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raptorific · 12 hours
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raptorific · 12 hours
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The people who voted no:
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I keep seeing arguments about this on tiktok so
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raptorific · 1 day
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Catching Flax - A Short Story
Author's Note: This story takes place shortly after the events of "Force Majeure" and has been released to celebrate Flax's birthday, March 25th, 2583. All previous installments of the series can be read for free by clicking here! This story will appear in an upcoming short story anthology.
Anika Flax came out of the Free Library of New Macedon and leaned on the cool steel railing of the wheelchair ramp, and breathed a wisp of steam into the crisp autumn night. There were trees tall enough to dwarf the buildings in this part of the city, just at the edge of the city limits. She wasn’t comfortable with it. She’d never been comfortable around all this nature. When she was young, she thought she’d only ever be comfortable in the city. When she joined the army, she realized she was just as happy on a barren asteroid or the bridge of a battleship. Just as long as there weren’t too many trees around.
She sighed. “My wife and I lived in a place like this,” she said to the maniac leaning on the railing next to her. “My ex-wife, I mean. She loved to hike. Loved to get in touch with nature. Still not sure what she ever saw in me.”
Blue pulled deep on her cigarette. “I don’t know what she saw in you either,” she said. “Maybe she wanted to know what it was like to be married to a statue of a robot.”
“Funny,” Flax replied. “I thought we had a deal to keep you away from my group. Why are you still coming here?”
“All the guests at your little feelings party went home and I didn’t bother them,” Blue said, “why don’t you get in your economy car and let me enjoy my cigarette.”
Flax rolled her eyes. “You have the whole solar system to have a cigarette. But here you are, every month, smoking and telling anybody who tries to talk to you to get lost.”
“Fuck off,” Blue said, serving the dual function of correcting Flax about what she said to anybody who tried to talk to her, and in giving an instruction to Flax.
“Bitch, you’re dating my best friend,” Flax replied, “and it’s getting serious. We’re stuck in each other’s lives whether we like it or not.”
“Bitch?” Blue asked. “Sounds wrong, comin’ out of you. Like when your parents try to be hip.”
Flax laughed genuinely. “You don’t know jack about me.”
“I know you’re a stick in the mud,” Blue said, “and that I want you to get in your car and head on home.”
“The way I see it, we’ve got two options,” Flax said. “Either you’re gonna talk to me, or you’re gonna stop showing up at my support group and pretending you aren’t looking for support. Honestly, it doesn’t make a difference to me, I’ll be glad either way, but I don’t believe you’re gonna stop showing up, so let’s just… talk, if we’re gonna talk.”
“I’m not lookin’ for support,” Blue said. “I’m just… fuck off, you know?”
“Well, you’re sure not using this as a pickup scene anymore,” Flax said. “I’ve seen you reject the group members. You just lean there, every meeting, smoking your cigarette.”
“And yet you haven’t taken the hint,” Blue shrugged, and took another drag.
“Whatever,” Flax said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading towards the car. She got halfway there, stopped, and groaned. Her relationship with Loan had softened her, and she cared too much about Alicia to walk away from her partner like this. “Damn it all,” she muttered under her breath, and turned around to return to Blue.
“What are you, like, 33? 35?” Flax asked, leaning on the wall across from her.
“How old do you think I am?” Blue replied, dodging the question.
“You’d be too young to remember the war, huh?” Flax asked. Blue took a puff of her cigarette. “I was ten years old when they invaded.”
Blue looked down at her shoes. “Hell of a time to be a kid,” she said. “Was your hometown hit hard?”
Flax smiled. It seemed her gamble had worked. Blue was engaging.
“I was ten years old,” Flax repeated. “Ten. You from Earth?”
“No,” Blue said. “No, not from Earth. Came here once, as a teenager. Had a good time.”
“I don’t know if it’s the same where you’re from,” Flax said, “but here on Earth, every two years, in school, the kids get to have a confidential meeting to discuss their gender identity with a specialist, in case they need any accommodations from the school.”
