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percontaion-points · 1 year

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Client No 5 chapters 3 & 4

This book review contains discussions of SW; reader discretion is advised

Click to see the rest of the snark & image descriptions

Chapter 3

He’d treated me as if I was a person, not a vagina, and yet he paid me like a whore.

I’m confused about this. She’s angry that he’s treating her with respect? And that he paid her like 3x more than the agreed upon price?

… at least the high-end escort business that I was in.

So in the previous chapter, she’d said that she looked like a trashy hooker.

Either she’s trashy-looking, or she’s a high-end escort. I’m not sure that you can have these two things at the same time.

I wasn’t deluded enough to think that I could do this work forever. Prostitution was hugely based on looks, at least the high-end escort business that I was in. No drugs, no violence. Just sex. In fifteen or twenty years I’d be out of work, and I planned to make sure that I was well set up by then. I paid my bills, I bought what I needed for work, and I skimped on everything else. All the extra cash I earned went into investments that would eventually buy me an apartment. Rent was killer in New York, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to afford it when I wasn’t working.

Except that it’s pretty well-known that a high end escort’s plan to get out from under guys is to become a madam and start being in charge of other girls.

Todd always took a “test drive” of the new girls before he hired them. He said he needed to know what he was selling, and it’s his job to make sure his girls are of high quality. Yeah, he really hated his work.

Not only gross but also highly unprofessional.

Ally claims that this is a high-end escort service, yet Todd is acting like he’s one bitch-slap away from being a drug-dealing pimp. With the fur coat and cane.

He wasn’t willing to test out the new guy, though.

He should, though. He has to go all the way to prove to his customers that the new guy is good!

What guy wouldn’t be overjoyed at having a live sex show on his own bed?

You can tell that this was written by somebody who thinks that working around sex 24/7 is always going to be titillating.

I am going to scream if Todd starts jerking off as he watches Ally and Adam bang.

I rolled my head to the side and saw that Todd had given up any pretense of being professional. He had his cock out and was rubbing it slowly, eyes glued on my swaying tits.

[...]

A glance over at our audience made me laugh. Todd wasn’t even watching us anymore—his eyes were closed as Jamie sucked his dick. He thrust hard into her mouth, adding added to my arousal.

What a disgusting pig.

And as much as I hated it, there was a part of me that was sad I wouldn’t see Scott Walker again.

Chapter 3 summary: Ally accidentally fell asleep, which she never does because it’s unprofessional. She woke up to Scott gone, but he’d left her a note and a lot more money than agreed upon.

On her way home, Ally’s brother, Zach, calls her up and asks her to come over. She tells the reader that Zach and Todd are BFFs, but somehow, Zach doesn’t know what Ally does for a living. She continues on and explains to the reader about how being a SWer is obviously not a life-time job, that she needs to tap out at some point. So she’s living like a pauper while saving every single thing. And that 5k that Scott left her will go a long way in her savings.

She goes to Todd’s and Zach’s apartment, where she gives Todd his cut from her first four clients. He also briefly asks about Scott, and says that he’s Todd’s cousin. Ally gets angry, because she obviously doesn’t want to be banging anybody that could connect her to her actual identity. Todd then agrees that he should hire a new girl, and also bring a gigolo into the fold.

Later, Todd texted Ally if she’d come over and test out a new guy he’d hired. Ally’s roommate, Jamie, also a SWer under Todd, wants to come over and watch this. So they go over to Todd’s apartment, where they meet Adam. Adam is a little green around the ears, so Ally has to give him a tiny bit of a pep-talk before he goes down on her, and has to explain stuff to him like “always wear a condom. No matter what the woman says. You don’t want to suffer the consequences.” Jamie and Todd stand and watch, but then start going at it.

But he makes her cum, and thus earns himself an approval from Ally. But Ally can’t help but think that Adam isn’t half as good as Scott had been.

Chapter 4

He liked to pretend to be a horse and have girls treat him as such. Apparently the girls at NYU didn’t find this particular fetish sexy, so he was forced to outsource.

Has he tried the brony community?

“He’s under the spell of your puss, and I can’t blame the poor guy. Just do it.”

I know what was meant here, but when I see “puss”, my brain thinks “pus”. Which… gross.

The cool water soaked my hot skin as I broke the surface, sending a shiver through me. It was bliss.

Chapter 4 summary: Ally meets up with Zach later to go visit their parents. On the ride over, he asks Ally if she’s dating Todd, and says that Todd is bad business. Despite the fact that Zach lives with the guy and is apparently his best friend.

Later, Ally sees a 19 year old client who is really into pony play, but outsources his enjoyment because no other girls seem to be into it. Ally then decides he’s getting too attached to her, and decides to send him to another girl later.

On her way out of the hotel, the front desk clerk asks Ally if she’s really a SWer, and how she can get into the business. Since Todd had mentioned taking on a new girl, she agrees to meet up with Amy for lunch later that week and answer any of the girl’s questions.

She goes home, only to find Adam and Jamie fucking. She hides in her room until they finish and Adam leaves. Jamie tells her to call Todd, which she does. Todd wants to book her all night for Scott, which is really against Ally’s rules. But Todd literally threatens to withhold clients from her until she agrees, so she does.

