singers of all time in Rock history, not only that but made it to number one (1). Jimmy Page? Well he’s seen as a god and legend by almost every guitar player in the modern world, and has been ranked number two, only one spot behind Jimi Hendrix. John Bonham has been recognized as one of the best double kick drummers in history, quite literally, every drummer looks up to him as also an almost god like figure. As for John Paul Jones? There is no doubt the man is wicked talented, but not nearly as talked about or famed. We can all acknowledge the man has serious talent, and yet seems to be left in the shadows of his peers.

The first evidence of this pact can be seen with the album Led Zeppelin III, between the end of the last song and the paper label is the outro groove written into the vinyl was “So mote it be” on one side and “Do what thou wilt” on the other. The are basic phrases that are the core of Crowley’s belief system. By this point people were determined that Jimmy had become a member of O.T.O , and organization and cult who’s most influential and iconic member was none other than Crowley. More about the organization can be read about in a link below, but it should be noted that they have four pillar rules; one of which is to not speak of the organization to others or discuss the practices of which they studied. A rule, that Jimmy Page is believed to have broken at one point.

The second piece of evidence was apparent with the release of Led Zeppelin IV, when symbolism became a driving force. Inside the album is a painting of the hermit (a powerful tarot symbol), later in life Jimmy would refer to himself as being something of a hermit despite being a major public figure. The album provides no title, and shows no band name on the cover, but on the inside are four brightly printed logos across the sleeve. From left to right, these symbols represent Page, Jones, Bonham and Plant. Page has said in interviews that the symbols (for the most part) were taken from Rudolf Koch’s 1955 Book of Signs. Plant’s symbol is probably the easiest to decipher - as it is the feather of truth and courage, from the origins of Egyptian goddess Ma’at. John Bonham’s is believed to be either a drum kit, or the symbol of trinity of a family unit (meaning father, mother, child). John Paul Jones, which was likely picked by Jimmy, was the a celtic sigil for confidence and competence. However, Jimmy’s logo has always been the hardest to breakdown and figure out. While most people believe his logo represents saturn (which controls the Capricorn sign, Jimmy is a Capricorn so it would make sense), there is a certain level of mystery behind it. Page has famously said he will never tell anyone what it means. Thought Plant has once said that Page revealed the full meaning of all four signs, including a detailed discussion of what Zoso meant. Admittedly, Plant expressed he was too drunk to remember by the next morning, and when he had asked Page about it again, page replied with saying he couldn’t/wouldn’t discuss it. Now this could very well be Jimmy’s antics, or just general mysterious persona, or perhaps he simply cannot discuss or reveal information. Perhaps, this is the one of the four pillar rules of O.T.O that Page had broken. Jimmy is an all around very private person, who very rarely, if at all, talks about his religious or spiritual beliefs or practices.

It is worth noting that Sandy Denny (pictured below) of Fairport Convention, the voice on The Battle of Evermore track, was given her own sigil. The logo is translated to Godhead or the power of female.

According to Pamela Des Barres, Pages girlfriend of this era, has said that at this point Jimmy got very deep into the studying of Crowley, and had even asked her to search San Francisco and Los Angles for Crowley memorabilia. She had not fallen short on this task, and managed to dig up some very impressive artifacts, manuscripts, and even “magical” robes that Crowley has worn. In 1970, around the time of the ritual, Page had dropped a large chunk of cash to acquire Crowley’s mansion, Boleskine, located on Loch Ness. The home, once owned by Crowley, had a large history of suicides and an even bigger turnover rate of employees as they found the home to be no doubt inhabited by dark entities. Regardless of what one may believe, the house holds a sinister vibe. Page later sold the home in 1992, and had actually been very wary of ever living there and had left the estate in a caregivers possession. Of the 22 years that he had owned the house, he only spent 6 weeks in total living there. In 2016, the house unexplainably burned down. (pictured below is Jimmy at the mansion)

Now this next part is where shit gets bonkers, so to speak, the rest so far has been rumours and back stories and alleged encounters. Just a man with an obsession, and depending on your personal beliefs, you may find that he took his practices too far. Perhaps his intentions were pure, but looking at his life in general, what did Jimmy have to sacrifice to become quite literally a noteable person in history. Well let’s see.

Introducing Kenneth Anger; a fellow Crowley disciple and filmmaker, drug taker and subversive. He spent most of his time drawing magic circles, burning incense and chanting spells in Enochian - trying to do a real ritual exorcism. Plans for his film Lucifer Rising began to fall apart when Bobby Beausoleil (lead actor) - had to quit. Bobby, who later stole rough cuts and cameras from Anger would soon regret this. To take revenge, Anger supposedly made a talisman to curse Bobby. Within a year, Beausoleil had ended up convicted of murder with a life sentence for the murder of Sharon Tate as part of the Manson family murders. Wild, I know. Possibly just a coincidence, or even just a tall tale.

Cue Jimmy Page, who had agreed to do the soundtrack for Angers film, and the music Jimmy had produced is exactly what you’d expect. Dark, eerie, and perfect for a film of satanic proportions. Some of which can actually be heard in the intro for “In The Out Door”, his melancholy and devilish sound coming through in the song “In The Evening”. Kenneth and Jimmy had a love/hate relationship, and what started as a mutual appreciation and dedication to Crowley’s practice and image, soon turned to ugly turmoil just as quickly. Anger moved into Boleskine, where him and Page shared a love for Crowley memorabilia. However, as their friendship deteriorated, Anger was asked to leave the Crowley mansion. At the height of Led Zeppelin’s career, Jimmy had pulled out of the film project in 1975. Allegedly, Anger soon stated that he had cursed Page and Zepp with a major spell, a spell so big that it took all of Crowley’s teachings he could muster up, to cast upon them.

Almost immediately, the band started to experience turbulence and the eventual downfall of their career as one tragedy after another struck them to the core. Robert Plant was in a car crash, plunging off a cliff in Greece in 1975, nearly killing himself, his wife and his son Karac. Which meant cancelling the Physical Graffiti tour and having to record in a wheelchair. The make up tour was littered with negative events starting with Plant getting Laryngitis. Followed by ticketless fans in Cincinnati rioting and storming the gates. In San Francisco, manager Peter Grant and John Boham had gotten into a fight with Bill Graham, and nearly beating a Bill Graham employee to death. Both Grant and Bonham narrowly escaping serious charges and incarceration. Karac eventually fell ill, and no amount of money would make him better, as doctors had no idea what was wrong, by 1977 Karac had passed away and the tour was cancelled. At this point, Plant had quit the band and music in general in response to Page and Jones not showing up to his sons funeral.

Around this time, Page was nearly comatose on a daily basis due to a crippling Heroine addiction, and Bonhams alcoholism was raging out of control, becoming increasingly violent and unpredictable. In 1978, Sandy Denny, the goddess of the Battle of Evermore, drunkenly plunged down a flight of stairs; breaking her neck and died. The tip of the iceberg was the incident that occurred in September of 1980. Handlers had tucked Bonzo into bed after a band rehearsal, following a night of heavy drinking; assuming he would be okay, he’s done it a million times before, right? But as well know, John tragically died in his sleep from asphyxiation. It’s worth mentioning, that in the middle of all of this mayhem, John Paul Jones had remained completely untouched. While the loss of Karac and Bonham had affected John, being as they were family, he was never really directly affected. Could this be because he stayed as far away from the pact as possible? Could these events be natures way of taking something, in return for giving something such as power? Is this all the work of Angers alleged curse?

Robert Plant once addressed these very claims, as some people point fingers at Jimmy being the cosmic reasoning behind the passing of Karac and Bonham. Though, he says it’s a cheap shot. This is what Plant had to say about the matter - “The comments about how it was all connected with Jimmy’s dalliance with the dark side or whatever, that was cheap. I’ve never shared the preoccupations with him and I don’t really know anything about it. Fate is already written”. I suppose it has less to do with whether Page “sold his soul” and more to do with the possible repercussions of playing against nature, and whether such practices have a domino affect. The piling strange circumstances does make one wonder how involved Page really was, and how much the involvement took a toll on the band. Just how much of it can account for Led Zeppelin’s massive success, to the point of making history in music forever (everlasting life?). At the end it could all very well just be a bunch of mumbo jumbo non-sense. I am curious as to what you all think, feel free to leave comments or shoot me a message!

*Note; Do not take this too seriously, it’s all speculation and open for interpretation. Below are some interesting sites that I used in my search!

Resources:

https://forums.ledzeppelin.com/topic/15027-jimmy-and-crowley/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleister_Crowley

https://carwreckdebangs.wordpress.com/2015/06/09/aleister-crowley-jimmy-page-and-the-curse-of-led-zeppelin-when-myth-magick-and-weird-facts-collide/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ordo_Templi_Orientis

https://zososymbol.com/

#uhm I think I covered all the basis #im SO nervous to post this omfg #jimmy page #led zeppelin #robert plant #john paul jones #John Bonham #myposts

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theyearoftheking · 4 years

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Book 5: The Stand

Bloggers note: if you’re looking for a complete plot summary and a list of all the characters in this epic tome, this is not the blog post for you. Proceed with caution.

Once upon a time, there was a precocious ten year-old, with divorced parents. One parent embraced her weirdness and didn’t pay attention to what books she was bringing home from the library; and the other parent was my dad... who constantly wondered (aloud) why I wasn’t like normal kids.

Being of slightly above-average intelligence, I saw this as an affront, and did subtle things just to piss him off. Subtle things “normal” children probs wouldn’t do. The summer I was ten, my dad had picked up a paperback copy of The Stand, and was raving to me about how good it was. I remember he was fixated on people falling dead in their bowls of Chunky soup.

“Sounds like a cool book, maybe I’ll read it,” I commented.

“This isn’t a book for children. You still haven’t read that copy of The Hobbit I gave you.”

Hold my beer, motherfucker. I’m here for it. And The Hobbit was boring af. I never got past all the singing.

Just to piss him off, I read the book cover to cover, faster than he did. You know, like normal vindictive ten year-old girls do. I don’t have a lot of memories of my dad growing up, but I hold onto this one fast and tight, because I got mine in the end. I was like the Trashcan Man of the fifth grade set. Just with a worse haircut. See below.

Needless to say, my comprehension of The Stand almost thirty years later is a little bigger, wider, and deeper. It’s also colored by other epic “Good vs. Evil” reads (sigh, yes... even Tolkien); and King’s other works (mostly The Dark Tower). While at times this was not an easy book to read, I’m glad I powered through it. Ultimately, I feel rewarded I didn’t give up on page 872 like I had initially wanted to. I’m also glad I didn’t go with my gut instinct of reading the original released in in 1978, and then later on the uncut edition that was released in 1990. One reading of The Stand per year is more than enough, thank you. And besides, there’s fun pictures along the way! I mean, if I’m being honest, the book is mostly pictures with just a few words here and there to break it up. I’m absolutely kidding.