“Go down to the school nurse, find out if you need glasses, or a hearing aid, or hormone replacement, I know the score,” Blue said. “Not something I ever had to deal with, but I’ve been around the block a few times.”
“Well, those specialists have their work cut out for them,” Flax said. “Kids don’t want to wear glasses. They don’t want to wear hearing aids. Even if they need them, they don’t want to be… different. So I used to lie to the specialist. I always told her I was perfectly happy being a boy, and that I was excited to grow up to be a man.”
This seemed to hit a nerve in Blue. Flax wasn’t sure whether this was a sensitive subject for Blue or not. She had no way of knowing that this was the easiest way to break Blue’s heart “Babe, you lied to yourself,” she said. “I’m glad you figured it out, eventually.”
“Fifth grade, in fact,” Flax explained. “Finally broke down and asked the counselor how I’d know if I was a girl. She asked me if I wanted to be a girl, and I couldn’t make eye contact with her. She told me ‘honey, I think you have your answer.’ Went home, told my parents. They were supportive, if a bit worried they’d have to buy a bunch of new clothes, but the counselor sent me home with a coupon for a swap program where parents could trade in their trans kid’s old clothes for another-- you know what, I’m getting away from the point. This was… about a month before they invaded.”
Blue puffed her cheeks in disbelief. “Busy month.”
Flax laughed and shook her head.
“I grew up in Flushing, Queens,” Flax said.
Blue looked up and made direct eye contact, those glowing white irises boring holes into Flax’s soul. Flax had gotten this look many times before. The mix of horror and fascination and admiration that happened anytime someone mentioned Flushing, Queens.
“Yeah, that Flushing.” Flax assured her.
“You were there?” Blue asked. “You were actually in Queens?”
“First day of school, happiest day of my life. I’m getting all new clothes, tossing around ideas for a new name, going to the pharmacy for the pill that’ll finally take the me on the inside and put it on the outside… the next year, I’m hiding in the basement of my shelled-out house, hoping the Divoratori shock troopers don’t turn over the old bathtub I’m hiding under. All the new clothes, that hope for the future, the coupon, everything I’d ever known, up in smoke. And I’m sitting there, just a kid, quaking, arms wrapped tight around my mom and dad, and up comes the bathtub, and I’m sure I’m about to breathe my last.”
Blue didn’t know what to say.
“And then, there she is. Anika Robinson. Resistance leader. Hero of Flushing. She saved my life. All of our lives. My mom and dad joined up with her that day. Me and all the other kids were smuggled to a remote camp in the woods where, hopefully, the Divoratori wouldn’t find us. Under her leadership, Flushing managed to fight back. New York was hit hard by the war, but Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx… all of us, the whole city fought back. We drove the Divoratori out, and it all started with the Battle of Flushing.”
Blue stamped out her cigarette. “So that’s why you’re Anika Flax, then?” Blue asked. “Honor the lady who saved your little life?”
Flax shrugged. “Yeah. There’s a lot of kids named Anika in Queens. But that’s not the point of the story. That’s actually why I joined the army.”
“So this is a cautionary tale.” Blue quipped.
“Not a secret we were wrong about this now,” Flax explained, “but at the time, with the Elysium Conventions, the treaties… we all thought the interplanetary hostilities were over.”
“You know, the Hanguk-Éire massacre was 18 years after the Elysium conventions,” Blue pointed out, “not to mention the thousands of executions on Earth soil.”
“The rest of the system knew a lot that we didn’t know back home. If I knew then what I know now…” Flax trailed off. “No sense in trying to change mistakes I’ve already finished making. Point is, I thought the only way I’d ever face an enemy is if there was another invasion. Never saw real combat. Met a nice medic, fell in love, married her. But I was so devoted to this idea of saving the next little kid from the next invasion, being there like Anika was there for me, that I… well, people grow apart. Neither of us was happy. In the end, it’s what we both wanted.”
Blue produced and lit another cigarette, and took a puff of it. “Liar.”
“Screw,” Flax said flatly. “It was mutual. It was. We decided to get a divorce together.”
“You’re breaking my heart,” Blue said, “lying to yourself again.”
“I’m not,” Flax said. “I’m not lying to myself. I’m lying to you.”