Later, Ally and Jamie go to the gym, where too much time is spent showing them working out. In the sauna, Jamie asks that since Ally clearly hates men so much, she should switch teams. Ally says no, and then goes for a swim.

#Client No. 5 #chapter 03 #chapter 04 #Ally (Client No 5)#Scott Walker #What Is Happening #pick a lane #I would ask where the editor was but I think we all know there was none #Todd (Client No 5)#double standards #gross #Adam (Client No 5)#words mean things #Jamie (Client No 5)

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adhdvane · 1 year

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this is way funnier to me than it should be

#sammy liveblogs about granblue #to be fair ITS THE FACT I DID NEARLY 75 MIL DMG IN SUMMONS AND CHAIN BURTST #the only other things we come close to is c.a. dmg but thats bc he's hitting hard cap like immediately and im not that far off from it #if the hard cap wasnt 6.6mil the difference would be larger #i mean also fediel did more c.a. dmg than him #bc she also got 12 ougi's compared to his 8 #she's nearly at the hard 6.6 she's usually around 6.5 but she's gets to double ougi every time so lol #when ur heal class and u do almost as much dmg as the elements arguably best dps unit #im glad i went and spent the valor badges on the sunlightstone so i could get yatima to 4*#i got 3 copies of her during her release banner so i only needed one and then i 4*'d her #and being able to summon two summons a turn is so nice and i dont need to have sr lyria as an ally to do it #god tho imagine if i had death in my summons and not the sub aura summon section #using yatima would be like playing russian roulette

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zvaigzdelasas · 3 months

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[NewYorkTimes is Private US Media]

Over the past month, we’ve watched an astonishing, high-stakes global drama play out in The Hague. A group of countries from the poorer, less powerful bloc some call the global south, led by South Africa, dragged the government of Israel and, by extension, its rich, powerful allies into the top court of the Western rules-based order and accused Israel of prosecuting a brutal war in Gaza that is “genocidal in character.”

The responses to this presentation from the leading nations of that order were quick and blunt.

“Completely unjustified and wrong,” said a statement from Rishi Sunak, Britain’s prime minister.

“Meritless, counterproductive and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever,” said John Kirby, a spokesman for the United States National Security Council.

“The accusation has no basis in fact,” a German government spokesman said, adding that Germany opposed the “political instrumentalization” of the genocide statute.

But on Friday, that court had its say, issuing a sober and careful provisional ruling that doubled as a rebuke to those dismissals. In granting provisional measures, the court affirmed that some of South Africa’s allegations were plausible and called on Israel to take immediate steps to protect civilians, increase the amount of humanitarian aid and punish officials who engaged in violent and incendiary speech. The court stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, but it granted South Africa’s request for provisional measures to prevent further civilian death. For the most part, the court ruled in favor of the global south.[...]

The court was not asked to rule on whether Israel had in fact committed genocide, a matter that is likely to take years to adjudicate. Whatever the eventual outcome of the case, it sets up an epic battle over the meaning and values of the so-called rules-based order. If these rules don’t apply when powerful countries don’t want them to, are they rules at all?

“As long as those who make rules enforce them against others while believing that they and their allies are above those rules, the international governance system is in trouble,” Thuli Madonsela, one of South Africa’s leading legal minds and an architect of its post-apartheid Constitution, told me. “We say these rules are the rules when Russia invades Ukraine or when the Rohingya are being massacred by Myanmar, but if it’s now Israel butchering Palestinians, depriving them of food, displacing them en masse, then the rules don’t apply and whoever tries to apply the rules is antisemitic? It is really putting those rules in jeopardy.”[...]

The military campaign has “wreaked more destruction than the razing of Syria’s Aleppo between 2012 and 2016, Ukraine’s Mariupol or, proportionally, the Allied bombing of Germany in World War II,” the report quoted researchers as saying. The researchers, hardly some raving left-wing activists, are experts cited in one of the most respected news organizations in the world, The Associated Press.[...]

The International Court of Justice issued a nonbinding opinion in 2004 that the security barriers Israel was erecting in the West Bank violated international law, but that ruling has had no effect. The walls still stand.[...]

Indeed, what is a rules-based system if the rules apply only selectively and if seeking to apply them to certain countries is viewed as self-evidently prejudiced? To put it more simply, is there no venue in the international system to which the stateless people of Palestine and their allies and friends can go to seek redress amid the slaughter in Gaza? And if not, what are they to do?

For the cause of Palestinian statehood, every alternative to violence has been virtually snuffed out, in part because Israel’s allies have helped to discredit them. The most recent example is the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement that has, in many places, been successfully tarred as antisemitic or even banned altogether. Efforts to use the United Nations Security Council have drawn U.S. vetoes for decades. Is seeking redress at the appropriate venue for alleged violations of international law also antisemitic, as Israel’s defense minister said on Friday? Does no law apply to Israel? Are there no limits to what it may do to defend itself?[...]

The Biden administration has made the shoring up of the international rules-based order a centerpiece of its foreign policy but, unsurprisingly, has struggled to live up to that aspiration.[...]

