#michael does his senior thesis
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first thesis piece finished ୧(`^´)୨
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Hiii could you rec any fics where Erik or Charles or both are vampires and or werewolves?
Thank you so much dear lots of love
I'm so sorry for being so late with this, but in compensation I do have tons of fics that should quench your thirst for some vampire/werewolf cherik. Enjoy!
Vampire
And the Gunslinger Followed – musical_emjay
Summary: Erik Lehnsherr hunts the things that go bump in the night.
He’s done so since he was a child, since the first time his mother put a knife in his hand and told him how to use it, told him why he should.
But ten years alone on the road has caught up to him, left him wrung out and longing for a place to rest, recharge, get his head back on straight. Though nowhere has ever truly felt like home, he heads straight for New York City, a place that’s always had more to offer him by way of warmth and comfort than any other. What he finds when he gets there, however, is several miles south of anything approaching restful. Old acquaintances, old memories, and a mysterious stranger who has him forgetting all his rules — Erik soon realizes there are decisions he needs to make, before circumstances intervene and make them for him. Otherwise, he might not like the result.
An Accident of Circumstance – manic_intent
Summary: Secret Santa, for azryal00, prompts: virginity, stalking or vampire AU. Decided to attempt all, in one fic. As part of a reward for his successes in border skirmishes, Sebastian Shaw allows Erik discretion to create a childe of his own, within reason. Erik rebels.
B-Negative – manic_intent
Summary: Written for the 5 Acts thing on livejournal, for toestastegood's 'Vampire AU' Act. This was originally going to be some sort of True Blood parody, but it somehow became a bit more serious. :/
Bloodbound – ikeracity
Summary: Finding himself strapped for cash at the start of his senior year, Erik decides to become a donor at TypO, a blood bar where vampires come to drink fresh blood from consenting donors, safely and legally. There, he catches the eye of Charles Xavier, vampire, telepath, professor at Columbia, and quite possibly the most alluring person Erik's ever met. Their first meeting sets into motion a bond much deeper than they can understand, one that neither of them had ever expected.
Old Metal (Blood, Memory and Rubber Ducks) – pprfaith
Summary: Erik is a vampire. Sookie, err, Charles is a telepath. Any questions?
Food Allergies – madneto
Summary: A bout of insomnia one fateful night leads Erik to Xavier's, the late night bookstore near Columbia University, whose owner Erik quickly decides is the best thing since... well, since maybe ever. Charles is brilliant, funny, passionate, handsome, and every other good adjective Erik can think of, and even though they've only been on three dates, Erik is convinced this is the start of something perfect.
Then Charles has a bad reaction to the food Erik cooks for them on their fourth date, leaving Erik to wonder if maybe he's completely botched his one chance at true love.
Series
The Price for Eternity – madneto
Summary: Erik and Charles are relaxing in the park when Erik decides to ask Charles a question that has long been on his mind, re: vampires. The answer is unexpected.
Series
The Boy with the Sigil Tattoo – keire_ke
Summary: Buffy AU. The story of a boy and his vampire.
Love and Other Secrets – Microsaur
Summary: Erik is a vampire that would much rather be left alone, Charles is a baronet that can't seem to accept that.
The First One – SassyDuckQueen
Summary: Erik Lehnsherr is a vampire living in a peaceful life in New York City, where he works as a night time security guard at the Pentagram. He's in a relationship with Charles Xavier, a young professor at a private university. However, his life is thrown upside down by the return of his wayward son, Peter, who informs him that an old enemy has resurfaced.
Series
Blood Bound – WaxRhapsodic
Summary: Charles is sick. Again. He decides to do something drastic about it and take a Blood Contract with a Vampire who turns out to be dangerously attractive.
Night Holds No Redemption – isabella
Summary: Vampire Hunters AU
When vampires roam the city at night there are also those who will hunt them down.
Charles Xavier and James “Logan” Howlett are vampire hunters part of the NIB – Night Investigation Bureau, in New York. When Erik, a vampire Charles failed to kill, comes back to haunt him Charles finds he no longer can run from his past and has to face the truth about the monster he created.
Pairing info: Flashbacks are Charles/Erik, present focuses first on the growing relationship between Logan/Charles, then on Charles/Erik.
Endgame will be Charles/Erik.
Night Life – Ook
Summary: he young journalist, or researcher, or whatever he is, is going to get himself in trouble around here. Erik can tell.
A researcher who doesn't know when to stop.
A man who doesn't take no for an answer.
A vampire that doesn't give interviews.
Werewolf
Dancing in the Rain – Pangea, velvetcadence
Summary: Werewolf alpha Erik found a human pup Charles alone in the forest and took him back to his lair. Erik protected and cared for the boy, though he was barely a mature wolf himself.
A few years passed, Charles grew up so pretty, and Erik was afraid he would miss his kind and go back to them, leaving Erik to be alone again - but Charles stayed and chose to be Erik’s mate.
Moon Song – ikeracity
Summary: Werewolf AU. When Charles is captured by hunters, Erik and his pack go after him. It turns out there might be some room for redemption left for both of them after all.
Loyalty and Obedience – Ook
Summary: A human rent boy working the streets gets rescued from a pimp by the Lehnsherr Pack Head and his Second on a recruitment trip. Werewolves, huh?
Who knows where this one's going?
Skin Deep – manic_intent
Summary: Written for the kmeme, Everyone-is-a-werewolf AU. Erik happens upon a seemingly abandoned mansion in Westchester during a full moon and finds an insanely clueless werewolf living in isolation.
In Escrow – manic_intent
Summary: Same 'verse as Skin Deep, between the final part and the epilogue. Charles abruptly realizes that he's unable to shift forms after a full moon. Which can only mean one thing.
Supernatural and the Scientist – Caradee
Summary: Charles Xavier is a upcoming geneticist and wildlife biologist who’s next big thesis reveals a little to much about the hidden werewolf community. Now Erik Lehnsehrr is suppose to figure out who it is feeding Xavier the information and put an end to it.
However, things are not what they appear.
Open Season – Caradee
Summary: Charles is a adorable omega wolf who has no sense for pack dynamics and wanders on his own. Erik is the exhausted Alpha of the pack who is unfortunately smitten with him. Its hunting season, nothing can go wrong. Right?
Only Hope – onaxe
Summary: According to werewolf law, an unwed Omega cannot legally hold custody of a child. When Charles is challenged for custody over his 17 year old sister, Raven, he desperately turns to the only solution available. He marries a complete stranger, Alpha Erik Lehnsherr, who is haunted by a mysterious past.
Note: Unfinished but a fun read.
Tooth and Nail – TurtleTotem
Summary: Erik is no longer part of Charles's pack. It's none of his business who he takes as a mate.
Vampires and Werewolves
For you, Eternity – gerec, lachatblanche
Summary: Erik still remembers the day he lost everything to a pack of werewolves; his family, his village, and the love of his life. Left with nothing but regret and pain everlasting, he turns to Sebastian Shaw - who promises revenge in exchange for loyalty eternal.
For centuries, he leads his clan of vampires in a war against their hated enemy, the same werewolf pack responsible for the slaughter of Erik’s village. But now Logan - the pack’s new leader - wants to make peace with their age old adversaries; an act that neither side particularly cares to pursue.
Adding to this volatile mix is one Charles Xavier, scientist and academic, drawn to the continent by his fascination for the supernatural and the locals’ tales of love, betrayal and never-ending war…
On the Scent – dedkake
Summary: The full moon is nearing and Charles decides to visit his neighbor.
Does not ebb – StarkMad
Summary: prompt: "...I would love a fic with Charles and Erik in an Underworld AU basically with Charles as Selene's character and Erik as Michael Corvin's character
and/ooor nonnie could do an Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and Charles as Sonja's character and Erik as Lucian (feel free and make me cry, dearest nonnie) feel free to do whatever you want as long as the AU still remains identifiable (and just kill me with tons of Chares and Erik drama and lurve and heartache and whatever.
Dear Neighbour Mine – issabella
Summary: Fill for the prompt by Lonelyparts: Charles is a telepathic werewolf living next door to a vampire who favours severe black turtlenecks and metal coffins.
Of course they have to annoy each other first, before dangerous circumstances bring them together.
#cherik#cherik fic recs#fic recs#werewolf AU#vampire art#there are surprisingly more vampire fics out there than werewolf fics#thought it would be the other way round#asks#earnestly answers
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Terms and Conditions May Apply
Summary: As if being presented as the wife of the Antichrist to the most influential people in the world at an exclusive event wasn't enough for you to handle, Satan may have a special surprise in store for you as well.
Word Count: 3548
A/N: I have no excuse for not having updated for a month other than the fact that my senior thesis has taken up basically ALL of my time. Special thanks to @trelaney for all of your help on this (and every) chapter of Mad Love! Comments, likes, and reblogs are always appreciated. Enjoy!
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7 | Chapter 8 | Chapter 9 | Chapter 10 | Chapter 11 | Chapter 12
The night after your first day of classes, Michael utters the words that you were hoping never to hear. It had been such a nice evening, too. You had finally worn Michael down enough about cooking that he agreed to let you cook dinner for an evening. It was just a simple meal, pasta and marinara that your dad used to always make, but it was familiar, and made you feel at home in a way you hadn’t yet while living at “Langdon Manor,” as you call it. Ending up on the couch with Michael, your head in his lap as he reads some business papers and strokes your hair, smiling every time you laugh at the videos on your phone (you’re saving Michael’s introduction to Vine and TikTok for another day), was the perfect way to end the night. Of course, he had to ruin it by opening his mouth.
“I think it’s time for you to attend an official Cooperative function with me,” Michael says. You look up at him in horror, of which he can’t quite tell is real or fake.
“Michael!” you groan, sitting up so you’re level with him.
“(Y/N)!” he mocks, refusing to back down. “We’ve been married for, what, seven months now?”
“Nearly eight,” you remark dryly.
“Over half of a year. And in the time of our marriage, you’ve never once met with the Cooperative. You haven’t engaged with my father’s congregation since our wedding.” Michael sees the look on your face as you prepare to make a snarky comment about the congregation, so he hurries to make his next point. “These are necessary duties that you, as the wife of the Antichrist, must undertake. Need I remind you of our ‘contract?’ You had agreed to attend Cooperative functions and meetings with me. That time, my love, has come.”
You bristle at the pet name (no matter how long you’ll be married to Michael, you’ll never come to be a fan of them), but ignore it for now. “I don’t want to do it.”
“I understand that. I don’t want to either, but it’s something that we both must do.”
“What do you mean, you ‘don’t want to do it?’ Being worshipped by these people and commanding a room aren’t things you enjoy?”
“It’s a part of the title my father bestowed upon me. There is...a certain beauty to being the one prophesied in ancient times, but the blind devotion that a lot of these influential members of society who have sold their souls in order to gain power is disgusting, in a way. I don’t quite enjoy having them fawn over me in the hopes that I’ll grant them favors of some kind.”
“So then why do you go to these events if you don’t like them?”
“It gives my father’s followers something tangible to worship. In a way, my existence lets them know that selling their souls was not in vain. I am proof that my father’s plans are coming to fruition.” Michael tentatively reaches his hand out, slowly grabbing yours when you don’t pull away. “So? Will you come?”
You roll your eyes. “I don’t really have a choice, do I?”
“I’m afraid not, but I figured I should at least ask you.”
“Fine, but I don’t want to wear black to this thing. Or red. I want to be me, not the wife of the Antichrist.”
“You’re both, but I think we can work something out. The color scheme isn’t a requirement, merely...a suggestion.”
“A suggestion you make sure to enforce.” Standing up from the couch, your face softens slightly at the hurt look on Michael’s face. “I’m not mad, I’ve just gotta get some syllabus tests out of the way before I forget about them.”
“Don’t make plans for Friday, okay?” You nod, Michael kissing your hand before letting you leave for your room, where you proceed to sulk about having to go to a Satanist party while watching Netflix.
//
Friday arrives, much to your displeasure, bringing with it an army of stylists that the Cooperative has at its disposal. You somehow manage to stop them when they attempt to do your makeup heavily, conceding only to a semi-prominent eyeshadow look and lipstick. The dark pink, almost red shade goes with the one dress you didn’t automatically veto, a silky, emerald A-line dress with spaghetti straps that cinched at your waist before falling down to your ankles. The hairstylist, a man with platinum hair and the attitude to pull it off, had decided to leave your hair down after you had nearly yelled at him for trying some fancy updo. Looking in the mirror after they’ve forced you into a pair of heels, you have to admit that you do look pretty nice. It’s not a look that you would ever come up with yourself, but it suits you well.
Although Michael would never rush you, you’re sure he’s been waiting for a few minutes now. While his hair is always better than yours, his Antichrist powers probably provide him some extra minutes when it comes to getting ready. The stylists give you one last check before deeming you good to go, placing a clutch in your hands and ushering you out of your bedroom.
Michael’s waiting patiently in the foyer, idly checking his phone until he hears movement from the floor above. Pocketing the device, he glances up the stairs only for his eyes to widen as he fights to keep his jaw from dropping. You descend the stairs looking every bit the goddess he’s known you to be since the moment he laid eyes on you, and you smile shyly at his awed expression.
“Did they screw up that bad?” you joke, desperate to break him out of his stupor.
“No, you’re...stunning, (Y/N). Words could not possibly express just how beautiful you are.”