Blue laughed. “You give a shit what I think?”
“You loved someone once,” Flax told her. “A lot. Too much. And now, that person is gone. I don’t know how, or why, but they are. And that’s why you’re here. You want to talk about it, and you don’t know how to ask. So here’s your invitation, you lunatic, I showed you mine…”
“Do the people in your little group know?”
“It’s a support group for transgender divorcees,” Flax said. “Yes, I have talked about my transition and my divorce there.”
“No, not that. Do they know who you really are? Where you’re from?” Blue asked. “What you did? Alicia told me how you two met.”
“It’s not safe,” Flax said. “If one of Weaver’s loyalists gets word of where I am, I could be killed. Baltimore and Beam, their kids… it’s best if the group thinks I’m just Nicole Robinson, Event Planner. Loan knows my real name, but even that was a risk.”
Blue produced another cigarette and offered it to Flax, who declined. “Haven’t smoked a cigarette in 25 years,” she told Blue as politely as possible.
“Good girl,” Blue said, and tucked it behind her ear. “But you’re wrong about why I’m here.”
“Uh huh,” Flax said, not believing her.
“Your name is Anika. Your fake name is Robinson. You’re obviously from New York, and you’re pushing 50. Wasn’t hard to do the math,” Blue said. “I just needed to hear you say it. Ms. Nicole doesn’t have to put herself and her nieces and whatever the hell Baltimore and Beam are to you at risk. But Ms. Flax ought to be able to admit to herself that thanks to her, the Divoratori will never threaten another child. Looks like she lived up to her name after all.”
“You’re here for me?” Flax asked with a smile. “Why did you tell me to get lost all those times?”
“You don’t talk about yourself,” Blue told her. “You only admitted this to me because you thought I needed it. And you have that really annoying habit of assuming people don’t mean it when they say they’re fine.”
Flax laughed. “Alicia put you up to it?”
“Alicia told me you thought I hated you,” Blue said, “and that I should disabuse you of that notion. Figured you got an ego, flattery was probably the best bet. Comparing you to your hero seemed like the move. Don’t worry, I won’t tell her any of this.”
“I don’t… Look, tell her what you want to tell her,” Flax said. “She’s my friend. She’s someone we both really care about. And you can tell her that I can… kinda, sorta stand you. At the very least, I don’t think you hate me. I appreciate your reaching out. Now don’t ever, ever make me talk about myself that much again, and we’ll be A-OK.”
“Alicia will be thrilled,” Blue said, “for some insane reason she really cares what you think, and this is gonna score me some… well, I assume you know what sex is, from a book or something, but I’m not gonna go into detail just in case.”
Flax laughed. “Look, though,” she said. “You don’t have to talk to me about… her. Or him. Them. Or… whoever. But you should talk to somebody. Doesn’t have to be my group, though our doors are open. But… don’t keep it inside, okay? You have friends. Family. And you’re dating a girl way too good for you.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Blue laughed.
“The point is, you don’t need to be in it alone. Learn from my mistakes, tell your partner what’s going on with you before she gets sick of waiting. Talk to your friends. Your family. Just… there’s something weighing on you, don’t let it eat at you the way I did before I had this group. Trust me. You make bad decisions. Stupid mistakes.”
Blue laughed. “You? Like what?”
“Bitch, I told you about joining the army,” Flax laughed back.
“Glad to know we can be friends,” Blue said. “Believe it or not, I’ve always liked you.”
“I don’t know about friends,” Flax said, “we can stand the sight of one another now.”
“You ain’t got a choice,” Blue told her, “if you didn’t want to be my friend you should’ve fucked off when I told you to.”
“Fine, then,” Flax said, exasperated. “Friend to friend… tell me. How did you find out about this group in the first place?”
Blue took the cigarette from behind her ear, lit it, changed her mind, and snuffed it out.
“Pilar,” she said. “She thought… Perceptive little brat. Bout five years ago, she had this big breakthrough with her sister and got obsessed with this idea of talking out your problems instead of bottling them up. Told me she thought I’d benefit from a little support. She takes after me, she’s really fuckin’ annoying when she’s right.”