Occasionally straying from your principles because circumstances require it is very different from being seen to have no principles at all, and that is precisely how much of the global south has come to regard the United States.

It seems especially shortsighted in these times that the Biden administration elected to wave away the carefully documented case prepared by South Africa. One of the biggest threats to the rules-based international order is the growing consensus in the poor world that the rich world will apply those rules selectively, at its discretion, when it suits the powerful nations that make up the global north, such as when Russia invaded Ukraine.[...]

As far as the rules-based order is concerned, when it comes to crimes like genocide and ethnic cleansing, it simply does not matter who started it. [...] The best way to shore up the rules-based order is to be seen, in word and deed, as committing to the institutions and moral commitments of that order.

28 Jan 24

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strangestcase · 5 months

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tomblr discourse in the monster high universe must be something else.

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💝 lalalala Follow

What would I do without cherry smoothies... probably die again 💔

🟥 b3lfrypr3pz-deactivated09182022

Of freaking course the frilly daywalker is a vegan 😒 bet you do witchcraft too you dirty hippie

💝 lalalala Follow

🝢🜊🝣🝗🜚🝰

🟥 b3lfrypr3pz-deactivated09182022

WTF is that lol

🟥 b3lfrypr3pz-deactivated09182022

i t burns. wh at did you do to me .

💝 lalalala Follow

^-^

17k notes

🧠 msdeadfast Follow

Ok but Dead Fast: Night of the Living (2002) has no business being considered the worst Dead Fast movie when the MCU (Murder Cinematic Universe) not only retconned his origin story to make him a virus zombie rather than a curse zombie (which throws off his entire arc about being something more than his deeds!) AND made him be allied with B.L.I.G.H.T. of all organizations because Like say what you will about NOTL and the forced heterosexual romantic plot but at least 1) it gets what makes Dead Fast a hero and 2) GIVES HIS LOVE INTEREST A PERSONALITY AND SOMETHING TO DO

🕷️ 8legscomix Follow

Literally

Also they made the villain Dr. Igorable's motivations so laughable like..... so his wife got turned into a zombie and he wants to cure her? Ok? Did she ask for it? She doesn't even have any groaning lines. Im not even a zombie but that was offensive as hell. Like in the original comics he wants to straight up undo all forms of zombism forever

🧠 msdeadfast Follow

NO FR LIKE....... so suddenly the eugenics obsessed human is tragic because being a zombie must be such a tragedy you guyyyysssss -_- and wanting to get rid of an entire monster type is ok. I swear that movie has turned monster attitudes towards zombies back into the 80s

⚠️ mentalhealth-hazard Follow

I am not sure if I'm overstepping here but, furthermore, the addition of Pendulum to the movie was unnecesary. Stereotyping shapeshifters as untrustworthy and traitorous is something of a past era. Either leave the character behind, or change it entirely.

🧠 msdeadfast Follow

Jackson I love you and I love your takes. but you type like a Victorian in his deathbed ;-;

⚠️ mentalhealth-hazard Follow

The MCU is so dreadful, it's irrevocably turned me into one.

#It has also substracted years off my lives.

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🌊 lacriatura Follow

🦈🦐🐠🪸🐡🐟

^ aquarium!

#lagoona's originals #ocean #sealife #ah-! so refreshing <- aesth tag

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🔥 666firepit666 Follow

Not to vague anyone but some of you have to shut the freak up about the ocean. You don't see me making little dioramas of the Malebolge because I'm not a little cringelet like you lmao

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🌊 lacriatura Follow

If you don't freaking love the ocean don't follow the ocean tag. Yes that goes for @666firepit666, square up and fight me if you're so brave Heath!!!!

#lagoona's originals #personal #more skulls for my skull collection!!!

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🌙 wolf-in-chic-clothing Follow

Day 1 no toxic doomed yuri

🌙 wolf-in-chic-clothing Follow

WRONG SIDEBLOG

#stop reblogging this

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🔩 stitchez Follow

Got a new arm! Can't wait to try it out!

🐯 ninelives Follow

try it out how 🤨

🔩 stitchez Follow

Building a wretched creature out of corpses, of course!

🔩 stitchez Follow

OH that was a double entendre! You should be ashamed of yourself!

🔩 stitchez Follow

I would never use my arms for violent purposes!

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🔥 666firepit666 Follow

Lagoona dragged me into the pool and now my hair is out 😡

🌙 wolf-in-chic-clothing Follow

Skull issue.

🧠 msdeadfast Follow

skull issue

👻 ghostlygossip01 Follow

Skull issue. Take the L

💝 lalalala Follow

Skull issue ^-^

🐯 ninelives Follow

skull issue lmao

🔩 stitchez Follow

Skull issue! I dont know what that means but I'm sure it relates to your experience!

🎸 innerdemon Follow

SKULL ISSUEEEEEEEEE !!!!!!!

🔥 666firepit666 Follow

Your own cousin 🥲

🎸 innerdemon Follow

I AM NOT RELATED TO ANY BALD PEOPLE

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💎 scarab-g1rl Follow

Alright, who stole my sinister amulet?