Your cheeks burn in embarrassment, and you gaze up at the ceiling to avoid looking him in the eyes. “Didn’t know you could be a sweet talker, Michael. Thanks. You clean up well yourself.”
He looks down at his outfit as if just now realizing he’s dressed. “I pale in comparison next to you.”
Considering he’s wearing a designer cloak and suit, you doubt that. Michael holds his arm out for you and you gratefully take it, ankles feeling weak from the heels that you’re in. Of course the Antichrist wouldn’t be rolling up to an event dedicated to him and his father in a car he’s driving, so the chauffeured vehicle is not a surprise.
Michael does an excellent job at distracting you on the drive to the classified location where the gala/event/rich people benefit will be held. Between playing you at 8 Ball on your phones--a game that he’s getting surprisingly good at--and debating you on the nuances of selling a person’s soul, you don’t realize you’ve arrived until the car comes to a stop.
“Just a moment,” Michael says to the driver, who puts the car in park and exits the vehicle, presumably so you and Michael can be alone. “Before we go in, there’s a few things you need to be aware of.”
“Please tell me there’s not going to be a human sacrifice in there,” you mutter.
“No sacrifices, I promise. I’ll handle most of the talking, but you might get a few questions from some curious members. Feel free to answer them if you would like, and if I deem their questions to be appropriate.”
“And if I don’t want to talk to them?”
“Just squeeze my hand and I’ll get rid of them.” Your eyes widen, and Michael chuckles before shaking his head. “Not like that, I’ll just tell them that they should enjoy the evening.”
“Anything else?”
“Cooperative members like to be very secretive about everything. Many who will be attending tonight are fine with fellow members knowing their identities, but some may be wearing masks. Don’t be alarmed at that, but definitely don’t ask them who they are.”
“Alright,” you smile. “I think I can handle that.”
“Oh, and don’t smile.”
“Don’t...smile?”
“While I love your smile, everyone here is beneath you. They’re not our friends, or people who deserve our kindness. Unless I smile, please try not to act friendly.”
“O--okay.” You’re less sure of yourself now, and it obviously shows as Michael takes your hand.
“Hey, you’re going to do great.”
“And if I don’t?”
Michael shakes his head. “Impossible. Are you ready?”
“No, but let’s go.” The door of the car swings open, the chauffeur innately knowing when Michael’s ready. He climbs out ahead of you and helps you out, making sure you’re not going to trip over your own feet before he lets go of your waist.
You grab his arm tightly as he leads you inside of what looks like some lavish country club. Two stoic guards stand on either side of the main entrance, staring straight ahead like you’re walking into Buckingham Palace. It’s difficult to hide your shock when you see the petite figure of Ms. Mead standing in the entryway, dark lips turned up in a smile.
“Ms. Mead,” Michael greets, kissing the woman who’s like his mother on the cheek.
She smiles, patting his face lovingly. “My sweet boy,” she says before turning to you, “and you look lovely as well, (Y/N).”
“Um, thank you?” You’re a little apprehensive, considering the last time you saw her, she stuck a needle in your neck.
“They’re ready to begin, Michael.” He nods, giving Ms. Mead one last smile before moving away with you.
“She didn’t seem to be nearly as angry as she usually is,” you note.
“She probably needs a new upgrade.” At your bewildered look, Michael elaborates. “The real Ms. Mead was taken from me by some enemies who believed that killing her would give them the chance to ‘convert’ me to good. The Ms. Mead you see today, and that you saw the night of our wedding, is an AI copy.”
“Holy shit, she’s a robot?”
Michael cringes at the term, but nods. “Yes, basically.”
A flurry of activity signifies that the Cooperative is ready for the son of their Lord to make his grand entrance. Michael looks you over once more, waiting until he’s absolutely sure that you’re ready to face his followers before he nods once to signal that you’re both ready. The voices that fill the room spill out once the doors are opened, Michael giving you hardly a moment to get nervous before walking in with you.
The voices fall silent when the doors open, eyes cast eagerly to Michael and, by extension, you. There’s two long tables that stretch the length of the room, chairs on either side of each one. A smaller table sits raised on a platform at the other end of the room, just big enough for two ornate chairs. Michael squeezes your hand, providing a much-needed grounding tool as you try not to look like your eyes are darting around the room.
Michael was right about some of the Cooperative members; their silver masks reflect the light of the room off of the surface, their entire faces obscured from view. Some of the members who decide not to mask their identity are not surprising to see here (you’re pretty sure you would have been more surprised if Donald Trump wasn’t a member of the Cooperative), but others make you internally squeal from excitement. Although Jared Leto’s always seemed like an intense guy, you didn’t think he was the type of person to have sold his soul to the Devil.
The room remains standing until you and Michael have taken your places at the table in front of everyone. Even after they sit, Michael’s firm hand keeps you from taking a seat. If he’s standing, you guess you’re standing as well.
To anybody watching from afar, Michael’s face is unreadable. Having spent so much time with him, however, you watch as something akin to a mask descends across his features. The Michael that you know--awkward, easily excited, and passionate to a fault--is gone, replaced by someone distant, perpetually angry, who knows for a fact that everyone here is beneath him.
“Welcome, esteemed members of the Cooperative. We are gathered here tonight at the request of my father, who wishes for me to convey to you his plans as we move ever closer to our end goal. As many of you are aware, plans are being drawn up for the Outposts and the Sanctuary, which is where everyone here, along with others who we deem valuable to the continuation of life on Earth, will ride out the end of the world.”
At this, you feel the blood run from your face. Although you’ve known that Michael, as the Antichrist, had plans to end the world on behalf of Satan, it’s jarring to hear him talk about it so plainly. If you’re being honest, you had almost forgotten that the apocalypse was a thing. After getting over being kidnapped to be his bride, you and Michael have become friends. Plus, it’s not as if he talks about Armageddon in front of you. This is the first you’re hearing, in detail, of his plans.
Next to you, Michael is still talking. “--I encourage you all to not worry too much, as we still have a couple of years, at least, until the world can be remade in Satan’s image with the cleansing fire of nuclear bombs. I imagine you may have a few questions. If they are not ignorant, answers you can learn from your colleagues, or flat-out stupid, then please feel free to ask.”
There’s a small murmur from the crowd as Cooperative members converse about the timeline, Michael narrowing his eyes at those in front of him. A couple of people raise their hands, asking questions about fortifications and possible side effects of fallout, which Michael answers effortlessly. It seems as though he’s been prepped on these possible questions, but you wouldn’t be too surprised if this was stuff he just inherently knew.
“Last, before you return to your cocktails and various material pleasures,” Michael squeezes your hand, and you look at him before realizing he wants you to be a part of whatever he’s saying, “my father had revealed to me a woman, who was meant to serve as my consort and stand by my side. Eight months ago, his wish was fulfilled when I married (Y/N), who stands here with me today. Everything else regarding our coupling is none of your goddamn business. Anything else?”
The room is dead silent, everyone being too petrified of their savior to even think of saying anything.
“Wonderful. Please, enjoy the rest of your evening with the bounties that Satan has provided us.” It takes a moment for the room to go back to normal, but you let out a sigh of relief when all of the pairs of eyes are off of you.
“Can we sit down now?” you whisper to Michael, who immediately nods and pulls your chair out for you.
“What did you think?” Michael’s eyes are wide and eager for your approval.
“If I didn’t know you, I would have been terrified of you.”
Michael smiles. “Good, that’s what I was going for.”
“Whoa, is that--” you’re ready to point out two very prominent celebrities doing coke off of each other when Michael shakes his head.
“Remember, these people are beneath you. You can be excited but don’t show it.”
“Fine,” you huff, “but why are people just doing drugs and kissing each other? That seems a little too crazy, even for a room full of Satanist celebrities.”
“Satan preaches giving into any of your desires. Even if it’s material things that only provide fleeting moments of what they believe to be pleasure, my father encourages it. I don’t enjoy watching these activities take place at every single Cooperative meeting, but as long as it doesn’t get out of hand, I don’t put a stop to it.”
There’s so many more questions that you want to ask him about the members of the Cooperative, but a couple of those said members approaching the table to pay their respects to the Antichrist cuts the conversation short. You play the part of the dutiful wife for Michael, greeting his followers and listening to the dull conversations of people starstruck to be in front of their messiah. It’s extremely easy to get overwhelmed in a situation like this, and you seize your chance during a slight lull after nearly an hour of talking to people.
“Michael,” you say gently, “I’m going to go and get some air.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah, just wanna go outside for a minute and check my phone.” Michael nods, kissing the back of your hand before letting go so that you can stand up.
The lobby’s much less crowded than the room you just came out of; a few stray Cooperative members linger and wait staff are in and out, but other than that you’re basically alone. You already feel like you can breathe again, a weight being lifted off of your chest now that you’re away from so many curious, intimidating people. Feeling how cold it is outside, you adapt your original plan and choose to sit on one of the benches inside instead.
There’s not much going on this Friday night, you notice as you check your phone. Everybody’s still getting back into the swing of school, and most of your friends opted to stay in and treat themselves instead of going out. You wish you were at home right now, snuggled up in a large blanket with your cat curled up next to you.
(You ignore the thought of Michael being there too, sitting on the other end of the couch and trying to get the cat to sit by him instead of you).
“Drink, ma’am?” Looking up from your phone, you see a waitress smiling and holding a tray with a single drink on it out towards you.
“Oh, I don’t know.” You’re unsure of what to do, Michael not having instructed you on whether you could or couldn’t drink at this event.
“It’s our house special tonight! And as you can see, it’s the last one I have.”
The drink, a red cocktail in a tall glass, does look pretty appealing, and one drink would surely help you to get through the rest of the night. “Mm, might as well! It’s only one drink, and I’m not a lightweight.”
Laughing lightly, the waitress hands you the cocktail. “Enjoy!”
“Thank you!”
She turns the corner, which means you’re not able to see as her eyes turn pitch black and her body starts convulsing. The waitress collapses to the ground as black smoke pours out of her mouth, ears, and nose, dissipating into the air just as quickly as it left her body. After a moment, the waitress stands back up, looking extremely disoriented as she grabs her tray and unsteadily walks towards the kitchen.
Sniffing the cocktail to make sure you’re not downing something especially disgusting, you’re instead greeted by the pleasant scent of cinnamon and apples. You shrug before taking a hesitant sip, happily finding that the drink tastes just as good as it smells. It’s almost better than any other cocktail you’ve previously tried, and you find yourself thinking that you’ll have to find the waitress and ask her for the name of this cocktail as you continue to consume the addictive drink. You’re enjoying your moment of solitude, sitting on your phone and enjoying a drink, so much that you don’t realize something’s wrong until it’s too late.
It starts with a slight ache in your head, followed by a ringing in your ears that begins to drown out any background noise. You feel dizzy, and drop your phone so you can place a hand on the bench to steady yourself. Your eyes can’t focus on anything, the walls seeming to morph in front of you as you close your eyes to assuage the nausea.
“Was I drugged?” you mutter to yourself, attempting to stand up but barely straightening your legs before you fall back down to your seat. “Maybe I should find Michael.”
The moment you think of Michael, it’s as if explosions start to rock your brain. You can’t think, and the ringing in your ears reverberates until it’s the only thing you can hear. All of your senses are gone, replaced by the pain of a thousand jackhammers in your head.
The explosions disappear just as quickly as they appeared, leaving you confused and disoriented. Everything feels off, like the world’s tilted before righting itself once more, but overcorrecting in the process. Trying to remember what you were doing before your sudden headache, the only thing you can come up with is Michael.
The name brings a smile to your face as your heart starts to beat quickly. Michael, the love of your life and your other half. What are you doing out here, when he’s in there by himself? You stand to return to him, the entire time not being able to shake the feeling that something’s extremely wrong.
//
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#michael langdon#michael langdon imagine#michael langdon x reader#michael langdon x you#american horror story#american horror story imagine#american horror story apocalypse#american horror story imagines#AHS#ahs imagine#ahs imagines#ahs apocalypse
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↳12 July, 1789 - Lambesc’s Charge
Months of unrest in Paris reached a fever pitch on the 12th, with the Prince de Lambesc, under the orders of the Baron de Besenval, ordering the Royal Allemand cavalry regiment to advance into the Tuileries in order to disperse a crowd that had gathered around the Place Louis XV (later Place de la Concorde). While there were no fatalities (although several people were injured, including an old man who Lambesc struck with his saber as he was trying to close the swing-bridge that connected the Tuileries to the Place Louis XV), word quickly spread through Paris, causing mass panic over the reputed massacre. The public feared more was to follow, heightening and adding a sense of urgency to the frantic search for arms that would end with the taking of the Bastille on July 14 in order to attain the gunpowder housed inside it. The Prince de Lambesc himself was popularly hated, with his alleged bloodthirstiness, treachery, and lechery being the frequent topic of satirical pamphlets in the early days of the Revolution. He would never set foot on French soil again, even though he would be tried and found innocent in absentia for his actions, dying in Vienna on November 21, 1825.
In-musical, the responsibility for the escalation of violence is instead given to the fictional Lazare de Peyrol, who is given the command by Louis XVI to “restore order by any means,” with Danton later mentioning that dragoons have stormed the Place Louis XV and that there are casualties, with Lazare himself appearing in the flesh to bloodily attempt to put down the crowd during “Nous ne Sommes.” Even though many of the specifics of the attack don’t fit with the accepted facts of the charge (both by pro-Royalist and pro-Revolutionary sources), it does have echoes of the popular idea of Lambesc, that of an aristocrat brutally enforcing his will on a people who are gradually becoming aware of their rights and, perhaps most importantly, their own emerging power.