Let’s get into it, shall we?

First of all, I picked the worst fucking time to read this book. Coronavirus is probably going to kill the whole world, and I refuse to be one of the survivors like in The Stand. There’s not enough bourbon in Kentucky for me to survive that shit show. Additionally, my family is huge into board games, and we thought Pandemic might be a fun cooperative game to try. Spoiler: it’s awesome, we’re all hooked on it. I highly recommend it for your next game night. Maybe an End of the World/Pandemic theme?? You can all wear gloves and masks, eat shelf stable foods and bottled water, and play REM on repeat. Sounds... awesome.

But I digress. The Stand is your ultimate post-apocalyptic good versus evil showdown. A government employee with Captain Trips (the world ending virus) goes AWOL from his base, and takes a frantic road trip across the country with his family, where he manages to contaminate everyone he comes in contact with.

What is Captain Trips? Well, I’m so glad you asked! To hear a doctor explain it, “We’ve got a disease with several well-defined stages... but some people may skip a stage. Some people may backtrack a stage. Some people may do both. Some people stay in one stage for a relatively long time and others zoom though all four as if they were on a rocket-sled...”

The virus spreads (like viruses do), until there’s less than 15,000 people left in the country (rough estimate). The people still alive start having two types of dreams; either scary nightmares about The Walking Man, or peaceful dreams about Mother Abigail. Again... good versus evil. Guess who is who. If you need clarification, let me give you this one little quote about Randall Flagg, courtesy of Mother Abigail, “He’s the purest evil left in the world. The rest of the bad is a little evil. Shoplifters and sexfiends and people who like to use their fists. But he’ll call them. He’s started already. He’s getting them together a lot faster than we are. Before he’s ready to make his move, I guess he’ll have a lot more. Not just the evil ones that are like him, but the weak ones... the lonely ones... and the ones that have left God out of their hearts.”

And his followers?

“They were nice enough people and all, but there wasn’t much love in them. Because they were too busy being afraid. Love didn’t grow very well in a place where there was only fear, just as plants didn’t grow very well in a place where it was always dark.”

Yeah. I’m just going to leave that there for you to read and digest.

So, the remaining people from all over the country either ended up in Vegas with Flagg, or Boulder with Mother Abigail and The Free Zone; which is basically Bernie Sander’s Utopian dream.

God damn it! I swore I wasn’t going to get political and compare Donald Trump to Randall Fla-

Ok, so The Free Zone. Most of the people who come to Boulder, want to meet Mother Abigail Freemantle, the one hundred and eight year old black woman they’ve been dreaming about. She’s got a self-described case of the shine, and speaks stupid relevant truth to her followers, “I have harbored hate of the Lord in my heart. Every man or woman who loves Him, they hate Him too, because He’s a hard God, a jealous God, He Is, what He Is, and in this world He’s apt to repay service with pain while those who do evil ride over the roads in Cadillac cars. Even the joy of serving Him is a bitter joy. I do His will, but the human part o me has cursed Him in my heart.”

I’m not religious, but that hit hard. And it shows you the clear difference between Randall Flagg, and Mother Abigail.

Later on, Mother Abigail also hits us over the head, and explains to us why this book is titled, The Stand: “But he is in Las Vegas, and you must go there, and it is there that you will make your stand. You will go, and you will not falter, because you have the Everlasting Arm of the Lord God of Hosts to lean on. Yes. With God’s help you will stand.”

Spoiler: it doesn’t quite go according to her plan. Very few are left standing at the end.

So, The Free Zone. People come together, dispose of dead bodies, get electricity turned back on again, clear the roads of abandoned cars, and form a de-facto government. While lots of characters come and go (die. They die.) throughout the book, there are a few mainstays in The Free Zone: Franny, Harold, Stu, Larry, Nick, Tom, Nadine, and Lucy. But again... good versus evil. While most of the residents of The Free Zone are good, Flagg is able to whisper in the ears of some members, mostly Harold and Nadine, who end up defecting and making the trip to Vegas.

While socialist utopia is succeeding in Boulder, Flagg is ruling with fear of crucifixion in Vegas. His henchmen include Lloyd, and The Trashcan Man. Oh, Trashy... maybe one of King’s most iconic characters. He’s a bit of a firebug (understatement of the century), and really goes out in a blaze of glory (ha. Pun intended).

In fact, the two heroes of this book are Trashcan Man, thanks to his epic nuclear disaster; and simple-minded Tom Cullen, who is able to infiltrate Flagg’s inner circle, and successfully make it out, rescuing Stu Redman, who is dying in the desert with a broken leg and a horrible infection along the way. Tom Cullen is the character you root for. But Trashy is the character you’re always curious about. He’s like that rebel guy you dated in high school for ten minutes, and now stalk on Facebook, because you want to see what shady shit he’s up to twenty years later.

This is the biggest oversimplification I think I’ve ever written. The onus is on you to just pick up the damn book and read it yourself. Do it soon, because you might not have a lot of time left, what with Coronavirus breathing it’s death fumes down our necks.

For those still keeping track, we have TWO Wisconsin references in The Stand. The first was on page five, set in a gas station in East Texas, “...had covered himself with glory as a quarterback of the regional high school team, had gone on to Texas A&M with an athletic scholarship, and had played for ten years with the Green Bay Packers...”

I can’t help but feel Steve is a closeted Packers fan. He lives in Maine, so I know he’s contractually obligated to be a Patriots fan (gag), but come on... homeboy loves him some green and yellow.

The second reference comes from our friend Trashcan Man, while trying to find a walking route of possible destruction. “He had planned to get over to the west side of Gary, near the confusion of interchanges leading various roads towards Chicago or Milwaukee...”

Question... does Gary, Indiana still smell in a post-apocalyptic world? Asking for a friend.

We also start getting the Dark Tower references fast and heavy. I didn’t make note every time Steve referenced wolves, crows, or wheels; because we’d be up over a million references now. And Randall Flagg himself is straight out of The Tower. So that’s fun. And we have our first “ka” reference: “And it came to him with a dreamy, testicle-shriveling certainty that this was the dark man, his soul, his ka somehow projected into this rain-drenched, grinning crow that was looking at him...”

‘Tis ka, bitches.

Total Wisconsin Mentions: 8

Dark Tower References: 4

Book Grade: A-

Rebecca’s Definitive Ranking of Stephen King Books

The Shining

The Stand

‘Salem’s Lot

Carrie

Night Shift

Next up is The Dead Zone, which I must have watched a million times as a kid, because my mom was obsessed with it, but I’ve never actually read the book. So this should be fun! I mean... who doesn’t love reading a book and imagining Christopher Walken without his cowbell as the main character?

Long Days and Pleasant Nights, Rebecca

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losangelesleftygayvoters · 6 years

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General Election Voters Guide

Vote November 6, 2018

(By and for somewhat Lefty Queers and Allies to that effect).

October 27, 2018 Updates in Blue.

Prepared by: Phil Buiser, Chris Fajardo, Marc Valera, Ella Gabriel, Gabriela Garbim, Zac Hug, Ryan Quinn, Jay Marcus, Kevin Kelly and (updated to include) Ed Center.

Below is the combined effort of 9 10 queer people of varying race, sexualities, and gender identities. We split up the work of researching the various judgeships and candidates and assessor jobs over the course of a few weeks, consulted relevant publications, and where possible, the words and records of the candidates themselves. Then we spent quite a while discussing them debate team style and wrote them up here. As always, we encourage you to vote your conscience. Also your ballot may vary from ours in some cases as we’re mostly West Hollywood and Los Angeles/Hollywood based.

The below offers a perspective that’s fairly liberal, definitely blue state, and skewing toward LGBT rights a little heavier than others. Notably, this year we were lucky enough to gain the help of two immigrant queer types who are both green card holders. They can’t yet vote, but contributed invaluably to this document and honestly we’re prouder of them than we are of any turd you can’t convince to go and vote on November 6th. Seriously, get those kids out there.

New this year is a cheat sheet here at the top with a quick view of our picks. Our somewhat windy analysis follows.

QuickView of The Candidates we Chose:

Governor: Gavin Newsom (D)

Lieutenant Governor: Ed Hernandez (D)

Secretary of State: Alex Padilla (D)

Controller: Betty Yee (D)

US State Representative: Adam B. Schiff (D)

Treasurer: Fiona Ma

Attorney General: Xavier Becerra (D)

Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara (D)

United States Senator: Dianne Feinstein (D)

State Senator, 26th District: Ben Allen (D)

50th District State Assembly: Richard Bloom (D)

The Judiciary:

For the Judiciary, we advocate a NO vote on Justice Carol A. Corrigan for her nonsensical and partisan take on Prop 8 (She IS, in fact, the one you’ve seen go by on the socials). Update on October 27: We have also updated our take on Justice Willhite and can’t advocate a HARD yes for him, but a “vote your conscience.” See this link for details. For ANY OTHER JUDGE, we were fine with a YES vote, much in line with this article from the LA Times: http://www.latimes.com/opinion/editorials/la-ed-endorsement-justices-20181004-story.html.

Races where Judges are running against each other:

Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 60: Holly L. Hancock

Judge of the Superior Court, Office No.4: A. Veronica Sauceda

Judge of Superior Court, Office No. 16: Patricia (Patti) Hunter

Judge of the Superior Court, Office No. 113: Javier Perez

City and County Races:

School Superintendent of Public Instruction: Tony K Thurmond Marshall Tuck

(UPDATED October 27, 2018 - see below for details)

County Assessor: Jeffrey Prang

County Sheriff: Jim McDonnell

Member State Board of Equalization, 3rd District: Sigh, probably Tony Vazquez, but we legit nearly voted Republican on this one.

Ballot Measures:

STATE MEASURE 1: YES

STATE MEASURE 2: YES

STATE MEASURE 3: YES

STATE MEASURE 4: YES

STATE MEASURE 5: NO

STATE MEASURE 6: NO

STATE MEASURE 7: YES

STATE MEASURE 8: NO

STATE MEASURE 10: YES

STATE MEASURE 11: YES

STATE MEASURE 12: YES

City Amendment B: YES

City Amendment E: YES

LAUSD Charter Amendment EE: YES

County Measure W: YES

ANALYSIS & RESEARCH ON CANDIDATES BELOW:

FOR ANALYSIS/BIOS OF THE JUDICIARY RACES, CLICK HERE.

FOR ANALYSIS/RESEARCH OF EACH OF THE BALLOT MEASURES, CLICK HERE.

