#monica and kidney.

[newhologram]

“I write this eulogy while looking across one of the ten-lane freeways P-22 somehow miraculously crossed in 2012, gazing at a view of his new home, Griffith Park. Burbank Peak and the other hills that mark the terminus of the Santa Monica Mountains emerge from this urban island like sentinels making a last stand against the second largest city in the country. The traffic noise never ceases. Helicopters fly overhead. The lights of the city give the sky no peace.

“Yet a mountain lion lived here, right here in Los Angeles.

“I can’t finish this sentence without crying because of the past tense. It’s hard to imagine I will be writing about P-22 in the past tense now.

"Biologists and veterinarians with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced today they have made the difficult decision to end P-22’s suffering and help him transition peacefully to the next place. I hope his future is filled with endless forests without a car or road in sight and where deer are plentiful, and I hope he finally finds the mate that his island existence denied him his entire life.

“I am so grateful I was given the opportunity to say goodbye to P-22. Although I have advocated for his protection for a decade, we had never met before. I sat near him, looking into his eyes for a few minutes, and told him he was a good boy. I told him how much I loved him. How much the world loved him. And I told him I was so sorry that we did not make the world a safer place for him. I apologized that despite all I and others who cared for him did, we failed him.

“I don’t have any illusion that my presence or words comforted him. And I left with a great sadness I will carry for the rest of my days.

“Before I said goodbye, I sat in a conference room with team members from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the team of doctors at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The showed me a video of P-22’s CT scan, images of the results, and my despair grew as they outlined the list of serious health issues they had uncovered from all their testing: stage two kidney failure, a weight of 90 pounds (he normally weighs about 125), head and eye trauma, a hernia causing abdominal organs to fill his chest cavity, an extensive case of demodex gatoi (a parasitic skin infection likely transmitted from domestic cats), heart disease, and more. The most severe injuries resulted from him being hit by a car last week, and I thought of how terrible it was that this cat, who had managed to evade cars for a decade, in his weakened and desperate condition could not avoid the vehicle strike that sealed his fate.

“As the agency folks and veterinarians relayed these sobering facts to me, tissue boxes were passed around the table and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. This team cares just as much for this cat as we all do. They did everything they could for P-22 and deserve our gratitude.

“Although I wished so desperately he could be returned to the wild, or live out his days in a sanctuary, the decision to euthanize our beloved P-22 is the right one. With these health issues, there could be no peaceful retirement, only some managed care existence where we prolonged his suffering — not for his benefit, but for ours.

“Those of us who have pets know how it feels when we receive news from the veterinarian that we don’t want to hear. As a lifelong dog and cat owner, I have been in this dreadful position too many times. The decision to let them go is never easy, but we as humans have the ability, the responsibility, and the selflessness to show mercy to end the suffering for these beloved family members, a compassionate choice we scarcely have for ourselves.

“I look at Griffith Park through the window again and feel the loss so deeply. Whenever I hiked to the Hollywood sign, or strolled down a street in Beachwood Canyon to pick up a sandwich at The Oaks, or walked to my car after a concert at the Greek Theater, the wondrous knowledge that I could encounter P-22 always propelled me into a joyous kind of awe. And I am not alone — his legion of stans hoped for a sight of Hollywood’s most beloved celebrity, the Brad Pitt of the cougar world, on their walks or on their Ring cams, and when he made an appearance, the videos usually went viral. In perhaps the most Hollywood of P-22’s moments, human celebrity Alan Ruck, star of Succession, once reported seeing P-22 from his deck, and shouting at him like a devoted fan would.

“We will all be grappling with the loss of P-22 for some time, trying to make sense of a Los Angeles without this magnificent wild creature. I loved P-22 and hold a deep respect for his intrepid spirit, charm, and just plain chutzpah. We may never see another mountain lion stroll down Sunset Boulevard or surprise customers outside the Los Feliz Trader Joe’s. But perhaps that doesn’t matter — what matters is P-22 showed us it’s possible.

“He changed us.  He changed the way we look at LA. And his influencer status extended around the world, as he inspired millions of people to see wildlife as their neighbors. He made us more human, made us connect more to that wild place in ourselves. We are part of nature and he reminded us of that. Even in the city that gave us Carmeggedon, where we thought wildness had been banished a long time ago, P-22 reminded us it’s still here.

“His legacy to us, and to his kind will never fade. He ensured a future for the entire population of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains by inspiring us to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which broke ground this spring.

“P-22 never fully got to be a mountain lion. His whole life, he suffered the consequences of trying to survive in unconnected space, right to the end when being hit by a car led to his tragic end. He showed people around the world that we need to ensure our roads, highways, and communities are better and safer when people and wildlife can freely travel to find food, shelter, and families. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing would not have been possible without P-22, but the most fitting memorial to P-22 will be how we carry his story forward in the work ahead. One crossing is not enough — we must build more, and we must continue to invest in proactive efforts to protect and conserve wildlife and the habitats they depend on — even in urban areas.

“P-22’s journey to and life in Griffith Park was a miracle. It’s my hope that future mountain lions will be able to walk in the steps of P-22 without risking their lives on California’s highways and streets. We owe it to P-22 to build more crossings and connect the habitats where we live now.

“Thank you for the gift of knowing you, P-22. I’ll miss you forever. But I will never stop working to honor your legacy, and although we failed you, we can at least partly atone by making the world safer for your kind.”

#p22 #rip #los angeles #animal death

[upn-the-sky]

Give me God of War!! (Ares OOAK, Part 1)

okay, you know, how craft works.

One day you've just become attached to GOW with ropes and tears. Another day you've decided in your head that you can't breath without any figure from this game.

You probably buy Kratos action figure (as I did) and probably feel yourself satisfied because your money are safe now (as I thought too! I can't have armored Kratos on his olympic throne, cause I don't have a third kidney, sadly, so I was very pleased with a little god Kratos figure (Neca). After fixing up paint on his face, I look at him and think ohw, you are gorgeous :зззззз).

So, you are moving forward, replay or rewatch god of war games, especially the first games... you are fine.

UNTIL you decide that you are an adept, who stans GOW Ares. You fire up this dump and can't live your life without Ares doll. Idol. I-doll.

If you are me, then you can understand. As Ares said, flesh burns, bones breaks, but putting man into making a custom doll is what truly destroys him. So I hugged my family to increase my level of rage and started. Now you can go under the cut

Actually, I wouldn't do it, but there is no GOW Ares figures in this cruel world at all. Sadly! He is beautiful red-haired war baby, isn't he?

And I like his original design more than the one we have in Ascension. (Althought I like his non-armored outfit (red chiton) from Ascension concept arts, which wasn't used). Anyway, if we want to have our own god of war, we have one way to figure it out.

Personally I've seen only one Ares OOAK in the internet. It was at Neca Kratos base and it was kinda fine. There was completely re-sculpted head, but the body was without any changes. Kratos in his slut era (thank you tumblr, you are the best) was really scraggy, so Ares with his thin waist looked funny 😅.

Well, anyway, Ares wasn't a thin reed and loved to hunch over, so we need to be canon.

I would say, I am not an OOAKer at all, I've just customized my own ball-joined dolls a couple of times, and I say it straightly, making Ares bjd would be nice, but it probably turns out to an endless torture for me and my finances. So for the base I decided to chose 1/6 scale action figure. I needed to harvest a head and a body. It is going to be a re-sculpted hybrid anyway, so we can ignore color difference and stuff. Yes, I devoted my heart and aliexpress account to Ares 🥲

Whoever recognized the head donor actor, well done x) A bit of alcohol and nail cutter for the eyes (it's varnish was undestructible, holy shit..) will manually wipe out his personality forever, bye

Beautiful face. But totally needs to be reworked. Ares has unique face features like a round forehead, wide mouth, full upper lip and a bit potato, but still hellenic nose (isn't it precious? 💕). Honestly I think Santa Monica made him really pleasing and beautiful man in his mature ages. He is not old, but you feel that he is not young too already.

So I took out my Ares iconostasis, which allows me to absorb his beauty from all angles, and started a portrait sculpting.

It was a little hell, but after letting all changes dry, I sanded it and tinted head using airbrush so it will be able to match a body color. Quick matching test:

Nice?

As you can see, both body and head has a good tan skintone. And I know, Ares in GOW1 is as pale as Kratos.

Why am I not tinted him in ashy grey color? 1) It is night in a game, colors are faded because of it, 2) I tried and it looked messy, really... 3) I headcanon that both Ares and Kratos have the same reason for that: Ares is covered in ashes too. But Ares is not cursed, he is like.. always in contact with fire.

So I think that under this grey dust Ares has classic olive skin, same as Kratos. That's why I leave my Ares as if he was washed in a bath and get tidy like he is going to visit Aphrodite's chamber 💫. Anyway if I want to, I just can use photo filters to change it.

Okay, things become serious now.

We've finally reached to the face up.. And my working table lies in ruins and not usable anymore because of the fucking mess after previous steps.

God dammit on me and every single hair I drew in his eyebrows, but I have to say, it was really exciting to paint him. Finally give him his own gaze, brighten up his lips and cheeks. I didn't want to make him an angry bitch. Because he is not this person for me, neither in myths, nor in the game. He is a god, who lived through a lot of mortal lives and has seen a different kinds of.. chaos you know. OG Kratos is an infant compared to him I mean if you think of amount of past experience Ares has. Imho, he wasn't even truly angry at Kratos in GOW1. So I painted his expression how I feel and interpret his main emotional tone. Ares can be purely wrathful, but wrath is not cynical. That's what i think of him.

Okay, when the god became able to truly look after me, I couldn't hesistate and started to made the most iconic feature of him. His flaming hair and beard.

And I'll say it if you don't. I absolutely ❤ adore ❤ his red tousled mane ❤ .

(Just imagine Aphrodite tugging it or brushing, or just bury her face in his hair, because she knows that he will never burn her with his flames. I want to draw this now...)

I wanted his hair to be soft, easily combed and glowing without any electric lights. Gladly I've worked with a doll hair for a long time already.

Earlier I didn't cut off all of plastic hair from the head, only changed hairline by moving it a bit upper from his forehead. It was a part of the plan from the beginning. For the dolls I usually use very thin wool, and plastic mold will provide needed volume for his front combed strands. Screenshots before the eyes, two days of straggling (I wanted all hair to be removable without damaging varnish on his face) and we finally done.

And honestly I don't even want to shorten his hair. He is a perfection.

(Sorry for the empty juice bottle, I will set him on a body later)

Thank you for watching.

Skeletor will return soon with Part 2, where we will create his iconic armor. Well, I hope it will be soon. As soon as I have donors for a dog heads 🥲 He really loved Cerberus.

#ooak doll #ooak #action figures #ares #ares god of war #gow #god of war #gowr #god of war ragnarok #gow ragnarok #upn-the-sky handycraft #kratos gow #kratos

[skippyv20]

Our Prayer List🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is going to be audited before approval of disability payments.  Praying all works in her favor.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who has had knee surgery and is having complications.  She is feeling overwhelmed and scared.  She now has found out she has a 50/50 chance of a cancer diagnosis.  She is scheduled for D&C on May 17.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend, who is very overwhelmed.  Her mother is entering last stage of life, she is dealing with someone difficult in her life, her fears are coming to be true.  She needs prayers for strength in the times ahead.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who has recently moved to the US and is seeking employment. Prayers and good thoughts for the disabled children left in institutions by caregivers who have fled. Prayers for all as they struggle.

Prayers and good thoughts for our dear friend who is in horrible pain caused by a pinched nerve in her shoulder, and extreme pain in her hip. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s BIL’s family.  Their father is at end of life stage, and the family is fractured. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friends who are mourning the loss of their daughters.  One family is mourning the loss of their 11 yr old to liver failure.  The other family mourns the loss of their 20 yr old daughter by a freak sporting accident.  Please include the towns and county who mourn with them.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s father with Parkinson’s.  He and her mother are off to the beach!  Praying for them to have a wonderful time.🙂 Prayers and good thoughts to bring home little five yr old Frank who is missing…they are still searching.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s daughter and grandchildren age 3 yrs and 18 months.  Her daughter makes too much money for government assistance.  She can’t afford therapy for both.  Our friend helps her as much as she can, but they need help.  They need a miracle.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is seeking help.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend being tested for kidney cancer, and her husband being tested for prostrate cancer.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is suffering from heart failure, and feeling so poorly.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s godmother and family.  Her son passed away unexpectedly from cancer.  Prayers for the family for their loss.  

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friend, K and K’s daughter who is battling alcoholism.   We pray for K to realize how badly she needs help before it is too late.  We pray to Saint Monica to intercede on her behalf.   Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who suffers from bouts of depression, and is feeling alone.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend, who has a very personal, embarrassing problem that has tormented her for her whole life. She needs for it to be gone once and for all.

Prayers and good thoughts for our little 9 yr old Novenas boy who has had a bone marrow transplant and is having some complications.  He is a fighter, but he and his family could really use prayers to help them through the tougher days. (Prayers and good thoughts for our 9 yr old Novenas boy.  He has had his bone marrow surgery  recently.  We pray for his quick recovery, that the surgery was a success, and that he will have a great prognosis.)