Sources:
Samuel F. Scott, The Response of the Royal Army to the French Revolution
Paul G. Spagnoli, “The Revolution Begins: Lambesc's Charge, 12 July 1789″
Michael Arin, Nobility v. Nation: Conflicting Justices in the Early French Revolution Trials of Lambesc, Besenval, and Favras (1789-1790) (Senior Thesis)
#1789 les amants de la bastille#french revolution#fancast (sort of? Lazare's attack is pretty obviously based on Lambesc's)#perioddramaedit#frev#lazare de peyrol#prince de lambesc#charles eugene prince de lambesc#guns tw#flashing tw#long post#my gifs
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Writer’s Interview
thanks for the take @a-shakespearean-in-paris!! <3
Q: What is your coffee order?
Usually just a cappuccino? I don’t usually like sweet things in my coffee, except for at Christmastime when I order exclusively peppermint mochas lol.
Q: What is the coolest thing you’ve ever done?
Tbh the coolest thing I’ve ever done is probably be a fake socialite for like a portion of my late twenties and early thirties. My husband’s great uncle, who passed away last year, was quite wealthy and a huge, well-respected philanthropist for the LGBT community and gay rights. He lived in Palm Springs, and any time he had a gala or a fabulous event to go to, he would invite my husband and I to be in his entourage. We got to go to the GLAAD Awards about five times, including VIP events and cocktail parties with like, Leonardo DiCaprio, the Getty family, and Michael Jackson’s daughter. It was decadent and ridiculous but a fun role to play for a little while in my life.
Q: Who has been your biggest mentor?
My biggest mentors have been my professors from graduate school, both of whom are fantastic writers that taught me how to respect the work, stay grounded, and focus on making writing an important, central part of my life, no matter what comes. They taught me and my colleagues a very “purist” approach, which I appreciate to this day, revolving around the concept of inevitability: writing for love, writing for vision, writing in secrecy, ignoring the world as I grew and developed, and viewing The Industry as but a secondary factor that, when focused on with too much intensity too early in a writer’s career, can and will spoil their outlook and creative struggle forever.
Q: What has been your most memorable writing project?
I have several? My MFA thesis is memorable, because it was weird, and I was doing things back then in this very raw way that I can see and feel coming back to me now, eight years later, as a more mature writer and person. My Solavellan longfic The Dead Season also stands out as hugely memorable, as it took two years of my writing life to complete, and I believe it single-handedly improved my writing skills in ways I am only just now beginning to appreciate.
Q: What does your writing path look like, from the earliest days until now?
I have no idea lol. I have been writing since I could read. I started when I was very young, filling notebooks with horror stories and christmas stories and bad poetry and world building ideas. It was literally just notebook after notebook after notebook. I started typing my writing on a computer probably in fifth or sixth grade, and using it more consistently when I was in eighth or ninth grade. I wrote some fanfiction for boybands when I was in middle school, but that was short-lived. I continued to invent worlds and write shitty poetry all through high school lol, and then my senior year I started writing short stories. I went to college, majored in English with an emphasis in Creative Writing. Taking workshops honed my short story writing and gave me lots of practice, and then I won a little prize money out of it which helped me pay for my graduate school applications. All I ever really wanted to do was be a writer. I took a year off after college and worked as a bank teller back home in Wisconsin, and then I got real lucky and got into a very good MFA program which moved me out to California when I was about 23. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I met my husband, who was one of my colleagues at the workshop table. We moved in together. I finished my thesis, he finished his. Then we went to Montana for a little while, and we got engaged. I published some stories, mostly in small places, a couple big ones, too. Then we got married, had a baby, and I came to fandom out of boredom and frustration with the mainstream, and I’ve been toiling away here every since.
Q: What is your favorite part about writing?
I agree with @a-shakespearean-in-paris that for me, the best thing about writing is discovery. Discovery of language, ideas, characters I love.
Q: What does a typical day look like for you?
Uh, wake up. Feed child. Snuggle with child. Derp around on tumblr. Drink coffee. My husband and I switch off mornings and teach on opposite days of the week. If I have to teach that day, I’ll lesson plan, go teach, maybe have office hours for my students, come home, hang out with my fam, put the child to bed, and then I get my nights. Mondays and Fridays the kid is in preschool and I don’t teach, so on those days I try to be as productive as possible with my own writing and also art (if I don’t have to comment on too many student papers lol). I write when I can. I don’t have a set schedule. My grown-up life has taught me the importance of speed and the kill instinct as a writer. Like when you have the chance to write, fucking just do it. Don’t hem and haw. And when you feel the need to finish something, don’t stop.
Q: What does your writing process look like?
Lol. Who knows. I consider music to be a big part of my writing process. I always use playlists that I keep on repeat whenever I’m not writing. I also do a lot of my drafting in the notes on my phone, a lot of the time in bed at night, right before I fall asleep. When I sit down to write, I usually have something in mind. I know what I need to do. At this point, once I start, I can go for a long time and write a lot of words in a very short timespan. It’s just getting to that point where I’m sitting down. But once I’m there, I can kind of just go.
Q: What’s the best advice you’ve gotten?
Stay in the room. I got this advice from one of my professors in graduate school. It literally just means: Once you’ve made the decision to write, don’t leave the room. Stay in the room. Because if you leave the room, you’ll lose your momentum. He always said the biggest challenge for any writer is staying in the room, ie: forcing yourself to do the work. Thinking of writing as work and as something that is not always pleasant but must be done anyway was very important to me. It taught me not to be so precious about my work and to just do the thing and let drafts be drafts. I also learned from him that the best thing you can do when finishing your writing day is to write one more paragraph. So when you think you’re done, write one more paragraph. It’s usually there that the best discoveries are made.
Q: What’s the biggest lesson you’ve learned?
Don’t focus on publishing. Writing is not a well-paying gig. Even those who get grand book deals are rarely living large. Unless you’re Stephen King or equivalent, you’re still having to teach and apply for grants and do other shit to get by. I’ve learned that the only true satisfaction that comes from writing is pleasing others, pleasing readers. Having readers at all. You can toil away on a story for months, publish it in a lit journal, and never hear about it again. It’s pure vanity. I’ve learned from fandom writing that there is nothing more gratifying than the response from and interaction with readers. Actually touching peoples’ lives with my characters, inspiring and affecting them in some way. That’s what writing is all about. It’s an exploration of the self, but it is not self-serving. It can bring real joy to people, and that’s the thing I want.
Q: What advice would you give someone who wants to start writing?
Just write. There’s no reason not to. In fandom, there is a lot of concern over not being good enough, I think, because of this culture of constantly sharing everything we make, and notes, and kudos, etc. But if you want to write, you have to just write. You can’t say, “Oh, well, I’ll never be as good as so and so, so what’s the point?” Writing is a journey of many choices. The first choice has to be: I will now write. Don’t compare yourself to others. Find a niche that works for you. If you like to work alone and avoid showing your work, that’s okay. That’s how most writers start out. You don’t need a “beta” or a workshop team, particularly not when you’re just beginning. Share your work when you feel comfortable. It’s not important to always be sharing. It’s important to always be writing. And try not to get ahead of yourself. You must write for your own reasons and not to impress others. That is a toxic mindset that will only bring you down. And write. And write. Skip the over-planning. Skip the worksheets and the organizational worldbuilding software. Just write. It’s the only way to find out what you actually have to say.
tags for @thevikingwoman @bearly-tolerable @idrelle-miocovani @pikapeppa @littleblue-eyedbird @ocean-in-my-rebel-soul @buttsonthebeach @ellstersmash and anyone else who’d like to do this!! <3
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via Politics – FiveThirtyEight
Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s weekly politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited.
sarahf (Sarah Frostenson, politics editor): Former vice president Joe Biden has consistently led in early primary polls, and in head-to-head polls against President Trump, but he still hasn’t entered the 2020 Democratic presidential primary (although he’s expected to declare in April).
But who wants Biden to run? He doesn’t seem to be regarded as a front runner by party activists or those already in the field, and now two women have alleged that Biden touched them inappropriately, resurfacing his history of being physical in his interactions with women. [Editor’s note: After we finished this chat concluded, The New York Times published a report about two more women who described physical interactions with Biden that made them uncomfortable]
Is it possible that the stakes of running in the Democratic Party have shifted so much that Biden now poses too much of a liability?
meredithconroy (Meredith Conroy, political science professor at California State University and FiveThirtyEight contributor): It’s too early to say whether these sorts of stories about Biden, which have been circulating for years, are enough to sink his chances. But as FiveThirtyEight’s Clare Malone said on the politics podcast, the way Lucy Flores has told her story recasts the incident as a more serious allegation, and less as late night talk show fodder.
perry (Perry Bacon Jr., senior writer): A candidate who leads in the polls and has some major figures in the party clamoring for him to run is in a pretty good position to weather this kind of controversy, I think. Prominent female Democrats, like Nancy Pelosi, are even saying what has emerged over the last week is not disqualifying.
natesilver (Nate Silver, editor in chief): I don’t quite know what to think. If you follow the reaction on Twitter, a lot of people think the accusations are a big deal for Biden. But, a lot of those people didn’t have Biden as one of their top choices to begin with.
The biggest outstanding question I have for Biden is — where are the “party elites” clamoring for him to run. He has three endorsements — granted, you might not expect him to have many since he isn’t running yet — but two of those are senators from Delaware (his home state) and one is California Sen. Diane Feinstein, who is not a bad endorsee but also not the voice of a new generation of Democrats, exactly.
sarahf: It seems as if we’re seeing a generational divide play out here. I thought this Politico headline captured it well: “’Friendly grandpa’ or creepy uncle? Generations split over Biden behavior.”
perry: I definitely think you are seeing people who were inclined to support a more moderate figure and people who are older defending him. Polls show Biden doing really well with older Democrats (age 50 and older) and not as well with young voters. People who are younger and more liberal seem more inclined to attack Biden, but I suspect they weren’t that excited to see him run in the first place.
meredithconroy: I was having this conversation with some friends (I’m fun at parties) about whether Biden tests the “Party Decides” thesis if he doesn’t get elite support, but still wins the nomination.
My thought is that he doesn’t necessarily need institutional support to win. He has enough name recognition and goodwill (even now) to run and win without endorsements. I’m also in the camp that in today’s social media environment, the process is candidate-centered and not party-centered, and therefore the “Party Decides” idea is moot, but that’s a conversation for another day.
natesilver: I don’t know, I think what former President Obama does, in particular, is important. A lot of Biden’s popularity among rank-and-file Democrats stems from his association with Obama. If Obama endorses, say, Kamala Harris instead, that would be a pretty huge deal. And I tend not to think that Obama would do that, at least not in the early stages, but the lack of support for Biden is something that voters might notice. Maybe.
My question is not so much whether Biden can find a constituency within the Democratic Party, but whether he can be a unifying figure. And that seems harder now. Maybe the Flores accusations are partly a proxy for larger, generational issues, which is not to say they aren’t serious unto themselves. Still, this is a part of the party deciding, if you will. And the fact that Biden doesn’t seem to be able to control the narrative is a negative for him.
perry: So they seem like two different issues. One, is this disqualifying for Biden as a candidate?
The second question is how this changes the nature of his campaign if he enters. I assume this guarantees that his first week or so as a candidate will be dominated by questions about how he treats women. And the overall campaign environment will be hard. Biden will have to be more disciplined –and he is not known for that.
natesilver: Just thinking out loud here: There’s also the case to be made that things get better for Biden if he runs. If you’re sitting on the sidelines, just one narrative can dominate the conversation about you, e.g. Elizabeth Warren and the DNA test. But once you start running, you generate other sorts of news and create more context.
meredithconroy: Right, once he is in, he’s able to fill in this vacuum. But the Democratic Party is increasingly the party of women’s rights and equality, so I do think his pitch is going to be harder to sell.
sarahf: Granted, this story is from January, but even then, there was a perception that no major candidate was waiting on Biden to decide before they decided to run themselves. Do we think that’s accurate? Or do we really think Terry McAuliffe and maybe Michael Bloomberg are sitting in the wings, still waiting?
natesilver: I’m sort of torn. Because it can both be true that Biden is much weaker than his clear No. 1 status in the polls would imply, and that he’s a little bit more formidable than sort of young-ish NYC/DC journalists might assume, and they’re the ones that drive a lot of the conversation.
perry: If you lead in every poll, isn’t that a sign people want you to run? And just in talking to older black voters, they tell me they do want Biden to run, because they feel like he is the person most likely to beat Trump. And they are really fearful of a second term for Trump. This is anecdotal, but it’s not irrelevant.
natesilver: He maybe has that electability argument going for him. The thing is that some of the other Democrats — notably, Bernie — have seen their poll numbers against Trump decline once they decided to run. And while Biden’s numbers are strong now, they’d presumably be set to decline as well.
But I do think there’s a question here of: “Who will older voters be comfortable with?” Beto and Buttigieg will do plenty well with moderates (as well as liberals who don’t think of themselves as part of the left) under the age of 50. But that’s not really Biden’s constituency, and who competes with him for older Democrats?