Governor: Gavin Newsom

Ah! In the age of Trump, at least it’s still great to be a Californian. We live in a state where we can kick off a voter guide by saying: Former SF mayor Gavin Newsom is the clear choice to carry on Jerry Brown’s progressive legacy and expand on it. Newsom is pro-environment, pro-LGBT and women’s rights, and anti-gun. As SF mayor, he challenged state and federal prohibitions and was aggressive in the fight to begin same-sex marriages, proving that he’s been a reliable progressive advocate from the start. In his own words, he’s running to be “the head of the resistance.”

Keep in mind that, aside from driving policy, the governor (like the president) appoints State Supreme Court and Court of Appeals justices. Newsom is likely to appoint justices who will be judicious and liberal-leaning, while his opponent, Republican John Cox, would likely adopt the conservative plan to flood courts with Federalist Society lackeys. California has been a leading check on the Trump administration, and Cox would reverse that stance in addition to derailing the progress Jerry Brown has brought to California. To keep California progressive, and to keep California as a check on Trump, elect Gavin Newsom governor.

Lieutenant Governor: Ed Hernandez (D)

The fact that this race is listed second on the ballot gives it an air of importance, but it really should be listed dead last. Why? Because lieutenant governor does absolutely nothing. It’s where politicians fill a seat while they’re in between jobs, like, say, between being SF mayor and running for higher office. The only way the lieutenant governor becomes relevant is if the governor is incapacitated. And for that reason, we must take this race seriously. Because, well, pipe bombs for God’s sake.

Despite its seemingly low stakes, this race has split Democrats. Both candidates are Dems, thanks to California’s primary system, and both have solid progressive endorsements. But we’re giving the edge to Ed Hernandez, “whose work with underserved communities and poor patients on Medi-Cal ultimately sparked his interest in state government.” He was elected and served in the State Assembly and State Senate, where he just termed out. His opponent, Eleni Kounalakis, served as US ambassador to Hungary under President Obama, who has endorsed her in this race, along with other prominent Democrats like Kamala Harris. But Kounalakis is a major Democratic donor, and we’re a little suspicious that may be the reason that so many elected Democrats have endorsed her. Endorsements aside, Kounalakis has never held elected office, so Ed Hernandez is the better pick to fill in as governor, if necessary. Again, as we always say, we’re willing to be wrong. Vote your conscience.

Secretary of State: Alex Padilla (D)

If you’ve consulted this guide in past elections, you’ll remember that we’ve voted for Padilla several times before. In fact, that’s why he’s the incumbent. He’s vocal about the need for transparency in how money changes hands in government, he’s a big civil rights advocate, endorsed by all the gay groups you want him to be, he’s a big DREAM Act supporter, and he’s more obsessed with voter accessibility than one could ask for--up to an including the support of automatic voter registration. Basically, Padilla wants you to vote and be an American and a Californian, no matter who you are. We’re in.

The other guy, Mark Meuser, is pretty mum on civil rights, except to say that we “really need to clean up California’s voter rolls.” He’s also spent time insisting that we need less dead people voting. Who needs dog whistles when we have Mark Meuser? Knock it off, Mark, those are not actual problems in the real world.

Controller: Betty Yee (D)

The controller oversees the state’s bill-paying, including payrolls for state government and the California State University system. The office also audits state agencies and departments as well as lower levels of government, such as school districts, cities, and water authorities. The controller also sits on about seventy boards and commissions, a range of financing authorities, and the boards of the state’s two largest public employee pension systems. Think of all the meetings she/he has to sit through!

Betty Yee is the incumbent, currently finishing up her fourth year on the job, where she has built a track record that is universally endorsed. Yee was instrumental in calling out the corruption and nepotism problems with the Board of Equalization, leading to Governor Brown stripping the board of most of its power. Yee has not only shown a dedication to making a positive impact, but her actions back up her intentions.

Yee’s opponent, Roditis, is a businessman/CFO who has little public service history, no statewide name recognition, and comparatively few donors. His muddy vision of what he would like to do in office makes us wonder if he even knows how the position actually works.

US State Representative: Adam B. Schiff (D)

Adam Schiff is the incumbent and is currently serving his ninth term in the US House of Representatives. He is the ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, where he’s been a crucial check on Trump and House Republicans who have tried to interfere with the investigation of Russia’s involvement in the 2016 election. His opponent, Nalbandian, is a Republican businessman who has never served in the government before, openly campaigned for Trump in 2016, believes in all of Trump’s ideologies, and thinks he can turn this country around. Yeah, nope. Nice try, Nalbandian. We’re wif Schiff!

Treasurer: Fiona Ma

This is the state’s banker—the head person who manages the state’s investments and administers the sale of state bonds and notes. The treasurer serves on several commissions, mostly related to marketing bonds, and pays out state funds that are spent by the state controller. Fiona Ma is a CPA with experience in tax law and balancing budgets. She speaks often of accountability and transparency, which seem pretty vital for anyone dealing with large sums of money. She’s worked at the local and state level during the course of the Great Recession. Some issues she wants to focus on include affordable housing programs, alleviating high student loan debts, making quality affordable healthcare more accessible (she was born with a preexisting health condition), investing in first responders (her hubby’s a firefighter), and protecting the environment. She also has the support of her majesty, Senator Kamala Harris, among others, and has spoken up plenty about equal rights for woman, people of color, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ folks, vets, and the homeless. As a member of the Board of Equalization, she was instrumental in sparking an investigation into a scandal involving nepotism and improper use of civil servants for political purposes by her fellow board members. The scrutiny culminated in a 2017 law that stripped the Board of Equalization of nearly all of its duties and staff, leaving it with only the core duties required under the state Constitution.

Greg Conlon, on the other hand, seems bitter and disappointed in big government. He speaks a lot about fixing California’s “broken economy” and “getting the job done”. He served as an Air Force pilot, so I imagine some vets will relate to him, but most of the time he just comes across as a begrudging old white man who didn’t get his way. If only we had more of those! Also, he wants to change the state constitution so that the controller and treasurer are appointed by the governor, rather than the people. Maybe that’s because this is his third run for treasurer and he’s never received more than 40% of the vote. Burn.

Attorney General: Xavier Becerra (D)

Becerra led California into suing, or joining other states in suing, the Trump administration seventeen times in 2017 alone and more than forty times total since being appointed, which is reason enough to get our vote. But looking at what those 2017 lawsuits include tells you what’s important to him: four suits against Trump’s immigration policies, including a suit over his efforts to end DACA; a suit over Trump’s ban on our transgender brothers, sisters, and friends serving in the military; a suit against a policy that would allow insurance companies to withhold coverage to women for birth control; and eight suits over the softening or dissolving of environmental regulations, earning him the title “The Planet’s Lawyer” from grist.com.

Bacerra has earned a shit-ton of endorsements from people we’re fond of including Kamala Harris and Jerry Brown, as well as the California Legislative Black and Latino Caucuses, which represent two of the population’s most vulnerable to violence and injustice suffered at the hands of law enforcement. As our sitting attorney general, Becerra has had a direct hand in shaping the behavior of law enforcement agencies, so endorsements from these caucuses should mean something to all of us. He’s also endorsed by the LA Times, which calls their endorsement a “monumentally easy call” for the above reasons, but also because Bailey, Becerra’s opponent, is a political asshole running on a platform that has California generally standing down against Trump administration policies across the board. He favors the “Three Strikes” law mandating a twenty-five-years-to-life sentence for people committing their third felony, including felonies as minor as drug possession and dealing. The “Three Strikes” law is a disaster. It inherently discriminates by race, and it feeds the prison-industrial complex, causing mass incarceration. Bailey’s endorsements alone are a big fat fuck no: the NRA and California Pro-Life, to highlight two. And oh, yeah—he’s facing twelve counts of judicial misconduct from the State Commission on Judicial Performance. Charming.

Insurance Commissioner: Ricardo Lara (D)

The Insurance Commissioner’s job is to oversee the state agency that enforces insurance laws and investigates health care fraud. Therefore, whoever sits in this chair will have Californians’ backs against large insurance companies. We like Sen. Ricardo Lara, the first openly gay person of color to serve in the State Senate. Lara has spent his entire legislative career being a strong consumer advocate, and he is part of a new wave of progressive Democrats, endorsed by Sen. Kamala Harris and more aligned with Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom than Gov. Jerry Brown. He is a supporter of the “Health4all” coalition, which proposes to expand Medi-Cal to all income-eligible California residents, regardless of their immigration status. And he believes the state needs a universal health care system, now that the Trump administration is trying to tear down Obamacare.

Meanwhile, Steve Poizner, tech entrepreneur, held the position as a Republican from 2007-2011. Poizner strongly opposed illegal immigration back when he ran for governor, and he blamed undocumented immigrants for many of the state’s problems. He believes the state should get more involved in the new market of cyber insurance and climate insurance. Both candidates agree on the need to deal with the growing threat of wildfires, by making sure companies pay off on claims and educating residents on the need to make sure they keep their home insurances up to date after they make improvements. In recent, polls, Poizner had a slight lead with many voters still undecided. We’ve decided on Lara.

United States Senator: Dianne Feinstein (D)

Well, the good news is that the Dems are gonna win this battle between an outspoken progressive and a little old lady who’s had the job for decades and has done . . . mostly all right. Feinstein is endorsed by the LA Times, Obama, Biden, Kamala Harris, and Barbara Boxer, and a boatload of congressmen and congresswomen. That establishment backing has her up on DeLeon by twenty-four points. But geez, we wish she was more progressive. For example, she’s not for single-payer health care, and she’s been for the death penalty.

DeLeon, on the other hand, who is the California State Senate president pro tem, got the endorsement from the state Democratic party by calling them all up and asking for it, while Feinstein took it for granted from Washington. There’s a LOT to like about DeLeon. He’s the son of an immigrant, progressive in all those progressive-y good ways, and hungry to take on idiot Republicans in Congress.

So what’s a progressive voter to do? For the most uninspiring of reasons, we’re going with DiFi. Seniority matters in the Senate, and Feinstein is the ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a member of the top Democratic leadership. We’d like to wait until we have a Democrat in the White House, and let Kamala Harris gain a little more seniority in Senate (or get Kamala Harris in the White House!), before California gives up Feinstein’s influential seat among Democratic Senate leadership.

State Senator, 26th District: Ben Allen (D)

Allen has held this position since 2016 and is universally endorsed as a force for positive change. His opponent, Baron Bruno (cool name!), is currently a real estate agent who uses a lot of CAPITAL letters on his website. While he did offer to “work until his fingers bleed,” Bruno’s anemic experience seems to be the only thing needing medical attention. Keep your day job, Bruno.