Prayers and good thoughts for Richard, who is recovering well, but still struggles with speech.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friend’s daughter, Sonia who  has a brain tumor and prepping for surgery. Another friend, Eva, is getting a divorce and is having serious financial problems.  Also, our friend may be asked to pay back her unemployment benefits even though she was completely honest in her application.  She has been out of work for a few years.   She is so desperate to find a job. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who had Covid a few weeks ago & haven’t felt right since. Her doctors say she has Long Covid Symptoms! She suffers from anxiety, depression, insomnia and panic attacks. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s precious Penny fur baby.  Penny had one treatment and it went well.  Praying for her complete recovery, two more treatments to go.  Prayers for her family as well.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s 18 month old granddaughter Allie, who is very, very sick fighting a skin disease in the hospital. Dr’s think she had some type of autoimmune disease & will be battling skin problems her whole life! Dr’s have put her on some type of cancer medicine to see if that will give her some relief

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s father who had surgery for a displaced hip, and is recovering.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is has surgery for bilateral mastectomy, and is recovering.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s 18 year old daughter who is healing and taking steps forward.  She is still struggling.

Prayers and good thoughts for Carol.  Carol is very overwhelmed by life’s trials.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s cousin who has 4 children, and has terminal cancer.

Prayers and good thoughts for our 8 month old Novenas boy who has had a bone marrow transplant.  Praying for his complete healing and quick recovery.  Praying for him to have a long, healthy, happy life.  Prayers for his family.

Prayers and good thoughts for our Novenas Baby James,  He is doing well and has two bottom teeth.  We pray for his ongoing health Prayers for his family.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is estranged from her daughter.  Our friend is overwhelmed with worry.  Praying they will reconcile.

Prayers and good thoughts for Baby James’ “heart” brother William.  He has had surgery and is now recovering, we pray for him to stay strong. He is doing well. We pray for his family.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend whose mother has pancreatic cancer once again.  It is terminal.  Praying for peace, comfort and for all the family to feel God’s loving presence.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s husband from our Novenas, who is battling pancreatic cancer.  He is just out of the hospital.  He is not worse, so that is a blessing.    His 7yr old son is having a hard time.  

Prayers and good thoughts for our dear friend little m who is mourning the loss of her beloved husband, and she is feeling weak & quite tired.  He was her caregiver as well.  We pray for God to place earth angels on her path, to ease her burdens as she moves forward.  

Prayers and good thoughts for the Queen who has had such a trying year, and the future looks like it will be very trying for her as well.

Prayer and good thoughts for our friend’s friend.  She has just had surgery to remove cancer from her arm, but is too ill to have skin graft. Now her cancer is returning and she will need another op or radiotherapy. She has underlying health conditions and her husband has Alzheimers.

Prayers and good thoughts for all who suffer from alcoholism.  Prayers and good thoughts for their families and friends watching their loved ones suffer.  Saint Monica please intercede on their behalf.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend.  We are praying she doesn’t have a relapse, and can go forward in good health.

Prayers and good thoughts for all who are suffering life trauma for circumstances that have arisen due to Covid and restrictions.   There is so much pain people are dealing with.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s husband who had bowel surgery.  Prayers for his ongoing healing and more energy.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s son still dealing with depression, doing better, but still need prayers for strength.

Prayers and good thoughts for Hunnymae who is mourning the loss of her precious sweet furbaby…dear Hunny Mae

Prayers and good thoughts for our dear friend Storm who is struggling with life’s trials.  Praying for her burdens to be lifted.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend Finding the Way Anon and her family who are going through many trials right now.  Praying for their burdens to be lifted.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend PG.

Prayers and good thoughts for all suffering from mental illness and their families that suffer with them.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friend in Kyiv and her family

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s 5 yr old son who has speech delay/echolalia.  Our friend is quite sure he has ADHD , but am now worried that the echolalia means she needs to consider ASD as well.  Also, please pray for our friend as she is so stressed.

If I left anyone out, please let me know…if there are updates or corrections required…please let me know….

God Bless you and thank you for joining us in prayers and good thoughts…🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️

[kawaiiinla]

Rest in Peace P-22

A Eulogy for P-22, A Mountain Lion Who Changed the World

• Beth Pratt

• Dec 17, 2022

‘It’s My Hope that Future Mountain Lions Will Be Able to Walk in the Steps of P-22 Without Risking Their Lives on California’s Highways, Streets’

“I write this eulogy while looking across one of the ten-lane freeways P-22 somehow miraculously crossed in 2012, gazing at a view of his new home, Griffith Park. Burbank Peak and the other hills that mark the terminus of the Santa Monica Mountains emerge from this urban island like sentinels making a last stand against the second largest city in the country. The traffic noise never ceases. Helicopters fly overhead. The lights of the city give the sky no peace.

“Yet a mountain lion lived here, right here in Los Angeles.

“I can’t finish this sentence without crying because of the past tense. It’s hard to imagine I will be writing about P-22 in the past tense now.

"Biologists and veterinarians with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife announced today they have made the difficult decision to end P-22’s suffering and help him transition peacefully to the next place. I hope his future is filled with endless forests without a car or road in sight and where deer are plentiful, and I hope he finally finds the mate that his island existence denied him his entire life.

“I am so grateful I was given the opportunity to say goodbye to P-22. Although I have advocated for his protection for a decade, we had never met before. I sat near him, looking into his eyes for a few minutes, and told him he was a good boy. I told him how much I loved him. How much the world loved him. And I told him I was so sorry that we did not make the world a safer place for him. I apologized that despite all I and others who cared for him did, we failed him.

“I don’t have any illusion that my presence or words comforted him. And I left with a great sadness I will carry for the rest of my days.

“Before I said goodbye, I sat in a conference room with team members from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the team of doctors at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park. The showed me a video of P-22’s CT scan, images of the results, and my despair grew as they outlined the list of serious health issues they had uncovered from all their testing: stage two kidney failure, a weight of 90 pounds (he normally weighs about 125), head and eye trauma, a hernia causing abdominal organs to fill his chest cavity, an extensive case of demodex gatoi (a parasitic skin infection likely transmitted from domestic cats), heart disease, and more. The most severe injuries resulted from him being hit by a car last week, and I thought of how terrible it was that this cat, who had managed to evade cars for a decade, in his weakened and desperate condition could not avoid the vehicle strike that sealed his fate.

“As the agency folks and veterinarians relayed these sobering facts to me, tissue boxes were passed around the table and there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. This team cares just as much for this cat as we all do. They did everything they could for P-22 and deserve our gratitude.

“Although I wished so desperately he could be returned to the wild, or live out his days in a sanctuary, the decision to euthanize our beloved P-22 is the right one. With these health issues, there could be no peaceful retirement, only some managed care existence where we prolonged his suffering — not for his benefit, but for ours.

“Those of us who have pets know how it feels when we receive news from the veterinarian that we don’t want to hear. As a lifelong dog and cat owner, I have been in this dreadful position too many times. The decision to let them go is never easy, but we as humans have the ability, the responsibility, and the selflessness to show mercy to end the suffering for these beloved family members, a compassionate choice we scarcely have for ourselves.

“I look at Griffith Park through the window again and feel the loss so deeply. Whenever I hiked to the Hollywood sign, or strolled down a street in Beachwood Canyon to pick up a sandwich at The Oaks, or walked to my car after a concert at the Greek Theater, the wondrous knowledge that I could encounter P-22 always propelled me into a joyous kind of awe. And I am not alone — his legion of stans hoped for a sight of Hollywood’s most beloved celebrity, the Brad Pitt of the cougar world, on their walks or on their Ring cams, and when he made an appearance, the videos usually went viral. In perhaps the most Hollywood of P-22’s moments, human celebrity Alan Ruck, star of Succession, once reported seeing P-22 from his deck, and shouting at him like a devoted fan would.

“We will all be grappling with the loss of P-22 for some time, trying to make sense of a Los Angeles without this magnificent wild creature. I loved P-22 and hold a deep respect for his intrepid spirit, charm, and just plain chutzpah. We may never see another mountain lion stroll down Sunset Boulevard or surprise customers outside the Los Feliz Trader Joe’s. But perhaps that doesn’t matter — what matters is P-22 showed us it’s possible.

“He changed us.  He changed the way we look at LA. And his influencer status extended around the world, as he inspired millions of people to see wildlife as their neighbors. He made us more human, made us connect more to that wild place in ourselves. We are part of nature and he reminded us of that. Even in the city that gave us Carmeggedon, where we thought wildness had been banished a long time ago, P-22 reminded us it’s still here.

“His legacy to us, and to his kind will never fade. He ensured a future for the entire population of mountain lions in the Santa Monica Mountains by inspiring us to build the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing, which broke ground this spring.

“P-22 never fully got to be a mountain lion. His whole life, he suffered the consequences of trying to survive in unconnected space, right to the end when being hit by a car led to his tragic end. He showed people around the world that we need to ensure our roads, highways, and communities are better and safer when people and wildlife can freely travel to find food, shelter, and families. The Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing would not have been possible without P-22, but the most fitting memorial to P-22 will be how we carry his story forward in the work ahead. One crossing is not enough — we must build more, and we must continue to invest in proactive efforts to protect and conserve wildlife and the habitats they depend on — even in urban areas.

“P-22’s journey to and life in Griffith Park was a miracle. It’s my hope that future mountain lions will be able to walk in the steps of P-22 without risking their lives on California’s highways and streets. We owe it to P-22 to build more crossings and connect the habitats where we live now.

“Thank you for the gift of knowing you, P-22. I’ll miss you forever. But I will never stop working to honor your legacy, and although we failed you, we can at least partly atone by making the world safer for your kind.”

#not me crying on my couch #animal rights now #Los Angeles mountain lion #land bridges everywhere #p 22

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] Robert S. Bennett, one of the nation’s leading criminal defense lawyers, who was known for his representation of the powerful and celebrated caught up in scandals, died on Sunday at his home in Washington. He was 84.The cause was kidney failure, his daughter Peggy Bennett said.Mr. Bennett most famously represented President Bill Clinton when he was mired in trouble after lying about having had an intimate relationship with a young White House intern, Monica Lewinsky. Mr. Bennett was initially the president’s personal lawyer in a lawsuit brought by Paula Jones that triggered the scandal. Ms. Jones, an Arkansas state clerical worker, contended that when Mr. Clinton was the state’s governor, he made unwanted sexual advances to her in a Little Rock hotel room.In addition to his association with Mr. Clinton, Mr. Bennett was sought after by several other prominent political figures ensnared in scandal in Washington.In September 1992, Mr. Bennett found himself shuttling from courtroom to courtroom in Washington’s federal courthouse, sometimes on the same day, to defend simultaneously two former secretaries of defense, one a Democrat, Clark M. Clifford, and the other a Republican, Caspar W. Weinberger.Mr. Clifford, who had spent more than a half-century at the pinnacle of influence in the nation’s capital and served as defense secretary under President Lyndon B. Johnson, faced fraud charges in connection with a banking scandal. Mr. Weinberger, who served under President Ronald Reagan, was charged with lying to investigators about his knowledge of the Iran-contra scandal, the administration’s sale of weapons to Tehran and supply of covert aid to Nicaraguan rebels.Mr. Bennett was a robust warrior for his clients, not least for his ability to deliver an earnest defense of them not only inside the courtroom but outside it as well, before television cameras and reporters.In the case of President Clinton, whose dalliance with Ms. Lewinsky came to light in the Paula Jones lawsuit, Mr. Bennett readily told reporters that the Jones filing was “tabloid trash with a legal caption.”When Ms. Jones asserted through her lawyers that she could demonstrate her credibility by attesting that Mr. Clinton had a pronounced bend in his penis, Mr. Bennett did not shrink from engaging; he publicly proclaimed the presidential anatomy as that of a normal man.Mr. Bennett, along with a Clinton administration lawyer, argued before the United States Supreme Court that the president should have immunity from civil lawsuits like that of Ms. Jones until after he left office. The court rejected that argument 9-0. After that, Mr. Clinton gave the deposition in which he lied about his relationship with Ms. Lewinsky, which led to his impeachment. The president paid Ms. Jones $850,000 in damages to settle her lawsuit.Mr. Bennett successfully argued that Mr. Clifford was too ill to stand trial. Mr. Weinberger, who faced two felony counts, was pardoned by President George H.W. Bush on Dec. 24, 1992, before Mr. Weinberger’s trial was to begin and just weeks before Mr. Bush left office. Mr. Bennett took a leading role in pressing for the pardon.“Bob is totally in command, both legally and politically,” Mr. Weinberger told The Times in an interview at the time. “He knows a lot of people, in the press and elsewhere, whom he’s able to talk to. He is a holistic physician. He treats the whole patient.”Robert Stephen Bennett was born on Aug. 2, 1939, in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood of Brooklyn to F. Robert and Nancy (Walsh) Bennett. His father worked for a bank; his mother was a homemaker. They divorced when Robert was about 7.Robert had the benefit of a supporting network of friends and family members headed by a well-connected uncle, William Walsh, a prominent doctor whose patients included Jacqueline Kennedy.Dr. Walsh saw to it that his nephew attended Brooklyn Preparatory School, a highly rigorous Jesuit institution (since closed). Dr. Walsh even saw to it that his nephew was on the radar of Georgetown University; he had its president, the Rev. Edward Bunn, make encouraging phone calls to the young Mr. Bennett.Mr. Bennett did, in fact, attend Georgetown and then graduated from its law school. While a law student, he made an important connection when he worked as a personal assistant to Thomas G. Corcoran, a top legal adviser to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Mr. Corcoran went on to become the model for the modern Washington lawyer-lobbyist.After graduation, Mr. Bennett was a law clerk for Mr. Corcoran’s brother, Howard Corcoran, a federal trial judge in the District of Columbia.He then worked as a federal prosecutor in the district for more than three years, followed by a stint in a traditional large law firm before setting out as a defense attorney.Mr. Bennett became one of the early members of a select group of Washington lawyers who created their own legal specialty, made it highly lucrative and went on to dominate it for decades: a white-collar defense bar for those entangled in the capital’s major political cases. Like Mr. Bennett, these lawyers were, for the most part, former local federal prosecutors.Before the Watergate scandals of the Nixon administration, top-tier Washington law firms avoided criminal defense work. “Throughout the ’70s and ’80s, most law firms shunned criminal work as being beneath them,” he wrote in his memoir, “In the Ring” (2008).He first came to national attention when he was hired in 1989 as special counsel to the Senate Ethics Committee for the case of the Keating Five, senators — one Republican and four Democrats — who were accused of doing favors in exchange for campaign contributions from Charles H. Keating, a savings and loan executive who would be convicted in a massive fraud scheme.Mr. Bennett’s aggressive approach to the job was widely described as having kept pressure on the Senate not to deal lightly with the cases. Four of the five were given reprimands, and Senator Alan Cranston, Democrat of California, received a severe rebuke for his behavior and later announced his retirement.Mr. Bennett, a heavyset man who was jovial with reporters, once told The Times that the greatest number of letters he received about his performance during the Ethics Committee hearings, which were televised, were from people who commented on his disheveled appearance. Some offered to sell him custom-tailored shirts or suits.Years later, one of his targets in the Keating investigation, Senator John McCain of Arizona, turned to Mr. Bennett to represent him in negotiations with The New York Times over an article involving his relationship with a female lobbyist.The Times reported in 2008, when Mr. McCain was running for president, that in his 2000 presidential campaign, the lobbyist, Vicki Iseman, began appearing with him at fund-raisers and at his office, prompting his advisers to caution Mr. McCain about the possible appearance of a romantic involvement. Ms. Iseman sued the newspaper for libel. The Times did not retract its article but published a note to readers saying it had not intended to suggest a romantic affair, and the suit was dropped.Mr. Bennett also represented Marge Schott, the owner of the Cincinnati Reds who was facing a lifetime ban by Major League Baseball for having made racial and ethnic slurs. He negotiated a $25,000 fine and a year’s suspension, after which she was allowed to resume her favorite activity, attending games with her dog, Schottzie.In 2004, Judith Miller, a Times reporter who was in jail for refusing to testify to a grand jury about one of her sources, dismissed her lawyers who were associated with the newspaper and hired Mr. Bennett. Ms. Miller had maintained that she was standing up for her First Amendment right as a journalist to protect her confidential sources. But Mr. Bennett helped craft a complicated arrangement that allowed her to testify before the grand jury and get out of jail. Mr. Bennett said he was able to accomplish what he did because his duty was to represent his client, Ms. Miller, not the First Amendment.He and his younger brother, William J. Bennett, made up one of the capital’s odd celebrity pairings. Bill Bennett has been a vocal conservative commentator who achieved prominence decrying what he perceived as the loss of moral values in society. He served as President Ronald Reagan’s education secretary and President George H.W. Bush’s drug czar.Robert Bennett was, in contrast, scrupulously apolitical; his public positions were only about his clients. When he was publicly depicting President Clinton as the victim of political enemies, his brother was on the Sunday talk shows denouncing Mr. Clinton for bringing about “the trashiest moment in American presidential history.”One private activity in which they participated together was a sometimes regular card game that included Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Associate Justice Antonin Scalia of the Supreme Court.Mr. Bennett married Ellen Gilbert in 1969. In addition to their daughter Peggy and his brother, his wife survives him, along with two more daughters, Catherine and Sarah Bennett; and six grandchildren.Alex Traub contributed reporting. [ad_2]

