#she promised she wouldnt kill me if i were here attorney | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

comradekatara · 5 years

Note

The good place is kind of eh in practice but I really like the concept so.... gaang and fire lesbians reactions to a good place scenario?

upon being told they’re in the good place, katara, aang & suki are like, “oh, sweet,” ty lee and zuko are like, “what??? i am???” toph and mai are like, “oops i’m here by mistake,” sokka’s like, “theres. theres a points system. thats bullshit this is bullshit,” and azula’s just like *has a panic attack*

everyone gets a soulmate!!!!! yay!!!!! katara, meet zuko. sokka, meet toph. mai, meet azula. ty lee, meet suki (this one backfires because they actually do fall in love). oh, and aang, since you’re a monk, you don’t have a soulmate i guess! but you don’t mind that, right? haha no, of course not! aang keeps having to pretend like he’s fine being the only one without a soulmate, and mai’s just like “oh u can have my soulmate if u want” and aang’s like “oh....no.......that’s okay........ but thanks”

sokka is told that he’s about to meet his soulmate, and he’s like “ok this will be fun” because at this point he’s just decided to go along with it until ashton kutcher jumps out from behind a pot plant or smth. he doesn’t know whether he can trust toph yet, so when she says, “you’ll stand by me no matter what, right?” he’s like “oh of course.” and then she tells him she was sent here by mistake, and she doesn’t know what to do. he’s like, “who forking knows what to do right now this is. this is objectively insane, right????” and she’s like “well, objectively speaking, yes, but it’s also a bit presumptuous of you to assume that an afterlife that measured morality on a points basis didn’t exist just because it sounds silly as fuck when you say it out loud.” and he’s like. “no. we’re definitely being punk’d.” and she’s like “did you just say fork? lmao loser”

ty lee is all “but it doesn’t really make sense that i’m here” and suki’s like “why not? you’re nice and you smell good” and ty lee’s like “but i’m.....super sketchy.......... i’ve committed like......actual felonies???” and suki’s like “ok but who fucking cares tho” and ty lee’s like “ykw GREAT point” and then they kind of just take advantage of the fact that they’re in a magical truman show because that’s the kind of shit you do when you figure out what’s actually going on, duh. michael thinks they hate each other because every time he goes to check in on them they are literally fighting each other??? he’s like oh wait......is this maybe........too far??? but he doesn’t know what to do about that other than maybe recommend some couple’s therapy and they go for laughs and ty lee sobs dramatically and suki wails various bits and pieces of a made up backstory that gets more and more absurd and incongruous every week.

mai and azula are perfect for each other! they have so much in common! for one thing, they both have no idea what the fuck they’re doing here. for another, they do not trust the other as far as they can throw them, and so they are both suffering silently and alone as they try to piece together why they’re here. they live right next door to toph and sokka, so they’re always running into each other, until eventually they are thrown into enough weirdly coincidental situations together that they just become friends. mai actually thinks toph is pretty cool. they kind of just get each other, yknow? what if there was, like, a mixup and.... *gasp* and then azula gets beaten in pai sho once and that’s all it takes for her to become obsessed with sokka and convinced that they are the real soulmates. sokka didn’t account for this happening because he assumed that pai sho is a meaningless game and nothing would happen if he won. he kicks himself for this later.

mai and azula both agree to tell toph and sokka that there’s been a mistake, and they try to inform them of this theory as directly as possible. toph and sokka are like “what are you talking about?? the system would never do such a thing??? the system doesnt make mistakes!!!” and they even threaten to tell michael about this before mai and azula are like “ok ok !!! maybe we were wrong. just an idea” and sokka’s like “ok well maybe we shouldn’t be questioning this perfect world, how’s that for an idea. oh and im in love with toph” and mai and azula leave deeply heartbroken. sokka and toph are like “whew that was close” because there is no fucking way they are splitting up after they’ve spent who knows how long perfectly camouflaging under surveillance and pretending to be having sex while actually doing very long and complicated math and reading through everything every moral philosopher ever wrote up until the day they died and throwing out more and more implausible theories just for sokka to have to pretend to be attracted to azula. toph’s like “i kinda like mai tho” and sokka’s like “yeah mai’s chill”

at first, zuko and katara get along great! they love doing dumb shit together that no one else they knew on earth ever found fun. they have such deep, profound conversations all the time. they’re always cuddling while watching movies and they’re like yeah we real cute. for the first time in both their lives they’re like, wow!! maybe soulmates are real!! all their friends are like “awww you two are so perfect together. and you always have your hands all over each other. you guys must be forkin like crazy” and they’re like “haha! ..........yep!” it’s only just occurred to them that it’s been six months and they still haven’t even kissed. and katara’s like “okay clearly we just....forgot! and we should just do that now, because we’re in ....love? unless..... you don’t want to....” and zuko’s like “HAHA WHAT WHY WOULDNT I WANT TO” the next morning they both are like “well that was great!” and are terrified to tell the other that they currently feel dead inside. after that, they stop having deep conversations. they stop cuddling on the couch. mainly, they just lie to each other so often that the smallest thing will leave them boiling over in a ginormous fight. and when they fight, the entire city knows it, because they are so. goddamn. loud. but then when people ask them how they’re doing katara’s just like “oh we couldnt be more in love :) .....why do you ask?”