#monster high #mh #fakeposting #unreality #fake posts

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riacte · 8 months

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I feel like Ren and Martyn miss their Dogwarts days in different ways because it’s like… Ren missed what it was. Being king. Having a loyal right hand man. Having an army. Protecting his friends. Building a strong fortress. Having a purpose to fight for.

It’s like how Ren was so sad in his first days in Last Life because he was all alone, then went and dramatically declared his loyalty to the Fairy Queen Lizzie not unlike how Martyn declared his loyalty in Third Life. With the Fairy Fort, he had a faction to fight for, a queen to protect. He felt like he belonged somewhere. He liked building his watchtower, liked making the secret basement, liked organising meetings with his faction. He may not be King anymore, but he’s still furiously protecting his friends.

Then came Double Life. Ren was ecstatic that his soulbound was BigB (“best friends forever, baby!”) because they could belong to each other. Ren set up an intimidating fortress (“Box”) to protect them, not unlike Dogwarts’ walls. He desperately wanted things to work with BigB (even though he found a secret soulmate in Martyn), and even did marriage therapy with him. They were loyal to each other. Ren very much liked the idea of people being loyal to each other. Of course, he ended up tangled up with Martyn in every life anyway, because he provided him with what Ren liked. Loyalty, theatrics, and trust.

But Martyn? Martyn missed who it was.

Even in the Southernlands, Martyn always kept an eye out for Ren. He gave Ren netherwart, put out his fire, and for what? In Double Life, Martyn did kind of try to be allies with his soulbound, but he wasn’t very good at it. Martyn didn’t miss being loyal to a partner. He missed Ren. And while Mean Gills was more functional than DL Martyn and Cleo, Martyn still backstabbed (a willing) Scott in the end. And spent his entire red life with the Red Winter scarf around him. And monologued about being an unguided hand, how he cried so hard when Ren died it shattered his soul, and his last thoughts before he died was literally Ren at the altar.

So maybe Ren never left Dogwarts as a faction, an organisation, and home. But it was Martyn who truly never left Ren’s side. Ren missed having a home. Martyn missed Ren, because Ren was home.

#trafficblr #rendog #inthelittlewood #renchanting #treebark #ria.txt

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ohnonotthehorrors · 6 months

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It's too late, I'm talking about The Canary Curse again.

Jimmy's curse is contagious. And it isn't just Martyn.

Every single season one of Jimmy's team mates, in fact, Jimmy's Closest team mate, has died early.

Obviously, in secret life Jimmy's teamed with Martyn, whose somehow doing Worse than him. First yellow, first red, loosing hearts left and right , worse. Absolutely wet catified.

Keep in mind, this is the same man that won Brutally last season. He's gotten into the top four as many times as Scott, whose almost comically competent at the game. Second he has a season teamed with Jimmy? In place to be the first perma-death-before-Jimmy's ever.

Limited Life Jimmy has two team mates. Grian and Joel. Now, Grian did decently but he wasn't the closest to Jimmy. (In fact he caused his death multiple times). That was Joel.

Joel who teamed with Jimmy first, Joel who was completely dedicated to the bad boys, Joel who was going to sacrifice himself. That Joel, who went out third, in the same episode as Jimmy, just blocks from where he fell.

Double life hardly counts right? I mean, obviously Jimmy dies and then his soulmate dies right? Except... isn't it interesting that Tango has his soul tied to Jimmy and immediately goes yellow? First yellow of the server in fact.

Last Life Jimmy spends a portion of the game isolated, when he isn't he's with a team of five. A very unstable team of five. By the end of the season Jimmy's closest ally is Mumbo, the man he's running around as a red life with causing trouble. The man he quite literally gets Killed with, seconds from each other, by the same man.

Finally, third life, the wrench. After all, Jimmy's teamed with Scott, as we said before, Comically good at the game. The man has gotten into top four, Every Single Season- except third life.

Third life Scott doesn't do quite as well for himself. Not poorly, but average. This, from the man who needed to be killed multiple times in limited life to make it a fair fight? Something's up. Something like being married to the canary, the one doomed to die first.

(wonder if Jimmy's noticed yet-)

#jimmy solidarity #solidaritygaming #secret life #double life #limited life #third life #last life #life series #traffic life #secret life spoilers #trafficblr

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thewistlingbadger · 11 months

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Is Spider-Gwen trans: An analysis

After leaving the theater yesterday for Spiderman: Across The Spiderverse, one thought sat in my mind: could Gwen be trans? This may seem like a reach, but just hear me out.

1. Trans Flags

There are two trans flags that I spotted in the movie, both of them are in Gwen's home. In Gwen's room, a small trans flags with the phrase "Protect trans kids" hangs above her doorway. Now, if Gwen isn't trans, then why would she have a trans flag in her room? Most ally's wouldn't have a trans flag in their room. Maybe someone she's close to is trans? There's only 3 people Gwen has in her life. Her father, her dead best friend, and Miles. There isn't any evidence to suggest that any of them are trans. Especially her dad and Peter, since they didn't have much screen time. The phrase is an important clue too. If she was just an ally, why the phrase "Protect trans kids"? Why not "trans rights are human rights"? That phrase is equally as popular and it's more general. Protect trans kids is personal and usually refers to anti trans legislation that affects minors. Gwen is a minor, so is it really too unbelievable to suggest that she has the flag because she's trans?