50th District State Assembly: Richard Bloom (D)

He’s running unopposed, and he knows it, judging by the grammar, punctuation, and monotony issues on his website. So it’s either a vote for him or a vote abstained. We give him our vote, as we have in the past. Liberal groups uniformly favor him and conservative groups uniformly dislike him, and that’s a formula we can believe in. A few fun highlights from his agenda: reforming the state’s film tax credit program to stem the tide of entertainment industry jobs fleeing to other states and countries; protecting bobcats; and educating people on how to understand and use the Affordable Care Act. Tiny red flag—he had to pay a fine a while back for not reporting four campaign contributions he received in the final days of his 2014 election campaign, but this failure is widely accepted as negligence as opposed to deception. We bloom for Bloom. There, we said it. But only because we always say it.

School Superintendent of Public Instruction:

UPDATED OCTOBER 27, 2018 to Marshall Tuck

As happens from time to time when we publish this list, various people reach out and talk to us about personal experiences with candidates. In this case, we asked San Francisco’s own, our good friend Ed Center (whom we would have added to this debate team were he closer) to provide his reasoning. And...we were convinced. His notes are here in blue:

Marshall Tuck is the candidate with an actual track record of improving schools for low-income, black, and Latino kids. He is willing to make tough decisions that are unpopular with the status quo: more school options for poor families, bonus pay for teachers in low-income neighborhoods, giving principals leeway to hire the faculty they want. He’s the smartest person I’ve ever talked to about education policy. This is a tough one for me because I like Thurmond and I want to support a candidate from humble means. Thurmond is a career politician with his eyes on the next prize. I would vote for him for senator. But because he’s politically ambitious, he refuses to go against the teachers union which is a big force in maintaining the status quo for poor, black and Latino students. Tuck helped to turnaround a group of underperforming schools in LA under Villaraigrosa. In doing so, he was very supportive to teachers but upset the union by doing things like giving bonus pay. The union said you can’t do that, we have a contract that lays out salary structure and he said, fine, what are you going to do when I tell the LA Times that you won’t let me pay teachers MORE? I’ve heard him lay out his plan for education in CA and I believe in that plan. I think he’s he best choice for CA students.

Our Original Notes: This was a tough pick. If the LA Times’s assessment of the race is credible, both Thurmond and Tuck would be admirable choices, although they give the slight nod to Thurmond. As do we. Both are running on a platform focusing on low-income and at-risk youth, but Tuck served as president of a chain of charter schools and as a CEO in different educational organizations, and while that doesn’t mean he can’t sympathize with the problems of low-income and at-risk communities, Thurmond is in a better position to empathize with those communities, having grown up poor in Philadelphia and then working within challenged communities as a social worker. Assuming all other relevant attributes between Tuck and Thurmond are equal—which they inevitably are not, but nothing we’ve been able to find point to a significant difference in their administrative abilities—we say go with the guy who’s been there over the guy who’s been assessing it from afar. Additionally, Thurmond’s massive list of endorsements includes Kamala Harris, Nancy Pelosi, and Maxine Waters—plus the California Black and Latino Caucuses, which, again, represent communities who are more vulnerable than most to a problemed education system.

County-Assessor: Jeffrey Prang

Jeffrey Prang is the incumbent and we agree with the LA Times that we should vote to give him a second term. Basically, he’s done a much better job than his predecessor so we should re-elect him so he can keep up the good work. The assessor’s main job is to determine the value of newly built, improved, or purchased properties and business assets. The office also decides on requests to reduce property valuations and hears appeals of the decisions made by its appraisers. Its decisions help determine how much county residents pay in property taxes each year. And the other guy listed his official middle name as “Lower Taxes” on the ballot (no really, look at your ballot) and in all of the press materials. We have NO idea who that works for, because it is legit crazy as hell.

County—Sheriff: Jim McDonnell

The county sheriff is one of the most powerful elected officials in the county, as they influence state policy, run the county jail system, and have the power to find alternatives to incarceration. So pay attention. We do NOT endorse the Democratic Socialist suggestion that you just write in whatever joke candidate you want. (For real, don’t.) This is a runoff election from June and pits the incumbent, McDonnell versus Villanueva, a recently retired deputy. In his time as county sheriff, McDonnell has been able to make some positive changes, especially considering that the last sheriff was sent to prison. McDonnell has much more experience than Villanueva, having had opportunities while on the force to manage large teams and more recently in his role in the past four years as county sheriff. Villanueva, on the other hand, never rose within the ranks of the LASD. Given his past work experience and performance, McDonnell just edges out Villanueva.

Member State Board of Equalization, 3rd District:

TOSS UP, but, sigh, probably Tony Vazquez (D)

Okay, this race is REAL bummer. The State Board of Equalization is a long story and kind of a mess we’ve talked about before. It was established in 1879 to ensure statewide fairness in property tax assessments, but over time the board really turned on its mandate to tamp down on corruption and by 2017 the board was bonkers corrupt and after a criminal investigation (led by Betty Yee!) Jerry Brown signed a bill that stripped the board of its powers and scaled it back from 4,800 employees to 400. So, what will Tony Vazquez or G. Rick Marshall be in charge of when we elect them? The board’s home page now says, “The State Board of Equalization administers Property Tax, Alcoholic Beverage Tax, and Tax on Insurers programs.” So, that’s a five-member board stuck more or less with its original constitutional powers to review property tax assessments, plus a few other things that have become relevant since 1879, like insurer tax assessment, alcohol excise tax, and pipeline taxes. So, it’s important that they not be corrupt. You see where this is going, yes: Tony Vazquez, the Democrat, is a longtime Santa Monica councilman and was the first Latino mayor of Santa Monica. He’s endorsed by some mainstream Democrats like Antonio Villaraigosa, Alex Padilla, and Maxine Waters (as well as a Santa Monica car dealership and a Mexican restaurant!). But there’s a noticeable brevity to his list of endorsements, because . . . you guessed it, he’s under investigation for corruption! He apparently claimed no income for several years during which his wife, a school board member, made votes that favored two businesses that had employed Vazquez as a contractor. And neither of them disclosed the conflict of interest. COME ON! And then, on the other side of the ticket, there’s G. Rick Marshall, who appears to be on the stubborn side of the small-government, fewer-taxes brand of Republicanism. That’s not a good match for California, a progressive state that believes in leveling taxes for worthy programs and investments. Marshall could bring to a screeching halt programs that make California a progressive leader. There doesn’t appear to be a hero in this story, but democracy is sometimes about picking the least worst option, and in this case, we still think that’s Vasquez, because if the current investigation finds him to be corrupt, he’ll be removed from office and we’ll get someone else who maybe won’t screw up the way taxes are collected because of some “survival of the fittest” bullshit. But again, COME ON!

FOR ANALYSIS/BIOS OF THE JUDICIARY RACES, CLICK HERE.

FOR ANALYSIS/RESEARCH OF EACH OF THE BALLOT MEASURES, CLICK HERE.

4 notes · View notes

moondancewrites · 6 years

Text

Kaleidoscope Eyes - Chapter 1

Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Lucy Larson (OC)

Warnings: Fluff, eventual smut

Summary: After the Infinity War, Bucky Barnes is invited to officially join the Avengers and move into their compound. For the first time in a long time, everything in Bucky’s life makes sense. He has a place he belongs, friends who care about him, and a purpose. But, there’s one thing that’s keeping him from feeling truly like his old self. It isn’t long before he realizes that the something he’s missing might be found in Lucy Larson, a Stark Industries employee who has worked her way up the ranks to become Maria Hill’s executive assistant at the Avengers compound.

A/N: This story exists in a perfect world where none of our beloved Avengers die in Infinity War and Cap and everyone come back to the Avengers compound to live and work. What’s the point of fan fiction if you can’t keep the ones you love alive, right? Be gentle on me - this is my first Bucky fic and it scares the hell out of me to write someone as complex as him. Also, this will switching POVs every once in a while.

Chapter 1

John Lennon’s voice filled the room, signaling the start of another day. Lucy reached for the console beside her bed, fumbling to turn off the alarm.

“Five more minutes,” she whined, hugging her pillow and squeezing her eyes closed to keep out the early morning sun.

“Ms. Larson.” F.R.I.D.A.Y.’s soft voice filled the room . Lucy turned onto her side, pulling her pillow over her head as if that would hide her from the omnipresent AI. “Ms. Hill wanted to make sure that everything was ready for this morning’s arrival.”

“This mornings …. Oh!” Lucy sprang up in bed, wide-eyed with excitement. “Y-yes, F.R.I.D.A.Y. Everything is ready. I just need to go down and do some final checks.”

The day was finally here. Today, all of her friends would be back home after saving the world, once again. Not wanting to waste another second, Lucy jumped out of bed and ran to the shower. While she washed her hair, Lucy went over the list in her head of things she had to do to prepare for the day.

Lucy had been given the task of setting up the living quarters for one of the newest member of the team. It took a little coaxing, but Steve had managed to talk his best friend, Bucky Barnes, into officially joining the Avengers. Maria Hill, Lucy’s boss, put her in charge of making sure that his room was ready for him when he arrived. Since Bucky didn’t have many possessions to start with, Lucy pretty much had a clean slate when it came to decor and wardrobe.

Steve wanted the whole room to be a surprise, so she’d been working solely with him to cultivate items the would suit the new Avenger. They had been texting back and forth the last few days as the team made their way back home. Although, honestly, Lucy could have probably done it without asking Steve a single question since she knew so much about Bucky already. She’d known Steve for years now and he talked about Bucky all the time. She felt like she knew him already. Sure, she knew about him before, but that was only through the official files and the gossip around the compound. But through Steve, she felt like she knew the real Bucky - not just the Winter Soldier or the White Wolf or whatever people called him.

As the hour drew nearer, the butterflies in Lucy’s stomach started to flutter a little faster. Would he like what she’d done with his room? What if he didn’t like it? Would he tell her? Would he even talk to her at all? People were speculating that he would be the silent type. She wouldn’t be surprised by that at all, given his history, but she was determined to be his friend. Or maybe just make him smile. That was the day’s goal.

She was doing some final checks in his closet when there was a knock on the door. Her heart leapt in her chest. “They’re here,” Gina, one of her old friends from data maintenance said from the doorway. “Holy shit … it’s freezing in here.”

“That’s how Bucky likes it,” Lucy replied. Gina squinted at her and Lucy’s gaze shifted back to her task.

“And you know just how … Bucky likes it?” Gina choked on her laugh and Lucy had half a mind not to throw a shoe at her.

“I just mean … That’s what Steve … Sergeant Barnes …” She was flustered and Gina knew it, which made it even worse.

“C’mon, Luc … time to meet ….” Gina flipped her hair back over her shoulder as she said, “Sergeant Barnes,” with a teasing exuberance.

“I hate you,” Lucy muttered through gritted teeth.

“Love you, too.”

“Welcome home, Buck,” Steve said with a kind grin, patting his friend’s back. The place was even bigger than they’d all described. It felt more like a town than a compound.