after aang’s house gets destroyed in a fire zuko may or may not have started, he feels so guilty he lets aang move into their gaudy mansion with a billion spare bedrooms. aang promises he’ll only be there until they’re done with renovations to his old home, but none of them bother to question why they need to be doing renovations in the good place anyway. zuko is constantly doubting his place in this world, and whether he even is katara’s soulmate. the people around him keep telling him he’s a good person, but then something horrible will happen that he’s certain was his fault, and he’s like “aah im a fraud!” plus, aang seems to understand katara so much better, and they have a really strong bond... if he can be here, he doesn’t understand why aang and katara can’t be true soulmates. and aang agrees.

azula’s breakdowns get worse and worse each time, and she feels so alone. she knows that mai doesn’t love her. she knows that sokka doesn’t love her. her mom didn’t even love her! of course she wouldn’t get a soulmate –– what a childish, naive, foolish, idiotic notion!!!! so she decides to do the right thing, and confess: she was put here by mistake. she is the problem with the neighborhood. she’s not supposed to be here. sokka’s like “okay well fork. why did i ever ever beat her in pai sho” (and he’s right to think that, frankly.) there are proceedings in which azula must admit to michael that she was never a human rights lawyer, but she was an attorney. mainly she got people prosecuted for drug possession. it’s a living! ha ha...! they go through a whole bunch of bullshirt, but it all comes to a head when they’re fighting over who should take azula and zuko’s places (he confesses too, obvs) when it occurs to zuko that they can’t go to the bad place. because they’re already in the bad place.

sokka’s like “whaaaaaaat???? no...........thats ... thats impossible! why would you..............say that.................. you........forking...................idiot...............” (so much work. so much work wasted. fuck this dude. if he weren’t already dead sokka would kill him.) but michael’s already like “wow someone finally figured it out. i thought you’d never get it.” and then goes on to explain his great master plan that was actually a lot less complex than sokka’s current working theory. he leaves the room to talk to sean, and sokka’s like “okay show of hands who knew” so turns out ty lee and suki knew as well. good to know. with double the people with brains, maybe they can devise a plan to escape. and leave the rest to die or whatever. mainly zuko though. especially zuko. sokka writes down a note to find toph, ty lee, suki, and mai in the next reboot and under it, the sentence: “stay calm; you’re in the bad place.”

and then nbc cancels it because they have the foresight to know that the concept won’t sustain itself :)

#this was really fun to write omg #the gaang and #asks #anon #sitnematic universe

45 notes · View notes

zenosanalytic · 4 years

Text

HoXPoX Liveblog: House of X #3

Ok here’s HoX 3 and Here’s The Link

Not a lot going on in this one symbolwise, but it feels... Deceptive *looks around shiftily*

Time to continue the HoXPoX readthrough with House of X #3! This is a second printing so the cover’s the same deal as the last; a duochrome variant of the 1st cover the x-men in yellows/golds down the right side&a menacing sentinel-head as the background.

before getting into it though, I’m wondering abt the implications of the PoX3? Like: X2 was the 9th TL, but what about X3? Given Cylobel and the archive the obvs assumption would be X3’s a continuation of X2, but there’s no guarantee similar events dont happen in dif tls.

The thing is: if it was just the future of 9 PAST learning Nimrod’s inception date, then why would we keep following it? If all following X2 did was show us how TL10 got nimrod’s birthday, then why would we need to even KNOW abt X3? I feel like there’s something more going on

Also: why would X in 10 need to steal this information if they already had it from Moira? Also Also: some STRONG circumstantial simultaneity vibes from these repeated heists, which also also also contribs to me feeling like this story’s being a bit deceptive abt what’s going on.

Anyway: open’s on an Xavier quote: “you make me so *proud*” *indicating italics cuz twitter has no font options >:|

X1 Krakoa. Cyclops framed by an unactivated portal, center-frame, backlit/haloed by a light-blue sky. He’s telling X and M he’s put together a team which accepts the mission’s a suicide run. X and M are colored in whites, full-figure but dwarfed by Cyclops’s bust-closeup.