[ti-female]

6/15/23 My back/kidneys getting targeted from the southern direction which is apartment 412. #targeted #ti 5640 Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles 90038 next door to Gold Diggers.?Google maps it. https://youtube.com/shorts/AFZM3IxQtys?feature=share via @youtube

[garybrower]

Pet Health Food Store - My Pet Naturally

My Pet Naturally is a pet health food store dedicated to providing all-natural, healthy, and holistic products to customers and their pets. At their store, They offer a variety of high-quality, healthy treats, foods (including organic, premium raw food), toys, beds, bowls, and other products to create a superior one-stop-shop for any pet supplies you may need. My Pet Naturally knowledgeable, friendly staff will walk you through their diverse product line to make sure you find the best option for your pet. Their team has experience customizing food and health plans for many different breeds, something you won’t find anywhere else. They welcome you to spend time with us discussing how to best care for your pet’s diet. You can also meet with their in-store specialist advisor to discuss your pet’s diet and other special health-related topics, such as kidney problems, cancer, and skin issues. Along with My Pet Naturally insightful staff, their pet health food store has a top-notch grooming department, My Pet Naturally Clean, that is ready to cater to your every need. In addition, My Pet Naturally creates award-winning home-baked cookies and custom-decorated cakes to celebrate all special occasions. Combined with My Pet Naturally competitive prices, there’s no end to what they can do for you and your four-legged family member. Stop by their store in Santa Monica today! Visit here for natural dog food store near me

#natural dog food store near me

[arla38]

6/20/22 Left kidney and back getting targeted with frequencies at 5640 Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles next to Gold Diggers. Google maps it or yelp it to see where we live.

[manquebusiness]

People love this line and it makes literally no sense. 

What do you even mean, Frank? Are you calling ConEd every time your pilot light goes out? Do you think the solution to a lack of flame is more fuel? How have you not blown up a house yet?

Oh right.

#why couldn't he have died in that explosion #or of his liver failure #or of his stolen kidney #if he doesn't die of covid i will throw a tantrum i swear #frank gallagher #shameless #monica gallagher #william h macy is a good actor and all #but i can't even evaluate him in this role #also #how did felicity go to jail but not him #is he not involved in his irl childrens' lives either? #(that's probably too mean but come on) #(your wife committed a felony without you noticing?) #(sure)

[1962dude420-blog]

Today we remember the passing of Cole Porter who Died: October 15, 1964, Santa Monica, California

Cole Albert Porter was an American composer and songwriter. Many of his songs became standards noted for their witty, urbane lyrics, and many of his scores found success on Broadway and in film.

Born to a wealthy family in Indiana, Porter defied his grandfather's wishes and took up music as a profession. Classically trained, he was drawn to musical theatre. After a slow start, he began to achieve success in the 1920s, and by the 1930s he was one of the major songwriters for the Broadway musical stage. Unlike many successful Broadway composers, Porter wrote the lyrics as well as the music for his songs. After a serious horseback riding accident in 1937, Porter was left disabled and in constant pain, but he continued to work. His shows of the early 1940s did not contain the lasting hits of his best work of the 1920s and 1930s, but in 1948 he made a triumphant comeback with his most successful musical, Kiss Me, Kate. It won the first Tony Award for Best Musical.

In 1917, when the United States entered World War I, Porter moved to Paris to work with the Duryea Relief organization. Some writers have been skeptical about Porter's claim to have served in the French Foreign Legion, but the Legion lists Porter as one of its soldiers and displays his portrait at its museum in Aubagne. By some accounts, he served in North Africa and was transferred to the French Officers School at Fontainebleau, teaching gunnery to American soldiers. An obituary notice in The New York Times stated that, while in the Legion, "he had a specially constructed portable piano made for him so that he could carry it on his back and entertain the troops in their bivouacs." Another account, given by Porter, is that he joined the recruiting department of the American Aviation Headquarters, but, according to his biographer Stephen Citron, there is no record of his joining this or any other branch of the forces.

Porter maintained a luxury apartment in Paris, where he entertained lavishly. His parties were extravagant and scandalous, with "much gay and bisexual activity, Italian nobility, cross-dressing, international musicians and a large surplus of recreational drugs". In 1918, he met Linda Lee Thomas, a rich, Louisville, Kentucky-born divorcée eight years his senior. She was beautiful and well-connected socially; the couple shared mutual interests, including a love of travel, and she became Porter's confidante and companion. The couple married the following year. She was in no doubt about Porter's homosexuality, but it was mutually advantageous for them to marry. For Linda, it offered continued social status and a partner who was the antithesis of her abusive first husband. For Porter, it brought a respectable heterosexual front in an era when homosexuality was not publicly acknowledged. They were, moreover, genuinely devoted to each other and remained married from December 19, 1919, until her death in 1954. Linda remained protective of her social position and, believing that classical music might be a more prestigious outlet than Broadway for her husband's talents, tried to use her connections to find him suitable teachers, including Igor Stravinsky, but was unsuccessful. Finally, Porter enrolled at the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he studied orchestration and counterpoint with Vincent d'Indy. Meanwhile, Porter's first big hit was the song "Old-Fashioned Garden" from the revue Hitchy-Koo in 1919. In 1920, he contributed the music of several songs to the musical A Night Out.

Porter died of kidney failure on October 15, 1964, in Santa Monica, California, at the age of 73. He is interred in Mount Hope Cemetery in his native Peru, Indiana, between his wife and father.

#October 15 #1964 #R.I.P. #Cole Porter

[skippyv20]

Our Prayer List🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

Prayers and good thoughts for our Novenas Baby James,  James is still going and he’s started some physical therapy to catch up on some milestones. He’s a bit behind because of his time in hospital, but otherwise he’s a persistent little one with four teeth already! I can’t believe we’re just a couple.of weeks from his first birthday.

Prayers and good thoughts for the family and friends of Mr. Garcia who has passed away to join his beloved wife who was murdered in the Texas shootings. God Bless their children who are now orphaned.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s daughter who is in the hospital with pneumonia & MRSA. She has been estranged from her family & children & using drugs.

Prayers for the Texas town of Uvalde.  19 primary schoolchildren, 3 adults and 1 teacher murdered.   The shooter’s grandmother shot, condition unknown.  Please pray for all the families, and the town of Uvalde. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s  nephew, and his family.  He is going to have some tests done.  He is just a little boy, and he is scared. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend and her family.  We pray for her daughter who is an alcoholic.  We pray for her children.  We pray for her oldest son who is trying to get his life back on track. Prayers and good thoughts for Simon’s family. Simon has passed away this morning.  Fly high Simon.

Prayers and good thoughts for Oliver. He is going in for a cancer biopsy test tomorrow and praying the results are negative.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is going to be audited before approval of disability payments.  Praying all works in her favor.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who has had knee surgery and is having complications.  She is feeling overwhelmed and scared.  She now has found out she has cancer.  Praying for her healing.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend and her two cats.  She is very overwhelmed.  Her mother is entering last stage of life, she is dealing with someone difficult in her life, her fears are coming to be true.  She needs prayers for strength in the times ahead.  She is also dealing with an evil landlord.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who has recently moved to the US and is seeking employment. Prayers and good thoughts for the disabled children left in institutions by caregivers who have fled. Prayers for all as they struggle.

Prayers and good thoughts for our dear friend who is in horrible pain caused by a pinched nerve in her shoulder, and extreme pain in her hip. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s daughter and grandchildren age 3 yrs and 18 months.  Her daughter makes too much money for government assistance.  She can’t afford therapy for both.  Our friend helps her as much as she can, but they need help.  They need a miracle.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend being tested for kidney cancer, and her husband being tested for prostrate cancer.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is suffering from heart failure, and feeling so poorly.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s godmother and family.  Her son passed away unexpectedly from cancer.  Prayers for the family for their loss.  

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friend, K and K’s daughter who is battling alcoholism.   We pray for K to realize how badly she needs help before it is too late.  We pray to Saint Monica to intercede on her behalf.   Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who suffers from bouts of depression, and is feeling alone.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend, who has a very personal, embarrassing problem that has tormented her for her whole life. She needs for it to be gone once and for all.

Prayers and good thoughts for our little 9 yr old Novenas boy who has had a bone marrow transplant and is having some complications.  He is a fighter, but he and his family could really use prayers to help them through the tougher days. (Prayers and good thoughts for our 9 yr old Novenas boy.  He has had his bone marrow surgery  recently.  We pray for his quick recovery, that the surgery was a success, and that he will have a great prognosis.)

Prayers and good thoughts for Richard, who is recovering well, but still struggles with speech.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friend’s daughter, Sonia who  has a brain tumor and prepping for surgery. Another friend, Eva, is getting a divorce and is having serious financial problems.  Also, our friend may be asked to pay back her unemployment benefits even though she was completely honest in her application.  She has been out of work for a few years.   She is so desperate to find a job. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who had Covid a few weeks ago & haven’t felt right since. Her doctors say she has Long Covid Symptoms! She suffers from anxiety, depression, insomnia and panic attacks. Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s precious Penny fur baby.  Penny had one treatment and it went well.  Praying for her complete recovery, two more treatments to go.  Prayers for her family as well.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s 18 month old granddaughter Allie, who is very, very sick fighting a skin disease in the hospital. Dr’s think she had some type of autoimmune disease & will be battling skin problems her whole life! Dr’s have put her on some type of cancer medicine to see if that will give her some relief

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s father who had surgery for a displaced hip, and is recovering.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is has surgery for bilateral mastectomy, and is recovering.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s 18 year old daughter who is healing and taking steps forward.  She is still struggling.

Prayers and good thoughts for Carol.  Carol is very overwhelmed by life’s trials.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s cousin who has 4 children, and has terminal cancer.

Prayers and good thoughts for our 8 month old Novenas boy who has had a bone marrow transplant.  Praying for his complete healing and quick recovery.  Praying for him to have a long, healthy, happy life.  Prayers for his family.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend who is estranged from her daughter.  Our friend is overwhelmed with worry.  Praying they will reconcile.

Prayers and good thoughts for Baby James’ “heart” brother William.  He has had surgery and is now recovering, we pray for him to stay strong. He is doing well. We pray for his family.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend whose mother has pancreatic cancer once again.  It is terminal.  Praying for peace, comfort and for all the family to feel God’s loving presence.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s husband from our Novenas, who is battling pancreatic cancer.  He is just out of the hospital.  He is not worse, so that is a blessing.    His 7yr old son is having a hard time.  