In the abstract, if there were similar accusations against Sanders or Beto, that would be a bigger problem, because they’re relying more on young voters, and young voters are much more likely to consider that type of behavior to be inappropriate.
meredithconroy: I’m not so sure, Nate. A poll from the Economist late last year found that a sizable percentage of Democratic women over the age of 65 are less willing to tolerate sexual harassment from men. Biden could be in trouble with older women voters.
perry: But Biden is somewhat unique in that he appeals to both moderates and older people, and not just older-white-guy moderates. He is not ex-Gov. John Hickenlooper of Colorado (who is already in the race) or former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg or Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado (both of whom are thinking about running). Those three are likely to find few voters outside of older, moderate white male Democratic voters. This means if Biden does not run, I think that’s not just good for Hickenlooper or other older white men. I think that’s good for almost everyone, particularly any candidate who’s looking to win the support of black voters, older voters and party loyalists.
sarahf: I think that’s right, Perry. That if Biden didn’t run, that’d be good for practically everyone. He really is the only candidate who fits the bill as a member of the establishment’s old guard. Which means if he didn’t run, there could be a pretty diverse coalition of support to split among the other candidates.
perry: But if Biden does run, I think that Bloomberg, former Gov. Terry McAuliffe of Virginia and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock in particular don’t have much of a path.
They probably didn’t have much of a path even if Biden didn’t run, but Biden does kind of take up the “electable man” lane, particularly with Mayor Pete, Beto and Booker also in that space.
Rep. Seth Moulton of Massachusetts and Rep. Tim Ryan of Ohio should be hoping Biden stays out.
Run, Joe, run! We need fewer candidates! Help us.
meredithconroy: Ha. Question: Is Biden more electable because he can win over aggrieved Republicans and moderates? That’s the story, right? That he is more broadly appealing than a liberal like Sanders or Warren.
natesilver: I do think there’s a fair amount of evidence that moderates over-perform candidates on the wings, other things held equal. So that part of Biden’s electability argument isn’t bad. He also has better favorables than any of the other Democrats for now, although that could very easily change.
sarahf: So say Biden runs … does that especially hurt Mayor Pete’s chances? Or Beto’s? Booker’s? Klobuchar’s? (Essentially, anyone who’s trying to run a platform that isn’t too far to the left.)
meredithconroy: Sarah, if you buy into the “white guy lane,” Biden definitely takes votes from the other white guys.
natesilver: I’m going to give a slightly counterintuitive view. I think the candidate who might be helped most by Biden not running — or hurt most if he does run — is Kamala Harris.
Biden’s popularity with black voters is a problem for her building a constituency.
I also wonder if some “party elites” might come off the sidelines for Harris if Biden were to decline to run.
perry: Harris is probably one of the most establishment-friendly candidates in the race, so big donors and people who backed Clinton in the 2016 primary would, I’m sure, prefer her over, say, Sanders. But don’t you think if Biden didn’t run, maybe there’s an argument that it would help Beto most?
natesilver: It’d help Beto, but there’s a pretty big generational divide between his support and Biden’s, I’d gather.
On the “party elites” side, I think it might push some older, moderate endorsers to back Beto.
But I think he might have to prove his case more to older voters.
perry: For the party-elite types who think a woman can’t win the general election (not a view I agree with but I hear it from a lot of rank and file voters), Biden not running is probably good for Beto.
But in terms of voters, Harris and Booker are probably helped a lot if Biden doesn’t run. They could get more of the non-Sanders vote and the black vote.
natesilver: I suppose it’s also possible that some ex-Obamaworld people are torn between Biden and Beto, so Biden not running could free up some staff talent and big donors, too.
perry: Are we sure it would not help Sanders?
natesilver: It could help Bernie, sure.
perry: Like if you are in second place and the person in first place removes himself from the race, that is good for you, right?
natesilver: Yeah, every other candidate’s chances go up. And Bernie is actually the second choice of a plurality of Biden voters. Although I do wonder if some of that is name recognition.
sarahf: Yeah, I’m curious how that changes as we get farther into the cycle.
natesilver: The dynamic I don’t like if I’m Bernie is if Biden doesn’t get in, which would probably help the party establishment settle on one (non-Bernie) candidate.
perry: After watching 2016 (when the GOP establishment failed to consolidate around an alternative to Trump), I’m more skeptical that will happen, but maybe Democrats are more disciplined than Republicans.
natesilver: I mean, you could certainly draw some parallels between Biden and Jeb Bush. Bush wasn’t off to a very good start, but he also froze party elite support, stopping it from going to other candidates. The flaw in that parallel is that Biden is polling at 30 percent instead of 10 percent or what have you.
meredithconroy: In 2016, I think the GOP party elite sat out because of a lack of good candidates. But in 2020 I think Democrats are sitting out because there are so many good candidates. So I think this year some party elites are frozen, waiting for Biden to decide.
natesilver: Part of me wonders whether Biden might go nuclear on Bernie, which could have a variety of effects. The Biden campaign is already (anonymously) blaming Sanders for the “handsy” stories, which seems a little weird because it seemed inevitable to me that those were going to become a topic of conversation anyway.
sarahf: But I guess as to the question of whether Biden could be a unifying force in the party — these allegations seem to undermine that idea. And point to the fact that he might be out of touch, or not the best representative of the direction the Democratic Party is moving. Do we think that’s a fair way to think about how these allegations impact Biden’s candidacy?
perry: If Trump’s approval had jumped to 48 percent after Attorney General William Barr issued a four-page letter on the Mueller report to Congress, this would be all different.
A lot of the force driving Biden’s potential candidacy is electability. And so if Trump looked really strong right now that would help Biden.
natesilver: That’s why I’m coming back to thinking Harris might be the long-term beneficiary of this. She probably has the best unify-the-party argument, at least among the people who are polling at more than 5 percent now. (Booker would be interesting, too, if his polling were livelier.)
perry: I’m not totally sure I think Biden’s situation as a candidate is that different than it was two weeks ago. Some parts of the party that already wanted him to go away are now saying that in public, but he still has strong poll numbers and is in good standing with the party’s elected officials (Pelosi).
Biden has not been eliminated by this controversy. But it has to have shown him that this will be a tough campaign if he enters. And he hasn’t entered yet, which tells me there must be some hesitancy on his part.
meredithconroy: Maybe the question (for another chat) is what kind of scandal rises to the level of hurting a candidate in the general election.
natesilver: Sure. It’s part of the process of the party deciding. Seeing who the party defends and who it doesn’t is important, as well as how capable candidates are at handling negative stories. But part of the process is also testing the candidate’s electability argument and looking for flaws that could cost them the general election.
The weird thing about the Biden story is that it’s very hard to see Trump, for obvious reasons, pressing back on Biden too much without it backfiring.
meredithconroy: You’d think so, right? But I think Republicans are happy to keep scandals like this Biden story in the news. The more that accusations against men that don’t seem to rise to the level of harassment are litigated online, the more conservative voters are mobilized against something that they find really fishy in American politics today, which is believing women to a fault. Or falsely accusing men.
natesilver: Yeah, that’s a fair point, Meredith. So maybe we are overlooking the possibility of a backlash to the backlash against Biden?
I don’t want to reveal too much because it was a private conversation, but I was talking to an older (male) Democratic friend this weekend and I’d guess he’s probably more likely to vote for Biden now than he was before. He was also very against how Democrats handled the Al Franken accusations. And Kirsten Gillibrand’s campaign seems to be totally flatlining in part because she spoke out about Al Franken and Bill Clinton.
meredithconroy: I absolutely think Franken looms large in the minds of Democrats. Aaron Blake at the Washington Post wrote on Monday that “there is a palpable sense that Democrats overreacted and that Franken was a victim of too high a standard.”
Democrats have become the party that voters trust more to handle incidents of sexual harassment and misconduct. A candidate who is known for being “handsy” with women, could jeopardize this.
natesilver: I think these accusations are likely to be more of a problem for Biden among party elites than among rank-and-file voters, but party elites are important, too.
From ABC News:
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BDRP wrimo Day 3: In script format, write the opening of your character in a popular TV series
The EX-Files, or The X-Files where Mike is Scully if Scully believed with her whole heart that not all demons/ghosts/ghouls were bad and where Sully is Mulder if Mulder didn’t believe in anything and was just using the FBI’s resources to kill everything he could find so they send in a lawyer to try and get dirt on him so they can finally fire his ass. (But spoilers, that I don’t get to since this is an opening,: They become best friends and Mike’s loyalties no longer belong to the Bureau.)
EXT. - NIGHT - WOODS
Surrounded by trees the only sound is a man struggling to run, his BREATH and FOOTSTEPS are messy. He breaks through the brush, finally visible, but only just. He is wearing pajamas and no shoes. Odd for a romp around in the woods. At night.
He's looking over his shoulder, looking but not seeing. Something is chasing him. He looks for too long and trips over something, a branch or a root or a rock, is unknown.
He looks up. A blinding light makes his features clear, there is blood on his forehead and scratches on his cheek. He has shut his eyes against the light.
LAUGHTER makes the man attempt to open his eyes. He shields the light with a hand, his palm is dirty and bleeding, too.
The LAUGHTER gets louder.
EXT. - DAY - WOODS
Laying face down is a man. Gloved hands turn him over to reveal he is the same man from earlier, still in his pajamas and the blood on his face has dried.
The coroner, LEONARD QUIGGLY, a middle aged man with greying hair and thick framed glasses that match his square face, is looking the man over, frowning.
A man is taking pictures. Uniformed officers are surrounding the area with numbers and caution tape.
Two men are looking down at the corner. VICTOR is balding and stocky, he is of the mindset that it's too cold and too wet to be standing out here doing his job.
JACOBY is only a few inches taller than his partner, biting his nail as he looks on with worry. This is his first dead body. It shows.
As the coroner works Jacoby gets restless.
Victor points to the man's face, stepping so he is standing directly over the man's head.
VICTOR
That's Nathan Weston.
LEONARD
Is that a positive I.D.?
VICTOR
He went to school with my son.
JACOBY
Was it an animal?
LEONARD
(Shaking his head)
No. These markings are too precise. See here?
Leonard lifts the man's shirt. The scratches are not like the ones on the man's face. They are, as the coroner said, planned. Almost like he was used as a canvas to a drawing.
Victor tilts his head at the display. He and Leonard exchange a knowing look.
VICTOR
Can you check his back?
Leonard turns the man in his pajamas over, lifting up his shirt. The markings are there too. But there's something else. Victor steps forwards and sighs.
Victor walks away from the scene quickly, not looking at the other officers as he passes. He has somewhere to be that is not there.
JACOBY
(Looking after his partner in confusion )
What does that mean?
Jacoby looks at Leonard but Leonard will not meet his eyes, he is too busy looking at the man. The boy, Nathan Weston, and the cuts that adorn his body.
INT. - DAY -FBI HEADQUARTERS IN WASHINGTON D.C.
A man walks up the stairs of the entrance of the FBI building. Around him men and women pass by as they go about their day. An elevator dings, heels clack against the tile below them.
He approaches the front desk with a bright smile for the secretary sitting there.
WAZOWSKI
Agent Michael Wazowski.
INT. - DAY -FBI HEADQUARTERS - OFFICE
MICHAEL WAZOWSKI, a young know it all whose courage outweighs his infinite amount of fear every time, walks through desks. He is taking in his surroundings, smiling at people he passes, while also making headway for where he is supposed to be.
He walks down a hallway until he stops at a door. He knocks gently three times.
V.O. MAN’S VOICE
Enter.
Wazowski opens the door. An older man reading a newspaper is sitting at an important looking desk is inside waiting for him. His name is LANDERS, a man who once loved his job but is too old to do anything else now.
Wazowski approaches the desk.
LANDERS
Agent Wazowski, thank you for coming on such short notice. Please, sit.
Wazowski sits as directed. His eyes drift to the two other men that are in the room. One looks younger, older than Wazowski himself, and is sitting in a chair just off to the wide of Landers’ desk. He smiles back at Wazowski when they make eye contact.
The other man is standing in the corner, not looking up from a spot on the floor. His arms are crossed and Wazowski can't really make out his expression. He can't look at him any longer, Landers is addressing him.
LANDERS
We see you've been with us just under three years.
WAZOWSKI
Yes, sir.
LANDERS
You went to Law School. Passed the BAR, but decided not to practice. How did you come to work for the FBI?
WAZOWSKI
Well, sir, I was recruited out of Law School, actually. I didn't think I would be cut out for the field work so I went ahead and took the BAR but after second thought I realized that the FBI could be a place where I could distinguish myself.
LANDERS
Are you familiar with an Agent by the name of James P. Sullivan?
WAZOWSKI
Yes, I am, sir.
LANDERS
How so?
WAZOWSKI
By...reputation. His family's name proceed's itself. He is a Yale graduated psychologist who wrote a monograph on serial killers possessed by demons, used to help catch and exorcise Jennifer Jordan in 2005. Generally thought of to be the best analyst in violent demon possessions. He had a nick name at the Academy. Scary Sullivan.
LANDERS
What I will also tell you is that Agent Sullivan has developed a consuming devotion to an unassigned project outside the Bureau mainstream. Are you familiar with the so called X-Files?
WAZOWSKI
I believe they have to do with unexplained phenomena.