The second flag is a patch on Gwen's dad's police jacket. Does this flag mean that her dad is trans? Or, is this a dad wearing a trans flag in support of his daughter?

2. Color theory

This is a weak point, but I'm going to include it anyway. Gwen's world is full of pastels. In fact, in most scenes with Gwen in her dimension, the colors light blue, light pink, and white are in the background. Those are literally the colors of the trans flag

3. Spiderman as a trans allegory.

Now, it's no secret that a lot of trans people like the character/concept of Spiderman. For a long time, I, as a fellow trans person, didn't understand the obsession until seeing this movie. A main theme of this movie, if not Mile's franchise, is that anyone can be Spiderman. Anyone can wear the mask, each Spiderperson is unique. Spiderman isn't really a person, it's a concept, and that's why its so applicable to everyone, regardless of who they are. Spiderman is a good person with a "secret" identity who goes trough struggles and also lives a "double life". And when you look at the story like that, the trans allegory becomes clear. Across the spiderverese is a brilliant movie with an abundance of representation. To black spiderpeople, Indian spiderpeople, disabled spiderpeople, hijabi spiderpeople, even spiderpeople who are cowboys and all sorts of other different variants. If all these different people can be Spiderman at the same time, then who's to say there isn't a trans spider person? And who's to say that person isn't Gwen?

So, is Gwen Stacy trans? I don't know, and I'm not saying she is. But I think it's entirely possible and the fact that it is, the fact that any spiderperson could potentially be queer, is something to be celebrated because it opens more doors for representation.

#happy pride month #trans #transgender #queer #lgbtq+ community #spiderman #spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman into the spiderverse #spiderverse #across the spiderverse #into the spiderverse #gwen stacy #spider gwen #trans gwen stacy #mic does analysis #media #sony animation #animation #repersentantion

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rosemaze-reveries · 30 days

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During an interview, the manor guests suddenly get a question about you.

this is def an experimental format!! i got this idea while reading the character letters. in the POV of an unknown interviewer (not reader). reader uses they/them.

🔗⚰️📰🔮❤️‍🩹💉🌪️✂️🍀🩰🔫🪡🤹🧲🦋🐍

Q. Could you describe your relationship with (Y/N)?

🔗 Ada - "Yes, that's my lover. I would say our relationship falls within the typical scope of that sort of thing. Of course, I believe we share something special, but everyone does when they're in love, don't they?" She covers all her bases in one decisive breath, leaving little room for me to comment.

⚰️ Aesop sits perfectly upright, fingers threaded at his knees. His eyes drift to the side and he seems to begin speaking mid-thought. "I had... cautioned myself not to upset their perception of me," he explains. "But they pried, and stayed, regardless of what they found... For that, I'm grateful."

📰 Alice has kept a sharp eye on me the entire time, but it's at this question that she drops the formalities. "I wasn't aware you would be prying into my personal affairs. Where did you learn that name?" Her frankness pins me in place. For some reason, I end up apologizing.

🔮 Eli can't help a sheepish smile from blooming across his face. "Well, truthfully... I don't use this term lightly, but they might be the love of my life." He has been consistently grounded with his responses, so I'm surprised to catch him flustered, however subtle it is. Personally, I'm touched.

❤️‍🩹 Emil considers for a moment. He doesn't meet me in the eye, instead pinning his gaze on nowhere in particular. A faint smile ghosts his lips. After a while, he answers, simply, "Safe."

💉 Emily's hands are folded neatly on her lap. At the mention of that name, her shoulders tense, but she otherwise maintains her composure. "Someone I trust." Her answer is vague and cautious, but acceptable. I'll try to uncover a deeper meaning behind that 'trust'.

🌪️ Ithaqua - "Mine." He is curt and to the point. Yours? I echo, hoping he'll elaborate. His head tilts to the side, and while I can't see the face behind his mask, a sense of dread suddenly overcomes me. I decide not to press further.

✂️ Jack stretches out his hand of blades, flexing each finger in front of him. I can't deny the cold sweat that drips down my spine just by being in his presence. "May I respond with a question of my own?" he says to me. "Suppose a butterfly loses its way, and winds up caught in a spider's web. Wouldn't you agree that the more it writhes and struggles, the more exhilarated the spider becomes?" I don't have the courage to hear out the rest of this analogy.

🍀 Lucky - "I've always been known as a pretty lucky guy, but the luckiest day of my life was when I met them! I remember it was the—" He drags me down a long-winded story about their life together. I get the idea. Eventually I'm forced to cut him off.

🩰 Margaretha twirls a curl of hair, a meek blush dusting her cheeks. "Have you ever been in love before? You're never prepared for the magic of it all. I feel a new rush with them everyday. I know, realistically, all good things come to an end, so I tried to remind myself to expect the worst, but they've proven over and over that... I'll never feel safer than in their arms." After rambling for some time, a look of surprise flashes across her face. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to go off like that. Oh, but I've just never met someone who feels so much like true love before."