“So all that time you were trying to ‘pick up’ my groupmates,” Flax said, “you were trying to work up the nerve to come inside?”
“Full disclosure, I was also fucking those guys,” Blue told her, noticing the sidelong, somewhat judgmental glance thrown her way, “fuck off, I can do two things.”
“You’ve known them all these years,” Flax mused, “how come I had to introduce you to Alicia? How come you two never met her before this?”
“Great, now I gotta air my dirty laundry for you?” Blue laughed. “I asked Ari that myself, back when we me and my girl started seein’ each other. Turns out they didn’t introduce us because they thought I’d try and have sex with her.”
“But I was safe?” Flax asked. “Should I be offended?”
“Pilar said you knew better,” Blue said. “Your loss, but I ain’t hurtin’.”
Flax chuckled. “Perceptive little brat,” she said. The two women looked up at the moon. It was cast mostly in shadow, with pinpricks of light visible on its surface from the cities and college campus that peppered the dark side of the disk, and just enjoyed the silence that had fallen between them.
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raptorific · 2 days
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Hate to be the burster of bubbles but the crypto guy who keeps getting Community Noted for posting easily-debunked displays of obviously inflated wealth is doing a "not like other crypto bros" comedy bit and admitted as much in an interview with Business Insider. The one real thing about it is that it is a viral marketing campaign designed to get as many community notes as possible so he can promote his NFT company
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raptorific · 2 days
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My god my girlies
MY GIRLIES. I am still crying, I am still crying about this. Every day I cry about this.
You bitched so hard about being forced to read 1984 in school when it’s so problematic (tm)
Maybe you should have actually paid attention when you read it
Because all these AI fics
You are LITERALLY MAKING THE GARBAGE NOVELS FROM 1984 that are written by machines
You have literally recreated the worthless soulless machine-made books
Literally,
Literally. Every once in a while it hits me in a fresh wave of disbelief and anger. You have literally created the dystopian book from the dystopian story about why dystopia is bad, and you are passing it around like it’s this amazing thing. I’m crying, I’m crying.
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raptorific · 3 days
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Catching Flax - A Short Story
Author's Note: This story takes place shortly after the events of "Force Majeure" and has been released to celebrate Flax's birthday, March 25th, 2583. All previous installments of the series can be read for free by clicking here! This story will appear in an upcoming short story anthology.
Anika Flax came out of the Free Library of New Macedon and leaned on the cool steel railing of the wheelchair ramp, and breathed a wisp of steam into the crisp autumn night. There were trees tall enough to dwarf the buildings in this part of the city, just at the edge of the city limits. She wasn’t comfortable with it. She’d never been comfortable around all this nature. When she was young, she thought she’d only ever be comfortable in the city. When she joined the army, she realized she was just as happy on a barren asteroid or the bridge of a battleship. Just as long as there weren’t too many trees around.
She sighed. “My wife and I lived in a place like this,” she said to the maniac leaning on the railing next to her. “My ex-wife, I mean. She loved to hike. Loved to get in touch with nature. Still not sure what she ever saw in me.”
Blue pulled deep on her cigarette. “I don’t know what she saw in you either,” she said. “Maybe she wanted to know what it was like to be married to a statue of a robot.”
“Funny,” Flax replied. “I thought we had a deal to keep you away from my group. Why are you still coming here?”
“All the guests at your little feelings party went home and I didn’t bother them,” Blue said, “why don’t you get in your economy car and let me enjoy my cigarette.”
Flax rolled her eyes. “You have the whole solar system to have a cigarette. But here you are, every month, smoking and telling anybody who tries to talk to you to get lost.”
“Fuck off,” Blue said, serving the dual function of correcting Flax about what she said to anybody who tried to talk to her, and in giving an instruction to Flax.
“Bitch, you’re dating my best friend,” Flax replied, “and it’s getting serious. We’re stuck in each other’s lives whether we like it or not.”
“Bitch?” Blue asked. “Sounds wrong, comin’ out of you. Like when your parents try to be hip.”