LANDERS
More or less. The reason you're here, Agent Wazowski, is we want you to assist Sullivan on these EX Files. You will write field reports on your activities along with your observations on the validity of the work.
The man in the corner looked up then. Wazowski caught his eye, faltering for a moment before looking back to Landers.
WAZOWSKI
Am I to understand that you want me to find evidence to defraud the EX Files, sir?
LANDERSw
Agent Wazowski, we trust your education had provided you with to make give a proper analysis to the methods that are being used on the project. You'll want to contact Agent Sullivan shortly. We look forwards to seeing your reports.
INT. - DAY - FBI HEADQUARTERS - BASEMENT
An elevator dings. Wazowski steps out into a dingy hallway that is poorly lit. There are boxes of files lining the walls. He makes his way to the end of the hall where there is barely any light left.
Wazowski knocks, in contrast they aren't as sure to the ones he had made earlier.
V.O. MAN’S VOICE
Sorry, no body down here but the FBI's most unwanted-!
Wazowski pushes the door open anyways to find JAMES P. SULLIVAN. Bulky, spoiled, good at hiding inside himself. Confident in a way that is learned, not naturally born. He is sitting at his desk so his height is hidden for the moment. His back is turned to the door, the file he is reading open as he bends over to read it.
The office does not look like the professional ones upstairs. There is no method to the madness. Pictures of shadow figures, of pentagrams, of people adorn the walls. Files are spilling out everywhere. Wazowski is horrified.
Still he enters.
Sullivan turns, looking up from the file. Wazowski waves.
WAZOWSKI
(Walking forwards with his hand outstretched)
Agent Sullivan. I'm Michael Wazowski. I've been assigned to work with you.
SULLIVAN
(Taking Wazowski's hand)
Isn't it nice to suddenly be so highly scrutinized?
Wazowski's eager demeanor shifts.
SULLIVAN
(Going back to his file, dismissive)
So who did you take off to get stuck with this details? Wazowski?
WAZOWSKI
Actually I'm really looking forwards to working with you. I've heard a lot about you. And your family.
SULLIVAN
Oh, really? I was under the impression that my dad sent you to spy on me.
WAZOWSKI
If you have any doubt about my qualifications or credentials-
SULLIVAN
You're a lawyer. You teach at the Academy. Got your undergraduate degree in demonology.
Sullivan pulls a stack of papers from under a heap of files, the top few falling off. He stands, reading the top page.
SULLIVAN
"A proposal on legal processes of Demons, Michael Wazowski, senior thesis," now that's credential, humanizing demons.
WAZOWSKI
(Defensive)
Did you bother to read it?
SULLIVAN
I did. I liked it. It's just that in most of my work demons don't necessarily sit in a court room to stand trial.
Sullivan passes by Wazowski , walking to the door. He turns the lights off behind him leaving Wazowski to stand in the dark.
SULLIVAN
Maybe I can get your opinion on this though.
Sullivan moves back into the room, turning on a projector and returning to a laptop.
On screen is a body. Nathan Weston in his pajamas, face up.
SULLIVAN
Montana male. Age 22, no explainable cause of death. Autopsy showed nothing. Nada.
The picture changes, showing the cuts along Nathan's abdomen.
SULLIVAN
There are, however, these lines all across his body. Not deep enough to kill him, not even deep enough to need a stitch. Lawyer Wazowski, tell me, can you I.D. these marks?
Wazowski stepped closer to the screen, apart of the projection displaying on his body as he does.
WAZOWSKI
Claw marks, maybe? Or knife wounds made by the attacker. A rune of some kind?
Wazowski turns back to Sullivan, who changes the slide.
SULLIVAN
How's your chemistry? this is the chemical found on the surrounding tissue.
WAZOWSKI
It's organic. I...don't know, is it some kind of synthetic protein?
SULLIVAN
Beats me! I've never seen it before either. But here it is again in Astoria, Oregon, and again in Maysville, Kentucky.
The slides change. Two different bodies show on screen. Both with the same markings on their skin. Wazowski turns to look at Sullivan.
WAZOWSKI
Do you have a theory?
SULLIVAN
I have plenty of theories. Maybe what you could explain to me is why is Bureau policy to label these cases as unexplained phenomenon and ignore them and then expect the public to abide by laws to these creatures.
Wazowski has no answer, so he says nothing.
SULLIVAN
You're of the mindset that demons aren't all evil? Right? That we can just, sit down and have dinner with them? Have rational conversations with them?
WAZOWSKI
Logically, we as a society can not record all demon summoning, tears in the rift, or portal openings. We also cannot have a record of every possessed physical being walking around. And even then methods use for exorcism are barbaric, without any thought on the host until the demon is extracted. I could be a demon right now, and you'd be having a rational conversation with one, wouldn't you?
SULLIVAN
Conventional wisdom. You know this Montana male is the fourth person in his town to die under mysterious circumstances. Now when convention and the law aren't able to give procedure to these beings, are we to just stand by and allow these things to happen just because people like you think they deserve a change to explain themselves? Would you be saying that to a human capable of these things?
WAZOWSKI
The boy obviously died of something. If it was due to a demon it's plausible it was something missed in the postmortem, if he was murdered, it's plausible there was a sloppy investigation. What I find is the notion that you'd think an intelligent being that we know little to nothing about in the grand scheme of things would be lacking in empathy or emotion of any sort. Just because you've never run into one living a normal life here outside of the Underworld doesn't mean they aren't here. You just have to know where to look.
SULLIVAN
That's why they put the "I" in FBI.
Sullivan smiles and walks off towards the desk he had been sitting at.
SULLIVAN
See you tomorrow, Wazowski. Bright and early. We leave on the very first plane to Helena, Montana at 5 am.
Wazowski stands there for a moment longer unsure of what had just happened, but he smiles because whatever it was that had happened, he had won.
#bdrpwrimomary#i tried my best#and had to use sully because that's his partner in crime#and we don't have one so i feel as thought it was safe aha
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(agentkentucky)
Coloring Outside the Lines Episode 1: Making Machinima and the New Media Maze
~LISTEN ALONG~
WARNING: Volume Down. This one compressed pretty loudly this time around.
Transcript (with pictures! Most effective when paired with hitting play):
Hi everyone, my name is Erin Christopher aka Agent Kentucky, and you are listening to, “Agent Kentucky Presents: Coloring Outside the Lines: RWBY, Red vs. Blue, and the Rise of the New Media Community”. This four-week blogcast is being completed as a course requirement for my new media class at Florida State University and will use the creation and dissemination of the Rooster Teeth brand as a case study in the formation of new media communities and the impact of digital storytelling. Now, I feel like there was some jargon there, so I’m going to back it up a minute and talk about what new media is, why I’ve chosen to study this company, who I am as a host in relation to the topic, and then we’ll get into the focus of this week’s blogcast, which is making machinima and the new media maze. So, if you can’t tell, I’m a pretty big fan of wordplay and alliteration, sometimes it comes unconsciously so keep an ear out.
Anyway, if you’re not familiar with what Red versus Blue is, I’ll be explaining more in a little bit, but it’s best known as the longest-running episodic web series ever. Still, if you’ve never seen it, you might be wondering why I’ve chosen “Agent Kentucky Presents” as the title of a blogcast with a focus on Red vs Blue. So first of all I’m from Kentucky, and while yes I can do the stereotypical Kentucky accent, I will not be using it in this blogcast because I figure I grew up in Kentucky, this is my voice, this is a brand of a Kentucky accent. Don’t want to do anything disingenuous, here. But moving on, in Red vs Blue, the Rooster Teeth series that launched the whole company, there are 49 Agents called “The Freelancers”, who are named after US states, so you have Agent Texas, Agent Washington, Agent Carolina, but as it stands Agent Kentucky is still out there adventuring and has not yet shown up. So I figure, for my little blogcast, I’ll be the Agent Kentucky’s stand-in until the real Agent Kentucky makes their debut on Red vs. Blue—and, maybe they’ll have the stereotypical Kentucky accent.
Caption: Say hello to the Freelancers! None of these cool kids are Red or Blue, but stand-in Agent Kentucky is goin’ rogue on the Blue Team (Go Cats?)
Moving on, I think I should explain what I mean by a new media case study before we jump too deep into this. So, within this field of new media studies—which is still really getting its footing in the larger academic world—we’re going to be looking primarily at these new ways stories and information are distributed via the Internet. Kind of delving in deeper into this rise of the web series that we really see coming to a bit of an apex today with the popularity and convenience of streaming, also YouTubers and the social media influencers. New media also encompasses things like the web comic, the visual novel, the listicle, the podcast, the fiction podcast—which has actually been my primary area of research for the past six months I’ve been doing my senior thesis, but the thing is we’d be here forever if I named off everything that counts as new media because it’s always growing and always changing, which makes it challenging to keep up with trends and shifts, but provides for a lot of diversity of material.
So, all research starts out with a core question, even though I’m going to be talking about a lot of different things regarding new media here in this blogcast, but my question I really want to focus on is about community and these web series. So RvB, RWBY, really anything that Rooster Teeth is putting out, you have gen:LOCK coming in January, which is this huge exciting new scifi series helmed by RWBY’s director Gray Haddock and Black Panther’s Michael B. Jordan, probably a more familiar name if you’re not familiar with RT’s stuff, but the point is part of this company’s success has grown out of a backbone of community.
Caption: Michael B. Jordan is back to snap some retainers (and pilot some bad*ss mechs) as the voice of Julian Chase, protagonist of the upcoming Rooster Teeth Animation series gen:LOCK
And I’m not just talking about audience—for the record, I will be referring to community and audience as totally different things. So you can watch something and never think about it again, hardly talk to anybody about it, it goes out of your mind—but you were still part of the audience. You consumed that commodity. Community, on the other hand, implies further engagement, it implies connection with other audience members, sometimes this brings about the production of transformative works, so we’re talking fanart, that sort of thing. All of this long explication here brings me to my central research question which is, “How is the niche web series a catalyst of community unbounded by geography?” So that rhymes a little but it’s still kind of jargon-y, so I am essentially asking here, what is it about web series like RvB that brings people together so passionately? And obviously, you have a lot of discussions like this going on right now about modern fandom, kind of concerning things on mainstream platforms, by mainstream studios, but I think there’s a personal element here when we’re talking about indie content, especially indie web content, that facilitates the development of a different kind of consumer community—there really are tons of these out there now, but I want to focus on the RT community specifically given their time frame, how they really were ahead of their time on these things. So, kind of presenting a thesis for my question here, I think niche has a lot to do with this development of community by the web series—you’re getting people engaging in conversations who have more specific intersections of interests, I also think creator-community connection has a lot to do with it which is really bridged through social media nowadays, and that’s kind of what we’re going to be exploring here through these four episodes.
Caption: The spectrum of Red vs. Blue Heroes
Which, nature of research, one question leads to another, why focus on these series specifically? For the most part, we’re going to be talking about Red vs Blue but later we’ll touch on RWBY, which if you’re not following along in the blog is spelled R-W-B-Y, it stands for the main characters’ names and the colors they’re associated with, and I’m not just doing this because it lets me make a cheeky little title about coloring outside the lines, but these series really have made a profound impact on the landscape of digital storytelling and what we think about when we produce visual entertainment for the Internet. And going off that, the ways in which these stories have brought so many people together. I think one of the reasons I really latched onto what this company does, especially after watching their fifteenth anniversary documentary Why We’re Here, which is also the title of the first episode of Red vs Blue, is because my own mission as a storyteller, as a screenwriter, a novelist is to write things that bring people together. Things people can talk about, make friends through. I’ve made of my some of my dearest long-distance friends over the years over just nerding out about stuff, so what I’m really curious about is what makes these niche series so powerful as a connective tissue among geographically disparate people.
Caption: Community comes together at the 2017 Rooster Teeth Expo (RTX) in Austin, Texas
So quick history lesson, in 2003, two years before the advent of YouTube, which has essentially become our society’s video hosting and consumption crutch, we see the birth of Red vs Blue, and subsequently the group that will become the founders of currently Austin, TX based Rooster Teeth Productions. Now with 16 seasons and 5 spinoff miniseries under its belt, Red vs Blue was created originally using playable characters in the shooter video game HALO, which was then overdubbed with comedic voice acting and released on Rooster Teeth founder Burnie Burns’ website, drunkgamers.com, where he and his friends, as the title suggests, would do the equivalent of Drunk History, but for video game reviews. The first official episode was released on April 1st, 2003, and the series actually found itself as part of a larger new media content movement called machinima, which was essentially the art of making movies out of video gameplay. Red vs Blue however has become probably the best-known example of this new media genre, having ballooned into the internet smash hit that it is today.
Not to say that there weren’t bumps in the road, however. After RvB started drumming up serious views, the crew got into some pretty hot water with Microsoft because, obviously, HALO was protected under their copyright. However, due to RvB’s massive success and the hordes of new players it actually brought the HALO franchise, the team at Rooster Teeth was allowed to use HALO footage to make Red vs Blue completely free of royalties.
Anyway, so the first episode of RvB, after it premiered in April 2003—see, I rhymed again—essentially became a viral video before the term viral video even entered our vernacular. Okay, say that ten times fast. But really, by the third episode, things were really taking off and the team had started to realize they had struck on something pretty special here. Which brings me to discuss, “how does Red vs Blue even fit into this greater new media genre of machinima?” For the record, I’d never even heard of this genre, or knew that there was a special genre for the type of production Red vs Blue is, and the creators didn’t know it either at the time, so I don’t feel as bad about it as I could.