“Thanks,” Bucky said with a gulp. He pulled on the strap of his bag nervously, tightening it around his shoulder. He was half expecting there to be a huge crowd of people waiting for them to arrive. If the whole team had arrived as a whole, maybe that would have been the case. But it was just him and Steve for now - the rest of the Avengers would slowly make their way back throughout the rest of the day. Steve thought it best for them to get there ASAP so Bucky could start to become acclimated before they started training for whatever lay ahead.

“Look, I know it’s a big change. And I know you’re nervous-”

“I’m not-” Bucky started, but Steve shot him a look that made him shrug in admission.

“It’s going to take some getting used to. But your room is right across the hall from me. And I’ve put someone I trust in charge of setting it up for you.” Bucky’s eyes followed Steve’s gaze. “There she is.” Steve smiled widely, waving at a woman coming down the stairs. “Buck, this is Lucy.”

“Hi Bu- … I mean, Sergeant Barnes,” the young woman said with a wide smile. She reached out her right hand and Bucky took it. Bucky was about to correct her and say that Bucky was fine, but she just kept right on talking. “I’m Lucy, Maria Hill’s executive assistant. She runs the compound, so I basically do whatever she needs me to do. And she’s made it clear to give you whatever you need to make you comfortable and I’ve been working with Steve on your room and I think you’re going to like it. At least I hope you do. But if you don’t, you can tell me and I’ll change it right away.” She was still shaking his hand. That is, until Bucky looked down at their hands and she realized what she was doing. She pulled away and a soft blush appeared on her freckle-speckled cheeks. “Sorry.”

“Thanks,” was all he could think of to say.

“Why don’t you show us what you’ve done?” Steve suggested.

“You … you want me to come with you?” Lucy asked, pointing at her chest.

“You’ve done all the hard work - you should show him,” he told her, grinning that signature Cap grin that would make most girls swoon. Lucy just smiled, though, which Bucky found interesting.

If this girl talked as much as she did while showing them the room, Bucky was certain he’d have a headache after her little tour. He’d never heard a person talk so fast in his life. And with such … giddiness, he decided, was the best way to describe it. The girl was practically bouncing on her heels. And those were some tall heels.

“Oh, okay. Sure. I can do that. This way, gentlemen.”

“She was in charge of my room?” Bucky whispered under his breath to Steve as they followed Lucy to the living quarters.

“She’s a sweet kid,” Steve sighed. “She’s just excited to meet you.”

That baffled Bucky. “Why?” he asked.

“Everyone’s excited to meet you, Buck. You helped save the world. And you’re my oldest friend. They’ve all heard a story or two.”

“Oh, great.” Bucky rolled his eyes. He was already having second thoughts about this whole new living situation.

“Here we are.” Lucy stopped in front of the door abruptly and Bucky nearly collided with her. She turned on her heel, reaching in the pocket of her cardigan to pull out a keycard. She handed it to Bucky. “This will get you in until we set up the retinal scan.” He just nodded and he thought he saw a hint of a frown tug on her bright smile.

“What are you waiting for, Buck?” Steve said, nodding to the keypad on the door. Bucky pushed the card against it and the door slid open without a sound. He looked back at Lucy and Steve who were both standing the exact same way with the exact same expression. It almost made him smile. Almost.

What did make him smile was what he walked into. He hadn’t been in a place that felt like home in so long, but that place …. There was something about it that made him feel instantly safe and comfortable. Blue and green were the main colors in the room - a stark contrast to the dark reds and blacks and gloomy greys he was used to. The walls had a few art pieces on them. There was a really cool painting of a car that caught his eye. The bed looked like a gigantic cloud. He felt the urge to fall on it, just to see if it was as fluffy as it looked, but he restrained himself because of the company.

He could hear Lucy holding her breath behind him. He turned to her and nodded. “This is nice. Thank you,” he said. Lucy exhaled and that bright, giddy smile was back.

“You like it?” He nodded again. “Oh, thank God,” she sighed. “I know I’m not an interior designer by any stretch of the imagination, but with Steve’s help with the whole color thing … he said your favorite colors are blue and green, so I did both. And he said you liked tech and cars, so I got some stuff out of Mr. Stark’s art vault and found a few new pieces. And he told me your size, so I got you a closet full of new clothes.” Lucy walked over to the closet and Bucky followed. “See?” She beamed, turning on the light.

“Yeah. That’s … great.” There was that little tease of a frown again. Was someone that giddy even capable of frowning? “Thanks,” he said. He looked at Steve. “It’s great.”

“I told you he’d like it,” Steve told Lucy, patting her shoulder. “Lucy, want to explain the tech part to him while I go drop my bags off? Then I’ll come back and give you a tour.”

“Sure,” she said.

Steve closed the door behind him, leaving Lucy alone with her new neighbor. He wasn’t as scary as some of her coworkers made him out to be, but the few who described him as quiet and brooding hit the nail on the head. Even though he barely said a word, Lucy spoke enough for the both of them. She had a talent for it, if you could call it that.

When she went over everything with Bucky, he seemed pretty comfortable with it - way more comfortable than Steve had been. Hell, Steve still couldn’t figure out how to get half of the stuff to work.

“You’re pretty into tech, huh?” Lucy asked him as he played around with the buttons. “Steve is still figuring out how to use that thing.”

“That’s because Steve is a grandpa,” Bucky said matter-of-factly. Lucy busted out laughing, nearly falling into the dresser.

“Oh my God. That’s great.” Bucky smiled … actually smiled. And his smile was so … soft. And kind. And sweet. The smile fell from his lips, almost as if he could hear her thinking about how much she liked it. “I bet Wakanda was like heaven for you, then, with all their amazing tech.”

“Yeah, it was great. Until the whole war thing.”

Fuck. “Way to put your foot in your mouth, Luc,” Lucy groaned, covering her eyes with her hand.

“It’s fine. I’m used to war,” Bucky said with a little shrug. That sentence broke Lucy’s heart.

“I-” A knock at the door cut her off, followed by a bearded Steve poking his head in the room.

“Ready, Buck?”

“Sure.” Bucky turned to Lucy. “Thanks, Lucy.”

“You’re welcome, Sergeant Barnes.”

“Bucky … please,” he said with a soft smile.

“Good luck with that,” Steve laughed. “Do you know how long it took for me to get her to call me Steve?”

“You’re welcome, Bucky,” Lucy said, looking defiantly at Steve. Steve crossed his arms over his chest and Lucy smirked at him. “See you at the party tonight?”

“Wait … what party?” Bucky asked with wide eyes.

“The … welcome home party? For all of you guys? Steve, you didn’t tell him?” Now Lucy was crossing her arms over her chest.

“I was going to casually mention it later after the whole tour and everything. Ya know, ease him into the whole thing.”

“Oh …” Lucy dropped her arms. “Sorry. Well, anyway … see you later!”

“This is a bad idea.” Bucky adjusted the collar on his crisp white shirt. It fit like a glove. Everything did, actually. Even the boxers. Thinking about Lucy picking out his boxers made his cheeks get a little hot, which he was shocked by. He wasn’t sure until that moment that he was capable of blushing anymore.

“Nah, man. It’s a great idea. Everyone is going to be there - even the guardian’s gang is making an appearance before they go off to who knows where.”

“Oh, great. The racoon will probably try to steal my arm again,” Bucky groaned. Sam laughed at him but when he saw the look on Bucky’s face, he shut up.

“It’s gonna be great, man. Booze, drinks, girls …” Sam nudged Bucky’s metal shoulder.

“I repeat,” Bucky said, glaring at his friend, “bad. Idea.”

“Do you know how many fine women are going to be at this party?”

“I thought this was just a compound party … that’s what Steve said.”

“Yeah. There are some honeys that work here, man. There’s this one girl in deployment. Kristie ….” Sam licked his lips. “She’s mine,” he warned.

“They can all be yours,” Bucky said, holding his arms up. “I’m not ready for any of that.”

“Not ready? Pschhh. Man, we’re dudes. We’re always ready. And don’t act like you’re all brainwashed and everything because I know for a fact Shuri straightened you out. You’re you again, man. You can be a dude. A normal dude. And you know what normal dudes do?”

“What do normal dudes do?” Bucky found himself asking; his voice sticking on the word dude. He wasn’t used to that word yet.

“They get. The. Honeys.”

“Sam.” Bucky had to laugh at the man’s enthusiasm. “I’ll let you know when I’m ready to … get the honeys.” He grimaced hearing those words come out of his mouth. “But it’s not tonight, okay? I just got here and I’m already kind of freaking out.” Sam smiled at him. “And I don’t know why I’m telling this because you’ll just make fun of me.”

“Buck, Buck, Buck,” Sam sighed, throwing his arm around him. “Would I ever make fun of you?”

“You made fun of me five minutes ago …”

“Touche,” Sam said with a shrug. “But we’re friends, man. I’ll stop pushing.” Bucky let out a breath. “For now.” The music from the party got louder as they approached the big double doors. “But for now, it’s time to celebrate.”

“Wow,” Gina breathed, looking over Lucy’s shoulder. Lucy turned, curious to see what made Gina’s jaw drop like that. Sam and Bucky had just walked into the party. Bucky was wearing a white button down with black slacks and a black tie. His hair was down and falling in his face, hiding the pretty blue eyes that she couldn’t help but notice earlier in the day. “That man is wearing that outfit … yowza. You did a good job with wardrobe.”

“I guess I did,” Lucy said, unable to tear her eyes away from him. He wasn’t really her type - she liked nerdy, lanky guys, usually - but it was impossible to deny that he looked good.

“I’m going to go introduce myself.”

“I don’t know if that’s such a good idea,” Lucy told her. Gina’s brow furrowed. “He’s kind of nervous about the whole party thing.”

“Oh? Well, all the more reason. I just want to make him feel welcome.” Gina winked at Lucy. She was an insufferable flirt.

Lucy watched the exchange between Gina and Bucky from across the room. Bucky’s expression never changed and they only shared a few words before Gina turned around and made the ‘kill’ signal across her neck. Lucy chuckled, taking another sip of her drink.

While the others were all mingling and laughing and drinking and dancing … well, at least the Peters were, Bucky hid himself away in a corner, nursing a beer and observing the party going on around him. Steve came over and sat with him a few times, but each time he’d get pulled away by someone. Lucy kept her distance for a while, but after a few drinks she managed to get the courage to go up and talk to him.

“Enjoying the party?” she asked, sitting on the chair beside him. Bucky jumped. “Oh, sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

“It’s fine,” he said, waving it off with his metal arm. It was so shiny and she was so curious about it, but she didn’t dare ask him, at least not on the first day. That was more of a two month conversation.

“So … are you?” Lucy asked.

“Am I what?” Bucky responded, pushing his hair behind his ear. Over the course of the evening, his tie had loosened and the first two buttons on his shirt had come undone. It was a good look, although Lucy dared not mention it or even think it. She had a feeling he would sense it if she did.