X promises he wont allow him of his team to die. M that the only true death is to be forgotten which “the righteous” will never be. Their narration calls him “the founder of a nation”. M is oft melodramatic & here he’s decidedly biblical: “righteous” “mighty works”

Of course the assumption is that we already know how this turns out. He and the rest will die and be “resurrected” by the RootTree as we saw at the beginning of HoX#1 Like I said tho, I get the feeling there’s some deception &the depictions of X&M here reinforces that; Impish.

Anyway: the two closeups of Scott here are really well done. The major difficult with him is conveying emotional state when his eyes are always covered of course, but the shading above his visor&turn of his mouth manages to convey his worry and doubt excellently.

Cyclops explains the sitch to his team in a really flippant way. He’s established as someone preemptively managing the emotions of those he leads, so considering them, and ironically acknowledging the dangers/absurdities to make them seem smaller than they are.

His team looks like: Wolverine, Dazzler, Angel, someone I dont recognize(Braddock/Psylocke? dont rec the costume)?, Jean Grey, Nightcrawler, and Mystique.

The team immediately begins debating the plan(Scott encourages debate and the XMen aim for collegiality; well characterized) The one I dont rec isnt Braddock but Monet; not a character I’m too familiar with.

Cyc asks Mystique if she’s listening; she’s wonderfully and appropriately dismissive. Jean and Scott talk about minimizing casualties; there will be “innocent” civilians. Wolvie points out “innocents” dont build genocide-machines. Jean says “they’re just scared of their future”

Jean’s last line is actl super-ominous; it’s the last frame on the page, and the last two frames are bathed in that neo red-purple which up to now is usually associated with endings and death. I think, ironically, Jean might end up killing lots of these people.

Another cool bit; in the forth frame, where Mystique is mouthing off to Scott for his condescension, the sun is placed just behind&above Mystique’s head, placing it btw her and Jean, shadowed frame left, & making it’s glare imply Jean using her telepathy…

… it could be that Scott’s comment isn’t as unnecessary and condescending as it seems; it could be Jean’s been listening to Mystique’s thoughts, saw her intent to go off-mission,& informed Scott so he could head that off now. Maybe why she brings up question of casualties?

They’re launching from the Summers Moon Mansion. As they do Wolverine comments: “Just scientists huh? How exactly do you think humans went from sticks to bombs?” Obvsl he sees the whole installation as a threat.

An infopage on Sentinel progression. Starts with the well-known giant combat bot Alpha model, then mastermold(Alpha factory), Mothermold(mastermold factory capable of designing nanosentinel tech), then Omegas(nanosent infected humans), then Nimrod(pure nanosentinel construct)

Followed by a timeline of the plot from L9 to L10. Bscl confirms this is X1. States that Moira&Apoc have id’d that, while emergent AI is unavoidable specifcally antimutant ones, Nimrods, arent. Mentions the files Apoc acquired are incomplete, but imply preventable tech thresholds

mentioned in passing but may become relevant later: Moira&X had technopath mutants create a system that could detect Nimrod tech thresholds called Sleeping Giant.

Cut to Sabertooth being tried at Project Achilles, a “supervillain supermax”. The proceedings are about as farcically unconcerned with justice as you’d expect(treating the defense attorney as a joke is pretty Ick, as well).

Sabertooth's not having any of it, drawn center-page, towering over everyone else(though I wouldnt say security's drawn as frightened of him; more alert). Seems like a breakout attempt is imminent as he notices the smell of jasmine(?) and tells his attorney he's fired

:D It's Frost & two of the Cuckoos :D :D Emma's halo'd by a sun-like light on her entry. Judge IMMEDIATELY draws a guns XD Frost reminds them all Krakoans have diplomatic immunity(doesnt work this way but whatevs), judge calls him a Thing, Bravado Bravado...

In the end they walk out with only mutual chest-thumping. An important point; Frost says mutants wont be judged by human courts any more, so apprntl the treaties include jurisdictional concessions.

an infopage on the Omega Process; how a human is transformed into a sentinel by nanosent tech. The focus this is getting suggests this'll be plot-relevant(wonder if a mutant is infected?) Seems like a year's long process which inevitably ends in a anti-mutant exterminator.

cut to the Mother Mold; Karima/Omega and Doctor Gregor are arguing abt Orchis's plan(Karima against). Of course it's a bad idea; any being you make caged is going to resent you, and if you give it the ability to make things it designs it will design itself free of you.