Caption: “What are YOU lookin’ at?”*
*Not the actual dialogue
Interestingly enough, there’s actually an Academy of Machinima of Arts and Sciences, that’s had its own film festival, awards show, and an expo convention that started in 2008. The first Machinima Film Festival and Awards were held in 2002, in which Anachronox: The Movie, a short film created using the 3D role-playing game Anachronox, took home best picture. A year later, the prize went to Red vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles. The first ever machinima films, however, were created around 1996 using the video game Quake. And similarly to Rooster Teeth, you had teams of producers—two of the big ones were called The Rangers and the Undead Clan, who created these early machinima films and distributed them via the Internet.
Now, even though it’s made using an action shooter game, Red vs Blue really isn’t all that much about the fighting—although there definitely is some, it’s certainly not like what you’re going to find in say, RWBY, where you’ve got these super crazy fight scenes and characters whipping out convertible weapons and all that. Rather, Red vs Blue is more about what happens in these humorous conversations among soldiers, and I think that’s one of the big appeals of it. So many times, content is focused on the action, kind of one of the fundamentals of structuring a plot is asking “is this important to the story? Is this important to the characters?” but Red vs Blue endeavors to make the non-fighting, the cracking jokes and dry humor, the focus, that’s the important stuff. There’s actually academic literature out there on RvB as a piece containing anti-war sentiment, I have it linked in the sources if you wanna check it out.
However, I also think RvB has a big appeal due to the interactive nature of the content, starting with its creation and continuing on into its distribution and consumption. So in an academic article on the art of machinima, Dr. Henry Lowood, who is a curator of science and technology history in the libraries at Stanford University, discusses this idea of the player—that is the player of a given video game—as a performer. Which, you know, machinima—the players become the animators, the modelers, the voice actors, but Lowood argues that this is inherent to video games, that the video game experience actually has laid the psychological groundwork for machinima to arise as a form of new media storytelling. So, when you’re playing a video game, especially an RPG, you are, for the most part, in control, you have to literally be inside your character’s head, making decisions for them. That’s why, when games are talked about or reviewed, you’ll see the word “immersive” thrown around a lot, and that’s because so many times when you’re playing video games you are placed into the psychological position of your playable character. According to Lowood, that makes you an actor.
Caption: A table read of Red vs. Blue Season 10.
So, of course, machinima producers like the Rooster Teeth founders go the extra mile here, doing voice acting over staged video gameplay, but the point, according to Lowood, is that impetus to create is already there just through the act of playing a video game. So, if we’re looking at RvB’s production as something that amplifies player-game interaction into this new dimension, is it so much of a stretch to claim that that interactive nature is actually directly reflected in the creation of the Rooster Teeth community? Of course, the founders talk about in the documentary how the community forums were created so the fans could really just entertain each other while there were lulls in releasing content, but you also saw the founders having day-to-day engagements with their fans, sort of befriending them, they ended up actually hiring a bunch of their early fans like Gavin Free, Barbara Dunkelman, and Miles Luna who are now trademark company personalities, so you wonder if interactive was just kind of always in the blueprint, and of course carries on into the company mission today.
Finally, I really think that they’ve capitalized—as so many online content creators have—on the simple fact that people process information via narrative. Really, when you break it down, new media studies as a whole is kind of the study of how stories are connecting people. Via the internet, digitally. I mean really that’s intrinsic to the core of humanities, this idea of stories connecting people. All this to say, of course, that this concept of interactive creation, of including the consumer in the narrative, is kind of what it takes to lay the seeds of such a well-connected consumer community.
So, next episode I am going to dive deeper into this creation of community and I would really love to do a Q and A, maybe an interview, so if you’re part of the Rooster Teeth community and don’t mind me reading off your answers to a couple of questions, or if you want to ask me questions regarding this and my research on it, my ask box is open you just can’t send me anonymous messages—so don’t be shy, I only do that for my own safety and security, and you can always request that I not give away your URL when I do the Q and A. Anyway, thanks for tuning in, and we’ll be back with another episode next Friday.
~Peace out, and check out the bibliography under the cut.
AKY
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lowood, Henry. “Real-Time Performance: Machinima and Game Studies”. Journal of Media Practice, vol. 2, no. 1, 2006, pp.10-17. https://web.archive.org/web/20060101161233/http://www.idmaa.org/journal/pdf/iDMAa_Journal_Vol_2_No_1_screen.pdf . Accessed 14 September, 2018.
Ott, J. “Academy of Machinima Arts and Sciences”. Making the Movie, 7 Aug. 2005, http://makingthemovie.info/2005/08/academy-of-machinima-arts-sciences.html . Accessed 14 September, 2018.
Starrs, D. Bruno. "Reverbing: The 'Red vs. Blue' machinima as anti-war film", 'Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies', NY, London: Routledge, 24.2, 2010, pp. 265–277.
Thompson, Clive. “The Xbox Auteurs.” The New York Times Magazine, 7 Aug. 2005, https://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/07/magazine/the-xbox-auteurs.html. Accessed 14 September, 2018.
Why We’re Here. Directed by Mat Hames, Rooster Teeth, 2018.
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I ask again that you not share the Tumblr with MVJ as he uses all knowledge of me against me or to imitate / try to be me rather than MVJ.
I ask the same w/r/t MJ / Michael, as he resents me for various reasons to do with manipulation-leadership (such as telling him in '09 that I felt that I was going to be a doctor someday in order to hearten / give him morale when he was anguished over job-searching in the Great Recession).
I do things like this because of a film called "Late Spring" a masterpiece by the Japanese director who inspired the Taiwanese auteur about whom I wrote my RU senior thesis and met Rebecca Hu who inspired me to work hard, get that Singapore job, meet Kate again in '07 in NYC, promise her in '08 I would struggle / fight / work for 3 years to become someone deserving of her (hand in marriage if not just friendship), which is also part of why I made that '08-09 deal with Dad that culminated in me going to MTTP in Madison, meeting Chi Hye, falling in love with this gold light in her eyes, believing in angels and mountains and "They shall mount up as eagles and not stub their toe" (Isaiah), meeting Josephine Park at 7-Step and everyone else, getting promoted to Head Developer in 6 months, then quitting b/c of a falling out I had on that night I called you after 6 months' radio silence.
IDK if you want to hear this but I wanted to marry Josephine / "LitGirl." I thanked her for helping me. IDK if you care about this she flirted with me partly by showing armpit-stubble in the summer of 2010 and I understood this because I understand "Korean American literature."
She might be the most beautiful perfect ideal "jeongdakhan" (kind of 'suitable,,' or, 'spec') woman I ever met. She went to Seoul National U. which is Korea's no.1 university and worked for an elite newspaper before taking some time off to write - she loves Emily Dickinson and, I believe, Park Wanseo, who wrote my favorite Korean short story "That Girl's House" about a promised couple in Japanese-occupied Korea who are separated by the girl's father's paranoia about Gop Dan's becoming a comfort woman and sold to be a farmer's bride in what becomes North Korea rather than marrying the "village prince" or aspiring scholar, who wants her to come away with him to Seoul...
Josephine or "Jeongeun" (which kind of means perhaps "emotion-grace" or arguably "central grace" - Josephine means "love will increase" BTW and is the name of Jo from Little Women; the name she chose for herself) looks a bit like Lee Yowon the aspiring girl who gets plastic surgery in "Take Care of My Cat" and a bit like Seo Juhyun / Catherine Seo / Seohyun the youngest member of Girls Generation who was known for her probity, "Holy Seohyun" who was no. 2 in her HS before becoming the "maknae" or "final inner" / youngest and most beloved member of the nation's best-ever girl-group. FWIW, I used to write to Seohyun on Twitter as well but she never replied. On around the time of the sinking of the MV Sewol she wrote "we cried till our eyes dried" or so and used the word "huisaeng" to describe the victims which actually can mean "sacrifice." I wrote to Seohyun using a quote from Dante Alighieri about beauty and pure thoughts or pure minds since I read "New Life / Vita Nuova" and "Heaven / Paradiso" in KR. "Catherine" incidentally means "purity" as well.
2.
On that night I first called you in 2011 I was out at a place with JEP and when I got back from our long phonecall she proceeded to get really drunk with foreigners I disliked from a hagwon I dislike throwing back soju and ultimately writing on the ladies' room floor throwing up. Danny Shin asked me to go in to the BR to comfort / talk with her so I did. I told her we should leave even before she got really drunk but she wouldn't obey me. KJ Park arrived and said "ireona" (get up bitch) and she did. I cursed in front of KJ Park since I felt I was being used as her crying-blankie and exploited to help her cope but never extricate from the situation. I later had a slight heart-attack when I found out they were having an affair even as JE flirted with other men and used them I see now as "honey-trap" and to spy on all the employees.
I feel like this is the last time I will try to communicate open with you about why I am the way I am why I do what I do. Back in 2008 you told me to use more kindness but where does that go? It's good for little kids.
Anyway before my heart-attack on that night - which impelled me to stop participating for a while in good faith with 7-Step's accelerated curriculum program working on Saturdays (which I had done happily before that) - I had been incredibly optimistic and at the same time "wise" in the "soi sage" sense reading Flaubert's last completed novel, which you might like one day, "L'Education Sentimentale" (accurately translated as "Emotional Education" since "Sentiment" sounds Victorian and sentimentality is an Anglo or Anglo-Korean category, saccharine in a way which French love and emotion are not).
I also later visited Cheonan her hometown which means "Heaven's Peace." I walked around and years later wanted to write a novel called "Cheonan Sky" which is about the sinking of a ROKN frigate / destroyer / corvette called the ROKS Cheonan in 2010 but a North Korean suicide micro-submarine.
The captain of the ROKS Cheonan never retired basically but became a military analyst for I believe either KJAD or 38North out of entailments or legacy-obligations to his men.
The theme of "Cheonan Sky" is family killing family (the Korean War / civil war in general within a nation), terrorism, capital punishment by electrocution. The ending is that the hero committed acts of 1st degree murder and terrorism and is dressed by his wife for execution after donating semen / sperm so she can have a child after his death.
You might or might not be interested to know but "Cheonan" in Chinese characters is I believe "Tian'an'" like Tiananmen Square.
When I asked Josephine to teach me some Korean she said "Miryang" which means "secret sunshine" that is actually the name of a city as well a movie but known for the gang-rape of an elementary school girl.
3.
This is kind of why I'm interested in terrorism, assassination, North Korean Studies, and also why I didn't know how to read people's sign about "covering love," concealing or forgiving crimes et cetera; covering sins.
I associate JEP for some reason with Russian blues and mother-of-pearl since I looked at a wedding ring which was mother-of-pearl and diamond in 2011. In retrospect I have no idea whether she was interested in me or not or how willing she would have been to partner with me as opposed to KJ or Danny Shin or anyone else. I won't say anything more because I don't oppose women being that way 100% although the Book of Proverbs does say not to prostitute your daughter and a British Victorian Evangelical PM used to walk the streets of London pleading with hookers to get honest if low-paying jobs (WE Gladstone who also said politics succeeds ultimately through "not love of power but power of love" a saying I associate these days with Mike Pompeo)
I have come close to imprisonment and/or death lately from trying to be open w/ people in America so this is literally I ardently wish my last freebie w/r/t "teaching" people but the existence of people like Josephine also seems to bind me to SK or KR. There is simply no way I can not go back someday. When that ferry sank I saw an article about a foreigner graveyard in Incheon and felt what Shakespeare felt near the end of his life which was a desire beyond or parallel to after life to donate his bones to a certain plot of land. I foolishly or heedlessly confessed this reality to Mi who became depressed and my words started to go over his head.
IDK if you want to know this but I worked for a long time on a novel about the MV Sewol called "Flowers on Water" or "Flowers 1881" which is about the sovereignty of God in the deaths or waste of children as well as "It Is Well with My Soul," Chancellor / Pastor John Piper, the drowning of paedophiles in prison or others who abuse or exploit young people, and my own responsibility for failing as an HS teacher.
IDK if you remember but the guy who owned the MV Sewol which sank due to unlawful loading of the hull with equipment was found decapitated with a backpack full of money in a field of maize, I believe.
There are those who believe including me that KR is not really a democracy but run by the KCIA or and/or through an organization called "One Company" or so that includes numerous military dictators, officers, many of whom used to be teachers though some were also associated with the terrorist-student radical organization (the ShiShi) that produced the Meiji Restoration and the Empire of Japan -> WW2 Pacific since the Japanese were determined not to let American "gunboat diplomacy" lead to cultural genocide or everlasting hegemony of the West over either JP or the total Far East.
My last thing to you is just that there are those who believe the imperial family of JP who were restored to supremacy in gov't by the ShiShi after centuries of formalistic ritualitsic formalistic ceremonial "Chinese" rule are partly Korean in blood and Koreans themselves believe in "Minjung Theology" saying Koreans have a holy destiny worldwide which is something I believe as well.
You can be 10,000% honest with me about your intentions from now on BTW. IDK if I can get back to KR now, a year from now, or in a coffin.
It depends on money I guess.