🔫 Martha doesn't miss a beat. "Sorry, I don't know anyone by that name." I look down to double-check the name written in her file. Her watchful gaze follows my line of sight. Are you sure? I try. "Must've been some confusion somewhere," she insists. The next day, I realize all my files on her and (Y/N) have gone missing.

🪡 Matthias - "Wh-What?" he starts, but keeps going before I can repeat the question. "Oh, uh, an ally, I guess." Well, I gathered that much. When I press for more details, his head sinks low, fingers grasping at the armrest. "I don't know what they saw in me. Was it out of pity?"

🤹 Mike's eyes light up and he blinds me with a contagious smile. "(Y/N)'s a sneaky one, and I mean it—they've got me under the trickiest spell of all. Guess what happens every time I think about them?" Egged on by his grin, I take the bait. You get lovesick? I guess. Suddenly, he tosses a handful of butterfly glitter in my face. "I get butterflies!" Very funny, I sigh, exasperated with these carnies. Why did he have that on hand in the first place?

🧲 Norton leans back in his chair, scowling. "What's that got to do with anything?" He snaps a couple times in my face, urging me to "stay on topic." It's hard to say if this question struck a nerve, as he's been uncooperative for most of this interview, but my suspicions point me to prod further. After all, it'd have been much easier if he just said he didn't know them.

🦋 Vera's face contorts into a leery, hostile glower. "Why do you ask that?" Before I can say anything to mitigate the rising tension, she catches herself, and her expression softens slightly. "I'm sorry. That's... someone quite dear to me, so your question took me by surprise."

🐍 Yidhra's follower goes pale, clearly unnerved. "She won't answer that," she tells me through shallow breaths. "Th-This isn't my place to say, but I'd advise you not to involve yourself with that person." As if on cue, I get a sensation I can only describe as a hand slowly wrapping around my neck. It disappears when I move to scratch it. Must've been my imagination.

Part 2

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katalyist · 4 months

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Life series!Grian a survivor not a traitor

Alternative title: I thought about Life series!Grian for too long again and because Tumblr doesn't have a character limit I'm putting my thoughts on the Internet.

I'm not normal in how while watching Cleo's secret life final episode there was a silent agreement that Grian was no loyal when they had that conversation with Scott when they were trying to convince Gem to be on their side.

"I mean, don't ask about Grian's loyalty"

And Scott response was "I have never seen a man drop a pair of sunglasses quicker in my life. As soon as Joel dropped, the bad boy glasses were off"

To which Grian responded "My boys died, what did you want from me?"

Like how is Grian seen has someone that betrays or isn't loyal to his teammates? HE IS LOYAL, HE IS JUST TOO COWARD. He has never betray a teammate first.

Look, for example to third life: He promised Scar his life, and altough he warns the rest of players at the beginning about the scams Scar was doing, he always do what Scar did, he helped him, he create traps and didn't thought on betraying him until Scar betray him first, until Scar did it, when he recovered he was so mad and just jump to them shouting out that Scar was a traitor. AND THEN when Scar apologies and offers Grian to have the win he refuses because he still considers Scar his ally, and then the cactus ring happens and he feels bad, he feels bad for killing Scar, I don't think a traitor would be that bad to the point of killing themselves

Then in last life, where he killed two of his four teammates and started his reputation as "allies killer". First of all, when he turned red he had the oppurtinity to just turn on them, sure, he went back to the nether and threat Mumbo, but it was mostly joking and I think the most messed up thing was how afraid he was of not having any teammates that he was willed his best friend but couldn't find the courage on himself. The next episode he has already a plan to go back with his team AND get Joel out of red, like- he planned a way to be back with his allies and get his new ally (that if I had to remember you, was the one that killed him, but Grian was perfectly with him because he understands it was for the red impulses) out of red. Once he gets his yellow life back and goes back to the southlanders for a happy teammate reunion and discovers Jimmy was exiled he doesn't hesitate in saying he doesn't want him back because he betrayed the southlands; they have the votation, he says 'no' inmediatly and is surprised that other people said yes but doesn't oppose to it.

When Mumbo and Jimmy turned red he didn't try to kill them until their few attempts of murder, he did not attack Mumbo when he tried to end cristal him, he didn't attack them, even when they had that terrible attempt of a trap for him and Martyn. He attacked them when Jimmy physically tries to punch him to the trap that he looses the little patient he had left and kills him and then Mumbo for trying to stop him. Then Martyn betrayed him because of the boogeyman curse and when Grian finds Impulse he sounds so wounded because of that but even then he doesn't try to go for him, he makes a plan with Impulse to put a Wither on the base of team B.E.A.S.T because they were one of the biggest threats. Once Impulse died he was back with Joel and he didn't betray or left him, even when he had the opportunity to join bigger alliances than him.

With that out of the way we arrive to the fatal Double Life, I feel that this is the catalyst of Grian's character misinterpretation, mostly because of the cheat situation but: 1, that him and Scar and soulmates doesn't mean they are allies (see the two pair of soulmates that were literally divorce) and 2, he really tried to protect Scar and be a good ally. He made a base, he warned Scar to not go to places he could die and he even trust him with the sugar cane, when he lost it he trust Scar the sand he isn't even that angry or dissapointed on him. It also applies to BigB, he was a great ally with him too! He gave him sugarcane, cookies, tnt, they didn't attack eachother and the only reason why he killed him was because he forgot BigB was soulmates with Ren in his red madness, he even had a funeral for him and apologise for killing him. That is not traitor behaviour if you ask me.