Prayers and good thoughts for our dear friend little m who is mourning the loss of her beloved husband, and she is feeling weak & quite tired.  He was her caregiver as well.  We pray for God to place earth angels on her path, to ease her burdens as she moves forward.  

Prayers and good thoughts for the Queen who has had such a trying year, and the future looks like it will be very trying for her as well.

Prayer and good thoughts for our friend’s friend.  She has just had surgery to remove cancer from her arm, but is too ill to have skin graft. Now her cancer is returning and she will need another op or radiotherapy. She has underlying health conditions and her husband has Alzheimers.

Prayers and good thoughts for all who suffer from alcoholism.  Prayers and good thoughts for their families and friends watching their loved ones suffer.  Saint Monica please intercede on their behalf.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend.  We are praying she doesn’t have a relapse, and can go forward in good health.

Prayers and good thoughts for all who are suffering life trauma for circumstances that have arisen due to Covid and restrictions.   There is so much pain people are dealing with.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s husband who had bowel surgery.  Prayers for his ongoing healing and more energy.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s son still dealing with depression, doing better, but still need prayers for strength.

Prayers and good thoughts for Hunnymae who is mourning the loss of her precious sweet furbaby…dear Hunny Mae

Prayers and good thoughts for our dear friend Storm who is struggling with life’s trials.  Praying for her burdens to be lifted.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend Finding the Way Anon and her family who are going through many trials right now.  Praying for their burdens to be lifted.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend PG.

Prayers and good thoughts for all suffering from mental illness and their families that suffer with them.

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s friend in Kyiv and her family

Prayers and good thoughts for our friend’s 5 yr old son who has speech delay/echolalia.  Our friend is quite sure he has ADHD , but am now worried that the echolalia means she needs to consider ASD as well.  Also, please pray for our friend as she is so stressed.

If I left anyone out, please let me know…if there are updates or corrections required…please let me know….

God Bless you and thank you for joining us in prayers and good thoughts…🙏🏻❤️❤️❤️❤️

[popculturebuffet]

Scottrospective: Scott Pilgrim Vs the Universe or So Sad So Very Very Sad

Hello all you happy Scottaholics! And welcome back to Scottrospective, my 8 part look at Scott Pilgrim: all 6 volumes of the comic as well as the game and movie just in time for their respective 10th Anniversaries. If your just joining us or needa  quick refresher, here are links to the other four parts, in order: Precious Little Life, Vs The World (Comic), Infinite Sadness, and last month’s look at my favorite volume Gets It Together. And if that’s not enough to fill your belly with Scotty Goodness, hop over to my patreon, patreon.com/popculturebuffet.  There you’ll find reviews of all the content I didn’t have time for in the retrospective proper: Free Scott Pilgrim, The Wonderful World of Kim Pine, Monica Beetle, Style, and the bonus comic strips. It’s only a dollar to get access to the bonus reviews, and every bit you can give not only helps me make these reviews int he first place, but gets me closer to my stretch goals, the 25 and 30 dollar ones including looks at O’Malley’s Other Works: Lost At Sea and Seconds for the former and Snotgirl for the latter. 

But more than plugging my past and paid works, there’s something else far more important I need to get to before I get into this one: Thank You. No Seriously thank all of you who have been reading these, liking them. My Precious Little Life Review is easily one of the most liked things i’ve ever had on this blog, getting more viewers every day, and last month’s look at Gets it Together is STILL racking up likes. Given most of my non-duck reviews, paid for and on my own time, tend to be ignored half the time, this just warms my heart. It shows me two great things: that even after a decade Scott Pilgrim still has a huge following and given how young this platform tends to skew that it’s gaining more fans every day, and that people care about what I have to say about htis wonderful comic. It really touches me to both know my voice matters and that something I truly loved as a teen and still do now is STILL picking up more and more fans. What i’m saying is you guys are the best and I wouldn’t be doing these reviews without your support of my very hard work. These are some of the hardest reviews i’ve done at times, but seeing you all enjoy them makes it all worth it. 

As for the Volume itself there’s something I just gotta get off my chest right away: I HATED this volume when it came out. To understand why you have to consider my mental state: I was a teenager at the time, in my junior year of high school. Scott Pilgrim was my goddamn world: while I was picking up comics monthly at the time this was honestly the first north american comic I loved and obessed over and Scott and friends were like family to me. To an awkward teen who couldn’t talk to girls, struggled to keep the video game club a friend founded together in a way that in hindsight was wholly unecessary, and getting messed with due to my anger issues by friend, foe and frenemy alike, Scott was my port in the storm. A sunny version of Tornoto where I could retreat to to feel at peace.

So yeah this shattered the fuck out of that peace and was essentially one long slow motion kick to the balls to a younger me: Hollie gets derailed and horribly betrays Kim, runing my faviorite characters life and leading to her LEAVING, Scott and Ramona’s relationship crumbles, the band breaks up , and the volume ends with Gideon still gunning for our hero because life hadn’t punched him in the face enough for one month. I was livid, not stopping the series, obviously, but upset that everything i’d grown to care about was basically gone in a flash and couldn’t understand WHY O’Malley would fucking do this to me. This volume was also what kept me from re-reading the books for as long as I did as while the rest had fond memories all the ones I had of this one were pure misery.

But by the time i re-read it in december of last year I had two important things in my hands that helped me truly enjoy this one: The first was Volume 6 itself: knowing things would work out, that most of the bad stuff would be undone and in a truly awesome and satisfying way helped.

The other thing was the perspective that came with growing older: For one as an adult while I still like Scott as a character and find him intresting I no longer look up to him, nor put stock in his hapiness for his own. Sure I still care about characters and relate to some, but Bojack Horseman taught me the hard way you CAN’T put all your hopes in a character’s fate or them getting better for you to get better. 

The other is that while this volume again is pretty bleak after a while.. it’s also NECESSARY. Part of the series charm is i’ts realisim and a sad part of real life is people can drift apart from you, and things can change seemingly all at once. And things moving the way they do is necessary for the ending: every step and move here puts things where they need to be for the final chapter.  The pain our heroes go through is necessary so they can all grow.. except Stephen and Wallace. Stephen sucks and Wallace dosen’t need to change. He does need his own spinoff. But for Scott, Ramona and Kim the trials to come are necessary to make them into their best selves by series end. 

So join me under the cut as we get sad so very very sad, this is Scott Pilgrim vs the Universe. 

Precious Little Life:  We open with Scott’s Birthday! Hit it MC Chris!

But yes it’s septmeber and Scott is now 24 years old. Also Julie is there because presumibly Stephen dredged her out of her swamp for the evening despite Julie likely not wanting to be there and Scott sure a shell not wanting her there.  He vows that he will be the best 24 year old ever...... yeah let’s take a brief look into the future to see how that pans out

But we have a full volume and more metaphorical rakes to whack Scott in the face before that paticular one. 

A MONTH AND A FEW DAYS LATER

It’s the day of the dead, whoa ho way down in Tornoto. It’s hosted by Satan Herself, who dosen’t realize the holiday for hags was yesterday. This is for remembering the dead and rising out of the grave to go resuce your young wards by ramming a bunch of guys in butterfly costumes with your car or stealing your children’s kidneys.  This is Rat Girl’s new place, a fancy loft she and 3 other girls went on to throw the best parties beaause of course. She’s also a bitch to our hero and heroine because of course. 

But Scott soon has more important things to worry about: Ramona spots his next two opponents.. the twins hinted at last time, Kyle and Ken Kataynagi, Perfect Jerk and Handsome Asshat respectively.

Kyle and Ken are easily the least intresting of the 7 exes. With the other 4 so far having been a loveable ham, a stoic movie star whose suprisingly nice and dies via skateboard, a gloriously douchey and dumb psychic evil version of our much more loverable dumb douche with personal connections to both him and Ramona, and Roxy who was genuinely sympathetic, held back by her own selfishness and anger.. we get.. two smug assholes who use robots. Their not UNINTRESTING, the robots have cool designs and the fight with them is genuinely exciting.. but they just don’t have the charisma or personal factor. Their jsut two assholes ramona dated at the same time who happen to know more about her well guarded past than the other exes and are more liable to bring it up.. and even then it’s not anything new as Envy pulled similar tactics far more intrestingly in volume 3. THey don’t ruin the volume or anything, thier fine, but I just wish O’Malley had done more. Especially since he clealry had more intresting ideas with them: the sound battle we saw in the movie was an early draft of this and one early draft had Scott’s previously unseen brother Laurence working with them. I don’t knowWHY he scrapped that as it raises the stakes and makes this far more personal for Scott. Which at this point is what the exes SHOULD be: Todd and Roxy BOTH were more personal threats, Todd being his ex’s boyfriend and first love and Roxy being a genuine competior for Ramona. These guys again are just two douchers who show up because we need 7 douchers to complete the doucher circle. 

So the twins declare their not going to fight scott.. and instead send a tiny robot to fight him. Awww. But for this fight O”Malley does something really intresting and creative.. he dosen’t focus on it. No really Ken and Kyle are dicks to Ramona so Kim wisely gets her out of there, and the two have a casual talk on the balcony while Ramona smokes. It’s some fun banter between the two that both shows why their shipped to all hell. The two just play off each other really damn well. Though we also get Craphole asking people if they want to come watch Scott get beat up because the worst. 

Something important character stuff comes up though: As was shown last time at her rightful rage that Stephen HAD an opportunity to book a gig and kept refusing it for his fecking album, Kim is still fairly salty about the whole recording an album bullshit. The biggest part of it..

It’s something you really DON’T expect to here coming out of kim: that she really LIKED the band. But beneath the pillar of salt she puts out daily... these were her friends, this was getting to do something creative and passionate, and it was a break from the daily grind. Even if her job isn’t TERRIBLE, getting to watch movies and hang out with her best friend Clerks style.. it’s still a retail job and those still weigh on you.. though frankly i’d take one of those over food service but sadly tha’ts what i get most of the time. This was fun.. and Stephen ripped that away from her for his own selfish reasons. No one else in the band really cared about making an album.. if Stephen REALLY wanted to find a more professional band.. then he should’ve just told them so Scott and Kim could find someone else to do guitars for them. Instead he forced them into doing something they don’t want to do and refuses to actually play shows, which COULD help both perfect songs for the album version and get them new fans for said upcoming album and provide them recurring venues to SELL said album,  because he really just wants to be with Joseph and fuck anyone else. Stephen is really just an inhernetly selfish git and i’ll get more into that in a bit. But first Wallace has a text for Scott. 

Now I COULD have just skipped over this.. but I didn’t want to. Plus we dont’ se Wallace for a while in this story so i’m taking what I can get. 

So back to Stephen being a repugnant ass. I’ve been waiting for this scene for the entire retrospective. I”ve hinted at it, and largely blamed it for why I hate him so damn much. The time is nigh to explain WHY. 

Stephen is with Knives, as the two are close friends and such. Stephen expalins Sex Bomb-Omb isn’t playing because he and the personfication of bitchiness broke up. Which knives points out is for...

But it’s clear from context this was the LAST time. Why he still got invited I dunno, plot convience. So far so normal.. until Stephen picks up that Knives is STILL hung up on Scott. Which is understandable crushes can last a while but i’ts equally understandable that Stephen is utterly baffled by it. Which I get,  I didn’t make an entire tom lucitor retropsecitve because I liked that his relationship with Star ended with him stepping aside due to what the show thought was “true wuv” but what comes off instead as his self loathing casuing him to blame himself for a realtionship that’s crumbling for reasons that aren’t his fault. 

And his actions here are incredibly well meant: He bluntly gives Knives the wake up call she DOES need: Scott cheated on her, he dated her because she was easy to date, strung her along for a bit while seeing someone else, then dumped her with not one care for her well being. That is stuff she NEEDS to get into her head so she can move on. She needs to see him for what he IS and not for what she’s built him up as in her head. And while yeah his rant DOSNE’T take into account the fact Scott geninely tried to make up for his actions in volume 3, Stephen wasn’t there for that and Knives probbably didn’t tell him about it.  So from his point of view scott broke her heart and did nothing.. and evne IF he knew that, Scott still hasn’t tried to do anything since despite Knives still being obessed with him nor come clean to her or Ramona at any point. Scott deserves this call out and the consequences that come with it. 

So your probably wondering WHY I hate Stephen because of this scene when he’s you know, RIGHT. Well it’s simple: being right dosen’t save you from being a MASSIVE hypcorite. He’s railing on Scott for cheating and hurting someone.. when he cheated on Julie and would’ve hurt her if she had the capacity for human emotion, empathy, or self awarness. The ending of the last volume and how bad, even for them, their relationship was implied the hell out of it, with him nervous when she brings up being paranoid over knives.. as if he WAS cheating. on One Face just not with a teenage girl but a grown ass man who hates everyone as much as BLARARARGAGAG does. 