“Enjoying the party.”

“Oh. Yeah. It’s fine.”

“I like getting together with everyone, but the music they play at these things …”

“It’s pretty bad,” Bucky replied with a small smile. Lucy smiled back. “It just sounds like noise to me.”

“Who’s the grandpa now?” Lucy teased. Bucky’s smile widened, his gaze falling to his beer resting on his lap.

“Touche,” he said. “But it is pretty bad.”

“I know. I prefer oldies.”

“Like …?” Bucky asked. He was actually talking to her. Like, having a conversation. Lucy could hardly believe it.

“Like the Stones.”

“Stones … Rolling Stones,” Bucky said. Lucy nodded. “I like them.”

“And the Beatles.”

“Them I haven’t really listened to yet,” Bucky told her. Lucy’s jaw dropped. “What?”

“You haven’t heard the Beatles?” she asked.

“I think I’ve heard a few songs. But not a lot. I like the Stones better.”

“Blasphemy!” Lucy exclaimed, clutching her chest. Bucky chuckled - actually chuckled. It was so soft she could barely hear it over the music, but it was there. Lucy tried to ignore the warm flutter of the butterflies. “The Beatles are the best. But … I suppose I’m biased.”

“How so?” he asked.

“I was named after one of their songs. Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” Bucky’s blank stare told her that he hadn’t heard it. “Ya know, Lucy in the skkyyy with diamonds,” she sang.

“Haven’t heard it,” he said with a shrug.

“It’s a great one. But I think A Hard Day’s Night is my favorite album. The movie is hilarious.”

“They made movies?” Bucky asked.

“Yeah! It’s great. It really has no plot except following them around for a day while they prepare for a show but the music is great and they’re funny. Especially George. Everyone likes John best but I mean, c’mon … George Harrison was the best Beatle.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Bucky replied, taking another sip from his beer.

“BUCK!” Sam stumbled over to them, nearly falling over Lucy. “Oh, hey Lucy! You are looking gorgeous this evening.”

“Thanks, Sam,” Lucy muttered, smoothing the skirt of her blue dress. At least somebody noticed.

“Buck, there’s a group of girls over there that keep asking me about you, man. You’ve gotta come say hi.”

“I’m good here,” Bucky said.

“C’mon, dude. Be my wingman …”

“Why don’t you go get red wing to do that for you?” Bucky quipped. Lucy didn’t expect Bucky to be so funny. But there he was, making her laugh for the second time already that day. She practically choked on her drink.

“Ha. ha. Very funny. Seriously, dude. We could both get …” Sam seemed to forget that Lucy was there until that moment. He cleared his throat, averting Lucy’s gaze. “They want to get you a drink.”

“Got one,” Bucky said, raising his beer. “And I’m fine here. Lucy’s telling me about how the Beatles are better than the Stones.”

“Bullshit,” Sam laughed. “Beach Boys are where it’s at.”

“I did not peg you for a Mike Love fan,” Lucy said, looking up at Sam.

“Well, it shows how well you know your friends then, huh, little Lucy?” Sam booped Lucy on the nose. Lucy pretended to bite at his finger and he laughed at her, shaking his head. “C’mon Buck …”

“You’re not going to stop until I go over there, are you?” Bucky asked, heaving a heavy sigh when Sam nodded in response. “Fine.” He got up, running his hand through his dark hair. Lucy wondered if it was as soft as it looked. “It was nice talking to you,” Bucky said, pulling her out of her musings.

“You, too,” Lucy said. “Give the Beatles another chance. You won’t regret it.”

Finally, Bucky could sink into the plush bed that he’d been thinking about all day. He’d managed to escape Sam and Gina and Beth and Tori, the girls he’d introduced him to. They all seemed nice. Gina actually came up and talked to him first, but that was right when he got there and he was still freaking out about the whole party thing.

The only thing that calmed his nerves was when Steve and Lucy came to talk to him. Then again, there was something about Lucy that made him nervous, too. A different kind of nervous. Kind of … uneasy. He wasn’t sure what it was about her. Maybe it was her giddy demeanor or the way her freckles bunched up on her nose when she laughed. Or maybe it was the fact that he couldn’t decide what color her eyes were - were they blue or green? Granted, he hadn’t been brave enough to look that close. But they were vexing, still. Maybe it was the fact that she talked to him like they were already friends and yet he knew nothing about her except that George was her favorite Beatle and she was named after one of their songs. Or maybe it was the way that blue dress accentuated her curves. He couldn’t put his finger on it and it was irksome, to say the least.

He tossed and turned for a while, trying to get comfortable. It wasn’t the bed - that thing was heaven. It was just his new surroundings, he told himself. Not the brunette in the pretty blue dress.

After about an hour, he gave up and started fiddling with the tech pad that Lucy had showed him earlier. He wasn’t sure how he got to it, but he found himself pressing play on ‘Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds’. He laid back, crossing his arms behind his head and staring at the ceiling as the music filled the room.

‘Picture yourself in a boat on a river, with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, a girl with kaleidoscope eyes’

“Kaleidoscope eyes,” Bucky murmured to himself, closing his eyes and drifting off to sleep.

Tag List: @feelmyroarrrr @lesqui @badassbaker @scarletts-letters @vechkinfan @seb-smut

#Bucky Barnes #Bucky Barnes fan fiction #fan fiction #Marvel fan fiction #Sebastian stan #Kaleidoscope eyes #Moondancewrites

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wouldadepressedpersonmakethis · 6 years

Text

phone wars

STORE 1: “Mobicity”

IDRIS ELBA (45, reserved by kate aa) - store manager: super intense!!!!! runs his store like he’s running an army!!!! treats every sale like a life or death situation!!! has some raymond holt vibes too??? like this, this, this, and this are all him! expects peRFECTION from his employees!!!! the interview process is inSANE!!!!!! definitely treats the other stores and their employees like mortal enemies!!!!! his office is conveniently located so that he can spy on the store two stores. also has some john mulaney’s dad vibes. “you have the moral backbone of a chocolate eclair” “god can’t hear you” “how are you better than a nazi?” “let’s change the subject” “1 black coffee”

MICHEAL B. JORDAN (31 , reserved by kate aa) - didn’t believe that IDRIS ELBA was a real person but heard stories from his sister. forged an impressive resume and got a job as his assistant manager. got the job just so he could mess w/ idris for fun???? super talented at pretending like he’s got his shit together when in reality he’s super lazy (except when it comes to playing elaborate pranks). secretly dating melissa benoist

RICHARD AYOADE (41) - salesperson, always nervous!!! brilliant but no social skills, terrified of idris, talks fast, throws up when he gets nervous, “i’m okay as long as i don’t think about it!” you could spill soup on him and he’d probably apologize to you

KATIE MCGRATH (35) - idris’s assistant; once dated chris pine; may or may not have gotten this job just to desTROY him; super ambitious/intelligent; could be doing any number of things w/ her life but she’s also kind of petty; has a lot of meryl streep in the devil wears prada vibes, does have a lot of respect for idris but also has plans to over-throw him; can be intense?????? only cares about 1 person (her sister/cousin/bff???) still attracted to chris pine but u won’t hear her say that

ZOEY DEUTCH (23) - katie’s assistant; STRESS LEVEL IS CONSTANTLY A 11/10; def has anne hathaway’s job in tdwp; got this job by mistake; is the furthest thing from organized; applied for a janitor position b/c that’s all she’s qualified to do here but somehow her resume got mixed up??? *** she thinks it was a mistake but it was actually just a prank that MBJ played*** faking it until she makes it??? or rather until she gets fired heh. pretending to be an uptight harvard grad but instead hardly graduated hs and doesn’t know how to adult; may or may not have spent her entire first pay check on fuzzy socks and mozzarella sticks.

??? another lady

STORE 2: “What’s App”

CHARLIE DAY (42) -- an idiot, super chill and laid back, somehow always accidentally thwarts the others’ plans to destroy him! a human disaster but somehow everything just works out for him. his store is a mess tbh??? very unorganized but somehow the most successful of the three??

DYLAN O’BRIEN (26) -- wanted to work for store #1 with a deep passion and intensity!! looks @ idris elba as his idol??? potentially calls him dad accidentally a lot??? idk its weird and IDRIS ELBA got super annoyed with him constantly applying to work for him so instead he sent him to work at store 2 as a “spy”. he takes this role suPER seriously and basically thinks he’s james bond. never gets anything at all helpful for idris elba. has a weird and elaborate fake back story for going undercover. most people can tell he is a “spy”?

ZENDAYA (21) (reserved by lizzy) - younger sister to MBJ and GMR. college student. this is 100% the best summer job she’s ever had. super unmotivated to do well most of the time and just tricks #2 to do all of her work for her. loves just to sit back and watch the chaos unfold.

KRYSTEN RITTER (36 , reserved by kate aa) - IT, monotone voice, always wears black, likes to pretend that she’s a satanist to fuck with people, surrounded by idiots, hates everyone, do not engage her in psychological warfare b/cs she will deSTROY you

BLAKE LIVELY (30 , reserved by kate aa) - heavy beatrice/eugenie vibes~ under skills she listed: i know how to do makeup and have an iphone, only got and has kept this job b/c her manager is as clueless as she is???? does try to be helpful but honestly makes things worse, doesn’t understand you have to put in a full eight hours a day??? often leaves for several hours at at time for lunch??? sometimes just doesn’t come back??? grew up super wealthy and was recently disinherited by her parents after she got into a huge fight w/ them over something stupid?? too proud to go crawling back but tbh she is def drowning in the real world.

MAX GREENFIELD (37) LOUD, yells a LOT, hired as the new brand manager. is grossed out 24/7 by the state of the store; sUPER dramatic; always saying how he’s going to have a heart attack working here (probably will tbh), also says he’s going to die of a rare disease working w/ charlie day (also probably true), has goals to rebrand this as a luxury phone store (closer in style to Oasis vs. a garbage). has his work cut out for him

STORE 3: “Oasis”

CHRIS PINE (37, reserved by lizzy) -- super wealthy!!!, spoiled!!!! a huge ass!!!!! his father is the CEO but he wanted his son to work his way up the ranks on his own vs. just handing the business over to him. has become manager here but that’s as far as he’s gotten. will do whatever it takes to make his branch the most successful!!!! soooo dramatic!!!!! the level of bitchiness in him is absurd!!! definitely considers IDRIS ELBA to his his (1) true enemy!!!!!! def considers manager #2 to be worthless and beneath his notice (don’t mention that he’s actually his biggest competition)!!! has probably won the shithead of the year award. hits on his assistant 24/7 has anger management issues

GUGU MBATHA-RAW (35) - michael b. jordan’s older sister. chris pine’s secretary. the sweetest person in the world!!!!!!! does NOT deserve to work for someone like chris pine. doesn’t realize how much of an awful person he is just because she can’t believe anyone could be that awful???? would come home and tell her siblings about work and the rivalry and neither of them could believe it but then they all got jobs at the other two stores just to see if it was what gugu had said ... turns out its even better.