And then finally Limited Life (my excuse and the real season I wanted to talk because I haven't left that bread bridge), the season where Grian is in his most loyal teammate arc of all. He is a coward of course, he plays safe always, in every single season, and that is what ends up being one of the reasons why Joel ends up dead. The bad boys were too reckless and idiots (in an affectionate way, I love them) for him to not fear for their lives constantly, and yes they almost felt apart, but that was after Jimmy killed Grian. Grian left Jimmy get the kills, they were trying to save him, when Tango (the boogeyman) killed Jimmy he didn't took the two hours from him because that would had permakill him, at the end Jimmy didn't die because of him, he just slip from the platform. They had the funeral and all, he left diamonds at his grave as an offer.

With Joel it is a little different, Grian didn't betray him, he didn't kill him, but he wasn't there because he was afraid of dying, in the middle episode 7 Joel wants to murder the family because they wanted to kill Jimmy "It wasn't their fault he died" trying to persude him to not do that to which Joel answers "I'm gonna send Scar a message" and Grian almost begs "No Joel, you got to be careful or I'm gonna be alone. I'm gonna be a singular bad boy" but he doesn't follow him, he doesn't go to kill people with him because they don't have a plan and it's obvious they will die.

Grian is a survivor, when he notices things are getting ugly he looks for a way out. When Joel goes on his murderous rampage after they talk to BigB he reunite again with him and Pearl to offer himself as a ally, making a list of all the things he is useful for, selling himself because he knows he will be alone at the end of that episode and alone players are easy targets. At first he wants them to become bad boys, he doesn't want to leave the mark, but they refused, and a survivor has to do what they have to do. He isn't even hiding why he wants to be friends with them and they don't have a problem with that.

"I have already kind of accepted he's gonna die in a way" he says while making a trap for the nosy neighbours while watching how Joel died (again)

"I mean, you completely abandon him at this point" Pearl points out (and if I watched Pearl more I could talk about how Life Series Pearl seems to have really trust issues with people that is so confident in leaving allies behind because she keeps repeating how Grian is not with Joel, she is so 'I will die for you', and it was prove in the final of secret life, I love her so much).

And Grian doesn't deny it, he does try to excuse his behavior with a "Joel reaches a point where he just loses his mind completely and he was way past that a while ago. Jimmy's death has kind of got an adverse affect on him" just to be silent a second, finish placing the TNT cards and going "But I will have to go and see if he is okay in a minute"

He cares about his last truly ally even when he knows Joel will die, Grian can't just stand still and wait for it to happen "I'm gonna have to go and see if Joel is okay. He must be on less than an hour and if I don't say bye, I'm gonna regret it"

And once he is with Joel again he doesn't hide that he has allied with the nosy neighbours from him. It is the first thing he tells him actually "I've just been like making new friends because you have lost your mind". That is not betray behavior, that is not 'I'm gonna back stab you' or 'I'm leaving you now'. And Joel gets it, he gets that Grian is too coward to confront people directly, that he is not a pvper and accepts him like that. And then they have this conversation on Skynet while trying to get kills for Joel:

"Yeah, do you know what would be really funny? If I just knocked you off right now but I won't, I won't, I won't do that"

"I would do that for you. I would do that for you. Bad boys for life"

HOW IS THAT NOT LOYALTY? Grian, the one that is afraid of death, willing to die for his ally? Without hesitation answering that yes, he would do that for Joel. We have the hole "Kill me Joel. KILL ME" dialogue and scene after that even. Grian didn't wanted Joel to died, when he has five minutes Grian tries to tell him to kill him again before Joel denies. When they are going to see who Joel can kill is when he starts hesitating because he would lose two hole hours to get Joel back to just one hour, he is balancing saving his allies with keeping himself alive and at the end Joel's rampage ends up killing him and Grian is without his bad boy.

He enters in full survivor mode and downplays Joel's death in front of everybody but contradicting his discourse of 'It was getting expensive to keep him alive' once everyone is gone he tells Pearl and BigB they should have a funeral for Joel fully knowing they weren't his allies. He makes Joel a grave too, like they did with Jimmy and says some words for him. How could that not be loyalty? The last episode he uses the bad boy skin, all season he forgot to use it and had to be remember by the others to use it, and then he puts it even if he 'isn't a bad boy anymore' to honor his allies.

I think the most close he was to betray an ally was when at the end he enacted the sword and ally with Impulse and Etho whitouth talking it with Pearl and it ending with both Etho and Pearl killing eachother to be in peace. When they first met after Grian enactes the sword and Pearl goes to kill he tries to stop her, but he doesn't defend her (or Etho), he just tells them to stop. Grian character just... always leaves his allies do what they want? even if it is not the best for them, it is something he does with every one of his alliance really, he does his own and they do his own, Cleo actually points it out on their last episode while they are talking to the heart fundation and Grian gets bored and goes to do his plan to get Gem and Cleo is like 'yeah, he does his own things, don't pay attention to him'.