(of course the reality of AI is that basic common sense, let alone originality, is way more difficult to code that humans think, and meat way better at information processing)

the X men Attack! And it's immediately thwarted, seemingly, by an improvised explosive. In hindsight all the red-purple images of the Blackbird's cockpit were Not Promising :T Oh! There's a Krakoan alphabet at the back ^u^

Well that was anti-climactic, but surprising, but also I think something else is going on still, so we'll see what's up in future issues.

#X Men #Marvel #HoXPoX #Hickman et al #House of X 3 #House of X #HoXPoX Liveblog #zA Liveblogs

0 notes

trendingnewsb · 7 years

Text

Trust me, I’m a fake doctor: how medical imposters thrive in the real world

Versions of Jodie Whittakers bogus TV medic do exist. But fantasists and charlatans tend to operate outside the hospital, where victims have been assaulted, misdiagnosed or offered false hope

Within the first half-hour of the BBCs psychological thriller Trust Me, Cath (a former nurse) had stolen her doctor friends identity, picked up some suturing skills from YouTube, and was handling a stethoscope like a pro. Before you could say: Adrenaline, STAT!, Cath (played by Jodie Whittaker) was a fake doctor at an Edinburgh hospital, yanking twisted ankles into place and shoving chest drains where they belonged.

It couldnt happen in real life, though, could it? It already has. Others with medical backgrounds have posed as fully fledged doctors before. Take Levon Mkhitarian who encountered 3,363 patients in two years, working across seven NHS trusts on oncology, cardiology, transplant and surgical wards as well as in A&E. Mkhitarian, originally from Georgia, had graduated from medical school in the Caribbean island of Grenada and received provisional registration from the General Medical Council (GMC) to work specifically under supervision here. But he failed to complete the year. He went on to fraudulently secure a job anyway, was caught, and then promptly struck off. Undeterred, he forged a host of documents including a medical degree and energy bills, stealing the identity of a genuine doctor. The IT department of the William Harvey hospital in Ashford, Kent, finally rumbled Mkhitarian when he applied for a security pass in the name of another doctor. He pleaded guilty to fraud charges and in July 2015 was sentenced to six years in prison.

Levon Mkhitarian worked as a locum, never staying in one hospital or one speciality too long. Photograph: Kent Police/PA

These sorts of hospital cases are uncommon the subterfuge required is substantial and most medical impostors thrive in the community (more of which later) or apply for non-clinical roles. Anecdotally, the GMC receives about half a dozen cases a year where details of a registered doctor (their name or GMC number) have been used illegally. According to the Crown Prosecution Service, 13 people were charged with pretending to be registered as a doctor since 2004 (under the Medical Act 1983) prosecution figures are unavailable and this omits those charged more broadly under the Fraud Act 2006.

How did Mkhitarian get away with it? He certainly capitalised on medicine generally being a team sport. There are (or always should be) senior decision-makers around medical training is an apprenticeship and so asking for assistance wouldnt necessarily raise a red flag. He may have had enough experience to coast at times, just as Caths nursing background helped in the first episode of Trust Me she quickly diagnosed a boxers fracture and deftly administered intravenous drugs. And Mkhitarian later worked as a locum, never staying in one hospital or one speciality too long.

He earned 85,000 during the two years, but undoubtedly sought more than financial gain. Steven Jay Lynn, professor of psychology at the State University of New York at Binghamton, believes a variety of motivations drive medical impostors: a grandiose fantasy of power, respect, authority and the social rewards of being a doctor.

Lynn also thinks that many are old-fashioned charlatans. Theyre likely not much different from conmen and women of different stripes who try to pull off scams in the business world, law and psychology, he says. Many could probably be described as callous, lacking in empathy, narcissistic, antisocial and even psychopathic, such that they can exploit people and treat them as objects without guilt or remorse.

Their hunting ground is often outside the hospital, away from the scrutiny of regulators or eagle-eyed IT departments. They prey upon impressionable, suggestible and vulnerable victims, perhaps not explicitly stating they are doctors, but professing medical knowledge all the same. Recently, 48-year-old Joseph Valadakis from Tottenham, north London, convinced his victims that he had treated the royal family, Barack Obama, Banksy, Robbie Williams, Theresa May and Russell Brand. One Hertford couple fell for Valadakiss claim of running a government laboratory he assured them he was allowed to treat commoners, too. Meanwhile, his website stated that he possessed a biophysics PhD: It gave him the credibility we were looking for at the time, one of the defrauded couple said. She and her husband received wrap treatments costing 1,600 each (made from the excrement of snails fed on lemongrass) and 2,000 massages with whale sperm. These treatments would prevent otherwise inevitable strokes, heart attacks and blindness, Valadakis insisted. He (incorrectly) diagnosed the husband with pancreatic cancer, cautioning him against obtaining a second opinion. The couple were ultimately conned out of 97,000. In 2015, Valadakis, who had no medical qualifications, was jailed on fraud charges for four years.