As I reflected in my previous e-mail after my born again prayer in 2004 when I wished for unity (in the field across the street from Marshall School) I eventually got that unity around 2012 when Dad said he would work sacrificially to fix me up following my suicide-attempt and in 2013 when I told Jaeyoung that I wanted to be a principal I precipitated or incubated a process leading up to the Lead Teacher position I was offered a few months back as well as Concordia's interest in my application for their Educational Leadership doctorate.
If you want to read one more book by a Korean I urge "The Fourth Dimension" by Rev. Dr. David YongGi Cho, the pastor of a church called Yoido or Yeouido Full Gospel which claims some 500,000 members though Dr. Cho has been indicted for embezzlement and there are those who would doubt his belief in miracle faith-healing or in God's defending people from things like head-first suicide-attempts.
As my student once said to me, "Thank you for everything"
DJJ
PS again if you like music I rec. "Marvel Not That Christ in Glory" - "Christ in p/POWER Resurrection / calling many sons to glory" - as well as a pop-song called "Please Remember Me" by a girl-group known as Year 7 Class 1 or 7-1.
It is a slow ballad but the central refrain is "yaksokhae uri... kkok mannayo..." (Let us promise to meet again rapidly / immediately)...
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Missing Pieces (1/3)
Okay so let’s pretend that Richie and mike are the same age for a second and that Stranger Things doesn’t take place 4 years before IT does.
also thanks to @bxxpbxxprichie for helpiing me do this. ily mars.
“I don’t get why you put all my stuff in the attic, Mom,” Mike complained, pulling down the ladder that leads to the highest point in the Wheeler's home. He was looking for the picture of him Will, Lucas, Dustin, and Mr. Clarke he wanted to give it to Mr. Clarke as a birthday present.
“Sorry, honey!” Karen called up to the boy. He was a sophomore in college studying space and writing his thesis on the theory of inter-dimensional travel. But he knows it's possible. He's fucking done it.
He held his flashlight close to his body, before finding the single lightbulb in the middle of the room. He began walking towards it. But not before tripping over a small box labeled ‘NEVER OPEN’. So, of course, he had to open it.
He set his flashlight aside for a second as he tore at the sticker holding it shut. What was inside pulled his heart apart. ‘Richard Wheeler’. It was a birth certificate. Same date as his own. Same hospital and doctor. Same parents signature. There was a photo. Two baby boys with the same face. One was smiling widely. The other looked confused and filled with wonder. And there were more papers. Something about adoption. But his eyes were too filled with tears to read it. He shakily wiped at his cheeks with the back of his hand putting everything back into the box.
He carried it with him. Taking it to his mother. “What is this.” He asked. His voice quiet but impatient. This had been kept from him for his entire life. He had a brother. Mike Wheeler had a brother.
Karen looked up at her son. He was much taller than her now. “You weren’t supposed to find that.”
“Well I did,” he started, “I- I have a brother? I have a twin?” His chest felt strange. He always had a feeling like something was missing. Even after Eleven came home and Will was found. He still felt like something wasn’t right. Like a part of him wasn’t there.
“We had only planned on having you. Only one boy. So your father and I, we put Richard up for adoption. We couldn’t afford more than two kids at the time. But I loved Richie as soon as I saw him. We named him after my father and you after Ted’s.” she smiled, the memories of Richie's giggle filled her mind. It was a box that hadn’t been opened in 20 years. It was still painful. But she knew she could not have supported Richie as well as Mike and Nancy. “There is not a day that goes by that I don’t miss him.” Her voice came out in a whisper. Laced with years of pain and longing. She also felt a part of her missing.
The silence rang out for what seemed like forever. Mike stared at the photo. He could tell who was who. He didn’t know how, but he just knew. Richie was smiling. Laughing. And Mike was the one watching with wonder and confusion. “Where is he now?” Mike felt a bit of hope tug at the idea that he was still out there. It wasn’t like he was dead. For all he knew, he could be, but that wouldn’t stop Mike.
“I don’t know,” Karen spoke. “All communication about him stopped once we signed those papers.” Karen felt all of the feelings she had hidden for years fall out. It came with opening the box. So Mike took his mother in his arms and held her close. But he could only think of one thing. He was going to find this kid.
He was going to find his brother.
Richie Tozier was now 20. Living in New York with Beverly. Both in college, which is something neither of them thought they’d be doing. Richie was studying acting, and Beverly was studying fashion design. They lived in a tiny apartment with tapestries for walls.
Pictures in frames and Polaroid cameras. The losers and past girlfriends. The track team most of them were on, the picture of Mike in his football gear with all of the losers jumping on him in celebration after he won states in his senior year. But there was one photo tucked into the back corner of Richie's bedside table drawer. And Beverly was looking for her hair ties. And she found the picture. Two babies. Same face. One laughing the other not. She turned it over. ‘Michael and Richard Wheeler’.
“Richie!?” She yelled, staring at the picture in confusion.
“What?” He responded, turning down the sound of his clash record playing Should I Stay or Should I Go?
Beverly walked into the living room. “What’s this?” She turned the small photograph so that he could see. The goofy smile that he usually wore fell, but for only a second.
“It’s nothing.” He laughed. Shrugged. And tried to grab the photo from her hands. But she pulled it out of his reach, jumping onto the couch and keeping it in the air.
“You may be an actor, but you can’t lie to me.” She triumphantly bellowed. And soon she found Richie sitting beside her feet with his head in his hand. Beverly sat beside him and pulled him to her side. She didn’t say anything.
“His name is Michael Joseph Wheeler.” He explained, pointing to the one looking at the camera with wonder, a soft smile playing on his lips. “He lives in Hawkins, Indiana. He is 20. And that’s pretty much all I know.” Richie paused before continuing. “And, that’s-” don't do it. “That is Richard Kyle Wheeler- or Tozier now. He was born in Hawkins, Indiana, grew up in Derry, Maine, lives in New York with his best friend, misses the fuck out of his boyfriend, swears too much…” he trailed off. “I never looked for him because why would I? His parents didn't want me, why would he.” Richie turned away and walked into the kitchen. “What do you want on your pizza?” He wanted to act like it wasn’t something that had been burying him alive for 20 years.
But the next thing he felt was the freckled arms of the girl clearly made of fire, wrapping around his waist from behind. And he let it happen. She saw right through him every time. She made everything feel at least okay, and sometimes alright. Because she was always there.
At least he knew someone loved him.
taglist: @disney-official @smol-and-annoying @reddieformileven @snowmanuris @kaspbrakstozier @theliteraltrash @exxervescence @nocapesyd @everheardofastaphinfection @spicytozier @obsessionistx @deux-mille-deux @caleidoscopecolors @theres-no-going-home @reusisdrug @greywatertozier @turtleneckrichie @thotty-wise @gee-from-room-708-is-not-on-fire @gczebos @metaphoric-blast @richie-tczier @tomorrowtempley @girl-who-likes-weird-things @loserssclubb @uhhi-there
#mike and richie#st x it#stranger things/IT#mike and richie wheeler#mike and richie brothers#mike wheeler#richie tozier#beverie#reddie#beverly marsh#eddie kaspbrak#it 2017#stranger things 2#stanger things#Ziggy fics
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this is it. one of the best hands ive ever painted.
#still need to paint the nails but i need the paint of the hand to dry first#anyways michael (painter) when he paints something and its good: :O#my art#michael does his senior thesis
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Bird Brains elect first President - Trump-Pence- Bannon Regime - Homophobia and Islamophobia used to provoke a religious war and Constitutional Convention crisis
"...But Franklin’s bombastic extremism is markedly different from his father’s diplomatic spirituality. ..."
Source: Franklin Graham Wants to Be the Next Billy Graham: He’s not even close. - http://www.slate.com/articles/life/faithbased/2016/02/franklin_graham_wants_to_be_the_next_billy_graham_he_s_not_even_close.html
"... “Prepare diligently to inflict crippling losses on those who have disbelieved,” Hamza bin Laden, scion of the Sept. 11, 2001, mastermind, says in a thin baritone that eerily echoes his father. “Follow in the footsteps of martyrdom-seekers before you.” ..."
Source: Bin Laden’s Son Steps into Father’s Shoes as al-Qaeda Attempts a Comeback - https://english.aawsat.com/mwarrick/world-news/bin-ladens-son-steps-fathers-shoes-al-qaeda-attempts-comeback
"...It was at a campaign rally in August that President Trump most fully unveiled the dark vision of an America under siege by “radical Islam” that is now radically reshaping the policies of the United States. ..."
"... Mr. Trump was echoing a strain of anti-Islamic theorizing familiar to anyone who has been immersed in security and counterterrorism debates over the last 20 years. He has embraced a deeply suspicious view of Islam that several of his aides have promoted, notably retired Lt. Gen. Michael T. Flynn, now his national security adviser, and Stephen K. Bannon, the president’s top strategist. This worldview borrows from the “clash of civilizations” thesis of the political scientist Samuel P. Huntington, and combines straightforward warnings Saabout extremist violence with broad-brush critiques of Islam. It sometimes conflates terrorist groups like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State with largely nonviolent groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots and, at times, with the 1.7 billion Muslims around the world. In its more extreme forms, this view promotes conspiracies about government infiltration and the danger that Shariah, the legal code of Islam, may take over in the United States. ..."
"... Those espousing such views present Islam as an inherently hostile ideology whose adherents are enemies of Christianity and Judaism and seek to conquer nonbelievers either by violence or through a sort of stealthy brainwashing. The executive order on immigration that Mr. Trump signed on Friday might be viewed as the first major victory for this geopolital school. ..."
"... Rejected by most serious scholars of religion and shunned by Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, this dark view of Islam has nonetheless flourished on the fringes of the American right since before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. With Mr. Trump’s election, it has now moved to the center of American decision-making on security and law, alarming many Muslims. ..."
"... “They’re tapping into the climate of fear and suspicion since 9/11,” said Asma Afsaruddin, a professor of Islamic studies at Indiana University and chairwoman of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy. “It’s a master narrative that pits the Muslim world against the West,” appealing to Trump supporters who know nothing of Muslims or Islam beyond news reports of terrorist attacks, she said. ..."
"...Others with similar views of Islam include Sebastian Gorka, who taught at the National Defense University and is a deputy national security adviser. Mr. Gorka’s wife, Katharine, who headed think tanks that focused on the dangers of Islam, now works at the Department of Homeland Security. Tera Dahl, who was an aide to former Representative Michele Bachmann, Republican of Minnesota, is a National Security Council official. Walid Phares, a Lebanese American Christian who has advised politicians on counterterrorism, advised Mr. Trump’s campaign but does not currently have a government post. All four have written for Breitbart News, the right-wing website previously run by Mr. Bannon. They all reflect the hard-line opinions of what some have described as the Islamophobia industry, a network of researchers who have warned for many years of the dangers of Islam and were thrilled by Mr. Trump’s election. ..."
"... Among the most outspoken of those warning about Islam are Pamela Geller, of Stop Islamization of America, Robert Spencer, of Jihad Watch, and Frank Gaffney Jr., of the Center for Security Policy. All three were hosted by Mr. Bannon on his Breitbart radio program before he became chief executive of the Trump campaign in August. Mr. GaffnDEVOSey appeared at least 34 times. His work has often been cited in speeches by Mr. Flynn. Kellyanne Conway, now counselor to Mr. Trump, did polling for Mr. Gaffney’s center. Last year, the center gave Senator Jeff Sessions, who has warned of the “totalitarian threat” posed by radical Islam and is Mr. Trump’s nominee for attorney general, its annual “Keeper of the Flame” award. ..."
"...The day after the election, Mr. Gaffney told the Breitbart radio show how pleased he was with Mr. Trump’s win. “It is a great blessing literally from God, but also I think obviously from the candidate himself, Donald Trump,” he said. He praised the “superb people” around Mr. Trump, naming Mr. Bannon and Mr. Flynn, who he said “are actually going to lead us to saving the Republic.” ..."
Source: Trump Pushes Dark View of Islam to Center of U.S. Policy-Making - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/01/us/politics/donald-trump-islam.html
"... Mr. Gorka came out swinging again on Thursday, after Mr. Trump’s contentious news conference in which he excoriated the media. Asked by Evan Davis of the BBC to assess Mr. Trump’s appearance, Mr. Gorka repeatedly declared the president’s performance “fabulous.” ..."
"... He has appeared in a number of television and radio interviews as a representative of the Trump administration and a member of a White House team called the Strategic Initiatives Group. The Daily Beast called it a think tank within the White House that was set up by Mr. Bannon and the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser, Jared Kushner. ..."
"...This month, Mr. Gorka told CNN that the group would bring private industry expertise to bear on a range of issues, including cybersecurity, veterans affairs and the modernization of government technological systems. ..."
Source: Who Is Sebastian Gorka? A Trump Adviser Comes Out of the Shadows - https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/17/us/politics/dr-sebastian-gorka.html?_r=0
"... In the decade since earning his doctorate, Sebastian has vaulted into the heart of the American national-security apparatus. At the White House, Gorka — who was born in Britain and became a U.S. citizen in 2012 — is a deputy assistant to the president. He reports to strategist Steve Bannon and includes the Strategic Initiatives Group, Bannon’s in-house think tank, in his email signature. ..."
"... That appointment, which includes a portfolio focusing on terrorism and national security, has befuddled mainstream counterterrorism experts, who recognize Gorka from his Fox News appearances but not as an influential thinker. ..."