In Secret Life he was also truly loyal to the roomates, in part I think because he was afraid of loosing his only oportunitty to get some friends after three episodes of loneliness. Grian is always so desesperate to make allies every season, make people like him because it would mean someone would fight for him. The rommates is a very solid team and he reassures himself and they how he made the correct decision. They are not as attach as he was with his bad boys (that, talking about them, he had this weird no-alliance with Joel, changing hearts and not really attacking eachother until the very end) but it is stable.

Grian includes them in his plans, if they are not on board he respects it, but when he thinks it is something that can protect them he insists. He insists they should go to Joel's platform where he hide from the zombie apocalypse because it is the easiest to defend and they were chase by the people with more health on the server. When Etho died they took it seriously, when they are scaping he goes first through the portal that belongs to Gem, Impulse and Scott because "No point both of us dying" he could have left Cleo go first to be more safe but he didn't, he tries to make a trap to get Gem and the Scotts and he tells Cleo to back off because they would get hurt if they stay to close because he will manually activate it.

My conclusion? Grian is not a traitor, he has never betray his teammates until they cross the line first. He is a bad teammate? Oh, totally, not because he won't provide his allies with supplies or plans but because the moment it becomes dangerous, too risky for his constant safe plays he distants himself because he doesn't like risky plays, he is an expert in the 'long game' even if he won't win anything with it, he also has some kind of honor (if you want to put it that way) he won't attack the weakest unless he is corner to do it to keep himself alive, he always goes for the biggest alliance, the people with most hearts, the people with most potential of giving to bring them down with the rest.

As always thank you for reading how normally sane I'm about Life series Grian. Again, I write this mini kinda essays on the fly and don't check facts too much but Grian himself implying he is not loyal had me "are you sure about that?" and then this was write on my drafts. Thanks for coming to my Grian talk!

#traffic life series #trafficblr #grian #limited life #desert duo #bad boys #Grian is loyal even if he doesnt want to #so normal about Grian always

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elder-millennial-of-zion · 8 days

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I miss the days, way back when before October 7, when I felt like I was part of leftist circles. I miss feeling energised by leftist slogans because I thought they included me, instead of targeted me.

I miss hearing “eat the rich” and not hearing it as a dog whistle for “kill the Jews.” I miss feeling inspired by phrases like “our struggles for liberation are all connected,” instead of hearing its real meaning, “the Jews are the evil puppet masters behind everything and the world must unite against them.” I miss believing that when leftists talked about punching up at their oppressors, it wasn’t just an excuse to punch down at more vulnerable minorities that they decided were their oppressors despite all evidence to the contrary.

I miss the days when the left poured into the streets to protest cops and corporations instead of protesting Jews. I miss updating myself on those protests so I could join them, instead of to know which areas to avoid because they’ll be Judenrein for the day.

I don’t wish my eyes hadn’t been opened. I’d much rather see the truth no matter how painful and disillusioning it is, because the alternative isn’t actually “bliss.” It’s having a perpetual nagging feeling that something’s off but I can’t put my finger on it, or if I can then I must be overreacting or imagining it’s worse than it is.

But that pain and disillusionment is very real. That loss is very real. It was a community I thought I belonged to, a community I put a lot of work and energy into for many years, and there is grief at the loss of it. Grief that it’s gone, grief that it never was what it claimed to be in the first place. I guess I’m grieving the loss of that part of my identity. And grieving the loss of how people I thought were my friends and allies perceive my identity. Grieving the illusion that they were ever my allies at all, that they ever would be my allies if I needed. Because I haven’t really changed, but the way my former circles look at me completely changed. People who thought I was a good person and a good ally on October 6 decided I was the devil incarnate very literally overnight.

The person who privately reached out to me a few years ago to thank me for a Facebook post I made defending sex workers, because as a former sex worker they appreciated it. Now they’ve been posting antisemitic blood libel, the kind of rhetoric that’s already gotten Jews killed, for six months straight. I tried to tell them how much pain it causes me as a Jew to see their posts, and they only doubled down. It truly is their loss. I was a good friend and a good ally, and they threw me away because I’m a Jew. But it’s totally not because I’m a Jew, it’s because I’m the evil kind of Jew, the kind that just so happens to be the profile of ninety percent of the Jewish population.

I’m grateful I have such a strong sense of Jewish identity, because otherwise the loss of identity in this other way would be far more destabilising. I get why so many people cling to their political identities no matter how much cognitive dissonance they have to wave away; why they insist their ideology is righteous no matter how much evidence to the contrary. Without any other solid identity they would feel too adrift. But that doesn’t excuse their behavior. It’s not ok to jump on a bandwagon to persecute and kill Jews because you want to belong to something that badly, because you can’t handle your sense of self evolving with all the growing pains that come with it.

So many progressive Jews like myself have described ourselves as “politically homeless.” (Specifically in the diaspora; I know the political framework in Israel is completely different.) We can let ourselves sit in that grief. Being homeless is painful and uncomfortable, but it’s better than staying in an abusive home.

#antisemitism #leftist antisemitism #anti zionism is antisemitism #politically homeless Jews #israel #jumblr

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