Not only that.. but he was with Julie for the SAME DAMN reasons Scott was with Knives: it was easy. Now I WILL grant Stephen some sympathy: he’s a queer man and as one myself, bi for the record, I GET how fucking hard it is to come to terms with that, that what you thought you were isn’t ENITRELY true or, if Stephen is gay and not bi or pan, ENIRELY FALSE. So I do have some care that it was hard for him to sort all this out. I do and that Jospeh could’ve seduced him or what not. We don’t have all the context here. But he STILL cheated at the end of the day instead of telling her he was queer until MONTHS later.  And why yes the fact I have to feel bad for JULIE does make it that much worse. And yes their relationsihp COULD simply be that toxic or she could’ve gaslit him, but it seemed more like their relationship was messy breakups and getting back together over and over. While Julie IS vile, she’s not a domestic abuser mental or physical as far as I can tell. She’s a bitch and their relatioship is unehlathy but there was no indication their relationship involved gaslighting or evne phsyical violence: it was just fucked from minute one. So yeah he stayed in an awful relationship beacuse it was easier than coming out, when he should’ve broken it off as soon as it was clear he and Joseph were actually going somewhere. Waiting while he figured out who he was is one thing, tha’ts fiar, but cheating on someone just because you don’t have the nerve to break it off with them when their genuinely awful to you and your only hurting them as much as they can be hurt by dragging this out... yeah that just makes you an ass. 

Another point of contention is that he NEVER called Scott out on this. Never. Not even after this scene. Never encouraged him to tell Ramona or apologize to Knives, again he didn’t know Scott already had tried that. Never gets on him.. he just ignores Scott’s shitty behavior like eveyrone else and unlike Kim, whose still got unresolved feelings and is at the very least clearly bothered by his shitty behavior, and Neil, whose young and thus like me likely looked up to Scott at the time, he dosen’t have an excuse other than “Well I don’t want to ruin our friendship by actually calling him out when he does something objectivionally awful.” Especially since Wallace DID actually take action: he didn’t break up the relationship or say anythign to Ramona, which is wrong... but he did tell scott flat out after his first date with Ramona to break up with Knives. And when Scott chickned out of that, Wallace gave him the ultimatium, may it live in empathy, to do so or he WOULD tell Ramona. And at least Wallace has a motive for not telling Ramona other than “I don’t want to risk my friendship with a guy I really don’t care about and think is shitty”. He wanted to see Scott recover from Envy, something Stephen never gave ONE. SHIT. ABOUT. He saw Ramona was good for him and knew telling her, while the RIGHT thing to do, would severely harm Scott, and by volume 4 leave him homeless. Plus Wallace frankly enabled him for some time anyway, letting him live at their place rent free and paying for all his food and frequently letting Scott steal his credit card. WIth Wallace at least while it’s not the RIGHT move, it’s understandable and complicated vs Stephen who really dosen’t seem to like or get along with Scott after volume 1, suddenly cares what happens to his relationship. 

And what proves this... is this little exchange that ends the conversation. 

Knives despite her issues, despite blinding herself to how Scott treated her, despite everything... thinks Ramona should know. And she’s right. And Stephen KNOWS THIS. He knows it was the right thing to do and just.. takes a swig instead of admitting he’s a fucking hypocrite or explaining himself in any way.  He NEVER cared about Ramona’s feelings or how this would effect her or saw her as important in any way shape or form. Kim at least clearly feels guilty. Wallace clearly is only doing so because it’s better for both her and Scott that their together and is a flawed human being. Stephen.. just dosen’t do so out of some masculine bullshit code of not ratting out your friend and his own cowardace. He clearly COULD go walk up to Ramona right now and tell her, but he won’t. And again I don’t buy he honeslty cares enough about Scott for their friendship to TRULY be enough of a factor to stop that. Fuck. Stephen. Stills. 

So Scott wins naturally, but is bummed there’s no reward.. but Stephen points out there’s tons of free food over yonder so he noms before he and Ramona leave. 

We get some cute domestic bits with Scott and ramona: Scott playing games on her phone all day, the two cooking dinner, and Scott admititng he hasn’t thought of envy at all. “I have you now”. Though through it there are some signs of unease: Scott finds a letter to Gideon, and Ramona asks about her hair and stares out into the window. Nice little hints that even before the big bomb abotu to drop she’s not at ease.. she loves Scott.. but it’s hard for her to let herself BE happy. It’s easy to wager she wasn’t for most of her life. 

Can’t Face Up

So next we find Sex Bomb-Omb working on the album. Or rather Stephen and Joseph are. Scott and Kim are praying for death but death won’t come and Kim wonders why the fuck this isn’t finished. Joseph wants her out of his house... forgetting that Kim lives in said house. 

Still his expressoin implies he’s going to do a murder on her if she stays in the room and since Drummers are hard to come by Stephen spirits them to kim’s room for a band meeting. Turns out they do have a gig but naturally Rosemary’s Baby booked it... and they haven’t practiced in months because Stephen’s a moron. He theorizes it’s Freddy’s Revenge, which is admitely probably valid though Kim can TELL something worse happened Stephen won’t cop to because he’s a piece of shit. I spent several paragraph’s establishing that. They try blaying and two sucktacular minutes i’ts clear their fucked sunday. 

So after a scene of Knives trying HARD to justify Scott’s actions and blame htem on Ramona, to no success, we get one of my faviorite parts of this book: Scott rambling on for god knows how long about the x-men while Ramona gets dressed and is presumibly barely listneing. 

I relate so hard to this it hurts. While not this era I wll GLADLY go on and on about X-Men and anything X-Adjacent at any goddamn opportunity and anyone who reads my blog on a regular basis and you know this. I need to tlak more x-men outside of my slowly failing New X-Men retrospective (Which is on the back burner because no one seeems to genuinely care after chapter one). If I did have a signifgant other, they would probably end up in a situation like this quite a lot and i’d have no shame about it. 

I also love this scene even more as while I DID love x-men at the time, I wasn’t quite the mega fan I was, nor as familiar with Claremont’s long, epic and often fucking weird in the special wonderful way only comics can run. Given I OWN over half his run at this point, that has changed. Though oddly not this part. So not only do I get Scott’s talking about x-men I Know what SPECIFICALLY. 

And for the unitatied, a quick explination of what the fuck Scott’s going on and on about: In the late 80′s, the x-men fought a reality warping malevolent trickster god named the Adversary. IN order to beat him their friend forget had to perform a cermony to lock his ass away that required willingly given life forces. The X-Men did REALLY fucking die.. but the Goddess Roma, daughter of Merlin and enemy of the advesary brought them back to life. With their deaths having been broadcast on live tv, and with tons of dangerous enemies at their heels, the X-Men choose to let the world continue to think they were dead so they could hit said enemies where it hurt.

SO this is where Scott’s story comes in:The X-Men’s first mission was clearing out the reavers, a bunch of racist cyborgs, from a ghost town which they took over as their base. As Scotty said they traveled all over the world, fought aliens, more racists, and then went to New York as it literally went ot hell. it’s a LOT and I haven’t read most of that era. I just know about it. I have read that last part though: the x-men were ambushed while wolveirne was away by said racist cyborgs so Psylocke shoved them through the siege perilous, a gate thingy romana gave them that would give them a new life and amnesia and such, leaving wolveirne to get crucified till Jubilee, who’d been hiding in their base gary busey style, freed him. The two would travel the world, find psylocke body swapped which is why she was asian for several decades, and get into general stuff for a few years real time till the X-Men slowly reunited. And you probbaly dind’t need to hear all of that but your life is better for knowing it. 

As you can tell Ramona’s discontent is mounting. And probably not because of Scott rambling about x-men. Last night he told her about the time Magneto beat them all because they stupidly rushed him one at a time then forced them into high tech chairs while a robotic nanny babbied them and then esecaped because shut up before fighting magneto, getting surrounded by lava and having beast ASSUME they were dead because fuck actually coming back and searching just in case like a rational human being because magma or no the x-men have surivived worse, including the depths of space, and restoring all of reality from scratch.  I may of just read those issues tonight. 

She procedes to make things worse for our hero as when he asks fo rher advice.. she reveals she dosen’t like his band.. and while she means nothing BY that, she’s nice about it, telling him his band sucks days before a sudden show where you guys eat a lot isn’t something you do. Wallace is naturally even less helpful and maybe his not liking the band is why we barely see him interact. Maybe he just figured Stepheen was on the fence sexuality wise but wasn’t willing to put up with Julie to test that. I dunno. 

So at the restraunt Stephen’s a dick, refusing to help Scott with his problems. WHich for once are legitamte as he worries abotu Ramona keeping secrets. He just wants to talk about hte band.. but 48 or something hours after this he has no real plan. 

Scott mopes to Kim about Ramona and she has some sage advice for him...

Also thing one and thing two are at the bar with a remote. This cannot end well... granted givne our heroes are not at all prepared and are playing two diffrent songs, this was never going to end well. 

And things only get worse for Scott in the bathroom.. he’s not there.. but his girlfriend and his ex are. Knives tries to work it out.. but Ramona being a bit short with her, which is fair given Knives tried to stab her a bunch a few months back and never apologized, leading to a quick fight.. but with Knives heart not in it this time and Ramona pissed and this time NOT confsued as to what the hell ihs going on, it ends with Ramona slamming knives into a wall... and Knives sadly revealing the truth to Ramona...

The scene hits like a truck with both devistated.. Ramona not having realized Scott with this shitty.. and Knives FINALLY accepting that he is. Finally letting her obession with him drop and realize what he was and what he did and let the full impact hit. The last part also hits hard “No One Else Would’ve Told You’.  It’s a sad hard truth and it’s CLEARLY something that hits both women hard.  For Knives it’s realizing Kim and Stephen, who she’s increidbly close to at this point, both don’t have the stomach to do the right thing, and thus hid this from her and Ramona. Stephen DID tell her.. but he still didn’t have the guts to tell RAMONA nor the actual care. It’s the realization the people she looked up to truly let her down and that she had to do what they couldn’t, even if it tore her apart to do it. For Ramona it’s realizing her closest friends outside of Scott could’ve told her and never did. No matter how close she’s gotten to Kim and Wallace, neither gave a fuck about her rights or her need to know. 

So Ramona is rattled and barely speaks while Scott has been fighting anothe rrobot and ends the gig accidnetly smashing his bass. Stephen is pissy with him and blames hi mfor runing the gig, which turned out to be a trap anyway complete with fliers. 

Ramona decides to gently throw him out as he forgot his keys while his other friends won’t house him leaving him with the one friend he has who dosen’t hate him right now. WALLACE!

The Glow:

So at Casa De Welles, Wallace has some buddy time, not making any bones about the fact Ramona clearly threw Scott out for the night and wearing a neat robe. Scott mopes about the fact he hasn’t met mobile whose apparenlty on the astral plane. I wonder if he has any buisness with Emma.. I mean the x-men did live in san fran sicsio but given decimation didn’t have many psychics. Might’ve been tryign to get another one. THey didn’t have a whole island that walks like a man yet.  And while Wallace wasn’t in much of a coaching mood last time he is willing to help. He couldn’t get bupkiss on the twins since Scott can’t even remember their names, but he did pull off a miracle. Despite their being a million Gideons in New York.. Wallace found THE Gideon. Granted all he got was his full name, Gideon Gordon Graves, and a few burry photos, one with Ramona confirming this is our douche, but given he had only a first name and an ex to work with this is some damn fine work. Wallace asks scott about his future with Ramona but he just.. has no earthly idea because of course he dosen’t. He hasn’t REALLY thought about what comes after beating the exes because he never thinks anything through. Interesting stuff The next day Scott meets up with Kim at No Account Video and we get our first, and I mean literally first, indiciation things are falling apart with her and Hollie. Scott wants to say hi, Kim refuses him and gives a smart ass comment when he asks if them being roomates isn’t working out. He wasn’t even being a dick it’s just clear SOMETHING bad’s going on she won’t talk about because she puts up walls around hrself on a GOOD day and this clearly isn’t one.

It gets worse when they stop by Stephen’s place only to find Neil whose both taken up a combination of smoking and moping in a dark room. Never a good sign. Nor is Stephen apparenlty being at band practice.. meaning either he lied to Neil about where he went.. or he already started the band we’ll see him with next volume and is already stabbing his friends in the back. There wasn’t much to like about the guy to BEGIN with, but his behavior just gets worse with every volume and it’s reached it’s apex here. The speech was shitty enough, I spent several paragraphs explaning why, but the rest of his behavior isn’t much better. He abandoned two people who were, for god knows what reason loyal to him and abandoned the band because of some bearded asshole probably encouraging him to. 

We also get some telling behavior on Kim’s part. Whlie she’s usually morose around Scott in the face of this both just hang out, it’s plesant. She even smiles when she asks if it’s going to be a regular occurance when he stays with her that night. Granted she brings back her frown soon after, but as has been clear her feelings for him never really went away entirely, and this is the closest the two have been in volumes, just enjoying each others company. It’s also telling that Scott trusts kim with a favor.

We see the favor the next page: Kim hangs out with Ramona.. and Scott marchs in completely on purpose soon after. Granted Kim probably didn’t know THIS was part of the plan, and it’s mildly stupid.. but it DOES show progress for Scott. Keep in mind his usual tactic is “avoid the fuck out of it and hope it goes away’ So ACTUALLY wanting to talk about things and find her again, and not doing it in a creepy way but simply drawing her out with a friend, shows SOME maturlity. It’s still not the most mature.. but with Ramona clearly not wanting him at their place, her work not having a set location as she just picks stuff up and drops it off (And even if she’s picking up packages at the post office we don’t know which one or if there’s multiple and even if we did scott sure as hel l does not), he was out of options. It also WORKS, with Ramona breaking her mopeynesss to laugh and Kim stunned it didn’t just piss her off further. 

So we find out what happened with Hollie when Scott brings up jason. She points out they were dating but... welllllllll

Yeah... as you could probably tell I do not like this plot point at all. For one thing we never really got to KNOW Jason, and with him and Hollie getting a little too cozy at the end of the last volume...