Other victims of medical impostors pay a different price. Sheffield civil servant Stewart Edwards posed as a GP for 34 years, targeting Asian families (initially following them home and looking up names on the electoral roll). He arrived at their doorsteps carrying a briefcase and stethoscope, claiming he had been sent from a local health centre. Unsuspecting families let him in; one treated him as their family GP for a decade. In 2011, Edwards pleaded guilty to 13 offences five indecent assaults, two sexual assaults on a child, three counts of sexual activity with a child and three sexual assaults on two women and a man, between 2000 and 2010. He was jailed for four years. But Edwards admitted to impersonating a GP since 1976, in London and Sheffield. His actual number of victims remains unknown.

The family of Angela Murray say medical deception hastened her death. Photograph: Collect/BNPS

Some victims forgo effective treatments or receive unnecessary ones. An ongoing Ohio lawsuit claims that dozens were given a false diagnosis of dementia by Sherry-Ann Jenkins who had no medical qualifications. The Associated Press reported that her patients had been planning their final years, preparing their children for the inevitable, quitting their jobs and selling their possessions. Attorney David Zoll tells me that many of his 65 clients are devastated; they had placed absolute faith in Jenkins. One developed depression after his diagnosis and took his own life. An autopsy showed no evidence of Alzheimers, his wife says. She, too, was mistakenly diagnosed with dementia by Jenkins.

Back in Britain, the family of Angela Murray say medical deception hastened her death. The lack of a transplant was going to kill Angie anyway, her brother said, but I am totally convinced her death was due to this. It took away her will to live.

She met Julie Higgins at Inspire beauty salon in Poole, Dorset. Higgins was a regular there, or at least visited whenever her hectic schedule allowed, she said. She claimed to be an oncologist at Great Ormond Street childrens hospital and a humanitarian aid worker. Occasionally she arrived in medical garb, apparently fresh from a volunteer shift at the local health centre, happy to dispense medical advice to other customers. Sometimes, she had her head shaved, too, later, saying it put her young cancer patients at ease.

Murray, a 59-year-old sales manager, was terminally ill with lung fibrosis and pulmonary hypertension. But Higgins carried hope when there was barely any to find she would source transplant organs, she assured Murray, on one occasion telling her to fast overnight as organs were in transit from Germany. Later, she sent texts from a supposed aid mission to Aleppo, promising to donate Murray her organs if she died. None of it was true.

Murrays family did become suspicious, but her brother, Dave Drummond, explained: Even when it was at its most unbelievable, I didnt want to say to Angie I think shes a conwoman. It would have just taken all the hope away from her.

Angelas husband, Gregory, told a local newspaper about how the eventual exposure of Higgins, in September last year, affected her: [Angelas] health deteriorated rapidly. Before then, she had said she was going to fight, but she lost hope. A month later she died in my arms.

Higgins claimed dissociative identity disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder were responsible for her actions. Earlier this year, she received a 12-month community order and was instructed to pay a 140 victim surcharge. Judge Donald Tait concluded that the Medical Act 1983 did not allow him to impose a prison sentence.

There was no real financial motive Higgins received free haircuts valued at 80. But she envisaged herself as Murrays saviour. I rang her twice a week to keep her going and support her, she told the Bournemouth Echo. She relied on me and said I was her sanity.

Murrays husband sees Higgins as anything but: To put my wife through what she put her through, Ive never met someone so evil. You see things on TV and you think how can people be so stupid. But if someone gives you that little bit of hope you grasp at it.

Criminals such as Edwards, Higgins and Valadakis who act outside hospitals never register with the authorities in the first place that is one of the secrets of their success.

But in case Trust Me has you worried about encountering a bogus hospital doctor, the GMC insists that it now conducts face-to-face identity checks for registration and cites a robust data-security system. Employers must take responsibility, they insist, for checking identification and qualifications. Abdul Pirzada became a locum GP in Birmingham after employers failed to challenge his misleading CV or confirm he had registered with the GMC (he hadnt).

You cant be worse than Brigitte! was how one character greeted Cath in Trust Me. Dan Sefton, doctor and writer of the series, said: For me, theres a delicious irony in the idea that the impostor doctor is better than the real thing, both clinically and with patients. Im still hoping Cath wont get away with it. That might be just the reassurance we all need.

Jules Montague is a consultant neurologist and writer.

Trust Me continues on BBC1 on Tuesday at 9pm.