TIMOTHY OLYPHANT (50, reserved by lizzy) - hired by chris pine’s dad to keep him in line and make sure that he doesn’t do anything to harm the family’s or the company’s reputation. it is a fulltime job!!!! constantly stressed!!!! constantly like: idk what i expected!?!?!? keeps trying to talk sense to chris pine but that’s like talking to a brick wall??? sometimes tries to tell him not to do something in the hopes that he will actually do it ... but that never works either ... will probably die from a heart attack soon. spends his days apologizing to everyone

MELISSA BENOIST (29, reserved by lizzy) - secretly dating michael b. jordan, her job is basically to keep everyone she knows alive???? helP, loves MBJ a lot but he does stress her out sometimes, kind of OCD, works too hard, super driven, just needs to relax, honestly hates this job but just holding it while she finishes up med school, bffs w/ zoey, somehow emily thinks they are bffs??? but melissa doesn’t have the heart to tell her that they aren’t

EMILY BLUNT (35, taken by kate aa) mary eileen vibes~ An Author™ (but not really) trolls her amazon reviews and obsesses over every bad one, hardly does any work? is “in love” with TIMOTHY and is convinced that he is in love with her too even though he’s blatantly told her that he is not, thinks they can’t be together b/c they are co-workers and that they are involved in some kind of forbidden romance???? is the office manager and has def put a lot of personal expenses on it w/ shaky, at best, justifications for why they needed to be charged to the company

JERMAINE CLEMENT (?) method actor. currently is trying to get a role as a vampire. never breaks character. it gets weird.

STORE 4: a fro-yo shop that’s stuck in the middle of the war zone “Sprinkles on Top”

DREAMA WALKER (32) - believes all you need is a hug and some frozen yogurt to have a good day!!!! but the arrival of the three competing phone stores is testing everything she thinks she knows!!!!! her shop has now become hostile territory b/c all of her customers are mostly just the workers on break and they all just stare each other down!!!!!!! has become super aggressive in her attempts to try to get everyone to just get along and be happy!!!

CHRIS O’DOWD? JAKE JOHNSON (38-40 reserved by lizzy) - watched too many nature documentaries on netflix, feels like he morally needs to be a vegetarian now but can’t stop eating meat, so instead he justifies himself by making up elaborate stories about how the chicken he’s eating has unforgivable character flaws, talks at length about this to the customers? doesn’t have great social skills,has conversations with his cat more than w/ actual people; calls himself the alchemist b/c he once managed to burn his laundry, “i didn’t even know you could do that!”

NICK ROBINSON (23 , reserved by kate aa) - has a mild peanut allergy but took this job anyway. “i live life on the edge” ~ nick “you don’t” ~everyone else, has had a crush on ZENDAYA, got this job to be close to her after they went to different colleges? loves bad jokes, a Nerd, writes fanfiction, has won employee of the month every month since he was hired but tbh his competition isn’t that hard to beat, both proud and embarrassed to see his picture up on (the wall) so many times,

JON BERNTHAL? BEN BARNES? (reserved by kate aa)- actually a hitman and this job is just a cover, honestly a terrible liar and everyone can tell what he actually does but pretend they don’t??? inSANELY good at his hitman job ... not so good at serving frozen yogurt? doesn’t have any customer service skills tbh, honestly comes off as pretty terrifying? looks @ everyone like he might just kill you, tbh dreama is a little afraid to fire him?? doesn’t look like he works here???

ANNA KENDRICK (33, reserved by lizzy) - always come to work hungover, the queen of TMI, hits on everything and anything that moves, tbh a sexual harassment situation just waiting to happen, dreama’s younger sister/cousin and was only given this job as a favor, tbh is not working out as well as dreama had hoped.

AWKWAFINA (29) has killed every plant she has ever owned (doesn’t stop her from getting more!), dumps all the toppings on her fro yo. constantly is eating ~free~ frozen yogurt and doesn’t realize that after her 1 cup a day limit, the rest comes out of her paycheck. still lives with her parents. lOUD. ZERO FILTER. will say whatever is on her mind at any time. is TERRIBLE with secrets and is pretty sure she’s gonna drop to someone that melissa and michael are dating and get them both fired! yay! bffs w/ melissa benoist,

#not sure who i am taking #def not all six but those are the ones i'm considering #let me know if you'd like to reserve anyone!#phone wars #anyway here's the list of characters

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fuck-customers · 6 years

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So I’m a cashier at the college I attend, working in our little cafe area. I’ve been working there for almost four years now, since I started my first semester and am now on my last semester of a four year degree. I have a great relationship with all the full time workers and supervisors because I work my ass off, cover shifts when they need me to, have never missed a shift if I couldn’t find a cover, have never been late, etc. Basically I was raised knowing how to work and damn it, I know how to do my job and do it well. So because of this I’m trained on most of the stations (cashier, stocking, the sub/sandwich counter, dishes) and have basic knowledge of the other two, I’m only not fully trained on those because I’m sensitive to the heat and the grills make it too hot for me to work behind the counter at them. I prefer evenings so I do a lot of closing, and I do know how to close everything.

In short, I’m something of a pseudo-supervisor. As a student I’m ‘technically’ not allowed to work more than 20 hours a week, but they make an exception for me and I work 30, so I close 6 out of 7 nights. Most of my coworkers defer to me if the sup isn’t around because I know how to run my cafe. I even have pseudo-supervisor powers on the register, so I don’t need to constantly call for mine to solve problems that would typically require an override.

Despite all that, occasionally we get new hires, new full-time employees, who don’t seem to get the message. They try to boss me around because I’m 'only a student’, get snippy and go to the sup or manager when I tell them to fuck off, and then get pissy with me when whoever they try to complain to tells them to defer to me. Recently we got a new evening cashier, and my god, I could not STAND him. He was just… so stupid. Like I feel bad saying that, because he’s some kind of computer whiz or something like that, but he had absolutely no common sense and could not follow simple orders.

My supervisor would be trying to give him a list of tasks he needed to accomplish by a certain time, and he would stand there and continually make stupid little comments about what she was saying, and absorb absolutely nothing. One day she gave him this run-down, and then he comes and stands next to my register, sighs, and says, “Well, there’s really nothing to do right now.” And proceeds to start trying to strike up small talk with me, despite the fact that I am on register and there are a MILLION things he could be doing. I have no tolerance for laziness and basically said, “Go do this, this, this, this, and then I’ll have more ready for you when you finish.” And he sheepishly goes off to do them.

He also tries to suck up to you by whining about other people not doing their jobs? I came in one day and the dining rooms were a mess, which is typical on Sundays. The student cashier who works before me is shit and bails the moment he can get away with clocking out. So the idiot cashier I have to work with for the evening stands there going “I don’t understand why you’d half ass a job like that. He wiped down the tables but didn’t put them back where they’re supposed to be or bother to push in the chairs and make sure they look nice! It doesn’t take that much longer! And then he tells me he finished the dining rooms, when obviously he didn’t…” Like, on and on about it, for about fifteen minutes. I agree that it’s annoying when people do that.

And then at the end of the night I finish doing the deposit with my sup and then go to check on him while she finishes up in the office. I look at the dining rooms, which were one of his tasks, and lo and behold, he wiped off the tables but did nothing else. Exactly what he’d been bitching at me about when I clocked in for my shirt a few hours earlier.

Called him out on his bullshit and sent him back to do the dining rooms properly, of course. He also liked to whine about how “No one ever showed me how to do that! I’m sorry, I didn’t know!” BITCH I TRAINED YOU. I know FOR A FACT you received complete and extensive training on how to close, because I train ALL the new closing cashiers, both student and full time! Hell, I trained some of the people who have since been promoted to supervisors!

He also liked to jump on the register behind me instead of doing whatever he was supposed to be doing because “You have a line! I need to help you get through it!” Really he just wanted an excuse to stand at the register instead of actually working, I’m significantly faster than him (I have so much more experience than anyone else with the system, really it’s just a matter of me being more familiar), I have worked through rushes by myself as I frequently close by myself because full time evening cashiers never last more than a semester and we don’t hire quickly. I don’t need god damn help with a line of three/four people.

He quit two weeks into the new semester, after starting the final two weeks of the fall semester. I’d never been so happy to find out someone quit before, thank fucking god I never have the babysit the moron again. He honestly made closing so much harder because I had to chaperone him around every night instead of just quickly doing everything myself while also running register.

So, happy ending! My manager is actually going to bend the rules for me because I’m an exemplary worker, and none of the full time sups want to work the late night weekend shifts, where the cafe stays open until 1am instead of 9pm like weeknights. He called me in on my day off just yesterday (1/26) to tell me that if I wanted it, I would be promoted to honorary supervisor, given full supervisor powers and a gold nametag to indicate it, and be paid double what student workers make, just to come in and work the late night shifts I’m already working as the sup instead of the cashier. I’m the only one he would trust with the position and he knows I’m working to put away as much money as possible for after graduation, so he’s willing to do a little breaking of the rules for me.

I honestly couldn’t be more excited. I only have to do a little bit of training on things like balancing banks at the end of the night and other late night office work. I’ll be the first student worker at my school to ever get anything more than, well, the rank of student worker. I’m so happy, I love my cashier job and the cafe and I’ll be so sad to go after this semester. What he’s doing for me will give me an enormous boost on my resume and significantly help financially, I’m just so grateful. There are definitely some amazing employers out there, even if they’re few and far between!