"... Retired Col. Peter Mansoor, a former top aide to Gen. David Petraeus in Iraq who helped rewrite the Army’s counterinsurgency manual, also said he’s never crossed paths with Gorka. “What I've heard has not been complimentary,” added Mansoor, who now teaches at Ohio State University and remains active in military circles. ..."
"... The Gorkas are also strong believers in changing official U.S. government rhetoric to include the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” which Obama, and George W. Bush before him, shunned. “We are prepared to be honest about the threat. We're not going to white it out, delete it as the Obama administration did,” Sebastian Gorka told NPR last month. In November, the Council on American-Islamic Relations described the views of both Gorkas as “Islamophobic.” ..."
Source: The husband-and-wife team driving Trump's national security policy: Before they became a Trump administration power couple, Sebastian and Katharine Gorka were prolific collaborators on research about the threat of Islamist terrorism. - http://www.politico.com/story/2017/02/trump-national-security-gorka-234950
"... A recent addition to Donald Trump’s White House team is quickly becoming the new face of the administration’s foreign policy shop: Deputy Assistant to the President Sebastian Gorka. Gorka, who formally joined the administration in late January and previously served as an editor at Breitbart News, has been deployed across the cable networks and airwaves... ..."
"... In all of his appearances, Gorka communicated a singular message: the Trump White House is taking a 180-degree pivot away from Barack Obama’s foreign policy. “There is a new sheriff in town,” Gorka told Fox’s Sean Hannity. ..."
"...Like Trump, Gorka’s talking points are long on “America first” rhetoric and short on details about how the new administration’s policies will be implemented—everything remains on the table. ..."
"...Gorka declined to say whether Trump believed Islam was a religion in a Friday interview with NPR's “Morning Edition.” He went on to argue that the new administration’s overarching focus was targeting “radical Islam” as an ideology. ..."
"... “We understand that groups like ISIS have a religious verbiage, their justification for violence is always religion.” ..."
Source: Breitbart Staffer Turned Trump Aide Is Posterboy For New Admin’s Nationalism
- http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/sebastian-gorka-public-face-donald-trump-foreign-policy
"...Dr. Sebastian Gorka, former national security editor at Breitbart News and newly hired deputy assistant to President Donald Trump, has called himself an “expert witness” in the trial of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev for years, but never took the witness stand. ..."
Source: 'Expert Witness' Sebastian Gorka Never Testified in Boston Marathon Bombing Trial - http://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/blog/2017/02/14/sebastian-gorka-boston-marathon-bombing-expert-witness/
"...is the San Antonio chapter president of ACT for America, an organization that brands itself as “the nation’s largest grass-roots national security advocacy organization” and attacks what it sees as the creeping threat of sharia, or Islamic law, in the form of Muslim organizations, mosques, refugees and sympathetic politicians. ..."
"...“We are on the verge of playing the most pivotal role in reversing the significant damage that has been done to our nation’s security and well-being over the past eight years,” ACT’s founder, Brigitte Gabriel, wrote in a December solicitation for donations. Stephen K. Bannon, the former executive chairman of Breitbart who has described Muslim American groups as “cultural jihadists” bent on destroying American society, is Trump’s chief strategist. Breitbart has published several articles Gabriel has written. Trump’s CIA director, Mike Pompeo, has spoken at ACT’s conferences and sponsored an ACT meeting at the Capitol last year. Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, who sits on ACT’s board of advisers, served as the president’s national security adviser before stepping down after revelations that he might have violated the law in communications with a Russian diplomat. ..."
Source: This group believes Islam threatens America: ‘It’s a spiritupolal battle of good and evil.’ - https://www.washingtonpost.com/national/this-group-believes-islam-threatens-america-its-a-spiritual-battle-of-good-and-evil/2017/02/16/3e5108c2-ed57-11e6-9662-6eedf1627882_story.html?utm_term=.d00401ab5514
More Birds Brains elect First President political cartoon series at http://vbutterflyeffect.imgur.com/
#donald trump#steven bannon#mike pence#Franklin Graham#hamza bin laden#GOP#robert mercer#bird brains#Election 2016#vbutterflyeffect#Sebastian Gorka#katherine gorka#rebekah mercer#politics#political cartoon
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Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, the fugitive emir of ISIS, the man who transformed a breakaway al-Qaeda group into a transnational terrorist franchise that brutalized and killed civilians in more than a dozen countries and who threatened to rewrite the map of the Middle East by luring foreign recruits to wage jihad in Iraq and Syria, is dead.
So what happens to the terror organization that he painstakingly assembled?
In many ways, the group is already evolving. ISIS leadership ranks have proved resilient despite more than five years of war. The group has been quick to adapt to new circumstances. No longer capable of seizing and holding territory, the surviving foot soldiers have instead gone back to their guerrilla roots, carrying out ambushes, bombings and assassinations. And despite the loss of its territorial caliphate in Iraq and Syria, ISIS has expanded its reach to include 14 separate affiliates in countries across Asia and Africa.
In the long-term, analysts say, what may be most significant about Saturday’s Special Operations commando raid is not al-Baghdadi’s decapitation from ISIS’ shadowy hierarchy but the ease with which he will be replaced. The group, like its predecessor organization, Al Qaeda in Iraq, routinely taps new commanders to fill the vacuum left by those who are assassinated. The replacements occur with such regularity that the U.S. Special Operations community jokingly refers to removing leaders as “mowing the grass.”
“Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi’s death —welcome and important though it may be— is not a catastrophic blow to the quality of leadership in ISIS,” says Michael Nagata, who retired as Army Lieutenant General and strategy director from the National Counterterrorism Center in August.
Nagata, who served in the Middle East as a Special Operations commander in 2014 when the counter-ISIS campaign began, says ISIS now has a cadre of young battle-hardened leaders who are climbing toward the top echelons and establishing themselves in the terror group’s global network. “ISIS isn’t a crippled organization because Baghdadi’s gone,” he says. “The depth and breadth of ISIS leadership, in my judgment, is unprecedented for this type of terrorist group.”
Since the first days of U.S. involvement in the war against ISIS, Special Operations forces and intelligence agencies hunted and killed the group’s leaders one-by-one. But they’ve always regrouped.
“As we’ve seen over the last several years, the group also has a strategy to carry on operations into the next decade,” says Aki Peritz, a former CIA counterterrorism analyst and co-author of “Find, Fix, Finish: Inside the Counterterrorism Campaigns that Killed bin Laden and Devastated Al Qaeda.” “It’s good to take out the leader, but it’s not just a terrorist group —it’s an ideology as well; stamping out the idea of the Islamic State will prove to be much more difficult than one successful military/intelligence operation.”
“It’s good to take out the leader, but it’s not just a terrorist group—it’s an ideology as well.” After all, al-Qaeda endured after founder Osama bin Laden was killed in a 2011 Navy SEAL raid. And Al Qaeda in Iraq lived on as ISIS after its founder, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ,was killed in a 2006 U.S. airstrike.
U.S. counterterrorism officials expect ISIS to name a successor in the coming days or weeks. A likely candidate is al-Baghdadi’s defense chief, Iyad al-Obaidi. But regardless of who leads the Sunni extremist group, it is now a shadow of the organization that launched a lightning offensive in Iraq and Syria that resulted in the seizure of territory the size of Britain and raked in millions of dollars a day.
The seeds for resurgence, however, are there. According to a recent Defense Department Inspector General’s report, ISIS has between 14,000 and 18,000 members who’ve pledged allegiance to al-Baghdadi. In addition, there are more than 30 detention camps that hold about 11,000 ISIS fighters, sympathizers and other associated detainees across northern Syria. Another camp for internally displaced persons known as al-Hol, in northeastern Syria, holds nearly 70,000 people, including thousands of ISIS family members. The U.S. military reported in February that “absent sustained pressure,” the terrorist group would re-emerge in Syria within six to 12 months.
Moreover, ISIS remains a worldwide threat because the group has a constellation of affiliates in places as far-flung as Nigeria and Pakistan, according to a report from the Institute for the Study of War in Washington. “ISIS’ global presence provides footholds from which to further metastasize, launch attacks, and gain resources to fund its resurgence in Iraq and Syria,” the report said, documenting recent plans for attacks on the West that emanated from affiliates in Libya, Somalia and the Philippines.
The death of militant leaders, however, frequently leads to fractures within terror organizations and new directions in strategy, says Norman T. Roule, a former senior CIA officer with experience in Middle East issues. “In the wake of Baghdadi’s death, ISIS groups abroad could go in a number of directions,” he says. “Some may decide to reconcile with al-Qaeda, some may decide to undertake revenge operations to demonstrate that ISIS remains potent. Some planned operations could be accelerated if the ISIS planners believe the intelligence found with Baghdadi might identify them.”
Omar Haj Kadour—AFP/Getty ImagesA Syrian man inspects the site of helicopter gunfire near the northwestern Syrian village of Barisha on Oct. 27, 2019.
Colin P. Clarke, a fellow at the Soufan Center and author of “After the Caliphate: The Islamic State and the Future of the Terrorist Diaspora,” says there have already been signs of an “ISIS 2.0” emerging. “It’s unclear what Baghdadi’s death could do to exacerbate the changes underway,” he says. “Baghdadi was the face of the ISIS brand. He had a cult of personality.”
Born into a religiously devout lower-middle-class Sunni Muslim family in Iraq in 1971, Ibrahim Awwad Ibrahim al-Badri, who years later adopted the nom de guerre al-Baghdadi, was an unexceptional, shy child, according to recent biographies based on interviews with those who knew him. He never excelled at religious scholarship but was talented at the recitation of Quranic verse. In college and graduate school, he studied the style and technique of reciting the Quran, and he wrote a master’s thesis on a medieval commentary on the subject.
Al-Baghdadi’s finishing school in radicalism was unwittingly provided by the U.S. In February 2004, after the invasion of Iraq, he was visiting a friend in Fallujah when U.S. Army intelligence officers burst in and arrested them both. Al-Baghdadi was taken to the notorious prison at Camp Bucca, which inadvertently came to serve as an incubator for Sunni jihadism, according to former camp officials. There he was a skilled networker, courting radical factions and building a reputation as a religious leader based on his Islamic studies.
These talents didn’t register on his captors, though, who judged al-Baghdadi to be a low-risk prisoner. Released at the end of 2004, he returned to the Iraqi capital, where he pursued a doctorate and joined a series of jihadi groups invigorated by the fall of Saddam Hussein and the U.S. occupation. In early 2006, he found his ultimate home in the Iraqi al-Qaeda offshoot led by Zarqawi, a former violent criminal from Jordan whom U.S. forces killed that June. Al-Baghdadi’s nominal religious qualifications and rigid dogmatism carried him quickly through the ranks, and in May 2010, after the U.S. killed the only two men above him, he emerged as the emir.
Along with his ambitious territorial goals in the Middle East, al-Baghdadi elaborated an apocalyptic vision of a final battle between the forces of radical Islam and the West. In a Ramadan sermon in mid-2014, he declared slavery the universal human condition: Muslim believers are indentured to Allah, while nonbelievers are the rightful property of Muslims. He also said the time of death for each man and woman is preordained, implying that all killings must be the will of Allah. This teaching paved the way for his chief spokesman to deliver the following message to ISIS supporters everywhere a few months later: “If you can kill a disbelieving American or European,” the spokesman said, “kill the disbeliever whether he is civilian or military.”
Gabriella Demczuk for TIMEPresident Donald Trump announces the death of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, in a raid by American special operations forces in Syria, at the White House on Oct. 27, 2019.
The bloodthirsty rhetoric, often relayed on slickly produced videos that pin-balled around social media, proved an innovative tactic that resonated with disaffected youth. ISIS recruited around 43,000 fighters from 120 countries to the caliphate in Iraq and Syria. Some acted in al-Baghdadi’s name at home, killing hundreds of innocents at hotels, mosques and concert halls from Paris to the Sinai, Beirut to San Bernardino, Calif.
The widespread violence earned al-Baghdadi a $25-million U.S. bounty on his head and enemies across the world. He went underground. For years there were erroneous reports that he was seriously wounded or killed. After the collapse of his self-proclaimed caliphate, al-Baghdadi had been shuttling back-and-forth in the desert between western Iraq and eastern Syria, traveling mostly in cars and Toyota pickup trucks with a small entourage that included heavily armed bodyguards, according to a U.S. intelligence official. He rarely stayed more than one night in the same place, and like bin Laden, communicated by courier rather than using phones or computers, the official said. Al-Baghdadi was located when Iraqi forces picked up two members of his entourage in an unrelated operation and passed the intelligence they collected to the CIA.
After a five-year absence from public view, al-Baghdadi had appeared April 29 in an 18-minute propaganda video. In a black tunic with a Kalashnikov rifle at his side, he stated that ISIS’s fight against the West was far from over. “Our battle today is a war of attrition to harm the enemy, and they should know that jihad will continue until doomsday,” he told a roomful of followers seated cross-legged on the floor.
A U.S. counterterrorism official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on al-Baghdadi’s death, told TIME that danger still looms from al-Baghdadi’s call for followers to shift from larger attacks to more small actions outside Iraq and Syria. Even so, the official said that al-Baghdadi’s death, while partly symbolic, would “silence maybe the most inspirational terrorist voice that remained.”
—with reporting by John Walcott and Kimberly Dozier from Washington
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