It’s clear his ONLY roll in the story was to be there so Hollie could betray Kim in some way. And look I get a LOT in this series happens while we’re not looking, ti’s part of it’s charm. Things not pausing for the side cast is a trope I enjoy: it allows some things to progress faster and allows for some intresting stories when the main cast catches up. Steven Unvierse and Ducktales both used this well as does Scott Pilgrim but all three weren’t immune to someitnes goofing up and taking it too far. 

This whole situation is that: Hollie is a character I got attached to: She had a great report with kim, they were really close and she offered her a place to stay when it was clear she was miserable with the four horseman of the bitchpocalypse she lived with. So while having her suddenly heel turn is realistic... it just feels thorughly unsatisfying. We do not see Hollie again after she’s sudeenly derailed, so we never get to see what she’s apparenlty REALLY like or get any explination why this happened. Suddenly Kim’s best friend is a douchebag even though it makes no sense for her character. Just because in real life people can turn out to be really shitty on a dime dosen’t mean it’s a neat thing to READ in a story and it feels like a waste of what was one of the series best side characters. And granted i’ve been through FAR worse treatment of side characters, trust me but this one still blows to this day and if there is a netflix adaptation this either needs to not happen or have actual depth. Seriously Netflix your adapting everything else, get on the bus already. 

Scott is GENUINELY apologetic, we’ve rarely seen him this nice but he genuinely feels bad for her.. and unlike Stephen’s thing it’s okay to feel shitty someone got cheated on even if you were a cheater in the past. As I said Stephen wasn’t wrong about how Scott treeted knives.. he just also was trying to take moral high ground which Knives proved he absolutely did not have in seconds.

This triggers Ramona’s glow, the squggly line thing that shows up over her head ocasoinally.. and while Ramona grills Scott... Kim just finally asks what the hells up with her head. Scott’s reaction is “OH good you guys see it too”. Kim does try to show it to ramona but it’s gone by then and she drops it for now and outside encourages her to come to Julie’s latest shitty party.. I mean their miserable but at least it gives thems omething to do

So we get another instalment of “Scott rambles about the X-Men” or New Mutants in this case as we’re talking about Magik, Aka Illyana Rasputin 

So for the long version: The X-Men were staying at a creepy temple that Magneto had been working out of beause the mansion was being repaired. Colossus, everyone’s favorite Russian and Deadpool co-star, had his kid sister Illyana with him as Arcade, a ginger maniac assasian whose gimmick is creating elaborate murder theme parks, kidnapped her in a plot to get the x-men to fight Dr. Doom for him. Given this was during the Cold War they coudln’t exactly take her back, so she stayed with the X-Men and her beloved big brother. 

So naturlaly the spooky temple decorated in Cthulu’s had a portal to hell in it and  an evil and genirc looking fucker named Belasco kidnapped her to a hell dimension known as Limbo>  the X-Men went after her as you’d expect and things got WEIRD as due to some complicated and weird time dialition stuff I sitll don’t quite understand there ended up being two copies of the x-men: ours who came in right after, and a second batch who stayed there for about 7-8 years and got warped by Bellsaco’s magic as he killed or changed most of them. As a result Storm became a sorcerer to fight back, Kitty Pryde became some sort of cat creature and Kurt became a creepy evil version of himself. Illyana stayed htere, learned magics from both storm and asshole, learned to fight from cat kitty, and eventually escaped after a lot of horrible bullshit, hardnered and with her soul scarred from it, now a teenager. She joined the New Mutants, the training class of x-men in the comics, soon after. She’s a member agian in present day, one of the great captains of Krakoa, and one of the two co-leaders of Krakoa’s younger mutants, i.e. 20 something to teens and kids. 

This is the best of the two scenes as the narrative , or at least Scott’s versions parallels Ramona’s own; Getting taken in by an evil man and feeling tainted by that. 

So at the party Ramona runs into Neil whose a dick about it and with some girl. She WAS going to be fleshed out more in the original draft but Brian ended up scrapping it for time, but does regret it. It’s here we get Neil’s face punchingly dickish comment that’s also a massive hint as to Stephen’s sexuality. 

Yeah even if Stephen’s been an UTTERLY shitty friend to him.. this was uncalled for even for the late 2000′s. What a prick. I do like the arc of Neil slowly falling apart though getting more and more bitter as his old friends abandoned him casually, especailly Stephen. While his comment was still HORRIBLY unwarranted even with Stephen being a dipshit. 

Speaking of assholes we get our last major with Julie who berates Scott for grabbing some booze and brings in the twist. I’m.. i’m not even bothering to give her an insluting and weird nickname. She’s still a HORRIBLE piece of shit, as she brought Scott’s enemies there to try and beat him to death for her own amusment and berated him for getting booze at a party she CLEARLY expected him to come to, but she’s ALMOST gone. Seriously after this she’s GONE for the volume and barely in the rest of the series. So i’d rather celebrate FINALLY having earned my freedom over worrying about her any more than i have to. Cue the music!

So with that Kyle.. or is it Ken. 

But the blonde one needles ramona, giving her her faviorite booze and telling her “this is all just temproary”

So Ramona gets all glowy.. and Kim gets her phone out....

The Universe Fights Back So in a random bedroom Ramona gives up the ghost: SHe DOES know what that is she just can’t tell Kim. Kim accepts it and they share some drinks. Scott, after beheading the douche bros latest science project, joins them and we get a lovely scene of the three drinking and bonding and geneuinely just having a good time. Though Kim DOES mention that she wants to go back to school.. This will naturally be very important. 

What’s more important is this scene is ENITRELY while I poly ship these three dum dums. I mean while part of thier hapiness here is their blasted out of hteir heads, it’s also just Kim’s wall sbeing down. She tells the two she loves them, and I think MEANS IT. Not to mention this...

Okay maybe it’s just the two of them but they also love Scott. And again I get htier VERY obviously drunk.. but given Kim and Ramona are clearly actively supressing any bi parts of themselves most of hte time this is telling. The fact Ramona asks kim to sleep in THIER bed, likely with them, is ALSO very telling and Kim only dosen’t because their using sub space. No really that’s the only reason this volume didn’t end VERY diffrently with the three of htem having a three way before the argument coming up.. and possibly fixing said argument by having kim to mediate. I mean I get Scott’s not a big part of this so if you don’t want to ship him with them and just leave them alone that’s fine, ut I like the idea of them as a throuple: they ballance each other out.. and frakly with Scott’s irresponsblity and Ramona’s emotoinal issues they need someone to call them b oth out in the relationship, while these two are two of the only three people in the work i’ve seen Kim take her walls down for. Not even Jason got that, but Jason was also a carboard cutout. 

Things take a turn from Kim.. from an almost threesome where she CLEARLY would be getting most of the attention... to two assholes kidnapping her. Now while I don’t like the twins that much their plan for the final act IS actually clever: their the first ones to think to actually use the people Scott cares about.. or anything resembling strategy really. Matt just charged int here, Lucas coudln’t give less of a fuck, Todd just used brute strength like a teletkentic juggernaught, and Roxy DID use some but it was less to actually fight scott and more to get into ramona’s pants again. The twins see Kim clearly still loves Scott, and that while he acts aloff to her sometimes she really is one of his best friends. No really, think about it. Wallace is his BEST friend.. but Kim sticks by him even when he’s shitty, calls him out when needed, and despite her grumpiness is the one who has the most faith in him out of ANYONE. It’s a large point of the volume: she dosen’t bother watching the fights.. because she belivies he’ll win simply because he’s Scott. That’s love right there. The kind of love that gets you kidnapped as part of an elaborate scheme but love nonetheless. 

So we then get the scene that’s been coming for five volumes... after having sex, Ramona confronts Scott. While Scott admits he didn’t cheat on her with knvies, the other way around, that’s not better. He admits he’s been trying to forget about it.. and she calls him a bad person. And that. .hits him hard. While he DESERVES scorn for what he did... as he puts it next he’s been trying to change for her. To BE better. And all she sees, and outright confirms is another evil ex in waiting with Scott DESPERATE to prove her wrong and wrongly thinking beating the next three exes will fix this. It’s a VERY hard sceen to watch as while Scott does deserve this.. it’s also hard not to feel bad for him too. It really sums up the character: He is a dick.. but he’s TRYING to be better. He WANTS to be, he just dosen’t know how. And MAN can I relate to that.  It dosen’t help that Ramona is clearly projecting her own insecurties about this lasting, about actually being happy and about this really being her life onto him, using this as an easy out after having a month of doubt. Yes Scott did something unbelivibely shitty.. but both are trying to take the easy way out of it instead of genuinely discussing why it’s shitty, what he did was wrong and geniuinely unpacking if this is the end. Ramona clearly wants to bail, and Scott clearly just wants to punch a few guys to make it better. Neither thing will work. They need to work thorugh their issues to work... but neither is capable of that right now. They both want to run from the problem. 

This volume is in part about Ramona herself.. and showcasing her OWN flaws.. and like Scott her biggest is that she runs. She wants to escape her past too and both assumed the other would be an easy fix, that by having a good partner they’d be better.. when really their both mildly shitty people who need to make peace with their past and repair the bridges they’ve burnt and flip off the ones not worht reparing instead of running from it all the time. But sadly before both can.. their just gonna run again. Because sometimes fixing yourself is just not that easy. 

So the next morning Scott’s heart stops fo ra second when Ramona is seemingly gone.. only for her to instead be in teh shower. But Scott gets a text telling him the twins have Kim and TRIES to tell Ramona.. but she’s in the shower. As a result she’s worried he just ran off... and makes a decision , her hair cut back down after growing it out this volume, a sign of her hapiness.. now gone. 

The Glow Part 2 So at an abandoned wherehouse the fight is on. The twins have the advantage in part because Scott is hung over.. something they take offense to.. even though they were THERE last night. He was at a party. They don’t know he teatotles. What state did they THINK he’d be in this morning?

We also find out their origin: as Scott correctly guessed at the end of last volume, Ramona dated them both at the same time and pit them against each other. They found out and vowed to always fight as one.. which means Scott is not only fighting two equally powerful opponents at once, but two who work as a perfct team and double hurricane kick him. They also mentally break him down, pointing out her previous job and how she’s a runner and she’s here to run from her past working for Gideon.

They aren’t but I already went into that so let’s get onto more pressing issues: Scott is not only hung over but now doubting himself and his dumbass plan to beat gideon and magically fix things, while Kim is naturally not happy about being stuck in a cage all night. And while at first she’s genuinely just grumpy as always as it becomes clear Scott has lost hope and the twins are going to win this one her expression is heartbreaking...

After EVERYTHING she still loves him and can’t bear to see him in so much pain... and can’t loose him.. so she gets desperate and claims Ramona texted him to give him hope. 

This is one of Kim’s definting moments, the other coming next month. When faced with the person she loves possibly dying.. she lies to him.. so he can surivive. So he can have hope and make it through this.. despite how much it’s CLEARLY KILLING HER to not only tell him someone else loves him but to clealry lie that person loves him, knowing it’ll hurt him more.. but knowing if she DOSEN’T he’ll die. It’s one of the most painful, heartbreaking and beautiful moments in the entire series. It’s why I said earlier while I don’t like the brothers their climactic fight his excellent.. because it is. Their verbal breaking down of Scott is hearbreaking and Kim’s sacrifice equally so. 

And before stomping them into coins SCott shows further growth.. by showing he CAN give off a good one liner now...

So Scott beats them and gets Kim out of the cage, worried about her.. but despite having a chance, Kim lets him get on his way to ramona and morsoely wlaks off... while ominously the sign points out this will soon be the Chaos Theater. There’s still one left to go. 

But.. it’s sadly not enough. While Scott gives her a heartfelt speech... even if he quotes the song as long as you love me... he dosen’t care who she is.. but Ramona does.. calling herself a bad person.. as she vanishes.... and I cry my eyes out again. God two really heartbreaking scenes in a row sweet jesus this volume will be the death of me.. and not just because i’ts taken so damn long to write this review. And on top of tha the looses the cat and ends up locked out. 

World of Ruin:

So yeah if you thought those bits weren’t easy.. it only gets roughter as we see Scott in the aftermath of the breakup. His dream world is now desolate and he’s alone. Now to his creidt as much shit as i’ve given him Stephen didn’t ENTIRELY abandon Scott: he put him up fo rth enight (though he kicks him out after work) and offers to take him to after work drinks. We also see a nice side of Scott’s intimdating boss as she offers her symaptheties at him crying... while he says it’s the onions... he’s transparenlty lying. 

Next up is Kim. Though she dosen’t have a couch because Hollie sold it.. which as dickish as she suddenly is it IS her couch as Kim points out.. so yeah Kim and Scott end up sleeping awkardly in the same bed facing away from each other.. and to add another emotional guttpunch at the worst possible time: She’s going back home. 

Stacey is even lesss helpful as SCott continues to ask about cats and is unsypantethic about her leaving despite you know,  him REALLY not being at the shit talking her stage yet bud. At least we do get to see Stacey in this one I genuinely forgot she was in it. 

So at Wallace’s he’s no help either pointing out she might be with someone else because he’s wallace and we meet a guy with Glases.. and in his bad state Scott assumes i’ts gideon. it’s not though. WE finally meet Mobile!

He’s exactly what wallace needs.. a fellow sarcastic asshole. 

So next up is Kim’s goodbye.. which once again is really emotinal..a nd not just because  my faviorite character is leaving and again, younger me didn’t know this wasn’t forever.. or that she’d be back for a rather huge role next time. But still it’s a damn good scene that shows how far Scott’s come...