#submissions #cashier problems #happy ending #fuck co-workers #fuck coworkers #retail justice #submission

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braindamageforbeginners · 6 years

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Jurassic Park

I just saw Jurassic Park again. I don't mean whichever version of Jurassic World is out with Chris Pratt this week, I mean the original one, which is so old that I believe it used actual footage of dinosaurs because it was filmed in the late Triassic. The one that was released in, Gods help me, 1993, and is now being rereleased in certain places. If it's your burg, I'd recommend checking it out; I went for $12 and thought it was worth it. This was a sort of experiment on my part; I've seen the film about 400 times, and reread the book more than a few times (most recently in 2010); I went based on the recommendation/idea in the von Hoffman Bros. Big Damn Book of Sheer Manliness (yes, that's a thing), that said, of Apocalypse Now, "If you get the chance, see on the big screen, with theater-quality sound, it's a real slap in the brain-pan." Now, I've gotten my brainpan slapped more than anyone should in recent years (almost literally), so I thought I'd do it wth an old familiar favorite (but remastered), and, even though I liked it, there are a few things that you notice when you're trapped in an adult's body. First off, from a cellular biology perspective (and I've known about this one for years, so it's not a revelation), they jump from "reassembling ancient DNA" to "dinosaurs are back." We know from Dolly that it'd require an ooctye (egg) to kick off the cloning process. Crichton glossed over this in the book, too, but as an adult with a background in the field (sort of), it's incredibly - almost invitingly - lazy that this would go from book to screen (actually, it's not so surprising when you know that Michael Crichton is also the credited screen writer, and he's historically good at overlooking and committing to film his errors), when, to paraphrase "Thank You for Smoking," it's an immediate and easy fix, "Thank God we invented the [whatever] device." Ellie and Alan's relationship is amazingly dysfunctional. It's one thing not to want children, and it's one thing to have incompatible long-term goals. It's another thing entirely to verbally crap on your girlfriends' aspirations at every single point. It's unsettling and a little creepy; Alan Grant will go on, at length about the evils of children even when there are no children in sight and the conversation/dialog only casually touches upon it, but I don't think you make it past the fifth date with that attitude. To be fair, the filmmakers' manage to create the world's most unbearably annoying child characters ever (and, 20 years later, it is beyond weird to know that Tim, cast as Eugene Slede, will on day say, with utmost conviction, "I hope the Japanese don't surrender. I hope we get to kill every single one of them."). Alan also gets minus Chekov points for having a giant, shiny bottle opener on his belt in every single scene (go ahead and watch the movie again) without ever using it, even though he brings his weird velociraptor claw with him to dinosaur island, and keeps it with him after learning dinosaurs are back. Speaking of enormous shiny things that are visually distracting, let's talk Jeff Goldblum (the character is Ian Grant, but I'm sure it's all Jeff). I know that we've been conditioned by years of exposure to the Internet to hold the Great Shirtless One above fault (and the entire theater erupted into applause at the start of that scene), but he is beyond creepy toward Ellie throughout the film; touchy, quick-moving, and behaving in a way I wouldn't endorse for anyone not contemplating a nomination for Supreme Court. Depite every single adult male in this film being kind of rapey or astonishingly indifferent about Ellie (that would be Alan). the film technically passes the Bechdel test. Stick with me on this one. The Bechdel Test was originally put forth by Alison Bechdel as a test of feminism in a film (or a test of not-outright sexism, as the case might be). The test - and it's fairly simple - is that a film feature two or more female characters, discussing something other than a man, in at least one scene. Back to the feature at hand, you'll remember that all the dinosaurs in the film, according to Wu, are female. Even though they later learn that the dinosaurs, thanks to frog DNA, can swap genders (actually, that's more common in chordates than you'd think). There are three adult velociraptors in the film; let's assume for the argument that two of the three identify as female. Now, go back and watch that kitchen scene where the two raptors hunt the kids in the kitchen and are clearly communicating with each other. Admittedly, one of those two kids is Tim, but he's so annoying throughout the film that I'd really rather not categorize him as "human," much less traditionally male. Speaking of the dinosaurs hunting the kids, every single character exerts themselves far more than necessary to achieve their ends. The paleontologists get on a helicopter with a man they literally met twenty minutes before (as the Too Long, Didn't Watch guys point out, this never, ever ends well in reality) because he offers to pay them; the lawyer (Gennaro) wears a tie and button-up shirt with shorts (as someone who has lived in the tropics, it's a very, very basic intelligence test to see how you dress when you actually have time to pack and plan ahead, and, even then, putting on pants to leave the apartment will have you cursing those vile missionaries who converted everyone to linen shackles); and Newman (technically Nedry, but, again, the degree to which every actor commits to their well-known characters throughout this film is impressive) works way too hard to steal way too little. First of all, there's a reason over 99,9% of initially-promising biomedical discoveries lead to a final drug or therapy; it's enormously costly to develop and safety-test a product at each point. Even the coolest, old-timey drug companies rarely discovered drugs for themselves, they patented or investigated promising prior research. Going from "Maybe that mosquito trapped in amber has DNA in it" to "brachiosaurus" would be cost-prohibitive. Especially when you consider that this was 1993; Bill Gates would've been able to buy and sell the island ten times over just a few years later. Michael Crichton predicted that this would restrict biotech companies to entertainment-related investments (he got that hilariously wrong, as I can testify to on a personal and professional level). He also predicted that exploitative employer/employee relationships would intensify (he got that one right) in the book, by making Nedry a programmer who had underbid his peers to get Hammond's contract, which was unfairly added to and amended until the character was almost driven out of business. The book also makes it clear that, despit Hammond's claims, the park cuts every financial corner it can, including hiring only the lowest-bidding contractors or least-qualified people (in the film, the vet doesn't even look at the triceratops' mouth until Ellie does, which is something even horse owners know is important). So, they wind up with Newman. Who, instead of simply embezzling the money (I refuse to believe my Step-Mom's nonsensical claim that Newman would be able to get access to the high-tech, uber-secret Embryo Storage Lair, but not have access to the payroll programming or pension fund data), creates the world's most convoluted scheme to steal Hammond's embryos and sell them to a competitor. This film also predicted the rise of vegans. I base that on Lex's line regarding the dinosaurs eating the goat ("I happen to be a vegetarian.")(as someone from the future watching that and hearing the line, "I'm a vegan;" it's kind of chilling). I also realized something weird and kind of dispiriting wih this viewing. I'm not really sure I'd want to travel and go out of my way to go to dinosaur island, because dinosaurs aren't quite as interesting at age 95 as they were when I was young. Don't get me wrong, I still love dinosaurs far more than the average man-child, but I've learned a few things since then. So, I've kept abreast of intelligence-measuring tools developed by modern science (I know, that's a shocker). We all know of the body mass: brain mass ratio; but we've since developed the encephalization quotient (EQ) which, I believe (and I might be wrong) is a comparison of the body mass: brain ratio for a specific animal with the expected ratio of a critter with similar mass. And, when we use that as the predictor, animal rankings look more like what we'd expect, intuitively - Humans, dolphins, chimpanzees, gorillas, and parrots are the top-five scorers. Using that tool, the smartest of dinosaurs were about as intelligent as the dumbest modern birds. I love chickens, but even the most ardent fowl-owner would admit that chickens are not exactly weighted down by brains. That might not seem like an epiphany, but I now own a goldendoodle who is possibly more clever than me (on my bad days). He's a great dog, but that ability to outthink and outorganize me makes him far more troublesome than all the dogs we owned before (and we had 10 huskies at one point). Same thing with dinosaurs, every creature you see has 70 million years' of evolution on them. The critters around today are better-suited to this planet and more interesting (speaking from a biology background) than the vast majority of dinosaurs. If given the choice between a lifetime pass at the San Diego Wild Animal Park and one or two trips to dinosaur island, I know that we're not going to have elephants for much longer, which makes one clearly more appealing. Which, come to it, may have been the entire point of "Jurassic Park."

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callsignbaphomet · 6 years

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Hmm, let’s get into something that MIGHT be long, who knows. What is Legion? What do they do? Where do they work? How long have they been around? Are their goals/methods/etc. different from their creation?

I’ll try to summarize it as best as I can.

Oracle Corp has been around for thousands of years. It started around 9,000 BCE. It started as a group of three mercenaries, one of which was Aleksey (Angelus’ grandfather) who at the time was known by his original name Xisuthros-sin Razi.

He was the werewolf, another one was a vampire and the third member was human. Basically they’d take any jobs that involved more supernatural aspects. Like get rid of a vampire war lord, gang of werewolf slavers and so on. With time the three of them were called to handle that sort of thing. But they also helped their own. If there was a village or tribe or what have you composed of vampires that only fed when it was necessary and stayed away from humans to avoid incidents but humans were hunting them down they’d get rid of the hostile humans. Or helped secure hunting grounds for werewolves to hunt in but not spread out. That sort of thing.

With the years that then turned into centuries the original 3 grew with even more members dedicated to keeping things in balance for both non-humans and humans. Some died either of old age or disease, some died while on the job and some retired.

As the centuries went and the organization grew and grew Morris sent some of his most trusted and spread them across the world and that’s how the branches came to be. Also as time went on and humans kind of forgot or turned away from anything supernatural for the most part which helped keep Oracle and their activities under wraps.

In modern times they still dedicate to keeping things balanced between humans and non-humans dealing with both non-humam terrorists who got a little too big headed for their own good which could expose them to the dangers of the public realizing there really ARE such things as werewolves, demons and vampires. Also dealing with humans that know they exist and because of fear and prejudices hunt and kill non-humans.

Biggest threat Oracle has to deal with consistently is the Court of Knights. They were born from the time of emperor Constantine but almost flickered out but during the height of the Inquisition where fear, superstition and misinformation ran amock they rose again and this time with full forces. They kill anything and everything that is non-human and the humans that associate themselves with non-humans since in the Court’s eyes those humans are tainted and traitors.

The Court applies a lot of inhumane practices and the people in their ranks are less than savory to say the least. Often times accepting n*zis and white supremacists, terrorists of all kinds and extremists. There are unofficial groups called Slayers that are the more in your face with their hate and agendas, and are loosely organized and brutal. Knights of course look down on Slayers but they certainly use them to further their goals.

Important to note that Oracle does not answer to any country much less any government. They’re basically a group dedicated to the people basically made up by the people. Yes, humans are very welcome there since that’s the idea, shadow citizens (non-humans) and humans working together to keep things in balance.

I’m gonna be honest and say I have no knowledge of how economics work in an intricate level but as for how Oracle maintains itself and manages to pay it’s employees? Over the long centuries Morris, leader of Oracle, has used his fortune to invest and create dozens of companies. Investing in companies in fields that are as stable as they can be like medical. He’s also made companies mostly in the medical field that the population benefits from but doesn’t even know it’s tied to Oracle. Hell, most humans don’t even know what Oracle is. Alongside the medical field he invested a lot in technologies and has companies in the field of technology. So besides paying close attention to Oracle Morris also controls all of that and once Morris decides to step down he’ll dedicate completely to that side and leave the entire organization of Oracle to Jelani. For now Jelani is “in training” and oftentimes is the acting leader.

Honestly agents and employees of Oracle are very comfortable economically speaking. Familiars, these are associated with Oracle but not actual agents, are paid well as well but not as much as an actual agent or direct employee.

All the branches are susceptible to moving locations for many reasons mostly being exposure. So for example branch 07 could be in Nice, France for 20 years but then that branch moves to Romania. Also agents circulate between branches depending that branches needs. For example Katya who is a skilled hacker could be sent to South America for a mission that requires her expertise and once it’s done she can return to her home branch in Russia.

TL;DROracle is a paramilitary secret organization composed of non-humans (shadow citizens) and humans that answer to no country or government working to rid the world of supernatural threats and threats against the supernatural. Oh my god I hope this mess made sense.

#reply #theonedayking #Oracle Corp tag

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