Flax laughed genuinely. “You don’t know jack about me.”
“I know you’re a stick in the mud,” Blue said, “and that I want you to get in your car and head on home.”
“The way I see it, we’ve got two options,” Flax said. “Either you’re gonna talk to me, or you’re gonna stop showing up at my support group and pretending you aren’t looking for support. Honestly, it doesn’t make a difference to me, I’ll be glad either way, but I don’t believe you’re gonna stop showing up, so let’s just… talk, if we’re gonna talk.”
“I’m not lookin’ for support,” Blue said. “I’m just… fuck off, you know?”
“Well, you’re sure not using this as a pickup scene anymore,” Flax said. “I’ve seen you reject the group members. You just lean there, every meeting, smoking your cigarette.”
“And yet you haven’t taken the hint,” Blue shrugged, and took another drag.
“Whatever,” Flax said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and heading towards the car. She got halfway there, stopped, and groaned. Her relationship with Loan had softened her, and she cared too much about Alicia to walk away from her partner like this. “Damn it all,” she muttered under her breath, and turned around to return to Blue.
“What are you, like, 33? 35?” Flax asked, leaning on the wall across from her.
“How old do you think I am?” Blue replied, dodging the question.
“You’d be too young to remember the war, huh?” Flax asked. Blue took a puff of her cigarette. “I was ten years old when they invaded.”
Blue looked down at her shoes. “Hell of a time to be a kid,” she said. “Was your hometown hit hard?”
Flax smiled. It seemed her gamble had worked. Blue was engaging.
“I was ten years old,” Flax repeated. “Ten. You from Earth?”
“No,” Blue said. “No, not from Earth. Came here once, as a teenager. Had a good time.”
“I don’t know if it’s the same where you’re from,” Flax said, “but here on Earth, every two years, in school, the kids get to have a confidential meeting to discuss their gender identity with a specialist, in case they need any accommodations from the school.”
“Go down to the school nurse, find out if you need glasses, or a hearing aid, or hormone replacement, I know the score,” Blue said. “Not something I ever had to deal with, but I’ve been around the block a few times.”
“Well, those specialists have their work cut out for them,” Flax said. “Kids don’t want to wear glasses. They don’t want to wear hearing aids. Even if they need them, they don’t want to be… different. So I used to lie to the specialist. I always told her I was perfectly happy being a boy, and that I was excited to grow up to be a man.”
This seemed to hit a nerve in Blue. Flax wasn’t sure whether this was a sensitive subject for Blue or not. She had no way of knowing that this was the easiest way to break Blue’s heart “Babe, you lied to yourself,” she said. “I’m glad you figured it out, eventually.”
“Fifth grade, in fact,” Flax explained. “Finally broke down and asked the counselor how I’d know if I was a girl. She asked me if I wanted to be a girl, and I couldn’t make eye contact with her. She told me ‘honey, I think you have your answer.’ Went home, told my parents. They were supportive, if a bit worried they’d have to buy a bunch of new clothes, but the counselor sent me home with a coupon for a swap program where parents could trade in their trans kid’s old clothes for another-- you know what, I’m getting away from the point. This was… about a month before they invaded.”
Blue puffed her cheeks in disbelief. “Busy month.”
Flax laughed and shook her head.
“I grew up in Flushing, Queens,” Flax said.
Blue looked up and made direct eye contact, those glowing white irises boring holes into Flax’s soul. Flax had gotten this look many times before. The mix of horror and fascination and admiration that happened anytime someone mentioned Flushing, Queens.
“Yeah, that Flushing.” Flax assured her.
“You were there?” Blue asked. “You were actually in Queens?”
“First day of school, happiest day of my life. I’m getting all new clothes, tossing around ideas for a new name, going to the pharmacy for the pill that’ll finally take the me on the inside and put it on the outside… the next year, I’m hiding in the basement of my shelled-out house, hoping the Divoratori shock troopers don’t turn over the old bathtub I’m hiding under. All the new clothes, that hope for the future, the coupon, everything I’d ever known, up in smoke. And I’m sitting there, just a kid, quaking, arms wrapped tight around my mom and dad, and up comes the bathtub, and I’m sure I’m about to breathe my last.”