While the first part is standard... the second is Scott realizing that she still had feelings for him, clearly given her actions during the fight, and he’d been a right dick this whole time never dealing with it or apolgoizing for his past. Granted he still has a way to go to REALLY apologize for it... but he’s trying and means it. And with her possibly never seeing again.. she needed that. Also her coat is damn cool. I’d say I want one like that btu i’d really prefer one like Scotts complete with x-men patch. Pax Krakoa bitches. 

We get a really nice scene after where we meet Scott’s parents! Their also really kind helping him get a new place and move on... and runs into another glasses guy. But this time it’s Laurence! Who he drop kicks.. and then gives a broken bass back to. Eh... i’ve seen worse relationship with siblings honestly. He didn’t murder scott’s friend or plunge a whole galaxy into war or try and murder his daughter. Other Scott’s weren’t so lucky. 

So after that awkardness SCott finds the note to gideon which is a break up letter... she never sent. However there’s something more pressing as he gets a call... and you can probably guess given his luck lately who that’s from. 

Eh it’s not that murderoius creep but another one. 

The end.. is in a few weeks.

Final Thoughts: 

As I said I hated Vs the Universe on first read but re-reading it with hindsight and maturity.. it’s damn good. It’s depressing as hell.. but the things it does need to happen to push scott into a bad enough place for the next volume to work, and are natural: Ramona and Kim leaving, The band  breaking up, Scott kicking his brother in the face.. all natural things. It hurts, this was a HARD one to write and I only feel the next one will be harder because it’s way longer with less slice of lifey stuff to skim through in my recapping. 

But it’s a damn good one, with fantastic art, really gripping scenes, x-men refrenes and a spotlight shone on my girl kim. Even it’s weak spots dont’ hurt it: the twins are only weak by comparison, and still work well enough for the story, pushing ramona into the bad mental place she needs to be for the story to work. Hollie’s thing DID Need to be written way fucking better... but it does push kim into leaving which is CRITICAL for next time. So they aren’t GREAT elements, but they work. The only real other problem I have is knives just.. vanishes after her scene outside of one bit with Stephen, but that I can understand as the book is pretty tightly packed and she gets a fitting sendoff next time anyway. All in all another amazing entry and the perfect warm up for one of the best endings in comics history

Next Time: I said it and I meant it: one of the best endings in comics history as Scott hits on some exes, fights himself and betters himself as he prepares for his finest hour! Will Ramona Come back? Will Kim? Will Julie?... to answer your questions yes yes, and god dammit. Thank you all for reading, see you at the next rainbow. 

#scott pilgrim #scott pilgrim vs the world #scott pilgrim vs the unvierse #kim pine #ramona flowers #julie powers #julie power #steven stills #stephen stills #joseph #wallace wells #kyle kyatanagi #ken kyatanagi #gideon gordon graves #gideon graves #stacey pilgrim #mobile #laurence pilgrim #knives chau

[presidentrhodes]

For the kissing meme (not all of them, of course, I'm just neurotic and wanted to give you options in case my first pick was shit lmao): Danbeau ❤💪🌈👭 (9, 24, 27), Strordo 🍑😩✅✔🔥💦 (3, 11, 14, 15, 25, 39, 45, 48), and/or any other ship 'cause there's no Notp of mine on your list actually 👍👌✊👉💒 (4, 5, 10, 19, 33, 40)

❤️ Bless you anon!

Here's some #9 with Danbeau. I'll write some Strordo and Ironhusbands for you later! (or please feel free to request a pairing with any of the prompts)

9. A kiss that lasts so long, they are sharing each other’s breaths.

The last thing Carol sees is the burning hull of a spaceship hurtling towards her and before she can react, it knocks her off her trajectory with a sickening but inaudible crunch. Her limbs feel weightless as her mind tries to process the situation; she sees the Quinjet maneuver its way through enemy fire, she hears Tony Stark's frantic voice in her ear, demanding to know her status, and she tastes a metallic tang on her lips. Then, the pain hits and gravity does the rest—it pulls her planetside and as she falls, her consciousness ebbs away and leaves her mind shrouded in darkness.

Awareness creeps back slowly and Carol, with her eyes still closed, takes stock of her surroundings. She's on a bed, soft and comfortable yet unfamiliar. The room smells of lavender oil, the same shit she has heard Stark and Banner swear by a thousand times and each time she has wanted to punch them for being pretentious. Carol crinkles her nose slightly to hide her disgust. Her throat feels parched, her mouth dry as sandpaper and Carol's ready to trade her kidneys for a sip of water.

But her ears pick up the shuffle of feet and the apprehensive inhales and exhales of company. She isn't alone—the thought both pleases and annoys her. Carol hates being vulnerable around others and wills them, whoever they are, to go away. Knowing her luck, it's probably Fury, waiting to tear into her over some bullshit charge of recklessness. Her head throbs and her stomach churns, which makes Carol think that whatever happened earlier must've done some serious damage.

Carol's memories trickle back slowly. The Earth was under attack. Invaders from outside the solar system but they had somehow evaded SWORD's long-range sensors hidden behind Jupiter. Carol had planned to spend a lazy Sunday morning in bed with Maria while Monica was at summer camp. But then the call to Assemble came and only at her girlfriend's insistence, she had answered it. Fury had sent the full team to deal with the threat—it was about optics. To send a strong message that would make others think twice before setting sights on Earth. The mission was supposed to be straightforward and Carol had intended to make it back in time to take Maria out for lunch—

"Jim, stop moving around so much. You'll start to leave skidmarks on the floor," someone says.

Carol holds in a breath as another voice replies.

"How can you be so calm Maria? She fell from space. 500 kilometers. And flattened Citi Field. Does she have some sort of tab running with Tony on which of them can be the bigger reckless idiot who's going to get all of us killed? Or worse, turned into pariahs."

Typical Rhodey and his penchant for drama. Carol resists snorting or retorting. That's when Maria says, with the kind of gentle firmness that no one, not even Thor, can resist: "Jim, you've been here for 12 hours. Go and get some rest and you can yell at her when she is less likely to throw you at the Sun." Carol can hear Rhodey's frustration at being denied an opportunity to fuss, followed by the echo of footsteps stomping away and out of the room.

A moment of silence descends before Maria breaks it. "I know you're awake," she says.

Carol finally opens her eyes, squints at the bright flash of daylight that greets her. She groans, pulling the cover up to her head. "Too bright," she says, slurring her words. "Water." Moments later, Maria's standing next to the bed, holding a cup with a straw. Grateful, Carol accepts it and waits for the other shoe to drop — Rhodey's fussing is only bested by Maria's. Carol knows by now he'd have told Maria every detail about where the mission went wrong.

Maria says nothing. Instead, she shuffles out of her shoes and climbs under the cover. Instinctively, Carol snuggles close, burying her face against Maria's neck. "I'm sorry," Carol says after a few minutes pass between them, wordless, bordering on uncomfortable. "I was reckless." Admitting that out loud eases some of the guilt that had been gnawing at her chest since she woke up. "There were three ships, I liked the odds. I thought I could take them out myself. On hindsight—Maria, how long was I under?"

Maria's voice is soft, barely audible. "Two weeks."

Carol pulls back, eyes wide. "Two weeks? Seriously? Wow."

It earns her a mirthless chuckle from Maria. She is pissed, that much becomes evident, even as she cards her fingers through Carol's hair, massaging her scalp and almost making Carol purr.

"You fell from space. No one survives something like that. Not even your super friends. You shattered every bone in your body and for about a week, the doctors weren't sure if your Kree blood was enough to save you."

Carol falls silent at the way Maria's voice trembles.

"They told Monica and I that we should get ready to say goodbye. Again. I was being asked to make funeral arrangements. I was getting ready to call your mom."

"I'm sorry—"

"Sorry isn't enough, Carol. We almost lost you. Do you understand? You almost died. You. I don't know what I'd have done if you didn't make it. What would I have told Monica? That her indestructible mom is suddenly very destructible? That she's gone?"

Carol looks down between them, struggling to meet her partner's eyes. "Maria, I—"

"What I need, Carol, is for you to do better. I need you to realise everytime Fury calls that you have a family waiting for you to get home. I need you to remember that and—" Carol presses their lips together, cutting Maria off. The kiss reeks of desperation, a jarring clash tongue and teeth, limbs grasping for purchase, hands clinging to collars, legs entwined. Shifting, Carol practically climbs on top of Maria without ever breaking contact and it leaves her lungs screaming for air. They break, only for a moment, before Maria is pulling her down again for another kiss, the urgency in their touches, the neediness in their soft grunts growing.

"I promise," Carol mutters against Maria's lips. "I promise I'll always come back. I won't leave you again, baby, I won't, you can always count on that." In response, Maria kisses her harder, biting down on her lower lips as her hands hold Carol's face. Looking down, Carol melts at the fire she sees burning in her lover's eyes.

"Just. Don't. Die. On. Me. Again." Maria whispers, puncturing each word with a searing kiss each that leaves Carol bursting with the warmth of a thousand suns.

50 types of kisses

#carol x maria #carol danvers #maria rambeau #captain marvel #danbeau #asks #anon #rhea writes

[incorrectmarketofmonstersquotes]

Monica: You know how they take kidneys out? Young Nita: No. Monica: You'll walk into your room and there will be plastic sheets all over the floor. Before you can react, a man in a ski mask will tie you to a chair with an Indian braided belt he got on vacation in Santa Fe. He'll turn on some Huey Lewis, and then cut the damn thing out with a rusty keyhole saw. No antiseptic, no Novocaine, no nothing! Just the song "Hip to Be Square" drowning out your boyish screams. (Nita sits there, horrified. Monica slowly reaches out and drags Nita's sandwich plate over to her, then off the table where it shatters) Monica: Now no one has anything.

#incorrect quotes #incorrectquotes #incorrectmarketofmonstersquotes #not even bones #only ashes remain #when villains rise #market of monsters #monica #nita #nita's mom #source: american dad

[ti-female]

9/3/22 Left kidney getting targeted from behind me on the 4th floor at 5640 Santa Monica Blvd in Los Angeles 90038 next door to Gold Diggers. Google maps it or yelp it to see where we live.

[hopelikethemoon]

The Guilty (Javier x Reader) {MTMF}

Title: The Guilty Rating: PG-13 Length: 3100 Warnings: Mild Angst. Medical Triggers ( loss of consciousness and discussion about pre-eclampsia, etc.) Notes: You can find the Maybe Today, Maybe Forever Timeline here. Set in March 1997. Part two in the “big angst arc”. There’s a POV switch midway through for obvious reasons. Summary: Reader follows her gut. 

Taglist:  @grapemama​  @seawhisperer​ @huliabitch​ @pedropascalito​ @rogrsnbarnes​​@thewallpapergoesorido​ @twomoonstwosuns​ @gooddaykate​ @livasaurasrex​ @ham4arrow​​@hiscyarika​ @plexflexico​ @readsalot73​ @hdlynn​ @lokiaddicted​ @randomness501​​@fioccodineveautunnale​​  @roxypeanut​ @just-add-butter​ @snivellusim​​@amarvelousmandalorian​ @lukesrighthand​ @historynerd04​ @mrsparknuts​​@synystersilenceinblacknwhite​ @behindmyeyes-insidemyhead​ @exrebelshocktrooper​​@awesomefandomsunited​ @ah-callie​ @swhiskeys​ @lady-tano​ @beskar-droids​​ @space-floozy @ct-arc-5555​​ @cable-kenobi​​

At noon you made your way down to the records room where Lieutenant Ableman had put the intern. Javier had been hesitant about you asking Monica what she knew about the rumor, but… you had to know. If the rumor was loud enough to make its way to the dean’s office, then it was loud enough for the students to be fully aware of it. 

“You know,” You started, leaning against the doorframe as you watched Monica sort through a stack of files and put each one into the appropriate banker boxes. “I had a sweet gig when I was sixteen helping process evidence at my town’s tiny ass police department.” 

Monica startled a little, dropping the folder she was holding. “Shit! Hey! How long have you been there?”

“Couple minutes.” You laughed. “Just thinking.”

“How have you’ve been?” Monica asked with a hesitant smile. “You’re due soon, right?”

You shrugged a shoulder as you rested your hand on your stomach, “Still got a few months to go.” You walked further into the record’s room, leaning down to pick up a stray file that had fallen. “How are your classes going?”

“I’m in this finite math class that is killing me.” Monica answered, making a face. “I was told it would be easier, but… C means complete, right?”

You chuckled, “I’ve heard that somewhere.” You moved to sit down, feeling the slightest inertia from bending over. That was happening far too often lately. “I’ve heard a lot of things lately.”

“Oh?”

You inhaled and exhaled slowly, trying to ignore the sensation of being able to feel the world spinning around you. “A couple weeks ago I heard about this crazy rumor at the university.”

“What was it?” Monica stared at you, looking a little nervous.

“Oh, just that Javier was cheating on me with a student, which…” You laughed humorlessly. “Is hilarious, because I have that man by the balls.” 

“I—.” Monica shook her head. “I haven’t heard anything about that. I think the whole class knows that Javier loves you. I mean his office is practically a shrine to you.”

“I know.”

Monica swallowed thickly. “I should… I have a lot to finish before my night classes.”

You weren’t about the let up, “Why are you so nervous, Monica?”

“I’m not nervous.” She shot back too quickly. “Look, I’m really sorry about this rumor or whatever… I’m sure it’ll blow over.”

“Or Javier will lose his job.” You rubbed at the center of your forehead, trying to soothe the throbbing headache forming there. “I mean, a rumor like that could destroy someone’s career.”

Monica put the cardboard lid on the banker box with a little more force than necessary. “I really… I haven’t heard anything.” She didn’t meet your eyes. 