Blue didn’t know what to say.
“And then, there she is. Anika Robinson. Resistance leader. Hero of Flushing. She saved my life. All of our lives. My mom and dad joined up with her that day. Me and all the other kids were smuggled to a remote camp in the woods where, hopefully, the Divoratori wouldn’t find us. Under her leadership, Flushing managed to fight back. New York was hit hard by the war, but Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx… all of us, the whole city fought back. We drove the Divoratori out, and it all started with the Battle of Flushing.”
Blue stamped out her cigarette. “So that’s why you’re Anika Flax, then?” Blue asked. “Honor the lady who saved your little life?”
Flax shrugged. “Yeah. There’s a lot of kids named Anika in Queens. But that’s not the point of the story. That’s actually why I joined the army.”
“So this is a cautionary tale.” Blue quipped.
“Not a secret we were wrong about this now,” Flax explained, “but at the time, with the Elysium Conventions, the treaties… we all thought the interplanetary hostilities were over.”
“You know, the Hanguk-Éire massacre was 18 years after the Elysium conventions,” Blue pointed out, “not to mention the thousands of executions on Earth soil.”
“The rest of the system knew a lot that we didn’t know back home. If I knew then what I know now…” Flax trailed off. “No sense in trying to change mistakes I’ve already finished making. Point is, I thought the only way I’d ever face an enemy is if there was another invasion. Never saw real combat. Met a nice medic, fell in love, married her. But I was so devoted to this idea of saving the next little kid from the next invasion, being there like Anika was there for me, that I… well, people grow apart. Neither of us was happy. In the end, it’s what we both wanted.”
Blue produced and lit another cigarette, and took a puff of it. “Liar.”
“Screw,” Flax said flatly. “It was mutual. It was. We decided to get a divorce together.”
“You’re breaking my heart,” Blue said, “lying to yourself again.”
“I’m not,” Flax said. “I’m not lying to myself. I’m lying to you.”
Blue laughed. “You give a shit what I think?”
“You loved someone once,” Flax told her. “A lot. Too much. And now, that person is gone. I don’t know how, or why, but they are. And that’s why you’re here. You want to talk about it, and you don’t know how to ask. So here’s your invitation, you lunatic, I showed you mine…”
“Do the people in your little group know?”
“It’s a support group for transgender divorcees,” Flax said. “Yes, I have talked about my transition and my divorce there.”
“No, not that. Do they know who you really are? Where you’re from?” Blue asked. “What you did? Alicia told me how you two met.”
“It’s not safe,” Flax said. “If one of Weaver’s loyalists gets word of where I am, I could be killed. Baltimore and Beam, their kids… it’s best if the group thinks I’m just Nicole Robinson, Event Planner. Loan knows my real name, but even that was a risk.”
Blue produced another cigarette and offered it to Flax, who declined. “Haven’t smoked a cigarette in 25 years,” she told Blue as politely as possible.
“Good girl,” Blue said, and tucked it behind her ear. “But you’re wrong about why I’m here.”
“Uh huh,” Flax said, not believing her.
“Your name is Anika. Your fake name is Robinson. You’re obviously from New York, and you’re pushing 50. Wasn’t hard to do the math,” Blue said. “I just needed to hear you say it. Ms. Nicole doesn’t have to put herself and her nieces and whatever the hell Baltimore and Beam are to you at risk. But Ms. Flax ought to be able to admit to herself that thanks to her, the Divoratori will never threaten another child. Looks like she lived up to her name after all.”
“You’re here for me?” Flax asked with a smile. “Why did you tell me to get lost all those times?”
“You don’t talk about yourself,” Blue told her. “You only admitted this to me because you thought I needed it. And you have that really annoying habit of assuming people don’t mean it when they say they’re fine.”
Flax laughed. “Alicia put you up to it?”
“Alicia told me you thought I hated you,” Blue said, “and that I should disabuse you of that notion. Figured you got an ego, flattery was probably the best bet. Comparing you to your hero seemed like the move. Don’t worry, I won’t tell her any of this.”