“Look, you’re a nice kid Monica…” You offered her a small smile. “I’m not accusing you. I just want to know what you know. And I think you know more than you’re telling me.”

You started to stand back up, fingers gripping at the filing cabinet beside you for support. Shit. 

Your pulse was throbbing in your ears. You could feel it in your throat, down your arms. 

Fuck.

“Monica…”

“Hey. Hey.” She grabbed your arm to support you. “I’m here.”

You clenched your eyes closed, trying to ignore the way that the world was closing in on you. Everything felt like it was in a tunnel. Voices — distant and kind of tinny sounding. Your lips felt numb, your words slurred and mouth full of cotton. It felt like pins and needles up and down your body. 

“Call Javi.” You managed to think or maybe say… just before everything stopped. 

 ——

 Everything stopped the moment Javier got the call. He wasn’t even entirely certain how he ended up at the hospital — the period between the phone call and arriving at the hospital was a blur. He vaguely remembered swearing at a red light for lasting too long — he definitely went through it. 

“Mr. Peña, right this way.” A nurse said as she guided him through the emergency room, back to her room. “The doctor will be with you both shortly.” 

Javier’s heart clenched as he looked at the hospital bed, meeting her eyes. She looked awful. They had her hooked up to oxygen and she had an IV. “Hey baby.” 

“Hi, Javi.” She said quietly, his voice half of what it usually was. 

His gaze flickered to the woman sitting beside her bed. Monica. She jumped up quickly, gesturing to the chair she’d been sitting in. “Here, Professor Peña… I’m so…” She looked between the two of them. “I’ll just go.” 

“I have questions.” Javier said, his jaw clenched tight. “Do you mind waiting in the waiting room?”

Monica clasped her hands together. “Of course… Yeah.” She looked towards the hospital bed. “I’m so… I’m so sorry.” 

“What are you—”

“Just let her go, Javi.” She whispered, gesturing for Monica to leave. 

“What the hell is going on?” Javier questioned, his hands on his hips. Before he grabbed the chair and pulled it closer to her bedside. “Baby… you gave me a fucking heartattack.” 

“You and me both.” She breathed out, reaching out for his hand. “I was terrified.” 

Javier squeezed her hand tightly, lifting it to his lips. “Have the doctors talked to you?”

“A little.” She sank back against the bed. “They took some blood.” She said, lifting her arm to show off the bandage. “I guess they need to check kidney and liver function.” 

Javier stood up, leaning over the bed to press a kiss to her forehead. “It’s your blood pressure, isn’t it?” He questioned, brushing his knuckles against her cheek. “Baby.” 

“Yeah.” She grimaced a little. “I’m actually fortunate I was down in records with Monica. She… saved me.” She swallowed thickly. “She knows something. I don’t know what, but… that girl is guilty.” 

“I told you not to.” Javier shook his head, trying to keep his voice steady. “You’re supposed to be keeping your stress levels low. And what? You decided to start questioning my students about this bullshit rumor and now you’re in the fucking hospital.” 

“Javier.” She shot him a look. “I passed out. It happens.” 

Javier dragged his fingers through his hair, taking a step away from the bed and turning his back on her. He was so fucking pissed and he didn’t know who to be pissed out. He couldn’t be pissed at her — even though she’d done exactly what he had told her not to do. He wanted to be pissed at Monica if she was behind the fucking rumor. He’d been so lenient with her — late work, missed classes… 

His fingers curled into fists at his side and he shook his head slowly. He so fucking angry. 

“Javi.” She whispered. “Come here.” 

“I’m fine.” 

“I’m the one in the hospital bed, I get to call the shots. Come here.” 

Javier’s shoulders sank as he turned around to face her. “I thought I was going to lose you.” 

“You didn’t.” 

“I get a call that you’re in the hospital unconscious and you don’t think I’m going to lose my mind, baby?” He dragged a hand over his face and looked away. “I can’t fucking lose you. I can’t.” 

“You’re not going to lose me.” 

Javier paced the short distance he could in the room. “What the fuck does she know?” He questioned, stopping at the foot of the bed. “Is she the one spreading the rumors? I swear to God if it is—”

The door opened slowly and the doctor stepped inside. “Bad time?”

She sat up in bed and shook her head slowly. “My partner’s under a lot of stress at work.”

“Stress that seems to be rubbing off on you,” The doctor’s brows raised suggestively. “I’m Dr. Smith,” She offered, shaking both of their hands. “If you’d like to sit Mr. Peña we can talk about what happened and how we can prevent this from getting worse.”

“Of course.” Javier mumbled, ducking his head as he moved to sit back down in the chair beside her bed. He reached for her hand, interlacing their fingers. “Is she going home today?”

“She is.” Dr. Smith smiled warmly. “With a number of changes, however. Fetal heartbeat is strong, I’m not concerned about the baby's health right now. Mom’s health is my primary concern. You came in here with a blood pressure that was 150/90. That’s a dangerous level for anyone, but especially while pregnant.” 

“So, what do we do?” Javier questioned.

“A whole lot of nothing.” Dr. Smith answered with a levity-offering chuckle. “You’re going to have to stay at home. I’m prescribing you to remain on bed rest for the remainder of your pregnancy.”

“Are you fucking serious?” She grumbled, sinking back against the pillows. 

“Yes. I know it’s inconvenient, but it’s necessary. If your blood pressure remains high, you’re at much higher risk for strokes, seizures, and placental abruption. The last thing we want to do is have to induce labor early. Everything looks great with baby, it’s just you we’re worried about right now.”

“When will we get the results back from the tests? You took blood, right?” Javier questioned.

“In a few hours. We’re just going to keep her for observation for a few more hours. Get that blood pressure down. You’ll be home tonight.” Dr. Smith answered, offering both of them a small smile. “Do you have any questions?”

“Will the delivery be more difficult?” She questioned, rubbing her stomach. “I didn’t have any problems with Josie.” 

“I’m not going to rule that out,” The doctor explained. “Your obstetrician will be best able to answer that. Where did you deliver?”

“In Colombia.” She answered. “But I didn’t have any issues like this and that… was stressful.” 

Javier scraped his teeth over his bottom lip as he looked between the doctor and her. The mere mention of Colombia had his own blood pressure spiking. This was all his fault. She was laying in a hospital bed, hooked up to wires all because of him.

“I need to…” Javier drew in a shaky breath. “Shit. Josie... “ He raked his hand over his face as he stood up suddenly. “Daycare. I need to call Steve.”

“Are you alright, Mr. Peña?”

It was all his fault. 

“I need to call someone to pick up our daughter.” Javier looked towards her then. God, she looked so weak. So pale. 

The doctor said something to him as he left the hospital room, but he was gone before he could make it out. He headed down the corridor, retracing the path the nurse had led him along, heading out the double doors that led to the waiting room.

He headed for the payphone, fishing a couple quarters out of his pocket. 

Steve offered to pick her up and bring her to the hospital. They both figured Josie might make her mother feel a little better. She was a cuddle monster whenever she knew someone wasn’t feeling well. 

It was his fault she wasn’t feeling well. 

He was the stupid fucking selfish idiot who had wanted another try. He was the one that had wanted another kid to make up for all of the shit he missed out on in Colombia. 

Javier slammed the phone back into the cradle before bringing his fist down against the top of the box. He was so fucking angry at himself. They had Josie — why couldn’t she be enough for him? Why had he wanted to have another child? To put her at risk. 

And she was at risk. 

“Professor Peña?”

He tensed, slowly turning to look at Monica. “Why are you still here?”

“She asked… I can go?”

“Don’t you have classes?”

Monica swallowed thickly and lowered her gaze to the ground. “I feel awful about what happened. She just… she was asking me about the rumors and…” She shook her head. “I didn’t know she was having trouble with her pregnancy. I didn’t know.”

Javier narrowed his eyes. “What did you do?”

“I didn’t do anything!” She looked up then. “I didn’t… mean to. But it was so much money and…”

“What?”

Monica glanced over her shoulder warily. “After work one day. The internship.” She gulped a little, looking like she was actually about to cry. “He had a badge.”

His jaw rocked as he stared her down. “Who had a badge?”

“Someone with the Drug Enforcement Administration.” Her cheeks flushed with shame and she stared at the ground. “I’m so sorry. But it was so much money and I…” 

It felt like someone had dumped a bucket of ice on him. 

The motherfucking DEA?

“What the fuck did they tell you to do?”

Monica took a step back, “To start the rumor.” 

“Why?” Javier questioned, fingers clenched at his sides. 

“I don’t know.” Monica admitted. “It was ten thousand dollars. You have no idea how much I needed it… I couldn’t say ‘no’.”

He took a step backwards. 

The article. It all had to do with that goddamn article. His idea. 

“I need…” Javier bit down on the inside of his cheek hard enough to taste blood. “I need to go sit with her. I need to…” He flexed his jaw, turning away then. “I can’t fucking do this right now.” He didn’t even look back at her, he headed straight back into the emergency room, back to her room, back to her bedside. 

She was asleep. Whatever they’d given her to help calm down had clearly knocked her out. She needed the rest. He knew she hadn’t been sleeping well — not since the start of the rumor. Not since he gave her those five fucking envelopes. 

All of it. All of this. 

It was all his fault. 

There was a clock on the wall that was ticking. Each second growing louder. 

This was his punishment. 

All those people. The people he failed. People who died. The people he wasn’t able to save. 

“Javi.” She whispered beside him, reaching out to touch his face. “What’s wrong?”

“Just rest, baby.” He pleaded quietly. 

“You look like you need to be admitted too.” She smiled at him. “Babe, I’m fine. My blood pressure is just high. I fainted. I’ll be home in a few hours.”

“But what if you’re not fine? What if this…” He clenched his jaw and shook his head. 

“And what if you got shot in Colombia? Don’t treat me like a fucking flower over ‘what ifs’, Javier.” She pulled her hand away from his face and rubbed at her forehead. “You know how much I hate being treated like an invalid.” 

“I don’t want to do this right now.” Javier shook his head. “I want to get you home and then… we can talk about everything. What we’re going to do…” 

“It was Monica wasn’t it? My gut was right, wasn’t it?”

Javier stared at her, before nodding his head slowly. “Yeah.” He laughed bitterly. “It wasn’t just Monica… it was the fucking DEA.”

Something beeped on one of her monitors.

“Just my pulse. It slipped off my finger.” She assured him, readjusting the clip on her forefinger. “What do you mean it was the DEA?”

“You need to relax, baby.” Javier reached out and rested his hand on her stomach, his other reaching for her hand. “We can talk about this at home. When you’re not… hooked up to fucking wires.” He sat back and pressed the heel of his palm against his forehead. “This is fucking bullshit.” 

“Javi.” 

“We’re not doing this.” He stood up, hands on his hips. “I’m not losing you.” 

She held her hand out, “Come back here. You have to keep your shit together for Josie, Javier. You can’t be freaking out like this.” 

“It’s all my fault.” Javier let the words slip out of his mouth.

There was a knock on the door before it opened to reveal Dr. Smith on the other side again. “Good news.” She said with a hesitant smile. “Your organs look good, but we are still concerned with your blood pressure. We can bring it down if you keep your stress levels down—” She gave Javier a pointed look. He knew he was red in the face, still fuming from everything. “I’m going to send you home with a prescription for anticonvulsants.” 

“What does that do?” Javier questioned.

“It’ll stave off seizures. She hasn’t had one yet, that we know of. But with her blood pressure range, it's potential. They help prevent them. But rest will be best.” The doctor looked towards her bed then. “We can get a letter sent to your office.”

“I’ll handle it.” She promised. “Or Javi will. Whoever. They’ll understand.” She laughed bitterly. “I’m a walking worker’s comp claim.” 

“And the baby’s fine?”

The doctor nodded. “Both of them should be fine if her environment is kept calm.” 

“We’ve been going through a lot.” Javier admitted, staring at the floor. 

“We just moved.” She explained. “And some stuff from our past has been giving us issues. It’s nothing that we can’t resolve.”

“After you give birth.” The doctor reminded her. “I’ll start the discharge process within the hour. Good luck.” 

“I’m so sorry, baby.”

“Don’t blame yourself.” She sank back against the pillows, staring up at the ceiling. “Don’t lash out at her.”

“Who?”

“Monica. She’s just a kid, Javi.” 

Javier sighed heavily. “I wanna fucking punch a wall.” 

“Try not to make a mess.” She quipped dryly. “And I can’t exactly help you hide the body like this.” 

“You’re going to bed when we get home.”

She made a face. “Sounds like the bed is going to be my new home.” She tilted her head to grin at him, wiggling her brows. “Sounds like fun, yeah?”

Javier glared back at her. “How can you make jokes?”

“Because if I don’t I’m going to fucking lose my shit.” She shot back. “I was so scared.” 

“I know, baby.” He took her hand into his and leaned down to kiss each knuckle. “I’ve got you though, okay? I’m going to take care of you and Josie and the baby.” 

“Bean.” 

“What?”

“You called her bean. Remember?” 

Javier cracked a small smile. “It was little legume, I believe.”

She grinned at him, “We’re going to be okay, Javi. I promise you.”

“That’s just the medicine talking.” He leaned down and cupped her cheek, pressing a quick kiss to her lips. “Steve should be here with Josie soon… then the three of us can go home.” 

“That sounds nice.” Her lashes fluttered. “I need a nap.”

“Yeah you do.” He laughed softly, brushing his thumb over her cheekbone. He hated seeing her like this. Weak. Exhausted. Not her typical fiery self. 

She could say it wasn’t his fault, but he knew it was. And he fucking hated it. 

#javier pena #javier pena x reader #pedro pascal x reader