“I don’t… Look, tell her what you want to tell her,” Flax said. “She’s my friend. She’s someone we both really care about. And you can tell her that I can… kinda, sorta stand you. At the very least, I don’t think you hate me. I appreciate your reaching out. Now don’t ever, ever make me talk about myself that much again, and we’ll be A-OK.”
“Alicia will be thrilled,” Blue said, “for some insane reason she really cares what you think, and this is gonna score me some… well, I assume you know what sex is, from a book or something, but I’m not gonna go into detail just in case.”
Flax laughed. “Look, though,” she said. “You don’t have to talk to me about… her. Or him. Them. Or… whoever. But you should talk to somebody. Doesn’t have to be my group, though our doors are open. But… don’t keep it inside, okay? You have friends. Family. And you’re dating a girl way too good for you.”
“Ain’t that the truth,” Blue laughed.
“The point is, you don’t need to be in it alone. Learn from my mistakes, tell your partner what’s going on with you before she gets sick of waiting. Talk to your friends. Your family. Just… there’s something weighing on you, don’t let it eat at you the way I did before I had this group. Trust me. You make bad decisions. Stupid mistakes.”
Blue laughed. “You? Like what?”
“Bitch, I told you about joining the army,” Flax laughed back.
“Glad to know we can be friends,” Blue said. “Believe it or not, I’ve always liked you.”
“I don’t know about friends,” Flax said, “we can stand the sight of one another now.”
“You ain’t got a choice,” Blue told her, “if you didn’t want to be my friend you should’ve fucked off when I told you to.”
“Fine, then,” Flax said, exasperated. “Friend to friend… tell me. How did you find out about this group in the first place?”
Blue took the cigarette from behind her ear, lit it, changed her mind, and snuffed it out.
“Pilar,” she said. “She thought… Perceptive little brat. Bout five years ago, she had this big breakthrough with her sister and got obsessed with this idea of talking out your problems instead of bottling them up. Told me she thought I’d benefit from a little support. She takes after me, she’s really fuckin’ annoying when she’s right.”
“So all that time you were trying to ‘pick up’ my groupmates,” Flax said, “you were trying to work up the nerve to come inside?”
“Full disclosure, I was also fucking those guys,” Blue told her, noticing the sidelong, somewhat judgmental glance thrown her way, “fuck off, I can do two things.”
“You’ve known them all these years,” Flax mused, “how come I had to introduce you to Alicia? How come you two never met her before this?”
“Great, now I gotta air my dirty laundry for you?” Blue laughed. “I asked Ari that myself, back when we me and my girl started seein’ each other. Turns out they didn’t introduce us because they thought I’d try and have sex with her.”
“But I was safe?” Flax asked. “Should I be offended?”
“Pilar said you knew better,” Blue said. “Your loss, but I ain’t hurtin’.”
Flax chuckled. “Perceptive little brat,” she said. The two women looked up at the moon. It was cast mostly in shadow, with pinpricks of light visible on its surface from the cities and college campus that peppered the dark side of the disk, and just enjoyed the silence that had fallen between them.
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raptorific · 4 days
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O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) dir. Joel & Ethan Cohen
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raptorific · 5 days
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I don't know what kind of video game doesn't tell you how to run
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raptorific · 5 days
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raptorific · 6 days
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The new prompt for all artists is to draw your character, or a favorite character, like the "Location Mentioned" meme! I made a template under the cut, so that anyone can participate!
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raptorific · 7 days
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Hook
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Line
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Sinker
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raptorific · 7 days
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Kinda want a shirt that says "I'm not the stepdad" but offers no follow up thoughts
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raptorific · 7 days
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I feel like I deserve more credit here for the joke of Photoshopping Mac's shirt to say "DUNCAN IDAHO" which is a shirt I think Duncan Idaho should be wearing at all times in all six books
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raptorific · 8 days
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raptorific · 8 days
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rosencratz and guildernstern go to white castle
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raptorific · 9 days
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I'm your only friend
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raptorific · 9 days
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prejudiced against khaki pants
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